#i once started puppeteering in my sleep before and my mom saw the whole thing and was so unsettled by it

[ellewritesathing]

Infernal  -  V

Summary: In your sleepy little town of Greendale, nothing ever slept for long. And ever since October, everything felt like it was waking up. Everything except for you, that is. One teensy trip to Hell (and an infuriatingly cute guy) later and suddenly you felt wide awake.

Word-count: 4.1k+

Masterlist Prev. | Part 5

A/N: it’s been a rocky few days for me but!! here we are!! i hope you guys enjoy this 💕

Earth felt more otherworldly than Hell did when you got back. Roz and Dorcas were back to themselves, Lilith was nowhere to be found, and your lips still burned where they’d met Caliban’s. You’d had to put on a cool expression when you were with the others - no, you didn’t find anything, it was just a boring research session - but you let yourself feel as you stashed the sword and helmet. 

Caliban had said they (and you) weren’t safe in Hell. Caliban. You’d kissed him. He’d kissed you. Caliban. You got tangled up in his hair. He got tangled up in you. Caliban. Even his name was pretty, rising and falling like a wave in the ocean. Caliban, Caliban, Caliban. The only problem was that you didn’t know if you were afraid to swim.

You hid your feelings away with the helm and the sword, and then shut the door on your cupboard. Taking a breath, you thought clearly for the first time since you’d gotten home about everything that had happened in the past few hours. Your head was clear enough to notice the sinking feeling in your stomach and how quiet the house was. Something was wrong with your dad. 

You checked his room before tiptoeing to all his usual hiding spots. You circled back to find him curled up in his covers. You’d missed him the first time because of how messy the room was and how much stuff was strewn around him on the bed. Stepping around the piles of junk and trying not to notice all the broken glass, you knelt in front of the bed and put a hand on his back. 

“Dad, what happened?” you asked as gently as you could. No reply. “Where’d Lilith go?” He wasn’t even blinking; he just stared straight ahead at the wall like you weren’t even there. Sighing, you changed tactics. “What happened to Kali?” 

“They took her,” he said, voice sounding far away. Any sparks leftover from your trip to Hell were extinguished with that ghostly shell of your father’s voice. “I- I tried to stop them but … they dragged her out by her hair.” 

Despite the bad lighting, you could make out a very nasty bruise forming around his eye and a split in his lip. Keeping your voice level and dropping your gaze, you asked, “Who were they?” 

“The Dark Lord and his puppet.” The venom in his voice made you look back up. He was looking at you - staring at you - for the first time since you came home. You almost stopped breathing. “She needs help, little lily, but there's nothing I can do.” 

“I’ll figure something out, okay?” you promised. “Get some sleep.”

Sleeping was easier said than done, especially when Sabrina sent a text about waning powers and a banshee outside her house. Your lack of sleep made the next day foggy, but you had a vague idea of what you needed to do: tell your friends about Lilith being your mom and then figure out what the hell happened to her when you were in Hell. 

You tried telling Theo and Harvey the whole morning, but the words died on your lips almost as soon as you started to say anything. And Sabrina had the final challenge to deal with, so she wasn’t there to tell you to stop being a coward. Deciding just to bite the bullet, you leaned over in your chair and motioned for your friends to do the same. “Okay, so I know we all freaked out when Sabrina told us-” 

“Shh! Settle down, children!” Mrs. Wardwell cut you off as she rushed into the classroom, closing the door behind her. “Please, I am not in the mood today for your foolish …” she looked around like there was a fly buzzing past her head. “Chitter-chatter.” 

She had the exact same face as your mother, but the way she wore it was impossibly different. Always nervous, always scared. 

You and Harvey shared a look while Roz and Theo exchanged some side-eye before each of you sank back into your seats. Your revelation would have to wait. 

“Jeez, what’s wrong with her?” Theo whispered. 

The intercom rang out with one of Mrs. Meeks’ announcements before any of you could answer. The carnival was inviting the entire town for their Final Night Festivities; free admission, rides, and caramel apples to anyone who came. And if that wasn’t unsettling enough, she kindly requested the four of you to report to the principal's office to collect some exclusive prizes. 

You all knew that something bad was going to happen as you gathered up your things, but you didn’t exactly expect it to happen as soon as you rounded the corner in the hallway. The carnival ringleader stepped out and your breath hitched. This was the first time you’d ever actually set eyes on him, and he was terrifying. 

Harvey was the first to react, shoving you and Theo to the side and yelling at you guys to run. Once he was sure the three of you were inside, he locked the library doors and shut off all the lights while the rest of you scrambled for places to hide. 

“Lilith,” you whispered, closing your eyes to help you drown out the sound of Theo and Harvey’s bickering. “I don’t know where you are or if this praying thing even works, but get me and my friends out of here and we’ll talk about you training me, okay? Now.”

“Guys, shh!” Roz warned. 

The doors to the library creaked open, but you weren’t in the library when you opened your eyes again. You were in an empty classroom. Why would Lilith bring you to an empty classroom? 

“Seems I got to you just in time.” 

The voice clearly did not belong to Lilith. Relaxing muscles that you didn’t know were tensed, you turned to Caliban. He wasn’t the same as before; he had a dark cloud of his own today. His face was hard and his eyes were cold. 

“We have to go back for the others,” you rushed out, reaching for his hand and ignoring whatever was going on with him for the moment. He didn’t waiver from his spot. “Caliban, come on. What’s wrong?” 

“You’d go back there, with Pan and the Gorgon, to rescue your friends?” he asked. Even his voice was cold, and he wasn’t answering your question.

“Yeah, of course.” Something was unshakably wrong, but that didn’t stop you from trying. You raised a hand to the side of his neck and softened your hold on his hand. “I’d go back for you, too.”

Something inside Caliban seemed to click and his gaze faltered, eyes falling down to your hands on his skin. So much had changed. “Your friends are across the hall. The hobgoblin got to them before anything happened to them.” He took a step back, out of your grip. So much was still changing. “I need to see to the final challenge of the Unholy Regalia.” 

“Caliban, wait-” 

And then it was just you and the leftover heat from the hellfire. 

Cursing, you cut your losses with Caliban and bolted to the classroom across the hall. When you got there, Harvey was arguing with Robin. Clearly, you’d missed something. Clearly, they hadn’t missed you.

“-can’t just leave!” Harvey was using his I’m-not-yelling-at-you voice to yell at Robin. “We have to fight. We have to stop that from happening. We need-”

“Sabrina,” Roz interrupted. “We need Sabrina, we do. Except that I think she’s still in Hell.”

“Yeah, they’re still busy with the final challenge of the unholy regalia,” you said as Theo wrapped you in a hug. You tried to shake off the weirdness of your last interaction with Caliban. “I don’t know if we can get to her down there.”

It was quiet for a second before Roz bounced slightly and clapped her hands together. “We can use that magick marker of hers. The one that she used to IM Nick. It’s in her locker.” 

“Do you know her locker number?” Robin asked. 

“And combination,” Roz grinned.

You and Roz went to grab the magick marker from Sabrina’s locker while the others waited in Harvey’s pickup truck. After piling in and sending Sabrina a message, Harvey drove you all back to his garage to wait for her to answer. It didn’t seem like it was coming any time soon. 

“Still no word back from Sabrina,” Roz sighed. 

“What’s taking her so long?” Harvey asked.

“Harvey, we don’t even know if she got the message,” Roz said, leaning back and shaking her head. 

Nick appeared in the corner without you noticing. You were so used to Caliban doing that that you didn’t even jump this time. “She didn’t, but I did.”

“That was meant for Sabrina,” Roz told him as you got to your feet.

“Well, that’s not how the magick marker works,” Nick said. There was a bite to his words. “And I wouldn’t expect her back anytime soon. Now, who needs help, and why?” 

Before you got the chance to answer, Sabrina materialized in the corner. “Guys! You’re okay,” she said as she rushed in. She had the relief on her face of someone who was incredibly stressed but just had found their favorite chocolate bar at the bottom of their bag. “It’s not too late.” 

“What do you mean ‘too late’?” Theo asked. 

“And where did you come from?” you asked. If she was here, was Caliban still in Hell?

“The pagans are coming,” Sabrina said. “You have to come with me, now.” 

“Okay, I don’t understand,” Nick said, grabbing her arm to stop her from running off again. “I just saw you walk through a portal at Dorian’s to beat Caliban.”

“You were right, Nick,” Sabrina said, shaking her head. “I let everything in Hell pull me away from what really matters: my family, my friends, and everything I love. But not anymore.”

She shut down any questions you asked and made you all hold hands. Sabrina said some words and in a flash, you were back in Dorian’s Gray Room. Zelda was lying on a table but bolted upright, shouting that she had the answers, almost as soon as Sabrina touched her. 

But Hilda … she hadn’t resurrected yet. 

One very inspiring speech from Zelda later and you were holding hands with Sabrina and the witches in a circle around the Cain Pit. Electricity coursed through you as Zelda called on the Triple Goddess, not just because it was a powerful moment but also because this was your first ritual. You didn’t want to stop that electricity.

The power you felt when Hilda’s hand shot up through the dirt was indescribable. You’d never felt that way before, but you were determined to feel it again. Helping the Spellmans with the town’s lullaby was a close second, but it was just a taste of the real thing. You wanted to know what you were capable of. 

Getting rid of the pagans was the exact opposite of those feelings. You couldn’t chase them through the woods and hunt them for sport. It left a bitter taste in your mouth and made you feel sick.

What you needed was someone to show you how to use these powers, and despite everything you’d been through with your friends - or maybe because of everything you’d been through - there was only one person you could think of to help you.

And he was still in Hell. 

At least, you thought he was still there. Sabrina was very vague about what happened to her in Hell, only that you didn’t have to worry about it anymore. She’d tell you if she won, right? She’d at least tell you if she’d taken Caliban up on his proposal - if that proposal was even still on the table, which you hoped it wasn’t. 

You were driving yourself crazy. Standing still before you paced a rut in your bedroom floor, you took a breath. The necklace would take you to Caliban, wherever he was, but it wouldn’t bring you back. You grabbed the borrowed spellbook and took off the necklace. The shell was pretty, more shades of blue than you remember, and it made an equally pretty crunching noise as you ground it under your shoe. 

The shell sucked all the air out of your lungs and darkened your vision. When it faded enough for your vision to return, you found yourself in a cold, dusty cave. The wall in front of you was carved with the names of Cassius, Brutus, and Judas Iscariot and the catacombs behind you were all dim and drafty. Either the shell was a bust or Caliban was skulking around these tombs somewhere. 

“Caliban?” Your voice echoed through the tunnels and made your hair stand on end. Debating whether to take your chances in the tunnels or wait around and hope the best, you leaned against one of the carvings and thought about it. Wraiths or tunnel demons, wraiths or tunnel demons, wraiths or- 

The cave wall started shifting under your side and you jumped back to the middle of the tunnel. Caliban stared at you under the Iscariot nameplate, looking equal parts relieved and distrusting. 

“Here to punish me again, are you?” The distrust won out. He hadn’t seemed this cruel since that first day in Hell, putting on a show for the Lords of Chaos. At least then he looked cocky, now he just looked sad. “The imitations are getting better, Izamael, I’ll give you that.” 

“What did they do to you?” you asked softly, reaching a feather-light hand to the side of his face. His eyes flickered at the touch and anger flared under the stone. “Hey, if you bite me, I’m going to set the wraiths on you. I don’t quite know how it works yet, but I-” 

“How are you here?” 

“Magic necklace.” You drew hand back and straightened up, folding your hand over your chest. “Your turn.”  

“As it turns out, you can’t betray just anyone to satisfy the betrayer challenge,” Caliban said with a sigh. He was shifting under the stone and he looked pained for a moment. Did it hurt him to be like that? You didn’t think he’d tell you if it did. 

“So they just stick you in here, then?” you asked. You looked around at the dark rocky walls and shifted uncomfortably. “Additionally, where is ‘here?’” 

“The seventh circle of Hell, love,” Caliban answered. “You should get back to Earth. I’ll find you as soon as I can.” 

“I’m not leaving you when you’re stuck in this stone,” you said. “How do we get you out of that?” 

“I’m made of clay, remember?” Caliban said like it answered your question. He almost laughed when you rolled your eyes at him. “Now that I’m awake, I should be able to get out of this just fine.” 

You didn’t understand how that worked, but you didn’t feel like arguing so you just nodded and took a few steps back to the cave wall. “I’ll be right here if you change your mind.” 

“You shouldn’t stay here. It’s not safe.”

“Don’t get all martyr-like on me,” you said as you eased yourself down the side of the rocky wall. “I need your help to get out of here, Clay Boy.” 

“I don’t think you need my help to do anything,” Caliban said, small smile on his lips. 

Neither you nor the butterflies in your stomach knew how to answer that one, so you settled for trying to make yourself comfortable. The problem - other than just about everything about being in Hell again - was that no matter how you sat or laid down, there was always a rock poking into your back. Or a pebble sticking into your side. Or dust on your face. 

With every twist and turn, your body went a little bit more numb and the tunnel became a little bit more bearable. You weren’t sure when exactly the whispers of the tunnel put you to sleep, but then someone reached out to wake you up and you bolted up to push them away. 

When you saw it was Caliban, you slumped back against the stone. “Jesus, what are you-” you sighed and rubbed your face. “Where are your clothes?” 

“Rather difficult to bring clothing through the minutiae of stone,” Caliban said. He reached out for you again and felt your neck for a pulse. His hands burned your skin. “Your heartbeat is slow. You’ve been here too long.”

“Next time I’ll just leave you with the wolves,” you said as you pushed yourself up a bit straighter. Your brain was pounding against your skull. “Can you take us back now?” 

“It took most of my strength to break free of the stone, but I can recite the spell and you can repeat it,” Caliban said. “Can you focus on my voice?” 

“I can focus on a lot of things, but I don’t know if I can do that,” you said. “I’m not- I’m not like you and Sabrina. I’m just … me.”

“And you are far more powerful than you think,” Caliban said. “There is something more to you.” 

Something more. 

Damn Caliban and his appeal to your sense of vanity. You nodded and listened carefully to the words of the spell before reciting them to the best of your sleep-deprived abilities. You had to repeat it before anything happened, squeezing your eyes shut and hoping for the best. 

When you opened your eyes again, you, Caliban, and the spellbook were sitting on your bed in the dark. Your insides felt muddled, making you worry that you’d done something wrong until Caliban laughed next to you. 

“I wasn’t sure that would work for a second there,” he confessed, still shaking his head. 

You reached for a pillow and smacked him with it. “What do you mean you weren’t sure that would work?” 

“I was thinking of all the places I could hide you until we sneak out of Hell,” Caliban said. He looked amused as you glared at him. He shook his head and collapsed back onto your bed. “Pandemonium was never an option, though with Lilith’s blessing … We could have gone to the Shores of Sorrow, but there are more places to hide in the- Why are you looking at me like that?” 

He’d caught you thinking that he almost looked happy on your half-made bed and in your messy room. You bit your cheek and shook your head. “You’re getting dust all over my bed,” you lied. 

“Dust,” Caliban repeated. You nodded again and he smiled to himself. “Where can I go to clean myself up?”

 “Uh, down the hall and to the left,” you said, pointing in the direction he should go. “I’ll bring some clothes and leave them outside the door. Just, um, be quiet, okay? My dad isn’t the best with visitors.” 

Caliban nodded, not pushing your flimsy excuse as he stood up and wandered out the door. He took all the air of the room with him, but at least it gave you a chance to think. 

You had no idea how you’d explain this - whatever this was - to your friends. You didn’t know if Caliban would go back to Hell after losing the challenges. You weren’t sure what to do about your newfound magic. But you knew that Harvey left some sweats and a giant hoodie here for whenever he needed to get away from his family, so you dug them out and left them outside the bathroom door. 

Your dad was still passed out in his room when you went past, upper body at an uncomfortable angle and lower body dangling off the bed. You tiptoed in and fixed his legs before shutting the door and heading back to your room. After a quick change and tidy up, you climbed under the covers. The cold from the tunnels was unshakeable, no matter how much time passed. 

The door creaked open and you peeked around the blankets. Caliban hovered just inside your door, looking more unsure than you’d ever seen him in Harvey’s old clothes. He was too tall for them, too ethereal for your bedroom. 

“Are you just going to stand there or are you going to come sit with me?” you asked, sliding yourself up to lean against the wall. 

He tilted his head at you. “You’re inviting me into your bed?” 

“I’m inviting you to talk,” you corrected. “But if you’re going to make it weird then you can take the chair.” 

“The chair that is piled high with clothing and books?” 

“Make. Your. Choice.” 

Caliban shook his head and padded over to the side of your bed. He motioned for you to make space and got under the covers next to you. He sighed as he made himself comfortable. “What do you want to talk about?” 

You looked down at your hands, choosing your words carefully. “Do you remember what the wraiths said before they came after us? What they called me?” 

“The daughter of the winged and taloned demon of night,” Caliban said. “Names hold a certain power, especially a name like Lilith.”

Her name hung in the air, poisoning the space between you. You couldn’t tell if the feeling in your throat was anger or something softer as you looked up at him. 

“How long have you known?” 

One thing about Caliban that infuriated you was that he never looked away. Eye contact with him was both a personal invitation for something more and also a challenge. He never backed down from a challenge. Except now. 

“When we met in Hell, I knew you weren’t entirely human but I only pieced it together later. Lilith is … softer towards you than she is to your friends.” He chose his words carefully, seemingly deciding whether or not to hold your hand. “The wraiths didn’t leave much room for interpretation.” 

“Were you ever going to tell me?” 

You watched his face carefully for any flicker of bad intentions. He didn’t change. 

His voice was soft when he looked up and said, “I’d like to think so.” 

You made the decision for him and reached for his hand, giving him a small smile as you tried to figure out what else there was to say. He beat you to it. 

“I shouldn’t hope to know the way you feel about me,” he said, holding your gaze. 

An invitation or a challenge?

“And yet here we are,” you said, deciding it was a challenge. 

It made him smile, a hollow laugh escaping through his lips. You thought he was going to say something witty - keeping the back and forth going until it became unbearable - but in a swift movement, he untangled one hand and used it to cup your face. He kissed you and every part of you lit up. 

He pulled away slowly, forehead resting lightly against yours. Your heart raced at the thought of what he might say. “You’re still very cold.”

You didn’t think he’d say that. “Uh, yeah, I guess. It’s from the tunnels.” 

“Your soul drifted too far as you slept,” Caliban said. He cursed himself before repositioning as you stared at him. He nodded his head for you to lay with him and then placed his hands around yours. A shiver went down your spine. “Repeat after me.” 

You wanted to argue that you weren’t going to say spells without knowing what they did, but you wanted to lie in his arms more. You repeated Caliban’s words slowly and watched as a tiny blue flame sparked between your hands. It grew until there was a ball of flames prickling your palms. White and blue, just like the necklace.

“This was the first spell I learned when I awoke on the Shores of Sorrow,” Caliban said softly. His breath tickled your neck as he did. “These balls of light were the only things that kept me company while the souls of the damned drowned. Now they can keep you warm.” 

You turned your head to look at him and found him still looking at the fireball with a vulnerable sense of familiarity. It broke your heart. “You know, you’re a lot nicer than I first thought.” 

He frowned and turned to face you as best he could without disturbing the way you tangled together. “Don’t call me nice.” 

“What’s wrong with being nice?” you asked. 

“Nice is what you call someone who lacks a spine or someone who wants something from you.” He leaned in close enough to kiss you, but instead he stole your breath to say, “You’d get bored of nice within an instant.” 

“I don’t think I’ll ever get bored of you.” 

Like a wave in the ocean.

Were you still afraid to swim?

Part 6

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#caliban #caliban imagine #caliban x reader #infernal #chilling adventures of sabrina #caos #caos rewrite

[yusuke-of-valla]

like rats fleeing a sinking ship, pt 6.

intermission ii

<-Previous Next->

AO3

~

“What the hell.” Akechi is the only one to speak as everyone staying in Takemi’s apartment stares at the TV and the news of Sae’s arrest. “What the actual hell, Sae?” Akechi runs a hand through his hair and starts pacing. “How could you get arrested? How.”

“Makoto’s here.” Akira mutters, more to himself than anyone else.

“We need to deal with Shido. Tomorrow.” Akechi says.

“Akechi, how many times do we have to tell you. We can’t be hasty,” Morgana snaps.

“We don’t have any more time to stall.”

“We have to find Makoto first, at least.” Akira insists.  Akechi scowls and Akira rolls his eyes. “Don’t give me that look, if Sae got captured then Makoto’s hear, and our time limit just got that much shorter, we’ll need as many healers as we can if we’re going to finish the whole thing.”

Akechi grumbles. “Fine. Fine, but that’s it. Then I’m going in without you because you’re clearly no use otherwise.” 

Akira sticks out his hand “Deal.”

Akechi takes it firmly. 

Tae’s apartment only has one bedroom, but she’s let Akira use an air mattress and given the Akechi the couch to sleep on, not that either of them really sleep that night.

Akira stares at the ceiling, thoughts swirling around in his head. Where could the others be? It’s been about a week since Shido called for their heads, and he hasn’t heard anything from half of his friends. He should be able to protect them.

His thoughts drift around some more, though they keep returning to the sinking feeling that he’s failed as leader for not being prepared for this, until Akira doesn’t so much fall asleep as feel his consciousness be ripped away from him.

With a gasp, Akira sits up on a familiar blue cot, with his wrists shackled.

“Trickster.” There’s something... off, about Igor’s tone. Caroline and Justine look more serious than usual too.

“Look, unless you’re here to tell me that you know where my friends are, I don’t care.”

“This is very serious, Trickster. Ruin is approaching faster than expected.”

“Yeah, no shit.”

“Show some respect, inmate!” Caroline shouts, slamming her baton against the bars.

“Our master is trying to assist you.” Justine says.

“You seriously can’t fail! You already messed up letting this Shido guy get the upper hand on you.” Caroline says.

“Our master personally contacted you to make sure you’re aware of the circumstances.” Justine adds, and Akira realizes that she’s nervous. Her eyes keep flitting to Igor, and Akira takes a good look at him.

His air of perpetual smug confidence is gone.

Igor is scared.

“This is different from the other ‘Ruin’ I’m supposed to be avoiding, isn’t it?”

“This was not supposed to happen. An unfortunate miscalculation, but you must understand the gravity of this situation. Ruin may befall us all if you allow your current opponent to go unchecked.”

“Alright. I won’t fail any of you. I promise.”

Just before Akira feels himself wake up, he smells the faintest scent of seawater.

“Akira, come on!” Morgana is patting his paws against Akira’s face to wake him up, and Akira slowly shoves him off.

He checks the time on Tae’s oven and realizes it’s almost time for them to meet the others. Akira gets up quickly and throws on a hoodie and jeans, then grabs his bag as Morgana jumps in and runs past Akechi, who’s been standing by the door the whole time.

They meet in front of Takemi Clinic, and the knot in Akira’s chest loosens up a little when he sees Ann.

Ann’s face lights up when she sees him, and they hug. 

“I’m glad you’re ok,” Akira says.

“Same to you.”

“Good to see you again, Akira.” Shiho says.

“Yeah, you too.”

“So, what’s the plan,” Ann asks. “We saw the news last night.”

“We’re going into Shido’s Palace tomorrow.” Haru’s eyes widen and Akira shoots her an apologetic look. “I know we said we’d take a couple more days to look for the others, but with Sojiro and Sae going on trial, we don’t have time.”

“The plan for today is to start preparations,” Morgana says.

“But that doesn’t mean we’re giving up on looking for the others,” Akira adds, giving Haru an reassuring look. 

Shiho nods. “I know Ann and I are going to go to Ryuji’s house and try to talk to his mom.”

“Right,” Morgana says, “we also need you to pick up some crafting supplies so we can make tools tonight.”

“I have no clue what you just said, Morgana,” Shiho says, “but I’ll do my best.”

“I’ll try and ask around for Makoto,” Haru offers. 

“Can you stop by the church in Kanda too? I want you to ask Hifumi Togo if she knows anything about Yusuke.”

“Absolutely.”

“And while you’re walking around, maybe hit up some vending machines for energy drinks. It’s going to be a long day tomorrow.”

“Sure. And you?”

“We’re going to Kichijoji to talk to that friend I mentioned before.”

“Alright.” 

“We’ll meet back at Tae’s apartment tonight, and then we meet in front of the Diet Building and secure the route to Shido’s treasure, for better or worse.”

Ann, Shiho, and Haru all nod, and as brief as their reunion was, they split up again.

Akechi is silent for the ride to Kichijoji station, but once they arrive at the promenade he speaks up.

“I thought we weren’t worrying about Kitagawa.”

Akira stops. Then he grabs Akechi’s arm and pulls him into an alleyway. “Morgana, can you go on ahead, I’m going to talk to Akechi.”

Morgana leaps out of Akira’s bag and shoots him a concerned look before heading off.

Akira turns to Akechi, dead serious. “Look, I get it. You want to get back at Shido, or whatever. But we’re going tomorrow, just like you want. So can you stop complaining for five minutes?”

“I’m trying to give you perspective. If you’re distracted, he’ll kill you without hesitation.”

“I don’t think we’ll run into Shido’s shadow-”

“I wasn’t talking about Shido. I’m talking about Shido’s cognition of myself,” Akechi says, “who’s responsible for this.” He points to the wound at his side. “I suspected you were messing around in Shido’s Palace and went to confront you. Instead I found that thing that Shido thinks I am.” Akechi’s nose scrunches up in disgust and he bangs his fist against the wall beside him. “A damn puppet who’ll do anything for him. And who unfortunately is powerful enough that even going all out, I barely escaped with my life and arrived at your doorstep.”

“That’s how you knew Shido was about to put out the arrest.”

“Yes.”

“What did you even get from working with him?”

Akechi takes a deep breath. “He’s my father, and I wanted revenge. It was because he abandoned my mother that she killed herself and I was thrown into the foster system. Moving from home to home, completely unwanted. Until I awakened to my Persona. Suddenly I had powers unlike anyone else. I was special. So I made a plan. I approached Shido and offered him my services. I spent countless nights dreaming of the pure satisfaction of the moment when he won, when he was at his highest. And then I, the son he threw away, would force him to admit that he could only achieve his goals with my help, force him to acknowledge me, and then I’d cut him down.”

Akechi’s hands are shaking.

“So that is why I can’t afford to have you hesitate. It seems he would never acknowledge me as the reason for his success, since he thinks I’m some mindless weapon that he always intended to throw in the trash.”

“If he had a change of heart he’d acknowledge you,” Akira says after a moment. “He’d even apologize. Sincerely.”

Akechi snorts. “Yes well, I wasn’t aware of that option at the time. Maybe if I’d met you sooner, things could have been different.” 

They fall silent again. Akira sighs. “Look. It seems like we both underestimated Shido. You thought you’d earned his respect, we thought we’d avoided his suspicion. We were both wrong. But the reason he wants to get rid of us so badly is because somewhere, deep down, he’s scared. Even the smallest threat to his power has to be stamped out, even if it’s a random teenager who stopped him from harassing some woman.”

Akechi’s eyes widen. “Wait, that was Shido?”

“Yeah. Your dad sucks. But he’s also a rattlesnake, trying to appear bigger than he is because he’s cornered and scared. We have a chance to beat him, but only if we work together. And we can’t work together if you’re constantly complaining about how I’m not doing things on your timetable. As much as we both want Shido out of the picture, we’re not the ones he’s hunting right now, so you’re going to sit back and let me worry about my friends.”

“You truly don’t give up on anyone, do you?” Akechi asks, tilting his head. “No wonder they adore you. Very well, I’ll refrain from any commentary for the rest of the day.”

“Thank you.”

“Senpai! Akechi-kun!” The two young men turn around to see Kasumi Yoshizawa running towards them, Morgana in her arms, who she lets jump to the ground to throw her arms around Akira. “I’m so happy you’re okay! I’ve been so worried but I had no clue how to get in touch with you.”

“Good to see you too, Kasumi,” Akira says with a smile.

Akechi looks between them. “Yoshizawa-san? You understand Morgana?”

“Yep,” Morgana says, “she’s a Persona user, but not a Phantom Thief. She’s still pretty new to it, but she’s strong.”

Kasumi nods. “Yes, although I’d like to change that middle part. Senpai, please let me accompany you on your current heist. You’re targeting Representative Shido, right?”

“Well, at least you pick up on things quickly.” Akechi says.

“It’ll be really dangerous, Kasumi.” Akira warns. “I mean, you’ve probably seen the news, we’re not in the best position right now.”

“I know the risks. I can’t turn my back on someone who needs my help though. So, please let me join you! Or actually-” Kasumi stands up straight and looks Akira in the eye. “I’m not asking. I am joining you on your next heist.”

Akechi nods. “Alright then. Welcome aboard.”

#alto writes #on the run au #akira kurusu #goro akechi #wordcount: 1500-2000

[nemo1230]

About dying stars and wasted chances

Richie takes a deep breath. He could do this. He could. He wasn't a pussy. Well, actually that’s debatable. But anyway.

Just a few steps forward and he’ll see him. It's no big deal. It's only him. Him.

The surroundings are blurred, the sound muffled, like he’s underwater, barely able to grasp reality. He steps forward but it doesn’t feel real, nothing does. His eyes scan the room and of fucking course they lock with his immediately.

------

Richie tilted his head back and looked at the setting sun above them. Richie and Eddie, being the stupid, reckless teenagers that they are, had decided to sit on the rooftop of Richie's house.

Well, they did have the decency to come up with an excuse as to why they were doing that, that excuse being studying, but both knew that’s not going to happen. They have never been good with paying attention to anything else whenever they were together. This definitely was a thought that has occurred to Richie more than once at late nights when he couldn't sleep, burning a hole in the ceiling from all the staring, as if by looking long enough at it, it would give some kind of answer.

They had settled quite close to the edge, the whole street stretching in front of them. They have been here for quite the while yet unsurprisingly hadn't gotten any work done; their school books lay forgotten beside them. The sun was casting pink and orange shadows that were shining down on them, painting everything in a soft, warm light. At some point Richie had quickly ran back into his house and found a bottle of wine, which Eddie hadn't been opposed to, this time even without the convincing that usually had to be done in order to have Eddie and alcohol in the same proximity. He has been getting progressively more rebellious against his mother's controlling nature and Richie couldn't be more proud.

His biggest step towards saying a huge fuck you to his mother probably was when he, with the help of Bev, had gotten a nose piercing. Richie had almost passed out when he saw it for the first time, - a small metal ring looping around his left nose wing. As if he wasn't hot enough already. Richie was positive he had done that to make him hot under the collar as much as to piss Sonia off.

Eddie had showed up to his house later that day, grinning, his eyes shining with pure excitement, a result of showing Sonia yet again that he was his own person, and could no longer be locked away from the world, controlled, manipulated. Of course, there were days when things got hard again, Eddie was struggling, and the sweet words of his mother would lure him back in, but for that Richie and the rest of the losers were ready and always rushed to remind him of how far he'd gotten.

And Richie fell. He fell hard for this boy, that he most certainly didn’t have a chance with and who was currently holding the bottle of wine with one hand, perched up on his knee, resting his chin against the neck of the bottle. He was looking past the edge of the roof, at the sunset, and appeared to be deep in thought, brows furrowed and biting his lip. His nose ring glistened from the setting sun and his hair was moving slightly with the gentle, warm wind that was passing by.

"A penny for your thoughts, spaghetti man?" Richie asked, deciding to break the silence, forever the trashmouth, never being able to be quiet for long.

"Don't call me that, dickface. You know I hate it," Eddie replied, however, he hadn't moved his eyes from where they were focused on something far away. His voice didn't hold the same intensity that it usually did. Everything he did was like that, full with burning passion, determined and fierce. Nothing about him was insubstantial or uncertain. He was pure fire, warming those he loved and burning those who he didn’t.  Well, if that didn't make Richie weak in the knees.

But now he sounded far away, his voice thin like paper, see-through almost. Something was clearly bothering him.

"Fine, whatever you say, Eddie-bear." He specifically chose that nickname, knowing that it usually riled Eddie up to no end.

Eddie’s gaze seemed to unlock from the spot where it had been focused on in order to roll his eyes yet he still didn’t look at Richie. "Ugh fuck you, that’s worse, you sound like my mother.”

"Eddie-teddy-bear then?"

"No, no fucking way."

"Spaghetti-bear?"

"Dude just shut the fuck up before I push you off this roof.” He shook his head, but kept avoiding Richie’s eyes.

Richie frowned. He could keep this up all day, and so did Eddie probably, but it was clear that something was still bothering him. Well, here goes nothing then. "But seriously, what's up dude, what were you thinking about just now? You seemed deep in thought."

Eddie signed deeply. He looked tired, like a heavy weight was put on his shoulders, dragging him down. "Dunno. Just.. I hate it at home. I hate it so much. All this?" he gestured at his nose, " and this," he lifted the wine bottle from his knee, the liquid inside shaking slightly, "is all good and fine, I finally don't need to be my mom's little puppet, but then again it feels like a fake façade that putting up because when I go home and she's there and keeps saying those things, it all crumbles down. Everything I've done seems insignificant because she says something like, see, Eddie-bear, you're going crazy without me. That is a disease, and I can help you get better, because you're sick. And I try to tune it out and I try to not let it go to my head. But.. It's hard," he rushed out, voice cracking at the end.

He still hasn't looked at Richie, admitting his true feelings still being a struggle. Richie's no stranger to that. His heart swelled uncomfortably at Eddie's words, it hurts him to no end to hear Eddie sill to this day being affected by his mother's words. Richie has never hated Sonia more. Despite the inappropriate sex jokes and all.

"Eds, please look at me," Richie whispered, trying to sound firm but even he heard the desperate tone his voice was in. However, still Eddie took a deep breath as he tilted his head back before turning it in Richie's direction, locking his eyes with his.

"Eddie, Eds, I've said this to you a million times and I will say it a million times more if I need to. You are not your mom’s puppet, and this," he made the same hand gestures Eddie did before, "does mean something. It means hell of a lot; it means you have gone a long ass way already. Few years back you wouldn't have even dared to make a fucking piercing. And look at you now. Eds, a fucking piercing! But that's not even the most important part. The most important part is that you have started to say no to your mom and that's not a façade, Eds. It's real and it does reflect in your actions. Hell, dude, you're getting hammered with me on a fucking rooftop. Whatever she says to you, it's bullshit. And I know deep down you know that too." 

It looked like the light within Eddie had started to return. Not that everything was fixed magically, which it probably won’t be ever, but at least the weight seemed to be a bit easier to carry. Eddie smiled a small smile at Richie. "Fuck, Rich. I don't even know what to say. Thank you for that, I really needed that."

Richie couldn’t help but return the smile. "Any time, Eds."

At that Eddie groaned and rolled his eyes yet again. "Okay, now would be a good time to stop calling me that.”

Richie’s smile grew into a smirk. "Not a chance, Eds!" He exclaimed, dragging out the words slowly for emphasis.

"Okay, shut the fuck up, Tozier. Do you have another one of these?" He shook the almost empty wine bottle, "Cause I want to get shit-faced.”

Richie did indeed have another one of these, or rather his parents did, but well. Sometimes you have to make certain sacrifices.

An hour, or more, nobody wasn’t counting anymore, later, both of them were pretty drunk, laughing a bit too loudly about Richie doesn't even remember what, because Eddie's laugh is the best thing in the whole god damn universe and makes him forget pretty much everything else.

They had lied down on the rooftop, shoulder to shoulder, staring up at the sky. It was clear, no clouds in sight, the stars were glistening brightly in the deep darkness that had settled around them.

Eddie went quiet for a moment, then said, "You know what's funny?"

"Your face?"

"Fuck off. No, that there are stars that like..don’t exist anymore. Or something. Like, they’ve exploded, died or whatever, but it’s still possible to see them. Because of the.. The way the light travels or something. It takes the light like hundreds, thousands or millions of light years to get here. And in that time it’s already dead. But the chances of us actually seeing that is like.. Fuck I don’t remember, but they’re like, very low. It’s weird, man. Dying stars." Eddie slurred, the alcohol clearly taking its toll on him, yet also making him all philosophical.

Apparently Richie’s drunken brain did not want to comprehend topics like that so he giggled instead and pointed his finger and him, "Damn Eds, didn't know you were a scientist."

Eddie, intending to swat the finger away, missed by long shot, instead slapping Richie’s cheek. "I'm not, I just actually pay attention in most classes unlike somebody."

"I'm like.. still better than you at al- "he hiccupped, "algebra."

Eddie let out a snort at that. "Well that's because you're a fucking nerd."

"I’m the nerd" Richie sounded outraged, "Who was just explaining me..What were we talking about? The secrets of the universe?" 

"Not really the secrets of the universe. Just weird things."

"You’re weird," Richie giggled again, shakily perching himself on his elbow.  

"Who’s to fucking speak," Eddie said, giggling himself. He lightly pushed Richie, making him almost fall flat on his back.  

"Hey!"

"You deserved it, dickface!"

"Oh, it’s on Kaspbrak!"

And how they ended up with Richie actually flat on his back and Eddie leaning over him from the side, holding him down by holding him by the wrists, they did not know nor they wanted to. They were still laughing openly until there was a sudden change in the air, making them quiet down and actually take in the sudden closeness of their bodies, as much as their drunken minds allowed.

Richie let out a shaky breath, looking down at the hem of Eddies t-shirt, suddenly afraid of what he might see upon looking up, at Eddie. Who was gently moving his thumb over Richie’s wrist.

He felt Eddie's breath next to his face and with great difficulty he lifted his eyes to look into his. Which turned out to be looking directly onto his lips. Without thinking he run his tongue over them, Eddie followed the movement and then finally lifted his gaze as well. His eyes were dark and hooded.

Richie's whole brain short-circuited right then and there, all kinds of different alarms going off in his heard at once, his heart beating out his chest. He felt like he maybe needed to say something, maybe confess right here and now, but his thoughts were all over the place and he was unable to get a grip on a single word.

And then Eddie was already moving closer and closer, getting rid of the last distance between them and placing his lips onto Richie's. And who was Richie and his drunken mind to stop that.

It was desperate and a little uncoordinated, but damn, it was the best god damn thing Riche’s ever felt. They kissed like they were starving and each other’s lips were the only thing that could save them. Like Eddie did everything, he kissed Richie with the very same burning passion, not holding back in the slightest. Richie felt his hand in his hair, pulling it not so gently, so he couldn’t help but to arch his back to get closer to Eddie, always closer. They kissed until they lost their breaths, already intoxicated brains getting even dizzier than before.  His own hand found home on Eddies jaw, and it was perfect, it was so fucking perfect, so of course it couldn’t last.

Eddie pulled away at last, leaving Richie to chase his lips and lose his balance in the process. Eddie chuckled at that, his breath ghosting over Richie's kiss swollen lips and steadied him by putting his hand on his shoulder.

Richie looked at Eddie, who was looking back at him fiercely, and then frowned. No, he had to say something, he was positive that after all this, it was a good confirmation as any that Eddie did in fact like him back, but he still needed to be sure. He still needed to hear it.

He managed to grip onto some kind of sense, trying to string together words that could possibly explain everything that he's felt for so long.  Eddie was still looking at him deeply when he finally spoke, "Eds, I-"

But Eddie cut him off, "You don’t have to worry, it's just for tonight, Rich. It doesn't have to mean anything. It's just for tonight." He sounded a bit choked up, like it hurt saying that, but that was probably from the drinking, Richie thought.

"Just for tonight.." Richie mirrored, feeling this perfect bliss falling to pieces. Eddie clearly didn’t feel the same way, if he needed to reassure that it was only one time thing. Somewhere deep in him, he may or may not have heard his heart breaking.

"Yeah.." Eddie whispered, already moving in again.

Richie had half a mind to stop this, since it clearly wasn’t what he really wanted. One night was not enough by long shot. But then again, his feeling be damned, if Eddie was kissing him here and now, then he will take his chances, because they might never come again. Yes, he might want more than one night, yes he might want a 'forever' with him or whatever, but fuck it. Sometimes in life you had to make difficult choices. And Richie made his. He met Eddie halfway, leaning up and letting his heart get more broken with each swipe of Eddies lips against his own.

Who cared about forever anyway? His forever was here and now, right on Eddie's lips that were pushing against his, in his teeth that were biting his lip, on his hands that were roaming over his body, pulling his hair, slipping under his shirt, it was in the wine that he could smell on both of their breaths, taste in Eddie’s mouth. Forever was the last rays of the dying sun, it was the stars that had probably long died; forever was this one night and this one night only. A forever hidden somewhere between 'always' and 'never'. He will hold and cherish this here and now and always and never like the stars that had already died, but still visible because of the impossible ways that the universe worked. That's how Richie will remember this moment, for however long will it go, forever. His dying star. And that's what kept him going. Okay and maybe also the wine was playing its part, liquid courage as they call it or whatever.

And that's how they stayed, Richie wasn't sure for how long. After all, time was nonexistent tonight. All he knew that the wine bottles were empty, he felt dizzy as hell and at some point they had gotten off of the rooftop, both stumbling and giggling.

Richie for sure knew that there had been a warm body next to his when he fell asleep, but when he awoke, the bed was cold and empty. "Only one night" he whispered to himself as he tried to ignore the deep ache in his heart that was making its presence known, wiping away one betraying tear that had slipped out against his will, "Only one night."

Not that he expected anything when next seeing Eddie at school, but somehow it still stung that Eddie didn't seem to acknowledge anything of that night. Not that he did either, but well. First moves weren’t his strong suit.

Time went by, and yes, Richie knew it was foolish to wait, to hope, to dare to dream. They went on with their lives, to being friends, but somehow Eddie seemed far, far away, now that he had tasted the possibility of him being close.

At some point he even started questioning whether the night was even real or he had just dreamt it all. The star had died and the light was slowly going out too.

Oh, those drunken thoughts about dying stars, - only foolish, foolish excuses for a broken heart. 

-----------

The memory hits Richie like a fucking brick in the face. 27 years had passed of absolutely nothing and of course this is the first full memory he remembers of Eddie Kaspbrak. And then comes the rest. The longing. So many years of it.

He blinks and registers that his eyes are still locked with Eddie’s, so he quickly looks away. He wants to say something but has no idea what. It feels like he has come out of the water, the world no longer muffled, but instead now it’s too loud, too intense, too much, the reality of the situation hitting him hard.  

The night went on and Richie felt himself falling right back in love with Eddie. Maybe the stars hadn’t gone out after all, despite the long years spent separate and all.

(())

this is dedicated to @neutralbi cuz of the  spaghetti-bear part.

#reddie #reddie fic #eddie kaspbrak x richie tozier #eddie kaspbrak #richie tozier #IT movie #it chapter two #it chapter one #it 2019 #it 2017 #i MIGHT write part2 ir anyone REALLY wants me to #nemo writes

[w-k-smith]

Once again, tumblr has hidden the version of this post that has links. (Clearly, weird fan fic where ghosts eat candy bars is just *too radical* for this website.) This story is also available on AO3, under the username w_k_smith.

Chapter Two is here of “Don’t Go to the Netherworld!”

In this chapter, Beetlejuice and Lydia make their way through Saturn, but are waylaid by Zagnuts, a boy band, and all the obstacles the desert otherworld has to offer.

Chapter One: “It’s a Wonderful Afterlife” (6/19/20) Chapter Two: “Worm Welcome” (07/03/20) Chapter Three: “Ghost to Ghost” (upcoming) Chapter Four: “To Beetle or not to Beetle?” (upcoming)

Warning:  This story contains depictions of, references to, and discussion of  topics like suicide, untimely death, abuse, and body horror - you know,  like the musical does (though this probably has more). Know your  boundaries, and stay safe.

New chapter under keep reading!

“I don’t understand,” Lydia said, as they crossed from the midnight  of the administrative area, toward the hot afternoon of Saturn, through  the twilight in between. “What’s Saturn? Are we going to the  planet…somehow?”

“Nope. Totally unrelated, and don’t ask me who  named it. Saturn is the part of the Netherworld that acts as a trap for  ghosts who get out of line, like if you try to leave the house you’re  haunting, or jump the line in processing like someone I could mention.  Going through processing would only take a couple steps, but Saturn is  an anti-shortcut from the feverish nightmares of M.C. Escher. It’s a  giant desert, and it’s full of sandworms. Those are snake monsters that  eat ghosts. Foreshadowing?” he muttered to himself.

“This is so weird,” Lydia muttered. “I love it.”

She didn’t seem like she was being sarcastic. Maybe hanging around her wasn’t going to be too terrible.

Unfortunately, he saw trouble ahead.

“Keep your head down,” he whispered to Lydia. “Look dead. Deader than that. And don’t sneeze! Dead people never sneeze!”

“What?”

“Hello, Beetlejuice,”  said five tenor voices in unison. A cluster of expressionless young  white men was drifting through the shadows toward him and Lydia. The  boys had died in their late teens and very early twenties, long enough  ago that two of them sported frosted tips. They were dressed just  differently enough to be distinguishable from one another, in dated  pants and t-shirts with no personality.

“Hey, Boy Inferno,” he grunted.

“What are you doing out here?” they asked. They all floated six inches off the ground, in a formation reminiscent of migrating ducks.

He rolled his eyes. “Just running an errand for Juno. Miss Argentina find that living intruder yet?”

“Not that we’ve heard. Who’s your friend?”

“New  hire. Juno wants her on border patrol. Her name’s Lydia, and she’s  boring. Kids these days, you know, they think eyeliner and TikTok counts  as personality. But them’s the rules: if you add to the work, you have  to help out.”

“Do you want to hear the introduction song, Lydia?”

Geez, they didn’t back off easy. “Save that for people who’ve committed genocide or worse.”

“We were talking to Lydia.”

At his elbow, Lydia scratched the end of her nose. Boy Inferno caught the gesture, and as one, cocked their heads.

“What did you die of…?” they asked her.

“Um,  I don’t want to talk about it,” Lydia said, which was the wrong thing.  All newlydeads ever wanted to do was blather on about how they’d bitten  it.

“OK, you got me!” He stepped between Lydia and the boys. “This  isn’t an approved mission to Saturn. We were actually trying to, ah,  hide out from Juno for a while. She is in a mood today, I tell ya. Just  impossible. She wants me to take a statement from all the recently  deceased who were in line when the alarm went off, and then pinch each  of them really, really hard to see if they still have nerve endings. I’d  rather swallow my own toenails. Remember that time Juno made me swallow  my own toenails? You were there for that, weren’t you? So be a  hive-minded pal and help me stay on the DL. This one already threatened to tattle if I didn’t show her my good hiding spot.” He jerked his head at Lydia.

Boy Inferno blinked.

“Alright, then,” they said, and each voice sounded suspicious. But they drifted back toward the administrative area.

Lydia stared as they went. “Who are those guys?”

“Boy  Inferno is a dead boy band. They didn’t have enough brains or  personality to be individuals when they were a living boy band, and when  their tour bus crashed, the situation got worse.”

“Yikes. And speaking of yikes, what were you saying about sandworms? Are they going to eat us?”

He  waggled one hand back and forth, and started walking. “Eh. It’s  probably OK. You’re alive, so they’ll leave you alone. I’m half-ghost,  half-demon, which confuses them more than anything. We’ll be fine if we  don’t run into a sandworm that’s pissed off or starving.” They were  crossing into Saturn proper. The terrain changed from dark gravel to  rolling sand dunes dotted with twisted rock formations. Wooden doors  hovered here and there, from three feet off the ground to 20 stories  high. There was the light and warmth of a yellow sun, but if you turned  in every direction, you would never see a sun or any other stars in the  royal blue sky.

“Huh. Now I kind of want to meet a sandworm...” Lydia said, looking around like one was going to pop out from behind a dune.

“Yup. That’s definitely foreshadowing.”

“So…what’s it like? Being half-demon? How does that, um, happen?”

He  waved his hands to turn them into sock puppets – one red and bearing a  vague resemblance to Juno, the other a grey blob and as good a  representation as he’d ever had of his father. “Hello, children!” he  said in a screechy voice. “Let’s talk about the occult birds and bees.  When a demon woman tolerates a living human male very much…”

She shoved him. “I know that, gross! I’m ace, but not completely ignorant. I just wondered if you were ever alive.”

He  put his hands back to normal. “Uh-huh. I was alive. Looooong time ago,  though. Long enough that we didn’t pay much attention to what year it  was, and only bathed twice a lifetime, and drank beer instead of water.  Hm. Or maybe that was all just me. Anyway, Juno only had me to see what  would happen if you mixed demon magic with ghost abilities. Turns out,  you get yours truly. She hated the result, and I never got any little  siblings to chase around. But it’s fine with the just the two of us; my  mom has this sweet thing she says to me every day: ‘I wish you had never  been born.’ I think it’s a Swedish pet name.”

“How did you die?” Lydia asked.

“I asked a bunch of annoying questions that weren’t any of my business and someone stabbed me.”

“Ha ha,” she deadpanned. “How far is it, anyway?” she asked, shading her eyes. “I don’t see anything…”

“Distance doesn’t really work like that here, and we could move way, way faster if we were both dead. But it’s pretty damn far.”

She sighed.

*

He  had to give Lydia Deetz this: she was a trooper. She was wearing a  dress, and boots that were very much not made for walking, but she kept  moving, eyes forward, not a single complaint. When her stomach growled  like an angry guard dog, she held her head high and acted like she  didn’t notice.

“OK, time for a break!” he said.

“No!” she said. “We have to keep going.”

“If  you keep going like this, you’re going to collapse, and then you’ll  die, and a sandworm will eat you, and that’s my whole day gone. Sit  down.”

“I don’t need to.”

She was going to give him grey  hairs, she really was. He shook one hand like he was shooing a fly, and  she stumbled backwards until she sat on the closest rock.

Lydia’s eyes bugged. “What am I – what are you –?”

“You’ve never been possessed before?”

She stood back up. He waved his hand again, and she sat.

“No, keep it up,” he said. “This is fun.”

He flicked his fingers, and her expression brightened.

“Beetlejuice, you’re my role model!” she said, in a tone much more chipper than any that had ever come out of her mouth, he was sure. He released her.

Lydia’s face soured like old milk mixed with lemon juice, and she made the fingers-down-the-throat gesture. “I’ll sit for five minutes. Don’t do that again.”

“I  always knew I’d make a great babysitter!” He settled on the other side  of the rock. He folded his hands over his stomach, figuring he’d take a  nap if she stayed quiet.

She didn’t. “My mom would love all this,”  Lydia said. “Her favorite holiday was Halloween. We’d make our own  haunted houses in the garage – but in the summer, when no one in the  neighborhood was expecting it. She liked the weird stuff in the world.  Or – she likes the weird stuff in the world. She doesn’t just avoid it, like most people do. Like my dad does. I think she’ll like you, even.”

He  wanted to make a face at the idea of a well-adjusted person liking him  (though it was a nice feeling, deep in his black heart), but Lydia  couldn’t see him, so it would be wasted effort.

She was quiet for a while, and he thought he was free to drift off to sleep.

“Um…do you have any food?” she asked.

He reached into his jacket and pulled out a handful of Zagnuts. He tossed the kid two. “Here ya go.”

“Why so many Zagnuts?” Lydia asked. “They’re good, but I didn’t think people ate these anymore.”

“It’s the only candy in the vending machines in the Netherworld.”

“Really? Why?”

“Because everything around here is at a baseline of low-grade crappiness. Haven’t you noticed?”

“Are  you really supposed to spend eternity here when you die?” she asked, in  a muffled way that told him she’d bitten off half a candy bar at once.  “It seems like it should either be a whole lot better or a whole lot  worse.”

“You aren’t supposed to spend eternity here; that’s the  point,” he said. He popped a Zagnut into his mouth, and swallowed it  wrapper and all. “You have to move on, eventually.”

“To what?”

“Do I look like a priest? Or a philosopher? Or a TV psychic?”

“The  last one, a little. A bad one. The kind who gets tricked by reporters  to help contact their dead kid, but it turns out the kid is really alive  and just in the next booth over in the Denny’s.”

“Touché. The  point is, nobody around here knows. You hang around the administrative  area until you’re ready to go into the miserable nothingness of the  Abyss, and then you swirl around in the Abyss until…I dunno, something  else happens. Maybe you just stay in the Abyss forever. I don’t plan on  finding out anytime soon.”

“Is that where my mom is?”

“Yup.  If she didn’t come running when you first came through the door, she’s  definitely gone through security. Don’t worry, though. You poke your  head into the Abyss and shout her name a few times, and she’ll come  right out.”

He lied easily. He always had.

“I’m just  surprised she hasn’t tried to contact us,” Lydia said. “I guess she must  be confused, because we moved and everything. My dad dragged me out to  Connecticut, away from New York and all our friends and family, to work  on this stupid gated community project he has in mind. And he took my  annoying life coach with us. She’s friendly and positive,  and keeps trying to make me fill out a star chart. I don’t know why he  thinks she’s helping me. It’s not like there aren’t actual therapists in  Connecticut. I don’t get it.”

He chewed another Zagnut for a  beat, waiting to see if she was making a joke. Then he broke the news.  “Your dad is boinking the life coach.”

“What?!” she said. She whirled around the rock to sit right next to him. “How can you know that?”

“Um, because I’m an adult with a brain.” He grabbed the top of his head and lifted his skull to show his grey matter.

“He isn’t…Dad’s not…” She slumped. “He’s totally sleeping with her.”

“Totally,” he agreed.

“How could he do that? Mom’s only been dead a few months. Well…when he sees Mom – if he just talks to her again – he’ll understand what an ass he’s been.”

“Uh-huh,” he said, non-committedly.

“How much farther do we have?” she asked.

“Long enough to aaaaaaalmost make you give up and collapse in despair.”

She groaned.

For  a second, he thought her groan was superhumanly long and loud, and he  prepared to be impressed. Then he noticed the ground was shaking.

“Looks like it’s our unlucky day!” he said. “Run!”

They  both got to their feet, and made it about five steps before the sand  exploded to their left. A sandworm rose from the earth, its  black-and-white stripes blurring into grey. At the peak of its jump, its  inner head came out of its mouth, eyes glaring, jaw snapping.

It dove back down toward them.

He  dodged one way, and Lydia dodged the other. The spray of sand blocked  out everything, and when it all cleared, the sandworm had risen from the  ground again, undulating in and out of the dunes. Lydia stood in place,  looking all around. But it was hard to know where to run when you were  being attacked by a sandworm.

The sandworm’s chomping heads came out of the ground an arm’s length from Lydia. She yelled, and punched it in the closest eye.

The  heads hissed and thrashed, knocking Lydia down. The sandworm dove down,  and the sand around them whirled and roiled, until he felt like he was  standing in boiling dirt.

When the sandworm rose again, it  accidentally scooped up Lydia. She showed a little more survival  instinct than she had before, and clung to the sandworm’s back.

“Knock it off!”  he heard her say. She nudged the sandworm with her left boot, and the  sandworm turned to the right. But it had had enough of its passenger,  and whipped its body to throw Lydia like a beanbag.

She shrieked as she fell through the air. He stretched his legs, about 20 feet, and caught her.

As  he dragged her back to the ground, he braced himself for another attack  by the sandworm. Maybe if he transformed into something big and scary,  showed some lionfish spines or extra limbs, the worm would leave them  alone. Getting swallowed would be no good. Not only did he usually try  to avoid getting eaten, but sandworms’ digested prey just wound up back in processing…after a wait of at least a decade or so.

The  sandworm jumped over their heads, dove into the ground, and kept going.  Its writhing body upset every dune it plowed through, but it didn’t  double back.

He wasn’t going to look a gift worm in the mouth.

“And don’t come back!” he yelled. “G’on, git! Git!”

Lydia jumped out of his arms. “That was awesome! I thought I was going to die, but it was awesome.”

He  was more tired than he’d been in a while. He was tired like Juno had  been screaming at him for hours. Also, there was a lot of sand in his  shoes. “You did OK But why the hell did you try to punch it in the  face?”

She didn’t look ashamed in the slightest. “I thought it  would be like avoiding a shark attack. That’s what the Discovery guy  said during Shark Week: punch the shark hard in the eye so it leaves you alone.”

“Since when has punching something made it leave you alone?” he asked. “That has never worked when I’ve tried it with people.”

“Because then the shark – or the sandworm – thinks you’re too much of a threat and it ignores you. I made it go away, didn’t I?’

“I  seriously doubt you’re what made it leave, Karate Kid. If a sandworm  had its multiple hearts set on eating us, it would take more than your  mechanical bull riding skills to dissuade it. I don’t know – I’m not so  sure it was all that interested in us.”

“If it wasn’t going for us, why did it come over here?”

“I said I don’t know! I’m not a sandworm scientist.”

“Your hair is changing color,” she said, pointing at his head.

“Can you blame me? I’m pretty pissed off right now.”

She brightened. “It changes color with your mood?”

“Yeah.”

“Can I touch it?”

He  grunted, and tilted his head. She patted some strands on the right side  of his head, which were dark green at the tips, but probably working  their way to red. The cocoon the caterpillar had made behind his ear  popped open, and a death’s-head hawkmoth shot into the air and planted  itself on Lydia’s nose.

“Augh!” she yelped, and fell right on her ass. He doubled over laughing while she tried to get back up with dignity.

“You’ve taken things too far this time, Beetlejuice!”

Once, just once, he’d like to go 48 hours without hearing those words shouted at him.

He turned to see Miss Argentina stomping up a sand dune, clipboard in hand, sash askew, which meant she was really really really upset.

“What have I done this time?” he asked, resigned.

“What have you done this  time?” Miss Argentina pointed at Lydia. “Let’s start with child  endangerment! And the fact that your disappearance has about given Juno  apoplexy.”

“Ah, she loves me.”

“No! She just knows  that if she hasn’t heard from you in twelve hours, it means you’re up to  something! And that means the rest of us suffer! I’m just glad she gave  me clearance to go to Saturn to look for your sorry, sagging ass, so at  least I was able shoo a sandworm away from some newlydeads. I have a  sneaking suspicion you bear some responsibility for that, too?”

“OK,  that is both not fair and completely true,” he said. “And I’ll have you  know I’m doing a good deed. I’m guiding this one around the  Netherworld.” He jerked his head at Lydia.

“And why, in the name of all that is sacred, would you consider that a good idea?”

“Um…”  He faltered. He may have been able to fudge a few details with Lydia,  but Miss Argentina had been around long enough to know how the Abyss  worked.

“Newlydeads…” Lydia said. “That must have been what attracted the sandworm. It wasn’t coming for us after all.”

“Why  did you drag newlydeads with you?” he asked, happy to change the  subject. “What, did you need help shouting at me? Anger backup singers?”

“Of  course not.” Miss Argentina frowned. “But – that’s a good idea.” She  clicked her pen, and scribbled on her clipboard. “I am actually writing  that down. If Boy Inferno is free…”

“Excuse me!” came a woman’s voice from the bottom on the dune. “I’m so sorry – could you wait just a minute?”

“It’s very hard to walk on sand!” came a sexy, nasal male voice from the same direction.

“These  newlydeads have a problem, you see,” said Miss Argentina, her voice  icy. But something was wrong – she wasn’t looking at him. Her gaze was  fixed on Lydia. “Apparently, a living person used their Handbook without  permission.”

Lydia became interested in the horizon. “Huh. That’s weird.”

Miss Argentina jabbed a finger in Lydia’s face. “Oh, don’t even try that on me, living girl. I am not in the mood today.”

“Whoof! We made it.” The newlydead couple crested the dune…and he was smitten.

The  woman was white, a pretty blonde, in a green wrap dress and  suburban-mom-at-the-nice-grocery-store boots. Her companion was a  beautiful Desi man, with light brown skin and a lock of black hair  hanging over his forehead that he immediately wanted to run his fingers through.

“Oooooh…” he said. “Hello, sexy…”

Lydia looked at him with a scientific expression. “Which one?”

“The  Trader Joe’s guardian angels over here. Not that Miss A isn’t pretty  easy on the eyes herself, but she’s a friend of Ellen, know what I mean?  A patron of U-Haul. An adopter of shelter cats. Wrong tree, is what I’m  saying. But she loves me platonically.”

“She doesn’t,” Miss Argentina said.

The couple pushed past him and bent over Lydia.

“Oh, thank goodness!” the woman said.

“Lydia!” said the man. “I’m so glad we found you. We were worried sick!”

“Adam, Barbara?” Lydia said. “What…what are you doing here? You weren’t supposed to go to the Netherworld.”

#beetlejuice #beetlejuice fanfiction #beetlejuice the musical #lydia deetz #fan fiction

[altissiavibritannia]

I feel dead inside....

Why is everybody being so mean to me for?! What’d I do...in order for you to tell me to stop liking my favorite things...? Why should I not finish Hetalia for? Besides...Hetalia and Code Geass has helped me out so many times over whenever I was depressed...I have very bad depression to the point it’s not even funny...not this again...I used to be a huge Yu-Gi-Oh GX, Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D’S, Arc-V and such fan with Yu-Gi-Oh!...until so many people hated my art and stories about it...I still duel and such...but...I dropped out of the fandom and stopped reading my GX manga set (never even finished reading it, left off on vol. 5 or 6...) and stopped writing fics and stopped doing fanart of it completely...Am I not good enough for anyone...? It’s like first my art and story ideas for Yu-Gi-Oh! and now this...it’s like I’m not even allowed to be happy...Yu-Gi-Oh! GX and 5D’s has saved my life, alongside Fruits Basket, Naruto (before this Baruto garbage and the Shippuden stuff happened), and Inuyasha whenever I was age 12....maybe younger than that...but mostly was a Beyblade, Dinosaur King, Tai Chi Chasers, and Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D’s person back then...cuz it was on Toonzi or 4Kids before they stopped playing them, cuz 4Kids had been cancelled and my favorite animes had vanished, due to me being poor to offord cable and me and my mother had moved a lot...so I’ve only known bits and pieces of those animes whenever Saturday mornings came by...and I watched Yu-Gi-Oh! GX on YouTube whenever I was waiting for Yusei and the signers of 5D’s to come back on whenever I was able to watch it.

I even saw bits and pieces of Fairly Odd Parents, Jonny Cash, Storm Hawks, and American Dragon: Jake Long (before that got cancelled) whenever me and mom had to babysit her friend’s kids and I watched cable with them a few times, whenever I wasn’t in a artistic mood or writing mood...and the only times when it was time for the Adult Swim to show up, she allowed me to watch some Family Guy, Naruto (saw the very first episode when it came on), and Inuyasha...but then mom changed the channel whenever that ever came on and told me to stop watching it...yet I’ve watched only Naruto and Inuyasha behind her back on YouTube whenever I felt too depressed...and I still love these animes but forgot the plot to them, due to not watching them and such...

And now it’s like I’m not to even be alive anymore...due to people not wanting to be my friend...due to all of my health issues and for my ideas...all they want to do with me is make me into their puppet for their own attention...if I have to go back to that...then I’d rather die...had this go on for most of my life and I’m sick of it...and if I’m not allowed to like Hetalia, Code Geass or anything else that I love to death...then I guess I’m not meant to be here or be an artist or author anymore then...even though writing stories/fics is what I do, same with drawing...I’ve been a fucking nerd ever since growing up!

I’ve started doing art by doing finger paints and such in preschool. That was my spark in life, I’ve loved doing art throughout my life, cuz it helps me get rid of my depression and what other feelings I had bottled up. My imagination is what driven me this far in life. Then years later as I was growing up, I loved to read book, even though I hate reading out loud, due to my speech problems and not being able to understand or say hard words. But it drove me to the next level of my creativity, I wanted to become an author someday. As I grew up some more...I quit public schooling, due to being bullied too much and nobody giving a goddamn shit about me...then I felt smart for a bit until I found out that I was really tired...and I didn’t do my homework for the rest of my 7th grade semester. I basically skipped a whole grade, almost 2. I only made it to the last bit of my 8th grade in public schooling, cuz mom got sick and tired of me sleeping too much and not doing my homework. She felt concerned that I needed to try to make friends again.

Sadly whenever I graduated (never showed up, I hate crowds, due to being scared of being made fun off like now...) 8th grade in my middle school that I didn’t stay in after yet another move, they gave me my diploma for 8th grade...and whenever I became a freshman...the bullying got worse and worse...I’ve been blamed for being the bully for once I wasn’t and sure enough I might have a Bakugou  kind of temper and I did say “I’ll kill you!” back then towards my bullies, but I didn’t know better. I was talking about a tickle fight, cuz I figured that tickle fights were less violent than blowing up in others faces and the teachers thought I meant by tooth and nail and then gave me detentions. I even got blame for their wrong doings, even though they have cameras and such. But yeah a few times I had no other choice but to go for tooth and nail, cuz some random ass bitch who I didn’t even know, just grabbed me by the shirt and threw my ass on the ground. I got up crying like a fucking Deku, picking up my books and homework off the ground and guess what the funny shit is?! There was a goddamn teacher there, even though this shit was in the morning when we were getting ready to head inside the building. So, I basically fucking bit her dumb fucking ass, when she punched me for no reason! I let one the Bakugou within me, out! I didn’t swear though, but I fucking fought to the death, I was ready for anything and I mean it! I wanted to kill her so fucking badly, for being such an ugly bitch. Soon the teacher saw this and, gave me a detention for self defense. Until I told her what happened, she then gave that bitch one too, but then that bitch put on an act to blame me for no reason. She got off too fucking easy for no fucking reason!

But you know what the fuck what?! If you fucking hate my fucking Deku guts, then beat it! I will not be defeated yet again! I’m sick and tired of being fucking bullied about who I really am bitches! Shocked on how I got over my depression so fucking fast to the point that I’m super pissed? Well it’s because I swapped personalities! So don’t mess with me, unless you’d like to meet all of my personalities! Sure enough I talk to myself, but it’s due to me not having anybody to fucking talk to!!! I’m always by myself to the point, I become a furry throughout my years and then later on a brony once the first 2 episodes that My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic comes up! I tend to watch anime and MLPFIM for multiple reasons! So you can either love me or hate me, I don’t give a damn fuck anymore! If your ass wants to block me due to my weird ideas and shit, then go right ahead, you’re just going to be bit in the goddamn ass 100 times fold by karma bitch! What comes the fuck around, goes around! Because if you block me, then you’re really missing out on a really good, loving, kindhearted, funny, etc. person! Not to mention, I’m going to be tested for D.I.D. and/or B.P.D. and Autism! Because some of my family has Autism and possibly other health issues that I can relate!

#personal rant #depressed #pissed off #art #anime fandom

[blamgleek]

Tyrus' first times headcanons

Short disclaimer beforehand: I've never done this before, this is literally my first time. Also, English isn't my first language, there shouldn't be too many mistakes but there might be some. This is also much longer than I intended it to be but oh whatever.

• acknowledgement of each others existence

TJ would never tell Cyrus but the muffin incident wasn't the first time he had noticed him. TJ had one talent and that was noticing cute boys. For the longest time, he thought Buffy was Cyrus' girlfriend which was also part of the reason why TJ didn't like her at first.

Cyrus' first encounter with the name 'TJ' wasn't as lovely though. He was Buffy's bully which means he wasn't worth any love or friendship from Cyrus but admittedly, the first thought that went through Cyrus' head when Buffy dragged TJ to get him a muffin, was: "He has nice eyes."

• exchanging numbers

TJ did go back to the swings after the first time and, fortunately, he did meet Cyrus there again. Only this time, neither of them were feeling bad about themselves, maybe it was the universe speaking, but they both felt the urge to come back to the swings. They talked for a while (literally until the was replaced by the moon). Before Cyrus could leave because it was late, TJ stopped him, built all the courage he had left in his body up and asked Cyrus for his number. Luckily, Cyrus happily gave it to him.

• sleepover

Their first sleepover occurred after the whole gun incident. They had been to each other's home's before but Cyrus never thought TJ would want to spend an entire night with him. The first sleepover took place at TJ's house (because he doesn't have shrink parents) and TJ was a lot more nervous than he had been before any math test ever. He wanted the whole thing to be absolutely perfect. Usually, he was the most chill person there is on any sleepover but all he wanted to do was to impress Cyrus.

Cyrus himself wasn't any less nervous. He didn't want TJ to notice how lame he truly and his dinosaur pyjama surely didn't help his case.

As it turned out, being nervous was completely unnecessary. They basically got into their PJs immediately (out of solidarity to the dinosaurs, TJ wore his embarrassing High School Musical fan shirt along with his sweatpants) and then they continued to watch movie after movie after movie, well, if you can call making fun of cheesy rom-coms "watching". At one point in the night, they weren't able to keep their eyes open for another movie anymore so they'd just talk about random stuff until they would fall asleep.

The next morning, TJ would continue his mission to make this sleepover perfect and try his hand on chocolate chocolate ship... pancakes! for breakfast.

• date

The night of the mysterious bench was also the night of TJ asking Cyrus out on a date. Of course Cyrus happily accepted and told TJ about a million times that night, that it didn't have to be special. But of course TJ could not accept that. He had listened to everything Cyrus had told him the past months and his brain was full of amazing date ideas.

After a lot of thinking, TJ finally settled on the aquarium. It was a great place to talk, he knew Cyrus loved it and it was really close to the park. The park. Instead of taking Cyrus out to dinner after the aquarium, TJ thought it would be a great idea to have a picnic in the park. Luckily, Buffy and Andi were super helpful setting everything up while they were looking at fish. TJ couldn't have been happier to be able to call them his friends as well.

• first time in school as a couple

Their first time going to school as a couple was scary. Sure, Shadyside was generally really accepting and TJ was still the scary-basketball-guy to most people but there was always this shadow of doubt. They both knew that rubbing it in everyone's face would be a bad idea so they kept it very lowkey (basically walking very close together and holding hands under the lunch table). This method continued for a few weeks until TJs basketball team came up to their captain and confronted him about his relationship with Cyrus. Long story short, they all ship it and Tyrus is now part of the Jefferson-Middle-School-Basketball-Team-Protection-Program.

• kiss

After his super successful kisses with Iris, Cyrus wasn't the most confident when it came to his first kiss with TJ. TJ, on the other hand, had never been kissed and that was what held him back from doing it. They had been dating for about a month at this point and there had never been any lip contact. It got to the point that TJ started to practice kissing with his childhood teddy. It wasn't pretty.

It was the faithful day of their one month anniversary when Cyrus finally decided that it was time. At this point, he wasn't scared anymore that TJ was just pranking him and would just say, "ha, you fool, I'm not gay." once Cyrus would show his affection. This was the day.

It was Cyrus' turn to take TJ out on a date and as always, the date ended at the park. TJ and Cyrus would sit down on the swings and TJ would thank Cyrus for the amazing day. That was what they did after every date. However, this time, instead of starting to swing, Cyrus got up, stood directly in front of TJ, took a deep breath, said "you're welcome" and then he leaned in. Just like any first kiss would be, theirs was a little awkward as well, but the fireworks were there and they improved over time, very very quickly.

• cuddle

The first time they cuddled was also in the Kippen house. They really had almost all of their sleepovers there at this point. TJ loved Cyrus' family but they were a little controlling and basically checked on them every 2 seconds. TJ's mom only showed up to bring them snacks or more blankets, other than that, she really didn't bother them.

In the end, they could probably thank the horror movie industry for introducing them to the art of cuddling. The whole school had been talking about his awesome new horror movie and for some reason, TJ and Cyrus seemed to be the only two people who hadn't seen it. They both didn't want to be that person that couldn't participate in any conversations anymore so they decided to watch it together. Turns out, they both hate horror movies. Really, cuddling seemed to be the only way to get through it. It started with simple hand holding but it didn't take long for them to scoot together more and more until Cyrus was almost on TJ's lap. Cyrus buried his head into TJ's shoulder while TJ did kind of the same thing but with Cyrus neck. After the movie was over, they kinda moved away from that again and Cyrus was sitting fully on the sofa again, however, his head did not move from his comfortable spot on TJ's shoulder.

• sleeping in the same bed

TJ Kippen is scared of horror movies (apparently), heights and any animal that has more than 4 legs.

Cyrus Goodman is scared of all those things too and flamingos and puppets and thunder and, well, a lot more.

They had been together for a year at this point and it was time for yet another sleepover at TJ's house. Everytime Cyrus slept at TJ's house, they would just put an air mattress on the ground for Cyrus, it wasn't the most comfortable but Cyrus quickly got used to it. This night was different though. The weather hadn't been great for the last few days but up until this point, it had only been raining. It was about 3 am when Cyrus woke up to the sound of thunder. The whole room lit up with the light coming from the lightning and Cyrus was terrified. Thankfully, the loud noise also woke TJ up who could now hear not only the thunder but also the sound of a crying boy on his bedroom floor. Of course TJ immediately knew what was happening and he tried to comfort Cyrus but nothing worked. TJ quickly decided that this was basically another horror movie situation and invited Cyrus to get into his bed. Cyrus gladly accepted the offer and so TJ held Cyrus in his arms, kissed his forehead and waiting for Cyrus to fall back asleep.

• I love you

TJ and Cyrus both knew that they loved each other but they hadn't said it yet. One year into their relationship and at this point, neither of them felt it was necessary to actually say it out loud anymore. However, when TJ saw a sleeping Cyrus in his arms, still with wet eyes from crying because of the thunder, he couldn't hold it back anymore. Of course TJ knew that Cyrus was asleep but he still whispered the magical three words into his ear before he closed his own eyes and fell back asleep.

Cyrus' first "I love you" actually happened shortly after. In the morning after that horrible night, he woke up to the smell of chocolate chip pancakes and hot chocolate. IN BED! Cyrus just stared at his boyfriend in awe and wondered how he could ever be this lucky. After the glorious meal, Cyrus just collapsed on top of TJ, told him he loved him and gave him a quick kiss. Of course, TJ gave Cyrus the same words and the same action back.

#andi mack #tyrus

[nox-scrie]

The Burning Devil

TMA5 Countdown- Day 1, The Corruption and The Vast

So... the trailer dropped yesterday and this fanfic is NOT really true to the canon universe but I don't really care (as Jonny doesn't care about me or my feelings). Also it's not corrected so I'm sowwy for this @pilesofnonsense . Hope y'all like it though!!

Content Warnings: Burning, Loneliness, Cancer and some kind of Madness

Characters: Jon "Jarchivist" Sims, Martin "Too Pure 4 This" Blackwood, Jude Perry and some OCs

Fears: The Corruption, The Vast and some mentions of The Eye

Rating: Teen and Up Audience

Setting: ~a month after the ending of Season 4

Word Count: 3585

~~

The Burning Devil

The train almost reached London when the weird things started happening. Most of the passengers were asleep, the train having been going non-stop for the last 15 hours. Nobody even cared to look at the two men sitting in a bed together in a sleep  car, one of the two shaking so badly you couldn't focus on his shape and the other franatically searching for something in a backpack.

The first light bulb went out as easily as if you blew a candle. One of the men started nervously bitting his lip, before abandonind the bag and craddling the trembling man in his arms. A girl on a few beds away from them, headphones in her years and a book opened in her lap, sent a nasty look towards the non-functioning light, and then looked at the two men as if she knew they were looking at her. She didn't say anything though, other than smiling in an approving way.

Then, the whole train shook, as if it was passed by an electric wave. Now most of the passangers were awake, some screaming in distress, others just mumbling about the poor quality of transportation in England.  Nobody looked at the men that were hugging on the bed, and how something started... moving on one of their skin. A sigh escaped the trembling person as they started clinging to their lover's sweater.

"Martin." was all he said, and then the eyes that have appeared on his skin started blinking rapidly, chaotically, and Martin started feeling sick.

"I... I think I can find it, Jon. I really do. Just..."

"No. The girl. She has something to tell me."

Jon was looking down at the dirty bedsheets, rows of sweat covering his forehead, but the eyes kept staring at the girl with the headphones, who was now half out of her bed and walking the short distance towards them. Martin covered Jon's forearms with a blanket, but he could do anything about the eyes that appeared on his lovers' face and neck. He was hungry, and there was no other meal than information, trauma, pain and sorrow he needed right now.

"Hey... is your partner okay? It looks like-" and then she saw the eyes. The moment was imprinted on her face, which turned a ghostly white, her black eyes wide and mouth started opening to let out a scream.

"No." was all Jon said, looking at her with his own eyes, and the scream was stuck in the girl's throat. The eyes on Jon's skin started to shine, as if blazing from within. "Tell me... tell me your story."

A tape recorder appeared on his hand out of thin air, and Martin closed his eyes for a few seconds and signaled for the girl to have a seat on their bed. She did that, but Martin wasn't sure how much of that was her own will and how much The Eye's. He extended a hand though, and she looked at it, panicked, before looking at Martin once again and seeing.. something on his face that made her take his hand.

Nobody was paying attention to the two men and the girl that were sitting in a bed, prefering to watch the windows that were now cracked in shapes that perfectly resembled some eyes. Martin started feeling his heart pumping, fatigue overtaking his body, and he didn't look st Jon, he couldn't. Instead, he focused on the girl's face and clasped her hand with both of his.

Jon pressed play, and the eyes were rolling around and around on his skin, all kinds of colors and shapes, from white to blue to purple and yellow, from small to wide and enlongated. His voice was calm, collected, and it sent a chill down Martin's spine as he tightened his grip on the girl's hand. He hated the this, the fact that The Eye had so much control, the way it turned his lover into a puppet. Even though anger was building up inside his chest, he took a deep breath and focused on the story. There was nothing either of them could do now.

"Statement of... Alicia Jesper... regarding the last car race she ever took part in. Statement recorded directly from subject, the first of November, 2018. Statement begins."

There was a moment of silence, and the eyes focused on Alicia at once, burning on her. She let out a sigh, one of distress or fear or both, and she opened her mouth and started talking. The words were heavy, and being dragged out like this was like seeing someone be placed in a chair and given a handgun, so they can kill themselves before it gets worse for them. Martin felt his hands crushed by her, and he realized that maybe she was angry too. He hoped she was; anger is not hopelessness, he would know.

"I've always been interested in cars. Either in an aesthetic sort of way, or driving them, cars are a constant in my life more than anything else... or, they used to be, at least.

My first memory is me in the front seat, being held by my father. I remember how small my hands were on the steering wheel, and how he laughed, or caughed, because I was shaking and I thought that's what it felt like to drive on a bumpy road. I must have been around three or four years old then, and my father died when I was ten. Mom never recovered, and by the time I turned fourteen, sha has changed half a dozen of jobs and has given up entirely on at least trying to get better.

When she told me we had to sell the car to pay our rent, I revolted. It was not my fault that she couldn't get herself into psychiatric help, and neither was the car's. I told her, begged her, to try to get into therapy and finding a job, but she was hellbent. And that's how I got my first fake ID.

One of the upperclassmen, some person named Morgan Doe, was into this shady, movie-like, kind of bussines. They had a reputation for faking IDs and other documents, and getting their hands on everything you wanted for the right price. I took all of our economies, which were really not that many now that I think of it, and asked for a Graduation Certificate and a fake ID. They haven't even looked at me for more than three seconds, and nodded. In two weeks, I was a new person, Allison Jay, an 18 year old who was taking a gap year before going to the University of Manchester. I got a job of delivering pizza without even trying too hard.

Now I just had to learn how to drive. There are many... many Youtube tutorials and Wikihow articles that really do help, but I had to learn it on my own, my short body barely reaching the pedals. It was a long process, but luckily I haven't destroyed anything in the time I was learning, and the police never stopped my car, even as I knew I was not driving under the speed limit.

From then on, it was the time for jobs related to driving: I delivered pizza, drove people around, even signed up for Uber for a while. The tips were good, but I had to clean the backseat so often that the material started wearing off. All in all, throught high school my mom and I did great money wise. She was still a nasty thing, angry and... in pain all the time, but at least we had something to put on the table every day. And then she died too, and I was left with a three-room apartment and crappy car. I was finishing high school then, and after the graduation ceremony, I packed my things, burned up any remains of the name Alicia Jesper I could find, sold the apartment and the car and left.

My first sports car was won in a race. It was a lucky strike; I was with one of my friends, Mirabella Ashton, who's place I was crashing, and we thought it could be fun. We were both into driving, and my friend even participated in a few races, but I was a newbie. Still, when this drunk guy came to us and said that he will race for his car, my fingers started trembling and my brain was on fire, and before I knew what was happening, I said yes. My friend was pretty tipsy too, and they let me borrow their car as long as I get it back in one piece. I joked that they didn't even know me, but I was nervous anyway. I placed a few grans on the bet, almost all of the money I had left, got into my friends' car and tried to calm my heart. I looked at the other drivers, all of them young and overrexcited that they will compete against a drunk guy and a girl, and the anger that started in my heart was more powerful than any fuel you can lay your eyes on.

So I drove. And I won. I shared the profit after the first race with my friend, and with the rest of the money and the car, I left the city. And so my life of car racing started. It was not always illegal, but it was hard to make a name for yourself in a men's world, without college or relations to send you to the top. I lived the next decade in abandoned train stations and open fields, drank so much booze my blood turned to beer, and had the time of my life. It was last year, when the incident happened.

I was good at what I was doing. I was so good, people were started to call me The Burning Devil, and got out of my way when I came to the races. It's not a popular activity, with only a few true sponsors, and after I settled down I started to get to know most of the people that came to these events. It would have been surprising to not notice the new person who came in that awful day, all dressed in red leather and with ginger hair.

She said her name was Jude, not giving a last name too. She said she was a newbie, as if you couldn't see that from how she was too-casually leaned on her car. She said she wanted to race, and that she wanted to race me.

I laughed, a bitter sound, and told her I don't want to crush her dreams when they're still so young. She in retutn extended a hand towards me, a wide smile on her face, and told me that if I give her a chance I might just change my mind. I didn't laugh this time; there was something in her voice... it made me jump slightly, as if there was a small flame under my feet. She was the one who laughed, and got inside her car without wating for me to shake her hand.

I looked at my friends, at my family basically, the only people who have cared for me and helped me improve, and smiled an already winning smile. They cheered me, and Mirabella, who was staying at my place for the time being, gave me a kiss on the lips. We were kind of in a relationship at the time, but that didn't continue after the race.

It was an easy win. I had a decade of experience and a good car, way better than the one I won when I was eighteen. I looked over to the girl in red leather, and she was staring right back at me. As the signal that warned us to get ready was heard, she smiled at me, again. This time I felt the flame cover my arms, and I hissed. I remember thinking that I should not let her get in my head.

This race was held on a hill, as were most of the races sponsored by Simon Fairchild. We were supposed to ride from the bottom of it to the top and make an U-turn to get back to where we started. It was more complicated than one might think, having to control the car both as you drive on a diagonal line, and and as you turn on a small area of space. Yet, I've made this circuit for more than a dozen of times so I wasn't worrying.

It took me only three minutes to get ahead by a good few hundred of metres. I could barely see har car, as red as her clothes, in the rear view mirror, and laughed out loud, feeling one with the car, feeling so free and so present in the world... The top of the hill was right ahead, and I was already feeling the taste of the rum the others' were going to give me and the smell of Mirabella's skin when she hugged me. It will be amazing to see the girl in red red with anger.

I reached the top of the hill witht he right speed limit to make the turn. My hand was on the break, at ready, and just as I turned it it... wasn't moving. It was stuck. I frantically started moving the handle, the end of the cliff top approaching me hurriedly, and I just couldn't. I started unbuckling my seat belt, ready to jump out of the car, and then I saw the red car, right next to my window. With half a mind I thought about how could she have gotten there so fast, and then I started to notice the fire. Her whole car was ablaze. She was laughing, but I couldn't hear her, just watch the wicked way her lips moved, and then she waved at me and I noticed that.. her skin was dripping. Just like the wax of a candle. The last thing I remember before plumetting off the hill was that her eyes and hair have caught fire too, and that it was beautiful in it's horror.

And then the car plummeted off the cliff. My seat belt was off, and I frantically tried to open the door, but it was stuck too. I think I screamed, I must have screamed, waiting for my awful end. But I.. I didn't die. The car was falling at a constant speed, like a paper airplane, almost floating in the air. The sky above me was too bright, and the green of the hill was barely noticeable in my fall. I didn't move, out of terror that changing my position might cause the lose of balance the car has. So I just waited for my inevitable death.

It's a weird thing, knowing that you'll die in only a few minutes, and knowing how it will happen, but being useless as in making a change. I watched the sky above me, that burning blue, and thought of my father. He has died of lung cancer from working long hourse in a mine around my hometown. Mom passed away in a similar way, lung cancer, but it was a weird thing... she has never smoked, or been around so heavily polluted air as my father did.

As the car kept crashing, falling, floating, I felt it. I felt the air being stuck in my chest, and I started coughing. I couldn't breath. I couldn't open my mouth enough to get in some air, any air, I couldn't make my nose inhale, or my chest stop hurting, and my head started feeling heavy as I was coughing and falling and floating towards my own death. I felt blood vessels explode across my skin with ugly pops, my eyes glued shut, I felt hopeless and wished so, so, hard to just die already.

And then it stopped. The car was still floating at a constant speed, but the pain in my chest was no longer there. I could breath, and I did that for at least ten minutes before allowing myself to open my eyes. The sky was brighter than ever, and I hated it.

That's how I lived for what must have been three days. It was coughing fits and the impossibility to breath, it was me crying softly in the driver's seat, not caring about any kind of balance as I tried with all my might to open the door, any door, and kill myself to escape from that hell. The sky turned black when night begun, such as it did everyday, but even that was too bright, ablaze, mocking me in its freedom. I couldn't sleep. I didn't feel hunger, or thirst, either, I just sat there, watching, wishing to die, wishing for the coughing fits to stop, but none of my wishes came true.

When I felt something of that floating shift, I was just getting out of a coughing fit. This one was different than the others, blood having painted my hands now. That was the moment the car started falling.

It took only a few seconds. It took only a few seconds for it to get stuck in a tree around the other end of the hill, and for me to open the driver's door as if it was nothing. I fell on the ground and started running, expecting to be sore or hungry or in pain, at least, but I was feeling nothing. I ran and left my crashed car behind, as far away as I could. I needed to get on the road, to hitchhike to the city, and to make sure everyone knew I'm okay.

That's when I saw all the people gathered right where the race started, cheering for the girl in red so loudly I could hear it from almost a mile away. I stopped in my tracks; there was no way they could have been sitting there for three days, in exactly the same clothes. Uncertain, I walked towards them and saw the girl, Jude, with her arm around Mirabella's shoulder, saying something in her ear. She was not burned up. She was fine, her car was fine, her clothes were fine. I was not fine.

When Jude saw me, she smiled that wide, awful grin. I felt like I could cry, but I cried so much in the air that I don't think I'll be able to do it again. Jude thanked me for the race, and kissed Mirabella on the head. Her eyes were slightly unfocused, but she looked at me with an indescribable expression, before turning in Jude's embrace, away from me.

"And thanks for my prize, too." said Jude, barely above a whisper, as she turned towards the crowd with Mirabella. I could see that Mirabella's shirt had a hole on the shoulder where Jude's hand has been, a hole that looked as if it was burned in the material. It was the shape of the girl in red's hand.

I hitchhiked the way home. None of my friends offered me a ride."

Martin's hands were sore, and Allison's eyes were red, as if she has been crying. Jon no longer had the eyes covering his skin and he looked tired, not sick, as he looked before. The trembling stopped, and the windows were back in their original shape. Most of the passangers thought they must have imagined them breaking, or saw the branches of the trees in the pale moonlight hitting across the windows and thought they were cracks.

"Statement ends. Thank you... Alicia. "

"Do. Not. Call me. That." she extracted her hands from Martin's grip and formed a fist towards Jon, clutching her jaw. "I don't know what you just did, how you made me talk, but what I've been through has been hard enough without some creppy guy digging in my past and making me throw up all my trauma to be recorded on that stupid tape. Do you and your boyfriend get off on that?"

"It's really not like that Allison, we-" Martin started, but she extended her hand and made a fist of his sweater, threatening him now.

"Stop it. Stop it. This has been.. a very weird night. I will go back to sleep and when I wake up you two will not say a word to me ever again, not if you don't want me to call the cops. This night, this discussion, has not happened."

Jon let out a soft, unamused laugh, and nodded. Allison got up from the bed, clutching her hands around her neck, and started coughing. She returned to her bed with her back turned towards them, headphones in her ears, and did not move from that position.

"I hate when that you have to do that." Martin said, failing to hide the edge of his voice.

"I know. Me too. But it will be over soon, okay? It will be over soon."

They looked at each other and Jon sighed, placing a small kiss on Martin's forehead. He has been getting hungrier and hungrier in the past few days, but at noleast now they had a plan. Jon clutched the tape recorder in his hand and looked at the sky, the sky that was looking back at him, and hoped that their plan will work.

#TMA5 Countdown #tma 5 countdown #season 5 #jonmartin #jon sims #jonathan sims #martin blackwood #jarchivist #the magnus archives #fanfiction #fanfic #ff #jude perry #the corruption #the vast #the eye #the change #martin deserves a prize for being such a supportive bf #also jon needs a hug #as always #my writing #lgbt #gay #lesbian too

[shari-berri]

The Time Has Come

BRVR x reader

Your POV

THIS IS NEVER GOING TO WORK!!!

-earlier-

"Hello Mom, what are you calling for?"

"Hello honey, I was talking to May and she said that you have a boyfriend! How could you not tell us?!"

"I never thought that you would care so I didn't say anything."

"Your father and I would like to meet this boy and see if he's right for our little cupcake!"

Uh oh

"Uhhh hehe see about that mom, we uhhh have uhhhh a vet appointment!"

"Honey, you don't have a pet..."

"Yes! But ummm chimchar is sick so we have to stay with him."

"We can just come over to your house then, I always loved your chimchar and would love to take care of him."

Crap, there's no getting out of this now!

"That's great mom, when are you guys coming?"

"We are coming in an hour and that's final!"

"Ok see you there Mom I can't wait!"

Oh god!

-present-

After screaming into my pillow, I decided to do the responsible thing, tell said boyfriend.

"BRVR get down here!"

And like magic, my psychotic boyfriend appeared.

"Babe, my parents are coming to meet you and I don't know what to do!"

He looked at me like I was crazy

"Uhhh just let them meet me..."

My jaw locked and my eyes hardened

"You are a Pikachu who murders people! How am I going to explain that to them?!"

"Oh..."

Sighing, I grab his hand and drag him into our bedroom.

Sorting through this closet, I find that all of his clothes are bloody.

"Hold on one sec, lemme make a phone call since all of your clothes are bloody and you haven't washed them!"

Pulling out my phone, I scroll through numbers before selecting someone who I pray to Zalgo will come through.

"Hello? Yeah. I need some clothes for BRVR. Any color will work. Drop it off at our house or have him give it through the phone. Thanks."

Setting the phone on the floor, I waited until my home was entered by a green tight clad hylian.

My phone started shaking and then a figure emerged holding a pair of clothes in his dripping hands.

"Thanks BEN, I'm guessing Jeff was too lazy to come over?"

"YeaH, YoU wOUld bE CoRRecT." BEN replied.

"iT wAS nICE SeEinG yoU bUT I muST gO, JEFf cHALlenGeD mE tO MaRiO KaRT." BEN stated, his dripping form going back into my phone, as well as any water.

Hearing the familiar sound of our doorbell, I shoved BRVR into the bathroom to change and rushed downstairs to greet my parents.

"Hello! Come on in, it's so good to see you again!" I say after hugging them, leading them to the living room sofa.

"Please sit down while I go get the man of the hour."

Racing up the stairs hoping that BRVR was done changing, I slam the door open and drag him down to where hell awaits him.

Sitting on the couch across my parents while they judge my secret killer boyfriend is terrifying!

"So, "BRVR" how long have you and my daughter been dating?" My dad said, breaking the silence.

"We've been dating for 5 months." BRVR said with a straight face, no emotion visible.

"I see. What do you do for a living?" My mom asks, looking directly into his eyes.

"I'm a Pokémon trainer like y/n." BRVR replies, looking confident.

"Show us your pokemon." My dad says, reaching for his belt with pokeballs.

"I kind of share with y/n, sir."

Appalled, my parents look at each other.

"What if she is kidnapped or in danger, what will you protect her with?!" My dad screeches.

"I am more than capable of protecting your daughter sir." BRVR smirks.

"Prove it." My dad challenges, not backing down.

Putting my hand on BRVR's shoulder, I nod and he nods back.

Where my boyfriend once stood was a Pikachu looking directly at my dad, sparks flying from his cheeks.

My parents looked bewildered at the fact that my boyfriend was a pokehuman. Imagine what they would look like if they found out he was a serial killer.

Sighing in defeat, my dad sank down into the couch.

Little BRVR smirked and turned back into a human.

My parents asked some more basic questions a parent would ask a child's boyfriend and all was going well until I got a text.

'Set your phone on the floor and back up'

Fearing for the worst, I followed the instructions, gaining looks from my parents and my boyfriend.

The phone shook and the whole family came out.

Out popped Sally, LJ, EJ, and Toby. BEN, Silver, Red and Jason. Puppeteer, Dark Link, Bloody Painter, and Liu. Soon my house was filled with male Creepypastas.

"What are you guys doing here?!" I yelled, intrigued and worried what my parents would think about terrifying monsters in my living room and me conversing with them.

"Slender kicked us out and we don't have anywhere else to go so we came here." EJ said, speaking for all of them.

Taking a glance at my parents, they had drawn their pokemon out for protection and were waiting for me to get attacked before commanding all of their pokemon to save me.

"Guys! BRVR is meeting my parents! Normally I would help you, but get out! Come back when they are gone!" I shout, pushing all of them back into my phone before spinning on my heel.

"Put your pokemon away, we're fine." I speak slowly, as if talking to a wild animal.

In a daze, my parents return their pokemon before falling onto the couch and demanding an explanation.

Pushing BRVR in front of me, I tell him to explain.

"That was my family who you just saw. They are very sweet once you get to know them, they just look different. Please let me be with y/n, they love her and would never hurt her, instead they would protect her. Please don't rip me apart from my happiness!" My boyfriend pleads, holding my hand.

"Son, your family is horrifying. I will allow you to be with my daughter as long as you never hurt her and keep your family away from me." Dad speaks, staring into BRVR's soul before grabbing my mother's hand, helping her off the couch, and out the door into their car before getting as far away from us as possible.

"That went well!" BRVR smiled.

"Yeah..." I mutter.

"I'm going to bed."

And I do, but not before throwing BRVR's stuff onto the couch first, telling him he sleeps on the couch.

#pokemonxreader #pokemon #imagine #oneshot #readerinsert #xreader #creepypasta

[cherchersketch]

< Day 23: Beauty and the Beast AU >

Storenvy | Redbubble |Ko-Fi | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram

crossposted to AO3

A month had passed since Felicity traded her freedom for her mother’s. Though there were no calendars in the castle, she kept track of the days in a small notebook kept hidden in Drawer. It was a weird feeling, to be able to talk to the furniture, but she was slowly getting used to it.

Every day, the routine was the same. She was awoken by the cheerful Wardrobe. Though she had only a small handful of clothes, they would appear neatly pressed within every morning. She spent her days exploring, though it was starting to grow dreary. There were many rooms but most were filled with the remnants of destroyed furniture. The long jagged scratches over every broken inch assured her that it was all the Beast’s handiwork. How long had he raged? There seemed to be no surface that was spared from his destruction.

As she exited yet another musty room, into the grand hallway entrance, she paused. With each day that passed, the temptation to explore the North Wing of the house grew stronger. When he gave her free reign of the house, it was his one rule, to stay away from that area. 

From the first floor, she could see that the staircase leading to that forbidden wing was the most pristine. That area of the castle seemed the most intact. Felicity assumed that was where the Beast slept every night. But what other rooms would there be to explore? If it was as big as the other three wings of the house, there might be countless rooms of beautiful tapestries and intricate furniture to discover.

The closest she got to it was the grand dining hall behind the winding staircase that led to the North Wing. The Beast gave her freedom to do as she pleased in the day but come dinnertime…

“Felicity!” Ah, speak of the devil indeed.

With a sigh of resignation, she made her way into the dining room. There as usual, was the Beast. Light brown fur grew on every inch of his body. As usual, he wore the remains of a green hooded cloak. Tattered leather pants in the same colour covered his lower half.

Tonight, his tail twitched back and forth. Was it her imagination or did he seem on edge? He was always broody but right now, he seemed to be even more fidgety than usual.

“Is everything alright?” Felicity couldn’t stop herself from asking.

“Fine!” He growled. “Eat.”

Though she didn’t know where they bought the ingredients, every dinner was a sumptuous and delicious feast. Sometimes, she wondered if the Beast chose the menu, or left it to the cutlery and kitchenware to decide. They were sentient after all. The thought of the grumpy Beast flipping through recipe books and picking out delicate desserts made her giggle.

“What?” From across the table, said Beast questioned her sudden outburst.

“Nothing.”

There was the sound of claws scraping on wood. Then, “Is there anything you desire?”

Felicity raised a brow,” You mean, other than my freedom?”

“Yes, other than that.” He growled through gritted teeth.

“You could let me explore the North Wing? Is that really the only part of the castle that hasn’t been destroyed? Is that where you sleep every night? How many-“ She was cut off by a loud thud as he brought an enormous clenched paw down on the table. It was a wonder the wood didn’t start to splinter.

“No. And enough questions. Anything else but that?”

Felicity crossed her arms. “You won’t let me leave but you never seek me out other than a dinner where you barely say anything. What do YOU want with me anyway?”

The Beast just continued staring at her, a frown on his face. There was a loud bang as his chair was thrown to the floor in his haste to rise. Without a backward glance, he stalked out of the room.

Ignoring his outburst, Felicity resumed eating her dessert. Once she was done, she thanked the cutlery and silently made her way out of the dining hall.

Looking out of the huge windows, she could make out the form of the Beast crouching in his garden. Though she never knew where he wandered off to during the day, he was always in the garden at night. Sometimes alone but mostly with a small masked puppet and a porcelain figure of a canary. If this were back in the village, she would have thought him a madman, conversing with trinkets. But in this enchanted domain, she knew they were probably sentient too, and seemed to be his closest confidants. What a strange place she had ended up in. 

He never seemed to sleep. Even if she happened to wake up in the middle of the night, she still saw him there in the garden. Which… now that she thought about it… was giving her an idea.

With one last look out the window to make sure he was still there, and a surreptitious glance around to confirm that she truly was alone, Felicity hurried towards the steps. As she walked up to the forbidden area, it occurred to her there might be other furniture in the North Wing to report her movements. But it was too late for regrets now.

The corridor of rooms seemed like the rest of the wings. Though, astonishingly, it was smaller than she expected. Trying the first door on her right, she discovered it locked. Darn, she hadn’t been expecting that.

Just as Felicity contemplated whether to continue, it would be pointless if all the doors were locked, she heard a faint sound. The source was easy enough to spot. One of the doors on the left was ajar and emitting a faint green glow.

Her heartbeat quickened. But, she reasoned, she was already the prisoner of an unpredictable monster, what else could she possibly have to fear.

Slowly pushing the door open revealed a wide empty room. The source of the glow was an hourglass, shielded by a glass dome. It seemed to be hovering above a platform. As she walked closer, she could see the green sand from the top was not trickling down to the bottom. How strange. But the bottom half did contain a small pile of sand. Was there some kind of mechanism that stopped the flow of the sand? And what was its purpose? Why had it been hidden away in this corner? Perhaps, this would explain the Beast’s reluctance to let her explore it. Did this contain the answer to his mysterious behaviour, as well as this strange magical place of sentient objects? Intrigued, she reached a hand out to touch it.

“NOOOOO!” In a blur of brown fur, the Beast was towering over her. Cradling the dome, he glanced at it before turning back to Felicity. She had never seen him this angry before. Was this the day he finally…

“GET OUT!”

“Wh-What? I’m sorry… I-“

“GET OUT!” Fangs bared and claws unsheathed, the Beast towered over her. As adrenaline started pumping through her veins, she ran through the corridor, down the stairs and out through the heavy wooden doors of the entrance.

She was free.

Felicity didn’t know how long she had walked through the thick undergrowth. The last time she stumbled upon the Beast’s castle, it was on horseback. But her mother’s mare, Meghan, was long gone. Lower to the ground, things looked different. She struggled to find a familiar landmark that would lead her back to the forest trail. Back to her village.

Wrapping her cloak tightly around her, she tried to find a suitable area to camp for the night. She had managed to to smuggle a few tools and supplies from the kitchens before her hasty departure, helped by the cutlery and furniture.

In the distance, she heard a wolf’s howl. Great. She hoped she wasn’t wandering too deep into their territory.

As she gathered the last of the sticks to make a fire near the slightly damp but cozy shelter she’d built in the shadow of a large tree, she heard it again. Another howl, this one sounding closer than the next. Felicity looked around for something to defend herself with, just in case. There was nothing but straggly patches of grass. Hopefully, the fire would keep them away.

Yet another howl. Closer and closer.

Was it her imagination? Or was there a faint rustling in one of the nearby bushes? Was that the wind? Or was there a distant pattering of paws against the ground? Felicity crouched closer to the fire.

A growl was all she heard before a brown blur passed before her eyes. It collided with the grey blur that erupted from one of the further bushes.

A tussle of brown and grey ensued. Felicity wanted to help but wasn’t sure what she could possibly do. With a yelp, the wolf collapsed in a heap some distance away. Struggling to its feet, it continued snarling at the Beast. Then, it howled before retreating.

Felicity tensed. The forest remained quiet. Hopefully, the worst was over.

Or, maybe not. She gulped as the Beast finally turned to face her. He was as unreadable as ever, hidden behind his fur and frown.

“You’re going the wrong way.”

What?

“The village is a day’s walk in that direction.” He pointed a claw in the direction opposite from where Felicity had been heading. Darn. She thought she’d been getting closer. Had she just been walking in circles this whole time?

“Th-thanks.” Unsure of what else to do, she sat back down in front of the fire. “Why are you helping me?”

Silence.

“You imprison my mom for trespassing. Then you make me your prisoner instead but never bother me other than during dinner. And now you’re just… letting me go free?” She fiddled with the hem of her dress. “I am sorry about wandering where I wasn’t supposed to. I wasn’t going to break the hourglass or anything though, I swear. I was just curious.”

A huff. The Beast clenched and unclenched his fists.

“I-“

A loud roar was ripped from his throat. Turning around, he swiped away the wolf that had jumped onto his back. Felicity looked around in horror. When had so many wolves crept up on them?

Two more leapt towards the Beast and he dispatched them with his claws. Unsure of what else to do, Felicity grabbed a few of the longer branches from the fire she’d built. She tried to ward off any wolves that seemed poised for another leaping attack.

There was another ball of fur as the Beast and the wolves tussled for dominance, though the grey seemed to be overwhelming the brown this time around.

Among the observing wolves, she saw one that looked slightly bigger than the rest. It’s matted black fur was littered with scars. Seemingly undeterred by the flames, it crouched, poised to strike.

“Beast! Look out!” Just in time, he turned as the alpha wolf leapt. With a loud roar, and a heavy swipe of his two large, clawed hands, the wolf was sent flying towards a tree. With a yelp, it collided, falling to the ground.

The rest of the wolves paused in their assault.

Growling, the alpha shakily got to his feet. Sensing another attack, the Beast let out another gigantic roar, claws brandished.

The alpha’s tail twitched back and forth. It sniffed the air, then let out a howl. With a leap, it turned back towards the bushes and ran away. The other wolves paused. Then, bounded away after their leader.

Felicity heaved a sigh of relief. Behind her, there was a growl, and the thud of a heavy body hitting the ground.

As she got closer to his prone body, she was horrified at the wounds that marred the Beast’s body. His cloak was totally destroyed now. Its blood-stained and tattered remains littered the ground around him. Blood oozed from his neck, arms and tail. A deep gash went across his left brow, narrowly missing the eye.

She helped him to his feet, trying not to flinch as she tried to support his heavy mass. “Which way back to the castle?”

“What?”

“There’s no time for that. We need to tend to those wounds before they get infected. Which way?”

He pointed in the correct direction and they slowly made their way back.

“Oliver.”

“What?” The castle was in sight. Thank goodness. Felicity didn’t know how much longer she could support his weight.

“I do have a name. It’s Oliver.”

“Oh. Well… thanks for the save back there, Oliver.”

He didn’t say anything more as they made their way to the grand entrance of the castle. With a grunt, he stepped away from her.

“Whoa, Hey! What do you think you’re doing mister?” She frowned, pulling one arm back over her shoulder.

“Thank you for helping me back. You can… go back home now.”

“And leave you here to bleed to death in your house? What kind of person do you think I am.” She huffed. “Come on. There’s got to be medical supplies somewhere in this ginormous place.”

“You don’t-“ She shut him up with a glare.

With one last grunt, she settled him into the large chair in the room he directed them to, in the North Wing. Massaging her tired muscles, she watched various tables and closets running around and rummaging through each other’s drawers to find the supplies needed for Oliver’s wounds.

“Thank you.”

She raised a brow. “You’re welcome.” Then smirked. “I do have name too, you know.”

A deep rumbling sounded in this throat as his tail swished from side to side. “Thank you, Felicity.”

#Inktober #olicity #olicity AU #olicity fanart #olicity fanfiction #beauty and the beast AU #it was really tedious but I'm very proud of that staircase image #CherCher art

[tylercamebackyes]

i adore you, Cy.

-

surprise!! @imonlyhereforgay this is your gift!! i was stressing over it because everyone has so many parts and amazing stuff but i worked really hard on mine so im not changing it anymore. happy pride! also i used When too many times but i dont think TJ would care if he wrote a letter to Cyrus.

-

TJ writes a confession to Cyrus.

-

Dear Cyrus,

These are 10 of the times I got lost in your eyes.

When we went out for milkshakes after my first game of the season. You were telling a story about how your cousin drank his milkshake in 4 minutes flat, only to realize he was lactose intolerant. He never went out to eat with you again because you laughed at him for weeks. You laughed so hard telling the story that you started crying, but your eyes were lit up with joy.

When you came out to me in your basement. I made a joke about how girls would love a ping pong champion. You said you hoped the guys did too. The guys most certainly do. I was stunned into silence because I realized you wouldn't find it so weird that I thought your eyes were pretty.

That time we went on the Ferris wheel at Adrenaline City. You wouldn't look away from the spinning wheel, but I made you have a staring contest with me. You looked like you were about to cry until Marty spun the wheel and you screeched with your head in your hands.

When I had dinner at your house for your dad's birthday. I was helping serve cake when you said I had gotten frosting on my nose. You wiped it off with a napkin because I "wasn't getting the blue off." The blue didn't even come off after.

When I was getting you do do the high jump into the foam pit at Bouncy Castle Land. Andi and Buffy had always let you sit out, but I made you count to 10 with me before you let me push you off the platform.

When my cat had kittens and you were holding one, but it sneezed and you look at me smiling like a goof. I thought I could look at you smiling like a goof forever.

That time we were studying for my math test and you laughed at the drawing of my cat. When you laugh you get a sparkle in your eye. I got  B+ on that math test and you took me to the Spoon to celebrate.

When we were playing the second championship game and I looked over at you during the last timeout. Your smile made me want to win the game to make you proud even though you would be proud either way.

When Andi was thinking about going to New York for an art school, so you went to the swings to think about it. I told you that you were allowed to be upset about it because she was your best friend and you would miss her more if you were here instead of with her. Andi decided not to go.

When you got a brain freeze from eating a snow cone too fast at the fair.

9 times I almost held your hand.  Mostly times I missed my chance to.

When we went on that roller coaster and you said you couldn't feel your hands. I thought about it for a long time, but then we were upside down and I missed my chance.

When I watched your dance final and you were shaking when you finished, because when I'm shaking people holding my hands make me feel better but you were being hugged by Buffy before I got the nerve to.

When you came out to Amber at the Spoon, because she said she was frosting everything rainbow for pride month and you said you would definitely but a piece of cake for that, and she asked if you were LGBT+ and you paused and said you were gay. I didn't want to reach over the table so I didn't hold your hand.

When we were both laying on the couch but we couldn't reach the remote, so we both reached out to get it. I ended up falling off the couch.

When my cat scratched you and I helped you clean your hand, and I did technically hold your hand but I almost really held your hand.

When Andi was up for an art award and they were announcing winners. I started clapping to snap you out of peeling your fingernails. She didn't win, but she got 2nd place.

When we were having a sleepover and you turned over on the air mattress just to say "TJ, I LOVE dinosaurs." You started showing me shadow puppet dinosaurs, but you were too tired to do it right.

At Andi's slumber party, you were doing everyone's nails with Amber, and you painted mine yellow. "You're like my lemon boy, Teej. Or a sour-patch kid. Because you're sweet now," you said.

When Andi was upset about her parents not getting married and Buffy was hanging out with Marty again, you told me that you were afraid it was straining your relationship with them. I told you that if you could survive Celia becoming Ce-Ce and Buffy moving you could survive some change.

8 times I almost kissed you.

When we were at the pool and you did the big water slide, and you were so excited that you choked on the water. You laughed so hard that you had to get out of the pool.

When we met Amber's dog for the first time, and you thought he was the cutest thing in the world.

When we got churros at the fair. You got cinnamon on your nose and I still have no idea how.

When we had that pillow fight and you somehow got a hold of every pillow and it was like you had 3 pairs of nun-chucks.

When we were at the drive-in and you were holding all of the candy because Jonah had a broken arm. He said you wouldn't let him hold anything, but you said his arm was hurting. It was probably both.

That time at the lake when I jumped in, and you didn't want to jump in after me so you tried just walking into the lake but you slipped on the mud.

When we were swimming for Buffy's birthday party, Marty and Jonah flipped your floatie over. You complained about your hair the whole day, but I thought it looked better.

When you saw the shooting star on July 4th. Right after you saw it the fireworks started and the sound scared you.

7 times I almost told someone I liked you.

Buffy asked me after my first game of the season if I liked you, and I almost said yes. I said I didn't know.

My mom asked me why I had become so much happier lately. I said I was just having fun hanging out with you and everyone. Part of it was me being happy about coming out, but it was also being around you that made me so happy.

Jonah asked me how long we had been dating. He really thought we'd been dating for months.

I was paying for a Queen record when Bowie asked about the drawings on my hand. He asked me who drew it and when I said that you drew it, he said, "You two are pretty close, huh?" I just smiled and said yeah.

My cousins came over for Christmas. Addie is 8 years old and when she saw me texting you she said, "Why are you smiling so much? My mamma says people only smile that much when they're in love!" I thought it was really funny that she pointed it out before Buffy or Amber.

Jonah, Marty, and I were watching Love, Simon and they asked why I knew all of the emails by heart. It was nice to think of having a love story like that, even if it wasn't with you.

I almost told Amber's dog once, but Andi walked in before I said it.

6 times I did hold your hand.

When you were over and my parents started fighting while we played Mortal Kombat. I didn't want to feel scared like I always feel when they fight, even though I had never done it when they fought before.

When I came out to my dad. Or before, I guess. It made it easier having you there because I had someone there for me if my dad wasn't.

When you had a sleepover and we tried to watch all of Supernatural in one night. I fell asleep after a few episodes, but the first scene always makes me nervous.

When I was going into math class for the last test of the semester. You had worked with me the most and you believing that I could pass made me really want to pass the test.

When we listened to Paris by Sabrina Carpenter for the first time. It was more of me grabbing your hand and spinning you around to the music, but it counts.

When you brought me the blueberry macadamia muffin. That was one of the best muffins I've ever had, by the way.

5 times I almost called you at 2 am.

When my parents were fighting and I wanted to distract myself, but I ended up watching YouTube.

When Khalid announced his tour and I saw the post. You actually ended up calling me first.

When my cat threw up on my bed. I was really stressed but I got worried about the cat and told my mom instead.

After you dislocated your thumb when I tried to teach you how to play basketball. I was so worried that I couldn't sleep, but your mom posted on Facebook that you were fine so I let it be.

When I realized the song stuck in my head was Electric Love by BØRNS. Then I realized you were probably asleep, so I didn't.

4 times I did call you at 2 am.

When my dad told my mom that I was gay. I thought he was cool with it, but while they were fighting he said, "So YOU can have our abomination of a son." My parent decided to get a divorce later that week. I probably called you every week because I couldn't handle it.

When I realized another song that was stuck in my head was Maneater by Nelly Furtado. You didn't know what song I was talking about until I sang the "you wish you never met her at all" part.

When I had that nightmare where a clown came and attacked the whole town but you had an alliance with him but he was set on killing me so you died defending me then the clown died because he wasn't allowed to kill you.

When you texted me saying you hated crying at 2 am. You were crying about your stepdad making a homophobic joke. I said that he probably didn't mean it, and would stop once he realized he was directly hurting you. It still wasn't okay, though.

3 times I thought I had lost you.

When Reed brought that gun. I know I've said it dozens of times, but I didn't think he would bring it while you were there.

When your dad was thinking about moving to Texas and you got really excited, but your mom said she didn't want to give up custody so he stayed. I wanted you to be happy, but I also wanted to be with you forever and I wouldn't really want to be in Texas for months or years on end.

When Kira outed me to the school, and she looked at you when she said I was really obvious about it. I thought you weren't ready to come out in any way at school, but you said that our friendship was worth more than avoiding humiliation.

2 times I almost confessed.

That day when we couldn't reach the remote from the couch. Me falling off the couch made me forget about it, though.

When I came out to you. I was crying and you were almost crying and I have no idea why I was so terrified.

1 time I did.

Right now. I don't know why it's taken me so long, but with enough reassurance from Jonah and Andi, I'm writing this letter to you right now. I adore you, Cy. I want to be around you all the time. I would really, really like to kiss you. I know you might not feel the same, but I also know our friendship would survive a crush. I don't like keeping secrets from you. The last one is this: I like you. I like you more than I've ever liked anyone. And I had a teddy bear named Blueberry for 12 years until Reed blew it up. That's all.

    Love, TJ. aka Tyler James.

#andi mack #tyrus #pride gift exchange #my fic #cyrus goodman #tj kippen

[toothedsmile]

The puppeteer : Chapter four

Masterlist

Chapter four – And….ACTion?

Warning : The beginning might be depressing as the reader puts herself down. Also, I’ll be basing part of readers classes on my own timetable from my fourth year and my fifth. (as I still somehow and for some unknown reason still have them.)

You couldn’t sleep. Your mind had started wandering about everything that had happened so far. While yes the entrance exam may have been quite a while ago you still weren’t over it completely. Just thinking about it made you think about what you could’ve done, what if you did this, what if you didn’t save that person on time, what if you just did everything properly, what if you just did better, what if…

What if you just gave up…

“Maybe I should.”

You probably wouldn’t even be a great hero anyway.

“Why should I even keep trying.”

You could barely just save one person.

“I’m pathetic.”

“Things happen, I know you would be a great hero that would save everyone whether it was from a villain or from themselves. Just keep trying so you can go to UA.”

“Maybe…”

“You know, you could be a vigilante. “ “You’d be a hero before anyone else, you could save people and heck! I can be that person in the chair with a headset to tell you where you have to go with screens all around me!”

“Maybe if I could….”

“You know, whatever you want to do, I’ll support you the best I can possibly can.”

“Maybe if I could give it another chance.”

With the supporting words you friend had given you echoing within your mind, you closed your eyes and fell into a peaceful sleep.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The following morning came with the sound of your dear alarm blearing directly in your ears, coming so suddenly that you jumped up almost falling of your bed.

Quickly you shut it off, sliding one hand down your face and afterwards rubbing the sleep from your eyes with a small yawn.

You sauntered to your closet with your feet dragging on the floor, opening it you took out your clothes for the day and went to the bathroom to do your needed business.

After having done all that you had woken up properly, going to the kitchen you could see your breakfast laying on the table ready for you to eat. Your dad came from the other room and walked towards you dressed in his uniform. “Alright, I’m going to work now and your mom is already gone. I made some breakfast for you. Have fun at school!” With a quick kiss on the forehead he went to the door and walked to his car. “Wow. Second day and all I get is a ‘I made you breakfast and have fun at hell’. Great.”

After having finished your delicious breakfast you took all the stuff you needed for the day. With a peek at your phone you noticed that it was only 08:15 AM so you still had some time to kill before you went to school.

After a little while you went to school and as you arrived you saw that you still had some spare time so you went to find your friend. Not too long after beginning to search you had found them, they were sitting at  a table by the entrance so they were very easy to find.

“Hey F/N!”

You friend looked up from their phone and smiled as they saw you walking towards them.

“Y/N! Come here! I missed you, it’s been so long!”

Rolling your eyes good-naturedly  you gave them a smile back. “Ah yes, it has been since yesterday since we last saw each other. Truly heart breaking. I loathed every moment I spend alone without your wonderful presence. My heart broke as I only saw minutes passing on the clock until our next fateful meeting.” With one hand clutching your chest you sat down next to them, your other hand rising to your forehead in a dramatic way. “When I woke up I rejoiced the fact that we would meet again and that I would see your most beautiful face.”

They snorted at you theatrics. “Alright, Shakespeare. As much as I appreciate the oh so heart-warming compliments I think we should start walking to class.”

You both walked side by side to your class, though you didn’t even remember what class it was going to be.

“Hey uh F/N, what class do we have now?”

They looked at you with dead eyes, their whole being screaming agony.

When you heard what they said you couldn’t help but feel horrified, fear coursing through your veins.

“We have math.”

After two hours of math it was finally 10:20 AM and thus time for a break of 15 minutes.

“Man, math fried my brain. Did you get it?” You looked at your friend who sat right next to you on the bench.

“I mean I did understand it, if you want I could help you sometime?” Gratefully you nodded at them, a comfortable silence fell between the both of you as you looked at the younger kids being dumb.

After a minute of silence a guy walked up to you and tapped you on your shoulders.

“Hey…uh…You’re in my class right? I don’t think we’ve really talked before.” There stood a guy that was indeed in the same class as you. Dirty blond hair, soft brown eyes and a not so sharp face. He had a small beauty spot by his lips that were pulled in a heart melting smile. “I uh ye- uh we mmm yeah we’re in the same class hahaha.” Your hand reached up to twirl a piece of hair out of nervousness. “You’re Mazur right? Mazur Ilya?”

He seemed a bit surprised that you remembered his name before his face turned back to the kind smile he had given you previously. “Yup that’s right, you’re L/N Y/N right? I still remember your name from the introduction.” He looked at your friend that was looking at the interaction with suspiciously mischievous eyes. “Oh! Hey F/L/N! I didn’t see you there. How are you?”

F/N smiled a bit and answered that they felt well before saying that they had to get some stuff from their locker for the next class, something you had already done before coming to the bench.

“Do you want me to come with you?” They shook their head as they waved their hand in a way to say that you could keep sitting on the bench. “Don’t worry, I should’ve done this before so you can keep sitting. I’ll come in a little while.” They winked as they left, a small smile on their lips.

Mazur cleared his throat to get your attention once again. “Do you want to exchange numbers? I-I mean not to be invasive but you seemed like a nice person so I thought I’d ask you know.” He stopped his small ramble and shyly looked to the side. “If you don’t mind that is.”

You smiled softly at him, trying to keep him calm. “Sure, I d-don’t mind. Also, you can just call me Y/N. Where I come from we don’t address each other with last names so it still feels a bit weird.”

He seemed glad that you didn’t mind his question and smiled once again.

“Alright…Y/N. In that case you may call me Ilya. I’m also not from Japan so I get where you’re coming from. Though I’ve lived here quite a few years already.”

The both of you exchanged phone numbers and Ilya went back to his friend group which were a bunch of guys. They clapped him on his back with huge smiles and seemed to congratulate him.

You narrowed your eyes at the group. Why would they react that way? It was too early for him to have a crush on you but they seemed to know each other well. Maybe it was a dare, doesn’t matter anyway.

The delete button exists for a reason.

Your thinking was cut off when F/N sat back next you.

“Sooooooooooooooooooooo, how was it?” Their smile seemed cat like, eyes sparkling.

You tilted your head at the question “How was what?”

Their shoulders dropped in slight disbelief before they got back up. “How was it being spoken to by this years and previous’ years and the year before that most liked guy. Everybody has a crush on him, this dude has like over 50 chocolate boxes every valentines day and they are all homemade or made specially. Though he never really accepted the feelings, he just gave them all store bought chocolate on white day.”

You hummed at the interesting but not really necessary information and glanced back at the group of guys before looking in front of yourself again.

Out of nowhere the bell rang startling you enough to slightly jump and make your eyes widen. F/N laughed at your reaction and slapped you lightly on your back before taking your hand in theirs and pulling to the next lesson you two had.

“Don’t worry, the fun begins now! We have our self-chosen hero course classes now!” They yelled as they continued pulling you between the bodies of other students to get to your class in time.

Once you finally arrived at the class, which was just outside the sporting hall, only a few other students stood there, including Ilya.

Only one teacher stood there, once all the other students arrived he spoke.

“Alright, good day everyone and welcome to the additional hero course. I’m not your teacher for this class, it seems he’s running a bit late so we’ll be waiting here until they arri-“

“I’M SORRY I’M SO LATE BUT MY CAR WOULDN’T START SO I HAD TO RUNBUTTHENIBUMPEDINTOSOMEBODYANDIHADTOHELPTHEMANDTHENTHEREWASTHISOLDLADYANDIHADTOHELPHERCROSSINGTHESTREETBUTDON’TWORRYBECAUSEI’MHERENOW!”

Everybody turned and looked at the newcomer.

A gasp rang out.

“I-is t-t-that…!”

   A/N: sIkE! Sorry that you all had to wait for so long even when it was vacation but I was in Greece for two weeks and didn’t think to bring my laptop with me. Also sorry for the not so interesting chapter but It’ll be better in the next one with (I hope) some (hopefully) good action.

I’d ask you all to guess who this is but I can’t think of a canon hero so I think i might have to make one up just for this. Though you guys can give some ideas if you want. (also this is supposed to be edited but there still might be some (a lot) mistakes I missed.)

#bnha x reader #bnha #reader insert #bnha various x reader #bnha midoriya izuku x reader #bnha bakugou katsuki x reader #bnha todoroki shouto x reader #bnha various

[saralaurensmagalona]

STEPBROTHERS part 4

And... Here it is ! No smut yet, sorry ^^;

              Once, things were simple. Loki's mom dead, impostors came because of unfaithful father, impostors invaded Loki's mom's rightful place, Loki hated said impostors and traitorous father. Loki planned to leave home. Period. Simple.

And now, it was simply chaos.

Loki had managed to return home, he couldn't remember how, after Thor's... craziness. His dad and Thor's mom were home and chatting happily in front of the TV. Loki retreated to his bedroom, saying he was tired. He laid on his bed and stared at the ceiling for hours. Thor arrived home very late, making his mother worry. Loki heard her scolding him as if he was still a pre-teen. In other circumstances, Loki would have sneered. Right at that moment, getting out of his room and face Thor was the hardest thing he ever done in his whole life. Loki silently came into the salon. Thor was seated in the sofa, head down, nodding to his mother's reproach. He looked really tired and his usually impeccable appearance was less neat, as if he had been wandering for hours before returning. At Loki's entrance, everybody cooled off. Larry declared that the incident was over and dinner was ready. Fran made a sign that told her son to get up and not to do something like that anymore. Thor took a long, haggard look at Loki as if he was some sort of exotic bird appearing out of thin air. Loki averted his eyes, feeling his cheeks burns and hoping no one would see it. Dinner went on without much incident. Although Loki and Thor remained silent most of the time. As they were still happily chatting about the wedding, neither Larry nor Fran noticed their children's weird quietness...

***

For a few days, the only thing that had changed was the heavy silence between Thor and Loki. Loki didn't know what to think. Thor's reaction had been out of proportions. He had definitely scared Loki to death and Loki was too confused to understand why. Had Thor, by any chance, been infatuated with the girl ? If so, why insisting on Loki's coolness ? And anyway, what Loki was supposed to do now ? Thor was acting weird at school. Instead of his usual confidence and talent, he was distracted. He ate very little and Loki suspected him to sleep very little for he was dozing off in class. Something he would have never done before. Then, three days after the incident, as Loki had seen him leave the house with dark circles under his eyes, he decided for once to follow Thor on his football training. Again, something that would have been totally impossible before. Loki had aboslutely no knowledge of that sport and very little interest in it. A whole bunch of wild boars padded to the head with bars in front of their eyes, grunting, screaming, running blind everywhere, and hitting each other like cavemen was not Loki's idea of entertaining. Yet he understood that Thor was in big trouble. He was at the other edge of the field, head down, shoulders hunched, looking ashamed and defeated. The team coach, his mouth litterally foaming (he was known for having a temper) was yelling at him and waving his hands like a crazy puppet. Loki couldn't hear what Thor might have done wrong but it obviously looked bad. And Thor actually failing in something was simply beyond the impossible. Well, before the incident. Seeing the miserable golden-headed figure, Loki decided to take action. Hoping it was the right thing to do...

***

The parents were out to celebrate the upcoming marriage with a crowd of friends. Manuelita and José were also out since they had relatives visiting. Loki would be alone with Thor for a whole evening. And he expected answers, whatever they would be. He waited, seated in the large cream-leathered sofa, reading a book he could not focus on. Ears perking up at the sound of Thor's car. A rather modest pick-up he had before Fran met Larry and that he had curiously insisted on keeping, although Larry wanted to offer him a brand new (and expensive) sporstcar. Thor came in, looking already exhausted though there was no training that day. Loki saw that this discussion was also necessary for him. He was withering. “Thor...” Thor jumped hearing Loki's voice.             –  Oi ! You're not asleep ? Loki frowned. It wasn't even past ten. Was Thor taking Loki for a kid ?              – Thor... we need...              – Not now.              Thor was making an exit to his bedroom. Loki went and grabbed his arm.              – Oh no, you don't ! We need to talk Thor and you OWE it to me !              Thor lowered his head, looking ashamed again and let himself be seated by Loki like a naughty little boy.               – Why didn't you say anything ?” He croaked. “ Why didn' t you tell our parents about... what I've done to you ?                  Loki sighed.               – No idea. And maybe I should have told but you were right in a way.                 Thor raised his head.               – I never look at you. Or at your mother. It's true I used to hate you both so much...                 Thor made a grimace.               – Look, Thor !” Loki pursued. “Put yourself into my shoes just for one second ! My mother was barely dead for one year when YOUR Mom showed up ! And with a son that was much more ...” He gestured, lost for words. “Much more brilliant... more fit to... I don't know....”             'Please my Dad' was what he really wanted to say. But seeing that Thor's miserable look he didn't dare go any further in this uncomfortable subject.              – Loki, I told you. I am not blind.” Thor said. “And I know all of this. Or at least I guessed. I just wanted... I just...” He raised his hands. “ I don't know, give you a family ! To be your … brother, to share... my mother with you ! You looked so... So...”              Again, Loki saw something weird in Thor's usually dull blue eyes. A gleam that was already there the day he went insane. A gleam so bizarre it made Loki incapable of understanding it. Thor, that Loki had thought so predictable before, had become a true puzzle.                 – I just want us to be friends Loki. True friends, true... brothers, stepbrothers, I don't care.               Loki noticed that he was repeatedly tumbling on the word 'brother.' But the conversation was getting nowhere.                – Thor, I need to know why you … snapped or whatever just because I was talking with Trish Feldman...                Thor clenched his fist. Loki felt the familiar shiver of fear down his spine. He made an attempt to ease the air between them.                – She is not in love with me, Thor ! She's in love with YOU ! She was just trying to get closer to you through me !                  Thor then raised his head, now confused.                 – You see ? She wanted to flirt with me and like this she could get to you !” Loki was trying to explain but the blue eyes in front of him were now totally dull again... “Look, if you're in love with Trish...                 Out of the blue, Thor slammed the coffe table with his fist. Luckily, it was marble or else he would have broken it. Anyway, it shut Loki up.                 – I don't care about that girl...” Thor growled. “I don't give a …                 – Thor !                 –  I am not in love with HER ! I am in love with...                 – DON'T !

***

            They looked at each other. Loki was breathing hard. Thor looked desperate. He had almost dropped a terrible bomb and Loki had prevented it.

            Loki could hear his own heartbeat in his ears. He couldn't believe any of what was currently happening. He knew at that precise moment that whoever Thor was in love with, or thought he was in love with, it was going to be BIG trouble for everyone. It was a dreadful weight in Loki's guts almost as bad as the day he had been told his mother had died. Loki REFUSED to hear it.           A long silence ensued. Loki wanted to keep acting as if nothing had been discussed and that they could forgive and forget. That they could act as if nothing happened... But Thor, of course, wouldn't comply.               – Loki, I...               – Don't.               – But, I...               – I said don't !!            Loki rose from the armchair and start doing something he always did when he was stressed out. He was pacing right and left in the room, his fist on his mouth.              – I'm sorry ...” Thor said, in his annoying scolded-little-boy tone, “It's not like I've decided it ! It happened like that... First day I saw you...”              – Thor, I swear that if you don't shut your trap right now, this is going to get ugly.              Loki covered his eyes with his hand and sighed deeply. Something in his attitude must have impressed Thor for this time he actually shut up. This was the fifth dimension, this was a total nightmare. Loki thought about his father, his stepmother-to-be, even about Thor and about everyone that would hear about this scandal from Manuelita to the lowest bully at their school...

            The number one honcho, the ultimate johnny football hero, the Almighty Thor was gay.             And incestuous.             Sort of.

Loki apreciated the irony of the situation. He had the perfect way to ruin the abominable wedding. He could run to his father and cry that he had been molested and create a huge disaster. His instinct told him that he could say anything to make Thor look like a monster and Thor, too ashamed of the truth, wouldn't even defend himself. He could. He actually could. But looking at Thor, so miserable and so vulnerable, he simply couldn't. Loki had to take charge. Thor was too emotional and incapable of acting sensibly.              – This is what we are going to do.              Thor raised his head. His eyes were reddish but hopeful.             – I forgive you for the Trish Feldman incident. But only this one time. There won't be a second chance.             – I won't do it again...” Thor replied. “But I don't like it. You shouldn't let me get away with it so easily, Loki... I abused you...                 Loki breathed heavily.               –   ' Daddeeeeeee !' ” He mimicked. “ 'Thor was violent with me because he loves me and he's jealous of meeee, Daddeeeeee!' Do you really want me to say that to Larry ?!               Thor bend down his head again.               –  You could. I deserve it.               This time, Loki had it with the self-pity.               – No. We are not going to ruin anything because you are incapable to control your balls. You are NOT to say anything and neither will I. You have fucked up, Thor ! But, YOU wanted that wedding. SO there is going to be a wedding. PERIOD. And if you play Macho Guy with me again, I'll simply castrate you. Deal ?                 Thor gave a sad laugh.               – I guess it's okay, but...” He looked at Loki right in the eyes with an intensity that almost made Loki turn his head in order to avoid it. “What about me, Loki ? How am I going to get on with it ? Seeing you everyday... Sitting next to you, living next to you... And knowing that you don't care...                Loki couldn't help but notice the similes between Trish's unreciprocated love and Thor's. Clichés but sincere clichés, apparently...               – I care, Thor...” Seeing Thor's brief gleam of hope in his eyes and crushing it the next second was strangely painful. “ But there is our parents, your future, mine... And I don't really... well...”                 Thor, for the third time, looked at his shoes.                 – Don't bother. This is my own problem. I'll deal with it...                 Why did Thor's resignation was not giving Loki any perverse joy ? Why did his sadness shame him almost ? Loki was not responsible for Thor's feelings and he should have been glad to have found the chink in his perfect armor, the possibility to destroy everything that have been a constant pain to Loki.                 But no. It was only making things worse. Loki was in a total chaos. Part of him wanted to hurt Thor. Badly. To make him pay for those months of angst.                Another part was getting softer. A total mystery. Not something he wanted to ponder over it. His plan was made. Let Thor settle his feelings on his own.                – Look, Thor. It is getting late. We'll see each other in the morning. Good night.                Loki headed  towards the stairs and his room. Curiously, he felt that he had now the upper hand, that he was the one deciding things and that Thor, with his secret, had no option but to obey him. And even more curious was the fact that it gave Loki absolutely no pleasure.                He was lost in his thoughts when he felt Thor grabbing his hand. He turned around and he saw another Thor. A Thor with his eyes literally bulging, their blueness almost blinding with something like despair or hope. He was biting his mouth, as if he was trying to say something but the words wouldn't come out. Loki felt the familiar shiver.              – Loki, Loki, please...               Even the voice was unbearable to Loki. It was the soft pleading voice of someone drowning. Loki hated Thor for forcing him like that. Forcing him to see his pain, his need and this thirst, this bare hunger for Loki's touch displayed like that without, again, any thought for Loki's peace of mind.             Loki didn't know what was it that he was the most angry about. The fact that Thor had been pining for him for weeks, months, probably from the moment they met and that he had seen absolutely nothing. The fact that Thor was unable to hide it now and was trying his luck. The fact that he was dumping all of it on Loki. The fact that this possible family would be built on a huge tickling bomb... All of it and possibly even more the fact of Loki's wildly beating heart.             Thor was pulling at his hand. He didn't like it. He didn't like it one bit because Thor's skin seemed to burn.               – Loki, I'll do anything...               The scariest part in this sentence was that Loki knew Thor was saying the absolute truth. He would do anything...               Loki made the most cowardly response he could have, ever. He tore his hand from Thor's and ran away to lock himself in his room.

              Loki then began one of many sleepless nights.

#teenage thorki #Smut

[drummergirl231-2]

AU - Huey, Dewey, and Louie’s Father

(Note: I posted this in October 2018, months before “Whatever Happened to Della Duck?!” aired.) I didn’t think over 20 people would be interested in my silly ideas, but you guys surprised me!

I have no idea how things will go in the show regarding the boys’ father (and Della being gravid), but my brain can’t stop trying to fill in story details in the meantime. So without further ado, my AU!

As you can see by this Duck family tree by Carl Barks, HDL’s father had a military-like haircut (and also freaky human-looking ears for some reason, but I ain’t about that) so I had the idea that he was in the army and Della, Donald, and Scrooge are all under the impression he was killed in action (but he wasn’t!). 

Della finding out she was gravid:

In my story idea, Della was engaged and her fiance was about to be deployed when they conceived the boys. Donald waited up for Della as usual, and waited, and waited, and made coffee, and waited some more until she finally came home after 4am. After whisper-yelling at each other in the hallway outside their rooms (Donald scolding her for being reckless and Della saying she regrets nothing) they both turned in.

Once Della’s fiance was deployed, Scrooge noticed Della was even more melancholy than the last time (oxytocin is a jerk like that sometimes) so he decided to take Della and Donald on an extended trip to Della’s favorite places. While on the trip, Della started experiencing nausea. Scrooge thought she must have eaten something bad, since, “It’s not like you to get motion sickness, Lass.”

Scrooge decided that Della might be more comfortable in a hotel, so they got a room and ordered a third bed (the rolling kind, which Donald would have slept in only it kept folding in half on him so Della volunteered to sleep in it and it didn’t fold in half on her). Della’s nausea didn’t improve though and she suspected she could be gravid. 

One morning, Della took a test and discovered she was gravid. She started freaking out and wondering how she was going to tell Donald and Scrooge when Donald knocked on the bathroom door asking if she was okay. She opened the door and pulled him into the bathroom and shut the door again. She asked where their uncle was and when Donald said he’d already gone downstairs, she held up the positive test. Donald stared at it for a few seconds before saying, “Please tell me that’s a thermometer and your temperature is 11 in some foreign unit,” to which Della shook her head. Her eyes started tearing up and her bill quivered, which was enough to make Donald soften and hug her and promise to be supportive.

She was still pretty nervous about telling Scrooge. Donald tried to encourage her to get it over with as they were leaving the room to go downstairs, and Della turned to him while he fussed with the lock and said that Scrooge was born in the 1800s and would probably disapprove. “If Uncle Scrooge knew I was gravid he probably wouldn’t speak to me again until after the wedding!” “Try me.” Della jumped and realized that Scrooge had been coming up the hallway and heard what she said. Fortunately, he was also more supportive than she thought he’d be.

Her fiance’s supposed death:

After a brief visit to Ithaquack to share her news with Selene and Storkules, they returned home. She had an ultrasound done and the doctor told her it was triplets. She tried to think of a cute way to tell her fiance, who always wanted a big family. One night while she, Donald, and Scrooge were watching a movie, she got a call from her fiance’s mother and stepped outside the room to answer. She told Della he’d been killed in combat and that she didn’t want Della at the funeral (she never approved of the match). 

Della started crying but kept her head until the end of the phone call when she started hyperventilating and sobbing, at which point Donald and Scrooge came around the corner and held her, then helped her sit down when it seemed like she was about to faint. 

Della later sent a sonogram to his mother to let her know she was going to be a grandmother of triplets. She never replied.

She developed Preeclampsia and had to go on medication before finally delivering her eggs by cesarean with Donald by her side. Afterward she developed Postpartum Depression with frightening intrusive thoughts, leading to her departure on the Spear of Selene and leaving the boys with Donald, who she believed would keep the boys safer than she could.

FAST FOWARD

Della returned from the moon and wrote a book about her ordeal. She got invited to go on a talk show and told some of her story there. Her former fiance was alive though, and one of his buddies saw the interview where she said how she lost him and then told him about it. He watched the interview online and knew he had to contact her.

He called the landline of McDuck Manor and asked to speak to her, without telling Webby (who answered) who he was. Della nearly fainted again when she heard his voice, and he asked how she could have lied like that. She asked what he was talking about and how he could be alive. He countered that she saw him alive and broke up with him because of his wounds and not to deny it. “I’m going to deny it because it’s not true! How could you think I’d leave you? Especially for something like that?” “I wouldn’t have believed it, except I saw you left the ring on the nightstand in my hospital room!”

When he got transferred to a hospital back in the US, he woke up after a surgery to see the engagement ring he gave Della on the nightstand beside his hospital bed. His mother told him Della had been there and when she saw him wounded she called things off. “You mean the ring I’ve been wearing on a chain around my neck all this time?”

They then realized his mother had orchestrated their separation, even going so far as to have a replica ring made, and boy oh boy were they mad. They were excited to meet with each other again, though. “Since you haven’t actually seen me, I should warn you I’m a little lopsided.”  “What do you mean?” “I lost my leg.” “How? ...If you’re okay talking about it.” “Well my boys put a firecracker under my chair...” referring to his comrades (a reference to the old comic when HDL put a firecracker under their dad’s chair and he had to stay in the hospital). He was only joking though and he told Della the truth: he’d stepped on a landmine.

He’d suffered from PTSD but was doing much better, and he was actually a successful youtuber doing inspirational workout and hardcore parkour videos despite only having one leg (he does have a prosthetic but he doesn’t always wear it). He hadn’t lost his senses of adventure or humor that Della adored so much.

He’d seen Huey, Dewey, and Louie on TV before but didn’t realize their age and thought Donald must have had kids. He didn’t realize those boys were theirs.

Reunited

After they told off his mother for tricking them and keeping his triplets a secret from him, he and Della started dating again with the intention of finally marrying if all goes well. She gave the real ring back to him so he could propose again properly if the time came. He finally met his sons and started renting a house in Duckburg to be closer to all of them. He was also helpful to Della as she dealt with her own PTSD. 

He thanked Donald for everything he’d done for the boys, and asked if he would let him do two things. “What?” “One, I want to start paying child support. I know you have your pride, but I have mine and I want to start taking financial responsibility.” Donald reluctantly agreed since he put up a good argument.  “Okay, what else?” “I want to be the king of corny dad jokes. The other night I couldn’t sleep so I started writing out all these dad jokes I could use and imagining them facepalming and rolling their eyes at me. Please let me have this.”

When Halloween rolled around, his boys really got to see the extent of his humor when he said, “Alright boys, I have three ideas. One, your mom and I are thinking of dressing as pirates and I could do the whole peg leg thing, Two, I could be the elf ‘Legless,’ and she could be Tauriel, or three, I could lie on the front walkway of my house with fake blood and gore makeup all over my stump and reach out for help like something just tore off my leg while she bursts out the front door controlling some giant beast puppet.”

The Boys

Louie had a bit of a hard time accepting his dad in his life at first. He didn’t want his mom to move out again when she gets married considering they just got her back, and he didn’t want his mom and dad to take him and his brothers away from their Uncle Donald.

Scrooge held a meeting with Donald, Della, and the boys’ father to discuss options, saying there was a portion of the mansion that was like a separate flat (two bedrooms, a bathroom, a small kitchen and dining/living area) where they could live and have privacy but still be close to the boys (It had been Mrs. Beakley and Webby’s apartment until the separate air conditioner went out one summer and they moved into the main part of the mansion and never got around to moving back because it was a hassle.) They agreed this was a good option while the boys were still growing up as long as the AC was fixed.

Not long after, he and Della got engaged again, and when they got married Scrooge gave Della away and the boys had choreographed a surprise dance at the reception where they took off their tux jackets to reveal t-shirts they’d made. Huey’s said “At last,” Dewey’s said “too legit,” and Louie’s said “to quit!” So it read “At last too legit to quit!” as a joke that they were finally “legitimate.” Their father was so proud of the pun.

Marriage and a New Baby

After they got married, Della got gravid again. She was nervous after her complications last time, but still in a much better place with her true love alive and by her side.

She told Scrooge first by gift-wrapping her test (which was in a plastic bag inside the box since she remembered how squeamish he was about home tests the last time) and she and her hubby gave it to him on his birthday. He was surprised, but so happy he laughed and hugged them both and started tearing up a bit. When his nephew-in-law asked him if he was crying he said, “A Scotsman doesn’t cry, Laddie. He sweats from his eyes.”

They told Donald the next day by giving him a baby onesie that said, “I Have the Best Uncle,” and he reacted very much like Scrooge but didn’t deny his tears.

Then they set up a mystery/scavenger hunt for the boys and the last thing they’d find was a sonogram. Louie just kept looking back and forth from the sonogram to his parents saying “NO WAY!” with a big smile on his face. Huey hugged and nuzzled his mom’s tummy while Dewey started doing parkour tricks off the walls that his dad had taught him.

Della had another c-section since she’d had one last time and didn’t want to risk complications with a natural egg-laying.

Later on when they took the egg to a checkup, they had the doctor write whether the baby was a boy or girl on a piece of paper which they gave to Webby to organize a fireworks display over the Duckburg harbor. They wanted pink fireworks for a girl or blue for a boy. 

Della used social media to invite all of Duckburg to the gender reveal party, and they took Donald’s boat out and waited. Lots of other boats were on the water and a crowd had gathered at the harbor. The fireworks shot into the air, and when they exploded, pink sparks filled the sky and everyone cheered. Everyone had hoped for a girl since they had three boys already (even the boys, who wanted an excuse to still watch animated princess movies), and Dewey was so excited he jumped ship with a “WOO-OO!!!” Everyone laughed except Donald, who immediately threw a lifesaver to Dewey, not that he needed one.

When the baby girl hatched, they named her Josephine (Della likes old names and the song “Come Josephine in my Flying Machine”) and everyone called her Jojo since, as Dewey put it, “She’s too little for a name as big as Josephine.” At first they called her Josie but then shortened it even further.

Della took a picture of Scrooge holding Jojo for the first time and smiling as his eyes filled with tears and she posted the photo online. It went viral and Scrooge’s popularity went up when everyone saw his softer side.

And so they all lived happily ever after. 

#wow that took a while #ducktales au #ducktales #ducktales 2017 #ducktales 2017 au

[thatonecurlygirl]

Just Stories

Fandom: Stranger Things

dad!Steve x Reader

Request: The kids are babysitting (they are a bit older). Steve is a bit apprehensive letting them look after his two children but y/n says they’ll be fine and the adventure begins when the parents leave. @abbiefangirls247

1992

Your nerves are all over as you sit on the couch watching your two young ones run around and play. Steve walks through the living room, smelling of cologne and hair product, dressed for your anniversary date tonight. Steve ruffles Danny’s hair as he walks past and sits on the couch beside you, pulling you close and kissing your forehead. The two of you just sit there while your four and seven-year-old chase each other and play tag until the kids come to babysit.

“Knock knock.” As if on cue the front door opens and in walks Lucas, Max and Dustin with arms full of snack foods and movies. “Who’s ready to have some fun!?” Dustin exclaims, kicking the door closed behind him.

“Me me me!” The kids shout in unison as they jump up and down. The two of them love the other kids — well young adults — to pieces, which makes leaving them to babysit a little easier.

“Lily should be getting tired here soon and Danny had a nap earlier but he’ll take himself to bed when he’s tired. I just wouldn’t let them stay up past nine-thirty or ten.” You grab Steve’s wallet, pulling out some money for each of the kids. “We should be back around…” You trail off, looking back at Steve.

“Depends on where the night takes us.” He says with a sly smile as he gives you a playful wink.

“Oh stop that.” You gasp, lightly smacking him on the chest and the three stand there shifting their weight from one foot to the other. “We shouldn’t be out too late but make yourselves comfortable, Y'all know where everything is at.”

“If you need anything, y/n’s parent’s number is on the fridge,” Steve says picking up Lily as she tries climbing up his legs. “You two stinkers going to be good?” He asks, poking Lilly’s stomach with his finger.

“Yes, Daddy.” She responds in her small sing-song voice.

“You better.” He kisses her forehead and sets her back on the floor, leaning down to hug Danny.

“Mommy love you, we will see you later.” You smile, giving both the kids big hugs and kisses. “Okay, we good?” You ask, standing up and straightening out your dress.

“Yeah, yeah. You two lovebirds get going. Go enjoy your night.” Lucas smiles, practically pushing you and Steve out of the door.

“I’ll make sure they behave.” Max laughs as the two of you walk out the door and Lucas shuts it behind you.

Steve guides you to the vehicle, opening the door for you and making sure you are buckled in before closing the door and getting in on his side. After buckling in and starting up the engine he looks over at you and chuckles at the way you are staring at the house and bouncing in your seat as if you can’t wait to get out and have adult time for once. Steve was all for going out and having fun but was a little apprehensive about letting the teens that find trouble around every corner watch the kids. You figured if the Danny and Lily have someone young and fun it would be more like playing and having fun than being babysat and the kids love Steve’s teenagers.

“Steve, they will be fine.” You try to reassure him.

“You’re right, let’s go.” He says with a sigh as he nods his head, smiling at you.

Steve nods at you with a smile and pulls out of the driveway and takes off down the street. The early evening sky was just beginning to dim and the air cools slightly. The horizon, where the sun was starting to make its move on the Earth, was a beautiful magenta color that you and he drove toward.

“For you and you and the two of you,” Dustin says as he passes out candy and chips to everyone, sitting around the living room as some movie Lucas grabbed from his house is playing. “What is this movie?”

“Little Monsters, it’s one or Erica’s movies.” Lucas shrugs, popping a sour patch kid in his mouth.

“Are you sure this is an okay movie for them to be watching? It’s not going to be too scary is it?” Max asks, looking at the two little ones with their eyes glued to the television in front of them.

“Yeah, I mean it’s not like they are watching something about the Mindflayer or Demogorgon or Dart,” Lucas says the last one in a sharp voice, looking over at Dustin who throws his hands up in surrender.

“Hey, let's not bring that back-”

“What’s a Mindflayer and those other things?” Daniel asks both his and Lily’s attention turned to the three teenagers.

Dustin’s eyes fly wide as he looks over at Lucas and Max, who look equally as uncertain of what to say. Lucas begins to make an attempt to say something in response to Daniel’s question but ends up stuttering and falling over his words. Once both of the kids are looking at the older once in anticipation Max takes over in the explanation.

“It’s something you will learn about when you are older. You aren’t old enough to learn about that yet.” Max says as she punches Lucas in the arm.

“I’m seven, I’m a big boy. Lily is only four, she’s too little but I’m not.” He says as he holds his head high and puffs out his chest as he’s watched his Dad do plenty of times. “And Mommy says I act older than seven.”

Daniel folds his arms across his chest, looking at the three older kids in a way they’ve seen Steve look at them when he knows they aren’t telling the whole truth. The look Steve gives that makes Dustin crumble like a cookie each time but Dustin was determined to hold his ground, all three of the kids were. Once Daniel saw they were unwavering in their decision to not tell them, he knew exactly what to do that would have them ready to change the subject — it happens every time he asks Steve.

“How are babies made?” He asks tilting his head to the side, honestly wanting to know but needing to know about the things they were talking about earlier.

“We are going to have to go on dates without the little munchkins more often.” Steve smiles at you as he pulls up into the drive. “Maybe send them to your parents for the night next time.” He winks, leaning in and kissing you once the car is in park and the engine cut.

“I like the sound of that.” You smile.

Movement in your peripheral vision catches your attention. Your head snaps over to the big bay window with the curtains drawn closed and the shadow moving across it. The figure holds up a bat-shaped object, almost exactly like the nail-ridden bat Steve had hidden in the closet. You watch it make contact with another shadow but this one is almost monster-like. Your heart drops to your stomach as you start fumbling with the handle to pull it open.

Steve reacted faster than you before you knew it he was out of the car and running up to the door, dropping his keys on the way. By the time he recovers his keys and makes it back to the door you as close behind him. He shoves the key in and unlocks the door, pushing it open and letting it fly back and slam against the way, probably creating a hole in the wall where it made contact. There stands everything you were watching go down from the other side of the curtain.

“What the hell is going on?” Steve asks, his heart beating fast and voice a little louder than necessary.

“Oh, hi Daddy.” Danny says with a smile and the three older ones stare with wide, surprised eyes. “You like my superhero outfit?”

Daniel stands there in front of the window, a plastic bat with pipe cleaners taped to look like nails resting on his shoulder. He has jeans, sneakers, a denim jacket — the whole nine yards — the kid even hair plastic gloves on his hands and a bandana tied around to cover his mouth. He looked exactly like his dad did that day you ran found him and the kids caught up in monster drama.

“What have you been doing?” You ask, trying to bite back a giggle as you pick up one of Lily’s animal puppets from the floor.

“They were telling me stories about something-gordons.” Danny responds with a smile that wrinkles his nose, just like yours.

“Demogorgons?” Steve shouts.

“Shh, she’s asleep.” Max puts her finger to her lips and then points to Lily on the couch.

“And Mindflayer and his dogs.” Danny jumps up and down, excited as he swings the bat down on the puppets.

“Okay, that’s enough for tonight. Tell Dustin, Lucas and Max goodbye.” You say as you take the toy bat from his small hands.”And then head off to bed, Daddy and I will be in there soon.”

“Bye, thanks for playing with me.” He skips off to his bedroom, waving goodbye.

“I can’t believe you told him those stories, he’s just seven,” Steve says disappointed as he stares at the three teenagers, standing to their feet.

“And that is exactly what they are to him, just stories, he will be fine.” You sigh as you pick a sleeping Lily up in your arms. “If I’m not mistaken you drug him along with you while you went after one of those things, so you Steven Harrington, have no room to talk.”

Everyone is silent for a minute before Steve speaks again. “Okay, well you three get home safe.” Steve nods with a tired look on his face.

Once they leave and both the kids are tucked in and asleep, you and Steve reconvene in the bedroom. Tired and ready to be cuddled up against each other underneath the blankets. His body warm against yours and his the sound of his heartbeat soothing as the two of you lay there in the dark.

“Ya know, Danny looked just like you in that little outfit him and the kids put together.” You turn to face him, hand softly caressing his face. “We have some pretty cute kids.”

“Yes, we do. I have a pretty cute wife too.” He kisses your forehead.

“Pretty cute?” You gasp playfully.

“The cutest, especially when you called me out earlier. You used that ‘mom voice’ of yours and it was pretty hot.” He pulls you closer to him, placing kisses along your jaw and up to your lips. “Pretty damn hot.”

#stranger things #steve harrington x reader #steve harrington #dad!steve #steve harrington fic #stranger things fandom #stranger things x reader #joe keery

[ego-centrick-moved]

EGO MAYHEM THEORIES: II

THIS IS PART II. CLICK HERE FOR PART I.

OK FUCKERS LET’S FIRST COVER SOME STUFF:

Jack posted a photo to his instagram with red lights shining on his face as he wore chases shirt and marvin's mask was spotted in the back

he livestreamed some fortnight and @lisasepticsuperplier spotted marvin’s mask hanging on the whiteboard. @maggiemaemoo also noticed and pointed out when he went on a “pee break” the mask went missing. this same mask was on the whiteboard in his new “am i colorblind” video.

it’s important to note that the red lights were in every video between chapter one and the colorblind video.

RGB lights/lens flares in most thumbnails.

he wore a black shirt in every video up until today (5/9) where he switched it out for chases shirt in “try to fall asleep” and a fairly normal tee in “am i colorblind”

i don't think “am i colorblind” is important to our theories at all, i actually think for once we got a normal video? besides the mask, nothing off happens the whole video and there’s no red lights. did jack go back to sleep?

CHAPTER 4: “IT WAS ALL CONNECTED”

"you see a man in front of you. this man looks strange, not like any man you have seen before. suddenly, you realize you were looking in a mirror..."

by this point we know all of the intros are connected/parallel events having to do with jack/the egos. this intro doesn’t end with “stories untold.” it’s likely the case because in game, we learn what the characters “untold” story is- and we start to uncover jacks. 

all of his egos have a similar likeness to jack, so he could be referring to coming face to face with any of them. i think, however, this is more of a “i don’t recognize myself” statement. jack has lost his memories, he hasn’t been himself and his subconscious knows. that’s why he doesn’t recognize the man in the mirror, why it looks strange to him. mirrors have been a common theme over time regarding anti/broken!jack, and mirrors were also involved in the second video this day.

i really think jack did a good job choosing stories untold to be The Game(tm) where all this shit goes down. there’s a lot of very obvious connections you can make with jack/the ego’s stories and this game, and i enjoy it a lot. i took some notes while watching the video, it would take to long to expand on them individually so i'll just share this screenshot. it’s a lil messy:

now let’s jump to that ending. i’m still reeling from it; wig evaporated. 

i still have NO SOLID IDEA what he could’ve been referring to. does he remember everything or just some things? does he blame schneep or anti? does he remember who everyone is again? SO MANY QUESTIONS! gif credit

@fear-is-nameless pointed out he looks directly at the camera, not through it. almost as if he's talking to someone. i think he’s either talking to us, or talking to schneep/chase considering (i think) they were the ones trying to get him to wake up to begin with. 

@no-strings-puppet pulled together the whispers that you can listen to slowed here, slowed and reversed here.

@damienisverygood made a transcript of the whispers, i have a hard time hearing it so i cant rly confirm for 100% that this is accurate, but definitely worth noting.

@monochromemedic had a really interesting theory about schneeps involvement in it all, it’s definitely worth taking a peek at.

@booperdoopcr has a theory that really got me thinking as well.

i really do think someone has been “pulling the strings,” choosing what jack can remember and locking away whatever memories either a, hurt him or b, doesn’t serve their agenda. it’s hard to tell if it’s anti who’s in control of what jack knows or if it’s our doctor. 

i don’t think schneep is evil or malevolent. if he’s keeping jack from remembering it’s for jacks health or the well-being of the other egos/himself. it’s an outdated theory that anti thrives off of attention (i can’t remember but i think jack said that wasn’t quite the case) so it would make sense for henrick to lock away memories that involved anti, it would also explain why jack doesn’t remember him (considering he was corrupted last time we saw him). the thing that doesn’t quite add up with this theory is why schneep was so frazzled to see jack playing his role, when he knew jack didn’t remember him or really know what he was doing. schneep looked scared when confronting jack, he knew something was wrong. overnightwatch happened after schneep left for “vacation,” yet jack seems to forget about that too. i don’t dismiss this theory completely, it just leaves a lot of questions.

anti, however, would benefit from jack having amnesia about him. if he doesn’t know who anti is and doesn’t know there’s something fishy going on, he can’t stop it. it would make sense for anti to make jack forget schneep, considering he tried to save him. it also could’ve just been a casualty of trying to get jack to forget everything regarding the glitch demon himself. it would also make sense for schneep to be frazzled in this case when confronting jack, because he likely didn’t know who he was talking to. he recognized jack, but he didn’t know jack. if that makes any sense.

i stand strongly by my theory that memory-lacking jack is just a puppet of antis, being controlled by him without really knowing. schneep has experience with anti, he was likely afraid of the unknown possibilities that stirred around confronting an unstable, unknowing puppet!jack. i honestly believe schneep came back to try to save jack. after he confronted puppet!jack, i think he started some sort of therapy to get him to remember, and had chases help. (like a parallel to the dr. alex/mom and james in the game ya feel?)

@chronically-illustrated pointed out that all of the endings could be a bit of interpretation of what happened to jack over the years. James Ation had a hard time interpreting reality so the truth manifested in complicated and symbolic ways. the outros could’ve symbolized jack’s memories coming back to him/events that have been actively happening. 

we see jack “wake up” periodically (i think the jack that remembers is conscious, just locked away, being tortured and watching everything unfold) , leaving hints and cries for help littered here and there. they almost ALWAYS get removed though, seemingly by anti trying to get things back under control. the tags on the DDLC playthroughs that got deleted (canyouhearme, i remember what happened), the entire overnightwatch stream getting deleted (seemingly from memory as well), the random tags showing up on posts only to get deleted later (the sos in morse code). anti doesn’t want jack catching on, he deletes all signs of him he can and all of jacks cries for help while simultaneously taunting us and fucking with us (like overnightwatch as whole). thanks to @fear-is-nameless for reminding me about the tags on DDLC.

no traditional outro or intro

CHECK PLEASE

this video just seemed very off. i don’t have a lot to say about it, but i’ll let my notes sum it up:

i don’t really know what to make of it, other than it’s suspicious as all hell. the red light was in this video as well. 

he mentioned magic 6 times, made a blood/knife/threatening comment about 5 times, and got injured/burned twice. 

that mirror speech was all fine until he said “you got this- we got this.”  i just don't trust like that.

if anything, i think this just helps solidify the idea that memory vacant jack is just a puppet of antis. it might also reveal that anti’s whole plan is to become one with jack and be the foreman (host).

“papa” sounds a lot like anti in the closing scene lmao. i don’t think there’s much to read into, its just something funny. if he is a puppet i wonder if he sees anti as dad?

there IS a traditional outro/intro

TRY TO FALL ASLEEP

i hate this man. i absolutely despise him. im kidding i love him and his creativity and torture knows no bounds. this mother fuck really did this to us.

before even watching the video, i knew we were NOT in the clear, after jack seemingly “waking up” yesterday and then this video? i love hate him. 

here are my general notes on the video. i added lines to make it easier to read cos this was a Lot:

i take the notes during my first watch through so i'm sorry for the meaningless comments/reactions throughout. 

let’s break this down a lil bit. the video starts off weird. there’s no normal intro, and the red lights are there- just dim (this was brought to my attention from this post by @markired), “jack” fades in through static. 

@lizziebirb made this gif where you can see marvins mask show through the static:

then that creepy grin is back as he introduces the game. he stares directly at us as he makes his “speech” about going to sleep. when he makes the comment “when you drift off, that’s when the fun begins,” i half expected to hear anti’s laugh. bone-chilling to say the least.

the character in the game is someone who just went through an accident of some kind, and memory loss is mentioned (another parallel?). jack glosses over that, and instead focuses on brain damage. now hear me out; what if jack doesn’t want to remember? what if he wants to stay asleep because he’s afraid? i feel like due to the theme of the last game egos aside, he normally would’ve pointed it out or made a connection? i could be wrong, im just thinking out loud.

he also, out of place, brought up “why are all these people in my house” which reminded me a lot of a post he reblogged a few days ago.

he says “i don't know if i need a mask” (referring to gas masks in game) but that line stuck out to me, due to the fact two egos have masks and one of them even popped up in this video. the other ego (jbm) we haven't heard almost anything from since this all started. 

i found a lot in the TV snow. we see marvin, JJ, and a hidden message. ill link the post with all the pictures here, but i would like to highlight a few screenshots in specific.

in this one, jack’s webcam seems to glitch out when marvin pops up. i don't know if that was something that messed up in the rendering of the video, but it honestly reminds me a lot like the glitches that popped up during the antipocalypse days. with the way the color fades and there seems to be hints of color over his face. i wonder if there’s a second image there we just can’t see?

and then there was this:

i traced over the words, but that’s all i saw. i’ve seen people claim it says “you need to wake up” but i just... don’t see that. it would make sense, but i never see the end of this sentence and i very clearly see an “A” in the 3rd word, so it doesn’t say “need”. it could say “you have to flee,” considering that is the next word we see after this. if that’s the case, who is he fleeing from and why? 

it could ALSO be someone telling jack he HAS to wake up. like they’re telling him he doesn’t have a choice, he can't just keep acting like things didn’t happen and put off confronting his memories/his egos. after waking up yesterday, and then this video today, i wouldn’t be surprised if he’s deliberately trying to fall back asleep.

we also see JJ. but why? this is the only time i see him, and as far as i know jack doesn’t even reference him in this video, unlike how he referenced marvin with the abundance of magic-related comments. what’s the significance of JJ being in this video/making an appearance?

he also makes a face worth mentioning after reading the phrase “loose lips spit sekrits.” (i’m p sure it’s spelt that way because in dreams it’s common for things to be a little off, especially words. it wasn’t a typo by the developers, it was deliberate). this face goes entirely full screen and only lasts for about a second. it could be for comedic effect because he thought it was a typo, but it could also be a certain someone throwing some shade, yanno? someone's been slipping us hints, “spitting sekrits,” and another someone is probably not very thrilled about it.

he then makes a comment about “revive” due to the word being on a podium. he picks up a fuse and says, “can the doctor revive me after this” (as JJ pops up on screen) which could be a direct reference to schneep “reviving” jack- or at least his attempts to.

fear was a big theme in this video, he repeated that he “wasn’t afraid” many times even though he was very obviously afraid. i wonder who he was trying to convince he wasn’t afraid? who are we even watching in this video, and who are they trying to prove something to? he breaks the fourth wall towards the end and tells us “no fear, im repeating it so you guys remember it.” does he want us to have no fear, is it important that we aren’t afraid? or is he trying to convince us/whoever he really isn’t afraid, just cautious for our sake? 

there were about 5 mentions of magic i caught throughout this video.

no traditional outro/intro

i’ll add more as the days go on, but in another two days (if there’s still ego stuff goin on) i’ll make another one. :D if you have any theories to add lmk by tagging me, messaging them to me, or just replying here ! i’ll throw them in where/if they fit and tag you. thanks for all the positive responses on my first theory post, i hope this one is as helpful. :D

Tags (im sorry): @jacksoopticboop @jacksepticeye-protection-squad @lum1natrix @puppet-master-anti @kasper-the-ghost @septicjacks @mrcamillaa @hufflepufftrax @rogue-of-broken-time  @marielgum @markired

#jacksepticeye #antisepticeye #overnightwatch #marvin the magnificent #jse theories #jse community #stories untold #mo theorizes #mo squeaks #long post #*100

[vio1315]

Copy and pasting what I sent to my friend this morning about a dream I had

(Took me 50 minutes to write apparently ha)

” I had a dream with you, oh myy goodness. It was so stupid detailed So I got a call from the job who fired me and they were willing to rehire me, and you decided to ?? Come with me ?? or something (I don't remember what you wanted to do) But you could drive so we were going separate, and I was right behind you all the wway sown [road near my home]. We had a lot of times where we could have separated or passed, but chose not to and had a good time. [It was summer?? There were palm trees??] (Your car could jump like in Mario Kart despite being a real car, and you kept doing it and I got upset cuz I didn't want you to get pulled over) We stopped at a mall and watched a movie in the theater. I don't remember tons about that, but we used a vending machine afterwards, and there was something important about it. So we continue down [That road], but it's entirely wooded and not at all developed, except for this one building. (Irl it's a little past Taco Bell) And we stop there. I check my phone and see that it's 3PM and I was supposed to be there at 8am. You feel bad but I'm like 'nah, I'll tell them I thought they told me to come in tomorrow?' Even though they didn't even text/call. (At one point I say 'I'll say I thought they meant Renaissance, not medival' to express this

so I ask you if you want to go to the gas station because it has a Taco Bell in it (this was vivid. I had my arm propped up on the pole to the overhang, and was resting my forehead in the crook of it while thinking) And you felt bad for me and were just 'No...' You mentioned that the gas station didn't used to be there like even a month ago, let alone a Subway, it was all woods. And I was like 'weird, I ate at this Subway a bit ago' (and I actually did earlier in the dream, but that's all I remember) (Yeah the dream only called it a Taco Bell once, but it was Subway the rest of the time. Not just in name onl either) And you went to your job interview inside. At this point in time, idk who interviewed you, but it was an?? Animal? But pokemon ish Def legendary vibes (And it cut away to Doug an Scott Walker and us eating at a Subwaay and it was the best thing we'd ever experienced? And it was the Taco Bell gas station, but Subway now and in the middle of a beautiful town. My mom mentioned that there was no Subway there, but she was in our living room, and I don't know if it was even a phonecall or not)

Anyways, so they tell you they wanna hire you like right then and there, and so you start training. There's one other girl with you in the gas station in the Subway segment. It has a few desks and chairs, and the legendary has a teachers pointer while a video plays on an old TV which is mounted above where the Subway and gas station connect. (The Subway has Nothing, no signs/decoration/food, and the gas station does have shelves but they are all empty. Nobody is at eiither but you three. But it's so glossed over I didn't nnotice in dream. Though "I" was still outside.) And you're shown an overhead map of the gas station with surounding woods on  the TV, and its pointed to, and explained that long ago there was a ?? fire or something which destroyed the front of the store (I forget this part exactly) but then not long after a nuke was dropped on it, so the whole building was wiped out, and the surrounding forest took over again before they rebuilt. (The map kept up to date with all this ye) 

WHile this was being explained, irl me/narrator me vaguely wondered at the importance of this kind of training, ultimately deciding it was useful to know the place you work fors history, in case a customer has questions.So you have the job and the legendary just ?? Adopts you. I don't remember how it was decided, or if you had a choice, but you were happy about it. Outside I was stressing about commission stuff and how to balance it with the new-old job, assuming I kept it after such a day 1 blunder. 

Your new mom starts showing you around the house which has replaced the Subway, but also hasn't. Because at one point we're like 'when did this gas station get stain glass windows?' and the two slowly morphed, or grew from each other. It is still refered to as a Subway after this, and /sometimes/ the inside is still the empty Subway. But you follow your new mom outside and around the now cathedral-y building and up some new stairs which lead to a deck and back inside. I'm reflecting on how I even ate at this Subway when it didn't exist a month ago. (I think this happened during training but I forget. They let you and the girl (and I was there for this bit) decide on a logo for the Subway, since they are renting it and so can decide their own details)

And so we're all discussing it, but legendary-mom is like 'no you're right, we have to go in a new direction' and I predicted th one she'd pick, because I swore I saw it at the Subway I ate at back when it wasn't supposed to exist, and I was right, she picked that logo. Dream me is very suspicous. 

 Anyways so you go up the stairs and are shown around. You meet the dad and two other ??? people??? who will be your siblings. Everyone's really cool. You come tell me goodbye, and I'm happy for you, and we discuss life plans and our next meetup a bit. I seem to realize that lying is a sin, so I can't tell my employer I got the day wrong, and I decide to pray about what to do, thinking I'll be fired again. So I leave conflicted. 

You go back with your new family and take pictures of the outside of the place at your new brothers request. You notice the lights turn on inside as it gets darker, and this spooks you for some reason. It's all stain glass though so it looks cool. You see your sibs walking in the hall, casting shadows. The mom says something that you hear. Eventually you decide it's too dark to keep taking pictures and go inside. 

When you do there's a giant glowy portal which looks like a Halloweentown effect kind of. Red is the dominant color though. A giant creature comes out which looks mildly like the X legendary [Xerneas], but real, plain horns and more realistic legs. (But it's blue and glowy and impressive feeling. The horns especially /feel/ glowy. As the lighting gets more intense, they especially look red) Honestly the visuals get crazy weird and reminds me of Thumper a bit.

I think this startles you and you think you're being chased or ?? Anyways you get spooked and skedaddle. I forget how, but you realize there were 3 possible ways to get to that scene, and somehow you're able to play another, where instead of going throgh the front to an interview, you go to the back door where you get adopted faster and so get to bond more with your siblings before this. I forget the bonding scenes but they were really good and you ended up liking them a lot by the time you were done. 

So you're back at the scene where this creature jumps out at you, but this time you notice something off, and see your adoptive mom hanging out, who by now looks veery like this new creature. And you're a little confused, but then you see the creature coming again, but this time it has subtitles, and you realize you're lookin at a TV screen, and you keep trying to look at your new family who is by you, trying to convince you it's Really Real despite how they don't know how to turn off the subtitles. (This all has a playful mood now, like a 7 year old failing at a prank) 

You realize your dad looks a lot like the creature but smaller, and so figure out it's just been them basically. It then cuts to you going to sleep at this new house, and despite its size, you're laying on the ground by the bedroom door (there is a bed right next to you. This whole room, bed included is pink. It has some bows on it) Your new brother is laying by you, and in between you is a tiny doll cradle. In the cradle is an egg the size of your head, pink, and with an actual face. This is your mom. Dream decided this is just who she is now.

You guys discuss stuff but I forget what. You deecide you like being adopted though and are happy. You leave the room, and it plays the scene with the giant creature even though you're not over there, but you notice puppet strings now, and soon it's a photorealistic muppet show (none of my dreams have a realistic aethstetic, they usually appear at least a little bit drawn, so this is especially weird looking. All the muppets are giant) You watch, kind of acting in on it by now, like you get what this is. You figured it out. 

It cuts to a sun mascot who laughs at a groaning audience, as this audience also figured it out. He laughs a really dumb kids show laugh and is like 'don't be mad at us! Now you can rewatch and look for clues!' [I swear to you it’s the Raisin Bran mascot]

Then it cuts to me, Doug and Scott Walker outside of the town-Subway we were in earlier. We're walking around the back. We were discussing how amazing that Subway was, and how it was the best food we'd had in our lives, but now we see the whole town was a computer 3D model (shown by seeing it unrendered on a computer. [a really oldschool computer too] Forget if it appeared that way irl or not while we were walking around it) 

Scott is kindaa laughing but goes 'DANG IT! That was all from my mind! That's why it was so good!' And we all have a good laugh. And that's about where the dream ends

There was the stuff that came before which is majorly blurry. Basically I was following my dad around at a party, and I'd see some woman who was gonna try to stab someone, and I would jump in to stop them way before they could do any harm, and my dad never noticed, though I sometimes needed help 

A lot of times I was a cat at these times, and thinking back to these human memories, in order to help me know how to take down evil cats for my clan (very warrior cats)

Oh yeah, the dream ended with my sitting by a car repair, studying the logo (which I thought sucked) and stressing about going back to the job

#Vio's Personal #Vio's Dreams #The architecture of this dream was so vivid but as per usual everything else was Not