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zintranslations · 3 years

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Kaleidoscope of Death, Ch. 129

Kaleidoscope of Death by Xi Zixu Link to Chinese / Novel Updates

Chapter 129: The Fourteenth Door

After entering the doors twice for it, Ruan Nanzhu could now be certain that the hint for the eleventh door would not undergo any additional changes.

The tenth door was too difficult, and was impossible to do a third time. Twice was plenty, besides, and they couldn't risk their lives on it again. Had Cheng Yixie not left, then perhaps they could've gotten a third hint slip about the eleventh door. But there was no helping when fate refused to abide its people, and such incidents occurred.

Most of human life was pretty much like this, filled with impermanence and variables.

Ruan Nanzhu said that Ye Niao also gave off light, and was someone well-suited to the doors. Ye Niao too went exactly as Ruan Nanzhu predicted, quickly adapting to life inside Obsidian. His outgoing and lively personality kept the mansion's atmosphere from getting too depressed.

Two years time wasn't exactly long, but it wasn't exactly short either.

Since Cheng Yixie left Obsidian, Lin Qiushi had not seen him again. Just like that, Cheng Yixie hid all traces of himself and disappeared so cleanly before everybody's eyes, as if he'd never been there at all.

Disappearing with him was a man who used to come over plenty, that Zhuo Feiquan. He'd even visited once after Cheng Qianli's incident, sprawled out crassly in the living room and asking, "where's that little idiot Cheng Qianli? Where's he gone?"

Nobody answered his question.

Perhaps the looks on everybody's faces at his question were too awful, but Zhuo Feiquan seemed to understand. He started to say something, but stopped again, and in the end said nothing before leaving. Once he'd left he never showed again. He disappeared without a trace from everybody's purview.

For the two years, Lin Qiushi never stopped going through the doors.

High-level, low-level—he did them all. His frequency averaged to about twice a month. Sometimes Ruan Nanzhu went with him. Sometimes he was alone.

During this time Lin Qiushi once again got to witness Ye Niao in drag…but never mind. Let's not talk about it. His eyes burned at the thought.

With so many doors entered, he also met all sorts of people. The strong ones, the weak ones—the hundreds of different ways people behaved in the face of death always brought out in him a heartfelt sigh.

And Ruan Nanzhu never gave up on reaching Cheng Yixie, though he never really heard anything back. It wasn't until a particular day in the second year that they knew there was someplace Cheng Yixie would definitely appear at.

That day was the anniversary of Cheng Qianli's death.

Lin Qiushi and Ruan Nanzhu went to the grave where Cheng Qianli was buried and found a corner. After waiting for a while, they saw a figure appear before Cheng Qianli's tombstone.

The figure was wearing a face mask and a hat, so it was difficult to make out any features, but Lin Qiushi only needed one look to be sure that the person in front of them now was Cheng Yixie.

"Do we go over?" Lin Qiushi asked.

Ruan Nanzhu shook his head. "Let's let him be alone for a bit."

Lin Qiushi sighed.

Cheng Yixie stood in front of Cheng Qianli's grave for a very long time, before finally setting the flowers in his hand down before the tombstone. As he prepared to leave, Lin Qiushi couldn't help but call out his name: "Yixie!"

Cheng Yixie's figure halted, and he turned to look at Lin Qiushi.

Lin Qiushi quickly came up to him. There was so much he wanted to say to this child, but he didn't quite know where to start.

But it was Cheng Yixie who spoke up first.

"It's been a while."

His eyes on Lin Qiushi were cold. Compared to his characteristic detachment of the past, his gaze now was like a frozen lake—profoundly dark and chilled to the marrow, without any trace of warmth at all.

"It's been a while," Lin Qiushi said.

Ruan Nanzhu too approached Cheng Yixie and inspected him up and down, all without saying a word.

"I still have something to do, so I'll be going." Cheng Yixie looked at his watch when he spoke, and his tone was distant.

"You…" Lin Qiushi wanted to ask if Cheng Yixie had been well, but also felt such a topic would be extraneous. Because anybody could tell that he had not been well.

Cheng Yixie had not been well at all. A lot more of his hair had gone white, and though he covered it with a hat, it was still quite obvious.

"Go," Ruan Nanzhu said, not saying much of anything in the end. "If there's anything, give us a call. We're always here."

Cheng Yixie nodded, still with no trace of emotion on his face at all, and he turned to leave.

Lin Qiushi and Ruan Nanzhu watched him go in twin silence. The truth was they didn't know how to comfort Cheng Yixie. Even if it'd been a year, the impact of some things could and would never diminish.

Lin Qiushi slowly unwrapped a piece of candy and put it in his mouth. He felt the sweetness spread out across his tongue, and took Ruan Nanzhu by the hand.

"Let's go," he said.

The two finally left the graveyard.

Having seen that Cheng Yixie was still alive, Lin Qiushi could set his suspended heart down a few degrees. He didn't dare ask for too much. But what he didn't expect was that several days later, they would receive a letter from Cheng Yixie. The letter simply said that he'd obtained a hint to the eleventh door.

"The hint I got, it's a special one," Cheng Yixie wrote in the letter. "There are only two words: Life and Death."

Lin Qiushi read the contents of the letter and spoke aloud those two special words: "Life…and death?"

Ruan Nanzhu's brows furrowed as he too sank into deep thought.

Their hint was No Solution, but Cheng Yixie's hint was Life and Death. An odd thought surfaced in Lin Qiushi’s mind, and he said: "Could it be that everybody's eleventh door is the same?"

Ruan Nanzhu's fingers rubbed at the letter, eyeing the two words written on it.

"It's possible."

"Before that senior of yours went into the eleventh door, did he give you any information?" Lin Qiushi looked at Ruan Nanzhu.

"No, I was still a newbie then," Ruan Nanzhu replied. "Couldn't even think about something as far away as the eleventh door."

There was no other way then, since there was nobody around them who'd passed the eleventh door. The truth was, that Ruan Nanzhu and Lin Qiushi could safely pass the tenth door was already exceptional.

Life, death. Life, death. What did Life and Death indicate in the hint? Had this been any other door, they would've at least been able to think that they'd make the connections and proceed to analyze the hint once they were inside. But this was a high-level door in which any misstep could cost you your life. Even Ruan Nanzhu didn't dare to be overconfident about it.

Even though they still had a year, they were already preparing to enter the door.

The two of them did a lot of research based on the words Life and Death—from Eastern myths to Western tales, from Yanluo Temple to Anubis…

Though they didn't know whether or not any of this would be of use, they had to do something. It was easier to bear this way, instead of just sitting and waiting.

In the two years' time, Ye Niao passed his seventh door. When Lin Qiushi asked if he wanted to skip a door, Ye Niao gave it some thought, but ultimately turned the offer down. He said that there really was no point in skipping doors. Whatever was his lot in life would still ultimately come.

Lin Qiushi quite admired his caution and self-discipline. After all, faced with this kind of temptation, not everybody could turn it down.

The precise time of their eleventh door was March 27th. Because the level of the door was high, they already had a concrete sense of when they would be going in.

With a deeply solemn expression, Ruan Nanzhu drew a circle around March 26th on their calendar, and even doodled a little heart next to it.

When Lin Qiushi saw this he told him, "you marked it wrong. We're going in on the 27th."

"It's not wrong," Ruan Nanzhu said.

Lin Qiushi blinked.

"We have to do it a few extra times on the 26th."

Lin Qiushi, "…" It took him a few seconds to realize that the bastard was making a dirty joke, and couldn't say anything for a good minute. Ever since he and Ruan Nanzhu established their relationship, Ruan Nanzhu's more gregarious personality from inside the doors had become more and more apparent. Lin Qiushi thought this was a good thing—except, the only bad part was that Ruan Nanzhu often got jealous of himself.

"Do you like Zhu Meng or Ruan Nanzhu?" Ruan Nanzhu asked Lin Qiushi once outside the door.

Lin Qiushi could only say that the one he liked was Ruan Nanzhu.

Inside the doors though, he had to change his answer. And then Zhu Meng became possessed by the Drama Sprite again: "But yesterday, a man named Ruan Nanzhu called and told me that you love him."

Lin Qiushi, "…can't I love both?"

Ruan Nanzhu, "yes, I'll allow you to love both."

"…" Lin Qiushi sighed internally. Why do you have so many scripts in your hands?

The time of their eleventh door slowly approached. The atmosphere among the group once again began to stiffen.

Needless to say, this would be an extremely difficult door, so before going in, Lin Qiushi took care to calculate out how his affairs would be handled after he passed. He discovered, however, that he was pretty much someone utterly without mooring. His only friend Wu Qi was gone, and it had been a long time since he'd been in touch with his family. Beside his friends in this mansion, there really wasn't anybody he had to say goodbye to.

What Lin Qiushi never expected was that, a month before going into the door, Ruan Nanzhu would take him to Ruan Nanzhu’s own home.

Lin Qiushi kept thinking that Ruan Nanzhu's home would be a relatively desolate environment, but the moment they got there, a beautiful middle-aged woman appeared and threw herself sobbing onto Ruan Nanzhu.

Ruan Nanzhu was unmoved, slowly pushing the woman away.

"Ma," he greeted.

Lin Qiushi stood awkwardly beside him.

Then Lin Qiushi was roughly introduced to Ruan Nanzhu's family make-up. His family was fortunate, with a successful older brother, a strict father, and a charming mother. Beyond their successes the family seemed utterly normal, and Ruan Nanzhu didn’t seem to fit in at all.

On Ruan Nanzhu's part, he very frankly introduced Lin Qiushi as his lover.

Lin Qiushi was a bit nervous at first, but saw them accept Ruan Nanzhu's claim quite peacefully. It was only afterwards that Lin Qiushi knew that this family was pretty much the same as Yi Manman's, believing that something had gone wrong with Ruan Nanzhu's psychological state…

"My baby is good for everything. He just has a little problem with fantasies, is all." In the time it took for Ruan Nanzhu to go to the bathroom, his mother said this to Lin Qiushi while wiping the tears from her eyes. "He's had this sickness since he was young. Thank you. It must be your company that's made him so much better…"

Lin Qiushi didn't dare speak, thinking that he couldn't possibly tell Ruan Nanzhu's mother that he too had a little problem with fantasies, could he? If he thought about it though it was understandable. In the eyes of people without doors, after all, the time they spent inside the doors was simply them staring off into space.

It was only that after spacing out, their reactions could be intense. Some cried, some laughed, some even threw themselves straight off a building…

It was clear that Ruan Nanzhu's family still cared for him, but it was this care precisely that became a sort of burden. They didn't understand what Ruan Nanzhu did, and couldn't comprehend why Ruan Nanzhu avoided the normal paths in life…

There had never been such a thing as pure empathy in this world.

After a meal, Ruan Nanzhu took Lin Qiushi and left. Sitting in the car, he looked over at Lin Qiushi and asked, "isn't there anything you want to say?"

Lin Qiushi, "like what…your mom's super young?"

Ruan Nanzhu, "…"

Lin Qiushi grinned. "I don't have anything to say." He paused for a bit, before continuing, "they're all good people."

It was just that some things, they weren't meant to ever understand.

Ruan Nanzhu said, "I'm actually quite fortunate. My family all thinks I'm crazy, and wanted to send me abroad for treatment. But at least they didn't force it."

At the mention of crazy, Lin Qiushi was reminded of Yi Manman. Yi Manman was practically the prototypical Obsidian member—his family kept thinking he'd gone insane, and they'd even tried to shut him away in a mental hospital by force. Compared to him, Ruan Nanzhu's family's attitude stood in vivid contrast.

"It's true though, from an outsider's perspective we're all crazy," Lin Qiushi said helplessly. "We space out for a bit, and then start sobbing and yelling."

"It's been almost five years since I went home," Ruan Nanzhu said.

Lin Qiushi watched him, and understood what Ruan Nanzhu was saying. Sure enough, Ruan Nanzhu continued slowly: "We're not that close. This way when they actually lose me, they won't be so sad."

Lin Qiushi had to laugh: "I wouldn't be so sure of that." He recalled when they were first coming into their relationship, and how Ruan Nanzhu took a sudden step back. Thinking on it now, it had probably been this mentality at work.

It was just that now, they could both stand firm, and become pillars on which the other could rely.

For half a month before going into their door, the entire mansion partied hard. Everybody gathered every night to drink and mess around until late in the evening.

The feelings being suppressed underneath all this partying all came bursting out one night, and everybody in the mansion started crying—Chen Fei, Yi Manman, Lu Yanxue, and Ye Niao.

Ye Niao said, "Lin Qiushi you little bastard son of a bitch, you have to come out!"

Chen Fei said, "Ruan-ge, we'll be out here waiting for you."

Yi Manman and Lu Yanxue were crying so hard that they couldn't even talk.

Lin Qiushi too felt teary-eyed at this development, and only Ruan Nanzhu remained as steel-hearted as ever, saying, "we're not even dead yet, what are you crying for?"

"Uwaaaa…" But everybody had drank too much to heed Ruan Nanzhu's words, and they continued to express all the uneasy feelings inside their hearts.

Lin Qiushi lied on the sofa, brain completely eaten up by alcohol. Even so, he felt a kind of joy that was difficult to describe. There were people who cared for his life and death, there were people who wanted him to survive. The feeling of being cared for like this was so inescapably moving that he couldn't help but tear up.

Everybody cried, and ran about. The whole house became a mess.

Ruan Nanzhu came to Lin Qiushi's side and sat down. Then he pulled Lin Qiushi into his lap, fingers tapping at the tips of Lin Qiushi's ears.

"Your ears are like a fairy’s."

Lin Qiushi watched Ruan Nanzhu, silly with giddiness.

Ruan Nanzhu, after some drinks, was still exceptionally good-looking. His cool demeanor was softened by a tipsy sheen, light rippling through his eyes, and his lips were red with a gleam of moisture, looking particularly tasty.

Lin Qiushi reached up and gave Ruan Nanzhu's thick lashes a touch, laughing, "they're so long."

Ruan Nanzhu gazed down, watching him.

Lin Qiushi leaned back in Ruan Nanzhu's arms and felt the warmth coming from the other's skin. He said, "I used to think this is enough, but now…" A hint of sorrow surfaced between his brows. "I want to grow old with you. Is that too selfish?"

"No," Ruan Nanzhu said. "Everybody wants that. It's normal."

He got close to Lin Qiushi's ear and gave the tip of it a kiss, before speaking in a gravelly voice, "it's the same for me."

Lin Qiushi's answering smile was brilliant. He said, "that's great then. Are you scared?"

Ruan Nanzhu, "I used to be. But I'm not scared anymore."

They had each other now.

Lin Qiushi's heart too had settled. He said, "I'm not scared either."

Gazing into each other's eyes, they both smiled at the same time. Ruan Nanzhu picked Lin Qiushi up and started straight for the second floor.

Seeing them go, Ye Niao called, "you're already leaving? We haven't even had enough to drink yet…"

And immediately after Chen Fei smacked him on the head, saying, "wake the hell up youngster, those two are in love."

Ye Niao, "…" This place was not friendly toward singles.

They had a dozen days like a doomsday carnival, and the week before the 27th, everybody gradually started to calm down again.

Ruan Nanzhu went to find Chen Fei and began delegating some matters.

At first, Chen Fei was resistant, but Ruan Nanzhu said one thing that got him to settle down. He said: "I can't guarantee that I'll be coming out. If I die, you have to keep Obsidian going. They're all still here. You have to protect them."

Chen Fei reluctantly agreed.

Unlike Ruan Nanzhu, Lin Qiushi had nothing to do, so he went to help Lu Yanxue with dinner.

Lu Yanxue was looking pretty down. She did her best to cheer up, but Lin Qiushi could tell her smile was forced.

He didn't want to see her like this either, and so subtly suggested that if she didn't want to smile, there was no need. He understood how she was feeling.

When Lu Yanxue heard this, she couldn't hold back anymore, throwing herself into Lin Qiushi's arms and beginning to wail.

"I can't imagine it. I can't even imagine what it would be like if you and Ruan-ge weren't here. I'm scared to think if something were to happen to you…"

Lin Qiushi stroked her hair, like he was comforting a child through a meltdown. He didn't know what to do, and could only say, "it'll be fine. Everything will be fine."

Lu Yanxue cried herself into a mess.

March 25th, Cheng Yixie came back. His return put everybody at a loss, and underneath the joy, there was a deep undercurrent of worry.

Cheng Yixie got taller, and skinnier. In two year's time, he'd completely morphed into a mature adult.

He knew when Lin Qiushi and Ruan Nanzhu were going into the door, so his visit this time was likely out of concern that this would be the last time they'd see each other.

The group didn't dare talk about the past, only asked if Cheng Yixie had spent the past two years well.

Cheng Yixie answered on and off, but Lin Qiushi noticed that on his neck, there was a new pendant. This was the pendant that Lin Qiushi had seen around Zhuo Feiquan's neck before…

"Where's Zhuo Feiquan?" Ruan Nanzhu asked the question that Lin Qiushi wanted to ask.

"He's dead." Cheng Yixie's tone was dull, as if death could no longer bring him to any emotion. "He died last year. Didn't make it through the tenth door."

Ruan Nanzhu said nothing more.

After staying an hour, Cheng Yixie got up to leave. Lu Yanxue asked why he didn't come back, but he only smiled for a moment before saying three words: "I'm not worthy."

Hearing those words felt to Lin Qiushi like needles jabbing into his heart. He looked at Ruan Nanzhu, but saw Ruan Nanzhu's lips in a tight line, not saying anything to persuade Cheng Yixie to stay.

After Cheng Yixie left, Ruan Nanzhu finally said, "there's always a price to pay for taking shortcuts."

Lin Qiushi knew what he meant.

Most likely, Ruan Nanzhu also wanted to tell Cheng Yixie that he was welcomed to return to Obsidian, but in the end kept silent because Cheng Yixie had gone against his principles. Some things were bottom lines, and no matter the circumstance, bottom lines could not be broken.

On the 26th, Lin Qiushi and Ruan Nanzhu spent all day in bed.

They talked of love, gazes lingering and cloying in each other's eyes. They fell asleep wrapped up in each other's arms, and the sun set and rose again. The most important day had finally came.

March 27th. The day Lin Qiushi and Ruan Nanzhu entered their door.

It was a bright and sunny spring day—the breeze caressed and the sunbeams dazed.

Lin Qiushi and Ruan Nanzhu had breakfast together. Then they put on everything they were taking with them and sat together on their bed. They ate candy as they chatted, until all of a sudden, the atmosphere around them changed.

The person sitting across from Lin Qiushi suddenly disappeared, and Lin Qiushi knew that it was finally here. Backpack on, he stood up and opened the closest door. There he saw a familiar long hallway.

In the corridor, ten doors were shut behind seals. Only two doors were left at the very end of the hall.

Lin Qiushi took a slow step in, then approached one of the doors. With a deep breath, he took hold of the door handle and gradually pulled it open.

The scene around him twisted, and a strong force pulled Lin Qiushi inside. When he got a good look at his surroundings, however, his breathing stuttered.

Having experienced so many doors, and having seen so many peculiar scenarios, he'd never seen one as chilling as the one before him now. Cold sweat rose on Lin Qiushi's back, and goosebumps appeared along his arms of their own volition—he'd appeared in what looked like a normal bedroom. Lin Qiushi remembered well that it was in this bedroom that he'd met Ruan Nanzhu in reality for the very first time.

That's right, Lin Qiushi had returned to his old house, the apartment that he'd stopped renting a long time ago.

Lin Qiushi laughed bitterly as he thought, this truly was the nightmare among nightmares.

[Ch. 128] | [Ch. 130]

#kaleidoscope of death #xi zixu #cnovel #chinese translation #死亡萬花筒 #HERE WE GO #THE BEGINNING OF THE END #AAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

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dragonshoard · 2 years

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Shdhf here’s most of the other drawins! M gonna be workin on sm digital ones tmrw probably but these are the traditional ones i did in my free times :>

(Btw these were all done yesterday morning/afternoon, so more visible/harsh scarring than i’d now draw with the new info u gave me)

Honestly, since u havent posted a ref/in depth description i jus went with whatever i thought might be likely(shoeless because grew out of them+couldnt get any in the pits, tho im guessing she likely has shoes in the au shfg- also scarring on the chin cause i thought ‘damn what if she smacked her face into the floor while trying to get away’) tho obv i’d draw it differently with any new info. The ‘Jinx’ carving into the collar was also jus me being like ‘damn dont they smtms do that to dogs in fighting rings?? Thatd be fucked up lol’ so like,, feel free to ignore it shdhf

Anyway! Away from the doodles! I am jus,, fuckin burstin with questions mate- ur au’s so cool!! U dont have to answer any of em tho dw sjdjf

So does vi show up well post!pits or do her n cait investigate the pits n see jinx? Im assuming its post based on ur comment of them takin a while to show up since things happen differently, but i felt like askin anyway :p

Does fighter!jinx still tinker/build stuff?? Ik u said she would never touch bombs n such(which, understandable. That sounds like jus askin to be triggered tbh)- but if/when she meets up with ekko does she maybe help with buildin them stuff? Makin/repairin hoverboards, makin guns- or maybe knives n such? Idk what skills u’re givin her dhdgdb

Oh, and with ur first post on this au, im assuming jinx escapes at 15? Can i ask how old she was when silco first gets her? Does she spend a lot of time after escaping just hiding out and ekko happens upon her by accident? Does she gain any injuries while escaping? Does she stay with the firelights when she meets them or does she only visit so as to not draw silco towards them too much? Does silco have specific people hunting jinx down(say, her handlers from the pits, or sevika?) or is it jus like,, everyone in his empire is on high alert for her n everyones to go after her if they see her?

And speaking of sevika- whats her opinion of all this? I mean, obv im guessing shes in favor of whatever silco wants, but do u think she ever felt guilt/regret over tossing vander n his kids to the wolves(literally, in powders case) or does she jus,, not care??

And a final thought(im so sorry i jus realized how many questions this is dhdhdhv)- with jinx’s seeming penchant/willingness to bite anyone n everyone(jus based off the mention of biting the animal-turned-shimmer!monster she fought + her desire to bite silcos hand) does she ever get muzzled?? Or nah??

kjnkdjfnkj i love the pics!! Nah any creative liberties you took are cool to see! I’m still having a hard time drawing Jinx so I was practicing before I could actually post any art refs.

“Jinx” would be inscribed in the collar if Silco was a pure asshole, but as cruel as he seems in this AU, he doesn’t actually see her as a dog or a pet despite what everyone thinks. He wants her by his side eventually and sees everything that he’s done (towards the last year or two) as a means of “freeing” her. Oh and she does have shoes. They’re falling apart, but they exist xD Not the best idea to fight barefoot on metal.

And I can totally see the logic behind the scarring. It doesn’t help that she is malnourished, especially in those first few years, so her healing wasn’t very efficient. But, surprisingly, her face is not as marked up as you think it would be after 5-6 years. It’s the rest of her body that’s got an impressive collection.

(He visits her pretty often towards the end, talking to her and braiding her hair, and it sucks because Jinx naturally wants to not be alone, but also hates the bastard with everything in her. She’d have Stockholm syndrome in this au if it wasn’t for the voices)

Vi is gonna have a straight up heart attack the minute she’s close enough to see the scarring. It’s pretty extensive on her upper body, despite how most of it is pretty faint (barring a few bigger scars) and it’s enough to tell Vi that Jinx has had a rough couple of years.

I’ll be honest, when I first posted about this AU I thought Powder was 10 in Act 1 and 16 in Act 2-3. Apparently she was 11-12 and 17-18, respectively, so that ruins things a bit xD

So for sake of keeping it mostly canon, she is roughly 11 when she’s captured by Silco and 17 when she gets free. It won’t be Vi and/or Cait who comes to save her though (I’m actually writing her escape right now so I think I’ll keep quiet on the ‘how’. It’s gonna be appropriately tragic xD). But she does get about a year of freedom before Vi and Cait go into to the undercity. And they show up because she’s messing with Silco’s stuff and leaving a very noticeable trail of destruction behind her. The firelights may or may not be getting caught in the crossfires of her crusade. Ekko is desperately trying to find her (take her in), but for a long while she is absolutely convinced that he’s working with Silco so avoids him like the plague (but doesn’t seriously hurt him or his out of respect for who he used to be to her).

Speaking of Silco, he absolutely is having multiple people hunting her down. Everyone in his circle has a “report if found, do not engage” order while a select few lead capture attempts. He’s very aware that, as her target, she will eventually come at him so he fortifies himself the best he can. He’s ALSO very aware that she is much stronger than most of his lackies, so knows not to attempt a “capture on sight” order.

As for Sevika... I’ll be honest, I don’t think she gives a damn what happens to the girls. She was perfectly fine with a bunch of kids dying for the undercity, so I don’t see why she would care about Powder being put into the Pits. Personally, I think Sevika is in favor of getting rid of her and makes her opinion to Silco very known. Jinx was a danger to them if she ever escaped and Sevika was well aware. She also knew that Silco was soft enough for the kid that he would give her leniencies that might lead to said escape (she’s not wrong).

On another note, Jinx does eventually learn to love building things again. She’ll start building at first out of necessity (her guns aren’t gonna come from thin air, ya know), then because she remembers her passion for it. She is going to be very scared for a while, but eventually learns to get that part of her back. No explosives, but there are plenty of other things to make. In the future, she does spend a lot of time with Heimerdinger once he comes to the undercity/Zaun and he sort of takes both her and Ekko under his wing. He understands she’s been hurt for a very long time and there used to be a part of her that loved to invent, so he does his best to support her interest and catch her up on what she’s missed over the years.

Personally, I think he’ll encourage her to go back to the basics and start her off on small things like those butterflies/animals before moving onto bigger things, but Jinx would probably try to jump right into the deep end (she would be building guns at this point, it couldn’t be that difficult - said Jinx). Not sure if that works out for her yet. This post is a bit long, so I’ll talk about her skill a bit later (but it does change over time).

Ekko... I’m on the fence with him. There’s going to be so much guilt and anger there for a long time. Once she realizes he’s not with Silco, Jinx just wants him to forget about everything that’s happened and go back to the way they used to be (desperate to re-claim the very few good things she has left in this world), but that just can’t happen.

I’m a timebomb shipper. I want them to be together if Jinx is shipped with anyone in this AU, but I don’t know if I’ll actually put her with anyone. She’s got a lot to work on personally (not even looking at her mental health issues) and I’m not sure if pairing her with Ekko is what’s best for the both of them.

-- oh no you’re giving me ideas with the muzzle ahh. But really, I could see it happening the first year or two before she’s permanently fitted with a shock collar. By that point, I think she’s learned when to bite and when to punch or kick.

#origin #Fighter!Jinx AU #oof sorry for the late reply i just got back home :DDD #arcanecorner #arcane #jinx #sry for typos :(

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willow-salix · 3 years

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Why hello there

Is there anything you would recommend a babi witch like myself studying that has been missed from my list :>

Mah list (so far):

○ Witch vs Pagan vs Wicca

○ Types of witches

○ Grey witch

○ Black witch

○ Crystals + Properties

○ Sacred geometry

○ Pentacle + Pentagram

○ Sigils

○ Protection

○ Moon phases

○ Sabbats

○ Types of salts

○ Respecting nature

○ Graveyard etiquette

○ Spirit guides

○ Divination (runes, Tarot, Coins, etc)

○ Casting a circle

○ Candle magick

○ Colour magick

○ Closed practice appropriation

○ Herbs

○ Astrology

○ Tree of life

○ Auras

○ The five clairs

○ Energy/visualisation magick

○ History of starseeds

○ Astral projection

○ Methods of meditation

○ Grounding

○ Plant magick

Ooh OK! Here goes.

First and foremost, as a witch of twenty plus years, the most important thing I can tell you is to be yourself. If this is a belief system and way of life that you want for life it has to fit in with you and your personality.

Forget everything you see on Instagram, tictok or Pinterest, it's not about the aesthetic, it's about you.

There is no room for witch shaming on my blog.

And by that I mean that EVERYONE works in different ways, at a different pace and to different levels. Never compare yourself to anyone else or how they work. Never think that you aren't doing enough or that you aren't progressing enough.

You are on your own path and that is the right one for you, so you do it your own way. You want to stop and smell the flowers? Do it. You want to dip your feet in that stream? Go for it! You want to stop and rest for a bit? Best idea ever!

You should never feel pressured to do anything that you aren't ready for or aren't comfortable with. That includes such things as blood magic, working with deity you don't feel a connection with, working skyclad, doing any kind of sexual magic or anything that makes you feel off about it. It's YOUR craft.

Be kind to yourself, don't have expectations and don't ever think you aren't good enough or worthy.

This includes making your craft unique to you. Visualisation is one of the witches most poweful tools, the magic doesn't come from the expensive athame, insence or candles, its in the heart of the witch. The power comes from you. And visualisation is your key to that but so is choosing how to make it work for you.

Take me for example, I'm this loveable thundernerd witch, so that reflects in my craft.

In circle (mediumship development) we did a meditation and I was directed to the beach. So what beach did I go to...

"There's a lovely beach, I can feel the salt water on my skin, I can smell the salt in the air, there's a light breeze that's rustling the leaves on the palm trees all around me and in the distance I can hear the faint sound of someone playing the piano."

Hell yeah I was there. That's my happy place!

I need to ascend to a higher level of consciousness? Am I taking that golden winding staircase or am I calling John for the space elevator? What do you think I'm gonna choose?

I need to go lower, below the earth to go into trance? Hell I'm taking Alan's seat down.

Make it work for you.

Working with charms, that's a very important thing for me. I have lucky charms, trinkets and things everywhere. And they don't have to be pagan. I put a spell on my car to keep me safe and the car safe. Then I charged up a little TAG John and Virgil, they live in my car, Virgil is my co-pilot John is my navigator. They help me feel calm and safe.

Energy weaving is a big thing, I always do it that any energy I raise for something that doesn't already have a predetermined purpose, say for example it's full moon and I'm bouncing around outside, everything I raise I direct out to the earth as healing. I'll raise my arms to the heavens and say : I send this energy out to anyone or anything that needs it right now, I send my love and healing into the wind and trust that it will be taken to where it can do the mslt good.

Talking to other witches about how they do things and how they work is sooooo important. That's why I'm not in a tradition ( alexandrian, gardnerian etc) because I don't like having just one way to do things. That doesn't work for most people, they just won't admit it.

Trying different things to find a way that works for you is so much nicer and healthier than struggling to work the one way that you've been taught. So read, a lot, watch a lot of reputable youtubers (I recommend Tylluan Penry, she's amazing, a grandmother witch and a good friend of mine) and make your own choices. And remember that nothing is set in stone, we are ever evolving and every changing, if you feel the urge to try something new and work a different way, do it. You don't have to stick with it.

An astral altar, sooo important but something I don't see many people talking about. An astral altar is something you build in meditation.

You have your happy place, somewhere you feel safe and calm and protected (Tracy Island and the beach for me or my Nan and Grandads house as I remember it before they passed away) but it could be anywhere, a woodland, a house, a stream, a playground you used to love. Anything or anywhere.

Here you find a nice place that you like and you dream up /visualise your altar base, like a nice table, a tree stump, and rock, anything. And here you place all the items you might need, all the things you've dreamed about that you can't afford or the things you have in real life. And you place them all there. You keep that space, you charge it up, you spend time there and then, any time you are away form home or can't get to your altar in the real world for any reason, you have somewhere to go, somewhere to work and some where to commune.

Tools, I didn't see that on the list but might have missed it.

Anything can be a tool. That's the biggest lesson of all. Our pagan ancestors would have used whatever they had to hand, no tools were single use or bought for the purpose of their craft. A cauldron was cooked in all week, a knife is used to chop everything and then used to direct energy.

These days we have the resources (and don't have to hide) to be able to have specific tools that we use only for our craft, but they don't have to be expensive. Go to a thrift store or buy cheap on eBay, a letter opener is an athame, a single wine glass can be a chalice, a pretty bowl is your offering bowl, a single plate is an offering plate, mismatched candle stick holders. All valid and will work just as well. The tools are a focus, they are NOT the source of our power.

Another tip, make witchcraft part of your every day life. Make it as natural and normal as everything else you do. It's part of your life and should be treated as such.

Making coffee in the morning? Set your intentions for the day and focus on it as you make it. You want to draw positivity? Stir doesil (clockwise) that's attracting. Want to rid yourself of the bad mood you had yesterday? Stir widdershins (counterclockwise) that's banishing. Not got anything? Stir a pentagram and call it good.

Sigils, doodle them everywhere (if you want a quick lesson on how to draw them and make up your own, let me know). Charm the shit out of everything.

Whisper a food blessing before you make food or eat. Bring that abundance in.

Trail your fingers along a wall or bushes to feel the energy as you walk.

Everything is magical to a witch.

Read mythology stories, it helps us learn and helps us connect to the stories of our pantheons and deity.

And heres the biggest thing I can tell you. Don't worry about getting things wrong. It's how we learn and honestly there is no such thing as wrong as long as your intentions are right.

Wording of spells doesn't matter, the intention and feeling behind them does.

You can do a cleansing by saying : Blessed spirit, Father God, mother goddess, I ask that you bless this house/tool /space and help drive out any negativity. Spirits that reside, if you're good you may stay, if you wish me halm, then please leave.

Nothing wrong with that.

Or you do a me: Mother Goddess, Father God, I'm back. Help me out here please, I need to cleanse this shit. Yo, spirits, good guys, ya chill, bad shit, get the fuck out! I'm the witch I'm in charge, do as you're told *claps hands all over the place and follows up with a cloud of vape smokes because my intention is in my breath and I'm blowing that negativity away*

And last but not least. I'm sure you've heard "Ever mind the rule of three, what you send out comes back to thee" That's very true, try to only send out good if you can. But you're human and it won't always happen, you'll have bad thoughts and negative emotions, that's normal and fine. Just don't do it with nastiness in your heart.

"and if it harms none, do what you will."

There's a line here most people don't know... "do no harm. But take no shit."

Because the one person most witches forget to look out for is themselves. Being good, doing good and being positive is great, but not at the expense of yourself. If it harms you, don't do it.

Love and light, and bright blessings to you. X

#witch #witchcraft #paganism #pagan witch #paganpride #Witches #wisdom #blessed be

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thatslikely · 3 years

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Frosting On Your Nose - R.W.

Frosting On Your Nose- Ron Weasley x fem!reader

Warnings: marriage (to Ron), mentions of having a kid, food.

Word Count: 1.2k

A/N: this has been an idea of mine forver, here it is. writing for ron is actually kinda fun! i’ve been feeling really bad about my writing lately, so I’m glad at least to churn something out. also I renamed Ron’s son because Hugo is not it

Taglist: @amourtentiaa @probably-peeves @anchoeritic @theweasleytwinsgirl

if you want to be added, send me an ask or dm!

“I can’t believe our Benny’s already turning one year old! Feels like he was born just yesterday, doesn’t it, love?” Ron asked you from across the messy, crumb-coated kitchen, his chiseled hands steadily whisking a muckle of creamy, vanilla frosting in a bowl.

“Time really does fly when you’re having fun, I suppose,” you replied while carefully selecting a fistful of small food dye vials of various shades of the rainbow. The blank, white frosting will soon brilliantly decorate the rich chocolate cake cooling on the windowsill, basking in the sun’s lazy, late-afternoon rays.

Silence soon rose into the bright, cozy room like the soothing morning tide of the sea, calm and comfortable. Ron continued to rhythmically stir the batch of uncolored frosting while you had moved on to preparing various crystalline piping bags, selectively choosing each fine metal tip.

Inexorably, Ron soon removed the metal whisk from the bowl, long, red tongue out and ready to kitten-lick some of the deliciously sweet frosting off the whisk’s wired loops. “Ronnie, you better not be eating any of that frosting! It’s for Benny’s cake, remember,” you smoothly reminded the sweet-toothed redhead opposite you, not even needing to gaze at him to know what he had planned.

“I don’t know what you’re talkin’ about,” Ron denied innocently, placing the whisk back into the bowl inconspicuously. You ambled over to the tall ginger for a quick progress check, pleased to see that the frosting was now mixed to perfection, its texture silky smooth and ready for piping. You swiped your finger on the rim of the bowl, accumulating a dollop of the fluffy cream, before nonchalantly sticking it into your mouth with a pop. “Hey! You can have frosting, but I can’t, huh? That’s not fair.”

“Life’s not fair, Ronnie-kins. But I’ll let you have all the leftovers after the cake is done, deal?”

“Fine,” - he grumbled - “deal. Now what colours are we gonna frost this mouth-watering cake?”

Countless rough sketches and outlines of adorable cakes filled the smudged papers of your notebook, the same one you doodled in since your Hogwarts days. You gingerly handed Ron the dog-eared bundle of bound papers, pointing at your favorite sketches and concepts, most of which included bright colours and childish smiley faces galore. The final design of the soon-to-be Benny’s first birthday cake was circular and slathered in white frosting, dotted with yellow and orange suns wearing wide-mouthed grins, which popped against frosted sky-blue ribbons. Little spherical sprinkles added miniature bursts of colour to the central letters of the cake which read, “Happy First Birthday Benny!” in flawless, fluid cursive writing.

“Wow, I didn’t know you had such a knack for drawing, sweetheart. Benny’s cake’ll look amazing, as long as you’re the one doing all those tiny details.”

“You’re not that bad at sketching yourself. We’ll pipe it together, but I’ll be sure to do the lettering. Don’t think I didn’t see your awful handwriting back on all your old Divination homework.”

“It was only that bad because I hated the class! It always smelled like old-lady perfume and Trelawney was a nutter!”

“She was better than Snape, at least.”

Ron gave you a concurring nod, his unkempt mop of ginger hair fluffing up and down with the movement. You suppressed a giggle at his charming, goofy grin you’d come to love before squeezing droplets of brilliantly-coloured food dye into the small basins of peaked, milky-white frosting.

Ron gently clamped his large, vermillion-freckled hand over yours’, guiding your wrist in circular stirring motions to tint the heaps of icing. Ron’s chin rested on the crown of your head, his warm breath blowing strands of your hair to obscure your gorgeous, light-catching eyes. You paid no attention to the falling tresses of hair, instead you absorbed the familiar sensation of being held in Ron’s delicate arms; the knits and stitches of his homemade maroon sweater caressed your skin.

Once the pigmented frosting was tightly wrapped in the metal-tipped piping bags, you daubed a thin crumb-coat onto the layered cake. When the coat had settled, cementing the loose specks of brown to the sponge, you smoothed on another layer of frosting, this time making it a silky, uncreased layer.

Soon enough, Ron was concentratedly piping an (uneven) border of blue around the base of the cake. Even though his strokes of frosting were messy, you admired his effort. His effort that was made quite prominent by the tip of his tongue poking out from his soft lips in focus, his minimally-blinking blue eyes glued to the slowly revolving cake.

“Honey, you did a splendid job. I’m so proud of you.” You pulled in a triumphant Ron for a tight, loving hug, twirling your fingers through his messy ginger hair. You were quick to notice little ivory specks of frosting was strewn through his fluffy locks. “How’d you manage to get frosting in your hair, silly?”

“It’s just part of the process of being a great baker, I guess.”

You both let out airy chuckles, your faces inching closer and closer. He finally pulled you by the hem of your apron into a sloppy, languid kiss, each succumbing to the familiar sensations of each other’s lips. The sensation you felt all those years ago after he confessed his love for you on a chilly night at Hogwarts, the sensation you felt dressed in a stunning sea of white on the day of your wedding, the sensation of his lips after looking at your son for the first time.

In quite a few minutes, after lingering kisses and tear-jerking memories came and went, you were back in the present, the clocks still ticking forward, finishing up the piping. You trimmed the sponge with varicoloured stripes and ribbons, meticulously spacing them out to perfection.

After the last pinch of beads of sprinkles fell atop the cake like bittersweet summer rain, the cake was finally complete. It looked adorable, exactly like the baked goods that would be proudly displayed in the window of a bakery. Ron gave you a goofy high five (which was commonplace) in celebration; after your hands smacked together, he wrapped his fingers around your palm, your hand dwarfed by his’.

“You did a wonderful job, love. Everyone at his party’ll be dying to try a slice!” he praised, pulling you to his chest for a hug.

You pulled back to glance up at his handsome face with doe eyes, his features illuminated by the golden, waning sunlight. Before you could give him a sweet reply and subsequent peck on his lips, he stated with a laugh, “Y/N, you have frosting on your nose.”

You retracted your hand from his sweater-clad chest, dipping your pointer finger into the leftover stash of glistening frosting before briskly smudging a streak of white across Ron’s sun-freckled nose, teasing, “now you do, too.”

“Oh, you’re in for it now!” Ron exclaimed mischievously, coating his hands into the bowl of sugary fluff, desperately attempting to slather your nose in white further. As the sunlight gradually faded away, and the moon elusively bathed your quaint house in pale beams, the evening was pin-drop silent and peaceful, except for the light, scampering footsteps and fearful giggling of you and your doting husband.

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thepetulantpen · 3 years

Text

Two Librarians in Armageddon

(Day 5 of @shadowgastweek! Only had time for one fic this week, but after I read this prompt my brain said Pacific Rim AU and would not leave me alone until I wrote this. It’s pretty long, so here’s the ao3 link.)

(Pacific Rim AU, featuring the wizards as scientists!)

Caleb would not say he’s fond of working with others, let alone sharing his lab.

Solitary work is more in his nature, but after years of sharing close-quarters with Veth- and after getting adjusted to Jester, in general- he’s learned to tolerate, even enjoy, having company while he’s working. His friends have more than prepared him for anyone else he’ll have to work with; they’ve ensured that he’ll be hanging onto his habits of keeping anything important secured, in the event of an unexpected explosion, and of guarding his coffee with his life, in the event of poorly-timed pranks.

He does not think his new lab partner will be bringing any unstable explosives, or sugary abominations to replace his coffee with.

From what he’s been told, the new addition to their little pre-apocalypse team is a physicist working on tech for a competing company, someone far outside Caleb’s scope. The fact that they still have competing companies of mech-developers while there are aliens bursting from the sea to eat them is a nightmare all its own, but the writhing horrors of capitalism are a beast that science, and the Kaiju guts strewn across the table before him, has proved ineffective against.

The truce between them, in the interest of allowing powerful Jaegers to work together, is an uneasy and temporary one. Caleb, personally, doesn’t think it’ll last beyond one or two failures. He just hopes they won’t fall back into the slew of sabotages that plagued them at the beginning of their downward spiral, before everyone realized the world may actually be ending.

The rather small detail of imminent Armageddon has made his preference, or lack thereof, for company inconsequential. In the long run- or short, if they don’t manage a major breakthrough soon- his opinions as an introvert are insignificant.

It’s not all bad- as an innately curious person, the opportunity to meet someone just as experienced as him in the field of Kaiju is fascinating. Particularly considering that their specialization is so different; he’s almost looking forward to the new insight. He’d even be excited if it wasn’t for the subject matter.

It can be challenging to be enthusiastic about the driving force of the apocalypse.

He digs deeper into the partially collapsed chunk of Kaiju ribcage in front of him, no longer bothered by his poor choice of distraction. It’s a misnomer to call it a ribcage, given that the Kaiju do not have bones in the classical sense, but it’s close enough in location to approximate. He’d rather have a brain to work with, though he’ll settle for what he can get. Storing Kaiju is difficult, with their accelerated rate of rot once exposed to the air- if he’s not careful, his work could be reduced to ash in an hour.

He needs to catalogue the differences between this corpse and the last, pinpointing patterns in organ placement. The work is dull, while still requiring his full concentration to avoid puncturing any of the many, many inexplicably acidic organs. If he wasn’t already good friends with the base’s medics, he would’ve been taken off this job long ago.

Once he’s elbow-deep in a Kaiju, he stops paying attention to the door. He does not notice the knocking, nor the quiet greeting, nor the faint whir of machinery as his new colleague hovers through the doorway.

“Should you be touching that? It looks toxic.”

Caleb jumps at the voice beside him and the scalpel in his hand jerks, cutting into the mystery organ he’d been considering removing. Something vaguely liquid hits his wrist above the glove and he waits two seconds to see if it’ll burn, before deciding he probably doesn’t need to run screaming to the nearest med station.

“It’s fine,” he mutters, partially in response and partially to himself. “I know what I’m doing.”

He looks down, towards his new colleague, who, at first glance, is thoroughly unimpressed at that lie.

He sits in a wheelchair- minus the wheels, as it hovers gently off the ground, coming to about the same height the wheels would give it. Clearly a new model- hovering technology aside- it’s a sleek, minimalist white, matching his equally sleek, swept back white hair. The high turtleneck and overly formal coat allow Caleb to immediately peg him as somewhat uptight. Near-apocalypse has made formality rare.

Caleb hurries to wash his hands, finding the nearby sink labelled for nasty, potentially lethal chemical disposal. “I was told you’d arrive today, but,” he glances up at the dingy lab clock, the glass cracked from Veth’s last visit, “I didn’t imagine it’d be so soon. It’s, uh, a bit of a mess.”

“I’ve seen worse,” he says, unconvincingly, and changes track, “That desk is mine, yes?”

There’s only one other desk in the room, moved there sometime yesterday after Caleb, under threat from his superiors, managed to shift away some of the boxes that line the walls. It’s only a small space, but it’s the cleanest part of the room.

The question, he reasons, is rhetorical, but Caleb nods anyway. He considers that answer enough- though the other man doesn’t move, staring at him expectantly. He’s oddly expressive, his attempts to keep a completely straight face only making any slipups, like the annoyed twitch of his eyebrow, more obvious.

It makes it easy to see the exact moment his patience runs out.

“I’m sure you were informed, but,” here, he looks to the side, dodging Caleb’s returning attention, “for the sake of introductions, I am Essek Thelyss.”

Ah, so that’s what he’d forgotten. Caleb thinks it’s unfair that he had to fail miserably at one of the last introductions he will have made before the end of the world- surely, he could’ve had just one go smoothly.

“Oh- I’m Caleb,” he reaches out a hand, meeting Essek’s already extended one for a brief shake- his hands may be clean now, but Essek doesn’t look thrilled at the prospect of touching Kaiju guts, even indirectly, “Caleb Widogast.”

Something unidentifiable passes over Essek’s expression- disappointment or judgement, perhaps, at not recognizing the name. Widogast is not printed on any books, nor is it associated with anything high-profile like Thelyss; strictly, it doesn’t exist at all.

That, or the smell of the rotting Kaiju getting to him.

As he watches Essek pause halfway across the room to clear his path, and again to widen the space around his desk, Caleb is hit with the vivid realization that this isn’t going to be an enlightening, academic experience, nor an uncomfortable few days of socialization. It’s going to be more than a bump in the alien-fueled crisis that is his current existence.

This is going to be a disaster.

…

“Widogast, do you have any idea where my notebook’s gone?”

It has only taken Caleb three days to be able to identify the various tones for annoyed in Essek’s voice. There’s this is a minor inconvenience and this is a major inconvenience and this is one of many annoying things I haven’t pointed out yet today, including, but not limited to, the ever-present stench of Kaiju flesh.

He can say, with relative confidence, that this falls into the latest category.

“Have you tried all your desk drawers?” he calls over his shoulder, knowing the question is unnecessary but stalling for time as he heaves the last of the Kaiju parts- partially burned and fragmented limbs, today- onto his work table.

Essek, unlike Caleb, is meticulously organized, never misplaces anything and files according to system that escapes Caleb, no matter how many times he tries to decode it. From Essek’s perspective, the rest of the lab is a dangerous no man’s land of abject chaos- though Caleb has never lost anything. He knows, precisely, where everything is, no piece of preserved alien fading from his memory. An organization system is pointless, when one has a photographic memory.

That is, until one has to share a lab with someone who bothers to keep track of their belongings.

He doesn’t wait for a response, already able to picture Essek behind him, sitting with his arms crossed and looking deeply disappointed by Caleb’s suggestion, which amounts to did you turn it on and off again? Leaving the still sealed Kaiju parts where they are, he turns back to his own desk.

After exonerating himself and Essek, the list of suspects for meddling with their desks is very short. The base, these days, is not the hub of activity it used to be, back when there were far more Jaeger pilots alive and far better morale. Their lab is typically empty, aside from Caleb and Essek, as few people are inclined towards the smell of dead Kaiju. Even the corporals, some of the rare higher-ups with clearance, can’t be bothered to visit more frequently than their mandatory check-ins.

He can only think of two people who clearance would not be an issue for.

“Is he handsome, Caleb?”

“I don’t think it would be professional—”

“He definitely is, Jessie.”

Before today, he’d thought that Jester and Veth hadn’t gotten around to the visit they’d been threatening; clearly, they’d taken the liberty while he wasn’t in. Veth knows better than to steal notebooks- she wouldn’t be interested in them, anyway- and Jester isn’t in the habit of taking things, only misplacing them.

Caleb hardly ever uses his own desk, preferring to leave his notebooks scattered over the lab tables, in easier reach. Only the older ones are still perched on his desk, in a precariously tall pile- but one notebook stands out from the rest, not quite as ratty and overstuffed as his own.

“Ah, here it is,” he holds it up, gesturing Essek over and trying not to look too sheepish- it is not, after all, his fault. As he hands it over, and quickly turns back to his work, he can only hope that Jester hasn’t doodled anything too embarrassing inside. “Jester must have misplaced it, while exploring the lab.”

“Jester?” Essek asks, eyebrows furrowing in something that would be irritation, if his expression wasn’t trained to be so stoic, “Is she supposed to have clearance here?”

“The medical staff have free reign, in case of incidents with hazardous material.” He glances back at Essek, who still looks confused, and remembers that not everyone is on a first-name basis with the medics. “Jester Lavorre. You might know Caduceus- that is, Mr. Clay- better. He’s the more… healing inclined, of the two.”

“Jester Lavorre,” Essek starts, slowly as he unpacks his own question, “regularly comes here to… explore? What, she just, rifles through your things?”

He is not sure how to explain the idea of Jester to someone who doesn’t know her.

Essek already looks delightfully confounded- a considerable a departure from his typical stern concentration. Caleb almost wants to thank Jester for pulling Essek away from the handheld chalkboards he spends his days bent over, lines of nearly indecipherable equations appearing and disappearing with only the smudge of chalk on Essek’s hands as evidence of their existence. Distracting Essek has proved to be a challenge- even the sounds of saws and the number of other unpleasant devices involved in Kaiju dissection don’t get Caleb so much as a glance.

He does not try to explain Jester, opting to shrug, instead. “She knows she can find me here, so she stays until I show up. Sometimes she gets bored.” It occurs to him that other people haven’t been prepped for company in the same way he has. It occurs to him that it is abnormal to brace for a scavenger hunt every time he enters the lab. “I suggest you leave your important documents in a locked drawer.”

He refrains from telling Essek that Veth can pick locks and that Jester has broken open desk drawers before (there was an incident involving a prank war, smuggling, and increasingly desperate hiding places). None of it seems particularly reassuring.

Essek gives him a strange look, but nods. “I will keep that in mind.”

“You might also find things that aren’t yours by your desk.” Caleb looks over his shoulder to see Essek still watching him. “Consider them gifts.”

“Like what?”

“Like…” Caleb pauses, realizing that none of the things he was about to list are work-appropriate, “Well, it could be anything.”

Caleb’s starting to worry that he might end up causing the rift between companies that leads to the end of the world- with his terrible first impression, and equally bad secondary impressions- but when a parasol shows up at Essek’s desk a day later, he does not ask Caleb where it came from.

He does, however, quietly ask Caleb to send along his thanks to Jester.

…

“I am not imagining that it smells particularly bad today, yes?”

Caleb has acquired, in part thanks to Veth, partial halves of two Kaiju hearts. Partial is the best they could manage, on account of the massive holes blown in the beasts’ chests. Nonetheless, he’s ecstatic- an opportunity like this, for a direct comparison, is rare.

Kaiju barbecue, as it turns out, does not smell very appetizing. It is what he would think a bucket of cleaning supplies set on fire would smell like, though it leaves the air with the unpleasant aftertaste of cheap fruit snacks.

“They’re a little charred,” he says, hiding a smile- they are far more than a little charred, “Veth’s testing out different chemical combinations for the Jaeger ammunition. I don’t think she’s quite nailed it yet.”

Essek scoffs, cautiously approaching the table with one hand over his nose and mouth, the other resting on the chair’s controls. “How many people of wildly different departments are you on a first-name basis with?”

“Just a few.” Thoroughly distracted with cutting away the burnt pieces, Caleb doesn’t look up. “There’s also, uh, Fjord. He captains one of the boats, works on deployment.”

“Somehow, that doesn’t surprise me.” A soft whir, as Essek hovers a few inches higher, putting him at a better height to peer over the table with Caleb. “Do you need any help?”

Caleb blinks, surprised, and almost drops the scalpel he was sanitizing. “Aren’t you busy?”

Essek, with his old-fashioned chalkboards in the place of far more convenient holograms, never leaves his desk, never so much as turns around to bounce a theory off of Caleb. It seems like there’s a new pack of chalk and fresh notebook on his desk every other day- clearly he’s making progress, but the bubble of focus around Essek is too intimidating for Caleb to investigate.

“I’ve reached a stopping point,” Essek frowns when Caleb looks at him, waiting for him to elaborate, and sighs, “I’m stuck on the particle displacement we’ve detected at the mouth of the rifts, which only seems to effect the Kaiju, not the pilots. It’s- I don’t think you’d be interested. I need something else to do, while I brainstorm.”

Caleb manages to bite back his disappointment at not getting to hear the rest and points towards the sink- the one safe for normal use, that doesn’t currently have corrosion scars from caustic acids. “I can definitely give you that.”

Essek, unsurprisingly, is incredibly helpful. He might not fully understand the process, but he’s precise in following Caleb’s instructions and doesn’t complain when he has to touch the gross, slimy parts. He generously interprets Caleb’s just put them over there to mean place them very carefully in straight lines. It only takes him a few minutes to get the hang of it, effortlessly following Caleb’s lead as they work in parallel on their respective halves of the hearts.

“I can’t say I understand the appeal,” Essek starts, after many minutes of silence, “but there’s certainly something to working with the actual thing, rather than theory.”

Caleb is working at a particularly tough piece- the Kaiju are, if nothing else, heavily armored, inside and out- the exposure to oxygen making everything harder to pull apart, to cut up and catalogue. He doesn’t look up at Essek’s words, but finds his attention easily split.

“It’s all about,” Caleb pushes down, again, and the muscles finally give, “manipulating the body, finding what makes it tick. From there, we can change it.”

“Like,” Essek pauses, hesitating, “change it from living to dead, you mean.”

Caleb huffs, almost under his breath, “In this circumstance, perhaps.”

To his side, he sees Essek’s hands still, briefly, and feels eyes on him as Essek looks up. Essek has this way of looking at him, like he’s waiting for something, until an invisible tell gives him away. He feels both studied and seen through.

Caleb can’t say he hates it.

“You don’t sound as happy about that as I’d expect. Normally, people are thrilled at the thought of dead Kaiju,” Essek gestures, with one gloved hand, over the table, “More for you.”

Caleb looks firmly down at the heart, imagining the many cross-sections and pieces still unmapped, in the burned away absence. “I just think that more can be done.”

“I suppose that’s one thing we can agree on.” Essek is already looking at him when Caleb looks up, so their eyes meet, “The other side of the rifts are far more interesting. There’s no telling what we could find, how we could progress- but we need those doors closed, if we’re going to be alive to enjoy that progress.”

“I don’t think it’s as simple as leaving them open or closed.”

Essek leans back over the heart, having found what he was looking for in Caleb’s expression, and mutters, almost to himself, “You might be right about that.”

Caleb doesn’t say anything else, just watches as Essek finishes with his portion of the heart. Essek’s hands, even with the borrowed plastic gloves, do not look like they belong amongst the controlled carnage of the lab table. Made for spinning chalk between fingers, and gliding across the holograms.

He lines up the scalpel again, just a bit off-target, just a bit too close to the arteries. “Ah, don’t—”

Caleb grabs Essek’s hand, stopping him before he pierces something he shouldn’t- the faint burns on his own hands are proof of this lesson learned. Essek freezes, startled by the contact, and grips the scalpel a little tighter before he catches up to what’s happened and pulls back.

Caleb lets him go, with some reluctance. “The blood is, uh, acidic. You have to cut around carefully, or it– you get the picture.”

“It’s good that you were watching, then,” Essek doesn’t smile, but his face suggests that he might have, if he possessed less self-control, “I owe you one, Widogast.”

Caleb does not possess that same control- he’s not sure what Essek hears in his voice as he says, “It’s no trouble.”

He thinks, in the end, he may have been more successful in distracting himself from his work, than he was in distracting Essek.

…

Caleb has reached the point where the crick in his neck from leaning over his work, the pages and pages of pieced together neural pathways and conflicting experiments, is threatening to make the hunch of his shoulders permanent. Essek cannot be in a much better place- Caleb glances over to catch him with his head in his hands, again, a half-filled chalkboard laying forlornly on his desk.

Caleb stands with no warning, letting his pen clatter on the table and pushing his chair away with more force than necessary. Essek looks up, alarmed and- unless Caleb’s imagining it- intrigued.

“Do you want to get out of here?”

Which is how they’ve found themselves on the steel catwalk above the Jaegers, high up in the hanger and out of sight of people who know they shouldn’t be here. Neither of them are stealthy enough to pull this off for long- the equivalent of two librarians, tiny amongst the massive machines that represent their only hope against Armageddon.

“It’s always weird to see them from up here.” The giant, unpiloted mechs seem to stare back at Caleb as they’re shifted into place. Empty eyes, visors with no life behind them. “Feels like we shouldn’t be looking at them eye-to-eye.”

Essek hums, and leans forward slightly, as close to the rails as he dares. “I’m more used to seeing them in diagrams.”

Caleb had known, in theory, that there must be a tangled web of physics behind the engineering of the Jaegers, but it’s different to know that Essek holds those secrets. He’d love nothing more than to pick his brain about it, even if it’s far outside his field. It’s a shame the hanger feels like an inappropriate place to host a high-detail physics lecture.

“It must be interesting, working with us. Thelyss has been, uh,” he hesitates, unsure if this is rude to point out, “forgive me for saying, rather at odds with Dwendalian interests.”

Essek is quiet for a moment, almost long enough for Caleb to pull the ripcord and apologize, before responding, “It has been interesting. It is… an opportunity, for me, to work for something greater than I have in the past.”

“In the past?”

“We have not been as,” he pauses, searching for the word, “kind as we should have, in sharing our designs. Many have failed to consider the state of the world in our quest for progress.”

Corporate sabotage in the race for mechs is something of a well-known secret. The extent of it is hidden, mostly, behind the veil of the destruction that it coincided with. Trading the right secrets to the wrong person could take you far- it just might mean leaving burning cities in your wake.

Essek, overlooking the last of the Jaegers, the vestiges of hope for the world, suddenly looks so tired, older than Caleb had seen him before now. It reminds of Caleb of his own reflection, at night when the manic layer of end of the world is wiped away to reveal exhaustion. Essek’s formality, the organized face he presents, functions as just another mask.

“I have made many mistakes. I am hoping-” Essek shakes his head, correcting himself, “All I can do is try again. To be better.”

Caleb cannot absolve him, cannot lift the weight of things unsaid, guilt anchored deeply. He can only stand there, at Essek’s side, and carry his own guilt.

“Leave it to the end of the world to show us that we can only move forward, until we run out of road.” Caleb tries for a smile, one Essek doesn’t match. “Sometimes, I’m not sure there’s still road. Feel like I’m drifting over the dirt, these days.”

Essek’s response, agreement or disagreement, is drowned out as they start shifting another of the Jaegers, the dragging of metal and old supports strained to their limits forming a din that has passerby covering their ears. Caleb watches its pilots stare up at it, unflinching in the noise.

He finds himself talking as the noise stops, filling the vacuum of silence, “I was almost one of them, you know.”

After he says it, he immediately regrets it. In one moment, it feels like the thing to do- share something personal, after Essek had taken the first step- and in the next, it feels like an entirely unnecessary can of worms. Because, of course, the next question is-

“Under who?”

Caleb swallows and considers lying. He could do it. He could keep it vague- he should, it should stay buried like his name. He’s not entirely sure why he doesn’t want to.

“Ikithon.”

He sees it, the second he says it. He sees the recognition, the surprise, the fear. Essek knows that name, more than anyone in passing knows that name. To Essek, he is not simply an unpleasant teacher.

He doesn’t want to see Essek as someone who worked with Ikithon- he doesn’t want to know what it means that he would forgive Essek, in a heartbeat, but can’t do same for himself.

“I wasn’t able to drift,” Caleb continues, and almost believes that’s the whole truth, the entire, uncomplicated reason, “Dropped out of the Academy.” Not before the damage was done.

Essek looks down, studying the grimy floor beneath them. “Probably for the best.”

“I’m starting to think we should’ve put our funding into time machines, instead of Jaegers.” Caleb sighs, and feels a part of himself leave with his breath. He looks to his side, where Essek remains silent. “Should’ve gone into physics, I guess.”

People rush around below them, preparing for another Jaeger to enter. The gate is cleared, the runway lights up, and various maintenance teams stand at the ready. Caleb wonders how they can stand this, how they can keep going through the motions every day, even as less and less pilots return.

He supposes he could say the same about himself, about anyone still coming to work on this base. For the first time in a long time, they’re all working towards the same thing. They’re all looking to the pilots, spending what’s left of their lives to stack the deck in their favor.

“I know a few of them,” Caleb pauses, and clarifies, “The pilots, I mean.”

“You failed to mention that, in your list of people you know.” Essek tries to laugh, though it doesn’t quite come out right, and looks back up at Caleb, “Which ones?”

“I’m not sure you know them.” People in their position don’t generally interact with the pilots, directly. Caleb would say it’s strange for him to have friends in the Academy, but it’s not the weirdest connection he’s made recently. “Yasha and Beau on the Cobalt line. They’re only just out of the Academy.”

Only just out and making a formidable reputation for themselves. He’s only skimmed the statistics, but if there was a leaderboard, he’d say they’re pulling ahead. Knowing Beau, that’s greater motivation than the potential for saving the world.

Essek’s façade falls away completely, showing his surprise. “The two terrifying women in the Expositor?”

“Those are the ones,” Caleb leans against the railing, out of the shadows. A little more bold, now that most of the people below are distracted. A massive Jaeger, with chipping blue paint and massive jets affixed to its back, steps in through the gate, tracking in water around its heels. “Speak of the devil.”

He can imagine Beau and Yasha working in tandem, seamlessly, to bring the mech into the hanger, ducking its head slightly to make it under the doorway. One hand is occupied, clenched around a scaly leg, metal fingers dug into the fallen Kaiju’s flesh. It’s oddly small, not the fully grown beasts Caleb is used to seeing them drag through.

“Is that-“ Essek doesn’t finish his question, perhaps because he can see the answer in Caleb’s expression.

The Kaiju’s head is entirely intact, its skull spared at the expense of a hole in its chest. A full brain, no shrapnel or missing pieces. Exactly what Caleb has been waiting for, exactly what he’s been trying to piece together.

Essek follows at his heels as Caleb dashes for the stairs, stealth forgotten altogether.

…

The whirring of saws and grim, grinding sounds of bone being cut come to an end, at long last. There’s a tube prepped, filled with foul-smelling chemicals intended to preserve and suspend alien flesh. The sound, as the brain is deposited, is somehow worse than the grinding noise.

Essek looks at him, watching silently for a long moment. It is difficult, to feel his eyes on him and not look back, but Caleb manages it, keeping his gaze focused on the mass of nerves before him.

“I understand the temptation.”

Caleb laughs, with no humor. “Do you?”

The headset is light, almost flimsy, in his hands. He passes it between them, running his hands over the familiar metal and wires. It looks like it might fall apart any second now, not at all like it’s made of expensive, stolen equipment. Not all like Caleb’s been thinking about it for months, like it could save them all- if he can pull this off.

The Kaiju’s brain floats in the container in front of him, wires trailing off of it. Essek sits beside it, the filtered green light through the tube casting harsh shadows over his face. He’s not supposed to be here, but Caleb should’ve known that Essek wouldn’t stick to his scheduled breaks.

“I know more about temptation than you, Caleb.”

It’s rare to hear Essek angry- figures that he chooses a time like this to finally call Caleb by his first name.

“Then you should know that I can’t pass up this opportunity.” Caleb clicks the final pieces into place, watching the lights on the headset start to glow. He loses the fight against another temptation and glances over to Essek, who looks to be fighting fiercely not for a neutral expression, but to keep back tears. “I will not have more lives on my conscience. If this could win us the fight, I have to do it.”

He reaches for the control panel, lifting the headset with his other hand. He has to get this over with before he loses his nerve, before Essek decides to find someone who might actually be able to stop him, before Jester or Veth or anyone else stumble upon him

Essek grabs his wrist, stopping him. His eyes are wide, a little surprised at himself, but he meets Caleb’s stare dead-on.

“I don’t want to lose you to this,” he clears his throat, and looks down, away, “We all still need you.”

Even now, they can’t help but lie to themselves.

“I have to do this.”

Essek looks back at him and for once, seems frustrated to be unable to peer behind Caleb’s eyes, to get the answers he always does. He looks to the side with a heavy sigh, and Caleb thinks for a moment that he’s given up, that he’s going to agree, when Essek lets go of his hand to reach behind them, to the lab table still covered in wires and abandoned tech.

Many drafts of the headset sit amongst the wreckage, the results of late nights spent working with a collection born of Veth’s sticky fingers and Caleb’s hoarding. Essek grabs one, easily picking out the most functional of the bunch, and presses it into Caleb’s free hand.

“Fine,” his face sets, not in the neutral that Caleb’s come to expect, but in a determination that feels almost dangerous, “Then I’m coming with you.”

Essek’s eyes are a dare, waiting for Caleb to find a reason to deny him. He knows, as well as Caleb, that two of them would increase their chances of surviving this. He also knows, maybe better than Caleb, that none of that matters. Caleb would always rather take the brunt of it, than allow his friends to hurt.

This feels, distinctly, like an argument Caleb can’t win. Essek looks a few seconds away from hooking it up himself.

Caleb sighs, a faint smile escaping him. “Didn’t think you’d be repaying that favor so soon.”

Essek only pushes the headset more firmly into his hands, though it’s hard to tell whether he’s safe-guarding against Caleb losing his nerve, or losing his own nerve.

Caleb puts Essek’s headset on first, taking longer than necessary to adjust its fit, before putting on his own. They sit across from each other, in the distorted shadow of the brain. Essek’s gaze, fixed on Caleb, doesn’t waver and just before Caleb hits the switch, he holds out his hand.

Caleb takes it and turns on the machine.

The drift hits him immediately, like a weight falling on his brain as something too big climbs into his skull and pushes his mind out to the edges, pressed against bone. Everything else, outside of his mind and Essek’s mind and this new intrusion, disappears entirely. Sensation, apart from a terrible, sourceless pain, leaves him.

Essek’s mind bursts into focus like a searing light in the abyss, a star far above him. Caleb reaches for it, as the mind of the Kaiju, oppressive and all-consuming, threatens to swallow him up.

He feels their connection like entwined hands, before they collapse into each other, blurring into one. Warm and cool colors mix together in threads that wind and wind around until they are one inseparable string. Shared pain is conducted through it, a wire of strange electricity.

He is hearing a city on fire, screaming, and imagines he can pick out familiar voices in the chaos.

He is shaking a hand like a corpse, bony and terrible as its fingernails dig into his skin.

He is on a cold tile floor, aware that he is alone, alone, alone—

Somewhere, outside of himself, he squeezes Essek’s hand.

The Kaiju bears down on both of them and he finds himself standing beside Essek on a destroyed city street, its features a mashed together version of Caleb and Essek’s childhoods. It is too much for either of them, even standing together, but when he looks down at Essek, he sees only his smile, sharp and confident.

Everything begins to dissolve as the mind- the many minds- of the Kaiju falls over them.

…

Waking up is not fun.

Once, in grad school, Caleb stayed up for 52 hours, subsisting on diabolical combinations of energy drinks and pure spite for his professors. After turning in his last assignments, including a paper that served as a major breakthrough in his field but was so manic it was incomprehensible to anyone except Caleb, he crashed hard and did not wake for another day, when Veth checked to see if he was still alive.

He could’ve sworn, at the time, that the headache he felt upon seeing light for the first time that day was the worst he’d ever experience.

This headache easily doubles it.

The lights are, mercifully, left completely off, with only the dim sunlight leaking out from under the blinds turning the infirmary room a dull grey. He’s sat, partially upright, on the thin mattress of the hospital bed, a place he knows well. Outside the room, he can just make out the quiet, constant noise of their busy med station, conversation and machines overlapping.

To his right, similarly propped up, is Essek.

He wakes at the same moment as Caleb and they both turn, surprise mirrored in their faces. At seeing each other, at being alive at all- it’s anybody’s guess.

Objectively, Caleb is sure they both look absolutely terrible, but he can only see the light in Essek’s eyes and his tired smile. There’s a drowsy kind of comfort between the two of them, relief of tension being let go. They lived- they both lived.

“This is not the warm welcome to the land of the living I was hoping for.”

Caleb laughs, even if it hurts, a little. “This feels less like a welcome party, and more like breaking a window and climbing back in.”

There’s no connection between them anymore, no wires or drifts, but he still feels it faintly, a buzzing at the back of his head. Essek’s pain feels like an echo of his own, and his warmth is still there, as if he’s still holding his hand. It’s stable, an anchor to new wakefulness.

“They should’ve known better than to put two of us in the same lab.” Essek shakes his head, and winces at the movement. “It could only ever have ended in disaster.”

Caleb grins and is pleased to see Essek do the same, just as unguarded as he was in the drift.

They only have a few minutes before Jester comes in to yell at him for being stupid- possibly, the whole crew is lined up somewhere outside, lists of grievances in hand. Shortly following that, he assumes there will be a small battalion of military personnel waiting to hear what they’ve discovered.

Until then, he has time to do more stupid things, mostly unsupervised.

He drags himself out of the bed, pretending that he doesn’t nearly collapse as soon as his feet hit the floor, and wheels the bed closer to Essek’s, carefully maneuvering the wires still attached to his chest and arms. Once they’re an arm’s length away, Caleb stops and climbs back in.

This time, he holds his hand out first and knows, without a doubt, that Essek will take it.

#shadowgast week 2021 #caleb widogast #essek #shadowgast #critical role #ahhh this so long #do not have time to edit tonight #but i swear itll be up on ao3 tomorrow #ignore the many times i misspelled physics #im very tired

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lupsss1412 · 3 years

Text

The Liar’s Sin Special Halloween

🎃 🎃 🎃 HELLO TO YOU ALL AND HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!! 🎃 🎃 🎃

So I promised an especial chapter and so I will deliver!! This time we will be hearing about....

THE PREVIOUS HOLDERS!!!

I know many of you have guessed but I still wanted to make it a big reveal for all of you. So this is an special, it takes place between Marinette’s second night in hell, before finding Angel hurt and Adrien first night alone, thinking about Marinette and his life choices.

I really hope you like it and I am so sorry this is so LONG, but I hope you enjoy it!

As always this was based on this promt from @sayuricorner

MASTERLIST

AO3

Chap. 1 Chap. 2 Chap. 3 Chap. 4

Chap. 5 Chap. 6 Chap. 7

TITLE

Erlebnisse

Adrien stared at the sky, beautiful orange, pink, and purple tones painting it. His classes were finished and his homework as well. He was just waiting for the dinner he would be eating alone, as always. A growl escaped him, it was so unfair, his life was a joke. He was mainly a trophy for his father and if he still wished to go and be in lycée he had to obey; be the perfect son his father wants him to.

He quickly slammed the buttons turning off his computer and tv, he was mad. He couldn’t be himself and the pressure was eating him alive. He hadn’t been able to help Marinette, no matter what he did everything came back to that, he had been a failure of a friend, whole remaining the golden boy for his father.

His fists clenching, and his shoulders tensing. The image of Marinette falling to the portal was engraved on his memory forever, and it would hunt him for the rest of his life.

“Something the matter?” Plagg asked, his eyes on the young teenage boy “or is it the fact you haven’t seen your lady since yesterday finally taking its toll?”

Adrien blinked, the trance breaking as he heard that mocking voice from the god of destruction taunting him.

“It’s not that!” Adrien complained, throwing his control to the couch before sitting himself shielding his eyes from the light with his left forearm “I just…I…I don’t know…”

Plagg looked at Adrien, brows furrowed and his eyes turning to watch the sky turn a dark blue, knowing that they were a few minutes away from dusk. Plagg sighed, he often didn’t get into these tales but, his kitten needed him now, and if this taught him a thing or two, well it would be a plus.

He still could remember a chosen, someone that maybe his life could help Adrien understand better what was going on with him and how he could act. How he could improve, and it might give him the strength to follow the path he had chosen.

With a deep breath, he opened his mouth, a question ready on his lips before he sighed, just trying to ignore the pain in his chest. Closing his eyes, he decided against it.

Trying to collect his thoughts as well as clear his mind from the doubts that plagued him.

________________________________________________________________

Marinette was doodling, her mind lost in the sketches she was doing. So far, she had been able to do some basic figures for each resident, breaking it down to basic forms and silhouettes. Angel’s so far was the hardest to do, along with Husk, both sporting more demonic features than the rest of the crew.

She had taken a few papers that Charlie had offered for her to do some doodling and entertain herself while they were preparing for dinner, she decided to be in her room, the miracle box standing on her night table.

Marinette sighed, she felt trapped, her responsibilities had grown, and she didn’t know what to do. It was too much for her, it was becoming maddening just to think of it all. She groaned, her hands running through her hair messing it up.

“What’s wrong Marinette?” Tikki asked, her holder seemed distressed “Are you okay?”

Marinette shook her head slowly; she was trying to assimilate the situation as best as she could. Nothing seemed to be working, and her mind just seemed to supply her with more scenarios going wrong. Her possible failures, her dooming Paris, the world, everyone counting on her. The kwamis being dependent on her, she ends with the world because she let her feelings cloud her mind and made the wrong decisions in trusting people like her supposed friends.

“I…I don’t know Tikki” Marinette confessed “I…need to learn to be better, to be stronger, I can’t fail everyone…”

Tikki looked at her holder, such a sweet and beautiful girl, both inside and out. But this situation was making her travel to places where her self-doubt and self-worth fought. Just thinking about what she had learned made her skin crawl, she was a successor of many important figures and Tikki could understand that her self-imposed goals were making her feel alone, and unworthy of anything.

Tikki looked at her cookie, she was still munching on it. She remembered one holder that had once thought that taking all in and never seeking help would be a good idea, being the one to act as a shield for the other so that they always could win, no matter the risk he took.

She didn’t want that to happen to Marinette, the weight was too much for her and if she didn’t do something it would break her.

Floating to Marinette’s hands she softly placed her paws over it. A question on her lips.

_______________________________________________________________

“Would you like to hear about a previous holder?” Both gods asked their holders at the same time.

Both holders turned surprised to their Kwamis, mouths open and eyes wide. Just staring at their Kwamis as if they had grown another head.

_______________________________________________________________

“Maybe I shouldn’t” Plagg turned his back to Adrien, seeing as he had been unresponsive for a minute “then I could get back to this delicious cheese!”

Adrien shook his head and practically jumped from his couch going after the small god of destruction.

“No, no!” Adrien begged “Please…talk to me about them”

Plagg smirked, something that had united most of his kitties with Tikki’s bugs were their inherent desire for learning and curiosity. Over the years that had made them get into trouble and out of trouble.

“Well…” Plagg dragged himself looking at the last piece of camembert left “maybe with a little persuasion….”

Adrien smiled; he knew Plagg would always want something in return. Fortunately, he knew just exactly what he needed.

“If I give you another piece of cheese will you tell me?” Adrien asked, a smirk now on his face “Or maybe another camembert?”

Plagg smiled and turned to Adrien, proudly admiring his kitten.

“A piece is fine,” Plagg said, waving away Adrien’s second offer as his holder smiled in return “Brace yourself kid this is going to be a long tale”

“YES!” Adrien fist-bumped the air in celebration, turning on his tv so that if anyone would enter it would seem he was just watching one of his favorite shows “Okay I’m ready”

“Well it all started in New York, it was the year 1928, probably…” Plagg started his tale, going on with his theatrics to make it more interesting

Adrien leaned in, smile present as ever, it was something nice and he was glad Plagg decided to help him with this distraction from the events that were still on his mind.

_______________________________________________________________

“A…previous holder?” Marinette asked her kwami, one of her eyebrows raising “you’ve barely talked to me about them…”

Tikki smiled before looking away, her eyes downcast as she patted her holder’s hand. She seemed upset but at the same time determined to talk to Marinette about this.

“I do not wish to upset you” Tikki spoke, her mind going through memory lane remembering the simpler times “I meant it when I said every ladybug was different, each one of them had to face different trials, as well as the rest of the holders. You are unique in your way and I don’t want you to believe you are less than any of them”

Marinette’s smiled curved even if they were still pursed in a kind of frown. She knew Tikki, this might not be only something good for her, but it would be something to take off her mind from the situation at hand.

“Okay” Marinette glanced at the clock on her phone “we still got time”

Marinette got comfortable on the bed, her knees crossed and her pillows acting as a support for her back and the other being used as if it were a teddy bear. Tikki floated and cleared her throat, smiling when she saw Marinette cuddle to make herself more comfortable, a glint of excitement, and intrigue on her eyes.

“It all started in New Orleans, Louisiana” Tikki smiled “It was during 1915…”

_______________________________________________________________

It was a nice afternoon, the sun was up in the sky and it was time for him to meet his mother, it had been trying days and maybe it could’ve been better. For now, his mother’s work and his afternoon work were enough to pay the bills and still have a decent income for the time being.

He loved taking his time in the afternoons, enjoying the jazz filling the streets, the people out of work, and many of them preparing themselves to go and rest at their homes. It was quite relaxing from the tumult during the rush hours of the day.

Looking at his clock he hastened the step, even if things were going great, he was still worried; his mother's health had been quite delicate, but she had assured him it would all be fine. Still, with his heritage, he was sure people would be looking at him with disdain, but his contacts would make up for it.

His friends and acquaintances were mainly looking out for him, as far as they all were concerned he wasn’t as different as the rest of the people of higher classes, if anything his strange features was one of the reasons many of his friends teased him, even if he wished he wouldn’t attract so much attention wherever he went.

“Please!” the plea reached his ears before he could take another step “ I don’t have anything left! That’s all I have!”

Alastor turned on the corner, while he was by no means curious, he knew when someone was abusing someone weaker than them. His voice sounded young but not that young, maybe he would be their age if it was his guess. No matter, he turned to see the commotion.

Three men were surrounding another one that was promptly shoved to the floor.

It seemed to be a young man, barely a few years older than him. His heritage was from Asia if his outstanding features and pale skin was anything to go by, as well as his clothes. He carried with himself a strange box, but besides that he had nothing.

“Don’t try and lie to us!” the demand made him turn to see the men getting closer, robust and seemed to have money “We know you’re carrying something valuable in that box and we want it!”

The man who was on the floor could barely defend himself, he was just bracing himself to protect the box at all costs even if he had to use his body as a meat shield.

The men chuckled, his partners almost jumping at the chance of hurting the innocent man who was trying to protect that box at all costs.

“Pardon me!” His voice made them all stop in their tracks, the mand who was on the floor barely opening an eye to see him “I believe this man already has given you everything of value he possesses”

As he saw the men turn to him, his smile almost dropped. They were coming from one of the mafia families if the barely concealed guns were any indication for him.

“And who the fuck do you think you are?” The leader of the three asked, slowly approaching he could notice the man was a bit taller than him and probably stronger if those clothes were any indication of the muscles under them “scram before you’re next, kid”

Now that angered him, he was already a man by any standards except age and maybe physical appearance. What was even worse, they seemed to be just low lives that had managed to get lucky, and treating someone, like that had just cemented his decision. So, when they turned just dismissing him as the weaker of the lot and not worthy of their time, he decided to strike the first blow.

One of the thugs stumbled before falling on the floor barely conscious, the rest turned to see the young man in a fighting pose, his knuckles bruised but a satisfied smile on his face.

“Now this is a fair fight,” he said before frowning at the two ones left “don’t you think gentlemen?”

The men turned to him, their mouths curled up and even some of their canines showing. He just braced in for what would surely be a long fight.

“I’m going to be late,” he thought as the leader threw a punch that he was able to evade “I’m sorry mother”

_______________________________________________________________

It was a bright night, and the young man enjoyed the feeling of cold air against his skin turning it bright red. While yes, they might have moved from Italy since the position of their father had grown, it didn’t mean he had to enjoy it. He missed the times when he could be at home and just worry about his sister and mother while his father and brother took care of the family business.

“Wish I could just do something” he mumbled, looking around the streets still full of life “it’s a shame I can’t enter any club”

The lights were bright, and they seemed to be calling him. Men and women alike walked right into a place called the “Garden Club”, all of them quite excited. The poster showing off the promotions and the music booming that even he could hear it. The woman in the poster smiling at him, she sure was beautiful, but he just wished he could be able to hear her sing live once in his life and enjoy that night, not worrying about the patrol assigned by his father.

Sighing he turned, thinking about how probably soon he would be able to do it if he managed to talk to his father. Spinning the right tale, he might be able to do it, after all his father condoned such behavior even if he had to fake the attraction he felt towards women. Turning of age would be a nightmare and he knew it, but there was still time.

He was about to turn 16, the age of the initiation, at least officially. It certainly didn’t matter that he was more than capable of disposing of a body and torturing men. No, he had to do it as per the tradition on the Capore Family, something stupid but his father had talked, and nothing would sway him.

As he walked down the street, he noticed men smuggling something, he would’ve let it pass if he wasn’t certain it wasn’t someone from his family that was in charge of this part of the city. Although the more he observed the more they seemed to be pushing around someone, he caught a glimpse of grey hair before the mocking words reached his ears.

“Hey!” he screamed when the group pushed their victim to the ground, he was able to see the male figure shakily try to raise themselves only to fail “Leave him alone!”

The rest of them laughed, he expected nothing more. He was thin and tall, his muscles concealed by his clothes, along with his trusty Colt, a gift his brother had given him for his 15th birthday.

He heard the man chuckle and turn in his direction; the hat was obscuring part of his face however it seemed that by the built he could guess his name. One of the suspects of the mole in his father’s group, Mario Bianchi, and his goons.

“Look kid, leave” he spoke, so sure f himself that he barely paid attention to him as he drew out his gun “You don’t want to get involved with this”

When the man laughed turning his attention back to the man on the floor but was surprised by a single shot that made all of them flinch. It broke the silence of the night and a few people who were near the alley screamed and ran. All of them turned to see an image that would be engraved on their memory forever.

The young man that had interrupted them smiled before chuckling, taking a few steps forward. The Colt on his hands smoking and the scent of gunpowder on the air. Under the light, all of them could see him and went pale. He was well known as one of the most promising sons of the Capore family.

“Funny, I thought you were supposed to be on the docs receiving the merchandise” the man spoke, a thick Italian accent echoing as he talked “I mean I could be wrong, but I do not believe my father will be happy if I were to report this, would he?”

The rest of the men recoiled as the ice in his words made him flinch, a look from the younger men had them frozen on the spot.

“Scram, before I put a bullet between your eyes” he spoke “and if I ever hear of you doing this again, I will make sure you live enough to regret it”

The goons ran away as Mario Bianchi took a step forward, ready to face him before another shot ran on his ears. Suddenly he was aware of the ringing in his ear and the gun on his face.

“Listen here little shit” the young man spoke, his eyes cold and unforgiving, that stare got him paralyzed “I am being merciful, else I would’ve just shot you because of that stupid stunt you tried to pull, capiche?”

The man nodded before retreating, he could still feel the gun being aimed in his direction and he knew without a doubt that the teen would've been able to kill him on the spot if he wanted. He wasn’t going to take any chances.

_______________________________________________________________

He couldn’t believe what he had just done, but the metallic taste of his blood was enough proof of that.

“I…thank you” the young man spoke, offering a hand for him to stand up “I don’t know what I would’ve done if I lost it”

He smiled, grateful for the offered help. Taking his hand, the other man helped him stand.

“It was nothing” He spoke, swallowing a bit of blood and licking his parted lip “I couldn’t let them do that to you, and after all, they were no more than mere thugs”

The man chuckled before it turned into a frown seeing that the groceries the young Samaritan had bought were spilled on the floor. He winced before turning to the man young teen that had helped him, it wasn’t much but he could afford to help this time, besides, kindness was always regarded.

“Please, allow me to help,” the man said to the youngster, taking out a bit of his saved money he had been saving up for emergencies “it’s the least I can do”

The young man was about to argue when he managed to stop him, he knew that the economy wasn’t in their best moment but he hoped it would be enough for him to compensate him.

“Do you have a place to stay?” the teen asked, as he looked at the man in front of him “I noticed you don’t have a lot with you so I guessed you are a tourist”

The man nodded, not giving any affirmation nor denying anything. Clutching the box closer to him.

“I would appreciate that,” he spoke quietly, almost ashamed “I have been traveling but these perilous times have made it difficult for me to find a decent job lately.”

The young man laughed at that; it was true after all but he knew times would be alright again. Nobody was safe from it, not even the rich. They always made the best of every day but it was a hard time to live, especially if you considered how people often treated the darker skin tones or outsiders.

“It will be a pleasure,” the young man said “and if you wish, a helping hand is always welcome”

_______________________________________________________________

“I can’t believe they would do that to you” the young man went to help the older men on the floor, noticing the cane on the floor that probably had been kicked “I mean they shouldn’t be taking advantage of your injuries like that! I’m gonna make them regret ever doing this to you don’t worry”

He helped the man stand; he wasn’t that old but one could identify a veteran when they saw one. He seemed too old, just by looking at his eyes he could tell he had survived hell but had paid the price.

“It is good to know some people still respect the old men” the grumpy old man raised himself using him as support “thank you, but don’t waste your breath on those scumbags, they’re not worth it”

The Italian smiled brightly, handing the cane to the old man before noticing the slight tremor running through his body. It seemed he was too shocked and probably would be dangerous to leave him alone.

“Want me to help you?” he asked worried about the old man “I can at least help you with a cab? I would feel better if I know you will be arriving safely at your home”

The man shook his head, looking ahead and straight into the poster of the singer at the club he had been admiring a few minutes ago.

“I can manage, but thank you, young man” he spoke, his voice somehow deeper and filled with sadness but also yearning “my thanks is the most I can give you in exchange for your help”

The young man shook his head, smiling softly at the man who seemed to be longingly at someone outside the club. His tremors a little less noticeable but the strange posture of his legs was a dead giveaway.

“It was no trouble” he smiled, “just doing the right thing”

The old man turned to face him, and he felt himself missing air in his lungs. No matter what those eyes were too hypnotizing, but he felt no fear, no, he felt that this man was about to tell him something that would change his life.

“and for that, I must thank you” he spoke, his voice the only thing he could hear “I can’t give you more than these few words of wisdom and I hope it serves you in the future”

He nodded; his sight focused only on the men as the rest of the world disappeared. Nothing seemed more important than the words that followed.

“Turn the pain into power” he spoke, and that hit him like a million bricks “it’s my advice, you should never let them win and remember that you are the one who can and will change your life if you wish to”

With a nod, he saw the man walk down to the club. His words still ringing in his ears. Not noticing a figure that had been watching the whole ordeal from the shadows smile as he took out a small box, he could feel the presence of the ring in the city, with luck it would stay here for a few years at least.

“I believe we might have found the one who will be able to help us…Wayzz” the man spoke, recalling the time when he delivered the ring to that promising young man in New Orleans.

Now he needed someone who would be able to stop the holder of the ring that had been bringing chaos wherever it went.

_______________________________________________________________

It was late at night; he was alone in his room.

There was a box in front of him.

A box that seemed quite familiar, with red markings.

Blinking he held it in his hands, he couldn’t believe it was there. But it was indeed real, it wasn’t a product of his imagination. He examined it all over before checking the locks on the doors and windows.

Everything seemed in order and place, nothing was missing. Returning to his room he tried to recall if someone had been following him, but his memory supplied him with nothing useful.

He stared at the little box again, it looked old, quite old. But it seemed to be calling for him.

Once his mother had said that the curiosity would be the one for his downfall, but he hadn’t taken her advice to heart. Now, he thought his mother might be right.

However, his mind was already made up.

He raised the box, inspecting it closely, and opened it.

A flash of light blinded him.

_______________________________________________________________

He sighed, letting himself fall back on his bed.

It had been a night he would never forget; his father had forced him to act. He had been forced to kill.

No matter how much he had tried to argue against it, no matter how many excuses he had made, in the end, his father had given him a choice. Either the man’s life or himself.

In the end, he had caved, he had feared his father and the cold feeling of the gun on his head didn’t help at all. He had pulled the trigger and his hands were now tainted with blood.

His mother would’ve been horrified, and he knew no matter how much he prayed. It wouldn't change. Still, he couldn’t believe his father would force his hand to “rough him up”, not even his brother had helped him.

He later had screamed, stood up, and managed to claim that they were monsters for ending the life of the sons of that family. His father had shrugged and claimed they had deserved it, and that their fate could’ve been worse than death.

He didn’t believe it, he had missed the tales of his grandfather of how they all did things for their family to grow but how they all respected the children, women, and the less fortunate than them but still were somehow fair to them all.

“I …I just can’t stand and do nothing!” he exclaimed, knowing that no one could hear him “I wish I could do something! It’s just so unfair! They’ve done nothing but try to live in peace! It’s not their fault they can’t have enough money to pay!”

As he kept up his charade, he never noticed the small box on his nightstand, he kept on ranting about how his father was unfair and how it all was a waste of time, and how he always made things worse.

He stood up and flapped his arms, wildly, and accidentally knocking out everything on his nightstand.

Including the strange small box that had appeared from nowhere.

“I AM SO FUCKING DONE!” he screamed, stomping on the floor before the room was filled with a blinding flash of light.

_______________________________________________________________

“Phew, it’s good to be back!” Plagg exclaimed, before looking at his surroundings, finding a very startled human in front of him.

He was tall, not like his last holder and he seemed quite surprised to see him. Usually, the man would be groveling at his feet knowing he was a god and therefore respected him as such. Which was strange but he guessed Master fu hadn’t talked to him about what was going on. Right he would have to get to that after he gets some food.

“You’re not human” was the only thing that came from his mouth, his eyes wide and barely processing what had happened.

“Well, I guess you humans have been lacking creativity lately” Plagg deadpanned before floating to inspect the room “Anyway do you mind telling me your name, it is rude to not present yourself kid”

_______________________________________________________________

“Hello!” Tikki exclaimed, making the teenager shut up in a matter of seconds “I’m Tikki”

He turned, to be face to face with a creature floating in his room. A room he had locked the door on and he had been alone. In his house that no one else was there.

After blinking a few times and rubbing his eyes there was a moment of silence, then another, and then another until the teenager screeched.

“HOLY SHIT!” he said before scrambling back and fell to his bed, his arms moving wildly “WHAT THE FUCK!?”

Both of them looked at each other in the silence of the room. Tikki staring at her new holder, she could feel his creativity coming in waves, as well as the struggle reflected in his eyes.

_______________________________________________________________

“Wait, you’re telling me about an old Ladybug holder?” Adrien asked, surprised by how it all was turning out “why? I thought you would talk to me about an old Chat Noir”

Plagg chewed on the cheese slowly, letting Adrien have his small monologue where he often answered his own questions. It was quite entertaining really, but if Adrien continued, he would never get to the end of the story.

“yes…Now an I go on or should I stop here?” Plagg said in an annoyed voice “And I don’t know if I’ll ever be in the mood again to talk about that bug”

Adrien sat down; his mouth shut with a click before getting comfortable once again. Letting Plagg continue his story.

“I could get used to this…” Plagg commented making Adrien frown “Relax kid, I’m only joking, anyway…where was I? Oh, right the bugs first mission! It was quite hard for him, but he was a natural.

Plagg looked outside the window, his eyes glassy with nostalgia. Adrien gulped; he was too entranced to even dare to make a pun. Plagg looked like what he was, an old entity, someone so powerful he couldn’t begin to understand. But he was also his friend.

“Tikki loved him, she claimed he was someone worthy of the miraculous and was quite comfortable at his side” he continued “Even if his first reaction had been for him to try and throw her away, scared his father would find out but for once I had to agree with my sugar cube, the two of them were perfect together…”

_______________________________________________________________

“You’re telling me he was a black cat?” Marinette asked as she hugged her knees closer “I thought he was a ladybug”

Tikki patted Marinette’s hand, comforting her. She would’ve loved to tell her about her many ladybugs, but this was a lesson she needed to learn and hear. Most of her ladybugs usually got the charge but no one ever wondered if the black cat, her partner, would have to pass through similar tests or even worse.

“This is something you need to hear” Tikki explained before Marinette could ask anything else “I know you’re doing your best, but sometimes looking at the past can help us understand the future.”

Marinette nodded, before letting Tikki continue. She was excited and at the same time scared. It wasn’t usual for Tikki to talk about things like this especially with the pained look she had on her face.

“He was, amazing” she spoke “Plagg was ecstatic, his black cat was a perfect match for him, a prankster but a good man at heart. He took care of his partner always, I enjoyed his soothing voice on the radio most of the time talking about some music and introducing new segments…both of them were as close as brother and sister…always there for each other, even if at that time he probably protected her more than she could ever realize. Even if their start had been rocky at first”

Marinette cocked her head at that, she thought that probably she had been the one to overreact when she had found Tikki in her room the first time.

“You think you overreacted when we met? He tried to shoot Plagg into the kingdom to come” Tikki laughed making Marinette chuckle “but they soon became an inseparable team, they were both too right for each other! Even if the times were more perilous than what they had expected…”

_______________________________________________________________

“There are a few more over here!” the exclamation almost made him lose his concentration and lose the grip on the roof he was holding, just able to glance to his left side just to see his partner standing on top of some rubble that seemed to have been a house “There are kids! I can’t hold it long enough!”

He helped the rest of the people to get out of the destroyed roof on top of them, the paramedics, and police already on the scene taking that burden out of his hands. All of them thanking the people before letting themselves be carried away from the place once they had called home. He let the roof fall, before running and jumping over the debris on the floor.

His eyes coursing through the destruction, to see if there were any survivors. He closed his eyes, many of the bodies had been children and families he had met at least once. It was devastating. The hurricane had managed to do such damage he had been surprised so many people on the streets, he just wished that he could’ve done more.

He arrived at his partner’s side landing next to the debris that was about to crush them people under it, he could see the blood on some of the debris. The cries of the kids were on his ears, that flicked and lowered more themselves in his hair, an indication of how upset he was.

Gulping he turned to see his partner who in return just smiled and nodded, both bracing themselves for what they were about to do. The cries coming from the children were getting louder, as well as the mother begging them to help them, to save them.

“Cataclysm!” he screamed, calling in his power before touching the debris, making it turn into ashes.

His partner cheered before they began to take out the children and their parents. All of them expressing how they would always be forever thankful for their help.

The duo happily smiled before letting them go to the medics, his partner helping the woman to walk down the pile of rubble so that she could reach safely the medics that were waiting for them.

Turning to see the rest of the havoc, he sighed, wishing to be able to do more for all of them. The sight that greeted him was as if it was hell on earth, water flooding, debris moving with it, and people that were hanging on to some hope begging to be heard and helped.

Taking a deep breath, he scanned his surroundings, before jumping from the roof, landing safely on the floor. Running to the next house before his miraculous started beeping again and he had to go and recharge.

His partner by his side, a sad smile was displayed before both steeled their expressions. Determination on their eyes as they split up to cover more ground.

_______________________________________________________________

He couldn’t believe it, the ring was there, and it had caused the accident. It had been quite obvious. He had felt it, the energy, the disrupted balance.

He had been cocky and so sure of himself once he had entered the wagon. But even with his enhanced reflexes, it had been too late.

They had crashed.

Looking around he could barely take in all the destructions, bodies were around him, blood painting the metal walls and shards everywhere. Some of them were dead before they even made it to the floor.

A cry of pain returned him to reality, there were more pressing matters to attend to. The ring could wait, he now knew where it was, he had felt it, and it wouldn’t be able to travel that far away this time. His priority, help the people on the train before everything got worse, he could hear the ambulances and police sirens coming their way, but with his strength, he could help them get into the crashed wagons so they could save more people.

He extended his yoyo and used it so he could bend the metal with its string. Still, it took some time for the authorities to arrive, by that time, most of the people he had tried to help, were dead. Barely managing to save a few. He had fled as soon as the authorities managed to enter the wagons.

He sighed, looking at the fire that had been caused in consequence of the explosion. Remorse and guilt filling him as he stared at the bodies, trying not to think too much about it. His instincts told him to stay and be sure that the people would be safe, but for the time being, no one had to know there was a miraculous holder in New York.

As he jumped and ran away from the scene, he still could feel their gaze on him. His mind replaying the discussion they both had this morning, if he had just listened to Tikki it would’ve been different. He might’ve been able to save those people. He needed to be more active, more opportune, he had to be better.

He hadn't been on top of his game that day and he felt it was his fault, he had failed to protect them.

He knew it wasn’t exactly his fault, but it still, he wondered if he could’ve been able to prevent it.

With one last

_______________________________________________________________

It had been barely three years since the awful hurricane, and now an epidemic was hitting the town. The deaths were increasing, people burning the bodies of their loved ones with the fear of being infected too. He knew it had to be done, but he hadn’t expected it to take his mother away from him so easily. That night he had cried, he had trashed his home, destroying everything, even going as far as to hit a wall with his fist.

The miraculous damaging itself by the force of the impact, but it was something so subtle and small he hadn’t noticed, even after the tiny god had complained and spent the next day in bed.

He had enjoyed growing in age and experience with the kwami by his side, as well as his lovely partner. She was a sight for sore eyes, but he had explained he did not feel that strongly about her. It had been a rough year, but their reconciliation made their bond even stronger, such as family.

So, there she was, standing beside him as he slowly put the ashes of his mother to rest, near her favorite places to visit. It had been a beautiful place to visit during the seasons. It had once filled him with peace, but now the sight only brought him sorrow and pain, the memories forever repeating themselves in his mind.

“I’m so sorry” she spoke, her voice being carried away by the wind, a hand tentatively on his shoulder “I’ll be here for you if you ever need me”

He nodded, numb enough to just feel as if everything was an illusion. In a blink of an eye, he had seen his mother get sick, turn to the medics, get admitted to the hospital, and die without being able to properly say goodbye. She had left him a letter, but he had just hidden it away along with her things, he didn’t want to be reminded of her, it hurt too much. The wound still too fresh.

“I’ll, be fine,” he said, his voice broken “but thank you”

Once he was left alone, he turned to his kwami, the rain was pouring down on him as if the sky knew how he felt.

No one knew, but it was ok, he would make it ok. As for the reason his mother died, he blamed his father. The years of constant abuse had taken its toll on her and left her weak to face off the virus.

“I won’t let this happen again” he promised, raising his eyes to see the god floating with a worried expression in their face “I promise I won’t let anyone suffer like this again, mother”

The tiny god just looked at his holder and the miraculous, it was dangerous and because of a fight, it had been damaged. It was repairable, but he had refused to do such a thing, and so far, he had been fighting against the effects it could have on his soul. But it was just a matter of time. For his health was on top, but his mind was being poisoned as well as his very soul.

Slow but steady.

He feared what would happen if he allowed himself to carry this burden alone, and not seek help.

However, once he started going to his partner’s side to help with his accent he felt as if things would improve. They all celebrated as a few years later he had managed to obtain a contract with a small radio business, him being a co-host thanks to his lessons into controlling his accent.

He smiled as his partner told him that what she had missed more was his smile, that she loved it when he smiled as his mother once had told him.

What bothered the god were his hunts. He had switched from going to do it for the necessity of it, to hunting humans.

Albeit evil ones and just the lowest of the low, but still, it worried him how he was concealing his emotions, suppressing them, and not talking to anyone about it.

Whenever affronted about the problem he shrugged and waved it away, proclaimed he wasn’t weak, that he could do it. No need to worry his partner with nonsense like a feeling of worry. He was perfectly fine; he reassured the tiny god.

No matter what he said, he knew his holder wouldn’t budge.

Even if every night he could feel the power solely corrupting him, the small crack on the jewel taunting him as he watched every day his holder change.

Waiting for the moment that he would just, snap.

_______________________________________________________________

He had seen his fair share of deaths, his father training him to be able to kill and torture people since he was 12 as per the family tradition. He had learned how to fight before he even had learned how to use a bicycle.

He knew weak, innocent victims when he saw one. Identify them, learn how to make them beg, cry, surrender into his hands, and obey him without a second thought. To make them fear him by just hearing his name in a conversation.

His father had integrated him into the family business once he had done his first kill, knowing fully well that the threat of killing or punishing him if he failed was on the table. Most times he just wished he could go back to the simple days when his only worries were playing, sleeping, and helping at home. Unfortunately, he couldn’t, as per tradition at 17 he would have his official rank among the family. Turning 18 he would be able to have a small group of men for himself.

At first, during his early years, he had been excited, wanting to make his father proud as well as his brother. As he grew up, that had changed drastically.

What was going on, was so despicable, he could barely believe it.

He had done unspeakable things, committed horrible crimes under the orders of his father, but this.

This was something that had made his blood boil, he could no longer stay still and do nothing, what use was he to be able to do such amazing feats if he was powerless to help in cases like this.

He talked to his companion, the little god who had accompanied him during his latest years as he discovered himself. The one who, like his sister, loved him as he was. That encouraged him to be and embrace who he really was, no masks, no lies.

He still could remember the events that had been forever engraved into his mind.

It all happened one night, there had been a hit with people that owed to his father, a family near their territory that had been stricken by the stock market and had been left with no money to pay. The parents had been killed, after hours of torture to make sure they were not lying about their financial issues. Once he had believed the lies his father had put into his mind, that their children were safe and wouldn’t be harmed in any way.

Later, he learned that it didn’t matter if the people had been tortured or not, the result wouldn’t have changed. What had always awaited them, was their death.

It all been at night, he forgot his favorite gun and had returned to retrieve it, before hearing the pleas and screams coming from a room. He was frozen on the spot, as he identified those voices like the girls that had been shoved into that room mere hours ago.

Then, after a few minutes, the door was being opened, by his father and a man he had associated with from another family. Both of them laughed, and he had seen them adjusting their belts.

His eyes were wide, he could feel bile on his mouth. The implications had been clear, and he could not forget the screams of the girls nor their pleading. He gulped, and making up his mind he followed them, hearing how those were going to be sold for others to enjoy their bodies.

At that moment, he knew he had to step up.

It didn’t matter to him if he betrayed his father, this was inhuman What he heard had made his stomach churn in disgust, it wasn’t something honorable nor those girls deserved it. Their only fault laid only in the unfortunate change of fate.

They were innocents, so he decided to use his powers in what he felt was right.

That night he sneaked away, disguised as a woman. The miraculous making it easier as people wouldn’t recognize him even if he was as bold as showing off his true face, that magic was a blessing for him. He knew if his father found out it would be his death. It didn’t matter to him; he knew the contacts his father possessed and for once he would be the one making the demands rather than following orders. For once he would be in charge and do even the impossible to be able to save the innocents.

That night he used the miraculous for this noble cause.

Relocating children that were meant to be sold, used as objects, or just to be treated as slaves, so that the mafia would never find them again. It would be a difficult task but he knew the names and where to find those that could help him. It was all in the archives.

Sitting on one far away booth he crossed his legs, the Club was full and many patrons had been watching him. Most of them seemed hungry and eyeing him as a price.

He couldn't bale them, Tikki had made an amazing job with his appearance. He smiled satisfied that none could identify the girl they were so taken in, was a member of one of the five families that ruled the mafia in the city. And the one that would free the innocents from their clutches.

That night Tikki had to observe as her holder stood up all night, practicing, training, studying.

Once done, he barely slept before going to more hits with his brother. Tikki wasn’t sure if this was something he could do alone, but for the sake of the balance, he had to. She couldn’t be prouder of him.

_______________________________________________________________

He was running, trying to get away from the evidence he had left to never be found again. He couldn’t believe what had happened. The cold wins hitting his face, he knew they would never find him, using the miraculous he had destroyed the body into nothing but ashes

It had all started after he had felt the impulse of killing that man who had abused that woman, she might’ve been a lady of the night, but she certainly didn’t deserve that awful fate. The papers had reported the body and had identified her, however, it seemed that since that line of work wasn’t deemed worthy enough to investigate, the police had labeled it as an incident. He had tried to get that image way from his mind, that is until he had done it again, and he caught him in the act.

But it didn’t matter to him, no, what mattered was that the man had the cheek to ask if he wanted to join them, his smell of alcohol and tobacco making him dizzy and his anger clouding his mind.

One look at the girl’s face had made his blood boil, he knew that girl, at least by swift glances on the street and a few exchanged words. She worked as a waiter at his favorite café during the afternoon shifts. She was a sweet little thing that always tried her best there, even if she was clumsy.

That had been when he snapped, what good was he if he couldn't even defend an innocent like that, after all, he had to endure, after all, he had to suffer. No, he wouldn’t let this man go away.

With a swift motion, he hit the man, making him fall to the floor. Turning he smiled at the girl, helping her, and asking for her to run away. He knew he would be able to hold him off but not if he had to protect her at the same time.

The exact moment the girl had run he was shoved to the wall, the man angry that he had ended his fun. The hideous man pushed him against the wall, immobilizing him for a short moment.

His blood went cold, as he felt helpless, and as the prey. He could barely believe it until he felt the disgusting hand of the man running through his thighs. His grumbling about how he wasn’t going to leave witnesses after he had his fun. He could feel the cold metal running down his arm as the man slowly took his time sliding the knife through his skin, never cutting it but letting him feel the sharp edge as if that was supposed to be intimidating.

At that moment, the fear was gone, replaced by anger as he remembered the abuse his mother had gone through. Even if he was at disadvantage, his head was still cool and calculative. He needed to be if he wanted to keep up protecting his partner.

Looking at his surroundings he noticed no one would come, at least not for a while. So, he could do as he pleased, a feral smirk appeared on his face. He was by no means short, but he was smaller than the average men in the town. This meant that this man was maybe a foot taller than him, at most, probably just half foot. Quickly he used the tactic he once had seen his partner use, with as much force as he could he butt his nose with the back of his head.

It was successful as the man recoiled back, clutching his bleeding nose and split lip. His anger directed at the shorter man, but once he laid his eyes on the smaller figure that was replaced by primal fear.

“A good time you say?” He purred the words, his accent hidden under his correct speech training “Isn’t that what you wanted?”

The man walked backward, his instincts telling him to escape, to run as fast as he could.

But it was too late.

The shorter man walked up to him; the knife once used to intimidate him now in his hands. Slowly twirling it as if it was second nature for him. His posture was calm as if he knew what was going to happen and was certain that he couldn’t make it out alive.

“I will show you a good time” He smiled, his pupils dilatated, but never wavering from his price “do please, articulate so I can hear your screams”

With that, the man fell on his butt, as he stabbed him. Viciously he did it once, twice, many times over, until the aggressor became unrecognizable.

Minutes later he was standing in front of a corpse, covered in blood and the weapon in his hands.

Blinking and searching for help, he decided to get rid of it, swearing that it would be the first and last time he did that. His kwami didn’t believe him but still stood by his side. Silently vowing to push him to search for help and talk about this, even if he knew it was just wishful thinking.

For now, he could only help by standing by his side, and praying that he wouldn’t be caught before Fu could find them.

_______________________________________________________________

Finally, Angel had managed to seize the opportunity, the empire state building was being inaugurated. He knew the holder of the ring would be there, and he did put in quite a fight.

It had taken him every single ounce of luck he possessed to come up with a plan to steal the ring, he knew it was vital for him to find it, so he gave it his all. That was at least until he knew it was damaged. Then he demanded to receive more teachings so that he would be able to fix the miraculous, he didn’t give the Master a choice on the matter.

He knew the risks, Tikki had warned him about the consequences of going on and fixing the miraculous of the Black Cat. He decided to get on with it anyway.

It was tedious and it had taken most of his force and magic, but he had done it. It had been successful and both gods were proud of him for doing such a feat at such an amazing feat.

Delivering the miraculous to the master he let Tikki go, not after a hug and a last congratulation. The Master gave his blessings and warned him that he had done something incredible and dangerous at the same time. Tikki vowed to return, as the world still needed the ladybug miraculous to help arrange the balance, so they promised to be back soon. They both never expected the whiplash of their actions.

He was left weak; his luck had run out as a side effect. He assured them he would be fine. That is until a month later he was ambushed by his father’s goons and shoved to the car with a bag over his head.

He knew that this would probably happen, his father had discovered what he had done, and what he was. What he hadn’t expected was how fast they all got hold of everything.

The thing is, he didn’t regret anything.

He would do it all over again, and he told his father that.

All he had done came to light that night.

He had lied, made enough inside wars so that they wouldn’t suspect him nor his family. It had all been so well planned they had suspected of a mole. Once they found him in that warehouse, they had put the pieces together. He knew it was risky but he just took in everything, words from Tikki coming back to his mind, giving him the courage to stand up to his father.

“Don’t run away from who you are”

His father enraged reacted against his son, stating that he was just failure after failure. Not worthy to carry their name and drag it to the mud. He disowned him, in front of his family. He called him names and then kicked him out unless he could cure his illness and repent from his crimes.

He screamed for him to rot in hell as the men of the asylum dragged him into a car, as his siblings watched. That is until the last nail was hammered into the coffin. His father said his mother would be disappointed in him.

He screamed, kicked, and got to punch his father but his victory wasn’t long-lived.

The last thing he remembered was fainting, his father’s face scowling at him, and waking up in a hospital bed, tied. The drugs still doing their jobs as he could only identify some voices through the haze his brain was under.

The second time he opened his eyes he could understand them, talking about the phases he would go through. It was that time he had tried to move but was promptly drugged again.

Once he was in his cell, and the drugs out of his system, he noticed he was alone. No one was by his side and, it was a devastating realization. Tikki’s words were the last thing he remembered, trying to hold on to those memories.

That night, alone in his room, he vowed he would escape.

No matter what.

_______________________________________________________________

Plagg was horrified once he saw his holder take the first taste of human flesh, and he didn’t like the magic he had decided to dabble with.

He only could observe as his holder was slowly driven by the madness and the ring further aggravating his very soul.

He had to escape, but with Fu so far away there wasn’t much he could do.

He decided to wait until both partners talked, but it was too late for the Ladybug holder.

It had been a nice going out, his holder still liked to survey the streets for potential victims. The couple talked, joked, and enjoyed their time together as friends. Until the ladybug holder decided to approach the subject in the privacy of his holder’s house. He tried to warn her, as did Tikki, but she was confident she could help him.

It ended in a screaming match, and much later a fight. They both were trying to incapacitate each other with no luck, they were evenly matched. That is until between blows, he had used the transformation and called forward a cataclysm.

Plagg tried to stop it, he had tried.

It was too late.

Without her transformation and Tikki’s magic to protect her body, as one of her earrings was on the floor, she was destroyed.

His holder later realizing what he had done, went mad. His only purpose was gone, his partner has been destroyed by himself.

He blamed himself, before turning against him. He screamed, demanded a solution until he blamed the little god for everything.

Plagg couldn’t help but weep, he could see the damage it had done. How devastated his holder was. He bowed his head as his holder decided to take off the ring from his fingers, denouncing him and throwing him away.

Just to be found by more greedy men and end up traveling around the world, bringing destruction and bad luck wherever the ring went.

It was years later when he heard about his holder again. The serial Killer in New Orleans dubbed as the Smiley Killer was shot, killed, and has died with a smile on his face. A promising radio host, that had an amazing count of bodies, and an incredible repertoire of methods. Someone that had gone mad.

Plagg regretted the way he had ended, alone, being hunt and shot.

Still, he could remember the smile on his face, his lame jokes, and the times when used to sing as he cooked. How he had loved and cared for both, his mother and his partner, always trying to be the best for them, how he always tried to help even if he was usually pushed aside.

He would always remember him as one of his finest holders, one that did not deserve the end he had. If he had just learned to ask for help and listen to others.

_______________________________________________________________

It had been half a year since he had been trapped in this, asylum. No contact with the outside world and as much as he wanted to pretend, he was alright, it had taken its toll on him.

He had been raped, over and over by both, nurses and doctors. He had been in electroshock therapy and he had not budged once. If anything, his resolve to be himself went further.

That is until the time they decided to practice a lobotomy, unauthorized by his father, he later learned.

That was all it took to make him go mad, and for him to get into PCP or commonly called, Angel Dust.

The pain was unbearable, the nightmares were so haunting he usually hurt himself during the night. With the drugs on his system, he was invincible, and it was demonstrated the moment he was able to kill most of his tormentors and run away.

He lived as he could, barely eating enough and always being high on PCP. He took a new name for himself and cut ties with everything that had once made him different.

Years later Tikki was devastated to find that his holder was living by selling his body and a constant drug user.

She had begged to let Master Fu find him, he needed her. After some years he relented, Tikki flew all over the streets, didn’t left a single place unchecked. She searched for months until she finally found him.

He was in a warehouse, coincidentally the one he had used to help the children escape. It was filled with drugs and he had a syringe in his arm.

Tikki could only stare at the man he had become, it made her heart break as she could still remember how sweet and full of life he had once been. He looked older than what he was, she still remembered the way his face would flush and hide away his small freckles, how he always complained but loved those afternoons cuddling with her as he read a book that he had borrowed from the library using Molly’s studies as a cover. How he loved to watch the performers and sing when no one was watching, more often than not she had accompanied him as he sneaked around to just go to the theater and enjoy those

It seemed he was too high, and the dose seemed a little extreme, as he turned to her, thinking it was his mind playing tricks on him. Still, he talked, slurred but honest. Tikki could barely keep her sorrow and anger in check.

“I’m sorry...I was such a disappointment Tikki” he spoke, his heartbeat slowing as his body finally gave up on him “I wish…I could’ve been a better holder”

Those were Tikki cried, seeped, and mourned her holder until she had heard someone coming close.

It was her holder’s father.

She stood where she was, hoping that the man would do something right for once in his life. To her surprise, he decided to mock him. He laughed and threw a monologue about how dumb his son was, about how stupid he had been, how he should’ve killed him the moment he was born. With one final look, the man exited the warehouse, talking to himself about sending his subordinates to clean up the mess.

Her holder had died by an overdose that had been the work of his family. His father had arranged it all for him to end up alone, and his body was thrown away as if it was nothing.

She asked for a favor from Plagg that night, and as her wish was fulfilled the Capore family was betrayed by their subordinates, ambushed, and killed. She was sorry for her holder’s sister, Molly, but justice had been served even if she would've liked for them to suffer as his holder had suffered.

She vowed to remember as she always did, their best and most treasured moments always on her heart. A boy that did everything in his hands to help everyone.

_______________________________________________________________

Marinette blinked, before looking at Tikki. Tears were streaming down her face. She cleaned them before looking at Tikki.

“That…I…” she looked down “So the ring had been, damaging his soul?”

Tikki nodded, she had learned it was best to throw all of the emotions out of their system, and Marinette looked quite shocked.

“Yes,” she spoke “He was amazing, Plagg and he was an awesome team, but it all came down to the fact he never asked for help, he thought he could do it all alone until it became too much”

She looked at Marinette straight into her eyes, and somehow Marinette could almost feel that she was about to receive a sermon from her mother.

“I know you are the new guardian, but never be afraid of talking about it,” she said “you have me and Plagg and the rest of the kwamis to help you. We are here for you, so you don’t have to carry this burned alone”

Marinette nodded before hugging softly her friend. Yes, she was alone but she now knew that even if it was small, she had to talk and so something or else she would be her own doom.

However, a question still plagued her mind, she just hoped Tikki could answer it.

_______________________________________________________________

Adrien blinked once, twice, and then threw himself over to where Plagg was finishing his cheese.

“Hold on!” he screamed “you …you’re telling me that he, always did what was best for everyone even if he ended alone, and murdered? How’s that supposed to help me?”

Plagg nodded, looking at the horrified look on his holder’s face. It was typical for humans to always remember the good things, but those years had been one of the most dangerous times he had seen.

“Yeah, he was a good kid, always looking out for Tikki” Plagg smiled and looked at Adrien “he always tried his best to be good, that is until the drugs took over his life. It shows that he was way worse than you, and even then, he decided to do the right thing without hesitation.”

Adrien sighed and looked down at his hands, it all was cleared and at the same time, he was scared. He didn’t want to end up like that holder and he knew he wouldn’t, but the fear he had of betraying his father was even greater, he didn’t want to hurt him in any way.

“I’m not telling you to be like that” Plagg spoke “I am telling you about this because he was one of the best, but he was alone, he didn’t get to have a partner like you. Still, he did everything in his power to always do the right thing, even if it costed him almost all of his family and his life.”

Adrien nodded numbly; it was too much to process. That is until his curiosity got the best of him.

_______________________________________________________________

“Hey,” they both asked the kwamis at the same time “What was his name?”

_______________________________________________________________

Plagg and Tikki looked at their holders before taking a deep breath, the miraculous magic did protect their holders but they both were already dead. So, they could answer this question, besides, they weren’t in danger of those names leaking if something happened.

_______________________________________________________________

“Alastor LeBlanc” Tikki answered, looking as Marinette’s face became pale and her eyes widened.

She was taking in all of the knowledge she had gained and suddenly opened her mouth to confirm her theory.

“Yes,” Tikki said, her voice filled with sorrow “he is”

Marinette took in a deep breath, hugging close her legs. The information running around her mind as she tried to process it.

_______________________________________________________________

“Anthony Capore” Plagg spoke, his voice quite amused as he then added another tip “you know, your so-called friend Chloe reminds me of him sometimes…”

With that being said Adrien almost lost it as his mouth was open wide and closed itself, he looked like a fish, he was also a shade or two paler than usual

“T-The…” Adrien gulped before looking at Plagg once again “You’re kidding…you have to be kidding”

Plagg laughed as Adrien had a small breakdown knowing that the family he had just mentioned was indeed tied to Chloe’s family, even if they were by an unfortunate turn of events.

_______________________________________________________________

Alastor’s ears flicked as he felt his name being called, turning he found no one as he was alone in the kitchen.

Shrugging he turned to prevent the food from being burned.

Still, he couldn’t shake the feeling of having someone talking about him. He sighed flexing and unflexing his fingers. Rolling his shoulders, he

He sighed, looking longingly at his left hand.

His ring finger feeling heavier than before, still missing the time when that black ring was used to decorate it.

_______________________________________________________________

Angel almost jumped from his place at the porn studios, his real name ringing in his ears as his brush slipped from his fingers and landed on the floor.

Cursing he bends down to retrieve it, before catching a glimpse of his reflection on the mirror.

Sighing he closes his eyes, his memories flooding his mind. He had tried to stop using drugs but, it had felt so right at the time he never cared, the words his father had said to him always on his mind. Even more after the lobotomy they had practiced on him.

He still could remember that cold December night, alone, thinking of how much he had disappointed everyone in his life. He still remembered that hallucination, and how he had ended his own life by using those drugs and not caring about anything else.

Taking a deep breath, he looked at his reflection once again, missing the time when he could feel the earrings get cold because of the weather but they were concealed by his still too long hair for a boy.

He brought one hand to where his ears were supposed to be, once again missing the times when Tikki would cheer him on or they would sing a duet. He heard his name was being called and he stood up, squaring his shoulders. He had chosen this life, unwillingly, but he would face it with all he got.

Raising his head, he put on his best poker face, he was ready to face whatever it came his way.

________________________________________________________________

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sarah-sandwich · 3 years

Note

you made that post with your writing advice a few days ago and you mentioned google keep and i remembered to look it up yesterday and !!omg i love it! its great! i have a lot of ideas/inspo that is less "coherent thought/actual scene or event" and more "general vibes/single frame of a movie that i can see in my head" and ive got LOTS of these ideas that dont make as much sense written in a bullet list or something but !!!google keep lmao also do you have any tips for using it? <333

Yes!! That’s how my brain works too! I’m glad you like it! It’s been awesome for me 😊

So google keep. Like I said in that post there’s an app (for android, idk about ios) and a web version (keep.google.com) and they sync through your google account so that you can make a note on your phone and then open the web version on your computer and boom! There it is!

Some features I use:

Dark mode! Self explanatory I think lol

You can pin notes so they stay at the top. I like to pin the ones I know I’m going to write soon or want to keep top of mind

Checkboxes! If you’re making a list you can set the note to do checkboxes and when you check something off it gets crossed off and drops to the bottom of the note. I don’t use this very often because it forces everything in the note into a checkbox line. I did use one for a 5+1 fic I wrote so I could check off the instances of the five things, but otherwise I mostly only use it for shopping lists or stuff I need to do irl, not really for writing.

Archive! You can delete a note and have it move to the trash which gets emptied every 7 days, or you can archive the note so it leaves the main page but isn’t gone forever. I like to archive just in case during editing I end up cutting it and decide to resurrect it to use somewhere it fits better. Or I just like to browse through and be like Wow! look at all this cool stuff you’ve used! Or see if there’s something that can be repurposed and tweaked enough that it fits somewhere else.

Color coding! You can change the color of the note. I like it when all the notes that correspond with one fic are the same color, that way I can tell at a glance which notes belong to which fics and which ones are a random idea/convo/aesthetic that I haven’t put anywhere yet

Labels! I just started using these actually. They work like tags so that you can filter the notes based on the label used. I started using these in conjunction with color-coding. The label shows up in a little bubble at the bottom and you can use the menu on the left to filter so it only shows the label you click on.

Main page normally:

After filtering:

That’s all the tips I have! There are other functions I don’t use like you can “collaborate” (whatever that means--I’m guessing you can link notes across accounts with other ppl? So you can both add to it? Sounds cool but I haven’t used it), copy the note to google docs, set reminders, insert images, and DRAW which I just tried out for the first time bc of this post. I made this awesome doodle lmao

asdfjlkasjdflks he’s beautiful I love him

#mine #writing tips #sort of #sswrites

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savannahsdrabbles · 4 years

Text

Ocean Song - Part Two

rating: PG summary: Marine biology student April O’Neil makes a startling discovery.

notes: An AU originally based off of the 2012 TMNT universe, but can be compatible with most versions of the characters. <3 2.8k words. A03 link can be found here. Also special thanks to @cloakedrabbit and @starfiretheninja for beta-reading!

While he considered himself fairly levelheaded, there were a lot of things that ticked Casey Jones off: The referee calling foul play when an opponent obviously deserved to be body slammed, the cafeteria workers skimping on tater tots (in no universe was four enough), and people being jerks to those who couldn’t defend themselves.

The worst feeling of all, however, was when people intentionally kept secrets from him.

From the moment April O’Neil had walked into homeroom that Monday, he could tell that she had something heavy weighing on her mind. The redhead had avoided his attention-seeking gestures and whispers throughout class, seemingly intent on doodling in her notebook and not paying the slightest amount of attention to the lecture. She rested her chin in her palm, arm forming a barrier that blocked her page from anyone who walked past. Even when Casey flicked a pencil onto her desk, her only response was to absentmindedly return the utensil and continue scribbling.

By the time lunch rolled around, Casey was nearly shaking with curiosity and frustration over the unknown. With one hand firmly gripping his sack lunch, the eighteen-year-old searched the sea of dark hair on the patio and in the cafeteria, and then finally stuck his head into the library – a first for him. Sure enough, April was tucked away at a table in the far corner of the reference section with her nose to a computer monitor and the same expression of deep thought on her face.

“Alright, Red. Spill.” April jolted when he dragged over a chair with a deafening screech and then flopped into it. Turning his lunch bag over on the table and scattering its contents, Casey shoved an apple towards the hand she was clutching the mouse with and then picked out a peanut butter granola bar to munch on. “I can tell you’re freaking out about something. Is it homework related, or what?”

“It’s nothing,” she muttered, quickly attempting to minimize the tabs she had open on the screen – though not before Casey caught a glance of the website.

“Mysteries of the Deep: Unexplained Open Ocean Phenomena,” Casey snorted, sending a spray of granola crumbs flying, and leaned over to elbow the girl playfully. “What, are you trying to find the loch ness monster or something? Cause I’m pretty sure that’s in Canada.”

To his surprise, April let out a hiss of pain and grabbed her ribs right where Casey had poked her. The smirk on his face instantly vanished, and Casey raised his hands in surrender. “Whoa – I didn’t mean to hit so hard – my bad! Are you okay?”

April’s face tightened for a moment as if she were going to argue, her brows arching into the sassy look that Casey was used to seeing whenever he whined about how useless math was, but then she heaved a sigh and dropped her hand from her side. The girl motioned for Casey to quiet down, and then stood up quickly to peer over the row of computers around them. Once she seemed satisfied that no one was nearby, the redhead relented. “I got attacked when I was diving last night.”

“Wait – what?!” Casey nearly inhaled his granola bar and had to pause for a moment to cough violently. “By what? A fish? Or one of the other divers?”

“Shhh!” the librarian hissed from across the room.

“Don’t freak out – I’m fine.” April waved a hand dismissively, and then launched into a whispered explanation of what had happened. Casey listened with a furrowed brow, constantly interjecting with questions and April constantly hissing at him to quiet down and listen so that they would not be overheard. “He’s at Hamato Labs right now – probably still on constant sedation watch until they decide what to do with him. Dad wanted me to just go back to school today like nothing had happened, but –”

“You keep calling it a ‘him’. Did you get a look at –”

“Ew – no, Casey! Gross!” April let out a muffled shriek of indignation and punched the boy in the shoulder, though her quivering lips betrayed the hint of a smirk that Casey instantly decided was worth the shoulder pain. “I could just TELL that it was a ‘he’. He gave off a ‘guy’ vibe, I don’t know. And maybe the other one, too – though I didn’t get as good of a look at him.”

Casey seemed to calm down at this, as he leaned back in his chair with a grin and kicked his legs up onto the table – which April quickly shoved off with a jerk of her head towards the librarian’s desk. “Alright, so what’s going to happen to ‘him’ now? Or wait – do you get to name him as a new species or something? Like the ‘genus turtle-us, April-us’, or whatever?”

April shrugged, her fingers tapping unconsciously on the notebook that Casey finally realized was in her lap. The spiral bound pages bore dozens of doodles from throughout the day, all bearing features of turtles with cartoonish expressions. Several words had been written and crossed out in the margins, which Casey read aloud.

“Raph-ale? Donatello?”

The girl snapped her notebook shut with a ‘PAP!’ seeming to just notice that he had been looking at it. “Art history homework – another college course. Anyway, I should probably get back to class now. Thanks for letting me ramble – it’s just a really weird situation and I’m actually kind of glad to talk about it with someone that isn’t another scientist.”

“Well, I am definitely not a scientist, so no problem,” Casey flashed a thumbs up as April began to gather her belongings. “So, when do I get to see him?”

April froze, her hands hovering over her backpack. “Excuse me?”

The boy lifted his head to double check that they were alone, and then leaned closer to April. “You tell me all about some bizarre-o turtle man that might end up being on National Geographic or something, and then you won’t let me see it? That’s pretty low, dude.”

“It’s not that I’m against you seeing him – it’s just that I’m more than likely not even supposed to be mentioning the fact of his existence to anyone outside of the research team. Any number of hippie organizations or other laboratories would spring at the chance to claim him. Besides – if we determine that whatever made him like this is the source of an imminent biological or ecological threat, the lab is going to want to keep it out of the public eye until they’ve discovered a solution.”

“C’mon!” Casey slung an arm over April’s shoulder to keep her from standing up and leaving the table. “I won’t tell anyone! I promise – I just want to get a quick peek! It’s not every day that a kaiju saves your girlfriend – ”

“I am in no way, shape or form your girlfriend, and if you ever say that again I will punch you in the throat.”

“- from a squid! Come on – please?” Casey clasped his hands in a praying position and stuck out his bottom lip. “Please please please please please – I won’t stop until you say yes – please?”

April observed him for a moment with an expression of disgust, and then let out a deep sigh, earning a whoop of approval and a loud ‘Shhhhh!’ from the direction of the librarian’s desk. “Fine. I’m heading back to the lab after school anyway. You drive, and I’ll get my dad to sign off on letting you in with me.”

“Alright, all aboard the Jonesmobile, woo woo – ow! Why did you hit me?!”

***

The rest of the day went off without a hitch – though April would be the first to admit that she was less than focused during class. All she could think about was her interaction with the turtle, and the bubbling feeling in her stomach that occurred when she considered the fact that she would get to see him again that afternoon. Casey showed signs of distraction as well – though that was fairly normal for him. April made a mental note to ensure that he was getting his homework done and turned in.

When the last bell finally rang, the two teenagers hurried out to Casey’s old Jeep and gunned it to Hamato Laboratories. A quick knock on Dr. O’Neil’s door with no response told them that he was tied up on the phone, so the two decided to head towards the labs anyway.

“I don’t think they’ll let you into the actual exam room without my dad present, but you’ll probably be able to at least look through the glass,” April explained as the two rode the elevator down to the lower floors. Several marine biologists and lab technicians passed them on their way down, each stopping to ensure that April was doing well after the incident the day before.

“Didn’t you say he’d probably be unconscious or sedated or whatever?” Casey asked. He looked thoroughly out of place in the sleek laboratory building, all skinny jeans and beat up hoodie in contrast to the white lab coats and slacks worn by almost everyone they passed. Even April had grabbed her monogramed coat from the locker area before boarding the elevator and had thrown her hair up into a bun. Despite this, the eighteen-year-old still carried himself with an air of utter ease and confidence that April couldn’t help but respect. “Is that because he hurt you?”

April hesitated before answering. “Not specifically? It’s typically a standard procedure to sedate larger animals – particularly if they’re not reacting well to the lab environment. That way if they lash out, they’re less likely to hurt themselves or anyone else. But I could tell that he wasn’t trying to hurt me yesterday – it was just an accident.” She rubbed a hand on her side and grimaced slightly as her fingertips traced the tender bruises. “Unfortunately, it wasn’t easy explaining that to my dad. He still thinks that I was freaking out and imagined a lot of what I saw and felt.”

“How can you be sure that you didn’t?”

April’s eyes snapped to Casey’s as the elevator let out a ‘ping’ to alert them that they were nearing the correct floor. “Excuse me?”

Casey shrugged. “Nothing against you, but while this thing is cool and big and stuff, isn’t it possible that you kind of hallucinated him being… human-ish? I mean – maybe it didn’t really know that it was helping you?”

“No. He knew that he was helping me.” The words she spoke swelled with utter confidence that dimmed Casey’s doubts. “I just know it. You’ll see.”

Right as the words left her mouth, the elevator doors opened into a stark white hallway offset by the dark cement floor beneath it. Pipes and power lines ran the length of the ceiling in either direction, the whirring that they produced being the only sound in the otherwise quiet hallway. As the duo stepped out of the elevator, the motion activated lights immediately kicked on and flooded the halls with a dim light. A dozen heavy doors lined the walls, each accompanied by a keycard lock and a glass window to allow observation from outside. At the very end of the hallway, a large set of double doors beneath a glowing ‘Exit’ sign signaled the entrance to the garage through which creatures were delivered.

“Welp. I’m pretty sure we are going to get murdered in this hallway.”

April snorted and grabbed for Casey’s wrist, dragging him down the hallway towards Exam Room D. “C’mon, don’t be a baby.”

“I’m not. This… just looks like a hallway that someone in Saw would get murdered in.”

“Wuss.”

***

Despite her words of reassurance, April couldn’t help but feel on edge as well. She had grown up visiting labs with her dad and following him around as he worked. The smells of antiseptic and metallic surfaces were woven through her earliest memories, combined with days spent happily watching fish moving about in their tanks as her father helped to rehabilitate everything from enormous seals to tiny starfish. Such laboratories were what inspired her love of science and biology, and had always served as a safe place in her memories.

But even as she swiped her keycard and pushed open the door to the correct exam room, her recently donned lab coat rustling quietly around her, she could tell that something was very… off.

Casey stuck close behind, the warning of staying by the observation window clearly forgotten – or ignored - as the two walked hesitantly into the dimly lit room. April noticed that the main lights had been turned off – not unusual for when researchers dealt with deep sea or photosensitive creatures – and the only light being offered was from the panels that hung around the examination tables and over the door that led out to the loading dock. Filtered water gurgled in several tanks around the room, adding to the illusion that the room might have been located underwater or someplace hidden away from the rest of the world.

“Dude,” Casey murmured quietly. “I didn’t expect this place to be so creepy.”

“It’s not, usually,” April felt a palm along the white walls until she found the light dimmer and adjusted it just enough that they had a bit more light.

“Holy crap. You weren’t joking about how big he is.”

A large glass cage, usually reserved for seals, stood in one corner of the room. The bottom of the cage had been lined with a layer of sand, which had apparently been kicked up by the creature quietly whining and shifting inside of it.

The turtle within was currently laying on its side with his armored back to the two teenagers and one leg stretched at an uncomfortable angle as it seemed to be attempting to pull itself completely into the far corner of the container. A closer look told them that the turtle had been shackled, a large iron chain around its left leg prohibiting him from crawling into his shell.

“Yeah – he actually seems smaller than I remembered…” The red head hesitantly took a step forward, eyes watching as the turtle took a shuddering breath and twitched. He didn’t seem to have noticed their arrival yet – proving the recent sedative to be quite effective. “When he was moving around in the water I could have sworn he was taller than I was, but now he doesn’t even look five feet tall!”

“Tall or not, he looks kinda dead,” Casey suddenly strode forward to stand beside April and pressed one hand to the glass, tapping lightly with his knuckle. “Wake up, dude!”

“I doubt that will do anything, Casey – he’s really drugged up at the mo-”

As if on cue, the turtle jerked in its sleep and flailed momentarily in the sand, eliciting quiet shrieks of surprise from the two observers. They both leapt backwards as the turtle rolled itself onto all fours, limbs still trembling from sleep and head shaking this way and that as the creature attempted to orient itself. There was a moment of silence as he seemed to suddenly remember his predicament, and then the turtle caught sight of April and Casey.

Eyes shrinking to pinpricks, the turtle let out a squawk of terror and scrabbled backwards on his hands and rear end until the chain grew taut and he couldn’t retreat any further, chest heaving and eyes flicking in every direction as he searched for a way out. With a jolt, April watched as the turtle threw his body sideways against the glass and clawed at the walls. The laboratory room echoed with sounds of distress as the creature began to click and squawk frantically.

“Uh – do we need to go get somebody?” the dark-haired boy pressed both hands to his ears and furrowed his brow. “’Cause he doesn’t seem to be very happy about being in there!”

“We should probably get one of the lab technicians to administer another dose of sedative,” April nodded her head back towards the door, though her eyes remained on the turtle. The creature was still clicking loudly as it balled its hands into fists and beat them against the glass. “The walls should be strong enough to hold him, but he might hurt himself if he keeps freaking out!”

“Sounds good to me!”

The girl motioned for Casey to follow her, backing slowly away from the turtle and reaching out for the door handle. As they backed away, the noise seemed to falter and then suddenly -

“Help!”

April froze, her hand inches from the doorknob, and then turned to meet Casey’s round brown orbs. “Did you-?”

“Help!”

The two stared at each other silently for a heartbeat, and then slowly turned to face the panting terrapin. The creature’s amber eyes had tracked them across the room, and now locked onto April’s own eyes with an intensity she had never seen before.

“Crap,” Casey murmured under his breath. “What did you - ?”

“Tasukete kudasai!” The turtle pressed his trembling palms against the glass, eyes round and searching as they moved to meet Casey’s. “Help! Out!”

Next Chapter

#tmnt #rottmnt #rise of the tmnt #tmnt 2018 #tmnt 2012 #savannah drabbles #nickelodeon #sea turtles au

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bts-aesthetic-drabbles · 4 years

Text

House Party: Part 1

Background Info: You are a foreign exchange student at Seoul University where you are studying in medical school.

Warnings: Sexual Content, Drugs, Alcohol, Swearing, Angst

I am running down the overcrowded sidewalk of my school aggressively trying to make it on time to my 8 o'clock Chemistry class, for the third day in a row. With mid terms coming up in the next few weeks, I have been desperately trying to prepare for them by staying after class for extra labs and lectures. I have lost track of how many "all nighters" I have pulled this past semester.

I have to keep my grades up in order to keep my spot in Seoul University's highly sought after medical program. I was lucky enough to get in based on my outstanding test scores, but maintaining the same standard of test scores in university is not nearly as simple as it was for me when I was in high school.

I finally stumble into the lecture hall just in the nick of time as the professor calls my name, "-(Y/N). Huffing and puffing in exhaustion I drop down onto my seat and sling my heavy backpack on the floor as I raise my hand to make my attendance known to the professor.

I have got to start sleeping more...I can not afford a single tardy or missed class. My parents will be so unbelievably disappointed if I manage to get kicked out of this program that I’ve worked so hard to get into.

"Hey! You left this on the table yesterday on your way out of class. I tried to chase you down to return it to you but you ran off too fast for me keep up " a melodic voice chuckles from behind me as a large hand pops up next to my head.

In the hand is my cherry colored faux leather journal that is filled with very personal drawings, poetry and photos that I have taken throughout the past few years. It was been with me for quite a long time and houses some of my deepest and darkest feelings. I am mortified to think that someone might have seen what all is inside it.

I can feel my cheeks blushing like crazy as I look up any meet the gaze of the man’s shining eyes. His kind and comforting smile makes makes my heart flutter. I carefully reach out and take the small journal from his outstretched hand and look down at the desk in front of me as I grasp the framiliar book. I really hope he didn’t look at any of the things in this book...some of its contents are beyond embarrassing.

“You really should hold onto personal things like that better. There are some cruel people out there that might try to use something like that against you one day.” He says politely with a shrug as I take the book from his hand and clutch it to my chest. Ah, so he probably did at least glace over it for him to know it’s very personal. I wonder what all he saw? Was he looking for something in particular, perhaps it was just my name? I really shouldn’t always assume the worst in every situation.

None the less, he did find it and return it to me so he is owed a thank you, “ Thank you so much, I have been so scatter brained lately. I can’t seem to keep my head on straight!” I bow my head lightly to the guy and turn my attention towards the front of the class as the professor begins his lecture.

Throughout class I can’t seem to focus on anything the teacher is saying, my heart is pounding in my chest and my mind keeps on reeling. I feel like I am drowning in my own thoughts about what the guy next to me is thinking about me and what he might have seen in my notebook.

Was it something super sad and embarrassing like an emotionally charged journal entry about how lonely I am because I have no family around here and I’ve lost all my friends since moving countries. Perhaps he saw some of the (potentially creepy) polaroids I’ve taken of random groups of friends on campus that are laughing and playing games together.

Maybe be saw the sketches of random people, places and things that inspire me. The emotions, sights and experiences of everyday life that make it so beautifully fascinating.

Maybe he took the time to look at everything in the book and maybe was able to piece together how much of a depressed loner I am. Maybe he looked at the contents and connected the dots of my soul that show exactly who I am and how I feel. And maybe he showed it to all of his friends and they had a good laugh together at how much of a loser I am.

Negative thoughts continue to roll around in my brain until finally I am forced to snap back to reality as the teacher ends class and people start slamming textbooks closed all around me. I shake my head and look down at the pencil in my hand and find that I had covered my blank paper for notes in doodles of random things.

I take a deep breath and begin packing my notebook and pens back into my bag as I force my mind to refocus on reality. I can not believe that completely zoned out for this entire class, I am going to be up all night tonight trying to read what I missed. It’s not like I have any friends here that I can get the notes from. Great job (y/n), way to totally fuck yourself over yet again....

Just as I reach to tuck my red journal I nto my bag I find that there is a small folded piece of paper sticking out of the top of it. I bite my lip lightly and tuck the paper further into the pages of the book and make a mental note to check it out later as I stuff the book into my backpack and shuffle out of the nearly empty classroom.

As that was my last class for the day I decide to make my way to the large courtyard in front of the main part of campus. The courtyard is often filled with students studying and hanging out with friends at any given time of day. People like to play sports, board games, read and have meals in the lush green grass.

Most days I set up my portable hammock on a couple of trees that are off to the side of the large lawn. The spot is next to small garden that is filled with a dozen different kinds of flowers and has the best view of campus. I like to study here and people watch from my secluded little spot. It’s quiet and peaceful and helps me to get my buzzing thoughts together.

I set my hammock up and carefully lay down in it so I don’t too over, which I have done an embarrassing amount of times. I just kind of flop backwards out of the nylon swing with my limbs flailing like out of some kind of cartoon.

I pull out my journal and open it up to the page where the folded note is. With slightly shaking hands I unfold it and read what the scribbled Korean handwriting says.

Hi! I want you to let know that I tried very hard not to look at what all was in your book when I found it yesterday. I just wanted to find your name so I knew who I was returning it to but...as I flipped through your journal I fell in love with your art. Your photos and drawings had me in a trance, the way you capture the essence of such complex things like emotions and relationships is so unique and it really moved me.

One of my best friends is an art major here and I think he would die to see some of the things you’ve created.

Also, I noticed that a lot of your book was written in English, which is so cool! I’d love to hear you speak some English sometime. Maybe you can meet another one of my friends who also speaks fluent English as well!

Sorry for rambling...Anyways,

I’ve noticed that you always seem to be in such a rush...and seeing how full your book is, you don’t seem to get out very much. So, I’ve decided that you are coming to party with me this weekend. I can tell that you need to get out of your own head and have some fun for a change. I know you will probably want to say no, so here is some motivation for you to agree:

1. I am not some kind of crazy person that is trying to lure you off campus to hurt you or something. The party is at one of the frat houses just off of campus and there will be a bunch of people there so you don’t have to worry about that. You are welcome to bring a friend if you want.

2. There will be plenty of food, drinks and fun involved. I can introduce you to the friends that I mentioned earlier.

3. I will let you copy my notes from class today since you seemed to be a little spacey and in another world today.

I can’t wait to hear from you! Text me for details! (XXX-XXXX)

-Jeon Jungguk

The handwriting is rushed and a little scratchy in nature. At the bottom of the note I spot a cute drawing of a planet and some stars on it, along with a tiny smiley face.

A party? I’ve never once in my life been to a real party...what do you even wear to a party? What do you do? I can’t imagine that I would be much fun to even hang out with considering I literally bake cupcakes in my dorm room microwave on Friday nights while listening to recorded lectures as a form of ‘fun’.

But maybe it’s for that exact reason that I should try to have some real fun for once. Fun that other people my age are having.

I type Jungguks number into my phone and send him a text with a little planet emoji to let him know that it’s me. He responds almost immediately with, “Ah, so you got my note! So, what do you say? Will you be coming?”

I agree to come and he texts me the address and time for the party and tells me to be sure to pack a small bag with some essentials just incase we end up staying at the party over night. I googled it and apparently, that is a normal thing that sometimes occurs at parties...

I scuttle up and out of my hammock and fold it up and put it in my backpack along with my journal and begin making my way to my small apartment on the far end of campus. I was lucky enough to be able to afford an apartment rather than having to stay in one of the school crowded dorm rooms.

I quickly make my way down the sidewalk towards my home. After several minutes the framiliar grey and white building comes into my sight and I watch as dozens of my fellow students make their way in and out of the popular apartment complex.

The place is nothing that special but it is conveniently in the middle of campus and even pretty modern with its decorations and room accomidations, expecially considering the cheap rent.

I currently am staying in one of the one room studio styles apartments that is on the top floor of the glass building. I press the elevator button and watch as the doors immediately open and reveal an empty elevator. How fast and convenient! That never happens!

I scurry into the elevator and begin rapidly pressing the close door button before anyone can get on. I hate riding the elevator all the way to the top floor with a group of university students.

Just as the door is about to close a tan arms shoots through the narrow gap in the door and says, “hold that elevator please!” Damnit. So close.

I press the ‘door open’ button of the control panel and the door dings and reopens to reveal a very disheveled and stressed looking man.

His dark brown hair is askew and one arm is overflowing with textbooks and lose pieces of paper. He must be a science major. His aura reeks of chaos and stress, much like me.

He clamors into the elevator and flashes a dimpled smile my way as he thanks me with a small bow, “Floor 7 please. Thank you so much, I am in a huge rush. I got out of a study group late and I really need to get back to my room so I can take care of my plants! I’m already a whole hour behind schedule and I’m sure they are dying of thirst andI need to cook something for dinner and...ah sorry I’m rambling and I am sure you must think I am crazy....” He says as he runs a long hand through his messy hair and glances at the floor.

My eyes must have been wide as saucers as I tried to process the guys increasingly panicked speech, “Uh, no I don’t think you are crazy. I just think you are stressed out and in need of a break. Which I totally understand. You must be a science major like me. Hello, my name is (y/n)” I say with a friendly smile as I extend my hand towards him.

His eyes light up and he sticks his hand out towards mine and shakes it once before running his hand through his hair again, “Hi (y/n), my name is Namjoon! Actually I am an English and world studies major, but I am getting my minor is in science. What made you think I was a science major?”

Oh an English major, I bet he can speak English! I haven’t met too many English majors here in Korea. I decide to switch from Korean to English and speak the the guy to test his ability, “Ah, it was the large stack of books and the intensely stressed aura you had on you Namjoon. I think you should take some time to destress before you make yourself sick” I say in perfect English.

I watch as his eyes go wide and his mouth parts slightly as he hears me speak English yet he responds quickly and easily is English, “You speak English so well! You must not be from Korea... And yes stress is defiantly a problem. But I am trying to study as much as I can today before I spend my weekend relaxing and having fun with some friends. I advise you to do the same science major (y/n). It was nice meeting you! See you around!” He says as the elevator stops on floor 7 and the door opens allowing him to step out.

The door closes and the elevator fills with silence as I smile to myself remembered the cute dimples smile of the man I just met. The elevator ascends on more floor to my floor and I step out and make my way to my room.

I unlock the door with my keycode and push my door open and remove my shoes before stepping into the framiliar room. I flick the lights on and I can hear the faint hum of electricity as the room is illuminated. I throw my backpack down on my dining room table and sigh loudly as I throw myself face down on my nearby bed.

What a day.

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kissmetae · 6 years

Text

Phantom

x Kim Taehyung

ANGST/smut | 10.5K | m.list | AO3 ver.

A/N: Based on Singularity, the lyrics, mv aesthetic and choreography.

AU: He was always there... in your dreams, in your pointless doodles... everywhere, was he protecting you? haunting you? or simply watching you? Day after day, night after night, his presence always lingering until one day, the one day that changed your life forever... The day you finally meet the phantom in your dreams and fell in love with him.

But who... or what... is he and what is he hiding?

Smut features (in no specific order): This fic contains multiple smut parts.

Sub!Dom!Top!Bottom!Tae, vanilla, passionate, rough(!), punishing, choking(giving), biting, grabbing/touchy, fingering, oral, jerking off, teasing, getting caught, creampie/mention of cum/breeding(ish), DIRTY TALK, possessiveness, begging, name calling (”baby”), bruising, after care, use of ribbons, and more...

Disclaimer: This is fiction. Actions and events in these stories are often exaggerated and to a certain degree unrealistic. Please have this in consideration when reading fiction, especially if it includes sexual content.

This fic is a: dark angst with explicit sexual content.

! Warning: This fic touches the topic of death, involves death and drowning. It is in no way intended to glamorize death/dying/drowning, if you’re sensitive towards this topic, please re-consider if you should read this fic.

Have you ever had one of those dreams where it has felt like you’re falling and you’ve woken up with a jump? Dreams so realistic you can’t tell if they’re memories?

He was always there.

No matter the dream, he was always there… watching you, protecting you, haunting you.

You would find yourself pointlessly doodling, starting with a flower and always ending up drawing him, your notes were full of his slender shadow.

He was a stranger, yet familiar.

Winter had painted the streets white.

When the lake froze you’d always cross it into town, a shortcut that saved you several minutes.

It was safe.

Your purpose was to find something festive to wear for your upcoming birthday.

It didn’t take long until you stumbled upon a red dress on a sale rack. Perfect.

You left the store and picked up a warm beverage from a café nearby before heading back over the lake.

The celebration wasn’t extra in any way.

A dinner with the family and everyone leaving early.

You sat down on your bed with a sigh.

The sky turned into darkness and the moon reflected against the snow.

Bored, you decided to go outside.

You grabbed your coat and keys and left the house before anyone could stop you.

You’d be back soon.

From the other side of the lake you could see the festivities going on in the center, there was a bonfire and music.

You stepped on to the ice.

The same ice you had crossed the other day, yesterday and even today.

The music got louder, when you reached half way the music got even louder, and louder and louder before becoming a high pitched ringing sound. You covered your ears with your hands.

It was getting worse.

You took a step back, wanting to run away from the painful sound.

Suddenly you lost your balance.

Looking beneath you, you saw the crack in the ice that had formed beneath your foot.

You knew what to do in these situations but the ringing became unbearable.

A minute felt like a second before the cold water suddenly embraced you.

It was too dark.

The moon was out of sight, the bonfire put out and the ringing had come to an end.

The cold water felt comforting in a way… It felt safe.

Suddenly something grabbed your hand.

It was pulling you.

Pulling you deeper.

The water got colder and darker.

Your mind slipped out of your grip and for a second you forgot what was happening.

You woke up with a jump.

You were on a beach, an unfamiliar beach.

You sat up, your dress still wet and your coat nowhere to be seen.

You looked around and noticed a bridge when something suddenly moved past in your peripheral vision.

You snapped your head to the side to catch whatever it was. Quick on your feet you stood up and ran in its direction.

It didn’t take long until you noticed the hare bouncing between the trees.

You sighed.

You turned back around to try to find your way over the bridge, but to your surprise someone was standing on it and looking at you. When he noticed you’d seen him he ran away. You ran after him.

He had a long advantage over you but you kept running.

He looked over his shoulder every once in a while, each time increasing speed.

Looking behind himself again he missed the branch sticking out of the ground and tripped, head first into a rose bush.

You caught up with him, out of breath.

His clothes were ripped and he was bleeding, one of the thorns haven cut him across his cheek.

His eyes were dark brown.

You looked at him for a while and he looked back at you with an anxious expression.

You could finally place him… Your expression changed as your recognized the boy on the ground.

When he realized you knew his anxiousness turned into fear and he got ready to get up but his shirt was stuck in the thorns.

“You’re- You’re him.”

He looked away from you.

“Why do you keep haunting my dreams!?”

You were dreaming, you were sure by now.

But you had never seen him this clearly before…

“Hey answer me!”

He didn’t say anything.

“Then sit there.” You said and started walking away from him.

Before your second step he reached and grabbed your ankle, looking up at you with pleading eyes as a drop of blood trailed down his cheek.

You sighed and helped him get out of the bush.

He smiled.

He was enchanting…

“What’s your name?” You asked as he brushed himself off.

He smiled at you.

Was he deaf?

“Can you hear me?”

He nodded.

There was no point in asking him where you were, he wouldn’t respond anyway and this surely was a dream.

He grabbed your wrist and pointed in the direction he was running in previously.

“What’s there?”

He started walking, pulling you along.

You pulled away.

“Where are we going?”

He frowned and yanked back your wrist.

You walked a short distance through the forest before reaching a bigger lake, on the other side there was a palace and a smaller village. Was that where you were going?

He suddenly stopped near the water, there was a rowing boat pulled up onto the sand.

He let go of your wrist and grabbed a stick from the ground and started writing something in the sand.

“Ki? Is that your name?”

He shook his head in distress and continued.

“Kiss”

He turned around and nodded eagerly.

“Is your name Kiss?”

He shook his head again.

“Kiss me.”

“Why would I kiss you?”

He grabbed his hands as if to signal “please”

He looked helpless.

The blood on his cheek had dried and he looked frustrated.

He was wearing a long white shirt, torn and ripped from the thorns and black jeans, he reminded you of a prince in a way.

“I’ll kiss you if you tell me why you keep showing up in my dreams.”

He grabbed the stick again and started writing.

“No dream”

“You’ll understand.”

“Voice.”

He pointed at the “kiss me” again and threw the stick into the water.

He walked closer to you, his dark eyes holding back tears.

“Why did you throw the stick away?”

He pointed at his lips.

He wasn’t giving up.

You turned around and started walking towards the boat but he caught up to you in panic.

He was shaking his head vigorously and grabbed both of your wrists.

He let go of you and moved his hands to your cheeks, forcing you to look into his eyes.

It was like if he was waiting for you to realize something more.

Eventually you gave in, this for sure was a dream anyway.

You dragged your thumb across the cut on his cheek soothingly.

He leaned closer, his hands moving down to your shoulders.

You were drowning in his eyes.

You leaned closer.

You were falling forward.

He caught you in his arms, pulling you tight against his body before your lips pressed against his.

He tasted sweet, like strawberries… no, cherries! Your hands tangled in his long hair and you lost yourself in the kiss. You couldn’t pull away, you didn’t want to pull away. The kiss felt like something you didn’t know you needed. He kissed you back passionately. Who knows how long you made out for on that beach… It was addictive.

After a long while you finally pulled away from each other.

“Thank you.” he suddenly said.

“You can talk?”

“Thank you for giving me my voice back.”

He grabbed your hand, stroking his cheek with the back of it.

“Taehyung.”

“huh?” You looked at him confusingly.

“That’s my name.”

“My name is-“

“I already know your name.” He cut off. “I’ve been watching you, remember?”

“Who are you?”

“Whatever you want me to be.”

Was it too soon to admit that your heart was beating unusually fast?

Taehyung pushed the boat into the water and helped you on before climbing in himself.

He grabbed the oars.

“Wait.” You said and dipped your hand into the water. You placed your hand against his cheek and gently rubbed the dried blood off of his face.

“ok.”

He smiled shyly.

“I missed you.”

You crossed the lake on the boat and arrived at the harbor of the small village. The village was still asleep and nobody was to be seen out this early in the day.

He helped you out of the boat and tied it to the dock.

He grabbed your hand.

By now you’d learnt that he really liked holding hands.

“Where are we going?” You asked.

“Home.” He smiled.

“Where’s home?”

He chuckled and pointed towards the palace.

Of course.

The garden was full of rose bushes and nothing but.

“We need to find you some dry clothes.” He pointed out. You had long forgotten about your drenched dress.

“You’ll get sick.” He sounded concerned.

A guard opened the door for you and nodded gently.

Inside were more roses.

You suddenly spotted your coat on the coat rack.

How did that get there?

You didn’t bother asking as Taehyung dragged you along upstairs.

You entered his bedroom and into his closet room.

Shirt upon shirts and coats upon coats…

“You like clothes.”

He nodded shyly.

He grabbed a black dress from one of the coat hangers.

“Put this on, you can take a shower if you like.” He said and handed you the dress.

It was lace.

You hung the dress over the stool that stood in the middle of the room.

“I’m taking a shower, you can join me if you like.” He said and took his destroyed shirt off.

“This was one of my favorite shirts.” He pouted.

“Your… your back.” You stuttered.

“Huh?”

“It’s full of cuts!”

“The rose bush didn’t show me any mercy.”

“Why were you running?”

“Because I knew you’d follow me.”

His bare skin distracted you.

“Take your dress off.”

You did what he told you to.

He took the dress from you and threw it on the floor together with his shirt.

He grabbed your wrist and dragged you along to his ensuite bathroom.

He unbuttoned his jeans and pulled them down along with his underwear, exposing himself.

He looked beautiful.

You took of your bra and panties with some hesitation before grabbing the hand he held out to you.

You stepped into the spacious shower and it filled up with steam within seconds as the warm water rained over you.

You put on some new underwear Taehyung had laid out for you and slipped on the black lace dress. It was long sleeve, short in the front and long in the back. It hugged your curves and was cut wide over the shoulders. You watched Taehyung get dressed, he pulled a pair of tight fitted slack over his perky butt. He threw on a black shirt with various distressed tassels hanging from it. You were both dressed in all black.

Lastly he put in a long dangly earring in his left ear.

He reached for your hand and laced his fingers with yours.

“There should be dinner waiting for us downstairs.”

In the middle of the room was a giant crystal chandelier, hanging high above the table.

Around it were 4 seats.

You took a seat next to Taehyung as the other two guests arrived to the table.

“Welcome back” The dark haired one nodded.

“Has your voice returned?” The other asked and gestured towards you.

“It has.”

The both sighed in relief as they heard his deep voice.

“In case you don’t recall, my name is Yoongi.” The dark haired one said.

“Jimin.” The other said.

The four of you ate together with small talk until Yoongi suddenly brought up something that made Taehyung’s tone serious.

“We’re still searching for Jane doe.”

“Did you search through the lake?”

“90% of it.” Jimin filled in.

“Who’s Jane doe?” You asked.

“It’s nothing honey.” Taehyung said.

Honey?

Yoongi and Jimin were Taehyung’s knights, both of them already knowing you before you knew them too.

Yoongi and Jimin were dismissed from the table and you finished your meal in private.

It didn’t feel like a day.

Before you knew it you saw Taehyung as your prince.

The two of you were back in his room after dinner.

You were laying on the bed and he was seated beside you, playing with your fingers.

His sheets were a combination of satin and velvet, all purple.

Soft music was playing from the speaker on his nightstand and you felt relaxed.

He stood up from the bed and walked into his closet room.

A brief moment later he returned with a purple ribbon in his hand. He had taken off his shirt.

He sat back down by your side.

“Do you want to play?” He asked.

You sat up and looked curiously towards the ribbon.

“What’s the game?” you asked.

“You’ll see, stand up.”

You stood up and he walked over behind you.

He placed the ribbon over your eyes and tied a knot in the back.

You heard his footsteps around you.

He grabbed your hand and placed it against his cheek.

“What are you touching?”

“Your cheek.”

He moved it down his neck and to his shoulder.

“Shoulder.”

He placed your hand over his heart.

“Chest.”

“Wrong.”

“Heart?”

“Good.”

He moved your hand further down.

“Your skin is so soft.”

He smiled shyly.

“And what if I go lower?”

Your hand touched the hem of his pants.

You pulled off the blindfold.

“I want you.” he confessed.

You let him guide your hand down over his bulge.

You let the ribbon fall to the floor, moving your hand from his bulge to his neck. His hand pushing you closer to him before your lips met, the intoxicating feeling of him taking over your senses almost instantly.

He reached down to grab the hem of your dress, separating less than a second for him to pull it over your head. He lifted you up, your legs around his waist as he fell back on to the bed, letting you hover above him as you pleased.

Your lips moved to his neck and he reached down to unbutton his pants, he lifted his hips slightly to pull them off along with his boxers before kicking them off the bed. Your lips on his neck made him more aroused by the second, his neck was sensitive. He reached behind you and unhooked your bra, removing it and tossing it across the room. His hands travelled down your hips as your lips returned to his. He slid his hands under your panties and slowly moved them down past your ass. You managed to slip a leg out and he pulled them off of you completely.

The next thing you knew his hands were back on your hips, guiding you down to grind over his erection.

He moaned softly into the kiss.

You dragged your nails down over his chest gently, making him shiver.

He pushed your hips up and reached down to grab his cock. He stroked it a few times before positioning the tip between your lower lips.

Dragging up and down your slit a few times, coating himself with your wetness before guiding you down on his thickness. He placed his strong hands on your hips tightly, making sure to go slow as he pulled you closer. He shifted his position slightly to get a better angle and pulled you down all the way, his thickness stretching you carefully.

“Good?” He whispered between the kisses.

You nodded.

“Move.”

He let you be in control… for now.

You moved up and down, riding him in your own desired phase.

Once you got more comfortable and increased your speed he stopped you.

He reached down to pull out, leaving your feeling empty.

“Ah.”

He rolled over, making you fall onto your back with him above you.

He positioned himself again and thrusted back into your core, giving you relief.

His hands travelled up your sides, over your breast and stopped to give them a gentle squeeze as he rocked his hips back and forth.

He was a passionate lover.

Taking things slow, not fucking, but making love.

He kissed your neck, a thumb stroking across your right nipple.

Your arms were around him but you couldn’t help but let your hand go further down his body and rest on his butt, squeezing it softly and causing him to squirm.

He removed his hands from your breasts and moved them up under your arms, pushing them up above your head.

He increased his speed.

Your breathing got heavier, a moan escaping your throat between each thrust, exciting him more and more, making him go even harder and faster to make you moan even louder.

He groaned and tightened his grip on your arms.

Deeper.

Harder.

You gasped when he suddenly let go of your arms and pushed his arms underneath you, pulling you up by the waist, pressing your body tight against his. He was almost suffocating you.

But the pressure was driving you closer to the edge.

“Fuck” He groaned in a low voice.

Faster.

Toes curlings.

Hands forming fists.

It was like you were waiting for something, desperately. Something was missing and you needed it now more than ever.

He thrusted harder.

With a sharp inhale your muscles tightened hard only to let go of you completely a mere second after. Your breathing fell heavy and the wait was over. Your core pulsated tight around his thick cock, still thrusting deeply into you.

As you came around him he moaned loud, the pulsating tightness sending him closer to his own high.

“Yes.” He grunted, his fingertips digging into your back.

He went slower and deeper, his breathing heavy as he released.

“Yes baby.”

His body weighed down on you more than before as his last energy left him, making him collapse on top of you, still deeply buried inside you as he cummed.

He kissed your jaw.

Two heavy breaths and he rolled you over to the side, sliding out of you. He pulled you closer, his head against your chest and his hand moving up and down your back.

He closed his eyes.

Your hand played with his long locks and his breathing getting steady again.

You kissed his head.

The next morning you woke up in the same position, the blanket pulled up over you to protect you both from the cold.

Taehyung was still fast asleep.

You carefully untangled yourself out of his grip and headed towards the bathroom.

Your legs felt unsteady but you quickly regained control of them after a few steps.

You cleaned yourself off, some of his cum had spilled down your inner thigh, not that you minded.

After a quick shower you walked into his closet room. You didn’t question the fact that there were multiple options of clothes for you to wear in his closet.

You grabbed a bra and panties and put them on in front of the mirror. Turning around you noticed 10 subtle bruises on your back. He must have been rougher than you thought. You poked one of them and made a face at the moderate pain.

Pain in a dream? By now you would’ve woken up…

But this dream felt different… and the more you thought about it, the less you could remember from before you woke up on the beach…

You shook your head and grabbed a white dress from one of the coat hangers. It was short and flowy, of course with a lace detail. Taehyung seemed to have a thing for that…

You walked back out into the bedroom.

Taehyung had woken up and was leaning against the headboard, the covers covering the lower half of his naked body.

“Did I wake you up?” You asked, walking towards the bed.

He shook his head and held his hand out for you.

You grabbed it and sat down next to him.

His other hand reached up to move your hair behind your ear.

He admired you.

“We’re having a masquerade tonight.”

“Really?”

He nodded. “But first I want to show you the village, alive.”

You giggled.

Taehyung got dressed and ready and suggested you’d eat breakfast at the local bakery in village, apparently they had really good croissants with a wide selection of filling, from cheese and ham to chocolate, rhubarb and plain.

You walked down the street leading from the palace to the village, Jimin and Yoongi following you from a distance.

You understood that Taehyung was a sort of royalty here… but did the two of you really need them to escort you to the bakery? The village seemed so small and peaceful…

The center of the village reminded you of a Disney style village, cute farm style cottages with store windows framed by carved wood pieces.

The two of you entered the café and Yoongi and Jimin waited outside.

The café was empty besides the staff.

You order a croissant each and a warm beverage.

The tour continued after breakfast but the village seemed far from alive.

Only a few people were to be seen but you assumed most of them were at either work or school

You arrived back at the palace again not long after breakfast.

His grip was strong around your wrist as he dragged you along up the stairs.

Back again in his room, he closed the door behind you.

“Take off your clothes.”

“Why?”

“Do it.”

“Are we getting ready for the masquerade already?”

He slammed his hands against the door, on either side of you, trapping you between the door and his body.

“The masquerade isn’t until late.” He said.

“Then why?” you asked, intimidated.

“I want you to fuck me.” He said boldly.

Your face heated up.

He leaned closer, his lips by your ear.

“I want you to punish me.” He whispered.

“Why?” You whispered back.

“I’ve done horrible things…”

“How horrible?”

“Just fuck me up… I want you so bad.”

A knock on the door interrupted you.

You quickly escaped the trap and hid in the corner of the room while Taehyung opened the door, peaking out slightly not to reveal how hard he was for whoever was knocking.

You recognized Jimin’s voice.

“We located it.”

“Great, we’ll talk about it more later.” He said and closed and locked the door.

He exhaled deeply.

You took off your dress.

He looked over to you, eyeing you up and down in your lingerie.

You walked over to him and he wrapped his arms around your waist, his lips immediately finding yours and his tongue exploring you deeply.

You unbuttoned his shirt and pulled it off of him.

He backed both of you towards the bed and sat down on the edge.

You straddled him and tangled your hands in his hair, pulling it slightly.

“More.” He whispered, breathless.

You pulled harder and he groaned.

He pulled you down with him, his back hitting the bed.

Your lips parted from each other and to your sudden surprise he put two of his fingers in your mouth.

You sat up on top of him, your hand grabbing his wrist.

Your other hand stroked his cheek before putting two of your fingers between his lips as well.

He didn’t hesitate to start sucking on your fingers. You pulled out, a string of saliva dripping from your fingers. You pulled his fingers out of your own mouth too.

He told you to fuck him up…

You climbed off the bed, Taehyung looking at you with wide eyes saying “come back”.

You wiped your mouth with the back of your hand.

“Take off your pants.” You ordered.

He did as he was told and quickly unbuttoned his pants and pulled them off along with his underwear. While he was busy you took your bra off and walked over to the edge of the bed where he laying, anticipating.

“Move up.”

“What are you gonna do?” He asked, moving further up the bed.

“You’ll see.”

You climbed up onto the bed, crawling up over his legs.

Taehyung barely blinked.

You wrapped your hand tightly around his cock, before he could moan you pressed your lips against his tip.

He gripped the sheets.

You went further down, letting your tongue trace around the head of his cock before sucking gently.

You pulled him out.

You moved further up and pressed your lips against his again, letting him taste himself.

He moved his arms to hold you put your quickly pinned them down against the mattress.

Once your lips parted, his lips were glistening and his breathing was unsteady.

But his eyes still looked at you that same loving way.

You placed your hands around his neck to trace down his shoulders and over his chest, but as you moved your hands down he quickly reached up to stop you.

“Choke me.” He begged.

Not really knowing what to do you just squeezed his neck tightly and he smirked widely.

His hands covered yours, urging you to squeeze him tighter but you flicked his hands away and let go of him. Instead you leaned in and kissed his neck before starting to suck on the sensitive skin, making sure you would leave a dark painful hickey.

He moaned.

You reached down over his chest, your fingers brushing softly over his nipple.

You playfully pinched it and he squirmed.

His breathing got heavier, he was getting off from the pain.

Your lips left his neck and you kissed him passionately.

He squirmed again and his hand suddenly squeezed your backside.

Was he close?

You climbed off of him, the loss of your touch made him sad.

His cock was covered in precum.

He was sensitive to pain.

“Don’t let me cum.” He said in a shaky voice.

You wrapped your hands around his cock again.

“Then don’t.” You said in a bitchy tone and started jerking him off.

“Fuck!” He screamed.

You increased your speed and he bit down on his lip hard.

Suddenly you let go.

His fist punched the mattress.

You stood up and walked towards the closet room.

“Don’t touch yourself.”

You grabbed the purple ribbon from yesterday and walked back into the bedroom.

His hands were covering his face.

“I didn’t touch myself.” He said.

His cum had squirted all over his abdomen.

“I couldn’t hold back.”

You didn’t mind.

You wrapped the ribbon around his cock and tied a tight bow before straddling him.

You positioned him by your entrance and slowly slid down his thickness.

The overstimulation got to him immediately and his hands gripped your thighs tightly.

It didn’t take long for him to cum again, this time inside of you.

But you weren’t done.

He was exhausted.

You reached down to draw circles around your clit as you continued to ride him.

Not long and you reached your climax, clenching tightly around him, making him cry out in pain and pleasure.

You let him slip out and climbed off. You carefully removed the ribbon and stroked his cheek soothingly.

“Thank you.” He stuttered.

He grabbed your hand.

“I love you.”

You snuggled up against him and he fell asleep from exhaustion.

You let him rest and tucked him in.

You walked around in the palace while Taehyung rested, exploring every hall and room.

As you headed back to the bedroom you noticed a door to a room you hadn’t explored yet, further down the hall that the bedroom was connected to.

It was locked.

All other doors had been unlocked.

When you returned to the room Taehyung had woken up again.

“Do you think I’m fucked up?” He suddenly asked, shameful

You shook your head.

“Do you love me?”

You nodded.

He smiled and hid his face in his hands.

You walked over to the bed and sat down by his side.

He sniffed.

You moved his hands away from his face to kiss him.

He was crying, tears streaming down his face with guilt.

“Are you ok sweetie?” You asked, cupping his cheek.

“Promise you love me.”

“I love you.”

You did.

You held him until he calmed down.

“I don’t believe you can do horrible things.” You said, referring to what he said earlier

“I didn’t think I could.”

“What exactly is the thing you did?”

“You’ll understand.” he said. “I love you.”

“I love you too.” You said and kissed him gently on the lips.

Taehyung got in the shower and quickly washed off, you had to get ready for the masquerade.

In the closet room he had prepared a long white lace gown for you, white pants and a white shirt with fine details for himself. The masks were in a box, still unseen by your eyes.

You got dressed and Taehyung walked in just in time to help you with the zipper of your dress. It was long with bell sleeves, mesh where it was appropriate and expensive looking lace.

Taehyung got dressed himself and reached for the box with the masks.

He opened it when someone knocked on the door again.

He closed the box and left the room.

“Taehyung we need to talk about this before the guests arrive, it’s urgent.”

It was Yoongi.

Taehyung walked back to the closet room.

“I’ll be back in a sec my love.” He kissed your cheek and left.

You heard the door to the bedroom close.

You grabbed the box and opened it to have a look at the masks, to your surprise they looked… scary. They weren’t vintage style masks or monster masks, they were just plain white.

You waited for a while and Taehyung still hadn’t returned so you decided to walk downstairs.

At the top of the staircase you could see various people entering the palace, all wearing white masks, some simple, some extravagant decorated with pearls and feathers. You walked down the stairs and people looked curiously towards you, not being able to read their expressions behind the masks you assumed they looked because you were a stranger to them or for the fact that you weren’t wearing a mask like everyone else. You walked into the banquet hall, it was dimly lit with a live band playing on the other side of the hall. Decorations hung from the walls and ceiling, black mesh fabric and floral sculptures spray painted black. It was an interesting contrast to all the guests wearing white, the guests symbolizing light in darkness in a way. Kitchen staffs, them too wearing masks, were carrying various plates of appetizers around the room. The room itself was in golden tones, the art piece in the ceiling symbolized a church painting with all the angels and clouds… But the angel’s wings were all painted black…

Suddenly someone grabbed your arm and yanked you to the side of the room.

“What are you doing down here?” Taehyung’s voice asked in a scolding tone. He was wearing his mask and carrying yours in his hands.

“I got bored.”

“You were supposed to wait for me.” He sounded annoyed.

He put on your mask and secured it with the ribbon attached.

“Don’t leave my side.” He said and grabbed your hand tight, leading you back into the swarm of people.

With a simple gesture and his hand on your waist he turned you to face him. People around you were dancing to the soft music and so you did too.

His hand moved to your back and pushed you closer to him.

“I don’t bite.” He teased, his tone still dominant.

You felt your cheeks heat up.

The mask he was wearing made him look intimidating, but you found comfort in his familiar dark eyes. You moved across the floor, your eyes looking all over, curious about who all these people were.

“You’re distracted.”

“Huh? No I’m just curious.”

“Fascinated?”

“Who are all these people? Do you know them?”

“They’re the villagers.”

“All of them?” You asked surprised.

“The ones that could make it.”

That was very hostile of him to invite the villagers to his palace, you thought to yourself.

The mood eased and the music became more upbeat.

“What did Yoongi have to say?” You asked.

“It’s no concern.” He smiled behind the mask.

“It sounded like it would be when he called it urgent.”

“Don’t worry about it.”

You let it slide for now, but you were for sure going to ask him about it again later. Something felt weird and you wanted to know.

One of the staff passed through the dancing people with a tray of drinks and Taehyung grabbed two.

The staff didn’t speak and only nodded gently before moving on through the crowd.

Taehyung handed one of the glasses to you and you took a sip. Whatever was in the glass was unexpectedly sweet… but bitter.

A brief moment later you noticed Jimin and Yoongi walking towards the two of you. Taehyung was having a conversation with one of the guests. You wanted to mingle around but Taehyung wouldn’t let go of your hand for even a second.

They were both wearing masks but they were dressed in their normal formal wear and not all white like the rest of the guests.

Turning away from Taehyung you started up a conversation with the two.

Jimin complimented you on your gown and Yoongi didn’t say much.

You continued with some small talk but it didn’t take long until you asked Jimin what you wanted to know.

“What were you talking about earlier? Did something happen?” You asked sounding concerned.

Taehyung squeezed your hand.

“I… Something we lost was found again and I was just too excited to tell about it.” Jimin said, smiling brightly.

“What was it?”

Jimin looked at Yoongi.

“Don’t worry about it.” Yoongi smiled.

You were tired of hearing that by now.

“Don’t worry about it.” “You’ll understand.” Frustration was growing within you.

Time passed and Jimin and Yoongi left as a bell rang.

Taehyung turned back to you as his conversation was interrupted by another ringing.

“Try to enjoy yourself and don’t think about earlier too much, over-thinking isn’t good for you.” He whispered.

One of the band members announced a toast, for the village and its people and of course Taehyung.

“It has come to our acknowledgement that his voice has returned.” The people cheered.

You thought back of the two of you at the beach.

Did everyone know? Did everyone know about you? That you kissed?

You remembered his words. Don’t over-think, enjoy yourself.

Taehyung kissed your hand before he let go of it and made his way towards the band.

He shook the hand of the band member before taking the microphone from him. He placed it back on the stand and removed his mask.

“He’s so handsome!” You heard someone squeal behind you and giggle.

“I know right!” another said.

You ignored it, but a sense of pride filled you up.

You expected him to make a speech but were surprised when the music suddenly started to play again… Was he going to sing?

His hand gently grabbed the microphone.

His voice was like honey… deep, soothing and almost hypnotizing…

He was passionate, a quality he possessed that you were more than familiar with already.

He made eye contact with you, long enough for you to blush behind your mask. A smirk spread across his face as if he could sense your pink cheeks.

You felt drawn to him.

Drawn to his voice, his presence…

The song came to an end and the room turned silent. He smirked towards you again.

He took a step back from the microphone and the liveliness in the hall suddenly returned as the guests applauded him.

He put his mask back on.

It was like he disappeared in front of the people the second he put it on. Immediately blending in with the crowd, and everyone losing sense of who was who…

He headed straight towards you.

His confident steps along with the mask almost frightened you.

His presence felt stronger. Your heart was beating faster.

He grabbed your hand and leaded you out of the hall without a word.

His grip was tight.

“Where are we going?” you asked.

He didn’t respond.

He led you to the terrace.

The view from the terrace was over the palace garden, covered with rose bushes and the lake with the moon reflecting brightly on the surface.

Taehyung let go of your hand and removed his mask.

With some hesitation you removed yours as well.

His hand reached up to cup your cheek and his lips pressed softly against yours.

He tried to deepen the kiss but you pulled away to his disappointment.

“What’s wrong?” he asked, concerned.

“Taehyung…”

He moved a strand of hair behind your ear.

“I want you to explain what’s going on.”

“I… I can’t… you’ll-”

“You said I would understand but I just feel more and more confused! I don’t understand the dream!”

“You… you think this is a dream?” He looked devastated.

“I don’t know.” You held back tears. “Taehyung I’m so confused… I can’t remember anything.”

He wrapped his arms around you and pulled you close.

“I-I’m sorry.”

“It’s not your fault.”

“It is…” a tear made its way down his cheek. “I’m so fucking selfish.”

“What are you talking about?”

“I… I don’t how to explain, but when I figure it out, you’ll…you’ll understand.” It hurt him to say it, knowing you hated that phrase. “Please never doubt that anything I do isn’t out of love for you.” He kissed your head. “I love you so much.” He whispered.

Your hands were holding a tight grip of his shirt.

“I love you too.”

Your words made him feel less tense.

“You have a beautiful voice.” You continued.

“Thank you.” He sniffed and let out a chuckle.

He took a step back, letting his hands slide from your back down your arms to grab your hands.

You put your masks back on and walked back inside. The night came to an end and the guests left.

Taehyung was in bed, he had the covers pulled up to his hips, exposing his bare upper body.

He looked at you as you got ready to join him in the large bed.

You found a pajama set of black satin in the wardrobe and easily slipped into it before climbing into bed. You snuggled up close to Taehyung’s body, your head resting on his shoulder and your hand on his abdomen.

“Did you enjoy yourself?” He asked.

You nodded.

His hand moved up and down your back soothingly.

You were tired, the masquerade had gone on for longer than you thought and your lack of energy hit you as you crawled in under the soft sheets and next to Taehyung’s warm body.

The room was silent.

The only noise being a subtle whistle from the wind outside.

Before you knew it the two of you had fallen asleep.

The rain was violently hitting the windows as you woke up.

The room was dark and Taehyung was asleep.

It was in the middle of the night.

The rain made too much noise for you to fall back to sleep so you decided to get up and find something warm to drink and hopefully the rain would calm down while you did so.

You managed to untangle yourself from Taehyung’s sleepy hold and grabbed one of his night gowns before leaving the room.

You carefully closed to door behind you and made your way towards the staircase. But before you had a chance to take a step, something caught your attention from the corner of your eye.

The door at the end of the hallway that had been previously locked stood open.

Curious you turned around and headed towards the room.

You pulled the door open and peaked in.

It was empty…

But the floor was slightly lowered and covered in water.

Was there a leak?

You stepped inside.

The room looked like it was intended to be renovated, the walls were worn out and half-dead branches were crawling up the sides of the room. A few withered rose bushes were placed around the room but besides that there wasn’t much else, just a marble table…

“What are you doing in here?” Taehyung’s voice startled you so much that you let out a scream.

He grabbed your arm, trying to pull you out of the water you hadn’t realized you’d stepped in.

“Do you know how afraid I get when I wake up and you’re missing?” He was angry.

“I was going to get something to drink, the rain woke me up, I’m sorry if I woke you up too.” You said softly.

“There’s nothing to drink in here. Come back to bed, NOW.” He yanked at your arm.

He shut the door behind you and made sure it shut properly so it would lock.

“Are you mad at me?”

“I- just don’t wander off like that ok? That door is meant to be locked for a reason.” He dragged you back into his room.

“It wasn’t much to see anyway.”

A wave of anger washed over him.

“If you knew what that room was you’d regret saying that.” He muttered under his breath.

“What?”

He closed the door behind you and shoved you up against it.

“I said if you knew what that room was meant for, you’d regret saying that.” He scolded.

“w-what is it for?” You asked, intimidated.

“You don’t need to know that… not now.”

He stared into your eyes.

The rain was still heavy outside.

“What you need now is to be distracted sweetie.” He tilted his head to the side and pressed his lips against your neck.

He felt like a different person when he was angry…

He wrapped his arms around your waist and picked you up with ease. He carried you to bed and let you fall on your back before crawling up on top of you, his lips attacking you as he latched onto your lower lip.

He moved his hands up your sides, pulling the black silk along with him before pulling it off your head.

You tangled your fingers in his hair and he kissed you rougher.

His hands tangled in your hair as well and he moaned into the kiss.

If his only goal was to distract you he had over-achieved that goal long ago.

He pulled away, letting you catch your breath and moved down to your breasts. His touch made a shiver go down your spine. His tongue licked around your right nipple before he started sucking harshly, his hand squeezing your other breast tightly.

“T-Taehyung…”

“Mmm?”

“Ji-Jimin is here.”

Taehyung’s eyes shot open and he quickly turned around to look towards the door.

“I-I’m sorry, I heard screaming.” Jimin stuttered, flustered by the door.

You grabbed the sheets to cover yourself.

“It’s ok, thank you.” Taehyung said in a strict tone.

Jimin closed the door and left.

Taehyung’s face was bright red when he turned back around to face you.

You couldn’t help but let out a giggle.

He raised his brow at you and snorted.

“Where were we?”

You couldn’t allow yourself to respond.

He snatched the sheet off of you and grabbed your ankles, pulling them apart from each other.

Your shorts got tossed to the floor and he moved up closer.

His fingers trailed gently over your slit before parting your lips.

His tongue licked teasingly slow, down, up with a flick over the most sensitive area.

Two of his fingers slowly pushed past your entrance, curling upwards as his palm added pressure. His lips were sucking gently at your clit as he increased the movement of his fingers, curling, scissoring and doing all he could to prepare you for what he had in mind. He let his fingers slip out as your breathing became heavier. Placing his fingers by his lips he quickly licked them clean.

He stood up on his knees and pulled down his pajama pants, exposing himself. A thin stream of pre-cum had made its way down his shaft. He stroked himself a few times before getting out of his remaining piece of clothing fully and tossing them to the floor.

His thumb stroked over the head and his teeth sunk into his lip.

He sat down with a heavy sigh and jerked himself faster.

You moved your thighs closer together, not going un-noticed.

His strong hands grabbed your ankles again to re-position your legs as far apart as possible.

He eyed you up and down, thinking.

Suddenly he grabbed your sides and rolled you over onto your stomach. He reached for one of the pillows. “Hips up.” He ordered and placed the pillow under your hips.

He climbed on top of you, with one hand he moved your hair to your shoulder and leaned in towards the other one.

His lips pressed softly against the curve between your neck and shoulder.

He dragged the tip of his cock between your slit teasingly, coating himself with your wetness before sliding in, tip only.

“Are you ready?” He whispered and placed another kiss on against your shoulder.

You nodded.

You suffocated a scream, afraid that Jimin or Yoongi would be alerted again when he suddenly thrusted hard and deep into you.

“Be quiet” He whispered and put two of his fingers in your mouth.

He pulled out and thrusted hard back in again with a moan.

Why was he allowed to make noise?

He went hard.

Pulling out fast and thrusting deep, his hips slapping against your ass with each.

His warm breath against your neck made you shiver.

He increased his speed even more, grunting, breathless.

As he hit your sweet spot you accidently bit down on his fingers. He leaned down to kiss your shoulder, you thought as he suddenly bit gently.

You squirmed, much to his delight as he got even closer to his release.

He pulled out his fingers, grabbing your hips with both hands as he tried to go even deeper, stretching you to your limit.

The pressure was unbearable, teasing your orgasm each time as he pulled away right before you were close.

He moaned against your ear, making you even more turned on than you thought you could be.

You needed release.

Now.

“I want you to have it all.” He whispered. You tensed.

You didn’t know what got into him but suddenly he was licking up your back, nibbling at your ear and holding you tight at the waist.

Your hands were in tight fists as you thighs tensed up even more, with heavy breathing he got you close again, thrusting faster he sent you off the edge. You bit your lip as your core clenched tightly around him and all your muscles tensed up only to release into relief.

“Good girl.” He panted.

His weight was heavy on your back as he thrusted one last time before exhaustion hit, he moved his hips slowly a few final times with moans of relief as he released.

He kissed your shoulder again, remaining inside a while longer before carefully pulling out and leaving you with an empty feeling.

“Stay.” He ordered and climbed off of you.

You heart rate and breathing had a chance to calm down.

Curiously you looked over your shoulder as you heard wet sounds coming from behind you.

He was jerking himself off.

He skin was glowing from sweat, his hair sticking to his forehead and his chest moving up and down in rhythm with his breathing. It didn’t take long, the sensitivity making him whimper as he got close again. He quickly climbed back over you and pushed in carefully to cum a second time.

His thighs were shaking and he pulled out, some of his cum leaking out on the pillow beneath you.

He fell onto his back neck to you, trying to regain control of his senses.

If that didn’t distract you enough he wouldn’t know what to do anymore…

You removed the pillow and threw it to the floor. You rolled over on to your side and placed your head on his chest. His heart was beating fast.

The next morning Taehyung woke up before you, as he shifted in bed you woke up as well.

“Did I wake you up?” He whispered in his deep morning voice.

“It’s ok.” You said sleepily and nuzzled him.

He chuckled and placed a hand on your head, stroking you.

You had a shower together… a long one before getting ready for what this day had in store.

In the closet you reached for one of the black dresses but Taehyung stopped you.

“W-wear something white.” He smiled awkwardly

“Oh, ok.” You shook your shoulders and picked out something white instead, it wasn’t a big deal.

You picked a simple white dress, but to your surprise Taehyung was dressed in all black. Black slacks, a black shirt and a thin black coat, so long it almost touched the floor.

You walked down stairs to eat and Yoongi and Jimin were seated by the table. You couldn’t help but blush at the sight of Jimin but he seemed calm.

Breakfast was already served by the table but the atmosphere felt off… was it because of Jimin yesterday anyway?

You took a seat.

��Do you want some tea?” Taehyung asked, all three of them looking at you.

“I’m fine.” You smiled.

“Anything to drink?”

“No, it’s ok.” You said and reached for the bread.

They exchanged looks.

“It’s important to stay hydrated.” Yoongi said.

“It is.” You said, ignoring them as you prepared your sandwich.

Breakfast was awkward.

Later you went to the grand library in the palace, it was a room you hadn’t had the chance to look through properly yet. Taehyung was away doing business somewhere else with Jimin and Yoongi was in the library, to either keep you company or keep an eye on you.

“Where’s the erotic section?” You asked, purposely making Yoongi laugh.

“Come on her for sure has to have at least one.” You laughed.

Encyclopedias and history…

You voyaged deeper between the shelves. Suddenly you stumbled upon a shelf of books with no texts on the back. They were all covered with black velvet and without any information as to what type of book it was. You reached for one and opened it, it was in a different language. You couldn’t place what language it was, you had never seen anything similar.

Yoongi suddenly passed by the shelf.

“You shouldn’t read those.” He said and reached out to grab the book but you turned away from him and closed it on your own behalf and put it back in the shelf. You could actually do it yourself… telling you no was enough….

“When are Taehyung and Jimin coming back?” You asked.

“I don’t know, soon but could also be a lot sooner.”

“What are they doing?”

“You don’t need to worry about that.” He smiled comfortingly.

You didn’t return the smile.

You were going to worry about it. You were tired of this.

You walked out of the library and headed towards Taehyung’s room, Yoongi following your every step from behind.

Before he had a chance to catch up you closed the bedroom door and locked it.

“Hey, I need to be in the same room, Taehyung’s orders.”

“I’m changing my outfit!” You said, annoyed.

You headed towards the window and opened it.

Yoongi shook the door handle.

“I’m naked!”

“Now isn’t the time to change your clothes, come out of there now!”

“Then tell me what’s going on!”

You heard a faint “fuck” come from behind the door.

You looked out from the window to see if there was anything that could support you to climb down. Conveniently there was a wooden fence for the vines growing up the wall. You carefully climbed out of the window, using the wooden fence as a ladder.

Finally you were having a bit of fun.

You smiled to yourself as your feet came in contact with the grass. You started running across the yard, the feeling of the grass on under your bare feet felt freeing. You decided to go to the lake.

You looked behind yourself every now and then. There was still no Yoongi in sight.

You squeezed through the bushes surrounding the palace garden, accidently ripping your dress.

A reached a dirt road, a few villagers were walking along it and they turned to you with wide eyes as you ran past.

“Stop her!” Yoongi’s voice echoed.

You turned around and realized he had noticed you and caught up.

The villagers looked confusingly at the two of you as Yoongi ran past them.

“Please stop!” He yelled. “It’s dangerous here!”

You stopped.

Yoongi reached you in no time and grabbed your arm tightly.

“What are you doing?” He asked, out of breath.

“I wanted to go to the lake.” You said innocently.

“Today isn’t a good day for that ok-“

“Yoongi.”

He went silent.

“Please tell me what’s going on.”

He sighed and let go of your arm.

“I really want to tell you… But Taehyung forbid me.”

“What’s so secret about that room?”

Yoongi looked confused.

“What room?”

“The room that’s being renovated.”

“It’s… You’ll find out today.” He said and grabbed your arm again.

“Where the fuck were you!?” Taehyung yelled.

You didn’t respond.

He looked at Yoongi.

He didn’t respond.

“I think you need to tell her.” Yoongi said.

“Tell her what.”

“It’s enough Taehyung.” Jimin filled in, standing by his side.

The intimidating expression changed into a nervous frown.

“If you don’t we will.” Yoongi said

“You can’t threaten us in front of her.” Jimin continued.

Panic was boiling within him.

Without a word he grabbed your wrist and dragged you with him, leaving Yoongi and Jimin behind.

He led you upstairs and down the hallway… he continued and stopped in front of the room.

You both entered and he locked it behind you.

“Sit on the table.” He said.

You leaned against it, rebelling.

He placed a hand against the table on each side of you, leaning close.

“Did Yoongi tell you anything?”

“No.”

He sighed.

“Just tell me what’s going on!” You yelled.

Taehyung took a step back immediately.

He covered his mouth with his hand… he was shaking.

“Tell me or wake me up!”

“Stop calling it a dream!” He begged, his eyes started tearing up.

“Then what is it?”

“You break my heart when you call it that…”

You remained silent.

“You’ll hate me…”

“I love you, you know I do.” You said in a strict tone.

There was a moment of silence before he suddenly covered his face with his hands and fell down on his knees.

“Taehyung?” You walked closer to him, worried.

His face was covered in tears.

“I- I’m so fucking selfish!” He cried out.

You kneeled down in front of him and whipped away his tears, but they kept coming.

“Is… is this the same reason you wanted me to punish you the other day?”

He nodded.

“Taehyung you need to tell me, you’re obviously not well keeping this inside.”

He took a deep breath.

“You’re dead.”

“What?”

“I… I killed you.” He covered his face again.

“I don’t understand.”

“The lake… I- I’ve been watching you for so long… when you fell I couldn’t stop myself I-“ His tears made it hard for him to speak. “I know you saw me in your dream, it’s because I was there! I was always there! I gave up my voice so I could keep you company each night… when you fell through the ice I couldn’t help it… I love you so much and I’m so selfish I… I drowned you… I drowned you so I could be with you… so you could be with me… I love you.” He looked deeply into your eyes.

“I … I love you too, I still do.”

He cupped your cheek.

“I’m sorry.”

“How did you…”

“You’re on the other side… I took you here… because I wanted you here… because I’m selfish.”

“You’re not selfi-“

“I AM!” He cried. “Don’t tell me I’m not because I know I am! I’ve committed greed… in form of you.”

“I don’t remember anything before the ice…”

“I’m sorry.”

“I want to be here.”

“You don’t.” He looked down, his posture slumping even more.

“I want to be with you.”

“I… I feel so guilty.”

You wrapped your arms around him.

“I’m death… I’m the ruler of the other side… It sounds worse than it is… I’m good, I promise, but I sinned… the villagers can’t know…”

You placed your hand under his chin and placed a soft kiss on his lips.

“I still love you.”

“The reason I didn’t want you to be in this room…” He sniffed. “I understand if you’ll want to leave…”

“What is this room?”

“It’s-“ He swallowed. “When you come here… you part from your body in the real world… but because I ki-killed you… Your body … When I found you, your body was still in the lake and I sent Jimin and Yoongi to find it so we could bury it so you wouldn’t have to see it and realize who I was but it-“ He sniffed. “I kept it here… because I wanted to give you a real ceremony… I’m not a murderer! I couldn’t just dump a part of you like that! I didn’t want you to have to see yourself like that… something I caused… People end up at the lake all the time, independently… But I- I went crazy. My voice was gone, I was desperate to have you here so I jumped into the lake to get you… where you belong… with me.” He sniffed. “I left you in the lake so I could find your soul before anyone else did…”

“I belong here?”

“I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be…. But, where is my body?”

“In the real world, where it belongs. But… I needed you.”

“Taehyung it’s ok.”

“I didn’t even ask you if you wanted this…” he sniffed. “The masks… I was afraid someone might have seen your body and recognized you… I’m so sorry. And the room, the room I perform the ceremonies here… I travelled to your dreams here… The water is from the lake… I’d sleep on the table… but when I woke up my voice was gone… I thought I had become punished for my sins but I read and studied and my voice was with you… because you needed to be here… and rule with me… because I was in love with you and you… you were in love with me. When you fall in love with… death…”

“You have to die?”

He nodded.

“If I stayed away from your dreams this would’ve never happened…”

“Are you sure?”

“I don’t know! But I- I did it all… I took you here… we had sex… so much sex…”

“and I love all of it.”

“After I took you here… you had a chance of going back… this sounds so fucked up I- but if you saw your own body you could’ve gotten back… but I know I wouldn’t let you or tell you how to… instead I had sex with you… meaning that… you could never leave… But I wanted you so bad.”

“I understand.”

He looked up at you with big eyes.

“You do?”

You nodded.

“It’s the dark side of me… but killing you, taking you here and let you commit any of the seven deadly sins would trap you here… having sex with me just seemed… I’m so selfish but it’s the one I wanted! Because I’m so fucking selfish!”

“I’m glad you picked that one.”

He wrapped his arms around you and pulled you close.

“I love you so much.” He sniffed.

“I love you too.”

“I’ll teach you everything you need to know if you want to rule with me… it’s your choice.”

“I want to.”

“Promise me that it’s your pure will.”

“Taehyung… I want to.”

“Can you forgive me?”

“I already have.”

“How?”

“Because I have nothing but love for you in my heart, no matter what would’ve happened, I still fell in love with you, you didn’t pick me, you didn’t cause this, we caused this… WE fell in love Taehyung, this was meant to be.”

For the first time he smiled.

He kissed you passionately.

Thunder suddenly roared outside and he pulled away.

“It’s not a good idea to kiss in here…” He said shyly.

You couldn’t help but think what would happen if the two of you had sex in here…

Taehyung stood up, his clothes dripping from the water. He reached his hand out to help you up and you left the room.

“I like when you wear white… it symbolizes life.” He smiled.

“Then why are you wearing black?”

“I had a thing to attend…”

“Thanks.”

He squeezed your hand.

Yoongi and Jimin were anxiously walking back and forth downstairs.

“He’s gonna kill us.” Jimin said.

“Nah…”

“He’s gonna kill me!”

“You weren’t even meant to keep an eye on her… “

“You remember the screaming last night?”

“Yeah, what was that about?”

“I walked in on them… you know.”

“It was nice knowing you.”

“Stop!” He whined.

“He’s so loud it woke me up and if he does it again he’ll be the one to die.”

“Well good luck with that since neither of us can.”

“It’s just an expression.”

They got interrupted by you and Taehyung returning.

Taehyung was smiling, but his face showed clearly that he had been crying.

“Everything ok?” Jimin asked.

“Yes.” Taehyung nodded, relieved.

Jimin and Yoongi look relieved.

“But I still want to have a word with you tomorrow Yoongi.”

Jimin grinned mockingly at Yoongi.

Later that night you were snuggled up tight against Taehyung’s bare chest.

You felt closer to him than ever before.

Like the one cloud from the sky had finally passed.

“Tomorrow, we’ll go to the lake.” Taehyung promised.

Early the next day the two of you headed to the lake, without Yoongi and Jimin.

Taehyung was carrying a picnic basket and you carried a beach bag.

The weather was nice and sunny.

There was a path leading to a private beach from the palace garden, on your way you could see some of the villagers playing and enjoying themselves at the beach on the other side.

“They’re happy.” Taehyung smiled.

“Are you?” You asked.

He nodded, smiling shyly.

You laid out a giant blanket in the sand and set it up all cozy.

“I have one last thing to ask you…” Taehyung suddenly said.

“You can ask me anything, I want you to be honest and straight forward with me from now on.”

“Straight forward?”

You nodded. “Yes.”

“Ok…

Marry me.”

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