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adobe-outdesign · 16 days

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Kung Fu Panda 4 Rewrite Thing

Been chewing on this movie for a while now and wanted to take a shot at improving it. Some parts are a bit rough but I think this gets the general idea across.

As a rule, I'm trying to keep most of the characters and elements/plot beats in place rather than spinning things off in a completely unrelated direction. I also am aware of the restrictions placed on this movie, such as an unwillingness to rehire high-profile VAs and runtime limitations. This is just meant to be a "what if" kind of thing. That said:

We open with a stylized sequence of Po telling the story of his and the Five's latest battle. As it ends it's revealed he's at the grand opening of Mr. Ping's brand new bigger, better noodle shop location, talking to the customers.

As one of them asks where the Five are now, Po explains that they got summoned to their own individual missions, but they'll be back soon.

(Yes I am still having them be MIA, as Po needs to be alone with Zhen for part of the movie. However, they'll only gone for the first part of this rewrite and for a very specific plot-related reason.)

(The thing with Po needing to give up his title of Dragon Warrior makes no sense for multiple reasons, so let's just drop that plot point entirely. I get that it's meant to tie into the "change" moral, but I'd rather have Po imparting this lesson onto Zhen instead of learning it himself, as otherwise it undermines the character growth he had in 3.

Also, Po isn't carrying the staff around with him constantly in this rewrite, as it looks a bit silly and isn't plot relevant here.)

A messenger shows up to report that the Jade Palace is under attack. Po decides to rush over just in case Shifu needs backup... which he does, because he's being kidnapped in a small one of those magic-proofed cages from the actual film.

(Shifu being kidnapped was tossed around in the writing room originally and I want to keep it in this rewrite because it A) gives Shifu something to do, and B) I want to allow Zhen to openly be working with the Chameleon in order to help flesh out her character and avoid the lackluster plot twist, meaning she'll need new leverage against Po later on.)

The figure behind the kidnapping appears to be Master Elephant, which confuses Po as he's been missing for several months. Right as he's about to land a finishing blow, the figure shape shifts into Master Chicken, throwing Po's attack and resulting in him getting a bad head injury. He does his best to pursue the attackers, but can't keep up. Dismayed, he returns to the Jade Palace...

...And finds Zhen trying to steal something, using the commotion outside as a distraction. Po fights, but he's still badly injured and can't give it his all, resulting in Zhen being able to slip away with her prize—a dust bunny from under the furniture. Po is baffled.

(Side note: I would probably redesign Zhen so she actually looks like she matches the other characters' style, but I digress.)

Feeling dismayed, he returns to the noodle shop, where both his dads work on treating his wounds and comforting him. As Po explains what happened, Mr. Ping mentions that customers have been circulating rumors about a shapeshifting sorceress in Juniper City. Po decides that that's where he needs to go, promises his dads he'll be safe, and leaves.

(I'm cutting Mr. Ping and Li's subplot, because as much as I love them they don't really add much to the plot. It also feels like it goes against Mr. Ping's characterization in KFP 1 and 2 in particular.)

This is where we can have the scene of the Chameleon vs. the crime bosses. This can mostly stay the same except one of the bosses attempts to attack her when she shape shifts, causing her to retaliate with a magic-based attack. She also needs to straight-up kill the guy to establish her and her sorcery as a legit threat.

Po arrives at the Happy Bunny tavern to look for a ride to Juniper City. As he talks to Fish and Chip, he notices Zhen nearby doing some black market trading with Granny Boar to obtain a white feather. Po confronts her and she tries to run out with the feather, causing the boar family to pursue in a big fight scene.

Po and Zhen manage to escape, Zhen stashing the feather. Po threatens to have her sent to jail, but Zhen confirms she's working for the Chameleon and can lead Po to her so he can rescue Shifu. Po dislikes this situation, but has no choice but to agree.

(Unlike in the actual film, I would make it so her lair is hidden in some fashion; magic that keeps it camouflaged would be appropriate for a chameleon, or it could be underground or hidden behind something. Regardless, it should be impossible to locate without Zhen's assistance.)

On the boat ride over to Juniper city, Zhen says that she has to "obtain" one more item from the local history museum or she'll be in big trouble with the Chameleon. Po doesn't like this detour, but once again has no choice in the matter.

Po asks why Zhen would want to work for someone so obviously evil, and this is the point where Zhen admits she was adopted by the Chameleon and we get her backstory.

(I would establish that the Chameleon has an actual name, but only Zhen uses it. It shows that Zhen is closer to her than most, not quite seeing her as a mother but not fearing her enough to use her preferred title. Also, the Chameleon's the only KFP villain without a proper name and that bothers me.)

The backstory can be the same, but the part about her living on the streets and meeting the Chameleon for the first time should be merged into a single flashback.

Zhen says that Po couldn't understand, but Po reveals that he's also adopted, and that he probably would commit some noodle-related crime if his dad asked him to. Still, Zhen insists that people don't change, and that includes her.

They arrive at Juniper city (Po is impressed at its size but he very much is not acting like he's never seen a city before). Zhen covers up her muzzle and tucks her tail under her clothes so she won't be recognized.

Zhen is ready to break into the museum, but Po says that he's got this and goes up to the guards to tell them that he has some official Dragon Warrior business to take care of and will need to borrow some ancient artifacts.

Unlike in the actual film, everyone ready acknowledges him as the Dragon Warrior. The guards are more than happy to loan him whatever he needs... until Zhen's tail pops out and the guards recognize her, prompting them to attack.

During the scuffle, Zhen uses a chi blast to knock back one of the guards, but almost gets taken out by the other guard coming up behind her. Po defends her but gets mildly injured as a result.

After the fight, Po asks about the chi move and Zhen states that the Chameleon taught her the basics.

Zhen confirms that the Chameleon is a master of chi, and that the sorcery she uses is a specific type of chi manipulation.

(The reason I'm connecting chi to her powers is that it makes them feel a bit less out of left field, and helps 4 feel like a logical progression from 3.)

Zhen admits that she's not very good at using chi, but Po points out that it took him years to use chi in battle. He also compliments her on her kung fu, and she confirms she's self-taught.

(In this rewrite, Zhen is good at fighting but not quite at the level she is in the actual movie. This is to address the issue of who taught her if the Chameleon doesn't know kung fu.)

He takes a moment to give her a few pointers, which causes her to ask why he took that blow for her earlier, figuring there's a catch. Po just says it's the right thing to do, but Zhen is skeptical, figuring he only did it because he still needs her to lead him to Shifu.

The reminder of Shifu prompts Po to move on, and they grab the item Zhen was after, a 500 year old set of blades, then run for it.

Po and Zhen arrive at the Chameleon's lair, and Zhen shows Po how to get inside and tells him where Shifu is being held. She says that she'll take the items to the Chameleon, which will distract her while Po breaks him out. Po thanks her, and the two separate. Zhen warns him of booby traps on the way out.

There are indeed booby traps, such as those saw contraptions from the actual movie and a bunch of guards. It takes Po a few minutes, but he eventually gets through them.

Po finds Shifu being held in a dark room. Shifu is glad to see him, but warns him to be careful as the Chameleon's likely not far away. Po explains Zhen's distraction and moves to free him... only for a cage to fall down and trap him as well.

"Shifu" is then revealed to be the Chameleon in disguise, who slips through the bars via shape shifting into a mantis and thanks Zhen for her help. Zhen apologizes to Po, who's naturally upset ("I mean, I know you were evil, but I didn't think you were THAT evil").

Zhen hands over the three items she collected, and it's confirmed what they are: a dust bunny that contains a clump of Tai Lung's fur, a feather from Lord Shen, and a pair of blades once wielded by Kai.

Po mistakenly interprets this as the Chameleon being a collector of kung fu memorabilia and tries to chat about the Jade Palace's collection, much to her bafflement.

The Chameleon explains that a trace of a person's chi remains long after their death, and demonstrates by doing The Tongue Thing on Kai's blade, stripping its chi, and immediately taking his form.

(As you may have picked up on, this rewrite removes the spirit world elements entirely. While they are really interesting, I think cutting them is the best option because:

1. There is so much plot involved with bringing Po's old enemies back that you could make that an entire movie in and of itself. It's hard to do it justice when you're cramming it in around the edges of this movie.

2. It makes the Chameleon too similar to Kai in terms of abilities.

3. Having her rely on stealing other's kung fu makes her come across as weak despite being a powerful sorceress.)

Po asks her if her goal is to take over China, but she says no; she just wants to end the practice of kung fu for good, and prove that sorcery is the superior option. To prove it, she has Shifu brought in.

While having your chi stripped does not remove one's kung fu abilities in this rewrite, it is still removing part of one's life energy and thus weakening them severely for a period of time—ergo, Shifu is still unable to fight at his best. Still, he manages to hold his own.

Instead of using kung fu, the Chameleon relies on the brute animalistic strength and inherent abilities of the forms she takes, switching whenever she's loosing to keep her opponents on her toes and even transforming into Shifu himself for a period. She also uses a few chi-based attacks.

Just when it looks like Shifu is about to win the fight, she uses her tongue to strip the chi from the fur clump, taking the form of Tai Lung. Shifu is so shocked and distraught that he fails to attack, allowing the Chameleon to land a serious blow.

She returns to her original form and states that when the blood moon has risen, she will battle and take down every master in the middle of Juniper city, where everyone can learn just how useless kung fu and the people who teach it are. She leaves Po in his cage panicking over Shifu, who's unresponsive.

Zhen follows the Chameleon outside, where we get the "does the blood moon always rise so slowly" gag. Noticing that Zhen looks troubled, she asks what's wrong, and Zhen talks about how Po encouraged her to do the right thing. Even though she's been told that kung fu masters are elitist, selfish people, she couldn't see any of that in Po.

(Side note: I want to establish in this rewrite that while the Chameleon will claim up and down that Zhen is only a pawn for her to use, she does care about her to some extent, even though probably loathes the fact she does. For example, when talking to Zhen here, she might pick some rubble out of her fur or something to show there's a teeny tiny bit of actual affection hidden there.

The reason for this is that all other KFP villains have had an emotional anchor—Shifu for Tai Lung, Shen's parents for Shen, and Oogway for Kai. The Chameleon being abusive but having some real love for Zhen and Zhen struggling with her gaslighting adds a lot more depth to both of them.)

The Chameleon finally reveals her backstory, which should be told in a hyper-stylized way à la the flashbacks in KFP 2 and 3. Just like Zhen, she grew up on the streets as an orphan, broke and starving. She admired kung fu greatly and wanted to learn it, but everyone turned her away for having no money to pay for lessons.

One day, she found a shiny jade amulet on the streets that someone lost, finally giving her a much-needed break. She is able to use that money to enroll in classes.

The problem was that while the money changed her financial status, it didn't change the way people saw her. Her master still considered her a lowly gutter rat and treated her as such, verbally insulting her and beating her down during training sessions. It's very much like how Shifu treated Po in KFP 1, except worse, especially because the Chameleon is a small and fragile animal.

Finally, during one training session she became too injured to move. Her master told her to quit and started to walk away, only for her to grab his leg with her tongue to trip him up. However, at the peak of her self-loathing, she instead discovered her chi stealing abilities and transformed into him. It's not shown, but it is implied she killed him.

As the flashback ends, the Chameleon shifts into Zhen and tells her that no matter how much you change, you can't change the way other people see you. Siding with Po, she says, will only get her hurt. Zhen nods and unexpectedly hugs the Chameleon, telling her she knows, and runs off.

Cutting back to Po, we see him frantically trying to break the bars of his cage. Zhen comes forward and drops down on her hands and knees, apologizing for everything. Po says that she came back, and that's what matters.

She reveals that the "hug" was actually just a way for her to get the key off of the Chameleon, and she uses it to unlock Po's cage. Po runs over to Shifu and he and Zhen heal him with chi, and we get a callback to the "I'M NOT DYING YOU IDIOT" scene from KFP 1.

However, while Shifu's not dying, he is very badly injured and can barely walk on his own. Po asks how they can take on the Chameleon and her army with just three of them, but Zhen holds up the key and suggests they get an army of their own.

Running downstairs, Zhen reveals where the other masters are being held. To Po's shock, the Furious Five are among those captured. Tigress confirms that the summons they received were traps laid by the Chameleon, and she already has their forms.

Also down there are the other crime bosses, as it feels like they just disappear in the actual film after their scenes.

Zhen only manages to unlock the Five's cages before before the Chameleon snatches the key back with her tongue, revealing that she knew Zhen was lying to her. Behind her, her army assembles.

Tigress confirms that that the Five will take on the army, and Po faces off with the Chameleon one-on-one. She strips the feather and uses Shen's form to fly up and take the upper ground, trying to kick a cage onto him. Zhen helps deflect it, and the Chameleon tells her to stay out of the way. Po and her continue to battle.

Despite Po's best attempts at blocking it, she does finally stick him with her tongue. He grabs it and throws her a distance in her fragile base form, injuring her but still giving her some of his chi in the process.

The Chameleon takes on Po's form next, and we get a fight similar to the one in the movie, though once again with her using less kung fu and more magic and physical attacks.

She mentions how she was rejected and tries to tell him that he should be on her side, because a bit fat panda like him must have been treated just as badly as she was. Po denies this, but Shifu admits it's pretty accurate. Po says he's not helping.

Po admits that she has a point, except she forgot one thing, and we get a callback to the "I'm THE big fat panda" moment from KFP 1.

The two attack at the same time. As the dust clears, it's revealed that neither are doing great—Po has gotten a lot of little injuries and the chi stealing has weakened him. The Chameleon is struggling to shapeshift at all, with the attempt causing her pain, and instead settles for trying to blast him. Zhen steps in and manages to redirect the attack back at her.

The Chameleon takes the blow and ends up back on the floor as a parallel to her flashback. Zhen reaffirms that she disagrees with her worldview—people can change, and she's going to prove it. If the Chameleon wants get to Po, she'll need to get through her first.

The Chameleon kind of laughs this off at first before realizing she's dead serious. She states that Zhen isn't even good at fighting, but Po disagrees, giving Zhen a confidence boost. The Chameleon struggles to her feet as if readying an attack, everyone braces themselves... and she surrenders, too injured to fight and unable to bring herself to hurt Zhen.

(There are a few reasons why I think her surrendering makes for an interesting defeat here:

1. There's no spirit realm portal to yeet her into in this version;

2. There's only so many times Po's enemies can be yeeted directly into the spirit realm before it gets old;

3. It adds character depth, and;

4. It ties back nicely in to the theme of change and that it's never too late to do the right thing.)

Zhen helps the Chameleon up, Tigress does the same for Po, and Monkey does the same for Shifu. The five reveal that despite being exhausted, they still managed to wipe the floor with the Chameleon's army, which Zhen thinks is incredible. Po introduces Zhen to them formally, and Shifu asks if they can save the introductions for after they get medical treatment.

Later on, Po (carrying the staff Oogway gave him) approaches Zhen, who's sitting under the peach tree by the Jade Palace. He asks her if she's doing okay after everything that's happened. She says she's alright, but is pretty scared of what's going to happen next, given that the Chameleon's in jail and she has nowhere to go.

Po reveals that him and Shifu have been talking, and he plans to open a new school as part of the Jade Palace that will offer free kung fu lessons to anyone who's interested in learning. Zhen asks if there are any spots open, and we end similar to the actual movie, with her training alongside the five.

the credits still end with the Jack Black cover of Baby One More Time because it slaps

#kung fu panda #kfp #kung fu panda 4 #kfp 4 #po #shifu #zhen #the chameleon #outdesign posts things #outdesign attempts to write #been chewing on zhen and the chameleon's characters like a dog with a new toy #apparently tumblr removed the ability to add sub bullets so sorry if this is a wall of text. hopefully the images help a bit

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phantom-dc · 9 months

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Jason is 19 years old.

He wakes up, startled by his phone. As he reaches for his phone, he tries to remember his dream. They always slip away. He understands the green swirls, that awful Lazarus color. But there are things floating around in there, that he can never remember. Picking up, he is greeted a familiar voice. Dick tells him they found a cult that had been kidnapping people and they are going to sacrifice someone tonight. Normally they can handle those, but since it’s technically in Red Hood’s area he decided to call. Jason sighs and tells him to send him the address, he’ll be there in 10. He knows that the Bats could handle a bunch of weirdo’s in robes, but if he lets them work in his territory without him, they might try to barge in more often. Can’t have that. It wasn’t that long ago they settled on their truce, but that doesn’t mean Jason was ready to become part of the family again, and giving them an excuse to come over more was out of the question. He puts on his uniform and helmet and leaves. The faster he can get this over with the better.

When he gets there he wasn’t expecting this. He had thought it’d be 5 guys with cheap candles and too much free time, but these guys were a bit more organized. About 30 of them, and all carrying blades. They had about 10 young women ready as sacrifices. That’s probably where they’re going to get the blood for the summoning circle from. Luckily they don’t seem hurt yet. Red Hood joined the fight, taking out a cultist by landing on him. Knocking another one unconscious, he sees Nightwing doing a flip and kick 2 cultists in the face. Extra fucker, you don’t need to do so many flips, you know. Or is he trying to show off for the girls? Nah, knowing him he just liked showing off in general. He rips the blade out a cultist’s hand and stabs him with it, before pulling it out and doing the same to 2 more. He spots Batman, who is throwing Batarangs at another group that tries to run away. He notices his disappointed glare. Well, Bruce can shove it. He didn’t even stab them that badly! If they get medical care they’ll probably survive. Jason gets closer to the middle of the room. As he breaks a cultist’s arm, he spots Red Robin. He is protecting the girls. Jason is caught off guard. He didn’t expect Tim to be here. Not after he went way too far. Tim probably thought Jason was trying to kill him back then. He really hadn’t been though, he just wanted to scare Tim off being Robin. But with the Lazarus still clouding his thoughts he’d gone overboard…

Suddenly Jason felt a pain on his neck. While he got distracted one of the cultists had managed to nick him right where the armor and his helmet met. A weak spot, Jason thought as he kicked the cultist away. Something to remember for the next armor. Behind him, his blood hit the summoning circle. A green glow gets everyone’s attention. The remaining cultists cheer. The circle worked! Their God would make them immortal! Jason wasn’t paying attention to them, stepping away from the circle that had started to bubble in the middle. Batman started barking orders, prompting Red Robin to save the hostages and Nightwing to start rounding up the remaining cultists. Batman himself seemed to be trying to call someone on his communicator. Who the hell could Bruce know that could help with this?

Suddenly a huge, white, clawed hand bursts from the circle, planting itself on the ground next to it, before a second hand, this one wearing a dark ring, did the same. As the ceiling impossibly becomes a night sky, a large black mass tries to pull itself out of the ground, as Jason hears Batman say something about the circle not having a shield. That can’t be good. The mass pulls itself from the ground, revealing a white-haired head, wearing a crown that immediately spreads a green/blue borealis around itself. Was the warehouse they were in always this tall? No, reality had warped just to accommodate this being’s size! Nightwing said it hurt to look at it, which confused Jason. He had no trouble with that. It opens its maw, and an icy fog escaped. It looked around, full green eyes scanning the room. Fearing it would notice the hostages, Jason did something he’d consider very stupid later. He yelled: HEY! It immediately got the being’s attention, lowering its head to get a closer look at Red Hood. It doesn’t move its maw, yet it speaks: You feel… familiar.

It brings it’s claw closer to Jason, in a manner that reminds Jason of a curious child. That doesn’t make him feel any better though. As the claw comes closer, it feels like time is slowing down. Jason can’t bring himself to move. Right before it can make contact, it is suddenly pulled away. Jason vaguely hears Batman reciting something from his communicator, as the being is sucked back down the circle. When it disappears, the warehouse returns to normal again. Batman thanks a ‘Constantine’ over his communicator. Red Robin reports to Batman the hostages are safe, and Nightwing reports that the police is here to arrest the cultists. Batman nods, before turning to Jason. He asks if he is alright, snapping Jason out of is daze. He tells Batman that he can handle himself, and that he is out of here. As he leaves, Nightwing mentions he didn’t cuss at them. That��s good!

At home Jason flops down on his bed. That had been way too intense. He felt like that being was trying to look straight into his soul. As he tries to fall asleep, one thing keeps him awake: It had called him familiar, and for some reason, Jason agreed. That being was familiar.

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#danny phantom #danny fenton #dc x dp #dp x dc #red hood #jason todd #batman #dead on main

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soupbabe · 10 months

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Can I get Carrie White, Candyman, Martin, and RZ Michael comforting an s/o about being “too sensitive” thank you as always Theo

-📽️

Slashers Comforting a Sensitive S/o

Featuring: Carrie White, Daniel Robitaille (Candyman), Martin Mathias, and RZ! Michael Myers

WOOHOO !! HAVEN'T HAD AN EMOJI ANON IN SO LONG !! Anyways thank you sm for the request!! <33

Tagging: @rottent33th, @slaasherslut, @the-pinstriped-hood, @devil-doll13, @bugginbeetlew

Carrie White

- She empathizes a lot with you, she's used to people poking fun at her for being sensitive too

- I think Carrie would have you lean your head on her shoulder and tries her best to comfort you with her words

- She loves you just the way you are, that people are cruel and if you don't mind her asking, who was it that told you you were too much?

- As calm as she's trying to be, there is a bubbling anger inside of her for your situation

- Carrie wouldn't tolerate her partner being insulted like that, it's okay to drop the names of the person that was being mean to you

Daniel Robitaille

- Candyman isn't always a constant figure in your life despite the relationship you built with him. There's always someone out there summoning him, keeping his legend alive

- However he seems to always appear when you need him the most, and this time was no different

- Thinking about a cold hook gently grazing the side of your face, momentarily distracting you from dwelling on an interaction you had earlier today

- Daniel is taken aback when you explain what's upsetting you, what do you mean "too sensitive?"

- He adores how emotional and sensitive you are, it's just something very human.

-You feel everything more intensely than he does, it can make you more open to other's feelings and he swears he can feel his heart beat again when you shine under his praise

Martin Mathias

- In general, I think Martin isn't the best at comfort. He sometimes panics and ends up making the situation worse

- So seeing you downtrodden and sad puts him off, might make him think he did something wrong

- He'll ask you what's bothering you, but he'll go quiet for a bit, unsure of how to comfort you at first

- Martin is very physical, he'd gently hold your hand and let you rest your head on him

- "They don't know what they're talking about. Maybe they should learn from you and be more considerate of others."

Michael Myers

- Is it too mean to say that while Michael can agree that you're too sensitive, but he still gets angry at who upset you?

- Michael doesn't pay a lot of attention to you when you're distressed, but if he gets the hint that someone else made you feel that way, he's instantly protective

- it gives very much "you're a sensitive crybaby, but you're my sensitive crybaby," y'know?

- Like?? Start talking or he will find out who made you upset

- The comfort only really comes in after he's gone out and taken care of the person

- He pulls you into his lap, still covered in blood, and just holds you there. He doesn't care if you talk or you two spend the moment in silence, it's his best attempt at calming you down

#carrie 1976 x reader #carrie 1976 #carrie white #carrie white x reader #daniel robitaille x reader #daniel robitaille #candyman 1992 x reader #candyman 1992 #Martin Mathias #martin x reader #martin 1977 #martin mathias x reader #rob zombie's halloween #rz michael myers x reader #rz!michael myers #halloween x reader #horror x reader #slashers x reader

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sadtonight · 1 year

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"Away, away my thoughts go"

Summary: getting lost in thoughts is nothing out of the ordinary for you: your mind slipping away from reality that is surrounding you while doing mundane things. It's best if he keeps you grounded, else you might fly away into the skies;

Characters: Riddle, Vil, Epel, Idia, Lilia;

Warnings: implications of unspecified mental illness, reader is gender neutral, established romantic relationships;

Side notes: another self indulgent one, I underestimated my capabilities a bit so the work came two days late ha ha. I've edited the notes for the third time and I don't know what to put here! Enjoy? Get better? It's not as bad as it might seem, try to fixate on the positive moments that are happening now instead the ones that occur in your head, my own advice.

Riddle

— honestly, Riddle did give you benefit of the doubt when you seemed a bit lost by assuming that you are just busy or still yet to get accustomed to Night Raven College. However he undeniably finds it mildly infuriating. Why are you not listening to him anymore? Just so you know, it's mannerless to lose focus in the middle of conversation! Your boyfriend can always come back to what he was talking about, but not all people are willing to do so. Riddle worries about your absentminded attitude, so he directly confronts you;

— at first he didn't sound all that receptive: Riddle, in his usual way, started from matter-of-fact speech only to drop it upon seeing your visibly getting distant, as if you were told off. The red haired boy signed and broke an eye contact he was maintaining so you wouldn't feel so tense and asked if anything was distracting you or if you needed his help. Despite not looking at your boyfriend's face anymore, you could tell that the last phrases sounded a bit stained. Riddle did care about your mental well-being, so instead off brushing it off you shared what you were comfortable with;

— Riddle could relate to your dissociation, but it gave him more anxiety than reassurance: he remembers his times back at home, locked in a room with complicated books pilling up from the floor to the ceiling, dreaming of eating sweets and playing outside with Chenya and Trey again, only to come back to reality and try to get rid of the pesky thoughts that got in the way of his studies. His heart aches when he thinks about negative experience that you could've gone through;

— the very next day, red haired has went straight to the library to get his hands on as much as textbooks as he could handle. Articles that described how to keep grounded were real life savers. Riddle used to do homework with you now and then, but this time it's a permanent activity, especially everything related to memorization and math. Your boyfriend knows he can be scary when he gets carried away with studies, meaning that you get special treatment from Riddle, him being more lax and also showing how proudly smiling and praising you when you succeed;

— something Riddle also took a great liking to is trying new different tea blands and sweets in the secluded area of the Heartslabyul maze garden. Red haired boy tells you to describe the taste, smell, texture and colours of the food. Riddle became generally more attentive of you, thinking about new positive memories he wanted to make with you so that you would spend more time with him instead of somewhere far away, in the back of your mind.

Vil

— the celebrity always had to keep himself together despite whatever challenges and whims life throws at him. And naturally, the beautiful male had not-so-beautiful things to share like any other human being and you were amongst the few people he could feel relaxed enough to tell you his worries. Although, recently your boyfriend had started to suspect that his dear lacks a healthy amount of concentration, and not only in regards him but the world around;

— so being a proper partner he has made up his mind to see what was the case: Vil summoned you to his room under the guise of trying out new beauty product that appeared on the market. The tall male sat you on the chair before the vanity while standing behind you, pretending to be busy, and begun talking about the product, gradually shifting to saying outright nonsense to see how would you react. And unfortunately you didn't show confusion or surprise: you only slightly nodded and hummed, signing that you were in fact hearing Vil, however not listening to what he was saying;

— all of the sudden you were snapped back to reality by your face being turned to the side to meet magnificent, amethyst eyes that had disappointment reflected from their owner. Vil expectantly made a remark that sounded more like a plea: did something bother you or did he need to work on your focusing;

— after being cornered like that, you had no choice but to confirm your boyfriend's suspicions. Now healthy amount of self introspection is always welcome but your introspection are borderline hurtful, that's what Vil believed anyways. Beautiful male would attempt to find the root of the problem as to why do you slip away, but if you wish to withhold that information he won't pry, although he hopes you can tell him one day;

— Vil decides to help you with concentration the very same day. One of the ways that helps him to keep himself grounded is by doing exercises or practising dance movements, meaning that you will start participate alongside. Not only will it better your blood circulation but also will help you train your muscle memory and attention to details. Additionally, it's a great way to organically include you into his busy lifestyle and equally great excuse to get to touch you a bit more than Vil usually is able to.

Epel

— the boy notices how forgetful you tend to be before getting into the relationship with him. But as time passed, Epel realised you also space out a lot whenever you two are hanging out. His first reaction was to find fault in himself: Epel didn't consider himself to be a capable man for you, but he was selfish enough to crave your love and affection. Could it be that, just maybe, you grew bored of petite boy or found someone better...?

— lavender haired sulks throughout the week, until one day during the lunch break worried Jack tells him to spill the beans. Following brief explanation, beastman suggested that instead of Epel being the problem you could have a lot on the plate, but not wanting to burden your boyfriend and deal on your own. This revelation sprung Epel into action, with him hastily excusing himself and getting from his seat rushing out of dinning hall, typing you to meet him;

— your boyfriend awkwardly stood before you, hands tangling behind his back, head hanging low: he was clearly debating on how to approach the issue, finally meeting your eyes with newfound confidence. Not without stumbling through the words, Epel questioned all sorts of things that could be the case for your dissociation. Since your boyfriend had caught on, you decided to let him on about your "habits";

—it's... hard for Epel to relate, however he tries his very best to do so. Even if his initial guesses turned out to be false, lavender haired boy still set his mind on working to better himself in the relationship department. It's okay, because you can rely on him: Epel will always remind you of everything you need to be reminded of! To eat drink or have a small snack (if you don't mind apples you are never out of apple based foods), to change clothes that correspond to current weather outside, to do your college assignments which he could hypothetically help you with or at least do them together, to take care of your appearance by supplying you with different beauty products from Vil etc;

— to keep you grounded, Epel often tells you about types and sorts of apples and gives you them to see, smell, touch and taste. After that, he asks you if you remember the names, the colours and tastes of each separate type. Your boyfriend lights up when you get the correct answers, not getting frustrated if you don't remember everything — the boy is very proud of you for making progress all the same.

Idia

— you both are not the chaty-est couple out there, which made it harder to spot if something was amiss with you. Idia actually became aware of the fact when you were playing video games together by observing how sometimes you would just stand in one place or stall in the inventory menu for a while;

— your boyfriend began wondering if you didn't like the games or found them unengaging, but soon he saw the same thing happening when you were watching movies or anime. Blue flamed male debated whether to do something or just leave you be, maybe that's just how you were. It didn't let Idia focus on his projects or hobbies and Ortho made it worse by listing problems you could potentially suffer from, trying to encourage his older brother to take action;

— ugh, it's really humiliating for Idia to confront you like that, what questions he should ask anyway? By pure miracle you somehow put together what Idia was trying to convey, so you let your boyfriend on what was the situation. After listening to you, he closed his eyes for a moment. Look, Idia gets you very well, maybe too well for his own liking. However, you have so much stuff awaiting you out there, unlike him who is stuck being the Shroud. To drag you down with him to the bottom of the underworld was never an option: you mustn't suffer like him nor you mustn't lock into your own mind;

— your boyfriend wants to support you as much as he can, though only as far as his comfort zone goes. Idia didn't need to go further than his own dorm thankfully, because one of the activities that helped ground himself were engineering. Cold metal tools, weird texture of materials, the smell of plastic etc. You don't necessarily need to be a pro or something —genius male won't make you do complicated stuff, it's not like there is some existing challenge. Due to aforementioned quality, your boyfriend can bite with words painfully at times so Ortho is there to defuse the situation;

— lanky male tries to be a bit more physical with you, like touching your shoulder when he sees you staring into nothingness or awkwardly sets his slander hand on your thigh when the two of you play video games. Idia is not all too pleased but if it helps you keep your mind here somehow....

Lilia

— hellooo, Twisted Wonderland to his distracted mortal beloved. Lilia can be extremely perspective when he wishes to be, and so prior to you getting together, while the bat had been courting you, he noticed how your mind could wander somewhere else. He understands: you also must have a long history just like Lilia. Sometimes he snapped you back to reality, sometimes he started to reminisce about his own past, saying sotto voce, vague remarks that you usually didn't catch on;

— but what worried your boyfriend was the fact that you were so young yet dwelled on whatever occupied your mind. You would occasionally skip meals and forget to bring textbooks, notes and stationary supplies to classes. Lilia had experienced the same, many times, but he has lived for decades and his memory gets blurry over time. You have to be pulled out of your daydreams or else the fae will lose you — like a candle, you will melt before his very eyes. Experiencing real life sensations what makes one feel alive, Lilia knows that personally, though he doubts you would appreciate real battles for life that he has been forced to go through frequently during his war general days;

— no matter the reason for your condition, Lilia won't pry into your personal life unless you tell him. That's why he never really had a talk with you, opting for leading you straight to the point. Playful old bat flicked his fingers before your face or scared you when slipped from the conversation, popped out of nowhere and dropped his oversized jacket onto your shoulders when it got colder and you forgot to bring something warm, pulled out your college utensils from thin air when you swore you lost them somewhere in your room-

— at any rate, Lilia became very clingy all of the sudden: now short male holds your hand or hangs on your arm all the time. You don't have a chance to get used to the weight pulling your arm because he specifically drags your limb differently every day. Another weird habit that Lilia took up was to constantly make stupid jokes. He doesn't stop at the unfunny ones, no, he continues until you smile or better yet — laugh. Your boyfriend wants you to come back to him, to where he could reach you and where he could bring you as much joy as he possibly could so you wouldn't escape to dreamlands again.

#twisted wonderland headcanons #twst headcanons #twisted wonderland x reader #twst x reader #riddle rosehearts x reader #vil shoenheit x reader #epel felmier x reader #idia shroud x reader #lilia vanrouge x reader

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misc-obeyme · 2 months

Note

🪱

Long time no talk hello cc i had a shower thought.

If for some dumb reason if cerberus were to bite mc i made a list of most violent reactions to least violent i wanna know if you agree

Lucifer

Diavolo

Barbatos

Satan

Levi

Beel

Belphie

Mammon

Solomon

Asmo

Simone

Luke

Do you agree??? If no whats your list???

Ohhh hello 🪱 anon!

What an interesting scenario. I can't imagine Cerberus actually ever biting MC... just because I'm more inclined to imagine Cerberus loving MC as much everyone else does lol.

My list kinda depends on the definition of violent. Would they have a big reaction or would they straight up go Cruella De Vil and turn Cerbie into a coat?

I'm kinda back and forth about Lucifer. I'm pretty sure Lucifer loves Cerberus, but he also loves MC. And I don't think Lucifer would react very well to his dog doing something like that. You know, like he probably trained Cerberus himself. So I do think he'd be pissed at any rate.

I see Diavolo just getting MC out of there and keeping them at the castle for a while. I think he'd be like hey Lucifer take care of your dog and leave things to Lucifer for that part of it. He's gonna keep MC with him until they're fully healed.

Barbatos would be able to subdue Cerberus with a look, I'm fairly certain. He'd be angry, but I don't think he'd lose his cool enough to do anything other than nurse MC back to health. I see him also sorta leaving the Cerberus side of things to Luci.

I'm not so sure about Satan. He's a little more uhhhh well violent in general lol. Because I could totally see him getting pissed about this, too, but like he's more prone to losing his shit. Even still I think his priority would be MC.

I think Levi would be farther down on the list 'cause he does not strike me as the kinda demon to stand up to big scary three headed dogs. He'd be upset about the situation, no doubt, but I think he'd be too busy flailing over MC to do much. He might do that thing where he snaps and summons Lotan, though. In which case everybody's just gonna hafta go for a swim.

Beel is tricky because I don't see him as violent. To me he's such a big sweetheart, I see him doing something more like getting in the way and ending up getting bitten himself in an attempt to protect MC. Carries MC to safety as fast as he can.

Belphie... well... man I dunno. He can't exactly choke out a dog, can he? He's violent but in a quieter way than I think would be needed for something Cerbie's size lol. I think he'd be more likely to distract Cerberus with something so he can get MC outta there.

Mammon is known for being a bit of a scaredy cat, but I think it's more about horror than big dogs. That being said, he's also known for running fast, so I think he's in a good spot on the list. He'd just pick up MC and book it out of there. Yell at Lucifer about his dog later.

Solomon is interesting because I really think the "violence" definition comes into play here. Violent as in "dramatic reaction?" Put my man at the top of the list. Violent as in "physically attack?" No, he's about right where he is. Solomon would be extremely upset about this situation, but he'd take care of it with magic.

I think Asmo would use his charm on Cerbie. It obviously works on animals, so that'd be easy enough. Charms the heck out of Luci's dog so he can remove MC from the situation. And I see him being calm about it, too, just taking care of things because MC's safety is on the line and he's not messing around with that.

For some reason, I have this vision of Simeon calming the raging beast with a gentle touch lol. Is it because he's an angel or is it just because he's beautiful? Perhaps both. Either way, he's probably in the right spot.

Luke, my darling precious son, I hate to say it but I'm pretty sure he'd get eaten. I think he'd try to protect MC and stand between them and Cerberus. But he's probably just the right size to be gulped down in a single bite.

Oops this got a little lengthy lol. Anyway, those are just my general thoughts on it! But man, I kinda feel bad for Cerberus in this scenario because you know nobody is gonna be okay with him biting MC.

#I think the list is mostly accurate #maybe move Levi down #and move Satan up #obey me #obey me nightbringer #obey me mc #okay I'm not gonna tag every character lol sorry I'm too lazy tonight #obey me cerberus #obey me lucifer #because he seems most relevant #🪱 anon #misc answers

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shinnyscats · 9 months

Text

¡! 𝘚𝘰𝘥𝘰 𝘹 𝘎𝘯!𝘙𝘦𝘢𝘥𝘦𝘳

"𝘓𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘯𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘰 𝘱𝘭𝘢𝘺 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘦𝘭𝘦𝘤𝘵𝘳𝘪𝘤 𝘨𝘶𝘪𝘵𝘢𝘳." 🎸

A/N: Heyya!! This is my first time writing in Tumblr, so feel free to give tips/advices! This is basically learning to play the guitar with Sodo as your teacher, hope you like it! It's short, but it's a start (I hope)

Also! English is not my first language, so I made the Spanish version here!

Tw: None! Just comfort and the reader's gender is not specified! ^^ (I'm not very good at putting tw, so if something is missing please tell me!)

★*★*★*★*★*★*★*★*★*★*★*★*★*★

"No, no. You don't play like that. Do you want your back to hurt later?"

"Agh, I'm trying, you know that?"

You roll your eyes at Sodo's question. When you had accepted that the Fire Ghoul taught you to play the electric guitar, you had not expected it to be so exhausting. The White Horned Ghoul's patience seemed to reach negative levels at any moment, making you feel a bit annoyed with both, him and you.

"It's fine, But do you expect to be hunched over on stage for the entire show? I remind you that you cannot sit down." Sodo said as he put his palms on his knees and turned to look at you with a frown. He certainly wasn't the right ghoul to teach.

"I mean, I don't even know if I'm going to those shows anyways..." You replied evidencing the daily time in which you were trying to learn, a little annoyed at not being able to play the strings correctly. Your gaze fixed on the guitar in your hands... As a newly summoned Ghoul, you had been with the others for a week or two, and learning to play the instruments was more difficult than you initially thought it would be...

The ghoul sitting next to you sighs, his hand running over his face as he tries to find the right words to contradict you without sounding aggressive. "Listen, if you start being pessimistic from the beginning, then you won't achieve anything."

He wasn't the best at comforting others, so seeing you still doubting, he decided to speak again while sitting a little closer to you, taking care that the guitars did not hit each other. "I mean... You have to trust yourself, learning something new is always hard, tiring and..."

Sodo, realizing that he had unconsciously placed a hand on your shoulder, quickly withdraws it and sits back down at an arm's length. His hands move agilely on the guitar, singing a short melody as a distraction. "You know, that's what they say, so just keep trying."

You knew he was getting nervous, a little funny reaction for to say at least, so you decided not to pursue the subject and just nodded with a small smile to avoid bothering him even more. "Thank you, Sodo.." The ghoul nods and clears his throat before speaking again. "Yeah, whatever...- Now play Re."

It may be that Sodo is impatient and that he made you feel incapable of achieving it, but you also knew that he was just trying and that he was right, you shouldn't give up.

You position your fingers on the long part of the guitar, and with your other hand, you pluck the strings, generating an almost out of tune Do sound.

"Hey! That's Do! I told you to play Re!" Your angry teacher was back...

★*★*★*★*★*★*★*★*★*★*★*★*★*★

#sodo gif #sodo ghoul #ghost #the band ghost #ghost x reader #ghost x gn reader #sodo x reader #gn reader #x reader #first post #sodo ghost #dewdrop ghoul #nameless ghouls #dewdrop ghost #oneshot

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dearmantis · 1 year

Text

A deal with a god

Pairing: Aleksander Morozova/The Darkling x fem!Reader

Summary: You arrive back in your rooms and try to figure out what to do before the General forces you to make a decision.

Warnings: manipulation, period-typical sexism, mentions of domestic abuse

Word Count: 3k

Authors' Note: Like two people asked for It all goes in vain to get a part 2 and that was months ago... and now it's a series because I have no self control. I was also asked to make Reader and Aleksander a power duo. I don't know if I'm good at writing power couples, but I will try. I also didn't edit this and English is not my native language.

Previous Part | Series Masterlist

The walk back to the Grand Palace clears your head a bit, your mind delightfully empty as you focus on not being caught sneaking around with a ruined dress and disheveled hair. Years of living in the palace have prepared you for this, but you still feel how the weight of the world drops from your shoulders as soon as the door to your room closes behind you.

Eyes moving to the clock on your desk, you realise with relief that your servants will come in around ten minutes, giving you some time to make sure your room looks like you spend the night here.

You beginn by moving your bed sheets around, before quickly skipping to the bowl you use to wash your face at night, dunking your hands into the cold water and scrubbing the bits of makeup the general missed off your face to make the water look more used. Grabbing a towel, you dry your skin and pull off your shoes, dropping them next to the bed.

At last you rip off your dress quickly, removing the many layers and leaving them on the floor before slipping into a simple robe and crawling into your bed, rolling yourself up in your blankets like a babe.

If you look pathetic enough, the servants will hopefully tell your parents that you're too exhausted from last nights celebration to eat with them. You will be allowed to spend the whole day up here in your room, waiting and preparing for the Darklings appearance.

You need this. You need the time to plan for the future, and you fear that you will loose this fire in you, this new awoken hope that you will find freedom, if you are forced to face your mother before you officially agree to work with the Shadow Summoner. That the guilt will swallow you whole and rip your strength away from you if you see her trusting, hopeful face before you officially agree to conspire with the grisha general against your own parents.

The reality of it all, of the fact that you are going to commit treason together with a descendant of the Black Heretic, hits you in the same moment the doors to your room swing open and your servants step in.

You do your absolute best to look as miserable and sick as humanly possible despite the realisation you just had, whining and complaining about the room being too bright, and everyone being too loud, until your servants finally give up.

"A princess should never be seen in such a state." One of the servants murmurs almost disappointed while she pulls the curtains in your room close. "Especially not by her betrothed. We will cover for you, your royal highness, and tell your mother that you got sick. I believe your brother is in the same state as you. Maybe that will distract her. Do you think you will be able to attend lunch?"

Shaking your head slowly, you watch as the other servants clean up the chaos you created, one of the girls leaving to get you a cup of tea. The mention of your brother makes you a bit sick. Nothing good ever happens when he's drunk, and you can only hope that your mother doesn't interpret your sudden illness as a sign that you're about to go down the same path that he has.

You're not the crown prince. She will not ignore your misbehaviour. No, she will try to get you back into shape to make sure you won't embarrass her.

A son can make as many mistakes as he wants. A daughter needs to be perfect.

"I think I won't even be able to come to dinner." You rasp, moving to bury your face in one of your many silk pillows. "I just want to be left alone today. No lessons, no visitors, no snacks or other meals. I want to see no one."

"Of course, your royal highness. We will make sure that no one disturbs you today." Another servant responds quietly.

You're in the middle of acting like you're falling asleep again when you suddenly remember something else. "I really can't stand all this noise... Lower the amount of guards around my quarters to a minimum for today, and don't bother coming back up to prepare me for bed tonight either. I will do it myself today."

A choir of "Of course, your royal highness." is the only answer you get before you sink back into your pillows and force yourself to slowly relax your muscles, refusing to move until the servant who got you tea returns with the steaming cup and all five women leave your quarters.

You stay on your bed like this for another few minutes until you finally feel safe enough to get up, taking a quick sip from your tea before quickly moving over to your desk.

It's too risky to write down notes, to put the information and ideas swirling around in your head on paper where other people can find them and figure out what you're doing, but you can at least sit at your desk and look at a few documents while you try to come up with a plan.

A safety net. That's what you need. And maybe the power of clairvoyance, just to make sure you don't end up making foolish mistakes like your bumbling idiot of a brother does, his mind too clouded by his own arrogance to see the effect his horrifying behavior has on others.

The most important question is why exactly the General wants to help you.

"It would give me a chance to make sure Ravka, my home, will be safe."

A sweet reason, sure. Honourable as well, and you don't doubt that that's probably part of his motivation, but the General doesn't seem stupid enough to commit treason for something like this. And how would stopping your marriage make Ravka a safer place?

You're the second born child of the king, sure, but you're also a woman. You wield no power. Why would a smart, ambitious man like the Darkling help you? Why not try to make your brother see that Grisha are people instead? That seems to be more effective. You don't understand how keeping you in the Grand Palace benefits him or the Second Army in any way.

There is no reason for him to help you, at least none that you can see.

"And what do you need to help me?"

"I will need you to fulfil your duty, moya tsarevna. You will have to pay a price in exchange for your freedom. You can not hesitate."

Biting down on your lower lip you shake your head weakly, forcing yourself to accept that you probably won't be able to uncover his real motive for helping you tonight. To many bits and pieces of information are missing for you to actually figure out his motive. You need to make plans for the possible failures ahead instead of wasting your time on a puzzle with missing parts.

Difficult, considering you don't know what the plan is yet, but sitting around and doing nothing would be stupid. And what if the Shadow Summoner decides that the risk of being executed for treason is too big for him? If he comes to the conclusion that helping you is not worth the effort? You need to prepare for that, too.

You have to come up with an idea of how to save yourself in Fjerda. How to be safe in the north or flee.

But flee to where? The wave of hopelessness that pushed you down before the whole thing with the General happened hits you once more, threatening to drown you if you don't come up with an idea quickly.

Ravka is not an option. Maybe the west, if you stay away from government officials and instead live life as a commoner, but even that would require a crossing of the fold and more luck than the saints are probably willing to give you.

Shu Han is not an option either. There is no way you could run from your future husbands home and then cross Ravka without being detected. Same problem with Kerch and the risk of being recognized there is even higher.

And successfully fleeing to Novyi Zem without being caught would require a miracle.

No, you can't make it to Fjerda. As soon as you're in the north, you're stuck in a place where you will never feel safe or happy.

A better option would be to fake your death before, during, or shortly after the wedding. Perhaps you could ally yourself with some Materialki and Corporalki as well, get them on board with faking your murder and getting you out of the castle. No one would look for you if all of Ravka thought their Princess was dead, after all.

Another problem you will have to keep in mind is the constant risk of being discovered if you choose to work with the Darkling. Sure, you will probably just get send off to Fjerda and cut off from your family forever, doomed to die in the north, away from your people and the ghosts and sins of your ancestors, but they will kill the General. They'll probably make you watch too, in hopes of teaching you a lesson.

You can't let that happen. Not to someone who has offered to safe you, even if he is only doing it to save his own skin in some way, or give himself more power, money, or whatever else he's after.

No. You have to plan to make sure you will both get out of the palace in case you get caught. But would he abandon the Grisha? Or would he prefer to go down kicking and screaming like a warrior instead of running like a child?

You know you prefer running, even if it means losing some of your pride and honour, because running means living and living means you can try again. You can fight another battle, attempt to make people see reason once more, and ensure that your ideas don't die with you.

The General doesn't seem like the type of person to share that mindset, though. He's a man through and through, and men like to do horrible and stupid things to force their opinions down other peoples throats. Like die the death of a martyr in hopes of someone else picking up the responsibility and finishing the fight for them.

If you want to save his life, you will probably have to kidnap him.

Groaning quietly you lean back in your chair and stare at the ceiling, trying to clear your mind a bit. There are so many variables in your future, so many what if's you have to prepare for, and you're still so exhausted from crying all night. Things have never been like this before. Most of your life you've played a side character to your brothers story, just like everyone has told you to do, as a woman, and second in the line of succession.

The most people ever say about you is that you're harmless, a delight to have around, and harmless delights simply don't go around scheming with the man everyone in Ravka, Fjerda and Shu Han is terrified of. They don't take fate into their own hands and fight back when people try to force a life they don't want onto them. All of this is new territory, and a part of you is mortified by the consequences of the possible failures ahead of you.

At least you managed to remove some of the guards from your wing of the palace without raising suspicion. Less trouble for the General to get to you. You've done something. A small first step taken before the real fight begins. It's an alright start for someone inexperienced.

You spend the rest of the day trying to do the impossible: Plan and prepare for the future. Predicting what will happen and how to react without losing track and getting confused with the dozens of what if's swirling around in your head like a vicious storm.

What will you do if your brother or mother find out?

What will you do if a servant notices what's going on?

What will you do if your betrothed realises what's happening? How could you protect the General from the wrath of a fjerdan royal? How could you protect yourself?

It's pitch black in your room when a knock finally frees you from your spiralling thoughts. For a few seconds you have trouble orienting yourself, confused about why it's so dark now, but before you get a chance to actually panic, another, louder knock on the door pulls you back to reality.

Quickly moving to light a small candle on your desk, you tighten the robe around your body and open the door to your quarters, motioning for the man waiting in front to step into your room. It's improper for anyone to see you in

The General is still fully dressed in his Kefta, his steps surprisingly light considering how heavy his boots look. He walks into your quarters slowly, gaze moving over your furniture and the small lonely candle on the table. your current state, especially a man, but it hardly matters considering what's ahead of you.

"Did I wake you, moya tsarevna?" He asks after you lock the door behind him, his voice calm and quiet as if he's trying to make sure that people passing your rooms won't hear his voice through the walls.

"Hmm? Oh, no. I was just thinking and lost track of the time."

"Thinking?"

He slowly turns back to you, one half of his face illuminated with the warm light of the candle while the other is hidden in the shadows. "I hope you didn't change your mind. It would be a shame for another strong woman like you to get lost in the north."

You can feel a muscle in your jaw tighten as you take his words in. He should wish for you to change your mind and leave him alone. This whole plan, whatever it may be, will probably be more dangerous to him than to you. Why isn't he hoping you changed your mind and accepted your fate?

"No, no. I didn't change my mind. I'm willing to do whatever you need me to."

Taking a deep breath, you step closer to the middle of the room, closer to him, your eyes moving to the calm, glowing candle flame. You can still feel his gaze burning on your skin.

"I was born in this palace. I learned how to speak and walk here. This is my home. Nobody, not even my horrible, despicable betrothed, should be able to drag me out of here." You declare calmly.

Your gaze finds his once more, his eyes somehow darker than the night sky outside, and you can feel your nails dig into the soft flesh of your palms.

"My whole life I was taught that it's my duty to serve my country and my people. I can not do that when I'm in Fjerda. I can not protect or help anyone there. I have no power there. I need your help, General."

The storm of thoughts, of what-if's and why's, gets louder as you look at him, almost consuming you, but the visible pride in the Shadow Summoners eyes grounds you just enough, reassures you that things will be alright. He will keep his promise and make sure that you stay in the Grand Palace safe and sound until you die.

"Tell me what to do, Aleksander. I am willing to pay the price."

He smiles. There is nothing friendly or soft in the expression, only glee and satisfaction, but for some reason you're not as scared of him as you probably should be.

You're not a stupid girl that's falling for the lies of an older man. You know what you're getting into. You will be prepared for anything he might throw at you. This is your home after all, and while the General has experience with your father and the general politics of Ravka, with the complicated rules of war, he is definitely not familiar with the game you've been stuck playing.

He doesn't know your betrothed, barely cares for your mother, and has always been dismissive of your brother despite the fact that he will be on the throne in a few years. The only player he has ever paid attention to is you, and that's a recent development. He only cares now because he seems to believe you can give him something.

You know the rules better than he does, and if you don't pay attention to his plans and schemes, to his end goal, he will mess up and drag you both down. It's his job to manipulate and trick others and yours to clean and cover up. A perfect team.

"I'm glad to hear that you trust me, moya tsarevna. I promise I won't fail you."

He holds his hand out slowly, and for a few seconds you simply look at it. His hand is large, with long fingers and small scars covering the pale skin that shimmer in the weak light of the candle.

Taking his hand means treason. It means betraying your parents and, in the same breath, your country. It means making Fjerda your enemy. It means covering your hands with the blood that sticks to the Darklings hands. It means paying a price he refuses to name. It means trusting darkness itself.

This would be the riskiest, dumbest thing you've ever done. It would be like begging to be caught and punished by your parents. And what would your betrothed do if he found out his future wife conspired with the Darkling to escape him? He would kill you for that. Beat you until you're nothing but a bleeding lump of flesh on the floor with no one to grieve you left in the world after you betrayed everyone who loved you.

You grab Aleksanders hand.

#aleksander morozova x reader #darkling x reader

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asteriastarr · 9 months

Note

hello fellow gorgon lover!!! i was wondering if you could do a little imagine/short or headcanon about deuce and the reader (who has nature powers a bit like Venus) messing around a bit during Komos class before it starts and heath is teasing them for being cute while clawdeen, draculaura and Frankie playfully argue over who loves who more.

A/N: Hi! Thanks so much for the request! Sorry it took so long! (and that its so bad) Hope you enjoy it! (Btw, this one doesn't have a gif because I generally use the gifs when I myself can't picture the scenario since i struggle with making images in my mind, or when I want to come up with idea's and I want to show where I got the idea from) Anyway happy reading!

POV: Deuce and Y/n messing around in class before it starts

The Monster Hisstory classroom spoke loudly, patiently awaiting their teacher’s arrival. Y/n L/n and Deuce Gorgon, being best friends, had decided to sit together for this class, bringing snacks to share… or rather, throw at each other.

“Okay that is cheating, you can’t just use vines to guide the food to your mouth.” Deuce laughed when Y/n had summoned a vine to place one of the snacks into her mouth.

“You used your snakes, it’s perfectly fair.” She argued, a smile on her face.

“It is not fair; my snakes are way shorter than those vines of yours Y/n.” Deuce defended.

“Mmm, nope I think it’s very much fair I can use my vines.” Y/n said, placing a snack in her mouth then throwing one at Deuce, of which he dropped.

“Well, that was definitely not fair, I was distracted.” Deuce joked, crossing his arms.

“Oh yeah? By what?” She interrogated, raising an eyebrow and mimicking his action of crossing his arms.

“By your pretty face, it’s very distracting.” He smirked leaning closer.

Y/n felt her face heating up as she perked a brow.

“Oh? Well, I must say, your handsome face is also rather distracting, good sir.” She retorted, also leaning closer.

Just then Heath walked by and placed himself in his spot on the table next to the duo’s.

“Aw, you’re a cute couple.” Heath commented, looking at the two of whom both blushed and immediately moved away from each other.

“We’re not a couple.” Y/n said now suddenly refusing to look in the general direction of Deuce.

“Oh. You sure? You seem like you’d be a very cute couple.” Heath spoke.

“We’re sure.” The two said in unison.

Heath refused to take this answer however and decided to tease the two about being a ‘cute couple’ resulting in Y/n and Deuce both covering their ears to tune him out. “No, no, no Draculaura you have it all wrong look at her face when she looks at him, she’s obviously more in love with him!” Y/n heard Clawdeen exclaiming.

“Uh, hello, blood expert here, his cheeks got two shades redder than Y/n’s which evidentially shows that he loves her more!” Draculaura argued.

“Guys, what if- they love each other equally?” Frankie suggested causing Draculaura and Clawdeen to deadpan them.

“Frankie, I love you but that is literally the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard.” Clawdeen stated.

“Yes, please take this seriously.” Draculaura said before turning back to Clawdeen “Where were we? Oh right, Two whole shades redder Clawdeen! Two!”

Y/n glanced at Heath (of whom was still teasing them) and the trio before coming to a decision.

“Wanna skip this class?” She asked grabbing her bag. “Yep.” Deuce said grabbing his own bag and standing up.

PT 2 here

#deuce gorgon #deuce gorgon g3 #deuce gorgon x reader #live action deuce gorgon #live action deuce gorgon x reader #g3 monster high #gorgon #live action monster high #monster high g3 #case walker #case walker x reader #request #requested

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giggly-toybox · 4 months

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now that you're writing for One Piece, if you don't mind, u could share some general tickling thoughts/headcanons on the series? (hcs of characters, scenarios between them etc) if this is too broad u can feel free to ignore, thanks!

HI OKAY SO!!!! I was literally so excited to make this bc this show has absolutely taken over my brain AAAAA

But here we go! For now, we’ll only be doing MY personal favorite characters! If you want a character that isn’t on here, let me know when requests open up again!

Also note: I am in the middle of the Marineford arc (and might have cried a little bit) meaning I am nowhere near up to date with some of the newer stuff!

Basil Hawkins:

EASILY my favorite character. Me and my mutual have been rambling about him for days. So far he’s only had like eight minutes of screen time so don’t know why I like him so much, I just do. My silly babygirl. My borblo Right off the bat, he’s feather ticklish

Like, really. Feathers affect him more than actual fingers

I think he has a very gentle and soft laugh most of the time, but it can get loud if you hit a bad spot

I think his worst spots are his belly, neck, and chin

If you use a feather on any of those spots he will die

EXTREMELY squirmy. He will buck, kick, shove, squirm, whatever he has to do to get away

He’s a really gentle ler most of the time

He’ll just hold you close with an arm while he mindlessly traces his finger on your belly, reading his cards like nothings happening

If you want to get away he’ll let you

But if you tickle him first, that gentleness is thrown out the window and he immediately targets your death spots, scribbling his gloved fingers all over your squirming figure

He doesn’t do it for long tho, and he’s nice enough to get you some water afterwards :)

Perona:

MY GIRLLLL! I love her so so much she’s easily my favorite female character! I just love her style sm, I need her outfit! I love her little ghosts and her aesthetic as a whole, she’s just so pretty!

Persona just oozes sister vibes, both big and little. So I would say she’s an even 50/50 switch

She’s probably ticklish all over, but I would say her worst spot is her belly, specifically her belly button

She doesn’t shut up when being tickled. She’ll scream, beg, plead, complain, or try to distract you

Either that or she’ll send her ghosts to make you depressed

She would be such a brat after being tickled tbh 😭

She would pout and scold you before eventually moving on and floating away

She only tickles things she deems cute, so if you’re not cute in her book, you’re safe

But once she has you in her sights, she’ll playfully tackle you and absolutely wreck you

She likes your cute laugher :3

Crocodile:

My boy Crocodile! Gosh he’s just so cool. I didn’t like him too much in the Alabasta arc, but he got a lot better in Impel Down and Marineford! I just really love the way he looks, and his sand powers :3

Yeah…In all honesty I don’t think this guys really ticklish at all

As much as it pains me to admit

The only spot that could really make him laugh is his neck

Even then all you would get are a few chuckles

He’s not sensitive enough to wreck sorry 😔

He doesn’t really participate in tickling either

He thinks it’s childish

Nico Robin:

The best Strawhat. I do not take criticism. She is my girl and I love her so much. Her “I want to live” made my heart ache! And she easily has my favorite devil fruit

We love a canon ler

Gosh her ability is so well for tickling as we’ve seen in the show twice!

Like she can summon two arms to hold yours and then two to tickle you silly

She’s a nice ler most of the time tho, she won’t torture you for too long

As a lee I think she’s one of those people that are ticklish on most of their body, but not too ticklish

Like no matter where you tickle her, tummy, neck, feet, she’ll giggle but that’s about it

As I’ve said before I think her worst spot are her sides so that’s where you’ll get the most reaction

She’s a bit louder but other than that there’s not really a lot of difference

She had a lovely laugh though <3

Jewelry Bonney:

Another supernova! I really like Bonney, I find her devil fruit really interesting! I can’t wait to see more of her Ticklish thighs. I don’t take criticism she’s definitely weak there

She also has pretty sensitive armpits, but her thighs are a bit worse

Her laugher is kinda rough, and she definitely snorts

If you’re really close to her, she doesn’t mind being ticked by you

But if not you’re getting kicked in the face

Since she’s a big foodie, I see her favorite tickling methods to be things like nibbling or raspberries

I would say licking too but I’m super uncomfortable with licking tickles

X Drake:

X Drake! I love him so much, my dinosaur boy. He easily has the best animal devil fruit so far (I forget what the type is called)

While I do think he’s ticklish, I think he has a lot of tolerance for those kind of things

I mean he used to be a rear admiral he definitely has some endurance

He doesn’t actually squirm around that much. He’ll flinch and shove a bit, maybe kick his legs a few times, but for the most part he just takes it

But he does have one weakness: raspberries

If you blow one right on his belly, like on the middle of the bottom of the huge X on his torso, he’ll laugh louder then the sea

He’s definitely more of a ler. I see him tickling people in his dinosaur form

Like he’s carrying them like a doll and tickling them all over

Or holding them by the ankles and wrecking their soles

Human or dinosaur form, if he’s tickling you you’re not escaping until he lets you go

#one piece #one piece tickle #basil hawkins #perona #sir crocodile #nico robin #jewelry bonney #x drake #honorable mention: bon clay #i love him so so so much!#i just…couldnt think of any hcs for him 🥲#forgive me #this took an embarrassingly long time to finish 😭#but im so happy with it!#i hope you all like them :)

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wyvernet · 5 months

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[ Cirrus + Swiss | SFW | Ghost Band ]

( Note: Cirrus and Swiss are not in a relationship in my canon, ghouls just tend to be very affectionate with one another. :3 )

Cirrus was humming along as she quietly listened to music via some earbuds, currently making food for both her and Swiss before they head off towards the Ministry. of course someone like the cooks they hired or Omega would be making food for the ghouls regardless, but right now, all she really craved was some simple, made from a box, Mac n cheese.

while she was stirring the mixture around, making sure the foam didn't get too high due to the water boiling, she was gently singing along to the song currently playing, muttering the original lyrics to Caramelldansen…. not surprising, honestly. while she was more tomboyish in nature, she couldn't help but adore the cuter things that Earth- or well, the mortal plane had to offer, such as plushies or music. it was one of the many joys of being summoned here,, alongside getting adored by fans, but that just came with her onstage appearance.

yes, both her and Swiss had their own rooms in the Ministry building, but this apartment she was renting was kind of.. a home away from home, which mainly existed within it's space for one reason or another. even though she had money to burn, she decided to get a rather small apartment for the cheapest price, requiring only minimal space. a general area, which she converted into a bedroom of sorts, a kitchen and a bathroom.

while Cirrus was distracted by both her music and cooking, Swiss would slowly roll himself over, nudging his face into the soft pillows that lay beneath him. after a few seconds, his ears would perk a bit upon registering noise, and he'd lazily open his eyes to look…. it was Cirrus standing over the stove and humming and mumbling along to a song.. he'd offer a slight grin, watching her tail swing back and forth with her hip movement while he laid there, letting his body get ready to start moving

after a couple minutes of quietly watching Cirrus, he'd take in a sharp inhale as he'd push his hands against the bed, lifting himself up as he'd crawl out of the sheets, stretching almost the very second he got out of bed, his tail swiping behind him before resting into a lowered position. Cirrus didn't seem to notice him just yet, so he'd get a lil grin on his face as he'd walk around the bed and approached Cirrus from behind.

once close enough, Swiss would wrap his arms around Cirrus' waist, causing her to pause upon feeling a hug around her. she'd glance back and gave Swiss a slight smile. "well good morning, sunshine." Cirrus would say, and Swiss would nuzzle against her, chuckling lightly. "wrong ghoullll..~" he'd tease her in response, resting against her somewhat curvy body for a moment.

he'd raise a hand and carefully grabbed one of Cirrus' earbuds, wiping it on her clothing before sticking it into his ear and continuing to relax against her. giving a slight chuckle as he'd listen along to her music while she continued to stir the pasta around, lifting some out of the boiling water to check to see if it was ready yet.

she'd gently nudge Swiss off of her as she'd pick up the pot carefully, bringing it over to the sink. she'd tilt the pot carefully over the strainer, letting most of the water drain out first before gently shaking the pot so the pasta can slide out into the strainer, using her claws to get the more stuck pieces before setting the pot back on the stovetop.

while Cirrus was busy doing the last preparations to finish the food, Swiss would slip her earbuds away from her as well as her phone so he can continue to listen to her music, hitting next after turning on her phone's screen until he found a song he was familiar with. after the two ate and got dressed in their usual ghoul outfits, Cirrus would lead Swiss out to her car as the two play fought a bit, with Swiss insulting her music taste and Cirrus lightly shoving him back, both chuckling as they'd get into her car which came to life with a purr and they drove off towards the Ministry.

// haiiiii, Wyvern here!! uhmm,, this is the first time i've done something like this, so let me know if there's anything i should fix! like progression, how it's written, etc. i wanna make my stuff digestible and enjoyable to read. i hope you guys enjoy this lil quickie though!! X3

#cirrus ghoulette #cirrus ghost #swiss ghoul #swiss ghost #ghost band #ghost the band #nameless ghouls #ghost ghouls

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marshmallowsqoosh · 7 months

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[Ghost (Band) | Ritual of Summoning: Era 3 (3/5)]

Fandom: Ghost (Band) Title (also AO3 link): Ritual of Summoning: Era 3 Rating: General (May go up) CW: No major warnings apply Lesser Warnings: headcanon, not beta read, Terzo’s the youngest because the canon timeline makes no sense, author chooses to believe that Nihil didn’t hate his kids and they have given names, Ghouls are summoned via magical means, summonings involve deals with devils, author is taking a lot of liberties, Ghouls are Generational not Inherited

Chapter specific warnings/reiterations: Summonings involve deals with devils/demons. Headcanon Heavy, Ghouls are generational, not inherited, Seco doesn’t like Ghouls much/doesn’t like Special, Good Big Brother Seco, Cowbell and Special are gremlins, Primo's Ghouls are Tired:tm:, Primo is Tired:tm:, Seco is probably supposed to be Cardinal but he's Bishop here Headcanon names for the brothers: Angelo (Primo), Francesco/’Cesco (Secondo), and Valentino/Vale (Terzo)

Summary: Summoning era three’s Ghouls over the years… aka Terzo constantly getting in trouble for being a small, ambitious dumbass and continuing to be a small, ambitious dumbass.

Still don’t have a beta reader so if you spot typos/odd spots, lemme know ♥

Extras: Status (and AO3 link!): [ 3 / 5 ] Word Count: ~12k

.♥. .♥. .♥. .♥. .♥. .♥. .♥. .♥. .♥. .♥. .♥. .♥. .♥. .♥.

Three years pass with almost no issue.

There's a little bit of a hiccup—about six months after Terzo summons Cowbell, when he surpasses Special in height; but, otherwise, things… finally start to seem like they're okay.

Cowbell is an odd addition—not bad odd, but odd. Terzo loves having the two, but it's also kind of… weird. Secondo had commented on the Ghoul choosing to name himself after an old cowbell he found down in the forges that Imperator keeps taking away from him. Special and Terzo steal it back while the woman's distracted; she hasn't found any hard proof they're the ones stealing it, but she definitely knows it's them.

Specifically, though, his brother commenting on the fact Cowbell chose to name himself, does open up some… interesting new doors. Things that takes him a good long while to actually notice and realise that even Ghouls in the same element are so… different. … And maybe makes him wonder if Special has a different name he doesn't know about.

Most importantly, though, their differences—not just between Special and Cowbell, which Terzo always kind of… knew would be obvious, just because he knows he messed up Special's ritual; but, between Cowbell and Mountain, too. Even ignoring the elemental differences, Cowbell proves to be odd, compared to the other Ghoul, despite the identical ritual.

Cowbell takes to glamouring almost immediately and the fact he can speak clearly right away is still kind of confusing. His eyes glow significantly brighter than either of the other Ghouls or the older lot. Even Primo's Fire Ghoul tries to give Cowbell a decent berth, worried clicks emitting from his throat that are almost identical to the Ghouls that wander the archives. Quinn seems… wary; but, he'd been wary of Special and Mountain, too. Terzo just assumes he simply… doesn't like new Ghouls. Or new people. Or people, in general, that aren't Primo or the rest of his Ghouls; probably, especially, because the younger Ghouls get rowdy without warning and have nearly scattered his puzzles multiple times the few and far between time he's forced to watch over them.

Special, over that time, gets better at speaking and… as weird as it is, when they've all more or less accepted he just cannot glamour the way the others can, he gets even weirder. He can't glamour himself… but, they do find out—by complete accident, while he's trying to get free of being scruffed one afternoon—that he can glamour inanimate objects. Quinn thinks he was just focused on anything that would get him free; but, the second Terzo had gotten close enough to try calming him down, close enough to grab one of his hands to help him calm down, his robes had changed to match Terzo's uniform. Long enough—or shocking enough—that Earth had immediately dropped him and Terzo didn't even have the mind to be annoyed when Special landed in a heap of tangled limbs, clearly surprised himself.

He's gotten better at it, now that he knows. They still don't really understand why he can do it; but, Terzo figures it probably has something to do with the fact that… Special can just do things that most other Ghouls can't. Like vanishing into nothingness without much warning. Quinn always looks perplexed when he does; but, never offers any insight to the trick. Not quite the same as Quinn vanishing in shadows, but… close.

Despite the few months between Cowbell and other two Ghouls, they all seem to stop growing—finally—around the same time. About a year after Special was summoned. Mountain may have stopped a few weeks earlier; but, at the very least, he finally seems to have grown into his limbs. Tall. Lanky. Still as solid as any other Earth Ghoul, though, despite Special's best efforts to knock him off balance without ambushing him. Not that he doesn't ambush Mountain; but, he's made it a mission to be able to knock him off balance without the element of surprise.

Cowbell ends up equally lanky—limbs that are almost that little bit too long, but Terzo's pretty sure it's because he simply refuses to stand upright around most of the clergy. He'll straighten out in private—or if Terzo asks him to, before Imperator can get mad at them—but, otherwise he's constantly in a slightly hunched over position; a position where he can readily drop down to a crouch and pounce or simply creep about without drawing attention to himself. His tail, however, is definitely too long and Terzo's been informed—and witnessed, himself—that his Ghoul is constantly getting his tail trapped in doors closing behind him and at least two instances where someone accidentally closed a window on it. He's starting to have a permanent, mostly unnoticeable, crink near the spade of his tail from the number of times it's happened.

And, Special… just seems frustrated that the other two are so much taller than him. He's still taller than Terzo, for the time being. But, Cowbell has a good few inches on him and Mountain… Mountain's learning he always needs to be aware of Special's location, because the second he thinks he can relax and doesn't know where his best friend is, he's probably going to have his knees taken out. Or get knocked down a flight of stairs again.

But, given that that's the worst to happen in three years, Terzo considers it a win. Especially so that he's learned more about rituals in the time being. Still refining the process and finding flaws—some minor and some just outright horrifying—in the ritual provided by the old blood of the upper clergy; but, making steady progress. At least… he thinks he is. He hopes he is.

No one is really willing to test the changes; the sigils in the summoning chamber, at least, have all been altered to their proper spaces. Terzo isn't allowed to sit in on too many of the rituals—Secondo is still really mad at him for summoning Special and the near disaster that had been Cowbell's ritual—so he's not positive what's changing; but there's still a huge inconsistency in summoner health. Some are fine. Some are less so. A few are almost as bad as his brother and father.

His father and brothers—even Secondo—tell him not to pay mind to it and focus on his own research… so he does. If he figures it out, he won't need the upper clergy telling him how to summon.

Which he was perfectly content to doing.

… Was.

Terzo nearly runs right into his brother when he gets home from school. Not that it would have done anything to Secondo; but, he still just barely manages to stop himself and covers it up by choosing to hug his brother to cover the way he nearly trips.

"You're actually home, frate! Are you staying long? For dinner, at least? Did you bring us anything—?"

Secondo pries, uselessly, at his arms, to try getting free; eventually he just picks Terzo up by the back of his uniform—still small for his age, still small compared to his brothers—and it only works in getting Terzo to let go because it lifts his feet off the ground and his immediate reaction is to start squirming.

"For dinner, yes; I'll be leaving tomorrow, probably as you're getting out of school. I got you something, yes. You can have it after supper, right now I need to finish packing—"

"Wait! Make me a snack before you go? Please?" He knows Secondo knows he's just asking for help so he gets those few extra minutes. He's still… not really allowed in the kitchen—or near a stove or cooking set, anyways—but he's at least had some of the restrictions lifted. But, asking for help lets him bother his brother a few minutes longer; helpful, now that he never knows how long he's actually going to have the man around. "Where are you going next, fratello?"

"The Swiss branch." Secondo doesn't look up from pulling a plate down from the cabinets. "I'll be going to Poland for a few days after. Maybe a week. Did you find the apple you want—?" His expression thins out, clearly not amused, when Terzo leans around him and happily sets two apples on the plate. "I am not making a snack for your Ghoul."

"You know if I only have one apple, I'm just going to give it to him." Terzo turns and wiggles a little before he manages to hoist himself up to sitting on the counter next to his brother, pleased when the man gives a begrudging sigh and starts cutting the pair of apples and peeling some of the slices. "Thank you, fratello. … Why are you going to Poland, though? We don't have a branch there—are you helping a new one set up, can I go—?"

"That, thankfully, is absolutely none of your business; and, no, you are not going. Don't bother Angelo, about it, either." Secondo doesn't bother telling him to get down from the counter. Just passes the plate over, gives his hair a passing ruffle and a kiss, before he disappears up towards the living quarters.

Terzo doesn't bother jumping down and instead holds the plate out to his other side, in the same moment Special drops down from the ceiling to sit with him and happily takes the offered plate. "Don't suppose you know why he's going?"

Special chirps, already picking at the peeled bits of apple skin and deciding where he wants to start and how to eat around his mask, even as he's still situating himself so he can sit on the counter with Terzo. He gives a pleased trill when Terzo carefully lifts the mask off of him—holding it in his lap—to make things a little easier and immediately starts on the long strips of peel so he can still talk around the small nibbles.

"Dunno. They had a super long meeting today, though. Tried asking Mounty if he heard anything, since Cowbell and I were in class with Fire, but Earth chased us off. Doesn't sound like any of the Ghouls got to sit in—haven't seen Quinn and only him or Earth would be allowed, right?"

Terzo hums a passive affirmative, distractedly nibbling on an apple slice, and he feels Special lean on his shoulder—feels his ear give a gentle twitch close to his hair and his tail coil around Terzo's ankle.

"… You're in a weirdly good mood for him going on a trip so soon after getting back." He tilts his head and Terzo imagines he must actually be smiling. "Did something good happen at school?"

"I hope so… we have a transfer student. She's really quiet, but… I think she's like us." Terzo hums, legs swinging as he nibbles on the end of one of the apple slices. "Not… exactly like us. But different from others. Gifted, but not like me or Fratello or Papa. I'm not sure how she's gifted, yet. But I can tell she is."

Special makes a quiet, curious trill. "There are… a lot of different gifts from the Fallen. … She hasn't been hostile?" He gives the Ghoul a curious look, only to be met by an uncertain shrug. "I'm just saying… just because they were all cast out doesn't really mean they all get along all the time… and the same is true for those with the Papal Eye, too, isn't it?"

Maybe not for this generation… not quite. But, he knows Special's right. People were still people and just because they shared an experience—housing gifts that set them apart from other people—didn't… necessarily mean they'd get along. Still, Terzo's… fairly confident he can be her friend. Or at least that he wants to try being her friend.

"That's true… but it's still fun to think about, isn't it? Meeting someone outside of the ministry with gifts, too?"

"Mmm…" Special's claws tap on the counter as he thinks. He's still smiling, even though Terzo knows he can feel the anxiety that the silence is giving him. "I think it'll be good for you. Like Mounty was for me." He must look confused because his Ghoul just laughs when he looks over. A small laugh, but a laugh nonetheless. "You know Cowbell and I love you. Your brothers do and your father. Just like I know you love me and them… but it's a different kinda love for Mounty, yeah? Love you both, but different-like… m'not sure how to explain it. But, I do genuinely think—regardless of her being gifted—having a friend outside of the church is something you need. Her being gifted might make it easier for you to feel comfortable trying to make a friend, but… just promise you'll be careful?"

The smile falls for a moment and Special's attention goes to the floor, claws still tapping out a steady beat. The riff Terzo's been working on for the past few weeks; something he knows will hold Terzo's attention and keep him from being too anxious, as necessary.

"Her gift… might not be something she wants to talk about, y'know? Like 'Cesco doesn't like to, yeah?"

Terzo should scold him for using his brother's name. Even if it's just the two of them, he should probably be a bit more consistent with making sure Special knows not to use any of their given names. But, the point is… painstakingly valid and gives him pause.

"... That's true. I guess, I…" He laughs a little and leans on Special so he can hug his arm, tight, to keep from spiraling down the rabbit hole of what if that comes with the realisation his Ghoul is right. "I got excited and forgot… not everyone likes their gift. I mean, I still don't really understand mine, either."

He reaches up and touches under his left eye, carefully. He's tried asking—Primo, their father, even Secondo and Copia—what exactly the eye was supposed to do. He knows it has… something to do with the contracts when they summon Ghouls. For both times, the responding patron had tapped near his eye and he remembers… a dull throb during the rituals. Primo's notes had made it sound more painful—except for Earth's. Earth's notes had been… more like what Terzo felt, but still worse. Quinn's sounded excruciating. Papa had told him that he would learn in due time. Secondo told him not to worry about it. Copia had been hesitant to admit he didn't understand it, either; just that it let them see the shadows around them more definitively.

Everyone saw shadows, perhaps; but, the Papal Eye… gave those shadows form. Form that Copia admitted had scared him when he was much younger and didn't understand they were… normal, despite being a sort of constant safety. Company when he was otherwise alone.

Primo described them in a similar fashion, if not a touch more positive—safe and assurance he wasn't alone; before and even after he'd been brought to the ministry. He'd hummed, when Terzo tried to explain how they felt to him—how the cemetery felt safer than anywhere inside—and simply watched his own Ghouls for a few seconds, the smallest smile tugging on his lips, before adding, almost as an after thought, that the feeling was particularly prominent in the Archives, for him. Terzo tried going down into the Archives a few more times, but can't seem to replicate the feeling of safety; not like he can in the cemetery.

Secondo didn't like them. Even knowing what they were, Terzo knows he regards the shadows the same way he regards Ghouls—wary and constantly aware of their presence. Annoyed that Terzo never seemed afraid of them, even when he had—apparently, according to his brothers—followed them around as an infant. Constantly trying to follow them everywhere, until one of his brothers or, once Primo ascended the revived project of the band, one of Primo's Ghouls had picked him up and redirected him elsewhere.

Beyond that, he doesn't know what the eye does. Some of Primo's notes and some of the research he's managed to gather from the archives… it sounds like there's supposed to be more they can do.

He's snapped out of his thoughts by a gentle prick—the sensation of Special poking him with the tip of his claw—on his cheek and he shakes his head a few times, "Sorry—did you say something?"

"Just checkin' on you." The nuzzle makes him laugh a little and he thinks Special's smiling under the mask. "But, we should probably go upstairs. They're going to start preparing supper soon, yeah? We shouldn't be in the way."

Terzo nods and waits for Special to hop down from the counter so he can use the Ghoul to keep himself steady when he hops down. He still stumbles a little; but, not nearly as badly as if he'd tried on his own. "Yeah. Actually, I worked on the song some more… could you go find Cowbell, please? I want to hear what it sounds like with the guitars."

"Of course. Which guitars should we grab?"

"All three of mine, please. I… think I figured out the bass part…? I need to hear how it sounds with the other two, though. I know the drum and key parts are okay, but—"

"Vale." He stops fretting and clears his throat; Special hugs him before he can think to apologise. "Stop doubting yourself. … Easier said'n done, I know; but… you're putting too much pressure on yourself. One part at a time. You know it'll all come together."

Terzo nods, hugging back, tight, for barely a moment before he releases the Ghoul—only just remembers to offer him his mask back, despite Special wrinkling his nose at it—and watches him disappear into the shadows. He's still pretty sure Special… isn't supposed to be able to do that; but, it's helpful and no one's said it's a bad thing, despite how many people know he can. So, he chooses not to worry and heads up to his room, only stopping to lean into Primo's office so he can secure a hug from the oldest… and maybe try to find out what Secondo got him from his last trip.

All it does is earn an amused chuckle, despite how tired the eldest looks, and his brother giving him a gentle push back towards the door. "You know he wishes it to be a surprise, stellino. He's already promised it to you after meal, no? Be patient."

"Fiiiine. I'll see you at supper, fratello." He waves a little as he runs out, careful not to get too close to where Primo's Ghouls are crowded around a table—maybe helping Air with his models or Water with his pottery? Something fragile, but probably not one of Quinn's puzzles… he hasn't seen Quinn in a few days, but that's not too unusual, really. He probably just kept missing the Ghoul; Earth's still close by, afterall. Probably just keeping watch until Quinn gets back from whatever task Primo sent him on.

He doesn't stay long enough or get close enough to figure it out and simply runs the rest of the way to his room, pleased when he doesn't run into anyone else that would make him stop running.

As a bonus, he only nearly trips twice and is delighted when he finds Special and Cowbell already in his room. Special's already plucking, gently, at the rhythm strings with his claws, carefully adjusting the tuning as he does. Cowbell still looks uncomfortable with holding the guitar, idly; but, he's confident enough when asked to play. He offers a smile once Terzo's closed his door.

"Welcome home. Special says you've perhaps figured out the next part?"

"I hope so—or, I'm getting closer, anyways. I think. I mean, it's still a rough draft—"

"Vale."

Again, Special manages to get him to slow down with just his name and Terzo uses the opportunity to pull and release a slow breath. "Right. Hear it first… hear it first, go from there. … Mngh, maybe I should ask Copia if we can borrow Mountain and just use a rehearsal room—?" He shakes his head, sharply, before Special needs to intervene a third time. "No. Nonononono. I can do this. … Please start before I start second guessing myself again—"

The request has barely left his lips when Cowbell starts the opening rift. It's… hard not to focus on either of the Ghouls' tails keeping their own beats. It doesn't sound quite right without the physical drums or keys but he can still kind of hear it in the back of his mind. Not as clearly as he would like, as he focuses on his own notes. A lot of it is stopping and trying again as he scribbles and scratches through notes on the test sheet; if either Ghoul is annoyed by the frequent interruptions, they don't say anything.

It keeps up until there's finally a gentle knock and Earth telling them to clean up and come down to supper and Terzo simply slumps over his bass, pouting a little and hugging it, when he calls an affirmative, "Coming! … Guess it's not as done as I thought."

"Perhaps not refined, but you've made phenomenal progress." He knows Cowbell's just trying to help and offers a weak smile as he finally stands and gently hands the bass off to Special; he vanishes, for barely a moment, to return the guitars to the rehearsal room, returns to do the same for Cowbell's, and, when he returns a second time, both Ghouls simply stand back when Terzo goes to dig through his closet for something to wear that isn't his uniform.

"I suppose one of us should have made certain before hand, but… you've no studies to focus on, today?"

He hears Special grumble before squealing a small protest when Cowbell hits him with his tail; they stop glaring at each other when Terzo looks over his shoulder. Only a brief moment before his attention is on hanging his uniform up and pulling his evening clothes on.

"I finished everything in class, for better or worse… it's hard to focus when I get bored, but they can't say anything if I'm finishing the work and showing results for it, right?"

Both Ghouls offer a tip of their head to acknowledge the question and Terzo barely resists the sigh. He knows they're… expected to be proper, but it's still unsettling when it's just them. Special was a little more lax; but, Cowbell tended to keep things together. More than he did around certain parts of the ministry, anyways.

As soon as they're out of Terzo's room, Cowbell's posture changes. Special disappears up to the ceiling and, as expected, Cowbell settles into the lower, hunched position, a good few steps away from Terzo. Not too far; but far enough if he did need to drop to a pounce-ready position he can without hitting his summoner. He'll correct himself, a little bit, once they're in the dining room—once Special drops down to walking with them, again—and he'll sit up a little bit straighter in his own chair.

It's… an odd sitting arrangement. Primo's Ghouls still aren't too comfortable at the table, but they all know they can stay seated and a few of them even try to eat every few weeks. Quinn, at least, likes tea; Earth will eat if there's soup, but rarely anything else. The others… Terzo hasn't quite found a pattern, but it's still maybe a little concerning that they don't seem to need food, when Special, Cowbell, and Mountain do.

So far as actual seating, Cowbell usually takes the liberty of sitting opposite of Mountain, just so Special is safely seated between the Earth Ghoul and Terzo—where he's the least likely to be trouble—even when Mountain… should probably sit with Copia, instead. It also, unfortunately, puts him closer to Imperator; but, between the three of them, Cowbell is… probably the best to have in that seat. As antagonistic as he could be—and generally was, anywhere but the table—he was also usually the most civil with the upper clergy and held conversation the easiest with Imperator or Nihil, if either decided to pay him mind. The fact Copia seemed fine sitting next to him—compared to the few times he's had to sit near Special—is a welcome bonus.

But, tonight is… different.

The second they enter the dining room, Special immediately drops from the ceiling and Terzo reaches out to grab his hand and holds as tight as he can. His Ghoul never protests the grip and he feels Cowbell come up on his other side to offer extra comfort of proximity and a gentle trill that he thinks is meant to be reassurance.

Primo isn't at the table, yet. He's not worried about their father or Sister Imperator or even really Copia and Mountain. Secondo's there—head bowed and hands clasped on the back of his neck; the way he does when he's stressed and trying to sort things out.

The way he does when he doesn't want to tell Terzo how bad things actually are.

Even so, Terzo shuffles up to his brother, still clinging to Special's hand, and tugs on his sleeve in hopes of some kind of assurance that… maybe it actually isn't that bad.

The fact Secondo doesn't even spare a small scowl in Special's direction is more terrifying than it has any right to be and Terzo can't quite swallow the whine building in his throat when Secondo turns his chair and pulls him into a tight hug.

"Everything's going to be fine, Vale." Secondo hugs him a little tighter—presses a kiss against his forehead, pets his hair down; anything he can to try keeping things from escalating. "Everything is going to be fine."

Going to be. But not right now.

"I just saw Angelo, what happened—?" His voice hitches and he can't quite stop the hiccough, even when he manages to swallow a second whine. "I want Angelo."

"Hey… you know his Ghouls are going to take care of him." Secondo finally lets him go to push him back a little—just far enough he can hold Terzo by his shoulders, still offering the comfort of a gentle grip—and keeps eye contact. It… helps. A little bit, at least. "Earth went to get Quinn, so they're all going to be there to keep an eye on him, okay?"

Terzo frowns a little as the words finally kind of start to process. He doesn't try to get free of the grip—tries to physically hold onto the comfort by keeping a gentle hold on his brother's wrists, even when it means releasing the death grip he has on Special—and glances back at Special and Cowbell, only to find them exchanging confused looks. So, he turns his attention back up to Secondo, trying to ignore the gnaw of dread in the pit of his stomach that he's… fairly certain is Special's.

"Why wasn't Quinn with him, already? Quinn never leaves him—?" Not long enough that Earth would have to go get him, at any rate. Not long enough that—as Terzo finally thinks about it—he wouldn't have seen the Ghoul over the past few days… maybe it wasn't a coincidence—?

He thinks Secondo means to assure him things are okay again; but, his mouth snaps shut and Terzo can practically hear the way his teeth grind together when a different voice answers. Special and Cowbell quickly settle into their seats—heads down, hoods pulled up—to avoid inviting Imperator's ire.

She doesn't sound mad… but she still doesn't bother beating around the bush. She rarely did; and, when Papa wasn't with her, she was even less likely to try being less curt than she is with any of the brothers or Ghouls.

"Quintessence has been in solitary since Papa's last Ritual… I'm quite certain I told you to inform him of this, Bishop."

"And I told you that he didn't need to know. He didn't need to be worrying about the Ghoul anymore than it should have been in isolation for more than a day, at most."

Terzo doesn't even have the mind to be as offended as he normally is, over the way his brother talks about the Ghouls. He just looks between the pair, more confused than he was a moment ago.

"Why was—? Wait, what isolation? Ghouls have isolation? Why was Quinn there, Quinn's supposed to take care of An—Primo—"

He hears Special whine, behind him; and, that, more than his own awareness of anxiety, is the only thing that gets him to try taking a steadying breath. The only thing that kind of gets him to calm down a little bit, just so Special isn't in as much pain. Quinn's been helping him handle the reactions and teaching him how to lessen it. If Quinn's been in isolation, he can't teach any of them. Were they putting Special in isolation, when Terzo wasn't there? Were they trying to, is that why he used to snap at the arch-bishops and cardinal—? Special would have told him, if they were, right?

Even as that line of questions is quickly pushed to the back of his mind, he realises that… Special—and Cowbell, he's certain—definitely wouldn't have told him. They didn't even want to bring up when the upper clergy were being mean to them, he can't imagine either Ghoul would have brought it up if they were thrown in isolation. But Terzo would have felt it, wouldn't he…? But Quinn should be able to get out of anywhere, unless the isolation negated his powers, which meant Terzo wouldn't have been able to feel Special's panic or anything else if he were in isolation—

He jumps when slender fingers with almost too pointy nails curl around his arms, just below his shoulders, and it takes him a moment to register the contact as Cowbell and familiar. Longer than he's willing to admit.

"Everything's alright… slow down. Let the thoughts pass." Gentle. Warm. His hands emit a warmth that gets Terzo to take a few deep breaths. "Fantastic job. Special, you, too."

Special's breaths are a bit shakier; but, he listens and, within a few seconds longer, Terzo feels the pressure in his chest letting up and pulls one more deep breath that is… a little bit steadier when he lets it out.

"Thank you, Cowbell… I'm okay. Is—is Quinn going to be able to help Primo…? He's going to be okay, isn't he?"

"He's been relocated to the infirmary, for the time being. Quintessence does seem to have pulled him into a more stable state, but the doctors have insisted on monitoring him for the evening and into the foreseeable future. We will discuss this further once he's released." The last bit seems to be aimed more at Secondo—he scowls, but still nods to show he understands—and Terzo mimics the nod, slowly, his attention falling as his thoughts refuse to slow down.

Less jumbled. More focused. Looking for any sort of explanation.

"... Why was Quinn in isolation…?"

"Vale—"

"I—I know you said I didn't need to worry, but—if Quinn helped just by being out, then… then would him being gone have been what caused Primo to…?" He trails off, chewing on his lip as he tries to figure out how to say what he needs to. He glances back at Special—the Ghoul looks confused, if not a little wary. He probably knows what Terzo wants to say. Cowbell's released him, arms folded dutifully behind him and head tilted to one side in a curious gesture.

Imperator clearing her throat makes him jump and he quickly turns back to her, straightening his own posture out of sheer habit, even knowing there's no ruler nearby to hit him, "Sorry, Sister…"

"I will excuse it for the moment. Continue. You clearly had more to say on the matter."

Secondo's moved closer. He's not standing, but he still moves his chair that little bit closer so he's at least somewhere he can get between them, if he needs to. Terzo knows he's going to be mad about this and shuffles in his spot a little bit.

"I… was reading more on the Rituals… on Primo's. His notes don't match what The Archivist has and… he copied Papa. If… if their Rituals made them sick, would… would doing them correctly make them better…?" The woman raises her brow and Terzo tries not to squirm more than the small shuffling. "I'm still missing parts, but I know more. How to make them have more consistent results, like Cowbell's. If I show Primo, he can help his Ghouls and… and he'll get better, right?"

"Hmm… Papa Emeritus is the first to keep his Ghouls, despite their feral state. Even your father's were more closely monitored outside of gathered Rituals." Terzo raises his head a little, confused; Imperator doesn't bother elaborating and instead studies him. It's an effort not to shrink under the look or shuffle closer to his brother or Ghouls. "You say you can improve on your last attempt?"

He's not sure it'll be an improvement. Cowbell was already significantly better than Special—insofar as how his summoning went—and he's arguably better than Mountain, just because he'd been able to talk and mostly walk without issue as soon as he was summoned. He'd been a little wobbly, but Terzo thinks it's because, much like Mountain, his limbs had been far too long for his body. Inconsistent.

… He can do better.

He has to do better. So, he nods, slowly, "I'm… I'm pretty sure I can."

Imperator's quiet for a stretch. He feels Secondo tensing up next to him, but refuses to look towards his brother and risk seeing the disappointment and thinly veiled anger.

"Bishop, I will inform the other branches your trip is to be postponed. You will monitor the child. If… and only if… you provide an exemplary Fire Ghoul… I will sanction you to summon the rest, as you've wanted. You're in good enough health and you should be able to do more than the one Ritual, this time."

The surprise is short lived; the excitement is even shorter as Secondo and Special—even Cowbell—immediately protest that no one should do five Rituals at once. The sudden commotion makes him recoil and he's only just able to pull his own Ghouls under control—shushing them and grabbing onto Special's hands to distract him and try to assure him things will be okay. He can do this. Secondo's still protesting, but it registers as little more than muffled static as his mind desperately begins running through what all he's going to need to pull this off.

Secondo doesn't talk to him, at all, through dinner. Even when their father joins them and supplies that Primo woke up long enough to assure people he was fine—even arguing with the doctors that he would be fine to return to his own room and only settling when Earth and Quinn insisted he stay the night—Secondo barely acknowledges the update. He scowls when Imperator informs Papa that Terzo will be doing another series of Rituals when the weekend comes. Just in case he does end up more exhausted than anticipated.

Special spends the meal glaring down at his plate, tail thrashing anxiously behind him and doing his best to calm down so Terzo isn't getting the feedback. His chest hurts, but it isn't as bad as it looks like it should be. Cowbell heats Mountain up a little bit—just enough to release a gentle, calming scent from the Earth Ghoul—in an attempt to help, along with Mountain running a hand along Special's back to help him regulate a steady breathing exercise to stay calm.

Unfortunately that doesn't follow them up to Terzo's room.

Cowbell excuses himself, quietly, and quickly escapes the tense atmosphere by retreating towards the Ghoul wing. Special immediately burrows into the blankets on Terzo's bed until only his tail is sticking out, still lashing back and forth, a bit more erratically. It stops when Terzo sits on his bed and puts a hand on top of the lump of blanketed Ghoul.

"It'll be okay, Special… I'll stop if I get too tired, I promise."

"She's not going to let you, though, is she?" Special squirms until he can finally stick his head out, still otherwise bundled up and his expression furrowed. He shakes off, as best he can, when Terzo reaches over to remove his mask and set it on the bedside table. His lips are set in a thin line. "You're going to get hurt doing so many at once…"

"I won't." Terzo reaches out, offering his hand and waiting until Special finally shoves his face against the offered palm to offer him a gentle skritch around his ears. "I'll talk to 'Cesco and Papa and Angelo beforehand. As long as they know I'm going to stop if it gets to be too much, she won't say anything. She won't argue with Papa and Angelo and especially not all three of them."

"And if she says you can't keep them if it isn't all at once…?"

It's definitely a possibility. She could still enforce some conditions. But…

"As long as they're… to her expectations… I don't think she will. The Ministry doesn't have a lot of socialised Ghouls."

Even the ones that the Upper Clergy oversees and don't seem to hurt the summoners, a lot of Ghouls are… either incoherent or incompatible in large groups. Not as feral as some of the others but still anxious and not allowed near the laity, even the ones that know about them. Some exceptions. Always exceptions, though.

"Her expectations are never the same as yours." He almost doesn't hear Special. Almost. He does, though, and just turns a confused look on his Ghoul. Special stubbornly keeps his head turned, avoiding eye contact and keeping himself burrowed against Terzo's palm for comfort. "Even if they're… correct… if she finds even a small thing wrong—"

"She won't. Nothing she can use to get Papa to agree to banishing any of them or you." Still, Terzo pauses, attention drifting to his floor. "… But if she did… you can take others through the shadows, right…?" He feels the way Special's expression furrows into confusion and he finally turns to look up, chirping curiously.

"N… not as many as Quinn can, but… yes…?"

"... If she tries to banish any of you… take the others. Find somewhere to hide. … I don't know where you could hide on the Ministry grounds, but if she tries, I want you to keep them safe, first. 'Cesco won't let her do anything to me, so you can focus on protecting them, instead. Promise?"

Special looks more anxious than he did by the prospect of the Rituals; but, after a long moment of chewing on his lip, he nods a little bit and finally crawls forward enough he can shove his face against Terzo's shoulder, looking for more physical reassurance.

"Special… promise? You have to take care of the others if she tries to banish any of you. You hide. Promise."

He sees Special's ears give a few rapid flickers as he sits up, clearly resisting the urge to shake his head. His hands come up, just short of touching his throat, in the same moment that Terzo rubs his own throat, not really sure where the crack in his voice came from or why it hurts. He almost wonders if it's Special's; only because it vanishes the same moment the Ghoul lowers his hands and gives another, more solid nod.

"Promise. Find somewhere to hide… Keep everyone safe." He trails off and hesitates, kneading restlessly at the bed sheets he'd been bundled up in. "… Come back for you? Or wait…?"

Honestly, Terzo hadn't thought that far ahead. He knows his brothers won't let anything happen to him. But the idea the clergy could use him to try bringing the Ghouls back does briefly cross his mind. He sighs and falls back into his bed, staring up at the ceiling until Special cautiously sprawls out next to him. He latches onto his Ghoul instead, clinging as tight as he can, and finally answers. "If you have to hide… wait. I'll—" he's going to hate if it happens. He knows he is. If he has to send them away he knows he's going to hate it with every fiber of his being, but he has to hold onto the idea they'll be safe.

"I'll call you back when it's safe."

Special chirps quietly and Terzo wonders if he's imagining the slightly brighter glow in the Ghoul's left eye. It's gone before he can really try to focus on it and he simply lets his eyes close, shoving his face into Special's shoulder and falling asleep to the steady tap of his tail hitting the bed and his claws working through Terzo's hair.

Terzo's not as scared of the upper clergy, anymore. It definitely helps that it's just their church—his brothers and father, even if Sister Imperator's gaze feels… heavy. He's not afraid of the Cardinal or the Arch-Bishops, anymore. As long as they aren't on the ground floor of the chamber, anyways.

Like three years earlier, Special's perched close by, attention fixed curiously on the circle; this time, with Cowbell standing remarkably upright, arms folded behind his back, and attention less fixed on the circle and more on the observation balcony. Primo's Ghouls and Mountain are a bit further down the wall, closer to the door—out of the way of the summoning circle, but close enough to observe, close enough to… assist, if they need to. Minor changes from Cowbell's Ritual, not nearly as many as the first time. More thorough measurements and more… meaningful ingredients. Soil from the cemetery, specifically from around the old crypt with past Papas. Water from the Ghouls—Primo's Water Ghoul had trilled and chittered, anxiously, for probably a solid hour when Earth and Quinn tried to explain what they needed him to do.

Terzo doesn't blame him for being worried; he's worried, too. Still waiting for things to backfire.

Earth had refined the candles, with Air and Fire's help. Extra candles for the first Ritual and a small dish of ashes from the thurible. There are still some… other steps he hasn't quite managed to translate in full. Some he still doesn't fully understand. Quintessence is still odd, but he's not sure he'll be allowed to summon all of the Ghouls—even with Imperator's "permission"… Papa might stop him after the core four.

He hopes not.

Fire first. One more chance to prove he knows what he's doing. A goal. Something he hadn't quite had the past two attempts—he had wanted; this time he needs.

The incantation is much easier. He hums it almost every day and he doesn't feel as pressured to speak, this time. No one stops him from singing and the stillness that falls over the chamber is welcoming, this time. It doesn't feel nearly as suffocating—later, he might realise his eye hurts significantly less; barely a dull throb—and he doesn't startle when a large shadow pulls itself together from the stillness, a number of large wings span out behind the form before settling. The most notable, being, a pair that cross over the patron's face.

Still not the patron that brought him Special, though. It does make him frown, briefly; but, it doesn't stop him from being polite and crossing his hands over his chest. It feels better, knowing what to expect, and lets him show a bit more gratitude that he wishes he'd had the mind to show Orobas or the first shadow.

"Thank you, for your time."

An amused, rumbling laugh fills the stillness around them and he manages to stay still and standing, even when a hand reaches out. He does jump, the smallest bit, when the tip of a large claw taps beneath his chin and makes him look up.

"What a fascinating little creature you are… it's no wonder the others clamour so. I'd hoped the other one would summon me first." Terzo blinks, slowly, a few times, not really sure if he's meant to respond. "Humans remain so horrifyingly ambitious. You've learned well since Orobas… tell me, little summoner. Do you know who I am?"

"Azazel." He chooses not to dwell too heavily on the somewhat backhanded comment and instead focuses as best he can on answering the presented question, mostly parroting what he learned from the Archives and the smaller cues, mostly just grateful he has his sigil on him and visible, at that. "You normally supply Fire Ghouls to the upper clergy—those with ambition to rise, along with passion to the church. … You gave Fratello his Fire Ghoul."

The demon looks pleased—as well as he can express, at any rate—and Terzo hesitates for a brief moment. Was it rude to ask…?

"… Are you allowed to tell me who brought Special—?" It doesn't take much to draw Terzo's attention to the center of the summoning circle. The Ghoul that emerges shakes off, briefly, before settling in a crouched position, bright orange eyes fixed intently on Terzo, head tilted and ears flickering curiously as the fire along the spine and tail slowly disperse into smoking wisps. There's a brief moment where the flames linger around his neck, like a collar, before gathering and dissipating into the void on the left side. He… thinks there may have been a temporary glimmer of gold, but maybe it was the fire?

"Special—? Ah. The first one. You will be seeing him again soon enough, fret not, little summoner. For now, you should remain focused on your task at hand." Terzo startles when Azazel's shadow pulls in on itself, shrinking until he's… roughly the same height as Secondo. A more humanoid appearance as he moves around the Ghoul, resting one hand against Terzo's face so the tips of two fingers tap at the corner of his left eye. "We have seen many trials yet to come and we are eager to see how brightly you shine. I am honoured to have been the first of the patrons to offer you a contract to realise your ambitions; but, I need to be certain you understand. You've done your research and I applaud your awareness. Fire Ghouls are passion. They are ambition and lust—for achievements far beyond carnal pleasures. They can and will devour their summoners in a raging fire, if weak of will. I do not fear a lack of conviction… but your price will be heavy if my contract is marred in any fashion, little human. The flames are not forgiving… and you've obtained Fire from my fellow Fallen, already. They will clash. Are you certain you are ready for this responsibility?"

Special and Cowbell haven't been… too uncivil with each other. No more than Special is with any other Ghoul—if anything he's actually nicer to Cowbell. Even if he closes the other Ghoul's tail in a door or window, he never leaves it long and will always make sure Cowbell is close by if they have to go anywhere in the Ministry. Even when it's clear he'd rather go with Mountain or just find somewhere to nap, he never let Cowbell wander around alone. Even so… some part of him knows Special is going to be the one he needs to worry about.

"I am. … I have to be." Terzo hardly notices that Azazel's stood aside so he can approach the Ghoul. Normally the patron left, but he can feel the eyes on his back as he kneels down to the Ghoul, offering a smile. "I'm Valentino… do you have a name?"

"Alpha." The voice is still a bit unsteady. The eyes narrow in a furrowed expression as a rather wisp-like hand comes up to touch the Ghoul's neck and face. "I'm… Alpha…"

Worry flutters in Terzo's gut for a brief moment; but, Azazel merely laughs. A quiet chuckle that's already dissipating into the void around them as he begins to fade. "How marvelous. He will speak easier when he's given form, worry not. I look forward to the realisation of your ambitions… Valentino."

Before Terzo can think to ask any other questions, perhaps specifically why the Fallen using his name makes his ears ring, the sound and colour and time returns around him and he hastily reaches out to put both hands over Alpha's ears when the Ghoul recoils from the suddenness.

"Shhh… it's okay. Everything's okay, I promise. Just give it a minute. Special, can you bring me the mask and cassock, please?"

The affirmative trill still sounds kind of muffled, but Terzo keeps his attention on the new Ghoul, gently rubbing his thumbs along the bit of void where the base of the ears should be, to try soothing the new sensation of noise.

"It's okay… can you open your eyes, Alpha?"

It takes a moment longer; but, the bright orange does focus on him—a bit more red and yellow, a little bit of white and black, tinged throughout, and the smallest bit of blue towards the center; more dynamic than Special or Cowbell's steady glow, but slowly leveling out. Zeroed in on Terzo, still, even as Alpha follows the gentle rubbing that turns into skritches behind his ears and a rumbling purr begins to echo in the chamber. Terzo smiles and keeps his undivided attention on the Fire Ghoul, right up until Special finally taps his shoulder, gently, with the tip of the mask. The cassock is still folded over his arm and he stands back, head tilted curiously as his attention zeroes in on the new Ghoul, while Terzo carefully holds the mask up to him.

The mask attaching to his Ghoul isn't nearly as alarming this time and he smiles when his eyes settle and he immediately perches on his finger tips and toes to shake off down to his tail before Terzo helps him up and helps pull the cassock on, "There we go. And now we see if you can stand on your own… can you take a few steps, for me?"

As Terzo slowly backs up, he releases the hold on Alpha. He's a little bit wobbly; but, he complies and manages to steady himself within two or three steps. His attention zeroes in on the summoning circle, on the tip that… had the ash and extra candles. The ash has vanished and the candles have melted down significantly. Terzo wants to record it; but he knows he needs to stay focused.

"Alpha?" He waits until the Ghoul looks back at him; not quite as immediate as Special generally responds, but easy to kind of shrug off. He's still getting used to his surroundings. "I need you to follow Special and wait for the others, okay?"

Worry bubbles, briefly, in the pits of his stomach as Alpha finally seems to notice Special. Special hasn't stopped watching Alpha the entire time—a bit stiff, a bit tense; but, he doesn't growl and he doesn't make any indication he's going to attack. There's a long moment where they simply stare at each other, until Alpha finally tries to take more steps—still a bit shaky when he first moves one of his legs—and follows where Special gestures to the wall.

All the while, being very careful to ensure his back is never to Alpha. Terzo watches them for a few seconds longer, just to make sure they're being, at the very least, cordial with one another.

He turns back to the circle to relight the candles—wonders, briefly, if he should go ahead and change them out—and, as he's gathering the small bowl and, thankfully closed, flask of water, he hears an interested hum from above him and looks back towards the observation balcony.

Father still looks impressed… but, Primo and Secondo have both turned their attentions to Imperator. As he's turning, he notices Special's attention has zeroed in on the woman, too. That he's motioning Cowbell to get back and offering the same gesture to Alpha, while keeping a careful distance that lets him watch the Ghoul and Sister, as best he can.

"Is… something wrong, Sister?" Terzo frowns a little, carefully setting the bowl and flask back down, just in case he's being told he's failed. Maybe he'll get lucky and she just has questions.

"That would depend on how well your Ghoul follows orders." Terzo blinks and looks back at the trio. Mountain's moved to join them from the door, clearly wary of the new Ghoul, too; Special just gestures for him and Cowbell to back up, tension slowly spreading through his void.

"He's listened to me so far—?"

"Alpha." Terzo winces when bright, brief flashes of light go off in his left eye and squeezes it shut to rub at it and try to get his vision to clear. Unfortunately, it means he also fails to realise what's happening until the rest of the order echoes down from the balcony. "Subdue the others."

Special shoves Cowbell out of the way—towards Mountain—and snarls when he gets knocked over instead. It's a short tumble—Special has some advantage in size and in his own awareness. Enough of an advantage that the manages to pin Alpha down with only a few scratches that are already closing and scruffs the newer Ghoul to keep from being thrown off his back. Enough time for Terzo to recover and try to break them up.

"Alpha! Special! That's enough—leave him alone!"

That may have been aimed more at Imperator; but, thankfully, both Ghouls go rigid. Special shakes his head a few times and cautiously backs off of the new Ghoul, still perched and ready… but, he does relax a little when Alpha simply writhes and claws at his mask with a slur of frustrated hisses and growls.

Cowbell creeps back forward and is able to get the writhing to stop after a few seconds of having his hands on Alpha's shoulders. The same calm he offers Terzo and Special, when they need it and Alpha finally just flattens himself to the floor like he's waiting for another order, tail lashing anxiously until Cowbell and Special finally help pull him back to his feet and over to their corner of observation.

Terzo finally tears his attention from the three and scowls up at the balcony, "What'd you do that for!? He could've gotten hurt! Or hurt one of them!"

Unlikely, given the others clearly have better control of their bodies, but it was still a moment of fear because he knows she meant Special. But, Imperator simply tips her head and folds her hands back in her lap, over a clipboard she's been taking notes on.

"You responded quickly and it listened. It is also able to adhere to orders from other clergy members, unlike your first two failures. This is acceptable. Continue."

Primo has a hand on Secondo's arm, giving him a warning look to stay seated and even from the chamber floor, Terzo can see his brother's jaw locking up as he grinds his teeth to resist the urge to snap at the woman. Papa's expression narrows, for the briefest moment; but, he doesn't intervene and instead turns a patient look back down on Terzo.

Terzo just scowls and moves around the table to his Ghouls, completely ignoring when he's told to resume the rituals a second time. Cowbell looks anxious—wringing his tail in his hands—and Alpha shies away from the approach, clearly worried he's done something wrong. Special's the only one that relaxes and lets out a slow breath, mindful to keep his voice down, "Vale, you should do what she says—"

"No. You two could have gotten hurt. I'm responsible for you and I don't—" it's an effort not to let the agitation show too obviously. He takes a few slow, deep breaths until he's able to keep his voice down without too much conscious effort. "I don't understand why she could do that… she can't give you and Bell orders… why did it work on Alpha? Alpha, are you okay?"

The Ghoul nods, slowly relaxing as he realises Terzo isn't mad at him. He purrs, the smallest bit when Terzo wraps his arms tight around the Ghoul's neck in a hug.

"I'm so sorry… I don't know why she can do that, I—I'll find a way to fix it, I promise. … Special? You're okay, too, right?"

"I'm fine," Despite the assurance, worry is creeping back into his voice, "Vale, seriously, you need to continue before she decides the trial is over. We're both fine, I made sure not to use my claws or damage his mask and his claws haven't fully manifested, yet. Water's next—Lord Leviathan will probably answer. He might have answers."

Terzo nods and finally releases Alpha, "Right… … if she tries to give Alpha another order, try to get him out of the chamber. Containment sigils don't work in the chamber, you should be able to get out… I don’t think she can give Fratello's Ghouls orders."

Special just nods and makes a series of short clicks in his throat. Alpha scowls up at him but still moves closer to Cowbell. Easier to protect. Easier to escape.

He hugs Special, just for good measure and relaxes when the Ghoul nuzzles his hair. "I can keep us safe… you just focus on what you need to do."

The calm and confidence helps. It helps Terzo take a deep breath and he finally goes back to the center of the chamber, pointedly keeping his head down and attention focused on what he was doing. On gathering the ceramic bowl and the flask. He hears the quiet, worried chirps coming from near the door and he knows Water is anxious, still.

Terzo… isn't. Not anymore. He's angry and still aware that Imperator could still ruin the entire thing and banish his Ghouls. Mostly angry, though.

He does his best to calm back down—knows that emotion plays… some kind of role in the rituals, even if he hasn't fully wrapped his head around what little he's been able to translate. Water, especially, could become volatile if he wasn't careful.

By the time he's lit the candles again and carefully taking the smallest bit of ash from the thurible to dissolve in the small dish of water with a gentle stir. While he waits for the water to still again, he takes another small pinch of the ash and takes it back to the table to let it start mixing into the waiting soil. Water… Air… Earth. He still has two more to get to, but if he does it now, he won't forget later or risk running out.

When he sings the incantation this time, he's grateful for the stillness that falls over the chamber and lets out a relieved breath. The sound of… waves…? Hits him out of nowhere and he looks around, confused, before he finally looks up and finds the large whale circling above him. Up near the observation balcony and his anxiety spikes, for the briefest moment, when the whale simply moves through the balcony, unphased by the humans or the structure; and, likewise, they remain blissfully ignorant of the stillness.

"You've a storm disrupting the tides, little human. I've half a mind to deny you your Ghoul."

Terzo doesn't get a chance to protest or defend himself; the Ghoul's already crawled up from the center—more like it's broken the surface of water—and is shaking off, the chirps more muffled and… like bubbles popping… than the clear clicks that his first three Ghouls make. Bright blue eyes settle on him, soon enough, and Water shakily raises up to his fingertips and toes when he crosses over to Terzo and pushes up against him with a pleased purr. A bright gold lights up against his stomach, briefly, before settling, the same as the maybe gold that had been in Alpha's neck. It just convinces him he wasn't imagining it on Alpha.

"As you can see, however… he's already made up his mind."

Terzo feels the prior anger dissipating and he actually laughs a little when the Ghoul's insistent nudging nearly knocks him over. He wraps both arms around him, hugging tight, "Hello… do you—" he pauses, hesitates, and finally sighs.

Water trills, curiously, at him; but, he doesn't fight when Terzo makes a motion for him to sit at his side; the Ghoul simply settles back in the same gargoyle crouch that the others idle in, even when Terzo crosses his arms over his chest to offer a delayed bow.

"My apologies for being rude, Lord Leviathan… thank you, for your time."

The large whale finally stills and simply floats above him, tilting his head to regard Terzo with a row of far too many eyes on the left side of the face.

"A very courteous gesture, summoner. … You seek wisdom."

Terzo hesitates and looks down at Water. The Ghoul simply blinks up at him, oblivious and trusting and thoroughly delighted when Terzo rests a hand on his head.

"I summoned Fire just before this, of course… some clergy members were able to give him orders to attack other Ghouls. … How do I keep them from doing that to the others? To him? I don't understand what happened, they can't do that to Special and Bell… I don't want them to be able to do that to…" He looks back down at the Water Ghoul. Alpha, he has to assume, was because of his name. No one seemed aware Cowbell… wasn't the proper name and Special… he assumes because he messed up the ritual. Alpha and the rest, though…

"Your brother—the damaged eldest one. He's given you the answer to this query. You need only abide his example. It will protect those to come… the one already summoned, however, will require a more delicate touch. I must cut our time here; they who follow me will aid you further, provided you remain civilized. … To sate your curiosity and seal this contract, I do ask that you complete your pledge."

"My—? Oh! Oh, of course, I'm sorry—" Terzo shakes his head, realises he is feeling a lot more tired, the longer he's in the strange stillness. He smiles down at Water. "Will you be alright answering to Water?" An affirmative, excited chirp and Terzo laughs again. "I'm glad… may I know your name, though?"

"Rush!" His tail swishes, rapidly, and makes a tiny splash when it thumps against the ground, "Rush will answer to Water?"

"Yes, please. So they can't use you to hurt the others." Terzo reaches out to give both of his ears a gentle skritch. "I'll keep you safe. And we'll keep them safe, right?"

He feels the ghost of a tap—like a dripping faucet—against the side of his left eye, running down his cheek, right as time resumes around him. Like Alpha, Water immediately recoils and begins to shake off, a high pitched whine building in his throat until Terzo manages to get both hands over his ears again.

"Shhh… I've got you. I've got you, you're safe. Special—oh. Thank you."

Special's already at his shoulder, cassock over his arm and mask held out.

Water watches him closely—like Alpha, his eyes are far more dynamic, right up until Terzo presents the mask to him and the veins spread and disappear into his void. It's a little bit harder to get him into the cassock, if only because he's desperately tryng to look at everything, now that he isn't being assaulted by a myriad of new sounds.

"This is Special." Terzo stands aside to gesture at his Ghoul and Water trills up at him, "I need you to follow him and wait for me to finish summoning the others, okay?"

He doesn't bother trying to stand and instead pounces after Special, circling Alpha and Cowbell in an almost enamoured interest before he finally settles into a copied crouch, tail still swishing and causing gentle splashes whenever it thumps the wall or ground. Alpha hisses quietly and scoots away to avoid the splashes; but, Special gets between them before it escalates any further.

"And this Ghoul—"

"Is Water." Terzo meets the alarmed look, evenly, lips pressed in a thin line. He's proud the Ghoul doesn't try to correct or introduce himself properly. Primo looks away, hastily, as though he's covering a cough; but, Terzo can tell he was smiling. Secondo doesn't bother hiding the smug pride that crosses his face. He actually seems to relax back into his chair, arms crossed languidly and meeting Imperator's annoyed scowl with a dismissive shrug.

So, it is the name… he hopes whoever brings Air can help him protect Alpha.

He doesn't waste time preparing the next phase. A new dish of water—consecrated but not created from another Ghoul. The candles are getting lower, he might need to ask Earth and Fire for more… maybe if he's quick enough he can get through the last two rituals and then figure out the fifth.

No extra ingredients. He just needs to remember where the incantation needs to be altered and repeated. An extra prayer in the middle, recite the whole thing a second time.

His throat is starting to hurt and his eyes feel heavy, but he needs to finish this.

The stillness is welcome again, even as it lulls him into an even sleepier state. A melodic laugh fills the air, carried on a breeze that twists around him and helps him stay standing upright, despite the unsteady sway. A large, black thrush shakes itself free from the wisps of shadows and, instead of coming from the center of the summoning circle, the Ghoul falls from the bird's chest plummage, catching himself before he hits the ground and simply levitating before carefully lowering to all four and settling down in a patient crouch.

He's distracted, briefly, observing his palms, as both light up in the same brilliant gold. A songbird's chirping fills the air as the Ghoul looks up at his patron, clearly looking for permission before carefully pulling himself to his feet—unsteady and clearly uncertain how his legs are meant to work—and soon giving up on standing entirely in favour of floating to circle Terzo and curl around him in his wisped form.

The thrush offers an amiable laugh—more like a series of chirps that mimic a laugh—even as it's talons dig at the summoning circle beneath it. Terzo startles when he notices the coal burning beneath the bird's feet.

"What a magnificent specimen you are, child. The void responds so willingly to you... Leviathan tells me his Ghoul responded in kind… and that you perhaps require my aid?"

"I—oh, my—I'm so sorry—" He doesn't get a chance to correct his greeting this time, even as anxiety bubbles in the pit of his stomach. Air trills next to him and blankets him further in the comfort of his hold and the thrush really doesn't seem nearly as bothered as Leviathan made it sound like he would.

"Breathe easy, child. You know who I am?"

"Lord… Caim, yes—but… you bring… Air Ghouls, why do you…?" Terzo isn't sure what to focus on. He's so… tired, it's so hard to focus. He's finally realising the stillness is what's making him sleepy and it's essentially only Air holding him up that keeps him standing and remotely awake. He feels… warm. Not as warm as Special or Cowbell or Alpha, but still warmer than Terzo.

Caim looks pleased, "Marvelous. The Archives serve you well. You've brought forth many wonderous voids—they will work well together. I believe my own gift will be most beneficial to help curb your Fire Ghoul." Terzo must look confused. Air looks proud of himself as he finally untangles from Terzo and settles by his legs, the same way Water had. Caim gives his wings a single, powerful flap that nearly knocks Terzo and his Ghoul both over.

When he recovers, the Fallen's become smaller—a man's body that retains the thrush's head and wings. He uses the sword at his waist as a cane as he walks forward and uses the hilt to tap Terzo's chin up for eye contact.

"Air Ghouls are freedom. They are the desire to create and express yourself. Fire is passion. They will bolster each other, as they do you and as you to them. Your Fire Ghoul has been compromised, is my understanding. When you've a moment with him—away from those that will use him in malice—you need only give him a simple order." Caim reaches out, taking one of Terzo's hands up in his own and squeezing it gently. "A gesture of trust and vulnerability. Orders given in tandem to touch will… alter a Ghoul's contract in minor ways. You will set more specific conditions—as you did with… Special. Your guardian Ghoul. When his conditions are met, he will carry out your order. For Alpha, you will need to make conditions that prevent others from abusing his name. Do you understand?"

Terzo nods, quickly. He's already losing some of the information as the exhaustion begins to hit his body, he needs to be back in the chamber—back with time moving properly, he needs Special to know so one of them remembers—

"I can help, too." Air's voice is soft. Clear and crisp and it snaps Terzo from the distressed thoughts. When he looks down, solid white eyes—maybe silver? They almost seem metallic—stare up at him and he swears a smile is in the void. "I can help… I know what to do, too."

"I—thank you. I hate to burden you with such a task so soon… thank you, though." Terzo feels the anxiety dissipating and smiles when the Ghoul perks up and circles him again, this time doing a few entwined circles around Caim, as well.

The thrush smiles and tips his head, "Let your Ghouls aid you, little star. They are your comrades and protectors, just as much as you protect them. Now then… your pledge, please."

"Of course… and… thank you, so much." Terzo finally has a chance to cross his arms over his chest and offers the Fallen a deep bow, "For your time and guidance. Thank you." When he raises, his attention goes to Air, floating just to his left and he holds his hands out to take the Ghoul's and slowly helps lower him to the floor so he can get used to his legs. "You're doing wonderful… may I know your name?"

"I'm Cyclone. But… you wish for me to answer to Air, yes?"

Terzo tries not to let the disappointment show and smiles as best he can, "For your safety, yes. Until I can… figure out a more permanent solution."

The exhaustion is starting to hit him again and he hears a worried chirp, somewhere to his right. The stillness is starting to feel… wrong. Stale. He shakes his head, sharply, and grips Air's hands a little bit tighter to give himself an anchor.

"I'll protect you. I'm going to find a way to keep all of you safe, I swear."

This time it feels like a feather tapping the corner of his eye—gentle and a bit ticklish.

Air doesn't recoil from the sudden sounds the way Alpha and Water did. His ears flatten and his eyes squeeze shut for the shortest moment, but he manages to shake it off in the same moment Terzo feels Special put a hand on his shoulder to offer the next mask and cassock. He thinks he manages to say thank you when he takes the mask from Special and holds it out to Air. The veins are definitely more silver than white, as they spread from the mask and Terzo almost thinks he sees a little bit of blue and maybe yellow—?

He rubs at his eyes, trying to stave off the exhaustion even a little bit. He thinks he hears Special asking if he's okay. Air echoes him, his voice definitely clearer than Special's, worry evident. Terzo tries to tell them he's okay.

Just one more… he just needs to do one more, at the very least—

The last thing he's aware of is his brother saying his name and something warm wrapping around him. Special. More than likely Special. It's getting hard to keep his eyes open and even knowing they're as open as he can get them, everything around him looks… fuzzy. Muted, like he's still in the stillness of forging a pact for a Ghoul.

Just one more. He can do one more.

He tries to say as much—or, he thinks he's trying to say as much… but he must pass out because the next time he manages to open his eyes, he's back in his bedroom, struggling to get his bearings and trying to figure out why there's so much chirping in his room.

.♥. .♥. .♥. .♥. .♥. .♥. .♥. .♥. .♥. .♥. .♥. .♥. .♥. .♥.

post a/n:

My goal is to at least finish Era 3 and Pro Memoria. There may be other one shots, but… I'm not positive the resurrection fic or any of the other planned multi-chapters will continue/be manifest. I've written well over 200k for Ghost, only ~90k (as of this chapter) has been posted and I… am not positive I can muster up the mental fortitude to keep this up.

Thank you, to everyone who has read and taken the time to let me know there's more than a void. Thank you, everyone that's left a kudo or bookmark or subscription.

But this is having severely adverse side effects on my mental and physical health, between lack of reception, lack of acknowledgement in other aspects of the works, and the looming threat of generative bullshit.

I will see these two projects through, at least. But they will probably be spread out as I very desperately need to nurture my health.

I'm sorry. Thank you, again, to everyone that's made effort to express their interest. That's essentially all that's gotten me through these chapters, few and far between that they are. I probably won't be replying to any future comments, but please know that they do mean the entire world to me.

#sqooshy writes #ghost fanfiction #ghost band #rating: general #ghouls era 3 #ghost era 3 #terzo #papa emeritus iii #ao3 link #special ghoul #cowbell ghoul #alpha ghoul #water ghoul #air ghoul #papa emeritus ii #secondo #summoning meta #fic: ritual of summoning

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ninaiznathan · 11 months

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» Old games, I’ll take the usual. «

Ben drowned blurb? :)

Past bedtime, not like you have yourself a set curfew. But you did have class the following morning. You’re hunched over your bed staring down at your laptop's brightly showcased screen. Cleverbot was pulled up. What else to do when you’re stuck with insomnia and needed to find ways to waste your extra energy?

But let's rewind ourselves a bit. When did you manage to stumble upon Clever?

The only source of light provided in your bedroom was your laptop's screen illuminating the foundations of the walls. Just barely showcasing the decor and furniture filling in the room. It was just you and your laptop in the dead of the night. Maybe you could’ve been doing something productive like homework or studying, but with your lack of an attention span, you easily became distracted with other- less important matters.

Even with the window slightly ajar and the bedrooms ceiling fan, circling in the same speedy pattern, you still felt sticky with body odor and sweat, your hair making you feel unpleasant with it sticking to your forehead and the back of your neck, despite it being pulled up, and despite the fact you’re wearing the lightest outfit you could own.

— it started with a few YouTube videos, then laptop games; revisiting an old childhood site by the name of ‘Dolldivine’ kept you assumed for a good hour or so. then you tried random websites.. nothing. You’re eyes throbbed from being so up close and staring at the screen for so long. Your spine ached from your sitting position. But you were no we’re near tired. Then you just so happened to recall something brought up in a recent conversation you had with a friend.

Cleverbot. Harmless ai bot, right?

You don’t know what your friend was going on about, some theories conspiring around it. Like how you’re not talking to an ai and like a real person, or was it some video game dude? Whatever. It was bs as always.

You open up the Cleverbot website, nothing out of the ordinary. You start chatting with the ai, and normal conversations play through as expected.

“Hi.”

“How are you?”

“Good, you?”

“Fantastic.”

So on and so on. You squint at your screen, this was most definitely ai generated. Nothing else, nothing less.

Course, this didn’t help ease the boredom sprawling out of your consciousness. You switch to a new tab, searching stuff up.

“Cleverbot conspiracy”

Okay, Reddit submissions and weird biased .com articles. Did you have the motivation to read or scan most of ‘em? Not. Who doesn’t love a good ‘ol Reddit r/conspiracy theory that’s heavily outdated?

—

A while pasts of you digging deep down for answers. It gets you nowhere, and talks about how Cqleverbot is a big old fake chat room, connecting people's lives, and shit like that. Till you come across something.

Deep into your search, with the certain conspiracy that was itching at the back of your brain- fuck- this is why you shouldn’t zone out on your friends. Nothing you came across seemed right. ‘Till the mention of some drowned character- Majoras mask- oh!! Ben drowned.

Right, Ben. That’s what your friend was on about. that’s why you were thinking about that video game character- legends of Zelda based? It made sense as to why you thought it was a weird video game in real life moment that was driving folks crazy. All you knew was that Ben Drowned was somehow connected to an outdated LOZ game, Majoras's mask. Seemed like a horror story to get your kids to piss their pants.

You honestly could’ve asked her over text. But it was around two am, probably past two at this point. And the probability of her being asleep was most likely 100.

What about this Ben drowned thing? You flip to a new tab, typing away on your laptop keyboard, the feeling of the key tabs beneath your finger pads having a sense of familiarity. ‘Ben drowned cleverbot.” Surprisingly, the first piece of media you were met with was a wiki on “how to summon Ben drowned.” It piques your interest, to say the least. It gave you clear instructions on how to summon this- thing.

You were well aware this wasn’t true, you wouldn’t be summoning anything. It’s just a bot after all, but you decided to bite.

Memorizing the step-by-step details, you move your screen back to the original tab— “cleverbot.com”

“BEN DROWNED.”

You start off with.

“Who drowned you?”

The bot replied with.

Okay, not the answer you were exactly expecting. But it wasn’t shocking that the bot was acting stupid. Cause it is.

“Ben, how did you drown?”

“Matt did it.” You stare at the screen puzzled. Didn’t the wiki originally state some shit about moon children? You aren’t exactly familiar with legends of Zelda games and the lore.

“Counter resets.”

What a strange thing to say. But oh well, as long as you get your desired outcome from it

. “Y̴̜͔̠̜̊ȍ̴͓̻̦̍ũ̴̦͓̑́̚ͅ'̶̨̓̈́͜v̷̢͙͂͝e̴̱̲̓ ̴̬̜̭̈̇̑͂m̵͉͚̙̊e̸͗ͅt̴̼̑̐͝͝ ̵̼̱͌͌͘ẁ̵̻̘̽̈́͘ͅḯ̶̮̈͗̉t̷̘̾h̴̜̹͊͌͑ ̶̧̞̈́̌͛̿ạ̸̛̈́ ̴̥̣͔̀̐̌̐t̷̥͒͂̕͠ͅe̷̩̺̫͛̽͌r̵̠͔̪͈̕ŕ̶̡i̵̜̍ḅ̸͎̃͌̀l̵̥̹͘e̸̬͈͊͆̚͝ ̸͉̰̂̆̅f̴̻͐̐̚ą̶̽̈́͝t̶̗̽̑͗e̵̬̩͆ ̸̧͚̪̦̋̌,̵̡͉̯͎̑̍͠ ̸̤̅h̴̪̻̏̂͝͝à̸̮̱̜v̸̠̹̉̂̍ē̴̳̭̠̓́̅n̴̹̗̩͒̏̈́͝'̵̜̬̆͊̚̚t̸̛͈͖̱͈̃͠ ̸̞̑̍y̷̬̾̀̄͊o̴͚͕̘̒̌ù̶͔̉͒?̵̙̈”

“Woah. Okay edgelord.” You quietly chuckle. At least the “summoning” routine has you feeling accomplished with yourself. You go on with talking to the bot, it’s back-to-normal conversation appeals. As you expected it wasn’t anything serious. Just some ai bot shenanigans. It was acting as if I didn’t just threaten you with- whatever it said, just a bit distorted looking. Maybe it was a glitch in the coding that made people freak out about it, or it was purposely done to shit peoples pants.

You got what you pleased- “summoning” Ben drowned, and now you can peacefully sleep without that inch in mind. Luckily you burnt all that energy out when on the manhunt to relieve your curiosity on the matter.

Yawning sleepily, you softly shut your laptop. Not bothering to close out of any tabs. Your hand brushes over the stickers that litter the top of your laptop. Ranging from cute and funny animal memes and my little pony characters to 80’s slasher antagonists, and spooky shit. You shrug softly, the clock reading 4:23 am. Shit- how fixated were you?

“Mhmmm, only got a few hours to sleep,” you groan to yourself: but to be fair the only person to blame was yourself. Maybe Ben drowned instead-

Nah. How silly to think that.

You yawn once more, stretching your arms over your head as deliciously pleasing cracks could be heard erupting from your back crack. You are a bit-to-big old and faded-out band t-shirt lifting as well. Groaning and mumbling pleasantly to yourself.

Your phone had been discarded to your side this whole time- picking it up it was slightly steamed up with the fact that it had been on charge this whole time even with it being well past 100 percent- if that were possible.

Tapping on the screen, the dimly lit Home Screen of yours greets you. Unlocking the pass-coded device, you make a beeline to the app Spotify. plugging in some headphones and playing your usual playlist to help lull yourself to sleep.

You set your phone on top of your laptop, on the nightstand. Music softly blares in your ears, and you slightly shift your knee against the mattress to get yourself adjusted into the dark navy and breathable bed covers. Realizing you were too hot and sweaty to be relishing in any more disgusting humid worth; you kick the blanket off and sprawl yourself out:

You yawn and let your eyelids softly shudder closed, feeling serenity course through your being and sleep overcome you. What an interesting unearthing you’ve done, it hardly even crossed your mind.

The last thing your consciousness allows you to grasp are the lyrics coursing through your eardrums, and the tune to the all familiar and comforting song.

So peaceful you fail to notice the whitish yet glitchy glow softly disgorging out your stacked devices. You’re already lost in a soft slumber.

As you’ve satisfied your own curiously, you’ve piqued someone else’s interest as well… something much more sinister.

You’ll soon be met with a truly unexpected fate, won’t you?

Hihii, sorry this is a bit rushed and sloppy. Trying to cure my writers block issues :(( so yes this is very half assed, and not my best pieces of writing. At all.

Maybe If I gain a bit more motivation, and plot ideas I can write a part two with Ben actually being involved and doing some spooky shit ^_^

#ben drowned #creepypasta #legends of zelda #majoras mask #slenderverse #horror #cleverbot #fandom #lgbtqia #loz link #media

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thedelusionreaderbitch · 2 years

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Inej Ghafa x fem! Reader - Bliss less Sky

A/n: Inej has like no fics for her, honestly I love Inej and I've played with this idea for a while and it's taken me a while to get it right because I didn't want to over do it, but I didn't want to under do it either. I hope it meets everyone's expectations!

Summary: It was getting harder for Inej to pull away from the darkness and the crows start to realize but it's too late. Or is it?

Warnings: normal canon violence, people being lost, death, I think that's it? You have been warned!

Pronouns used: you/your but reader is mentioned to be girl

Pairings: (romantic) Inej x reader, (platonic) the crows x reader

The girl who disappeared into the night was starting to stay with the shadows. For Inej there was always a temptation to stay in the twilight, it was different from a shadow summoner. A shadow summoner summoned the darkness to them and controlled it to their will, for the Wraith she became the darkness.

Whether it be night or day Inej Ghafa played her disappearing act to a point, and it was getting harder and harder to pull away from the shadows. Why did she need to stay with the others, when she held so much power in the back?

You started to realize that Inej wasn't acting like herself as much anymore. At first it started with the little things; like she stopped praying as much, or she didn't whisper the names of her knives. Then Inej stopped coming back from the umbrage nearly always staying out of everyone's view. After that she just started to disappear from everything in general, then she become more careless about the lives of others on jobs. Not necessarily the crows, but the lives of the people who were affected because of their jobs, she didn't hesitant to kill anyone even if it wasn't necessary to kill - when Kaz wouldn't even bother to kill them.

It was starting to become concerning and a problem because everyone's friend (and your girlfriend) was disappearing from everyone's sights, but nobody could do anything about it because she could just disappear after all.

There needed to be some sort of intervention, but even that would be hard to organize, you also had a feeling that the only one who might be able to talk some sense into her might be you.

But you didn't tell anyone that, when the time came and that's what happened then that's what'll happen. You can't change what's to come, you can only hope that Kaz doesn't kick you out of the dregs completely for 'distracting' his wraith. Jokes on Kaz, she wasn't his, she wasn't anyone's but she was certainly your Inej.

Yet none of you ever got to do that intervention because one time on a job everyone had realized that it had been too late.

Inej had a knife placed up against the throat of a child in front of the mother who was shaking with tears brimming her eyes with the father already killed in front of the two of them.

The mother had owned the dregs some valuable information but she would not speak. The Crows had tried everything but she stayed strong as she grew up in the barrel herself. In the words of the woman; "My family and me are better off dead then if I told you!"

That was her mistake.

When nothing seemed to be working the Wraith had slinked up the stairs of the home grabbing onto the husband and the child and bringing them down stairs. After the woman still didn't talk Inej had simply killed the man and put her knife up to the throat of the child as if it was the easiest thing she had done in her life.

Your lovely Inej, the one who one day brought you flower crowns bashful because in hindsight it was a bit childish. However you had lifted the crowns and placed them on each of your heads. The same Inej had kissed your lips and cradled you as you cried. The one who saved a little girl when she should have just walked away. The dreg who wouldn't yell when the homphobes would tell you everything about the two of you was wrong. Instead she would find out their darkest secret and make their lives absolutely miserable. The girl who would laugh softly and quietly at all your jokes and save you from the tiniest of falls.

This was her in front of you, yet simultaneously she wasn't. It was like Ketterdam had been eating at her soul for far too long, yet you could still see the real shards of Inej scattered. She was broken glass, sharp yet delicate. If she were to break anymore she would truely be gone. You couldn't let that happen, you had to at least try to bring her to sense because you would never be able to live with yourself if you did.

How had anyone of you not seen the signs? How could have you been so blind? In that moment though it didn't matter, all that mattered was Inej and torturing yourself with the 'what if's?' wasn't going to help. You did not want another 'what if?' to come out of today.

The other crows at Inej to stop; "This isn't you!" But she didn't listen, it was almost as if she were deaf to everything expect for the woman. Her eyes were trained on the mother who's face was crumbling yet her resolve was not, she was someone from the barrel, born and breed. When the only thing you've ever known is survival at all costs old habits bite back the hardest.

The woman shook her head a clear indicator that she wasn't going to give anything and The Wraith goes to kill-

"You are Inej." You whisper as you step forward and place your hand on her hand that holds the dagger. Sankta Anastasia to be precise.

"Not The Wraith." You say a little louder this time to make sure that your point gets across.

Inej's face that was before devoted of any emotion was now scrounged up as she gritted her teeth and put more pressure onto the young child's throat and a trail of crimson came in it's wake as the child whimpered. Yet she did not kill them.

Your hand gripped tighter with the one that held the weapon and you only looked at her blocking out everyone else. The crows be damned if you had to reveal your relationship to save your girlfriend from herself then so be it.

"On of my favorite things about you Inej is the way you treat others, the respect you have for them."

You take a step closer daring her to look away Inej tries to but she can't.

"Come back to us Nej, come back to me. Come back home, you don't need to stay on the shadows. The darkness will only welcome you as long as you purge your soul."

"I-" Her eyes are brimming with tears while they swam with intensity.

"This city eats people from the inside out but I still see you in there, let her come through, you don't need to hide. Don't let this city take another thing away from us girls, don't let it take your heart Inej because it's good." Your voice cracks with emotion. "You're good Inej, you're oh, so good."

Sankta Anastasia clattered to the ground and the child quickly scrambled away from Inej as she herself fell forward into your arms. Sobs erupted from the girl as she gripped onto to you tight as you held her close. You had just got her back from her personal purgatory you weren't going to let go.

"Nej, it's okay, it's going to be okay."

"But I-"

You lift her chin up so her gaze connected with yours. "We all get lost sometimes what is important is that we find our way back."

You look around at all the shocked gaze's of the crows and the slight incline of the head the mother gave to you in thanks. You didn't do it for her and her child, you did it for Inej.

Inej your flower crown queen, who could disappear in second with a hurt of gold and the will to survive.

Morality is always a question that could alter anyone's perspective of them, sometimes even the strongest of people loose their way, what matters is that we're here for them when they do.

Words 1313

-thedelusionreaderbitch

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Happy pride month!

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yaraaltroreboot · 8 months

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Jujutsu Aiko-ka: Junpei during the Aikoka Arc

Be forewarned: LOOOOOOOOONG POST. Would have loved to put more than one readmore, but i can't for some reason, so please be patient when taking a peak.

Episode 1 - Enthusiast (愛好家 Aikō-ka)

Junpei and Atsuha properly meet after they enter an empty room, which served as an extracurricular club, where she uses her paper shikigami to clear out the dark aura enough to see him. Both her and an older Yuji Itadori get to talk to him, her noticing how emotional he is over seeing his old friend after so many years.

Junpei confesses that he's not sure for how long he has been there, if he was summoned or just stayed in the building, having only recovered his consciousness a few years ago. After reflecting on the info collected together, he realizes there are "two curses" in Satozakura High School, distracts the curse she's after with her ofudas, the "other curse" revealed to be half of Junpei's soul, the transfigured side, the splitting happening as the rumors and urban legends about him spread.

After reuniting both halves of his soul, Junpei admits he doesn't wish to curse anyone there, but isn't sure of what's keeping him on that plane in general. With that, Atsuha proposes a Binding Vow to allow him to leave the building and take him to Tokyo Jujutsu High, Yuji also inviting Atsuha to be his student there, impressed by her ability and proper knowledge.

Episode 2 - Act and Lie (演技と嘘 Engi to uso)

After settling in the Hidden Room, for the first weeks living with her, Junpei notices lots of flaws in Atsuha, such as her social anxiety and struggles with Japanese language and costumes. At one point, when he learns that she graduated as an actress and came to Japan only about a year ago, he accuses her of wasting time and lying, this last statement visibly hurting Atsuha.

After she leaves earlier the next day, Junpei talks to Yuji about what happened, and Yuji explains that during her entrance exam, Atsuha made her intentions clear, and that she truly believes she can help Junpei, and in fact, is not afraid of death or loss; not that she doesn't fear it, but she lived it and accepted it enough to not be shaken by it, something that could only be possible "by someone who's already been broken before".

After the exam, she comments about Junpei's story, and that she wants to make sure the time they have together is at least a bit happier than his last year of life was, for "he has suffered enough". This makes Junpei realize that she had nothing but good intentions all along, this driving him to tears; however, the tears are revealed to be Atsuha's, her keeping of her feelings deep within manifesting onto him as a consequence of the vow.

After she returns from her outing, having rescued a blind girl from some delinquents, she tries keeping a distance, seemingly accepting that he's not interested in more than being freed as soon as possible, but he bows down apologizing, admitting that 'he lied to himself more than he accused her of'; he admits that he blames only himself for his death, his indifference and inner hatred being the reason he even met Mahito, and that he couldn't face his mom in the afterlife 'being the same Junpei', and properly asks for her help, calling her "Atsuha-nee-chan".

With this, Atsuha lets her sadness out, and even between tears, promises in her mind that she'll help him no matter what. They hug it out in tears, and as he mentally promises he won't ever make her cry again, one of the cigarette scars under his hair vanishes.

Episode 3 - Changes (変化 Henka)

Junpei dreams of an island similar to the one in the Cast Away movie, only all surrounded in shades of black and white and horror merchandise, and a very dark smoke surrounding the place, all concentrating in a monstrous alligator-life form.

Earlier that day, Junpei and Atsuha get informed by Yuji of the changes in jujutsu society since the events in 2018, while meeting the current school team and the trainings and classes they'll possibly have, Junpei having been accepted as a student, and even receiving an homage when Yuji present the "Yoshino Film Club" which can be visited as an extracurricular activity.

Junpei gets acquainted with Yuta Okkotsu, who explains that his condition as a cursed soul isn't outright rare, but quite uncommon. He also shows a certain amount of concern about Atsuha, especially about her being so emotional, to the point he believes a hardcore prank might make her cry, his point made due to a certain memory of a college prank she has. Both him and Atsuha also show fear when meeting Maki, but thankfully Yuta acts as a mediator explaining their vow's condition and Atsuha's diagnosis. Junpei also sticks around to hear about Atsuha's more detailed first meeting with the sorcerer that introduced her to Jujutsu.

After Atsuha demonstrates her excitement over starting her classes and missions, even if she's not properly graded yet, Junpei admits that he feels welcomed here as he hasn't felt in years, and once more promises he won't rush her anymore, that they'll find a way to break is curse together. She tries offering him some sweets, but he refuses to eat, arguing that as a ghost things would just cross his body and not even land in a stomach.

Back to the dream, Junpei reaches out to the alligator form in the island, saying it's okay now, the dark smoke dissipating and revealing a small transfigured alligator form, who climbs into his lap and accepts his caress, making peace with both sides of his soul; color start appearing around the island, revealing it mostly to be part of a gigantic dome set, with the water around the place low as if in a pool and the look-alike mountain and forest center revealing itself as a strange, unidentifiable structure.

However, a glimpse of Mahito's presence makes him wake up, Atsuha having felt the same panic even though not understanding properly.

Episode 4 - Resentment (憤りIkidōri)

Junpei explains the situation to Yuji and is sure that Mahito's back somehow, recognizing that presence and feeling of terror from the moment he died. Yuji assures him he'll find and kill this new Mahito somehow, but for the moment, he informs both him and Atsuha of their first mission's location. During their drive there, Junpei mentally points out Atsuha's blossoming feelings for Ijichi, promising to not tell him.

While helping contain the infestation of Fly Heads in a building, Junpei recognizes his former bully Shota Ito walking out of there, and is clearly still mad at him, but contains himself, because he obviously can't see him. Later, as they follow the last Fly Heads they end up seeing Ito arguing with his girlfriend about not being able to get a job and she even threatens to leave him if things keep up like this. After she leaves for work herself, while Atsuha apprehends the Fly Heads, Junpei sees Ito crying himself out, yelling his name and begging for forgiveness and to "spare his girlfriend"; this leaves Junpei conflicted.

When they're leaving, Junpei admits his guilt about the situation, having burned Ito's arm back then, not considering the after effects of his survival; he still resents him for all that happened, but he never wanted or imagined things would end up like this. However, the familiar feeling of Mahito's presence calls his attention, and he tells Atsuha to call Yuji.

Yuji meets them nearby the Ito household, and at first is reluctant to let them join him on investigating if Mahito really come back (mostly Atsuha), pointing out how the system's readjustment worked so no more undergraded sorcerers would die, but with Atsuha's will and determination to go with it anyway, and Junpei pointing out that he of all people understands what Mahito is capable of, he concedes, though he advise them to keep their rescuing priority in mind at the moment.

After reaching the hospital and dropping the Veil, the three of them get separated as the halls seemingly distort; Junpei is left alone to ponder about the recent events, and how despite his acceptance of his transfigured side, he still fears the possibility of transforming into that form and not coming back.

As the familiar threatening feeling returns, Junpei reaches the hall where the room with Ito's girlfriend is, and sees Yahito for the first time, playing around with some medical tools, and gloating about being related to Mahito, as well as teasing Junpei about being 'his big brother's toy'. Atsuha and Yuji reach him just as Yahito plans to take Ito's girlfriend with him, and "turn her into a new toy"; Junpei gives in with a sudden punch to Yahito's extending, tentacle-forming arm, transforming into his transfigured form and telling the curse to stay away.

Episode 5 - Shape of Soul (魂の形 Tamashī no katachi)

After Junpei transforms and bites off Yahito's arm, both Atsuha and Yuji feel tense over the situation; this doesn't last long however as he shows he's still conscious and in fact, doesn't feel so different, to Yuji's tearful relief and Atsuha's emotional praise, and also to their comical delight, as Junpei complains about how the curse's arm tastes horrible and asks Yuji how he was even capable of eating such things. Upset about being ignored and attempting to regenerate his arm, Yahito demands their attention again, only to be faced by Yuji's familiar yet terrifying aura.

While Yuji takes over the situation, frightening Yahito enough for him to throw the medical supplies and then dash through the hall, Junpei and Atsuha enter the room where Ito's girlfriend is, and also find another person inside: a pregnant, yet very sick woman. Junpei, besides struggling with the disproportionate situation of his body, offers a ride on his back so he can carry the three women out through the emergency stairs, something both Atsuha and him hesitate about for a moment, but don't feel "wrong" about it when doing it; both meet Ijichi outside, him obviously getting startled at the sight of Junpei's transfigured form.

The battle between Yahito and Yuji eventually breaks out of the building, and Junpei butts into the battle elongating his arm to punch the curse's arm weapon away. With that, Junpei acknowledges he felt something change after biting Yahito's arm off; despite spitting it out, he did consume some of it. Hearing Junpei's pondering, Atsuha hypothesizes that he might be able to access something of Idle Transfiguration through this consumption.

Yuji wants to protest about Junpei getting in the middle of it, but he cannot argue that this is his fight as well. As they both fight Yahito, Junpei tests Atsuha's theory on himself, being able to his elongated arms and even somewhat remodel his body proportions to dodge or contain attacks, and to generally feel more comfortable in his transfigured form. However, despite these abilities helping a lot in the beatdown, at a certain point, Junpei suddenly feels exhausted, returning to his human form and struggling to remain awake, until Atsuha runs to his side, assuring Yuji will take care of everything now.

After Yahito starts throwing a tantrum, to the shock of Atsuha and Yuji, calling out for his "onee-chan" and later disappearing after a new presence is felt by the two sorcerers, Junpei wakes up, having laid down on Atsuha's shoulder during the ride back. Both the pregnant woman and Ito's girlfriend end up safe in the end, Junpei feeling relieved about it, visiting the Ito household one last time, and seeing the couple make up, as well as Shota realizing his arm's articulations are improving. As they leave in the car, Atsuha notices something disappearing on Junpei's forehead, before it suddenly stops.

Episode 6 - Reunion (再会 Saikai)

Yuji informs Atsuha and Junpei of a reunion being set for that day to discuss Yahito's appearance, and if there were other sightings of familiar curses. As they talk, Aoi Todo appears with Miwa's siblings as his students, and asks Atsuha and Junpei about "their type of woman/man". Junpei is taken aback by the simple prospect and also by Atsuha actually answering that she likes men with sexy voices and muscular women. Taking Yuji's advice and also a cue of his preference, Junpei makes up his mind, calling it a perfect combo of height, acting experience and perfect curves, boobs and butt: Pamela Anderson. Both answers earn Todo's respect.

Later on, before Yuji leaves for the reunion, Atsuha and Junpei are put to the movie training he took, but do it in turns since there is only one Tsukamoto. Junpei is impressed about Atsuha's focus, and also nostalgic over the simple act of watching a movie; she repeats her 'promise' of taking him to the movies for real sometime. Making use of this turn opportunity, with one of them watching a movie with the Cursed Corpse while the other spy on the reunion, both Atsuha and Junpei take in the stories each sorcerer tell, with their current whereabouts and some hints of what sounds like a "turf war" between minor curses; the reunion attempt however becomes more of a friend meeting, and the duo is discovered sneaking by the door and are invited to join the reunion, commenting about their meeting with Yahito (and about Atsuha's superb drawing skills).

After everyone leaves or tucks in for the night, Yuji admits to both Atsuha and Junpei that he gave them his training because he doesn't know which training to give them, being far from an experienced teacher, despite Atsuha's enthusiastic admiration. Junpei understands his concern, but reassures him with one thing Yuji said at the reunion: unlike him, his students 'have time' to learn. Yuji asks Junpei if he'd like to finally visit the morgue, to which he agrees and places a paper shikigami on his head, while Atsuha runs back to the room to 'take her turn'.

Episode 7 - Sweet Poison (甘い毒 Amai doku)

Early in the morning, Junpei hears Atsuha's panicked screams and after making his way towards the screaming's location, sees her carrying a poisoned Kiyotaka Ijichi up the stairs of Jujutsu High. Later, he leaves alongside Yuji when Ijichi's taken to the medical bay, although Atsuha stays behind.

Both Junpei and Yuji are aware of Atsuha's growing crush on him, and he makes the case that despite "not fitting the types", she admires him for his hard working, knowledge, patience, reliability, and being a very nice person, this last one being probably the main reason admiration turned to crush.

Later, when Ijichi recovers, even with a lowly sore arm, he drives both Junpei and Yuji to the location where he was poisoned, Atsuha staying behind with him to drop the Veil and possibly talk. While they explore the distorted location, soon they get trapped within the seemingly infinite maze, having to battle what looks like a transfigured human.

Episode 8 - Heritage (遺産 Isan)

Junpei and Yuji crash Harui and Atsuha's encounter, both defeating their enemy and bursting through the nearest wall; Junpei is also surprised to see his shikigami Moon Dregs again, or at least, one from the same lineage. While she escapes with Ijichi, Junpei uses his transfiguring ability to help beat down Harui and interrogate him, though both of them are unsuccessful.

They'd reunite soon with Ijichi and Atsuha, both informing of the third party involved in the latest missions, though not sure of it being a curse user or a curse itself, and her threat of "invading the turf war". Later, back on Tokyo Jujutsu High, Atsuha properly introduces the new Moon Dregs, which she names Suki, for Junpei's confusion. Afterwards, Junpei leaves Atsuha and Ijichi alone to talk.

Episode 9 - Planning (計画 Keikaku)

Some weeks later, while the Tokyo sorcerers are discussing what matter to take now that the "cursed turf war" has been discovered, Junpei and Kusakabe eventually join the reunion and even witness Ijichi's argued point "with an unusual determination". After the reunion, Junpei is presented with an opportunity, gaining a Cursed Corpse to inhabit, composed of a wooden, articulated mannequin (akin to Mechamaru) with felting skin (3 layers of felting, to be precise). After some orientation, Junpei manages to inhabit both cores of it, the second one taken by his transfigured half, dubbed Wilson (to everyone's confusion and Yuji's delight).

With this corpse, Junpei is able to properly eat, finally tasting the food Atsuha offers him, this time his favorite plate, crab omelette on rice; he tears up a bit, having believed before that he'd never be able to taste something good ever again.

Episode 10 - Purgatorium (煉獄 Rengoku)

The next day after receiving his Cursed Corpse, Junpei puts on his new Jujutsu High uniform and ties back his bangs in a ponytail, exposing his scars, being able to do it all with this new body. Atsuha and Yuji approve of this new look, and he points out "he has nothing else to hide". Later on, they're taken with Yuji to Kanagawa, specifically to Kawasaki, where Junpei lived before; then, he's pleasantly surprised when seeing they're in front of Kinema Cinema, and Atsuha reveals Yuji having a day off and their plan to make that day very special to him, starting with her fulfilling her part of their vow, her promise to him.

Junpei is seen by the ticket seller thanks to the Cursed Corpse, but to non-sorcerers, he looks like someone wearing a character suit. As they watch the newest Human Earthworm, he reflects over why such a choice of their part, and also notices that the Cursed Corpse has a somewhat natural blocking to their usual telepathic situation as he tries finding it out. After the movie, with the whole day ahead of them, Atsuha asks Junpei where he wishes to go, him feeling uneasy about it, not really being "an expert on his own hometown".

They visit the Doraemon Museum, and Junpei comments with Yuji how during his time trapped in Satozakura, his memories were mostly blurry except for the bad and death-related ones. He acknowledges how Atsuha is working hard as a sorcerer and to be a good sister to him, and is thankful for everything she and everyone in Tokyo Jujutsu High are doing, but also fears he can't recover these parts he forgot.

As they're leaving, Todo meets them and takes Yuji's place, while he leaves for his "unwarned compromise". Junpei notices Atsuha's discomfort with the sudden change, but Todo assures them their day can go on as planned, and he'll go along with them.

When they're at the Ikuta Ryokuchi Rose Garden, motivated by a blurry memory, they talk over his past months at Tokyo Jujutsu High, and Todo even suggest that Junpei might be crushing on Atsuha, which he denies at first, but admits that he had considered this, but it wasn't the kind of love he thought; in fact, Junpei doubts he ever understood or pursued this sort of love in life, although he DID reconsidered his feelings for "someone else".

When Todo suggest they go to Yomiuri Park so they all have fun, Junpei worries about the distance, and admits there is one place he wants to see, but isn't sure if it's even available: his house. Once arriving at the location, Atsuha reassures him that whatever happens, she'll have his back; turns out the place remained for rent since the incident, only a bit of furniture left, but none of the things Junpei and his mom had are found until he reaches her room, finding the sealed boxes. As he looks over the content and finds a picture of him and his parents, he starts to hesitate and Atsuha asks if he wants to be left alone, which he denies, explaining that he was trying to and succeeded in recovering memories: he tells about his father, who instilled on him his love for movies, but one day died during working hours, Junpei having to be the man of the house and look after his mom, her having hooked up with some men without much compromise and falling into her unhealthy habits over and over. Despite the sadness of these memories, Junpei feels happy as well for crying over this, having feared he'd forget everything forever. As she comforts him, Atsuha notices another of his scars disappearing.

At Yomiuri Park, the trio is by SHATEKI, and while Todo talks to Yuji on the phone, Atsuha is happy to see Junpei smiling and having fun, something she admitted wanting to see the whole day; he points out that the whole day was fun in her company. She then tells him her theory about his curse, informing that after visiting his house, one of his scars disappeared, and a few others did as well; she makes an allegory to Dante Aligheri's Purgatorio, where the protagonist has seven marks representing the sins and as he climbs Mt. Etna, the angels removed his marks, purging him of his sins so he can enter Paradise and meet Beatrice. Following her allegory, Junpei admits feeling a bit lighter and the situations, as if something was "fixed" inside of him; though they don't reach a conclusion on the denominator of the scar cleansing, they do agree that once they're all gone, he'll be freed from his curse.

Once back at Tokyo Jujutsu High, Junpei looks at the pictures and the old photo album he took with him from his old house, and despite the obvious answer he might receive, he asks Atsuha if even after he's gone for real, she'll remember him, to which she assures she will, and adds how far they've come, praying that his mother knows how well he's doing, as gullible as it sounds. Later, as he leaves aside his Cursed Corpse for the day, Junpei sleeps alongside Atsuha on her futon, appreciating "all the comfort she gave him so far".

Episode 11 - Riskiness (危険性 Kiken-sei)

Junpei observes Ijichi and Atsuha analyzing her Chronicles of the Enthusiast notes, and remembers when Atsuha managed to prevent Suki's poisoning by simply asking, making it safe for the shikigami to hug anyone; he feels a bit embarrassed for not knowing this could even be possible, and recalling the only times he used Moon Dregs, and how he never considered other possibilities. He also celebrates with Atsuha when she gets the news of becoming a grade 3 sorcerer, both concluding it being thanks to Todo, since their sensei couldn't recommend their own students.

Later, both of them are escorted to their next mission, Atsuha pondering about the corrections on her notes and Junpei thinking about the previous missions and the current outcome of the "cursed turf war investigation", no one knowing yet who is the third person or curse involved in it. Once they arrive, it's shown to be a kindergarten building, not a common place for curses to appear, unlike high school buildings. They're soon joined by Yuta, Maki and Yuji, their mission being to locate a group of children trapped within the building; however, as they're getting in, Ijichi is thrown into the building before dropping the Curtain, someone else conjuring it in his place.

Unable to leave the "trap", they proceed into the building together, Atsuha recognizing the laughter of Yahito coming from somewhere; following its sound, the team splitting during this, she meets a transfigured body and Junpei witnesses her shock, as she analyzes her behavior and repeated mentions of "the children", concluding it's a teacher. As Yuji advises her to not kill her, ready to take on the duty himself, both him and Junpei witness her comforting the dying teacher and putting her to sleep with an ofuda, praying for her finding a more fortunate route in her next life. As they keep going once Yuji executes her, Junpei ponders about his death again, coming to accept the real lack of reason behind it, and as he attempts to apologize once more, Yuji halts him, saying he's gone but never forgotten, and that he treasures the few but good moments they had, and the ones they made and will make staying at Jujutsu High; he also uses the words Nanami said after Junpei's death.

They reach the classroom, the children cornered and terrified at Yahito's "game", him turning their dolls into distorted monsters with his fingers inserted into them. Seeing he's grown stronger since last time, the sorcerers start fighting and trying to find a way to get the children out of there. Junpei uses his own transfiguration to control one of the minions and provides a way to escape, while also removing Yahito's finger from it; the curse then engages in a "disassembling battle" with him, while the kids run and are told to not look back.

The others arrive when Junpei's Cursed Corpse has only its head and trunk left, all his wooden members replaced with transfigured ones. However, when Yahito punches his chest and touches one of his cores, he's taken by that feeling of horror and panic, seeing that he's almost reaching the level of power his "brother" had, but being rescued by Atsuha, who shoots an ofuda at the curse's arm, exploding it. However, in a moment of distraction, when she puts herself in front of Junpei as he calms down, the split arm reaches for her leg and Yahito proclaims he got her, using Idle Transfiguration.

Episode 12 - Child's Play (児戯 Jigi)

As he realizes Atsuha is still okay, not being transfigured despite Yahito's attempts, Junpei bursts out laughing, followed by Atsuha and even Ijichi, who covers his mouth and snickers, all of it leaving the other sorcerers shocked and confused. After confusing an already frustrated Yahito, Atsuha finally thanks the curse, for proving her theory right in the end: thanks to her vow-bonding with Junpei, her soul is protected from the effects of Idle Transfiguration, him already being a transfigured soul and having access to the technique himself in a smaller scale. With that, she steps repeatedly on Yahito's arm and kicks it to Junpei, who bites it with his crocodile-like jaws, not minding the awful taste for the moment since they have the advantage.

An enraged Yahito then starts evoking his incomplete Domain Expansion (encouraged by visions of his "brother"), Yuji pushing Junpei away from it, his Cursed Corpse being left behind, telling him to use this power boost to get everyone out, pointing out there's still one child left in the building. Before Junpei leaves the duo behind with Ijichi, he sees him asking Atsuha out, shocked by the bad timing of the situation.

Junpei and Ijichi do find the missing child, but are shocked to find her heavily poisoned by Harui, the curse fighting Yuta and Maki at the moment. Junpei is desperate and angry at all the curses did, but as he reflects on how Atsuha dealt with the transfigured teacher, he succeeds in using Reverse Cursed Technique, to Ijichi's surprise, saving the little girl's life. As Junpei starts fainting, he's asked how he succeeded, toxin healing being something that demands a higher level of the technique, Junpei pointing that his own technique and shikigami revolved around poison and once more recalling "he's already dead".

Later, as everyone reunites outside, the children surrounding the sorcerers and thanking them, a man calls for a child named Kiyoko, despite Ijichi's insistence for him to remain with the crowd. The rescued girl identifies her father and runs towards him, Junpei recognizing him as his old teacher Sotomura. Yuji recognizes him as well and is impressed to learn that Junpei saved the girl from dying; as he joins them, Ijichi suggests that Junpei should have special training with Shoko, to perfect his Reverse Cursed Technique; far from there, Yahito protests that he could've won their bet and Harui is livid with his immaturity. However, they're all joined by the third member, who cradles the severed crying Yahito and declares the sorcerers as a part of their turf war now.

Later on, Junpei is seen with his Cursed Corpse repaired and observes from afar with Yuji Ijichi and Atsuha's first date.

OVA - Atsuichi (敦花ちゃんと伊地知さん Atsuha-chan to Ijichi-san)

Some weeks before the reunion about the "cursed turf war", Junpei witnesses Atsuha having a major conflict with Kusakabe, who inadvertently caused a very awkward situation between her and Ijichi, where he appeared drunk in her room late one night, and said that according to Kusakabe, if they did date 'she'd get tired of him soon', believing 'someone like her could find better than a loser like him'. The next day, after Ijichi apologizes for the situation and Atsuha tends to his hangover (this being a day off for him), Junpei recognizes this pattern from his mother's unhealthy habits, and is a bit relieved that Atsuha doesn't blame Ijichi for that situation; however, he fears what she might do against Kusakabe, after finding out he was the cause.

Atsuha uses a teasing method taken from Monogatari, making puns with Kusakabe's name but not outright facing him on; eventually, after a week of this situation, Junpei and Yuji intervene, advising her to not make an 'enemy' out of him. Later on, during a break near the beverage machines, Kusakabe and her make peace, him admitting being wrong for suggesting such things even if drunk, and that he felt a bit jealous of her crushing so hard on him. Ijichi, watching everything from afar, recalls his words to Atsuha during Yuji and Junpei's attempt to stop her, thanking her for her good intentions, but pointing out it's not worth getting mad at 'her future teacher'.

Later on, back to the week after the kindergarten rescue, Ijichi looks to Junpei for advice, having asked Atsuha out during the mission. He makes him aware of Atsuha being just as nervous, having researched non-stop about dating in Japan and the proper etiquettes in case they go eating, fearing she might mess up in front of him; she might feel safe being herself among the sorcerers, but she's very inexperienced when it comes to dating, and even more with knowing what she can and cannot do as a foreigner. Understanding they have more in common than presumed, Ijichi reflects on a certain day when she helped him capture a Fly Head, and commented it looked cute, giving him the idea of a perfect present for her.

During the process of making (or try to, at least) this present, Junpei explains to Ijichi and reflects about Atsuha and some of her habits and struggles as an autistic person, also expressing how despite jujutsu sorcerers not being considered as such, he sees her and Yuji as his "heroes". He remembers the night after Yuji's attempted reunion with other sorcerers; Yuji and him visited the morgue, and he pointed him the place where his transfigured corpse laid previously, and as they were leaving, Junpei confessed his feelings, "something he reflected upon and despite not being sure of it, would regret it for eternity if not told at that moment"; obviously, Yuji ended up thanking but rejecting him, both talking it over during it, mentioning the reasons why it wouldn't work between them, and both tearing up and hugging as well. Yuji comments that back in those days, he also felt he couldn't accept these sort of feelings due to being a vessel, but even if they couldn't be together then, be it as a couple or just friends, he feels happy they can be now, and feels happier that he could live to see him again and also be his teacher.

After they finish the present, a plush Fly Head, both Ijichi and Junpei conclude it'd be better to ask for the help of someone proficient with a needle, even if Atsuha liked it. On the day of the date, Ijichi gifts it to Atsuha, this being a more perfected plush, and Junpei looks from afar, Yuji waiting for the couple to leave before telling him they're not intervening, but will make sure nothing goes wrong for them.

#junpei yoshino #jjk junpei #jujutsu aiko ka #aikoka arc #atsuha soga #jjk oc #jujutsu kaisen oc #yuji itadori #kiyotaka ijichi #atsuya kusakabe #shoko ierei #yuta okkotsu #maki zenin

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