#this art was going to stop with just the peace sign dog | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

stolensiren · 2 years

Text

pawsable break-in // nora & cass

TIMING: current PARTIES: @fearfordinner & @stolensiren SUMMARY: cass breaks into nora's house. nora's chill with it. CONTENT: none

She was trying not to do this as much. It was easy to justify stealing — it always had been, especially when the houses she was stealing from were this big, or when they people she was stealing from were as well-dressed as some of the ones who hung out downtown — but Cass always felt pretty shitty after, when the money was spent and she was laying in her bed trying to fall asleep at night. So she was trying not to do this as much, but it was hard to resist, sometimes. It was like there was a magnet pulling her in, drawing her towards shiny things that might weigh down her pockets just a little more than she needed. And this mansion? It looked like the type that was probably full of all kinds of shiny things.

Getting in wasn’t particularly hard. It was almost as if whoever lived there didn’t care whether the place was protected or not, and maybe that should have been her first sign that this wasn’t the best house to hit. White Crest was the kind of town where, instead of alarm systems, people had… other kinds of precautions.

Like, for example, the thing staring her down from across the hall.

It wasn’t a dog. It was dog-like, but it wasn’t a dog. Cass’s heart was in her throat at the sight of it, and she found herself frozen where she stood as it looked at her and she looked at it. It was like a standoff, only interrupted by approaching footsteps. For the first time, Cass was a little relieved that someone was definitely going to catch her; a person would be preferable to deal with than whatever this thing was. “Oh my god, this is so embarrassing,” she blurted, not yet looking at the presumed homeowner as they approached. “I took a wrong turn and wound up in your living room. Classic party foul. Do you mind calling off your… dog?” Far from her best lie, but she was kind of freaking out a little here.

Nora had been enjoying her time home in her mansion by painting in the nude. The truth was all occupants of the haunted mansion knew that it was fifty fifty if Nora would decide to get dressed on a given day. Everything had been peaceful. Munch was working on his art, Nora on hers and Babadook was snoozing in his bed. Until he wasn’t. Nora recognized the sign of alertness that crossed over him as he ran from the room and let out a mournful howl. Nora watched the yeth hound but decide to finish what she was doing before following. “Are you coming?” Nora had asked the haunted paint brush, but Munch had declared he was much too busy with his latest masterpiece to deal with whatever this was about.

Now where oh where could that dog have gotten off to. Nora stopped in the kitchen to get a hunk of ham to eat as she looked around. It didn’t take long for Nora to find the newcomer. “Who invited you?” Nora asked in her bored monotone between bites of ham. The ghosts normally only invited other spectators over. Nora walked over and poked the person in the face. Yeah. She didn’t seem like a ghost. Babadook continued letting out its mournful howl. For him this was a tasty treat. Someone scared of him. A victim for his little games.

Cass turned her head towards the woman when she spoke, faltering when she realized she was very naked. Flushing, she turned her head away and brought her hand up to form a wall between her eyes and the naked woman. “Sorry! I’m sorry, I didn’t — Oh my god.” This was, without a doubt, the worst break-in she’d ever had. Normally, it would be easy to fall back on her silver tongue and talk her way out of the situation, be it through use of her powers or simply through her skills as a con artist. But between the howling creature and the woman’s unclothed state, Cass was too overwhelmed to even attempt it.

The woman came closer, poking Cass in the cheek, and she made a face. “Uh, my friend lives… near here, but I’d never been to his place before. I thought this was his house, and he told me to come right in when I got there, so I just… came right in to the wrong house.” It wasn’t a particularly strong lie, but it was hard to think of a better one. “Can you please make that thing stop howling? It’s really starting to freak me out.”

“I wasn’t aware that someone lived near here.” Nora made no attempt to cover herself as she considered the layout of her little hill. There was her large estate, the graveyard, some roads. The nearest house was a twenty minute walk in good weather. She also didn’t know her neighbor’s names. Maybe she should bring them meat baskets some time. That was considered neighborly right? “Who’s your friend?” Nora continued asking as if this was a normal conversation. She waved a hand at Babadook who stopped howling. “He just wants to be your friend.” Nora explained, motioning her companion closer. “He’s very friendly. His name is Babadook.” Babadook padded forward. His big eyes looked mischievously up at the intruder. Babadook even smiled, revealing his gleaming sharp teeth. “I think he likes you.” Nora added, patting him on the head.

“It’s possible that I took a really wrong turn,” Cass replied, still avoiding looking at the stranger. Breaking and entering was one thing, but looking at someone who’d thought they were naked in the privacy of their own home was a kind of invasion of privacy that Cass wouldn’t commit. Even if the woman did seem pretty unbothered by the whole thing. Taking a gamble and going for a common name, she said, “James. He, um… He’s actually the guy I went to for my fake ID, so I don’t think he’d want me giving out his last name. You know, privacy and all.” The implication she was hoping to sell was that she was younger than she was; it was something that tended to garner sympathy with people. An adult breaking into your home was a felony that you called the police for. A kid doing it was a bit of childish mischief you responded to with a scowl and a warning not to do it again. “Babadook,” she repeated, glancing down at the creature and making a face at its sharp teeth. “What, um… What kind of dog is Babadook?”

Nora’s ham juice covered hand reached out laying open in front of the girl. “Hand over the fake. I want to see if its any good.” Nora wasn’t a stranger to fake IDs but if this James was any good she might go to him for some other forgery type items. Forging was its own type of art that Nora could respect. Nora looked down at Babadook as he started circling their guest. “He’s a mutt.” Was all she answered. Kaden had said something about Yeth Hound but when she’d tried to google it not alot came up. Mutt seemed easier. Babadook’s tentacles danced happily. “Oh. Did you want something to drink? Or eat?” She offered the chunk of half eaten ham in her hand. “I’m forgetting my manners.”

Shrugging, Cass reached into her pocket and pulled out her wallet, producing her license. It was a fake ID, after all — even if the name on it was the one she used in place of her actual legal name. If the woman asked for the fictitious James’s information, Cass could easily claim that she couldn’t hand it out to just anyone and get her information to give to ‘James’ instead. It was an easy enough lie to sell. “A mutt,” she repeated, glancing to the creature again. “Right.” A mutt with tentacles. Just White Crest things, apparently. Looking down at the ham, she tried not to make a face. “Uh, I’m good, thanks. I should probably get going soon, actually. You know, wouldn’t want James to worry.” The longer she was in here, the harder it would be to keep up the lie. And the lie was pretty important when there was a dog-like creature she was pretty sure wanted to eat her in the mix.

“This is a good fake.” Nora declared. “Can I keep it?” Nora started walking away down the hall towards the kitchen, ID still firmly in hand. “Cassidy.” Nora read off the ID. She paused in her march down the hall, turning around and offering out the hand with ham in it. “I’m Nora, its a pleasure to meet you.” At which point it became obvious she had thrust her hand out for an introductory hand shake, not to feed the ham. “Can I meet James? Seems cool.” Plus she never knew when she’d need a fake ID. Babadook stayed next to their guest, still staring up at her and making it clear that he was going to stay near her for the foreseeable future.

“No,” Cass replied, “I kind of need it.” She could get another one easily enough, but it was a hassle she didn’t really need right now, so she followed the woman towards the kitchen. “Cass,” she replied. “I prefer Cass.” Carefully, she took Nora’s hand and gave it a shake. “You, too.” The question was one she’d been suspecting, so she shrugged. “I can give him your info, but he’d kill me if I gave you his. He doesn’t like people just handing out his contact stuff, you know.” Reaching out, she plucked the ID from Nora’s hand with deft fingers, sliding it back into her wallet and glancing down at Babadook. “Hey, do you always walk around naked? I mean, it’s your house and you can do what you want, but I kind of feel bad being here.”

Cass took the ID back. A disappointment. “Sure, you know where I live. Give him my address.” Nora looked down at herself as if just realizing she was naked. “Don’t you? How else are people supposed to see my art?” Nora motioned at the mirad of tattoos and piercings that adorned her flesh. In truth, she just didn’t care about wearing clothes. She’d walk around town as naked as the day she was born but some people just didn’t shut up about that kind of thing. “You shouldn’t feel bad. It’s just a body. Everyone… Most people have them.” Nora pushed open the door to the kitchen and pulled down two glasses. After looking at Cass for a moment she decided Cass looked like an apple juice person and poured her a glass before sliding it over the island at her. “Sucks you just got lost. Breaking and entering is a lot cooler. You could have stolen something.”

“Okay,” Cass agreed, though there was, of course, no ‘James’ to pass the information along to. If she ever came across Nora again and the woman asked about it, it would be easy enough to say that James wasn’t interested, or that his business had shut down, or that he’d been arrested. Lies were easy to tell, and easier still when you had time to prepare them. “I usually wear clothes,” she replied, “but I guess I don’t have much art to show off.” She had piercings in her ears and septum, but those were visible without requiring her to get naked. “It just… feels like an intrusion or something, you know?” She leaned against the table as Nora pulled out the glasses, taking the one Nora slid towards her and taking an experimental sip. Apple juice. Nice. “Ha,” she said, a little nervously. “Well, that’d be illegal. And I don’t see a ton of stuff I’d want to steal, anyway.”

“That sucks for you. Art is cool.” Nora poured herself a glass of Jack Daniels and took a sip. She was an adult she got to drink adult drinks. Nora forgot some people were adverse to doing illegal things because it was illegal. What were the police in White Crest going to do? She’d never seen them manage a simple arrest. “That’s a bit rude.” Nora mumbled into her drink. “My art is famous in some places.” Going into her home and saying that she had nothing worth stealing. Okay so the place was a little barren, covered in cob webs and old. Cass had obviously just not been to the right places. Noting Nora’s distress, Babadook let out a mournful howl, scooching closer to Cass. “I break and enter all the time and never tell people they don’t have things worth stealing.” She also never stole. Unless food counted. Nora mostly liked to go in to take a look. Maybe meet a few people.

“It is cool,” Cass agreed, because she had always admired tattoos and the like. And Nora’s were cool. Subtly, she glanced around the apartment at the mention of famous art, trying to see if she could find any of the pieces. “Well, maybe you just don’t have it displayed out here,” she said thoughtfully. “What would you say is the most famous art piece you have? The one worth the most money? I bet that’d be worth stealing.” It was a little weird trying to make up for upsetting someone by telling them you’d steal from them, but this whole situation had been weird from the start. And it was really only getting weirder. “You break and enter all the time? Really?”

"Everything here painted by me is famous. I'm a famous painter." Nora deadpanned the statement, her blank face revealing nothing to Cass. Of course Nora knew she wasn't a famous painter except the cult following of her more horrific series, but that didn't mean this girl knew that. Nora strode out of the kitchen, beckoning Cass to follow as she led her towards the ball room. She currently had her first White Crest bear series set up in it. The hallway there had her Ham series on display. As they walked Nora expanded on her breaking and entering. "Everyone should break and enter. Its fun. Its how I make most of my friends." Upon entry to the ballroom Nora waved a hand towards the art. "In the sitting room I have my monster series." Nora told her once they got to the ballroom. It wasn't to be confused with her White Crest series which did have monsters but those monsters were her friends. The other series they were made up from her imagination.

“Really? How much do your paintings sell for?” Cass hadn’t heard of her, but she was hardly well-versed in famous painters. All her knowledge about art came from Metzli and their gallery, and beyond that, she only knew of famous historical painters. Famous historical dead painters, usually. “So, uh… If somebody broke into your house, you wouldn’t be mad about it?” She followed Nora through the ballroom, looking at the paintings that hung. She might not know about art, but she recognized the skill involved. “You’re good,” she offered, allowing her voice to reflect how impressed she was. It was probably the least she could do, considering the fact that she’d broken in. “Where do you get your… inspiration?”

The truth of the matter was Nora hardly sold her art. Not because people weren’t interested but because she really only felt like giving it to people who she felt deserved it. Such elitism was classic for the one percent that Nora grew up in and she saw nothing odd about it. “Thirty thousand each starting price.” Nora declared, assuming that would be a pocket change amount for anyone inquiring. “No. I’d be interested in having a new friend.” It was a bold statement considering Nora was still trying to make friends with the person currently breaking and entering in her house. While in the nude. “I get my inspiration from my need to scare people. And friends.” Nora nodded. “Oh, speaking of friends, Jeremy is probably waiting for you.”

“Thirty thousand?” It sounded like an awful lot, though Cass knew there were paintings that went for far more. For a local artist, though, and one she’d never heard of… It seemed steep. Steep enough that she was pretty sure Nora was lying, but she wouldn’t call the other woman out. Not when she was still trying to get away with breaking and entering. “That’s a weird way to make friends,” Cass decided, but she didn’t push the issue. After all, it had worked out well enough for her, even if she wasn’t entirely sure Nora knew she’d broken in. At the next statement, she furrowed her brow. “Your… need to scare people?” She thought of Marley, looking at Nora a little more carefully. No red eyes. Maybe it was a figure of speech, then. Blinking at the mention of a Jeremy, Cass nodded. “James,” she corrected smoothly. Even in her flustered state, she was a good enough con artist to remember the name of the ‘friend’ she’d been going to meet when she ‘accidentally’ wound up in Nora’s living room. “And you’re right, he probably is wondering where I’m at. Um… Thanks for the apple juice. And for showing me your art. It really is cool.”

It was rude to get lost in someone’s house, tell them they had nothing worth stealing, and then criticize the way they made friends. Nora examined Cass for a long moment, her expressionless features giving away nothing. “Do you often tell people their choices are weird?” Nora inquired, conjuring an illusion that made her eyes into snake slits and a forked tongue hiss out of her mouth. “Or am I getting special treatment?” After the question dropped Nora turned away and motioned Cass to follow her as she escorted her towards the door. “Babadook will see you off the property. Feel free to get lost here anytime you wish.” Nora made a single to Babadook who ran out the door and stood waiting for Cass in the front yard.

“Only when their choices are weird,” Cass shot back easily, flashing a bright grin. She followed Nora back to the front of the house, to the door whose lock she’d picked to break in. It was lucky she’d closed it behind her; otherwise, things would look pretty suspicious and, despite Nora’s claims, Cass wasn’t really eager to confirm that she’d broken in. Casting Babadook a dubious look, Cass nodded hesitantly. She still wasn’t really sure about the ‘dog,’ but it hadn’t attacked her yet and she saw no signs of aggression in it now. Pausing for a moment, she held her phone out towards Nora. “Put your number in my phone,” she requested. “We can be friends, too. If you want.”

No reaction to her illusion. Maybe her new friend Cass was dead like Remmy and couldn’t see her works of art. Shame. She really did her best work with her magic. At least she made a friend from this. Even if her new friend thought she was weird. Well Nora thought she was weird. Who got lost in someone else’s home then judged people for making weird choices? “We can be friends.” Nora agreed. Because at the end of the day who was she to judge anyone. Nora placed her number in the phone. “Have a safe trip to Jimmy’s house.” She added as she handed back the phone. Under the name she’d just put a skull emoji. She was sure Cass would figure out who it was.

#fearfordinner #nora: pawsable break in

5 notes · View notes

dollypardonne · 4 months

Text

a beloved long for this world.

part of jennie always felt some sort of peace with the idea that a day will dawn when she's no longer among the living. she can accept the idea of her own demise, but kai's departure from this valley of strange humors left her puzzled. she thought it would be a sad time that you had to push through to get to the other side, and it was to an extent, the pushing at least, but it's become apparent that there isn't another side. that it isn't a feat that you conquer, a challenge that you beat, nor is it something that can be completed. it's not a task to finish. it became more clear the more she watched her mother submit to the notion of grief. it manifested in a tense silence that the floor quietly and attentively listened to. times spent together seemed to be no more than them sighing one unto the other, as if it was understood between the two of them just how intense the loss had hit them. it was her first pet after all, one that she'd grown up having around. how do you move forward from such a thing? it was inconceivable.

for months, she could only go through the motions and watch kuma embrace his sentiments a lot more openly and readily. kuma had naturally attached himself to kai, being the big brother to show him the ropes as a little puppy. the canine himself must have never thought the older would ever be away. and worse, just completely gone. she had spent the length of mourning trying to find ways to comfort the pomeranian, nights laying their heads into the fading light, slumber stretching until noon and awakening deep into the cruel days. jennie had mastered the art of minimising her own sorrows but even then, she wondered, how she was supposed to cope while also caring for a creature much vulnerable than she was. it stung, very deeply so. nothing could really compare to such an experience. perhaps this was a reflection of her pampered life but at the very least, she had come to believe she didn't need to constantly suffer just to grow. such a value, she was well aware, had been passed down to her by generations that came before and she was guilty of upholding them for much too long.

the drumming of the car's engine sent her senses to a lull, head cushioned by upholstery prior to the impact against the window regulator's control panel and the subsequent opening of the glass window just above. its disturbance awoke her with all her bearings lost until her focus tuned to a distinct noise—kuma's heart-melting barks. she gathered her composure and gave him some pets; on the head, on the chin, and finally he landed on her lap with her hands enveloping his tiny body. her chin rested gently on his head and she breathed a sigh, which was a mixture of relief and melancholy. it invoked the calm that she needed as the the car came to a stop and she's beckoned by the staff to enter the backstage of the set for the day: kang hyungwook dog guest show.

she hasn't done many of these, guesting in variety shows. a lot of her work centered within fashion and required no such promotions. but this was different. it was an outlet for her to share personal insights into her experience as a pet owner, to shed light on a facet of her life often unseen by many. even though she had stopped making music ages ago, there was still a solid fanbase for the entrepreneur, a good amount of people following her work and doing their due diligence in making sure she knew her musical career was still anticipated despite her showing no signs of returning to it. media appearances was one way for her to show appreciation to their dedication, futile as it may seem.

thoughts flood her head interminably once settled in the dressing room, in her seat with her make up and hair being done. she had set her mind to revealing the tragedy that had fallen upon their family, because that's what kai was to her: family. she didn't realise just how stifling it felt to think of ways to break the news until her brain untied this great knot that unraveled like a braid into what seemed like thousands of separate strands of fishing lines whipping underwater, waiting for something to bite, a thought that could properly tie it all back together. just one... or three. another sigh was let out. it blows the stray strands of her hair that the stylist quickly took care of and pulled into the rest of the buns embellishing the crown of her head.

you'll be fine, they said. she believed it, too. having seen episodes of the youtube show herself, she was familiar with the warmth that the host had a knack for spreading. she felt it through her phone screen whenever she watched and it's one of the reasons that urged her to come onto the show to begin with. it was hard to place where the fishbone stuck in her throat came from. she tried to swallow, tried to drink it down, to no avail. it's fine. it's fine.

the lights of the set peeked through the curtains inches away from the room furnished with a couch and an armchair, where the host sat. she looked down to kuma's pleading eyes. she picked him up in her arms, hands cusping at his paws, and a determined air to her as her feet teeter slowly forward. "it's now or never."

#voiceover: jennie #character study: jennie #para: jennie #052023 #first writing of the year weeee ofc it's for the favorite child the og the one and only

0 notes

novastarry · 2 years

Text

5.30.22

Evening Entry

Done List

- Start 1 new challenge

- Add tasks

- Add daily tasks

- Did daily tarot pull

- Cleaned my phone storage

- Watched TikToks

- Did language lessons ( Spanish)

- Water first thing in the morning

- Language lessons ( Spanish)

- Meditated

- Deep breathing

- Listened too music

- Made agenda

- Morning entry

- Did morning stretches

- Ate breakfast

- Laughed today

- Playtime

- Got dressed

- Counted ten blessings

- Ask for a sign from your guides

- Prompt ' Three things I want to tell my past self '

- Said ' I can achieve any goal '

- Said ' I am unique and powerful '

- Took morning meds

- Took meds early enough

- Brushed my hair

- Fixed my Amazon account

- Ordered Cj's things

- Prayed

- Wrote a Gratitude list

- Set intentions

- Listened to music

- Sang

- Listened to favorite music

- Picked up and placed thirty things

- Put away my laundry

- Brushed my hair

- Packed my bag

- Drove to my grandparents

- Went to National Cemetery

- Went to pick up a Facebook Order

- Ate lunch

- Commit yourself to your spiritual journey

- Meditated

- Find one thing to love about myself

- Did TAPS with my grandparents

- Drove home

- Cleaned out more storage

- Have a Brainstorm session

- Start a writing or speaking project

- Fix the Amazon order

- Start a 30 day challenge ( Vent Art)

- Meditate on a certain choice

- Listened to cheerful songs

- Journaled in my notebook

- Did something I enjoyed ( Reached out to Jay)

- Ate dinner

- Cleaned

- Cleansed my crystals

- Charged them

- Took meds an hour before bed

- Set intentions for the next period

Happy Moments

- When I was driving to my grandparents house and listening too my favorite music while thinking about my friends and what I was gonna do when I got home

General Notes

- One thing I can love about myself and rely on with myself is my ambition

Stats

Ways To Improve

- If it's Trenton don't respond

- Eat meals earlier in the day

- Film just a bunch of TikToks through out the day instead of daily vlogs

- Listen to your body when it says it's tired

- Really use that start and move through method of productivity as well as the other one of flipping and grabbing

- Start eating dessert instead of a third snack

- Find a way to stop worrying

- Find your zen

- Read more

- Tap into your divine feminine

- Become the artist you were meant to be

- Realease your problems

- Talk to your spirit guides

- Make a daily Manifestation ritual

Things I'm Proud Of

- After self harming at least attempting to use healthy coping mechanisms

Signs From The Universe

5:43 - Sort of like a countdown, it explains the idea that something is going to happen very soon in your life and your guardian angels are sensing a positive outcome

5:55 - Very big change coming prepare for the shift

6:54 - A strong message in love, it means that the situation naturally changes for the better

1010 - A great change is approching

- Getting the sign I asked for

Butterfly- Spiritual rebirth, transformation, change, hope, and life

Black butterfly- A symbol of misfortune

Horse - Courage, integrity, perseverance, and power

Fly - Perserverence, transformation, vision, and adaptability

Mosquitoe - Survival, persistence, and perception

11:11 - Your manifesting your intentions stay positive

2222 - Stop worrying, balance yourself

Yellow Butterfly- Renewl, transformation, change, hope, and life

White butterfly- Someone is protecting you and everything is gonna be alright

Dog - Unconditional love, loyalty, and protection

1:11 - Your manifesting your intentions, stay positive

1:23 - Your challenges and negativity of the past are ready to be released

2:22 - Stop worrying, balance yourself

Bee - Industry, to bring messages from the divine, to set an example, and to be associated with the soul

Dragonfly - Change, adaptability, transformation, and self realization

Blue butterfly - A reminder to be at peace in your life, and to feel calm and joy

Worm - Fertility, autonomy, and also a choice

3:33 - Your spirit guides are beside you

4:44 - Surrounded by angels, guided in what your focusing on

222 - Stop worrying, balance yourself

543 - A sort of a countdown, explains that something good is going to happen in your life with a positive outcome

5:55 - Very big change coming, prepare for the shift

654 - A strong message in love

Spider - Artistry, manifestation, patience, feminine power, ancient wisdom, illusion, balance, and interconnection

0 notes

aesterblaster · 2 years

Text

yknow what.. also @kryptic-krab who talks with me about which characters we could beat up lmao and @honeybachira

How The Blue Lock Boys Fight HCs

[most characters]

Rin

He honestly knows nothing about fighting

Throws his fists super ineffectually but with enough sheer rage that it lands

Just flailing around but somehow all the punches still do damage

Will literally try to overwhelm you with a flurry of blows

Doesn't even untuck his thumb or anything

He constantly brags about how he can beat people's asses but hasn't been in a fight fight since 5th grade

Don't let that trick you bc he will not hesitate to initiate something if he sees the chance

The type of guy to be talking shit even when he's losing

Isagi

He took karate for a while in 5th grade and he's not afraid to use it

The type to watch self defense vids and then forget every tip like 30 minutes later

Throws a pretty good right hook though

He prefers not to fight and pretty much has never been in a fight

No one has any real reason to fight him anyway

Once when he was smaller he kicked someone for insulting his mom

I think that's about it

Bachira

Has been in the most fights out of the whole fuckin cast [except shidou who is an outlier.]

Not by choice he just had to shut up his bullies ok <3

Uses flying kicks a lot

Also knows how to use nun chucks because he went though a TMNT phase

Has amazing reflexes when it comes to fights, cordination 100

He prefers to not get in as many fights now especially since he has a bit more inner peace now

Type of person to say some weird catchphrase beforehand

Just saying if you talk shit about him/his friends you will end up getting hit

Gagumaru

Will just fucking grab your face to stop you from getting close to him

Considers fighting a waste of time and trying to fight him will not get you anywhere

Doesn't even get angry when you insult him he's just like "..ok"

Has fought wild animals before though so maybe it's for the best that he's so passive towards people

Why would you even try to fight him honestly

He does know some taekwondo though from his childhood before he hit his growth spurt

Hiori

He has never fought in his life

0 skills even though he likes to think he could hold his own in a fight

If he HAD to fight he would try to go for pressure points or something strategic like that

What can I say he's a gamer

He has had people get into drama with him online and it always stays online and he prefers it that way

Would rather verbally talk it out than actually get into fisticuffs

His dad is obsessed with martial arts movies though so he has picked up a thing or two

Niko

Yes somehow he can see through his bangs

Has fought people before suprisingly and he's always won

Is very secretive about his fighting ability and no one's ever seen him fight because to him it doesn't have to be a public thing

But he's done judo/is good at flips

You try to come at him? Boom you're gonna get flipped over his shoulder

In the winter he does in fact train at a gym

Got into it because one of his friends was into it and ended up being better at it than him lmao

Also is good at predicting his opponet's moves for obvious reasons

Kunigami

Since he looks like a walking "don't fuck with me" sign he hasn't been in many fights

Once he has stopped a lady from getting robbed so that was something

Kinda just slapped the knife out of the criminal's hand then punched him

His strategy is 100% act first think later

His uppercut is in fact lethal

He has been beaten before though

One of his younger sister's absolutely whopped him because he lost her dog and didn't look for him that well

Yeah his only big weakness is that he won't fight women or people much younger than him

Nagi

Is the first to walk away

Never runs away from a fight but has walked away from several

He does insult people a lot, luckily it never comes back to bite him

His baggy clothes do hide the fact that he's a trained athlete so most people fighting him think he'll be weak

He does have a suprise advantage because usually he's so chill

The few fights he does get in usually end in him just tripping them/embarassing them

Calls fights annoying and then talks shit about people constantly

Raichi

Eats and breaths fighting montages for breakfast

He has bitten someone and he will do it again

Fights with him are like a fight with a wild animal, he starts out fucking headbutting people

Is always fired up so it's not hard to persuade him into trying to knock you out

At his school the file on him probably deserves it's own drawer

Posts videos of him flexing on tiktok with captions like "hey [insert random name here] wanna rematch 😂😂😂😂

Plan? Where? Just goes out doing every move in the book and probably all at the same time

Sae

Knows how to fight really well

Will go for a knock out straight away

Defends karate on insta and hates people who do other martial arts lmao

Has been in a decent amount of fights

But honestly he wins it from sheer power not his beloved karate

Will harp on how cool karate is and how he's a black belt but get in an actual fight with him and he will just start punching/pummeling you

He avoids lawsuits som e h o w but has done serious damage to people

Nanase

Can and has picked people up like they're a lamb

Although he's very passive and kind if you get in a fight with him you will get handled like a farm animal

Has only been in two or so fights and he won both of them

Afterwards he brought the kids to the nurse and everything TT

Says sorry the whole time

Talks to his parents about it and they're like "violence isn't the way" or whatever

It takes a LOT to get him riled up, he's more often breaking up fights than actually in them

Oliver

He had a bunch of siblings so of course he had to get good at fighting

Usually he does n o t play around when it comes to that

But sometimes he does playfight with his friends

Often wins those too

You wouldn't know it from how his exes slap him though lmao

Is more the type to finish fights but not start them

And he doesn't like getting into really serious fights, doesn't want to risk his health or anything

Reo

Kind of overreacts

It's either nothing or everything with him in fights

Look he tries to aim but he always misses/is pretty predictable

Has been in a good amount of fights (mostly because of above thing about going from 0 to 100)

Usually he loses though

The nurse knows him better than the principal even though its a pretty elite school

However he can copy moves so watch out for that

Also Nagi usually comes in at the end and saves his ass

Barou

Look, he came out of the womb kicking and screaming and that's pretty much how he fights

Very loud about it/will be screaming the e n t i r e time

His favorite thing to do is use his knee especially kneeing people in the stomach

Has only gotten into one fight at his school because everyone heard and saw him just fucking screaming like he'd been waiting for this day while tearing the poor kid apart

Yeah no one's started anything with him since

Also will go out of his way to make whoever he fight's life a living hell after the fight

Is pretty damn intense about fighting if you couldn't tell

Otoya

Well first you have to catch him

He's really good at getting out of slippery situations and pretends to despise fighting especially to girls

Has never gotten into a fight but will hang around and record fights he sees at school/on the street day to day

Runs a drama channel tracking fights and disputes happening throughout the city

And honestly if he were ever in a fight he'd just automatically go for the eyes and groin

Talks about how skilled he is at fighting but will never prove it lmao

Aoshi

He has been in a fight and honestly he just took blows until the other person tired and moved on

His entire strategy is to just be a living shield

Luckily no one knows about his main weakness which is his lower back lsmeniudrbfyui

If he weren't so muscular he'd get absolutely demolished by bullies

He's the type to be like "One of these days I'll learn to fight back!" then never does

Just tries to keep to himself and not start anything honestly

Kenyu

Yeah he's a pacifist but he also knows like 5 martial arts "just in case"

But also is so good at dissing people

If he did get in a fight it would probably stem from him back talking people because he knows that he's good if something actually starts

"What are you gonna do, dirt breath? Hit me?"

Honestly this side of him only comes out if you're an asshole first/known for being rude

He treats most people with respect but has threatened to beat up a couple of people

Chigiri

Fought much much more when he was a kid than now

Now sure he gets bitey but never actually throws hands bc of his knee

Thinks it isn't worth it

But his record was pretty win lose and usually just scrabbling and pulling hair with no real consequence

His sisters would give him tips on self defense like "if someone's trying to kidnap you do this!!"

Low key adults were afraid to approach him before or after school bc he'd go karate kid on them and be like "GET AWAY"

Never learned martial arts but just copied moves he saw on tv with varying sucess TT

Igaguri

Acts all big and bad

Gets himself into sooo many fights and loses all of them badly

Comes home with a bruise or something and his family goes on a whole rant about how he's a training monk

He legit gets himself yanked out of school and has to be at the monestary full time

He'll vauge post on social media about being taken out of school bc he was a huge bully and someone (otoya) responds with a video of him running home while some kids way younger than him chase him on a bike and he deletes the post TT

Tabito

Refuses to fight with people that are "mediocre"

But when he does fight he goes for the weak spots and pressure points

Usually wins

Has only been in like 3 or 4 fights and all of them were over something said about his appearance

He's sensitive deep down ok

Also makes sure he won't get in trouble for fights/tries to not get it on any record or anything

Shidou

His high kicks are painful as hell

Likes just kicking and rarely uses his hands

Side kicks, roundhouse, flying, straight out you name it he's used it

Is constantly learning new moves for fun

Has started fights with complete strangers on the street bc he was bored

He's just a fucking fighting fiend ok

Can and will fight a kid for something arbitrary

and finally.. the cursed extra

Ego Jinpachi

If he were to get in a fight he'd use his surroundings as a weapon

Would smash a coffee cup over someone's head

When he's bored in meetings he doodles drawings of him beating up the executives for not letting him go through with his plans

Is rather physically weak but you best believe he'd still win

As a kid he pummeled people for looking at him the wrong way lmao

278 notes · View notes

zuffer-weird-girl · 4 years

Text

Soulmate Au

Before you meet your soulmate you have to deal with a chibi version of them before actually meeting them. So can you handle it?

Hawks point of view

A/n: finally I kicked the sloth aside and wrote this...

Soulmates weren't a good thing... that was at least what your mother told you.

Soulmates crushed your heart. Not all soulmates accept their own ones with kind hearts and cozy and loveable chibis... Your mother fell for your father, a loveable chibi who appeared in her life, everything was fine until... your birth.

Your father's chibi was cold and uncaring about the baby. The fruit of your mother's unconditional love from him. And with what he returned? Bullshit.

They got separated. They never once married, and the chibis ran away from their owner... never appearing again.

Your father and mother shared your custody even though you pass more time with your mother and the mom of your dad.

"I hope you never get a soulmate (Y/n)." Your mother spoke as she carresed your hair, hate evident on her words as she comforted your crying self due to some hurtful thing your father had said to you.

"W-why not mama?" You sniffled as she wiped your tears with a frown.

"They can hurt you as badly as some knife on your chest sweety. If you happen to have a soulmate, promise me you will not put your heart on their hands, dont give yourself away for the cuteness of some chibi. It may not be real."

That was when you started to have a fear towards the cute things...

You walked around your school, seing all of your classmates cheering or talking about their chibis. Some on their shoulders, others on the top of their heads...

You grimaced. You felt... left out. Despite your fear to getting one, how you wished to find your soulmate... just hoping that you didn't ended up like your mother... or worse, like him.

You had affection towards your dad for a while... but as the years passed by, you noticed how his "play" was more of hurtful words. The man only cared about himself and his money... yet you couldn't leave.

You felt like a bird on a cage.

Sighing, you sitted on a bench... alone. Picking your art supplies as you started to doodle on your notebook. You hummed a song while the pencil on your hand leaved trails of graffiti before smilling at the sound of birds chirping.

Something felt on your notebook then... you let out a confused sound at the thing.. a drop of some red fluid. You looked up and frowned before you went to brush your hair before gasping at noticing it was YOUR blood which had fell.

"W-What?!" You whimpered, now the pain starting to manifest as you hissed. It was like a knife had cutted your skin! And gosh, how it hurted...

Grabbing your things and rushing to the bathroom you didn't noticed something entering your backpack... you wiped at the blood and sighed.

"I will have to go to the enfermary... but what will I tell the nurse?! Suddenly this appeared?! Urgh!" You hitted your forehead in the mirror with closed eyes, opening them slowly after.

Seing a blond and feathered chibi looking up at you. Your eyes widened and blinked to confirm it was real before it squeaked at you. You screamed and dropped in your butt, crawling your way until your back hitted the wall of the bathroom.

The chibi squeaked. A worried sound as he flew, getting closer and closer to you as you trembled.

"S-Stay back-!" You grabbed a ruler that felt and pointed at him, making him stop on his flying as he arched one of his eyebrows and let out a giggle..

Sure, you would laugh as well if someone pointed a ruler to you as if it was a weapon...

"Stay back! Go to your owner or something!" You shouted before he furrowed his eyebrows again, smile fading as he flew and dropped inches awya from you. It came out a soft squeaked, and somehow you could just feel it was like a apology.

"I-Its okay. You just scared me appearing out of no where..." you hesitantly dropped the ruler back and hot on your knees, looking down at the chibi.

It had such messy hair... golden eyes, shining as bright as the sun, yet it carried a deep pain and some sorta of loneliness. You could certainly understand him...

"I'm sorry, did I scared you as well?" He shook his head as he pointed at his own cheek and squeaking at you. You touched the wound and got what he was supposed to say "I'm okay... didn't know where the heck I got from though..." you mumbled the last parts.

He squeaked at you again, opening his little wings and flying at the at the height of your eyes. Some little feather coming out and tickling your cheeks which you giggled a bit.

"So that's your quirk!" You giggled, the chibi letting out a yelp of glee of seing you smile as he did a black flip. "Okay okay, you're nice... Where are your soulmate though?" You tilted your head at it as he stopped and pointed at you.

Oh...

You caried it on the palms of your hands as if it was going to break it... get frowning at him for being so.... handsome and... too perfect.

Your mother's words echoed in your head as you entered your father's car and he drove you out of the school. He saw the chibi and started saying bullshit like "got a soulmate dolly? Heh!"

You ignored at his clearly fake smile and smiled at the chibi flying around your head and chirping and squealing. It reminded you of a bird!

Maybe... you could just trust your own soulmate?

"(L/n)-san!!! You are a life saver!" Your coworker moaned while holding onto the table as you finished your drawing.

"Sure."you giggled before signing it. Waiting a few minutes before you saw the puppy slowly coming out of the paper and jumping at the floor, shaking and barking cutely at your coworkers.

You snorted at hearing the sound of tiny hands clapping inside your jacket pocket. Birdbrain. The chibi always encouraging you of using your quirk.

"Thank you so much! My nephew then will get some ideas on what kind of dog he will want!" Your coworker chuckled at the puppy licking their cheek.

"It will be like this for at least four hours, but then they will return to the paper. Dont forget." You warned, allowing your birdbrain to flee as free as he wanted out of your pocket.

You smiled at him, opening your hand for him to sit on it. Such an ass, your soulmate was surely one of the most laziest man around.

It had passed years since he appeared on the bathroom for you. Yet you felt your guts twist in anxiety at only the thought of getting to know the actual male that was your soulmate...

Words of your mother ringed in your earbuds each time and your relationship with your father was no better than before. Now aparently he was trying to rebuild only because he knows he is getting old and needs help...

A strong crashing and sound of people shouting and crying made you break out of your thoughts. It all happened so fast. Endeavour, the top one hero crashed your window and if it wasn't for your chibi you squeaking loudly and pushing you out of the way you were going to get hitted.

A voice from another hero came up and for some reason the feathers of your chibi ruffled up as he widened his gold eyes up before you rushed out of the building along with him.

:we have to get out of here before this collapse on us!" You shouted as bird squeaked along as you helped some coworkers of yours along the way to get out.

You didn't stay up to watch the fight... you just wanted to get out and go home to where it was safe.

Yet your chibi completely disagree with that as he squeaked, flapped his wings... heck, even threw a chicken wing at your head.

Your birdbrain NEVER would throw a chicken wing away. Never. You come to notice his love for nuggets and other chicken related things like that at a young age, joking about him being a canibal.

You had enough when he just flew past your head when you were going to eat and pushe dyour head while pointing at the winfown

"Fine! You won!" You shouted, glaring at him when he made an action whose was almost shouting hallelujah, before getting out and him flying behind you.

The night was quite beautiful as you and your chibi walked, him rested on your shoulder as he smiled at looking at you.

It was peaceful before he jumped on his feet, his little wings wide open as his feathers ruffle up. Eyes sharp as a Hawk.

"You're okay? Birdy?" You asked in worry before gasping when he just flew like the speed of light away from you.

"BIRDY!" you shouted, running after him on the path of the park.

Shit! If you lost your chibi then you would never get to meet your soulmate! Tears started to form on your eyes as you searched for your chibi oi the dark of the night.

If you werent so anxious and stupid! You could meet your soulmate even if it wasn't for this stupid fear of having a relationship like your mom had!

Suddenly your heard distant squeaking, recognizing as you almost sobbed in relief and followed the sound. Noticing him flying back to you.

"You bird brain! How much did you wanted to-... to.." you stopped talking immediatly when you saw a tony version of you on his arms, smiling and cuddling up to his chest like it knew him for ages..

You blinked before hearing footsteps coming closer, and when you looked past the chibis your heart jumped before being shooted by an arrow.

The man in front of you, was no other than the actual version of your chibi. The number 2 ranking from the heroes. The man whose was know for being way too fast....

"H-Hawks..." you greeted shakily, not quite believing yet. Sure, your chibi reminded you of Hawks a lot, but... it seemed yet more intimate. More clingy and desperate for affection and actual love... You just put in your head that it was another man, with a similiar quirk and appearance as him.

Well, you were wrong. Hawks was indeed your soulmate.

He let out a chuckle at your gretting. His wide eyes and shock washed away with relief, smugness and... love, actual love on his eyes.

"Since we're soulmates, I guess you should at least call me Keigo..." he mused with a smile, taking his visor off to take a good look at you, frowning when his eyes were at the aim of the scar you had... the one whose mysteriously appeared on your skin many years ago before meeting your chibi.

"How long do you have this?" He asked, you felt your cheeks warming in self conscious at it. You never actually cared when other people asked but with him was another story...

"Since my childhood I guess... It was out of no where." You mumbled in embarrassment yet with a smile, praying mentally taht he take your mumble as a joke.

You widened your eyes when his hold brought you closer to him before he touched his forehead with yours, lovingly golden orbs staring at you with care and not a piece of judgement inside them.

"I like it chickadee." You snorted before a series of giggles escaped your lips at this, hounding quite hilarious that you also named your chibi something bird related.

"Chickadee? Really?" You asked breathless as he let out a raspy chuckle.

"Well, you did called the little fella over there birdbrain. Guess we're mates for life..." he mused with his husky voice as the chibis prefered to watch from afar on a nearby tree.

You smiled at him... somehow.. You just knew it this relationship with him was going to work. You were going to be, as he said, mates for life.

#hawks x reader #takami keigo x reader #bnha heroes x reader #bnha fanfiction #hawks #takami keigo #bnha x reader #zuffer writings

592 notes · View notes

tamsinbeybey-she-no-porcupine · 3 years

Note

Captain’s favourite film is captain America the first avenger. I wonder what are his thoughts on the film? I think after seeing it one of the questions reeling in his mind is “how would I feel if I died and then suddenly brought back in the 21 century instead of becoming a ghost?”

Okay thanks for the second part because I know most Marvel movies only from Tumblr gifsets. Though I think I have seen bits of it.

In my 'pinion the shock for Captain Murica was of course ginormous. Our Captain of course nows of the 21st century especially through Alison. So going back to imagine the cultural shock he would have is probably not that easy. So I think instead he would imagine what he would do if he was alive nowadays.

Okay it's getting complicated now.

Because for some reason I thought that he'd think not about what he would do but rather have a scenario in his head where next to the ghost board is a board full of postcards he would have sent to Alison or pictures they decided to put up.

(I wish I could draw, because I see it so vividly)

(Also I think he would imagine some of the others being alive as well)

I'm just gonna describe them?

-there is one with him, Alison and Kitty, Standing in a half circle, all have rainbow stickers under their eyes and rainbow flags wrapped around their shoulders. Cap ist in the middle and he has one arm on Alison's shoulder and one on Kitty's as if he has pulled them close for the picture. They all are beaming. (I think even if he wasn't comfortable being out, he still would accompany Kitty who would want to go because people in love and rainbows and it would make him euphoric, maybe even to a degree where he would come out by just yelling it out and they all hug and jump up and down)

-there is one where he and Pat and Pat's dog stand in front of a tent somewhere near a lake idk has the forest of a Dean a lake?

-there is one where lady B and him are in the background of a selfie, browsing a farmers market/art fair and they stand at a stall and look at ceramics, holding up a few things and apparently judging and discussing which to buy. Alison is in the foreground, sun in her face, making a peace sign (she sent this pic to Mike who wanted to know what the delay was about because he wanted to get something to eat) (her face looks like it does in her picture with Kitty)

-there are numerous postcards with sights and landscapes from all over England, Wales and Scotland

(There is one where the Captain has taken a selfie. He is in the foreground in a blue Jack Wolfskin jacket with a hiking rucksack. It looks like he is hiking in glencoe, with lot of rocks to walk over and mountains behind him. The ground etc seems like it just stopped raining and the light falling in the mountains looks marvelous. Few steps behind him there is Havers also in full hiking gear (maybe even wearing one of those weird round hiking hats like PSC does for cricket), grinning from ear to ear, his trekking sticks and one foot up on a rock that forms a step, about to step up. The Captain has a happy-willbond-smirk on his face like ....so

Omg I am so sorry I never went more offtopic I got so carried away 🙈.

God I wish I could draw or edit this.

Also this post is sponsored by Jack Wolfskin 😉😂

#Bbc Ghosts #Bbc Ghosts ask #Bbc ghosts headcanons #The Captain #My creaky boy #Caphavers #Capvers #My soft boy and my creaky boy #lady fanny button #pat butcher #bbc ghosts kitty #Alison cooper #Lieutenant Havers #Tis I your local Havers lunatic #Oh this once was about captain america...woopsie

33 notes · View notes

themurphyzone · 3 years

Text

Nova Ch 11

AN: This is gonna be the last of the set-up chapters. The story will start snowballing (see what I did there? Heehee) from the next chapter on.

This chapter includes an art piece I requested from the talented @plutonis, and I’m so glad I can finally show this off because it contains some very gorgeous colors.

AO3 Link

Ch 11: Spectrum

Terran Date 2015.4.28

Yesterday, Pinky showed me one of his favorite pieces of media to thank me for the story of Heikro var Silda, even though he cried for fifteen minutes because of the tragic ending. While indeed sad, I’m proud to say I remained steadfast and controlled my emotions upon revisiting the story. And while I told him it wasn’t necessary, he insisted and I acquiesced to his demands.

That’s how Pinky introduced me to The Lion King. Once again, I remained strong even when the emotional distress threatened to override my logical mind. It was...rather difficult, I’ll admit. We watched the sequel afterward, and though I’ve created five different charts that list the plot points in order, I cannot come up with a satisfactory sequence of events that connects both movies into a cohesive narrative.

Moving onto real life matters...Pinky seems to be under the impression that I will be a permanent resident of the lab.

Celestial bodies above, what use is my intelligence if I’m trapped among heathen, dimwitted fools who can’t tell the difference between left and right! I refuse to be a lab rat, made to do the so-called dominant species’ bidding. Snowball and I shall be taking over this planet and progressing their backwards society far beyond their wildest dreams! That’s what we came here for, and I will not be sidetracked again.

As for Pinky...well, his imagination can make up some personalities for his inanimate object friends once I leave. He doesn’t have any shortage of those. The newest addition to the crew is an eraser nub with the moniker of ‘Gummy’.

Signing off for now,

The Brain

o-o-o-o-o

Brain saved the new transmission to an encrypted, password-protected file. None of the scientists were technical experts, so the odds of discovery were miniscule or nonexistent. He only had five audio files in total, a meager amount compared to the hundreds of transmissions he’d made back on New Selene. The pointer hovered over the Delete All button. He didn’t have a reason to keep making transmissions when he was leaving the lab behind in just a few days.

Still, he hesitated.

Maybe he could leave it as a memento for Pinky. But even a basic level of encryption and case-sensitive password would remain far beyond Pinky’s capabilities.

Perhaps it was best to leave the issue for another night.

He logged off the computer and joined Pinky, who’d surrounded himself with Gummy and the rest of his inanimate object friends as he played a board game called Monopoly. Though Brain had looked up the rules and goals of the game during his online session out of curiosity, he didn’t really understand the appeal or mass marketability of such an unbalanced game.

Although, given the number of different versions of Monopoly out there, creating and selling his own version of the game with the title of Brainopoly could prove to be a viable plan.

Pinky was playing as if there were four players and not just a free-for-all against a nickel, button, and eraser. It became disturbingly obvious that Pinky was either overly generous or just woefully terrible at mental math, because he continually doled out the wrong amount of money from the bank or his own meager cash pile.

And Pinky was far better off if Brain cut in now, because there was no chance that anyone else was catching up to Gummy, who owned the most lucrative properties and had the largest amount of money.

He had to stop anthropomorphizing these objects. He was starting to think like Pinky, and that was an extremely distressing thought.

“You’re losing to an eraser,” Brain said. Pinky only had a few fives in currency, and the three properties he owned were all flipped over and mortgaged.

“Yeah, Gummy’s just very good at this game! Narf!” Pinky said as he rolled the dice for Mr. Button. “It’s so nice of him to let us sleep in his Marvin Garden Apartments though. Otherwise we’d be homeless!”

“Nice indeed,” Brain replied. For his peace of mind, he didn’t dare press for more details.

Pinky threw the dice, then moved the bucket token seven spaces, landing on the Luxury Tax space. “That’ll be seventy-five dollars, Mr. Button,” Pinky said as he gathered the money, which only totaled sixty. And Mr. Button’s four properties were all mortgaged. Pinky realized this too. “Oh...you don’t have enough. Poit.”

Any normal player would’ve tossed in the towel right there, but Pinky wasn’t a conventional player by any means. He frowned, scratched his head, then picked up his own pile of fives and tossed them onto the sixty, bringing the amount to seventy-five, with two leftover fives for Mr. Button.

“You can have that, Mr. Button!” Pinky chirped as he dumped the luxury tax money in the middle of the board. “With a little more for the bus!”

Pinky had completely knocked himself out of the game.

This was supposed to be an extremely competitive game for families and seasoned professionals, right? Though the rules of Monopoly appeared confusing and controversial to most players, he was certain that nobody would willingly lose with such a reckless method.

Well...maybe it was just a fluke. Pinky was only playing against himself, so if he wanted to give up the money to something he was making the decisions for, that was his choice.

Besides, he couldn’t watch this game much longer.

“I’ll be your next opponent,” Brain announced. He’d never played before, but the basics seemed simple enough. And the math involved was basic arithmetic he could do in his sleep. “Reset the board at once, Pinky.”

Pinky’s tail wagged as he gathered up the houses and hotels and tossed them back into the box, then settled down as he skillfully shuffled the Community Chest and Chance cards. From the way he hummed and twirled around, an outsider could easily mistake Brain for a playmate instead of an opponent.

Brain quickly read over the instruction sheet, then divided the game currency into a starting amount for himself, Pinky, and the bank.

“Can I be in charge of the property cards, Brain?” Pinky asked as he organized them by color.

“Yes, but I shall handle all other banker duties,” Brain said. “Listen closely, Pinky. I’ve looked up stories about Monopoly games going on for a long time with no definitive winner, so we’ll stop the game when one of us runs out of money, or if chance has favored you or I enough that we can place a hotel on the board.”

“Chance always has a problem with favoritism,” Pinky said as he moved the horse token to the Go space. Indeed, chance hasn’t always favored members of either of their species, but it could stand to be more merciful during a board game. He hugged the horse token to his chest. “Anyways, Pharfigtwoton is always my choice! What’s yours?”

Brain didn’t understand how anyone in their right mind would want to play as a wheelbarrow or bucket, and the only pieces that interested him at all were the ones that resembled modes of Terran transportation. In the end, he chose the battleship.

He was tempted to call it the Conquistador Two, but he didn’t want to follow the trend of naming random objects.

“Good one!” Pinky said as he pushed the ship over to the horse token. “A gorgeous ship like this needs a name...so I hereby dub thee Battley McBattleface!”

“We’re calling it the Conquistador Two, and that’s final,” Brain snapped.

“The Conquesodor Two,” Pinky agreed.

They tossed the dice to decide turn order, and Pinky won that battle easily since Brain had the misfortune to roll double ones.

On his first turn, Pinky managed to land on St. Charles Place with a high roll. He happily shelled out the money required to buy the property. “I’m putting a nice dog park here!” he declared, placing the unused dog token in the magenta space above the property. “Now Pharfigtwoton can give rides to all the puppies!”

Brain didn’t know if Monopoly required players to create their own storyline, but it certainly made the game more interesting and baffling at the same time. He rolled the dice, sighing when he could only advance to Reading Railroad.

He hoped it wouldn’t be a trend for Pinky to receive high rolls while he was stuck in the first half of the board.

But he quickly changed his mind once he paid up for Reading Railroad and read through the card information. Just like any real life war or corporate strategy, the key to his victory would lie in controlling the flow of transportation and goods!

Pinky landed on New York on his next turn, rambling about taking all the puppies to New York for a double decker bus tour of the city as he slid a stack of bills to Brain. Brain sighed and tossed an extra twenty bill back at Pinky. He wished Pinky would pay more attention to adding properly than the make-believe puppies.

Brain rolled the dice and moved his battleship to Virginia, claiming the property so Pinky couldn’t control one-fourth of the board this early in the game.

“Brain, can I have a house?” Pinky asked as he drew a Community Chest card. He read through the card and grinned. “Awww, I got second in a beauty pageant! Thank you, everyone! It’s such an honor! Oh, and it says I also won ten dollars.”

“You don’t meet the conditions required for a house, Pinky,” Brain said, giving Pinky a ten. He didn’t care about the fake beauty pageant, just that money was either gained or lost depending on luck of the draw.

“Oh, I’ll keep them off the board,” Pinky promised. “I just want a house for Terry to live in.”

He held up the dog token, who was now apparently called Terry.

“Fine, but don’t mix your ridiculous fantasies with the board,” Brain sighed and tossed a green house at Pinky, which smacked him in the head when he didn’t catch it in time. Pinky laughed it off and coaxed Terry to stand next to the house.

Houses and hotels. His Internet searches on the Clarkes led to tons of websites on the Terran real estate market and hotel industry.

Which reminded Brain that he hadn’t shared his research into the Clarkes with Pinky yet. There hadn’t been enough time during the day, where the incompetent scientists poked and prodded them. And in Brain’s case, tried to figure out where the antennae came from.

Their hypotheses, and he was being exceedingly generous when he described their speculation and conspiracy theories as hypotheses, amounted to claiming a Terran mouse and insect had reproduced together.

“I’ve brushed up on the Clarkes so we can properly impersonate them at the party. According to-scrik!” Brain hissed under his breath when he landed on New York and had to pay Pinky.

“Sixteen please!” Pinky chirped. “All proceeds will go to buying toys and treats for good dogs in need!”

Brain grudgingly gave up the sixteen. Probability was not on his side tonight. “As I was saying before cruel fate reared its ugly head, the man I shall impersonate, Anthony Clarke, is an esteemed real estate and luxury hotel mogul, with a net worth in the billions. His success is rooted in savvy, ruthless business against competitors. It appears that he and Lamont are old college acquaintances, which we can spin to our advantage. And...yes! B&O Railroad!”

He claimed the B&O Railroad for himself, and Pinky wrinkled his nose. “I wouldn’t ride on the Body Odor Railroad even if you pay me in cheese,” he said.

Brain rolled his eyes. “The temptation for cheese is too powerful for your empty mind and bottomless stomach.”

“You’re right, Brain. It’s too yummy.” Pinky licked his lips. “So does that make me Mrs. Zoey Clarke then? Unless he divorced her already. I haven’t kept up with them in a while.” The butler on the phone had made a similar comment, thoroughly expecting ‘Mr. Clarke’ to divorce his spouse by the end of the week.

“So you’re aware of the Clarkes,” Brain said. He rolled the dice, and chance immediately sentenced him to jail. He had to push his battleship all the way to the jail space.

But all of this divorcing nonsense was trivial to his goals. Hardly worth a footnote.

The objective was to infiltrate the party, mingle with the guests to throw off suspicion, then steal the military weapon and take over the world, not involve himself in a Terran’s relationship drama.

“Ooh, tough.” Pinky clicked his tongue in sympathy as he bought Waterworks. “But everyone knows who the Clarkes are. Didn’t you see anything about all those divorces when you looked them up?”

“I’m more interested in his business ventures than his messy personal life,” Brain replied. “All this talk about divorce is simply incidental. But now I digress. Escaping jail so I may continue my conquering campaign is of utmost priority.”

“Doubles! Doubles!” Pinky chanted as Brain threw the dice. A two and three faced up, but no doubles. Pinky deflated, but only for a moment. Then he picked up a fifty. “Here, Brain. I’ll bail you out.”

From Brain’s brief skim over the rules, he didn’t recall a single one that allowed players to bail each other out of jail. He wanted to refuse and tell Pinky to focus on winning for himself, but obtaining Pennsylvania Railroad, which he’d missed the first time he’d passed through this section of the board, was just too tempting.

Brain took the fifty from Pinky, put it in the bank, then moved his battleship out of jail and used his draining resources to buy Pennsylvania Railroad. Only afterward did he realize that he’d been steadily losing money every turn and hadn’t gained anything since the beginning of the game.

Contrast to Pinky, who rolled a twelve and skipped over the last fourth of the board, placing him squarely on the Go space and guaranteeing himself a free two hundred. Then he rolled a low number and bought Mediterranean.

A poor investment, given that it was hardly worth anything. But Pinky didn’t think so.

And he wouldn’t stop cooking up new fantasies either. “Now we can host a beach jubilee for your welcome home from jail party! With hot dogs and beach balls and those big umbrellas and-”

Brain lobbed the dice at Pinky so he’d quiet down and allow Brain to formulate a strategy in peace.

Perhaps a pass around the board without purchasing anything would be necessary. He had to rebuild his financial resources again. The downside was that Pinky could potentially take the spaces for himself, but it was entirely possible that he’d miss some of the open spaces too.

So he did just that, finally lucking out when a Community Chest card sent Pinky to Reading Railroad.

But Pinky was incapable of keeping his mouth shut, and soon he was back on the topic of the infamous Clarke divorces.

“-so I think Zoey is number eleven, and I know they all blend together, so when I confuse them I just remember divorce, beheaded, died, divorce, beheaded, survived!”

Brain stared at Pinky, praying to all the ancient Selenian gods nobody believed in anymore that Snowball didn’t have him take the identity of a murderer.

“Oh wait no, no...that’s King Henry, not Clarke. Must’ve mixed them up, poit. Sorry.”

Brain threw another green house at Pinky, nailing him in the shoulder. Pinky yelped, but once he realized he had another house he immediately thanked Brain because that meant Terry’s friend could move next door.

Since there was little point to dissuading Pinky entirely, Brain focused on his game strategy instead.

It was mostly repetition anyway. Roll dice, move piece, board event, repeat. Perhaps it would be considered tedious and monotonous, but the storylines Pinky improvised were what truly made it fascinating, even though Brain could only follow about half of it since Pinky created plotholes within the fantastical yet mundane place named Monopoly City faster than the speed of light.

According to Pinky, he and his sister co-ran an enormous pet supply shop attached to a humane animal shelter next door to the dog park. Meanwhile, Brain was conductor of a magical train and seeking the mayorship because the corrupt mayor was involved with an evil cigarette corporation who wanted to diabolically sell their products to innocent children.

And while Pinky certainly had a knack for improvisation, the matter at hand was that Brain couldn’t resist buying Boardwalk, but he’d used up a third of his money and Pinky wasn’t landing there to make up for the deficit. But Brain also had Baltic, the least valuable property, and Pinky had Park Place, which Brain desperately needed since neither of them had houses on the board yet.

This wasn’t going to be a fair trade for Pinky, but it was the best chance Brain had to etch out a victory. He was going for it.

“Park for Baltic so we can finally build some residences,” Brain said, sliding the card over to Pinky.

And to his surprise, Pinky jumped at the opportunity. “Sure, Brain! If you’ll trade me Oriental for Marvin Gardens. We’re gonna open a Chinatown district!”

He’d be giving Pinky control of the first quarter of the board, but the allure of the most expensive properties was far too tempting to pass up.

They swapped properties, then paused the game to set up their houses. Brain didn’t have enough money to buy houses for all his properties, so he set two houses on Boardwalk and hoped he could deal a staggering blow to Pinky’s finances. And even this decision was costly, for he only had $180 left.

Pinky set four houses on Baltic and clapped his hands together. “They’re beach houses,” he explained, and didn’t bother putting houses on the rest of his properties even though he could afford it.

Brain kept his mouth shut. Best not to give Pinky ideas. So he rolled the dice and got doubles.

Luxury Tax.

Scrik.

Now he was down to $105. But he’d pass Go on his next turn, so he could obtain an extra two hundred and hopefully skip this portion of the board.

Then he landed on Baltic.

He slowly looked at Pinky, and Brain couldn’t tell if Pinky was being perfectly innocent or just very, very good at pretending to be perfectly innocent. “That’ll be $320 please,” Pinky said.

Including the two hundred from passing Go, he’d only have a grand total of $305.

And according to the conditions he’d set, he’d lost the game through losing all his money.

“Can’t pay it,” Brain sighed. “Congratulations, Pinky. You’ve bested me.”

Pinky giggled and threw his play money in the air in celebration. “Aw, thanks for playing with me! I’ve never played Monopoly with anyone before. Never been able to get the board to Pharfignewton’s stable without the play money flying all over the street. It took me a long time to pick it all up. We should definitely do this again, Brain! Troz!”

But there wouldn’t be a next time. No matter how much he wanted to be victorious in another match against Pinky.

“Yes, we should,” Brain forced out, willing his racing heart to calm down so he wasn’t caught in his lie.

Pinky beamed, and Brain only wished it wasn’t so difficult to explain.

o-o-o-o-o

Terran Date 4.29.2015

Tonight, we shall seek appropriate outfits for the masquerade ball. I have been informed that my jumpsuit is not considered formal attire and that we will need to shop for proper clothing. However, I will be bringing my jumpsuit along since I will not return to the lab, and I require my conquering outfit to carry out our plans.

Pinky knows a place that may contain what we need. He’s spent the last two hours finishing his hat for the Kentucky Derby and has proudly shown off the finished product to me. Though I’ll admit that the result can only be considered a hat if one is generous with their definition.

I have not been able to contact Snowball. I can only assume he’s making the necessary preparations on his end.

Signing off for now,

The Brain

o-o-o-o-o

They stood in front of an enormous building with bright neon letters, impossible to miss even with his direction-challenged companion. Thankfully, it was only a few blocks from the lab. After the scientists strapped him to a machine that tested centrifugal force, he didn’t have the energy to walk much further.

“Welcome to Toyz ‘B’ We, Brain!” Pinky exclaimed, and Brain cringed at the horrendous grammar of that name. “It's the most wonderfulest toy shop ever!”

Wonderfulest wasn’t a word, but Brain was given no time to inform Pinky of that fact before Pinky dragged him to the entrance, where a large, cartoonish statue of a Terran bee stood off to the side, greeting customers with a cheerful wave of her magic wand.

“So that’s the mascot, Becky Bee,...let’s see, those are the shopping carts and the baskets and those machines that give you washable tattoos-”

“Focus on the clothing, Pinky. Not all the extraneous material,” Brain reminded him as they entered the store. Unlike their disastrous mall trip, Brain had brought along a source of money, an ACME credit card one of the scientists had carelessly left at their desk after purchasing a chair online.

They had a right to use the card as ACME employees who never got paid for their hard labor in experiments. And he promised Pinky he’d give it back once they were through purchasing the necessary items, so it didn’t catch on that pesky ‘no stealing’ radar.

Based on Pinky’s descriptions of the store, he expected an interior full of wonder, excitement, and interesting objects designed for enjoyment for young Terrans.

Instead, everything was a sterile white, yellow, or black. Rectangular kits of building blocks of all shapes and sizes sat neatly in a row, their price tags dusty as if they hadn’t been moved or cleaned in some time.

Dozens of bee models hung from the ceiling rafters, all of them sharing the exact same dead stare and pose. The whole setup was rather unnerving, and Brain averted his eyes.

He spotted two workers at the registers. They scrolled through their phones, not noticing Pinky’s cheerful greeting as he skipped past them. A third worker called out in alarm to them, and they suddenly dropped their phones and picked up rags, repetitively wiping their counters in circles in a poor attempt to appear busy.

The only one who acted like they were in a store meant for entertainment was Pinky, who oohed and ahhed and zigzagged all over the place to get a look at all the toys.

“Brain, look at this Barbie convertible! It’s so sparkly!” Pinky exclaimed before darting off to admire the box art on five-hundred piece jigsaw puzzles, then crawled onto the lowest shelf to hug a life-sized chihuahua plushie. “Narf! This one’s a cutie! And I also like the polka-dotted lizard, that green unicorn, and that rainbow koala looks really soft too-”

Brain grabbed Pinky’s tail, yanking him out of the shelf and onto the floor.

“This store’s already eroding whatever’s left of your mind,” Brain said, dragging Pinky away from the stuffed animals.

Pinky propped himself up on his elbows, humming as they passed aisle upon aisle of action figures, balls, and building blocks.

It was strange how they seemed to be the only customers here. Shouldn’t there be more snot-nosed brats running amok or haggard parents corralling them so they didn’t destroy everything with their grubby hands?

Still, perhaps he shouldn’t complain.

It was a relief that he didn’t have to worry about people trampling him underfoot for now.

But the peace didn’t last long, since Pinky suddenly peeled away in a completely different direction, forgetting that Brain was hanging onto his tail. Though he tried to dig his heels in, Pinky was too fast and the floor too slippery for Brain to bring them to a halt.

Then Pinky stopped on his own, and Brain only caught a glimpse of a metallic table leg before he crashed face-first into it, his nose smarting from the impact.

“Sorry, Brain,” Pinky said sheepishly, and there were five upside-down images of him. Brain swatted at the one in the middle, but his hand hit empty air instead. He shook his head to clear his vision, and all but the Pinky on the far left vanished.

Pinky didn’t stay put for long, darting past Brain. He hauled himself up the table leg and onto a light blue tablecloth. “You have to come up and see this, Brain!” Pinky squealed, peering over the edge of the table, his tail wagging beside him. “There’s an entire fence made of Legos here!”

Brain sighed, wondering if it was an exercise in futility to get Pinky to focus on the task at hand. “This is the last time I’ll repeat myself!” Brain shouted as he climbed up to retrieve Pinky. “We’re here for the clothes and-”

Though Brain only took fifteen seconds to ascend, Pinky managed to don a cropped, checkered top that showed off his slender stomach and a very short blue skirt in that short timeframe.

“Well, what do you think?” Pinky giggled and twirled in circles, the skirt flying in a graceful arc around his waist. “I could go square dancin’ in this, pardner! Yee-narf!”

Realizing he’d been staring at Pinky’s exposed stomach rather than making proper eye contact, Brain quickly turned away and pretended to find a row of small toy cars interesting. Next to the toy cars, there was a menagerie of small, plastic animals penned in by a colorful fence.

Part of a garden themed jigsaw puzzle served as a lawn under his feet, the pieces leading up to an enormous pink dollhouse.

Pinky took off the clothes he’d tried on, neatly threading a bent wire through the crop top and skirt and hanging them on a piece of string that served as a makeshift clothesline. There were five different clotheslines, each stocked to the brim with a variety of colorful articles.

Brain thumbed through the selection, though he didn’t feel an attachment to any of these pieces. While these clothes were designed for toys, most of them were still too big for him.

Finding something that would fit would be more difficult than he realized.

There was a large empty space past all the clotheslines, but it seemed it would be filled in soon enough. The display had all the signs of being a work in progress, and Brain couldn’t help but wonder who had the patience to put all this together. Certainly not the bored workers at the registers.

It was a welcome splash of creativity from the rest of the dull store.

“Poit. This is exactly how I imagined my dream home to be,” Pinky said in awe. He walked up to the front door and popped it open, revealing a spacious interior. Brain followed Pinky inside and they explored the first floor together, which contained a kitchen, living room, and a playroom.

“I really like the coloring on those kitchen cabinets, and the fireplace is a great touch! Very retro. And the kiddies will have a grand ol’ time in the playroom,” Pinky said as they climbed the staircase to the second floor and walked through two bedrooms and a bathroom.

“Marble countertops would make the kitchen and bathroom more refined,” Brain argued. Really, did Pinky want any visitors to think uncivilized brutes owned the house? “But the fireplace is a welcome touch.”

Pinky shrugged as they entered the master bedroom. “It’s fine as is. Now if the backyard was bigger with a dolphin-shaped swimming pool, that would be really, really amazing!”

And Brain preferred marble countertops, but since he wouldn’t be getting everything he wanted, neither would Pinky.

Brain sat on the large bed that took up half the room, the fluffy covers soft and welcoming. But they were on a mission, and future world rulers didn’t roll around on beds in an undignified manner, no matter how tempting it was.

Pinky threw open the closet doors, revealing more clothing inside. “Oh, these pajamas are lovely!” he said, pressing a yellow nightgown close to his body.

“Anything that would suit our purposes?” Brain asked. In hindsight, doing some research into what people wore for masquerade balls would’ve been helpful. He didn’t know why it slipped his mind. Perhaps Pinky’s scatterbrained traits were contagious.

“Hmmm, it’s all pajamas and casual wear,” Pinky said, flicking through the different articles. He closed the doors and reopened them, as if the formal wear would magically appear if they were out of sight. “No suits for you or the porpoises, Brain.” And he’d been so hopeful too.

“Maybe we can find something in the aisles,” Pinky said.

A sensible suggestion, for once.

Brain tried not to appear reluctant to leave the bed, but necessity demanded it. As he stood up, the fur on his neck pricked, his ears twitching towards the large window in the bedroom.

An odd sense that he was being watched came over him, and when he turned to look at the window, he saw a Terran’s eye peering into the balcony.

They stared at each other.

Then the eye blinked.

And Brain was suddenly very, very glad Snowball wasn’t here to bear witness, or he’d never hear the end of how he’d leapt onto Pinky’s back in his moment of panic.

Pinky yelped, and so did the Terran outside the window. There were several loud thuds, followed by a frantic apology.

Brain released Pinky, rubbing his face to get rid of the blush as he ran down the staircase and out the front door.

“S-sorry!” a young woman stammered as she bent down to pick up several packages of toys, only to lose her large glasses on the floor in the process. She wore the standard uniform of the store. “I didn’t think anyone would be inside! I thought one of the furniture pieces fell over, that’s all!”

Pinky hopped down from the table, picking up the woman’s glasses and pressing them into her hand. “It’s okay!” he chirped. “You scared us good, but now we can laugh about it! Oh, your name tag says Sharon! What a lovely name! I’m Pinky, that chubby alien up there is Brain, and we’re going to a party this weekend where we’ll raise awareness for the plight of frosted animal crackers!”

“That’s not the event’s objective,” Brain corrected, and he had no choice but to let Pinky come to his own conclusions. Stealing the secret weapon on Lamont property would remain classified information as promised. “And if you call me chubby again, I shall have to hurt you.”

Sharon took her glasses from Pinky with a tentative smile, then let him climb up her arm and onto her shoulder. “Zort! You have very good taste in Polly Pocket dolls!” Pinky said, peering down at the packages in her hands. “Do you collect?”

Sharon blushed. “I, um, have a lot of Beanie Babies at home. I’m not really interested in Polly Pockets, but they’d fit much better in this display than a standard Barbie.” She glanced at Brain. “I’m sorry, could you please move? I’m putting a few things in that area.”

Brain moved out of the way as Sharon carefully opened the packages. Then she placed several small tables and chairs in the empty space next to the clotheslines, bending the dolls’ legs into sitting positions and placing them on the chairs. She worked slowly and diligently, taking great caution to not knock anything over or break the items.

“Did you make all this?” Pinky asked. “It’s amazing!”

“Y-yeah, I did. The display, I mean. Not the toys.” Sharon didn’t look at Pinky as she straightened one of the Lego fences. “Store’s been on the decline, and because there’s not really much to do, I’m trying to create a few displays to generate some interest. The toys in this one were supposed to be thrown away since nobody’s buying them, even on clearance, but it just seemed so wasteful.”

She was resourceful. It was a valuable trait, but she seemed more embarrassed than anything.

“Take pride, Sharon. It’s an excellent use of parts,” Brain advised.

Pinky nodded eagerly. “And you’re saving the toys from the evil furnace! I’m sure they’re very grateful to you when you’re not looking!”

“You...you really like it?” Sharon lifted her glasses and wiped a tear from her eye. “Nobody’s ever really noticed my efforts around here.”

“Well, they should!” Pinky declared. “I’ll tell them so myself!”

Sharon smiled as Pinky hugged her face, then rejoined Brain on the table. “Thanks, but I don’t think you came to this store just to invade a toy home.”

“No, we didn’t,” Brain said, seeing his opportunity and seizing it. “We require formal clothes for a masquerade ball, and unfortunately, we haven’t seen anything of interest yet.”

“There’s plenty of interesting things in here, Brain,” Pinky said. “Like the busybody bees up on the ceiling!”

Apparently they had two very different definitions of interesting.

“Well, I can bring out some items from the back,” Sharon offered. “We had to pull the entire line of formal Zuma Ben accessories last week. Some parents found the outfits a little scandalous for their kids, so now the accessories are just going in the trash. But maybe you’ll find something to wear from the pile. Be right back, guys!” She walked away, her steps growing slightly more confident.

“Real Zuma Ben accessories?” Pinky clasped his hands to his cheek. “I’ve never worn anything like that before!”

“It’s just a name,” Brain said. He didn’t see why Pinky was treating Zuma Ben’s name like a sacred object. “As long as we’re dressed to impress, the name doesn’t matter.”

“I just think they’re pretty,” Pinky replied. “And I like looking at them, even if I can’t buy anything. Still, I’m really happy with the clothes I have now.”

But Pinky had a sizable wardrobe. Those clothes had to come from somewhere.

“So how did you obtain your clothes if you never bought them?” Brain asked.

Pinky smiled. “The scientists. They’ll drop clothes into my cage, which is really nice of them! One time, I put on this pretty sundress they gave me and I started itching really bad. I was jumping around like a tiny monkey and I managed to make them all laugh! I must’ve been quite the sight!”

Pinky laughed at the memory, but Brain was more disturbed at how the blatant act of humiliation didn’t affect him in the slightest. Then the laugh faltered and restarted at a higher pitch.

No, that initial assessment was wrong. True, Pinky could withstand many things, but not even the most resilient being could tolerate the sound of mockery for long.

Should he say something? Was an ‘I’m sorry’ sufficient? Was there any act of comfort that didn’t involve unnecessary physical contact?

Brain wanted to be decisive, but dozens of scenarios played out in his head, and none of them led to a satisfactory outcome. Tell Pinky to cease his laughter, embrace him, talk about the weather. He didn’t know.

Emotions led to nothing but trouble.

“Quit staring,” Brain snapped when Pinky wouldn’t stop watching him like he wanted something.

Pinky’s ears fell, but Sharon came back before the pang of guilt could fully settle in Brain’s stomach.

“Thanks for waiting, guys,” Sharon said as she dumped the accessory packages onto the table. “See anything you like?”

“All of them!” Pinky declared, happily tossing a three-pack of formal dresses into the air. He tried tearing it open, but the packaging wouldn’t give. Sharon helpfully tore it open for him, and Pinky made a happy, grateful sound before pulling a sparkly purple dress over his body. He twirled around. “So how do I look?”

“Lovely,” Sharon giggled as she pulled out her phone. She set it against the Lego fence, allowing Pinky to see himself in the camera app.

“I’ll put this as a maybe,” Pinky said. “But I have to give all the dresses a chance too!”

He tried four other dresses on in quick succession, and all of them went into the maybe pile.

Meanwhile, Brain searched through his choices of men’s formal wear. He wanted the best possible option for successful infiltration, but he didn’t know much about Terran fashion. His nose wrinkled at a powdered blue suit with far too many ruffles. He was fairly certain that wouldn’t garner respect on any planet, so he pushed the offending pack away from his other options.

The pure white suit would get stained too easily. He needed something darker. That one was out.

“Hey Brain, what about this one?” Pinky asked. He now wore a long sleeved lime green dress, which Brain found extremely tacky and unappealing to the eyes. Not even Pinky could salvage that monstrosity. Yet in Pinky’s hands, there was a black suit with a white shirt underneath. Not extravagant by any means, but since the coloration was similar to his conquering attire, it was the most probable choice by far.

But while Pinky was comfortable with changing in front of others, Brain wasn’t so keen on the idea.

“I require privacy,” Brain said. He took the suit from Pinky and went inside the house, shutting the door behind him and ensuring the shutters were closed.

Then he removed his gloves and jumpsuit, shivering from the cold air as he laid the items over a chair. He put on the new set of pants first, then the white collared shirt, and finally buttoned the jacket over his abdomen.

Well, it was comfortable. And it hid most of his stomach too, which was also a positive. But he needed to see how it looked in the light before making a judgment call, so he rejoined Pinky and Sharon, who were playing with different filters on her phone while Pinky wore a magnificent feathery pink dress.

“Now you really look like a flamingo,” Sharon laughed as Pinky changed the filter to sepia, the image now different shades of tan. Pinky blew a kiss to the camera. “This one’s my favorite so far,” Pinky declared with a graceful curtsey.

And the sleeveless feathery dress did seem to match his personality much better than all the other dresses. Flamboyant and quirky, but inviting and friendly as well. A darker pink feather boa was draped over his shoulders, and purple feathers fanned out from the back of his neck. A light green choker was wrapped around his neck. Then Pinky added a matching headband with a light pink tuft to complete the ensemble.

“That will certainly make an excellent first impression on the partygoers,” Brain said.

Pinky changed the phone filter back to normal with one hand, playing with the feather boa in his other. “Egad, you really think so?” he exclaimed. “Hold on a sec, Brain. Where’s the rest of your outfit?”

“Rest of?” Brain echoed. “This doesn’t require anything else.”

Pinky shook his head and dug a red bow and matching sash out of the clothes pile. “You need a few splashes of color, Brain! Or you’ll just end up a sad wilty wallflower!”

“They’d really match your circles,” Sharon added.

Well, he’d always looked good in red. It was a bold, attention-grabbing color.

Brain draped the sash over his shoulder and fastened the bow around his ear, checking himself over in Sharon’s phone. Then Pinky and Sharon started giggling for some odd reason.

“What?” Brain asked. He was presentable at a formal event now, wasn’t he?

“You’re kinda wearing it wrong,” Sharon admitted.

His ears flattened from embarrassment. Selenians typically wore practical jumpsuits with minimal accessories, and none of their databanks ever mentioned Terran outfits. They must’ve found it unimportant.

“Don’t worry, Brain. It’s an easy fix! May I?” Pinky exclaimed.

Brain nodded his permission, and Pinky removed the bow from Brain’s ear and carefully fastened it underneath his collar, taking great care to not pull the bow too tightly around his neck.

“So this isn’t a sash. It’s a cummerbund and you wear it around your stomach,” Pinky explained as he demonstrated the proper way to wear it. It was relieving to know Terrans made accessories that would hide the slight bulge, and Brain donned the cummerbund correctly.

The accessories really did match his orbs. For the first time, he was dressed to the nines and it was a glorious feeling indeed.

“Aw, you’re both so spiffy!” Sharon exclaimed. “Mind if I put a photo of this on the Twitter page to boost some interest?”

“We’ll return the favor,” Brain said. She deserved some reward for helping them out anyway.

Sharon turned her phone around, ready to snap the picture when Pinky suddenly darted out of frame. “Hold on! Narf!” he cried, shoving a small blue butterfly-themed mask into Brain’s hands and flipping a pink feathery mask over his face. “It’s a masquerade ball, you know!”

While Brain’s mask only covered the area around his eyes, Pinky’s face was mostly hidden by his birdlike mask, leaving only his bright blue eyes exposed.

“Doesn’t that tickle?” Brain inquired as Pinky stretched his boa out for a picture.

Pinky shrugged. “A little. But I don’t mind!”

“Smile for the camera, you guys!” Sharon grinned.

Brain didn’t smile, but he stood in front of the toy house while Sharon snapped pictures and Pinky struck a different pose with every shot.

Pinky’s laughter rang joyously in Brain’s ears.

He would leave that sound behind in just a few days. But it was a small price to pay for the world.

End AN: Maybe this chapter is a little disjointed, but oh well. Sharon is based off the toy store worker who helps the mice in Brain’s Night Off.

I tried to do the math for the Monopoly game and even pulled out my Monopoly property cards so I could get the amounts correct, but if anything is inaccurate I am hereby excused from responsibility because I am a writer and not a mathematician. Yes i use that excuse every time but it’s true.

Brain's outfit comes from the tuxedo he wore in the reboot's Future Brain episode. Pluto designed Pinky's outfit herself (somehow we both were thinking lots of pink feathers for Pinky) and deserves all the credit for it cause it's so beautiful. I chose a butterfly mask for Brain and a flamingo theme for Pinky.

#pinky and the brain #patb fanfiction #patb nova

20 notes · View notes

remmushound · 3 years

Text

Part 7 of my Rise/bay crossover! Special thanks to @brightlotusmoon for the help with this chapter!! @errorfreak88

It took only a few minutes for Donnie to set the computer to work.

“It… it’s working to isolate any mutagenic pathogens around the globe— if it works right there should be seven down here and two in ADX Florence— that’s Bebop and Rocksteady. Any other strays would hopefully be our other turtles and dear old rat.”

“What about their April?”

“I— I can’t really track her using this, but with any luck she’s with one of them. It’ll take a few minutes since it… searching such a wide range.”

“That’s okay. At least we have a start.” Leo tried to smile but he was sure Donnie could see right through it. “Why don’t you go bring our uh… friend in there some food and water? Sure he’d appreciate it. And try to ask him more about his world if you can. So we know what to expect.”

When Donnie didn't immediately move, Leo gave him an encouraging shove toward the kitchen. Donnie stumbled off, looking back and making a ‘really bro?’ motion toward Leo. He scooped up the other-Donnie’s battle shell on the way over. Entering the kitchen brought him into what was almost like a whole other world— a loud one at that!

“Oh mi gOSH IS THAT A TATTOO?!” It was almost whiplashing hearing a voice so ectatic and yet so sarcastic-sounding at the same time. Donatello’s eyes were like stars as he looked at Mikey’s tattoo. “Ohhhhh! I soooo want one!”

Mikey was all too happy to flex his arm and show off the faded markings, “Oh you’d look so cool with a tattoo! Yeah, like maybe an airplane or like cat or something cool like that.” Mikey said quickly.

“Yeah, but Raph would kill me!” Donatello couldn’t help but poke at the tattoos, tracing his finger gently across the mark to get a better feel of the design. “Ohhhh that’s so cool!”

Donnie cleared his throat finally.

“Oh. Sah Donnie?” Mikey did a peace sign.

Donnie cleared and jiggled the battle shell he held pointedly.

Donatello gasped and shoved Mikey aside to run, arms outstretched, to his counterpart. “MY BABY!” He snatched the battle shell from Donnie’s hands and kissed it repeatedly. “Oh I’ll never let you go again— ack! Ew! Sewer taste!” He started to try and wipe the taste off his tongue, “Ohhhh nooo that just made it worse!”

“Ohhh I totally know how you feel! This one time, when we were going down the pipe, the water like totally went in my mouth.” Mikey waddled over to Donatello and leaned over the shorter turtle's shoulder, standing almost close enough to rest his chin on the softshell’s head.

Donatello didn't seem to notice nor care about the box turtle’s proximity as he flipped open one of the many pouches contained in his armor and pulled out a small device that looked almost like bottle caps, one blue and labeled L and one white and labeled R. Mikey watched curiously as Donatello popped the case open and gasped loudly when the turtle took one of the clear lenses on his finger and started the process of cleaning it. When Donatello pulled apart his eyelids to apply the contacts, however, Mikey recoiled, climbing on the counter to get further away and immediately starting to whine.

“Ewww! Ew ew ew ew, he’s touching his eye—“

“Mikey!” Donnie snapped, but Mikey didn't stop.

“Eww his eye’s gonna pop out dude I’m telling you it’s gonna pop out and fall on the floor and get all dirty and he’s gonna have to pick it up and put it back in!”

Donatello was unperturbed by the complaints and applied his contacts quickly. “Yes, yes. Gasp in your repugnance all you want. Alas, ‘tis all the better to see you with, dear Michael!” Donatello waved a hand as he turned to face Mikey. “Heyyy, you got freckles! Nice.”

Mikey’s disgust was almost immediately forgotten by curiosity as he crawled across the counter to get closer to Donatello, and then fell off. He got back up, shaking off the fall and strutting as if it never happened.

“Do they hurt?” Mikey gasped.

“Where did you get contact lenses anyway?” Donnie was just as in Donatello’s face as Mikey was. “I got glasses, but that was just by dumb luck.”

“Yeah!” Mikey started to poke at Donatello curiously, “And even then they’re always falling off and stuff. Super inconvenient!”

“Mikey, quit poking him!”

“I saw you poking him!” Mikey nudged the bridge of his shell against Donnie.

“Ow— that was just an exam!”

Donatello leaned against the wall and watched the altercation with the slightest grin. He let himself watch a moment longer before starting to put his battle shell back on, and at the click of the buckle Mikey perked up like a dog at a whistle. He shoved Donnie away and hurried to the softshell.

“Wanna hear more about my tattoos?”

Donatello gave the excitable box turtle a genuine smile. “I wanna hear about everything you want to tell me. Just give me a mo~”

Donatello walked confidently over to Donnie, took the mask and glasses off in a single motion and walked away before Donnie could stop him. It took the mutant another second to process the audacity before he ran after.

“Wha— hey— heyheyhey— that’s my stuff!” Donnie tried to take his things back, but Donatello’s spider arm held him back.

Donatello rooted through the drawers for a long moment before coming out with a pair of scissors.

“Hey— what are you doing with those?!” Donnie tried to stop him once more, growling as he tried to overpower the titanium arms.

Mikey twirled over to Donatello, the titanium arms letting him past while still restraining Donnie. Mikey landed with his palms down on the counter flexing his tattoo proudly.

“Okay, so like, that turtle in the middle is our family crest right? And I totally designed it— original Michelangelo art right here, first hand. I know, I’m amazing!”

Donatello continued his work through Mikey’s rant, nodding along to the enthusiasm.

“The inking was done by Donnie there in the purple, you already met him though so eh. And this is supposed to be the Brooklynn bridge— New York pride and everything.”

Though Donatello’s expression didn't change in the slightest, one of his spider arms made a fist and bounced over to Mikey for a fist bump, which the box turtle obliged.

“And this is supposed to be the knots are our masks, connects to the bridge— super cool. And these are just some spaceships cause spaceships are awesome. And this is a bat, cause bats are rad, and it’s on fire cause that’s also rad.”

“Mm. Very nice. Love the thought and detail. Ha! There!” Donatello finished his work and retracted his titanium arms so suddenly that Donnie stumbled and almost fell. Donatello un-creased the mask to the best of his ability and rolled it back onto Donnie’s head, fixing it comfortably for the other mutant before backing up with a smug smirk.

The only difference in the mask that had been taken and the mask that was returned were the glasses now fitted carefully into the eye holes; the handles went in between the cloth of the mask to hold the glasses securely in place.

“Now you won’t have to worry about dropping them.” Donatello said calmly, crossing his arms and nodded. “You’re welcome.”

Donnie touched his hand to the frames a moment in awe before laughing his snorting-laugh. “Oh my god— this is— this is genius!” He hurried over to look at his reflection in the fridge. “How did I never think about this?”

Donatello simply tapped his head in response and turned to return to Mikey before Donnie ran and grabbed his arm to stop him.

“Wait!” Donnie said quickly, “I have so many questions!”

#Donnie tech #donatello and Mikey bonding #tattoos!!#kajin #Tmnt #tmnt #teenage mutant ninja turtles #rottmnt #tmnt au #donatello #donnie #tmnt bayverse

62 notes · View notes

kentzarneki · 3 years

Text

garden of loneliness —

pairing: prince aerin x irileth nightbloom (f!elf mc)

synopsis: aerin and irileth remember each other in their dreams, both good and bad until they meet again.

word count: 2.7k

song: war of hearts — ruelle

author’s note: yeah, this has been in my drafts for months like around when blades ended. and it changed from the original version i made, so enjoy this new one and happy epilogue day. (also you should definitely listen to the song)

tags: @bladesappreciationweek @zadiechoi @eugenehartmann @diamondskys @beaumontbash @diserrano @jaxmatsuo

Aerin was always a lonely child.

Such was the life of a second child. Years spent being left out of your parent’s expectations and being taught that you’d only be needed as the last option. For the longest time, there’s nothing but darkness and the fear that maybe that’s all there is to life. Darkness, deep and inviting like the warm embers of a dying fire. Mesmerizing, but you stand still at the thought of getting burned. And fear, for most, it feels like nothing but a cold and lonely bed for your entire life. Like chills down your spine and nails down a chalkboard.

However, that's not how it was for him. No, Aerin knew what his darkness was. He had spent years nurturing it like a mother would a child, he cared for it, loved it even. The cold abyss that pulsed where his heart should. His heart was a different shape than most.

It was the imposing figure of his brother’s shadow and the heavyweight upon his head called the second prince’s crown. He knew this was this life, it’s what he was born into. Forever forced to play his role as the meek younger brother with a smile on his face. The spare prince. He could never be more than that, it’s what he was made to believe.

So he played his role with care. A smile here and there, until the shadows came along. Shadows wrapped in velvet cloaks and wore masks of sinister smiles. Made of something like a dream come true created back when he still had dreams to spare. A Duke of the shadows granted him everything he could ever want - his own kingdom, a place he could finally belong. It awaited him beyond the realm, but to get there he needed to collect the keys.

He turned into a Grim Reaper of souls, ambition, and body. His reverse Midas touch, where everything he touched turned to the darkness. The hands that once wiped his tears stole lost souls and bid them into his desires. Which led him here, deep beneath the halls of a palace he grew up in. All the time he could see his father reigning proceedings of judgment over betrayers and criminals false though his mind, he wonders if his new cell had belonged to one of them.

Often he finds his mind wandering like this, thoughts desperate to keep out of loneliness that crept in as reminders of his youth. On good days, his dreams take him back into the shadows. He dreams of a gilded throne, the blackened shadows of lost souls wander the palace as his subjects that live under the rule of his hand.

On bad days, he dreams of her. The parting kiss before his world, his lies would come crumbling down around them. She stood tall in his dreams, not faltering like the broken girl he had left behind. His words from that night echoed in his mind, “Until the stars align for us again…”.

She was the light. The single candle in the darkness, standing tall even in a broken house, the damaged windows blowing harsh air inside. Still never faltering, never bowing out. He took comfort in the fact she was out there, in the fact that her life had meaning. It brought him a sense of peace he never had before. The kind of peace that comes with love.

She was as beautiful as the flowers, in the garden he had grown up around. She stole the spotlight from the moon and held its light in her smile. She was everything he could ever want and more.

But not really, no. He knew the truth of what he wanted - what he was. The monster within, the one that seemed to tamed just from the flicker of her smile. He knew it would destroy her.

He would destroy her.

ii.

Irileth was always a loving child.

It started with her parents, a love so deep for someone she had never known. Grief buried deep in her chest that acted like poisonous fertilizer to the flowers that had grown in her heart. It was a garden she had kept locked for most of her life despite her never-ending desire to be loved.

Which led to a young boy, the prince built from broken dreams to her door. His presence holding the key to what seemed like her salvation, a place to lay down all this love she’d been holding within herself. He was the empty chalice just begging to be overflowing with devotion, the only kind of devotion she couldn’t seem to give up.

Yet, she couldn’t stop thinking that it was real. Even a fraction of what he’d said, false charm hidden behind a stone in his chest. It had to be real. She thought back on his words, sickeningly sweet like raw syrup. She’d lapped up every word that dripped from his mouth like a dog, ravenous for something she’d never had. Love. The hungry, orphaned girl begging to be loved by the boy with everything. She took table scraps of his devotion and tokens of his affection all laced with dark deceit.

Still, there’s love there. Mixed into his secrets and lies, not everything could be lost to the shadows and she’d go to war if she had to just to prove it. But, still, she’s holding onto hope that if she finds the right words she can save him. She could have saved him.

The memories find her in the dark, all of her nightmares trace back to him. The shadows singing in the air, something dark and twisted as if it was a melody to grant false serenity. There was no serenity in her dreams, nothing but shadows threatening to chase her from the dark places they’d hidden as they waited to strike. There was no serenity, but there was love. Love deep within her, it gripped her and told her heart that it was here to stay.

Her words bounce around in her head, “Aerin, all I want is to be with you.”.

And when she wakes tears are threatening to spill from her eyes, and she lets in a deep breath. It was the truest thing she’d ever meant because even this way he still looked like the boy she loved. But she needed to save him, save him from himself - or from the world who would never accept him like this.

She took a timid step forward and he didn't do anything, but his eyes locked hard onto hers. His face is stoic as if he didn’t want to let any emotions show. The look of fear that filled her face when she first saw him like this - as a monster, it was stuck in his head. This wasn’t new. He always was a monster. Sickly grey, black veins stretching out as if to carve his skin into marble. Marble - what a perfect thing, easily carved into a sculpture. Something to turn into art, which is how she saw him even like this.

“You’d still have me? Even as I am?” His voice whispers in her dreams.

Every night, she watches as he’s dragged away to the dungeons below and wonders if she would ever see him again. His face was twisted with rage, as he pulled him away still when his eyes locked on hers, she could see the pain. His heartbreak.

In her daydreams. she sees him again. Hands touching his, her fingertips black to the touch as their skins touch. Her warm skin turning cold as a curse washes over her like waves on the shore, her skin the color as asphalt and veins like cracks in the pavement that hold a dark secret only she could home.

She could have him. Sickly grey, broken, and bruised but all her’s. The spare prince that no one had wanted, the lost girl that no one had found could build a kingdom to tear the world to shreds. And yet, she couldn’t bring herself to dive into the darkness that lived within him. Not yet.

And she left wondering, how do you let go of a love you were never able to experience? Maybe they were meant to be, maybe not in this life but the next. Because time is still passing by and she still thinks about him each time she looks up at the sky. It’s like she’s waiting to see him in the stars, where he’s more than just a memory in her heart and he’s right there in every passing face.

There’s no shadow that could ever replace him.

iii.

The dungeon was always a lonely place.

The shadows sang in the air, something dark and twisted as if it was a melody to grant false serenity. There was no serenity down here, nothing but shadows threatening to chase her from the dark places they’d hidden as they waited to strike. There was no serenity, but there was love. Love deep within her, it gripped her and told her heart that it was here to stay. To stay for him.

So her feet carry her in, being here in person was nothing like her dreams. She hadn’t needed to ask where he was before going in. She’s told the poor king she needed closure. A small smile tugged at his lips when he heard this, he understood the feeling well.

She can hear his footsteps before she even rounds the corner, he’s pacing around like if he does it enough the endless time he spends trapped down her might cease to exist. But that wasn’t entirely the case, no, it was true he was much like a shark. Circling around its prey, constantly on the move because it didn’t know how to rest. The inevitable truth that slowing down, the resting, meant death.

“So you’ve finally come to see me?”

His voice breaks through her thoughts, his eyes zoned on her like a hawk and even in the dark she could still see the dark brown glow in them of the boy that she loves.

“Why?”

“Because I care about you.” It’s spoken like a fact, but only one of them knows it to be true. The heavy chains around his wrists remind him that what she says might not be entirely true. At least not to him.

“Still?”

“Yes.” She swallows hard, he watches the motion slowly. Watching for any signs of deception, he knew her well enough to see the sadness behind her eyes that seemed to grow deeper with every step she took near him. “You were - You are the only thing I wanted.”

“No,” He shakes his head. “No. Not me.” His hands shake, downplayed rage paints his face. “I have always been this way. This dark, grey creature in the hollowed-out shell of a prince who never was.”

He was right. Whoever he was then, whoever he was pretending to be. That wasn’t him, not entirely. He’d always been dark. Always been corrupt, he loved the darkness so much you’d think his soul had been grown there.

“You may not have loved who I truly was, but you loved me.”

He speaks gently, words so compassionate you could almost forget they’d fallen out of the mouth from the same boy who’s betrayed her.

“There’s a darkness in you.” Tender are the words that come from a boy who’s never known love, the boy who fought tooth and nail against the only one who had ever loved him. Loves him. “I don’t know how it got there, but I can feel it. You can set it free.”

If he was a fortress, then she was a glasshouse. So easy to look inside, to peer through a window, and know exactly what lies inside. He could practically see the way her heart beats for him, but he could also see how it hurts.

Because while he looks on the inside, she’s focused on the view. Brown curls stuck to his forehead that her hands ache to push back, skin the color of ash that washes away the memory of his once rosy-toned cheeks.

“Aerin, I am not like you.”

“You never were a good liar, Irileth.”

Their names slip from each other’s mouths like they’ve been holding in months, gliding off their tongues in such a charming tone they nearly missed the way they had flinched once one said it. The sting of betrayal spelled out both their names in one another’s mind. So she holds her tongue, knowing he’d never believe what she’d have to say to defend herself.

“I did not come all this way just to lose, but I won’t lose you either.”

“Haven’t you already?”

The sound of shackles breaks the reprieve built around them, the air grows stale as it’s ripped from her lungs. Aerin lifts his hands slow, wrapping the bars that separated the two like a cavern.

“Didn’t you lose me when you helped haul me into here?”

Shadows seemed to seep around her like the branching of a weeping willow, hiding her shame.

“I had no choice.”

“There’s always a choice, you chose this.”

“That is not fair. You chose this, over me.” Tears prick at the corner of her eyes, an unfortunate thing about her. The way her emotions threatened to spill over the floor and drown them both. “You did. This darkness.”

The gesture is vague but her arms swing wide, another sign of the difference between them. She was free to move as she pleased.

“It doesn’t have to be this way.”

“It does. I cannot change.”

“I'm not asking you to.” She knew he couldn’t, there was no longer a good bone in his body. There was never a place for one.

“I cannot pretend like this darkness doesn’t live in you, and I also cannot pretend as if I can save you. There is no saving what was never lost.” He’d belong to the shadows since the day he’d arrived on their Earth.

“But I will not be without you.”

Her hand slips between the bars. A tap, tap of a metal key — once, then twice against a bar. She slips through the heavy door that had been keeping them apart, the final step that leads her to jump into the deep end.

“I will have a home beside you. In the shadows.”

Shackles slip-free, falling heavily against the floor. And all at once, he’s on her. Lips on lips, shuddering close against his skin, and eyes pressed shut just hard enough to try to remember what this had felt like before. When his skin was warm, gentle hands touched her cheek beside a moonlit river.

Violent darkness creeping in on every corner, the shadows whisper sweet desires of a glorious promise land and the wind blows down her back like nails on a chalkboard.

That’s all there is at first, not the lack of light beside her lids but enveloping her through his kiss. Fear is freezing rain dripping down her back and drops shivers down her spine that he soothes away with a caress. Shadows flood her veins and her blood no longer flows crimson, inky dark lines dance down her skin like that of a predator. She is born again, born anew, his devilish grin traces over every onyx vein, scraping across her skin like branches on a tree. Shadows whipped and wrapped around them, holding them close and holding them together. A king with his queen.

There is a garden in their kingdom, there’s a single weeping willow tree with breaking branches that snap like bones in the night and it’s filled with thorns spread through the field threatening to prick anything that comes near. But under the tree there’s a single flower, it’s pale under the moonlight you could also miss the pink glimmer on it that matches Irileth’s skin.

When the moon is full they take a stroll, thorns let them pass and the branches part as if it’s offering a welcoming hug back home. The King and Queen of Shadows stroll through whispering cries of poor, lost souls and listen to the haunting melodies creep into their bones under the touch of one another’s embrace.

They aren’t lonely anymore.

#aerin valleros #prince aerin #blades of light and shadow #bolas #blades #bladesaw #aerin x mc #playchoices #mine: writing

82 notes · View notes