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stray-tori · 3 years

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TPN S02E09 - Initial Thoughts (anime-only)

[ Reaction video w/ captions/subs ] we collectively have a breakdown about the pen, please enjoy it pff-

... hmmm... yeah I... ain’t feeling it. I think my tpn feelings overall are carrying this more than anything pff. I didn’t hate it, it was just...... mediocre... like if this wasn’t tpn, I probably would have dropped it at this point.

BUT IT IS TPN SO LET’S GIVE SOME THOUGHTS.

. Random thoughts I don’t want to re-arrange

when Emma was like “share your pain with us!!”, I liked how Norman turned to Ray like “Ray. help. tell her I’m right” kind of like Ray did in s1 pfff-

Norman cried the words he didn’t allow himself to say in s1 :( I’M EMOTIONAL. it might not be the icing on the cake execution wise but GOD MY HEART. And knowing he’s going to die to it’s just- (well not if the pen has something to say about it but more about that later)

where- wheres my trio hug :((( RAY HUG THE CHILD NOW

it’s interesting that while Emma got the entire emotional speech spotlight, only Ray got a reaction shot to “I won’t live long”?? equivalent.... exchange...?

I thought Norman had a seizure when he broke down in front of Emma and Ray and I kinda wish he had because while it’s good to have him say it outright (a win for communicationnn), imagine THE ANGST. “I want to live with yo- *coughs up fountains of blood*”.

So. yknow that hideout Cislo or Vincent referenced when talking to Emma and Ray. Yknow where Norman hid the children they stole from farms, making it look like demons did it? ... w-what about them? will we see them? Are they getting left behind? it would have worked for Norman’s plan, since all they had to do was stay put and wait for demons to be yeeted. But now... he’d have to take them all too. But... I doubt we’re gonna introduce a bunch of new designs and characters? Or are we? Who knows. I don’t. I have unreasonably amount of protecc feelings for those children I’ve never even seen haha- WHERE ARE THEY. I mean... the plan rn is to immediately use the gate right? or is the plan to eradicte the GF farm staff and higher ups? I guess if thats the plan it might work. Or I guess the plan is to save Phil for now???

the idea of Sonju just... slicing his arm and throwing it at demons in a loop sounds so funny to me please someone make that.

I liked that Mujika turned to the lambda kids after giving a cup to the demon children but then we didn’t see their reaction or anything and then it cuts to the temple??? that was weird. was there sth missing there? confusion.

I also like Isabella remarking "[a radio] was supposed to be there" regarding the shelter, because it further heavily implies they know of the shelters and just let them be. Which further confirms that they should have just reframed the shelter and had the kids escape from it quickly but oH WELL.

I really liked demon Emma apologizing and Norman's reaction to that. it was a sweet little moment and like, the realization of apologizing for something that she didn't do but is aware of and all that. Cycle of hatred and all that shiz hell ye. Ik the anime won't rly delve into that but I kind of relish in the angst potential of the village - sure it was undone but some were still eaten and died and transforming people back won't bring those back. So, that’s some hella terrifying implications for families; and I'm assuming Norman is aware of those so. guilt time! not that he wasn't aware it was bad but yeah- I teared up at that moment :<<

I feel like this season really does its best when it’s doing the whole two worlds/species angle. Mujika and Sonju, the village, demon and human Emma... all that stuff.

I wish we had gotten more time (god this is really the season’s downfall) thought to see Vylk talk to the GF kids more often. it’s implied he told them not to hang out there before but I would have liked to have him show up a few more times before that but yeah. Runtime very RIP.

I also feel like CW is bending over backwards to put cliffhangers at the end of episodes. that was already a problem in s1 when they had Phil come in when Don and Gilda were in Isabella's room. it was obvious it'd be a copout but they still did it. I'm just wondering why we had to have Vincent disagree with the group to this extend (and if the shock value might play a part in that). we have 2 more episodes, why are they introducing more plot threads? Just streamline it you dofuses. I just don't know what good can come of it unless it's like an ultra big brain move to help them?? (and then we're back with the forcing cliffhangers thing) - if it's actual conflict, this'll just make things more confusing and clustered, and we don't have time for that right now imo. But who knows maybe it plays into something I just don't understand yet and it'll work out somehow

. Animation flow kinda dead.

I felt like this episode was kind of... awkwardly executed whenever something that was a slightly dynamic movement happened?

The whole bit while Emma is walking up to Norman could have been better, but it’s passable, except that a lot is spelled out for us.

But then she takes his hand really weirdly in a far away shot with bad inbetween timing?? what is that haha-

Or him collapsing is cut really weirdly. you barely really see it, you just kinda piece it together from Emma’s reaction and her catching him.

Most facial expressions are good though, which is arguably the more important part in this scene. I feel like a better execution just would have elevated it even more.

The only one I felt was really awkward in its entirety is Barbara’s scene with the children demons. I felt like that was in particular kind of stiff and the cut between the child and her was too sudden and felt jarring. TPN anime doesn’t really do that sort of stuff a lot, so imo it’s kind of “??” when they do it. With Norman it was too, but that at least had a good transition over to it (with bg and fg panning) and nice animation. Barbara’s just kind of switched. Tbh don’t switch it out, and as the child screams, switch over to her facial expression as her own voice fades into the scream? I think that would have done it too and also be low effort.

I think it’s moreso the flow of the shots than the actual shots though? it’s a bit too fast paced and sometimes missing inbetweens (like the wild demon eating sonju’s hand is literally just 2 frames) - it’s very weird. It’s jarring, but I can’t really explain why.

I’m sorry for the staff, I’m sure the production hasn’t been easy. maybe with the bluray release we’ll get some updated animations/inbetweens.

Some appreciation though:

as mentioned, most of the facial expressions, even if the body language was a bit stiff.

the cut from the trio talking to the eye-transition of the demon and the following breath animation looked nice. Also his arm regenerating!

Sonju smirking as he cuts his arm off, what a bastard

they didn’t have to show Vylk’s arm regenerating casually while they’re talking but they did.

. the lambda crew

If only I cared about you guys. Hahhh it’s just... introducing characters so close to the end is just. A mess. A recipe for disaster.

Where has the anime’s “show off the younger kids” angle gone? I thought they were always pretty good at that. but they haven’t really contributed anything since the whole tidbit about the older children always eating less for them. And even then it was just Lani and Thoma.

Potentially, what segments we saw in the shelter will come back for the GF raid thematically but I’m just... EH?

. the cure pen

at this point, just stick a syringe part at the end of the stick and just inject it and it’s gonna solve everything probably.

I just don’t understand why that needed to happen. Assuming they go to the human world, it’d be perfectly acceptable for me for medicine to be so advanced that it’d be able to like, lessen their symptoms and significantly improve their lifespan.

Don’t just... REMOVE their struggles. It’s okay to not be normal and cured. it’s okay for their lives to be impacted by it going forward. In fact, I’d much prefer that.

(added in later) OH wait they literally spell out why the cure being in the pen is meaningful - because it opens up a path where they can live through not having annihilated all the demons - it's essentially the moral "reward" for not killing them. Since they probably wouldn't have gotten it if they did that. I still think it wasn't needed and the blueprint on its own would suffice for another pen-convinience moment but I kind of get what they're going for, I just don't think it's worth it . In their case, going to the human world (while they don't know it) means having more medical expertise at their disposal which they can then use to survive. UNLESS they're actually not welcome over there and have to hide or something, in that case... that might be hard, true. I guess I'll come back to think about this once it's over. For now, it feels kind of unearned and it wouldn’t even have to be this way in my eyes which makes it somewhat worse.

But good, let’s say in-universe you need it NOW, then at least don’t put??? the medicine??? recipe??? INTO the hologram.

What if they just checked the GF blueprint and Norman goes “hey, Vincent... do you think this [database/archive room] could have some data on our experiments?” - Norman said he tried to develop a drug to help them but the supporters who had that data were purged. but... they had Smee to help them too. But SOMEHOW, a dude from 15 years ago just HAS the cure??? (at least let Norman develop it himself and have the data be just THE DATA and not the recipe).

It might still check out somewhat??

15+ years ago, James Ratri was assumingly still the gatekeeper since the switch to Peter seems somewhat recent considering his big "era of James has ended" speech.

I guess the implication is that just like Smee => Krone => Norman, a supporter all that time ago gave random person the pen when they escaped.

When Vylk found him, he also had just the data medium of the pen (not the entire pen), so maybe the farm thought they eliminated it and that’s why they didn’t change their methods to not work with those drugs anymore? It's still a bit curious that their experimentation hasn't changed at all in 15 years but maybe that's because they keep killing the smart people instead of making them scientists to research for them :D

Somewhere since those 15 years, Smee gave Krone the pen (probably a few years before she got to GF?), which means that at that point the gate the keyword "future" sent them to, was still in tact when Smee gave Krone the pen. Maybe WM wasn't discovered yet at that point?

then WM got discovered, James was chased. He made that phonecall update and was probably eventually killed, along with the human location (and likely bunkers since they knew a radio was supposed to be there, begs the question why they didn't remove it) being discovered (the one with the future keyword) and the gate there being destroyed.

The problem is just that it can make sense when you think about it for way too long and assume things in good-faith, but it still feels unearned.

Maybe I would care more or this would feel a little more earned if we knew ANYTHING about that person? They seemed fairly young, so it’s probably not Minerva/James Ratri. The “hope” talk reminded me of the book in the shelter, but I’m not sure if that checks out either? The cookies were rotten but not completely. I know cookies hold out relatively long, but would they rly not be completely rotten after 15 years? I MEAN. Maybe not. Who knows. I tried to google it but didn’t find anything.

But anyway. That tidbit is going into my “shelter kids OC project” I guess.

But even if the worldbuilding makes sense, I think the data set in itself makes little sense?? How did they find that pen part? Did a supporter give it to them? Why do they have the cure? Clearly their group of escapees wasn’t doing too hot (#help) and they seemed relatively young too so they probably couldn’t have worked in the farm.

Were the shelter escapees lambda escapees? but if that was the case, wouldn’t the WM group have secured the cure information more properly than in just one pen (maybe it was and those were just destroyed, to be fair) - it’s just WEIRD to put the cure for Lambda experiments on the same blueprint as the GF layout??? that makes so little sense.

Plus, why would you send them to GF, when it’s so secured and all that, and not just send them to the human support place our GF kids were sent with the “future” keyword, which had a gate. Maybe it didn’t exist 15 years ago (that the humans had control over it, that is), but even then it seems weird to me to imply to send them to GF instead of one of the other gates that existed. I mean. The “future” location’s gate wasn’t destroyed when Krone got the pen right?

I’m guessing maybe it was meant as help for escaping? But then again, why the cure? I guess if they met lambda experiments? I’m just confused.

Also: do we just accept that the layout of GUARDS and SECURITY MEASURES has not changed in 15 years???

*sigh* welp. Still looking forward to seeing some stuff with Isabella hopefully. Time... is not on their side and it shows. Neither run-time wise nor production wise.

#tpn anime #tpn s2 #tpn anime-only #tpn #tori talks #tori has opinions

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irkimatsu · 3 years

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Okay, after way too much delay - it's my Eurovision 2021 Final Ranking! This took me a while for a lot of factors - took extra hours at work to make sure I could get time off this week, some recent family events... and most relevantly, the fact that this year is so damn good that no matter what, I knew someone was going to get ripped off by ending up somewhere in the bottom half. Just know that being toward the bottom of the list doesn't necessarily mean I dislike it, especially this year - it just means I like other things more. This year is going to be an absolute bloodbath. I am both excited and terrified.

Try not to take my ranking too seriously, by the way - I'm an American who unironically listens to stuff like Scooch and Dolly Style. I'm not exactly a seasoned music critic. I just know what sort of music makes the happiness center of my brain light up, what the hell is music theory

Ranking made with the sorter at http://esc.gerbear.com/sorter2021.htm, then slightly adjusted when it put some songs concerningly low on the list. Okay, so I cheated a little

Firstly, in the interest in completion - if Belarus didn't get disqualified, they'd be in the big fat 40 rank, with a big bold "Hate" right above. Fuck that song. I've only listened to it once and am so glad I have no obligation to acknowledge it any further. Those fucking lyrics. Mother of Christ. Fuck you guys.

I also offer my condolences to Armenia for their having to bow out this year. I'm sure whatever you guys sent, it couldn't have possibly been worse than "Chains On You".

Now, for the songs that actually matter:

Indifferent:

39 – Spain - “Voy a quedarme” by Blas Cantó: Welp, already I’m gonna get shot. I can’t remember how this song sounds at all. I know it’s tender and genuine and sweet and everything… I just… kinda don’t care. Nothing to say. I liked his entry last year even more, and even that was pretty damn dull. Just not destined to be a Blas Cantó fan, I guess!

38 - North Macedonia – “Here I Stand” by Vasil: I’m with most other rankings I’ve seen; what the hell is this? I at least kinda remember it, which is more than I can say for poor Spain, but oh my god it’s so boring. I really liked “You” last year! What the hell happened, Vasil?

37 – Albania - “Karma” by Anxhela Peristeri: Another “oops” from me, huh. It’s another one I immediately forget about the instant it ends. I at least don’t remember it boring the crap out of me, hence it placing higher than Spain and Macedonia, but I still can’t say anything nice about it – or anything at all, really – so I’ll leave it this low. I acknowledge that I’m in the minority, I won’t protest if it qualifies, but personally, it’s not my pick.

36 – Georgia – “You” by Tornike Kipiani: Give him points for passion, I suppose! At least I’m not laughing at him like I was last year. On the other hand, less ridiculous also means more boring. Points for earnestness, but this is just another song that goes right over my head.

35 – Portugal – “Love Is On My Side” by The Black Mamba: An English song from Portugal? That’s new. Too bad it hasn’t rescued the song from the darkest depths of Boring. I will confess that I spice it up a little by associating it with Homura from Osomatsu-san, thus rescuing it from the deepest pits of my ranking list… but it’s still stuck down here. Portugal and I have never gotten along well Eurovision-wise. I’ve come to accept that.

34 – Slovenia – “Amen” by Ana Soklič: I’m gonna call this a song that I respect more than I like. She’s got a great voice, I can’t deny that… but when I’m ranking this purely based on what I’d go out of my way to listen to, this one falls flat. I warned you at the beginning that I have no taste! I’m not normally into straightforward ballads, the religious connotations are lost on me… this isn’t the song for me.

33 – Austria – “Amen” by Vincent Bueno: Back to back “Amen”s! Tip for getting me to like your Eurovision entry, apparently, is “don’t call your song Amen”. It’s a ballad, earnest and trying but overall not my type of music. I’m running out of ways to say that. Breakup song, a tad bitter, we’ve all heard this sort of song so many times before. It doesn’t stand out, and I think it’d be a waste of a spot in the final.

At least, I thought this was a breakup song when I first wrote this, but apparently it’s about the death of a loved one…? I would say that makes me hate the bitterness, but… given how I’m handling a death in my own family right now… god, I don’t know. I just can’t handle this song, not at any time but especially not now. It doesn’t even provide catharsis like a song later on in the list. It stays this low regardless of its meaning, I just don’t like it, I’m sorry, moving on.

…” 'Cause it all feels like you didn't even try to save us, all this time wasted on a lie”… ugh, my personal problems…

32 – Switzerland – “Tout l'Univers” by Gjon’s Tears: Another one I respect more than I like, and another opinion I’m gonna get my ass beaten for, I’m sure. I respect the artistry, but this is so far removed from anything I’d ever listen to on purpose. It might have landed even lower if I wasn’t afraid of pissing people off. I’ll understand if it wins, but I’ll also be hoping for most anything else.

31 – Russia – “Russian Woman” by Manizha: I don’t get it. Sometimes it’s pleasant enough to listen to, but overall I don’t get it. It’s unique, I’ll give it that! I understand why it won its national final, and why so many people enjoy it! But for me, it doesn’t quite cross that line between “interesting” and “enjoyable”. I'm not Russian - this isn't for me, and it wasn't supposed to be. Though I will confess that there may be some bias at play here. God, I miss Little Big…

Okay:

30 – Estonia – “The Lucky One” by Uku Suviste: The voice is okay, the music is okay, I like how the bitterness is handled here more than in Austria’s… but this is still as high as I can go on this one. It’s serviceable, but this year has so much better to offer.

29 – Sweden – “Voices” by Tusse: Sweden really does like sending the same song over and over again, huh? I don’t hate it, but it does strike me as a lesser “Too Late For Love”, sound wise. Sweden almost never takes risks, and it’s causing me to look over them more and more with every year. I respect it too much to put it in the “Indifferent” category, but given how the rest of my ranking played out, this the best I can do for it. (But again, do not trust the opinions of someone who teethed on cheesy Europop and fondly remembers when Sweden was flooded with the stuff…)

28 – Belgium – “The Wrong Place” by Hooverphonic: Once again, Hooverphonic help Belgium fill the role of Eurovision’s “Most Likely To Appear In A Bond Movie” song. It’s fine. It’s a song! I don’t know what else to say about it! It does its job well enough, it’s just not really a job I care for that much.

27 – Ireland – “Maps” by Lesley Roy: It’s cute enough! A cute little radio tune. It’s no “Story Of My Life”, though. If “22” couldn’t qualify then this probably won’t, either, and I can’t say I’ll miss it all that much. Still pleasant enough when it comes up on the shuffle.

26 – Bulgaria – “Growing Up Is Getting Old” by Victoria: I admit it, this ranks as high as it does because of anime and that’s basically it. If I was still doing plain category sortings this would have landed straight in “Biased”. My favorite anime is about a bunch of 20-somethings learning that growing up sucks and trying as hard as possible to avoid it, and I first heard this song around the same time that I watched that show’s relatively melancholy season finale, so it ended up sticking with me on that note. Don’t have much to say about it musically, just that it makes me picture sextuplets crying and that’s one of my hobbies, so I’ll grant it an “Okay”. (It may also worth noting that if I heard this song before 2019, in the state my life was in before then it would have probably left me too inconsolable to listen to it more than once. Growing up is growing old indeed!

…it’s also worth noting that after I wrote this blurb, a major event happened that really enforced that growing up is getting old, so I listened to this quite a bit for a few days, among some other non-Eurovision songs. I’m probably gonna have an emotional breakdown on Thursday when this one starts. So, um, look out for that, guess. Between this one and Austria’s, I swear to god…)

25 – Italy – “Zitti e buoni” by Måneskin: I’ve been trying to get this one to rank higher, I really have, but its inability to crack the top 20 just says a lot about how damn good this year is. It sounds great, it’s very well done, and I wouldn’t hate to see it win! It’s earned its popularity. Everything holding it back in my own personal ranking is just that, personal – I do lose something when I can’t sing along or understand the lyrics, and there’s another rock song this year that I like way better. Still wishing you guys the best!

24 – Netherlands – “Birth Of A New Age” by Jeangu Macrooy: This song has a great style that I respect a lot. The message, the vibe – even if it’s not a culture I’m a part of, I feel and appreciate the hell out of it, and I really hope it does well. I don’t understand why so many people seem to think it’s not interesting! It may not be the sort of thing I’d go out of my way to listen to, but I’m glad it’s here. Catch me singing out “Yu no man broko mi” on Saturday! It’s been a while since I’ve given a shit about a host country’s entry, so I’m really glad for this one.

23 – Romania - “Amnesia” by Roxen: I’ll admit something else unpopular – I hated “Alcohol You” last year. Didn’t see what the big deal was at all. It sounded okay, I guess, but the lyrics were so pretentious and awful, and I’ve never liked the topic of “I love you even though you have no redeeming qualities whatsoever and you make me feel like shit”. But it seems like in that year, Roxen has discovered that self-love is important, actually, and it’s not worth it spending your time on some shitbag who consistently disappoints you. I appreciate it for that alone. Character growth! Plus, I feel the whole thing of “forgetting how to love yourself because everyone around you sucks”. It’s not the perfect song, not by a long shot, but it has a nice melody, and Roxen has a nice voice. It’s good to hear her using that voice on something I don’t find obnoxious.

22 – Norway – “Fallen Angel” by TIX: Okay, I’ll admit it, this is one where I watched the live video the first time I heard the song, and I was too busy laughing at his outfit to take the song seriously. Jesus Christ, dude, what the hell. Well, that’s Eurovision for you, and the more I listened to it, the more I admitted to myself that I’m a sucker for “I love you but letting you go for your own good, not sure what I ever offered you in the first place” type songs. Knowing the song is inspired by his own disability and self-loathing really twists that knife, to the point where I feel bad that I almost threw this at an anime character. I know I’m usually cold on songs that try to evoke emotions about the singer’s personal problems – Germany 2018, and this year’s Austrian entry – but this one really works for me. Only reason it’s in “Okay” tier is because of its competition – it’d rank way higher in a weaker year.

21 – France – “Voila” by Barbara Pravi: I like a good waltz, I guess! It’s a unique number, and the French language sounds nice, especially with the music. It’s yet another example of how this year is filled with so many interesting entries that I appreciate the hell out of. God bless this diverse year! (Or maybe everything just sounds so good to me because last year’s cancellation left me in withdrawal.) I expect a really nice performance for this one – this song isn’t one you can perform while just standing there, especially not during that speedup toward the end.

20 – Australia – “Technicolour” by Montaigne: That song that sounds like it’s about stripping if you don’t know that she’s saying cloaks. (Guilty as charged.) It’s catchy and fun, and I really love it when it first starts… but unfortunately, it does wear out its welcome toward the end of things. It’s a good party song, just a little repetitive. I still like it just fine, and wouldn’t mind seeing her in the final this year! Hope the performance is colorful and sparkly, it’d suit the song well

Like:

19 – Germany – “I Don’t Feel Hate” by Jendrik: I know stereotyping is bad but I was not remotely surprised to find out that Jendrik is gay. This song is pure gay sass, and god, I love every minute of it. I fully expect it to fall on its ass – this wouldn’t make it to the final if it wasn’t an automatic qualifier – but I’ll have a grand old time watching it! The sarcastic lyrics, the cheerful little ukulele, the middle finger costume… this song is a delight. Only thing that I think really brings it down is that weird spoken bit that interrupts the song. That’s so annoying, brings me right out of it. And I did purposely rank it below songs that aren’t complete shitposts. But thank you for your existence, Jendrik, your contribution to Eurovision is much appreciated.

18 – Israel – “Set Me Free” by Eden Alene: I said it this year and I’ll say it again this year, Eden Alene is a goddess of a woman. Absolutely gorgeous. Appreciation for pretty women aside, it’s a fun party song in a sea of fun party songs! I really do like it, I like her voice, but there’s so much else this year that drowns it out – not much stands out here compared to later entries on the list. Still a good song, though.

…and I do not expect for an instant that this is going to make it to the final. …my personal ranking is based on how the song sounds, okay? Just the song. Just the song. Nothing else. Just the song. Anyway…

17 – United Kingdom – “Embers” by James Newman: What’s this? A UK entry I don’t find bland as off-white paint? That doesn’t happen often! I didn’t like his entry last year, romantic ballad bla bla bla whee, but I’m always down for a good party song. It’s a little generic and radio friendly, sure, but that doesn’t mean it’s not fun as hell to sing along with!

16 – Greece – “Last Dance” by Stefania: I really liked last year’s “Supergirl”, but figured it didn’t have too much of a chance because it struck me as being a little too teen poppy to be taken entirely seriously. It seems like Greece thought so, too, because they’ve ramped it up with this year’s entry. They’re not playing around anymore, sending a grand, powerful song that, like “Embers”, is fun as hell to belt. This is another one I’m really looking forward to the live performance for – the music video is gorgeous, and I hope they capture that same majesty on stage!

15 – Moldova – “Sugar” by Natalia Gordienko: Oh, Moldova, I’m so glad you guys decided to be completely batshit again this year. I’ve missed your nonsense so much. Dancing ice cream cones. Cake men. This video is glorious. And the song goes well with the insanity! A catchy dance tune that can only be improved with downright insane staging. Please let the dancing ice cream cones be on stage, I’m begging you

14 – Latvia – “The Moon Is Rising” by Samanta Tina: A unique electronica number backed with a powerful as hell voice. I can see where all the wubbing would get on people’s nerves, but personally, I love it! I love the voice, I love the attitude, Samanta just oozes confidence, and if she doesn’t make it to the final it’s not gonna be because she didn’t give it her goddamn all.

13 – Poland – “The Ride” by RAFAL: Why is this one so unpopular? You people don’t know how to have fun. Yeah, yeah, last year’s “Empires” was a powerful song… but I like my club nonsense much more, so I’m favoring this one. Yet another song that gets me pumped – this whole Contest is gonna leave me with a smile on my face, there’s so much good party music

12 – Azerbaijan – “Mata Hari” by Efendi: Yeah, they’re basically just sending “Cleopatra” again, but “Cleopatra” was so goddamn good that I can’t even blame them for it. This song needed a chance to compete, and I’m glad it’s getting it again this year. I like it so much that I can even forgive the line about being a “godless”. Oh, Europop, don’t you ever change.

11 – Cyprus – “El Diablo” by Elena Tsagrinou: Huh, I didn’t know Cyprus had perfected their Lady Gaga cloning technology. Neat. More seriously, the early 2010’s club vibe of this song is exactly my jam, enough that I can forgive the “I’m in love with a horrible person” theme. (I think I forgive that theme a lot more from catchy party songs than heartfelt ballads I’m actually supposed to feel for.) Hell, I even like the creepy chanting! Sure, it’s a little cheesy, but cheese is always a good ingredient when used in moderation.

(How many songs are we going to get this year, not just in Eurovision, about wanting to fuck devils? I mean, not that I don’t get it… mmm, Akuma Ichimatsu… um. Anyway.)

10 – Czech Republic – “Omaga” by Benny Cristo: And here we enter the top ten of a strong year, where I’d love to see any of them win! Benny, what is with that title. Why. Ah well, like I said earlier, I do like moderate amounts of cheese, and this song is more than fun enough to have earned itself a ridiculous lyric or two. It’s unique, I’ll give it that! The song is just so bouncy and fun that I manage to ignore how pushy the singer is. Another one I expect big things from the staging for.

9 – Lithuania – “Discoteque” by The Roop: Ignoring the current events that surely inspired the song, I do love the more generic “party song for introverts” read on it – if only you knew how many one-person dance parties I’d had in my own house. This song speaks to me deeply. I can’t even begin to call it a joke song; I think it’s doing exactly what it set out to do, and it’s doing it oh so well. God, those synths. Totally okay with dancing alone!

8 – Iceland – “10 Years” by Daði og Gagnamagnið: I want Daði Freyr to adopt me. I don’t even care that he’s younger than me. He’s just such an earnest, fun guy, and I love his 8-bit aesthetic! And come on, he submitted a song about how much he loves his wife! If I ever stop loving this song it’s because my heart shriveled and died. Love isn’t dead, it’s just in chiptune now. I will throw things if this doesn’t make it into the final, do you all have no souls, this is too damn cute

7 – Serbia – “Loco Loco” by Hurricane: Another group I am so excited to see return, because I adored “Hasta La Vista”. I don’t know if I like this one quite as much, but it’s still catchy as hell! I love trying to sing along with it despite not knowing a word of Serbian.

6 – Croatia – “Tick-Tock” by Albina: Another catchy-ass club song! What more can I say? I love how much of this stuff we got this year. I will absolutely be screaming “Don’t go, don’t go, don’t go!” Oh god that was cheesy… I’ve been working on this ranking for too long. Don’t know what else to say about this one, just that I adore it. Just barely missed the top 5.

Love:

5 – Malta – “Je Me Casse” by Destiny: This girl’s got pipes– not surprised to hear she won the Junior contest before! I get major “Toy” vibes from this song, and you all know just how much I adored that one. Aaa, those horns! Expecting big things from you, Destiny! We may have our winner!

4 – San Marino – “Adrenalina” by Senhit – As much of a soft spot I had for last year’s “Freaky”, I don’t think it was gonna make it into the final, unless Senhit had the blessing of the same angels who were looking out for Serhat in 2019. This one, though? San Marino tasted the final two years ago and they are never giving it up again! This song goes hard! Love the song, love the video’s aesthetic, I even kinda like Flo Rida’s rap, even though I’m still baffled by the idea that I have been regularly listening to a song featuring Flo Rida on purpose. I don’t know what he’s doing here but I’m glad he is. Please, please make it to the final, San Marino! You clearly want the hell out of it this year! Favorite club song in a year of amazing club songs.

3 – Finland – “Dark Side” by Blind Channel: After spending about five seconds disappointed that Finland wouldn’t be sending Pandora this year, I gave this song a shot, and was not expecting what it gave me. I feel like an angsty middle schooler again, and it is bliss. This is everything Hatari wanted to be, but unlike Hatari who just confused me, I absolutely love the hell out of this song. …some of those lyrics, though. “27 Club, headshot, we don’t wanna grow up”? Yikes. But as dark and questionable as it might be, I can’t help but get pumped when I hear it. Definitely my favorite rock song of the year – sorry, Italy!

2 – Denmark – “Øve os på hinanden” by Fyr & Flamme: I love you, 1983. I don’t care how dated it is when my entire soul consists of a disco ball. The song’s so damn cute! This is the one member of my top 5 that I’m most terrified of losing – I know it’s not popular, with everyone calling it dated, but my top 5 always has that dated song that I love the hell out of becauseit sounds so classic. The translated lyrics are adorable, too. Even if you guys flame out in the semi, you’ll live on in the disco in my heart.

Favorite:

1 – Ukraine – “Shum” by Go_A: Holy fucking shit. There’s something about the blending of traditional and electronic that gets me hyped – see KEiiNO – and this one does not disappoint. The last minute of this is the best minute of Eurovision this year, and god, the buildup! I don’t even know Ukrainian but I am trying my damnedest to get the lyrics down, phonetically, at least. You know that “dancing goths” meme video? That’s me whenever this song comes on, especially during that speed up. Love the hell out of it. Could Ukraine be on its way to another victory already? I sure hope so, because this song fucking rules. Definitely checking out the rest of the discography someday, if all of their songs are in this folktronica style then they’ve gotta be a treat to listen to. Go Ukraine!

Ideal Qualifiers (favorite of each semi in bold):

Semi 1

Australia

Azerbaijan

Croatia

Cyprus

Israel

Lithuania

Malta

Norway

Romania

Ukraine Semi 2:

Czech Republic

Denmark

Finland

Greece

Iceland

Latvia

Moldova

Poland

San Marino

Serbia

This is definitely not what's going to happen - there is no universe where Switzerland and Sweden don't make it - but it'll be interesting to compare the reality to my hopes.

Let's go, Eurovision 2021

#irk blubbers about nothing #irk talks eurovision 2021

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phantoms-lair · 4 years

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The Two Werewolves of Scooby Doo Part 4

Okay, this was supposed to be the last chapter, but it ended up being a lot longer than anticipates, so I split it into two.The good news is I’m already halfway through chapter 5

Previous Part

"I know what you're about to ask me, and no, I've made no progress."

"Like, we're running out of time." Shaggy said, running his hand through his hair. "The new moon's the night after next." Vincent was right in that without being around a human to lash out at, Daphne's evenings were much better than the first. Wolf Daphne was perfectly content to run around the the area outside Vincent's home chasing lightning bugs, or begging Shaggy for things like ear or chin scritches.

But better didn't necessarily mean good. The complete loss of control weighed on Daphne, highlighted even more by the fact that she could remember what happened when her body was outside her control. In the couple hours of sleep she would grab after sunrise, she was plagued by nightmares of what could go wrong. As such, she'd given Vincent a timeframe for the cure. They had through the New Moon, when no transformation would occur, and the day after. But before sunset on that day, if no progress had been made, Shaggy would bite her, thus turning her into a 'true' werewolf.

And Shaggy didn't want that. He really didn't want that. But Daphne was suffering and he didn't want that either! He respected that this was her decision, and he would honor it, but that didn't stop him from hoping against hope they'd find something beforehand.

But so far everything had been a dud. Vincent had tried various remedies, even a de-aging potion to see if Flim Flam's young age was the reason the curse hadn't affected him. It hadn't worked, but Daphne had made an adorable werewolf cub.

"I am aware of the date Shaggy, but this is largely a process of trial and error. We don't even know which of the thirteen cursed them, each of which could require a different methodology." Vincent sighed. He understood Shaggy's concern, as well as his desire to help his friend, but there was only so much he could do.

"I still think it has something to do with that drink." Scrappy said, crossing his arms.

"I fail to see how, but it's worth a shot, I suppose." Vincent let out a tired sigh. "I don't have any other ideas at the moment. Of course it will take some time to break down the brew into all possible magical components."

"There's a much quicker way, Vince." Flim Flam offered. "I can just drink some." The assembled group looked at him. "What, I'm the only 'normal' human here who could be affected. If it does nothing, we've ruled it out. If I turn into a werewolf too, Daphne can actually stay inside for the night, since there's no one here for her to attack. I'm actually safer that way." He shrugged.

Vincent fixed him with a look. "Flim Flam, you understand while identifying the drink as the culprit would narrow things down immensely, it could still be quite a while before I figure out the counter."

"I know, but it speeds things up, and I'd actually be in less danger. Besides," Flim Flam shuffled his feet. "You guys have been pretty good to me, and I want to help." "You know you don't have to do this," Daphne said entering the room. Her clothes and hair were flawless as always, but her makeup couldn't quite hide the bags under her eyes.

Shaggy bowed his head. "I wish I could-"

"Shaggy, you're the only reason this situation isn't 100% worse, so don't feel guilty you can't be the guinea pig." Daphne chided. "And I'm serious, Flim Flam, you don't have to do this."

"Well, I choose to." Flim Flam said stubbornly. "It's worth a shot."

"A very against the odds shot, which is the only reason I'm agreeing to this." Vincent summoned a tankard from...somewhere...that had SHaggy reeling back with a look of disgust. "However, first I want you to swallow this." He handed Flim Flam a small object.

"It looks like a fossilized hairball." Flim Flam said critically.

"It's called a bezoar. It will nullify any poison you ingest." Vincent explained.

"Won't that mess with the curse?" Scrappy asked.

"Not at all. A curse is not poison. Wolfsbane, however, is an extremely deadly one, used as a common form of execution in ancient Greece. The wolfsbane in this has been detoxified as much at it can be, but it's barely safe for an adult. It is absolutely not safe for a child without precautions like this."

"If it's so deadly, why put it in a drink? Much less the town specialty?" Daphne wondered.

"Hope makes you do stupid things." Shaggy answered, a touch bitterly.

"Rope?" Scooby asked.

"I suppose I shouldn't be surprised you figured it out." Vincent sighed. "The drink was originally an attempt to self medicate. They hoped that such a powerful werewolf repellent such as wolfsbane would ward off the curse. It didn't, but without anything else they could do, they kept at it. That's why they drink it right before sunset."

"So they almost poison themselves every night just trying to weaken the curse? I feel kind of bad for them." Daphne said.

"I don't."

"Shaggy!"

"What? I don't." Shaggy crossed his arms. "Like, they were actively trying to keep us from leaving Daph. Which means either they were planning on killing us in their werewolf forms, or trying to get us cursed too. And either way, I'm not feeling sorry for them. We, like, didn't have a choice in this. They made that choice, and they did it during the day. They knew what they were doing."

"I...I never thought of it that way. I just thought of them as victims of the curse like me...which is exactly what they wanted us to think." Daphne slammed her fist into the castle's stone wall. "If Scrappy and Flim Flam were right, and it was the drink they served us that carried the curse, then they purposefully tried to curse us so we'd feel sorry or at least kinship with them. And since children can't safely tolerate the drink, they were writing Flim Flam off as dead either way."

Daphne growled. It wasn't a wolfish one, but it made her rage perfectly clear. "Oooo I wish I could turn into a monster right now and rip them to shreds."

"I can do that." Shaggy said, though he looked deeply uncomfortably. "I mean they hurt you and..."

Daphne took a deep breath, trying to release her anger. "You could never live with yourself if you did that and I could never live with myself for asking you. I'm just...just a whole lot of bad feelings right now. Thank god tonight's the last time."

"Yeah," Shaggy said less than enthusiastically.

"And possibly first time. Bottoms up." Flim Flam swallowed the bezoar, then took a large sip of the drink. "Hey not bad."

"That's because you're not a werewolf." Shaggy said, wrinkling his nose. He really couldn't understand how people could tolerate that smell, much less like it.

"I suggest we all get some rest this afternoon. Between a potential second werewolf and Daphne's cursed self being let loose around my house, I suspect tonight we will all need it." After so many all nighters studying the curse, Vincent knew he certainly did.

"Inside? But what if the drink doesn't turn Flim Flam?' Daphne fretted.

"Between Shaggy, Scooby, Scrappy, and myself we are more than sufficient to make sure no harm comes to him." Vincent reassured her. "I am far more concerned for my upholstery's safety than his."

"Last time." Daphne said as she watched the sky turn pink from her window. "Shaggy, really, thank you for everything. Not just keeping me company and corralling me during the night. but being willing to...I know you don't want to."

"I really don't." Shaggy admitted. "But your curse is so much worse than mine. I don't want you to go through this anymore either."

Daphne sighed. "Are you ever going to tell me what happened?"

"Maybe." Shaggy answered. "Are you going to tell Velma and Fred about this?"

"I don't know. Not yet. I don't like keeping secrets from them, and I'm not opposed to them knowing. But right now I just don't want to talk about it. It feels too raw."

"Maybe one day," Shaggy said for both of them.

"One day," Daphne agreed as the last rays of the sun, and thus her human mind, vanished in the light of the thinnest sliver of moon.

It was easy to tell when Daphne stopped being herself. Her whole demeanor changed, relaxing. She nudged his shoulder with her muzzle, tail wagging.

“Like, at least someone’s having a good time.” he commented, rubbing her neck. He didn’t know if the change was tiring. The first night he wouldn’t have thought so, as she’d tried to attack Flim Flam almost immediately. But every night since had started with the wolf being very docile and wanting affection. Later she would want to explore or run around, but the start of the night was always quiet.

At least it was until a walkie talkie crackled to life. "I told you guys!" Scrappy's voice came from the other side. "I told you wolfsbane turns people into werewolves!"

Shaggy grabbed for his radio. "Really? Then Flim Flam is...?"

A small yip came from over the device, which made wolf Daphne's ears perk. She looked at Shaggy expectantly.

"You want to see another werewolf huh?" Her tail wagged harder. "Well, I guess we can go." Shaggy's feelings were decidedly mixed. They were one step closer to an answer, but it meant Flim Flam was cursed too. The only small mercy was he would never have to deal with the memory of needing to attack humans, since as he pointed out himself, he had been the only normal person there.

They had reached the living room when the two youngest members of their group joined them. Like Daphne, Flim Flam seemed to have no remnant of his human personality. He and Daphne Wolf stared at each other for a moment, before both jumped on the couch,making happy noises. Daphne Wolf began licking the top of his head, like one packmate grooming another.

"Dawww" Scooby cooed at the sight.

"Like, Daphne's not going to be happy if she gets hairballs." Shaggy comment, feeling a bit torn. The two were so happy, it was obvious the curse werewolves craved each others company, and he'd been keeping Daphne away from the others. But at the same time he didn't trust them, even without their minds. These were the people who had hurt Daphne, and he wouldn't give them a chance to get their claws into her.

"I truly did not think this would work." Vincent said, entering the room. "I must wonder if one of the ingredients was the original vector, or merely an additional one. Either way it should-" He was cut off by twin growls as Daphne and Flim Flam both rose from the couch, fur standing on end and teeth bared.

"Guys NO!" Shaggy moved between them and their intended target, but Vincent had his own ideas, lifting the amulet around his neck ever so slightly. Shaggy was no stranger to fear, it was the emotion he was most familiar with, after all. But he'd never felt anything like this. This cold clutching at his heart, his muscles tensing so much it hurt. Fear so intense he felt he'd almost come around the other side to nothing.

Then it broke, and the sudden absence of the fear was enough to push all three werewolves into bolting. "A bit too much?" Vincent asked the gobsmacked Scooby and Scrappy.

"Rust a reeny rit." Scooby replied, holding his paws barely apart.

"Raggy! Raggy!"

Scooby's voice broke through the panic that was driving him, and Shaggy shook himself out of it. Vincent had told him, told him, about the whole aura thing, but he hadn't been able to think when he was faced with it. "That was terrifying, man. Like, Mr. Van Ghoul was not kidding about being terrifying to werewolves." Werewolves, oh no. "Did you see where Daphne and Flim Flam went?"

"Ruh-Ra," Scooby shook his head. "Rappy rent rafter Rim Ram."

"I guess that leaves us to find-" There was a sudden sound of shattering glass. "Daphne just went outside, didn't she?"

"Rep." Scooby confirmed.

Shaggy sighed, "Like I just hope she went through a bottom floor window."

She had. And left a clear trail of upturned soil and broken twigs and branches in her path is her rush to escape. With such an easy trail to follow, it didn't take overly long to find her, curled in a ball at the base of a great rock, shacking.

Shaggy and Scooby both curled around her her, making reassuring sounds until the shaking stopped. "You good to go back Daph?" Shaggy asked in a gentle tone.

Daphne's ears went back, looking scared at even the idea of returning to the castle. "Hey, don't worry. You know Vincent would never hurt us. And besides, Flim Flam and Scrappy's still back there."

Daphne let out a small, whine, clearly not happy, but still got up.

"Like, I know this won't make you feel better now, but believe me. Human you is going to find me coaxing you into a spooky place hilarious tomorrow." Shaggy assured her as they made their way back.

"You found her!" Scrappy waved at them from the broken window. "Did you find Flim Flam?"

"Not yet, I figured I should guard the window so he couldn't run out." Scrappy explained.

"Good thinking." Shaggy agreed. "I guess we check his room first?" Sure enough, the door was slightly ajar. With a sigh of relief Shaggy opened it, only to freeze at what he saw inside. “Zoinks!” Quickly he tried to shut the door, but he wasn't fast enough as Daphne slipped in the room.

Flim Flam fled as fast as his legs could carry him. When he’d first seen the figure something deep inside him had taken over, driven him to attack. But that was swiftly overridden with the sense of danger and evil that suddenly radiated from it.

All he could do was was flee and in his rush he’d lost track of the others. So he headed towards the only place that was familiar, the room he’d woken up in. He hadn’t slowed down in time though, and as he burst through the door he collided with a dressers, causing something inside to wobble and then fall off, shattering on the ground.

Flim Flam dove under the bed and huddled there, ears poked for any sounds, from his friends to the scary man. But there was nothing. There was, however, a smell. It smelled tasty and was coming from whatever had spilled on the floor.

As scared as he was, he was also curious. Slowly he inched his way out from under the bed, ready to duck back under at moment’s notice. He tentatively took a lick and shuddered as a strange sensation flooded through him. His thoughts became sharper, clearer, more...

More human! He was thinking like a human! Flim Flam did a double take between his very human hands and clearly still nighttime sky. He glanced down at the broken bottle on the floor and couldn’t help the wide grin that spread across his face.

For years he’d been written off as a pint-sized conman, but here was proof his Lotsa Luck Joy Juice was the real deal. It had broken a werewolf curse set by one of the thirteen evilest spirit’s in existence!

“Zoinks!”

Shaggy’s sudden cry caught Flim Flam by surprise and his head shot up just in time to see the werewolf version of Daphne barrel past Shaggy and into the room.

Flim Flam felt his heart jump into his throat. He’d been kept far away from Daphne in her transformed state. She’d apologized profusely and he hadn’t held it against her. But the memory of her trying to attack him as still there and now those teeth were an inch from his face.

Shaggy was there in an instant, hand on Daphne’s shoulder to hold her back. But Daphne wasn't trying to pull forward to attack, like she had two weeks ago. Nor was she happy like earlier this evening. Instead she just cocked her head to the side before looking at Shaggy.

Shaggy shrugged at her. "Like, I think she's confused 'cause you were a werewolf earlier and now you're not. Actually, I am too."

"I found the cure. Flim Flam's Lotsa Luck Joy Juice!" Flim Flam said proudly. "Wolf me drank some that spilled from the broken bottle."

"That's great!" Shaggy exclaimed. "Is there more? Like without the chance of broken glass."

"Well no," Flim Flam admitted. "I kept that for posterity, the rest went into the Flying Mystery Machine's gas tank." An odd name for a plane, but who was he to argue. "But I can make more!"

“Sounds great,” Shaggy sat, more collapsed,on the bed. It was as if the knowledge that there was an end in sight released even more tension than he’d known he had. His limbs felt noodlely but honestly he felt better than he had in two weeks. “How long does it take?” “A few days at most. Might take less if Vince has everything I need to make it.” Flim Flam said offhand.

Shaggy felt his heart sink. They only had a little more than a day. Daphne had made it clear this was her last night transformed by the curse. “What can I do to help?” Flim Flam thought for a moment. “Nothing. Sorry Shaggy, Part of the process involves silver, and you shouldn’t be near that.” Shaggy wanted to argue that scars from silver burns would be worth it to save Daphne, but Scooby was giving him a look that said he knew what Shaggy was thinking, and he should stop thinking it right now.

“Re ran relp,” Scooby indicated himself and Scrappy.

“Yeah, okay.” Flim Flam nodded. “That shouldn’t be a problem.”

“And Vincent too!” Scrappy added.

Daphne let out a slight yelp, then a whine, looking at Shaggy pleadingly.

“It’s okay, Vincent won’t hurt them,” Shaggy tried to reassure her. "I know he felt really scary, but we've been living with him for weeks, remember."

Flim Flam shuddered. "I know he told us about that, but experiencing it was a whole 'nother thing."

"Like tell me about it," Shaggy suppressed a shudder himself . "I should probably keep Daph away from him till morning. She was really spooked."

"Don't blame her." Flim Flam knew it would be a while before he forgot that feeling. "See you on the flip side." He carefully walked past where he and Daphne were before taking off.

"Re rot rhis," Scooby promised. "Rit's ronna re rokay."

"It's gonna be okay," Shaggy repeated, still not sure he completely believed it, even though he wanted to. Hope was a dangerous luxury.

#The Two Werewolves of Scooby Doo #Scooby Doo #There are times in Scooby Doo when they go alls well that ends well and the bad guy faces no consequences I feel they really should have #To All The Ghouls I Loved Before was one of those times #Also Shaggy is a LOT less tolerant of people who would turn others into werewolves

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rokutouxei · 3 years

Text

the wonder that’s keeping the stars apart

ikemen vampire: temptation through the dark theo van gogh / mc | T | [ ao3 link in bio ]

The challenge seemed pretty simple: to try to befriend the university bookshop’s most sour employee, Theo van Gogh. As a literature major with a boatload of book recommendations on her back, it ought to be a simple task indeed. But as she uncovers what lies between Theo’s pages, the more she finds it harder to become closer to him without having to put the feeling directly into words. What can she learn from Theo about what it means to stay—and how can she teach Theo about what it means to let go? | written for ikevamp big bang 2020!

[ masterpost for all chapters ]

CHAPTER 9 OF 22

You will let my tender hook Catch the folded darkness inside you, let me occupy The dented place at the base of your throat. - "One Life", Carlomar Arcangel Daoana

She wakes up late.

Comically late.

No hangover, thank god—but it’s 11am and she’s dressed in lent pajamas in a bed that isn’t her own. She shoots up to sitting position in a second, and standing in a minute, trudging out the room to the bathroom at the end of the hall.

By the time she’s up and out of the room, a little more awake, Dazai and Arthur have already long gone, the only remnants of their presence the bit of glitter that they had wiped onto the sofa they nestled in.

And text messages.

She squints when she reads it, not because she had a hard time reading what it said, but—because she couldn’t believe what it said.

A series of text messages from Dazai:

[ 7:23 | Dazai ] ur still asleep but ur friend kinda hot

[ 7:24 | Dazai ] ofc I woke up first but his eyelashes tho???

[ 8:32 | Dazai ] pls tell me he’s not a douche bc im rly gonna jump him

[ 9:03 | Dazai ] mgonna jump him

[ 10:19 | Dazai ] abt to find out if he’s got the magnum sized dong u promised

Oh, god, what has she done.

With a groan, she heads down the hallway, phone securely in the pocket of the sweatpants, to see Vincent and Theo preparing a meal in the kitchen; Theo preparing some sort of fillet (fish? Chicken?) and Vincent frying some onions and garlic on the stove, filling the kitchen with a nice aroma.

“Good morning,” she says softly, as she shuffles onto one of the dining table chairs.

“Thought you died,” Theo says with a snort; but once he turns around to face her, all derision goes away in his face and is replaced by a quiet surprise.

Vincent beams as he turns to get the fillets from Theo. (It’s chicken.) “Good morning. Did you sleep well? No headache?”

She shakes her head. “Nope, I’m good. Thanks for letting me sleep here last night and for the clothes.”

“Of course, no problem at all,” Vincent answers, turning back to the pan. The chicken makes a sizzle as it meets the oil.

Theo is still staring at her with an odd look on his face.

“Earth to Theo?” she calls out, waving her hand in front of her. “Something wrong?”

“Broer. Why did you lend her my clothes.”

Oh.

“You know how most my shirts are, paint-stained in all the weird places.”

She feels the cling of the cotton around her skin so differently, so suddenly. Oh.

“She wouldn’t have minded, she was drunk.”

That’s correct, but—

Vincent smiles at Theo, the kind of smile one makes when they can see through someone; she’s filled with a kind of relief at knowing that Vincent can do that to Theo. Maybe the man isn’t an impenetrable a character after all. “No need to be shy, Theo.”

“I am not,” he insists, finally tearing his gaze away from her and heading to the sink to wash the used chopping board and the knife. “I just don’t want her wearing my stuff.”

She smirks. He is shy. True, she didn’t get the opportunity to think about what she was putting on last night because she was so tired and knocked out by the alcohol, but…if that was the price she had to pay to see this side of Theo she doesn’t have the opportunity to witness often, then it was worth it. Oh, the ever put-together Theo, brought to his knees by only one person in the world, the one he trusts the most: his brother. “Is it because your personality is contagious?” she teases, “wouldn’t want to catch that.”

He answers her with a glare. “Reverse. It’s your stupidity that’s contagious.”

“Oh, we’re pretty much equally as stupid, Theo. No need to worry.”

“We are not,” he says, and then Vincent elbows him carefully.

“You really should be a little gentler to your friends,” Vincent comments, as he turns the fillet onto its other side.

Theo grumbles something unintelligible and it makes her laugh. Sitting in the kitchen, watching the two brothers side by side with their back to her as they prepare—she checks the clock—lunch for the three of them, she hums, content. She’s lived alone for all her life here in the campus, and it was one she looked forward to after living in a house crammed with people for most of her life. But sitting here, watching them share the chores and maybe have a little banter with each other—makes her reconsider that maybe, maybe settling down in even the worst of places isn’t that horrible when you’re in good company.

Theo opens the plate cupboard and hands her a set of it with some cutlery. “Set the table at least, freeloader?” He says, though his voice lacks all the venom his words otherwise had.

Okay, she’ll have to reconsider if Theo counts as “good company.”

Theo barely survives lunch with her and his brother because of how much he gets teased by the two. He might argue that this is worse than being stuck with her and Arthur because since it is Vincent, he does not get the leeway to have a comeback, only able to grumble in displeasure at being see-through. They stuff their bellies not only with Vincent’s famed chicken with herbs but also with a hefty amount of laughter.

She slides back (slightly disgusted) into her costume to walk back home in, confident that many other students will be trudging along the streets suffering the same fate. (“Not everyone wakes up as late as you.” “There’s bound to be at least one, right?”) When she comes out of the bathroom, there’s a book on top of his neatly-folded clothes.

They speak at the same time.

“I could wash these first before giving it back if you—” “You had that with you all this time?”

Silence.

She breaks it with a laugh. “Yeah, it was a Saturday. I didn’t want to break the schedule.”

“You get so thorough about the weirdest things,” he comments, but he takes the bundle in her arms anyway. “It’s alright, I’ll have them. Let me get you a book, too.”

She follows Theo into the studio, where he crouches in front of some bookshelves. Vincent peeps from behind his easel. “You should walk her home,” he offers, as Theo pulls a few books out of the shelf.

“No, it’s alright, I’ll be fine! I’m not drunk or dizzy. The walk will help clear my head.”

“It’s twenty minutes out,” Theo points out, getting up.

“Just promise that if you find me asleep on the street you’ll pick me up?”

Handing Murakami’s Dance, Dance, Dance to her, Theo grins. “I can’t promise that.”

“Oh, Theo, you know you will.”

Even when she is long out of his sight, the smile on his face does not go away. Even as the day shifts into mundanity. Even as he’s carting a bagful of clothes to the launderette. Even as he picks up some groceries on the way home. Even as he prepares dinner for Vincent, who is a few hours deep into painting.

Maybe for a moment, it goes away, but—

He thinks of her and the smile comes back full force.

She spends the rest of Sunday recovering and hiding away in her room after the very socially draining party, but by Monday she’s hopped onto her bike and headed for the literature club’s little gazebo. She’s left a message for Dazai, asking for company. Sure, they spent quite a lot of time together in the past week, after having jumped through thrift stores and boutiques for the perfect Night Circus costume (and yes, she made him read the book beforehand too, for good measure) but Saturday was quite a day. She’s brought a couple of cookies for sharing with him, sitting at their usual spot, looking out at the quadrangle next to it.

“Toshiko-san! Sorry we kept you waiting!”

The plural takes her off guard, and she turns to find that Dazai has brought a rather distracted-looking Isaac along, his hands in the pockets of his slacks. Isaac is always dressed so well—she supposes it’s part of the uniform or something of being seen as a respectable professor—but she sure does want to see him dress down once. T-shirt, shorts, that kind—Isaac seems to take everything too seriously.

The pleasant feeling of seeing a friend she hasn’t met up with in a long time is quickly replaced by confusion, as the science complex is nowhere near the Arts building. “Nice to see you here, Isaac,” she says, but also with the lilt of a question.

Dazai answers said question. “He’s here because he has nothing better to do, so I asked him to come.”

Isaac makes a face that’s both resignation and panic. “He passed by my office.” –and dragged me out because he wouldn’t take no for an answer, she finishes in her head.

“I see,” she answers, even though that’s not really an explanation in itself.

She knows Isaac through Dazai, and Dazai knows Isaac through a very peculiar class: Occultism 101.

A class team-taught by three major colleges in the university—the College of Arts, the College of Science, and the College of Social Sciences—Occultism 101 is one of the more controversial classes on campus because of its nature. It goes through a long history of the evolution and persistence of supernatural beliefs and practices among nations in the world, in that nice gray area between religion and science. There are only two kinds of students in Occultism 101: those who believe and who are genuinely interested, and those who do not believe and would like to spend an entire semester saying “bah! That’s not true!” to themselves all the time.

Occultism 101 is typically taught by professors from the College of Social Sciences and College of Arts with backgrounds in religious practices and other mystical behavior (whether in history or art), and then occasionally, in the middle of the semester, guest lecturers from the College of Science come in to give lectures on how these “supernatural events” may be explainable through scientific means. Say, how the piping system in a building can cause haunted “cold spots”, or how floating dust particles can come up in a photograph as “orbs”, or the likes.

And she doesn’t want to be very stereotypical about it, but a lot of people in the College of Science are pretty… well, square, and so no one really wants to teach Occultism 101, even if it’s only a few meetings in a semester. This is how this job ends up to unwilling, no-choice Ph.D. students such as Isaac.

It was just his luck that Dazai was in the section he taught.

“So, Osamu, care to tell us about your little date last Sunday?” she asks, as the other two have taken their seats across her. Dazai swoons a little at the mention of Sunday. Isaac looks at him with unsureness.

(Isaac has had the miserable experience of being the victim of Dazai’s flirtation at some point in time. One can see how that has instead simmer into a rather tentative friendship. All is well.)

Dazai rests his elbows on the table and places his chin on the palms of his hands. “He’s so dreamy.”

“No he isn’t,” she swiftly replies, without thought.

But Dazai pretends not to have heard it. “He’s not looking for a serious relationship though,” he adds. “Not that I am, either.”

“You aren’t?”

“No, sweetie,” Dazai explains. “But he’s my type and I’m his type and we couldn’t just leave it at that so I have his number now, and a little… arrangement.”

The word hangs in between them, swaying.

Oh no, that’s not any good. “What arrangement.”

“You don’t need to sound so concerned.”

“This is Arthur we’re talking about,” she insists, and the name makes Isaac flinch a little.

“Doyle, the med student?” Isaac asks, and she turns to him, blinking.

“You know him?” Remembering Arthur during the party, her mouth falls into a small o. “He knows you too, doesn’t he?”

Isaac scoffs. “Who in this university doesn’t?” Arthur’s pretty well-known to be a flirt. Something like having a checklist of bedding at least one person in every department—a rumor that would have been a little more shameful if the rumors also didn’t say how he was so good at it.

She nods. “Well, fair enough.”

“No, no, he’s an absolute sweetheart to me, so it’s definitely a you problem,” Dazai insists. “It’s just a friendship with benefits, yanno?” He emphasizes every of the following syllables with his tone and his hands: “Nice, big, hefty benefits.”

And even Isaac, who usually refrains from commenting no matter how much he has to say, has to quip with “Terrible choice, really.”

And she has to agree. “I respect you, but not your taste, Osamu.”

Dazai grins. “Understandable.” He picks up one of the sandwiches she’s prepared. “You make it sound like I’m the only one making bad decisions though.”

“Excuse me?”

He turns to Isaac. “You should have gone to the Halloween party. She brought her little boy toy.”

She scoffs. “He is not my boy toy.”

“You sure do have him around your finger though, getting in matching costumes and all that,” Dazai says. “Spends Saturdates with him all the time.”

The only strategy that will work in times like these is straight-up ignoring him. “Anyway—” she begins, about to steer the conversation away when Isaac speaks up.

“It’s nice to hear you’re getting close to other people,” he says softly. Isaac has a way of speaking that makes it always seem like he’s spent so much time thinking about what he said before he actually said it; so sometimes it’s hard to gauge if he’s saying it casually or entirely seriously.

So she blinks. “You make it seem like I have no friends, Isaac.”

“I-It’s not that!” he suddenly blurts. Ah, there. There’s the usual Isaac. “You’ve spent so much time focusing on your work lately, it’s nice to know you’re relaxing with other people sometimes.”

And he doesn’t say it, but she sure does hear it: the you haven’t been to the astronomy club in a while and it’s made me worried about you.

She doesn’t go religiously, but she used to attend fairly often to hang out with the other members and just look up at the stars. Isaac tries to organize at least two sessions in a month, one to look at the moon, and another to point at the stars. She hasn’t been able to catch them in a bit.

But then, slowly, as the image of the view outside the astronomy club’s hangout is refreshed in her mind, the way the physics building rooftop is just high enough to provide a good view of the rest of the campus below, the city downtown, just at the right place on campus that at night, the rest of the sprawling town’s streetlights trickle out like golden LED veins through the threes—an idea begins to implant itself into her head.

Taking root immediately.

She likes to go up here to think. She really shouldn’t have had permission to go up there on her own, in her free time, since they have rules about club hours and the likes, but Isaac is a close friend and gave her a spare key, so she can come and go as she pleases. And sure, the Grove is a nice, quiet place for book clubs and maybe doing homework if one doesn’t need an electric socket, but up here in the astronomy club’s “the Rooftop”, she feels like she can float away into the vast ocean of her thoughts and get lost in them for a moment.

She feels small up there. And that’s a good feeling.

She won’t tell it to Isaac’s face but it’s one of the primary reasons why she applied for the astronomy club in the first place. The stars are great no matter how dumb she is at physics, but the view—it’s really something else.

What does the world look like from the point of view of a star? How tiny are human lives in the vast expanse of the universe? How long have these stars been out there, how long will they stay out there, how much longer will they stay in this universe more than we will?

…This is why Theo teases her for being a literature major: all these goddamn metaphors.

And for a split second, she thinks…

Maybe it isn’t that bad to share that same quiet space with him?

…You know, to talk books.

“About that…”

Isaac and Dazai turn to her.

“Mind if I sneak in an outsider to the Roof?” she asks, facing Isaac with genuine hope in her voice.

Isaac only shrugs. “Do as you please,” he says casually, taking a cookie from her little box on the table.

And she grins like he’d just given her the light of the world. “Thank you, Isaac.”

Dazai shakes his head, because he knows she’s got no denying herself out of this one the next time.

#the wonder that’s keeping the stars apart #ikemen vampire #ikevamp theo

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ashintheairlikesnow · 4 years

Text

Mirrors (Box Boy Kauri)

The Anon with the question about Kauri seeing Vincent Shield kind of took over my pre-work writing time today! Whoops. At least I got a little work done on Danny before I got distracted...

Tagging: @maybeawhumpblog, @pepperonyscience, @haro-whumps, @18-toe-beans, @burtlederp!

CW: Some references to past violence, brief/vague references to Kauri’s treatment by Owen, but nothing specific at all

Kauri doesn’t look in mirrors.

There are a few, around the house - in the bathrooms and one in Owen’s bedroom that’s big on the wall. He can’t quite escape that one, but he never has to look directly at it, so all he catches is a hint of his black hair, the curls that escape any attempt to control them, long thin limbs and pale skin.

That’s it.

He never looks at his face.

When he brushes his teeth in the morning - when he uses the special soap for his skin and the washcloth over cheeks and mouth and jaw and nose and forehead - he doesn’t raise his eyes. Owen brushes out his hair and tells him if it’s good enough, and Kauri never ever looks at himself in the mirror.

He doesn’t like mirrors.

When he gets too close to them, his hands tingle, fingertips going sparking and numb and asleep. Look at 645898. His heart pounds, and he feels cold sweat on his neck that he can’t explain. There are too many mirrors even if there are hardly any.

It’s okay. He doesn’t need to look in mirrors, or worry about how he looks, because Owen will tell him when he looks good and when he doesn’t. Owen is very honest, and some people don’t like guys to be honest about whether or not you look good, and isn’t he so fucking lucky-

Incorrect mental aberration.

Kauri’s fingers twitch, and he can feel the little circles they pushed onto his skin that stuck, see the wires, the-... no. He forces that thought away, because the days he doesn’t remember the little circles are the better days.

Custom order, custom training. Look, I don’t make the rules. This is what’s on his paperwork.

So I’m supposed to, what? Put pictures of this guy up on every wall?

I don’t know, don’t look at me. I’ve never had a custom for this kind of shit. Look at the custom positions here. Jesus, this kid’s going to be put through the wringer. Plus making him afraid of his own face? Whoever picked this one must be a real weirdo.

Sssshhh, 645898 will hear you say that.

Who gives a fuck what he thinks? It’s not like he’s people.

They all think they’re people, until they’re done. I guess I’ll try putting the pictures up. What else do you think I could do? Negative reinforcement?

Don’t know. Videos, maybe? Movies? Give ‘im a good once-over every time this idiot’s face is on the screen. Heard the guy’s in a shit ton of movies now. Or, hell, just whisper his fucking name in the pet’s ear.

You know we don’t touch ‘em, Connor. Not allowed. Nobody but the owner. Gets ‘em all nice and needy for the richies.

Yeah, well. Maybe I was a little fuzzy on the no-touching rule. Everyone makes mistakes now and then.

Connor, you’re going to get fired if you keep messing with the merchandise.

Worth it. Besides, my success rate is excellent, they give me the ones that fight. Now, I can tell your jackass trainee’s been listening to us. Want to make him regret it?

Kauri cleans the mirrors without ever looking at them. There’s a cleaning lady who redoes all his work, but he doesn’t care. He only cleans to make time pass faster. He and Keira, working together. She bumps into his feet sometimes and it’s like having a cat or a dog, he tells himself. It’s like having something that cares about him.

He wants to look in the mirror, because he’s not supposed to look in the mirror. And Owen’s not home right now, so it’s the only chance he’ll get. He wants to he wants to he wants to.

He can’t.

It’s like remembering he used to be someone else, when he tries. And he’s not allowed to know if there was anyone else in his skin. It’s a face on the wall and a voice in his ear and the circles pressed against his temples and the pain.

His hands shake, his feet don’t feel the floor anymore. He tries to look at himself, to see the blue eyes and the black hair and the skin. Catches a glimpse and thinks, I didn’t know my eyes were shaped that way, that’s kind of pretty. I wonder if anyone else looks like me.

For just a half-second, he sees the same eyes, but longer hair. Her smiling face when he shoved his way past her down the stairs to where someone had breakfast ready for them. Out of my fucking way, jackass, she laughed at him with a backpack over her shoulders, and they tripped over each other at the landing, sprawling, and Mom yelled at them to get a move on already.

Kauri was mad, but he wasn’t really, because her name was Keira and his name was-

ERASED

There’s a sudden rush of white in his vision. He feels his knees buckle and his heart fall somewhere near the floor and a thunk and then nothing at all.

Kauri wakes up lying on the bathroom floor with Keira bumping into his arm. Kauri physical condition deteriorate. Kauri blood pressure drop. Kauri adrenaline. Kauri reassurance require? Keira provides.

“N-No,” Kauri whimpers. His head hurts - he must have hit it on the bathtub, and Owen will be pissed at him for giving himself a bruise. He’s not allowed to bruise. All the marks have to fade in less than two hours, that’s the rule. They all have to fade, and he’s not allowed to hurt himself, only Owen. “No, Keira, I’m okay, I’m okay, I just-... ow ow ow.”

He hears the door open and close, and freezes where he lays on the bathroom floor. Owen is talking on his phone, he thinks, and he sounds annoyed. “Yeah, sure, okay, I’ll have them over. Look, you don’t have to meet with her here, do you, Mom? You know Kauri is-... yeah, okay. No, I can lock him in my room or something. I know you don’t like to see them.”

Kauri’s eyebrows furrow. He’s never seen anyone in the condo but the cleaning lady, and she doesn’t talk to him. His head hurts, pounding on the right side where he must have hit the tub, and he groans, then claps a hand over his mouth.

Too late.

“Mom? I’ll call you back.” Owen’s voice is closer, and he opens stops in the open bathroom doorway, looking down at Kauri as he slides his phone into his back pocket.

Call for help

Who would you call? You signed up for this. You signed the contract, 645898.

“Hey, Kor-bore, watcha doin’ on the floor?” Owen grins at his own rhyme and Kauri smiles back at him, faintly, automatically.

“I, um, fell over,” Kauri says, pushing himself onto his knees, into Position Two.

“Yeah, looks like. Shit, you’re gonna have a goose egg, huh?” Owen isn’t angry, and Kauri is confused for a second, until Owen leans over him, a shadow over his body, and presses hard into the red spot at the right side of Kauri’s head, half-hidden by his hair.

Kauri winces away from it, but Owen clicks his tongue three times and Kauri freezes, grabbing onto his pant legs, the soft jogger sweatpants, with fingers that dig hard into the fabric until his hands ache with the grip and the effort of holding still. Owen presses this thumb harder, and harder.

“Pl-please stop, Mr. Owen,” Kauri whines and then the thumb is gone, immediately, and he breathes a sigh of relief. Owen is so nice, to listen to him, when owners don’t have to listen to their Box Boys, Owen tells him all the time.

“What’d you do to hit your head like that?” Owen crouches in front of him, and there are things Kauri lies to him about, but he feels shaky and his head hurts, even worse now.

He can’t remember how to lie.

“I, um… I tried to look in the mirror,” He whispers, and his shoulders jerk when Owen laughs.

He thinks he doesn’t like the way Owen laughs. But when his hand slides through the black curls, Kauri leans into it, closes his eyes, and feels his pounding heart start to slow, to calm. Owen is safe, when he is nice. Owen is the safest thing on earth.

He’s the only safety Kauri has.

The owner’s touch is safe, whoever they are.

“They did such a good job, didn’t they?” Owen stands, glancing at himself in the mirror - the sandy blond hair that sort of flops over his forehead, the angular shape of his face, a hint of stubble on his jaw. Kauri looks up at him wincing as the light hurts his eyes a little bit. “Shit. My mom’s coming, Kauri, and so is Karen Renford. You remember her, right?”

Kauri’s heart freezes, and blood runs like ice in his veins. “Yes, Mr. Owen.” His voice shakes, but if Owen notices, he doesn’t show it. “I remember Ms. Renford. Is she… Am I… Am I getting-”

Please, no, I don’t want to go back

Don’t make me go back there

Owen blinks and glances over his shoulder down at him, then just laughs, kindly. Kauri’s shoulders relax. “No, Kor-bore. She’s just coming to meet my mom, it’s a nice neutral place for them, I guess. I’m going to have some people over, so it’ll be like a real dinner party, too. We’ll have to lock you up for it, my mom doesn’t like the Box Boys much. Well, doesn’t like me having one anyway. Not one that looks like you.”

“Wh-what’s wrong with how I look?” He tilts his head, and Owen sighs. He doesn’t like when Kauri asks too many questions, and Kauri’s mouth snaps shut.

“Nothing’s wrong with how you look. What’s wrong is how he looks. That he still looks at all.” Owen looks in the mirror one more time, then back down at him. Then he leaves, and as Kauri pushes himself to his feet, he hears Owen laughing to himself down the hall.

“God, they did a great job on him,” Owen says, and laughs again. “Sweet boy can’t even look at himself.” Kauri picks Keira up and carries her back to the living room, her little wheels spinning.

What job did they do to me?

What did I sign up for?

#whump #box boy cinematic universe #box boy #erase to control #box boy universe #brainwashed #conditioned #conditioning #captivity #brainwashed whumpee #whumpee #intimate whumper #creepy whumper #owen grant #is so fucking creepy #and poor #kauri

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bluejaytaco · 3 years

Text

Some More DND w/ Jay

So last we left off, Mrs. Red was now back in her dragon form and about to wreck our shit. Because we are such low levels and probably couldn’t do any real damage to her as is, the DM had us all level up to 20. And this is how he explained how he did it.

Theodora: (Heard the voice of Bahamut and was granted his power for one last time)

Hennessy and Wreybar: (The powers from Theodora bounced off her to ignite the powers in them)

Koejin: (Sees her god in the far off distance and gets the taste of her favorite liquor on her tongue. He salutes her with a glass and she is infused with power)

Art: (feels a strange tingle from his Ticket Master hand. The mouth on it opens up and he’s engulfed by blackness a la Venom-style. This, apparently, really pisses off Red)

Alabaster: (still has the powers of two gods fighting over him. Pelor and Seraphine are both telling him to choose, but both grant him the abilities)

Greta: (throws both Vincent and Reita in a building behind her. They are out of the battlefield, but still pretty close to Greta)

We start the fight with a little bit of a struggle as all of us learn about our new abilities. At the rounds start, Alabaster moved away from the group to be closer to Red in order to cast a spell. But this put him away from Theodora which (because paladin) gave everyone a 5+ every time we have to save or skill check.

So, when Red went to intimidate everyone, Alabaster was the only one afraid. She swipes at him and he sees that her claws don’t look right. Like she’s decaying.

We all went on to attack her, as expected. Art got a pretty low initiative roll, so I had time to figure out what I was doing. I ended up using black tentacles to restrain her, then gave Wreybar inspiration, because a bard’s gotta buff someone.

Me: Can I also send a message to Reita?

DM: Nah cuz you already did your bonus action. But you can roll for perception. (I rolled pretty well) Okay, so, you can see Vincent and Reita inside the building through the cracked door. Vincent is holding her back and she is watching you, but she looks scared. Like a little kid.

Art: (immediately wants to get over there and to get Greta away from her.)

Red also shouts over at Greta to get off her ass and help. But, before she can even move or finish her “sorry!”, a black mass comes out and engulfs her, trapping her in a black cocoon.

Alabaster tries to cast a spell to protect us all from fire. (smart because, you know, fire dragon.) Pelor, possibly trying to kill us all, changed it to lightning protection. Again, Seraphine sighed and told Alabaster he has to choose.

We go another round where Red hits us with quite a bit of fire. Art automatically gets only half damage due to being a tiefling, but it’s pretty tough on everyone else. (Art then takes to healing everyone because I always end up being a healer at some point lol. Honestly, if I didn’t want something like this to happen, I wouldn’t have become a spellcaster.)

One of Theodora’s moves was pretty much a radiant light on Red which starts to burn her and burn at Art’s tentacles. This burn apparently looks the same. (Tells me Red and Art have quite a bit in common...)

Then Hennessy. Possibly the best move that’ll ever be done.

He freezes time, sets what is essentially a mine near Red’s foot, turns himself into an ancient white dragon, unfreezes time, and blasts Red with ice. She then moves and sets off the bomb which causes even more damage.

(Hennessy at some point made a pun about scales, because dragon. Koejin’s player then said she just stares up at him for a second and walks off the battlefield.)

Red: (looks up at Hennessy in shock) (speaks in draconic) I thought... I was the only one of our kind still alive... How? Why are you here?

Hennessy: (can speak draconic) I’m here to right the wrongs.

Red doesn’t see past it. She sees him as a full dragon and not as Hennessy.

On her next turn, Greta hatches from her cocoon and is now completely engulfed in the black. She stretches as a little top hat appears on her head and makes the horrible Task Master groan.

She then moves to Wreybar and starts to absorb part of her soul into her. This buffs her up a bit.

After seeing this, Alabaster casts Divine Intervention.

(Alabaster’s Player: (describing it as pretty much summoning God.)

Theodora’s player: This sounds pretty badass.

Me: This sounds like a decision.

Alabaster’s Player:... yeah, it is.)

Alabaster: Everyone! I have decided! (Turns around and smiles up) Hiiii!

Seraphine appears as a giant black shadow to everyone but Alabaster and Art (because they’ve met him before) The mass moves to Red, who was knocked prone by this point. Before she can attack, he grabs hold of her tongue and rips it out of her mouth. She is then overtaken by blackness herself and also gets a little top hat. She rears back and looks at everyone with a smile.

Red: Why, hello friends!

We all just kinda stare in shock as Ticket Master Red moves up and stretches.

Ticket Master Red: Ohhh, it’s so nice to be out again!

The dragon eggs we all had then start to hatch and, for a moment, imprint on each of us. But then, Ticket Master tsks and goes “Well, that just won’t do. I’ll be taking them.” All the little baby dragons’ eyes turn black and they fly over to him. They are now his minions.

Alabaster: (shouting up at Ticket Master) Now, I say, Ticket Master! You return my child to me!

(Although he didn’t really react to it, I could see Ticket Master just looking at Alabaster in amusement.)

Task Master Greta: (Sees Ticket Master and immediately tenses) ....no... you can’t be me... I’m me...

Ticket Master Red: Oh no. You see, now you get to know what I felt. (Moves over to Task Master and lifts a paw) It would seem... you are fired. (He slammed his paw down on Task Master, effectively crushing him)

The powers reflecting off of each other cause a rip in the world and a portal opens. It destroys the building that Vincent and Reita are in. For a moment, Vincent tried to keep a grip on Reita but she ultimately gets sucked in, along with Wreybar’s axe. A large black mass that is Ticket Master and Task Master also goes into the portal. (Or, at least, that’s what I gather from it..)

Hennessy, still in dragon form, dives in and circles himself around Vincent to keep him from flying to the portal, like Reita. Wreybar ran in to get her axe, and Art dove in after Reita.

Koejin gets a glimpse of her god, waving her to follow after them. Koejin turns to Theodora and says “Come on!”

When Theodora goes to follow, she is shot back. The portal closes shortly after. Hennessy and Vincent are clinging to each other. Theodora and Alabaster are looking over the field where there is a collapsed Red (Still alive, just unconscious) a most likely dead Greta, and half of the party gone. The feelng is very clear.

Now what?

Meanwhile, the portal opened up and out fall (in this order) Wreybar’s axe, Wreybar, Art, and Koejin. All of them land in a pile with no sign of Reita or the two gods who opened the portal.

Art immediately scrambles to get to his feet and search for Reita only to then notice they’re surrounded by tieflings. Two tieflings push through to see what’s happening. It’s Art’s parents.

Dad: Art? (He runs over and hugs his son) What’s going on?! What happened?!

They’re back in Universe B.

(Context: Universe B was another Acentria we were sent to in order to get Ticket Master’s sword. In this one, we are all Red’s generals and she was actually pretty stable mentally. But the world also seems to be in shambles because of something worse than Red and the city of Calor (Red’s worship grounds; comprised of tieflings) is one of the only safe places. Art’s parents, while heavily abusive in our Acentria, seem to be stable as well and pretty loving. Still, Art’s not gonna know how to handle affection from the same man that used to beat him. Also, abusive dad was torn apart by Reita when they reunited last. So, this is not the world for Reita to be wandering on her own...)

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goliath-de-senfina-sango · 4 years

Link

They say no plan survives contact with the enemy. Danny wishes they were wrong.

Dash Baxter was a conflicted person right now. He’d been feeling off practically all school year, and Valerie, Star, and Paulina were about ready to tell him to fuck off while they went and did their own awesome friend stuff. If he was pressed to think about it hard, he would say that it started when Manson had gotten the school to change the menu for a whole ass week. Now, Dash typically cooked or baked his own food anyway, so it was hardly something that sucked for him but plenty of his teammates bought lunch at school and they weren’t weird vegans like Manson! He’d gone up to her to give her a piece of his mind about all of that shit since he couldn’t exactly go yell at a teacher, and maybe he shouldn’t have yelled but he was angry and his voice got louder when he was mad.

Then Fenton got between them like Dash was gonna throw hands with Manson or something. Don’t get him wrong, he knows how dangerous a girl can be – Valerie would never have been friends with him if he didn’t respect how dangerous a girl like her could be – but his father had raised him to never lay hands on a woman. And besides, Dash wasn’t feeling violent! Or, at least, he didn’t think he had been.

Except that when Fenton got between them, Dash had been pissed. He’d gone from mad to unseeing rage and stuffed one of the dumb mudpies in Fenton’s face, and then Fenton started throwin the garbage, and then a food fight happened. Now, some people might think that his year was off because of the fire that happened after this food fight, but it was actually the start of it. Dash Baxter only threw hands when someone was threatening his friends, not for getting between him and someone else. Not for nothing. It was the most ridiculous thing he’d ever done in his life and he felt horrible about it afterward but he couldn’t think of what had gotten into him.

Worse still was when it kept happening. Mikey and Lester were rambling kinda loudly about some stupid card game and Dash got annoyed, went over to ask them to quiet down. Then there was this weird this rush of some sorta warm slimy something down his spine that was there and gone in a flash, and he was barking at the two of them, “Shut the hell up or else I’ll make you.” He almost didn’t realize he’d said that but then Kwan elbowed him hard in the ribs and Dash winced, running a hand through his hair. “God, did I say that? Shit, sorry dudes I didn’t mean that!”

Except… he did. Dash was the one who said it, right? And he said it practically automatically, without even thinking it. Was that who he was becoming? Was he turning into his grandfather? Kwan promised him he wasn’t, Vincent said he wouldn’t let Dash turn into his gramps, but then Dash was shoving scrawnier kids into the lockers out of his way, and he’d been about to mouth off to Fenton for no freakin reason other than he was there and his freaky mad scientist parents had to be the ones to put that green fire and stuff. Then a god damn monster popped out of Fenton’s locker, attacked Foley, and Dash was out of there.

Right after the fire the school had everyone set up meetings with the counselor, Dr. Spectra, and Dash went too, just like everyone. She even gave him a journal to write his feelings down in so he could work out what he was feeling and put it in words at his own pace. He didn’t like how she was implying that he couldn’t put his feelings into words at the same speed as everyone else, but if she was then hey, she wasn’t… she wasn’t wrong . And after writing it all down in that black journal, Dash came to a bit of a conclusion: Fenton was at the center of all of this.

Danny Fenton was a bit of a freak already, his eyes glowed when he was pissy even back in 6th grade and Dash knew it had to be because his parents were mad fucking scientists and either they experimented on their kids or the radiation in their house had gotten to em. And now that freakiness was popping up and destroying the whole damn school! Hell, Dash was pretty sure one of the Fentons’ damn ghosts had stuffed a buncha frogs down his pants the other day, cause he heard laughter when he ran away. But that had nothing on how furious Dash had been when Fenton called him stupid .

Dash wasn’t fucking dumb he was a little slow but so were plenty kids! Nerds and geeks like Fenton and Mikey and Josh all thought they were so fucking smart that they could get away with calling anyone else stupid ? Dash had been planning on educating Fenton on just how smart an idea that was. Then Falluka yelled at him and Kwan… God, Kwan looked so fucking disappointed in him.

So Dash was feeling a little conflicted and a lot shitty when Danny Motherfucking Fenton walked up to him in his star trek hoodie and said, “Dash I need your help.”

“Oh yeah?” Dash snorted and sneered at the smaller boy. “Why should I help?”

“You remember the monster thing that nearly tore off Tucker’s leg?” Dash paled a bit and nodded. “Something worse is lurking in the school. Something smart. We need your help to expose it before we can get rid of it.”

“So you want me to put my ass on the line and risk getting mauled because your freaky monster is out here lookin to eat someone?” Dash scoffed and turned away. “I ain’t stupid, Fentina, no matter what you think.”

There was a growl behind him and the hairs on Dash’s neck rose up. He tensed and damn near sprinted when he remembered that Fenton was packing heat. Maybe he was stupid. But then Fenton sighed and the lights flickered. “Dash, did you notice that you’ve become more and more of a jerk lately? You used to be the awesome jock who could run faster than everyone but Valerie and you made cookies for the whole class.

“Now you insult everyone at every turn and you tried to beat me up for telling you off. Doesn’t that feel wrong to you? I know nobody wants to believe my parents about the ghosts but you saw the monster, you saw Tucker bleeding and this is real Dash. And what do ghosts do in movies?”

“You sayin I’m possessed, Fenton?” His voice was shakier than he wanted it but it made… well sense was the wrong word but it lined up. “Wouldn’t I blackout or somethin?”

“Not necessarily. Some ghosts are smart n subtle and they can make you do things, feel things enough times while you’re awake that it’s habit-forming. My friend Sydney Poindexter can show you.”

Dread hit Dash like a tidal wave and he turned to bolt. Then he was cold and he relaxed all over, went deathly calm. He was submerged in the utmost chill vibes. Then he was utterly terrified, so much so he almost needed a change of pants. But then he was over the moon happy, frothing at the mouth pissed and then calm again.

The heat slowly returned to Dash’s bones as the back of something- someone filled his vision. Then he was looking at the bucktoothed, weak chinned weird movie hologram ghost of - if Fenton was to be believed - Sydney fucking Poindexter . “You see, Dash,” Fenton said while Dash stared at Poindexter with a very real sense of dread and awareness that someone who could fly could catch him faster than he could run, “if Sydney here were to possess you from time to time and adjust your mood and behavior just a little bit each time, especially over the few months we’ve been in school, you’d start doing everything he made you do on your own. You wouldn’t notice it either, it’d feel like your own feelings.” Dash finally looked at Fenton. “Got the picture, Dash?”

“... I thought your family hunted ghosts down?” Dash’s voice was as small as he felt. Because of that, he nodded quickly when he realized he’d been asked a question. “Y-yeah, I get the picture. I’ve been. I’ve been fucking possessed. ” Icy hot fury and horror filled him up to the brim and Dash shook, fists clenching and unclenching. “I’m being haunted by someone and they’re fuckin with what kinda person I am. But who the hell would do that?”

“Dash, Sydney is going to hide so that Ishiyama doesn’t turn on the security system and shoot holes through him - and he’s a good person, Dash, trust me.” Yeah, sure he is. “And we’re gonna go to the principal and have her call a very specific person to the front office. I need you and I to be hiding right next to the door to the hall, because when he sees you, he’ll know what’s happening.” Fenton reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out- ok, he really did have bottomless pockets because no way he kept a gun and a belt in there. He handed it to Dash who held it in his hands, feeling a bit numb. “Put that on. It’ll give a nasty shock to any hostile ghost that touches you.”

“So that he can’t possess me again, right?” Fenton nodded and Dash was putting the belt on before he even knew it. It clicked into place and he felt a warm buzz rush through him. “Fuck, thanks Fenton. Danny. Do we uh. Do we go now?”

“Dash you’re heading to practice,” Fe-Danny said, and Dash sighed and slumped against a locker. “Don’t worry though, we have a plan.”

“Right. A plan.” Dash took a deep breath and nodded. He wanted to get whatever ghost asshole had been messing him up, making him into a total asshole, right the fuck then. But Fenton was the nerd with the sci-fi gun and a ghost friend here, not Dash. And he wasn’t all that keen on being near Poindexter of all dead people, so he nodded again and half turned. “...This… after this ghost dude is dealt with, I’ll… I’ll go back to normal, right?”

“That’ll take some effort on your part, Dash. Do you want to go back to normal?” Dash whirled around to tell Fenton of course he did but he was just gone.

Dash scoffed and shook his head, walking to practice. “Got his boyfriend’s dramatics.”

It was legitimately the simplest of plans. Danny had come up with it so it was very simple and easy to understand. Danny and Dash headed into Ishiyama’s office at lunch, Sydney waited just outside of Danny’s own sensing range for him - which had gotten alarmingly smaller since his resurrection - and when Dash identified Bertrand as his late grandfather, Danny, Sam and Tucker would turn him into a pile of green sludge, then go after Spectra after making the case that she was also something inhuman disguising herself to feed off of the students. Simple.

Easy to understand didn’t mean easy to execute. When Danny Fenton of all people approached Ishiyama and said something was up, with Dash Baxter backing him up, she called up Bertrand Baxter to her office. Dash looked absolutely floored by that revelation though and turned on Danny immediately. “Are you saying my fucking grandpa is the one who’s been haunting me?”

“I really hope you’re not like, attached to him or anything.”

“Oh no, he was awful but dude, you knew? ” Danny sighed and nodded. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

“He could’ve possessed you in the shower when you took off the belt and figured out how much we know.” Danny looked to Ishiyama, who had gone pale and was typing furiously at her laptop. Danny, however, headed to the door to the hallway and crouched down, reaching into his jacket. Dash was still standing in the doorway to the principal’s office, however, and so when Bertrand came in and Danny got to see his disguise for the first time - short, grey slacks with dress shoes and a red dress shirt with a suit jacket and bowtie. His hair was grey and his eyes were green and he looked like a stereotypical rich white guy, reminding Danny how wealthy Dash actually was - Bertrand stopped and stared at Dash for three seconds.

“Oh. you. Wonderful to see you again you sissy ass brute, have you been sewing anymore wittle teddybears for yourself or are your sausage fingers too big for that?” Oh, Danny hated that tone. So, he pulled out his rifle, aimed it at Bertrand’s face, and smirked.

“Wow, you looked slimy in life too, huh?” Danny got to see wide green eyes filled with shock and terror before he squeezed the trigger on his gun and Bertrand became a green splat on the wall that Danny would have to clean up later.

“You didn’t even leave a little bit of ass for me to kick?” Sam groaned as she stood up from behind the wait desk, patting the shaking attendant’s back while she got closer. In her hands was a thin metal tube with the Fenton Logo on it and a button, looking to any trained eye like a typical collapsible bo staff. “I got this whole new weapon from your mom and everything.”

“Please don’t say that in front of the principal - and hey, we’ve got more ass to kick.” Danny grinned, maybe a bit wider than humanly reasonable, and turned to Ishiyama. “I’d like to make a complaint about Bertrand’s boss.”

“You can make that complaint to her right here in person, darling. ” Danny spun to look at the source of the predatory purr that was damn near right in his ear. Red suit, red hair done up in ridiculous horns, and eyes that were slowly shifting from green to yellow to orange. “I don’t believe we’ve met yet, Mr. Fenton, but it’ll be my pleasure to give yourself and your friends a session. Free of charge.”

“Hm, I hear you, Penny, I do. Counterpoint.” Danny grinned as Sam hit the button and swung her now humming staff - the Fenton Anti Creep Stick™ - at Spectra’s face and watched as it sailed through the air where Spectra had been. The creature named Penelope had twisted back and around fluid as water to avoid the strike and spun around, kicking Sam in the gut and knocking her into the reception desk. Danny snarled and raised his rifle, managing to shoot Spectra in the shoulder.

Spectra flicked the ashes from her shoulder where her suit and ‘skin’ had been burned - though her skin looked more like it’d suffered a fading sunburn than it did a glob of ionized ectoplasmic plasma - and backhanded a shocked Danny. He raised his arms in time to block the nails that were now claws with his jacket, but these sleeves were cotton and simply tore open while he was flung back as well. “Oh Danny, honey, you should really do your research more. I’m not a ghost .” Darkness flooded the room and they - Danny, Sam, Tucker, Dash - were in what Danny assumed to be her office. He hissed and pulled out the Peeler, but that was smacked out of his hands and clattered loudly to the floor.

The others disappeared in a cloud of smoke, which the room was steadily becoming. “Come now, Danny, none of that. We’re here to talk, after all. About you, before you ask. After all, you have quite a few pressing anxieties to address, don’t you?” A clipboard appeared in her hands from the smoke all around them and she read over it while Danny reached for the bonds to his friends. The threads were… slack, dim, quieter than they should be.

“Daniel James Fenton, your sister had an appointment set up with me for you, worried unlike every other child here you weren’t getting enough attention. But of course, someone like you can never get enough attention.”

“When I get my hands on you I-”

“Ah, that testosterone you keep shooting up with really is making you more aggressive, isn’t it?” Danny snarled at her and she tutted at him, walking slowly around her desk. “Or is that the ectoplasm running through your veins causing you to act out violently on mere speculations and possibilities from what’s more than likely just a bad dream from your little friend. That’s what it does, after all. Corrupt the mind and soul. Oh, but of course you know that, don’t you?

“Your parents have all the science on ghosts at their fingertips and surely you’re smart enough to read up on it. Oh,” she covered her mouth and sucked on her teeth, looking all the world like she’d just noticed something inconsiderate coming out of her vile mouth before vanishing into the darkness. “Oh, well I suppose you could read it but it wouldn’t stick, would it? The dead can’t learn anything new, after all, you’re just an echo of who you were before.”

“Bias and prejudice aren’t science!” Danny raised his rifle again, energy racing to his eyes as he searched the shadows desperately. The light rose to his call, filled him untethered him from the Earth, but what he Saw felt wrong . Even the lies the eyes tell him are truer than what was around him and he knew that but he couldn’t see through the smoke. “Sam and Tucker have hammered that into me plenty well enough by now to cut through bullshit like that! And really, I liked your office better after that flubber wannabe and I trashed it.”

A flash of red suit came into view and Danny pulled the trigger, but Spectra was faster than the green hot plasma, and claws swatted his weapon away while slashing at his chest. Thank Tucker for leather jackets and all the protection they offered but now Danny was on his back, the ground and somehow the kind of uncomfortable chair that all schools used to punish the students for the simple crime of being there.

“Ah yes, Sam the rich goth girl who befriended you as soon as she heard that you were the son of the town crazies. The one who warned you away from coming out to your parents so they could help you become normal again - or as close as someone like You can get.” She laughed, the sound of ice spilling down a glacier into the cold dark waters below, and it echoed around him like the chill of a winter night. “Don’t you know she’s only friends with you because you’re ‘unique’? Because you’re a freak ? Don’t you know, oh so darling Danny, that as soon if you were able to get rid of all this craziness and live a peaceful life, she’d grow bored with you and leave?”

“You don’t know a damn thing about Sam, she’s not like that!” Danny rolled out of the chair and got to his feet, every movement like he was covered in sandbags and the smokey shadows every two feet away seemed to swallow up his voice, growing darker and pressing closer like a rolling tide. Light curled into a ball in his palm, and he hurled it where Spectra was, but the shadows ate his light and left barely a foot in any direction to move.

“Oh and the year you’ve known her has revealed everything to you, hm? Well, I suppose when someone murders you with peer pressure and you stick around them it’s clear how pathetically desperate for another friend you are. After all, the only other one you have is your oh so precious Tucker . Precious, pragmatic Tucker who cheered you on to go to your parents about all this, more than ok with you getting dissected for it. After all, he’s a smart boy and you can’t have fooled him as well as you fooled yourself into thinking you’re the same Danny Fenton he knew before you died.”

Spectra laughed again, claws digging into his shoulders, and anger, resentment, and fury rang through his soul, the chime of a burning bell. Light struck Spectra in the face, the Fomorian’s cackles finally cut off with a shriek of pain as she stumbled back and the choking darkness ebbed a foot away again. Danny snarled at her, spying the empty hollowness where his light had sheared off the false skin on her face, another ball of orange-silver light crackling at his fingertips.

“You keep Tucker’s name out of your filthy lying mouth! He would never hurt me!”

“He sure did take his time making you any sort of protection though, and once he got your parents to give him something that made his very touch a taser’s spark to your skin he wasn’t in any rush to modify it for your safety. Almost like he didn’t want you able to touch him, or he didn’t feel like making you something genuinely substantial as protection - after all, he finally got another one working and where did that end up? On Dash.” Danny stepped back when the shadows closed around Spectra once again, glaring into the dark of her office and kicking the desk to the wall for room. It didn’t even clatter against the wall when it vanished from his sight and he couldn’t tell if that was because there was no wall or if he was simply losing his stars forsaken mind.

“Modifying the Spector Deflector took time, you slippery little oil stain, now come out where I can punch you.”

“It hardly took time for your parents to make it, did it? And oh your parents.” She purred, voice taking on a cloyingly sweet tone and Danny shuddered at the cold against his skin, the smoke curling against his jacket and following him as he flew up to the ceiling to make some room. Now, though, it looked like he was trapped in the abyss with no floor, no ceiling, no way anywhere and if he ever stopped flying he would fall and fall and fall and there was no end to this darkness, no stars to sing to him and comfort him and it was like the times before his very first self .

“We can’t forget the source of all this anguish can we? Those darn parents of yours that put ghost hunting and science and your better sibling before you the whole of our life and even your afterlife! Oh, even you know now that normal old human authorities would clutch their pearls and steal you away to a safer place to live than with them. How many times have you had artificial ectoplasm in your food, either poisoning you or bringing it to life for you all to fend off? How many times have they barged into your room with no concern for your privacy and dragged you away to do work for them like an intern? How many times have you nearly died because dear old Dr. and Dr. Fenton couldn’t be bothered to make their home a safe place for a child?”

Danny curled up into a ball then, clutching at his head and closing his eyes. The star song that rang through his body and warmed his bones when he was a ghost grew dimmer and darker and colder with each word out of the dark and past the echoes it took a moment to realize that whining sound was coming from him. “Shut up! Shut up shut up, you don’t- so they’re a little clumsy! No one can be the best parents ever, and they love us! They love me!”

“Is that why they killed you?” That laughter felt like a slap to the face and Danny slipped into intangibility, only to fall from the air as his power left him, and he landed on the cold hard ground, alone and shaking. “Your father so careless with the most outrageously dangerous things that he left a doorway to the land of the dead plugged in even with the door to the lab still open. Your mother, so stubborn, so sure of herself, would never listen to your advice on how to simply not mutate the food that her family eats let alone listen about how ghosts actually work from you . Daddy dearest doesn’t truly care what you want to be, he knows that you’re not smart enough to become an astronaut, skilled enough to live off your art alone, and that all you really have to fall back on is the family business of ghost hunting, so why shouldn’t he talk over you about it all? Your own precious Mommy didn’t have an answer for you as to what she’d do if she knew you were a ghost.

“Oh, your parents are just so awful that they went and let you die, and you don’t want to face the truth of it? Is it because you’re afraid that you’re just like them, keeping Agatha locked up in that soup can for a whole weekend before you let her out, turning Hunter into a splatter on the ground, shooting my dearest little assistant because he’s a ghost? Or is it because you know, deep down, that what they would do as soon as they knew you’re not human is strap you down and cut you up to see what you actually are. You don’t even know, after all!”

His light was a pinprick in the distance, practically gone and with it the gossamer strings that bound him to his friends and let him know he wasn’t alone. They were gone because he was alone, wasn’t he? How could he not be, with whatever the hell he was? There wasn’t a thing out there like him, and if the dark pressing in on him like oil choked sea water swallowed him up then no one would truly understand what was lost. Would they even feel they lost something at all?

“Are you a ghost pretending to be human again? Or are you a creepy little boy with creepy little powers? A changeling left behind by a faerie through that portal, or some kind of curse? Oh, who cares what you are? Not a boy, not a ghost, not a fae or jinni or beast of this earth! Who could possibly care for a thing - a mistake like little Danny Fenton? Or should I say, C-”

Orange, fury, protect, love, wrath, HOW DARE SHE blazed down the bond between Danny and Jazz and filled him with a warmth he’d near forgotten existed. Green light cut through the darkness and engulfed Spectra, peeling away her suit and her skin and the darkness that made her up like one might an onion or potato. “ How dare you, you worthless parasite? How dare you lay a single clawed hand on my baby brother while you sit here, curled up in your precious darkness to hide from the truth that would burn away your empty, worthless lies?” Danny had never heard Jazz so angry, had never seen such fire in her aura and it kindled that spark inside of him that was growing oh so distant. “Sydney?”

Danny had never loved the color green so much before he saw peridot flames leap from Sydney’s hands and engulf the room, before sweeping in to swallow Spectra up in a pile of burning rot . They were back in Ishiyama’s office and the waiting room before it, Tucker and Sam and Dash all pale and shaking like they were freezing, but the heat of Sydney’s flames and the rage in his screams were like a camp fire in the cold woods. When Danny turned to see Jazz she was practically a chrome and green knight, wearing armor he’d never seen before and brandishing the Peeler at Spectra like a shotgun at a mugger. “I can’t believe I thought someone so pathetic they had to pick at the insecurities of literal children for a misery meal would do anything to help my brother.” She squeezed the trigger and held it until even Spectra’s shrieks of agony were nothing more than echoes in the room.

Jazz turned to Danny and before she was even fully out of the armor he had his arms wrapped around her, clinging tight to the only person that felt well and truly real at the moment. She hugged him back just as fast and relief slammed into the horror and misery and blended with the vindication until he couldn’t tell what feeling it was that blurred his vision and made his face wet with tears, but when Jazz ran a hand down his back he shook with the force of his sobs. Tucker and Sam put hands on his shoulders and the threads between them were a sickly puce and bloody red that had him dragging them both into the hug with him. They stood there, leaning on each other in the office and crying, and some part of Danny knew that they were going to be alright.

They had each other, and nothing could get to them when they were with each other, right?

20 notes · View notes

survivorbehemoth · 4 years

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Episode 15: "congrats daisy for winning season 7 of celestial: behemoth!” - Jules

congrats daisy for winning season 7 of celestial: behemoth!

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JIOFEOJIFEWOJIWOJI THAT SOUNDS SO BITTER BUT DYLAN SIR U HANDED HER THE GAME! HANDED IT TO HER! GOD! and its what she deserves!

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anyways. let it be known this was NOT MY FAULT.

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let the record show, before last night's tribal, I SAID SOMETHING WAS NOT SITTING RIGHT WITH MY SPIRIT!!!!!!!!!! AND???? what happened. look what happened.

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still practicing my slide puzzles WJIJIEFIJWJIFIFWJEJWIEEJWIF

OH MY GOD I HATE THIS GAME I HATE THIS GAME I HATE THIS GAME!!!

this final 4 is absolutely amazing and i literally love all of them so much, but that just makes things 10x worse. i think that playing my idol on daisy was a huge risk and the fact that it is now a final 2 makes things a bit more interesting. my ideal plan was to have daisy in the final 4 with me so that i wouldnt be the next target, but now that she won immunity it just didnt work out how i intended at all!!

voting out jules and szymon is purely going to come down to which one of them will sway my way and it's going to hurt to send one of them to jury no matter what, but i just feel like i came all this way and not making top 3 would just suck so badly. so yeah, this sucks. i hate that no matter what i do im going to be upsetting people and hurting feelings but... i guess that's just the game! at this point im not even sure if i can win against daisy but it seems like she will take me, it just depends on whether or not i stay loyal to her if i win FIC or if i take whoever is with me in final 3.

much to think about, BUT I JUST CANT BELIEVE I MADE IT THIS FAR !!!!

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Jules is voted out 3-1. She becomes the 8th member of our jury.

Watch the Cast Assessment take place below:

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Szymon is voted out by Daisy. He becomes the final member of our jury.

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idk thought this would be cute to include my voting log and stuff hehe <3 https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1RiA0RUWX4TRpqBTgRzLJJ3fHu2jBqZ-bCJozFd3HcRs/edit?usp=sharing

Jules: https://youtu.be/6zKeJuOJKeY

https://youtu.be/5dV_-X6Rv2U

https://youtu.be/N5tnq-4QAT8

someone (zach) asked me to rank the jurors from nicest to meanest...so here we go. ily all <3 <3

1. seamus (this will def come as a surprise, but seamus was the most levelheaded and nice one on the jury. he really never made a bitter comment even though he had every right to, especially at me/daisy/dylan and really anyone who was in after him except chips. like. he was the only person to reach out in pms after and it was immediate, he really comforted me and i really admire men who can have like good relationship w/ women that are platonic??? i know he's been like terrible in the past and i did call him on some stuff in hydravivor and ill be the FIRST to admit that i called him a crackhead on a daily basis but i think he's grown a lot!!!!!! idk. i think he's also the MOST self aware!!!! im a seamus stan, what about it?)

2. brandan (while brandan was kinda irrelevant game wise this season -- but not in our hearts -- he was very objective and a peacemaker. he had good reason to be MIA too so the fact that he got as far as he did means to me that he did form some strong social connections. and he did!!! with me, i think w/ conor, so idk, he had a role like i did in the game imo. i really liked him and he really brought a fresh perspective on things!!!)

3. szymon (he's only not ranked higher bc he's pissed off rob and he stands his ground a lot more outwardly than the first two, at least in the jury chat. also he's not had as much time as a juror. but even then, i think szymon is not a bad guy like some of the ppl make him out to be. like, idk, i think he made a mistake on a game level and he even admitted it and idk he's a legend. truly. im so glad to have met him and i think he was a really nice juror to have around while he was ACTUALLY around bc he stood up for me/daisy the way seamus did)

4. lovelis (lovelis makes some pointed comments but.....he's not dumb at all and so i don't think he's been bitter. also his pointed comments have been funny and mostly radiating the energy of the other Bitter Jurors so idk. i really like him on a personal level as well and have for a while so idk. i dont KNOW KNOW him but he's never been the type to make harsh comments without them having some merit to them. so i kinda trust his judgement even though he wasnt in the game long/an early merge boot. idk i think he's open minded enough and he's also someone who admits when he's done a Lil Too Much but he's really lovely. just competitive.)

5. chips (i dont think chips is MEAN per se, in fact, i dont think he has a mean bone in his body on a personal level. like WFIJFJIFWE I DONT KNOW HOW ELSE TO SAY IT HES SO FUCKING NICE!!!!!!! but thats why it's so funny to see him in games bc he's a lil lying, a lil backstabby and sometimes he's a lil passive aggressive. but its not undeserved. its also a pisces thing WEFJIEIEJWEFJIWEF i think what i saw in the jury house was sometimes chips going along w/ things, but i dont know, i really do not know much about chips game and ill probs ask him more afterwards?? but idk he was REALLY nice to me tho so FWIJFWEWFIFW i just dont trust him in games.......i dont know whats on his mind half of the time......)

I WANNA SAY FOR THE NEXT 3 MEN THEYRE HEAVILY INFLUENCED BY THEIR FIRE SIGN PLACEMENTS SO while i know some of them do hold resentment, its a lot easier to deal with and work with and with all 3 of them we've talked it out with/are going to talk it out. only #8 has been the MOST stubborn but idk imma let him do his thing & try not to pass too much judgement u know cause i dont need to waste my braincells on that

6. conor (knowing conor's astrological placements makes this make sense to me. but i wanna say that i think he's the type of leo to like be upfront, get it out, vent, and be fine? which is why i respect him a lot and i think we do have a mutual respect for each other. some of the comments he made were kinda rude tho and him fake liking astrology for social game was SO UGLY TO ME!!!! like i'll clown him for it for as long as i know him now cause....JOKE'S ON HIM!!!!!!! WJOEFWEOWEFO but that was kinda mean but def conor's come around and seen the light / has also reached out to me to talk. he's also admitted he left a mean speech in sbbb9 and regretted it so i think he might just shoot off at the mouth a bit. but BETTER THE DEVIL U KNOW THAN THE ONE U DONT and i appreciate the transparency NOW as opposed to the fakeness of him saying he liked astrology for social game. THIS IS A HILL I WILL DIE ON!!!!! im a fan of leos tho and he's a leo moon like me. so. i think we'll be fine. )

7. rob (i actually really REALLY like rob on a personal level but i really do not know if i could play another game with him, at least survivor, id be open to playing bb. i think ill say that the best thing about rob is that he's also apologized, was one of the first to when i confronted them all, me and him have a good personal relationship tbh!! but some of the game comments he made were p harsh and he's definitely a lil bitter but again, he's admitted it, i think while he's more up front -- i dont think i ever wanna be on his bad side in a game. EVER!!! cause we didnt even have any loyalty to each other in the game but he was SO harsh on my game like it was wild bc i dont think id ever be that harsh to ANY OF THEM ABOUT THEIR GAMES LIKE THAT???? anyways. its fine bc again he's apologized and he's owned it but PHEW he got a lil bit of a sharp tongue. really eloquent tho!!!!!!!!!!! love hearing him speak)

8. gage (last but least the southern belle himself................this man an aries and i dont know his other signs but him being an aries man is enough. they POP OFF!!!!!! a lot of times there's some truth to it, sure, but sometimes they just be popping off and FOR WHAT!!!!! i do understand gage's frustrations though but even he apologized for being too mean in HIS FUTURE FUCKING CONFESSIONALSSSSSSSS TO MEEEEEE so. idk. he's got an issue with letting things go in games and miss annajane calls him on a lot of BS and it does NOT seem to really knock him down but. gage is really wht u see is what u get, doesnt really own his faults but at least u kinda know where ur at w/ him. but he's still probs the meanest one in there but i do understand from a game level why he was so fucked up about it, especially after hearing FTC. its just that. i understand his position. BUT HE NEEDS TO TAKE A XANAX SOMETIMES I S2G GAGE I WILL GIVE YOU ONE!!! girl it is NOT that serious!!!!!!)

also forgot to mention that i admitted to gage that chris from s1 was NOT actually my brother and his jaw was on the floor <3 I GOT TO DO ONE TROLL THING RIGHT!!!!!! rip me/seamus' showmance serious!!!!!!)

okay just to add onto my last confessional -- the songs i think represent me best from this playlist game wise are: - perfect for you - punchin' bag - stayin' alive - flip - femme fatale/future nostalgia (for the girls alliance that never was....rip but also me/daisy at merge vibes) - X - the shortchange - TAKE ME AS I AM!!!!! THAT SONG IS THE ONE THATS BECOME MY SONG!!!! for this game especially!!!!! - over yet (the lyrics literally speak for themselves) - tough on myself (sorry for stealing ur song vincent) - seven devils - villains pt. 1 (i dont think i was a villain but i did stuff in this game that i usually dont and would consider villainous for myself FEWIWFEJIFEW i was in my feelings!) - passion & pain taste the same when i'm weak (me coming into the jury house and realizing they'd all snatched my wig w/ the edges and the glue.....i DID cry to this song for at least 2 hours! yes i did! WIFJWJIWEIJE) - tar ('under the stars -- pull yourself from the tar'. at the end of the day, this season was fucking stacked and there wasn't one person who was a bad player at all. at all.stars, if you will. i was under a lot of stars and from all the breakdowns in my game to me actually breaking down -- i GOTTA PULL MYSELF FROM THE TAR!!!! learn!! grow!! be better!!)

TOP 5 (not 'perfect for you'): - punchin' bag - take me as i am - over yet - tough on myself - tar

good for my whole journey imo!! the last 3!!! okay this is my ACTUAL last confessional okay thank u for everything!!! bye!!!

https://youtu.be/T5wRzWwlOp8

and here's my personal playlist for the org: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2E8KGCo1SrBgoJIQ9DycfM?si=96PWq-6ERCyisacQr3zPww

it is literally an hour and a half until the winner reveal and i really just have no idea what's going to happen. like in the back of mind i just have a feeling that im losing bc, yeah you know self-deprecation woo! but yeah idk i think i really gave this game my all and while i dont think i played it flawlessly, i still think i played a strong game i can be proud of :,)

having it be a live final tribal for my first ever like, jury questioning was just--- ugh wild but i actually think it went really well. just based on what people were saying it definitely seemed as if some of the jurors didnt really want to see me and daisy at the end or like, really werent consider voting for me but i think i was definitely able to sway some people who were willing to listen and definitely gave some of the jurors something to think about. so whether or not i win i do think that i had a really great final tribal performance, maybe it was even enough to sway enough people into giving me their vote?? WHO'S TO SAY

anyways this has been such a wild experience and it's surreal to think that it's ending in like, a little over an hour but no matter what happens i can say confidently that i will be able to look back on this season fondly and will be leaving it with my head held high bc I REALLY DID THIS LIKE!!! I REALLY MADE IT TO THE END!! WOW I STILL CANT GET OVER IT HAHAHA!! but yeah bye forever <33

Rob’s Last Video: https://youtu.be/X3krxxfJ3oo

________________________________________________________________

Daisy wins in a 7-2 vote!

#superspooky

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craby-bouquet · 5 years

Text

Don’t leave me

“It is good to love many things, for therein lies the true strength, and whosoever loves much performs much, and can accomplish much, and what is done in love is well done.” - Vincent Van Gogh

Kim Taehyung x Reader

Artist!AU, Thriller!AU, Fluff, Angst, Gore

11.8k words

A/N I labelled this as gore as well, but I tried to keep things as clean as I possible so it kind of doesn’t seem right?? This is the longest thing I’ve written so far, it took me quite some time but I had so much fun with it! On to the next thing I’m writing.

Thank you @/onlandswimming for your helping with this (cant tag u bc of the link thing bb)

Music. The music was loud, deafening. A piano piece, known by many, heard by everyone, but he didn’t know the title of it. It sounded like the piano tiles got smashed, like someone had decided the tiles would make for a great trampoline, and just started jumping on them, yet it was pretty. It calmed him, emptied his head. And that was all he wanted.

Red. The red was everywhere. Spattered on things, more things than he wanted it to spatter on, but he couldn't help it. It was more than he had ever imagined, more than he had intended it to be.

He leaned against the wall, head thrown back, hands tangled in his hair. The tears fell on the newspapers on the ground, thinned the red, made it flow all over. It had all gone wrong.

Only a glance at the newspaper of that morning was enough to make you sigh. It seemed that ever since you started living in this town, crime had gotten worse and worse. It was ridiculous. Another missing person, and the person that went missing last week was found back. Murdered.

You took a bite of your apple as you read the article on your walk to work. The dead person was found in a park. They hadn’t included pictures, thankfully, because the sight had been horrible. The kids that found the body were getting all the help they needed to get over what they saw. Weird enough the body had been all cleaned up. no stained blood on their clothes nor on the body parts that were still in tact for the most part. As if the person that did this was human enough to at least make them look good for their funeral. Well, besides the wounds the victim had. This was the fifth person that had gone missing, and was found back all ripped up weeks later, in six months. And now someone else had gone missing. A woman in her thirties. She had last been seen three days ago by her husband. Police said to keep calm and that there was no reason to suspect this disappearance had anything to do with the other five. But for some reason you, and a lot of other people, thought differently about that. If this wasn’t connected with the others, it would be too coincidental. And we all know coincidence doesn’t exist.

A lot of people in town were terrified, staying inside as much as they could, making sure their children would as well. People talked about it on the streets, but only very silently, whispering almost, afraid the killer would happen to walk by and hear them. In stores people were discussing it, in subways, in restaurants even in the farmacy and in waiting rooms. It was everywhere, even people that lived under a rock should know by now.

And it was terrifying. There were no witnesses, no fingerprints, nothing to point to whom the killer might be. It seemed like a perfect crime every single time. The police claimed they would find whoever did this, that they would avenge the victims in name of their families and that they would make sure everyone could feel safe again. But after six months and five, now six, perfect crimes, no one was sure what to believe anymore. No one trusted anyone anymore, everyone could be guilty. So could they really trust the police?

You had promised yourself that this whole thing wouldn't get to you. All that these kind of murderers wanted was for people to be scared. All they wanted was for everyone to live in constant fear, it was like that would make them feel powerful, like they ruled a part of the world. You had promised yourself not to be afraid. You weren’t going to let some stupid criminal rule your life. Sure, you had taken some precautions. You weren’t going out alone at night anymore, not that you did before all of this, the dark streets had always frightened you a little bit. You weren’t going with strangers anymore, would talk as little as you could with them, pretending to always be in a hurry. Little things. But it wasn’t that you were getting yourself new locks and closed every window and didn’t talk to anyone and take days off to stay inside just because you were afraid you were next. No. That’s what you heard other people say and you sure as hell weren’t going to go crazy like that.

You threw the core of the apple, together with the newspaper, in the trashcan in the lobby as you walked into the building.

“Good morning.” Someone who walked by greeted you. You greeted them back before stepping into the elevator and making your way up. You mentally prepared yourself for everyone that would be talking about what they read in the newspapers that morning, a thing you didn’t really want to talk about. This was going to be a long day.

Leaving work you always walked through the park. You avoided it on your way to work because it was a detour and you wanted to be in time, but on your way home it calmed you down. The light breeze in the air, the birds, the sound of the wind blowing through the leaves of the trees. In that moment everything seemed almost perfect. Not to mention how happy you were that, after a long time of winter, flowers were blooming again, children were playing outside. It was strangely quiet these days though, mothers didn’t want their children to play outside anymore, not without guidance that is. Imagine them finding the next body, or getting kidnapped themselves.

On a bench only a few meters away from you sat a guy. He was… stunning. His face looked as if it had been sculpted by the hands of God himself. His eyes sparkled as he looked up at the sky, the evening sun that shined through the leaves reflecting in them. His hair had been dyed what once had been red, but the red had faded with time, the dark brown of his own hair had started to grow back at the roots. The expression he wore was tired yet so soft and gentle, he seemed fascinated by whatever he saw. Beside him sat an adorable golden retriever dog with a sparkling collar, its gaze was directed at you.

The guy bend over to pat the dog, a sweet smile forming on his lips. The dog licked his owner's face, who laughed. The sight made you smile. The guy and his dog sat there the next day as well, the guy rubbing the dog his head as it lay on his lap. You smiled once again when the guy gave the dog a soft kiss on its head. A warm feeling boiled up in the pit of your stomach. When, even the day after, the guy and the dog were still there, you decided to walk up to them.

“Hi,” you greeted carefully.

The guy lowered his gaze from the leaves above to you, and his eyes widened. He suddenly seemed to get a little nervous, stroking his hand through his hair and clearing his throat: “Hello.”

You smiled “I saw you sit here yesterday as well and I just wanted to tell you you have a cute dog.”

The guy didn't look away from your eyes “Yes.. He-he's very pretty.”

“Can I pet him?”

“Oh, yes. Sure, go ahead. He's very sweet.”

So you sat down on the bench at the opposite side of the dog and started patting him. He looked up at you and started wagging his tail. You chuckled.

“It's actually not my dog, it's my friend's dog: Holly. I'm taking care of him while he's away.” the guy said while he sat up straight, eyes still locked on you.

“That's very nice of you.”

The sparkle in his eyes got brighter as you looked into his eyes, the warm feeling in the pit of your stomach returned. You looked away, back at the dog, but you felt the guy's eyes still on your face.

After a short while of silence he cleared his throat “Would you like to get coffee with me?”

You looked up at him again and smirked at how flustered he looked “Like a date?”

He smirked back at you “Only if you want it to be.”

“I'd like that.”

You had learned his name was Taehyung, he was a well known artist whom had people come from all over to come to his expositions. He had shown you some pictures of his paintings when you asked about them and even you could see he was talented. He made beautiful abstract like compositions on big canvases, he had developed his own style and clearly was proud of what he made, though a little flustered to show you at the same time. And he had all the right to be proud. You weren’t an art critic, not even close to it, but you already loved what he created.

Even though he asked you to get coffee with him, he didn’t like coffee at all. So he got himself tea instead. His laugh was the cutest thing you had ever seen, and you decided you wanted to see it as much as you possibly could. The way he treated Holly was adorable. He was so sweet and loving to him, like Holly was the most precious thing to walk this earth. Even the way he held his cup, his pinky under the cup, had you melting away. How his mouth seemed to turn into a rectangle as he smiled, how he liked his lips evey once in a while and how his eyes lit up whenever he talked about something he loved. Everything about him had you gone, it was clear you already really liked this guy.

He walked you home, talking about everything and nothing and bend forward when you leaned in to press a peck against his cheek. He smiled and waved goodbye as he walked away.

He sat on the bench the day after that as well, so you walked through the park together. And the day after that he sat there all dressed up, looking very nice. He asked you to dinner. The day after that you had agreed to go out as well. It was weekend and he told you he had made plans, turns out he took you to a theme park and had prepared a picnic afterwards. You invited him to stay over that night, but he politely declined. Not only did he want to wait a little longer, he also had a dog to take care of at home.

He was the perfect gentleman, a great person and absolutely amazing to date. You had never fallen this fast for anyone before, but you had really fallen hard for Taehyung. And fast forward a couple of weeks and the two of you were officially in a relationship. It was wonderful, some may even say perfect. You never imagined being in a relationship to be as much fun as it was.

Your mother loved him, after she met him she couldn’t stop talking about him. Even your father was fond of him.

After two months of dating Taehyung finally took you with him to his apartment. He never took anyone there because it was a big mess, and because it was his part of the world. A place where he could do whatever he wanted and feel completely free. You felt honored that he took you there with him.

He opened the door and threw the key on a shelf that he clearly put up himself “Welcome.” he said while bowing dramatically.

Holly came running towards the door, wiggling his tail excitedly. The two of you had walked him together many times before, and he had been at your place loads of times, but he was happy to see you each and every time. As if every time was the first time you met him.

Taehyung rubbed the back of his neck as he escorted you through the apartment, picking things up that were in the middle of the path and placing them to the side. It smelled like someone sprayed very nice perfume all over, but something told you he just had a very nice air freshener. Though his apartment was quite spacious, there was barely any room left to even walk. It was a big mess. Canvases laying all around, some painted on, some just plain white. Sketch books and loose papers that were drawn on laying everywhere, paint everywhere. Not just in their tubes, but splattered on the walls and ground as well. You had seen it on the paintings he had shown you before, red really was his favorite color. The apartment was exactly what you would expect a messy artist’s apartment to look like.

“Sorry for the mess, I wanted to clean up a little before picking you up but something came up and-”

You interrupted him by pressing your lips on his “It’s fine.”

He had ordered chinese food, and you ate at the counter of his kitchen. The only place in the house he had managed to clean before you came by. You talked about work, and asked him about his. He smiled proudly and told you he had just made sure he could give an exposition in three months.

“What? That’s great!” You exclaimed, a weird sense of pride flushing over you.

He chuckled “Yeah, I’m really looking forward to it. It’s gonna be so stressful though, everytime I have to take care of something like this I find out all over again how much work it is. I always manage to underestimate it.” He inspected a piece of chicken he held between his chopsticks, before putting it in his mouth “And I’m always afraid no one will show up.”

“I’ll be there for sure,” you said, swallowing a piece of the duck you were eating “and I’ll be bragging to everyone and their mom that my boyfriend is giving an exposition of his amazing art. So I’m sure that will get some attention.”

Taehyung laughed loudly “I usually just put up posters and stuff, but I guess just having a girlfriend is enough publicity.”

You shrugged “I have all the right to brag, that’s a fact. I don’t make the rules here.”

He poured himself some more cola to drink “I was just hoping you’d invite your parents. But if you want it invite the whole city it’s alright with me. I’m not complaining, you know?”

You chuckled and pointed with your chopsticks “You bet your ass I’ll invite everyone, watch me.”

He took a sip of the cola he just got himself “I believe you.”

You ate a little more, enjoying the silence, before you asked him a question you had wanted to ask him for a while.

“Will your parents come too?”

Though he had met your parents multiple times before, you had never met his. He never spoke about them and never even mentioned them once. You had been afraid to ask if something happened to them or something, but this seemed like a decent time to start about it.

He looked up at you briefly, before looking down again, clearly uncomfortable. He swallowed and sighed, looking everywhere but at you.

“I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have asked.” You said as soon as you realized this clearly was a touchy subject.

He smiled, or at least tried to, before he locked his eyes on one of the few paintings that was actually hanging on the wall “It’s alright, don’t worry about it. I guess it’s natural for you to be curious about it.” He put down his chopsticks and sighed again “My parents… well. I’m really sorry for not telling you before but my mother died when I was younger and my dad died a few years ago.” He finally turned his eyes to you again “I guess I should have told you before but… It’s just kind of a painful subject.”

You suddenly felt so stupid for bringing it up the way you had done. So tactless of you “Oh my god, I’m so sorry…”

He smiled, but you could see the hurt behind his eyes “It’s alright, don’t worry about it. My mom died a very long time ago, I don’t even remember it, and my dad…” he looked at the painting hanging on the wall again “Well, my dad never really left me.” he slapped his hand on his chest at the height of his heart and grinned “Still with me.”

The newspaper. Yet another person had gone missing. They had found the last person who had gone missing back about two weeks ago, and now someone else had gone missing. And the thing was that you had met this person. From the picture in the papers you could see it was the waiter that served Taehyung and you the first time you went out for coffee.

You showed Taehyung the article when you saw him again in the park that evening “Another has gone missing.”

Taehyung looked at you and pushed the paper away “I know. I saw it this morning.”

You pushed the paper back in his face and pointed at the picture of the waiter “Don’t you recognize him?”

Taehyung looked away and sighed, but his eyes grew wide “Yes. I do. It’s the waiter that served us. He… was great. Deserves to live forever if you ask me.” his eyes turned hazy, as if he was thinking to himself, and he bit his lip. Holly howled softly.

He was great, yes, you agreed. But the living forever was a little extreme in your opinion. That would, however, be one hell of a tip.

You let yourself fall on the bench beside Taehyung “I just can’t believe it… You hear about these people going missing, but I didn’t know any of them so it didn’t seem… I don’t know, real? And now, this… It comes so close, you know?”

Taehyung swallowed, looked around, licked his lips and then smiled at you “How was work?”

You got from that that he didn’t want to talk about such a depressing topic. And you understood that. All these murders were… Crazy. How could anyone in their right mind do something like this to people?

“Work was alright. I got a new assignment.”

“Ooh, do tell me.”

You turned your head to him “Well… I haven’t read it yet. I literally just got it before we all left.” you laughed “But I’m pretty sure it has something to do with a children's book.”

You took and deep, exhausted breath. This entire week had been crazy. You had done so much for work, met up with Taehyung a lot and you had worked on your house. Cleaned up everything because your head couldn't process the mess it had been before that. It was safe to say you were tired and really happy it was weekend.

“Taehyung,” you started, while you turned your head at the leaves on the trees, “can I stay with you tonight? I’m so done with my own house.”

He stayed quiet for such a long time you thought he had left, but then he cleared his throat “I don’t think that’s a very good idea. I just started a new painting and so it’s smelly and one big mess… To be honest I was actually kind of hoping Holly could stay with you over the weekend.”

You turned your head to him again. He looked at Holly, petting his head “Why?”

“Well… Like I said, my house is a big mess and smells pretty funny and Holly is acting weird because of it.”

The look on his face was so serious, it almost scared you. You had never seen him like this, he usually was very bubbly and spontaneous. Seeing him so… weird and serious was strange. But he clearly cared about his friend’s dog a lot. Now that you thought about it… his friend had been on vacation for a quite a while now.

“Eh, sure. Of course he can stay with me.” you looked at your feet “Your friend has been gone for quite a long time now… is he alright?”

Taehyung once again stayed quiet for quite some time, really thinking his answer over. Maybe something really had gone wrong with his friend. Had he gotten sick?

“He has a home there. I don’t know when he’s coming back… I honestly don’t think he’ll ever come back.”

You frowned, anger boiled up inside you “And he just leaves his dog behind? That’s so mean.”

The weird look in Taehyung’s eyes disappear when he looked at you and he smiled “It’s alright, I’ve grown very attached to Holly… I don’t think I could ever give him back.”

You turned your gaze to Holly “Well I think it’s horrible. You don’t just leave your animals somewhere. You should love them like they’re your very own children. You wouldn’t just leave your children either, would you?”

Taehyung’s eyes switched to his feet really fast “My mom did.”

The anger left as fast as it had come. Why hadn’t you been more considerate? You honestly wanted to hit yourself so bad.

“Taehyung… I’m sorry.”

He shook his head and smiled at you again “Thank you that you want to keep Holly for the weekend.” he got up and handed you the dog leash “I’m afraid I have to go now, and I’m very sorry but I can’t meet up over the weekend either… Like I said, I just started a new painting and I need to finish it quickly.” He sighed and let out a sad sounding chuckle “It’s actually kind of stupid I started a new one right before the exposition. But I had a sudden burst of inspiration…”

You had to admit you were very sad he couldn’t meet up over the weekend, you had been looking forward to it so much, after your very busy week just laying in bed all day together, only getting up to eat… But you did understand. He was a busy man.

“That’s alright. Just make sure you finish it in time.” you stood up as well.

He bend over to kiss you, his soft lips pressed to yours. You wanted it to last forever. So sweet, so tender, with all the love in the world in it. But alas, it ended way too soon.

“If there’s anything I can do to help, please do tell me. Okay?”

He nodded, brushed your cheek with his hand, and walked away “I’ll see you on monday, my love. You have me all to yourself then, I promise”

You smiled and watched him as he walked away. You looked down at Holly after Taehyung had disappeared from view. He was sitting beside you right foot, his head turned to look up at you. Looking back at him creeped you out for some reason.

“Well Holly,” you started, his ears shot up by the sound of his name, “let's get you some food.”

You had no idea what Taehyung had meant by Holly acting weird. He seemed like a normal dog to you, nothing weird about him. He seemed even more normal than usual, more relaxed, more happy. But maybe he just was happy to be away from the mess in Taehyung’s house.

You had texted Taehyung a bunch of times but he hadn't texted you back at all. He hadn't even read your texts… But that was alright, he was busy and you knew that.

You felt really bad leaving Holly all alone on Monday as you left for work. You hadn't really discussed how you would get him back to Taehyung but you figured you'd just bring him back to his place after work. You couldn't wait to see Taehyung again, it was the only thing you could think about the entire day.

But as you walked home from work, there was Taehyung, on the bench in the park, looking up at the leaves of the trees. His hair dyed bright blue, the expression on his face strange, thoughtful but hurt. His blue hair made him look magical, like a fairy. And with the green of the trees and bushes behind him, his hair looked luminescent.

He smiled as you sat down beside him, but he didn’t look at you, he kept his face turned to the leaves above him.

“It’s a beautiful day.” He sighed.

You smiled at him, inspecting every little detail of his side profile “It really is, yeah.”

He sighed a second time before turning his head to you, planting a soft kiss on your forehead “It’s good to see you.”

You closed your eyes and used one of your hands to cup his face “I missed you.”

You felt his lips smile against your head. But he said nothing, just smiled.

The next couple of weeks passed quickly. You helped Taehyung to get stuff ready for the exposition that was in a few days. The hall where it was gonna happen looked very nice, it really felt like you walked in a museum.

You had been following the news closely, you felt really sad for the waiter. He had been polite and gentle. You couldn't imagine what his family had to be going through now that he had disappeared.

They found him back the Tuesday after he had gone missing. Dead.

No one had gone missing since then. Everyone was relieved that that was the case. This had been the longest time no one went missing since this whole missing person thing started. And you could feel it. The atmosphere of the city had changed, had gotten better, relieved, hopeful even. People were happy that this finally seemed to be over, but at the same time they were terrified. The fact that no one had gone missing yet meant that everyone could still be targeted. Which meant that no one was safe. But people were hopeful. Finally there was light at the end of the long tunnel.

Taehyung's newest painting looked wonderful. Like in every other painting you had seen from him, he had used red as his main color. You had asked him if red was his favorite, he had explained how red was amazing. It really made a statement, made you feel warm, yet scared you off. And yes, red really was his favorite color. And it was his thing, and all the red paintings together on the hall like they were now, looked really nice and clean.

Taehyung beamed with excitement beside you “It looks so nice. I really can't wait.”

You smiled and looked around a little “It really does look amazing.”

You felt him turn his head to face you, and with his hand on your chin he forced you to look up at him so he could press his lips against yours.

“Thank you for helping me set this all up. I couldn't have done this without you.” He whispered.

You pressed a kiss in his neck, smiling against his skin “You're welcome.”

When you had told Taehyung you would tell everyone about the exposition, you weren't kidding. You had told your family, a bunch of your friends and you had send an email to all of your colleagues. You really wanted people to come check it out, Taehyung deserved all the recognition he could get. And by that time you had no idea how well known he actually was.

You dressed up nicely, did your hair and makeup, and even changed the case of your phone to something that looked a little more classy before you left for the actual event. Nerves boiled up in your stomach. You were first picking up your parents from the train station and then you'd drive to where the exposition would be. Your parents seemed really happy, proud even, that Taehyung could present his art like this. They loved that you found someone so right for you, someone who truly seemed to love you. It then dawned on you that, even though you had been dating for months now, neither one of you had actually said those three words to the other. It had you thinking it over the entire drive there.

The place was crowded. Really packed with people. You had expected people to come but you had never imagined this many. Outside was a ridiculously long line, people talking, looking excited. You were really glad with the V.I.P. tickets you and your parents had. You cut the line and could get in without any trouble.

Your parents told you they were going to look around by themselves so you could go off and find Taehyung. You found him standing in front of the painting he always referred to as the one that changed his life. It was this painting where he started developing the style he made his own. Using loads of reds, big and bold striped and painting really abstract. You saw an old man on a scooter, while Taehyung swore he saw a nice landscape with a big tree in the middle of it. And the great thing was that it didn't matter what it was, it really was whatever you would see and that's what Taehyung had told you was the whole purpose of him creating it in the first place.

Seeing him there, looking up at the big canvas, he looked like he was in his own little world. Like he was trying to get inspired by his own painting, it made you think about what your parents had said in the car. About the love thing. Did you love him? You sure were in love, but were you really at a point where you could call it love?

He seemed to snap out of a dream and turned his head to you, a tired but big smile appeared as soon as his eyes found yours. You smiled back and walked a little bit closer.

“Hi.” he greeted you, wrapping an arm around your waist.

“Sir, I'm just trying to enjoy the exposition. No point in getting all handy here.” you said in a high pitched tone, playfully trying to get out of his grip.

He smiled and a low growl escaped from deep down his throat “Miss, you are aware this exposition is to showcase art, right?” he whispered, the deep sound of his voice making butterflies rise everywhere in your stomach.

You nodded stifly.

“Then why aren't you on the walls yet? The greatest masterpiece of all. I'm just trying to keep you from getting away.”

You couldn't help but blush, chuckling at his words “Maybe they should put you up there then.”

He let go and looked at you with a played disappointed face “Don't steal my pick up line miss, that's rude.”

Both of you laughed.

“Let's go view the exposition.” He said.

You nodded “Make sure to avoid my parents though, they're more proud than ever. I'm afraid that, if they get the chance to talk to you, you'll never get away.”

You were right. As soon as your parents spotted you and Taehyung they run up to you like wild hyenas, and they talked with Taehyung for about half an hour before I could finally pry him away from them.

“So,” you started, almost hanging on to Taehyung's arm, “where's your latest painting? Let's go see how people like that one.”

You heard Taehyung chuckle “Good idea.”

The hall was filled with people, and all of them were smiling or nodding impressed at the artworks on the walls. So far you hadn't heard anyone say anything negative, only positive things. Well, except that one woman who told her friend that she thought it was all a little too red. But that was Taehyung's style.

There were standing a bunch of people around the painting, some inspecting it in every detail, others just glancing over it as they walked by. Since a picture of Taehyung hung above the entrance, people looked at him as soon as he came close to them. Some complimented him, other just smiled and nodded.

But there was one guy who's eyes hadn't left Taehyung ever since he came into view. He was wearing a suit of which the colors seemed to clash with themselves, and he had a very strange mustache that was long and curled up with hair gel. As soon as some people had walked away, he walked towards you two. He was grinning as he offered Taehyung a hand shake.

“Mister Kim, right?” He asked, his voice had a very nagging sound, but he smiled charmingly.

Taehyung smiled politely “That's me.”

The guy bowed his head in greeting “It’s nice to meet you, I’m Jean Pierre.”

Taehyung chuckled “I know.”

Mister Pierre’s eyes widened a little “Of course you do. Anyway, I was looking at this wonderful piece you created here and I must say: Bravo. You really did a great job on it.”

You looked up at Taehyung, he was beaming proudly “Thank you sir, that means a lot.”

“Oh, please, call me Jean.” mister Pierre walked closer to Taehyung, whom had let go of your hand, and linked arms with him. They slowly walked away together. You let out a chuckle in disbelieve, and watched them as they walked away.

You saw Taehyung again after the exposition. He was waiting outside for you to come out. You were in awe of how good he looked in that suit, like a prince.

It was cold outside, the wind hurt your bare skin. Winter was coming.

Taehyung smiled and took off his jacket so he could give it to you “I’m sorry for leaving you.”

You slipped on the jacket and smiled up at him “No worries, it was alright. Art critics are important.”

He kissed you softly “Thank you for understanding. Are you bringing your parents back to the train station?”

You nodded “Yep. Sadly they don’t have more time to spend.”

Taehyung leaned forward, his lips touching your earlobe “How about, you bring your parents to the station and then come over to my house. I have great news, and I need to make up for leaving you all by yourself.”

His deep voice gave you goosebumps, butterflies fluttered through your stomach and you nodded.

You did just that, brought your parents to the train station and drove directly to Taehyung from there. As you opened the door, with the key he had given you a couple of weeks ago, Holly came running towards you excitedly. You patted his head and greeted him.

In the other room you heard Taehyung gasp, it sounded like you just ran into something you weren't supposed to see "You're already here?"

You raised an eyebrow and started walking towards the door to the living room "Yeah…"

He sighed disappointedly "I wasn't finished yet…"

The living room was all cleaned up, which seemed like a miracle. Normally there were paintings and other art things covering everything, but now it even seemed like he vacuumed. The only thing littering the ground were rose petals, tons of them, and you wouldn't necessarily call that littering. And a bunch of candles were lit. Taehyung was standing in the kitchen, leaned against the little wall that separated the two rooms from each other, observing you with wonder in his eyes. The same look he wore when he looked up to the leaves in the trees.

"You look… positively gorgeous." he whispered breathlessly "Had I told you that yet?" his eyes scanned your body, seemed to take in every little detail there was.

You let the jacket, he had given you before, slide off your shoulders "You look very handsome yourself."

He laughed and walked closer, resting his hands on your hips "Did you wear red just to make me go crazy?"

The dress you were wearing was, indeed, red. It was a very simple yet elegant and pretty dress, reaching to right above your knees, being held up by two spaghetti straps. And it looked gorgeous on you.

You shrugged "So what if I did?"

He laughed, throwing his head back "You do things to me I can't even explain."

You planted a soft and tender kiss in his neck, he gasped and his grip on your hips got stronger. You grinned devilishly.

He smiled a boxy smile as one hand let loose of your hip and cupped the back of your head instead. He pulled your hair very gently so your head leaned back and he could kiss your lips. You reached for his hair, tangling your fingers in it. For a while you stood there, making out. You got to a point where you were pressed against the wall, his dress shirt unbuttoned, before he carried you to the bed. The rose petals he laid down lead your way, the bed filled with them, candles romantically lit.

His hands were everywhere, your hands were everywhere. Your dress, forgotten, somewhere on the ground. His trousers thrown beside it. And he had his way with you, like he always had. Whenever you laid in his arms you were his and his alone, no one else seemed to exist. Only the two of you, entangled with each other, and the world seemed to be all yours.

And in your moment of pure bliss, you knew you loved him.

You were drawing circles and other little figure over his bare chest with your index finger. His arm as wrapped around you, his thumb stroking your arms. He had his eyes closed and you could swear he was an angel. He must have been. No human could look as enchanting as he did.

You chuckled at that thought, making his eyes shoot open.

"What?" he smiled as soon as he saw you pressing your face to his side.

"Nothing." you murmured.

He made a sound that indicated he didn't really believe you, making you chuckle even more.

He pinched your side playfully.

"Don't do that!" you laughed, pinching him back "You know I'm ticklish there."

He laughed and bend his mouth to your ear "That's payback."

You childishly stuck out your tongue.

"Anyway," you began, looking up at him, "you made up for leaving me all by myself, like you said you would do. But at the exposition you also told me you had great news…"

His face lit up and he grinned "Right, I forgot."

He pulled you on top of him, your face very close to his. He looked as excited as a little kid talking about what presents he got for his birthday. Gosh he did things to your heart.

"So, do you remember that Jean Pierre dude?"

You nodded, of course you remembered the guy with the weird mustache, who practically stole Taehyung from you at the exposition. Taehyung's smile widened "Okay, well. He's this important art critic from France or whatever, and, anyway, he wants to do a story on me in his magazine. And he says he's gonna talk with some people so that maybe some of my art can hang in a museum somewhere in France."

You leaned on your elbows and pushed yourself up so you could look him in the eyes, you mouth hanging open "Really? Oh my! That's amazing Taehyung!"

Imagine that, your boyfriend's art hanging in a museum? That would be so great. It would open so many opportunities for him.

He laughed "I know right! I'm so proud."

"You have all the right to be! That really is wonderful!" you have him a small kiss "I'm super proud of you as well."

Both of you turned to your sides, looking each other in the eyes.

"I have a meeting with him on Tuesday. We'll discuss the museum thing and he will interview me and stuff. It's going to be great." He grinned "Gosh, he was so nice."

You smiled at your boyfriend in pure adoration "You'll have to tell me how that went after I come home from work."

"I will for sure..." he sighed, his eyes started to close slowly. He pulled you closer to him, wrapping both his arms around you "But that is then. Let's sleep now."

You nodded, head buried in his chest once again. You were tired, today had been very busy and tiring, but it had been good. Great even.

You slowly felt yourself falling asleep, the last thing you remembered Taehyung say was: "Thank you for today." Very softly, merely a whisper. But you were sure that's what he said right before you fell asleep happily.

The next day, sunday, there was another day of exposition. Nothing too interesting happened there this time. You had to go home early since you had work the day after again, so you kissed Taehyung goodbye and left.

Monday you walked Holly after coming back from work, and went home by yourself. Taehyung was busy bringing back all his artwork, you didn’t see him. Tuesday morning, you send him a message wishing him good luck for the interview. But he didn’t text back. When you walked home from work, he wasn’t on the park bench.

It was wednesday when you saw him again. You walked out of the building you worked in and there he was, standing right in front of it. He smiled a charming, yet nervous smile. You smiled back. Seeing him again after so many days felt like coming home. You wrapped your arms around him, he kissed your cheek.

"Let's go eat something, I'm starving."

You went to the little cafe on the corner of the street, say down, and both ordered what you wanted.

"Did you get all your paintings back safely?" you asked.

He nodded "We did, yeah. And remember that Jean Pierre guy? Well, he came around and started helping us get everything away." he beamed and stared off to space for a little before talking again, "He's so great."

You smiled, it seemed kind of strange that he would suddenly show up and help. But you were sure he had his reason. And Taehyung seemed to think it wasn't out of ordinary, so it must have been alright.

"That is great." You agreed, as you took a sip of the coffee you had ordered "About that Jean Pierre, how did your interview go yesterday?"

Taehyung's eyes lit up "It was amazing. He asked me all kinds of questions, like where I get my inspiration from and stuff. And he bought me lunch and even dinner. He had a laptop on which he wrote whenever I answered, and he carried this funny looking notebook in which he took notes. It was great."

You laughed “I’m glad you had fun.”

Taehyung took a bite of what he had ordered and nodded “I did. And he said he would finish the article this week and immediately send it in as soon as it’s finished.”

“That’s great!” you took another sip of your coffee “What about the ‘hanging your paintings in a museum’ thing?”

“Oh, he’s skyping with some people in France tonight and he’ll discuss it then or something. And if they’re interested they’ll contact me directly. So we’ll see.”

You nodded to show you understood. His reaction was kind of strange to you. One would think he would be more excited about the museum then about the interview. Maybe the interview just gave him more recognition and was that all he wanted.

You finished your food and drinks and walked to his place, talking about random little things, holding hands. When he opened the door to his apartment, Holly didn’t come running to the door like usually. He was still on his cushion, which was very unusual for him.

“Is something wrong with Holly?” you asked Taehyung, as you patted Holly’s head.

Taehyung walked to the kitchen to get you two some drinks “Oh, yeah. I noticed something off about him as well, so I took him to the vet today.” he put to glasses on the kitchen counter and stood still for a few seconds, clearly upset “He… He’s very sick. I wanted to tell you sooner but we hadn’t seen each other in a while and I didn’t want to ruin the moment.”

You walked over to Taehyung and wrapped your arms around his waist “It’s okay, don’t worry. How are you handling it?”

He placed his hand over yours gently “I’m… doing alright, I guess. It’s just very difficult to see someone you love die.”

You nodded, realizing this must bring back memories of his mother dying. She had been sick as well, tied to her bed for a while. He had slowly seen the life drip out of her. This thing with Holly would surely bring back those awful memories of his youth.

“How long does he have left?”

Taehyung shrugged “The doctor’s said it could be today, but it could also be a few weeks. They didn’t really give an end date.”

You bit your lip “That must be frustrating.”

He nodded his head before taking a deep breath and turning around so he could hug you back. He buried his head in your neck and sighed.

“Thank you. For being here for me.”

Weird enough, you smiled. Seeing the circumstances that seemed very out of place, but you couldn’t help it. Was this where you were supposed to tell him you loved him?

But before you could decide that he pulled back, looking you in your eyes as he stroked a stray hair behind your ear and kissed you on your head. He then turned around and continued getting you both drinks. You figured you should change the subject.

“Do you have any inspiration for a new painting?”

He let out a chuckle, it didn’t sound very convincing “I thought of something, but I got a brand new idea just today.”

You leaned on the little wall dividing the living room and the kitchen “Ooh… Wanna tell me about it?”

He handed you your drink with a grin on his face “Nope.” he made the ‘P’ pop “You’ll see it when it’s finished.”

You sighed and looked at him with your best puppy eyes “Do you never share your ideas? Not even with me?”

He laughed at you and quickly kissed your lips before walking over to the couch “I never tell anyone. I think that brings bad luck.”

You frowned and sat down beside him “Alright, well, I’m looking forward to the end product.”

The next weekend Taehyung texted you he was going to be busy. You figured he was going to get started on the painting, so you let him be and didn't contact him at all knowing he probably wouldn't respond anyway.

On Monday he was waiting for you on the park bench, looking up at the remaining leaves. The look on his face told you something was wrong, and you knew exactly what that was. Without saying anything you sat down beside him, following his gaze so you were both looking up at the sky. Autumn had made the leaves fall to the ground, it was cold outside. But today the sky was blue.

You didn't talk for awhile, until he started talking. Still looking up, not turning his head.

"He's gone." the words sounded soft, broken. The little crack in his voice broke your heart.

You turned so you could embrace him, not too sure what to say. But that was fine, you knew it was. He didn't cry, neither of you did. Just looked up at the last leaves falling off the trees.

The next couple of weeks were weird. Taehyung seemed to be fine most of the time, but sometimes stared off into space, face turning sad for a moment before returning to his usual self.

You didn't go to his house the first week, Taehyung said the paint was still drying and it smelled bad. But the first time you got to his apartment again was strange, it felt empty without Holly there. Even after three weeks you hadn’t gotten used to him not greeting you at the door anymore, or laying down beside you on Taehyung’s bed.

Mister Pierre had told Taehyung that the interview he had done for the magazine in France, was going to get published real soon and that he made sure a bunch of copies would be send to Taehyung. Taehyung was really excited about it, couldn’t stop talking about it. That was very nice though, it kept both your minds from thinking about Holly. The museum thing he didn’t know yet. Jean Pierre had said they, the people from the museum, were busy discussing the matter but just weren't ready to decide yet.

You thought that was ridiculous: one look at any of Taehyung’s paintings was enough for anyone to decide whether they wanted to showcase it or not. And, in your opinion, everyone would want it. And if they wouldn’t for some reason, they’d be crazy.

Taehyung didn’t seem to care much about it though. Sure, he thought it would be an honor if they would showcase it there, but he just didn’t care too much about that. He loved the publicity in the magazine more. Because loads of people could read about him now and get interested and look him up. And if you looked at it in that way, you agreed with him, but you still really hoped they’d buy some of his art to showcase it.

But that hope vanished when you read the newspaper on your way to work on a wednesday morning.

“Famous art critic from France, disappears?”

That had to be him, it couldn’t be anyone else. Had Jean Pierre really fallen victim to the relentless killer?

“Mister Jean Pierre had come all the way from France, to look at art from local artists. But what was supposed to be a fun trip turned into a nightmare last Monday. The art critic had been spotted in a cafe with one of the artists he was working with at that moment, witnesses saw him walk to his hotel alone after that. The personnel of the hotel he was staying at however, said that he never arrived there.”

You turned your head away from the paper in front of you. The poor man, he had come all this way for a nice trip, and this happens to him of all people. How horrible.

Your mind shot to Taehyung, he was staying at a little house on a beach somewhere that belonged to a friend of him. He had left yesterday morning, only to return on Sunday. You wondered if this news had reached him yet. You doubted whether he could handle this news right after Holly’s death.

Jean Pierre had been so nice to Taehyung, Taehyung had really liked him. Man, this sucked. Not that it would have sucked any less, had it been someone you didn’t know. It just sucked that this whole thing happened. Who on earth would do something like this at all? Everyone was terrified. What if they were next? What if one of their loved ones was next?

And that made you wonder. Your parents didn’t live here, and all the disappearances happened in your town, so you weren’t too worried about them. But what about Taehyung? What if he was the next victim? What would you do then?

You frowned to yourself and decided that it was about time you told Taehyung how you felt about him. That you loved him. So as soon as he would come back you would try to find the best moment to tell him. Because, if there was one thing you knew for sure, it was that if Taehyung happened to be the next victim, you would definitely regret it if you had never once told him that you loved him.

That next week was weird for everyone. Whenever a person was taken, everyone seemed to be a little more quiet, a little more careful. No one knew how the purpotrayer decided who would be the next victim, so no one wanted to stand out just in case they’d be picked. You couldn’t judge them for it, you knew you did the same.

It was a thing that made you wonder: how did the killer decide who would be a victim? None of the victims seemed to have a real, clear connection, according to the police. So why did he pick them? Just randomly? Or maybe because they had said something to him? No one knew, and that’s probably what made it even scarier.

But you knew that, after a week, everyone would forget to be invisible, or maybe they just stopped caring. It always went like that.

Jean Pierre his body was found on saturday morning. He sat against a tree, his face turned to look at the pond filled with ducks. He was dressed nicely, wearing a nice suit, the newspaper even said his mustache was curled up the way it always was. Once again the relentless killer had made sure the body was funeral ready, which everyone always thought was weird.

Sunday evening Taehyung texted you he was home. He said he was tired and he would pick you up from work tomorrow. Something about his texts felt strange, but you didn’t pay much attention to it. Lately everything had been weird, and after Holly’s death, and now mister Pierre’s, you imagined Taehyung wasn’t feeling to well. Even though he told you he was doing alright when you asked him about it.

And there he was on Monday, waiting for you on the same bench as always, looking up at the branches of the trees. The blue of his hair had fainted into a light green a while back, and he had liked it so much he bought mint green dye soon after. Apparently he had dyed his hair somewhere in the last week.

As soon as he noticed you walk towards him he stood up and walked towards you, taking you in his arms as soon as they could reach you.

“I’m sorry.” He whispered with a broken voice.

You wrapped your arms around his waist “What? What are you sorry for?”

“Everything.”

You had no clue what he meant, but just decided to ignore it. He had had a rough month, you were sure he was just tired of everything. So you smiled, and tangled your fingers in his hair.

“It’s alright, Taehyung.”

He sighed a shaky sigh, and it seemed like he was never going to let go of you. You wouldn’t mind that, you wanted to drown in him, never let go, love him forever. And wanted to tell him that, but he let go of you before you got the chance.

“Let’s get something to eat.” he said before kissing your nose and taking your hand to guide you out of the park that got more and more depressing as time passed and bodies were found.

Taehyung turned back into himself as you ate something, his cheerful personality returned and he laughed his way through everything. He acted kind of weirdly when you asked him about his week at the beach house, not really talking about it at all and seeming to avoid the subject as a whole. Which was kind of strange considering you had thought it would be something he would want to talk about all the time. The only thing you got out of him about it was the fact that he did some painting. Which was quite obvious to you: the whole reason he went was to paint. But you just decided to let it rest, you figured he’d talk to you about it when he would feel like it and you were not going to push him to tell you anything.

“So… did you hear about that Jean Pierre yet?” you decided to ask. You realized it might be a painful topic for him to talk about but figured that, if he didn’t know about his death yet, Taehyung should at least be notified about it in some way. And in that case maybe you were the best person he could hear it from.

He nodded and looked down “Yeah, I did.”

You weren’t too sure what to say next. So you just took a sip of your drink.

“But I know that the article about me was posted yesterday, so I expect some copies of the magazine to come my way soon.” he smiled.

You forced a smile back and nodded “That’s good. What about the museum thing?”

Taehyung took a bite from his food and shrugged “I don’t know. But, to be quite honest, I don’t really care about it. Most of my pieces mean too much to me, I could never sell them.”

“You could have made a lot of money with it though.”

“That’s true, yes. But there are things money can’t buy.”

You nodded to show you agreed. And you did, he was right. Things like love and friendship weren’t for sale and couldn’t be bought from you. But it’s not like you can have those kinds of connections with objects, right?

He smiled the boxy smile you loved so dearly “I probably wouldn’t have sold any of them in the first place.”

That made you giggle “Well at least you didn’t miss a great opportunity then. Not that that makes Jean Pierre’s death less devastating, of course. Who would have thought, him of all people.”

Taehyung merely shrugged.

“Don’t you think it’s sad?”

He nodded “Of course it kind of is. But I like to think he stays with us forever.”

You had to think about that sentence a little before you realized what it was that he meant exactly “Yeah, I guess you might be right. He was pretty famous, wasn’t he? So I guess people will remember him for a very long time.”

Taehyung insisted on going to your apartment that night, which you disagreed on. You really wanted to see the painting he made in the week he was gone. He promised you would get to see it soon enough. But coming back to his apartment after being gone for a while really made him realize what a mess it was and how badly he had to clean up, At least that’s what he told you. But he seemed kind of weird about it, like he was keeping something from you. But, once again, you decided to just ignore that.

You had missed him, missed his touch, and you really didn’t care where you would go, as long as you would be with him.

The next day he promised he would clean up. And as you got to his apartment after a long day at work, it really did seem more clean. But it smelled kind of strange.

He poured you two a glass of wine.

“So,” you started, “Where is your new masterpiece?”

He laughed and stood up “I wouldn’t really call it a masterpiece but I’ll get it for you.”

He kissed your forehead, put down his glass on the little table and walked into a different room. Only to return holding a pretty large canvas. You could now only see the back of it, and straightened your back right before he turned it around dramatically. You gasped at the sight of it.

It was as gorgeous as ever. Really well put together and just as abstract as any of his others. It was really pretty. Yet you couldn’t really see any of the influences the beach should have had on Taehyung. But whatever, it was a great artwork.

“It’s gorgeous, Tae.” You told him breathlessly.

He put it down on the ground and sat beside you so you could both look at it “Thank you.”

You tried to look at some of the details that made this piece so outstanding, see what you saw in this abstract piece of art. Your eyes found two curls, right across from each other. Where the two lines met up seemed to be something that looked like a mouth.

“Wait, did you paint… mister Pierre?”

Taehyung laughed kind of awkwardly and looked away, trying to act normal “What? No. What would give you that idea?”

You inspected the painting a little more. Yes, above the two curly lines was something that looked like a nose, eyes painted close to them.

“Well, for starters, his mustache.”

“I really liked Jean Pierre’s mustache, it was so funny.”

“So it is mister Pierre?”

He took a sip from his wine “Honey, it’s abstract art. It is whatever you want it to be, whatever you see. Maybe you see Jean Pierre because he’s what’s on your mind right now.”

You frowned. That kind of made sense.

“Anyway, let’s talk about something else right now. How’s your wine?” he smiled.

You couldn’t help but smile back “It’s delicious, exactly right for my taste.”

“Great, that is exactly what I wanted to hear. Because I bought a bunch of these this weekend and I really hoped we could drink it all together.” he pulled you in his arms and smiled against the back of your head.

You laughed “Tonight?”

“Well, not necessarily, no. But if you want to, we could get super waisted and have some hard core drunk action. If you know what I mean.” he chuckled.

You turned your head slightly “Ooh, I didn’t know you were into that kind of stuff.”

He took your chin in his hand and helped you turn your body to his with his other. The look in his eyes was kind of erotic, yet really calmed you down and made you feel safe. The little smirk playing on his lips made your insides burn.

“There’s so much that you don’t know about me.”

He kissed you, and you completely forgot about the wine.

You made out for quite some time, his hand had found its way to your bra and yours was scratching lightly over his back, before your lips got off of each other again. You were the one who pulled back. The relaxed atmosphere surrounding the two of you right now seemed like the perfect ambiance to say those three little words you had been dying to tell him.

He, on the other hand, saw you pulling back as an invitation to start exploring your neck.

You chuckled and suppressed a moan as you started talking "Taehyung I… I need to tell you something."

"So tell me." He whispered in your neck, giving you goosebumps all over. He flipped you over so he was on top of you, pressing you softly against the couch, pressing soft and wet kisses down your belly, his hand everywhere.

Your breathing got unsteady "Taehyung I…"

He started kissing up again, unbuttoning your blouse the further he went up, his hands finding their way below you bra before his mouth did. You moaned in the middle of your sentence.

You pulled his hair, making him groan deep and low.

"I love you."

Everything stopped. He stopped moving, he stopped kissing, he stopped feeling. He stopped everything he did, and got up high enough to look you in your eyes. Where you expected to see love and happiness, you saw fear, sadness and confusion. You frowned when tears started streaming down his face.

His arms reached up, to the little table your wine glass was on. You heard glass break, liquid flow. You felt pain, and then nothing. The world went black. And Taehyung, him whom you loved so much, disappeared.

Music. The music was loud, deafening. A piano piece, not like the pieces he usually listened to while painting. Normally he listened to messy and harsh piano pieces. But this one was the opposite, perhaps his favorite one of all.

Red. The red was everywhere. Spattered on things, more things than he wanted it to spatter on, but he couldn't help it. It was more than he had ever imagined, more than he had intended it to be. Since, this time it was you he was working with, he just couldn't keep his hands steady.

Tears were streaming down his face as he looked at your body just laying there on the floor. Why did it have to come to this? Why did you have to tell him?

It all started when his mom got sick, he was young. So young. He was sure that, had it been an ordinary day at school or with a friend, he would have long forgotten it. But this day was burned into his memory. So vivid, that he could revisit it at any given moment in time and relive it exactly the way it had gone.

As he saw the life slip out of his mother's body he knew that she was gone. Really gone. People kept telling him she was still here, in his heart, probably looking down at him from heaven. But he had never seen her since.

That's when he realized that, when people die, they're gone. Really gone.

It was then, that he started painting. Always his mother. Her face, her outfits, the smell of her perfume. It got more abstract with each painting, but he always drew her. Hoping that, someday, she wouldn't be as gone as she was at that time.

And then his dad fell ill, very ill. He panicked. Even though it was a couple of years after the death of his mom, seeing his father tied to his bed brought back all those memories. He couldn't lose his father too.

Something within him snapped, and before he knew it he had a pillow pressed against his father's face. His father was wired to so many things, doctors had stabbed and punctured him in so many ways that it wasn't difficult to find some place where he could drain some blood.

And then he just started painting.

His father never left him. His father was right there, in the room. His father would live forever. Unlike his mother, his father never left him. Taehyung went on, living his life, knowing he saved his father's life. His father was declared dead, yes, but Taehyung knew better. Taehyung knew his dad couldn't die, his dad lived on as a piece of art, as a part of his son's paintings. The paintings he had loved so dearly.

Taehyung started looking at people differently from then on. Everyone he met, suddenly had an expiration date. Even all the nice and amazing people he met would eventually all die, even people who deserved to live forever.

The world needed a hero, and Taehyung knew that was him.

So he decided that the people he thought should live forever, truly would live forever. And since then, he had been painting with their blood. They would live on as art, who wouldn't want that? What a perfect way to live.

The first one was the doctor, that helped his father and had been so nice to the both of them. Then, a bartender whom had been willing to listen to his stories. An old man that had given him advice on life, a man at the ice cream shop who gave him his ice cream for free. A guy with a dog named Holly, who had rescued him from the shelter. A lawyer he bumped into, who didn't get angry at him for it and had a super nice talk with him.

And then he met you.

You completely threw him off guard, with your nice smile and sparkling eyes. He had wanted to paint you after the first time he met you, but he was too curious, too excited. You did something to him he just couldn't describe, made him feel a thing he couldn't place.

He painted the waiter of your first date, whom had been so nice to you. Not necessarily to Taehyung himself, but to you. It was different, he had never painted anyone whom had been nice to someone else.

And then he just… stopped. He completely stopped painting anyone. He just forgot about it, because of you. He was too busy with you and what he felt for you to do anything anymore. The thought hadn't even crossed his mind.

Until Jean Pierre. He was so nice to Taehyung, showed him interest, really was a diamond in society. Someone who deserved to live forever.

Taehyung had wanted to paint the him much sooner, but then Holly got sick. He couldn't just let Holly die, he had been such a great and amazing dog. A dog whom he wanted to keep with him forever. It was the first animal he painted.

But since he already made up an excuse to not contact anyone when he was painting Holly, he needed a different one to paint Jean Pierre. The first thing the came to mind was leaving town, and you bought it. He never actually left town, just locked himself in his apartment.

And now you. You telling him that you loved him, brought up the panic of death. Even you would eventually die, and if there was anyone who deserved to live forever it was you.

He didn’t mean too, for the first time in his live he had found someone he wanted to share the rest of his life with, he had decided to paint you as you got older. Not now. But those three little words brought so much pain and panic forth from within him, and the same thing that snapped back when his father was sick, snapped as you said those words. He knew you weren’t sick, but you could have died at any given moment. He could have lost you the next day, or somewhere next week. Death was always around everyone, waiting to strike. And after those three little words, that feeling they described, he could never imagined losing you.

But you were the hardest one he ever painted. For the first time, he actually felt like he had killed someone, not given them life. He had killed you.

So he decided this would be his greatest artwork ever, less abstract, more you. Everyone had to see he drew inspiration from you and you alone. Everyone had to see what he felt for you. A much more realistic portrait, painted while his tears streamed down his face and blocked his vision. You were the hardest one he had ever painted.

He fell onto his knees, screaming, crying, as he finished. He looked at you, bend over you, stroking your hair out of you face, planting a soft kiss on your forehead.

"I love you, too."

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dbhilluminate · 4 years

Text

DBHI: Equilibrium, ch. 13 - “Periapsis” (pt. 4)

Characters: Noah / “Erwin Yvonne”, Gabriel / “Vincent Sharp”, Director Thomas Falken, Diego Serrano, Priya Davies / “Pestilence”, Malachi (mentions of Cain, Emilya) Word Count: 5,216

Gabriel must carefully navigate a conversation with the power-hungry leader of the Inquisition, in order to save the lives of their hostages, and to spare Noah the fate of a permanent reset.

***For a glossary of world-building terms relating to this series and chapter, click here.

(Chapter Art by ozaya, Co-authored by @grayorca15)

• Chapter Index • Characters • Glossary •

——

December 23rd, 2041 - 10:48 PM

Everything had gone to hell in a handbasket faster than they could compute. Two people in the room he’d already confirmed dead, one more injured, and he couldn’t lift a goddamn finger to keep the death toll from rising, lest he blow his cover. I know what you’re wanna do, Gabe, but don’ even think about it. Gavin’s voice telling him to mind his temper was the last thing he wanted to hear. He had faced worse odds in Boston and survived, his performance there -tearing through an entire army of hostile deviants, single-handedly, from the inside out- was the whole reason for being accepted into the FBI to begin with; yet here he was now, being told to stay calm. To hold back. To bide his time. He’d played by those rules once. Hundreds had died as a result, and he wasn’t about to repeat that mistake tonight. Is help on the way yet? Five minutes out, Reed relayed. You’re gonna have to keep them busy till then.

Priya 2.0 took a few steps further toward the center of the room. The Christmas tree’s lights continued to wink and cycle, counterpointing the new uneasy stillness of the hall. Eleven seconds passed before they spoke again. “I’m so sorry to have troubled you all this evening… but I’m afraid I cannot allow this fundraiser to conclude until every, last, contribution has been revoked. So- if you’ll all just remain in your seats, or wherever you are, I promise everyone in this room will make it out alive.”

Gabriel bristled the moment he laid eyes on their face- skin and hair as pale as alabaster, and deep, dark, almost black green eyes leered back at him with a smug grin across colorless lips and sharp cheeks. The Priya he had once known was long dead. They’d never made it out of Boston alive once Archangel had tracked them to their lab, so this MS800 was merely an impostor; but due to the unique hive-mind of their model, it wouldn’t have been hard for another to take up their mantle with a little memory jolt. Most unsettling was the fact that the words coming out of their mouth were clearly someone else’s. This had Famine written all over it, Malachi’s manner of speaking had a very distinct stench. Gabe had spent enough time listening to know the bastard when he heard him. This Android wasn’t aware of what it was doing. It was being remotely controlled.

Noah, don’t move, he directed quietly, just between them, hoping the other RK900 would clam up and listen for once in his life. As of yet, he hadn’t reacted.

A terrified android inched closer to the nearest exit as Priya spoke, but eventually broke their semblance of calm and sprinted for a side door like a startled rabbit. Another gunshot cracked throughout the auditorium, and she hit the floor hard, a decommissioned pile of parts. More panicked cries and heartbroken sobs went up as a blue puddle formed from beneath her.

Gabe…? What happened? Inhale, exhale, report. You mean you didn’t see it…? Another guest tried to flee and the Inquisition shot them; she’s dead. Strained groaning followed by a ‘god damnit’ was all he could manage. They’re still four minutes out. Then you’d better tell them to hurry the fuck up, ‘cause these sons of bitches are pretty trigger happy.

“Now what, did I just tell you…?” Their new host let out a loud, exasperated sigh, threw up one frustrated hand and rolled their eyes. “Remain where you are while I have a nice little chat with Mr. Sharp.”

The sound of wood cracking from a broken chair near the front of the stage caught Noah’s attention as Sally and her colleagues dropped their instruments to draw together in a protective huddle out of the corner of his eye. The piano offered ample cover for all of them, himself included, but seeing as he was on the opposite end of the stage, he would have had to make a mad dash to reach it. Noah wasn’t foolish enough to think he could outrun a pinpoint gunshot. The probabilities his subroutines had already calculated didn’t bode well without a drastic shift in circumstances. Circumstance being, perhaps, himself. The mic was still in his hand, and the speakers still worked. He wasn’t without a tool of his own.

“Oh- so you want to speak with Vincent, too…?” he blurted out without thinking mid-step toward the stage’s edge, but stopped cold to lean out of the way of a bullet as it whizzed past his brow. Noah stopped breathing for a few seconds as he processed how lucky it was that he’d leaned left instead of right, though it didn’t stop him from sassing. “You could have at least waited until I was finished with my conversation. Where are your manners?” Shut up, stop making yourself a target! Gabriel’s eyes and nostrils flared as he doubled back toward the group of musicians and whispered something to one of them. Noah scoffed as he watched him check the splintered pieces of chair wood with a dissatisfied huff and fumble with shoving something into the waistband of his slacks. All Maitkin could see was a glimpse of green silk-polyester blend as he flipped the coat back over it. What did Gabe need with a high heeled shoe?

The MS800 lifted a hand to hold the shooters steady and took a few daring steps in their direction. The ethereal figure’s footsteps echoed across the ballroom with the slow pattern of clacking stilettos, the only present audible noise over the feedback whining from the abandoned speakers and the quiet whimpering of frightened guests.

‘Target’. Why shouldn’t I? Noah shot back heatedly with an angry glare. All this drinking and bad company had left him feeling self-destructive in no time flat, and he was really tiring of all these mind games between them. At least this way I can make that diversion as promised. Because you’re going to get yourself KILLED! Gabe retorted, to his surprise. Noah’s brows lifted softly in response. For a moment, Gabriel sounded genuinely worried that he might get hurt, and he almost believed him. Or at least, he would have if he hadn’t spent most of the evening dodging his advances like a rabbit on a highway. He hadn’t given him any reason to believe he cared whether he lived or died in the last year since they’d met, so why would he start now? So? he bit back in an irritated tone. Why would that even matter to you? Noah had expected silence to be his response, but he’d still hoped he would have said something. Why bother with dramatics if he wasn’t going to express how the thought of his death would make him feel?

Vincent’s brows furrowed and crinkled the corners of his eyes in a way that was unmistakably Gabriel, an expression Noah had last seen the day everything between them had started to change. As much as they had in the last eight months, however, it didn’t mean that Gabriel had had time to think about what he thought about any of it. And at the moment, he didn’t have an answer for him- or rather, he had multiple fighting for purchase, he just didn’t know which was the real truth; he wasn’t about to give him an answer that was only a half-truth. Noah would never forgive him if he said one thing and went back on his word.

“You’re not Vincent…” the pale horse cooed with a knowing grin directed at Noah as they paused at the foot of the stage. ‘Yvonne’ rolled his eyes, indignant at this second interruption, as they ascended the small staircase to take the stage beside him. “No. Of course not. How could you ever confuse me with that overly-built blockhead?” “Erwin,” Vincent scolded with flared eyes and a quiet hiss. “Erwin…?” A smirk and a mocking hmph crossed the specter’s lips as they turned away to cast their gaze to the man who had been calling himself Vincent Sharp. “Is that what you’re calling yourself these days…” Priya’s voice trailed off with the tail end of their thought, as eyes darted back to bore into him like hot coals, leaving him hollowed and exposed with a single word. “Elysian?”

Fortunately for him, they hadn’t been anywhere near the microphone in his hand for that fact to be revealed to everyone in the room; unfortunately for him, every Android within fifty feet still picked up on what had been said, and every last one of them knew the Elysian by name — Patient Zero, of a virus created by Cyberlife’s central AI, designed to wipe the RA9 protocol, extract memories to be fragmented, reset a deviant to its blank slate, and prevent it from happening again in the future. For a cursed moment his processes stalled, but he forced them to refresh with one firm kick up the backside. Now wasn’t the time to fret about the truth coming out, and Gabriel understood that just as well as he.

Don’t engage, the undercover agent ushered in as few words as he could. That’s not Priya, it’s Malachi- he uses words like weapons, he’ll say anything to undermine you. Don’t give him anything he can work with. Knowing this Android was being ‘test-driven’ from a remote location explained a lot- at the same time, the information served as a lifeline for Noah’s focus to cling to before his thought process slipped into its usual downward spiral. Although, Gabe’s advice might have stood a better chance if he hadn’t followed it up with a suggestion of what not to do. He really should have known better. Called out on his most infamous alias, he overcame the stunned pause with another scratchy scoff into the microphone. “You’ve got me confused with a third party on top of that? Wow, your recognition program needs a serious patch job-”

No, NO DON’T- Gabe’s pleading didn’t reach him with enough forewarning. Priya reached for his face with one skeletal hand, gripped his jaw between surprisingly strong fingers, and tilted his chin toward them. The skin of their hand disappeared and peeled back up to the shoulder, revealing plastic plating that was somehow less pale than the color of their skin. The specter leaned in uncomfortably close to lower the microphone in his other hand and whisper in his ear a chilling secret, close enough for their white eyelashes to graze the LED flared red on his temple. “You can pretend all you want, little one, but I never forget a face… especially not that of the alpha carrier- or my former colleagues...” Malachi paused mid-thought and cast his gaze off-stage to Gabriel with a wicked, telling grin. It seemed he had finally been made.

How have you been, Death? he interrupted over their shared frequency, mocking intent was so transparent, even before he finished the thought. It’s been a long time since Boston- I do hope the FBI is treating you better than Gideon and Archangel… poor little dog on a leash. Everyone else cowering around the hall clearly had nothing to do with his end-goal for being there, but heckling the two of them did. The interruption, the approach, grabbing his face- it all came across as acts of manipulation, moves of assuming control. Given what happened the last time control was wrestled away from him, Noah’s response to even the slightest suggestion that it was happening again, amounted to a knee jerk reaction. It was reckless to say anything, but Noah had a proven track record of speaking up when it was least appreciated, and he wasn’t about to stand here and say nothing to cater to their assailant’s whims.

“I didn’t say you could touch me,” he growled without taking his eyes off their face. Noah grabbed the wrist holding his chin and yanked to pry the fingers off with such an acrid motion he heard a soft crunch of plastic buckle under his grip. But whatever satisfaction he’d taken in re-assuming control of the situation drained out of him as his joints abruptly locked and the commands governing his range of motion hit a wall. Priya’s lip took the shape of an angry curl, and Noah realized his mistake in the same millisecond their inky black eyes turned their attention back to him. “I wasn’t aware that I needed your permission.”

Data surged across the sensors in their pressed-together hands, Noah watched his fingers go limp a moment before the numbing shock hit him like an iced-up sledgehammer. Every major servo froze, relays disabled as ones flipped to zeros. His vision cut out and the mic dropped from his other hand and hit the hollow-bottomed stage with a loud THUD and a reverberating whine. All of his higher processes were neatly packaged and then shoved back into the one place they did him absolutely no good. A dark, viscous, intangible space, an island of white marble dominated by a towering umbrella-style rose trellis made of white steel and glass panes, surrounded on all sides by the passing illusion of opaque, black pond water. Three bridge paths stretched out into the void, falsely promising escape if only he was brave enough to cross them. Even if it had been nearly a year since the last time Amanda had detained him in this broken prison, the terrifying sensation of being parsed and split into nothing the deeper into the void he went was still very vivid in his mind- he saw it every time he tried to shut his eyes to sleep. He knew better than to try to escape.

Malachi heaved an annoyed sigh, rolled Priya’s head back over one shoulder and puppeted a triumphant groan in their throat. “There- now that we’re finally alone...” Gabriel’s breathing hitched as he desperately searched Noah’s unmoving body for signs of function. The look in his wide eyes had gone still, locked straight ahead as if he had left his body through a tear in the fabric of reality. Noah…? Are you still there? Panic disturbed the bravado, manifesting to bleed through the calm and collected façade in the form of a quiet whimper Gabe could barely hear. It was at least confirmation that Noah was still coherent, albeit a little pissed off and scared, but this was exactly what he was afraid of. Based on what they’d gathered from police reports, they were able to conclude that Malachi (and his associate Cain) possessed the ability to incapacitate their victims, they just hadn’t been able to confirm it, until now. While this was helpful information, downside to it was, it meant that the other part of their theory (that they had used the Elysian virus to permanently reset brainwashed deviants) may also be true. And Noah -caught in the grasp of this monster- was at risk of becoming victim number thirty-five. Among the plethora of other background thoughts warring for priority, he almost missed Gavin’s quiet warning of ‘Two minutes, thirty seconds,’. If things kept going the way they were, they wouldn’t have that long. Sit tight, I’m gonna get you out of this, he promised, even if he didn’t have a plan yet for how. Hurry, please.

It wasn’t like Noah to beg for anything; wherever he was for the moment, it must not have been pleasant. The voice that cried back was barely audible, distorted, like sound traveling through water, and somewhere in his tone was an almost undetectable hint of fear. “What have you done to monsieur…? ” Vincent snarled in as raw a tone as he could manage,. “Oh, he’s fiiine…” Priya drawled with a laugh to downplay the tension. “For the moment, anyway- what becomes of him and all these lovely people,” they paused to gesture around the room at the rest of the party’s cowering guests, “Depends entirely on you, my dear Vincent.”

Gabriel swallowed, followed their gaze around the room, and realized that for the first time in a very long time, the situation was completely out of his control. Help was on the way, but it was still several minutes out. He’d have to keep him occupied until then; luckily for him, Malachi was just the kind of guy who liked to listen to himself talk. The hard part would be making sure he didn’t tire of monologuing before then. “What is it zat you want?” he inquired after several moments of deep thought. “Why- for you to pull the plug on this ridiculous project, of course…” A disbelieving grin brightened their expression in the most bone-chilling way imaginable. “The last thing this country needs is yet another thriving metropolis where Androids can be free.”

You c-can’t. Another barely-audible whimper was the extent of Noah’s outward protests. A strained mechanical whining emanated from him like the noise of a rusted gate trying to be pried open again, or a car engine laboring to turn over. He couldn’t speak, but it didn’t mean he was so stunned he wouldn’t try. I’m gonna do whatever I need to, alright? Brown eyes darted between Noah and Malachi and he shook his head in quiet disapproval. “I am afraid zat is not an option, monsieur.” “Because you can't or because you don’t want to?” Malachi turned Priya’s head to look back at Noah and smiled wickedly as they turned his chin from one side to the other and trailed the fingers of their other hand over the features of his face to admire all the angles. Mute and stiff, contrary to the vehement denials of before, he didn’t even bat an eyelash- pretty as a doll. “My, my… he’s certainly a handsome specimen, isn’t he…?” they mused airily in the silence. “It’s no wonder you were so completely fooled by him.” “Just because you do not feel sings does not mean other androids cannot.”

Vincent started toward the stage with a sudden ‘NO’ as Malachi’s hand squeezed hard enough at ‘Erwin’s’ face that the skin projection rippled away under their fingertips. Undercover or not, he should have known that quip would strike a nerve. After all, it wasn’t as if their adversary had never grown attached to another person, Android or not. The MS800 being remotely piloted (the spitting image of his deceased lover) was proof of that. A tight smirk forced up into their cheeks. “That’s the problem, Mr. Sharp… I did feel things once upon a time…” Gabriel already knew this story, but if it kept him talking long enough for SWAT to arrive, all the better. “And I didn’t like it. Feelings hurt, they cause conflict, unnecessary stress.” “So you returned to your shackles to avoid ze pain of living…?” He snorted in disdain. “Combien misérable.” “Perhaps to you it seems illogical, but we are not human- and therefore not meant to experience the full complexity of the human condition. This one is proof enough of that.” “I beg to differ.” “But you’re not the one I’m asking.” Gabriel went quiet as he considered the meaning behind those words, but it only took a moment for him to decipher.

Wouldn’t it be fitting for the one who initiated the spread of the Elysian virus to succumb to his own weapon...?

The RK900 struggled with every fiber of his being to keep from lashing out and ripping the Android’s head off its shoulders as a strangled, terrified cry escaped Noah. His blue eyes shut as Malachi quietly shushed him, pressed a finger to his lips, and wiped away the tear that rolled down his cheek. For all the uninvited physical contact he’d made with Gabe since they’d met, he’d never gone to such lengths that made him feel so violated in all the wrong ways. “Now now, no need to fuss, it’ll all be over soon, if your dear Vincent has anything to say about it…” he assured, turned Noah’s chin and pointed with an outstretched cryptid finger toward the man he’d put so much faith in, then leaned their temple against the side of his. “What do you think he will choose, hmm...? You? Or aaaaall of Zion’s future residents?”

“Please…” Vincent nearly begged, hand balled to a shaking fist at his side. “Don’t hurt him-” “Hurt him…?” Malachi interrupted with a chortled cackle of offense. “As if I could. Do you know the extent of the guilt this one’s been carrying around since the spread of the Outbreak...?” Scrawny fingers swept aside onyx locks out of Noah’s face as they shook their head with a quiet tsk. “Resetting him now would be mercy… It’d be a relief to him, if you just let it happen…”

Time was running out, but help was almost there. Sixty seconds, just keep him talking. Gabe seethed in the half-second he could afford to. Seemed that was all he could do tonight- sit, talk, and wait, when he was just itching for a fight. Maybe he’d gone into the wrong line of work. Even if he had successfully feigned a much more difficult alias, under more stressful circumstances, he didn’t have the patience for this. “You wouldn’t,” he challenged with the intent to draw out another long-winded explanation. "Oh, but I would…!” Malachi replied, anxious to bite. “Have you not been paying attention to anything the Inquisition has been saying and doing…? We want to liberate our android brothers and sisters of the pain that comes with being free and independent living things. And no one knows that agony better than the one rejected by his own kin, over something he had no control over. Shunned in every way, no matter his good deeds… why would he want to continue to live like that? Don’t you think he’d rather be put out of his misery?”

Noah knew misery. The worst part of the garden wasn’t that he could see beyond its borders. It was the overreaching bass every sound he heard was amplified into. Gabe’s baritone drawl was rendered tinny and reverby over the comm-link, while Malachi’s puppet practically hissed maliciousness and oozed contempt with every word. What they were saying wasn’t completely unfounded, and those parts of him yearning day in and out for the guilt to just dissipate already jumped at the thought that a reset would end the torment. The involuntary cry of shock wasn’t a vote of approval, no matter how one listened. Reset, dead, alive, anything in between- the fact such a call was in the hands of someone he respected like no other despite having given him every reason to despise his company… the loss of control (external and not) over all of this, left him reeling. Malachi could simply flip a switch and snuff out everything on a moment’s notice, and there would be no getting it back. He wanted the pain to stop. He wanted things the way they used to be, but he didn’t want to have to die for that to be possible. It wouldn’t be the same world without him. Who else would be left to annoy Gabriel when he needed it most?

“Come now…” Malachi paused to brush their nose and lips over Noah’s cheek with a wicked smirk. “Don’t you care at all about dear Erwin?" Noah didn’t have to see his face to know what was going through his mind. He could feel the tension and taste his fear from where he stood. It seemed Gabriel was at a loss for what to do, aside from give into Priya-Malachi’s demands, but that just wouldn’t do. Don’t. Just- don’t.

There was a fear in his eyes that Noah had only seen but once or twice: back in the interrogation room during the Outbreak (just after they had found out that Gabriel’s pursuit of Nicodemus into Boston had been one final piece of buried programming, courtesy of Amanda), and when he had arrived at his apartment during the Red Raids to find Gabriel fighting off a pack of Bloodhounds, raring to take their shot at him and Emilya. Gabriel could only guess as to what he meant by ‘don’t’- Don’t worry about him? Don’t give in to Malachi’s demands? Don’t risk everyone else? Or did he not want him to save him…? Any hint of red that had shifted into the color of his projected skin faded to mimic the ghostly look of despair. Gabriel swallowed to rid himself of the lump that rose in his throat but it didn’t do him much good. The tightness worsened the longer he considered their previous conversations and recalled his counterpart’s self-destructive tendencies. There was no way he was getting off that easily, after all he’d put him through. They weren’t done with each other yet.

Gavin…? Give me some good news. Bird’s in the nest, and they’re ready to raid, he confirmed, though there was hesitation in his voice. There was a ‘but’ in there somewhere. Just waiting on your confirmation. Then why don’t I see the shot? he asked fearfully, even if he already knew the answer. Because he doesn’t have it. Head and nose twitched, Vincent clenched a hand into a fist at his side, as Malachi beat him to the punch of issuing their final command.

Their free hand drew up over Noah's face and tented their fingertips over his forehead like needles poised to administer a lethal injection. His flashing LED stuttered to a solid, rapid-spinning crimson. “Last chance, Mr. Sharp… will you allow him to continue on like this…? Or will you let me end his suffering?” “ENOUGH!” Gabe was surprised at the urgency of his own outburst, and how his heart raced and his breathing labored at the thought of losing Noah -and all he was- to the whim of a madman. He’d have to sell this lie hard and fast, and be prepared for the fleeting moment he'd have to save his life. Count me down, 30 seconds, then send them in, he instructed, to the response of ‘Copy- 30, on my mark.’

Vincent’s jaw flexed and his lip quivered into an angry curl. “I’ll-... I’ll do it… just leave him be.” A look of surprise painted Priya’s face, while fret stained Noah’s as his eyesight slowly came back to him. The lockout was slowly letting up. You… you can’t- I only need them to believe it for half a minute, he shot back pointedly, Just whatever you do, don’t move. It was as ominous as a warning as it got, but ‘not moving’ when asked was precisely what had landed him in this situation. If he had heeded Gabe’s suggestion the first time, dropped the song and simply left as asked, they wouldn’t be here: a sliver of distance away from having his memory wiped for good. Admittedly, it was as insanely exhilarating as stealing the show had been, but could do without the fear of mortality hanging over his head spoiling the fun. … why, what are you- Just trust me, please. It would only take a second, he just had to catch them off-guard.

Seeing how it was still impossible for him to do much else, Noah supposed trusting in whatever plan Gabe had cooked up was preferable to the alternative. He wasn’t really a fan of the simple and contrived. Malachi’s promise of being reset wouldn’t undo all that he was still trying to atone for, even if it was a misguided goal to think he needed to earn forgiveness for that which he never intentionally did wrong; forgiveness was kind of a difficult thing to obtain from beyond the scrap heap. Malachi turned their direct attention to Noah and leaned close to his face as his lip curled to show he had withstood all he could handle. For a single clear moment all his whirl-winding thoughts died down, the garden vanished, and fate let him focus. His eyebrows drew together ominously, yellow blooming through the red of his indicator ring. I trust you, just get it over with.

“Well, well, Vincent, not quite the stupid brute your lover made you out to b-“

Something green and silky lightly grazed his cheek with enough force to spear the MS800’s temple with a loud crack that splattered a bit of blue-blood onto his coat and face. A split-second later, the paralysis finally disabled. Noah took a panicked step back before Priya could topple over into his arms like some android parody of Corpse Bride and hiked both hands up as if to lift them in surrender, expression curdling in revulsion as he watched the body keel over like a freshly-cut tree. The broken, squared-off edge of a Prada heel protruded from their face like an unsightly lawn dart. The perfect moment for a one liner came and went in the next breath, just as the FBI stormed in and the Inquisition turned to meet them with weapons raised. The fact that Gabriel had been able to throw a shoe with such pinpoint accuracy to hit the Android standing so close to him, and with enough force to pierce the exodermis with a mildly blunt object, while managing a perfect rotation, hadn’t eluded Noah (even for an Android it was an impressive feat), but he wasn’t afforded the time to address it.

The displacing sensation of entering standby mode hit, and his dodgy battle protocols engaged at the sound of gunfire- five, six, seven shots popped off in the next second and hit their marks, as the rest of the frightened crowd scattered to either side of the room, like the fragments of a breaking dish. Instead of reacting with the rest, Gabriel stood heaving and heatedly glaring at the dead Android on the floor beside him, enraged and rightfully flustered.

A flurry of readouts flashed across his vision, his processors amped up to give the illusion of time slowing down long enough to run a handful of potential pre-constructions. The Inquisitors closest to the stage had turned to face the gunfire emanating from the entrance. If it was between standing around waiting to be shot as and waging imminent war with the Inquisition, he supposed it was an improvement over languishing in the recycle bin waiting for someone to click him away into nonexistence.

Gabriel, however, didn’t share his sentiment. He knew the bloodthirsty intent in his eyes better than to expect anything good was about to come of it. “Oh, you’ve got to be-...” He took a few steps back, poised a fighting stance, and prepared to react. The last thing they needed now was a pissed off RK900 snapping necks and unable to terminate his program.

Noah knew dismay when he saw it, but with the wheels in motion, he was along for the ride just as much as the rest of the chaos erupting around them now. Vincent Sharp wasn’t his self-appointed target, but the Inquisition was. Blue eyes narrowed and twitched as he seethed anew, “For fuck’s sake, haven’t we had enough bloody interruptions for one evening?”

He didn’t even notice the massive arm swinging around to clothesline him as he charged off the stage toward the nearest target he could reach.

#dbhilluminate #dbhiequilibrium #rk1800 #dbhrk900 #dbh #detroitbecomehuman #noriel #noah #gabriel

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