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bigdumbbambieyes · 1 year

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ns!fw for the birthday boy!

Most of the guests have left by now, and the ones that remain will let themselves out shortly, so Steve glances over at his boyfriend who’s rinsing out his beer cans at the kitchen sink. He's still wearing his party hat and looks so sweet like that, with a soft smile on his face as he rinses another can, and Steve can’t help himself.

He goes over and wraps his arms around Billy from behind, presses the blond against the counter and presses a kiss to the back of his neck, softly asking, “Did you have fun?”

Billy leans back against him and nods, sets the can aside as he tilts his head over a little to allow Steve more room to kiss and claim, “Yeah, it was nice,” he hums, “Thanks for…y’know, setting it up.”

“Heather and Chrissy did most of the planning,” Steve replies, parting his lips to press open-mouth kisses against Billy’s skin, tasting the cologne there, “But it was fun to host.”

Billy nods in agreement, because while their apartment in Chicago is small, having friends new and old stuffed into it for an evening to celebrate his boyfriend had been just what Billy needed. Steve couldn’t remember the last time he saw his boyfriend so happy during his birthday party - he used to hate them, up until two years ago, when Steve had begun to celebrate them with him.

“Guess I’ll buy the girls some flowers tomorrow and drop them off at their place,” Billy murmurs as he turns his head, their eyes finally catching, and Steve sees the embers of arousal in those blue eyes. The kisses are working in his favour.

“That’s a nice idea,” Steve hums, sliding a hand down Billy’s stomach and lower to his jeans, giving Billy’s dick a squeeze through the rough denim and smiling as his boyfriend squirms a little with a huff.

“Jesus, Steve,” Billy chuckles softly, breathlessly, but he doesn’t tell Steve to stop and he looks like he doesn’t want him to, either.

“C’mon,” Steve says as he pulls away and grabs Billy’s hand, drags him down the hall towards their bedroom where he hooks his fingers into the top of Billy’s jeans at the doorway, brushing the back of his fingers against the trail of hair there.

Billy closes the door behind them and Steve pulls him in again, seeks out those full lips in the low lighting, and hums once their mouths meet for a deep kiss. He feels Billy’s arms around his waist, pulling them together, and he holds his boyfriend close as their tongues slide slow and hot, pulling soft moans from each other.

He puts his hands in Billy’s hair and feels the string of the party hat, which makes him laugh into the other's mouth. The blond pulls away with a curious expression, but his furrowed brow gives way to a matching grin when Steve jerks off the dumb party hat on top of his head.

“You’re such a fucking dork,” Billy chuckles as he reaches up to pull the green party hat off his head and tosses it aside.

“Mm, yet you were the one wearing it,” Steve smirks as he turns them and pushes Billy onto the bed, taking off his shirt as his boyfriend does the same, both revealing scarred skin and softened bodies.

Steve makes a playful little show of slowly taking off his jeans, moving his hips side to side with a dumb smile on his face, because it makes Billy laugh as he demands, “Get over here.”

Doing as he’s told, Steve pushes his jeans and underwear down before crawling onto their bed, settling between Billy’s legs happily when his boyfriend seeks out his mouth again, lips reconnecting as their hands wander and grip and hold. It’s tender and sweet, full of that usual passion they first felt all those years ago, and Steve’s chest feels so full of affection.

“So sweet for me. You’re my baby, hm?” He mumbles as he presses kisses down Billy’s jaw and neck, smiling as he feels Billy nod with a hummed ‘mhm’ of agreement. In the privacy of their bedroom, Billy lets Steve coddle him like this, lets himself be sweet and gentle, and Steve loves it.

He gives Billy another kiss before moving down his body, kissing scars and skin, biting down on hipbones and inner thighs just to hear the way Billy’s breath stutters. He feels fingers in his hair, petting and smoothing as he works Billy’s jeans open and down before fitting the slick head of Billy’s dick into his mouth with a sigh.

He’s messy with it, sucks and slurps as Billy moans and watches him, their gaze meeting in the dim light as Steve works his mouth up and down. It’s romantic, if a blowjob could be that, because Billy cups his cheek and Steve leans into it, nuzzling into the touch as he pulls off to whisper, “Lube?”

Billy grabs the bottle from the bedside table while Steve pulls his boyfriend’s jeans off the rest of the way, smirking as he says, “It’s not gay if we keep our socks on, right?”

He loves the way Billy still huffs a bit of laughter at the joke, even after so long of hearing it, but the blond nods with a knowing look as he hands Steve the bottle of lube, “Just don’t hold my hand and it won’t be gay.”

“Got it,” Steve grins as he slicks his fingers and shifts his way back up, feeling Billy grab his jaw to pull him into another kiss as Steve's fingers disappear between them.

And it’s always a sight to see when his strong, tough boyfriend softens every time he ghosts his fingers over Billy’s hole, how he goes sweet like a lamb as Steve plays with him there, until he’s sucking on his tongue and whispering politely for more.

Billy’s face goes pink by the time Steve slides the first finger inside, moaning quietly into Steve’s mouth once he feels the press of a second finger at his rim, stretching him slowly and purposefully.

But it’s the soft little sounds Billy pants into Steve’s neck when he’s stretched around three of his fingers, fitting so snug and perfect, curling inside him just enough to push moans deep from his chest, that Steve adores.

“Steve, stop—‘m gonna cum, stop,” Billy breathes out in a rush, clenching so tight around his fingers and his stomach is tensing so Steve pulls his fingers out and kisses at his boyfriend’s parted lips sweetly.

“Sorry, got a little carried away,” he murmurs, “You okay?”

Billy nods and wraps his legs around his boyfriend’s waist, wants to keep him close as he says quietly, “Yeah, ‘m okay. Just kiss me for a bit.”

And Steve does, slowly. He presses his weight down onto Billy and they kiss deeply, their racing hearts starting to slow as they remind themselves to do the same. There’s no need to rush, there’s nothing that needs their attention more than they do right now.

When Billy rocks his hips up, grinding his dick into Steve’s hip, he knows Billy wants more.

“You good, baby?” Steve murmurs as he kisses across Billy’s cheek and towards his ear, “You want me to fuck you now, hm?”

“Yeah, want it,” Billy whispers, his tone a touch desperate, “Please.”

“You don’t gotta beg, honey,” Steve promises softly, “You can have whatever you want.”

“Want you,” Billy says with a pout, Steve can hear it in his voice.

“You got me,” he hums, “Just a sec, okay?”

Billy nods, all sweet and quiet, and watches him as Steve sits up to grab the lube again. Sitting back and slicking himself up, Steve can’t help but to admire his boyfriend, smiles down at him when Billy gives him one first.

“You have the dumbest smile on your face right now,” Billy mumbles with a tiny smirk, his tone teasing and playful but his eyes are soft with affection.

And because Steve is lame, he says, “So do you,” while he slicks up his cock, strokes it a little too long for Billy’s liking because the blond smacks his thigh for it, impatient as always.

“Okay, okay,” Steve chuckles as he crawls over Billy again, feels the back of those strong thighs against his hips as he lines himself up and presses in, slowly, so he can watch Billy’s face the entire time.

The cute little furrow between his brow, the way his eyes go a little unfocused, how his hands find Steve’s arms and grab him there, steadying himself as he feels his boyfriend sink into him. Billy is perfect, warm and tight, and takes him so beautifully.

His hand finds Billy’s and interlaces their fingers, presses them to the bed as he moves inside his boyfriend lazily, slowly.

And Billy smirks under him, playfully mutters, “You made it gay.”

Steve huffs a soft laugh at that, hums, “My bad,” but he’s not sorry at all.

Not when Billy squeezes his hand in return and quietly begs, ‘harder’.

Maybe there’s something to be said about the way they make love, on Billy’s birthday, but Steve can’t find the words. He never can, not when he’s drowning in the emotions that come with being like this - being in love.

Instead, he fucks into Billy just how the blond wants, slow and then fast and slow again, pressing deep and grinding, flipping them over so Billy can set the pace - but Steve cums suddenly and way too fast, which should be embarrassing, but they’re well passed that now.

It happens and they make do. Steve pulls his boyfriend on top of him and they make out while he slips his fingers inside of Billy again, lets the blond pant into his mouth and plays with him until he cums with a curse.

And they’re insatiable tonight. They should sleep, should wind down and clean up and cuddle, but Billy flips him over and reaches for the lube instead.

Before long, Steve’s gripping the pillow under him and drooling onto it as Billy’s fingers stretch him open, too.

Time blurs, muscles ache, lips are swollen from suckling kisses. They take breaks and breathers, cuddling and touching idly, talking and laughing, making sure they’re comfortable before going again.

By the time the sun is coming up, they’re tangled together and still touching, dragging fingertips across skin and lips and Billy’s falling asleep, his eyelids getting heavier and heavier as Steve watches him with a tired smile.

“It’s almost time to get up and have breakfast,” he teases quietly, because he knows neither of them work tomorrow so they can sleep in as late as they want, but he has something important to ask.

“Mm, shut up,” Billy mumbles in his half-asleep state, cuddling in closer to his boyfriend, still so sweet and all Steve's.

He can't help it. He says, “Happy birthday,” one last time with a kiss to his boyfriend’s forehead, smiling as he hears a tiny ‘thank you’ before Billy’s out, snoring into his neck. Which is fine, because Billy's had a long day and night, he deserves to rest.

The ring in the closet can wait for the morning, Steve supposes.

#harringrove #harringroveweek #billy hargrove #steve harrington #lemon #oh she's a long one y'all #y'all know i couldn't let billy go unfucked on his birthday #i'm a switch harringrove truther until i die #also cunningway if you squint #anyway enjoy!!#bambiwrites

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happy-hermit · 1 year

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LAST LIFE SCAR ANGST PART TWO BABY :D

Thank you everyone for your enthusiasm with this fic akdkjdh it really kept me going. ( @stiffyck this is still for you)( @hopepetal here’s the tag u asked for I love your writing by the way I’m so happy you like this fic alskjdjd)

Part One

———

A few days pass where nothing and everything happens in equal measurements. The returned hermits work on settling back into normal — well, relatively normal — life, and they tend to only see each other in passing. They get caught up in old and new projects, filled with an urgency that came from being away for so long.

Scar himself spends most of his time gathering items. It’s mindless, repetitive work. Time consuming. Calming, almost. It’s boring enough that he doesn’t think anyone will bother to bother him. (He ignores the way his chest pangs at the thought. It doesn’t matter. It can’t.)

Jellie follows him around most of the time, even if he can’t always see her. She’s a comforting presence, and he knows that she’s only there because she wants to be. He doesn’t have to write up a contract to convince her to stay. She’s there for him. It’s just… nice, is all. To know that.

Scar wanders around with shulker boxes full of wood and leaves and sand and he pretends that he’s not avoiding everyone. It’s not like he doesn’t see them at all, and in fact he always grins and waves when he happens to run into someone. He just — doesn’t stay long. Doesn’t want to overstay a welcome he isn’t sure he has.

Daytime is easier. He can be busy during the day. He can forget. At night, though, he lays in bed and he hurts. His chest aches, and he’s cold, and he’s alone, always. Jellie is there, sure, and she counts, of course, but—

Well. Jellie can’t hug him. She can’t talk to him. She doesn’t know why he’s sad.

More than once, he finds himself outside of a Boatem member’s base in the dead of night, hand poised to knock and heart tugging him forward. He can’t do it, though. He doesn’t really know why — doesn’t want to think about it for too long. He’s pretty sure his mind would lead him back to an isolated mountain with a single bed set haphazardly in a corner. Thinks he would only be reminded of the way people had only ever visited if they’d wanted something from him.

He never knocks, those nights. He instead demolishes frankly absurd amounts of land for resources he doesn’t yet have plans for. He doesn’t sleep at night. It’s fine.

He manages to believe that for two weeks before it all falls apart.

———

The nights have been getting colder, since they all got back. Maybe it’s the season changing, or maybe it’s whatever has started happening with the moon; either way, Scar is thankful that he’s wearing a jacket. The fact that he’s soaked through to the bone is a little less ideal.

It’s a well known side effect of glow squid hunting, though, so he can’t really blame it on anyone but himself. It certainly ensured that he wouldn’t be falling asleep on his feet anytime soon. Of which there was a very real danger, if the cotton stuffed into his head and the lead weighing down his eyelids is any indication. The glow ink splattered on his hands and sleeves is starting to look a little blurry, and he instead focuses on just making it back to the Swaggon without keeling over.

The universe has it out for him, though, so when the first phantom crashes talons-first into his back, all he can do is fall.

He hits the ground with a strangled yelp, his sack of hard-earned glow squid ink flying out of his hand and splattering across the grass. It’s pretty. And heartbreaking. He supposes he hadn’t really needed it for anything…

The phantoms screech angrily overhead, and his back throbs and he scrambles to roll over onto it anyway, because he can’t stand up just yet and he at least wants to be able to see what’s coming—

He lurches to the right as another phantom dives towards him, and the talons only connect with his upper arm as opposed to his chest. He’ll call that one a win.

“Oh geez— Ow, come on, you can’t kick a man when he’s down!” Scar scrambles backwards across the grass, voice high and eyes wide as he resorts to attempting to reason with things that don’t understand him.

There are three of them circling him, and he scrambles to his feet just in time to catch a set of razor-sharp teeth in his shoulder. He yells and swats at it blindly, somehow managing to hit its eyes and smear glow ink across its wildly flapping wing. The phantom detaches itself from him, and he doesn’t even have time to be relieved before another is diving towards him.

He runs.

His shoulder hurts and his arm hurts and his back hurts and he’s cold and wet and no one has touched him gently in months, and he runs.

He doesn’t mean to go to Grian’s house. He had wanted to go home. (Maybe it’s telling, that he’d ended up here instead.)

A phantom bites at his leg as he reaches the alleyway, fake stars shining above him and horrifying undead creatures punishing him for his insomnia close behind him. Pain ricochets up his calf and down his ankle and he frantically tries to shake it loose, crashing to the ground again and crying out when the impact aggravates his other wounds. He knows without looking that his health is getting low. Dangerously low. And he hates respawning, he doesn’t want to, and maybe it won’t even work, maybe he’s used up his last life and he’s going to die alone just like he lived alone, and all he’ll be is a ghost haunting a world that barely notices his absence.

(That’s maybe too dramatic, but he’s dying and he’s tired and every night he holds his own hand and pretends he’s not alone. He feels entitled to a breakdown.)

He curls up against the ground with his eyes shut tight, resigned to the fact that he’ll have to get up and pick up his scattered items in a few minutes, resigned to the body aches that will follow him around for the next few days, resigned to the jokes that will pop up in chat after his death message goes out.

All he can hear is his own heartbeat in his ears, phantoms screeching and injuries stinging in a way that feels distant. Any second now. Any moment.

A hand lands on his shoulder, distinctly and painfully human, and he gasps, eyes flying open as he scrambles into a sitting position. His leg throbs angrily and his arm sends shocks of pain throughout his entire body and Scar tries his best to stay quiet — no one can know he’s hurt, they’ll kill him, they’ll make him give up a life — but a high-pitched sound of pain escapes his throat anyway. The blurry shape of a person kneeling in front of him freezes.

“—an you hear me? Scar?” The voice sounds like it’s coming from underwater, but it’s familiar. It feels like safe and danger at the same time. It sounds worried. “You’re hurt, please—“

“‘m fine,” Scar manages to get out, strained and quiet and mostly on autopilot.

“Wha— Scar, you are not fine, you absolute…”

The voice trails off into grumbling and Scar blinks slowly, looking down at himself. He’s covered in glow ink and his own blood and torn clothes. The clothes don’t look like the right color. He’s pretty sure they’re supposed to be purple.

“Wrong…” Scar mumbles, poking at his clothes. It seems important.

“Maybe because you’re bleeding all over it, Scar, just—“ The figure huffs, just a blob of red and tan, and something is moving behind him. Scar squints. The person seems angry. His weak heart rate picks up.

“D’ you… want a life?” Scar asks, confused and hurt. He can’t think. “I won’t… not for free. Let’s… A deal?”

The blurry person makes some sort of noise that makes Scar think he said something wrong. It sounds like it was punched out of them. Something’s wrong, he said something wrong. Scar’s eyelids are starting to droop, but he forces them open with a whine. The person lurches forward a bit, like they’re trying to catch him, but he’s not falling. Is he?

“D… Don’t go,” Scar pleads, mind scrambling to put together a sales pitch on why they should stay. “I can… I have— if you…”

His vision goes darker around the edges, as his own voice starts to echo in his head. The figure is saying something again, sounding frantic, scared. He wonders why. He hadn’t meant to be scary. He doesn’t think he’s in a condition to even try to be.

The last thing he sees before the darkness takes hold is a hand reaching out.

———

The first thing he’s aware of, when he wakes up, is not pain. It’s the gentle touch of a hand on his arm, lifting it and wrapping something around it. It still stings, but less so; most likely he’d been given a health potion. He feels warm. Sleepy. He opens his eyes.

The last thing he remembers is phantoms chasing him into Grian’s alley, and then someone finding him. Now with a slightly clearer head, he can only assume it had been Grian himself.

Slowly, he turns his head against the pillow he’s resting on, and he blinks sluggishly at the person currently bandaging his arm. It is Grian, with lines of worry in his face and his wings folded right against his back in that way that meant he was scared. Scar’s brow furrowed.

“…G?” His voice is hoarse, quiet, but Grian’s head still snaps up as if he’d shouted. “What’s wrong?”

Grian’s wings fluff up a little, something like angry disbelief swirling in his eyes.

“What’s wrong?” Grian repeats, half-hysterical. He drops the roll of bandages onto the bed and gestures wildly at Scar’s body. “You keel over in my alley dying of blood loss and you’re asking me what’s wrong?”

“Well, you do seem to be taking it harder than I am,” Scar jokes half-heartedly, attempting to sit up. Grian immediately pushes him back down, and Scar is too shocked to protest.

“Nope, you don’t get to deflect,” Grian says, and somehow it’s as gentle as it is stern. “I know what phantoms mean, Scar, and — and you didn’t even know who I was when I found you. So— so get talking. I know you know how.”

Nerves flare in his stomach, and he breaks eye contact to stare at the wall, inspecting all the random knick knacks on the shelves. He doesn’t know what to say. Doesn’t know how to explain what he’s been feeling since the games, especially since everyone else seems to have moved on already. It feels silly, suddenly, for his biggest problem to be that he’s lonely. That he doesn’t think anyone wants him around.

“Scar,” Grian says, and it’s softer now. “I’m not going anywhere until you talk to me.”

There’s a lump in his throat and a burning in his eyes, and for just a moment Scar pretends that his heartbreak is anger. He sits up, ignoring Grian’s protesting, and he points an accusing finger at the avian.

“Now you want to stay?” Scar says, powering through even when his voice cracks. “Because last I checked, all— all you wanted to do was leave.”

“Scar, what—“

“No, you wanted me to talk! I’m talking!” Scar’s chest hurts, and his hands are cold, and something in him has been breaking for a very long time. “You— you couldn’t wait to tell me that any alliance from the last games were over. And then when I— When I thought I had Mumbo you came and took him away, too.” Scar cradles his shaking hands close to his stomach and looks away, anger slowly draining. “And then Joel— and then I had no one. And no one wanted to— I tried, Grian, but no one wanted to—“

He closes his eyes tightly, trying to stop the inevitable. “No one wanted to stay,” he finishes quietly. “I… I don’t know what I did. I don’t know why no one…”

Scar trails off, laughing a little and rubbing at his eyes, trying to stop the tears before they fall on Grian’s blanket. “I’m sorry. I don’t— I’m just tired.”

“Scar,” Grian says softly, and something about his voice is strange. “Please look at me.”

Scar looks. Grian has asked him, and he looks.

Grian is looking back at him — a small, sad smile on his face — and he’s crying. Scar blinks in surprise, staring, and Grian laughs quietly, reaching up to wipe at his eyes. Scar doesn’t know what’s happening anymore.

“Grian?” Scar says uncertainly.

“Scar,” Grian says, and he sounds both intensely fond and profoundly guilty. “There is nothing wrong with you.”

Scar’s heart skips a beat in his chest, and he swallows hard. Grian keeps going.

“And I’m so sorry,” Grian says, voice cracking. He reaches out a hand and grabs Scar’s, squeezing it tightly. Scar’s breath hitches, his fingers twitching. The touch feels foreign. It almost hurts. He never wants to let go. Grian tugs on his hand, gently, and Scar looks back up at him. Grian looks heartbroken, but focused. “I didn’t mean to leave you alone,” he says.

“Then why did you?” Scar blurts, unable to help it. He feels a little bit pathetic. He can’t care anymore. “Why did everyone—“

“I don’t know,” Grian says, sad and frustrated and desperate. “I know why I did, I— We didn’t end well the first time. Scar, I couldn’t— I couldn’t kill you again. I looked at you and all I could see was…”

(Bloody knuckles. Sandy clothes. Only one gets to win.)

“I know,” Scar says, quietly, both an apology and forgiveness. And then, softer, “I was alone.” His shoulders curl forwards a little. “Everyone had someone and I was…”

Grian puts his other hand on Scar’s uninjured shoulder, and Scar meets his gaze. The avian’s eyes are full of fire, intense determination mingling with stubborn care.

“Never again,” Grian says, like he’s stating a fact of the universe. Like he’s challenging some malevolent god. Then he softens. “You’re not alone, Scar. Not anymore. Not if I have anything to say about it.”

Scar opens his mouth to say something eloquent and thankful and graceful. Instead, he bursts into tears.

Grian pulls him into a hug by the hand he’s still holding, wings coming up to surround them, and for the first time in a long time Scar feels warm. The ache in his chest is fading. His hands aren’t cold. Grian is breathing shakily next to his ear, and he’s being so very careful as to avoid Scar’s injuries, and he’s hugging him.

Scar tucks his face into Grian’s shoulder and cries.

———

In the morning, Pearl busts down the door with soup and a vendetta against apparently unwelcomed emotions.

(“I heard someone was sad. I’m here to beat it up.” She’s grinning, and Scar can’t help but laugh.)

Impulse arrives a few minutes later and drops Jellie into his lap, smiling softly.

(“I think this one missed you somehow more than we did!” Jellie curls up by his injured leg, and if Scar tears up, no one mentions it.)

Mumbo bursts in last, the salvaged remains of the glow squid ink he’d collected gathered into a little bottle.

(“I tried to get you the fresh stuff, but there wasn’t really a way for them to— to ethically sacrifice themselves. Sorry, mate.” Mumbo is covered in glowing ink, looking genuinely apologetic, and Scar laughs until his ribs hurt.)

And he is not alone.

#this is three times longer than the first part KAKSJDHJD I think I was possessed /j #I hid in a basement all day to write this #I’m sick and on vacation. this is all I have /hj #anyway I hope you like it!! I’m not too sure about the comfort and the ending but I hope it’s fine #anyway enjoy!!#j writes #jay’s journal #goodtimeswithscar #gtws #grian #desert duo #last life smp #last life

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andorerso · 10 months

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an incomplete list of runakvaed edits and manips

since I know we all miss runakvaed’s gorgeous edits, and if you’re new around here you might not have seen some of them, I figured I’d put together a list of iconic manips/edits that I could find to share the love <3 I tried my best but I’m sure it’s not a complete list, so feel free to reblog with more if you have the links!

Doctor AU

Mummy AU

Teen rebels AU

Modern teen AU

Underwear model AU

Witch AU

1920s Halloween AU

Figure Skating AU

Pacific Rim AU

Inception AU

Regency AU

Historical AU

another historical AU

more historical AU

World War II AU

Pirate AU

Selkie AU

Merfolk AU

Burning Man AU

Casanova AU

Wizarding World AU

Young Victoria AU

I might know my heart

The Words Would Only Rhyme

Solo Quiero Caminar AU

family dinner

happy beach times

kissing

more kissing

even more kissing

still kissing

cheek kiss

almost kiss

cuddling

more cuddling

yet more cuddling

a lot of cuddling

on the couch

in the shower

in the bathtub

sexy times

some cuteness

soft

Cass needs some sleep

#rebelcaptain #rogue one #runakvaed #most of these link back to my reblogs #but also huge shoutout to the art of rc (even if they're no longer active)#found a lot there that i couldn't find on my own blog <3 #i actually made this list a while ago and just forget to post 💀#sorry #anyway enjoy!!#*luke voice* the sacred texts!!

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hailsatanacab · 10 months

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Wip Wednesday babeeyy

eyy I've finally remembered that wip wednesday exists!! here's some proof that i'm working on something, and that something is the follower milestone gift i said i was going to do and i promise i'm doing it! i'm doing it it's happening i promise! so here's a little taster!!!! and here's Part One if you want a refresher!

And then the kid just vanishes.

In the blink of an eye, in the time it takes for him to look down, screw his face up because this is all confusing as fuck, and look back up, he’s just gone. There’s nowhere to hide, there’s nowhere to go, Jason can see everywhere around him—but he can’t see Danny.

“Well… shit."

“What, what happened?” Dickybird hisses in his ear, the unsaid, exasperated “now” very clear in his voice.

As much as he loathes to admit it, Jason is feeling very much the same way right now. What was meant to be a simple case of “investigate the potential child abuse and put an end to it” has instead become something… less simple. When is it ever simple in his life?

Still. If working with supers, metas, vigilantes, whatever, has taught Jason anything, it’s that just because you can’t see someone doesn’t mean they’re not there.

“Hey, kid… Danny. Listen, I’m not here to hurt you and if you’re still here, if you can still hear me, then, I don’t know, do you want to get a bite to eat or something? I just want to talk. I just want to figure out what’s happening.”

Jason doesn’t hold his breath.

Okay, no, that’s a lie. Jason holds his breath, but he swears he’s holding it so he can more accurately hear if Danny is still around. That’s all it is, he’s not attached to this kid already. He’s not.

When no answer comes—not even a whisper of a breath or the scuff of a sneaker on the pavement—he suppresses a frustrated growl and opts instead to breathe deeply and pinch the bridge of his nose.

“So…” Tim begins, drawing out the word.

The urge to growl—hell, the urge to pull out his comms and smash them on the floor—grows.

“The kid’s a meta, then. Potential powers including but not limited to: invisibility or teleportation. You think he’s still there?” There’s no reason for the kid to still be around, not at all. If it was Jason, he’d have scattered as soon as he realised the stranger impersonating his dad wasn’t the guy he thought was impersonating his dad, and honestly, wasn’t that extra fucked up? That someone impersonates people in this town often enough that it’s not a surprise? The way Danny spoke about him… What was his name?

Amorpho. Amorphous. Without shape.

A shapeshifter?

Whatever. It’s a mystery for another time, because there’s still a more pressing mystery in front of him.

Or,. rather, not in front of him.

Yes, there’s no reason for Danny to still be here, but…

Jason sighs.

“I’m going to Bat—Nasty Burger. Really? Is that the best burger joint here? Nasty Burger? Whatever, I’m going to get some fucking fries.”

Jason feels fucking stupid talking the air like this. He must look fucking stupid, too, but the thing is… There’s a prickling on the back of his neck, a rolling taste of green on his tongue when he glances through his peripheral, the vague weight of an unseen eyes on him.

Call it wishful thinking, call it a hunch, call it something else, but Danny’s still here.

“There’ll be a burger waiting for you, too, if you want it. My treat.” Jason turns in a full circle, examining everything in his surroundings. Nothing seems out of place, nothing screams wrong to him. “I just want to talk.”

He waits for a full minute with no success, which makes Jason feel even more stupid, before clicking his tongue and making his way to the, hopefully ironically named, Nasty Burger.

#dpxdc #wip wednesday #lol i've been trying to post this for ages #even thought i should make a new day - fuck i forgot about wip wednesday friday #might still do that tbf haha #hailsatanacrab🦀🦀writes #so here we go!!!#idk if i'll delete this later - is that what people do with wip weds?? idk #uh but here we are #please give me some motivation i'm at a wall and i'm banging my head against it 🙏🙏#uh. also. this silly little wip that i had no idea how to follow on from what i'd added to the prompt #is now like 12k long and growing more and more #why do i do this to myself #everything just becomes so big woof #anyway enjoy!!

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fortheloveofaminorcharacter · 2 months

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Stephen Baldwin as Michael McManus in The Usual Suspects

#Stephen Baldwin #Michael McManus #The Usual Suspects #Another Trash King for my Trash King collection #I made these while on a muscle relaxer so I hope they look okay #Tomorrow me will probably cringe at the quality #Anyway enjoy!!

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leviiackrman · 8 months

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"we've worn masks for so long, we've forgotten who we are beneath them..."

[TEMPLATE] || [MORE EDITS]

tag list (ask to be added or removed): @risingsh0t @sstewyhosseini @chuckhansen @statichvm @roofgeese @unholymilf @florbelles @confidentandgood @arklay @jinfromyarikawa @shellibisshe @simonxriley @queennymeria @marivenah @faerune @feypacts @mrdekarios @liurnia @thedeadthree @jacobseed @jackiesarch @heroofpenamstan @dekarios @jillvalentinesday @shadowglens @fenharel @alexxmason

#otp: leaves on a branch #chika x kakashi #oc stats*#oc: chika hoki #naruto oc #anime oc #kakashi x oc #my edits #my ocs #have some content for them!!#currently working on fleshing out her story #ie timeline points of significance and who she knows at that point #but mostly how they would connect hehehe #dont @ me if theres spelling mistakes #and her 'more experience' is that shes had more crushes lmao #neither are relationship people #which is why it takes them so fuckin long to get together #anyway enjoy!!

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purrvaire · 11 months

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summary:

“Are you alright?”

Luke blinks hard - he’s not gonna cry in front of a stranger, he’s not - and looks up. His seatmate is staring at him. Vaguely, Luke recognizes him from the queue at the gate. He takes a deep breath. “Not so much, but for the purpose of this conversation, I will be.”

Which, in retrospect, didn’t make him sound like a sane person, but what the hell. His day can’t get any worse. His voice comes out higher than he expects and wobbles dangerously at the end of the sentence.

The man, bless him, looks momentarily puzzled but, instead of backing off and finding himself virtually whatever seat is affordable, he just shrugs, as if saying fair enough. He sits next to him and, after a moment of deliberation, offers him a tissue.

“I won’t judge, promise”, he says quietly, as if he’s talking to a spooked animal.

Luke holds the tissue between his fingers like a precious relic and, promptly, bursts into tears.

in which luke and din get dumped on the same weekend, meet on the plane and life is not a rom-com until it really, really is

#lidia writes (sometimes)#dinluke #din djarin x luke skywalker #the mandalorian #HELLO THERE GUESS WHO'S BACK #this was almost called luke actually i swear to god #this is silly and cute because i felt like silly and cute #mainly because i am pissed off at season 3 so i decided to write this instead #never underestimate the power of a girl who writes fanfics for hobby #anyway enjoy!!#if you like it let me know i crave approval

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shishiikura · 6 months

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would you give a few personal best goth albums/artists/recommendations

Absolutely I would love to!

I'm going to go by albums since that's how I find it easiest to get into music. Anyway some of my more well-known goth faves that I kinda always listen to:

Disintegration and Pornography by The Cure. Disintegration is one of my favorite albums of all time and its one of THE goth albums however I love all of The Cure's music so.

Violator, Black Celebration, Music for the Masses, Some Great Reward and Playing the Angel by Depeche Mode. You can't expect me to choose one album of theirs they are literally the peche mode. Their gothiest TO ME is Black Celebration though.

With Sympathy by Ministry. One of my absolute favorite albums this is peak cheesy 80s gothy synthpop. I also love the song Everyday is Like Halloween.

Floodland and First and Last and Always by The Sisters of Mercy. Another goth classic like true vampire music.

I like a lot of the usual 80s suspects that may or may not count as goth such as Joy Division and New Order (who i absolutely do count) Pet Shop Boys and The Smiths (debatable but probably not tho)

My more niche fave darkwavey type stuff:

Shattered by Glass Spells

Surf Goth EP and Surf Goth B-sides by Desmond Doom. They also have a new single I like called The Big Boys

Trauma Club or literally anything by Male Tears

Haunted Castle by French Police

Display Model by Harsh Symmetry

Reflections or really anything by October Burns Black

If you like more industrial angry doomy gothy:

An Overture by Youth Code

Anything HEALTH has ever done. I like their songs with NIN, Youth Code, The Soft Moon, and Street Sects (all of these are good bands on their own too)

New Flesh by Priest (supposedly these are former members from the band Ghost? I like them more personally)

I like a lot of industrial like KMFDM and Nine Inch Nails. KMFDM has a fuck ton of music so my fave albums are Tohuvabohu, HYËNA, Nihil, Adios and Hau Ruck.

I've been listening to a little more nu metal recently since that's my bfs specialty and we have that blend playlist thang and he recently got me into Tonight the Stars Revolt by Powerman 5000. It's fun cheesy sci-fi nu metal I really enjoy it.

#liv rants #this is mainly what I've been into recently #I've listened to a LOT of Chvrches recently too and I think they're goth but I dont think the world is ready for that conversation yet #even though Screen Violence is a goth synthpop album TO ME #anyway enjoy!!

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somegiantmess · 1 year

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Happy birthday to an old and loyal friend, @percevall! <3 Also passionate and very supportive, one of the people that make me want to keep doing the things I love~

I love Ariall's new design so much, had to draw her again like this, but realistic-sized and colored this time!

Hope you like her! 🎉

#original character #ariall #my art #hope she's not too weird #my pose ref was supposed to be kinda perspective stuff #but in the end it never looks like the ref when i try that lol #anyway enjoy!!#kinda late to the party was pretty busy these days #but i made iiit

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be-bi-do-crime · 1 year

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just curious, the break has been killing me with boredom, top 5 shows?

of all time?! anon, this is like asking me to pick favourite children omg. i'll give you my top 5 cdramas and then my top 5 (live action) shows in english... (in no particular order)

cdramas:

couple of mirrors

love between fairy and devil

the untamed

word of honor

who rules the world

english:

lucifer

utopia falls

wynonna earp

izombie

the good place

pretty much anything on my carrd and mydramalist profile, but these ones came to my head first :D hope your break livens up a bit with these suggestions anon! <3

#asking carmen #if you like a specific genre/ship trope or whatever then feel free to let me know and i can suggest based on those too #like for example if you're looking for fate-defying insanity that will ruin your life i would recommend LBFAD and also #eternal love of dream (the pillow book) which is currently taking over my brain #anyway enjoy!!

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bookwyrminspiration · 2 years

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Shattered Upside Down

A kotlc wings au: masterpost here

Chapter 31: Love Me Like You Used To

word count: 8.4k

chapter summary: Sophie tackles one of the items on her To-Do list and learns something she thought she never would

warnings: death (important but not main character), not as bad as it sounds and also not described, anxiety, I think that's it!

taglist: I’ll reblog with it! let me know if you want to be added or removed!

ao3 link here or read below

Stories loved to tease, drawing out the terror and the unease and the questions and the revelations, allowing everyone to see each and every piece of the puzzle fall into place. To give them time to try and solve it themselves, to lead themselves astray. The nature of story-telling is to engage, and Sophie couldn’t help but feel like she was being strung along, waiting in that pause as the narrator took a breath, everyone leaning closer, before the story slammed back down to elicit gasps and shrieks and fear from its audience.

How much longer did she have before her story crashed together? How much longer could their plight build and climb and construct itself?

“What do we even do now?” Linh asked, flopping back against the cushions. “There’s so much going on.”

No one had an answer yet.

Sitting in the silence, Sophie pulled her to-do list from where she’d tucked it, fiddling with the paper. Maybe looking over it would help her decide which item to tackle next, or to prioritize them, because Phoenix had just jumped very high up the list. She couldn’t leave that girl with them, but how did she get her away from all that chaos?

“What’s that?” Fits asked.

Sophie hesitated for a moment; it was meant to be just her To-Do list to keep herself organized, but there was no harm in sharing it with everyone.

“Just a list of things I need to take care of. With so much happening, things kept slipping past me until they became problems I couldn’t ignore, so I’m trying to avoid that now.”

He held out his hand in question, and she handed it over. She didn’t think any of the things she’d written there were particularly embarrassing, but who knew?

His brow furrowed as he read through each item, Keefe crowding over his shoulder to read it too in a way that had Fitz shoving at his face to get away from him.

“I’m just looking!” Keefe insisted, sticking his face right next to Fitz’s, who looked like he was about to shove Keefe off the couch and maybe drag him through some mud for good measure--there was sure to be plenty outside with the patter of the rain nonstop against the roof.

“Keefe, I swear--”

“You can check off a few things from here, Foster,” he added, and she just sighed instead of explaining that Explain what happened when I got taken and Learn what Dex found in the facility had literally just happened and she hadn’t had a chance to yet.

After another moment of watching the two fight, Marella sighed, darting forward to snatch it from Fitz’s hands, reading it aloud to the group.

Or at least, she was going to when Dex interrupted right at the beginning. “You’re going to talk to our parents? Like…all of them? Why?”

Sophie held up her hand like she was defending herself against something when really all it had been was a few perfectly reasonable questions. “Okay, hear me out. I know we left and stopped responding to their messages, but…don’t you think it’s time we reach back out? We can’t avoid them forever. One day they’re going to find us or this is all going to be over and we won’t have any justification for running away--we don’t even have a good enough reason right now! They’re our parents and we’re ignoring them like--”

“Where is this coming from, Sophie?” Tam asked quietly beside her, eyes searching her face as he worried at his lip.

“Livvy said some things,” she admitted, shifting in her bean bag chair to keep her butt from going numb; they’d been sitting there a while.

“And?” he prompted further.

Sighing, she sat on her hands so she wouldn’t tug on her eyelashes. “She asked if she could give me advice, and I said yes, and she told me to talk to my parents. Because they trust me but I’m being uncooperative and they’re worried. And they want to help, but they can’t stop me from ignoring them even though they’ve tried and it’s never going to be any easier to try and fix everything so why not try now. It bothered me how right she was, so it was one of the first things I thought of when writing the list.”

“But not the first thing,” Biana noted, looking to her in question.

“I only thought of the riddle first because I’ve been putting it off for so long, but talking to my parents should probably be the first thing. I didn’t write it in order or anything,” she said, trailing off, anxiety curling in her chest as she wound it into the reforming knot under her ribs. At this rate she’d be fully stocked up and ready to explode with emotion in no time.

Fitz shifted on the couch, jostling Keefe, who’d been resting on his shoulder. “I guess…we should also do the same,” he admitted, glancing to Biana who made a face somewhere in between a grimace and longing…and then guilt for the longing.

“Yeah my mom…is definitely not going to be happy with me,” Dex said quietly, picking at the cuticles of his nails to avoid looking at anyone. “I mean, she’ll be happy to see me I guess. But not with…all of this.”

He punctuated the statement with a wave of his hands around the room, indicating their whole lives. The way they all lived with each other and had strange not-pets like Echo--who was currently investigating Tam’s hand, much to his chagrin, the way monsters were a part of their lives and the way none of them would change that. Not all of them had monsters, but the closest they got to flat out rejection was Maruca, who only did so to protect them all from the bad ones.

But they weren’t all bad, and that was the part that didn’t sit well with everyone else; they’d come around though, she knew they would. At least the people who mattered would. The rest? They could deal with them.

Sophie tried to channel Livvy as she offered him a small smile. “Well, waiting longer isn’t going to make her happier. No time like the present, that’s why it’s the gift. That’s. The present is a gift,” she repeated once again incorrectly, frowning. “Hang on, I know the quote. I’ve got this. Today is a gift, that’s why it’s called the present,” she said, flopping back once she’d finally gotten it right, sending a mental apology to Master Oogway out into the world for the disappointment, though he’d probably forgive her.

“I…what?” Maruca asked, distracted enough that the bauble of a shield she’d been rolling in her palms flickered away. She wasn’t the only one; strange looks were coming at her from all around the circle, but she ignored the faint heat crawling up her face. Her Kung Fu Failure wasn’t important right now.

“My point,” Sophie emphasized, “is that it’s never going to get easier, so why not do it now before we nearly die trying to take down the Neverseen and Phoenix--the organization. Phoenix the girl doesn’t deserve that. We need to get her out of there, and that’s part of why we’ll probably nearly die. And maybe our parents could help, too. Not that we’d risk them up here, but they might know things or have ideas. They’ve done that before.”

“Just to be clear, I am not talking to Daddy Dearest,” Keefe added, glancing at her.

She nodded. “Okay, cool. No one else has to do anything, I’m doing this for me. But what about Ro?”

“I hate it when you make good points.”

“I just said you don’t have to do anything, though. It’s a suggestion.”

It only being a suggestion didn’t stop him from sticking his tongue out at her as he folded his arms, pouting.

Fitz grinned, hiding his own rapid heartbeat as he reached over to ruffle Keefe’s hair, who responded by swatting at him.

The conversation made her all too aware of her imparter pressed against her leg, slipped into a hidden pocket. Square and thin, that little device could change so many things if she only used it the right way. But what way was right? Should she show up knocking on their door, go back to the Underground again? Should she hail them?

What would she even say? I’m sorry I’ve been ignoring you for weeks, what’s up with you? Read any good books lately?

If only there was a manual for when you got turned not entirely human--elven in her case--and ran away from home, cutting off your parents for an extended period of time as you tried to puzzle together who you were now and the mysterious past of two dangerous organizations terrorizing the planet, and now needed to apologize while also continuing to do almost all the things that caused the problems in the first place.

“Yeah, she’s not hearing a word we’re saying,” Marella’s voice sighed, cutting through Sophie’s worried thoughts and sending her crashing down to Earth more jarringly than when Silveny had thrown her from her back into a pile of glittery manure in front of the entire Council so many years ago.

Sophie’s face burned as she blinked, comprehending how spaced out she’d been only a moment later. “Sorry, were you talking to me?”

“Yep, we were asking if you had any plan on how you wanted to do that, and if it would need all of us. Or if it would be better if we all contacted our parents on our own--or someone else,” Fitz amended, gesturing vaguely towards Keefe. “If we wanted to, that is.”

Picking at the hem of her shirt to keep her from removing all of the eyelashes from her face and then some from someone else's, she thought it over for a moment. “I think…we do it on our own, if we want to. Like I said, the list was just for me. I need to talk to my parents, but I can’t tell the rest of you what to do.”

Wylie was making a face in the corner she couldn’t discern anything from, but he didn’t add to the conversation so she let it slide.

“Well…I guess I need to go make a hail,” Fitz mumbled, turning towards Biana like he was going to ask her something when Keefe jumped in.

“I think you mean we need to go make a hail, because there’s no way I’m letting you do that alone. I’d be able to feel the nerves radiating off of you from the other side of the village, Avery. Now c’mon,” he said, standing and pulling Fitz to his feet with a start, who gave a slight wince as he redistributed his weight off his bad leg.

No one said anything to interrupt them, everyone just amused to watch their banter. Sometimes they acted like an old married couple, and the teasing material they got out of it was so golden no one dared disrupt the process.

Fitz shoved at Keefe with affection. “You’re the worst, you know that right? What are--what are you even trying to do.” Despite his complaints, however, he was still allowing Keefe to drag him out of the building, where the rain had picked up.

“As your best friend for life, I’m giving you the motivation and awesomeness to do something that terrifies you! Like a best friend should.”

“I don’t think that--oh it’s so wet! Why are we out here!” His shrieks from the cold rain finally broke the silent spell over the rest of the group as Biana snorted, clapping a hand against her mouth.

Wylie was rubbing at his temples, Dex leaning back to get a good view out the window of their squabbling figures, and everyone’s lips were upturned, even Tam’s as he shook his head in exasperation.

The somber mood had lifted, the stressors of everything she’d let spill about the day before and the ominous documents Dex had summarized, everything melting into nothing, and Sophie swore she could feel Keefe’s smug smile from here. He may be an absolute pain in their asses a lot of the time, but he knew exactly what he was doing when it counted.

BRRR, Echo complained, and everyone jumped. It’d been sitting so politely and everyone had pretended it wasn’t there, but you couldn’t easily ignore the rumble that burst from its chest, vibrating through the floorboards and sending shivers up your spine, goosebumps across your flesh, unless you were very used to it--and no one but Sophie was.

“Okay seriously what is that thing,” Tam demanded, scooting back further in his beanbag. Or at least, he tried to, instead he just kinda fumbled and sunk further down, knocking a wing into a wall as he struggled.

Sophie just shrugged. “Your guess is about as good as mine, honestly.”

“I think it’s cute,” Biana said, standing up and crossing the room so she could squat down in front of Sophie, extending a hand close to Echo’s face so it could investigate her.

Echo flinched a little in surprise before curiously pushing its face closer to Biana’s fingers, and she practically melted into it, scratching the top of its head and swirling those black and white glitchy furs together as a rumbly purr permeated the room.

Sophie didn��t pay much attention to everyone else as Biana lowered herself completely to the floor, but she was vaguely aware of everyone dispersing--though there were no shrieks of surprise from the rain, which kept up a gentle patter against the windows and roof--until it was only Sophie, Biana, and Linh--and Wylie, because he lived there.

Linh had taken Tam’s beanbag, and was leaning close, watching Biana pet Echo and looking like she very badly wanted to be doing the same thing. Her eyes occasionally strayed towards the vast windows, watching the raindrops streaking down the glass with a misty longing before she drew herself back to the moment, toying with the silver ends of her hair.

“Are you…are you going to hail your parents today?” Biana finally asked into the quiet, dropping her hand from Echo’s fur and inclining her head at Linh, who immediately took her place offering her fingers.

Sophie reached up to pull on her lashes, but stopped herself half-way. “I…yeah, I think I am.”

“Can I be there?” Biana’s voice was small enough Sophie nearly thought she imagined it, but the flush creeping across her cheeks was unmistakable.

“Oh, of course, but,” Sophie trailed off, trying to figure out what she wanted to say. “Don’t you want to talk to your own parents? Why mine?”

Biana made a noise, fiddling with the hem of her shirt--a very pretty dark blue, the kind that went great with khaki--as she shrugged. “I do want to talk to them. I miss them…more than I can ever explain. But it’s been so long that I don’t even know where to start. So I want to see how you do it, and maybe it makes me a coward but if Fitz is willing to do the hard part and talk to them first and explain everything…then I’m going to let him.”

“That doesn’t make you a coward,” Linh interrupted gently, dropping her hand from Echo to look fully at her. “It’s a hard situation, of course you don’t want to deal with it. And if this makes it easier for you and everyone else is willing, why not go for it? No one is going to hold that against you or think less of you.”

Biana didn’t have a response to that, going kind of quiet as she traced a fingernail along the scars all along her body, drawing pictures of her history into her skin.

A faint bump of something in an adjacent room startled the three of them, reminding them that they weren’t alone and this was, in fact, Wylie’s house.

“Do you want to come to my place?” Sophie said in a rush, not quite sure where the words came from but meaning them all the same. “You can come, too, if you want,” she offered to Linh.

Linh gave a smile, lighting up a little from the inside.

“I’d love to, but I’m keeping this thing--” she scratched Echo’s head for emphasis--”with me. You’ve hogged it for far too long.”

“Um, excuse me? It’s not my fault you all were scared of it and Marella wanted to kill it.”

“Semantics,” Biana shrugged as she stood, and Sophie made an indignant noise as she was pulled to her feet, Linh laughing behind her as they pushed the door open.

A dome of water formed above the three of them, Linh twirling her hands with graceful skill to keep the pattering rain off their delicate insect wings and away from the not-cat curled in Biana’s arms, sightly confused by the change of events but going along with it nonetheless.

She’d never seen Echo this calm or for this long before in her life, but it felt right.

Everything was falling into place, they just had to get each other through it.

____________________

“Why is the window broken?” Biana asked, poking her finger at the rough edges, careful not to cut herself on the colors.

“Sophie just loves the open air, she couldn’t help herself,” Linh teased, sitting on the edge of Sophie’s bed as she smoothed out the blankets behind her, picking up a strand of not-cat hair, flicking it away.

“There are easier ways to open a window than breaking it.”

Rolling her eyes, Sophie crawled into the bed behind Linh, sitting in the center. “It was like that when I got here,” she said in answer to Biana’s question.

The Biana in question sank down next to Linh, setting Echo gently on the covers between the three of them. In this formation, with the two of them before Sophie, they wouldn’t be visible on the hail unless they chose to move into sight, a little precaution in case it turned out to be overwhelming.

Sophie was already overwhelmed, palms sweating and her heart beating unevenly in her chest, faint periodic buzzing coming from her wings as they worried at the air. She started to reach for an eyelash, but stopped herself.

Everything was fine. It was just her parents. Maybe they wouldn’t even pick up.

“Hey, Lady Fos-boss,” Biana interrupted before Sophie could fall too far down the panic hole, waving a hand in her face. “I know we claimed this…thing,” she looked quizzically at Echo, “but would it help if you held onto something?”

“Oh! Here,” Linh added, standing up to dart down the stairs towards the desk, snatching the neon dinosaur and bringing it back to place in Sophie’s hand. “Emotional support--aside from us, of course. You could hold us instead if you needed.”

Sophie let out a small laugh, squeezing the dinosaur before settling it in her lap, letting out a breath as she took her imparter from her pocket, ignoring the spike of dizziness, the terror crawling under her skin.

“Thanks for being here--and for the dinosaur.”

They both gave her encouraging thumbs up, though Biana’s heartbeat had started to pound nearly as much as Sophie’s. Linh placed a hand on Biana’s shoulder, offering comfort how she could as Sophie took the next step.

She held up her imparter and spoke the words before any more doubt could creep in. “Show me Edaline Ruewen.”

____________________

When Sophie was little, she’d been gifted much more independence than she probably should’ve had. Her cover story about taking the train back from the museum after Fitz had completely shattered her view of the world at only twelve years old could only work if she knew how to use the train after all.

Her human parents hadn’t been particularly fond of it, and she’d never forgotten the exact cadence of their relief every time she walked back through the door. Their thoughts flooding into a puddle in the forefront of their mind as they tried not to let it show, tried to reassure her that it wasn’t her they distrusted, that everything was okay.

But that deluge of concerns and anxieties had haunted her ever since, and it was the exact same as te tone in Edaline’s words as her face filled the small screen held unsteady in her palm.

“Sophie? Sophie! Oh it’s--” Edaline’s face turned away before she had the chance to say anything, the screen blurring as she stood, calling out Grady’s name a moment later, telling him to come there right this instant, that Sophie was hailing, that she’d finally reached out. That she’d responded. That she was there.

She tightened her grip on the dinosaur to resist the urge to tear out her eyelashes, and Linh gave her an encouraging smile.

BRRR, said Echo from Biana’s lap, in a very Echo-like fashion that allowed her to take a breath. It was okay, everything was okay. It might be a little rocky, but she was fixing things.

And then Grady’s face appeared next to Edaline’s, both of their faces lined with exhaustion and worry, hair mussed but smoothed back and skin colorless. It was as though they’d tried to hastily cover all the signs and were so close but not quite there.

“Um…hey,” she whispered, her voice suddenly gone. The sight of them, those two faces who had taken her in and loved her more than she’d ever deserved or expected…she wanted nothing more than for them to hold her close. Maybe that’s why she’d put this off for so long, because some part of her knew how badly she’d miss them if only she confronted them and she hadn’t been ready to face it.

She wasn’t even sure she was now.

“Kiddo, are you okay? Are you hurt? We know what happened with Elwin--”

“You saw Elwin?”

Edaline set the imparter down so the two of them could sit, saying, “Of course, we visited as soon as Livvy would let us after we heard. She said she patched you up a little, so we know something happened. Everyone’s okay, right?”

Sophie glanced towards Linh and Biana for a moment, who were staying silent in case she didn’t want her parents to know they were there, just carding their fingers through Echo’s fur.

Squeezing the dinosaur tighter, she answered, “Yeah, everyone’s okay. Elwin was…he was the only one home. We were all out, so no one else was hurt.” She didn’t say the rest of it, but they heard the unspoken words nevertheless; they knew her too well.

“It’s not your fault, honey,” Edaline reassured her. “We’re just so glad to hear your voice. We didn’t know if we’d ever see you again.”

What was she even supposed to say to that?

“Sorry about that, it won’t happen again,” was what she came up with after a moment of silence, watching her parents as they spoke with baited breath, as though approaching a wild animal. Like they were scared of startling her away and losing this opportunity.

“Does that mean you’ll stop ignoring us?” Grady asked, glancing between her and Edaline. “That we’ll work together again? Kiddo, we never meant to scare you away--”

Sophie waved her hand in the air, trying to push their worries away through the screen. “No no, it’s--it’s fine. I understand why you did it even if…even though the tracker was a shock at first. But what other options did you have? It’s nothing, really. I’m sorry I pushed you to a point where that was the best choice you could make.”

“Why did you, Sophie?” Edaline’s gentle voice asked after a moment, like she’d been bracing herself for the question. “What’s going on? Please don’t push us away again, whatever it was we just want you to be safe and happy and loved. We’ve had no idea what’s going on with you for weeks, you were gone so suddenly and then when Grady went to see you…talk to us, Sophie.”

Sophie squeezed her eyes shut, trying to banish the blurriness from her eyes, fingers digging into the dinosaur's fluffy exterior as she breathed.

Opening them, she caught Linh and Biana’s eyes, looking at them like they could tell her what to do, what to say, how to fix all this.

“Is someone there with you?” Grady asked, squinting at the screen like he could somehow break elf-physics and project himself into the room so he could see them.

Biana waved, despite not being visible, saying, “Hi, Grady!”

“We’re here for emotional support,” Linh added, coming to Sophie’s rescue as she fumbled for the right words. When she got all heated up it was all too easy to let the vitriol flow from her mouth, spewing fire onto those who pissed her off, but when it mattered like this it was so so much more difficult to find herself, to articulate herself.

Edaline’s fingers were tugging at a strand of hair that had escaped its place as she asked “Have you talked to Alden and Della?”

Biana’s face scrunched up, and she removed her fingers from Echo’s--who had remained blissfully quiet--fur to scoot next to Sophie, wings folded behind her with the colors vanished, invisible on screen.

“I haven’t yet. Fitz and Keefe are doing that; I’ll talk to them…later.” When I’m ready, were the words she didn’t say, but everyone caught nevertheless.

Linh silently came to sit on Sophie’s other side, offering no further commentary except to be there, waving a polite hello that Grady and Edaline returned with a smile. Their eyes were scanning up and down and up and down all of them, looking for injuries or marks despite Sophie assuring them everyone was okay. She couldn’t blame them, her own eyes following every piece of them to try and figure out who they’d become in the time since she’d left them.

“I’m glad you have each other,” Edaline whispered, reaching for Grady’s hand and squeezing tight.

A weight settled in Sophie’s chest, a spark burning through the fear in her mind, the hesitation. “Can we--can you give us a minute?” She blurted out, then rushed to reassure them. “I promise I’m not going to hang up or push you away, that’s why I hailed you in the first place. Livvy told me I should talk to you and she was right and it was so selfish of me to leave the way I did and I want to fix it. I know I don’t deserve it after everything I’ve put you through, but please trust me--just one minute, that’s it. Is that okay?”

“Of course we trust you, Sophie,” Grady said. “But we’re gonna hold you to that not hanging up or pushing us away anymore thing, okay?”

She hummed her agreement, nodding vigorously as she set her imparter face down on her bed, giving the three of them a little bit of privacy as she leaned back to look at them the best she could. Both Biana and Linh had equally curious expressions, and Biana opened her mouth to ask a question Sophie silenced with a wave of her hand.

Not out loud, she said into their heads, forming a little mental bubble for the three of them--actually, four, she realized when Echo made a noise into her head.

What’s this for? Linh asked, Biana inclining her head, equally curious.

Sophie briefly considered trying to approach this delicately, but she didn’t want to leave her parents waiting, so she cut to the chase. I…don’t want to talk to them like this. It feels too important to do over a hail; if I wanted to visit them in person, would you come?

Wait, like go back to the Underground? Biana’s thoughts warred between excitement and nerves, a tinge of pinks and greens coloring her thoughts.

Nodding, she explained further. You don’t have to do anything but…I think it’s what I need to do. You’ve already helped more than enough just being here right now when you didn’t have to, I’d never ask you to do something like this against your will--

Of course I’ll come, Linh interrupted, taking Sophie’s hand and holding it tight, giving her a reassuring squeeze. Whatever you need, I’m there.

Biana hesitated for a moment, then spoke. Yeah, I’ll go.

Her thoughts still squirmed with an unease, prompting Sophie to ask, Are you sure? You really don’t have to if you don’t want to.

No, no. I mean it. I want to go. Her resolve had solidified in her mind with Sophie’s question, and even though her nerves lingered she could tell her offer was genuine. You can’t get rid of me that easily, Lady Fos-Boss.

Sophie gave her a smile, letting out a breath. She hadn’t realized how much she’d wanted them to say yes; she never would’ve forced them to come along, but it was nice to have them at her side.

Okay, now you give me one minute, she told them, closing her eyes as she let her mind spread further and further, finding those ties she and Fitz had so carefully crafted between the ten of them.

She gave them a light tug, whispering I need you for a second, giving everyone a moment to stop what they were doing and turn their attention inwards.

You okay? Dex asked immediately, sounding like he was ready to drop everything and come sprinting for her house.

Yep, just a heads up that Biana, Linh, and I are going to go back to the Underground to talk to my parents--just them, we’ll try to stay away from everyone else to make it easier. So…yeah, just letting you all know. Is there anything you’d like us to do or say or bring while we’re there? I think it’ll be best with just the three of us right now so we don’t overwhelm them…but maybe this could be a test to see if you guys can go back soon--if you want to, she tacked on at the end, firmly biting her tongue to remind herself to stop talking.

Silence followed for a second as everyone processed, then Keefe’s voice came through.

If you see Ro…tell her that yellow really isn’t her color.

That earned a few laughs from everyone else, but no one else knew what to say. They trusted her, despite all the shit they’d been through, and if she wanted to go back, well, she’d given them advanced notice of her plans and a bit of her reasoning. They’d know where the three of them were if they never returned, and no one would find them missing in a panic the way they had with Linh.

With all that sorted, Sophie opened her eyes, wincing as her eyes adjusted to the light, Biana and Linh at her side as she picked her imparter back up, both her parents still sitting there, looking to each other and whispering in quick tones.

She could’ve picked up on the conversation if she wanted to, but that was their business; she wasn’t going to interfere.

“Sorry, that was probably more than one minute,” she said, watching their heads turn back towards her as their expressions softened, shoulders dropping and tension leaking from their limbs.

“No worries, kiddo,” Grady told her. “What was that all about?”

Taking a breath, she said, “Well, I was asking Linh and Biana if they’d…like to join me on a trip to visit you.”

____________________

“Is it just me or is the grate different?” Biana whispered, glancing around the clearing, the small open circle of clear grass and flowers bordered by craggy trees all twisting and reaching and moaning towards the sky.

So many times, creatures had roamed this area, come to try and rend the flesh from their bones. But now all she could hear was the faint air moving along the bark, the tapping of a woodpecker, the buzz of quiet, unseen life surviving.

“Well, I kinda threw it into a tree and then Marella melted it back together, so they couldn’t keep it like that,” Sophie offered, crouching down to press her fingers to the grooves, moving it with all the effort of flicking a piece of paper off a desk. She didn’t want a repeat, to keep destroying what she touched.

Her cloak scrunched uncomfortably against her wings and got caught under her foot as she stood, having successfully removed the grate, the tiny entrance into such a bursting live underground, without breaking it. They’d opted to wear them just as a precaution, in case anyone saw them, in case her parents weren’t ready to talk about something like that.

Who was she kidding? Her parents would absolutely want to talk about that. Grady had been gracious enough not to say anything about it since he’d seen, but she knew that was only because there were more pressing things. Because he didn’t want to scare her away, wanted to make sure she was held close before he ventured into those waters.

Once upon a time, he wouldn’t have had a modicum of hesitation about telling it to her straight. She was going to do what she could to get them back to that place.

Biana dropped through first, the edges of her wings visible as they wrapped close to her body to keep from scraping against the crystal edges.

Linh followed, making a slight noise of surprise as she slipped down the ladder a little, but her wings were easy to work with, covered as they were.

Then it was Sophie’s turn, and as she placed her feet on the first rungs, moving down bit by bit until she could drag the cover back over their heads, twisting it into place and shutting them inside.

It had a sense of finality as her feet touched the stone floor, the tops of the stairs leading down down down in spirals.

Biana reached out to grab her hand, an uncharacteristic tremble in her fingers as she reached for Linh too, the three of them linked together as they started the climb back Underground.

Silent footsteps kicked up dust in clouds, mixing alongside other footprints from a time long-since gone. She swore she could pick out one of her own on the steps, from when she’d first run away.

It was about half-way down that she finally peeked over the edge and saw them.

Edaline paced back and forth, the soft yellow fabric of her long sleeves falling down to her arms as she worried at her lip, glancing between the stairs and Grady.

Grady was leaning against a wall, arms rigid against his chest where he’d crossed them, hair ruffled as though he’d run his hands through it again and again. He, too, kept glancing up at the stairs, so Sophie took a step closer to the edge, so they could see her properly.

Lifting her free hand, she gave a slight wave, heart ripping itself out of her ribs as their sudden gasps echoed in her ears, both surging to action as they raced up the stairs.

“Sophie,” Edaline whispered, footsteps pounding through the stone, disappearing from sight as they started the spiral up up up towards where the three of them stood.

“C’mon!” Biana urged, pulling their chain of three down the stairs until they were moving fast enough they had to drop each other’s hands to keep from tripping, Biana and Linh leading the procession as Sophie nearly tripped, every part of her shaking.

And then the footsteps were so so close and they were on the same level and they crash crash crashed into each other, and Grady’s hand cradled the back of her head and Edaline’s fingers brushed against the back of her cloak and everything went blurry and she couldn’t see through the tears streaking down her face and her throat constricted from the effort to keep her sobs in her chest, raw and poignant.

Their arms left her for only a moment, to pull Biana and Linh in just as tight, the five of them all wrapped up and pressed close.

How long they stayed like that, silent and unmoving, Sophie lost track.

But at some point they pulled back and Grady held Sophie gently from an arm’s length, looking her over as though she’d had some secret injury she’d hidden from him over the imparter. Like he just had to make sure she was still whole.

“We’ve missed you so much, kiddo,” he whispered, pulling her close again.

“I missed you too,” she echoed after a moment, not realizing how much she meant the words until her fingers were digging into his back as she breathed in the smell of him, musky and warm and floral and dirty and--

“Why do you smell like smoke?” Alarmed, she leaned back, looking over him the same way he had as her, glancing to Edaline as well. She could feel Linh and Biana’s eyes trailing over the three of them from a few steps away, giving them space but just as concerned.

Edaline stepped forward then, placing one hand on each of their shoulders, smile more grimace than joy as she looked back at Biana and Linh. “I think…we have a lot to discuss, Sophie. But not here. Come down, come back with us. We won’t…” she trailed off, then started again. “You called us this time, we’ll follow your lead, okay?”

Sophie glanced back at Biana and Linh, who shrugged at her as if to say This was your idea. Which wasn’t the most helpful thing in the world, but it gave her the strength to turn back and nod her head, pushing all her questions to the side for the moment. She’d get her chance to ask, she’d get her answers.

And undoubtedly give a million of her own.

Dust whirled against the floor as they moved, swiftly and quietly through the halls, that warm dirt smell fogging the air. Empty empty empty, bleak, hollow and yet stuffed to the brim. That’s how it always felt. People had tried to pretend like nothing was different, like they were still aloof and alone all across the world instead of shoved undignified beneath the earth. Elves didn’t live next to each other, so they didn’t like to see each other. It was just another reminder of the reality they wanted so badly not to be real.

The door clicked shut behind them with a sort of finality, and an ache settled itself in her chest at the cramped yet homey curved walls, so familiar to her yet a lifetime ago. Their cluster had three bubbles: a small main room with a kitchen, dining, and living space, and two bedrooms bordering each side. One for her parents and one for her. Tiny, microscopic compared to Havenfields expanses, but with the three of them there it felt like home.

This couldn’t be her home anymore.

Not with the press of the earth against her consciousness, not with the cramped spaces and uncertainty, the feigned emptiness. Not with so many suffering monsters above and Phoenix stuck with those horrid people, not with everything they were learning.

She didn’t belong underground.

But she didn’t say any of that as she grabbed a chair from the small table in the eating area, dragging it towards the couch in the living area of the main room, Linh and Biana doing the same as her parents sank onto the cushions, all of them now in a circle with each other.

They each tucked their cloaks carefully against their bodies as they sat, wings pressed to their skin. Not that it mattered. Because Grady had seen. It didn’t mean he’d understood what he’d seen, but he’d seen.

In time, they’d get through all that with time; this was a test.

If everything went well, others could use the pathfinder she’d stolen from Grady what felt like a lifetime ago to come back. Everyone had the location of their Underground memorized in case of an emergency, though there’d been no cause to use it in months. Not since everyone had started to give up on the surface.

Edaline spoke first. “Sophie, before you say anything I want to apologize. For the tracker. We--I was desperate, and you weren’t responding to anything else we tried. I know it wasn’t fair to you, and I wish I hadn’t done it. I think it just drove you further away, and I’ll never be sorry enough. I want nothing more than your safety and happiness, but my actions were wrong. And for that I’m sorry.” Her fingers fiddled with the loose fabric of her sleeves pooling in her lap, and Sophie was momentarily stunned.

“I forgave you a while ago,” she said truthfully. “I’m sorry I created a situation where you thought that was all you could do.”

Edaline and Grady both smiled ruefully. “You create a lot of situations, kiddo, but we’ll always love you,” Grady told her, smile fading back into concern. “You all do--what happened yesterday? Elwin…” he trailed off, shaking himself together.

“How about we start from the beginning?” Edaline suggested, leaning forward. “You’re not running away or in a hurry right now, right? I bet it’s a long story--I’ll make tea.”

“Thank you,” Linh said, as Edaline got up, crossing the small space towards the kitchen area and pulling dried herbs and leaves from storage spaces.

Biana put a finger to her lip in thought. “When you say the beginning…”

“We mean the beginning,” Grady confirmed with a nod and a small smirk, like he wasn’t sure he could joke about it yet but trying all the same. “We were all talking about your attack on the main facility, and then you started scratching yourself and we took you straight back to Elwin and that’s the last time any of us knew what was going on. You were there, and Elwin said you didn’t want to deal with visitors, and then the next day you were gone. You’d left. What’s going on, kiddo?” His voice grew soft at the end, the faint sound of Edaline’s fingers drumming against the counter echoing through her ears.

“It was to protect you,” she said, picking at the skin around her nails to keep from tugging at her eyelashes, though both were bad.

“What do you mean? Protect us how?”

Sophie glanced back at Linh and Biana, who both gave a slight shrug--as much as they could without shifting their cloaks and creating a whole new trail of conversation--telling her that she’d been the one to come here. This was her story to tell.

“Because…we were afraid we were going to try and kill you, to kill everyone Underground,” she said, blunt words falling from her mouth and hitting the ground like stones.

After that, the story started tumbling out, disjointed and uncoordinated but complete. As complete as she could make it as she doubled back, explaining what had happened in the facility, how they’d somehow been in the wrong room and how a creature had gotten out and destroyed the shelves, bottles and vials raining down on their heads and mixing and smashing together, how that had done something to them. They thought they could just wash it off but it’d gotten into their systems, under their skin, into their lungs, something Elwin couldn’t do anything about.

How that night she’d woken, how she’d seen her back in the mirror and--wings, there had been wings growing from her back. Wings that weren’t elven, because wings belonged to monsters. And if they were growing wings, then what would stop them from taking over the rest of their bodies, from consuming them whole until they were the same mindless beasts that roamed the surface--at least, they’d thought they were mindless. Sophie knew better now.

But back then it had been enough to drive them away, the suffocating feel of all the earth pressing down around them--

“Is it bothering you now?” Edaline interrupted, hands wrapped around a cup of tea she hadn’t once touched. They were taking the news quietly, used to Sophie’s antics throughout the years, and even if this was a whole new level of strange, they’d had enough practice that their safety was still top priority in their mind over everything else they could throw at them.

Sophie paused mid-word, tongue running along her teeth as she glanced towards the ceiling, the ever present knowledge in the back of her mind that she was trapped trapped trapped--

No, she reminded herself. I can leave whenever I want. I’m not trapped. It’s just dirt. And probably a lot of worms. Could catch a lot of fish. I don’t know how to fish.

“It’s just like…an itch,” Biana supplied while Sophie was thinking about fish. “It’s nothing serious. We’ll be fine.” Linh and Sophie nodded in agreement, but her parents still frowned a little.

“We’re beyond relieved to see you again, but if it gets to be too much--”

Sophie held up a hand. “I know my limits. If it gets to be too much we’ll leave, but really it’s fine. Where was I?”

“Earth,” Grady said, taking a sip from his mug, looking at her with a mixture of something like pain, fear, and complete faith. She had to take a deep breath before she continued, but doing so had her wrinkling her nose again.

She shook her head. “Hang on, you never explained why you smell like smoke.”

Her parents glanced at each other, trying to communicate telepathically, before they sighed.

Edaline trailed a finger along the hem of her shirt, saying, “I suppose it’s only fair that after all of that we share something with you, too. We’ve been…exploring the surface. The destruction from the everblaze in that meadow after it was put out. I guess the smell has stuck despite all the showers.”

Sophie gaped at them, flinching back a little. “You’ve been on the surface? You could be killed!”

“Are you looking for something?” Linh asked at the same time, leaning forward with a mix of curiosity and suspicion.

Grady shook his head, responding to Linh first. “We weren’t looking for anything particular, surveying the land to see what the damage was and what would be necessary to start bringing it back, if we could do anything as restricted as we are.”

“Stop giving us that look, Sophie. You act like you’ve never done anything that stopped our hearts dead in our chests,” Edaline said, and Sophie schooled her look into something more neutral, but she couldn’t take back the horror and concern it’d just been displaying. “It’s only a few hours, not as bad as you think. It’s gotten…better, recently.”

“What does that mean?”

Edaline waved a hand in the air as if that would help her explain. “All the things up above, they haven’t been a problem. We haven’t had any encounters with anything during our visits with how scorched the area is, and even just above--where you came in--it’s like they’ve just vanished. No more attacks when we leave, no more lingering in the area. Like they never were there in the first place. Like something else is more important.”

They all went silent for a moment, and Sophie couldn’t help but feel like the change in the monsters had something to do with them. They all existed in a strange in between, not quite elves but not quite monsters, and if this change happened when Edaline said it had…didn’t that coincide with them leaving?

“So what did you learn about the area?” Linh said, finally breaking the silence. “Have you figured out how to fix it?

“Not quite yet,” Grady said, leaning back on the couch and frowning, looking towards the ceiling as though he could see to the scorched earth beyond. “We’ll need to look again more thoroughly.”

“Well what have you found out?” Sophie asked instead.

“There’s extensive damage to the area, so we’ll need to clean up the ash before we can think about reseeding and regrowing the area. Which will be more work since…the gnomes, you know.”

Biana frowned. “Wait--you said the trips are a few hours; that’s all you learned? We could’ve guessed that.”

Edaline shifted, tucking a strand of loose hair behind her ear. “It’s a process. As much as we wish we could, we can’t fix it all at once.”

Sophie wanted to believe her. She was right after all, destruction of that kind took patience and persistence to repair. Fire damage didn’t disappear overnight.

But her parents' hearts were pound pound pounding in their chests, completely contradictory to the way they leaned back on the couch, sipping from their mugs and chatting with the three of them.

“What aren’t you telling us,” she asked, voice solemn and quiet as it sliced through the air.

“Sophie, we aren’t--”

“No,” she interrupted gently. “I know you. You’re keeping something from us. I came back to reconnect with you, not to have more secrets between us.”

Grady shook his head, eyes glossing over. “It’s not pleasant and we won’t have any of the answers to the questions you’ll have. It’s more trouble than it’s worth Sophie, not with so much already going on with you.”

“Well now I’m just going to think up something totally unrealistic and scare myself with it--you really think we can’t handle whatever it is? We’ve dealt with dragons tearing apart the sky and explored abandoned facilities--I got kidnapped yesterday!! I promise it won’t be too much.”

Shock flickered on their faces followed quickly by concern as she realized she’d let slip a little more than she’d meant to. “Don’t focus on that. I want to tell you. I want to be a team again, but how can we trust you with our story if you aren’t willing to do the same?”

Edaline squeezed her eyes shut, rubbing at her temple with one hand as she sighed. “She was going to find out eventually; isn’t it better that it’s from us?” she mumbled to Grady when he seemed like he was going to continue protesting. “You’re right, that’s not all we found. And yes, the information we have about the area is limited to about what you could guess because our investigation was cut short.”

“Why? What did you find?” Biana asked, inclining her head and leaning forward.

Edaline’s hand fell into her lap and Grady squeezed it tight.

Then, she spoke. “We found Lady Gisela--or rather, her body.”

#kotlc wings au #keeper of the lost cities #shattered upside down #quil's quill #kotlc fic #sometimes the story decides it wants to do something and you #are simply along for the rid #e #i promise I know how to type #anyway enjoy!!

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