#but unfortunately the actual staircase does not look like this
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Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Seekers of Soul
[Chapter 55]
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Tobias and Nia tie up some loose ends around the guild in preparation for their journey to find Will, and Tobias shares a special pastime with his partner.
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Team Evergreen doesn’t make an appearance after their mission in the tunnels, though Jaz stops by Tobias and Nia’s room at dawn two days later to give them an update on Andyn's mood.
“She was quiet for a while,” the stufful says. “Thinking, I suppose. But otherwise she's acting fine again.”
“Did I actually get through that thick skull of hers?” Tobias grumbles. He’s tying Nia’s scarf around her arm before they leave for the day, and it’s slipping annoyingly through his fingers.
Jaz sighs. “No, unfortunately not. It’s going to take more than a few heated words to get her to change her mind about this. Ezra and I have tried. But...”
Nia’s ears perk. “But..?”
“Something you said did make her think, Tobias. Maybe you planted some seeds that just need a bit of time to bloom.”
Pretty words for such a nasty conversation, Tobias thinks idly as he finally ties Nia’s scarf tight. He doesn’t have nearly as much faith that Andyn will turn over a new leaf any time soon.
Nia smiles at Jaz. “Well, I’m happy to hear she’s back to her normal self, at least. Sorry again that our group mission wasn’t, uh…as fun as we might’ve hoped.”
Tobias opens his mouth to say that that was Andyn’s fault, not theirs.
Jaz beats him to it, laughing softly. “Not your fault. Neither of your faults, really.”
Nia doesn’t argue that point, and the stufful leaves shortly after with a word of luck for their mission today and a promise to pass their hellos on to Ezra.
“Well, I’m glad we don’t have to worry about Andyn too much,” Nia says as the two of them pack up for the day and head down the Lexym Tree to the mission boards. “Are you still doing okay?”
Tobias is doing fine. Probably better than he should be, honestly. While Andyn hit a sore spot and he was much harsher than Nia would’ve been regarding the deerling’s parents, he stands firm by his conviction that Andyn needs a wake-up call. His words didn’t manage to get through to her, but he doesn’t really regret what he said, either.
“I’m fine. Just wish she’d wake up and realize her parents are the problem here.”
Nia is behind him on the steps, but Tobias can feel her attention on him, laser-focused. “You fought about her parents?”
Belatedly, Tobias realizes that this is the first time he’s said what his argument with the deerling was even about. Nia has been careful not to push.
“They suck, okay?” Tobias growls. “If they’re the reason she’s like that, then she should know that that’s messed up.”
Nia hums, but otherwise falls silent. That’s as good as an agreement for her, so Tobias doesn’t let the issue linger as they reach the ground floor where the mission boards are posted.
They’re still waiting to hear back from August about traveling to Will’s human settlement, so they’ve been avoiding any missions that would wear them out too much just in case they need to leave on short notice. Still, Tobias does have to swallow his pride when he realizes that leaves them with just a few very basic mission options for the day.
It’s not that he thinks the jobs are beneath him or anything, but they are undeniably…boring. And they give them less Seeker points, too. But he refuses to throw a fit like Andyn did.
“Well, let’s get this over with.”
“Hey, it might be fun!” Nia says, looking genuinely excited about the mission she’d picked out for them. “I haven’t tried cooking since waking up in this world.”
Tobias gives her an appraising look as they make their way back up the tree’s staircase. “Did you cook a lot as a human?”
Nia shakes her head. “Just basic stuff. Baking, mostly. But if it’s a low-level mission, it can’t be anything too complex, right?”
Tobias shrugs. For all his years at the guild, he’s never actually helped out in the cafeteria kitchen, always too busy trailing after Maggie and helping with medicinal duties.
He’s surprised to find that the day is actually pretty interesting, tucked away in the guild’s sprawling kitchen. They’re put to work under the command of the cooking staff, and their mission for the day is to provide breakfast and lunch for the entirety of the guild.
The vespiquen in charge has Tobias use his flames often, lighting fires in clay ovens and carefully toasting nuts and vegetables. He isn’t sure whether to be offended or proud when the chef looks at him with delight halfway through the morning with a clap of her hands and proclaims that they must make occa berry flambé for dessert today, with a fire type’s flames so readily on-hand.
He is proud, in an embarrassed sort of way, when the bug type compliments him on his temperature control with his flames. He manages to avoid burning a single pot or dish. While it’s a strange feeling, he likes the appreciative looks he gets from the other workers when he uses his fire, rather than the guild's usual wariness.
Tobias actually ends up enjoying the day more than Nia does, if the way she drags herself to the stairs at the end of their shift is any gauge. Her fur is caked in flour from a few ingredient mishaps, and Tobias has to bite back a laugh at her appearance.
She gives him a tired, playful glare in return. “Want to share with the class?”
“You look like a fidough.”
“Fidough,” Nia echoes, squinting. “Is that…a dog Pokemon? Oh my God, is that a bread pun?"
“It’s their species name. They are kind of…doughy, though. Yeah. That's the joke.”
Nia barks a laugh, and Tobias grins.
“Pokemon names are so silly! Hahaha!”
Tobias shakes his head as he leads the way up the stairs to their quarters. “Hey, at least they make sense. Who looks at a riolu and calls it a dog? What even is a dog?”
“Me! I’m a dog!”
“Yeah, yeah. And I’m Reshiram. C’mon, I want to have time to clean up before supper. You wanna eat with Maggie tonight? We can brag about the food we helped make.”
“Oh, that’d be perfect!” Nia says. Her fatigued posture lifts at the prospect, like a flower wilting in reverse. “Don’t let me forget, though, that I really need to talk to Avery sometime about the whole species naming thing. And the Pokemon language in general. Ordirune? It makes no sense that you and I can talk and read the same language when it’s, well…not the same language!”
Tobias vaguely remembers Nia mentioning this before, when they were in Ghatha with Junie. “Does it need to make sense? It works. We can understand each other. That’s what matters.”
“How are you not curious about it? It’s so wild to me!”
“It just doesn’t seem like something you’re gonna be able to figure out, so why waste time thinking about it?”
“Because it’s fun!” Nia counters. “I like trying to figure stuff out, even if it doesn’t really matter.”
Tobias can’t really argue with that. Nia’s just different than him in that regard. Still, as a nincada and surskit pass them on the stairs, he gives it a moment of thought.
“Giratina said that Mew made your Pokemon body, right? She probably did something with your brain so you could understand Ordirune, so you wouldn’t be totally lost in our world.”
“But language isn’t genetic,” Nia argues. “It’s something you learn. That’s true for Pokemon too, right?”
“Yeah?”
“Then it doesn’t really make sense that she could just…imprint it onto our brains, does it?”
Tobias frowns as they finally reach their floor, his legs a bit tired as usual from the climb. “It doesn’t make sense that she could just make you a whole body, either, but here you are. If she made your brain for you, why couldn’t she make it familiar with our language? Pokemon hatch knowing survival instincts because those things were ingrained into our bodies from birth. Like…charmander hatchlings knowing to keep their tail flames small if they’re in danger. Maybe Mew did something similar and built your body so you already know Ordirune and your brain sorta just…translates for you without you realizing it.”
Nia stops behind him right before they reach their door, and Tobias turns to look at her.
She’s staring at him with wide, almost awestruck eyes. “Tobias, that’s such a cool way of thinking about it! Oh man, you should come with me when I meet up with Avery. They'd find that idea super interesting. Plus, I’m sure Xander and the others would love to see you! I think you and Kry are like…bros or something now, after your spar the other day?”
Tobias snorts and turns back to the door. “Yeah, I’m sure they’re all dying to see me.”
His hand settles on the knob, but Nia reaches out to cover it with her own paw. She gives him a long, searching look. “Hey, you know I’m not joking, right?”
“They’re your friends.”
“Well, yeah, maybe first. But they want to be your friend, too. They aren’t just…putting up with you to hang out with me.”
Tobias feels all too seen, suddenly. Like his scarf got lost somewhere and left his neck naked and vulnerable. Tobias shifts on his feet, looking away.
That…doesn’t feel right. But aside from Nia, he hasn’t had a friend his own age since he was nine—and that was his sister. He isn’t exactly an expert on how friends work.
“They’re kind of stuck with me, if they want to be friends with you.”
Nia gives him a light bat of her paw and a scolding smile. “They’re not stuck with you. You’re fun to be around, Tobias. Whether you want to acknowledge that or not.”
Tobias thinks of how he yelled at Andyn just two days ago. “Sure.”
Then, unwittingly, he thinks about the rest of that mission. Thinks about Ezra’s cheeky, playful comments and Jaz’s calm confidence when she encouraged him talk to Andyn alone. Thinks further back, to Kry punching his shoulder during training and Xander and Felix’s lighthearted smack-talk and easy conversation. Thinks about Avery’s gentle smile and full attention when Tobias spoke.
He doesn’t think he’s their friend, not really. But the idea that he might be, someday, doesn’t seem quite as ridiculous as it once was. Tobias has…a lot of mixed feelings about that. Fear that he’s going to royally screw it up is somewhere near the top, though, so he shoves away the warmth the idea brings. No use worrying about it unless it actually happens, after all.
Tobias finally opens the door to their room, only to stop as soon as he notices a piece of paper resting on the floor near his feet. Tobias picks it up, and feels his fingers tighten around the sheet as he realizes what it is.
“What is it?” Nia asks, peering over his shoulder.
“It’s from August,” he summarizes, skimming through the short message. “We have permission to head overseas and find Will first thing in the morning.”
“Giratina was telling the truth, then?”
“Or they think it’s too big a risk to ignore, if nothing else,” Tobias murmurs. The bottom of the note says that the funds for their flight have been dropped into their mailbox, so Tobias digs that pouch out right away to add to their own money. He moves to where their satchel was left to rest against the wall for the day.
“Tomorrow,” Nia says, sitting heavily in her nest and wrapping herself up in one of their blankets like a swadloon. “That’s…so soon. I know we were waiting to hear back from them, but…well. I guess we’d better let everyone know we’re leaving again?”
Tobias drags their bag over and sits to sort through it, catching the disappointed note in his partner’s voice. He doesn’t really mind traveling again, even if their time back at the guild has been fine. Good, even, for the most part. But knowing they’ll have to say goodbye to Maggie again so soon does have something in his heart squeezing tight. He hopes she doesn’t cry.
“Yeah,” he finally answers, pulling out their meager collection of items to sort through. “We can tell Maggie when we eat with her later.”
Nia voices her agreement, watching Tobias as he puts everything together. Her mind is clearly miles away, though.
Tobias leaves her to her thoughts, making sure they have the usual essentials that they travel with: apples and berries for food and status ailments, their map, and a canteen of water for Nia. He would grab some hydration berries for himself if they didn’t shrivel so quickly, but at least fire types don’t dehydrate easily.
Anything else? They could go down to the item dispensary and peruse the orbs and seeds available, but their funds still aren’t overly impressive. And they aren’t planning on getting caught in any dungeons or intense battles.
...Okay, he knows better by now than to assume that will hold true. Still, by this point they’ve mostly gotten by without items, so he thinks they'll be all right without any fancy aids.
Besides, Nia will probably want to bring a book, and their sparse packing leaves plenty of room for that. They could almost pack up Nia’s beloved new blanket too, if they wanted to squish everything in, but that feels like a waste of space if they'll be indoors most nights. He’s basically a walking heater for the riolu at this point anyways.
Tobias looks around the room and his gaze catches on his guitar, leaning carefully against the wall by the window. He frowns at the instrument, fingers flexing as he itches to hold it. He’s been enjoying relearning it, and it calms him down on late nights, but it isn’t really an essential item. Their pack would be better off carrying something actually useful.
“You’re taking your guitar along, right?” Nia asks, startling Tobias out of his thoughts. She must've followed his gaze and guessed what he was thinking.
Tobias shrugs, looking back at their satchel. “Probably not. It’s not exactly useful.”
“It makes you happy,” Nia protests, like that makes it useful, somehow. “Plus, I like hearing you play. So if we’re taking a vote…”
Tobias flushes, falling still. Part of him still wants to argue, rationality over sentimentality and all that, but. Well. If Nia doesn’t mind him taking up the space, then…
Tobias silently gets up to retrieve the guitar. He tucks it away in their bag amongst the other items, pleased with how neatly it slots in between their supplies and a book about abilities that Nia had handed him to bring along.
Packing complete.
It’s only a few short hours later that they go to the medical floor with trays of food in hand, including some of the occa berry flambé that they’d helped make earlier in the day. They call a greeting to Fen and drop off a meal with the leafeon that has them purring their thanks. Next door, Maggie seems pleasantly surprised by their appearance.
"Hello, you two! Good to see you."
“You eat yet?” Tobias asks, holding up one of the two heavy trays he’s carrying.
Maggie smiles, taking the meal with a single vine and settling down in her nest to eat. “I was just starting to feel peckish, actually. Thank you, dear. Will you stay and eat with us tonight?”
“If that’s all right!” Nia says, holding her second tray—which she was insistent on—out to Sage with a smile.
The ivysaur, who had been eyeing the door as if it was just expected for him to leave any time Tobias showed up, blinks in surprise. Then, with a bashful smile and a murmur of thanks, he takes the meal with his own vines.
Tobias and Nia sit down close to Maggie and dig in.
Off to the side, Sage shifts awkwardly on his short legs. His leaves sway with the motion.
“Sit down already,” Tobias grumbles. “We aren’t chasing you out.”
Sage looks even more thrown by the peace offering, but with a glance at Maggie and Nia, he finally settles down as well on Nia’s other side. Maggie smiles soothingly at her apprentice's nerves, and Tobias is surprised that the open affection doesn’t feel…grating, this time. In fact, it feels kind of ridiculous when Maggie immediately turns her attention back to Tobias and Nia with bright eyes, clearly thrilled to have them here.
Tobias wonders how he was ever threatened by Sage’s appearance. Maggie has more than enough love to go around.
As they eat, Maggie questions what they’ve been up to today with a note of amusement in her voice. Her gaze lingers on the patches of flour still caught stubbornly in Nia’s soft fur, even after the riolu had scrubbed at them for a solid half-hour earlier.
Nia groans and dives into her mishaps in the kitchen, including when she’d tripped over a morelull and knocked over a slurpuff who was busy mixing up dry ingredients for a crust. Tobias laughs as he replays the scene in his head, but flushes when Nia follows it up with an exasperated comparison to Tobias basically being “Gordon Ramsay” in the kitchen, whatever that means. It’s clearly a compliment.
Maggie laughs. “That doesn’t surprise me, actually. Tobias was always very careful with measurements when he helped me make our medicines, even when he was small. He has a good eye for detail, when he’s invested.”
Tobias feels his face grow hotter as Nia and Sage look at him with astonished expressions.
“You don’t have to look that surprised."
The ivysaur winces and looks back to his meal with a quiet, “Sorry.”
Nia just shrugs with an easy laugh, as if to ask if he could blame her.
The conversation flows smoothly as they catch up. Sage is quiet, almost silent, but he’s clearly listening, tracking the conversation with pricked ears and sharp garnet eyes as he picks delicately at his meal. Tobias isn’t sure if it’s because the ivysaur is still cautious after Tobias’ initial hostility, or if he’s just that quiet by nature.
Nia tries to pull the grass type into the conversation a few times, but after a few short, almost shy answers, she relents and lets him bask in the conversation without necessarily participating. Maggie doesn’t seem worried about the ivysaur’s silence, so Tobias doesn’t concern himself with it either.
During a lull in the conversation, Maggie says, “You know, your mission from today has me thinking. Sage and I might have to steal you for ourselves soon—we could use some extra hands to gather the last of the autumn herbs later this week. The northern part of the Haven will likely have its first heavy frost soon.”
“Oh. About that…” Nia trails off, giving Tobias a pleading look.
Tobias sighs, putting his fork back onto his tray. Leaving it up to him, huh? “We’re actually heading out again tomorrow morning.”
“So soon?” Maggie asks with a bewildered expression.
“August dropped off a letter today approving our travel, so…” Nia says, dejected.
Maggie smiles, leaning over to brush her muzzle over the top of the riolu’s head. “You’re fine, dear. I knew as soon as we spoke with August that you would be traveling again soon. I’m just going to miss you. And worry, of course.”
“We’ll be fine,” Tobias says. “We always are.”
“You’re always getting into trouble, you mean,” Maggie corrects with a playful glare. “Let a mother worry, Tobias. And just do your best to come home without any new scars, all right?”
Tobias’ hand drifts up to his scarf. Out of the corner of his eye, he sees Nia wince and trail a paw over the scarf on her own arm, right where she’d gotten bit by that panpour outlaw moons ago.
“We’ll be careful!” Nia finally says, though her smile doesn’t look nearly as confident as she sounds.
Maggie doesn’t seem convinced either, but drops the conversation to return to lighter topics. Such as how, just yesterday, Sage had given his first bitter medicine to some of the guild children who had come down with a cold.
Tobias laughs at the distraught expression on the ivysaur’s face, more than familiar with the experience after years of doing it himself. “How’d you like giving Bella her dose?”
The little bellsprout could be a menace when she wanted to be. Tobias can still feel the phantom smacking of her tiny root-arms.
Sage groans and drops his face into his tray.
“He made a valiant effort,” Maggie says, patting the ivysaur’s shoulder with a vine. Which means that Sage was surely near tears by the time they were finished.
Tobias uses his fork to point a bite of occa berry dessert in Sage’s direction. “Word of advice? Honey. Drown her dose in the stuff, but don’t tell her it’s anything but what it is. She can’t resist honey, but she won’t eat it if you try to trick her. Stubborn as a mudbray, that one.”
Tobias half-expects the ivysaur to dismiss his words, since Sage is older than him and the one actually in the medicinal role now. Instead, the ivysaur perks up and nods, reaching over his shoulder with a vine to pull a notepad and inkwell off the nearby desk and start writing something down.
Tobias blinks. He didn’t mean to actually take notes. The earnest faith in the gesture has his face heating. He looks away, stuffing a bite of occa berry flambé into his mouth. It’s delicious.
Soon enough, they’re all finished eating and it’s time to head out. Sage quietly insists that he can take the trays down to the cafeteria, leaving Maggie alone with Tobias and Nia.
“You two be careful on your trip, you hear?” Maggie says, voice firmer as she pulls them into a hug. “I don’t want to hear about you getting caught in any more fires or deadly fights.”
“No promises,” Tobias mumbles.
Maggie gives him an extra hard squeeze before releasing him.
“We’ll be careful, Maggie,” Nia says, stepping away with misty eyes. “See you soon, okay?”
Tobias can’t seem to say anything. The words stick like sap in his throat. He swallows against the lump of them and bumps his head against Maggie’s leg once more before stepping away.
The meganium sees them off as they pad down the hall and back down the tree.
“Xander’s team next?” Nia asks.
“You could go on your own, you know.”
“I could. But..?”
Tobias huffs, but doesn’t argue as he follows Nia to Team Shellshock’s quarters. The riolu knocks on the door, and childish shrieks rise up from behind the wood. Luca’s distinct little voice yells, “Hide! Hide!” and Tobias grins.
Avery is the one to answer, the kirlia’s gentle expression lighting up. “Nia! And Tobias. Lovely to see you two.”
“Good to see you too,” Nia says warmly. “Could we come in for a sec?”
Avery steps aside for Nia and Tobias, and as soon as Tobias crosses the room’s threshold he’s tackled by a writhing mass of blue and black fur.
“Gotcha!”
“Surrender, outlaw!”
“Lainey, sit on his head!”
Tobias puts up a halfhearted fight as the shinx cubs work to hold him down. Tiny paws step on his arms and belly and legs and his vision is taken over by lashing tails and gleaming, golden eyes.
“Don’t suffocate him, kids,” Xander calls idly, before his voice is drowned out by childish peals of laughter.
Tobias lets the cubs think they’ve won for a few moments, before twisting and gently throwing them off with an exaggerated roar. Leor squeaks and scrambles away to dive behind Team Shellshock’s items chest. Laine and Luca hiss playfully at Tobias before following their more timid brother, probably to come up with a new plan of attack.
Tobias smirks and moves to join the other occupants of the room.
Xander, Avery, and Nia are watching the cubs peek over the items chest with fond, amused looks. Felix is crouching beside the kids’ hiding place and murmuring something that quickly catches their attention. Kry is nowhere to be seen, probably out training or something while the cubs are here wreaking havoc. She doesn’t seem like much of a kid person.
Tobias stops at Nia’s side, purposefully putting his back to the shinx cubs to make himself an easy target.
“So you’re heading out again already?” Avery is asking.
“You two are the most restless ‘mons I’ve ever met,” Felix calls idly from beside the chest. “Try not to come back all banged up again, all right?”
“I’ll second that,” Xander says, and Tobias is surprised when the luxio’s golden gaze focuses not only on Nia, but Tobias as well. “Be careful.”
“Always!”
Xander chuffs a quiet laugh, as if well aware of how untrue that statement is. “Regardless. Do you two have everything packed up already?”
“I think so?”
“We travel light,” Tobias says.
Xander flicks his tail, looking thoughtful. His eyes stray over to the items chest on the side of the room, though Tobias thinks he isn’t focused on his siblings at the moment. Avery follows his gaze, and Tobias wonders if the kirlia is reading the luxio’s mind, since they apparently use telepathy with each other fairly often.
Avery must be, because they smile at Xander as if pleased with something he’d suggested, then back at Nia and Tobias. “Do you two have any orbs in your inventory?”
Nia looks to Tobias. He shakes his head.
Xander nods, and Avery goes to the chest, murmuring a quiet, “Excuse me,” to shoo the kids off the lid before opening the top and rummaging through it. They find what they’re looking for quickly, returning to Tobias and Nia with a shiny blue wonder orb in hand. Without hesitation, they hold it out.
“Take this with you. Just in case.”
After a beat of surprise, Tobias reaches out to take it, rolling the surprisingly heavy orb around his hands. “What kind is it?”
“An all power-up orb,” Avery answers. “It raises your team’s attack and special attack for a few minutes.”
“But...aren't these really rare or expensive or something?” Nia asks, gently taking the orb from Tobias’ hands to peer closer at it.
“The two of you seem to attract danger wherever you go,” Xander says, not answering the question. “I’ll sleep better if you take it.”
“We both will,” Avery amends.
Tobias’ immediate impulse is to reject such a rare, pricey item just being dropped into their laps. However, he remembers how desperately he’d wanted any kind of helpful item back on the Aqua Jet, when they were traveling via the river and the mystery dungeon hit. It would be undeniably good to have as a back-up measure.
Nia seems equally unsure for a moment, but then she smiles and cradles the orb closer. “Well...thank you, then. It’s really too much.”
"Not at all," Avery says.
Xander’s shoulders lose some of their tension once they accept the gift, and that's what convinces Tobias not to put up a fight. They mean it. They're just worried about their safety, about Nia and maybe even a little about Tobias. And somehow, their concern doesn't feel like pity, but something warmer. Something easier to stomach.
Nia gently bumps Tobias with her hip, so he rolls his eyes and tacks on a quiet, “Yeah. Thanks.”
Xander opens his mouth to respond, but before he can say anything, his ears swivel in the direction of the chest.
That’s Tobias’ only warning before the shinx cubs yell, “Attack!” and charge Tobias once more. Felix must’ve been giving them battle tips, because this time they move as a coordinated unit, tackling Tobias’ legs. The charmander lets himself go down with an exaggerated oof, and the kids shriek as they swarm his chest, pinning him down with their soft little bodies. While he could still wriggle free if he really wanted to, their combined weight does hold him down pretty effectively. Tobias “struggles” for a few moments more before going limp with a dramatic groan.
“Victory!” Leor says.
“Drag him to jail!” Luca shouts.
“Throw him in the pit!” Laine adds.
“Whoa, where’d you hear that last one?” Felix asks, startled.
“From a cool story Bella found in the archives!"
Bella. Of course. Tobias has said it before and he’ll say it again: that bellsprout is a menace.
“Looks like I’ll be having another chat with Arlo,” Xander sighs, sounding all too much like a father.
Nia and Tobias head out shortly after, despite the shinx cubs’ whining over losing their playmate. At the door, Xander catches Nia in a one-armed hug, brushing the top of her head with his chin. The familiarity of the gesture catches Tobias off-guard, but Nia simply hugs the luxio back, unsurprised by the open affection.
As they leave, Felix and the kids’ loud goodbyes and Avery’s much quieter farewell following them into the hall, Nia hesitates.
“I feel like we should tell Team Evergreen that we’re heading out again, but…”
Tobias can only imagine the awkward tension that would rise if he was shoved into the same room as Andyn right now.
“I’ll leave that one to you.”
“That...might be for the best. I won’t be too long.”
Tobias waves her off, turning to head back to their room. He can get some more practice in on his guitar before they sleep. “Just remember that we head out early.”
“When do we not?” Nia counters, giving a wave of her own before setting off towards Team Evergreen’s quarters.
Tobias is relieved that Nia didn’t want him to join for that last visit. Between working in the kitchen this morning and seeing Team Shellshock and the shinx kids earlier, Tobias is just about done socializing for the day. He’s more than content to flop down in his nest and strum at his guitar for the rest of the night before they get back on the road tomorrow.
To Tobias’ surprise, Nia returns not long after they parted ways, when the moon is just starting to rise into the sky. She assures him that it went well, even if Andyn was a little quieter than usual, and that they all wished the two of them safe travels.
“Wished you safe travels, you mean,” Tobias snorts as he plucks away at an aimless melody. “Andyn probably hopes I fall off our flight ‘mon and into the ocean.”
“I don’t think she’s that upset,” Nia says, lying down herself. She eyes Tobias for a moment before reaching into their satchel and pulling out her book.
The night is peaceful, after that. Tobias works his way through some of the simple melodies from the music book they’d picked up in the archives, familiarizing himself with the easier tunes before trying anything more advanced. Nia reads her book, kicking her legs and occasionally mumbling something to herself.
It’s getting close to midnight when Nia finally yawns and slides her book back into their satchel. She curls up in her nest, blanket pulled tight over her shoulders until it bunches up by her chin, and watches as Tobias plays.
Eventually, Tobias figures he’d better get some rest too and slides the guitar and music book back into their satchel. He closes the curtain until the room is only dimly lit by his own tail flame, and curls up in his nest. He doesn’t realize until he's settled in that Nia isn’t actually asleep yet. Instead, she’s watching Tobias, clearly still wide awake.
“What’s up?” Tobias asks.
Nia shrugs. “Just…can’t sleep.”
Tobias knows the feeling. While it was easy to get lost in his music for the evening, Tobias won’t be surprised if he’s up for a while yet. Especially with their flight tomorrow, he has a lot on his mind.
For a moment Tobias just gazes back at Nia in the dim light, wondering if either of them are going to be well-rested come dawn. Then, he thinks of similar nights long, long ago, of looking at his sister or parents with a similar restless itch under his skin.
An idea pops into his mind.
For a moment, he hesitates. This is something…sacred. Something he hasn’t shared with anyone else since he lost his family. It feels wrong to even think about sharing it.
Then again, that’s what he’d thought about discussing Vivi and his parents at all, before the cart ride from Asra to Shivergleam. And that was…nice. Really nice. Swapping sibling stories with Nia. It hurt, but it also made something in him feel…looser. Like stretching out a stiff muscle that he hadn’t exercised in forever.
Tobias sits up before he can second-guess himself. “C’mon. I have an idea.”
Nia props herself up on an arm. “What?”
He climbs out of their nest and holds out a hand. “Trust me. It’ll help.”
For a moment Nia looks unsure, but then a smile crosses her face. Tobias helps her to her paws, and she doesn’t let go once she’s standing. He decides not to think about it too hard and gives her paw a squeeze, grabbing Nia’s beloved new blanket and slinging it over his shoulder.
“C’mon.”
Nia laughs under her breath as they leave the room, making sure to shut the door extra quiet behind her so they don’t disturb the other Pokemon on the floor.
“Where are we going?”
“Sure, just let me ruin the surprise.”
Nia's brows raise, but she doesn’t ask any more questions and just follows with an air of palpable curiosity. Tobias leads them to the staircase and starts climbing up, up, up through the guild.
“Are we visiting Maggie again?” Nia whispers.
“No.”
Tobias has done this many times over the years, since first arriving at the guild. But he’s always done it alone, sneaking past Maggie’s sleeping form to climb up to his favorite spot. He’d thought about asking Maggie to join before—she would’ve indulged him. But somehow it had always seemed a bit too painful before now. Before Nia. Now it feels less like chasing something he can’t get back and more like…sharing something he loves. Making it new again.
They finally reach the mail floor, evident by the cool breeze blowing into the staircase. There aren’t many fliers that work at night, so the floor is empty, the platforms bordering the edges of the room opening up to patches of clear night sky.
“Oh,” Nia breathes, registering where they are.
She follows him wordlessly as he goes to one of the far platforms and sits down at the end of it. She sits beside him, then casts a nervous glance below them to the Haven's trees, black and spindly and thin with the coming winter. She scoots back an inch.
Like this, they’re sitting at the edge of the world, the sprawling forest below and an ocean of stars above.
Tobias hands over Nia’s blanket, now heated by his own scales, and she gladly takes it to wrap herself up. He’s hardly surprised when she still scooches over to press against his side. The night air is cold, after all, chilly enough that he won’t argue against a little extra warmth himself.
“It’s beautiful out here,” Nia says, hushed. “I couldn’t really appreciate the stars in Asra, since we were on a stakeout. But here…”
“Peaceful, right?”
Nia hums her agreement.
For a moment, they’re quiet. The wind whistles by them this high up, stronger without the blocking force of the forest and carrying with it the crisp scent of the Silenfroar Mountains. Tobias can kind of see where the mountain range sits, a void of pointed black on the horizon that blots out the sky.
Tobias moves his eyes up to stare at the stars, feeling something in his throat tighten even as the rest of him relaxes. Even when he was a child, scared of nothing more than shadows on cave walls, his parents would lead him to the mouth of their cave to look up at the stars when he couldn’t sleep.
It makes him feel small. But in a comforting way.
“This is where we became a team.”
Tobias looks at Nia. “What?”
“Well. Technically we became a team down in the tunnels.” Nia smiles at Tobias. “But I consider this to be where we actually became one. For real.”
Right. After Afon’s Cap, when Nia finally stood up for herself and Tobias agreed to stop being so awful to her. They shook on it. Tobias can still see Nia in the pink evening light, paw outstretched and smile hopeful.
He flushes and looks away. He gestures vaguely with a hand. “Sorry. For. Y’know.”
Nia barks a laugh. “Being a bit of a jerk at first?”
He grunts.
“It’s fine. You’re much sweeter now.”
Tobias shoots her a look. “I’m not sweet.”
“Of course you aren’t,” Nia coos, giving his arm a patronizing pat. He shoves her away, and she laughs, immediately swaying back to his side.
“You have been so sassy lately,” he grumbles.
“Sorry, sorry. I’ll be nice.”
A brief moment of quiet. Then, a giggle from Nia.
“What?”
“I was just thinking about when we first met.”
Tobias has a brief flash of memory, from months ago. Spotting a strange, unfamiliar Pokemon—a riolu—unconscious in the middle of a nearby field. Waking her up to make sure she wasn’t hurt. Getting a blank stare and rising panic in return before Nia bolted into the woods and right into a mystery dungeon, Tobias hot on her heels.
Tobias snorts. “You were a mess.”
"I was!" Nia laughs. "I'm actually kind of embarrassed by it now. Can you imagine Kry’s reaction to seeing me run away from everything like that?”
“You were terrified of a seedot,” Tobias agrees, amused by the thought.
Although, knowing now how wildly different the Pokemon world is from Nia’s own, Tobias can’t blame her for being so freaked out. If anything, he’s a little embarrassed by how harshly he’d treated her. He wasn’t exactly a comforting presence at the time.
“But look at you now. Taking down steelixes all on your own.”
“Are you ever going to let that go?” Nia whines, paws coming up to hide her face.
“Nope. It's objectively awesome. And you aren’t going to tell anyone, so.”
Nia snorts another laugh. “I can’t believe I was so close to becoming a researcher instead of a Seeker. I can’t believe I fight on a daily basis!”
Tobias blinks, looking over at her. “You almost became a researcher?”
“I never told you that? Before I thought of teaming up with you, I thought becoming a Seeker was too scary, so I was going to become a researcher instead. Like Alistair and Tawny.”
Tobias wrinkles his snout, trying to picture it. On one hand, Nia would be right at home surrounded by all those books and the cozy environment of the guild every day. He could see her getting along well with the gardevoir and ribombee down in the archives.
But on the other hand, Tobias has also seen Nia’s eyes light up when she travels somewhere new. Seen how insatiably curious she is about the world and all the Pokemon in it. He's seen how her riolu nature shines through when she’s defending someone in a fight, and how genuinely happy she is when she can help out a client. All of that good would be smothered, stuck here at the guild.
And where would he be, if Nia hadn’t decided to come rescue him in that dungeon? Dead, at worst. Stuck in the medicinal quarters and miserable at best. Maybe Nia would’ve been happy as a researcher, but Tobias is immeasurably glad that they’re here together instead, as a team.
They both fall quiet again, looking up at the stars. The moon overhead is bright, painting everything in shades of black and silver.
“Humans went to the moon, y’know,” Nia eventually says.
Tobias gives her a dry look. “Ha ha. Funny.”
Nia blinks, looking genuinely caught off-guard. “No, really! Not, like. All of us. It was only a few. But we really did.”
Tobias squints at her, doubtful. But Nia doesn’t break. “…I thought you said humans couldn’t fly.”
“We can‘t. Or, well. Not on our own. But we built machines that can!”
Machines. Right. “Like…the cars you were talking about on the way to Asra?”
“Yes!” Tobias can hear Nia's tail give a happy thump against the wood. “Cars are great—they're so much faster than walking. And I loved the train in Ghatha. It was really similar to our own trains, so I wonder if a human had a hand in inventing that.”
“Probably. Don’t know if a Pokemon would’ve come up with something like that on their own. It was…kind of cool, I guess.”
“Oh, just you wait. There are so many cool human things I wanna show you! When I—"
Nia’s words cut off abruptly. Tobias feels a jab at his heart, knowing exactly why she'd clamped her mouth shut so suddenly. He wouldn’t ever get to visit, of course. And Nia wouldn’t get to visit him, either, if she left and went back to the human world. Giratina made that pretty clear. Tobias’ hand drifts up to his scarf, skimming the worn material comfortingly through his fingers.
The dark feels heavier, suddenly. Pressing down on them. Suffocating.
“I’m scared,” Nia eventually murmurs, curling tighter into her blanket. Her breath billows into the night air. “Of what will happen if we can’t do this. If we fail.”
Tobias knows the feeling. While Nia has two worlds’ safety on her mind, Tobias is struggling with just the one. He tries not to think about it too often, or it settles on his chest like a rock slide.
“Do you really think we’ll be able to find Xerneas?” Nia whispers, eyes trained on the mountains in the distance.
Tobias takes a moment to think before responding. “I don’t know. It’s not a great sign that Xerneas and Yveltal have been hidden for so long without anyone stumbling across them, but…”
“They’re the only lead we’ve got.”
Tobias swallows. “Yeah. But if worse comes to worst…we’ll just have to figure something else out. Failing isn’t really an option.”
Not with how much is on the line. They have to find a way to fix this if they want to keep everyone and everything in both of their worlds safe.
Nia turns to tuck her head into Tobias’ shoulder, her breath tickling his skin. The touch is grounding, somehow. Distracting enough to keep him out of his own head. They need a distraction. They can’t do anything until dawn anyways.
“Have I told you how much my family loved stars?” He blurts.
Nia’s breath catches, audible with her so close. “…No?”
Tobias wants to tell her. Wants to share. It’s still a terrifying feeling. His heart beats hard in his chest.
“We…lived in the mountains. Not the Silenfroar range here, but across the sea. Near a little village. But we lived way up, in a cave.”
Nia is silent. Tobias thinks she might be holding her breath.
“The sky was really clear, up there. It felt like we could reach out and touch the stars at night. Like…like it was just us and them.”
Tobias kind of feels like that now, actually. It’s a strange sensation. Deja vu, in a way. A little painful. A little sweet.
“And if it was ever too cloudy to see them from our cave, my…our parents would take Vivi and I flying. It was…”
The most magical thing he’d ever experienced. Something that makes a deep longing ache in his chest, even now. He hates that the world took that away from him. Won’t let him evolve to fly himself.
Nia’s hand slips free of the blanket to hold his own, her fur almost as warm as him.
Tobias takes a deep breath. “It was one of my favorite things. Vivi’s, too. When we couldn’t sleep, we’d sit at the mouth of the cave and they would teach us about constellations. Sing us stories.”
Nia is silent, hanging onto Tobias’ every word. Tobias closes his eyes. He can almost imagine it, fuzzy but warm. His father’s wing around him and his sister, keeping them sheltered from the chilly mountain breeze. Their mother humming and singing folk tales about the constellations. Tobias’ head bobbing as his eyes slipped closed and sleep washed over him.
“Do you remember any of the stories?” Nia asks.
Does he? He’s kept his memories locked away in the back of his mind for so long that trying to excavate them feels like wading through a sea of cobwebs. His eyes scan the sky, landing on a bright constellation vaguely resembling a head with big, round ears. He points at it with his free hand.
“That’s the teddiursa cub.”
Nia follows his gesture. “Teddiursa?”
“We saved one on our first mission. Uh. Small. Orange fur. Claws.”
“Oh! The cute little teddy bear!”
"Yup. He pairs with the ursaring.”
Nia follows Tobias’ finger as he trails up and to the right, where another collection of stars create the larger, blockier form of an ursaring head.
“Ursaring?”
“It’s what teddiursa evolves into. The story…” What was it again? “The story says that the teddiursa got lost one day. The ursaring was his mother, and she looked for him frantically, for three endless nights.”
Nia makes a sad sound in her throat.
“Desperate, the ursaring prayed to the stars, asking Jirachi to help her find her cub. Jirachi, the wishmaker, heard her and made her a part of the night sky, to be seen by all. The teddiursa saw his mother in the night sky, and wished to join her. Jirachi granted it, and the two have lived together in the sky ever since.”
Nia hums. “We have a similar set of constellations in our world, actually. Ursa Minor and Ursa Major.”
“Really?”
Nia nods, stars reflecting in her eyes. “I don’t remember much about the story associated with it, but…I think it’s sad.” She turns a smile onto Tobias. “I can’t decide if your world’s version is happier or not.”
Tobias blinks. He’d always assumed the story was a happy one, because the mother and child were reunited. “What do you mean?”
“I mean…they’re trapped in the sky, right? Are they happy there?”
Tobias frowns, looking back at the constellations. “…I like to think they are.”
Nia laughs softly. “Look at me, being the pessimist. I like your way of thinking better.”
Tobias makes a vague noise in his throat. They have enough things going wrong with the real world. Why not choose to believe that at least the teddiursa and ursaring got a happy ending?
“Thanks, Tobias. For sharing with me.”
Tobias isn’t sure if she means the story, or his memories, or his spot here, looking at the stars. Maybe all of it. He shrugs, embarrassed. “Who else ‘m I gonna tell? Xander?”
Nia gives him an exasperated, fond look. “I wasn’t kidding earlier. Maybe you can’t see it, but they really do want to be your friend. You guys seemed to be having a lot of fun when we sparred the other day.”
It can’t be that easy to make friends. Not when Tobias has spent the last eight years of his life almost entirely alone. But Nia is better at emotions than he is, so…
“It wouldn’t be…too terrible. Training with them again sometime.”
Nia grins, a teasing glint in her eyes. “Come on. Is it really so bad to have a few friends? You and I are friends, right?”
Tobias scoffs. “Duh. You’re my best friend.”
Nia’s smile drops with surprise, and Tobias tenses. His face burns with heat, and he snaps his gaze out to look over the trees, mortified.
Why did he say that? And so naturally, too. Best friend. What is he, five?
(Then again, it’s kind of obvious, isn’t it?)
Tobias can still feel Nia’s eyes on him, and steals a glance to find her eyes a little shiny, her expression a bit wobbly. “Tobias…”
“We should get some sleep!” Tobias says, too loud as he jumps to his feet. Nia nearly falls over in his haste. He doesn’t offer her a hand up this time, pacing a few steps into the flight floor and willing his stupid nerves to calm down.
He doesn’t hear Nia follow after him, but in a few short seconds she’s at his side again and stepping in front of him. “Tobias?”
He grunts, staring at his feet. At least the night hides how red his face is.
“Hey, I'm...I'm going to try something, okay? Feel free to tell me to stop.”
Tobias looks up, confused.
Nia looks just as embarrassed as he feels, somehow, shuffling in her blanket. But slowly, slow enough for him to stop her, she steps closer to wrap him up in a hug, cheek pressed into his scarf and blanket enveloping them both in warmth.
“I’m really glad you’re the one who found me in that field,” she murmurs. “You’re the best friend I could’ve asked for.”
Tobias feels his throat tighten up. As much as he knows that that’s not true—he’s a pain to be around more often than not—he also believes that she means it. His hands fall to the arms around his torso. His chest feels uncomfortably warm, a completely different sensation than when he uses his flames.
Nia squeezes him once before stepping back, closer to the stairs. She has a shy smile on her face. “C’mon, we should get to bed. One of us needs to be awake for tomorrow’s flight.”
Tobias relaxes, relieved to settle back into their usual banter. He moves to follow her down the stairs, ignoring the heat lingering in his cheeks. “I still don’t get how your two modes for flight are either screaming in terror or passing out.”
“It’s exhausting to be scared out of my mind! And I’m not scared when I’m sleeping.”
“Until you slip off our flight ‘mon and fall into the ocean.”
“You wouldn’t let that happen.”
“I might, if you insist we meet up with Junie in Stonebrook.”
Nia laughs. “C’mon, avoiding her won’t do you any good. You know she’d find us eventually anyways. And if you don’t want to fend her off alone, then you have to keep me alive.”
“Darn. All my plans, foiled.”
Nia laughs. Her tail wags as she talks, the blanket over her shoulders swishing with the motion. Tobias will never admit to finding it adorable. "Hey, do you think we’ll get to see Fliss tomorrow?”
“The braviary? Sure, if she’s around.”
“I hope so,” Nia says, “She was so nice, and she knew a lot! And she didn’t change how she treated us after she found out I was human, either. I wonder if—”
Tobias listens idly as Nia chatters on, the sound of her voice a comforting background noise for the short trip back to their room. Sleep sounds less daunting, after getting to unwind with Nia a bit. He’d been worried that sharing his space, his memories, would feel wrong, but instead it’s the opposite.
He feels…lighter. Ready for the journey ahead, no matter what it may hold.
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just like magic
Anton thinks he works really well under pressure, especially working with the healing department at the school. That was then ruined when you showed up in the healing coven all injured and bleeding on the floor and no one else around but him.
Genre: fluff, injured, humour cuz i cant be serious
Warnings: Lee soomin. swearing, reader is bleeding cuz they got bitten, mentions of dying and being kidnapped but that cuz reader is dramatic. It’s kinda unhinged lol.
a/n: takes places in the owl house’s magic school hexside but kinda diff idk lol. I unhingely wrote this out of nowhere 😭
Wc: 3k
You knew that convincing principal Lee Soomin to take two magic tracks was hard, but you still tried anyway. Unfortunately for you he didn’t agree and forced you to still choose one. You prompted on the potions track because even through that you were still able to somehow mix different types of magic together, just in secret.
You have recently had an obsession with the beast keeping track and had secretly been sneaking into the coven whenever you can to practice out different types of magic with the animals they had in the shed.
But due to the fact you were only supposed to be learning potions magic you never learned that every animal had a special link with their companion, so meeting new people they don’t tend to always be as welcoming as you would’ve liked.
So that’s what led you to be stumbling around the school grounds trying to find your way to the dorms. Holding onto your side where a griffin had bitten you, you were also really woozy because before biting you it had shoved you causing you to go flying across the shed hitting a wall.
You couldn’t be asking anyone for help, scared that they will rat you out in mixing magics.
Again.
Holding your weight against the school walls trying to find the staircase, before you get knocked down by someone standing in front of you.
“Oh sorry about that, yn?” The person in front of you with a soft gentle voice says. You’re pretty sure you’ve heard it before.
“Yn what are you doing here it’s almost past curfew- ARE YOU BLEEDING!!”
The raise in the person’s voice startled you and caused you to jump at him to shut his mouth with your hand, pressing him against the walls you were just struggling to stand next to.
It also surprised you when you got a good look at the boy in front of you, Anton. You’ve seen him around the school loads of times. You didn’t have any classes with him because you were only allowed to take potion classes and his healing classes. But you met him once through a mutual friend, Sohee. You remember when you first met him he was incredibly shy and wouldn’t even look you in the eye, but then you started to ask him a bunch of healing magic questions and he started talking a lot more with you as you listened.
That was probably the most you’ve ever talked to him, but since then you started to see him everywhere you went. You almost thought he was stalking you, but it seemed more that you saw him more because you started to notice him more. Also the two of you have a lot of mutual friends, so it does make sense to him.
You’d always catch him at your grudgby practices since that one encounter, you weren’t sure if he showed up before you two properly met, but he most likely did since he has other friends on the team too.
Even though you don’t talk to him much, hearing the boy scream as loud as he did shocked you because he was always very soft spoken. Even at the grudgby games you’d see him in the stands cheer but you would never actually even hear him in the crowd.
Though since he’s gotten the job to help with the healings around the school a couple of months ago, you haven’t seen him around the field anymore. It didn’t bother you or anything.
But right now he was still trying to make noises with your hand on his mouth, they were more noises of concern for your well being at the moment.
You kept checking right and left before telling him to shush as you were letting go of his mouth. As you did your eyes went straight to his lips.
Just to monitor whether or not he’ll make another sound.
Maybe you were staring too intensely at his lips because his face started to get as red as the blood dripping out of your body. Or maybe you were losing too much blood, you weren’t sure.
His eyes refuse to look at you, just like when you first met him.
“Anton,” You start, trying to get his attention. “Don’t tell anyone about this.”
Poor boy was completely flushed red with you leaning up against him, pushing his back to the wall. “Yn, you’re bleeding all over the floor and leaving a trail.”
You look back to the direction you came from and see that he was right. There was blood all over the floors and walls, with your bloody handprints.
Bloody handprint…
Looking back at Anton seeing that his face is partly red due to the blood you accidentally smeared all over his face. Lowering your gaze, blood was all over his and your clothes from you practically putting all of your weight on him now.
Also noticing that he had his hands around your waist, trying to hold you up right.
“I’ll manage.” You say as nonchalant as you can given your circumstances, giving him a weak smile.
As you try to pry his hands from your waist he replies. “I-I can help you.”
Letting go of his hands. “No it’s okay.”
But one step forward and you start falling to your doom.
Luckily Anton was just standing there awkwardly when you were trying to let go of his hands and watch as you attempt that step and miserably fail, but at least he was nice enough to help catch you before you fell.
“I’ll open up the infirmary and help you-”
“Nah Anton, it's good.”
“You’re literally dying.”
“That’s nice of you.”
“Oh my god.”
Anton struggles trying to get the keys from back pocket while holding a stubborn you trying to be the independent boss you are as you’re losing consciousness.
“Here I’ll get them.” You reach your hand in his back pocket. “Why are the keys soft?”
“That’s the wrong pocket yn.”
“Ah.”
Anton hopes your dying state doesn’t make you realize how red his face is, but he truly hopes you aren’t actually dying.
“Got it!” Anton takes the keys from you and quickly opens the door.
He’s glad that there isn’t anyone there at the moment so he can take care of you without you having to panic about getting in trouble for whatever stupid idea you were doing. But he was also terrified because you were probably the most injured person he was going to help his entire three months of working here.
Also because it was you.
How could you simply sit on the medical bed covered with blood everywhere, going in and out of consciousness, eyes barely staying open, with a stupid smile on your face trying to convince him you’re perfectly fine.
Maybe it was the moonlight from the window across the bed you were on that was making you look so majestical as you are right now.
But Anton knew it wasn’t that, because you always looked so incredible since the first time he saw you in the library. He couldn’t even look at you properly.
God he hopes you don’t hate him in the morning.
“Yn, I’m going to need to lift your shirt to see the wound.” He asks you slowly.
You show off your theatrical smile at him. “What wound?” As if he didn’t just save you from your devastating doom moments before.
Realizing you weren’t going to get out of this, you nod.
Anton takes a seat next to your bed as he gently lifts your bloody shirt up. He doesn’t even need to lift the shirt half way and can see the big bite at your side.
He knows you’re staring at him, watching his features to look for signs of emotions and it’s not helping him. He’s not the best actor given your question. “Is it bad?”
“No, i-it’s fine just look over there.” He points at the window. You turn your head to stare out into the nighttime, it calms Anton down a little knowing you won’t see this and that you’re no longer staring at him.
“Who or what did this to you?” He questions.
“A griffin.” You state as if it’s just the most casual thing ever.
“Do I want to know why or how?”
“Nope.” You continue to just blankly stare out to the moon as Anton does whatever he does.
He gets up quickly, moves around a lot and gets stuff, almost tripping on the other beds, before coming back next to you. “This might hurt, I’m sorry.”
You’re still staring at the moon as he speaks, “Why would you be sorry it’s the Griffins fault I’m like this.” You lied completely because honesty is boring when you’re dying.
Anton does whatever healing magic he does under your shirt, you take a deep breath preparing for pain. He sees this and tries to help by saying. “How about you talk about something unrelated to the injury? Maybe it will help you ease your mind before I do it.”
You nod. “I don’t really ever get to appreciate the moon, but it’s really beautiful.”
“You’re really beautiful.”
“Huh- AHGKC-”
Both your confusion and pained noise gets interrupted by Anton. Because he did his stupid magic trick to let you live and the pain you felt. You couldn’t even scream about it properly because pretty shy boy Anton shoved tissues into your mouth.
It was probably for the best since you were so intense about no one knowing you were dying. Honestly if Anton wasn’t where he was tonight you might’ve died on the school grounds.
It's sad though, dying in school.
As you were dying from the pain, Anton kept repeatedly saying “I’m sorry.” While holding onto your hand, with pain in his eyes seeing you like this.
When the pain stopped, Anton helped you lay your head down onto the pillow behind.
“You need rest, ok. Don’t try to get up please. I’ll check up on you in the early morning before the other healers come and clean up the mess.”
As he was about to get up, the hand that he was holding for you couldn’t get out of your grip. “Please.”
He looks to you barely awake, weak and tired from honestly he has no idea. You are attempting to ride a griffin. “Anton, will you stay with me? Please.”
You gave him a weak smile and that boy was done for. He sat back on that stool and laid his head next to yours on the bed. He’s not too sure where the confidence for both of your heads to be sharing beds came from but he didn’t care at that moment.
He just watched as your moonlight-shined face relaxed and you fell into a slumber.
The bright light shining in your face is what makes you stir from your sleep. But the unfamiliar warmth of someone’s arm around your body got you questioning things.
All you could see was blood.
There was blood on the pillow, the blanket, the bedsheets, the hand you were holding. Why were you holding someone’s hand?
Oh right, you almost died in front of Anton last night.
Is he hugging what he thinks is your dead corpse?
Are you dead? You really were confused. The last thing you remember is Anton calling you beautiful and then shoving tissues into your mouth like the gentleman he is.
The questions stop flooding your mind when you get to observe the position the two of you are in.
Your entire body was lying down on the bed, like a normal person would be sleeping like. Anton’s head and arms were on the bed but the rest of his body was completely twisted so his head and arms could be on the bed.
His head was next to yours, still smeared with blood all over because of you. One of his hands holding onto your bloody hand and the other wrapped around your resting body. With the rest of him just sitting on the stool.
You winced and thought that he stayed there all night with you in that position. Not knowing the time and not really caring at the moment. Carefully you grab onto his lower body and drag him onto the little bed next to you.
You thought you did quite a good job at not waking him up, but you guess you were wrong when he starts to stir. But for some reason you didn’t want to move just yet.
So you cause your body to go limp and wrap your arm around him so it would be difficult for him to get up and you pretend to still be sleeping.
But what you did was for nothing because he was easily able to get out of your hold when he fully woke up.
Feeling his stare as you sleep. Totally not weird. You hear him whisper something but you couldn’t make out what.
Next thing you knew is that he was carrying you bridal style off from the bed. You truly hope you were not being kidnapped.
That wasn’t the case when you remembered the familiar path to your dorm way. You really weren’t sure if you were supposed to wake up in this scenario but you just wanted to relish the moment of being in this stupid boy’s arms.
You heard the familiar voices of your roommates and some chattering before you felt your body be gently placed onto your bed.
This felt like a good opportunity to just continue sleeping, since you never have time for that ever since you started sneaking around the school grounds.
But that was ruined when the dorm room door shut and you felt your roommate throw pillows at you.
“Wake up right now and tell me why THE Anton Lee Chanyoung just carried you to the dorm.”
You don’t budge. You feel their body come closer to you and start shaking you asking you a shit ton of questions. You heard your two other roommates having a conversation of their own.
“See I told you Anton likes them, you owe twenty bucks.”
That made you shot up awake.
After escaping and half explaining why you were all bloody and with Anton all night, you tried all day to find said boy himself. But you couldn’t.
The healing coven place you were at was closed off because there was blood everywhere and no one knew whose blood it was and all you could do was hope you washed off all the blood on your body. Anton however wasn’t anywhere in sight.
You couldn’t pay attention to any of your classes all day long, but it didn’t matter too much because it was just potions anyways. Always the same things over and over again.
You couldn’t attempt checking out the healing classes without possibly getting in trouble all over again.
The next best thing was at grudgby practice asking his friends about him. But those losers weren’t any help.
“Oh, looking for a lover boy I see.” Seunghan gives you a wink before you hear a similar conversation you heard earlier today.
“Sohee, I told you yn was into Anton give me 50.” Shotaro cheers with a smile on his face, but turns and makes eye contact with you, his smile drops, realizing you heard.
He started panicking, not knowing you were completely clueless about any sort of emotional feelings about anything. But a twinkle in his eye sparkles and points behind you. “Yn look over there.”
You turn to where he was pointing at and see just the boy you were looking for.
Before you knew it you were running up to him.
“Hey, I was looking everywhere for you.”
“Hi,” He replies, not looking at you all over again.
You frown, not sure if you made him uncomfortable. “So… don’t you usually help with the healing coven at this time?”
“Oh right,” He scratches his head, looking down at his shoes like they are super interesting or whatever. “I got fired.” He says it's the coolest thing in the world.
Your jaw dropped and you couldn’t help but feel guilty.
“Yn before you say anything, I’ll explain. I realized you were playing with other magics again and when I came back from bringing you to your dorm the other healers had come back so I simply admitted it was me. Lee Soomin got upset at me, but since it was my first time doing so, getting fired was the only punishment.”
That explanation did not help you with your grief of his job. But he seemed all fine and smiley about it. You just wanted to kiss those stupid lips on his face, you didn’t though. Him and you would probably combust.
“I didn’t like that job anyway, I don’t get to see you practice anymore because of it.”
Him saying that now got you all smiley and shit.
“Thank you for all of that Anton.” Now it was your turn to be all shy and not look at him. Which was stupid because he has a nice face and you should be appreciating it more.
“Hey, it’s all good. Now I get to be your own personal healer.” Now you just wanted to cry and giggle over this boy.
“And shove more tissues in my mouth?”
“If you want me to.” You thought that was really weird but couldn’t care less the second he grabbed your hand, just like he did on the bed as you were dying.
“You know, Lee Soomin told me you were a bad influence on me when I told him it was me and that I shouldn’t hang out with you.” He swings your arms back and forth together.
“Well Lee Soomin doesn’t deserve rights.”
Bye I’m going to go cry over my loneliness and over chem again.
#riize scenarios#riize anton#riize angst#riize x reader#riize fluff#riize imagines#riize au#riize sungchan#riize shotaro#anton riize#riize seunghan#riize#riize wonbin#riize oneshots#riize drabbles#anton lee#anton x reader#anton imagines
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ᨳ. 𝐜𝐨𝐥𝐛𝐲 𝐛𝐫𝐨𝐜𝐤 ↝ 𝐛𝐨𝐰𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐦𝐚𝐧𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧
𝐬𝐮𝐦𝐦𝐚𝐫𝐲: basically the bowers mansion video but you're there and you help colby when he's scared because *awee*
𝐰𝐚𝐫𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐬: swearing and fluff bc <;33
𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠: colby brock x fem!reader
𝐚/𝐧: my first imagine slay 😎 THIS IS NOT PROOF READ BTW!! i decided to do it on this video bc its probably one of my favs omg the activity they caught!! plus colby playing with the cats was so cute stop. i do have a questions box on here so if you wanna request something feel free!!! ok hope y'all enjoy ღ
bowers mansion - from the front, looks like a stunning victorian Italianate-style house hidden within a small neighbourhood in texas. but what lies inside is much more sinister than you could imagine.
and this is where i found myself, in between my two best friends - and seth of course - counting down as they prepared to say their welcomes to a camera, or their youtube subscribers. the intro was done and everyone introduced themselves, then sam suggested we should have a look around the property.
round to the front side of the house there was a cellar, a common recurring theme through all of the haunted videos the boys have done. "oh my god, no way!" sam panned the camera around to the three of us standing there behind him "someone is going down that cellar tonight" he immediately put his finger up to his nose, colby followed and i seconded it by one swift movement of my finger. everyone panned around to look at seth as he quickly realised what was going on, unfortunately, he was too late meaning he was going into the creepy cellar tonight, but we'll see where the night takes us.
we all took a minute to group up and sensibly, like adults, speak about what we were going to do tonight. all eyes were on me as colby asked me "are you scared" obviously mocking but i hoped to god he couldn't see that twinge in my eyes as i started up at the house. of course i was scared, i was about to step foot into a haunted house for the second time ever, the sallie house was not the best to look back to for comparison. but, my answer was a simple "no" as i rolled my eyes and playfully pushed against his shoulder, feeling the twinge of pink coming to my cheeks at the close contact.
sam made a great note to point out the cock on the bell next to the door as we stepped inside this house. Inside our tour guide was already waiting for us, holding his companion, his dog alice."wassup alice" colby said in that tone you use to speak to animals "just bites my hands off" he followed up with, making us all chuckle."she's got a k-II on her back" seth point out "wait actually" sam moved the camera to get a better look at her back whilst the guide moved her to show us her back, "yoooo" we all said in unison. "ghost doggy" i added, stroking her head.
"I gotta get y'all to sign a paper saying if you get hurt or attacked or something like that it ain't none of our fault" our tour guide, david, announced to us leading us over to some papers to sign. looked at colby in horror. confusion, fear? "oh great" he laughed sarcastically. In response, he then tried coming up to alice, but she ran away, as expected. I was certain i saw the emf reader on her back spike up to orange, but i brushed it off trying not to frighten myself before we even began investigating.
"oh, it's a little bathroom" colby announced in a sing-song voice. Turning deadpan to the camera "harry Potter lived under the stairs but i take shits under the stairs". standing in the middle of this tiny bathroom, face going red as he was mimicking you know... taking a shit.
"and make sure when y'all are coming up and down these steps tonight, that you keep your hands on the rails because somebody can push you. I do not know who does that.."
holding tightly onto the bannister, sam replied, "okay".
already making it halfway up the staircase, without anything pushing me, colby's words behind me were another great sign of comfort! not."off camera the guy told me, there is a very very high percentage of us falling through the floor at some point, so lets all not stand very close together"
"what do you mean?" whipping my head around "so like.. this whole place is gonna fall down?" "this place" he turned to me "is like over like one hundred and twenty years old". I gasped "one hundred and twenty, what!" i exclaimed. "noo, what if i get scared" i pouted "do i not get a comforting hug" i joked. "of course, of course" he played along pulling me into a hug to prove it. gosh, this is going to be a long night.
"this is mary's room" colby, our new tour guide apparently, explained as he led us into this room, "this is where she got, shot and killed" 'oooo' sam gasped 'oh my god it looks like a full-on god damn seance". the room itself was nice and spacious, with some strange chairs that did in fact look like - a seance, and another little room that peaked off to the side. colby snuck out first, so naturally, i followed behind
"what is it colbs" i questioned behind him. "honestly like, i don't know" "looks like a balcony" i hummed in response. "how do you like" looking at me as i paused, "get out? got no clue this doors locked" he finished my sentence for me motioning to the door beside me. Looking back into the bedroom to get a peak at what sam and seth were doing, i heard a small crash behind me, and then the call of my name. "y/n/n look"
turning to look, i saw him pushing on a screen that sat behind the window, and it was indeed leading to the balcony. "holy fuck colby, don't go breaking up the place" i laughed, meeting his eyes as he smiled down back at me. calling out to sam to come see what he'd found. "exploring time" colby announced, climbing through the window. with sam, who had already hit his foot on the door frame, behind him filming. sam went next complaining that it was not the right day to wear skinny jeans, and colby proclaiming he stole his line.
ducking my head as i stepped into this mystery room, a hand flew in front of me, looking up i met eyes with colby, who had outstretched his hand to help me through. obviously, i took his hand into mine, enjoying the feeling of skin to skin.. even if it was just his hand.
all of us had clamped through the little entrance and were now aiming for the other door on the other side of this tiny hallway. "wait like since this was locked we gotta be careful probably on these floors" colby made a good point, this was locked for a reason. "yeah this is probably where it's fucked" sam joined, but we kept walking anyways."we just fall through". "This is gonna get so many views" colby said laughing. "colby brock dies in a haunted mansion" sam exclaimed. chuckling, i did wonder what was happen if we fell through, but as usual, i pushed the thought to the back of my mind
"that one says no entry as well" sam pointed out as we crowded around the little door. Colby tried the door handle, and to everyone's surprise, it was open. "looks like we can enter to me" he followed with an evil laugh.Entering the small balcony, it felt like it was being supported by twigs, "this is gonna fall through" all three of us said at the same time, looking at each other laughing. "we might be the first and last to investigate this" "yeah were like, we are the first investigators to really investigate this place" he makes a movement of falling through the floor. "yeah now let's go back inside before we do actually fall and die" me, with the brains, obviously.
"who's sleeping here tonight" tour guide colby led us into yet another room, but this one had a bed "yooooo they actually have a bed" sam shouted "we could do a slumber party" "hell yeah" i agreed.
"they should just make this a hotel" a gasp came from colby making us suddenly look in his direction. "actually" he pointed a finger "i remember seeing this room online, this is Bernard's room" "oh!" "this is where he would just sit at the window every single day and just do nothing" "that's so sad" i imagine how lonely he would have been.
snapping me out of my thoughts, colby finds yet again another place we are probably not supposed to be in. an old, black wooden door the paint chipping off as it's withered over time. he slowly pulls the door open and reveals some stairs, they're painted blue and yet again look worn. They lead downwards and they turn, it's complete darkness down there, and the stairs don't feel particularly safe either-not one bit of this house does. but we proceeded to go down anyway. sam goes first, saying something about shitting? I wasn't really listening, just trying to safely get down the stairs. colby follows him with the camera, then me, then seth. somehow colby found his way to the front of the line and goes down to adventure by himself. I heard him talk about another potty but the lord knows. meanwhile, the rest of us head into this boiler-looking room.
"so i think the only basement to this place is the cellar that we saw" colby pointed out. I was now standing with my back to the stairs as we all stood talking about what this room could be. "we have to go outside the to get to the c-"
BANG!
a loud slam was heard upstairs, we all jumped. "that was right behind me" i shouted "what the fuck was that" i coward."what the fuck" "was that upstairs" "it was upstairs" seth confirmed. "keep it recording" sam pointed as he headed back up the stairs. "wait was that upstairs" colby, confused, asked "yeah bro that was the fucking door" seth replied. "no way that was not" "it was literally right behind me colby" i shouted back, trailing upstairs behind sam.
"the doors fucking closed' sam yelled out "the fucking door just closed by itself" "there's no draft up here" "holy shit" we were all talking over each other. "bernards room is the most active" colby bellowed out, scaring sam in the process. "that's what he told me" "bernard told you that?" i asked creasing my eyebrows. "no he-" cutting himself off, laughing. "bernard just shut us in the basement, he's like don't come back" sam declared. we had only been in this house for around twenty minutes and i already had a bad vibe.
the tour guide had just left us alone for the night, so it was time to start the proper investigation. we had been trying to film the story behind this house. but every time we would hear a noise coming from upstairs. colby was certain there was someone in here with us, but we searched and found... no one.
regrouping at the bottom of the staircase, we began to explain to the camera about bernard, the man's room where the door slammed. there was noise after noise after noise, there has to be someone or something here.
sending colby upstairs first, which he was more than happy to go and throw a punch at whoever was upstairs messing with us, i have to admit was hot. I lingered behind him when he took the lead, however, when we walked past the "private, do not enter" room i noticed something. the door looked like it had been... moved? shaking my head i moved on, still trailing behind him. until we both heard this... meow? why would we be hearing meows in an abandoned mansion? I looked at him and he nodded, acknowledgement to show me that he heard it too. turning around to walk back down the hallway, he pulled out his phone to film
but i stopped at that same door. the private one, the one i thought was open. "colby" i hollered down the hallway, he came running back out another room. "what, what happened" he sounded almost worried? I decided to ignore it, for now, brushing it off as a fragment of my imagination. "the door is open" i responded "the door?" he sounded equally as confused. "yeah the door, you remember the one that was locked" "how the fuck.." "i know right, i walked past it before i just thought nothing of it" he went to push it open. "wait, don't" i stopped him "sam!!" i called down to the blonde boy downstairs who was setting up our equipment
he paced up the stairs, with the camera in his hand, and i assumed it was recording. "yeah, what?" he panted out. "look the fucking door is open" i gestured. "what, how it was locked" "that's what i thought but it's open" "shall we open it?" he questioned. "yeah" colby butted in outstretching his hand again, i made no move to stop him this time letting sam film around me as we all peered around to see what was in this room
to our surprise, we were met with 7 pairs of glowing eyes. cats...?
colby jumped as one of the cats approached the door, he looked back at our group. "what the fuck' i was the first one to speak out "why is there like 18 cats in a room" i questioned, bewildered. we must have been playing with the cats for at least half an hour. them passing the cat ball back to us and seeing their little faces pop up when we stuck our phones in was such a nice little distraction from where we actually are.
but sam wanted to start the investigation soon, so we all huddled outside, deciding what equipment we each are going to use. colby got to be inside on his own with the k-II a small device that scans electromagnetic fields, measuring them with a bright LED array that moves from green to red depending on their strength. seth has the ovilus, a device which also uses its temperature and magnetic field detector to pick up words and spit them out using its built-in dictionary. and sam had to be in the cellar on his own, with a rem pod, that detects physical touch or temperature change, and a night vision camera
me on the other hand had to choose. It was between seth and colby. sam wasn't offended when i passed up the offer to come down to a scary cellar. I knew i was going to choose colby, of course, i just had to. but for the dramatics, i pretended to think.
"ok I'm going to have to choose hm... colby" "great choice" he smiled side hugging me. loaded up with a camera and a music box, that plays a tune when motion is detected in front of it, we headed inside.
"game plan" colby announced when we were situated inside. "you stay downstairs and I'll go upstairs, that good?" i nodded. his expression softened slightly, looking into my eyes "you don't have to do this y/n" he pulled me into a hug. for a millisecond i was frozen, but i came to my senses as i relaxed into him, inhaling his scent, i did feel calmer. "im ok" i muttered into his chest "ill do it" . "ok" he pulled away and held me by my shoulders "let's do this" he winked before turning around and heading upstairs
a few good minutes went by while i set up, setting up a camera on a ledge wasn't as easy as i thought. i could hear colby walking around upstairs, i assumed talking to the camera.
i set the music box down in the hallway behind me, let it calibrate, and started asking questions. nothing was really happening, i was debating about moving into a new spot, but as soon as i went to pick up the music box, a loud crash was heard from upstairs.
frozen, i called out to colby. was that him or...
"colby" i yelled up the stairs. i could faintly hear him cursing to himself, and his footsteps get closer to the stairs. turning my head towards the stairs, i met his eye. he was visibly shaken, almost pale, and sweating. "holy shit colby what happened" running over to him grabbing his arm as he stood in the middle of the room with, said arm, over his mouth and one holding the camera. i could feel him shake under my clutch. confused as to what happened i kept asking. but he didn't say anything.
"come on colbs let's go outside" dragging him by his arm, he was getting sweaty and i knew he needed some fresh air. i manoeuvred him to sit down on the stairs. sitting up one from him so i could reach his head, and hold it into my chest, trying to get him to calm down his breathing. "It's ok colbs i got you" "i got you" i kept repeating, reassuring him i was there. i kissed the top of his head, which was still resting against his chest, we must have been there for about 15 minutes before he finally sat up.
"what was that colbs what happened" he just looked at me, my eyes were pleadings for some answers. "that door"...
#colby brock#colby brock imagine#colby imagine#colby brock x reader#colby x reader#colby brock x y/n#colby brock imagines
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౨ৎ⋆ ˚｡⋆ kitty
itadori yuuji / gn!reader ©mariademetal 2024
cw ... yuuji calls reader babe, blood(?) but nothing violent and no vivid description of a wound, if there's anything else lmk
note ... haiii welcome to my lil established relationship yuji fic in which he is a stupid cat dad
this is HEAVILYYYYY based on my experiences with kittens (every single kitten i've ever owned has shat on my bed once, as if just to get it out of their system before devoting themselves to a litter box) and the many fatal injuries i've received from them.....
word count ... 3.1k
At first, you're the one that's apprehensive about bringing the cat home.
It's a little brown thing that ambushes you at the foot of your apartment's stairs, and who was very fun playmate for the first twenty minutes it followed you around, but got to be a little more trouble than you thought it might be worth after locking into climbing you like a tree and tearing a hole in your jeans in the process. At which point, you decided that while your hangout sesh was a lot of fun, it's time for your friend to go back to its mother.
To its fortune, just as you steel your resolution to leave your new friend at the bottom of the staircase on which it first attacked you, Yuuji shows up— of course he does— and decides as soon as his eye catches the claws hanging off of your shirt that he will simply keel over and die if the two of you don't foster the kitten.
"What if her last owners neglected her?" He pleads with you, looking you with the most convincing sad brown eyes you've seen in a moment while he speaks. (All while his new best friend bites his finger like it's made out of something positively delicious.) You're in the worst place in the world for this discussion, you think, still sitting at the bottom of that damned staircase. The fact that Yuuji will have won the moment you move into your apartment with that kitten keeps you in place at the price of your pride.
"Look at how fat she is, Yuuji," you gesture to her, and you can't even remember at what point in your heated discussion it became her. "What if her owners love her dearly and are waiting for her to come home? I'm not going to... catnap her."
"What if her mother died and she's looking for a new one?" He keeps asking these stupid hypothetical, rhetorical questions that prove nothing but still annoy you to no end. Not to mention the way he's cradling her in his arms— you have no doubt that by new mother he means himself.
"We already have a kid," you grit out. By kid, you don't mean an actual child, but rather a betta fish that Inumaki dared you to buy six beers deep and who you, unfortunately, discovered you could not return the morning after, nor ever. Yuuji stepped up as his father when you proved to be a little bit too absent as a single parent to him, and he's alive and thriving to this day, albeit in a tank you doubt is quite the recommended size. "What if she eats Fish? He's my pride and joy."
At this, Yuuji stops and thinks. "Aren't Nobara and Maki looking for a cat?"
"I think so," you hum, and tentatively reach over Yuuji's lap to rub your little enemy's stomach.
"Lets just take care of her until they're ready to take her," he smiles at you, tight-lipped and hopeful. "I'll make sure she doesn't eat Fish. I'll scoop her shit and feed her too."
You take your hand back to allow another tenant to pass between you and Yuuji and lean your head against the railing with a sigh. It's a bad idea and you know it. As much as you'd love to think you and Yuuji are ready to take care of a cat, dedicate the time and care it needs to it, you just can't. But if Yuuji says he'll take care of her just for the meantime, you know he means it. "... Alright. But the second she fucks with Fish, she's gone."
As it turns out, Kitty, as you and Yuuji have intermittently named her to match with Fish, is an only slightly worse roommate than Yuuji. If you were to rank everyone in your apartment by how much you all contribute, it'd go something like this— Fish in first place, obviously, for all the joy he gives you and Yuuji, as well as causing the least mess; you in second, for feeding and raising Fish up; Yuuji in third for cooking and paying the bills; Kitty at dead last for shitting all over your comforter on the first night she stays with you and having the audacity to beg you for food come morning.
Yuuji had prepared in every way he could think of— he bought her a litterbox, plenty of food for kittens, a collar (just until Maki or Nobara take her to get chipped), and enough catnip to plant a field. And, for what it's worth, when you’d first brought her into your apartment, just before Yuuji left to buy her supplies, she was an angel. She was the calmest you'd seen her the whole evening, carefully sniffing the floor of your apartment, sneaking up behind corners, checking for any harm that might come her way. So preoccupied with discovering this new, unknown land that she doesn't even acknowledge Fish's existence. It was only after she'd settled in that he ran to get her kitten things.
Naturally, Yuuji didn't think to check if Kitty actually knows how to use the elegant litter box he'd so diligently set up for her in your bathroom, so where you were expecting to sleep in and wake up to your boyfriend peppering your face with kisses, you instead wake up at the asscrack of dawn to the feeling of him jerking your blanket off of you (and the rest of your bed, you suppose), Kitty watching him from the floor with what you can only describe as morbid curiosity.
"Yuuji, what...?" You croak out, wiping the sleep from your eyes.
Then, the smell hits you, and you're confident you're not falling back asleep.
While Yuuji washes your blanket and lectures Kitty on the proper, sanitary way to relieve herself, you sprinkle some food in Fish's tank.
You stare down Kitty, who, in Yuuji's temporary absence, has taken to frolicking around your flat, as if she isn't a criminal, as if she didn't ruin your favorite duvet, and with a glare that softens by the second, you scoop out a can of cat food into a bowl and put it on the floor for her, despite the fact that Yuuji swore he’d take care of feeding her.
For what it's worth, you have to appreciate that, at the very least, she hasn't so much as glanced in Fish's direction. Despite how vehemently you're denying it at the moment, Kitty is, in fact, tearing and clawing and shitting her way into your heart— but if she does come to stay with you for any extended period of time, you'd rather it be one in which you don't have to constantly move Fish further and further away from her reach in order to keep him safe.
Fish, your first and beloved son— an accident, sure, but the happiest you've made in your life. There have been nights where you have been one dry heave away from throwing up your stomach in its entirety, and the only thing that could get you to stand up and drink some water was Fish, blub-blub-blubbing in his own, urging you with bulbous eyes to take care of yourself (because if you don't, you can't take care of him).
He's a selfish child, but all children are, you suppose. It’s their right.
Kitty finishes her food with a satiated meow and barely makes the three-foot journey to your coffee table before dropping down onto her side and passing out. It's an adorable sight, obviously, but one that also reminds you that that could've been you this morning if only she hadn't emptied her bowels onto your blanket.
Yuuji comes back to your apartment, empty-handed and head hung low, and you already know what he’s going to tell you; “Your blanket didn’t make it, babe.”
All you can do is sigh and throw your arms up. “I’ll pick up another one after work.”
Thankfully, after that fateful morning, Kitty didn’t have many other shit-related accidents. It was incredible, really, how easily she managed to fit into your life, how easily she forced you to carve time out of your day to spend with her instead— she sleeps on your couch since you tragically banned her from your bedroom, wakes you up like an alarm clock, consistently, to give her breakfast, and lazes around your apartment in tandem with you and Yuuji scurrying around to get ready for your respective days. You have class in the morning, he has work, and you always come come back just in time to deliver Kitty and Fish’s lunch. You’ve also found that Kitty has a taste in television— she screams at you whenever you put on Rupaul’s Drag Race, out of excitement or prejudice you can’t quite find out, and curls up into a ball in the crook of your elbow whenever you watch Seinfeld. Then, Yuuji comes back from work and if you don’t have plans, the four of you eat dinner together like a bonafide family.
Tonight, you don’t have plans, but Nobara, who has been promising to call you about Kitty for the past month you’ve had her has finally caught you on your phone.
“Of course I want her,” she insists, and you can see her bob swaying along with her head as she jerks it around in your mind's eye. (You love her dearly.) “It’s just… not a great time for Maki and I.”
Maki and I seems to be her favorite thing to say nowadays— you don’t think you’ve seen one without the other in some months. “That’s fine, but me and Yuuji can’t foster her forever, you know,” At the sound of his name, Yuuji whips his head around to see what you’re doing. Once he clocks who you're talking to, he mouths to you to tell Nobara he says hi. “Yuuji says hi, by the way.”
“Yeah, tell him I say hi too,” Nobara sighs. “We’re moving into Maki’s folks’ place, and I don’t know how they feel about cats and stuff.”
“Maki’s folks’ place is so big I doubt they’ll ever even see her.”
"I'm sorry, but can you just keep her until we're settled in?" Nobara asks with a politeness that's very out of character for her. Then again, if you had to live within a mile of the Zen'in compound, you'd be worn out, too.
It must be a sign from God, from Buddha, from the universe, or maybe just fate that before you have the opportunity to mumble out an uncertain I don't know to Nobara, Kitty wraps herself around your calf. She's gotten so big, you think to yourself— it feels like just yesterday she was small enough to fit in your shoe, but over the month you've fed her and scooped her shit, she's become big enough to play with your shoes.
"Yeah, of course," you splutter out. You press your phone against your shoulder and lean down to pick Kitty up while Nobara chatters away in your ear about gratitude and just hum when she asks you this or that. For a moment, just a moment, you wonder if you should be selfish and keep Kitty for yourself. Then you reprimand yourself, because she's still, for all intents and purposes, Maki and Nobara's cat.
Still, as you come to terms with the fact that Kitty's stay in your apartment will certainly be longer than you originally planned, it seems Kitty comes to the same realization— you and Yuuji discover that she's pointedly decided to make herself entirely at home. She was never well behaved, not really, what with the way she'd pounce on Yuuji whenever he fell asleep on the couch, or the way she'd dig her nails into your thighs whenever your petting skills failed to meet her standards, but it seemed that you, at the very least, had an understanding when it came to respecting the space you're all sharing— your apartment. She didn't scratch your couch, didn't spray litter all over your bathroom, and seemed to ignore fish in his entirety.
Now, though, she's picked up possibly the worst hobby of all— knocking shit off of other shit. Pens off of your desk, detergent off of your washing machine, cups off of your fucking kitchen counter. Yuuji, guilty for anything and everything he is physically capable of being guilty for, has cleaned up after her with a vigilance that you feel genuinely bad about. Unfortunately, he doesn't do it as carefully as you wish, which is why you're picking glass out of his hand with a tweezer at one in the morning after he stumbled out of your room to find what you and him had neglected to put away (what Kitty had managed to knock off of a counter) this time and found out the hard way. By tripping on the culprit in the darkness and falling hands-first onto the scene of the crime.
"Are you sure you can go to work tomorrow?" You ask, voice soft, and Yuuji, who has been smiling since he woke you up with a yelp, finally falters.
"I think I'll be alright," he murmurs back. "Nanami won't be happy, but..."
"When is he ever?" You snort.
"He likes Kitty, too."
"You've shown him pictures of her?"
"Of course! I've shown pictures of her to everyone in the department," he grins, and you can picture him, heavy in his uniform, lifting his phone up to his stoic boss' face with a picture of Kitty, asking Isn't she cute? Then him adjusting his glasses before nodding, Yes, Itadori, she's very cute.
You suppose that's the effect Kitty has on people. Yuuji, too.
He's sitting on the edge of the tub, you're sitting on the toilet seat, paper plate balanced on the sink beside you to drop the fragments of glass onto, Kitty passing and curling around your and Yuuji's feet. It feels odd to say it, but he got off lucky in this situation— only a few pieces of glass burrowed themselves deep enough into his skin to bleed, and the rest are just stuck on the surface. Still, you're pretty confident Yuuji's in a lot more pain than he's letting on.
"Really, Yuuji," you huff, "I think you should stay home tomorrow. Just so the swelling goes down and it'll be less painful the day after."
"It doesn't hurt," he starts speaking with his whole chest, but once he clocks the look you're giving him of complete and utter disbelief, his confidence wanes. "... that much."
"I know you're worried about money, but I'm worried about you," you start, and try not to wince with him after pulling out a particularly deep shard of glass. "And besides, if this gets worse because you went back to work too early, we'll have to pay for that, too."
He hums. "I guess so."
You wrap his hand up diligently, pepper his face with kisses, and shoo him away to your bedroom so you can pick up all the glass on the floor that didn't end up on that paper plate. He calls in sick.
You get through your classes like a zombie being pulled along campus by a leash. As it turns out, staying up until the early morning making absolutely sure that there wasn't any glass left on your floor did not prepare you for success when it was time to leave. Still, Yuuji solemnly swore to spend his day focused entirely on healing, so you achieved one little victory, if nothing else.
When you get home, before you can even grasp the doorknob, you hear Kitty yapping away, Yuuji sniffling, and something being shuffled around your living room. You don't know quite what you're afraid of— an intruder, Kitty growing to the size of King Kong, or Yuuji having shrunk of Kitty's height, but after peeking your head into the door, you can confidently say that it is none of the above. You do, however, see the assortment of Kitty's things gathered right by the door.
You step into your apartment, kick your shoes off, and greet Kitty as she practically jumps into your arms.
"Yuuji?" You call out to him, and realize he's in the bathroom, probably figuring out what the best way to remove Kitty's litter box would be. "What're you doing?"
He walks out of the bathroom, eyes red, bandage on his hand freshly, but messily changed, and his head hung low. "We have to give Kitty up," he says, and you immediately clutch her tighter in your arms.
"What're you talking about?"
He just gestures to where Fish is— rather, where fish should be. His tank isn't just empty, it's gone. You realize what happened.
"Did she eat Fish?" You ask. Your voice is calmer than you really are, but you don't want Yuuji to think you're mad at him for Kitty coincidentally killing Fish the one day he happened to stay home.
"No," he insists, and points to a red Solo cup he's placed on top of your bookshelf. "He's there. She... knocked his tank over. I saved him before he could die, but..."
You look down at Kitty, who is similarly looking up at you— it's like she knows what she did, like she knows exactly what your one condition to let her stay is, like she's pushing the rules just to see what you'll let her get away with before kicking her out. But Fish is not dead, albeit traumatized and certainly not thriving in his temporary home. You realize that you think you'd forgive Kitty if she clawed your eye out. You've been denying your truth— denying that you love Kitty like she's yours, because she is— for far too long.
"I-I remember what you said about only fostering her if she doesn't mess with Fish, and I agreed, so—"
"I don't want to get rid of her," you interrupt Yuuji, and his expression goes from distraught to severely confused.
"No," he insists. At first, you were the one who was apprehensive about keeping Kitty. Now, the roles have been reversed. "She messed with Fish. I get it."
"Yuuji," you say, softer, and walk towards him. You look at his hand and realize he must've worked so hard on his day off, to clean up the glass of Fish's tank, to clean up the water, the decorations, the plants, and how scared he must've been that Fish would die. How scared he must've been that you'd be mad at him. You love him too much for that. "We're not getting rid of Kitty."
"We're not?"
"Of course not. Do you want to?"
"Of course not!" He huffs, and makes a face at Kitty that she must not like, because she takes a swipe at him from all the way in the crook of your elbow.
"So... do you want to tell Nobara?"
"Hard pass."
#not edited icl#this stems from my deep dark desire to raise a cat with a himbo#jujutsu kaisen#itadori x reader#jjk x reader#yuuji x reader#yuuji fluff#jjk fluff#itadori yuji x reader
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Flip A Switch - Lando Norris
Lando Norris Mafia AU
As much as we try to suppress the stigma, strong women will continue to be perceived as intimidating until you learn to love us.
(Not proof read)
PART 2 - Bad Blood
"Morning gorgeous!" Mandi smiled as I skulked into the kitchen. Heels in hand, uncomfortable in the smart attire that i stupidly had chosen, unfortunately as a woman in this business if you wear anything slightly casual or that makes you feel slightly good about yourself then kiss away your chances to be taken seriously.
"I knew you'd come round and listen to wise old Mands." Beaming she was, beaming at the odd occurrence of her being right.
"Shut up, Mandi."
"Wearing heels won't intimidate a man who is significantly taller than you with them on." She spotted, she is correct in my intention of wearing heels, but it wasn't helping my current mental state, my eyes glaring into the back of her head as she made herself a coffee.
Glentwood. 20 minutes. The message alerted.
Great, I thought, nothing like meeting on their turf in a bar that'll be closed for another 14 hours. "If i don't message you in 2 hours, i'm dead." i smiled at her as i slipped on my heels grabbing my car keys.
"Optimistic as ever, have fun!!" She smiled, following me out and parting on her walk to work...
-Glentwood-
Glentwood was the most popular bar in the City, owned by the female members of McLaren it was the perfect place for me to become the easiest target they've ever faced. Or that's what they probably thought.
Knocking on the huge wooden doors I awaited for some tattooed hunk to answer the door instead a petite girl no taller than 5"3 in an all black suit greeted me with a smile.
"Y/n!" She smiled, much more excited than one should be when faced with someone who was once quite the enemy. "Oh Lando has told me so much about you. I'm Natalie, head bartender, if you will." Natalie was in no way what i would expect from McLaren.
"Nice to meet you." My smile quivered in confusion to why such a sweet girl worked for such monsters. Grabbing my hand, Natalie pulled me into the bar, the wooden interior radiated a rather glamorous aura about the place.
"Lando is waiting in the office. He seemed rather excited to have you on board. It would be great to have another girl around." She beams, i was going to correct her, telling her that i wasn't agreeing to anything, in all honestly, i'm not too sure why i'm here. But images of her doe eyes saddening and lips becoming tucked into a frown was not worth the guilt. So i stayed silent.
"Just run along up the first flight of stairs second door on the right" She nodded in the direction of the spiralled staircase, her hands clasped together whilst the smile never once shifted from her face. Intense.
"Thanks." I mumbled, my heels echoing along the tiled black and white flooring. My palms began to sweat slightly to which i brushed them against the side of my suit. Pull your self together.
A voice called to come in after i knocked on the door, there was Lando sat in an excessively big chair tucked under an also as excessively big wooden desk. Clad in black suit pants and black shirt pushed half way up his forearms. His veins protruded down his muscular arms. He was attractive even I couldn't deny that. How unfortunate that his pretty face was paired with his overly cocky personality.
"Morning Lando, what a glamorous lair." I mocked, the room did sort of resmble what a vampire would enhabit.
His faced remained unamused, "I dont know if you're entirley aware how fucked you are and how much you actually need my help. If i was you I'd sit down and shut up."
Now in any other scenario I would leave after being spoken to like that. However, contrary to what he believe i do know how much danger i could be in now that i am essentially on my own. So I sat.
He lent further into the desk his hands clasped together, looking deep into my eyes, "From what we've heard your brother is looking for an eye for an eye. As one of his men was killed and you're the only one he was chasing they're after your blood. More so than they were before.-"
"Now let me stop you there. So you kill the goon and i have the target on my head? I told you i was handling it and now i'm in even more danger than i needed to be?" This stupid man. These stupid men. No brains the lot of them, they're like little boys who have been given too much power.
"The target was already there. I just made it bigger."
Brilliant, i thought.
"We've been led to believe that in your fathers will, Keegan was written out and you were to inherit everything. However, he has now cleared any trace of that. Except in your fathers safe in Spain. With Keegan still around that's the only way to maintain your fathers legacy and save Keegan from fucking everything he worked for."
"So all I need to do is to go to Spain sounds like an easy task? You couldn't have just relayed this to me over text?" Wasted journey, I thought.
"Keegan will know your every move and if we found out about the copy he wont be that far behind. You may have the brains of the family but he has the man power, they'll figure it out eventually. So I propose, that you join us. An alliance if you will? You need the man power and don't let this go to your head but we could use your intelligence in the trade."
Ignoring the compliment, i stared at him in disbelief. Is he mad? His father and my father were close, Lando was even part of my fathers outer circle, Hell Lando and I had a good friendship. Until one day Lando and his family ditched my father in one of our peak hardships.
Upon their disappearance coincidentally so did secrets within our family started leaking to the world of crime. My father was furious I remember him cursing the Norris family from ours. I'd never seen him so on edge than when the Norris family was brought up. He must be mad.
"You must be mad. You think I'd work alongside you? Now I don't know what happened between our families, I do know that my father hated yours and that carries onto me. He'd be turning in his grave if I joined you!"
I'm aware that I probably need more man power, I know it'd be a risk to go at this alone. But i believe i would make a good go of it before even looking in the direction of McLaren.
"Y/n, the thing between our families was a misunderstanding, you need us. I promise you-"
"I don't want to hear it. I don't need you."
I could hear him call my name as I stormed out of his office, lair, whatever, making sure to slam the door after me.
Natalie was waiting at the bottom of the stairs, to let me out I assume, "Went well then?" she giggled sarcastically.
I hummed in response, shame her boss was a rat, we probably would've gotten on quite well.
Slipping into the drivers seat, I slammed the steering wheel with my hands before resting my head on it. My chest burning from anger. My dads words ringing in my head,
Can't trust anyone but me, Pumpkin. Especially not the Norris'. Especially not men.
I knew i was unsafe on my own, but I'd risk it for now. Next stop Spain.
Masterlist
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@barcelonaloverf1life
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Congrats on 500 followers 🎉🎉
for the event would it be okay to request Barbatos with the prompt shivers?
Thank you, anon!
I felt like this prompt could have gone in so many different ways, but in the end I settled on this scenario. Hopefully it turned out okay. I love Barbatos I could write so many fics of him lol.
Thank you for participating! <3
GN!MC x Barbatos with prompt Shiver
Warnings: None!
It was a slow afternoon at RAD and you were in potion making class with Mammon and Levi. The three of you were working together to make a heat resistant potion. According to the textbook, mixing the ingredients correctly would result in a potion that would keep the drinker cool in any kind of extreme heat conditions. You had been going through the ingredients on the table, trying to make sure you had everything you needed and in the right amounts. Then you began to list off the ingredients in order while Mammon and Levi put them into the cauldron.
"Okay and now have you to add the snow blossom," you said, reading from the text.
"Here it is," Levi said, handing it to Mammon, who dumped it into the cauldron.
"And then-" but you were interrupted when the cauldron exploded in a fog of frost that hit you directly in face.
You sucked in a breath as your entire body slowed down significantly and you felt as though you had been encased in a block of ice.
"MC!" Mammon yelled, going to your side, but not touching you. "Are ya okay? Levi, ya gave me too much!"
"Me?" Levi demanded, hovering around you in a panic. "You're the one who measured the snow blossom!"
"What appears to be the trouble?" Barbatos had appeared beside you. Mammon and Levi both started talking to him at once. When he finally was able to understand what had happened, he shook his head at them.
"We will need to act quickly," he said. "Human bodies cannot withstand this level of cold for long. I will transport them to the castle where I have a remedy already prepared."
Barbatos turned to you and took your hands. You were shivering, your teeth chattering. You looked down at your hands and saw that your skin was turning blue.
Barbatos opened a portal, pulling you through it with him. You found yourself in his room with its odd staircases and large windows. He left you for only a moment, returning with a blanket and a small vial.
"Please drink all of this, MC," he said, opening the vial and handing it to you. He wrapped the blanket around your shoulders as you attempted to drink the cure.
Your hands were shaking too hard for you to be able to get the vial to your lips without spilling it. Barbatos saw you were struggling. He put his hand over yours and held the vial steady for you. You managed to gulp it down, but you still felt like you were standing inside a freezer.
"B-Barbatos," you stammered out. "H-how long does this take t-to work?"
"You should start feeling the effects in moments," Barbatos said. He took a step closer to you. "However, if you feel like you could use a little extra warmth until then…"
You nodded, unable to speak with the way your teeth continued to chatter.
Barbatos smiled before wrapping his arms around you and pulling you close to him. He rubbed at your arms and back to help you warm up faster.
You felt the remedy kick in as your body began to thaw. Slowly you actually began to feel Barbatos's touch, a soft and warm embrace that you couldn't help melting into. You let go of the edges of the blanket, allowing it to fall to your feet, so there was just a little less fabric between you and Barbatos.
"It is most unfortunate that this happened to you, MC," Barbatos said softly in your ear. His hands had paused now on your back, slightly pressing you forward into him. The way his lips brushed your ear caused a shiver to run down your spine, one that had nothing to do with the cold that was quickly fleeing your body. "But I must admit that I am pleased to have you in my arms."
You couldn't deny that you were happy to stay there while your body slowly regained its proper temperature. You may have pretended that you were still cold for some time after the cure had taken full effect. He was likely fully aware of it, but neither of you felt the need to point it out.
the original prompt list
masterlist | Thank you for reading!
#obey me#obey me shall we date#obey me nightbringer#obey me fanfiction#obey me barbatos#obey me barbatos x reader#obey me barbatos x mc#barbatos x reader#barbatos x mc#misc 500 followers event#misc writes
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Swap Across the CrystalVerse Chapter 19: The Rift
Read Swapboys | Crystal’s AUs| The Rift ARG
Read SITCV | SATCV Masterpost | AO3 Link
Alt lands on a sofa in what looks like a house's living room. It's a nice sofa, its lavender upholstery soft and gentle. The whole living room is nice, actually, though in a strange way. The furniture looks mildly expensive, but it doesn't really conform to a single style. Nothing clashes, but nothing matches, either. Paintings and posters hang on the blue walls, similarly expensive but unmatching. There's a big flatscreen TV across from the sofa, with a couple video game consoles attached. To the left and right are big windows with silky-looking yellow curtains drawn over them. To the left is the house's front door. Turning around, Alt sees a spiral staircase leading up and an archway to the kitchen. To the right is a closed door. Next to that door is a small table with a single object on it. A white cat mask, with the four card suits drawn on its forehead and mirrored lenses over the eyeholes.
Alt blinks as he lands on the couch. He looks around at the room and whistles quietly. "...this is the nicest place we've ever jumped into oh my god-" He whispers.
Unfortunately, Alt does not land alone. He sees, in the corner of the room, Magnificent land hard, almost knocking over a lamp.
He glitches in surprise behind the couch as Mag stumbles and almost hits the lamp. The mad magician growls and nearly goes to knock it down himself.
Alt groans, "What the fuck!! Why did I end up with you of all fuckin-!"
And then-- EEEEP! EEEEP! EEEEP! The TRVLR makes a shrill noise.
Alt cuts himself off as his stomach drops- hearing the beeping of the TRVLR.
Magnificent looks at him curiously. "... is that coming from the device?"
Alt doesn't answer him as he scrambles to pull back out the TRVLR and look.
A message is displayed on the screen.
WARNING
Current Location: (!)UA-0829020TR is under quarantine. Jump as soon as possible or risk termination from IRIS employment.
"Q-Quarantine?? The fuck does that mean??" Alt hisses in panic. Mag has poofed next to him to try to look at the TRVLR, tilting his head curiously.
As Alt looked at that, the door to his right opens slowly, silently, just big enough of a gap for someone to look out.
Alt flinches and glitches back some more as he notices the door opening. He looks at it with wide eyes.
The door opens fully, and for a second, Magnificent and Alt get the glimpse of a very familiar face--though the freckles mar the resemblance a bit. And then the mask on the small table suddenly flies through the air and into the man's hand, who puts it on so fast that he practically slams it into his face.
Magnificent's head snaps towards the door as the mask flies- then his eyes flash hungrily. Fresh magic?
"Who the fuck are you?!" The man hisses. He is wearing some sort of costume. A black suit jacket partially buttoned up over a translucent pale purple shirt, white gloves with some rings on his fingers over it, a black cape with a purple inside, black pants to match the jacket, and boots. His waist-long brown hair is pulled back in a braid, and there's what looks like some sort of utility belt around his waist.
Alt gasps and then holds up his hands. "N-Not robbers if that's what you're thinking!" He automatically says. Then, he winces. "Okay that's dumb um-"
"You're not good at this Alt, its almost sad to see." Mag snickers.
"S-Shut the fuck up!" Alt snaps back. Then looks back at the man. "I-I"m Alt- you can just pretend this guy's not here-"
"Excuse you-?!"
"We're from... a parallel universe...?" He adds shakily, giving the costumed man a nervous smile.
The man stares at them. "Wh-what the fuck?" he says. "It's gotten to that point?!" He shakes his head. "Wh-whatever. Get out of my house. Now!"
"W-What do you mean it's gotten to that point?" Alt tries to ask.
"Quite rude to just dismiss interdimensional travelers, Marvin." Magnificent smirks with a raised eyebrow.
"Would you stop making things worse?!" Alt screeches at Mag.
The man freezes. "How the fuck—Uh, that's not my name. I don't know who you think I am, but I'm not him. As for how it's gotten to that point, well, um, people regularly break into my house with weird stories. Just leave. Peacefully, please."
Magnificent looks surprised at this. "...you're not?" He narrows his eyes then snorts, "I don't believe you. It takes a lot of balls to lie to someone who shares your face."
"What face? I don't have a face," the man says. "I lost it in an accident at age six, a tragedy really.
Alt blinks and then bursts into laughter, "w-what??"
"...if people regularly break into your house- why don't you have like... an alarm?" Alt asks, " or like- threaten to call the police on us." He then narrows his eyes at Mag and hisses to him, "Do you just- constantly go towards scaring your other selves??"
"Yes- it tends to make things go faster. Also, I like seeing them squirm." Mag giggles.
“I don't have an alarm because—because I can make you leave myself if you refuse to." He straightens, suddenly flashing a smug smile. "You don't want to mess with me, you know, I'm quite powerful~" His whole attitude had shifted suddenly from the near-panic of before to smirking confidence.
Mag's eyes flash wildly as he grins wide. "Is that so?" He giggles. He then teleports to be in front of the man and gets in his personal space. "Oh I do want to see that- I want to see just what you're capable of~!"
"M-Mag! Fucking quit it!" Alt shouts, glitches building up around him- just in case he needs to intervene.
The man jumps in surprise--and Mag immediately feels himself shoved backwards by an invisible force.
Magnificent gets thrown back and he skids slightly against the floor. Then, he bursts into mad laughter, his eyes glowing brightly. "That's how you wanna play then! Alright!! Let's play." He shoots green fire towards the man as a distraction before trying to lunge at him again.
The man ducks the fire. "Hey! Watch the art! Do you know how--" And then Mag immediately tackles him, pinning him to the wall. The man grits his teeth. "You don't scare me," he hisses.
Magnificent laughs madly, "You're braver than most... but you should be, Marvin~!" He then tries to steal some of the man's magic.
"No! Stop!" Alt cries, trying to see if he can glitch over to stop him.
And yet, when he reaches out-- Nothing. Not a single drop of magic or power to be found. But... that's impossible. He felt the man push him, saw him grab the mask without touching it. What the fuck?
The man flashes a smile. "Should I?" And Magnificent feels something sharp against his stomach.
Magnificent's eyes widen, "T-That's not-" He breathes and then he grunts as he's stabbed in the stomach.
Alt hurries over and grabs Mag and glitches them both back. "I'm sorry- I'm so sorry-" Alt panics to say. "W-We'll leave- I... fuck! Why do you have to suck so much?!" He shouts at Magnificent.
Mag just glares up at him. "...its not nice to shout at an injured man-"
"WOULD YOU FUCK OFF??"
Mag ignores him with an eye roll then looks at the man. "....how do you not have magic?"
"...he doesn't?" Alt asks in surprise, looking back towards the man. "but- we saw... him grab his mask and- and he pushed you back! ...how the fuck...??"
The man lets out a breath. Something fans out around him. Blades. No--they're playing cards. Made of thin metal, the edges razor-sharp.
"Magic?" The man laughs. "So you have heard of the Magician, then. But I'm sorry to say that my special powers are not actually magic. So sorry to disappoint, but if you actually believe that, you should probably go cash in that reality check you just received. Now... get out."
"...like... like a tarot card?" Alt asks quietly.
Magician flashes a smile. "I didn't make the tarot card connection, actually, but it is fitting."
Alt’s stomach then drops as he processes what he was just told and he glares at Mag before flicking his hand to put a shield around the magician to keep him in place. "Try to get out of that and it'll shock you, bitch." Alt growls.
Mag glares at him but stays put, holding his wound.
Alt then tries to approach the man. "Listen- I'm sorry about him. But i... I'm really lost here. I have no idea where I am or... how this world works." He pulls out the TRVLR and after a moment of hesitating he holds it out to show the warning sign. "...I wasn't lying- we're from another world and... we just want to find a way home. But- we always get separated and... now I gotta find my friends. And now... I just want... anything I can know to find them- to navigate here. Then, I'll leave." He swallows shakily. "Our device is warning us there's a... a quarantine here? Do... do you know what that means? "
Magician sighs, seeming arrogant and annoyed. "I believed you about the other universe part, Michael Vey. I just really don't want you in my house. Unfortunately, I can't give you much to go on. I don't know how to find your friends, or what a quarantine is. I won't be much of help." He hesitates. "But... i-if you see a company called Psyode--they have a logo that's a bit like an atom, and also an eye--stay away from them. They can't be trusted." Then he clears his throat and gives another smile. "Now... if you please. And take your friend with you, if you can."
"He's not my friend." Alt bites back. He glares a bit at Magician but then deflates. "Alright. Thanks... I guess. Sorry for the trouble."
"Not a problem~" Magician says, smiling.
Alt then glares at Mag and glitches over to grab him- getting rid of the shield. He gives one last look to Magician before he glitches him and Mag out of there.
As soon as they're gone Magician lets out a breath of relief, slumping. The razor-sharp cards pile onto one another and slide into a pouch on Magician's belt. He hurries over to the front door and peers through a window in the top half to see Alt and Magnificent glitch out onto the street. It's dark out, but well-lit. After all, this is a nice neighborhood, they don't want their citizens driving around in the dark.
"What the fuck what the fuck what the fuck," Magician whispers, waiting for them to go.
Outside, Magnificent suddenly feels something buzz in his pocket. Oh yeah. His phone. He forgot he had that with him.
Alt throws Mag back onto the sidewalk and then screams into his hands as he paces up and down the sidewalk. "GOD! Why did I get stuck with you of all fucking people! After what you just did to me?! Me and Jack saved your sorry ass from dying you fucking maniac! But noooo you're not humannnn you can just do whatever you want cuz you just- SUCK! FUCK!" Alt yells, glitching in rage.
Magnificent watches his cub throw a temper tantrum with an annoyed expression. Really it was like watching a child... He then blinks in confusion and checks his pocket. ...oh yeah- his mobile. ....why is it vibrating? He curiously takes it out and looks at it.
A text message has come in from an Unknown number. I know you're from another universe. I'd like to speak with you. I have an offer. Meet me at Ravenwing Bridge. It's the bridge to the north with green copper railings. Look for the man in a suit. A
Magnificent's eyebrows raise. Hm... what an interesting proposition... one he shouldn't refuse. But... his one sure fire way of getting magic was bust... and after all that virus nonsense...He's starving. And yet Alt- he's not full up but... he's here. And alone... and surely Mag can't go to this meeting alone, right?
He grins. And then teleports to his feet, grabbing Alt by his wrists and laughing in his face. "Such an attitude, Alt! Did you forget who you belong to?" The mad magician snickers. "And how fortunate for me you've been left here alll alone~"
"W...What?" Alt breathes, dread cold in his veins. He immediately tries to fight out of his grip- trying to glitch but Mag digs his nails into his skin, pumping a bit of corruption to disrupt it.
"You're not going anywhere, kitten." Mag giggles. "In fact- you're going to stay right by my side." He immediately drains a decent chunk of the magic Alt has left, leaving the glitch weak but still able to glitch and do minor things for him. As he does this he swirls his eyes and lets magic spiral behind him.
Alt screams as he's drained and he quickly starts to slump into Mag's grip. The spirals find him quickly, invading his rapidly weakening body and digging into his mind. He doesn't have much energy left in him to struggle, so soon after everything in the last world. Purple and green overtakes his eyes and they glaze over, fight leaving him completely.
"...y... yes Magnificent... i... will stay right by you..."
He breathes.
Magnificent laughs and pushes Alt back down. "That's a good boy. Behave- and I'll even let you stay human~" He giggles. He then starts to walk. "Come now, cub. We're expected somewhere.”
"Yes, Magnificent," Alt answers hollowly and pulls himself up, weakly following after Mag.
Mag smirks then starts to make his way north.
Magician watches from the window in his house, frozen solid. He's not sure what exactly happened there, but he's guessing that the man who looks like him just did something to that electric guy. The same sort of thing he tried to do to him earlier, most likely. And it left the electric one in a zombie-like state. "What the fuuuuuck?" he breathes.
As soon as they're out of sight, he bursts out of his house, pausing for only a moment to lock the door, then bolts down the street in the opposite direction. He has no idea what's happening, but he knows that they need to know.
-----------
Jackie appears in a run-down intersection of hallways. The yellow wallpaper is stained with water damage and there's dust and scuffs on the wooden floor.
Jackie looks around in bewilderment. “…imma take a wild guess this ain’t home… greattt.”
A door down the hall opens and a woman starts walking towards him--
"Whoa!" she jumps, backing up. "Jackie?! When did you get here?! I didn't hear you come in!" She squints at him, walking closer. The woman has darker skin and long black hair pulled back in a ponytail. She's wearing an old brown jacket and jeans rolled up to the knees... because beneath there, her legs are prosthetics, specifically those curved running-leg models. "When did you cut your hair? Are you wearing makeup or something? Why do you look, like, three years younger, man?"
Jackie jumps at the woman’s voice- and his eyes can’t help but widen once he sees her prosthetics but he tries to recover quickly and not look at them too long. Perfectly normal-
“Those are all such weirdly specific questions-“ Jackie mutters, rubbing at his head. “Just- shush for a second while I process.” He breathes and then starts ticking stuff off while pointing at his fingers. “yes I’m Jackie but not who you’re thinking of- which is why the hair’s different. Why do my other mes all have long hair? Should I grow out my hair?? Zara likes it shorter…” he then shakes his head, “wait off topic- um- do I really look that young?? and also I’m assuming you mean the face paint if it’s the blue stuff on my face- cuz what other makeup are you talking about? And if it is the blue stuff that brings up another question of omg how is that still on my face after this long we were in the ocean what magic face paint did my kids buy???” He shakes his head out again then smiles and waves awkwardly, “but uh yeah- questions… kinda answered? Who are you?”
The woman blinks, stalling for a moment. "...huh. That's... a lot. And it still doesn't explain how I didn't hear you come in?"
“Sorry I talk a lot.” Jackie says matter-of-factly.
She narrows her eyes, looking a bit suspicious as she continues walking over. As she gets closer, Jackie can see a burn mark on her neck--around her neck. "...my name is Xiomara. Call me Xio. And that's all I'm gonna explain until you tell me how you got in here."
He blinks at her and then steps back at bit with wide eyes as he registers her burn. “O-Oh… I’m guessing it’s kinda quiet when we jump then- I thought it did… ripples or whatever.” He laughs nervously. “Um- I’m actually… from a parallel universe? That’s why I… look so different from the Jackie you know. My full name is Jackie Mann. So… nice to meet ya, Xio?” He ruffles the back of his hair with a nervous smile. “So uh- when we jump into new universes- we don’t control where we go so… t-that’s how I got here. Does that help?”
"From... another universe?" Xio repeats. Her eyes flick him over. "So... you just appeared here. That... would make sense. A whole ass person coming through, what the fuck..." She's quiet for a moment. "I do know a Jackie. Jackie Brody. And you do sort of look like him. So... I guess that makes sense? But I'm not into all this science shit, I don't know if a person coming through is possible..." Her musings trail off.
Jackie’s eyes widen even more, “Jackie Brody…? …that’s so weird oh my god that… that’s my friends’ Chase and Alt’s last name…!”
"Chase? Yeah, I know him, too," Xio says. "The Jackie I know is his twin. Dunno who 'Alt' is, though.
“A twin- woahhh… can’t imagine being Chase’s twin but boy do Alt and him act like that sometimes despite being 3 years apart …” Jackie laughs.
Then he shakes his head again and waves a hand, “wait wait- the fuck do you mean ‘a person coming through?’ Like- I know dimensions hopping is not normal- but… that… feels weird. Anddd it must be possible cuz- well I’m here. I’m pretty good proof.” He digs in his pocket for his phone. “I could show you pics of my wife and kids to prove it if you want-“
“Well for dimension hopping, yeah, it's fucking weird, isn't it? But we've got some... it's hard to explain. We've had some people's... minds... arrive here from other worlds?" She shakes her head. "All I know is their voices come from thin air. But yeah, love to see family photos."
Jackie looks excited to actually show off pictures and starts to show Xio his phone then stops- processing her words. “Wait- what?” he looks at her with wide eyes. “People’s minds?! The fu- what kinda creepy place is this?? How does that happen???”
"I don't fucking know!" Xio says. "It just happens! They just suddenly appear sometimes! Voices that say they're from another universe and stuck here without a body!"
“What the fuck!!” Jackie shouts back.
Suddenly, her head snaps to the side. "Oh perfect timing, they can explain it better. Come on. Speaking of Chase and Jackie, I just heard them come in. Follow me." She starts down one of the hallways.
Jackie stops as she looks over and he deflates slightly. “Ah okay- cool. Meeting other mes is always fun-“ He comments lightly as he follows.
Xio quickly leads him down the hallway until they reach a small lobby-like area. There are some old sofas and armchairs making a sitting area and a wall of mailboxes. The front doors are glass, with big windows. Through them is a cityscape at night.
Three people are sitting in the sitting area, with one in the process of standing up. Talking to them are two men. One wears an old blue hoodie and has chin-length hair. The other one is wearing a gray jacket and snapback cap, his hair dyed a faded purple.
The purple-haired one looks over at the sound of Xio's footsteps. "Hey Xio-ohhhh what the fuck?!"
Jackie peeks out from behind Xio and grins, waving. “Hello! I’m Jackie, Jackie Mann.” He blinks at seeing the hair color- “woah- never seen a Chase with that kinda hair before- neat!”
The man in the blue hoodie looks over. He jumps slightly. "Whoa! God it's like looking in a mirror that shows the past!"
“Do I really look that young?” Jackie pouts, “I was always told parenthood makes ya look older!”
"Wha--huh??" Chase looks back and forth between the two Jackies. "Excuse me? How? Is someone here a shapeshifter?"
"Uhhhh nope," says one of the people sitting down. All of those three are staring at Jackieboy with narrowed, suspicious eyes.
Jackie jumps a bit at all the hostility. He holds his hands up. “Not a shape anything! Just a normal guy!”
"Guys, calm down," Xio says to the three of them. "I thiiiink he's cool? Put the lighter down, Longwei. Maeve, nope, mouth closed. Sunny? Sunny, sit down."
"W-well, um, I'm named Jackie, too," the man in the blue hoodie says, laughing. "Who are you? The Ultimate Imposter?"
Jackie blinks at the other him and then laughs, “ayyy danganronpa! Man- I need to play v3. Been waiting on Alt to get that so we can play.” He grins.
Jackie gasps and grabs Chase, shaking him. "Chase! He got it!"
"Hell yeah!" Chase laughs. "We want to play it too, I can't believe another one finally came out!"
Jackie says. "I mean, we were a bit busy in September when it came out--to put it mildly--but next time we get access to a computer or a PlayStation I swear to god!"
Chase laughs again.
Jackie grins and then looks confused. “…just came out? Huh… it’s been out for 3 years for me… I think. Hm…”
“Whoa… someone from another universe that’s in the future,” Jackie says in awe.
Jackieboythen backs up and sticks his hands in his pockets, trying to make him seem more unassuming. “Anyways though- not an imposter but I am from a parallel universe!”
The two of them suddenly sober up when Jackieboy announces that.
"Whoa, wait, really?" Chase asks, eyes wide. "You're like... a whole person and everything? Uh, stupid question, I guess, obviously you're a whole person."
"Yeah, not all of us are," Xio says jokingly.
Jackie holds back a snort of laughter. "Are--are you sure about that joke?"
"I'm allowed to make it."
Jackie giggles at their reaction. “You guys keep saying that! Yup whole person and all. At least I hope I got everything- I feel like I do?” He pats himself down as if to check.
He then snickers at Xio’s joke. “Nice one-“
“Yeah, sorry about that,” Chase says. “I know it’s weird, but we’ve only heard voices from other worlds before.” He looks at Jackie. “Hen is gonna have a field day with this.”
“Oh, for sure.” Jackie nods in agreement.
Jackieboy blinks in surprise and then grins, "Oh! Hen! Henrik! huh- guess my Hen would be pretty excited about this stuff too- but mostly just cuz he gets to meet new people. He's a friendly fellow." He laughs.
Chase laughs. “Our Henrik isn’t that good with people, but he’d be happy to meet you.” The smile drops. “Okay, serious talk. How did you get here? Are you stuck?”
Jackie sighs and nods, ruffling his hair. "That's... probably the best way to put it? My friends wanted to bring me on a trip to this one universe and then our machine we used to get there broke- and now we keep popping up into random universes... and we get separated every time so... we gotta try to find each other. Especially my friend Alt cuz he has magic and the thing we use- and like also a fucking mad man is here too, name's Magnificent. He makes the whole thing harder."
“Magic?” Jackie repeats. “Like Magician?”
“25 doesn’t actually have magic, yknow,” Xio points out. “None of us do.”
“Those are very confusing titles-“ Jackieboy comments.
“No, I know, it was just the first thing that came to mind,” Jackie says. “So… we need to find your friends and this villain, is that what I’m getting at? Do you guys have, like, any way to contact them?”
Jackieboy then hums and pulls out his phone. God… it’s close to being dead. “Uhhh I might be able to text them if the wifi is good- but that’s been hit or miss lately.”
“If you can’t, we can help,” Chase offers. “There’s a whole bunch of us here, we can cover a lot of ground, especially Jackie. We are kinda trying to avoid attention but this seems important enough.”
Jackie pulls a phone out of his hoodie pocket. “Seems fine to me,” he says.
And indeed, the WiFi on Jackieboy’s phone is passable.
“Hm? Avoiding attention? …why?” Jackie asks, looking back up from his phone.
Everyone starts shifting around nervously.
“Well… there’s this company, called Psyode,” Jackie says. “Really, it’s their Experiment Department. They’ve gone rogue and started experimenting on people. A-all of us in this building have escaped from there. And… they’ll probably be looking for us.”
“That’s why we’re squatting in an empty apartment building,” Xio mutters.
“Technically Jackie and I are squatting somewhere else, but yeah, same story,” Chase says.
“Psyode is probably gonna be reeeeally interested in people showing up from other universes,” Jackie says. “We should find your friends fast.”
Jackieboy’s eyes widen. Just like the universe with the facility…! “A-All of you got experimented on??” He squeaks out in shock. He looks even more worried at other Jackie’s statement and he nods, “y-Yeah okay- lemme see who I can get ahold of!” He quickly gets out his phone and tries to call Bro.
“Yyyyeah,” Chase hisses. “I mean. I wasn’t there for long so they didn’t really… succeed? In whatever they were doing? But all these other guys were.”
“There are benefits, tho!” Jackie says. Suddenly he’s on the other side of the room. Suddenly he’s back by the door. Suddenly he’s down the hall. He’s running so fast it’s hard to keep track of! Jackie returns to where he was before. “Anyway. Yeah. See if you can call your guys.”
Jackie jumps then grins wide, “woahhh!! You’re like the flash! What the fuck that’s so cool!” He grumbles slightly as he calls Bro- “all my other mes are so much cooler what the hell…”
—————
Bro lands in a room with pale purple wallpaper and a sturdy dresser, table, and armchair. There’s a bed with white sheets and a window with curtains open to show night over a suburban neighborhood. There’s also a furry pillow on the chair. No. Wait. That’s some kind of animal with dark fur. What is that? It’s not a cat or dog.
Bro blinks and looks around the room. Huh- comfy. He jumps slightly at noticing the animal. He blinks at it then tries to wave. “Uh… hi?”
The animal is too asleep to respond, but stepping close reveals what it is. A ferret, dark except for a bit of white around its nose.
Footsteps rush down the hall.
“No, I’m not gonna!” A voice shouts—and then someone comes into view in the open doorway. A girl, about thirteen years old, with auburn hair, wearing a T-shirt with that Gravity Falls zodiac wheel on it. She stops short, staring at Bro. “Dad? What happened to your hair?”
Bro freezes as the footsteps come and he stares wide eyed at the girl that enters. He flubbers for words- “okay so… this is could like… get me in serious trouble but uh… not your dadddd?” He cringes.
The girl looks him over. “Well you’re not Uncle Jackie, either,” she says. She turns and shouts down the hall. “Mooooom! Schneeeeeeep! There’s a guy in here!”
That’s probably the worst way she could’ve phrased it.
“What?? No don’t say it like that!!” Bro hisses at the girl.
Footsteps come rushing down the hall and a woman bursts into view, long black hair tied back in a ponytail and wearing a pink sweater. She’s wielding a long ruler like a weapon. “My friend is calling the police!” she shouts. “They’ll be here—huh?” She blinks, confused. “Chase?”
Bro jumps a bit as the woman enters and holds his hands up with a terrified expression on his face. “Uhhh-! Yes and also no??? I’m Chase Brody yes but- n-not the one you know! And I swear I would not have landed here if I could control where I could go!!”
The woman slowly lowers the ruler but still looks wary. “…probably the weirdest thing I’ve seen but not too weird. Who are you, then?” She demands.
Bro sweats nervously, "well uh- t-thank you for giving me the benefit of the doubt! I'm... Chase Brody but from another universe- a parallel one.”
More footsteps. A man pokes his head into view, a wild head of brown hair with big round glasses.
“Henrik!” The woman hisses.
“What? I got curious,” he says, leaning more into frame. He’s wearing a dark turquoise sweater and a brown jacket. “…the window is still locked. How did he get in? And it screeches when opened, yes? But Hawking is still fast asleep and that would have woken her even if Veronica shouting did not. So it seems like he walked through walls.”
“Woooow,” the girl—Veronica—whispers in awe. “You’re so smart, Schneep.”
Bro blinks at Schneep's deduction and raises an eyebrow, impressed. "Woah yeah- that's... impressive!" He sighs and messes with his hair, "But anyways- when we jump we end up in random places- usually drawn to people we know in our universe,,, or their parallels at least. Which is why I'm here... I can't control where I go I just-" He opens up his hand and makes a popping noise, "-pop right in. People usually say it's from nowhere."
Henrik's eyes light up. He immediately rushes into the room, despite the noises of protest the woman makes. "You've come here from another world?! Really?! A-and you are here? You are, like, a physical thing?" He pokes Bro in the shoulder. "You are!" He giggles excitedly. "Oh this is so amazing! This must be like--like a one in a trillion chance--or not, since you are implying this 'jumping' is frequent, but still, this is incredible! The amount of energy it must take to break between universal barriers must be incredible, we looked at it in theories but decided that it would be impossible with current technology--but I suppose other worlds must have other technology, but even still, this is--this is incredible, it is a miracle, oh, how how how did you get here? Please, you must let me know!"
Bro blinks in surprise and holds up his hands again. He laughs, "W-Woah hey! You're gonna freak even more when you hear I'm not the only one who jumped from my world- I have two friends- well, a friend and my little brother- and then... a bad guy I gotta track down. But they're here too! But uhhh my brother knows sooo much more about all this- and he has the device we use. Cuz he- like has magic that makes it work."
"You have a device?!" Henrik shouts excitedly. "You have magic?!"
"Henrik, please, the kids," Stacy says, glancing down the hallway. "Op, nevermind, here they come."
"Sorry, Stacy."
Another, identical-looking girl peeks into the doorway, wearing a pair of fake glasses to distinguish her. She's followed by a short, younger boy with curly blonde hair and a sixteen-year-old girl with gray eyes and fair hair pulled into two ponytails.
"Dad?" asks the boy.
"No, it's not Dad, Evan," Veronica says. "It's a guy from another universe who looks like him."
"Huh?" the identical girl blinks in surprise. "A whole guy? Ronnie, are you joking?"
"No, I'm not, Anna." Veronica shakes her head stubbornly.
The teenager waves. "Hey, Mr. Brody. Uh... can I call you that?"
Bro blinks in surprise at all the kids, "Oh my god so many children-" He whispers. He waves awkwardly, "uhhh you don't need to be so formal...! You can call me Bro- that's easier."
"Ha." The teenager smiles. "Bro. That's kinda funny. It's like. Bro. Dude. My main man."
"Oh its actually cuz in my universe I'm a superhero! And my hero name is Bro Fantastic." Bro grins wide.
"I like your jacket," Evan says.
"Okay, that's enough," Stacy announces. "It's bedtime. Or at least go-in-your-bedroom time."
Anna and Veronica let out identical groans.
"Phoebe gets to stay up!" Anna says.
"Phoebe is much older, and she is a guest, I can't tell her what to do the same way I can tell you," Stacy says, ushering Anna, Veronica, and Evan down the hall. "Henrik, take our guest to the living room, would you?"
Henrik nods, grinning. "Of course! Please, Bro, you must tell me about your device and your magic."
"I can certainly try," He responds to Schneep, "I'm not... nearly as good at understanding it as Alt is."
“You’re a superhero? For real?” Phoebe’s eyes go wide. “Like the Scarlet Blur.”
"Oh- that's a much better name than mine!" Bro laughs.
“Anything you can tell me will be fascinating,” Henrik says. “Come come come, tell me all about your universe and your jumping through them.” He starts down the hallway, leading Bro to the living room. Phoebe trails behind them.
Once they reach the living room, the sound of Stacy and the other kids’ voices drift down from an attached staircase.
Bro follows afther Schneep and thinks of what to say. "Welll hm... in my world- I know a Henrik- but he's a deaf actor. And he dyes his hair teal. He's a big ol beam of sunshine. And our doctor is Dr. J- Jameson Jackson. Anddd I have a little brother, Alt or I call him Anti. Anddd we have a Jackie too- he's a dad of 3 kids. Big ol' superhero nerd- Him and Alt are here somewhere!" He grins. "Anndd god... we've jumped through so many worlds now- or me and Alt have. It's... insane- to see how different things can be. But also how the same things are too. Like- You're always german." He laughs. "Jay is always uses sign language- oh and has his mustache. Jackie always wears red. My other mes usually wear hats like mine, but that might just be our good taste!"
“Fascinating, fascinating,” Henrik nods along. His fingers twitch and he starts fidgeting with his sleeves. “Some things are consistent but many are not, of course they are. And you are always finding different you’s and them’s of your friends? You must be sticking to areas that are somewhat close by each other, I am sure the farther you get from home the more strange things will become.”
Phoebe flips down on the sofa. “We know all those people. I mean—Jameson Jackson is Mr. Mustache, right?”
“That is what our research has told us, yes,” Henrik says.
Phoebe laughs. “It’s not a school project.”
Henrik chuckles too. “That is true. Perhaps we can simply call it searching, if research sounds too serious to you.”
“D’you think, like, those two words come from the same root?”
“Hmm, possibly!”
Bro tilts his head in confusion, "Research...? Are you guys not... friends?" He asks.
"Oh, ah... no." Henrik shakes his head. "If anything, it is the opposite."
"It's not Mr. Mustache's fault," Phoebe says. "He just got... stuck with someone."
"Jameson Jackson is a complicated story," Henrik says. "He is a man from the past, somehow brought here. We are pretty sure he was friends with this man who calls himself the Magician, but Magician does not like to talk about himself, so we cannot be sure. And then, eventually, he ran afoul of... something. Or someone. A being who calls himself Anti."
Bro's stomach drops and he then sighs heavily, "Offf course... I swear if I keep meeting motherfuckers who keep giving my Anti a bad name I swear-!" He frowns, "huh... weird though.. usually in these worlds... You guys are all friends. A JJ, a Marvin, A Jackie, A Henrik, A Chase-" He points to himself and then laces his fingers together. "...we're different though cuz we... we're friends with our Anti- even though he seems to be like... a bad guy in all these places. And its weird cuz... we thought we didn't have a Marvin but- that's our bad guy. He calls himself Magnificent. He's bascially our like... bad Anti."
"Marvin? Perhaps that is Magician, he has not told us his name. Hmm. Well, I have been friends with Chase and Jackie for some time," Henrik says cheerfully. "They are great, my good, good friends. Magician and Jameson Jackson have come in later, it seems. Perhaps we will all become friends in time.
Bro smiles warmly, "Heh... yeah. I hope so- from what I've seen in other worlds, they're great lads."
“Right now, Magician is very determined to get Jameson away from Anti, and Jackie is the type who cannot let people be hurt, so he will help Magician and pull the rest of us along."
"He's a hero," Phoebe says, smiling. "He rescued us. I mean, Magician did too, but the news doesn't really call him a hero because of all the things he's stolen--"
Bro smiles at Phoebe and laughs, "Really, huh? I always to like to meet other heroes- ...wait stealing?!"
And then Bro's phone starts to ring.
He gets cut off by the ringtone and he blinks, pulling it out. He sees its Jackieboy and he smiles and answers. "Yo Jackie!"
Henrik gasps. "Let me hear let me hear let me hear!" He rushes forward, practically grabbing Bro's phone before suddenly yanking his hand back. "Ah, if that is okay."
Bro jumps but then laughs, holding out his phone, "It's okay- I'll put it on speaker!"
"Oh! That's a good idea, I should do that too!" Jackieboy says on the other line as Bro puts him on speaker. "Hey guys! I got to my Chase! Chase say hi!"
"Hiii! What's up?" Bro laughs. "I'm here with Henrik- who you heard all excited."
"ohhh! Well- hi Henrik!"
"Hen, are you losing your mind?" The Chase on the other side of the phone asks.
Henrik laughs. "I lost it a while ago, you know that! But yes, I-I am so--it is--do you fucking realize the ramifications of this?!"
"Oh my god, the rammies," this world's Jackie says.
Bro giggles. "The rammies- that's a fun word."
"Wh--hey, don't push!" Chase laughs, having just playfully shoved him. "Wow, so you're me, then? You do sound like it."
"Yeah dude! I found other me and other you!! Dude- we're brothers in this world! Twins actually! Isn't that insane??" Jackieboy says.
Bro's eyes widen, "Oh- that explains something Veronica said then-"
"Jackie, what is it like to see yourself in another world?" Henrik asks. "Is it strange? Did you even recognize yourself when you first saw it?"
"It was pretty bizarre," Jackie says. "Uh, it was this weird half-second of uncanniness where I didn't get it, but then I realized and it was like, what the fuck, why are you me?"
Jackie laughs at other him and shakes his head, "It doesn't stop being weird by the way- and I've been to like- a dozen of these now,"
"It hasn't been that many! ... for you at least." Bro shakes his head and chuckles,
"Where are you two, anyway?" Henrik asks. "At your hideout?"
"We're with the rest of the escapees," Jackie reports.
"I thinkkk we're at other Chase's house? His kids are here. They thought I was their dad. Super not weird." Bro says.
"Sounds like you're at Stacy's house, if Henrik's there," Chase says. "Uh... I don't actually live there? It's a long story. Basically, has to do with the company. Psyode. I need to stay out of their reach, and I'm sure they're looking at Stacy and the kids to see if I show up there."
"Hey- have you heard anything from Alt?" Jackieboy asks.
"Not yet-"
"Well... the guys here think we should probably be fast about finding him. There's a bad company here like... like Sclera or the- facility guys. They think they'll be interested in us- and well... you heard what Sam said about the... the ripples, right?"
Bro pales slightly, "O-Oh shit... yeah- that... that's bad."
Henrik perks up. "The ripples? Yes, I suppose you arriving would create very string dimensional ripples. Psyode would definitely be able to detect such things, we had these devices called RDDs that were made for just that. There has been a larger number of ripples in this city as of late, but I'm sure the arrival of four people from other universes would--well it could very well be in the thousands of palmers--"
"Schneep, these guys are from another world, I don't think they understand all the science terms," Chase says.
"Yeah, I barely understand them!" Jackie adds.
Jackie and Bro blink in confusion. "Those were so many words and I understood none of them-" Bro comments.
"The point is, Psyode will know, and I'm sure the Experiment Department will immediately investigate something so strong," Henrik says. "Can you contact your, ah, Alt friend?"
As Henrik explains more- and mentions the Experiment department, Bro pales. He quickly tries to add Alt to the call, "I'm gonna call him right now-!"
"Wait, you can call people while still being on a call?" Chase says, his voice a bit distant.
"My god, man," says a female voice. "I know you're past thirty, but didn't you use tech for your job?"
"Hey, shut up!" Chase says defensively.
"Oh, that's Xio, by the way," Jackie adds. "She's a friend of ours."
"Phoebe is here, too," Henrik says. "Ah, other Jackie, she is... also a friend? It is difficult to explain."
"Hi!" Phoebe waves at the phone. "I'm sure Stacy is gonna be back down soon."
"Oh well- Hi Phoebe!" Jackieboy laughs.
While they all talk, Bro's phone just keeps ringing and ringing, trying to call Alt. But it doesn't work.
Bro tries to listen to the chatter- but he's focused on watching the call go through to Alt. But... it doesn't. Alt is usually one who answers his phone like right away. He hardly make them wait. Bro feels dread spreading into his chest. "...Alt's not answering."
"...what?? he's- that's not like him at all." Jackie replies. "You don't think he's...?"
"I-I dunno... so we should start looking." Bro stands up and holds his phone in his hand as he looks back at Henrik. "... I'm guessing seeing someone fly isn't a thing around here right?"
"...i dunno- maybe- other me can run like a freaking superhero," Jackie comments.
"..wasn't asking you bro but- he is apparently? Phoebe called him a hero earlier."
"WHAT THE FUCK ANOTHER HERO JACKIE??!" Jackie screeches, "THIS IS BULLSHIT??"
The other Jackie laughs. "Sorry! I can't help it. Trust me. I-I couldn't."
"Don't worry, other J, I get it," Chase adds. "But, uh, you wouldn't want to get powers the way these guys did. Anyway, if it's really a problem, you could probably fly a liiiiittle? People would flip, but urgency is, uh, more urgent."
Henrik nods. "Finding your brother is more important than keeping appearances."
"I can cover ground fast, too," Jackie adds. "It takes me like... half an hour to run from one end of the city to the other."
"Good. You can keep up with me, then." Bro says, determination flaring up in his eyes. "Maybe I'll see you guys out there- I'm gonna go find my brother. Jackie- you can text me updates."
"C-Chase don't just rush int-!" Jackie tries to say.
But, Bro ends the call and starts looking for the front door- or a window to fly out of.
Henrik's eyes widen as Bro hangs up. "Ah, other Chase, are you sure--"
There! The front door, right in front of him.
Bro doesn't even listen- he speeds to the door and hurries out into the hall- rushing to get back out into the night.
"Motherfucker!" Henrik curses, then glances at Phoebe. "You didn't hear shit from me just now."
Phoebe nods seriously. "Of course."
"I-I'm going to go tell Stacy to call Jackie so we can continue that conversation," Henrik says, hurrying upstairs. "I hope we do not need to go searching for both those two."
-----------
They must have appeared in an already north part of the city, because it doesn't take long before Magnificent sees the bridge with green railings that the message mentioned. It seems that a river partially encircles this city. Ravenwing Bridge goes across a wide, slow-moving part of it, holding a couple pedestrian lanes and a pair of car lanes. There are lamps along the sides, lighting it up.
Magnificent can make out a single figure on this bridge, leaning back against the railing. A man in a suit.
Magnificent eyes the rivers and surroundings with intrigue. Until he spots the man. He grins and whispers back to Alt. "Stay out of the way and be quiet, got it, kitten?"
"Yes, Magnificent." Alt nods, staying back.
Mag smiles then strides over to the suited man. "You're the one who messaged me, then?" He calls as he approaches.
The man looks at him, tensing slightly. Dark brown hair and bright blue eyes, with a dark mustache. He's holding a phone, clutching it in both hands. Carefully keeping his expression neutral, he shakes his head and holds the phone speaker-out.
"That was me," says a voice from the speaker. "Don't mind him, I need someone to do things for me sometimes. He did text you, but the message was my words."
Magnificent blinks as he takes in the sight of the man- the mustache giving away his identity. He hums and comes closer to the phone. "I see- so you're A then?"
"Yes. I'm A--short for Anti. Hold on a moment." The air next to the man with the mustache fizzles a bit, and suddenly there's a person there. Or... more like an image of a person. It looks slightly flat, like an artist forgot to do the shading on a drawing. The image is that of a man wearing an oversized green hoodie, wild brown hair sticking up all over the place, a burn scar going around his neck. His eyes show nothing but static, and he smiles at Magnificent. "It's better for you if you have something to look at, right?" he says, voice still coming from the speaker. He leans back against the railing--though he doesn't actually touch it.
Magnificent's eyes widen a bit but then he can't help but laugh, "Ah- I should have guessed. Well- nice to meet and see you then, Anti. I'm called Magnificent." He tilts his head at the image. "You said you had an offer for me? I'm quite intrigued."
"It's quite simple, actually," Anti says. "For as long as you are in this universe, I will help you with whatever you want. I only ask that, when you are done here, you find a way to take me with you to the next world."
Mag's looks surprised. "... I.. have never tried to do that before... I don't exactly control where we go or who to take with us..." Then he grins sharply. "But... I do have who does." He snaps and gestures forward. "Oh Alt~? I think there's someone you should meet."
Alt dazedly walks forward- and at seeing the image of Anti he freezes, the purple in his eyes flickering. "y..you-"
Magnificent grabs his wrist and throws him forward though, pushing more of his influence in.
Alt's brief moment of clarity quickly ends and his eyes glaze over again.
"Apologizes. This is Alt. He powers our universal device." Mag explains. "Though... I am curious... what is in this world? I'm usually after magic but... a source I thought i could grab from ended up being empty." He frowns at Anti and crosses his arms, "I'm wondering what this deal could give me in turn."
Anti doesn't so much glance at Alt. He hums. "Judging from where your ripples happened, you appeared in the Magician--Marvin Kane's house."
The man in the suit flinches slightly, distress crossing his face.
"That's who you tried to take magic from? Well, the experiment specimens don't have 'magic.' Their abilities are a result of their altered physiologies, from an exposure to particles called weltons--“
Mag knits his eyebrows together, "altered... physiologies- huh... interesting."
“—but that's complicated and doesn't really matter. The point is, just because there's nothing to gain from the specimens doesn't mean there's no power to take. There's a source of great power outside the city--in a hidden compound. And they wouldn't be prepared for someone like you. They're good at containing specimens--well 'good.'" Anti makes air quotes. "But they won't be able to deal with magic. Or me. Or us, if we work together."
Magnificent's eyes shine with that mad hunger. He grins wide. "Oh... well- considered my interest piqued again. That sounds like a delightful plan~! I'm more than interested to see what such a compound could hold..."
Anti grins. "Unfortunately we'll need to cross through the city to get there--it's the shortest route. But I could easily guide you there. And I could act as a sort of scout, telling you what's around and where the best things are held."
"Oh well- that shouldn't be an issue, me and my cub are quick well versed in quick travel." Magnificent chuckles.
Anti finally tilts his head towards Alt. "And he could help, too, though if he's low on energy--" And he suddenly stops. And frowns. "You said he had the device that allows you to travel to other universes? But... I can only sense one electrical device on him."
Mag blinks and looks at Alt, "Oh huh- you can sense that? ... perhaps the TRVLR is powered off. Alt, show Anti the machine."
"Y-Yes Magnificent-" Alt responds and starts to dig into his pocket to pull it out but then- he starts to stop himself. He fights the motion- light flickering in his eyes. "n-no...!" He breathes. Alarm bells are ringing loudly in his clouded thoughts. But- his fingers eventually reach into his pocket, despite his fighting and-
Nothing. There’s… just his phone.
Alt's stomach drops so fast it hurts. The purple almost completely dims completely as he starts to glitch wildly in panic. "I-It's gone-"
"What?!" Mag questions.
"It's gone!" Alt answers back, rapidly checking all his pockets but finding nothing. His head is killing him- fighting against Mag's control and the panic that wants to consume him. "W-Where did it- I-I- I've never-! No nonono-!"
Anti's eyes widen. He growls. "Marvin Kane--he's a thief."
The man in the suit glances at him. A good one-- he signs.
"His skill level doesn't matter, Jameson," Anti snaps. "You know he's the type to swipe something that unusual--that valuable."
Alt looks at Jameson and seems to register who he is for a second before he glitches over and grabs his shoulder. There's desperation plain on his face and in his flickering eyes. "D-Do you know where I can find him?! I... I need that device! It's our only way to get home!"
Jameson stumbles back, shocked, into the railing. He hesitates for a moment, then acts on impulse. His address is 44 Sonder Street--
Anti leans close to Jameson, making his and Alt's hair stand on end as static electricity fuzzes against their skin. "You know he's probably left that place by now," he says. "Where is he going? Where would he go?"
Jameson freezes, looking more reluctant now that Anti is asking. He doesn't like to leave other than for business, he signs slowly.
"Agh, fuck it!" Anti leans back. "He's probably going to talk to one of those others, shaken by seeing his own face. That's what most people would do."
"Where are these others then?" Magnificent growls. He grabs Alt by the shoulder and holds him back at the glitch stiffens, purple starting to flare brighter in his eyes.
Anti grits his teeth. "I'm not sure. Only one of them has a cell phone whose electricity I can track. Just give me a few minutes to look for that." He closes his eyes, the image of him losing some details and fading to half-transparency.
While Anti does that Mag turns Alt back towards him and growls at him. "And you- I'm not letting you slip away this easy and warning your friends about this. You are staying with me."
Alt gasps and tries to struggle, "M-Mag-" He chokes out.
Magnificent ignores him and goes to dig his nails into Alt's trigger point on his temple. Alt stiffens like he's been shocked- purple fulling flaring back in his eyes. "You lost your privileges, kitten. Shift."
Alt dazedly nods and then in a flicker of static and glitches- a black calico cat now sits on the sidewalk. One with glowing purple and green eyes.
Jameson gasps, staring at the small cat in horror. Anti doesn't seem to notice, though some white noise squawks from the phone speaker.
Jameson glances at Magnificent, a bit wary, then slowly crouches down and scoops up the cat, petting it gently.
Alt stiffens as he's picked up and tries to hiss at Jameson but... oh... he's being nice. He slowly starts to purr, curling up in his arms.
After a moment, Anti's appearance fills back in again. "Got it," he says. "They're near the center of the city." He looks down at the cat. "Nice trick. See, that's the exact sort of thing these people won't be expecting."
Magnificent giggles. "They're easier to keep under control this way. Less messy human thoughts~ And well, Alt has made that so much easier for me~!" He grins, "Well- we have a thief to track down then? Shall we~?"
"We shall." Anti grins. "Jameson, carry the cat. We can't waste time with those little cat legs."
Jameson hesitates, wanting to ask why he had to come, but nods. He knows that Anti will just drag him along no matter what.
"Now." Anti disappears, reappearing farther down the bridge. "This way."
Magnificent grins and teleports after him.
Alt looks up at Jameson, glitches running along his body. He can at least help him keep up…
#SATCV#SATCV the rift#alt anti#swap magnificent#bro fantastic#jackie mann#poor alt but like- mag would i gotta play the character XD
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(just Nancy being a drama queen - she deserves it as a treat - as she lightly bullies Eddie in front of his little sheepies)
Ever since the Byers' moved back from California, Eddie has been locked in a battle with Will to prove who is the better DM. And instead of just running Hellfire and the original Party separately, the two are now fighting a never-ending Olympic-level series of small campaigns and one-shots to earn the respect of Mike, Dustin, Lucas and Erica.
Which means Nancy has to put up with endless yelling, bickering and all round nerd-talk coming from the basement 24/7.
She is the real victim here.
Not only has she had to hear such a raucous every afternoon this week, ever since Dustin came up with the oh-so-brilliant idea of setting an actual competition that is somehow being judged and assessed alongside playing.
How this is supposed to work, Nancy has no clue...
Not only that, but she has had to endure a Sports Centre-like play-by-play over each subsequent breakfast from Mike because yeah, unfortunately, she knows the in and outs of DND.
And now this nonsense is eating into her weekend too.
As she paces the kitchen (again), stopping to slump down at the kitchen table (again) she wishes she could conjure a magic potion to wipe the memory of all Dungeons & Dragons-related crap from the minds of everyone around her and herself.
Because Eddie has everyone in this kitchen running two damn hours late for a dinner date.
Steve sighs loudly from his position at the kitchen bench and checks his watch (again). He yawns (again).
"Consider our double-date cancelled, Dingus," Robin drawls, propping her chin on her hand as she looks through the latest issue of Cosmopolitan, turning a page at a glacial pace.
He stands up, scraping the stool on the tiles as he goes and walks over to check his hair in the reflection of the toaster – which he has done each and every time the words 'double date' have been uttered since he arrived.
Nancy tsks' and rolls her eyes while Robin whispers a judgemental, "Stop, Steve".
"I'll go ask," Steve suggests, practically puffing out his chest as he heads for the basement door.
Nancy does everything in her power not to tell Robin to stop picking at her nail polish and instead opts to stare at a scratch on the kitchen table while they wait.
There is a series of indecipherable sounds, then some laughter, Dustin shouting, "Go away!", followed promptly by footsteps up the staircase.
Steve re-emerges from the basement rubbing at his flushed neck.
"He – They... aren't ready... yet," he stutters.
Robin looks up from her magazine, rolls her eyes and groans at the state of her best friend.
"What!" he shrieks. "I asked if they were almost finished and Eddie answered me in his Dungeon Master voice!"
He clears his throat and slips back onto the stool.
"Oh please!" Robin huffs, flicking a page of her magazine as violently as possible.
"Its fine," he insists. "I'm fine... Absolutely fine and dandy."
He begins chewing at his nails, ravenous and wide-eyed.
"That's it!" Nancy declares, leaping up from the kitchen table to charge towards the entry to the basement.
She makes sure to step as harshly as possible, a go-to tactic she typically uses to scare Mike into listening when he is hauled up in the basement doing god knows what.
"Eddie!" she calls as she reaches the bottom step. She folds her arms with a loud huff.
But it doesn't work, no one so much as looks away from Lucas, who is staring at the board in deep concentration as he harshly shakes dice in his hands.
"Eddie!" she repeats.
Again nothing. Well, nothing except Dustin waving his hand lazily behind his back, presumably in an attempt to shoo her away without tearing his eyes away from Lucas. She clears her throat and sucks in a breath. Eddie has left her no choice.
Time to embarrass the dork. Majorly.
"I'm sure everyone in this room would be very interested to hear that you are unable to chip in for the customary post-session pizzas, a staple of Saturday night, regardless of whatever DND-marathon nonsense is going on."
She only has to wait a fraction of a second after her diatribe for everyone to look at her and then back to Eddie. She wishes she was at a better angle to witness their betrayed faces.
Lucas stops shaking his dice and sets them gently on the table.
"You don't have money for pizza?" Dustin offers, almost making up for how insufferable he has been all week.
Erica furiously scribbles away in her notebook, presumably deducting points for Eddie's lack of pizza-money status. Mike meanwhile, gives Will a knowing look.
Eddie sinks down in his throne, an old recliner with Holly's outgrown sparkling pink princess cape draped over it.
"But Steve's a gentleman and pays for my dinner," Eddie defends, voice high and childish. His cheeks flush red as he attempts to hide behind a lock of hair.
Nancy leans forward, balancing on her tiptoes and smirks, "Well you better come upstairs, My Prince."
She bats her lashes and uses air quotations at the mention of Steve's preferred pet name. And sure enough, the kids erupt into laughter.
Eddie snaps his game screen shut and scrambles to gather up his manual, ignoring the sudden transformation into a chorus of booing.
He gestures to the board hurriedly.
"Lady Applejack, I entrust you with recording where everyone's place is."
"What!" Lucas yells, incredulous as his sister pokes her tongue out in victory.
Dustin lunges for his backpack, grumbling something about the Battle of the DMs competition parameters.
Nancy harshly motions for Eddie, eager to prevent him from getting caught up in whatever the kids are now griping about. She doesn't have to do much else anyway, because Will is shoving Eddie aside to squeeze into the makeshift DM throne the moment he looks like he is vacating his seat.
Nancy taps her foot with dramatic impatience (heaped atop actual impatience, of course) as Eddie makes his way to the staircase. He attempts to step carefully, shielding himself from further insults and booing with his manual. Ever the awkward one, he runs straight into her, leaving no choice but to lower his weaponised books.
Nancy purses her lips, seething as she thinks over all the other intel she has on one Edward Munson that she might just have to mention in a not-at-all inside voice.
But he smirks, exposing his dimples as he leans too close to taunt, "That isn't even Steve's favourite nickname for me."
"What is it then?" she shoots back, blocking the stairs as Eddie's face falls straight back into the fiery depths of embarrassment.
He looks at his boots, pouting like a sullen Charlie Brown.
"Kitten," he mumbles.
#the fruity four#platonic edancy#eddie munson#nancy wheeler#platonic with a capital p#steddie#steve harrington#idk if the DND premise of this even makes sense :/#stranger things#stranger things ficlet
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The Thundermans Return (new poster) (discussion + theory)
There are two versions (that I found so far) of the poster! BOTH are really, really confusing, but let's analyze!
Let's actually start with the background: it's Hiddenville, which makes sense ("The Thundermans Return" to Hiddenville), but we already know that the movie will take place in various locations, so I really hope we will get to see more of Metroburg (and that it will be included in a poster too). But it's really nostalgic and...strangely it sets a very interesting mood. I can't find the right word for it right now. Especially with the color of the sky. You really know SOMETHING is going to go down this time.
Now about the Thundermans. We have Max and Phoebe at the front: the new supersuits look really cool (especially the gloves!) and we have a standard pose that works well. Just one question: WHERE is the rest of Phoebe's left arm. At first thought she had her left hand on her hip, but obviously not, so this remains a mystery for now 🕵️♂️. Notice how all of the Thundermans are posing slightly differently and only the twins' poses are exactly the same! We -again-see the golden stripes on Max's arm that stand for being one of the captains of the T-Force (formally the Z-force). He also has a device (maybe a smartphone) in the pocket on his leg. In general, it seems that all the individual suits are slightly different (not just the boys and the girls).
(insert deleted comment about Max's new hairstyle here XD)
I want to talk about Billy next, because I just live for how happy he looks. Look at him. He's happy to be there, he looks cool and he's all ready to go! And no, he and the twins are not on a staircase or something - Diego is simply this tall now (and Phoebe and Max are both in a medium squat).
Next we have Nora: she has darker hair now (resembling Phoebe's hair colour) and I really like the pose she does with her left hand to focus her laser. Unfortunately her stance is slightly strange to me (but that's maybe also because Phoebe's elbow is covering half of her leg).
I don't have much to say about Hank and Barb, so let's move on to Chloe, who the center of this whole picture. I'm really intrigued by this. I love her smile and overall expression -she knows exactly what she's doing. AND - after looking at this picture for several minutes- she's sitting on a FLYING skateboard! Then there's a second flying skateboard with Dr. Colosso on top. WHAT is going on!? My first guess: flying skateboard - hoverboard-time travel. I actually made a post once on how Chloe might be able to travel in time due to her teleportation power. For me it makes sense (I will discuss this again on here soon), because it also helps with my theory of Mayhem's return (from the past, where he was more powerful). Also the "Thundermans Return..." return back to the future!?!? 👀
My last point is related to this theory. I saw this poster and thought it was strange (but very cool still!). And I thought it's the arm or leg placement, the composition, but you know what? It's the light. Let me explain: there are lights that comes from the sky, the background, then the ones from their individual superpowers (lasers for Nora, lightning for Barb etc.), but when you look closely at the wider poster, you will see a strange light in front of Phoebe and Max too. It doesn't look like telekinetic waves (which are normally not visible, but we saw them once on screen in the episode "Cape Fear"). Actually, I think this light comes from Chloe! She's in the middle, but creates a circular light (you can't really tell in the small poster, only in the wide version) around the Thundermans! Notice how Max's hand is almost reaching out through something - could it be a portal!?!? That really should be it, because Dr. Colosso is very obviously traveling through a portal as well. So are the Thundermans going back in time to stop their enemies? To stop Mayhem?!
Okay one more thing: the formation of the Thundermans kinda looks like a T and I'm so here for it. I can't wait!!! And I am so happy we got a poster!!!
#the thundermans#the thundermans return#thundermans#thundermans discussion#thundermans theory#THIS IS SO EXCITING =;;;)#new thundermans movie#phoebe thunderman#max thunderman#chloe thunderman#billy thunderman#nora thunderman#thunderfam
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P5R Pilgrimage: Yongen-jaya
Sangen-jaya, actually, but let’s just say I can’t count!
More pics and screenshot comparisons under the cut! :D
Let’s start things off with the train station.
The street that the Yongen-jaya area is modeled after is a couple-minute walk from the station, and the view up and down the street is pretty familiar.
Note the signs for ぷくいち / らくまる near the upper right, and the yellow bollards further up the street!
That store exists -- it seems to be a teppanyaki and fuchuyaki (a type of okonomiyaki) place.
The street on which Leblanc should be located is right nearby -- note the cute nod to the real-life signage (Good-Bye Good-Bye vs Good-day Good-day). There’s a snack bar (a type of hostess bar) on this street -- it’s the shop with the round red awning. I’ve read in other posts that the snack bar is aware that the location is visited by P5 fans, and that they’ve got some merch and such inside, but I didn’t visit it myself.
The store in the space where you’d expect Leblanc to be appears to be a takoyaki shop.
I was very much hoping to be able to peek into the laundromat and perhaps buy a drink at the vending machine, but the entrance to the bathhouse is closed up. The location is marked as “temporarily closed” on Google Maps, but from the looks of it it’s probably permanent...
A little further down the street is the Thai restaurant.
This entire street is crafted with uncanny accuracy; it’s really fun having a look around.
Where you might expect to find an old fellow on a bench with a radio...
And a little further down the street, the buildings come together quite tightly.
The lantern is still there!
A little name change never hurt anyone...
Further down the street is the grocery store, Muramasa (actually Niku no Hanamasa).
The name Muramasa’s a bit of a pun -- “murasaki” is the Japanese word for purple or violet, and you’ll notice that they changed the storefront to be purple instead of yellow.
The staircase leading up to the batting cages is also there, albeit on the other side of the store. Unfortunately this place was closed too -- I snuck up the stairs for a little peek around, but didn’t get too far before turning back. (All the signs about cameras freaked me out. xd)
Lastly, this obviously isn’t in Sangen but sorta felt like it made sense to include it in this post: the Aoyama-itchome station.
The fare gate was really the only thing that sort of looked how it does in the game. Apart from that, I think lots of it was changed to make the place look a bit more open visually; IRL it’s a little cramped.
That’s it for this one. I’ll probably do Kichijoji next!
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𝑺𝑼𝑹𝑹𝑬𝑨𝑳 𝑹𝑬𝑨𝑳𝑰𝑻𝒀 - 𝑱𝑨𝑴𝑬𝑺 𝑷𝑨𝑻𝑹𝑰𝑪𝑲 𝑴𝑨𝑹𝑪𝑯
“Unfortunately, you have to die now, darling..”
(murder, death, blood, and light swearing)
BARELY ACCURATE TO THE ACTUAL SHOW!!
•••
1979
My foot steps inside of the hotel and I immediately feel uneasy. Yet, when I look around the place, I see a completely normal and beautifully looking establishment, very vintage though I will say.
"Ma’am, can I help you?" The front desk attendant, a short middle-aged woman, asks me with a kind smile on her face. I finally take in the fact that was no where else to go, it's pouring rain outside and the wind is strong enough to almost knock me off my feet.
"Uh, how much does it cost for a room?” I asked, hearing the rain become more violent. "Well, we only have one room available for you right now, the rest are taken by other guests," She informs me. "It's a total of $300 for the entire night.” I squinted my eyes and tilted my head. That is a bit pricy, but I suppose it is worth the price if I don't have to worry about a car and it is storming out there.
"Okay, sure." I reached into my bag, grabbing my wallet, and handing the lady the money. She hands me a key from behind her. “Room 63.”
"Thanks," I say, taking the key.
I begin walking to the elevator. My hair is soaked, along with my clothes and everything I brought with me, which is very inconvenient. “Sorry, the elevators broken. You can take the stairs though, they're just over there." I look at her, she's smiling.
"Of course," I mumble under my breath. I walk to the stairs, feeling her eyes on me the entire time. In the back of my mind, something was telling me that I should have found a different place to stay. I mean, who would want to stay at a hotel that seems creepy? I begin to regret the decision as soon as I enter the staircase, the smell of mold is overpowering, the lighting is dim, and the air feels... thick.
I walk up the stairs, trying to not inhale the disgusting odor. I reach the 6th floor and my eyes land on the door. 63. My legs are getting tired and I am freezing from the wet clothes. I quickly insert the key into the keyhole, unlock the door and walk in. The door shuts behind me as soon as I step inside. I glance around the room and it's surprisingly nice, it looks exactly like a room in a fancy hotel, with the exception of the musty smell.
I set my purse onto the bed and look out the window. The rain has become even more violent and I'm pretty sure I can hear thunder and lightning. "What a fun trip," I mutter, sarcastically. I walk into the bathroom and turn on the light.
A scream rips from my throat, I stumble backwards and land on the wall. A dead rotting body is in the bathtub, it's throat cut open, blood gushing out from it. I run up to the door, trying to twist the knob, but nothing happens. My heart raced, my breathing is fast and panicked, and the door is still not opening.
Then I feel this presence behind me, a hand is placed on my shoulder and I jump, turning around to look, there was this man with black slick backed hair and dark, enigmatic eyes. "Such a pretty thing, you are.." The man whispered into my ear, his breath tickled the skin on my neck. I couldn't speak, I couldn't think, and I couldn't breathe. I felt something sharp press against my chest, I didn't dare look down even though I knew what it was.
"Such a shame," His voice was so low and smooth, I wanted to cry. “Please..” I said, weakly.
He pulled away and smiled. "Your pleas encourage me."
I stared at him in horror. "Wha-"
I'm interrupted by his hand, cupping around my throat, he lifts me off the ground and throws me against the wall.
I fall to the floor, the back of my head slamming against the ground. “Please..don’t do this.." I pleaded, trying to stand up but being pushed down by him. The sharp blade of his knife is pressed against my neck, I feel a little blood dripping from the cut he made.
"Oh, but I have to. There's nothing you can do about it," He whispers into my ear. I sob, trying to fight against him.
"P-please, I..”
"Oh, darling. I love when they beg for their lives," He says, pressing the knife deeper into my skin.
"I.." I can't even finish what I was saying because he presses his lips against mine, I was disgusted but I couldn’t push him off.
"Shhh, I don't want you to waste your breath," He murmurs.
"Why..why are you doing this to me? Why?!" I screamed, hysterically. He smirks, “Your voice is so beautiful..so angelic..” He says, trailing off. I couldn’t move, I was too weak. He was going to kill me.
It seemed so surreal to me, i couldn’t believe it.
"You're so pretty, darling." His grip around the handle of his knife tightens. For some reason, the more I looked at him, the more he looked familiar..it looked like that one guy..James..March...
His hand wrapped around my neck. I started to feel a little lightheaded and my vision was getting blurry. My mouth was wide open, trying to get as much oxygen as possible. He chuckled and I could feel his breath against my ear. "You are a perfect woman. Beautiful and innocent." He whispered into my ear.
“Unfortunately, you have to die now, darling. Your death will be quite tragic, and i can guarantee you will be missed," He tells me, grinning wickedly. I whimper, and start to sob uncontrollably. He leans closer, pressing his lips against mine. "Please..no..please..."
Then I feel this sharp pain in my abdomen. I gasp and my body jolts, my eyes widen in horror as I stare at him. My body becomes limp, and my head falls to the side. He takes the knife out and blood oozes from the wound. I struggled to breathe, and I felt like I was choking on my own blood. But then another sharp pain in the other side of my abdomen, and then again and again and again.
I cried, my cries became choked up and hoarse.
And then suddenly, the pain went away. Everything went dark.
~~~
a/n: it just came to me lol, probably doesn’t make sense either.
#ahs#ahs fandom#ahs murder house#american horror story#evan peters#jpm#james patrick march#americanhorrorstory#ahs hotel#tate langdon#kitsonwalker#kit walker#kylespencer#jimmydarling#rory monahan#kai anderson#austinsommers#maxcooperman#fanfic#fanfiction#ahs fanfic#malcolm gallant
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I’m laughing so hard rn I can’t breath. Holy fuck. Just imagine Fugaku sometimes mentioning his kids offhandedly and Naruto always being fine with it cuz his sugar daddy being an actual dad doesn’t rly change much for him (Besides making him even more besotted because Fugaku clearly loves his family and Naruto adores that).
But imagine all the ways the reveal could happen.
Naruto walks past Sasuke’s old room one morning after a major storm and sees the bedroom light on. Doesn’t think anything of it because at his old apartment every single light turned on whenever the power came back on. He walks in to turn it off, sees Sasuke staring back at him with wide eyes (he’s wearing a very slutty robe that does absolutely nothing to hide his lacy white lingerie or the bite marks on his chest) and blinks a few times before smiling brightly “you can call me mom if you’d like!”
Naruto walks into Fugaku office wanting to blow him but sees him looking through a photo album. One of the pictures is from Sasuke’s yearbook and Naruto sees himself in the background of one of the pictures. He’s sporting several bruisers from that round of foster parents and sitting alone on the swing as a familiar dark haired boy beams at the camera showing off his ninja action figure.
Itachi, vaguely connected to everyone sasuke has talked to for more than a few months and admittedly fond of the blonde, calls him one day to ask how he is. Unfortunately for everyone, Naruto put the phone on speaker and Fugaku walks into the room at the sound of his oldest son’s voice.
Fugaku’s birthday where both of his sons come home to surprise him only to hear Naruto moaning from the top of the staircase. Just absolutely screaming and wailing because he does nothing silently (frosting is definitely being licked off him too). Itachi blinks, stares at the cake he’s holding, and quietly turns to go back downstairs. Sasuke needs to be dragged because he literally froze up in horror. They both spend an hour in half dissociative states in the kitchen until Naruto and Fugaku stumble into the kitchen half naked and smelling like sex. Sasuke does a lot of pointing while Naruto immediately snaps into mom mode like “aw sasuke you brought your father a cake! That’s so sweet of you! I already had plenty to eat but I’m sure he’s hungry!
I really love Cool Brother Itachi being aware of Naruto and checking in with him whenever he can/making sure things with Sasuke don’t get too bad but the birthday thing is also amazing so hear me out:
Itachi while on the phone with Naruto hears his dad’s voice from the background and is like “Naru… hun… are you sleeping with my father?” Naruto who graduated with no less than four Uchihas in his class is very much “??? Perhaps??? You got a first name or???” Itachi frankly thinks this is good for both of them (Naruto had always looked so sad and his father has been so lonely) and just says congratulations and moves on.
He forgets to tell his brother of this.
(Sasuke deserves it if he’s being honest. After everything he put poor Naruto through some minor scaring is the least Sasuke deserves)
When they walk into their fathers house and hear the very clear sounds of sex (loud enthusiastic loud sex) Itachi does drag Sasuke downstairs and makes it very clear that he will not ruin this for their dad no matter how much he hates it.
Then Naruto walks in.
Itachi pours himself another glass of wine, drains it in one, and laughs in his brothers face.
#the elf talks#naruto#sugar baby au: uchiha style#itachi is sick and tired of Sasuke’s bullshit#he also needs to drink becuase hearing sweet Naruto scream ‘daddy’ while having sex with his father is traumatizing
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Autumn B&B
Summary: It's the busiest weekend of the year at your Bed & Breakfast. You almost of die of shock when someone you had only met once before shows up in your sleepy town.
Pairs: reader x Billy Russo
Words: 2.4k
Warnings: SMUT 18+ ONLY. Kissing, one night stands, strangers to lovers, choking, cream pie, Oral, pet names.
The world seems to be moving a million miles at second, the foyer is crammed full of guests, Ruby and Chole are trying to direct all the waiting guests into the lounge. But they all seem to want to speak to you. Unfortunately you’re only one person and can only get one couple checked in at a time. You expected it to be busy this weekend with the annual Halloween celebrations bringing all kinds of folks to your picturesque small town. They came for the trees, the pumpkins and most importantly the ball your Mayor threw in the old town hall on Halloween night.
It’s your biggest money maker of the year and you need the money. The foot traffic through your tiny B&B on Wattle Lake had been slow for the last year and you know that you’ll need to make up for the loss over the weekend. So every room is booked and apparently everyone had all come into town on the same bus. You really should have hired one more person, just another body, anybody. You didn’t though- “Ruby, babes!” you call from behind the desk, “Can you please take these gentlemen to Room 3A,”
“Yeah, Boss.” Ruby nods, “Off we go mates. You guys right for stairs?” she asks, leading them down the hall to the large staircase.
The day seems to last forever. The guests finally manage to dissipate as the sun crests in the sky and you seriously consider giving everyone their own checkout times for Monday so this doesn't happen again. “Coffee?” Noah asks, his overalls and boots tracking dirt all over your new rug. You can’t really find it within yourself to care, he does do such a good job keeping the gardens tidy and the guests out of your daisies.
“Please,” he nods in acknowledgment and takes off in the direction of the kitchen. You manage to flag down Hannah as she rushes by with a broom, “Han, honey. Can you please do me a massive favour?”
“I was just going to clean up all this dirt,” she shrugs, leaning the broom against the wall, “What do you need?”
“Can you start going over the bookings and make sure everyone's checked in, please.” she comes around next to you, shoving you out from behind the desk, “Thank you,” you bolt to the downstairs bathroom. After hours of sitting in the same place you really needed to go.
“Did you see the guy checking in?” Ruby asks you as she spots you in coming out of the bathroom, “How come you’re not checking him in? Hannah seems like she's about to start drooling,”
“What? I know she’s thirsty, but it can’t be-” you stop dead in your tracks. Hannah did indeed look like she had little hearts in her eyes, her dark hair twirling around her fingers while she leans into whatever this man was saying to her. You can’t see his face, only the back of him. His dark hair is slicked back, the leather jacket clinging to his broad shoulders and a motorcycle helmet tucked under his arm.
“Hannah,” you laugh, “You alright there honey?” you step a bit closer. Your heart nearly bursts from your chest when the man turns to face you, his expression of shock mirroring yours. Except that he has that slick smile you remember, on his soft lips. “Fuck,” you mutter, immediately turning and walking back down the hall.
“Fuck, fuck, fuck,” you grab a bottle of wine as you step through the ktichen and onto the porch that overlooks the lake, “What the fuck is he doing here?”
“Hey! You ok?” Noah says, sitting down beside you, “Saw you coming running out here. What’s wrong?”
“Well, you remember when we went to New York?”
“Yes, for Ruby’s birthday last year. What about it?”
“And you know how I came in with coffee, just as everyone was waking up?”
“Yes”
“I was actually just getting in and I-”
“Is he the guy? THAT guy?”
“How do you kno- Ruby told you didn’t she.”
“Yes, she told me about the mystery man. Best night of your life man. The man whose name you didn't even get.”
“What is he doing here?”
“Probably a coincidence,” Noah shrugs, “Don’t read too much into it ok? Will you be fine out here with your wine while I go start the fire?”
“Yeah, thanks. Can you make sure they get him checked in?”
“I can, don’t get wasted. You don’t want to be hungover for the market tomorrow,”
The market, how could you forget. You never really bought anything there, but you did offer to tour your guests around every year so they didn’t get lost and so you could steer them a bit closer to your friends' stalls and help them make a few more sales than those who came from out of town just to capitalise on the event.
Taking one last swig of your wine, you decide to head to your cabin, normally you’d stay in the house. But all the rooms had been booked, even yours. While annoying, it was the biggest in the house and you could charge the most for it. You're about halfway there when you hear someone call your name and you recognize the voice immediately. You start to walk faster, maybe he would think you hadn't heard and would leave. But he calls out again, you hear his feet pound on the soft grass. He’s running to catch up with you.
He catches you just as you hit the trail that leads to your cabin. “Hi,” he says with puffed breaths, smoothing his hair from his face. “I’ve been looking for you everywhere,”
“Is there anything I can help you with sir?” you ask, planting on your best customer service smile, “I’m afraid I’m off the clock at the moment, but if you need anything Cody is just inside and he’ll be happy to help you,” you step back as he steps forward, “I should- ah.” you take another step back, bumping into a tree and tripping.
“I don’t remember you being this shy the last time we met,” the man smiles, stepping closer, “Not shy at all,” he says as he corners you against a tree, his arm reaching over your head to lean over you.
You stand frozen as his fingers glide along your jawline, stopping to rest at the base of your neck. He leans in closer, his nose nudging yours, his lips only a breath away. “I missed you,” his minty breath fanning over you.
“I-” you words seem to be stuck in your throat. Those beautiful eyes of his staring into yours, flicking down to your lips. Is this magic? It feels like it when the glow of the sunset drapes you both in its soft orange glow. The noises of the forest behind you and you see the fireflies start to stir in the corner of your eye.
“I'm going to kiss you now,” he whispers, “If that's ok,” he adds, waiting. He’s waiting for you to tell him to stop. But you don’t, can’t. Too wrapped up in whatever was happening right now. After moments that last lifetimes, he kisses you. It’s soft, careful, but his hand on the back of your neck is firm, holding you in place. His tongue slips into your mouth, his kiss becomes harsher, more possessive and controlling. A strong hand slips under your thigh, pulling it up beside his leg and digging his fingers into your ass.
You hop on your other foot and he catches you. One hand on your ass, your legs wrapped around his waist and his hand still holding your face close enough to kiss. “My cabin-”
“Where?” he breaths into your mouth.
“Down the path, to the left.” was this a bad idea? Definitely yes. Was there any way of stopping this? Maybe? Are you going to? Not a chance in hell.
The man carries you to your cabin. Not even putting you down to let you grab the key from your pocket. Instead he fishes his hand into your coat and grabs it out himself. “Cosy,” he murmurs, turning on the dim lights and closing the door behind you.
“Fuck,” you moan as he turns, pressing you into the door, his teeth nipping into your neck.
“That's the plan,” hiss fingers tear at your dress, pulling it over your head and throwing it away, “Fucking hell,” he smiles, his hands feeling up and down your torso. You slip your hands into his jacket, pushing it off his shoulders, while his mouth explores your clavicle, your breasts.
He steps back, running immediately into the bed that was pushed against the wall. It’s not a big space, the bed taking up almost all of the room. He drops you both onto it, kicking his shoes off and unbuttoning his pants as his mouth continues its exploration of your body.
Your hands fist the sheets and his mouth goes lower and lower down your stomach, his tongue flicking out to lick along your panty line. “You smell even sweeter than I remember,” his hands slide up the insides of your thighs and spread them apart.
His tongue darts out, licking over your panties as a low groan escapes the back of this throat. “Please,” you beg, arching your back and trying to get him closer to your pussy. Your hand moving to grip his hair.
“Hands to yourself, Kitten,” he commands, staring up at you from between your legs and holding your hands in this one, “Keep them on your tits for me,” he reaches up, licking his way back up to your breasts while he deposits your hands on top on them, “Play with those sexy tits for me, while I lick you,”
“Fuckin-” you moan, feeling those sharp teeth sink into the soft skin of your thighs, his fingers just grazing through your soaking pussy. “Please, please”
“What is it?” he smirks, “This what you want?” his long fingers pull your panties to the side, swiping over you. “This what you need?” his tongue darting out to taste you and moaning into you at the taste. “Tell me Kitten, have you been thinking about this all year?” He kisses your pussy.
“Yes,” you moan, pinching at your nipples.
“Think about me when you touch yourself at night?” his fingers thrust into you, his tongue circles your clit, his eyes still focused on your face.
“Yes,”
“Did you think about me when you fucked someone else?”
“I-” he stops at your hesitation, peering up at you over your tummy. His fingers are still deep in your pussy.
“Tell the truth now, did you?” he pulls his fingers out when you don't answer, slapping down on your sensitive clit. Smiling to himself when you begin to squirm underneath him. He slaps you again. He moves, bending to whisper in your ear, “Do you think about me with someone else's cock buried inside you?”
“Yes,” your voice is almost breathless.
“Good girl,” he kisses just below your ear, “It doesn't compare to the real thing though, does it?”
“Fuck me,”
“Beg,”
“Please, please fuck me.”
He stands pulling his pants down, taking his cock in his hand, slowly pumping in his hand. “More,”
“I need it, need you. Need to be fucked.” you shimmy out of your panties, lifting your ass to show him just how dripping wet you are for him. You grind back, stretching yourself open and lifting your knees.
“So good, so fucking sexy,” he kneels Infront, lining himself up with you. “You just want the head Kitten?” you feel his swollen cockhead stretches you, he moves slightly pulling out before pushing the head back in.
“More,”
“You want more of my cock?” his hand holds your neck, forcing your lolling head to look at him. You nod, attempting to thrust up, but his other hand holds your hips down. “It was the best you ever had wasn't it?”
“Best,” he thrusts in a bit deeper, holding you still as his cock slowly slides inside. You want nothing more than to move, for him to move. For him to fuck you like he did that night, like a man possessed and desperate for more of you. This pace was tortuous and for some reason it was making your brain foggy and your legs shake.
“So fuckin wet, kitten,” he withraws, before thrusting in harder and harder, “Been dreaming about this pussy for a while year. Don't want to cum too soon,” he picks up your leg, throwing it over his shoulder and trusting deeper into you.
Harder and deeper, he fucks you. His hand never leaving your throat, his cock never coming all the way out of you and and those fucking eyes watching you like your the movie of the year. Your panting and hoarse breaths fill the tiny cabin. “You’re so close Kitten,” his says, moving the hand from your leg down to your clit, “I'm close too,” he pants, “Cum, cum on me. I waited so long for this, I need you to Cu-” his voice cuts out as he lets out a scream, your body violently shaking and seizing as your cum, your pussy squeezing down on his cock.
You're so out of it you barely notice when he collapses next to you, both of you out of breath. The cabin seems stifling and as you sit to try and open a window to let in some air he grabs you by the arm and pulls you back to him.
“This is going to sound kind of rude,” you whisper, not sure why you didn't ask before right now, but.. Better late than never?
“Can't wait to hear this, you going to kick me out?” He says like he doesn't believe it.
“I ah- I can't remember your name,”
“Oh, that's because I didn't tell you or actually, you didn't ask when you basically jumped me at the club,”
“I did not jump you,”
“You did, a bit.”
“Fine. So, do I get to know your name or what?”
“Ask nicer,”
Reaching up you kiss along his neck, your nose grazing his jawline as your tongue darts out to follow its path, When you reach his ear you lower your voice, “Can you tell me your name so I know what to scream,”
“Much better,” he takes your face in his hands, kissing you deeply, “Billy, Billy Russo. You ready to start screaming my name, kitten?”
“Yes,”
Taglist:
@imagine-a-fictional-boyfriend @wheresthesunshinesblogthesunshines @sweetheart-im-the-boss
@noortsshift @blackbirddaredevil23 @restingbitchsblog @misstimeless @nyctophiliiiiaaa
#billy russo fanfic#female!reader x billy russo#billy russo x you#reader x billy russo#the punisher fanfic#billy russo x female reader#billy russo x reader#billy russo#billy russo imagine#billy x reader
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The Handmaid’s Tale 5x05 “Fairytale”👀
So we have 2 major storylines: June and Luke's ill-advised bowling date, and the miseducation of Ms. Serena as a late in life handmaid-in-waiting. Shout out to the brief but delightful subplot that involved Moira and Lily getting drunk and shit talking, I would totally ship them. I apologize in advance for the snark this quickly devolved into, there may have been wine involved.
We begin with Serena descending down a long staircase, to greet the martha housekeeper at the bottom (wonder where we've seen this before?). I will say, although the Serena/June handmaid parallels this episode are heavy handed—from the stairs and the green juice healthy breakfast to the flashbacks to the very layout of Serena’s room(!)—I actually didn’t really mind because every scene and detail screaming at us that the handmaid's chunky brown boot shoe is now on the other foot was just kind of karmically delicious. Of course Serena still thinks she has power here (at least at first), as she is wont to delusionally believe, demanding requesting to speak with the Commander Mr. Wheeler. Silly Serena, don't you know the menfolk are very very busy with man business? They don't have time for your foolish female prattle! She's able to briefly forget this rejection and her probable indigestion from that smoothie, as Mrs.Wheeler presents her prized pig guest to her gaggle of wanna be Gilead wife friends, who fawn over Serena and her big belly, to her great satisfaction. It's like a good old fashioned Gilead fake labor show but better! (or is it.... guess we'll have to wait and see)
We flash back in time to see Serena and Naomi sauntering their new teal heels through the sterile hallways of an animal children's shelter: they browse the strays through the observation windows but can't quite imagine adopting a mutt into their home, you never know if they're properly house-trained and anyway, they were thinking more of a purebred (they know a breeder). So wonderful we saved these poor children from their ungodly parents to be put in fitting homes!...oh dear, not my home though. Imagine. Serena asks Naomi if she's been approached about a handmaid yet like she's inquiring if she's been asked to prom. Naomi isn't going to prom does not want a whoreful adult stray handmaid in her house any more than she wants one of these illbread brats poor children. She has white couches, for godsake! This scene cemented my suspicion that Naomi 100% never wanted children to begin with. Honestly I felt like this scene was also kind of a irl commentary on the sad fact of so many foster children in need of love and family, especially older kids, too often viewed as "undesireable" or "damaged" Of course there’s the small matter of Gilead causing huge damage to these kids by stealing them, literally traumatically ripping them from the arms of loving parents and families in many cases (which sadly does also sometimes mirror real life). Have to also call out the easter egg throw out line about Chicago rebel forces "they’ll be put down soon”... bitch, we know they’re still fighting like 6-7 years later, so.
Later we see Serena sitting down at Aunt Lydia's trafficking fertility office to pick out a handmaid from their Gilead mugshots. She doesn't look so excited about the prospect anymore at this point (methinks things might be getting strained with Fred at this point, I guess the Gilead honeymoon is over). Anyone else pause their tv to go look super close/upside down at the Handmaid’s files to see if June was in the bunch (or anyone else we know) and also to try and get a glimpse of the first unfortunate “Offred”? Just me? I actually thought the first file she picked up (who also caught Mr. Waterford's eye) looked like June upside down but upon seriously straining my neck was able to determine it was not (then I remembered I could just screenshot and rotate). Maybe Fred really did have a type, though. Ann Dowd’s physical/face acting as Lydia watches over Serena’s shoulder really cracked me up here.
(guess that’s poor nameless Offred the first on the right)
It's time for Serena's business call and Mrs. Wheeler leaves her alone because she couldn't possibly wrap her little woman brain around all that business talk (I kind of love how she manages to fawn over Serena while at the same time throwing shade, it's masterful--or deranged--or both). Joseph gets his first one-liner of the episode in “….You think the Gilead information center... focusing on Gilead... is a mistake?” and of course it's hilarious but fuuuck, he and I may both hate to admit that she’s right, fertility is definitely the best spin Gilead could go with in this fucked up limited supply baby crazy world. Unfortunately for her, it’s once again slipped Serena's mind that Gilead hates women, and she gets a swift buh-bye from creepypants Putnam, who by the way keeps getting creepier by the day. Are they purposely putting pasty corpse-like makeup on that poor actor? Random aside, I wonder if the actor is also like a really nice guy who volunteers and saves puppies or something, like how the cast always would say that Joseph Fiennes is just the loveliest person. Anyway, here we get the first mention of Joe’s pet project New Bethlehem, which Warren promptly shits on. Despite JLaw remaining pretty steadily neutral evil so far this season, I actually felt something from him when he said “or all of this…will have been for nothing”. His motivations lately have felt a bit ambiguous to me, but I did here feel that maybe he really does desperately need it all to mean something: otherwise it means he will have lost Elinor for nothing.
We end Serena' episode arc with the long awaited welcome from Mr. Wheeler, as she prays dutifully at her bedside for everyone to realize how special and smart and superior she is. Even her room here is uncannily reminiscent to me of June’s room at the Waterfords, down to the placement of furniture, window/window seat and door in the same spot (but like a super lux version). I looked away for like a second at the beginning of this next part and when I looked back did a double take because for a split second when he was silhouetted in the doorway I thought wut, NICK?? (I MEAN)
until I remembered we are being cruelly deprived of our boy for two long episodes. Can't even say for sure it's because they have a similar build in the dark from behind or if I was just that desperate to see him. Anyway. Then I did another double take because I know this actor from this random 1 season show where he plays a character working at a renaissance faire, and that is not relevant at all here except that I don't know how I'm supposed to take him seriously as a villain now when I know him for shirtless slap fighting in mud and going by the moniker "Sir Pizzle Humpsalot" (it's kind of like when I realized Val from "Working Moms" was one of the very serious Swiss "go-between" people who fuck over refuse to work with Nick and June in s2). So Mr. Pizzler Whizzler gives a nice little condescending speech during which she--and we--get it drilled once again into our/her heads that Serena will not be continuing with her absurd working woman ambitions, because what is important now is her womb and its contents and that these contents are kept safe so that they can be taken from her. Yeah, WE GET IT, but does she? FINALLY? Serena still seems to have a fundamental issue with the thought that to other Gileadeans (and wannabe Gileadeans), she might not be more special than the countless other women she was totally fine with considering nothing more than a vessel for babies for her to steal. This does not compute. She weirdly doesn't seem to like being treated like a pet/property/child, herself, though (bet Mark and his ill-advised puppy crush are looking pretty good to her now). We leave her here, fulfilled of her daily dose of prenatal vitamins, yet still feeling strangely unsettled... to be continued...
(I mean, upgrade, but still)
---
Over on the still Canada side of Canada (for now, anyway), June is woken up from a Hannah fever dream to a call from Mayday Lily (yay, I love her!). June, Moira and Luke pile into the car for a field trip and flip off some nice Canadian protesters politely (at least one sign said please) telling them to GTFO. They oblige for the day and fuck off to the border, only to get the bad news that Mayday's Gilead contact is stuck on the other side and they're SOL. "Not so!" proclaims Luke, the sudden knight in shining armor. "We shall cross the forest of dangers and rescue the princess from the grasps of the evil queen!" Because he can't wait around for Hannah to appear on tv again with Serena... who is in Canada... ok. I mean it's only been 5-7 years since your daughter was stolen and yeah in all that time the bureaucratic paperwork approach hasn't worked too well (also though, Moira, exactly HOW long did you know about the border camp for?) but sure, right now seems like a great time to suddenly go tromping half-assed into Gilead patrolled woods with no gun, no weapons. Honestly I am really confused by how determined this guy seems to be to repeat history by going into another situation completely unprepared to defend himself and his family, with little else than his bravado and ill-advised optimism. June, however, looks proud and moved by this bravery recklessness and I don't know what I expected because I really do not think Luke brings out the best/smartest in her and she literally got turned on last episode by his pretend murder bluff. I sort of hoped that if anything Moira's common sense alarm would have gone off here a bit more forcefully, but unfortunately she was too busy force feeding us cheesy lines waxing poetic on Luke and June's marriage because they apparently have to try and convince the audience what they are not showing us by telling us.
Moira fucks off to drink with Lily (they got the better end of the deal) and off go June and Luke into the danger woods, holding hands (because I guess this is date night or something). We get an ominous overhead shot of telephone wires far above, giving the sense that nefarious forces are listening/watching, and then it is night in the creepy woods. June starts having trauma flashbacks but insists she's ok, because she still doesn't really think Luke can handle it doesn't want to slow them down. They come upon a corpse hanging from a tree with a "rapist" sign hung from the body. Luke is super disturbed (as would be the normal reaction), June is like same old, same old (her normal is a little different these days) but tells him it wasn't done by Gilead because they "don't use words" (that's only Fred when he's creepy scrabble foreplaying). I wondered if maybe June's murderwoods shenanigans with Fred had spread word and inspired some like minded action in NML?? But am now inclined to think it may have something to do with the people at the end of the episode (not to get ahead). Then it's day again and they finally reach the geocache, but before they can unearth the treasure they are accosted by a young guardian with a gun who I think would actually really love Prince had he been given any chance to know who that was, and it makes me sad that I'm certain he doesn't get the reference. I am going to call this character Guardian Timothee Chalamet from hereon despite later learning his name, Jaeden (they said NO NAMES, Luke) because that's literally all I could think of as soon as we met him. Luke is flustered but June, well accustomed to teenage boys in black training guns on her, doesn’t blink. “Beret”, motherfucker.
Timmy Chalamet is a little brusque and a bit suspicious at first, but he to warms up quickly once they get to his favorite playfort hideout for shirking patrol duties in (don't blame him, it looks cold and boring out there): an abandoned bowling alley that somehow still has power (guess they found a loophole with the electric company), although they still have to reset the pins manually? Timmy gives them some very basic info on the wives schools (like basically the same info June got from Nick with the added episode-themed commentary reassurance that the "Plums" are treated like princesses, at least for the short time they're there before being married off to potentially old abusive pedos anyway (side note: I kind of love that they have slang like the "plums" and it made me wonder what other Gilead slang has developed amongst certain demographics). But never fear! There is a mysterious thumb drive that holds all the answers (ok I am also kind of side-eyeing looking at you on this one, though, Margaret Atwood--#TT #IYKYK). Why do I have a feeling the thumb drive is not going to make it... Anyway, Timmy C tells them they should stay and hang out because it's too dangerous to go back during the day (even though they were just out there in the daytime, honestly, I think the kid is just lonely but can't really blame him). Luckily his youthful charm is so infectious that Luke immediately forgets that he thinks anyone coming from Gilead is automatically an evil monster (replay start of 2x08 bar scene) and becomes bff’s with him, and anyway he's really excited to bowl because he just really loves bowling. I guess they don’t have bowling alleys in Canada anymore?. Ensue very unwise loud competition and man hollering from this bro fest, which makes June understandably disconcerted, as they are hiding out in enemy patrolled territory, theoretically trying not to get killed.
Luke is like June just needs to chill, how about some music and plays some truly absurd old timey songs on the piano that just happens to be there, before doing what he's been dying to do and busting out his falsetto "Let's Stay Together". A variety of emotions cross June's face, ranging from uncomfortable, affectionately amused, contemplative, conflicted, nostalgic, guilty, sad. She sort of looks like she wishes she could jump in with him and surrender to the sentiment whole heartedly, but her heart is not there and she knows it. She can’t quite bring herself to look him in the eyes, looking down when he tries to catch them. Noticing this, he clowns more for laughs and coaxes her to dance with him, and she finally gives in to the (deceptively) carefree feel of the moment, while sweet bb guardian Timothee finds extra mood lighting (cutest third wheel ever). Also, honorable mention to "Did you write that song?"..."yeah I did"... "wow, that's really good" (oh, the innocence!). I left out the part where they ask him about his life in Gilead and he tells them life "before" is "foggy, like a dream", because this was one heavy handed parallel too many on the Hannah front (and yes, I get it, the episode is called Fairytale). Am curious where they guy got beers from though (black market?) and how he smuggled a cooler full into his hideout without anyone noticing.
(which one of these is supposed to be “I’m so in love with this guy singing to me”?)
Then the game's over and they’re taking the scarywoods night shortcut (in hindsight maybe not the best idea but maybe the GROWNUPS here could have sussed that one out). Of course our sweet pure Guardian friend steps on a landmine (we knew from the beginning he was going to be a red shirt, didn't we?), looks terrified but bravely tells them to get back and it's probably fine before he moves a hair and gets blown to smithereens. Just kidding, he just got his leg blown off. He's starting to bleed out and June quickly and calmly goes to work with applying a belt tourniquet (apparently another skill she picked up as a rebel handmaid resistance fighter, or from Youtube) while Luke looks on in horrified shock, a second away from puking (I mean no shade, I'm sure I would, too). Jaeden Timothee Chalament’s guardian friends are calling to him and he White Fang's June and Luke to GTFO so they don't get caught, Luke hesitates and June pulls him up to desperately dash for the border. As she flees, she flashes back--to her and Hannah running in the woods, her running to lead the guardian away in the woods to save Angel's Flight--and this really got me, I found it one of the most (probably the most) genuinely compelling moments of the episode. We end with them surrounded and being dragged away in different directions (foreshadowing perhaps?? who knows).
So let us review: every time June gives in to these carefree moments Luke initiates (largely in attempts to win her back as his wife), every time she overlooks her better judgement to concede to his (often ill-founded) optimism, something bad happens. This was the case when Gilead first rose to power and they didn't get out fast enough, and it's still happening now. She lets her guard down, the "old June" starts to seep in, and then BLAMMO, GILEAD IN YOUR FACE, again. Can we just learn the lesson already, June? Honestly, she's already broken the promise she made to Nick like two episodes ago, to keep herself and Nicole safe, because she followed Luke on this half-assed idea to wander into Gilead-patrolled no-man's-land with no gun, no protection and no real plan aside from "find some dude and quote him Prince", so he could "prove himself" or something. To be honest, I actually respected Luke a lot more for doing his thing, that he knows and does well. Fighting with building codes and fundraising and research file folders and making connections with American bureaucrats. It's certainly not the most effective or quickest way to fight Gilead, but at least it’s something and most wars require multiple levels and strategies of offense and defense. That's his wheelhouse, it's who he is, and he can still be that and also support June in her own way of fighting. And if he really is moved to try her way himself (genuinely, not as some desperate ego driven attempt to not lose her), he needs to get some knowledge because at present he is just not well equipped and is more of a liability than an asset. June may be impulsive and sometimes downright reckless but she at least knows the enemy, she knows the game they're playing and how deadly it is. Luke is trying to play checkers in a game of wizard's chess. His pushing of this mission, in all his inexperience and naïveté , combined with June's natural impulsiveness, her desperation over Hannah AND her eagerness to embrace this new side of Luke that is finally embracing the active fighting side in her, gets them into trouble. And the "fairytale" comes crashing down around them.
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Hey gamers, this is my first actual post here.
First things first, terfs, nazis, homophobes, racists, you and your lot can and should fuck off. No sissy blogs either, that's not for me.
Minors should maybe not be here either if only for the odd NSFW post, so here's your warning.
Bit of a length warning I suppose? I ramble a bit, but it's my pinned so I guess now's the time.
As my blurb says and avatar implies, I'm a 20 year-old transfem, working with she/her pronouns currently. I'm generally kind of hesitant to really talk about myself to strangers or to even say something in the first place, even when it's just to the void like I have been since I started here about a month and a half ago. You may recall my mentioning that this is my first actual post, or have noticed that I've only tagged like, 2 of my reblogs at time of writing. I'm trying to get out there a bit more which is why I'm even making this, but if I take some time to reply to a pm or whatever, know that there's this on top of anything irl. Also I have a tendency to write in a way as though I were actually talking, so apologies for any overuse of commas or really long sentences. Trying to be mindful of this way of writing myself though.
Should say that whatever eldritch critter lords over us all gave me the delightful combo of being able to remember a bunch of absolutely bizarre and incredibly niche things about whatever while also forgetting it all when it miraculously becomes useful. You may be familiar with the "Spirit of the Staircase?" Gamer, you're looking at her. I mention this to say that despite the length of some of the later parts, they're still not exhaustive.
I've also got into the habit of referring to people as gamers because it has that wonderful combo of being both gender-neutral and oddly funny to me. Not in a demeaning way, my sense of humor has just kind of veered into nonsense.
On that note, I should also mention that I myself have committed a cardinal sin and am indeed, a gamer. Platforms I'm on are Playstation and Switch. PC gaming is unfortunately out of my purview currently. I prefer PvE generally but also don't mind pwning some children if the vibes are there. Hope you have your bingo card ready because yes, Celeste is my favorite game. I have WAY too much time into Warframe and I like Dead by Daylight, Deep Rock Galactic, Risk of Rain 2/Returns, and Slay the Spire quite a bit. Tragically I've been a gamer for a while, so I'm just naming a few of my main ones right now while totally not ignoring a sizeable backlog, no sirree!
Music is also a bit of a vibes thing. Generally more of a fan of less intense songs, which may be an odd thing to follow up on by saying prog rock's also pretty cool. Longer a song is, the better is my usual take. City pop's also superb, language barrier be damned. Vaporwave's awesome. Born and raised on the rock of the 70's and 80's with parents that rarely listened to anything after Kurt Cobain rose to power for most of my younger years, so a good chunk of that has worked its way into my playlist. Video game music has a tendency to be wonderful to my ears as well. Solar Ash, both Risk of Rains (although yes, I lean towards the second + DLC here), Night in the Woods, songs from several of the Persona series (Layer Cake, Beneath the Mask - Rain and both versions of Specialist, oh my!), a few from Warframe and of course, the titular Celeste. Lena really is just something else, and I think I can say with some confidence that Quiet and Falling is just my favorite song generally. It does have some competition, so in no particular order I'll rattle some off: Anri's Shyness Boy, Depeche Mode's Enjoy the Silence (primarily the Hands and Feet Mix version), Hall and Oates' Out of Touch, Mac Demarco's Freaking out the Neighborhood, ABBA's Dancing Queen, Yoko Takahashi's The Cruel Angel's Thesis, Prince's Little Red Corvette, Kensuke Ushio's Crybaby, Jane Pop's Drive to 1980 Love, Shakatak's Bitch to the Boys, Komm Susser Todd from End of Evangelion, Mystical Composer by Momoko Kikuchi, Love don't come Easy by The New Jersey Connection, Once in a Lullaby by Chris Christodoulou, No Tengo Dinero - Maxi by Righeira, Seaside by Dan Mason, In your Eyes by Peter Gabriel, Dinner is not over by Jack Stauber's Micropop, Dress Down by Kaoru Akimoto, Radio Ga-Ga by Queen, Under Pressure by Queen and David Bowie, and this list is getting kind of long, huh? God, music is just so freakin' awesome. Truly, one of my biggest regrets will be that I didn't hear enough of it. Band-wise, I'll mention I quite like Steely Dan, Tally Hall, 1986 Omega Tribe, Car Seat Headrest, The Comet is Coming (loving Hyper-Dimensional Expansion Beam right now), Dan Mason, Mitch Murder, Desired, Nyarons, Seycara Orchestral, Shakatak, Ibrahim, OSC, Both Jack Stauber and his Micropop, Prince, Queen, Junko Ohashi, Anri, Meatloaf, Gorillaz, Night Tempo, City Girl, Yes, PKCH, Chris Christodoulou, Cape Coral, Tupperwave, Oresama, Weird Al (EBAY in particular will forever take up some of my brain space at any given moment) and good ol' Lena Raine. While we're here, I guess the one album I'll mention is Jeff Wayne's Musical Version of the War of the Worlds. Make sure it's the original though, some of the songs were revamped in recent years and personally I'm not partial to that rendition of them.
If you inferred that I might like some anime given the above section has quite a few Japanese artists then yes, your intuition was correct. I have fallen off of it recently, but stuff like Neon Genesis Evangelion, Cowboy Bebop, JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, Mob Psycho, and My Life With Monster Girls are some that I enjoy.
Romantically, I'd say I'm into women. We're entering kind of weird territory for me here though because while I would quite like a romantic partner and someone to cuddle with, I'm kind of not so sure how keen I am on any actual sex? Half of me wonders if I'm just asexual while the other half wonders if it might actually be a case of finding the proper someone. I don't know, it's very much uncharted territory for me and I'm not sure where I'll end up on it. Also the whole "finally accepting that I'm trans" thing probably has its influence somewhere in there.
Politically, just give people stuff. Meet their basic needs, implement a UBI, make it so that every grandparent has a bottomless jar of sweets for the wee ones. Public transport good, cars bad, Golf is actively terrible in multiple ways. Chuck bricks at cops, detonate an oil rig (in Minecraft, I guess), eat the rich, the usual. Ideally, mix the three. Abortions and contraception are healthcare, and alongside education all should be free. Kill the cop in your head, both in the sense that if you saw someone shoplift, no you didn't and that you don't have to impose yourself on people just having some earnest, unconventional fun. These are some of my viewpoints, but I'm hesitant to try and pin myself down with a specific position due to a lack of having really read well, any greater political works, still needing to flatten some views I've kind of just had seep into me from the greater culture ("But is x really the proper thing" is tragically a constant, but I've needed to quash the Devil's Advocate voice in my head for years at this point. The little bastard never truly seems to leave. Yeah, having a little gremlin constantly try and check my thoughts can be handy now and then, but it gets really annoying when I think about topics like how the death penalty shouldn't be a thing because like, what are you doing here you idiot? Don't let your personal misgivings with a person allow for executions), and honestly a little because I need to try and be firmer as a person. I put a lot more stock into the thoughts of others than my own, and sometimes it's tough to remember that me and my thoughts also have value, whatever that looks like. Is that the best thing to just type aloud? Also don't hit your kids, regardless of circumstance.
Uhhh got to say I'm blanking a bit on what else to put in. Closing remarks now I suppose. Life is fucking awesome, and I mean that to apply to most-every instance of it. We're all just here on our queer little blogs having a time with one another, and isn't that wonderful? The past 5 years or so have been terrible mentally for me with a few really bad months in particular this year, but I finally feel like I'm on the up-and-up. Accepting that I'm trans after repressing it for a while, finally cutting off a bad friend (hopefully for good), working on getting HRT. With any luck, I'll have some patches in my hands next Friday, the 15th of September. That's huge for me, not only in the obvious sense but because my brain somehow twisted itself into thinking that I can't take this whole topic seriously outside of hair growth and shaving facial hair until I actually get some form of HRT into my hands, AND IT'S HAPPENING! AAAAHHH!!! I'm moving into the next chapter of my life after being kind of stagnant for a while, and I've had such a wonderful vigor these past few weeks that I haven't known in ages. I've really embraced an appreciation of what others might consider mundane, and just trying to be a bit goofy. Letting things roll off of me, even if the anxiety tends to really weaken my legs and make me nauseous. I stay silly. The horrors may persist, but so do I. So do you. How lovely.
Also,
#transfem#tw child abuse#Not my own abuse though#My parents are just so amazing#I love them both so much#Did that come off wrong? Apologies#I just gush about them whenever possible#Did I even do this post correctly?#Let's find out baby first time for everything#I'm also on mobile if that's relevant I guess
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My Crazy Life Part 2
Summary: Sherlock and y/n dive more into her past and Sherlock suddenly becomes much more interested in her than before.
Warning(s): None, angst maybe?
Author’s note: It’s been a wild one, fam.
Word Count: 1,161
~ The Next Morning ~
You knocked on the door frame to Lestrade’s office and cleared your throat nervously.
“Come in Y/L/N.”
“You wanted to see me sir?”
Yes,” Lestrade looked up from his laptop and leaned back in his chair. “I want you to sit this investigation out.”
“But- why? Sir, if I may ask?”
He leaned forward suddenly, hands on the desk. “Because Sherlock has told me you’re too close to this case, which is why you passed out the other day at the scene. Bloody hell he won’t tell me why you’re too close and I know for a fact you’re so stubborn you won’t tell me why either so I’m sitting you out.”
“But sir that’s not fair!”
Lestrade rubbed his forehead. “No. What’s not fair is one of my officers passing out in the field and withholding information.”
A dark look passed over your face, you understood but it still didn’t seem fair.
“You’re dismissed.”
You stormed out of the office to unfortunately run into one of the people you deposed most right now.
“Morning Y/N. Sleep well last night?” Anderson sneered.
“Shut the hell up, Anderson.”
Sherlock was going to pay for what he did. Not only did he invade your space last night, he over stepped and decided to mess up your work life.
“And where do you think your going?” Anderson retorted.
You turned around while exiting the building, “To your girlfriends house. Oh wait! You don’t have one.”
Anderson glared daggers at you but you were too busy thinking about where you were going to notice.
~ 221B Baker Street ~
“Ms. Hudson, would you make a fresh pot of tea? I believe we’ll be having a visitor this morning.”
Sherlock checked his watch again, this would be about the time you would be clocking in at work. No doubt you would be furious finding out what he had told Lestrade. Sherlock sat back in his chair, leaning his head back and listening for the noises to cue your arrival. Cars rumbling and braking. A car door closes near by. A door knocker sounds, the doer sounding rather impatient. Door slamming shut. Small but angry sounding footsteps coming up the old wooden stairs. The rush of cool air as the door opened to the parlor room. The winded huff of a person who had just rushed up a staircase near his shoulder. Sherlock leaned forward and opened his eyes finding a beautiful pair of eyes angrily staring right back at his.
“Hello, Y/n. Tea is ready in the kitchen.”
“Tea?! You think I came here for tea?!”
“No.” Sherlock stood abruptly and made his way for the kitchen, “I don’t think you came here for tea but I believe tea would be a comfort for what we are about to discuss.”
You were left with your mouth hanging open, trying to process the reaction. In a flash, he was back, two cups of tea in hand maneuvering you both to the arm chairs sitting across each other.
“Now, where should we start?”
“I’m sorry?”
“What do you want to tell me first about this mysterious ex-boyfriend of yours? Oh I know- how about,” Sherlock drawled,” a name?”
You took a quick sip of tea and rested ths saucer and cup on your lap.
“His name is Jim.” You took a deep breath in, “We met in-”
“Last name.”
“Uh- what? Oh his last name? His last name…. Um, Moriarty.” You said quietly, looking down into the cup of tea as if it could save you from the following conversation.
Sherlock visibly stiffened and was quiet for an unusual amount of time.
“Does anyone on the police force know about your relationship with Moriarty?”
“Oh god no, I’ve never told any of them.”
“Good. Let’s keep it that way. Last thing we need is Lestrade to be treating you like a suspect when you are actually the victim of these crimes. Indirectly speaking of course.”
You nodded solemnly in agreement.
“Since last night I’ve looked up every possible connection between the murders in the past 6 months. So far, I have found no traceable connection.”
Sherlock got up and rushed to what you assumed was his work table by the mess of it. Speeding back to you, he a large file onto the coffee table with a loud flop. While he situated himself back in his armchair, you cautiously opened the file.
“What are these?”
“All the murders. Now tell me everything you know about the locations of these murders.”
“What?”
Sherlock rolled his eyes, “I need you to keep up with me Y/N. What do the locations mean to you? Moriarty wouldn’t just leave bodies for you at random places. Every single one of these locations has meaning, now I just need you to tell me what those are.”
You spread out the images and began to scan through them. You felt your gut grow heavy. Sherlock was right, all of these locations had meaning to you. You pushed the first image toward him.
“This is where we first met.”
You continued to push the images toward him listing off their meanings.
“Our first date, our first kiss, where we spent our first christmas stroll together, where we spent our first new years together, where we spent our first valentines together…”
You sat back, having finished pushing the images to him.
“We’ve celebrated more firsts together than this… I’m assuming this means he’ll keep killing until he’s finished reminiscing them all through murder. Why is he doing this?”
“You tell me. Has he given you any letters, or gifts? Any means of communication with you?”
Your mind wandered back to the necklace and you touched your neck subconsciously.
“Yeah…last night. I came home from the hospital and there was a gift on the counter for me. A beautiful jewel necklace…”
“Was there a note with this gift?”
You furrowed your brows. Did Sherlock sound jealous?
You nodded slowly, “Yeah, it said, ‘Hope you have a happy birthday darling. Miss me? I miss you. Let’s chat soon. -love JM’”
“Lets chat soon..” Muttered Sherlock, leaning back and putting his crossed fingers up to his chin.
You sat in uncomfortable silence while Sherlock continued to mumble to himself.
“Y/n.”
“Yes?”
“I need you to write down every location that could have significance to Moriarty concerning your relationship. And put them in order of date.”
You nodded quickly, seeing where he was going with this idea. You snatched a piece of paper and pen from the side table and quickly started scribbling. After about 5 minutes you handed the paper to Sherlock.
Sherlock quickly analyzed the list and then stood abruptly, shoving the list in his pocket.
“First things first- lets go to our first location on the list, the London Eye. I’ll text John to meet us there.”
You nodded solemnly and off you two headed- alone- to start an interesting expedition.
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