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arjaandsimoni · 1 year

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Flying Free

Downtown Cincinnati

Stephanie and Arja walked out of the cinema onto the streets of Cincinnati, the Indian girl finishing off her coke before tossing it in the garbage. “Huh, those movies were a lot different from the games.” she shrugged, “Nice to actually see it early though. Normally I have to use a VPN or wait months for them to reach India.” she grinned.

“Yeaaaaaah, you think they’d be better at getting them out now. I mean the freakin’ internet exists.” replied Stephanie, shrugging her shoulders as they walked through the city. She was still watching for the naga (first rule of being a hunter: if you don’t find a body DON’T ASSUME ITS DEAD) but so far the coast was clear. She’d had a bit of a freak out moment when they heard a hissing noise earlier, but it turned out someone had driven over a busted bottle and blew a hole in their tire.

The two had met up earlier that morning and gone out to see Sonic the Hedgehog 2 and now were basically two kids in the city looking for anything to occupy their time.

“So… I did some research online about Hanuman after last night…” she nodded, “He’s really your ancestor?” asked Stephanie.

Arja grinned at her, “Yep! Dad’s mortal, but my mom is like me. They met years ago when he was an explorer in India. He found a path that led to the supernatural world reflection of our homeland and almost got killed by a rakshasa, but my mom rescued him and the two just sorta hit it off. Few years later I’m there and dad retires from exploring and gets into his family’s business of politics and such. His family act as diplomats for India but are also one of the noble houses in Jaipur.” she nodded.

“Oh, neat. Clan Fullmoon is a bit different… we don’t have a divine ancestor, it’s more of a long-standing pact with one…” replied Stephanie, and she went on to explain.

Centuries ago, before the rise of the Roman Empire, back even before the Iron Age, Ireland was not a very good place to live. The Fair Folk preyed on humanity with reckless abandon and dark forces lurked around every corner, but the worst of it all were the werewolves.

These days packs of werewolves were much more civilized. They stayed to the virgin forests and wild areas of the world or learned to blend in with humanity, but in the old times they were wild and vicious beings, true monsters who saw humans as just another form of prey no different from wild deer or boar.

The legend went that a village, the name lost in the distant past, was slaughtered by one of the wolf packs, only two people able to escape from it: Aidan and Deirdre, two young lovers recently wed to each other who hid under the rubble of their collapsed home while the werewolves killed and ate their friends and family.

As they fled their souls cried out for vengeance and justice against the monsters who’d destroyed their lives, and Morrigan heard their plea. The Maven herself appeared before them and offered them a pact. They pledge themselves and all their descendants to her, and she would grant them power so that they would never again need fear the predations of the dark creatures of the night.

Aidan took on her aspect as a Goddess of War, becoming stronger than any man in Ireland. He became able to beat a werewolf to death with his bare hands if need be, his skin toughening like hard leather and gaining stamina enough to run through the woods for three days and nights without tiring.

Deirdre took on her aspect as the Queen of Ravens, gaining the power to transform and become capable of flight as well as to command storms and winds. While her husband fought their enemies directly she would harry them with gale force winds, swirling tornados, and bright crashing lighting clouds.

Eventually Deirdre became pregnant, and they discovered that their child had inherited the Maven’s gifts as well. They had a son, then a daughter, both of whom had the same powers as their father and mother respectively, and eventually those children grew, wed, and had children of their own, and the line continued on and on to the present day.

“… and as the family got bigger we became famous among old Ireland for hunting down rogue werewolf packs. We got a reputation as ‘Those Who Hunt By The Light of the Full Moon.’ Bit of a mouthful in Gaelic though so it eventually got shortened to just ‘Clan Fullmoon.’” she nodded. “I dunno how true it is that Deirdre could actually make entire lightning storms and such though, none of the Clan I’ve ever met could pull THAT off. Most I can do is localized windstorm and those ‘mine’ things you saw me use on that naga the other night, also fly. I can’t actually fly fly, I’m just using my magic to lift myself up in my bird form by catching my own wind under my wings.” she nodded.

“Yeah, see, that sounds exactly like the garuda I know back home! Only difference is they’re all Indian like me, and their wings are green, not black.” replied Arja. “Its just so wild, how is it your family and their people have the same things?” she scratched at her hair a bit.

Stephanie shrugged, “Heck if I know. Sometimes stuff is just weird. My big brother Nelen has been all over and he’s seen all sorts of crazy things. Heck he helped us stop this crazy faerie woman from taking my cousin last spring. She was this little girl looking thing that could summon toy-monsters.”

Arja raised her eyebrow at her, “… seriously?” she asked, “So what, like a fanged Playstation?”

“No no, like older-style toys. Like teddy bears the size of real bears and stuff.” she clarified.

“… riiiiiight.” chuckled the Indian girl. “Must’ve been a crazy fight.”

Stephanie nodded, thinking back to how that fight ended and what she saw her brother unleash to defeat Isolde, “… yes… yes it most certainly was…” she muttered. “… hey wanna get ice cream?” she asked.

“Yogurt for me, but sure!” grinned Arja.

Meanwhile back in Edgewood

Catherine was making lunch with the news playing in the background.

As she finished up her pasta on the stove she paused, hearing the newscaster’s voice.

“In other news, Monsters at the Levy? Covington has had a lot of bizarre stories lately but this one takes the cake. Eyewitnesses state they saw some sort of ‘giant snake thing’ fighting a…” the newscaster stopped to check the notes, “… ‘golden monkey and two bird kids…’ We only have a small photo from someone’s camera, and its hard to see but you can make out… well… SOMEthing…” he said.

She felt a chill go down her spine, turning to look at the small television on her counter next to the stove.

Sure enough, it looked grainy as hell, the camera must have been shaking badly… but there was no mistaking that flame-red hair.

“Monsters at the riverfront? I dunno Tom, that looks like a job for Superman if you ask me.” chuckled his co-host.

“Yeah Tina, probably just some publicity stunt for a movie but I’ll say this. Hollywood has our attention.” he grinned.

Behind her, her phone began to ring… the caller ID showing a number with Ireland’s country code…

Back in Cincinnati

Arja and Stephanie were at Fountain Square, sitting next to the fountain itself.

The fountain was a popular tourist destination and hangout for locals as well. There was usually a band playing there on the stage and the spray from the fountain gave a pleasingly cool mist even in the hotter summer months. The two had finished off their treats by now and were just enjoying the rest of their day. “So…” said Stephanie, “How long are you and your dad gonna be in town?” she asked.

“Oh, yanno… a day or two, maybe. He likes to take his time on these trips when he can. He was an explorer back in the day so he always enjoys just, well, exploring. Looking around. Believe it or not he’s a big nut for smaller markets… um… I think they’re called Flea Markets in this country?” she tried, Arja looking up in thought at that.

Stephanie giggled, “No way, really?! He’s like some bigshot in India isn’t he?”

“Hey! He got into exploration to find rare and unusual relics and those places always have antiques and such for sale. He’s found some really neat stuff just browsing around those.” Arja laughed back, “Really, our house back home is kinda half-museum.”

Stephanie smirked, “Sounds like something my brother would like. He’s always got this messenger bag with him filled with all sorts of crazy stuff. He did some sort of spell on it so the inside is huge, like truck sized.”

Arja grinned, then paused as her phone buzzed. She looked at the front and sighed, “Uuuuugh…” she huffed, looking upwards, “Dad says one of the bigwigs from that Proctor and whatsits company invited us to dinner. I gotta go play the meek little Indian girl for his business buddies…” she huffed, “He knows I hate it so he’ll make it up to me but… uuuuugh…” she rolled her eyes.

Stephanie’s smile faltered a bit, “Well… its your parents, what can ya do?” she shrugged.

Arja nodded, “Yeah… I’d better head back to our hotel. Thanks for hanging out today.” she grinned, leaning in and kissing Stephanie on the cheek, then hopping up and heading off into the crowd, following the GPS on her phone.

Stephanie’s eyes went huge at the kiss, her face flushed. “Sure… no problem…” she muttered, staring into the fountain’s spray as Arja took off. “Anytime…” she added.

A bit later she got onto a metro bus back to Kentucky, mumbling, “My pleasure Arja, we can do it again tomorrow…”

When she transferred from the metro to the TANK (Transit Authority of Northern Kentucky) bus she was whispering, “Anytime…” over and over under her breath, she hadn’t blinked in a while either.

By the time the bus squeaked to a halt in Edgewood the shock had mostly worn off, the girl grinning wide enough to impress her brother’s cat as she got off. She stood at the stop as it rolled away, then bunched up a bit and stomped her feet excitedly, “Ehehehehehehehe!” she squealed, then did a sort of twirl and whistled out a complex melody as all the nearby flowers suddenly got caught in a gale, the petals breaking free and swirling up into the sky.

"She kissed me she kissed me she kissed me she kissed me!” she giggled uncontrollably. If Isolde were here she’d be getting a contact buzz just by being in the same post code as those emotions, the girl practically dancing back home. “She’s just so AMAZING! She’s so cool and confident and powerful and she’s not afraid to stare down a huge monster like that and we actually can do stuff together and aaaaaaaaaaah!” she shook herself, ignoring the weird looks from passerby.

“Though…” she paused, “I suppose that could mean something different in India? Is India like France? Is a kiss on the cheek there just, like, their way of shaking hands?” she thought aloud, glancing up as she tapped her chin.

She blinked, then got out her phone, then looked it up. “… nooooo, huh… public displays of affection are banned there? Yikes…”

“Soooo, that means it means a lot… more there than it does here? I mean we were in public…” she blinked slowly, the blush returning to her cheeks, then she squealed excitedly, “EEEEEEEE!” she grinned, practically skipping up the path to her house. “Oh maaaaaaaaan nothing can ruin this day!” she giggled excitedly.

Then she got inside and the door slammed shut behind her.

Catherine Fullmoon was standing there, her face like the wrath of a vengeful deity.

“Stephanie. We need to TALK.” she said in a tone that suggested ‘I am calm now, but I am holding onto it by my goddamn TEETH.’

Moments later, in the kitchen

She slapped the picture down that she’d printed off her computer, pointing to the blurry image of a girl in the sky. It was nighttime so her wings weren’t really visible, but there was no mistaking that hair.

“YOU… YOU… FOOLISH LITTLE… YOUR GRANDFATHER WAS ALL SET TO DEMAND I SURRENDER YOU TO HIM! I HAD TO BEG HIM FOR LENIENCY!” she screamed, her face red.

Stephanie stared at the image. Dammit, how did she miss that? Okay yeah so there was a giant snake monster but she should have known better!

“I… w-well what was I supposed to do then?! Run to Steve's house and drag Roger down to the riverfront?” she demanded, looking up at her mother. “I was right THERE! I can do SOMETHING when that happens!” she shouted.

“Stephanie, I know… believe me I damn well KNOW! But Dad was… I’d never heard him so furious. He had photographic PROOF that you were violating his ban on magic use! As Patriarch he could have executed you!” she shouted, “Do you want to wind up like your brother?! On the run from my father and his crazy goon squad?!”

“Well why not?! He seems to be doing okay!” she shot back.

The Wulfshead Pub

Nelen looked up from his drink, then frowned and dug a finger into his ear, “My ears are burning…” he muttered.

Loren smirked, “ ‘s wut ye get fer usin’ yer demon ta clean ‘em cous…”

Nelen gave her an annoyed look, “I only did that once… and it was a really stubborn bit of wax.” he grumbled.

Behind them Dawn was doing karaoke again, a spirited rendition of ‘I Fought the Law and the Law Won.’

Edgewood

Catherine glared at her daughter, “I try and I try and I try… Stephanie. Its over.” she nodded, pointing to the fireplace.

She looked past her, then shrieked at what she saw. Catherine had found her hideout in the woods and cleaned it out. Her witch’s kit, the silver dagger, the shillelagh with the cold iron head, all of it was in it and the fire was roaring bright. “MOM! THAT’S MY… DO YOU KNOW HOW HARD IT WAS TO FIND THOSE THINGS?! I HAD TO MAKE THE STAFF MYSELF!” she screamed.

“I DON’T CARE STEPHANIE! ITS DONE, ITS OVER! NO MORE FLYING AROUND TOWN! NO MORE HUNTING! NOTHING! YOU ARE GOING TO GO TO SCHOOL AND LIVE YOUR LIVE AS A MUNDANE GIRL AND IF I EVEN SEE A BLACK FEATHER IN YOUR ROOM YOU’RE GOING TO BE GROUNDED UNTIL YOU LEAVE FOR COLLEGE!” she roared back.

Stephanie’s mouth opened and closed, then she turned and bolted up the stairs to her room. A moment later the door slammed shut.

Catherine shook her head, “Dammit girl, I know exactly what you mean, I know how hard it is to pretend I can’t see that happening… but I don’t want my mad father to kill you for it.” she sighed.

Stephanie was curled up on the floor of her room, her face pressed into her legs as she sobbed into her knees. She hated this, she hated having to do this. She wanted to use her magic, she wanted to fly, she wanted to fight back those things that threatened people. She wanted to SO damn bad… but…

… and then her phone rang.

Stephanie looked at the number, then answered it, “A-arja?” she asked.

“Heeeeeey, so… change of plans. My dad got called back to India…” she said apologetically, “Look I’m really really sorry, I would’ve loved to get to know you more but, yanno, can’t stay behind while he goes back home…”

She froze, the girl’s mouth moving but nothing coming out.

“… Stephanie? Are you there?” she asked, “Um… look, if this was about that kiss… just… l-look, you’re really great and stuff, I mean that was amazing how you just leapt in and helped me and my dad and all and… well… kiiiiinda got a weakness for that, not gonna lie… but… yeah… sorry, hope I didn’t get your hopes up. I mean… we’re not even from the same country… but… if we were…” she coughed awkwardly, “Um… anyways, I gotta go, we’re actually at the airport now. I’ll text when I can 'kay?” she said, then the phone clicked off…

Stephanie sat there, staring at the wall, a ringing in her ears. Her mother had wrecked her plans and outright forbidden her to use magic, her grandfather may try to kill her if she did, and this girl… this amazing girl… this girl whose kiss had made her feel like she could fly to the moon and back… was leaving… for another country…

Everyone has their breaking points, and hers had just been hit with a hammer.

She lept to her feet and kicked off her shoes, running to the window and pulling on it, then looking down when it refused to budge. Her mother was serious. She’d nailed the window shut!

Stephanie’s eye twitched, “No… no no no no no no NO!” she snarled, leaping back. A second later there was a tremendous crash and Catherine jumped up from the chair in the living room she’d been sulking in just in time to see her daughter’s bedroom window crashing into the backyard, with most of the wall still attached!

“STEPHANIE! STEPHANIE DON’T YOU DARE!” she shouted, running up the stairs and pushing open the door… and finding only an empty room with a destroyed wall, and her daughter gone.

The Skies Over Northern Kentucky

Its safe to say that Stephanie Fullmoon wasn’t really thinking very clearly at the moment. Her wings flapped as she whistled up a hurricane’s worth of wind, propelling herself towards Covington like a bullet. She could have done this in any number of locations nearer to her home, but she knew her mother wouldn’t use magic and she wanted some distance before she could get the car started and try to come after her.

She had to go, she had to get out, she had to find her… she said Jaipur right?! She heard her say it, and she knew... well… she heard Dawn say it and Nelen say it. She knew the passphrase even if she didn’t know what it meant!

The forests were a blur under her as the skyline of Cincinnati loomed ahead, the girl angling down and aiming for an alleyway, landing in it and looking around, her head pounding. “Alright alright… um… how’d it go… dammit…” she stammered, then put her hand on the wall. “I think it was like this… and…” she tried saying the words… then again… then once more… and finally on the fourth try the door to the Wulfshead Club materialized before her!

She shoved the door open and stumbled inside, then looked up at a loud grinding sound. Standing next to the door was a massive clay golem wearing a teeshirt, it's head turning to focus it's fiery gaze on Stephanie.

“S-sorry! Thought this was the Dairy Queen!” she said, spinning the dials frantically on the door until it read Jaipur India, then shoving it back open and rushing through into a throng of people in a city halfway across the world.

Loren watched as the door shut, then raised her eyebrow, “… nae, couldnae been…” she shook her head, then looked up as Nelen came back from the men’s room, rubbing hand sanitizer on his fingers (he couldn’t very well wash his hands around Merihim’s seal after all.)

“Sorry about that Loren, miss anything?” he asked.

Loren shrugged, “Eh, jus’ a doppelganger or somethin’ cous. Already buggered off.” she replied, downing her drink. Dawn meanwhile was keeping up the karaoke, singing ‘Run to the Hills’ by Iron Maiden.

Jaipur, India

Now that she was actually here the fire in her head was finally beginning to dissipate… and Stephanie realized how badly she’d screwed up. If a single grainy photograph had convinced Franklin she was violating his magic taboo having blasted the wall off her bedroom would definitely prove it.

Also, from the sounds and sights around her she forgot one maaaaaaaaaajor problem… she wasn’t Indian.

She stood out like a crow in a snowfield, and nothing she was hearing from anyone around her made even the slightest bit of sense. Everyone around her was speaking in Hindi, Stephanie could only listen in bewilderment.

Also she had no money, no extra clothes, thank GODS she at least thought to grab her PHONE…

She paused, then grinned. “My phone!” she gasped, then took out the phone and opened it up. Still mostly charged, but gods only knew how long that’d hold out. She got her phone but no charger! She opened the messenger app, then texted Arja.

‘So, rando Q… what’s your home address in Jaipur?’

After about three minutes, Arja responded.

‘Y?’

Stephanie winced, then replied…

‘I wanna send u something. It’s a surprise! ;)’

She technically wasn’t lying, this would probably surprise the heck out of her.

A moment later her phone buzzed.

‘Aww, u don’t gotta do that… but if u insist…’ and then there was a mailing address behind it.

Stephanie quickly copied it, opened the map app, and pasted it in, then activated the GPS and the directions and let out a woosh of relief. It wasn’t far.

‘Thanks! I hope u like it! :D’

She took a breath, then looked up. “… I am so screwed it is beyond belief…” she muttered.

Late That Evening

Rajesh’s private jet landed in Jaipur. He and Arja disembarked and took a car back to their home, a rather nice mansion house in the hills above the city.

As they rode along Rajesh called ahead, “Iravati my wild lotus flower…” he smiled, “Arja and I just landed and will be home soon my dear. Pity we could not stay longer but it will be wonderful to see you again.” he chuckled.

Arja rolled her eyes, but he was always like that when he talked to her mother. He called Arja his ‘little ruby lotus’ whenever he could get away with it and it always made her blush. Parents…

“Hm? Really? Someone has been hanging around the mansion? Some westerner?” he asked.

Arja blinked at that, looking over, who the heck could that be?

“She… claims to know Arja you say? Red hair?” he asked.

Arja’s eyes widened, then she looked at her own phone. Sending her a surprise, wanting to know her address. “… no way…” she muttered, then looked up as the car drew near the gates. Two of Rajesh’s security team were standing there… and a very familiar redhead was between them.

A bit later, inside the house

Stephanie sat on the bed in Arja’s room. Rajesh was suspicious of how a young girl could beat them there in a private jet, but Arja had said, in no uncertain terms, that anyone who didn’t want to look like they jumped into a Naan oven had better leave Stephanie alone until they figured out what the hell was going on.

Given that Arja was known for a bad temper and fire breath by the staff, they didn’t argue.

“… and...” she hiccuped a bit, “… and she burned it, all my gear, and said I had to just… stop using magic, at all. I just got so angry I couldn’t see straight, and then you called and said you were leaving and…” she gasped, her eyes red, “I… I just… something in my head just stopped working right and I blew the wall off my room and flew back to Covington and came here and now I can’t go home because my grandfather will kill me!” she sobbed, burying her head in her hands.

Arja sat next to her on the bed, the young Indian girl breathing a bit heavy herself after that, “Hey hey, its alright... we can let you stay here until we figure something out. There’s plenty of room.” she nodded, “Don’t worry about it.”

At the door however Rajesh coughed meaningfully, “Arja, my little ru-“ he paused as Arja gave him a look, “… daughter… she is not even from India. She ran away from home. I sympathize, I truly do. If her grandfather really is as she says I do not wish to simply turn her over to him, but this could cause serious problems. Her mother could report this as kidnapping or…” he started, then faltered at her expression.

Arja held up a finger, “Stephanie, gimme a second, I need to discuss something with my father.” she nodded, then walked up to him and pushed him out of the room by his waist, then back against the wall. Then she shapeshifted into her monkey form and climbed up the wall with her hands and legs at his sides until her head was level with his.

“I just had to listen to a girl I really like tell me how her insane granddad is ready to KILL her for helping us back in America and how she literally fled all the way here because of it. You know those business things you take me to? Where I wear my saree and all that heavy jewelry and play your ‘oh so sweet and innocent daughter’ and stuff? If you send her home I am NEVER doing that again. Next dinner party I’m embracing mom’s side of the family and will totally let loose. Get me?” she growled, “She stays, or I become the living embodiment of the ‘reject humanity, return to monke’ meme right infront of those pompous, arrogant, ‘oh look at the cute little brown kid’ assholes you parade me infront of.”

Rajesh sighed, then smiled at her a bit, “… you are so much like your mother sometimes.” he chuckled. “Very well my dear… she may stay until we figure out some way to return her home safely and ensure she remains so.” he nodded.

Arja growled meaningfully, her tail thrashing behind her, then nodded slowly, “Good.” she nodded, then she hopped down and shifted back into her human form, going back in her room and flopping down next to Stephanie.

“He said you can stay until we find a way to get you home that makes SURE you won’t be in any danger and stuff.” she nodded, then grinned, “What he meant was ‘she can stay so my daughter won’t go fire monkey and scare the shit out of a bunch of rich white idiots next time I need her to behave.’”

Stephanie looked at her and gave a weak smile, wiping her eyes, then Arja pulled her into a tight hug.

They’d only known each other a few days, but the same could be said for any pairing of people early on. Only time would tell what would become of it. Friendship… or perhaps something much deeper.

#supernatural adventures #modern fantasy #fiction #lgbtq

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vaguely-concerned · 3 years

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TF x Graves, 2500 words, complete and utter fluff

Stifling another yawn against the back of my hand I glance over at the window, which shows only the flat dark of a moonless night outside, before turning my eyes back to the line of T.F.’s naked back.

I’m already undressed and perched on the side of the bed, watching as T.F. is still in the middle of his nightly ritual of hanging or folding his fine clothes up all properly and neatly, lest they, I don’t know, unduly crease somewhere they ain’t meant to or somethin’. Listen, I keep my clothes in a pile on the floor by the side of the bed, right next to the shotgun, both within easy reach in the case of a middle-of-the-night emergency skipping of town. Our priorities in these matters don’t really intersect much, but to each his own and so on.

I don’t know why I’m waiting for him to come to bed to lie down myself, exactly — my eyes are already making a spirited attempt at staying shut on me whenever I blink, I’m pretty sure I’d be out and snoring in about three seconds once I got settled — but my skin has that thin restless thrum all through it that I know from experience won’t be satisfied until he’s settled into place against me and besides, the view is nothin’ to sneeze at in the meantime. He stands there shirtless, belt unbuckled and hanging loose around his narrow hips, though the fastenings of his trousers are still done up. In the light of the oil lamp across the room he’s in a rare state of relaxed unselfconscious disarray, his hair grown out long enough again that it spills over his shoulders and down his back while he fastidiously fastens the cufflinks back into place on the empty shirt so they’ll be easy to find in the morning. As he finishes up with the cufflinks he sings to himself under his breath, a good-natured jaunty little tune I vaguely remember the Brick would sometimes break out once you got a couple of drinks in him.

The hum under my skin grows higher and keener.

Stretching an arm out I hook my fingers into one of his belt loops and gently pull him in by it towards the side of the bed, until he’s standing between my legs. It prompts a half-bemused noise from him, but he goes along easily — when I wrap my arms around his waist and rest my forehead against his belly he seems to catch on, though, a sound of amusement vibrating through his chest.

He slides his hand to the back of my neck, twining his fingers into the short hair there, thumb trailing back and forth along the hairline.

T.F.’s too damned scrawny to have much in the way of padding anywhere, but there’s the warm body softness to him here nevertheless, the sweet yield and shift of a living thing whose pliancy belies the supple strength beneath. I rest my cheek against the flat of his stomach and sigh, moving my hand at the small of his back in slow caressing circles.

“Come to bed already,” I murmur, too sleep-softened along the edges to worry overmuch about makin’ sense.

He chuckles, fingers stroking through my hair. “Well, I was on my way, but then I was waylaid by some deplorable fellow in the process. Hell of a thing.”

I grin and turn my face up to him, so that my chin is resting against his belly and my lips brush his skin when I talk. “Huh. Sounds like a real shady character. You want a trustworthy sorta guy to escort you safely the rest of the way?”

“With such dangerous reprobates skulking around in the area, that’s probably for the best,” T.F. nods somberly, fond amusement deepening his voice. He runs his thumb down the bridge of my nose. “Could I afford to hire the services of a strapping upstanding gentleman like yourself, though?”

I make a nonchalant sound in my nose, squeezing him closer against me for a moment. “Eh, don’t worry ‘bout it, this one’s on the house.”

His thumb drifts down to rest at the upturned corner of my mouth as he grins back at me. “Hey, looks like it’s my lucky day.”

I kiss his stomach and lean back enough so I can start in on the fastenings of his trousers — not with any sort of heat behind it, there’s no hint of sex in the air, but in a weird way this is equally satisfying, the everyday-textured contentment of being close without any particular purpose, being the one to slowly render him naked in front of me for no other reason than that he lets me, his hands still smoothing patiently through my hair while I work.

Once I’ve got all the buttons sorted I run my thumb along the sharp edge of his hip bone until I can tuck it into the waist of his trousers and use it to tug them down. We get them about half-way down his thighs like that before we have to pause for him to shimmy out of them the rest of the way on his own, his hand resting on my shoulder for balance as he does the traditional one-legged hop to extricate his foot. Serves him right for only ever wearing pants that might as well have been painted onto him. I mean, not that I’m complainin’, mind.

“Whoa!” he says, laughing as he almost overbalances at the last hurdle, but my hand shoots out to steady him by the hip before too much disaster can be wrought. “Well, not the smoothest strip tease I’ve ever pulled off, sorry about the inconvenience.”

I nose at the newly revealed crease of his hip over the edge of his underwear. “Eh, that’s okay, if I actually wanted a proper show I’d just suggest a round of strip poker again and sit back and watch while you lose.”

“Oh, that’s a strange yet beautiful dream world you’ve made up for yourself there, Malcolm. It’s touching, really, the things the mind will do to protect itself from the truth. Positively — aah!”

T.F. jumps as I draw some of the skin of his hip between my lips and use them to nip sharply at it. His startled yelp turns into a snigger as I let go, possibly ruining the castigating effects somewhat when I brush my lips soothingly over that spot right after.

“Let that be a lesson to ya,” I say sternly.

“A lesson on what, that your mom was apparently half turtle?”

I grunt, still trailing soft kisses over his skin. “That judge in Piltover was right back then, you are an incorrigible menace to all decent and right-thinking people everywhere.”

“First of all, that might be the nicest thing you’ve ever said to me, Malcolm, thank you. Two, including yourself among the ‘decent and right-thinking’ feels like the invention of some fresh new form of fraud by way of imposture unfolding before my eyes, and it’s an honour. And third, that seems to me to be some very selective memory you have there, considering His Honour Judge Highton had some even more colourful words for you after you blew up the entire north wall of the court building breakin’ me out.”

“He might’ve been given to wearing a damn silly mop on his head, but you couldn’t fault him on his vocabulary,” I concede. Before that whole incident I’d honestly thought the wigs were some sort of practical joke the Pilties would play on gullible outsiders, but as it turns out no, if you get sent to jail in the twin cities they add the indignity of makin’ someone wearing a dead badger on their head break the bad news to you. It’s a strange ol’ world out there, alright. In Bilgewater, where people are much more sensible, the justice system basically boils down to the bounty board, or — if you’ve really managed to make a nuisance of yourself — a bunch of captains may call a temporary ceasefire with each other and go get your ass together. I’ve found that the risk of getting on the bad end of an unfair trial is about the same in both places, though of course the Bilgewater one tends to be harder to come back from if carried out to its fullest. I consider myself a bit of an expert in these things.

T.F. makes a thoughtful sound. “To be fair I don’t think anyone had ever given him cause or inspiration for profanity like you did.”

“Aw. That’s the nicest thing you’ve ever said to me.”

He leans down and kisses the top of my head before he straightens for long enough to work his second foot free as well, standing there in just the sleek silky underpants he somehow seems to have an endless fresh supply of wherever we go. (My money’s on some sinister underground ring of lingerie-oriented tailors across south-eastern Valoran, for the record; when it comes to secret societies the Noxians just can’t help themselves.)

“I do my best. Hang on just one moment, I’ll be right back,” he says and ruffles my hair before he turns around, which I would complain about except that the view is, as previously mentioned, impeccable, and I’m sleepy enough to be magnanimous.

After meticulously folding his trousers and leaving them with the rest of his clothes, T.F. moves over to the table across the room and extinguishes the oil lamp, then whistles under his breath as he produces a card from somewhere — he does this, seemingly from thin air and no matter how little he’s wearing; I prefer not to speculate too much about how, exactly — and lets a little magic into it so it gives off a low glow, only enough to light his way the short walk back across the room, ‘cause in T.F.’s world the stubbing of toes and smacking of shins against unexpected furniture in the dark is somethin’ that happens to other people. That probably says some things about him I’m not ready to go puzzlin’ out at this time of night, and that he wouldn’t want to have anyone go puzzlin’ about too hard in the first place anyway.

When I hold out my hand for him in the dark he smiles and takes it, twining our fingers together, and I use the hold to tug him in and deposit him, in a neat controlled wrestler’s roll held close against me as I lay down, to his side of the bed. He laughs again at that, a surprised delighted sound that edges dangerously close to a giggle but hey, I ain’t no snitch, so who’s gonna testify against him, huh?

The card ends up on the far side of his pillow after the tumble, still giving off a glow, enough to illuminate the bed and lend the shadows around it some warmth. It makes the bed seem a small cozy island, the rest of the world rendered a not-unfriendly ocean of darkness around it.

T.F. looks at me like the world’s most contented castaway, bourgeoning crow’s feet punctuating his smile on either side and fingers still linked with mine. His hair is mussed from the meandering fall onto the bed. If I were only fractionally less about five seconds away from fallin’ asleep, my body might start to get ideas about it. Well, tomorrow is always another day.

With the back of my free hand I brush some of his hair away from his brow, and he cranes into it like a well-pleased cat. Even with the blankets tangled around our feet and the not-quite-right positions we’ve ended up in, having tumbled into place rather than settled ourselves with purpose, everything feels warm and loose and comfortable, like I could fall asleep like this even with the decidedly odd angle my arm is at.

As if sensing that the drowsiness is about to claim me for real, T.F. brings our linked hands up to his face so he can press his lips to my scarred knuckles before he lets go, then reaches to pull the covers over us, taking a moment to tuck the blanket around my shoulder properly before snuggling under it himself, hooking his leg over my thigh as he settles into place. I shift until we fit together, the familiarity of how to rest against each other just right comfortable like an old and well-loved piece of clothing. On a sigh he rests our foreheads together, craning forward the tiny amount needed to brush our mouths together and humming contentedly when I meet him there. It’s a slow kiss, but it lingers, a dry sweet press of lips like one last spark sending the day off down into the gently drifting murk of sleep that’s about to claim me for a few hours.

When it ends — I don’t think either of us was really the first to pull back, at some point the kiss simply, in the way of snowflakes on tongues, melted into something different and less defined with the warmth — there’s a moment when my eyes can still fight against slipping shut. It’s weird, the way you can look at someone every day for years and still not feel like you’ve had your fill. T.F.’s sharp narrow face, his high pointy little cheekbones and mouth still curved with a smile as he watches me back — there’s something to knowing I’m gonna see all that again tomorrow morning that all the damn money on Runeterra couldn’t get you. And take it from me, from what I’ve seen of the world there ain’t a lot of things in this life enough money won’t buy. Stumbling across one of them long before we even knew what we had, by a stroke of little more’n dumb fucking luck… sometimes it feels like the biggest heist we ever pulled.

“Hey, Tobias?” I say, brushing the tip of my nose against his as my eyelids finally give up both the battle and the war and slide closed.

“Hmmm?” he says, cheerfully drowsy as well.

“I’ll see you tomorrow,” I murmur, because I can’t think of any damn happier thing in the world to say to him.

He wraps his arms around me, his hand stroking meanderingly up and down the scar-crossed span of my back, fingers trailing over my skin with the perfect amount of firmness because he’s taken the time to learn exactly how much pressure it takes to make it comforting. As sleep starts pulling me under to calmer depths I tuck my head under his chin, so my face is pressed to the line of his throat and to his chest. He smells so nice, all warmly real and well-known like my own breathing.

“Tomorrow,” he agrees on a yawn, nuzzling at the top of my head and tightening his arms around me, just for a moment.

I've been trying to write stuff -- literally just anything, no matter how meandering and nonsensical -- to try to break out of a writer's block; it's not really working so far but at least I've got SOMETHING tangible to show for it at the end of the day, so, you know, uh... partial success I guess?? haha

The idea of T.F. having a judge somewhere out there who considers him the One True Nemesis of his career, J. Jonah Jameson style, even though T.F. barely even remembers his name, came from a wonderful conversation with @inversway, and the idea makes me laugh so hard every time I think about it.

ETA: Also put this on AO3, so I have somewhere to put these ficlets that isn't just tumblr! I'm grimly clinging on to this blue hellsite like a obstinate barnacle to the hull of the Titanic, but I do realize it's not the best place to archive uh anything lol

#tf x graves #twistedgraves #league of legends #my writing #been trying to live the philosophy 'it doesn't have to be good; it just has to be SOMETHING'#and from that I have at least learned that I don't necessarily think perfectionism was the main problem anyway lol #every little insight helps I suppose

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sanchoyo · 3 years

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danny phantom episode 4-7 Thoughts: (under a readmore because, these got kinda long!)

-the outfit danny had to buy for dash's party. CLASSIC 2000S i cannot stop laughing. And also showing up to the party and everyone is dressed like the trio is hilarious. and further proof that everyone looks good dressed goth.

-dash has a closet full of cute lil bear plushies?? LOVE that. adorable. also his response to danny trashing his room fighting a ghost was SO valid if somone BROKE MY BED IN HALF ID BE PISSED TOO.

-technus being like 'oh smart, u should be a tutor!' then later being like 'forget tutor, be a teacher!' :) supportive king <3 I also really like his upgraded suit/design. AND SPOCK CAMEO??? HELLO??

-the music in this show is super. its so funky. I looked it up and the guy who does it, guy moon (awesome name) also did music for other cartoons like fairly odd parents, barnyard, chalkzone, billy & mandy, AND some actual movies like FIGHT CLUB??? the whiplash I got from reading that)

-sam being rich explains a lot about her, actually.

-I know the moral of the episode was supposed to be 'dont ditch your friends for popular people/spend a lot of money on clothes that arent You to Fit In'. but tbh. it wouldve been easy for danny to have been like 'well, okay, ill come but only if my friends can!' but I get. that hes 14. so. not a lot to say there.

-BOX GHOST IS BACK!!!!! also, danny sitting up and wearing the dress/wig/makeup. umm thats how I dress everyday LMFAO. unironically me. (hate the jokes that boil down to 'haha funney man in dress' tho. but this is a look)

-jazz being protective of her brother once again being like NOOO YOU GUYS BETTER NOT STAKE OUT HIS (actually haunted) LOCKER!! shes aware of how people perceive him and she wants to help :( which is also probably why she told dash to invite him to that party even tho she had no interest in going!! she wants to help him out :(

-gotta say im with tucker on the whole 'should danny use his powers to get back at bullies' debate. 100% yes. let him teach kids to fight back. making dash throw his food at paulina out of the blue? no. but when hes actually about to pick on someone? yeah! for self defense? YEAH! if dash and his friends just threw food at him, I think rather than. idk doing sneaky shit with frogs he couldve just threw it back and not pulled punches if they tried to fight. I kNOOWWW its a kids show so they are like 'if u fight back ur just as bad!! violence bad!!' but. theyre HIS POWERS. WHO CARES.

-like my only gripe is that dash really isnt LEARNING ANYTHING WHEN DANNY GETS BACK AT HIM IN THE MOST PETTY INDIRECT WAYS. whatever they had to add a bully psa episode I guess. I hate it and I hate the way cartoons usually handle it because these methods simply Do Not Work. 'aND YouRE USinG YOur poWErs FOR EVill???!' this is Not Evil. even when poindexter takes dannys body, theyre only being 'nice' bc hes stealing soda for them!! bitches deserve what they get (nothing too brutal bc theyre high schoolers but damn, if they pick on danny he doesnt need to be the 'bigger person' he needs to start biting people)

-SAM TRYING TO SMUGGLE FROGS OUT OF THE BIO LAB?? girl in middle school when we had to dissect frogs we could opt out, also, they came to us already dead and preserved...

-sidney's lingo and the fact hes in black and white is sending me. also, danny is a ghost celebrity apparently for being a halfa?? ok. thats interesting to know

-the DENTIST BEING EXCITED ABOUT THE COTTON CANDY FLOOD IS THE FUNNIEST THING SO FAR.

-I LOOOVE the trope of 'wishes gone wrong'. not crazy about the stereotypical genie, or the use of the dreamcatcher looking design. (also, I KNOW theyre scientists but the way theyre handling a cold...are the fentons ANTIVAX)

-the genie. she. whitewished paulina. JKASDFHKJ. (the ghost literally just being hello kitty???? im dying) 'why do i feel that im special and wonderful? because I AM! <3' paulina ilu self worth queen. felt bad for her also getting possessed by (2) boys later who were arguing INSIDE HER. WTF.

-imagine being the guy trapped in his now flying car. he thought danny and tucker were HALUCINATIONS. imagine being trapped in a flying car with two, what you think are imaginary arguing 14 year olds convinced ur gonna die. i WOULD say this dude is gonna need so much therapy, but he seemed totally fine and excited when they landed (I would be happy too if a chicken was on my head. chickens rule) stoner rights

-sam's bat slippers??? iconic. SO cute.

-I think desiree's backstory is so :( do all ghosts have messed up sad backstories?? poindexter's was sad too...cannot imagine box ghost has any kind of fucked up backstory. but what if. his mom got pushed off cliffs by boxes...........a la cruella... anyway her 'no man may lay a hand on me' iconic. ilu

-I know danny has no concept of how much bras cost but my god dont attack tucker with some girls bra. those are so expensive.

-its really. well its not a GOOD THING he went into the portal and got fucked up, but its good danny was the one to do it rather than sam or tucker. because even tho he was being influenced by desiree and kept getting more malicious and it prob wasnt 100% him...he sucked as a ghost like most the people he 'pranked' were innocent ppl just Chillin and he didnt want to help anyone at all. I think danny is the most responsible out of them but also, hes 14 and shouldnt HAVE to feel obligated to fight every ghost. hes a good kid and wants to, but I also feel like he feels like...responsible for the portal turning on?? because his parents did give it up,, but it was an accident and not his fault (if anything, why was the on switch on the inside. why was it that easy. why was there no safety measures. that seems like smth OSHA needs to hear about). like thats my son. hes a good boy. and hes never done anything wrong in his life, ever. if anyone hurts him im killing everyone in this room and then myself. etc.

-danny's curfew is 10PM????? DUDE. when I was 14...shit I couldn't be out that late, I had to be back at like, 8 at the latest, and my parents had to know exactly where and who I was going with, AND i had to call/text them regularly...is this a case of my parents being overbearing, or the fentons sucking??? the only time i could EVER be out that late was if I was at an overnight sleepover or smth...

-the vultures have lil fezes. why do they have fezes...theyre so fuckin funny 'ask him for directions' 'I KNOW WHERE IM GOING' these ghost vultures are my new grandpas. pick them up, put them in the adopt box.

-'I wonder why those guys were trying to waste dad!' THEYRE GHOSTS. YOUR DAD HUNTS GHOSTS. why is that not a conclusion you'd immediately jump to??

-*jazz voice, clearly disgusted* WISCONSIN???

-mrs fenton with the lab coat and leg warmers and PERM. YESSS STYLISH.

-was going to say 'ew billionaire' @vlad but. super valid he used his powers to assumedly steal and cheat to get that money, thats how all billionaires do it! but ew hes a SIMP. and spending your billions on FOOTBALL STUFF?? you are Not Valid overall. I DO respect the fact you have a castle instead of a mansion. in wisconsin. if youre going to be stupidly rich might as well go all out, torches on the wall and all. I DO like his ghost form's little kitty ears. catman. and his cape! every design can benefit from a cape. and how different his forms look, like danny looks the EXACT SAME IN BOTH FORMS ASIDE FROM COLOR CHANGES. vlad's is like,, I could believe they were different people!! also I love the drama. but dude you are fighting a 14 year old. lame. also he was like, telling danny he wanted his mom and him and like, wanted him to renounce his dad?? WHAT ABOUT JAZZ?? bitch. those r MY kids and they are both important and special. I do agree they need better parents but thats not u sir <3

-I thought vlad's 'little badger' nickname for danny came from the football mascot of the packers, but google says they have NO MASCOT?? so now I'm like?? is it because his hair is sometimes black and sometimes white?? I hate to give him props but thats a PERFECT NICKNAME. theyre also tiny and vicious!

-why did I get so excited that Skulker is back!! its been like. 2-3 eps LMAO. AND THE DAIRY KING. ICONIC I LOVE HIM. hes the nicest guy ever :) more nice ghosts please. danny cannot be fighting alone everytime with no ghost buds like every ghost being hostile sucks :(

-mr. fenton knew vlad was controlling him, but a few episodes ago he had no clue danny was doing the same thing...is it something about how malicious the ghost is?? he just seemed to think his memory had gaps the first time, this time he was INSTANTLY LIKE 'GHOST'. then again in this ep when danny did it again he was just slightly confused but not immediately freaking out like he did with vlad possessing him!!

-'my parents will accept ME NO MATTER WHAT' so. so why haven't you come out to them yet, danny?? if you really think that?? if theres no harm, and you're sure??? if vlad is a real problem, wouldnt that make dealing with him easier, to expose him???? SO WHY HAVENT YOU COME OUT YET?? COULD IT BE,, MAYBE YOU HAVE DOUBTS ABOUT WHETHER YOUR PARENTS ACTUALLY WILL ACCEPT YOU??? 🤔 ... 🏳‍🌈 I get why people say He Is Trans. I totally totally get u danny.

-sorta unrelated, but it just occurred to me in one of these eps they go to casper HIGH not casper middle school??? theyre 14?? dont highschools usually do ages 15-18? (I didnt go to hs so I might be wrong, if I am ignore this...) freshmen are usually 14-15, could just be a case of them not turning 15 yet but they will sometime in the school year (I say they because tucker said he was 14 too)? I know the show has 3 seasons, so by the end of it will they be older? thatd be neat but usually cartoon characters stay the same age...I love shows where you can see the characters age and grow up, though...three seasons seems like a long time to spend on like, 1 year...

#sanchoyorambles #danny phantom #me on the first post:#its not a liveblog!#me this time: it kinda is. but not in the same format as my tmm one #i like doing one post for a handful of eps bc it saves time #and crowds my blog less #and also i just like talking abt what im watching lol #dp thoughts

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inkdemonapologist · 4 years

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What's going on with Wally Franks in your AU? I had trouble following the game, and the wiki seems to say that he quit the studio and retired without ever learning its darkest secrets, but I think you have him as one of the escapees (turned into a Boris?)

Okay I have a lot of rambling thoughts about the ending of the game if youre curious but I'll stick those at the end. As far as Escape AU goes:

Yes, Wally was a Boris clone! He did not fully get outta there; he's the murdered Boris at the very beginning of the game. Dying doesn't really seem to stick for ink creatures in the Studio, so he was able to come back -- but since he spent most of his time in the Studio [glados voice] really busy being dead, he doesn't have the years of trying to survive an inky hell that the others have; he just has that one really bad time where he was turned into a cartoon and murdered, and some weird and probably equally upsetting memories of briefly waking up from death. He never wandered the studio and was never sent to the puddles, so he has some real bad nightmares/insomnia now but is otherwise doing okay in his day-to-day life, and has no trouble speaking. He's probably able to hold down a job before too long!

Mostly Wally is there because I wanted Wally to be there, and I haven't fully sorted out the LORE for him in Escape AU (I don’t know if he never left or if he got lured back), but if you're interested in trying to sort out some of the canon associated:

So basically what I've gathered as someone who is obsessed with bendy and has watched all the cutscenes and all that but hasn't actually played the game and was real late to the fandom, TAKE WITH A GRAIN OF SALT:

- The game leaves things a bit ambiguous

- There were, in the original game, a lot of hints that the Boris you befriend in the Studio is Wally. (He’s sorta handy, kinda cowardly, likes food -- and we get an audiolog dedicated specifically to letting us know that Wally will straight up steal your cake off your desk; they’d be a good match!) There's several reasons it makes a kind of narrative sense and it was the prevailing theory before DCTL came out, but it was never confirmed one way or another.

- Two smaller things I’ve seen connecting Wally to Boris: the wrench you pull out of a Boris' chest, and the "Who's Laughing Now" written on the wall beside him being a really neat hint once you get to the audiolog where Wally complains that everyone is acting too serious for a cartoon studio and should crack a smile now and again. (this is most of why I went for the dead Boris as Wally)

- in Dreams Come To Life, Buddy is (spoilers) transformed into a Boris at the end, and it's commented on how perfect he is, implying he may be the "perfect Boris" you befriend in the game. The Boris in Boris and the Dark Survival is referred to outside the game as "Buddy Boris" and, since he has a safehouse, there's an implication that BatDS bridges the gap between DCTL and BatIM. The fact that Henry keeps affectionately referring to Boris as "buddy" becomes a fun retroactive “coincidence,” but also all the various implications that Wally sure would have made a good Boris now go nowhere. It ended up feeling like a retcon.

- in the end of the game you can see letters to Joey from Allison and Wally, implying they (and Tom) are alive and well and continued their lives after the Studio shut down, which is interesting since, uh, Allison and Tom are also now toons???

- there's a popular interpretation (called the Story Theory I think?) which I encountered in Adobe-Outdesign's analysis, that what this apparent contradiction means is that the "sketch dimension" (the cartoony world where most of the game takes place) is actually a story created by Joey using the Ink Machine, populated with alternate/fictional versions of the employees of the studio. So the Real Allison left, but in this story Joey’s writing, she didn’t. Henry-the-protagonist might not be the real Henry Stein; instead he's just one of Joey's characters, based on his IRL friend. Etcetera! So in real life, Wally retired, as his letter indicates. But those fictional versions are still real people, real consciouses, because the real ink machine that Joey really has hidden in his apartment is bringing Joey's story to life. I like the interpretation a lot as a take that fits the game well but also I have no idea where DCTL fits in this. IS DCTL PART OF JOEY'S STORY OR DID ALL OF THAT REALLY HAPPEN IN REAL LIFE??? IF THERE'S A LOOP IN DCTL (as slightly implied by Dot) ITS A STORY RIGHT??? WHAT IS HAPPENING IN THIS FRANCHISE

- the alternative interpretation to this is that somehow Allison and Tom (at least, if not others) got lured back to the Studio after she sent her letter -- after all, she's still keeping in touch. I tend to assume this is what’s going on in most fanfiction and AUs that have any possibility of escape, since you’d presumably want the employees to actually be themselves rather than Joey Drew's Weird Friendfiction brought to life. The impression I've gotten in this version is that sending them to the Bendy Dimension gives Joey control over the script there, so instead of creating people for his fictional retelling, he's forced his actual employees to play out this story, but I don't know that I've seen this fully spelled out

SO THATS, UH, SOME OF THE RELEVANT BACKGROUND INFO I THINK

Before running into the much more coherent Story Theory, my own attempts to make sense of the ending went in the exact opposite direction; that rather than Joey's apartment being a brief step out of the Story and into the Real World, that Joey's apartment is something of a dream, where Henry and Joey, of course, imagine the world that they know, even if they're not actually in it anymore.

I also REALLY liked the theories linking Joey to Bendy -- Bendy may have been created without a soul, but that doesn't mean one can't get, y'know, shoved in there... or that maybe a soul could be possibly stolen and absorbed by a creature who lacks one........ yknow..... it could happen. I like the idea that Ink Bendy's shifts in behaviour towards Henry reflect Joey's conflicted feelings towards his old friend (which is still there in the Story Theory version, it's just symbolic instead of literal).

So you defeat Beast Bendy and suddenly Joey is there, finally, in a place that looks like the real world but certainly doesn't feel real. The calendar in Joey's apartment cycles through the month of August but never moves past it, and I can't shake the idea that Joey could be just as trapped in the cycle as Henry, also never quite deviating from his own script, only briefly appearing in a memory of his own apartment when Henry releases his soul from the demon he created.

I don't know that this could ever shake out enough to be any sort of Actual Theory, but in my brain it's still kind of the background of Escape AU because it's a premise that makes it possible for the employees to actually be themselves. So, the cartoon studio is real, but the things that show up in Joey's apartment might be hit or miss as to whether they're a memory from Joey's real apartment, or if they're imagined wishful thinking on Joey's part.

#i know you have questions you always do #we all write on the walls #IM SORRY FOR SO MANY WORDS IM INCAPABLE OF BEING SUCCINCT #Escape AU #wally franks #i am not 100% sure i know what im talking about but that's okay

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tumblingxelian · 3 years

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RWBY VY, Episode 7: War

My reaction down below:

Ooh such a pretty scene you almost forget where you are.

There’s the Grimm, and there’s the soldiers, good reaction time, obviously scared and woah yeah new Paladins, woot!

Monstra used bodyslam!

Oh dear, thy really weren’t prepped for this, the plan is basically just line up and fire wildly. It does kinda show both how much Salem got the drop on them & how inexperienced Ironwood is fighting an actual war over mindless Grimm he can drop in on at any time.

Oh hey look at that evacuation, funny how he knows to do that when he cares!

Also wow, WTF, these people really were just living their normal lives with a Grimm invasion outside, that lady doesn’t even seem to grasp these are Grimm, oh gosh my gut is churning!

How the fuck were they caught... Marrow!!

Wow so suicide mission it is.

Oh my gosh Salem is going full extra, this is so dramatic!

Emerald be scheming!

Oh neat her Semblance works on Grimm too, a headcanon confirmed!

Ooof, poor Oscar.

Oh hey the torture hooks.

Oh wow no wonder Hazel broke (Sorta) She let him kill her over and over again. Also hmm, does she actually want release or is Oz projecting again?

Hmm, I’d like a little more Oscar in this talk, but good speech Oz.

Also ooh supportive Weiss, I love!

Aaaah baby Nora, sweetheart!!!!

Ooh tea session, cute.

Ooooh yes the predicted conflict and go May, I love you!

Oh hey, see Ironwood, this is how a mature adult responds to people disagreeing with them.

Oooh Oscar is playing a risky gambit, I like it!

Mercury didn’t you have a job?

Oh so he’s being sent to Vacuo, OK.

Um, what Tyrian!?

Oh my gosh Tyrian is being his equivalent of buddy buddy with Mercury and it is terrifying XD

Whelp bye Mercury, see you in the Vacuo arc, and or sooner if you shoot Tyrian in the back of the head, but I think your arc comes later. A shame we didn’t get to see Merc & Salem’s dynamic though that would have been neat.

Pfft, I love that “Wouldn’t you risk your life for your team?” (Dead silence)

Oh snap, the people who theorized Harriet had a previous partner were right, grats folks!

Oh my gosh, Ren is being honest with his emotions & now he can see others, so pretty

Elm & her denial.

Hahaha, Winter just pulling rank, XD

Marrow saying what every Marrow stan has been saying, defect, defect!

Eeeeeeh Klein’s back, I missed him!

Awe Whitley, you did the rightie, good lad, shoulder pat for you! Also the fact he had Klein’s number says a lot.

They said they didn’t plan this break but with that ending one can’t tell cos Penny’s back, either guided by the hack, seeking out her friends, the front or just pure luck, aah so she’s so hurt though and has nothing to apologize for!

Also I notice Neo is nowhere to be seen, either she’s with Cinder or she’s hovering around in Monstra and may do something unexpected, and with Emerald also knowing the password, as well as Hazel, oooooh!

Whelp its been an amazing volume so far, and thanks to everyone for their hard work, you all deserve a good break!

#RWBY8 #RWBY Spoilers #RWBY

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phoenotopia · 4 years

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2020 May Update

I hope you're all staying safe and healthy during this time of Coronavirus!

We continue towards the finish line, slowly, but surely. Coronavirus did throw a few wrenches in our plans. Our talks with a publisher about a possible sponsored appearance at an upcoming event stalled.

But that was always just a possibility. We have a backup plan. If we didn't win a sponsor, we were just going to pay our own way to a convention. That's what most indies do! Anyway, that's canceled too. It doesn't seem like there'll be any conventions to showcase in the near future...

Nevertheless, we did move forward in other areas. We've got the press materials ready as well as the game's official launch site up. You can view it in its prelaunch state at this link. NOTE, It is in a "prelaunch" state, so some media links are being withheld until reveal time. But there are a bunch of new pictures and artwork you can look at.

You might notice the link reads "phoenotopia.wordpress.com". The plan is to direct "phoenotopia.com" to it in the near future. That means if you wanted to reach this tumblr specifically, you'll have to visit it at its tumblr link, "phoenotopia.tumblr.com" (which, I just noticed doesn't work... huh). Anyway, since this is a dev blog, I'll talk a little bit about the journey of creating the website.

SQUARESPACE vs WIX vs WORDPRESS

I actually tried 3 different services (in the above order), before I settled on wordpress. I did a bunch of researching, and most reviews seemed to point at WIX >= SQUARESPACE >>> WORDPRESS.

I went with Squarespace first, since it was recommended a bunch on some youtube videos I saw (guess marketing works). Even though it didn't win outright in the reviews, my impression of it was "less quantity, but more quality." I tried it and found it serviceable. It was kinda sluggish, with some not so intuitive areas. I had to ask for help a few times for some things that would seem simple ("how do I change the BG and font color and of the music player?", etc).

That was last year, when I *thought* I was near launch and would need a press site soon. One year later (present day), it was time to create a press site again, and since my website with Squarespace expired (I had only signed up for a trial period), it was a good opportunity to try Wix, especially since Pirate had lots of praise for Wix.

My impression of Wix was that it was... too distracting. After I chose a theme, in the editor view I felt bombarded by menus. Everywhere you move the mouse, things kept lighting and popping up. And it was slow. So I guess it was sorta like Squarespace, but maybe even a little worse?

(Easy ways to preview the website from phones and tablets was one of wordpress’s neat features)

What prompted me to try Wordpress was one of their slogans "35% of the web uses WordPress". If it's good enough for 35% of websites, it's good enough for me! I ended up liking it most of all. It's definitely less featured, which suited me, since I'm not trying to create something too fancy either. Unlike the other website builders which emphasize free-form, wordpress was more rigid. I couldn't drag and drop an element just anywhere - I found that comforting in a "I can't screw this up" sorta way. The most important thing was that it was fast. Loading the editor view to Wix took 11 seconds vs 4 seconds with Wordpress. And the speed advantage of wordpress extends across every action. Similarly, when Chrome launched 10+ years ago, it was also less featured vs Firefox, but it became my choice browser. I guess speed is something I value highly.

Anyway, my experience is from a drag/drop perspective with minimal coding. This is also NOT a paid advertisement. However, if wordpress would like to send some money my way, I would not be opposed... (call me!)

Achievements, Bugfixes, and Cleanup

Lots of small tasks and polish was done over the past 2 months. I finally fixed the time tracking bug - important because the Speed Run achievement depended on it. I also finally finished implementing all the technical stuff for the achievements. There was a bug where some enemies would stack up too many light sources, causing them to appear too bright and drain system resources. That's now also fixed. Lots of other small ones that don't bear mentioning.

A neat trivia about the game is that there's a final super hard achievement for those seeking to prove their mastery over the game. The player has to beat the game having never picked up a heart or energy upgrade. When playing under this constraint, some enemies can even kill the player in one hit! In the game's most current iteration, even I failed to achieve it, so I'm definitely going to have to go in and tweak things a little more.

Age Ratings

I went and got the game's age rating. I did a little research on this - it's quite fascinating. ESRB would be the age ratings board for the United States (where I'm based). But if you were in Europe, you'd get a PEGI rating. Then there's ACB for Australia and so forth. So if you wanted to launch a game globally, you'd have to deal with this process over and over, and each country rates things a little differently... that's a lot of work!

Enter IARC (International Age Rating Coalition), which aimed to simplify the process by being the one standard that you apply to, and from which you could then get the equivalent rating for all participating countries. IARC is an entirely automated process - probably necessary due to the boom of digital titles across all platforms, particularly mobile.

IARC is great for me, because they relaxed the standards for getting a rating. From my understanding, the process used to be more difficult. And you'd have to pay ESRB a hefty chunk to get a rating, but with IARC, it's totally free! So long as it's for digital and it's used only on licensed sites and store fronts. If I wanted to launch the game physically, I'd have to deal with ESRB on an individual basis again.

Without further ado, here's Phoenotopia's IARC ratings:

Fascinating... Phoenotopia is rated "Mature" in Australia... but for "Horror". Which seems suspect. The horror elements are rare (remember Dreadlands?). But when I was answering their questionnaire, they provided a video example of what they considered "horror", and it was pretty mild. About as mild as my game, so I checked that box. It is what it is...

We also got a "Teen" rating for ESRB for reasons of Fantasy Violence and "Mild Blood". This one is kinda iffy. In the game, if you hit a giant bug, it spits out a few drops of green blood. Does that really count as blood? Ocarina of time skirted by with an E rating 2 decades ago, and it let a dude spit out green blood. However, since IIARC is an automated process, I didn't see any place to dispute. But also, I wouldn't have disputed it anyway. A "T" rating is cooler than an "E" rating!

I'd like to mention this is not a paid advertisement for IARC. However, if IARC would like to send some money my way, I would not be opposed... (call me!)

Submission

I expect to polish the game for about 2 (maybe 3) more weeks. After which, I'll be submitting the game to the console "authority". From my understanding, I'll then have to wait a month while they "inspect" the title. After which, I'm then cleared to have an official launch date - which I'll probably set to be 1 month after getting approval.

So the plan is to have a very short marketing campaign. The reveal trailer will basically drop 1 month before release. And we're going to sprint to the finish line. Some marketing campaigns are 6 months to a couple years. Ours will be one month... Let's hope it works.

Wrench

That's what the plan looks like right now, but there is a possible upcoming wrench in this whole thing. I recently learned that my version of Unity is too old. Games running on old Unity versions are not automatically accepted - so I'll have to apply for an exemption. If the exemption gets rejected, we can't launch without upgrading, which will require *significant* work...

This came as a surprise to me. When I started dabbling in games development a decade ago, the most common advice I found online was "Make Games, not Game Engines." I interpreted this to mean lock in your technologies. There's always going to be a new and shinier bell or whistle, but if you keep chasing it, you're not going to work on the actual content of the game. That's probably what kept me to releasing the original game on Flash. That was a game I was making as a hobby while working a full-time job. By the time I quit my job to go full-time indie dev, Flash had long been a dead technology. But I remembered "do you want to build game engines or games?" And so I pressed forward.

So that mindset could potentially backfire here. If PC was the lead SKU, we wouldn't have these issues since PC is more relaxed as a platform. Consoles, as I'm now learning, have an ever forward shifting window of technologies. If we get rejected for the exemption, there's a couple ways we can play it. One, we go through the pain of upgrading which will take months... Two, we pivot and make PC the lead SKU again, but have to handle porting that plus its specific features, which will also take months...

So why is updating such a big issue? Unity has changed drastically over the years. When I started, it was a lot less 2D friendly. They didn't have an official 2D tilemap solution, so you had to build your own or buy a 3rd party library from their asset store. I used 2DTK for tilemaps - 2DTK is now entirely deprecated. Similarly, I had to search for and purchase a good asset to display crisp text - since you couldn't even do that in Unity back then (heh). That's the story for a lot of old Unity stuff. Think of it as a first mover's "disadvantage".

Hopefully it won't come to that, since I'm pretty spent as a developer. I've been ready for this to be over, and I know many of you feel the same. Hopefully soon! As usual, I'll update in 2 months at the latest (end of June). An update might come earlier if we have some good news to share sooner. Until then!

Fanart and Cosplay

This first picture comes from roccy_chair and shows Gail basked in light. I like how her pose and equipment together form an "X". That's a neat hidden symmetry. The way she floats also kinda reminds me of Crono's "Shining" spell. Perhaps Gail should have the ability to cast spells? Hmmm...

Cody G returns with a new art depicting the 2 Moonstone enthusiasts. I like Fran's starry-eyed expression here. That's true love on display. I also like how the Moonstones are depicted as flat and coin-shaped. Very unique! Also note Gail makes an appearance in the back :D

Thanks to M1shaaa for this cosplay of Gail! There's a lot to like here! The vibrant pink hair. The costume with 3 stitches across the vest. The pose with slingshot, accurate to Gail's depiction in the box art. Amazingly, this might also be the very *first* cosplay of Gail! Will and Pirate both alerted me about it excitedly since they were pretty stoked. We joked that we crossed the final milestone in terms of fandom.

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dolldirector · 3 years

Text

Fallen Realm Playlist Masterpost

Big infodump under the read more, if you like my OCs and/or agree with my flawless music taste this should be interdasting

1. MUSE - Thought Contagion

Vampire stuff, punk vibes, a nod to thriller, all of the above fit the mood of a FR show + the song is genuinely very good and I could see it being used on stage easily.

2. PAIN - Call Me

Absolute banger. But that's besides the point. I see this as being the bassist Jez/Jamie's song (with a side of Deuce as the second vocalist). Jez is a fairly quiet lad who generally keeps to himself but I always imagined that he’d be secretly very flirty and cheeky, but would mostly only really express it via music. I actually wrote a lil short story where most of FR's band (minus Rex and Isabella) find themselves in some dive bar after a show, and end up performing in the place of the no-show band that was meant to be there that night. That band ends up being the very same one that kicked Jez out, so it’s a bit of a revenge story for him. This short is on my discord by the by.

3. Emigrate - Eat You Alive

Oh boy, this is a strong one. Basically, just watch this video but pretend that Axl is Richard (the frontman). That’s it. That’s the explanation.

Being serious though, RZK is and always has been a huge influence for Axl's visual design, mannerisms and on-stage behaviours. On top of that, this is 100% the type of music he'd listen to, and the lyrics may as well just be plucked right outta his brain. Are the words meant to be aimed at Valeriya in a threatening way? Or is it a cheeky flirt with Trinity? Both? Neither? We’ll never know.

Also, completely unrelated I’m sure, here’s a wip you may or may not be able to force me to finish on stream via channel points soon...

4. Axel One - Out of the Dark

Can't exactly say much about this one cause it's spoilers, but I will say it's less about the song itself and more about the video, and that it does concern the one FR character who is already dead when the story begins.

5. Lord of the Lost - Raining Stars

Just seems to me like a real good song to perform to. I can imagine seeing acrobatic stunts in slow-mo to this track. That’s it for this one, just “I just think they’re neat”. Gorgeous song and video by an amazing band anyway though.

6. Oomph! - Supernova

Kinda the same deal as the Emigrate song, you can just insert Axl into this one in Dero’s place, along with Jez, Vlad, and Thatch. Once again the style and lyrics fit him perfectly, and this one earns bonus points since Dero is actually Axl's canon voiceclaim - specifically in this era of Oomph!’s music too.

7. Die Kreatur - Kälter als der Tod

At the risk of this thread becoming Oops All Axl TM - AH YES. This one is perfect for the point where Axl finally gets the fuck over himself, and stops being horrible to Vlad because of guitar jealousy, and they become bros.

Realistically, I doubt that Vlad - the clueless human vampire fanatic - will ever realise that Axl is a real actual vampire, but he'd be so glad that they seem to have this ~shared interest~ in them, and he'd by hyped as heck to do a performance like this with his guitar buddy. By the way, Vlad wonders to himself, isn’t it odd that he’s never seen Axl putting his fake fangs in?? Weird

As for the girl on the altar, there are a couple ideas I’ve toyed with. Random audience member for fun. Trinity but Axl gets mad jealous even though he thought and said he wouldn't. (No sharing!! Not even for jokes.) Valeriya but the poor thing is scared to the point of tears because this is just a little too close to a real experience for her and Vlad just can't figure out why. Axl insists she’s just being dramatic. Rex has to rescue her because she’s too shy to put her foot down.

Or perhaps Isabella would wanna join in, but she can't take it seriously and keeps laughing which just causes a chain reaction every time with even Axl cracking a smile. There are like a million cut takes now. Send help.

All in all a fun crossover to think about.

8. Adelitas Way - Still Hungry

This one is just Diesel’s anthem. This is the story of a young punk who can’t stop, won’t stop, never gives up and needs more. Right kinda music for him too.

9. MONO INC. - Shining Light

100% a full-cast song. I feel like the lyrics apply to a number of different things about various members of the circus' backstories, and their found family vibe together - if you think about them in super vague terms, at least. I liked to consider the vocals a duet between Rex and Isabella, being the two singers, but there are a couple lines that are kinda too adult for Bella and would make the duet sorta odd so ehhh 90% of it can be that, let’s say. (This is baring in mind that Isabella is an orphaned minor and Rex is like a father figure for her - as he kinda is for many of the members of the circus)

I also did a doodle of this. This one will also be on the force-me-to-work-on-this-WIP-live pile.

9.5. Lacrimosa - Lichtgestalt a.k.a the original version of Shining Light

Same song, just German and carrying a much darker, creepier tone. It fits in new, fun ways.

10. Oomph! - Viel zu Tief

OOPS ALL AXL TM

Lyrics are very important for this one. Once again, music is the right style, Dero is still his voiceclaim, and Axl actually speaks German in canon (and NO I didn’t do that just so Oomph! songs fit him better, shUT UP)

11. Pet Shop Boys - It’s a Sin

Bit out of left field for this playlist, sure, but with all the controversy and extremely shakey morals in FR's world and with its characters, this one just seems fitting. Plus I'd want em to cover it for a show. Banger.

Honorable mention goes to Ghost’s cover of this song. I don’t even listen to Ghost but my reaction upon finding out this exists was like “lmao yes, of course, why wouldn’t they”.

This song in general I associate instinctively with Vlad, purely because its 80s and campy and I feel like he’d be the type to listen to Ghost.

12. Destiny Potato - Lunatic

Very strongly feel this is a performance song featuring Isabella. This song fits the character - and in particular her tragic backstoryTM pretty well. I’d even go so far as to say the singer would be a pretty good voiceclaim for her if her voice wasn’t meant to be more robotic in canon. This is pretty close to what I imagine, though. Strong n sweet.

13. Nightwish - I Want My Tears Back

One of the first songs I imagined to go well with stage performances. This one for sure would be a duet between Rex and Isabella.

Plus at about 3:10 there's a long solo with a bit of back-and-forth between the guitar and hurdy gurdy (I think?) that I could 100% see Axl and Vlad doing on guitar and keytar respectively.

14. Lord of the Lost - Drag Me To Hell

Yeah this one is just Axl @ his ex

15. Lindemann - Steh Auf!

Bleib nicht liegen, es wär schade - Zirkus ist heut in der Stadt

So, this would be from Isabella’s perspective. Did I mention she was orphaned? Yeah. I guess this one is a little dark.

16. Otetsu & GUMI - Disordered Self-Restraint Girl

The song itself seems to be the story of a child who is trying to coax their parent/guardian into getting up and doing things, not realising that parent had passed away from a drug overdose. Drugs isn’t the way Isabella’s parents died, but the rest of the song fits that part of her backstory imo. Plus, it’s German, and Isabella is German, so yay!

Uh oh, vocaloid.

For a long time I've associated this one with Valeria, and her feelings towards the circus in the early days. After she's accidentally turned by Axl, Val gets effectively kidnapped by FR, taken in before she can even regain consciousness and completely against her will, since it would be incredibly irresponsible of them to just leave a fresh new vampire out in the world so they kinda don't have a choice. While she eventually finds her place and elects to stay after some time has passed, there was a period of time where she definitely would have felt trapped.

This is without even going into the fact that she's now stuck travelling and living with her would-be murderer, and - due to the fact that half of the circus don't even know non-humans exist, let alone what actually happened to Valeria - many of the people around her don't seem to care, or simply do not understand why she's so scared and stressed. It leaves her, at times, feeling like she could be killed tomorrow and nobody would give a shit.

Showtime, katanamochi bunbun furimawashi kubi kara ue hanetobashite mo - ashita ni nareba minna motodoori, waratte yurushite

Translation: Showtime, even if a sword wielder slices my head and makes it fly off, tomorrow everything continues as usual, smiling, forgiving

(Don't worry, in reality Rex, Diesel, and Thatch are there for her & understand the shit she's going through. I promise the folks in the circus do actually care. It's just hard for her to see it in this period of time.)

(There will almost definitely be more songs and doodles added here in the future, but for now that’s all folks!)

#fallen realm #playlist #masterpost #ocs

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acraftedmistake · 4 years

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A Person Who Has Never Played MCSM Writes A Story About MCSM Chp. 7

SEVENTH CHAPTER YAY

This was a lot of fun to write! Hope you guys enjoy! ;<;b

“I’m sorry--What?” Jesse fumbled with his words. How do you react to a statement like that?

Aiden saw his friends--and Olivia’s--thrown off expressions. A few had mouths hanging open while others’ faces practically begged for him to elaborate. Stella being the more extreme of the bunch with widened eyes.

“Think about it!” He said to the bewildered crowd “Jesse’s been way too cooperative, he’s described events that don’t match up with ours--heck--he doesn’t know what we’re talking about! And since the portals weren’t made for entering different worlds, the next logical idea would be they came from another universe.”

Maya raised her head up, “That… Makes sense.” She joined Aiden’s side.

“No, hold on, how did ANY part of your conclusion sound ‘logical’?” Stella sputtered.

“Yeah, You can’t say somethin’ makes sense ‘n… Expect it to.” Gill raised a brow.

Olivia hopped off the stairs and went to Jesse as quickly as she could, ducking down to avoid attention. Not like she would care if everyone was watching her right now. She found her mind too wrapped up around the mere IDEA of entering a different universe being possible. ‘Hearing it out loud, it’s so obvious! Why didn’t I think of it before?’ She questioned. Maybe she was too shaken up on being surrounded by enemies and their bizarre behaviors to consider it a possibility. She clutched her small book tightly and slid to Jesse’s side.

“It’d explain why everything’s felt unnatural.” Maya shifted towards Jesse and Olivia. “You said it yourself back at the library, Stella. It was weird around Olivia.”

“Yes. I did.” Stella admitted, “But it was specifically about Olivia. I didn’t say anything about Jesse.”

“Yeah, I gotta agree with Stella here.” Spoke Gill, “No offense t’you Aiden, it’s just… Your idea feels really extreme.”

Gill looked back to the neat pile of books on the table “ ‘N these books are super old, so if we go offa them, they could be outdated or wrong.”

Stella sighed with relief and placed her hand on Gill’s shoulder, “Thank you, Gill. Glad to know I’m not the only one who thinks this situation is crazy--Wait a second. Cassie!”

The red head jumped up.

“What are your thoughts on this whole universe… Jesse… Portal situation?” Stella waved her hands about.

“Maybe… There’s an in-between?” Cassie received an array of weird looks from everyone. She pushed up her glasses, “Like you said, we don’t know anything about portals. Maybe Jesse snatched Olivia from another universe and something… Happened?”

Cassie began tugging on a strand of her red hair, “Maybe messed up memories is a side effect of going through portals--I don’t know! If I knew more about portals, I could come up with a better idea.”

Gill blinked a couple of times.

“So… You’re in the middle?” he tilted his head.

“Yeah. Guess I am.” Cassie shoved her hands into the pockets of her hoodie.

Gill nodded. Stella decided not to comment on her friend’s statement.

“Adding onto what Gill said,” Stella started, “I don’t recall any books about successful portals.”

“Do you have a better theory?” Maya folded her arms.

Stella straightened her posture and adjusted her top, “Yes, I believe I do.”

Stella spun around and faced Aiden. She pushed her hair behind her ear and started,

“I’m sure we all remember Cavern City…”

Everyone listened in on Stella’s potential answer to this whole mess. Olivia was invested too despite knowing whatever Stella would say is false. Jesse became curious himself.

However, as Stella continued her explanation, something in Jesse’s mind was preventing him from concentrating.

‘All this talk about some city I’ve never heard of. If they’re so certain I’ve been there before, wouldn’t they find it weird I don’t remember it?’

Then Jesse remembered; this wasn’t some random city he’s never heard of, a place stowed away or hidden from history, this was a city in a different universe.

This thought ignited a flame which fueled his train of thought. Its tempo was getting faster and faster by the second.

He and Olivia had not entered a world. They’ve entered a place far more distant. They were in an entire different universe. Away from their home, their loved ones, and by the sounds of it, no known way to get back. They’re stuck. Stuck with Aiden and Maya and Cassie and Stella and all these people who hate him.

Aiden’s group didn’t seem too caught up about this “universe” situation. Their lack of attention made Jesse feel worse. A different panic took over him. Not the type of panic you’d feel where your life could’ve been ended, or when lightning would flash. This panic made him want to escape. Like a fly that had been trapped in a bowl, crashing about, desperately wanting a way out but no way of knowing how.

“Olivia,” Jesse muttered, his voice shaky and hands clammy. His words mixed with his breathing. He didn’t want to interrupt Stella or have the others hearing them. This was a conversation between the two of them.

“Yeah?” Olivia said back with a voice as quiet.

“We’re… We’re in another universe.” They both knew. Everyone did. But the new weight of the situation gave those words a new kind of impact.

“I know.” She clasped her hands together. Her whole body was stiff, “I’ve been sorta… Freaking out about it. Internally. A bit of an existential crisis.”

Jesse nodded.

Olivia added on, “From what I know, I’m not supposed to be here. It’s been bothering me. A lot.”

She was gone in this world. She didn’t want to believe she was ‘dead’. Maybe the other Olivia went missing or ran away. Maybe she was kidnapped. Maybe she went through a portal and never came back. Anything, literally anything, would be better than knowing she was dead.

No matter how haunting the idea was, a dark peculiarity became apparent to her; not only did she want to hear about how she might’ve died, but if she had a grave. And if she could see it.

A weird internal battle was going on in her head. “Who would want to know how they died?” and “Who wouldn’t?”

“I have no idea how we’re going to prove we’re telling the truth.” Jesse said, keeping his voice low. “We have nothing physical on us--even if we did, I don’t think it’d help any. Anything we say could be shot down, unless-” Olivia had to nudge Jesse mid sentence and directed his attention towards Stella who, along with everyone else, was waiting for his reply.

His eyes darted about while he tried to recall what Stella was talking about. He could recall snippets of “Cavern City”. Were they expecting him to defend himself? An explanation?

Anything was better than remaining silent.

“Stella, you bring up a lot of solid points, I can’t deny that.” He tried sounding as assured as possible, having no idea what Stella had said. “There is one major issue: I have zero idea what Cavern City is. At all. I didn’t know it existed.”

Stella groaned loudly, “I wasn’t only talking about Cavern City! You can’t FORGET a major event from last week yet somehow remember how much you loathe us! It’s inconsistent!”

“Last week?” Olivia questioned, brushing the hair out of her eyes, “We were training with Radar in a forest last week. Nothing about a city.” Olivia said. She remembered showing Radar how to focus and to always be aware of his surroundings; he was quite jumpy but the fighting spirit was there. Radar lost his glasses at one point and continued charging towards a monster. It was actually a tree. She didn’t have the heart to tell him.

Stella must’ve had a whole speech debunking Jesse’s story. How everything was clearly fabricated and she had all the facts to prove otherwise; Olivia recalling--confirming--what Jesse had said must’ve blown down a great portion of her validity.

Stella sunk down into one of the couches with her mouth left open.

“You truly don’t remember Cavern City?” She asked.

“Doesn’t ring a bell. I’m Sorry.” Jesse shook his head.

“I am curious about this city. Could you elaborate?” Olivia asked the group.

Stella perked up from her seat.

Everyone looked like they were ready to share what they knew.

Stella started, “To make a long story short, it’s a city deep underground which can be accessed through a portal--”

Cassie Rose interrupted, “A portal Jesse went through hoping it’d lead to the location of his crazy, eyeless jerk!”

“And when he didn’t see any signs of him, he started ripping it apart--” Maya added on before getting cut off by Gill “Dunno why ya thought that would do somethin’.”

Gill’s comment was aimed towards Jesse.

Aiden stepped up, “We had to come over and--”

“Beat some sense into you!” Cassie said, glaring at Jesse and curling her hands to fists. She looked back at Aiden who wasn’t too happy with her addition.

“Sorry. Wasn’t needed.”

Aiden stayed quiet for a moment.

“Yeah, that’s the jist of it. We confronted you in the city’s palace, fought, a real bad quake happened and wrecked everything. You--I mean--our Jesse hit his head real hard and was out cold for a few days.”

Olivia started brainstorming. Jesse, on the other hand, had no idea where to START with this load of information.

He felt guilt building up inside him.

‘Why?’ Was the first question to pop into mind.

Why is he feeling guilty for a crime he’s never committed? Was it because his name was attached to the situation? Not only was Cassie Rose, Aiden, Maya, Gill, and Stella hurt by his actions, but an entire CITY filled with innocent people too.

He didn’t know how he could make things better.

“You know…” Olivia broke the silence, “The Cavern City situation sounds a lot like the time Aiden took over Sky City.” While it wasn’t an exact recreation, she found the similarities between the two events interesting.

The room was quiet. Aiden and his group were completely bewildered. No one knew what to say. It didn’t help Olivia made it sound like a call back everyone knew about and understood. Someone let out a chuckle in disbelief.

Jesse nearly choked on his own spit the moment those words left her mouth.

“Remember… When Aiden tried to...?” She slowly turned her head to Jesse. His eyes were wide.

“Did you… Not tell Aiden about this?” Olivia asked.

Jesse’s heart had stopped. Heck, everything stopped. The one thing he avoided mentioning and Olivia so happened to reach that comparison. Jesse saw Aiden out of the corner of his eyes, more shocked than him.

“I’m sorry--Sky city?” Aiden asked.

“I…” Jesse said slowly, “... Didn’t think it was relevant?” He shrugged uncertainly.

Probably not his strongest excuse. He originally didn’t want to share the story again in fear Aiden would get upset or they’d be reminiscing on the times they hated each other. The situation was bad enough already.

“I’m sorry, you didn’t think Sky City was relevant? In this situation? With Aiden?”

Jesse could only shrug again. There wasn’t any way to defend himself that wouldn’t make him look like an even BIGGER idiot.

“Jesse!” Olivia put her hands on her hips.

Jesse sputtered and immediately pointed at her “Did you tell Cassie Rose about the murders?!”

“The what.” Cassie said.

“Wait, what happened in Sky City?!” Aiden asked again, visibly freaking out.

“You tried to kill Jesse.” Olivia briefly explained before going back to Jesse “I don’t see how Cassie’s murders are related to you not telling Aiden about Sky City!”

“I thought he already KNEW!” Jesse exclaimed.

“We’re in a different UNIVERSE, Jesse!” Olivia shot back.

Jesse threw his arms into the air “We learned that not even an HOUR ago, how was I supposed to know?!”

“Hold it, hold it!” Stella stood between the two, putting their little freak out on hold. “I’m sorry, now I know you’re lying. Aiden? Hurting Jesse? He couldn’t hurt Jesse even if you paid him to!” She forced out a laugh.

Jesse pushed her away, “Well I hate to burst your bubble but he tried killing me TWICE.”

Aiden went white. His pupils shrunk.

His friends were equally as shocked. Stella was speechless.

Gill looked at Aiden then to Olivia and Jesse.

“Are you sure we’re talking about the same Aiden?” He tilted his head.

Jesse stammered on his words. What type of question was that? What OTHER Aidens were there?!

“YEAH, I’m sure I remember the guy who attempted to kill me multiple times!”

Cassie stepped in, “Okay let’s stop talking about attempted murder and start talking about the successful ones! Explain!” she jabbed her finger into Jesse’s chest.

Jesse shoved the hand down, “We were in some big mansion with a bunch of other people! You killed 3 innocent people and then tried to add me and my friends to the list! You were-- You were insane!”

Cassie’s hand curled into a tight fist; she was doing everything in her power to not sock Jesse in the face right now. Maya saw the fire blazing in Cassie’s eyes and placed her hand on her friend’s shoulder, settling Cassie down.

“Big talk coming from you!” Gill shouted back, sizing up Jesse and cracking his knuckles. Aiden shouted something to Gill then the room bursted into a large argument. People were yelling over each other and exclaiming what one person did to another. Accusations were mixing up with MORE accusations. Fingers were being pointed, voices had started to merge together into complete nonsense. While Jesse couldn’t hear every curse, threat, and claim thrown at him, he could feel everyone’s resentment. Olivia was extremely overwhelmed with what was going on and couldn’t decipher who was saying what, or how to respond. Her head kept zipping around from person to person, trying to make sense of what was being said.

If it wasn’t someone shouting at Jesse, it was Aiden or Maya who were raising their voices trying to get everybody to settle down.

Jesse caught a small piece of someone’s rant, “... And you hurt anybody you don’t like…!”

“Hurt?!” Jesse repeated, “I did nothing wrong except stopping you people from hurting me and my friends!”

This was getting more and more upsetting. He couldn’t hear what they were accusing him of and wasn’t given a chance to share his side of the situation.

The shouting soon stopped and everyone had to catch their breaths.

Not knowing how long this silence would last, Jesse started talking.

“Do you guys only remember the bad experiences we’ve had? Do none of you recall the times we’ve saved the world? We stopped the Wither Storm, the--!”

“What in Sweet Hero is a Wither Storm?!” Stella asked, horrified.

Jesse froze. His mouth gaping open as he stared at Stella. He tried making the shape of the wither storm with his hands, “It’s this giant, overpowered wither abomination Ivor created--”

“What’s an Ivor?!” Gill asked on the same level of horrification as Stella.

“Oh my gosh--” Jesse put his hands on his head and had to take a deep breath before continuing, “He was an ex member of The Order Of The Stone!”

Jesse was about to go on when he noticed an equal mixture of both confused and judgemental stares. Jesse returned a puzzled look back. Did they not…?

“You know? The Order Of The Stone? Gabriel the Warrior,” He started counting off the members with his fingers, “Ellegaard the Redstone Engineer, Magnus the--”

“Those sound fake.” Maya said.

Yes, she did believe Jesse, but at this point she had to admit this whole thing was starting to sound ridiculous.

Stella scoffed, “Yeah, if they’re such a big deal how come we’ve never heard of them?”

“IT--!” Jesse threw his arms into the air, “BECAUSE--!” He turned to Olivia with a look of desperation “Olivia please tell me The Order of the Stone is real. I didn’t hallucinate them, right?”

“No they’re totally real.” She reassured him.

Patting him on the back, she continued, “I still remember embarrassing myself in Red Stonia!” Could’ve picked anything else besides that one moment, but it was the first thing to come to mind.

“Hold on.” Maya cut in between Jesse and Olivia. She stared down at Jesse, “Have we been having this whole conversation without you knowing what entering a different universe means?”

Jesse sealed his lips. He didn’t want to answer.

“Jesse.” Maya said.

He stared at the floor as his face grew a light shade of red .

“Isn’t it like going to the Nether? Or a different world except…” He mumbled, still avoiding eye contact, “... Farther?”

Jesse caught a glance of Olivia being dumbfounded by his response.

Maya breathed in and folded her arms “Well, you got one thing right.”

“Like going to a different world?” Stella repeated Jesse’s words.

“Oh no, it is FAR more complicated.”

“Elaborate?” Jesse asked.

Gill immediately shot his arm into the air eagerly, “Oh! I know somethin’ bout it! Mevia ‘n Hadrian taught me!”

“Hm.” Stella stepped aside.

“Take it away.”

Gill smiled brightly, as if proud of himself, and shut his eyes tightly. Concentrating.

“Y’see, when you go to another universe, you might see people you recognize there.” He held up both of his hands, index fingers up. “But a lot of different events could’ve taken place in THEIR universe that didn’t happen in YOUR universe. This changes a whole bunch of things for the world and the people livin’ there.”

Jesse stood still and thought to himself. Trying to think of what Gill said in a way he could understand. “So it’s like… Entering a different room in a house?”

“No!” Stella huffed impatiently.“If you go from your bedroom to your bathroom, you’re still in the same house. Entering another universe is like entering a completely different house! A new layout, the people living there have a completely different history than you--you get the picture.”

Aiden cleared his throat and adjusted his jacket, “Alright, now that that’s out of the way… Our next plan should be figuring out how to get Jesse and Olivia ho-”

Stella shoved her hand in Aiden’s face, promptly shutting him up.

“I’m going to stop you right there.” She put her hand down. “Aiden, I know you want to do what’s right, bring Olivia back to her--hopefully real--universe, but we can’t blindly accept whatever Jesse’s a part of!”

Aiden frowned.

Stella clasped her hands together, “Listen, this could be an elaborate trap set up by The Awakening! We can’t take any chances or waltz into portal territory completely unprepared!”

Stella kept rambling on with her concerns. Gill kept nodding to every point Stella made, Jesse was listening to the one sided conversation with confusion, Cassie kept pulling on a strand of her hair while sitting on the arm of the couch, and Maya was watching Aiden trying to remain patient.

Then there was Olivia. She had been the quietest of them all. She had never been so amazed yet terrified at the same time. To be in the place where history had changed, a place where she lived and died in, it was mind blowing.

The concept of another universe--reality--made sense. However, people of the same name and faces she and Jesse knew leading different lives fascinated her. Aiden, Cassie, Maya, Gill, Stella, their stories--their entire lives--have been altered. They’ve experienced hardships she’s never had, they’ve formed different connections, bonds, the way they acted and thought… It’s all changed. Should she consider these people enemies anymore?

Are they the same people? Or were they strangers who wore the faces of the familiar.

Jesse faked a cough. Loudly. Olivia was brought back to reality and Stella stopped mid-lecture. Stella turned around to face Jesse with a glare.

Jesse gave her a small wave, “Yeah, uhm… What’s The Hero’s Awakening?”

The moment those words left his mouth all warmth and liveliness of the room had been sucked out and Jesse found himself surrounded by rigid people with hate-filled eyes. He felt their glares pierce through him.

It was too late to retract his question.

“I... Keep hearing that name and--”

“It’s a cult.” Maya answered coldly.

Jesse froze up. His throat tightened. His mind repeated those words over and over.

A cult.

He began breathing fast like he had awoken from a nightmare. That couldn’t be true. It’s a lie. It’s a lie. They wanted to scare him. This shouldn’t scare him. Why did this scare him?

Jesse had to force his rigid body to look back up at Maya. He licked his lips, about to ask another question--

Suddenly, there was knocking at the door, causing everyone to jump. They all stared. Not saying a word.

“Come in.” Aiden said aloud with hesitation.

The door swiftly opened and in came Radar, whose face was hidden behind a clipboard and a pen held tightly in his other hand. At first glance his appearance could’ve been mistaken for the usual attire Jesse had always seen him in. Upon further inspection, he saw Radar wore a green, one buttoned suit which hid most of his light brown vest underneath it along with a blue tie that popped from the suit. He also wore dark, cool gray straight pants and polished, black oxford shoes. His hair was still the same. Thick, black, and swooped up. Maybe it was a little shorter?

He was far less… Lively. The energy that typically accompanied Radar was completely absent and instead there stood a man who spoke flatly and stood stiffly.

“Hello, sir. I thought I’d let you know the guards have searched the shrine thoroughly and have discovered a man made--” He lowered his clipboard for a split second before yelping and immediately covering his face again. His pen fell to the floor.

“Wh…” Radar trembled, “What is HE doing here?” He pointed at Jesse, his hands shaking. His flat tone became wobbly.

Aiden approached him carefully “Radar, I know this looks bad--”

“Terrible, sir.”

“But this might not be the real Jesse, or our Jesse. We were just talking about how he’s from another universe!”

“Possibly.” Cassie Rose added. She had shoved her hands back into her pockets and eyed Radar with a scowl on her face.

Aiden rolled his eyes and bobbed his head, “Possibly.”

Radar cautiously lowered his clipboard to get a better look at Jesse, who was smiling warmly, grateful to see a familiar friendly face.

Radar breathed in and adjusted his tie. He continued holding onto the board with a tight grip as his shaking eased. His quick breaths soon slowed and his once distressed face turned into curiosity. Then to fascination. He pushed up his glasses and squinted at the brunet as he slowly approached him. Once he was a foot away from Jesse he stopped to scan him.

Radar stuck his hand out and studied his hand, flipping it about like he was expecting something to happen.

“I do feel a sort of… Disconnection with him if.” He stroked his chin.

“He has all the qualities of Jesse--I mean--it IS Jesse, yet I don’t find myself… As petrified around him.”

Radar stared into Jesse’s eyes for a bit longer before his face scrunched up.

“However, I can’t continue looking at his face.” He separated the two of them with his board.

Jesse knew Radar must’ve had a good reason for saying what he did, but it still stung.

Cassie Rose grinded her shoe into the floor “I guess if we ever have another universe problem, we’ll get Mr. Know-it-all to help out next time.” she grumbled under her breath.

Radar turned around to talk back and jumped when he saw how many people were in the room. Gracious, was it crowded. He scanned the whole room; he spotted Maya, who flashed him a smile, and then he saw--

“Olivia?” He let out a small gasp. He hugged his board and let his mouth hang for a moment. “This is--This…”

Radar combed his hair with his hands. He started to pace “Oh Hero… You said they’re from another universe?”

“Yeah.” Maya nodded.

“These two--” He looked at Olivia and Jesse then back to Aiden “Were these the two ‘kids’ you brought to question from before?”

“Yeah,” Aiden said, “It’s a wild story--”

Everyone began talking to Radar about their eventful evening. All except for Olivia and Jesse, who were standing a distance away from the group, silent in a room full of conversation. Olivia couldn’t think of any way she could contribute. Aiden’s group was probably going to retell what they already knew.

Jesse found himself unable to stay still. He was tapping his foot faster and faster waiting for everyone to finish their seemingly never ending conversation. A minute had yet to pass before Jesse cupped his hands around his mouth and said “Hey, Radar reminded me of something!” Loud enough for them to hear.

The talking dwindled.

Jesse stepped up.

“You’ve heard bits and pieces about yourselves. What about us? What do you know about us?”

Olivia joined his side, “Yeah, I’m curious too.” Her eyes instinctively landed on Cassie Rose who pressed her lips together.

“Right,” Cassie said looking away, “I did promise we’d talk.”

“Well, we can start. What do you know about me?” Jesse asked. He didn’t want anyone to change the subject, he didn’t care if people didn’t trust him, he wanted an answer. They were gonna talk about this right here. Right now.

All talking had ceased.

Jesse waited for somebody--anybody--to start talking. No one uttered a word. Were they afraid to? Or did they not know how to begin?

“You’re mental.” Gill said, breaking the silence.

Jesse flinched. Yes, he wanted to hear about himself, but the first bit of description he’s finally gotten and it was that?

Aiden was about to speak before Stella intervened, “The word ‘mental’ is rather vague. I think the words ‘A Two-timing lunatic’ paint a better picture.”

Jesse heard another name shot at him before several more came. No one was shouting over each other unlike last time, so he was able to make out a few words.

None of them were positive.

Jesse managed to hear Radar, in his quiet voice, describe him as ‘An absolute madman’.

Mixed in with their faces of disgust and anger made the spotlight on him more overwhelming.

Before the room could spiral out of control again Aiden raised his voice, “Alright, alright.”

Everyone quieted down.

“I think you all got your points across.” He eyed them all as he pushed through the group and went to Jesse and Olivia.

“Ignore them.” He told Jesse. “A lot has happened to us over the years and--” He closed his eyes and breathed in, “And it was too much for Jesse. He resorted to more… Unethical approaches. Things got out of hand.”

Aiden’s face lightened up and folded his arms “But Jesse’s still our friend. And we’re going to do everything we can to get him back.”

Aiden continued his speech in a confident tone. Jesse was drawn in. Olivia found herself drifting aside and looking past Aiden’s shoulder. She caught the expressions of his friends. They were uneasy. A few were shaking their heads. They didn’t look annoyed, but were visibly upset. Olivia studied their reactions for a moment longer before bringing her attention back to Aiden.

“And what do you mean by ‘a lot has happened’?” Olivia asked.

Aiden’s smile weakened.

He didn’t say anything at first. When he finally did, he started off slowly.

“We went through some big battles. Had to save the world from an enormous lava creature, we’re still dealing with The Hero’s Awakening...” His smile faded completely and he locked eyes with Olivia, “... Lost friends.”

Cassie joined Aiden’s side, “And Olivia, as you probably know, you were one of them.”

A pit formed in Olivia’s stomach along with a lump in her throat that refused to go down. She held her hands together and thought ‘Of course.’

Of course it ended up being the worst case scenario. Of course her dying ended up being true. It couldn’t have been anything else.

With the most steady voice she could muster up she asked “What happened?”

Aiden started biting on inside of his cheek, “You were out exploring an old, underground temple in the middle of the day. Then, out of nowhere, a horrible quake happened in the middle of the day. No one was expecting it to happen, we were all caught by surprise.”

He clenched his fists, “We were told a large crack opened up and... You fell in.”

He breathed in and stepped back. The story ended on an abrupt note, but Olivia believed she was told the perfect amount. Nothing severely graphic nor too vague to make her have to ask more questions. She had finally received her answer. There was finally relief. It was done. She wouldn’t have to worry about questions constantly eating her up. She had no reason to think about it any more.

“You know,” Maya said, leaning against the wall, “Jesse and Olivia being from a different universe is kinda nice. Our Olivia isn’t back from the dead, but this isn’t the Jesse we know.” They murmured to one another. A few heads nodded.

Jesse folded his arms, “So exploring is out of the picture because people will think I’m some maniac and Olivia isn’t supposed to be here at all?” He sounded genuinely disappointed knowing he’d have to be confined into a single area with these people. He knows they aren’t technically his enemies but they still didn’t like him.

“That might not be the case.” Radar said. His body faced Olivia and Jesse while his face was hidden behind the clipboard again, “If you two would like, I wouldn’t mind giving a tour of Obsidian Town. I could show you around and tell you its history.”

“Really?” Jesse’s face lit up. Olivia was equally enthusiastic. She had caught quick glimpses of this area, so a tour would be a wonderful opportunity to learn more about this town! Maybe they’d learn about this universe too!

Plus Jesse wouldn’t be cooped up inside their whole time here. She couldn’t remember the last time Jesse stayed in one place without busting out or exploring.

Maya and Aiden exchanged concerned looks.

“Are you sure?” Maya asked.

“One of us can go with you.” Aiden offered.

Radar shook his head, “No, I insist. I think having a tour would be beneficial for the three of us! We’d do it in the middle of the day when everyone’s sleeping to avoid any unwanted attention.”

He turned back to Jesse and Olivia, “As long as it’s okay with the two of you. I’m a bit of an early bird myself, but I can always find a different time--”

“No!” Jesse hopped up, unable to contain his smile and scaring Radar. “That’s perfect!”

“If you say so.” Aiden said, he shifted back to Radar “But could it wait? They just got here.”

Olivia added on “Maybe we could do it tomorrow?” She looked at Jesse, “I think I’m speaking for the both of us when I say I am exhausted. This is a lot to take in at 3 AM.”

“It’s 4 AM now.” Gill stated.

“Jeez, no wonder I feel like garbage. A different universe on top of the fact it’s 4 in the morning? It’s a miracle I hadn’t passed out yet.” Jesse said.

Everyone, except for Olivia, was put off.

Aiden pushed aside the weird feeling, “Yeah, I can imagine how draining this whole situation must be for the two of you.”

He began making his way to the stairs and motioned for them to follow him.

“We have a guest room,” He looked back at the pair, “There’s only one bed though, hope that’s okay.”

Jesse stretched, “Yep! Don’t mind at all. Worst case, I’ll sleep on the floor.”

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Aiden opened the door to the guest room and it looked… Surprisingly nice.

Jesse wasn’t too sure what he was expecting from a guest room in Aiden’s house. He imagined it being cramped or dirty, but the room was rather spacious and tidy. The spruce floors and birch walls were bare, so the main features of this room was it’s single window, a neatly done, red bed with a light brown night stand beside it and a small lamp. Several boxes of various sizes surrounded a desk which was pushed far into the left corner of the room.

Jesse was delighted to see the bed was decently sized and could fit the two of them with no need to fight over the sheets. Olivia was glad Jesse wouldn’t have to sleep on the ground. However, she felt an uneasy emptiness accompany the room. The place was weirdly barren for how big it was and the boxes in the corner made her wonder if this used to be someone’s bedroom.

‘You’re overthinking about a guest room.’ Olivia told herself. She let out a yawn.

“Hope this’ll do.” Aiden said, “If you need anything, don’t hesitate to ask.”

“Thanks, Aiden.” Olivia smiled. Aiden returned the smile and left the two alone. Her appreciation was genuine and… Odd. She never thought the day she was grateful for Aiden’s help would come. Their Aiden or not, it was weird nonetheless.

Jesse had flung off his shoes and flopped onto the bed, letting out a loud groan. He covered his face with his arm and laid still. He felt the blanket with his other hand. It was thick. You could suffocate a person with it if you were determined enough.

“I love beds.” Jesse said with a muffled voice, “So much.”

Olivia chuckled and slipped into the bed, placing the small book she’s held onto the nightstand. Her legs were sore. When was the last time she sat down today? She ran into the jungle temple with Jesse, walked all the way to Obsidian town, walked to and from the library, not to mention all the standing around. Who cares?! She was in bed!

She was looking forward to the tour with Radar, imagining the different structures this universe had to offer; curious about what’s changed or remained the same, what features they add to their buildings and why. Maybe Radar would talk about the shrines!

‘I shouldn’t be getting this excited before going to sleep.’ She took a few deep breaths to collect herself.

Jesse got under the blanket, “G’night Olivia.”

Olivia smiled, “Night, Jesse.”

She tucked herself in and closed her eyes.

Five minutes passed and Jesse was still awake. Five became tenl. Ten became thirty. He was still wide awake. Jesse found himself stuck. Stuck with his own thoughts and what he’s learned.

He scratched the idea of awakening Olivia to talk.

‘You already dragged her through a portal, entered another universe, discovered she died, and now you want to wake her up at the crack of dawn?’ Jesse hoped Olivia was sleeping soundly. She didn’t deserve to be kept up all night, plagued with horrid possibilities and regret.

Why’d he have to be so thoughtless when discovering the portal? Why did he go through it? Why did he have to take poor Olivia with him?

He’ll make it up to her. He’ll find a way back home as soon as possible.

‘I wonder…’ He shifted around. ‘How awful the ‘me’ in this universe is…’ Bad enough for people to reject the idea he and Olivia came from another universe and instead believing Jesse’s current actions and nature were a front. An act.

It was enough to make him wonder what he--his counterpart--did to Aiden and his friends to have them believe Jesse’s kindness towards Olivia and his cooperativeness was fake.

There was another him.

Another Jesse.

Another Jesse who had lived a completely different life than him, who had history with everyone in this house. A Jesse who had caused others to suffer.

He had entered a place where he already exists. It terrified him.

What happened to him?

Jesse snapped out of his thoughts and could hear a conversation going on downstairs. He wished he could decipher the muffles.

But he had to sleep.

Jesse wasn’t sure if he COULD sleep. The sun was already cracking the sky, slowly releasing hues of orange and pushing away the dark blues of the night.

His mind couldn’t settle down.

How could he sleep?

‘Try.’ He told himself. He should at least try. He’ll need the energy for tomorrow.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Aiden took his time getting back downstairs to the others. He smiled to himself. He didn’t want to say it outloud, but Olivia’s “Thank you” made this stressful evening better.

He was trying to figure out how they would begin looking for a way to deal with this whole mess. None of them knew what activated the portal in the first place. Even if they did, finding the materials would be a difficult task. He could check out the journal Hadrian lent him for ideas or maybe ask Hadrian and Mevia themselves. If they taught Gill about universes, maybe they knew about the portals for them.

‘Petra has more… Interesting items. Could be worth stopping by her place.’ He reminded himself. As he approached the stairs, he could hear his friends--mainly Stella--talking.

“...This is why I have such a hard time believing Aiden’s theory.”

Aiden came to a stop and stood still, listening in on the conversation.

“I can take Jesse forgetting a majority of his life, I can take the idea of The Hero’s Awakening going the extra step and being able to pull off necromancy! I can’t believe a different universe. It feels like such a stretch!”

“Necromancy’s more logical than a universe with a good Jesse existing?” Maya asked.

Stella folded her arms, “We don’t have any concrete evidence! Come on, he said Aiden attempted to kill him. Twice. Doesn’t that sound ridiculous?”

“It does.” Maya admitted, “But Jesse wasn’t talking about the Aiden we know.”

“Puh-lease!” Stella laughed, “How bad could the Aiden in ‘his universe’ be?”

Stella’s laughter died down and she stopped to think.

“I do find it interesting he mainly talked about Aiden and Cassie,” Stella said, “Makes me curious what the rest of us are like in his supposed ‘universe’.”

“He did recognize us...” Gill stroked his beard.

“Didn’t like us.” Maya added.

Aiden leaned against the wall as the conversation began fading. A sour feeling began to build up inside his stomach. He tried to ignore it and shift his focus back onto getting Jesse and Olivia home. Instead, he began thinking about Jesse himself. What he said earlier.

He didn’t know why his other-self went to Sky City nor what he did there. The most context he got was from Olivia saying what happened in Cavern City ‘reminded her of Sky City’ and he nearly killed Jesse twice. Aiden’s head became hot.

‘You would never do that.’ Aiden tried to reassure himself.

He saw Sky City was a warning. A peek into what he could become. Who’s to say he wouldn’t end up like the Aiden Jesse knew given enough time?

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Cassie Rose looked up and spotted Aiden sulking in the stairway. She slipped past Stella and Maya along with an extremely invested Gill. Radar went back to pick up the pen he dropped from earlier. Hopefully he wouldn’t comment on her sudden absence.

She approached Aiden.

“You doing okay?” Cassie asked and sat on the railings of the stairs.

“Thinking.” He answered.

“Thinking about what Jesse said?”

“Mm. I’m just--” He breathed in, “Why didn’t he tell us about the destruction of an entire city?”

“Maybe for the same reason none of us told him about Cavern City.” She suggested, resting her head back against the wall.

He hadn’t thought about it like that. Aiden wasn’t certain what Cassie’s--or his other friends--reasons for keeping quiet were, but he felt like he had to keep his mouth shut. When Rose first mentioned the possibility of amnesia, he wanted to brush the idea off and forget about it.

But he didn’t. In fact, the longer the night went on, the more he found himself believing Jesse lost chunks of his memory. Aiden didn’t want to bring up any reminders of the past; he was afraid it’d trigger Jesse’s memory and everything would spiral out of control again.

Of course, Aiden’s concerns did fade when Jesse shared his past experiences with him. No matter how strange Jesse’s stories sounded, a part of Aiden knew he was telling the truth.

He didn’t have to worry about Jesse regaining his memory anymore. Instead, he started worrying about their Jesse. The one who’s still out there.

“What about you?” Aiden asked Rose, “Aren’t you bothered by what he told you?” Hearing about how he almost killed Jesse felt like a punch in the gut. He couldn’t imagine how Rose must’ve felt when it was announced she murdered three people completely out of left field.

Cassie scrunched up her nose and shook her head, “Nope.”

Aiden blinked, “Really?”

She shrugged, “It caught me off guard. Jesse calling me insane was what got me the most. The whole ‘mansion murders’ sounded ridiculous. It doesn’t bother me.”

It bothered her.

It disturbed her.

She started off disgusted by Jesse’s words, but as she continued thinking about what he said more and more she felt disgusted with herself. Was it herself or this other Cassie Rose?

‘How could she?’ Cassie asked herself.

‘Could I do that?’ An uneasiness grew inside her. Cassie was still on the fence with Jesse coming from another universe. A part of her was hoping he wasn’t. She’d be eternally thankful if Jesse revealed everything he’s said today was a lie.

Curiosity clawed at her. Begging her to find out more.

A part of her mind knew it didn’t matter what she found out or what motivated the other Cassie. No matter the excuse, she took the lives of innocent people. The mere thought filled her with pure, unkempt rage. After what she’s witnessed, after what she’s been through, what would set her off to kill? Thinking about this made her frustratingly sick.

“Besides,” The two heard Stella say rather loudly, “I think you’re forgetting another important factor: None of the portals built before worked, so what makes The Shrine Of Eyes the exception?”

“She does bring up a valid point.” Radar said. He began jotting notes down onto the paper his clipboard held.

“Why it was successful doesn’t matter anymore.” Aiden announced, scaring the rest of the group. He stepped off the stairs, “What matters is knowing how we can reactivate it and getting those guys back home.”

Everyone nodded in unison.

Aiden saw Stella open her mouth. “Even if we don’t believe Jesse. I’m sure none of us like the idea of two Jesse’s running around.”

Stella closed her mouth and shuddered at the thought.

Radar raised hand.

“What’s up, Radar?” Aiden asked.

Radar pushed up his glasses and cleared his throat, “Yes--Uh, Sir--I was wondering if… I could be caught up on what’s happened.”

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