UHM HI THIS PICREW HELLO???

👄 for a hot poker and any of of your choice

Character of my choice you say :3c

CW: MOUTH WHUMP

***

“Open up, boy.” The man ordered, and Malachi stared at him with wide eyes, briefly looking between him and the thin iron bar in his hand. He was as exhausted as he was terrified, either way, he didn’t want to find out what would happen if he disobeyed. Reluctantly, he opened his mouth for him, squeezing his eyes shut and scrunching up his nose as he tasted iron. He didn’t shove it into the back of his throat, just let it rest on his tongue, and it was both disgusting and scary as hell. It didn’t last long though, his master removed the bar and he opened his eyes, watching as he turned to rest the end in the fire.

It was rare Malachi was allowed so close to the fireplace in the living room, his master was so strict about where he could and could not go but he’d considered it an act of mercy, being allowed to kneel beside the fire rather than outside in the pouring rain. His master didn’t seem angry, but then again he never seemed angry at first, he was always eerily calm. Still, for the moment he let himself relax, enjoying the warmth. At least, he did until the man spoke up.

“Do you know what you’re being punished for?” He asked, leaving Malachi dumbfounded. He didn’t even know he was being punished.

“N-no sir…” He murmured. He anxiously raised one hand to his mouth, biting on his already destroyed thumbnail as he tried to think about his recent infractions. Everything had been taken care of earlier though, locked outside for not finishing his chores, having a pot of food he made dumped on the floor and being made to clean it up because he cooked it wrong, being locked in his closet rather than being allowed to sleep in his cage because he collapsed on the couch, he’d already been punished, he didn’t know what else he could’ve possibly done wrong.

“Course not, stupid.” He said, and Malachi barely had time to brace himself before he was hit upside the head, hard enough he fell forward and had to catch himself on his hands. “You’re too annoying, that’s why. Always whining and crying and muttering when you think I can’t hear you. Don’t you get sick of hearing yourself sound so pathetic?” He asked.

“I-I… I’m sorry…” He said quietly, though by now he knew that wouldn’t save him. Still, he didn’t know what else he was supposed to do, aside from pray to whatever God there may be for some form of mercy.

“Shut up. Sit up straight.” He ordered, and Malachi did as he was told, but his lip was already trembling, tears welled up in his eyes. He didn’t know exactly what his punishment was going to be but he had a good idea of it, so when he pulled the hot poker from the fire he broke down sobbing.

“N-No!” He sobbed. “No, no please, I-I’ll be quiet, I p-promise, I’m sorry!” He begged, but his master just looked increasingly irritated. He got down on one knee and grabbed Malachi by the face, gripping his jaw hard enough he couldn’t keep crying.

“Stop it.” He said, his voice low and dangerous. “Stop talking, and open your mouth, or I’m going to beat the shit out of you with this bar.” He threatened, and Malachi already knew which one would be worse. He nodded as best he could, whimpering as he stood back up, but after a moment he did as he was told, opening his mouth again and squeezing his eyes shut as he prepared for the worst.

The second the hot iron touched his tongue he began shrieking. It took all his self control to stay sitting in place, he didn’t actually know how he managed it aside from genuine terror at the thought of what would happen to him if he moved. It must’ve only lasted a few moments but it felt like hours, it felt like forever, but when he finally removed the iron bar Malachi curled up on himself, his hands covered over his mouth as he continued to sob hysterically. When he didn’t quiet down soon enough he was rewarded with a harsh kick to his ribs, which is when he finally struggled to stifle his cries, though his chest still heaved and his shoulders still shook violently. His master hardly cared though, looking down on him with nothing but disgust on his face.

“Fucking useless- stop your crying and get up. There’s still more to do today.” He ordered, and after a few moments, Malachi struggled to stand up on shaking legs.

He was exhausted, in agony, but he had to keep going, he had to follow his orders. He didn’t want to know what would happen when he finally gave up.

ragnarok

Genshin Impact | Twin Travelers & Ensemble Cast | AO3 Summary: Blame your Heavenly Sustainer. Notes: Finished this up late last night and threw it on ao3 in a flurry and went to bed LOL. was/am kind of taking a break from writing but instead of not working on my projects, i just wrote this terrible thing instead (that’s what taking a break is, right??)  ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

.

.

.

It goes like this:

Their fingers graze when the sister reaches out for her brother in his red prison, and it is enough. His fingers close around hers and she pulls, pulls him out and away—they know that freedom is only for a second, but if they must go, they will go together.

The red god’s fingers close into a fist, the action already in motion when the sister had gone for her brother, and though the result is not her intention it is too late to stop, outliers as they are.

Red and black closes around both siblings in time with the red god’s hand, and two stars plummet to earth, the sky blazing red and white and gold, the air smelling of scorched ozone. 

.

They awaken.

There is fierce joy in their success at staying together-whole; they know it was a near thing. But they sense what has been lost, and are furious.

They lift their face to the sky and scream, and though their voices are small in comparison to the cliffs and ocean that surrounds them, it reaches the places that matter. Even now they still hold power.

The heavens shudder. The gods lift their heads. The blessed ones stand alert.

Meanwhile, the poor fool mortals know nothing at all.  

.

There is a storm with their coming, a wailing wind that whips around the windmills with abandon, so sharp it could shred leaves from their branches.

Turn back! Turn back! it shrieks, but the twins do not listen. They advance unapologetically, and even when the blue-green dragon rises from its slumber, roaring Danger! Danger!, the mortals do not understand.

But the Acting Grandmaster and her entourage are no fools, their Visions glow bright with warning and even if they know not what they will encounter, they move. In the end, all the Vision-wielders in the city of Mondstadt follow her to the city gates, where a pair of twins are just strolling through the entrance.

“Hail, Travelers,” The Acting Grandmaster greets, tone amicable from the top of the stairs. “Welcome to Mondstadt, despite this poor weather.”

The twins looks at her, molten gold eyes ablaze, and her heart beats faster, nerves thrumming with adrenaline.

“Where?”

It is the brother that speaks first; his voice is harsh and grating and the tongue is not the common language, but it is understood nonetheless. His sister speaks next, no less violent to the ear, and as they alternate their voices form a strange, lilting cacophony.

“Where?”

“Where?”

“Where is the god that has caged us?”

“Where is the god that has stolen from us?”

“I do not know, fair ones,” the Acting Grandmaster says cautiously, trying not to wince with every syllable of the twins’ speech, “Please, if you would—calm down, if only for a moment, we could perhaps—listen and aid you in your—your troubles—”

The air goes still, so suddenly flat and stagnant that it steals the breath from their lungs; they choke on the deadness before the wind circulates again. In that brief moment, the twins have surged up the stairs, circling the Acting Grandmaster once before they are halted; the eyepatched Cavalry Captain has a hoarfrost sword pointed at the brother, while the red-haired Uncrowned King bars the sister’s path with a flaming claymore.

But the twins pay no attention, hovering even closer to the blades, heedless of potential burning.

“Calm?” they ask, hauntingly discordant. “Calm? Calm? You—“

Their hands flash out and the Uncrowned King and Cavalry Captain lurch forward as the Visions hanging from their belts are wrenched, the elements on their weapons winking out.

“Will you stay calm when your own is stolen?” the sister hisses, her fingers tightening on the King’s red gift.

“Will you stay calm when it is you who is powerless?” the brother seethes, eyes cold as the pale turquoise orb in his hand.

The Acting Grandmaster’s eyes widen.

“No, please, don’t—!”

The scent of ozone, and rust, the pure sound of cracking—

“Halt!”

The sky goes seafoam-green, and feathers float gently down from the sky.

A boy descends, winged and clad in white, lyre in hand with its string thrumming. His descent is idyllic, serene, and the people know him for who he is—their errant god, who has apparently wandered their streets as a simple bard.

“Cease,” Barbatos says, his dragon-companion circling the air above, “They have nothing to do with what you seek.”

The twins loose their holds, and the two men stumble back, eyes shaken and warier.

“A god,” the brother spits, looking up with narrowed eyes.

The Anemo Archon tilts his head curiously, scrutinizing the twins as he drops a little lower, a barrier between his blessed ones and the twins.

“Hail,” he says, though his tone is too neutral to be welcoming, “I would thank you not to harm the citizens. City of freedom this might be, but some things should still be avoided, wouldn’t you agree?”

A silence, then the twins bare their teeth, sneering.

“Freedom?”

“Freedom?”

“What is freedom when your wings have been torn from your very back?”

“What is freedom when you merely exist in a gilded cage?”

The Archon raises his brows, drawing his fingers across the lyre.

“Who has done this to you?” he asks cautiously, “Your song is harsh and bitter, your rage sends the birds atwitter. You are not mortals nor Vision-blessed nor Archon…and yet those who hold power like yours…I can think of none.”

The twins listen to his lilting words with some interest, and for a moment it seems that they do calm. But then the sister smiles again, wintry and sharp.

“You are beautiful, God of Wind,” she says, “But that will not help you.”

“Outlanders, outliers, call us what you wish,” the brother says, “But to whom? Centuries we wandered without interruption. We, too, are part of the natural order of this world. So…”

“Just whose arrogance needs to end?”

“And who will pay the price for it?”

Despite whatever they have lost, they are fast. The lyre drops from the Archon’s hands as the sister plunges her hand into his chest and twists; he cries out, the notes high and crystalline.

“Who…” the Archon gasps, unable to manage more.

The sister does not answer the question he means to ask, but gives him an answer nonetheless.

“Blame your Heavenly Sustainer,” she hisses.

The Acting Grandmaster and her entourage do not even have time to move as the Archon’s form glows green, then wavers and dissipates like wisps of wind. When the sister opens her hand, there is a little green vial-like thing in her palm; she reaches for her brother, and in another moment the vial is gone, and the twins’ eyes glow green just for a moment as it does.

“Wh…at….” The Acting Grandmaster finally gasps, shaking and horrified, “What did you do?!”

The brother looks at her with disinterest.

“What is freedom when demanded of you by a god?” he asks, and both the Uncrowned King and Cavalry Captain’s eyes widen.

“What is freedom when the god of such things is gone?” the sister follows.

She waves her hand, a strong gust of wind whipping through the square. The mortals close their eyes and throw up their hands at the strength of it, but they hear the dragon scream, his sorrow and rage shaking them to their core.

When they open their eyes again, the twins are gone and the dragon is on the ground, limp but breathing. Desperate whines escape him as he shudders, and the Acting Grandmaster collapses by his side, eyes still wide with shock.

“I’m sorry,” she whispers, laying a hand on his side. “Oh, Dvalin, I’m sorry.”

The dragon lets out a high-pitched sound, but she cannot understand him. The city is abuzz, and the Vision-wielders look at each other uneasily, for the twins spoke true—

How did they define their own freedom, and now that the so-named God of Freedom was presumably gone…what did that mean for them, and the city?

.

Outside the city, deep in the forests, the wolves and the wolf-raised one raise their heads and scent the air. It smells different; they know something is amiss.

They howl. The air is flat, stale. What does it mean that the wind no longer sings?

Yet the wind still blows. The howls still carry.

But the wind is only the wind. The howls are only howls.

There is nothing to be understood beyond that.

.

The Geo Archon masquerading as a simple funeral consultant sighs when he feels trouble step over into his domain and sets down his teacup. The Eleventh Harbinger looks at him curiously as he reaches for a piece of fried shrimp with his chopsticks.

“It seems our time may be cut short,” the Geo Archon says, and the young Harbinger raises an eyebrow.

“That’s ominous,” he says, successfully relocating the shrimp onto his plate, “Coming from you.”

The Geo Archon does not answer. He frowns, then walks over to the window and throws it open.

He goes still. 

“Ominous, indeed,” he murmurs.

The Harbinger blinks as he chews, then lays down his chopsticks and leans back in his seat.

“What,” he says slowly, trying to decipher the other man’s body language and failing, “Exactly did you mean?”

The Geo Archon turns and stares at him, his gold and amber eyes unreadable, yet more somber than usual.

“You may not wish to depart Liyue,” he finally says, “But you will soon, to bear news to the Tsaritsa. If you will be able to leave by then.”

The Harbinger sneers, half-laughing.

“Is that a threat?” he grins, baring his teeth, but the Archon shakes his head.

“Merely a fact. You will leave, whether you like it or not. And the same is true of me.”

He sits back down and resumes eating. The Harbinger stares, baffled.

“Ah, already they come,” the Archon says, with a sigh, though his does not hurry his pace.

The Harbinger does not understand, but as he looks out the window, the panes rattle in their frames as a storm arrives in Liyue.

.

In the end, the Geo Archon goes peacefully. He is the oldest of the current Seven; there is a chance that could overpower these two strange twins, who have consumed the second-oldest Archon.

But he is tired, and the battle could devastate Liyue. He meets them outside the city, and their exchange is almost pleasant, even if he knows there is something vicious underneath their human veneer.

“But I will not…cannot break a contract forged by my own hand,” he posits, and the twins smile at him.

“How fortuitous that you do not need to,” the brother says, his tone a fine line between mocking and kind, “Is it a relief, to not have control over something, Purveyor of Endurance?”

The Archon does not answer, which is answer enough. The sister peers up at him, reaching to trace the scarlet paint lining his eyes.

He does not wince when she presses her nails into the tender skin under his lashes and grins.

“If you are so tired of stagnancy, then change,” she says.

“Change.”

“Change!”

The twins say the word with delight, twining around him like snakes.

“Even bedrock can be turned to dust,” the Archon says, closing his eyes, “I submit to your will.”

He opens his eyes when the twins each take one of his hands. They are smiling when they press close, almost like children huddling around him for a story.

It feels like mercy when they plunge their hands in and rip his core out of him.

.

In the jade city of Liyue, nothing changes. The harbor bustles, the merchants advertise their wares, officials continue their endless administration. Money continues to flow.  

The city stands strong, with its ancient history and Archon’s blessings, and the years of human hands shaping its status quo.

Rex Lapis rests easy—or would, if he could see them.

.

The Eleventh Harbinger steadies his shaking hands by gripping the railing of the ship on its way back to Snezhnaya. Not everything makes sense; there is much he did not know about his own mission here in Liyue—the mission that is now over, with the disappearance of the Geo Archon that he was after.

He watched when the twins tore into the funeral consultant’s body with ease and extracted the glowing yellow crystal. Some things had made sense then, and some didn’t.

They had seen him, when he stepped back. He could not afford to die here; there was still duty to perform, and family to protect—

Both of them had grinned, all teeth and contempt, and blown him a mocking kiss before he retreated.

He doesn’t know if his shaking is fear or excitement or arousal, or perhaps a combination of all of them.

He also doesn’t know if by the time the ship docks in his homeland there will be a Tsaritsa to report to at all.

.

The other Archons notice, after both Barbatos and Rex Lapis are gone. The air and the earth, wordless—they would be fools if they thought nothing remiss.

And anyway—the twins waste no time.

Inazuma’s blockade is not meant to keep out beings such as they. There is another storm upon their arrival, of greater magnitude than before and far more vicious. The sky streaks white and purple; lightning splits the sky and the following thunder is deafening.

“You dare,” the Electro Archon hisses, when they corner her, “You dare lay your filthy hands on the noblest and most eminent body in all this world?”

The twins laugh.

They laugh and they laugh and they laugh, disdainful and dismissive, not even deigning a further reply.

She lasts a while, the Electro Archon, but she is not so eternal as she thinks.

The brother streaks past her defenses and traps all of her limbs with his own, the Archon’s neck twisted at such an angle it could snap like a mere mortal’s. The Archon screams, all rage and disbelief, and the sister takes her sweet time burying her hand into the Archon’s being, making sure she feels each finger trapping her crystal heart, that she sweats as the cage of finality closes on her.

“Pathetic,” the siblings murmur, and the skies in Inazuma clear.

.

The Hydro Archon puts up a fight, but she does not stand a chance against such bitter vengeance. Still, she imparts with her last words that the twins will be judged in the end, by the divine if no one else. Even in her final moments she has a transcendental assurance in herself, as if dying at the peak of her own purity and magnificence is not so bad after all.

The twins say nothing to her, knowing it will not matter to her own blind faith, but they make sure the last thing she sees is their double and unalloyed disgust.

They are satisfied when the fanatic light in her eyes dim before she turns to nothing.

.

The Pyro Archon is the most formidable, god of war as she is. Fire rages throughout the land, bright and searing, but the twins are undisturbed. It is almost enjoyable, to exert a little more of themselves when they crush the fire into embers and ash.

The Archon takes her loss gracefully, if bitterly.

“Does it please you?” she gasps. “To turn everything to cinders?”

Matching frowns and pitying looks are cast down at her.

“What does it mean,” the brother says, “To do things for pleasure?”

“We do things we must do,” the sister adds, pressing her heel into the Archon’s hand so that she winces.

“If all you have done is for pleasure…”

“Then how disappointing it is, that merely this is its strength.”

The brother shoves his hand deeper and twists, making sure she cries out before they grind her to dust.

.

The Tsaritsa greets them with incredulous laughter when they stroll into her frozen palace, throwing her Fatui aside like rag dolls.

Her resistance is mostly for show. With her Harbingers either dead or unconscious, she puts her pale hands in theirs.

“We are not yours to command,” the brother warns, but he is almost kind when he tells her this.

“We are not here to meet your expectations.” the sister adds, with a raised brow.

The Cryo Archon merely smiles, inclining her head.

“The end result is the same. If it is no longer my grievance, if you will burn away the old world…I offer you my love, and go whole heartedly.”

The twins frown, but they listen.

“We are not here to fulfill your wishes. We are here to take back what is ours.”

The Tsaritsa’s next smile is sharp, bright and wretched.

“The end result is the same,” she repeats, and the twins shrug.

They lean forward, kiss her cheeks.

When her final gasp escapes her, she sinks into the twins in surrender, and all of it is almost tender.

.

They do not find the Dendro Archon. He is wise, to hide as he does, and so well.

They let him go.

.

There is—something else, too, somewhere, watching them. Waiting. Expectant.

They let that go, too.  

.

The Sustainer never shows her face, but the twins no longer care.

 “Your first mistake was trapping us here,” they shout into the air, at the end of it all. They pulsate with the power they have garnered; they tear into the fabric of the world, they take back what is theirs. “If we could not destroy the cage, we would destroy everything within it until the cage collapsed in on itself.”

Everything goes bright, bright; the air smells so startlingly crisp, as if it were divine air—

“You have only yourself to blame,” the twins hiss, and then—

There is only light.

.

The twins depart, their mouths tasting of sweet rust and lips gold-bright, leaving naught but ashes behind them, remorseless.

.

.

.

Time passes, and the heavens are graveyard-quiet.

Cody x Reader

(18+)

Some smutty angsty sexyness that is Cody. My FIRST EVER fic written down properly and posted for the world to see. A story of a gal who was hurt by one man, but will be healed by another.

○○○

"Umf!"

My breath rushed out of my chest as he pushed me down on to the bed. 

He loomed over me, predatory, menacing,... eyes of hard amber perusing my naked flesh, like a great beast considering the first bite of of his meal.

How I wanted him.

Cody.

He prowled up my form, muscles rolling under the bronzed skin. Spreading a scarred paw across my abdomen, he skidded it firmly upwards, the drag of the calloused fingers trailing tingles of delight in their wake. Upon my sternum. Between my breasts. He pressed his weight there upon my collarbone, while the his other hand dragged my knee to the wayside. Spreading my intimacy wide open before him he squirmed his thighs under mine, and flexed his hips outward. The result sent my insides fluttering like a caged bird, as his pelvis pressed forcefully against mine, crushing his solid member against my already eager sex.

My shuddering breath caught in my throat, and instead escaped as a groan so wanton in its tones it could've made his chaste monk of a general go scrambling for a clean pair of trousers.

He grinned, obviously pleased with my reaction.

"Is that so, Ad'ika?" The oppressive hand left my chest and slunk up across my neck. "You want me rough and angry?" 

His lilting baritone voice caressed my ears. Tantalizing is its veiled meaning. 

His hand darted under the nape of my neck, filled itself with my loose tresses, twisted and hauled at me firmly. I couldn't help but obey his touch, my body arching under his.

"I am not a gentle man…"

My hands groped at his skin, searching the sinews of his neck and then the muscles of his shoulders and back, seeking a sturdy hold I could use to pull him closer to me, whimpering all the while with my eagerness. 

Cody took the opportunity to thrust an arm underneath me to maintain the curving slope I had offered him. Dipping his head he tasted my lips, and neck, licking and biting his way southward. 

As I wriggled against him, my heart raced, hammering against my ribs. He was fierce and dangerous and I was utterly at his mercy.

Cody was soldier born and bred. Diplomacy was not his strong suit, and thusly force and violence had been taught to him as the appropriate solution for every situation. It showed through in his attentions.

He was an alpha male. 

Proud. Regal. Dominant. 

He had watched me for so long, perfectly posed during briefings and meetings, so serene and dignified. But his eyes. They would occasionally meet mine across a holo display, and my insides would clench violently. Those golden gems positively dripped with a primal desire, whether to mate or to feed I wasnt ever sure, but he distinctly reminded me of a monstrous lion-cat I had seen caged at the grand zoo on Couresant. The great male had regarded me as a snack, protected by the durasteel bars. Knowing I was beyond his reach, he had silently paced and imagined the taste of my flesh. And thus was the Commander of the 212th. Pacing safely behind his bars of self discipline. 

Wanting.

Hungering. 

It had haunted me until I couldn't function at my duties knowing he was nearby. And then couldn't sleep when the honey eyed fantasies besieged me. And THEN further struggled at work for the exhausted hangover that resulted. Damn him and his fucking beautiful eyes and the fucking cycle of self torment they set in motion.

His mouth had reached my breasts. He paused and buried his face there, rubbing his cheeks in to their fullness and drawing in deeply of my scent, his exhale fanning a hot breeze across the soft skin and tickling at the dusky pebbles waiting there. He  nibbled his way to the treat, groaning with approval. He captured the firmness of my nipple with his teeth, giving a few experimental tugs before pinching hard. I jumped against him and yelped. Cody answered my bucking by grinding himself against me, his rigid cock finding its way between my slick folds and nudging the most delicious friction against the bundle of nerves hidden there.

"Codeeee..." I pleaded for nothing in particular. I watched as he mouthed at my breast, then took as much as he could in to his maw, sucking hard and lathing his tongue against the firm bud as if he sought to erase it from existence.  I gasped out praises as I raked my nails over his scalp and gripped at his thick dark hair. 

His hand crept between us, and he lifted away from my belly, fisting his member. A few eager strokes smeared my wetness along his length and, satisfied with the preparation, he pressed its throbbing head against my entrance. I sucked in a shaky breath as he began to sink in to me, relishing the stretch of my muscles around his thickness. Without warning he slammed against me, burying his entire length inside as his hips met flush with my thighs. I twisted with a shriek of surprise at the sudden invasion, pulling free of his mouth, the cool air causing goosebumps to rise on my wet flesh. 

Without pause, the Commander withdrew and surged in to me again, and again, bracing his arms by my ribs, setting a grueling pace as rough and as angry as he had offered. My fingers kneeded at this forearms, scrabbling for purchase on the satin wrapped stone pillars, mewling and calling to him with every bone shaking thrust. 

"Fucking hell woman!" Cody snarled from his chest, his rasping breath giving his deep voice a gritty edge infused with sticky, heady lust. "I've to fight to get inside you, you're so tight!" The best answer I could manage was strangled croon as I reached for his face.

His big hands snatched my arms away, strong fingers shackeling around my wrists and pinning them beside my head. He dropped his sweat soaked forehead to my shoulder and rammed in to me with every ounce of his body behind it. My muscles clenched at him like a greedy fist and he pushed back against them, uttering a deep animalistic grunt in my ear.

That noise proved my undoing. It ricochetted around in my mind and knocked loose something long ignored. A memory tucked away in the darkest recesses, and for a moment the world warped. Another man was on top of me, pinning my arms, his body heaving against mine. He had pressed his face to my neck, unwilling to look me in the eyes. He made no noise except for his grunts of exertion. And I had silently cried.

Cold fear began to seep through my gut, electric tingles of anxiety spreading out from my navel. 

"Co…. Cody…"

Please, let me see your eyes. I need to know your here with me. His teeth scraped my neck in response.

"Cody…." I pleaded.

Look at me. Answer me. Please… anything! Just chase that fucking image away!

"CODY! CODY STOP!" 

Cody froze, every muscle taunt and straining. His head snapped up, eyes wide. 

"What?! What's… Ad'ika, why do you look at me that way?? Have I hurt you?"

His brow knit with worry. And then, after a moments thought, in to his eyes… those magnificent honey colored pools… seeped horror. He pushed up off of me, shame washing over his features. 

"I'm sorry! I'm so sorry cyare! I thought that.. this is … is what… you.." he stammered. He was shaking from head to toe. 

"No Cody! Don't think that!" 

It was what I wanted. He was what I wanted. I had led him to my bed by my own hand. I knew Cody wasn't a cruel man. Tough and hard yes. Severe, sometimes. But abusive? Not for a hot second. I couldn't let him even entertain the thought that he had done wrong by mounting me. He slid further away and I lunged for him, catching his shoulders in a death grip. 

"I got inside my own head for a moment.. And I frightened myself. I just needed to see your face and put it back where it belongs. Please don't think like that..." I pressed my forehead to his, our eyes almost close enough that the lashes could have tangled.

"...ever!" I kissed him gently, very aware that I had frightened him far more than I had myself.

Cody settled on his knees, searching my face. His own was still etched with worry: his forehead wrinkled, contorting the scar that twisted around his left eye. His full lips curved in to frown.

"What are you afraid of, cyar'ika?" He whispered. I lowered my eyes, afraid that he might see the truth festering there. "What's been done to you? Tell me."

I shook my head and wrapped my arms around his neck. Pulling myself against his thick chest, I sighed. 

"I won't tell you, Cody, not right now. Especially not while you are trying to make love to me… and I've emotionally kicked you in the nuts." 

Maybe not ever. I don't want him to know. I dont want whatever he and I might have to be tainted by such a shadow. Especially one that I had thought had been put to bed.

He framed my face with his hands and tilted it to his. 

"What do you need from me?" He whispered softly against me. At least the fear had abated, and now he wore concern, and tenderness. Such a juxtaposition from the man who had raged on top of me only minutes ago. 

"Just talk to me, love. Let me see your face so I can watch you enjoy me." I was relieved that he accepted my silence about the matter.

He regarded me for a moment.

"You still want me to touch you?"

"Umh" I nodded.

"You're not frightened of me?"

"No."

He sighed with relief, pressing a kiss to my forehead, and pulling me in to a tight embrace. He tipped forward with me, supporting some of his weight, but laying most of it on top of me. 

We stayed like that for a while, kissing and whispering about nonsense. I marveled at his heft upon me. It could have been oppressive, but instead I felt safe. Protected. Anchored to something real.

It was when Cody began nuzzling at my neck that I noticed he was hardening against my thigh. Lifting his hips, he made room for his fingers to creep between my legs, praising my softness and promising to thoroughly wear me out. 

He pleaded for my readiness as he caressed my clit, demanding for me to be wet and eager so that his cock wouldn't bruise me.

When his thick fingers delved inside of me, his thick knuckles flexed against my opening, and the rough pads searched for the bit of flesh within me that bit like lightning when caressed properly. 

He watched my face, just like I had asked, admiring every blush and wince as I rolled my hips in time with the rhythm of his hand. 

I begged him to enter me, to thrust deeply and hard enough to split me in two. To mark me, and claim me for himself. 

 Scrambling to his knees, he hauled me up against his chest, palmed my ass with his hands and lifted me above his waist. Positioning me above his twitching member, he lowered me slowly, allowing my body weight to impale me upon his rod. I groaned as his hard flesh parted me, feeling the ridge around his head slip inside, followed by the shaft of his raging erection. He filled me to bursting, connecting us in the most primitive and visceral way. 

"Cyar'ika, that is my cock that sits inside you. You were made perfectly for me," Cody gasped against my mouth. "and I will fill every space within you so that there will never be room for anyone else!"

His arms wrapped around my waist with a steel grip. Arching his back and flexing his hips he raised me off of his lap, and hesitated only a breath before slamming me down, seating himself fully within me. I kissed him again and again until his thrusts became to vigorous to manage. All I could do was simply hang on, and loose myself in the feeling of his hard body. 

"Who fills you, woman?" he growled, "Who will you think about in the night?"

"Ah! Cody!" I sobbed, quickly loosing the ability to form proper thoughts. He growled deep in his chest, rapidly giving in to his hunger, staring in to my eyes as he bared his teeth, unwilling to hide his grunts and groans as he did before. 

My body was becoming frantic, begging for this male to push me over the edge and snap the tight knot that was building below my navel. I felt myself sinking under, drowning in the sensations he was driving between my thighs. 

"I'm close Cody!" 

He fought to keep his eyes focused on mine as he hammered his cock in to me. 

"Come for me, ad'ika!" He roared, half commanding half pleading. He rammed himself in viciously enough to make my head whip back. Liquid gold flooded through my veins as my climax spilled around his member. The edges of my vision darkened and stars exploded in front of my eyes. I had the feeling of falling, of the room spinning around me even as Cody's strong arms held me in place. 

Cody thrust within me again with equal strength. Another. And on the third he dug his fingers in to my hips painfully, an oath to some long forgotten god torn from his lips, snarling like a mating loth-wolf as he emptied himself in to me.

In the shadow of his release, Cody's strength waned. He slowly sunk forward, heaving ragged breaths so hard he almost seemed to be sobbing. I combed gentle fingers through his hair, enjoying the cool kiss of the night air on my skin as it swirled around us, lulling us two poor broken fools in to oblivion.

○○○

We had awoken in the early hours, Cody needing to return to his barracks to prepare for the coming day. He dressed and kissed me sweetly, apologizing for his duties that pulled him away. As the door closed I pressed my face in to the pillows where we had slept. They were spiced with the scent of the Marshall Commander, mingled with the salty aroma of sex. I wished for him to be there when I woke up. That he didn't have to be a soldier. That he didn't have to risk his life in another man's war.

○○○

I became aware of daylight on my eyelids.. My mind was foggy and slow, as if it was trying to swim through mud. There was something going on that was strangely out of place in my comfy bed, and disrupting my slumber. As I crossed the threshold in to wakefulness a moan escaped my throat and my jaw fell open. I tried to make sense of the smartly groomed head nosing between my legs as a tongue firmly scrubbed across my already alert clit. 

"Good morning love…." he emphasized the pet name I had used the night before,, grumbling in to my over eager besh & winking one of those gorgeous golden eyes. "Good news…. I've the day off…" 

~Fin~

AAR - XXXVIII - Torturous Research

It can get intense and graphic, so read with caution after the "BOOM".

Also, there is a bit of a time skip. Only a day or so.

Russia wakes up slowly to a sliver of sunlight shining on his face. He had fun with the kids for the past few days.

But today, he and America had to leave to start their mission. 

Russia sighs.

At least they had some of their own fun before they lost their private room.

America shifts next to him before pulling him down into a kiss. Russia sloppily kisses back and runs his hands down America's back, tracing his spine down to his lower back and thighs. Russia enjoys messaging America's behind and America hums, feeling up Russia's chest before pulling away.

"You wore me out last night," America mumbles, staring up with half-open eyes.

Russia smirks. He admires the marks he'd left on America's collar bone. He pulls America back in for another kiss, and America returns the passion.

"It was fun," Russia teases

"A'course. You're good~," America purrs.

Russia smiles back and closes his eyes. America takes a deep breath before sinking against Russia, slotting his legs in between Russia's. America lays that way for a second before pulling away suddenly, sitting up quickly on the bed.

"S***!" America exclaims, the blankets pooling around his waist, "we need to get going!"

Russia nods and sits up. America grabs Russia's hand and pulls him up.

"Come on!!" America exclaims.

America pulls him into the connected bathroom to the room and they quickly clean up before America drags Russia downstairs to where Texas is waiting for them.

"Who is coming with us?" America asks.

"Dixie's in his truck with Netti right now. Then once we get in, we'll be on our way," Texas replies, "it'll be a while before we get there, so we'll have to figure out a game plan."

Russia nods.

"All y'all's stuff is already in the back of the truck. You'll have to thank Ginny and Pig-Pen for getting your bags packed and all that. Now come on, let's get going," Texas says, waving them forward.

America hops into the passenger seat and Russia sits in the back with Texas and Connecticut. Connecticut gives a welcoming smile which Russia returns.

"Hey, Dix. Didn't know you would decide to come along," America says, pulling on the seatbelt.

"Georgia can handle the house," Dixie says, gripping the steering wheel, "and I ain't gonna be standing back no more. Can't have y'all getting hurt and not being able to do anything about it. Now, where are we headed?"

"The closest one from here is a good few hours North," America says, summoning the glowing map he had drawn in the warehouse, "So just start going north and we'll be good. I'll figure out better directions with an actual map."

DIxie nods and pulls away from the house. After just a few moments of driving, the entire building is hidden from view. Russia smiles before turning back to see America excitedly talking Dixie's ear off and Dixie gently shaking his head with a bemused smile.

"Okay," Connecticut says, crossing their arms, "we need a game plan before we start storming bases. Otherwise, it's just gonna end badly."

"Damn right," Texas agrees, turning to face Russia.

"What?"

"You are the only country who might actually be able to plan something," Connecticut says, "Dad has never been a 'planner' and Dixie doesn't get any father than 'shoot now, questions later'. We were hoping you could help."

Russia goes quiet and stares out at the passing scenery.

"We should go to search for missing countries. We have basic maps, so we know where to start," Russia says.

"And how much damage are we causing?" Texas asks.

Russia shrugs.

"Do not get caught," Russia warns.

"Yes!" Texas celebrates, fist-bumping the air.

"Who are we looking for?" Connecticut asks curiously.

"Ukraine. There are others we will look for, but I want to find my brother," Russia replies.

"Sounds good to me," Connecticut says.

Russia looks back and spaces out.

"We're close."

"Hey, what's with the black car?"

"DAD!"

BOOM

...

Russia sits up a little and groans. He rubs his head, trying to ignore the pulsing headache, and he looks around only to see that he is completely surrounded by a thick glass reinforced with metal bars with small windows 3 meters above the ground with some deceiving slots in between some of the bars for sound to carry. There is a metal exam table bolted to the ground in the middle of the room, and it looks like it has spots of rust on the restraints. It smells like blood.

Russia looks around more and sees that each of them were in large, and separate cages. He looks a little closer and sees a brutalized Dixie curled up on the ground and covered in blood and bruises. Connecticut looks like they're about to cry and Texas looks beyond angry, but also scared.

"Who's next?" a voice asks.

Russia whips around to stare at a scientist that walks into the hallway in between Russia's cage and America's.

"NO!" America screeches, "DON'T TOUCH THEM! PLEASE!"

Russia looks up and sees America's arms hanging from chains, his wrists bound to the ceiling, and his ankles shackled. Blue magic audibly snaps around America's eye, but America shrieks in pain and his muscles seize. America howls before going limp, and blue-ish black smoke drifts up from the shackles. America's breaths come in ragged gasps.

The horror builds in Russia's chest a lump forms in his throat.

"Me. I'll go," Dixie says, sitting up, his face bloody and one of his eyes swollen shut.

"Oh, no. Not you. You've been beaten. You don't need this," the scientist says with a sickly sweet tone, looking back down at his clipboard.

The scientist looks up at Texas, "What about you?"

Texas glances at Connecticut with a conflicted gaze. The reality of the situation hits Russia like a truck and he leaps to his feet before he gives Texas the chance to answer.

"NO! No. Take me," Russia says, throwing his hand in the air.

The scientist hums for a moment before a smirk appears on his face that disappears quickly. Russia steels his face over and the scientist walks off.

"What's going on?" Russia asks Texas, who looks away.

"We're at one of the bases. They ambushed us," Dixie chokes, "They caught us by surprise and restricted Amy's magic. Amy already tried to escape, so they have him restrained, and Connecticut's magic is blocked here."

Russia examines the area and sees they aren't the only ones here, but that most of the other inhabitants looked almost catatonic in their own cells. Russia flinches when he hears the door squeak open. His eyes go wide and sprint for the exit.

But before Russia can make it out the door, he's struck in the stomach by something that sends bolts of electricity through his veins. He flys back and his legs shake violently. The scientist tsks and writes something down on the clipboard. Russia tries to push himself back to his feet, adrenalin rushing through his system and his heart skips a few beats as he tries to stumble around the scientist.

The scientist jabs him in the stomach again with what looks like a cattle prod and Russia collapses into a heap on the floor.

"You will learn to stay down," the scientist sneers.

Russia ignores the words and tries again to scramble to his feet, only for his legs to go limp against his will. Panic ravages his mind and he tries to crawl his way forward. Then several people walk in dressed as guards. They pick Russia up from the floor and strap him down to the table. Russia thrashes against them, but his arms are hard to control and his legs had gone numb.

"I will take another one to experiment on," the scientist suggests with a smirk.

Russia's frantic thrashing calms and he forces himself to lay back.

'Better me than any of them.'

"Good country," the scientist coos, stroking Russia's cheek.

Disgust fills Russia and he swallows back the nausea that follows.

"Where am I?" Russia spits, and the scientist chuckles.

"You're with me!" The scientist cackles.

"Who are you?" Russia asks, biting back his growing anger.

"I am the main researcher for our cause, of course! Now, lay back and keep quiet~"

Russia shuts his mouth and tries his best to look around until the scientist grabs a strap and yanks it. Russia's head flies back and hits the table with a CLANG.

"Now, let's explore the healing you countries have. Oh! I have been so excited to get my hands on another one of you!"

Something rolls into the room that is loud with clanging and metallic sounds. He can hear muffled shouting.

"What are you doing?!" Texas shouts, his tone horrified.

The scientist shoves a gag into Russia's mouth and Russia swallows back the vomit creeping up his throat.

The cloth tastes like old blood and vomit.

Russia stares with wide eyes and tries to figure out what was about to happen, but the metal things that he hears clambering around remain out of his view. Then something pierces the back of his hand. His back arches in agony and he screams. The smell of burning flesh permeates the air.

It feels like his hand is being thrust into a flame, and he feels nails being buried into the back of his hand. His thrashing had loosened the restraints enough to turn his head and he sees the scientist with a sadistic grin poking a red hot nail into Russia's hand and fingers. The scientist puts the nail aside and begins writing while closely examining the wounds.

"Interesting..."

The scientist prods at the throbbing wounds with gloved hands and pushes the flesh apart as it tries to stitch itself back together. Muffled screams fill Russia's room and Russia's face streaks with tears. His hand burns horribly and throbs with every heartbeat.

"Flex your fingers," the doctor demands.

Russia tries, but stars dance in his eyes.

"Do it!" the doctor demands and a piercing pain burns through Russia's hip.

Russia wails and his vision goes white. He clenches his hand and the burning recedes, and the hole throbs as it is exposed to the air. He wheezes and tries to blink away his tears.

"Russia!" Russia hears America cry out.

Russia's head whips around. To his left was America, who screams and cries hysterically. To his right is the doctor. In front of him is the frozen faces of the states staring up at him horrified.

'I can't let this happen to them.'

He bites the cloth in his mouth to keep from crying out while the doctor puts the nail back on the table.

"Bring it in," the doctor calls.

Someone walks in and he hears America shrieks. Russia spins around to stare at one of the guards walking in with a large, steaming pot. Texas begins shouting obscenities and Connecticut begins trying to bargain with the guards.

"Stop," the doctor says before leaning over Russia's face, his eyes dead except for an evil, sadistic gleam.

"Well, you have two choices. One, you're drenched in boiling water."

Russia's heart drops.

"Or we could make one of the others take your place."

Russia begins hyperventilating at the thought of the pain.

"So, what'll it be?"

"Russ!" Texas shouts desperately, "I can take it! I'll take it! Please!"

'No. I will not let you get hurt if I don't have to.'

Russia stares the doctor in the eye.

"Option one?" the doctor asks, and Russia nods, determined.

The doctor giggles.

"Alright!" the doctor cheers, a horrible smile on his face.

Russia is blinded by searing pain as the scalding water begins burning away the skin on his chest and stomach. He screeches and thrashes as the burning tunnels into his skin. The doctor begins scratching at him and Russia throws his head back against the table, not seeing anything but stars.

Russia can faintly hear America screeching incoherently. He turns his gaze to America, who looks inconsolable, sobbing and thrashing against the restraints.

'Better me than them. Than him.'

Russia's surroundings begin to fade away as the doctor begins taking samples and taking notes. Russia feels his chest and stomach skin go completely numb and the doctor continues to prod at the injuries. He stares blankly, his mind spinning with pain.

'Want to find him.'

Russia stares up at America, who cries and screams into the empty air, the cuffs around his wrists smoking.

'He's sad.'

'I don't want him to be sad.'

"Meri?" Russia tries, but the cloth muffles it to the point that it doesn't make any sense.

America looks up at him and more tears gather in his eyes.

'Oh no.'

'Am I making him sad?'

"I'm sorry," Russia tries to say.

America's head whips up and stares forward with tears before America begins to throw himself around the room against the chains, screaming in rage. Russia's eyelids grow heavy but he forces them back open, trying to watch through his double vision.

The chains snap and Russia is blinded by a bright blue light and he sees America slams against the walls. The doctor didn't seem concerned at first until the glass shatters and Russia hears a horrible scream. A scream of anger, pain, and grief.

America summons his scythe and slices the cages open, breaking Dixie, Texas, and Connecticut out of their restraints before rushing into Russia's room. The guards try to take him down, only to be sliced in half.

Their pieces scatter along the floor and they ooze blood across the floor.

Connecticut summons throwing knives and pins the doctor to the wall by his hands. They laugh sadistically.

America leans over Russia and begins pumping magic into Russia. A thick sheet of magic surrounds his injuries and Russia stares up, watching America's magic begin to flicker in his eye. America's eyes begin to fall, but he scowls and continues to shove as much magic as he could manage into his efforts. Russia feels his pain begin to fade and the waxy skin on his chest began to rebuild itself.

Connecticut cuts Russia's restraints and removes the gag. Russia turns over and vomits before falling back onto the table. America begins shaking.

The cuffs are vibrating and smoking horribly.

"Are you okay?" Russia mumbles.

America's breathing is labored and he trembles, his eyelids fall unevenly. The magic flickers, but the sheets of healing magic remain consistent.

"Dad, you have to stop!" Connecticut demands.

"No! I let this happen!" America wails.

"You're killing yourself!" Dixie yells, trying to pull him away, "STOP!"

America refuses and continues forcing magic into Russia, but the magic that had been in his working eye fades away.

"*America?*" Russia mumbles.

America's magic begins to spark wildly and America sways. He leans against the table before crumbling. Russia tries to sit up, but screams. The hole in his hip throbs and his skin burns. He falls back and breaths heavily.

"We have to go!" Connecticut says.

"No," Russia interrupts, "we have to find anyone else who is here."

"But-"

"No!" Russia screams, biting back his cry of pain, "this can not be for nothing!"

Texas and Dixie glance at each other and nod.

"Go," Dixie says with a dark look, "and take care of them. They deserve it. And grab the guns."

The states smirk and run off, and he hears screaming and gunfire under their running footsteps. Dixie stands over them, trying to prop America up in a more comfortable position.

Russia lies back, trying not to aggravate his injuries any further, feeling completely helpless.

~

Next

Previous

Table of Contents

Borrower Analogical (4)

Chapter Summary: November 16th, 2019. Virgil has a plan- get the key and get out.

(Check my reblog for links to previous chapters)

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Virgil had a plan. Oh yes, he had a plan.

...but Logan wasn’t going to like it.

Truth be told, Virgil didn’t like it either. He had been avoiding it, but with the way things had been escalating Virgil knew it was time to take risks rather than play it safe. Logan didn’t deserve to spend even a single night in that cage, and now he had spent three. 

Virgil watched through the vent bars as the human, Patton, entered the bedroom where Logan was still held captive. The human offered Logan some food, then locked the cage door back up, the key hanging from his lanyard appearing in view only briefly before being tucked back under his shirt. Virgil leaned forward, watching Patton exit the room. Then Virgil stood, hurrying down through the vents to follow. 

Much of the day was spent like this. Every time Patton traveled from room to room, Virgil was sure to follow; albeit at a much slower pace. By the end of the day Virgil was panting from all the exertion. It was quite a feat, trying to keep up with the human’s much larger steps.

Unfortunately, this was a necessary step to Virgil’s plan. He had to keep an eye on Patton as much as possible, tracking his movements. Well, more specifically, the key’s movements.

Strictly speaking, keys were an item never, ever to be touched by borrowers. Humans always noticed when they went missing and were willing to go to desperate measures to find them, sometimes including tearing up floorboards or drywall. And these humans were bound to notice the instant this particular key went missing, which meant Virgil would have to be quick.

But it was the only plan Virgil had. Simply picking the lock didn’t work. If the borrower had the actual key he could rescue Logan easily. They were bound to leave some evidence behind in their haste, but the humans already knew Logan existed. Would it really be so terrible for them to find a misplaced key if it meant Logan could go free? Virgil was certainly willing to pay the price.

However, it seemed Patton was very attached to this key. The human never took it off, and only rarely did Virgil actually catch enough of a glimpse of it to confirm the human still was wearing it. Virgil was beginning to doubt his own plan, trying to think of any alternatives, when it happened. 

“Well, I’m heading to bed.” Patton yawned, waving goodnight to his human roommate. He returned to his own bedroom, unaware of the tiny footsteps following him in the walls. Patton got ready, changing into pajamas and brushing his teeth. He crawled into bed, setting his glasses onto the nightstand. Patton paused, but ultimately decided to keep the lanyard on as he slept. Roman’s paranoia was starting to get to him; it almost felt like Patton was being watched.

Patton shuddered, not wanting to entertain that idea any further. Instead he reached over and turned off the light, plunging the room into darkness. Then Patton laid back against his pillows. After a few minutes, his breathing began to even out as the human fell asleep.

“Oh, come on.” Virgil groaned, realizing the human even slept with the key on. Were humans really so obsessed with their keys? Virgil was always a worst-case-scenario kind of borrower. So, even though he had really, really hoped it wouldn’t come to this, Virgil still had a plan.

Virgil climbed through the wall tunnels, his feet sore from the long day of racing between rooms. He arrived at the outlet just below the nightstand of Patton’s room. With a strong push, the outlet cover gave way and revealed an exit. 

The borrower peeked his head out, allowing his eyes to adjust to the darkness. Looking up, he could see the shifting form of the snoring human, still fast asleep. Good. Virgil could only hope he stayed that way. 

Virgil swung his hook up onto the nightstand, knowing that it would be impossible to get the hook to catch on the blankets of the bed. He climbed up, avoiding the various objects placed on the wooden surface. Virgil stood, facing the human’s sleeping form. Virgil tried not to feel nervous, but that was difficult when every instinct inside him was screaming that this was a terrible idea. After all, what borrower in their right mind would go towards a human?

Trying not to think about what Logan would say when he inevitably found out about this, Virgil took a running leap onto the bed. He grappled onto the thick fabric with a death grip, refusing to be shaken as the blankets moved beneath him like a ship caught in a storm. Virgil scrambled up onto higher ground for better footing. With a slight jolt, he realized that in his haste to stay afloat Virgil had ended up on the human’s chest.

Virgil shuddered, trying not to think about what lay beneath the many layers of fabric under his feet. He took a few wobbly steps, making sure to keep his footing light. One false move could wake the giant and this would all be for naught. 

It was a slow process, and Virgil kept his head down to focus on his own movements rather than face the very real danger he was heading towards. With every inhale and exhale Patton made, Virgil had to be careful not to be thrown off balance entirely. As he neared Patton’s face, Virgil could also feel a warm breeze that he realized was Patton’s breath. 

“So weird.” Virgil whispered to himself. It was terrifyingly freaky being this close to a human. Virgil had never dared to do something this insane before. And he never wanted to do it again.

Virgil stopped, finally reaching his destination at the base of Patton’s neck. He knelt down, crawling on his hands and knees to where the lanyard rested. Virgil pulled on the strap, pulling the key out from under the blankets and into view. First he tried yanking it off, but the necklace was too sturdy. All the borrower got for his efforts was a groan from the human, and the floor shifting beneath him.

The hairs on the back of Virgil’s neck stood up. Quickly, Virgil took out his knife and began to saw at the lanyard. His hands were shaking. Virgil couldn’t stop thinking about all the things that could go wrong. What if the human was waking? The giant would probably be furious, especially if he figured out Virgil was trying to take his key. Would he just bite Virgil’s head off? Virgil knew that sort of thing wasn’t usually what humans did, but-

Lost in thought, Virgil’s hand slipped. His knife, made of a discarded razor blade, missed the thick strap of fabric entirely. Instead, Virgil could only watch in slow motion as his hand continued down as if of its own accord, slicing down across the human’s skin and leaving a scarlet trail.

“Ow!” Patton quickly sat up, and Virgil’s entire world was suddenly spinning. He tried to keep hold on anything in sight, trying not to fall. Unfortunately, this only earned him a startled gasp as the human became fully aware of his presence. A hand larger than him came up and swatted him away, sending Virgil careening across the bed as a thunderous shriek filled his ears. 

“Patton!” The other human’s thundering footsteps came rumbling in, causing Virgil to groan. “What’s wrong?” This was bad. Virgil tried to get on his hands and knees, ignoring the way his head pounded inside his skull. 

“I- there’s another one!” Patton tucked his legs close to his chest, pointing to the foot of the bed. “It bit me!” 

No, I didn’t. Virgil thought vaguely to himself, feeling a bit foggy. Weakly he began to crawl away, but his muscles didn’t seem to be responding. Was that normal? Was this a normal thing for him? Virgil couldn’t remember. 

“What? Really?!” The overhead light came on, leaving Virgil completely exposed as two humans gawked at him from a distance. “Well, then, uh, I’ll just-” There was a shuffling around the room, and a large shadow overtook Virgil. 

“No, don’t hurt it!” Patton protested. 

“I’m not!” A moment later, Virgil was plunged back into darkness. He felt around, realizing from texture alone the familiar feel of cardboard. A second later the wall came towards him, forcing Virgil back to the ground as his surroundings were once again in motion. As everything flipped upside right, Virgil realized he had been caught in a box. 

Virgil scrambled into the corner, gazing fearfully up at the giant faces peering down in at him. Patton had grabbed his glasses from the nightstand and seemed a bit anxious to peek very far. Roman, on the other hand, was looking at him with an unreadable expression that might’ve been some mix of excitement and anger. Virgil gulped. 

“What’re we going to do about you?” Roman asked, and though Virgil knew the human was talking about him he didn’t dare answer. Luckily the humans didn’t seem to want Virgil’s opinion anyways, turning instead to each other for advice. “Should I put him in with the other one, Pat?”

Virgil’s eyes widened at this suggestion, a small ray of hope in his otherwise bleak scenario. Yes, he was captured. And his head was foggy. But the fact that he would soon be reunited with Logan was a small blessing. Between the two of them, surely they could figure out an escape plan from the inside.

“No.” Patton’s words cut Virgil’s hope like a knife. Just like how Virgil had cut Patton with a knife just moments ago. As if replaying that event in his head, Patton rubbed at his neck subconsciously. “I don’t think that’s a great idea. This one seems too...violent. What if they fight? I don’t want our little guy getting hurt.”

...No. Virgil looked pleadingly up at the humans, but neither of them seemed to be paying him attention as they discussed his fate above his head. No, please, we won’t fight. I promise I’ll be good.

“Well, can you get another cage then?” Roman suggested. Just put us together. Please. 

“Yes, but not until the morning.” Patton glanced at the clock. “They don’t open until seven.” I didn’t even stab you that hard! 

Virgil pulled at his hair. The Universe just had to treat him so cruelly, didn’t it? It wasn’t enough for Virgil to be put into captivity, he had to be isolated as well. Unfortunately, there was nothing Virgil could do about it. His fate was sealed. The box lid closed, the humans thinking it best to keep him contained until his new prison was ready.

Beneath the Surface Chapter 3

This is going to end up being five chapters as even when I’m finished I can still read through and end up going, that should be a chapter break. I’m gonna post this morning, evening and tomorrow, though, so it’ll still end on time! 😊

Chapter 3

She became aware of the cold first.

It lay on her like a thick blanket, pushing through to her marrow until her bones felt frozen inside her. 

For a few seconds, she was convinced she was dead, a cold corpse upon a slab in some forgotten corner of a hospital morgue.

Then the dull ache and swelling on her face set in along with the burning pain on the soles of her feet and she realized she was still very much alive.

She hadn’t expected that.

There was metal under her fingertips, rough and unfinished, and the air had a strange, musty quality to it. Bilba couldn't hear anything so she forced herself to take a deep breath to calm her nerves and opened her eyes.

She was in a cage.

A metal ceiling hung low several feet over her head and she could see part of one corner where thick, iron bars ran down toward the base. Given the situation before she’d passed out it wasn’t a surprise, but it was still unnerving.

Her throat was so dry it burned, and she struggled to find enough saliva to swallow. Just how long had she been unconscious? Her stomach was trying to gnaw on her spinal column, and it felt like she’d had nothing to drink in days.

Carefully, she spread her palms flat on the ground and started to push up. A gasp of pain escaped her as bruised muscles protested. There seemed to be more than before, including what felt like long, thin scrapes and gashes along her bare legs.

They’d dragged her in here, she realized, with zero regard for her physical safety. It didn’t bode well for what they planned to do with her.

She managed to struggle to a seated position, only to freeze with a gasp at the sight of two men sprawled out unconscious on the other side of the cage.

Gingerly, Bilba scooted back the last few inches until she was pressed fully against the bars. It wasn’t very big, even back as far as possible left her only a foot or two of space and she doubted the taller of the two men (who appeared very tall indeed) would be able to even sit up straight.

Neither appeared close to waking up so she risked taking in her surroundings through the bars. It wasn’t very exciting, simply a large basement with all manner of industrial looking equipment. Most of it was covered in filth and some appeared to no longer be in working order.

The floor it all sat on was concrete and equally dirty with what looked like years' worth of dust, cobwebs and debris scattered about.

A low moan dragged her attention back to her two unwanted companions, and she tried to press back even further into the bars. She drew her legs up, balancing her feet on their heels; tugged her skirt down as far as possible and wrapped her arms around her knees.

The shorter man woke up first. Bilba wished he was actually short, and maybe a little less threatening, but the adjective only referred to his height in comparison to the giant next to him.

He was older than her, probably in his mid 20s, with short brown hair and a rugged looking face. He wore a button-down shirt over a black t-shirt, and a denim jacket over that.

He swore under his breath, one hand going to his head, before he started to push up to his feet. He caught sight of the other man and paused to check his pulse. Then, almost as if some weird alarm went off for him, his head suddenly snapped up and his eyes laser focused on her.

Bilba gasped and drew in tighter as if she could somehow magically make herself invisible through sheer force of will.

The man studied her for a second, and then slowly raised both hands, palms outward, “Hey there,” he said, his voice low and quiet. “My name’s Dean. What’s yours?”

Bilba hesitated but then decided it really didn’t matter if he knew her name or not. “Bilba.”

He gave a nod. “Please to meet you, Bilba.” He slapped the other man on the arm and grinned. “This here’s my brother, Sammy.”

Bilba’s lips twitched at the obvious affection in Dean’s voice. “Pleased to meet you.”

The other man, Sammy, chose that moment to groan and Dean shifted to help him sit up. That revealed the man truly was as tall as she’d thought, with saggy brown hair. He dressed similarly to his brother, if not a bit preppier, and appeared to be a few years younger.

Dean said something to him as he sat up and Sammy gave her a concerned look. “Hey.”

“Hi,” Bilba whispered. Her throat felt like she’d gargled with razor blades. She tried to clear it, only to immediately regret the action as it simply made it worse.

"Here." Dean tossed her something and she flinched, only to relax as Sam caught it midair with an exasperated look toward his brother. Dean shrugged and went back to examining the bars.

Sam handed her the item and Bilba saw that it was a throat lozenge. "Thanks."

"Can't vouch for its age," Dean said absently, without looking at her. "Been in there since the last time Sammy got sick."

Sam sent him another look. Dean didn't take his eyes off the bars but grinned as if he could see it.

"Better than nothing." Bilba unwrapped the lozenge and popped it in her mouth before adding, "my...friend, Fili, saw me get kidnapped. He might have gotten the license plate."

"Won't help," Dean said. "Car was most likely stolen." His eyebrows drew together suddenly, and he half turned toward her. "Fili Durin?"

Bilba's heart jumped and she nodded.

Dean frowned, and then snapped his fingers and pointed at her. "Bilba. You're that Bilba."

"That Bilba?" Bilba repeated blankly.

"Man," Dean shook his head, "you messed that kid up."

"Dean!" Sam's voice was sharp, but Dean simply rolled his eyes.

"You saw him. Kid's been moping for weeks."

"Was he?" Bilba was a little ashamed of the hopeful note in her voice. It wasn't that she wanted Fili to be upset, per se. It was just the thought that someone, somewhere out there had been upset over her, and that she hadn't been the only one miserable... "I thought perhaps he wouldn't care."

She hadn't meant to say that out loud, and immediately felt her face flush with heat as embarrassment crept over her.

Sam and Dean had both gone still and were looking at her with unreadable expressions.

"Trust me," Dean finally said, breaking the silence. "He cares."

Sound came from overhead, and Bilba flinched again, drawing into herself. "What were those things?" she whispered.

Sam sighed. "You probably don't want to know." He smiled at her. "Don't worry, all right? We'll get you out of this."

"If Fili doesn't get here first." Dean smirked. "That kid's gotta be pissed right now."

Sound again from overhead, and now the tortured screech of rusted hinges echoed through the small room as a door was wrenched open. Bilba clenched her teeth but couldn't stop the whimper that escaped.

As if on signal, Dean and Sam moved back to their original positions. Dean tugged lightly on the hem of her dress and Bilba scooted over to the far corner of the cage, behind them.

"All right," Dean said in a low voice as he and Sam sprawled back on the floor. "Try to make them come in after you."

Bilba wanted to ask how they were so sure the person coming in would want her, but then immediately decided she was probably better off not knowing that.

Sam and Dean closed their eyes and went limp. Bilba curled up in the corner of the cage, drawing her legs up and wrapping her arms around them.

One of the men she remembered from the house sauntered around the corner and Bilba stiffened and drew in closer, pressing against the bars until they dug into her back.

The man punched a code into a keypad set in the door of the cage and, with a beep, it clicked, and the door popped open. "Let's go."

Bilba shook her head but couldn't find her voice to say it.

The man scowled and slammed his hand against the bars, causing Bilba to gasp and jump. "You won't like it if I have to come in there, little girl. Now, come here."

Bilba doubted she could have gotten up even if she wanted too. She was shaking violently, and her legs had turned to jelly. Dean was closest to her and she curled her toes under his shoulder. They said they'd help her, she reminded herself frantically. They weren't asleep. They were just pretending. It'd be okay.

She hoped.

The...man...or the thing pretending to be a man had been insanely strong and had the ability to trick others into seeing things that weren't real. Did Sam and Dean know how to deal with him...it?

The man swore and crouched down. "Obnoxious bitch," he growled as he crawled into the cage. "I'm really not the sort you want to be pissing off right now."

The cage was so low he was forced to crouch. He did, and then went to his hands and knees. Bilba wasn't sure why until, without warning, he suddenly scuttled forward with unnatural, startling speed. He scrambled over Sam and Dean's bodies and reached out to grab her.

Bilba shrieked and tried to press back, but there was nowhere to go. She shut her eyes and tensed, waiting to feel his hand wrap around her arm and yank her forward.

Nothing happened.

Instead she heard a strangled intake of breath, similar to the sound someone might make if they'd been punched in the stomach.

Tentatively, Bilba opened her eyes. The man was still there, just in front of her, but his eyes were wide, expression frozen and he seemed paler than before. She looked past him, and saw that Dean was up on one elbow. His other hand held the handle of what looked like some sort of blade. She couldn't tell for sure, because it was currently buried to the hilt in the man's stomach.

"Correction," he growled. "I'm not the one you want to be pissing off."

He shoved the man off into another corner of the cage and pulled the knife out. He cleaned it off on his pant leg with a scowl and then slid it down inside his boot.

Sam had already sat up and was checking the man where he lay crumpled in the corner. "Looks like silver works."

"Usually does." Dean sounded overly cheerful considering the situation. He got up into a low crouch and held a hand out to her. "Come on, what do you say we get out of here?"

Bilba nodded shakily and took his hand, allowing him to help her out of the cage. "You just stabbed him." Her voice wavered. She'd never seen a dead body before, let alone someone killed in front of her.

"Trust us," Sam spoke up from behind her. "He was planning to do a lot worse."

"And he was going to die pretty soon anyway," Dean added. "Just as soon as his girlfriend got a snack."

"His girlfriend?" Bilba repeated blankly. "What was she going to eat?"

Sam shot Dean an annoyed look, and he raised his eyebrows and widened his eyes in an exaggerated inquiry.

Bilba's own eyes suddenly widened as the answer hit her. "Oh," she whispered. "That's why it mattered that I had no one, so no one would miss me."

Sam grabbed her hand and squeezed it reassuringly. "They secrete a pheromone that lets them interfere with memory. They go after people without connections to ensure there's no lingering sensation of someone being gone. They just failed to realize that most people have at least some connection."

"Which means people noticed," Dean interjected, still strangely cheerful, "and we showed up, met up with the Durins and are handling the problem."

"By getting captured?" Bilba forced a small smile, trying for a bit of levity now that her nerves were beginning to settle just a bit.

Dean chuckled and shot her a cocky grin. "Worked out didn't it? We were here to keep you from being monster chow."

"Dean." Sam sounded exasperated but Bilba surprised herself by laughing, just a little. That laugh vanished as soon as they grabbed her hands just outside the cage door and pulled her to her feet. White hot pain blistered through her feet and she bit back a strangled cry as her knees automatically buckled, trying to take the pressure off. A wave of dizziness swept over her and, when it cleared, she was sitting back on the ground, breathing rapidly, with Sam and Dean both crouched near her feet.

"Don't--" Bilba started, panic settling in and strangling her voice. Don't leave me. That's what she wanted to say, but her mind was stuck on one setting and the only word she could force out was "Don't," over and over again.

Sam moved back to her side, slid an arm around her back and another under her legs and stood with her. "It's all right. We said we'd get you out, and we will."

Bilba was still too upset to speak but managed to nod shakily.

"I wouldn't want to be you if Fili sees you carrying her." Dean quipped as he led the way toward the stairs.

They made it to the top where Dean pressed against the door and tried to hear if anything was on the other side. "I hate bugs," he grumbled.

"They aren't bugs," Sam interjected. "And you're just sore they took your weapons."

"Shut up, Sammy," Dean said without heat. He pulled his boot knife back out and waved it. "And that's most of my weapons. You're just jealous they found all of yours."

Sam had carefully set Bilba on her feet against the wall, grimacing in apology as he did. When he turned back to his brother he'd somehow produced a massive hunting knife that he held up in a few fingers and waggled at Dean. "You were saying?"

Dean scoffed and went back to the door. "Whatever." He slid the door open, risked a look out, and almost immediately jerked back inside and shut the door. "Well, that's going to be fun."

"What is it?" Bilba asked, and then, before he could answer, amended, "never mind. I don't want to know."

"You really don't," Dean agreed. He nodded at Sam and went and took up position just behind Dean's right shoulder.

"You'll be safe here," he told her over his shoulder. "We'll clear out the corridor and then come back, okay?"

Bilba nodded, not because it was okay but because she really didn't have all that much choice. She wouldn't be able to walk well, or run at all, and there was no way Sam could carry her and fight at the same time.

Dean held up three fingers, then slowly curled one down, and then a second. When he curled the third down, Bilba's stomach clenched and she bit down hard on her lower lip as, together, the two opened the door. For the briefest second, she heard what sounded like a strange scuttling, skittering sound. Then the door slammed shut and she heard nothing.

She pressed against the wall, trying to brace her weight against it so she could balance on her heels and not touch her blistered feet to the ground. With death no longer imminent her adrenaline began to fade, and her body's complaints started to make themselves known.

For one thing, she was freezing. She'd been vaguely aware of it being cold but now the temperature was downright biting and the thin dress she'd worn did absolutely nothing for it. She'd lost her shoes and the floor beneath her feet was like ice, which numbed the pain a little but not enough.

After that she could feel the myriad cuts and bruises she'd picked up along with the burning in her throat. She was hungry, and thirsty on top of all of that and fatigue hung on her like a blanket, trying to convince her that lying down for a nap was a perfectly fine idea.

Looking back later, it was probably for that last reason that she utterly failed to hear footsteps creeping up the stairs from down below.

Rough hands grabbed her and, before she could react, a hand was clamped over her mouth, forcing her jaw closed against the scream trying to escape it.

"Your friend missed my poison sack by an inch," a, by now, familiar voice hissed in her ear. "A pity for you."

And, with that, he put his other arm around her waist, tightened his grip and dragged her through the door.

A MOMENT OF WEAKNESS

@disgracedengineer​ received  My muse is having a vivid nightmare and is crying out in their sleep.

                  Sharing a sleeping space with Arthur did not bother him like it might with most, with others he might feel the need to lay awake with eyes wide open, watching out for any sign they might try to take the opportunity to take his life for some ulterior motive. Yet, the doctor’s stable energy assisted in balancing him out, the other had made physical contact with him enough without doing harm, so Tyrian was at ease. He fell asleep with the general tossing and turning, getting up here and there to walk about, until he worked his high energy body into exhaustion until he could finally climb under the blankets and fall to sleep. 

Suddenly, he is no longer in their safe house on the grounds of Mantel without the doctor snoozing peacefully at his side but in an undercoated box of a room, his form stuffed within an all too familiar cage. It is the same size as it once was only offering enough room to comfortably hold a child, his fully grown body crammed within forcing his knees against his chest and his head bowed against the roof of it. Tyrian’s eyes dart about, searching for a means of escape as his breathing turns to hyperventilation, air pushing in and out too quickly to properly fill his lungs. 

Head turning upright he sees the light of the door push forward as someone enters into the room, forcing nearly blinding sterile light within. He anticipates in his delirious state the broad form of the brutish leader of the group to enter within despite his life being taken by Tyrian’s own hands years in the past. Rather, a smooth lithe figure blocks the light casting her shadow across him as she nearly glides across the floor. His GODDESS stands before his cage, her face shadowed from the dim lighting, making Tyrian unable to witness her expression.

"   I-I am so glad to see you! How foolish of me... getting myself into quite a bind! To come for me yourself I must say I am honored!  " His words come out rapidly unsuccessfully trying to hide the anxiety in his voice, but she remains silent and unmoved above him. Gulping down Tyrian continues on believing he has offended her foolishly and misspoke, "   I will make it up to you ten fold! I promise you will not be forced to gaze upon me again in this pitiful state... My Goddess?   "

Heart hammering in his chest he waits for a response in the tense silence. A minute passes, and another, his body starting to feel overheated from the panic within his entrapment as claustrophobia begins to settle in. "   My Goddess...   " He speaks out in a strained voice, "   I'm begging you... please.   "

Finally she moves, but only to settle her hands on her knees and bend over so he can see the dissatisfied look on her face, "   Tyrian... You have disappointed me for the last time.   "

The one he has dedicated his worship, body, and soul to stands completely and by the time these words have sunken in she is already near the exit. "   NO!   " He shrieks out trying to move himself from within the cage by shrugging his shoulders against the bars until he can grasp onto the door of the cage and shake it violently, "   NO NO NO LET ME PROVE MYSELF TO YOU! I CAN MAKE IT UP! I CAN I CAN I CAN--   " She is engulfed in the light streaming in through the door and she is gone. He can feel her absence from his entire world... she is gone.

And he screams.

He is kicking and shrieking in the bed with hot tears spilling down his face, twisting himself in a mess in the sheets not registering a voice shouting his name and trying to keep their hands on his shoulders as he struggles away. Tyrian kicks at the figure knocking them away as he rolls over falling stomach side down on the floor, long hair tangled about his face and leg still stuck in the sheets forcing it bent toward the bed.

He does not struggle for freedom any longer only lays there with his fists clenched before him on the ground, tears dripping onto the wooden floor below him. Footsteps begin after a moment to walk around the other side of the bed and when his leg is lifted to undo it from where it was stuck and set back on the ground. 

Looking up between his blurry vision he caught sight of Arthur gazing down at him, in an instance he flings himself at the doctor burying his face into his shoulder crying out again. His nails dig into exposed skin, holding onto Arthur as if he did not claw into him, leave bloody fingernail marks in his skin, he would disappear just like her.

killing in angsty fanfiction you say! amazing! well you said you were lookin through the ralbert tag so idk kill Al he’s my fav as you probably know—fizz

oh yay he’s my fav too and i love killing him

warnings: death, violence, claustrophobia, swearing, blood, sort of self harm and suicide?

paring: ralbert

canon era

albert’s pov

To put it shortly, the Refuge sucks. It’s a never ending shithole of torture, both physical and emotional.

I’m here with Race, so it’s nice seeing him when neither of us are being beaten to a pulp in the basement, but it only makes it worse when one of us is.

I know he can hear every scream that escapes my lips, but the pain is just too much to handle.

And the worst part is, all of it is meaningless to Snyder.

I know he’s only soaking me to get to Race, it’s pretty obvious.

I try to be as annoying as I can, just so I can feel like I actually deserve the punishment, but Snyder sees right through that. Strangely, that’s when he ignores me.

I wish I weren’t a tool.

Just something that can be used to Snyder’s advantage.

Not even a person, an object, something as inanimate as his belt or switchblade.

“Y’know Spider, I was thinkin’ for a moment there that ya actually cared about me.” I comment in a break between hits.

“Interesting.” Snyder muses. “Because I think you know that I give exactly zero shits about you.”

“Yeah, ya wanna hurt Racer by hurtin’ me, blah blah blah. You do realize it’s not workin’ though, right? He knows I can take a beating.”

“That’s why I have a new strategy.” Snyder sneers.

I frown, wondering what he’s talking about. Whatever it is, it can’t be good.

I’ve heard of some of Snyder’s other punishments, dealt with them even, but it sounds like he has something new in mind.

And then the door at the top of the basement stairs opens and I know I’m in deep shit.

Race is fighting against the guards holding him, but to no avail. He’s already so weak from lack of food and his injuries.

“Fuck you! Get offa me!” Race is shouting, glaring at the guards, trying desperately to free himself from their grasp, and he doesn’t seem to have noticed me and Snyder yet.

“How nice of you to join us, Blondie.” Snyder’s voice is so sickly sweet it makes me want to vomit.

Race notices Snyder first, glaring daggers at him, and then he seems to realize that Snyder said “us”. He looks down at me, and I see his face fall.

“Oh God, no. No. Please, Spider, PLEASE!” Race’s voice cracks, and he’s shaking violently.

“I say we have a little fun with Pretty Boy here...” Snyder trails off, and he grabs my chin roughly.

The nausea is stronger now, I want so badly to be back at the Lodging House, safe and warm, not having to worry  about anything but selling all of my papers.

“Don’t touch ‘im!” Race shrieks, but Snyder simply ignores him.

I shut my eyes, wanting nothing more than an end to the pain, but my prayer isn’t answered.

I fully recognize the crack of the belt just before it strikes my back, and the fiery pain it brings is all too familiar.

I hunch my shoulders, preparing myself for the next lash, but it never comes.

Instead it’s my arms being forced behind my back, metal cuffs digging into my wrists, and being lifted off the ground by my hair.

It’s being dragged up the stairs and down a hallway.

It’s hearing screams from Race, who I know must be behind me somewhere, it’s my legs dragging along the floor, it’s not daring to open my eyes for even a second because I’m too scared of what I’ll see.

It’s being thrown into a new room, one with a hard floor and the sound of a door being locked.

It’s when I finally open my eyes that I see the nightmare I’ve been thrown into.

It’s a cell.

But it’s not a cell, because it feels more like a fucking cage than anything else.

There are bars surrounding me on all four sides, and the cage itself is so goddamn tiny I can’t even stand up in it.

I can’t stretch my legs, I can’t stretch my arms, I can barely even breathe.

Race is outside the bars, clinging on to them as if for dear life, shaking them in hopes of setting me free, and I can see tears welling up in his eyes.

“It’s okay, Race.” I try to say, but my throat is so dry my words are all cracked and broken.

I realize I’m going to die here.

This is what Snyder wants.

Race and me so close to each other, so close but not able to help one another.

He wants Race to see me wither away slowly, until I’m nothing more than a ghost.

And it’ll work.

“Race.” I choke out.

He presses his face against the bars, leaning in as close as he can.

“I love ya.” I say pressing my face close to Race’s.

Our lips manage to touch the slightest bit, and I savor the moment for as long as I can.

“What are we gonna do?” Race asks, his words almost a sob.

“Don’t look, promise me that.” I say slowly.

“What?”

“Jus’, I’se gonna do somethin’. It’ll be better in the end, I promise. Jus’ promise ya won’t look.” I can barely speak, I can’t believe these might be my last words.

“But-”

“I love you.”

I wait for Race to turn away before I start.

I brace myself, repeating in my head that it’s for the best, that I’m going to die anyway and this will be less painful, and slam my head against the bars.

It hurts like a motherfucker, my headache is getting worse by the second.

I do it again, harder.

I feel warm blood rushing down my face, I must have split my skull.

I throw my head against the bars again, and the last thing I hear is Race’s scream.

wow that took a dark turn

this took forever to write but i’m low-key proud of it

(also i didn't edit this so sorry for any confusions or mistakes)

how alone you are

fandom: Kuroshitsuji/Black Butler

relationships: Platonic Sebastian Michaelis & Ciel Phantomhive (s*baciel shippers don’t touch!)

summary:

“I have no one,” Ciel whispers, shaking. “I have no one.”

“You have me, my lord, until I bring you victory,” Sebastian assures him softly.

Ciel lets out a short, frost-bitten laugh. “Until you claim my soul,” he corrects.

or

A Faustian pact is a poor cure for nightmares.

tags: Hurt/Comfort, Friendship, Angst, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Implied/Referenced Torture, platonic fluff, Platonic Relationships, seriously if you ship seba/ciel dont touch this fic please, Trauma, References to Book of Murder and Book of Circus, venting, Nightmares, Panic Attacks, Banter

chapters: 1/1

read it on ao3 here or under the cut

(i dont know why but somehow i found myself catching up all the way on the black butler manga after years of not reading it and was hit with the urge to write a fic that 1) explores sebastian and ciel's dynamic as unlikely friends(???) and 2) allows ciel to reach something of an emotional catharsis with the help of the only person (entity?) who, for better or for worse (probably for worse), actually understands him (kinda). they're both incredibly tough characters to write so i hope i at least somewhat got their personalities right? the idea of ciel venting is in and of itself pretty ooc but i suppose if any fanfiction was perfectly in character, it would all be canon, so. yknow.

anyway i cannot stress this enough i do not want any s*baciel shippers in my notifs ok? don't comment. don't even look at this fic. though i guess if youre reading this you already did, in which case, fuck you for not checking/straight up ignoring the tags. point is i dont wanna hear any shippy shit alright keep it classy. ciel's 13, give him a break. he needs a guardian, not a love interest, especially not one thats thousands of years older than him. yikes.)

There are some things - however few - that Sebastian cannot protect him from.

He is content to leave it that way, at first. It’s not his job to be a shoulder to cry on or to chase away nightmares. That was never part of their deal and he wagers that Ciel would prefer to keep it that way. Whether it is because of self-delusion or pride, he will not confide in Sebastian; not when it comes to the scars that lie beneath his skin, invisible but lethal. And truthfully, it is just as well; Sebastian is unsure what he would even do with the information. Handling someone’s emotions without exploiting them is not really his area.

All he needs to do is keep Ciel alive and healthy. All he needs to do is watch the corpses pile up at the foot of Ciel’s throne. All he needs to do is kill some time before his next meal.

And yet all Ciel needs to do to keep Sebastian at his heel is call his name.

And that, as much as it pains Sebastian sometimes, was very much part of the deal.

It has been a while since Ciel has had a nightmare; at the very least, it’s been a while since he’s had one terrifying enough to rip a grating shriek of his butler’s name from his lungs and through the quiet air of the Phantomhive manor. Sebastian has noticed, however, that Ciel has not been sleeping well, regardless. Just this morning, the young lord nearly fell asleep on his feet as Sebastian slipped his silk eyepatch on for him, and then later did fall asleep in his study, drooling into the pages of a book. Something is weighing on his mind, and while usually Sebastian would argue that it’s none of his business what goes on in his little lord’s head, it seems to be becoming his business right now as he rises from his desk and ascends the stairs to answer his master’s call.

He is at Ciel’s door in a matter of seconds and, because no one is around to see it, conjures a tray of warm milk and honey with an elegant flourish of his wrist. He sighs inwardly. He knows that Ciel is still plagued with trauma; has ruined too many gloves wiping vomit off the corner of Ciel’s mouth and reminded him to breathe too many times to forget. Still, he was hoping that his young master would have grown out of his nocturnal panic attacks by now.

After all, a violent flashback while witnessing a child’s murder makes sense to him. A nightmare after a quiet, peaceful evening at home does not.

Regardless, Sebastian dutifully knocks on Ciel’s door three times, signalling his presence. He waits before entering, watching the warm milk he prepared ripple in the flickering candlelight illuminating the hallway. He hopes the young master has enough sense to swallow his pride and invite him in before it gets cold.

“Sebastian?” he hears Ciel call after a moment, his voice raspy and muffled on the other side of his door.

Slowly, Sebastian pushes it open and steps inside. Warm light from the hall spills into the room, a slant of yellow cutting across the young master’s trembling form, tucked deep under the covers. It disappears as Sebastian shuts the door behind him.

“That’s right, my lord,” he replies softly. He balances the tray in one hand as he walks toward the sconce attached to the wall by Ciel’s bed. Knowing that Ciel will want to be able to see him clearly, he pinches the wick of the candle between his forefinger and thumb, and when he lowers his hand, a small flame has already begun to burn at the tip.

Sheets rustle as the young master stirs, emerging from his linen cocoon with a white-knuckled grip on his thick blanket and a terrified stare aimed at Sebastian. Sebastian smiles down at him pleasantly, unfazed by his master’s horror. He sets the tray down on Ciel’s nightstand and wordlessly spoons honey into his cup of milk.

“Nightmare, master?” he asks idly, stirring. Ciel doesn’t answer, still busy panting from lingering panic. “It has certainly been a while since I’ve had to come feed you milk in the middle of the night like a starving pup- “

“You shut your mouth this instant ,” Ciel barks, voice raw and loud and sudden enough to make Sebastian’s hand still and his eyes go wide, his smile slipping cleanly off his lips and leaving his expression blank. He glances up from the tray he brought, meeting Ciel’s multicolored glare. “You forget your place, butler .”

Sebastian releases the spoon he was holding, letting it clink lightly against the rim of the cup. He places a hand over his heart and bows deeply.

“My apologies, my lord,” he says evenly and, because he is sure Ciel won’t be able to see it from this angle, arches an eyebrow at the floor in incredulity. His young master certainly has a shorter fuse than usual this evening. It is true what they say about children becoming agitated when deprived of their nap-time. “Please forgive me.”

He remains still, awaiting the boy’s response. It comes a moment later in a frightened, colorless whisper.

“Come here,” Ciel says, lacking his usual authoritative tone. It’s like he’s reverted back to how he was on that first night, skinny and quivering and sick with fear. The only difference now is that he’s a few inches taller and that instead of smacking Sebastian away and commanding him to keep his distance, he seems to need human proximity - or the closest thing to it he can get his hands on. Sebastian glances up, taking a step forward and kneeling obediently at his master’s bedside.

Ciel regards him fearfully, as if Sebastian might disappear into thin air like smoke from a snuffed out candle. He reaches out a small hand from underneath the covers and curls his nimble fingers into the collar of Sebastian’s shirt. He squeezes and releases the crisp fabric repeatedly, like he needs to make sure both it and Sebastian are really there.

Sebastian remembers something Doctor Arthur said on his first and final visit to the manor; about how, in sleep, the young master looks a little less like an Earl and a little more like a Ciel. He may posture as much as he wishes, but he will always remain that battered little boy sticking his blood-brown hands out from in between the grimy bars of his cage; the boy who was forced to grow up so fast that he didn’t truly grow up at all. The boy who spit upon God and shook hands with the devil. The boy who chose hell over happiness.

“What is it, my lord?” Sebastian asks, curious and amused as Ciel continues to pat down the front of his jacket with frantic hands. They still suddenly, cupped around Sebastian’s shoulders as the young Earl thinks, his face indecipherable. Sebastian looks up at him, waiting patiently.

Ciel’s face crumples like parchment over an open flame. The ominously glowing magenta mark of the covenant in his right eye flickers as he blinks back his tears.

“I’ve had enough,” he whispers, voice trembling - from rage or sorrow, Sebastian is not sure. Rage at his own sorrow, perhaps. His fingers dig into Sebastian’s shoulders, tight like twin mouse traps. If Sebastian were human, he might flinch. “I’ve had enough of this.”

Sebastian places his hand over one of Ciel’s in what he thinks is a reassuring gesture. “Enough of what, my lord?” he wonders.

“I asked you,” Ciel starts, gritting his teeth, “for power. That was our deal, demon.”

Sebastian cocks his head to the side. “Has my service been unsatisfactory?”

Ciel smacks his palm over Sebastian’s mouth. Sebastian blinks. He does not try to pry his master’s hand away, even though it would be easy. He could snap Ciel’s arm like a twig, if he wanted to, and has mused about doing so before. But they have a deal, and it demands that Sebastian never let any harm come to a single hair on Ciel’s head. And besides, it has been a while since Ciel, difficult as he is, has inspired any violent inclinations in him, and that includes now.

“I asked you for power,” the boy continues, “and yet my mind remains weak.” His voice tapers off into barely a whisper, as if he’s still afraid of admitting it out loud - even to someone who already knew. The true horror for Ciel, Sebastian knows, is not so much the torture he endured three years ago, but the fruitlessness of his efforts to take vengeance.

“The dreams do not cease,” he hisses in disgust with himself, “and I will never leave my cage.”

Sebastian is quiet for a long moment. He could say, This is the lightless path you chose. He could say, There is a difference between power and strength. He could say, You are only human. And he could spend the rest of the night with a red, stinging cheek as a result.

Ciel’s hand slips from Sebastian’s face and grips the silky lapel of his jacket. He seems to want an answer, after all.

“My lord, you are overtired,” Sebastian says gently, deciding to hedge his bets. “Please help yourself to the milk I brought; it may soothe your nerves.”

Ciel scoffs, releasing Sebastian’s jacket and hugging his knees. Sebastian stands and attends to the tray he left on Ciel’s night table, letting his hand hover over the cup of milk and feeling satisfied when it warms his palm. It hasn’t gone cold quite yet.

“I’m not a child,” Ciel spits suddenly. If it weren’t for his small stature, anyone else might believe him. He carries the title of Earl and the weight of the underworld with it on his tiny shoulders and not once has anyone but Sebastian seen him buckle under the weight - and even that is a rare thing. He’s proud, he’s greedy. He’s the worst that humanity has to offer, and he’s the best at being so.

He’s thirteen.

“Of course not, my lord,” Sebastian says graciously, though the amusement in his tone is not lost on his master, who snaps his head up and seems to bristle like a cornered cat. “Shall I take it away, then?”

Ciel’s response is an immediate, “No.” Sebastian grins down at him knowingly. “Stop that.”

“Stop what?”

“That smile. It makes me sick.”

Sebastian picks up the cup with one hand and tucks his smile behind the other. “Please accept my sincerest apologies once again, young master,” he says, voice wavering as he tries not to laugh.

“Your ‘sincerest apologies’ don’t do me any good, Sebastian,” Ciel points out hotly, accepting his cup when it is offered to him. “Just do as you’re told.” When he looks up at Sebastian, his eyes are still glassy with poorly-masked fear. His emotional refractory period is not as short as he would like his butler to believe.

Sebastian watches Ciel peer down into his cup with a shaky sigh before taking a tentative sip of from it. After ascertaining that it isn’t too hot, he closes his eyes and tilts his head back as he continues to drink. Eventually, he lowers the cup so it rests in his lap, held in place by his small hands. His eyes remain closed as he takes a steadying breath.

“Are you sure you’re alright, young master?” Sebastian pries gently.

“My emotional state is none of your affair,” Ciel shoots back, eyes still stubbornly shut.

Sebastian’s eyebrow twitches in irritation. Obstinate brat.

“I see,” he says, tone cold. “That must be why you summoned me to your chambers in the middle of the night. Of course. How foolish of me.” He gives Ciel an icy look, patience wearing thin.

(Yes, he is immortal, and yes, he will have an eternity left at his disposal long after Ciel has died, but hours of managing the boy’s schedule while attending to the daily calamities the other Phantomhive servants cause has made him reluctant to waste time. Every minute he spends in Ciel’s chambers is a minute not spent planning their itineraries for the coming day or preemptively preparing himself mentally for his coworkers’ blunders.)

On that very first night, Ciel ordered him to never lie. Sebastian had figured out quickly that the little lord would not afford him the same luxury.

Ciel gapes up at him, appalled. “ Excuse me,” he starts indignantly, “Since when do I owe you an explanation for my orders?”

“I would never dream of expecting such a thing,” Sebastian assures him, but they both know it’s insincere. “I simply wished to express my concern for…”

He lets the statement taper off into silence when he realizes what he’s trying to say, his jaw going slack before his mouth snaps shut.

Ciel’s eyes shoot wide open before narrowing into skeptical slits, luminous amethyst and candle-lit sapphire shimmering through his lashes. “Your concern for what?” he asks, insistent but wary.

Sebastian considers his master for a moment, thinking. So much for hedging his bets.

“...Your well-being,” he answers finally, and it isn’t until the words slip off his tongue that he tastes their truth. He blinks.

Ciel’s brows pinch together, the eyes underneath searching Sebastian’s face like a bandit looting a vagrant’s corpse. He flounders. Finally, in a test of Sebastian’s meaning, he says, “Your concern is unwarranted. As you can see, I am not injured.”

And it is true - Ciel is healthy as can be; he hasn’t suffered so much as a papercut in over a month. And it has been, by all accounts, a quiet, peaceful evening.

And yet Sebastian has not felt at ease ever since he heard his master scream.

“Indeed,” he says thoughtfully, brows knitted, “but it is not an injury that had you calling my name.”

Ciel’s eyes widen as he looks up at Sebastian, stunned. “I’m fine now,” he insists after a moment, suddenly impatient.

“‘Fine’ has variable definitions,” Sebastian points out and Ciel rolls his eyes, “None of which I would use to describe your current - “

“So what?” the young master demands, incensed, the very foundations of the manor Sebastian built him quaking at the sound of his voice. Sebastian closes his mouth. “I’m alive. That is all that has ever mattered to me.” Ciel’s thin fingers press tighter around his cup of milk as if he’s trying to crush the delicate, flowery design painted on its exterior into oblivion.

What outstanding hypocrisy. Sebastian has had enough.

“You,” he begins in a rough sigh before dropping into a crouch in front of his master, unimpressed, “are quite the nuisance.”

Ciel gapes, immediately raising one hand high. Sebastian’s arm snaps forward before the young lord’s palm can make contact with the side of his face and squeezes his brittle wrist tight.

Ciel flinches, fear striking his features like lightning, and Sebastian is surprised when he doesn’t feel satisfaction at the sight. When did that change? He loosens his grip, but does not let go.

“How dare you ,” Ciel spits, outraged. Tears blur and distort the smoldering mark of their covenant. Still, he swallows a hiccup and growls, “You are trying my patience, Sebastian.”

“What a coincidence,” Sebastian remarks, feigning enthusiasm. “You are trying mine.”

The dam breaks. “You insolent - ” Ciel begins in an angry sob, face twisted in agony, but cannot seem to struggle to the end. His gem-like eyes overflow, his princely nose leaks, his heart-shaped face is blotchy and red. In this moment, he is no Earl.

Why, then, should Sebastian masquerade as his butler?

“It is your stubborn refusal to confront your emotions that results in these puerile night terrors of yours and my subsequent subjection to your misdirected, hysterical outbursts,” Sebastian informs him strictly, red eyes cold. Ciel, through slime and salt water, manages a powerful glare and a snarl. Sebastian is undeterred. “Therefore, if there is so much as a ghost of a chance that you airing your grievances now will result in even a single night more uninterrupted by this nonsense, I believe it is in our best interest to take it, wouldn’t you agree?”

Ciel begins to wrench his wrist out of Sebastian’s grasp and Sebastian allows it, even though he anticipates the sharp slap to his cheek that follows. He sighs loudly in annoyance and looks at the floor, listening to the boy in front of him sniffle and hiccup pathetically. He takes a moment to compose himself; to let the flicker of anger in his chest to go out, eyes falling shut.

He does not anticipate Ciel’s arms hooking around his neck in a distraught embrace.

Sebastian tries to remember the last time he was held.

It was probably by Mey-Rin; she trips over her skirt or her shoelaces or other people’s shoelaces or the floor at least twice a day, and it is often Sebastian who catches her before she falls and breaks her nose - or worse, the dishes she carries. And though the encounter did not leave much of an impression on him, he did sleep with Beast to find information about her benefactor.

This, however, is obviously, markedly different. This is his young master. This is a child desperate for emotional reprieve. This is a little boy in need who would rather die than admitting so.

Carefully, Sebastian places his hand on Ciel’s head, cautious and curious as to how it feels to comfort someone he’s actually invested in. He smooths over Ciel’s tousled dark hair; feels tears seep into the collar of his shirt; thinks vaguely about all the laundry that’s piled up this week. Ciel shivers against him pathetically, muffled whimpers spilling from his lips into Sebastian’s shoulder, and Sebastian keeps stroking his head the same way he’d stroke a cat’s - sans the enamored cooing.

“I hate this,” Ciel grits out spitefully, yet holds Sebastian tighter. Sebastian chuckles softly, amused by the contradiction. Ciel always has been a walking, crawling, squirming juxtaposition.

“If I may be so bold, my lord,” Sebastian offers quietly, “You need this.”

Ciel responds with a pitiful hiccup. Sebastian lifts the hand not occupied with Ciel’s hair and runs it down his back in slow motions that he can only guess are soothing.

“I have no one,” Ciel whispers, shaking. “I have no one.”

Sebastian almost asks, I thought you had no need for emotional attachments? , but manages to restrain himself. Now is not the time for banter, and he’s already been slapped once tonight.

“You have me, my lord, until I bring you victory,” Sebastian assures him softly.

Ciel lets out a short, frost-bitten laugh. “Until you claim my soul,” he corrects.

Sebastian was not expecting that. They do not discuss that part of their deal often, despite both knowing its inevitability. Strangely, the pang of hunger he feels in his core at the reminder is accompanied by something else - different, but equally as painful. While hunger leaves him hollow, this seems to fill him past capacity. He is being torn apart.

“Victory first,” he vows after a quiet moment, suffocating his feelings like he would a kitchen fire. “You have my word, sir.”

Ciel’s fingers dig into Sebastian’s back as he buries his leaking nose deeper into the crook of his neck.

“How cruel,” he whispers bitterly, “that the same hand protecting me is the one by which I will die.”

Sebastian’s hand stills mid-stroke of Ciel’s ducked head. He had never thought about it like that. Ironic, yes. Poetic, yes. But never ‘cruel.’ When he thinks about it, he finds the word fits just as well.

“You chose this, my lord,” he reminds the boy and himself, but still does not feel absolved.

“Indeed,” Ciel agrees and holds Sebastian tighter. He is never this clingy unless his life is in danger. Sebastian supposes that, in a sense, it is.

“Now, now, sir,” he chuckles, slowly leaning out of Ciel’s embrace. It is late, they have a busy day ahead of them, and one of them has to be the first to stop playing house. “I have kept you awake for far too long already.”

Ciel’s arms loosen around Sebastian’s neck as he pulls away, though his hands remain clasped at its base. His eyes are swollen red, his cheeks flushed and glittering with moisture to match. Sebastian tuts lightly and shakes his head as Ciel sniffles, reaching into his pocket and producing a handkerchief. He rubs the boy’s cheeks and nose clean, suddenly rocked by the memory of the last time he had to do this - just under three years ago. Ciel was ten and still readjusting to life outside of cages and cult rituals. It took a while before he started bothering to wipe his mouth after a glass of milk or his nose after a sneeze, and it was Sebastian who would remind him by example.

Once again he is filled with that emotion he cannot place. Confusion wrinkles his brow and parts his lips. Ciel seems to notice and gives him a curious look, but before he gets the chance to investigate, Sebastian is pulling his handkerchief away, slipping it into his pocket, and rising to his full height. Ciel’s mouth, which had fallen open when he meant to begin his interrogation, shuts silently. Sebastian cannot decide if it is a relief or not; that Ciel isn’t prying.

(He wonders - long after tonight - what Ciel does not say.)

When Ciel finally does speak, it is to interrupt Sebastian’s movement to extinguish the candle bathing the room in soft orange light with a firm, “Wait.”

Sebastian tilts his head questioningly, retracting his hand. “Master?”

“The light,” Ciel says quietly, tired eyes drooping as he looks up at his butler; his confidant; his murderer. “I like it. Don’t put it out until after I’ve fallen asleep.”

Sebastian smiles, deciding it is safe to tease once again. “The esteemed Earl Phantomhive, unable to sleep without a nightlight. How sweet,” he cooes, a hand over his heart. Ciel narrows his eyes at him. “Shall I tell you a bedtime story while I’m at it, my lord?”

“I dare you,” Ciel challenges him irritably. Sebastian knows better than to accept. He grins and watches Ciel’s eyes fall shut.

“Then I take it I am not yet permitted to retire for the evening?” he asks with a put-upon sigh.

“Do you even sleep?” Ciel wonders flippantly in a yawn that he does not bother to cover with his hand. He rolls onto his back and pulls the covers up to his chin.

Sebastian is surprised, but not put-off, by his master’s interest. “No, sir,” he says, “however, like you, I do require rest.” He pauses, chuckling. “Though obviously not as much as humans do.”

Ciel snorts. “Obviously.”

“Well then, master,” Sebastian begins pleasantly, standing with his back to the wall adjacent to Ciel’s bed, “I will remain by your side until you fall asleep.” And until the day where you do not wake up again.

Ciel hums in acknowledgement, rolling onto his side away from Sebastian and curling into a crescent shape against the mattress. Sebastian, although - or perhaps because - his master can’t see him, allows himself a genuine smile. There will be no more nightmares tonight and, hopefully, for the foreseeable future.

“Sebastian,” he hears the young lord say suddenly and glances up to the back of his head, dark against the soft white of his downy pillows.

“My lord?” Sebastian prompts softly, standing at attention.

There is a long pause before Ciel speaks again - so long that Sebastian wonders if the boy has finally succumbed to sleep - but just when it seems like the conversation is over, Ciel breaks the silence once again with a firm, albeit sleepy, “You did well today.”

Sebastian blinks. He has lived a long time; has seen many things and met many people. He is not easily stunned.

Hearing those words from his master, however, will shake him every time.

I invoked your ire to the point where you slapped me, part of him - the same part that got him slapped, incidentally - wants to remind the boy, but he keeps his quip to himself. They have gone back and forth enough for one night. Surely there is no harm in accepting the gift of his master’s acclaim.

“My lord, I am most honored by your praise,” he tells him, smiling in gratitude and pride. “If I may offer my own - “

“Oh, spare me. All I did was ruin your shirt with my stress-induced optic and nasal secretions.”

Sebastian grimaces at Ciel’s wording. “Now, my lord, surely there is a more graceful way to - “

“Just accept the compliment without patronizing me, Sebastian,” Ciel huffs, frustrated, and rolls over to meet his butler’s eyes. He points at him decisively. “That’s an order.”

Sebastian, still smiling, sighs and raises his hands in surrender. “As you wish, young master,” he concedes.

With a final nod and fluff of his pillow, Ciel settles under his covers. When his eyes shut this time, Sebastian knows they will not open again until morning. He shakes his head, leaning back against the wall with crossed arms as he watches the young lord’s thick covers rise and fall with each of his steady breaths. When Sebastian is sure Ciel is asleep, he extinguishes the light. The room plunges into the comforting darkness of night, softened by milky rays of moonlight filtering in through the window.

Sebastian collects the tray and dishes he brought, being sure not to make a sound when he lifts them up from Ciel’s nightstand. He glances down at the boy over his shoulder before making his way out of the room, remembering his words - You did well today, Sebastian.

A bittersweet smile forms on his lips as he pushes Ciel’s door open. With one last look back at his master’s sleeping form, Sebastian whispers, “As did you, my lord,” and slips out of the room.

waiting here for catastrophe

aka that buzz.feed unsolved serial killer!shane fic i only mentioned writing to like two people, no one is here for this but i’m posting it anyway pairing: lowkey shane/ryan rating: probably T? maybe M? there’s a severed head involved but no graphic descriptions of violence content: mentions of murder, like i said there’s an instance of a severed head, this gets a lot more comedic than you’d expect, shane eats cocoa puffs  on ao3 excerpt:

“Ryan.” Shane breaks off and sits down again, slides his chair closer to Ryan’s, stares him down. “God, fuck, look at me, okay, I did this. I did this, this is my case, this is mine, everything you’re talking about—”

Ryan can’t help it: he laughs. It comes out a little anxiously, but it’s a laugh all the same, because Shane can’t really expect him to buy into this, right?

And Shane looks—well, murderous is either the wrong word or the right one. “I’m not kidding.”

“You really want me to believe—”

“You entertain all possible theories, right?” Shane says, exasperated and angry, and Ryan notices it’s the first time he’s ever said that seriously. “That’s what this stupid show is—that’s what you do. So entertain this one.”

All at once, it stops being funny. Something the size of a golf ball seems to lodge itself high in Ryan’s throat. He realizes it’s alarm, fear, a caged bird thrashing against the bars inside himself. He’s waiting for Shane to break, to burst into laughter, to say it’s all a stupid joke, but it doesn’t happen.

“What the fuck,” he croaks out.

“I thought it’d be cool to do an episode on an ongoing case,” says Ryan, and that’s more or less where everything goes to shit.

He doesn’t realize it immediately, but there’s something to be said about the zero-to-sixty shift in Shane’s body language between him saying, “Yeah, cool, lemme see,” and looking at the small case file Ryan has started to compile.

Because Shane goes from calm and amused to— Ryan’s not exactly sure how to explain it. It’s like Shane closes off and fires up at the same time, a deer caught in the headlights trying to figure out its Hail Mary pass.

And, “sure,” says Shane, but in the three second he spends flipping through the articles Ryan printed out, it’s not like he would’ve had any real time to figure out what the case was even about.

What the case is about is a string of murders in California over the past several months.

Ryan remembers hearing about a few of them, the way they’d been presented as separate homicides committed by separate people—there’d been no connection between the victims, no similarities in the M.O., no solid motivation, and only after a while had the murders been tentatively linked.

Like somebody was killing for the hell of it, for curiosity’s sake, for the thrill. Like it wasn’t for the why?

It was for the why not?

Shane looks at the case file and shoves it back at Ryan and Ryan doesn’t see him for almost two days. Given that they sit next to each other at work, that should be...indicative of something. Should be suspicious.

But in Ryan’s defense, Shane’s— Shane’s kind of a weird dude, and that’s an opinion Ryan holds very fondly, okay; the guy’s quirky in a way that’s appealing somehow, and when it comes down to it that means Ryan just...doesn’t think about the whole thing too much.

He just develops the case and gets ready to record the show.

——

When Shane shows up to film the video, it’s like the incident from earlier that week never happened. Shane’s relaxed, bickers with Ryan a little in happy, gentle antagonism, and once Ryan sets the camera to record they settle into their usual seats on set with a familiar confidence.

Ryan clears his throat and takes on his Case File Voice, and he’s so focused on setting the scenes and exploring the theories that it takes a while for him to notice how stiff Shane is next to him.

“Detective Robert Young posits that this is in fact the work of a single killer, one that is unsatisfied in their field of work and is seeking ‘feral, violent pleasures,’ someone who is inexperienced and using this period to experiment, to discover an M.O. that suits their desires and needs as a neophyte in this—”

Shane shoves the table back a few inches in a single motion and Ryan starts.

“What the hell?”

“Shut up.”

Ryan shifts back, turns to look at him. This isn’t like Shane interrupting Ryan mid-sentence to add comedic relief or some off-the-cuff banter; this is real, this is—gonna have to be edited out, basically.

“Shane?”

“A neophyte,” Shane echoes, laughing, shaking his head. “God, I thought I could get through this without opening my stupid mouth—”

Ryan is staring. “What are you talking about?”

Shane looks at him. Seems to deliberate. “I’m not inexperienced.”

“What?”

“I’m not—” He stands up abruptly, walks around the table to pick up the camera and cut the recording. “I know what I’m doing, okay, I put a lot of thought into this.”

“What?”

“Goddammit.” Shane slams the camera down on the table, then shuts his eyes and takes a breath. He shakes his head again. “I— Nothing. Nothing, never mind.”

“No, no, what the hell are you talking about?” Ryan presses, equal parts bewildered and tentatively amused. “Are you okay? Is this some kind of... Are you trying to do some kind of bit? You have to warn me—”

“Ryan.” Shane breaks off and sits down again, slides his chair closer to Ryan’s, stares him down. “God, fuck, look at me, okay, I did this. I did this, this is my case, this is mine, everything you’re talking about—”

Ryan can’t help it: he laughs. It comes out a little anxiously, but it’s a laugh all the same, because Shane can’t really expect him to buy into this, right?

And Shane looks—well, murderous is either the wrong word or the right one. “I’m not kidding.”

“You really want me to believe—”

“You entertain all possible theories, right?” Shane says, exasperated and angry, and Ryan notices it’s the first time he’s ever said that seriously. “That’s what this stupid show is—that’s what you do. So entertain this one.”

All at once, it stops being funny. Something the size of a golf ball seems to lodge itself high in Ryan’s throat. He realizes it’s alarm, fear, a caged bird thrashing against the bars inside himself. He’s waiting for Shane to break, to burst into laughter, to say it’s all a stupid joke, but it doesn’t happen.

“What the fuck,” he croaks out.

“Ryan,” Shane says warningly.

“What the fuck, Shane, you’re not serious, tell me you’re not being fucking serious right now.” Except he is, obviously he is, and Ryan’s entertaining the theory unwillingly, watching all the evidence slide perfectly into place behind his eyes. His muscles go tight, coiled, like he’s deep in the heart of another haunted place and finally ready to run the hell out.

“Calm down.” Shane seems to see the realization on Ryan’s face—the fear, too.

“I’m calm,” Ryan snaps, because what the hell else can he say?

Shane raises a single dubious eyebrow at him.

Ryan rubs at his eyes, a headache starting to form behind them. “Okay, I’m not, but I feel like I’m allowed a small amount of freakout time, you know, considering the circumstances, considering you’re telling me you’re a fucking—”

“You need to calm down,” Shane says, expression smooth and unreadable, “or you might end up forcing me to do something I don’t want to do.”

Fear spikes again, sharp and cold. “What the fuck is that supposed to mean.”

Shane’s expression doesn’t change. “It means you need to take a deep breath and calm down for me, Ryan.”

Ryan doesn’t realize he’s obeying until he sees the faintest hint of a satisfied smile on Shane’s face.

“There we go,” Shane says. “That’s better, isn’t it?”

“Don’t patronize me.”

“I’m not going to hurt you,” Shane tells him, and Ryan wonders how he knew the question had been sitting on his tongue.

But the thing is—Ryan’s not really sure he believes him.

“Why would you,” Ryan starts. Shakes his head. Takes another few deep breaths. “Why would you tell me this if you’re not gonna— Why’d you tell me.”

Shane looks at him for a moment, like he’s considering his answer. “Because I care what you think of me.”

That’s...not exactly what Ryan expected to hear. “What?”

“I’m not a neophyte,” Shane says, and this time he looks stubborn. “I’m not some reckless idiot killing for shits and giggles, you know, it’s hurtful to have your hard work put down like that.” Yeah, okay, he’s definitely pouting.

“This is so fucking surreal,” Ryan says, mostly to himself.

“Especially by your best friend.”

“No.” Ryan puts his hands up. “No, no, you don’t get to call me your friend after murdering, what, four people, okay, do not connect us, I am not your friend—”

“Lover?”

“Shane.”

“Five.”

Ryan blinks. “What?”

“Five people.” Shane shrugs when Ryan stares at him. “They haven’t found the fifth one yet, I don’t think.”

“Oh my god.”

“Also, I feel like telling the serial killer sitting next to you that you refuse to be friends is kind of— I mean, talk about having no sense of self-preservation—”

“You said you weren’t gonna hurt me!”

“And I’m not. Because we’re friends.”

Ryan shakes his head slowly. “How do you know I’m not going to go to the police?” he says before he can stop himself.

Shane shrugs. “Because you’re still sitting here talking to me.”

“But— Later, anytime, I could—”

“Will you?” Shane is looking at him, unblinking, calm.

And—

“...No,” Ryan realizes, almost whispering it. “No, I won’t.”

Shane smiles.

——

Things almost...go back to normal, after.

Well, mostly things do.

Sometimes they don’t.

The most unmanly shriek Ryan’s ever uttered, surprisingly, doesn’t happen at a haunted location.

It happens in his apartment, moments after rolling out of bed and shuffling his way into his living room, debating whether or not to brave the rare pouring rain outside to go get a workout in.

So Ryan shuffles into his living room on a Saturday morning and shrieks like a two year old, and then he’s scrambling for his phone after doing a brief ‘what the fuck’ dance that mostly consists of turning in different directions in place and wringing his hands and cursing Shane Madej to holy hell.

Heading back into his bedroom to grab his phone just seems like a better course of action than continuing to stare at the fucking severed head currently sitting on his coffee table.

WHY, is all he can text Shane at first.

The response comes within seconds and is so contrived-innocent that Ryan wants to punch his wall. Why what?

The HEAD, Shane, Ryan types out furiously. The HEAD in my LIVING ROOM. The SEVERED HEAD on my COFFEE TABLE.

Why do you assume I had anything to do with that?

Ryan groans and slowly makes his way back into his living room. He peers at the head again with a cringe. It’s bloated, the hair matted with blood—he can’t even make out any defining features. God. He’s gonna barf. He’s definitely gonna barf. I have to call the police, he sends.

“Don’t be so dramatic,” comes a voice from his fucking kitchen, and, okay, that’s the most unmanly shriek Ryan’s ever uttered.

“Why are you in my house?!” Ryan demands as he skids into his kitchen in socked feet, maybe a little dramatically.

“I’m waiting out the rain,” Shane says, sitting at Ryan’s kitchen table, eating Ryan’s fucking cereal, looking entirely unbothered. “I don’t have an umbrella, and I figured you wouldn’t want me taking yours. You don’t want me to catch a cold or something, do you, Ryan?”

There’s a headache starting to pulse faintly behind Ryan’s eyes.

“Get it out of here,” he says, instead of punching Shane in his stupid, inappropriately chill face.

“You could say thank you, you know.”

Ryan stares at him incredulously. “Thank you?”

“You’re welcome.”

“No, shut up, you know I didn’t mean— Why the hell should I be thanking you?”

Shane gestures towards the living room. “I did what you said.”

“What?”

Shane sighs heavily, like it’s Ryan who’s being the ridiculous one here. “Last week you went on that date with what’s-his-face, right—”

Ryan looks back towards the living room in horror. “Oh my god.”

“—and the next day at work you were talking about what an asshole he was, and I said, hey, you want me to kill him for you? and you laughed and said, yeah, go ahead.”

“I thought you were joking!”

Shane blinks at him, raises an eyebrow. “You thought— Ryan, I kill people. You know that.”

“Okay, look, just, goddammit, get it out of here before I end up arrested!”

“I’m the one who killed him.”

“I’d be...implicated, okay, I’m involved now—”

“Well, technically, you’ve been involved ever since you made the decision not to turn me in, so—”

“Get it out of my house, Shane—”

“It’s a gift,” Shane says, looking offended. “I did this for you.”

“If you want to get me a gift, get me, fuckin’, I don’t know, flowers, don’t break into my apartment and leave a head in my living room!”

“You gave me a spare key like three months ago,” Shane says, and then, “you want me to buy you flowers?”

“Why is that what you’re focusing on?!”

“That wasn’t a no,” Shane says, looking infuriatingly smug as he goes to take another bite of cereal.

Ryan storms over and snatches the bowl out from under him, ignoring Shane’s subsequent hurt expression.

“I wasn’t finished!”

“You don’t get to break into my house—”

“I had a key.”

“—leave a fucking head on my coffee table—”

“I put a tarp underneath it.”

“—and then eat my fucking Cocoa Puffs!”

“You were out of eggs.”

Ryan sets the bowl down, buries his face in his hands, and yells muffedly. When he stops yelling, he realizes Shane is laughing.

“What,” Ryan snaps.

Shane gestures at the bowl, still snorting. “Cereal killer,” he says.

Runaway

Another WIP bites the dust!

It was the burning on her wrist that told her she needed to move. Standing outside de Young Museum in the Golden Gate Park, backpack slung over her shoulder, she squinted into the afternoon sun, and cursed the pretty February afternoon. San Francisco was known for the thick blanket of fog, but she’d been tempted outside by the rare sunshine. She was hardly the only one, and the park was crowded.

Tugging her baseball cap a little further over her messy bun, she casually mingled with the roaming students and the shrieking middle schoolers. She didn’t see anything out of place, but the soulmate mark on her left wrist didn’t lie. Klaus was here, somewhere in the park. She’d have to be careful, if she didn’t want to be found.

She’d been fourteen, the first time her wrist had caught fire. Her father had come home early, brought his business associates with him. Her mom had been late going to a shift, and had seen her dad’s car pull up. Her spine had gone stiff, shoulders drawn tight, and Caroline had been ushered into the backyard and told to head over to Bonnie’s until she came for her.

Caroline had set off as told, but had circled back around, intent on catching a glimpse of who the mysterious men where. Squeezing between the fences, she crouched low and waited. Half an hour later, her patience had been rewarded, and the men had left. They’re faces had been difficult to distinguish from a distance, the dark suits and similar builds even more so. What she had been able to see had skittered alarm in cold fingers down her spine; the way her father had stood so stiff and formal.

But it had been the glint of sunshine off dark blonde curls, the carry of sharply accented words on the warm breeze that had started to burn. Those faint words had cut off, the sudden change of impatient and annoyed body language abruptly stiffening. The tilt of his head, the way he turned to scan her neighborhood spoke of hunting, and she’d crouched low, fingers clamping tightly over her wrist, as if she could hide it.

She’d stayed there, crouched low and small, shivering in the afternoon sun until she finally heard the roar of engines, until that terrifying sensation of being hunted disappeared. Then she’d snuck back the way she came, and raced to Bonnie’s. She hadn’t taken a full breath of air until she stood in Grams kitchen, breathing in the familiar scent of herbs and cookies.

Caroline had managed to hide the truth for two years. She started avoiding her father, had asked for a watch for her birthday. Her parents unexpected separation had helped, until she could almost pretend that hot July afternoon had never happened.Then she’d walked into her father’s murder and everything had changed.

Caroline bit off a series of curses that would have left her grounded had her mother heard them. Her muscles ached after a long day of cheerleading camp, and she resented the stairs she was forced to climb as the elevator in her dad’s apartment complex was repaired. Taking a deep breath, and reminding herself firmly that cheer scholarships didn’t hand themselves outs, she hooked her gym bag across her chest, and determinedly started back up the last of the stairs.

Cheer Camp had been her compromise for agreeing to her dad’s request that she spend her Spring Break at his new place. He’d gotten married over Christmas, and wanted to introduce her to his new family. Caroline had tried to say no, angry and resentful that she hadn’t been invited to the wedding. She hated that she was being forced to pretend that she didn’t mind that her dad had replaced her, that Steven and his daughter weren’t her worst nightmares.

The better versions of his old family.

Then he’d gone and forgotten to pick her up.

Whatever guilt she might have maintained for stealing cash out of his wallet had all but evaporated when she’d needed it for the cab that she’d just paid for. Steven had taken the week off to hang out with them, and her prickly attitude hadn’t seeming phased the affable man, but it clearly had been enough that he hadn’t answered her numerous calls either.

Promising herself she was going to have another discussion with her mom about setting up her own bank account, she heaved a sigh of relief as she reached the correct floor. Stephanie had better not be anywhere near the bathroom. Caroline wanted a bath, and she’d barely tolerating sharing.

Mouth compressed into a straight line, she’d yanked the apartment door open and walked into a slaughter.

Shifting her backpack a little higher, she casually glanced around again, biting her lip nervously. This was as close as she’d been to Klaus in years. How had he found her? In the years since Richmond, she’d avoid him only twice before. Once in Austin, and once in Chicago. She deliberately stayed in big cities, places it was harder to track her scent.

Places it was harder to corner her.

She still dreamed of him. Fingers tightening around the strap of her backpack, Caroline broke out in a cold sweat of the memories being near him always forced to the surface. The cold yellow of his eyes as he stabbed her father, the splatter of blood across Klaus’ face and curls, the clear signs of torture on Steven’s face, the limp body of Stephanie. The sudden burning ache in her wrist, the clash of disbelief and violence in his perfect face.

His voice following her as she’d turned and ran.

But nothing had been as bad as Chicago.

Shivering at the old memory, pulse a rapid staccato in her throat, she took a centering breath and pushed the the past aside. She’d avoided Klaus Mikaelson for three years, she could do it again.

But it was becoming harder.

The ache in her wrist a minor inconvenience compared to the need that ground against her bones. It’d only been worse, since he’d touched her. The clawing need to touch him in turn, to press shaking fingers against the muscle and bone of him, to draw on the strength he’d offered so freely.

Instead, she’d driven her knee into his thigh, had taken off in a wild run that had left her lost and terrified. Her hands had shaken so badly, she’d nearly fried the engine she’d been hotwiring. She’d put six hundred mile between them before she’d allowed herself to think.

But that night she’d learned that being too close to her intrepid soul mate brought other dangers. Instead of the night terrors that had once woken her, skin cold and clammy, she’d woken soaked in sweat, but not from terror.

For weeks, she dreamed of Klaus’ hands on her skin, his mouth a slow seduction against her breasts, her thighs. He never spoke in those dreams. Her only memories of his voice were the first violent utterance of her name, and years later, the impatient and rough way he’d reached for her with words and hands.

She’d tried to excise him from her veins. No witch would help her, seeing her as the leash they’d inflicted on werewolves. Mate, soulmate, trap. It didn’t matter what word was used, she was a magical weapon and Klaus was her affliction.

Caroline had never bothered with drugs, terrified he’d find her when running wasn’t an option. Once her hormones had come raging to life with only a brush of Klaus’ fingertips against her skin, she’d tried to drown herself with sex. She’d never crossed into the true hedonism, but no matter how good the orgasm, she never truly eased the ache.

Sometimes she hated him for it.

Most often, she wondered what it’d be like if it’d been different. If she’d found him before…

But wishful thinking was for children.

Turning sharply at the rose garden, she ground to a halt she found herself feet away from Klaus. He watched her with eyes gone wolf gold, mouth set into a stubborn line that her fingers burned to touch. Seeing him, being close enough to touch him, was a punch in her solar plexus. She’d have known the planes of his the set of his jaw, even had she never dreamed of him

It was a helpless little compulsion to keep track of him that she’d learned to feed little tidbits too. A google search in a library here and a lingering dinner at a bar during a specific newscast there. Following the violence and prestige of America’s werewolf packs was a national hobby. No alpha generated headlines like Klaus Mikaelson, the English upstart who’d ruthlessly cut himself a territory in the Deep South, expanded his territory with his witch siblings.

An alpha who was famously single.

Caroline’s fingers curled tightly into the straps of her backpack as her weight shifted to her toes, and he shook his head slowly.

“I’ll catch you.”

There was no doubt that he’d meant it, this werewolf who hunted her. Everything inside her trembled, and she licked dry lips. “You haven’t yet.”

The gold blazed, brightening around his pupil, and Caroline realized it was the first time she’d spoken to him directly. His hands dipped into his pockets, posture no less tense. People milled around them, seemingly unaware of the danger that lurked, but Klaus ignored anyone but her.

“That’s true,” Klaus agreed, head tipping to the side as he watched her. “But my intentions have never been to cage you.”

She wondered that he thought he could. She tensed as his weight shifted, but Klaus held his position. “What do you want?”

A flicker of disbelief crossed his face, and those vibrant eyes narrowed. “You, Caroline.”

The wolf crawled into his voice, sank into this utterance of her name with a rumble that was nearly tangible against her skin. Electricity sparked across her wrist, and her need to touch him left her knuckles White against the straps. “You killed by dad.”

“I did,” he rumbled, hands leaving his pockets to clasp behind his back, as if he didn’t trust them. As if he felt the ache of her skin as keenly as she did. “Your mother said you’d hold it against me.”

Her spine snapped into a rigid line, breath stuttering in her throat. She hadn’t spoken to her mother in years. Her eyes burned, her next exhale a hiss between her teeth. “Do not bring my mother into this.”

Impatience sharpened his eyes to blades. “I haven’t harmed a hair on her head.”

Bewildered by the thread of something nearly wounded in his voice now, she shook her head, hair falling into her eyes. “I’m supposed to believe that?”

Klaus’ jaw clenched white and red, shoulders drawn rigid. “Yes.”

Caroline jolted at the harshness of that word. Anger churned in her veins, twisted up hard against the stupid need to believe him. Struggling to control the conflicting emotions, she bit her lip hard as he took a careful step back. She barely held in the needy little cry that burned on her tongue.

His eyes slid shut, and when they opened again, they were blue. “Call your mother, Caroline.”

“Why?” It was a rasp in her throat, and his fingers flexed.

“Because she has no reason to lie to you,” Klaus said simply. “You’ll know where to find me, should you wish it.”

Caroline watched him walk away, heart hammering in her throat. He’d walked away. Klaus had let her go. Her inhale was shaky, indecision nearly paralyzingly her.

She could call her mom.

Steadying, she turned on her heels and forced herself to go the opposite direction her feet wanted her to follow. Klaus was right. This connection ran two ways, if she wanted to find him, she could. First she’d talk to her mom.

Then maybe…

#11 Hunting

The hunting was illegal even though the trade wasn’t. Whitefire didn’t think that this human cared.

A bridle had been wound around Whitefire’s head while he slept, an ugly contraption of straps and metal that he could feel pulsing with magic opposite to his own. When he had awoken, panicked and frightened at the foreign sensation, he found he could hardly move his legs.

A human was standing above him, a man cloaked in… something magic that prevented Whitefire from sensing him, though Whitefire could tell the man had no magic himself. He wore a bulky coat, lined in dark fur, to protect himself from the cold.

How had he found his cave? It was high in the mountains, hidden by the harsh elements that camouflage his fur and scales offered him in this environment. If it weren’t for his flames, Whitefire wouldn’t be able to withstand it. The man would have had to have another charm somewhere on his person.

More startling was the fact that when Whitefire tried to raise the temperature of his flames, make them dance and incinerate the human who had trespassed on his territory, nothing happened. The flames that licked at his scales did nothing more than flicker when he tried to push them out, then died when he became too exhausted to continue.

The human knelt down next to him and ran a hand through the long fur on his leg. Whitefire shuddered in repulsion, hissing with as much ferocity as he could manage through the bridle.

Something clicked on his fetlock, piercing into the skin underneath his fur and he felt the power of his flames lock away, hidden behind a door he couldn’t reach. “Shh,” the human murmured, his voice too soothing to match the distorted smile on his face. “You weren’t supposed to wake up till we got home.”

Whitefire felt himself failing even as he attempted to convince himself to rise. His eyes were closing, and he felt the man’s hands near his face, touching the bridle. Energy coursed through it and forced him into his humanoid form. The bridle had shifted too, shaping to adhere to his human features yet still accommodated his horn. His limbs were freezing, the old and battered tunic he wore doing nothing to shield him from the cold. If his flames were working, it wouldn’t be a problem.

His hands were drawn together though he hardly felt it as energy spiked through the bridle, stabbing at his blood. The man said, voice laced with unmistakable contempt and pride, “Stupid creatures.”

Then the energy spiked again and Whitefire was greeted to darkness.

***

When he awoke again, he was still in his human form and the air felt warmer on his bare arms and legs. Thick trunked trees filled his vision as his eyes opened, and he even heard birds singing as the branches creaked together in the wind. He coughed as grass poked at his face, still trapped by the horrifying bridle-like device, but his arms were pulled behind him, secured by… something magic, that Whitefire couldn’t break out of.

The man was sitting next to him, behind where Whitefire could see though he could sense him as much as he hadn’t been able to in his own cave. Whitefire jerked away from him, hissing as he fought to turn on his back. He was still exhausted, despite how long he had to have been asleep. Forests this shade of green were no where near his mountains. His limbs didn’t want to obey him.

“Release me, foul human,” Whitefire ordered.

Back in the olden days, humans would have listened to him, revered him like a god. But this one only laughed, a harsh and grating sound that Whitefire felt in his blood.

“Release me!” he shrieked, jerking violently yet pinned in place by whatever subduing magic was coursing through him. “You have no right! This is—”

A hand found its way into his hair, tangling in the white strands roughly. “You’re much more talkative than my dear Dahlly is. Stronger too. He stayed asleep the whole way home.”

“This is illegal, what you’re doing—”

“Hunting a beast like you isn’t kidnapping, it’s wrangling.” The hand was still in his hair and he wanted to rub his face against the grass in order to get it off. The man’s voice seemed to be hovering right above his ear. “Oh, you couldn’t imagine my surprise when I found there might be another of you… I hope you behave better than my other, I’d hate to have to scar that pretty face of yours.”

“Vile, disgusting—”

His head snapped back as the grip on his hair tightened, pulling it sharply. “Now now, watch your tongue, beast. It’ll be much better if you just cooperate.” The man shifted. “We’ll be home soon enough. Why don’t you go back to sleep?”

“No, no, let me—” Whitefire kicked, managing to move one leg through the dirt as he felt energy in the bridle start to spike again. He hadn’t noticed he was crying.

The hand was no longer tangled in his hair, but instead stroking softly through it, brushing through the white waves almost gently. “We’ll be home soon,” the man repeated, then once more Whitefire was lost.

***

The bridle had been taken off. Whitefire felt his energy coursing through his blood. He didn’t feel pinned to the ground anymore.

He thrust himself up to his feet, shifting into his kirin form and lunging forwards without taking in his surroundings. He wasn’t in the mountains, so he had to get away. He had to run, get away from the monster who had taken him.

Whitefire’s path halted abruptly, his hooves dragging back underneath him as he nearly collapsed to the floor again. He let out a hiss, shaking his head and looking down.

Chains had been attached to the fetlocks that hadn’t been secured on the journey to wherever he was. The bracelet the man had put on him before still remained on his front right leg, shooting pain up with every movement. The other three weren’t as bad, just the heavy weight of metal resting on his limbs.

He stomped his hoof against the chains that attached to the rough stone floor, striking in attempt to break one of them, but they held fast.

His head shot up, alarmed. Whitefire was being watched.

Whitefire turned, ears going back to face the threat, and was surprised at the sight of bright red eyes staring at him. A prominent scar was cut along the right side of the kirin’s face, branching over his eye though the eye itself appeared undamaged.

Another kirin stood in the cage next to his, separated only by metal bars. He wasn’t too much smaller than Whitefire himself, although he was definitely younger. If not for his size, Whitefire would have thought the kirin a youngling from the fur that covered him, not a single scale in sight. Even stranger though, his fur was as white as Whitefire’s own. If he had scales, Whitefire had no doubt they would be the same lack of color.

The kirin was attached to the wall by a collar on his neck, similar in style to the bracelet Whitefire had on his wrist.

Whitefire began to step towards the kirin when the door to the room opened. The kirin tensed, sharp teeth revealed into a snarl as his tail lashed out behind him. It looked like his fur was sparking with flame.

The man came through the room and Whitefire struck the ground with his hoof, flames building within him even though they only flickered just a bit out of his scales. In the light and not held captive by the strange magic of the bridle, the man actually appeared quite handsome, although the expression in his eyes wiped any of the thought away.

“Look at you,” he said, stepping closer to Whitefire’s cage. “Already up and standing. I expected you out for a few more days at least.”

The kirin in the other cage threw his shoulder into the bars, the noise reverberating around the room. The man waited for the sound to stop before his cold eyes slid to the other kirin, a scowl on his face. “Now Dahlly,” he said, watching the kirin release a guttural hiss, “haven’t we talked about your bad manners? And in front of your new roommate, that’s not a very good first impression. Am I going to have to discipline you again?” He ran a hand over the bars and the other kirin hissed again, despite how his ears flicked back and the end of his tail wrapped around one of his back legs.

“Who are you?” Whitefire spat, kicking his hoof against the lock of the chains.

The man turned again and smiled. “Your keeper, of course.” He drew closer to the cage, unlocking it and stepping inside. The other kirin tossed his head in alarm. Whitefire reared back, movements limited by the chains even as the man stepped closer. “I don’t need to start out mean if you don’t want me to. Show me what a good creature you are and there won’t be need for discipline.”

Whitefire’s blood ran cold despite the fire in his veins.

“Now tell me, are you still called Whitefire as the legend in the mountains said you were? The white kirin of the peak, oh how they tried to bury that myth.” His smile grew wider. “Didn’t escape me, of course. Where might the others be, though?”

He had stepped close to Whitefire, reaching a hand out towards his face. Whitefire hissed and arced his head back, driving his horn forwards towards the human’s chest, but the man sidestepped swiftly enough it didn’t hit its mark. A bone crunched as his horn smashed into the side of the man’s wrist and he stepped back out of range, his smile gone.

“Feral beast,” he snarled. “I’d hoped you might be tamer than Xeredahl.” He stepped out of the cage, shutting the door behind him and locking it. When he looked up at Whitefire again, his eyes were calm again. “Time will show, I suppose. You’ll learn who to listen to.”

Then he left, leaving Whitefire and Xeredahl alone once more.

Runner (Sashea) - Spoky

A/N: A post-apocalyptic Sashea Lesbian Horror AU for Dandee. Happy Birthday, honey. [ Thnks for both betas, veronicasanders & ir**re****, appreciated. Also, title credits to Fryshook. ]

Summary: Sashea romance, Trixya angst and a something-like-a-zombie Aja.

Warnings: graphic depictions of violence & character death

Runner

The air in the dark staircase is stale and as Sasha gasps for breath; she has to stop running to cough out dust. Her mouth is dry, her lungs are wheezing and she leans to the wooden rail for support as the violent hacking shakes her body. The only source of light, the glow stick she’s holding, slips through her fingers and rolls down the stairs to the previous landing. Through the sounds of her erratic breathing and her racing heart, she can hear the echo of someone running after her, just a couple of floors below. She has two more stories to go. Forty-eight steps. She reaches for another glow stick from the side pocket of her backpack, cracks it for light, grabs the rail firmly and yanks her body forward. She has to make it. She has to.

Out of breath, pressing on the lower edge of her rib cage to ease a side stitch, Sasha reaches the fifteenth floor and sprints to the room at the end of the corridor. She makes it through the door that is purposefully left ajar and grabs the rope Shea has installed for emergencies. She holds it tightly in her grip, ready to pull, praying silently that the erratic steps she can hear approaching are Shea’s. She knows that they’re not, but that doesn’t stop her from hoping. The low but rapid palpitation of her heart pounds in her ears as she stares at the top of the staircase and as she finally sees Aja reaching the top, she wants to scream in frustration. Instead she yanks the rope forcefully but the door doesn’t slam shut, not the way it’s supposed to.

Shit.

She wrenches the rope frantically  and this time the door moves, but it still doesn’t shut fully.

Shit, shit, shit, shit.

Aja is getting closer, roaring maniacally, her red eyes fixated on Sasha. Her arms are flinging about uncontrollably as she runs along the hallway and smacks her jaw.

Sasha can’t smell her yet. Aja is not close enough. But she can imagine the stench, the rotten human flesh between Aja’s teeth and underneath her fingernails. Aja is surprisingly clean for a runner, there’s hardly any blood on her, but Sasha is certain that she smells. They all do.

Sasha can remember the time they used to have drinks at the bar downstairs. Gin, mainly. Sometimes rum. Aja would brag that no crawlie would get her, that crawlies were too slow and too dumb. “Old age! That’s what’ll kill me, old age!” she’d say and laugh loudly. Aja had always taken unnecessary risks with the crawlies and now, as foreseen by most, she was running. In a couple of weeks she’d start crawling and a few months after that she’d stop and just lay there, rotting, until Chi Chi or Katya would clean up the body. The thought makes Sasha shiver in disgust and anger.

Reckless idiot.

Right now, though, Aja is running and Sasha needs to move. With one leap she reaches the thick, steel door and starts to push.

“It’s perfect. There could be a herd of runners and we’d be fine.”

Shea had insisted they use the office because of the lock and the metal. Now, Sasha is not so sure. What use is a security door if you cannot close it? Her wet sneakers are slippery against the stone floor as she struggles to make the door budge.

Aja crashes against the steel on the other side and for the first time ever Sasha feels grateful that Shea has tortured her with the early morning push-up routines.

“Ten more, babe. Come on.”

The thought of Shea sparks anger inside Sasha and with a roar she pushes the door shut, accidentally trapping Aja’s fingers between the hinge. Aja shrieks loudly, but Sasha doesn’t know whether it’s because of a denied meal, or of pain as the tips of Aja’s fingers are cut off by the sharp edges of the steel door. Sasha doesn’t know whether runners feel pain. She doesn’t know if they feel anything at all.

The first inch of Aja’s index finger rolls on the floor and bumps against Sasha’s left foot, smearing blood on her shoe laces.

Ugh.

Sasha closes her eyes and sighs heavily. She has to consciously remind herself that this is not Aja’s blood on her shoes. It’s crawlie blood, not Aja’s. They’re crawlie fingers on the floor, not Aja’s. Creepy running crawlies. Sasha hates crawlie blood on her things. She’ll have to wash the shoes – again.

Fucking Aja.

Sasha reaches for the security lock on her left and snaps it closed, sealing the door completely. No one will get through and into the room before she decides to open it again. Not Aja. Not a runner nor a crawlie. Not another human being, even. Not Shea.

She glances down at her dirty sneakers and then at the fingers next to them. Shea would probably joke about eating them.

“Technically, it’s not cannibalism. It’s crawlie and not human flesh.”

The thought makes Sasha laugh hysterically. She’s not going to eat Aja’s fingers! Nor any other crawlie parts for that matter, familiar or unfamiliar. Not even if she has to eat just canned beans for yet another five days. Besides, Acid and Bob should be back soon with some rabbit and rats. Sasha will wait.

She gets up from the floor, picks up Aja’s fingers and walks to the window. She pushes aside the small teddy bear that’s sitting on the window sill and opens the ventilation window to throw out the crawlie pieces. She follows their fall and imagines them crashing against the dark asphalt underneath because her eyesight is not good enough to actually see it. The street is surprisingly quiet and Sasha pauses to enjoy the out of place normalcy of the view. The sun has yet to fully set and the final rays paint long shadows of broken cars and unkempt trees to the ground. The air is fresh after the rain.

“Petrichor.” “Huh?” “The smell of rain. It’s petrichor.”

Sasha knows a lot of useless words like that and absolutely loves the way Shea looks at her whenever she brings up one of them.

With a heavy sigh Sasha turns her gaze to the Mattel window across the street. It’s the fifth window left from the worn out Starbucks sign, seventh floor. There are two pillar candles lit to the otherwise dark window, Chi Chi’s and Peppermint’s, meaning that they’re both safe and sound. Sasha knows she should feel grateful, but as she moves to light her own candle she feels mainly indifferent, maybe slightly resentful as she looks down at Shea’s unlit tealight. She likes to think that Peppermint would forgive her if she knew.

Trying to shed the feelings of resentment Sasha closes her eyes and wonders why they still refer to the spot as the Mattel window, especially as Trixie has been crawling for weeks. Katya still visits her.

“She should just kill and bury her. Move on.”

In principle Sasha agrees with Bob. She’s seen the look in Katya’s eyes as she approaches the crawlie dressed in bright pink, the haunted desperate hope as Katya reaches to pet the crawlie’s blonde curls and tells her that she loves her. It’s simultaneously disturbing and sweet. It makes Sasha sick to her stomach, but she gets it. She couldn’t kill Shea either. Despite that Shea insists on it. She’s made Sasha swear she’ll do it.

“Just jam my brain in. You know how.”

Sasha does know how. Shea has shown her; taught her. Thanks to Shea herself, she wouldn’t be the first familiar dying at Sasha’s hands. No, Alaska had been given the honor of being Sasha’s first.

“She’d want it to be you or Katya, but Katya doesn’t need the practice. You do.”

Staring down at Alaska in anger, Sasha had grabbed Shea’s baseball bat and scowled.

Alaska had always been skinny but as a crawlie she’d been skeletal. Her long nailless fingers had scratched the ground, trying to reach for Sasha as she approached. The yellowish white bone of her ribcage had been showing as someone, or something, had eaten the flesh above. There had been no signs of humanity as she’d lifted her eyes to meet Sasha’s uncertain gaze.

Closing her eyes, Sasha had lifted Shea’s baseball bat and smashed it through the back of Alaska’s skull with one swift movement, exactly the way Shea had instructed her to. Sasha could still remember the cracking sound and the surprising ease in which the bat had broken through the bone and tissue. Afterwards Shea had wiped the murder weapon clean with an old New York Times.

Sasha had initially hated Shea for forcing her hand, but now she understands why. She can see the reason in Katya who refuses to kill Trixie despite that it is the right thing to do.

“Let her be. I mean it.”

If Katya had killed Alaska, instead of mere unfamiliars, maybe Trixie would no longer crawl on Lexington Avenue. But she does, and it’s fucked up.

Sasha reaches for a hand mirror from the coffee table and pushes it through the ventilation window. She aims it to reflect the tall Ronald McDonald statue around the corner and looks for the window where Katya keeps her candle. Like Peppermint’s and Chichi’s, it’s also lit. Katya refuses to stay at Trixie’s old place, even if the flat is probably the safest place on Manhattan. “I can’t breathe there,” she says and stays out.

“She’s going to get herself eaten, acting crazy like that. Fucking lunatic.”

Aja’s words had made Sasha roll her eyes at the time. Pot, kettle, black. She hadn’t said anything, though. Ironically, it was now Aja who was running while Katya’s candle lights the old fast food restaurant. Katya is crazy. Sasha acknowledges that. But she’s the cockroach type of crazy and will outlive them all, Sasha is certain of it.

She sets the mirror back on the coffee table and eyes around in the space she has started calling home. They’d stripped the Deutsche Bank back office from useless dollars, worthless commercial papers and most of the office clutter. With Bob’s reluctant help – “Privacy, my ass. Trixie’s is safe and big enough.” – they’d brought in a bed and an arm chair from the apartments below. In the corner, right next to the window, Shea had placed a tall turquoise vase she’d found in the lobby.

“It’ll make it feel like home, you know? Our home.”

Sasha can see Shea’s touches everywhere. In the green carpet stolen from Macy’s and in the bookshelf filled with ornaments instead of books. Shea’s presence is especially clear in the wardrobe where her bright colored clothes hang next to Sasha’s collection of black, black and black. The space seems to scream Shea’s absence, highlighting every detail, and it’s hard to breathe. Sasha figures she’s experiencing a similar Shea-interspersed emptiness Katya feels at Trixie’s. The thought makes her slightly nauseous and she immediately regrets entertaining the possibility that Shea might not come back. The familiar walls of Deutsche Bank seem to close in, the bed sheets suddenly reek of death and the maneki-neko figurine on top of the bookshelf laughs in epicaricacy. Sasha grabs it and throws it against the wall, shattering the ceramic into teeny tiny pieces.

Shit. Shit, shit, shit!

If Shea doesn’t come back, Sasha won’t stay in Deutsche Bank. There’s no way. Maybe she’ll move to McDonalds with Katya, now that there’s no Aja making smartass comments about it. With Katya, Sasha can argue about the meaning of meliorism and visit the graves of their respective ex-lovers. They can stroll around the quiet streets of New York and talk about Trixie’s love for pink plastic or Shea’s fascination with 1980s fashion magazines. With Katya, Sasha will feel safe, as safe as with Shea, and probably with time she’ll fall for the crazy-lady – because Sasha is not made for being alone.

“Serial monogamy, that’s like your thing.”

Shea’s accusation was made with humor. That doesn’t mean it’s not true.

Sasha shakes her head in frustration. She doesn’t want to fall for Katya, so Shea has to come back. She refuses to think about the large herd of runners they’d stumbled upon in Central Park. She blocks away the memories of Shea’s screams and orders. She doesn’t think about the fact that Shea is faster than her, a lot faster, and therefore often stays behind to deal with the runners, giving Sasha a head start.

“Sasha, right! RIGHT!”

Sasha refuses to acknowledge that the shortest route from Central Park to Deutsche Bank is to run right and down the 5th Avenue, all the way down to E 51st Street – or that the easiest way to distract and confuse runners is to split up. Sasha hates splitting up.

“Babe, you’re slower than Trixie, your opinion doesn’t count.”

It was rare to see herds anymore. The first few months there had been runners everywhere, spreading the virus quicker than malaria, quicker than any influenza. In four days, a million bodies and three million runners in New York city alone. Back then there had been only runners and soon enough nothing for them to eat, so they’d started to slow down, eventually collapsing to the ground and starting to crawl before dying of malnutrition. Creepy fucking crawlies. Occasional runners were the norm nowadays, not flocks, and Sasha has no idea where the herd in Central Park had come from.

Aja banging against the door stirs Sasha away from her thoughts. She hasn’t given up on her meal and Sasha sighs. Runners tend to wander away when they cannot smell food, but Aja’s hand is trapped between the hinge. Sasha realizes she’ll need a plan for how to kill her before she can open the door. She glances at the radio on the other side of the room and wishes she knew how to use it. Aja, trapped in place, must be an easy kill for someone coming from the outside. But Sasha doesn’t know anything about radios. It had been Aja’s job to figure them out. Sasha’s job is to learn the drugs in the downstairs pharmacy.

“Come on, babe, you’re the only one here who can pronounce this shit.”

It wasn’t because Sasha knew anything about drugs or nursing. It was because she had Masters degree in Latin and Linguistics, meaning that she could enunciate difficult letter combinations such as dihydrocodeinone or phenazopyridine. She didn’t mind, though. It was better than hunting, and definitely better than cleaning. Not that Shea would’ve let her clean. No, that was Chi Chi’s and Katya’s job, to keep Turtle Bay as crawler free as possible. Shea used to tag along with them but after Trixie, she’d moved to collecting with Peppermint and Bob. Sasha had been secretly grateful.

Aja cries loudly, and Sasha squeezes her eyes shut, covering her ears to block out the noise. She knows she needs a plan, to eat something and clean her clothes, but Aja’s screeching is distracting her. Sasha’s brain is a useless bundle, her thoughts bouncing between important and unimportant things. It always happens when she’s stressed.

“Don’t panic, babe, it’s fine.”

Ever since their first meeting, Shea has known how to calm her.

Sasha had been standing next to a stage, scared of the spotlight, fondling her necklace nervously, when Shea had appeared from seemingly nowhere, crossed her arms across her chest and grinned. “They say you should imagine the audience naked, but honestly, there are so many dicks in there that I’d rather not.” The comment had made Sasha laugh and relax, allowing her to deliver the best slam poetry performance of the night. Afterwards she’d asked the bartender who the girl in bright purple jumper was. “Shea Couleé. She’s trouble – if you know what I mean.” Of course, Sasha had been immediately intrigued.

“Oh, c’mon! You just wanted to fuck a black girl.”

The race thing had been exotic, Sasha wasn’t going to pretend otherwise, but there had been more to it. She can still remember their first date like yesterday, mainly because of how uncomfortable Shea had been the entire time. “Not really my scene, you know,” she’d said, eyeing around in the edgy café over the rim of her Irish Coffee; a drink Shea still considered a waste of perfectly good whisky. With the exact same ease Sasha can recall the first time they’d spent a night together; how nervous she’d been, fondling unskillfully Shea’s wet kitty lips.

“Try this, babe. Yeah, like that.”

Sasha takes off her shoes and examines the red stains on them in disgust. She decides she wants a new pair and is about to thrown them outside the window when a loud bang from the hallway gives her a fright. Aja’s agonizing scream sends chills down Sasha’s spine and she holds her breath, eyes wide, all senses heightened. There’s another bang and Sasha’s heart is hammering franticly. She tries to keep her breathing calm while listening closely. Finally she recognizes a familiar three-time-knock and sighs in relief. Shea.

With a couple of quick strides Sasha makes it to the door and opens the lock. Slowly, she pulls the door slightly ajar and sees Shea in the hallway. She’s breathing heavily, the familiar baseball bat resting on her shoulder. Aja is lying at her feet, silent and still.

Sasha closes her eyes and reminds herself that the body is not Aja, not really. She takes a deep breath and pulls the door properly open as Shea turns to look at her. She has blood and dirt all over her, on the yellow t-shirt and on her denim shorts. She has it on her hair and on her forehead, just above her left eyebrow. Her baseball bat is similarly covered in the slimy red liquid and Sasha can’t recall a time she felt equally happy. Her heart is pounding excitedly and the only thing she wants to do is to squeeze Shea’s filthy body against her – but she resists.

Shea smirks, as if reading her thoughts.

“You smell disgusting,” Sasha sneers, swallowing down the happy laughter bubbling in her chest.

“Yeah,” Shea says with a grin. “Missed my appointment at the Mandarin Spa.”

“Oh yeah?” Sasha asks scoldingly, cocking her left eyebrow, and a smile escapes to her lips despite her efforts to stay stern.

“Yeah,” Shea nods and drops the baseball bat with a clang that echoes in the hallway as she steps up to Sasha. “I’m sorry,” she whispers and lowers her head to drop a gentle kiss onto Sasha’s lips.

“Mm,” Sasha acknowledges the apology and wraps her arms around Shea’s neck, rising to her toes. Shea’s figure is firm and familiar against hers as she deepens the kiss, pulling Shea closer. “Don’t ever,” Sasha mumbles between the kisses, “-ever again,” she repeats as Shea grabs her ass and squeezes. “Just leave me-” Sasha whispers as Shea traps her lower lip into a gentle bite, “-like that.”

“I won’t,” Shea lies, they both know it, and presses her nose against Sasha’s cheek. “I won’t,” she repeats quietly, and Sasha takes a deep breath, inhaling Shea’s scent before pulling her over the threshold to Deutsche Bank, back to safety.

* *

It’s some moments later, after some cleaning up and after lighting the tealight on the window sill, that Shea pushes Sasha onto the bed. Their bed.

The sheets are soft against Sasha’s back and the ceiling is high above her. The room smells like the New York Ritz-Carlton – or what she imagines the Ritz smelled like years ago, rich but comfortable. She closes her eyes and feels the fabric under her shoulders, under her heels and toes as she presses them harder against the mattress and thrusts her hips up involuntarily. She brings her hand in between her legs and fondles Shea’s shaggy coils as Shea traces her inner thigh with hot committed licks. As Shea moves forward, the wet traces cool down, sending small shivers through Sasha’s wrought-up body.

Shea’s light, teasing touches are slow and as she scratches her teeth against Sasha’s skin, Sasha bites down to her lower lip, barely preventing a high-pitched whine. She lowers her hand to scratch Shea’s neck, just underneath her left ear and urges her to move lower.  

“Shea,” she whispers pleadingly, keeping her eyes closed.

“Hmm?” Shea hums and kisses Sasha down there, drawing a soft whimper from her.

“If- If you, oh,” Sasha gasps and spreads her legs wider. She rolls her hips to rub against Shea and opens her mouth to a silent moan.

Yes. Right there.

Sasha’s brain re-catches her earlier thoughts and squeezing her eyes shut firmer, forcing her body to obey, she picks up on where she left off: “If you die.”

Shea gets up on her knees, pressing open mouthed kisses on Sasha’s stomach and chest as she moves on top of her. “Yeah?” she asks quietly and lifts Sasha’s knee up for a better position, bringing the synthetic cock strapped on her hips against Sasha.

“I… I think I-” Sasha whines and reaches up to pull Shea into a hungry kiss, clinging to her in desperation. “I might,” she sighs against Shea’s lips and then whines quietly, squeezing Shea’s forearm as Shea pushes the dildo inside her with a slow, careful thrust of her hips. “Fall for- oh fuck, fall for Katya,” Sasha pants.

Shea’s bright, bubbly laughter fills the room as she draws back and drops a hasty peck on Sasha’s cheek before fucking into her more forcefully.

“I know, babe. I know.”

______________

A/N2: I hope you liked it. xx

The Ace of Hearts

Amnesia, prison sentences, and kleptomaniacs. What else could you want in a dystopian story set in Boston?

The man had thirty-one diagonal stripes on his tie and he trailed the middle knuckle of his left hand along the wall. I kept my eyes trained on his tie and his left hand as he approached me. If I had looked up into his face, perhaps I would have seen fear or apprehension. But his stance gave none of his true feelings away.

“How are you feeling?” He asked, glancing down at his tie to check that there was no reason for my prolonged staring.

I didn’t answer him. I cocked my head to the side so that it looked like the diagonal stripes were horizontal and the rest of the world was tilted at a 45 degree angle. I felt my mouth turn upwards in a smile.

“This can take some adjustment,” Thirty-one Stripes was saying, stepping closer to my bedside and fiddling with a bag of fluid hanging on a metal rack, “We have you on some weak sedatives, so you may feel groggy for a little while. But by this evening, you should be free to go home. Do you have any questions for me?”

I shook my head while it was still tilted to the side and I couldn’t seem to stop shaking my head.

“That’s what we expected,” Thirty-one Stripes muttered, “I’ll ask you questions then. Do you remember your name?”

I suddenly stopped bobbing my head as I considered the question. Somehow, it didn’t seem too important.

I pursed my lips in the shape of an ‘O’ and blew air through the hole. I wasn’t able to achieve the sound of the word ‘no’ by that action. Frustrated, I attempted an answer for the second time. This time the force of the air vibrated in my chest and throat and a hoarse approximation of the word sounded.

“Your name is Daniel Baker. You’re 33. You live in Boston. You work at a call center for a television company.” Thirty-one Stripes dropped the file on the small tray to the left of my bed side, “Unfortunately, you have suffered brain damage that we believe has led to permanent brain damage and memory loss. You will be released this evening seeing as your injuries aren’t severe enough to warrant another night in the hospital. However, you will had mandatory check-ups with a doctor for the first couple weeks of your adjustment period. We’ve put together a file with information you may not remember; feel free to peruse it in the meantime.”

——

Boston felt wrong. The streets were a maze and the houses seemed to lean forward slightly like an enthusiastic predator. A haze surrounded everything, like smog, but without a smell or taste. No one else seemed to notice it, but it turned everything gray.

My apartment looked lived in when I returned from the hospital. But it didn’t look like I’d lived in it. Dishes were left in the sink, but my fridge was almost empty except for some baking soda and a single bottle of ginger ale. A quilt–my quilt?–was pulled haphazardly over an unmade bed, but all of my shoes were lined up by pairs instead of shoved in one corner in a tall pile. These differences disconcerted me, but I couldn’t decide why. As far as my file had told me, I lived alone, and although I didn’t know much (nor did I have the desire to learn) I somehow knew that I would not keep an empty fridge or a neat array of shoes.

Numbly, I picked a twenty from my sock drawer and began to trudge through the snow to the supermarket. Somehow, when I didn’t think about what I was doing and let my muscle memory take over the routine, everything became more bearable, as though a high pitched whining that I hadn’t really noticed had become suddenly silent. Whenever I tried to discern why I had been in the hospital or how come I felt so strange, I felt a wave of suffocating anxiety, and a painful throbbing drummed a tattoo on my rib cage.

On my way home from the supermarket on the first day, I caught a reflection of myself in the window of a bank. Out of habit, I slid my eyes down to my own t-shirt rather than face the possibility of eye contact. The skin was lighter on my face then my arms or legs. My face was wide and flat except for a crooked and abnormally protruding nose. I didn’t stare long enough at my reflection to see the color of my eyes of the details of my face. But now I knew the face that matched the stubby limbs and soft, chubby midriff. Staring at my own face magnified the thumping in my chest.

I easily discovered what triggered the pounding in my chest and shrieking in my ears: thinking. I had to consciously put my mind to anything other than what I didn’t remember. In the chaos of life in a city such as Boston, it was frightening how painlessly simple it was to lose myself in frivolous routine. I debated which would be better in a salad, avocados or tomatoes. I doodled on a notepad while an old woman complained to me over the phone about her television. I arranged plans with some people from the office (Beardy Baldy, Rose Tattoo, Sweater Vest, and Pocket Protector) to watch a sporting event at a bar.

The only time the high screeching sound and the pounding in my chest returned was during my bi-weekly visits from my doctor, Brick Teeth. After six weeks of probing questions about a past I didn’t remember and refused to think about, she proclaimed me ‘a functional member of society.’

And that’s what I did: I functioned. Everyday I woke up with only a hazy memory of the day before. I doubted the lapse of recollection was a side effect of the curious amnesia, but rather a product of the complete invariability in my days. But today the predictability did an about-face.

Today she called.

I slouched at my desk as usual this morning. I had just returned from a pleasant coffee date with a girl, Chipped Fake Nails, from the office. We had held hands the whole walk back from the coffee shop, more to conserve warmth than anything. Her nails left indents on the back of my hand when we let go.

So without my usual depressive state of mind, I accepted a call later that morning and spoke the now familiar words into my mouthpiece: “You have reached Richard Wilson’s Television, where we think of our customers as family. You are speaking to Daniel. How may I assist you?”

The voice on the other end of the phone was low and breathless but undoubtedly female.

“Ace?” She asked, sounding almost close to tears.

Perhaps ‘Ace’ was a strange greeting or exclamation. It could even be a tv model or a word in a different language. In any case, for no particular reason her raspy commanding voice scared me slightly, although she had only said a single syllable.  I consulted my paper with conversation prompts for difficult customers. It failed me, so I simply replied, “Ma'am, are you trying to reach Richard Wilson’s Television? You may have the wrong number.”

“Ace, I know it’s you,” she was definitely struggling to hold back sobs now.

“Calm down please. Um, have you tried turning your TV off and then on again?”

At these words, she finally broke down. She wept, uttering disconnected words like ‘home’ and 'please’ and 'need’. She disconnected suddenly and as soon as the line went dead, I started to shake.

And now I’m still shaking. It is as though every beat of my heart and intake of breath into my lungs exacerbates the tremors. It feels like an eternity before a co-worker notices. I am vaguely aware of somebody holding a paper bag to my mouth and I try to fight them, thinking that they might be attempting to suffocate me. But my shaking arms don’t have the strength to fully push my attacker off, so I simply weakly slap at the hands until the shaking ends and my head clears of racing thoughts.

My co-workers back out of my cubicle, all of them standing at the entrance as though afraid I will start violently spasming again.

“Sorry,” I croak out, “a customer was yelling at me and it…was slightly off-putting.”

I don’t know why I lie. It comes out naturally and I don’t feel any of the guilt that I am supposed to. Instead, a rush of energy shoots to my brain, and I grin slightly; I tell myself that I only feel energized because of the excess oxygen flooding my lungs. The crowd seems placated by my smile and they all emigrate back to their cubicles, some of them joking with me. Chipped Fake Nails kisses my cheek and gives my hand a reassuring squeeze (it is significantly less reassuring because of the puncture wounds I receive from the weapons attached to her fingertips.)

When I am sure they are all gone, I slump back in my chair and run my hands repeatedly over the soft pattern of my corduroy pants.

—

It is Christmas and I have the day off. I’m not entirely sure which is worse. Chipped Fake Nails heartened me the day before by offering to spend the 26th with me. But for now, I am completely alone, something I avoid at all costs. Alone means thinking is inevitable. And thinking equals a throbbing heart and a keening in my ears.

Although I assume Boston will be quiet and closed this early on Christmas morning, I rise and dress for a walk, if only to distract myself with routine.

The Charles River is a ten minute drive from my apartment. But because the original civil engineers of Boston were probably cows that didn’t understand the concept of a straight line, it is almost faster to walk through back alleys than drive on the main roads. The fact that I’m breaking the law by trespassing on property should not send pleasurable tingles to my fingers, so I tell myself that my reaction are shivers from the cold.

I see only one other person in the park. She wears a fashionable black knee-length coat, but her legs are only covered by black tights and high-heeled boots. Her face is turned towards the Charles River so I don’t feel uncomfortable that she might be staring at me.

She sits on a bench, still intently staring at the partially solid river. As I walk on ahead of her, she nonchalantly calls, “Since it seems like we’re both alone on Christmas, why don’t you sit?”

When she speaks, my heart begins to thump and the air seems to be filled with sirens. Her voice is raspy and low. This time, it is not muffled either by the crackle of my call center headpiece or her grief filled sobs. Perhaps any other voice I would not be able to distinguish after hearing it for the first time under such conditions, but her voice is filled with the same humorous absolute power.

I set down on the other end of the bench and stare at the thin ice crystals along the muddy bank of the Charles. The woman next to me hums softly for a couple minutes before striking a conversation.

I wonder if she knows who I am or if by some weird twist of fate, I just happened upon the only person in Boston that broke the monotony of my life.

I look down at her hands, which are covered in scarlet fingerless gloves. Her nails are unpainted, but look stark white in comparison so her bare fingers, which are tinted red from the cold.

For the first time since I accidentally glanced at my reflection in the bank window, I am tempted to look someone in the eyes. Somehow, I wish I could see what her face looked like without her staring right back at me.

“How did you find me?” I finally ask. If she is a sane, normal person, my question will seem creepy and paranoid to her.

“You told me you worked at Richard Wilson headquarters. It wasn’t difficult to follow you,” In saying this, she distinguishes the last possibility of this being a random chance meeting. I also now know that there is a large possibility that her sanity is even less reliable than my own.

As if I need any more confirmation, she not-so-innocently asks, “Any Christmas dinner plans?”

I shake my head to clear it, but she must think that it was an answer to her question.

“Well then,” She tightens her coat around her torso and stands. I expect her to leave, but instead she gestures for me to follow her and says, “We might as well spend Christmas together, since it appears that we’re the only two people in Boston that don’t have a place to be on Christmas.”

I stand awkwardly and she extends a graceful hand for me to shake. I feel almost as though I should kiss it because she presents it palm down, fingers extended daintily. But instead I grab it without looking as it and shake it up and down a couple times.

“My name is Isabel,” She probably expects me to reply immediately, but for at least 30 seconds, I can’t remember my name. I remember Thirty-one Stripes, and I conjure the image of the file with my information, but my name alludes me.

“Ace,” I finally answer, because truly, the only memorable occurrence since my nascent re-emergence into the world was my conversation with Isabel as she sobbed ‘Ace’. Again, my fingers tingled at the lie. Or perhaps it is the truth; it’s becoming hard to tell the difference.

In the corner of my eye, I catch a flash of bright white and my head practically whips towards it. Isabel is beaming widely: a toothy, unsophisticated, child-like, joyful grin. Her cheeks are forced up which causes her eyes in squint. They are brown eyes, but while she smiles, her eyelashes fan together over the iris so they look black.

I must have stared at her for longer than is customary, but she continues to smile until I finally remember myself and look down. I let go of her cold hand and slide my own into my coat pocket.

“Let’s go, Ace.”

—

Isabel is not one for awkward silences. She speaks slowly, but constantly. I don’t listen to her words, only the tenor of her voice and how her voice breaks on h’s.

I don’t know why we stand outside a closed coffee shop for twenty minutes. I try to tell Isabel that even if I did have money, no shops with any self respect would be open on Christmas day. She ignores me.

It is not until noon that I realize that what we are waiting for is not the coffee shop’s opening, but the pitiful pawn store across the street. As soon as the sign flips from ‘closed’ to ‘open’, Isabel flounces across the street.  I consider striding in the opposite direction, but it is as though a magnetic force drags me towards the shop. She intimidates me, but Isabel cannot simply be ignored. If she begins walking away, anyone with value for their life would follow her without asking questions.

After a moment of surveying the room, she says, “Go stand over there by those ‘diamond’ rings.” She sneers at the word diamond as though she can sniff the false rock from across the room.

I do as I am told. After a minute of standing by the rings, I start to get shifty.

I am not a thief, but it would be so easy to steal one. Not that I have any particular want or need for a diamond ring. I don’t even want the money I could earn from selling it.

I pick up the nearest one– a flimsy thing with blue rocks decorating a tacky and large diamond– and look around to find the proprietor of the store.

He is adding another cheap pair of sunglasses to a tray of useless knick knacks. He wears shorts that don’t quite have enough fabric, particularly for the middle of winter, and a huge winter coat.

I stare at the ring in my palm. I could pocket it and Short Shorts would never know. Everything I have been taught about good and evil warns me not to do it. But even though the ring is not even technically stolen yet, I feel the energy of the act running up my arm. Just as I have decided to inconspicuously store the ring away, I feel a rough grip on my arm.

Short Shorts forcibly turns me towards him. I avert my eyes to his pale thighs to avoid looking at his face. He breathes heavily through his nose, which is inches from my face. I want to push him off, but I am paralyzed by cowardice.

“Empty your pockets,” Short Shorts says with poorly executed menace. Perhaps the effect would be more palpable if I weren’t staring at the egregiously stark contrast between the black hairs on his legs and his pasty skin.

Short Shorts reaches into my pocket. By this time, the other customers in the store had formed a hesitant semi circle around us: Peacoat Man, Spotted Hands, Hipster Glasses, and Weird Bowling Shoes. All of them pretend to gaze intently at vintage postcards or broken ipods, but it’s obvious they’re all looking at me.

Short Shorts finds nothing in my pockets, but he viciously grabs the ring from my clenched fist. The electricity from the ring vanishes and I feel ten degrees colder.

“I should call the police on you,” he warns, “show me your ID.”

I know he won’t call the cops. He is drawing out a useless process. But as he stares at my ID, his eyes widen slightly.

Some instinct passes through me, stronger than the evil electricity of stealing and more powerful than I can remember ever feeling.

I snatch my ID back and knock over the table with the jewelry. My actions shock Short Shorts, and he stumbles over the mess. Hipster Glasses runs to the door, but I push her into a rack of clothes before sprinting out.

I try to become lost. I don’t let myself recognize any of the streets. I must go where they least expect me. When I finally stop for breath I didn’t even realize I needed, I find myself on one of the peculiar Boston back roads ridden with snow filled pot holes.

The instinct to run has left me. Now I am frightened of both my criminal proclivities and my fear of authority. Today had been a mistake. I should never have left my apartment. I should never have spoken to Isabel. I should never have looked her in the face. I should never have entered the pawn shop and examined the ring and planned to steal it and run away and…

But my self hatred comes to an abrupt halt at the sound of a husky, alto voice. “You’re still good at running away,” I want to protest, but she does not say ‘running away’ like an insult, “I was afraid you might have lost your touch.”

Isabelle leans against the chain link fence with a smug smile. Her eyelashes clench together, but her black eyes now don’t look as warm. More satanic.

She struts towards me with more blaseé confidence than she had displayed at our first meeting. She opens her black coat and pulls something from the inside pocket. I hold out my hand for the object and gold chains trickle into my open palm. I can tell that these are far more expensive than the ring that caught my eye.

She is speaking, but I can barely hear her.

“You always said that appearance is all that matters. You look disheveled and guilty. I look like a common upper class clientele that might frequent that pawn shop. Your distraction was brilliant, though. I certainly can’t take all the credit.”

I throw the gold chains in a snow filled pothole.

Isabel spares me a politely inquisitive look. “Of course, petty crime was never really your M.O. But I always had the feeling you liked it better than you let on. We have to build you back up to the mastermind you once were, but unfortunately, we have to start small.” She chuckles darkly, though it’s obvious she really is humored, “Goodness, I can’t even imagine running a con with you as you are.”

“I don’t steal,” I say through clenched teeth. I stuff my hands in my pockets to stop myself from picking up the gold chains and running back to my apartment with them.

“Yet,” she states, as though finishing my sentence, “You told me that if they ever caught you, I would have to kill you. But…when I called you on the phone that day, prepared to say goodbye, I couldn’t bring myself to do it.”

I try to ask what she means. But my heart pounds so wildly, my whole body seems to convulse and I can’t hear anything except for the familiar high shriek. No. I tell myself. I need to know. I need to know. Why would she try to kill me? Why would I have asked her to do that? How did I know her in the first place? I had to know and I would endure a jumping heart and whining ears to know.  

“Why!” I finally scream. My voice echoes off the apartment buildings on my right. I almost collapse from the pain the simple word sent through my body. I am still breathing heavily when Isabel begins to speak, barely acknowledging my temporary lapse of sanity.

“The Ace I knew would rather die than lose everything that defined  himself. You’ve been running from Correctional Facilities for years. You were running even before I met you.  You used to call it ‘modernized lobotomy.’ The Correctional Facilities take your memories, your curiosity, your love, your knowledge. Only the most basic instincts remain. It is cruel of me to keep you alive when you’re merely a shadow of your former self.”

I don’t protest. I am a shadow. Before today, no specific days stand out. I just drift along as an accessory to my body.

“It is in your instincts to con. And that was what made you the best.”

“I’m not a criminal,” I mutter without conviction.

I back away from her slowly. Her eyes are wide now and the white sclera somehow looks wrong; her eyes should always be crescent shaped and smiling. Yet she does not follow me.

“I am Daniel…Daniel…” I can’t quite remember my last name. Something ordinary. Instead of finishing my sentence, I begin to run again. This time I run with the destination of my apartment in mind.

But as Isabel calls, “Ace!” to my retreating back, I don’t feel any less lost.

—

It is no longer an option to forget and push myself into the routine of everyday life. It is not as though I remember, but trying to remember isn’t painful anymore.

If Isabel was telling the truth, then I am a criminal. Or I was before the Correctional Facilites killed ‘Ace’ and created ‘Daniel’. But there is a high possibility that, like me, Isabel is a pathological liar. So although my instincts tell me to escape, to run from the consequences, I force myself to sit and press a palm to my spasming thigh.

I am eating a Christmas dinner of frosted flakes when a knock sounds on my door.  For a moment, I let myself believe that Isabel had followed me home, just as she had followed me to the Charles River earlier that day. But the people at the door do not give me much time to hope; they don’t wait for me to answer the door. Perhaps they knew that I wouldn’t have, had they given me the option.

I remember little from the scuffle. Not because of an effect of my first ‘modern lobotomy’ but because I woke up groggy from tranquilizers.

Thirty-one Stripes sits at my bedside as though he is a worried mother. He does not speak, which surprises me. Similar to a mother, I can feel his disappointment radiating off him in waves and it makes me cringe.

A nurse enters and silently takes my blood pressure.

When she leaves, Thirty-one Stripes finally breaks the silence.

“This is a rare case. I’m determined to help you find a better life, Daniel. But you must also be willing.”

“My name is Ace,” It is not as though I remember anything. There are parts of my brain that will permanently be damaged. But ‘Ace’ seems right. Maybe it’s because it’s the name Isabel called me.

“Fine, Ace,” Thirty-one Stripes sighs. I believe that he truly wants to help. He looks as though he has lost sleep over this. “Ace, it’s so rare that this surgery fails, there are no recorded cases since the trials in the early twenty first century. I’ll admit, there are executives that I work with that don’t think you will ever be fit for regular society. Your display at Al Walter’s pawn shop proved that.”

So, Short Shorts must have called the cops after all. But they took the call much more seriously because, apparently, I am already a criminal. The thought doesn’t bother me. I am a criminal. It is as much a part of my genetics as my hair color or inability to gain pigment in my skin. It is beyond my control. And for the first time in almost a hundred years, it is beyond the federal government’s control. Some part of me roars in approval.

“Well then,” I say, mustering some of the apathetic confidence that Isabel had exhumed, “I guess I won. You’ll have to kill me, like a primitive ape. I’ve made you a criminal. Welcome.”

The sarcasm felt incredible. The sweet taste of a lie mixed with the bitterness of hopelessness reminded me of coffee.

“You have won. You’ve won a greater victory than you could ever know. You’re right: by law we cannot kill you or lock you up. Even if we could, we have not jails to hold you in. But in society, your instinct is crime.” Here he pauses and stands to leave the room, but pauses at the doorway to quickly grouse, “So it is the decision of the executives of the federal correctional facilities that Daniel Baker never existed. The Ace of Hearts is still at large.”

It takes me a full hour of sitting in the hospital bed to understand what Thirty-one Stripes told me. I am uncontrollable. An anomaly. If they killed me, it would be the first capital punishment sentence in a century. The entire system would collapse. Crime would burst out everywhere at the revelation of the crack in the system. Ordinary people would panic that they weren’t safe with convicted criminals wandering the streets. So their only option is to ignore me.

I stand without difficulty. Suddenly I feel more awake than I have ever felt. There is no pounding heart. No high screaming in my head. Only outright, obtrusive, all-consuming curiosity and the free desire to cause a lot of trouble.

The freedom was tantamount to the thrill of lying, the electricity of stealing, and the adrenaline rush of escaping.

—

New Year’s day is my fourth straight day in a row on the bench. I sleep there and only leave for minutes at a time for food or to use the restroom in the Starbucks across the street. There is no way for me to find Isabel by looking for her; she has to find me.

I occupy my time by thinking: elaborate cons that would never work, Isabel’s coal eyes, Thirty-one Stripes, Short Shorts, and my old friend, Daniel Baker.

People are already setting up chairs and blankets for the firework show at 6 o’clock. It is snowing the kind of horrible stinging small flakes that somehow feel wetter than average snow. But New Englanders have never been put off by foul weather, and I won’t leave my post just to warm up.

Hundreds of people begin to gather at the edge of the Charles around half an hour until midnight. The sidewalks bustle with people moving in random traffic patterns.

But I recognize her immediately by her knee length black coat and sophisticated high heels. Her eyes are practically closed against the sleet, but the expression on her face when she lays eyes on me is one of awe.

“Since it seems we’re both alone on New Years, why don’t you have a seat?”

She turns towards me and keeps her eyes screwed up against the wind.

“Excuse me?” Her voice is higher and clear like the gong of a new bell.

I grin at her acting (the high voice is a bit of a give away) and stand to approach her. She doesn’t back away, but her posture sags slightly. This is my first cue of something wrong. She should straighten and bounce off her high heels to seem superior. She should widen her eyes in a cool, unassuming expression. She should wonder how I’m alive and hold my hand as though stealing me from a pawn shop.

But she looks more terrified and uncertain as I draw closer.

“Do I know you?” She asks. She winces and crosses her arm across her chest, as though trying to cage a desperate bird with her hands.

I stare dimly at her hands clutching her heart, and I know instinctually that her chest feels as though her heart will break her ribs with it’s furious pounding. Perhaps the roar of the crowd and the first fireworks marking the new year are soundless to her over the screeching in her ears, warning her not to ask questions.

“We were partners in crime.

She turns towards me and keeps her eyes screwed up against the wind.

“Excuse me?”

Now Isabel does back away from me. She doesn’t scream or negate my words. She clamps a hand over her ears and trips over the heel of her boot.

“I’m sorry. I don’t know you. Please get away from me.”

“Isabel, it’s me. It’s Ace”

“Get away from me. Get away from me,” she chanted, “Get away from me!” She screamed as I continued to pursue her, and even over the boom and fizzle of the fireworks, people in the crowd turned in the direction of her yelling.

“Isabel!” I hail after her, but she dissolves into the crowd.

Almost immobilized by pain and shock, I let her escape.

In a detached sort of manner, I push my way steadily through the crowd toward the Correctional Facility building, illuminated by intermittent bursts of fireworks. This time, I would choose to forget.

DEATH CITY DAYS CHAPTER 46

SUMMER BEACH TRIPS and more stuff

Sakuya: "Zzz..." naho: *snuggles* lilac: zzzz Sakuya: *holds both Naho and Lilac* "Mmm..." *yawn* naho: -w- Sakuya: "Morning..." naho: *yaaaawn* morning. Sakuya: "Hey...Time to get up, since we got some shopping to do." naho: *nods* Sakuya: "Any idea what to get for him?" *sits up in bed* naho: maybe something fancy? like cologne or something? Sakuya: "Does he even wear that stuff?" naho: i think so. *looks around* this is a personal theory but...i think he was a rich kid. Sakuya: "...So, rich kid runs off and joins the military?" naho: i dunno. maybe he was enlisted? Sakuya: "Maybe. I wonder how a rich boy deals getting tossed into the military." naho: *shrug* Sakuya: "...I think cologne can work. Maybe a card or something else too." -and so- Sakuya: *sniff sniff* "Woo! Really strong stuff..." naho: *looks*.... O_________O pricy.... Sakuya: "Eh, get something less pungent, less pricy." naho: good call. Salesperson: "Oh, hello, miss! Would you like to try this fragrance?" *sprays it at Naho* naho: unya! >.< Sakuya: *death glare* Salesperson: o___o;;; *tries to run* naho: =n= they could have asked first. Sakuya: "No kidding...Maybe if we complain to the manager, they'll knock the price down." -elsewhere- Lawless: *dancing while washing the dishes, in his boxers* romina: awooo! full moon out tonight! Lawless: "??? I'm still wearing--" romina: i know, i know. just havin' fun. julian: =///=; kranz: good morning all! *in only a bathrobe, having just gotten out of the shower* Lawless: "Oh, hey." romina: howdy! julian: good morning. Lawless: "Why the bathrobe?" kranz: just got out of the shower. it's licht's turn now. Lawless: "..." :3 romina: guil still asleep? kranz: looks like it. Lawless: *sneaks towards the bathroom...* licht: *singing* Lawless: =\\\\= ("Lovely voice...") *enters bathroom quietly...* licht: *hasnt noticed* Lawless: *slips out of his shirt and boxers...* Lawless: *pulls back the curtain and steps into the shower* licht: ?!?! Lawless: "Want to save on water? Or scrub your back?" licht:..... -too violent- Lawless: *in knots* -elsewhere- Belkia: "Hello~" ayami: *smiles* Belkia: "How's today been?" ayami: it went well. classes have been easier now... Belkia: "That's good...Enjoying the classes?" ayami:...*nod* Belkia: "What's your favorite subject?" -elsewhere- Patty: :3 liz: feeling better? Patty: *nod nod* "Looking forward to your birthday?" liz: yeah. Patty: "Year older, year wiser--" *looks at her face* "...Huh. Still look young." liz: aww. Patty: "Hee hee...Wes doing anything special for you?" liz: i think so. Patty: "Awesome..." *whispers* "Birthday sex..." liz: PATTI! >////< Patty: *eyebrow wiggle* "Maybe a nice hotel room...The king’s suite would be sweet." -elsewhere- Shamrock: *chopping vegetables* tsubaki: *also helping* Shamrock: "I think this soup will be good. It's the spices that help..." tsubaki: *nods* Shamrock: "Do you like it spicy?" -elsewhere- Mr. Tsubaki: "And how are our the patients doing with their chicken pox?" medic: they seem to be doing better now. Mr. Tsubaki: *nods* "Make sure they stay hydrated. And don't let them scratch. Put the mittens on them if necessary." -elsewhere- Jacqueline: *opens a closet door* "Hmm...Haven't noticed this before..." kim: oh? Jacqueline: *pulls open the door--revealing another room* "...An entire extra room?" kim: woah! Jacqueline: "...I hope this is more like 'Narnia' secret room and not 'Saw' secret room..." kim: neato. is there anything in there? Jacqueline: "Hmm...Something on the wall? Letters?" kim: ?? *examines one* if there's secretly a mold problem, im gonna gut someone. Jacqueline: "Mm...Looks like someone's name. Maybe a child wrote it on here?" kim: hmm.... *reads it* *The name is smudged, but it does say "Age 5.") kim: *examining* Jacqueline: "...Why would they hide this room?" *creeking in the floorboard* "???" -there is an old box in there- Jacqueline: "???" *opens it* -there is various old pieces of jewelry and marbles- Jacqueline: "A bracelet?" kim: cute. Jacqueline: "Maybe it was a time capsule?" kim: maybe. but for who? Jacqueline: "For the child themselves to find later, before their parents moved the family away?" kim: maybe.... -elsewhere- Vulcan: "Yu!" yu: ??? Vulcan: "Look how unhappy the toucan is!" yu: ... Toucan: *glares* Vulcan: "Did you clean his cage?!" -elsewhere- Sakuya: *struggling to wrap* >_< tsubaki: need me to help? naho: yes please. *covered in ribbon* Sakuya: "Just wanted to get something nice and simple wrapped--but nope, got to be complicated..." tsubaki: ^^; Belkia: *pops up behind Naho* "Whatcha get 'im?" naho: it's a suprise. Belkia: "...Want to know what I got him?" tsubaki: if you want to. Belkia: *pulls back his cloak to reveal...* "The Suck-O-Matic 4200 All-Purpose Vacuum Cleaner!" *confetti* naho:...wow. Sakuya: "...A vacuum? You think Sham is going to be impressed?" Belkia: "He likes cleaning, doesn't he?" naho: i guess. Belkia: "Wait until you see it in action!" *plugs it in* -later- Shamrock: "???" naho: Q_Q Shamrock: "...What did I miss?" naho: it's nothing! >n< Sakuya: -\\\\\- "J-Just don't..." Shamrock: "...Okay...Need me to clean up?" naho: we got it. Shamrock: "...Then I'll prepare something to eat..." naho:......my poor skirt...now i have to buy a new one... Q_Q Sakuya: *pat pat* "I'll get you a new one." Belkia: "You think you got problems? How do I explain these?!" *shows hickey marks on his neck* Shamrock: "...Please do not make-out with your girlfriend here..." Belkia: "IT WAS AN INANIMATE OBJECT!" Shamrock: "...That's not better." naho: T~T tsubaki: fortunatly, i was able to stop it. Belkia: "Yeah...and without damaging the cord, either." naho: 737 or losing your clothes.... Belkia: "What? Nothing any of us haven't seen--" -PUNCH- naho: D8< Belkia: *collapsed* x___x naho: MY UNDIES ARENT YOUR BUSINESS! Shamrock: o____o; Sakuya: *small laugh* naho: =n= belkia you're such a butt! Belkia: "No...that's what we got a view of..." -KICK TO THE FACE- Belkia: *flies across the room...* lavender: oh? Higan: "??? What happened, Tsubaki?" tsubaki: it's a long story. Higan: "Huh...Belkia got lucky, I guess." Belkia: x_______x -elsewhere- Kid: "I got the gift..." stocking: neat! Kid: "I hope she likes it...Now, we have to get in position..." -later- Patty: "Just this way, Sis, into this dark room..." liz: ok. Patty: "Let me just turn on the lights..." liz: ..... !!!! ???: "SURPRISE!" liz: awww.....you guys! QuQ Kid: "Happy birthday!" stocking: happy birthday! liz: *smiles as she wipes a tear away...she seems to be wearing a ring* Patty: :3 *spots the ring* stocking:....!!! OHMYGOD!! liz: ^^ Kid: "Congratulations!" Wes: -\\\\\- soul: congrats bro! Wes: "Thanks..." *smiles* stocking: *squeee* we're gonna be engagement buddies! *hugs liz* liz: ^^ Patty: *sniff* "All growing up so fast..." heather: congratulations liz! julie: ?? riley: neat. Yumi: Q~Q lord death: *SQUEEEES* Patty: "We'll have a bridal shower and everything!" -elsewhere- Shotaro: "Toru, look at the happy kappa doll!" Tool: -_-; toru: ^o^ io: papa! Tool: -\\\\\- *picks up Io* *hug* io: ^^ Shotaro: "These cousins will be the best friends! Right, Saki?" saki: seems like it. Tool: "Good to have family around you." *smiles at Toru* toru: ^w^ chie: *smiles* Tool: "And you will have to watch out for your cousin. Got it?" io: *nod* Tool: *smiles* "Good child." *pat pat* -elsewhere- Kid: "Two weddings..." stocking: *squee!* Kid: "Hee hee...That should be a set of events...We'll have to see how they schedule their wedding." stocking: *nods* Kid: "Do you think they will have their wedding before we do?" stocking: who knows. Kid: *small smirk* "I hope they don't out-do us in the wedding..." -elsewhere- mafura: ~? Touma: *putting tape down along the table in his hotel room, pulling up fingerprints...* mafura: what'cha doin~? Touma: "Collecting something we need..." mafura: what's that? Touma: "A scapegoat..." mafura: we're getting a goat? Touma: "Not quite...I have a loose end to tie up, but I don't want to take credit for it--I'll let someone else take it..." mafura:.....~? Touma: "Now, if you excuse me, I have to eliminate a problem..." mafura: okaaaay. Touma: *exits, looking at his phone, texting an executive* [meet me at the lounge] -in the lounge- lana: *phew* what a day... *Someone is seated in a chair, their back to Lana* lana: just a few minutes till the end of my shift... *The person is not moving in the chair...it looks like she spilled her wine on the floor, which has pooled* lana: *sighs and goes to clean it up* *That's not wine...* lana:..... *eyes widen as she screams* *The executive has a gunshot wound to her temple. No gun is in the room* lana: *runs to a phone to call 911* Operator: "911. What's your emer--" lana: oh my god oh my fucking god there's a dead body! Operator: "Hold on, ma'am. Where are you?" -she gives the address, but it's clear she's freaking out- *Cops arrive, examining the body* Officer #1: "Detective, we found the gun downstairs...The fingerprints--" lana: ...... Detective: *compares the fingerprints...looks and stares at Lana...* lana: ??? Detective: "Ma'am, I will need you to come with me to headquarters..." lana: o-ok...*nervous* --At the police station, Lana is left alone, handcuffed in the interrogation room-- lana: *shaking* *Officer #1 enters* Officer #1: "Your lawyer has arrived..." lana: lawye-... !!! Touma: *smiles* -a few days later- Touma: "Right this way, please. Watch your step: the stairway is dark..." lana: ... (thinking: i was proven innocent....but i have a bad feeling...) *There is a dungeon--and a hand reaches out through the bars and grabs her wrist* lana: *SCREAM* Touma: *smacks away the...Vampire? Abomination?* "Sorry. It can be a bit irritable without a meal..." Abomination: *shrieks at Lana, but looks afraid of Touma* lana: *horrified* what do you want from me? Touma: *smiles* "Subjects..." lana: ?!?! Touma: "You are personable, know people at the hotel...have features that would attract new ones to follow you here..." lana: ....you want me to be bait?! Touma: "Hmm...Crude, but accurate." lana:...you're insane... Touma: *smiles* "Many mistake genius for madness..." *the palm of his hand approaches slowly to caress her face* lana: *backing away* g-get the hell away from me! Touma: *snatches her wrist* "You either get me what I want--or I take what I want. Perhaps you'd rather be its next meal--" *shoves her towards the Abomination's cell...bones litter the floor...human bones* lana: *crying out of fear* no! Abomination: *shrieks, leaping at her* Touma: "What will be your choice, Lana?" lana: please dont kill me! Touma: "You will do as I say?" lana: *tearful* *nods* Touma: *smiles* "Good...And I know the target to start with." *points to the Abomination* "The more it consumes, the stronger it becomes. But humans only get it so far...Tell me, there is a wedding coming up, isn't there? An important one?" -elsewhere- Kid: *sneezes* stocking: you ok? Kid: *sniff* "Yes. Sorry. I guess someone was talking about me." -elsewhere- Benimaru: "Have you recovered from your chicken pox?" hinata: *nod* kirei: that's good. ^^ Benimaru: "Excellent. Just glad no one else around here hasn’t had--" Tsukiyo: *scratching* Benimaru: "...Of course." -elsewhere- Belkia: *giggles* otogiri: do i want to know? Belkia: "Maaaaaaaaybe~" *he's holding his cell phone* naho: *peeeeeeek* *His phone has a message on it...* naho: *reading* ayami: [im glad to hear that. ^^] Belkia: [yeah it's great! ^w^ ] naho: talkin to your girlfriend~? Belkia: "Y-Yeah?" o\\\\w\\\\o naho: ah. what'cha talkin about? Belkia: "A date idea..." naho: ooooooh! Owo Belkia: "Dinner, dancing, con some people out of money--" otogiri: -_-; Belkia: "I SHALL PERFORM MAGIC WITH MY LOVELY ASSISTANT!" naho: *sweatdrop* Belkia: "And she has a wonderful outfit, too--quite a cutie!" naho: i see. Belkia: "Care to help us?" *holds up sequined outfit* naho: that's way too revealing! D8< Sakuya: "...Now, hang on--" naho: O.O .....sakkun.... *cheek tug* you perv. >////< Sakuya: "Hee hee--Come on, just suggesting!" naho: 7////n////7 i couldnt wear that! *muttering* not in public anyways... Sakuya: "Maybe in private..." naho: o///o Sakuya: *small pat on the back* -elsewhere- Akitaru: *doing push-ups* shinra: *training* Akitaru: "Good work, son!" shinra: *smiles* Akitaru: "What's your max lift weight now?" shinra: i think it's- Takehisa: *scream* shinra: ?! Takehisa: "Where did they go?!" shinra: where did what go? Takehisa: *he reveals his face--and he has no glasses on, and his eyes pierce into their souls* Akitaru: o____o shinra: .__________________.;;;; do i know you? Takehisa: *panicked fast talking* "IF I DON'T HAVE MY GLASSES THEN I CAN'T SEE ANYTHING AND I RISK WALKING INT--* *BAM* Takehisa: *falls onto the floor...and a Takehisa-face-print is now in the wall* shinra: ow. Akitaru: "...I'll get ice." maki: commander! are you ok?? Takehisa: @_@ "...Why are there three of you?" maki: D8 -later- iris: i found your glasses. Takehisa: *two black eyes* "...Where were they?" iris: on your desk. Takehisa: "...Well, that's stupid of me." iris: ^^; karin: hey, dont beat yourself up over it, we make dumb mistakes like that all the time. Takehisa: -______- "...I need to get back to work--" *struggles to sit up* karin: easy there. Takehisa: "So embarrassing..." -elsewhere- Yumi: "When are you touring the potential reception halls? I was hoping to go with you." stocking: possibly this weekend. Yumi: *smiles* "So exciting!" stocking: *squeee!* Patty: "Bridal shower, too! And bachelorette parties!" liz: *smiles* hard to believe. it feels like just yesterday we started school...and here we all are now....almost. Yumi: "Just a bit more time..." *sniff* "So grown up..." -elsewhere- Akaderu: *passed out on the couch* Kepuri: *reading a book* nea: *trying on some new clothes* toru: *asleep* chie: ^^ Yohei: *watching Toru, smiles* Shinoda: *sipping apple juice* mono: *tense* Assi: "Mono?" mono: !!! w-wha? Assi: "You seem tense." mono: its just....after that incident with those mafia goons... nea: now dont you worry about a thing, hun. Shinoda: "Connections with the mob should help..." nea: indeed~ Assi: "...Hope so..." mono: still... Assi: "??? What? Still worried?" mono:.... -elsewhere- Benimaru: *looking through closet* "Where are they...?" fang-hua: looking for something sir? Benimaru: "My cloak is not here..." fang-hua: your cloak? Benimaru: "It is red." fang-hua: ah. -elsewhere- Black Star: *looking through a web site* tsubaki: ?? Black Star: "What do you usually get someone for a wedding?" tsubaki: eh? hmmmm. i'm not sure. otogiri: perhaps matching towels? Black Star: "Maybe...Just have to find some that are symmetrical." otogiri: perhaps. Black Star: *pulls up some options* "These looks alright--black and white design. What do you think, Tsubaki?" tsubaki: they look great. ^^ Black Star: "Okay...Ordered! Now, for Liz and Wes..." -elsewhere- Kuro: *yawn* mahiru: *phew*.......*puts his jacket over him* Kuro: *bundles up under the jacket* =w= mahiru:... *small smile* Kuro: *slight shiver* "M-Master..." mahiru: ....... o////o uh... Kuro: "I-I'm sorry..." mahiru:..... *gives him a pillow* Kuro: *seems a bit more at ease with the pillow* =w= mahiru:....*smiles* Kuro: "Zzz..." -elsewhere- Mr. Tsubaki: *in fox form, digging a hole* reimi: looking for fossils? Mr. Tsubaki: "...Sort of? I mean, I found some bones--" reimi: O_O;; Mr. Tsubaki: "I'm sure it's nothing. You know, just what random animals bury." *holds up one in his mouth, his voice a little muffled* "See? Chicken bones!" reimi: ah, i see. ^^; Mr. Tsubaki: "I wouldn't worry. I mean, it's not like someone would kill villagers around here--" *An arm grabs Mr. Tsubaki by the back of his neck* Mr. Tsubaki: O_____O reimi: !!! Tsukiyo: *holds up Mr. Tsubaki...* *SNIFF* "Woo! This critter smells awful! He needs a bath, Sister." reimi: ^^; Tsukiyo: "I'll dump him into the fox bucket--with cold water--" Mr. Tsubaki: O_________________O -elsewhere- Lawless: "So, your bro is getting hitched?" soul: yeah. hard to believe. licht: does he need a wedding singer? Lawless: *shiny eyes* soul: you offering? licht: yes. because....*pose* i'm an ang- soul: you're an angel, i know. licht: *glaaaare* don't interrupt me. soul: O_O; Lawless: "DO NOT INTERRUPT THE ANGEL!" *smiles* "Please, proceed, Licht~" soul: *sweatdrop* -elsewhere- Relan: *hiding in his sweater* mikami: are you feeling better now? Relan: *still hiding in his sweater, but nods* "Yes. Just want to feel warm." mikami: i'd offer to help...but i dont want to burn you. Relan: *slight shiver at that image* "I-I appreciate that!" *nervous laugh* "The sweater is enough to stay warm..." *peeks out from the top of the sweater* "H-How are you?" mikami: i've been well. ryuuko's well, but she seems worried about me....im a bit worried about me too... Relan: "...The C-C-Commander?" mikami:...*nods* Relan: "...Y-Yeah...I was thinking about that..." mikami: .... Relan: "M-Maybe we would go...somewhere else?" mikami: you mean, transfer? Relan: *nods* "It's happened before. You know that scary cat-girl?" mikami: you mean m-miss tamaki? Relan: *nods* mikami: well.... *KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK* mikami: ?? *opens the door* yes? Giovanni: "..." mikami: !! Relan: "!!!" *stands at attention* Giovanni: "Exercises. Now." ryuuko: .....*holds mikami's hand and walks with her* Relan: *shuffling behind them* Giovanni: "Let's see some progress today..." -elsewhere- Meme: "I CAN'T CATCH THE FUCKING GOLDEN STAG!!!" tsugumi: meme! language! mio: want me to help? Meme: TT_TT *nod nod* mio: you got to sneak up slowly like this, ok? *showing her* Meme: *looks over Mio's shoulder, nods* -elsewhere- Hibana: *paint in her hair, on her dress* D: soldier: she's a handful, aint she? Hibana: "I had no idea children were so small, fast, and messy..." *shiny eyes* "And lovable!" solider: they sure are. i should know, i have two younger siblings of my own. Hibana: "...Huh. I never knew that." -elsewhere- Giriko: *holding an ice pack to his eye* -____- arachne: feeling better? Giriko: "A bit...She packs a wallop." kirika: i said i was sorry! Giriko: "Don't get me wrong--I'm impressed. Just...hurts." TT_TT arachne: ^^; kirika: thanks....i know you can handle it, but that asshat priest made me apologize. 7n7; Giriko: "Eh, just kick Justin in the shin..." kirika: wise words. -elsewhere- PlushFix: .w. hina: *looks at the letter* mercenary group, eh? PlushFix: *nod nod* "Awesome!" hina: what're they offerin'? PlushFix: "Money! That's all that matters!" hina: alright. so where are these guys? PlushFix: "The gritty part of town! So badass!" *shows off his claws* saku:....seems they're part of the mafia. PlushFix: "Hee hee...They hurt a lot of people..." hina: i heard about these guys. i heard that they can fuck some shit up. PlushFix: "Then it'll be fun, right?" hina: hell yea -elsewhere- Rin: *tap tap* kyouko: ya? Rin: "I'm sorry to ask this...but about the 'Blue Night'...?" kyouko: i've heard about it before. apparently from what my dad told me, my grandad died during the incident, and he took over the family church in his place. Rin: "O-Oh...?" kyouko: yeah. but it happened before i was born so, yeah. Rin: "...Y-Yeah...J-Just curious about it since I'm...16..." kyouko: to be honest, i dont know too much about it. Rin: "..." *looking around, nervously* -elsewhere- Mr. Tsubaki: *frowning* reimi: something wrong? Mr. Tsubaki: "Just don't like getting bathed when I'm in fox form...Tsukiyo is rough, too." reimi: aww. Mr. Tsubaki: "I think she left scabs too..." *pouts* "I will have to put on lotion..." reimi: want me to do that? Mr. Tsubaki: *nods* "I can do my arms and legs, but I need some help with my back..." reimi: can do! *salutes* Mr. Tsubaki: "..." *small giggle* "You're a very energetic subclass..." reimi: im just trying to help. Mr. Tsubaki: "I appreciate it..." *lowers his yukata* -elsewhere- Arthur: *trying to pull piece in Jenga* "..." nozomi: *keeping score* Arthur: *removes it easily...smirks* "Your move." shinra: hmmmm.... *about to make his move when...* Victor: "DON'T DO IT!" shinra: ?! Victor: "You're picking the wrong piece! Pick that one!" shinra: uhhh.... Victor: "DO IT! DO IT NOW! NOW NOW NOW NOW--" shinra: alright! *pull* -tamaki got trampled- tamaki: shinraaaaaa! *demonic aura* shinra: OwO;;; Victor: *smirks* Arthur: "...Running would be a good idea." shinra: *runs* tamaki: GET BACK HERE YOU COWARD!!! Victor: *recording on his camera* "This should be good~" iris: *sweatdrop* shinra: *runs until he crashes into someone* Relan: "Owie..." shinra: r-rel!! *hug* are you ok?? Relan: T_T "That hurt..." shinra: s-sorry! here, let me help you up! tamaki: eh? relan? what brings you here? Relan: "I-I-I want to leave..." shinra: ?? tamaki: eh? Relan: "I-I'm scared what the C-Commander will do..." shinra: hey, im sure that commander oubi wont hurt you- Relan: *shakes his head* "I mean Giovanni..." shinra: oh....wait, so then you're- Relan: *nods* "I can't stay there..." shinra:....*hugs him* its ok now... Relan: *sniff, hug* shinra: .....did you want to speak with commander oubi? Relan: *nod nod* *sniff* -and so- Akitaru: *pat pat* "It's okay, Relan." Relan: *sniff* T_T tamaki: so are we transferring him here then? Relan: "If y-y-you'll have me?" shinra: can we commander? Relan: *puppy dog eyes* Akitaru: "..." *pat pat* "Sure!" shinra: thanks commander! Relan: QwQ maki: we'll start working on the transfer right away! Relan: "Th-Thank you..." *weak smile* -elsewhere- Giovanni: *finds empty bedroom* "...The fuck?" soldier: he even took the rat with him.. Giovanni: "..." *turns without a word, pulling his cape behind him* soldier:.... (thinking: i hope that kid's going to be ok...) Giovanni: *marches into his office, shutting the door behind him* ("...Another loss...") ryuuko: .... mikami: he...wont be too angry...will he? *BOOM* mikami: eep! ryuuko: !! Giovanni: "There...Now that wall is gone. It is roomier now." *rain is blowing into the room* mikami: O^O;;; ryuuko: ...... *A small bird perches on Giovanni's mask* Giovanni: "...I will kill this creature." mikami: c-commander please dont! that's mean! Giovanni: "..." *scares the bird away* "...Prepare." -elsewhere- Shima: *singing to himself* "Summertime..." konekomaru: yeah, just around the corner too. Shima: "Beaches! Girls! Bikinis! Girls! Swimming! GIRLS! GIRLS! G--" -POW- izumo: we. get. it. Shima: *collapsed* "Yeah, so did I..." T~T konekomaru: maybe with the weekend coming up, maybe we can visit the beach district? shiemi: i didnt know death city _had_ a beach district! Bon: "I heard the Grim Reaper did something to add beaches. To get water?" izumo: either that or mephisto screwing around again. *sweatdrop* Bon: "Yeah...Be careful what you say. You never know when he's listening--" -and so- Shima: .w. izumo: here we are. konekomaru: hey, isnt that... *points to a group of ladies...including stocking* Shima: "....I have died and gone to Heaven." izumo: no, but you're about to! stocking: hmm? oh, hey guys. liz: hey. Patty: "Howdy, Rooster Man!" Bon: ._. felisia: ah, small world it seems. lavender: oh my~ friends of yours~? tsubaki: sort of. Shima: *approaches Felisia* "Hello!" felisia: um...hi? ^^; stocking: you better not go perving on my mom! Shima: *gasp* "Your mom?! I could have sworn she was your sister~" stocking: ....... felisia: well, i am her mother, no doubting that. ^^; naho: .... tsubaki: ^^; Shima: "I am Shima, one of your daughter's classmates. And rest assure, I am always there to look out for all the new students~" felisia: ah, a pleasure to meet you then. *smiles* izumo: i'm izumo. and these guys are konekomaru and suguro. Bon: *waves* "Hello, ma'am. So, you all enjoying the beach?" liz: yeah. naho: yep! lavender: oh you know it~ Patty: "PARTYING! Guess why?!" izumo: the warm weather? stocking: and a joint bachelorette party for me and liz! Patty: "And that means no boys!" *stares at Bon and Shima* "..." *points at Shima* "He's barely a man. Can we bring him?" Shima: D:< stocking: no. Patty: "Well, darn. Sorry, fuck-boi--" *kicks Shima down* konekomaru: *wince* ow. naho: get wrecked! Shima: *face in the sand* "...Damn." konekomaru: did you want to get some shaved ice? Bon: "Might as well..." Shima: *muffled* "Yes." izumo: how about you guys? naho: that sounds awesome! felisia: sure. tsubaki: *nods* Patty: "Hee hee! Yes!" -and so- naho: *nom* mmm~ tastes yummy<3 Patty: *bites into hers--* "GAH! BRAIN FREEZE!" liz: careful there. Patty: =3= "Hurts..." -elsewhere- Kid: *looking around* soul: you alright? Kid: *nods* "Just determining how to preoccupy myself." soul: maybe watching a movie or playing games? Black Star: "Games!" kilik: sounds good! Kid: "Excellent! We can play Chinese checkers! No, wait...That's not symmetrical..." kilik: *sweatdrop* soul: or we could play mario party or something. Black Star: "...Yeah, that's better. Or else Kid would take forever--" Kid: *pout* soul: no kidding.....*realization* ugh, that was bad. kilik: no shit. Kid: "..." *finally gets it, makes an Excalibur face* kirika: boooo, that was laaame! Black Star: "PUNISH HIM FOR HIS PUNS!" -and so- soul: was this needed?! *he's bound and stripped to his boxers* Kid: "...Perhaps we did go overboard...and the rope is not quite symmetrical." *adjusts* "Perfect!" lord death: who wants PIZZA ROLLS~?.......anyone? Black Star: "...Yes, please!" Kid: ._. -elsewhere- Relan: *eating waffles, his mouth full* shinra: how are they? Relan: TWT "So tasty..." shinra: glad you like them. ^^ tamaki: ....hey, relan? Relan: "Huh?" tamaki: listen, i know we got off on the wrong foot in the beginning...but given mutual circumstances, i'll try to be a little nicer to you. Relan: "..." *smile, holds out his hand* "Okay!" tamaki:....*small handshake* Relan: -w- "I-I appreciate this..." -elsewhere- Shotaro: "So, if Chie and Saki had babies..." mana: ?? Shotaro: "Who's the next one having a kid?" mana:.....*shrugs* Shotaro: "I bet on Kepuri--" Kepuri: *flustered 10x* akaderu: 7/////7;;; Shotaro: "Or Nea--" -PUNCH- nea: ^^# *fist steaming* setsuna: O_O Shotaro: X_____X Emine: "...That's indeed a bad deed." mana: i'll get the ice. Emine: *taking photos* "Going online..." -elsewhere- Benimaru: *sipping tea* kirei: good morning. hope you dont mind me stopping by. Benimaru: "Not at all." *smiles* "How are you?" kirei: i've been well. *smiles* Benimaru: "Would you like some tea? I just brewed it..." kirei: why yes, thank you. ^^ Benimaru: *pours her a cup, handing it to her--his hand softly along hers* kirei: *blush* thank you. Benimaru: *small blush* "You are welcome...How has your day been?" kirei: fairly calm....the cherry blossoms look lovely this time of year... Benimaru: "...We should make a day for a walk...to look at them." kirei: perhaps. *smiles warmly* Benimaru: "...I think...you would look nice...with a cherry blossom in your hair." kirei: oh. um... ./////. Benimaru: "...I made things awkward." kirei: i-its fine, really. ^///^ Benimaru: -\\\\- kirei:....*leans against him slightly* Benimaru: "..." *puts an arm around her* kirei: !!..... u/////u Benimaru: *lean* -elsewhere- Belkia: *counting money* -later- stocking: we're back! Kid: *smiles* "Welcome home!" stocking: *huuug* liz: we had a lot of fun today. Wes: "That's good. How was the beach?" stocking: tons of fun, we even got shaved ice! Patty: "It was yummy!" Kid: ^^ "That's great." liz: we even saw stocking's classmates from the cram school. Wes: "Cool!" Kid: "How were your classmates?" stocking: they were doing good.........*excalibur face* most of them, anyway... Kid: "??? Did someone hurt you?" stocking: no, but one of my classmates was a bit of a pain... Kid: *nods* "Should I send them a message?" stocking: if it helps, i guess. just....try not to go too overboard. ^^; Kid: *serene smile* "Do I ever?" soul: do you want an honest answer? Kid: -_-;;; Wes: *small smile* -later- Shima: o____o konekomaru: *faints* kinzou: is....is that a pigs's head on a stick? Shima: *whimpering* Bon: o____o; "...I told you not to flirt with the Grim Reaper's son's bride-to-be." Shima: "YOU SAID NO SUCH THING!" Bon: "Strongly implied." konekomaru: maybe we should write it down in sharpie? Bon: "On his forehead. Backwards." Shima: D: kinzou: *grabs him* hold still you! Shima: *trying to wiggle free* "NO!" Bon: "Konekomaru, your handwriting is cleaner than mine..." konekomaru: sorry shima. but THIS IS FOR YOUR OWN GOOD! Shima: "NoooooOOOOOooooo--" Bon: *bonks Shima's head* "Proceed." -too horrific to show- mephisto: !! did anyone else feel a cold chill or was that just me? Amaimon: *in his boxers and a t-shirt* "Maybe someone left the window open?" mephisto: i'm sure they're all closed. felisia: and it's springtime too. *in mephisto's yukata* mephisto:........... *NOSEBLEED* Amaimon: "...Should I leave?" -elsewhere- Yumi: *snuggle* lord death: U////U~<3 Yumi: *small smooch on the cheek* "You're so handsome when you blush." lord death: >////< Yumi: *smiles, as she pulls him closer* -elsewhere- Vulcan: *asleep in the junkyard* lisa:.....*picks him up and carries him to his bed* Vulcan: "Zzz..." *holding onto her by the back of her neck* lisa:....get some rest. *smiles and tucks him in* Vulcan: "M...M..." lisa:....*holds him* Vulcan: *calms down* =w= -elsewhere- Jacqueline: "You need the bathroom?" -morning- Kid: *yawn* stocking: zzzzz.... Kid: "..." *smiles, hugs* stocking: mmn~ Kid: "Good morning~" stocking: morning honey~<3 Kid: "Morning, sweetie~" *smooch* stocking: mmmm~<3 Kid: "How did you sleep?" stocking: pretty good. you? Kid: *nods* "Very well." *smiles* stocking: that's good Kid: "You know what would have made my sleep better?" stocking: oh~? what? Kid: *holds her* "Having you in more of my dreams." stocking: aw, hehe~ Kid: *cuddles* "How about we shower, have breakfast, and start our day?" stocking: sounds great! Kid: *smiles, as he gets out of bed, taking off his pajama shirt* -and so- Kid: *contented sigh* "Ready to start the day!" stocking: *smiles* Patty: "Hey, you two!" *waves excitedly* liz: morning. so what did you guys want to do today? Kid: "Still so much to do for wedding preparations...When is the visit to the hotel reception area?" liz: i think this weekend. Kid: *checks the calendar to see what today is* -its friday- Patty: "I suggest we do a fun activity!" liz: such as? Patty: "I don't know...Arcade?" stocking: sounds like a plan! Kid: *smiles* "Maybe win prizes, too. Pool our tickets." liz: *nods* Patty: "Let's go! Big-ass sunglasses, here we come!" -and so- Patty: "THIS JOYSTICK ISN'T WORKING!" stocking: this game doesnt use a joystick... ^^; Patty: "...Oh. Um...I guess I can't see the screen?" stocking: ^^; Kid: "I guess you do need those glasses..." Patty: *pout* liz: aw, it's alright. (thinking: at least kid isnt making us both get glasses ^^; ) Kid: *stares at Liz* liz:...did you just read my mind? Kid: "...You need glasses." liz: *facepalm* Kid: "...Symmetry is key. As is 20/20 vision." liz: and here he goes again. -_-; stocking: you know, i bet you'd look cute in glasses, kid. Kid: o\\\\o "R-Really?" stocking: yeah. you can wear them without the lenses if you prefer. Kid: "M-Maybe?" -elsewhere- Belkia: *sipping a fruity drink in the pool* tsubaki: *phew*. cant believe it's only still may... Belkia: "I blame the weather..." -WATER GUN ATTACK- Belkia: *gargle* "Wh-What?!" D:< naho: haha! target eliminated! high five! Sakuya: "Nice!" Belkia: "...I WILL HAVE MY REVENGE!" otogiri: there's a visitor here. Belkia: "??? Friend or foe?" ayami: h-hello. *in a white sundress and sunhat, with a bag* Belkia: .\\\\. "H-H-Hi! C-C-Cute!!!" ayami: t-thank you. ./////. naho: wow, you look really nice, ayamin! ayami: !! t-thank you! >///<; Belkia: "Wh-What brings you over? I mean, aside from getting to see you?" ayami: i-i thought i'd...come visit... Belkia: "..." *smiles widely* "Want to hang out by the pool?" ayami: oh um...i-i'd like that...but i didnt bring a swimsuit. naho: you can borrow one of mine if you want. Belkia: OWO ayami: oh...a-are you sure? Belkia: *nodding* naho: yeah. we're around the same build, so it'll be fine. *takes ayami to her room* Belkia: *giddy* -and so- ayami: this is....nice. Belkia: *smiles* .\\\. "C-Comfy?" ayami: *nods* Belkia: =w= "I'm sorry we don't have a bigger pool." ayami: i-it's alright. lilac: im not....a good swimmer. Sakuya: "Well, this can be practice?" lilac: i-i guess... -elsewhere- Tsukiyo: "We got ramen!" -elsewhere- Relan: "How about here?" shinra: looks good. Relan: *smiles* "Well, let's get Buttons set up..." buttons: ^o^ shinra: *smiles* Relan: *smiles* "Great...I-I appreciate all of this..." shinra: no problem. Relan: "..." *sits on his bed...slight bounce* "...Comfy." shinra: ...mind if i...sit next to you? Relan: "..." *pats seat next to him* shinra: *smiles and sits down* Relan: "I-I feel...safer here." shinra: *smiles* im glad. Relan: "..." *holds his hand* shinra: *blush* iris: *hugs them* Relan: ^\\\^ *hugs Iris* shinra: so, how's desk work for you, rel? doing alright? Relan: "Gr-Great! I didn't think my math skills were so good..." iris: see? that's good to know. you're really smart, relan. Relan: Q\\\\Q "I-I am?" iris: *nods* Relan: *sniff* "Th-That means a lot. I hope I can do well..." shinra: i'm sure you will. Relan: "..." *hugs both of them* -elsewhere- Hibana: "Do you see the pool floaties anywhere?" gabriella: for anything in particular? Hibana: "I was hoping to teach our little cutie how to swim~" gabriella: oh! right! Hibana: "Sweetie! You got your swimsuit?" hanako: *nods* Hibana: "Great! The pool is upstairs." *presses button on the elevator* -elsewhere- Free: *his head is stuck in a honey pot* eruka: ....do i even want to ask? Free: "I read about a bear who did this...It was funnier in the book." eruka: *sweatdrop* Free: "Can you get something to slide me out of this? I'm getting claustrophobic." -elsewhere- Gopher: *stuck on a tree branch* kirika: hold on, i got ya. *slashes the branch* *nice catch!* Gopher: *blushing, covering his face* "Th-Thank you, my hero..." kirika: no prob....mind explaining how you got up there? Gopher: "...A dog chased after me..." kirika: how big was it? Gopher: "Huge! Ferocious! With big teeth! Rabid! With a loud bark and--" *spots it behind Kirika* "EEP!" *leaps into her arms* kirika: *turns* *A small Chihuahua is there* kirika:....... Gopher: *shivering in her arms* "Keep it away from me!" owner: chiko! there you are, jeez, dont run off like that. *puts the leash back on the dog* Gopher: Q^Q -elsewhere- Vulcan: *staring at robot puppy* "...Well? Hurry up!" -elsewhere- Touma: *reviewing his notes* natsuna: .... Touma: "Just a little more time..." -saturday, at the hotel- lana: here to see the reception hall? Yumi: *holding Shiori* "Yes." *smiles* soul: i'm just here as a witness, i guess. Kid: "What is the occupancy of the reception hall? 88? 888? 8888? lana: .... *sweatdrop* stocking: ^^; lana:....aaaanyway, let's get started then. shiori: gu! Yumi: "Good, right, Shiori? Look at the chandelier!" shiori: *shiny eyes* Kid: "Impressive! And the carpeting--the lighting!" stocking: *smiles* soul:......*feeling of unease* Kid: "..." *shivers* lord death: ....!!! TAKE COVER! *barrier cover mode over the group* *Abominations crawl down the walls from the chandelier into the hall* lana: *SCREAMING* stocking: what the heck?! soul: *scythe arm* Kid: "!!! Liz! Patt--" *Abomination leaps at the barrier* liz: *grabs patti and shoots at the monster* Abomination: *shrieks, slicing at the barrier--reaching through slightly...at Yumi and Shiori* lord death: oh no you DONT! soul: *slices the abomination's limb off* Abomination: *screams, clutching wound* Patty: "Woot! Souvenir limb, Sis!" soul: *continues cutting the abomination* lana: *passes out* shiori: XD Kid: "How did this happen?!" soul: at least it's dead now.... *holding the soul* .... Patty: "Oooooo...A new soul!" soul: *gulp* Kid: "...How many...?" soul: that's number 99... Kid: "...Just one more..." soul: a rogue witch....what was that thing? Yumi: *holding Shiori close* "...Anyone else find it convenient that when we happen to visit, those...monsters attack?" lord death: hmm... i'll send in the investigation team. Kid: "..." *stares at Lana* lana: *in shock* w...what....what was.... Kid: "...I don't know." -later- Stein: *examining a limb* "...Why didn't I get to make this?" clay: not sure, but it's creepy as hell. *shudders* Akane: "We still haven't found anyone else around...which leaves only a few suspects..." -elsewhere- stocking: *holding kid* Kid: *holding her as well* "Are you okay?" stocking: y-yeah...just...shaken a bit. Kid: "..." *nods* "I know...Someone was...after us." stocking: ...... Kid: *hugs her* "I won't let anything happen..." stocking: i know... Kid: "..." *cuddles* stocking: *smiles* Kid: "Hey...We're going to get married." stocking: yeah. we are. *smiles* Kid: "I can't wait to dance with you..." stocking: same here. and the wedding night~<3 Kid: ^\\\\^ "Indeed..." stocking: *nuzzles* Kid: "I think we'll need some practice..." -elsewhere- Touma: "Failure..." natsuna: sir? Touma: "...What?" natsuna: what's a failure? and what was the point of this? Touma: "Acquiring a sample. A new one..." natsuna: ?? Touma: "Something to perfect an experiment..." natsuna: and that would be? Touma: "...Would you like to see it?" natsuna: i guess? -elsewhere- Belkia: ^w^ naho: today was a good day. Sakuya: *nods* "Quite a bit..." tsubaki: *setting the beds* Black Star: "need help?" tsubaki: oh, thanks. ^^ Black Star: *gets to work* "...I'm surprised we can fit so many people here." tsubaki: *she nods*....*tearfully chuckles* Black Star: "?! Tsubaki? What's wrong?" tsubaki: n-nothing, just...laughing at the irony of it all....back then, we came to this new home to get away from him.....and now... Black Star: "...Yeah. Ironic." *looks glum* tsubaki:.....*frowns* Black Star: "...I'll get some more sheets." *turns abruptly* tsubaki:........ Black Star: *goes to closet, pulling out another set of sheets...walks back to her, not looking at her* tsubaki: ....*bites lip* Black Star: *finishes making the bed...looks at her* tsubaki: *hugs him* Black Star: "!!! Wh-What?" tsubaki: i-i'm sorry...i've been such a terrible girlfriend... Black Star: "N-No! No, you haven't!" *pulls out of the hug, holding her by her shoulders* "I-I'm sorry!" tsubaki: ..... Black Star: "...I love you, so much." tsubaki: i love you too. really... Black Star: *nods, hugs her* -elsewhere- Mr. Tsubaki: Q~Q reimi: sir? Mr. Tsubaki: "I-I just felt a wave of sadness pass over me, like none I have felt." reimi: ?? Mr. Tsubaki: *resumes fox form...leans against Reimi* "I miss her..." reimi:...did you want to visit her? Mr. Tsubaki: *nod nod* -elsewhere- Ponera: *sigh* shaula: whats up, ponpon? Ponera: "...Just lonely, I guess." milia: so boooored. i feel like we havent been doing anything. =n= Ponera: "Maybe we need something to do..." -elsewhere- Tsukiyo: "So, with the commander spoken for, any dating prospects?" fang-hua: eh? Tsukiyo: "You know, you seeing anyone?" fang-hua: not really. to be honest, im not really looking for anyone. Tsukiyo: "...Well, just looking out for you there." -elsewhere- Arthur: "I move the Knight here..." *moves his chess piece* nozomi: hmmm... *moves her rook* Arthur: *moves his pawn* "Check." nozomi: D: karin: oh, so close. Victor: "Well, it's not like it's checkmate yet..." karin: yeah, still early game. Arthur: "I suggest you get out of the way of my pawn, then." -elsewhere- Wes: "I'm so sorry." liz: it's ok. im just glad we're all ok... Wes: *nods* "So am I..." liz:....soul's so close to being a death scythe now. Wes: "Yes...and that scares me." liz: ?? wes? Wes: "He'll be facing bigger threats..." liz: ...we arent going to be children forever, you know. Wes: *nods* "I still see him as my little brother..." liz: i understand that feeling. Wes: "I-I worry...What do Death Scythes tend to do? And without a meister for Soul..." liz: ...then again, justin doesnt have a meister either... Wes: "True...I hope he can help Soul..." liz: hopefully, he's just a little older than soul, so maybe... Wes: *nods, slight shiver* -elsewhere- Yohei: *reading to Toru* toru: *listening* Yohei: So Coraline followed the tunnel into a new world..." *points at the illustration* "Really colorful tunnel, isn't it? What color is that?" toru: papu! (purple) Yohei: *smiles* "That's right! And what color is the cat?" -elsewhere- Harvar: *slicing a watermelon* -elsewhere- Jacqueline: "Which movie you want?" -elsewhere- Arthur: "And tickets are...pre-ordered." tamaki: awesome! Arthur: *smiles* "I think it will be an enjoyable outing." tamaki: now we just need to get our costumes ready. Arthur: "...Like a suit of armor?" tamaki: sure? Arthur: *shiny eyes* "Yay!" -elsewhere- Kid: "Feel better?" stocking: yeah. *holds her stomach* stupid cramps. TT.TT Kid: *nods* "May I get you anything?" stocking: hot water bottle and chocolate. lots of it. Kid: *smiles* "On it." ("Thank goodness we have chocolate shipped in like natural gas...") stocking: thank you honey~<3 *He returns with the bottle--and a plate of various chocolates* stocking: i wuv you~<3 Kid: *smiles* "I love you, too." -the next day- Patty: "New day! New day!" julie: ^w^ Patty: "What you want for breakfast, Julie?" julie: waffle mountain! Patty: "No! A waffle volcano full of maple syrup!" julie: awesome! Patty: "Okay!" *puts a small chef's hat on Julie* "I'll start pouring the batter in..." -and so- stocking: *shiny eyes* woah! Patty: "Chef Patty delivers! Dig in, folks!" stocking: thanks for the meal~! Kid: "...That volcano is a little off on the left--" Patty: *glare* julie: *nom* Patty: *smiles at Julie* "Want any fruit on it?" julie: blueberries please! Patty: "On it!" *pulls out a modified water gun* "Blueberry gun away!" liz: *berry'd* ah! Patty: "Whoops! Sorry, Sis! I'm sure I can clean that out..." -elsewhere- Relan: *trying to make an omelette* "Um..." iris: need help? Relan: "Y-Yes, please. I'm not sure when to flip...or fold?" iris: ah. you need to wait for most of the liquidy stuff on top to evaporate. Relan: *watches, nods* -and so- Relan: "Is-Is it done?" iris: i think so. Relan: *picks it off the pan and onto the plate* "..." *takes the fork, takes some, bites in--WIDE-EYED ENJOYMENT* shinra: seems he's happy. *smiles* Relan: =w= "Tasty..." -elsewhere- Lawless: *poke poke* licht: *opens eye* what? Lawless: "It's morning. I'm hungry." licht: the pantry is stocked. you know where everything is. Lawless: "..." *poke poke* "Will you make me muffins?" licht: i need my beauty sleep, im not your mother. Lawless: "...You could be my daddy--" -KICK- licht: ..............im just going to pretend i never heard that. Lawless: D: -elsewhere- Vulcan: *fixing the birdfeeder* yu: i brought in some new parts, sir! Vulcan: "Good job! Get to work prepping them and filing them! We start building the new project!" yu: yes sir! Vulcan: "Now, let's see..." *he looks over his blueprints...and it looks like a giant skull...* -elsewhere- Kepuri: "Wakey-wakey..." akaderu: *yaaawn* *pulls her into a hug* Kepuri: o\\\\o "..." *returns the hug* "Tired?" akaderu: couldnt sleep. Kepuri: *pouts slightly* "I'm sorry..." *feels his forehead* "You sick?" akaderu:.....sure, lets go with that. Kepuri: "...What's wrong? Talk to me." akaderu:....night terrors. Kepuri: "..." *holds him* "You're awake now...Do you want to talk about them?" -elsewhere- Hibana: *finds a photograph...glares at it* gabriella: is something wrong? Hibana: "Just an annoyance..." *it's her and Giovanni* gabriella: oh. that guy is creepy. Hibana: *nods* "Best to keep an eye out for him..." gabriella: *nods* Hibana: "And away from our daughter..." -elsewhere- Tsukiyo: *sorting papers* "What you think about this?" fang-hua: what are those? Tsukiyo: *taps an arrest warrant* "This guy. Seen around buildings, stealing valuables." fang-hua: hmm.. hikage: we'll whoop his ass! hinata: kick him right in the balls! Tsukiyo: "He's like six times your height!" hikage: *climbs on to hinata's shoulders* mecha-twin attack! Tsukiyo: "...'Kay." -elsewhere- tsubaki:....?? a note? *To my love* tsubaki: *opens it and reads it* *It's Masamune's handwriting* Note: "I'm so sorry..." tsubaki: ?? Note: "But I must leave, to prove I am worthy." tsubaki:....... Note: "I will return to you. Wait." tsubaki: .....*bites her lip* (thinking: brother....) Note: "With all my love to you, Oichi." tsubaki:..... *remembering what she heard during the japan trip* black*star? Black Star: *yawn* "Huh?" tsubaki: i think we have a mission. Black Star: "??? Where?" tsubaki: *false smile* consider it a personal mission. Black Star: "...Okay?" ("What is she hiding?") tsubaki: i'll explain later. Black Star: "..." *smiles, nods* "Okay! What do we need before we head out?" -elsewhere- Giovanni: *massaging his wrist* soldier: sir? Giovanni: "We will be ready soon. Did you get me the map of Vulcan's lab?" soldier: yes sir. Giovanni: *takes it, reviewing* "...We'll surround those exits...Check underground, make sure no escape route through basement." soldier: understood. Giovanni: "...I have to finish repairs. Excuse me." *still rubbing his wrist* -elsewhere- Belkia: "Toguchin! Watch me pull a rabbit out of my hat!" naho: *watching* Belkia: "Nothing up my sleeve--" *rips off his sleeve, before reaching into the hat...* naho: *watching and doing her homework* Belkia: "Presto!" *pulls out...Sakuya, in a bunny girl outfit* Sakuya: o\\\\\o naho:.... *NOSEBLEED* Sakuya: *trying to cover himself* "How did I even get here?!" Belkia: "It's maaaaaaaagic!" -elsewhere- Kid: "More chocolate?" stocking: with strawberries. Kid: *smiles* "Of course..." *dips a strawberry in chocolate sauce* "Say 'ah'..." stocking: ah~ Kid: *places the strawberry at the tip of her tongue* stocking: *lick* Kid: *smiles, as he lets her bite into it* stocking: *nom* Kid: "Tasty?" stocking: why yes~<3 Kid: "May I have one?" stocking: sure~ Kid: *closes his eyes, opens his mouth* stocking: here you go~ Kid: "Aaaah~" -nom~- Kid: "Mmm~" stocking: glad you like it~ Kid: *nods* "Yummy! Thank you." -elsewhere- Takehisa: "Hmm...Needs more salt." -elsewhere- Meme: *sneeze* mio: you alright? Meme: *nods* "Sorry. Just allergies." mio: ah. Meme: *takes out medicine* "Could you get me a glass of water?" mio: sure. Meme: "Thanks, sweetie!" mio:..... .////////////////////////////////////////. Meme: *sips, takes medicine* "...???" mio: awawawawawa.... @///////////@ *steam coming off her head* Meme: D: "!!!" *catches her* "Oh no! Mio! Speak to me!" mio: im goooooood to gooooo. Meme: "..." .\\\\\. "Um...Maybe you need to lie down?" mio: g-good call. Meme: *leads her to bed* "Just rest up. I'll get you a compress..." -elsewhere- Free: *scratching* eruka: *folding laundry* Free: "I think I need to put the collar on again..." eruka: good call. Free: *puts it on* "Damn fleas..." eruka: i'll get the vaccum. Free: "Okay. I think I need a bath, too." -and so- Free: *bubbles in tub* =w= "I can feel my skin and fur free of those little bastards..." eruka: *washing his hair* Free: "Thanks for doing this." eruka: well someone has to. Free: "Sorry...This is easier than when I had fleas on my own...and your fingers feel nice." eruka: 7////7 thanks...i think. Free: "Maybe I could make it up to you?" eruka: kero? Free: "Maybe I could dust off some of those hard to reach corners?" eruka:...i dont follow? .-. Free: "Well, I mean, you seem so frustrated that I thought I could relieve you by helping out. Those corners get dusty..." eruka: *pouts* w-what's that supposed to mean? >n< Free: "??? What? You were doing house-work, and you're shorter, so with my height, I could reach the dusty ceiling corners--" eruka: *sweatdrop* oh....ok then. i'd appreciate that. ._.;; Free: "...You're welcome! Well, I think I'm about done in here..." eruka:...right. (thinking: STUPID ERUKA! GET YOUR MIND OUT OF THE GUTTER!) Free: *stands up* eruka:... O_O *she got an eyefull* Free: "...Oh, right! You're still here. Heh. Sorry about that!" ^\\\\^ -elsewhere- Yohei: "Zzz..." toru: zzzz... chie: *smiles* Yohei: *yawn, opens his eyes* chie: hey~ Yohei: *smiles* "Hey." *kiss on her hand* "How're you?" chie: doing well. Yohei: "Sleep okay? How is Toru?" toru: zzzz..... chie: i dont know, you tell me~ Yohei: *smiles* "Sounds like he's sleeping okay..." chie: *smiles* Yohei: "I can watch him for a bit. You need to do anything?" -elsewhere- Konro: "Hmm..." *finishes watering the flowers* "Perfect!" kabuki: they look wonderful. Konro: "Thanks! I have put in a lot of work tending to them--" kabuki: ah, i see. Konro: "Yes. It would be awful if someone ran through them, damaging them--" -BOOM- hikage: WE GOT IM! Konro: D: ???: "Get off of me!" hinata: *DROPKICK on the bandit's junk* ???: *high-pitch squeal* kabuki: oh, so you're the bandit here? Bandit: *voice cracking* "I ain't admitting to nothing!" Konro: Q~Q "My...flowers..." kabuki: oh~? *calm face, scary aura* Bandit: ._.;;;; hinata: mushishishi. *creepy grin* hikage: >83 Bandit: D: *tries to crawl away* kabuki: and where do you think you're going~? *kitsune tails + mask* Bandit: "I DON'T WANT TO DIE! I'LL GIVE BACK EVERYTHING I STOLE!" kabuki: oh you'd better~ Bandit: *points* "Under the garden! I buried the loot under the garden!" Konro: Q~Q "WHY?!" -elsewhere- Shamrock: "How long will you be away, Tsubaki?" tsubaki: only a few days, if all goes well. Sakuya: "We'll keep the house as you left it." naho: and we'll make sure everything is peachy keen when you get back! Belkia: "Will you bring back souvenirs, Mommy?" tsubaki: i'll see what i can do. ^^ Black Star: "Well, let's get going..." lavender: stay safe, you two! Higan: *waves* -and so- Black Star: "...Long trip?" tsubaki:...yeah. -she explains the situation, and oichi- Black Star: "...Wow...I can see why this is important to you..." tsubaki: *she nods* since masamune is...well....part of me now, i feel i should be the one to try helping her. Black Star: *nods* "Makes sense." -elsewhere- Canadian Grocery Employee #1: "Someone ate all our frozen waffles!" gluttony: *running* -elsewhere- Relan: "Hmm...This doesn't make sense in the budget. Who filed for reimbursement for...'Neko Ninja Warriors Season 2' on DVD?" tamaki: i dont know, but i'll just confiscate it. Relan: "...O-Okay?" Takehisa: "The rest of the budget seems to be in order. Iris, please file." iris: *salutes* yes sir. Victor: "Sweet--the new test tubes arrived!" karin: awesome! Victor: "Hey, Rel, can we borrow your rat for cloning experiments--" Relan: Q______Q shinra: *glares at victor* Victor: "??? What? I touch a nerve?" shinra: *glaaaaaare* dont. touch. buttons. got it? iris: to clarify, 'buttons' is the name of the rat. Victor: *about to poke Shinra's suit button--then hears Iris* "Oooooooh. Gotcha, Sister!" -elsewhere- Kepuri: "Better?" akaderu: yeah. a lot. *smiles* Kepuri: *smiles* "I'm glad...Anything you want to do?" akaderu: not at the top of my head.... Kepuri: *pats his head* "Alright. Then how about we start this day right?" akaderu: like how? Kepuri: *rests a hand on his chest* "I think you need a shower to clean up..." akaderu: *siiigh* Kepuri: "Come on, you need to be at your best..." *lifts up his shirt...kisses his belly* "For me?" akaderu: *blush* a-alright... Kepuri: *takes off his shirt, then takes his hand into the bathroom* -elsewhere- Gopher: "LOOK OUT!" kirika: !! *dodge* *SLASH* monster: *SCREECH* Gopher: "I will fire my Love Cannon at this beast!" monster: *screeah?* kirika: *dodges out of the way* Gopher: "Love Cannon...FIRE!" *boom* kirika: ... monster: x_x Gopher: "Yippee! We did it!" *hug* kirika: good job out there today. 7///7; Gopher: "You were amazing!" =w= kirika: well, that's just me. UwU Gopher: "...That's always you..." kirika: ^w^ Gopher: "..." *pulls back...* "...Can I buy you a coffee?" kirika: hmm. sure. im kinda parched. -elsewhere- Patty: "Yo, Kim!" kim: hey, whats up! Patty: *holds up envelop* "Bam!" *hands it to her* "Wedding invites!" kim: aw, thanks! Patty: "Welcome! Let me know who your Plus One is. BRING GOOD GIFTS!" kim: can do! Patty: "So, how's work been going?" kim: pretty well. -elsewhere- Konro: "WORK FASTER, BANDIT! THOSE FLOWERS AREN'T GOING TO PLANT THEMSELVES!" Bandit: T~T fang-hua: ^^; (thinking: the 7th certainly is an interesting brigade...) Tsukiyo: "Glad they caught this guy...But the Captain's poor flowers..." fang-hua: yeah. Tsukiyo: "...We should make it up to him. Maybe help out?" -elsewhere- Emine: *in shorts and a Hawaiian shirt* "...I feel foolish." mana: well, you can use some sunlight. a little vitamin D never killed anyone. Emine: "_The sun can kill us all_. Look at it, cackling at us." mana: ... -elsewhere- Yumi: "Death, where are the cookies?" lord death: there should be some in the pantry. Yumi: *opens the pantry...and frowns* "What are _you_ doing in there?" mizune medi: O-O;; i got lost? Yumi: "...And eating our cookies?" -elsewhere- Spirit: "Pool's clean!" izumi: awesome! Spirit: "Should be good to go. Want to swim?" izumi: yep. *goes to get changed* sachiko: nice job. *already in her swimsuit* Spirit: *smiles at her* "Any time. Heh...Guess that makes me lifeguard?" sachiko: sure. if you're up for it. Spirit: *nods* "For Izumi, anything..." -\\\\- "Also, you look stunning." sachiko: thanks... izumi talked to me the other night. Spirit: "Oh? What about?" sachiko: izumi's thinking of enrolling in the DWMA. Spirit: "..." *frowns* sachiko: spirit? Spirit: "I'm just...scared." sachiko: yeah, i can understand that. Spirit: "...At least if she was in the school, it would be a long time before she went on any missions...and can learn just how dangerous this work is." sachiko:....*she nods* Spirit: "..." *holds her hand* "I will do everything I can to keep her safe." sachiko: *smiles* i know. Spirit: *nods, trying to smile* "J-Just have to make sure Izumi knows..." sachiko: ....yeah. Spirit: "But for now, let's enjoy today." *smiles* sachiko: right. Spirit: "Well, go take a dip." *pats her arm* -elsewhere- Jacqueline: *collapsed under a pile of library books* kim: you ok? Jacqueline: "Oh, sure, just fine--except for the 50 pounds of books on my back!" ???: here, let me help. *levitating the books off her and into a nice pile* Jacqueline: ._.; "...Thank you?" ???: well, i couldnt just leave a lady in need of assistance, now can i~? kim: ..... Jacqueline: *stands up, looking at the person* "Um...What's your name?" ???: just call me Mr. N. Jacqueline: "...Okay? Um...Thanks again." *picks up books* "I better get these re-shelved..." -elsewhere- Benimaru: *lying in bath* =\\\\= -elsewhere- Black Star: *checking map* tsubaki: murasaki isnt too far. Black Star: *looks at the sky* "...That's troubling." tsubaki: ...!! -a thick fog looms ahead- Black Star: "..." *pulls out a flashlight* -ahead is the village of murasaki....with the muramasa estate on the hillside- Black Star: "Muramasa?" tsubaki: yes. the village of murasaki. the muramasa family's residence. Black Star: "...Who you planning to meet?" tsubaki: my would have been sister-in-law, oichi. from what i heard from my parents, her mental state is deteriorating... Black Star: "...I'm sorry." tsubaki: it's ok. you didnt do anything wrong. -someone watches from the shadows, but no one notices- Black Star: "It's just...these problems keep mounting. I feel like I'm not doing much..." tsubaki: you are though. you're here with me, arent you? Black Star: *nods* "And I'm not going anywhere..." tsubaki: *she smiles* ???:....... *creeps back into the shadows* Black Star: "Thought what you'll say to her?" tsubaki: *she nods* i still have the letter... Black Star: "How did...he sound in it?" tsubaki: ....pained. Black Star: "Damn..." tsubaki: ....the house is just up ahead now. Black Star: *nods* "Be careful getting in..." tsubaki: *she nods* Black Star: *approaches the steps...looking around* -someone is heard inside- servant: w-who is it?! Black Star: "Two people who wanted to see Oichi--" servant: l-lady nakatsukasa? tsubaki:..*she nods* servant: *hesitant*.....im not sure how well she will respond... Black Star: "??? Can you at least pass along a message to her?" servant:....well. i suppose miss nakatsukasa could _try_ to talk to her. lady oichi barely listens to any of us... Black Star: "???" *looks at Tsubaki* "So, I stay here?" servant:....i'll get you some tea. *looks at tsubaki* lady oichi's chambers are this way. Black Star: "...Be safe." tsubaki: *she nods and follows to oichi's chambers* Black Star: *sits in the room, waiting for tea* "..." tsubaki:....*opens the door leading into the room* -the room is a traditional japanese style room, but it looks dishevled, and it was freezing cold. as tsubaki stepped in, she felt something embrace her- tsubaki: ?!?! -she turns to see a woman with long, stringy black hair and a faded pink kimono- oichi: found you.....masa-chan...~<3 tsubaki: !!!!! Black Star: *feels a chill from where he sits* "?!" tsubaki: o-oichi? oichi: i missed you....so much masa-chan... i've been...waiting all this time... Black Star: *stands up* tsubaki: oichi...its me, tsubaki. oichi: masa-chan...i can feel you right here.... Tsubaki: o_O "O-Oichi! I'm not Masamune!" oichi: ....but...i can feel him....he's here...where is he? where is he? WHERE IS HE! *shaking her* WHEREISHEWHEREISHEWHEREISHE?! *she's shaking, tears falling* Tsubaki: "..." *pulls away from her...resting her hands on her shoulders* "Oichi..." oichi: ....*stares at her, with a silent, but near wild look in her eyes* Tsubaki: "..." *gulp* "Masamune is still here..." *puts a hand along her own chest* oichi: he's....in there?......*sword arm* then....i just...have to cut him out.... Tsubaki: "!!!" *transforms her arm into a blade* "Oichi, stop! I am not here to fight!" oichi: give him back! give masa-chan back!! Tsubaki: *blocking the attacks, but struggling not to hit Oichi* ("Brother...What do I do?") oichi: where is he?! where are you hiding him?! Tsubaki: *deflects Oichi's blade, pushing her against the wall* "Masamune is dead!" oichi:......liar...LIAR! h-he'll be back someday! i know it! he-he's- Tsubaki: *snatches Oichi's hand, placing it on her chest* "If you won't listen to me..." oichi: ?! Tsubaki: "Then listen to him..." oichi: ?? *Soul Resonance...* oichi: ah- *She is underneath a blue sky* oichi: w-where...? *The floor beneath her is a pool of water* oichi: what is....? ???: "The inside of her soul..." oichi: ?! *she turns to see* !!! Masamune: "...Oichi." oichi: ma...masa-chan!! *she runs over to him and hugs him tightly* Masamune: *he is frozen with shock for a few moments...before holding her* oichi: *crying* m-masa-chan...i missed you so much.... Masamune: "...I'm so sorry..." oichi: *still holding him and crying* Masamune: "Oichi...I cannot come back..." oichi: what? Masamune: "...I am dead." oichi: ..... *her heart dropped to her stomach* Masamune: "I am here, within Tsubaki's soul...I cannot come back." oichi: *tearing up* why? how...how did this happen? Masamune: "...My jealousy..." oichi: ?? Masamune: "If I had accepted who I am, rather than what I am not...Oichi, I am so sorry." oichi: ......*whimpering* masa-chan... Masamune: "I'm sorry..." *crying* "I'm so sorry..." oichi: what do i do? Masamune: "...Move forward." oichi: but...i-if you arent there... Masamune: "..." *holds his hand to her chest* "I am always here..." oichi: *whimpering* please...d-dont go.... Masamune: "I'm not going anywhere..." *hugs her* "I love you." oichi: i...i love you so much... Masamune: "And I always will...If you need to see me, please, be kind to my sister..." oichi: ..... Masamune: "If you need to speak with me, just ask her...and I will come to you." oichi: *she nods* -she is back in the room- Tsubaki: "..." *her eyes are wet* oichi: *crying and holding her* Tsubaki: *supports her, crying as well* "I'm sorry..." -later- Black Star: "..." tsubaki: she's resting now...im not sure if i made the situation better or worse... Black Star: "She knows now...That has to help somehow." tsubaki: i hope so. -later- tsubaki: we're home! Sakuya: "!!! O-Oh, hey!" naho: *confetti* surprise! tsubaki: eh? Belkia: *takes Tsubaki by the hand, leading her to the couch* "Kick up your feet! Relax!" tsubaki: eh? lavender: we thought we'd throw a lil party to give you the appreciation you deserve! Higan: *nods* "Hooray." tsubaki: you guys. *teary eyed* thank you. Black Star: *smiles at her* Sakuya: "We got you some small gifts..." tsubaki: ah! i brought souveniers for you guys too! -elsewhere- Mr. Tsubaki: *shiver* reimi: you ok? Mr. Tsubaki: *nods* "Just...thinking." reimi: ah.... Mr. Tsubaki: "...She is so perfect." reimi: ?? Mr. Tsubaki: "My Camelia Flower..." reimi: ah. Mr. Tsubaki: "...Have you ever felt that way about someone?" reimi: me? Mr. Tsubaki: *nods* reimi: not at the top of my head, no. Mr. Tsubaki: "...She has been there, for so long, trying to bring me back into this world...I love her so much." reimi: *listening* Mr. Tsubaki: "I want to be the man she needs me to be...and that my family needs..." -elsewhere- Arthur: *looking at himself in the mirror, while he's in his suit of armor* -elsewhere- Patty: "Any other trash to put out?" -elsewhere- Jacqueline: o___o "...How high is your credit card bill?" -elsewhere- Hiro: *washing dishes* hime: i'm home! mrs kenshimono: welcome home, honey! Hiro: "Hey! How was your day?" hime: it went pretty well. everyone's antsy for summer break. mrs kenshimono: well, we just got the reservations for the hotel for vacation. hime: neat. Hiro: "When are we heading out?" mrs kenshimono: as soon as summer break hits. hime: *nods and heads to her room* Hiro: "Where's this place again?" mr kenshimono: it's by the beach. Hiro: "Huh...I forgot to buy sunscreen." -and so- Hiro: *wearing his sunglasses* "Huh. Bright out." Hiro: "I wonder how the sun looks over the beach..." -bump- Hiro: "!!! Oh, sorry--" ef: s-sorry about that! Hiro: "!!! Mai! Hey!" ef: h-hiro! o////o f-fancy seeing you here! >///< Hiro: "Yeah, small world. You visiting?" ef: i was just in the neighborhood doing some shopping. .////. Hiro: "Oh, cool...Shopping for anything in particular?" ef: i needed a new wetsuit, but it's hard to find them in most shops. Hiro: "Yeah, especially in a desert area...Wait, wetsuit?" ef: yeah. i prefer them over swimsuits because....p-personal reasons. Hiro: "..." .\\\\\. "Say no more." ef: y-yeah....(thinking: i shouldnt burden him with....those....) Hiro: "...I did need to stop by to get some swimtrunks..." *follows her* -elsewhere- Ponera: *groan* grimoire: what seems to be troubling you? Ponera: "Just...frustrated." milia: are we gonna do something or what? Ponera: "I don't know...What is progress on our plans?" grimoire: we're about.....68% ready... Ponera: *pouts* "Feels like it's taking forever..." grimoire:....we've just about spent our resources here. Ponera: *pouts even more* "So we have to move. Again?" grimoire: it would be our best course of action. Ponera: "...Nuts. That's going to be pain to move everything..." *cuddles with an ant* "This sucks." ant: =3= Medusa: "Hmph. Moving? That is indeed frustrating. And I suppose you'll be wanting my help, since Shaula is so undependable..." shaula: hey, i am not! i can get my minions to help! im such a genius, hoho~! beatrice: indeed you are, lady shaula. Medusa: "Oh, you created the minions? Sorry, I can't tell the difference, given how similar you are to them--especially in mental prowess." shaula: if you're comparing me to those yellow freaks of nature, then you must be blind. im talking about my 'traitors'. which now that i think of it, is kind of a dumb name. Medusa: "Like I said: your brainless traitors, your brainless self. You create what you are." shaula: then you must be a mentally distraught baby who is the offspring of your deadbeat ex. twice. *SLICE* shaula: O-O;;; Medusa: *sliced at Shaula's sleeve, another arrow aimed at Shaula's neck* "Never talk about my child like that." shaula:.....which one? owo; *SLICE* *Shaula loses her bangs* Medusa: "Stop talking..." shaula: OwO;;;; Ponera: ._.; "Um...Play nice? Or you'll, um, have to sit in the corner?" shaula: 737 neian: muma! Medusa: *smiles sweetly* "It is okay, precious. Mama is here." Ponera: *shiny eyes* "Baby~" -elsewhere- Hibana: "AH-choo!" -elsewhere- Rin: "...Is it cute enough?" kyouko: what even is that? *looks at it* Rin: "I was trying to draw a class mascot..." *it looks like a three-year-old drew it* kyouko: ...its nice. Rin: ^^; "...It looks like trash, doesn't it? I was trying to draw a cute demon..." kyouko: is it some kind of contest or something? Rin: "Yeah! Whoever makes the best mascot design wins a prize for their class: a new refrigerator!" kyouko: ... Rin: T_T "But I can't win it with this crap..." kyouko: want us to help? Rin: *nods* "How are you with drawing?" -elsewhere- Relan: *yawn* shinra: busy day? Relan: *nods* "I need eyedrops..." shinra: i think we have some in the bathroom. Relan: "Thank you..." *follows* -elsewhere- Lawless: *holding conductor's baton* "You got to wiggle your hips to perform for the audience..." licht: piano playing doesnt work that way. Lawless: "How about you play one of those piano flute thingies?" -elsewhere- Kid: "I got the laundry." liz: awesome. Patty: "Great! Time to fold--" *leaps into the laundry basket* Kid: ._. liz: *sweatdrop* Patty: *sits up, holding up--* "Kiddo!" *it's a speedo bottom with skull prints on it* Kid: o\\\\\o stocking: whats up gang-....oh, i wondered where you put those, kid. Kid: O\\\\\\\O Patty: "Oooooooo!" Kid: *snatches them, shoves them down his pants* "N-Nothing!" stocking: ^^; liz: hey, its not as if she hasnt seen you naked before, haha! Kid: "I don't like my speedos out in the open!" Patty: "Oh, how embarrassing can those be compared to--" *grabs Kid's pants* Kid: "?!!!" *TUG* stocking: ...lookin good, kiddo~<3 liz: D8 PATTI! Patty: "Ha ha ha ha!" Kid: *covering himself* D:< stocking: come on patti, leave him be. ^^; Kid: *pulling up his pants, scowling at Patty* "You will pay for that!" Patty: Xp -elsewhere- Hiro: "How about this one?" *holds up a one-piece* ef: .///. t-thats a bit flashy dont you think? Hiro: "Too colorful?" ef: a-a little... Hiro: *picks out a wetsuit* "How about this one?" ef: i think that one is much better. *smiles* Hiro: "Great!" *grabs a pair of swimtrunks with a flame design* "Huh..." ef: wow. Hiro: "Too flashy, right?" -elsewhere- Anya: "Hmm...Forgot the milk..." -elsewhere- Benimaru: *reviewing a file* "The food supplies seem suitable..." kabuki: that's good to know. reimi: *smiles* Benimaru: "Then we should prepare for the festival: not long before watermelon and fireworks..." reimi: yahoo! Benimaru: "??? Aren't you excited." reimi: of course i am! i've always loved matsuri season! Benimaru: *small smile* "It is a relief for many here." kirei: *smiles* Benimaru: "I suppose I should get out the kimonos..." -elsewhere- Yumi: "Come on, Shiori--eat..." shiori: *nom* gu! Yumi: ^^ "Thank you. You need to eat so you can grow up big and strong like your older siblings." -elsewhere- Meme: "I can't beat this level..." -elsewhere- naho: *talking into the fan* aaaaaahhhh... Shamrock: *sipping on cold fruit smoothie* lavender: *in her bathing suit* Higan: "Ready for a dip?" lavender: sounds good. Higan: *smiles* "After you~" Sakuya: *trying to stay in the shade* naho: ....hey sakkun. want some shaved ice? Sakuya: *nod nod* "Thanks...I'm so hot out here." naho: i couldnt tell, you're hot all the time... that sounded so dumb. >///<; Sakuya: "..." *pat pat* "I appreciate it, though." *smiles* naho: ^///^ Black Star: *in his swimtrunks* "Well, I'm ready for some sun and swimming!" lilac: i'll just...stay in here. Shamrock: "??? Would you like a fruit smoothie?" lilac:...*nod* Shamrock: *pours one out from the blender* "Enjoy." X^ lilac:..t-thank you... Shamrock: "Any time..." Black Star: *swimming* tsubaki: *sunbathing* *The nearby bush shakes* tsubaki: ?? *Fox eyes shine out of the bush* tsubaki: !! *The fox recedes back in the bush...then a human hand appears, curling a finger to ask her to come into the bushes* tsubaki: ._.; *looks around* .... *walks over* *Inside, alone in the bushes, is Mr. Tsubaki* Mr. Tsubaki: "..." *meek wave* tsubaki: .///. what are you doing here? Mr. Tsubaki: "I-I missed my family...which includes you." tsubaki: .....did you...want to speak with them? Mr. Tsubaki: "..." *nod nod* tsubaki:...you wont be able to stay long, will you? Mr. Tsubaki: "...One night." tsubaki:...ah. Mr. Tsubaki: "...I don't know how to face them..." tsubaki: ...they've missed you. Mr. Tsubaki: "...And I have missed them..." -and so- tsubaki: he's only spending the night. Black Star: *glaaaaaare* Sakuya: "Ts-Tsubaki?" Mr. Tsubaki: "..." *avoiding eye contact* naho: HIIIII! *HUG* >u< reimi: there's just two of them? i thought i heard more people? Shamrock: "YOUNG MASTER!" *glomp* Mr. Tsubaki: "!!!" ._.; "Um...A few more--" Belkia: "DADDY!" *glomp* lavender: holy shit. himawari: ....ah... Mr. Tsubaki: *waves* "Hi, Himawari...Been a while." himawari: ......*nod* reimi:...interesting bunch. lavender: oi! higan! you're not gonna believe who's here! Higan: "Hmm? What's up? I was just in the shower and--!!! TSUBAKI!" reimi:........ .____________________.; Higan: *hug, lifting him up* Mr. Tsubaki: "N-Nice to see you too, buddy." ^^; Sakuya: *looking at Reimi* "...Yo. Sakuya." reimi: actually, my name is Reimi Nishihori Sakuya: "No, I'm Sakuya. Sorry...Um, why are you with our erstwhile vampire?" reimi: oh! im actually a vampire too! long story. ^^; Sakuya: "...Near-death experience?" naho: you're a new subclass? neat! i'm naho! *shakes her hand* we're all vampires too! except miss tsubaki and black*star. Black Star: *GLAAAAAAARE* reimi: owo; Sakuya: "Don't mind Black Star. He and Tsubaki took us in when no one else would. He's just...stressed." Mr. Tsubaki: *hiding behind Tsubaki* "Why is he looking so mean at me?" Black Star: *GLAAAAAARE* tsubaki: now come on you two, lets try to get along tonight. ^^; Mr. Tsubaki: *holds her arm* "I hope so...but maybe I should sleep in another room..." tsubaki: eh? .////. Mr. Tsubaki: "So not to have Black Star get upset with me. Do you have a spare room? And one for Reimi?" tsubaki: i think there might be. Mr. Tsubaki: *smiles* "Thank you..." *whispers* "And if you grow tired of sharing a bed with Black Star..." tsubaki: ^^;;;; Black Star: D:< Shamrock: "...You can always share a bed with me--" Mr. Tsubaki: ^^ "No thank you." Shamrock: D: naho: D8> Sakuya: "...So, this is typical here, Reimi. Welcome to the family." reimi: *sweatdrop* lilac:... reimi: woah! you have a ghost here?! lilac: eep! Higan: "So, Reimi, what do you do for a living?" reimi: me? well, im a shrine maiden at the asakusa shrine, where i live. ^^ Sakuya: "..." *pats Lilac's back* "Lilac is our family, not a ghost..." Higan: "Shrine maiden? That's hot." reimi: um... otogiri: *CHOP* have you no shame, higan? Higan: "The answer is no." otogiri: *cold glare* reimi: um...sir, i think i may be a bit too young for you. ^^;;; Higan: "...Ouch." naho: he does that all the time cause he's a gross pervy old man. >xP lavender: you said something about a shower earlier~? Higan: "I prefer to think of myself as 'an amorous, experienced individual.'" *smiles at Lavender* "Yes, I was about to shower..." lavender: need a shower buddy~? reimi: O-O;;; what? Higan: "Always~" Mr. Tsubaki: *sniff* "My children are still as I left them." TwT reimi: ^w^;;;; *has no idea what's going on* Mr. Tsubaki: "Well, has Miss Tsubaki been feeding you all well?" naho: yep! -later that evening- Mr. Tsubaki: "You'll sleep well, Reimi?" reimi: hopefully. Mr. Tsubaki: "I'll be across the hall, so don't hesitate to knock. Otogiri and Lavender are also great to ask..." reimi: ok. the room has a futon, so i think im all set. ^^ Mr. Tsubaki: *nods* "Good night, Reimi." reimi: *nods and heads to bed* Mr. Tsubaki: *looks at the door to Tsubaki's room* "..." tsubaki: *asleep* Mr. Tsubaki: *pops his head in, looking around* tsubaki: *asleep in black*star's arms* Mr. Tsubaki: *pouts* tsubaki: *slight shiver* Mr. Tsubaki: "???" *checks to see whether she has a blanket over herself* -yes, just to her waist- Mr. Tsubaki: "..." *enters, pulling up the blanket...* tsubaki:...*faint smile* Mr. Tsubaki: "..." *leans down, kisses lightly on her forehead* tsubaki: mmmn.... Mr. Tsubaki: "..." ("I wish I could stay here forever...") -footsteps- Mr. Tsubaki: "???" *turns and looks--* Shamrock: "Zzz..." Mr. Tsubaki: "???" Shamrock: *bumps into him--and holds on* "Mmmm~" Mr. Tsubaki: "...???" Shamrock: *sleep-whispering* "I want you..." naho: O///w///O Mr. Tsubaki: "...Um..." *whispers* "I think I'm spoken for..." Shamrock: *sleep talking* "N-No..." *kissy face* naho: *peeeeek* OWO Mr. Tsubaki: *pulling back* "Sham, no. I'm with Tsubaki--" *SMOOCH* Mr. Tsubaki: ._____. Shamrock: "Mmm~" naho: *NOSEBLEED* Mr. Tsubaki: *pulling back, with Shamrock still asleep* "Let go--" *TRIP* Mr. Tsubaki: *falling back into the bed* o_O tsubaki: !! ah!...um... o.o; Mr. Tsubaki: *landed atop her* "...Hello~" Shamrock: *landed atop Mr. Tsubaki--* Mr. Tsubaki: "!!!" D: "Watch where you're poking! tsubaki: O____O;;; Black Star: *snoring loudly* Shamrock: *cupping Mr. Tsubaki's bottom* Mr. Tsubaki: o______O; *something is happening to him down there...as he's on top of Tsubaki* tsubaki: O.O WAKE UP! *CHOP* Shamrock: "Ouch!" *opens his eye* "...Why am I in a threesome with Young Master and Tsubaki?" tsubaki: i think you were sleepwalking? Shamrock: "..." x\\\\\o "O-Oh! I'm so sorry, Young Master!" Mr. Tsubaki: .\\\\. "Y-Yeah..." *he's still on top of Tsubaki and--* tsubaki: O-O; -squish- Mr. Tsubaki: *muffled, pleased voice* =~= tsubaki: O////O *CHOP* Mr. Tsubaki: "Ow!" o\\\\\o "...Sorry." Black Star: *still snoring* tsubaki: ._.; (thinking: there could be a whole war going on outside, and he'd still be asleep...) Shamrock: "...I'll get to bed. Good night--" *tries to run away quickly* Mr. Tsubaki: "..." *looks sad* tsubaki: s-sorry, i just...wanst expecting that... Mr. Tsubaki: "...I don't want to be alone." tsubaki:....*holds him* ..... Mr. Tsubaki: "...Can you stay with me...until I fall asleep?" tsubaki:...alright... Mr. Tsubaki: *gets up to go into his room..." -elsewhere- Kid: *turns in bed* stocking: U///U Kid: "Mmm...I can't sleep..." stocking: *yawn* kid? Kid: "...Sorry. Just thinking..." stocking:...need anything? Kid: "Maybe just some tea...I was planning the wedding in my dreams, until I was exhausted..." stocking: aw. pre-wedding jitters~? Kid: "N-Not about getting married! Just all the planning." .\\\\. stocking: ah. *hugs* it'll all work out, trust me. Kid: *hug* "R-Right...Just want it to be perfect...for you." stocking: *smiles* with you there, it will be. Kid: =\\\\\= "How did you get to be so perfect?" stocking: hehe~ ^^ Kid: *cuddles* stocking: love you~<3 Kid: *yawn* "Love you, too..." -morning- Mr. Tsubaki: *yawn* tsubaki: *still asleep* Mr. Tsubaki: "..." (thinking: she stayed) ... *holds her* tsubaki: zzz.... Mr. Tsubaki: "..." *nuzzles* tsubaki: *wakes up* .... !!!! Mr. Tsubaki: "!!!" *backs up a bit* "..." *just stares at her* tsubaki:....so it wasnt a dream then... *gets up* black*star? Mr. Tsubaki: "In-In the other room...I guess you slept here all night..." tsubaki: *goes to where black*star is sleeping* its time to wake up... Mr. Tsubaki: *pout* Black Star: *yawn...feels where he thinks she is on the bed...and feels nothing* "???" *looks up* "Oh, hey. Up early?" tsubaki: .....*she hugs him tightly* Black Star: "..." *smiles, returns the hug* "Man, quite a grip, Tsu..." tsubaki: *whimpers* Black Star: "???" *holds her* "What's wrong?" tsubaki: am i doing the right thing? Black Star: "...You mean...I mean, what do you mean? I think you are..." -she closes the door and explains- Black Star: "...Maybe...we need to lay down some rules?" tsubaki:....if it helps... Black Star: "...Do you want to be with him?" tsubaki:.....i dont know. i think my feeling for him are out of concern and guilt. Black Star: "So...not love?" tsubaki: ..i cant say for certain. but i know i love you. Black Star: "I love you, too...If something were to happen with you and him...I won't be angry. But...if you are _thinking_ of doing something with him...I would want you to tell me." tsubaki: ok. i wasnt, but ok. Black Star: *nods* "I trust you...and I trust you to tell me what you feel..." *hug* Mr. Tsubaki: *fox ears hear all* Q~Q tsubaki: thank you. *hugs back* Black Star: "Any time, wonderful." *hugs* reimi: sir? Mr. Tsubaki: *sniff* "Y-Yes?" reimi: are you ok? *concerned* Mr. Tsubaki: "...She doesn't...love me?" reimi: sir? Mr. Tsubaki: "She just...feels concern and guilt? I can't...Why?" reimi:.......at least she's concerned for you. thats something, isnt it? Mr. Tsubaki: "...It wasn't what I thought." reimi:...... Mr. Tsubaki: *reverts completely to fox form, sits in Reimi's lap* reimi:... *pets him* Mr. Tsubaki: *whimpers...as he closes his eyes* reimi:..... Shamrock: *behind the corner* "..." ("I have a chance...but he is so sad...") reimi:.... ?? *looks over* Shamrock: "!!!" *hides* reimi:..... (thinking: what is with that eyepatched guy?) Mr. Tsubaki: "Zzzz..." reimi:...did you want to go home now? Mr. Tsubaki: *yawn* "...It is for the best." -after they went home- tsubaki: .... Higan: "...You've been quiet, Den Mom." tsubaki: sorry....rough morning... naho: mr tsubaki and reimi went home to asakusa. he seemed kinda sad... Shamrock: "...Yes." tsubaki: ........... Sakuya: "...I guess we can visit him, soon..." otogiri: but then we risk letting C3 know where he is... tsubaki:....... Sakuya: "...Damn. Maybe another place where they can't find us? Or--" Shamrock: *puts his hands on the table* "Or maybe Tsubaki should take the real action that needs to be done." tsubaki: ...... Shamrock: "You know how he feels, and you know how he can be protected...and you haven't done it." tsubaki: .......he said he needed to do something on his own- Shamrock: "And you believe him?!" lavender: sham, take it easy- Shamrock: "You know what he needs to protect him? An eve!" tsubaki: ? Shamrock: "You know what he is like! The control he needs! Be his eve! Save him!" tsubaki: im trying, but- Shamrock: "That's not good enough!" *slams his fist on the table* "He loves you! And you toy with his feelings--" tsubaki: JUST STOP IT!! *uncanny sword markings* DO YOU THINK ALL THIS IS EASY FOR ME EITHER?! DO YOU EVEN KNOW HOW IT FEELS TO CARE SO MUCH FOR TWO PEOPLE AND FEEL LIKE YOUR A TERRIBLE PERSON FOR NOT GIVING THE OTHER ENOUGH LOVE AND CARE?! lavender: !! naho: o.o Sakuya: *puts an arm out between Tsubaki and Naho, shielding her* Belkia: *hides under the table* Higan: *just stares* Shamrock: "!!! Tsubaki, I--I just mean, have you not thought of how he--" tsubaki: *panting...she then collapses and breaks down crying, hunched over* Higan: *glares at Shamrock* "You fucking idiot..." Black Star: *runs in* "...Tsubaki!" *runs to her* lavender: for fucks sake, sham, what the hell? Shamrock: "I just...Mr. Tsubaki...He needs...He needs us..." Black Star: *holding Tsubaki, glares at Shamrock* otogiri:... naho: its ok. tsubaki: *still crying* Black Star: "We're here...I'm here..." lavender: easy there... otogiri: *looks at shamrock* perhaps you should cool off for a moment... Shamrock: "..." *shudders, looking horrified with himself...runs away* lilac:..... -later that afternoon- tsubaki: *asleep on the couch* Black Star: "...This is my fault." lavender: hey, you didnt do anything wrong. Black Star: "...She is so stressed, and I'm putting that pressure on her, too..." lavender: .... Black Star: "...I'm going to have to accept him, aren't I?" otogiri: we should do something for her. naho: it might help. Black Star: "Anything you have in mind? Because I think I'm too close to this to think of a solution..." naho: not at the top of my head.....anyone seen lilac? -elsewhere- lilac: *panting* too...much...walking.... Shamrock: *fast-walking* lilac: s-shamrock? s-shouldnt we....*pant* go home now? Shamrock: "You go home. How am I supposed to?" lilac: ....t-they'll..come looking for you...they did before... Shamrock: "...I hurt her...because...I wanted him protected...and I am...so angry and jealous of her..." lilac:....*listening* Shamrock: "...I love him." lilac:...oh. Shamrock: "...And he loves her. And I want her to give up everything for him--so that she destroys herself and can save him..." *serene smile as he is crying* "...I am awful..." lilac: *gulp* ...... Shamrock: *puts his head in his hands* "I'm such an idiot..." lilac: ......*hug* if-if it helps...i think you're just trying your best.... Shamrock: "..." *hug* "Like Tsubaki is..." lilac:....im sure she'll forgive you...miss tsubaki's....a really nice person... Shamrock: "...She's also a warrior...You haven't seen that glint in her eye..." lilac:..... Shamrock: "...I'm going to have to sleep with one eye open..." *light bulb* D: "I ONLY HAVE ONE EYE!" lilac: o.o; Shamrock: "She's going to kill me in my sleep!" *hugs Lilac* lilac: um....*confused* uhhhhhhhhh... *looking around* Shamrock: "...Lilac...Help me convince her..." lilac: eh? Shamrock: "...That I'm sorry?" lilac: oh. r-right...maybe...we could get her something? Shamrock: "...I don't know what I could get her to make up for my behavior." -elsewhere- Kid: *hug* stocking: hehe~<3 Kid: "I'm sorry for last night...I think it was just the anxiety getting to me. Seeing the progress we have made, I feel a little more at ease." stocking: *smiles* Kid: "Let's...look forward to this wedding preparation as a challenge." *smiles* -elsewhere- Mr. Tsubaki: *in fox form, wakes up confused* "Wh-Where am I?" reimi: back at the shrine. Mr. Tsubaki: "..." *small voice* "Oh." reimi:....*pet pet* Mr. Tsubaki: =\\\\= *sniff* "...She doesn't love me..." reimi: if not in a romantic sence, but i know she does care about you. Mr. Tsubaki: "...That's not the answer I wanted." reimi: ......i dont know....life's not very fair...is it? Mr. Tsubaki: "..." *remembering his sensei's death* "No..." reimi:...thanks...for saving me. Mr. Tsubaki: "...What kind of a person would I be, if I let someone die?" reimi:...*small smile* Mr. Tsubaki: "..." *huddles into himself, small whimper as he falls back asleep* reimi:...... -elsewhere- Kepuri: "Thanks for the meal, Nea." nea: no problem~ Kepuri: "Hey, I wanted to know--you like the outdoors?" nea: why do you ask? Kepuri: "I'm always locked up in the office--and my boss wants me to 'engage with the outdoors.' Phef. I just don't like that kind of stuff..." nea: insects are part of the outdoors, arent they? Kepuri: -_-; "Yes...But I tend to bring the specimens indoors so I can work in the lab." nea: *sweatdrop* mana: ok. im going to give you girls proper camping lessons! Kepuri: "...'Kay? Where to?" -elsewhere- Victor: *sipping coffee* "Well, I'm done for the day." -elsewhere- Hiro: *swimming* "Come on in! Water's great!" ef: *steps in, wearing the wetsuit* hime: *in a floatie* Hiro: "You okay, Hime?" hime: yeah. just relaxing, bro. Hiro: *smile* "How about you, Mai?" ef: d-doing well... Hiro: "You're a natural, right? Like a duck to water?" ef: y-you really think so? Hiro: *nods* "Yeah, you should have seen when Hime had problems swimming. Or me." hime: bro! D:< Hiro: "Hey, I had the same problems! Don't act like you were perfect the first time you swam..." hime: *rolls eyes* ef: it must be nice, having a sibling. hime: minus the fact he's a total dork, yeah. Hiro: "It has its benefits, Mai..." *splashes at Hime* hime: hey! D8< you butt! Hiro: "Ha ha!" *dodges* hime: TnT Hiro: "Mai--" *splashes a bt* ef: ah! haha! Hiro: "Ha ha--" *slips back* -elsewhere- Patty: "Just need a bit more ice cream on this cereal..." liz: what are you doing? Patty: "Late breakfast?" -elsewhere- Arthur: *peeling grapes* shinra: what'cha up to? Arthur: "Tamaki seems upset, so I thought I'd make her a fruit platter." shinra: ah. Arthur: "...So, how's Relan?" shinra: he's doing great. *smiles* Arthur: "That's good...But..." shinra: ?? Arthur: "What happens when Giovanni shows up?" shinra: ..... Arthur: "...I think you better get ready for how to respond to him." shinra:...yeah.... Arthur: "...Maybe we can blackmail him?" shinra: but how though... hmmm... Arthur: "Maybe he has embarrassing pictures on the Internet?" shinra: hmm... *thinking*... maybe vulcan knows something? Arthur: "Oh, hey! He knows him...Want to call him?" shinra: sounds like a plan. Arthur: *nods, hands him the phone* -briiiing briiiiing- Vulcan: "...What, no one else can answer these things?" *picks up cat-shaped phone* "What you want?!" shinra: hey vulcan, its us again. just here to chat. Vulcan: "...What you want?" shinra: we wanted to talk to you about giovanni. seems you guys have some kind of history. Vulcan: "...Murderer." shinra: O-O; um...vul? Vulcan: "...Yeah. Giovanni. You already know my story with him. You really think he had nothing to do with my father and uncle getting turned into flame monsters?" shinra: um...well i still dont know the full story on that so....*head scratches* Vulcan: "...Giovanni would send his underlings to visit my uncle and dad. Seemed nice enough. Always friendly to me. But that was a lie, just a way to hide what they were planning...When Giovanni showed up, all of a sudden, Dad and Uncle are flame monsters. And dead. I keep trying to find evidence he is responsible--nothing hard enough to get a case against him." shinra: that does sound suspicious. ...maybe we can find out for sure? the 8th does work as internal investigations amongst the brigades, plus we have two friends in the 3rd, plus relan, who's transfered here to the 8th. maybe they know something? Vulcan: "...What do you want in exchange? I know you're angling for something--" shinra: if you find out anything new, let us know, ok? Vulcan: "...Fine." -elsewhere- tsubaki: *waking up* mmn...hnn? *rubs eyes* Black Star: *lying next to her, awake* "...Hey." tsubaki:...hey. *sad smile* lavender: feeling any better now? tsubaki:....a little bit. thank you. Black Star: "...How's your stomach?" tsubaki: fine... -the door opens- tsubaki: oh...hello sham. Shamrock: "...H-Hi..." tsubaki: listen, sorry about this morning. i just...lost it... Shamrock: "...So did I. I blamed you..." tsubaki: ....sorry that i didnt take your feelings into consideration...or his.. Shamrock: "...I just want him to be safe. He means so much to me..." tsubaki: i know. i want him to be safe too... Shamrock: "...I know you do." *sad smile* -elsewhere- Benimaru: "...The fox looks ill." kirei: poor thing... Mr. Tsubaki: *ears down, curled up with his tail around him* "..." T_T reimi:.... Benimaru: "Perhaps take him to a doctor? What do you think, Reimi?" reimi: i'll see what i can do, sir! Mr. Tsubaki: *curls up against Reimi* Benimaru: "See that you do. Cannot have this creature hurt." reimi: *nods* Mr. Tsubaki: *has fallen asleep, shivering* -elsewhere- Touma: "Any reports from the Nakatsukasa residence?" natsuna: nothing yet. Touma: "Keep an eye on the location. We're almost ready with wiretaps." natsuna: right. Touma: *smiles* "This is when our work gets interesting." -elsewhere- Sakuya: *pats Lilac's back* "You did good." lilac: um...t-thank you.. Sakuya: *smiles* "You're welcome. And I'm sure Sham appreciates it." lilac:...*small smile* Sakuya: "Keep it up--that's how we're going to get through this." lilac: o-ok... Sakuya: "You hungry?" lilac: a little... Sakuya: "Pasta sound good?" lilac: sure. -elsewhere- Kid: "We have a few responses already to invitations, regarding whether they want the vegetarian dish..." -elsewhere- Hiro: "I had a lot of fun!" ef: me too. thanks for inviting me. ^^ Hiro: "Any time--Hime had fun, too!" hime: im not a baby, i can speak for myself, you know. -n- Hiro: "Ha ha..." *pats Hime's shoulder, smiles at Eternal Feather* "So, are you staying here?" ef: well, i-if you want me to then...i-i dont want to intrude or anything. Hiro: "I think we got room. Hime and you can share a room, or Hime and I could." -elsewhere- Shotaro: "Camping trip, huh? I remember doing that when we started on our travels, Mana!" mana: yeah. it sure brings back memories. Shotaro: *nods* "Think Kepuri will do okay at it?" mana: who knows. -elsewhere- Iida: *tapping his fingers* "...Boring." ochako: *looks up* whats up iida? Iida: "It feels like we have not had a mission in such a long time." tsuyu: yeah, and with summer break coming up... Izuku: "W-Well, we can always just keep practicing, and hope nothing bad happens--" Bakugo: -_-;;; "You're gonna jinx us." ochako: beach trip! Iida: "!!! Yes! Running on the beach! Improving our swimming! A true boot camp in superheroics!" denki: and girls in swimsuits! kyouka: *facepalm* Bakugo: "DENKI! YOU AND IIDA ARE BOTH RUINING THIS! CAN'T A BEACH TRIP JUST BE A BEACH TRIP?!!!" Izuku: ._. -elsewhere- Giriko: *playing* "Happy little baby!" anna: ^o^ Giriko: *holds up spidey plushie* "Happy little spider!" anna: *hug* >u< arachne: ^^ Giriko: *chuckles* "Better than giving her a chainsaw plushie..." -elsewhere- Black Star: *hands Tsubaki tea* tsubaki: thank you. *smiles* Black Star: "You're welcome." *pats her hand* "Rest up. I'm taking care of--" *BOOM* Black Star: o_O tsubaki: ?!?! *goes to check* what on earth- Belkia: *covered in soot, his hair on fire* "...I was baking cupcakes for you." tsubaki: oh...thank you. ^^; otogiri:... *licks fingertips and snuffs the fire* -tsss- Belkia: *holds up the cupcakes...which are burnt* "..." *points at one* "This one is chocolate." *points at another one* "That one is orange." *points at another* "And I think that one has cherry filling." tsubaki: ...^^ thank you. *eats one*...delicious. ^^; Belkia: *shiny eyes* "THANK YOU, MOMMY!" Black Star: o_o ("...Her poor taste buds and stomach...") tsubaki: TTuTT; Belkia: "I'll do even better next time with a meal! In the meantime, I have to get these charred clothes off me before they fused into my skin!" *skips away happily* Black Star: "..." *holds up garbage can and a box of stomach medicine* -elsewhere- Karim: "This is not bad..." pearl: *she smiles* Karim: "Happy to have a break..." *offers plate* "Cheese?" pearl: sure. ^^ Karim: "Cool..." *takes some himself and puts it on a cracker--and still talks with his mouth full* "So...I was thinking..." pearl: ?? Karim: "What are some of your hobbies? You know, when we're not saving lives?" pearl: well, i do enjoy knitting from time to time. Karim: "Oh, cool! Like scarves?" pearl: *nods* i actually made some for ruby and dia. Karim: "That was nice. I'm sure they were happy with them." pearl: *smiles* Karim: "...Could I get a scarf?" pearl: oh! d-did you have anything in mind? Karim: "Mmm...Maybe something cold-themed? I like penguins..." pearl: oh that would be so cute. ^^ Karim: *smiles* "Thanks..." Karim: "Let me know how I can repay you." -elsewhere- Kid: "How is work at True Cross?" stocking: doing well. im learning more about the other student teachers. Kid: "That's good. Would you like to have them over? Or meet up for a meal?" stocking: sounds great! Kid: *smiles* "I look forward to meeting them." -and so- adrian: *nom* dude, this steak is delicious! seiya: .... gilda:..... ^^; Kid: "Gilda, may I pass you any dish? Maybe the salad?" gilda: *nods* Kid: *passes the salad, serving some of it to xem* "We grew some of the vegetables and made the dressing..." gilda: *nom*... ^w^ seiya: why thank you. adrian: thanks~! Kid: *smiles* "So...how is teaching going?" seiya: it's been well. we've been learning a lot as well. gilda: *nods* Kid: "I can imagine it takes some getting used to a new environment..." *pats Stocking's hand* "And I'm glad Stocking has you all with her." adrian: oh, thanks for inviting us to the wedding, stocks! stocking: no problem. ^^ Kid: *smiles* "We look forward to having you there." Kid: (Internal squeeing) -elsewhere- Hiro: "I had fun..." ef: *smiles* so did i. hime: come on bro, we have to go home now. Hiro: "I got it, I know already..." *waves* "Later, Mai." ef: later! Hiro: *looks at Hime* "You're a little impatient." hime: well, i've been hearing rumors at school about vampire and mafia attacks... Hiro: "..." *nervous laugh* "Th-That's just a rumor..." hime: maybe....but still... Hiro: "Y-Yeah. I mean, I wouldn't want you to get hurt--" hime: i appreciate that. Hiro: " 'Cause it's not like I'm afraid or anything..." hime: ... -elsewhere- Kid: "How was dessert?" stocking: delicious~<3 Kid: *smiles* "Thank you for inviting your new friends to dinner." stocking: *she smiles* Kid: "I think they will be helpful to you...and you to them." *smooch* stocking: hehe~<3 Kid: *hug* "Stocking...This is good." stocking: *smiles* Kid: *dips his finger into the dessert, licking it* stocking: hey, save some for me! *pouts* Kid: *taps his dessert-covered finger onto her nose* stocking: ah! haha! Kid: "Hee hee...Now you have an adorable and delicious nose." stocking: ^^; Kid: *dips another finger, bringing it to her lips* stocking: *suck* Kid: =\\\\= "Such talent..." stocking: hehe~ Kid: *kisses away the remaining frosting on her lips* stocking: U////U Kid: "I can't tell what is more delicious..." stocking: oh you~ Kid: *smiles, holds her hands* "I mean it." stocking: i know. *hug* Kid: *hug* "So sweet..." -elsewhere- Spirit: "So, this is serious. And you have to take your classes seriously." izumi: *she nods* i will. i'll do my best! Spirit: "..." *small smile, pats her shoulder* "I know you will..." *worried* izumi: *smiles* Spirit: "Be safe...Find a strong partner...and if any boy tries to get near you, BEAT THE EVER-LOVING HECK OUT OF THEM!" izumi: ...noted. *sweatdrop* Spirit: "Good...Good...Also, the same applies to any girls or anyone else trying anything. You just tell me who they are, and I'll show them what for!" izumi: ok dad. ^^; Spirit: "..." *sniff, tight hug* izumi: dad? you ok? Spirit: "I just...it means a lot to hear you say 'Dad.'" izumi: oh...to be honest, it makes me feel a bit better too... Spirit: "...If it does, I'm glad...I am not perfect, Izumi...but I want to try." izumi: *she nods* -elsewhere- Emine: "...I feel happy." lin: that's good. ^^ medea: is it because you vandalized that car? Emine: "Maybe. I mean, that bastard was asking for it. Cat calling, and parking in a handicapped space?" medea: good point. lin: but to be fair, i dont think he'll be driving anytime soon~ *holds up her utensils* medea: chie's not going to be happy about this. Emine: "Let's just make it up to her. Think she'd like new hubcaps?" -elsewhere- Kishiri: *hiding in the closet* o____O hanako: ?? Kishiri: "Shhh! Don't let them know I'm in here." hanako: ~? Kishiri: "I may have upset the Commander..." hanako: ???? Hibana: *heard from down the hall* "WHERE IS HE?!" hanako:... hey mom? are you looking for big bro kishiri? he's in your dress closet! Kishiri: .____. "If you weren't an adorably small child, I would be so angry right now--" *A hand punches through the door, right at Kishiri's neck, pulling him out through the hole in the door* -elsewhere- Tsukiyo: "So, you have to pose a certain way--" fang-hua: tsukiyo, what are you doing?! Tsukiyo: "Oh, hey! It's this new trend online! You got to pose in such a way so that--" fang-hua: *chop* not in front of the children! Tsukiyo: Q~Q "I was doing nothin'!" -elsewhere- Shamrock: "..." *hugging a pillow* himawari:...? Shamrock: "...It's difficult, Himawari." himawari:..what is? Shamrock: "...When you can't fix things." himawari: ?? Shamrock: "Young master...Tsubaki herself...Just struggling to get through this. And I still regret my actions." himawari:..*hug* Shamrock: "..." *hugs* "I'm sorry..." himawari: .... Shamrock: "..." *holds her* "No more pain..." himawari:...*shaking, eyes dull* im sorry....mr touma...im sorry.... Shamrock: "Himawari, stop!" *hugs her* "He's not here...You're safe." himawari:..... Shamrock: "...I'm sorry. I was thinking only of myself..." himawari:...... Shamrock: "...I wasnt thinking about you..." himawari:...... Shamrock: "...You deserve happiness. Everyone does." -elsewhere- Kana: "You seem rather pleased, Eternal Feather." ef: *smiles* i just had a good day at the pool today. misery: oh my~ have you finally found a special someone~? ef: O///O um.. w-w-well. Kana: "..." *puts it away* "Too soon, then. So, what's their name?" misery: oh how lovely~! and if this person tries to hurt you, i'll just have to get out the old shovel and hammer~<3 ef: O-O; Kana: *holds up cards* "I can cut up the body." -elsewhere- Ponera: *looking around the empty cave* "..." grimoire: is everything all right? Ponera: "Just...conflicted. It feels isolating in here." grimoire: it does decrease our chances of being spotted by the DWMA. Ponera: "...It's big. And empty. And cold. And lonely." shaula: then we build a kick-ass secret base! Medusa: -_-; "What, with laser beams and sharks?" shaula: ...i mean not right away, but we should invest in that. Medusa: *face-palm* Ponera: "We would need money for that..." shaula: i wonder if the shark witch would help us. Medusa: "...You called her fat." shaula: please, she's a stick compared to you. *PUNCH* shaula: ow! Medusa: "At least I have curves, you scrawny twat." shaula: below the belt, sis. Medusa: "Somewhere you're not touched..." beatrice: i...beg to differ. shaula: nice save beatrice! it's official! beatrice is my favorite person in this room, the rest of you are assholes! Medusa: "...Oh, gee, child, really? You can do so much better." beatrice: *glaaaaaare* Medusa: "??? I touch a nerve?" shaula: and another thing, arachne has waaay better curves than you. if she wasnt my sister, i'd tap that. Medusa: "Gah! Gross, gross, gross!" Medusa: "...And I had a baby! I have curves!" -elsewhere- arachne: *shudders* Giriko: "??? Cold?" arachne: i felt a disturbance. Giriko: "...Okay." *holds her* -elsewhere- Alone: *singing to himself* "Don't want be all by my-seeeeeeeeelf." guard: SHUT UP IN THERE! Alone: "No! You shut up out there!" hammerhead shark witck: IM TRYING TO SLEEP BE QUIET! Alone: "Oh, go dunk your head in salt water!" kinuta: zzzzz.... Alone: "...Yo? Kinuta? You awake?" kinuta: hnn? ya? Alone: "...How much longer they keeping you in this prison?" kinuta: not sure. gaaah im so bored! Alone: "Want to talk?" kinuta: eh, why not. Alone: "You doing okay with those missions they have you doing?" kinuta: yeah, keeps the circulation going. Alone: "I'm sure that's good for you. I've been stuck in here so long that my circulation is stuck." kinuta: want me to help you with that~? we still have that hole~ -faint rumbling- Alone: "Oh, babe, I'm feeling those vibrations already!" kinuta: let me just- wait what the heck? -something breaks through the ground- moguru: hmm. *looks at map* according to this, i should be....in jail. nice. Alone: "?! What the hell?!" moguru: salutations. i've been employed by a common ally to locate you and bust you out! kinuta: nice! Alone: "Take me, too!" moguru: i was talking to you sir. but if pinky wants to come along- kinuta: hell yeah! moguru: ok then, just give me a moment. Alone: "Where I go, she goes!" *picks up Kinuta* kinuta: *grins* guard: ?? *looks* oh fizzlesticks. *runs* Alone: "Let's go, babe." -and so- Alone: "So, what's the deal here?" moguru: i found them lady ponera! kinuta: oh? Alone: "Ponera?" Ponera: "...Welcome back." kinuta: um...hi? *sweats* Medusa: *glares at Kinuta* kinuta:...what? Medusa: "...Alone, the trash you bring home." neian: puppy! ^o^ kinuta: yeah mole brat, take a bath. moguru: ...ha. Medusa: "I was talking to you, Kinuta." kinuta: you're one to talk, kidnapping a romani baby. Medusa: "This is _my_ child." kinuta: so adopted then? shaula: oi kinu! whats up bitch! kinuta: got outta prison. shaula: niiice! Alone: *wave* "Hey, Scorpion." shaula: you wont believe how that baby got to be a thing. medusa banged her ex. kinuta: for real? *laughing* OH MY GOD! Medusa: *annoyed* "Ha ha ha. Laugh as you wish. At least I am here for my child, you slut." kinuta: what about that sword wielding weirdo? shaula: OOOOOOH! Medusa: "..You will be silent. Or I will end you." kinuta: alright, touchy touchy. Ponera: "If we are done with all this, I have need of Alone. And I supose we can find a use for Kinuta." -elsewhere- eruka: O_____________O;;;;; i just became overwhelmed with a feeling of dread and danger. Free: "??? Maybe that pizza is disagreeing with you?" eruka: maybe... Free: "I'll get you some medicine...Hey, you call your parents recently?" eruka: not recently. i'll do that then. Free: "Cool..." -elsewhere- Vulcan: "It's happening..." lisa: what is? Vulcan: "Watch...She's is going to leap..." lisa: *watching* Kitten: "..." *hesitates* Vulcan: "Come on...You can do it..." lisa: .... Kitten: *leaps--and lands, except for back legs* -elsewhere- Giovanni: *checks answering machine* soldier: ... Giovanni: "The snake hasn't called?" soldier: snake? Giovanni: "The one with Vulcan..." soldier: ah. -elsewhere- Arthur: *wearing a horse mask* shinra:.....*casually sips soda* Arthur: *breathing in the mask* Relan: ._. "...What the heck?" iris:.... o.o Arthur: "Can you believe Vulcan threw this out?" tamaki: you raided his garbage? Arthur: "Why not? It was a landfill. He has so many treasures! Look, this bookcase is just slightly warped!" *Bookcase stands...then falls over...and self-ignites on fire* iris: *extinguishes* Arthur: "...It still stood for a whole two seconds." karin: jeez, not even furniture is safe from combustion. Relan: "...I hope tiny animals don't spontaneously combust." *holds Buttons* buttons: O.o Victor: "...Would it be weird if cats spontaneously combusted?" tamaki: D8 -elsewhere- Assi: "So...camping trip..." mono: yeah. Assi: "Should be fun, right? New experience, get to see the wilderness...alone." mono: .... Assi: "...You going to be okay out there?" mono: *nod* Assi: "..." *nods* "Of course you will. You're strong, so I know you can face the elements." -elsewhere- Patty: *moving the couch...by herself...over her head* "How about here?" -elsewhere- Mr. Tsubaki: *takes medicine* reimi: feeling any better? Mr. Tsubaki: "..." *shakes his head* "My body feels better...not the rest of me." reimi:.... Mr. Tsubaki: "I need a distraction...Maybe a walk." reimi: good idea... Mr. Tsubaki: *stands and exits* "..." reimi:... Mr. Tsubaki: *looks along the walkway at residents* -a young couple holds hands as they walk past- Mr. Tsubaki: TT_TT -elsewhere- Sakuya: "Comfy?" naho: yep. Sakuya: "That's good." *snuggle* naho: =w= Sakuya: *forehead smooch* naho: hehe~ Sakuya: "...What do you dream about?" naho: besides yaoi? i dunno. Sakuya: *small laugh* "You ever imagine flying?" naho: hmmm...sometimes. Sakuya: "Looking down on everything?" *holds her arms* -elsewhere- Nals: "...Rather dark and dreary surroundings." milia: it's so cold! could you keep me warm, nalsie~? Nals: "..." *holds up a match* milia: *pouts* Nals: "Just rub your hands together." neian: guu... Medusa: *holds Neian close* "Stay warm, small one." neian: ^w^ Alone: *shivers* "Wish I grew more fur..." kinuta: want me to help~? Alone: =w= "You know it..." -elsewhere- Lawless: "See anything?" romina: nah. Lawless: "It should be here...It couldn't just disappear." -elsewhere- Jacqueline: "Pool's clean." kim: awesome! Jacqueline: *stretches* "Glad to be done with that." *opens freezer, removes two cans of soda* kim: *smiles* Jacqueline: "What you want to do after this?" kim: how about we go to the mall? Jacqueline: *nods* "I wanted to get a sun-dress..." kim: i think you could rock one. *smiles* Jacqueline: *small smile* "Thanks...Anything you wanted to pick up?" -elsewhere- Gopher: "??? You look familiar..." yu: ?? me? *points to self* Gopher: *looks at him from all angles* "I don't get it...Did we go to school together?" yu: well, i do attend day classes at the DWMA. but im just in the regular program. ^^; Gopher: "...Did you steal my face? Are you another paper clone?" yu: w-what? o.o;;; kotone: *glaaaares and pulls gopher closer to her* Gopher: "It-It's okay, Kotone. I think he's a real human...I hope." yu: i am! really! *waves hands in front of him* Gopher: "..." *extends his hand* "I'm Gopher." yu: my name's Yu. *shakes hand* Gopher: *nods* "Good to know..." -elsewhere- Kid: *holding ice to his nose* "Ow..." stocking: there there... Kid: "This is embarrassing..." stocking: ^^; Kid: "I just hit my nose like this...It's not even bleeding symmetrically." liz: jeez patti, did you have to throw the ball so hard? Patty: "I had to! He kept saying the throw wasn't parallel exactly with the ground!" kirika: look, the video has over 200 hits already. Kid: -______-;;; "You jerk." kirika: *reading the comments* kilik: [ow, that had to hurt] student: [how dare she hurt kiddo! D8<] kinoko: [dude, that's rad] Patty: "...Who's that jerk-off blaming me?" kirika: probably one of kid's fanbrats. *shrug* stocking: *annoyed sigh* just ignore them, thats what i do. Kid: -______-; "This is not the Internet fame I wanted." kirika: at least you're not the guy with that video with the horse. Patty: *Excalibur face* -elsewhere- Ponera: *tossing in bed, wide awake* "..." grimoire: zzzzz.... kinuta: *in the other room* AHHH~ OH FUCK THAT'S AMAZING~! Ponera: ._. Medusa: *glares at the ceiling* ("Goddamn that witch...") milia: SHUT UP! SOME OF US WANT TO SLEEP! Alone: "Then go to sleep!" kinuta: yeah anyway!. now, where were we~? Alone: "The Big Bad Wolf was going to eat you up..." Ponera: ._________. ("...I feel disgusted and lonely...") kinuta: ah~ Alone: *lick* kinuta: oh~!<3 Medusa: "I'm gonna kill them..." Ponera: *curls up, looking at the ceiling* Q~Q Nals: *putting pillow over his head* -morning- Ponera: -______-;;; "Was anyone able to fall asleep?" -elsewhere- Black Star: *hug* tsubaki: *smiles* Black Star: "Feel okay?" tsubaki: *she nods* yeah. Black Star: "That's good...because I got you something." tsubaki: oh? Black Star: *holds up a camellia flower in his hands* tsubaki: *smiles* thank you. *goes to get a vase for it* Black Star: *smiles* "You're welcome...I have some other surprises, for later." tsubaki: ..i see. .///. Black Star: "..." *slight smirk* "I'll just get back to picking up around the house...The 'kids' are making a mess." tsubaki: ah. hehe. Black Star: *takes her hand, gives it a small kiss, before getting to work* tsubaki:...*small smile* Belkia: .w. "Mommy...Are you and Daddy getting along again?" tsubaki: of course. naho: belbel, what's it with you and 'mommy and daddy'? (thinking: what did his family do to him...?) Belkia: "Well, they take care of us like parents, right"? naho:...right. (thinking: mom...dad....) Sakuya: "..." *glances at Naho* "???" naho:... ?? *smiles* Sakuya: "You alright?" naho: of course i am sakkun, why wouldnt i be? Sakuya: "Just...making sure..." ("...Sis...") -elsewhere- Kid: *inhales stocking: *rubs his shoulders* just a few more weeks now~ Kid: *nod nod* "Still, so much to do..." stocking: *smiles and nuzzles* Kid: "Will we be ready?" stocking: i know we will. *smiles* Kid: *smiles* "When I hear you say that...I know it's true." *smooch* stocking: mmm~ Kid: *smiles* "I think that leaves one thing left to plan for each of us..." stocking: oh~? Kid: *holds her close* "Have you and your friends planned anything for your bachelorette event?" stocking: well we did go to the beach... Kid: "And my male friends and I had...fun? I don't know--the part where Soul was in his boxers was odd." stocking: *chuckles* Kid: *laughs* "I guess we're saying good-bye to single-hood..." stocking: i think we did that a long time ago when we started dating~ Kid: "...I am still amazed...by you." stocking: *warm smile* thank you kid. for reaching out to me. Kid: "...And I look forward, to being amazed by you even more." -elsewhere- Vulcan: *banging away on an engine* "Fix, fix, fix..." -elsewhere- Meme: *holding up a Yoshi plushie* "Aw, how cute!" mio: *smiles* Meme: "Where did you get it?" mio: i won it from the crane game at the game corner. Meme: "So talented. Been practicing at it?" mio: i-i guess. 7///7 Meme: "I wish I could win something for you. But I tend to be blunt--or as blunt as an axe can be." mio: well...i guess i have you covered there on both fronts? *one hand becomes and axe blade, and the other becomes a hammer* Meme: *claps her hands* "Yay! See? Perfect weapon." mio:...*small smile* Meme: "And if I can't get the toy out of the crane game, I can break it open with you." *joking smile* mio: um...thanks. ^^; Meme: "You are a knockout." *proud grin* -elsewhere- Jacqueline: *in the sundress* "How is it?" kim: it looks great! Jacqueline: *smiles* "Thanks...I think it was a good purchase, especially with the summer heat." kim: yeah. i bet being a lantern doesnt help matters, haha! Jacqueline: -\\\\- "No, it does not." -elsewhere- Shotaro: *wearing a cardboard box outfit* "I. AM. A. ROBOT." *moves like one* GET: -.- saki: how cute. ^^; Tool: "Dude--Fear Robot died for us, man." Shotaro: "I. AM. HONORING. THEIR. MEMORY." *robot dance* mana: *facepalm* *chop* Shotaro: "Ouch! You wrecked my cardboard head!" -elsewhere- Lawless: "Yo, Soul!" soul: sup. *waves* Lawless: "You are! That's what's up!" soul: ...right. well, i just got off work, so i'm just chillin out and sightseeing right now. Lawless: "Oh? Sightseeing for anything in particular? soul: not sure. i guess i might check some parts of the city i havent visited before. its funny, after how long i've lived here, there's still places i've never even heard of yet. Lawless: "Jazz clubs?" soul: know any? licht: i shall find the way there, because. *pose* im an ang- soul: you're an angel, i know. licht: *glare* dont interrupt me. Lawless: "Yeah, don't interrupt the angel! Licht, lead the way!" soul: this should be interesting. -elsewhere- Belkia: *fiddling on a violin...badly* naho: *cringe* Shamrock: *covering his ears* "This is torture!" *KNOCK KNOCK on door* tsubaki: yes? Wes: *at the door...and looks furious* tsubaki: O-O;;; naho: eh-... *SCREAMING AND FROTHS* *KO* Sakuya: "!!!" *catches her* Wes: "I...heard the tortured screams...of a violin." Belkia: *waves* "Hello! I--" *PUNCH* Wes: *holding the violin...his fist steaming* Belkia: X________X naho: ouch. but. WES EVENS IS IN OUR HOUSE! *SCREAMS AND FAINTS AGAIN* Sakuya: -_-; Wes: "??? Um...Hi?" tsubaki: wes, these are me and black*star's house mates. it's....a long story. Wes: "Oh...I was wondering how you afforded this big place. You rent--that explains it!" *shakes Naho's hand* "Hello. Nice to meet a fan." naho: euhehehe... !! *shakes hand* IHAVEABOYFRIEND! *hugs sakuya* >.< Sakuya: =w= "Yeah...So hands off, fiddle boy." Wes: "???" *looks at Tsubaki* "Um...What's with them?" tsubaki: they're dating. naho's...a very energetic person. Wes: "Ah. Well, with wedding prep coming up, I appreciate that." *smiles* -elsewhere- Ponera: *curled up in bed* "Couldn't...sleep..." grimoire:...*puts the blanket over her* Ponera: "...Thank you. Can you do something about Alone?" grimoire: do you want me to neuter him? Ponera: "..." *considers it* "No. Could compromise him for combat." grimoire: ah. Ponera: "...I heard saltpepper works." -elsewhere- Relan: *jogging* shinra: *jogging with him* Relan: "I-I don't think I can keep up like you can!" ^^; maki: you two are doing great! iris: keep it up guys! Relan: "...They used to encourage me..." shinra: ?? Relan: "Mikami and Ryuuko..." shinra:... ah. well, we all go to school together, so. maybe we can invite them to hang out sometime? Relan: *nod nod* "...If G-G-Giov-vani lets them..." shinra: ....right. Relan: "..." *slows down to end the jog* "I...think I'm done." maki: that was pretty good time though. Relan: "..." *small smile, nods* "Th-Thank you, Maki..." -elsewhere- Kid: *folding clothes* lord death: howdy kiddo~ Kid: "Father! Hello! How are you?" lord death: doing just great. im just so happy for you kiddo! *hug* Kid: "Umph! ..." *tight hug* "Thank you!" lord death: so...what are the odds of you two having kiddos of your own? Kid: o\\\\\\o "...Father, um, that's a, um, bit forward...but...Stocking and I are considering..." lord death: i understand. though i would like to spend some time with my future grandchildren... Kid: "...Um...Well..." *nervous laugh* "Can't rush a good thing...But if you are about to become a grandfather, you will know." lord death: *he smiles* it's unfortunate my own father didnt get the chance to meet you....or my other children for that matter. Kid: "...I'm sorry." *holds his hand* "...What do you think...he would think of me?" lord death:...im certain he would be proud of how far you have come. as i am. Kid: *smiles* "Thank you, again." -elsewhere- Mephisto: *sobbing* felisia: is something wrong?! Mephisto: "Stocking...is getting married! My baby girl!" felisia: *she smiles* i know. i never thought i would be able to see it. Mephisto: "..." *holds her hand* "I am so happy you are here..." felisia: .... ^///^ Mephisto: "..." *hugs her* "I was so worried..." felisia:...*smiles* Mephisto: *cuddle* felisia: ^^ Mephisto: "Our baby..." felisia: *she nods* -elsewhere- Hibana: "Nightmare, sweetie?" hanako: *sniff* Hibana: *hug* "You're safe here..." hanako: *hug* gabriella: *hug* Hibana: "You want to sleep with us? Or talk about your dream?" hanako: there was a s-scary scorpion monster who hurt you, mama... Hibana: o\\\\\o "...Oh." gabriella: *concerned look at hibana* Hibana: ^\\\\^ "J-Just a dream, sweetie. Believe me, if a scorpion monster came after me, your mamas would handle it." hanako: *sniffle* r-really? Hibana: *nods* "Really really." -elsewhere- Kepuri: *assembling a tent* mono: *streeetch* Kepuri: "Darn...I think I'm missing a post..." Kepuri: "Nea, you finish with the sleeping bags?" nea: all set~ Kepuri: "Good...Time to take Mono fishing." mono: ok then... setsuna: ^^ Kepuri: *hands her the rod* "And I got the bait..." mana: i think the river is this way. Kepuri: *looking at compass* "Hmmm...Better hurry. I'm starving." -elsewhere- Mr. Tsubaki: *sorting medical files...listlessly* "..." kabuki: good morning. Mr. Tsubaki: "...Hey." *shuts cabinet* kabuki: busy? Mr. Tsubaki: "Trying to be. It keeps my mind occupied." kabuki: ah. Mr. Tsubaki: "Any reason you are here? Feeling okay?" kabuki: the twins were worried about you. Mr. Tsubaki: "...How are they?" kabuki: doing well. though they have taken notice in your recent change in demenor... Mr. Tsubaki: "..." *lip quivers--as he starts crying* kabuki: ah! di-did i say something wrong? Mr. Tsubaki: "N-No...I just...Why would anyone worry about me?" kabuki: well, i guess they consider you part of their family. *small smile* Mr. Tsubaki: "...'Family'..." *sniff* kabuki: ...if you feel up for it later, we wouldnt mind you dropping by for some sake. Mr. Tsubaki: "...O-Okay..." -elsewhere- Black Star: "Comfortable?" tsubaki: *nods* Black Star: "I'm glad..." *hug* -elsewhere- Yumi: "I think you'll look lovely." liz: you think so? roxanne: of course. *nods* Patty: "Yep! Just need that something borrowed, something old stuff!" heather: yeah. liz: you guys...*smiles* Patty: "You'll be a knock-out, Sis!" *hug* -elsewhere- Relan: [how are u doing?] mikami: [been busy.] ryuuko: [otherwise alright.] Relan: [that's good to hear. i was worried] ryuuko:... [how's the 8th for you?] Relan: [i feel safe here. :) ] mikami: [that's good to know. ^^ ] Relan: [thanks. it means a lot.] *attaches a pic of him and Shinra* ryuuko: [and iris?] iris: [i took the photo. ^^] ryuuko: [ah] Relan: [sends one of Iris holding Buttons] mikami: [how cute!] Relan: [^^ i know right?!] -elsewhere- Jacqueline: *in pajamas, watching TV* -elsewhere- Kepuri: "Good fish meal." nea: *enjoying her ice cream* Kepuri: "??? How much ice cream did you bring with you?" nea: well i have to eat _something_! *pouts* Kepuri: "It was just a question. I mean, we can't have it melting and attracting bears--" -elsewhere- Gopher: *holding up phone* "Okay, recording." kirika: *nods and starts running* -one kick ass parkour session later- kirika: *phew*... Gopher: *playing back the footage* "Wow, this is great! You were so fast..." kirika: *smirks* well, i've had years of practice. i've been doing shit like this since i was like, what, 10? Gopher: *nod nod* "And you still keep getting faster..." -elsewhere- Takehisa: "I have finished the chilled fruit smoothies." *passes one to Maki* maki: tasty! Takehisa: *nods* "Glad you like it." *holds out the tray* -elsewhere- Tsukiyo: *checking her mailbox...there are no letters* "..." fang-hua: waiting on anything? Tsukiyo: "...Just a message from family." fang-hua: ah... Tsukiyo: "I guess...they aren't writing any time soon." fang-hua:...*comforting pat on her shoulder* Tsukiyo: *sniff* "I-I'm sure they're just busy." fang-hua:...want to visit the gardens? Tsukiyo: *nod nod* "I heard Konro got some flowers to grow back..." fang-hua: that's great!

Tsukiyo: *small smile* "Yeah. I heard he's trying for blue roses now." fang-hua:...eh? o.o Tsukiyo: *nod nod* "Colorful, right? I can't wait to see them!" -elsewhere- Harvar: "Try this album." ox: alright. *gives it a listen* Harvar: "I really like the off-bass rhythm." -elsewhere- Shotaro: *holds up Io* "Hello!" io: ^o^ saki: *smiles* Shotaro: "How has she been, Saki?" saki: she's growing up so fast. hard to believe she'll be a year old next month... Shotaro: "A growing kid deserves a great birthday gift! What you want, Io?" io:... owo~? Shotaro: "A doll as big as you? A train set? Books?" -elsewhere- Mr. Tsubaki: "So...How have you two been?" hikage: doing great! hinata: we put a trap in tsukiyo-nee's bed. *mischievous giggle* Mr. Tsubaki: "Oh? What kind of trap?" hinata + hikage: *wide grins* you'll see~ Tsukiyo: *from far away* *LOUD SCREAM* Mr. Tsubaki: "??!" *runs towards the screaming* ("What did they do?!") Tsukiyo: *tied in a rope, hanging from the ceiling by her ankles* o\\\\\o "Who did this?! It was you, wasn't it, you awful beast!" Mr. Tsubaki: D: "I did no such thing!" hinata + hikage: *high five* Mr. Tsubaki: "Hang on! I'll cut you loose--" *tugs on rope* Tsukiyo: *yelps* .\\\\\. Mr. Tsubaki: o\\\\\o fang-hua: what happe-....um... *exits* Tsukiyo: "IT'S NOT LIKE THAT!" Mr. Tsubaki: "Not at all! Watch! I'll get her down--" *SLASH* *Ropes come loose...and...* Tsukiyo: *falls...without ropes...and without...* .\\\\\\\\. Mr. Tsubaki: "...Shit." fang-hua: .____. what is this, sennan kagura? Tsukiyo: *screams* "GET OUT, YOU PERVERTED DAMN FOX!" *covering herself and throwing a pillow at him* Mr. Tsubaki: *in human form, but running on all fours away* "I SAID I WAS SORRY!" hinata: i thought you liked guys staring at you, tsuki-nee. hikage: yeah, you're just like the kitty lady! Tsukiyo: "You little brats! I don't want a guy I want to get hot and steamy with seeing me like this!" Mr. Tsubaki: *stops running* "...She _wants_ me?" Tsukiyo: .\\\\\. "I SAID NO SUCH THING!" hinata + hikage: oooooooooo! XD Tsukiyo: .\\\\\. *covers her face, crying* "How humiliating..." kabuki: is something wrong? ah! miss usada! *gives her a blanket* here... Tsukiyo: *sobbing* "Stop looking at me!" *pulling the blanket over herself* kabuki:...is something wrong? Tsukiyo: *sobbing* "My family isn't talking to me, I couldn't get Benimaru, I'm attracted to some weird perverted fox thing--and I feel so exposed!" kabuki:...*hug* it's alright... fang-hua: *hugs her as well* Tsukiyo: *calms down, still crying* "I'm so stupid..." fang-hua: you're not stupid. we all make mistakes. Tsukiyo: "...I just want to feel like I'm part of something--and I don't. I feel alone." Mr. Tsubaki: *overhearing* fang-hua: you arent alone. you have all of us. *smiles* Tsukiyo: "...Really? You mean it?" fang-hua: of course. *smiles* Tsukiyo: "..." *small smile, nods* "Th-Thank you. That's all I need..." Mr. Tsubaki: "..." (" 'All I need'...It just doesn't feel like enough...") -elsewhere- Kepuri: *looking up at stars* setsuna: it's lovely, isnt it? mana: yeah. mono:...it's nice i guess. Kepuri: "Like millions of fireflies..." -elsewhere- soul: *enters his empty apartment* im home....*sighs and sits down, watching some tv* *Music sounds like it is coming from upstairs* soul: ?? *looks up at the ceiling* (thinking: the hell? who's playing music this hour of the night?) *exits to go to the floor above him and knocks on the door* oooi. you in there? *The music keeps playing...the door is unlocked and opens under Soul's knocking* soul:....?? im coming in. dont worry, im not here to rob you or anything....*closes the door behind him*....*awkward* *A sofa chair is set in front of the stereo system, its back facing Soul. And someone is seated in that chair...* soul: ??? um....hi? um...im your neighbor from a floor below you....i heard you playing music up here... ???: *no response...their hand is limply on the chair's arm* soul:...*cold sweat* *steps closer, slowly* *The person looks dead...and there is a bottle of pills--* soul: !!! *calls 911* ???: *still passed out, not breathing* soul: shit, shit shit shit....! *trying to give them the heimlich* ???: *cough cough* soul: !!! *still giving them the heimlich* come on, dont die on me now. ???: *cough COUGH* "F-Fuck..." soul: hey, you alright? *looks at the pills that were coughed up and gets the person to sit upright on the couch* easy there... ???: "Where am I? Who are you?" soul: you're in your apartment, im assuming. im your neighbor from below you. i heard the music and found you...i already called the ambulance... ???: *annoyed moan* "I wanted to die..." soul: why would you want that? ???: "It hurts..." soul:...do you....wanna talk about it? ???: "..." *cries* "I don't see a future..." soul:....*pats their back* did something happen to you? ???: "I-I'm such a loser! I have no job! No friends! No money! Just die..." soul:....hey, it's gonna be ok. i think i can recommend some jobs for you. ???: *shakes their head* "I'll screw them up..." soul: .... -soon, the ambulance arrived, and soul explained what happened to the officer- Officer: "Thanks for that, son--you saved them." soul:....they need serious help. i tried my best...but im not sure it helped... Officer: "They'll get help...It's up to them to do something with it." soul:...i hope so.....life's too precious to throw away... Officer: "...We're taking them to the General Hospital. Maybe stop by." soul:..ok. *nods* Officer: *nods, returning to car to depart* soul:....(thinking: i think..i did the right thing...right?) *The wind blows by* soul:.....*smiles* Anya: *walking back from convenience store with a bag of chips* tsugumi: i got some new candy kits for us all. Anya: "Oh, fun! Want help?" tsugumi: we can all do them as a group. ^^ Anya: "Well, okay...I wonder how they'll taste..." tsugumi: *smiles as they walk past a girl in a kimono* kimono girl:.... -elsewhere- Tsukiyo: *curled up in bed, shivering* fang-hua: *puts the blanket over her* i know, colds arent fun... Tsukiyo: "N-No kidding...Thanks, Fang-Hua..." *curls up in blanket, sniffs* -elsewhere- Kid: "Want a cookie?" stocking: yes please~<3 aaaah~ Kid: *puts it into her mouth* stocking: *nom* ~<3<3<3<3 Kid: *smiles* "Sweet tooth..." stocking: hehe~ Kid: "One with chocolate chips?" stocking: yes please~ Kid: *holds up a chocolate chip cookie--breaks it in half, perfectly symmetrical* "One half for you..." -elsewhere- Victor: *looking at a book, its edges charred as if burned* "Hmm..." karin: find anything? Victor: "Can't tell...It's like it's written in code." karin: *peeeek* Victor: "It's gibberish! I mean, it looks like a cookbook and less like a chemistry book." karin:....that is a cookbook. Victor: "..." *headdesk* "Darn it." -elsewhere- Black Star: *snoring* -door creeeek- Black Star: *stirs in sleep* naho: *giggles* Belkia: "Sh-Shh!" *suppressing giggles* *pulls out the whipped cream* -later- Black Star: *slaps his face--looks around* "H-Huh? What?" -elsewhere- Patty: *sitting in the corner, pouting* liz: now, what have we learned from this? Patty: "Bury the evidence?" liz: yeah....wait what? Patty: "I mean, don't shave off one of Kid's eyebrows?" -elsewhere- Kid: Q_Q "...I need a makeup pencil." -elsewhere- Vulcan: "Seen Lisa?" yu: i think she went out to do errands. Vulcan: "Hope she picks up more cat food..." -elsewhere- Meme: "...That's a lot of plushies." -elsewhere- Mr. Tsubaki: *feeding ducks* "..." fang-hua: morning. Mr. Tsubaki: "Ah, hello...How is everything?" -elsewhere- kohaku:...*staring up at the sky* *Someone is watching her* kohaku:.. ?? *turns* Spirit: "..." kohaku: the hell do you want, death scythe? Spirit: "You should be in class." kohaku: tch- whats the point? they're just premature brats who'll just get killed in battle, but you would know that, wouldnt you? *SNITCK* Spirit: *his blade is at her neck* "..." kohaku: *deflects it with an amber blade* you should be careful, you could get in trouble for harming a student on campus. Spirit: "I am not looking at a student..." *takes another step forward* "I see a petulant little child..." kohaku: *glares* tch-, this is lame. im going for a walk. *begins running off* marie:....what is wrong with that girl? *concerned* Spirit: "...After what happened to her mother..." marie: .....*remembering* Spirit: "..." *shakes* marie:...*remembering what happened to christa's birth mother*.... Spirit: "...I...don't think I can teach right now..." marie: i'll take over your classes for you. *smiles* Spirit: "I-I'm sorry. Thank you..." *holds onto the balcony to steady himself* marie:...do you need to see the nurse? Spirit: *nod nod* -nurse's office- sachiko: yes? !! spirit! Spirit: *weak wave* "H-Hey..." sachiko: is everything ok? Spirit: "..." *covers his face* Spirit: "I...I was so angry." sachiko: ?? Spirit: "One of the students just...mocked me for Maka's...Maka's..." sachiko: !!...*hugs him* Spirit: *hug* "I'm sorry...I failed her..." sachiko: you did the best you could....we're only human. Spirit: "...It's just another screwup. One after another...Izumi..." sachiko: izumi is alright. you saved her life. *smiles* Spirit: "...I couldn't save Maka's...And Izumi is now in this school..." ((Back)) sachiko: *smiles* a perfect chance to make up for past mistakes... *holds his hand* you can do it. i believe in you. Spirit: "..." *bites his lip, nods* -elsewhere- Kepuri: *with fishing pole* "...No bites." -a few days later- Kid: *sweating* liz: you alright? Kid: "Wedding. Reception. Wedding. Rings. Wedding. Dancing. Wedding. Food. Wedding. Wedding night..." *shaking* liz: easy kid, just breathe in. Kid: *holding paper bag to his mouth, breathing in and out until he calms down* "...I hope you are handling this pressure better than I..." liz: well, i am nervous too. but i know it will be ok. -elsewhere- Shotaro: *hanging from the ceiling* mana: we're home! Shotaro: "Yay!" *drops confetti down* chie: welcome back everyone. toru: ^o^ io: hehe! Kepuri: "Glad to be..." *stretches* "Ground hurts." nea: my poor back TT.TT Shinoda: *holding up an ice cream bar* "You must heal..." nea: thank you *smoooooch* Shinoda: -\\\\- "You're welcome." Assi: "Mooooooooooonooooooooo!" mono: ?!! Assi: "You're back!" *arms wide open* -elsewhere- Black Star: "Just feeling crowded in here." tsubaki: maybe we could take a walk? Black Star: "Yeah, that would be good..." tsubaki: *she smiles* Black Star: *opens door for her* "...That's a cute shirt." tsubaki: *smiles* thanks. Black Star: *closes door behind her* "Where'd you get it?" tsubaki: i did some shopping over the weekend. Black Star: "Nice. Don't suppose you got me anything...?" -elsewhere- Izuku: *knocking his head against the wall* inko: izuku? are you alright in there? *worried* Izuku: "?!" *opens his door--he has a forehead mark as he smiles nervously* "J-Just...trying to motivate myself..." inko: well, do try to be careful. *worried* Izuku: "..." *nod nod nod* "I'm sorry to make you worry." -elsewhere- Relan: *checking the pantry* iris: hungry? Relan: *nod nod* "I was hoping for cereal..." -elsewhere- Patty: "Takeru..." takeru: y-yes? Patty: *hug* "Feels like I haven't seen you in a while." takeru: s-sorry. been busy... Patty: "Long work hours?" -elsewhere- Tsukiyo: *in pajama pants and a t-shirt...eating cereal in front of the TV* "..." kabuki: good morning. *in a yukata, slightly draped off one of his shoulders* Tsukiyo: *not looking up from the TV, mouth full of cereal and milk* "Mornin'." *swallows her meal, turns* "How are you--" o\\\\o kabuki: ah, what are you watching? Tsukiyo: o\\\o "...Cartoons." -elsewhere- Yumi: *frowning* kirika: *bandaged* ..... Yumi: "How bad are the injuries?" kirika: its just a few scratches, mom. Yumi: "Hence the bandages...How did this happen?" kirika: ....some punks were tormenting a little kid. i beat the shit out of them. Yumi: "And where are they now?" kirika: ER probably...but the kids alright... Yumi: "...I think you should see that child in the morning..." kirika: not sure where they live though...wouldnt that be weird to see them? Yumi: "Perhaps. But I expect that, as a representative of the DWMA, you show interest when intervening in other people's lives. Your behavior reflects on many--and you are a role model..." kirika: *laughing* are you being real?! a delinquent like me? a role model? as if! Yumi: *eyeglasses glint* "You don't get to _decide_ to be a role model." kirika: o_o; Yumi: "Now, where does this child live?" -elsewhere- Benimaru: *yawn* kirei: busy day today? Benimaru: *nods* "Disagreements among residents...Had to intervene..." *he lifts up his shirt, revealing a nasty bruise* kirei: !! *goes to get the medkit* Benimaru: "I'm sure it's fine...Can't be that bad..." *tries to sit down* kirei: *bandaging him up* Benimaru: "...Thank you." kirei: *smiles* Benimaru: "Heh...I used to just jump into combat, wanting to brawl..." kirei: *listening* Benimaru: "...Don't get me wrong. I still want to fight. But...I know I have someone to come home to." kirei:...*smiles and blushes* Benimaru: *winces a bit as he moves to hug her* kirei: *hugs back, but not too much as to not put pressure on the bruise* Benimaru: "...You're gentle." -elsewhere- Kid: *lying on the couch* julie: ?? Kid: *yawn* "Hey, Julie..." julie: *smiles* Kid: *sits up* "How's your day been?" julie: good. summer break starts next month! Kid: *smiles* "Yay..." *looks at her* "Any idea what you'll be doing this summer?" -elsewhere- Yohei: "Diaper change--complete!" toru: ^o^ chie: seems you have this parenting thing down pat~ ^^ Yohei: "Hope so..." *hold up Toru* "For this little guy's sake." toru: hehe! Yohei: *hug, kiss* "Happy baby!" -elsewhere- Sakuya: "...Is that a deer?" naho: *looks* oh my gosh! *snaps a pic* so cute! Shamrock: *stare* Sakuya: *nod nod* "Yeah. Real peaceful..." himawari: *smile* Shamrock: *flashbacks* (student: come on! just go up and touch it!) (Young!Sham: o~o *approaches cautiously...*) (deer: *looks up and charges*) (student 2: henry run!) (Young!Sham: *stunned, can't move* o___O ) tsubaki: shamrock? *puts a hand on his shoulder* Shamrock: "MY APPENDIX STILL ACHES FROM ITS ANTLERS!" tsubaki: o.o; naho:...huh? Shamrock: "..." *exits the room, going outside...in front of the deer* deer: *stares* naho: O_O Shamrock: "..." *rolls up his sleeves, approaches the deer* tsubaki: what is he doing? O_O; otogiri: he's about to throw down. Shamrock: *stands his ground, holding up his arms at the deer* "...Not again..." deer: *glint* Shamrock: "...Come get some." deer: *SCREECH AND CHARGES* tsubaki: ah!! naho: O-O Shamrock: "AAAAARG!" *tries to grab the deer by the neck and belly* -grapple- naho: woah! O.O tsubaki: 0_0; lavender: damn. Shamrock: *clutching the deer* "I got you now, you bastard..." deer: *struggling* lilac: q.q; Shamrock: *lifts up the deer* tsubaki: oh goodness... Shamrock: "AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!" *suplex* naho: *JAWDROP* lilac: O.O tsubaki: O_O lavender: dude holy shit. Belkia: ._. Black Star: D: Higan: "...Damn." Shamrock: *collapsed with the deer...panting...* deer: X_X -KO- Shamrock: *fist lifted up* "Victory..." *falls unconscious* -later- himawari: *worried* Shamrock: "Zzz..." *slowly opens his eyes* "Wh-What...?" tsubaki: are you alright? you passed out. Shamrock: "I'm sore..." *looks around, down at himself* "...The deer?" tsubaki: it woke up and ran off. i made sure to feed it. Shamrock: "..." *proud smile, as he stands up on the bed and rips open his shirt* "I AM VICTORIOUS!" tsubaki: o.o naho: ... >->;;;;; himawari:..*small blush* Shamrock: *panting with excitement...before he lies back down* "My abs...are on fire..." otogiri: shamrock, you need rest. Shamrock: "But I'm all..." *yawn* "...fired up..." tsubaki: no kidding. *puts a cold compress on his forehead* Shamrock: *looks at Himawari* "...Are you...okay?" himawari:...?? y-yes... .////. Shamrock: *nod nod* "I'm glad..." *small wink at her* himawari: o///o Shamrock: *smiles...as he falls asleep* "Zzz..." -elsewhere- Tsukiyo: *sitting in the onsen* .\\\\\. "...I feel conflicted." fang-hua: how so? Tsukiyo: *covering herself in the bath* "...You ever realize something because you were not paying attention to it, because you were focused on someone else?--SOMETHING ELSE!" fang-hua: um...? Tsukiyo: *frown* "Ever since Benimaru hooked up, I've felt sad and empty..." fang-hua: ...*pats her back* Tsukiyo: *sniff* "Th-Thanks..." -elsewhere- Victor: *opening another book* -elsewhere- Jacqueline: *eating from a bowl of cereal* -morning- Kid: *yawn* stocking: morning handsome~ Kid: *smiles* "Morning, beautiful." stocking: hehe~ *smooch* Kid: =\\\\= *smooch* "Love you..." stocking: love you too~ Kid: *hug* "Ready for the day?" stocking: yep. -at school- itsuka: *in homeroom, writing things down* Bakugo: *trying to write down notes...but looks at Itsuka* reiko: *a class 1-b student* isnt that katsuki bakugo from class 1-a? tokage: *another class 1-b student* what's he doing here? Bakugo: *annoyed twitch* Bakugo: ("I can't let anyone know I came into the wrong class today...Do not give in. Do not give them the satisfaction...") boy: *a somewhat chubby boy sits on the floor, as bakugo has taken his seat*... TT.TT Bakugo: *glancing at the clock...it's only been five minutes* "...I CAN'T TAKE IT!" nirengeki: may i have my seat back now sir? itsuka: ?? Bakugo: *fire breath* "FINE! TAKE IT!" *kicks away from the chair and storms out of the room* students: *blink blink* blood king: ....well. _that_ just happened. Bakugo: *enters hallway* -\\\\- "I looked so stupid back there..." *shoves hands in his pockets, grumbling* eijiro: so my foot is totally stuck in there, the dog is flipping the fuck out, and i still have half a pie left!...oh! hey bakugou! Bakugou: "I DID NOTHING WRONG! SHUT UP!" eijiro:...eh? Bakugou: "Give me your notes from what I missed!" -later- Iida: "Bakugou seems...more annoyed than usual." ochako: maybe be stubbed his toe? Bakugou: *annoyed twitch* Izuku: "Seems worse than a toe-stubbing. Maybe he hit his elbow on the door?" Bakugou: *more annoyed twitching* denki: i think i know where he got hit, and it rhymes with 'enis'. Bakugou: *growling* -CHOP- denki: ow! what? i was gonna say 'wenis'! Bakugou: "THAT'S NO BETTER, YOU DICK!" -elsewhere- Medusa: *looking at the cave walls* "Hmm..." milia: whatcha dooooing? Medusa: *taps a carving on the wall* "Who made these?" milia:...*shrugs* Medusa: "The writing is certainly old..." ("Did I see this in...that book?") -something is heard in the lower regions- milia: O.O;; Medusa: "...Follow me." milia: *following* *The markings on the walls increase as they descend, closer to the sound* Medusa: "..." *small smirk* "Fascinating...I'm beginning to follow..." milia: ....!! i-is that...?? -a familiar male is there....a certain reaper....only...its not.-