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animalecfest · 8 months

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Problemalec, Betrayal

i just hope this turned out good >.<

Magnus was always called greedy. Which wasn’t true. He just wasn’t keen on sharing things he liked. He was more than happy to give away a worn out coat or his enemy’s life without a second thought.

“How much more do we need to go?”

“We’re almost there.”

“Sure. Do I really need to wear this blindfold?”

“As a Shadowhunter, you must know better than me how stupid it is to look Soul Harvesters in the eye. Although I have some doubts about your brother.”

“Yes, yes, but we still haven’t got into their nest. I have no idea what part of the city we are even in any more.”

“You’re too noisy, might attract other unwanted guests.”

Alec huffed. “Just admit you just wanted a pretext to hold my waist.”

“Do I need one?” Magnus smirked. He had a feeling Alexander was aware he did even without seeing his face.

“You never seemed like it. Why do I have to wear a blindfold and you don’t?”

“Maybe because your mother is right and I actually possess no soul.”

The clothing wrinkled as Alec furrowed. “Don’t let her words get to you. She’ll… come around. I hope so. But that doesn’t matter to me. I’ve seen people who claimed to have souls and killed innocents with no mercy. You aren’t like this.”

Magnus clutched to his chest, not able to contain a pleased smile. A genuine one this time. He only held Alec’s waist tighter and gave his cheek a brief peck.

A close call. But avoided by a brilliant diversion. A couple of sad words all it took.

Not that Magnus didn’t appreciate them. He did.

This was actually why he orchestrated this spectacle.

“Thank you, darling. You don’t have to reassure me, I don’t care about any badmouthing I get.”

“They aren’t worth your attention. They are false.”

Oh, sweet Alexander. People may be a devious and deceitful bunch but sometimes the stories they spread are indeed true.

“You can stop complaining now. We’ve arrived. They’re inside.”

“How do you know?”

Because I ordered them to stay there. Keep your mother in nice company.

“The energy of this place reeks malignant. Might just be me though.”

“Magnus…”

“Joking, darling, merely joking. But you feel it too?”

Alec nodded. “Superficially malignant. Almost as if it’s a trap.”

Ah, Alexander, how well that he was enchanted with Magnus.

“Well, it might be. Don’t worry, I’ll be sure to keep your back safe.”

“Only my back?” Alec gave a small smile.

“Your front shouldn’t worry either. I adore these lips simply too much.”

As if on cue, Alec pouted.

Hold on, Magnus, you’ll have time to smooch them later. Now’s business.

The door was ajar and Magnus ushered Alec in, telling him to be careful of the threshold.

“They are eerily silent,” said Alec and a blade slid into his hand. Alas, with eyes covered his beloved bow and arrows had no use.

Magnus bent to whisper in his ear, “Your beauty has left them speechless.”

“This is not the time,” he clicked his tongue and, Magnus would bet, rolled his eyes.

A hoarse hissing invited them to take the stage. The viewers - or the only viewer, Magnus, for that matter - had been waiting too long for the performance.

“Alexander, the ring is on you?”

“Yes, I haven’t taken it off since you put it on me this morning.”

Magnus waved at himself as if using a fan. “You make a decent man blush. I hope you’ll wear the next ring I give you as diligently.”

Alec, as opposed to Magnus, flushed for real. “Not the time, M-”

“Yes, I know. Now,” he led them into the room, infested with the Soul Harvesters.

Howling and frost heaving of demons ambushed Alec as he took a step into the room. Standing ovation already and he hadn’t done anything yet.

“Don’t come in,” with a swift slice of the blade Alec left a scar radiating across the creature’s face. An effective trick.

Would be. Hadn’t Magnus toyed with the demons’ eyes in the palm of his hand. He pressed the nail into the dry pupil and the demon next to his right roared. Gaining himself interest from Alec and, apparently, was smitten with such honour. So much that his head plopped to the Shadowhunter’s feet in awe.

Eyes are the window to the soul as they say. And the Soul Harvesters collect the eyes to mimic their now dead owners. They savoured other body parts but wore eyes around their necks.

Another precise slash right in the hollow orbits. One would never think Alec was blindfolded. Well, with Magnus’s ring, soaked in the blood of this bunch, he sure wasn’t blind to them. In his temporary darkness a keen ear and ringed hand proved to be the loyal servants. As for the furniture that might impede deft movements, Magnus had taken care of it long before. Alec’s job was only to stand in the middle as the main actor. In the dim spotlight slithering through the window he looked like an angel sentencing sinners to punishment. How pitiful that the Harvester’s bodily juices were slimy and not a gorgeous mahogany. They made Alec’s face less becoming.

Well, red will certainly be added to the palette in the next act.

Of course, these creatures imitated attacks lest Alec would strat suspecting but if one dared to cause him real harm, they’d instantly meet Magnus’s welcoming and sharp spikes and swords.

So all that was left to them was to faint in his presence and groan.

Another howl, this time from the attic, didn’t allow Alec much time to rest. So he took off, catching Magnus’s hand, and they rushed to rescue. To be fair, Alec did. Magnus was rushing to the peak moment of this spectacle.

He snapped his fingers to pay a check to the actors lying on the floor below. The death was instantaneous and almost not painful. For doing the job so well, the Harvesters deserved a bountiful wage. Magnus was welcome to please the albeit reluctant workers for their input.

“Magnus, how many more of them are there?”

He took a peek into the room. Not that there’s anything he didn’t know already. The curtains were shut, not permitting even a shy ray to cut in. A penurious candle was the only source of light in the room. It highlighted stripped wallpapers. A slight breeze could quench its life quite easily. Like in a tomb, it stinked of death, which wasn’t that surprising, considering how many corpses wallowed under the floor. And one more friend was to join them according to Magnus’s plan.

“Only one. But a very nefarious one.”

‘Nefarious’ was the word that quite suited it. Along with ‘obtrusive’ and ‘dead’.

“But you’ll manage it. I believe in you.”

“Stop flirting with me when I’m hunting.”

“Never.”

The banter was interrupted by a not so cute yell from the other side of the room. Maryse. She always knew how to ruin the moment.

Alec shook his head, preparing himself for the blow, and strode with his chin up, tossing the blade from one hand to another, anticipating.

Oh, if only he could imagine what anticipation Magnus was in.

“Alec,” whimpered Maryse. Somehow. Did the magical seal wear off? Oh, how so not on time!

Alec jerked to a halt. “Mom?” he looked around even though his eyes were still covered.

He almost took it off when Magnus warned, “Alexander, it’s a trap. Don’t do it.”

His hand stopped right this moment.

“Don’t listen to him, Alec,” said Maryse. Never was able to shut up when it was necessary. If she could, wouldn’t end up bondaged and soaked in the Harvester’s bodily liquid in some God-forsaken place.

Alec’s face was one of a complete loss. He turned to face Magnus.

Now, he had to choose the words deliberately.

“What does the ring say, Alexander?”

He wetted his lips, “It says it’s the demon.”

“I’m not!”

Magnus had qualms with this statement.

“Alexander, tell me, when can a Harvester mimic a person.”

“When they own their eyes.”

“And how can they get them?”

Alec shifted his head in Maryse’s direction a little. “When they attack the person.”

“They didn’t attack me, Alec! It was Magnus!”

“Now, this one depicts her mannerisms quite true to life.”

Maryse’s nostrils dilated like one of a rabid beast, “And you can’t play a good person even if your life depended on it, Bane.”

“Sounds very much like something she’d say.”

Alec nearly sent the blade flying right into her neck. Nearly. But sadly not enough.

“He’s just playing with you, Alec. He will discard you when he gets tired of you.”

Even on the edge of death, she repeats the same exhausting lines. Couldn’t come up with something more original to be remembered by?

Magnus debated knocking Alec off and getting rid of her on his own but Maryse decided to open her mouth one last time. To get the taste of her standing ovation.

“He doesn’t have anything of his own so he resorts to stealing. He can’t increase his power, so he swallows lesser demons to get theirs. He can’t get respect, so he infuses fear. He can’t have a soul, so he uses those who have it. Bane is not that different from those Harvesters.”

This was as much as an open invitation to the beheading.

The blade whizzed, slicing the air and finally reached his goal, cutting the flesh with a crack. Alec fished out his trusty arrow and pierced Maryse’s heart one time, two times, winning a whine from her. But no wrestle followed.

“I’m not wounded, darling,” Magnus approached Alec and hugged his shoulders. “But thank you for defending my honour.”

Honestly, Maryse looked more becoming this disembowelled and pathetically gasping for breath than she was alive. Mostly because now she didn’t make a sound, let alone say a coherent word.

Alec continued ripping her open even after she gave out her last breath. Not that Magnus wanted to stop him. Murderous face, especially lips carved with blood, was too hard to resist. The idea of kissing Alec in front of his mother’s corpse and tasting her blood… Rather enticing.

The trap has loudly snapped.

Alexander Lightwood, the slaughterer of his own mother. In Magnus’s books, a wonderful title to call oneself. To himself and Shdowhunters? A shame. A disgrace. Deruning is the most merciful punishment for this deed.

Magnus didn’t have to mar his hands to remove the hindrance from sight. Even if he ached to do it. But this was better.

Now Alec was confined with him. Guilt and love make great reasons for obedience.

When he finds out, he’ll confide in Magnus. And get the pity and a pet on head. Magnus, whom his mother denounced so badly, forgives him like a merciful saint and offers to cover up.

No force was to threaten Magnus’s ownership of Alec’s heart from now.

The rumours were in fact true. He stole. For he had no soul to feel remorse about it.

Magnus tugged Alec up. “Let’s leave, love. Now this place reeks of gore. Even my expensive perfume cannot beat it.”

“Can I take off the blindfold now?”

“Yes, but when we are out of this room. I can’t scare you with how unsightly it is.”

“I’ve seen worse.”

“You haven’t, I assure you.”

The door slammed behind him, marking the end of Magnus’s performance.

Now was the time to collect the flowers and praise.

@animalecfest @carelessflower

#problemalec #problemalec 2023 #malec #shadowhunters #the shadowhunter chronicles #prompt: betrayal

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animalecfest · 8 months

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Surprise?!!?!! We've decided to continue problemalec for three more weeks from Jan 16 to Feb 2. You can choose whatever prompts you wanna work with in these three weeks. Go wild

Have you ever looked at our wholesome canon malec and wondered what if we make them problematic? Then Problemalec is the event for you. Four problemalec weeks, plenty of chance to explore to your heart desires 😈

To encourage creators, alongside new works, we also want to draw attention to old works, if you have any past content that feet the prompts for each week, tag @carelessflower or @animalecfest !

RULES & NOTICES

Free for all & all dynamic & all versions of malec

Each week has a set of three prompts, you can choose to do one or combine two or even all three of them. There's no limit to how many weeks you can join.

Fanfictions, arts, edits, gifs, moodboards, headcanons, poems, video edits are all acceptable

Tag your content properly!

Can feature malec/ others but malec has to be the main pairing

Be nice:D and tag @animalecfest or @carelessflower on your work

Follow this page for more news and don't hesitate to ask this or my main acc @carelessflower if you have any questions.

tag list: @magnus-the-maqnificent @literallytypogod @ukisteria @wildesummerchild @sociallyineptbibliophile @queenlilith43 @khaleesiofalicantee @wandererbyheart @raziyekroos @onetimetwotimesthreetimess @alexandergideonslightwood @andrwminward @noah-herondale-lightwood @elettralightwood @dustandducks @deliciousdetectivestranger @delightfullyterrible @letsgofortacos @kita-no @mxtthew-fxirchild-apologist @thelightofthebane @secrettryst @pocketoffeels @cityofdownwardspirals @stupidfuckindinosaur @i-have-not-slept @rinadragomir @potato-jem @kasper-tag

#problemalec #malec #problemalec 2023

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animalecfest · 9 months

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Problemalec 2023

Week 4: Casting couch/Harem/Kill

@animalecfest @carelessflower

The King sat languidly, almost sprawling on his throne. He was dressed in blue velvet, the crest of the Lightwood family stamped on his tunic. His eyes raked over Magnus like a lion eyeing its prey, relaxed and almost bored. It was an expression that said, I have all day to hunt you, I just don’t feel like moving right now. Magnus breathed in deeply, focusing his mind. He was here for one thing, and one thing only.

Read the whole thing here:

#problemalec #malec #week 4 #prompt: casting couch #prompt: kill #shadowhunters #the shadowhunter chronicles

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animalecfest · 9 months

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Problemalec, Week 4: Harem + Kill

second fic about killer! alec during this event from me? More likely than you think! also i know nothing about harems, sorry

The dim passage was so silent as if someone had died here. The louder was each “ah” scattered across the narrow corridor, stolen from the half-open door.

Of course, Alec could just leave his hideout in the carved niche. Which Magnus had once showed him when they were fooling around and hiding from the guards. But that would go against what he planned.

The bed creaks amplified, so did Alec’s heartbeat. Maybe he breathed louder than these two moaned combined but they won’t know it anyway, too engrossed in each other.

Through a small gap between the wall and the door satin sheets glimpsed. The same ones Magnus had ravished him as much as a month ago. Alec wouldn’t mistake them for anything else. Magnus had ordered them to be made specifically to match Alec’s eyes. According to his own words, at least. If they could be trusted in the end.

Because, as Alec learned by his own experience, all his words should be taken with a grain of salt and a cold mind.

“I love you.”

Alec’s heart clenched.

“I-I love you too, Y-Your Majesty.”

He said it just like Alec did. Like many before Alec. Maybe he was smart enough to say it because it was the most beneficial thing to say. And Alec was stupid enough to tell the truth.

Alec heard “I love you” only once before he met Magnus.

His father said it before leaving his mother and them for some “low dim-witted prostitute” as Mother would say. Alec didn’t know for sure. Not that he wanted to. His father didn’t have the right to occupy his thoughts when his own family clearly didn’t stay long in his head anyway.

Alec was “lucky” enough to be picked up by the royal court to be allowed in the harem. The only lucky thing, as turned out later, was that they paid his family immensely. And that Isabelle wasn’t sent here in his stead.

So when Magnus said them during their second shared night, Alec was dumb enough to believe it. Someone like Magnus, who had heard it be said ten times a day, sometimes sincerely, sometimes fawning, wouldn’t attach much meaning to them. They were as much a part of etiquette as “Good morning” and “Wish every meal suits Your Majesty’s taste”.

Even dumber on Alec’s part to finally tell them that cursed night a month ago.

He didn’t fake the trembling voice nor was it from sex. It was telling them for the first time in his life, despite feeling like crying from embarrassment at the moment. It wasn’t a pretense. He was sure it wasn’t a pretense on Magnus’s part either when he said it. When words don’t bear much meaning, one feels no qualms about saying them.

It was Alec’s own fault for being so gullible and so mesmerized with Magnus’s mischievous smile when he said he could just call him “Magnus” with no titles.

At least, he wasn’t dumb enough to believe these moments could be brought back.

Or to act like it bothered him much around other people.

No. But he will get his fair share of pleasure. Maybe not this evening, but soon.

Imasu finally emerged from the shaking legs from the room and closed the door behind him. Alec mentally thanked him. Magnus wouldn’t care much even if he heard everything but that was more safe.

He slipped out of his hideout and with a swift cut pierced the neck, covered in hickeys. Imasu attempted to scream but Alec’s hand grabbed his mouth tight.

“You’ll thank me later,” whispered Alec.

He left the body lying not far from the abode of His Majesty. The knife stuck high and proud from Imasu’s throat. A couple of drops stained the carpet. Nothing, compared to Alec’s bleeding heart which almost ran out of blood.

He passed the still sleeping guard and retired to his chamber. The sleeping pills, mixed with his food, worked excellently. Fortunately, His Majesty had shown him secret passages around the castle, under the pretext of debauchering there as well. It made maneuvering around much more convenient so Alec couldn’t exactly complain. Of course, had His Majesty not betray his trust, there’d possibly be no use of them anyway.

At last, Alec threw the stained collar and gloves into the fireplace. These were carved by Isabelle so it was sad to get rid of them. But nobody had known he owed such pieces so no one would question their disappearance. It was for the better.

Covered under the duvet, Alec fell asleep with a content smile which hadn’t visited his face for the past month.

@animalecfest @carelessflower @onetimetwotimesthreetimess @literallytypogod

#malec #problemalec #week 4 #prompt: harem #prompt: killing #shadowhunters #the shadowhunter chronicles

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animalecfest · 9 months

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Problemalec 2023

Week 3: Blackmail/Betrayal/Stalker

@carelessflower @animalecfest

#malec #problemalec #prompt: betrayal #week 3 #shadowhunters #the shadowhunter chronicles

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animalecfest · 9 months

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Magnus snapped his finger and got into work. The life-size doll materialized into existence, flopping down the cold floor. Magnus sprinted his eyes, trying to make it as accurate as possible to the real-life version, he heard it made the curses work better. Maybe. Possibly. Look, he didn’t know for sure–

-Week 3 of Problemalec, prompt stalker. Check the tag carefully before you read.

tag list: @dustandducks @magnus-the-maqnificent @onetimetwotimesthreetimess @pocketoffeels @animalecfest @cam-ryt

#malec #problemalec #week 3 #prompt: stalker #shadowhunters #the shadowhunter chronicles

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animalecfest · 9 months

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Problemalec, Week 3, Prompt:Betrayal

mentions of characters' deaths loosely inspired by tgcf (who knows, they know, who doesn't, no need to be acquainted with it)

An eye for an eye

“Why are you here anyway?” asked Magnus, dismissively not paying Alec an ounce of attention and regarding the falling snow outside.

If Alec annoys him again, he’ll end up buried under the piles of it there.

“You are the only close person I have left, B—” he wanted to add something else but swallowed it at the last moment. Just like he swallowed his pride the moment he crossed the threshold of Magnus’s dominion.

They both knew perfectly well what he had almost said. And what would follow if he ever dared to again.

“Huh, you’re so pathetic. Close person? Me? Do you remember what I’ve done?”

Alec winced at Magnus’s callous laugh and shut his ears so as not to hear it resound in the hall. When it finally stopped and he dropped his hands, Magnus let out one more throaty laugh. Just to tease him.

“I do,” Alec looked straight in his eyes, balling his fists. Not to defend himself. Every piece in this place obeyed Magnus had he barely thought of it. As if Alec would ever try to defy him. The fact that he still stood there, of his own volition, spoke volumes. “But, B—… I don’t believe that… All these years… They were a lie… That you…”

“That I really despise you as much as I claim to,” Magnus’s voice sliced the phrase just like the blade Alec gifted him as a means of defence sliced Max’s throat.

Well, in a way, it worked as intended. Magnus defended his younger defenceless self year after.

“Do you really think I can feel any affection for you and still feel no remorse for what I’ve done?”

“You— you had your reasons for… it.”

It… What a name indeed for IT.

“And you have every reason to hate me for it. But yet you are still here, when I threw you away miles from here, grovelling for me like a lapdog. Like your family treated me. How times change.”

Alec kept repeating, “You had reasons for— it.”

“Alexander,” Magnus said in a half-whisper which made Alec shudder. Just like he whispered it in his ear late in the moonlit garden. The more pleasant were the next words, “Just because you call it ‘it’, won’t make them alive again. Now tell me, what did I have reasons for?”

Alec swallowed again but when he finally shed tears was only a matter of time.

The moon sneaked a glance in the now open window, wind threw snow right in Alec’s face and howled in the hall. Ready to witness and testimony the words he was about to say. To relinquish his dignity and good memory of his family.

“You had the right to massacre them. ‘Eye for an eye’.”

For the first time Magnus graced him with a look, not a side glance. And Alec bore the cold smile with what could be called honour, had he not tossed it away a minute ago.

“Exactly. That’s what your father always said. You learned his lessons very well. Sadly, he couldn’t teach you the last one — family must come first.”

Maybe, the name Lightwoods gave him wasn't wrong in the grand scheme of things. He poisoned their golden son who never did anything bad or immoral.

Oh, how he regretted killing them before they could see it.

Alec took a deep breath, coughed because the air was freezing and breathed in once more. “Magnus.”

��Huh?” he curled an eyebrow.

Interesting.

“Magnus,” he tasted the name again. “You are the only close person I have left.”

tagging: @animalecfest @carelessflower @magnus-the-maqnificent @onetimetwotimesthreetimess @literallytypogod

#malec #problemalec #week 2 #prompt: betrayal #shadowhunters #the shadowhunter chronicles

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animalecfest · 9 months

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“Don’t worry your pretty little head Alexander. Edom will gladly lend you a hand.” Alec felt his traitorous heart sped up again, and he was so enamored that he failed to see the rest of the room exchanging glances.

“I’m so thankful, your highness.” Alec exhaled. “We will forever be in your debt.”

-Week 2 of Problemalec, prompt capture & mind-control. Contains sensitive content, check the tag before you read.

tag list: @i-have-not-slept @dustandducks @magnus-the-maqnificent @onetimetwotimesthreetimess @animalecfest

#malec #problemalec #week 2 #prompt: capture #prompt: mind-control #shadowhunters #the shadowhunter chronicles

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animalecfest · 9 months

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Problemalec 2023

Week 2: Capture/Mind control/Whip

@animalecfest @carelessflower

#problemalec #malec #week 2 #shadowhunters #the shadowhunter chronicles

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animalecfest · 9 months

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Problemalec 2023

Week 1: Power Imbalance/Ex/Mafia

@animalecfest @carelessflower

TW: Mentions of blood, death.

*******************************************************

He’s a dangerous one, Alexander Lightwood.

Magnus knows that, of course. He’d be stupid not to know it.

He knows about the things Alec gets up to during the day, while Magnus is at work. He knows about the traces of blood Alec scrubs from underneath his fingernails when he thinks Magnus isn’t watching. He knows that, every night, he shares the bed of a killer.

Continue reading here.

#malec #problemalec #week 1 #shadowhunters #the shadowhunter chronicles

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animalecfest · 9 months

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“You know–” With a sigh, the gun found its way, moving from his eyes to the shape of his cheekbone. “I’d hate to die for such a small mistake. Don’t you agree?” There was a familiar glint in those smoldering eyes.

They had done this dance countless times before, where every rhythm slipped in as natural as breathing. Two leaders faced, one lost, leaving the other begging for mercy, for anything they could do in exchange for their life. There was always a way, of course.

-Week 1 of Problemalec, prompt ex & mafia. Check the tag before you read it here.

tag list: @magnus-the-maqnificent @literallytypogod @ukisteria @wildesummerchild @sociallyineptbibliophile @queenlilith43 @khaleesiofalicante @wandererbyheart @raziyekroos @onetimetwotimesthreetimess @alexandergideonslightwood @andrwminward @noah-herondale-lightwood @elettralightwood @dustandducks @deliciousdetectivestranger @delightfullyterrible @letsgofortacos @kita-no @mxtthew-fxirchild-apologist @thelightofthebane @secrettryst @pocketoffeels @cityofdownwardspirals @stupidfuckindinosaur @i-have-not-slept @rinadragomir @potato-jem @kasper-tag @animalecfest

#malec #problemalec #week 1 #prompt: ex #prompt: mafia #shadowhunters #the shadowhunter chronicles

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animalecfest · 9 months

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Problemalec, Week 1, Ex

unhealthy obsession and yandere! alec anyone?

“You two talk so much about this book, I’m kinda interested in reading it too.”

Alec felt like a whiplash smite him in the face. No, Izzy’s favourite whiplash didn’t hurt that bad back when she accidentally slapped him. She was ten at the time. Didn’t intend to cause him any harm. It was only physical pain. Right now his heart was slashed.

And Magnus was happy to serve the next blow.

“Oh, it’s ‘War and Peace’.”

It’s our book, thought Alec.

No one else in Magnus’s close circle has read this book.

Alec didn’t start it to impress him. Really, no.

God, he realised he had a crush on Magnus only after he moved past the middle of the first volume. After Magnus had sent him two dozens of voice-messages Alec stayed till three am to receive and relisten at least ten times to get everything Magnus likes and dislikes, to memorise it.

“Although I don't think you'll be interested in it. As I know, you aren't a fan of such historical literature.”

It wasn’t hard for Alec. But hopefully it will be for him.

Please.

It’s not that hard to drop an uninteresting book. No one will be sad.

Well, Magnus maybe. But Alec will be exultant. He’ll make up for the absence of a third wheel. He’ll try at least.

“I want to try anyway.”

“Okay, I can lend you my copy.”

God.

His own copy.

Magnus was ready to lend him own copy. Full of his remarks, thoughts. The lines over which he traced his fingers over. The one he cried over. He was ready to bestow this guy his own copy like the God gifted Moses his commandments.

Alec would die to hold it in his hands. To skim over the notes he made on colourful stickers. Breathe in the same pages. But it wasn’t meant for him.

Logically, he knew that Magnus wouldn’t lend him the copy because his family already had it in their library. But what if he wouldn’t lend Alec the copy even if it was the other way around?

Magnus’s eyes sparkled so much. Previously they only shined like this when Alec prompted a conversation about War and Peace. The only person he had the opportunity to talk about it with. Alec kind of brute forced the reading so fast and so further till the end of the second volume because he didn’t want to run out of topics to talk with Magnus. He isn’t as smooth at making up conversation ideas out of nowhere as Jace or Izzy, he stands in awkward silence every time the well has drained, desperately seeking for a new source, new spring. Anything so as not to make Magnus think he’s boring and not to annoy him with irrelevant and things-no-one-needs-to-know-about-you-Alec details.

And now this… peace was invaded by the unannounced war for Magnus’s attention.

He is way more charming and talkative and funny than Alec.

He… he was Magnus’s short-lived partner. He must know all the quirks that catch Magnus’s attention way better than any insight Alec has.

Magnus is the best person to ever walk on earth and even greater friend but what if he only tolerates Alec’s nosy messages late at night because he’s the only person who reads the same stuff as Magnus himself?

What if he will stop paying Alec any mind when a more observant, intelligent reader picks up the book? What if his remarks are more on point, more hilarious, more like what Magnus feels about the story and the characters?

What if he had already started reading and they are talking about it, engrossed in each other? Without him?

Is this why Magnus hadn’t been replying for half a day yesterday? He may be busy, it’s the end of semester.

But what if he had found someone better? It’s not that hard anyway.

* * *

“Hm, Alec, haven’t you seen Axel lately?”

“No. Didn’t he tell you anything?”

“No, he hasn’t replied to me since Wednesday. Can he be ill?”

“I dunno.”

He may be ill. Or maybe not. No one won’t know for sure.

Ash cannot speak for that matter.

“Alexander,” Alec’s heart jumped and set out on the run, “you promised me you will stop smoking.”

“Oh, yeah, sure.”

Alec threw the lighter in the waste bin.

“You don’t have to do it for-”

“I don’t mind. Don’t wanna fume from my mouth to harm your health.”

“It’s nothing really…”

“Forget about it. By the way, I have finished the second volume.”

Magnus’s face lighted up brighter than the sun which brimmed in the horizon. Who needs it when humanity has Magnus?

Well, Alec wasn’t set on sharing Magnus with anyone. So they could do with the bleak the sun gave them.

“Do tell me your thoughts, Alexander.”

@animalecfest @carelessflower

#malec #problemalec #week 1 #prompt: ex #shadowhunters #the shadowhunter chronicles

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