#I finally caved and drew them just in time for

[missbronto]

Early morning rendezvous talkin bout nothing

[sukioyakio]

His little Stress Relief

genre: fluff just fluff,(the title doesn’t sound fluffy to me,it probably the amount of amount of smut I read 🤷‍♀️😔🤪💖 Will have some bit of angst

SUMMARY: Sometimes your 6’9 foot tall man can be an little bit clingy at times.

Author note: “I just love me an big Buffy guy being such an clingy and cuddly guy towards their girlfriend (I’m not forgetting about my guys here)anyway I’ve been changing the way how my intro a lot 😭😔🤪.”

ANYway hope you like it.

It was an very busy stressful week for Miguel,everything and everyone was annoying him.The entire spider society was just so stressful to deal with,and when he didn’t have to deal a lot,those stuipd anomaly kept popping up,left and right.

But knowing miguel,he deals with it pushing his body to the limit.He will protect the spider society no matter what,But that doesn’t make him tried and exhausted from working,fighting,yelling at people who get on his skin.The achy scars and bruises on his skin were an pain to deal with.And right now He was in his office or bat cave whatever people says,he was standing on his platform with holograms around.Grumbling about to Lyla to tell some of the spiders that they have an mission to do,and him typing out the information about these anomalies.

peter b Parker who was walking with Jessica drew,they were coming back from their mission,and were going towards to Miguel little bat cave.

“Ughhh,it’s been such a busy week” Peter says in a tired voice,as he stretches his back and his shoulders.

“Oh c’mon now,at least your not the one who has to collect all the mission reports”Jessica says with an annoyed look on her face,sighing at the work that she will have to do later.As she rubs her swollen stomach walking towards Miguel office.

Peter just let out an amused scoff out,as they were walking down the hallway towards the BIG BOSS.

“Don’t you think Miguel would let us slack off for a day!! I haven’t seen my lovely wife and daughter”peter says with a whiny voice,as he made a loud dramatic sigh.

Jessica sigh with a playful smirk on her lips. “Aye man at least after this,we can take a long ass break,cuz my ass need it”She says with a sarcasm,as she let out a chuckle.

Peter suddenly remembered how much Miguel calmed down he was after his wife when Peter asked her if she could come over to talked (helped) him out with Miguel.In which peter had that dorky grin that only means that he had another wonderful idea.

In which Jess turned to look at peter face and saw that grin which in her mind means “he gonna get his ass kick again”,but right before she could say anything to Peter.

“Gotta go bye for now— I’ll be back!” As he zapped off to where Miguel’s wife was.

“DONT do!!— something that will get your ass in the hospital” Jess says in an loud tone but soon lower as she get more closer to Miguel office,she always says that his office is so far away,she rolls her eyes to the back of her head,and letting an scoff out her lips.

She enters Miguel man cave,her heavy but professional steps could be heard from the man who was standing up on his little platform,As she walks in an steady pace and was finally met with Miguel batman era.She stands an few steps ahead but wasn’t quite at the edge of the cliff.She looks up at Miguel,with her one of her hands on her hips and the other one was rubbing her pregnant stomach.

“Ahem” She says loud enough for him to put down his attention from all the work he was doing and putting himself through.Miguel eyes have this dark circles under his eyes,you can tell that this men take his dedication and time for all he does for.But there time where all he takes is to come home to his lovely wife,who his stress reliever.But he does this so people doesn’t have the same fate as him or try to do what he did,nor to do anything that would cause them any harm.

He turned his head towards Jessica,looking down at her,with a sternly expression on his face.He clicked something on his watch to make the platform start moving down towards the ground,very . . . Slowly. very slowly.Jessica wasn’t bothered by it at all,it just meant that she had a time to herself to calm down and free her mind from work.

And in which off letting the platform on the ground nope,he just kept it fairway there,and so he looked at Jess with a sternly and serious expression,and that instantly imitating persona he had.

“Bueno, ¿cómo fue la misión?,and where the hell is Peter”Miguel says in an seriously voice,as one of his eyes brow raises up in question of where would that idiot of the worlds most talkative person you would ever meet,would be possibly be.As he stares at Jess for an good minute before letting out an annoyed sigh,pinching the bridge of his very strong nose,grunting at how much of an goof ball peter is.

“Well I came here to say that the mission was a success,but the part with Peter,better watch out for him and don’t kill him we need him” she says with an playful laugh as she walks out the door with an open smile on her face.

To which Miguel rolls his eyes to back of his head,and went back to work and there he was back working in his bat cave.Calling Layla to inform him about any updates about the anomaly’s,and to inform the other spider in the spider society.Some times layla would be annoying (an tease) to him.But after an hour or so,(peter was having difficulty finding which house is Miguel house) Peter finally came with you into Miguel office,with his cheeky techniques.

Miguel didn’t even get a chance to react to when Peter opened the portal onto his platform.

“Hello!!Big Boss” peter say with a cheerful voice,having a bright smile on his lips.”Look who I brought with him”he says with a warm smile.

The moment he turned around he saw you,with Peter.Holding a worry smile on your face.While peter was standing there with a cheeky expression,Miguel let out an annoyed sigh towards peter.He face was turning more angry then before,his eyes turning the color red.

“¡¡Por qué carajo!!Did you bring my wife here WITHOUT MY DAWN MALDITO permission!” He says with a raging voice,practically shaking the ground,easily making peter gulped down his own saliva.”im soooooooooo getting my ass in an hospital bed” peter said in his head of thoughts.

But luck was on his side for now. . .

“Peter go back doing work I’ll have a little chat with my husband”you said softly as ever to him,with a calmly smile.Giving him a look that gesture for him to leave.In which he did,He left with an awkward chuckle,and he gone.

Now you and Miguel were now alone in his big bat cave.Miguel aromatically regretted for having you see him get angry at his co worker.He hated for you to see him anger,he was insecure about how you felt about him.You words were the light of joy to his ears,but your words could be the ones that made him feel trapped.If he ever told you that he’ll be so vulnerable towards you his wife.Your the thing,the love,the drug,the crave,the addiction that he would never get over.

He was probably over thinking for a while,that he woke up from your reassuring touch.Pulling him to the ground so he could lay down on your thighs.He would do anything for you.

“Until death due us apart”

Now you both are on the floor on Miguel floating platform in silence;comforting silence.

You were sitting upright while patting,scratching, rubbing your hands against Miguel scalp.He looks like a little boy who only wanted to be next to his mama.After a few more minutes of the comfortable silence.You knew that he was very insecure about himself,especially after getting married and even before getting married,when you two were boyfriend and girlfriend,you knew he had some insecurities.

“Miguel I love you . .” You says with a calmly voice,calming him down.

Signal him to talk about what happened during this week

He instantly opened up about what happened at work,and all the exhaustion he endured,and the BS he gotten this week,basically vented about how much work and Be an hero was like a curse and an blessing.

He had that Grumpy Pouty on his beautiful lips,he just an enough of laying on the floor-ahem platform,and So he pulls you down on the floor,as he lays comfortably on tops of you.

You let out a light headed chuckles,He was your big scary,intimidating husband who can break any guys bones,but right now he’s acting very clingy with you.

You let him know that your love him so much,that seeing him like this pains you slowly but deeply in your heart.He was laying on top of your chest,in between of your breast.Letting him melt all his problems away.

“I’m sorry. . .no lady should have to seen what had happened with my co worker” he says with his eyes closed not wanting to be seen vulnerable.

As he continues to mumble apologies,to the point that he says like a whiny child.You couldn’t help but laugh at him being a whiny cringy child.

“What so funny about me apologizing,mhmm cariño”he said to you as he raised his head to look at your eyes. Seeing you laugh,seeing you felt like the world was pause,his body felt so calm.

“Ha-ha,your are my clingy hobby.You could be one whiny old man.” You said with a playfully voice,as you felt him lift your body put you into his laps.You couldn’t help but smile at him.

“I’m not an old man,nor a whiny kid.Im literally just 3 years older then you” Miguel says with a whiny voice,as he rolls his eyes.

You know he love it.You already know that he’s ok,that he is no more tense.

“I still love you gramps” you said as you leaned towards his face to give him a passionate kiss,which he accepted.Love was felt through your body.

as you both end the kiss,leaning on each other forehead.

“I love you” you said softly with a warm smile.

“Yo también” he says softly with a warm smile.

THE END

I hope y’all like it,and I probably suck explaining the positions of them but IM trying 😄 anyway I hope y’all enjoy it,but I low key think I put so much fluff here

THE QOUTE OF THE DAY: by an friend

“THE day can be boring when nothing eventful happens”

✌️

[lunarw0rks]

that fic about simons first time with the reader is magnificent I swear 😭

can you do something similar but when the reader tries to take control a little, maybe go down on him for the first time?

⋆ ˚｡⋆୨ first-time with simon (pt.2) ୧⋆ ˚｡⋆

// warning(s): nsfw, gn!reader ────have a request? ˗ˏˋ ASK BOX ˎˊ˗ // ♡ PART ONE ♡ PART THREE ♡

simon thought nothing of it, the foreplay leading up to intimacy.

typically, you were at the mercy of his skilled fingers for several minutes — until you wanted nothing more than him buried inside you.

tonight was different. it was your turn to do something for him, to make him feel the same semblance of euphoria he gave you every time.

after a few minutes of making out, dry humping against him, you knew you wanted to do this for him. without skipping a beat, you began sliding down his lap, fingers fumbling with his zipper.

"love, you really don't need to do that for me... are you sure?" he leaned back against the mattress, halting your movements with a hand on your arm.

you were sure, completely sure. it was only fair.

"i want to," you reply, shrugging off his hand and finishing off the rest of his zipper. you peeled back the opening of it, exposing the bulge in his ebony briefs. "let me do this for you, simon."

there was no refusing that, despite how unnecessary it seemed to simon. you wanted to service him for a change, and by now, he was already picturing the sight of your lips wrapped around his length.

after a few moments of contemplation, his eyes watching as your fingers peeled back his boxers, he caved and nodded. "just... don't want to be fussed over." he shifted awkwardly against the sheets, trying to let his gentility towards you overpower his lust.

you stared at him through your lashes, palming his finally freed erection, "it's not fussing," you licked a stripe along the base to coax him into relaxation.

his hips bucked upwards instinctively, whilst his muscles tensed. his willpower dwindled the moment you ran your tongue along, and looked at him that way.

"f-fuck, if you do that again—" simon's fingers clenched around the sheets. he hadn't had a partner use their mouth on him in ages, it was practically a whole new sensation again.

no answer from you, except you licking along his cock again, then wrapping your lips around the tip of it. his pre-cum coated your mouth, lubricating it as you swirled your tongue. all that restraint, gone in an instant.

a palm found the back of your head — but it never pushed it down or forced its movements.

he needed to touch you in order to enjoy this, even though he was only supposed to lie back and savor it. "goddammit." he gritted his teeth, letting out a guttural moan when you hollowed your cheeks around his manhood. through your hooded gaze, you savored every reaction of pleasure he supplied your ears.

he was more sensitive than you imagined him to be — all the stamina he had must have been reserved for being buried inside you because currently there wasn't any. he was putty; a complete mess, despite how nonchalant his posture was.

simon hissed when you finally found a fluid pace, his eyes half-lidded with intense infatuation.

you bobbed your head at a moderate pace, relaxing your throat muscles so your throat could take as much of him as possible. tears pricked at the corners of your eyes, but nothing would discourage you from easing up. his thighs were shaking, more so when you kneaded the flesh of them with your fingers.

he wasn't long for release; the sight of your mouth wrapped around his girthy cock, the spit, and pre-cum making a squelch each time you came up for air.

in a matter of seconds, he fisted your hair, forcing you to a stop. his curses were drawn out and barely audible, your throat used as a vessel for every last drop of cum drained from him. the warm, sticky spurts went down when you swallowed around him, cockwarming his length for a few seconds until his release had finished.

you drew in heavy breaths when he released the hand on the back of your head, feeling the remnants of fluids drip down your chin.

simon's chest was heaving a mile a minute. though he was blinded by lust, he still looked apologetic for the way he got forceful at the end, if it could even be called that. "bloody christ, you're too good for me, love." he breathed, motioning for you to return to his lap again.

"fussing over me now, huh?" he asked with a playful edge to his words, sitting you atop his exposed lap like you had been before the idea arose. his breath tickled your ear when he leaned in, "think you've earned some attention now, haven't you, sweetheart?"

[bountycancelled]

a pencil, paper and an uncontrollable crush

♧♧♧♧♧♧♧♧♧♧♧♧♧♧♧♧♧♧

opla!luffy x reader

requested: yes (I mixed 2 reqs so idk if that counts but reqs are still open for anyone)

genre: oneshot but in headcanon form? gn! reader, artist! reader

warnings: none, just some fluff!

a/n: I won't be writing as often becusde I'm writing my final rn, also this is short because i have a hard time imagining luffy being romantic so... enjoy!

♧♧♧♧♧♧♧♧♧♧♧♧♧♧♧♧♧♧

now, it doesn't matter how obviously and hopelessly in love you are with Luffy, he's just not going to see it.

he doesn't see you make starry eyes at him, because his eyes are just as starry on a regular basis. when he catches you admiring him, he just assumes that you zoned out. (because he does that alot too)

so when he finds an incredibly detailed sketch of himself laying around on the ship, he excitedly goes from crew member to crew member, asking who drew it.

when he gets to you, notebook and pencil in hand drawing yet another portrait of him, you hang your head in mortification as he marvels at your work.

so imagine his suprise when he snatches that notebook our of your hands with a quickness to see what else you've steched in there, only to find himself on every. single. page.

I swear that his excited screaming is enough to alert other ships at sea of your exact location, but he can't help it, every drawing you've done deserves a reaction that fits how well you did it.

after he finds out about your habit, he starts striking poses for you and holding them right until your last pencil stroke on paper (or until he gets bored/hungry lol)

one night, you get a frantic knock on your door followed by Luffy's muffled voice yelling "are you still awake? I wanna show you something." so you open the door and he shoves a crumpled piece of paper right in your face.

you back up just a little bit and adjust your eyes, and you see a drawing of... some sort of animal? oh, wait nevermind, it's of you.

it's not the most artistically or anatomically sound drawing you've laid your eyes on, but it's... surprisingly detailed. he's drawn on pretty much every single visible scar, mole, freckle and mark, even some that you didn't know you had.

when you question how he managed to be so accurate, he tilts his head, pursing his lips and farrowing his brows in thought before answering. "Well, it wasn't on purpose, but I always look at you when you're around me. you catch my attention, kinda like food does!"

pause.

did Monkey D. Luffy, the strawhat captain, mister gum gum himself, just compare you to food...? moment of silence, because this is so much bigger than all of us.

after hearing this revelation, you cave and plant a quick kiss on his cheek as a thank you (and as a means to let him know of your more than platonic feelings for him), slamming the door in his face before he even has the chance to react.

p.s. Luffy doesn't have any idea why you kissed his cheek, but he knows that it made him feel good, and he wants to get one from you again.

[mllenugget]

Hello I mcyt fandom-ified la Team du Lundi members and wrote a shit ton of text about it

After exhausting myself on trying to catch up on the current QSMP lore I got a sudden craving for a more familiar and fast paced kind of minecraft content and ended up rewatching all the Team du Lundi's SMP best of's I could find

And while doing so with my brain still hazed in fandom brainrot, I started picking up on minor details or info the players casually dropped, and drew parallels to the French speakers' QSMP counterparts This is going to be a long wordy post I don't even know what I am rambling about and for. Three things you need to be aware of about la Team du Lundi before reading :

Baghera, Antoine and Etoiles are the only QSMP players that are part of la Team du Lundi

As far as I remember the only two elements that suggest that la Team du Lundi's SMP could be canon to QSMP are Antoine being pressured into building another Tower of Shit, and Baghera's infamous fountain being mentioned when she was asked if her character remembers anything from her past before the island

La Team du Lundi's SMP was NOT a roleplaying server, it was just a private survival server for a small circle of friends casually playing together. So whenever I quote someone in this specific post, it is the streamer : there is no character other than the persona the streamer is usually showing on stream, but I just thought it would be fun to interpret certain situations while keeping in mind the QSMP lore. And here goes :

Baghera claims that when she was a kid she strongly believed that she could breathe underwater. The others joke about her having fins

Antoine jokingly tells Baghera he doesn’t need oxygen at all

Antoine claims he will still be alive thousands of years forwards

Antoine’s voice shifts when he wants to appear creepy

Baghera built an aquarium at her place, then helped Antoine build one at his tower, then built a giant swimming pool, then a fountain, then a waterslide- do you see a theme ?

Baghera knows that her skin is actually that of a chick and not a duckling, and calls it so here

Chat said that Baghera has a middle child syndrome, justifying that she bullies Angle Droit because Etoiles bullies her in the first place (Etoiles has also called her « little sister » in a derogatory way)

Etoiles has repeatedly asked people to play Valorant with him at least once

Here's a clip of Etoiles getting languaged in french and owing "a gifted sub in the swear jar"

Unrelated random clip of Etoiles because it creates happy hormones in me brain

Etoiles is regularly refered to as "the warrior"

Etoiles guided the whole group during an expedition to the End and he was literally glowing doing so (enchanted arrows effect) Everyone called him "the guide"

Baghera was the one who gave the final blow to the Enderdragon (and died from magic right after)

Etoiles spent most of his time adventuring in order to bring stuff and gear back to everyone for their builds

Etoiles asked Aypierre for help in order to design a redstone door for his cave which could only open upon solving a puzzle (which was egg & arrow related) (Aypierre was not a member of the server)

Etoiles built a nightclub with the walls and ceiling covered in wardenblocks making it look like a starry sky. He also rehomed Allays holding golden apples inside claiming them to be the souls working for him and that they lived there peacefuly

Etoiles jokingly talks about Antoine acting jealous and violent towards him because Etoiles told him he wanted to go and visit Kameto (who also was not a member of the server)

Baghera (along with Horty) had a rivalry with Joueur du Grenier (host of the server with admin powers) after he decided to build a massive parking lot right next to their house. They countered by covering the whole thing with dirt, followed by JDG building a factory and the two parties went back and forth. Baghera argued that it was stupid because they didnt even have cars to begin with (which is a sentence she reused when talking about Forever's roads) Also she tells JDG that he could've built a seaport instead, which makes JDG contemplate the thought of building an airport (and though he ended up never building it, I am side eyeing the French's plane crash)

At some point JDG wonders about what a roleplaying minecraft server would look like (RPZ 2), to which Baghera replies that she has a hard time picturing the thing "We'd all just build things you see ? I don't think we'd create stories, we would all just be like "I'm a builder, ah you too ? Well awesome, builders, cool"" and I find this to be hilariously ironic (fun fact : Baghera had no idea that QSMP was a roleplaying server when she first joined and often claims she would've taken a different approach with her character had she known right off the gate)

As I was finishing to write this down, these fuckers (/lh) decided to host a closure night for the server as they've never really officially did it, everyone just sort of deserted the server after a while. Baghera, Etoiles and Antoine kept referring to QSMP throughout the night, mostly talking about how weird it felt without mods. Among other meta commentary things

They mentionned Cellbit and Bad multiple times as the group was trying to solve enigmas. Antoine talked about "the cultural sharing" between communities as he taught insults to each others with Mike, Roier and Maximus in their respective languages Multiple more players were namedropped (including eggs) while Antoine was talking about how the server functions

Yes, Baghera and Etoiles kept their QSMP skins. Etoiles with his code corrupted purgatory one, and Baghera with her fading pink disheveled hair (with the addition of her cubito wearing Horty's merch)

Baghera admits that going back to this small familiar vanilla server feels like coming back home to your family during the holidays

Team du Lundi's cameos in QSMP :

Though Pomme has never canonically met JDG (even though most of her parents have talked about him to her at least once), she occasionaly breaks the 4th wall to refer to him. She once compared one of BBH's "vacation" flower shirts with his, and when Foolish and Bad asked her to elaborate (obviously not getting the reference) she proceeded to play JDG's music theme with the flute instead (Also I really feel the need to once more point out how mindblowing it is for your average french speaking viewer to have JDG's intro theme being added to the mod they use in the QSMP because of how anchored it is within french internet pop culture. Like this shit has been existing for 14 fucking years, it's part of the childhood of a lot of us, so to find a clip of British hardcore player Philza peacefuly listening to Mexican egg admin Tallulah play this theme on her flute feels like a multiverse fever dream)

Horty has been on Quesadilla Island through cc!Baghera's account, but neither of them really wanted to justify it RP wise. Baghera just wanted to give her best friend a tour of the island. Horty only got to meet Richarlyson who gave her a tour of Cellbit's castle and made her pick a room (she chose Chaos). She also chatted with Etoiles who tagged along for a bit and (this is obviously justified by it being a one-shot out of roleplay filler episode kind of night) they both already knew each other and were on friendly enough terms to bicker with one another Also she was part of the French speakers Quackity reached out to to invite on the server, but she had to decline because she was very busy at that time (and also not interested) Also also she was Baghera's teammate for that Formula 4 event, and Baghera has discussed it and showed pictures to a couple of islanders, including Richas who was very hyped about it

Another player the viewers were hoping to see on Quackity's server is Mynthos. He exists within the server with the picture of him that hangs in Pomme's art gallery, the cursed animation video that used to play in La France, as well as with Aypierre's health potion factory that bears his name

Angle Droit and Zerator are sometimes namedropped when the French speakers talk with their chat. Angle Droit frequently raids Baghera's and Antoine's streams, and though it has never been confirmed, a lot of viewers theorized that she was the +1 player Baghera and Etoiles wanted to invite on the server had they won the elections.

As for Zera, Etoiles went AFK on QSMP a couple of times in order to test some of Zerator's TrackMania maps (which he later discussed with Pac). I also remember a very trivial conversation Etoiles had with Mouse and Aypierre where he laughed about hurting his back very badly after carrying a fellow streamer during a caritative event, said event was hosted by Zerator (he's also the one judging them with concern from his desk)

I'm done.

Bonus alternative design for Angle Droit because at first I thought she was a fox then it turned out she was a corgi but then she changed it again to a fox and woop

[mirakurutaimu]

have you ever talked about the origins of your sona/her design inspirations before? ive always really loved her design and i like hearing about how nice character designs come to be

here is the full tale

she started off as a mere picrew years ago

and then people drew fanart of that design whenever i started streaming (like this retro mimi model @catastrothy made)

and then at some point i thought "hm wouldn't it be cool if i paid an artist to make her design better" and then i approached noted good local artist @cnmchn and we went back and forth on some stuff and She were born proper

here is some other behind the scenez

hair accessories were considered at one point but then we thought of the ミ earrings and i just colored in one of her streaks black lmao

final design ended up using a combination of outfit elements from our two examples, rip to alt universe skirt spats and kneesocks short braid loose hoodie long shirt ribs mimi (she will be missed) (i should draw that sometime)

anyways thats all. thats da mimi roundup. sure hope read mores function on this site

edit: i forgot to mention design inspirations.

uh. riamu failgirl, kumbhira granblue, we almost stole astolfo's haircut sans hair vents (though I think it was actually edward elric who made me think 'braid'), vampy granblue. as for the tenets of her design i just wanted a cute, colorful, energetic, annoying, smug, punchable little beast to match my vibe. her fashion sense is like the complete opposite of mine tho lmao this little freak dresses in this skimpy summery crop top and short shorts getup and shit meanwhile i'm a jeans-all-year and longsleeves/hoodie at all times kinda bitch. at least she still melts in the heat like i do

anyways i figure i may as well dump some silly canon stuff here too:

she's a being from what she says is 'the hell that froze over' (because it sounds cool), in actuality it's probably something more like a frozen-over planet with some level of aquatic life under the ice.

at a base level, she's kinda like... if a slimegirl was a crab? like, she's not made out of slime it's still Meat Stuff but it's definitely amorphous and should usually be contained within a thick carapace on the exterior (so when fully shelled, lookin like some kinda scary lookin pointy bone demon). she claims to have lost hers or that it hasn't grown in yet or some such (hence she only has the horn covering)

anyways. her inside meat being amorphous = limited shapeshifting ability, so she somehow ended up on Earth and is posing as a humanoid and having a ton of fun eating and smoking and breaking stuff. but she still fuckin' hates the sun and heat

other fun facts:

loves meat, milk, sweet stuff, clothes, sleeping, swimming, video james (bad at them), money

hates spicy stuff, hot weather, working, people as stubborn as she is, waiting

i'm torn on when her birthday should be. officially it's technically 5/21, but 3/3 would be cute...

believes drinking milk will help grow her shell in

has a strong sixth sense due to having similar organic function to ampullae of lorenzini

durable. if you punch her it caves in like some monkey d luffy shit

[httplilyyy]

𝐑𝐄𝐃 𝐑𝐈𝐆𝐇𝐓 𝐇𝐀𝐍𝐃 | 𝐓𝐀𝐑𝐀 𝐂𝐀𝐑𝐏𝐄𝐍𝐓𝐄𝐑

pairing: tara carpenter x reader

summary: the secret is out 

warnings: descriptions of violence, (possible) multiple character death, knives, guns, descriptions of blood (lots of it), swearing, angst, scream vi spoilers, bad writing

word count: 5.4k

a/n: this is a bit of a lengthy chapter but it’s one of my favourites.

scream masterlist | prev. part | next part

004. red right hand - nick cave & the bad seeds

‘you'll see him in your nightmares.’

‘What’s your favourite scary movie?’

Those words were written on the wall, a ghostface spray painted just above the chilling question in an old alleyway. 

Everywhere you looked something screamed at you to run the other way. You walked alongside Tara and Sam, the younger of the two holding onto your hand, afraid that you would disappear in a blink of an eye.

“Jason and Greg were little Atlantan rich boys.” Gale explained as she walked ahead of everyone, guiding you all into the warehouse. “They used fake names to rent this place.”

“How did you find it?” Kirby questioned, jogging forward to walk beside Gale.

“It’s called investigative journalism for a reason, how didn’t you find it? Weren’t you tracking them?”

“I went through their financial records dozens of times and this was not in any of them.” Kirby huffed as she looked up at the warehouse. “It doesn't make sense.”

“Don’t worry,” Gale smiled feigning sympathy, “I’m just really good at my job, you’ll get there.” 

Gale pulled a key card from her bag and opened the door to the warehouse, the rest of you following the woman inside. Gale also grabbed a flashlight, turning it on so she could guide the rest of the way. 

“What is this place?” Sam asked as she walked in, looking around at the cobweb littered walls. “What’s with all the security?”

Gale switched on the lights allowing you to finally see what you had just walked into.

“It’s a movie theatre.” Tara stated as she looked around.

“It’s not just a theatre. It's a shrine.” Gale said, nodding to the memorabilia placed all around the theatre.

Your head snapped to the stage, watching as the curtains rose up to show nine mannequins with black cloaks, the ghostface masks missing. 

Interested, you took a few cautious steps forward, each item was from the past ghostface’s and their victims. 

“They’ve got the whole damn franchise.” Mindy spoke loudly as she walked around, taking in everything that she could.

“Chad.” Mindy gasped softly.

“Hmm?” The boy replied.

“This was uncle Randy’s.” Mindy said, looking at an old t-shirt. “They’ve got everything.”

“Is that-” Tara started, looking over at Kirby.

“The knife I was stabbed with.” Kirby finished, a sorrowful look on her face.

“You have all been through so much.” Bailey said, looking around the room.

“Who drew all these- woah wait.” Mindy said, cutting herself off as she looked intently at an old photo.

“What’s up?” Sam asked, looking over to the girl.

“There’s a child in this.”

Your head snapped up from looking at an old piece of memorabilia and at Mindy. There's only one child who that could be. You. 

“What the hell?” Chad mumbled, walking over to his sister so he could have a look himself.

“Y/n? Is that- is that you?” Mindy questioned, looking backwards and forwards from the photo to you.

“I uh- I don’t know what you’re talking about.” You replied, turning your focus onto something else.

“This kid. It looks like you.” Mindy persisted.

You knew you would have to share your secret some time soon but you weren't ready for it to be this soon. You turned your head to Kirby who gave you a discrete nod then you looked at Gale, the older woman giving you a warm smile.

“Okay, I- yeah it’s me.” You said, suddenly finding the floor very interesting.

“What the hell.” Chad exclaimed, looking over to you. “Y/n-”

“Look- I- I’m sorry, okay! I just didn’t know how to tell you-” You said, trying to explain as you walked towards the two only for them to take a step back.

Taking the hint you stood in your place, in the middle of the theatre, with everybody watching you. You internally chuckled, this all seemed like some horrible play and you had no way out of it.

“That your sister was a Ghostface?!” Mindy said loudly, hands raised beside her.

“Half sister. Different dads.” You mumbled with a shrug.

“Y/n, why wouldn’t you tell us?” Tara questioned quietly, as if her voice was going to break if she spoke any louder. She was going to move towards you, only to be stopped by Sam.

“I tried to.” You said, heart breaking at all of your friends looking at you as if you were the killer. “I really did- you have to believe me.”

“Y/n-” Sam tried.

“Please.” You said, voice cracking as you tried not to cry.

Sam looked hesitant and so did Tara, although the two of them wanted to comfort you, they didn’t know whether to trust you. 

“You don’t trust me, do you?” You stated, voice breaking as tears brimmed your eyes as you looked around at your friends.

“Y/n-” 

“It's fine.” You sniffled, wiping away your tears. “It’s fine.”

You looked at everyone around you, feeling like the walls were caving in and you needed to escape, but you didn’t know where to go so you went up onto the stage. 

Everyone watched you, moving out of your way as you passed them, as if you had something contagious. 

Your heart cracked, you looked back at the people who you once called your friends before standing in front of the ghostface mannequins.

It suddenly felt as if you were under water, you could hear people talking but their voices were muffled. You could also feel eyes on the back of your head, as if it were a target. 

You looked at the past ghostfaces, stopping in front of one that had left you in a trance but to you it was more of a nightmare.

Jill’s name was shown at the bottom of the costume, a shiver went down your spine at the memories of that night. You closed your eyes and took a deep breath, trying to not let your mind slip back to that time.

But it was no use.

You sat on the floor, hands and feet bound with duct tape, along with your mouth. Your eyes were red raw, tears flowing down your cheeks as you looked up to your older sister. 

The person you used to look up to the most stabbed her accomplice. He doubled over in pain, bleeding from where Jill had stabbed him, right in the heart, a look of betrayal flickering over his expression.

“There’s been a change of plans.” Jill smiled manically. “The problem with you Charlie, it’s always been about killing Sidney Prescott. My plan is a little bigger. I’m going to become her.” 

And with that, Jill stabbed him again. Charlie couldn’t believe what was happening as he stared at the woman, stunned and shocked. Before falling back and crumbling to the floor.

Jill looked down at him with a glimmer of diabolical glee. She gave his body a quick kick with her foot but his body didn't move. The realisation crossing your face, he's dead and your sister had killed him.

“How did you turn into this?” Sidney asked, looking between Jill and Charlie's now dead body, a glimpse of you being caught in the corner of her eye.

“Nothing is ever what it seems. Your words, Sidney. I've always been this. You know what it's like growing up related to you? All you hear is Sidney this, Sidney that, Sidney, Sidney...You were always so fucking special. Now it's my turn.”

You watched on in fear, Jill taking her knife and pointing it at Sidney, a sickening smile taking form on her face.

“And now you have to die. Those are the rules.”

“What rules?”

“There's only room for one lead. Let's face it, Sid, your ingenue days are over.”

Jill advanced on Sidney, stabbing her with the knife. The older woman gasped in pain leading Jill to stab her again. Sidney dropped to her knees, now losing a lot of blood but desperately trying to stay awake.

Then everything felt as if it moved in slow motion, Sidney’s body fell limp to the floor, you looked at her hopefully, begging for her to get up but she didn’t move.

You let out a scream, the duct tape against your mouth preventing you from being too loud but the sound still startled Jill. 

Her head snapped towards you and it was as if her gaze softened but you knew that was too good to be true. 

Jill made her way to you, kneeling in front of you. You tried to back away in fear but you couldn’t do anything due to the duct tape around your wrists and ankles.

“Oh, my sweet baby sister.” Jill said sweetly, holding a hand up to your cheek.

You flinched away, even more tears falling from your eyes as you whimpered at the sight of Jill. You looked into her eyes, trying to find the Jill who was once your sister, your best friend, but she was nowhere to be seen.

“I really wish I didn't have to do this.” Jill said sadly and you would’ve believed her if it wasn't for the sickening smile on her face.

You violently shook your head from side to side as you watched Jill edge her knife closer and closer to your side, just under your ribs. You squirmed, kicked, thrashed and screamed, begging Jill with your eyes not to do it. 

But she didn't listen. Her knife went into your side and then everything went black.

“So somebody killed these chuckle fucks and took over?” Chad questioned, snapping you out of your haze.

You turned to see that everyone was now on the stage, each of them going backwards and forwards from eyeing you up to looking at a mannequin. 

“Someone who believes that Sam masterminded woodsboro and perhaps Y/n now too.” Gale said. 

“Wait what?” You questioned turning around to face the older woman, shocked at the statement but you cowered back as everyone's eyes turned to you.

“If this were a normal stab movie, this would be the killer's lair.” Mindy explained from where she stood, giving you a quick side eye.

“Which means this isn’t a normal stab movie.” Kirby added.

Tara breathed heavily, looking between you and her sister before storming off. You went to go after her but after a hard look from Sam you realised you weren’t wanted.

You gave a silent nod, tears forming back in your eyes as the back of your throat burned. You could feel your heart rate increasing, your hands going clammy as your breathing picked up. The theatre walls closing in on you. Not being able to breathe, you looked at everyone before you ran out on your own.

Finally getting to somewhere where you could calm down, you placed your hand against a wall and took in a deep breath. You were startled by the sound of your phone ringing and you already knew who it was.

Pulling your phone out of your pocket, you answered the call, squeezing your eyes shut, you prepared for their voice.

“Y/n, y/n, y/n.” Ghostface tutted. “Walking off on your own, very brave choice.”

“Yeah, well I like my chances.” 

“I wouldn’t get so comfortable.”

“Okay… you’re boring me.” You huffed, taking your phone away from your ear and ending the call.

“Wait wha-”

You shook your head with a sigh, placing your phone back in your pocket before walking back to where everyone was. You saw Gale and Kirby making their way to Sam and Tara so you thought you’d tag along.

The older women both made sure you were okay and with a nod of your head, they knew that you were alright.

“I’m sorry.” You heard Sam whisper to Tara.

“Just drop it Sam.” The younger Carpenter said before walking away from her sister.

“Tara-”

“We’ve got her.” Kirby smiled, motioning to you beside her. 

Sam gave you a look but you walked off with Kirby before she could do anything about it leaving her with Gale.

You found Tara sitting by herself, at the top of the theatre, looking down at the stage all caught in her thoughts.

She heard the two of you coming so you sent her a small smile but you didn’t make your way towards her, opting to stay by the door as Kirby sat beside her.

“How’d you get past what happened to you?” Tara questioned, picking at the skin around her fingers.

“I almost died after I was stabbed.” Kirby said. “Technically I did die. For four minutes. When I recovered I got mad. I didn't want to spend the rest of my life being afraid of monsters. I wanted the monsters to be afraid of me.”

“I like that.” Tara said, clearing her throat before she turned to you. “What about you y/n? You’ve been through this twice.”

“Oh I uh- I-” You struggled, not knowing if Tara actually cared or if she was feeling sympathetic. “I’m the same as Kirby, I almost died but I didn't want to let that determine the way I lived the rest of my life. I mean yeah, sure, it sucked and it took a hell of a lot of therapy to get over my sister stabbing me but I got there in the end.”

The three of you were snapped out of your little bubble when you heard the doors open, Bailey, Sam and Gale walking towards you three.

“Sorry to interrupt.” Bailey said, the two women walking behind him. “But I think I have an idea about how to turn the tables on this creep.”

“Yeah.” Gale agreed. “And we’re in.”

“Sorry Gale, no press allowed.” Kirby said, raising her hands to the side. “Police business. I’m good at my job too.”

“Ooh, she got you there.” You chuckled. 

“Okay, so let's go.” Tara said, finding a new determination in her.

“About that,” you mumbled, scratching the back of your neck, “I’m going to stay with Gale, if that’s okay?”

“Of course.” Gale beamed. 

“No, y/n. We need to keep an eye on you.” Sam said.

“Wha-”

“I can handle myself, Sam.” Gale said, placing a comforting hand on your shoulder.

“You text or call if anything happens.” Sam said firmly, giving you one last look before walking out with Tara, Bailey and Kirby hot on her tail.

“They’ll come around eventually.” Gale said softly, feeling your shoulders deflate.

“Yeah.” You sighed sadly, kicking the ground by your feet.

“C’mon, what do you want to do?”

“I’m not sure.”

“Take out back at mine?”

“Uh, yeah. That sounds like a good idea.”

The two of you made your way out of the theatre and into Gale’s car. The both of you sat in silence but it wasn't awkward, it was comforting. Your head rested on the car window, watching everything go by as you were stuck in your thoughts.

The journey to her apartment wasn’t long and before you knew it, you were riding the elevator up to her floor.

After Gale unlocked her door, she let you in first. You took in your surroundings and chuckled at how poor you were compared to Gale.

“So this is what it must be like to be really, really rich.” You said, walking into the living room.

“Being a reporter has its perks.” Gale said, giving you a teasing smile.

“It sure does.” 

“I never got to ask you about the attack at Sam and Tara’s apartment, and with everything that happened earlier, how are you?” Gale questioned, sitting beside you on her sofa with her laptop in hand.

“I’ve been better but it’s nothing I can’t handle.”

“You miss her, don’t you?”

“Who, Jill-?”

“No. Sid.” Gale said with a sad smile on her face. “She’s been with you through it all and this is your first time without her.”

“Of course I miss her.” You said, fiddling with the fabric of your top. “But she needs to stay safe, away from here. Away from me.”

“She misses you too. And don't think like that.” Gale said, her gaze on you softening. “She changed her number, I can give it to you if you’d like.”

“I’m not sure.” You said, playing with your fingers.

“Just give me your phone.” Gale said, holding her hand out.

“Okay.” You said reluctantly, placing your phone in her hand.

“Thank you.” Gale said, quickly typing in Sidney’s number before handing your phone back to you. 

“I don’t think I ever said thank you. For everything, back in two-thousand and eleven, last year and now today. So, thank you.”

“You don’t need to thank me, y/n. I’ll always be there for you, just like Sid.”

“Although you may still see me as a nine year old, I've got your back too.”

“How about, when this is all over, you can come and live with me? Only if you’d like to of course.” Gale said, nudging you with her elbow.

“I’d like that.” You smiled.

“Now, ‘no press’, who does Kirby think she is?” Gale huffed, opening her laptop. “Bitch, last time I saw you, you were in glee club.”

You shook your head with a smile, leaning back on the sofa to get a look at what Gale was doing.

“Forgive me if I don't trust you to keep them safe.” Gale went on to imitate Kirby.

“I’m going to order food, do you want anything?” You asked, opening up your phone.

“Oh, yes please, I'm fine with whatever.”

“Okay.”

You looked through a couple of take out places but ultimately decided on pizza. You placed your order and put on a movie to kill some time. 

After about half an hour you got thirsty so you got up from your spot to get a glass of water, as you were about to ask if Gale wanted one, your phone started ringing.

“Your phone, y/n.” Gale said, looking up from her laptop.

“You can answer it.” You replied, finishing your drink and putting the glass in the sink.

“Hello?” Gale answered.

“Hello, Gale. It's strange that you and I have never spoken on the phone. This is long overdue.” 

“Who is it?” You asked, walking over to the woman as you watched her shoot out of her seat.

“It’s Ghostface.” Gale mouthed.

“Shit.” You muttered. “Give the phone to me.”

“I agree.” Gale replied over the phone, holding a hand up to you as she shook her head.

“I figured after all these years you’d want an interview.”

“I’m going to call the police.” You whispered, picking up Gale’s home phone before walking out of the room.

“You figured right.” Gale said, looking at her phone as it buzzed on the coffee table, Sam’s name coming up as the contact. “So what's your motive this time? You angry at the movies or are you just trying to stay relevant?”

“Well I could ask you the same. Don't you know the legacy characters are disposable now. Nobody cares about last century's heroes.”

“Then why bother with me at all?”

“Call it nostalgia. Or maybe you deserve to be punished for all that money you made off the misery of others. Maybe it's time someone made a buck reporting your death.”

“You know you're like the tenth guy to try this right. And spoiler alert, it never works out for the dip-shit in the mask.”

“Oh but they certainly leave a mark before they go, don’t they? Richie and Amber managed to butcher Dewey, carved him up like a christmas goose. How does it feel to lose the only man who ever loved you?”

“Fuck you.”

“How does it feel to know that you weren’t there for him at the end? Not there to give him comfort as he died screaming in his own guts.”

“You’re the one who’s gonna die screaming.”

“Maybe, but you won’t be there to see it. You couldn’t stop what happened to Dewey. Just like you wont be able to stop what’s coming.”

“Hey, the police are on their way.” You said quietly, running back in the room.

“Is that, y/n I hear?”

“What do you want?” Gale questioned.

“How about you put them on the phone.”

“No chance.”

“Oh, I'd do it if I were you, Gale.”

“Fine.” Gale reluctantly said, handing you your phone.

“Hey, Ghosty.” You said, taking your phone from Gale and holding up to your ear.

“Hello, y/n. How’s it feel to be cut off from the friendship group?”

“How do you know about that?”

“Oh I know everything. I thought you would know that by now.”

“I guess so.”

“Now, how about a game of hide and seek?”

“I’m sorry?”

“I’m hiding, you come find me.”

“And why would I want to do that?”

“Because I'll gut you like a fish before you have the chance to step foot out of this apartment!” The Ghostface said loudly down the phone. “So, y/n, let me try that again. Do you want to play hide and seek? I’ll make it easier for you by saying if you’re hot or cold.”

“How about a game of Marco Polo. I think that’s a little more interesting.”

“Or I can go back to the originals and ask, what’s your favourite scary movie? It doesn't work like that, y/n. You play by my rules. Hide. And. Seek.”

“You really are a sick fuck.”

“Cold.” Ghostface said, ignoring you and starting the game of hide and seek.

You sighed to yourself, walking towards the kitchen where Gale looked at you with confusion written all over her face.

“Colder.”

“What's going on?” Gale mouthed.

“Hide and seek.” You mouthed back.

“Y/n, no!” 

“I’ll be fine, just wait here.”

“What’s taking you so long, y/n?”

“Taking a stroll, you impatient fuckface.” You replied, walking back to the living room.

“Warmer.”

You walked back to where you had called the police, and came across multiple doors, one on your left, two on your right and one at the end of the hall.

You opened the first on your right, only for it to be an empty bathroom.

“Warmer.”

The next one you opened was the one on your left, again empty.

“Warmer.”

You decided to go for the one at the very end of the hall but it was empty too, only leaving one door left to open.

As you grasped the handle you let out a shaky breath, pulling it open with speed.

“Bingo.” Ghostface said, ending the call as they jumped out of the cupboard, stabbing you in the stomach.

“Ah! Fuck!” You yelled, holding your stomach as you fell to the floor, the ghostface standing over you menacingly. 

The Ghostface tilted their head to the side, preparing the knife in their hand to bring it down onto your body.

Gale, from the other room, heard your scream and rushed towards you. Stopping in her tracks seeing the Ghostface next to you.

The Ghostface turned their head towards Gale, tilting to the side slightly, looking backwards and forwards from you and Gale. 

Their shoulders sagged, shaking their head as they looked down at your body before speeding their way over to Gale, leaving you to bleed out on the floor.

“Gale.” You shouted weakly, desperately trying to stop the bleeding from your abdomen.

If being stabbed once in one day wasn't bad enough, it just had to happen again. You could hear things crashing in the kitchen along with Gale’s attempt to keep the Ghostface away from her. 

Using all of your strength, you opened a door that led you to Gale’s bedroom. You pulled yourself along the floor and situated yourself in her walk-in closet. 

You let yourself breathe for a moment, looking down at your wound when you let out a small grunt as you applied more pressure, your head slowly starting to become dizzy as you felt your eyelids drooping. 

All of a sudden, the heavy breaths of Gale became closer, the woman running into her walk-in closet and slamming the door behind her, making sure it was locked.

“Oh God, Y/n!” Gale said worriedly, rushing over to you, applying pressure on your wound.

“I’m fine, Gale.” You said, struggling to form a sentence as you looked over to the door where the Ghostface pounded on it relentlessly. 

“No you're not! Oh God! You have to stay with me!”

“Gale, deal with the Ghostface, I promise I'm fine, I just need to catch my breath.” You said, placing a hand over hers and giving it a gentle squeeze.

Gale gave you a reluctant nod before getting up and opening up a cupboard where inside was a case containing her gun. The case had a lock on it, causing Gale to try a few times before she could finally open it.

Once she had the gun out of the box, she shot towards the door and at the Ghostface and it all went quiet. 

“How’s that for nostalgia, fucker!” Gale shouted, tightening her grip on the gun.

Letting out heavy breaths, you finally thought you were safe but you should’ve known that the Ghostface wouldn’t have given up that easily. The sound of a phone ringing causes both you and Gale to jump.

The older woman looked to her side, where the phone sat, right next to a picture of her and Dewey. Keeping her gun facing the door, she walked over to the phone and picked it up.

“You missed.”

“Sure I did.” Gale replied sarcastically.

“You win, I'm in the elevator heading for the ground floor.”

“Sure you are.” Gale scoffed, making her way towards the door shooting at it once again.

“Maybe you did hit me. Maybe I'm wounded. Or maybe I'm wearing a bulletproof vest.”

“That’s why I’m going to shoot you in the fucking head!” Gale shouted, opening the door.

“Gale no!” You yelled, finding some strength in you to pull you up to your feet. You held onto the wall, walking slowly after Gale, watching as she made her way back into the living room.

“You would’ve made a good killer Gale. Sidney would never have made sense and Dewey was a fan favourite but you cracking under the pressure and turning into Ghostface would've been a great twist.”

“Keep talking, asshole.” Gale said, manoeuvring further into the living room. You couldn't keep up with her, having to lean your back against the wall to catch your breath.

“Mhm, sure.” They chuckled. “What do you wanna talk about? You never got to be the leading lady, did you? It was always about poor sweet Sidney sucking up all the oxygen and what did that leave you to be?”

“The brains and the sex appeal.” Gale deadpanned.

“Sorry for stabbing y/n. Being through all this twice didn’t help much.”

“It sure didn’t.”

The Ghostface didn’t reply, not with words, they just laughed over the phone.

“Can you hold please?” Gale asked rhetorically.

“What?”

Gale took the phone away from her ear, dialling her home number causing a phone to ring in another room. Gale turned around fast, shooting at where the noise came from which was soon followed by a groan and a thump.

The ringing continued as she made her way to the door but as she went to open the door, the Ghostface jumped out and stabbed her in the shoulder. She tried to shoot them but they knocked her gun from her hand.

Hearing Gale let out a guttering scream, you pushed yourself off the wall and made your way to her as quickly as you could. 

You rounded the corner and saw Gale sitting on the floor, her back to a wall as the Ghostface plunged their knife into her side, just like they did to you. 

“Gale!” You said, walking over to her but you were weak, your legs giving out underneath you causing you to tumble to the floor. “Fuck!”

Gale had managed to push the Ghostface off her and she tried to make a run for it but they were hot on her tail. She smacked a vase over their head, but they still got up. 

She ran around her living room, desperately trying to get away but the Ghostface caught up to her. Before they could stab her, Gale flipped them over her shoulder and they smashed into her coffee table. The Ghostface knocked out cold.

Gale looked to her side, seeing you struggle to get to your feet. She made her way towards you and the two of you met in the middle. You laid on your back, staring at the ceiling as Gale sat on her knees applying pressure to your wound.

“You promised me.” Gale sobbed, watching as blood slipped through her fingers. “You promised me you were fine!”

“I am.” You reassured. “I am, now go finish the job.” 

“You better be awake by the time I get back.” Gale said, looking intently into your eyes.

“I will, I'm coming to live with you, remember?”

“Do not close your eyes!” Gale said, crawling away from you and back to the Ghostface. 

She picked up their knife, looking back at you once before she brought it down onto the Ghostface. However, before she could make contact, the Ghostface picked up a shard of glass and stabbed it into her abdomen.

You heard Gale let out a low groan but you couldn't move, a lone tear falling from the corner of your eye. 

The Ghostface took back their knife and went to push it onto Gale’s head but she used all the strength she had left and held the knife away.

“Fuck you!” Gale whispered tiredly.

When you thought the Ghostface was going to kill her, you heard Sam and Tara run into the apartment.

“Hey, fuckface!” Sam shouted, picking up Gale’s gun and shooting it at the Ghostface.

The masked killer quickly got up and ran away, dodging bullets that were firing their way.

“Gale!” Tara exclaimed, rushing over to the woman, Sam following quickly after. 

“Shit! Gale!” Sam said, placing pressure on Gale’s wound causing her to groan. “Sorry. I'm sorry. I should’ve known he was going to come after you, I'm so sorry.”

“He didn’t get me. Tell Sidney, he never got me.” 

“Hey, no you’ve got to stay awake.” Sam said, watching as Gale slowly closed her eyes.

“Y/n.” Gale said, fighting to stay awake but she finally let her eyes drop and sleep overcome her.

“Gale! No, Gale!” Sam exclaimed.

“Shit!” Tara panicked, looking around her. “Where’s y/n?”

Tara spotted you behind a chair, blood pooling all around you as you didn’t move.

“Y/n!” Tara shouted, rushing over to you. “No, no, no, no. Please stay awake. Please.”

“They’ve got terrible aim.” You croaked, a small smile forming on your face as you placed a hand over Tara’s.

“I’m sorry, God I'm so sorry. I'm so, so sorry.” Tara cried, trying to stop the bleeding from your stomach as tears rolled down her cheeks.

“It’s okay.” You grunted as Tara applied more pressure. “Maybe this proves that I'm not the killer.”

“Even when you’re dying, you still annoy me.”

“You love me.” You smirked. “Even if you won’t admit it to me yet, I know you do.”

“I should’ve believed you.” Tara said, crying even harder. “I do, I do believe you now. I promise, now you’ve got to stay awake, okay? You’ve got to.”

You heard the elevator ding, two paramedics rushing into Gale’s apartment. One going to Gale the other over to you. 

“Out of the way.” The paramedics said to Tara and Sam.

“No!” Tara shouted, trying to stay as close to you as possible and Sam did the same thing with Gale.

You placed your hand on Tara’s arm giving her a look. She shook her head, tears flowing even faster now but you persisted and she eventually gave in.

Tara walked over to her sister, the older girl pulling her into her arms as the two of them watched as the paramedics tended to you and Gale.

“Checking.” One paramedic said, putting two fingers to Gales' pulse point. “We’ve got a weak pulse. Get the back board, we need to move now.”

Sam let out a teary sigh, nodding her head finally calm knowing that Gale was okay but then her attention turned to you. 

Tara couldn't seem to keep her eyes off you, afraid that if she did you wouldn't make it.

You weren't sure what happened next. One moment police officers and paramedics were rushing into Gale’s apartment and then the next- well, you didn’t know.

Everything was white.

[mossymandibles]

Today I ended up comin down with something so while sweating in bed I drew this based on this post (can’t find an original photographer or anything) that instantly made me think of Yuna holding a newborn Kraw (who had a different name given to him by her that I don’t think I wanna disclose just yet)

I also finally cleaned up this excerpt that’s been sitting in my notes for a scene like this. I’m putting it in the read below. It involves talk about miscarriages though so if that kind of thing is upsetting I hope you just enjoy the picture nonetheless.

Yuna found a single calf to be breathing among the small litter of underdeveloped fetuses.

She was used to this by now, though it had been many years since another attempt. She wasn’t expecting this litter in the least given the obvious anatomical differences between her and Sobehk, but she carried to term anyway. Long before this litter, she had grown accustomed to the idea of never having children of her own. Her body seemed to make that choice for her already many, many times.

She took a claw and gently cut through the umbilical cord and the partial amniotic sac still surrounding the calf. He wasn’t malformed or inside out, nor did he whimper or cry. His small fleshy body just lay there among the kelp, taking quick shallow breathes. A mess of black hair was slicked across his head. Yuna could see that he took a two legged, humanoid form like his father, though there were no down feathers or wings to be seen. The calf had gossamer fins and a fat paddle tail, like hers.

“What a waste.” She crooned, sniffing him. “You should have eaten your siblings in the womb. You might have been born stronger…I’ll have to get rid of them myself, later.”

Although he was breathing, she didn’t have much hope for him. Regardless, she would humor the idea that he would survive the night. She would humor the idea of being a parent, allowing him to nurse for the time being.

Afterwards, she scooped him up and curled into herself among the kelp, facing the pale shaft of moonlight coming in through an opening in the cave ceiling. She held the little calf against her face, keeping her hand around his small body and listening to his breaths. His heartbeat was no more than a flutter. She would continue to listen throughout the entire night.

“If you make it through the night, little one,” she murmured; “I will give you a name.”

[bossidiotart]

Sooo I was inspired by @endlesslogo ‘s artwork, and this popped out on to the page

Trigger warning for intense scenes and metaphorical body horror

Cold air stabbed into Leo’s aching lungs. His legs and feet hurt from the forest floor and underbrush slashing into his skin. He tasted iron in his mouth as he breathed heavily; his heart was about to burst. His body screamed for him to stop. He knows he can’t.

He lost his swords. Yeah, stupid, he knows, but given what’s chasing him he wouldn’t cause any damage.

Leo ducked under a low branch and vaulted over a fallen tree. The shrieks behind him had shrunk some, but he sure as hell ain’t stopping. He’s faster, but if he stopped they’d be upon him in seconds.

A small gasp escaped his lips. A light appeared up ahead. Civilisation. Finally. He’ll find a phone (yes, he lost that, too, sue him), call Donnie, and get the hell out of here. Leo pumped his legs faster. He burst out of the trees and onto sweet, sweet grass. He gave a quick look over where he’d just arrived. Streetlights on the left, a fence up ahead, and- his eyes catch sight of a lit phone booth. Thunder rumbled overhead as he darted toward the phone. Leo leapt over the fence, flew open the booth door and slammed it shut once in. His breath came ragged and heart pounded, muffling the howls and shrieks. Leo swallowed drily and fumbled over the phone. The tone rung in his ear. Wait, right, does he-? He rummaged a shaking hand in his pouch. Come on, come on.

“Aha!” Leo yanked out his wallet and flipped it open. He pressed the bottom of it to his side and opened the top. His hand trembled badly, making the wallet shake, as he searched it for a quarter. Pouring rain battered the booth as he desperately felt for the damn coin. The wallet bottom caved and slipped from his hold. “No no no no no no no!”

The coins spilled out in a musical clatter. The phone fell from his other hand as he dropped down to scoop up the coins.

A shriek sounded from behind him. His blood ran cold. Leo sat stock still, his chest heaving, listening to it get closer. The ground rumbled with the thunderstorm as the creatures drew closer. Leo’s blood pounded in his ears; he moved against the one non-glass wall, the coins forgotten. The rain pounded against the phone booth. The creatures drew closer. Leo’s breathing quickened. His vision swam.

The steps slowed. One set of them approached. Leo held his breath. Over the rain, he hears clicking sounds above him. It scraped against the roof of the booth, emitting an awful nails-against-chalkboard noise. Leo lifted his shaking hands and pressed them against his ears. The sound persistently ground into his head. His fingers and toes curled; his body tightened. Leo let out a small, pained whine.

His eye caught a shine in front of him. A quarter laid inches away from him. A new sense of determination washed over him, and his hand darted out to grab the coin. He twisted and reached up. It took a few tries before his trembling hand pushed the coin into the slot. Leo pushed in the numbers to Donnie’s phone. The scraping against the roof paused as he grabbed the phone. He pressed it hard against his ear.

It rung once.

Twice.

Three times.

“C’mon, Donnie, pick up, pick up,” Leo muttered.

“Greetings-“

Relief erupted in him. “Donnie!”

“-you’ve reached Donatello’s phone-“

Dread consumed the relief.

“-I can’t come to the phone right now because I’m doing more important things, but if you believe your call is just as important, which I doubt it is, please leave a message.” Beep.

Leo sat there with the phone pressed to his ear. His voice stuck to the back of his throat. He swallowed.

“Donnie,” he husked, “Donnie, please, come get me. I don’t know where I am or-or how I got here, but-“

The creature outside the phone booth let out a guttural rumble. Leo let a gasp that caught in his throat. Slowly, he turned his head. His wide eyes locked with white, sunken ones. The booth light glinted off the freak’s discoloured teeth from its big, spine-crawling grin. Its skin stretched like an ill-fitting mask of human skin. It opened its mouth.

Ș̖͍͙͉̮̦̈́̿͂ͮ̊͒̍ͧͧ̄ͣ̂̌̔̚̕͟͟͟͝K̷̨̜̱̦̗͈̥̯͖͓̭̠ͬ̔ͭ̈̏ͨ́̀̎̑̈́̏̽̋̓͛̓̉̂R̔̓ͩ͒̃̈́͌ͧ̑͏̵̷̨̭͕̦̦̙͓͝E̸̛̠̣̞͎̞̜̝̝̹̼͍̍ͨ͐͂̌͗̾̿́ͫ̎̌͂̊̊ͬͬE̶̷̲͇̯̠̼̖̗̥͚͓͈ͪͤ͒̂͗ͦ̑̈́̈̒̎̔̆͒͋̎͂͋͆ͅE̡ͮ̂̔̀ͯ̓́̂ͪ̒̽͑̕͡҉̺̠̼͎͕̯̤͔͕̻̗͈̫̹̰̤̭͟Ẽ̖̲̰̰̘̝͙̱̬͖̪̭̦̜͉̱͖̥ͨ́ͦ͋ͧ̏̆ͯͮ̽̀̕͘E̶͈̲͚̍ͤ̀͊̅̄̐͐ͦ̈́͌̋͌ͮ̌̄̐ͩ̿͠͝ͅE̷̜̯̰͙͎̜͈̩̫̱ͨ̀̿ͣͧͭ̔̉̕͜͞ͅͅE̢̛̤̬͍̥̝͎̠̜͍̗̼̼̠͉̮̰͋͒ͣ̿͂͋ͨͤͫͦ͘͜Ë́̈͋̂̊͛ͥ͏̧̡̛̟̦̯̦̻͚̗͍̣͎̳Ę̙̦͙̰͆͋ͥͤͨ͗̃͡Eͫ͌̊͒ͥ҉̪͇̮̖̤̭̺̤͍̳̹̘̖̗͢͜ͅA͕͍̗̤͖̫̤̗͍̘̜̰̘̗̟͈͚͋̅̾̽̈̎́́͡Ä̶̟̣̙͔͗̃͐͐̏ͬ̆̂ͯ̈̀͟͝Ǎ̒̒̾͛̐҉̧͞͏͏̬͈̭͚͉̯Ą̟̘̯͙̔ͫ̐́̄͑ͮ̓͋͒̊̈́͜Ā̢̡͈̲̙͙̪̇͛ͥ́̕Aͧ̎̈́̓̽̅ͦ̓͐̈̉̓ͣ҉̧҉͙͓̻̦̥̯̺͓͕̞̻̺̦̤̬̩ͅǍ̢̛̦͖̘͍̖̮͕͈̮̺̻̘͇̯̍ͬ̉͐̎͠A͛̄̏̏̃̉̀̚͟҉̞̹̰͕͚̖̭͚̥̣͚̜A͉͚̲͑͋͊̊͆ͣ̅͋ͬ͘͢͞A̶̸̙̟̥͇̤͙̬̫̼͈ͨ̈́̎ͨ̋͛̏̀A͖̪̣͚͚̯̘̬̞͇̻̮̣̼͕̝ͣ̅̇ͮ̔ͩͥ̑̃̍ͮͬ̆̿ͥ́͟ͅ

Leo’s hands flew up back to his ears. The phone dropped and banged against the booth wall. The monster continued its ear-splitting scream. Leo’s head strained against it, trying so hard to not split in half. The scream tore through his skin and pierced his bones. It curdled his blood and stabbed his eyes. Leo’s throat bled as he let out his own scream. Hot tears burned his face.

A big CRASH sounded above him. Glass sprayed in his face. Metal tore with a sickening groan. Leo snapped his head up to see the monster with one of its arms crossed over. It swung it up. Leo’s heart caught in his throat, and he leapt out of the booth. He rolled, sprang back on his feet and bolted, stumbling a bit before getting a solid foot on the ground.

Hide. He needs to hide. It’s the only option he has.

The freaks behind him shrieked and howled after him. His feet slapped against the wet ground. The pouring rain blew into his face. Leo squinted against it. Hide. Hide. He plunged back into the forest and swung around the fifth big tree he finds. He plastered himself against it. He clamped a hand over his mouth. He held his breath. His heart thudded in his chest.

The creatures burst into the forest, screaming and stomping through. Leo’s body shook harder the closer they got. Please please please don’t find me please don’t find me—

He flinched at the sound of a footstep right next to his hiding spot. He watched as the two kept on their destructive pursuit. He stayed there behind his tree. His body shook. The noise of them stomping through gradually moved farther away. Leo pulled his hand away and sucked in a few breaths; he turned out of his hiding spot and ran back out of the forest. Now to find another phone.

Part 2

[bellaxgiornata]

All These Years [Part 11: "Last to Know"]

Pairing: Matt Murdock x Fem!Reader

[You can find the full series summary and masterlist of installments for All These Years here.]

Warnings/tags: 18+ for this series; contains emotional hurt with no comfort until the final installments, angst, pining, friends to lovers, slowburn, and eventually smut

Word Count: 6.9k

a/n: This is another longer installment that brings us through season 3 (I'm planning a different angsty fic to really focus on season 3) and begins to bring us closer to the end of angst...but we're not quite there yet. Feedback is always appreciated!

Tag list: @acharliecoxedfan @theetherealbloom @rotscinema @magnumstyles @roseallisonparker @ofmusesandsecrets @readerhead @paracosmic-murdock @v4leoftears @why-always-me-gosh-please @redbircl @keepingitlokiiii @yarrystyleeza @mattkinsella @ms-murdockswift @margoo0 @1988-fiend @lockleywife @strangeobsessed @justalittlebitbored @am-3-thyst @buckybarnes-1917 @thora-jane @lionalsowrites @cloudroomblog @prince-tassel @danzer8705 @yourlocalbentspine @harperdoodle @hollandorks

Sitting across the table from Foggy and Karen, you drew your steaming latte to your lips for a drink. You were partially listening to Karen discuss the new article she was working on for the Bulletin, the newspaper she'd inevitably started working for shortly after Matt had disappeared and Foggy had disbanded their law firm. He had taken a job over at Hogarth, Chao, & Benowitz so he could continue to pay his bills, unable to continue to afford to work at Nelson and Murdock with the other half gone. You had recently thrown yourself into your own work over the last few weeks, gaining a new position with a pay raise and the ability to work from home for your company. Which had proven too convenient because you usually rolled right out of bed and stayed in your pajamas all day, showering after work just to throw on another pair of pajamas. 

It had been almost two weeks since you'd stopped going to Clinton Church now, too. You barely left your apartment anymore since you didn’t need to leave for work. Oftentimes you lost track of time and had been clocking in hours and hours of overtime at your computer. You’d had nothing else going on and you didn't want to think, so you’d found yourself hyperfocused on coding. Your boss had certainly been praising your initiative.

This morning was actually the first time you’d left your apartment in days. You hadn’t even left for groceries, having ordered them and had them delivered to your apartment a few days ago for convenience. Foggy and Karen had been worried about you, frequently telling you as much over texts lately. Which was why you'd eventually caved and met them for coffee this morning. But if you were being honest, you weren't mentally fully present with them. 

Your attention had shifted outside the window as Karen continued on with her animated conversation, Foggy just as enthusiastic as she was with whatever they’d been talking about. You’d unintentionally lost your focus as you often did outside of work lately, your eyes absently lingering on the place outside the window just above Karen’s shoulder. The sidewalk outside the coffee shop was busy with the usual Saturday morning foot traffic and you blankly watched as a multitude of colors swam by. You weren’t sure how long you’d sat staring out the window like that before you realized Karen was snapping her fingers in front of your face. Blinking a few times, you snapped out of your daze and focused back on her and Foggy. Worry was written clear across both of their faces as they stared back at you.

"What?" you asked.

"I was trying to ask you how you liked your new position," Karen said. "I asked you like four times now."

"Sorry, I uh, I was distracted," you replied, sitting up straighter in your chair as both of your hands wrapped around your warm coffee cup. "It's good. It's going good. Working at home is–is good."

Foggy leaned across the table towards you, concern still clear in his eyes. "Are you okay?" he asked gently. "Because you've been distant ever since…"

"I'm fine," you answered automatically, forcing a smile onto your face. 

Foggy and Karen turned and exchanged a look with each other for a moment, your eyes narrowing as you watched. The strained smile on your face was quickly growing uncomfortable. When Foggy focused back on you, he shook his head slowly. 

"No," he disagreed, "you're not. You haven't been fine for a long time. What's going on with you?"

"Nothing," you replied defensively. 

From across the table, Karen sent you a sympathetic look. You knew the one. You'd seen it plenty of times now. 

"It's because of what's been popping up in the news, isn't it?" she asked. "The little rumors."

Your head tilted to the side as you eyed her curiously. "What little rumors?" you asked back. 

Karen's gaze flickered to Foggy before it returned to you. Her fingers began drumming on her coffee cup nervously. 

"About the man in black?" she said, voice lowered. 

You sucked in a sharp breath, your back straightening further in the chair. Hope filled you instantly as your eyes searched Karen’s face for answers.

"Matt?" you whispered. 

She opened her mouth to speak but Foggy raised a hand, waving it firmly in the air between the pair of you. The gesture instantly cut her off before she'd even begun.

"It's not Matt," Foggy stated sharply. "Hell’s Kitchen has become ground zero for all kinds of copycat vigilantes lately. It's not him, so don't go giving her false hope, Karen."

Your eyes further narrowed at Foggy. "How do you know it's not him?" you challenged. 

Foggy’s expression softened, a hand running across his forehead. "Because," he answered softly, "if it was Matt, he'd have reached out. Told us he was alive. You know he would. It's been just over a couple of months now, he's had plenty of time to reach out to tell us he survived Midland Circle and he hasn't." He sighed deeply, shaking his head at you. "You need to accept it. He's gone."

"Foggy," Karen gently reprimanded, "that's not–"

"No," Foggy countered firmly, his focus shifting to Karen. "She needs to hear this. She needs to accept it and stop doing what she's been doing to herself! And whatever this bullshit in the news is–it's not Matt." Foggy’s attention returned to you, his eyes pleading. "You have to let this go. You need to accept the fact that Matt–” Foggy winced, “–he's dead.”

Your throat felt like it was closing up, tears welling in your eyes. How could Foggy just accept that as fact so easily? How could he just give up on Matt like that? He had been both of your best friends for so long. Wasn’t there any part of him that had hope?

“Foggy, that’s a little harsh,” Karen chastised. “You’re being really unsympathetic here.”

Foggy shook his head, once again rounding on Karen. “She’s been denying the facts for almost three months now!” he exclaimed. “And look at how she’s been doing! She’s clearly not handling it alright. It looks like she’s barely sleeping and taking care of herself. Every time we see her she’s barely present. And she’s been paying for his apartment for months now!” 

His head spun in your direction, startling you at the abruptness. Your lips were quivering as you sat there, feeling like you were about to break down in the middle of the coffee shop with everything he was saying. 

“You can't keep paying for his apartment and holding onto his things. It's not good for you," Foggy stated sharply. “It’s not sustainable for you to pay for two rents, either. You need to let this go!”

“Foggy–”

“ No !” Foggy growled at Karen. “I’ve already lost Matt, I’m not losing her, too!”

Sniffling loudly, you swiftly rose from the table and wiped the back of your hand across your tear stained cheeks. Both Foggy and Karen’s attention shifted to you instantly. Karen mouthed an apology as Foggy’s face fell beside her.

“Where are you going?” he asked.

“Home,” you croaked out.

Ignoring Foggy’s pleas to stay, you quickly turned and left the coffee shop with your coffee clutched between both hands. You did your best to duck your head, trying to hide your face as you silently cried the entire walk back to your apartment. 

What a shitty past few days it had been. 

While Matt had been out last night, he'd been stopped in his tracks the moment he realized his hearing had fully come back to him. He could hear the sirens of ambulances approaching where he’d just stepped out onto the street, the sounds of the city around him, the buzz of a neon sign nearby, and the commotion in front of the hospital he’d just exited. He had been stunned, a wave of gratefulness washing over him in that very moment because he could fully hear again . But what were the first words he’d heard in the commotion around him when God had finally decided to restore his hearing?

The FBI had let Wilson Fisk out of prison.

Could God have been laughing at him any more than he already had been? What a fucking cruel joke to restore his hearing just in time for him to hear that Fisk had been released. Matt had been furious . Even more furious at God than he had been lately. But despite his rage since that moment, he knew there was something he needed to do tonight.

If Fisk was free from prison, in any capacity, he knew he’d be seeking revenge on himself, Foggy, and Karen for having put him away. And while Matt Murdock was safe from his vengeance because he was supposed to be dead, Foggy wasn’t. And neither was Karen.

Which was why Matt had donned his winter coat, the baseball cap, and some sunglasses before making the long trek to the bar he knew Foggy frequented near his new place of work outside of Hell’s Kitchen. Despite wanting to have his friends continue to think he was dead, knowing it was safer for them, Matt had admittedly kept tabs on Foggy on and off for weeks now. He didn't let himself ponder the reasoning, though.

But it had only been Foggy he’d checked in on. He couldn’t bring himself to see what you were getting up to. He’d known you’d stopped visiting Clinton Church not too long ago. The last few times you’d visited he’d heard you from the church basement. You would always end up softly sobbing to yourself before you left. And each time you had, Matt had curled up on the basement floor just beneath the pew you’d been sitting in, just to feel some semblance of being near you again, and he cried with you. When night had fallen those nights, he’d immediately gone out as the man in the mask and let the Devil take over, not wanting to feel anything. 

But he hadn’t gone anywhere near your apartment. He couldn’t bring himself to.

And now he was standing outside the bar Foggy was sitting inside at this exact moment. Matt could tell Foggy was upset by how much he’d already had to drink, having known the amount because he’d been standing outside in the alley from the moment Foggy had first showed up and stepped inside. He’d been struggling to get up the nerve to go inside and talk to him, to warn Foggy about staying away from Fisk and letting him deal with things. Because clearly the law wasn’t going to achieve anything on its own at keeping Fisk where he belonged, so it was up to Matt to make things right.  

He knew it wasn’t going to be easy going inside and talking to him, though. Just standing in the alley and knowing he was about to go in there and reveal to Foggy that he wasn’t dead, that he’d been lying and would need Foggy to yet again lie for him–to people both Matt and Foggy cared about– hurt . 

Matt needed to keep his distance to keep you all safe, though–now more than before. Fisk was dangerous, and he was certainly going to come after Foggy and Karen, so Matt needed to make sure both of them stayed out of Fisk’s way. He certainly didn’t need Karen to go chasing after him as the reporter she’d become and further put herself on Wilson Fisk’s radar. She didn’t need to end up like Ben Urich. And he didn’t want Foggy going after Blake Tower for signing off on the FBI’s decision to release Fisk for information–that would certainly garner Fisk’s attention.

But you–Fisk didn’t know about you. You weren’t a part of Nelson and Murdock. Fisk had no reason to know about you, which meant you needed to stay far away from Matt and the Devil so your name would never cross Fisk’s lips.

Which was why he could only go to Foggy. He knew he’d keep the secret in order to keep his friends safe, even if he would absolutely hate Matt for asking that of him. 

And he also needed to steal Foggy’s wallet for his New York State Bar Association license for what he planned to do tomorrow. 

With a sigh, he pushed off of the wall and forced himself to turn the corner and enter the bar. It wasn’t very busy for a Tuesday evening, so Matt easily made his way over near where Foggy was drinking at the counter. He paused when he was just a few feet behind him, nerves twisting in his gut. Foggy was entirely oblivious to Matt’s presence, though, still swirling the alcohol in his glass absently. Squaring his shoulders, Matt steeled himself for the emotional pain that he was about to inflict on both Foggy and himself.

“Fog,” he called out softly.

Matt heard the way Foggy’s head slowly turned towards him, his brows having drawn together in confusion. For a moment Foggy just stared at Matt in perplexed silence. Matt could practically hear the moment when Foggy realized who was standing before him in his slightly intoxicated state. 

“This isn’t real,” Foggy said. "You're not really here."

Matt’s teeth ground together as he gave a single nod at him. “It’s real,” he said softly.

He could hear the way Foggy’s lips drew into a big smile, the only one that had been on his face in the hour that Matt had been standing outside. The bar stool Foggy had been sitting in slid back on the floor as Matt heard Foggy rise to his feet just moments before he felt his friend embrace him in a tight hug. Instinctively Matt’s hands flew up, hugging Foggy in return. He could smell the salt of his unshed tears in the air.

“Hey, Fog,” he greeted quietly.

“How?” Foggy asked in disbelief, still clutching Matt tight. “Where? We thought you were dead!”

Foggy abruptly pulled away from Matt, clearly taking a moment to scan him over. Matt’s hands returned to his cane, fidgeting nervously with it as he practically felt Foggy’s eyes roving him. Seconds later, Foggy said your name and Matt’s heart felt like it shattered instantly. 

“Does she know you’re alive?" he asked. "Does Karen?” 

Pressing his lips tight together to keep from crying, Matt reached a hand out and gently grabbed Foggy’s shoulder.

“Take a seat, Fog,” he ordered.

Foggy did as directed, returning to the bar stool he’d just been seated at. Matt slowly lowered into a stool near him. He braced himself for what he was about to have to say and do now.

“I’m not back,” Matt told him firmly.

Matt heard the smile once again spread across Foggy’s face and the joking tone when he spoke next.

“Well I know I’m not drunk enough to be hallucinating quite yet,” Foggy teased.

Matt shook his head once. “I’m not back,” he repeated. “Matt Murdock isn’t going to be a part of me anymore. I’m…leaving him behind. He isn’t who I am.”

The smile quickly fell from Foggy’s face. “What?” he asked.

Swallowing hard, Matt tried to keep the waver and emotion out of his voice. “The only reason I came here was to warn you and Karen about Fisk now that he’s out. You’re both in danger.”

“Dude–”

“I’m going after him, Foggy,” Matt continued briskly, cutting him off. “I’m going to bring Fisk down. But I can only do that if I know that you and Karen are safe.”

“Hang on, hang on,” Foggy said, waving a hand. “I’m still trying to process the fact that you’re here. Alive .”

“I know that you and Karen are going to want to get involved,” Matt told him, his foot tapping lightly on the bar floor. He needed to get out of here soon before he lost his resolve. “To try to fight him in some way, but I’m telling you that I need you both to stay out of it and leave it to me.”

There was a brief pause after his words. Matt heard the way Foggy slowly shook his head in response. 

“No,” Foggy told him.

“No?” Matt asked in disbelief. 

“No,” Foggy replied more forcefully. “You don’t get to show up after months of me–all of us–thinking you’re dead, say something like that to me, and then just–just expect me to be cool with it. You’re my best friend , asshole!”

Matt’s heart tightened in his chest at the hurt in his best friend’s voice. Foggy’s words stung despite how much Matt knew he deserved them–truthfully he deserved a bigger verbal lashing. But he needed to end this and get out of here. Now.

“I was wrong to become your friend, Foggy,” Matt told him, ignoring the way his own heart beat irregularly at the lie as it left his lips. In time he'd make himself believe it. “I put you in danger and it was selfish of me. While I can’t change the past, I can stop making the same mistake. We’re done, buddy,” Matt said, quickly rising from the bar stool. “It’s over.”

“There’s something seriously wrong with you,” Foggy snapped, his voice cracking.

“Yeah, I know,” Matt agreed, once again fighting the emotion from creeping into his words. "Just stay clear of Fisk. Tell Karen to do the same," he ordered. "And I’d appreciate it if you didn’t tell her you saw me.”

Matt turned to go, desperate to get away and attempt to control his own emotions. He felt close to tears himself and was grateful for the sunglasses hiding his eyes. He managed two steps before he heard Foggy once again call your name after him. Matt winced at the sound of it, his feet inevitably coming to a stop as his back remained turned to Foggy.

“What about her, huh?” Foggy asked. “You know she’s been a mess since you’ve been gone? She refuses to believe you’re dead, Matt. Am I just supposed to let her continue thinking that now that I know it’s a lie?”

Behind the sunglasses, Matt’s eyes clamped shut. He felt a tear escape and he tried to hide wiping it away as he ran a hand over his mouth. Exhaling a shuddering breath, he tried to keep his voice steady when he answered.

“Yes,” Matt replied, voice softer. “She can’t know.”

“Are you fucking serious?” Foggy roared at his back. “You’re going to do that to her? Make me do that to her?”

Matt sighed, shaking his head but still refusing to turn around. “Fog, she can’t–”

“She’s paying your fucking rent, man,” Foggy spat bitterly. “For months now she’s been paying it. She thinks you’re still out there. Alive. That you’re too injured to find a way to reach out and that’s why it’s been months of us not hearing from you. But no,” he continued, anger clear in his voice, “you’ve been intentionally letting us think you’re dead all of this time.”

Matt couldn’t speak, his throat feeling like it was closing up on him. His hands gripped his cane even tighter. You were paying his rent?

“Why?” he managed, the word breaking.

“Why?” Foggy repeated in disbelief. “Because she cares about you, you idiot! She misses you! You’re one of her absolute best friends, man. She doesn’t want to believe you’re gone.”

Matt tried to swallow but his tongue felt thick and heavy in his own mouth, the gesture feeling near impossible. Fuck, he didn’t want to do this to you. He really didn’t. But he didn’t have a choice, he needed to keep you away from himself to keep you safe from Fisk. From whoever it was that came after Fisk if Matt survived this. It was for your own good.

“Tell her to stop paying for the rent,” Matt told him.

“ I have ,” Foggy ground out. “And you know what she did? She ran home crying and hasn’t answered my calls in days because of it.”

A grimace pulled at Matt’s face. Why were you holding on so tight to him like this? Why couldn’t you just let him go? He wasn’t that great of a friend. He was nothing special. Why couldn’t you just mourn him and move on?

“She–she can’t know,” Matt repeated. “She’ll find some way to get involved or Fisk will figure out she’s close to us and she’ll get hurt. Right now, Fisk doesn’t know who she is, Fog. She can’t know I’m alive.”

“So that’s it?” Foggy asked defeatedly. “I just continue to lie to her for you?”

Matt felt like he couldn’t stay here any longer, he could feel the dam holding his own emotions in check about to burst. He wanted to turn back around and embrace Fog, to apologize and tell him he was wrong for everything he’d done since Midland. He wanted to run to your apartment and beg your forgiveness on his knees for making you think he was dead. To feel you wrap him in your arms and tell him everything was okay and that you forgave him. 

But that couldn’t happen.

“I–I have to go,” Matt muttered.

Without further hesitation, Matt made his way out of the bar, ignoring the way Foggy was shouting his name after him. He hurried down the alley he’d initially been hiding in, pausing at the end of it when he didn’t hear Foggy pursuing him. 

Burying his face in his hands, he sank to the dirty ground and broke down in tears. 

Opening the door to Matt’s apartment, you stepped inside and were instantly hit with a chill. You shivered as you shut the door behind yourself before bending down and picking up the stack of mail that had been shoved under the door for this week. You frowned when you saw a few more overdue bills. Even with the raise you’d received, you were starting to really struggle under the weight of two rents and all of your own bills. 

With a sigh you made your way into the empty apartment, heading straight to the coffee table where you’d neatly organized Matt’s mail in separate piles. Taking a moment, you sorted the mail in your hands into the appropriate stack before you unbuttoned your coat. You slowly slipped it off of yourself before draping it over the arm of Matt’s leather couch. 

The emptiness of Matt’s apartment was only further making you feel the weight of loneliness you’d been experiencing lately, your eyes dancing across his sparsely decorated and overly spacious apartment as your eyes watered. Foggy and Karen had been avoiding you lately, always too busy with something to make time for you. They’d been acting strange for the past few weeks and you didn’t understand why. And it had only added to the hurt you'd been experiencing after everything with Matt.

Foggy had suddenly decided to run for District Attorney, which you’d been shocked about but excited for him nevertheless. But he was always claiming he had something to attend and he’d get back with you later. Karen had been saying she was busy with some story she was following, never having time to even chat on the phone. Though recently you'd heard she had been fired after the attack from a fake Daredevil killing people at the Bulletin–and that in itself had further confused you, but both of them had said it was something to do with Fisk and wouldn’t tell you anything more.

You’d been so lonely you’d finally called Adam back up and eventually gotten together with him for drinks last week. He’d been understanding all those months ago when you’d ended things because of Matt’s supposed passing, claiming you just couldn’t focus on a relationship after the unexpected loss of one of your closest friends. Though now it felt like Adam was all you had left.

And Matt’s apartment. Empty as it always was.

You stepped around the leather couch, your fingers running along the red plaid blanket neatly folded over the back of it as you walked. Stomach sinking as your grief once again hit you, you continued your usual tour of Matt’s place, the same as you did when you stopped in every week to collect his mail and check on the bills you needed to pay for him.

You always started in the living room first, pausing to appreciate the obnoxious billboard you’d grown fond of outside of the windows. Then you’d make your way into the kitchen, marveling at how little he actually had in there. Though you supposed it made sense that he hadn’t cooked much with what he spent his evenings doing. Eventually you’d make your way to his bedroom, pausing in the doorway and wondering what it would be like to be standing there in your pajamas in the morning, a cup of coffee in each hand. One for you and one for Matt. Imagining him waking up in his bed, his hair a ruffled mess and a sleepy smile on his face just for you as morning light seeped in through the windows.

Your heart twisted at the thought and you quickly pushed the mental image away, continuing on. You made your way to his closet where his suits were still all neatly hanging, fingers running along the braille tags on each hanger. With a heavy sigh, you turned to leave the room, but your eyes fell on Matt’s dresser. Coming to a stop, you paused as you eyed it for a moment. As if your feet were moving on their own, you made your way over, pulling open one of the drawers. A handful of neatly stacked, neutral colored shirts met your eyes. Fighting back the tears threatening to spill over, you ran a hand over a worn, dark gray tee-shirt on top. It was incredibly soft.

You didn’t know what it was that came over you, but you found yourself pulling the shirt out of his drawer and bringing it up to your nose. It still smelled like him–that clean detergent scent you loved. A choked noise fell out of you as you buried your face further in the material, wishing it was on Matt’s body and not just crumpled between your desperate fingers.

It was a few minutes before you'd managed to regain your composure and collect yourself. But as you closed his dresser drawer, you still held onto the worn tee-shirt in your hands. And even as you slipped your coat back on in the living room before exiting his apartment, locking it up behind you, you never parted with it. 

You'd spent so much time going back and forth on whether or not you would attend the mass for Father Lantom’s funeral this afternoon that you'd ended up showing up just as people were milling out of the church afterwards. You'd felt bad for having missed it, even if you'd only had a few conversations with him after Matt's memorial service before you'd stopped going to Clinton Church entirely. From your brief time with Father Lantom, and from what Matt had always said about him, he sounded like an amazing man. What had happened to him–whatever it was that had someone attacking a church –had been absolutely horrible. 

But you knew there was a wake being held at Foggy’s family's butcher shop nearby from the announcement you had read in the paper. You hadn't spoken to Foggy or Karen in almost a week now, but you figured you'd end up at least running into one of them there. As you neared the shop, you wondered if they'd continue to ignore you like they'd been doing for weeks now. 

Their silence had only opened a new wound for you, causing you even more pain in Matt's absence. You'd ended up growing closer to Adam over the weeks since they’d been avoiding you because of it, often spending a few evenings a week together. He didn't have answers for why your friends had been ghosting you and cutting you out of their life, but he at least offered the much needed comfort you'd been craving for months. 

Outside of Nelson's, you spotted a few people lingering on the sidewalk talking in small groups. They were dressed in all black and had clearly just come from the mass for Father Lantom at the church. You slipped around a group outside, offering a soft apology as you reached for the door handle beside them. Pulling it open, you stepped inside and immediately side-stepped out of the way of a couple who sent you friendly smiles. As your eyes scanned the busy shop around you, you eventually spotted Karen and Foggy at a table nearby with drinks in their hands laughing with–

Eyes going wide, you swore your heart entirely stopped beating in your chest. You couldn't breathe. Even your brain felt like it hit reset at the sight before you.

Foggy and Karen had been sitting at the table laughing and having drinks with Matt as if he hadn't been missing and believed dead for the past few months. 

Entirely frozen on the spot, all you could do for a moment was stare in shock at Matt laughing at something Karen had said. Mouth dropping open, you watched as all three of them raised their glasses as if in a toast before clinking them together. 

That's when the tears came. Watching all three of them sitting there as if they'd known Matt had been alive for longer than five minutes. As if they were celebrating something. 

And you'd been entirely left out of whatever it all was. 

Heart beating harder in your chest, a small, strangled whimper fell out of you. At the table, Matt's head immediately darted in your direction, the smile falling from his lips as his focus landed on you. Karen and Foggy’s attention soon turned towards you next, curious as to what had caught Matt's attention. Abruptly you turned and pushed the door to the shop open, hurrying out onto the sidewalk.

Throwing a hand over your mouth, you felt the tears steadily falling as you darted away from the building. You ignored the groups of people outside curiously eyeing you as your breath came in fast and sharp. Vaguely you heard Foggy calling your name as you briskly walked down the sidewalk and headed away from Nelson's. Your pace didn't slow as he continued to call after you.

Matt was alive.

Matt was alive .

You had been right. All this time and you'd been right. But why the hell had Karen and Foggy been so adamant about him being dead–wanting you to let him go–when they knew he wasn't? How long had they known and not told you? How long had they known and just continued to let you grieve? To let you keep paying for his apartment? To keep scouring the news about the man in the mask? They’d been telling you it wasn’t Matt despite you noticing the strange fake Daredevil in the news in relation to Fisk’s prison release. They’d made you feel like you’d been going crazy.

And why had Matt not let you know he was alive? Why had he let you continue on thinking he was dead but not Foggy and Karen?

Did you mean so little to him?

Foggy’s voice loudly shouting your name broke through your thoughts and you stopped, spinning on the spot towards him as your tears continued to fall. Foggy caught up to you quickly, his own face filled with guilt and shame. Behind him, you could see Karen escorting Matt, the pair of them rapidly nearing where you'd both come to a stop.

"How long?" you asked Foggy, voice cracking. "How long did you know?"

Foggy winced at the question, his face growing even more solemn. "A few weeks now," he answered softly. 

Your eyebrows rose up onto your forehead, eyes once again widening. Mouth opening and closing for a moment, you tried hard to search for words. 

"You–you knew?" you breathed out. "You knew for weeks? And you just didn't tell me he wasn't dead?" 

"I wanted to!" Foggy replied in a rush. "Believe me, I did! But it wasn't safe for you to know!"

"Are you–" you paused, pinching the bridge of your nose as a multitude of emotions fought to rise to the surface. Anger and relief were fighting at the forefront. "I don't fucking care if it wasn't safe!" you eventually roared at the three of them, Karen and Matt stopping beside Foggy now. "You let me think he was dead for weeks when you knew he wasn't! You both ignored me for weeks!" you yelled, fresh, hot tears rolling down your cheeks. "Left me to grieve the loss of Matt and my friendship with the both of you on top of it!"

"I–"

"No!" you raged at Foggy. "Do you know how much that fucking hurt? To feel like I’d lost all of you? And then I come here and see you all just laughing and having fucking drinks and I'm still in the dark about everything ?"

"We were going to tell you today!" Karen cut in quickly, her voice catching your attention. "We were dealing with Fisk’s release. That was why we knew Matt was back–and he had been a very closed off asshole, too, for the record,” she told you, Matt frowning deeper beside her. “But we were trying to keep Fisk from learning that you were connected to any of us. To keep you safe from him." 

"What?" you asked her.

"Fisk wanted revenge," Matt said.

Your eyes flew directly to him. His voice, after months of wondering if you'd ever hear it again, managed to slightly calm you. For a moment your eyes took in the sight of him standing there–something else you’d thought would never happen again. He was wearing one of his nice suits and his usual red glasses, which meant he must have stopped by his apartment at some point. The one you’d been paying the bills for him for. There were a few cuts bandaged along his face and his knuckles looked torn and bruised, but he was alive. 

He was alive.

“He tried to kill me when he realized I wasn’t dead,” Matt explained. “Tried even harder when he learned who I was. He was trying to go after Foggy, too–which was why he ran for the D.A. position, to make him more of a public figure. And he went after Karen.”

“The Bulletin?” you asked, eyes darting to Karen. “That was…?”

Karen nodded. “And what happened at Clinton,” she told you.

“It wasn’t safe,” Matt said, taking another step towards you. “I only told Foggy because I wanted him and Karen to let me handle Fisk. But he didn’t listen to me and told Karen.”

“Because she was in danger and needed to know,” Foggy snapped at Matt.

Matt’s mouth twitched at Foggy’s words but he didn’t respond to him. Instead he kept his focus on you as he spoke.

“But you weren’t a part of Nelson and Murdock,” he continued, shaking his head. “Fisk never knew who you were. I wanted to keep it that way. Initially I wanted to let you all think Matt Murdock had died so I could go out and be Daredevil without worrying about putting any of you in any more danger. But…” he trailed off, sighing as his shoulders dropped. “I couldn’t do it. I–I need you all. As my friends. To keep me from losing myself to that other part of myself.”

Wiping the heels of your palms over your cheeks, you tried to wipe away the tears. A few were still falling as you stood there. Admittedly you were still pissed–at all of them. Karen and Foggy for keeping his secret even if it was to keep you safe, and you were pissed at Matt for letting you spend months wondering if he was dead or not. 

“I’m sorry,” Matt said softly.

“I’m sorry, too,” Foggy added quickly. “I didn’t want to lie to you. I hated every second of it. You have to know that.”

Swallowing hard, your eyes flew over to Karen when she spoke up.

“I didn’t want to lie to you either,” she whispered, shaking her head. “I’m sorry, too. We really were going to tell you today. After Father Lantom’s wake. We just wanted to make sure the threat of Fisk had passed first.”

“This isn’t how I wanted you to find out,” Matt assured you.

Foggy’s arms raised, opening wide towards you as he shot you a hopeful look. “Can you forgive me, bestie?” he asked. “Hug it out?”

Chewing your lip, you took a step backwards. Collectively all three of their faces dropped at the gesture. Slowly, Foggy’s arms lowered to his sides.

“I just–just need a bit to process this,” you muttered. “I can try to understand why you did it but–but it still hurts.”

Both Foggy and Karen nodded, but between them, Matt’s frown somehow continued to deepen. Your eyes lingered on him for a moment longer, committing the sight of him alive and breathing to your memory before you turned and made your way back down the sidewalk. You wanted to go home and cry before you tried to make sense of all of this. It didn’t help that your body’s reaction was confusing you. You were overjoyed and grateful, but also incredibly pissed and deeply hurt. You wanted to scream at Matt but you also wanted to hug him and never let him go.

You’d barely made it a few steps before something had latched on to your wrist and you froze, head turning to glance down at what it was. Matt’s large and battered hand was encircling it firmly, clearly not about to let you go. Pressing your lips tight together, you tried hard to refrain from crying as your gaze slowly made its way up to his face.

“I’m sorry,” he whispered. “I’m so sorry. After that building fell on me and I somehow still woke up alive…I’d lost almost all of my senses. I was in a dark place. And when my senses came back, Fisk had been released and I found myself in an even darker place.” He sent you a sad, apologetic smile. “I didn’t want to lie to you. Didn’t want you to keep believing I was dead. I swear I didn’t. It was just to keep you safe.” 

Your watery gaze tried to focus on Matt’s eyes behind the red lenses. You could feel the tears once again getting ready to spill over in your own eyes.

“I visited Clinton Church every day for weeks after you disappeared, Matt,” you admitted softly.

“I know,” he whispered, that sad smile still on his lips. “I was recovering in the church’s basement that whole time.”

You winced at his words. He’d known? He’d known you’d been there crying over him all this time? Day after day praying he’d come back to you? And he’d been there this whole time? Fresh hurt and anger burned in your veins, another wave of tears spilling out of you.

“You knew that too?” you breathed out. “You were right there and never said anything?”

He nodded slowly, shame and guilt written across his features. As the tears fell yet again, you finally gave in to the mix of emotions fighting inside of you to reach the surface. Your hand slipped out of Matt’s hold before you reached out and pushed against his chest roughly. For a moment he looked taken by surprise at the gesture, but his surprise quickly vanished as he stood there and allowed one of your fists to weakly slam onto his chest.

“Fuck you, Matt,” you cried out in a broken voice. “Fuck you for making me go through that knowing how hard it was on me.”

“I’m sorry,” he repeated, his own voice breaking.

Your fist slammed onto his chest again. “Fuck you for hurting me like that,” you continued. “For making Foggy and Karen hurt me like that.”

“I’m so sorry,” he whispered.

“How could you?” you wailed. “I thought I mattered to you!”

Matt’s hands were on your shoulders, gripping them firmly as he tried to pull you towards him. You tried to shake him off, struggling against his hold, but he only held on tighter as your fist slammed down onto his chest again, tears endlessly streaming from your eyes.

“You do matter,” he croaked out. “More than you know. You do matter.”

“Fuck you,” you sobbed, your fingers grasping onto the lapels of his suit coat. “Fuck you, Matt.”

Matt’s hands released their hold on you, his arms swiftly wrapping around your shoulders as he drew you into himself. You didn’t fight him this time, burying your face into his dress shirt and tie and letting yourself break down against him. Relief and heartache and love and anger all poured out of you simultaneously as you clung to him, your body shaking with your sobs. Matt had buried his face against the top of your head, clearly crying himself as he clung to you just as tight. You could feel his tears dampening your hair and hear the muffled sounds of his own choked sobs filling your ears. 

“Don’t ever do that to me again,” you begged, shaking your head against his chest. “Don’t make me go through that again.”

“I won’t,” he promised. “I won’t ever leave you again.”

[END NOTES]

I'm leaving end notes this time because I feel like they're needed (but if you read my fics over on AO3 I always give quite detailed end notes that I don't usually share on tumblr because it's just extra time I don't have trying to get two posts together).

So much happened in this installment though because we practically sprinted through season 3! This fic isn't meant to delve into that season though, but I wanted to include the angst of it in here (don't worry, I have another angsty fic planned for season 3 for another day). Reader was clearly struggling with the loss/absence of Matt for the months he'd been gone in this one. She was also the one paying for his apartment and his bills because she didn't believe he was dead. But she was also the last one to know he was alive--hence the title of this installment! And shit did that hurt when she didn't know why Foggy and Karen were pushing her away for weeks, which only led her back to the attractive vet tech, Adam (in case you didn't catch that). And then she didn't find out Matt was alive until she saw him at Father Lantom's wake at the Nelson's butcher shop. Despite being able to understand why they kept her in the dark, she's still pretty hurt and pissed. Especially at Matt. But clearly, Reader will never stop loving Matt.

I have a couple more angsty things up my sleeves that are getting closer to punching you in the gut next, so be prepared, friends! The angst isn't over even if the confession of feelings draws nearer... I currently don't have a title name to tease for the next installment yet either because this almost 7k beast of an installment took up all my brain space for two days, but I'll share a post about it when I do.

Feel free to scream at me now 🙃

[ao719]

…Sometimes Not (Part 12)

It’s Always Been You

This is a submission for @choicesflashfics, using prompt # 1.

Title inspo: It’s Always Been You - Phil Wickham

A/N: This is an au mini series to my Always You story. Not beta’d. Please excuse any errors.  

Book/Pairing: TRR; Liam x OC (Reyna)

Rating: M • Warnings: mild nsfw … some lemon zest, if you will.

Word count: 2016

Catch up here

Reyna wasn’t supposed to arrive in Cordonia until later in the evening, but after days of poking and prodding from her aunt during their week-long trip to the mountains, wanting to know what was going on between her and Liam, she finally caved. She detailed Liam’s confession of how he felt, their last conversation and how she’d tried to tell him she felt the same but how he’d been so convinced she’d fallen out of love with him over the years that he wouldn’t let her say anything, and how she’d given him her journal that was filled with three years worth of letters to him expressing what he refused to let her say out loud.

Next thing Reyna knew, Aunt Elsie — who’d always been the biggest cheerleader when it came to the two of them being together — was on the phone with an old friend of hers, cashing in what she claimed was a long overdue favor to get her on an earlier flight, cutting their trip a bit short. 

When Reyna arrived in Cordonia that morning, she headed straight to the palace. The first person she ran into was Leo; he told her Liam wasn’t there, but that he was set to return that evening. She planned to wait for him, but Leo — who noticed his brother had been acting a bit oddly since his return from New York — knew Liam would probably enjoy the surprise, and insisted that she go to him; he pulled a guard aside and instructed him to take her to Valtoria. 

And now, here she was. 

Hovering in the doorway of the master suite inside the estate, Reyna stared at Liam; he was seated on the bed, hunched over with the palm of one hand pressed against his temple to prop his head up, shielding his face from her view. His other hand gripped the top of her journal to keep it open as he read what appeared to be the last page. 

Hearing his breath hitch, Reyna’s brows rounded in concern. “Liam?”

When he lifted his red-rimmed gaze and Reyna saw his tear-stained face, she felt her chest tighten as she took a tentative step over the threshold. His brows knit and more tears started to fall as he stared at her for a heartbeat, and in the next, he was standing and moving towards her. 

Liam’s arms wrapped tightly around Reyna and she instinctively returned the embrace; his wet cheek pressed against hers as he tightened his hold. His whole body was taut and his shoulders shook as he silently cried. 

“Liam …” 

“I’m sorry,” he choked out. “I should’ve listened. And I’m … I’m so sorry, Rey.” 

Reyna closed her eyes against the sting in them as he held her even tighter. She drew back just enough to look at him, needing to slightly arch because his hold on her wouldn’t loosen. Shifting her arms from around his neck, she cupped his face in her hands, gently brushing away the tears from his cheeks before they were replaced by more. She held his misty blue-eyed gaze for a moment as her own tears started to fall. “Now you understand,” she said, and his chin trembled as he nodded. “I never stopped loving you, Liam. Not for one single day.”

Hearing her words, Liam felt his heart — which was beating so hard in his chest he swore she could both hear and feel it — swell, and every heartachingly, longing-filled word he’d read in that journal filled his head again. All this time … the three years they were apart and even in the last year since they reunited … she had loved him through it all. 

With her hands still cupping his face, she tilted hers toward him. She brushed her thumb against his bottom lip before drawing him to her, closing the scant distance between them when she pressed her lips to his. He sighed into the kiss, tasting the salt from both their tears as an otherworldly force pulsed through him. 

It was like a long-missing piece had finally returned and locked itself into place right where it belonged. It felt like home — she felt like home. 

And for the first time in years, he felt whole. 

“I love you, Liam,” Reyna whispered against his lips; she barely got his name out before he kissed her again.

Hearing her say those three words again after so long awoke something inside Liam that he wasn’t sure he’d ever feel again. “I love you, too.” He kissed her again. “I’ve always loved you.” Another kiss. “And I always will.” 

Liam kissed her again, and when her lips parted against his, a rush of air escaped him and his body shuddered when his tongue met hers. Keeping his one arm wrapped tightly around her waist, his free hand came up, sliding across her cheek and into her hair until it curled around the nape of her neck as he deepened the kiss. It was all-consuming, stealing the very breath from his lungs. 

When Liam heard a whisper of a moan slip from her lips, something inside him snapped at the sound, his usual ability to keep himself controlled shredding at the seams. His hands dropped to the hem of her shirt and he was lifting it a heartbeat later, only breaking the kiss to pull it over her head, and as he did, she was tugging at his. He took the cue, reaching back with one hand to pull it off, and dropping it to the floor as his lips found hers again. 

Wrapping one arm around her, Liam spun her away from the door, swinging his other arm out and closing it before effortlessly lifting her; her legs wrapped around him as he carried her toward the bed.

There was a tangle of arms and hands as they stripped one another of their remaining clothing between passion-filled kisses and their hands exploring each newly exposed area of skin. 

With the rest of their clothes now strewn haphazardly on the floor, Liam finally drew back to take in her bare body beneath him. The years of painful longing — of wishing for just a single kiss, touch … even a mere word — came to a halt. He had no more reasons to wish, to yearn for her. She was there. They were together. And he knew it was going to be different because there was nothing standing in their way this time. 

It was going to last. 

It was going to be forever. 

Liam slowly skimmed a hand along the curve of her body, pausing on her thigh as his gaze shifted back up to hers. “Say it again,” he whispered. 

Reyna softly smiled. “I love you.” 

A breath fell from her lips as they parted when she felt Liam’s hand slip between them and a finger slide against her. When he felt how ready she was, an impatient groan escaped him; he had every intention of savoring every part of her later, but at that moment, he needed to feel all of her. 

In the next moment, Reyna gasped followed by a moan when she felt him filling her; Liam slowly pushed home inch by inch until he was buried to the hilt. He dropped his head to her shoulder as a moan rumbled from deep within his chest at the feeling of being wrapped around her again. 

Another moment later, Liam lifted his head when he felt her fingers lace with his, and his eyes searched hers as he began to move. “You’re mine,” he whispered with a thrust of his hips, the words spoken with a hint of question behind them. 

“I’m yours,” Reyna assured him. “I’ve always been yours, Liam.” 

Another moan escaped him, in part from her words, in part from the way she took him even deeper when her legs wrapped around him. He found her lips again with another thrust as her hands curled around his neck and into his hair. “I’ve only ever been yours,” he whispered. 

Liam drew out each stroke, prolonging the moment as long as he could until they were panting between impassioned kisses and moans, both on the edge of release. 

When he picked up his pace, Reyna clung to him, and Liam didn’t relent until her back arched off the bed and his name dripped from her lips in a mantra of breathy moans. He followed a moment later, a gravelly groan ripping from his throat and his entire body going taut as he dropped his head to the crook of her neck.

After several long moments, as they both still trembled and tried to catch their breath, Liam lifted his gaze to hers; Reyna brushed a few stray locks of his tousled hair away from his forehead before she lifted her head to press a soft kiss to it, then to the bridge of his nose, then to his lips. He returned the kiss, savoring the slow curl of her tongue against his. 

“I love you,” Liam whispered when they parted for a breath. “I love you so damn much, Rey.” 

A sated, heartwarming smile curled on Reyna’s lips. “I love you, too.” 

****

A while later, Liam and Reyna lay curled up in the bed; his arm was wrapped around her as he stroked his fingers idly along the length of her spine and their limbs were tangled beneath the sheets. Neither was in any rush to leave the other’s embrace. 

Liam’s gaze shifted down to where her head rested on his chest; her fingertip traced lazy shapes against his skin as she stared off, seemingly in deep thought. “What are you thinking about?”

“You,” Reyna answered with a sigh before tilting her head back to look at him. “You and this and … us.”

“What about it?” Liam asked as he gently swept a few wisps of hair off her cheek.

“How we’re going to make this work. Because I don’t …” Reyna dropped his gaze, biting her lip somewhat self-consciously. “I don’t want to be without you anymore, Liam. I want to be wherever you are.” 

Liam’s thumb scooped beneath her chin and tilted her gaze back to his. He searched her eyes for a moment before capturing her lips in his as he shifted, guiding her back against the mattress. He wanted that, too. After spending so long apart and knowing what he knew now after reading the letters inside that journal, he didn’t want to be without her. Not ever again. 

And he had but one thought at that moment. 

When he drew back, Liam’s thumb softly stroked her cheek, staring at her with nothing but unadulterated adoration. “Then marry me …” 

“What?” Reyna gasped as her eyes widened. “Liam, we … we just got back on track. Hell, we’ve only been on track for like … an hour.” 

“Rey … had the past gone differently, I have no doubts that I would have already taken that leap with you, but … things didn’t turn out that way. Yet, in all the time we were apart, nothing about our feelings — about the love we have for each other — changed. I don’t want to be without you either because we’ve spent long enough apart.” Liam was silent for a few moments as she took in his words. “You love me?”

“More than anything,” Reyna answered without hesitation.

“And I love you. That’s all that matters.” The pad of Liam’s thumb brushed over her lips. “I told you four years ago in Applewood that you were it for me, and those words are as true today as they were back then. It’s always been you and it will always be you. There is no one else I want to be with … to spend my life with … than you, Rey. And there never will be.” She took in a breath … and then smiled as she held his blue-eyed gaze. He smiled in return as he leaned down, grazing his lips against hers. “Say yes,” he whispered. “Say you’ll marry me …” 

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

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[phoenixcatch7]

Kintsukuroi

'What if I put a clock pendulum in my torso' was the sort of question Bruce had come to expect when visiting Oracle.

"Pendulums are dependant on a stable base," he replied, because the last time he'd assumed they were being unserious Tim had tried to fit a chemistry test lab in his mouth and accidentally leaked the fumes through his mask.

"It'd be so aesthetic though," said Barbara, not looking up from the dozen screens she was surrounded by. "Listen. It would look so cool - Spoiler, robbery on fifth and main - Especially if I put a clock face over my heart."

"I thought you were trying to fit a super computer in it?"

"I was, but progress is slow. It's hard to fit it and enough padding to protect it plus leave enough room for ventilation. If I add the pendulum I might at least get inspiration." She gave a heavy sigh and pushed away from the desk, gliding in her chair to where her doll body was resting on a table, the glue separating the two halves of the smashed torso still glistening. Bruce followed, peering over her at the many scanners and wires hooked into it, flashing and beeping.

"Any luck?" he asked, and they both knew he wasn't talking about the computer anymore.

"Nothing."

He squeezed her shoulder, and she leant into it. They stayed there for a long moment.

"I just don't understand!" Barbara finally burst out, hands clenching on her chair arms. "I glued nearly every single piece back together! I made sure every splinter I could find went exactly where it should! I know the contract is still there. She's worked with more missing pieces before. But she's just not responding!"

"It's not you," Bruce soothed. "You've more than enough determination and strength to puppet, and we know the human body's state doesn't affect performance."

"That's the thing!" Barbara threw her hands up angrily, nearly smacking Bruce in the face. There was a chatter over comms, and both reached for their own. "One second," she said tightly, and wheeled back into the glow of the monitors. "Copy. BW, you're nearest? Thanks. Try and avoid the sniper this time. Wing, backup is in five."

She muted again and spun around, pinning Bruce with a heavy stare. "Is there anything, anything you can think of? We've - nothing I've tried has worked."

"Well...." He trailed off, one hand coming up to rub at the chin of his mask - a quiet night meant the opportunity to forgo the practical but muffling gas mask for his favoured plain black.

It was far from the first time a doll had been horrifically damaged. The incident with Bane came to mind - Batman had been in a very similar condition, body shorn clean in two and tossed to opposite corners. It was an awful memory, but the expression on Bane and the audience's faces as his bloodless body fell apart like a rotting tree trunk and then kept moving was a silver lining he'd always treasure.

But he'd been repaired and back on his feet in weeks, if bearing the incandescent fury of the doll for several more. It had been months for Barbara, and still nothing was happening.

"There's something we're missing, and I doubt it's on your side."

"I know THAT-"

"Listen," he demanded, and her jaw clicked shut mutinously. "There's something we're not seeing. Batgirl is in no shape to demand it herself, it seems. So its inaction is something we can't fully rely on."

"You've got the most experience with the dolls of all of us. Can you.. I don't know, sense anything?"

"Nothing more than the usual, with the Patriarch Doll, but we might get more if we return to the doll house -"

"No." Barbara interrupted again, but Bruce did not take offence. "She's not going anywhere. She doesn't want to head back to the cave."

Oh?

"She doesn't want to, or she doesn't care to?"

"I say she doesn't."

Interesting. This was likely a case of the doll exerting its will. The bats were well versed in avoiding the few lines their wooden bodies drew in the sand, treating them with the wary respect one would give a favorite blade or a highly trained attack dog. They could work together, share the highs and lows of life with them, but never get complacent. The dolls were forever a foreign, inhuman presence, and as with all wild creatures they would never be so arrogant as to assume full understanding. For Barbara to so strongly decide for the doll meant she was most likely not the only one deciding.

Which meant the solution would not be found in the cave.

"Perhaps there are upgrades she wishes to have?"

Oracle paused.

"Maybe," she conceded. "But there's practically a limitless amount of things I could do, and I wouldn't know where to start. And I could more easily do them when she's up and walking."

Not that then. If the doll wanted something to change but not receive upgrades or heal, than what?

... Not heal.

Batman hurried to the table. Oracle watched him with hawk eyes, but another call on the comms turned her away with a final warning glance.

Recovering every single splinter from a damaged wooden object and perfectly reattaching it was nigh impossible on a good day, never mind in the dead of night with a moving target. The dolls always returned to the cave to regenerate scratches and nicks they couldn't buff out, or accepted plaster to transmute with whatever supernatural power guided them.

The batgirl on the table, divested of all covering and armour, was still as chipped and scuffed as the day nightwing recovered last splinter.

The pieces fell into place.

"She doesn't want to be perfectly rebuilt," he realised. "She doesn't want the damage to disappear as it normally does... She wants it to remain visible. A different type of repair, then."

Oracle spun in her wheelchair to face him.

"Why?" she asked, something sharp in her eyes. Bruce chose his next words carefully.

"Perhaps she thinks such damage doesn't need to be hidden away," he said, slowly, and didn't comment when she turned away. Though she put on a strong face, and the doctors had recently released her full time, it would be a long time until the young hero was able to truly heal her mind.

"She doesn't need to do that for me. She's just causing me trouble."

"I don't think she is," he tried. "Dolls tend to reflect their puppeteer even after they accept us. You can't deny your trajectory has been changed."

They both sent a significant look to the enormous super computer taking up the wall.

"You've said you almost feel better able to protect Gotham now, with your reach and skills. Do you really feel that way?"

"I - I don't -" her mouth worked silently, and Bruce waited. "I mean I guess... But a part of me always assumed it'd be temporary, you know? Once I fixed batgirl.. It'd all return to normal." Her voice wobbled, and Bruce didn't hesitate to crouch before her, wrapping her in a long armed hug. She buried herself in his chest, regardless of the chilled metal.

"It's okay if you don't," he whispered into her hair, and held her as she shook. "I'm just throwing ideas around."

"I do though," she rasped. "I think I do feel that way. There's so much that can't be solved by violence, and it feels good to be out there but... I think I can help even more people, this way."

"That's good," he praised, "that's good. You can do whatever you set your mind to."

"You stole that from a parenting book verbatim."

"It's applicable to the current situation."

"Fine," she sighed, and pushed him away to roughly scrub at her eyes. "I'll give the doll another chance. Find some glitter glue or something, I don't know."

"Any materials you need will be provided," he promised. "I wouldn't recommend glitter glue or our usual tar."

He moved to pat her on the hair as the emotions of the moment faded, making sure to keep his unsheathed claws out of her hair.

"Once you fix her, though, I would recommend you puppet the doll during night hours still," he told her. "It wouldn't be good to put your body through twenty hour days."

"I've got a good system set up for now, but thank, B-man."

The computer dinged with another alert, and oracle spun to squint at it with a muffled curse, typing furiously. Batman escaped to the other side of the room, where the folders he'd originally come looking for lay. She waved, distracted, as he left, and although the doll could not smile, he could feel it on his face all the same.

@puppetmaster13u I summon thee dear mutual ^^

[annymation]

The Kingdom of Wishes- A “Wish” Rewrite

Chapter 13- Magic Mirror

Chapter 12

Asha is now sitting on the hand drawn bed that she drew with her magic pencil the previous night. Staring at the 7 teens in front of her, she looks at them completely stunned.

Asha was about to open her mouth to ask a million questions, such as how did they get there? Are they okay? Do they believe her now? Is the king dead?

(Man, if you've been missing the past few chapters this all must feel pretty weird huh?)

But she doesn't have time to say anything, as Dahlia rushes over and hugs her tightly:

"WE'RE SO SORRY WE WEREN'T THERE FOR YOU!!!" The girl's scream echos around the cave, she speaks quickly and on the verge of tears "We were so scared- and and Magnifico was looking at us like he was gonna cut off our heads if we said something! BUT THAT DOESN'T JUSTIFY IT! I should've spoken up for you! I'm the worst friend eveeeeeeeer!" Dahlia says dramatically.

Bazeema, Hal and Dario come in for the hug too, Bazeema being the next one to apologize

"I know it's not much, but I brought an apology gift..." she whispers shyly, while reaching inside a bag she's carrying, and takes out a plant, composed of small star-shaped blooms that cluster together to give the illusion of a single flower "A hyacinth, your favorite... They also symbolize the desire for forgiveness."

(Yeeeeeah remember back in chapter 2 when Bazeema made a garden of purple hyacinths as a birthday gift for Asha? Yeah... It was aaaaaall foreshadowing that eventually the 7 teens would ask her for forgiveness. All details in this fic are foreshadowing! Also I just love flower symbolism.)

Asha takes the flower and smiles softly while the four hug her.

Gabo is standing next to the bed with his arms crossed. He interrupts the sweet moment:

"For the record, back at the plaza I tried to throw a rock on Magnifico's head SEVERAL times, but Mr "respect the corrupt authority" here kept stopping me." He says, pointing at Simon with an annoyed expression.

"Uuh yeah I did, because otherwise you'd be executed for treason, you're welcome." Simon says matter of factly, he looks even more tired than usual, after all he and the others have walked through the woods the whole night to find Asha.

"I would've died a happy man." Gabo says with a cheeky smile.

"You're not a man, Gabo. You're 17." Simon, the 21 year old, says sounding as tired as he looks.

"I would've died a happy boy." Gabo corrects himself with the exact same tone and cheeky smile.

Asha giggles at that, and she finally opens her mouth to say something "I don't blame you guys for not standing up against the king... Simon has a point Gabo, Magnifico is really REALLY dangerous." Asha warns.

Hal leaves the hug and speaks sarcastically with a smile:

"Yeah, we could tell heheh! Next time you find out that the kingdom is ruled by a two sociopaths, just let us know, okay? We can handle it." She finishes with a wink.

Dario looks surprised by that comment and comunnicates in sign language: "Wait, we can? I've been freaking out about it the whole way here." He still has a dopey smile while signing.

"Speaking of which... HOW did you all get here?!" Asha asks them, baffled that they managed to travel so deep into the woods.

Dahlia is more calm now, as she explains with a knowing smile:

"Let's just say we got help, from a little someone who's reeeeeally good at finding you anywhere you go."

"I told you guys I could find her!" Exclaims a little kid's voice coming from bellow the bed.

Asha is confused as she crawls on the bed to see where the voice came from and-

"Valentino?!" Asha exclaims with her eyes wide.

The goat is as happy as can be, looking up to her with his tail wagging.

"Hiiii!" The little goat jumps on the bed and starts licking Asha's cheek " I'm so happy to see you! I explained eeeeeeverything to them, so they'd come with me!"

Asha hugs Valentino, happy to see him... But not understanding how is the goat talking again.

"I- I'm happy to see you too Val... But... Aster, I thought you said Valentino couldn't talk anymore."

Aster, who has been floating around watching the conversation with a pleased smile, flies closer to Asha and explains:

"It's simple really! Some of my magic stayed inside him. That time, he REALLY wanted to say thanks to you. Now, he really wanted to tell your friends that you needed help, so my magic was re-awakened, ain't that right lil buddy?" Aster asks the goat with a cheerful smile.

"Maaa!" Valentino bleated in confirmation... Aaaand now he doesn't need nor want to talk anymore, so he went back to normal.

(This is still THE idea I'm most proud of in this whole rewrite, I unlocked talking goat on demand.)

"I see... So did Valentino really tell you guys everything?" Asha asks her friends with an awkward smile, hoping the answer is yes because it's really a long story.

Dahlia confirms that Valentino did indeed tell them everything, by saying "You mean how the king and queen have been changing people's wishes for years?"

"And when you found out, you ran away and wished upon a star?" Bazeema continued, while looking at Aster with a shy smile.

"And the star... Or rather, "Aster" here, answered?" Simon finishes the train of thought, looking at Aster with a... Suspicious glance.

"YUP! Look's like you guys are all caught up!" Aster says excitedly while floating around the cave.

Hal already seems to like the star boy's energy as she begins to introduce herself "Well, it sure is great to finally meet the guy who protected our girl back there, pleasure to meet you, Aster! The name's H-"

"Hal Diallo, right?" Aster interrupts with a smile as he shakes her hand, his smile widens once he does so, since he's seeing Hal's star.

Hal is surprised that he knows not only her name but also her last name.

Aster then proceeds to list all the others while pointing at each one "And you guys are Dahlia Hayashi, Bazeema Latif, Gabo Brandt, Safi Ayad, Dario Allegri and Simon O'Donohue... Did I get all those right?" Aster asks innocently.

(And yes, I did research all those names to fit with each character cultural background, except for Simon's that is from the movie. Yes, I do have a lot of time in my hands.)

All the 7 look at the star in shock but then slowly turn to Asha in confusion, Asha looks at them with an awkward smile. So Gabo promptly asks:

"Geez Asha, I know you like us a lot but did you really tell everything about us to star boy over here?" He asks in a cynic tone.

Aster quickly corrects him "Oooh no no no you got it all wrong ha ha! I know you guys because I've watched everyone from the sky." Aster laughs it off a little more.

"... THATS SO MUCH WORST!" Gabo exclaims looking actually scared this time.

Asha intervenes while getting out of the bed "Ooookayy this is a whoooole other can of worms that we don't have time to get into right now!" She says, referring to everything she learned about Aster the previous day "All that matters is that Aster is here to help us defeat King Magnifico and Queen Amable, and save everyone." Asha says confidently while holding Aster's hand.

Aster's stary freckles begin to sparkle when he notices she's holding his hand.

Gabo begins to to ramble in his usual sarcastic tone "Oh really? Awesome! Wow! Mind explaining HOW, exactly? Because although we didn't stay to watch the fight 'cause the rain started triggering Safi's allergies-"

"It's true, you know how bad it gets, we ran away as soon as it started raining." Safi interrupts, speaking for the first time.

(This is my way of saying they didn't see Magnifico almost break Asha's wish by the way.)

"Yes, yes we know how bad it gets Safi-" Gabo looks at his friend frustrated, not liking to be interrupted, even though he interrupts people all the time "Anyway- Although we didn't stay to watch the fight, word of mouth says that shinny pants over here got tossed around by Magnifico like he was a mouse being chased by a cat."

"He was more of a snake, if you ask me" Aster says with a shrug, and proceeds to talk confidently "And by the way, I certainly was no mouse, I was the one who won that figh-"

"Wait..." Asha interrupts the star as she remembers what Aster told her yesterday... She turns to Dahlia and quickly holds her friend by the shoulders as she pleads desperately "Please- Please PLEEEEASE tell me that lightning killed him!"

Dahlia looks like she really didn't want to bring the bad news, but she says it anyway "Uuuum... Well, yes-"

"*GASP* WWWOOOOO-" Asha jumps with joy, throwing herself on the bed with her arms up and a huge smile on her face.

But then her celebration is cut short by Gabo being his straightforward self:

"For like 5 minutes, then the queen did some creepy stuff and brought him back from the dead."

Asha and Aster both looked at him in shock, Asha slowly lowers her arms as she asks:

"... She did what now?"

"I've heard she gave him a true love's kiss... Would be quite romantic if it wasn't so scary" Bazeema says in a whisper.

Both Asha and Aster seem very disappointed by this, Asha remains in silence kinda just processing it, while Aster thinks for a moment before he states casually:

"... Well that's just cheating" Their arms are crossed and his mouth has a pout.

Gabo begins throwing some harsh reality as he speaks frankly "Yeah but that's how it went twinkle star, because guess what? Those two are CRAZY POWERFUL. And as long as Magnifico has that magic of his, there's nothing we can do, none, nada." Asha looks very frustrated with those words "So we might as well get comfy living in the woods from now on. Get used to the humidity, Safi." He says as he also lays next to Asha on the hand drawn bed.

As if on cue with the comment about humidity, Safi let out a sneeze

"ACHOOOO! Sorry..." Safi says while itching his nose... He thinks for a moment, and an idea seems to cross his mind as his eyes light up "I think... The king might have weakness though." Safi says raising his finger with one hand while itching his nose with the other "... But it's just a theory, maybe I'm wrong."

"ANY clue might be great help for us, Safi. Please, what do you think?" Asha looks at her friend in the eyes with a hopeful expression.

Safi looks back to her, her words encourage him to tell his friends a secret he has been keeping in for a while, he takes a deep breath before saying

"Alright... Last year, my mom asked me to help her at the castle-

We cut to a flashback sequence where we see Safi and the same cleaning lady from chapter 8. They're dusting off a fancy room in the castle.

"She needed my help because they were short staffed that day, and the king really wanted the castle spotless. Then he came in, complaining that my mom didn't clean his bedroom yet or something... I didn't pay much attention, but I did notice he left his magic staff leaning next to a wall... I got curious, I wanted to take a closer look at it, so I walked towards it while pretending to dust off some furniture. But when I got too close to it... Some ACTUAL dust got in my nose. I tried holding it in but...

"a- A-AAAACHOOOO!"

I sneezed on his staff and knocked it over. Magnifico immediately heard me and RAN to catch the staff before the gem touched the floor, and he did it just in time. I was relieved and so was my mom. I even laughed a bit thinking he would too... But he didn't... He looked at me in the eyes like he wanted to kill me then and there. He grabbed me by the scarf and lifted me off the floor a little. He yelled to my face:

"YOU INANE, FILTHY LITTLE BRAT! YOU ALMOST COSTED ME EVERYTHING!"

I was so scared, I tried a apologizing but that seemed to only make him angrier... My mom only watched nervously from the side. Then, a hand touched his shoulder... It was Queen Amable. She looked at him worriedly, and he looked back to her, I couldn't see his face... And just like that he let go of me and left the room without a word. Then the queen smiled to me, like what just happened was no big deal

"Please do forgive the king, my dear. He has been under a lot of stress lately, that's all... But you shouldn't be here in the first place, now, should you? No, a castle is no place for children. So how about you run along and enjoy the rest of your day, hum?" She placed a finger on my lips as she said with a sweet voice "And we'll keep this as our little secret, won't we?"... All I could do was nod."

The flashback ends.

We cut to all the other teens staring at Safi with expressions of both surprise and pity.

Aster's is floating in a sitting position with his legs crossed, he looks very sad.

"... Why didn't you tell us?" Asha asks, sounding heartbroken that the king and queen treated her friend that way and he had to keep that pain in silence.

"Probably the same reason you didn't tell us when you found out about their secret... I was scared." Safi said quietly with a sad expression, Asha nods in agreement "Also my mom told me not to gossip..." Safi adds quietly.

Dario comes over and gives Safi a hug.

"Heh thanks bud." Safi says, feeling relieved to let all that out.

Gabo, as always, ends the sweet moment by saying bluntly "Ok so we all agree the staff is like, his achilles heel, right?"

"... Yeah, if not breaking it was so important then why would he run to catch it when he could just use his magic to make it float?" Dahlia ponders.

"Because he can't do magic without holding it... " Aster answers, with an expression of realization.

Asha also has that same face of realization as she says "... Of course! None of the kings that came before him even had magic staffs, they could do magic with their hands alone... Magnifico DOESN'T know magic!" A smile forms on the corner of Asha's lips, it's almost comical how every aspect of that man was a lie all along.

"Soooo if we break that gem on his staff" Aster says with a huge smile while flying closer to Asha's face, his hair shinning brighter and brighter.

"He will be powerless." Asha finishes his sentence, looking at Aster in the eyes with a determined smirk.

"Uuuh that's great but... How are we supposed to break it?" Simon asks confused "Even the literal STAR here couldn't use his powers against the staff's magic, so what are we supposed to do?"

Aster turns to Simon with a confident look "Yeah sure, it was too much for me to handle... On my own." He turns to Asha for her to complete his point.

Asha get's up and makes the bed that she drew return to her sketchbook, surprising the rest of the teens.

While she does so, she finishes Aster's point:

"But together... We can fight."

She uses her magic pencil to draw some drums.

And we transition to the song:

What We Know Now

Lines in Purple- Asha

Lines in Red- Dahlia

Lines in Yellow- Safi

Lines in Blue- Hal

Lines in Bold Orange- Gabo

Lines in Green- Simon

Lines in Pink- Bazeema

Lines in Bold Yellow- Aster

Lines in Bold White- Everyone

(Lines between parenthesis- Me)

(Asha begins to draw some drums with her magic pencil, making them fly out off the page. Aster immediately gets her idea and begins to play the drums as the instrumentation of the song.)

… We've been deceived That royal pair are not what they've claimed to be They're more vicious than I could have ever comprehended When I made a wish and Aster came down This is not what I expected or intended But now that it's happened I don't regret it

(She begins to sing turning to her friends, her expression is bold. As she says the line "When I made a wish and Aster came down" the two of them share a glance, with Aster smiling at her as he plays the drums, and she looks at him with a warm smile.) 'Cause now I've seen Them show their true colors, in shades of green Saying that your wishes aren't safe because of me and That's a lie, lie, lie, lie. And now we know how we'll get the upper hand

(Aster uses their light to reflect on the gems inside the cave, creating the figure of Magnifico and Amable on the walls, that turn from blue to green. As Asha says the last line she raises her hand to the sky and starts walking out of the cave, with her friends following her to the forest.)

… If it's not us then who and when? If we don't fight they know they'll win Not allowed Knowing what I know now The lengths they'll go there's no amount I won't sit back watch this play out That's my vow Knowing what I know now

(She marches with them to the clearing in the forest, pushing the tree branches out of her way, some birds fly off the trees upon hearing her sing. As they reach the clearing, she turns to her friends to know what they have to say... Dahlia is the first one to step in)

… Get up, yah! No, I'm not the only one that's (yah) Fed up (yah)

(Dahlia walks to be next to Asha as she raises her hand to the sky with every "yah", motivating their friends even more)

… Wait 'til they hear our feet go dun, dun, dun, dun (yeah)

(Safi sings as Dario grabs one of the drums that Asha drew and begins playing it at the "dun dun dun" part. Dario may not be able to sing but he helps Aster with the instrumentals.)

… I don't think they'll be prepared for what's coming

(Hal sings her line with a passion, as she extends her hand forward to call the others to join their hands together in a group circle)

… A revolution hit the ground runnin'

(And they do so, then they raise their hands together, and with that we transition to Asha making a drawing of the castle that turns into a miniature, for them to plan how they'll get in.)

… If there's one thing they can't keep down Uh-huh It's us and the strength we've found It's too loud (loud) Knowing what we know now (knowing what we know now)

(Asha then draws little miniatures of her friends and Aster, they all come to life and get in position on the castle as the group begins to formulate their plan)

… And who, who knows if we'll succeed?

(Simon looks unsure, as he holds the little miniature of himself that Asha drew.)

But we- Won't stop and we won't retreat or turn round

Round

(Gabo notices the fear in his friend's eyes and offers these words of motivation)

Knowing what we know now Knowing what we know now

(They all sing together with Asha... All except Simon, as we see a shot focusing on him a bit far away from the group, smiling at them singing, but his eyes give away how he's trying to hide from the others how he's unsure if they're doing the right thing.)

… Hoo-hoo-hoo-hoo-hoo Hoo-ha-hoo-ha-hoo-ha Hoo-hoo-hoo

(We get a sequence showing small glimpses of the group making their plan, and we can see time passing as we transition from early morning to mid afternoon)

… Can they tell what we're becomin'? (Hoo) Hear it in the way we're drummin' (hoo) I was sweet but now I'm something else (oho) Yah, yah, yah, yah! (Hoo-hoo)

… Ain't it nice of us to drop in (hoo-ha) To take what's ours to take it back in? (hoo-ha) They think we're nothing (hoo) But we're something else! (Ha) Yah! (Hoo)

(In this sequence, the group already planned everything. The gang dances together, as Dario is now the only one on the instrumentals, Asha drew a bunch of drumming instruments for him to go crazy with... But the camera suddenly moves up, as we focus on Aster looking at the castle in the distance as the sun begins to set, and the star sings his verse.)

… I've seen too many bad things that I can't keep count (The sky) And land now both unite To fight (fight) Knowing what I know now Knowing what I know now (hoo-ha-hoo)

(Aster refers to all the bad things he has seen them do while he was in the sky, as well as all the bad things he could see inside Magnifico with his eyes. His expression as he sings is bold and serious, as if he can't stand all the injustices he has seen.)

… They shall see all of your stars (We are) Aligned by your own scars So profound (Ahh) Knowing what I know

(He's flies down and begins to sing looking at all the other teens, referring to THEM as stars, that have been aligned to fight this battle because of the scars that the king and queen caused)

… I know (hoo)

… I know (ha)

… We know now (hoo)

… Knowing what we know now

(And the song ends with them striking a group pose)

...

So we transition to the castle, as we get a scene of Magnifico and Amable in the throne room, with 4 guards lined up in front of them.

"So let me get this straight..." Magnifico speaks to the guards with his voice filled with frustration, as he's sitting on the throne with his hand on his forehead "After searching THE WHOLE NIGHT, none of your troops could find any sign of that girl, nor the star?" He glares at the guards in front of him.

The guards all seem nervous, but one steps in to say something

"W-we went as far into the woods as we could, your highness... But there were some setbacks."

"Setbacks?" The king pronounces the word like it disgusts him "What kind of setbacks are we talking about here?"

"Last night when we were searching... Some of our men could've sworn they heard voices and whispers, the likes of cursed spirits..." Another one of the guards begins to explain, he sounds frightened.

"I've heard some say that the trees attacked them!" Another guard adds in, also sounding just as scared

"And I experienced the most unbelievable thing!" Finally a third guard starts telling what he saw, and we get a quick flashback

We see the guard at night searching through the woods.

When suddenly the ground beneath him starts to shake and... A giant flower sprouts out of the ground and closes it's petals with him inside...

Our perspective in the flashback changes to Aster hiding in the branches of some trees, giggling quietly as the guard screams for his companions to get him out.

(So yeah, the whole night Aster was messing with the guards by asking the animals to whisper creepy things and giving life to the trees and so on... The Peter Pan vibes in him keep growing.)

End of flashback.

And we cut to Magnifico staring at them shocked, not shocked that those things happened, oh no, he knows exactly what those things really mean... He's actually shocked with how incompetent they are.

Magnifico stays silent for a moment... The guards are all standing up stiffly, waiting for what he'll say next.

"... he he ha aHAHAH AH HA AHAHAHA!" Magnifico lets out a laugh that echos through the room, the guards look nervous. The king turns to the queen sitting next to him, she's staring at the guards with a cold expression. Magnifico talks to her like he just heard the funniest joke in the world "Did you hear that, my sweet? Hah ah They retreated because of- aha hah- some scary little whispers, moving trees and a FLOWER! HA!-Ha ha ha-" The king's genuine sounding laugh descends into a fake, deep one, as he stands up holding his staff tightly. His expression is twisting from a smile to a furious scowl-

"You FOOLS!"

Using his staff, Magnifico attacks the guards with a lightning spell, the guards manage to escape it just in time. As they look to their king in horror.

"IDIOTS!"

He does so again, the four men are now running for their lives to the exit, but Magnifico slams the door shut with the snap of his fingers.

"IMBECILES!"

He summons a third lighting strike that barely misses them, as they're now cornered against the wall.

Magnifico marches towards them, his face is red with rage while his staff is glowing green, ready to attack them again at any moment.

"That was THE STAR'S magic! THAT MEANS HE WAS NEAR YOU!" He hits the staff on the floor, creating a loud clang of the metal against the marble, the white floor is now cracked. "WHY did your captain not alert me about this?! I gave him a mirror PRECISELY for him to tell me about ANY SIGN OF THE STAR!" The king exclaims to the four men cowering in fear in front of him.

His voice is loud but it's not hysterical, it's a booming and commanding tone that demands respect and attention.

They remain silent, trembling in their armor.

"WELL?" He insists for an answer to his question, threatening to attack them again.

One of them spills the beans "I- I heard a rumor this morning that he lost the mirror!..." The man immediately covers his own mouth, realizing what he just did.

Magnifico turns to the guard that said that, his face relaxes as he says "... Oh did he now?... How unfortunate." his voice sounds calmer now, but the sense of uneasiness is palpable... his staff stops glowing. "Well then. Congratulations men, it seems the captain's position will be vacant very soon." The king speaks calmly as he starts walking back to his throne "Who knows, if you don't disappoint me any further, one of you might even take his place."

The guards all shiver at that, not sure if the king means their captain would just lose his position... Or worse.

"That will be all for now. Dismissed." The king snaps his fingers and a large door opens, allowing them to leave. The four guards bow down before rushing out of there. Once they're out, Magnifico snaps his fingers again to close the door. "... UUUUUUGH What's the use of ruling a kingdom when you're surrounded by idiots?" He slumps down on his throne, sounding miserable as he vents to his wife.

The queen holds his hand, her previous serious expression is gone, replaced by a passionate gaze "Patience, darling. We'll have our star sooner than you think, I just know it." She says soothingly.

He kisses her hand before saying "So do I, my love... But you were right, as always. We can't rely on others to even tell us where that blasted star is. It's true what they say: if you want something done right, you must do it yourself." He gets up from the throne and starts walking to the exit "I'll go to the forest to get them myself." He stops on his tracks for a moment and turns back to his wife with a pondering look "Hmm... Say dear, would you prefer that I brought the girl dead or alive?" He asks her in a loving tone.

"Alive, I could use a test subject for my potions, but either way would be lovely." Amaya responds, smiling wickedly.

"Then I better be on my wAAY- " The king almost trips over on something when he was walking to the door, he looks down and it is- "BRAVO! Watch where you're going you little devil!" Magnifico berates their lynx.

Bravo looks up to the king unbothered by the screaming, and it seems like he did it on purpose, not to stop his owner from going out though... But because he wants to show them something.

The lynx let's out a growly meow as he looks to the king and starts walking to another room, after taking a few steps the feline stops and looks back at the king and queen, as if to ask if they're coming with

"... It seems he has something to show us." The queen says while rising up from her throne to follow her pet.

The king raises one eyebrow at that, not quite sure if that's worth his time. But he follows along either way.

The two royals follow their pet up the flight of stairs, until they reach the king's study next to the wishes room.

And on the table, they see a hand mirror, that looks just like the magic mirror from Beauty and The Beast. It's glowing with a green light.

"OH! So I guess he didn't lose the mirror after all. Well done, Bravo." Magnifico says as he pets the lynx's head, Bravo seems pleased. "Now, let's see if we get some good news today."

The king holds the handle of the mirror and begins to speak with whoever is trying to get in contact with him

"About time, O'Donohue! So, have you found the star ye-" The person trying to speak with him comes into view in the mirror, we're not seeing who it is yet, only the king's face of surprise and confusion when he sees who it is "You're not the captain..."

We still only focus on the king's face, as we hear a familiar voice coming from the mirror:

"Erm no... I'm his son, actually, I'm sorry for stealing this from him but... there's something I think you should know."

The king looks intrigued at the mirror, he's ready to listen.

...

And we cut to another scene-

(*Jumps on screen* I MIGHT write a small bonus chapter just to show you guys how THIS conversation went, because if this was a movie then we wouldn't see it, but I want you guys to know SIMON IS NOT A TOTAL JERK AS HE SEEMS! So like, if you guys really want it, I'll write a bonus scene showing what Magnifico and Simon talked about, like a deleted scene of sorts! Okay moving on!)

It's evening time, the sun is almost completely set. And we're back to the forest.

We see 6 of the teens, Asha and Aster all together around a camp fire, sitting on logs. There's a small pot above the fire with some mushroom soup that Dahlia prepared, she brought the pot it in her bag, and the other teens also brought bowls and eating utensils with them.

Asha has an empty bowl of soup next to her, she's already done eating. She's now focused on trying to draw something on her sketchbook, not paying much attention to what her friends are talking about. Valentino is sleeping next to her.

Meanwhile, Aster is staring at her with what can only be described as a teen absolutely smitten, resting his head on his hand as he admires her.

They're also “wearing” their human disguise, so he looks 3D like all the others, if it wasn't for his fancy looking clothes he'd blend right in with all the other teens.

The other teens are all sharing stories and venting about how they've actually always had their grievances with the king and queen, but they never told anyone because they thought others would think they were ungrateful.

"-And then, it only took me messing up my juggling act ONCE and the king howled with laughter, but he never laughed at all with my actual jokes- UGH I've always felt there was something off about him." Hal vented to her friends about her experience as one of the court jesters look.

"You think that's bad? I've lost count of how many times I've seen them complaining about my dad's food." Dahlia said while eating her soup with an angry face... But then she starts smiling as a joke comes to her head "Sometimes I felt like asking THEM to try cooking something for once... But I’m pretty sure if Magnifico got near an oven he'd self combust hahah" She laughs at her own comment

The others chuckle as well

Bazeema shyly chimes in with her own story "Once, my mother accidentally planted red roses in the garden, when the queen specifically asked for white ones, so my mom painted all of them white in secret, and the queen actually believed it hihihi" Bazeema giggles, finding the situation really absurd.

"... Wait, wouldn't that kill the roses though?" Asha asks, taking her face off her sketchbook for a moment.

"... Unfortunately, it did, but my mom said it was better to sacrifice some roses than to upset the queen." Bazeema explains a little sad for the roses "I managed to save a few of them though." the bashful girl adds with a hopeful smile.

Gabo cuts in with a smug look "Ya know, since we're competing to see who had the worst experience with the monarchs-"

"It's really not a competition." Safi corrects him

Gabo ignores him and continues to say casually "I'm pretty sure I heard Magnifico killing someone in the dungeons once."

Everyone turns to look at Gabo with eyes wide as tennis balls.

"... I’m sorry, you heard what?" Aster asks, in the same position he was sitting when staring at Asha, but with his head now turned to Gabo.

"Killing: The act of un-aliving something that was previously living-" Gabo proceeds to define the meaning of the word, like the star doesn't know what it means

"Wha- I- I know what the word means!" Aster says, annoyed that Gabo thinks he's THAT innocent.

"Sorryyy, I just can never guess what your galaxy brain knows and what it doesn't, few hours ago you asked what was the meaning of the word "Revolution"" Gabo said sarcastically.

"Ummm how about you stop mocking Aster and get back to what you were saying about the king, I feel that's kind of a big deal." Asha said seriously, placing her sketchbook next to her.

"Oh yeah, right right *ahem* this one time when I was a kid, I stole the dungeon's keys from my dad, cause I wanted to see how it was down there, ya know? Just give it a quick look" Gabo smiles as he starts narrating like he's telling a scary story "Then, I heard someone screaming behind a door, and I could see some green light coming from the keyhole, just like Magnifico's magic... then all of the sudden- CRACK" Gabo says loudly, scaring everyone, specially Bazeema "I heard the sound of something breaking... And the screaming stopped." He says sinisterly.

(Keep in mind the teens left when it started raining at the plaza, so they didn't see Magnifico almost break Asha's wish, had they seen that Gabo would probably connect the dots that what he heard was not a murder but an inmate having their wish broken)

"... You're making this up to scare us, aren't you?" Dahlia asks with an unimpressed look.

"NOPE! It's all true. I ran out of there so fast I almost lost my shoe, and I've been keeping this inside me for years. Joking about it is just how I cope." He explains quickly as he shrugs. He then turns to Dario with a smug "What about you D? Your dad's the royal announcer right? Did he or you see something you shouldn't?" He asks like he wants to hear more gossip.

Dario's face turns sad as he looks to the side, then he just signs:

"I rather not talk about it."

"Understandable, then how about you Si-" Gabo looks around and notices that there's only 8 of them in the circle

(ONLY?! Uhum, like coming up with dialogue for 8 people is easy, It's really not!)

"Hey, where's Simon? Did he even eat?" Gabo asks everyone.

"Sleeping, of course, he's inside the cave, has been there for a while in fact." Dahlia says pointing at the cave they were in up the hill.

"Ah, I should've guessed" Said Gabo rolling his eyes.

"Someone should go check on him before we're out of soup though." Asha mentions, worried that he doesn't have enough energy for when they go enact their plan.

"I'll get him!" Aster says excitedly, as he morphs from his human disguise form to his 2D animated real form, and starts floating so he can get there faster "Be back in a flash."

Aster flies to the cave quickly, when he's about to get in-

"AAAH!" Simon was already walking out of the cave holding his pillow close to him, he get's startled by the wishing star flying towards him.

Aster stops flying just in time before crashing on Simon "Oh good, you're awake! Come on, you should go eat with the others, can't break in a castle with an empty stomach, am I right? Hahah I wouldn't know though, I don't eat." Aster giggles.

But then they pay more attention to Simon's face and realizes... He doesn't look like he got any sleep at all, in fact... He looks scared... And it's not just because Aster just startled him.

"Hey Simon... You look kinda shaken up, did you have a nightmare or something?" Aster ask concerned.

Simon looks away from Aster, as he just holds his pillow tightly and starts walking to where his friends are "Nope, you just scared me. I'm fine." he says with his usual monotonous tone.

Simon is walking ahead while Aster is following him. Aster looks sad, he has been sensing that the gentle giant doesn't like him for some reason, he thinks for a moment, and an idea pops in their head:

"Ya knooow, if you're having trouble with nightmares, I can actually make dreams! If you'd like maybe I cou-"

"NO" The young man says sternly without looking at the star.

Aster is taken aback by that... He doesn't understand why Simon is acting so weird.

Simon takes a deep breath before he turns back to look at Aster, with a calmer tone "Sorry... I just-... I just really don't want you in my head, okay?" Simon says with a concerned look.

Aster thinks he understands the issue, Simon is just shy and the star has been breaking the "personal space" boundary that Asha told him about.

"Ooh I get it, you want privacy! Thats totally fine! Tell you what, I swear to you I won't use the magic in my eyes to look what your soul desires, deal?" Aster says reassuringly, hoping that'll make Simon like him more.

Simon just turns away from the star and says "... Deal."

Then he just walks to be with his friends.

Aster doesn't quite understand what's up with Simon... But it's probably just a human thing he doesn't know about yet.

The two join the others at the camp fire.

"Well hello there sleeping beauty, did prince sparkling wake you uuuup?" Gabo jokes as the two join in the circle.

"Will you ever call him just "Aster"?" Asha asks him while still trying to draw something on her sketchbook.

"As long as I have star related puns? Probably never." Gabo says with a cheeky smile.

"*sigh* Fair enough" Asha says smiling at her friend, knowing that's just how Gabo is. She then turns to Simon "So, did you sleep well Simon?"

Simon just sits down smiling as Dahlia hands him a bowl of soup

"*yaaaaaawn*... Not much actually, but I'm fine, don't worry. Promise I won't pass out during our plan... Heh heh" He says with an smile... That looks quite forced.

"He's totally gonna pass out guys, we're so screwed." Gabo jokes and a few of the teens snicker a little.

Hal is one of the ones who laughed a bit but still she stands up to defend Simon "Aw come on Gabo, don't be like that, yeah Simon may be a sleepy head, but he always been there to help us out when we need him, right big guy?."

Simon gulps his own soup with the face of someone who knows they've made a huge mistake.

"T-thanks Hal..." He smiles to her "Though I really wish I could do more t-"

Asha suddenly takes her face off her sketchbook to ask "Hey, by any chance did you girls bring a mirror?"

Simon almost chokes on his soup "MIRROR? HUH?? HOw-" He coughs a bit and tries asking more calmly "I mean haaha why would you need a mirror NOW, Asha? hah ha"

Asha and the others look at him confused by his weird reaction, but she brushes it off as Simon just being tired "I'm trying to figure out a way to draw myself perfectly... Call it a plan B I have in mind, for emergency." She winks as she shows some drafts of herself on the pages of the sketchbook. "But I'm not sure if they look quite right, I've never been that good with self portraits."

Hal has a big smile as she says "Heeeyyy I think I saw a river back there, you should try looking at your own reflection on the water!" she says, pointing to where she saw the river.

Asha smiles to her friend as she gets up "Great idea, I'll be right back. And after Simon is done eating and you guys get all your stuff organized we can get started on the plan." She says confidently

"Yeah yeah yeah best friend, go on! Go over there and draw your beautiful face, you can do it!" Hal pretty much rushes her to leave. And as Asha walks away Hal says quietly while looking at her get into the woods"... Aaaaaaand sheeeeee's faaaaaaar enough?... YUP" Hal jumps to sit next to Aster and asks "Alright Aster, come on, when are you telling her?"

Aster was distracted playing with the fire on a stick, but once he hears that he turns to Hal in confusion "Huh? When am I telling her what?" He asks curious tilting his head to the side.

"The thing anyone with eyes can see, you’re in love with her." Hal says with a smirk.

"............ I

WHAT?!"

Chapter 14

Final Thoughts

Guess what song we're getting neeeeeext!

Oooooh writing the 7 teens, how I’ve missed you, I love them so much! Poor kids went through so much.

Gabo is definitely the one I like writing the most, you guys can probably tell, I just love his sense of humor.

Can I just say that the funniest thing I ever came up with in this rewrite is that the answer to how they can defeat Magnifico COMES FROM SAFI??? LIKE?? THE CHARACTER THAT HAS HAD THE LEAST LINES AND ONLY PERSONALITY TRAIT IS SNEEZING??? THATS THE ONE WHO SAVES THE DAY?!? HECK YEAH!

That part when Magnifico is yelling at the guards is a DIRECT reference to the scene in Sleeping Beauty when Maleficent screams and zaps her minions with her staff by the way, like, the words “Fools, idiots, imbeciles” are exactly what she said. Magnifico is now a lot more of a short tempered kind of villain like Hades, while Amable is more like lady Tremaine or The Evil Queen, always cold when around others. But just you wait when they reencounter our heroes, oh the evil levels will go through the roof.

And I’m sure you guys are wondering what’s the heroes plan, right?… Yeah you’ll see :)

…. Oh and I need you guys to know that EVERYTHING bad that happens with our heroes from this point on is HIS fault, not mine!

👇

Thank You for Reading!

[bonefall]

This may be a bit of a silly question but I’m trying to research this for a fanclan and I cannot make a fox’s tail out of the non twoleg workings

So how would you/Windclan go about reinforcing the tunnels? Used to think it was just ‘put a thick branch up there and every few fox lengths, it’ll support all that’ and that doesn’t seem quite right anymore. Please and thank you 🐈‍⬛

I'm gonna try and keep this reply simple and not get into the in-depth mechanics of digging holes, that's a post for some other time and I'd have to talk about depth and learn math and shit

So very simply putting it, usually, you would naturally dig square tunnels, and this is where all the tension of digging comes from. See, a square tunnel is really bad for physically holding things up, so beams are there to help.

Think about a tunnel kind of like building a bridge. The tunnel is a structure that needs to hold up the dirt above it. Really, functionally think about how many bridges are truly flat; it's not many! You want Arches.

And, it just so happens, a tunnel ALSO wants to be an arch. I'm not sure if I'm explaining this well so I drew a little diagram of a cave-in;

[ID: A drawing of a square tunnel with a dotted line showing the arch of where the dirt will collapse. It progresses into the second drawing of a rock fall, revealing the arch of the first drawing.]

Most cave-ins aren't the ENTIRE tunnel collapsing, it's the part of the tunnel that WANTS to be arch. Arches good. Arches are physically the best way for holding things up. Problem is that you can't dig like that without dropping however many pounds of earth on yourself.

So really, what you want is a beam, not just a stick in the middle of the hole. You want to put a beam from wall to wall, supported by two columns beneath. Like minecraft.

Other various things;

Older tunnels are, actually, usually more structurally sound. There's been more time for them to "stabilize."

The deeper the tunnel, the more stable. This is because the earth above the tunnel is packed in better. You do NOT want to open up a staircase downwards like minecraft, the entrance will COLLAPSE.

However, naturally, a collapse in a deeper tunnel is more deadly and severe for obvious reasons.

Just to state the obvious, sand bad. You do not want to dig in sand. Sand Bad.

Canon vastly overstates the severity of shallow tunnel collapses. Cats will die in less than a foot of dirt :/ There's this part in DOTC where Jagged Peak activates a quicktime event and a burrow collapses on him and it was so profoundly stupid it's been in my head ever since

suffocating in an old animal burrow... girl... do you think rabbits are constantly dying in collapses? genuinely? In soft soil?

Gray Wing is like, "you almost out bro?" and Jaggy-P is like, "ya im coming" and then WHOMP. DIRT. thats not how this works thats not how any of this works

And as a final note... the problems with WC's portrayals of shitty parents aside, it actually makes perfect sense that Tallpaw would think his father Sandgorse is a lunatic for feeling safe with going right back in after a collapse. Tallpaw doesn't know that some kinds of cave-ins actually make the tunnel more safe, but Sandgorse, an experienced digger, would.

(unfortunately the writers don't know this. but i do.)

[velvet-games]

I finally finished the piece for @prince-liest's OC, Tzafael! this really reminded me of how fun character design is (and also that I've completely forgotten how to make digital art, but that's besides the point...) <3

credit to @hogbogglerspirits for the umbrella design! I kind of butchered it so please look at the original and throw lots of love at them

LOTS of notes, draft sketches, brainstorming, etc. below the cut. enjoy!

(note: a lot of what I'm talking about is based on posts prince made under their #tzafael tag, so take a look at those if you haven't yet!)

thanks for joining me below the cut! here's the sketch without the colors as a treat (in case you want to color it yourself or something, idk).

notes about making the digital drawing:

holy shit this took me forever -- I was not kidding about forgetting how to make digital art lmao. I forgot how much less forgiving digital lines are and genuinely lost the spoons to even attempt lineart, hence just a sketch below the colors.

some of you might've seen the original sketch I sent to prince, which the digital version diverges from just a little. it's mostly the halo which I'll explain later, and I finally caved and drew the sixth eye (you can tell I drew and erased it multiple times in the sketch lmao -- still don't know if I prefer it with or without)

here's the original color ref by the lovely @gendermeh! my color scheme ended up looking really different, so some notes about that:

I was looking at references for magpies like this

and I wanted to basically follow that color scheme while also being somewhat similar to the original -- dark head/shoulders --> dark top of the jacket, bright blue wings --> bright blue bottom of the jacket, greenish tailfeathers --> green pants, hints of purple --> purplish sleeve and pant ends

I also tried (and mostly failed, let's be real) to capture the iridescence of the feathers -- they look like oil spilled on the pavement or iridescent hematite to me! I think the key ended up being adding bright greens/purples and roughly blending them into the blues or vice versa but I didn't really figure that out until I got to the pants lol.

I'm gonna be honest; I don't remember why I went with this shape for the tailcoat. I just remember being unhappy with the sketch and then trying a bunch of different shapes that mostly looked worse lol -- I think I landed on this because a split tail kind of looks like wings?

KEPT the shoes -- absolutely magnifique. I wish I knew how to color gold better.

added lots of jewelry! they like shiny things :)

ALSO PLEASE LOOK AND APPLAUD ME. I FINALLY REMEMBERED TO LABEL MY LAYERS!! NO I DON'T REMEMBER WHY THE HALO HAS ITS OWN LAYER.

alright, time for some more design notes/explanations + draft sketches!

but first, a couple disclaimers:

I want to make it very clear that I LOVE everything about the original design. I made a lot of changes based on personal preference/the way I interpreted the character. I was actually planning on making a digital piece that was more faithful to the original design too, but I was just out of spoons for it cause of life stuff.

you probably shouldn't try to read the notes I made in the sketches I'm about to show you unless I say otherwise. most of it is incoherent brain vomit in illegible artist handwriting and I'll transcribe/explain the stuff I think is important :) (the stuff in quotes are direct transcriptions of my notes)

I know my sketches are very messy lol. I only draw for fun, so I usually don't force myself to make stuff any neater than necessary unless it's supposed to be a formal piece. try to bear with me.

1:

my first few sketches of them! (I think?) this was before I sent prince a laundry list of questions so I was still trying to get a vibe

"magpie -- beak lips?" -- you'll see this in a few sketches; I considered giving them the lipstick design that velvette has since it looks like a beak. I still kind of think it's cute, but 1) I'm pretty sure velvette is the only character that has them, so I didn't want to make it seem like they were related somehow and 2) I thought it might be distracting with how much other crazy stuff I ended up including in their head/face

also, sidenote since it's relevant to what I said about vel: something I realized was important is how one character's design relates to the designs of the rest of the cast. I wasn't sure how much I should've gone for what looked good in a vacuum, how much should be based on what other characters looked like canonically, or what other characters would look like if I also designed them. it ended up being mostly the second option, but it was honestly still a struggle. should I take away some of the tumblr-sexyman-ness (no shade to tumblr sexymen; I love them) because there are other characters that already have it? should I relate their design to sera's and emily's in the show or should I think about how I would've designed sera and emily? should I follow some of the design philosophy of the original show and just throw stuff on there because it looks cool (the answer is yes btw)? decisions, decisions ...

I don't think this showed up really well in most of the drawings, but they actually have a black line down their nose! let's take a look at sera:

since they're siblings, I wanted to include some similar facial markings. the nose line ended up being the only thing I kept though -- I was going to include freckles, but I have a compulsive need to give every character giant bottom lashes so there ended up being no room T.T I like that the magpie's hints of purple kind of match hers tho!

the wingification of the hair begins! I was still unsure of it at this point, but it was an idea I had since I was kind of struggling with how straight the feathers were in the original.

"maybe the ones on their head count as wings (so only one main pair)" -- I originally just had the 2 pairs of wings on their head, so I was thinking of just giving them 1 pair on their back so there would be still be 6 total. also this middle drawing of them is meant to be their exorcist outfit (I wanted it to be a cross between what the other exorcists wear and sera's outfit)

at this stage, I was thinking of giving them more magpie-like characteristics, so I looked at some references and tried to emulate them in a more human design. this ended up being really awkward so I scrapped it, but I still like the idea that their exorcist mask looks like a bird (kind of like a plague doctor's)

2:

peekaboo! I love the idea of them using the wing hair to cover their eyes lol. (ended up using that idea for my own seraph OC since that's their biblically accurate purpose: to cover their eyes/faces in reverence/humility -- doesn't really fit with tzafael tho lol, so they show their face most of the time)

an eyeball in the bowtie -- pretty self-explanatory. the eyeball motif is important.

the one in the middle is just me practicing drawing the original design, and the one on the right is another exorcist outfit I think. I wanted to include the diamond motif/points that sera has on her dress (the diamonds on the bottom turn into eyeballs, which is why the final design also has eyeballs on tzafael's sleeves/pants)

3:

lots of notes on the side based on what prince said in response to my ask

"localized omniscience (power of sight) -- cool + ironic that their sight was supposed to serve God but made them see Heaven for what it really is instead"

another exorcist outfit, this time including the feathers

I was also experimenting with the halo; I was trying to make it look sort of like sera's crown, but that didn't feel right ...

some practice with eyes -- my style is pretty flexible with eye shapes, so I try to make them suit the character. I drew lute's eye and also an actual magpie's as references -- lute's because of the exorcist background and also because they looked appropriately sharp, magpie's for obvious reasons. once again, my compulsive need for giant bottom lashes strikes

there was honestly a lot to balance with the eyes -- I wanted them to look condescending/bored (lowered top lid) but also amused (raised bottom lid) and like a magpie (round) but also harsh/mischievous (sharp, maybe slit pupils like a snake) and similar to sera's (but not too decorated -- also does it make sense for them to look like sera's if emily's don't even look like sera's?)

considered having wings on the shoulders -- the magpie pattern is super cool, so it would've been nice to have that somewhere more explicitly in the design. I still think that might fit in an outfit they would wear in heaven (maybe for formal occasions)

the introduction of the sweatervest! honestly I kind of love this for the way it captures more of the preppy, spoiled old-money upper-class vibe some heaven residents have, but it was scrapped since I couldn't imagine them wearing that while trying to scare the denizens of hell. maybe something they wear casually though.

"yes nictating membrane (on every eye!)" -- AHH I'm so sad I didn't end up putting this to use. I just feel like the whole effect is based on actually seeing them blink, and I don't animate lol.

4:

ugh, the nefarious laughter one ... don't worry I tried harder on a sketch later on lol.

"like the diamonds on Sera + Em" + "diamonds turn into eyes?" -- I draw the diamonds on the sweatervest turning into eyes later.

tried an actual bow instead of a bowtie -- very cute but didn't fit the vibe.

a skirt! I think they would wear a skirt sometimes.

5:

"FUCK ASS BOB" -- asghdk the wingification of the hair continues. unfortunately, I'm realizing at this point that the silhouette of the hair is starting to look a lot like alastor's. I gave a very half-hearted attempt at mitigating this, but it goes back to the thing of how much I am obligated to the original show's designs and what looks cool to me -- I think the wing hair fits them and I didn't want to change it because of alastor, plus my alastor design actually has completely different hair anyway. I did add a third pair to the back to look like a ponytail though.

introduction of the scarf! I was actually going to include this in the final design but uh,,, I forgor. are you starting to see a pattern.

the reason for the scarf is that the "tzafael going to places they know they'll draw attention/can incite chaos" reminded me of that scene in avengers where loki walks into a fancy building looking pretentious af and just casually stabs a guy's eye out. not really the same thing but I felt like the vibe matched. hence, loki's funny little scarf fit.

6:

uaoughdfjh it was SO FUN to draw the wing hair, and it was at this point that I realized they had to stay even though I wasn't sure if it was too different from the original.

gossiping with rosie cause that's the first person I thought of -- tzafael also summoned a pearl necklace to clutch because of the sheer drama of it all (your ex-husband did what??)

also started drawing the rings on their hands. magpie like shiny.

7:

lots of notes cause I was trying to compile the things I still needed to think about/incorporate into the final (I thought this was gonna be the last draft ... haha)

trying to include more bird/eye motifs

"fish ... purse?" -- ha! I forgot I was gonna give them a fish purse. I think I drew that in a later sketch, but not them wearing it.

"picked up Hellish traits bc of extended stay -- existential crisis?" -- I asked prince about the sharp teeth, and their answer implied that they became sharp as they stayed in hell longer, which got me thinking ... I feel like that's actually a great body horror concept. lucifer falling and looking like a normal angel at first, eventually waking up to more and more devilish features and feeling more and more like he's lost his home and his past self ... spooky.

another exorcist outfit -- I actually really like the eyes on the ribs! I never made a final draft for the exorcist uniform, but it would probably look close to what I drew here.

the one on the bottom was meant to be similar to the feathered shoulder pad idea, but this time with the whole magpie (with giant eyes). tried putting the "freckles" (really just dots in this case) over their brows, but that ended up looking kinda weird.

the eye is pretty close to the final design

the one on the right was supposed to be the full final design, but I was totally off lol -- the long trench coat really doesn't give off the right vibe at all

8:

playing around more with the loki vibes of the scarf, also added an eyeball to the chest

I never got happy with the design of the back of the coat -- I think it should probably just be blank at this point. but the sketch here is meant to look like wings/tailfeathers.

yet another exorcist outfit, this time with more magpie motifs. I actually like this one a lot, but I probably should've added the eyes on the ribs from the last sketch. I think I also considered giving them actual tailfeathers at this point.

9:

thanks for sticking with me! I promise we're almost done. have a trans dinosaur I saw while I was travelling as a treat <3

10:

this is after I finished the sketch for the final piece and realized I didn't like the halo design. I drew lute's, sera's, em's, and adam's as refs. (honestly I love the show's idea that each person/people of each rank have a different kind of halo -- I wonder if they can switch them out?)

my main inspiration ended up being the exorcist halo, but I made it look more like an eyeball -- since it always points toward heaven, we can say it's always "looking" at heaven.

(also sera's feather lashes! they're so cute)

11:

EVEN MORE EXORCIST DOODLES

12:

tzafael shooing away my fox demon OC

13:

these are actually sketches for my own seraph OC (raguel), but I wanted to include it since it has even more wing/feather hair variations. I also think the idea of the eyelashes being feather-like could've been cool for tzafael.

14:

some more OG design doodles

tzafael and raguel together because self-indulgence is the name of the game babey (also wanted to draw tzafael freaked out with their wings flared)

(raguel's blind btw, hence asking for eyes -- tzafael has so many!)

you can probably read the dialogue here so give it a shot. I believe in you.

15:

you know what? the fish purse deserves some doodles

16:

putting them in Situations! I was reading over prince's posts again and I realized there were some funny things I could draw them doing/saying

again you can probably read the words here

angel dust also loves fish (but is apparently bad at taking care of them, hence the suffocating blobfish), so tzafael shows him their aquarium (complete with live fish and flora ofc)

I thought alastor was 8 ft but apparently he's 7.3 ft? so tzafael is enjoying the .2 ft they have on him

trying and failing again to come up with a design for the back of the jacket lol

THE crowley quote

apparently the halo still sends signals from the exorcists -- thought their reaction to the battle at the hotel would be funny

the nefarious laughter (take 2) that I promised -- based on a doodle of alastor viv did that I found

them being sad and curling up in a pile of shiny things like a dragon

OKAY I'M DONE. huge, huge thank you to prince for sharing their OC! this was a lot of fun and clearly inspired me a lot haha. please check out their writing; it's literally so good that I can't read anything else these days. I am chewing on their thoughts constantly.

this was an absolute monster of a post, so if you're still reading, I am both impressed and bewildered at your patience. I hope you enjoyed! (I certainly did!)

[bubblegumfrosting]

Torture

Pairing: Nolan Booth x Fem!reader

Summary: What happens when The Bishop decides to torture you instead of Hartley?

Warnings: swearing, kidnapping, torture

A/n: I love me some Ryan Reynolds and I was shocked to see that there weren’t a lot of fanfics based off Red Notice so I had to write something

You met John Hartley and the infamous Nolan Booth after getting arrested in Rome. Your life as a criminal was just starting and this was your second heist. Call it beginners bad luck. Somehow all three of you found yourselves intermingled with unearthing the three cleopatra eggs. It has been quite an adventure, an FBI agent, the world’s second best art thief, and the worlds best failed art thief.

Unbeknownst to you, Nolan and Hartley were handcuffed together in a room further down. You couldn’t hear a thing over the sound of a crowd cheering.

For some unknown reason the only thing you could think of was whether Nolan was okay. Your heart raced at the idea of the Bishop torturing him for information on the third egg. You hated to admit that the criminal had grown on you, his constant humor and dashing looks made him completely irresistible but there was also something much deeper and gentler that drew you towards him.

“Where is she?!”, Nolan spit at the Bishop.

She walked in front of him, “That’s not important Booth, this is the time where you tell us where the third egg is.’”.

Nolan let out a breathy laugh, “Piss off for a thousand years.”.

“Oh bummer, I really wanted to do it the easy way.”, she sighed, “That’s okay, I’ll get the information from you, by hurting him.”., she gestured towards Hartley.

“I’m sorry what?”, Hartley questioned.

“I love this plan.”, of course Nolan would.

Bishop turned up an electricity machine and made her way towards Hartley, “You two share a special bond, I mean why else risk your lives together attempting to steal the eggs.”, she grabs two metal pliers, “Isn’t that right, Agent Hartley?”.

“There isn’t any bond between us, I barley know the guy…Booth tell her we’re not friends.”.

Of course being the cheeky one, Booth had to play this one out, “She knows about us pal.”.

“That’s bullshit..”, Hartley immediately knew what he was doing.

“She knows about our special bond..she knows you were the best man at my wedding…”.

“You son of bitch.”, Harley spat at Booth, “He’s lying!”. The Bishop teasingly sparks the pliers in front of Hartley’s face.

“If she hurts you bad enough, I mean if she gets really creative with it, than I’m gonna have no choice but to tell her everything.”, Nolan continues his speech.

“Now Mr. Booth, where is the third egg?”, Nolan stayed silent, “Okay..here I go..”.

“No don’t wait..”, Nolan sarcastically pleas.

He seemed completely unfazed with the torture his new found friend was being subjected to.

“Hm, let’s switch it up.”, the Bishop nods to Sotto and he exits the room with one of the pliers, “If this isn’t working maybe giving a few shocks to that pretty little thing down the hall will.”.

Nolan freezes, suddenly the air feels stiff and the once humorous situation turned sour, “Don’t you fucking touch her.”. He says in a serious tone.

“Seems like we’ve struck a nerve, tell me where the egg is.”.

“Eat shit!”, she lets out a low chuckle and presses a button.

Your screams could be heard clearly, crying for help, crying for Nolan’s help, “NOLAN!!”.

“NO NO STOP IT!”, Nolan thrashes around, “ITS IN EGYPT!”, Nolan finally caved in.

She stoped the machine, “Where in Egypt?”.

“It’s buried with Cleopatra in the Grand pyramid, there’s a secret entry way, alright!Just please stop hurting her.”, Nolan breathes heavily.

“See! That wasn’t that hard, I would say nice working with you but we both know that would be a lie.”, and with that The Bishop left.

“I swear to God I’m gonna to kill that bitch”.

While the two of them got into a shooting fight with Sotto, you were still trapped in the chair. Your body felt numb and your cheeks felt wet, you presumed it was your tears. There was a metallic taste in your mouth and all you could do was whimper as you heard gun shots.

Than there was silence, you heard a door open and your blindfold was ripped off. It took a minute for your eyes to adjust to your environment but the only thing you could see was Nolan’s worried expression as he looked down at you.

“Nolan, it hurts”, you sobbed.

“Hey hey hey, I know sweetheart.”, he didn’t mean for the name to slip out but he was too distracted to care.

Nolan unhooked the restraints and guided you to your feet, you immediately crashed into his chest due to how weak you felt.

“The electricity affected her worse than me because she’s much smaller than I am.”, Hartley spoke and met Nolan’s eyes. Hartley knew the look Nolan had and felt guilty for how badly injured you were.

“I was so scared they were going to hurt you.”, you spoke.

“I wish it was me rather than you.,” he said in a whisper.

You pulled back from the embrace and met his eyes which looked down upon you lovingly yet concerned. He lowered his head and placed a hesitant kiss on your forehead. As he pulled back he analyzed your face for any sort of reaction, once he saw the faint blush on your cheeks and your smile he returned it. He cupped your face and leaned in, your breath hitched as your two lips connected.

You deepened the kiss by pulling him closer by the neck earning a short groan from him.

“Okay okay, break it up!”, the two of you pulled away both out of breath and looked towards Hartley.

“Dude! A little privacy here!”, Nolan said and promptly returned to kissing you.

“Why did I agree to any of this.”, Hartley left with a huff.

You didn’t know what the futures has in stored but for now you felt safe in Nolan’s arms and you knew that this is where you belong.