#IDK SOMETHING ABOUT SEEING THIS ACTUALLY VISIBLY INSTEAD OF VAGUELY IN MY MIND IS MAKING IT MORE EFFECTIVE. WHAT IN THE HELL

[glitterrosesnzz]

OH MY GOD???????

A late birthday gift for @glitterrosesnzz ft. our Phantom Thief Disaster Duo — in that scenario where Renard is trying to do Vân's makeup 😏

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[poppyseed788]

Do you have any anatomy headcannons for our fishy boy? (Aka Finn)

(ps: I love your art style, in the way that you draw the characters)

First of all, thank you! I dunno why I draw them the way I do but I’m glad you like it.

Second of all: YOU HAVE ENABLED ME. Whenever I really like a character, and they aren’t entirely human or something like that, I get UNNECESSARILY IN DEPTH about anatomy headcanons. Even if they are human I probably have like “how strong is their immune system” headcanons lol

Well first of all, he is like a glass fish to me. Transparent but with some visible organs. I’m sort of leaving it vague on if he has all of the regular organs a human does, I’m not sure if Toons need all that or not. But his heart is cartoon heart shaped, and unlike the rest of his organs, does not turn transparent.

All of his organs have a silvery sheen to them, inspired by fish who are like this irl. Honestly idk if that’s the outside of the fish that’s like that or not but I really liked the look of it so yeah. So you’d probably not notice his (non heart) organs unless you were looking closely, but in the light it would become a little more obvious since you’d see the light reflecting off of them.

His organs aren’t actually invisible, they’re black like the insides of most toons, but they camouflage according to Finn’s water. Yes they’re also somehow transparent despite not showing what’s inside the organs it’s cartoon ichor magic ok Astro literally has sparkles we have bigger things to worry about than transparent organs.

If his organs get exposed to air, they reveal their natural color. I feel like this would spread to all of his organs even if only part of it is exposed. Luckily there should never be a situation where his internal organs are exposed-! *Twisted Finn* Ah.

Twisted Finn anatomy headcanon time! Even if you were to replace the ichor he’s filled with back with water, his organs wouldn’t camouflage again. His body and mind are too damaged to activate “camouflage organs protocol”.

Speaking of, it’s a purely involuntary thing. Finn can’t control what color his organs are, it’s all subconscious. They simply react to their environment and Finn can’t help it. Involuntary bodily functions!!

Now it IS possible to change the color by simply changing the color of Finn’s water. We all know how easy it is to change the color of water, but how do you do that to Finn?

Well there are two ways to affect Finn’s water: firstly, just put stuff directly into his bowl head. Secondly, when he drinks.

Finn only likes to drink water because if he drinks something else it will mix with his water and that can have a variety of effects on him. Even if it’s harmless he prefers to have clean water, “for Barnaby”.

I should probably say this before it’s too late: Finn’s water is NOT his blood. If you emptied him of his water he wouldn’t die but he would feel really lightheaded and dizzy and faint and such. Okay it might be bad if you emptied him COMPLETELY instead of just his head. The head is totally fine to empty leave the rest of his body alone man lol.

I come from the osc so this isn’t the first time I’ve thought of “what if you replaced the liquid inside of a character that is typically full of a specific liquid” haha. Just like my osc headcanons, it varies depending on who it is. For Finn, he won’t die without water, but if you fill him with something else, he won’t feel very good.

Despite being a fun loving go with the flow guy, Finn has to be very specific about his water. Not TOO specific seeing as he’s always spilling it, but he sure needs it to be clean (Tisha appreciates that he’s spilling CLEAN water everywhere instead of something else at least…). This is inspired not only by Finn’s dialogue about only drinking water, but also aquarium care! I like to imagine instead of using a thermometer to check his temperature to see if he’s sick he uses one of those aquarium water testing strips to test the levels of things in his water to make sure it’s appropriate LOL. Ok he probably also uses a thermometer… but he sticks it in his head not his mouth. Like a fish tank.

Yeah I have (some) experience with caring for fish tanks so these types of headcanons are especially fun for me. Finn likes to pretend he’s keeping his water perfect for Barnaby, but he knows Barnaby will survive any water he puts him in. It’s really for his own health. He has to treat himself like a fish living inside his own fish bowl. If his water isn’t livable, then he isn’t healthy. Spilling his water is actually healthy for him because he doesn’t have a filter, so losing some water and replacing it later is his best option! Of course he has days where he gives himself a proper cleaning, everyone does.

Basically, Finn is one of those Really Easy To Get Sick guys. He has to be careful about what he eats and especially what he drinks, he has to make sure he’s in a good environment, he has to make sure nothing gets in his water or mouth or anything… he isn’t too afraid and is willing to risk a sick day for some adventure and fun, but it’s still something he has to be aware and cautious of.

And this means when it comes to alcohol, Finn is able to handle it the least of all the Toons (ignoring the fact that Pebble and Coal probably can’t and Toodles isn’t legally allowed to). Bro takes one shot and gets wasted. If he wanted to he could totally try some alcohol, but it’ll be hard for him to be only a little tipsy, and he will probably not feel great the following day no matter how little he drank. Designated driver Finn?

Anyways circling allll the way back to changing the color of his water and organs (this post is very disorganized), the color changes rather gradually. If you put some red dye in his head for example, his head would slowly turn red, but it would take longer to spread to the rest of his body. It would also be spreading downwards, since you put it in his head, so his arms would turn red before his legs.

The gradualness of the color change will also make his organs easier to see, since they won’t camouflage at the perfect rate to keep up… as well as his veins! His veins are far more invisible than his organs, you can see his organs if you squint but you can only see his veins if something happens to change the color of either the veins or the space around the veins.

Unlike the organs, the veins will only appear visible in a certain area, not throughout the entire vein. Easy example is say Finn gets a cut, this exposes his veins to the air and they reveal their true color, black, but only in the area around the cut. You could see the veins trail off back into invisibility the further from the cut they are.

Speaking of injuries… circling back to water not being blood… if you broke Finn, there would be a mix of blood (ichor) AND water! Because he is full of water, but his glass is made of ichor, and that’s where he bleeds from.

You know what, speaking of this post being disorganized and circling back to things, let’s circle back to Finn being sensitive and taking care of himself like a fish. He is rather sensitive to temperature changes!

It’s not like he’s gonna die or anything but he would notice temperature changes more and might face temperature related problems more than others. I imagine his body temperature is a bit cooler than others, not drastically but yeah he’s not the guy for warm hugs.

I’ve seen the headcanon that instead of like blushing he boils and that’s a cute headcanon I like it but I don’t really use it myself cuz it seems like a bit much. Maybe a few bubbles but straight up BOILING like brother u got a baaad fever. WAIT THEY BOILED BARNABY NOOO

Um um um I blanked out whaaaat else was I gonna say. Man maybe I should stop I could ramble more some other time. I also had to stop myself from bringing up Teagan cuz I have Teagan anatomy headcanons too since she and Finn are similar!! They are similar but have quite a few differences (in my headcanons Teagan is a lot less Easy To Mess Up than Finn and I have reasons for that but yeah).

Feel free to ask more questions cuz I randomly crashed into a wall and gave up

[aprofessionalwithoutstandards]

It really makes me sad (and, tbh, angry) when people ask others to filter their media like it's someone else's duty to protect them from the stuff they don't enjoy. I mean, I do get that feeling when you find something disturbing in your fave character's tags, but coming up to a person that's just minding their own business and asking THEM to change something instead of doing it for youself is really weird. Hope I don't sound mean to that anon, but that ask just kinda made me sad rn, because without those hashtags I would have never found your blog so… it's actually IS nice that your posts are visible for everyone. (sorry this is literally the first time I'm using asks on this website so sorry if i've made any mistakes)

I mean I DO see where they're coming from. I think asking people to filter nsfw is a perfectly reasonable thing to do, and they don't really seem to be someone who follows me, just someone who sees me in the tag. If you read my response, I'm not like "how dare you tell me to Filter My Media", I'm telling them that I DO filter my media! Bc that's a good thing to do! I do think there are situations where certain topics can't be reasonably requested to be filtered (for example, I'm never going to trigger tag for guns on this blog), but being expected to filter nsfw in the tag of a non-nsfw game is, well, to be expected! I don't think there was anything wrong with that ask (except them calling what I post "the most explicitly sexual shit imaginable", it's a chunk of text about Pauling's girldick, you'll live) other than the fact that I literally do tag all my nsfw! Bc I understand that not everyone wants to see that! And when I'm doing my part and properly tagging the nsfw posts that will show up in "main tags", it just falls on other people to filter to their comfort. Idk there's a trend of me getting a vaguely rude anon, me answering it one way, and then me getting another anon getting mad at the first anon for what I consider to be mostly the wrong reasons. I think ur heart is in the right place but this isn't rlly the right response to what the last anon said (the right response, in my opinion, is "Mick aprofessionalwithoutstandards tags his nsfw what are you on about")

[xoruffitup]

Annette: The AD Devotee Review

So I saw Annette on its premiere night in Cannes and I’m still trying to process and make sense of those 2.5 hours of utter insanity. I have no idea where to begin and this is likely going to become an unholy length by the time I’m finished, so I apologize in advance. But BOY I’ve got a lot to parse through!!

Let’s start here: Adam’s made plenty of weird movies. The Dead Don’t Die? The Man Who Killed Don Quixote? There are definitely Terry Gilliam-esque elements of the unapologetically absurd and fantastical in Annette, but NOTHING comes close to this film. To put it bluntly, nothing I write in this post can prepare you for the eccentric phantasmagoria you’re about to sit through.

While the melodies conveying the story – at times lovely and haunting, at times whimsical, occasionally blunt and simple – add a unique sense of the surreal, the fact that it’s all presented in song somehow supplies the medium for this bizarre concoction of disparate elements and outlandish storytelling to all coalesce into a single genre-defying, disbelief-suspending whole. That’s certainly not to say there weren’t a few times when I quietly chortled to myself and mouthed “what the fuck” from behind my mask when things took an exceeding turn to the outrageous. This movie needs to be permitted a bit of leeway in terms of quality judgments, and traditional indicators certainly won’t apply. I would say part of its appeal (and ultimately its success) stems from its lack of interest in appealing to traditional arbiters of film structure and viewing experience. The movie lingers in studies of discomfiture (I’ll return to this theme); it presents all its absurdities with brazen pride rather than temperance; and its end is abrupt and utterly jarring. Yet somehow, at the end of it, I realized I’d been white-knuckling that rollercoaster ride the whole way through and loved every last twist and turn.

A note on the structure of this post before I dive in: I’ve written out a synopsis of the whole film (for those spoiler-hungry people) and stashed it down at the bottom of this post, so no one trying to avoid spoilers has to scroll through. If you want to read, go ahead and skip down to that before reading the discussion/analysis. If I have to reference a specific plot point, I’ll label it “Spoiler #___” and those who don’t mind being spoiled can check the correlating numbers in my synopsis to see which part I’m referencing. Otherwise, my discussion will be spoiler-free! I do detail certain individual scenes, but hid anything that would give away key developments and/or the ending.

To start, I’ll cut to what I’m sure many of you are here for: THE MUSICAL SEX SCENES. You want detailed descriptions? Well let’s fucking go because these scenes have been living in my head rent-free!!

The first (yes, there are two. Idk whether to thank Mr. Carax or suggest he get his sanity checked??) happens towards the end of “We Love Each Other So Much.” Henry carries Ann to the bed with her feet dangling several inches off the floor while she has her arms wrapped around his shoulders. (I maybe whimpered a tiny bit.) As they continue to sing, you first see Ann spread on her back on the bed, panting a little BUT STILL SINGING while Henry’s head is down between her thighs. The camera angle is from above Ann’s head, so you can clearly see down her body and exactly what’s going on. He lifts his head to croon a line, then puts his mouth right back to work. 

And THEN they fuck – still fucking singing! They’re on their sides with Henry behind her, and yes there is visible thrusting. Yes, the thrusting definitely picks up speed and force as the song reaches its crescendo. Yes, it was indeed EXTREMELY sensual once you got over the initial shock of what you’re watching. Ann kept her breasts covered with her own hands while Henry went down on her, but now his hands are covering them and kneading while they’re fucking and just….. It’s a hard, blazing hot R rating. I also remember his giant hand coming up to turn her head so he can kiss her and ladkjfaskfjlskfj. Bring your smelling salts. I don’t recommend sitting between two older ladies while you’re watching – KINDA RUINED THE BLATANT, SMOKING HOT ADAM PORN FOR ME. Good god, choose your viewing buddy wisely!

The second scene comes sort of out of nowhere – I can’t actually recall which song it was during, but it pops up while Ann is pregnant. Henry is again eating her out and there’s not as much overt singing this time, but he has his giant hands splayed over her pregnant belly while he’s going to town and whew, WHEW TURN ON THE AIR CONDITIONING PLEASE. DID THE THEATER INCREASE IN TEMPERATURE BY 10 DEGREES, YOU’RE DAMN RIGHT IT DID.

Whew. I think you’ll be better primed to ~enjoy~ those scenes when you know they’re coming, otherwise it’s just so shocking that by the time you’ve processed “Look at Adam eating pussy with reckless abandon” it’s halfway over already. God speed, my fellow rats, it’s truly something to witness!!

Okay. Right. Ahem. Moving right on along….

I’ll kick off this discussion with the formal structure of the film. It’s honestly impossible to classify. I have the questionable fortune of having been taken to many a strange avant-garde operas and art exhibitions by my parents when I was younger, and the strongest parallel I found to this movie was melodramatic opera stagings full of flamboyant flourishes, austere set pieces, and prolonged numbers where the characters wallow at length in their respective miseries. This movie has all the elevated drama, spectacle, and self-aggrandizement belonging to any self-professed rock opera. Think psychedelic rock opera films a la The Who’s Tommy, Hair, Phantom of the Paradise, and hell, even Rocky Horror. Yes, this film really is THAT weird.

But Annette is also in large part a vibrant, absurdist performance piece. The film is intriguingly book-ended by two scenes where the lines blur between actor and character; and your own role blurs between passive viewer and interactive audience. The first scene has the cast walking through the streets of LA (I think?), singing “So May We Start?” directly to the camera in a self-aware prologue, smashing the fourth wall from the beginning and setting up the audience to play a direct role in the viewing experience. Though the cast then disburse and take up their respective roles, the sense of being directly performed to is reinforced throughout the film. This continues most concretely through Henry’s multiple stand-up comedy performances.

Though he performs to an audience in the film rather than directly to live viewers, these scenes are so lengthy, vulgar, and excessive that his solo performance act becomes an integral part of defining his character and conveying his arc as the film progresses. These scenes start to make the film itself feel like a one-man show. The whole shtick of Henry McHenry’s “Ape of God” show is its perverse irreverence and swaggering machismo. Over the span of what must be a five minute plus scene, Henry hacks up phlegm, pretends to choke himself with his microphone cord, prances across the stage with his bathrobe flapping about, simulates being shot, sprinkles many a misanthropic, charmless monologues in between, and ends by throwing off his robe and mooning the audience before he leaves the stage. (Yes, you see Adam’s ass within the film’s first twenty minutes, and we’re just warming up from there.) His one-man performances demonstrate his egocentrism, penchant for lowbrow and often offensive humor, and the fact that this character has thus far profited from indulging in and acting out his base vulgarities.

While never demonstrating any abundance of good taste, his shows teeter firmly towards the grotesque and unsanctionable as his marriage and mental health deteriorate. This is what I’m referring to when I described the film as a study in discomfiture. As he deteriorates, the later iterations of his stand-up show become utterly unsettling and at times revolting. The film could show mercy and stop at one to two minutes of his more deranged antics, but instead subjects you to a protracted display of just how insane this man might possibly be. In Adam’s hands, these excessive, indulgent performance scenes take on disturbing but intriguing ambiguity, as you again wonder where the performance ends and the real man begins. When Henry confesses to a crime during his show and launces into an elaborate, passionate reenactment on stage, you shift uncomfortably in your seat wondering how much of it might just be true. Wondering just how much of an animal this man truly is.

Watching this film as an Adam fan, these scenes are unparalleled displays of his range and prowess. He’s in turns amusing and revolting; intolerable and pathetic; but always, always riveting. I couldn’t help thinking to myself that for the casual, non Adam-obsessed viewer, the effect of these scenes might stop at crass and unappealing. But in terms of the sheer range and power of acting on display? These scenes are a damn marvel. Through these scenes alone, his performance largely imbues the film with its wild, primal, and vaguely menacing atmosphere.

His stand-up scenes were, to me, some of the most intense of the film – sometimes downright difficult to endure. But they’re only a microcosm of the R A N G E he exhibits throughout the film’s entirety. Let’s talk about how he’s animalistic, menacing, and genuinely unsettling to watch (Leos Carax described him as “feline” at some point, and I 100% see it); and then with a mere subtle twitch of his expression, sheen of his eyes, or slump of his shoulders, he’s suddenly a lost, broken thing.  

Henry McHenry is truly to be reviled. Twitter might as well spare their breath and announce he’s already cancelled. He towers above the rest of the cast with intimidating, predatory physicality; he is prone to indulgence in his vices; and he constantly seems at risk of releasing some wild, uncontrollable madness lingering just beneath his surface. But as we all well know, Adam has an unerring talent for lending pathos to even the most objectively condemnable characters.

In a repeated refrain during his first comedy show, the audience keeps asking him, “Why did you become a comedian?” He dodges the question or gives sarcastic answers, until finally circling back to the true answer later in the film. It was something to the effect of: “To disarm people. It’s the only way I can tell the truth without it killing me.” Even for all their sick spectacle, there are also moments in his stand-up shows of disarming vulnerability and (seeming) honesty. In a similar moment of personal exposition, he confesses his temptation and “sympathy for the abyss.” (This phrase is hands down my favorite of the film.) He repeatedly refers to his struggle against “the abyss” and, at the same time, his perceived helplessness against it. “There’s so little I can do, there’s so little I can do,” he sings repeatedly throughout the film - usually just after doing something horrific.

Had he been played by anyone else, the first full look of him warming up before his show - hopping in place and punching the air like some wannabe boxer, interspersing puffs of his cigarette with chowing down on a banana – would have been enough for me to swear him off. His archetype is something of a cliché at this point – a brusque, boorish man who can’t stomach or preserve the love of others due to his own self-loathing. There were multiple points when it was only Adam’s face beneath the character that kept my heart cracked open to him. But sure enough, he wedged his fingers into that tiny crack and pried it wide open. The film’s final few scenes show him at his chin-wobbling best as he crumbles apart in small, mournful subtleties.

(General, semi-spoiler ahead as to the tone of the film’s ending – skip this paragraph if you’d rather avoid.) For a film that professes not to take itself very seriously (how else am I supposed to interpret the freaky puppet baby?), it delivers a harsh, unforgiving ending to its main character. And sure enough, despite how much I might have wanted to distance myself and believe it was only what he deserved, I found myself right there with him, sharing his pain. It is solely testament to Adam’s tireless dedication to breathing both gritty realism and stubborn beauty into his characters that Henry sank a hook into some piece of my sympathy.

Not only does Adam have to be the only actor capable of imbuing Henry with humanity despite his manifold wrongs, he also has to be the only actor capable of the wide-ranging transformations demanded of the role. He starts the movie with long hair and his full refrigerator brick house physique. His physicality and size are actively leveraged to engender a sense of disquiet and unpredictability through his presence. He appears in turns tormented and tormentor. There were moments when I found myself thinking of Conan the Barbarian, simply because his physical presence radiates such wild, primal energy (especially next to tiny, dainty Marion and especially with that long hair). Cannot emphasize enough: The raw sex appeal is off the goddamn charts and had me – a veteran fangirl of 3+ years - shook to my damn core.

The film’s progression then ages him – his hair cut shorter and his face and physique gradually becoming more gaunt. By the film’s end, he has facial prosthetics to make him seem even more stark and borderline sickly – a mirror of his growing internal torment. From a muscular, swaggering powerhouse, he pales and shrinks to a shell of a man, unraveling as his face becomes nearly deformed by time and guilt. He is in turns beautiful and grotesque; sensual and repulsive. I know of no other actor whose face (and its accompanying capacity for expressiveness) could lend itself to such stunning versatility.

Quick note here that he was given a reddish-brown birthmark on the right side of his face for this film?? It becomes more prominent once his hair is shorter in the film’s second half. I’m guessing it was Leos’ idea to make his face even more distinctive and riveting? If so, joke’s on you, Mr. Carax, because we’re always riveted. ☺

I mentioned way up at the beginning that the film is bookended by two scenes where the lines blur between actor and character, and between reality and performance. This comes full circle at the film’s end, with Henry’s final spoken words (this doesn’t give any plot away but skip to the next paragraph if you would rather avoid!) being “Stop watching me.” That’s it. The show is over. He has told his last joke, played out his final act, and now he’s done living his life as a source of cheap, unprincipled laughs and thrills for spectators. The curtain closes with a resounding silence.

Now, I definitely won’t have a section where I talk (of course) about the Ben Solo parallels. He’s haunted by an “abyss” aka darkness inside of him? Bad things happened when he finally gave in and stared into that darkness he knew lived within him? As a result of those tragedies, (SPOILER – Skip to next paragraph to avoid) he then finds himself alone and with no one to love or be loved by? NO I’M DEFINITELY NOT GOING TO TALK ABOUT IT AT ALL, I’M JUST FINE HERE UNDER MY MOUNTAINS OF TISSUES.

Let’s talk about the music! The film definitely clocks in closer to a rock opera than musical, because almost the entire thing is conveyed through ongoing song, rather than self-contained musical numbers appearing here and there. This actually helps the film’s continuity and pacing, by keeping the characters perpetually in this suspended state of absurdity, always propelled along by some beat or melody. Whenever the film seems on the precipice of tipping all the way into the bleak and dark, the next whimsical tune kicks in to reel us all blessedly back. For example, after (SPOILER #1) happens, there’s a hard cut to the bright police station where several officers gather around Henry, bopping about and chattering on the beat “Questions! We have a few questions!”

Adam integrates his singing into his performance in such a way that it seems organic. I realized after the film that I never consciously considered the quality of his singing along the way. For all that I talked about the film maintaining the atmosphere of a fourth wall-defying performance piece, Adam’s singing is so fully immersed in the embodiment of his character that you almost forget he’s singing. Rather, this is simply how Henry McHenry exists. His stand-up scenes are the only ones in the film that do frequently transition back and forth between speaking and singing, but it’s seamlessly par for the course in Henry’s bizarre, dour show. He breaks into his standard “Now laugh!” number with uninterrupted sarcasm and contempt. There were certainly a few soft, poignant moments when his voice warbled in a tender vibrato you couldn’t help noticing – but otherwise, the singing was simply an extension of that full-body persona he manages to convey with such apparent ease and naturalism.

On the music itself: I’ll admit that the brief clip of “We Love Each Other So Much” we got a few weeks ago made me a tad nervous. It seemed so cheesy and ridiculous? But okay, you really can’t take anything from this movie out of context. Otherwise it is, indeed, utterly ridiculous. Not that none of it is ever ridiculous in context either, but I’m giving you assurances right now that it WORKS. Once you’re in the flow of constant singing and weirdness abound, the songs sweep you right along. Some of the songs lack a distinctive hook or melody and are moreso rhythmic vehicles for storytelling, but it’s now a day later and I still have three of the songs circulating pleasantly in my head. “We Love Each Other So Much” was actually the stand out for me and is now my favorite of the soundtrack. It’s reprised a few times later in the film, growing increasingly melancholy each time it is echoed, and it hits your heart a bit harder each time. The final song sung during (SPOILER #2), though without a distinctive melody to lodge in my head, undoubtedly left me far more moved than a spoken version of this scene would have. Adam’s singing is so painfully desperate and earnest here, and he takes the medium fully under his command.

Finally, it does have to be said that parts of this film veer fully towards the ridiculous and laughable. The initial baby version of the Annette puppet-doll was nothing short of horrifying to me. Annette gets more center-stage screen time in the film���s second half, which gives itself over to a few special effects sequences which look to be flying out at you straight from 2000 Windows Movie Maker. The scariest part is that it all seems intentional. The quality special effects appear when necessary (along with some unusual and captivating time lapse shots), which means the film’s most outrageous moments are fully in line with its guiding spirit. Its extravagant self-indulgence nearly borders on camp.

...And with that, I’ve covered the majority of the frantic notes I took for further reflection immediately after viewing. It’s now been a few days, and I’m looking forward to rewatching this movie when I can hopefully take it in a bit more fully. This time, I won’t just be struggling to keep up with the madness on screen. My concluding thoughts at this point: Is it my favorite Adam movie? Certainly not. Is it the most unforgettable? Aside from my holy text, The Last Jedi, likely yes. It really is the sort of thing you have to see twice to even believe it. And all in all, I say again that Adam truly carried this movie, and he fully inhabits even its highest, most ludicrous aspirations. He’s downright abhorrent in this film, and that’s exactly what makes him such a fucking legend.

I plan to make a separate post in the coming days about my experience at Cannes and the Annette red carpet, since a few people have asked! I can’t even express how damn good it feels to be globetrotting for Adam-related experiences again. <3

Thanks so much for reading! Feel free to ask me any further questions at all here or on Twitter! :)

*SYNOPSIS INCLUDED BELOW. DO NOT READ FURTHER IF AVOIDING SPOILERS!*

Synopsis: Comedian Henry McHenry and opera singer Ann Defrasnoux are both at the pinnacle of their respective success when they fall in love and marry. The marriage is happy and passionate for a time, leading to the birth of their (puppet) daughter, Annette. But tabloids and much of the world believe the crude, brutish Henry is a poor match for refined, idolized Ann. Ann and Henry themselves both begin to feel that something is amiss – Henry gradually losing his touch for his comedy craft, claiming that being in love is making him ill. He repeatedly and sardonically references how Ann’s opera career involves her “singing and dying” every night, to the point that he sees visions of her “dead” body on the stage. Meanwhile, Ann has a nightmare of multiple women accusing Henry of abusive and violent behavior towards them, and she begins growing wary in his presence. (He never acts abusively towards her, unless you count that scene when he tickles her feet and licks her toes while she’s telling him to stop??? Yeah I know, WILD.)

The growing sense of unease, that they’re both teetering on the brink of disaster, culminates in the most deranged of Henry’s stand-up comedy performances, when he gives a vivid reenactment of killing his wife by “tickling her to death.” The performance is so maudlin and unsettling that you wonder whether he’s not making it up at all, and the audience strongly rebukes him. (This is the “What is your problem?!” scene with tiddies out. The full version includes Adam storming across the stage, furiously singing/yelling, “What the FUCK is your problem?!”) But when Henry arrives home that night, drunk and raucous, Ann and Annette are both unharmed.

The couple take a trip on their boat, bringing Annette with them. The boat gets caught in a storm, and Henry drunkenly insists that he and Ann waltz in the storm. She protests that it’s too dangerous and begs him to see sense. (SPOILER #1) The boat lurches when Henry spins her, and Ann falls overboard to her death. Henry rescues Annette from the sinking boat and rows them both to shore. He promptly falls unconscious, and a ghost of Ann appears, proclaiming her intention to haunt Henry through Annette. Annette (still a toddler at this point and yes, still a wooden puppet) then develops a miraculous gift for singing, and Henry decides to take her on tour with performances around the world. He enlists the help of his “conductor friend,” who had been Ann’s accompanist and secretly had an affair with her before she met Henry.

Henry slides further into drunken debauchery as the tour progresses, while the Conductor looks after Annette and the two grow close. Once the tour concludes, the Conductor suggests to Henry that Annette might be his own daughter – revealing his prior affair with Ann. Terrified by the idea of anyone finding out and the possibility of losing his daughter, Henry drowns the Conductor in the pool behind his and Ann’s house. Annette sees the whole thing happen from her bedroom window.

Henry plans one last show for Annette, to be held in a massive stadium at the equivalent of the Super Bowl. But when Annette takes the stage, she refuses to sing. Instead, she speaks and accuses Henry of murder. (“Daddy kills people,” are the actual words – not that that was creepy to hear as this puppet’s first spoken words or anything.)

Henry stands trial, during which he sees an apparition of Ann from when they first met. They sing their regret that they can’t return to the happiness they once shared, until the apparition is replaced by Ann’s vengeful spirit, who promises to haunt Henry in prison. After his sentencing (it’s not clear what the sentence was, but Henry definitely isn’t going free), Annette is brought to see him once in prison. Speaking fully for the first time, she declares she can’t forgive her parents for using her: Henry for exploiting her voice for profit and Ann for presumably using her to take vengeance on Henry. (Yes, this is why she was an inanimate doll moving on strings up to this point – there was some meaning in that strange, strange artistic choice. She was the puppet of her parents’ respective egotisms.) The puppet of Annette is abruptly replaced by a real girl in this scene, finally enabling two-sided interaction and a long-missed genuine connection between her and Henry, which made this quite the emotional catharsis. (SPOILER #2) It concludes with Annette still unwilling to forgive or forget what her parents have done, and swearing never to sing again. She says Henry now has “no one to love.” He appeals, “Can’t I love you, Annette?” She replies, “No, not really.” Henry embraces her one last time before a guard takes her away and Henry is left alone.

…..Yes, that is the end. It left me with major emotional whiplash, after the whole film up to this point kept pulling itself back from the total bleak and dark by starting up a new toe-tapping, mildly silly tune every few minutes. But this last scene instead ends on a brutal note of harsh, unforgiving silence.

BUT! Make sure you stick around through the credits, when you see the cast walking through a forest together. (This is counterpart to the film’s opening, when you see the cast walking through LA singing “So May We Start?” directly to the audience) Definitely pay attention to catch Adam chasing/playing with the little girl actress who plays Annette! That imparts a much nicer feeling to leave the theater with. :’)

[prose-for-hire]

Sticky Situation

Pairing: Spike x Wyndam-Pryce!Reader

Request: Kinda vague request but, I'd love to see a Spike x Wyndham-Pryce!Reader set in S5 of Angel. Maybe reader's a former watcher sibling duo with Wesley, maybe Wesley's a parental figure? Idk, Go nuts!

Requested by: 🦋🗡️ anon

A/N: I went for former watcher siblings !! I hope this is okay !!💖🖤

Angel announced to his team that he had drafted in some outside help. You were on contract to Wolfram and Hart to assist them track this demon that could teleport. You just so happened to have the exact device and knowledge on how to use it that they needed.

Angel contacted you, he had heard that you were on the side of good from word of mouth and so was happy to ask you to join his team for a moment. It was just lucky you had moved to LA already.

You used a different last name on documents less your father finally track you down through his council connections so when he had hired you, he hadn’t realised who you were. Just that you were known for being incredibly talented at tracking demons. A sort of rogue demon Hunter, if you will.

You walked into the large office space and two people immediately recognised you.

“Y/n?” They both asked at the same time before frowning and looking at each other in confusion.

Suspicion began to grow in the air. From all sides. Nobody could put together how somebody that looked the way you did could have a life that crossed paths with both Spike and Wesley.

“Huh, small world” you muttered. As if this wasn’t the most ridiculous coincidence of all time. Stood before you, along with the rest of Angel’s core team who you were yet to be introduced to, were both your brother and the vampire you had been seeing recently.

“Anyone wanna fill us in?” Angel looked between the three of you. He was expecting some drama, there always was with his team involved.

Wes and Spike started to speak at the same time, talking over each other, both stopped and squinted at each other. They both about to open their mouths to speak again when you cut in.

“Wes is my brother and Spike, well, Spike’s my-“

“Special friend, right love?”

Wesley and Angel shared an eye roll at his phrasing. But the room around you appeared to relax. You weren’t evil, that was the main thing. Wesley didn’t really know what to make of what was happening he just stared at you.

“We’ve been dating” you corrected him before your brother popped a blood vessel.

You and Spike had met at a strip club six months ago. You were there because a shapeshifting demon with a taste for male arousal (and subsequently flesh) was prowling the area. He would insist he was there for the same reason although you knew for a fact he was about to be the next hapless victim.

You had teased him about it and he had looked at you for a moment before offering to buy you a drink. It had only got better from there.

You had nodded your hello to Wesley, you hadn’t seen him in a while. Both of you had hit the ground running since you managed to escape your childhood home lives and barely looked back since. You did call each other for birthdays and to check in every couple of months (usually when you moved to a new place).

Spike was surprised you were related to Wesley, it hadn’t been obvious to him. Despite the family resemblance that was clear now you were in the same room. And how your speech pattern changed back to match his now that you were speaking with him.

“We both trained as Watchers together” Wesley added, informing the room about the connection you had. He had never mentioned a sibling and so everyone was suddenly very interested and looking between you both to catch the similarity.

“It could get competitive” You grinned fondly. You and Wes had to make it at least a little entertaining or you would have both died of boredom.

“Bloody hell, you used to be a watcher?” Spike asked, looking at you as if you were an alien.

“It was, uh, expected of us. Wyndam-Price family tradition.” Wesley said, his voice devoid of emotion.

“Don’t remind me” you added and Wes nodded once in understanding.

Angel soon moved talk along to why you had been there and a brief overview of who was working with who. He finished and people began to filter back to the departments they worked in until you needed them later.

You eventually moved to greet Wes properly after you were introduced to the other members of the team. You smiled at him. You had been closer when you were growing up, you had to be. You relied on each other and he often felt he had to protect you because he was older.

He had always had this protective streak he had just never revealed it to you so clearly. There had been people in your youth he had confronted, getting himself mercilessly tormented in your place.

He muttered something about wishing he had known you had moved here. That he worried about you when he didn’t hear from you which you

He became embarrassed at his admittance and instead changed the subject. Talk turned immediately, as it usually would, to the task at hand. Wesley described the details of the why and the what. And you provided the where best to look and the how.

After a few days on the job you were settling in seamlessly. Angel even began to consider asking you to join the team full time seeing as you already had a few connections here. You explained that your device would work its magic and you would walk around at night to try and get a better signal.

It had also given peace of mind to Angel over something he had been worrying about. Recently, Spike went missing for days on end (especially on a weekend) and Angel had been concerned that he was up to something. Turning back to evil ways. But he had just been spending a lot of time with you. You weren’t used to spending this much time with someone, you rarely stayed in one place longer than a few months. So this was something special.

It was a dream having you working in the same office. He made sure that everyone knew you were together. His hand often curled around your waist. He pressed absent-minded kisses against your temple when the others were talking. And he definitely convinced you to sneak away into the store cupboard more than once.

You being a temporary part of the team was actually doing wonders for your relationship. You were connecting on a much deeper level. One he had thought he would never feel with another person again.

He liked to be with you, by your side. He was quite clingy but he played it off very cool. You enjoyed it though, he adored you and you matched his feelings so easily. It didn’t get in the way either, you were both still ready for a fight anything that came your at any time. You complimented each other so well.

You were stood in Wesley’s office, debating your brother on some light reading. Well, it was light to the two of you considering you had been watchers. It was just a waiting game now, your device was trying to latch onto the demon you were looking for and you couldn’t do anything until then.

Spike stalked in while you were talking. He didn’t knock and slid a hand against your waist, pulling you against him so your hips connected. You were still talking as he did this, the movement becoming so natural between you both. Spike truly was someone that made you comfortable. And Wes noted this. But raised his eyebrows at you in that way he always had when he tried to pull rank on you for being the older brother.

You smiled as Spike had been oblivious to what this look meant. You leaned in and kissed his cheek, whispering that you needed to speak to your brother alone for a moment. He shrugged, leaning in to catch your lips before insisting he had wanted to go and annoy Gun anyway.

“Charlie boy!” you could hear Spike shouting through the glass trying to locate him. You sat on Wes’ desk for a moment before the conversation you had been expecting since you arrived started.

“Spike? Really?” Your brother questioned when he had walked away.

“We’re adults now, Wesley. I can make my own decisions on who I wish to date” Not to mention you had heard of his relationship with someone called Lilah. It was hot office gossip and she sounded like bad news.

“Your taste was always disastrous. But – Spike?”

“What? Come on, he’s a very pretty man” You offered with a teasing smile. You both looked through the glass to watch him talking animatedly to Gunn about something.

“I’m sure I wouldn’t care to comment” He looked back down at the book you had been discussing. You smiled, walking around to where he was sat.

“Oh, brother. Do you need your glasses cleaning?” You teased further, reaching for his glasses, “Look, here-”

“Remove your hand or else” he swatted at you.

“Or else? Are we back in prep school?” You laughed and he joined you. It was nice to see you again he couldn’t help feel guilty he hadn’t made more of an effort to reach you. He always waited for you to call him.

Your laughter died down after a while and you finished your discussion. You eventually felt Spike’s eyes on the back of your head, he was becoming a lot softer and liked to be by your side a lot more visibly. So, you got up telling Wes you would swing by again later.

“Y/n?” he asked just as you got to the door.

“Yeah?”

“I meant what I said, I worry - please, be careful” He frowned at his admittance. You matched him. You weren’t usually the types to say things like that outright. You were a lot more affectionate towards each other than your parents had been. But him saying this was new.

Maybe he had really meant it when he told you it would be nice if you stayed in LA a few days ago. You usually travelled. Didn’t stay in one place much (less your parents get a hold of you somehow). You did miss Wes and now you had even more reason to stay.

You rushed back over to him and hugged him, almost bowling him over. He shook his head but he was smiling slightly reciprocating the hug.

He then watched you slink over to Spike and he rolled his eyes getting back to his paperwork. It really wasn’t entertainment to him to watch you flirting with a formerly evil vampire. It was neither new or original. He had watched people do this with Angel for the last four years.

The though of having Spike as a brother in-law was almost shudder-inducing but he didn’t mind so much. Because at least it meant he wouldn’t lose touch with his sibling again.

Later that afternoon, you and Spike were stood laughing over an anecdote he had told about Angel when something in your back pocket began to light up. The device. The demon.

Your eyes widened. You had located it. This was the good bit. You wouldn’t even have to go to the demon, the demon would be coming right to you.

The device could act as a homing beacon for whenever the demon was in range. You pressed the button, nodding wordlessly to Spike who began to rally everyone of the main team out of their respective offices. You could communicate wordlessly with him. You were a team, the two of you.

He watched you take control of the room. He had always known you were incredible at your job but he was in awe watching you being so commanding. Making sure everyone was blocking off the exits. You were directing the room and ensuring everything was just so.

The demon arrived and tried to teleport but the room was now preventing it from doing so. You braced yourself as it tried to fight, ducking as it threw staplers and office equipment your way to try to distract you.

You dialled the button on your device all the way up and everyone else covered their ears. They knew the plan. The frequency was set so that the demon would hear a very high pitched noise. You had advised Lorne to stay out of rage just in case but it wasn’t fatal to humans. It just made your ears ring for a few days after.

The demon combusted. But not without leaving its last ploy against the team. It exploded, leaving gallons of thick sticky goo propelled around the room (much more than appeared could conceivably fit inside its body).

The entire room was covered. Everyone was drenched in the green liquid. Nobody had escaped.

Your eyes widened, you had forgotten about that part. You wiped your face as the rest of the room did. Angel sighed, shaking his head at the mess but the rest of the room congratulated you between their collective ‘ews’. You noticed your brother’s nod of approval. The demon would have killed large swathes of the population had you not done it.

Spike, however, had the most enthusiastic congratulations of all. He launched himself at you, his lips on yours despite the sticky situation everyone had found themselves in. He just loved you so much and seeing you that way, he wasn’t even sure what came over him. He just wanted to show you how he felt. He lips moved against yours, with such immeasurable feeling. His hand cupping your face as you slid your hands up his back adoringly. You pressed yourselves closer together.

Everyone was still complaining but you and Spike didn’t care. You kissed through the sticky goo that plastered everywhere. You even kissed through the rest of the office making their passive aggressive comments at the water cooler.

You really could see yourself sticking around this time. For good.

[sunnnfish]

Rambling about tbhk thoughts & theories n stuff

Hi I’m thinking too much about how much is still unanswered in tbhk :) this is all over the place but i tried to organize it a little bit but it is very very ramble-y and it might not make much sense. Please feel free to talk to me i have so many thoughts (but also not many answers)

I also bolded some of my favorite thoughts for maybe easier reading

(Also crazy spoilers about literally everything watch out)

Gonna put it all under a cut bc its long but please read 🥺 i talk about like straight up everything and everyone (tsukasa, Sakura, natsuhiko, amane, tsukasa, nene, kou, mitsuba + what is going on with them)

Tsukasa, Sakura, natsuhiko:

Okay so like why did tsukasa only recently appear after supposedly being dead for like 50 years cause like hanakos been around yknow ? Does it have something to do with the seal? Cause like tsukasa is clearly very clingy to hanako so you’d think he’d stick by him as soon as they died but they apparently hadn’t seen each other in a long time. and how did Sakura get into like a contract or whatever with him ? and why can natsuhiko see and interact with supernaturals ? Natsuhiko is so weird what is his deal. why in the world does he know how to turn into a supernatural ???

GASP i just had a thought so like tsukasa says he only grants wishes for the dead so like how would Sakura get into some kind of deal with him if she’s alive? She could be dead but idk it kinda does and kinda doesn’t work.

Hanako, tsukasa, seals:

And as for hanako and tsukasa like when did they get those seals and why ??? And like during the part where kou asks yako about rumors being changed hanako at the end like touches the seal on his cheek and ?????? What does that MEAN ??? Did he have to get sealed because his rumor was changed ? Like what was that about ??? Also why in the world are hanako and tsukasa so powerful? They are so strong and its crazy. Also I REALLY wanna know what hanakos boundary and yorishiro are and what purpose his boundary serves.

Tsukasa, plans, rumors:

Also why is tsukasa changing the rumors ? Is he trying to like kill the 7 wonders or what ? Or remove them from power cause like yknow breaking their yorishiros removes their control over the boundary and like he did straight up kill number 3 to put mitsuba in control so does he want to do that with all of them? He also keeps messing with nene and like why.... i just wanna know his plan...

Also how come they haven’t like put anyone else in charge of the boundaries after their yorishiros got broke? Also also why is hanako the leader despite being like the youngest like what did he do ??? He is also pretty bent on breaking the yorishiros too like couldn’t they just change the rumors instead of breaking the yorishiros? Like they did with the mokke? I think hanako has some other agenda too.

Amane:

Also thinking about if tsuchigomori knew about tsukasa ... like when amane was alive yknow like where was tsukasa ? Did he go to school? Was he in a different class or what ?? Also did amane immediately kill himself after he killed tsukasa or did he like go on for a bit afterwards ?

I’ve also had a little theory about the whole “I’m not going anywhere” scene, so like amane gives his lunar rock, that he has had and treasured since he was 4, to tsuchigomori and that seems a little odd to me, but its seems especially like su*cidal behavior yknow? If someone’s got a plan to, yknow, die, then they sometimes start acting different and start giving away things that are important to them. I’ve also seen recent theories about how maybe tsukasa got them involved with something supernatural while they were alive so maybe amane was like planning to die or something... and I’m also still super intrigued that amane was the only human to defy what was written in their book, and it makes me wonder about what was written in tsukasas book, like was he supposed to die? Was it written in amane’s book that he killed tsukasa or was that different too?

The severance:

Also thinking about the whole lead up to the severance and like how that went down—like number 6 shows up and kidnaps Aoi of all people and like sacrifices her and stuff and it all makes me wonder if hanako planned it? Like he clearly thinks the severance is a good thing and that aoi being sacrificed extended nene’s lifespan so like did he plan it? Did he ask number 6 to do a sacrifice cause like they haven’t done that in YEARS like why would they suddenly do it again? Number 6’s rumor hadn’t been changed or anything so there was no reason to do that (unless i missed something).

Red house, mitsuba:

And then there’s the freaking RED HOUSE like my goodness like what does it have to do with mitsuba??? Why did he have a picture of it? Why was the picture black until nene found it? Like the house is cursed and it seems like the picture might be too, since nene and kou mysteriously showed up at the house. There’s of course all the theories that its probably the yugi family and that it might be connected to Nowhere now so that’s fun but I still really wanna know what this has to do with Mitsuba

OH i also just remembered yknow like at the beginning of the hell of mirrors arc mitsuba is like different mitsuba and doesn’t remember anything but at one point nene mentions hanako and he like reacts like “hanako?” Like he knows the name but like stuff keeps happening so that’s quickly forgotten BUT like what does that MEAN !! Why does he know hanako !!! When he’s not supposed to remember like anything !!!! Zdfghgjhfdhfj

Oh also also what in the world happened to mitsubas arm and why does he keep it hidden?? It clearly still works cause like he grips things but he still keeps it hidden so ??? Also like his eye too idk if something happened to it or if its stylistic but its only shown vaguely like once or twice, and in scenes where he’s alive it’s much more visible so ?

Nene:

I also think nene is totally gonna die or at least turn into a supernatural somehow because like so much official art and stuff really points to it. With like pictures of the four (nene, hanako, kou, mitsuba), nene is always tied in with hanako and mitsuba while kou is shown separately or with different motifs. The ones that really come to mind is the one where nene, hanako, and mitsuba and tied together with a rope, it being tied around mitsubas neck, hanakos chest, and nenes leg, while kou is positioned away from them. With the recent chapter with that dolls leg coming off and like the references to dolls n stuff like i think something crazy is gonna happen to her leg at least. The other one that comes to mind is the one with the four pictures of their middle school entrance ceremonies, where hanakos, mitsubas, and nenes families faces are scribbled out, while kous is fine. At first you think it’s because teru and tiara are like actual characters, but in amane’s and tsukasa’s, one of their faces is scribbled out too so its not about whether or not we know the character. So like nene is continuously shown with the same symbolism as the supernaturals soooo....

Kou:

Also thinking about how kou was WAY to ready to die for mitsuba like he’s 14 !!! And do y’all realize he ACTUALLY for REAL fell off the building right then and there, not expecting mitsuba to save them ! He was fully ready to die at the drop of a hat and as much as it shows how much he cares about mitsuba like that is not healthy babey. Like think about yourself for once kou, stop hurting yourself to help others !!! People care you !!! (I’m people)

Misc:

And then i still have thoughts about the minamoto family but mostly i just wanna know more about their family and history like where are their parents ? Also that reveal that teru like protects the whole town was like crazy.

Oh also gotta wonder like why so many of the ghosts are attached to the school ?? Like i dont think any of them actually died at the school so why do they haunt the school? Shijima died at a hospital, mitsuba died like in the town supposedly, and we dont know about the yugis but idk how they would have a knife at the school unless they were doing some kind of after hours ritual. Also no adult ghosts.... all the adults are pure supernaturals.... hm.

Anyways that’s all i can think of right now and its a lot :) I’m so sorry

[marvels-writings]

Ah omg idk what to request! All your work is so good, keep it up! The sister reader with Carol was super cute so could you do one with that pairing where they get into a fight or r gets in trouble with Carol & they’re distant for a while, then make up and cuddle + fluff + ahhh thx! :)

A/N: I made it so that the reader is the adopted sis for extra angst. This might be my last drabble before exams, so so sorry. And i gave so much of a backstory for this, sorry. But this backstory is going to be the backstory for any and all Sister!carol x reader drabbles.

Not learning how to walk without making a sound might be one of your biggest regrets. The fight you just got into half an hour ago, your worst regret now.

It was honestly one of the dumbest fights, some idiot was shit talking all of the avengers, he blamed them for Thanos, the snap, everything. All because it cost him his girlfriend, he decided it was alright to blame everyone who died so he could come back.

Needless to say, you couldn’t keep a hold on your anger and got into a fight. Ignoring the fact he had 3 people with him, so it was a 4 v 1. Not the fairest of odds, you got out alright thanks to some police coming by. Only a couple of punches were thrown, not too bad, but Carol was going to overreact.

You knew for a fact she was going to overreact. Carol, Maria and you had known each other since Air Force times, you’d practically become siblings. When they found out you were homeless, Maria took you in almost instantly. Carol would help you with practically everything. After the snap, you’d moved in with the avengers, helping them the best you could. You were closer with Carol than you were with Maria, so the two of you had bought a shared house in the suburbs near the compound. You visited Maria and Monica often, but this was your home now.

“Hey you’re home!” Carol said, walking into the kitchen where you were hastily washing your face of the blood. You froze up, you thought she would be at a mission. SHit.

“Um yeah.” You replied, burying your face in the towel, the towel came away a little pink. You quickly put it behind your back as you saw Carol head over you your things.

“This, this is blood,” She faced you, the sleeve of your jacket in her hand. Her eyes went wider, her shoulders tensed when she saw the bruises on your face. “What the hell happened?” She demanded, letting the sleeve of the jacket fall.

“Some idiot, I just-” You began to explain, avoiding her gaze.

“Look at me.” Carol growled, you complied. If you were honest, you were absolutely terrified, this was the angriest you have ever seen her. Well, you were the most beaten up she’s ever seen you.

“How, why?” She asked, her voice cracking at the last word.

“They were shit talking my family.” You stated, trying to look in her eyes with some confidence. The two of you knew you referred to the Avengers and Maria as your family often, this time you were trying to soften her by calling the avengers your family.

“They?” Carol raised an eyebrow, you winced slightly. “How many?”

“Four.”

A few seconds, there was no reaction, Carol’s hard face didn’t flicker, you stood where you were, keeping your weight off your bad leg. Her eyes flicked down to your bad leg, then sighed deeply, sitting down at the table.

“y/n/n, we’ve been over this.” She buried her face in her hands, refusing to look at you.

“Yeah, but-”

“NO!” She yelled, you couldn’t help but flinch slightly as you saw her hands start to glow slightly. “There are no buts y/n, how many times do I have to tell you not to get into fights!”

Getting increasingly scared of your sister as she continued practically screaming at you angrily didn’t help you. A few times, you tried to justify your actions, but it led to Carol becoming even more frustrated, her hands glowing brighter. You ended up backing into the counter, intimidated by how angry she was getting.

“Car, I’m really sorry,” You tried apologizing for the millionth time, your chest starting to constrict as emotions swirled in your head.

“No y/n, I can’t leave you alone for a week without you getting into some sort of trouble.” She yelled angrily.

“Well, you left me for months on end before so why do you even care?!” You accused, sick of being shouted at. Carol visibly flinched at your words, something was telling you to stop, but you ignored it.

“Because you’re my sister y/n/n.” She said, slightly softer once she realized she had pushed you too far.

“No you’re not.” You seethed, the emotions swirling in your chest going to your head in the form of anger. “You’re not my sister.” You growled, then marched out of the living room into your room.

Carol followed you, but you had practically sprinted into your room, refusing to talk to her.

Slamming the door shut, then sitting down in front of it Incase carol tried to break it lose.

The tightness in your chest got too much, it came out in the form of tears. They streamed down your face as you buried your head into your knees. You vaguely heard Carol whispering to you from the other side of the door for some time.

You really were sorry, you didn’t want to argue with Carol, especially after getting punched. You loved her like a sister, and she loved you just the same. Carol couldn’t stand to see you or Maria hurt, so she would always overreact but, it was just too much

-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-

It had been a week since this last happened. The two of you had barely spoken, despite living in the same place. What you’d said had hurt carol too much, but you wouldn’t apologize. As much as it hurt you too, you didn’t want to apologize.

Hearing loud thuds the second you walked in the door was NOT what you expected. It sent you in a state of panic almost immediately.

A million different scenarios flooded into your mind as you headed towards where the sound was coming from, throwing your things on the table. You rushed to where the sound was coming from, it sounded like the basement.

It sounded like, well skin hitting leather, repeatedly, hard. You walked into the basement, to find carol being the one hitting her punching bag over and over.

She was wearing a oversized t shirt, your t shirt. And her usual sweatpants. Her hair was tied into a messy bun as sweat glistened off of her body.

This wasn’t an unusual sight, it had happened before when something went wrong or she was angry. But she always did it with gloves, even if that meant just a piece of cloth wrapped around her hands.

This time, her usual blue and white punching bag had red stains.

“Carol what the hell.” You muttered, running over to her.

You checked over her knuckles, they were bleeding badly and a bit bruised everywhere. Carol looked almost shocked as you checked over her.

“Cmon lets,” you took in a breath. “Let’s get you cleaned up.”

You gently pulled her towards the staircase and into the living room. After telling her to sit on the couches, you ran to the bathroom to get your first aid kit, then sprinted back to clean her up.

-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-

Once her knuckles were bandaged, you thought it was about time you apologized or at least talked about your relationship.

“There.” You said, after wrapping the gauze around her hand.

Carol looked at the gauze, gently turning her hands to see the wrapping better. You sat there slightly awkwardly, then quickly put the equipment back into the first aid kit.

“Carol, can we talk?” You asked timidly, sitting cross legged on the couch facing her. She looked up at you and nodded slightly. “Look, I am.” You took in a deep breath.

“I’m really sorry for what I said,” You apologized, thought of taking her hands, then decided against it and pushed Carol’s hair out of her eyes instead.

She looked up at you with a look of pure guilt. Then pulled you into a hug without warning. It wasn’t the bone crushing I’m sorry hug, or the “I’m sorry too” hug, it was just an “it’s okay” soft hug and it felt nice.

You wrapped your arms around her as well, nuzzling your head into her shoulder. Carol squeezed you slightly, she hadn’t said much since you’d helped bandage her but you got the idea this was an explanation.

“Forgive me?” You asked, pulling away from the hug with a soft, apologetic smile on your face.

“Of course,” she answered softly, mirroring your smile. “Sister.” She added with a small smirk.

You returned the smirk and gave her a high five, instantly regretting it when you saw her wince. Carol put on a movie to distract the two of you, but you were lost in your thoughts.

Even though you said Carol wasn’t your sister, you knew she actually was. She was there for you no matter what happened in a way no one else was.

You couldn’t help but think of a quote, “When everything goes to hell, the people who stand by you without flinching -- they are your family. ” -Jim Butcher.

Carol was your family, she was there for you and you for her. You snuggled into her slightly, she wrapped her arm around your shoulders as you continued watching the movie.

You made a promise to yourself to never hurt carol like this again. Well, hurt your relationship like this. Because whenever life was down, your family always had your back.

A/N: this was sooo sappy. Anyway I’m sorry if it’s bad (only child, not sure how to write siblings) but I tried. And this might be my last drabble since exams are tomorrow. Wish me luck, anyway feedback is amazing, thank you!

[imacrowcawcaw]

Treasure Ch. 1 (Penntin)

(Ao3)

Pairing: “Penny” Adiyodi/Quentin Coldwater, past Penny/Pearl Sunderland, past Quentin/Alice Quinn, background Margo & Eliot

Fandom: The Magicians (TV)

Length of series: who knows

Warnings/tags: magic (like duh), universe alterations, canon divergence (obviously), spells gone wrong, magic rituals, slow build, enemies to friends to lovers, first kiss, first time, snuggling and cuddling, Penny is very physically affectionate believe it or not, attempted humor, fluff, angst, smut, happy ending

Summary: 

Quentin fucks up a spell (Penny may or may not have also helped/hindered).

Quentin is the reason Penny can’t see unless he’s hugging him and also why everything smells like the Bog of Eternal Stench.

Quentin’s run-amuck brain brings all sorts of problems to the table.

Quentin is starting to make Penny feel funny in his chest (and his pants). 

Fuck Quentin, man.

Author’s Notes: I’m nearly through season one and am also not willing to put in hours of research on this universe’s magical rituals, so -- keep that in mind, I guess. That being said, I am in LOVE with this show and also this pairing. 78 stories on ao3?!? Fair, but sad…. I am falling hard and fast for Penntin (idk the ship name). So I had to write out everything in my brain. So here. Plays off of some the other fics on here, particularly “Practical applications of falling in love” -- kudos to you, @echomoon, that was amazing and I can’t stop thinking on the concept!! 

----------

The smell was everywhere. It burned through Penny’s nose like it had a personal vendetta against every single one of his nostril hairs (which, it had been kindly pointed out a few years ago by a bitch who will remain unnamed, numbered quite a few. Especially visible when underneath him, which almost everyone was in this apparent plane of Hobbits. Right, moving on. Bitch.)

He covered his nose with his hands, then the scarf wrapped loosely around his neck - purple silk, today - but the smell just kept coming and coming until he was nearly choking. 

In the back of his mind, Penny could feel the waves of panic, frustration, and disgust coming off of Quentin fucking Coldwater in a mixture much similar to what he was feeling. More panic, or course, cause the guy was a walking circus accident, and some various streams of babbling mind diarrhea lamenting about the awful smell. Surprisingly, the guy had a vocabulary Penny could almost be impressed by. But he was much more focused on himself and his dying nose, no matter how insistent Quentin’s feelings were.

And Penny would like to point out that he never willingly associated with that geek. It was always outside forces convening to push them together, whether in a study group or room assignments or the weird-ass plot against their lives that somehow connected Mothman and cursed daggers and creepy pedaphilic authors (that he would have liked to punch in the face).

Of course, that ever-present, invisible asshole (fate, god, the Dean; what did he care?) pushed them together yet again with more disastrous results. 

Like them being together in the same room at all.

Like them being paired up to do spell work.

Like them fucking it up. 

The disastrous fucking results he just knew were going to happen were, apparently, this smell. He had scented some pretty bad (literal) shit in his lifetime, but nothing compared to the absolute atrocity that was Quentin bungling a simple ass locator spell. 

“Oh, my god!”

And that was the fucking idiot, desperately clutching his ever-present baggy shirt over his face like it would do some good against it. Magical stenches did not, as it appeared, let themselves be blocked out so easily. 

Penny rolled his eyes - watering like a baby’s, he might add - and made his way over to a window on the backside of the class, pounding at the frame with his fist when it wouldn’t fucking budge. 

Stupid Quentin, going and burning his nose because he couldn’t fucking concentrate on anything other than Alice’s tits. Bet he had something to do with the stuck window, too. 

“Come ON, fucking open!” Penny muttered. 

He was desperate for fresh air. He would beg and cry if he had to - his eyes were already crying, and also did he mention fuck this? - but he just needed this goddamn window to open up, so if he could just get the latch to jiggle a little more to the left-

Aha! Fresh air!

Penny stuck his head out of the window and breathed in deeply, opening his mouth as wide as it would go like a dog on a car ride. He gulped and drank in the life-giving oxygen -- but, but it was-

“-ON’T PENNY! GET AWAY FROM THERE!”

Ugh, Quentin. Trust him to fuck up not only the air inside the classroom but the whole fucking campus as well. He would have to be funding the entire infirmary at this point. 

Sighing (and then retching), Penny pulled back to shut the window and noticed something real fucking peculiar. And creepy. 

Either he had been blinded by the horrible smell - and it was that bad, he wasn’t immediately discounting the theory - or a thick fucking fog had rolled in while Penny wasn’t paying attention. Cause he couldn't see anything. All across his field of vision was grey -- actually, it was more of a murky blue than grey, and it was moving at a surprising speed for having no conceivable end to it. And it was so thick (like Quentin, god Penny was going to fucking kill him).

“Penny! Please get away from the window!”

Quentin was pleading with him now, and Penny almost felt bad about how scared he sounded -- not entirely, though; that voice crack was hilarious. Idiot fucking deserved to be scared. Look what he had done!

He turned around to tell him just that, except for, uh, he couldn’t see him. The fog was in the room. 

The podium near Penny’s left side was a vaguely visible outline, and the front lab table even less so -- man, don’t even get him started on the desks and chairs. There was nothing. He could be in Fillory for all he knew- oh. Hell to the fucking no.

“Quentin!” He roared, “Where the fuck are we?!”

“Wh- what do you mea-- here! We’re in class! Where the hell are you?”

So that was a relief, if a disappointing one (those were called oxymorons, right? Fits. Quentin was a moron who was causing him to run out of fucking oxygen.)

“I’m by the window, dumbass! Trying to get some fresh fucking air, cause you fucking destroyed it all and replaced it with dog shit!”

This is worse than dog shit.

Oh god-fucking-damn. He did not need Quentin’s thoughts right now. Penny carefully moved forward, sweeping one foot in an arch across his path before he stepped down. 

He figured Quentin was doing the same, because he heard the rambling oh fuck what was that where am I where’s Penny I’m such an idiot oh my god was that a rat streaming through his head as Coldwater, clearly, let all his wards down in an effort to fully concentrate on navigation and breathing. 

This once, Penny couldn’t quite blame him for devoting all of his energy to the task at hand instead of blocking him off -- but it was still annoying. He was so good at concentrating and yet Quentin managed to get into his brain clear as glass. And he was so fucking annoying. 

“Fuck, Coldwater! Shut the hell up!” Penny sighed and paused, running a hand over his hair. The waves of panic were increasing. “Just stay where you are and I’ll come to you. But stop thinking, please.”

“Yeah, okay- oh! Ow, fuck…”

There was a loud crash and then Quentin's pained noises as he clearly ran into some sort of furniture. Penny sighed again. What idiot had let this guy anywhere near a spellbook? (Nevermind how powerful he occasionally was -- that didn’t make up for stupidity.)

Penny breathed deeply - the one meditation practice he admitted could help, if only to calm him down - and kept making his slow way across the room. He was pretty sure that he was in the center of the room now, but he also knew that not being able to see made distances seem much longer than they were. 

He took another step and ended up tripping over the same goddamn chair Quentin had apparently ran into, because his body landed on another guy’s that made a pathetic “ow” noise again. 

“Jesus Christ, Quent, you could of at least picked yourself back up off of… the…. floor,” he slowly trailed off, looking around. 

There was no more fog. There was no more burning smell. The classroom was exactly like it was before they had started the chant -- empty desks and chairs left behind by all the people who didn’t have slow idiot’s for lab partners, wood paneling that tried and failed to look classy, and the front lab table covered in various magical instruments. 

“What the hell?”

Quentin sat up underneath him - as much as he could - rubbing his nose and sniffing deeply. Penny agreed. The air felt amazing, like a soothing balm on his poor, abused air canals. 

He quickly realized that there was still a geek that was responsible for all this mess half-lying on the floor underneath his body, and that someone could walk in at any moment. So that was un-fucking-desirable, in multiple ways (ugh, Quentin. Just thinking about him made Penny shudder.)

With a quick brace of his arms, Penny bolted upright and took several steps away from the nerd -- back into the fog and the awful smell. 

“Ah!”

He looked around, confused and pissed off. Was this some kind of joke the kid was trying to pull on him? 

Penny tried to do a simple fire spell, then again, and again; each time more desperately than the last. Nothing. It was like the fog was muting his magic -- it was curling in scarily tentacle-like clouds around his hands, engulfing them in dense smoke and snuffing out any sparks he could have produced. 

Now Penny was panicking a little. 

He was still mostly pissed off, mostly- extremely pissed at Quentin, possibly more than he ever had been before, and frustrated with just a twinge of panic at the absence of his magic; the opposite of the nervous nellie probably still huddled around a chair leg on the floor. 

Something grabbed at his foot, and, suddenly, the smell and fog had gone away again. He could breathe and see and there was a rather large flame coming from his hands, a culmination of the previously snuffed flames all working together to express his rage through fire. 

When he looked down, Quentin was actually clinging to his foot, not a chair, and looking very nervous. What was new. Penny tried to kick him off and succeeded after a moment, the blueness invading so suddenly he didn’t even notice the smell for a second. 

Then it was gone, again - he was gonna get whiplash from this shit - and Quentin was hugging his leg, again. This time he looked more sheepish than nervous, and it made Penny want to kick him in the face. 

(Ch. 2 on Tumblr)

“I, uh- I think that the fog and the smell only happens when we’re not touching each other.”

What. 

Well, it made sense considering the last three minutes of god dicking with the light switch - not to mention Quentin’s history of idiocracy and miss-castings, but-. Come on.

“Coldwater, I. Am. Going. To. Fucking. Kill. You.”

-----

(Ch. 2 on Tumblr)

[retrocelly]

Jealousy (Nolan Patrick)

A/N: I heard a rumor that Nolan is rough in bed and honestly it’s ruined my life so here’s this

Warnings: smut. like all of it. rough/kinkier?? idk

Word count: 2,850

     When you first met Nolan, you’d tagged him as the quiet, gentle type. It hadn’t taken you long to figure out that you were only half right. Nolan was quiet, that much was certain, but he was not - in any way - gentle. You’d started this thing that you had with him a couple of months ago. Since then, it had been the balance of trying to get some emotion out of him without overstepping the boundaries of your relationship. Up until this point, Nolan would drop by when he felt like it, the two of you would hook up, and he’d be gone by morning.  You’d see him at some events - seeing as your best friend was dating his teammate - but you two kept the relationship a secret and he avoided talking to you outside of the bedroom. 

     Tonight though, you wanted to push the envelope. You wanted to see just how close you could get him to breaking without actually breaking him. Since he was just like many other 20 year olds, you figured that the easiest way to do that would be to make him jealous. Nolan wasn’t the best at concealing his anger, you’d seen it on the ice multiple times and figured that getting a rise out of him might just lead to a fun night. Either that, or you blow any chance that you had at taking your relationship with Nolan further. Eh, 50-50 chance, right?

     Your best friend picked you up to go the club where you’d be meeting the team, greeting you with a large a grin. The pair of you talked happily until you got the the club, walking back to the VIP section where the team was waiting. Nolan noticed you quickly, nodding his head in your direction without a word. You mingled for a minute, greeting some of the boys and settling in between your friend and TK. It wasn’t long before Travis got up to refill his drink, and that was when you set your plan in motion. You leaned up quickly to grab TK’s wrist gently, causing him to turn your direction.

     “Would you mind getting me something while you’re up?” You asked a little too quietly from where you were seated, your hand still resting on Travis’ arm.

      He knelt to your height and leaned in closer to you. You repeated your request, this time your lips were much closer to his ear so that he could hear you over the music. TK nodded at you before going to retrieve your drinks. You turned back to your friend as if nothing had happened, but out of the corner of your eye, you could see Nolan’s jaw clench as his gaze stayed trained on you. 

     By the time that TK had gotten back with your drink, you were completely immersed in the conversation happening around you. So much so that he had to place his hand on your back to get your attention. Nolan noticed. You thanked Travis with a smile, making sure to hold eye contact for a bit longer than normal as he sat next to you again. As the night progressed, you were leaning into TK a bit more, touching his arm at any given chance, and generally hanging off of him. As some of the boys got up to go dance, Travis leaned close to you, his mouth nearly touching the spot just below your ear.

     “If you’re trying to make Patty jealous, it’s working. I think he’s gonna rip my head off any second now.” 

     You tried not to look surprised at his words, figuring that Nolan had probably told him of your relationship at some point.

     “Help me out?” You asked, turning your head slightly to meet his hesitant gaze. “C’mon, T, the sooner he breaks, the sooner I get out of your hair and you can go home with that blonde you’ve been eyeing.”

     It didn’t take long for Travis to contemplate, as he quickly put one hand on your waist, just low enough to draw suspicion. He continued to talk quietly into your ear. The conversation was normal, but to any outside party - Nolan included - your position would look pretty suggestive. You turned your head just enough to see Nolan, and it seemed your plan was working. His cheeks were enflamed, his jaw clenched tightly, and his eyes locked onto yours.

     “Is he looking?” Travis asked, his lips still close to your neck.

     “Mhm,” you responded, not taking your eyes off of Nolan’s, “just one more thing.”

    You turned around so that you were facing both TK and Nolan. You placed a hand high on Travis’ thigh. Looking at Nolan, you shot him a smile and a wink. That was it. Game over.

    Nolan stood up almost too quickly, drawing the attention of a few of his teammates. He strode over to you as you backed off of TK. He didn’t say anything as he passed you, merely gesturing for you to follow him. You did. You were vaguely aware of Travis whistling from behind you, but you payed him no mind - you would thank him later.

     By the time you got to Nolan’s car, you were concerned that you’d gone too far, seeing as he hadn’t even turned to look back at you. You climbed into the passenger seat, listening to Nolan let out a heavy sigh as he turned on the car and pulled out of the parking lot. You stared at the side of his face, but he kept his eyes on the road. Nolan’s knuckles were white from gripping the steering wheel so hard and he hadn’t seemed to let his foot off the gas pedal since he’d started the car. Without thinking, you leaned over the center console, placing a hand on Nolan’s leg and rubbing your thumb softly. You connected your lips to his jawline, laying soft kisses to his skin.

     Nolan seemed angrier from the gesture, though, and you could feel how tense he was as he sped down the road to his apartment. When he finally parked the car in its spot, he reached down to grip your wrist, which was still resting on his thigh. He turned his head toward you, his gaze intense and unwavering.

     “Go up to my room and strip down to your underwear. When I get there, I expect you to be on your knees on the floor.” Nolan’s deep voice resonated through the small space, sending a shiver down your spine. 

     You nodded at him before moving to get out of the car. However, Nolan kept hold of your wrist, causing you to stay seated.

     “I need you to use your words. Do you understand?” 

     “Yes, sir.” You responded quietly. Only then did Nolan release your arm and allow you to leave the car. 

     You hurried upstairs to Nolan’s bedroom, discarding your clothes on a chair by the wall. You mentally thanked yourself for wearing nice lingerie, although it probably wouldn’t be on you for much longer. Remembering Nolan’s instructions, you walked so you were in front of the base of his bed before dropping to your knees. You waited excitedly until you finally heard the sound of heavy footsteps approaching the door. 

     Nolan came in quickly, easily making eye contact with you. You smiled at him, half expecting him to praise you for listening. He did no such thing as he walked to stand in front of your kneeling figure. Instead, his reached for his belt, his hands moving too slowly for your liking to take the piece of leather off. You stayed still, watching impatiently as his fingers worked to undo the buckle. You looked up at him momentarily, about to ask him to hurry, when his unforgiving stare caused you to close your mouth. 

     Finally, he took off his belt, tossing it somewhere to the side. He made much quicker work of his zipper, quickly pulling it down so that the white of his boxers was visible. Only then did you make a move, looping your fingers over the waistband of his pants and underwear, pulling down until they pooled at his feet, his hard cock springing up. You wrapped your hand around the base, looking up at him for permission. He gave you a nod, and you got to work.

     You licked a long stripe up the underside of him, your free hand finding his balls to cup and roll. You then took his tip into your mouth, making circles with your tongue. Nolan let out a quiet groan of relief which only urged you to continue. You took as much of his cock into your mouth as you could, using your hand to pump the remaining length. You fell into a routine, hollowing your cheeks and bobbing your head. That was, until Nolan made your hair into a ponytail, pulling harshly for you to stop. You complied, looking up at him, his member still in your mouth as you awaited further instruction.

     “Hands.” He muttered, and you quickly dropped your hands to your lap.

     While still holding your hair, Nolan began to thrust into your mouth, causing you to gag slightly as he bottomed out. He didn’t seem to mind, continuing to fuck your face until you had tears streaming down your cheeks and you could feel wetness pool in your panties. His groans got more prominent and his movements became sloppier. You could tell that he was close.

     Without warning, Nolan pulled out of your mouth, releasing your hair. He dropped so that he was kneeling in front of you. He grabbed your jaw harshly so your lips involuntarily pouted, his eyes never leaving yours. 

     "Get onto the bed, face the headboard, hands and knees,” Nolan demanded, his voice raspier than before.

     You responded with a “yes, sir” just the way you knew he liked before following his instructions.

     From your place on his bed, you could hear him shuffle around until you felt the bed dip behind you. Nolan didn’t say anything, but you felt him rip away the fabric of your panties and you gasped at the sudden action. He ran a finger up your wet folds causing you to moan.

     “I haven’t even touched you yet,” Nolan teased, “and you’re already this wet?”

     You figured that you hadn’t had quite enough fun with him yet, shaking your head slowly.

     “‘Cause of Travis,” you muttered, not daring to look back at him.

     Nolan removed his hand quickly from your pussy, and you almost regretted your statement until you felt his hand come down sharply against your ass. You let out a squeal, jolting forward at the unexpected contact. He repeated his actions four more times, each slap seeming harder than the last. By the time he’d finished, you had tears pricking your eyes again and could practically feel yourself dripping onto the bed below you. Nolan leaned forward, wrapping his hand around your neck and pulling you up so that your were leaning back against his now bare chest.

     “I’m sorry, I think I heard you wrong,” he growled into your ear, his hand moving down your torso until his finger was rubbing fast circles on your clit, “who made you this wet?”

     You let out a broken moan, Nolan’s hand still firm around your throat.

     “You, Nolan, only you.” He tilted his head to bite at the sensitive spot below your ear.

     “Not TK?” He questioned, a teasing tone to his voice.

     “No, sir,” your responded breathlessly, “just you.”

     Only then did Nolan let go of you, allowing you to drop back down to all fours in front of him. Suddenly, his cock was at your entrance as he dragged the tip up and down your folds. You whined, which only earned a “shh” from Nolan. Slowly, he pushed into you until he was buried to the hilt, causing you drop to your elbows with a moan. When he didn’t move, you began to wiggle your ass slightly.

     “You see, babygirl,” Nolan’s deep voice declared from behind you, “you were very bad tonight, all because you wanted me to fuck you.” He moved his hand over your ass cheek, where you knew it was still red.

      “So for that reason,” he continued, “I’m not going to fuck you until you show me just how bad you want it, yeah?”

      You let out another whine as you realized what he was telling you to do. Without further hesitation, you moved forward off of his cock, then back again so that he was filling you up. You repeated your movement, finding a steady rhythm. You continued your motions, whimpering into the pillow below you as Nolan began to groan from behind you.

     “That’s it, babygirl,” he praised, “you look so good like this, fucking yourself on my cock.”

     You moaned at his words, his hands gripping onto your hips so hard that you knew they were going to bruise.

     “Does that feel good, baby? Having me fill you up?” You nodded frantically in response, looking out of the corner of your eye at Nolan.

     His cheeks were flushed, eyes dark and hooded, a smirk plastered on his face.

     “Please, sir,” you begged, “I’m close, please let me cum.”

     Rather than say anything, Nolan stilled the movement of your hips, feeling you pulse around him for a minute before pulling out. You whimpered at the loss, suddenly feeling very empty. Without warning, he harshly flipped you over, spreading your legs so that he could rest between them. Nolan placed one hand beside your head, bending so that he was hovering within inches of your face.

     “You don’t get to cum until I tell you, understand?”

     “Yes, sir,” your replied, your voice sounding completely fucked out.

     He pushed into you again, his eyes never leaving yours. He returned his hand to your throat, gripping just until you felt your airways constrict. The feeling heightened the pleasure as he began roughly pounding into you. You were whimpering with every thrust, your hands coming up to grip his wrist just for something to hold on to. Nolan’s pace never faltered, his free hand moving to grab your leg, angling it further up.

     The new angle allowed him to hit your g-spot, making you moan loudly. He paused for a second before deliberately repeating the same motion, his hips rolling strongly into yours. You closed your eyes, your head rolling back against the pillow. You could feel the knot in your stomach coming undone as Nolan kept pushing into you.

     “Not until I say,” he reminded, groaning into your ear in the process.

     He removed his hand from your neck and you took in a gasp. However, you lost your breath again as he started to rub patterns onto your clit. Your legs began to shake as you held off your orgasm, hips bucking to meet Nolan’s thrusts. He continued like that until you could feel your eyes start to sting with fresh tears, a long whine falling from your lips.

     “Cum for me, angel.”

     And that was all it took to push you over the edge, your pussy clenching tightly around him as you came. Nolan brought his head down and attached his lips to yours, swallowing your moans. 

     You could feel his rhythm break, his thrusts becoming faster as he chased his finish. You brought your hands to his hair, tugging hard. His cock twitched inside of you and he stilled, his lips not breaking from yours.

     He came in hot spurts inside of you, finally moving his head to bury it in the crook of your neck. He didn’t move again until your breathing had mostly evened out. When he finally pulled out of you, you were completely limp beneath him. He lifted up enough to look at you; mascara running down your cheeks, a few soon-to-be-bruises scattered across your body, and a blissed out look on your face. Nolan placed a surprisingly gentle kiss to your lips.

     “You’re such a good girl for me,” he rasped, “but don’t ever do that with another guy again. You’re mine, baby.”

     His voice was firm, and you knew he was expecting a response, but all you could muster was a hum of acknowledgement as he rolled to lay down next to you.

     “Sorry, Nol,” you murmured, “I hope I didn’t upset you too much.”

     When you looked at him, he already had his eyes on you, his cheeks still rosier than normal with a post-sex glow.

     “You didn’t. I just don’t like to see you with other guys, especially one of my best friends.”

     You nodded your head, opening your mouth to respond, but he shushed you gently, his hand coming up to rest on your cheek.

     “We can talk more in the morning, just sleep for now, yeah?” 

     You hummed again, your eyes closing as you curled into Nolan’s chest with his arm wrapped around you. You felt him kiss your forehead, muttering “such a good girl” once more before you drifted off to sleep.

[kagomechronicles]

Are you taking scenarios? If so, I'd like a Levi/Kagome scenario where Levi is forced to come to terms with how much he cares for her. But with a TWIST! Could you also make it somewhat tragic and grim (without either of them dying)? Idk if this makes sense, but think of a super twisted situation to place them in. And make it clear that Levi has fallen in love with her. Thank you ~ I love your writing!

Oh my… Oh oh my… This is something…. I’ll do my best!For some background, Kagome will be a member of Levi’s Squad, and this takes place before Annie is discovered to be the Female Titan. (This could be a weird spin off of my fic Where I Belong) 

Also, I didn’t edit this at all. (WARNING: THIS MAY BE TRIGGERING TO SOME)

“Oi! Where the hell is she?” Levi’s dark and threatening voice startled the two lower-ranked scouts that guarded the dungeon area.

“C-Captain!” They both turned to salute him, trembling and nervous as he closed the distance, “I- uh… We’re under strict orders not to divulge any information to anyone, including you.”

Levi leaned in close, eyes narrowing in on both soldiers, “Is that so? Well, it’s quite unfortunate for you that I don’t seem to give a damn about your orders. Tell me where she is or I will kick the answers out of both of you. Your pick.”

Both of them visibly gulped before pointing down the hall. “Last cell on the right.” One piped up after a few seconds.

The captain sped in that direction, though not before turning back and telling those poor men to get the fuck out of here, to which they immediately obliged. He was annoyed. No, he was absolutely furious about what he had heard. He had seen that everyone was going insane trying to figure out the identity of the Female Titan and possible allies, like some sort of sick obsession that clouded their minds, but he never expected that this would happen. His burning rage was practically boiling his blood and he was sure his skin would be hot to the touch right about now. 

Though, nothing would have prepared him for what he’d see when he walked into that cell.

Kagome Higurashi stood there, shoulders hunched over like she was about to fall, but her wrists were chained above her head to keep her up. There was a blindfold that covered her eyes as if to keep her even further in the dark about her own detainment, like the shadowy darkness in the cell wasn’t enough. 

But more than that, as he looked down at her clothes, a typical white button up and tan pants, he noticed that they were all torn and stained with a brown-crimson, which he could only assume was dried up blood. Her dried up blood. Levi swallowed harshly at that realization. And, with further examination, he realized that the same colors seemed to be painted on bits of her skin as well, especially on her limp hands.

“Please…” Her voice squeaked out like it was taking all of her energy, “No more. I swear, I don’t know anything…”

He walked closer to her. When her mouth was closed, she looked like she was practically dead. He would have assumed that if he hadn’t detected the faintest rise and fall of her chest.

“I can’t take it anymore.” She whispered again. 

And neither could he. He couldn’t stand that, right now, she thought he was going to hurt her. Of course, she couldn’t see who he was, but hearing her beg him like that still made him feel like a monster. And he was no stranger to human torture. He had numbed himself to it because it was a necessity in some cases. But when the pleads came from her dried and tired lips, his stomach dropped and he felt absolutely sick. 

With one quick movement, he ripped her blindfold off of her and watched as she blinked her eyes in astonishment, her vision adjusting as she looked around the cell before landing her gaze on him.

“L-Levi…” It was mumbled at first as though she was asking herself if he was even real right now. And then, her eyes widened and she gasped, “Levi! You have to listen to me. I don’t know anything.”

“I know you don’t, Kagome.” He huffed, slowly raising his hand and gently wiping away some of the dirt and grime on her cheek with his thumb.

“You do? You believe me?” Her brows were turned upward as she seemed to have to catch her breath after each sentence. Exhausted. That was the only way he could think to describe it.

“Tch. I’m not an idiot, Kagome. If you were a damn enemy, I would have figured that out a long time ago.” He asserted, and the woman let out a breath of relief.

“…They don’t believe me, though. Hange, Moblit, Miche, even Erwin. They keep saying that I’m working with the Female Titan.” Kagome eyes glazed over as her body trembled, “And I can’t do it anymore. I can’t take another one of their interrogations, Levi. It’s too much.”

“What did they do?” He asked, trying to keep his patience despite his own growing desperation to know. Not that anyone would be able to tell as his demeanor remained stoic.

“Hit me. Whipped me. Broke all of my fingers. All while screaming for information that I don’t have.” She hissed out, “Next, they will rip out my fingernails. I can’t go through with that…” She took inhaled shakily, “…If you can’t save me, could you kill me?”

His breath hitched in his throat at that request. And he continued to stare with his unreadable, yet focused expression before forcing out a quiet ‘yes’.

But he didn’t want to let it get that far. He had lost almost every member of his squad so far besides her and Eren. And that made her the second-in-command because of her skills and kill count. He didn’t want to lose that asset. With the Scout Regiment’s high death rate, they couldn’t afford to lose such a promising soldier. 

Or at least, that was his rationale. He tried to reason with himself that he was only getting so damn worked up about her pain because he knew she was innocent, on top of being absolutely valuable. That had to be the explanation. And yet, he couldn’t stop staring into her, meeting her gaze, swallowing her whole and wondering if this was going to be the last time. Wondering if anyone would ever have eyes like hers or if she was some once in a lifetime sort of experience. 

“Oi, Levi! Back away from her!” Another voice echoed into the cell, and Levi quickly turned to see Hange and Miche standing in the doorway, “She is a suspect. We have to interrogate her as such without letting any emotion get in the way.” Miche was confident with that assertion, and Hange seemed to stand by it.

“Is that why you didn’t tell me that you arrested her? You were just gonna interrogate a member of my squad, then act like you hadn’t seen her all damn day? Tch. Pathetic. Of course I’d find out.” He stood up, grateful that he had been wearing his ODM gear. “I’m not going anywhere without her. It’s not her fault you’re all too obsessed with the Female Titan to use your shitty brains. She’s obviously not involved in this.”

“We have reason to believe she is.” Hange countered.

“Yeah, I heard about that little tip you jackasses got. What? Some anonymous note connecting Kagome’s vague past to some psychotic Titan shifter?” The captain began gripping the handles of his blades tightly, both still in their metal sheathes. “That’s what you’re torturing her based on? There’s been no real evidence against her, fucking shitheads. And I’m not letting you touch her, again.”

The room was tense, thick air almost unbreathable. No one seemed to be backing down, and the dark-haired man began to wonder if he really was going to have to kill Kagome here and now.

“Levi, we can’t let her go until we’re completely certain that she’s innocent.” Hange maintained, though the fact that she was currently dressed in a white apron with latex gloves. It was clear the plan wasn’t just to hold her in this cell.

“Then, I’ll watch over her until then. I could handle it better than you, shitty four-eyes. And way better than that fucking tree next to you.” The captain growled. He had the advantage right now, being the only one with ODM gear. Still, was he prepared to turn on his comrades and possibly the entire Scout Regiment?

He turned briefly at the sound of shackles rustling together and saw Kagome once more. And even though she was weak and scared for now, he could still see that spark inside of her. Rambunctious. Wild. And yet, so loyal and compassionate. And he knew he would be prepared to turn on anyone who dared to vilify that. She encompassed everything the world should be. And he’d be damned if he didn’t protect that.

“We can handle her, and we can do it without letting our personal feelings get in the way.” Miche barked back, “You need to leave.”

That was it. Levi pulled out one of his blades, turned, and broke the chains that held the woman in one swing. Immediately, her knees gave out and she stumbled forward before a strong arm caught her and pulled her in close. Soon, Levi had wrapped around her waist and held her to his chest, taking the majority of her weight. With his free hand, he pointed the blade at the elites blocking the exit.

“Get out of my way. I’m going to handle this.” He asserted, “Why don’t you try actually solving this shitty case instead of wasting time torturing our own people.”

Looking down, the captain noticed how she leaned into him, palms pressed against his chest as if she wanted to grip the fabric of his shirt, but couldn’t with her broken fingers. Her eyes were closed now, absolutely terrified of what the outcome may be from all of this. After all she had gone through in the Scouts, watching friends die and battling Titans, she had never once seemed to be so hopeless. He had found it annoying, initially, how optimistic and playful she managed to remain despite being a part of the most horrifying branch of the military. And he remembered wondering what it would take for her to lose all of that. Though, this situation hadn’t once entered his mind before now.

“Can you walk with me, Kagome?” He whispered to her. 

Her eyes snapped open and, with her lips sucked in between her teeth, she nodded.

“Let’s go, then.” He led her out of the cell, keeping his blade pointed at Hange and Miche. And, for good measure, shut the cell door and locked it. He knew they had the keys, but it would take them a few to unlock it. And that was all he needed to bring the woman beside him to safety.

Up and out towards the barracks they went, but it was towards his room, not hers, that he led her. He’d give Erwin an earful, or perhaps more than that sometime later on. For now, though, he would have her stay with him where he could make sure no one else got their grubby hands on her. She was too weak to fight back with all of these injuries.

“You can rest in my bed.” The captain asserted as he opened his room door. It wasn’t as if he ever slept in it anyways. 

“Thank you for believing in me.” She murmured as he helped lie her down, analyzing his features to see if he was even slightly disgusted with her grimy exterior dirtying his clean sheets. He didn’t though. He just remained blank in his expression, with just a small tinge of compassion in his silvery gaze.

He wouldn’t accept that gratitude, though, as if he was doing something worthwhile by not torturing her. He knew it in his bones that she was innocent; it was something he could feel, something he could see in her. He would trust her with his own life. And that care she had for the world deserved to be acknowledged. Because it was so goddamn precious.

Precious.

She was precious. 

Gods, he wasn’t sure when he started seeing her like that. Perhaps it was sometime during one of her witty attempts at making him laugh, or maybe it was when he saw her risk her life for even the most unknown soldiers, having a strength that was only matched by a few. Maybe it was when he saw the way she looked right at him, seeing not that unsociable, crude, disciplinarian. Instead, she saw a man. And made no assumptions, but rather let him decide who the rest of him was. 

“Fuck…” He growled to himself, too quiet for her to hear. Tch. To think I’d end up here with her. Annoying little brat.

Of course, even in his mind, he couldn’t conjure up any venom to speak on her name with. There was nothing but his instincts to watch over her until she was strong enough to protect herself, again. Which she would be, he had no doubt. And he respected that about her.

So, he watched as her eyes shut, body relaxing into his bed. Beautiful. Strong. And fucking precious.

[fanatic-scribe]

A Bottle and Some Cards

Chapter 1/?

Fandom: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2012)

Word count: 2,484/2,484

Ao3: Here

Characters: Donatello (main), Casey Jones (main), everyone else

Pairing: Donatello/Casey Jones

Warnings: Aged-Up Character, Drinking Games, Slow Burn (kinda)

Ch 1 / / Ch2 (coming soon) / /

Summary:

Ethanol is the intoxicating part of alcohol and its molecules are so small that they can actually pass into the gaps between brain cells. There it can interfere with the neurotransmitters that enable all the brain’s activities. If you drink fast, alcohol will start to flood the brain. Alcohol affects parts of the brain responsible for self-control. And that is why Donatello did all this dumb shit to himself.

A/N: Just something fun I made for the hell of it. There may be other pairings in this but Idk yet.

This work will be tagged with #B&C tmnt

Chapter 1: Salt and Lime

“Pussy.” Mikey huffed at Casey as the human chugged down his cup of beer. Casey stuck out his middle finger as he drank.

“I’d say sensible,” Donnie chimed in, “the dare said to ‘drink a concoction of whatever the opponent makes using whatever they can find in the kitchen.’”

“Yeah so?” The other’s looked at him dumbfounded. Flashes of Mikey’s bizarre “food” concoctions from when he was a young chief, and them too worried to crush his dreams, flash in their minds.

Taking turns they began to reminisce of his old creations. The ‘Squid Oatmeal Pizza.’ that Raph still swears he saw an eye on. But, as Donnie pointed out at the time, “It could be a raisin. You know, from the the...oatmeal...part?” at least that's what the boys keep telling themselves. They ate the entire pizza that night.

And who could forget the ‘Apple Pizza Pie Suprise’ with ‘All the wonders of both pies together with a twist!’ Poor April, who had not yet tried his creations and was too late to hear the turtle’s warnings, found the twist quickly after chewing on the bite only once. The brother’s had watched helplessly as their best friend’s soul left her body to the depths of hell. The pizza part of this creation was a classic Mikey order that she has seen only once; double anchovies, roasted garlic, chocolate, cappuccino pizza. The only thing that had stopped her from spitting it out before Mikey had walked away was the shock of the taste, it had paralyzed her. All she could do was open her mouth to let the food fall onto her plate and push it directly into the trash next to her. None of the brothers could blame her. She remembers her bite having a certain pop to it that she tried many years to forget.

‘Asian cowboy fusion calzone dude!’ Is what had gotten Karai. By this point, Mikey was a better cook, he would make odd foods for himself all the time still but no one had told Karai. She took a small bite that Mikey offered her but immediately spit it out, much to the turtle’s amusement as he was laughing. She found out later that to Mikey “cowboy” meant beans and s’mores and “Asian” meant teriyaki sauce, ginger, and shrimp. Karai learned an important lesson that day, never trust Mikey’s original cooking.

“And that was all him being nice and trying to cook.” Casey added pouring himself another cup of beer, “This would be him making something bad for my dare.” Everyone shuttered thinking about the horrors that could have been. Except for one bubbly laugh.

“Yeah, you’re right dude.” Mikey took a drink from his cup, “I get creative when I’m drunk so I probably would have killed you.” They all chuckled at this, everyone would have rather drunk.

They loved their weekends together because they got to do this, have fun and laugh. April was in college and spent a lot of time studying, even if she came to the lair at least four times a week. Casey wasn’t in college but he had a job at his local ice arena, he helped teach young kids hockey and did general cleaning and maintenance, that kept him pretty busy. Karai was always busy, over the time she took over the Foot Clan had reclaimed their good name but she was still having to deal with certain people still loyal to Shredder or mob bosses who saw her as an easy hit. Even if they were busy they still would try to gather together every weekend to relax and half fun together. This Friday night, with alcohol already clouding their minds, they were playing Truth, Dare or Drink.

Leaning forward Casey took hold of the bottle and spun it, still leaning forward he plucked up a dare card not looking at the words yet. “Wow, Casey Jones picked dare.” Donnie chaffed, “Did not see that one coming.” Casey smiled cheerfully at the turtle with wide eyes, gap teeth, and a middle finger on both hands. There was a chuckle at their banter, Donnie had become comfortable with it and often looked forward to his time with Casey. They had truly become good friends.

As the sound rolling of glass slowly dulled so did everyone’s voice until both were silent. The neck of the bottle pointing, if a bit vaguely, at Donnie. Mikey oohed with excitement like Casey Mikey enjoyed movement rather than talking so he always preferred dares. Hopefully, this dare won’t be a drink instead.

Dramatically, Casey lifted his arm to point at the turtle, “Donatello! The cards dare you to,” He lifted the card up to read aloud, “do a body shot off your opponent.” There was a chorus of laughs and oos from everyone as Donnie shook his head.

“No, no. I’m not doing that. I’ll drink.” Everyone turned to boo him. “BOOO!” he answered.

“Donnie you haven’t done one dare!”

“Mikey, I’ve only gotten one other dare.”

“AND YOU DIDN’T DO IT!” Mikey was having a hard time trying to understand what Donnie didn’t get about this very simple topic. Just before Donnie could say anything Raph leaned forward from his spot on the couch interjecting their argument.

“Hey come on, it's fine. This is Donnie’s choice.” He paused for a second taking a drink from his cup as everyone looked surprised. He smirked as he pulled the cup away, “And he’s choosing to be a fucking killjoy.” There were a few laughs as Donnie just rolled his eyes, he reached for his cup leaning forward from his spot on the floor.

A hand reached out and stopped his wrist, he followed the hand up to April who had walked over to him from her seat next to Karai. She was crouched down sitting on her heels, he ninja training with the other girls must be going great, he had not even heard her move. “Look, Donnie,” He’s heard that tone of voice before, “if you don’t want to do this that’s fine but you had two easy dares. Just have fun no one will make fun of you.”

“Bullshit.”

“Did you see us make fun of anyone else?” Thinking back Donnie could remember everyone laughing at crazy antics but then just more celebrating all together. When Leo had to let Raph draw on his face with a sharpie everyone was laughing, even Leo now sporting a lovely penis across his forehead among other drawings.

Donnie sighed, might as well give the people what they want, “Alright fine I’ll do it.” he said throwing his hands up. Before he could even stand up Casey and Mikey had already hoped up and started moving to the kitchen laughing and cheering. As everyone else stood and made their way to the kitchen Casey was sitting on the table, legs dangling over the sides, shrugging off his jacket and throwing it to the side. Bent over the open fridge Mikey was looking for the tequila Casey had brought over with the beer. The salt and lime already in his hands as Mikey grabbed the chilled bottle and placed the items on the table. Soon the rest of the group joined them at the table just as Casey began to pull his shirt over his head.

Donatello couldn’t help but see how the human had really grown into his frame, as a scientist observes an animal grow and mature. His muscles were more defined from when he was a gangly kid, his abdomen had the defined lines of muscle. His hips made a V just before his pants, this was accented further due to a small patch of hair leading from his belly button to bellow his pants. Donnie realized this felt different than observing and animal grow and mature, ‘Must be the alcohol.’ he thought to himself, because what else could it be? A shout from Mikey quickly shook him from his trance. “Dude, what the hell!”

“What?!”

“What the fuck is on your nipples?!”

The turtle’s had seen Casey shirtless before but something had changed. Now there was a visible bar of metal going through each nub where there hadn’t been last time. “Oh yeah,” Casey chuckled looking at his chest, “I got my nipples pierced.”

“Well, that part is obvious!” Shouted Raph, “When did you do this?”

“A little after the tongue at a shop.” Raph had known about the tongue. They had gotten their tongue piercing done together by Slash. Sure it may have been a ‘teenage at home piercing’ but it was straight and healed up just fine, that was almost a solid year and a half ago. Donnie rolled his eyes as he got to work cutting the lime, being very careful as he could feel his body sway.

“It’s just body modification, lots of humans do it.” Even though his words were indifferent his eye’s lingered on Casey’s chest, a slight amount of dark hair contrasted with the sparkling silver rings. There was something fascinating about it that just drew in Donnie’s attention, they suited Casey.

“Dude, it’s so weird looking!” Mikey reached forward and poked at the human’s nipple. Normally Casey was cool with being randomly touched by Mikey, especially in a party situation like this. However, as soon as he pressed down on Casey the turtle had his hand pushed away as Casey scooted away on the table with a nervous hum, laugh. He had reached up to covering his nipple with his hand and other arm held up to keep Mikey at a distance.

“Whoa! Ok!” There was still a chuckle with his words, “Hey Mikey lets not touch my nipples ok.” There was a questioning look in his eyes as well as everyone else, Casey shrugged, “They made my nipple more sensitive than I'm used too.” There was a slight pinkness in his cheeks as everyone briefly discussed this new topic. Donatello could feel his face heat up as well, ‘Must be from the alcohol.’ he thought.

Raph snatched the lime slice Donnie had cut and ran the fruit next to Casey’s belly button and poured salt over it, the crystals clung to the lime juice on his skin. After much debate, the group decided to pour the shot into the dip made by Casey’s pronounced collar bone when he leaned his head back. It wasn’t enough to fit an entire shot and he wasn’t allowed to move or he would pour the tequila but it made the body shot feel more authentic, whatever that means. Casey complained slightly about the cold fruit and liquor but no one really cared enough to change anything, besides it was already too late to change anything. So Casey just sat there, neck stretched back, leaning on one arm with a lime slice in his mouth waiting on a certain purple-clad turtle.

Donnie stepped between the human's legs a bit reluctantly, they looked at each other, well as best they could without Casey moving his head.  Donnie with his arms crossed, he waited for Casey to back out because surely he would by this point. But he just sat there, lime sticking out of his gap teeth surrounded by a shit-eating grin, Donnie couldn’t let that grin win. After a few more still, silent seconds Donnie took a breath and bent down.

Donatello’s rough tongue ran over the area of salt on the human’s stomach, he could feel Casey tense slightly under his tongue, he could feel the soft, warm skin as it contracted against muscle. Donnie ran over the slight dip were his abs were more defined, he couldn’t taste the human over the tart lime and salt but some animalistic part of him wanted to. Some inner part of his brain wanted to bite the human. Vaguely in the distance, he could hear hoots of encouragement but they were drowned out by the sound of hot blood rushing to his head. Still, they pulled him back to the task at hand, already forgetting his primal thought.

As Donnie stood he rested his hands on either side of Casey on the table, he leaned forward and touched his lips to the human’s collar bone and the tequila. Donnie could have sworn he heard Casey’s breath hitch over the chorus of cheers when his tongue lightly ran over the soft alcohol wet skin. With a loud, almost comically, disruptive slurp Donnie had swallowed the alcohol, it burned his throat but the salt helped.

Moving on, he leaned forward to take the lime from the other’s mouth, he bit down and pulled only to be met with resistance. Casey held onto the lime with a smirk forcing Donnie to play a game of tug o’ war for the lime, very annoying.

The turtle looked up to glare at Casey only to find black eyes already looking at him and it felt like time had frozen. Donnie wondered if he had ever looked at Casey’s eyes. Donnie thought that he had eyes like the deepest water, black and bottomless pools of onyx trying to pull the turtle in. For a moment he thought he could explore those eyes for hours trying to find their end and never get tired.

Snapped out of his daze by Casey letting go of the lime causing Donnie to stumble back from his own tugging. This earned a chuckle from the group followed by pats on his shell and congratulations. Smiling and laughing with everyone he couldn’t help but feel his heart beat faster and harder in his chest. He glanced over at Casey and saw him putting his shirt back on and laughing with Raph about how he jumped off the table and almost fall.

Everyone was using this time to talk about what had been happening in the game and to grab more snacks and drinks. Also to pet Ice Cream Kitty, like a lot. A few people cried. Petting Ice Cream Kitty is serious business. Donnie was pouring bags of snacks into different bowls when his eye’s drifted to Casey once or twice, looking for something. He was standing in front of the open freezer having just put whipped cream on the sugary cat, he then tipped his head back to fill his mouth with whipped cream. Donnie watched as his long neck stretched back, Donnie remembered how soft his skin felt against the harsh salt taste. A more animalistic part of his brain said something but it was muffled in the back of his mind.

“Don, you ok?” April’s voice pulled him out of his daze and he realized he has spilled quite a few pretzels.

“Yeah, yeah I’m fine just lost focus.” He smiled and worked to clean up the spilled pretzels. Why was he so fascinated by Casey?

‘Must be from the alcohol.’ he thought.

Notes:

Hope you liked it! I know nothing happened yet. Bummer. Well, the next chapter will be coming soon! Sometime next week Maybe

[darks-ink]

What A Nice Surprise CH.2

This thing just keeps getting longer and longer. I have vague ideas for future chapters (and a more defined plan for the next one) but the characters keep derailing my plans, so idk how long it'll be. As I've said before, this is just a story that I write whenever I feel like it, as opposed to Disinterred. That, and the chapters are longer than Disinterred's.

Also normally I stick to a specific POV per scene, but I kind of... switched from Jack to Maddie in the big scene? And idk how I feel about it, so I would appreciate hearing what you guys think.

(Previous Chapter - Next Chapter) (AO3 - FFnet)

Danny threw another glance at the clock. Time seemed to have slowed to a crawl, even more so than what was normal for Lancer’s English class. He shoved his leg against his backpack, which was resting on the floor next to his desk. The rounded shape of the Thermos met him in what should be a comforting feeling.

It wasn’t. Not after the events of earlier that day, during lunch.

There had been a ghost attack. Of course there had been a ghost attack. Not a big one, nothing he couldn’t handle himself.

But Cujo had mistaken the Thermos for a toy. He had lunged for it, and before Danny knew it, Cujo’s teeth sunk into the metal of the Thermos.

He immediately distracted the ghost dog, but it had been too late. His fangs had punctured the metal of the Thermos, and an arch between the two punctures showed where the rest of his teeth had met the cylinder’s surface as well.

There was nothing he could do to fix it. He had send off Cujo, thanking his luck that at least the dog would be easy to get rid of without any kind of catching technology. But if another ghost showed up… He would be nigh powerless. And while his parents had created different ghost catching devices, none of them were as easy to carry or hide as the Fenton Thermos.

He had already decided that he should pay his parents another visit as Phantom. They didn’t know Fenton carried a Thermos, after all. Didn’t know that he carried ghost-hunting equipment at all.

Besides… They had asked him to come by without injuries.

Danny just hoped that they had another Thermos. Or maybe they could fix this one, but he highly doubted it. And… This Thermos had been through a lot. Maybe he had just been tempting fate by not looking for a replacement earlier.

The bell rung, snapping Danny out of his thoughts. He swung his backpack on, the cylindrical shape of the Thermos pressing against his back. One of the sharp edges of the punctures dug into his flesh. A constant reminder of how badly it needed to be replaced.

Like he could’ve forgotten.

He quickly swept by his locker, glancing at the sticky note stuck on the inside of the door. The handwriting was neat and loopy, and anyone who knew him could tell it wasn’t his. They usually thought it was Jazz’. Danny was fine with letting them think that.

‘overheard mr. falluca mention a pop quiz tomorrow – check chapter 8’ the note said. Danny grinned, gratefully. They might not have gotten along well at the start, but Sidney was a good friend to have.

Besides, who else could pass him notes for class by just leaving them in his locker? Someone had to make sure he could keep up with class, with how often he had to leave to fight ghosts. And while Sam and Tucker were fine with playing along at first…

Well, Danny was sure that he would’ve gotten tired of his secrecy if he had been them, too.

They were still his friends, of course. But he just didn’t have much time to hang out with them anymore. And he couldn’t tell them the truth. Besides the obvious concern of what they might think… The danger that it would put them in was simply too great. It would make them a target for his enemies.

Besides, Sam would never allow herself to stand by if he was going out to fight ghosts. She would insist on fighting by his side, never mind how dangerous the ghosts were. She would get torn apart.

And Danny couldn’t allow that. So he let them think whatever it was that they thought about him. It was safer that way.

After making sure that his math textbook was in his bag, Danny made his way to an empty bathroom. It had been attacked a few time when ghosts first started showing up, leading to rumors of it being haunted. After some encouragement, Sidney had gladly taken to reinforcing those rumors. It had become a perfect spot for Danny to ‘go ghost’, since no one ever entered it.

Moments after Danny walked in, Sidney flickered into visibility. Danny quirked an eyebrow at him. Usually if Sidney left a note, he wasn’t planning on showing up. “Hey Sid, what’s up?”

“Found your dog,” the boy said with a frown. He lifted up his leg to show Cujo hanging off of it, thankfully in his puppy form. The dog was wagging his tail like crazy.

“Oh, uh. Oops?” Danny grimaced, grabbing Cujo. The dog immediately let go, tongue lolling from his mouth as he panted. “He didn’t hurt you, did he?”

“No,” Sidney confirmed with a comforting tone. He brushed off his pant leg. “And he was so distracted by me that he didn’t hurt anyone else either.”

“That’s good.” Danny looked at the wriggling dog in his hands. He should bring Cujo back to the Ghost Zone. He was already going to FentonWorks as Phantom anyway. But… the dog had an awful tendency to cause trouble wherever he went, and Danny didn’t need his feeble truce with his parents to be ruined.

He shot a doubtful look at Sidney. “Hey, Sid. Could you… keep an eye on Cujo for the rest of the day? I need to get a new Thermos from my parents, and I can’t take him with me.”

“I guess.” Sidney sounded as uncertain as Danny felt. He crouched next to the dog, reaching out with his hand. Cujo squinted at the boy ghost, apparently trying to gauge if he was an enemy or not.

Danny set the dog on the ground, keeping a hand on Cujo’s back. Then he grabbed Sidney by the wrist, gently putting his hand on Cujo’s forehead. “Cujo, this is Sidney. He’s a friend, okay?” Then he released Sidney again.

The dog looked unsure, glancing at Danny and then Sidney. Finally he started wagging his tail again, allowing Sidney to pet him.

Danny sighed in relief. That was one problem taken care of, at least.

Sidney grabbed the dog, cradling Cujo in his arms. “Well buster, I guess I’m taking care of you now.” Then he stood up, nodding towards Danny. “See you tomorrow.”

“Thanks Sid,” Danny said as he started rifling through his backpack.

“Don’t mention it.” And then the ghosts were gone, leaving Danny alone in the bathroom. He was glad that Cujo had accepted Sidney. If the dog showed up again, he might be coaxed into playing with Sidney instead of him.

Besides, if Valerie saw those two hanging out, she might finally understand that Cujo wasn’t his dog. Or she would think that Sidney was dog-sitting Cujo for him. Which he was, technically.

Danny’s fingers met the sharp edge of the Thermos, and he pulled them away with a hiss. That’s what I get for getting distracted, he reprimanded himself mentally.

He pulled out the Thermos, laying it on the floor next to him. Then he closed his backpack again, swinging it on his back. Once he shifted into Phantom, the backpack would be inaccessible. Would cease to exist until he became human again.

In a flash of light he morphed into his ghost form. Grabbed the Thermos, careful not to cut himself on it. And then he shot off towards FentonWorks, making sure to stay invisible.

The doorbell rang, and Jack automatically looked away from the experiment he and Maddie had been working on.

“Do you think that that’s…?” he didn’t finish his question, but he knew his wife would know anyway.

“Maybe,” she said, pulling her goggles off. “It has been a few weeks since he last came by.”

“I hope he hasn’t gotten himself injured again.” Jack frowned at the partially dismantled invention in front of him.

The two of them had been working on the Booo-merang, hoping to reassemble it to pick up on an actual ghost. In fact, they were hoping to tweak it into picking up Phantom specifically. The first time he had come to them for help, he had barely made it to their house. As much as they disliked it, there was a decent chance of Phantom getting hurt worse. And if he disappeared… There was no one who would look for him. No one who would miss him, not really.

Except them.

So they had to be ready to help. In any way they could. From tweaking their inventions to ignore Phantom’s ecto-signature, to building ones specifically intended to help him… Whatever they could do, they would.

“He probably has,” Maddie said with a sigh. “We better go check.”

“Yeah.” The Booo-merang could wait. If Phantom was injured, he was more urgent.

The two of them raced up the stairs, swinging open the front door. No one was there, but Jack stepped aside with a small grin on his face anyway.

“Thanks,” said the empty space, voice surprisingly light and airy. He didn’t sound like he was hurt, but he might be putting up a front.

They entered the living room, and Phantom became visible. His jumpsuit was shiny and pristine, hair disheveled but undirtied. His glow was bright and didn’t flicker. He seemed… healthy. As much as a ghost could be, that is.

“Not injured for once?” Maddie queried, cocking an eyebrow at the ghost.

“You did ask for me to come by without needing stitches,” Phantom quipped back. Then he deflated a little, nervously playing with something in his hand. It seemed metallic, reflecting the light of Phantom’s glow. But Jack couldn’t see it well enough to tell what it was. “I, uh. Could use your help, though.”

“Of course!” he boomed. “What do you need us to do?”

Phantom hesitated for a moment. Then he held out his hand, showing the metal object he had been playing with.

It was a Fenton Thermos – or used to be one, at least. The cylinder had been badly dented and even punctured in two places. Jack couldn’t even imagine the power needed to achieve such a thing.

More importantly, however… How did Phantom get a Fenton Thermos?

There had been stories, descriptions of Phantom using a tool which certainly sounded similar to their Thermoses… but this was the first time that Jack had seen it with his own eyes. And it was, without doubt, a Thermos just like theirs.

“How did you get that?” he asked, cautious. People had been describing Phantom with this tool for a long time. Way before they ever got a truce. Phantom couldn’t have gotten it back then, not unless… “Did you steal that?”

“What? No!” The ghost seemed offended by the suggestion, pulling the Thermos against his chest again.

“Then how did you get it?” Maddie repeated the question, frowning at the ghost. She also seemed put-off by the suggestion that Phantom might not have been as good as they thought.

“I- Jack threw it at me!” the ghost exclaimed, throwing out his hands.

“I did?” He didn’t remember doing so… but it also sounded strange enough that he couldn’t imagine a ghost coming up with it as an excuse.

And apparently Maddie thought the same, because she now let up her frown to quirk an eyebrow at Phantom. “When? And why?”

The ghost huffed, crossing his arms in a somewhat disgruntled fashion. “How am I supposed to know why he threw it? As for when, it was during my first fight to protect Amity Park. Against the Lunch Lady ghost.”

Phantom turned to look Jack straight in the eye. “He hit me right in the face, and he wasn’t even aiming for me!”

That… did sound like something that he would do. But he couldn’t imagine just throwing out one of his ghost hunting inventions, not while there were ghosts running rampant! Unless…

“Hey Mads… Wasn’t that when Jazz convinced us to give up on ghost hunting?”

Phantom blinked, apparently surprised by this revelation. “You… almost gave up on ghost hunting? I… really can’t imagine that. What changed your mind?”

“You, actually,” Maddie added, now also remembering that day. “You phased by and showed us that ghosts really do exist.”

“Huh,” Phantom said, playing with the Thermos in his hands again. “That must’ve been right after I caught the Thermos.”

“And that’s what you were here for, then.” Jack held out his hand.

“Uh, yeah.” Phantom handed over the Thermos. “I was hoping you could fix it? Or, uh.” He glanced over at the device with a grimace. “Or replace it, if you have something else I can use.”

Jack shook his head at the state of the ghost-catching gadget and handed it over to his wife. There was no saving it. But maybe his wife could see something he didn’t. “We got plenty of capture and containment devices.”

“But something small, like the Thermos?” Phantom vaguely gestured at himself. “I can’t exactly go about dragging a vacuum with me, can I?”

“Yeah,” Jack agreed, before frowning. “Wait a minute, how do you know about the Fenton Weasel?”

“Honey, you caught Phantom in that. Remember?” Maddie looked up from the busted Thermos and also shook her head in the negative. “And there’s no fixing this, you’ll need something else. We’ll have to check the Weapons Vault if we have another Thermos for you.”

Jack, meanwhile, frowned in thought. He had captured the ghost kid before? “When was that?”

“Huh? Oh, you mean the catching thing?” Phantom scratched his cheek, thinking for a minute. “That was… Oh, that was during that bounty thing. You let me go so we could work together to save your family. Remember?”

“Oh yeah.” That was when all those other ghost hunters came to Amity, just to catch Phantom! And then the Wisconsin Ghost had tried to steal their Portal! That dastardly specter!

“You never told me you two worked together.” Maddie’s tone was accusing, but there was a hint of a smile on her face. She seemed… amused.

“Wasn’t much working together,” Jack said with a shrug. “He phased me out of the cage the Wisconsin Ghost trapped me in and he flew me most of the way to FentonWorks. And then the ghost hunters showed up so he left me to fight the Wisconsin Ghost alone.”

Phantom rolled his eyes, crossing his arms again. “His name is Plasmius. And I did come to help you in the lab, but you didn’t need it.”

“You did?” Jack didn’t remember seeing the ghost… Oh, duh. “You were invisible?”

“Yeah,” Phantom confirmed with a nod. “And you kicked Plasmius’ ass. It was fantastic.” His grin was wide and clearly heart-felt.

“Language,” Maddie chastised. Then she stopped and blinked, apparently surprised by her automatic reaction.

Phantom, in turn, stuck out his tongue. The incredibly childish gesture was ruined only by the fact that his tongue was as green as the rest of his ectoplasmic flesh.

Jack cleared his throat, catching the attention of both his wife and the specter. Then he stuck a thumb in the general direction of the Weapons Vault. “Let’s go check the Vault, shall we?”

His wife nodded and got up. The two of them made it all the way to the hallway before they realized that Phantom wasn’t following them.

Maddie turned to look over her shoulder at the ghost. “Are you coming too?”

Phantom blinked, apparently surprised by the question. “You’re letting me, a ghost, look at your Vault of ghost hunting equipment?”

“We’re letting a fellow ghost hunter look at our ghost hunting equipment, yes.” Jack shrugged at him. “Unless you don’t want to see it, of course.”

“No, no, I would love to.” The ghost drifted towards them, remaining roughly at eye level. “Thanks.”

“Don’t mention it,” Jack replied as he started moving towards the Vault again. “You won’t be able to access it, since the lock runs off of DNA and you don’t have any. But if you come to us we can open it for you, or grab you whatever you’re looking for.”

“I mean, it’s not like I need ghost hunting equipment very often.” Phantom floated by on his side, keeping pace with the two humans. “Besides something to catch them in, of course.”

“We don’t just make weapons, you know,” Maddie added, looking over her shoulder at him. “I’m sure that a ghost scanner of sorts could come in handy.” Then she frowned. “Although you seem to be perfectly capable of finding them already.”

“Yeah.” Phantom shrugged. “I kind of have one built in. One of my first abilities, and my first non-standard one, was the ability to sense other ghosts. I’ve honed it so I can sense direction and strength, too.”

“Now that is a convenient power for a ghost hunter to have,” Jack exclaimed with a grin. “Can you imagine, Mads? Not even needing a ghost scanner? Just knowing when a ghost is nearby?”

“I can even identify some ghosts by their ecto-signatures,” Phantom proudly added, now also grinning. “Mostly the ones that show up a lot, though. And all my allies, of course.”

They stopped in front of the large metal door that led to the Vault. While Maddie went to unlock it, Jack turned back to the ghost. “We’re working on something similar for our gear, too. Getting it to exclude your ecto-signature.”

“Really?” Phantom asked, smile brightening. “That’s- That means so much to me.”

The mechanism of the Vault unlocked with a beep and a metallic clunk. Maddie withdrew her hand and pulled her glove back on, simultaneously turning to look at Phantom. “Well, we said that we were going to help you. Making sure our equipment doesn’t target you is a good start, no?”

Phantom huffed, blowing a few stray hairs out of his face as he did so. “You would think that, but Red never bothered to do so. Then again, we usually go for temporary truces, not… this.”

“You’ve worked with the Red Huntress before?” Maddie questioned as she opened the Vault door. “Do you know who she is, then?”

“A couple times,” Phantom admitted with a shrug, drifting towards the Vault as it opened. “And yeah, but I’m not telling anyone without her permission. She wears a mask for a reason, you know?”

“You’re not worried that she’s gonna get hurt?” Maddie stepped aside to let Jack enter first, quirking an eyebrow at the ghost.

“Of course I am!” he answered, sounding offended. “I worry every time I see her out there hunting ghosts! I worry about everyone in this damn city!” Then his shoulders slumped, a somewhat defeated look coming over him. “But she doesn’t trust me to keep Amity safe. And I can’t stop her from going out.” He sighed heavily. “And she has someone looking out for her. If she ever gets in too deep… Gets hurt… He’ll take care of her.”

“And you have us.” Maddie gripped his shoulder comfortingly, before she started guiding him towards the Vault. “And we’ll take care of her too, if you want.”

“Thanks.” Phantom floated into the Vault, then glanced around at the shelves of equipment. “Wow, this is a lot of stuff.”

“And you haven’t even seen the stuff in the lab and the shed yet!” Jack exclaimed, appearing from deeper in the Vault. In his arms were several pieces of ghost hunting equipment – none of them weapons. “Here, I gathered some of the things that might be helpful to you.”

Phantom opened his mouth to reply, but then Jack dumped all of the gear into the arms of the ghost. He struggled to keep a hold of all of it, and Maddie watched as a glass contained of Ecto-Dejecto toppled off-

and stopped right before it hit the floor. A green aura lit around it, and it slowly floated back to the stack of things Phantom was holding.

She cocked a questioning eyebrow at the ghost. “Since when do you have telekinesis?”

“A couple of months,” the ghost admitted, attempting to shift the stuff he was holding to get a better grip on it. “But I don’t use it much in combat. Takes too much focus.” The vial settled on the stack, this time without falling off. “I’m still working on it. I don’t know how useful it would be in a fight, but it could be useful to keep the citizens safe from debris and such.”

“It could be useful to grab projectiles before they hit you,” Maddie offered, glancing over to figure out where her husband had gone. “Things like nets and such.”

Phantom blinked, then groaned. He looked like he would’ve slapped himself in the face if his hands weren’t already occupied. “Why didn’t I think of that before?”

Maddie laughed at his forlorn expression. “Glad that I was able to help.” Then she eyed the teetering heap of equipment the ghost was holding. “You can bring that downstairs if you want, see if there’s anything that catches your attention. I’ll check for a Thermos or something similar in the meantime.”

“Uh, alright.” Phantom nodded before turning transparent. The items he was holding followed soon after.

“See you downstairs,” he said with a grin before falling through the floor. Maddie blinked for a moment at the display of his ghostly abilities. She hadn’t had much opportunity to observe him using his powers yet, so seeing him use them so casually… It was a little startling.

Not bad. Just… unexpected.

Maddie came down not much later to find Phantom in the kitchen. The stack of gear that Jack had handed him laid on the table, the ghost already picking through it. Most of the gadgets were put to the side, clearly discarded.

She cleared her throat to catch his attention. “Sorry Phantom, I’m afraid that we don’t have a Thermos for you.”

“Oh,” he said, disappointed. “Nothing else I could use, either?”

“No, sorry.” She sat down on one of the free chairs, looking over the pile of inventions. “We can build you a new one, though. If you come back this weekend we should have it done for you.”

“Really?” He perked up, eyes bright. “I’ll be sure to drop in, then.”

Maddie smiled at him, then gestured over to the gadgets he had been sorting through. “No interest in most of these?”

“Nah.” He shrugged. “Most of em I have no need for, or they’re things I can already do on my own. These three could be useful, though.” He picked up three items he had put aside, showing them to her.

One was the vial of Ecto-Dejecto he had almost dropped earlier. The others were a broken Fenton Ghost Fisher and some Fenton Phones.

Maddie took the snapped fishing rod from his hands. “Why do you want this? It’s broken.”

“I’m more interested in the line,” he confessed. “It could be useful to tie up enemy ghosts, if I can’t quite catch them in my Thermos, or if I need to talk with them.”

She hummed, handing him the fishing rod back. “That’s fair. What about the Ecto-Dejecto and the Fenton Phones? You are aware of what the Ecto-Dejecto is supposed to do, right?”

“Well, yeah.” He grinned, a little cockily. “But its current iteration strengthens ghosts, right? It could be useful if I ever get in a really tight spot.”

How did he know that? He was right, of course, but how did a ghost know about this recent invention?

“Yes it does… But Phantom, how do you know about that?”

His eyes widened, like he realized that he had accidentally told her something she wasn’t supposed to know. The bright green irises cast shaky light all over the kitchen.

“I, uh.” He started fidgeting with the vial in his hand. “Um. I might’ve… occasionally spied on you two in the lab. Because it was easier to avoid getting hurt if I knew what kind of inventions you had.”

Maddie eyed him suspiciously. She wasn’t sure if he was telling the truth, but if he was… Well, as much as she hated the idea of a ghost spying on her, his reasoning was understandable.

She sighed. “I suppose that that’s fair. We did target you with experimental inventions a lot.”

“Heheh, yeah.” He smiled somewhat sheepishly, rubbing the back of his neck in a motion that reminded her of her son.

She wondered, suddenly, what her kids thought of Phantom. Because while she and Jack were now on his side, they hadn’t talked about their truce with their children. And while most teenagers seemed to side with Phantom… Her kids were also raised by strongly anti-ghost parents.

They might hate Phantom, not knowing that their parents supported the ghost.

Phantom’s face fell, and he dropped his hand too. He looked vaguely worried. “Is something… wrong?”

Maddie realized that she must’ve been frowning at him. She waved off his concerns. “Oh no, sorry Phantom. I was just thinking…” She eyed the ghost speculatively. “Are you… familiar with my kids?”

“Depends on your definition of ‘familiar’.” He shrugged. “I know a lot of kids that go to Casper High by name, especially those that get caught up in ghost attacks. But I don’t really know any of them.”

Then he grimaced suddenly. “Except Paulina Sanchez. I’m a little too familiar with her.”

Maddie quirked an eyebrow at him. “How so?”

“Well, I’m sure that she doesn’t think so, but, uh.” He flushed bright green. “She kind of… has a shrine dedicated to me in her locker. I saved her a couple times and now she’s got a huge crush on me.”

She snorted at his confession. She wasn’t sure what she had expected, but it wasn’t this. “Reminding you of those worshiping ghosts of yours?” she teased Phantom.

“At least they don’t have a crush on me,” he replied, rolling his eyes. “And even if they did, at least they’re also ghosts. There’s something weird about a living girl having a crush on a ghost.”

And he did look very uncomfortable. Maddie felt for him. It couldn’t be easy, to be a ghost and so aware of the difference between you and the living. Especially since he was still so similar to them.

“Well, if she ever gets a little too persistent,” she laid her hand on his shoulder, “just tell us. Jack and I will play the role of overprotective parents if need be.”

Phantom huffed out a laugh, his glow brightening in joy. “Thanks, I’ll… keep that in mind. But, uh. If you can not give her ghost hunting equipment if she asks for it, I would appreciate that. Last thing I need is for her to be able to trap me.” His eyes sparkled with joy, making it clear that he was just joking around.

“I’ll make sure,” Maddie promised him, lifting her hand off of his shoulder to ruffle his hair instead.

She was about to say more, but Phantom shivered suddenly. His aura flickered brighter for a moment, and a puff of blue vapor trailed out of his mouth.

The ghost groaned, floating out of his chair. “Well, duty calls.”

“Was that your ghost sense, then?” She pushed herself out of the chair as well, reaching for one of the ecto-guns stored in the kitchen.

“Yup,” he confirmed, stuffing the Ecto-Dejecto and the fishing line into bags on his belt. He eyed the Fenton Phones for a moment, stuffing two in another pocket but leaving the rest.

Maddie holstered a gun and reached for one of the other pairs of Fenton Phones. Phantom caught her hand, however.

“You don’t have to help,” he said with a shrug. “It’s just the Box Ghost, no one threatening.”

“Oh, that one.” Maddie relaxed her posture a little, pulling her hand away from the earphones again. “Yes, I’m sure you can handle him alone.”

Phantom nodded, floating further towards the door. “Yeah. It’ll be a little harder without a Thermos, but it should be doable enough. I’ll see you and Jack this weekend, then.”

“Yeah. Bye Phantom, good luck.” She smiled and waved him goodbye.

“Thanks!” he called back as he left.

[itsclydebitches]

How do you think vol4-6 would go if Ozpin reincarnated into Ruby. the only qualification for his reincarnation is 'like minded soul', so it is possible. being that they are both optimists at their core (pre-V6C4 anyways) this would also address the complaint that RWBY has too many protags. The World's Protag of Ozma, the People's Protag of Jaune, and the Story's Protag of Ruby. Just a random idea I had while daydreaming a few minutes ago. might write this into a fanfic, IDK. just wanted thoughts

You should definitely write that, anon!! I had the exact same idea a while back and got so far as to write three pages of the AU before, of course, getting distracted by other projects. In lieu of general thoughts I present those pages because god only knows if I’ll ever come back to the fic. Might as well give the fandom what I’ve got: 

“Okay, Jaune. Again.Just like we practiced.”

Ruby turned from the glade just as Jaune yelled out—thesound stemming more from grief than effort with his sword. Best leave him toit... and turn Ren and Nora away if they happened to wake. This didn’t feellike the kind of thing anyone else should intrude on.

Except Ruby wasn’t sure she could bring herself to speakright now. Even if she had to. She felt woozy. Off balance. All around her thefireflies danced and the moon, broken, shown dappled through the trees. Nothingseemed solid and Ruby waved her hand through the air with the vague sense thatshe might grasp some of that moonlight. A part of her wondered if she was stilldreaming and maybe, just maybe, she could take something precious with her whenshe woke. Like magic. Or time.

That would be nice, wouldn’t it? Lay down on her sleepingbag and wake up two days earlier, miles off in a world where she’d never seenJaune swinging his blade with self-punishing force, his tears visible even froma distance. Or maybe she could wake up in Patch instead, before she’d abandonedYang and gone off in search of an unclear goal. Dad would bring her more mealsin bed and Ruby could drag Yang out of hers, even if she had to enlist Zwei’shelp to do it.

Or... Or maybe she could go all the way back to Beacon,behind safe walls and the arms of her team. Whole again. This time when Rubywoke up she’d be better, stronger, more clever than anyone ever assumed shewas. She had known Cinder looked familiar, but hadn’t thought to connect herwith the powerful silhouette in the airship, fire spewing from her fingers andan ankle bracelet—one Ruby had seenagain, in the hallway of their dorm— rattling distinctly. She’d have Cindercaptured, tell everyone about the White Fang, recognize her enemies for whatthey were, push her speed to reach Penny, save Pyrrha.

Pyrrha would have made it. If Ruby has just been a betterleader... a better friend maybe. They’d all—

This is not your fault.

Ruby shrieked.

The sound was startlingly loud in the meadow, breaking theotherwise peaceful night. She kicked backwards and stumbled over a root,regaining her footing just as quick as she was able. The voice had been loud,right there, and Ruby whirled, expecting to find Jaune right behind her, donewith training and using some of that skill to sneak up behind her.  

Except that hadn’t been Jaune’s voice... and Crescent Rosewas back with her sleeping bag.

You don’t need yourweapon against me, Ms. Rose.

Something in Ruby’s throat dropped down to her stomach andthen decided to continue all the way to her feet, rooting her there aseffectively as if vines had sprung up from the earth. Because she did know that voice, as impossible as itseemed. Even in the dead of night, with the fireflies adding a dream-likequality to everything around her, Ruby felt foolish voicing the next thoughtthat came into her head.

She did it anyway.

“... Professor Ozpin?”

There was a sigh, so seemingly close that Ruby whirledagain, expecting to see the green of his suit somewhere in the trees and brush.There was no one there though and when his voice sounded it felt like it wascoming from directly inside her own head; like these were somehow her thoughtstoo. Which was, she thought, a weird thought to think about thoughts.

Ruby laughed, immediately slapping a hand over her mouthwhen she heard it. This was insane. This was—

Impossible? Ozpin finished. She might not be able tosee him, but his tone carried everything Ruby would have picked up from bodylanguage alone: gentle, coaxing, a hint of self-reproach she wasn’t sure sheunderstood. This time when he sighed Ruby felt a huge breath heave out of heras well. Perhaps we should sit down.

Ruby sucked that breath back in. “We?”

…Please sit down, Ms.Rose.

“Nuh uh.” Ruby planted her feet and locked her knees. Shedidn’t know why she was being resistant—everything was swooping and she didwant to sit—but far stronger than that was the desire to resist mindlesslyfollowing whatever this voice said. Professor Ozpin’s voice. If it was actually Ozpin, which wasprecisely one of the things she had to figure out. What if this was some kindof trick? What if she sat and made herself vulnerable, only to realize this wassomeone else’s semblance at work and then they had the upper hand? If Emeraldcould create visual illusions, there was no reason why someone else couldn’tmake auditory ones too.

A chuckle startled her. Ruby blinked rapidly, trying toignore the ache that sound produced deep in her chest.

Now I remember whyI made you team leader. Excellent caution, Ms. Rose. Of course, my word is notenough, so tell me: what proof would sway you?

“Proof?” Ruby whispered.

Indeed. We’ve knowneach other about a year and you also know that I’ve been friends with yourfamily far longer. What’s something that only the real Professor Ozpin wouldknow? Ask as much as you’d like.

Ruby sat. She didn’t even realize she had, so immersed inthe question now that it had been posed to her. What would Professor Ozpin know? She could mention their trip toMountain Glenn… but the whole school ended up hearing about that, what with theattack and all. Ruby had been kindly teased about preferential treatment forweeks. The tournament then? Ruby’s mind coasted along the events, her team’svictory, lunch at the stalls, Yang and Weiss… right up until the semi-finals.Then it stumbled and ground to a halt, refusing to go any further. Not that itmattered. She tucked shaking hands between her thighs and squeezed until theystarted going numb. Ruby couldn’t remember seeing Professor Ozpin in the standsreserved for instructors. She’d looked that first day, wondering if he wasproud at Beacon taking the first victory.

I was.

Ruby flinched, head knocking against the tree she now leanedagainst. Her breath grew rapid, trying to divide up what she was thinking,saying, and hearing right now—all of it jumbled together. Removing her handsand ducking her head between her knees, Ruby allowed herself five big breathsbefore settling on a choice. It wasn’t that hard. They’d only had a fewconversations.

“You once called my uncle something,” Ruby said, slowly. “Aterm I’ve only ever heard Dad use. What was it?”

Ah. This time Ruby felt the voice more than heard it. It feltlike relaxing in a hot bath after a day’s worth of training. That would bemy dusty old crow.

[conandonandon]

Wilde Jagd (Part 1)

Part 2

Connor x Reader Modern Fantasy/Fae AU

WC: 1.1k

Warnings: language a lil bit

~

Small twigs snapped under the tires of your bicycle as you pedaled along the trail. The trees threw moon-cast shadows that reached for you and the air all around became thick and heavy until it caught in your throat. You stopped.

You cast your gaze to the cloud-strewn sky and found the moon full.

“Shit.”

This was your first mistake. Most were wary enough of the fair folk to stay away from forested areas after dark. As someone with the Sight you scoffed at the idea of passing up such a convenient shortcut through what you knew was a relatively safe area most nights. There might be a few pixies or sprites around Palmer Park, a minor boggart or two at worst. A chunk of bread in your pocket and the iron chain around your neck was enough to keep away any mischief-makers.

Tonight was not most nights. Tonight was a full moon and you mentally castigated yourself for forgetting as such. It wasn’t guaranteed that the lunar phase would bring anything particularly dangerous out, but the tenuous veil between realms was at its thinnest and the palpable energy in the air certainly promised nothing good. You took a moment to remove your jacket, flip it inside out and put it back on. Not that it would do much.

You padded forward cautiously, guiding your bike alongside as silently as possible. As much as it was in your best interest to get yourself as far away as possible as quickly as possible, it felt wrong- too conspicuous- to continue cycling. Perhaps it was the magic, pushing down on your limbs and lapping at the edges of your mind, making your thoughts blur sleepily, pleasantly. You reached into your pocket to clutch the piece of bread and your wits sharpened, but only by a hair.

Your legs began to buckle under the haze and you clutched lamely at the nearest tree trunk, stumbling into its support. Not rowan, rowan would be better. But it at least offered support as your body threatened to succumb to the soporific energy of the forest. Perhaps it would have been better to surrender to the spell, fall unconscious and sleep unnoticed on the dark ground- because that is when you made your second mistake.

You heard the murmurs, the tinkling of bells, the faint panting of the hounds and you looked. The scene was beautiful and grand, an ethereal light surrounded the procession- one not meant to be seen by mortal eyes. A cavalcade of diverse figures passed through the trees, most at least vaguely humanoid but varying wildly in size and build anywhere from under a foot to over nine. Some rode on horseback, some walked on bare feet, and others- a few of the smaller ones- flitted about, suspended by gossamer wings.

You should have looked away immediately but you were spellbound as your eyes landed on him. He was beautiful, almost human in appearance but also decidedly not. He sat stoically astride a white pony, short dark hair ornamented with flowers, insect wings, and a several minuscule yet intricate braids. The garments he wore might have been woven from stained glass and starlight, and his eyes- his eyes were chocolate pools that seemed to catch the light and refract it into a shimmering rainbow of hues. Those eyes met yours- placid, hollow, with something that might have been sadness that seemed to bleed through before you broke away from the gaze with a jolt.

He’d seen you. He’d seen you and he’d seen that you’d seen him. You were definitely royally screwed, you realized, clutching hard at the bread and shaking off the fogginess of mind and body as best as you could. You marched away, breaking into a run before throwing yourself into the seat of your bike and pedaling for your life.

Fae weren’t known to be overly fond of mortals with your sort of gifts. Some made themselves known to all eyes but what you had just witnessed was something meant to remain hidden. And human eyes which saw things that belonged solely to the Elswhere, well you were lucky if they just decided on taking your eyes and not the rest of you with them.

You didn’t look back once as you pedaled frantically, your heart lifting as the trees parted to reveal your apartment building in the distance. You launched yourself toward the safety of streetlights and hurtled across the stretch of asphalt separating you from your place of residence. You dashed into the lobby and didn’t stop to breathe until the elevator doors closed and you slammed the button for the fourth floor.

You’d made it out of the woods. Maybe you were safe.

——

The next day came and you tried to be cautiously optimistic that the whole incident was behind you. You decided it would be better to avoid Palmer Park for a while and maybe you’d give your door and window frames another coat of paint with salt and iron filings mixed in. As you dressed for the day you half considered wearing all of your clothes inside out but airing on the side of not broadcasting yourself as a paranoid weirdo to everyone at work decided against it.

So when you arrived at the police station it was with your clothes turned right-side-out; the visible ones anyway. Before heading to your desk you swung by the break room to grab a coffee and to steal some of those little packets of salt to shove in your pocket, just in case. You were still a bit distracted as you plodded to your desk which is why you weren’t quite looking where you were going and rammed straight into a solid wall of person.

At the sudden impact your hand released its precious caffeinated cargo, but faster than you could process another hand caught the cup before it could spill a drop. “Wow! Thanks!” you gasped out without yet looking up. Those words were you third and worst mistake you realized as you met the face of the figure before you.

Dark hair, styled neatly. A grey jacket over a white shirt and black tie. Impassive eyes that couldn’t quite settle on brown as a color. He looked different- different enough not to seem utterly out of place in the police precinct- but it was him. Different enough to pass as a normal human being to most eyes- but it was him. And you had thanked him. You had thanked him. Oh you were so screwed.

“Hello, Detective (L/N),” the creature before you intoned with a small not-quite smile. “I’ve been assigned to work with you and Lieutenant Anderson on your current cases for the time being.”

You swallowed drily before replying with a rather loaded question, some small part of you hoping you were hallucinating or mistaken or something, and the man in front of you wasn’t some unknowable being sent after you to blind you or kill you or - worse. “Oh? W-what’s your name?”

“You may call me Connor.”

Shit.

~~~

A/N: Ok Idek what this is basically this whole thing including the bits I haven’t written yet is based very heavily on a dream i had a few days ago and like idk if I even like the whole premise and such that much but I had to get it at least partially out of my system so I wrote this little intro instead of sleeping whoops. If I scrape enough motivation together I actually do sort of have a plot planned soooooo we’ll see how that goes *sweats nervously*

[ais-n]

hiyya Ais! How are you? I hope you're doing well <3 I had a question. When Boyd was kidnapped by Janus, what all went down? How did he react when he realized people were in his home? How long did it take for him to understand what was going on? Was he able to take out any of them? What were his last thoughts before they took him away? That scene would have been so stressful to read from his POV but I've always wondered how it would have went.

Hey! I’m alright, how are you? Hope you’re well too! :)

Oh wait I almost dove right in without the obligatory

SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS ICOS SPOILERS! :D

I actually had that scene written out at one point, or tried to. I have a pretty strong image in my mind of highlights of what happened… but when I tried writing it out, it just didn’t sound badass enough in the wording I was using so I kind of just gave up and relegated it to my mind lol 

(More beneath cut - cut for long ass length + spoilers.... includes a scene I’d originally written of Mrs. Hensley detailing a lot more stuff she saw.)

BUT FIRST! A word from our sponsor for this post: Tangent!

I have a lot of things relegated to my mind that I start writing some scenes for and don’t like it and stop midway, or don’t even write at all. That includes lots of the things that happened to Boyd during his stay in Janus’ custody.

They did not treat him well. There are things I’m pretty sure happened that I kept thinking, maybe I could find a way for them not to happen because it’s kind of fucked up and I feel bad for Boyd. So I didn’t have it specified when writing the scene, and we never had Hsin talk to Boyd’s doctors to find out anything further about what sort of stuff he dealt with, in case I could imagine scenarios where it didn’t occur. But every time I think about it, I think it probably did. Which is just like. Ugggh. They were assholes, man, messing with his mind. It’s not necessarily things he hadn’t had to deal with before, but the way they fucked with his head too in the process of it was really shitty.

One line Boyd says is the closest it came in story to specifying anything - where he said

"How do I know?" There was a rawness in his voice that was temperedby the oppression of the room. "At first I could tell something was wrongbecause when I thought back later it felt like a dream. But they've beenupgrading the program. Everything has felt more real. Even touch, pain...She's been taunting me with it. How do I know that's not happening now?"

I know I’m still being vague, mostly because part of me is like, maybe I can still imagine scenarios with them being a little less dickish?? But also because idk if anyone is even curious or not about that whole aspect of the thing, since the question wasn’t about what was up during his whole stay, it was what was up during the abduction itself.

Anyway, see below for what I do know. Also, the bonus scene I originally wrote of Mrs. Hensley talking to the police before I decided she’d be too shady to even do that much! Yay? lol (If you want to skip straight to the hensley scene, scroll till you see the bolded title for that)

So, in the various scenarios about how it could have gone down, there were a few things that stayed pretty common. I’m including Mrs. Hensley’s description to the cops below because it’s probably still pretty accurate for how it would have looked from the outside maybe? Except the laughing bit - I don’t remember what that was about, unless it was Dana who unmasked herself. The irony of his life now in danger over the person he had saved in an attempt to feel like a less terrible human being would have been too much. I don’t know if later I decided she wouldn’t have physically been there, though. Not sure on that.

Also fun fact: originally I wanted them to have scrawled a message on the wall in blood - I forget what it was going to say. But then we decided that the place should be blown up, at which point no one would be able to see anything, anyway. That’s ultimately why the Hensley thing below was cut - not only because she was a narrow-minded nosy old lady who wouldn’t want to talk to cops because she refused to get involved, but also that version assumed the cops could just walk into the house and see the aftermath, and blood would be visible. 

ANYWAY ok so some of the things I had thought would happen were--

At one point I thought they got him by the door initially... He walked in, was super tired and distracted, but something felt off and his hair stood on end. He went to his alarm system to seemingly input the code so the alarm wouldn’t go off, but he planned to input instead a distress code which would alert the Agency that something was wrong. Before he could finish, he was attacked by a group of people. They fought and wouldn’t let him close to the alarm system again. At one point during all of this, he tried to grab his cell phone which he had set down prior to realizing anything was off. He tried to call Kassian’s number, but only made it to the screen to call before he was thrown down, and the phone skittered out of his hand and landed under the couch. That version was going to have Danny find it, and realize Boyd had been trying to call for help but was interrupted.

Another version had it start in the bedroom, and I think that’s probably what ultimately happened. They probably wanted to lure him in as far as they could. In the original-original version, I was thinking Boyd was asleep when they got him, but in the version that ended up in Fade, obviously he was awake because he only planned a quick stop.

So I think probably what happened was something along the lines of the scenario I most often imagined:

He came in, didn’t realize anything was wrong because they were doing a good job of hiding and not being anywhere near him plus he was extremely distracted and in a hurry because of all of the JG shit and also wanting to get back to Annadale. His mind was completely occupied by getting back to Danny, and maybe having to tell him about Sin. He input the regular code which disengaged the alarm system, he set down his phone and probably other crap like his wallet or whatever on a table in the living room, and if he had a bag with him he would’ve dropped that too. He went quickly into his bedroom, pulled out a duffel bag, and started to throw shit into it in a hurry. That’s the duffel bag Danny later found partially open.

While there, Boyd sensed something was off. He slowed what he was doing, discreetly reached for his gun, and slid back to hide crouched in the shadows between his bed and the wall. He waited until he heard quieted movement, and then saw some people enter the room stealthily, looking for him. I imagined he waited until he had a good angle, then leapt out and probably slammed dude’s head into the door or something else. Incapacitating or killing that guy.

He then rolled into the hallway and started shooting other people who were on their way to get him. That started the fight, with the Janus ops ducking for cover, and returning the attack. Boyd probably realized he had no idea how many people were in his home but there were probably too many for him to take on alone, so he tried to focus on attacking the people who were in his way to freedom. I suspect he tried first to run out the back door, but there were people waiting so he had to run past them into the living room. (He may have ended up briefly in the kitchen trying to get to the kitchen window, I forget)

There, the real fight began. Boyd used anything he could find as a weapon, picking up things around him to throw at people or to knock them into furniture or over obstacles. But they were attacking him too. He was punched and kicked, he hit his head at one point, they kept ganging up on him and overpowering him, but he kept twisting away. At some point, they got his gun from him and threw it out of his reach, then wouldn’t let him get back to it.

Here, he probably thought about trying for the distress code, maybe angled toward the wall unit, realized quickly he didn’t have time, probably went for his phone to try to call Kassian for help, but it was knocked out of his reach and they crushed it so he couldn’t call anyone. Around that time he probably backed up, realizing he was overpowered and outnumbered. He was injured, he’d killed and incapacitated people but it wasn’t enough. There were too many more, and they were backing him into a corner. 

That was when he realized he couldn’t reach the doors, he couldn’t call for help from the Agency, so his next best measure was Mrs. Hensley. He had seen some movement at her place before he’d walked in - birds flitting around mostly, but maybe she was awake. If anyone would see this, it would be her. She hated him. She was nosy and watched him. Surely she would help him. Surely she would at least call the police if something dramatic happened.

His curtains weren’t quite fully closed in his living room so he hoped she was watching. He ran at the window, planning to grab a lamp to break it or maybe he would just leap right through it. He hoped the sound would wake the neighbors, it would scare away the attackers, or at least bring eyes to this. Something. 

But on his way there, they tased him. He fell forward and cracked his head on a table, making him bleed pretty profusely. He couldn’t move while he was being tased. They flipped him over, and may or may not have had a short conversation with him. When they briefly let up on the taser, he tried to get away but they just did it again. While he was unable to move, they pulled drugged him. When they let up on the taser that time, he struggled to a stand. He was already starting to lose function but he still tried to get away. They stepped back and watched him, because they knew he wasn’t going anywhere. He made it to the door, but all he managed to do was streak a bloody handprint down it before he fell down. Blood pooled beneath him, led to another bloody handprint, and then he passed out.

The taser was the blue flashing light that Mrs. Hensley describes seeing.

All told, Boyd probably killed or incapacitated over half of the people Janus had sent, but he couldn’t get away. There were too many of them, and he had no warning, and they kept blocking his exits. He might have had a chance without the taser and the drug, but they knew to over-prepare for him so, really, he didn’t have a chance at all. That’s why so many bodies were brought out. It’s also part of the reason why he wasn’t treated well. He wouldn’t have been treated well regardless, but the combination of killing/hurting so many people for so many years on so many missions with also getting so many people during the abduction itself, while also having a known history as being a Janus slave, technically, through Aleixo - it wasn’t pleasant.

In terms of what he was thinking during the attack, at first he was surprised by the sheer ballsy absurdity of attacking him in his own goddamn home, but then it was more of an “Oh fuck” combined with “Like fucking hell I’ll let you do this!”  He was angry more than anything, because he didn’t have time for this shit, and he wanted to get back to Sin. He was also scared, probably, because he didn’t know if them targeting him like this meant Danny or Kassian or anyone else was being targeted at the same time, too. 

Honestly, that’s what he was most worried about during the whole thing, and probably was his last thought before he was taken away. He was concerned for Sin, Kassian, Ryan, all of them. He was more worried about them being in danger at that same moment, than he was about what was happening to him or what would come next. He wanted to get away so he could get away, but mostly also so he could get away and report this to the Agency and the others to send squads out to everyone else to make sure they were safe. He was probably freaking out about Danny’s safety especially. If he’d been able to escape, he would’ve alerted Carhart and his mother and Kassian about the whole thing and then gotten his ass down to Annadale ASAP, probably calling Danny freaking out the whole time until Danny picked up. But Danny was driving up at that time so who knows if they might have passed each other on the road without realizing it.

So here’s the Hensley excerpt I mentioned... as I said, this scene was written before we changed the way a lot of things were done, but I thought you may still find it interesting to see what she probably would have seen, if she’d seen more. Or if she did see more but just didn’t tell anyone further details. In this scenario, she was out talking while Danny was there trying to figure out what happened to Boyd. I can’t remember but in this version, he may have come after the police already had it cordoned off as a crime scene, and this might have been him eavesdropping to figure out wtf even had happened. If it wasn’t that, then it must have been him coming back to learn more. I can’t remember. It doesn’t really matter, since ultimately the way it went down changed. But anyway here you go:

HENSLEY EXCERPT

"What's all this? What's all this now?" a woman's reedy voice rang out through the background noise of people talking and the house being examined.

Two officers on the edge of the scene looked over. They exchanged a look and without having to say anything, one of them raised his eyebrows slightly and tilted his head in her direction, as if to say "you take her; it shouldn't take long." The other one frowned slightly, glanced the little old woman over, and then headed in her direction.

She was elderly, well into her seventies and likely later than that, and she was storming out of the house across the street. She had on a worn pair of slippers that were too large for her feet and she was clutching a terrycloth robe tight across her bony chest. Her flyaway grey hair was short and the scowl etched on her face only deepened as the officer approached.

"You're scaring my birds! Making such a racket clear in the morning. What's all this?" She gestured sharply to the squads flashing their lights in Boyd's driveway.

"Ma'am, I'm going to have to ask you to step back," the officer said in a clear, authoritative tone. He held his hands up and stepped toward her even as she drew herself up to all of her five feet.

"I know my rights!"

"I'm sure you do, ma'am--"

"I don't have to listen to you! I haven't done anything wrong. I'm trying to keep watch on my neighborhood and here you all are, disturbing the peace--"

"Just back up past that squad right there and we can talk."

The woman gave the officer a death glare and harrumphed as she tightened her robe even further. Whether she listened to the officer or determined she was at the prime place to see better, standing on the edge of the curb across the street, it was hard to tell. Whatever the case, she complied with the command.

Her sharp brown eyes shifted past him and zeroed in on Boyd's house.

"You're here because of that miscreant over there, aren't you?" she asked archly.

"What's your name, ma'am?" the officer asked, pulling out a pen and a small brown notebook from his vest pocket and flipping it open. He looked up at her as she scowled.

"Lenora Hensley. What did that boy do now?"

"You live here?" The officer flicked his gaze between her and the perfectly manicured house behind her.

"I do," she said, pulling herself up to her full height again. "I won best in the neighborhood twice and Cedar Hills Favorites five times in the past ten years, I'll have you know. I take good care of my place, unlike them." She gave a disgusted look at the grass at the Beaulieu residence, which had overgrown the neighbors' lawns by a half an inch.

"You know the people across the street?"

"Of course I do." She sounded insulted. "I've lived here my entire life. I knew them since they moved in." She crossed her arms and scowled. "They had such promise at first. But look how all that turned out. Cop cars at five in the morning! What is this neighborhood coming to? I tell you, I saw this coming long ago."

"Saw what coming, ma'am?"

"This hullabaloo!" She waved her hand at the squads, her lip curling. "I knew it the moment he started acting strangely."

"Who did?"

"That Beaulieu boy. The one who's missing."

The officer looked up at her sharply at that, his eyes narrowing faintly. "Ma'am, we haven't yet canvassed the block. What makes you believe he's missing?"

"Now see here, I may be getting up there in age but I can put one and one together even now," she said flatly. "Don't you go believing you can treat me like a senile old woman, young man. I don't care what you think of yourself with those flashing lights--"

"What did you put together?" The officer cut in. He shifted on his feet and absently adjusted his gun belt weighing at his hips. "Did you see something?"

"Well of course I did, I see everything," Mrs. Hensley snapped. "You think I didn't notice? I saw them playing another one of their little games. I saw what happened."

"What happened?"

"He was taken."

The officer frowned as he jotted down some notes. "By who?"

"How should I know?" Mrs. Hensley sniffed and looked past the officer. "Isn't that your job?"

The officer drew in a short breath and then let it out slowly. He shifted on his feet again and glanced over his shoulder at his partner who had sent him over. His partner caught his eye and smirked when he saw the look of annoyance on his face. The officer gave him a look like he was going to pay for this later and then returned a neutral stare to Mrs. Hensley.

"Why don't you start from the beginning and tell me what you saw."

"Well," Mrs. Hensley huffed, tightening her grip on her robe and looking for a moment as though she planned to go on another rant. Her gaze flicked between the house and the officer, and her expression shifted from insubordinate to disapproving.

"I keep watch on this block, you know. I have all my life. And that boy was into something strange, I tell you. Coming back at all hours. Letting the house go to waste for months. I reported it, you know. Peeled paint and overgrown grass-- does he think we live in the Barrows? People have expectations here. Spoiled little child who never worked a day in his life--"

"Does the grass have something to do with him missing?" It was said blandly, somewhat sarcastically, but she didn't seem to notice.

"Why on Earth would it?" she asked incredulously. She looked the officer up and down with contempt. "They don't make you go through much schooling before you get that uniform, do they?"

"If the grass has nothing to do with his disappearance," the officer said flatly, "then you can leave it out of the story."

She glared at the officer, her jaw working. For a moment she looked ready to turn and walk away, but in the end she didn't. It was possible her gossiping nature got the best of her.

"I pay taxes. I pay to live in a safe neighborhood," she said sharply. "Not around some ruffian who has never learned to choose his friends wisely. That blond boy when they were younger, Louis-- he was never any good either. And then he grew up--"

"Boyd Beaulieu?"

"Yes, yes, Boyd," she said impatiently, waving a hand. "He brought home all sorts of ill mannered people. The things I saw." Her lips tightened and her eyes narrowed in disgust. "No one should have to see such things."

"What things?"

Mrs. Hensley paused and then leaned forward, darting her eyes around and saying in a stage whisper, "Homosexual intercourse." She overly pronounced 'homosexual,' making it sound like a child trying out a swear word for the first time. "And other things the good Lord never intended to be done."

The officer made a short noise under his breath and wrote something down, flicking his gaze up to her face. "So the victim is gay."

"I should certainly say so," she huffed. "What with the things he did and the way he looked." She turned a narrowed glare on the windows of the Beaulieu house. "It's a sin, what he did. The people he knew. This was a long time coming. Some people call it karma but if this wasn't his game, I know it's the good Lord righting a wrong He left untended for too long."

"And yesterday?" the officer asked, pausing in his note taking to turn his attention fully on her. "Did you see anything suspicious?"

"No more than usual at first, I thought. But what with all this." She gestured to the crime scene and shrugged. "Who's to know? I don't understand the sick games his type plays."

"What did you see that seemed suspicious?"

"Oh, well. The van I suppose," she said offhandedly.

The officer frowned, his eyebrows dragging together as he flipped to a new page. "What did the van look like?"

"Black."

The officer waited a moment to see if she would add anything and when she didn't, he asked, "Anything else?"

"What else is there to say?" she asked impatiently. "It was a black van."

"Did you get the plate?"

"No. I used to get the plates of suspicious vehicles that came through here but the police didn't care about them then, did they?"

Her voice rose, indignation flushing her cheeks a pale pink. "I saw a man stealing a cabinet right out of a garbage can eight years ago and got that plate and they didn't do a thing! You people spend all your time elsewhere in the city, not even caring about the crimes that take our neighborhood down. If you paid the taxes I pay to have civil servants ignore the good information we give over just so they can go gallivanting around where the people take advantage of the system then you would stop taking those kinds of notes too."

"What happened with the van?"

She grabbed her robe and opened it to fold one side in and the other over it, tightening it flat against her body over her loose nightgown. She huffed and shifted on her feet. "It pulled into the driveway over there," she gestured with one hand to Boyd's house.

"What time was that?"

"Oh, I'd say around 11:15 at night. It was dark and I had woken up to give Pearl her medicine. She's sick right now." She sniffed. "Probably got something from that boy's place. She got out the other day and flew over there before I could stop her. Took me twenty minutes to get her back in the cage and ever since she hasn't been quite right."

Her stare turned to steel and her voice darkened ominously. "If anything happens to her, I'll sue that boy and his mother right out of this neighborhood. Don't think I won't do it."

"And after it pulled into the driveway, then what happened?"

"Those people got out." Her eyes narrowed, this time more in thought than anything. "I thought it was a bit strange the way they moved."

"How so?"

"They acted like they didn't want to be seen-- opening and closing the doors without a sound and then sneaking in front and around back. If I hadn't been awake and looking outside, I wouldn't have known they were there. Do you know they even had their headlights off driving up to the house? That's cause for real suspicion right there, that time of night."

"How many people were there?"

Mrs. Hensley frowned thoughtfully. "Around a dozen, maybe more."

"What did they look like?"

"Couldn't say," she said dismissively. "They were all in black. They even had those, what do you call them? Robber masks. Ski masks." She made a circle with her thumb and pointer finger, holding it up near her eye. "Just the little holes for seeing and speaking, near as I could tell."

"Could you tell what race they were?"

"No, of course I couldn't. I don't even know if they were men or women. It was too far away to see. What do you think I do, sit here with my binoculars?"

The officer's lips thinned slightly but he didn't look up from his notebook as he flipped to a new page. "What did those people do?"

"I couldn't see everything but they spread around the house. Some of them paused at the front. And then I saw them go inside."

"All of them?"

"Near about. One or two stayed on the sides and there was the other in the van still."

The officer jotted notes down quickly and finally looked up again. "Did you see anything else?"

"Well not at first. It was dark inside and the boy finally learned to close most of his curtains. Not all of them, though. Sometimes the far right one catches on that lamp they have so I can still see inside. That's what happened last night."

She paused and then frowned, shifting her weight and adjusting her grip on her robe. She gave the officer an odd look. "But the strange thing was after a minute there were these flashes." She held her hand up, closing her fingers into a loose fist then spreading them out quickly and repeating the gesture a few times at varying intervals. "Like that."

"Flashes..." the officer repeated thoughtfully. He wrote something down and then asked, "Did you hear anything?"

She shook her head. "That's one good thing about that house of theirs; build solidly to hold in the noise. With my windows closed and theirs too, I don't have to be subjected to more of his sordid lifestyle than I already have to see."

"What happened after the flashes?"

"Well, I think the boy turned on the light. Or someone did. All of a sudden I could see right inside and there were several of them, those people in black. They were fighting, it looked like."

The officer nodded and made a note. "With the victim?"

"Yes, he acted like he was trying to get away." Her gaze strayed to the window in question; the one with the curtain still pulled to the side. Blood could be seen spattered against the walls amongst the disarray. "What's that?" she demanded, her voice rising as a reedy finger pointed accusingly across the street. "Is that blood?"

The officer ignored the question. "Did you see anything else?"

"Well I didn't see the blood, I can tell you that much," she huffed, her hands clutching at her robe and tightening it. She lifted her chin indignantly. "This used to be such a nice neighborhood before his kind moved in... Playing his sick, twisted games where anyone can see--"

"Did you see anything else?" the officer repeated.

"Just that he looked like he planned to break the windows with a barbell-- a barbell," she added, scandalized, "can you imagine? The cost of repair alone, let alone the look of a broken window, and Lord only knows how long it would take him to fix it..."

She trailed off, glaring at the offending house and cinching her robe tighter.

The officer glanced over his shoulder as well, eyebrows shifting upward before returning to her. "Well. The windows aren't broken, so what stopped him?"

"What?" She looked over at him. "Oh," she waved a dismissive hand, "I couldn't say. One second he had it upheld," she mimicked holding something as if planning to throw it, "and next thing I know there's a bit of flashing and I could hardly see him, seeing as he was on the floor. Sometime later they came out, carrying him and several of those people in black. I don't know what happened inside but they must have been unconscious."

"And they put him in the van?"

"Threw him in like so much cargo," she said blithely, swinging her arms with her hands crooked to imitate tossing something heavy. "He was already tied up at that point."

The officer's expression tightened and he gave her a flat look. "If you saw all this, why didn't you call 911?"

"How should I know what those homosexuals do in their free time?" Mrs. Hensley demanded. "Just the other day on the news, they talked about this cruising that happens in Crandall Park. The nerve of them! Going about that business in places where children visit during the day..."

Her lip lifted in a sneer and she tilted her head, managing to give the impression of looking down her nose at the officer despite the fact that he was a good foot taller than her. She let out a huff of a breath and crossed her arms.

"Besides," she added indignantly, "I don't get involved in his strange friendships."

"What makes you think they were friends?"

"Well, because he recognized one of them." She gave him a look as if it should have been obvious.

The officer flipped a page in his notebook. "Why do you say that?"

"I couldn't see everything, what with them standing in the way and all, but I did see something toward the end. One of them lifted their mask and he looked surprised and then he laughed."

The officer stared at her over the top of his notebook. "Laughed."

"Yes, he laughed and then dropped out of sight. I didn't see anything until they came outside."

She straightened her back and glared at the officer. "So you see, it was just another strange incident at his place. I don't want anything to do with that boy. He wants to play his little games, he can. You officers will likely want to be looking for some sort of cruising van for homosexuals. You should start with the park. This may have been one of those sexual fantasy games I saw them talking about on the television awhile back."

She said 'sexual fantasy' with the same attention to over-pronunciation as she did 'homosexuals.'

"There was one story where a woman didn't know someone else set her up for the game. I expect if he didn't sign himself up that's what happened here. But if you ask me, that sick boy signed himself up. He was never right in the head, I can tell you that much. The only one worth knowing of the whole family was the dead father." She shook her head to herself, lips thinning as she tightened her robe again. "I always knew there was something wrong with him."

"What did the person look like who pulled up their mask?"

Mrs. Hensley shrugged unconcernedly. "How should I know? He was turned away. I just know he did it because I could see it from behind." She mimed reaching up to pull up a mask. Her robe fell open in the movement, revealing the worn, flower-printed nightgown beneath.

"So it was a man?"

Mrs. Hensley gave the officer an arch look. "You think a woman would want to be involved in all that?" she asked incredulously, gesturing to the splattered blood she could see from her angle.

"So you didn't see either way."

"I didn't have to see," Mrs. Hensley insisted. "No woman would get herself involved in that boy's sick fantasies! And I'll tell you another thing-- I hope he stays gone."

Her eyes narrowed in a cold glare and she leaned forward, crossing her arms sharply. "Good riddance, if you ask me. Without him our neighborhood will have the chance to return to the way it used to be. I'm only glad you didn't find a body in there or the news would be all over this. Can you imagine? A murder in Cedar Hills?" Her tone was as incredulous as it was scandalized, her thin eyebrows rising to wrinkle her forehead further. She stepped to the edge of the curb and settled an imperious glare on the officer. "You just make sure that boy never comes back, you hear? If you did your job protecting the peace, that's what you'd be focused on right now."

"I see. Thank you for your time, Mrs. Hensley. If I could just get your contact information in case the investigators have follow up questions..."

They went back and forth briefly on that before Mrs. Hensley finally consented to providing her phone number provided they kept everything about her confidential.

"I want to be anonymous," she insisted.

The officer nodded and went to leave. Mrs. Hensley surveyed the scene, her gaze zeroing in on the house before shifting to take in everyone who was crowded around the area curiously. When her eyes swept past Danny they immediately returned. She met his eyes, her lips narrowing and expression turning distinctly disapproving.

Just as the officer was about to walk away she said archly, "If you want to know more about the homosexual activity, you should ask that man." She pointed at Danny, her stare clearly stained with disgust. "He used to stay around here all the time, years back. He was the one I saw most often having intercourse with that boy."

She flicked a contemptuous gaze up and down Danny's body and then turned fully to the officer. "Flaunting it for everyone to see." Her lip curled. "They have no shame."

The officer frowned, looked over at Danny, then glanced at his partner. Their eyes met and the officer who had spoken to Mrs. Hensley tilted his head in Danny's direction, causing his partner to peel away from where he was standing to approach Danny. While that officer headed his way, the other one who had spoken to Mrs. Hensley headed toward the man standing at the edge of the yard who seemed to be in charge.

That was then supposed to hook up with Danny’s side of things, but then we didn’t go this route, so the scene just sort of ends randomly instead lol BUT DANNY WHAT WOULD YOU HAVE SAID?? The world will never know.

[kinetic-elaboration]

May 29: An Adventure... Outside

Today I celebrated being fully vaccinated by going out on an adventure using public transportation for the first time in 15 months. It went really well! I’m exhausted now but I’d say I had a very good day.

It felt nice to be independent again, and to go and be outside and away from my neighborhood for no particular reason other than I wanted to. It felt indulgent. And honestly, I even missed the bus. It was kinda a big part of my life and my daily routine, and then one day I rode the bus to work and didn’t ride it back and didn’t step foot on it again for over a year. It’s just so bizarre. So just following that old routine, the bus stop, the route into town, waiting for my stop, keeping track of the time to catch the bus back--it was comforting.

My original plan was to head out in time to catch the farmers market, but then I decided to take a shower in the morning and it threw off the whole thing. So I ended up heading out an hour later, which was fine. It felt like a big enough deal to have a mini-adventure out among other people without adding in something as...potentially crowded as the farmers market.

I wasn’t really sure what to expect, mask-wise, though I did know that the bus requires masks and that I was going to be outside for a lot of the day, where masks aren’t really necessary in general. At some point, I made a vague rule to myself that I’d wear one inside but not outside but also... see what other people were doing.

So I walked up to the bus stop without one (outside, by myself, not necessary), and then put it on as I saw the bus approaching. I have to say, I’m glad I didn’t ride the bus until I was fully vaccinated because it was more crowded than I expected it would be, and a lot of people were not making any effort to wear their masks correctly--they’d have them under their nose, or they’d pull them down to talk, which is just absolutely fucking baffling to me--and if I didn’t feel basically, roughly safe, I’d probably end up having a panic attack about the whole experience. As it was, I just felt like, you’re dumb but I don’t care.

I kept the mask on as I walked to the farmers market. I knew it was over by then but I wanted to make sure I did, in fact, know where it was, since it’s moved locations since the last time I went. The newer location isn’t as nice, and I’m kinda bummed about the move, tbh. The old location has been filled in with new tables and chairs to allow for more outdoor seating, which I 100% support, but it doesn’t leave room for the stalls. I wish they’d moved it down the street but idk, maybe that wasn’t possible.

Anyway, I saw the Farmers Market vendors putting their stuff away (exciting), and then I basically made a circle and headed back. I saw that even the vendors didn’t seem to be wearing masks--though Idk if that was because the patrons had gone by then and they were taking stuff down, or because they didn’t wear them at all anymore in the outdoor market--so I took mine off. I went on my usual walk, my old usual, and just enjoyed the fresh air and the casual being-in-a-crowd public-anonymity thing. There were a decent number of people around, most unmasked. Some had visible masks they weren’t wearing, most not even that. That didn’t really surprise me much, since we were outside. Seeing people go in and out of buildings unmasked was weirder. I’m not entirely sure what to make of it. On the one hand, it’s hard to believe that all of them are actually fully vaccinated, given that only 50% of the whole state is. On the other hand, again, most people I saw were outside, and it is possible this is a skewed sample--the people who are out and about, and especially out and about in a tourist-y area they might have traveled to are more likely to be vaccinated. I mean, I didn’t leave my neighborhood until I was! I dunno, maybe I’m being naive. I want to believe people though.

I was worried about the weather because it was supposed to rain literally all day, including some thunder. But actually it turned out to be really nice! For most of my walk, it was cloudy and cool but not actually raining, or there’d just be short little gusts of rain here and there. It felt like fall. I even saw a tree with orange leaves in the distance. I loved it. Nice, crisp, cool air. Great to walk in because it’s not too cold. Honestly, it felt like September--way more like September than actual Septembers around here.

It did start to rain a bit harder and more obnoxiously as I finished my circuit and got back to the shops. I had been thinking about walking a little more but I wanted to get out of the rain at that point.

Then I noticed that the Italian restaurant next to D-- S----- P-- was different. It’s still an Italian restaurant, just with a different name. So that was weird, and right after I noticed that, I noticed that my favorite tea shop was right next to it! I thought it had closed down entirely when I saw the empty store front last December. I’m not even really sure what space they took to be honest... they’re between the Italian restaurant and the Christmas shop. I don’t think there was anything there before, and the Christmas shop can’t get any smaller, really. I suspect the Italian restaurant split off a bit for the tea shop. I’ve only been there a couple times, and I don’t remember the layout very well, but it easily could have take a smaller space in the rebranding. Also the entrance to the restaurant and the tea shop is the same: you come in and go right for the restaurant, left for the tea shop.

So anyway I obviously had to go in. I put on my mask because I felt more comfortable doing that, even though I’m not personally scared and even though the sign said only unvaccinated people had to wear masks. I noticed one of the employees wasn’t wearing one and the other one was, and most (though not all) of the customers were also unmasked. It was a little weird... I was very aware of that uncertainty and discrepancy. I also felt that I was signalling something that isn’t true--that I’m unvaccinated.

The shop itself was very nice. It’s bigger than the old location and I think they have an expanded amount of stuff to go with it. They’re also selling tea to go, which I will take them up on sometime. Honestly, seeing the shop open again and better than ever just felt so good--like finally surprising news was positive, for once.

By the time I left, the rain had let up again. I crossed over to my favorite coffee shop (my beloved!!), stopping briefly at a new soap shop on my way. It’s taken the place of one of those ‘quirky gift idea’ shops and is more my thing--although I will say, I’ll miss the Ambiguously Gay Reindeer display the gift shop used to put up at Christmas.

Seeing unmasked people in the coffee shop was probably the weirdest, just because it really isn’t a big place, and people (like me) tend to set up shop there for long periods of time. Hanging out there was something I’ve missed a lot during the last year-plus, but I thought I’d have to wait a really long time to be comfortable in there again. Today, my compromise was, again, to wear my mask when I was inside ordering, but to actually sit outside to drink, where I did not wear a mask. The last time I had a coffee-shop-day, which I think was Election Day, I sat outside with a mask that I only took off to drink, because even though I was outside, the tables are fairly close together. Everyone else seemed to basically follow the same rules. Today, even though there were people near me, I felt safe enough and also...within the bounds of decency to have my mask off. (They weren’t wearing them either.)

(Literally half this entry is me obsessing about masks but that’s how it is right now!!)

It was a little chilly for sitting outside, but I didn’t mind it. I felt a little more comfortable, people and fresh air wise, and as I said I love this fall-ish weather. Sometimes the rain would pick up again, and then pass. I had a green mint mocha, which was delicious; I hadn’t had one in forever because you can’t get them anywhere else. I did some people watching, and some notebook-writing. It was really enjoyable.

When it was almost time to catch the bus, I finished up and headed toward home. I had to stop off at the Walgreens to pick up my prescription, though. I kept my mask on for the walk because by then it was actually a little too chilly to be out without a jacket--and I didn’t have a jacket, and honestly, the mask does make a noticeable difference re: warmth. The prescription was actually very easy to pick up for once, so I had an annoyingly long time to kill before the bus came around again. I’d initially thought I might just walk home--it’s a bit of a trek but I’ve done it before--but it was too cold and I was too lazy. So I walked down the street and to the Marshalls instead, because I’ve never been to this or any Marshalls, and I figured I could probably waste some time there.

At first, I was very skeptical, because I didn’t think I could find enough to do for 40-45 minutes. Then I found the clearance shelves, which were full of a whole bunch of weird stuff, including a really random Daria mug for $3, which I then became obsessed with. Like, should I buy it? Will I ever forgive myself if I don’t? Is it too random? I wandered around looking for something else I might buy with it, including this nice black dress with flowers on it... but I couldn’t try it on, and I thought the chances of me buying it, hating it, and forgetting to return it were too high. I also looked at the organizational baskets and stuff but I can’t be bringing stuff like that home with no purpose or it’ll be more trouble than it’s worth.

So in the end, I just got the mug. The lines in Marshalls are really surprisingly long! I was so sure that I’d miss the bus by 5 minutes and then end up walking home anyway, just an hour later, with a $3 mug. Luckily, the cashiers were also very efficient, and I managed to get to the bus stop with just a couple minutes to spare--basically ideal timing.

I still had my mask on, between the cold, the going in and out of stores and the bus, and Marshalls actually outright requiring masks. Tbh, I appreciated the requirement, just because it was the only time all day when I wasn’t constantly looking around me and wondering who was wearing a mask and who wasn’t, who was vaccinated and who wasn’t, if I was sticking out or not, etc. Everyone had a mask on and everyone was equal in that sense; it was a non-issue.

I kept my mask on after I got off the bus just because there were some other people getting off at the same stop. Plus, I needed to concentrate on crossing the street with its danger lights. But once I was by myself on the sidewalk, I took it off again.

I got home at about 4:30, so I was out for about 5 hours total. I chilled a little and then I made dinner. Now I’m kinda... lazy and sleepy. I didn’t get that much sleep last night, which was probably good because I need to reset that sleep schedule, and I’m tired now, so I’m hoping I can get to sleep early tonight. Maybe?? Maybe??