#Yaaaay suffering <3 <3 <3

[sysig]

Wuh oh (Patreon)

Bonus:

The novel experience of being crushed by a giant rock, a visual metaphor

[critterishere]

Postal Demon in Postal 3 au INFOBLAST!!! + some demon headcanons bc I’m evil

WARNING!!! This is a poorly written au that was created just to house this AWFUL crackship…… This au is held together by really thin strings,, the strings are that the first game’s Paradise is the same as the rest of the other games. (I just have to ball with it⛹️)(Despite the au taking place in one general universe that compiles the other games,, I don’t think that the postal dudes from each game are the same person!🧨 idk what all these dudes are doing around eachother but we ball)

Small postal demon info before I start the au summary:

I call the postal demon “Pamorrgus” a lot in this,,,, fake demon name I made up for him… sigh… you can tell how much of a blorbo he is to me…💔 

I also refer to the demon with he/it pronouns, just a heads up bc I don’t want to cause confusion with the pronoun switching. (Woke demon?!?!😨😨/silly,, I don’t think Pamorrgus gives a damn about pronouns and all that stuff,,, not his problem man. It’s got better things to worry about like getting a meal that day or 100% not being gay about some guy LMAO😭😭… You could technically use any pronouns for this guy,,, it just does not care.)

Basic “summary”(its really long):

Pamorrgus wanders to wherever there’s tragedy/disaster/suffering. If there is no human suffering near by, he’ll make something happen. Demons feed off of emotions, primarily on the negative side. Yes, Pamorrgus tells its victims to harm others for its own amusement, but the pain and distress of humans is also how he sustains itself. The earth is indeed hungry!!

After the events of Postal 1, Pamorrgus feeds off of the town’s anguish and grief. This lasts around maybe 10 years or so. Throughout the years, most people that been around during the game’s events have moved on from the event, moved out of town, or just passed away. The town’s grief declines little by little, and the demon’s power is weakening. Around 2003, Postal 2 Dude moves into town. Pamorrgus watches him from afar, not interfering with his life. Unlike with P1 dude, P2 doesn’t need any encouragement in order to start slaughtering people, the town is already driving him mad, so there’s really no need for the demon to interact with him. Pamorrgus just sits back as hell breaks lose. 

After Paradise got blown up and p2 dude gets the hell out of there,,,, the demon wanders into Catharsis and hides itself inside the walls of an apartment building, hibernating to digest its meal. (they’re more like depression naps to me😭😭 but sure boy go sleep). 8 years later, P3 dude finds himself in Catharsis and stays in the same apartment room that the demon is currently inhabiting. (uhhhghh,,,,,, i still don’t know how the freak p3 exists man😭,, you now understand my warning about this being not very well thought out.. But he ends up in Catharsis at some point!) ((Also ignore the fact that P3 dude probably wouldn’t have enough money to get an apartment or something,, since the whole goal of the game is to get money for a tank of gas,,, which is expensive… The economy is not doing good 😭😭…. My excuse is,,, like,,,, look that game start up menu screen gotta take place somewhere!! Idk man😭😭lol). Pamorrgus wakes up to discover that P3 is living in its current place of residence, and starts watching over him to learn more information about him and to figure out how to convince him to do what it wants. In the au, I think the dude leans more to the good path version, so the demon has some convincing to do.🫢

And then they properly interact at some point then later yaoi happens somehow,,, and like😭 SCARY!YAOI!!!!

demon and p3 dude stuf yay yay yaaaay:

They’re like,,, “Strangers + accidental roommates” to “acquaintances” to “murder buddies” to “AAAHHH I NEED TO EAT MY SKIN” to “I’m not gay lmao💀” to “AUUGGGHGGHH [sounds of a man drowning in acid]” to [redacted] to [data expunged] to “@#&$*%;,,:#&#&,@& (starts frothing at the mouth)” to “kinda lovers” to “I’m ngl I would rip off my skin if you asked me to❤️”…. Or something,,,,, Waow….. don’t really know how to properly explain the development of their relationship….🧚 I imagine Pamorrgus is pretty distant at first,,,, with every one of its victims, it likes to have some level of distance. Like yes, he has to get its victims to trust it and be (somewhat) comfortable around him (sometimes,, comfortability is not required lol) in order to get what it wants, but forming any attachments to a victim is like,, gonna make things complicated and might get in the way of his goal,, yk? This never really was a problem for Pamorrgus before though (not like he has to worry about some freaky bisexual weirdo… Haha right guys? Imagine if that happened? Just crazy mate, crazy!),, this guy does not care about humans. I imagine that before his fall from heaven, he used to be a guardian angel! He’s probably sick of humans after having to take care of them for years and years. Although… I don’t think he really liked humans to begin with,,, but he never expressed this until his fall… (He’s like Patrick Bateman the way he pretended to be some normal ceo guy or something,,, ((and the way he denies the fact that he’s gay—COUGH🗣COUGH🗣)) idk I never watched or read american psycho I’ve only watched a yt analysis on it!!😭😭)

He eventually warms up more to P3 dude,, (since dude just can’t stop yapping😭 and the demon is kinda bored and wants to get more information on him.) but only by a little bit… It’s gonna take a while for the demon to see him as an equal. Pamorrgus sees P3 just as a pawn to take control of. Sigh….. soon the gay microchip will be planted into his mind…

I imagine their banter would be very entertaining to listen to,,,,,, sometimes the demon will say some edgy poetic nonsense similar to the p1 loading screens and P3’s like “oh shit fr😮🤨😏?”😭😭😭😭😭 tho most of the time the demon just talks like the regular p1 voice lines when around P3,,,, these guys just go around saying the most stupidest crap imaginable to each other while they blast peoples heads off.💕 Sillymaxxing joyous pilled…. Gross!!🤢blehhgh!!!!! I also think Pamorrgus can be so mean to him sometimes,,,😭😭 it can get really sarcastic and petty if P3 dude doesn’t do something it wants.. Dude don’t give af though ,, he just keeps annoying it back. They do become slightly nicer to each other later on.

I’m not quite sure when they will realize that they have fallen for each other, but I know the denial would be crazy😭……. Pamorrgus got his whole “humanity means nothing to me lmao” sigma grindset going on,,, so it would be pretty pissed about this new development… Absolutely not happy about it. He’s screaming and breaking chairs and mauling people over that man. And around this time I don’t think P3 dude has accepted the fact that he’s probably bisexual. (Sighs really loudly…..) What’s up with these guys?

Anyway some off topic stuff,,,, related to the drawing on the right,,,,,, for some reason I keep getting this visual of the demon pulling guns out of the apartment’s walls,,, how did you fit all those in there??

And while I’m bringing up random stuff I want to add this image in (ignore my server name)😭😭 I think it’s a silly visual,,,, sigh,,,,,, I hate this awful stinky shapeshifting immoral old fart and his loser boyfriend /aff /silly

Anywaaays,, Thanks for reading!🏌️‍♂️Idk what I was doing but I like thinking and drawing and writing about them!! Yay!!!! Yaaaay!!!!!!!!!

[l00rem]

Gibeon & Amethio are related, but they are not father and son.

So, ep45 had me applying my clown makeup as I was a firm Gibeon is related to Amethio denier and that has uh clearly been proven true by that final scene… but I still don’t think they’re father and son like most people seem to be saying. First, let’s start with Gibeon’s physical condition.

It seems clear by his position in the reveal that he suffers with functioning properly, this is further demonstrated with Hamber’s ‘Gibeon is awake’ comment. Considering he’s at least over 100, this is probably him abusing his mortality coming to bite him in the ass or some injury he sustained when Lucius kicked him out of the Rakua gc. And while pokemon never acknowledges topics like sex for obvious reasons, I doubt the writers would ignore the fact that Gibeon is clearly not in any condition to be breeding (dude only holds like 3 min meetings before going back to bed, he could never last that long in a physical activity such as that)

Now, this brings me to another theory i’ve been seeing: Amethio is some sort of clone/ artificial human being. I can see why some people think this, but i don’t think it’s going to happen. I just think it goes against the themes horizons has been setting up about generations (ex: ep34 where Hamber and Diana both pass things down to Liko and Amethio) i think it would be weird to have all this stuff about ancestry and then just throw in ‘oh and amethio’s not human btw’. It’s also just a really dark existential topic for pokemon, i know they can go dark and have done artificial creation before but that’s always been strictly for pokemon at least to my knowledge. I think people who believe in clone theory are getting too caught up in their Amethio and Hunter from ToH comparisons- ofc your free to theorise what you want but I just don’t see this happening.

To give some more solid proof that Amethio isn’t Gibeon’s son, let’s look at Liko’s ancestry.

As we can see, hair does seem to matter when it comes to being directly descended from someone. All three have the same hair pattern, even if we can’t see the brighter blue for Lucca’s. Compare this to Lucius’s hair:

It’s been made very clear that Liko is a descendant of his somehow, but this isn’t as direct as a great grandfather because then Diana could’ve literally just asked her mom who the man in the photo was to learn they’re related. Lucius resembles them somewhat but there are very clear differences.

Likewise, this seems to be the case with Gibeon and Amethio’s hair differences. They have the same colour scheme of white and black, but the way the two colours are separated are completely different. Just as Lucius and Liko’s family both have that sticky outy bit of their hair, Amethio and Gibeon both share that little white antenna although Gibeon’s is positioned differently.

So here’s my proposition: Amethio is related to Gibeon the same way Liko is related to Lucius.

Perhaps then Amethio is some distant relative to Gibeon who he located at some point- likely he didn’t have any family and so when Gibeon pulls up with his ‘oh hey we’re related’ spiel Amethio jumps at the chance for any form of connection. It’s not clear how much Amethio knows regarding Gibeon (he didn’t even know why he wanted the pendant after all) but perhaps Gibeon uses his condition as a further way of manipulating Amethio: not only does Amethio work for explorers to get Gibeon’s approval but also to find whatever he needs to not die so he won’t lose his last chance at family?

I also believe this is supported by all the Amethio-Liko parallels the show has been building up. It’s likely that Amethio’s backstory could be a dark mirror of Liko’s where the Explorers are to him what RVT is to Liko. Although, Amethio’s situation takes the ‘found family’ part more literally and instead of experiencing happiness he gets moulded into a child soldier…. yaaaay…

So then why does Gibeon actually need Amethio? Aside from the obvious meta reason, it’s likely Gibeon speculated someone with his blood could function as a Lucius detector (the pendant only stopped being dormant after amethio came into close contact) and this is also one of the reasons Amethio gets booted off the mission as he’d already performed his purpose of confirming the pendant was related to Lucius. Perhaps there’s something about Amethio’s ancestry which doesn’t apply to Gibeon that’s important? Or maybe Gibeon just put an easily exploitable child to good use.

Either way, there really isn’t a happy explanation for Amethio’s circumstances. Poor guy :(

I’ll potentially be eating my own words in a few months when we learn more about Gibeon and Amethio’s relationship but hey it never hurts to theorise. Hopefully we learn more stuff soon and that Amethio doesn’t get locked into off screen jail for another 11 weeks 💀💀

[scary-grace]

"Knowing that his Secret Santa has eczema on their hands, it should be easy to figure out who they are, but Tomura can’t recall ever seeing somebody around the office with messed-up hands."

yaaaay excema gang is winning!! I think the cream was hydrocortisone because every time I see shigaraki I just want to gently smear him with it.

I worry people will think that this is because he grosses me out! he does not I think he is adorable even when his skin is insanely dry, but speaking from experience excema really hurts. I would HEAL YOU TOMURA <3 and so would grace

I haven't gotten the impression that it's because he grosses you out! I tend to feel weird about it when people engage with his skin issues on the "he needs a skincare routine" level because to me that feels more about addressing his appearance than the actual health/comfort aspects of it. But as a fellow eczema sufferer who's been coping with itchy hands and knuckle splits since November I would love to spare him and everybody my suffering.

I do think it would be tough to get him to put on the cream regardless. I always have grand ambitions of staying on top of it, but ultimately I can't take my hands being slimy for long periods of time.

[smilingperformer]

Me: "Yaaaay it's Horizons anniversary soon!!"

Others: "It's been a year since Satoshi's journey ended"

I... I didn't even think about that |D

Guess I was that ready to just let him leave the story.

Considering that none of the original series staff stayed in the writing team, they were too.

Since it's soon been a year and we're reaching the end of act 2, I can confidently say this is like, my favourite Pokémon series. Alongside Sun & Moon. And both are favs for wholely different reasons, as in, love Sun & Moon for tackling mature topics and for having wonderful humor, alongside good world building and nice focus on family theme. While Horizons I love the story focus shift from normal, cast that is super enjoyable and a take on a found family type of group, new original villains that I've come to like a lot, etc etc.

I love how different both shows are. I love how both dare to try new things out in different way. Liko is one of THE most relatable characters to me, and I love the whole entire cast to bits. I even adore the Explorers, esp. Sango is slowly making a hole in my heart that wants me to call myself a fan of hers. Yes. She's been that enjoyable to me. Even Amethio's grown on me immensely, I like how his character works, and excited to see his role this upcoming ep.

At the start Roy felt a tad bit too alike to Satoshi, and at times I can see that similar type of "forget about a skill and then do the skill" writing from Satoshi era is thrown on him, but he's still mostly his own character. But that is probably why I'm more drawn to the likes of Liko, Dot, Friede, Amethio and Sango, because their fighting styles are so refreshing for me. I even like how Onyx and Sango pairing works, with Onyx fitting Sango's oni-speaking pattern (srsly wtf that must have been intended and now I want to know if dub has ANYTHING to match this speaking pattern with.)

There's been clear growth, clear character progression, much much slower team progress than whatever the fuck JN did (not jabbing at anyone who likes JN but I won't deny that I really hate how fucking fast most Pokémon evolved there. It seems Horizons knows not to rush things).

Act 1 suffered from pacing issue where stuff happens in one episode and then the next ep sort of shrugs it off and continues the plot in a really weird tone-shift, but I don't think act 2 had that, which I liked. But act 2 also had more fill-ins compared to the action-packed act 1. But imo, it was good to have a more slower, calming pace for a while. It helped build on the characters more, and show how the Rising Volt Tacklers exactly live like. Which makes the Brave Asagi breaking in recent episode ever so more heartbreaking aaaaaaaaah-

I'm also kinda glad I was wrong on the "only a one year long series", because so far I'm quite attached to the cast and definitely wouldn't have felt happy to see them go yet. So knowing that Horizons seems to follow the usual 3 year pace (maybe 2, maybe 4, who knows) makes me happy. And I totally look forward to act 3 that is definitely caused by the Brave Asagi needing long, long time for repairs.

So um yeh. This was a weird ramble lol. But like, love Horizons, don't exactly miss old show as I felt it told whatever it wanted to and had the danger of just, butchering characters further from what I enjoyed it for. Sometimes it's better to let go. Fanfics and fanarts will still exists for a long long time, I'm sure. But my enjoyment on Horizons has definitely caused me to not miss the old days at all. And I'm glad.

(Do I want Satoshi to return? Honestly? No. 26 years is long enough for me.)

[shxxmisafreak]

the lords in black,,,,,, theyre five eldritch gods that exist in a black beyond all dimensions called the black and white. theyre all brothers.

the first one in that post was nibbly, aka nibblenephim, the one who feasts in the dark. his color is pink. he is the hungriest god, and he. well he eats people. characters associated with him are roman murray and occansionally linda monroe

then theres tinky, t'noy karaxis, bastard of time and space, weaver of impossibilities. his color is yellow, with bits of orange. he controls time (like time travel) and the different timelines. he has a box that he uses specifically to torture This One Guy and sometimes his brother. characters associated with him are. ted and pete spankoffski.

then theres wiggly, wiggog y'wrath, the lord in black. his color is green. he wants power, control. hes very capitalist. like the show that predominately featured him was all about anti consumerism. he has tentacles. characters associated with him are wilbur cross (uncle wiley), and occansionally linda monroe again.

pokey, pokotho, the singular voice. his color is blue. he fucking hates any voice except his own and loves musicals. hes the main guy behind the first hatchetfield show, the guy who didnt like musicals, where he infected people into a musical hive. characters associated with him are paul matthews (THE guy who didnt like musicals), and the hive in general. sometimes charles coven.

and FINALLYY blinky, bliklotep, the watcher with a thousand eyes. his color is mainly purple with splashes of yellow and orange. hes the most sadistic of the brothers and just likes to watch people suffer. he has his own amusement park in hatchetfield, watcher world, where he can do this (the park alters peoples minds to make them fight and want to kill each other). he also abuses his sniggles, which are basically like this weird little creatures that live in the black and white and work for the lords. characters associated with him are bill and alice woodward.

but also then theres webby, no canon full name yet, the queen in white. her color is. white. she is their sister, and the only one who wants to help humanity. she does this through specifically hannah foster, but also to a lesser degree with lex, hannahs older sister

im so sorry that it took so long for me to answer this sjkhskjhs . I love the ramblings thank you

pink and hungry he's so me for real as for the eating who doesn't enjoy some occasional cannibalism on a Saturday night

TINKY WINKY ??? yellow and can control time and tortures one little guy I wonder what current interest this is reminding me of also I love that he is related even tangentially to your babygirl

why's he the lord in black if he's green YAY for power hungry green characters Elias Bouchard look out omg tentacles ? hubba hubba ooh la la

omg yay theatre kids unite forever ???? fucking hates all voices except his own oh my god it's so accurate. Join my theatre group we would rule the world

the watcher with a thousand eyes !!!!!! this is the one that video called the Ceaseless Watcher FUCK yeah little panopticon never hurt anyone bro just wants to watch the world burn what the FUCk is a sniggle

we love the white queen from Narnia or whatever except good YAAAAY thank you so much for the infoooooooo :33333 very fun <3

[pinesfamilyguidetotheweird]

A Corduroy Tragedy

So...I was reading a tumblr post focused on Wendy (and the Wendip ship, which...I still don't care for, honestly. I mostly read it for the Wendy lore) and I came across something interesting.

And its from the Lost Legends comic. Like Journal 3, it too has hidden messages and I wanted to get mine so I can verify what was said in the post.

I don't have it immediately available at the moment (I left it in my mom's room and she's asleep, so I don't want to disturb her), but according to the post, the message had something to do with Wendy's mother.

And it's that she isn't die at some point, like many of us probably assumed (under the assumption that not everyone is privy to this).

The message hinted that she's trapped in another dimension. Sort of like Ford, but not really. Like, I don't think she's dimension hopping. She's trapped in one place. Perhaps this could give the idea that there are random portals/rifts than can appear and disappear.

And Wendy's mother accidentally encountered one and vanished without a trace. As for when...hard to say. Obviously, it was some time after the birth of Wendy's youngest brother, Gus.

We also don't know the ages of the Corduroy bros (except for being less than 15, since Wendy's the oldest child) and Marcus having facial hair surprisingly wouldn't help in this case because it could be a Corduroy thing, sort like how Wendy's height is a Corduroy trait.

Still, I'll take the facial hair for consideration just to make things easy. Of course, facial hair starts appearing during puberty, usually at the age of 13~16 (though some sources say 11~15 for facial hair growing at the corners).

So, I'd make the guessimate that Marcus (the oldest brother) is probably either 14 or 13 years old. The middle brother, Kevin, I'd say could be 3 years younger (11 or 10), and the youngest brother, Gus, is maybe 8.

I personally headcanon that Wendy lost her mother at around the same age as Dipper and Mabel. That headcanon remains true even with this new knowledge. Maybe Mrs. Corduroy went looking for something or went for a walk in the woods and fell through a random rift.

She gets reported missing and despite an extensive search, she was never found. It made no sense to the locals. Mrs. Corduroy knew the woods like the back of her hand, she couldn't've gotten lost. I can kinda see this as a reference to 411 cases.

And, perhaps, an incredible role model to Wendy.

Because...with a family like the Corduroys, I highly doubt that Mama Corduroy was a pansy. No, she was a down-to-earth and strong-willed woman with a sharp wit. She was an inspiration.

And now, she is gone. Vanished without a trace. It left the family devastated and Wendy in a bad headspace. There is a scene with Manly Dan's vehicle where there is a yellow ribbon sticker attached to the back...yeah.

To this day, Wendy still holds out hope that her mom will come back. And when she does, ask why. Even so, she knows that she's gonna have to move on.

This is...somehow more tragic than just having Mrs. Corduroy die in an accident. Because, at least with that, there is confirmation. There is a body. There isn't uncertainty. But, the idea that Mrs. Corduroy just...vanished?

It has a special type of hold...one that will linger for a long time.

Whelp, more angst fodder! Have at it!

...It's 11 pm and I should be asleep, but instead, I wrote this!

Yaaaay...

I am suffering a bit and I am taking y'all down with me.

[rosewinterborn]

17, 22, and 29 for the blorbo asks <3

17. Do you like seeing your blorbo suffer?

As a reader, whump and hurt/comfort are some of my favorite tropes, so yes, BUT i want them to be okay at the end (for some generous definition of okay; bittersweet endings are often on thin ice with me). I think the comfort part is just as important to me as the hurt.

As a writer, I have referred to working on all of my arcane fics as "putting [x] in the blender" so uh. Yeah i would say i like to see them suffer.

22. Would you still love your blorbo if they were real?

I'd like to think so, but love is probably a strong word, just out of pure introversion and social avoidance lol. At the very least, there are very few of my blorbos that I think i would find actively insufferable irl (my sincerest apologies to Juno Steel and Peter Nureyev, please stay away from me)

29. Has a fanfic about your blorbo ever made you cry?

I answered this one earlier so I just copied this (yaaaay mobile); the links are further down if you want to suffer:

Of Memories and Tomorrows and Playlist for When Your Boyfriend Stops Breathing both wrecked me (tbf I knew what I was getting into with the second one but it did not hurt any less; I think it took me a solid couple of days and a lot of fluff fics to recover)

They are both quite good. Playlist is just. So much hurt and no comfort that I can only recommend it if you're into that, though its beautifully written. I do thoroughly recommend Memories, because despite grief being an important theme especially in the last chapter, it's also more or less a fixit fic that makes interesting choices with the world and the characters in ways that i found very satisfying.

[microtyalm13]

🌸 Tell me about your OC(s) - with pictures if you want !Pick some facts you want to share about them & let us gush about them together! Then send to other creators to do the same ✨

AHHHH hALO 💌💌💌💌

well !!!!!! here ar e some facts about veniamin & bodyguard au bc .. im so weak oh nooo... there could be mistakes in my writing bc im running on a single brain cell today !!!! i dont want to check for grammar

⟡ veniamin was punished by the council (consisting of a few goddesses, with deapaix being one of them) for going rampant, eating and killing the whole village that was worshipping him. he was blinded by his greed, the usual offerings were not enough for him anymore. and so, veniamin ran into the village, tearing apart everyone in sight. he's a wretched beast, with maw and claws dripping blood onto the cold snowy ground.

i will never get tired of the ❤blood and snow❤ combination. something something veniamin fell victim to his carnal desires and defiled the snowy, pure white village by spilling blood of innocent. creature with skin so pale it almost blends in with the scenery, if not for the splashes of burning crimson. back legs that of a mountain lion, multiple wings, and eyes, eyes clouded with bloodlust. after veniamin returned to his senses, he solemnly realized that everyone is dead. he returns to his temple, curls up on a snowy pile and falls asleep.

only to wake up and realize that he lies on the moss covered stone. in this place, where winters are eternal, the snow is suddenly gone. how long he's been asleep for? is this even real? he runs to the village, only to find out that it's gone too. there's a huge flower field now, full of red little flowers. :] after that veniamin goes deeper into the field and falls down to his knees from agonising pain, blah blah blah, scars appear on the left side of his body, too much pain, he runs and runs until he can't anymore and blacks out, only to be dragged away into a cursed little city by some cultists. GAH that was a lot alright. and i said snow and snowy so many times pls

⟡ both in canon and in bodyguard au veniamin loves gardening. in canon he's not able to do that (the place in which he now resides is suffering from drought and there's only stone and sand around), but in au, when all that thing with martha's family being wanted (WE DID NO CRIMES) is somewhat over and they will move to somewhere warm, veniamin will care for their backyard garden <) he'll plant chameleon lilies (his favorite) and pink antirrhínum (martha's favorite) there. yaaaay 🎉

⟡ spoiler for another as k < D

he wears those uhhh cat-paw socks. like these ones. sillyyyy....

⟡ and just some pictures that remind me of veniamin&martha

that's it, i think. thank you !!!!!! <3 💟

[jazlynriddle-legacy]

Welcome to your life - Pt 3:

It's My Own Design Ch 16:

Summary:

Ominis fought to control his expression, to keep his hands from trembling. Five years. Five years since he'd seen his parents, and this. This was the reason they'd given him the honour of their time? This was the reason they'd sought him out at Hogwarts?

The bitterness welling up within him was thick enough to gag on.

New year, new allies, new responsibilities, new avenues of revenue, and new aspects of their own Ancient Magic to explore. As the Keeper and their partners enter their last year at Hogwarts, it remains to be seen if the new school year will bring with it new problems or adversaries, but they are confident in the strength of their relationship with Sebastian and Ominis. The three of them would endure, no matter what befell them.

And if they were wrong?

What a joke, they would suffer no alternative.

Warnings: Sebastian x MC x Ominis! Drug Addiction! Spoilers! Slow-burn corruption! Dark content! Fucked up 1800s orphanages! MC has no love for Anne or Solomon! Dubious happy ending (it's happy for MC, Seb and Ominis at least).

You can also read on AO3! (chapter specific warnings below)

Notes:

Warnings: Cliffhanger, sort of.

Oh lord, over 11k words now. I really wanted to split this chapter up, but it would damage the effect I was going for, so, yeah x'D

I also wanted to do art for this chapter but I was so damn tired this month, so I'll probably add art later. Next chapter might be shorter if I can cut it earlier because 2 weeks really isn't enough time for a 10k+ chapter, lol I wanna try to go back to 8k-ish if possible.

Inb4 next chapter comes in at 15k.

Edit: I drew the art! Yaaaay, I finally drew the art for this chapter- So congrats to you tumblr readers, you get the art at the same time as the chapter lol

“Expecto Patronum!” Ominis flicked his wand and then paused. “Anything?”

“Just light mist.” Sebastian shook his head, and the blond boy sighed.

“Expecto Patronum!” The Keeper cast as well, before sighing when they conjured nothing but glowing mist. “If it's any consolation, I'm not having much success either.”

“Seriously, Sebastian. How did you do it?” Ominis folded his arms with an irritated expression.

“I told you, I just think about how lovely both of you look when you're happy.” Sebastian answered with a shrug, while his small glowing otter swam through the air around him.

“Well that's not very helpful for me, now is it.” Ominis grumbled.

The Keeper shook their head with a huff. “All that does is make me horny.”

There was a moment of silence, before Garreth gave them a disgusted look. “For Merlin's sake, can you three go ten minutes without flaunting your relationship in front of us single bastards?”

“Speak for yourself, I think it's quite sweet.” Natty waved off his complaints.

“Aha! So, you aren't single?” Garreth asked with a grin.

“I never said that.” Natty gave Poppy a nervous glance and seemed relieved that the Hufflepuff wasn't paying attention, before shooting him an annoyed glare as she flicked her wand. “Expecto Patronum!”

The funnel of mist that poured from her wand was probably the most corporeal besides Sebastian's, with the almost discernible form of a dog.

“Oh, almost got it!” Poppy clapped for Natty, who had on somewhere between a proud grin and a frustrated grimace.

“Still need more practice, Professor Sharp says that being able to cast a corporeal Patronus counts for a lot when being considered for admission to the Aurors.” Natty sighed, shooting Sebastian a mildly jealous look, which he returned with a cocky smirk.

“Don't worry, Natty, I'm sure you'll succeed. Christmas holidays start next week and there's still half a year before graduation.” The Keeper patted her on the shoulder, when a single freezing drop of water hit them on the arm.

Looking up, the Keeper eyed the dark clouds that had gathered overhead while the group had been practising spells in the courtyard after classes ended for the day. It wasn't cold enough to snow yet, but it was getting cold enough to hurt.

They were about to suggest that everyone head indoors, when the unmistakable sound of thunder rumbled across the moors, followed by a flash of light in the heavens.

Poppy gasped. “Is that!?”

“Lightning!” Sebastian and Garreth exclaimed at the same time, before glaring at each other.

“Come on!” Natty lifted her wand to create a barrier against the falling rain as she began to run towards the forest.

Exchanging excited grins, the rest took off after her, while Amit scrambled to shove his book into his bag. “Wait for me!”

The rain fell heavier and heavier with every moment, until it was pelting against the group's magical umbrellas as they filed into the forest. Each quickly dug up a box containing their crystal phial, before rushing back to the castle. The rain now a deluge that made it difficult to see or hear each other through the darkness, thunder shaking the earth with every rumble.

The group stood in the castle entryway for a few moments, catching their breath and lowering the hood of their school robes.

“The classroom we use on Saturdays should be empty by now, right?” Amit asked.

“Yes, hopefully. We don't know how long the storm will last, so the sooner we start, the better.” Natty nodded. “Let's go.”

The group made to follow her, when Poppy looked about, realising that there were only six of them present. “Hang on, where's-”

The doors opened again for the Keeper to slip in through them and lower their hood.

“Oh, there you are!” Poppy gave a relieved sigh.

“Sorry, tripped on a root.” The Keeper explained as they rejoined the group.

“Great, everyone's here, now can we get a move on already?” Garreth complained, getting several glares in response. “What? We're on the clock, I'm just saying it like it is.”

Natty rolled her eyes but didn't disagree. “Alright, let's go.”

Fortunately, the lightning storm continued to rage outside and didn't seem like it would let up any time soon. The group of teens were soon sitting in the middle of an empty classroom, removing their crystal phials from their dirt crusted boxes and unstopping them.

“Of course it would be red.” Garreth sighed, holding up the phial. “All I can think of is that this used to be a baby moth.”

“Thanks for reminding us.” Amit side eyed him.

“Alright, everyone, you'll need to do the daily chant one more time.” Natty instructed and the rest of the group, sans the Keeper, drew their wands to point at their hearts.

“Amato Animo Animato Animagus.” The five chanted and their wands glowed with a soft gold light that also shimmered around the crystal phials a moment later.

“Well done!” Natty clapped. “That glow means everyone has been doing the chant correctly. Now you just need to drink the potion. You'll have a vision of your animal form and then the double heartbeat will become painful, but don't panic. If you do, you might lose yourself to the animal.”

Nodding with varying degrees of nervousness, the five drank their potions, Garreth holding his nose as he did.

“Well, that wasn't so bad.” Ominis smiled as he passed Sebastian his empty phial and the brunet set both down on a nearby table.

“Speak for yourself.” Garreth grumbled as he set aside his phial as well.

“Oh!” Poppy suddenly exclaimed, while Sebastian pressed a hand to his forehead and Garreth shook his head.

A moment later, each of the five doubled over with a groan of pain while the golden glow shone from their skin.

“Alright everyone, take a deep breath. Don't fight whatever your body wants to do, listen to the second heartbeat and focus on the animal form you see.” Natty instructed and the Keeper could see everyone struggling to follow those instructions.

The Keeper desperately wanted to comfort Ominis and Sebastian, but didn't want to distract them either. So, they were forced to watch as the two boys collapsed to the floor with expressions of pain, sweat beading on their brows, and fists tight around their robes.

Several minutes passed this way, until Poppy cried out, her body contorting as a swirl of light shone around her and then, in her place was a brown coated deer with pale spots speckled across her back.

Natty immediately ran to her side, brushing her hand over Poppy's pelt and whispering comforting words to the deer.

A moment later, Sebastian grunted and the same happened, his form changing in a swirl of light, into a large dog with long brown fur and patches of white across his snout and belly. The Keeper finally allowed themselves to go to his side as well, and soft whimpers of pain came from the dog as they cradled him close.

The next to be enveloped in light, was Amit, who seemingly disappeared. Until the Keeper realised that there was a palm sized tortoise shell where he'd lain, its spiky black shell patterned with geometric star-like lines of orange. A few seconds passed, before a tiny orange snout poked out from under the shell.

The Keeper was relieved when Ominis finally finished his transformation too, becoming a rather large and beautiful white feline that was just slightly smaller than Sebastian, and had tufts of fur extending from the tip of his ears.

Dragging himself to his feet, Sebastian plodded over unsteadily to lie down beside Ominis, dwarfing the cat with his form. The Keeper too followed to his side, and with one hand, stroked the large cat's soft cream fur as he panted for breath, while with the other, ran their fingers through Sebastian's thick warm fur to soothe him as well.

Finally, the last to transform was Garreth, and he made a rather amusing squeak, before turning into a raccoon with reddish fur, lying on his back, puffy tail twitching as his chest heaved.

“Webale Katonda...” Natty murmured, smiling with relief. “It looks like everyone managed without complications.”

“Thanks to your guidance.” The Keeper nodded to her in gratitude, chuckling when they felt Ominis purring quietly against their palm. Finding the way Sebastian shoved his snout under Ominis’ chin to be quite adorable, though the big cat seemed to find it annoying and batted at Sebastian with a paw.

“When you feel able, I'd like everyone to try turning back into human form, just to make sure that everything went right.” Natty stroked Poppy's neck soothingly as she spoke.

With a huff, Sebastian pried himself from Ominis’ side to sit up and closed his warm brown eyes in focus. Amit's snout disappeared under his shell once more and Ominis opened his eyes, which seemed to still be unseeing milky pink orbs. A pity, the Keeper had hoped that Ominis might be able to see in his animal form.

A few minutes later, the five kids were kids once more and Garreth groaned, running a hand through his ginger mane. “Bloody hell, everything hurts, even my hair...”

“Quit whining.” Sebastian grumbled, holding his head between his hands while Ominis leaned tiredly against the Keeper.

“I think I need to lie down.” Ominis murmured.

“Best idea I've heard all day.” Amit gave a tired laugh.

“Help me back to the common room?” Ominis asked the Keeper.

“Of course.” They nodded and stood slowly, helping Ominis to his feet, before offering Sebastian a hand as well.

“What's the rush?” Garreth asked, raising an eyebrow at the three from the floor.

“Unlike you, I'd rather pass out in a bed.” Ominis rolled his eyes. “Bit more comfortable at the moment.”

Poppy gave a breathless laugh against Natty's side, and the Gryffindor nodded. “Yes, we should probably get some rest this weekend, we can have our Saturday meetings after school resumes.”

With a nod, the Keeper left with both boys leaning against them, supporting them out into the corridor, which was empty since most of the school was likely at dinner.

“Shall we use the Undercroft to do yours?” Ominis asked quietly, startling the Keeper and he gave them a wry smile. “I know you went to get your phial too.”

“I can help you to the common room first.” The Keeper shook their head, if he was aching enough to want a proper bed, that took priority.

Ominis rolled his eyes. “I only said that so we could leave quickly. If you think we're letting you attempt the transformation unsupervised, you're barmy.”

“Can't wait to see what you end up as.” Sebastian gave a tired chuckle.

“You guys...” The Keeper felt their heart warm with affection, really hoping that they would be something that could cuddle with their partners. “Alright.”

The trip to the Undercroft took a while but the reassuring sound of thunder followed them all the way to the secret entrance. Slipping inside, the Keeper left the boys sitting together on the bench while they set down their satchel, and sat on the floor with their crystal phial.

“Amato Animo Animato Animagus.” The Keeper chanted, with their wand placed to their heart, waiting for the phial to glow before taking a deep breath and bringing it to their lips.

The potion's taste was... weird. Not much of a taste actually, it just felt warm, maybe a tad salty. Like piss- which was a nauseating thought to have while drinking it, and the Keeper was happy to set the empty phial aside.

The strength of the second heartbeat caught them off guard and their vision hazed over for a second before clearing to the sight of... snow?

A white snowy sea, speckled with the occasional tree, as far as the eye could see.

The Keeper was puzzled, weren't they supposed to see their Animagus form? A slightest hint of movement caught their attention and there, in what they'd thought was a mound of snow in the shadow of a tree, a pair of golden eyes peered out at them.

The mound rose up on four legs and they realised that the shadows were grey fur, it growled low and threatening. Then the ferocious beast was charging at them, and before the Keeper could react, it dove into their chest, vanishing as though absorbed into their body.

Then the pain began.

It felt like hair-thin needles were being driven into their skin, four loud pulses throbbing between their ears, heat burning through their chest and searing through their body.

Golden light burned behind their eyelids, and they felt restrained, like they were wrapped in a thick blanket, tight around them, constraining every movement such that even breath could not be drawn.

Free.

They needed to be free. A scream built in their throat, and they fought their restraints but as they tore through their bindings and their mouth opened, a howl emerged instead.

Slumping forward, the Keeper collapsed to the floor, chest heaving for breath. They felt something touch their head and tensed, surprised when a growl rumbled in their chest.

“It's okay, you're safe...”

Sebastian. The Keeper tried to speak, but instead a soft whine emerged from their... snout. Right. Animagus form. Fucking hell, Garreth was right, everything hurt.

“A wolf, somehow I'm not particularly surprised.” Sebastian chuckled.

A wolf, a dog and a cat. The Keeper huffed in amusement, enjoying Sebastian's gentle caresses. Well, at least they'd gotten their wish to be an animal that would easily cuddle with their boyfriends.

A flash of light came from beside them and then there was a pretty white cat rubbing up against the Keeper's side. Huh, they'd thought Ominis rather large for a cat, he seemed smaller now.

A moment later, Sebastian joined him in dog form, and the Keeper was amused to realise that this was simply because they were quite a bit larger than both Ominis and Sebastian. Stretching out so that the two boys could lie against their belly, the Keeper gave a tired sigh and lowered their snout to the floor to rest.

Rumbling purrs came from Ominis’ chest as he started licking the fur on the Keeper's head, while Sebastian draped a front leg over Ominis’ back, nuzzled his muzzle against the cat's pale neck and promptly began snoring.

It was a curious feeling, being an animal, the light of the candelabras was somehow brighter, Ominis’ purrs and Sebastian's snores felt louder, the sound of rainfall audible even from the underground chamber. The smell of melting wax and burning wick, mingled with wood and oil, lit up like paths in their vision.

Most wonderful however, were the scents of Ominis and Sebastian. Somehow, the Keeper knew them. Knew what they meant.

Mates.

Family.

Pack.

Despite the ache still throbbing through the Keeper's body, the comfortable warmth that they felt with their partners by their side was pleasant enough that they considered it rather worth all the effort.

Closing their eyes, the Keeper allowed the rhythm of Ominis’ grooming to soothe the pain, and their tired consciousness soon faded into darkness.

“-which made it difficult to pinpoint since caracals have those tufts of fur on their ears that make them look like lynx. And while there weren't any records of albino caracals, all records of albino lynx were spotted, so I'm fairly certain of my conclusion.” Sebastian finished with a confident nod.

“So, Poppy's a Fallow Deer, Amit is an Indian Star Tortoise, Garreth is a common Raccoon.” The Keeper recited. “You're a Border Collie, I'm an Eurasian Wolf and Ominis is an albino Caracal.”

“Yup.” Sebastian beamed, clearly pleased that they'd listened attentively throughout his lecture. “Amit's is actually pretty rare, endangered species apparently. Albino caracals are basically unheard of too.”

“Of course, our Ominis is one of a kind.” The Keeper smirked proudly. “Though he probably shouldn't go about in Animagus form too often, since he stands out.”

“Bit of a bummer, that. He's only ever wanted to be like everyone else.” Sebastian murmured. “For some unfathomable reason.”

“Not so unfathomable I'd say, since the loveliest rose in the bush gets picked first. I mean, the biggest danger to him, particularly in Animagus form, would be poachers who would sell his pretty arse for a pretty penny.” The Keeper pointed out.

“Fair enough.” Sebastian conceded, before he snickered. “Something Garreth doesn't have to worry about, seeing as he's just a common raccoon.”

The Keeper rolled their eyes, they still didn't know where the odd rivalry between the two boys came from, but at least it was entertaining. “I think it's interesting how compatible Poppy and Natty's forms are.”

Sebastian hummed thoughtfully. “On the surface maybe, but fallow deer and gazelle come from very different environments, and one's got antlers while the other has horns.”

“I mean that they can prance together through the woods.” The Keeper chuckled fondly.

“I suppose they could, but gazelles are actually quite a bit faster than deer. So, Natty might have to wait for Poppy.” Sebastian shrugged.

“Knowing her, I doubt she'll mind.” The Keeper gave him a wry smile, before jabbing a thumb at the large double door that they'd been leaning against this whole time, patiently waiting for Sebastian to finish his verbal vomit. “It's ready, want to give it a try?”

“Sure.” Sebastian grinned and they moved aside.

He reached out to grasp the door's handle and it glowed for a moment, before there was an audible click, and he easily pushed the door open, before rubbing at his thumb absently.

“Excellent, it works despite the features I added.” The Keeper grinned, rather pleased that they'd managed to create a door for their bedroom that would only unlock in response to their Ancient Magic or Ominis’ parseltongue or Sebastian's blood. “I'm still impressed you managed to figure out how the blood verification ritual works with half the page covered in smudged ink.”

“Why thank you! It certainly wasn't easy.” Sebastian beamed proudly. “Though I do wonder why a locking charm this useful isn't more commonly used.”

“Probably the same reason people don't use dark magic, blood is creepy or something equally absurd.” The Keeper rolled their eyes.

“Yeah, probably. Now all I need to be concerned with is making sure no-one draws my blood and uses it for a key.” Sebastian gave a cocky grin. “Easy.”

“Even if that happens, I added a stipulation to the door so it rejects cold or stale blood.” The Keeper shrugged. “Blood degrades after it's been removed from the body, and the only way to preserve it would be to keep it cold, so that should be enough to counteract that.”

“You're supposed to agree that my duelling skill is unparalleled.” Sebastian raised an eyebrow at them.

“Well, can't really say that when I've put you on your arse.” The Keeper chuckled, giving him a teasing smile.

“Yeah, but I've spanked yours. So, where does that leave us?” Sebastian grinned.

“Doesn't count, because I liked it.” The Keeper' smile became amused.

Despite his ears going adorably red, Sebastian gave them a smirk, stepping closer and running his thumb over their bottom lip, murmuring softly. “Did you now?”

Flicking their tongue out, the Keeper caught the edge of his thumb with it and took a moment to revel in the heat that sparked in his eyes, before raising their wand and casting a tempus.

“Alright, now that we've confirmed that the door works, we can set up the hidden door to the basement with the same security design when we get back.” The Keeper patted him on the cheek. “We should get going, or we'll be late to meet Borgok.”

With that, they slipped out from between him and the wall to make for the stairs, and Sebastian let his forehead fall forward to rest against the stone with a sigh.

“Come on, Sebastian.” The Keeper called.

“Coming...” He replied with another sigh, grumbling under his breath. “Sure wish I actually were.”

Laughing internally at Sebastian, as he followed the Keeper down the stairs, they poked their head into the kitchen, where Ominis was lying, curled up and cuddled with the little dragon on its bed in his Animagus form.

Smiling at the adorable sight, the Keeper called out. “Ominis, we're heading out.”

The white caracal's ears twitched, and Ominis waved his tail at them in acknowledgement, so the Keeper chuckled and withdrew to join Sebastian in the entryway.

The two brought out their brooms and were soon off to Knockturn Alley.

The pub was lively as always, and since Borgok hadn't arrived yet, the Keeper brought Sebastian with them to the bar counter.

“Evening, Alasdair.” The Keeper greeted as they seated themselves, Sebastian following suit.

“Salamander.” The bartender smiled at them from behind his glasses. “What can I get you this fine evening?”

“Two of my usual and the house special.” The Keeper answered and when his eyes flickered towards Sebastian, they added. “This is Sebastian, he's assisting me with my work.”

“Is that so...” Alasdair eyed the brunet critically. “You sure about that, kid?”

“What's that supposed to mean?” Sebastian raised an eyebrow at the man, and he gave a deep chuckle as he mixed their drinks.

“You've got bollocks lad, but I know a daredevil when I see one.” The bartender flashed him a knowing smile. “You like the heat of danger, but this line of work ain't a game. You would be ill suited to Mercenary work.”

“It's fine.” The Keeper waved off his concerns before Sebastian could retort. “He's not here to join, he's simply accompanying me to ensure that I do not perish in battle.”

The Keeper found Alasdair’s response rather interesting, seeing as they had been accepted by him on sight. Though they supposed that it should have been plain that it was their reputation and the guildmaster's intuition that made their admission so smooth.

“If you say so.” Alasdair shrugged. “Owl asked me to inform you that he cannot make it tonight, but he's made some headway and identified several potential leads.”

“Alright, thanks.” The Keeper nodded as the bartender set two glasses of chocolate coffee ice before them.

They had to admit that they missed the convenience of Owl's pocket mirror, which they'd returned last week, since they no longer needed to coordinate so precisely. They really wanted to get a set for communication with Sebastian and Ominis, such artefacts were incredibly useful, but also apparently quite rare.

At this moment, the doors opened to admit Borgok and he lumbered over to the bar. “Evening Salamander, Sebastian.”

“Borgok.” The Keeper nodded as the goblin took a seat as well. “I assume you have my items?”

The goblin nodded, offering them the expanded pouch they'd given him before. “As agreed.”

When the Keeper took the pouch from him, a blue flame appeared over their hand. Despite this, they took a peek to verify that the pouch did indeed contain their promised artefacts, while Borgok greeted Alasdair and ordered a drink, before placing it in their satchel.

“How much coin would you like for them?” The Keeper asked and to their surprise, Borgok glanced at Alasdair, before shaking his head.

“In light of the unexpected difficulty and the surplus of silver you provided, I will consider this round of wares paid for.” The goblin smiled, accepting his drink from the bartender and raised his mug. “To our continued camaraderie.”

“To our mutual cause.” The Keeper raised their glass in answer as well, before taking out their contract with Borgok, handing it to Alasdair to be discharged with a stamp.

“Sebastian, I would like to discuss your apprenticeship further, if you are willing.” Borgok asked once the contracts were settled.

The still pouting brunet glanced at the Keeper, and they nodded. “I have things to discuss with Alasdair anyway.”

“Alright.” Taking his glass with a sigh, Sebastian followed the goblin to one of the tables, a distance away, to speak.

“Ah yes, I have something for you.” Alasdair smiled and retrieved a wooden box from behind the counter, presenting it to the Keeper. “As you have completed your first bounty, you are now an official member of the Phantoms. Congratulations.”

Having an inkling of its contents, the Keeper opened the wooden box and found a silver venetian half mask within it. It was simple and elegant, with a pattern of a salamander along one side and the flame emblem of the Phantoms along the other, while intricate swirls were etched into the edges of the silver.

“Figured you wouldn't want anything too fanciful.” Alasdair chuckled. “If you should wish to conceal your identity and wear only your status as a Phantom Mercenary, you need only don this mask.”

Giving him a grateful nod, the Keeper closed the box and placed it in their satchel with a simple. “Thank you.”

“No thanks needed, you are an investment, after all.” The bartender flashed them a small smirk. “Which reminds me, Vesper should be stopping by soon.”

“Excellent, I'll give him his payment then. Speaking of which, are there any new jobs I can take?” They asked after a moment. “The Christmas holidays have started, so my schedule is more flexible.”

“Certainly.” The bartender nodded. “Any preferences?”

The Keeper hummed thoughtfully, they could use more test subjects, now that they had the collars and cauldron to experiment with. Not to mention, they wanted to reassure Sebastian that they could handle Mercenary work on their own, that Gnarlak’s difficulty was really an exception, so a relatively easy job would be good.

“Any jobs with a human target but no obligation to bag a kill?” The Keeper asked, taking a sip of their drink.

“That's specific.” Alasdair cocked an eyebrow at them, but seemed to consider the request for a few moments, before bending down to rifle through something behind the counter.

“This might match what you're looking for.” The bartender extracted a contract to hand to the Keeper. “The target's wife put out a request to retrieve their coin from him. Apparently, he absconded with the family wealth and left her with debt and two children to raise.”

Accepting it, they examined the contract which outlined a request to steal all of worth from a man named Frederick Taylor, with a promised reward of twenty percent of the stolen valuables. It included a family photograph of the man, what was likely his wife and two children... and a familiar looking house elf.

Recognising the elf, the Keeper's eyes widened, and rage coiled within them. Tobbs. The friend of Deek, whom they'd found deceased in the spider infested caves, trapped within those tunnels with barely any supplies, forced to collect fucking leeches for his abusive master.

“I'll take it.” It took all their willpower to speak evenly as they returned the contract to the bartender.

“Alright, if you're free tomorrow, I can ask the contractor to drop by for the signing.” Alasdair nodded.

“Sure, keep me posted.” The Keeper nodded, taking a drink from their neglected glass to cool their anger. At least they didn't need to wait, without classes on Monday, they could afford to be out late into the night.

They'd sworn, a little over two years ago, in that dank cave, standing over the small body, that they would make Tobbs’ owner pay for his cruelty if they ever got the opportunity. Well, it seemed like said opportunity had arrived, and what a perfect candidate for a new test subject.

“If that is all, we'll speak again tomorrow.” The Keeper nodded to Alasdair and the bartender waved them off as they made their way over to the table where Sebastian was speaking with Borgok.

“That was fast.” Sebastian commented as they took a seat beside him.

“Mhm, got a new job too, I'll fill you in later.” The Keeper patted him on the shoulder. “How's your chat going?”

“We've agreed to lessons on Sunday afternoons, starting next week.” Sebastian explained simply and the Keeper nodded, about the same time as their lessons with Rackham then. An excellent time to select, on his part.

“Oh.” The Keeper spotted Vesper entering the pub. “I'll be right back.”

Slipping out of their seat once more, the Keeper left their drink in Sebastian's care and approached the man as he seated himself at the bar.

“Vesper.” The Keeper greeted, drawing the wand they'd retrieved from Gnarlak. “Is this yours?”

Vesper's eyes went wide, before a wry grin stretched across his scraggy beard as he reached a hand out for it. “Well, I'll be damned. You actually completed that bounty?”

Nodding, the Keeper handed him the wand. “Thanks to your warning about a large creature, I was better prepared.”

“What'd it end up being?” The man asked curiously as he gazed lovingly down at his wand.

“A dragon.” They answered dryly.

“A dragon, eh.” He chuckled. “That's a pretty big fish. Surprised you got out alive, how'd you get Gnarlak with a dragon to dodge?”

“By killing it first.” The Keeper shrugged.

The old hunter gave an incredulous snort, shaking his head. “Sure you did.”

In response, the Keeper wordlessly removed, from their satchel, the dragon scale they'd ripped out, and flashed it at the man.

His jaw went slack at the large ventral scale that could only have come from a dragon's belly, for it was perfectly intact and still bore the roots that would have been embedded in the dragon's flesh. There were no further words or proof needed, since dislodging the scale through impact would have caused some damage to it or its roots, and a naturally shed scale would be old and dry.

Thus, the only possible way to obtain a dragon's magically resistant scales in such pristine condition, would be to rip it out, and the only way most people might imagine getting close enough to pry it free with tools would require it be dead. Not to mention, its vibrant and rich magical energy marked it impossibly fresh.

“Well, I'll be damned, indeed.” Vesper laughed and guffawed. “A kid like you took down a dragon and that crafty goblin? Merlin, I wouldn’t have thought such a thing possible.”

“A force to be reckoned with indeed.” Alasdair chuckled and the Keeper belatedly remembered that the bartender was also within earshot, though they supposed it was of little consequence.

“Well, I now know who to ask if I need something done. It was a pleasure doing business with you.” Vesper holstered his wand and offered his prosthetic hand for a shake, which they took after a moment, and he tipped his hat at them. “Good luck, kid.”

“Enjoy your retirement.” The Keeper replied politely, accepting the conclusion of their conversation and made to return to Sebastian's side.

As they did, they saw Borgok standing and they exchanged parting nods, before sitting down beside Sebastian, and he related to them the details of his arrangements with the goblin. That he would work with Borgok at Gringotts for a few hours every weekend and that the goblin would see to it that Sebastian got the opportunity to meet the head of the Curse Breakers’ division, and that Borgok would vouch for him.

Their businesses settled, the two finished their drinks and left for home, the Keeper's heart filled with anticipation and an eagerness to test their new toys. There was much work to begin tomorrow and though they would need their energy for those tasks, they had a feeling that sleep would not come easy.

“Ominis, there's a letter for... you.” The Keeper called as they strolled into the master bedroom at Dìon the next day, after their usual Sunday afternoon lesson with Rackham.

Amused to see their partners lounging on the large king-sized bed, Sebastian reading a tome, lying on his front, while Ominis dozed, curled up with his head nestled comfortably in the small of the brunet's back. Cute.

Lifting his head, Ominis yawned before asking. “Who from?”

“I'm not sure.” The Keeper hummed. “But this has to be the most posh envelope I've seen in my life.”

The emerald green paper was thick with embossed letters and silver decorative swirls along the boarders of the silky smooth surface, and was that fucking perfume they were smelling!? Bloody hell, this one letter felt like it was worth a galleon on its own.

“Give it here then.” Ominis sat up and raised his hand as the Keeper climbed onto the bed, before placing it in his hand obediently.

The moment it touched his fingers however, Ominis stiffened, and the letter almost tumbled to the floor.

The Keeper frowned. “Ominis?”

Hearing the concern in their voice, Sebastian lifted his head as well, turning around and sitting up. The moment he saw the letter, he went. “Oh.”

Giving Sebastian a puzzled glance, the Keeper watched warily as Ominis took a deep breath and opened the envelope, withdrawing the letter with a discomforted expression. Raising his wand to charm the paper, he ran his fingers across the parchment and his lips pursed with disappointment.

“What's it say?” Sebastian asked and Ominis wordlessly held up the parchment for him to take.

Looking at the paper over Sebastian's shoulder, the Keeper's narrowed, an invitation to a yule gala in two days’ time from-

“Huh, it's been ages since your parents last tried to get you to attend.” Sebastian commented and Ominis flinched.

“Indeed, one would think they'd given up by now.” The blond's voice was strained with forced indifference and the Keeper smacked Sebastian on the head.

“I take it that you're turning the invitation down?” The Keeper asked hesitantly, wary of causing more hurt.

“I'll do what I've done for the last five years. Nothing.” Ominis huffed, folding his arms and murmuring quietly. “They can't even bother to invite me in person, why should I entertain such paltry and empty gestures?”

“As you should. You owe those awful people nothing and you never liked those parties anyway.” Sebastian agreed and Ominis wore a conflicted smile in response.

“If you like, we can hold our own Yule gala right here.” The Keeper suggested, giving Ominis a kiss on the cheek, whispering softly into his ear and making him shiver. “My prince.”

“I say, that's a fantastic idea.” Sebastian grinned and bounced off the bed, taking Ominis’ hand and pulling him to his feet, a bemused smile forming on the blond's face.

“Do you even know how to dance, Sebastian?” Ominis asked in a dubious tone.

“Nope, not a clue!” Sebastian announced confidently. “But I've seen dancing before, shouldn't be too hard to copy.”

Hearing this, the Keeper scrambled to get off the bed quickly as well, just as Sebastian began to... dance, to soundless music, pulling a mildly alarmed Ominis along with him as he swayed haphazardly across the bedroom floor.

“And I believe here's where we do a spinny thing.” Sebastian attempted to do a spin and dip, which failed spectacularly, and the Keeper quickly caught Ominis as he lost his balance.

“Oh, you absolute buffoon.” Ominis complained as he straightened with the Keeper's help and adjusted his rumpled pyjamas primly, drawing his wand and marching over to Sebastian's side. “This is how you dance.”

Manhandling Sebastian into the proper position and setting his boyfriend's hand on his shoulder, Ominis placed the hand gripping his glowing wand on Sebastian's hip and with the other, took Sebastian's hand in his. The whole process of which seemed to startle Sebastian somewhat, and he blinked as Ominis began leading him in the most recognisable part of a waltz.

“The box step is the easiest, we just slide one foot to the side and then bring your other foot to match it in a three-beat rhythm.” Ominis explained as he tugged Sebastian to the side. “And you want to keep your feet on the floor as we go, so you don’t step on my toes.”

“One two three, one two three...” Ominis slid his foot forward as he counted, nudging Sebastian's backwards and the brunet followed his lead.

The Keeper watched in amusement, as the two boys danced in a square circle in the middle of the bedroom for several minutes, till Sebastian seemed to get the hang of it, and a rather dopey grin appeared on his face as he danced with Ominis. At least until he made the mistake of looking up, catching the Keeper's wide amused smirk, and Sebastian promptly lost his rhythm, his cheeks going red.

Covering it up with a cough, Sebastian released Ominis’ hand and declared. “I think I've got it now, your turn!”

With that, he dragged the Keeper over and shoved them at Ominis, who took the change in partners in stride, and the Keeper happily allowed him to manoeuvre them into the same position. Having seen Ominis lead Sebastian, the Keeper had an idea of what to expect and it wasn't too long before they were following him smoothly.

When the Keeper tossed Sebastian a small cocky grin, he huffed. “Not fair, you had an advantage.”

“Fair enough. Then, in that case.” The Keeper conceded and tapped Ominis on the shoulder to signal a stop. They then guided him back to the bed, where he reclined, while the Keeper went over to Sebastian and gave him a low bow. “May I have this dance?”

Sebastian stared at them in faint disbelief and with a smirk, the Keeper took his hand and pulled him close. Discerning the Keeper's intentions, Ominis smiled and began tapping a beat on his thigh as they led Sebastian to the rhythm.

“Show off.” Sebastian grumbled, his face still slightly pink.

“Pot, kettle, darling.” The Keeper chuckled fondly.

As they swayed slowly, the first dusting of fine snow began to fall on the other side of the glass balcony doors. The cold winter air went unnoticed by the happy throuple, dancing in the warm home they'd made for themselves, as the afternoon turned to evening, and the time came for the Keeper to meet their new contractor at the pub.

The lady from the photograph was visibly nervous from the moment she entered the pub, jumping at every raised voice, as she approached the bar to speak with Alasdair. The Keeper was mildly amused by how conspicuous she seemed in this environment, they wouldn't even need to know her face to identify her as a contracting guest.

Her expression was, as expected, quite surprised when Alasdair directed her towards the Keeper's table, where they sat with their usual chocolate drink, and in a few moments, she was hesitantly approaching them.

“Are you the Salamander?” The lady asked and the Keeper nodded.

“I am, and you're here to discuss the contract, yes? Please, take a seat.” The Keeper gave her a small smile, hoping to put her at ease and it seemed to work. “Tell me a little more about the job you'd like me to do.”

With a grateful nod, the lady sat across from them and gave them a strained smile. “Well, my husband, Frederick Taylor and I used to run a potions shop together. He'd brew and I'd sell the potions. He was never the most even-tempered man, but it got worse when our business started failing.”

“What happened?” The Keeper asked, though they could guess the answer, they wanted confirmation.

“The elf he inherited from his parents went missing and we couldn't afford to buy a new one to harvest supplies for our potions.” She shook her head. “We tried for two years but couldn't keep the shop open and I wanted to sell the family heirlooms to pay off our debts, so we could start afresh, he was furious at the suggestion and then he disappeared with them and what coin we had left.”

Her lips pressed together into a thin line. “Then while searching for any remaining coin, I found letters between him and a mistress, going back five years. Last I heard, my friend saw him in Edinburgh with her, a younger woman.”

The last words were understandably bitter, and the Keeper mentally noted down the town, nodding as they spoke. “You said in the contract that payment would be a portion of what I steal from him.”

The lady nodded anxiously. “Yes, I know that you could always keep it all instead of splitting the proceeds, but I can assist you with stealing it, whatever you need and-”

“Madam.” The Keeper interrupted with a smirk. “Before that, I'd like to ask if you would mind him... disappearing for good, after I've retrieved your coin.”

“Disa- oh.” Her eyes widened. “What do you-”

“That's my business. Though I can tell you that he will be in a lot of suffering until the moment he dies. Would you consider that fair, in light of the injustices he's committed against you and your children?” The Keeper asked evenly.

It was tedious, but they had promised Ominis that they wouldn’t harm the innocent, and he'd made it clear that he considered their own metric, for determining innocence versus guilt, to be... not up to his standard. So, who better to judge if the punishment fit the crime than the woman who had been the target's victim and wife?

The one who knew all his flaws and sins, and had been hurt by them.

There was a long moment of silence, a thoughtful frown on her face as she deliberated, before she met their eyes with a resolute gaze. “Do whatever you want with him.”

Well, that was that, the Keeper nodded, before asking after a moment's thought. “How was his relationship with your children?”

“Distant, for the most part, but he never raised a hand against our sons at least.” Her tone made it plain that he'd held no such honour with her.

“Do you think he would go to their aid if he saw one of them in what appears to be danger?” They asked and her expression was wary as she answered.

“Yes, I think he would...” She trailed off hesitantly.

“Then if you don't mind, I'd like several strands of hair from one of your children.” The Keeper requested and the lady's eyes widened with understanding.

“Oh! Yes, I can do that!” She nodded with a relieved smile. “Do you want me to take the polyj-”

“It's quite alright, I have an assistant who can handle that role.” The Keeper waved her off casually, they didn't need a civilian to worry about in the middle of a mission. “The man himself and my share of the proceeds from selling the heirlooms will be acceptable as payment.”

“So, you'll take the job? Thank you!” The lady clasped her hands together with a smile.

“No thanks needed, I have my own interests that I'm serving.” The Keeper shook their head and strangely enough, her blue eyes became sad, and they had a feeling that there was more she wanted to say but was uncertain if it would be welcome, so they asked. “What is it?”

“I just- my oldest looks around your age.” She murmured tentatively.

Okay, weird thing to comment, the Keeper raised an eyebrow at her and shrugged. “Pick the younger kid then. People naturally panic more, the younger a child is when in danger.”

Her expression looked somewhere between alarmed and shocked, for reasons they couldn't be arsed to discern, and they instead asked. “If that is all, shall we sign then?”

“I- I suppose-” She stammered.

With that, the Keeper stood with their drink and, leaving the oddly stunned lady to scramble after them, the Keeper made their way to the bar. Somehow, interacting with her was rather tiring, and it would probably be for her benefit if she left the pub sooner than later anyway.

The signing took a tad longer than usual, since Alasdair gave the lady twice the amount of painkiller, making her writing a little slow and wobbly, but it wasn't too long before the Keeper alone at the bar.

“The target is a civilian, if I'm not mistaken?” The bartender asked casually and at their nod, asked. “Any leads?”

The Keeper hesitated a moment, but for now, while they were learning the ropes, it might be good to seek guidance from the guildmaster, so they answered. “Edinburgh.”

A good thing too, because Alasdair hummed thoughtfully. “That so?”

“That's Rogue territory.” Pausing to pull out a paper from behind the counter, the bartender scribbled something on it, before handing them the sheet with an address and directions on it. “Drop by the guild and give the guildmaster a heads-up about your plans, wouldn't want to give them problems.”

“Noted.” The Keeper nodded, tucking away the paper. “Should I wear my mask?”

Alasdair shrugged. “Up to you, but it would make things a tad easier, I should say. Guildmaster Gilfred worked as my second for a while, moved back up north a couple years ago to take over the family business.”

“Anything else I should know?” The Keeper asked before finishing their drink.

“...well...” The bartender trailed off before shaking his head with a wry smile. “You know what, you'll find out.”

They cocked an eyebrow at Alasdair as they slid the empty glass over to him and stood to leave. Well, they supposed they would. It'd be interesting to see how other guilds looked anyway.

Stepping inside their study on the second basement floor, the Keeper opened their satchel and retrieved the pouch that Borgok had given them. The room was still rather sparse, containing only a desk, a single chair and a cabinet that they'd moved their jars of Pain and Fear into.

Both the cabinets’ doors, and that of their study, required Ancient Magic to unlock, as did the doors to the Repository Chamber.

Though, hopefully such measures wouldn't be necessary to begin with, since the door to the basement facility not only had the same security as their bedroom door but was also hidden in the stone wall behind the portrait of Charles Rookwood. So that the magic of the artwork would mask that of the secret door, should someone cast a Revelio charm.

There were still more doors for cells and unused rooms, not to mention, much furnishing to add, but the Keeper was quite happy that they could already live and work comfortably in the castle.

Opening the pouch, the Keeper took its contents out one at a time, to examine and then lay them on the desk, starting with the collars. The craftsmanship of the three collars was quite something, even though they were smaller than the one that they'd retrieved from the dragon's neck, which sat now in their cabinet.

They found, on the inside of the collars, a thin needle. For injecting energies? The needle seemed like it could be retracted too, from its telescopic design. Well, they'd find out how it worked, and the Keeper set the collars aside, looking forward to testing them when they had time.

The highly anticipated armlet was next, and the Keeper eagerly tried it on. The narrow band sat comfortably around their bicep and was surprisingly light, despite how solid it looked and felt. They would probably wear it under their clothing so that it couldn't be seen, and they were pleased to find that its inside was lined with some soft material, so that it didn't shift or chafe.

Excited to test it out, the Keeper removed the armlet, pulled out their jar of C-Pain, and drew the energy from its container with their wand, before lowering it to the band. Fascinated when the lava-like substance melted into the metal, turning the silver to red and black, the rolling magma crawling along the swirls and patterns that were carved into the armlet.

Fastening it to their upper arm once again, the Keeper felt immediately the difference, the band was now warm and they could feel the energy waiting, resting in it. It felt like standing in fog, moisture licking at one's skin, and the Keeper wondered for a moment how they might intake the energy. If it felt like fog, then perhaps...

Closing their eyes, they focused on the cloud of warmth and thought of how it felt to breathe when standing in fog, the feeling of pulling the air, heavy with moisture, into their lungs. As they did so, they felt the energy flow into their body like warm mist, it was so smooth, so fluid, so powerful, so delicious, so easy to take just a little more-

We'll be holding you to your word.

The Keeper's eyes snapped open, and they hurriedly ripped off the armlet, sending it flying across the room and gasping for breath, the memory of Ominis’ voice breaking their trance, his trust and Sebastian's. They shook their head, gripping the side of their desk for stability, chest heaving with the effort it'd taken to resist.

What were they doing? Hadn't they promised that they wouldn't let Pain control them?

Taking a steadying breath, they squeezed their eyes tightly shut, collecting themselves for a few more moments, before opening their eyes and raising their gaze back to the glowing red band of silver, where it lay innocuously on the floor.

Well, it looked like the armlet, while convenient, brought temptation to a whole new level. How could they possibly walk around with that power right there and not partake of it? When it was within reach. When consuming more was as easy as breathing.

They would have to practise, and they couldn't do it alone.

Leaving the armlet where it lay and setting the matter aside for now, the Keeper next removed the blade from the pouch and then from its sheath, eyes wide as they took in the magnificent weapon.

It was incredibly light and almost wavy in its shape, a relatively narrow dirk blade with a tapered tip, and it was breathtakingly beautiful, polished silver so smooth that they could see their own reflection on its surface. Only broken up along the spine, by the intricate etchings that resembled the swirls carved into the armlet.

Taking a jar from the cabinet, the Keeper extracted the Fear-Pill with their wand and then paused. The pill was a solid, unlike Pain energy in whatever form it took, how would this work?

Shaking their head, the Keeper decided to try anyway, it was magic, who the fuck knew how any of this really worked. So, they lowered the black orb onto the dagger's surface and was awed when it melted into the metal, and the silver surface turned entirely pitch black, as though it'd been dipped in paint.

The Keeper wore a sharp grin as they examined the blade, admiring its new appearance with wonder.

It was incredible, the once silver surface now absorbed every speck of light, so black that it almost looked like a flat drawing, devoid of any reflections or any indication of depth. It was tempting to touch the blade's surface, but the risk that their lack of understanding presented was too high.

They still hadn't figured out how the collars and blade injected energies in a harmful way after all. They'd have to thoroughly test the blade, to see its effects and how long the Fear lasted too. The first small Fear-Pill they'd given Selwyn had kept him in his nightmares for three days and even after it wore off, and he returned to his senses, he'd been... different.

Quiet, jumpy, he barely ate and had lost some weight, a haunted look in his glazed eyes. They supposed that the Chinese water torture and Fear-Pill had been enough to break the boy's mind. Macnair was in even worse condition, since he'd lost his emotions, they'd needed to employ the Imperius curse to force him to eat and eliminate, otherwise he'd simply lie on his bed unmoving, wasting away.

On the upside, at least they didn't need to spend much on feeding the two, but at the same time, that made it difficult to conduct experiments when they didn't react properly. Even the amount of P-Pain they'd been extracting from Selwyn had been diminishing over time. He was becoming desensitised to pain, and so he yielded less energy with each torture session.

They were overdue for a fresh face to add to their number, the Keeper grinned as they sheathed and set aside the blade, especially now that they had what they needed to resume their experiments with the energies. Happily extracting the cauldron made of goblin silver, they set it down on the desk.

A quick examination of the cauldron's lid revealed two latches on the side and the Keeper unhooked them, lifting the silver cover to peer into the smooth empty bowl, excellent. Now they could finally find out what Pain and Fear could create.

As they removed the box containing their Phantom’s mask, a knock on the door caught their attention, and the Keeper lifted their head as Ominis’ voice came from the other side. “Love? Are you in here?”

“Yes, come in.” The Keeper replied, setting the box down and flicking a pulse of Ancient Magic at the door. With a click, it opened to permit the two boys on the other side.

“It's been fifteen minutes since tea, darling.” Ominis entered with a wry smile, followed by Sebastian, who was carrying a tray of tea and biscuits, as well as a rolled-up newspaper tucked under his arm.

“Has it?” The Keeper blinked in surprise, they must have been occupied with the armlet for longer than they'd thought. “My apologies, I must have lost track of time.”

“What've you got there?” Sebastian asked curiously as he set the tray down on the table.

“I was just checking out the stuff I got from Borgok.” The Keeper explained, accepting with a smile when Ominis offered them a steaming cup of tea. “Thanks.”

“Oh oh, can I see the dagger?” Sebastian asked excitedly, and the Keeper could practically see a tail wagging behind him.

With an amused smile, they handed him the sheathed blade. “Careful, I've already added Fear to it.”

As Sebastian eagerly examined the blade, Ominis took a seat on the corner of the table and the Keeper's first thought, was that his elegant perch, long slender legs hanging off the side, was a fantastic height for a blowjob. Their second thought was ‘ouch’, as Ominis bopped them on the head with his glowing wand and crossed his legs.

“My face is up here, love.” Ominis sighed. “I swear you're getting as bad as Sebastian.”

“Don't pretend you don't like it.” The Keeper chuckled as they took a sip from their tea, and Ominis lifted his chin with a huff, but didn't deny that he did like feeling desirable.

“This is incredible...” Sebastian murmured.

The Keeper glanced at him, only to exclaim in alarm. “Don't touch it! I already said I've added Fear to it!”

“It's fine, it doesn't seem like contact with the flat of the blade injects it.” Sebastian waved a hand dismissively and, setting down their teacup, they stormed over to snatch it from him.

“Glad to know, but I'd much rather slap Selwyn with the flat side to find out, than to risk you passing out with nightmares!” The Keeper huffed as they sheathed the blade and stuffed it into their satchel before he could do anything else with it.

Sebastian pouted for a few moments, before spotting the box on the table and curiously picked it up. “What's this?”

“Keep your hands to yourself, Sebastian...” Ominis sighed.

“It's just a box.” Sebastian protested.

“I don't care what it is, please put it down.” Ominis snapped.

“Fine.” The brunet grumbled but obediently passed it to the Keeper when they held their hand out for it.

“It's my mask, for work.” They explained, opening and removing the mask from the box. “Apparently it's our uniform and to protect our identities.”

“Have you tried it on yet?” Ominis asked.

“Not yet.” The Keeper shook their head.

“Well, what are you waiting for?” Sebastian grinned.

“I'm not exactly sure how to wear it.” They admitted with a sheepish smile. “There's no string on the back.”

“Might have a sticking charm, try placing it on your face.” Ominis suggested.

Following his suggestion, the Keeper raised it to their face and was surprised when it did indeed remain in place after they let go. “That's pretty handy.”

“Huh.” Sebastian squinted at them. “Remarkable, even though it's only covering half your face, you somehow look unfamiliar. Your jaw looks different, and even your hair is oddly difficult to focus on.”

“Is that so...” The Keeper murmured, that was handy indeed, and it was rather comfortable too.

Ominis expression was mildly disturbed as he added. “That's not all, you sound off too.”

“Really?” The Keeper blinked, that was quite a thorough disguise, and they quickly removed the mask when Ominis shuddered at their voice. “Well, it's nice to know that this will be enough to conceal my identity when working.”

“May I see?” Ominis asked curiously and the Keeper passed him the mask so that he could feel its surface. “Oh, this is quite beautiful. It suits you.”

“You flatter me, darling.” The Keeper chuckled, accepting the mask from him and tucked it away.

“And this would most certainly flatten me.” Sebastian joked, peering into the large cauldron like the Keeper had minutes ago, before fiddling with the latches. “This has to be the largest cauldron I've ever seen!”

He eyed the enormous pot speculatively for a moment.

“Here, hold this for me.” Passing the Keeper his newspaper, Sebastian braced himself to lift the cauldron, before pausing in surprise. “Huh, lighter than I expected.”

“I wanted something big enough to mix a large batch if necessary.” The Keeper explained, raising the newspaper. “What's up with the paper anyway?”

“Oh, right.” Sebastian set down the cauldron and leaned against its rim. “Page three, looks like the Aurors finally made their move.”

The Keeper flipped to the third page, finding the article, titled ‘Auror Raid Finds Dozens Of Dead Goblins’.

The article described the discovery of almost a hundred goblins dead, in what the Keeper recognised as Gnarlak’s base, and though it was annoyingly vague on the details, it did include a short interview with a junior Auror. Who, when asked if this was infighting within the goblin rebellion, called it unlikely, describing the causes of death to be ‘strange’ before his superior hurriedly shooed the journalist away.

“They probably died from the shock of cold turkey when their bodies burnt through their remaining E-Pain.” The Keeper murmured as they finished reading the article.

Lowering the newspaper, they noticed Ominis’ lips pursed and fingers tight around the edge of the table.

Touching their fingers gently to his knuckles, the Keeper smiled softly. “There's no danger of that happening to me, we have ample stock available, and it isn't in danger of running out.”

The unspoken ‘because I can make more’ hung in the air and Ominis sighed with a pained expression, giving them a curt nod. He was clearly still not comfortable with what the Keeper was doing, and they were uncertain if he ever would be. The reminder that he was merely tolerating their activities was both heartening and saddening in equal measure.

It felt nice, powerful, to know that he was willing to look the other way out of love, but they also knew that that came at a cost. A cost to his self-image, and that had already not been great to begin with, being a snake that wanted to be a meek lamb.

They wished desperately that he could just accept himself the way he was, to just commit himself wholeheartedly to a decision, and not beat himself up for what he wanted. He would be so much happier, but that wasn't exactly something anyone could force him to do. Sebastian had been trying since they were eleven and he still hadn't gotten anywhere.

Though, admittedly, the brunet was terrible at it, being completely unable to even see what Ominis despised about himself at all. Perhaps understandable, since Sebastian loved him so innocently and wholeheartedly, warts and all.

“What's that, off in the corner?” Ominis asked, perhaps looking to change the subject, he pointed off to the side.

Towards the armlet.

The Keeper almost wanted to laugh, but it would be quite inappropriate at the moment, so they swallowed it as Sebastian glanced over too. “Oh, is that the armlet? What's it doing on the floor?”

The Keeper sighed. “Because I almost took more than today's maintenance dose.”

Ominis frowned. “You tried it on without us?”

Wincing, the Keeper took his hand and placed it on their face, allowing him to see their expression. “I'm sorry, I thought I'd be able to control myself. It was just supposed to be a quick test to figure out how to use it.”

“Did you toss it because you lost control?” Sebastian asked and the Keeper paused for a moment.

“Well... yes.” They admitted.

“Then you were fighting it, and won. I think that counts for something.” Sebastian pointed out and the Keeper gave him a grateful smile for his support. “And they have been doing pretty well despite having to drop dosage after their dragon fight.”

Ominis frowned at him for a moment, trapped between still being upset at their testing of the armlet unsupervised, and not wanting to denounce the Keeper's efforts, for obvious reasons, and they were mildly amused at the corner that Sebastian had seemingly accidentally backed Ominis into.

“I suppose you're right.” Ominis eventually sighed, turning back towards the Keeper. “I'm glad you managed to stop this time. I just wish you could... completely stop.”

“I know.” The Keeper murmured and smoothed out the frown on his forehead with a thumb, rather happy to have their efforts recognised, it wasn't easy to take a gradually decreasing dose of Pain energy every day. “But if we keep thinking of what we can't change, we can't do anything about what we can change.”

“Does anything even need to change?” Sebastian asked, folding his arms. “I mean, let's not pretend that my dagger was the only thing that brought them home. Without Pain energy, they wouldn't have gotten far enough to even use it.”

The Keeper eyed him curiously, while Ominis narrowed his eyes and declared. “That may be true, but they still shouldn't be over-reliant on that stuff. The sooner they can stop, the better.”

“Why?” Sebastian challenged. “As far as we've seen, aside from withdrawal, there haven't been any negative side effects.”

“That's-” Ominis bristled, his hand leaving the Keeper's face to gesture wildly, exclaiming in disbelief. “We've already heard of Isidora going mad and Ranrok turning into a monster and almost a hundred goblins dying from it! Are you really so reckless as to risk any of those happening to them!?”

Sebastian's eyes narrowed at the implication that he didn't care about danger to the Keeper’s life.

“Yeah, sure! They've been using it for two years without problems. I'd take an unknown percentage chance of either happening over having a stick of charcoal to bury!” Sebastian retaliated and Ominis recoiled in indignation.

“So you're fine with them taking something so inherently dangerous forever!?” Ominis’ voice was now pitched high in distressed incredulity.

“We don't even know if it is dangerous for them!” Sebastian groaned in frustration. “Isidora was already insane to begin with, who in their right mind would think losing all emotion and sense of self is a cure!? Maybe their Ancient Magic makes them immune to becoming a monster. And the goblins died from cold turkey withdrawal, but we have the means to create more so that's not a concern.”

“Means to make more.” Ominis echoed bitterly. “How lightly you speak of torture.”

Seeing that none of his words were getting through to Ominis, and perhaps hurt by being painted so negatively by someone he loved, Sebastian growled, low and angry. “Why don't you just say it? You think I don't care! You think I'm a heartless monster!”

“What else am I supposed to think!?” Ominis exclaimed, and at that confirmation, redness began darkening the skin around Sebastian's eyes.

Oh boy, the Keeper sighed, they needed to get their partners back on track, both of them were going completely off the rails.

Raising their hands and voice before things could get worse, the Keeper interjected. “Look, boys. Quarrelling over this achieves nothing!”

The two paused and the Keeper barrelled on before the boys could start shooting again. “The facts are these, I need the Pain energy, at least for now, if I want to achieve our goals. And I'm doing my best to be cautious. I'm thinking of wearing the armlet outside of battle to see if I can train up my resistance and self-control.”

“Or, you can just stick to the jars that have worked so far.” Ominis countered.

“Oh, great!” Sebastian barked a disdainful laugh. “Let's never improve our methodology. Let's keep giving enemies more openings to kill our partner. And all to avoid a potentially dangerous outcome that hasn't even been proven to exist!”

“Sebastian.” The Keeper held a hand up to hush him before Ominis could explode, and the brunet obediently folded his arms with a sulky expression.

Taking Ominis’ balled up fists and coaxing them to relax, the Keeper spoke as soothingly as possible. “Love, we haven't even tried yet, we don't have any information to be afraid over. I made a mistake, I should have tried the armlet with you and Sebastian, but even then, I managed to catch and stop myself. Cast diagnosa on me, and you can see for yourself that I'm alright.”

“Their eyes weren't even red when we came in.” Sebastian added with a pointed huff.

Ominis threw a glare in his general direction, casting the diagnostic charm on the Keeper with an irritated flick of his wand. He frowned for a moment, before giving them a grudging sigh. Well, that's encouraging.

The Keeper placed a gentle peck on Ominis’ lips, before continuing with a smile. “Let's just try, slowly. I'll put a tiny sliver into the armlet. Wear it around the house and to bed tonight. Just a small amount that won't go over tomorrow's maintenance dose, even if I accidentally take some. And you can be right by my side and monitor my condition the whole time. Alright?”

His expression was still sour, but Ominis gave them a curt nod and the Keeper bit back their own sigh, knowing from the look in his eyes that this discussion was far from over.

Notes:

You can also view the artwork in HD for free on my Patreon page!

I feel like Sebastian would get the Patronus charm really quickly, mostly just because he's so one-track minded, ma boi is just super happy when he's happy and just super angry when he's angry. Ominis is constantly feeling a mix of conflicting emotions and the Keeper's just kinda desensitised and dead inside.

Also, fun fact, in cat sociology, the higher cat in the hierarchy grooms the ones beneath them. In other words, that was some dom power move from Ominis, to be grooming a bloody wolf twice his size xP

I really wanna draw these kids cuddling as Animagi, but I'm not super confident that I can draw animals well, so it'll take some experimentation xD Edit: It was hard, holy shit, it was so hard. But I am kinda happy with how it turned out, so yay! God, I love the fold of Sebastian's ear, I feel like it fits him, so I'm happy with how that turned out xP

Wheee! We finally get to torture Tobbs’ owner, it's gonna be great. Hope you guys are looking forward to it xP I feel like one of the root causes of Sebastian and Ominis’ conflict in the game is their differing ways of making decisions.

Ominis uses morality to value things, including himself. Am I a ‘good’ person? However he kinda goes with vibes to decide what's ‘good’, because he's not experienced enough to realise that what feels ‘good’ or doesn't, is subjective. ‘Good’ changes depending on what you prioritise, what angle you view a scenario from.

Sebastian on the other hand, is very critical, very logical and almost oblivious to the vibes around a topic, and that can come off as cold and calculative, when it's the more objective and empirical approach. Especially because it doesn't come naturally to him, to give people like Ominis good vibes before trying to reason with them. Throw in Sebastian's tendency to honestly display his very strong emotions and opinions if he's feeling them, and people somehow decide he's faking them because he's usually so logical.

Which is probably why some people like Ominis more than Sebastian, because Ominis is more visually and vibe-y relatable (especially for people who are also vibes based) and he virtue-signals super hard, and people tend to wrongly conflate that cold/calculative vibe with manipulative. When in reality, Ominis is vibes-based PLUS manipulative, whereas Sebastian is logical and calculative but not manipulative.

The next chapter will be almost entirely dedicated to resolving this (particular) conflict and I hope ya'll will like how the drama goes ;)

[rozetheeuwu]

For the ask game, wound, skin and secret for any OC of your choice :)

Yaaaay. I'll do Miles because I've been missing him.

Long post so I'll put the answers under read more!

Wound: How does your OC handle being wounded? Are their wounds mostly physical? Mental? Emotional? What's the worst wound your OC has ever experienced?

Miles has a lot of emotional wounds, but I've talked about that before so I'll talk about his physical ones.

During the events of Victory Road Mavis gets wounded by both Blake and Fern. He gets hit by their A-Sandslash and Decidueye's attacks.

Miles managed to dodge most of the Blake's icicle crashes, but when dodging one of them some of the ice shards hit one of his eyes and other parts of his face which left scars. Miles is blinded in one eye and has a big scar on his cheek and a small one on his lip.

Fern's arrows hit Miles's leg, arm and hand, which are wrapped in bandages. Miles for a long while is unable to run, well he can but only for a short amount of time and he'll be in pain. He is unable to properly close one of his hands for a while without feeling pain, stretching his arm also hurts. Luckily enough all these wounds, although they do scar, don't hurt him forever.

Actually, one wound/scar I added was a burn scar that also happens in Victory road during the ruby room segment. He gets hit by a flamethrower from Sirius's Manectric.

At first he is in a lot of pain for a few months and feels very insecure about it, but learns to love his body again after a few years.

And of course there are his top surgery scars but that's not an issue lol

Skin: How comfortable is your OC in their skin? Do they grapple with anything that lives inside them—a beast, a curse, a failure, a monster? How do they face the smallest, weakest, most horrible version of themself? Are they able to acknowledge it at all?

Miles at the start of the game is perfectly fine with how he looks and feels about his body. I already talked about how he feels insecure about his scars and wounds during post game and how he gets over it.

Anything he grapples with is mainly emotional.

Also nope, no creature that lives inside of him or any curse. lol

Secret: What's one secret your OC never wants anyone to know about them?

TW: Mentions of suicidal thoughts, mention of failed suicide attempt and depression

That he had suffered from depression and that he tried to end himself when he was younger. His siblings know even though he isn't aware of it. He tries to hide it all by a happy go lucky persona (which isn't entirely fake, but it does hide all of his depression)

It is find out by some people later (his partners and closest friends)

Thanks for the ask!!!! I missed talking about him <3

[necronoia]

overwhelmingly suicidal. angry at the world. love that we live in a reality where we're forced to exist even if all we do is suffer. like being in a room on fire but all the exits have been blocked "for safety reasons" </3

"think about the people who love you and how hurt they'll be :(" yay sacrificing my well-being for others forever! yay suffering for others' benefit forever! yay continuing to exist just so people don't have to feel guilty about how they treated me forever! yay being a miserable tool for other people's use forever! yay being in terrible pain and no one actually caring because it makes them too uncomfortable forever! yaaaay

[paleparearchive]

Such Happiness, Just Too Big…

Van Gogh's Birthday 4★ story (3/3) ( 1 - 2 - 3 )

Location: kitchen (morning) ; garden (morning) | Characters: Van Gogh, Courbet, Giotto, Watteau, El Greco

Watteau: Yaaaay! Van Gogh! Happy birthday! Congraaaats!

Van Gogh: Woaaah!? Thanks…!

Watteau: We all worked hard to make the food and the cake, y’know. Eat as much as ya like, make as much noise as ya want, and have a great time!

Van Gogh: Yeah! I’ve been smelling really good for a while now. Thanks to you, I'm starving!

El Greco: Van Gogh, I'll give you this.

Van Gogh: ? Some kind of strange shape... A stone statue? Is that right?

El Greco: This is a statue of a guardian deity that was handed down in my hometown. I could not bring it with me from my hometown… But I gave Michelangelo a picture of the guardian deity and had him carve it. It's much better made than the one back home. I'm sure it will protect you from all kinds of things.

Van Gogh: I’m so happy, thank you so much! I'll take good care of it and put it on display.

El Greco: The offer for it is a cup of water in the morning and evening, once a month in the sun, and a leaf of a tree at each change of season.

Van Gogh: Okay. I think I'm going to forget it, so I'll ask you again when the time comes.

Giotto: More importantly, Michelangelo’s in his room again? Maybe he's embarrassed.

Van Gogh: Thanks to you as well, Giotto-san!

Giotto: No problem. It's nice to celebrate a birthday, ain’t it?

My gift is a lil’ big. I'll have it delivered directly to your room later.

Van Gogh: Okay! But what exactly could be such a big gift…?

Giotto: I wonder, what could it be? That's something you'll have to wait and see.

Van Gogh: What could it be? I'm so tempted to see it right now!

Watteau: Heyyyy, let’s all make a toaaast!~

Van Gogh: Ah, yes!

—

Van Gogh: Phew, I'm so full after eating so much... The cake and the food were all delicious. I wish times like this could last forever. Then I–

Courbet: Van Gogh, can I have a minute?

Van Gogh: ? Yeah…?

—

Van Gogh: What’s wrong? We even went outside…

Courbet: No, I saw you looking gloomy earlier, so I wondered what was wrong.

Van Gogh: Ah… Uhm… Really? It was the same as usual, wasn’t it?

Courbet: I've been thinking for a while now that sometimes you try to cover yourself up like that. In times of pain and suffering... It would be nice if you could show more to others how you feel.

Van Gogh: Hahaha… It's a little strange to hear you say that, Courbet.

Courbet: … Ever since I came to the Palette Museum, I've started to reveal more about myself, though.

Van Gogh: … I see.

Courbet: I know everyone has something to hold on to, and I hope someday you will too.

… Why am I saying this, do I sound like a preacher? It's your birthday, after all.

Van Gogh: No. Well, for you to say that... I'm glad of it. Because I think you’re right.

… You know, I'm a little scared. I’m having fun, I’m happy, I shine bright every day…

–But one day this might be lost suddenly. I woke up in that cold hospital room, all alone, and everyone else was nowhere to be found…

… What would I do if that happened? The greater the happiness, the more anxious I get.

Courbet: … That's an unrealistic, stupid concern.

Van Gogh: … You think so?

Courbet: Yeah, I do, from the bottom of my heart. Even if it's just a dream now, as long as you keep painting, you'll meet me. It's the same with everyone else. They all live and die by the paintings. So what are you worried about?

Van Gogh: … Hahaha! Yeah, you’re right! As long as I’m painting, I’ll be fine no matter what!

Thanks, Courbet. I feel a little better now. … I'm sure I won't hurt myself anymore.

Courbet: … Let's just have some of this for now. Hubert baked this cupcake.

Van Gogh: Wow, thanks! Was this there earlier?

Courbet: He said he had to bake a new batch because you kept eating the sweets one after another.

Van Gogh: H-Hahaha… Because they were delicious. And they were filled with everyone's feelings!

Van Gogh: Let’s eat it together, Courbet! Bon appetiiiit!

Courbet: Hey, your bite is too big. We'll need to have another new one baked.

Van Gogh: Because it's really delicious…! Even though I was so full, I feel like I could eat as much as I want!

Courbet: Just keep it in moderation. Otherwise, it's going to be tough after this.

Van Gogh: After this? Is there anything going on?

Courbet: You're going to paint again, aren't you? To preserve the memories of the fun you had today.

Van Gogh: …! Yeah! Let’s paint together, Courbet! I’ll invite Gauguin too… I promise!

Courbet: Alright.

[creedslove]

Just finished reading pt 2 of betrayed and AHHHHHHHH 😭 I started getting really into it and then BOOM it ended lmao 😭

I am proud of the reader for having self-respect and not forgiving Pedrito so fast (bc I too get annoyed when that happens 🙄) And Mr. Pascal how dare you! Be such a selfish asshole 😫 I want to root for him so so bad but he's making it impossible 😮‍💨

Bc I am a bitter person, I want him to suffer 😈, even if it's just a little bit, and realize that what he did was FAR FROM what a "good friend" would do and understand that reader has the right to be upset with him and maybe not want to forgive him (?)

Idea: Maybe reader accidentally bumps into someone at a coffee shop and spills her drink on them (or vice-versa) which leads to a friendship... maybe the friend starts developing feelings for reader (reader might find them attractive but it's nothing compared to what she feel for pedro?) Somewhere along that Pedro realizing that something could happen (is happening) between them and that's when he starts acknowledging that what he did was a shitty thing to do...? No lo se, solo es una idea 😂

I don't normally read Pedro fanfics, but the summary was right up my alley, and I decided to cave just this once, and let me tell you, I AM HOOKED, I AM OBSESSED 🫶🏽

I will be reading all the parts you decide to write, please don't feel pressured to post pt 3 or any future parts as soon as possible, take the time you need to write them, and we will all be patiently and eagerly waiting for them!!!! 💛

Yaaaay, I'm so happy you're enjoying yourself with this story!!! And tell me about it, pedrito está sendo un chico muy malo, no sé lo que pasó

But yeah, I don't like when reader forgives him so easily and i hold grudges so i am writing this to satisfy myself because i love angst and suffering and he deserves to have his heart broken too, it is not fair what he did to her, it was so cruel and what makes me angry is that he keeps pretending it wasn't a big deal!!!

I loooovee this idea and I thought of something similar that's gonna happen in the next chapter, i already know what'll happen next just haven't decided if it will be all in chapter 3 or if it'll be split into another chapter 🌚🌝

I'll be writing more during the day so let's see how it goes 😉

If I'm able to finish it today, I'll probably post it tomorrow night tho

[thedragonboi]

Food or fiend

Before the game show began we had to sign a waiver to excuse any injuries sustained from the poison. They couldn’t make us sign anything agreeing to our death though, which was a plus I suppose, and also the reason there were on site medics. No one was allowed to *die* per say, but then again, what was good tv without seeing someone suffer? That seems like a universal constant. Though for once they offered good money for the risk.

Once the legal issues were out of the way we were briefed on how the show would go: the announcer would make their appearance, take turns getting blindfolded, be shown our foods to choose from, make our choice then immediately get checked by the medics once the ad break began. If enough of us survived then round two would begin, in which we’d have to taste as much food as possible in under 3 minutes without getting poisoned. Seems simple enough.

The first contestant was given the choice between what seemed to be a plate of cake balls. They looked nearly identical, the only difference being one was a slightly darker shade of chocolate than the other. They chose the darker and was taken away in a stretcher after blood was seen in their vomit and apparently suffering temporary nervous system damage along with that. How fun. The second came out much better, having to choose between two sandwiches and lucking out, getting the non poisoned one. The third had to choose between what looked like octopus tentacles that were skinned so they couldn’t tell what species. The third thankfully survived. All that was left was me…yaaaay.

I was last in line, told to blindfold myself and make sure I couldn’t see before they brought out whatever I was meant to taste test.

“Last but not least we have our human contestant, first of their kind on our show. Will they fare any better? Or will they suffer a grim fate today?”.

There was a gentle “oooh” from the audience before I heard the announcer speak up “now here, audience, we have the perfectly safe beverage, while next to it we have the perilous poison, famous for causing circulatory attacks, fever, dizziness and an inability to rest, resulting in death by exhaustion”. Well those didn’t sound fun. I suppose it could be worse, death by exhaustion could be avoided since it’d take a while. When the announcer was done hyping up the audience I was allowed to take off my blind fold and was surprised to find two drinks in front of me.

I take a look at the two drinks. The two were the exact same in colour, a gentle coffee brown. I pick them both up, one in each hand: they were both the exact same temperature too, at least from what I could tell, just a little hotter than lukewarm. I guess I should’ve expected that with how long I had to wait for my turn. Last test before I drank was smell. Bringing them in close one smelled exactly like coffee while the other just smelled of hot water...if that made sense. I knew caffeine in coffee was slightly poisonous but there’s no way there was enough in this cup to harm me. This must be a red herring. Something to throw me off. The other probably has a drop of cyanide in it or something really nasty. I guess there was only one way to find out.

I put down the second cup and take a sip from the coffee smelling one. There was an immediate reaction, but not from me. The audience burst out in a mix of yelling and “no”‘s in various languages. It was too late though, I had already swallowed my sip. Fuck. Did I take the wrong one? Was this a double bluff situation? I could feel the blood drain from my face and silently begged for the ad break to begin so that I could go to the medic but the damn announcer started talking.

“Oooh, seems like humans don’t have the acute senses we thought they did. Unfortunately our contestant drank the poisoned drink. Well we’re gonna have to call that game over. Don’t worry folks there’ll be more after the break” they yelled in a slightly too cheery tone.

There was a pause as everyone waited for the cameras to go off air before the medics rushed over to look over me but seemed surprised that I was still standing. I eagerly follow them to a little side bench where they looked over me but after a quick blood test jab they found no harmful levels of poison. That, along with how I seemed to show no symptoms led them to assume the cups were mixed up, and I hadn’t gotten poisoned.

God that was such a relief to hear, I could practically feel the panic slip away like butter. I was told to go back to my seat at the game show table while they’d take the cups to make sure their hypothesis was correct and they were mixed up. The ad break ended moments after I sat down and listened through the announcer declaring round two had begun. There was only me and two others to compete against. The aim had changed, and now we had to test as many items on our table sections as possible within a time limit.

“And the human has somehow survived to the next round. A miracle if I’ve ever seen one. Now the aim of this round is to test as many foods as possible before the time runs out, or you fall unconscious. Ready?”

Before anyone could answer the announcer started counting down, getting the audience to join in for the final 3,2,1.

I look out at the foods in front of me and was surprised to find things like curry, cake, tacos, salad, burgers and more. I was a little cautious, looking through all the ingredients before taking a tiny bite and finding they were fine. The other two contestants followed my lead and tried out even the spicy stuff, figuring if I don’t get poisoned then they wouldn’t either. Plus it was until you got knocked out, if I got conked out first then they both had better chances of winning so even if they did eat poison they’d exit this show victorious.

By the end of the three minutes I was fine, if suffering a bit of taste whiplash. Note to self, never eat cake right after tacos, it’s not nice. I couldn’t say the same for the other contestants though. One got pulled away after two minutes and had to receive medical attention, while the other was still standing, or...sitting, but barely. Itching themselves all over and doubled over in what seemed to be abdominal pain. Well the answer to that question came quick. It wasn’t half a second after time was called before they threw up on the floor and had to be taken away, still itching their shell off.

I had won. By some strange miracle, I had survived. Another ad break was called and the medic from before had come back, after dealing with the new patients that is. They motion for me to come over “sorry human, seems you did drink the poison from earlier, somehow you just...haven’t gotten symptoms. Which is good, just confusing is all” they shrug before going off to collect the eaten foods for testing. They had to figure out what antidotes to administer to the others after all.

Was that it? Do I win even though I’ve technically been poisoned? There seemed to be no one else fit enough to take the prize. The ad break had ended again and I was going to find my answer pretty soon. Thankfully I didn’t have to go back on stage, now only the announcer on screen as they addressed viewers at home “well folks we’ve had an interesting night tonight, by a strange set of events the human has won tonight’s Food or Feind show!”. I was motioned to go back onstage and give one last smile to the camera before they cut to what I was going to win and what consolation prizes the others would be getting for their time and suffering. I had won!

———————————————————————

This was written for a prompt made by u/dethklok_36

Thanks for reading, I’d love feedback

[antiloreolympus]

10 Anti LO Asks

1. No cap but Persephone's hair, when it's short and flat, really does look like Rachel Smythe.  

2. honestly i feel like if rachel kept her original style more serious aspect like the kronos stuff would actually carry some weight, because the current style is so cartoony looking with such oversaturated colors and goofy expressions  at every turn that i just cant take any of it seriously. i dont get how she had a style made so much better for young adults and older readers while still being stylized but now it looks like a lazy knock off of the steven universe style.

3. There's a really good theory that LO Zeus swallowed Metis because she's a fertility goddess, which would in turn give him enough power they needed to take out Kronos, so it'd be a tragic circumstance and desperate choice over just Zeus being awful. It gives him so much more nuance and shows what tough choices he made to win and earn the respect to be king and I can't wait for Rachel to NOT use it because Zeus is a meanie who is against Persephone and the fans would NEVER accept it. Yaaaay. 😒

From OP: To clarify, Demeter does say in the story that Zeus swallowed Metis because she’s a fertility goddess so it’s not a theory.(Episode 145)

4. “Persephone speaks her truth” is what Webtoon sent as an notification…. She basically didn’t. 

5. the UnO creator is finally coming back after over half a year off and you can tell just off their social media they're so much happier after a real break. I would so like to see RS do that but I just don't see it happening.

6. im not at all suprised Rachel went with the "hades finds out by accident" route. does anybody remember why hepheaestus is there???? was there any alluding to his presence???

7. i swear, no one in lo even talk like actual people. i know some writer friends who work out their dialogue by saying it outloud and taking out whatever sounds unnatural to the human ear, but rachel just goes guns blazing into weird cringey dialogue, esp when its trying to sell how into each other hxp is (why would demeter say hades looks like a man dying fo thirst and that her DAUGHTER looks like a sparkling river?? like who talks like this, esp about their own child??)

8. theres this one webtoon artist on featured who does nothing but suck up to rachel any chance she can get, meanwhile im p sure rachel doesnt even follow them? and theyre constantly kissing up to her and webtoons and dont see anything wrong with how they overwork themselves as a single artist while the actual company doesnt even promote their comic and theyre still living off commissions to survive. like girl, focus on yourself over hoping rachel might one day help you. she wont.

From OP: Tbf, they may be friends on discord or something else.

9. i feel like a big problem with the writing too is it wants us to go off a modern value system, yet at the same time wants to use the "its ancient times" excuse for how hades and co. act very badly, especially by modern standards (he owns slaves!!), but also wants to weave "good and bad" together but cant show the shades of gray because bot rachel and her fans do not want the characters to be complex, they can only be wholly good or bad. under a real writer this would work, bot it cant under RS.

-----FP Spoilers/Mention-----

10. I don't even know where to start. What was that filler chapter? An attempt to give P any character development? Why making her naked additionally? It's just repetitive attempt to fix what should have been fixed long ago and I'm not buying any of it. And P again doesn't care how awful person H is (wanting for his slaves to suffer eternally) cause I guess he looks "cute" holding a hen lol. She brushes it off like it's nothing. I'm sorry where is Helios?