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Yesterday's Lie, Today's Truth, Tomorrow's Promise chapter 2 (beta)

Heeey, y'all remember that Vee fic I've been toiling away at? I finally, just now, five minutes ago, got the second chapter done. Sorta, anyway. This bad boy ended up being just over 10 000 words long... and it was originally supposed to be longer, but I decided to split it into two.

I havenät run this through any spellcheck or grammar check, and I mgiht go back to change some stuff before fnal publication, but I'm probabaly not gonna change too much plot-wise. It took me a long time to get it into a state that works, and I think I did a decent job.

I am planning on actually putting this story up on AO3, but I wanna make sure to have at least the first three chapters done and ready before that. The next chapter should hopefully not be as long as this one.

For now... enjoy!

(oh, and I actually settled on a title!)

(also, i just realized that copy-n-paste didn't copy-n-paste any of the italics... meh, it's 01:00 at night right now and I need my beatuy sleep)

xxXXxx

Lamp Entertainment presents…

The night was growing old, but Masha was wide awake. Lying in Luz’ bed, looking up at the glow-in-the-dark stars glued to the bunk above. They were tired, dead tired, but thoughts buzzed around their head like ten million fireflies, keeping them awake.

Not only were shapeshifters, basilisks, witches, magic, demons, and other worlds real, but shapeshifting basilisks demons from another world filled with magic and witches were real. Masha had spent most of summer sharing a bunk bed with one, just as they were doing now. It was a lot to take in.

Oh, and the story about the Wittebane brothers meeting a witch? It was true. The brothers had met a real witch, a witch that they had followed back to the Demon Realm, the world of demons and witches. Not only that, but old Philip Wittebane was still alive and kicking, turned into a monster and spending the last four centuries working on a plan to exterminate all witches.

That evil, wicked man was the reason Vee was alive. Vee had been… brief in talking about her origins. Masha knew better than to pry too much, and thank Goddess Marco and Samuel did too. Just telling them about her true identity had obviously been very difficult for her, and if there were things she wasn’t ready to tell them yet, then they shouldn’t pressure her.

Even so, what she did tell them did not paint a pretty picture.

”My name, it’s Vee as in V, as in ’five,’” she had explained, holding up two fingers forming a V. Her voice trembled and her gaze lowered, looking at something far, far away from the comfort and safety of her new home. She took a deep, unsteady breath before speaking again. ”I… am number five. Lab animal number five.”

And all of the sudden it made so much sense why ”Luz” had spent the first few weeks of camp jumping at every sudden sound and always looking over her shoulder. Why she would always sneak out of bed when she thought everyone was sleeping to make sure the door wasn’t locked.

It made Masha’s blood boil. Philip Wittebane better never show his face in Gravesfield again, or so help them…

But… something else troubled on Masha’s mind. They reached down on the floor, grabbing the vaguely clothes-shaped pile of fabric that was their discarded costume. The deck of cards was still in the pocket where they left them, still in the same order. The first three cards were still The Two-Headed Snake, The Light, and The Red String.

They shuffled the deck thoroughly and drew the first three cards again.

The Light. The Red String. The Two-Headed Snake.

What was the chances of drawing the exact same three cards? One in a million?

Maybe there was still some magic in them…

Eventually, Masha drifted off to a sleep filled with dreams they couldn’t remember in the morning.

Chapter 2: For the Future (that we can’t see)

Vee woke up early, before the others. Well, it wasn’t that early, it was just past eight in the morning. But considering the late night, it felt early even as the sun shone through the window.

She spent some time just coiled up in bed, enjoying the comfortable warmth under her two blankets. She thought if going back to sleep, but eventually convinced herself that it was time to rise and shine.

The others were still asleep, so Vee climbed down from her bunk as quietly as she could. Easier said than done when you had a thick tail instead of two nimble legs. Somehow, she made it down without waking anyone up, though that might have had more to do with the fact that her old cabin mates were exhausted after yesterday.

She noticed a deck of Hexas Hold’em cards lying on the floor. She recalled Masha playing with a deck on the day Luz contacted her from the Demon Realm. Vee couldn’t smell any magic left in them, which meant it was probably the same deck. They must’ve fallen out of Masha’s pocket. She gathered them and put them in a neat stack next to their costume.

She slithered silently out the room, past Samuel and Marco in the guest beds that used to belong to Willow and Amity. The whole thing reminded her of summer camp. She’d often wake up before her cabin mates then too, often sneaking out to enjoy the early morning sun. Masha had called camp prison, but as far as Vee was concerned, her first true sense of freedom had come from that place.

Making it down the stairs was one of those things that was a lot more uncomfortable with a tail than it was with a pair of legs, but Vee decided to stay in her true form for a bit longer. For the longest time, even before she made the decision to tell them, there had been an insistent voice in her head telling her that her friends would find her true form repulsive. It was nice to learn that wasn’t the case.

Oh stars, she could barely believe it! She had told them! She really had told them! Even though the thought had terrified her, she had still gone through with it. And it worked out, they didn’t hate her, they didn’t resent her for deceiving them.

There were some things she hadn’t told them. Things she had only ever told Camila, late one night after she woke up screaming from a nightmare. She wanted the truth to be a happy thing, not marred too much by what had been.

Vee was determined to move beyond her past pain. At times, the darkness made itself known at the back of her head, deep within her lizard brain. But she was getting better and better at pushing back. She had optimism for the future.

First things first though. She needed to call Camila’s work to let them know she was going to need a few days off. Vee, being naturally paranoid and a born liar, had already fleshed out a halfway decent story.

It took some convincing and a little bit of improv, but Vee was eventually (imitating Camila’s voice, of course) able to get Camila’s sudden leave accepted.

Once that was done with, Vee began cleaning up the mess in the living room while contemplating what to do with Luz. Should she take on her appearance and go to school as her again? Or should she call the school and inform Luz wouldn’t be coming for a few days? Both alternatives had its ups and downs. On one hand, Vee actually did like school and learning about the Human Realm. And Luz’ grades really did not need to get any worse. On the other hand, keeping up the deception would add another element of complication. Vee was good, but was she that good?

She mulled over it while cleaning up until she heard movement coming from upstairs. She turned to her friends groggily making their way down the stairs.

”Good morning!” she said cheerfully.

”Wow…” Samuel whispered. ”I was halfway convinced I was dreamt up everything,” he said a little louder.

”Not me, cause I’m not that creative,” Marco said.

”I gotta say, I think it would make for a pretty good story,” Samuel continued. ”A demon fleeing from an evil emperor ends up in the world of the humans, accidentally taking the place of a young girl headed for summer camp… yeah, that’s a good story. Maybe I should write a book about it.”

”Don’t you have like fifty-eleven different fanfics you’re already writing?” Masha teased him. Samuel blushed.

”I do finish some of my fanfics,” he said defensively. ”Unlike my thirteenth favorite fanfic writer, The Lampman. That guy couldn’t finish a fanfic if his life depended on it. ”

”I don’t know who that is, but he sounds like a talentless hack,” Marco said.

”I’m sure he’s not that bad,” Vee said. ”Anyway, here I am, very much real. By which I mean ’real-ly hungry.’ Anyone else want breakfast? I’m starving!”

The others agreed that breakfast would be nice. Vee lead them into the kitchen and began fixing some food. One thing the other Cabin 7 members had noticed about ”Luz” was that the way she’d scarf down her food at every meal like she had never eaten before. Which, based on what they now knew of Vee’s past, sadly made a lot of sense. Though that was not the only thing they had noticed about Luz ’ eating habits.

”You used to choke on your food a lot,” Masha observed. They were absentmindedly playing with the deck of Hexas Hold’em cards. ”Was that because you usually swallow your food whole?”

”Yeah, pretty much,” Vee confirmed while frying up some eggs. ”I do have teeth to chew with if I have to, but I usually don’t. Human throats are a lot less flexible than basilisks and I wasn’t used to it.” To demonstrate what she meant, she took an apple lying on the counter and swallowed it whole, making her throat bulge outward.

”Not gonna lie,” Marco said. ”That was a kinda gross.”

”You should see how I eat eggs then,” Vee chuckled. ”The difficult part is spitting the shell out in one piece.”

”Th-thanks, but I think we’ll skip that one,” Samuel quickly interjected. He looked contemplative for a moment. ”Do you have… is it poison or venom? I can never remember the difference.”

”If I bite you and you die, I’m venomous,” Vee explained. ”But if you bite me and you die, then I’m poisonous. And no, I don’t have venom. Don’t know if I’m poisonous though. I might be.”

”What if I bite myself and I die?” Marco asked. ”What does that make me then?”

”Stupid,” Masha said, prompting a good group laugh.

”No new information there,” Marco said between giggles.

The eggs done, the gang sat down at the table. Sitting on chairs designed for human creatures with things like ”legs” and ”butts” was yet another thing that was a bit awkward for Vee. She’d usually just stand at the table, but she decided to sit down this time. Before she sat down, she grabbed a special jar from one of the cabinets.

It had a homemade label, saying in neat handwriting that it was ”For Vee only.” A second pencil had added a small face making a sick face, to which the first pencil responded that ”I told you so.”

Her friends watched with interest as she took four slices of bread and spread thick layers of jar’s contents on them. It looked like some chocolate spread, but with strange lumps in it.

”What is that?” Masha asked finally. ”Is it some kind of special basilisk food?”

”Uh… kinda?” Vee hesitated. ”It’s nutella, with protein powder and, um… wood chips and sand.”

This was met with wide stares.

”Wood chips… and sand?” Samuel asked, as if to make sure he heard it right.

”It’s good for my digestion,” Vee said with a little shrug. ”It was either that, or I keep chewing on twigs I found on the ground. Camila thinks I need a lot of protein, so that’s what the protein powder’s for.”

”And the nutella…?” Masha asked.

”Oh, that’s for taste,” Vee said. Deciding that was enough explanation, she took one the fried eggs and sandwiched it between two bread slices slathered in the cursed nutella. ”I think Demon Realm stomachs are just tougher than human stomachs,” Vee said between bites of her sandwich. ”Luz told me there was a bunch of foods she couldn’t eat in the Demon Realm, but the others didn’t seem to have any problems with anything from here. Well, except for garlic.”

”What, they couldn’t eat garlic?” Masha asked in-between bites of their own sandwich. ”Like vampires?”

”Precisely,” Vee said with a nod.

”Wait, really?” Masha exclaimed, nearly choking on their food. ”Vampires are real? And they can’t stand garlic? That part’s true!?”

”Yes,” Vee said, smiling at the funny face Masha was making.

”Oh, so that’s why you had cloves of garlic next to your bed,” Marco said and nodded a little. ”It’s to keep the vampires away.”

”Kinda. There aren’t any vampires in Gravesfield (I hope), but it makes me feel safer to sleep with it,” Vee explained. ”Hunter said that basilisks and vampires used to be natural enemies, since, well… we both kinda feed on witches… Garlic is deadly to vampires, and since a lot of witches have vampire ancestry, a lot of them have inherited a garlic allergy.” Vee smiled at a memory. ”Willow’s and Gus’ weren’t that bad, but Amity’s was really bad. Luz was devastated, because one piece of garlic bread meant no more kisses for the day.”

That image garnered a few laughs.

”I can’t wait for you guys to meet Luz, the real Luz,” Vee said. ”She’s the coolest! Seh fights Belos and doesn’t afraid of anything.”

”Well, I think you’re pretty cool,” Masha said. They reached out to hold Vee’s hand, soft skin meeting rough scales. ”My whole life I’ve been looking for signs of the supernatural, for ghosts or demons or what have you… but I never ever dreamed of meeting, much less becoming friends with a living, breathing demon!”

Samuel put a hand on Vee’s shoulder.

”And I’m really happy you felt comfortable enough to tell us your secret,” he said. ”I know it couldn’t have been easy. I’m honored you felt you could trust us that much, and I promise you won’t regret it.”

Marco put his hand on Vee’s other shoulder.

”I used to think Cabin 7 was the coolest cabin in Connecticut,” he said. ”Now I know we’re the coolest in the whole world. I mean, who else can say they have a freakin’ shapeshifter as a friend?

”Aw, you guys…” Ve was struggled to hold back tears. She lost that battle, and big warm tears started rolling don her cheeks. ”I’m sorry I didn’t tell you sooner,” she sobbed. ”I wanted to, but I never dared.”

Masha, Samuel, and Marco acted in unison, standing up to embrace Vee in a big group hug.

”Hey, it’s okay, I know what that’s like,” Masha reassured her. ”Keeping a part of yourself secret even to those that love you… it eats away at you. It took me forever to come out to my parents, even though I knew they’d accept me for who I am… anxiety’s a bitch.”

”Th-thanks,” Vee said. She managed to wriggle one arm free to wipe the tears off her face. ”You guys really are the best.”

They stood huddled together for a minute, until Vee felt her love of hugs starting to give way to her fear of being restrained.

”I’m fine, I promise,” she said, trying to wriggle free of the group hug. ”I’m just so happy is all.”

Eventually, the Cabin 7 crew relented with their physical affection and let her go. They had breakfast to finish after all.

The three humans watched with equal amounts fascination and disgust as Vee ate an entire banana, without peeling it. ”The shell doesn’t taste that good, but hey, it’s the inside that counts, right?” she said. And really, who could argue with logic like that?

Her friends had a few more questions about her biology yet.

”Do you shed your skin like a snake?” Samuel asked while helping to gather the dishes.

”Uh-huh,” Vee hummed, putting the dishes in the sink. She decided to be lazy and do them later. ”I actually shed not too long ago. The old skin’s in a box in the basement, if you wanna see it.”

”…that’s a hard pass for me bro,” Marco said. ”Why would you even keep it?”

”What were we supposed to do, throw it out in the garbage?” Vee asked rhetorically. ”You saw how Jacob acted yesterday. After Camila locked him in his own cage, he hasn’t dared to go after us directly. But I don’t think he’s above digging through the trash to find proof there’s a demon living here. As is, everyone thinks he’s a raving lunatic conspiracy nut. Which, to be fair, he is, he just happened to stumble onto the truth this one time.”

The three friends nodded, for the first time realizing just what it would mean if Jacob actually did get proof of demon presence in Gravesfield. The town had a history of witch hunting already, who’s to say the people of today wouldn’t continue the tradition should they learn of Vee’s presence? Not to mention what the government might do to get their hands on an interdimensional traveler.

”It must’ve been incredibly hard for you,” Masha said. They were still playing with the deck of Hexas Hold’em cards, shuffling them and drawing the first three cards. ”To have to pretend to be someone else, in a world you know nothing about.”

”It wasn’t easy, that’s for sure,” Vee admitted. ”But, well… it’s kinda what we basilisks do. We disguise ourselves, observe, lie, infiltrate, feed, survive… a lot of it was pure instinct. I’m a natural liar.”

Samuel shook his head.

”’Liar’ is a bad word,” he said. ”Very strong, very stigmatized. Say you’re a born actor and a natural talent at improv.”

This made Vee laugh.

”If you say so,” she giggled. She cleared her throat and the next time she spoke, her voice was an exact imitation of Samuel’s. ”A lot of it was instinct. I’m a born actor and a natural talent at improv.”

”You’re so gonna have to help me write my résumé,” Masha said to Samuel, prompting a brief chuckle.

”I’ve been thinking of doing NaNoWriMo this year, so I’ve been practicing how to make sentences longer,” he explained. He then had to spend the next fifteen minutes explaining what that was and deflect questions his friends had about the novel he was totally going to write.

After breakfast was done with and the table cleaned up, a natural question arose:

”So… what now?” Marco asked.

”I’m thinking that maybe I should take over as Luz for a little while,” Vee said. ”But I’m not sure. For now though… I suppose the first order of business is to get Camila’s car back. I know she has a spare key in the key cabinet. So I guess that’s today’s project.”

Masha looked skeptical.

”Do you have a driver’s license?”

”No…” Vee admitted. ”But I can turn into Camila, and I’m sure there’s some other identification lying around I could use. And that’s assuming I even get pulled over, and why would I get pulled over?”

”Normally you’d have a point, but the police have been on edge lately with all the break-ins,” Samuel said. ”My mom told me she’s been pulled over five times in her life, and three of them have been in the last month.”

”I think we’re missing something obvious here guys,” Masha said. ”Vee, do you even know how to drive?”

”I mean… no…” Vee said slowly. ”But I’m sure I could figure it out!”

”…I’m driving it home for you,” Masha stated, not leaving it up for debate.

”Yeah, that’s probably for the best,” Vee conceded.

Before they left, Vee quickly grabbed a few cups of brown pellets that she scarfed down. This made Marco raise an eyebrow… not that you could tell.

”Was that…?”

”Dog food, yes,” Vee sighed, clearly having had this conversation before. ”It’s filling.”

”Wow,” Marco said, not sounding particularly impressed or surprised. To be fair, the Luz he had known at camp did seem like she might eat dog food. ”You weren’t lying when you said you were hungry before.”

”I’m still growing!” Vee said with the smallest hint of a pout. Masha drew their attention away from the deck of cards they’d been playing with, since this sounded interesting. ”I’ve got a lot of growing left before I become an adult. I haven’t even been through second puberty.”

”…second puberty?” Samuel asked.

Vee nodded.

”Yeah, it’s, uh… a thing with us basilisks.You know, like… maturing and stuff.” This did nothing to explain anything. ”Point is, I’ve got a lot of growing left to do, and I gotta eat for that.”

”How big do you think you’re going to be?” Masha asked curiously. ”Or like, how long, I guess?”

”Oh, um…” Vee scratched the back of her head. ”About… twelve to fifteen-”

”Twelve to fifteen feet?” Samuel exclaimed, impressed.

”Noooooo,” Vee said. ”Twelve to fifteen meters.”

There was a pause as the three humans processed this answer.

”Bloody hell’s bells,” Masha finally whispered, their eyes wide with awe.

Marco whistled.

”Big snake,” he said.

”That’s putting it lightly,” Samuel muttered. ”Fifteen meters is bigger than the titanoboa, the biggest snake in the fossil record.”

”Haha, yeah, I got tall genes,” Vee said nervously. She shifted into her human form. ”Shall we get going?”

xxXXxx

Gravesfield was beautiful around this time of the year. The warm browns, oranges, and yellows of the trees suited the quaint little town. The air was clear and crisp, with a hint of winter cold in the wind, though today was an unusually warm and sunny autumn’s day. A perfect day for a nice stroll with friends.

Vee’s three human friends still had a plethora of questions that needed answering, not just about her, but about the world she came from. At the same time, Masha resolved to make good on their offer to give Vee a tour of the town. Since Vee already knew her way around, they resorted to the second best option, their specialty: useless historical trivia. And so the conversation kept bouncing between the magical and the mundane as if dictated by a conversational metronome.

”So on the Boiling Isles, all life and magic comes from the Titan whose body actually makes up most of the isles. All magic is made up of four basic elements, light, fire, ice, and plant. It’s really cool too, because when I eat magic I can taste the different elements. So Amity’s abomination magic, for example, is mostly plant elemental, with a bit of light and hints of fire and ice. Now, Gus’ illusions on the other hand are almost completely light elemental…”

”So you’ve all probably wondered why the library in town is called that, right? Okay, you’ve probably never even thought about it, but R.E.O.S Gravesfield Public Library is a pretty odd name, don’t you think? Turns out the old library burned down in 1931, and since this was during the Great Depression, there wasn’t any money to rebuild it. But as luck would have it, the millionaire industrialist, philanthrope, and hobbyist ghost hunter Robert E.O Speedwagon came to visit Gravesfield in 1933. This place was well-known for being haunted even back then. He didn’t find any ghosts, but he apparently took such a liking to the town that he offered to personally fund the construction of a new library. Thus, it was named after him. Speedwagon was an interesting fella, because he wasn’t born into wealth, no, he started out as a thug on the streets of victorian London…”

”Really, I swear, dog food isn’t that bad. Dogs are supposed to be man’s best friend right? Why would you feed your best friend something that’s gross? Amity, Gus, and Willow tried some, and they didn’t think it was half bad. Then again… Hunter nearly threw up… and so did Luz. Huh…”

”Speaking of ghost hunts, one of my favorites has got to be Mr. Hunter, and he actually visited Gravesfield once. As I recall, he wrote that while he didn’t find any ghosts, there was undoubtedly something eerie about this place that he couldn’t put his finger on. Like a subtle hum in the air, inaudible to the human air but still felt in your body. He visited the old graveyard while they were doing some digging and reburials, so maybe he could somehow sense the presence of the titan’s blood? Because I really do believe some people have extrasensory perception. People will say that ’Oh, the Stargate project never found any psychics,’ but do you really think anyone with real psychic abilities would tell the government? Best case scenario, you get locked up and experimented on for the rest of your life…”

”No, no, I’m not exaggerating, it’s an island on top of the body of an ancient giant. It’s just like that one story you told at camp Masha, about that giant that was killed by some gods who made the world out of its body.”

”Oh, you mean the norse creation myth? I love that one, it’s so metal. So in the beginning, there was a land of fire, a land of ice, and a great gap between them…”

It didn’t take too long for Samuel and Marco both to realize (and the fact that Marco noticed just went to show how obvious it was) that they were being slowly excluded from the conversation. There was no malice or ill will behind it, no. It was more so the fact that Masha and Vee seemed to only have eyes and ears for each other.

Vee looked at Masha with such affection and attention whenever they started talking, you could almost see her ears perk up under her hair. And Masha was always up for talking about history or ghosts or whatever else interested them that day, but the excitement with which they spoke to Vee was unparalleled.

As the odd bunch reached the center of town, it had become pretty clear what was going. Marco and Samuel had unintentionally become the third and fourth wheel on a date.

”Ooh Vee, you’ve got to try the new chai latte they’ve got at Robin’s Roast,” Masha said excitedly. ”Do you boys want anything?” They added, once they remembered the boys existed and were present.

”No thanks, I don’t like coffee,” Samuel declined. ”B’sides, I promised I’d be home by lunch, so I better get going.” He glanced at Marco. As per usual, Marco’s expression was nearly impossible to decipher, but it seemed like he got the hint.

”Yeah, and I only drink water,” he said. This was true; he only ever drank regular water. At most he’d treat himself to some ice water. He had never explained why. ”And I probably should get home as well. See you around!” he said and waved as he and Samuel went on their ways.

”See ya!” Vee said and waved back. She turned to Masha. ”And I’d love to try one of those chai lattes.”

”Great. My treat,” Masha said and started leading Vee towards the cafe.

Vee came to a sudden stop though just before they could enter.

”Oh uh,” she mumbled.

”What’s the matter?” Masha asked.

”Um…” Vee mumbled. ”I… don’t really wanna see her,” she whispered and gestured at someone through the window.

Masha took a peek inside the almost empty cafe.

”Who, Clara?” they asked, spotting one of Luz’ classmates. She was easy to recognize, with her bright blonde hair with a streak of pink. ”Did you or Luz get into a fight with her?”

”Wha-no, not Clara, the other one,” Vee said and pointed at the only other person in the room.

”Maya?” Masha said, surprised.

”You know her?”

”Sorta,” Masha shrugged. ”Believe it or not, but I’m a frequent customer at The Magic Circle, that’s where I get all my books on the occult and paranormal. So we kinda know each other. What about you, why don’t you wanna see her?”

”Well, uh…” Vee mumbled. ”We actually went to The Magic Circle the other day while we’re trying to figure out what that old rebus was about, and, uh… we kinda… got kicked out…”

”Ah, I see,” Masha said, a small smile playing at the edge of their lips.

”Really, it was mostly Gus’ and Willow’s fault,” Vee said defensively.

”If you say so,” Masha snickered. ”Don’t worry, I’ll go in and face this challenge alone,” distorting their voice into a dramatic growl, making Vee giggle.

”Alright, I’lll be waiting somewhere around. I don’t wanna stay too close, lest she see me.”

Masha nodded and entered the cafe. Vee turned around and started walking away in a very natural and unsuspicious manner, not at all reminiscent of someone who had just spotted someone who they really did not want to spot them.

She rounded the corner of the block, and realized too late that she had found herself back at the scene of the crime. Literally; The Magic Circle was cordoned off with bright yellow police tape.

What in the…? When did this happen?

Vee approached slowly, watching out for shards of glass on the pavement. Most of them had been swept up and to the side, but there were a few missed glittering in the high sun. Someone had broken open the door, nearly ripping it off its hinges, sending glass flying everywhere in the process. Not only that, but the metal bars that were supposed to stop anyone that had forced open the door had been cut and bent out of shape. Someone really wanted to get into that store.

A fleeting scent reached Vee’s nose, and she instinctively took a deep breath. She dared a little bit closer, almost to the point where she touched the police tape. She could hear people talking and moving inside, likely investigators trying to figure out who was behind this crime. It was not the noise that brought Vee close though, but the scent.

There was a faint smell in the air, a smell Vee recognized. Not from the realm of humans, but one from the realm of demons. It wasn’t magic, but rather the memory of magic, the ”soot” and ”smoke” of a spell. It smelled like someone had performed magic here… but no one, not Amity, not Gus, nor Willow had cast any spells while they were here. And even if they had, that was two days ago. Surely the smell would would have faded away into nothing by now… surely…

xxXXxx

The familiar smell of ground coffee beans and freshly baked pastries greeted Masha as they entered Robin’s Roast, well before the employee behind the counter could. They threw a glance at the sign showing customers that had managed to get themselves permanently banned. A pale woman with grey hair and bright golden eyes and a wild smile; Marilyn. Except that was not her real name. She was Eda the Owl Lady, a powerful witch from another world. She had come here once, tired to pay with a raccoon, cursed the croissants, and then ran away. To be honest, from what Vee had told them, this Eda seemed like an icon of chaos and unadulterated confidence. In other words, very much the kind of person Masha aspired to be.

Masha nodded to Maya before going to place their order. Two chai lattes, and these ones were the best in town. Well, they were the only in town, but still. They were good, Vee was sure to love them. After a moment of consideration, Masha decided to grab two two cupcakes as well. They had a chocolate-and-coffee frosting and were decorated with white and black hearts.

Without thinking, Masha reached into the pocket where they kept the deck of cards. Their thumb brushed over the topmost card. The Red String.

”… on a date?”

”Hm?” Masha hummed and spun around to face the voice taking to them. It was Maya, sitting by her lonesome with a by now cold coffee.

”You on a date?” she repeated, causing Masha’s brain to malfunction.

”Wha-? N-no, it’s not a date! We’re just friends.” Incredibly enough, Masha managed to stutter forth the exact series of words that anyone who was on a date but didn’t want to admit it was a date would say. Amazing. They felt their cheeks begin to heat up.

Maya, as expected, looked unconvinced.

”Yeah sure. And your ’friend’ with the green hair is real subtle.”

”You… saw her?” Masha said, keeping their tone low. Even if Vee’s other friends hadn’t done a crime, it was probably for the better not to draw too much attention to the basilisk hiding amongst humans. They glanced at Clara, who looked absolutely miserable over in the corner of the cafe, sulking with a half empty coffee mug.

”Yeah…” Maya said slowly. ”Kind hard not to, with the green hair and bright orange sweater. She’s like a walking traffic cone.”

That image was enough to make Masha forget their nervousness and start chuckling. Maya didn’t joke often, but when she did, she did not miss.

”She thought you might be mad at her,” Masha explained, still keeping their tone low. ”She said that last time you two met didn’t end so well.”

”Water under the bridge,” Maya said. She stirred her coffee with a spoon, not that it did much good since it was already cold.

”…wasn’t it less than two days ago.”

”Lot of water passes under the bridge in two days,” Maya said with a shrug. She tapped a coin lying on the table. It looked like it could be gold, though it probably wasn’t, and it had a spiral symbol on it. ”But you can let her know that her friends aren’t gonna get in trouble if they come back. I literally could not be arsed to report that stolen costume. And, well… with what happened, another missing costume isn’t that big of a deal.”

”What, what happened?” Masha asked, slipping back to normal conversational tone. Something else had happened at The Magic Circle since then? This was news to Masha.

”You didn’t see it on the way here?” Maya raised her eyebrow. Masha had never claimed to be great at reading facial expressions, but they could somehow decode exactly what Maya meant, calling Masha out on being… distracted by their company.

”If it was something at The Magic Circle, then no, we came from another direction,” Masha said quickly, internally cursing their traitorous body for pumping excessive amounts of blood to their cheeks.

”Yeah, well, someone broke into the store,” Maya said. ”Completely trashed the front door. Hence why I’m here instead of at work.”

”Oh no, that’s terrible,” Masha said. Genuinely, that was their favorite store in town. It was a much-needed haven for a social outcast enby goth like them. ”That’s what, the fifth this month?” The last month or so had seen an unprecedented number of break-ins and thefts happening in the otherwise peaceful little town. The last place to be hit was a private workshop. The thief had made off with thousands of dollars worth in tools, car parts, and electronics. ”Was anything stolen?”

Maya nodded.

”Mhm. No cash though, which is weird, didn’t even touch the safe. No, they stole some costumes and a bunch of jewelry. And cassette tapes, which is even weirder to me. If they were originals, then maybe they’d be worth something, but the ones we have are cheap replicas for nostalgia’s sake.”

Out of the corner of their eye, Masha saw Clara suddenly get up from her chair and hurry out. In her haste, she bumped into Masha. She mumbled a quick sorry and was gone before Masha even had the time to tell her it was fine.

”Geez, what lit a fire under her ass?” Maya said dryly, watching through the window as Clara all but ran her way from Robin’s Roast.

”I dunno, maybe she realized she was late for her class on being a bitch,” Masha said. They almost regretted saying that immediately, because in the grand scheme of things, Clara was not that much of a bitch… though she was far from a saint. Still, it was a funny joke that almost made Maya laugh.

”Yeah, probably,” she said. Her eyes flickered to the floor. ”You dropped something.”

”Oh, thanks,” Masha said and bent down to pick up the Hexas Hold’em cards that had slipped out of their pocket when Clara collided with them.

There were three cards on the floor. Now, you’d think that since The Red String, The Two-Headed Snake, and The Light were the three topmost cards in the deck, those would have been the ones to fall out, but you’d be mistaken. With a slight frown, Masha gathered the cards and looked at them.

The Sword and Shield featured a winged sword and an ornate shield. The card invoked the imagery of a knight or soldier, brave and loyal. It’d be a pity to stain such beautiful things with the blood of war and conflict.

The Golem showed a large and brutish figure made from purple clay. It was probably supposed to be one of those abominations Vee had mentioned Luz’ girlfriend (Amity?) used. A figure crafted with magic, made to defend or attack, but with little will of its own.

The Whip was just that, a whip, though the tip of this one was replaced with a snake’s head. Whips were the weapon of oppressors and animal tamers, who ruled though fear of pain and punishment.

”Oh yeah, and the thief also stole all those cards too,” Maya said, snapping Masha out of their thoughts and back to reality. ”What were they called, Hex n’ Hold’em?”

”Hexas Hold’em,” Masha corrected, shoving the cards back in their pocket.

”Right, right… I think we got them from that creepy conspiracy nut.”

Masha nodded.

”Jacob Hopkins. I got my deck from him as well.”

”You know him?” Maya asked.

”Not really. He used to work at the Historical Society,” Masha explained, which was met by a sympathetic grimace from Maya. ”And yes, he really is as crazy as you think. Or worse even. Did you know he’s an actual flat-earther?”

”Noooooo…” Maya said slowly, in utter disbelief. ”That can’t be true! I though the whole flat earth thing was just a bad meme.”

”I wish I was kidding,” Masha said while shaking their head. ”Flat earth and witches from Mars, ancient aliens that gather in the ruins in the woods… you can see why he got kicked out of the GHS.”

”Good riddance, by the sounds of it,” Maya said.

At this point, the man behind the counter decided he was tired of listening to Maya and Masha’s banter, and so he cleared his throat to get Masha’s attention.

”R-right, sorry,” they mumbled. They quickly paid and with only some difficulty, managed to grab both cups and the paper bag with the cupcakes.

Maya was a gentlewoman and got up from her seat to hold the door open for them.

”Good luck on the date,” she said, which, despite the playfulness to her voice, still sounded genuine deep down.

”It’s not-” Masha’s words were cut off by the door closing.

Masha wasn’t privy to Maya sighing and sitting back again, reaching for the spoon to uselessly stir her coffee again… only to discover the spoon had, as if by an invisible hand, been bent out of shape.

As Masha exited back out onto the sidewalk, they scanned the street for Vee, finding that she was nowhere within sight. Following a hunch, they rounded the corner and indeed, there she was.

Vee was standing in front of The Magic Circle, dangerously close to the trashed door, almost touching the police tape. She was sniffing the air, her eyes closed in concentration.

”Good Goddess, what did you people do!?” Masha said loudly, startling Vee. She almost jumped out of her own skin as she spun around.

”Nothing, I was just curious!” she said quickly, before she even registered who it was talking to her. She relaxed when she saw who was talking to her. Masha noticed her hair move as her big adorable ear moved underneath. ”Oh. Funny. Real funny coming from you, considering you’re my alibi.”

”I dunno, they say criminals always return to the scene of the crime,” Masha said, trying to sound genuine. ”Are you sure it wasn’t you?”

”Positive,” Vee said dryly. ”No, I really was just curious. I thought I could smell something…” She threw a quick glance at the wrecked door and security bars with the hint of a frown. ”But it’s probably nothing.”

”How about we get going again then?” Masha said, holding up the goodies from Robin’s Roast. ”The tea’s getting cold, and i’ve still got many useless. I mean, ’ interesting’ historical facts to tell you. Oh, and I got us a little something extra,” they said and shook the little paper bag, though gently, as to not spill any of the still hot liquid.

Vee’s face lit up at the prospect of food and drink.

”Gladly,” she said excitedly and took the cup Masha was offering. As they started walking away from the depressing sight that was The Magic Circle, Vee smelled the tea carefully.

”You were right, this is amazing,” she said.

”Y-you do know you’re supposed to drink it, right?” Masha asked while taking a sip themselves.

”Oh, I know,” Vee said and took a careful sip. ”But there’s not much difference in smell and taste to me.”

”Really? Can’t you feel any taste?” Masha asked, intrigued. There was still so much about their friend they didn’t know. They recalled what Vee had talked about before, how she normally didn’t chew her food, so maybe it did make sense that she didn’t have much of a sense of taste.

”No, I have a sense of taste, but my sense of smell is a lot more refined,” Vee clarified. ”Didn’t you ever wonder how I became the best seeker in hide and seek back at camp?”

This took Masha a second to process. It was true that whenever the camp counselors made the kids do hide and seek among the barracks or in the nearby woods, ’Luz’ was always the best at finding people… she even earned a little gold star for it, one of many.

”You… you were tracking us… by scent?” they said slowly. Vee nodded with a big grin, revealing Masha probably had a very funny expression.

”Yeah,” Vee said, clearly holding back laughter. ”I remember the very first time we played hide and seek, and I was so confused that no one else was trying to mask their scent. That’s when I realized humans just don’t have that good a sense of smell. Uh, no offense, you humans have a lot of great qualities, especially yo-I mean-”

”That’s why you showed up covered in mud!” Masha exclaimed, suddenly remembering one of the weirder things ’Luz’ had done, and one of the few times she got in trouble at camp.

”That and camouflage,” Vee laughed, prompting Masha to start laughing as well.

Once the laughter died down, the two friends could continue with their walk through town. Masha offered Vee one of the cupcakes.

”Aw, these are so cute,” Vee said, taking a good look at the muffin, before it was to be devoured.

”A cute cupcake for a cute girl,” MAsha said before they could stop themselves. Being unable to see their own face, Masha wasn’t sure if that sentence made them blush harder than Vee, but they suspected that might be the case.

”G-gee, th-thanks,” Vee stammered. ”I-I think you’re cute too. B-but in a cool way! You’re like the coolest person I know! Wh-which I know doesn’t mean that much because I really don’t know that many people, at least when compared to the average human, which I’m not…” Her sentence trailed off at some point before it devolved into complete gibberish.

And so, in only a few seconds, the atmosphere between the two friends changed entirely. They spent a few minutes in awkward silence, wandering the streets of Gravesfield while eating their cupcakes and drinking their tea.

Masha decided to break the silence.

”So, uh… did you say you could smell magic as well?” the asked, recalling something Vee had mentioned offhandedly the night before.

Vee nodded.

”I can track magic by scent as well.” She suddenly smiled again. ”But I can do more than just track,” she said. ”I can tell all sorts of things by smell. Like, did you know Marco uses the same kind of dandruff shampoo as Camila?”

”I didn’t know Marco used shampoo,” Masha said. ”I’ve never been able to smell anything from hm other than that body spray he insists on using way too much off.”

”It really doesn’t smell that good” Vee agreed. ”Okay, but I can also tell that Samuel really need to do something about his foot fungus.”

”Eeeeew!” Masha exclaimed. ”Gross!”

”I know,” Vee said with a nod. ”It’s been pretty bad for a while now, but I noticed that it’s gotten even worse. I’m serious, it can’t be healthy.”

”Ew, ew, ew!” Masha repeated while holding their hands over their ears. ”Talk about something else.”

”O-okay, um… ”Vee thought for a moment. ”Oh, I know, something else I can do. I could tell instantly that your mom was pregnant, right when I first met her.”

…

”SHE’S WHAT!?”

xxXXxx

It took Masha a bit to calm down after that bombshell. The revelation that there were going to have a younger sibling within a couple of months was bad enough, but it was made even worse when they realized that… it must have happened while they were away at camp. Vee was profoundly apologetic about the whole thing, meagerly saying she thought they knew already, which only made things yet worse, because it was apparently an obvious thing too.

Eventually they calmed down, largely thanks to Vee distracting them by asking for more historical trivia.

Vee was a very attentive listener. As Masha had noticed before, they could notice her ears move and perk up when she heard something she thought was interesting. And those big bright eyes were so full of life and wonder at everything. Even when it came to those subjects most people who were not already interested in history found boring and irrelevant. Though Masha made sure to omit some of the more gruesome details, especially regarding the witch hunts.

The two of them spent about an hour walking around Gravesfield, enjoying their chai lattes, cupcakes, the pleasant weather and each others’ company.

As Masha set the course, they dragged Vee along in any random direction, based more so on vibes and any interesting facts they could think of. So it was quite unintentional on their part that they end up where they eventually did end up.

It was towards the south edge of town, where at one point, there had been a big push towards development. Land had been purchased and forest cut down to make way for new housing and businesses. Pretty much all of those grandiose and ambitious ideas had been abandoned for a variety of reasons… and one huge reason, the primary reason really, was what Vee and Masha found themselves looking at.

Masha came to a halt when they realized where they were, an abrupt halt that took Vee by surprise. She followed Masha’s gaze, beholding the modern ruins.

The entire area was cordoned off by a chainlink fence to keep modern urban explorers out… not that it had succeeded, as the gate had been forced open, and was only kept closed by a rock someone had placed in front of it.

Beyond the fence was a large field of asphalt, which had once had lines for parking spaces, though since long worn out. Cycles of heat, and rain, and cold without any upkeep had over the years made the asphalt start to crack. Life, ever persevering, had started to reclaim the area, with grass, weeds, and flowers growing from the cracks.

On the other end of the old parking lot stood the remains of a building. Crumbling slabs and blocks of concrete, with rusting metal beams and rebar sticking out of it like the bones of a rotting corpse. Almost every visible wall that was still standing was covered in graffiti, some so old that it had started to fade away.

Masha broke the silence.

”That… used to be a big department store,” they said slowly. ”Built in 1998, it would even remain standing for a decade. Shoddy workmanship, corrupt inspectors approving subpar construction, and the ever-present desire of those who already have more than they need to earn even more, to increase the profit margin by even just a fraction of a percent…” They stopped before they got too carried away. They had spent a lot of time looking into this case, and everything they had learned had made them more angry. They took a deep breath to calm themselves down. At their side, Vee had a mixed look of confusion and worry.

”Are… you okay?” she asked quietly. She started to reach out, but stopped halfway.

”Yeah, I’m fine, it’s just… it makes me mad,” Masha said, though Vee didn’t look very reassured. ”It was during a summer of heavy rainfall that part of the roof collapsed,” Masha continued, doing their best to slip back into history teacher mode. ”Two people received minor injuries, one employee and one customer. Examination of the wreckage as well as the original blueprints lead to the entire building being condemned and left here. The parent company promised to clean it up, but of course, nothing has happened yet. It’s only been fifteen years after all, give it some time.” Again, Masha couldn’t help but let the disgust seep through their words.

”It was the opinion of several independent experts that a leak on the roof, a problem which was known about by the staff, lead to supporting beams beginning to rust and for the roof to weaken,” Masha continued. ”Furthermore, partway through the construction, there was a change of plans and part of the air conditioning system was moved, putting additional weight on a part of the roof that was not designed to bear it. One investigator went as far as to claim that the construction company had knowingly used substandard materials in order to cut down costs. Of course, they were never taken to court for this.”

Masha stepped on a small pebble on the ground, rolling it under their shoe and fiddling with it. Vee stood by, silently waiting for the next part of the story.

”I was here on that day,” Masha said finally. ”I wasn’t old enough to remember, I was only a little over a year old when it happened, but my dad has told me the story. It was in the afternoon on the seventh of June, 2007. My parents had been visiting my mom’s family living in the next town over. On the way back home, they stopped by here to get something for dinner.”

Masha stopped and pointed at a spot close to the ruins.

”I don’t know if you can see it, but there’s some flowers growing in some of the bigger cracks over there. Mom and I planted them there on dad’s birthday last year. I don’t remember what the flowers are called, but they’re supposed to represent life.”

They cleared their throat.

”Anyway… it had been raining cats and dogs all day, so dad was supposed to head in alone while mom waited in the car with me. But just as dad was about to leave… I started crying. He said that I was sleeping before, but the suddenly… I sat up and started crying. But not just crying… he said… he told me that I was screaming. And that he had never heard me scream like that, not before, not since, not even when I broke my arm in second grade.”

Even the brief mention of that painful memory made Masha rub their arm, even though it was completely healed.

”So… dad stayed, you know, to try and figure out why I was screaming bloody murder. And… that’s when they heard a a loud rumbling and a terrible crash. Mom said that at first she thought it was thunder, and that maybe it was a lightning bolt that frightened me. But no, the sound was not thunder, it was the roof collapsing… right above the entrance. If my dad had left when he was supposed to, if I hadnät started crying…”

”Then he would’ve been caught in the collapse,” Vee finished the sentence, met by a nod from Masha.

”Mhm.”

”You saved his life then,” Vee said tentatively, still not sure why Masha was telling her this.

”In a sense,” Masha mumbled, their hand in their pocket, fidgeting with the Hexas Hold’em cards. They pulled out the deck and held them up for Vee. They spoke slowly, hesitating. ”Are… you sure there’s no magic left in these?”

Vee frowned and took the cards. She smelled them carefully, flipping through the deck. It honestly looked kinda funny.

”No,” she said after a little while. ”Not even a little spark. Even the memory of magic is gone. All I can smell on them is you.” She handed the cards back and made an attempt at a smile. ”There’s literally not enough magic in them to do a card trick.”

Masha couldn’t help but smile at the joke, and they couldn’t help but giggle at how adorably proud Vee looked over herself for that pun.

”I really did think there might still be some magic left in them,” Masha said, shuffling the deck.

”Why?” Vee asked.

”Because…” Masha took a deep breath. Why was this so difficult to talk about? It really shouldn’t be. ”Last night, at the Haunted Hayride, just before we ran into you and Jacob… I drew some cards…”

One more deep breath. Inhale, exhale. This was the moment. Time to see if they really were crazy.

They drew the first card in the deck.

”The Two-Headed Snake. A being that is dual in nature, something that is not what it appears to be at first,” Masha said. They handed the card to Vee, who was looking… how would you describe the look? Eyes wide, mouth open and jaw slack. Flabbergasted, perhaps? One might even go as far as to say she looked gobsmacked.

They drew the second card in the deck.

”The Light illuminates and reveals things in the dark.” They handed that card to Vee.

They drew the third card in the deck.

”The Red String. A deep connection.” Masha swallowed. ”Like friends, or people who are destined to meet.” They handed that card over to Vee as well. ”I didn’t know it at the time, but in hindsight… it’s an odd coincidence, right? The Two-Headed snake is obviously you, a snake with multiple faces. Then we have the light which reveals things, just like how you revealed the truth to us, shed light on the situation so to say. And The Red String, well… we were obviously connected, since we became friends at camp and then ran into each other again, even after you became someone else.”

”That… does… make sense… kinda,” Vee said, talking slowly as she tried to process what was going on.

”And it’s not only that, but this night, I shuffled the deck again and I drew those exact same three cards,” Masha said, their voice ramping up as they got more worked up. ”And now I pulled the same three cards again! That can’t be random chance, it just can’t! I thought there might be some magic left in the cards, but if there isn’t…” The sentence trailed off.

Of course they had thought about it many times before, of course, what kid hadn’t? That dream every misunderstood kid has, the dream of being special. Masha had poured over books, badly produced documentaries, and no end of shady internet forums talking about psychic powers and the like. People whi claimed they could see ghosts, or bend spoons, or see the future. susually, these people wanted you money, but every so often there appeared to be someone genuine. And even more rarely, there appeared to be someone who really could do the magical things they claimed.

”Actually…” Vee said slowly, scratching the back of her head. She gave the three cards back to Masha, who shuffled them back into the deck. ”There’s no magic in the cards, and they weren’t enchanted with oracle magic, so they couldn’t tell the future anyway… but maybe there’s something… special about you. Because, um…” Her gaze fell to the ground, like she was avoiding eye contact. ”You do… smell kinda weird.”

”Weird in what way?” Masha said a little too quickly, for the moment forgetting what they were talking about and everything Vee had said before that.

”I-it’s not b-bad or anything, just… strange,” Vee assured them, still not meeting their eyes.”You smell of… metal.”

”…metal?” Masha said, confused. ”What kind of metal?”

”It’s not really like any metal I know,” Vee clarified. ”It’s more like a metallic smell.”

”And that’s weird?” Masha asked, trying to get Vee to explain just what she was talking about.

”Yeah…” Vee finally looked up again, meeting Masha’s eyes with hers. ”I was super confused when we first met, because no other human smelled like you. They all smelled like soap, and hormones, and regular stuff. And you did too, but you also had that other smell. But… you remember Dr. Jante?”

Masha nodded. Of course they remembered the head honcho at camp. It was undeniably ironic that Reality Check Camp, which aimed to make weird kids ”normal” was created and lead by Dr. Jante, a man who was inarguably a massive weirdo himself.

”He smelled like that too,” Vee said. ”So I just kinda figured some humans smelled like that. But if what you’re saying is true, then maybe there is something more to it. Maybe… maybe humans can do magic too! My kind evolved to track witch magic, not human magic, so maybe that’s why I wouldn’t recognize it!”

”D-do… do you really think so?” Masha said. It actually took them some effort to hold back a tear. Vee, someone so incredibly special, a real demon from a world of magic and miracles thought they might be magical too. It was everything they could've ever dreamed of.

”I mean, what else could it be?” Vee said enthusiastically. "You said it yourself, the chances of getting those same three cards three times in a row are astronomical. So if a funny coincidence is off the table, then what’s left?”

”Could I really be magic? For real?” Masha asked, their voice shaking, not out of stress, or anger, or sadness, no. Out of joy; they had a big dumb smile on their face. They looked down at their hands, halfway expecting sparks to fly from their fingertips. ”Can that really be true?”

”i don’t know that it couldn’t be true,” Vee said with a shrug and a big smile of her own. ”Why don’t we ask the cards?”

”Oh… yeah!” Masha said, excited. Of course, what kind of fortune teller were they, standing here asking questions, when they should be consulting the cards. They shuffled the cards again while Vee shuffled next to them to get a good look.

The first card had an image of a black bird.

”The Raven,” Masha said, saying the first thing that came to their mind. ”An oft maligned bird, it’s nonetheless intelligent and beautiful in its own way.”

The next card showed a single arrow with an ornate metal arrowhead.

”The Arrow. A… weapon of war, or…” Masha bit their lip, trying to figure out what the card was trying to tell them. ”Direction? Showing the the way or going somewhere.”

The third cad had a crystal ball from which a ghostly figure was emerging.

”The Spirit. A teller of the future summoned to give wisdom or aid to the living.”

”Seems clear as day to me,” Vee said. She pointed at the first card. ”The bird is obviously you, ’oft maligned, but intelligent and beautiful.’ And this arrow…” Vee moved her finger from The Raven, in the direction of The Arrow, which was pointing at… ”The Spirit. That’s the symbol of the Oracle Coven, and they can see the future.” She beamed at Masha.

”I…I.” Masha didn’t know what to say. They finally lost the battle against the tears, as small droplets of joy started rolling down their cheeks. ”Thank you,” they whispered, leaning in even closer to Vee. ”You have no idea how much this means to me.”

”O-oh, it’s really no big deal,” Vee laughed awkwardly, her face becoming a deep red color. ”I jus-”

Masha interrupted her by pulling her into a deep hug. Vee made an ”Eep!” sound and stood frozen for a second before she returned the embrace, holding on to Masha hard.

She held on very hard.

Almost a little too hard.

”V-vee,” Masha said after about a minute. ”It’s.. getting hard to breathe.

”Ohmygosh, so sorry!” Vee yelled and let Masha go, nearly pushing them over in the process. ”I’m so sorry!” she said again, hr face red as a beet. ”I, uh… constrictor instinct?”

Despite being short of breath, Masha couldn’t help but laugh at that, which in turn made Vee giggle awkwardly.

”You know,” Masha said as they dried their tears. ”When we first started on this walk, I didn’t expect to learn this much about myself. Mostly I expected to teach you boring history facts and maybe to learn a bit more about you, and…” They stopped at a realization. Something they, both of them, had forgotten. Something kinda important.

”What is it?” Vee asked, noticing the change in Masha’s expression.

”…we forgot the car, didn’t we?”

”…we did.” Vee sighed. ”Aw, shoot.” The walk back would be almost an hour.

xxXXxx

Going back in time a bit, to when Clara left the cafe in such a hurry. She had gone to the right, the opposite direction of The Magic Circle. She did not want to see the scene of the crime, she was desperate to avoid it. Coming to Robin’s Roast, so close, had been a mistake.

What no one knew at this point in time was that if Clara had walked past The Magic Circle at that moment, past Vee, the basilisk in hiding… then this story would have had a very different ending. Sadly, that was not to be. Fate, it would seem, has a sense of humor.

To Be Continued…

#the owl house #fanfiction #fanfic #the owl house fanfiction #vee #veesha

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evans-heaven · 2 years

Text

Scene ; Joseph Quinn

Leave it to me to see one comment asking for a full fic based on one of my Moments drabbles and actually write that shit 😭 I've been working on this piece for weeks and I'm pretty happy with how I left it so here it is for your reading pleasure ;)

Before we start, a couple of things:

This is pre-Feelings (tho reader is very much in love here but doesn't realize it)

The death scene is from the POV of Stacey, your character, and is mostly my dialogue bc i tried watching the actual clip and got less than 10 seconds in before i started crying 🙃 so I'm not gonna torture myself like that y'all sorry lol

Reader is portrayed as having anxiety and overthinks a lot, kinda like in Feelings. I write her like this bc that's pretty much how I am in real life about my own thoughts, feelings, and basically everything else. Aaannnd that's basically it lmao

Pairing: Joseph Quinn x Fem!Actress!Reader

Warnings: Unedited content, strong language, ANGST, description of Eddie's death scene, mentions of blood, mild depictions of anxiety, some fluff, and touching, duh ;)

wc: 3.6k

I already linked the other two fics so read Touch here

Pt 2 here

Prior to this day, you had your assumptions that actors filming a death scene would be pretty tough.

But, now that you were in a position where you yourself would be at the borderline center of one, ‘tough’ was kind of an understatement.

‘Tough’ wasn’t nearly a suitable enough word to describe having to cradle your co-star who was covered in prosthetic wounds and fake blood as he sputtered out I love you’s and goodbye’s, and then ‘died’ in your arms.

Maybe ‘tough’ would be the appropriate term here, if said co-star wasn’t your best fucking friend and the person you were undoubtably closest with on set. Him dying in your arms, even if it was just for the screen, was still an experience that would feel way too real-even if you tried to remind yourself that, at the end of the day, it wasn’t. No matter how true to life it would seem. No matter how damn realistic those wounds looked (why the fuck did Amy and her team have to be so talented?), and no matter how fucking incredible Joe Quinn was at pretending to die.

The words ‘calm down’ echoed in your head like a broken record all day. They had blended into one, to the point where they were incoherent and didn’t seem to make sense. Thus, they did very little to offer comfort.

The day had been frustrating, to put it lightly. But, at least you had Joe.

That morning, during your daily-or hourly-sanctioned bear hug, your heartbeat was so strong he practically heard it pulsing in his ears. That alone told him your anxiety would be working double time that day. It was a serious pain in the agss sometimes.

You and Joe had always been attached at the hip over the last year and some, always hanging off of each other in some way or another. And today, it was with good reason attached to it-not that (consensual) physical touch ever had to have a purpose other than wanting to be close. Having that gentle contact, even if it was just a hand on your shoulder-was more than enough to ground you and halt the overactive thoughts-even if for a couple of minutes.

Although he’d say he was only trying to comfort you, it was obvious your embraces and touches held mutual benefit. Just as he was able to sense your anxiety, you could sense his. The sweaty palms when your fingers laced together during breakfast and lunch weren’t from you, nor were the goosebumps you felt against your collarbones when he held you from behind after you got your makeup done for the scene. This showed you that, despite acting his ass off during rehearsals, it didn’t mean he wasn’t nervous.

But, in typical heartthrob-from-a-90s-novel-written-by-a-woman fashion, all his energy was put into making you feel better, comforted, and assured that everything would be okay. Even if he had no idea what the true driving force was behind your anxiousness.

You couldn’t have asked for a better on screen boyfriend. Stacey Miller-Rhodes was a damn lucky gal. Well, up until her boyfriend got chunks of his flesh ripped from his body by demobats. Meaning he died. Meaning Eddie was gone.

Calm down. Calm down. Calm down.

A sharp knock on your trailer door interrupted your useless mantra, as you jolted, just a little, before giving permission for whoever to enter.

In walked Matt and Ross, warm smiles on their faces. It didn’t do much to ease you, because you knew why they were here.

“Hey, Y/N, you ready?” Ross asked. Matt stood by the door keeping it open, since it was time to go.

You nodded. “Yep,” your voice was even, masking the heavy feeling in your throat. You were not ready.

“Figured we’d come get you ourselves, Joe’s busy with makeup on set, for, you know-”

“I know. Thanks,” you said quickly, cutting Matt off. “Let’s get going, then,” you said, standing up and walking past Matt, exiting your trailer. You heard the door shut softly and their footsteps following behind you.

You were being short with them, but that was because you really only wanted Joe at this moment. Unfortunately, he was currently being ‘deadified’ on set, which is where you were now headed. You two had a little cuddle session in your trailer, where he held you tight and layed kiss after kiss on your forehead, cooing that it would be okay and that you would both be fine. After that, he had to go to the makeup trailer to get his prosthetic wounds applied. The process had taken hours, and then he had to film the scene where Eddie actually got attacked by the bats. This meant it had been a while since you saw him last. So, his mamed and mangled appearance awaited you, when the last time you saw him, he was totally unharmed and at ease.

You entered the building, in which there were only a chosen few people. It was a closed set, just you, Joe, and the necessary crew members. The Duffers believed that because a death scene with a couple was so intimate, you and Joe were the only actors that should be on set.

That, you were thankful for. You were your best self when it was just you and Joe, so you could be your best ‘acting self’, when it was just the two of you as well.

Your eyes were immediately drawn to the ‘Upside Down’, a set made to look like the particular spot in the alternate universe where everything would go down. It was tinted blue and almost sent a chill down your spine to look at, from how cold uninviting, and eerie the general vibe of the scenery was. And a little depressing, which was pretty fitting. The backdrop was a blue screen, which would be used to add the background of the setting, to make everything look as real as possible.

You spotted Joe in the middle of the set, the makeup team applying fake blood to his very real looking wounds.

“C’mon, we wanna talk to you and Joe for a second before we start,” Matt told you, and as much as that made sense, you wished Joe was more than just a few feet away so you could prepare a little more for seeing him….like that, outside of the context of the scene.

“Okay,” you said as you three began walking towards him just as makeup finished up their job. When you got to him, you felt yourself tense up at his appearance as you lingered back, just a little bit. He stood awkwardly with his arms slightly hovering away from his body, clearly not wanting to disrupt the fake damage. You could tell from the sight before you that with how much fake blood the team used, those demobats would really do a number on Eddie.

You hated those little CGI bastards.

“Hey,” Joe said, gaining your attention, though his tone was light. You met his eyes, narrowly avoiding the blood streaking the lower half of his face.

“Hi,” you said back, feeling just a little bit of air release from your lungs, not even remembering when you took a breath in. You wanted to make a sarcastic quip to lighten the mood, but words failed you. You didn’t really feel like being funny right now.

“So, you guys remember how the scene goes, Eddie just sacrificed himself and got attacked by the bats, and Stacey runs up to him afterward and sees his body laying there, barely alive, covered in blood and wounds,” Matt began.

You curled your lips in and nodded stiffly, feeling the slightest of shocks run through your body. Calm down.

“I know you two are gonna kill this scene,” Matt continued. “No one understands or could have brought to life Eddie and Stacey better than the two of you,” he said warmly, clamping hands down on both your shoulders. Yours was tense under his touch and Stacey’s clothing.

You had to admit, though, he was right. You had a lot of input into Stacey’s character, taking her from Eddie’s shy girlfriend who was just a tool to enhance how eccentric he was, to a girl with a backstory and reasons for her reserved nature. Knowing Stacey’s history would make the scene even more gut wrenching to film. A girl raised in a household with a domineering step-father who believed women should be seen and not heard, who made her life a living hell under the watchful eye of her mother who did nothing to stop it. Upon turning 18 she left him and his toxicity behind, but carried the burden of years of being forced to subdue herself. Eddie got her to open up to him, but she still carried herself quietly around others. The fear of judgment was damaging.

Because of how much you put into Stacey and the influence you had on her storyline, you knew none of your nervousness had to do with how you’d perform in the scene. You were confident in your abilities as an actress and knew you could carry this scene with the help of Joe perfectly.

“Thanks, guys, that means a lot,” you said to them, gripping the moto jacket you wore, canonically taken by Stacey from Eddie’s closet.

“Yeah, truly, we’ve come a long way from me thinking I would completely ruin the show,” Joe chuckled, the smile on his face juxtaposed by the blood caking it. It was actually kind of off putting.

“Alright, well, let’s get this show on the road!” Mat clapped his hands and walked with his brother offset.

More like let’s get this over with. You were about to walk off to get in your spot, when Joe grabbed your hand gently, stopping you. You turned to face him, brows raised expectantly.

“You good?” he asked.

Deciding to keep this short and sweet, you settled for a quick nod, and a soft ‘yeah’. Satisfied, he released your hand so you could go to your place, just as one of the Duffers yelled “Places!”

When you got to your mark, you looked over to Joe one more time, who was already looking your way. You could feel the intensity of his stare from where you stood, those gorgeous brown eyes and the way they sparkled no matter the lighting or setting. He gave you a smile, and you returned one, unable to ever not do so. It managed to give you a new found confidence you lacked just seconds prior. He took his position on the ground, and then, it was time.

There was no turning back once it began. Unless you swiveled on your heels and ran in the opposite direction, which was tempting.

Once it happened, everything you were worried about could become a possibility to follow suit.

You sucked in an unstable breath and closed your eyes, savoring a final moment of calm before those two little word were uttered-

“And….ACTION!”

You took off.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Stacey’s heart was ramming against her ribcage the moment she re-entered the upside down, but when she saw her boyfriend lying limp on the cold, wet ground, she swore her legs would give out as her heart seemed to cease in its entirety.

He had gone back. He wanted to be a hero. He didn’t want to run anymore, but God, she wished he did.

“Eddie!” Stacey called out, voice unstable and legs threatening to give out from underneath her as she sprinted towards him. Somewhere in the corner of her mind that was swarming with fears of what would happen to him, she began to pray to whoever there was that could hear her and help him.

Please let him be okay. Please. Please. Please.

“Ed, babe, oh my God,” Stacey whispered, and fell to her knees before his broken down form. His torso was torn to shreds, his Hellfire shirt almost completely soaked with blood from his wounds. She took hold of him and pulled the upper half of his body into her lap, feeling the red substance begin to seep through her jeans.

The demo bats surrounded the two of them, incapacitated, laying limp on the floor of the upside down-taunting you. Blissfully unaware that they had probably just taken the love of Stacey's life away from her, brutally, with no remorse, as he tried so desperately to be the hero, not the coward he convinced himself he was.

“Ed, are you with me? Can you hear me?” Stacey asked him softly, not wanting to scare him. She brushed his hair from his face and tried to meet his eyes, his gaze unfocused and teary.

Eddie’s voice came out shaky and weak from his blood coated mouth, his cheeks smeared with it. “I did it,” he choked out. “I didn’t run anymore,”

There was no denying he felt some semblance of pride at what he did, and because of that, Stacey couldn’t help but let out a small laugh, though the tension in the noise was palpable. “Yeah, yeah baby, you’re so brave,” she told him.

The proud smile he bore was distorted by a look of pain as he shifted slightly. “It’s bad, isn’t it?” he groaned, in clear discomfort.

One of her hands applied pressure to one of the many wounds that marred his torso as he shivered in her arms. “No, no babe, it’s fine, you're gonna be okay,” she stumbled out, trying to sound as confident in her words as possible, when everything about the situation told her that her words were not the truth. “We just….we just need to get to you to a hospital and everything’s gonna be okay, Ed, don’t worry,”

“No. I think this was it, baby,” he met his girlfriend’s gaze, his jaw trembling as more blood dribbled out the sides of his mouth as he took in barely there, labored breaths. “This was finally my year,”

Stacey choked out helpless cries, caressing his face, and shaking her head. This couldn’t be his year, this couldn’t be the way it ended. He was supposed to finally graduate and the two of them were supposed to get the hell out of Hawkins together, away from all the bullshit media propaganda and pearl clutching PTA moms. They were going to get out of there and be happy together. That was how it was supposed to fucking be, goddammit.

“No,” Stacey gritted.“This isn’t over yet, you’re gonna be okay, Ed,” she nodded stiffly, lips trembling as salty tears flowed into the seam. “We’re just gonna wait a little until the others get here, then we’re gonna carry you out of this hellhole and take you to a hospital, and the doctors there are going to fix you, baby, they’re going to make the bleeding go away, and stitch you up and give you some meds, and then you’re gonna be okay, you’re gonna be okay, you’re gonna be okay,” she chanted weakly as her cheeks became soaked with tears. She wanted to speak it into existence, even as reality clawed and fought its way to the front of her mind.

“Baby,” he cooed. He placed a cold hand on hers, the one that still pressed against one of his wounds, gripping it weakly. Always the one who wanted to comfort her, even if he needed it way more in this situation. “I’ve fulfilled my duty as Eddie the Banished, I didn’t run, and I saved the town,” he told her.

“That town doesn’t deserve your sacrifice, Eddie,” Stacey argued pathetically.

“I saved you,” he stressed, making it known that this act was with only one person at the forefront as motivation, the rest of the town behind her. “And you’re worth it, Stacey. You’re so. Fucking. Worth it,” he said to her, lacing their fingers together, pulling the back of her hand up to his lips, and pressing a bloodied kiss to the cold, dirty skin.

“I love you so much,” he said as firmly as his shutting down body would let him.

It hurt her to not say those words back, but she knew why he said them, and she didn’t want to accept this as the end.

“Ed, don't you dare say goodbye,” she told him through her tears, trying to sound strong and sure, but it wasn’t possible. “This isn’t the end for you, this isn’t the end for us,” she said.

“Stacey, baby, I want you to listen to me,” Eddie began, the wobble in his voice impossible to ignore now as he tried to raise his head as much as he could, wanting her to truly take in his next words. “When you go back, I want you to go home and pack all of your shit, as much as you can carry, and I want you to get on the next bus out, because you’re gonna leave that shithole Hawkins. You’re gonna tell that place to kiss your ass and you’re gonna run like hell out of there without so much as a single glance back,”

Stacey shook her head, understanding where this was headed, not wanting to hear a word more. “Ed, no-”

“You’re gonna find some place for the both of us, somewhere where the people aren’t shallow minded assholes, where we can be whoever the fuck we want to be with each other, and I want you to live your life everyday as you would have if I was there,’

“Eddie, I can’t-”

“Yes, you can. I don’t want you to cave back into yourself, baby. You’re the most beautiful, brilliant, incredible human being I’ve ever met and everyone deserves to know you and appreciate you as you are. Do you hear me?”His proclamation to her ended with that simple question, and he left no room for argument.

She absorbed all his words, every letter, every syllable, struggling to accept that the life they wanted to have together, would have to continue on without him. The life she wanted with him would totally and completely absolve her from the one she had growing up. Could she do it? Could she move on?

Those answers remained to be determined, but the one thing she absolutely couldn’t do was argue with him anymore. She just didn’t have it in her to deny him his dying wish, or keep fighting what he had already accepted.

Closing her eyes, more droplets fell, mixing with his blood. She felt herself nodding before she could even consider another response in her mind. “Yeah,” she whispered in a watered down voice. “Yeah, baby, I hear you,” she opened her eyes and met his own once more.

“Good,” he replied. “Good,” his voice was noticeably more floaty that time.

They fell silent. They just looked into one another’s eyes, exchanging so many words and feelings that would completely consume what little time they had left together. His hand was still laced with hers, pressed against his chest, where she could feel his weakening heart beat.

“I love you so much,” he repeated his words from earlier, breaking the hauntingly peaceful quiet. It was barely above a whisper practically mouthed, but she heard him, loud and clear. And as soon as those words came out, he looked ahead blankly, his eyes slowly beginning to lose the light in them Stacey loved so much.

“Eddie, no, please,” she gritted, tears dripping from her eyes uncontrollably. “Stay with me, baby, please,” she pleaded urgently, brushing more of his damp hair out of the way and patting his cheek lightly, trying to get him to remain alert….alive. She just wanted one more moment with him. Just one.

But then, she felt it.

His body stilled.

His grip on her hand went limp.

His eyes lost any life left in them.

“Eddie,” she whimpered, hand remaining on his cheek. Her body shook uncontrollably as she let the tears fall freely onto him, her agony and pain taking over as she held his lifeless form close to hers. She repeated his name through her cries, trying to wake him, trying to make this nightmare end. She leaned down and pressed her forehead to his, wanting to feel him as close as possible, for what was the very last time.

“I love you, too,” Stacey whispered, her lips touching the skin between his eyebrows. If those words meant anything anymore, she wanted it to be at this moment.

Because she truthfully didn’t know when-or if- she would ever say them again.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“CUT!”

It was like a switch went off in you, as reality made its presence known once more.

The scene was done, the Duffers yelled cut, it was over.

However, the moment fully sank in when Joe rose up and took your hands in his, pulling you upright and bringing you into a warm embrace. You didn’t care about the fake blood that would get all over your front or the fact that his back was soggy and caked with damp dirt, you threw your arms around him and held on tightly, rivaling the hold he had on you.

“You did so incredible, babes, I’m so proud of you,” he whispered in your ear, his long fingers running up and down your sides lightly, almost tickling, but you reveled in it and his touch. You closed your eyes blissfully as you came down from your high, feeling the tears drying on your face, thankful makeup used waterproof eye makeup.

“Yeah, you too,” you said back for his ears only, as the Duffers and the rest of the crew approached you both. You let each other go, though his arm remained on the small of your back, as everyone began delivering their praise. The voices became so jumbled you could barely register who said what. So, you just smiled and nodded and gave your gratitude along with Joe, whose hand rubbed soothing circles against your waist.

Now, to face reality.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Part 2 where Joe and reader discuss why she was so nervous coming Saturday 🥰 it was originally part of this fic, but it was getting way too damn long, so a split was needed lol. Stay tuned Joe girlies 😘

#joseph quinn x fem!reader #joseph quinn x actress!reader #joseph quinn x reader #joseph quinn imagine #joseph quinn fanfiction #joseph quinn fic #joseph quinn writing #joseph quinn #eddie munson x reader #eddie munson x oc

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ryuichirou · 18 days

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Replies

More short ones today!

Anonymous asked:

Hii, I discovered your art for the first time on twitter a few months ago and I'd like to know how the battle to keep the account is going. Also I can't find the sfw account?? Like, it just vanished, did something happen?

P.S. : love your art style, it looks delectable

Hi Anon! Thank you for your support ❤️

The battle is still ongoing, well, we're sending appeals pretty regularly, but unfortunately no luck yet. The most difficult part is to get these people to actually reply :( It’s going to be over in a week, though, I’m tired of waiting.

There is no sfw account, but I can understand the confusion with our accounts right now...

@aoinoryush is just my super old personal account that we didn't really want to use to post art (other than that one time when we posted a FloIdi comic), so I created a new one.

@ryuichirou52622 is the new art account for both sfw and nsfw pieces, at least for the time being.

If you can't access either of them for some reason, please let me know!

Anonymous asked:

Did not realize I needed FloVil till this moment

It's how things always are with these two. You don't think of them, and then you see them, and boom... wow I needed that...

(Thank you ❤️)

Anonymous asked:

You once again got me barking at your art. Vil is just so.... UUUUUUUUUUGH he's so beautiful

Hehe thank you so much, Anon!! Barking is a very good reaction, I love it >:3

I am very happy I could draw Vil beautiful enough for this reaction...

blackbutlerfandomnerddomain asked:

OOOOOOOOOOOOOH SHIT THE FLOVIL!

HEHEHEHE YESSSS

Anonymous asked:

Any context on the latest post?

There isn't any, to be honest; we were just in a FloVil mood, likely due to their interactions in the Playful Land event.

I guess Floyd was just feeling extra playful that day~

Anonymous asked:

U like ortho/Idia

Why not Jade/Floyd? Is it because ur highly against tops on tops?

We are not highly against it, Anon, but yes, we don't ship two characters that we consider tops together. It works both ways: their interactions don't feel shippy to us because they're tops; but at the same time they're tops because their interactions don't feel shippy to us. It's difficult to say which one is more true.

So yeah, we don't automatically ship every problematic ship just because it's problematic.

Funny enough, whenever I draw the Leech parents, they always look like just straight-up Floyd and Jade lol So maybe I am a hypocrite.

But then again, it's very difficult for us to picture Mama Leech and Papa Leech having sex... so maybe I am not a hypocrite....

Anonymous asked:

Your art made me look up the heights of Floyd and Vil, and it gave me a thought.

Cause Vil is taller than Floyd with heels, but shorter without. (183cm without, 196cm with, while Floyd is 191cm)

And I love myself a character that acts all tough until they get put in their place.

So Vil being taller than Floyd with his heels on, and he's acting all proper and like "you can't touch me" or something.

And then Floyd gets all smiley and immediately gets Vil off his high heels (bad joke), and now Vil's not so high-strung.

Plus, Floyd finally being able to look down at Vil instead of having to look up is probably something he would enjoy.

Idk. Just a thought :)

Anon! This is such a good point lol I've always wondered about Vil's height... Since he wears high heels pretty much all the time, he really should usually be about the Tweel's height or even taller... Much taller, if we consider Rook's info about his heels lengths as factual!

Floyd getting Vil off his high heels (great joke) is a very hot concept. Of course, heels or no heels, Vil won't lose his pride easily, but... what if this is only the beginning. 👀

In any case, Floyd would enjoy and probably tease him about it~

#replies

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alligatorjesie · 1 month

Text

Hey that's alright you can block me as much as you like but it wont change anything man. You said some shit things so I'm going to say some shit things to you.

You know what that's fine we can just repost that whole comment so people can see what a shitass you are @blessyouhawkeye

Hey real quick you do realize that reylo is just a really vanilla ass enemies-to-lovers ship if you have a problem with it well good luck man this shit is literally everywhere in media.

Almost like it's a popular trope. Have you never watched a rom com? Woof. I got some news for you brosph.

but you know what since we're on the tangent of 'weird people' in fandoms let's talk about that for a moment.

You wanna know what's weird? There's a lot of finnreys in the reblogs acting positively feral about their ship not being canon

(which idk I watched TRoS that was pretty open ended if your still mad about reylo by the end of that movie that shits on you)

and upset they don't have book deals like the reylos but IDK man maybe the reason finnreys ain't got book deals is because they spend all their time online bitching about how their ship got shafted instead of writing that fucking fanfiction.

You know when the reylos got shafted with the shit show that was EP9 instead of spending the next 3 years complaining they just trucked along in their own fucking sandbox completing their own fucking projects for their own fucking friends.

Fuck Disney we'll make our own reylo with blackjack and hookers and sex scenes.

You mean to tell us you've had more problems with reylos who were just excited to see the story concepts they predicted from The Force Awakens coming true in The Last Jedi and making positive content to reflect that joy compared to the actual nazis on YouTube who flood the platforms with 3 hour long hate videos over how Bree Larson is somehow personally responsible for their dicks falling off?

You remember that one time ethan van sciver said he wanted to kill Chinese people? He's a really popular star wars/comic book YouTuber and he's way more problematic than anyone I've ever met in the reylo fandom.

And guess what he also hates reylo what a shock!

You wanna talk about some unhinged weird behavior allow me to direct you at a rabid finnrey who has told me graphically to kill myself at least 5 times now for the sin of enjoying the wrong part of star wars according to them.

That shits fucking unhinged

Here's some of those death threats these are 100% real by the way:

Obviously Death Threat Warning some of these are quite gnarly.

This user still has an active account.

I've reported them several times but I sometimes feel like the only thing that will get you banned on this hellsite is being trans I swear to fucking god.

This user has spent over 7 years shit posting hate directly into the reylo fandom's tag instead of doing literally anything else to make their own fandom more enjoyable for themselves.

That's weird shit.

What has been hellish is being in this fandom for over 9 years and dealing with the amount of uncalled for vitriol at this very fucking plain flavor baby's first enemies-to-lovers ship.

I only started keeping track of the death threats back in September 2022

It's not even been a full 2 years and I'm nearing 1000.

This is the header for my Tumblr. This is a real number by the way I have every death threat I've gotten since starting this documented on my computer.

It's actually 955 because thepettycunt here just sent me a new death threat so now I gotta update the banner.

fun!

One day I'll make a master post.

Today is not that day.

But let's be very honest here the real number of death threats I've personally gotten are well into multiple thousands across multiple platforms over 9 years.

Just for enjoying reylo.

And I'm a furry and have been since the 90s. I'm use to being told to kill myself from strangers on the internet so color me confused when I join this really basic bitch of a fandom ship only to find the hate towards it somehow fucking worse.

That's some fucking weird unhinged shit.

I know you made this shit post just to be a shit poster so don't take this too personally I'm sure at this point you already think I'm unhinged and rightfully so

maybe I am

but after the 100th death threat I just stopped giving a fuck so you'll just have to forgive me but it's real buck ass wild to be called 'weird' when I've never sent death threats to people over fictional ships and none of my reylo friends have done that shit either but I am almost 99% sure if you look though the history of any single person who reblogged this post bitching about reylo you'll find they have a history of doing that shit.

You can pick any one. Odds are they have anti reylo posts going years back and at worst some of them have straight up told people in this fandom to kill themselves.

I can look through YOUR history OP and see You're a huge pile of shit towards reylos!

Go on pick one out at random and have a go. It's a fun horrible way to spend a afternoon.

And before anyone brings it up because people who hate reylo always do;

'what about that one time reylos harassed John Boye-'

a group of women telling John Boyega the things he's saying are sexist towards his female coworker who had already been harassed off social media a few years prior and asking him to do better isn't the harassment you think it is.

You can find that 'reaction' video John made to the reylos on google and watch it yourself. No one is being racist but they are all asking him to stop making sex jokes on his female coworkers behalf and expressing disappointment in him. In fact he even had to reused quite a few of the quotes because I think about halfway through making the video he realized he just didn't have that much material and the things people were saying were pretty fucking mild.

And I'm not sorry. Asking a adult man to hold himself accountable for the shit he says is not on the same level as the far fucking worse shit the over arching star wars fandom has done well before reylo was even a twinkle in anyone's eye

Lastly one more thing and I'm done I swear and I'm going to apologize in advance because I'm gonna sound really spicy and I guess I kinda am but not in a mean way more in a really fucking confused way

but what the fuck do you mean jenny nicholsons reylo videos are unhinged?

They're the fucking same as the rest of her videos.

Is there something less unhinged about a nearly 4 hour long video about a failed fantasy RPG theme park over a 1 hour long video about how star wars episode 9 was absolute dogshit?

Jenny makes cringe videos about cringe shit. That's her brand.

She's voiced her enjoyment of reylo very early on... I think back in The Force Awakens days? So why are you surprised she would talk about the subject at length in detail? She bought a stuffed porg larger than herself and documented collecting it on video for her channel.

Yeah man she probably likes reylo.

Most people who like TLJ do.

What... what the fuck do you mean her reylo videos specific are unhinged?

I'm sorry but if known racist and sexist YouTuber doomcock can spend 6 hours complaining about TLJ because Rey don't make his dick hard like Luke Skywalker does and he's going to make his refusal to reflect on that issue our fucking problem I don't think Jenny is unhinged for complaining about the inarguably bad movie that was the rise of skywalker for less time than the movie's total runtime.

I'm not even mad I'm just really confused by your statement.

#fandom wank #fandom hate #anti talk #reylo fandom #i've seen plenty of blessyouhawkeyes posts floating around #I didn't realize they were such a huge pile of shit #oh well nothing of value was lost #jenny nicholson #I'm still stuck on how they think jennys videos are unhinged what the flying fuckery

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albentelisa · 5 months

Note

Hey! I've got an ask for you and I don't mind if it takes a while, because I know that you've probably got so many asks in your inbox, but I wanted to know how do you think Jim would (if he ever did) progress to become a villain and no one realises it until too late?

(I'm feeling a bit angsty this week)

Also, btw, I love your hcs- they're actually really cool and really well thought over, and some of them just really get my creative juices flowing. They always make me smile, especially when I've had a bad today so just... thank you 💙)

Hi! Thank you for your kind words ❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤

Actually, I have some 'bad end scenarios' with Jim ending as a villain (or sorta).

Grit-shaka. Let's say, Jim never managed to get to Bular in Young Atlas, so he never realizes the true importance of fear. Sure thing, Grit-shaka caused some complications, but those were more or less minor. Jim decides to use Grit-shaka in battles occasionally. Unfortunately for him, it seems like a great decision at first as he gets several victories (against goblins and several changelings). However, as Grit-shaka is a Gumm-Gumm object, it's actually harmful, not only taking away Jim's fears but slowly eroding his moral brakes, so eventually Jim reaches the point where anyone getting hurt doesn't even matter. That's where Toby and even Draal start to realize the extent of the damage done (Blinky is against Grit-shaka from the very start but no one is listening). However, it's already too late because Jim gets too addicted to Grit-shaka and cannot function without it at all. Grit-shaka also gives him some horrible ideas, culminating in him freeing Gunmar and letting him take over the Trollmarket (and get the power up after absorbing the Heartstone energy) so that Jim can fight Gunmar in his prime. It ends as bad as you can imagine.

Decimaar mind control. So, the trip to the Darklands leaves Jim with an unexpected 'baggage' - it turns out that Gunmar's attempt to mind control him wasn't a total failure. Neither it is a full success, yet Jim has short blackouts sometimes when he cannot remember his actions. It turns out that Gunmar has managed to instill his will upon Jim's soul, basically creating a separate personality who is loyal to Gunmar. Jim isn't aware of it for a long time (he chalks everything to stress and overexhaustion). Meanwhile, his other personality keeps spying for Gunmar and helping him in the incoming takeover of the Trollmarket. When Jim comes to Gunmar for the first time, Gunmar initially wants to make him his puppet, but seeing the second personality who is loyal to him, makes him amused, so he decides to nurture that one instead, strengthening it during each visit. Jim's friends realize that something is very wrong when Jim isn't able to remember some of his actions or conversations they had. However, everyone thinks that it can be an infiltration from a polymorph like Otto. So, the team designs a special code to be able to tell apart the real Jim from the fake. The problem is that Jim's second personality knows code as well, so it's pointless. Eventually, Gunmar takes over the Trollmarket and erases Jim's initial personality, keeping him by his side as his loyal champion.

Aspectus Stone and Hunter Jim. This one isn't much of the villain one, but still nasty for Jim. So, Jim manages to send all of his copies back, and at first, everything is back to normal. However, Jim isn't aware that the experience was damaging to his psyche and now his soul is imbalanced. He turns more mission-focused, gradually losing his other interests. It's pretty minor at first so his team easily chalks it to Jim feeling guilty because of Gunmar's escape. He starts to skip school, refuses fun activities, and is rarely at home at night. Blinky tries to talk to him about it, but Jim just waves him off. Toby starts to panic when Jim stops cooking, and Claire notices how cold Jim becomes towards her and basically everyone else. She encounters him and asks if he is Hunter Jim (as she is the only one who has met that one), but Jim tells her he is the only Jim. That's when everyone realizes that something is really off, but it's too late. Jim cuts ties with everyone and goes alone to fight Gunmar, only to be defeated and fall under his mind control.

Gravesand. So, in this scenario, Blinky doesn't stop Jim's training with gravesand in time, so it causes some permanent damage, leaving Jim with some troll traits and a feral mind. Moreover, Jim gets addicted to the gravesand, stealing it from Strickler (who has already realized his mistake and tries his best to keep it away from Jim). The gravesand makes Jim attack everyone as he gets highly aggressive. He doesn't even remember his role as the protector anymore, simply enjoying battles and carnage. He ends up killing several Gumm-gumms and good trolls and for him, it's no different. Gunmar finds him in this state and finds it amusing, so he decides to keep Jim as his feral pet and force him to fight his enemies.

Merlin taking 'his champion' thing too far. Another not-that-much villain scenario, but well... So in this one, Jim's friends and family never reach him at the rooftop, and Merlin is the one who finds him there. It is the moment of ultimate vulnerability for Jim, and instead of support, he gets the manipulator. Jim confesses that it's too much for him to realize what exactly he has lost (😢) and Merlin proposes the solution - which is basically wiping out all Jim's memories except ones concerning his mission. When everyone reaches Jim, it's already too late, and the irreversible damage is done. In his state Jim has no trouble defeating Gunmar, however, it turns out that he's highly vulnerable to Morgana's manipulations and she makes him change sides, convincing him that she is the one who tries to build the perfect world for trolls (and in Jim's mind, he is the champion of the trollkind, meaning that he has to protect them first). Morgana makes Jim her new champion and uses him to hunt her opponents.

Obsidian shard's corruption. This one is post-Wizards. It turns out that while Claire managed to turn Jim human, the evil influence residue remained. It's unnoticeable at first, with Jim simply being easily annoyed, which everyone explains as a consequence of his transformations and losing the amulet. However, Jim is haunted by his memories of Camelot times and the abuse trolls faced there. Those ignite some rage inside his soul and it takes a while until Jim can calm down (which gradually becomes more and more difficult). He also starts to feel some odd repulsion towards humans. Barbara and Toby suffer from it the most (Claire and Douxie are fine because they are wizards, and Jim doesn't treat them differently). It ends up with the Arcane Order contacting Jim and convincing him to join their side and build a better world for magical beings.

#tales of arcadia #toa #what if scenario #bad end scenarios #evil scenarios #i divide this post as it's too long already #will reblog with second half #evil jim #jim lake jr.#text post #ask box #imaclotpole121

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sezja · 6 months

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First Kisses

I've gone eighteen years without letting myself get stupid about romance, Thaffe grouses to himself, heaving all his frustration into his pickaxe and driving it deep into the cavern wall. Eighteen good years without letting some pretty girl - or boy - turn my head; eighteen years without falling all to pieces like some of the fools around here...

He didn't have to come to the mine today; he could've begged off again and spent the day helping Magnus put the old trolleys back together. Technically, he's meant to be training as an engineer, but the entire rail system's fallen into such disrepair that there isn't a great deal of engineering to do just yet - first, Magnus says, they've got to put everything back together. Reassemble the tracks that've fallen apart. Fit new parts to the rusty trolley cars, so that they can actually move along those repaired tracks. Repair the Talos.

Strictly speaking, that's what he's about. Digging for leonine to repair the Talos hearts that have all failed in the past few years, and good stone to mend the shattered golems' bodies, fallen into just as sorry a state as the rest of the railway. Strictly speaking, he's still doing work for Magnus.

But that's not the whole truth, is it?

Eighteen years!

It's been a week now, and he still can't quite meet Jeryk's eye.

Such a simple, normal evening it'd been; the two of them sitting in one of the covered tunnels along the tracks after the day's work - shelter from the Light, without returning home just yet. The tunnels had become a common hangout spot for youths after the trolleys stopped working: often they weren't the only ones sheltering there, but not that day. That day it'd been just the two of them. Everyone else had been seeing off yet another family departing from Twine, leaving Amh Araeng for greener pastures - just as Jeryk's own had left just half a year before, leaving him behind at his own insistence.

They'd been talking about it - about the family that was leaving, and what it meant for Twine. The dwindling population; the dying industries. And out of the blue, Jeryk (of all people) lamented that there were so few people their own age left in Twine - true enough; with this family's departure, it left them some of the youngest people in town - and that there were no girls their age left at all, and...

And just how was anyone meant to have a first kiss, at this rate?

I didn't even think he cared about that sort of thing, Thaffe thinks, his face heating at the memory. It's an odd sort of betrayal, almost; he'd always assumed Jeryk was just as uninterested in romance and its trappings as he was. The other boy never mentioned anything of the sort before; so far as Thaffe had ever known, Jeryk's first and only love were the trolleys.

But then, I didn't think I cared about that sort of thing, either.

But he'd sat there thinking about it, while the sweat trickled down his neck and his mouth went dry - he'd sat there thinking about it, with his heart pounding so fast it made his vision blur, and he'd realized, swallowing hard-

"We could kiss, I suppose."

He'd meant it to sound casual. A joke, maybe; something they could laugh off, except... except that abruptly, with everything in him, he desperately wanted to kiss Jeryk. His best friend, his oldest friend; how'd this sneak up on him? Surely it should've hit him sooner than this, but he'd gone eighteen years without so much as a flicker of desire, thinking himself too mature to stumble into this sort of pitfall. He'd watched their other friends break their hearts against each other over the past few years, and never once did he think he might...

He'd meant to take it back, to laugh it off as he'd intended, but Jeryk... Jeryk had lit up at the idea. That smile! Thaffe still sees it when he closes his eyes, like staring at a bright light too long.

And then...

How does one judge this sort of thing? Was it a good kiss? Gods, Thaffe doesn't know. It was light, tentative, the gentlest brush of dry, chapped lips, full of promise. The promise of what - that's what sets Thaffe's heart to twisting; that's what's kept him awake at night all week. They hadn't talked about it - they'd laughed, anxious little laughs, and they'd gone back to talking about other things, though Thaffe doesn't recall a word of what he said. There'd been a little flush in Jeryk's cheeks, though, and he couldn't seem to stop smiling.

He can't stop thinking about it. But he can't bring himself to talk to Jeryk about it, either - what would he even say? What does he even want to say? He can't keep avoiding Jeryk the way he has, that's for certain; even if it hasn't become obvious yet, it will soon, and someone's going to start asking questions. Worse, Jeryk might start asking questions, and Thaffe's not sure he's got the answers.

He sighs, gathering today's meager collection. He's done a lot of banging on the cavern walls with his pickaxe for not a lot in the way of ore, and certainly no leonine. And he's no closer to unraveling the tangle in his head for his efforts.

All week, he's headed straight home from the mines, the better to clean up and get to bed early - before Jeryk gets home. It's not all that unusual. He's done it all the time, since taking up mining when he'd reached fifteen summers; early to bed, early to rise. Jeryk won't question it, not yet. If he keeps it up, though...

What if he gets it into his head that he's done something wrong? Thaffe hesitates outside the mine, blinking in the Light. What if he starts thinking I'm avoiding him for the kiss, when it was my own idea in the first place?

...Wicked white, he is avoiding Jeryk for the kiss, when it was his own idea in the first place.

With a heavy sigh, he turns his feet not toward home, but toward the railyard at Mount Biran, where Jeryk is sure to be. Magnus will be heading home by now, along with everyone else, but Jeryk? Jeryk'll spend another hour or so there, even if he's just looking at the old equipment, mesmerized. Thaffe finds himself walking quickly, surprising himself with his eagerness to see his friend again, after a week apart-

And maybe that's an answer all its own, isn't it? He misses Jeryk; misses him like he's lost a part of himself.

Whatever this is, whatever he's feeling, whatever comes of it... gods save him; he doesn't want to be away from Jeryk any longer. They'll figure it out better together than they will apart, surely.

The railyard's empty, but a light blazes in the window of the old Stoneworks office building. Jeryk's perched on the desk, drumming his heels against the scarred wood as he reads one of the technical manuals the old engineers left behind... but he looks up at Thaffe's arrival, startled by the door opening long after everyone else has gone home.

And he smiles, delight kindling in his green eyes. "Thaffe! I haven't seen you all week! Have you and Agna found any leonine?"

There's a vice around his heart, and something lodged in his throat. "Not.. not yet, no. Listen, Jeryk..."

Jeryk's smile fades. He sets the book aside. "Thaffe?"

Do or die, he orders himself. Get it over with or go home. He closes the distance between them, coming to stand before Jeryk, trying to keep his breathing steady. "I've... I've been thinking a lot," he says, doing his level best not to stare at Jeryk's lips. "About the... the kiss."

Color blooms in Jeryk's cheeks. "Oh?"

He sounds so hopeful it makes Thaffe want to laugh. So hopeful that it gives him hope, and enough courage to step even closer. He tugs the old hat off of Jeryk's head, rests his own forehead against his friend's.

Their breathing mingles, both a little unsteady.

"I'd like to kiss you again," Thaffe says, his voice rough. He cups Jeryk's face in his hands. "And I... I think I'd like to kiss you more, if you'd have me."

Jeryk laughs, a little breathless, but full of sheer delight.

"Yes," he says, sliding his arms around Thaffe's neck. "Oh, yes!"

#twine boys #my writing #jeraffe #please send help thaffe's too aspec for any of this

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lover-of-mine · 2 months

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Your last post is funny bc just TODAY I watched that season finally. I’m literally 2 episodes into season 5 right now. As someone who just watched that for the first time (and hadn’t noticed it WAS the season finally when I started watching it) I was losing my goddamn MIND watching those episodes. Just constantly 😯😯😯. I began watching 911 when I started seeing posts circulating about Buck being bi. At the time I had no idea who he was other than the occasional gif set but it made me intrigued and I have been HOOKED. Literally trying to get through as many episodes as possible so I can watch the episodes live. Questions for you (since I have no one else to talk to about the show); when did you start watching? Have you had any predictions while watching the show that didn’t/ did come true? Like for me when I watched season 1 and Abby went to the fire department for the first time I SWORE up and down that her and Bobby were meant to be endgame (was clearly wrong lol). But also after Chris got stuck in the Tsunami I called it that something would happy to Harry later on (just a feeling that no one was safe lol, not even the kids). I’m just so curious to see what the fandom theories have been over time lol since I missed out on it!

Yeah, no, watching suspicion/survivors for the first time is WILD. Like, imma be honest and bit oversharing, I watched the show for the first time in a depressive episode, so I watched everything up to 5x10 in like, 6 days according to the posts I made on Tumblr about it, so I didn't realize theorize about anything, I was just hitting next episode like my life depended on it. But I didn't know anything about the show, like, at all, I had just watched 911 lone star in a weekend because it was on the tv and there were only like, 20 episodes of it out it at the time and a network in my country was just showing all of them on a loop, and I opened the Disney app fully intending to rewatch grey's anatomy, and 911 was the first show on my recommended to you list, and I had liked lone star enough, and was like sure why not. And I legit couldn't stop watching. All of this happened the week before 5x11 aired on the us, so 5x11 was the first episode I watched like "live" (the first episode I actually watched live was 5x16) but I watched it in the same week, I think I finished on a Tuesday? And the episode aired on Monday. I can't really give you any theories I have witnessed so far because they would be spoilers tho, but if you wanna come back once you catch up we can talk about some of the madness that goes around here. But I had the same thing happen to me, I didn't realize it was the season finale, and I didn't know anything about the show, so I had no idea what was happening, and I thought I had learned my lesson with the tsunami arc, because I watched 3x01 at like 3 am fully saying this is the last episode I will watch and then I'm gonna go to bed, and then the tsunami hit, and I was like well fuck and then Chris fell in the water and next thing I know is 5 am and Eddie is making me cry at the end there. But I saw the 13 and didn't realize the season only had 14 episodes and then everything kept happening. I seriously cannot imagine what it was like to be forced to wait a week between those 2 episodes it was SO CRAZY. When Eddie got shot I legit froze. Watching that for the first time not knowing it's coming is SOMETHING. I do remember thinking that they were gonna kill Shannon but I didn't expect to be right, I also remember clocking that Jason was Doug pretty fast. Something funny tho, I remember posting that meme that's like "I've had blank for 1 day and a half but if anything happened to him I'd kill everyone in this room and myself" with Buck and I waited until I had been watching for a day and a half, that means I posted it while watching the season 2 finale. I hit post and the truck blew up and I legit went like ????????? and that is still the most ironic thing that ever happened to me while posting about 911 kspskspkspakapkapa (here's the post, I actually came back to edit the tags because I was in shock lol) and I laugh every time I remember that lol but I'm glad you're enjoying the show, you can come back to talk to me about it any time!;

#i feel very luck to not know whats coming never in this show #i mean #we did know a few things with promos and stuff but like #i never had any major spoiler going into any episode for the first time and i love that #anon 😌#i really need a tag for asks #911

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hippiemisfit · 4 months

Text

Hush (J.K.) 21

Chapter 21- And It Continues

pairings: jungkook x oc reader

word count: 6,187

warnings: angst, manipulation, fear, slight smut in the form in making out. Lol I suck at warnings

.....................................

He blushed at my compliment and looked down at his plate.

"What?" I chuckled, "It's true do you usually wear contacts? When I first met you your eyes were green but today they are brown."

He shook his head yes and picked up his phone :I have green contacts yes but these are fake glasses babe. They go with my outfit lol

"Ahhhh, makes sense. Well you look good period with whatever eye color you have. And glasses or no glasses, you're still very handsome." I said.

I took a bite of my food and moaned, "Damn this is good. I'm glad he recommended this."

———————————

We finished our breakfast and headed out. I left a tip for Taehyung and waved slightly at Jimin on our way out.

We got out to the car and hopped in. I made sure that I locked the door the second we closed them cause I don't play that robbing shit. As I was putting on my seat belt, Jungkook grabbed my chin and kissed me. I melted into the kiss and let go of my seat belt. I reached my hand up and ran my fingers through his hair before I pulled back slightly. He leaned forward to try and peck my lips but I lent back. I stared into his eyes and noticed something peculiar. I reached to take his glasses off and when he didn't move to stop me, I took them off.

Now that I could see his eyes unobstructed, I could see that his eyes weren't really dark brown. They were more of a very dark green with a fleck of brown in them. I don't know how I didn't notice it before. But maybe it's because I've never really looked into his eyes like this before.

"Your eyes are really pretty," I said before gently placing his glasses back on his face. "I never noticed your eye color, it's fascinating. I thought they were brown earlier but they actually aren't are they?" As I was talking it looked like they flashed a brighter green but it was gone as soon as it came.

He smiled and pecked my lips before leaning back to put on his seat belt. This time when I put on my seat belt I was met with no interruptions since he already got his kiss. He started the car and the playlist came through the speakers full blast. I quickly turned it down to an acceptable volume. "Damn. Didn't realize it was that loud when we were getting out or I would've turned it down. Sorry." I said.

He shrugged his shoulders and gave a wave of his hands. Better to Have Loved by KeKe Palmer came on after whatever was on went off.

"So where to now?" I asked getting lost in the song.

He pulled out his phone, :it's a surprise. Just relax

I let out a yawn even though I don't feel tired. I blinked a couple of times but my vision was getting blurrier with each flutter. The last thing I remember was Jungkook pulling off from the restaurant and hitting the main road.

—-—————————————

I was jerked awake and it scared the shit out of me. We were still driving but it was dark outside now. It was pitch black and the only thing visible was his headlights beaming ahead. I was asleep for how long? I looked over to Jungkook but he was missing. Ok now I'm freaking the fuck out. I tried unbuckling my seat belt to hop into the driver's seat but it wouldn't come undone.

"What the fuck is going on?" I said frantically. I kept trying to undo the seat belt and after endless tugging, it finally came undone.

I climbed out of my seat and into the drivers but it felt like I plopped down onto a lap. I tried to place my feet on the brakes but the chair was moved back abruptly making me jerk back into a chest?

I turned around and screamed when I saw the IT clown Pennywise staring at me. I tried to get off his lap but he held me down by my hips and cackled in my face.

"Want to play a game little girl?" He asked before his jaw opened widely taking up his whole face. I screamed at the top of my lungs and scrambled to get away from him. He wrapped his arms around my midsection and leaned over towards my neck. I started silently crying with my eyes clenched shut and I was shaking like a leaf out of fear. He let out a laugh again but this time it sounded more familiar.

"Your face was priceless baby," he said.

I whipped my head around and was met with the darkness that is Hoodie's face and my face turned sour before I became overcome with rage.

I slapped his hands off of me and yelled, "What the fuck is wrong with you? You piece of shit!"

He just laughed harder, "Nothing is wrong with me but there has to be something wrong with you. I'm not the one who's afraid of a clown."

I punched his chest, "He's not just a clown you asswipe and I know that you know that or you wouldn't have pretended to be him."

He shrugged his shoulders, "Hey I was going to make a joke of how you can't stay off of me when you plopped into my lap but I thought this would be a wayyy funnier story to retell."

If I was a cartoon character, smoke would've been coming out of my ears right now to a whistle sound. "Who the fuck are you retelling the story to? You know what let me off of you."

I slapped his hands away and climbed back over to the passenger seat. "I'm too big for this shit. All this climbing over the console and shit cause somebody wanna be funny. It won't be funny when I fuck you up," I mumbled settling into my seat.

I put my seat belt back on and turned to glare at him, "What did you do with Jungkook and where am I?"

"Don't worry about your little lover boy, he's fine at home asleep and you'll find out where we are pretty soon. We're almost there." He said.

I shook my head, "No take me home right now, no take me to Jungkook. I'd rather be with him anyway."

He clenched his hands on the steering wheel, "I'd watch my mouth if I were you Mahj. One snap and your little boy toy is dead. You're lucky I'm even letting you entertain the thought of being with him. I know he kissed you and you did nothing to stop him either. Even after our night together, hmm. Guess I'll have to teach you a lesson again."

"First of all , you are lucky that I am entertaining the idea of me and you being together. And last I checked, I'm single like a Pringle so I can do what the fuck I want."

He scoffed," Pringles aren't single they come in packs."

"When it's the last one in the pack then it's single so how about that."

He placed his hand on my thigh and squeezed it hard. "Be quiet before I make you be quiet ok. You're pissing me off and I really don't want to have to pull this car over to deal with you. So just sit back and relax."

I went to open my mouth but my mouth wouldn't open. He put his finger up to mouth and went , "Shh" before placing his hand back on my thigh.

It was still completely dark out but it was gradually getting lighter the closer we got to wherever he was taking me. The light kept getting brighter until it started to hurt to look at it.

The light was so blinding, I had to shield my eyes. After a few seconds the light dimmed enough for me to remove my hand. I was taken back by what I saw.

A completely red sky and an equally red landscape. Red grass covered hills everywhere and people on top of them, all in single file lines. There were pits of red tar on some hills and the people lined up were getting pushed into them. There was one hill with a huge hole in it and smoke coming out of it. The people up there were surrounding the hole and shivering in fear. They were being taunted by what I can only guess is a demon, but he wasn't actually pushing them in just walking around them. Is he playing duck duck goose ? My guess must've been right because he stopped behind someone and pushed them in before going around the circle again, looking for a new victim. Escaping the screams of agony is impossible because there's a new scream everywhere you look.

"Where are we?" I asked.

"Hell." He said matter of factually.

"It didn't look like this the last time we were here though. What changed?"

"Nothing changed, it's always looked like this. The entrance that I brought you in the first time was a shortcut that I take to get in. This is what all the damned souls see when they first enter. The myths about this place are true and believe or not this is the side of the place dedicated to those with lighter sins on their souls. Don't think you're ready to see the real gruesome side of the place just yet." He said.

We started accelerating more until the hilly landscape was gone and there were skyscrapers all around us.

"Now this is what ol Luci is most proud of. Talk to him about real estate and you've won over his heart. He felt that hell could use a little upgrade only for his most trusted demons though. They work and live in these buildings, most of them work out in hell and some above. He wouldn't be the devil if he wasn't trying to corrupt someone even if he doesn't do it himself." He said tapping rhythmically on the steering wheel.

"Do you live here?" I asked.

He nodded, "I live here, heaven , Earth , and limbo. I am wherever I'm needed which is everywhere. My reapers mostly like to live down here in hell though, I think they like the screams a little too much for my taste. Maybe it's all the sinners getting their punishments that do it for them or the fact that hell doesn't get any brighter than this. I couldn't stay down here for too long though. Like I get it, you're scared get over it. It won't stop you from receiving your punishment so you might as well just shut up and take it rather than bust my eardrums. Sounding like a whole bunch of banshees and no one really ever wants to hear those bitches scream. Good thing my apartment here is soundproof." He said with a wink.

I rolled my eyes, "Is that where you are taking me?"

"Yep," he said popping the 'p', "Got to get you ready for tonight."

"What's tonight," I asked confused.

He just shrugged his shoulders, "I guess you'll find out when we get there. Don't worry, you'll hopefully pick up on it once you see your outfit."

After that he was silent, so I turned to look back out of the window. Our surroundings changed from the red hills to a metropolitan style city. Every building was just as the hilltops in color. It kind of reminds me of what New York looks like, full of people bustling around, traffic in the streets, and even some vendors out selling food. The glaring difference from what other cities are full of is that everyone here was either or demon or what looked like a reaper. And the red sky and buildings definitely scream hell as well.

One building stood out from the rest. It was the tallest building among the rest and it was a different color being a matte black with no windows. If this doesn't scream center of attention then I don't know what does.

"Lucy gets inspired by the most populated cities in the world, this time around its New York that caught his eye. I asked him what he would pick next but he said very dramatically 'whatever the Lord brings to my attention'. Pshh, like God actually talks to him other than to scold him for existing. But Lucy's delusional and stubborn anyway so there's no showing him the truth. I've tried but I do like the color of this building." he said while pulling into the parking garage.

He went up the ramp and pulled into what I can only describe as a car elevator. When we pulled fully in the elevator doors closed and we started to ascend. Whoa and I've thought I've seen it all. When we reached floor 665 it stopped and the doors opened. He pulled out into a parking garage full of cars. It seemed like every new car that was on the market right now, including a 2022 Infiniti Q60 3.0t Red Sport 400 that I've been eyeing for a while. There's even a 2020 Kia Stinger GT-Line that I wanted a while back and still looked as if it just came off the lot.

He parked the car and we hopped out.

"Hello," I said hearing it echo throughout the garage. I heard a chuckle from Hoodie before he started walking. I followed closely behind him but not too close so that I wouldn't accidentally bump into him as I took in the rest of the garage. Every car in here was spotless, no dust, no peeling paint, and even the tires were clean.

As I was looking around, I didn't notice that he stopped walking so I ended up bumping into him anyway.

"The fuck," I exclaimed.

"All of this is yours too you know, I can tell which ones just caught your eye so if you want to drive one of them just let me know." he said causing my jaw to drop in shock.

"Wait really?" I asked excitedly. He nodded in response and stopped in front of a door. He reached around and grabbed my hand, pulling me flush beside him. He placed my hand on the door knob and I felt a warming sensation; then there was a click sound.

"Now you have a key that unlocks to any of the houses I have in Heaven, Hell, and on Earth. Come and go as you please."

I turned the door knob and stepped into the foyer that was simply decorated. There's a shoe shelve on the left and a little step up that had two pairs of slippers on them, one pair black and one pair pink. I took off my shoes and slipped my feet into the black pair of slippers, leaving the pink pair for him. He snorted but put them on nonetheless. I went further inside and to say the least, his apartment is gorgeous. It was modernly decorated with a dark brown couch, dark brown love-seat, and two beige chairs. A beautiful black square coffee table with a matching long rectangular table with chairs in the dining room. The were was a grand piano in the corner that was surrounded by the floor to ceiling windows that really took your breath away with the gorgeous view of the skyline. He even has ambiance lighting in here with a shimmering chandelier hanging over the dining table.

If this is what the living room looks like then I wonder what the rest of the place looks like.

I sat down on the couch and it felt like I was sitting on a marshmallow, it was so soft. "So do you have this entire floor to yourself," I asked.

He hummed," Yeah, all to myself. The whole floor is mine, no one else has access up here except for Lucy, me, and now you." He held out his hand for me to grab. "Come, follow me."

I placed my hand in his and let him lift me up from the couch. I let him lead me past the kitchen, which I'm definitely coming back to take a closer look of, to what I assume to be his bedroom.

He opened the door and just like his living room, his bedroom was just as nicely decorated. More of a black and white theme in here rather than the beige and black one in the living room. This room looks like it's even bigger than mine at home with a king bed in its center topped with a black comforter and it even has accent pillows. A chandelier hung over it and what I think to be a mirror just above the headboard. A white bed end bench in front of it with a black blanket on it. I walked further in and admired the huge 75" inch TV mounted on the wall with a cute floating white counter underneath it and I even think that there's LED lights under it too. There was a couple of pictures on it and I went to get a closer look at them when something else caught my eye. A weird looking spiral white lamp in the corner that drew you to the big windows that made up the wall with a chair and a small table with a lamp on the other side.

I walked closer to the windows and really took in the view outside. I mean without the red sky and the knowledge that I'm currently in Hell with Death himself this would actually be a great place to come and relax from what I've seen so far.

"You didn't have a problem being with me in the bathroom," I heard him grumble behind me.

I turned around and glared, "What was that?"

"Nothing, nothing. So do you like it?" he asked.

"Mhmmm, guess we need to talk about mind boundaries again and yes I think that this place is very beautiful. Props to your interior designer."

"I'll tell him that it has your approval. The closet is over there. Go check it out and see if you like it too," he said and pointed to the door to my left. As I was walking over, I noticed that the picture I was going to look at was now face down on the counter top. Weird.

I opened the door and it was as if my fantasy closet had come to life.

This man has got to give me his interior designer's number.

A full walk in closet with a huge black and white vanity mirror placed in the back of it. There were more drawers on it than things I have to put in them. Clothes took up all the walls leading towards the back where it was met with huge shelves filled with purses and shoes. I walked in and could tell he set it to be a his and hers due to one side looking like women clothes and the other males.

"Who's the lucky lady that you got all this for?" I asked.

I heard a chuckle behind me, "Ha ha, so you have jokes? Check the sizes, you know they're yours. Always have been."

I scoffed and grabbed one of the distressed pants off of one of the hangers. I pulled out the tag and saw that it was actually my size 18. I put it back on the hanger and grabbed one of the many shirts hanging and checked it's tag. Size XL, so these really are for me huh.

I walked closer to the vanity and saw a whole bunch of smell goods and jewelry on it. He even got the scents of body oil that I like.

"Told you," he said smugly.

"Mind privacy," I grumbled out turning slightly to glare at him. It would feel more intimidating if I could actually see his face.

He held up his hands in surrender and pulled his hood off so I could see his head of course fuzzy. His green eyes started to become clearer through the haze.

"If I don't read your mind, you won't tell me what you want yourself. I'll try and limit what I listen to but it's kinda hard to just shut off." He said, walking slowly towards me. He stopped right before he reached me and pulled out a garment in a black bag. "I want you to wear this tonight for where we're going."

He draped it over his shoulder and grabbed my hand, pulling along with him as he exited the room. He placed the garment on the bed and then pulled me to another door in the room. If you've already guessed then yes it is the bathroom. Looks pretty similar in color coordination with the rest of the room. A huge tub takes up the whole left side of the bathroom, with his and hers sinks to the right underneath a huge mirror that took up the rest of its occupying wall. I walked further in and there was a shower around the corner equipped with rainfall shower heads and a bench to sit down on. You could tell that both the tub and the shower were built to be occupied by more than one person just by the size of them alone.

"Come here," he said still standing where I left him by the door. I walked over and placed his hand on the mirror. The mirror started to shift to the right and there was the medicine cabinet. Two toothbrushes with the brand of toothpaste that I use back home. Stocked full of Ibuprofen and Tylenol like it should be because headaches and cramps are no joke. Not to draw too much attention to the obvious elephant in the room but other than the addition of the many pain killers in here, this cabinet looks just like mine at home. Full of all the skin care products I use and even the same scent of Nair that I like. Even all of the different types of body moisturizers are lined up neatly in here. I mean, I know he's everywhere but I didn't realize how 'everywhere' he really is. Goes to show that you are never really alone. Death is always lurking over your shoulder waiting for his cue to swoop you up and take you to either Heaven or Hell.

"Well, I physically aren't everywhere at once, that's what my reapers are for. They're a branch off of me, I mean like they kind of are me but they aren't, if that makes any sense. They have their own names and personalities but they all answer to me but if I were to go down they would still be able to function for a little while. Like if I get sick or something or if I ever decide to take a vacation, I think the longest they can go without me is a couple weeks before they start to die off. Do you think they are parasites?" he asked, his voice sounding worried towards the end.

"Parasites?," I asked trying to hold in my laughter.

"Yeah," he said snapping his fingers as if he's figured it out," Think about it. They need me to be around, alive in a sense, and without me, i e the 'host', they'll die off. So in conclusion they are definitely parasites." he said so seriously that I couldn't hold in my laughter anymore. I walked over to him and placed my hand on his shoulder.

"I can't with you right now. So what are you going to do then? Just let them die off?" I asked still laughing.

"I mean, I got to see test it out first to see if they'll actually truly die off or just go and be independent and if that's the case then that's even worse because then I'll have to kill them if they do that." I swear if I could see his face right now he would be frowning slightly. I think I can see his frown lines through the haze.

"How can you kill something that is already dead?" I asked confused.

"Oh, you'd be surprised how many times you can kill something before it is truly dead. Like out of existence dead. Trust me, it's a couple of people who I wish would just stop getting reincarnated but the big guy up top is 'forgiving' and thinks in their next life they'll be a better person. I say just wipe the off, hell erase them until the point that the only think left of them is the eraser shavings. But anyway back to them, they are dead but not fully. If I keep explaining it, you'll just get more confused then I've probably already made you. Google it." he said ending his rant.

"Well if you needed air to breathe, you probably would've doubled over by now. But why'd you bring me in here again?"

"Oh right, hop in the shower and then when you come out, put on the outfit on the bed and the shoes with it and then come and meet me in the living room."

"Why do I need to take a shower? Do I smell or something? I just got out of the shower a couple of hours ago. What time is it like 10 am?" I asked sniffing myself. I don't smell bad to me.

"Actually it's 8:45 pm. You slept for a very long time in the car on the way here. And no you don't stink but you do smell like Jungkook and I don't want to keep smelling him on you so into the shower you go. And that's a brand new outfit and I know how you are, you hate putting on new clothes without taking a shower unless you're going swimming or going to bed and you don't feel like taking a shower. Go ahead and hop in." he said motioning me to the tub, "I would say you should run a bubble bath but we both now what happens when we're in the tub together. Our rendezvouses will take up time that we don't have. So shower by yourself it is." he added making sure I could see his wink at the end.

"Firstly how the hell did a whole day go by and I missed it and Jungkook doesn't stink. I like how he's cologne smells but I don't even smell anything. And you always initiate the tub 'rendezvous', if that's what you want to call them."

"Are you sure about that?" he asked leaning close enough to me that I could feel his minty breath. "Last I checked, you initiated last time when you asked if I wanted you, which you know that I always will." He placed his arm around the small of my back and pulled me flush up against him. I could feel his growing erection poking me in the belly button and knew that it was time to run before he got me all hot. "But we can be a little late if you want to." he suggested, reaching down to squeeze my butt gently.

I pushed against him slightly and he pulled back some but still kept himself close. "You know what, I will take that solo shower so if you want to go ahead and get out I'll do that. Where do you keep your towels?"

He chuckled and nodded his head, "And here I thought you were going to suggest that we just do it in the shower. Wanted to see all those piercings under the flowing water," he sighed, "guess I'll just have to wait."

I chuckled," I didn't even think you noticed them."

He leaned down and kissed me roughly. He grabbed the back of my head with his right hand and pulled me closer to him with his other. After he bit my lip and shoved his tongue down my throat briefly, he pulled back taking my bottom lip with him before letting it go. With his right hand no longer holding my head, he slithered it down my body before stopping on my nipples. He squeezed one and flicked the other before moving his hand down to my belly button, giving a gentle pat and then proceeding to cup me down there. He pecked my lips again and pulled my jaw down, opening my mouth, and he made the ahh sound so I stuck my tongue out. I could see my purple tongue ring twinkle under the lights before he spit on my tongue and closed my mouth.

He let me go fully and turned to walk out the door. He grabbed the door knob and slowly started to close the door, before the door was fully closed he said, "Just wait until we come back." and then he closed the door. I stood there for a minute before I snapped out of the fog he put in and turned to hop in the shower. I quickly stripped out of my clothes, grabbed a rag, and hopped in the shower.

To no surprise, the body wash I have at home was on one of the shelves in the shower. Even my eczema body wash that I got the other day at Walmart is in here. I lathered up my rag and started to wash my body. Luckily the rainfall shower is one of three shower heads in here so I set it to come down like a normal shower would. I have no energy to redo my hair, maybe it's the fact that I slept for so long or just being in Hell at all is making me feel so drained. How did I not notice that the sun was setting but can I really faulted when the whole sky is red. I started to hum This Hell by Rina Sawayama , ironically, softly to myself; which the humming turned into full on singing.

Walk a mile on these coals, busy cleansing my soul

Getting ready for the night Damned for eternity, but you're coming with me Into the afterlife

This hell is better with you We're burning up together, baby, that makes two 'Cause the devil's wearing Prada and loves a little drama, ooh-ooh This hell is better with you

With you (whoa-oh-oh, whoa-oh-oh-oh-oh)

I heard the bathroom door open and heard Hoodie laugh and say, " Nice song choice." Before I heard the door shut and the song started blasting out of nowhere.

...............

After my belting session, I put on some moisturizer, and stepped out with my towel wrapped around me. I looked under the sink and in there was a blow dryer and a flat iron. I moved as quickly as could to flat iron my hair because I didn't know how much time I had to get ready since I still don't know where we are going. He wasn't in the room like he said he wasn't going to be. The only things out were the garment bag, some heels, and some lace panties with a strapless bra.

I put on the underwear and opened the bag and was left speechless. The dress inside of it was stunning. A champagne off the shoulder V neck floor length dress with long-sleeves, Swarovski crystals, and sheer tulle. It's absolutely gorgeous and I just know that it's going to fit like a glove.

I slipped it on and headed into the walk in closet to take it in. I looked in the mirror and I could barely recognize myself. I looked like a princess out of a fairy tale, all I need is a couple of small accessories and I'll be set. I opened one of the drawers and pulled out a pair rose gold drop style Swarovski crystal earrings with a matching necklace. I put them on and I felt like I was missing something but I'd like to say that I'm set for wherever he's taking me.

I grabbed the RiRi by Rihanna body oil, putting some on before I grabbed a light pink clutch and walked out to meet him in the living room. When I came out, he was standing facing the windows. The red sky had taken a darker color than it was when we originally got here. He was wearing a fitted black suit with what looked like champagne threading throughout it. He matched it with a pair of black Oxford dress shoes and a champagne colored watch. He must've taken a shower too because his hair was wet.

"If I would've known you were going to take that long anyway, I would've came fully in there when I turned the music on and met you in the shower," He said turning to face me.

To say the both of us were shocked by each other's appearance is a understatement. At the same time we both exclaimed two different things. He said," Wow do you look beautiful," and I said, "I can see your face."

He chuckled after he heard what I said, "Well as much as you can see with a mask on, then yes you can see my face." He had on a black mask that was covered with champagne roses around it. I could make out some of his face but mostly his lips, jaw, and forehead. I noticed a little mole under his lip and a lip ring that I never felt before and he has a eyebrow piercing. But the main thing that stole my attention away from those was the fact that there was no haze around his head. I could see his long black hair that he had tied up in a man bun with his bangs hanging in front of his face. Now, the only barrier between me seeing his face was the mask.

He walked up to me and grabbed a box that was sitting on the table. He held it out for me and I slowly opened the box. Inside was a mask similar to his but a champagne color with black roses but they were bigger than his. The final piece was a black crown that sat above the mask in the box. It was made out of rose gold and was littered in black diamonds. I couldn't think of a price for it even if I tried. It's really fit for a queen.

He placed the box fully in my hands and grabbed the crown before placing it on top of my head. He took the box and handed me the mask before he stepped back some and whistled. "Wow, you. Just wow. I mean you always look beautiful but baby you're taking my breath away." He put the box back on the table and came back to grab my hand.

"Shall we?" he asked.

I nodded and he pulled me along with him back to the door we came in through. We walked until we stopped in front of a black 2022 Porsche Panamera. He opened the door for me and then walked over to the driver's side and got in. We went down the car elevator and out of the building into the dark blood red sky filled night.

We drove for about 25 minutes before he pulled up to what I would say replicates the look of the Met Gala building, with studio lights and even a red carpet. The only thing missing was the people that would occupy the space. There was no one out here but all the lights were still on. I turned to look at him. "Where is everybody?"

"I told you we were late, they're all inside. Come on, let's head on in." He parked the car right in front of the red carpet and got out quickly to open my door. As I stepped out the car, I was blinded by the bright studio lights. I had to hold up my hand to shield my eyes before I could attempt to walk forward. He wrapped his arm around me and used his hand to help shield.

By the time we made up it up the stairs I could feel a headache coming on. Knew I should've brought a pain pill.

When we got inside, there was still no one, no noise of any kind. What happened to everyone?

He guided me towards two big ballroom doors and stopped right in front of them. He turned to face me, his green eyes piercing at me through his mask. "Are you ready?" He asked.

I shook my head slightly, "No. Ready for what?"

He gripped the knob tightly before he flung the doors open. "This."

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