#anyway vampires have always been a larger part of my personality than even I realized so i was destined to be a WWDITS girlie

[peanutbutterex]

Storytime!

So I have been working in before and after school care for elementary schoolers at the school I went to. One of my coworkers was one of MY counselors from when I was in before and after care in elementary school.

We were kind of awkward and not talking much, but today we both acknowledged our previous relationship and that we both remember each other from when I was 9.

The one thing he said about what he remembers about me had me trying to not die of laughter. He said, “you were really into vampires.”

I do not remember that taking up so much of my personality back then, but I guess it did.

I told him, “what if I told you I did my undergraduate thesis on Dracula?”

He responded, “I guess you haven’t changed much”

I have no words

[thecarnivorousmuffinmeta]

I kinda find it funny how, if Ed didn't break up with Bella and then chase after Victoria in NM, we might not have gotten the events of Eclipse. Girl was just vibing with her makeshift "guards," and he had to mess it all up by having her see how newborn armies work and inspire her. Do you think Vic would've still would've gone after Bella if not for NM's events (and how it'd go down)? Cause low key I think it's funnier if she wasn't a danger but Ed made her into one jfksaldjf.-Sw

I think she would have.

True, Victoria comes up with the newborn army scheme after Edward chases her down to Mexico, but she also doesn't use it right away. She tests the waters in Forks for a very long time before she decides to invade.

In other words I, sigh, agree with Edward on this: Victoria was coming back to murder Bella Swan in vengeance no matter what was happening.

Without the newborn army, however, things would have played out very differently.

A Bit on the Romantic Tragedy Penned by Edward Cullen

First, a note, Edward had always intended to leave Bella. From the moment he realized he was in love with her he told himself that he would one day leave her. It was just a matter of when.

In Twilight, he's torn. He knows he shouldn't be a part of her life, that bringing her into his world almost necessitates her becoming a vampire, but he also really doesn't want to let her go. He doesn't think he's strong enough to do it.

And as Bella keeps getting herself into danger he gives himself more and more excuses.

If he's not there, then Bella will get crushed by a van or raped in an alley or eaten by bears. Her number's up, and Edward is single handedly fighting fate to keep this angel alive.

Bella needs Edward, therefore he can't possibly go.

The birthday party put things back into perspective. Edward's family is the most dangerous threat to Bella there is, Edward himself really may lose control one day and devour her, and unless she turns (which Edward absolutely does not want) then she has no future with him.

The family has to leave now.

However, if there's no birthday party, then Edward doesn't have that catalyst and reminder. He likely decides to himself that he will leave Bella after graduation, his family will move towns, Bella will attend whichever university she attends, and he will have had a few wonderful years with Bella pretending he's a regular high school boy dating a regular high school girl.

When Bella then dies a natural human death sometime later, Edward will go to Volterra and kill himself (and force the Volturi's hand when Aro refuses to do it).

Of course, he'd probably break here too, but that's a different story.

I do think without Jasper's slip up and the birthday party, that Edward would have stuck around for New Moon.

The World Without Bella's Birthday Party

Bella throws the fit she didn't in canon.

She doesn't want this birthday party, she never asked for this birthday party, AND WHY DOES BELLA ALWAYS HAVE TO HUMOR ALICE?!

Bella has had a summer filled with Alice. In canon, this was a delight, in this world Bella realizes that maybe they spend most of their time doing what Alice wants to do rather than what Bella wants to do.

Alice is clearly throwing this party for Alice's sake, everyone knows it, and Edward tells her, "Please humor my sister and be a good sport."

Isn't this party supposed to be about Bella?

Alice is terribly upset and does not handle any of this well, Edward tells Bella to be reasonable and be the better person and give Alice this party, Rosalie thinks this is all petty bullshit but has mild respect for Bella on calling Alice out on this, and Carlisle is rubbing his temples somewhere trying to let the children deal with this themselves.

In the end, they compromise, Bella's birthday is Edward taking her out to dinner at an expensive restaurant in Seattle of Alice's choice, Bella wearing a fancy Chanel dress that Alice selected for her.

Bella's still embarrassed and miserable, but at least there aren't a billion pink candles.

As a result, there's no birthday party, no papercut, and no dumping.

The next several months instead are spent with Bella and Alice in a battle of wills and a real rough spot in their friendship. Bella tries to explain to Edward that Alice treats her like a doll, not a person.

Edward, of course, has no idea what she's talking about.

Bella fails to realize that Edward also treats her like a doll and not a person.

Laurent's Scouting Mission

As in canon, Laurent is probably sent by Victoria to scout. Victoria probably never left the area which means (remember this is book universe where Riley was in California) that she never turned Riley.

Without being all over the Forks area killing hikers, probably fewer wolves are turned. Yes, the Cullens are in the area, but they've been there three years, are very non-threatening, and in that time only Sam shifted.

We don't see the deluge of shifting until after the Cullens have left and Victoria starts actively attacking the area.

(Yes, this is worthy of a meta but that meta is not this meta)

Regardless, Laurent shows up, Sam's not sure if he's one of those friends of the Cullens or not, and Laurent walks in to see that all the Cullens are there.

Just like he expected.

Because Victoria has sent him to die.

Carlisle feels a headache coming on but is not shocked to see that Laurent's eyes are red again after only a few months. (Though this explains the sobbing phone call that Carlisle got from Irina asking if he'd seen Laurent because that beautiful, perfect, man has gone missing!)

Laurent provides some weasley bullshit explanation anyway. He asks, though it's really more of a demand, that he join the Cullen coven (much larger than the Denali, very gifted, and very powerful). Carlisle says no, Laurent has to stick to the diet if he joins the coven and he has to mean it. Given Laurent's current appearance, it seems as if Laurent is not willing to do that.

Laurent then begs them to let him stay: Victoria will murder him otherwise (and oh by the way she's after your Lunchable Bella Swan). That gets Edward into action, he demands Laurent's death and that he then hunt down Victoria personally.

Carlisle politely suggests that Laurent, rather than seek shelter from them who he knows Victoria intends to cross paths with, go back to the Denali and give the diet another whirl.

Laurent flees back to the Denali, Irina is ecstatic to see him. Victoria's not even surprised.

The family discusses what to do about Victoria. Carlisle would rather not hunt this woman down on hearsay alone. Jasper thinks they should have killed her to start and letting her escape was foolishness, he told them she'd be back. Edward for once is with Jasper, Victoria must be destroyed before she can harm Bella. They look to Alice and, yeah, there's a good possibility that Victoria will be back.

Edward is torn between hunting down Victoria and protecting Bella in person. Jasper leaves before he can make the decision, which of course angers Edward beyond belief, but, well, he guesses it is what it is.

Edward decides to not tell Bella that a vampire is after her life: it'll just worry her.

Jasper's Hunting Mission

Jasper likely has a devil of a time catching Victoria, as he did the first time, because of her gift. He ends up having very long phone calls with Alice as he tries to coordinate a successful solution to this.

Because Edward never left Bella, she never sought out Jake. She never forms her friendship with Jake nor realizes the secret behind the shapeshifters.

Billy tries to give Bella a few more ominous warnings but there's no getting through to this girl.

Edward never proposes to Bella because he's intent on leaving her after graduation. He does not tell Bella this though she constantly worries about it.

He assures her they can have a long distance relationship at college (he has no such intentions).

Victoria is kept out of the Forks area by Jasper and likely takes the one obvious route left to her. She has nothing left to live for, and it doesn't matter how much terror she lives in the Volturi, if this means her death then so be it.

She goes to the Volturi and narks on the Cullens.

Victoria Narks

It... does not go as planned.

Aro placates Caius with many excuses: this girl is in her primary schooling, is the only daughter of a police chief, she cannot simply disappear.

Carlisle is likely waiting until after she graduates and can disappear across the country.

And yes, technically this James fellow had bit Bella and they had their perfect chance but... Well, Aro will talk to Carlisle, it is not breaking the law yet.

Aro travels to Forks in person with Renata, shows up on Carlisle's doorstep, and says, "We need to talk."

Aro lays down the law, this girl better be turned after graduation, and Aro can only stall Caius so long. Also, great to see you, you built yourself a coven and that's perfectly marvelous.

Edward, of course, throws a fit but the law is the law and the law just visited them for tea. Aro makes it very clear that either Bella is turned, she dies, or Aro will have no choice to take adverse action against Edward at the very least (if not Carlisle and the rest of the Cullens).

Aro also points out this is an unsustainable relationship that's not good for anybody. Yes, it's too bad the girl has no choice, but they really should have thought of that before Edward walked around strongly hinting he wasn't human.

Edward insists they vote.

The vote doesn't go the way he likes.

Esme doesn't want Edward to live in misery after Bella dies, Rosalie doesn't like the idea of turning Bella but it appears they have no choice, Jasper (via conference call) doesn't want to be the one to eat Bella and it's stupid given the VOLTURI IS IN THE ROOM FOR THIS VOTE, and Carlisle notes that it appears Bella has no other option and at least this seems to be what she wants?

They will turn Bella after graduation.

Edward smashes a TV.

They tell Edward to tell Bella, it should come from him, Edward never does.

Instead, out of nowhere, he asks her to marry him and elope. They can live on a deserted island somewhere.

Bella thinks this is stupid and says no.

Edward dies inside.

Victoria Chooses Death

Victoria is out of options, the Volturi did not come through, and she wanders out of Volterra in a daze.

She guns it for Forks with Jasper hot on her tail. If there's one thing left for her, she will murder this Bella Swan before she dies. She fails, Jasper catches up to her in Forks and murders her.

No one tells Bella.

Graduation

After graduation, Carlisle picks Bella up. Bella has no idea what's happening, Carlisle assumes she does. Carlisle lays down the game plan, she's going to take a summer abroad before school starts, travelling with Alice, then both she and Alice will disappear in an accident.

Bella asks him to hold up, what the hell is he talking about?

Carlisle realizes with dull horror that Edward never told Bella. He awkwardly explains that the Volturi personally came to visit and, well, they have to turn Bella into a vampire.

He's very sorry.

Bella's very on board with this, she asks if it can be Edward that does it.

Carlisle says no, that's not a good idea.

They stare at each other.

Carlisle cannot believe Edward didn't tell her.

Edward and Bella do not get married nor does she have sex with him as a human.

[river-bottom-nightmare]

Conner Kent Week 2021, Day Two: Rarepair

Jason knew jokes about how pale Tim was, about how he was either a vampire or the perfect blue blood, about how he needed to get out and absorb some sun for God’s sake. They were met with glares, scathing retorts, smacks with a bo staff, and on one memorable occasion, a horrified Bruce as Tim barged into the house with visible sunburn all along his arms, shoulder and face. (Bruce hadn’t taken Tim’s accusation of But Jason told me to go get some sun! very well.)

Jason wasn’t joking now. Loosely covered in a hospital gown, Tim’s still body seemed to be more devoid of colour than any of the sheets, machines, and tubes surrounding him and attached to his body, keeping him alive in the most impersonal of ways. 

It was quiet, the sort of quiet that muffled any attempted noise with a soft hush, an invisible reprimand at showing signs of life in a place where there should be none. The beeping of the various machines didn’t register, the hum of the fluorescent lights was ignorable. Even the rhythmic tapping of Jason’s foot on the linoleum, a nervous habit he’d never been able to break, was utterly silent. 

It was quiet. At least until Conner Kent barged into the room, his heavy combat boots thudding on the ground and his breath coming out in pants, the terrified look on his face telling Jason that he thought he hadn’t gotten here fast enough.

“He’s fine,” Jason managed not to cough while speaking, the roughness of his throat a physical ache that was just now flaring up. “Full recovery, they said.”

“Good, good, that’s...” Conner dropped into the remaining hospital chair, right next to Jason. “That’s good.”

Silence blanketed them once again. Jason hadn’t ever been in a regular hospital room. He had supposedly spent a while as a patient in one when he’d risen from the dead and trembled around Gotham like a 21st century zombie, but he couldn’t remember any of it. He didn’t think Tim’s best friend had ever been in one either, given a good majority of Tim’s team was invulnerable or had advanced healing in some way. 

Jason was sure Bruce was itching to take Tim to the cave’s medbay, and honestly, Jason found himself on Bruce’s side in this. As much as he liked to distrust the entire Bat clan, he knew they’d give everything they had to make sure Tim was okay, while the hospital was only giving Tim their best care because of the “Wayne” tacked onto the end of his name. Jason had been about to demand Bruce bring him back to the cave no matter what, but Oracle butted in, telling him that Tim been shot as Timothy Jackson Drake-Wayne in broad daylight. Bruce couldn’t take Tim home, not without raising some very complicated questions.

So that led them here. Jason being slammed full-force in the face with how much he’d let himself care about the tiny little toothpick, unable to make himself move for fear that Tim would slip away in the one moment he was gone. (Once he’d come back to life and seen how chummy Dick was with Bruce all of a sudden, he’d always expected Dick to drag him back kicking and screaming. He never thought Tim’s unobtrusive yet steady presence, doing his tech work in exchange for food, would lead to the word brother coming to his lips as easy as a breath.)

Next to him, Conner shuffled, and snapped Jason out of his thoughts. “I thought Nightwing would be here.” A statement, subtly posed as a question.

But, still one Jason had an answer to. “Deep cover. A mission he’d been planning for weeks. He doesn’t know.” And he would probably throw a fit about it too, when he came back. Even Jason had to wince a bit at the horrible sense of déjà vu Dick would end up feeling.

“So they sent you instead,” Conner said, and his tone was simple, but Jason found himself getting heated anyway.

“What, you thought the fill-in for Big Bird would be a little better?”

Jason was just burning for a fight, the helplessness he felt at being able to do nothing but sit in a low-quality plastic chair skating up his body and down his arms, forcing his fingers to curl in a fist. He expected the other boy to rise to the bait, having heard Tim’s complaints on how hot-headed Superboy was. 

But something about their current situation caused Conner to just turn and glare at him flatly instead. “You once put him a hospital bed, too. Don’t act like you care about him now when you would’ve celebrated this a couple years ago.” His tone was dismissive, and that dug under Jason’s skin much more than he expected. 

“Well then, it’s a good thing time travel’s reserved for the speedsters, huh? ‘Cause lucky for you, I’m not the same guy I was a couple years ago,” Jason replied scathingly. The next words were ripped from Jason’s throat, and he could almost see the blood splattered on them. “That’s my brother in the shitty hospital bed right there.”

“Yeah? And how long have you even cared about that ‘brother’ of yours?” There it was. Jason could see red trickling into Conner’s cheeks as he let Jason’s words get to him, and found himself oddly curious about that flush.

Still. Argument to win. “Long enough to know him,” Jason shot back. “Long enough to help piece him together after he almost broke. Where were you during that time? Fucking around with your friends or dead?”

“Trying to hold together the team that Tim helped build,” Conner shifted a bit to face Jason more directly head on. “All you’ve done is tear people apart. News flash: having a sort-of truce with Tim doesn’t automatically mean your family loves you again.”

That one hurt. Years of training to keep his emotions hidden was the only thing that kept him from flinching back visibly, but Jason still felt like he’d been slapped. Because the boy was right; just because Tim liked dropping by one of his safehouses every other week doesn’t mean the rest of the family was anywhere near comfortable with him, not after all the pain he’d caused them. And he couldn’t even fault Conner on it, because it wasn’t like he was wrong and it wasn’t like it wasn’t Jason’s own damn fault.

Still. He couldn’t just let that slide. “At least my family loved me to begin with. What do you have? Megalomaniac scientists who built you from an evil billionaire who thinks of you as an experiment at best and supposedly one of the best men on Earth who still thinks you’re not worth his time.”

Too late, Jason realized his insult came out a little too scathing. Conner’s eyes widened, and Jason saw him blink back pinpricks of tears...fuck. He didn’t know when mutual antagonizing had turned into a caustic competition, but he was pretty sure Tim wouldn’t be very happy with the two of them biting each other’s heads off. And Jason was the one that goaded Conner into this to begin with, to let some of his own helpless anger loose. Conner just wanted to make sure his friend was alright.

So, slightly reluctantly, Jason said, “Sorry. That was a bit too far.”

Conner shot him a grimace. “S’okay. You’re keyed up ‘cause of Tim. I get it. You’re still a jackass, though.” After saying his bit, the other boy turned away, taking up another vigil by Tim’s bedside.

...What the hell. It wasn’t like Jason had lied, anyway. If there was one person that had worse daddy issues than Jason did, it was this poor son of a bitch. Back when he was first catching glimpses of updates on what happened in the larger superhero world while he was letting green overtake his mind, he’d marveled a bit at Superboy, and the way the Justice League seemed to speak about it. How bad do you have to be to be Superman’s own son, (sorta), and still have him hold you at arms length. But after Tim’s stories, and after meeting him now, Jason was pretty sure Superman was in the wrong.

You really couldn’t trust anyone, could you?

“Nah. You’re right,” Jason said. “God knows none of the Bats want anything to do with me, so this stupid sort-of truce with this stupid brother’s all I got.”

Conner glanced over at him, surprised. Jason couldn’t blame him, he was a little taken aback at how easily the confession had spilled out of him too. They both knew how closed off people in their line of work were, but Conner seemed to take Jason’s words as an olive branch.

“You were right too. Found out the fun way that parents aren’t worth shit. So the team’s all I got, and Tim’s a big part of that.”

“The kid fucking hates you,” Jason said, putting some good-natured humor into his words to let Conner know he wasn’t entirely serious. “Loves you to death, but complains about you to me all the time.”

Conner snorted. “Look who’s talking. Every week at Titans Tower, it’s all ‘Jason won’t stop scaring off all my informants’ and ‘Jason spit on my copy of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies.’”

“You can’t blame me for that last one, aight?” 

“No, I agree with you,” Conner said. “That movie was terrible. I don’t know why Tim likes it.”

“Because he’s a goddamn loser,” Jason said. He couldn’t say he was expecting Conner to know who he was, much less from stories Tim had told him. But it felt...good, in a way. Nice to be recognized by his media tastes instead of his bone-chilling reputation. Nice to know that the guy Tim wouldn’t shut up about to him knew who he was.

Silence fell in between them again, but it was comfortable, mutually acknowledged and let rest. Jason didn’t break it when Conner stood up, brushed a kiss to Tim’s hair, and left the hospital much quieter than he came. Jason didn’t break it when he made to leave either, squeezing Tim’s hand and mentally willing him to heal faster. Jason didn’t break it all the way home. 

The next day found Jason in a similar position. The positive side of being a mob boss: he didn’t have much in the way of a day job. He didn’t know why cramming himself into an uncomfortable position to stare, with a tight throat, at a kid in a medically induced coma was what he decided to do with his day.

Maybe because the kid had grown on him, latched onto his heart like a leech and didn’t let go until Jason could ruffle his hair and think of him as a little brother without physically throwing up. 

And maybe because he wanted to see Conner again. He didn’t know why, but their brief talk yesterday had loosened something inside his chest. He was used mulling over his regrets, used to Bruce condemning him and giving up on him as a lost cause, used to Dick trying to brush everything aside and form a bond with him again. He wasn’t used to someone staring his sins in the face, then shrugging and forgiving him. 

Forgiveness was much lighter and much less guilt-ridden than Jason expected, and he wanted more of it. From the way Conner had sunk into the same line of thinking as Jason, he wanted more of it too.

Conner didn’t disappoint him, but Jason wasn’t sure when he’d gotten his hopes up high enough to be disappointed in the first place. Calmer, now that he knew Tim was doing better, Conner leaned against the doorframe of hospital room, staring at their resident comatose with a little frown on his lips.

Jason took the time to study him. A black leather jacket stretched across his shoulders, a little more showy than the practical brown one draped across the back of the chair Jason was sitting on. He supposed it fitted in with Superboy’s theme, because anyone who wore that pinwheel-bright costume with the fucking thigh holster Jason saw pictures of online was more than a little showy. There wasn’t much proof of in his simple t-shirt and jeans, though, and Jason almost would’ve been disappointed if it weren’t for the earring hanging from his left earlobe and the tall black boots with glinting metal lace hooks that stretched up their length. Jason bet he owned the exact pair of fingerless gloves that were wrapped around Conner’s wrists right now.

In all of Tim’s vivid descriptions of the guy, Jason never realized how much he had in common with the guy, at least cosmetically.

“How’s he doing?” Conner asked, and jolted Jason out of his reverie. He didn’t make any indication he caught Jason looking, but Jason eyed him in slight embarrassment just in case.

Realizing that Conner was actually waiting for an answer, Jason cleared his throat and leaned forward a bit from his relaxed sprawl. “They say they’ll bring him out of it tomorrow, then a week here before he can go home. That is, if he doesn’t wake up on his own. The doctors say they’re astounded at how fast he’s recovering.”

Conner snorted, then stepped fully into the room. “Can you build up an immunity to injury? Or, like, have your body develop a mini healing factor or something? Just based on the kind of shit we’ve gone through over the years?”

Jason didn’t miss the way Conner put feather’s touch more emphasis on “we,” or the way his eyes flicked over to Jason. “At this point, I’m sure it’s the only way we’ve stayed alive so long.”

“No you didn’t,” Conner chuckled.

Jason’s head whipped up, staring at the other boy with disbelief threading through his mind. It had taken months for Dick to start making death jokes, and even then, he hesitated a bit, as if making sure Jason was okay with it. But after one meeting, Conner just steamrolled ahead, every bit as confident as he appeared to be. Jason found himself laughing too, with genuine amusement albeit a little punched out.

Crossing the room to seat himself in the remaining plastic chair, Conner sunk down with a sigh. “I just want him to wake up already.”

“Yeah, well. Who doesn’t?” Jason said, feeling unreasonably a little disappointed. Of course Conner wanted to talk about Tim, that was the whole reason he’d come to the hospital in the first place. He’d only known Jason for an hour, and a large part of that was spent trading insults back and forth. Of course he didn’t want to talk about how Jason was doing.

“So,” Conner said, turning away from the hospital bed. “How are you doing?”

Or maybe he did. Jason didn’t know what to call the little bubble of satisfaction that flew up his throat and popped in his mouth. “Not bad. Life as a mob boss is kinda boring, whaddya know. You?”

“Playing den mother for a bunch of hypercompetent yet cluelessly stupid baby superheroes is not how I imagined my life going.”

“Playing den mother?”

Conner wrinkled his nose, in a motion that was in no way cute, honestly kind of gross and flat. Jason found himself staring nonetheless. “Bart used to call me Team Mom back when we founded the team, and it caught on. Now, Cassie leads, but since even she says it, everyone fucking says it. They ask me for granola bars and money to buy movie tickets.”

“And?”

Conner sighed. “I give them granola bars and money to buy movie tickets.”

“There you go,” Jason  said, his voice dripping with smug amusement.

“I swear I’m not usually this lame,” Conner pleaded, and his half-smile was aimed straight towards Jason.

“No, no, I believe you. Tim’s told me stories,” Jason said. “Didn’t you once throw some guy into a police car so hard, the car dented and they had to call in a helicopter so the guy didn’t die on the way to the hospital?”

Conner flushed, and Jason found it just as entrancing as last time. “He tried to touch Cassie,” he explained. “And she can take care of herself more than well, I know. I just got a bit...overprotective.”

Jason just laughed. “Don’t worry. I thought it was badass.”

“Really?” Conner’s lips twisted into a sour smile. “Because the League thought it was proof of my, fuck, what was it? Violent, destructive tendencies mirrored on a smaller scale of the schemes of Lex Luthor. Something along those lines.”

Shaking his head with desideration, Jason scoffed. “Sounds about accurate. Besides, you don’t wanna know what the League thinks of me.”

“What?”

“Aside from, like, Joker and Two-Face and Mad Hatter and shit, Red Hood is one one of Batman’s most powerful and dangerous rogues, and must be stopped at all costs.”

Conner was laughing before Jason even finished talking. “I love that for you,” he said. “You’re just so powerful and dangerous. I’m quaking in my boots.”

Jason shoved him lightly, and felt Conner give way on purpose, ignoring how natural and easy the motion felt. “Whatever you say, Luthor Lite.”

“Well, guess I found my new superhero name,” Conner said, finger held up to his chin in mock-thought as if musing something extremely important.

“It’s perfect,” Jason said. “And here we have Conner Kent, ordinary punk-rock farmer. But he’s hiding a secret! When his ‘violent and destructive tendencies’ come out, he turns into...Luthor Lite!”

The two of them collapsed into muffled laughter, Jason stifling his noise by biting his lip and Conner putting his head in the crook of his arm to hide his red face. Pity, Jason liked that flush.

Straightening up with a sigh, Conner offered Jason a little grin. Crimson was still creeping along his cheekbones and the edge of his jaw, and Jason was suddenly struck by the urge to trace it.

“Kon,” Conner said.

“What?”

“Call me Kon,” Conner said. “Everyone does.”

“Kon, huh? With a K, right?” Jason asked, then nodded thoughtfully when Conner made a noise of affirmation. “Is it Kryptonian or something?”

A rueful expression stole it’s way onto Conner’s face, mischievous lips and daring eyes staring at Jason as if challenging him. “Yeah. Kon-el. Kryptonian for ‘abomination’. It’s what they thought of clones.”

A pause. Then, “Wow.” Jason bust out laughing for the second time. “That’s metal as fuck. Good for you, Kon.”

“Says the guy who took the name of the person who killed him, then twisted it into something so horrifying that now, no one else associates it with anything other than you.”

“Is that judgement I hear?”

“Respect,” Kon said, and his smile was oddly shy, the first time he’d shown that emotion since he’d met Jason. Jason liked the way it looked on him; it suited him oddly well.

They were quiet for a minute, grinning at each other like buffoons, but Jason couldn’t find the heart to stop. Eventually, Kon stood up and rolled out his shoulders to stretch. “I gotta get going. I’m meeting Bart and Cassie, updating them about Tim.”

“They’re waking Tim up in the afternoon,” Jason said. “Bruce is gonna be here, plus Steph. So I’d stay clear.”

“Gotcha, thanks. I’ll come in the morning.”

A proposition, if Jason ever saw one, and there was no way he could have refused. “I’ll be here,” he said, and kept his eyes on Kon until he rounded a corner, away from sight.

Kon was already there when Jason came to visit Tim the next day, and he gave him a friendly, if a tad flirtatious, smile. Jason responded, accidentally putting too much emotion into the greeting than he would have liked, but it made Kon brighten, so Jason didn’t feel too bad. 

Dropping heavily into what had become “his” chair, Jason shrugged off his jacket. He gave himself a mental high-five when he noticed Kon staring at his shoulders, but made no motion to address it.

“If all goes to plan, he’ll be the same annoying little prep boy that’s always annoying the hell out of me by tonight,” Jason said.

“He’ll be fine,” Kon said, and his voice was quiet, but there was an undercurrent of confidence curling around his words. He sounded like he had utter faith in Tim. Jason wished some of that would bleed over.

“He’s a tough little shit,” Jason said, then repeated Kon’s words. “He’ll be fine.”

“How ‘bout you?”

“Hm?” Jason raised an inquiring brow. “Oh, I’m all good It’s not me that’s hurt.”

“Jason,” Kon snorted. “If I have learned anything over the past two days, it is the fact that you are most definitely not ‘all good.’”

“Yeah well,” Jason said. “You’re one to talk.”

Kon made a noncommittal noise, and shrugged as if to say what can you do? “We’ve all got issues. But I get the feeling that you’re not as closed off and angry as you let people believe. Or maybe you are, but you don’t want to.”

Jason bit back the first response that came into his mind, telling Kon that no, he was closed off and angry, just not with him. But that wasn’t the truth, and he definitely didn’t have the courage to say it out loud. So instead, he said, “Maybe. Not gonna lie, from the way Tim and everyone talks about you, I was expecting more...”

“Cocky little frat boy?” Kon asked, smirking.

“More or less.”

Kon sighed, then looked down to where his hands were fiddling with each other. “Superman doesn’t act like a cocky little frat boy. Neither does Lex Luthor.”

“You’re not either of them,” Jason said, realization pouring into his mind like spilled oil. “You’re not either of them, but no one else seems to get that, so you make it as obvious as possible.”

“A couple people got that eventually,” Conner said, looking up at Tim with a soft smile. “Not many, though. And none as quickly as you.”

Kon leaned back, level with Jason now, turned to face him, something on his face that Jason couldn’t read. The chairs seemed much closer than Jason could remember, but he wasn’t very much banking on his memory right now. 

“Yeah, well,” Jason said, feeling a little lame. “What can I say. Misery likes company, and companies read each other through water.”

“Never heard that one before.”

“I came up with it,” Jason said. 

“I like it,” Kon smiled, then leaned forward with an ease Jason had been determined to build up first.

A little peeved at Kon beating him to it, Jason closed the distance first, the kiss probably a little too rough. But given the way they’d met, Jason felt like the bite he gave Kon was justified, even if the other boy was invulnerable.

Jason had made plenty of bad decisions in his life, and he knew exactly what they felt like. This wasn’t one of them. There was no chance that the way Kon’s hands coming up to cup Jason’s face, dragging his nail down Jason’s jaw, was anything other than good. No chance the way Kon’s soft hair suddenly threaded through his fingers was anything other than soft, no chance the soft noise Kon made in the back of his throat was anything other than delightful.

Yeah, Jason knew bad decisions. And despite the avalanche of bad decisions that seemed to make up every inch of Jason, from his scarred hands to his chipped nails, despite the pile-up of thoughtless ideas that led to this boy being made, despite how intimately familiar Jason was with regrets, he was certain Conner Kent wasn’t one of them.

------------

this was almost 4k what the fuck

also. please imagine tim waking up to see his best friend and older brother aggressively making out in the plastic hospital chairs next to him. 

anway, suddenly i have a new ship.

imma post this on ao3 later, it got a bit long

tag list: @woahjaybird @birdy-bat-writes @anothertimdrakestan @screennamealreadyused @subtleappreciation @pricetagofficial @catxsnow @bikoncon @bonkybearjpeg @maplumebleue-blog-blog @sundownridge @thatsthewhump

[seducing-a-vampire]

ON BEING HONEST AND WHY I THINK SIMON WILL BE THE FIRST TO SAY “I LOVE YOU”

Two things sparked this meta:

Baz yelling “you’re so beautiful” to Simon, but Simon not hearing it— the moment that lives rent-free in my head 24/7

Rainbow’s recent Fall for the Book interview, when she said that she thinks that Baz is “settling for Simon” in Wayward Son

Here’s something we all know: our guys really suck at saying nice things out loud to each other. For two people are constantly thinking nauseatingly sweet and loving things about each other, they almost never actually verbalize them. 

I ended up going through a lot of quotes and tracking some of the nice things that they actually do say to each other, and I’ll offer some very  r a m b l i n g  thoughts on what I think Simon and Baz’s respective paths indicate for AWTWB. 

I was interested in the intersection of when Simon and Baz are being honest to each other (aka saying some of the nice things that they’re always thinking) with when Simon and Baz are being honest about themselves (aka self-acceptance).

TL;DR, my prediction for their path through honesty is:

Simon’s self-acceptance (which starts at the end of WS)

Simon’s honesty to Baz re: love

Baz’s honesty to Simon re: love

Baz’s self acceptance

**Below the cut because it got super long, yikes**

Phase 1: Simon being nice/honest in CO

The first nice-ish interaction between Simon and Baz in Carry On is when Simon follows Baz up to the Mage’s office, and they find Baz’s baby photo:

“Here,” [Simon] says softly, holding it out to me. “I’m… sorry.” (204)

Simon tones down his initial hostility in this scene after he sees the photo. This moment, along with Natasha’s visitation, catalyzes a real change in how Simon views Baz, and it’s indicative of the larger shift (vulnerability → Simon seeing Baz as more than his enemy → Baz wearing jeans → oops I love him). This trajectory continues during their truce-- there are still a few moments of hostility, but honestly on the whole, Simon is pretty nice to Baz:

“You don’t want to hurt me,” I say, trying to push him back. “Isn’t that right? I’m sorry. Look at me, I’m sorry.” (210)

“I’ll help you,” he says (217)

“Baz,” I yell. “No! You’re flammable!” (238)

All of this culminates in the kisses in the forest, and Simon says a few more nice and affirming things around that point:

“They say your soul dies.”   “That’s tosh,” he says. (300)

“You’re not a monster,” I say. His face is cold as a corpse in my hand. “I was wrong. All those years. You’re a bully. And a snob. And a complete arsehold. But you’re not one of them.” (339)

“I won’t,” I say. I’ve never turned my back on you. And I’m not starting now.” (340)

Something that stood out to me after reviewing these moments is that Simon’s shift from enemies to lovers is actually pretty linear. As he learns more about Baz during their truce and they grow closer, Simon hates Baz less and consequently says nicer things to him, until he ultimately realizes he doesn’t hate Baz at all, so he kisses him and asks him to be his boyfriend. Weirdly logical behavior for someone so thick. Simon is being pretty open and honest, and this makes sense because Simon understands himself pretty well at this point. His big crisis of character comes in the next book. 

The thing is, at this point in Carry On, Baz has not said a single nice thing to Simon. The closest you could get is when he asks Simon to come to his house for Christmas, which is a great moment but is quickly muddled by their ensuing fight. 

(awesome thoughts about that moment here)

Baz has acted nicely, but he has remained sarcastic and aloof even after Simon kisses him. 

We get a few compliments of Simon’s power:

“You have to stop doing that.”  

“What?”

“Godlike displays of magic.” (348)

“You’re the most powerful magician alive-- who’s ever lived, probably.” (355)

I won’t repeat @super-duper-twelve’s brilliant meta on this, but this category of compliment is not ultimately that useful for their general communication.

Simon keeps pushing, despite the cold walls Baz tries to put up, and he asks Baz to be his “terrible boyfriend.” Honestly, it astounds me how much confidence Simon must’ve had to just shoot his shot there, because Baz was not giving him a ton of reason to think he’d go for it. Me as simon would’ve definitely been like: ok cool, nice kiss, he definitely still hates me though.

Phase 2: Baz being nice/honest

I want to be clear: it’s perfectly understandable why Baz, a flawed fictional character, is not nice to Simon. His trajectory from enemies to lovers is completely different, because he’s spent years loving Simon while acting like his enemy. He’s had great practice at that, and it’s the most relatable thing ever that he is afraid of getting hurt when he’s believed Simon to be an impossible dream for so long. This is also understandable when viewed through the lens of self-acceptance because huge facets of Baz’s identity are constantly being covered up and ignored by himself or by the people close to him (vampire, gay). He knows himself, sure, but he’s a very long way from self-acceptance.

Anyway, Baz does actually agree to be Simon’s boyfriend, and we get a couple of honest Nice Things that they say to each other during that brief period.

Unfortunately, this mutual honesty/niceness is incredibly short lived, because everything changes quickly after this: Humdrum, Mage, Ebb, etc. Simon’s world falls apart, and Baz is there to comfort him, affirm him, and (finally) be honest and nice. Their whole dynamic turns on its head. 

“You did it, didn’t you?” Baz whispers. “You defeated the Humdrum. You saved the day, you courageous fuck. You absolute nightmare.” (491)

“It’s going to be okay… it’s all right, love.” (492)

“You were the centre of my universe,” I say. “Everything else spun around you.” (506)

“Looking at you was like looking directly into the sun.” (507)

“You’re still Simon Snow. You’re still the hero of this story--” (507)

“It was brave. It was brave and selfless and clever. That’s who you are, Simon. And I’m not going to get bored with you.” (507)

“I choose you,” I say. “Simon Snow, I choose you.” (508)

To summarize and possibly oversimplify:

Up until the night of the Mage and Ebb’s death, Simon was the one pushing forward, being honest, and looking to break down the boundaries and walls between them. 

After that point, Baz finally feels ready to be all in with Simon, and Simon retreats inward. 

Phase 3: Wayward Son

We see this dynamic play out in Wayward Son, with almost no change throughout the whole book. Right from the very first chapter, Simon is thinking:

“Everything that happened with the Mage and the Hum-drum just made Baz more of who he was meant to be… He proved himself as a man and a magician. He proved himself right: The Mage really was evil! And I really was a fraud—’the worst Chosen One who’s ever been chosen,’ just like Baz used to say. He was right about me all along. “ (8)

I think it’s really notable that Simon can use his boyfriend’s words to justify his own worst self-doubts and self-loathings, because it indicates the consequences of them spending way more time insulting each other than ever being honest and affirming.

In Wayward Son, tender and honest moments between Simon and Baz are few and far between and mostly in the form of post-battle kisses. The only real communication that we see between them comes in flashbacks, wherein we see how much Simon has pulled back from Baz (the descriptions of his reaction to physical intimacy being one example of this). 

Even when Baz says nice things to Simon and affirms him, Simon’s presumed depression largely keeps him from believing and internalizing those things (through no real fault of either person. Again, very understandable ways for both of these flawed characters with traumatic pasts to behave!!!!!). Baz yells, “you’re so beautiful” to Simon, and he doesn’t even hear him (a gutting moment that I consider indicative of the general dynamic between them throughout the book).

Now, we get to Rainbow’s comments about Baz “settling for Simon.” I feel this. Simon is pushing Baz away and giving Baz basically nothing, and that is not a healthy dynamic. Baz is going through his own crap and self-doubt and self-acceptance, and Simon is not there for him apart from fits of jealous rage. As we learned in Carry On, it takes a lot for Baz to even feel remotely comfortable expressing his feelings for Simon, and with many months lacking that, it starts to wilt. 

What’s next: Prologue and AWTWB

Of course, the moment of truest communication in the second book comes at the very end:

“Why can’t you just admit that you’d be happier here?” “Why can’t you see that I wouldn't be happier anywhere without you?” (353)

I think the key to understanding what might come after this agonizing moment lies with Simon’s thoughts as he sits alone on the beach.

Before Baz arrives, Simon’s not thinking about his boyfriend. He’s thinking about himself. He’s contemplating his role in the World of Mage’s (hello, synopsis for AWTWB), and he’s taking a good, long look in the mirror. He’s starting to be honest about himself and accept himself (not perfectly, and I think this imperfect acceptance is reflected in his expressed desire to get rid of his wings, but he’s getting there). 

When Simon talks about Baz staying in America and being happy, Simon is not closing himself up and pushing Baz away, which he had done for so long and which caused so much miscommunication up to this point. Rather, this is a moment of true honesty on Simon’s part. 

Baz does need to learn more about himself and his vampirism. Simon recognizes this about Baz, just as Simon is trying to understand himself, too. In this moment, Simon is being true and vulnerable and speaking from a place of love. Baz refuses to self-reflect honestly and understand the truth in what Simon is saying, instead clinging to his love for Simon (without actually verbalizing that love). Throughout WS, Baz makes very stunted progress (see: his floral clothing as symbolism, being able to retract his fangs, meeting other vampires and learning about immortality and all that fun stuff), but in the end he doesn’t let himself actually think about that in any real way. Despite what Simon says, Baz has not yet “become more of who he was meant to be.” 

Importantly, this is in the “Prologue,” the beginning of the next phase in their healing and their relationship. As the balance shifts, this could be the beginning of real communication, but Simon needs to take the next step. At the end of WS, Baz is the one holding back. Baz isn’t able to accept himself honestly, so he won’t be able to fully let Simon in, either. 

Until Simon says “I love you,” they won’t get anywhere in their relationship. Simon needs to say it first, he needs to be vulnerable and honest in a way that he hasn’t been since before the Mage’s death, and Baz needs to understand those feelings in order to fully express his own. Then, I see Simon’s fully expressed love and support as a catalyst for Baz’s final self-acceptance. 

I think Simon will be unable to fully express his love for Baz until he has understood and accepted himself. However, Baz will continue to prioritize Simon/love over his own self-acceptance until either (A) Simon and Baz break up, or (B) Baz finally has confidence and security in their relationship because Simon has broken down the barriers of honesty and said “I love you.” Simon needing to say “I love you” first also gets at the idea of Simon needing to become someone that Baz deserves (per Rainbow’s words). 

So, I predict this as their path through honesty:

Simon’s self-acceptance (which starts at the end of WS)

Simon’s honesty to Baz re: love

Baz’s honesty to Simon re: love

Baz’s self acceptance

And then they will live happily ever after. The end.

*** Please let me know what you think and if this makes any sense!! ***

[a-dragons-journal]

my friend made a carrd on kin terms and wants to make sure terms are correct as they aren't that interactive with the community yet being in it for years, the url is kinform. carrd. co ( I am not sure if links work )

- and in case my tumblr messes up again I wanna stay anon

A’ight, let’s go through this!

First off, I want to say: I really appreciate the effort your friend is putting into this, including going to the effort to have other people check their work! It’s a well-organized carrd, and I appreciate that they included a lot of less well-known labels! That being said, there’s definitely quite a bit of misinformation here - which is totally understandable, the misinformation has spread unfortunately far at this point. But hey, that’s why I’m here!

Incorrect info:

- “alterhuman: a general term for anyone who identifies as non-human, whether it be 'kin or 'link” (on Terms) “Alterhuman” is a much broader term than that - “Having an identity that is alternative to the common societal idea of 'human'; a person who identifies as such.” It covers anyone who has an alternative experience to humanity, or who experiences humanity in an alternative way from “normal”. It’s intentionally an extremely vague and broad term - it covers ‘kin, ‘links, ‘heartedness/kith/synpaths, plurality, daemonism, furry lifestylers, real vampires, endels, probably voidpunk, etc.

(There’s a whole conversation to be had here about how the alterhuman community was supposed to get away from centralizing the otherkin narrative but somehow ended up with that being a huge problem anyway, with it often feeling like it’s about nonhuman identity even though it’s not - but that’s a pretty long conversation, so we won’t go there xD)

- “astral limbs: the sensation of a body part that is not there in real life ; not to be confused with phantom limbs which is used by amputees” (on Terms) Astral limbs =/= supernumerary phantom limbs =/= phantom limb syndrome. What you’re defining is supernumerary phantom limbs, not astral limbs/shifts - astral limbs/shifts are where your astral body changes to match that of your kintype, which a) doesn’t always coincide with phantom shifts, and b) requires belief in astral bodies/the astral plane in the first place, which many ‘kin don’t hold.

Supernumerary phantom limbs is the sensation of having a body part that is not and never has been physically present, as opposed to phantom limb syndrome which is referring to limbs that have been amputated. It’s not “appropriating” language from amputees or anything like that like some people have tried to claim - supernumerary phantom limbs is a medical term. Astral limbs isn’t an accurate, adequate, or necessary replacement.

- copingkin: identifying with or as anything under fictionkin or otherkin for comfort and/or coping ; also referred to as comfortkin ~ also see copinglink (from Kin) I would strongly suggest removing this; it’s not an accepted term and pretty much never has been as far as I’m aware. You’re either copinglink, someone who chose their identity for coping purposes, or otherkin who happens to have a psychological explanation, if your identity came about as an unconscious/involuntary coping mechanism.

- fictionkin: identifying with or as a fictional character or race. (from Kin) Remove “with or”; it’s identify-as. If you don’t identify as them, you’re not ‘kin. Identifying strongly with, but not as, is ‘heartedness, not ‘kin. I would also suggest swapping “race” for “species,” if that’s what you meant, since that’s a pretty loaded term out of context.

- otherkin: identifying with or as non-animal/non-human and mythical creatures ; some have their own label such as songkin. (from Kin) Remove “with or”; it’s identify-as, as above^.

- kin is often involuntarily & spiritual, if you consider yourself kin but don't do these, see hearted or synpath (from Kin) ‘Kin is involuntary, full stop, but it’s not necessarily spiritual. Nor is the distinction between ‘kin and ‘heartedness/synpaths the voluntary/involuntary aspect; it’s that ‘kin is identify-as and ‘heartedness/synpath isn’t.

- aeslink relating to anything for aesthetic reasons ~ "i am angel & palace aeslink" copinglink strongly relating with a fictional character for comfort and/or coping. (from Other) ‘Links are voluntarily choosing to cultivate an identity as something else - character, species, or otherwise. It’s still identify-as, not “relating to,” it’s just voluntary where otherkinity is involuntary. It’s not any less serious or any less identify-as. 'Linking or otherlinking is defined as “voluntarily choosing to identify as nonhuman/a fictional character or species”.

- synpaths: strongly relating to a fictional character or race that you see a lot of yourself in, but not as strong as kin. (from Other) Remove “not as strong as ‘kin”; ‘kin isn’t “relating to” something in the first place, it’s identifying as that thing. I would also suggest swapping “race” for “species,” if that’s what you meant, since that’s a pretty loaded term out of context.

- therian: identifying with or as an animal or other living thing. (from Other) Remove “with or”; it’s identify-as, as with fictionkin and otherkin.

Suggested edits:

Things that aren’t necessarily wrong, but which I would suggest edits to anyway for clarity/accuracy.

- awakening: the moment one realizes they identify as a kintype/theriantype (from Terms) I would posit that an awakening isn’t necessarily a single moment in time; much more often it’s an extended process that can take weeks, months, or even years. There’s some overlap between “awakening” and “questioning” that way, imo.

- They also said “theriantype” multiple times where it should be “theriotype,” but that’s more of a typo thing than a content error.

- otherkin: identifying with or as non-animal/non-human and mythical creatures ; some have their own label such as songkin. (from Kin) Songkin is probably not a great example if this is intended for outsiders who are new to the terminology, since conceptkin is kind of hard to explain to begin with, but that’s my personal opinion.

- Cladotherian, therian, theriomythic, and phytanthrope should all be on the ‘Kin page, as they all technically fall under ‘kin.

-  identity/ID, kinnie & kinning won't be added as they are terms created by the more newer kin community and aren't recognized/accepted terms for older kin, though some older kin may be okay with these terms. (from Terms) Personally, I don’t like calling them “the newer kin community” - the “kin for fun” people aren’t ‘kin, they’re misusing our language, that’s the entire point. “The “kin-for-fun” community” or just “terms being warped as part of misinformation” would probably be more accurate.

- Synpath can probably be included on the ‘hearted page, since synpath, kith, and otherhearted are basically all synonymous.

Suggested additions:

- A resources list may be worthwhile! Things like personal websites and perhaps a few trustworthy blogs/posts could be worth adding to that list (I have a kin resources tag here that may be useful to them if they want to do that!) This gives people a place to go if they want to learn more.

- The term otherlinker is probably a good one to add, given that copinglinker and a specific type of ‘link (aeslink) are both present but the larger umbrella term presently isn’t.

Out of curiosity:

not edits at all, I’m just curious, ha

- kintrope: a trait found in most of ones kintypes. (from Terms) I’m really curious where they found this term, it’s not one I’ve heard before!

I think that’s about all I can find - like I said, I really appreciate the effort being put into this carrd! There’s a lot of good terms on here, just some definition fixes that need to be made - it’s well-organized and very aesthetically pleasing, which is more than I can honestly say for a lot of carrds xD

Hopefully that’s all clear enough to be helpful - I’m more than happy to chat further about this or provide clearer definitions/suggested resources, if your friend wants! :3

[petri808]

Bakudeku canon divergent, vampire quirk AU

1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24

If he’d remembered the map’s, he’d checked out before coming correctly, the lake was less than a quarter mile beyond the tree line from where he stood in the clearing. There was a small farming village west of the lake, and it was maybe another couple miles next to the dam. Bakugou was certain that the authorities had canvased the town as well as surrounding areas, but if he was lucky, they’d missed something or someone that saw something that day that could aid in his search. Either way, it was another starting point.

After hiking to the nearest village, Bakugou sought out their small police station. The place maybe had two officers on duty per shift, and three shifts rounding out a day. For major cases, detectives were brought in from the next larger city. It was the epitome of small and very common in the more rural areas of Japan. Because of his notoriety, the authorities knew who he was, but luckily had no idea that he wasn’t a part of the task force.

“I’m doing follow ups,” he did his best to sound official and reign in his temper. “Making sure that no one reported seeing the hero called Deku?” The officer shook his head. “So, no strange events from April twenty-seventh?”

“Strange? Not on that date, but the next day, there was an attack on a citizen. They claimed that they were ambushed late in the evening but could not give any description. The man is a known drunkard and we assumed he was intoxicated and hallucinating until we saw the marks on his arms.”

“Like scratches?”

“No, they looked like an animal bit him. He swore he hadn’t been drinking, but when we made contact, he was still slurring his words and out of it as if he was.”

‘Not very strange but okay,’ Bakugou made a mental note. “Anything else?”

“Two days after that, a woman reported seeing an unusual green streak in the sky.”

Green?! That peaked Bakugou’s interest. “What direction was it going in?”

The man shrugged, “we didn’t ask because we assumed that she just saw a meteor or something going through the atmosphere.”

“Ugh!” he palmed his face. “I need to speak with her immediately. That could be a clue.” Bakugou proverbially rolled his eyes at the thought. ‘Bet the pro searchers didn’t think to ask these kinds of questions.’ Of course, if all you ask is a closed ended, ‘did you see x’ kind of question you’ll only get a yes or no answer. If Midoriya was on the run, he would be a fool to show himself so easily to citizens. So, the clues would lay in the minor details.

“Certainly,” the desk sergeant responded. “I will have an officer take you to her home.”

It was nice not having to walk or use his quirk unnecessarily. A patrol officer drove him to the edge of the town where the woman lived in a small cottage on her farming property. The home was a half mile from the main town and without streetlights, the night would be much darker with a better vantage point to see any phenomena in the sky. While the officer waited in the car with the hero’s belongings, Bakugou knocked on the woman’s door. When she answered, he introduced himself and asked her to tell him any details she could recall from the night of the green streak.

According to the older farmer woman, the light appeared to have originated from the forest bordering her farm and headed in an easterly direction. She pointed in the direction and Bakugou surmised it could be in the direction of Tokyo, but it was too general to know for sure.

“But how do you know it wasn’t a meteor or something naturally occurring?” Bakugou questioned the woman.

She smiled, “Young man, I have seen many in my lifetime and they always travel at a steady pace against the horizon. This one started off slower then sped up. In fact, right before it would have been over the town, it’s speed increased and moved so fast it disappeared in the blink of an eye.”

As if ‘it’ worried about being seen by the townsfolk, Bakugou realized. “And ma’am, are you sure it was a green colored light?”

Again, she nodded and smiled, “like a copper fire streaking through the sky.”

It took a moment for Bakugou to realize what the woman meant. Copper produced a greenish flame when burned, and green was also the color of Midoriyas quirk.

“One last question,” Bakugou asked. “Is there anything else you can think of, or anything in the area you saw the light coming from such as abandoned buildings, any cave systems, or maybe strange animal activity around that time?”

“Why yes! There’s an old abandoned mine in that part of the forest. There are probably still tunnels. My grandfather once worked them until it was closed down.”

Bakugou thanked the woman for her information and told the officer to wait for him while he checked out the mine, but the officer explained he needed to get back to town.

“I can come back around dark once I finish work and pick you up,” the man offered. “That would give you about four hours to do what you gave to do.”

“Yeah, that’ll work. Can you hold onto my stuff?”

“Sure, I’ll just take it to the station.”

“Perfect.” Bakugou agreed. He’ll probably need to stay the night anyway before moving on.

Once the patrol officer was gone, the hero blasted his way towards the forest in the direction the woman had provided to him. She’d told him that the area might be overgrown in many places, but the last time she’d been there, she remembered an old utility shed still standing. And sure, enough the growth was quite dense with little snippets of human structures peeking through the brush. Bakugou first found the entrance to the mine shaft but saw no evidence of activity such as disturbances in the dirt, no footprints, or signs of a campfire, anything that would suggest a human had been using it as a shelter. Next, he moved onto the shed the woman told him about and saw that the structure was still standing. Not surprising from what he could see of the material. Red pine was a strong type of wood resistant to mold, suitable for this kind of environment.

That’s where he saw the first glimpses of activity. Bakugou knelt and touched the recently disturbed earth in front of the shed’s door. Despite being around a month old, the dense tree canopy had protected the footprints and scuff marks from washing away. He moved into the small structure itself, gauging it was approximately eight feet wide by 10 feet deep. The walls were lined with broken shelves, some still holding a myriad of rotting, rusting tools, or other junk left behind. Nothing of real use, even if…

Bakugou’s eyes fall onto a jumbled pile of rags left on a shelf near the entrance. The lighting was poor, but when he got closer, he saw the red spots of dried blood. His breathing slowed, could it be? “Were you injured Deku?” He mumbled to himself as he picked up and turned the rags over in his hands to inspect them. It wasn’t a lot of blood, couldn’t have been very life-threatening injuries, but still, seeing the evidence made his blood boil. “Reckless idiot!” Bakugou screamed. “Where the fuck are you?!”

Of course, there was no way for him to confirm the blood was Midoriya’s and not some passing vagrant in the area. So, he kept searching the ruins of the building. If his friend had sheltered there, maybe he’d left something else behind, just a trace to confirm it was in fact Deku. He found a small burned-out area on the ground with remnants of a fire, including animal bones perhaps from a meal? There were other disturbances on the dirty shelves from a previous person rummaging around the left-over junk, but nothing more. Talk about frustrating!

No, wait… Bakugou zeroed in on a tiny scrap of fabric partially obscured by a shelf as if it had fallen and been pushed underneath by accident. It was only a quarter-size of his palm, and the torn piece of fabric wasn’t discolored which meant it hadn’t been there long. ‘This looks like a piece of his uniform,’ Bakugou surmised. It matched the green color Midoriya wore. Now he had a torn fabric the same color of Deku’s uniform, the green streak seen in the sky shortly after the battle, and the recent blood on rags. Circumstantially, it was good enough to convince Bakugou that this had been his friend and the man really was still alive and on the run.

“See!” Bakugou raged to himself in that empty forest. “Stupid idiots! I should’ve been out here looking sooner not them! Who else would know Deku better than me?!” ‘Tch,’ those fools in the task force didn’t know anything considering the woman told him no one else had talked to her before him. What took him less than a day to find, was more evidence than the authorities had found in a whole month of searching!

Originally, Bakugou had planned to stay in the area, but if he believed this promising information, Midoriya was heading back east. ‘Hopefully back home.’ Three weeks had passed since this woman’s claim of a green streak, so either Midoriya hadn’t arrived back in Shizuoka, or he was still hiding out somewhere. Either way this was promising; something better than nothing at all. So, he took the officer up on the offer to stay the night at a small inn they hooked him up with, but bright and early the next morning Bakugou caught the bus out of town heading in the direction the woman provided. ‘I’m coming Deku…’

[sweetwritertanya]

Dressed Up For Halloween (SeokJin)

Summary: At a friend’s Halloween party, you end up meeting the handsome guy you had been hooking up with lately. Your sexy costume leads him to you once more.

Warnings: SMUT! All the BTS fics revolving around this ‘Dressed up for Halloween’ series will be smut, I think. One for each member! So, for this one there will be: erotic body touching, grinding, unprotected sex (figures...!), straddling with girl on top, missionary position.

Word Count: 3037

To say your outfit of choice was risky would be an understatement. Not so much for the context of the costume itself, but more so for the careful maneuvering it would have to be involved throughout the night. Maybe you should reconsider drinking at the party.

The red sequence fabric hugged your curvaceous figure delectably, falling from your wide hips down to just above your ankles. You thought the strapless dress would be difficult to handle because you would be pulling the top over your chest the whole night, but it turns out it was very much secured around your larger breasts. The problem would be the very high slit on the side of your right leg, exposing the smooth skin seductively, but also being so high up that a miscalculated step forward could end up with you flashing your lacey black underwear to everyone.

Sighing, you realized you would have to be careful the entire time at the party. Or drink so much you wouldn’t even care about it and wouldn’t remember it the next day either. One of the two.

Make-up and hair already done, you put on your black strap high-heel sandals and your purple evening gloves, all the way up to your elbows. A look in the mirror and you smile proudly at how good it all looked together. No one would have any trouble recognizing who you were dressed up as for Halloween at the party.

Picking up a long warm coat that would cover you up on the ride there and a small clutch overfilled with things you deemed necessary, you call a cab and take it to your friend’s house where the party was held.

“Y/N! You finally made it!” your friend squeals as she opens the door for you to come in, hugging you and evidently already tipsy, with a glass of something in her hand.

As you scan the populated living room just next to the entryway, your eyes meet with a tall, broad-shouldered individual you had been hoping – actually, more than that, craving – to meet today. And you couldn’t be more glad that the coatrack was just in view of said man. He had noticed you too and you smile knowingly as you undo the belt of your coat and let it fall down your arms, feigning ignorance to how wide his eyes got and how his mouth fell open.

You ask your friend where to get a drink and she takes you to the table where the drinks were. Grabbing a cup, you take a few sips as you lean against the table and make small, uninterested conversations with the guys that came up to you with hungry eyes and a slick talk. They weren’t worth two cents of your attention, not when you had your mind set on a particular man.

“I confess. It was me” a voice suddenly whispers against your ear, not too dark nor too bright.

You turn just in time to see Jin resting against the table next to you, a small smile on his plump pink lips and a drink in his hands, a big glass only half-full. He was sporting a black suit with straight leg pants and a notch lapel jacket, with a white leafy stitching on the right side, on top of a white shirt with ruffled detail at the collar and down the front. Long black hair parted sideways, long fringe styled to curve just above his eyes, he looked absolutely ravishing.

“What was?” you ask back, as if you had not been completely struck by the man’s presence and his undeniable effortlessly beauty.

“I did it. I framed Roger Rabbit.”

You chuckle, shaking your head as your eyes fall back on the living room ahead. You should have known he would make some kind of joke about you being dressed as Jessica Rabbit. He loved his word play and silly anecdotes.

“Well then, I suggest you turn yourself in, Mister…”

You realize then that he seemed to be in perfectly normal clothes, you couldn’t think of any character he would be trying to imitate with the outfit. But this was a themed Halloween party, everyone was dressed up as something.

“What are you suppose to be, anyway?” you give in and ask.

“What? Isn’t it obvious?” he stands on his feet, body turned to you and gestures to himself with his hands, as if that would help you understand. Although you much appreciate the opportunity to eye him up and down bluntly, you end up shrugging your shoulders at him. He huffs and pouts in discontentment. “I’m a vampire! A modern one.”

“And how is anyone supposed to know that? Where’s the teeth? The blood?” you defend yourself, laughing at his mild crossness.

“I don’t like the feeling of having fake teeth in my mouth. And I tried to add blood at the corner of my lips, but it would smudge and get on my teeth. I want to keep my smile perfect, thank you very much” he explains, returning to his spot next to you against the table and looking at the party as you were. “By the way, I don’t think I can turn myself in today. The police officer seems to be busy hooking up with… is it a unicorn?”

“God, I hope that’s a pink unicorn” you exhale, scrunching your nose up as you see them by the corner of the living room going at it.

He agrees and moves his body facing yours to set his glass on the table, making the fabric of his jacket brush your uncovered upper arm and face just low enough to be in perfect reach for your lips. You fight the goosebumps and the tremble creeping up your spine, but as he raises back up, he stares perceptively at you with the corners of his mouth tugging up. In retaliation, knowing he was doing it on purpose, you straighten up and cross your legs, the slit falling open and showcasing the plump skin of the leg you cross on top of the other.

Jin swallows hard as he can’t quite look away from your delightful figure, the smallest thread of black underwear showing at the very top of the slit. He clears his throat and forces himself to look away, noticing in the meantime how other bold eyes were set on your exposed bulky leg.

“Care to join me at my private quarters, Miss Rabbit?” Jin suddenly asks, standing up again and holding his hand out for you.

“Please, call me honey bunny” you tease as you take his hand and let him guide you through the house. “Although, how do you have ‘private quarters’ on a house that’s not your own? Hum?”

Quietly rushing up the stairs without anyone noticing, or at least he hopes so, Jin opens one of the many doors and pulls you both into a room, closing the door behind him and grabbing the key that was on the inside of the door’s keyhole.

“When you have a key, you always have private chambers, honey bunny” he declares, using said key to lock the door.

“Must be the thousands of years of experience you have over me, that make you so unbelievably intelligent, mister vampire” you propose, throwing your arms around his large shoulders with a poised smile. This was what you had been looking forward to all day.

“Must be” he agrees, surrounding your plushy waist with his arms, hands placed at your lower back. “We seem to always end up here, you and me.”

It was true. Somehow, the two of you were always drawn together, pulled to one another by an invisible force. From the first meeting that ended up with personal numbers exchanged, to the second meeting that ended with a chaste peck. To the third and the fourth and the fifth, pecks and kisses and raging hormones that you thought would be over by now taking over.

But it was only that, hook ups and seductive indulgences. They were seldomly planned, the universe working in your favor and making you two meet often. The problem lies with how it was supposed to mean nothing. Just two adults having a good time. And you were so scared of losing even that if you asked for anything more.

“So it seems. I say, whatever happens, happens.”

To prevent him from saying more, avoiding anything that could ruin the moment, you lean forward and capture his lips with yours. Jin avidly responds and soon your mouths melded together making it impossible to distinguish one from another, his lips covering and tasting yours, your lips nipping and tracing his soft ones. Your gloved hands clasp at the longer strands of hair at the nape of his neck while his pull your fluffy body impossibly closer to his tall slim one, a hand at the middle of your back and the other at your plentiful rump, squeezing the malleable flesh there.

Impatient, you slowly start to push him in the direction of the bed, making him fall into the mattress with a bounce. Jin sits and watch with hooded eyes as you slowly take off your gloves and then start to unzip the red dress. The top half descends first, showcasing your strapless black lace bodysuit, a piece you bought just for this particular night. Pulling the fabric of the dress that had gotten stuck at your wide stomach and hips, your force it down your legs until it pooled at your feet.

The gulp that moves Jin’s Adam’s apple up and down his throat does not go unnoticed by you, nor does the way his lustful eyes take in every inch of you with burning desire, nor the stiff bulge pressing against his pants. The fact that your bountiful body could provoke such strong reactions from this sin of a man was a confident boost you were getting rapidly hooked on.

Slowly, you straddle his lap with your knees on each side of his hips on the mattress, your eyes set intensely on his as your hands removed his jacket. You wanted to remove his shirt too, but your impatience must have been contagious, for Jin latched his mouth to yours with savage intensity and pulled you down to him, making you grind on his groin and short-circuiting your brain with how good it felt. You moan and throw your head back as you grind on him again, purposefully this time, Jin taking advantage of the angle to suck on your neck and bite at your pulse point as if he was a real thirsty vampire.

Your skin singing and heart hammering loudly in your ears, strong currents of unadulterated lust spiking at your heated core, you try to remove his shirt while he busies himself with staining the skin of your shoulders, but that’s when he grabs you by the wrists and leans back just enough to look at you in the eyes, mere inches away from your face. His cheek, ears and neck are red and eyes glistening with tamed need.

“If… If we are doing this again” he whispers, hot minty breath mixed with some fruity alcohol hits your face “we need to make it clear. Make it official. I really like you, Y/N. More and more these days. So… be my baby, Y/N. Be with me.”

Time stands still as you look at one another, you with astoundment and him with vulnerability.

“You… you’re asking me to be your girlfriend? On Halloween? At my friend’s house party?”

“I… I admit it’s not the most conventional place or time to do this, but I really-”

You shut him up with a searing kiss that steals his breath away, lips hot and open as tongues mingle together and sink into each other in a passionate dance. Your hands return to the buttons of his shirt and you sense the desperate way he struggles with undoing his cuffs around your back. Soon enough, you are touching his beautiful toned skin and the shirt is thrown to the floor with little grace.

“Is- Ahh… - Is this a yes?” he questions as you assault his statuesque neck.

Smiling, you lean back and take his face in your tiny hands.

“Yes. Yes, Jin, I would like to be your girlfriend.”

Immediately smiling back, mouths search for one another once again as the little clothes that remain are slowly being removed from each other’s bodies. You easily forget where you are, why you should be careful. The sounds that leave your parted lips as he plays and teases your naked breasts would be much to loud if you remembered this was not your house and there were a bunch of people downstairs. Thankfully, the music must have been loud enough to smother your moans and mewling.

You only leave his lap once, to take the remaining of the bodysuit off your body and leaving you completely bare for him. Satisfied with the animalistic grunt and facial expression overflowing with desire, you help him get rid of his boxers too. The tall erection springs up from the fabric and stands flushed against his lower belly, red and angry. Pulsating with the beat of his heart.

Your insides trembled and clenched at the sight, the few times you have done this before a reminder of how heavenly it would feel to have him inside.

As if reading your mind, Jin pulls you in back to his lap and you both shudder and gasp as your slick scorching womanhood makes the first contact with his hard shaft. It’s only a slight brush, but it sets a volcano on fire.

Grasping the most he could of your ass checks in his hands, feeling the dimples in your skin against the tip of his fingers, Jin takes control and leads you down onto him, slowly, inch by inch, watching your welcoming pussy taking him in. It’s a vision that makes him so mad with lust that he closes his eyes and reminds himself to breathe, taking a second to control himself once he is fully enclosed by you.

You are clawing his shoulders and arching your back as he stretches you out deliciously, his cock inside you throbbing, filling you entirely and the tip nestled perfectly right up against your cervix. It was like he was made for you, or maybe you were made for him. You both were made for each other like separated pieces of a two-piece puzzle.

Even though you were technically the one on top, it was with ease that you fall into Jin’s control, his hips being the ones moving back and then back up with increasing speed, one hand still at your ass cheek and the other at your plush waist, helping your move with him. The position had you both flushed against one another from hip to shoulder, your sweating bodies sliding together with ease. Your chest is pressed against his, your hot breath hits his face while his does the same to you, half-lidded and hazy eyes staring at one another whenever they didn’t close at a particular deep pleasurable lunge.

The room is much too warm for October and all it could be heard was the squeaking of the mattress, the heavy breathing from both of you and the slickness of your joining bodies, over and over and over again, growing faster and faster.

The edge was right there, right at your feet, the molten lust sizzling in your abdomen about to erupt, white hot flashes tearing through you as the tension keeps on building up, his hard length pressing against a pressure point deep inside that sends sparks radiating through your body. Jin’s hips snap forward harder and faster and your orgasm is a step away, but you need the extra stimulation to reach it. So, you take one of the hands that was holding on for dear life to Jin’s shoulder and try to slide it down your bodies, to where you were joined.

Distracted by your movements, Jin slow downs and realizes what you need. Before you know it, you are flipped around and end up with your back to the mattress, Jin still flushed against you and amazingly still linked together at the pelvis. He smiles at you, that perfect smile that melts your heart, with sweaty skin and damp hair sticking to his scalpel.

“Don’t worry, baby. I got you” he says.

He kisses your already bruised lips from all the kisses from before, a deep and loving kiss, just as he starts thrusting again. This time, the rhythm increases in speed much faster than before, this position giving him better friction to snap his pelvis just right against your own again and again, dirty and deep until you are right at the edge once more in record time, your walls pulsating rapidly around his dragging cock, begging for release.

That’s when he leans back, takes his own hand in between your bodies and, keeping up the feral pace, finds your clit and mercilessly jiggles it with his thumb, at the same time his shaft hits deep inside at that perfect angle.

You break apart in a cracking squeal, your back arching off the bed and hands clawing the sheets, mouth hanging open with your eyes closed as absolute bliss crashes into your body. Your legs squeeze at his hips tightly before giving out completely, all of the accumulated tension from before washes away by the waves of pure unmatched relief.

Grunting, Jin’s hips lunge in a more frenzied movement as he feels your walls collapsing on him, almost like sucking him in. It’s all too much and his body jolts and burn under the unbelievable heat, something dropping in his stomach as he stiffs completely while releasing his thick ropes of cum into your womb, only to sag down on top of you, boneless and spent. Your plump body warmly welcomes his weight, a world of comfort enveloping him.

“This… this was the best Halloween ever” he breathes out against the skin of your neck once he can talk again.

“I would have to agree” you concur, chuckling a bit.

[kryptsune]

Kit’s OC Time {Part 2}

🌼So I got this wonderful ask from @chocolatetwix and I got super excited. There is a lot here so I just decided to make a huge post about it. That and I can save it and work on it too so that’s a bonus. You can’t really do that with asks. This will be in a couple different parts so that it’s not too overwhelming!

Let’s continue! 

Costume/ CC: Back in my DA days I used to draw a lot of animals and I had a fursona as well. Now I am not sure if I am going to keep her or not but I do actually still like her design. I might just tweak it a tad.

I have an incredible piece of artwork from Nukerooster of her and I just need to share. Go check them out as well (>>>LINK HERE<<<) 

Akuma: Another fluffy boy but I have this OC named Akuma, original... I know. He will most likely make an appearance in my Hell world once I re work him a bit. Basically he was a demon that caused a lot of Chaos and havoc but messed with the wrong village. Mid transformation he got a blessed sword rammed through his chest keeping him that way until the sword is released. It also perpetually bleeds, never heals, and drains his power. Poor demon baby boy. Also I realize that he is old... but like... I still love his design if that is even possible. He used to be red in color which I will post and then I redrew him a few years ago to see how he would look more current. Now he is teal ish. 

Nuke also did this incredible one of Akuma. 

Because of my major I sometimes randomly come up with cute RPG character designs and I really wanted to do one of little monster animals. I created this little guy during one of my classes. 

Spip: He is a little vampire ghost bunny. The cross shaped vile around his neck is filled with his HP restore (Blood) If you have a lot the vial will be full but if you don’t have enough it will deplete over time. Poor little Spip just wants to be friends with people but because of what he is they run away. He is kind of my homage to Bunicula if anyone remembers that book. I have ideas for his little buddies too like a Frankenstein cat and so forth. Just a cute little idea.

Lastly we have the Infernum (name will probably change I am kind of thinking about calling it Twisted Otherworlds or just Otherworlds) cast which is even larger than the Hell side and I don’t even want to think about that right now X’D It is a little overwhelming. What I do have however are some of the designs I made for them, costume wise. This was back during my fashion degree projects. Think realms with twisted fairytale characters that happen to used to be real people from different periods in time. This is the point I really started to dig into the horror genre and it kind of shows though looking back I think I always kind of have been... 

The story is basically a fairytale romp and during the day light hours it’s perfectly fine all zanny and fun but at night is a whole other story. You see the souls that live in these Realms used to be living breathing people. The only thing is that if you end up here though you lose all memory of that life. The Madness which is like a magical curse infects these souls and turns them into their own personal fears or horrors. It’s all back story based and intense so I won’t go into it. There are different monsters and characters and even though it’s an older idea I do think it still has a lot of potential. The realms of the Muses so to speak. Their day and night are switched as well so no matter where you are in the world you dream in the daylight and it’s night there soooo your usually going to get a pretty lucid horrifying nightmare but if you sleep during the night time you will have good dreams. Just don’t fall asleep during the day light hours X’D 

Anywhoo! Here are some of my favorites and again these are really old so their designs will be tweaked for the long run. I also apologize for the quality the actual PSD files are not on my laptop so I have to settle with the project photos I took a long time ago. In order you have the Rae the Black Rabbit, Lucian the Hatter, Ace the Cheshire Cat, Crow (probably change the spelling) the Scarecrow, The Woodsman, and one of Pan’s Lost Boys. I also included the top hats I made for them because I still think they are pretty neat!

There are also some REALLY old designs for the Twisted Otherworld characters. They had more of an anime flair to them. That said there are a couple characters that I want to share since they are actually important despite the artwork being older than Methuselah. 

Maximillian March/ Mad March: Crazy March Hare? I think so. He is a puppet master of sorts in the story and I have to redraw him but he has these deep swirly eyes and sharp teeth. (huh... looks like that design choice happened a long time ago... WELP)

Tweedles: One of my friends was able to pick this out immediately but yea... these are the Tweedles. Their nightmarish 1910′s gas mask Orwellian horror cyborg versions anyway. I have a full image of Dee somewhere that I need to find... (edit) AH there he is... btw I was like 15 when I did this design so I gotta question what the heck was going through my brain.. unless it was that Doctor Who episode with the children that just freaked me out... yeah.. that was probably it. Are those real organs and muscles you ask... yes... yes they are.

[name-me-regret]

Once in a Lifetime

Once in a Lifetime

- ~ - ~ - ~ - ~

“A summer rain is passing over And it feels like a dream I could run and look for shelter But you hold onto me

I'm under your skies I'm caught in your eyes Don't you know you stop the room And all that I can see is you I'm standing where the lightning strikes I know this doesn't happen twice You must be my once in a lifetime, in a lifetime You must be my once in a lifetime”

~ Once in a Lifetime - Landon Austin

- ~ - ~ - ~ - ~

In the world there were instances that a person could and would be born with “special abilities”. There were witches (or wiccans), but also vampires and werewolves. One of the rare abilities was the shifter abilities, where a seemingly normal human could change into an animal. There is no explanation as to why a child is born with this ability, and at times a baseline child can be produced from a shifter couple, or a shifter child can come from two baseline humans.

For cases like this, shifter children are usually given up. While it was a harsh reality, it was sadly something normal in society. The shifter children were given up to a separate branch in CPS that dealt with children with special abilities. That’s the thing that was normally done, but at times kids like these are in danger of their own family and are either abused or even abandoned on the side of the road, or other perilous locations.

Whether this was done by the parents out of some feeling of shame or disgust over having birthed such a child is unclear, but this was reality. At times, fewer than 50% of shifter children ever make it to puberty, and even fewer into adulthood.

- ~ - ~ - ~ - ~

Itasca State Park, Minnesota - July 1996

Evan giggled as he ran, stumbling a few times over the roots of a huge tree that was taller than him and was likely taller than even his daddy. “Mads, look!” Evan cried as he found some little white flowers.

Maddie had been playing with him earlier but she had suddenly gotten very sleepy and their dad had carried her to the car. Evan still felt with a lot of energy and wanted to keep playing. Margaret was watching him as well as sporadically glancing around. Now, she approached him as he called out.. “What is it Evan?” she asked with that impatient tone he was use to.

The little boy shrank away as he lowered his head. “Foun’ flowers,” the four year mumbled, lifting up one of the white flowers he’d found. He knew his sister would be interested in the flowers and not just brush him off like his parents.

“Little boys shouldn’t like flowers, Evan,” Margaret snapped. She grabbed his hand and started to lead him further into the forest, away from the marked trail. “Come on, I’ll show you what little boys should like.” He didn’t protest, even if the hold on his hand was too tight and hurt. It was best to keep quiet. They never hit him, so there was that at least, not like little Suzy who was taken away from her parents. Even then, Evan knew they were not very nice parents.

They’d soon lost sight of their campsite and Evan looked up at the trees that surrounded them with his mouth hanging wide open. There was a small creek bed from there and a little cave that would likely be the best place to hide. He’d always loved playing hide and seek with Maddie, since he didn’t really have many friends. Mostly, the kids from the neighborhood stayed away from him.

Maddie had explained that it was because he was different. He hadn’t known what she meant until last month he had been playing with a little boy across the street. They’d been wrestling and tumbling around, and then Evan had felt something change within him and that then made him change on the outside.

His friend had screamed at suddenly having a wolf cub on top of him, before shoving him away and running home crying. Evan’s excitement had shriveled up and that had caused him to change back. Since his clothes hadn’t been part of his transformation, he’d ended up naked and his mother, who had come outside to see what all the screaming had been about, dragged him inside. When she found out that he had shifted, their treatment of him had gotten even worse.

The news that he was a shifter had spread throughout the neighborhood. They had already been the talk of the town since Philip and Margaret had Evan so he could be a bone marrow match for their son Daniel, who had died anyways. Now, this was the last straw and their parents decided it was time to move, and they’d loaded everything into a moving truck and sent it ahead of them.

Before that, they’d announced that they were going on a family trip first. So they’d set off and driven for almost a whole day until they’d reached Minnesota. The children had been asleep when they’d gotten to the park, but as soon as they woke up, their father having set up their tent in what appeared to be a remote campsite, their mom sleeping from driving for most of the night.

Maddie and Buck had played before they’d been called to eat, Margaret awake by that point and she’d made a pitcher of kool-aid for Evan and Maddie. Evan had mostly eaten and barely drank from the sippy cup he still had to use. Maddie had fallen asleep at the picnic table not too long after that. “Mommy, we go?” Evan asked her. She had let go of his hand quickly after they’d stopped and he missed it. This was the first time she’d touched him since that moment a month ago when he had changed. Evan didn’t know why or how he had been able to change, just the feeling he’d felt and that it was somehow a bad thing.

“Soon, Evan,” she told him. Her voice had taken a strange detached tone and he turned to look at her. She wasn’t looking at him, but around them at the trees that surrounded them. “First, we’re going to play a game.”

“A game?” Evan asked, starting to get excited.

“Yes. We’re going to play hide and seek,” she said as she turned to look at him at last, a tight smile on her face. “You like that game, don’t you?”

“Yeah!”

“Good!” Margaret said, giving a clap. “Now, I’m going to close my eyes and you’re going to go hide, and then I’m going to come find you.”

Evan cheered happily, since this would be the first time his mommy had ever played with him. So, he was excited to get started. The only problem about playing was that he still didn’t know how to count past five. That meant that he could never be the one to find, just hide. That meant that no one besides Maddie had ever played with him.

“Go ahead,” she encouraged with that smile that made Evan uneasy. At the moment he didn’t let it affect him, since the excitement of playing hide and seek pushed it aside. “One, two...”

Evan giggled and rushed off and as she watched, he shifted mid run as he left his clothes behind as Margaret trembled at the sight. She stepped back as her son, or the thing that had once been her son, yipped happily as it ran around. Then he ran out of sight down the ravine and she heard the wolf cub splashing in the water.

Margaret moved forward, grabbing the discarded clothes, and then turned and ran in the direction she had come, the sounds of her son turned wolf being left behind. She never looked back.

The sun was starting to set as Evan played and splashed around in the water that Evan realized that it was really quiet and that he hadn’t heard his mommy coming to find him. Honestly, he’d gotten distracted from finding the creek that he’d forgotten they were playing hide and seek. He ran back the way he came, or at least, where he thought he had come. It was starting to get darker, and it was darker being surrounded by all those trees. Evan started to whine in fear as he looked around, but there was no one there.

Evan howled, hoping that his mother and father would hear him. He howled for his sister Maddie, the only one that he was sure loved him anymore. ‘Maddie! Help, m’lost!’ he howled.

No one answered him. Evan was alone; in the woods and the dark night.

- ~ - ~ - ~ - ~

The four year old quickly learned that he was warmer when he was changed, so he concentrated everything he could into always being changed into the other shape. It was a good thing he was, since the next day he happened upon a wolf. He cowered away from the large beast as it sniffed at him, preparing to be bit or worse.

So, he was confused as it suddenly sneezed and then licked him across the face, making Evan fall back. Then he gave the equivalent of a giggle which was more of a yip as the wolf started to groom him. The boy quickly realized that the wolf wasn’t going to hurt him and after a few moments he started to run around the larger wolf, his tail wagging madly without even realizing it. The wolf reminded him of his sister Maddie and that comforted him. Maybe the wolf would keep him safe until he was able to get home to his sister.

As the wolf picked him up by the scruff of his neck and carried him off, he wasn’t worried. After all, Maddie would find him, Evan was sure of it. He just had to remember what she always told him to remember.

He was Evan Buckley, and his sister was Maddie Buckley. Evan couldn’t really pronounce his last name too well yet, but as long as he remembered it then he’d be fine.

‘Evan Buck... Mads Buck,’ he recited in his head. Evan would remember. He wouldn’t forget.

- ~ - ~ - ~ - ~

Pennsylvania- July 1996

Maddie had fallen asleep. She wasn’t supposed to fall asleep, because it was her job to take care of her brother, and now he was gone. She’d fallen asleep, not even remembering when they’d left the campsite. All she knew was that somewhere in a gas station in Chicago Evan had some how undone his restraints and wandered off while she’d been asleep. At least that’s what her parents had told her, but it didn’t make any sense.

Evan didn’t know how to take off his restraints, no matter what her parents said. So, there was no way it had happened as they said. Also, how had she slept for so long? It didn’t make sense. The only thing that made sense was that Evan was gone.

The police were contacted and they’d searched for him, but there was no sign of him. Their parents played the part of worried parents, but Maddie didn’t believe it for a second. They’d never cared about Evan, and even more after they’d figured out he was a shifter. Then a most horrible thought had occurred to her.

Had they abandoned Evan? Had they left him at the campsite? If that was so, she wasn’t sure how she could have slept through that. So, she’d searched the car and came upon a bottle of sleeping pills. Had they drugged her? Drugged them both?

The more Maddie thought about it, the more she believed that this is what they had done. They had drugged her so she wouldn’t try and stop them. They had left him at that campsite in Minnesota, and then... then they had driven off.

Maddie had thought about telling the police, but she didn’t think they’d listen to her. Also, there was a chance that they’d take her away from her parents and she couldn’t risk being taken away in case they let slip where they had left him. So, when they’d given up the search and they’d returned to Pennsylvania, she gone into her new room, closed the door and then collapsed onto the bed and sobbed her eyes out. She cried for her little brother and her inability to protect him, and what might happen to him out there.

When she’d exhausted herself, falling into a deep sleep, she woken the next morning, washed her face and set off without telling her parents. She found the bookstore in the town and using her allowance she bought several books; one that was a guide of the states parks in the United States, and one she managed to find on the state of Minnesota. There were so many state parks in Minnesota, she knew that it would take her a while to figure out which one they had taken them too.

It wasn’t likely that they’d tell her the name if she asked, so she would have to see if they accidentally said something in private or when they thought she was asleep. Over the next few years she learned how to spy on them, and notice things more closely.

Maddie didn’t let anything distract her from this; not friends, school activities or even boys. She was single-mindedly focused on figuring out where her parents had abandoned Evan. Because when she figured this out, she would go looking for him.

Maddie was going to find her brother Evan.

- ~ - ~ - ~ - ~

Itasca State Park - April 10, 2000

Bobby wasn’t really sure what his brother hoped to accomplish by bringing him out here. He might have been excited to do this just a two years back, when his family had still been alive. Bobby would have brought Robert Jr. along, since he would have been old enough to come camping with them. The annual Nash camping/hunting trip, that him and his brother had gone on with their dad when they’d been boys, but which they hadn’t gone on since the man had died when he and his brother had been 22 and 25 respectively.

Frankly, the only reason he’d come along was that he didn’t have anything else to do. His Captain had forced him to take his vacation days after he’d come into work both drunk and high and almost crashed the fire engine. It was only because the man knew that he was a good firefighter and was still grieving the loss of his family that he hadn’t fired him on the spot. Honestly, Bobby wouldn’t have cared much and then taken that as an excuse to finally end his miserable existence.

Hell, if his brother hadn’t dragged him out of the house, he’d likely have done it by now. He might still do it, since out here in these woods was the perfect place to go missing and never be seen again. So, as his brother tasked him with getting firewood, he wandered further away than necessary from their camp to see if he could see a hill leading up and hoped that meant there was a cliff he could throw himself from. Maybe find a river to drown in.

However, as he created the hill, he found more trees and no cliff, but he did hear the sound of water nearby. He moved forward with intent but when he was a few feet away, he came upon the source. It was not one of the many lakes the park was known for, but a small creek that would likely not even come up to his knees.

“I guess not then.” He gave a wet laugh that was more of a sob, because how pathetic that he couldn’t even kill himself properly. After a moment trying to get his emotions under control, Bobby sighed and ran his hand against his face to clean the tears on his cheeks.

He paused as he thought he heard something and strained his ears, and it came more louder, the whimpering of an animal. Bobby frowned and looked around, wondering if a dog had some how ended up out there; either lost of abandoned.

For a moment he contemplated ignoring it, but something made him follow the sounds. Also, maybe it would get his mind off things.

As he pushed through some bushes, her jerked back in shock when he came upon —not a dog— but a wolf, a grey wolf to be exact. It was fairly large and if it wasn’t such a terrifying and dangerous animal, he’d think it was beautiful, majestic even.

Bobby slowly started to back away, even if at no point had it growled at him. As he did, it started to whine piteously again and that’s when Bobby realized that it’s hind leg was caught in a bear trap. From the dried blood on its fur, he could tell that it’d been there for at least a day. That meant that the wound must be infected by now, since the trap had quite a bit of rust on it.

He was surprised a bear or something else hadn’t picked it off by now, drawn by the scent of blood. It would only be a matter of time until the vultures and other carrion animals would have a meal.

“Sorry, buddy, but it doesn’t look good for you,” he told him, shaking his head. He thought of maybe doing the merciful thing and going to get one of their rifles to put the thing out of its misery. As he turned to do just that the wolf’s cries and whines got more frantic and Bobby stopped.

“Damnit,” he sighed. The beast would likely attack him the moment he set it free. While he was suicidal, there were other less painful ways to go than being torn apart by those sharp teeth. Even so, he couldn’t in good conscience let a living creature continue to suffer.

He quickly looked around for a branch and found one that was slender on one end but started to her thicker toward the other side. Then he started to approach cautiously, but the wolf didn’t growl at him and only continued to whine in pain. It seemed to be waiting him as he watched him, and Bobby thought this was such a surreal experience.

Bobby continued forward carefully all the same, and when he was close enough to the trap he crouched down slowly. He made sure to keep the wolf —mainly its maw— in his line of sight at all times. After a moment of hesitation, he started to push the branch from the thin side next to the wolf’s limb, making sure not to touch it and pushed. He pushed until it wouldn’t go further and then started to pry it open with all his strength.

When the wolf was free, he lurched out of the trap and Bobby was so startled that he let go and fell back. Luckily, the trap only caught the branch but the wind was knocked out of him. He lay there a moment, fully expecting to feel the wolf’s teeth, but after a moment with nothing happening, he sat up.

His breath caught in his throat when he realized the beast was right on top of him and he stilled as it leaned forward to sniff him. Then he felt a cold, wet tongue leave a slimy trail from chin to temple. “Ugh,” Bobby groaned, wiping at his face.

Bobby expected that to be the end of it, but then the wolf grabbed the end of his jacket sleeve in between its sharp teeth and yanked him forward. “Huh? What is it, girl?” he asked, not completely comfortable having the wolf —which Bobby now saw was female— this close, but he at least knew it didn’t mean him any harm. When she yanked again on his sleeve, he got the ludicrous idea that she was trying to lead him somewhere.

“Like Lassie, huh?” he chuckled, but figured he really and truly had nothing to lose. So, he stood up and followed after the limping wolf.

She periodically looked back to see if he was still following as she led him somewhere. As for Bobby, he marked his progress on the trees as he went so he could make it back. Well, if he made it back. For all he knew, the wolf had liked the taste of him and was leading him toward her pack so they could tear him to pieces. So, he guessed he was still suicidal after all. It’s not like too much time had passed since he’d been contemplating ways to end his life.

After about ten minutes, he was convinced the poor animal was disoriented from either her injury or fever from an infection. Bobby thought about stopping, but by this point he was invested in the whole thing, and besides she kept glancing back to make sure he was following her. He had to see where she was leading him, even if it was simply to his end.

Finally, after twenty more minutes, they made it to a cave that was little more than a hole; too small for Bobby or even the wolf to fit, and undistinguishable against the stone. There was, however, litter all around the area; empty chip bags, water bottles and soda, and other types of snacks. There was even a few tupperware containers laying abandoned nearby.

As soon as the wolf was a few steps away from the hole, whatever strength or will had been driving her seemed to evaporate and she collapsed with a whine. Bobby was about to check her over to see if he could help her somehow, but froze as he heard rustling coming from the hole. His eyes narrowed as he stared at the hole in the rock face as his body tensed and his grip tightened around the knife handle. He was ready for whatever was about to come out of that hole, or, at least he thought he was.

A head poked out of the hole, the strands of hair matted and dirty and flowing down past thin shoulders, and that was accompanied with a skinny and very naked body of a little boy —which he could tell because he was without clothes— that looked to have not been fed well. He was also filthy, his hands and feet the worse, and as he watched from his spot where he’d frozen in shock, he ran over on all fours like some animal and started to whine as he nudged at the motionless female wolf with his head.

“Mmmmma,” he whined, whimpering when he didn’t get any response from the wolf. His eyes snapped toward Bobby when he stepped toward him and he tensed up, and he was sure that if he had hackles they would be up. He was, however, growling at him as he bared his teeth. Only, he was missing some of them, probably having lost his baby teeth earlier than most due to the conditions he was living in, and Bobby wasn’t sure how long he had been there.

Suddenly, the empty chip, drink and snack wrappers made a whole lot of sense. The wolf had been feeding him, and had likely even stolen containers of food from campers that had visited the state park. Now, the wolf was hurt, probably dead, and there would be no one that would be able to take care of him.

Is that why the wolf had brought him there? So that Bobby would be able to take him?

“Hey, buddy,” he said, pitching his voice low and unthreatening. He didn’t want to scare him, or worse, drive him back into the hole where he wouldn’t be able to get him out again. He just wasn’t sure what to do to get him to not runaway as he scurried back a step whenever he tried to get closer. “I’m not going to hurt you.”

The boy’s head tilted to the side as he seemed to understand him, or at least, he thought he might. “Is the wolf your mommy? Are.... are you hungry?” He figured if the wolf had been gone for a day or several hours she’d been stuck in the trap, he hadn’t eaten. That’s likely the reason she’d been close to the campsites as she had been, and some asshole had placed a trap.

He reached into his jacket pocket slowly and pulled out a pack of cookies he had stuffed in there. His brother had insisted they eat whatever they made on the open fire, but Bobby he’d still brought some snacks the last time they’d stopped for gas. Now, he held it out for the little boy as he opened it, crouching down so he wouldn’t look so intimidating.

“Look what I have here,” he said, shaking it a bit to get his interest. “You want some?”

He needn’t have bothered, since the little boy had perked up as soon as he’d seen the cookies. The wolf had brought him enough junk food that he probably knew what it was on sight. As the little boy approached cautiously, Bobby wondered how long he’d been out there, and how he had survived. Also, why had the wolf not simply attacked him, is the question he was asking himself.

As the boy took the last few steps to get to the cookies, he suddenly changed and Bobby grunted as he fell back from the boy’s weight, the boy who was now a wolf cub as he tore into the cookies. He didn’t seem to find this weird at all, nor pay attention to Bobby who was freaking out under him. And when he was finished, he started to sniff at his pockets as he looked for more food.

Bobby swallowed as he slowly straightened into a sitting position, arms coming around to hold the furry body to keep him from tumbling off him. The wolf cub then proceeded to lick him all over his face as Bobby groaned. “You’re just like your mom,” he muttered, not the least bit weirded out referring the wolf as such. After all, she had fed and cared for him, and that’s what a mother did. Even if she was a wolf animal, she had been thr boy’s protector after his real parents had abandoned him.

There was no doubt in Bobby’s mind that this is what had happened. It was common for baseline people to abandon a shifter child. They usually have them up to CPS, but every once in a while, people were cruel enough to leave a child on the side of the road, or a state park, in this little boy’s case. As someone that had lost his children to a great tragedy, he couldn’t imagine willingly giving up a child; shifter or not.

He stood as the wolf cub shifted around in his arm, before he was situated against his chest with his panting maw over his shoulder. Meanwhile, Bobby looked at the female wolf that hadn’t moved once since she had collapsed, and he crouched beside her. He put his hand in front of its maw, and when he felt no air flow, he knew she was gone.

She had led Bobby there with her last bit of strength, on the verge of death already, but determined to lead him there to save her cub. He hated to leave her here, but there wasn’t much he could do, especially if he wanted to get the boy to come with him and not run off. So, he simply bowed his head over her and gave a prayer for the noble and brave animal.

“Don’t worry, I’ll take protect him now,” he vowed. He stood after another moment, and turned and started to walk away. The cub started to squirm again, whining in protest. He almost lost his grip on him when he shifted to his human form.

“Mma! Mma!” he cried, tears running down his face.

Bobby turned him forward to face him, shushing him gently. “It’s okay, buddy. I’m gonna take care of you now. I promise.” He wiped his dirty face of his tears, thinking he needed to get him clean soon. First, he needed to get him back to camp.

His head tilted at his words. “P....prom’s?” he said.

Bobby’s heart sped up, and wondered if he could understand him. “Yes, promise... can you speak? Do you know your name?” Even if he figured out his name, he didn’t think he’d try to get him back with his parents. They had abandoned him. Besides, his mother —that wolf more of his real mother than that bitch who had left him for dead— had entrusted Bobby with her son, and by God he was going to fight to keep him.

“N...name?” His features twisted up on concentration for a moment as if trying to remember something. “E... Ev-Evan Buck... M-Mads... Buck,” he stuttered.

Bobby was confused on the Buck part. Maybe it was a nickname. Also, what did mads mean? Maybe he was trying to say that whoever his parents were had been mad at him? Mad at Buck? It was likely that, since he knew that people were stupid and prejudice against their shifter children, who couldn’t control having this ability, just like regular baseline humans couldn’t control being baseline.

“Evan, huh?” he said as he continued to walk away from where he’d found the boy. “My name is Bobby. Don’t worry, Evan, I’ll protect you from now on.”

Evan leaned away from him and held out a small dirty hand, and held out a tiny pinky finger. “Prom’s?”

Bobby smiled and wrapped his little pinky with his own larger one. “I promise,” he swore.-

- ~ - ~ - ~ - ~

[cognitivefunk]

La Papessa and La Morte: A Courtship

@amagicalduckling​ So I hope this is alright! It’s Nova x Reader (from 2nd person POV) with Nova flip flopping dominance, with an isekai reader insert hahaha. 

Fandom:  La storia della Arcana Famiglia (otome) Pairing: Nova x Reader  Rating: E - Explicit (smut, porn with somewhat of a plot) Warnings: Blood (Vampire AU), biting, oral, secondhand embarrassment Word Count: 5,559

*Disclaimer all characters depicted in this work of fiction are 18+ images below are from the official artwork from the game (Sarachi Yomi - HuneX)

The air was warm against your skin as you walked the street at night. The soft sound of crickets and the occasional rustling of leaves from the warm summer breeze that kissed your skin were the only other sounds apart from your own footsteps on the paved flagstone ground beneath you. It was a familiar path in Regalo, one that you took almost every night on your way back home since your arrival. The days seemed to bleed together, and it was difficult to think of a time when you weren’t a part of this humble island. You weren’t from this region originally. In fact you weren’t even from this reality, having lived a perfectly normal life in modern day society before waking up in this place. Your memories were largely fragmented, and you found it easier to not dwell on the things you were unable to remember, instead focusing on your survival here.

So far, you had flown largely under the radar after the Tarocco had chosen you to host La Papessa: The High Priestess but you knew that soon you would likely be integrated into the famiglia as a member of the major arcana. You had always had a strong sense of intuition, and perhaps that’s why La Papessa had chosen you to wield the power of precognition. If only it had been a stable power. Alas, your current ability was far from perfect, and you would receive fragmented visions of what was to be. Visions that may or may not come true based on the free will of others, or outside intervention to alter the course of future. Perhaps if you trained your power you could improve the accuracy of the visions that plagued you, but it would likely prove to be a long journey ahead.

You kicked a pebble, watching it skip and dance along the path before you as you became lost in thought. Your eye caught sight of a dark alleyway, causing your body to freeze; the mark of the Tarocco tingled on your forehead, hidden beneath your bangs, and began to emit a hazy lavender and cerulean mist around you. Your bangs lifted as the power danced to life, your eyes misting over, the present melting and fading into a prospective future. You saw a young man with dark black hair which reflected blue highlights, but his eyes were a vortex of cobalt and crimson which seemed to bleed into his sharp gaze like blood on water. Usually you would see these visions as a sort of spectator, but you couldn’t help but think that his gaze was locked onto yours.

His fingers twitched at the hilt of his sword which hung from his hip, nestled against his black uniform, the crest on his collar signifying he was a member of the famiglia. The crimson continued to bleed across his vision until not a speck of blue remained, a dark shadow casting over his features as he lunged forward. You let out a silent scream and turned to run, stumbling over a curb in the road as the vision melted away, leading you back to reality where you were sprawled out on the ground after tripping over the dip from where the stone ended and faded to grass. Thankfully, you had landed on the softer of the two surfaces, but your tights had been scratched on the way down and you let out a groan of frustration knowing you would need to buy a new pair. You decided it would be best to not dilly dally around and picked up your pace on the way back home for the night.

--

Morning rays peeked through the curtains in your modest bedroom, filtering light through the room to wake you. You blinked your eyes blearily, wondering what time it was for the sun to already be peering through your room. “That vision must have really taken a lot out of me,” you mused to yourself, pushing the blankets off of you when you heard a knock at the door. It sent a small wave of panic through you since you were still in your nightgown and you hadn’t been anticipating company today. “Just a minute!” you called to the stranger outside, scrambling around your room to get dressed and make yourself decent. You multitasked by brushing your hair with one hand while digging through your dresser with the other. You decided that time was of the essence and darted to the closet to tug a dress over your head after changing into clean undergarments. You smoothed your clothes out and answered the door, a cheery smile trying to mask the embarrassment you felt from being caught sleeping in.

Your eyes trailed up to a large man with no hair and a bold mark of the arcana on his right temple and wrapped around to the back of his head. What was probably most striking was his lack of eyebrows, yet there was a tuft of hair that sat neatly on his chin. A cigar hung from his lips, and it appears he had begun smoking while waiting on you to get dressed. You had heard of a man fitting such a description and realized he must have been Dante, an esteemed member of the family who generally patrolled the seacoast. “To what do I owe the pleasure of this visit?” you asked, doing your best to use formal language, a reflex to identifying his status.

He waved a hand in a casual manner, in an attempt to lighten the atmosphere and grinned widely, his broad features softening at the simple gesture. “Good afternoon,” he placed his hand out to shake yours, and you grabbed it in what you hoped was a firm and professional handshake. It was almost comical how small your hand looked in his grasp and he let go quickly as not to prolong contact. “My name is Dante, and I am the Executive Chief of the Arcana Famiglia. Can I borrow a moment of your time?” You stood to the side, opening the door wider and waving your arm in gesture for the man to come inside. “Please have a seat; I’ll make us a cup of tea!”

As Dante sat at your small, rounded kitchen table, you turned the handle on one of the gas burners to light a fire, the clicking noise filling the silence of the room, and the fire offered a comfortable background noise. As you pulled two cups from the cupboard and sifted through your tea collection to divvy up among the cups Dante cleared his voice and began to speak once again, “I’m sorry for showing up unannounced like this, but there is something important I must discuss with you.” The kettle whistled, and you poured the hot water into the cups, allowing the tea to soak in each cup, providing a small bin to toss the tea bags away once it came to the right flavor content.

You placed sugar and a dainty teaspoon out on the table before offering Dante a cup of tea before grabbing your own and taking a seat across from him. You had known this day would come, you just weren’t sure when. Weeks ago, you had a fragmented vision of someone from the family visiting, but you weren’t able to see a face to the stranger until now. “Is it about the Tarocco?” you asked, preferring not to beat around the bush in this situation. You lifted your bangs, showing the mark that was etched into your skin, standing out starkly on your forehead, before letting your bangs cover the stigmata once more and moving to blow on your hot tea instead.

Dante made a gruff noise of agreement, nodding once and stirring his drink idly. “Indeed it is. I’ve been instructed by Papa to inform you that you are to report to the headquarters and accept your assigned role as a member of the famiglia. We will offer training on how to wield your arcana, as I’m sure you may have realized can have rather dangerous side effects if left unchecked.” His eyes were sharp, but there was warmth to them that allowed you to relax, given the situation. It was framed like a choice, but you knew better. “Will I be able to keep my house here or will I be required to move?”

You had hoped to keep your privacy and be able to commute, but this too, you assumed was not a choice. Dante looked at you sympathetically and shook his head, “I’m afraid not, especially for a new recruit, for security reasons it’s best that you pack your things and come with me. If you like, I can wait outside while you get your things,” he began to offer, not wanting to intrude too much considering he was the one in charge of uprooting you from your current way of life, but you shook your head and offered a smile. “No, it’s alright. Enjoy your tea, I don’t have many items anyway so it won’t take me long to pack my things.”

Dante smiled, sipping from the cup offered to him. “You’ll have another chance to come back and get anything you aren’t able to bring today. Normally we would give you a larger notice, but given your ability, time is of the essence.” He fidgeted slightly, and you wondered what he of all people would be nervous about. But that nagging voice in the back of your head told you it had to do with last night’s vision. The one that had been stronger than the others, and left you feeling on edge.

--

The mansion and housing quarters were expansive and your jaw dropped in awe when you were shown around your new living accommodations. It was fancier than your tiny home from before, but knowing that it didn’t truly belong to you made your heart pang for some reason. The maids were gracious and helped you put your things away while you were swept away to a large room to discuss your new job. The meeting was swift, but Mondo, Dante, and Jolly filled you in on most of the details you would need to know to get started. Sumire was also present during the meeting, primarily offering moral support, but also as a source of wisdom and comfort, having worked as a fortune teller for many years.

You learned that you were to work alongside the Cups division, but with special supervision from the intelligence division, or in other terms, Dante. You were nervous meeting so many people in one day, and it almost felt like a dream with how surreal and quickly things were moving. One minute you were sleeping in on your day off, the next you were a member of the local government and receiving duties to protect the people of Regalo. You silently cursed the arcana, which was becoming more of a plague with each passing moment than you first realized.

You came across a room that appeared to be an office of some sort with a notepad in hand to make sure you had gotten the right place. You knocked tentatively only to receive a “You’re late,” in response from the other side of the door. You turned the handle and stepped in, nearly jumping out of your skin when the owner of the voice turned around. Dark hair, which reflected blue light and reminded you of the night sky neatly framed the man’s boyish features. His sapphire eyes narrowed in annoyance at your hesitation and you stepped inside, gulping quietly and offering a handshake to cover up your nervousness.

He glanced at your hand for a moment before taking it briefly in by far the quickest handshake you have ever experienced before he let out a small sigh. “My name is Nova, and I am the head of our security division, leader of the cups. Dante has already filled me in about you, La Papessa,” his words were curt but there was  no real hostility held within them. It was like night and day when you thought of the way he had looked right through you in that disturbing vision. You looked closer, and couldn’t see any of the red in his eyes either.

The intensity of your stare caused him to furrow his brow and fidget slightly, clearly uncomfortable. “Is there something I can help you with?” his words broke your concentration and you blushed, suddenly feeling awkward. “Oh, uh, sorry for staring. You looked familiar, that’s all,” you offered a half-truth as explanation, hoping it would ease the tension. He frowned and shrugged his shoulders, “Well probably, I do patrol the area frequently, I’d be surprised if you hadn’t seen me before.”

--

Bizarre as it may be, that was the start to your stay at the headquarters of the arcana famiglia. Instead of sulking about your new situation, you threw yourself into your new line of work. You might as well make the best of the situation, seeing how you had gotten used to life on the island once before already. Nova did not go easy on you because you were a girl, and subjected you to several long and grueling duels, many of which you did not leave unscathed. You had no prior fighting experience, but working with the mafia family, it was integral that you learned to not only defend yourself, but to be able to defend others to maintain the peace of Regalo. It was amazing, truly, how the family was simultaneously feared and loved by the locals of the island. Once blood was spilled, he always ended the duel and instructed you to clean up for the day and practice harder for the next sparring lesson.

The patrol work was rewarding, but you couldn’t help but notice how Nova was never on the daytime shift. You wondered if it was more dangerous at night, only to be reminded of that scene again, the one that sent your primal fight or flight instincts into overdrive. He couldn’t possibly be a vampire, right? Did those even exist in this world? Sure, there was magic with the Tarocco, but supernatural creatures were on another level. Or so you told yourself. There had to be a perfectly reasonable explanation for the lucid vision. Maybe it hadn’t been a prophetic vision after all. Maybe it was just a dream that had gotten you in this state of confusion.

--

Night had fallen on another day and you were helping Luca and the maids clean up the kitchen after dinner. You had helped cook that night as a way to give back to the others for being so friendly and open with you during your stay. It was nice having a pleasant camaraderie, and you were really starting to feel like you were part of a team together. As you placed a stack of dishes into the sink, you heard a crash come from across the hall, near where Nova usually got ready for his nightly patrol. You shook the water from your hands, “I’m going to go check on that. Thank you for helping me with dinner tonight!”

The others smiled and told you not to worry about anything as you took off around the corner to inspect the source of the noise. It looked as though something had fallen in the hallway and you called one of the maids over to see if they could clean up the broken glass so nobody got hurt. You wanted to investigate the source to see what had happened here. Maybe a stray animal had gotten inside? Some of the paintings on the wall were lopsided, as though somebody had leaned against them on their way out of the main hall. You stepped outside and your hand found its way to the weapon on your hip, gripping it for a sense of security. Something didn’t feel right, but you couldn’t put your finger on it.

You found yourself walking the security route, the same one that Nova was taking that night, noticing not many people were out at this hour, even though it was late summer at this point. A deep sense of déjà vu crept up on you as you approached a dark alleyway. Your pulse was picking up, and you could feel your heartbeat in your ears as you turned at the sound of rustling coming from the alley. Your eyes were met with the crimson gaze of the man you had sparred with many times before. There was something wild about his gaze, and it made the hairs on the back of your neck stand up.

“What are you doing here!?” his words sounded pained, and he slumped against the rough wall next to him, his breaths strained as he clutched at his chest and winced. You stepped forward, pushing the worry from your mind as you tried to focus on determining if he was hurt instead. You slowly put a hand out in front of yourself, to show him you were approaching, much like you would do to a wounded animal. He screwed his eyes shut and took a shuddering breath, a pathetic whine emitting from his throat. Something was definitely wrong with him. When you were within an arm’s length from him he panicked, “Don’t come any closer. I can’t..I can’t..” he couldn’t finish his thought, he could smell the blood in your veins. The sound of your pulse was rushing in his ears, beckoning him. But he also didn’t want to lose control and really hurt you.

He opened his eyes, a vortex of crimson swallowed the blue in his gaze, and his pupils constricted. He lunged forward and grabbed your wrist, pulling you toward him and pushing you up against the dirty wall he had just been leaning on. He was slightly shorter than you, but you were of similar height. He shuddered, locking his eyes onto the curve of your neck, watching the quiver of your pulse as the fear settled in. He grit his teeth together and punched the wall beside you, a dent from the force crumbling beneath his fist. “Nova?” you found your voice, noticing how it cracked from how dry your throat had suddenly become. You wet you lips with your tongue and let out a shaky breath of your own.

As preposterous as it seemed, you were able to put two and two together. “Do you need blood?” your question weighed heavily in the air, and you could feel him tense in front of you. He stayed still while your eyes darted around, trying to think of the best way to handle this situation. You had gotten to know the male in front of you rather well over the past few months you had been in his company.  You knew that he wouldn’t ask for it, and it seemed to be causing him great pain. You were actually impressed because it seemed he was fighting his obvious bloodlust with everything he had. “It’s ok.”

His eyes snapped back to yours in an instant, daring you to repeat what you had just said. “Nova, it’s ok if you need blood. Just..be gentle, ok?” you offered sheepishly, casting your gaze to the side, feeling embarrassed for some reason. “Don’t regret it later,” was the only warning you got before his fangs sunk into the flesh of your neck. There was a sharp sting at the start of his bite and he groaned loudly, nearly wantonly, completely overwhelmed by the taste of your life essence on his tongue. It sent a shiver down your spine, and he swept his tongue back and forth over the widening wound, a tingling sensation replacing the pain.

Your body started to heat up, everything felt too hot, and you panted softly, lost in a murky haze while he drank from you. He pushed his knee between your legs, steadying himself, allowing him to wrap his hands around your body. One hand settled at the nape of your neck, cradling your neck toward his mouth, while the other trailed down along your hip, gripping into the soft flesh with another shudder running through his body. You unintentionally moaned and he responded in earnest, sucking a hickey onto your neck, right on top of the puncture marks on your skin. He pulled back, his eyes lidded with an unmistakable lust that lit a fire in your belly.

“Nova,” you breathed, and he leaned forward, capturing your lips in his. He pulled your lower lip into his mouth, gently biting until blood filled your mouth and he used his tongue to sooth the wound, tasting you. He pressed his hips closer to yours, a bulge forming in his pants, showing you how excited he was getting. “Y/N..” he whispered against your lips, moving to kiss you with a sensuality you did not know he possessed. Normally he was rude, and a little hot-tempered. But at this moment, he had cast a spell over you and you didn’t want it to stop. His touch was needy, and he pushed at the fabric of your skirt, his lips capturing your jaw as he gave into his pent-up lust.

The sound of a throaty, velvety chuckle broke the spell and your face turned a darker shade of red, mixed with the horror of getting caught. Nova stiffened, his hands frozen in place as his own face turned crimson. His eyes returned to their deep sapphire color and embarrassment etched across his features. He dared not turn around and wanted to disappear, chewing on the inside of his cheek. He contemplated using La Tenebra Addormentata to escape the embarrassment, but he didn’t want to deal with Debito once he woke back up.

“My my, what do we have here~ I didn’t think you had it in ya!” Debito’s voice was filled with amusement as he teased the younger male, stepping out of the shadows to lean against the wall beside the both of you. He leaned in closely, far too close for comfort, his handsome features taking on a flirtatious grin. “Hey, Bambina~ If things don’t work out between you two, you just let me know,” his fingers dexterously reached out and wrapped a lock of your hair around his finger, bringing it up to his lips. “Or, I could join you right now if ya like?”

Nova looked like he was about to explode, his embarrassment dissolving to anger. There was metaphorical steam coming off of him as he glared at the other man, smacking your hair out of his tanned hand. “Debito. Enough.”

The mischievous man merely chuckled once more and shrugged his shoulders nonchalantly. “Never miss an opportunity squirt,” he put his hands up to signal he didn’t want to fight when Nova’s hands started to unsheathe the katana he was carrying. “Whoa, whoa, hey I’m just kidding! Jeez, calm down,” the man let out a sigh, rubbing the back of his neck and turning so he was facing the entrance to the alleyway. “Anyway, how’s about you two lovebirds call it a night, hm? I’ll take it from here, but only ‘cause I owe ya one. Now get out of here before someone sees you. Unless the offer is back on the table that is?”

Nova grabbed your hand possessively and gave a curt nod, having sheathed his weapon in favor of heading back to the mansion. “Thanks, Debito. We’ll talk tomorrow.” He started walking, leading you with him. You looked back to Debito and gave him a small smile, mouthing thank you. He grinned back and gave a wink, “Oh we’ll talk tomorrow alright. Ciao Nova! Bambina~”

--

About halfway through your trek back to the mansion, Nova picked you up with surprising strength, in order to sprint back to his room, undetected. He set you down on his bed, brushing a hand through his hair, and letting out a heavy sigh. “I’m…sorry about what happened back there, I—“ he cut himself off, unsure how to properly apologize for biting you and then trying to fuck you in an alleyway. His cheeks were still burning, and you were pretty sure it wasn’t from physical exertion.

You couldn’t help but giggle, seeing him like this was absolutely adorable. He fidgeted with his uniform, setting his katana down near the door for easy access. “Nova, it’s fine. Really, I would have pushed you off if I didn’t want you to keep going,” another giggle spilled from your lips, and specks of crimson started to form in Nova’s sharp gaze.

“Do you think you could push me off?” his tone was firm, and he approached you, pushing you back on the bed and straddling your hips, hands on either side of your head. “I’ve been holding back so much. You can’t even handle sparring with me on most days. Do you really think you could escape?” there was a cruel laugh that ended the statement. He pressed his lips against your jaw, and you could feel your pulse quickening. Was it fear or something else entirely? Your head felt dizzy.

“Y/N…do you have any idea what you do to me?” he murmured softly, almost a whine. “I don’t want to hurt you, but I want you so bad…” his confession had you reeling. You had to admit, you had feelings for the young man pressing you into the mattress. Even if you were still a little afraid of him due to his unpredictable bloodlust, you really did care for him. “What is it you want?” you breathed, reaching a hand up to cup his cheek, smiling when he leaned into your touch affectionately.

“I want to touch you, I want to drink you…I want to lo-love you,” the last part was quieter, as though he was afraid to say the words out loud. Your smile widened, “You idiot, I like you too.” You brushed your thumb soothingly over his cheek, turning your head to kiss one of his hands. He let you take his hand in yours, and lift it to your mouth, a mischievous glint in your eyes as you began kissing each of his fingers individually. His gaze was intently fixated on yours, and you flicked your tongue out onto his middle finger, bringing the digit into your mouth and sucking gently, letting your teeth graze his skin ever so slightly.

Those eyes of his darkened, and were swirling with crimson and sapphire, almost sparkling in the dim light. “Please don’t tease me,” he groaned, shifting his hips above yours. You could feel his bulge growing again, and you rolled your hips up, creating friction that made him gasp. “Y/N..Don’t. Tease. Me,” he grit his teeth, giving you a look of warning as he pulled his hand from your mouth. “I won’t be able to stop.”

“Then don’t stop. Better yet, lay down,” you offered, gesturing for him to take your place on the bed. He was hesitant but moved to lay down, his eyes questioning you with a glint of excitement. You straddled his hips, grinning widely while your fingers busied themselves unbuttoning your blouse. Nova’s face flushed a bright red, watching as you slowly disrobed down to your bra. He shakily placed a hand on your breasts, cupping them over the fabric and holding back a groan. “Can I see them?” his voice was cautious, reading your face for any uncertainty. His sincerity was heartwarming, and your face flushed suddenly feeling shy under his hungry gaze. He was still a man, inexperienced as he was.

You reached behind your back, unhooking the bra and letting your breasts spill out into his waiting hands. He kneaded them in earnest, pushing your breasts together and reveling in the softness. “Beautiful..” he was mesmerized, pulling you down toward him. He took one of your breasts into his mouth, his fangs barely grazing over a pert nipple, sending electric shocks of pleasure down your spine and setting your skin ablaze in his wake. He sucked on one nipple while using his thumb and index finger to play with the other, gaining confidence every time you writhed or mewled at his actions.

He pulled away from your breast, his chest heaving with arousal. “Can I taste you?” he asked, his eyes darting down to where your skirt was hiking up over your thighs. You gulped, your mouth suddenly feeling dry again. He gestured for you to sit on his face, but you didn’t want to be the only one receiving pleasure, so you turned yourself so that your head was facing his groin, and his head had access to yours. He ran his hands up and down your thighs, tugging your stockings down so he could kiss the soft flesh of your thigh.

The feeling was ticklish and you giggled before gasping loudly when you felt his fangs pierce into your flesh unexpectedly. You shivered at the gentle lapping that followed, and busied your hands with his pants, fumbling with the button before you were able to open his pants to expose his boxer shorts, strained against his hard length. You felt fingers press against your clothed core, running along the length of your panties. He could feel how wet you were getting and it made his cock twitch.

You tugged at his pants, signaling him to lift his hips so you could get his boxers down and free his aching cock from its confines. Your underwear followed suit, leaving you exposed to him. “Lean closer” he instructed, gripping your thighs down toward his face, and you positioned yourself so he could comfortably lick the length of your dripping heat, lapping at you languidly. You let out a low moan, your hips twitching against him instinctively. You took his penis into your hand, stroking it and feeling the velvety texture on your fingertips before slipping the tip through your lips, sucking on the head.

It was Nova’s turn to moan, reverberating against your pussy, which sent vibrations throughout you. It was a strange but delightful sensation. You took him further into your mouth, doing your best to suppress your gag reflex, and using your hands to pump what you couldn’t fit in your mouth, swirling your tongue around his length. He buried his face between your thighs, hips bucking against you while yours rutted against his mouth, both of you lost in pleasuring the other and being pleasured in return. The heat coiled in your belly, and you let go of his length with a deep moan, rolling your hips into that wonderful mouth. “Nova, I’m so close! Aah-aah,”

It was almost too much stimulation. He gripped your thighs tighter, using his fingers to massage against your clit while he wrote love letters with his tongue, silently begging you to release for him. You came, your head spinning, singing his name on your lips. He continued to run his tongue along your core, cleaning the essence you spilled as though it were his sole purpose in life. You jumped a little at the sensation, even the lightest touch sensitive now that you were coming down from your climax. You went to take him back in your mouth but he stopped you, gently moving you off of him and sitting back on the bed with his hands supporting his weight. “I…want to watch you,” he stated, and you smiled, slipping off the edge of the bed to kneel between his legs instead.

You took him back into your mouth, looking up at him through your lashes and watching the blush roll across his cheeks while he watched you suck him off. “Could you…use your…breasts?” he sounded so shy when he asked, but the heat in his eyes encouraged you to no end to do as he pleased. You cupped your breasts in your hands, pushing your chest out to rub against his cock, sucking on the head once before bobbing your head up and down, setting a comfortable rhythm.

The dark haired man dared not close his eyes, watching intently, trying to catch his breath while he watched you, and you could feel him thicken in your mouth, pulsing beneath your touch. You could tell he was close, and he grabbed your hair, pushing you down onto his cock while he rutted against your mouth. He moaned loudly as he spilled his seed into your mouth, encouraging you to swallow it by keeping your head in place as he thrust shallowly, riding out his orgasm.

You let his cum slide down your throat, swallowing everything he had to offer before he let you go, collapsing back onto the bed, blissfully satiated. You crawled back up onto the bed, laying on his chest, and playing with the collar on his uniform that had become disheveled from your activities. He wrapped his arms around you, pulling you closer. “Stay here tonight, I need to ensure you’re well rested for tomorrow’s lessons,” he was obviously using that as an excuse to have you sleep in his room, but you decided not to call him out on it. He decided to rest alongside you, stroking your hair absentmindedly and watched you drift to sleep in his arms, smiling before kissing you on your forehead. “Don’t ever leave.”

[thebiasrekkers]

Star of Fate [Vampire!VIXX]

Plot: The longer you stare into darkness, the more you realize that something could be staring back. Even more so when that darkness doesn’t want to be brought into the light and will do anything to stay that way.

Rating: NC-17 // NSFW

Genre: Series | Vampire!AU | Angst | Romance/Fluff | Smut

Pairings: OT6 VIXX x OC(s)

Warnings: Graphic Violence (bloody violence), Heavy Language, Angst, Slow Burn, Smut

Additional Warnings: Office Microaggressions | Bullying | Toxic Work Environment

Previous Chapters: Prologue

Links: FAQ || VIXX Masterlist || Admin L’s AO3 || Admin L’s WP || [ REQUESTS ARE OPEN ]

Word Count: 2,682

AO3 | WP

Tag List: If you would like to be added to this list, just drop us an ask!

AN: So…I know we said this was coming soon and I’m very sorry that this got started so late! I hope to have this out every two weeks, maybe more depending on the future. So please give this a lot of love and we hope you enjoy the ride!

Chapter 2- The Ghost Woman and the Hunter

Calling on your sins you're here in my dreams a desert place I'm not alone Do you really want to be me?

Her eyes popped open, the realistic feeling of falling completely disorienting her as she shot up from her bed. It had felt so real to her that her body jerked itself awake. Light danced its way in through the blinds, chasing away all signs of shadow. Never had she been so glad that she hadn’t purchased black out curtains than in that moment. She needed to see the sun and all of its glory to help the dream fade away into existence. Well, at least certain parts of it. There was a wistful part of her that still wished that she could be on that dance floor again with the handsome and darker skinned man. 

“Oh my….FUCK!”

Lucky yelled as she looked over to her alarm clock, realizing that it was the source of the chimes that she heard in her dream. Throwing off her covers, she scrambled to get half-way put together so that way she wouldn’t be late to her job. She even called a cab to get her there faster which was unlike her normal routine. Unless there was inclement weather, of course. 

During the ride, she kept an eye on her phone--it lighting up every few seconds as she checked the time. She made it to her desk just in time to receive the stack of papers from some of the other people there. Normally she wasn’t such a space case, even showing up early to get whatever else she missed the previous day. Lucky was a hard worker, nobody could deny that but it was that fact others exploited hence the reason why the stack seemed to get larger and larger by the week. The world of office politics seemed to be much like high school but it paid well enough for her to put up with the majority of it. 

She straightened out her hair as best as she could with it being so long and settled down to start on her work. Most of it had been reports that she had to pencil push and correct, which was easy enough for her because all the information had been just sitting there inside of her head. However, the more difficult stuff came along when the Vice-President stuck his fingers into everything. She couldn’t help but groan when she looked at some of them, saving the majority of them for last so that way she could take extra time on them. 

“Job finally getting to you, Leonora?”

Lucky didn’t realize how long she had been working on them until the voice pulled her out of the zone she had settled into. Turning around, she saw another coworker standing right behind her with a slight smile on her face. No matter how many times she tried to be friendly to some of them, they insisted on resisting any attempts at professionalism and decorum. Well, unless someone higher up was around. Not to mention the fact that they also insisted on calling her by her government name instead of the nickname that she preferred. She gave the sweetest smile she could muster and stood up, green eyes twinkling. 

“Oh, there you are Nancy! I got so caught up in fixing your mistakes that I forgot to give you this folder back! Everything in there should be up to date now and I even took the liberty of sending off the final draft for you. It was the least I could do since I was the last one that had hands on it. You’re welcome.”

She gaped at Lucky for a moment and flipped open the folder to read what she had fixed. Nancy’s ears started to go red and her thin lips flattened as she pressed them together in anger. Lucky raised an eyebrow at her reaction, knowing that she saw what had been edited by her. It had only been a few mistakes but they were some that would have made their department look bad. Plus Lucky also added her name to the document as one of the contributing factors, more so because she went through the trouble of fixing everything. 

“I hope this teaches you to quit pushing your work off on me, Nancy. Have a good day.”

Lucky turned away from her and sat back down at her cubicle, leaving the sputtering woman there to be embarrassed. Even though she had her own computer there, they all had shared files that they could all access and she lived up to her nickname that she had the time to quickly edit everything before emailing it out. It had been one of the rare times that she was able to stick it to them and it honestly made her feel a sliver of satisfaction at the situation. 

Because she was just a little bit petty. 

The sudden ringing of her phone took her away from the moment, the voice of her boss calling for her. Lucky was a bit confused as she looked at the time as she wondered why he had reached out so early. It normally was after lunch that she would meet up with him to go over various things pertaining to her new position. Lucky had been promoted to be the Personal Assistant for the Vice President. Naturally, he had more than one that would work together with him being at such a high level but most of them had quit because of various rumors of his misogyny and unrealistic ideals. Hell, she was even friends with one of them when she found out that she no longer worked there. Rumors circulated with her leaving and even more when she was appointed in her stead. 

Now, Lucky was one of the very few left so that meant that she had been picking up a lot more work than normal. Not that she went out much anyways with the amount of work she had. 

She walked the halls to his office, only to be greeted by the desk clerk. The tiny lady handed her a folder and suggested she find something appropriate to wear. Confused, Lucky looked through the folder and saw that there were some instructions as well as some papers with details on the new VIP’s that they had recently joined with. 

“What the actual hell? Does he expect me to drop everything that I’m doing to go to this event with him? After hours, no less?”

The lady just shrugged and went back to her work. Lucky could feel her indignation rising but left before causing a scene. It was one thing if it was an actual work trip that she had to attend but that had been some sort of event to flaunt and rub elbows. There wasn’t a real reason why she needed to be there so why all the preparation? She returned to her desk and went through the folder in detail. The only promise that she would receive was an extra amount in pay if she went, something that actually interested her. She grumbled as she leafed through it but decided that it was just for one night and that if it happened again, she would put a stop to it. The bright side to it had been that she could take off early to prepare for the event. That was always something she could look forward to especially that day since she moved like hell to get there on time. 

The one person that she could freely talk to in the office came up to her with a grin on her face. She had originally been offered the position but declined it because of family reasons but she was nice to talk to regardless. 

“So Lucky.. I heard from a little bird that you’re going to the VIP event tonight with Mr. Randall.” She wiggled her eyebrows and elbow at her while Lucky just scoffed. 

“Yeah, I guess. I wonder how in the hell does crap go around here so fast? It’s like the freaking flu!” 

“You don’t sound so enthusiastic about it.”

“Ashleigh, I really don’t want to go but they’re promising extra pay this time if I do. I haven’t been sleeping well lately and now I gotta go to this… grandstandin’ event. I wish someone else could go.”

Her coworker leaned thoughtfully on the cubicle wall before leaning down to whisper. It was only times like that when they would get a bit of privacy. 

“You could always quit and get some more sleep? I heard that the other assistant quit as well. I thought, at first, that you had too when you didn’t arrive when you usually do. They’re saying that the abuse from the VP is to blame.”

“Yeah well, tell the handsome man in my dreams to quit bothering me so I can go by to my normal schedule and ignore some of these chickens.” Lucky’s hand motioned like a beak as they both had a laugh over that before returning back to work. However, Ashleigh’s words stuck with her. The VP hadn’t been shy about voicing his displeasure to her about various things, even requesting that she cut her hair but she respectfully declined his request. All she stated was that it was within the guidelines of the company and left it at that. Something that didn’t win her any favors. 

And if the other girl quit too, then the sinking feeling in her gut proved to be more of an ominous feeling. Either way, she would have to go and see how it played out. 

When time came for her to leave early, Lucky instead went shopping for appropriate attire for that night’s event. Even neatly braided her hair to keep it out of her face. Simple, neat and just a tad bit sexy in the red dress. Once satisfied with her result, she waited outside for the driver to come around and pick her up. Upon seeing the expensive car, Lucky suppressed a shudder when the door was opened to reveal Mr. Randall. It wasn’t necessarily seeing her boss after hours but more of a combination of the car and him. Small vehicles caused her a bit of stress since she was involved in an accident many years ago. Since then, normally she would either take the bus or bike when the weather was nice. 

Thankfully, her boss wasn’t too interested in making small talk with her once they got on the road. The city was left behind soon and various gas stations and trees zoomed by them. She didn’t put too much thought into it until the driver turned onto a long, paved road after a set of gates. The mansion that appeared made Lucky’s eyebrows shoot up, something picking at her brain. She couldn’t quite figure it out but it was as if she had seen that place before. She had to shake those thoughts from her head as she concentrated on remembering the information that was given to her earlier that day. 

Knowledge was power and she needed it to navigate that world if she didn’t want to embarrass or otherwise offend anyone. 

Upon exiting the car and entering the elaborate place, Lucky felt all the eyes in the world stare at them. Putting on a gracious face, she walked slightly behind her boss as they were greeted by some of the others there. A few moments chatting with some of them, she soon found herself alone in the area while the others mingled. She wasn’t anyone of importance and therefore not worthy of anyone’s time, for the moment. She would let her boss do all the talking. 

Lucky gravitated towards the hors d'oeuvres while everyone talked among themselves. Plucking a few to put on a plate, she watched the room for any sign that she would be needed. Several of the clients that were in the folder she received were there and they were laughing alongside everyone else. A couple even approached her, asking questions about the company and trying to get a little information from her about how to deal with her boss. She couldn’t honestly say anything to help in that situation because she usually just listened to him bark his orders before correcting anything she needed to. 

She was left alone for another time, only appearing at her boss’ side when needed as the night went on. Soon she felt herself grow tired of all the people and the politics of said beings. Lucky had several drinks before that point and was in the process of acquiring another when a voice nearly made her jump out of her skin. 

“They’re almost like vultures, are they not?”

She looked around and up at him as he was much taller than her, even in heels. The man knew he was handsome, smiling prettily at her as he held up his own glass of red wine in a toast. Lips full and round eyes, Lucky had to appreciate his looks before replying. 

“Well, I wouldn’t say that in particular.”

He gave a wide smile, eyes almost disappearing as they snickered at the rest of them. Lucky found herself talking more and more to the man who seemed just as bored as she was with the party. The more that she looked at him, the more that he seemed familiar to her and it dawned on her that he was one of the men from the folder. He had a nice voice, a bit higher than most of the men there but he didn’t hide it one bit. 

Lucky also noticed that the attention had been drawn to them just from them standing and talking to one another. He introduced himself as Jaehwan and they talked for another 15 minutes, slipping into easy conversation to keep themselves entertained. His jokes nearly had her spilling her drink, the folder not at all correct with the man before her. He was one of three men with his business, including one brother that rotated about in their company. 

Still, even with the jokes and the amicable banter between the both of them--her boss found that he had only missed the presence of Mr. Lee before her. 

“Ah. Leonora, I didn’t realize you had monopolized Mr. Lee’s time here tonight.” Her shorter framed boss then looked to Jaehwan with an apologetic look on his face, “Otherwise I would have saved you sooner!” Mr. Randall gave a laugh, expecting Jaehwan to laugh with him but didn’t. It surprised Lucky that her new friend didn’t go along with him on that but only sighed, looking to her in apology before speaking. 

“Leonora? And you said you were Lucky…” He grinned at her, ignoring her boss. She could see Randall’s face that he was growing annoyed, a face that showed up when things didn’t go his way. 

“Oh that’s just my assistant’s nickname that she tells everyone to call her even though we should be more professional. I’m her boss, Nicolas Randall. Vice-President of Nexus Assurance.” He held out his hand to shake but Jaehwan kept grinning at Lucky. His eyes suddenly were hyper focused on her, the doe eyed look that he did have--dissolved away. Almost like he had found something he really wanted.

“Uh well, I’ve been known to be lucky--hence the nickname.” She nervously laughed, highly aware that the tension was rising. Her eyes darted between Jaehwan as he continued to ignore her boss and the latter as he was getting more upset that the scene was even happening. That strange and ominous feeling was back, churning about the contents of her stomach. Jaehwan slowly turned from the friendly and open persona that he had while it was just the two of them, to something a bit more aggravated the longer her boss was there. There was a glint in his eyes that suggested something unfriendly was fighting its way out. 

Suddenly Jaehwan blinked rapidly before excusing himself but not before taking her hand and kissing it. Bewildered, Lucky watched him weave expertly through the crowd before taking a peek at her boss. 

And he was not pleased. 

[mwolf0epsilon]

Story about Joey being a vampire hunter and Sammy being a vampire. You can bring in Norman ((human or vampire))to to safe him

Summary: In which Sammy is sometimes a very ugly bat, and his boss might want to kill him. Normal workplace issues.

---

[[MORE]]

     Hypsignathus monstrosus. Commonly known as the hammer-headed bat (or big-lipped bat if you preferred a more unusual denominator), is a frugivorous species of megabat widely distributed in West and Central Africa. It's the only member of its genus, Hypsignathus, which in itself is part of the Epomophorimi tribe alongside other four unique genera.

The largest bat in continental Africa, with wingspans approaching 1 m (or about 3 ft), and the males being almost twice as heavy as the females. It's a sexually dimorphic bat species, with differences including several adaptations that help males produce and amplify vocalizations. Mainly the differing size of the males' larynges, which are about three times as large as those of females, and the large resonating chambers on their faces that give them such a distinct look. 

The females in turn, appear more fox-like as is the norm of most megabat species.

All in all, information that really didn't help Sammy in the slightest, as he tried to make sense of three different books that, in theory, should give him a vague idea of what the hell was going on with his body this time...

     To put it in simpler terms, he'd turned into a bat, as per say of those ye olde queer tales of vampires that were capable of shifting into those little chittering flying rats that flew out of caves and dreary old castles at night… 

But then what he'd seen reflected (because most modern mirrors were not backed by silver or other such pure metals) had most definitely not looked like a squashed-nosed winged rat. It had looked truly like a freakish monster. 

But that was getting a little ahead of himself really...

There were things one had to note beforehand to really comprehend what Sammy Lawrence was currently going through: Starting with the attack.

Two years ago he'd been assaulted by what he'd once assumed to be a creature of mere legend, although at the time he'd thought it was a random dog attack because what had taken a chunk off of him looked inhuman (more like a very warped looking pug-snoutted thing now that he really thought about it). 

On awakening the next morning at the hospital, he'd been informed that he'd henceforth be barred from entering such facilities because he now suffered from vampirism, and that his name and records had been archived by some secret governmental agency that then directed him to a sub-civilization of non-humans. 

Shocked and confused, he'd been quickly integrated into a coven that took no time to teach him the basics. 

He was to live life as if nothing had changed, hidden among mere humans, yet he'd be judged as a pest by those that recognized specific documentation he now had to carry for "security reasons" (aka clearance for services to deny him due to his ailment).

Oh and he had to cope with the harrowing realization that food did nothing for him other than eliciting a form of pleasure (through stimulating his taste buds) and that he needed to instead find nourishment in human blood, otherwise he'd either die or go into an uncontrollable frenzied state (in which case he might end up dead anyway because if he so much as killed a person he'd be put down like a rabid dog).

No pressure right?

Funnily enough, Sammy had actually adapted to this drastic change. The poor man had to, otherwise he was screwed.

And then again it hadn't been all that difficult since the coven was less of what you'd assume from the olden tales of groups or communities of vampires living in the same roost, and more of a civil service in of itself. 

It was like having a parole officer really. One that gave you some pointers in the right direction, and that reminded you of feeding schedules.

Feeding itself wasn't as bad either, twice every month in specially assigned locations where cattle would be provided to them by a few sponsored ranches.

What really bothered Sammy about all this was the maturing of his vampirical traits. Specifically the part when one night he found himself ripping out of his clothes and seeing his body grotesquely transform into a quadrupedal flying thing that he couldn't quite put a name to. Hence why he'd come to the library in search of answers.

Still the best description he got was for some African fruit bat that had a face that not even a mother could love.

How could a vampire seemingly become a herbivorous bat, when he knew for certain he'd slaughtered two horses the previous night?

  "Found anything yet deary?"

     Sammy startled slightly as Mrs. Harrison, bless her for being the supportive sweet old grandma figure that she was in his time of need (and one of the few humans who knew of his predicament and didn't judge him for it), joined him with a couple of books.

She'd taken them both, plus Abigail, to the library to help him figure out about his strange transformations. 

She was also the one who took Abby on the nights he needed to feed because he couldn't trust himself not to attack her. 

He was too akin to a wild animal on a frenzy when he felt the hunger calling, which Mrs. Harrison had stated was normal for fledgeling vampires like himself.

  "Honestly, just this ugly looking thing… it's the closest I've found to what I saw in the mirror."

  "Ah, the hammer-headed bat! They're quite unique I'd say… My dear husband, god rest his soul, used to stuff them back when he hunted in Africa. He thought they might bring him luck, the nutter." The old linguistics teacher smiled, the gaps where she was missing teeth making it look slightly crooked but no less endearing. "It isn't unusual for vampires to instinctively take on forms that don't quite match their dietary needs. Most who change become similar to a species that best suits their needs. This one I'd say has qualities befitting of you deary."

  "That's… not very comforting." His nose had always been a sore spot. Turning into an animal whose face was 90% nose was just insulting to him.

  "Don't take it so badly deary." Mrs. Harrison chuckled. "What I mean to say is these bats, specifically the males, are known to be quite vocal. You, my dear, are quite vocal, are you not?"

Well, when she put it like that…

  "That's a yes in those pretty eyes of yours deary. And besides, not many new vampires can say they naturally became megabats. You're very well endowed in that aspect."

She took great joy in getting him to blush at such a comment. He could see the devilish glee in her kind old eyes, accentuated by crows feet and wrinkles.

They picked up a few books on the "specialized" area, Sammy vehemently ignoring Abby's questions of why his face was so red, and soon enough the trio was on their way back to the apartment.

Sick leave (which he took twice a month as mandated by the coven) would be over tomorrow, so Sammy needed to prepare.

Because working in an enclosed cartoon studio run by Joey Drew would definitely spell trouble for a vampire that had just earned their shifting ability.

-

     There are a set of very specific rules for new vampires. Don't expose yourself, don't expose the community, don't expose the sponsors or patrons.

Sammy had gotten pretty lucky, Mrs. Harrison was a patron and one of the best at her job.

She provided rehoming possibilities to fledgeling vampires, and ensured their safety within the communities they'd been integrated in.

She also kept an eye on hunters.

So of course Sammy was quite aware that Joey Drew was a person he needed to watch out for.

Joey Drew, who was notorious for having at least 36 confirmed kills under his belt. Here's where things got tough: Joey knew Sammy was a vampire, so he tended to keep a pretty good eye on the music director as well.

It was a perpetual game of cat and mouse.

A very dangerous one that had just reached a new level.

Because Sammy's overall safety lay within what his coworkers thought of him vs what they thought of their boss's eccentricities.

No one was crazy enough to believe that their coworker was secretly a vampire, or that their boss was essentially the equivalent of a vampire poacher.

And that is what Sammy wanted to maintain. A veil of normalcy to keep himself safe. One that would be much harder to maintain now that he had matured out of the first two years of being a fledgeling and developed such a large and rather monstrous looking shift.

     Hazel eyes locked with icy blue ones as the music director locked eyes with the founder of Joey Drew Studios. They drank coffee in the break room, surrounded by oblivious employees, and maintained this tense stare-down until Henry came by to drag Joey away.

Then Sammy would let out a quiet sigh of relief and go back to work ironing out the flaws in his current composition.

Jack would pass by his office to drop off a few new lyrics, he'd point out which needed a bit of tweaking, and then he'd be alone with his thoughts and his sheets up until he had to help Susie with recording.

Then he'd spend a good hour or two conducting the band, catching the brief glimpses of his ever watching boss in the corners of his eyes.

The staring contest would restart on every break, and Sammy would have to seek safety by mingling with coworkers (some of which he could not stand).

Norman was often his go to, as Joey never risked these sorts of behaviours with the larger southern man around.

The projectionist was a very bright man after all, and could dig up dirt on anyone that so much as rubbed him the wrong way.

It was a miracle he hadn't figured out Sammy's little secret thus far.

  "Runnin' from the boss again?"

  "That man is insane… I swear he's obsessed with me, Polk. It's creepy!" He'd replied after sneaking away to practically glue himself to Norman's side during another much needed coffee break. He desperately needed a smoke, his skin felt tight and uncomfortable.

  "Drew don't know no boundaries. Yous should consider takin' it up to Henry." Norman suggested. "Only man ta boss will listen to."

  "I wouldn't want to bother Henry because of Joey." Sammy huffed. "The poor man isn't his keeper."

  "Sure coulda fooled me." Only three more hours of this. Three more hours and he could go home.

  "Mr. Lawrence, a word." Speak of the devil… Joey Drew himself feeling bolder than ever as he moved over to address Sammy in Norman's company. "About the most recent composition."

  "Devil's Swing. What of it?" He'd worked hard on it to act as a counterpart to Angel's Tango. One of his finer masterpieces if he did say so himself.

  "I find it's going in the right direction… But it just lacks this… shine to it." Joey gestured vaguely "Like it's missing something that'd make it just right."

  "Shine… you think it's missing some shine?" Sammy suppressed the need to growl. What was the man on about? Just this morning he'd been happy with it!

Lord forbid Mr. Drew could ever make up his mind.

Norman watched the exchange quietly, keeping a close eye on both of them as Joey gave one of his signature grins. The kind that'd make the little devil darling himself quite jealous with just how much tooth it showed.

  "As we're on a tight schedule, I have to ask you to fix it by midnight tonight. Since you were on sick-leave recently, I'm sure you can compensate for setting us back with overtime." Oh, oh dear.

Sammy could now see what he was up to.

By midnight the studio would be virtually empty. Just him, the ever oblivious Wally Franks, and Joey Drew himself.

Oh he was in trouble… Unless he could do the alterations well before, but then if Joey wanted to trap him in the studio where he couldn't get help, who's to say he'd accept any of his corrections?

  "I…"

  "Well, on with it then! No time to waste!" Joey gave him an overly friendly pat on the shoulder, those icy blues glinting with manic glee as he walked off.

Norman wrinkled his nose.

  "That man ain't right in the head… Yous just came back from the doc."

  "You know how it is. Only thing Drew cares about is money." And Henry, to an obsessive degree actually. More so than following Sammy around now that he thought about it.

Either way, he had to get to work now, or he'd be screwed. "I'm going back into my office. There's no way I'm sticking around until midnight."

  "Best o'luck. I'll be in my booth if ya need anythin' from me."

Sammy needed an escape from their boss, but he couldn't exactly tell Norman that. He was the last person that needed to find out one of his coworkers was a damn bat-shaped leech. The blackmail would be horrid!

-

     The clock read 23:47 by the time Sammy had finished, and honestly the blond was ready to break.

One by one everyone in his department had packed up for the night and gone home. Susie had come by to give him a quick peck on the cheek before she'd saunters off humming a chipper tune.

Jack had come by to remind him not to stay too late and then been on his way as well. Wally himself was nowhere to be seen, probably cleaning that spill he'd heard about in Heavenly Toys, so the music director was completely and utterly alone.

And he was running out of time. 

Joey was going to get him.

  "Damn it… I've been good with this. I haven't even tasted human blood, and I'm still going to get put down by some crazy asshole…" he put his face in his hands and groaned. The tightness if his skin had only worsened as his stress piled up.

Stress-shifting was very much a thing and he really didn't want to chance transforming in the studio to release some of the tension.

With his luck Wally might walk in on him.

  "What do I do…?" He could try scaring his boss into letting it go. That bat form of his was pretty ugly, it'd scare the devil right out of Drew himself.

Or it'd just make him step up to the challenge.

A knock startled him out of his thoughts.

  "Y-yes?" He chastised himself for sounding so shaky, especially when it wasn't that grinning bastard who opened the door.  "Norman?"

  "Hey Sammy, I need a favour." The Louisianian greeted him. "I messed up my arm pretty bad while fixin' one o' them projectors. Yous wouldn't mind drivin' me to the hospital right?"

  "I… No of course." He was surprised, noticing the makeshift dressings on Norman's arm. They were messy but he couldn't see or smell his injury so it was likely a burn of some kind. Those projectors tended to overheat and catch fire at times.

  "Good, I'd ask Henry but he wents home early tonight… Strange really, Mr. Drew let a lot of folk go home early tonight..." Norman shrugged "And even if he could drive, I wouldn't bother ta boss t'do this for me."

  "I'll drive, I was done anyway." He left the sheets out so that Joey would find them as they were with ease. "Nearly midnight too, so Drew can't get on my case for leaving a little earlier."

This was the escape he needed.

He owed Norman his life, even if the other man didn't realize it.

     The two made their way outside at a leisurely pace before Norman motioned for Sammy to follow, much to the blond's confusion.

They ended up in an alleyway (not dodgy at all, nope) where Normal pulled off the bandages and revealed his arm was just fine. Sammy stared, eyebrows raised.

  "I lied, I don't need to go to the doc, but I don't think that butcher needs to know that… Have a good night Sammy, and stay safe." The much taller man grinned cheekily before transforming before Sammy's very eyes, into a truly massive Mauritian flying fox.

  "Oh you're kidding…" The larger vampire chittered, clearly amused by his reaction, before flying off into the night. "So much for having something over Polk…"

The music director huffed and began walking towards his car, stopping when it dawned on him. Norman would likely cash in this favour when he least expected it…

  "Son of a bitch, that man better not ask for something impossible…"

You win some, you lose some.

As much as he hated to lose to Norman so often, Sammy was at least glad to win this despute with Joey.

For the time being at least.

[newmayhem]

Character Analysis: Risika (Part 1)

As always, I’ll keep using original names if I’m talking specifically about the original iteration and in quotations and stuff, but I’ll be referring to everyone by their new names in all other situations.

Because ITFOTN is, at the end of the day, Roksana’s story, technically most of the posts on this blog will be some sort of analysis of her character. So to keep this from being redundant, this post will just be about her personality, and then I’ll post a separate thing analyzing her motivations (and possibly tying that in with larger themes in the story).

Anyway, on with the character analysis.

Maybe I’m just too close to the material, but for me, even with the book told from Roksana’s first person pov (we’re literally inside her mind the entire time), I’ve always struggled to pin down her personality. I think what’s tough about figuring out Roksana’s character is that a lot of the book is about things happening to her, and with the exception of the very end, she doesn’t do a lot of major decision-making, and in storytelling, those are the key moments when a person’s true character is revealed. But from what I have to go on, I could make the following inferences:

Roksana’s a fighter. That’s why she’s one of the strongest vampires. She resisted her vampirism at every turn as much as she could until she couldn’t anymore. She fought Ather when she was bitten, she pushed Ather away when she realized she was being forced to drink her blood, she wouldn’t feed until the hunger pains literally became too much for her bear, and for her first few years of being a vampire, she denied herself blood unless and until it was absolutely necessary. She wasn’t all or nothing and gave into it all as soon as she tasted blood for the first time- it was a series of concessions that happened over time out of necessity but she was always pushing herself to her absolute limit no matter where that limit was. I think her final effort of resistance, the very last thing she could do to keep herself from giving up all her morals and becoming ‘just like them’, was to recuse herself from vampire society. 

That said, despite her own best efforts, Roksana does have a strong survival instinct. There were many times when she could’ve just let herself die/be killed, but instead she reluctantly chose to keep on living (knowing that Alejandro would’ve made a different, supposedly more honorable, choice). She keeps trying to hold herself to this moral standard that her brother has set even though she knows deep down that that’s not who she really is, and when she inevitably falls short, she blames and shames herself. I think a huge part of her story is her coming to terms with who she really is and what her values are, especially in the face of both Alejandro and Andros trying to impose their own values on her.

When you combine these first two qualities it raises some interesting questions- is her victory over Andros in the end actually (as Alejandro assumes) her failing to uphold her moral boundaries? If not, does that mean that her centuries spent resisting her vampirism weren’t admirable, but rather foolish and naive? If that’s the case, does that mean she’s not a ‘strong’ character, after all?

This internal conflict does speak to the fact that, at least compared to Alejandro, Roksana’s practical needs will always win out over whatever faith or ideals she might have. And I think it’s meaningful that this is even an internal conflict for her at all because for Alejandro and his parallel situation of having to siphon off someone else’s life force in order to survive as a triste, there is no conflict- he believes that everything he’s done to survive is in line with his morals.

In looking at Roksana’s first person narration, we see that she’s not very transparent, she’s careful about what she shares with others, and she’s just very solitary (borderline curmudgeonly, which I enjoy).

Something that immediately jumped out at me upon rereading ITFOTN is that despite her claims of having spent most of her life keeping her distance from other vampires, she speaks an awful lot about vampiric tendencies and feels very comfortable making those generalizations. She could be lying, or it could be that she’s very observant and maybe even goes out of her way to keep her eyes and ear open (but from the sidelines), which is a trait that I think falls in line with how I see her. I can see her normally carrying herself stealthily, like she’s trying to make herself invisible.

She seems to be a loner but it’s unclear if it’s by choice or by necessity. I’m thinking it started off as necessity - she didn’t feel safe interacting with other vampires, she doesn’t want to be like the, everyone she’s ever loved was taken away from her so she doesn’t want to get too close to anyone for fear of it happening again - which was fine, she I imagine she already had a natural inclination towards solitude anyway, and with time she convinced herself that she was better off alone, that she didn’t want friendships or relationships, or anything...but then there are definitely moments when she craves connection (hence why she lurks and people watches, and eventually befriends a tiger).

Going off on my reimagining of her backstory, it could also be that her introversion started when she was really young- she felt really alienated from the people around her but wasn’t able to adapt to it by becoming charming and sociable like Alejandro did, after a while she tells herself that she prefers being alone, which causes her to come off as very standoffish, and it’s a vicious cycle.

I mentioned before in Alejandro’s analysis- I imagine them as being opposites in terms of personality. Roksana’s highly introverted, not talkative at all, kind of morose, always turning something over in her head, perhaps even to the point of destructive rumination.

That said, I feel like she’s genre savvy in a different way than Alejandro in that she listens more than she speaks, and I suspect she's more calculating than Alejandro. There’s also evidence in scenes like when Ather and Andros show up at her house and when Roksana and Andros fight for the first time, when she slaps and later threatens Andros after he shittalked Alejandro, and when she trespassed on Andros’ territory despite his warning, that she’s a bit of a spitfire. She’s definitely much quicker to lash out than Alejandro is and when she lashes out, it’s very impactful, sometimes reckless, and takes people by surprise. I don’t think it’s so much that she has a short fuse, but the opposite- in my version of Roksana, she has a lot of pent up anger and general emotion that she normally keeps a lid on, so once she reaches her limit, it all explodes. A woman at that time (her original time period) was not encouraged to speak her mind or express any sort of dissatisfaction or anger, and so that must’ve shaped how Roksana deals with self expression.

Some other traits I can infer from the text:

She can be resourceful and clever- as demonstrated by how she cons old people into giving her an inheritance, and more importantly, how she ended the fight with Andros by shifting into tiger form in order to overpower him. I’d really like to add more moments like this in the rewrite.

She’s a little mean sometimes (idk, I just found it hilarious when she said that her sister was really plain and was probably jealous of her).

Also, there’s no way she hasn’t suffered from some sort of PTSD after everything she’s been through.

[sometimesrosy]

If anyone doubts the possibility of Raven's guilt coming into play... "From Raven’s perspective, “They wouldn’t be in space and threatened this way if it wasn’t for Raven’s indecision about the bunker,” says Morgan.“Raven screwed up the plan, and made them come get her, and ruined everyone’s chance of safety. So them being in space is completely Raven’s fault, and leaving Clarke, and ultimately killing Clarke is completely Raven’s fault, and she knows that.”

Oh wow. I was not even thinking about that. Also, if Bellamy and Clarke and Raven were in the bunker then Octavia would not have gone full monster, and even if the bunker had still failed and they did have to resort to cannibalism, it wasn’t the cannibalism that was the horror (i mean it was but the real horror was what it turned them into.) 

So yeah. TOTALLY. I totally forgot about that aspect of Raven’s character and story. She wanted to commit suicide and changed her mind and then called them to come get her and because they were her friends they did. That would totally make her feel like being in space and leaving Clarke behind to die was her fault. That explains her heartbroken face when she finds out that Clarke is alive and also the rather tight and forced hair style I was talking about yesterday, as a symbolic representation of her feelings about herself. 

From her perspective, she must be wracked with guilt. That doesn’t necessarily mean she’ll forgive Clarke or be on her side, because when people feel guilty they can often overcompensate by blaming others or being angry at them. And she has valid reasons to blame and fell angry at Clarke for what she’s done. So it might be easier for her to blame Clarke than to accept responsibility for her own actions. But it’s Raven and she’s smart, so she’s going to figure this out. 

I did not see that Lindsey interview, so this is good. That she’s talking about this means it’s part of her character arc. That we saw NONE of it means that we’re getting it next season. Phew. Another piece of evidence that they split this story into two seasons. Because we got Murphy’s character development with his self esteem issues and relationship problems, so that means Raven’s is up next. We got character development for Murphy and Emori and Monty and Harper, adjusted to their importance in the story. This means we’ll get Raven and Echo next season. We only got half of Bellamy, Clarke and Octavia’s character development. They’re two season stories. Usually Murphy’s and Raven’s stories would take half a season and they’d be over in the A season or stick to the B season. Anyway. It’s good news that there is story for Raven that we didn’t get. And that she holds guilt for leaving Clarke to die, means going INTO her story means she’s got to FACE Clarke, which means PRINCESS MECHANIC IS COMING HOME. You have no idea how relieved this makes me. And it also means all the things that are buried deep about Princess mechanic are coming out, including the love triangle, so yeah. I think I was right about c/b/e triggering c/f/r, and that might be the thing that gets princess mechanic back together. 

OKAY. BUT.

In regards to guilt and blame. Raven feeling guilt for making them come get her is totally reasonable and human and in character. BUT.

IF they hadn’t come to get her, Monty and Harper would NEVER have gotten into the bunker. They were specifically NOT on the list. And they made a narrative point of NOT putting them on the list. It might have seemed gratuitous in season 4, but it’s possible they did that on purpose for THIS reason right here. Monty could have saved the bunker. Their garden failed very early. But Monty fixed it in a week. If he’d been in the bunker, they could have avoided the horror of wonkru, cannibalism and the fighting pits. But he wouldn’t have been in the bunker. He and Harper would have died in the fire. 

Also. Emori and Murphy would have died. They would have been taken out with the others. Kane wouldn’t have overridden the list with them. They had no value with him, like Miller did, not only personally but with David begging for his life. They had no value with Octavia like Niylah did. 

Echo would also have died. It was only the rescue mission that gave her a shot at living. She’d already been banished. The Bellarke fandom might not care about that, but Raven will. 

But MORE than that. Yeah, if Raven hadn’t had her moment of suicidal ideation, then she, Clarke and Bellamy would have been safe inside the bunker, but. And this is the biggest but.

The bunker would be forever trapped inside the earth, and WOULD NEVER GET OUT.

Not only that, but the farm was dying already when they did get out. Kara Cooper was incompetent. Maybe if the whole bunker wasn’t stuffed full of warriors instead of farmers and crafters and scientist, but hey, that’s what the grounders valued.

The bunker was dead in the water. Or dead in the earth. And the only reason they got OUT was because spacekru was up there to let them out. Because Bellamy got The Eligius to open the bunker. 

Raven being in the bunker would not have kept Polis from collapsing on top of the bunker and trapping them.

Without our heroes being left outside of it, and surviving, Wonkru would be dead. All of them. Sooner rather than later.

So when trying to decide whether a particular action is bad or good, we have to look at all the repercussions. 

I just think that’s very interesting. The question of who is “to blame,” what is “bad,” how things might have turned out if we made different decisions.

Like. Hey. That question echoes out LARGER in the main story. Clarke, Bellamy and Monty committed genocide on Mount Weather, and the guilt they felt for that changed who they were and damaged them and hurt them terribly. But, if they hadn’t done it. If MW was freed from their imprisonment by skaikru bonemarrow, whether stolen or donated willingly, then they would have killed and enslaved the grounders. They had ALREADY stated their intentions. They believed the surface was their BIRTHRIGHT. They showed us what they were capable of by WILLINGLY becoming technological vampires and FEEDING off of grounder captives. Enslaving them. Turning them into cattle. Dehumanizing them. And even if they sentenced those who tortured grounders and turned them into reapers, what remains is that NONE of MW was innocent. Maya declared it so. She knew where the blood came from. Her mother knew. The people eating dinner so politely all KNEW. They knew the delinquents were there to make them stronger, even if they didn’t know that it would end up being a sacrifice and not intermarriage. 

If they had gotten out, they would have created a NEW horror upon the world. A worse one. What Clarke and Bellamy and Monty did WAS the only choice. They WERE the good guys. Even sacrificing their own people so they didn’t have to kill innocents in MW would have created a greater harm in the world. 

I am suddenly realizing that if your theory on The 100 doesn’t echo out into the larger story, then your theory is probably not correct. If your ship doesn’t reflect the larger themes, then it’s probably not endgame. If your interpretation of your favorite character doesn’t deal with the major philosophical storyline, then you’re probably off base. 

If you have a spec on The 100, or an interpretation, you have to find a way that it connects back to the main stories. The major themes. Here are the themes. Survival. Being the good guy. The enemy is like ourselves. History repeats itself. The only way to survive is together. Yin/Yang. Breaking the cycle. Making sure we deserve to survive. We’re responsible for our monster. None of us is innocent. Unity. Rebirth. Cycles.

There are probably a lot more and you can come up with them. But I think the best way to understand what’s happening in this story and who the characters are is to make sure your interpretations can connect back to larger themes. All the characters narrative arcs HAVE to connect back to the larger themes. They can be different larger themes, but they need to connect.

Here we have Raven connecting to issues of guilt and responsibility and blame and forgiveness. Just because she is a genius does not mean she is free from the morality of blowing up bridges or dams. Her “superiority” does not give her the freedom to do what she wants to lesser people. Like when she decided Murphy should be sacrificed for a mass murderer’s sake. But she’s never seemed to FEEL her own responsibility in these actions, but shifts them onto Clarke or Bellamy and blames them. She says to Clarke that she’s the one who always decides who lives and who dies, but Raven has actually been one of the people who has GIVEN Clarke that job. Multiple times. She tells her its her job and makes her assume the responsibility. That means she is ALSO responsible for Clarke’s decisions. Refusing to make the list herself doesn’t mean that she held no responsibility for it.

This all goes back to the main story. Whether or not we want it to because we stan Raven and think she’s never done anything questionable. She literally tortured Lincoln and has NEVER showed remorse for it, while judging Bellamy for saving slaves, or Clarke for sparing Finn from torture. I think this story will come out in season 6 and it’s been a long time coming.

It’s remarkable how much the fandom wants to shift ALL blame to whatever character they don’t like. Lately I’ve heard a lot of anti-clarke stuff. Season 3 it was anti-bellamy stuff. Oh we also have anti-echo stuff. No one ever seems to hold Raven responsible for some of the very same decisions they call Clarke selfish or a princess for. 

I swear this fandom is so meta it blows my mind.

[eternityunicorn]

Elijah’s Eternity: New Orleans Part Eleven

Author: eternityunicorn 

Genre: Romance/Drama/AU

Pairing: Elijah Mikaelson x OC

Warnings: Violance, Smut (*Smut chapters marked +18)

Summary: Sequel to the AU Elijah’s Eternity - Ten years have passed, a mournful Elijah has finally started to move on without his lady. In that time, he has gained a reunited family and has also found a new lady love. Yet, all is not well as danger comes for the smallest member of the Mikaelson family: Hope, and it prompts Niklaus to call upon the white goddess, drawing her back into Elijah’s life. As they reunite, can Elijah really say he’s truly moved on?

NOTE: OC and original elements are from my up and coming novel series!

———————————————————————————————————

Once Eternity was fully recovered, she revealed to Elijah that the vampires that had attacked had been controlled by someone else. It made sense as those creatures did seem rather vacant. They both immediately came to the same conclusion - Bruno. Together they had decided that it had been retaliatory attack upon Eternity as a result of him discovering her game to divert him from finding Hope. Not one meant to kill her or even strike fear into her. It was a simple tantrum from a madman whom wasn’t getting what he wanted. At least that was what Eternity had explained to him.

Of course, Eternity had to reassure Elijah that his niece was safe still at the Underground Agency. She explained that Bruno didn’t know about the place and even if he had known, he wouldn’t be able to get in. Because he trusted her completely, he had immediately calmed and kept himself from getting worked up unnecessarily.

“Bruno is a broken man, lost and unloved with a grave affliction for madness,” Eternity told Elijah as they sat at Rousseau’s together one afternoon after her recovery.

They had gone there just to get out of the compound as she was feeling stifled after being bedridden for a couple of days. She had found herself restless and caged in. So the quaint little bar was Elijah’s solution. A change of scenery was always a help to the cooped up feeling. He had done as he promised to Veren and taken care of her cousin splendidly, ensuring she wanted for nothing in those couple of days she laid in bed and that care continued even after she had recovered. 

“Who is Bruno exactly? I know he is your brother, but you’ve never spoke about him before,” Elijah said, as his casually gripped the lip on glass of bourbon in front of him. “I would assume you would have mentioned your psychotic brother at some point in our time together. So why didn’t you?”

“Because I was not made aware of him until recently,” she replied with a small smile. “The Lady Veren had a bit of an adventure all of her own some years ago. She encountered my mad brother and one other: my twin sister named Kara.”

Elijah was surprised by this revelation, having not expected it. It was visible upon his face, he was sure.

Eternity laughed lightly at his reaction and said, “Oh yes, I have another sibling, though a non-mad one.”

He sat up a little straighter in his chair, intrigued, “So, what happened?”

“Veren had to free Kara from Bruno,” she explained. “The story goes, my brother suffered from dark inclinations early on. He was a dutiful son in the beginning, but only because he believed that he was meant for greatness, meaning that he wanted to be ‘the chosen on’, the keeper of the ultimate power of the two universes. Then my mother became pregnant again, with Kara and I, and that was when my grandmother had her vision of my ‘greatness’; though I’d hardly call it that.

“Anyway, this truth that he wasn’t meant to be this might immortal didn’t settle well with Bruno and the darkness in him only grew. He plotted against our family, wanting the power he believed was meant for him by any means. Then when my sister and I were born, he decided to steal ‘the chosen one’, but hadn’t anticipated twins. He ended up taking Kara by mistake and raising her. Well, more like abused her. He trained her to be as evil as him, training her to be as powerful as she could be and making her into his personal little assassin. 

“However, there was more to it than that. Bruno, in his madness, developed a most disturbing obsession with me, despite us having never met, up until recently that is. He claims he’s in love with me, his sister. Since Kara and I look more similarly than others of our family, being twins and all, Bruno not only abused my sister physically and psychologically, but also sexually once she was fully grown. He manipulated her into loving him as a lover would, twisting her into accepting such a disgusting practice by normalizing it. It was all for this obsession with me that Kara suffered these heinous crimes.”

Eternity paused. Her hand on the bar top tightened into a fist as anger coursed through her at the thought of what her sister had dealt with. Her sweet face contorted into a violent scowl. 

Elijah reached over and covered her fisted hand with his larger one. “I’m sorry that your sister had to suffer,” he said to her gently. “This Bruno deserves death for that crime alone. It’s the worst crime a family member can commit against another family member. I loathe the man even more, now that I know this.”

She smiled at him in gratitude, “Do not worry, my love. He will get his. I promised Kara he would and so he shall.”

“And what of this Kara? Where is she now?”

“She’s safe at the Universal Palace, at the far edge of the Immortal Universe, where Bruno cannot reach her.”

Elijah was surprised again. He often forgotten about Eternity’s status as a intergalactic queen and because of that, it was still hard to imagine her having a palace somewhere out there amongst the stars. She was a leader with immense responsibility, yet she was sitting casually at a bar with him - an Earth man. It was a bit mind blowing and humbling, to be sure. She simply made it easy to forget she was a powerful queen of a vast kingdom as she never flaunted her status or used it to her advantage in any way.

“If our ten years apart taught me anything it’s that I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else but right here, Elijah,” Eternity continued to smile at him, having heard his thoughts. “Perhaps one of these days, I’ll take you to the Universal Palace and anywhere else you want to go, beyond the stars.”

“I would be honored,” he replied with a look of affection of his own.

They fell into a companionable silence for a short time then, enjoying each other’s company. Soon the bar became a little livelier as a local band took the small stage and began to play. They were amateurish at best and Elijah had to wonder where Joshua got them from. Even the other patrons seemed to feel the way he did as they looked at one another with awkward expressions. 

Eternity must have felt the same too, because she visibly cringed. “I know that everyone has to start somewhere, but more practice is definitely needed for those boys,” she said to him. “But perhaps, for now, I can help them out in a different way - a little divine intervention.” She winked at him.

Curiously, Elijah watched as Eternity got up and moved around the various tables with her typical shining grace toward the band, of which was starting to realize they weren’t doing so hot on stage. Others watched too with wonder, but he barely paid attention to them. His eyes were on the woman he loved.

Once she got to the stage, she had the band stop playing. The four young men looked at each other and then at her in wonder, before she started a friendly dialogue with them to explain she wanted to help them out. They were soon nodding in acceptance of whatever arrangement she had made with them and then she took the stage, sitting at the unused piano that sat in the front, but off to the side slightly. 

Immediately Eternity began to play beautifully with a mix of classic and modern sound. The amateurish band members around her also began to play. This time they sounded phenomenally better. Each member looked surprised at the miraculous, almost magical difference in their sound. The melody they all played was of haunting beauty, hard and gothic, upbeat and dramatic. 

Then Elijah’s lady began to sing. Her voice was just as hauntingly beautiful as the music, as were the lyrics of the song she sang. They were poetically metaphoric and mournfully longing. It mesmerized Elijah and the entire thing spoke to him on a deeper level than he thought possible. The crowd felt the same. Everyone and everything went quiet as the band played now. 

Soon there were people moving from their spots to stand before the stage as if the music as a magnetic force, pulling them in. They began to sway and sing along, despite never having heard the lyrics before. Some even began to cheer them on before the song was even finished. It was interesting and of course, Elijah wondered whether it was Eternity’s magic calling them or if she was simply that talented a musician.

Eventually, the beautiful immortal’s voice faded and then the melody ended. When it did, all of Rousseau’s erupted into loud applause and whistles. Eternity gave all the attention to the young men of the band, praising them over stealing the spotlight from them. Then she took a quick bow at the audience’s insistence before climbing down from the stage and rejoining Elijah at the bar.

“That was beautiful, Sweetheart,” he said to her with a proud smile. 

Eternity shrugged nonchalantly, “Oh, it was just a bit of magic mixed with natural talent, with the magic being to aid those boys only. I made them promise me that they would practice more often, that they would get better. Once they did, I gave them the help they needed as to not suffer the embarrassment of a terrible performance.”

“Well, I am sure they appreciate it,” Elijah told her.

Then, as if on cue, the lead singer of the band came rushing over through the crowd to where they sat. He was youthful, maybe twenty years old with dark shaggy hair and bright blue eyes. He wore a graphic tee and a flannel shirt over it with torn up jeans. Upon seeing Elijah, he instantly became wary, instinctually sensing the danger that was the Original, but then when he turned his attention to Eternity, he smiled brightly with a perfect set of teeth.

“Uh, Miss?” The boy said in order to get Eternity’s attention, who had her back in his direction as she leaned upon the bar.

Eternity turned and smiled warmly at the youth in return, “Ah, hello again. What might I do for you, young man?”

When she referred to him as a ‘young man’ in such a way that made it imply she was older than him, the boy looked at her oddly. Physically speaking, Eternity actually appeared younger than the wannabe musician and so to him, as one that didn’t know of her status as an immortal, it was a strange thing to say. Yet said immortal didn’t seem to even notice the confused look he gave her. She simply carried on smiling politely, waiting for him to tell her whatever it was he wanted to say to her.

“Um, yeah, so my boys and I just wanted to say thank you again for what you did back there,” he told Eternity with a bit of nervous excitement. “You really saved our asses.”

“So long as you keep you’re promise to practice more, one day that performance just now will be every performance,” she responded kindly. “You won’t need, as you say, your asses saved then, because you’ll have reached your potential and you will shine.”

The young man looked appreciatively at her in response, “We’ll keep our promise. Thanks again, Miss! We won’t forget it!”

With that, the boy disappeared into the crowd to join his band mates. There was a lightness in his step as he went that showed how uplifting Eternity’s words to him had been. 

“Your kindness known no bounds,” Elijah said to Eternity adoringly, once the boy was gone. 

Again, Eternity shrugged, “I was simply giving those boys a push in the right direction. They have what it takes, so long as they put the effort in. If they do that, then they will know only the greatness of success. If not, then they will face utter failure. The choice is theirs. No magic in the world can turn them into something they are not. Not even I can turn them into true musicians. It is all up to them.”

“Well, here’s to hoping they do not squander the blessing granted to them by the goddess watching over them,” Elijah raised his half empty glass in a toast of sorts, before downing the rest of it quickly.

“Still not a god,” Eternity rolled her eyes and sighed exasperatedly with a small grin gracing her pink lips as she looked at him beneath her eyelashes. 

He grinned back, finding her good mood infectious. “Debatable,” he replied with a tilt of his head, before ordering another drink from the bartender.

She simply laughed lightly and shook her head at him. 

Elijah downed the new glass of bourbon put in front of him and then pulled a wad of money from the inner pocket of his suit jacket. He left enough to not only cover the drinks he had, but to give the bartender a more than generous tip. Then he lifted Eternity’s hand to his lips and kissed the palm, before taking said hand and leading her out of Rousseau’s. 

Eternity followed without question as they took to the streets. There were crowds of people all over, as was typical during anytime in New Orleans. Yet, the pair casually strolled around them, enjoying the warm southern weather. 

Elijah enjoyed watching Eternity watch the people with that childlike curiosity of hers, as if it were the first time she had ever seen human beings, despite that not being true. She had seen humans being...human...plenty of times during their time together and surely before then too. Yet, there was always this wonder about her as she observed the human world with her own eyes.

It was as adorable as it was fascinating.

Then a sudden chill down Elijah’s spine interrupted his observance of his lady and caused him to pause, pulling Eternity to a stop beside him. He immediately started to scan the area, looking for whatever or whoever he had sensed instinctually as a threat.

It was there across the street that he saw her, standing there on the corner looking at him point blank; Céleste! She was in her original body, dressed in the casual garb of Sabine, her last body jumped identity, making it obvious to him that it was her. Not that he could ever forget her face. But how was that even possible? He had killed her ages ago, stopping her from jumping bodies and being a threat to his family. So how was she standing there now?

“Elijah?” Eternity called to him in concern, gripping his arm in the hand he wasn’t holding. “Elijah, what’s wrong?”

He looked back at his lady with a confused expression before looking back across the way, only to find that Céleste was gone. She had vanished. Elijah thought he was going mad then, uncertain of what he had seen. Could it have been a trick? Perhaps, but that still begged the question: why?

“It’s nothing,” answered Elijah unconvincingly. “I just thought I saw something.”

Eternity frowned at him, but didn’t demand to know the truth immediately. Instead, she let him carry on walking with her in tow as if his strange pausing hadn't happened at all. 

He tried to ignore the face of Céleste that now haunted him. He did his best to dismiss it as nothing. Little did Elijah know, just what kind of trouble awaited him, trouble that he wouldn’t be able to ignore for long.

To Be Continued....

[axgustvs-blog]

i’m not here for you. augustus & charlie & marin.

summary: augustus puts on an act. marin puts out a fire. charlie puts things away.

AUGUSTUS

As promised, Augustus had forgiven Marin by their next meeting. In fact, he was proud to point out, he hadn't even mentioned letter through implication. The two of them sat together, casual despite the subject of their conversation, which Augustus was only half paying attention to, anyway. Ethae was crowded as usual. Augustus was staring aimlessly into the crowd, coffee forgotten, as Marin explained to him one more time the importance of merfolk and fairy relations. It was too noisy in here, he decided, and that was why he couldn't focus. "Sorry to cut you off, Marin, but can we move to the quieter part of this establishment? I'm sure we're capable of using our inside voices."

MARIN

Amid the crowded tables and long lines toward the front of the café, it was all too easy to blend in with the other patrons. It was one of the few times where Marin was comfortable discussing certain topics out in the open, so long as he had someone trustworthy to speak with. He was pleased that Augustus had so readily forgiven him for the letter incident, though he hoped it’d stay that way so long as Charlie didn’t make yet another stink. And from what he’d seen and heard so far? It was only a matter of time before shit hit the fan yet again.

Raising a brow at Augustus’s request, Marin had half a mind to stay put. But given it really was starting to get chaotic on this end of Ethae, he was inclined to agree. “Fine,” he sighed, already picking up his tea and the tiny flask of vodka he’d managed to smuggle in with him. “But once the line dies down, you owe me a croissant.”

AUGUSTUS

"Fine," Augustus replied, echoing Marin's exasperation. But he was smiling, just a little, happy to have gotten what he wanted. He picked up the coffee, drained it, and then moved around the tables and into the library. Not two steps inside, he saw Charlie, placing books on the nearby shelf. He stopped in his tracks, frowning. "Oh," he said aloud. It was too late to breeze past and act as though he hadn't seen the man, so Augustus crossed his arms and looked Charlie up and down. "You work here?"

CHARLIE

Charlie was not thinking about Augustus. He was not thinking about letters, not the fact that his most recent visit to Arabella had provided some interesting information. He was thinking, instead, about shelving books. He was so not thinking about Augustus that when he appears, he had to do a double take. He sighed. "I told you I was a librarian. Where else would I work? The zoo?"

MARIN

As if the universe was trying to deliver the biggest ‘fuck you’ imaginable, Marin was greeted by the sight of a certain thorn in his side. And if that wasn’t bad enough, he worked somewhere Marin actually had to behave himself. “I think you’d be right at home picking up animal shit,” he quietly remarked, unable to keep a frown from spreading across his face. “Anyway, if you’ll excuse us, we have some very important things to discuss.” Marin motioned toward an empty table, waiting for Augustus to make the first move.

CHARLIE

Charlie blinked at the insult. He vaguely recognized the man’s face, and then, after a few moments it came to him: “Aaron?” He asked, sounding unsure.

AUGUSTUS

Augustus remembered, a moment after asking, that Charlie had told him he worked at a library. He rolled his eyes, about to retort, when Marin beat him to it. He turned to his friend with a surprised expression. "Marin," he scolded. Charlie spoke again, and Augustus almost laughed, but just cleared his throat to cover it. "Ah, no, this is—" He realized what this introduction would mean, that it might make Charlie angry all over again, and sighed. "This is Marin."

CHARLIE

Charlie paled. His indignation flew out the window as the pieces fell into place. He vaguely remembered seeing the two of them together at the West Hollow Beach reopening, but it was a fleeting memory. Of course, the person who he poured his heart and soul to was the same man who wrote him that cruel letter. Of course, they were friends. His heart sank at every idea that came into mind, every picture of the two of them together laughing over the contents of Charlie’s inner thoughts. “This is Marin?” He repeated, trying to regain composure. “Fantastic. Charming, even. I can’t imagine what sort of devious plot you two are planning, but I would like it if, for once, you kept my name out of it. Past is past, isn’t it, Augustus?” He challenged.

MARIN

Marin resisted the urge to roll his eyes and bit the inside of his cheek to keep his composure. It wouldn’t do him any good to make a scene, but there was always room for a quip or two. “In his defense,” he said, “Augustus had nothing to do with the letter. You seem so worked up about the fact he might be involved, but I thought it was obvious that it was all me. I even signed it with my name — in squid ink, which shows just how much dedication I put into it.”

AUGUSTUS

This whole run-in was quickly turning from inconvenient to annoying. Charlie was throwing all this anger at him and, sure, he was still pissed about this prank, but it felt larger than that. He wanted to shake the younger vampire and shout what now, what now? Could they not go a single week without fighting? And he knew there was something he'd done that would make Charlie angry, but there was no way he could know about that. So, he was clueless. And getting pissed. "Marin, shut up," he snapped, finally tearing his gaze away from Charlie. "Shut up about this stupid fucking letter. I told you there was no point in explaining yourself to someone like him." He then turned to Charlie. "Don't get yourself all worked up, you're not important enough to dedicate an entire afternoon discussing. I wouldn't have let us meet here if I'd known you'd be here finding some reason to be mad at me." He pinched the bridge of his nose and turned away, starting to fume.

CHARLIE

He rolled his eyes at Marin, but he knew his face was slowly but surely turning a bright red. His pride was on the line, or rather, his pride had been shot several times over. He wanted nothing more to do with Augustus, but it seemed as if Augustus was intent on having everything to do with him, while claiming in the next breath that he wanted nothing. It was all a very exhausting experience, all this guess work. “Oh, I believe you. It’s nice to know you have nothing better to do,” he said simply. “I’ll very much be keeping that in mind.”

Charlie flinched visibly at Augustus’s words. He had every right to be angry, but he just felt sad. Given every recent revelation he’d had — namely with Roman — all of this mess between them was amounting to one very depressed Charlie. He wanted nothing more than to walk over and shake Augustus, ask him several times over just what he was trying to prove, among other things. He sighed, turned to the books he was shelving and muttered, “Alright.” But then, beaten and downtrodden, he turned to get one last, albeit dejected, word in. “I’m not stupid, Augustus. Did you think I wouldn’t find out?”

MARIN

“Right,” Marin quipped, looking like he was ready to rip Charlie’s head right off his scrawny little neck. “Because someone who spends their days filing books for a living has room to talk about a letter that took me five minutes to write.” If he couldn’t snap at Augustus for snapping at him, then Charlie would make for a fine punching bag. “But go off, I guess.”

Setting his sights back on the table, Marin placed a hand over Augustus’s elbow, trying to nudge him in the general direction. “Whatever you’re accusing him of, he didn’t do. I’m starting to think you just want an excuse to pitch a fit until someone brings you a bottle of milk or finally changes your soiled diaper.”

AUGUSTUS

He narrowed his eyes at Charlie, who now looked decidedly miserable instead of angry. But his own anger had already started swelling. Augustus yanked his elbow out of Marin’s hold and took a step closer to Charlie. “Find out about what? What in your laundry list of grievances is the problem today?”

CHARLIE

Where with Augustus there was misery, with Marin there was a prideful anger. His chest swelled with anger at this effective stranger who apparently had a huge problem with him. While he knew the right thing to do was to say nothing, to offer silence and return to nurse what wounds had suddenly been reopened, Charlie could not resist. “We clearly have different definitions of how to best spend our time, Aaron,” he huffed.

Then, turning to Augustus and ignoring the painful ache of his heart, he sighed. “Call any retirement homes lately? I find it incredibly interesting how you want nothing to do with me yet you spend your spare time digging into my life. Did you think it wouldn’t get back to me?”

AUGUSTUS

He should have known that this would have happened. Augustus tightened his jaw and straightened up his stance. Now that he knew what, exactly, Charlie was upset about, and he thought it was actually quite reasonable, he switched out of his anger. Instead, he stepped into his self-righteous defensiveness. “Oh, spare me, Charlie. It’s practically my job to know what’s happening in this town. And since you never actually explained to me why you moved back to this town despite wanting nothing to do with me, I was curious.” He glanced back at Marin. “Unfortunately, he’s rightfully accused me, for once. But, actually it’s a good thing I did go digging. What you’re doing is incredibly stupid and dangerous, Charlie. If you’re going to risk everyone because of your pathetic nostalgia, at least have the decency of informing us.”

MARIN

“Aaron? Who the hell is Aaron?” Marin genuinely looked confused, but quickly decided it wasn’t worth his time. The more pressing issue was the fact that Augustus was, in fact, doing some digginng of his own. Marin would have to deal with that piece of information at a later time and a different place. For now, he needed to cut the conversation and refrain from making a bigger scene than he wanted.

“Can we just have some tea in peace?” Marin sighed, one hand on his hip while the other clutched his drink. “I swear, every time the two of you cross paths in public, you wind up making asses of yourselves. Augustus, let’s go.” Again, he motioned toward the table. “Leave the sad little man baby alone.”

CHARLIE

Choosing to focus instead on Augustus’s words, Charlie found he didn’t appreciate the man’s defensiveness. “Oh, yes, educate me on keeping things a secret. The woman knew full well and good the happenings of West Hollow before I even arrived. She contacted me. Apparently it was an easy task, not that you’d care to know,” he dug. He refused to be lectured by Augustus again, especially when he was the one in the wrong.

Then, wheeling on Marin, he forgoed biting the insides of his cheeks to control his anger. “As for you, I’d appreciate it if you kept yourself out of my business. My mistake for involving you in the first place, I’ve clearly never been a good judge of character.”

AUGUSTUS

"Go sit down if you're so sick of this, Marin." Augustus said, barely glancing over his shoulder as he continued to glare at Charlie. His words made no sense, but they felt pointed once again. The needled at him with that accusatory tone he'd grown so used to. "Not that I'd care to— What is that supposed to mean?" he asked, raising his voice to speak over Charlie's continued insults to the merfolk behind him. "You're bragging about being easily found? The fact that she could contact you is not good, Charlie. That's actually, pretty fucking embarrassing, considering you've been roaming around, trying to be elusive and unnoticed all these years."

MARIN

“Hey, hey, hey. Indoor voices,” Marin quickly hissed, nudging Augustus as if that would get him to listen. “We’re in public, you two. Or have you forgotten that you—“ He pointed to Charlie with a scowl. “—are on the clock? And that you—“ Now he was pointing at Augustus. “—are supposed to be cutting the leech out of your life? Shut up, sit down, and let him self-destruct on his own. How hard is that?”

CHARLIE

Marin was all but out of the picture, cut in Charlie’s tunnel vision. He felt his cheeks go hot with anger, likely tinged with some embarrassment, too. “It was easy for people who knew me. Which her family had, for decades. I went back there, Augustus. I kept going back there, half for reasons you’d know and half because —,” but halfway through he changed direction, deciding he didn’t deserve to know that information. That actually, if he knew anything at all, it wouldn’t need saying. 

 “You are such a stupid, stupid man. And you’re absolutely horrible at lying, it’s embarrassing. You think I can’t see through this and figure out what it’s about? Even your friend can tell, though why he’s in denial about it is beneath me.”

AUGUSTUS

That word— leech— made a small, hidden part of Augustus explode. Heat rose to his face, his back went rigid, and his expression morphed into something just shy of murderous. He listened to Charlie without comment, his anger nearly tangible, radiating off of him, distorting the edges of his vision. "Marin," he started, tearing his eyes briefly away from Charlie long enough to stare daggers at his friend. "Fuck you. Charlie." He turned back to the vampire, looking seconds from tossing him across the room. His hands were balled into fists at his side. "Before I send you across this library. What's this about? I'd like to know, since I'm so stupid, since you seem to know every possible thing about me. What is this all about? Speak plainly to me, for once in your sorry life, how you really fucking feel."

CHARLIE

Charlie rolled his eyes. “Of course you’re back to throwing me across the room. You have two moves, and they’re both very, very uninteresting,” he took a step forward, feeling either brazen or insane. Then again, he had next to nothing to lose anymore. He’d lost his pride, he’d lost his cool, what was really the harm in risking being thrown across the room?

“You’re upset because I’m not here for you. You’re upset that after all this time I’ve left you behind like I did all those years ago, you’re upset I left you. And you can do whatever you like to me, say whatever you like, but it won’t change that fact, and for whatever godforsaken reason...whatever sick and cruel joke the universe is playing on me, somehow I’m the one left with...with,” he was steaming, his own hands balled into fists so tightly his knuckles where whitening.

Then, he laughed—a cold, harsh and mirthless laughter—before shaking his head. “I should tell you? Why don’t you tell me, Augustus? Why don’t you, for once, tell me? I could be dying in front of you and you still wouldn’t admit it. It’s fucking sad, really, really, really sad. And I mean that. You’ll be alone forever, and you’ll only have yourself to blame.”

AUGUSTUS

He hated Charlie in that moment, because he'd somehow taken the upper hand from him, all those weeks ago, and no matter what he tried to do Augustus couldn't get it back. He hated Charlie, because he was frustrated, and had so many retorts and comebacks and arguments that they all went senseless in his mouth and he was left standing there silent. He hated Charlie because he was fucking right, and he hated that, too. That Charlie was here, not for him and still here. That somehow this promise of loneliness hurt, coming from his mouth.

Augustus really did nearly shove him. And, he looked like he was on the verge of tears. But he could feel eyes on them, now, so he kept himself composed. "I hate you," he said, simply. "You want me to tell you? I can't stand the sight of you. Every time I see you I'm reminded of a time I never want to think of ever again." As he continued to speak, his voice got steadily louder, his composure grew thinner. "You seem so fucking certain that you know me, but every time you fling these insults in my face it's like you're waiting for me to confirm. So fine, fine! You're wrong. I was trying to find out when you were leaving. I was trying to get a guess on when you'd be out of my life. And I was hoping that maybe, this time, when you were gone you'd be gone for good. So I could finally, finally put you resolutely in my past instead of being followed around by some stupid wounded puppy. Is that what you want to hear?"

MARIN

Normally one to bask in attention, the odd looks and puzzled expressions of those around them didn’t sit well with Marin. He still had a reputation to uphold, one that would be on the rocks with the local fairy population if he let these two continue hashing it out. And as much as he disliked getting emotionally worked up, he couldn’t help but feel a pang of remorse for Augustus.

“I think that’s enough,” he firmly stated, putting an arm in front of Augustus to keep him at bay. “You’re making a scene, and not the good kind.” Stern gaze turning to Charlie, he added, “You’ve done more than enough damage. If I were you, I’d take my break before this gets any worse — and shut the fuck up instead of escalating the situation.”

CHARLIE

Charlie’s eyes weren’t on Augustus, they were on the clock behind him. While some part of him figured he was lying, knew he was lying, his words still cut deep. They pierced through his skin and embedded themselves in his heart. But instead of focusing on how much it hurt to hear, he focused on how much time was up before his shift was over. When the clock struck, after some silence on Charlie’s part, his eyes gazed back to Augustus, and they were cold. Emotionless.

He decided to take Marin’s advice—again, he supposed—and he put the books he had been shelving down, wiped his hands on his shirt and walked past Augustus without another word.

AUGUSTUS

Augustus didn’t care about making a scene, or about Marin’s stern look and attempt at holding him back. He cared that Charlie wasn’t saying anything— wasn’t even looking at him. And when the man walked away, it took all of Augustus’s self-control to not grab him and demand a response. With enormous effort, he stood still, let Charlie leave with the unspoken final word. Scorned by the silence, he started shaking.

“Fuck him,” he muttered under his breath. The grand confession had done nothing for him; in fact he felt even worse than before. Dredging all that up had stirred too many emotions, and now he was here, again, too angry and hurt to function. Trying not to rage-cry in public. “Fuck him, fuck him. Fuck his stupid holier-than-thou attitude and fuck— fuck!”

He took a few steps aside, trying to give himself some space and calm himself down. But he was too far gone, too overcome to quiet it all down. In a rush of anger, he picked up one of the discarded books and threw it to the floor. It felt pointless and pathetic, but he had nothing else to take this out on. So he grabbed another and sent it across the room.

MARIN

It was obvious that Charlie had gotten directly under Augustus’s skin, but Marin was still shocked to witness the vampire having a full-blown meltdown in public. In an instant, Marin had grabbed hold of Augustus’s wrists and roughy yanked both arms down to his friend’s side. “What the hell are you thinking!” He hissed, trying to quell his own embarrassment and humiliation. “Get a grip on yourself, Augustus!” He tried to keep his own voice down, but still made sure it was firm enough to get his scolding across.

Leaving Augustus for just a moment, Marin picked up both books and did his best to brush off any damage, figuring he’d need to talk to someone else in the café to pay for the now fragile books that’d faced the wrath of Augustus.

“We’re leaving,” he sternly remarked, setting the books on a random shelf. He took hold of Augustus’s arm and quickly began dragging him to the nearest back exit, looking utterly mortified. “I have a reputation to uphold, Augustus, and so do you.” He’d never seen his friend so furious in public, and Marin couldn’t help but think that if Charlie was out of the picture, he’d get the old Augustus back. “I swear, I can never take you anywhere these days.”

AUGUSTUS

Marin quickly yanked him back from the edge. Augustus stopped abruptly, and managed to pull himself together just enough to not cause any more damage. Somewhere among all this rage he remembered that this behavior looked very, very bad for him. Still, he couldn't do anything more reputation-saving than stand there and seethe until he was guided out of the library altogether. Then, he sat on the curb, head in his hand, swaying back and forth between sharp sadness and the burn of embarrassment. "I think you're right, Marin," he mumbled, eventually, sounding almost defeated. "I can't be around him. At all. Fuck."