#because i kept thinking i had some of these covers in duplicate

[littleeyesofpallas]

2023

2022

2021

2020

2019

Pur Comics

Wanko GARE no Honshou wa YARASHII Ookami!?[わんこカレの本性はヤラシイ狼！？]: Puppy Boyfriend's True nature is a Dirty Wolf!?

Kimi FETISH nan'dakedo Itoshite ii? ~Wakeari kare ga EROi me de mite kimasu ~[君フェチなんだけど愛していい？～ワケあり彼がエロい目で見てきます～]: I have a fetish for you, can I love you? ~He looks at me with erotic eyes for a reason~

Akuryou wa Ai o mada Shiranai[悪霊は愛をまだ知らない]: Demons Don't know Love yet

Gokudou Oshikake kon ~Junketsu Hanayome wa Yakuza na kare ni Ubawa Retai~[極道おしかけ婚～純潔花嫁はヤクザな彼に奪われたい～]: Yakuza arranged marriage ~ The pure bride wants to be taken away by the yakuza boyfriend ~

こじらせ若旦那様は私に飢えている～餌付けされてるはずが食べられちゃいました…!?～

俺に堕ちるまで抱かれてろ～甘くてずるいズブズブの愛執関係～

アタシに乱れて愛されなさい～オネエ系王子は夢女の私を貪り尽くす～

ただの恋物語じゃつまらないでしょ？～リアルは漫画よりも甘く刺激的でした～

年下御曹司の純情すぎる執愛　～剥き出しの情欲、10年越しの愛で慰めて～

堅物戦王子と0日婚しましたが彼の×××が大きすぎます～残りもの姫、人生最大のピンチです～

研究者・世田くんは初恋を拗らせている　～愛したがり彼と溺愛開発～

冷徹王子は恋を知りたい～恋愛指南ってソコまでするんですか！？～

君にそばにいて欲しい

ケモノ社長は初恋花嫁しか愛せない～あなたにだけ発情する特別なカラダ～

一条さんは××が我慢できない～今夜、孤高の彼を調教します（※処女なのに！）～

再会夜の旋律は甘やかなアリア　～エリート幼なじみと秘めごと同棲はじめます～

執着ドクターの不埒な治療

下着のナカまで愛させて　～一流デザイナー、秘密の性癖事情～

とろけて発情!?蜜恋フィットネス　～猛獣カレの甘濡れ指導～

もう逃がさないから、覚悟して。～今夜、初恋の元カレ上司に抱き尽くされます!?～

触れていいのは俺だけだ ～仮初めの恋人はスパダリ社長～

冴島さんには逆らいません！～イジワル上司と言いなりエッチ～

異世界の暴君王太子に娶られそうです！？　～転生魔女は黒き狼に求愛される～

気持ちイイこと教えてヤるよ ～27歳処女、トロ甘愛撫にイカされそうです～

押しかけ御曹司の新妻にされそうです！

極上スタァに抱かれて　～二枚目看板役者の甘い誘惑～

草食系彼氏がとんだ策士だなんて聞いてない

君と僕のオルタナティヴ・ランジェリー

イケナイLMTG！ ～社長、エッチの時間です！～

アイドルの秘密は楽屋で暴かれる

[nanaminsmoon]

𝐭𝐞𝐚𝐫 𝐦𝐞 𝐚𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐭.

a/n: this is the quickest piece of writing i’ve ever done and it’s because it was meant to be a joke because i just think this audio is mad funny...but it’s not too bad. i didn’t even think i’d upload anything today but this happened so enjoy i guess:))

cw: oral (m receiving), ony is just overstimulated, ony calls reader ‘baby’, n word usage.

wc: 922 + i only reread this once

‘don’t you know i will make you nut until you fucking cry? d’you hear me? you’ll be nuttin’ and cryin’ at the same damn time.’

watching a lot of tiktok meant that you often annoyed ony with random videos in his messages, and phrases you found funny. although he told you to stop, you knew he loved it really. so you didn’t stop. something you found particularly hilarious was the audio of that one guy saying ‘don’t you know i will make you nut until you fucking cry. d’you hear me? you’ll be nuttin’ and cryin’ at the same damn time’. so that phrase had graced ony’s ears multiple times. a day. he didn’t use tiktok as much as you—the only reason he even had it was so you could send him videos you liked. so the first time he had heard it, his ears had perked up in curiosity; he didn’t know you were referencing something else, so he just thought you were threatening him with some lifechanging head. but you clarified, and he slumped into the couch as he played 2k.

seeing that reaction, you decided to just give the man what he wanted, and now he had nutted three times; the first in your mouth, the remnants of the second were on your chin and his thighs, and the third was on your chest. your actions had been true of your words—albeit playful, and not necessarily your own, they hadn’t been shy of your true intentions. the headset, that had once been atop ony’s head, had been taken off, and sat next to him. it had been the only audience member observing the sloppily lewd noises coming from the place your mouth and his dick met. all assisted by the hands that paid great attention to the places your mouth couldn’t reach. his midsection was covered in a heedless mixture of his nut, your spit, and his sweat. his beautiful brown skin shining like honey covered chocolate, melting under immense heat. and there’s nothing you wanted more than to taste the sweetness on your tongue; transferring onto you to settle on your tastebuds.

pearly whites held his white tank top as his eyes were painfully closed. his attempt to look down at you was delayed by eyelashes sticking together, salty murmurs of overstimulation acting as an adhesive to keep them united. keeping his eyes shut was the only thing he could control; his hips moved on their own, following the wetness between your plump lips to get another release. it was relief ony wasn’t sure he wanted, he didn’t think he could handle it. and his neck made sure to warn him of that—whipping his head from side to side as he searched for an avenue of relief that wouldn’t leave him shooting blanks.

if the sounds in the room hadn’t been overshadowed by amplified suction noises, you would’ve heard the quiet cracking noises produced as a result of how hard he was curling his toes. you had long snatched that nigga’s soul, and now you were just cleaning up the crumbs, making sure his chest would now hold a you shaped hole.

maybe that hole would be reminiscent of the one at the back of your mouth, wrapping itself around his tip as you swallowed around him.

“y/n, b-baby, n-no more” , his shaky hand lifted to softly push your forehead back. but his hips couldn’t help fucking your mouth more, pushing himself further inside you, and whining every time you gagged. the volume of ony’s whimpers was the highest it had ever been—his vocal cords could not find it in themselves to move in a way low enough to duplicate his usual growls, and groans. so they remained stagnant at high-pitched whimpers and whines, loud cries filling the living space.

ultimately, you kept to your promise, and ony’s eyes brimmed with salty streams of overstimulation, before the streams merged into a waterfall that fell down his soft cheeks.

“y-y/n, nnghh—ffffuckk”, his voice felt like it was going hoarse with how hard he was pushing his voice to form intelligible words and sounds. and his chest heaved deeply as he tried to stabilise himself again. the first step of said process being a firm palm pushing you back, causing you to fall back onto the rug. giggling at the mess you had made of the man you loved. his fourth, and final, nut came out in small specks. and you saw the visceral juxtaposition of delightful agony painted all over face; his lips had parted but all they could muster was heavy breaths. this man was fucking drooling onto the couch cushions, and you just giggled again.

“you asked for it”, you chortled, getting up to make your way to the bathroom to get some warm towels to clean you both up.

as delicate as your hands were, ony still winced at your gestures of kindness. sorry hands still felt tainted by lust as you cleaned off the fruits of your slobbery labour. you wanted your own relief, but you knew ony wasn’t in the headspace to give it to you so you just continued wiping him down. you could’ve sworn the overstimulation had knocked him out, but then you heard faint grumbles through unstable, and snotty sniffles,

“stay off that fucking app.”

© Rights owned by nanaminsmoon. Do not repost without permission.

[clearwillow]

It's not "new" but I ran across these stills I'd saved for each check-in I did during In-spiration 5 and thought someone might like to see them. I failed to record any of the process over the summer because I was also working on my coloring book, but I promise you there were a fuck ton of layers even by the end.

Some nerdy notes about it under the cut if you're interested:

I started sketching this idea out almost immediately after signing up - that's how hard the idea struck. I wasn't even planning to sign up originally but I'm glad I did cause I'd be kicking myself if I hadn't seen this idea out.

When I mean a fuck ton of layers, I mean fuck ton. The sketches folder has 17 separate layers so I could move around pieces. Like the book of shadows; I think I originally intended for it to be in front of her/us instead of to her right, but that would mean covering the circle.

Kagome and her materials are the only pieces that were given crisp lineart, and I still painted over portions of those lines. Everything else was painted under the sketch to block out its shape before I finished rendering it.

I think it's the first time I've ever given Kagome a nose stud and my eye kept going to it each time thinking something was wrong XD

Inuyasha's showing a bit more in that reflection than I originally meant to show, but yes he has the hip and cheek stripes.

If you look real close at the book of shadows, the text might look familiar. Might need to view it on ao3 though. Oh hey look here's another link to it so you can give Lavendertwilight some love 😉

Because I wanted the lighting to be more dramatic than what I usually lean towards, I had to duplicate the glow of the candles and still add a more contrasting shadow to the upper corners to make the room darker without losing any of the work.

[hemihr12005]

Fundies S2W1

We did a similar project to the childen's story book in graphic design stream. This time making a 12 page book on in design i want to focus more on type and imagery.

our brief was to create:

we also needed to include:

i used 3 different paragraph styles. one for titles, one for subheadings and one for body text.

i used a lot of images, which i edited on photoshop.

i wanted to create a collage of frame of flowers and the characters from each nursery rhyme/ story included in the book. i ended up editing a lot of images in photoshop for this by making them black and white and removing backgrounds (also adding some pencil drawings to them through photoshop). I used this for the end page. i also added two drawings i drew on paper and then turned into illustrations. below is the two drawings on paper and then how they ended up on illustrator. i then put them into photoshop and duplicated the layers and flipped them horizontally to create the whole moth/butterfly. i also edited the overlapping parts too in photoshop. i turned the opacity down on the in design page spread beacsue i found they were a lot darker than the other illustrations i had on the page.

on the page above i also created one of the flowers on illustrator using the pencil tool and curves.

on my end page i also created the penguin books penguin on illustrator using pen tool and bezier curves.

i made the stomach colour the same as the book back cover so it would blend well.

the teacher also helped me align one of my pages better. the type size was adjusted smaller, and increased the leading. i think this helped a lot with the alignment and made the page look a lot better. i think i just ran out of space and didn't want to change the font size, but the small change helped the page to look a lot better.

the original is on the left and the changed on the right. the one on the right is just more spacious and better to look at.

pages in order:

for my front cover i found this wreath that i really liked. it had lots of stock marks so i removed them in photoshop using pen and patch tool. i really liked the composition and colours and style. i really like old style book illustrations and wanted to have a similar theme for my book. i originally just had the title as children's storys, but i felt something was missing so i added & nursery rhymes. i think this made the page a lot more balanced. i also used blue for the font originally, but i changed to yellow to match the flowers and be more complimentary to the background.

For my end pages i found a pattern i liked. i edited in photoshop to be black and white because it was originally pink. i then turned the opacity down because i thought it was to bright. i like this pattern as it is floral so it fit in with the rest of my book and it looks nice and simple.

for content page i found an image i liked of flowers and then i edited a different composition on photoshop and added a few different flowers from other images. I used middle alignment for the title, and changed the font size of the story so it would be in equal length to ‘children’s’ I did this to create a square looking alignment. I was going to use middle alignment for the page numbers too but with the number it looked really bad so I changed it to left alignment. This looked a lot better but there were a few orphans so I changed the font and tracking so all the books would fit on one line.  For the first story “Mary had a little lamb” I ended up getting help to real align the page to make it less cramped. Other than that change which I talked about earlier - I kept the nursery rhyme into fours lines and made sure I had no orphans or widows. I used an all cap title, a subheading for the author and body text for the story. I used a coloured illustration on this page since the content page had colour. I liked this image I found because it also had the vintage look of older books - with the watercolour style that I like - and have on the front cover. The image also featured a girl and lambs which I thought fit the story well.

For ‘I’m a little teapot’ story I used the same text as the previous story but I kept the font the original paragraph setting I had which was 16. I used return shift to create the text paragraphing. I used a teapot image, illustrated with black and white with what looks like pen. I chose this because in old book design they often used black illustrations in children’s book - for example old Winnie the Pooh books. I really like this style and as I sad earlier I wanted an older sort of styled book design. for ‘itzy bitzy spider’i used the same format and type of image. I liked this image as it included a spider, a web and some flowers. I liked the flowers because it is a recurring theme throughout the book. I also like that the spider is not a super realistic image, because children are often scared of spiders. 

For ‘ring o’ roses’ I wanted to have a literal image of a ring of roses or a wreath of roses. I found an image that was in the watercolour style I liked. I decided to keep this in colour, even though most of the illustrations I have are in black and white. I tried it in black and white but it didn’t look as good, and I feel like colour shows off the rose illustration nicely. I used middle alignment for text and put the text inside the ring of roses. For hare and the tortoise i used lots of soft return for the paragraphing. I also used it at the end to use emphasis on the last line, because that is the main meaning behind the story. I used a tortoise illustration for the bottom of the page, the illustration was originally brown so I changed it into black and white. 

in this i used multiple images and then edited them on photoshop to black and white and removed the backgrounds. i also edited some of them - moving thing around/ removing things ect. I chose these images because i thought they looked good and matched the rest of my book while also relating back to the characters from the stories i used. i wanted it to look nice while also matching the rest of the book and i think i achieved this. i like the colour as well and think i child would like to look at this. the only thing i would change next time is to make a more simple back cover - as while this is pretty back covers are usually pretty bland. So this could be used as a front cover next time.

i enjoyed this task, as i enjoyed thinking to what i would like as a child when i made this. i also enjoyed playing around more on photoshop, in design and illustrator. i definitly leant some new things through trail and error as well as soft returns which the teacher taught us. my favourite thing was making arrangements on photoshop and INdesign. i think children would like my book design and stories and do think a children could easily read the storys themselves. I think its a really pretty book and an adult reading it to their kids would also (hopefully) enjoy the illustrations. i think if i were to do this again i would do a make the back cover the front cover, do a more simple back cover (maybe just keep the rabbit and do more of a blurb), and make the book all black and white. i would also change the order of the page spreads i would swap 6 & 7 for 8 & 9 because the 'ring o' roses' story is in colour and would look better near the colour pages - originally i chose the order of pages this way so 'the hare and the tortoise' would be last on content page, because i originally couldn't fit the name on one line, so i wanted it to be the last story. I would also make the books content page background colour white. lastly I would try to add some more vectors. I got a little annoyed with the vectors because I couldn't really make illustrations in the same style as the style i was going for. i found i could only really make line art when i wanted to create more sketchy illustrations (which i ended up doing on photoshop instead with the pencil tool). although i did manage to create the style i wanted by converting sketches i drew, into vectors on illustrator with a tool called 'convert sketch into vector'.

[stealingyourbones]

DP + JLU crossover prompt: I wanna see Flash as Danny's mentor, so--

Danny has survived (Sorta?) 2 years as a ghost without being discovered. Until their field trip to Central City. First day there and immediately Flash catches him phasing out of some locked container (Thank you, Dash). Danny thinks he's screwed, "Hello GIW, dissection tables, and ecto-uranium cages for the rest of my life", but Flash just asks "Meta?" and Danny rolls with the out, figuring he can just let the hero believe he has some sort of intangibility ability and not get caught doing anything else for the week. The League hero even asks if he's out about his ability and helps him with a cover story for where he was when Mr. Lancer asks.

Cue Danny getting a surprise mentor. Turns out, it's something of an open secret that Flash likes to help out young metas with their abilities. He's willing and able to set things up so he can visit Danny in Amity Park regularly, so Danny doesn't have to move. He's got a ton of experience helping kids feel out different abilities safely (and Danny's almost a little disappointed he only told the guy about intangibility because he wishes he could get this level of guidance on other abilities. Like duplication. Or teleporting.). And he's not afraid of acting as a go between for kids who want to keep their identities secret while learning their abilities and other heroes with similar powersets, either.

Flash is aware there is a lot more to Danny's powers than he's been told, but he's willing to let the kid come to him with the full story in his own time.

ooooooooo alrighty okokokokok. sO.

this brings me so much seritonin I love Flash x DP crossovers, I simply haven't read much stuff on Barry since the guy since he was dead for like a solid 25 years irl time for comics. It's a good thing that I can write this since Justice League Unlimited Flash is Wally West. Barry straight up just doesn't exist in JLU and sO:

Wally damn well knew the kid had something else going on. He's not sure exactly what but he's seen enough to know that this kid is more powerful than he's making himself out to be.

He's spotted Danny's foot almost on reflex turn invisible when his hands slipped and he dropped a knife on the ground. The knife clattered to the floor harmlessly and Danny was fine. The flickering of his lower limbs was for less than a second. Flash can think as fast as 100 attoseconds in one second. That's what a second is to 300 million years. He may not be able to perceive just as fast but it's still far far quicker than any meta he's ever known. He watches the boy for what seems to be days but to Danny it's quick as a flash, how he realizes that he's invisible and hastily flickers back to reality. No one should have spotted it, but Flash saw. He knew. He kept it to himself. It was not his secret to tell.

Danny thinks he's subtle. He might be for the average human, but not to fellow Supers. Danny's drinks are somehow always perfectly chilled even when its been sitting in the sun for hours. The kid's nightmares cause him to yell in his sleep. Wally had to ask Batman for some custom glassware made out of the same stuff the Batmobile's windows are made of cause the kid keeps shattering every new set he buys.

The other day Danny showed Wally that he could turn invisible. On his own terms. Wally acted as if the dozens of times he's seen Danny blip out of existence never happened and accepted the new development with ease. He knew he gained even more of Danny's trust when the young meta laughed and for the first time didn't worry about hiding his sharp canines from his sight.

Progress is slow going but eventually he'll get this boy to open up so he can get the proper help he needs.

[nathanbatemanfucker]

bloodlust - ch 2: rising action

summary: recovery takes time but it’s always easier when you have someone you love leading you in the right (or wrong) direction.

pairing: unsub!fem!reader x unsub!aaron hotchner

chapter warnings: 18+/nsfw, dark themes, questionable morals, vigilante violence, use of knives, blood mention, pet names, depictions of paranoia/anxiety/depression, a decreased healthy and accurate perception of reality, unprotected sex, oral sex (f. and m. receiving), blood play, praise kink

an: surprise! @shmaptainhotchner was cool with putting this out early so welcome to chapter two! please, please, please we beg of you to read the warnings before reading, things begin to take a turn in this chapter. let’s chat in the comments or the discord, we love to hear what y’all think! also, there’s a read more glitch so please disregard the duplicate line in the beginning!

general warnings/disclaimers | series masterlist | playlist

Most would ask how after such events someone could jump right back into work. But Aaron had gotten to be very good at compartmentalizing.

He thought about it day in and day out, even if it seemed like he didn’t, but he had rationalized everything. The man you had killed was a bad person, you were a good person, therefore your actions were justified. And his? Well, he did everything to protect you.

“Hey, Hotch?” there was a knock at his office door, pulling him out of a trance.

“Hey, Hotch?” there was a knock at his office door, pulling him out of a trance.

“JJ, what can I do for you?” he asked, putting down his pen.

“It’s just, I’ve been messaging (Y/N), and she hasn’t really been texting back. Or returning any of my calls. Is…Is she alright?”

Aaron took a moment to think of what his response should be, how should he explain it.

“She’s alright, I think she just needs some space from the job and the BAU. It’s been hard on her lately,”

“Yeah, yeah of course,” JJ nodded. She turned to leave the room when Aaron stopped her.

“JJ, she still loves all of you guys,” he assured and she nodded with a small smile.

“We love her too,”

But Aaron couldn’t tell you that. Not when you were at a point where you wouldn’t believe it.

Each time he came home from work you were sinking deeper and deeper into what felt like a pit of darkness. And almost every night after you were asleep, Aaron would go into his office, open his desk drawer and pull out the knife he kept in a locked box.

Just staring at it, twirling it between his fingers. Because the one thing he struggled to rationalize was why he wanted to go out and do it again.

He always knew he had been a bit looser with the trigger on his gun than most of the people on the team, but then again, this was different. Very different.

He relished the feeling of the blood covering his hands, the way it stained and splattered against his shirt. Watching the life slowly leave his victim’s eyes, it gave him a kind of euphoric pleasure he’d never experienced. And he tried to relive it, closing his eyes and remembering that feeling, but each time he gripped the knife he knew it wouldn’t be long before he couldn’t control his urges again.

He wished you hadn’t seen him like that, one night when you couldn’t sleep, eyes glazed with fatigue.

The way his eyes shone when he looked at the metal, when he ran its flat surface along his palm.

And you knew it was wrong but every bone in your body felt too heavy to try and stop him.

Either way, you stopped thinking it mattered. You were going to love him no matter what, he was still the same Aaron Hotchner to you and you were the same (Y/N) Hotchner to him.

You couldn’t say you were surprised when he came home one night, covered in blood, a sense of relief in his eyes.

“He wasn’t a good person,” Aaron assured you. “The world’s better off without him,”

You didn’t say anything. You didn’t say much these days, but you could take care of him, that was one thing you were good at.

Wiping away the red stains from his skin, Aaron could see you were drifting, your movements becoming robotic, mechanical.

“Sweetheart, honey, look at me,” Aaron curled a finger under your chin and tilted it up to look at him. “There she is,” he smiled softly. “There’s my beautiful wife,”

“Beautiful?”

Lately you didn’t feel beautiful, days on end spent in bed doing nothing but stare up at the ceiling. But that word pulled you back. Did he mean it?

“Yes,” he nodded. “Beautiful as the first day I met you. Gorgeous as the day I married you,”

You could feel the heat rise to your cheeks at his words until he silenced all your thoughts with a searing kiss.

“Come on sweetheart, let me show you just how beautiful you are. The rest can wait,”

You nodded your head and let him kiss you once more. He’d do anything to keep you there with him. Absolutely anything at all. The light that he saw in your eyes when he called you beautiful was a familiar one. One he remembered seeing almost everyday before the incident. He wanted to keep you there, keep your spark on.

You’d let him guide you to the bedroom, both of you ignoring your wet pajamas. Neither of you cared, not when you were connecting in this way for the first time in so long. His mouth was firm against yours as he peeled off your tank top and sleeping shorts.

“I’m sorry that I haven’t been doing a good job of showing you how beautiful you are.” He whispered as he laid you on the bed, situating himself beside you.

You pushed a hand through his silky hair, shook you head. “It’s not your fault, Aaron, I’m the one who made the mistakes. I’m the one who started it.”

“Do you think any less of me when I come home the way I do?”

Your answer was immediate, truthful, and admittedly worrisome. When did you become okay with his actions?

“No, of course not.”

“Then why would I think any differently of you? We did this together, we made that choice together. You did it with bravery and a conscience. I did it because I love you. I love you more than anything and right now, all I want to do is prove that to you. Can I?”

You nodded timidly, tilting your head up for a kiss. It started out gentle, slow and sweet, the need increasing as he coaxed your mouth open. Still gentle, but filled with so much longing. You hadn’t realized how much you missed being with him like this.

He took his time with you, kissing you so thoroughly that by the time he pulled away you felt like you were floating. He didn’t stop there, kissing his way down your neck and body. He paused at your breasts, twirling his tongue around one nipple and then the other.

You whimpered, back arching up into his. “You make the most gorgeous sounds.”

“Aaron.”

“Yes, my love?” He questioned as he continued to twirl his tongue, pulling and sucking on your nipples.

“Feels so good.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah. Keep going please?”

“I won’t stop beautiful, not until you cum all over my cock.” He continued to kiss down your body until he made it to the apex of your thighs, pulling your clit into his mouth with no hesitation.

Your hips bucked up, pushing your pussy further into his mouth. He groaned, and when you looked down at him you saw his eyes roll back into his head, something that just made you wetter. You don’t know what overcame you but you have the overwhelming need to take over, thrusting your hand into his hair to hold him where you need him most. You didn’t stop moving your hips and Aaron didn’t complain, just gripped your hips to anchor himself against you as he drank from you like a fountain.

It didn’t take long for you to cum and before you can even recover fully, you find yourself pulling him up to kiss you, one of your hands falling to his erection. You pushed him into you, tilting your hips so that he’s fully inside you.

“Aaron, baby.”

“I love you. I’ve got you. You’re so beautiful. So incredibly beautiful when you take me. Look at how well we fit together.” He glanced down at where the two of you meet, his teeth sinking into his bottom lip at the sight.

“I love you too, Aaron. You feel so good.” You said breathless as your eyes dropped to watch him glide in and out of you.

Your second orgasm builds almost as quickly as the first. Aaron’s skilled mouth never left your warmed skin, as he sucked and nibbled on your throat and chest. If his mouth wasn’t on you, it was showering you with constant praise. Likewise, his pace never faltered, his hips slapping against yours as he pushed his cock into you over and over. The consistency and intensity was ultimately your undoing and when you tighten around him with a garbled cry his fingers tighten in the sheets.

Your release catapulted him into his own, a guttural groan stuttering in the back of his throat. He crushed his mouth to yours as he filled you completely, driving his hips into you a few more times to get his cum nice and deep. Praises fell from his lips as he pulled out, gathering you into his arms.

The two of you were in the shower cleaning up when you looked him, directly in the eye.

“What’s on your mind, sweetheart?” He continued to wash your body.

“You’re not scared that we’ve opened Pandora’s box?”

“If anything, we‘ve helped eradicate some of the evils that came out of it.” You looked at him not entirely convinced, eyes wary. “You’re my sweetheart. My angel. Too good to have come out of something that’s infamous for being evil.”

You didn’t say anything else, just nodded with an uneasy smile as the two of you finished cleaning up. It was late, and you were exhausted, physically and mentally. You couldn’t say the same for Aaron as he scooped you up in his arms and carried you into the bedroom.

“Thank you, Aaron. I love you.” You mumbled sleepily as he placed you into the bed.

“Of course, sweetheart. I love you too. Go to sleep, I’ll join you in a bit, I have a report to finish.”

“Will you stay? Please? Just until I fall asleep.” You begged, your lip jutting out ever so slightly.

He sighed, and slipped under the covers next to you, pulling you into his arms. Neither of you said anything else, he just placed a kiss on the top of your head as you drifted off into what is your most peaceful slumber since the murder.

___

“Sweetheart,” Aaron called as he entered your apartment. “Sweetheart, I’m home,”

The place wasn’t any different than when he left that morning. He dropped his briefcase on the couch that was already a mess, piled with papers and files.

As he walked towards the room he took his suit jacket off and tossed it on the armchair in the corner, tilting his head at you. You hadn’t moved an inch since he left. Laying down on your back, one arm extended towards his side of the bed with another thrown across your stomach.

He climbed into bed next to you, moving some hair out of your face.

“Hey, sweet girl,” he said softly. “I missed you,”

You only blinked but he still bent down and pressed a kiss to your temple before running his hand across your cheek.

“I brought you a little something,” he said, pulling out a little trinket from his pocket and placing it on the pillow in front of you. “It’s from Penelope, she misses you,”

You missed her too. So much. You missed all of them, Emily, JJ, Derek, Spencer, even Dave. But they could never know what you did and you were in no condition to lie anymore.

You moved your hand to come and curl around the little figurine. It was always your favourite one, something you pointed out each time you would visit her office. You could feel the tears burning in your eyes at the sight of it, but you let them come because it was nice to feel something.

“Maybe we should get you up and take a shower?” Aaron suggested. “And then get you something to eat,”

You nodded your head and reached out for him, he gladly picked you up and walked over to the washroom, turning on the shower until the water was warm and then setting you down on the counter so he could help you undress.

This became your routine, he went to work, came home, took care of you. A never ending cycle so it seemed.

You stood with Aaron in the shower for what felt like hours while he helped you wash your hair and clean your body. Each touch was intentional, hoping to get you to feel something, anything.

His kisses to your shoulder made you lean into his hold and he took a deep breath, thanking the universe that you were still there with him. And when he turned your chin around and pressed his lips to yours, your hand came to gently cradle his face.

He looked so beautiful with water dripping off his lashes, that love in his eyes he held for you, shining just as bright as ever, which made you realize with everything that happened he probably couldn’t see that you loved him the way you could see he loved you. So you told him.

“I love you, Aaron,”

Which pulled his lips into a grin, allowing you to fit your thumb right where his dimple was.

“I love you too, my sweet angel,”

Angel, you liked that. In a way you kind of were an angel. Your choice had brought the fate of three other people. You had delivered justice, that’s what Aaron insisted on. You had helped rid the world of three people who didn’t deserve to be there in the first place. And when you looked at it like that, well, everything just all started to fall into place.

—

Aaron noticed over the next few weeks something seemed to have shifted. When he came home from work you weren’t sitting in bed each time, you had tried to clean up a bit, even made dinner or ordered food on occasion, but he thought he could say you were doing better.

And you spoke, you talked to him, asked him about his day and his heart soared because he loved hearing your voice.

“Sweetheart, I'm so happy you’re doing better,” he smiled and leaned in to give you a kiss.

“Me too,” you agreed. “But, I was actually wondering…”

“What is it?” he asked. “Anything, you name it, it’s done,”

“Can you call me angel?” you asked. “I liked it, a lot,”

“You did?” his lips quirked upward and you nodded your head. “Then it’s done, angel. Is there anything you want to do?” he asked and you shrugged.

“I was going to make some dinner, why don’t you rest a bit, you must have had a long day at work,”

You stood up without another word, pressing a kiss to his forehead before making your way to the kitchen and pulling out the various things you would need to cook.

You grabbed a knife so you could cut the chicken but caught yourself staring at the glistening metal, remembering what it felt like to have in your hands, remembering the imprint the handle left after you had squeezed it so hard.

And when you finally brought yourself to cut the chicken it slipped and nicked the side of your palm. You couldn’t even tell if it was on purpose or not.

You stared at the red blossoming on your hand and dropped the knife on the counter, mesmerized by the crimson red colour.

Using your other hand you smeared the blood, watching as it coated your skin like a glimmering paint. Why had you never noticed that before?

“(Y/N), is something wrong I-,”

Aaron stopped when he saw the onions almost burning on the stove and quickly turned it off before addressing you.

“Angel, we should clean this up,”

You wanted to protest, but you knew he was right, for now at least.

“It’s beautiful though,” you mumbled and he either didn’t hear you or elected to ignore it because you knew he agreed.

A few nights later Aaron could feel you turning around in the bed, he carefully awoke to try and figure out what was going on but you didn’t seem disturbed, you looked at peace.

And yet inside your mind was racing with images, that knife in your hand before you plunged it into someone’s chest feeling an instant high after the action, even though it was just a dream.

A few moments later your eyes blinked open and you almost looked disappointed.

“Was it a nightmare?” Aaron asked, just to be sure.

“No,” you shook your head. “A good dream,” you sighed, leaning into his chest and letting yourself fall back asleep.

As the days went on, you felt more and more like yourself. You were in the kitchen trying to focus on icing the batch of cupcakes you’ve just finished and not the set of knives behind you. It didn’t prove to be too hard, but everytime you face their direction you couldn’t help but steal a glance. You were starting on the last cupcake when Aaron walked in.

He did a double take as he dropped his bag by the door, a slow smile spreading across his face as your eyes met his. “You’re baking again.”

“Marble cupcakes with chocolate icing. Your favorite.”

“Thank you, sweet girl. You’re so good to me.” He came to plant a kiss on your cheeks, which you felt heat not only from his praise but his steady gaze.

“Because I love you.”

“I know. I love you too, so much. More than anything.”

“Enough to come cuddle in bed with me? There’s a pie in the oven so I can’t start dinner yet.”

“Cupcakes, pie, and dinner, you’re spoiling me. So if that’s what you want then that’s what you get.”

You kissed him, cupping his face with your hands before you led him to the bedroom. You were only in a pair of his boxers and a t-shirt but he’s fully dressed from the work day. The two of you worked together to get him stripped down to just his boxers before laying in bed. He was completely wrapped around you, face buried in your hair. You sighed in contentment, hitching your leg around his waist to pull him closer though at that point it’s physically impossible.

The two of you laid there for a moment, the closest to peace you’ve been in weeks before you raised your lips to his neck, placing a litter of kisses on it. He looked down at you, eyes soft and warm and inquisitive.

“Kiss me.” You breathed, tilting your face up so your lips hover less than an inch away from his. His mouth is on yours in an instant, tongue pushing in to explore every inch of your mouth. You couldn’t help but sigh into the kiss, feeling like you’re exactly where you want to be.

You kissed him back gently at first, relishing in the feel of his warm lips against yours, his body on top of yours. Aaron’s touch was one of the only things grounded you these days, and you find a hunger bubbling deep within you. You bucked your hips up to push him back, and when you feel he’s off balance you roll over, straddling him. He groaned in surprise but kept kissing you, hands gripping your waist tightly.

You increased the intensity of the kiss, deepened it so that the two of you are just lips, teeth, and tongues. You groaned into his mouth, it’s deep and animalistic. There was that feeling again; the all encompassing need for more and to give in to your impulses. You started to nibble on his bottom lip, swiping your tongue over it to soothe the sting of your teeth. He seemed to like it, sparred you on but holding you even tighter, moving his hand up to the back of your neck to pull you closer. It was your undoing, making you lose it and you took his bottom lip between your teeth once more, biting down on it with more force.

“Fuck.” He leaned away from the kiss, pulling his lip from between your teeth. His hand slid up your body and he brought it up to his lip which was bleeding from your harsh bite.

You felt your face flush, embarrassment and dark arousal rushed through you in one foul swoop. He looked upset, eyebrows drawn together as he gazed at the blood on his fingers so you began to apologize. “Oh, I didn’t mean to. I-I’m sorry, does it-“

Before you could finish he’d pulled you down to kiss him, taking your bottom lip in between his teeth and biting just as hard as you did, if not harder. You whimper as you feel his teeth cut through your skin, the taste of his blood mixing with yours invading your mouth.

“Rough, naughty girl. You like that?” His voice was low, seductive, it sent a chill up your spine, and though it felt wrong to be so turned on by the spilling of his blood it was reality. He made you feel anything but ashamed when he looked at you, his eyes glistening with adoration.

“Yes.”

Some blood had made it onto his chin and a light went off in your head. Bending down you flattened your tongue, ran it up his chin to capture the few drops of blood that dot it. He groaned, and his hands tightened his grip on your waist. The kiss he gave you was much harder, deeper and rougher and you grinded down against him, feeling his erection easily through his boxers.

“I want you,” You murmured against him, adding, “in my mouth. I want you in my mouth, want to show you how much you mean to me. How much this, us taking care of each other and protecting each other means to me.”

He pulled away, stared sternly into your eyes for a moment to make sure, but found no hesitation in them. “I could never say no to you, angel. Let me strip you.”

You laid back on the bed immediately, and he took off your clothing in a flash. He pressed soft, worshiping kisses to every inch of your body. You were practically trembling once he made it all the way up to your body and planted a kiss on your lips.

“Where do you want me?”

“Can you sit on the end of the bed?”

He’d nodded, kissed you one last time before removing his boxers and following your instructions. Once he’d settled, you rose from the bed and dropped to your knees in front of him.

You took him into your mouth easily, your mouth wet and warm and tight as you moved up and down on his length. He was reduced to nothing but a string of moans, his hands fisting in the duvet, his head thrown back. You took your time, moving not too fast but not too slow either. You mouthed at the head, swirling your tongue around it before taking him down into the back of your throat.

“What a good girl you are, that’s it sweetheart. Nice and slow and deep for me.” He praised, his hands gently guiding your head as you took him into the back of your throat repeatedly.

All you could do is moan around him, looking up at him completely drunk on the taste and smell of him. He was everything to you, and you feel safe and cherished. You could be whoever you wanted to be and there was no doubt that he would love you all the same.

Your hand fell between your legs with a moan, and the sight of you with his cock in his mouth, pleasuring yourself was almost his breakpoint. His hands stopped your head, cradling it gently as he guided you off of him.

You placed your hands on his thighs, scooting closer to him. “Did I do something wrong?”

“No angel, you and your mouth are perfect, but I need to be buried in you.”

His words made you spring up from your knees. He’d predicted this and you find yourself flipped over underneath him, you back pressed in the bed.

He was slick with precum and your spit and when he bottoms out inside of you. Both of you moaned, the sounds swirling together in the air as he began to pump in and out of you. Each movement was accompanied by a deep kiss. You could taste the cocktail of his blood and yours, almost intoxicated by the metallic flavor that invaded your senses.

He ran his thumb over your bottom lip, collecting some of the blood there before running his hand down your body. “It’s you and me baby. I’ll do whatever it takes to keep you safe, keep us safe.”

“Me too, me too, anything. Anything for you, Aaron.”

“You’re so gorgeous, so strong. My sweet angel, ready for anything. I promise, I’ll take good care of you. I swear.”

“Yes, baby, I know. I trust you.”

“Oh god, you feel so fucking good.”

“So do you.” Your words came out breathy because something in the atmosphere changed. The air was thick and heavy, the smell of blood a welcome, sinister scent as your bodies worked against each other. His slow, gentle thrusts began to change, his hips moved rougher and faster. His lips have fallen to your throat and chest, sucking marks into your flesh.

“Mmm, yeah, harder.” You murmured into his ear, hips tilting up to meet his.

He didn’t remove his lips from your throat, just asked, “Harder?”, punctuated the question with a light love bite.

The feeling of his teeth sinking into your skin, even softly, drove you crazy. “Yes, please, harder Aaron.”

“Harder.” Your voice was rough, your fingernails digging further into the skin of his back.

He hesitated, pulling back to make sure that you’re confident in what you’re asking for. “Angel,”

“I want you to be rough with me, please, baby?”

His eyes lit up and darkened in the same moment, a sinister brightness detected in them. If you were in your right mind it would scare you to see him this way, but it only made you wetter and caused you to tighten around him.

He doesn’t take it easy on you, hand running up your body and wrapping around the sides of your throat as he sat up on his knees. His other hand wrapped around your hip, pulling you onto his cock as he slammed up into you, a grunt left him with each thrust.

A smile spread across your face as you wrapped your legs around his waist, encouraging him to go harder. “Yeah, mhmm, just like that.”

“Dirty angel.” His grin matched yours, deranged and satisfied as he finally unleashed his roughness on you.

He was relieved and in awe at how well you took him, but scolded himself for doubting you. You’d done nothing but prove to him from the moment you met that you two worked well together. He shouldn’t have been surprised that it translated to such dark places.

He picked up his speed as he neared his release, watching how your mouth opened, eyebrows furrowed in almost a frown as he absolutely railed you.

“That’s it sweetheart, cum for me won’t you? Make me happy and cum for me. I’m right behind you.”

“I’ll cum for you, I’ll make you happy.” The words had barely made it out of your mouth when you detonated around him, your pussy tightening around him with a pressure that made him cum immediately. He fell into you, a muddled version of your name leaving his lips as he fills you up. The two of you laid there for what seemed like forever until he finally spoke.

“Come on, let’s get cleaned up.” He picked you up bridal style in his arms before making his way to the bathroom. He set you down in front of the sink, walking towards the shower and turning it on.

You’re mesmerized by what you see in the mirror. Your body is lightly smeared with blood, your bottom lip puffy and redden. He’d also littered you with hickies, they’re all over your neck and chest. You looked a mess, almost like you’d just gotten out of a fight but the sight made your breath speed up, your legs clench together.

“You like it.” He observed, causing you to turn to look at him.

“You don’t?” Your voice sounded melancholic, worried that he won’t enjoy this the way you are.

He shook his head, a small smile played on his lips, “I think you look gorgeous in red, angel.”

[greatsagestonemonkey]

About “Shadow Play”

Warning! Spoilers ahead!

Okay, so, after watching “Shadow Play”, I had to write this out because a lot of people are talking about it and I had to lay out my two cents without being limited to a tiny box...

Possible spoilers for both Lego Monkie Kid Season 2 episode “Shadow Play” AND for Journey to the West, so be warned!

Okay for starters, the episode had a lot to unpack, but this is going to be covering the whole issue of “Poor Macaque” and “what the fuck Wukong”. THAT being said, I definitely LOVED the episode, it was fantastic! But I feel like this needs to be talked about because the writing for the episode tells a LOT more than I think people are seeing. That’s what I want to discuss here.

So, we all know from the story Macaque told in the episode, that he and Wukong go WAY back, the parallel of the Sun and the Moon was used, with Wukong being the Sun and Macaque being the Moon, of course, and that eventually Macaque was left behind by Wukong and he appears to be quite bitter about that. This is where I’ve noticed a lot of people bringing up the “what the fuck Wukong” bit... BUT, they seem to be overlooking something important here:

Wukong’s circlet. Also known as the “cursed hat” or “tightening band”. People who have read the book know that this circlet was given to Wukong by Tripitaka (also courtesy of Guan Yin) to keep Wukong in line. “Why?” many of you are probably asking... Well, it’s not just because Wukong is insanely powerful, that’s just part of the reason; a very MINOR reason.

The main and most important reason that people often forget about Wukong is that he is IMPULSIVE to a fault. For the first six chapters of Journey to the West, Wukong is driven PURELY by his impulsive desires. He never listened to anyone! His rampage through Heaven was testimony to that, as was his taking Buddha’s challenge to escape his palm, and in the end, his own hubris was his downfall. But even after being imprisoned for 500 years, Wukong hadn’t changed much. Or at all, in fact. That is why Tripitaka needed the circlet and the tightening mantra that came with it to control him; because Wukong wouldn’t listen to him AT ALL. It was only after Tripitaka had an effective way to discipline the monkey that Wukong started to actually do as he was asked. And as the book goes on, Wukong becomes more compliant, actually listening and doing as asked without Tripitaka having to use the tightening mantra to get Wukong to calm down. There’s actually a pretty compelling scene later on in the book (I don’t remember the exact chapter or page) where Tripitaka stops Wukong from attacking a demon minion JUST by calling out his name, whereas before he would have to recite the mantra to get him to stop.

There’s another infamous scene where Wukong is moved to tears by Tripitaka’s compassion for others, whereas earlier in the book Wukong wouldn’t have really bothered much with pity for others. Like seriously. He couldn’t be bothered to look after anyone but himself or his monkeys. He was kind of a selfish dick that way. But in that particular scene, it showed that Wukong had changed A LOT since being made to stop and listen to Tripitaka every once in awhile via the circlet. It was kind of like a wake-up call for him, in a way.

Anyway, we can clearly see the circlet on Wukong’s head in this scene when Macaque is showing how Wukong left. I know we can see it in earlier ones too, but I think the reason for that is because that’s how Macaque sees Wukong, but we’ll come back to that in a bit.

Now, we all know that Macaque is supposed to represent Wukong’s darker side, his “shadow”. And one thing that I think the writer’s made clear in this episode is that Macaque hasn’t changed much. He’s still the dark half, the side of Wukong that will always be in the shadows; the part of him that was BEFORE Wukong changed due to his travels with Tripitaka. Since it’s hinted that Macaque was with Wukong before his rampage through heaven and his 500 year imprisonment, we know that he saw the side of Wukong that existed before Wukong went through the various level of character development that he did in the Journey to the West. And the thing that the writers for “Shadow Play” make clear is that Macaque doesn’t completely understand why Wukong changed.

Macaque wasn’t there for the Journey. Which was probably his choice. The writers of this episode, and of the episode “Macaque” make it clear that Macaque hasn’t changed much in the centuries. He himself makes that clear by referring to himself as Wukong’s shadow, and with the parallel of the sun and the moon. And because he wasn’t there, because he stayed in the shadows, he clearly doesn’t understand the reason behind Wukong’s change and choice to stay by Tripitaka’s side through the Journey, despite being jilted and hurt by the monk plenty of times.

Wukong chose to stay with Tripitaka because he was changing, growing, for the better, even if he himself didn’t realize it right away. But when he did realize it, he chose to stay, even if that meant leaving behind a part of him--or even someone--that he held very dear; Macaque.

Which now brings us to this next part people keep talking about:

The scene where Macaque apparently gets his scar.

We now know for certain that Macaque gets his scar from Wukong. And a lot of people have been expressing their curiosity over why the two ended up fighting each other, or what could have prompted Wukong to wound someone he was supposed to have cared about in such a way.

Well, for those of you who have read the book, you probably know why exactly why. For those who haven’t, in the chapter where the Six Eared Macaque first makes his appearance, he attacks and wounds Tripitaka badly; like with the full intention of killing him kind of badly. I won’t spoil the whole chapter for you, but long story short, is that when confronted after his identity as “the false monkey king” is revealed, he confesses that his plan is to kill everyone in the Journey Crew--minus Wukong--and replace them with duplicates that he has created.

Now, we know from previous episodes of the series so far, that Wukong cares for the rest of the Journey Crew VERY MUCH. He’s kept momentos from the Journey and even made those little origami figures of them with that little shrine in the New Years Special. And we’ve seen how he gets when you threaten someone he cares about via the scene of him with Lady White Bone in that very same special.

THAT is what their fight was about.

Macaque hurt someone Wukong cared about, and Wukong retaliated in kind. Maybe he went a little too far, but he definitely wasn’t going to let it slide. It was almost literally “an eye for an eye”.

Now we come back to that bit of how Macaque sees Wukong, as promised. Macaque shows off Wukong with the circlet in the play because he again, doesn’t understand the reason behind Wukong’s change. He probably knows what the circlet does, and thus sees it and the one who controls it as the reason. This is probably why he attacked Tripitaka; in Macaque’s mind, without Tripitaka, without the tightening mantra, Wukong will go back to being his old self.

Macaque doesn’t understand that Wukong was changing without the circlet being used on him. He says this himself in Episode 9 of Season 1, when he delivers the line, “The old you would have leveled this whole mountain range to stop me! But you’re scared of hurting some kid?!”

That. Right there. Says SO much now that we’ve seen Shadow Play.

Wukong changed for reasons that Macaque doesn’t understand; Wukong grew to care about others and the consequences of his actions. But because Macaque stayed behind, he still holds onto Wukong’s old ways, and he wants that back. He used the analogy of himself as the warrior in the story, and even told MK about the “happy ending” because deep down that’s what he wants. He wants the old Wukong back because that’s the Wukong he understands.

Then we come to the line where he tells MK that he’s “a bit too much” like Monkey King, right after the flashback of how he got his scar. If we refer to that bit above again, we know that Macaque got his scar from Wukong after he tried to kill Tripitaka and very nearly turned the whole Journey Crew against Wukong completely. And what was Macaque doing in this scene?

The same thing.

He was using MK’s friends against him, which ticked MK off to the point where MK went almost blind with rage in an effort to get his friends back. We see in that brief flashback, that Macaque saw that bit of Wukong in MK; the part that cared too much.

This is also where we see a bit of growth in Macaque, and again I refer to the flashback. He realizes he’s reliving a moment where he possibly went too far, and decides to back out before it goes even further to a point where he gets hurt. But that’s also testament to how much he hasn’t changed over the centuries; he’s still only the best at looking out for himself, just like Wukong was before Tripitaka changed him.

His whole conversation with MK after the fight also shows how much he wants the old Wukong back and doesn’t want to see MK go down the same path, and we see it through the whole episode; he sees MK and Wukong as too “soft” now. They get concerned too easily with others, and what will happen if they fail, whereas Macaque is overconfident to a fault, looks out for “old number one” (himself) and doesn’t have the inconvenience of looking out for others to weigh him down or to blind him from his person goals. That’s why he tells MK he’s not ready, not because he lack the ability, but because he lacks the survival instinct. That same survival instinct that Macaque is used to.

In conclusion, Macaque both is and isn’t the victim here. He’s not Wukong’s victim, he’s his own victim; victim to his own misunderstanding and his own unwillingness to change or to accept change. It’s actually something we see in a lot of people, but we’re often unaware of because the signs are often hard to read, and I think that’s why a lot of people have reacted to this episode in the way they have. Again, I’m not saying that this episode was bad or anything, again, it was fantastic! The writers did an outstanding job, I just think there’s a lot more that they were trying to tell us with how they played it out that a lot of people aren’t seeing, and I really wanted to address that.

WHEW! Anyway, I think that about covers everything... sorry this is so long, and if you read this far, thank you so much for giving this a read!

[yinses]

savory euphemism

gojo satoru rating: m ( a lot of implications)

rqst: hope it makes sense! but he what if gojo had a lover who he accidentally turned into a curse when he rejected her death sort of like yuta did but bc he’s stronger she absorbs enough of his energy to make her a special grade but she doesn’t remember him :( and just likes killing but he can’t bring herself to exorcise her so he lets her do some of his curse missions just so she gets her fill and not go after ppl. basically pain all around. craving some angst in this chilis tonight

a/n: i did what i could! hope it meets your expectations. 

he should have just killed it. put you both out of misery.

your spirit- the same part of you still drifting somewhere in the abyss, must hate him. he despised himself for putting you through this- making you this monster.

fate was cruel to him. making this curse into your image: your smile, voice and even some of your mannerisms but ripping away anything that tied it to him in memory. the only thing that kept it close was that intrinsic bond that tethered them together.

he made the mistake of calling it by your name too many times, ignorant enough to think that he could somehow bring you to the surface. it was you after all, born from the ashes of your death. in the end, he’d only made the noose around his neck. it built on his frustrations, learning lyrics of manipulation that they sang in his ear whenever he thought about killing it for good.

“toru, toru, don’t you miss me?”

“wont you be sad if i’m gone?”

then it would dance away, teeth clicking with laughter.

it was a haunting reminder that he never deserved you, he couldn’t even honor you properly on your deathbed.

but fuck, you-it- retained so much of your beauty, even out there on the battlefield as it ripped through curse after curse. letting it fight was like feeding, allowing it to consume and destroy to its heart content so that it wouldn’t turn on humanity. it was the only way that he could keep you, the same selfish wish that manifested the abomination in the first place.

the cruelty it poses seemed to be reserved for him. the curses he descended it upon may as well have been paper figures as it tore through their beings. it didn’t play toy them, not like it tormented him. didn’t draw out their turmoil.

when the last curse disintegrated, it turned to him, a small pout tugging at the mouth.

“those were boring, lets play more.”

it always wanted to fight, needing to expend its energy to remain satisfied.

he bites through a smile, eyes tense behind his blindfold. it blinked up at him with all the expectations of a child begging for more allowances. he doesn’t remember you being this innocent-dependent- and there are times that he doesn’t know what to do with it.

gojo chuckles bitterly, shoulders sinking a little further. “you’re going to ruin my image if i keep taking you on killing sprees. i’m efficient but if i start looking like a workaholic it might cause suspicion.”

not that it already wasn’t. the concern hadn’t disappeared after your physical body was long gone. there had been a shift in his being- just small enough to disrupt the flow of cursed energy trapped within him. the cursed manifestation of your soul weighed in on his own store, filling it with malignant thoughts that threatened to crack his facade.

he tolerated less than he use to. jokes not falling as easily from his lips. the only good thing to come from it was that he was able to direct most of it towards the elders. gojo was already strong but it made him appear more dangerous, though that wasn’t necessarily a positive.

“so no more work. lets play.”

right, ‘playing’. the euphemism used for when it fed on his own cursed energy in the most unconventional ways.

the field was empty of any other being, cursed, mortal or in between.

gojo leaned forward and brushed his nose against theirs. his eyes closed and prayed fervently to a god in hope that he wasn't sinning as he covered ‘your’ mouth with his.

it knew that human affection was his weakness, piercing the void in his heart with echos of sweets whimpers and moans from his past. this is when it duplicated you the best. almost identical in the way it made it’s body shuddered against his, trembling yet wholly invulnerable.

and he became intoxicated with how ‘your’ hands clutched his shoulders, as it hungrily parted ‘your’ lips and struggled to breathe as its domain bled out and surrounded him. it felt like he was floating in the same waters that took you away from him.

sometimes he wonders if this curse was the one who pulled you under.

wouldn’t that be ironic?

broader hands, soft and gentle, mapping out the feminine contours and pushing the shirt above ��your’ navel. it had the curse breaking apart and gasping wantonly against him.

writhing.

quiet moans and desperate whines.

what a dirty little thing it made you. the visual tightening his crotch in a way you never had.

throwing its head back, looking at him with half-lidded eyes and letting those beguiling eyes yank him further down into the depths of ecstasy.

gojo smiled bitterly all to himself, brushing his expert hands over their body and making it jerk achingly against him in expectation.

he became addicted to this poison as it drew strands of vitality from him.

still desperately wanting you, wanting to protect what he made, wanting to do everything that it desired, because underneath it all he was still a broken man latching onto a fantasy.

of course, he knew that it needed him like oxygen, like sweets, like savory bean paste daifuku and sticky dango.

and he needed it too, like sleep and sanity.

maybe he was never meant to be in love.

[geekgemsspooksandtoons]

My likely plans for The Mask Rebirth Part 3

This is something I told Kaijuguy earlier that I’m gonna write this. But I’m not gonna make it yet. Because I’m still wondering about it. And also on Thursday, me and my family are gonna go to Universal Studios. And we’ll be back on Saturday. I will likely have my phone. But I may not post a lot or...it depends.

Part 3 is something I’ve really wondered about. Including having some inspiration from, “The Hunt For Green October”. But instead of shoving Ray Tuttle and his daughter’s story into this. I’ve decided that...may be part 4. So those jokes I said to Kaijuguy are likely gonna be a thing.

Anyway, I strangely want to make this seem like a leaked plot details thing before a movie comes out. You know that kind of shit right? I think I just want a reaction of how people may feel towards it. Before I officially make the thing.

Including I just wanna mention what I did with part 2. It strangely felt like an adult extended The Mask Animated Series episode in a sense...that was something I had thought long ago...but let’s get to the point. Of what the direction for this story was.

I have said characters like Owen Big Head, Stanley Big Head Killer, Davida Steelmine, Walter, and Pretorius are involved with this. And I may just reveal the secret behind Pretorius that I have kept secret. If I want to go through with it.

The story may take 6 months after part 2. With Edge City in a much better position after crime has seriously lowered down. And I’ve been thinking part 1 takes place in January. Part 2 takes place in June. And finally, part 3 takes place in December. So in a year, Owen has had the Mask Of Loki for nearly a year.

With Edge City actually being in a more peaceful state. But this doesn’t take place during Christmas. It’s before it. Owen’s mother, Anna, decides to take her son and their roommate Tina on possibly a two week vacation. With Leonor joining them. With the vacation taking place in either Finland or Sweden. Very likely Finland. Despite knowing he needs a much needed vacation. He brings the Mask Of Loki in case. Practically bring Loki along as well.

But during those 6 months. Stanley was thought to be dead after his body wasn’t found. But in fact, he had survived and tried to start a new life with a new name in Edge City. Mainly due to the possibility the police and Big Head may try to look for him. Stanley is more anti social and angry at life. Keeping to himself, like a hermit. Until an unknown man gives him a mysterious gift. A green mask of sorts. 

Having kept his memory of wearing the Mask Of Jormungandr. But weary of Davida’s deception of him. He accepts the strange gift.

During this as well, after 6 months of being in prison and everyone against her. Vicky Pratt, mostly known as Davida Steelmine has escaped prison. With a new goal of exacting vengeance upon Owen Heffernan. But first going to the young man’s house, sneaking in, and taking the Mask Of Hel. And finding out he’s in Finland. She wants to start a new life. But she’s angered by having been exposed for who she is. She wants payback first.

Back to Stanley, when he wears the mask. He turns into what appears to be Big Head. But looking different. But to Stanley, this is the greatest thing ever. And possibly better than being Serpent Man. He embraces the terrible nature of the mask starts using his newfound powers by killing the Butcher gang first. Which had beat him up much earlier. And while I question if I wanna make Stanley’s rampage one night or two. 

Compared to Owen’s first outing as Big Head. Which was mainly fun mischief. Stanley goes on a killing spree against people that have wrong him in anyway. Even such as the car mechanics, a man who owned him 60 bucks. Which also results in him killing many police officers trying to stop him.

But there’s a goal in mind that Stanley has. To find Vicky/Davida, Tina, and finally Big Head himself. The goal to finally kill all three. The ones that hurt him the most. 

Yet during a situation where it’s only Kellaway and Stanley. Kellaway is confused and horrified by what seems to be Owen going on a random savage rampage. He tries to talk to him and calm him down. Asking him if something is wrong, instead of getting angry at him. But to Kellaway’s shock, Big Head tells him, “Who the Hell is Owen!?” And asking why is Kellaway calling him that and maybe Stanley revealing who he is, likely not. Which results in both realizing two different things.

Kellaway realizing, horrified, but strangely relieved that this Big Head isn’t Owen. And to Stanley, he’s shocked and remembers Owen Heffernan, he puts it together. Realizing Owen is very likely Big Head. 

After escaping the police, and going to a place where he could hide. Stanley is met Walter, and the two fight. But the same man who gave Stanley the mask tells Walter to stop fighting him. Revealing Walter is with this unknown man. He reveals himself to be Septimius Pretorius. A very secretive man that the crime lords of Edge City would send traitors or anyone they hated to be tortured. But due to his secretive nature, and no one exactly knowing who he is. Most people didn’t like talking about him. As some gangsters would tell others stories about Pretorius to scare them. Along with Dorian when he was alive having met Pretorius in person before, and praising his work.

I’d like to admit, I got this idea form @kaijuguy19 I tried to remember. So thank him. On the part where I talk about Pretorius and Walter being strangely friends in a way.

And the biggest thing that made people strangely afraid of Pretorius. Despite he never made an attempt to be a crime lord. He was the one who made Walter who he is. While Walter was strong and huge already. He met Pretorius earlier in life, and Septimius has told others he merely improved Walter. 

He reveals he created that duplicate mask for Stanley personally. To help him achieve his revenge and give him want he wanted. Despite Stanley’s hesitation to trust someone again. He gains Stanley’s trust by telling him that Vicky/Davida and Tina/Kathy are in Finland. But also telling Stanley what he has been wondering. Confirming that Owen Heffernan was his hero, Big Head. Who is in Finland as well with Tina too.

While not considering Pretorius or Walter as new friends. Stanley joins them, with Pretorius giving them a private plane ride to Finland.

Back to Kellaway, who tells Lionel that this Big Head isn’t Owen. And he believes him because of how radically different this Big Head dresses and sounds. The two go to Owen’s house. But realizing Davida has snuck in and stole her old mask. What horrifies the two more is the catch that she’s gonna be possibly going to Finland as well. 

Wanting to confront the Owen himself instead of calling him. They take a plane ride to Finland. With possibly trying to come up with a reason why the Big Head Killer is going there. But also maybe Davida. I’m not sure about this. And I may change this. Such as trying to call them. But they don’t have their phone numbers.

So in this case.

In Finland. Owen as Big Head and others are gonna have to face off Davida Steelmine who wants revenge. Walter, who wants payback as well. But also Stanley as a new Big Head, who desires the same thing. But against Davida and Owen. With Pretorius in the background.

In what is said to be the happiest country in the world....holy shit.

Now Pretorius. This was this the idea I felt was crazy. So I’ll just reveal it. The idea that Pretorius was one of the survivors of Ragnarok. And was responsible for killing Sigyn. The wife of Loki, and the one keeping Ragnarok at bay. With Sigyn’s killer never found, her death was the final kick in Loki’s becoming ultimately evil. Presuming the gods had killed her. Thinking the gods want Ragnarok to happen. And becoming more nihilistic, resulting his fate within the mask.

Along with the other idea combined with that Pretorius was one of the survivors who had imprisoned Hel into her own mask. But also being the one who had come up with the idea to imprison Loki and his family that they felt caused Ragnarok. But due to this, his existence was ultimately covered up by the survivors of Ragnarok. And he didn’t mind that. Not a god, but merely someone able to use magic in a similar fashion like science.

Having lived throughout history with humanity for so long. He came to Edge City because of it’s horrible nature with crime. And one of the only people who seems to have developed a sort of friendship with Walter. Mainly both respecting each other for their talents. But also Walter respecting Pretorius for making him stronger than before.

Having believed the masks have been lost to time. Until Big Head showed up. He was curious, yet confused. But when Dorian had become a giant werewolf in a way. He started to wonder if humans have finally found the masks. His suspicions were confirmed when it was revealed Davida Steelmine and Stanley Ipkiss had been using the mask of Hel and Jormugandr. But also even learning the Mask Of Loki before all this, was found in Africa before. Yet it was stolen and never found again. With smaller stories of an similar Big Head like figure causing mischief. But he suddenly disappeared.

Having kept in the shadows, trying to figure out who was really Big Head. And why wasn’t the wearer gone insane. He eventually found out, but didn’t act on anything. But what he had learn is that Stanley Ipkiss to him, should’ve been the one that found the mask and not Owen. Believing the young man had tainted the mask, and possibly changed Loki.

After 6 months, trying to create what he felt was a better mask. Using whatever magic he had left. With the inclusion of voodoo involved. The Death Mask, a duplicate of Loki’s mask and soul.

I think I’ve said enough...hope you folks like this. Mainly you Kaijuguy lol.

[ronalddear]

Bathroom.

hi again! This is another drabble/missing moment set during dh after the wedding. Again this is only my second time writing any fic so it's very amateur.

This was requested by @nuttybeardetective , and was inspired by this post of mine. Ron is vaguely prudish in this but seeing as this is only my second time writing, I don't think I'm ready to write full-on smut yet. hope you enjoy <3

WARNING: none except for language, because it's Ron ;)

WORDS: 1515

The dim cold ambience of Grimmauld Place did nothing to soothe the uneasiness of the wedding attack and Ron was utterly fed up. One week after their untimely arrival at the grim house enticed them to try and settle into their temporary 'home'. At least physically anyway, Harry was now occupying Sirius' room in reserved isolation and after another night of sleeping adjacent in the drawing-room, he and Hermione had wordlessly agreed upon sleeping in their respective rooms that they'd occupied during the summer before 5th year, with some unannounced hesitation on his part.

The minuscule amount of clothes he carried was unpacked, his worn toothbrush now stood in the cup designated on the 2nd story bathroom, opposite his bedroom. The kitchen table was now draped in Hermione's lists and notes of all sorts, a map of the Ministry adorning the centre. Yet Ron felt as if mentally he was still at the Burrow, packing the extra healing supplies from the bathroom cupboard or stood in the stuffy kitchen, duplicating his mother's kitchenware to stuff into his rucksack.

The immediate thought of the burrow made his stomach drop and his head spin. The forced confinement made him feel ill. It felt as if he was in deep quarantine and had no knowledge of the world outside. This scared him so intensely that his paranoia was at an all-time high after a week without family communication. Surely the whole Horcrux-hunting fiasco would last longer than a week? A couple months maybe? Could he go that long without his serene home, the sunny hillside near the refreshing pond, and his family, who were at risk of being imprisoned or killed because of their non-prejudiced beliefs?

His stomach dropped again and his shoulders sagged under the scorching heat of the water flowing across his frame. He discovered that hot water was helpful for him to relax, only temporarily of course but it was much better than the frigid water in the small shower the burrow housed or the short-lived heating charm that made him feel as if he was showering in lukewarm tea rather than a proper hot shower.

His only downside was that his creamy skin was almost brick red, yet somehow his freckles showed through like a common childhood disease that Hermione had mentioned getting in her early years. He could not remember the name. His hair laid flat on his head, a darker red when wet but now longer than a quiff, he ran his gangly fingers through it, sweeping it back but failing to contain a few stray pieces, which dangled near the curve of his cheek and tickled his ears.

Goosebumps spread across flesh the instant his heels touched the cool tile. The sudden temperature change brought about a shock and he scrambled for his towel to aid his chill. After hastily wrapping it around his waist, he clumsily aimed for his vest to wear until he got to the room so at least he wouldn't freeze to death. Vest in hand, the metal toothbrush cup clanged off the side of the counter, making a ruckus in its wake.

Vest now over his head and arms, bunched just under his chest. the cup was replaced to its original spot and a good few swears had escaped his breath. He bent across the counter to clear the mirror of the steam that emanated from the shower when he felt the slightest brush against his bareback.

"Shit!"

"Sorry!'

His hand frantically searched for his wand to provide defence but unless towels came with pockets then he was out of luck. Hermione's alarmed voice stabbed through the bathroom and the echo lingered for a bit, just enough until he processed that she was in front of him. Her eyebrows were raised and her mahogany eyes were wide after she jumped away from him suddenly.

"Um..Hi.” she started with a great inhale.

Ron's heart rate hadn't returned to normal and his mouth was agape at the sight of her so suddenly appearing in the bathroom. Where he was. Alone. Until she came in of course. So now it was just him and her. Alone. He suddenly became very aware that he had just come out of the shower and was revealing a particular amount of torso, which was probably solid red now with a litter of freckles that he didn't fancy too much himself.

"Uh hey?" he started, completely at a loss of how to conduct the situation, while he sheepishly smoothed down the vest along his stomach. She couldn't have come in here to discuss Horcruxes right? Actually, he wouldn't put it past her to do just that, to be honest.

"I uh.. well I came to shower and I realised that you were still in here, still are in here so.. but yeah your vest was rolled up a bit sorry, just wanted to.. uh fix it, yeah, sorry." she stumbled over her words a lot, something he'd never heard from Hermione but she seemed to speak extremely fast yet agonisingly slow and deliberate at the same time.

She was breathing in deeply again and his eyes fell to the stray tight curls that graced the nape of her neck which her haphazard-looking ponytail exposed. The bathroom was quite dim and the yellow glow from the dingy lights fell just barely on her dark skin. Skin. His eyes travelled a little further to see she was wearing a vest herself, no a camisole, he didn't know what it was but his gaze was hooked on the space between her shoulder and collarbone. He had the urge to touch it with his lips.

He quickly averted his eyes as to not embarrass himself but they glanced over her bare legs in moderately short cotton shorts and he sucked his breath in so hard he was now bent at a slight curve, stomach clenched and breath hitched. He was quickly overwhelmed at the intimacy the situation opposed. Hell, he couldn't believe he was describing an interaction with Hermione as intimate. His ears were on fire surely, he'd need an Aquamenti to put them out if he survived.

"Oh", his voice heightened toward the end and he internally cringed so hard he thought he was going to combust.

"Yeah", she whispered, her eyes were on his arms, his brain scars were fully displayed and swirled across his recently filled out arms.

"I thought you were using the bathroom near your room?" he spoke softly and slowly, drinking in the sight of her lips, which she was toying with impatiently, now flushed.

There was an urge to cover his arms but he resisted and tried to focus on a chipped tile near the door. He failed as soon as she spoke once more, her voice clearer this time and with, almost, determination?

"I think I like this one more." she spoke, referring to the bathroom seemingly but her eyes were nowhere but him.

She intentionally made eye contact and his heart dropped to his lower stomach, his chest unnaturally warm. Wasn't this room cold as shit before? He was smart enough to know that bathroom was the last bloody thing she was talking about but words failed and he was more than happy to let her steer the conversation.

"Can I ask why?', he managed, his mouth was dry and he was sure he's never wanted anything more than for her to touch him, anywhere, she could slap him if she wanted and he would relish her skin on his.

Their breaths were erratic now, you'd swear they'd run a marathon twice over. Her chest was rising and falling agonisingly slow. He was still bent a bit so he was leaning towards her and she seemed to have gotten closer since she jumped back earlier. When did that happen?

"It's a bit more spacious I think, prettier interior as well", she whispered, swallowing halfway in between and added in the last bit staring so far into his eyes that he swore she was probably seeing through his head.

Pretty. Did she just say pretty? He was pretty sure she said pretty. No one had called him that before and if she had just called him fucking pretty he was going to die on the spot. Her words kept repeating in his head, soft and intentional. His entire body was frozen and he knew that the ground wasn't cold enough to make his legs tremble the way they were now. She gazed up at him and he swore he saw a glint of satisfaction after his reaction.

"Right, well, I'll let you have it then..Enjoy.", he applauded himself in restaining his voice from wavering at the end.

She gave a small thanks and he started to walk towards the door, her to the shower. Her bare shoulder touched his elbow at the exact moment her eucalyptus shampoo wafted towards his nose and he swore he almost whimpered. Their eye contact was only broken by the door closing and Ron almost collapsing on the other side.

PLEASE REVIEW! <3

[flutteringdreams-matw]

Out of Time (17)

First/Last

Read on AO3 /FFN

Word Count: 8593

Previously: The aftermath of the fight scene. Danny's still unconcious and everyone tries to deal. Loads of angst. CW: Injury descriptions, swearing and angst.

Now: The aftermath part 2 - some flashbacks, some concerns and lots of guilt. One of my favourite Lancer and Clockwork moments too.

Please let me know what you think! Feel free to drop a reply or reblog whatever. WE ARE CAUGHT UP! I'm hoping the next chapter will be up on Sunday - depends on if I have a chance to edit or not. Regardless the link will be in the replies!

Sam was going crazy.

She was exhausted - the nightmares that haunted her kept her up most nights. The other nights? Her thoughts spinning out of control over one measly kiss by her best friend.

The same best friend she had a crush on for over a year.

The same friend who kissed her first.

And she kissed him back.

Nope. Not measly in the slightest.

She shook her head, clearing it as she neared the infirmary. She opened the door, a greeting at the tip of her tongue before she stopped with wide eyes.

Frostbite stood over Danny in deep concentration, his ice arm glowing a faint blue as it was stuck through the boy's chest. Ethelwulf nodded absently, eyes running over the core monitor's readings with quick precision. Danny laid motionless on the bed through the entire thing.

Danny's anguished screams as Dan taunted him, attacking his core.

"A little more Frostbite," Ethelwulf told him. "It's headed down."

The way he arched upward in the duplicate's grasp.

Frostbite's hand glowed brighter, engulfing the boy in blue. Eventually, it subsided, leaving the yeti ghost with a grim look on his face. "It should be maintaining its cold by now," he said softly. "Why isn't it?"

His head snapped to his chest, breathing heavily. She wasn't even sure he was conscious anymore.

Ethelwulf frowned. "I'm not sure," he admitted. "His injuries are healing, but slowly - even slower than what a human should be healing at - "

Sam turned abruptly, walking quickly up and out of the lab. She breathed hard, ignoring the memory flashes and the ghosts giving her a greeting. It was too much -she needed to get away.

He was going to get through this.

It's already been a week.

He's going to get through this.

He's not healing.

He's going -

Sam stopped her internal argument when she found herself outside of Danny's room. She blinked, suddenly frowning at where she found herself. She stood there for a few moments, debating whether she should go in before she realized something else.

She desperately missed her best friend.

She swung the door open. The first thing Sam recognized was that it still smelled like him. The second was no one was in here since probably Tucker when he grabbed his stuff last week. Sam smiled softly, walking toward the unmade bed - he probably didn't even sleep the night before. She touched it fondly, thinking back to the strategy meeting in the Ops Center. She sighed, deciding that she should perhaps find Jazz when she kicked something, making it slide under the bed.

With a confused frown, she peered under it, ignoring the dusty litter of old beaten thermoses, the boooo-merang and garbage. The only thing not covered in a layer of dust was a brown picture frame lying faced down. Sam grabbed it, sliding it across the floor and turned it over. It was a photo of Danny with his family in front of FentonWorks, with his arms around Tucker and Sam with a big goofy smile on his face. She remembered this photo - it was just before freshman year a few weeks before his accident.

Wasn't this normally on his desk? She wondered, eyes glancing toward the computer with a frown. Her frown deepened as she noticed that there was nothing on his desk but the keyboard and mouse. Bringing the photo with her, she walked to the desk, noticing the giant pile of stuff on the floor beside it. "Boys," Sam muttered fondly, picturing Danny just throwing things into a pile with a smile, saying absently he'd deal with it later. She put the photo on his desk, sighing slightly as she jostled the mouse.

The computer monitor came alive, the screen brightening the room giving her three options: play, save and discard. "What's this?" she questioned, violet eyes curiously looking the screen over. A video file? She frowned, looking at the computer for any sort of hint to what it was before she saw what it was called.

For Sam.

Why is there a video for me on Danny's computer? She wondered, grabbing his computer chair and rolling it over. She sat in the chair, drumming her fingers on the desk with a thoughtful frown. "I shouldn't watch this," she said to herself. But it's addressed to you her subconscious argued back. She debated for a few more minutes before coming back to the reason she was in his room to begin with… she missed Danny. Besides, she should see if she should save this file, right.

Right?

Biting her lip thoughtfully, Sam pressed play.

The date on the video said September as Danny's face came into view, looking a little uncomfortable as he stared into the camera.

"Hey Sam," he started with a sheepish smile. He rubbed the back of his head. Sam laughed softly, a sad smile on her face as he got settled. "This is kinda weird, but Jazz says it actually might help in the long run." Suddenly, his face was serious. "If you're watching this, it probably means… well I'm dead."

Sam paused the video, rolling the chair back with wide eyes as she stared at the screen. He's saying goodbye. He was recording this to say goodbye? She frowned as she looked at the date. September… apart from Vlad becoming mayor, nothing happened in September. So why back then? And why is it on his computer now?

She rolled closer, wondering whether she should continue the video. Curiosity got the better of her, pressing play again.

"Well -more dead I guess," Danny continued, shrugging. "Not now obviously - but Jazz will have all the files and give them to people. She thought it would, I dunno, I guess give me a way to say bye." He paused, again looking uncomfortable, opening his mouth to speak before the video skipped.

Sam frowned, watching a slightly older, tired version of Danny on the screen. The time stamp said eight days ago, pretty early in the afternoon. That explains why it's here. There was no sheepishness in his behaviour, dark circles under his eyes from the lack of sleep. "Hi Sam" he greeted softly. He smiled at the camera. "I just… I wanted to say…" he frowned, furrowing his eyebrows in thought. "If I don't make it back," he said finally. "I want you to know that I -" he broke off, eyes widening just a little as he stared at the camera. He stammered for a moment, before he sighed, looking down at the floor. He muttered something quietly that the microphone didn't hear. Sam waited with baited breath, watching Danny try to compose himself. He stiffened, looking at the camera determinedly. "Sam, I -" suddenly losing all confidence, he deflated. He sighed in defeat, looking up into the camera sadly, his arm moving toward the monitor.

The video shifted again, this time with Danny Phantom at the computer, floating in the air. Sam assumed he had pressed record. With a playful smirk, Phantom turned his back to the camera to the bed, where Danny Fenton's legs currently hung off of. Sam laughed softly, realizing that he had split himself.

"Oh come on," Phantom teased, hands on his hips. "This isn't like your facing down a legion of ghosts for the fight of your life. It's just a video."

"If you say that one more time - " Danny started.

"You'll what? Shoot a ghost ray at me? I have our powers right now idiot, I'm the one -" Phantom was cut off when a pillow hit his face. "Okay, fine, be that way."

"You think this is easy?" Danny asked angrily, sitting up on the bed. "I don't like doing these damn videos!"

"It's not about the videos," Phantom retorted smartly. "It's about this video."

Danny frowned. "What do you mean?"

Phantom made a frustrated noise. "You know what it means." Phantom floated in front of the bed, staring at his human self like they were in a mirror. "Why is it so hard for you to admit it?"

"Because I don't want to say it like this!" Danny said, his voice rising. Sam watched as his hands gestured wildly to the computer.

Phantom's eyes narrowed. "Say what?" he challenged, voice also rising.

"You know what!"

"But do you?" The question caught the human off guard, making him sputter a few excuses at his ghost half. Phantom rolled his eyes, pointing a gloved finger at him. "You need to come flat out and say it. To her face."

"I'm not sure -" Danny started.

"You are sure," Phantom said angrily. His eyes flashed. "You're so afraid of changing things! Why is it so hard for you to tell Sam you like her?"

Sam gasped softly, watching Danny Fenton's whole body tense as he stammered excuses. "I don't know!" he exclaimed. "It's Sam! It just is okay!"

"Because," Phantom pressed, gesturing for the boy to continue.

"Cause I -" Danny's voice cut off, looking at little unsure.

Phantom got in his face. "Because you what?" he asked.

"Because I think I'm in love her!" Danny exploded.

Sam gasped again, pausing the video as she stared at the screen. Her mind was racing at his admission, her heart doing backflips in her chest. She looked back at the screen, watching both Phantom and Fenton mid-reaction with wide eyes. I shouldn't - this is -he l-….what!?

Numbly, Sam pressed play again, desperate to see what happened next. Phantom had jumped backward at the boy's outburst, dropping out of the air and onto the floor. He stared up at Danny with wide eyes. Fenton had paled drastically, chest heaving and wide terror filled eyes stared back.

What. The.

They were quiet for several minutes, staring at each other in absolute shock as the admission settled in the air around them.

"You just…" Phantom said quietly, trailing off.

Danny nodded. "I know…" he breathed.

"Did you -" Phantom started again.

"I. know." The boy punctuated each word, breathing hard with wide eyes.

"Do…. Do we even know what that word even means?" Phantom finally asked. Danny stared at him dumbly. "I mean - we do, but like…. To say that…"

Danny put his elbows on his knees. "I dunno," he said. "I've never felt like this before." He sighed heavily silent for a few minutes.

Sam waited, every nerve on fire as she watched him swallow nervously on screen. "I… I like her" he said at last, shaken. "A lot."

Her heart burst as she heard him say those words.

Phantom grinned, punching the teen lightly in the knee. "Told you so," he teased. Danny glared lightly. "So what now?"

Danny raised an eyebrow. "Apart from going up against an evil version of us from the future, ignoring any glimpses of time that come our way and fight for our lives?"

Phantom gave him a pointed look. "I meant that revelation of a lifetime."

Danny frowned. "You want me to tell her, don't you?"

Phantom raised an eyebrow this time. "You want things to change right?"

Danny fiddled with his hands for a few moments. "I mean, yeah."

"Only way to do that is to tell her how you feel," Phantom told him earnestly, shrugging.

"But now?"

Phantom scoffed. "No, at graduation - yes now!" he said sarcastically. Phantom flew up, floating toward the door. "Preferably before we face Dan."

Danny didn't move, face suddenly clouding in thought. "Dan," he said quietly. Phantom turned, frowning at his human half's tone. Whatever light heartedness at their revelation was snatched out of the air. "What's he after?"

Phantom regarded Fenton for a small moment. "You mean other than revenge?"

Danny looked up. "Yeah," he said. Sam watched both their brains work, desperately trying not to yell at the screen in warning. "I just wish-" Danny broke off, grimacing as blue sparks wracked his frame. Phantom disappeared, leaving the boy stifling a scream as he weathered the abuse from his core. He doubled over, face turning away from the camera for a few minutes before they disappeared, leaving the boy breathing hard.

"Fuck," he said. "That one hurt." His brow furrowed, left eye turning green for moment before he rolled his eyes. "Shut up," he muttered. Danny rubbed his chest absently, frowning in thought at whatever vision over took him. Then he got up and left his room.

Sam sat watching the video play on, her mind reeling at what she just saw. Danny had not intended to record that conversation - nor anything that came after. His face after he admitted he liked her looked so terrified. Did he like her? Was it the time visions messing with him? It was -

It was hours before their conversation in the Ops Center. He was about to go downstairs and run into her. Where he told her he wasn't afraid anymore. And she shot him down.

What had happened in between? She had wondered later, staring at the monitor for some clue. Tucker had changed her mind, but what changed his? Why didn't he say anything - do anything - until that moment in the clearing?

Frowning, she watched ten minutes go by on the computer. Danny still hadn't returned.

"You don't get to say what you want to say and then just run into battle."

"What happens after this Danny? After you say what you want to say and go off to face Dan… would you regret it?"

She had told him those things- she didn't want to get her hopes up. It wasn't his regret that she was worried about.

It was hers.

Realizing Danny wasn't coming back soon, Sam hit fast forward, watching the timestamp speed by until his room door finally opened. Sam hit play, just as Danny entered.

His expression was unreadable, blue eyes dark in thought. Clockwork she realized, remembering the Time Master interrupting their conversation. Danny faltered, crying out as another set of blue sparks coursed through his body. Sam frowned worriedly, watching as he fell to the floor, writhing in pain. How many times did he go through this before he faced Dan? He breathed deeply, letting them subside before he let out a long shuddering sigh that seem to envelop his whole body. He stayed crouched for a few moments before he stood, hair covering his face. Then he transformed, flying out of his bedroom.

Sam fast forwarded the video again, watching the time zip forward before she saw Danny flew back into his room. It had been a few hours since he left. She pressed play, watching as his transformation slowed to normal speed and illuminated the room.

Danny sighed, walking over to the computer desk tiredly. Blue sparks ran through his frame, making the boy stumble and grimace in pain. He clutched the edge of the desk, fighting the sparks and pain that was coursing through him. Suddenly, Danny's expression changed to one of anger, blue eyes turning green. With a yell of frustration, he swept all the items of his desk onto the ground with a large crash. Sam jumped at noise, glancing briefly at the pile of stuff next to the desk.

"That's enough!" he yelled, sparks suddenly disappearing and leaving the boy breathing hard. Danny's arms were shaking with effort as he gripped the desk for dear life, black hair blocking his face from the camera as he looked down. Phantom appeared behind him, hovering a few feet behind the teen watching him in pity. Sam reached out to the monitor, unable to help.

Neither spoke, only Danny's ragged breathing coming through the computer microphone as time ticked forward. Eventually, Danny broke the silence. "Why does it have to be me?" he asked, broken. Sam's heart broke at the words.

Phantom's green eyes softened at the question. "I wish I knew," he replied quietly. He ran a hand through his white hair and breathed out deeply. He floated closer to his human half slowly. "Clockwork did say there was one favourable outcome."

Danny snorted. "He also implied we weren't coming back alive," he snapped back.

Phantom held up his hands in surrender. "All I'm saying is: it's possible."

Danny sighed, back straightening slightly, but still not moving from place in front of the camera. Sam still couldn't see his face. "We could run," he whispered. "Let Vlad and Valerie handle this; get the GIW involved."

Phantom snorted this time, crossing his arms in disgust. "I can't believe those words came out of your mouth," he said drily. "Like you'd ever run from this."

Danny laughed bitterly, finally standing up straight and looked Phantom in the eye. "True," he agreed, a small smile on his face. The smile faded as he crossed his arms in thought. "Did you ever think we'd be here after almost two years of having these powers?"

Phantom rolled his eyes as he made a face. "Dude, you're proving that we do have some sort of hero complex."

"No, not like that," Danny told him, making the ghost frown. "I know we've faced big threats before and anticipated not coming back. This fight though..." Danny bent down and picked up a small picture frame. "Did you ever think we'd be ready?"

Phantom was silent, observing his human self searchingly. He made multiple attempts to speak before he sighed tiredly, just waiting for Danny to continue.

Danny gripped the frame determinedly. "I'm not going to tell them," he continued softly. "They'd talk us out of it; attempt to make a plan that might put them in danger. It's better if they fight in the city. That way they won't-" Danny's voice cracked as he broke off.

Phantom nodded readily. "Okay," he agreed softly. Green eyes drifted to the computer before they settled back onto the black haired boy. "Are you at least going to talk to Sam?"

Danny let out a shaky breath and shook his head. "She's right," he said softly. "I can't tell her how I feel and go face Dan. If I somehow make it back, then I'll tell her. It wouldn't be right otherwise."

Phantom scowled. "So you're going to make the decision for her? Somehow, I think she'd be even angrier at that."

Danny scowled back. "Don't you think I know that!" he argued, waving his arms emphatically. The frame in his hand went flying onto the bed, bouncing slightly at the two teens glared at each other. "It's easier if I don't tell her."

"For you," Phantom countered angrily.

"For her!" Danny shouted. Phantom raised one of his eyebrows as Danny sighed. "Look – if I tell Sam and don't make it back…" He looked down to the floor. "I can't do that to her… not… not now."

Phantom frowned as Danny trailed off. He floated over to Danny and put a gloved hand onto his shoulder. "I get it," he said simply, floating past the boy. They stood side by side, facing opposite directions as if they were two sides of the same coin. They were silent again for a bit, before Phantom started speaking again. "Being fifteen sucks."

Danny's laugh was cold and sardonic at the abrupt change of topic. "Tell me about it," he replied ruefully.

Phantom looked up at the ceiling wistfully. "What would you do if we got out of this?" he asked.

Danny smiled, lost in thought. "Same things I normally do," he said. "You?"

Phantom chuckled. "Probably annoy you a little more," he joked. "More of the same."

Danny and Phantom turned to each other, any sort of amusement sliding off their faces as the reality of their fate once again sunk in.

"You ready?" Phantom asked.

Danny nodded. "Let's do this."

Both boys turned to the opening door as Jazz walked into the room. "Danny, you in here?" She looked over to them, surprised, before frowning slightly. "Are you okay?"

Phantom disappeared, leaving Danny standing alone on his side of the room. He gave her a bittersweet smile. "Yeah," he replied softly.

"Good cause –"

The video stopped, the pop up window again giving her the options of play, save or discard.

Sam's eyes were wide as anger, fear, regret, guilt and sadness overwhelmed her as she stared at the screen. It had been a week since this video. So much had happened.

And Danny wasn't any closer to waking up.

More tears came to her eyes - she thought she had finished with them by now - as she sat at his computer.

"It's fine… This can wait."

"Let's talk later."

There wasn't a later.

It didn't wait.

She replayed the video.

:-=-:

"I don't know! It's Sam. It just is okay!"

Jazz stiffened, hearing her brother's voice for the first time in over a week. "Danny?" she breathed hopefully.

"Because?"

She frowned, cautiously walking down the hall to Danny's room. That was Phantom's voice. The door was opened a crack, a small glow of light coming from the room. Had her Mom or Dad finally gone in?

"Cause I -"

Danny's voice sounded again, making Jazz's eyes widen. "Oh no," she whispered rushing forward.

"Because you what?"

Jazz flung open the door.

"Because I think I'm in love her!"

"Sam!" Jazz exclaimed. The girl paused the video, turning slowly in the chair. She was breathing hard, like she couldn't get enough air, tears flowing down her face. Jazz moved quickly, rushing over to the girl and knelt in front of her. "Sam, what are you doing in here?" Jazz glanced at screen with a frown. "And what're you watching?"

Sam didn't answer, starting to hyperventilate. Realizing the girl was more of a concern, Jazz breathed with her, trying to get her to mimic her actions. Her breathing became a little more normal, hiccupping slightly as she continued to stare at the red head.

"That's it," Jazz soothed, nodding. "Breathe in and out." Teal eyes glanced at the computer again, eyebrows furrowing in thought. "That's better. Want to tell me about it?" She took in Sam's appearance, the dark circles under her eyes more pronounced up close. Sam stayed quiet, making Jazz sigh. She stood, moving past the younger teen to the computer, dragging the mouse across the video clip and watching glimpses of her brother on screen. Jazz pursed her lips. "Did you watch all of it?" Jazz asked softly. Sam nodded. Jazz sighed again, moving back in front of the teen.

"I was wondering yours went," Jazz told her gently. Sam looked at her in confusion. Jazz smiled sadly. "It was my idea - after the whole Fear incident and my parents finding out… Danny was worried about, well, worrying about us blaming ourselves. That he wouldn't be able to say that whatever happened was on him." Jazz chuckled fondly. "Guess he took the whole 'saving people' thing too seriously huh? There's one for my parents, me, Tucker - I think he did one for the news too."

Jazz paused, sighing again. Sam looked at her expectantly. "After last week, I took these out again - just in case he-" her voice cracked. Jazz swallowed, shaking her head. "In case he didn't make it," she managed. "Sam, I'm sure he didn't want you to find out like this."

Sam scoffed, a hint of the girl's personality flying outward. "He didn't even manage to tell me," she said bitterly. Jazz looked at her confused. "He split Jazz - Phantom pressed record. They didn't even remember that it was going." Suddenly, her face softened. "He tried to - before he left. I… I thought he was just trying to tell me in case... It wasn't that, I see that now."

Jazz gave her a gentle smile. "He cares about you Sam."

She had said it as comfort, but Jazz's words made Sam upset. "We shouldn't have let him go out their Jazz," she said darkly. She pointed to the screen. "The Time Visions affected him more than we realized, he was… he was at his breaking point. And Dan? Dan -" her eyes scrunched tightly, a pained look on her face. "I still hear his screams. Still see Dan's hand through his chest. Danny twitching in between consciousness as Dan electrocuted him. All that blood. Now he's…."

"He will," Jazz assured firmly. "He'll get better Sam."

Sam shook her head. "I heard Frostbite and Ethelwulf," she replied. "He's not healing anywhere close to normal - not for him, a ghost or a human." Sam's eyes glistened with tears. "Did I do the right thing?" she asked hushed. "Giving him the Ecto-Enhancer?"

Jazz's eyes watered, realizing now what Sam had been going through over the last week. Sam blamed herself.

"Am I the reason he's still like this?"

:-=-:

Tucker closed his locker a little forcefully, eyes narrowing at the metal object.

"What do you want to do for your birthday honey?" His mom had asked him yesterday. "It's not every day you turn sixteen."

"If you miss my birthday caused you died, I'm running up your tab at the Nasty Burger."

"The Usual?" Danny had asked.

"With extra everything."

He fiddled with the lock, growing more and more frustrated with every second. Eventually, he growled, punching the thing angrily. He winced, wringing out his hand with a small string of curse words underneath his breath.

I want my best friend to be okay.

It was their first day back at school since Dan's attack over a week ago. Ten days since he last spoke to his best friend. There was still no word on when he'd wake up.

If he'd wake up.

"Remember Tucker, it was Dash who stuffed you in there, not the locker itself. Stop senseless locker abuse."

His head whipped up at Sam's voice. She grinned, rolling her eyes at him. "Happy Birthday you big idiot," she wished, leaning against the lockers in her best Danny impression.

He smiled. He and Danny had thought the birthday greeting was the best thing ever since they learned 'idiot' meant. "Thanks," he said. "I needed that."

Sam's grin morphed into a sad smile, her eyes dull with guilt and self-loathing. "I think I did too," she admitted. "Jazz said her parents had the school excuse them for the last few weeks. She's only coming in for her exams."

Tucker nodded. "They told Ishiyama and Lancer then?"

"Yeah," Sam said softly. She looked down the hallway, whispering teens surrounding them. "Wonder how long it'd take for the whole school to find out."

Tucker shrugged. "Beats me." He noticed the dark circles under her eyes and frowned. "Still having the nightmares?"

Sam scowled. "Are you?" she retorted with an eyebrow raised.

"Yeah," he admitted readily. Tucker gave her a searching look, daring her to lie. "And all I know is what I saw when I hacked into the school camera system. Sam - it's okay if -"

She held up her bandaged wrist. "I am," she replied sourly. "Happy? I admitted it." She sighed. "Between Dan's attacks and Danny kiss-" Sam stopped abruptly, eyes widening as she realized what she was about to say.

Tucker's eyes widened also. "The what!?" He exclaimed loudly, causing some students to stare. Sam turned red, glaring at Tucker. The boy grabbed her shoulders, shaking her. "He - what? When? Why didn't you tell me this sooner!? Sam this is huge! He actually -"

A cough stopped his excited rant. Tucker and Sam turned.

Valerie stood, her hand on her hip watching them with an annoyed look on her face. She eyed both of them warily, green eyes glancing briefly to Sam's bandaged wrist before addressing them both. "Where's Danny?"

The two friends looked at each other.

"Still out sick," Tucker told her, shrugging non-committedly.

Green eyes looked him over. "Sure he is," she said bitterly. "Not what I heard."

Sam's eyes narrowed, stepping forward. "And what did you hear?"

Valerie shrugged. She took off her backpack, rummaging in it for a moment before grabbing a small envelope. She held it out to the two friends. "Nevermind. Can one of you give this to him? When he's up?" she asked.

Tucker eyed it suspiciously, paling slightly as he saw the name 'Phantom' written on the top. "Wait - which Danny are we talking about here?" he asked confused. Sam took the envelope, glaring at Valerie.

Valerie stared at them for a few moments, challenging them to do something. Her eyebrow rose again. "It matters?" she replied coolly. She turned, hearing the two friends gasp behind her as she walked down the hall. When she got to the end of the hall, she looked back, watching their wide eyed stares looking back at her.

:-=-:

Skulker phased into Plasmius' lab, frowning at the half-ghost's back. "You wanted to see me?" the hunter asked.

Vlad didn't turn around from the computer, nor did he transform from his human form. "Ah Skulker," he greeted. "Any word?"

The ghost landed, green eyes glaring at the man's dismissive tone. "The whelp's still not awake," Skulker replied. "Though why you insist on using me instead of just asking the humans is beyond me. Aren't you toying with the orange one?"

Plasmius scoffed, still typing away at the computer. "Jack only tells me the basics now that he knows who I am. You tell me what I need to know." Vlad got up, finally facing the ghost with a sombre look. "Do you think he'll survive?"

Skulker hesitated. "They still don't know," the robotic ghost replied, shrugging. "The young hybrid is strong, so it's possible."

The half-ghost sighed. "Best make contingency plans then," he said softly. He locked eyes with the ghost in front of him. "Can you retrieve the Infi-Map from the Far Frozen?"

Skulker blinked. "The Infi-Map?" he asked slowly.

"Yes," Vlad said, pacing. "I'm sure it will be easy to steal since most of Frostbite's people are tending to Daniel."

Skulker watched him, frowning in thought. "That would go against the truce."

"And?" Vlad said, raising an eyebrow.

"A truce against the Far Frozen and the Master of Time," Skulker replied, as if the answer was obvious. When the half-ghost didn't respond, Skulker let out a frustrated sigh. "Plasmius, you cannot do this. Messing with time and space is unwise."

Vlad transformed, floating above Skulker with a smug grin. "I didn't take you to be a coward Skulker," he challenged.

Skulker's eyes glowed at the insult. "I am more versed in Ghost Law than you, halfa," he growled. "Going against a truce lands you in Walker's prison. Going against a truce from Clockwork? I don't remember any ghost being alive to tell their tale."

"Daniel did," Vlad retorted flippantly. "And I am much smarter and powerful than him."

"Are you though?" Skulker rose in the air, staring his employer down. "Can you do any of what the whelp did?" he tested. "The boy defeated Pariah Dark and the abomination."

"With my help!" Vlad cut in.

"And yet it's Phantom who is victorious," Skulker stated with crossed arms. "You've heard the whispers, I'm sure."

Plasmius' eyes glowed. "I will not be ruled by a child!" he retorted angrily. "They're just rumours - they cannot be true!"

Skulker glared. "They may not be… but those rumours are why you're collecting powerful artifacts," he said. "Why you're trying to force ghosts to your side. Plasmius - the Master of Time sides with him. You will not win with war."

Plasmius laughed. "Who said anything about war?" His hand lit aflame, watching the swirling energy light up the robotic ghost's face. "If Daniel dies, then the throne is open."

The ghostly hunter eyes flew wide, letting out a sharp gasp. "You wish death on your own kind?" he asked suspiciously. "After everything you've done to get the boy to your side?"

Vlad's face fell slightly. "No," he replied softly. "But the boy's core is damaged Skulker. If he survives, I doubt he'd be able to take his place. Nor will he want to. I'm just preparing to step in for him. This is about protecting him." Vlad sighed heavily, red eyes looking defeated. "I do not want Daniel to die - but I cannot deny that with him out of the way benefits my plan. He's young - too young to make this decision."

Skulker watched the older hybrid start pacing again, regarding him carefully. "Somehow, I think he'll see it differently." Skulker sighed, shaking his head. He floated upward. "Do as you wish Plasmius," he said quietly. "But do so alone."

Vlad stopped pacing, staring at Skulker incredulously. "You would go against me?"

Skulker shook his head. "I will not go against Clockwork - even if it means siding with Danny Phantom."

Vlad watched him go with a frown. "Daniel…" he whispered worriedly in the silence. His eyes found the computer screen again, shifting his train of thought. "I guess I must do this myself."

:-=-:

Lancer fidgeted with the small pouch in his hand as he heard the doorbell echo throughout FentonWorks.

"We're not giving any interviews!" he heard Jazz's irate voice from inside the hallway. "Go awa-" The door flew open, the girl stopping mid-sentence as she realized who was in front of her. "Mr. Lancer?"

"Ms. Fenton," Lancer greeted. The star student held a broom in her hand in an attack stance. She looked down at the broom and sheepishly put it behind her. "Are your parents home?"

Jazz looked back inside. "I think Dad's asleep," she said with a concerned frown. "Mom's in the lab. I can get her?" She opened the door wider, inviting the teacher inside. He nodded in thanks, looking over FentonWorks with a small frown. The normally vibrant house was filled with a soft buzz, tension filling the air as soon as he settled himself in the living room. He fiddled with the pouch again, wondering what he could do to help.

"She'll be right up," Jazz said, returning with a tray and teapot.

The teacher looked her over, frowning. "Jasmine, are you alright?" he asked.

She smiled, but it didn't reach her eyes. "Haven't been sleeping much," she replied. "It's been a rough two weeks."

"I'm sure," he agreed softly. He changed the subject. "Decide on a college yet? I know Yale's deadline is fast approaching."

Jazz smiled. "Amity U," she replied. "I'd get more on the job training here than anywhere else." Lancer arched an eyebrow. "It's okay," she told him softly. "I'll head there for Grad school. My place is here - at least for a little while longer."

Lancer studied her closely. "Jasmine, you can't put your life on hold," he said.

"Mom and Dad said the same thing," she admitted with a sad smile as she poured him some tea. "And Danny will probably be upset with me when he finds out -" Jazz stopped, her eyes widening slightly as a deep rooted sadness washed over her features.

"I'm sure he's proud of you," he assured softly.

Jazz gave him a watery smile. "He is."

"Jazz?"

"In here!" the girl called to her mother.

Lancer watched as Maddie Fenton came into the living room, the same dark circles around her eyes as her daughter. "Sorry Mr. Lancer," she apologized, taking a seat across from the man. "Was working on something to help Phantom."

"Any luck?" Jazz asked hopefully.

Maddie caught Jazz's eye. "I hope so," she said. Jazz looked in between her mother and Mr. Lancer and nodded.

"I'll check on Dad," she said. She rolled her eyes. "He has another conference call with Vlad this afternoon."

Maddie pursed her lips, watching her daughter go.

"I thought your husband and the mayor were friends?" Lancer inquired, catching the girl's tone.

Maddie sighed. "It's gotten a little complicated," she told him. She turned to the teacher. "How can I help you Mr. Lancer?"

Lancer gripped the pouch tighter. "How's Daniel?"

Maddie tensed at the question before she sighed. "He's still unconscious," she said wearily. "There's been no change."

Lancer nodded, not quite trusting his voice in the moment. In all his years of teaching, this was a first. "May I ask…" he asked finally, his question trailing off.

Maddie watched him closely, lips pressed together before glancing at the stairs. "He's been ill," Maddie said, still staring at the hallway. "We thought it was a cold at first, then he started collapsing." She finally turned back to the teacher with a thoughtful frown. "Tucker told me you had a run in with Phantom?" Perplexed, Lancer nodded. "What happened?"

"Dan - that's what Phantom called him - came after me," Lancer said. After a moment's pause, he frowned. "Actually, I thought it was Daniel that came toward me; Said something about the Career Aptitude Test creating him. I thought he was possessed." Maddie nodded. "What does this have to do with Daniel's condition?"

"Everything," Maddie told him fiercely. "What happened next?"

Lancer's frowned deepened. "Phantom came and told me it wasn't Daniel, that he was safe at FentonWorks."

Maddie chuckled. "That boy," she admonished softly. Lancer gave her a quizzical look. "Did Phantom tell you about Dan?"

"Briefly," Lancer replied. "Something about a future that doesn't exist."

Maddie nodded. "Dan is… was an alternate Phantom," she explained. "A dark Phantom. Danny's decision to hand in the answers changed the events so that he never existed. That's why Dan targeted him."

Lancer's mouth hung open. Maddie continued. "Dan made him sleep deprived; paranoid. He made him relive parts of the alternate future over and over again… we thought it would be fine when Phantom faced him." Maddie sighed, taking a moment to compose herself and look toward the ceiling. "Dan and Phantom, they were drawn to each other in the worst ways. I think Sam saw that before any of us realized."

"So she went after Phantom," Lancer said, remembering the absurd phone conversation he had between Mr. Foley and Phantom.

"Dan trapped them both," Maddie continued, nodding. "According to Sam, it was a close call." Maddie gave him a sad smile. "Danny… Dan must have shown him something that made him go out there, something awful. He managed to push Sam out of the way and got hit with a large ecto-blast instead."

Lancer paled. "He what?"

Maddie's sad smile grew slightly, eyes radiating with regret. "We should have been there sooner," she admitted in disdain. "Then maybe both of them would be okay."

They sat in silence for a few minutes before Lancer broke it. "Can I see him?"

Maddie gave him a small smile. "I think he'd like that."

Lancer smiled in appreciation. "Oh!" he exclaimed suddenly. He brought up the small black pouch and held it out. "I'm not sure, but I think this may help Phantom. He left it behind."

Maddie's brow furrowed. "What is it?"

Lancer shrugged, unzipping it and holding it out to her. "He asked me to give this to him - to heal him."

Maddie gasped. "Is this…" she whispered hopefully. She swallowed, looking from the pouch to Lancer. "You administered one of these?" Lancer nodded. "What was the effect?"

"Phantom looked quite a bit better after a while," he replied. He frowned, watching Maddie's eyes dart back and forth as she did calculations in her head. She took the pouch from the teacher, staring at the last syringe as if it was her only hope. "Is this… helpful?"

She looked up at his with wide eyes. "If this is what I think it is," Maddie said slowly. "Then it could be the breakthrough we're looking for."

:-=-:

Lancer watched Maddie walk in first with a deep breath, a nod and a then a smile. He attempted to do the same, but stopped at the sight of his student lying in the bed.

When Maddie had told him Daniel was injured, he wasn't expecting this.

Daniel's chest moved steadily with the help of machines. His face was covered by a small mask over his mouth and nose. Lancer noticed the many bandages along his torso, almost covering the boy from shoulder to hip. He swallowed heavily; taking a deep breath as he finally stepped inside the makeshift hospital room.

"Hi sweetheart," Maddie whispered softly, touching the side of the face. "You have a visitor." She turned back to the teacher, waving the pouch at Lancer. "You'll have to excuse me; I need to give this to Ethelwulf." She glanced to the corner. "Clockwork, you coming?"

Lancer turned and jumped, seeing an old ghost with purple robes shaking his head. "I will remain here," he told her, his voice calm.

Maddie nodded. "Let Clockwork know if you need anything, Mr. Lancer," she said quietly before exiting the room.

Lancer approached the bed apprehensively, unsure how to interact with his unconscious student. He settled in a vacant chair, watching the boy's chest rise and fall. He frowned, noticing now that the boy sported many more injuries than he originally had seen. "How can one blast do this?" he asked quietly, green eyes finding the boy's bruised neck.

"It didn't."

Lancer jumped, turning to the old ghost in the corner as he spoke. The red eyes seemed to look through the man, making the teacher shiver. "What?"

Clockwork raised an eyebrow. "It didn't," he repeated, a small frown hidden underneath his long silvery beard.

Lancer's eyebrows drew together in confusion, expecting the ghost to elaborate. Clockwork merely stared back. "What do you mean? Mrs. Fenton said -"

"I'm aware of what you've been told," Clockwork cut him off. "But you're also a smart man, William."

"Come on - you're a smart man."

Lancer bristled, remembering the words the dark Phantom had said. "How… how do you know my name?"

"I am the Master of Time," Clockwork said. Lancer detected a bit of bitterness underneath his calm voice. "Or at least, I will be again when this is all over."

"Come again?" Lancer asked weakly.

Clockwork sighed, floating toward the bed. Lancer's green eyes followed him, confused and unnerved by his presence. "I cannot see the present or future currently, but I can see the events of the past." Clockwork told him softly, regretful red eyes bore into the teacher. "I saw what he did for you."

Lancer was thoroughly confused, frowning so intensely that he was slightly worried it would stay that way. "You mean Phantom?"

Clockwork didn't reply, instead turning to the unconscious boy in front of them. "Even I cannot deny fate for a moment of my choosing," he said apologetically, red eyes soft as he looked the boy over. Clockwork put a frail hand on the boy's injured shoulder, holding it there slightly before he sighed, floating back to his corner.

Lancer turned back to his student, taking in the strange conversation and looking at the boy again. The bruising on his neck looked familiar but he couldn't place where. "I never would have thought Daniel would be involved with ghosts," Lancer said after a while. "Ms. Manson, maybe. Mr. Foley even! But Daniel?" Lancer shook his head. "I was under the impression he was scared of them."

Clockwork smiled mysteriously. "You'd be surprised what scares that boy."

Lancer glanced nervously at the old ghost before turning back to the teen. "He could've died."

Clockwork's red eyes looked Lancer over again. "You're his teacher?" he asked. Lancer nodded. "I find teachers are the best to pick up on change and growth faster than most." Clockwork glanced in Danny's direction. "Does it really seem that strange that he wanted to save his family? His friends?"

Lancer looked at the ghost quizzically, before turning back to the student. Lancer's impression of Danny's freshman year was a lazy student, often skipping class, falling asleep or forgetting his homework. But he was loyal - fiercely so - to his friends and family. He understood the consequences of his actions, accepting of detentions with a brief nod of the head with a resolved expression on his face. This year he had hardly gotten in so much trouble, but that loyalty he displayed in freshman year grew. So did his confidence in the person he was growing to be. He looked like he carried the weight of the world on his shoulders - almost as if…

As if he had to save it himself.

"That isn't Danny Fenton. And it never will be."

"Nah - He found out what would happen on his own; realized it was too high a cost."

Phantom had told him that earlier. The teen who literally throws himself into battle with no regard for himself; Just as Danny threw himself in front of his best friend to save her life. "Clockwork," Lancer started, finding himself staring at the boy's neck. His mouth went dry. "Where's Phantom?"

Clockwork shrugged. "Here," he said flippantly. His red eyes sparkled in amusement at the question. "At FentonWorks."

Lancer frowned. Phantom's neck had been bruised too; he had remembered thinking the ghost's vocal chords being crushed. Danny's entire neck looked swollen, blue-purple blotches that look suspiciously like the boy was choked. But didn't he just jump in front of a blast? To save Ms. Manson?

"She's with Ethelwulf, safe and away from battle."

Phantom was friends with Tucker and Sam. Best friends he had said. Danny's only friends were Sam and Tucker.

"It was more how I said it rather than what I said."

Phantom has been seen battling ghosts all over town at all times of day. Danny regularly missed school.

"That isn't Danny Fenton."

Phantom spoke to Lancer as if he knew the man. Danny had Lancer as his teacher for two years.

The shield had been up for days before Phantom's first clash with Dan. Danny was at school for all of an hour before he collapsed.

"Do you see it yet Mr. Lancer? The resemblance?"

"The Strange Case…" Lancer murmured softly, eyes widening just a fraction. "Of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde."

"Yes," Clockwork said with a hint of amusement. "I believe Stevenson's novella does apply here. Although, perhaps not in the way you may think."

Lancer swallowed, nodding as he remembered his interaction with Danny Phantom, playing it over in his head as he stared at the unconscious teen. "There's more to this story, isn't there?"

He heard Clockwork chuckle. "There's always more to a story than what is on the page."

:-=-:

Ethelwulf held the last Ecto-Enhancer in his disguised hand over Danny's unconscious body, glancing at the ground with unease. "There's no guarantee that this could work," he told them gently. He locked eyes with Frostbite, the latter shaking his head as he withdrew his hand from Danny's chest. "Are you willing to risk his life?"

Maddie and Jack shared a look briefly before sending an uncertain looks toward Sam, Tucker and Jazz. Tucker stared grimly at the heart monitor, Jazz nodded stiffly and Sam stared at the Ecto-Enhancer as if it would explode.

"What would happen if we didn't?" Maddie asked evenly.

"The Great One's core is shifting," Frostbite said gravely. "I have been able to cool it down, but after two weeks, it's starting to injure him rather than heal. If this continues, he'd either assimilate to the new core or…"

"Or he dies," Sam finished coldly. Frostbite nodded grimly.

"So what, he'd gain new ghost powers?" Tucker asked, shuddering slightly.

Ethelwulf shook his head. "The Halfling has been gravely injured - we have no idea how a new core will affect his mind. In an alternate timeline, it broke him." Ethelwulf paused, looking at them intensely. "This will help him heal physically, but if his mind is already gone, he may not be who you remember."

The weight of his words sank in, Jack grabbing Maddie's hand tightly. The mother swallowed. "Can he reverse it?" she asked curiously. Ethelwulf looked at her in confusion. "Danny, could he reverse whatever is happening to his core?"

Frostbite hummed thoughtfully. "If he can reclaim his self-generation of cold core energy, it's possible," he replied. "But for all the power the Great One possesses, I'm not sure if he's strong enough to pull that off." His paw glowed, showing a small smooth ice sphere with patches of snow. "This energy," he pointed to the smooth clear sections of the sphere, "is the Great One's normal core energy. The patches are whatever is growing around it. As it stands, we are not sure what has the upper hand."

"From what Sam and the teacher has told us," Ethelwulf continued, waving the syringe in the air. "It seems like this was an immediate reaction into his blood stream. For this to have a chance we'd need to dilute it; else we run the risk of an overdose or worse."

"What about a diluted dose to his core?" Jack wondered out loud. When Ethelwulf beckoned him to continue, he elaborated. "A small amount to restart some of his speed healing and cold energy regeneration - to monitor what his core does. Wouldn't that tell us if he could overcome it?"

"That could work," Frostbite said in thought. "Providing his normal core energy still outweighs the foreign one. "

"Which is a large if," Ethelwulf replied sombrely. "If we're wrong, we could be dooming us all." He looked from his hand to the group of humans around them. "Are you really willing to take that chance?"

Maddie didn't hesitate. "I believe in him," she said without any guilt or remorse. Jack nodded readily at her shoulder. "If anyone can do this, Danny can."

"Mom's right," Jazz said strongly. She looked at the two other teens. "Danny's been in similar fights before right?"

Sam's mouth was in a thin line, looking worriedly at Tucker. Flashbacks of Danny's injured body floated through her mind, vowing to return with a smile. "Tucker?" she asked.

The boy in question jumped. "I shouldn't be part of this," he said finally. "I nearly killed him -"

"Tucker," Jazz admonished, but the boy shook his head.

"No Jazz," he said softly, anger and self-loathing covering his words. "I told you all that I wouldn't put up the shield until I knew I had Danny's ecto-signature programmed. I promised. And I really thought I had it," he looked down at his hands. "I shouldn't have listened to him - we could have got to him in time!"

Frostbite and Ethelwulf frowned pitifully at the young teen. "Tucker of Tech," Frostbite said gently. "I watched you work on that shield, saw the gravity of what the Great One had asked of you." The ghost showed him the orb again. "I don't believe he knew how much his core was altered."

"It also makes you the most knowledgeable person to make this decision," Ethelwulf added. "Apart from myself, Frostbite and the Fentons. You know Danny's signature, do you believe you made a mistake?"

Tucker hesitated, looking at Sam for assistance.

She smiled. "Hey, you're the one who figured out what the Ghost Zone's destruction would do to our world," she said lightly. "And took down Nocturn with just your PDA - Tucker, I think you had it. I say we go for it. The bigger question is - do you think this will work?"

Tucker looked at the heart monitor again, watching his best friend's core reading beep simultaneously with a heartbeat. The core was cooling again. Not trusting his voice, he nodded.

Ethelwulf nodded, hand outstretched to Frostbite for another syringe. "Then let's try it."

[cupcakes4747]

Duplicity | I

Word Count: 2.2k

Warnings: slight profanity, cheating

Pairing: Taehyung x Reader

Genre: angst, fluff, father! au, husband! au

m a s t e r l i s t

You were filled with pride as you and your husband Taehyung applauded for your kids after their school choir concert was over. Your five year old daughter Soomi and her twin brother Jaemin had been working so hard practicing every day for their choir concert and tonight they did awesome and you felt very proud as a mom and so did Taehyung. Your beautiful kids ran up to you and you both had carried them and engulfed them in a big hug.

“We’re so proud of you! Both of you were amazing!” you congratulated.

“Yeah, you both are even better at singing than me,” Taehyung added and the kids giggled.

“Can we go out for pizza?” your Soomi asked, looking up at you with her big puppy dog eyes.

“Yeah, can we?” Jaemin added. You looked at Taehyung and he was also smiling widely, waiting for you to approve so he could get to eat pizza. Sometimes it felt like he was one of your kids instead of your husband.

“Okay fine, you kids earned it,” you gave in.

“YAY!!!” the three of them shouted in unison. You laughed at their cuteness. Before stepping into the car, Taehyung held open the door for you and gave you a quick peck on the cheek.

“Thank you, babe,” he said while still smiling widely.

The rest of the time was spent with the four of you having fun together as a family. You loved your husband so much and your kids just as much if not more. You loved your family and couldn’t have asked for a better one. You were completely satisfied with your life.

Later that night you were brushing your teeth after tucking your kids into bed and felt your husband hug you from behind.

“Tae, what are you doing? Let me brush.”

“But you’re so warm,” he said, his eyes still closed. You smiled and rested your head on his before continuing to brush. When you finished, Taehyung lifted you and threw you over his shoulder like you were a sack of potatoes.

“Ahh, Taehyung! I swear if you drop me, I’ll drop you off a cliff.” Taehyung laughed.

“Don’t worry. You have a muscular husband,” he said cockily. 

“Muscular my ass,” you muttered under your breath. But he still heard you and threw you on the bed.

“What did you say?” He started tickling the life out of you while you kept screaming at him to stop. “Shh, you’ll wake the kids up.” You gave him a deadpan look.

“Fuck you.” Taehyung giggled and brought you into a cuddling position. 

“I’m so tired, princess.”

“Yeah, me too. Being your wife is tiring,” you joked.

“Do you want me to start tickling you again?”

“No sorry sir.” You both burst into laughter. “Okay but seriously let’s sleep.” You turned around gave Taehyung a kiss. As you were drifting off to sleep you heard Taehyung whisper something into your ear.

“I love you so much, Princess.” 

“Yeah and then I drew a picture of a dinosaur and painted it purple but Jaemin said that dinosaurs weren’t purple so then…” your daughter rambled as you were walking both your kids home from school the next day. You had reached your apartment and the second you opened the door, your kids ran in, threw their backpacks to the ground, and ran to the kitchen to look for a snack. They’re just like me. You saw Taehyung’s keys on the counter. Taehyung’s here? That’s strange. He told me he had work today. You walked to your room to go change into some comfy clothes, but before you could open the door, you heard some noises coming from your bedroom. You pressed your ear to the door and could hear grunts and moans and a woman’s voice moaning Taehyung’s name. No, no, no this isn’t happening. You cracked open the door a couple inches you you could get a glimpse of what was going on and you saw Taehyung, your husband, fucking someone from work. Your heart felt like it stopped beating. You quietly closed the door and put on a happy face and went to the kitchen. 

“Kids, I’m going to drop you off at Jisoo’s house, okay?” you told them.

“Yay, I haven’t seen her in so long,” Jaemin declared, making you relieved that they weren’t asking any questions. Your friend Jisoo was very good with kids and Soomi and Jaemin were very fond of her. You quickly gave your best friend, Jisoo a call asking them if you could drop the kids over for some time. After she agreed and asked why, you told her you would explain everything later.

“There you are! What took you so long?” Jisoo greeted cheerfully after letting the three of you in her apartment. 

“There was quite a bit of traffic. Jisoo, do you mind putting on a movie for the kids so we can talk in private?”

“Sure,” Jisoo said nervously. She was put off by your serious face and tone and was worried something terrible had happened. 

After the kids had been set up with a movie and some snacks in the living room, you and Jisoo sat down in the bedroom and closed the door behind you.

“I’m a little worried, what’s going —” 

“Taehyung is having an affair,” you blurted out. Jisoo gasped and covered her mouth, unsure of what to say next. Just then you burst out into tears, trying to keep it as quiet as possible so the kids wouldn’t hear. Jisoo wrapped her arms around you and rested her head on your shoulder until you stopped crying. “I just don’t know what to do. Should I confront him? Should I ignore it? Should I divorce him? And what about the kids? What if this gets leaked to the media?” Jisoo nodded let out a big understanding sigh.

“This is an incredibly tricky situation. You really have to weigh your options carefully.”

“I can’t believe he would do this. I mean, we had the perfect relationship. I know he’s always been in love with me. How can someone so expertly fake the strong emotions he did?” 

“I think you need to take some time to relax and cool down,” Jisoo said softly while petting your hair, “After that, you’ll be able to make a rational decision. Don’t worry about Soomi and Jaemin. I’ll take care of them until you’re ready.” You were so grateful for Jisoo. Friends like this are hard to come by. You replied with a measly thank you before passing out into a deep sleep. All that crying must have tired you out.

~

You woke up to the sound of your phone ringing. You grabbed your phone and checked the caller ID. Taehyung. You gulped. Should I answer it? You decided against your better judgement and took the call.

“Hey, babe, where are you? Didn’t you go to pick up the kids?” You saw the time on your phone. It had been a little over two hours since the kids’ school ended and only now he noticed that you three hadn’t arrived yet. Duh. He has clearly been busy with something else. 

“I did,” you tried to respond, sounding as stable as you could. Taehyung was put off by the bluntness of your voice.

“O-ok...Where are you guys now?”

“I’ll see you in fifteen minutes.” You hung up the phone and went to look for Jisoo, who was in the kitchen preparing dinner with the children, who were helping her. “Hey, Jisoo, I’m going to meet Taehyung real quick. I’ll be back in time for dinner.” You could see the questioning look on her face, like she wanted to know what was going on, but didn’t want to raise any alarm in front of the kids, so you gave her a knowing nod, signaling that you would explain everything later.

As you drove home, you were heartbroken. How could he do this to me? I thought he loved me. Am I not enough for him? But as your mind kept racing, the sadness started to convert to anger. That backstabbing asshole. Who the fuck does he think he is? I need to hurt him the same way he hurt me.

~

You were standing right outside your apartment, key in your hand hovering right in front of the lock. It seems that the boldness your anger provided you just faded from your body. All of a sudden, for some reason, you just wanted to run back into his arms, feeling warm and protected, and just forgive him. After all he is your husband and the father of your children. Maybe did it because he was just stressed at work. Maybe you both just weren’t as sexually compatible as you thought and that you shouldn’t take it personally. It would just be easier to let bygones be bygones and go back to being a happy family again. It’s interesting how no matter how wrong someone is, if we love them, we will always make excuses for them they don’t deserve. No. He doesn’t deserve a second chance. And I deserve a man who can at the very least stay faithful to me. You gathered every bit of strength you had and went into the house.

“Babe!” Taehyung greeted you excitedly as he got off the couch. You were irked, not knowing whether his excitement was genuine or fabricated. Was it ever genuine? He leaned in to hug you, but you warded him off. Taehyung looked at you inquisitively. 

“Where are the kids?”

“Don’t worry. The kids are fine. I came to talk to you.” He was taken aback by your sharp tone of voice. 

“Are you okay? What’s going on?” The thing that that drove you the most crazy was the fact that his concern sounded genuine. It was messing with your head. Does he actually care about me, or is he just a really good faker? You hoped it was the former, but you didn’t want to give him a second chance without earning it.

“What do you think is going on, Taehyung?” He looked at you blankly. 

“Babe, what are you talking about?” You looked him straight in the eyes.

“I think you know exactly what I’m talking about,” you whispered. A flash of panic spread across Taehyung’s face, before he quickly changed his expression to one of compassion.

“Baby,” he coaxed, “Is everything okay?” You were sure he was lying. His false concern was starting to creep on your nerves, but you brushed them off, wanting to maintain composure. He reached for your arm, but you pulled it away. “Can you tell me what’s going on?” he said sternly. You gave him a deadpan look.

“You know exactly what I’m talking about,” you said through gritted teeth. His face softened.

“Is it because of...” his voice trailed off, hoping you would understand what he was saying so he wouldn’t have to finish his sentence. You remained silent. You weren’t going to help him out. “Do you know?”

“Do I know about what, Taehyung?” you retorted.

“Who told you?” he whispered.

“Who told me about what, Taehyung. Just tell me what you mean.” You know exactly what he meant, but you wanted to hear him say it. Him admitting to it was the only way you could even consider forgiving him.

“Nothing. Nothing important. I have no idea what you’re talking about.” Your heart dropped to your stomach. You were sure he knew what you were referring to, but he chose to keep it secret, betting his odds that you both were talking about different things.

“What were you doing at 4pm today?”

“I don’t know, probably working.”

“Really.”

“Yes, babe. I don’t know what you’re getting at.” You sensed a tone of annoyance in his voice.

“Because I stopped by with the kids around that time and witnessed something entirely different.” Taehyung’s eyes widened.

“What do you mean?” he whispered. You gave him a knowing look and Taehyung at once knew the charade was over. “Babe,” he said in a low voice, “Let’s sit down and talk.”

“No, I’m actually about to head out. I really don’t want to be around you right now.”

“When did you see it? I didn’t hear you come home.”

“Doesn’t matter, Taehyung. You cheated on me. How long has this been going on?” The blood drained from Taehyung’s face now that the elephant in the room had finally been addressed.

“I promise, this hasn’t been going on long. It was a mistake and I’m so, so sorry.” You rolled your eyes in order to mask the fact that you actually wanted to cry. “Really, it was a moment of weakness and I regret it so much. It will never happen again.”

“You shouldn’t have done it in the first place,” you retorted.

“Honey, whatever happens in our marriage, we can work it out.”

“We don’t have to work it out. Our lawyers can do that for us.” Taehyung stared at you, not understanding the implication. “I’m leaving you, Taehyung.” Through gritted teeth, you forced out the last few words before you stormed out of the apartment, “And I will see to it that you will never see your children ever again.” Before you could see his reaction, you slammed the door and ran to your car so he couldn’t catch up with you.

[5-falsehoods-phonated]

(Prompts with boxes have been taken, highlighted have been written)

Requests for this card are closed, thank you to anyone who sent in requests! If you don’t want to see these you can block the tag #false bthb. As always shoot me an ask if you wanna be tagged in future stories, whether it be for bad things happen bingo or any of the other series, one shots or in general!

I’ve been picking at this particular request since early December as the person who requested it had a lot of details they wanted put in making the writing process a bit more challenging. As a disclaimer, note that the chapter is split between present time and the past; with Logan recalling things in his past in an attempt to make the details requested for the story flow better. I received this request from AO3.

General taglist: @im-an-anxious-wreck

Experimental Socialization

Summary: Logan was raised by the government to be nothing more than an experiment and a weapon, utilizing his unique abilities as a mutant. When he finally escapes things are much different than he imagined they’d be but thankfully finds others like him willing to help guide him right where he needs to be.(Happy Ending)

Warnings: allusions to abuse, physical punishment and human experimentation, tw for weapons and fire, panic attack. If there are more please let me know

Prompt; Not Used To Freedom (requested by AngstyEmoGal on AO3)

Ships: Intrulogical, Logan x Remus

WC: 3432

“You just gotta breathe, Logan. In four, hold seven, out eight remember? You’re doing great, just keep going.”

Logan felt himself slowly coming back to reality as his breathing evening out, the raw panic that had gripped his chest easing slightly as Virgili continued coaxing him through the exercise. He felt the other slowly rub up and down his arm in a slow, steady beat that helped ground him further in reality and he smiled up at his friend gratefully and nodded to let xem know he was okay. Gripping his knees as Virgil’s voice trailed off he squeezed his eyes shut tightly and let out one last calming breath.

“Thank you, Virgil. I-” He struggled to find words, gesturing flippantly in the air making Virgil grin.

“It’s okay. Take your time, L.”

Logan puffed his cheeks out in frustration, thoughts swirling too quickly for him to comprehend anything but the apprehensive fear he held for the plans Remus had made for them later that evening. “I am- not used to being outside. Given my history and the threat I pose as a potential compromise to our place of hiding I fail to understand Remus’ reasoning for going out when we could just as easily celebrate our relationship here.”

“Hm.” Virgil leaned back on xyr hands and looked up at the low ceiling of their underground paradise. “Can’t really see the stars from here, no matter how many stickers Princey finds and puts up it can't really be compared to the real thing.”

Logan had made the mistake of going on a tirade of space facts a few months into his stay in the hideout, Remus patiently listening to the extensive infodump of constellation facts and space physics and planetary rotation. Having a limited amount of books to entertain oneself with for extended periods of time meant memorizing entire books on one subject, which Logan had used all too happily as a figurative escape from his situation in the past until he had actually managed to escape when he was 16. Hearing Logan speak so passionately about the subject had apparently made his mind up that he was taking Logan outside for their first “official” date to view the stars, which had then landed Logan in his current state of panic as he realized that date was today and he was decidedly not ready for what might lay in store outside of safety of the hideout.

“I can stay close by if you want. I won’t spy or anything and Remus won’t have to know.” Logan looked over as his thoughts were interrupted by the offer, Virgil turning invisible and reappearing a couple seconds later to emphasize xyr point. Smiling Logan shook his head, knowing the other derived as much joy from going outside as Logan felt about going himself.

“Thank you for the offer though, you’re very kind.” Letting his thoughts drift again he idly wondered when Virgil had discovered xe could disappear and reappear at will and if xyr parents had tried to hide it before the government had found out. His own parents-

-----

“Logan?” A very small Logan turned at his mother’s voice, losing his concentration which made the hidden jar of Crofters fall from its suspended place in the air and smash to the floor. His parents hadn’t known he possessed any sort of powers, and even as small as he was he still understood the position he’d put them in if they ever found out. Fearfully his hands dropped to his sides as his mother covered her mouth in shock, tears rolling down her cheeks as she took a step back.

Men in suits and long coats were there just a few hours later, speaking in hushed voices while both of his parents cried and he was ushered out the door and into an unmarked car, quiet as he understood yelling and crying would do him no good now. What’s done was done, all he could do was be compliant and hope to be treated gently.

-----

The room suddenly brightening with a flickering light brought him back out of his thoughts, Roman entering with his signature bright flame held proudly in his hand. The image of him in his rather scrapped together Princely outfit posing subconsciously in the doorway was almost enough to make Logan roll his eyes but he didn’t want Virgil to think it was because of xem so he managed to restrain himself.

“My dearest brother has been pacing in the same spot for two hours now and I haven't been able to calm him down soooo I thought to check on our resident nerd.” Roman declared with his usual flare. Logan actually did roll his eyes this time but Virgil did as well so he figured it was fine.

“The ‘resident nerd’ is doing fine, Roman. Though it's concerning to hear Remus is nervous as well considering he’s the one who suggested the date.”

Roman waved his hand at Logan dismissively. “He’s just a sap- moreso than me surprisingly. He doesn’t want to do anything to put you in danger but he wants to do something nice, so he’s worried that’s all. Remus is an idiot but I trust him with my life; believe me when I say you have nothing to worry about except his terrible sense of humor.”

Logan merely hummed in response, staring at the way the flame moved around as Roman gestured with his words.

-----

He panted as he rolled out of the way of another flamethrower, singeing the tips of his hair in the process but he couldn’t afford to slow down enough to worry about that. Years of training with different fighting styles had earned him incredibly fast reflexes but a good portion of his accuracy in knowing where to step and when was owed to him working even harder to focus his powers. Thoughts from others constantly surrounded him on a regular basis, getting more and more prevalent the older he grew. Learning to block out the constant string of stimuli was a useful skill to keep him sane but learning to hone in on specific thoughts to predict actions was what had kept him alive.

He ducked below another bullet and brought up his leg in the same motion, kicking a throwing knife to the side and sending it to clatter harmlessly between one of his assailants feet. A twirl to the side and a tilt of the head let another bought of flame boil the air beside him while another knife just barely brushed his ear. The constant bang of bullets and roar of flames and whistling of knives was overwhelming and made the air so thick he could barely draw a breath and it was becoming a struggle to concentrate the way he needed to and-

A high pitched alarm sounded one, twice, three times- a blaring flash accompanying it that left him blinking painfully. His shoulders slumped as the barrage finally ended, another successful training day completed. He watched as everyone began putting their weapons away, laughing and congratulating each other, clapping themselves on the back and discussing whatever they had planned after this. No one even spared the thing they had been firing at seconds before a spare glance, save for the director of the branch, who took long steps forward to stand in front of him only to snap his fingers and motion forward no doubt to see him back to his room until dinner. Absorbing the sounds around him he drank in as much praise as he could that wasn’t his and would never be for him; people rarely congratulated weapons after all.

-----

“Is this where we all decided to hide today?” Logan looked up to see Patton sitting cross legged on one one of the beams in the ceiling, grinning happily down at them even as their fluffy ears twitched nervously and even fluffier tail whipped back and forth in agitation. They must have come back from trying to calm Remus as well, Logan mused; Patton had never done well being in the same room as Remus who tended to voice his thoughts abruptly and without much care to how they might sound to others which always managed to set Patton on edge no matter how hard they tried not to show it.

Patton was a rare mutant in that as opposed to being born with abnormal traits or abilities they had been a science experiment from the start- an effort to create super soldiers rather than stealing them away from families and training them. Even rarer was the fact that the DNA splicing had taken extraordinarily well by pure chance as Patton was born with a mutation that left their DNA incredibly malleable- a mutation that never would have been discovered had cellular manipulation not been the reason for them being in the experimental branch that they were. They had tried cloning Patton at first to see if their power could be duplicated but when that failed to work they began trying to combine them with different animals to see if desirable traits would come forward. By manipulating them on a physical and anatomical level they were able to change some parts of them to be more cat like, intending, Patton had guessed, to turn them into a kind of stealth soldier but they got away before they completed it, leaving them with heightened agility and surgically coaxed cat ears and a tail. They were only a child when the lab had done this but somehow they were never bitter, simply preferring to leave their past alone and embrace whatever future they could make- a trait Logan greatly admired them for even if their unending optimism could be somewhat grating at times.

“Did Janus brush your tail out Pat? It looks fluffier today.” Patton preened at Virgil's compliment, their tail beginning to wave in a more relaxed manner as their mind was distracted from whatever it was Remus had been ranting about.

“He did! He found a cat brush and got it for me so I could finally get the undercoat out!” Jumping down and landing lightly on their feet they posed a little and flashed another wide grin.

“Beautiful as always, Patton.” Roman said genuinely as he lowered his hand into a barrel to light up the paper scraps and wood in it for the night, the dim sunlight that had filtered through the grated having long since died. The home was a modified branch of a sewer system, thankfully the part most removed from the city where it flowed without the stench and was sealed off inconspicuously enough that in the ten years Janus and Remus had been using it no worker had ever found it.

-----

It had been Janus and Remus who had found him, beaten and bloody from an escape attempt he had made just days before his real one. He had made a weak attempt to coax the scientists into a false sense of security, holding back the full scoop of his powers during training for a year in anticipation for his final escape. He had punished severely but had simply thrown him in his regular cell, assuming he wasn’t strong enough to do any more damage than they had seen him do already and trusting that they had beaten him down enough that it would be a while before he tried again- if he ever did. Not six days later the mangled metal of the front of his cell was tossed into a group of guards, walls torn apart in a straight line to the exit and the huge buzzing gates leading to the outside world thrown open wide and stuck there with varying amounts of heavy debris.

The outside world, as it turns out, was a lot bigger and louder and downright terrifying when you weren’t being sent out as a personal assassin or field missions or training sessions- all controlled on some level to keep him from being killed and compromised. Without the begrudged protection from the labs and moreover having to hide from said lab was another story entirely. The times they searched for him and how closely they came to his spots were random and made it incredibly hard for him to pick out their thoughts from anyone else’s in the city and figure out how close they were. On more than one occasion they passed right by him crouched under piles of garbage or laying low under a hedge, his breath held as he tried desperately to keep himself as still and quiet as possible, thoughts of what they would to him once they found him pounding against his head and making him squeeze his eyes shut to keep his terrified tears from falling.

That was how Remus had found him. It had been dark and hours had passed since the searchers had left that park he had been hiding in. He had still been hiccuping down his sobs as he rolled out from under the hedge that he hadn’t bothered to scope the area for anyone’s close by thoughts, having shut out as much as he could after they had left to try and block out any other hate fueled thoughts that may send him spiraling again. His heart had leapt in his throat so high his breath caught painfully, immediately shifting to offense as he tensed, ready to fight as long and hard as he could. He couldn’t go back- he wouldn’t. No matter what they did or promised him or punished him with; he’d go down fighting or not at all.

But Remus had only raised his hands in the air in a motion of peace, eyes widening as he locked onto the government issued bracelet that marked him as an experimental mutant. He had grinned impossibly wide then Logan remembered, briefly disappearing from his sight and reappearing a moment later, setting him even more on edge but curious nonetheless.

“I’m like you.” Remus had said quietly. “Basically I run real fast and the government hasn’t figured out how to get me yet.”

Logan had watched as he jiggled his wrists a bit for emphasis, bare save for colored chords that he assumed didn’t associate him with any government branch since they didn’t look official.

“Are you okay?” Remus had asked next and mutely Logan nodded, unsure of how to react to this fellow mutant who had never been caught by any sort of lab, apparently living as free as one could when you were as different as they were. He stepped back as another man appeared behind him, Janus he later learned.

“Liar.” Janus had hissed, making Remus reach around and smack the back of his head.

“It was a polite thing to ask that he tried to dismiss Jan. Let the adults speak for a second.”

Logan had noted the faint pout on Janus’ face though he was still trying very hard to look intimidating. And then all at once his eyes had turned cold as his attention was once again focused on Logan, glaring menacingly from beneath a black bowler hat. “I’m younger than you and yet I’m the one that has to put my foot down. He’s being chased clearly; we are not bringing him back with us.”

Remus has turned, Logan seemingly forgotten for the moment. “That’s not how it works! He needs help and we’re not leaving him to starve or be found in the middle of a park! What would Patton say?”

“Patton is a soft fool who needs to figure out where their morals stand. I myself am choosing not to compromise our place of hiding and three other people that you know those power hungry idiots would love nothing more than to get their hands on!”

Remus rolled his eyes so hard his head had lolled with it, face going pale as he watched something in the sky. It was then that Logan heard the telling sound of a helicopter flying low and getting closer but he had barely tensed before he found himself gripped around the middle and held vertically with the ground flying underneath him. They stopped abruptly and he was set down, blinking in rapid confusion as Remus grinned sheepishly at him.

“Welcome to the hideout?”

Logan’s eyes had widened and his breath had caught yet again, chest tightening as he shook his head vehemently. “You can’t- I need to go back! They’ll do anything to get me back-!”

He was stopped from going forward with a finger to his chest, his blue eyes locking with beautiful brown as Remus held his gaze. “And we will do everything to keep you safe.”

Safe. With that one word Logan was his. He hadn’t known why and he still didn’t quite understand it but he had trusted Remus with everything he had- and he still did. Even as Janus had stalked off grumbling and Virgil and Roman had kept their distance at first Remus had kept him close and showed him how much better his life could be, even if they were living in a modified sewer system.

Back in the present he looked up as a hand was thrust under his chin, smiling softly as he took Remus’ hand and let himself be led away from the others’ idle chatter. He counted himself extremely lucky in the end that Janus had eventually come around to him, seeing how happy he made Remus and how Remus made Logan feel it had been him to finally talk to Logan about it and get the two to officially talk about how they felt, going on about the being “hopeless gay idiots” when they had finally started to date officially. Logan wasn’t sure what he’d do without Remus at this point, just a year later and he was so attached to their small group of hideaways he wouldn’t trade for the world.

They approached the exit to the sewers, Remus swinging their hands between them. Logan held his breath right before they crossed the threshold, closing his eyes and letting it out slowly as his feet met grass and he opened his eyes to the darkened field. There were a few tunnels that lead out to different places depending on where they needed to go and this, Remus had told him, was his favorite because of how empty it was. The city lay far in the distance so there was almost no light pollution to block out the sky. Soft grass and flowers brushed his ankles as he scanned the area carefully, seeing nothing but trees lining the far end of the field with a road so far away he could barely, make it out in the darkness. Remus tugged his hand softly to get his attention, searching his eyes for any hint of discomfort.

“Is this okay?’

Logan took another breath and let it out, the last of his nerves fading away as he took in the quiet. “It’s perfect Remus.”

The other grinned and tugged a little harder this time, walking fast to the middle of the field where he stopped suddenly and raised Logan’s arm up to lead him into an impromptu twirl. Logan laughed quietly and then louder as he was dipped, secure in Remus’ strong hold as he reached up to grip the back of his neck. He was safe. He was free and safe and happy finally with someone who truly loved and cared for him. His breath caught in his throat again but this time in awe, Remus chuckling as he was laid down carefully tucked into his side, till with his arms around his neck.

The stars shone bright and winked lazily while swirls of color dusted faintly behind them. The moon was waning, a barely there light that let the beauty behind it show fully as the wind whisked away any clouds that dared to try and cover it. It was everything Logan had ever hoped it would be and more, excitement thrumming through him as he squeezed Remus tightly in an attempt to convey it. He felt Remus grin against his scalp where his face was buried in his hair.

“It’s beautiful isn't it?”

Logan looked back at him, light from the stars reflected in his eyes and wild brown hair framing his face. He leaned up slightly and kissed him, a faint brush of their lips that left them both grinning like the idiots they were. Placing a hand on Remus’ cheek Logan smiled at him, thumb brushing over his cheek in adoration.

“Absolutely stunning.”

This work and others are also available on AO3!

If you like this, please consider reblogging, as sharing a creator’s work is very encouraging to us and helps our creations reach more people!

[twitchesandstitches]

Tia flopped over, a sloshy sound as her fall was arrested by her extremely large assets arrested her fall like a waterbed built to be as annoying as possible. Much of her clothing seemed to having a hard time staying on, but it would be hard to say if this was deliberate skimpiness, her destructive transformations doing unpleasant things to the poor leathers and fabrics, or if it was just a consequence of having a body built like a balloon or... well, again, a water bed.

There were lots of spikes in bracelets, rings and the dozens of earrings navigating the thick and floppy dongles you had to call her ears. The shirt was nearly as dark as her skin, mostly covered by a floor-length sleeveless vest; the sleeves presumably had been killed by her arms, covered in so many spiked bracelets and knuckleduster gloves that they SHOULD have been counted as sleeves. Cut off shorts with lots of chains and such things connecting them together, visible fishnets on her legs...

Tia tended towards punk looks, when she wasn’t wearing the scraps of garbage, dumpsters or whatever she could find welded together on her body. But Tamitayo suspected that this was a statement today. Vaguely, she recalled that today was a holiday... somewhere, in some distant land ruled by corporations and monetary interest.

Tia radiated foul temper. She paced angrily, parts of her skin igniting with green and blue light. Just being near her felt hot; not in the sense of sexually attractive, but in the sense that she could probably kill someone with an errant touch.

“I hate this holiday,” she said, pacing in a tight 8-shape. Her words were clipped, terse, but she spoke more grammatically accurate than she normally did. She had something on her mind.

“Oh?” Tamitayo said, not looking at her. Her tone indicated ‘i really don’t care about this, please go away’.

Tia either didn’t get the hint or care. “I don’t like commercialization. I don’t like the expectation placed on people. I don’t like people burdened with obligation to be something, DO something just because it is expected of them. Feeling bad because money says they need to do this... or do that.”

She kept going. “I don’t like money making people do things they don’t want to do, and thinking that’s just how the world works. People are... part of the world. They don’t exist outside it. The things they make up, the money and expectations and everything built up by the people that profit off them... none of it MEANS anything, but they act like it does and I hate it!”

Tamitayo sighed. “So what are you going to do about it?”

Tia turned towards her. There was a sense of horrible menace about it, and briefly, everything in the room felt wrong. Things twisted, sharpened. The familiar angles of the room felt sickening, and she felt the dizzying sense of a nightmare, when ordinary things took on an awful meaning.

Tamitayo’s stomach twisted. Nausea and panic swelled up behind her eyes and color fled from the room, and Tia’s face was... not gone. but suddenly she couldn’t make out anything about it. No nose, no lips, not her neck or the shape of her face; there was just a huge mass of darkness, a concentrated point the eyes drifted towards... and there:

Two glowing spots. Not pink, not green or red or blue or any of the colors that tended to appear in her eyes. Not eyes in a traditional sense, not organic camera lenses. Two glowing points in the dark, holes opening out onto something beyond her, something monstrous and inhuman and staring out.

these were eyes that would and could see the world and calmly decide it would be time for it all to End.

And so.

The moment passed. The color returned to the room, the aura of fear and malicious intent left, and Tia’s face became normal again.

Tia showed no awareness of anything different, or that she had done anything. Perhaps something had leaked out.

Tia had spent the time thinking about it, though. “I shall duplicate myself a thousand fold,” she said. “And I shall journey to that far off land of annoying holidays and I will ROMANCE EVERYONE WHO IS SAD BECAUSE THEY FEEL OBLIGATED TO DO A ROMANCE TODAY.”

“You, uh. You do that,” Tamitayo said, still feeling sickly.

Tia marched off. “It is likely I shall return with many recruits, beloveds, pets and childrens. Adopted or being BUILT! INFORM THE BUILDER GREMLINS THAT WE NEED MORE ROOM.”

“Yay!” said a little hooded creature that popped up right next to Tamitayo, apparently little more than a shadowy mass with glowy eyes. It waved a little pickaxe. “We gets to DO THINGS!”

“WHERE DID YOU COME FROM,” said Tamitayo.

“I don’t know.”

[silence-burns]

Please Hate Me //part 50

Fandom: Marvel

Summary: Based on: “Imagine having a love/hate relationship with Loki.” by @thefandomimagine​ Who would have thought that babysitting a god could be so much fun?

Genre: slow-burn, enemies to lovers, banter, smut

Living in an apartment so full of various enchantments that you couldn't move without bumping into one certainly had its perks, but your favourite was the space enhancement that made sure the apartment could actually fit everything you wanted it to.

In their original state, both floors of the apartment weren't small on their own, but as your moving in progressed, you quickly realized that the amount of both your and Loki's belongings overran the space you'd been given. 

The solution was pretty standard and required bending only a few minor laws of physics and logic.

Whoever dared venture into your apartment now would get quite the surprise in the form of rooms that felt a little too big for the kind of space indicated by the building's construction, and doors leading to places that absolutely shouldn't be able to fit so close together and yet stubbornly did. But however much you loved the whole apartment in general, you couldn't deny that your absolute favourite part of it was the giant monstrosity of a bathtub that Loki was absolutely uncompromising about.

Laying in it now, you couldn't blame him.

The passage of time was forgotten as the two of you soaked in the scented water, kept warm for what felt like hours, and might've actually been that long. If it was up to you, you would've stayed there forever and enjoyed Loki's firm, warm body, the pleasantly dimmed lights and the few bottles of whatever Loki had hidden for special occasions.

Well, the bottles weren't there originally, but as your clean up progressed and both of you started to feel like something other than a walking biological disaster, a need for celebration rose. You weren't sure how the things progressed from the first bottle to the small pile of them on the floor by the bathtub, but you found yourself straddling Loki's lap, completely drunk and unable to move despite one of your legs going completely numb.

"Remind me to never drink with you again," you mumbled into Loki's neck. 

"I did."

"Then be more convincing…"

With your cheek plastered to him, you felt rather than heard Loki's chuckle. The rumble did unruly things to the contents of your stomach.

"I'm gonna puke."

"Please save the last of my dignity and at least aim away from me." Despite Loki's words, he didn't move a bit and if you didn't know him any better, you'd guess he was feeling similar sensations. 

With his head leaning on the tub's edge and his eyes closed, Loki was indeed fighting against the world spinning around him. The warm embrace of your body pressed into his and the water scented with jasmine were his only anchors in the chaotic mess his head tried to sort out. Truth be told, he had forgotten the full potential of the Asgardian alcohol, and especially the type he had stored for a perfect occasion. It was like a blow to all his senses, and as much as it was fun, Loki was starting to worry about his ability to ever walk out of that bathtub again. He certainly wouldn't attempt such an insanity now, with you weighing him down, so comfortably settled on his lap that you felt like an integral part of him. 

Loki tried, and failed, to convince himself it wasn't an excuse, and a pathetic one too.

"Do you think we're gonna get in trouble?" You asked, as if you knew you were on his mind.

"As petty as Odin is, I don't think he's going to execute us for stealing some alcohol…"

"I meant the stuff Thor was talking about. We kinda messed up the Moon, didn’t we?"

Loki hummed in a way that was definitely not an answer. One of his hands roamed over your exposed back, enjoying the soft curve and warm skin. The other stirred the water, making the soap bubble again and the temperature stay unchanged. Loki had to concentrate more than usual, which was partly because of the amount of alcohol consumed, and partly because his mind was slowly drifting away on soft tendrils of sleep.

"No one knows you there, and I wore my brother's face," Loki finally murmured, leaning his head back. "It'll be fine."

It, unfortunately, didn't know about those predictions, which was why It was interrupted by a certain boy's voice.

"Hey guys, are you okay?" Peter asked from the other side of the door, having let himself into the apartment. Again.

Loki groaned, even as he could feel your smile pressed to his chest. 

"We're fine," he said, louder than necessary. He winced as the sound seemed to erode his skull. 

"What about Barbara, though?" Peter was insistent. "She's scratching at the window from the outside… and I think she wants those pickles from the table?"

"You locked her outside?" You hissed, trying to look at Loki's completely innocent face, but the sudden movement only resulted in the world tilting to the side dangerously fast.

"I have no idea what you're talking about. I love that bird dearly." Louder, he said to the boy, "She's only allowed to eat them outside!"

"Okay!" The answer was quick and cheerful and mercifully moving away as the boy grabbed the open jar and went outside.

Loki took a deep breath. The blessed silence once again enveloped the apartment. Through the cloud pressing on his hazy thoughts, Loki considered locking the apartment altogether. 

Another chilled bottle appeared in his hand, delightfully full and heavy. As much as he had tried to get drunk on Earth's alcohol, only the Asgardian kind seemed to do the job.

The drink burned his throat in precisely the manner he needed. It'd been so long since the two of you had a moment to yourself and could just relax without worrying about a thousand responsibilities. On most days, Loki enjoyed the kind of life he had somehow managed to secure himself. If he decided to be honest, Loki was still rather uncertain how it had happened. 

The long, curvy, and annoyingly labyrinthine road that started on the day the Avengers had decided to put him under your wing somehow ended up leading him to where he was now. Not literally, of course - as much as he loved the grand bathtub he had insisted on, Loki had in mind something grander spiritually. A place of comfort, but without the boundaries of a physical space bound to certain conditions and limitations. 

A home, but only if it could be a person. 

Loki supposed it could. Even as he drank again from the bottle, mudding his thoughts further, the philosophical conclusions he came to still felt right. 

Revelations such as these were worthy of sharing, lest they might be forever lost in one's memory. Loki wanted to share the wisdom granted to him by the unholy amount of Asgardian cider, but he had found you plastered to his chest, asleep. And drooling. 

Loki made sure the water didn't run cold as he too decided to join you in the dreams' escape. The quiet popping of the soap bubbles and the lavender scent hanging in the air lulled him quickly into a state of complete and utter comfort… 

"Brother, where are you hiding? 

…from which a rather brutish, and definitely unwelcome voice dragged him away. 

Loki started. The contents of a forgotten bottle escaped into the water. 

As the heavy steps sounded outside of the bathroom, it was clear the apartment was being searched through again. 

You swore. Loki agreed. 

"I'm going to," he hiccuped, "change him into a frog." 

"Barbara would devour him whole."

"Let them fight. He always prided himself to be a warrior."

Fortunately for Thor, even though he was not aware of the small mercy of the universe, Loki found himself too drunk to act on his words, despite his best attempts at conjuring the transformative spell.

But when his brother's thudding steps neared the bathroom again, with clear intent of dragging Loki out in whatever state he was, Loki was forced to make a very dire decision very quickly, or lest his quiet evening suffer a bitter end.

So Loki did what he had always done best, and spiced the world up with a tiny little trick.

You heard Thor approach the door, but you didn't have it in you to move and at least cover yourself up. The doorknob twisted and you heard it very well through the slight creak it always gave. Then you heard the door open - but it didn't.

Living in an apartment complex had its perks, and being able to hear your neighbors on occasion certainly wasn't one. Still, your gaze turned up when you heard a high-pitched scream and Thor's booming voice coming from the apartment above yours.

"He's going to kill you for that," you said.

"Given the vigor with which he was looking for me, I think he had a hefty list of reasons prepared already."

"That's fair."

As all good things have in common, they always come to a saddening end when you least expect them to. The conclusion that life was utterly unfair in its precipice was a natural one to come up with, even in the state of drunkenness. 

"I think it's time for us to go," Loki sighed.

A groan escaped you when the world tilted to the side. Getting out of the bathtub while completely, embarrassingly drunk was a feat that almost resulted in one broken neck and three broken limbs, but somehow both of you managed to scramble your way out. While you searched for clothes that had an annoying habit of duplicating right in front of your eyes, Thor's roars of fury sounded clear through the many walls separating you. 

You wondered if any of the neighbours would connect their unexpected guest to you.

You gave up on your search for the other sock and decided to only wear one. Trying to put it on was already hard as it was. "If you spelled all the doors in the building to lead astray, how are we getting out?"

"Don't worry," Loki hiccuped. "My brother dearest is too stupid to notice I didn't touch the windows."

You had never loved anything as much as you loved the walls in your apartment, their quiet support helping you get through the endless expanse of the living room. For reasons you elected to ignore, the swaying of the world only increased as you progressed, bumping into every single piece of furniture some idiot (most likely you the day before) had decided to put there.

"I don't think this is a good idea," you slurred when Loki opened the window, pickleless, owlless and impossibly high.

"Your intuition, my love, is right as always."

Loki managed to put his leg over the windowsill on the second try, which he deemed a great success. He also managed to get down on the other side with no life-threatening injuries, which was just as surprising.

His pride was short-lived when you tumbled down, knocking him off feet.

The few half-melted snowmen seemed to have a good laugh. The little garden was still winter-bare, and no grass cushioned the fall. Barbara, perched on top of Peter's head, hissed with obvious joy. 

The boy blinked. "Are you...sneaking out?" 

"No," Loki grunted in the same moment you said, "Yes."

Barbara ripped another pickle from the boy's hand. Life was short, especially after you died once, and there was only so much time she deemed worth looking at the two of you. She had far more pressing issues, like the impossibly narrow jar into which her head just wouldn't fit, and so left her reliant on the boy's nimble (and tasty) fingers.

"...are you sure?" The boy watched the two drunkards scramble to stand up. 

"We're just out for a walk."

"A long one."

Glass broke upstairs, followed by raised voices and what was undeniably a string of curses.

Loki looked at you. You looked at Loki. Another Loki looked at you. Unable to choose which to make eye contact with, you squinted and the two Lokis merged together—damn you were never drinking again. There was no way all of you would sneak out in time.

Barbara ripped another pickle to shreds.

"Hey, Peter," you cooed sweetly. "Do you happen to know a quiet little place to lay low for a while, my darling?"

Peter, the darling, did.

*****

A/N: Hi! I'm sorry for no chapter last week, my university is going to kill me with that graduation paper I have to work on and reasearch and realize how little do I actually know about the subject I have to get a 70-pages long paper done. Heh.

But don't worry, this story is slowly nearing its end, and even though I have little time to work on new chapters, I'm doing my best and hope you'll enjoy them. Well, my life's pretty busy right now, and it stresses me out, so I'm not sure how regular the updates will be, but I promise, I'm not giving up on this story. I'm so happy about all the support I have received for this story, and grateful for all the comments it got! Hope you enjoyed this chapter too!

[silyabeeodess]

Thoughts on the Balan Wonderworld Novel Preview:

Hey guys, I’m super excited about the preview drop right now, so I’d like to cover a bit of theory territory regarding what we’ve seen thus far and how it compares to the game demo.  Since this is brand new though, know that there will be major spoilers ahead, so if you’d rather, please check out the preview and/or demo first before checking below the cut:

Let’s just jump straight to the point and get to what’s probably on a lot of our minds: Lance’s new look and his--the book writes him as a ‘he,’ so don’t jump me over pronouns--description as the maestro of the Balan Theatre.  This flies in the face of everything we’ve already seen from promotional material and gameplay.  Whereas, in these, Lance clearly takes an antagonistic role by trapping inhabitants within their own hearts and turning them into monsters, the Lance presented in the book is much softer in both looks and personality.  He’s described as being “mild-mannered” and seems to assist inhabitants when they have some request about their own stage, like when Leo/Streetbeat asked him if he could have some more props.  His appearance is much more human, the tendrils on his back gone and the ones on his head replaced by flowing, silvery hair.  Please note this, as silver hair in Japanese media is often an expression of mystery, otherworldliness, or magical ability.  Think of characters like the Undertaker from Kuroshitsuji, Tomoe and Mizuki from Kamisama Kiss, and Shiro from Deadman Wonderland.  All of them were allies to their protagonists, but with much more to their characters than what we initially saw--often with darker backstories or motives that went against the main characters’.  

I don’t think the book is trying to change Balan’s and Lance’s positions as helper and obstacle: I think the book is forcing us to change our perspective through Leo’s/Streetbeat’s and Emma’s/Fighter’s eyes.

Even how we’re introduced to the theatre is different in the book compared to the game.  Following the game’s cinematic, Leo/Emma enter the theatre and are soon spotted by Balan, who briskly introduces himself before spiriting them away to Wonderworld, landing us in the Isle of Tims.  However, when Leo enters the theatre in the book, the story immediately cuts away to him on his own stage--a feature we haven’t seen in the game so far.  How would Leo have a stage? Well, what if he didn’t see Balan like in the game?  What if Lance got to him first? 

We only believe Leo and Emma would see Balan first because that’s how we’re introduced to things in the game’s cinematic. However, we ultimately can only play through one character’s eyes at a time: The cinematic may just be alluding to that choice.  It’s similar to how we can choose to play as either Elliot/Claris in Nights Into Dreams and Helen/William in Nights: Journey of Dreams: They’re two stories taking place at the same time.  We know that Balan can make duplicates of himself, but it seems more likely that he met one child first while Lance met the other.  Another point against this idea would be that both of those other games I mentioned didn’t have anything that would cause either of their main characters’ independent journeys to greatly shift the final, overarching narrative as this would; however, give me the chance to bring up some additional points.

Getting back to the fact that Leo has his own stage, we could view this as Lance having already trapped him within his own heart.  This would fit in-line with gameplay, as we’ve only seen a stage come into existence after he’s done this--turning the inhabitants into Negi bosses.  Leo has no idea how long he’s been there and there’s no indication of him even realizing how he got there.  He doesn’t even remember his real name.  There is no one in his stage except him and “a shadowlike creature at his feet,” a negati, of which he’s seen several that show no hostile signs toward him.  Then, Emma/Fighter shows up out of nowhere in a vision with Balan and Lance soon arrives before he can think too hard on it--with a clear awareness that something is on Leo’s mind.  How convenient!  Despite Leo’s insistence that “this was his stage and his alone,” he already knows this version of Lance and welcomes him as a friend who’s visited him regularly.

If Lance can trap people inside their own hearts, why wouldn’t he be able to visit them and control how he appears to them within that mindscape?  There’s no reason a warden wouldn’t have keys to his prisoners’ cells.  Meanwhile, we could see Emma taking on the player’s role as an intruder to Leo’s walled-up paradise, with her and Balan trying to break him out.  Lance only arrived by Leo’s side when something about Balan and Emma got through to him, and immediately left when he thought Leo was pacified--back into a comfortable, but unaware state.         

Lance’s behavior and dress paralleling Balan’s, his stealing Balan’s identity, is likely a way to ensure the inhabitants’ trust him: He’s their friend who allows them to stay and perfect their stages; idealized, little places based on their memories/desires--far away from their problems or anyone that might bring them up.  We can also infer that the inhabitants likely don’t  know what Lance truly looks like, given how the farmer, Jose Gallard, had his back turned to Lance when the latter appeared and turned him into a Negi in the game. 

We can question why Lance would allow inhabitants to visit each other’s worlds, but we have to consider that he may not care so long as the inhabitants don’t do something that breaks each other from their heart prisons.  After all, The Clocktower Kid/Cass Milligan is still shown to be hurting despite how many people she knows from other stages and she trusts Lance just like Leo does.  She also explained to Leo that she was able to travel to other stages through hidden passages and that “she’d found a whole bunch of secrets like that.”  The doors are “invisible,” found only by movement.  This could mean that inhabitants aren’t supposed to be able to meet each other at all, which Leo seems to instinctively know as he “felt like he should’ve asked Lance’s permission.” This could even play to Lance’s benefit at times, since they could keep each other enough company to satisfy their social needs where their own illusions and the negati cannot.  He never tells the inhabitants about others as a precaution, but if they find out, he can play it off.       

As a final point, based on the book’s emphasis on “forgetting” with both Leo and Cass’ situations, it seems like Lance’s method of “healing” a heart is really by just suppressing emotions and negative experiences.  I don’t entirely think I could call this something done out of malice though: He might just be following the idea that ignorance is bliss.  Sure, the inhabitants don’t have their memories and nothing gets resolved, but they’re kept “happy” in places literally made by their own design--a process Lance shows a genuine joy toward.  Wonderworld clearly thrives when people expand their various stages, and Lance taught both Cass and Leo how to do so.                      

That’s all I got so far.  Man, I’ve been debating on getting the game after the demo, but I will 100% pick up the book!!  I really love it and the sketchy artwork is just gorgeous!  I just wish it was coming in print, because I’ve only seen it available digitally so far.