#comfort for myself haha so sorry if this reads weird

[yuckydraws]

Sleepless, Snowy Nights

Pairing: (Wine/reader)

~~~~~~~~~~~

You sigh as you watch the falling snow, your breath clouding around you for a moment, before dissipating. You have work in a few hours. You should at least try to get some sleep. Yet, your bare feet don’t move from the cold concrete of the back patio. The brisk chill of the winter air should feel frigid, but after the nightmare you just had, it grounds you. These past few days have been full of stressful, restless nights, and you’re starting to feel the effects.

The end of December, and the first snow of the season is finally here. Chunky, full flakes fall delicately on the grass, slowly yet surely covering up the green.

It’ll be a snow day tomorr- er, later today.

But for now? It’s just quiet. A quiet that only a good night-snow creates. Cars rarely fill up the roads, it’s too early for the plows to be out, and it almost seems as though everyone else in the world is peacefully asleep.

Except you.

“MY LOVE, WHAT ARE YOU DOING OUT HERE IN JUST YOUR PAJAMAS?” You hear your ‘mate’s voice call as the back door creaks open.

And Wine, apparently.

“Just watching the snow.” You answer softly, exhaustion creeping into your voice.

You turn your head to peek at him over your shoulder, to find him approaching you with a blanket. He drapes it over your shoulders, effectively covering most of your body, besides your feet. It doesn’t take him long to notice that, either, because just as he settles in, hugging you from behind, he lets out a small gasp and pauses in the kiss he was about to leave on your shoulder.

“STARS! NO SHOES EITHER? ARE YOU TRYING TO GET SICK?” He chastises, adjusting his hold so that he can instead scoop you off of your feet - holding you in a “princess” style. Once there, he uses his blue magic to tuck your toes under the blanket and cocoon you in. “THERE.” He smiles, satisfied with his work, only to falter when he meets your tired gaze.

“… WHAT’S GOING ON?”

That’s all it takes for your lip to start quivering, and your eyes to well up with tears.

“Oh Dear, Let’s Get You Inside, Hm?” You just bury your face into his chest to avoid answering.

You hate crying.

Shaking, whether from the cold or from the pure exhaustion you’re experiencing, you’re not entirely sure. Nor do you really care.

Wine squeezes you close to him, opening the door with his magic, and closing it behind him. You hadn’t realized just how cold you were until the warm air from your heated home engulfs you.

He doesn’t take you all the way to bed, like you were expecting him to. Instead, he beelines to the living room, carefully sitting on the couch, cradling you in his lap. You just let him adjust your body, too tired to bring your face from its hiding spot. His carefully manicured claws move to stroke your hair, and you feel his worried him reverberate through his ribcage from where your face his pressed against him.

He doesn’t push, or prod, or rush you, he simply lets you release a little bit of that stress into the embrace - and it doesn’t take long for your tears to slow to a stop.

Even crying seems to take up too much energy.

You risk peeking up at your ‘mate… only to find those knowing lights of his trained on your face.

There’s no hiding from Wine. Stars knows you’ve tried.

“IS THIS ABOUT YOUR DOG?”

“… kinda.”

“THE HARDEST PART IS OVER. HE’S OKAY. YOU’RE THE ONE WHO’S NOT OKAY. DON’T THINK I HAVEN’T NOTICED HOW YOU’VE BEEN SLIPPING AWAY FROM BED AFTER YOU THINK I’VE FALLEN ASLEEP.”

Busted.

“I-I just didn’t want to wake you. Just because I can’t sleep doesn’t mean you shouldn’t.”

“I BEG TO DIFFER, WE BOTH KNOW THAT I RUN JUST FINE ON A FEW HOURS OF SLEEP. YOU, HOWEVER, BECOME A WALKING ZOMBIE.”

You scoff.

“I do not.”

He deadpans.

“BUN, WHY ELSE WOULD I FIND YOU HALF NAKED OUTSIDE IN THE SNOW?”

“… I don’t find you funny.”

“THAT LITTLE SMILE YOU’RE TRYING TO HIDE SAYS OTHERWISE.”

“Wipe that smirk off your face.”

“NEVER.”

You grumble, knowing you’ve ‘lost’ this round. He is right, though, you can’t keep having sleepless nights… it’s really getting to you.

“WHY IS THIS HINDERING YOUR SLEEP? I KNOW YOU’RE WORRIED, BUT-”

“What if I wake up and he’s gone?” You interrupt, causing his jaw to click shut as his sockets widen ever so slightly. “A-and I would’ve had the chance to help but I was fucking sleeping, and he was just alone in the end?”

Oh, well, hello tears, nice of you to make another appearance.

“Oh, My Love… I Hadn’t Realized This Was Getting To You That Much. I Am So Sorry I Assumed You Were Okay.”

“‘s fine.” You croak, wiping at your face.

“It’s Not, Though, I Did Exactly What Those Assholes Used To Do To You.”

You bite your lip to hold back a rising sob, taking a deep breath, instead. Your next words need to be spoken with certainty, not shakiness.

“You’re not them. You couldn’t be, even if you tried. Despite not being a big fan of dogs, you’ve been loads more supportive than they ever were.”

“I Appreciate That, But I Should’ve Been More Mindful, I’m Sorry.”

In lieu of answering, you just reach up to flick his nasal cavity, causing him to scrunch his face up a bit.

“Stop apologizing for something that isn’t your fault.”

“OKAY, OKAY.” He cracks a smile at you. “BUT, YOU KNOW… YOU ARE SAFE TO SLEEP.”

“B-but-”

“HE’S OKAY. HE’S JUST RECOVERING AND HE NEEDS TIME. AND SLEEP. JUST LIKE YOU, BUN.”

“Okay, b-”

“AND, WE HAVE THE WORLD’S BEST ALARM SYSTEM, ON THE VERY UNLIKELY CHANCE SOMETHING DOES HAPPEN - HIS SISTER WON’T LET HIM MAKE A PEEP OF STRUGGLE WITHOUT ALERTING THE WHOLE HOUSE.”

You snort.

“… I guess you’re right.”

“I THINK YOU WILL FIND THAT I USUALLY AM.”

“Okay, mister, tone it down.”

“ONLY BECAUSE YOU’RE SO TIRED.”

“Lucky me.”

He just chuckles at your grumpiness, leaning down to press a skele-kiss to your temple. You can’t help but lean into the affection.

“MAY I BRING YOU BACK TO BED?”

“Are you coming on to me right now?” You tease, earning you a roll of his eye-lights. Your giggle turns into a squeak when he pinches your bum and all but tosses you over his shoulder as he stands up.

“ALWAYS, BUT WE BOTH KNOW YOU DON’T HAVE THAT ENERGY RIGHT NOW, SO HUSH UP.”

“Ppppprrt.” You blow a raspberry in response.

“MATURE.”

Your cackling takes on a little bit of a hysterical form, but it feels good to be laughing.

It’ll be okay.

[sherbetyy]

i feel like. i want to ramble a bit i guess. about things people don’t really care about but i’m a usually a silly billy on the blog so i don’t want to break that vibe so i don’t know.

[in-som-niyah]

soft!oblivious!Jason Todd x fem!reader on her period

a/n: hey besties guess whos on the bathroom floor again haha its me!!!!! endo is trying to murder me but guess what jason's here to make it all better!!! this is entirely self-indulgent btw i wrote this to make myself feel better and to take my mind off the urge to rip my uterus out with my bare hands🫶🏾🎀🌸💝✨💖💗💕

Warnings: reader vomits, reader has a period, reader is in fucking pain, jason todd speaks spanish, reader is weakned, jason todd is a beautiful husband fuck you i said what i said

Note: reader and jason have a system where jason asks the reader what her pain is on a scale from 1-10 (10 being highest)

Jason's key turns in the lock of your shared apartment in Gotham.

To his surprise, the place is dark and lifeless. Upon checking his watch, which read 6:45pm, he noticed the peculiarity of the scene before him.

Usually, you would have started dinner by now, had some sexy 90's R&B playing (which you unashamedly sung along to) and would have greeted him babbling excitedly about what your colleagues thought about your new hairstyle.

But nope, there was nothing.

Though Jason was concerned, he tried to pass it off as a weird occurrence, until he heard a faint retch coming from the other side of the apartment.

Immediately, he parked whatever he was doing and came rushing (sprinting) to you, desperately needing to make sure you're okay.

When he found you in the bathroom hovering over the toilet, the sight clawed a hole in his chest.

You were gripping the edges of the toilet with shaky hands, trying to steady your unstable and shaking body. Your braids were tied back too tight, definitely causing you an uncomfortable and unnecessary headache.

Carefully, Jason stepped in the bathroom and lowered himself to you. He loosened your hair and re-tied it in a more comfortable way and kissed the top of your head.

In your dazed state, you barely recognized his lithe fingers in your hair, too exhausted physically and mentally to focus on anything other than the searing pain in your abdomen.

Finally empty, you reach to flush the toilet when a much bigger, scarred hand takes yours and kisses the back of it before flushing for you.

At this, you look up at him with bleary, tearful and irritated eyes, clearly indicative that you've been feeling like this for a while.

Jason's heart cracks.

Before either of you could speak, Jason pressed his forehead to yours and instructed you to steady your breathing. His hands expertly maneuver you to sit on your bum in front of him; this was not his first rodeo.

Jason was familiar with your illness, and what that meant for you sometimes. With practise, he was attuned to your needs and catered to them willingly. But still, his heart broke a little more every time he saw your body fold in on itself in pain.

When your breathing calmed he kissed your forehead just before another cramp seized your body, and your face crumpled in pain.

"Shit- You're okay sweetheart c'mere. Remember to breathe okay? In. Out."

You nodded lightly as you pushed yourself to move into his lap, the action only making your muscles strain but you were so desperate to feel his warmth you did it anyway.

As you continued to breathe Jason wrapped his strong arms around you and held you to his body, his hands came up to gently rub your lower back where he knew you were hurting.

"What's your number this time, amorcita." Jason asked in a tender voice, as to not upset your headache.

Through sniffles and shakes, you reluctantly surface your buried head from his chest to answer him.

"It was an 8 all day today..." you started, still in pain but able to speak.

"I took the painkillers too late, and they didn't work in time. I'm sorr-"

You're interrupted by Jason pulling you back into him. He would sooner take your pain than hear you apologize for a painful experience you couldn't control.

"Shhhh no sorries, princessa. You know that." He spoke into your hair.

Soon, the wave of pain settled, and you were granted a limited amount of small relief.

"I-I think I should move to the bed now. I don't know how much I have until the next one" you mumbled into his chest.

Through a positive rumble in his chest he agreed, and began to carefully untangle himself from you.

"Can you stand?" Jason asks, his eyes conveying sincerity.

You looked to the floor shook your head in shame. You couldn't believe you had to rely on Jason to help you so much.

"I'm gonna pick you up okay baby?" He says, but his eyes ask for your permission.

Upon granting it, he slips his arms under your body and lifts like you weigh nothing. He carefully walks to the bed, taking extra care in making sure he doesn't hit your head or legs on walls or doorways.

Once at your bedside, he places you down gently and presses a set of kisses to your nose, cheek and forehead. It is then when he notices how frigid your skin is, which worries him. But first, he needs more information.

"How long ago did you take the painkillers, mi vida?" He begins as he crouches to reach your eye level.

With an exasperated sigh, you close your eyes and shrug. Truly you had no idea how long it has been since you've been in such pain, much less since you've taken your last round of painkillers.

Jason returns your sigh, but with one of sadness as he reaches out his hand to absentmindedly rub your sore hips. Remembering your small remedies that help the pain, he stands and begins out the room.

Suddenly your hand grasp his ring and pinky, and he turns to face you again.

You look up at him with tears on your cheeks, silently begging him to stay.

At this, he leans down and captures your lips softly, silently letting you know that he would never do anything you wouldn't want him to.

With your hand still grasping his, he brings your hand to his lips to kiss, before breaking the silence.

"'Tell you what, amorcita. I'm gonna go get you your heating pad and boil some raspberry leaf tea, then i'll climb into bed with you and i'll rub your back as you fall asleep. But you gotta let go of me so I can do it, bien?"

Reluctantly, you took his offer and released his hand before he left a soothing kiss to your hairline and took off.

While he was gone, your were desperately breathing through another wave, trying not to scream or cry out. The pain continued to ebb and flow, but it was pain nonetheless.

When Jason returned with the tea, hot water bottle and a little square of dark chocolate he found you almost asleep, knees up to your chest while clutching your abdomen. He knew you well enough to know that your back is not enjoying the position at all.

He placed the tea and chocolate on your nightstand and carefully took his spot behind you. You slightly woke up at his shifting, but upon Jason's placement of the hot water bottle to your aching abdomen, you relaxed.

Jason breathed a silent breath of gratitude that you're able to rest easier than you were before now that you're comfortable. He moved himself closer to your body, firmly but delicately wrapping his arms around you and stretching out your aching back.

You appreciated this, the pressure releasing on your back and the soothing warmth of your hot water bottle contributing to easing your pains.

Jason retracted one of his arms from your waist in favour of rubbing your sore lower back. A sleepy hum of appreciation followed his ministrations just before you spoke.

"Jason?" you mumbled into your pillow

"Querida?" he replied, semi alert

"Thank you" you finish as you let yourself drift into a light and more comfortable sleep.

A peck to the back of your head is his response.

Jason knows he can't take away your pain. But when it cuts you deep, he'll be your remedy.

Always.

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

a/n pt2: bro im so sorry if this makes no sense im in pain leave me alone im tired its sleepytime

[bunniesanddeer]

I really really LOVE the Touch chapters with Alastor. You write it so well! Although you have a fic on touch now already I was wondering if I could request something similar?

Persoanlly I think I'd be a really affectionate and touchy person but I simply cannot initiate touch without knowing where to touch, how long, how much pressure and so on. And asking people before hand makes them really confused and tbh I hate having to explain myself and sound needy about it. Idk if it's just me having some weird thing going on.

Anyways, would you consider writing Al with a reader that just got to the hotel and is very straight forward with people about their fear of initiating physical contact during times where reader knows someone would appreciate a hug or pat or any kind of physical contact but reader can't give it them before clearing just how hey want the touch to be.

So Alastor notices that reader acts very affectionate in moments with people who initiate touch (cuddles with Angel on the couch, does Charlie's hair). But at the same time he notices that they shy away and sometimes flinch away when reader touches someone by accident (handing someone something and their hands brush, etc) and apologizes as if they had just burned them.

He goes to figure out why that is and kind of challenges reader to touch him (after him consenting of course) whenever because the struggle and fear amuses him plenty but somewhere deep down he wants them to grow comfortable and confident since that is how their personality is over all and it suits them way better than the cowardly insecure overthinking reader who is too scared to ask for a hug on an especially bad day, even when it could literally save their afterlife.

Just fluff and more physical affection and soft Alastor

You don't have to though! We have already been blessed with some amazing works by you

Would appreciate it to the moon and back if you would take this request (or add another part to your Touch chapters because I am a girl OBSSESSED and starved, hungry for more lol)

Thank you sooooo much for reading and I hope you have a lovely weekend!!!!! <3

Hi! I hope this is something like what you wanted? I had fun writing this. Sorry it took me a little while, haha.

Challenge

Pairing: Alastor x Reader

Tags: Fluff, touch sensitive reader/Alastor, slightest tinge of angst

Word Count: 2,839

When you had come to the hotel, Alastor was sure you weren’t going to last long. You avoided eye-contact with others, and your hands constantly fidgeted. You shifted on your feet, and rocked back on your heels constantly. Even when standing in one place, you couldn’t seem to be still. You seemed shifty, and he was sure you would pull something, and he would have to remove you. Alas, he was wrong. You stuck around, even if your weird tendencies only got weirder.

In the several weeks you had been residing in the hotel, not once had you initiated contact with anyone, not that he had seen. Alastor was sure you didn’t like it, until he saw Angel pick you up like a stuffed animal, and make you cuddle with him while watching the television. You had melted into the embrace, nuzzling against the soft fur of Angel’s upper shoulders. So Alastor needed to keep watching, and come up with a new explanation for your behavior.

At some point, Charlie had begged to ‘play’ with your long hair, so the two of you ended up dragging everyone into the sitting room for an impromptu ‘spa’ day. Charlie sat behind you, you were nearly in her lap, braiding one section of hair, and Vaggie was painting your claws. Angel was brushing out Husker’s fur. Niffty and Sir Pentious were talking and looking at the make up laid out across the coffee table. Alastor merely watched, amused by the group's antics every once in a while. 

He watched the way your eyes fluttered when you were embraced by the girls, and the way you seemed so at ease. Nothing seemed particularly amiss. He wondered if you hadn’t been comfortable yet, and had nearly settled with that. That was, until Angel came home, nearly in tears, one day.

“Fuck!” Angel yelled, tossing his phone harshly. It was rare for Angel Dust to have such an outward burst of anger. He always put on a show of being satisfied with his work, even when he clearly wasn’t. When Angel had settled on one of the couches, his face collapsed into his hands. “I’m so fucking tired of Val…”

Angel mumbled to himself as you entered the lobby. You glanced at Angel, and then his shattered phone. You frowned, your soft features looking nearly angry, and then picked up his phone, and made your way to him. Alastor watched from the bar, interested to see how this interaction went.

“Hey, Angie. I uh, I got your phone,” you said quietly. You sat off to the side of the couch, looking out of place, and uncomfortable. 

Angel mumbled something back, and your frown grew more severe. “I uh,” your voice trailed off, and your eyes started darting around. “Do you - do you want, like, a hug? I don’t really know what you need right now, I’m sorry.”

Alastor watches as Angel turns his head and whispers something to you. He doesn’t seem confused, not like Alastor is. He is clearly missing something. His eyes narrow, and he watches as you crawl up on the couch and awkwardly settle yourself against Angel’s side. 

How bizarre! How could you possibly not know what he needed? You were a very empathetic person, always looking out for others, and you liked being held, clearly, so how would you lack this kind of knowledge.

Alastor decides to confront you about it, at a later time. He needed to know everything about this. Perhaps it would be useful!

The next day, Alastor decides to try and get you to touch him, and then go from there. (It had been a little while since he had decided to ‘wing’ something like this. How exciting! You weren’t a bore at all!) His best bet would be to invite you to assist him for the day, so he invites you to when you’re heading down the stairs that morning.

“Ah! Just the woman I was looking for! How are you this morning, dearest?” He settles his hand on the banister, near where yours is resting, and waits.

“Oh! Good morning Alastor. I’m doing okay. What is it you needed me for?” Your smile is gentle and your demeanor open, even if you can’t keep eye-contact. 

“I was wondering if you would like to assist me today? We haven’t had much ‘bonding’ time as you and the others! I was hoping to rectify that,” he responds. He keeps his normal flair and watches you giggle at him.

“Of course, Al. It’s not like I had much going on today.” You pull back from the banister and twist to look at him better. “What do you have in mind?”

Alastor merely nods, and starts leading you down to the kitchen. “I was thinking you could assist me with breakfast, and then we can do some minor paperwork! We’ll decide what to do after that.”

You happily agree, and trail after him, leaving just enough space so you can’t ump into him. 

“We are going to make french-toast, fried green tomatoes, and ham. Should be simple enough, dear!” He snaps, and the two of you are wearing aprons. You let out a surprised laugh, and smile up at him.

“I will never get over how cool that is!” 

He waves you off, and starts pulling things out of the cabinets. He hands each one to you, waiting for you to make contact. 

Then it happens.

You jerk your hand back so fast that the whisk he’d been handing to you falls to the floor with a clatter. Your whole body seems to shrink in on yourself, and your expression collapses.

“Oh. Oh, no. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to.” You start rambling apologies, and it makes Alastor’s head cock to the side.

“Why are you sorry, dear?” His voice lilts with just the slightest amount of amusement, but you don’t seem to catch on to it. 

“I- I touched you! I’m sorry! I don’t know how to do it appropriately, and I’m sorry! You have more boundaries than the others and I just-” Your rambling starts to annoy him, just the slightest bit, and his eyes narrow.

“I would tell you, if I had a problem with it,” he starts. “You don’t normally have a problem. Why is it a problem now?”

You frown, harshly. It is the first time he has seen such a negative emotion on your face. (Something in him is unsettled at the sight. He ignores it, as he often does). “What do you mean? That’s not the same!”

Alastor is now genuinely confused. It is absolutely the same! How could it not be?

You seem to catch onto his confusion, and a small growl rips from your throat in frustration. “I’m okay with people touching me first, because that’s initiating contact, and they lead the whole time. It’s easier to understand what people want, and where it is okay to touch, based on how they feel, and how they are touching me. But, but when I do it first, it’s hard to know what’s okay! I don’t have someone to mimic, and it’s- it’s hard!” Your face contorts further, and you’re palpably angry. 

“All these social rules, and stuff can be so hard sometimes! It’s easier to just not do it! How can I hurt anyone if I don’t give myself the opportunity, you know?” You sigh, and drop your upper body on the kitchen island’s counter. “It sucks,” you say, your voice muffled by the counter.

Alastor feels a modicum of sympathy. You nearly have the exact opposite problem to him. You want to touch other, craving that closeness, but don’t know how to go about it. He would rather go without it, but knows exactly how to use touch on others, especially to get what he wants.

His mind whirls with thoughts of how pathetic you seem like this. You are normally so confident! Why let this silly worry prevent you from being the best you can be? His thoughts settle on a plan before he can really acknowledge it. 

“Alright then, dearest!” Alastor smacks the counter, drawing your attention. “I have an idea. A challenge, if you will. To help you get over this silly fear of yours, I challenge you to this; you must touch me every day, at least once. Each touch must be a different kind than the last, and it can’t be for the same reason.” Alastor tilts his head at you, waiting for you to take the bait.  “You are allowed to do it without asking, and it can be as big or small as you are comfortable with, but you need to do it. If you can do this, to the point where you are comfortable hugging the others without worrying about “hurting” them, then you win.”

Your head pops up from the counter, and you narrow your eyes at him. “What do I win?”

Alastor feels his grin widen. Yes, you would be fun to play with. “A small favor. Something simple. And confidence. It’s a shame that you are being held back by something so simple!”

You huff, but nod your head. “Fine. I touch you, once a day, unsolicited, and it’s gotta be different each time, or something like that. I win when I can hug everyone else without being touched first.”

“There’s my girl,” he says, watching your whole body stiffen in response. He laughs, and picks up the whisk from the floor. “Let’s continue with breakfast, yes?”

The first time you touch him is during a “movie night” that Charlie sets up the next day. She demanded Alastor participate, despite his well known hatred of television, and everything to do with that technology. You had silently approached him as the group set up pillows and blankets on the floor around the TV, and against the couches. The two of you watched idly, before you spoke up.

“Can I sit with you,” you asked softly. 

“Of course, dear! Good company might make this terrible idea more… palatable,” Alastor grumbled. You smile at him, and laugh a little. 

“Oh, the horror. Sitting with your friends, and relaxing,” you respond, tilting your head at him. His static surges for a moment, but he says nothing in response. You laugh again, although he’s not quite sure why.

When the group finally gets settled in for the movie, and the lights are turned off, he watches you shift about in your seat. Your eyes dart around the room, and your hands fidget. It takes a few minutes, the intro to the movie already going, for you to finally look at him. You scoot closer to him, more than halfway across the couch. You wait another moment, and Alastor’s eyes don’t move from your form. He just watches you fidget with amusement. Finally, you speak up, barely a whisper.

“Hey, can- can I lean on you?” You are so hesitant, and it makes his eyebrows furrow, just the slightest. 

“Of course, dear,” he whispers back, his static barely a murmur. Your body slackens, all the tension drawn out. 

“Oh, good,” you mumble, pressing your small form against his side. It takes a few moments, but then you are completely calm against him, head pressed into his arm, your hands against his waist, and knees curled up under you and tucked against his thigh. You mumble something about him being warm, and all Alastor can do is agree. 

You are so very warm, and it has him almost anxious. He isn’t sure what about, as the room is calm, and the silly animated picture-show is easily ignored. You are so very warm, and he can feel each breath your body breathes in. He can nearly hear the soft pound of your heartbeat, even over the picture-show. His nose twitches at your scent. He will have to take a far-too hot bath later to remove it. It’s fine, though. It’s all part of the game. 

Alastor ignores that you’ve fallen asleep on him. It’s for the best.

The next day, you offer him a “fist-bump”, which he doesn’t understand. You laugh, and explain the gesture, and show him how it looks.

“You do it when you did something cool, or when you’re having fun with your friends.” You smile at him and constantly gesture with your hands while you talk. It keeps his attention quite easily. “Ah, here, let’s see if you understand. What was the last cool thing you did? It can be whatever.”

Alastor thinks over the last few days exploits, and shrugs. “I made a sinner cry by merely looking at him, this morning.” 

You go stock still before bursting out laughing. “Really? Oh my gosh. Seriously, fist-bump,” and you offer your knuckles. Alastor hesitantly returns the gesture, knocking your hands together. However clumsily it was done, it makes your smile wider. “Nice! Yeah, that’s exactly how you do it!”

If he tries the gesture on the others later on, he never tells you. Charlie got a kick out if, though. He refuses to tell her who told him about it. 

One day, you’re assisting Niffty cleaning, but can’t reach a spot way too high for either of you to get. Neither of you can find a ladder, and Alastor is watching with a far too delighted smile. When you spot him, you smile mischievously.

“Alastoorrrrr,” You call, your eyes narrowing playfully. “Come here. Please.”

He strides over, not letting his hesitance show. “What can I do for you, my dear?”

“Can I get up on your shoulders? I need to be able to reach that spot with the duster.” You point up at where you need to dust. He looks over at it, and realizes you are definitely not getting  up there without help.

Alastor cocks his head at you, thinking over the logistics, and then nods. He kneels down, and feels you pull yourself onto his back, propping each leg over his shoulders. When you are still, hands gently around his neck, he stands up straight. He feels you wobble and then balance with a laugh. Your hands let go of him. He feels each breath and laugh and words from you gently vibrate his head with how close the two of you are. 

“I’m so tall! Hahah! This is great! I wish I was always this tall, haha!” You keep laughing, and readjust your duster, pointing at your destination. “Onwards, my steed!”

Alastor rolls his eyes at your antics, but obliges, standing closer to where you need to be. Niffty is squealing, and it’s making you laugh harder. Alastor joins in at some point, and then the three of you are running around the first floor of the hotel, terrorizing the others with your hijinks.

Alastor thinks, privately, that you make him laugh over the little things, something that he hasn’t done in a while. He isn’t sure how to feel about it.

It’s several weeks after the challenge had been initiated, that he finds you hiding in a side-closet. Alastor isn’t sure how he knew you would be there, but the discovery throws him. You’re crying. Nearly bawling your eyes out, and you look uncomfortable with the way your small body is curled into a tight ball, surrounded by cleaning supplies. 

“Oh, hey, Al,” you say, your voice rough. “How’d you find me?”

“Just needed to follow the sound of despair, apparently, my dear,” he responds without a thought. He nearly winces when his words process, and he shakes his head. “I’m not sure, dear. Whatever are you doing in there?”

“Oh, I don’t know. Something upset me, but I can’t remember what.” Your voice trails off, and you look at where you have situated yourself. You huff, and pull yourself out with a grunt.

You dust off your knees, and the back of your pants, frowning. “Sorry you had to see that, haha.” You try to muster a smile, but Alastor sees right through it. “Right.”

Alastor simply watches as you shut the closet door, and try and calm yourself down. 

“Gosh, I feel dumb.” You frown at the ground, and sigh. “Alright. Can I have a hug?”

Alastor’s eyebrows raise. Oh. You were finally ready to hug him. How interesting. 

“Of course, dear.” He opens his arms, not even bothering to check for others seeing the interaction. You rub your face, and then step between his arms. You wrap yourself around him, loose at first, and then you embrace him hard. His arms fall around you, and he pulls you in close. His head settles on top of yours. 

You are still so warm, and you smell wonderful; something comforting, something familiar. Your heart thrums against your ribs, and he can feel it pounding. His ears twitch at every soft sound. 

This is nice. Although there is still time, part of him mourns the day you are ready to win his challenge. He supposes he can enjoy each little bit of connection the two of you have, until then. 

Taglist: @numetalnerd2007 @girl-nahh-two Remember, you can be added to my taglist by replying to the tagged post on my page!

[pixelatedraindrops]

Hello everyone!! Today I grow a year older :3 (and I hate it lmao) FEEL FREE TO REPLY BIRTHDAY WISHES IF YOU WANT :3

So, over the time I've come back here, I've become pretty confident and proud of my once hidden passion about sick characters, sickfics and sick comfort/whump... 🌡️

And you all have been so supportive and sweet despite my weirdness so I thank you for that. You helped me feel more confident in my otherwise weird fixation <3 So, for my birthday I thought I'd try and make up a little drawing challenge for anyone who wants to give it a try... There are soo many talented artists on this site (and in this fandom)

So... It's your turn to target your faves now. You will see how fun it is and hopefully understand why I love doing it so much. 😈🌡️

(plus it's my birthday and I require some sustenance LMAO JKJK)

But yeah anyone can join in. This is just for fun though! You don't have to if you don't want to! I think its okay to ask for some food on my birthday though...right?? X'D So if you wanna do sth for my birthday...then... 👉👈 💦

CHALLENGE BELOW~

DRAW YOUR FAVE ON A SICK DAY CHALLENGE🌡️😷🥵🤧

~~~~

(Mmmmkay, I am lying to myself when I say this isn't mostly aimed at the RainCode community... X'D Can't help myself. But anyone can join regardless of the fandom!!)

So here's the challenge and the rules!! (featuring my two main lil targets ofc :3)

Regardless of who it is, put your fave through some sickness hell >:3c I'd love to see it! Make em' as miserable as you want!

destroy them 😈 jkjk XD

If you're in the RainCode community you can target anyone, but as you know, my main targets are Yuma and Makoto. If they're also your faves and who you decide to use, that will make me extra happy!

Some tips for anyone new to drawing a sick day scenario art. A few things that make it look convincing are the following:

Pajamas or Loungewear

Messy Bed Hair

Fever flushed face w sweat or at least a red nose

Tired Eye bags

Shivery body

Ice Pack or a Compress on the head

Thermometer sticking from their mouth

LOTS OF BLANKETS

Tissues or medicine surrounding them

Tea or Soup (or both)

Those are just to name some from the top of my head. If you'd like some pointers on how to make a character look ill, check out my Fever Coloring Guide. This is for digital artists but traditional artists can try it too!

You can add injury or angst to the scene but I'd like illness to be the main focus of it.

The scene can be anything you want to, it can be fluffy and wholesome (with a caretaker) it can be angsty, or it can be silly. Its all up to you! Do it for the sake of fluff! Caretaking scenes are the best for any kind of relationship >w<

Either way, have fun with it!! I look forward to see what people make if they decide to give it a try! It doesn't even have to be a full on picture! Doodles and sketches are fine too! Just show me something >w<

(feel free to tag me and say happy b-day and mention my challenge, I am proud to be known for this and would love for many to participate :3) I wanna see you take a go at it :3 Show me your style! :D

~

~~~

(wow look at me misspelling the word writing on text when I did it fine with my own hands lol)

Now, I know not everyone can draw...

Well never fear! I accept writing as well! ✍️✍️✍️

(hi vivia lol sorry for giving you a cold, at least you have an excuse to read and do nothing now haha x3)

Sickfics are one of the biggest things I live for! Any little drabbles or full fics with more than one chapter are welcome! Again target who you want any fandom you want, but I'll def be super happy if you make a RainCode fic. And even happier if you target my faves as well, but again, anything will do! Just make a cute story about your fave being miserable and being tended to! Trust me, it's super fun!

You can add injury or angst to the scene but I'd like illness to be the main focus of it.

Feel free to post your writing here and tag me or mention my AO3!

If you need a start to your fic, look on my blog for illness prompts! Maybe it can help give you a good start or give some inspiration! (thats why I share 'em :3)

I look forward to anything you try to write!

~

That's about all!! I hope you decide to participate! ✨

Good luck, have fun, and godspeed you future whumpers! 😈

(nah jk XD)

AGAIN THIS IS FOR FUN! NO PRRSSURE IF YOU DON'T WANT TO!

[tartigglez]

I saw you were taking a break and I hope everything with you is okay I love your writing! <3 long time lurker here.

Whenever you are doing better or feel up to it I was wondering if I could make a request for Megumi x fem reader. She’s like way shorter than him and she’s also a sorcerer, it would take place in like the canon time period (idk if I’m saying that right haha). Could it be about them in a pre-established relationship and Megumi starts acting distant so reader thinks he’s mad at her but really he’s upset about something else? I hope that was detailed enough I read your rules lol.

HELLOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO ITS LATE BUT ITS HEREEEE

"apology"

megumi x fem!reader

・❥・fluff, hurt/comfort, tiny smidge of smau cuz i couldn't help myself

・❥・1k

・❥・gumi lowkey struggles with his emotions, physical touch, one instance of petnames, reader is hurt by megumis actions but it's okay they all live happily ever after don't worry, megumi picks at his nail briefly, i think that's it

it started a couple of weeks ago, and you tried to ignore it at first, putting it up to high tensions over his grade promotion. still, this really couldn’t be an excuse to keep blowing you off, right? even a text to ask if you could go off campus together for lunch, replied with a simple “no, sorry”. a phone call asking if you could accompany him during his training session with panda left unanswered. and most recently, flat out walking away whilst you were trying to talk to him. 

why was he being so strange? what could have possibly inspired this? could he be getting tired of you? was it your fault? were you doing something wrong? 

he used to always text you goodnight, but he hasn’t been lately. in fact, his communication has been completely minimised as of late. you decided you weren’t going to try and reciprocate something that didn’t exist, frustration growing as you feared losing him. he would still answer if you really needed him, right? was he really not at all afraid of losing you?

“hey” he said flatly, door clicking open as he peeked his head inside. he then closed the door behind him, “you know i’m not supposed to be in the girls wing this late at night, what is it?” 

he didn’t sound particularly angry, or upset. but he didn’t sound like he had any opposite feeling in the words either. it was just empty.

“i think we need to talk,” you preceded, moving to sit on the edge of your bed, legs dangling off the side. 

“seriously? this couldn’t wait until the morning?” he muttered, plopping down in the chair next to your desk. was he really being like this? couldn’t he tell you were upset? this isn’t the megumi you know, this isn’t the megumi you love. 

“don’t snap at me, megumi” you raised your eyebrows at him, then shifted so your back was against the wall at the other side of the bed, crossing your legs. 

“right, sorry,” he spoke, even quieter than his initial comment, “what’s wrong?” he questioned, black irises meeting with your face as he picked at the side of one of his nails. 

“did i do something?” you asked quietly, barely loud enough for him to hear. he was silent, almost like he was waiting for you to keep talking, or he was deep in thought, it was one of the two. “i just feel like i’ve done something and that's wh-” 

“no,” he replied, a guilty look washing over his face, “no, you haven’t”  

“are you sure? because you’ve been acting really weird and maybe i’m overthinking it, but something seems off with us…”

he got up out of your chair, quiet movements capturing your attention as he sat down on the bed perpendicular to you, also crossing his legs, mirroring your position.

“so you noticed,” he opened gently, almost sighing through his words, “i’m sorry” he said, avoiding eye contact, trying to do anything to make things less awkward. “In all honesty i’ve been acting that way with everyone, not just you”

you reached your hand out to him, which he took in his before pulling it on to his lap. you squeezed it gently a few times, allowing him a moment to compose himself. 

“what’s been up 'gumi?” you tilted your head to the side “stuff with your promotion?” you looked up at him once again.

“no, it’s not that. it’s just…” he trailed off. He seemed to be debating whether or not to tell you whatever he was going to say next. “i got assigned a mission a couple of weeks ago, and gojo said i couldn’t tell anyone about it, or they could be in danger. so i figured it'd be best to avoid everyone as much as i could. there’d been a grade one curse active in shibyua, and i was assigned to it.” 

“a grade one? but why would they assign a grade two sorcerer to a grade one curse, unless…” 

“i passed the assessment for promotion,” he said flatly, as if it wasn't an achievement.

“what? really?! gumi, that’s huge! congratulations!” you smiled at him, getting up on your knees to plant a kiss on his cheek, and give him a hug. 

“thank you,” he said quietly, before silence fell between the two of you for a moment.

“you’re still thinking about it, aren’t you?” you whispered to him. 

“yeah” he replied. megumi wasn’t one for talking much about how he felt, which was a trait you’d grown to respect, understanding that he knew if he needed to talk about something, you’d be there. instead of trying to push something out of him, you settled for a more gentle solution to your conflict.

“do you want to lay here with me for a while?” you questioned, and he nodded at you.

“what if we get caught though?” he asked as you laid down with your head on the pillow, pulling him towards you so he could place his head on your chest. 

“it’d only be gojo if we did, and he’d understand surely?” you whispered as you stared at the ceiling, moving your hands almost purely by muscle memory into his hair, slowly massaging his scalp as you played with his hair.  

“yeah, i guess you’re right”  he said against the cotton of your hoodie. Once again, silence filled the room. this time, however, it wasn’t tense, nor awkward, it was comfortable. 

“i’m sorry for how i acted, love” 

taglist: @lioria @celestetalkstoomuch

sfw masterlist

© tartigglez, 2023. do not copy, translate or repost

[donghoonie-3]

HIII first i'm so excited for your txt works kfmecdkfn ur the best <333

second, here goes my first requestttt.. can i ask for a scenario with beomgyu where he and fem reader are close friends, laying on the bed cuddling until the innocent gentle touches turn into more suggestive touches (yk that live where gyu starts innocenly playing with tae's hem of the shirt until he slowly puts his hand completely under his shirt😭) and they get so needy and horny that the reader ends up riding him and they end up having super needy sex please 😭😭😭

Needy for you

Genre: smut, a bit of angst towards the end because I couldn't help myself lmao

Warnings: I got side tracked after they were done fucking and decided to make it sad 😭 forgive me 🙏🏽. Fem reader, boob play, choking, pet names, dom reader, sub gyu, reader rides gyu, making out, not proof read (sorry), Lmk if I missed anything!!

Your hands are wandering on Beomgyu's waist as his do the same. You're both lying down in your bed cuddling, nothing more nothing less. Some people would find it weird to cuddle with your friend but its not weird to yous since you both have known each other for quite so time now and you're both close so it just doesn't bother yous. Plus he always gives comfortable hugs so how could you not want to cuddle him?

Laughing echos in the room as Beomgyu brings up an embarrassing story of you when you got drunk and your crushes house party...Well, used to be crush since it turned out he was an asshole who just played with people's hearts.

"no oh my god gyu I told you to never bring that up again!!" You whine out as you gently slap his shoulder as a joke. "Oh you did? Too bad, HAHA" he laughs in your face which makes you laugh with him.

"I should've caught that on camera, you looked so funny when-" you cut him off with your hand cover his mouth. "Don't!!! Don't say it! It's so embarrassing, oh my god!!" You exclaim as you feel him smiling under your hand before pulling it away.

"You know, I asked to cuddle, not bring up embarrassing stories of me" you say with a tsk at the end. "Woops, my bad" he jokes then laughs making you laugh once again.

After you both stop laughing and giggling it gets quiet. You're both staring into each others eyes without anything left to say. You hand innocently goes back to his waist. All that's heard is what's going on outside and the light breathing sounds from the both of you.

Usually yous are quiet when yous cuddle, but something is different this time and you can pinpoint what it is. Maybe it's because yous are literally staring into each others souls?? Or is it because of the hand placements? But yous always do this? Maybe it's because he's so...breathtaking?

With that thought your eyes move to look at his lips. No yn snap out of it... he's your best friend. You think to yourself before looking away.

"yn" he whispers out.

"Hmm?" You hum in response but you get no answer. Instead you feel his hands moving lower, stopping at your waistband. His movements making you look up back at him. "Gyu.." You were going to say something but he beat you to it. "Can I...kiss you?" He asks as his eyes look down at your lips, yours doing the same.

Instead of answering with words you answer him with your actions, which is kissing him. You move closer to him and let your lips touch his soft ones as you both close your eyes. You pull away after a couple seconds and you both just look at each other. His eyes becoming darker and full of lust before he smashes his lips onto yours. This time the kiss is more rough and desperate unlike the other one where it was soft and delicate.

You poke your tongue at his lips and he parts his mouth. Now both of yous are fighting for dominance, but of course Beomgyu looses.

You pin him down to the bed by his hands whilst making out with him. Your legs on either side of him and your hands pinning his down above his head, the lewd position making him whimpers quietly into the kiss.

The need of breath causing both of you to pull away. "Fuck" you say under your breath as you're still processing what just happened. You? Kissing...no.. Full on making out with the guy you like? If this is a dream then you don't want to wake up from it.

"Can i-...can we.." Beomgyu takes in a deep breath before continuing "I need you" he exhales. "Are you sure?" You make sure you're not hearing things. "Mhm I'm sure" he says with a blush on his face and eyes locking with your lips. "Okay, do you have a condom?" You ask nonchalantly, as if you're not about to have sex.

He nods in response and point to the drawer in his desk. You get up of him and make your way to the desk. You take the packet from the drawer and make your way back to his bed...except what you see when you turn around towards his direction is his pretty naked self. The sunlight that is shining through the window makes him look even more handsome. You still cant believe you're about to fuck with the guy you've had a crush on for a while now.

You mentally slap yourself and continue making your way back to the bed. "You were staring" he says in a slightly teasing tone. "Oh shush" you playfully roll your eyes at him before discarding your clothes, once you do so you sit on his lap. He's sat up by now and his back is against the headboard of his bed.

You open up the packet and put the condom on his hard cock. The contact of your hand making him gasp.

"You ready gyu?" You asks as you sit up, ready to slide down his dick. "mhm yes" he says as he locks eye contact with you. With that said you sink down on him, the feeling making both of yous want more so without wasting much time you start to ride him at a desperately fast pace. The sudden action making him let out a high pitched moan as he throws his head back. "more" he says, already pussy drunk from how good your cunt is squeezing him. You go faster, moving up and down, side to side, also wanting more because of how good his dick feels inside of you.

"Fuck gyu, you feel so- mngh so good" he moans at your praise and bucks his hips up, too needy to not do so. "please yn-" before he could finish his sentence you're smashing your lips against his. Kissing him roughly and messily. Your tongue clashing against each other with such need before parting to breath and going back to making out.

You can hear him moaning into the kiss as the pleasure he's feeling makes him loose complete controll over himself. His hands going up to your breasts and squeezing which makes you let out a surprised moan.

You part once more to breath. "You're so sexy gyu" you say with now lidded eyes. "Keep touching me baby" he blushes even more at the pet name you give him which goes unnoticed. "You hahh like that don't you? Mmm You like to be called baby? Hmm?" You moan in between your words. All he can do is nod his head in response.

You wrap one hand around his neck and press down slightly to choke him, the feeling making his hands drop down in defeat. "So cute" you moan out. "mnghh yn~" he says in a needy voice. You lean down to kiss his lips again since you can't get enough of them except its much shorter than before.

You give his neck a tighter squeeze just to toy with him a bit. Loving his reaction as his eyes roll back and a gasp that barely makes it out of your tight grip. You then let go of his neck to cup his cheeks. "You look adorable when you're being chokes baby" you say which brings him closer to the edge. "yn- m gonna- cum" he whimpers. "me too baby, me too. Cum with me, okay?" You pant.

The sound of your voice and the view of your boobs bouncing up and down, along with the view of his dick completely disappearing inside of your pussy whenever you go down brings him to his orgasm. He let's out a high pitched moan and cums inside of the condom, you cum only seconds after. You collapse on top of him and you both try to catch your breath.

"That..was..amazing" he says in between deep breaths. "right" you say in agreement.

After about two minutes of staying in the same position you decide to get up and get changed into your normal clothes. It'd be a lie if you said you didn't wish for something more to happen because you really did wish for something, a confession of some sort maybe.

After the both of you get into your clothes and you were about to leave he quickly stops you by running up to you and grabbing your hand. "Wait yn" he says.

"Yeah?" Your heart beat almost skips a beat at the still fucked out expression of his when you look at him. "I uhm...I wanted to tell you something." He says, not really sure if he should tell you or not. "What is it?" You think you know where this is going but you don't want to make any assumptions.

He looking down at the floor before looking up at you. "Never mind, uhm see you tomorrow" he says as he looks back down at the floor again.

And you got your hopes up again. Or at least you think so, but the "realisation" that he doesn't like you hits you and so you just quickly good bye him and leave.

Little did you know is that he likes you but is too scared of being rejected even though it's quite obvious the both of you like each other.

Taglist: @makiixuxii @parkhonnie @hee-poster @foxdaisy @heeseongism @cha0thicpisces @lynanist send an ask if you want to be added or removed !!

[s0dium]

Hii, I'd like to participate in the matchup event if it's still alright ^^

Name: Gale

Specification of fandom and preferred matchup gender (would you like to be paired with a boy or girl or either): Kny ; boy

Likes/Hobbies: Music, Sweets, Salty Food, Meat, Food, Anime, Books, Knick knacks, trinkets, Drawing, Singing, Comfy things, Researching, Stationery

Dislikes: Tea, Bitter Things, Carrots, messiness,

Relationship Turn offs: Getting jealous to the point it affects the relationship but won't properly communicate it. Not willing to compromise during discussions. Being pushy and not respecting boundaries. Treats nothing seriously. Super secretive to the extent that they won't tell me if something is bothering them or they're in trouble.

Ideal Traits in a partner: Detail-Oriented, Smart, independent, Caring, Willing to spend time with me, Patient, Supportive, Isn't afraid to tell me off if I go off the rails or go into a downward spiral and don't listen to advice.

Love language: My love language is Gift Giving and Physical Touch. I have trouble communicating through words so I tend to compensate it with splurging and spoiling my loved ones with gifts. I am also clingy in the sense that I hug and lean onto people I'm comfortable with a lot. I don't really have a preference in how my partner show's their affection, though maybe words of affirmation would help me in more ways than one. One of us needs to know how to speak I guess haha.

Description of Personality: I'm usually timid and quiet, but when I'm comfortable it depends on my mood. Sometimes I'm loud and energetic, child like even. Sometimes I get sarcastic and sassy, but mostly as a silly or joking bit. I get easily annoyed or ticked off when triggered, but, if isnt one of my triggers, I'm very chill I think. I'm also a bit air headed, like I do things without thinking or easily spacing off or forgetting things. I'm also a bit stubborn. I like to take things easy and frankly a bit lazy. But when I have something to do and I'm not being lazy, I'm anxious to get it done and done in a certain way. If I get serious, I'm very detail-oriented and specific in how I want things but struggle to communicate how I want it. This ends with me doing most projects and tasks alone. Even in activities that require group effort, I don't like not knowing what everyone is supposed to do and the possible quality of their outputs. I prefer knowing who knows how to do what and giving them appropriate jobs. But, this tiring and I burnout easily because of this. I also have the bad habit of, when things don't go the way I plan, as a way to remedy any panic or frustration, I often downplay how I feel about the situation with phrases like "It doesnt matter" and laugh it off, which is both a blessing and curse for me.

What makes you laugh: I have a weird sense of humor so I'm not sure at this point. I do have slight dark humor and I like puns if that helps. Sometimes there are situations where a joke pops in my mind and I have to stop myself from laughing or saying it outloud because it's not the appropriate time. I also laugh at weirdly simple jokes.

What makes me cry: I cry when feelings are involved, when watching sad movies, when I get frustrated, or I get invested in a sad story. I made the mistake of reading ErHa at 2am and did not stop crying abour Chu Wanning for 3 hours. I also played Love Signal D-Mate and chose P:ure's route once and never played another route because I didnt have the heart after his ending. I cried the whole night after my first playthrough :'DDDDD

Ideal Date: I prefer indoor dates like movies, cooking together, playing board games or video games or even reading books together in a cozy and comfortable silence. But if we had to go out a cafe, some movies or mall hopping sounds nice but a bit tiring.

This got really long, I'm sorry qwq Thank you for taking your time to read this though. And congrats on the milestone!!

Giyu Tomioka

"Its strange." Giyuu murmurs. "I always feel at ease around you." "Really?" You let out a slight laugh. "I feel the same way its like everything just....clicks Giyuu leans in, the proximity making your skin hot. "I'm glad. I've never felt this warmth before."

I think you and Giyuu really even each other and compliment each other well

(This is a modern AU)

Giyuu appreciates the peace of staying indoors, which perfectly matches your love for cozy dates. Most evenings, you're likely found curled up together, each with a book in hand, or you drawing while he watches, appreciating your focus and dedication.

He can stare at you sometimes which looks a little weird but he just loves you

Despite his reserved nature, Giyuu finds comfort in performing tasks together, like cooking. He's patient and meticulous, qualities that help when you're trying new recipes.

He does stupid things that make you laugh. He doesn't even know what he is doing sometimes he will say something really blunt that is just hilarious. He loves your laugh

Ngl I think that Giyuu would love manga. You and Giyuu would spend many nights binging series or watching movies. He's usually quiet, but you notice he's more expressive during these times, showing small smiles or furrowing his brows at intense scenes, which you find endearing.

Knowing your love language is gift-giving, Giyuu makes an effort to find thoughtful trinkets and books he knows you'll love.

: Giyuu isn't naturally very expressive, but he understands your need for physical touch and gradually becomes more comfortable with holding hands, hugs, and gentle touches that reassure you of his presence and affection.

Giyuu is a man of few words, which suits your occasional need for silent companionship. When you're working through your thoughts or simply need to be quiet, he's there beside you, a stable and comforting presence.

Both of you have your own strengths and weaknesses, but what makes your relationship special is your willingness to grow together. Giyuu learns to open up more about his feelings, while you help him with organizing tasks and making plans, making each other's lives easier and more fulfilling.

When you do go out, Giyuu enjoys taking you to quiet cafés where you can both enjoy some sweet treats. He will lowkey spend like 200 dollars on sweets that you like

Giyuu is protective, especially when it comes to the people he cares about. While he respects your independence, he's always ready to stand by your side if you feel overwhelmed or frustrated, helping you navigate through tough times with his calm and steady presence.

Hope you enjoyed!

MATCHUP RULES AND INFO

[phoelipop]

Sorry this is very sudden but I promise there was a lot of thought and consideration behind this for the last few years but I’ve decided from now on I’m using this persona to draw for selfship and stuff with, instead of Kumi… one based more off myself again.

When I first made Kumi i never thought I would form that kind of attachment to her but it just kind of happened. All throughout my years drawing, there has always been a consistent theme; drawing me, my cousins, my friends, and our fictional favs. When i was younger I always drew “myself” as someone else, projecting onto an OC that didn’t resemble me at all because its fun! It’s always just been for fun and disguising myself in my art has always been what’s most comfortable for me when it comes to “selfship”. I guess Kumi unintentionally became one of those, haha.

But over the last few years I’ve been having some rough times with Kumi and with my cousin’s shared story and feeling like I’m too obsessed with something that died a long time ago. Feeling like I need to move on too but wanting to hold on for old times sake, because it’s so special to me. But it doesn’t feel worth it anymore, it isn’t fun anymore and it makes me sad. I want to move on so I don’t start to associate something I love with something that makes me sad. But I still love my loves and wanna have fun drawing stuff with them again and with my friends, and I’m gonna do that through this persona, who is like literally just me…

I know it’s weird after all these years but I just feel it’s better to retire Kumi as just an OC for now. But she’ll still be around and I’ll still be drawing her if my cousin and I have new ideas together! But from now on I’m still gonna be smooching my favs but now with a little more freedom and authenticity and self love (also a lot of things will stay the same like, keeping my fav Pokemon and my ship name with Guz is still called Skullcandy, etc) 

Anyway I’m sorry for this depressing ramble, I hope you understand. I know this sounds silly but the idea of self expression and selfship has always been really important to me, and I just wanna draw what makes me happy… Thank you for reading and thank you for loving my girl Kumi 💛

[lpsotd]

Another anon who read the tags on your last post here! I've felt the need to write something myself since your situation feels so similar to mine when I was younger and maybe my experiences will help you in some way. Feel free to not respond to this if it's uncomfortable, it's totally okay! :)

I also didn't have a supportive family when it came to my interests, still kind of don't. I'm 22 (soon to be 23) and my family members are still looking at me funny regarding my hobbies, just like they did when I was 14-15. It was weird for them to see a child… liking toys and shows made for kids I guess?? They've also said that I was mature for my age, but let me tell you this is INCREDIBLY coercive. ''Since we've called you mature, you wouldn't want to betray us and do something childish now, would you?'' - guys. Just because YOU'VE called me mature doesn't mean that it's true. Maybe I am mature but EMOTIONALLY or got good grades at school. But it doesn't necessarily mean that I will abandon anything that brings me comfort and joy for the sake of a byname that won't mean anything to me. Ever. I think that being mature also means accepting what is dear to you and not being ashamed of that. Being mature is being responsible for your own well being - which you do by enjoying your hobbies! By surrounding yourself with things that will make you get through life a bit easier. Throwing everything out, or denying ever liking said thing is the childish thing to me here.

It's good to read that you want to embrace who you are! After all - we only have one life to live. Why waste it on pleasing everyone around instead of ourselves? ESPECIALLY if it's a hobby that does NO HARM to anyone (well maybe except your wallet). Don't ever let go of what you love, unless YOU decide it's time to move on. I still keep my LPS collection after all those years, after being told countless of times to ''sell them, because you will save some good money'' or just to give them away. What if (stay with me here) I WILL decide what to do with MY property?

And regarding those people who've belittled you for your interests - I am still recovering from the same thing that happened almost a decade ago at school. But I've learned that not everyone behaves like those mean bullies - maybe some people are genuinely interested in what I have to say? Maybe we can bond over this? Maybe I can get a new friend who will accept my ''weird'' hobbies? And thanks to that mindset I've tried opening to more and more people, only to find out that those bullies were the MINORITY and usually people are glad to hear they're not alone in their hobbies or pleasant memories. It made me feel so much less anxious about myself, I can't recommend trying to open up enough!! Sorry if this ask got long, I had plenty of thoughts in my brain it seems, haha. Anyway, OP you're not alone in your struggles and if you have any worries feel free to say so! Stay awesome <3

~lots of love from anon

i think it's kinda insane that adults expect children to immediately grow out of the things they like in favor of more "mature" interests and media. like, why can't that 13 year old watch my little pony? would you prefer it if they were watching that or something like euphoria? 😭 why is it so bad and weird when children are acting like children and want to engage with media that was literally created for them. that's something i don't think i'll ever understand

i'm happy to now be surrounded by people who care about me and indulge in my interests, and i hope you are able to have that too anon !!

[mikodrawnnarratives]

y'know what.

fuck it

Happy Birthday, dear Evie Artino

Renegades Trilogy - Word Count: 17092

Summary: It's been 12 years since Nova's family was murdered. After the previous year of being a renegade and the aftermath of her uncle's actions, Nova gets a moment to breathe. To grieve. Though, it's a little more than difficult to do that once she's told her baby sister's corpse was never buried. Never found. And now she has to search for the infamous thief, gone rogue, Magpie. As if she didn't have enough problems to deal with. Let's just get this over with...

Before you read!

This fic is going off of the assumption Magpie was 11 months old when her family was killed, therefore ten years later would mean she is 10 and 11 months old, 12 years later would be 12 and 11 months old (close to 13 years old) etc etc.

(I say assumption bc I'm not sure how canon Maggie being 11 months old at the beginning is. It makes sense since she was around the age she'd start to move around but still, just want to let y'all know)

I’ve done my best to show this on a timeline image in the end notes but I wanted to be clear with that! The timeline also goes off some assumptions and guesses for how much time passes from book 1 to the end of book 3.

BTW I'm sorry if ages and time stuff get confusing

I confused myself in the middle of trying to figure this out and, even though I think I've gotten everything fixed, there may still be issues

Check ao3 for tags

Nova took a deep breath, focusing on the wind gently tossing her hair. Better to focus on that than the heaviness in her chest. Leroy smiled and patted her shoulder in comfort.

“I’ll stay” Nova whispered, but then chuckled “But I’m crashing with you. The Renegades' campus rooms are terrible!” She straightened and let her tired smile relax.

Leroy shrugged, “As far as I’m concerned, the couch has been yours for a while.”

“Thank you, Leroy” She smiled. Leroy chuckled and pulled her into an odd side hug, her eyes blowing open from the action initially. She made a sly smile on her face to hide her apparent awkwardness, “I never took you for the cuddly type, Cyanide.”

“I’m not. But this is an exception.” He rubbed her arm, “You did good, Nightmare. Don’t beat yourself up about the rest.” Nova resisted the urge to fully melt in his touch, fully embrace it. Like she deserved it.

“If only it were that easy.” 

“It never is. But that’s how life goes sometimes."

"Look at you being all noble and wise! Haha! You haven't been taking classes from Simon have you?"

Leroy's smile lessened a little, something crossing his mind, "Nova?"

She broke away from his hug, "Hm?"

"Have you visited them yet?" He adjusted his glasses, “They did give them actual burials, right?” Nova appreciated the dark look that donned his face. She knew that look, and the revenge schemes it carried if he so chose.

It’s been a year since Ace Anarchy was defeated for good. And a year since Nova’s actual family was revealed to everyone. Who her uncle actually was. Her motivation for becoming an anarchist in the first place. One whole year of recovery from the remaining damage, and of tearing down a faulty system and trying to rebuild a new one. 

And it’s been twelve years since the murder of her family.

She pursed her lips and admitted what had also been on her mind, “No, no they did. I just haven't gone yet. There are gravestones and everything from what I've heard." She chewed on her lip.

Leroy tilted his cup around to watch the coffee swirl around. "Would you like emotional support?"

"You say that like a joke but please heh…" Nova laughed and turned to Leroy. She gripped the railing. "It's… gonna be weird. What do I even say?"

"They're graves,"

"Their graves."

“Right… my bad”

She fiddled with her fingers and Leroy placed a hand on her shoulder.

The chemist shrugged, "You don't need to know immediately. You don't need to go immediately, believe it or not."

Nova looked at him and opened her mouth to say something before a notification on her phone made her ears perk up the ever so slightest. She pulled it out to see the team group chat yapping about some shop opening. Leroy rubbed her back, "Just tell me when you want to visit."

"Thank you"

Nova spares a passing glance to the calendar and clock as she stands in the waiting room. She shifts from foot to foot. Discontent with standing, she paces. She wrings her hands as she does so.

It’s a miracle she hasn’t fled already. To procrastinate on it all for a little longer. But by this point it would be pretty idiotic to turn back now. Nova fidgets with her hair, waiting for her name to be called by the front desk.

It was taking longer than she would have liked to find out where her family's graves are. Leroy left with someone after they, not so discreetly, began to whisper. The renegade at the front desk kept passing weird looks to her. She couldn’t discern what emotion they had on their face. Maybe they were a prodigy, and gifted at masking. She didn’t get too good of a look at Leroy’s face either before he abandoned her in this desolate room. The cold blue light covering the room.

There’s no way they aren’t keeping something from her. Now she just wishes she had followed them. Anything to beat this trepidation.

Whatever they are hiding, she doubts it could be anything that Leroy would react better to than her. She keeps her ears peered just in case Leroy explodes something in reaction. There really wasn't a lot that Nova would take worse than Leroy, in her most humble opinion.

Footsteps running are her only warning before the front door to the establishment bursts open. Three hands all trying to cram through. Their bodies follow close behind in a clumsy, un-organized effort. 

She jolts her head to the noise and stares at the multiple people who crash through. Adrien, then Ruby followed by Oscar, Danna, an-

Wait. Danna-?

"Nova!"

"We heard-"

"We're so sorry!!"

Roxy and Oscar charge past Adrian and run at her full speed. They knock her over before she could blink. She groans and sits up, utterly confused. "What are you talking about?"

Adrian opens his mouth and-

BOOM

Leroy…

Danna comes over to the three of them on the floor, and yanks them up to their feet. She places a hand on Nova's shoulder, "You haven't been told?"

"Told me what?!" Nova would have kept her attention on Danna if Leroy literally hadn't just made something explode, "Leroy, do you want MORE community service?! What's going on?"

Leroy yells something Nova can't make out. But he's pissed. She frowns, her guard rising.

"Nova" Adrian walked up to her, maintaining her eye contact. "I think you should see it for yourself."

Nova's eyes soften and she takes Adrian's hand, "Why can't you tell me?"

"BECAUSE THEY FUCKED UP AGAIN THAT'S WHY!" Leroy's hair was still poofy from his rage just moments prior. He marches straight to Nova, forcing her to part from Adrian when he grabs her by her shoulders. She flinches and he pauses, immediately apologetic for his abrupt action, he sighs. "You said you had a sister, yes?"

Adrian inhales sharply and Nova's frown deepens, "What does Evie have to do with this…?"

Danna speaks up, "Are you aware of one of the latest villains, that has been flaunting their superpowers everywhere? They are going by the name “the Terror" (if they couldn’t get more corny)" Danna sighs. "Just this morning they went around terrorizing all across the city. Everywhere and anywhere they liked."

"I heard about that, but I didn’t think they’d be able to wreck this place too. I thought these cemeteries had measures in place to protect them." 

Adrian answers this time, rubbing his arm "Normally yes, but more Renegades have been needed to handle the new prodigy accidents and villain attacks ever since we defeated Ace Anarchy."

Danna speaks up again, "Resources for protection have been focused around civilian homes and shelters." 

Nova blinks and her eyes widen slightly, "What happened."

Leroy smooths his hair out as he takes a deep breath, "The Terror robbed several graves. The Artino's were one of them."

Nova's face shifts from one of confusion to one of anger and horror, "Where are they." She practically snarls.

Leroy chuckles without humor, "That isn't the only thing, Nightmare." His hands shake.

"There's more??"

The Sketch team is quiet, allowing Leroy to speak.

Leroy chokes at first but clears his throat to speak clearer without his emotions in the way, "Your parents' caskets and bodies have been recovered and will be reburied and their graves fixed once they catch the culprit."

Nova loses her breath, "You said Evie earlier. What happened to Evie!?" She looks around, "What. Did. He. Do."

"Nothing" Adrian says, "Her body was never there."

“What?” She stared at Adrian like he was making an uncharacteristic sick joke. He wasn’t. Nova's eyes widen but in confusion more than any horror or shock, "What do you mean? If she isn't there then the graverobber must have taken her!"

"The motive doesn't match up. He wasn't interested in any of the bodies. Of all ages." Danna says.

Oscar chips in hesitantly, "Her casket doesn't have any evidence of where a body would have been for 12 years."

Nova pauses and after a long silence takes a deep breath. She shakily sits on one of the lobby chairs and hugs herself. She pinches the bridge of her nose, "Are… are you saying… that Evie's body-" she hesitates, clenching her teeth before swallowing the lump in her throat, "Evie was never recovered from the crime scene. For twelve years, she has been missing."

Adrian's face crumples slightly, hesitating to reach out. "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry"

Leroy's murderous face makes too much sense now. Hot burning coals threaten to boil her alive just underneath her skin. Her breath slowly leaves her.

She was so close.

Nova had grieved before. She never thought her family would get the graves they deserved and had become okay with that. Or at least, grew used to the ache. Learned to be okay.

But, hearing they did. They did get graves. To honor their final rest. One they deserved when Captain Chromium failed them. Nova heard she could see them, even if they wouldn't be alive. Even just a gravestone above where their body rests forever. For a moment, a raw piece of her felt as if it could heal after being hollow for so long.

And it's been ripped away again. 

Nova wants to be angry. She is angry. Angry at all the renegades who failed her family all over again. Who got to go home to their perfect, happy homes, in their rich lives, with their complete and happy family.

Everything feels fuzzy. In slow motion as she vaguely sees renegades exit the room one by one. Plans over the radio to recover from the graverobber underway. Mentions of names. The Artino’s. David… Tala…. Nova…

Evie…

Adrian slowly sets a hand on her shoulder, and she doesn’t jolt. He makes circles with his thumb as she breathes. Heavy breathes that keep her from gasping. She slowly lifts her head up. Her lip twitches and Adrian doesn’t say anything.

She’s furious. 

She’s trembling. 

She’s frail. 

She’s weak.

She failed. 

She failed them.

She failed Evie.

Logically, both her and Adrian know that’s not true. She tried her best. She was only six. A six year old couldn’t be blamed for what happened. He knows his father messed up. Which is more than Nova could ever ask of him.

Nova’s angry. And she’s sad. She’s so tired.

She’s hurt.

Her baby sister was so close.

But it was a lie.

###

Nova dumps the final bag of confetti in the recycling bin, marking the end of cleaning up after the parade a couple of days ago. It was to mark a year's progress after Ace’s second defeat. The permanent defeat. With confetti. 

After all that work to clean up the streets from the last villain attack. Confetti. Suffice to say, she wasn’t the one to come up with the littering party idea.

The parade itself was an attempt to stir up some more positive attention to the renegades’ name. Or rather, to honor the work done so far to keep everyone safe. Not that any positive attention to the renegades couldn’t hurt their shambled reputation from the last couple years.

That’s how Nova thought of it. She wouldn’t have agreed to participate otherwise. Not when she could continue working on the case of her sister’s disappearing corpse. It was quickly going cold. 

It was like the body walked away. Some kind of twisted magician’s act. And it was up to her to figure out how the magician did it. Where the magician is.

She purposefully avoided looking at Captain Chromium in the meantime. It only added salt to the wound to hear his involvement at the crime scene. Once it was a kind gesture for him to be so involved in her family’s death. Only after Nova learned Ace was responsible for sending the assassin. Now the gesture left a bitter taste in her mouth.

Surely he would have seen. Surely, he would have seen Evie’s body go missing. Footprints of a thief could have been documented. Her sister should have been put to rest. There should have been enough renegades at the scene to catch them!

It didn’t help that Adrian's father was on rocky terrain with Nova even before this revelation. And to think they had been getting along better over the last year. Now all that progress has been wiped clean. Who knows if it’ll be the same.

She felt the bag crunch in her grip. She let herself dig into it just a little more, just to get some of her fury out before dropping it.

Adrian talked to his father about what was remembered at the scene. Nova knew the man had been trying to talk to her to apologize for a while now but she just couldn’t face him. She wouldn’t want to punch her boyfriend’s father’s mug. Not that he’d actually be affected by it. The same applied to his husband as well. 

Nova pulls out her phone. She clicks open the group chat she shares with the rest of her team. She scrolls back through the messages, looking for updates for what must have been the thousandth time. 

Danna and Adrian have their time split between their own duties, so she couldn’t blame them. When they were available, they mostly worked on finding the negligent heroes (aside from the obvious) at the crime scene who were responsible for Evie’s disappearance. Danna’s been more helpful than Nova ever thought she’d be, seeing as they haven’t always been on the best terms. Understatement of the year.

She appreciated it nonetheless.

Oscar and Ruby have been incredible whenever they were free. They either joined her in what they deemed “detective business” (she really didn’t know how to feel about the name) or used their own efforts to search and track down where the body ended up. 

Evie’s birthday is coming up soon.

And it’s been a few weeks since Nova learned about the absolute incompetence of the clean up crew. The current leading theory was a bias, which didn’t seem too far off. Adrian has been working with his father to see if this has happened to anyone else. Despite the rest of Sketch’s team trying to help out, Nova could feel her hope dwindle. 

It was ambitious from the very beginning. To find the body of an 11 month old baby, twelve years after her death, but Nova really did let herself hope at first.

She couldn’t help but begin to sag around after any reminder of her sister. She felt conflicted between joining the efforts to find her, and distracting herself from the ache in her chest. It was like she was 6 years old all over again, and processing her sister’s death for the first time.

And it's certainly not a helpful attitude for actually finding her.

She’s begun to pack her schedule with numerous duties as of late. 24 hours every day allowed her to split her time between distractions and facing her current dilemma. No one was complaining from the extra help. The only real downside was the whispers about her. Nothing new. Everyone wins in the end this way.

Maybe she shouldn’t have been so open to any request in hindsight.

Nova stares at Thunderbird, “I’m sorry. Repeat that again?”

Thunderbird sighs and pinches the bridge of her nose, the hero seemed much more fidgety than ever now that Nova paid attention, “Nightmare. Magpie’s missing.” Her feathers fluff up as she articulates this fact to Nova. Like she should care.

Nova scoffs, “No, no, the other part. You want me to-”

“You aren’t busy, are you? Then we need all the help we can get.” Thunderbird looks seconds away from shaking Nova senseless. “Look. I… I know about your sister and it’s all the campus can talk about. And-”

“Really?” Nova blinks, “I didn’t think I was that popular.”

“And. I’m sorry to ask you this when you’re grieving.”

Nova shifts uncomfortably where she stands. Thunderbird rarely talked to Nova when she wasn’t furious. To come to her when she’s desperate is… different.

Nova clears her throat, “Are you her mom or something? Why are you so pressed where she is?”

Thunderbird blinks at her, and squints. Oh that really ruffled her feathers. Nova could see veins popping out. “No, I’m not. However, I sponsored her and got her in to be a renegade. (In hindsight, a very poor decision…)” She glares pointedly, “She’s barely a teenager! Isn’t this concerning to you?”

Nova laughs. “I was taking care of myself by eight. I know jack shit about what’s 'normally' concerning.”

Thunderbird blinks and settles down slightly. “Right. Right… you were raised by villains-”

“Anarchists.” Nova corrects.

“Sure. But that was for you. Surely you can understand why we are worried for her. The Bandit is her age by now.”

She's got Nova there. Thinking about it, Max going missing would frazzle Nova too. She folds her arms and gives her attention to Thunderbird. “Don’t the renegades require contact information from a guardian?” Nova asks, “They should know where she is?”

Thunderbird’s lip trembled slightly, “Margaret’s… a special case. Her orphanage approved her residence and I paid for her fees and expenses.” Nova blinks, she remembers now the previous residence where she found out the kid used to live. It was pretty much useless at the time and now a year later, it’s been brought up again.

“How do you know she’s not brooding and being a problem on purpose. Running away from any responsibility she had.”

“Nightmare.”

“What?” She raised her hands in defense before placing them on her hips, “Magpie isn’t exactly thrilled about authority. This could just be avoiding the consequences of her actions somewhere, and being the moody brat she is.”

“Margaret… yes, she is very… temperamental.” Thunderbird sighs, “But even Magpie doesn’t disappear for weeks.”

Nova does a double take, "Weeks?! And you haven’t started looking sooner??"

Thunderbird scowls, "Do you really think you're the first renegade I've told?"

Nova cheeks pinken slightly and she frowns, “Then who else knows?”

Allegedly: Captain Chromium, Simon, and most of team Sketch are all the heroes Nova is told has been notified. Thunderbird doesn't specify who is looking. Orders to send out missing posters were underway until there were complications with schedules. 

Now that Nova thought about it, she may have heard Adrian’s parents discussing the 12 year old’s sudden absence a while ago. Thunderbird didn’t mention her friendgroup’s lack of involvement. She did note Adrian’s efforts to search for Magpie too. Nova bit her lip, she knew how much Adrian still cared about Magpie. Despite her sticky fingers.

“Is this the only reason you’re here?”

Thunderbird sighs, "You're needed for your familiarity in the locations listed here." She hands Nova files detailing the locations, "You may be interested to hear The Terror’s movements have been narrowed down to these districts."

Nova takes the files, "What about Magpie?"

"...All I'm asking is to keep an eye out for her. Report if you see her. Talk to her if you can. Try to convince her to come back, please.” Nova resists the urge to roll her eyes at the idea of peacefully talking with Magpie like Thunderbird is suggesting, “She grew up in that neighborhood, y'know."

Nova blinks, “She did?” Thunderbird nods and Nova hums. She already knew the whereabouts the orphanage Magpie went to at one point wasn’t too close to her neighborhood. It was plausible Magpie went to the elementary institution Nova vaguely remembers from the area.

Thunderbird folds her arms and Nova notices her feathers fluff up slightly. Oh now the birdie needs to be all stern and professional huh. Got it. No sentimentality here. “Your task is to search the area for The Terror already so… keep an eye out for Magpie. Report back to me.”

Nova deadpans, “Is that an order, Thunderbird?”

“It …is a request.” She took a deep breath to level out her pride, “Please, Nightmare. I know Margaret wasn’t the nicest-”

“Oh she was a complete turd.”

“Watch your language, Nightmare.”

“We’re both adults here, Thunderbird.”

“...right.” Thunderbird sighs, “But do you have to be so casually insulting. And in the workplace?”

“I’m sure Magpie’s called me worse behind my back.”

“How immature can you get…” Thunderbird deadpans.

“I’ll tell Magpie you said that.”

Thunderbird’s lip twitches and her feathers lift slightly, “oh, so you’ll look for her now?”

“No promises I’ll find her. Or bring her back. I doubt she’d come back easily if she ran away.” Nova scratched the back of her neck, “But Adrian cares about her. You care, I know Danna cares, and from what you tell me, even more than them. So why not.” 

Nova won't like coming across the thief again but she supposed there's no other option with the mess the tween's caused.

“...then call me Tamaya.”

Nova makes a double take, “What? Where did that come from?” She stares at Thunderbird for an explanation.

Thund- Tamaya frowns, “We aren’t on the field. And we aren’t strangers. We’re coworkers. And Adrian is the closest thing I have to a nephew so…" She clears her throat. "And… Nightmare, if you help me find out if Margaret is safe you’ll have my deepest thanks.”

“...” Nova really could only stare. Tamaya is almost bowing. BOWING!?!! For her help. Someone she despises. Really? “Magpie matters that much to you?”

Tamaya straightens, “She’s fierce when she wants to be, and when I met her… you should have seen it, Nightmare. Her determination despite how young she was…” She cleared her throat, “If only I had done things differently, maybe she’d still be here. I’d know where she is.”

Nova’s eyes soften slightly and she sighs, rubbing her arm. She really hopes she won't regret this. She stashes the files away in her bag, “I’ll help. Promise.”

Tamaya deflates from relief, Nova could see the tension in her posture after being so vulnerable about this request. More like a plea than anything, really.

“And call me Nova, Aunt Tamaya.”

“I’m going to regret this, aren't I.”

“Likely!”

###

Adrian and Nova met up before she had to depart to search the district. Adrian squeezed Nova's shoulder in comfort when she sucked in a breath at the sight of her old neighborhood. She squeezed his hand back before they went separate ways.

The only pretty thing to look at here would be the setting sun and a darkening sky that is right behind it. The buildings fare much worse off, with buildings crumbling, the sidewalks are uneven from the large tree roots. Many of the homes sit with broken glass and lay abandoned. 

Most people in these areas stick to the new apartments nowadays. They're the only buildings that are still structurally sound and have the least risk of break ins. Made to be less vulnerable to villain attacks due to the design of the buildings. Even the renegades have been trying to finish up repairs on one of their more elaborate renegades apartments.

Nova would be lying if she said she hadn’t thought of running away to live here when she was younger. Find an abandoned house to camp out at. Especially when Ace got angry. She never did, she didn’t want to abandon her only family. Even when he hurt her. He saved her after all.

Honestly, if she had lived here, it probably wouldn’t have been too different from living underground.

Growing up here couldn't have been nice.

Nova thinks about what Thunderbi- Tamaya said. Before she left she was told in depth about the process of resigning the Renegades, and it wasn't as simple as walking out unless you were arrested or were okay with losing any final paychecks and insurances offered.

Maybe Magpie did. It wasn't out of the realm of possibility.

Nova pulls the collar of her jacket closer, she really should have picked out a jacket with a hood. She needs to look casual though. There should be a coffee shop down the street that she plans to make a stop at. If anyone has eyes on her then it'll be her “motive” for snooping around the area.

She adjusts her black medical mask. Her movements are careful not to reveal the weaponry she’s hidden underneath her clothing. Her ears twitch from a garbage can jostling. A raccoon.

Nova makes it down the small stretch of suburbs still remaining, finally making it to the urban districts. She could hear the noises of city crowds up ahead. Lovely. Coffee shop right ahead. Either this villain shows themself and becomes a quick turn in, or she gets coffee. Classic on the job look there, huh. Maybe she’ll get hot chocolate, coffee is too bitter to be worth it.

"The terror" was becoming "the pain in the ass" to her honestly. The anarchists had their collections of thieves, sure, but on the other side of the coin turns them out to be more nuisances. 

She takes one step onto the sidewalk and a figure runs into her, Nova is shoved straight into the brick wall behind her and they bounce back onto the ground “OOF-” She wheezes and scowls at the figure, “Watch where you’re goi-” The black clothed figure’s hood fell back. 

There sat Nova’s other objective. 

Magpie rushes to pack up all the things that had fallen out of her bag from the tumble she took when colliding with Nova. She freezes when Nova guffaws her name out loud.

“Nightmare?!” Her eyes bulge and she stares at Nova. Nova takes in the kid’s choppy haircut, now longer than the bob she wore when Nova first met her. A cloud of dirt has stained the mostly black clothing she has on, and Magpie clutches a passenger bag as she collects her last scattered item. A diamond bracelet. 

Wait a minute. “What did you-” 

Magpie bolts, cutting through the next crowd as Nova runs after her. “Get back here!”

Magpie takes a sharp turn into the nearest alley, Nova apologizes to all the citizens as she parts her way through. She sees the sewer lid slide into place when she gets to the alley. Oh, does that brat think she’s clever?

Nova pries open the lid and jumps inside, cringing from the smell immediately. Her shoes splash in the water the moment she gets down. She equips her flashlight though it’s almost unneeded when she hears more splashing up ahead.

She catches up and grabs the kid’s hoodie, ignoring her cry of shock. “What do you think you’re doing!?”

Magpie snarls and turns around and successfully pushes Nova away. “I could ask you the same fucking question!”

“I asked first.”

Magpie sneers, “Oh look who’s high and mighty by using playground rules.” She turns around to walk away only for Nova to keep up pace with her. And that kid has the nerve to count her little collection of stolen goods in front of her. Nova runs up and tries to grab the bag out of Magpie’s hand, she curses under her breath when the brat dodges. 

“Hey!”

“You’re stealing again, aren’t you! I bet that jewelry doesn’t even belong to you.”

“Belongs to me now.” But her eyes widen like dinner plates when Nova makes another grab for the bag, slowed down only by the sludge in the bed of the sewer, “Watch it! Some of this is mine for real!”

“So the thief admits it”

“Oh, will you shut the fuck up!” She complains once Nova stops making grabs at her bag so she could search it. Nova folds her arms and Magpie gives her a pointed glare, her nose scrunching, before returning her attention to her collection.

Nova returns it and pinches the bridge of her nose, “I swear to god, if you’ve been missing because you’re off playing the act of the latest thorn in our side ‘The Terror’ I-”

Magpie turned around with a deadpan, “Who?”

“Oh how convenient. You don’t know about the graverobber who appeared just around the time you disappeared.” Nova points at Magpie, “Give me one good reason why I shouldn’t cuff you right now on suspicion of theft.”

“Wow, the Anarchist has turned full cop huh. What a shame. Newsflash, I’m not a graverobber. Do you really think these arms could lug around a shovel?” Magpie grips her bag tightly in the defensive.

“Your powers could easily help out with that, I'm not stupid.”

“And last time you knew exactly what my powers could do was…?” Magpie blinks several times on purpose at Nova, putting a hand next to her ear to mock signal the action to help hear better. “What was that? Never? Who knew!”

“Not funny.”

“Besides, modern day graves aren’t even worth robbing for the amount of effort it takes. No gold or silver is ever buried with those crypts anymore. The highest prices you could get would be from the organs.” The girl gags. Magpie fiddles with her passenger bag’s strap, but Nova can see she has been eyeing their whereabouts for an escape for the past few minutes.

Nova puts her hands on her hips, “Should I be concerned how you know this? Actually nevermind, you always say weird shit.” Maybe she was exaggerating here but she didn’t care too much at the moment.

Magpie whips her head back to Nova, scowling. “What are you even doing here. Shouldn’t you be after The Teapot or what's his name?”

“I’m here because you disappeared without a trace.”

Magpie rolls her eyes. “Please. Like anyone cares. I’ve been gone for two weeks and haven’t seen a single one of you hypocrites.”

“"No one cares"??” Nova guffaws.

“That’s what I said. Yes. Congratulations, your ears function perfectly.”

"Several people care! Do you think I'd be here looking for your ass if people didn't!? Adrian, Oscar, Thunderbird, Tsunami, both of Adrian's dads. You can't just disappear like that!"

"I quit." Magpie bites. "And, well, you found me! You can go tell them to mind their business."

Magpie begins to walk away in a huff, and Nova's mouth opens and closes like a goldfish before recovering enough of her brain cells after the audacity of the comment.

"What. Is wrong with you?! They don't just want to know you're okay, they want to SEE you're okay." Nova waves her arms around to emphasize her point. She subconsciously remembers and notes how she had picked the habit up from Leroy. 

"Besides" she pinches her nose, "you can't quit the renegades without a conference and before handing over your equipment" Nova makes a pointed glare at the cleanup crew uniform Magpie wore under her hoodie, only barely visible. The clothing was less of an issue than the tech-advanced gloves and shoes Nova knows Magpie smuggled from the other techies in the renegades. She just knew that the uniform allowed the girl to carry more than usual.

Magpie's face pinkens slightly but she lashes back just as quick. "I'll do what I want, Miss Juliet."

"…What did you just call me?!"

“You heard me!”

Nova growls in frustration, “GOD why does anyone want you around when all you do is cause trouble and spout insults like it's a competition!?”

“You tell me! I've made it plenty clear that I don't want to be anyone's friend.”

“Magpie-!”

The girl had the nerve to try and dash away again, using her powers to rip herself out of the muck and stick to the walls. Nova reaches in her jacket and pulls out her netting gun, and in a second the projectile stretches into a web and stops Magpie in her tracks, trapping her foot temporarily. Magpie growls as Nova readjusts herself, prying away from the stickier filth.

“Are you even listening?!?! You’ve been missing for weeks!! You can’t just disappear like that.” She sighs “You worried a lot of people. Good people. Frankly, good people that have much better things to be worrying about than a thief.”

Magpie groans, “You’ll NEVER drop that will you.” She shakes away the net from her foot and Nova collects it with a frown.

“Maybe when you show actual change for once.” Nova scowls and points to Magpie’s satchel. “I bet that bag is full of stolen goods, huh. A thief in the renegades.”

“Did you already forget I QUIT” Magpie grits out as she gets up.

“Again. Not OFFICIALLY! You’re still associated to them-!” Nova fumbles, “Them- us. The heroes.”

Magpie doesn’t seem to notice her fumble and solely focuses on what she said before. “OH like I’M gonna deal so much damage to the renegades reputation” She sneers and kicks aside some trash.

Nova takes a deep breath before practically shouting, “Yes!”

“I don’t go around flaunting my story unlike someone.”

Nova grits, “You are infuriating.”

“Thanks, I try.” Magpie brushes dirt off her clothes like it’ll make a change to how muddied they’ve become. “And besides, the renegades don’t need help soiling their reputation.”

Nova sighs and rubs her forehead, “I’ll never understand what Callum ever saw in you.”

Nova expected a snarky comeback immediately. Some snappy retort spat back at her like Magpie had been doing.

But Magpie stays quiet.

Nova looks over and sees the way Magpie's fists clench. She considers saying something again but Magpie brushes ahead of her.

Nova tilts her head to get a better look at Magpie and sees the kid’s fists clenching. Nova considers saying something before Magpie grunts and continues to search for the sewer exit. Preferably one that Nova isn’t in the way of. Nova still follows close behind.

“Maybe that’s why Callum was better than you hypocrites.”

Nova frowns, she really shouldn't be surprised anymore. “You’re one to talk.”

“Why do you think I left.” The heat was rising in her voice again, and Nova gladly met it.

“What else? Selfishness!” Nova’s hands swung around to exaggerate her point. “You didn't even think about how the people around you would worry for your safety?? All so you can indulge in a life of crime.”

“That’s not why I-”

Nova deadpans, “Sure.” Nova walks ahead of the tween in a spurred heated pace, turning the corner and checking the area. Magpie’s appearance had distracted her from the fact they were in territory many new villains loved to travel through. Must be the "aesthetic".

Despite walking ahead, she didn’t go so far where Magpie would be out of her peripheral vision. Her ears remained keen for if Magpie would try to dash off again.

“If you'd just let me talk-!”

Nova turns around, about to open her mouth when something large shoves her into the wall. She hears a shriek and draws her weapon blindly. It’s ripped from her hand almost immediately and she whips her head up, finally seeing their attacker.

A tall boney figure of a man stands right across from her, holding the small tween in his grasp with a maniac smile on his face. He’s giggling. The dagger Magpie had tried to grab in a last ditch attempt to protect herself had been pried out of her grip. The man brings her dagger to the kid’s neck, only centimeters away from slicing skin. Magpie trembles, trying to squirm out of the sickly skinny man's hold. His grin stretches from Nova's attention.

"If it isn't the famous hypocrite, Nightmare" the villain drawls out. When Nova steps closer, he shifts the dagger dangerously close to Magpie's neck. She stops. "Yeah that's right…" the villain giggles deliriously, twitching. "You can't do anything."

"What do you want?" Nova says cautiously, her eyes stayed glued to the dagger. Under her breath she whispers “250cm. Shabby haircut and facial hair. Notch in right ear, scarring from corner of the ear to top of-”

“Are you tattling on me? …heh …hehe continue! Not that it will work~” The villain strangely allows her to note the details and send in the report for back up “They won’t get here in time.” He sniffs and blinks lazily. Is… Is he drunk? His grip on the dagger laxes ever so slightly but Nova doesn’t breathe a sigh of relief just yet.

“You haven’t answered my question sir.”

“Drop your bag pretty little lady” The man uses his foot to slide Magpie’s passenger bag over to him, “This one’s getting lonely~” The raven-haired child squirms in his hold but he tightens his grasp on her, creating a striking cut across Magpie’s neck. Magpie cries out in pain.

“That’s what this is? A robbery? Drop the kid you don’t need to-”

“Stop talking, or I’ll slit her THROAT!!” The villain screams seemingly out of nowhere. Nova halts immediately, giving the villain more satisfaction than she’d like to. She grits her teeth, plotting how to handle this. “There we go~ That wasn’t so hard was it? Can’t ignore me now huh heh… heh heh”

Nova prays he’ll start to monologue. Oh please let him start monologuing! She needs the tim-

“You may be wondering why I’m doing this…”

THANK GOD

Magpie looks to be in pain but even she rolls her eyes in annoyance. The man giggles and his body seems to spasm like static. Nova squints. His hair shifts from orange to black to brown in a matter of seconds. 

“Do you like my power, little Nightmare?” Nova jolts and sees the scruff and build of Ace Anarchy right in front of her. An unstable form that shifts back into a stretched twig in the next second. “I’ve been meaning to give it a test run.”

“How are you-” Nova barely gets a word in before the villain continues.

“My form appears differently to all who see me. I appear as the people you’ve feared, who you’ve hated and cowered under in the past. I am fear. I am terror.” 

“Wait- You??” Recognition hits Nova like a stack of bricks and she groans internally. The graverobber.

A grin stretches across his face. His eyes hollow out and he takes on a sickly gray appearance. It almost looks like Ace Anarchy… but not quite. His eyebags stretch down his face for forever and he almost appears undead. His teeth appear chipped and stained with alcohol. His lip appears blistered, bleeding, as if a smoker’s lip.

Magpie screams when she sees his new appearance. With the villain’s attention away from her, she almost escapes his hold. She kicks wildly at him with the heels of her feet.

The Terror growls and makes a wild jab at Magpie before she escapes his hold, he nabs her cheek but Nova jumps in to restrain him before he can do anymore damage. Magpie falls to the ground as Nova grabs a hold of the villain. Nova rips back his (real) sleeve but the man shoves her off him before she can activate her power. 

The villain trips her and Nova curses when he attempts to keep her down by kicking her. She grabs his foot and yanks him down into the sewer’s sludge. She gets one good punch in before he returns the blow.

The man grabs the dagger but before he can strike, the dagger is ripped out of his hands and heads straight into Magpie’s. The Terror snarls at the child but gets caught up in wrestling Nova for her netting gun. Magpie dashes the other direction.

His face shifts to Adrian’s and Nova falters, immediately losing her advantage. Her own netting gun fires from The Terror’s hands, and pins her to the ground, knocking her head to the side.

She jolts up to get out of her own net casing, furiously searching for the other dagger on her person. She does her best with the newfound dizziness. The adrenaline pulses through her veins, allowing her the luxury to ignore the growing headache. She has no doubts it'll be an issue later, unfortunately.

The man fires the net at Magpie next, pinning her down for good measure as he searches her bag and nabs what he finds shiny. Magpie kicks and swears up a storm. The villain shoves her into the muck to shut her up. He takes her bag and runs.

Nova curses herself for her design choices. The net only closes around its capture, leaving no room for correction. She severs the net around her with the dagger the villain hadn't gotten a hold of in his hast, but it takes her longer than she’d like to retrieve it.

She clutches her head once she gets onto her feet, stumbling only slightly. The tunnel's few and far between lights flickered. The villain got away.

Nova almost considers going after him but Magpie's struggling takes precedence. Nova beelines for Magpie, kneeling down and cutting the ropes that trap her face in the sewer's waste and water. 

Nova cuts away the last piece that kept the child down, and Magpie jolts up to gasp. She sputters and coughs for a few minutes, gulping precious air. Procedure mandated Nova check with Magpie if she swallowed any water and (at least from Magpie’s testimony) she’s fine. Wouldn’t hurt to check out later.

Nova frowns toward the direction the villain went but shakes her head. Not yet. She helps pull Magpie to her feet and helps her down on the dry (not dry, moist actually, but considerably dry-er) concrete that sits above the sewer water. Nova pulls out a med kit, paying attention to the gashes the villain landed on Magpie. Her own could wait.

When Nova attempts to clean the gash on the kid’s cheek, Magpie jolts backward. Nova sighs.

“If I don’t do this, the wound will only get worse. Trust me, you don’t want to get an infection.” She says sternly. “And the quicker we do this, the sooner we catch that bastard.”

Magpie frowns, her eyebrows furrowing. She isn’t whining anymore at least, and she braces herself when Nova pulls out the antiseptic again.

Magpie winces from the sting of the disinfectant. Nova frowns and sympathizes with the kid. Using this disinfectant wasn’t the most preferable way to deal with these cuts, she’ll admit. But after the wounds’ contact with the sewer water, infection was definitely a greater concern. Nova will probably need to haul Magpie over to headquarters just to make sure the kid didn’t get any diseases from the sewage.

The cut on the kid’s cheek really only needs a simple bandaid but the laceration on her neck requires gause. It’s hardly a pretty sight but at least it isn’t bleeding too badly. Likely surface level.

She, again, cleans the wound and ignores Magpie’s winses. She applies the gauze to her neck and gently wraps the bandage around. 

Nova lets out the breath she had been holding in, “There. That wasn’t so hard was it?” Despite what she said, her tone was only half heartedly snarky. The villain had caught her off guard and she wasn’t enthusiastic to fail helping the kid again.

Magpie doesn’t respond. Instead, she chooses to stand up again, stumbling in the process. Nova catches and steadies her. Nova tries to check the kid’s head for a bump but the kid bats her hand away. The child frowns and looks away, feigning strength that contradicts her dependance on Nova to keep her steady.

Nova turns her attention away from the ex-renegade and back to the sewers. Inside her jacket, the thrum of her tracker comforts her of the villain’s whereabouts. She pulls it out and watches the flickering red spot’s movements. The blinking green dot marks where she is.

“He hasn’t gotten far. Keep a hold of my arm and on my sig-”

“It’d be easier if you left me behind” The ex-renegade gruffs.

Nova looks at her, “He took your stuff too.” And Nova didn’t want to risk the kid running away the moment she left her sight. But one appealed more to Magpie’s wishes than the other.

Magpie huffs and her attitude returns, “I don’t carry anything too important. I’m not stupid. He just snatched today’s income.” She mumbles something about finding a new bag.

Her nonchalance couldn’t help but make Nova bristle, “Income? Really. You mean what you’ve stolen today.”

“I’m using my powers for something useful now, aren't I?”

“Something useful would be helping people.” Nova couldn’t help the bite that came out in her voice. “Not causing a bigger issue for the Renega-”

“Why would I help them?” Magpie snarls, “Their reputation can go die for all I care. They didn’t help me and they aren’t entitled to my help”

Nova blinks, “What?”

“I know you heard me, don’t lie.”

Nova deadpans, “Oh? Clarify for me.”

“Why should I.” Magpie shoves herself away from her, getting her balance back mostly. She keeps one hand on the sewer wall.

Nova sighs, giving up on getting an answer for her question. Better to not beat around the bush. “What do you mean by ‘they didn’t help’? They were always reaching out! Callum was-”

Magpie scoffs, “Exactly. Callum. Everyone else was in it for my powers.” She grumbles something inaudible and then, “He was too but at least his power let him see past that.” 

Magpie winces in pain and stumbles, Nova rushes to her side to catch her again. Magpie doesn’t bother fighting her again but she does scowl. Nova ignores her and focuses on helping her walk. The kid’s right foot must be sprained or something.

Nova sighs, “Renegades are chosen because of their skillset.”

Magpie huffs “Yeah, well. I signed up for history. Artifacts.” 

“And you barely did anything.”

Magpie blew her hair out of her face. “Then good thing I’m out of your hair now. You don’t have to spare a thought to think about how worthless I am to you lot.”

Nova groans internally. She’d give anything to just drop the kid. “No one thinks you’re worthless. You haven’t been applying yourself so-”

“I have.” Magpie defends.

“Really.”

“Really!”

Nova heavily doubts that but chooses just to roll her eyes. “Well if we’re going to talk about this, why did you leave.” The villain wasn’t too far ahead but he had still made a substantial run for it. They were hardly close enough for their voices to be heard by him yet. From what the tracker suggested, he had paused to look at all his newfound treasures. Likely, he hadn’t noticed the tracker yet. Amateur.

“The renegades are hypocrites now.”

Oh this argument? Nova takes a breath, “They always have been.”

Now it was Magpie’s turn to be skeptical.

Nova continues, “But these kinds of organizations will always have flaws. That’s why good people need to be there to improve them.” Nova never thought she’d see a day where she’d so adamantly defend the renegades but here they were. 

Magpie pipes up again, “And yet they still flaunt the idea everyone is equal” Her words taunt the idea itself in an almost singsong way. “Nobody sees that’s the furthest thing from the truth”

“What do you mean by that?”

“No one is equal just because everyone and their mother has powers now.” She shifts slightly as they walk to turn the corner. “No power comes with the same strength as another. And now prodigies aren’t people who earned it.”

Nova chokes and whips her head around to the kid, “Earned it??”

Magpie puffs her chest out, defending her claim with no hesitance, “Becoming a prodigy comes from survival!” Her fist tightens, “And now there are new “prodigies" that flaunt their power like it’s the same thing!” She pointedly looks at the tracker with the villain’s location. Nova had to admit, she was right for this case.

Despite that, Nova refutes Magpie’s previous claim, “Not all ‘previous’ prodigies got their power out of necessity.”

Magpie bites back, “The majority did. And yet, everyone’s trying to act like nothing has changed for the worse.”

Nova frowns, “What does this have to do with you quitting?”

Magpie shuts her mouth and remains silent. They walk a good chunk for a good chunk of time before Nova opens her mouth, “Oh now you’re silent on me again. Great.”

Magpie groans something closer to a whine. “Why are you so interested anyway??”

“Maybe I want to know what’s in that skull of yours to think it’d be a good idea to disappear for weeks! You worried-”

“I don’t care.” Magpie mutters.

Nova still heard it. “Say that again.” A challenge really.

“They don’t actually mean it.”

Nova barks a humorless laugh, “Yes, (oh boy) yes, they do!”

Magpie whips her head back to Nova, “I was a nuisance! I burdened everyone. I used up resources.” She listed them like they would obviously affect how others would think of her. 

And it did. Not always the way Magpie believed though. 

Nova agrees with her, “Yeah, you were. What does that have to do-”

“Everyone should be happy I’m gone. I’m no longer a stain on their reputation.” She shoves her hands into her pockets. “But then again, they ruin their reputation well enough without me.”  

Nova doesn’t bother trying to interject and correct her again. Instead, she listens to Magpie spout off. She’s fessing up now. 

“I’m on the side that matches my character now, right? At least in their eyes. You should be happy.” Magpie quips, continuing her spiel.

Nova doesn’t say anything for a moment. Taking in the kid’s words. She isn’t really sure if she regrets making Magpie talk again. It was easier when she was silent honestly. Easier on her headache. Regardless, Nova speaks up again, “...That’s it? That’s why you made everyone worry?”

Magpie speaks firmly, “They aren’t actually worried. I can guarantee they just want my superpower and labor. Why would they be worried about me?” 

Nova takes in a deep breath, hopefully warding away her oncoming headache. “Honestly, I have no clue.”

“Told you.” Magpie grunts.

“But.” Nova breathes out, “They are worried regardless. Thunderbird herself asked me to go looking for you. And she doesn’t even like me!” Nova hoped her emphasis on Tamaya’s desperation would convince Magpie but it had the opposite effect.

“If anything that proves my point they don't care.” Magpie chuckles. It wasn’t funny. “Leaving my fate up to an ex-anarchist. If they are so concerned, where are they right now?” It almost sounded like a genuine question. One that flabbergasted Nova to no end.

“Busy! And they have been looking for you. They just also have more important things to do than-”

“Look for a shitty kid?” Magpie finishes for her. Nova’s eyebrows furrow at the wording. “I know you don’t like me. Nobody likes me. I made sure of that.” Of all the things for the thief to be honest about, Nova didn’t think admitting her self fulfilling prophecy would be one of them. “Callum was the only one that- …”

“That what?” Nova pries.

“That…” Magpie’s face scrunches up, a pattern when she’s forced to be vulnerable. “I mean that he was annoyingly persistent. He had a good superpower that… could have changed the world.”

“It did.”

Magpie laughs sourly, “It didn’t.” She shakes her head. “He died.”

“He inspired the people around him.” Nova insisted.

“And look what happened to him.”

A silence falls over the two. An uncomfortable one. Nova honestly isn’t sure what to do. Magpie never seemed the sentimental type in any shape whatsoever. She wouldn’t believe the kid even cared about Callum if she hadn’t seen her sobbing over his dead body last year.

Nova breathes in and breaks the silence, “He… was a martyr.”

Magpie’s voice comes out raw. “So? The wonders he saw shriveled up.”

“That’s not true.”

“Yes, it is. Barely anyone in this city has a shred of pity in their soul.” She spits. “Not without profit. Without glory.”

Nova puffs her chest out, “Bold of you to criticize this of the city.”

“Bold of you to assume I give a shit. I know my hypocrisy. I’m just telling it as it is.”

Something in the way Magpie uttered her last statement makes Nova pause. A sort of Deja vu waving over her. The echo of their footsteps quickly replaced their voices and filled the halls of the concrete and waste maze.

“...sounds pretty lonely.”

“Nice try, Nightmare. I’m not falling for that.”

“I’m not trying to trick you.”

Silence. Nova isn’t surprised by this point. In the corner of her eye she could see Magpie avoiding her gaze, entranced by the mesh of components that make up the concrete below them. Nova briefly glanced at her tracker and chewed on her lip. 

Nova sighs, “Just… Give me a reason to tell Tamaya and the others why you left when I get back.”

Magpie turns to her, squinting her eyes. “Are you serious?”

“Dead. Dead serious.” 

Nova looks at Magpie a second longer and flicks her attention back to the tracker. Magpie opens her mouth and Nova places a finger against it. Magpie's face twists in offense until she realizes what they've stumbled across.

Nova cautiously leans forward to see two men and the lanky villain from before. The lanky villain has donned a new mask, covering his face and neck entirely, masking his ability but protecting him from Nova’s. Magpie freezes and Nova moves her hand to the kid’s shoulder, squeezing gently.

She taps Magpie’s shoulder once. Twice. Magpie blinks and perks up to look at her with a surprised recognition. Nova continues relaying her instructions.

The girl squints her eyes at Nova.  Nova gives her a look and the girl huffs.

"..-. .. -. ." she taps back. The Morse code didn't translate her tone, but Nova could tell from expressions alone the girl’s grumpy agreement [Fine.]. 

Nova places her hand on the wall and points to one of the individuals The Terror stands next to. The one that looks about ready to fall over from nerves. He's holding a hefty chunk of concrete, the torn reinforcing steel at the center. It’s hard to miss the gaping hole in the wall, light shining through it. 

Magpie gives one gentle attempt to pull the bag away from him, it's across the shoulder of the man, but she slumps and gives up soon after. His arms are in the way of cleanly stealing her bag back.

Nova’s head lifts up and she points to the gravel and shards from the mess the group must have made in their haste into the sewers. The girl activates her powers and gathers the shards at her feet. Magpie moves them slowly into the water.

The movement startles the timid man ("Crocodile?!") into dropping the concrete, it breaks half once it meets the ground. The halves splash into the sewer's muck and liquid. One of the dealers smacks him in the head and the Timid dude straightens.

Magpie and Nova breathe a quiet sigh of relief once the merchants return to deciding the price they’ll pay for The Terror’s stolen items. Magpie lifts one slab of concrete slowly, breathing in. The water decreases the difficulty of carrying the concrete slabs, the only challenge will be getting it out.

Nova stays tense. She keeps a finger on the activation tigger of the tracking device. In the past she’s designed and built in the function to employ a heavy magnetic force, stuck to whomever she aimed it at. The corresponding magnetic rope weighs heavy on her gear belt.

“460. Final offer.”

“Deal.”

“Mack, get the fucking rocks, we’re going now.”

“Yes!”

Magpie jolts and lifts the concrete into the air, throwing them at the three. One thwacks the timid man, and he collapses to the floor. The second only grazes the Terror and the other dealer.

Nova activates the tracker, the metal presses tightly against his leg and expands to his knee. Magpie uses her power to shut the messy entry/exit hole. The Terror backs up and the second dealer curses Nova’s hero name. He opens his hand-

Nightmare shoves Magpie out of sight at the corner and dodges the dart flown her way. She runs up and kicks the second dealer into the sewer water before tackling the Terror to the ground. Her netting gun falls from her person in the process.

Magpie pulls her bag to her person, as well as the other (much larger) bag of trinkets and valuables stolen by the graverobber. She pays no attention to Nova punching the Terror and his strikes in return. Roughhousing. None of her business now.

She rummages to check her own stuff is still present, and then peeks through the other bag of belongings. Her eyes catch a card and she fishes it out.

A drivers license, with the name Oliver Berk listed next to a picture of a man.

Magpie doesn’t get to examine it for long. The second dealer hacks up the disgusting “water” and pulls himself out. He grabs Nova’s netting gun. Nova’s too busy keeping the Terror from escaping to notice. The Terror’s clothing covers up her options to force him unconscious in a split second.

Magpie jolts up to her feet and runs out of hiding. “Hey!”

The second dealer looks up just before she shoves herself against the man to grab the gun. He yells in shock and she scrambles to rip the netting gun out of his hand. He grabs her hood and lifts her into the air. “What the hell is this kid doing her-” She aims the netting gun and pins him down.

She goes down with him, only outside of the net. He lets go of her hoodie and she knocks against the concrete. Nova looks up in a panic from the sound, wide eyed and distracted. The Terror kicks her in the stomach and abandons the scene. But not before smashing the tracker device, prying it off of his leg.

###

Nova groans and gets to her feet. The pain eases after a moment. She looks up and breathes a sigh of relief to see Maggie getting to her feet. 

Nova slides down into the gutter between them to reach Maggie sooner. “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine.” Breathes Maggie.

Nova strides toward the kid and grabs her shoulders. Magpie freezes. Nightmare checks her head for bleeding, only finding a goose egg. “You got knocked twice in the head today.”

“I’m fine, Nightmare.”

Nova sighs and lets Maggie go. Choosing to walk over to the second dealer, she puts her hand through the net and forces him to fall unconscious. Nova’s phone pings with a new message and Maggie uses her power to snatch it and view it as Nova collects the other dealer from where he dropped.

“How come you didn’t run earlier?” Nova asks Maggie as she looks through the two villains' persons for identification, not before tying them up just in case.

“When?”

“When you grabbed the loot.”

Maggie pauses and shrugs. “They… could have had more on them”

“...ahuh.” Nova scratches her cheek. “And you ran out of hiding because…?”

“If- if he got you then I’d be fucked!” The girl defends herself. “Who here is more experienced with fighting and winning?”

“Okay okay, that’s fair.” Nova collects two identification cards. “These will be helpful at least.” 

Nova accidentally pulled out a photograph when she had searched the man's pockets. She stares at a photo of kids barking a resemblance to the man. She sighs in sympathy.

“I found another.” Maggie pulls over the large bag and hands Nova the driver’s license. “Oliver Berk. No powers recorded on it as of five years ago.”

“It’s outdated?” Nova examines the identification. “It doesn’t match either merchant.”

“The Terror?”

“It’s more likely to belong to someone who died in the past few years.”

Magpie’s nose scrunches, “Why would you steal a driver’s license? They’re worthless.”

Nova gives her a look, “Actually, they’re worth a lot. Especially if you need a new identity.”

Maggie blinks and her cheeks pinken ever so slightly out of embarrassment for not thinking of that possibility. “Well… won’t a dead person’s ID catch eyes? Someone would notice that right?”

“...Who knows anymore.” She sighs.

Maggie pulls out Nova’s phone she snagged earlier and looks at the message. 

“Oh. Her.”

“Who?” 

Maggie shows the screen to Nova. Nova sours for a moment to see Maggie stole her phone. She perks up in interest the moment she recognizes Thunderbird’s contact.

"Was she the one who put you up to looking for me?"

"Yeah why?"

Maggie walks over to the side of one of the men to sit down, crossing her legs. "She, especially, doesn't care. Not really"

"Sounded like she cared to me."

"She cares about my power. How it can be used. She was jumping to sponsor me after I tried out. Though, I bet in a heartbeat she'd want it to be someone else's." Maggie fidgets. "...she’s the reason I got out of the orphanage and a place with the Renegades when I did."

Nova hesitates to respond. She wishes she knew what to say, but she can't think of anything. Nothing that would make anything better. She doesn't know Tamaya well enough to argue or agree.

"...sorry about that, kid."

Maggie shrugs and places the phone down. Nova retrieves it quickly but Maggie's already reverted her attention to searching the merchant's pockets as if it were Christmas.

"You should probably tell her how you feel." Nova tries. "Might help clear up some things…"

Maggie pauses. She changes the subject.

“About your question earlier? About what you should tell them? Yeah… tell them don’t bother.” Magpie says as she packs up her once stolen trinkets, “It’s best for everyone if I stick to being a ‘villain’. If you’re shocked-” she searches the knocked out pawnbroker’s pockets for cash or anything of value, waving around the items to examine them “Don’t be! It’s been a long time coming.” 

Nova at Magpie. “Really?”

“Yes, really. Is that so hard to believe?”

Nova snorts, “No it isn’t. I’m being validated.”

Magpie deadpans as she shoves a very fancy trinket into her bag, “Congratulations. Would you like a metal?”

Nova blinks, “Did you just-”

“MEDAL! Medal. Gah forget it!” Magpie’s face pinkens and she stands to her feet in seconds. She secures her bag in its place, keeping her eyes away from Nova’s amused expression. “Anyway. You know I only care about me.”

“That’s true”

“Callum was the selfless one.”

“Yep”

“And he was wrong about me.”

Nova clicks her tongue, “I mean, I didn’t know him for very long all things considered, but I have a hard time believing Callum could be wrong about something like that.”

“Well, he was.”

She raises her eyebrow, “What exactly did he say about you anyway?”

Magpie scoffs, “What? The potential he saw? The wonders his power “revealed”?”

“Well, yeah. What else.”

“Stupid stuff…” The tween mutters.

Nova pries more, “And that stupid stuff is…?”

“...” Magpie relents after a moment of silence. But not after taking the time to roll her eyes. “He made me think that I could help people… the way I wanted help once.”

Nova pauses and can’t find anything to say about what Magpie just uttered. Nothing that would help. She waits for the kid to say anything more on the subject.

“This is stupid. You don’t care.”

“No- well…” Nova grimaces and sighs, “Why don’t I tell you something.”

Magpie whips her head back to Nova and squints her eyes. Eventually she bites and asks, “Tell me what?”

Nova took a breath and before saying something she hopes she won’t regret telling the 12 year old, “After we defeated Ace Anarchy, I wanted to quit.”

“Quit?” Magpie looks over to her, dumbfounded expression and everything.

“Yep.”

Magpie’s expression lessons. “...Why?”

“I felt I’d do more harm than good staying on the team.” She chuckles, beginning to fidget with her bracelet out of the need to do something with her awkward hands. “After all, my mistakes led to Ace running free for so long. He’s… the reason my family is dead.”

“What? Your…”

Nova nods, pursing her lips, “He hired the assassin. Shot my Mom, Dad, and sister.” Mentioning her long-dead sister made her heart ache. And at the same time, it was odd. She never imagined telling all of this to Magpie one day, and here they were.

Magpie’s eyebrows shoot up, and after a few seconds she utters “oh…”

“Yeah… turns out he kept me ‘cause I was a prodigy. I never knew.”

Maggie’s eyebrows furrow but she doesn’t say anything. The silence draws on longer than comfortable for the two of them. 

“Anyway…” Nova clears her throat. “I’ll always carry the guilt of what I could have done. The deaths I could have prevented are on my shoulders. I could run away, and suffer for what I’ve done and didn’t do.” She then smiles, “Or stick around. Stay with the people that care about me. And try to be better now. Make things better. That’s what the Rejects have been trying for the past year and counting.”

“The rejects?”

“Narcissa’s the leader. I’ll give you a fair introduction to them later if you want.”

…

Nova coughs, “Anyway, I guess what I’ve been trying to say is, it gets better. You never know where people that get you, show up. And that more people care about you than you ever realize.

“Y’know, when things to crap.”

###

Nova sends a quick text before her and Maggie leave. It's to heroes in their area, notifying them of their location, the situation, and the pawnbrokers. She trusts them to handle the two fairly.

It didn’t take very long to find The Terror's next planned location once they rummaged through the two pawnbroker’s pockets and found how they had been communicating with The Terror. 

And the fact The Terror was actually Oliver Berk. The grin on Maggie's face for being right didn't leave for a while. Nova could only sigh. Of course the amateur villain would keep his identification with him.

The amateurness didn't stop, and his weak security both hurt Nova and made her want to laugh. How could you screw this up so badly?? From there she and Maggie had tracked him down to his next location and ambushed him, making quick work of tying him up.

Maggie holds her lucky bullet in her hand and close to her when she stands against the sewer wall and slides down into a sit. She fiddles with it a little and looks at Nova who is finishing up her report to headquarters. Nova rubs her head to ease her headache as she writes. She types up she has apprehended the villain, their location, and a promise to return to hq soon after denying a ride back.

“...My family was murdered too”

“Hm?” Nova turns to Maggie.

“When I was a baby. I don’t know too much. I was found by the landlord or something.” She holds up the bullet. “I just know this gave me my powers.”

Nova blinks and lets her mouth form an ‘o’ shape. Out of all the things today, this wasn't one she thought Maggie would talk about.

The kid holds the bullet closer to her chest, "This is my power. I don't care what you think about me. What anyone thinks. This power is mine and only for me. It is me. It's… how I survive" she grits out.

Nova breathes out a sigh and shrugs, "I mean… I get that.”

“You do?”

Nova nods, “The anarchists weren’t exactly buddy-buddy with me. Even after the age of anarchy, it’s common advice, you could say, to keep your guard up. Just in case.

"And with hindsight, I was only kept alive by my uncle because of my powers…"

Nova couldn’t help but fidget slightly from Maggie’s persistent attention. That stare. Now that the kid was actually listening it was almost unnerving. The kid’s piercing blue gaze only assisted the look.

“And some shitty things have happened to me. No surprise there. My new friends help me out with that now.”

Maggie’s concentration on what she says breaks the next second, and she snorts, “What are you even suggesting. Getting cheesy friends may have worked for you, but it won’t fix anything for me. We aren’t the same.” Maggie looks away from her with a scowl. “I have nothing. Nothing of my old life. Blurry memories maybe. But no photos. No gravestones. No names.”

Nova pauses and frowns. Maybe sympathetically. She doesn’t really know. “You don’t need those to move on.”

“Says the renegade with photos, and memories, and names, and graves to say goodbye to.” 

“I lost most of the photos a long time ago. And,” She raises her finger to emphasize her point, “my sister’s corpse was never recovered so watch your mouth.”

“At least you know her name”

“Will you please just work with me!? I just” Nova breathes in. “I want to hold out an olive branch. Because… you aren’t nearly as alone as you think.”

Maggie stays quiet. Nova fills the space.

“Look, we definitely got off on the wrong foot” She pauses and bites her lip. “Pun, not intended.” Nova ignores the incredulous look Magpie gives her.

“But. I don’t want to see someone else go through what I did alone.”

“We. Are not. The same.”

“No, we aren’t. But pretty damn close, dontcha think?” Nova chuckles lightly, but is met with Magpie’s continued silence. “Yeah okay, that wasn’t funny.”

Nova heads over to where the villain had been tied up and readjusts the knots, she needs something to do with her hands. “We can leave soon and forget this ALL happened if you want. Just know this, I am lucky to have gotten back so much.”

“I could have told you that.”

Nova ignores her. “But for the longest time… I didn’t know I had that much to be returned. I thought everything about my past died that night, aside from my memory. Even my bracelet wouldn’t be as important to me, without that memory. That memory was my drive and it still is.”

Maggie’s quiet when she responds, her overgrown bangs hover over her eyes and shade them. “I tried moving on.”

“Did you?”

“I moved on… by staying alive.” Maggie lets out a breath. “Who cares if they didn’t come back. Or if I have nothing left. It’s me now. Those pieces are dead and I’m the one who’s living.”

“Good. Stay alive. But that living person can’t have any friends? Any support?”

…

“I can’t say goodbye to my sister.”

Maggie looks up at her, “You were telling the truth?”

“Yeah, why wouldn’t I be?”

Maggie doesn’t answer and lets Nova continue.

“They have a gravestone in place, but she isn’t there.”

“They couldn’t find a simple corpse? That is… hilariously incompetent.” Maggie almost deadpans.

“Yeah well, doesn’t change I can’t say goodbye. Or hello. Tell her about my day. About an awful coworker. A competition for kids that… she’d be the same age as. And,” Nova blinks, “I can’t say happy birthday, either.”

Maggie’s eyebrows furrow.

“She… uh… Evie. Would have turned thirteen this week…”

“...thirteen?” The silence could only be described as all consuming. And Maggie’s tone was undecipherable.

“Yeah.”

Maggie only stares at Nova. Her eyes focusing on her like a hawk. In disbelief? In sadness? Nova never would think of empathy to be an emotion Maggie would display before tonight, but she’s been surprised on the contrary before.

Maggie’s lip twitches. Her lips form into a scowl, bringing the rest of her expression with it. Her hackles raise. “Oh yeah. Very funny.”

Nova blinks in confusion. “What??”

“I’m not gonna fall for that.” She pushes herself off the wall she had been leaning against.

“I’m not lying.”

“You’ve done it before, Insomnia.” Nova squints her eyes and Maggie continues, “Twelve years after a home invasion? Murderer on the loose with a gun?! Yeah, as if. You just want to trick me!”

“Why would I do that??” Nova returns Magpie’s volume, “Why would I lie-”

“I am thirteen years old.”

Nova blinks incredulously, “...W-what?

“And whatever sick trick you’re playing on me isn’t funny. I won’t go back to headquarters. You can’t fool me. Is this what they're training Renegades to do now? Fuck with people’s heads?!”

Nova’s mouth remains wide open out of offense, and she has to remember to close it as her expression heats up. She’s speechless from this accusation before she speaks up, “You’re talking nonsense! Why are you- what does-” she flounders to make sense of the conclusion Magpie has come up with “You- You’re thirteen?”

Magpie scoffs, “Yeah. Thirteen. Just short a month after I was admitted to the orphanage. After- …after my family died.” She quiets but keeps her glare on Nova. “But you already knew that didn’t you.”

Nova’s furrowed expression stays put until she digests what Magpie is saying. Her expression slowly lessons and her eyes widen. She steps back.

The thirteen year old blinks, “What?”

“I’m not making this up, Magpie.”

“What do you mean you aren’t making this up.”

“I… I’m telling the truth. I wouldn’t lie about this.”

“Well I’m not lying either.” Maggie intended to spit the truth out but the moment she said it the more it seemed Nova’s words were also ruminating in her head too. Her eyes widen but it doesn’t match Nova’s expression.

Nova’s face pales and her eyes dart to the hand that Maggie grips her bullet with. A… a bullet?

“It can’t be…”

###

Life, has been a nauseating rollercoaster for Maggie.  Especially for today. A day she thought wouldn't be stressful for once. Calmer even. 

Sure, she planned to snag more than a few trinkets to pawn but today she didn’t want to have to run away from annoying heroes. The ones that get upset with her theft. Frankly, she didn’t want to think about them either. One stop at the food drive was plenty of that interaction.

Maggie didn't think about the heroes that saw her at the food drive and did nothing. The ones who've been in the area enough to know only people in poverty end up here. She didn't think about never seeing Sketch's team once.

Not… not that she'd want to see them! They'd only nag her.

The point is… she didn’t want to run, or get hurt. The last few weeks she's stayed away from ugly fights and for a reason. Her goal is to survive, not get some wound infected and die from a disease.

And yet, she had to run from the annoying Nightmare and was cut up by the latest piece of gossip, The Terror. Who… she also had not been keen on running into. The sting on her cheek and pain from her neck were sour reminders of that failure.

But even when she had been shoved into the sewage, her foot stomped on, Nightmare still helped her. Hell, Nova looked concerned after the second fight.

And she never expected Nightmare to… be nice to her. Like, ever. In the beginning she was just as annoying as before but… Maggie never would have predicted it.

Maggie also never thought she and Nova could work together. 

It unnerved her a little when Nightmare told her things that, Maggie would never tell if in Nova's position. Why would Nova trust her with all this information? 

Heck, Maggie thought she had it figured out for a moment. That Nova was actually backstabbing and exploiting her knowledge of Maggie’s past to trick her. It made sense. 

Her mind was eager to brush aside the last hour. It was all fake, right?

But this. 

This isn’t how a fucked up villain would react to being found out. For lying the entire time.

Maggie grips her lucky bullet in her hand. 

Today has been a rollercoaster. And Maggie hates rollercoasters.

The silence between the two stretches on for hours. Or a minute. Who was she to tell? 

Nova? 

Nova’s her… sister?

The thing about Maggie is, she hates hoping. She despises the very concept. When she was younger, she hoped all too much. Too many nights she spent staying up listening to the grownups and their phone calls. Waiting for someone to call, asking for her. Someone to walk through the doors one day, and call her theirs.

Waiting for her sister to burst through the doors, apologizing for leaving her with one big hug.

The very thought makes her nauseous nowadays. How could she have been so naive. Wasted all that time hoping. Focusing on a what if rather than what she could do. She could do so much. 

She left.

And now she’s here. And now her sister is here. Well, maybe her sister. 

Nova is murmuring something Maggie can’t quite follow, her hand is over her mouth as several emotions flicker across her face. She looks about ready to barf, and Maggie couldn’t blame her if she did. The kid feels ill enough to join her, honestly.

She wants to shut down the possibility all together. That her sister really is gone and she’s not right in front of her, staring at Maggie like she’s seeing a ghost. The hope and trepidation in Nova’s eyes that Maggie stomped in her own a long time ago.

Nova pinches the bridge of her nose and walks over to The Trashbag and hoists the villain over her shoulder. She mumbles something under her breath, Maggie can't make out.

Something grabs Maggie’s hand and she jolts, ripping her hand away and whips her head toward- Nova. Nova’s hand is shaking and she seems to be trying to keep her calm. Upon further inspection, Maggie realizes she’s trembling too. Why is she doing that?

“Maggie…”

Maggie clenches her fist, and lets Nova hold her hand in a tight grip, before exiting the sewers.

###

Nova jumps out of the cab with Maggie close behind, she rushes out a “thankyousomuchsorry!” to the cab driver still frozen from the two renegades and villain that hitched a ride. She makes a mental note to pay them back later.

She sees headquarters' front entrance light up the darkening sky as she approaches. Her head throbs once she walks in and meets the fluorescent lights. Nova unceremoniously drops the villain on the ground and ignores the shocked staff when she beelines for the medical suite. She never once lets go of Maggie's hand.

Her mind notes the sound of heroes telling Mr Berk his rights before they take him away for interrogation. Nova opens the door to the medical suite and the bustle of the front lobby muffles once the door is shut.

Maggie lags behind as Nova reaches the counter, asking for a kinship test. 

Nova's breathing feels wrong. She could see from the rise and fall from her chest that she wasn't hyperventilating. But it felt too slow. Every breath was too big. Suffocating her.

The person from behind the counter hands her the box containing the test. She holds it carefully and can only stare. After a moment the person at the desk looks at her in confusion and gets her attention.

"It's just a mouth swab, Sweetie. Don't worry" the person offers her a smile. Nova's cheeks pinken and she mutters a thank you before practically running back to where she left Maggie.

Nova takes another breath. It, is just a saliva test. When it comes down to it, it won't even be painful.

Her eyes catch the labeling. Sibling kinship test.

Her gut twists from the word. 

…could Maggie really be…

"What's taking you so long?"

Nova whips her head up to look at Maggie's furrowed expression.

"Ah, nothing nothing. It's fine." Nova opens the cardboard box, the thick paper glowing the box closed tears apart. She presses the flaps aside and dumps the innards onto the small table offered in the room. Maggie eyes the tests with trepidation.

Nova takes a deep breath in, "Magpie"

The thirteen year old looks back at her.

"I… if. This confirms anything. …We don't need to do anything about it immediately. If, you don't want to." Nova hands the tween one of the still packaged swabs. "I don't want you to think… that you're obligated to anything."

The thirteen year old grabs her own sleeve to tug on slightly as she stares at the test. Not touching it.

"...what if it doesn't…"

"Doesn't… confirm anything?" Nova finishes. "...well. Still, you don't have to do anything." Nova rubs the back of her neck "but, feel free to talk to me."

Maggie looks up at her with a skeptical squint. "Why?"

"On the streets, support systems are vital if you don't want to end up dead within a month" Nova smiles. "It could just be a phone number, okay?"

"No, I mean, why do you still want to talk after all the times I stole your bracelet."

"I have a funny feeling you won't be trying that again. Not unless you want the Renegades on your back" Nova shoots the girl a look that says 'right?'. Maggie can't refute that.

Maggie hesitates before opening the plastic package and retrieving the mouth swab.

From the many years of technological development and the growth of prodigies, some things have taken less time to analyze than before. What would have taken a few days could now receive results in a couple hours or so.

An agonizingly long couple hours. Better than the alternative but still an infuriating amount of time to wait for DNA testing results. 

Nova convinced Maggie to have the wounds she received by The Terror checked for infection in the meantime. 

Though one of the nurses nearby grabbed her as well to be patched up. Maggie laughed at her, and her initial shock and realization of what she neglected to do. It didn't take long for the nurse to finish patching Nova up. Sent back to the cold waiting room soon after…

It was easier to forget what they were waiting on with the distractions.

Nova looks at her phone again. She doesn't unlock the screen but she does view the time. And the texts she's received from Adrian and Tamaya. Both have been caught up in an incident downtown and would be there as soon as possible. Though, she warned Tamaya to wait until Maggie wanted to talk to her. Nova decided against telling Oscar, Ruby, and Danna what happened.

It could be completely coincidental. More doubt settles in Nova's mind the longer she waits. 

When Maggie returns, Nova doesn't look at her. She fiddles with her hands, she almost wishes she had one of her inventions or something to do.

Finally, someone calls for them. Nova whips her head up and stiffens. This… is really happening. Her brain feels like it's still trying to catch up to the events around her. She stands up and looks at Maggie. The girl tenses and freezes up.

Nova goes to check the results without her. She could almost hear the quiet sigh of relief.

Someone, with a stereotypical lab coat, on hands her the envelope containing the printed results. 

Nova doesn't catch much of the explanation of how the DNA match results were determined, but she appreciates it nonetheless.

She leans against the wall and slowly wills her fingers to open the letter.

It's been a little more than 12 years since her family was killed.

Her hands tremble as she slowly takes the folded paper from inside.

She remembers every gunshot. 

BANG! 

She remembers hiding in that cramped closet.

BANG!

Nova takes a deep breath.

Evie's crying was cut short with one final…

…

BANG!

She unfolds the paper.

Ace never let her see Evie's bloodied corpse. The last time she saw Evie was when she left her sleeping body to check on her parents. When everything changed.

They never got to see a funeral. Nova never knew what happened to the bodies. Ace never gave up any details on the subject.

Looking at the paper was disorienting at first until her eyes caught onto the letters and began to read. Alleged Sibling was typed at the top of two columns, above "Nova Artino" and "Margaret White".

She keeps her thumb over the results number but the more she looks, the more numbers that match. 

Nova moves her thumb and stared at the paragraph beneath the total index.

Her eyes are dragged to the nines in the percentage listed. 

DNA testing done to determine siblingship of the alleged siblings. Based on testing results obtained from analyses of the DNA loci listed, the probability of full-siblingship is 99.8%. The likelihood they share a biological father is….

…not a coincidence then

The air leaves Nova's lungs the next second. She couldn't even read the rest before she began to sway. She braces herself against the wall and does her best to lower herself to the ground safely. 

Nova took in another breath but it came out as a strangled sob. Her face is wet. When did she start crying?

Maggie's Evie.

Evie is Maggie. Magpie.

Evie's… alive.

How??

Her mind remembers the bullet in Maggie's hand. It… gave Maggie her powers…

She hears Adrian come through the doors before she sees him in her blurry vision. His Sentinel uniform is mostly covering him still.

Nova holds a hand over her mouth and stumbles to her feet. 

"Nova-"

Nova runs past her confused boyfriend, who voices his confusion and concern immediately after.

She runs out into the waiting room and her eyes dart around, looking for-

"Nova?"

Nova whips her head to the source of the sound. Her eyes first catch the shiny gleam of the cold blue light reflecting a choppy hair cut, greasy and dark, donned on the thirteen year old.

Evie looks up.

Her eyes are her mother's. A piercing grayish blue. The same ones that sobbed her heart out due to a fever twelve years ago. The little baby girl who's crying was cut off. Cut off by the same gunshot that has echoed in Nova's head since she was six.

"Nova?"

Nova's world spins slightly but she continues to stare. She feels frozen, her hands possessed when she tightly clutches the warm printed paper.

Evie's eyebrows furrow in apprehension, her hackles raising. She stands up. "What? What is it?!"

Nova can only stare. 

A beat passes.

Evie backs up slowly and before Nova can say anything, the girl runs out of the room like a startled deer. Shoving past everyone in her way of the exit door.

Adrian's voiced confusion snaps Nova out of it. He tries to say something to her but she can't articulate what exactly. She runs after the kid.

Nova throws open the door and bursts outside, looking around wildly. Her heart is thumping, ready to burst from her chest. She curses her eyes for blurring her vision with streaming tears. She feels sick. 

Steps skidding around the corner alert her attention and she follows in haste.

Her breathing is heavy, and she can see each hot breath she pants dissipate into the cold air.

Curses flood Nova's head when whips around her corner and doesn't see the kid. Where…

Her eyes dart around as she catches her breath. She… she couldn't have imagined Evie… could she… is Maggie still in-

Her eyes finally catch a huddled figure in a more obscure section of the wall. If Nova's thoughts weren't running wild, she probably would have caught the kid immediately.

The wall is uneven, a section jutting out, allowing someone to hide right one of the walls. The girl sits next to the large garbage bin. Honestly, it's a half hearted attempt at hiding. Maybe she didn't even mean to hide.

Just needed to get away.

Nova's shoulders relax and she stays where she stands. Nova keeps her eyes away from the twelve year old girl, willing herself to stop trembling. 

Nova takes in a shaky breath and squeezes her eyes shut for a moment. She only needs a moment.

The silence is deafening.

Nova wipes her eyes and clenches the printed test results.

"Is…" She starts and stops, clearing her throat. Come on Nova! Be at least somewhat composed about this! "Is that the bullet… the one that…"

That killed you. Killed her. Almost. It almost killed her, now. It almost killed you, didn't it?

"...how would I know." The twelve year old looked like she meant to spit the sentence out, but it came out more exhausted and dim. "I was a baby." The girl holds the bullet tightly in her palm, curling into herself.

Nova's mouth opens and closes for a moment. Magpie's skin prickles when she stares for too long.

Magpie bites, "what?"

"Look. It- … it's hard to go from believing your baby sister was shot and murdered to finding out she's been alive and… well… you"

Maggie weakens slightly and turns her head away…

"Is it disappointing?"

Nova's features furrow after Maggie's question. She responds, with a question. "Is it disappointing that I'm your sister that disappeared?" Nova's voice is sore. This day has been exhausting for the two of them.

"I… I don't know." Maybe it would have been before today. Or if Maggie was still searching for her sister even when she met Nova. "I just thought… I didn't have anyone left…"

Nova sat in silence for a bit, biting her trembling lip, "... Me too."

Nova, uncomfortable with looking down at Maggie, decides to walk over and sit beside the kid. Not terribly close, but close enough that after a long pause, Maggie sort of leans onto her shoulder. 

Nova can barely feel it, like Maggie's hovering just the slightest so that she wasn't actually pressing fully against her. 

Ready to flee.

Nova doesn't comment. And Maggie speaks up, in a vulnerable tone unlike any Nova had heard from Maggie before. Even compared to tonight's dizzying developments. 

Closer to a whisper. 

"...you really thought I was dead?"

"Maggi- Ev- '' she breathes out. "...yeah. When I heard the gunshot and her… your crying stopped…" Nova has to stop herself, she purses her lips. She locks her eyes on the lamp hanging in front of the brick wall parallel to them. Studying how it reflects.

"…so. You didn't mean to leave… me? You… you would have stayed?"

Nova looks over, her eyes are wide and she tells herself to not get emotional. Don't. Her head whispers lingering doubts that… this isn't even real. "Yeah… " Nova feels a little breathless. 

It certainly doesn't feel real.

Magpie turns away, staring blankly at the same brick wall. The wall behind them feels the same. She blinks, trying to make sense of it all, "so…"

"So?"

"You were here…the whole time…"

"Yeah… Sorry. …that I couldn't have been before"

"Okay…" Maggie hunches closer into herself. "This sucks."

Nova looks over, "why's that?"

Maggie doesn't answer her question. "Do we know for sure that the blood samples matched? Test it again!" Maggie pulls her sleeve down, holding her pale boney arm out to Nova. Nova blanches.

"Wh-what?! Maggie, you know the equipment they have is the best in the city. It's not a mistake." Nova frowned at her. "Plus, they're saliva tests, not blood."

"Well-! Well… …" Maggie purses her lips, holding them shut as her mind thinks and catches up. Nova's mind still hasn't, truth be told. "Then what are we going to do now,"

Nova takes a deep breath, "I don't know." She fiddles with her bracelet, "...Do you want your records updated?"

Maggie blinks, "You have them?"

Nova weakly smiles in a wistful way, "Yeah. The renegades made sure to file them. Let's just say… they felt guilty" she couldn't help but grunt the last part out.

Maggie blinks and looks up, "Really?"

"Yeah. You, uh, wouldn't remember, but Captain Chromium promised our family's safety and… you know how that played out."

Maggie pauses and then huffs, “That’s not surprising” she pauses again to think. “Does that mean… I have a birth certificate?”

Nova sat up a little straighter, “Yeah. Evie Artino…” She wet her lips and wiped her tear stained cheeks, "...twelve years now. She was- You were a home birth. A long one too. Took hours before I could meet you. Along with… our uncle.”

Maggie frowned. "Ace Anarchy. Lovely family bonus points I guess…"

"He didn't seem so bad at the time."

"That's how they trick you."

"Yeah,"

Maggie just slightly nudges closer to Nova, "what day?"

"The…" Nova opens her mouth only to close it again. "...well. I guess this means happy birthday." Nova's small smile stretches as far as it could on her face. Not much considering the amount of restraint she had to not cry. "Happy Birthday, Evie Artino."

Nova remembers being a kid and ecstatic for her sister's first birthday. She fully planned out the cake and decorations right alongside her mom who had to remind her they couldn't afford to go all out. 

She was sad at the time but she was determined to sing super loud for her sister when the day came. And give her even better gifts when Evie gets older.

After the final gunshot, Nova threw all of those hopes away. Burned them to ashes, really.

Maggie frowns for a moment and looks away for a moment to wipe her eyes with her fist. She turns back and without a word, sits her head back to where it had previously been close to Nova.

Nova feels the weight this time.

"I don't know… I don't know what I want…" Maggie thought she knew at one point. She knew exactly what she wanted. To be a little orphan Annie, found by her full family and welcomed with big open arms. It didn't matter who found her. As long as someone found her and loved her.

But now? She's given up on that fantasy for so long that anything remotely similar is… unfamiliar. She can't navigate this. It still… doesn't feel real.

Nova shrugs and says, "That's fair. I don’t really know either” she chuckles softly “Never thought Evie… you could be alive. Much less a prodigy.” 

She straightens slightly, not enough to nudge the girl off her arm though. Maggie's (surprisingly) skittish enough that Nova could even say she's like a bird, quick to fly away. 

Nova frowns, “I can only imagine what Ace could have done if he knew…” The arm Nova had subconsciously placed around her sister tightens slightly before she reminds herself it’s okay. He’s dead. He can’t use Maggie like how he used her.

Magpie blinks and cringes, “Working for that crusty old terrorist? Pass.”

“You wouldn’t know any different.”

“I grew up in an orphanage.” Maggie grunts, “They aren’t exactly known for their good conditions. I learned that and didn’t know any different.”

Nova sighs, “I know. Were they… bad to you?”

Maggie shoves a hand into her pocket, fiddling with her bullet. “They weren’t good, let's just just say that…”

Nova frowns, her chest tightens and she has the strangest feeling of… protection come over her? 

Would it have been different before she knew who Maggie was? Maybe… maybe not.

"What did they do?"

"What do you think? Everyone was either wasted off their arses or busy setting fire to the nearest building out of some petty revenge…" Maggie pauses, "They… uh… somehow never set fire to the orphanage itself. I bet they wanted to."

"I get that. Honey frequently downed bottles of booze when she could."

"I didn't think the anarchists had the money for that sort of thing"

"We didn't. I ran, er, 'errands' a few times"

Maggie blinks, "Wait, you stole??"

"I was an anarchist, kid."

The kid huffs, "Hypocrite."

Nova chokes, "I- that's different."

"Is it?"

"Yes, actually. I'm an- was. Was an Anarchist." Nova coughs. “You were stealing as a Renegade”

“Same difference.”

“I… Whatever.” Nova rolls her eyes. “Drunk bastards raised you?”

"Meh, they don't deserve that much credit."

"Fair." Nova frowns and looks over at Maggie. She notices Maggie tense and returns to the topic, "Anyway, just say the word and I'll pull the strings I need to get your records fixed."

"...thanks" Maggie murmurs, "Maybe later."

Nova rubs Maggie's arm as she relaxes. Nova's head buzzes with questions but she'll save them for later.

Then. Maggie asks. "canIhugyou?" Rushing out the sentence before she could chicken out. Her cheeks pinken ever so slightly.

Nova blanches, "er, Sur-?" Maggie cuts her off and hugs her tightly, squeezing her for a moment. Nova blinks and slowly puts her arms around the 12 year old too. She doesn't even mind the spot on her clothes getting wet from where Maggie has buried her face. 

Nova rubs her back and squeezes back too. She presses her lips thinly together and hugs her close. The kid's body weaves with silent sobs. Nova lets the tears fall from her eyes as she rubs her sister's back.

"Hey" She says softly, "You good?"

Maggie nods lethargically, not moving from the hug.

"Do you still want another test done?" Nova's lip twitches up slightly.

"I… don't want to head back inside yet"

"It's getting late"

Maggie makes a noise, it tells Nova she really doesn't care. At all. 

"It's warm inside"

"No" Maggie huffs quietly.

"Okay" Nova chuckles and rubs Maggie's arm, "thennnn…. how about we go somewhere else… warmer preferably."

Maggie pulls away a little bit to look at Nova.

"It's your birthday so, how about we head over to a restaurant or something. Your pick." Nova suggests, "We can hang out there till you're ready to talk to everyone else."

"I thought restaurants close earlier than that"

"Kid, I don't sleep. I know a few All Night Open places if your pick closes too soon."

Maggie pulls away completely and fiddles with her bullet in her pocket. "I… don't mind that." She whips her head up. "You have to promise not to make the waiters sing."

Nova blinks and laughs, snapping her fingers, "Darn, there goes my plans!"

Maggie scowls and squints at her.

She sighs dramatically, "I promise I won't."

"Won't what?"

"I won't make them sing" Nova smiles and stands up, opening her phone and sending a quick text. "Everyone inside can wait a little longer now that they know you're breathing. No promises they won't try to sing to you later."

"They're not allowed."

"I'll tell them that." Nova holds out a hand to Maggie, offering to help her up. "Got any restaurant requests yet? Fast food?"

Maggie hesitates and accepts her hand, "...your favorite. Whatever it is…"

"Okay"

###

Nova sets the finished food dishes to the side of their booth's table. She rubs Maggie's arm as the kid breathes in and out slowly. Her eyelids twitch from dreaming. She puts her coat back on Maggie after it slowly slid down.

Their private booth's light flickers from the fancifully decorated lantern. The warm light thankfully gentle to her, albeit dimming, headache. A waiter had offered to find some ice earlier but she declined politely.

Nova's phone lights up again from another text. She sighs and clicks her phone off. They can wait for a little while, she's already explained enough for now. Though she's surprised by their resilience to check up on them. It's been hours since they left.

Her hand plays with Maggie's hair. Moving it out of the kid's face, not bothering too much with some of the tangles. She does her best to keep her thoughts off of how tonight's events will change everything in the future. 

Nova is more than content with staying with her sleeping sister, the one that is unconsciously hugging her. On her birthday.

After texting Adrian, he thankfully understood and avoided texting questions, despite the thousands Nova is sure he has.

Someone knocks on a clipboard outside and the booth's curtain opens a little. The waiter waves apologetically and notices Maggie is sleeping before they speak. The waiter smiles and takes the dirty dishes, handing Nova a to-go box like she requested earlier.

Before the server leaves, they put two plates on the table. Both with a slice of chocolate cake. Nova quietly thanks them and hands them the paid check, along with the generous tip.

After the waiter leaves, Nova carefully packs up the remaining food for leftovers without waking Maggie up. Her phone lights up from another text and she sees the time. 

Nova pulls out a candle and a matchbox. She sets them both to the side. She grabs her phone and decides to open up her camera app. She takes a picture.

Showing her, the cake slices, and Evie.

She puts out the match and takes a quick picture. Showing Evie, her, and the candle.

…she stares at it. The candle ended up in the frame. A single candle. 

She wishes she could've gotten the number of candles accurate to her sister's age, but this was all the restaurant had left. Plus, 13 candles wouldn't fit in a single slice. 

Yet, strangely, it almost feels poetic now. One candle for the first birthday they missed. God, now her thoughts were corny. Must have been the Everharts' influence on her.

But she accepts the cringe. And she thinks about herself 13 years ago. Little six year old Nova, excited for her baby sister's first birthday.

Nova loved the idea of celebrating her sister's birthday the exact time she was born. Her parents, not so much, given Evie was born close to midnight. Nova's still not completely sure where she heard the idea from at six years old.

Nova hums a little, and remembers practicing the song they would sing once it was time to. The one she still hasn't sung in a while. She smiles a little.

"Happy birthday… to you"

Nova grabs the candle and places it in the center of Evie's cake slice as she softly sings the lyric. She lights the match.

"Happy birthday to you"

Evie's eyes blink awake lethargically, shifting a little bit to adjust her position. The girl sleepily looks at Nova as the ex-anarchist lights the birthday candle. 

Nova didn't need the waiter's assistance after getting permission earlier. Perks of saving the owner she supposes.

"Happy birthday, dear Evie."

She lets out a breath, saying her sister's name with a smile. Nova tucks a few strands of hair behind Evie's ear. Evie tiredly nuzzles into Nova's arm to get closer, but she does keep an eye on the candle as it flickers. She doesn't look at her, but Nova knows Evie is paying attention.

"Happy Birthday to you"

End notes:

[quidfree]

Hello!!! so I love your story Sober II… I was re-reading it back to back with TSH and the way you wrote them felt so true to Tartt’s characterization of them I was absolutely floored to how you captured the essence of the characters in your writing and your extension to their dynamic.

I have a question about your own personal head-canons between the two because I also read your spin off fic of sober II and found myself wondering who you think is the more physically affectionate of the two? I get the feeling that both your Francis and Richard kind of shy away from showing the other affection, or at least quite hesitant in doing so. From what you’ve written I feel like it’s Francis because of little moments like him placing his feet on Richards legs when they’re both on the couch… but in my re-read it’s Richard usually reaching for Francis, or Richard keeping Francis’ hands on him out of instinct. And that bit where they’re in their 40s and Richard suddenly becomes paranoid about how close they were in front of his students. Anyway, sorry for the tangent but I’m simply curious about who you think is the more affectionate of the two!

Also, don’t laugh at me but when you mentioned Anne Carson in your story I fell into a spiral of purchasing a few of her novels and translations and now I’m obsessed. She’s pretty popular but she’s never really be on my own personal radar, so thanks for that!

ahh thanks so much anon- and what, i’m delighted you discovered anne carson through me, not laughable at all!

that’s an interesting question and your analysis is good haha- made me sit and think about my subconscious choices in writing them. i think you’re right that i don’t necessarily see them as affectionate with each other from jump, due to all of richard’s sexuality hangups and francis’ weird relationship to physical affection.

in my head francis is definitely more touchy but it’s like, following a specific set of rules- he’s flirtatiously touchy (see: initiating all his hookups), and casual with the touches if you’re an unthreatening figure in his life (his mother, camilla, etc), but i feel like bc richard is a bit of a complicated situation as of post-canon he’s more withdrawn with him than he might otherwise be (and might have been back in early hampden when he gave less of a shit about richard and also was prodding at him to see if his gaydar was right). he has a lot of walls in place mixed in w his sexual traumas (childhood and otherwise). altho he does tend towards softer than richard, what with the blanket coverings and such.

richard’s thing is 1) he’s the outsider, so he’s more yearning for other people to bring him in than secure in reaching out 2) Men are not for Touching. hes so happy to be part of the pile of limbs in the backseat or get his hair ruffled or hand held or whatever but even in hampden i don’t recall him initiating that very often except when his emotions just overpower him (see the camilla kisses). that said, to your point, i think especially w the benefit of their history and also the traumatic losses they suffered, richard is very reachy- the whole sober ii thing is like. the kind of panicked / instinctive motion to keep what’s left of his hampden days with him. and how that melts into holding onto francis specifically.

anyway they both have that going on. richard is probably more classically touch-starved? but they’re both more comfortable with sex than other touch from what we see- like, it is kind of ironic that the day francis comes to hook up with richard seeking that connection to distract from murder hell is Literally on the heels of richard seeking out a random girl to do the same thing with. they are soo.

they grow into it tho. francis starts it off bc hes like oh right this is someone im hooking up w now so i can do x y and z. but richard’s probably first to go sort of, ah, romantic about it, which then sends francis skittering back a bit. i have a lot of Thoughts abt their physical scars & how those play in.

[sleepdeprv]

About Me!

Hihii! (⁠≧⁠▽⁠≦⁠) I see people make these so I might as well!

• | Name: Akira / Aki

• | Age: 16

• | Pronouns: He/They

• | Mostly posting Our Life (Baxter Ward) Content!

• | Self taught artist!

• | I also write stories/fics sometimes!

• | I only post on Tumblr!

• | Random Art Acc: @deprvsleep

• | More info below the cut!

More Info !

Hello! This blog was made to help with my social anxiety since I'm scared to do anything that counts with other people knowing of my existence. I've been lurking on tumblr for awhile and this seems the most friendliest social media, so in hopes of working on my social anxiety, I'm posting my obsessive special interest which is Our Life!

This is supposed to just be a light happy thing, so I can't promise anything about posting often or sorts! It also mostly depends on my creative juices and my will to make something at the time. I do different forms of art (sculpting, crochet, etc.) but I only plan to post OL related content here unless someone asks for the others (⁠ ⁠╹⁠▽⁠╹⁠ ⁠)

I'm Genderfluid! I use all pronouns but I normally feel more comfortable with He/They unless I feel more feminine that day. But I'm fine with any pronoun you choose for me.

Requests !

I'd love to take requests in the ask box (is that what you call it?) for small drawings of the OL characters (maybe even OCs? but don't hope too much on that, sorry) ! I'd also like to try writing fics or just explaining my headcanons, but maybe not as often as drawing?

I'm asexual (well, I think, I'm still questioning), I'm very uncomfortable with anything NSFW so I won't be making any of that on this page!

I'm still learning a lot about art and I'd also be extremely grateful for constructive criticism if you have any!

I don't plan to take commissions, but maybe its a chance in the future, not for now though.

Hopes of socialising !

I loveeeee OCs! Sadly, I don't have attachments to my owns (its strange) but I love seeing other people's OCs! I wanna draw some in the future maybe! You can rant and ramble about your OCs to me (please)!!

Yes I have social anxiety, but I'd love to make friends too! My DMs are open! I'd love to listen to you guys!! I'm a bit weird and awkward, but its in good fate of me trying to get more social (⁠•⁠ ⁠▽⁠ ⁠•⁠;⁠) (be patient with me please haha)

I have a carrd for more info about myself!

Thank You So Much!

I'll update this whenever the info on it becomes irrelevant, but for now, if you've read through all of this, thank you so much!! I hope you have a good day!! (⁠´⁠∩⁠｡⁠•⁠ ⁠ᵕ⁠ ⁠•⁠｡⁠∩⁠`⁠)

[linagram]

everyone's album covers, song previews and album trailer voicelines!

YESSSSSSSSSSSS I'M FINALLY DONE WITH ALL OF THEM *falls on the floor*

okay okay i'm actually kinda proud of myself?? :'D like i always prefer just. drawing characters even though i don't really avoid drawing backgrounds and i don't find drawing them that difficult but i rarely pay attention to things like. doors so yeah it's kinda cool that i've managed to come up with ten different door designs and draw them! even though most of them don't even look like doors. it's okay listen i just wanted to make them as weird as their mvs okay

(also about some prisoners having the symbols on their uhhh restraints and most of them not having them. well you see i just didn't have any energy left to draw them so i was like "it's fine i'll just draw the actual symbols later" and guess what. i didn't :) and i'm too tired to draw all of them so y-yeah. honestly maybe i'll change the symbols to something else like it takes way too much time to draw them and they're not even that close to the canon ones)

okay sorry for rambling, you can read everyone's song previews, titles (though you can see them on the covers, but still. or maybe you can't see them i'm sorry if the text is hard to read 😭) and album trailer voicelines under the cut! and also more of my rambling

Album trailer voicelines:

Akio: "DON'T COME ANY CLOSER!"

Aimi: "Don't you think that's kind of.. unprofessional?"

Shun: "I-Isn't it a good thing that I'm getting better?"

Naomi: "But in the end, I've simply decided to agree with you."

Kei: "It's time for your punishment, Eiji~"

Eiko: "It's like.. your life finally has a purpose."

Asahi: "I wanna go home, even if I don't have one anymore."

Yurika: "THIS DOESN'T MAKE ANY FUCKING SENSE!"

Riku: "Haha, trust me, I'm strong enough to do that."

Reina: "So, yeah, the show's over."

Song titles:

Akio: The King's Execution

Aimi: Mask of Kindness

Shun: Wrong Route

Naomi: Your Story

Kei: Web of Desire

Eiko: As Seen On TV

Asahi: 'Cause I Deserve It

Yurika: Bitter Aftertaste

Riku: Trendsetter

Reina: Death of the Author

Song previews:

Akio: "Come on, fight me, punch me, beat me to death,

Show me how you've really felt about me all this time

There's no one left to support me, no one left to call me "Your Majesty"

I guess it's time for me to admit my defeat" 

Aimi:

"Let's have as much fun as we can today, like this is the last day of our lives

I won't ask you to be careful, I know you won't listen to me anyway

Let's make these moments more colorful than ever before

Let's turn today into our best masterpiece"

Shun:

"I know that this is the best option, I don't even need a guide

"Real life"? What's that? Some kind of joke?

I know you will love me in every world and universe

Tell me I'm your everything, let me get the best ending"

Naomi:

"I can't believe I found out about this only now

Why didn't you tell me sooner? Why didn't anyone else tell me about this?

Your life was so short, but so full of pain

Does this mean that I've saved you from all that suffering?"

Kei:

"Congrats, you've fallen right into my trap

Make yourself comfortable, you're in for a long ride

Tying you up, choking and biting

Keep your eyes on me, take those rose-colored glasses off"

Eiko:

"Yay, she did it, good for her! What an icon, am I right?

Haha, thank you, thank you! Serves him right, I know

You've forgiven me, darling, so let me thank you properly

Tell me what you want, I will give you everything and more"

Asahi:

"Give me more, you know that it'll never be enough for me

You want me to repay you? That's funny

Why should you give me so much and get nothing in return?

It's obvious, 'cause I deserve it"

Yurika:

"Please, please, make my world sweet again

This world is so cold, so bitter, if I take a bite, I'll get poisoned for sure

Hey, hey, what are you saying? You want more sugar as well?

Sure, anything for my master! But you're not her, so get out."

Riku:

"Now, listen, I don't like to do this

I'm not the type to abuse my power

But looks like it's time for you to get what you deserve

So get him, everyone, I'll pat you on the head later"

Reina:

"What about my crime? What about my sins?

Well, why don't you figure it out yourself?

I'll let you decide, I'll let you write my story

Aren't you the one who's supposed to judge us anyway?"

Random facts about everyone's song titles, lyrics and doors (spoiler-free. mostly):

The silhouettes from Akio's T1 MV are back!

If you've read Aimi's T1 MV description, you probably already went "Wait, is her song title a reference to that mask from her video?" and you are correct!

Shun's song title is kinda supposed to be a pun? Basically it's a reference to dating sims, character routes and all that stuff, but it's also supposed to mean taking a wrong path in life or something like that.

Naomi's song title was the hardest one to come up with and it turned out to be the most boring one. I am so sorry.

I actually wouldn't say that Asahi's door shows his MV that well, since his video will actually have mostly white and green colors, but I thought that a door like that would look boring, so yeah, I made it more colorful!

"Why is Yurika's door like that?" Oh, don't worry, compared to Asahi's door, Yurika's door shows her MV perfectly fine <3

Riku's door. Riku's door made me go through so much pain, IT WAS THE LAST DOOR I CAME UP WITH. I LITERALLY HAD NO IDEA WHAT TO DRAW. Not even because I dislike his MV, it's just that his MV has this motif that's. Very hard to show as a door. Like all ideas I had just sounded stupid so I decided to go with something like this instead. Also I still hate drawing chains and I used a brush instead.

Yes, Naomi's door just. Looks like a diary. BUT I TRIED TO MAKE IT LOOK LIKE A DOOR OKAY I TRIED

Reina's door having a more "actor-like" motif probably doesn't make much sense because of the song title, but trust me, it does. And yes, her song title is based on the trope of the same name.

Aimi's song lyrics kinda sound like a sequel to her T1 song though i guess her t2 song can be called that here, but the rest of the lyrics sound more different. And yes, there will be more of their song lyrics in the MV descriptions this time >:)

Kei's song lyrics are actually supposed to be much more sad this time and even the chorus will sound differently in the end.

Reina, please, stop breaking the fourth wall, you're becoming way too powerful.

[pixies-and-poets]

sorry if this is a tad weird to suddenly come into your inbox with, but I wanna let you know how much your work has touched me and continues to inspire me. genuinely, I've picked up writing more again lately because of you - after reading OVAC, I suddenly had the inspiration to create through writing that I hadn't felt in years. I genuinely believe your writing is nothing short of professional quality, and I've said time and time again to friends that I believe OVAC belongs on bookstore shelves, it's THAT well done.

I'm really sorry you've been struggling so much lately. You're someone I really look up to and admire and it's been hard to see you in so much pain without really knowing what to say for comfort. there's not much I CAN say on these kinds of topics as I don't have answers myself - a lot of it is stuff I struggle with too. But ig I just wanted to tell you how much of an impact your work and sharing your own experiences has had on me even in only the course of several months. Genuinely, thank you for every bit of your creativity you generously share online, you're really an inspiration to me and many of my friends. That being said, I still hope you can keep your mental health a priority, especially regarding being online. You deserve to do whatever you need in order to keep yourself happy and healthy!!

anyways I know this is really out of the blue so I apologize,,, it's def stuff I've been wanting to tell you for a while haha. Just know you've impacted me and a lot of other people's lives for the better <:]

Thank you. This made me feel very happy, and I genuinely mean it when I say it's messages like these, no matter how occasional they may be, that ensure I keep making anything at all. Just as the love given to me by others is why I'm still alive.

I spent years not really considering myself much of a writer, but I've experienced a new confidence in myself over the past year. I hope someday I can do something with it that can reach a wider audience than very niche fanfics, but I'm eternally grateful for the people who have read my work because I know focusing mainly on ONE ship in one small fandom doesn't cast a very wide net, haha.

I feel like this chapter in my life is nearing its end regardless (writing fanfics? Being on tumblr even slightly?), not only for my own mental health, but as a principled stand against social media and the internet's ever-accelerating degradation into a dehumanization machine. But I'm glad I was able to inspire some people along the way. Truly. And I hope you can go on to do the same.

(Edit: PS it wasn't weird!!! I understand where that feeling comes from but I really appreciated the kind words!!)

[nerves-nebula]

tw: mentions of child sexual abuse and unlimited internet access growing up, please stay safe

so hh i dunno if this is weird to say or not but uh i really appreciate you including the storyline about donnie and sexual abuse and the consequences of unlimited internet access when you're growing up

im a survivor of child sexual abuse and donnie is my emotional support turtle for when im having really bad days as a result of that

so seeing an au where this character is going through that, this character that's helping me get through a really uncomfortable and traumatic experience is like... so validating in a way? i feel seen, like me choosing donnie specifically to help me through this was not random at all and so someone going ahead and including that in their au is just means so much to me

and it's made me feel a lot safer and more comfortable reading your au too, like im not getting triggered by it and i know that im going to be okay

so thanks again, sorry to bother you

aww, well, I'd like to say i did it for you but honestly I did it for myself haha. anything good that comes out of it is just a happy coincidence. I've been meaning to include more stuff about his unsafe internet usage but it's kinda hard to remember while writing, since I'm juggling a buncha other stuff too, so I've mostly just made reference to it here and there.

side note: i'm getting close to finishing the next chapter of caracal carousel, and if you read that fic I'd suggest making sure you pay attention to the additional trigger warnings I add at the start of each chapter. it's gonna get graphic and I'd hate for the iteration to be ruined for you 'cause the reading experience of that fic is rough.