#discovering they have dark shoes was an experience

[very-small-giant]

completely forgot to post him here but anyway!! bunny wataru (for a trade with @phantasma-timiana)

[rmstitanics]

* GENERAL OBSERVATIONS, PART THREE.

ASTEROIDS & CELESTIAL BODIES

ASTEROID ORPHEUS (3361) CONJUNCT CHIRON may represent one who looks to their past for creative inspiration. They’ll often use their preferred form of art in an attempt to understand traumatizing events or process any emotions that may still linger.

ASTEROID APOLLO (1862) in the 8H could signify an individual who enjoys creating or consuming media about controversial and dark topics.

When I see ASTEROID PANDORA (55) in the 10H, I immediately wonder whether the individual with this placement has experienced some sort of chaos or crises regarding their public image. Maybe they’ve had traumatic experiences with their main circle of friends, or maybe they’ve even received some level of backlash on social media for a flawed interaction. Whatever these natives have endured, they probably yearn to control public perception of their character in an attempt to prevent misunderstandings.

Check which house ASTEROID ARISTOTELES (6123) is located in within your natal chart to find where you crave the most knowledge and wisdom! As an example, I have my Aristoteles asteroid in the 8H of transformative experiences, death, and “taboo” topics — and I’m now a practicing divination witch who enjoys paranormal investigation.

Due to difficulty with turning intuitive ideas into real achievements, 9H CHIRON individuals might find the process of outlining an essay or project to be particularly challenging. They’re the types of students who change their thesis a bunch of times before a paper’s due date.

PLANETS IN SIGNS & HOUSES

SATURN 1H placements might have people pleasing tendencies at some point in their lives due to a fear of never meeting others’ expectations.

SAGITTARIUS SATURNS likely grew up in households where one or both parents was strict and / or religious. The challenge awaiting these folks in life is to pursue exploration of knowledge outside of what was taught to them in their youth. They probably enjoy philosophy or history, and could possibly grow up to be spiritual but not religious.

LEO MERCURY placements, was your writing style ever described as “flowery” by your teachers or fellow students before? Because this placement TOTALLY gives me the vibes of a flowery and dramatic writing style.

One could theoretically use their JUPITER placement to discover two things: 1) The field of study where they have experienced the most growth throughout their academic career and / or 2) their best academic subject. To do this, look at Jupiter’s degrees and house. I have CANCER JUPITER placed in the 9TH HOUSE in my chart, and I absolutely adore law, history, and philosophy! However, I’ve had to undergo the most growth in Cancerian concepts such as life skills in the home and actively listening to others.

CAPRICORN JUPITERS are prone to having a “the end justifies the means” philosophy when it comes to achieving their goals. They also might struggle with perspective taking / putting themselves in others’ shoes, particularly when they perceive the individual in question as someone outside of what they consider “normal”.

6H MOONS strike me as the type who love being around animals MUCH more than they love being around people, especially if the majority of their personal planets are in a water sign.

ASPECTS

SUN SQUARE URANUS indicates memorable students whose teachers / professors will remember them for many years to come.

Hard MERCURY-PLUTO aspects could struggle with maintaining a consistent routine for studying, especially if Mercury is in retrograde in the chart.

MERCURY TRINE JUPITER placements LOVE yapping in class, but it’ll either be with their peers while the teacher is talking or by frequent class participation. If you’re the class participation type, you’ve probably had a teacher say “does anyone OTHER than (your name) know the answer?” before 😭

Although this placement does make for great activists who are not afraid to call out injustice when they see it, LILITH CONJUNCT MERCURY folks NEED to prioritize being tactful due to a natural tendency to bluntly say whatever’s on their mind with no filter.

SATURN-NEPTUNE aspects need to practice intense discernment when it comes to politics — fact check everything and don’t just believe everything you see / hear on the internet or news without taking the time to research it for yourself!

Hard ASCENDANT-SUN aspects tend to be noticeably different people in public versus private spaces. Your first impression of them will likely be VERY different from the truth of the person that they are behind closed doors.

MIDHEAVEN OPPOSITE VENUS placements are amazingly creative individuals whose art may play a major role in their own identity, but they simultaneously might have a major fear of sharing that art with others. Peer review in class is an absolute NIGHTMARE for them.

[cherrychilli]

Slip of the Tongue

A mini series I 18+ I Enemies to lovers

Chapter one

Eddie Munson, AFAB reader, neighbor! reader.

Reader and Eddie are the same age - she's in College and he's repeating his senior year once again.

Chapter Summary: You discover that Eddie's been practicing a very interesting new trick on his guitar, one which he offers to use on you under the guise of giving you some much needed stress relief.

A/N: Listen, series scare the shit out of me but I'm trying to challenge myself with a tiny one. I kind of already feel like I'm biting off more than I can chew but I'm going to give it my best shot.

Inspired by those clips of Steve Vai and Jimi Hendrix. ifkyk.

Chapter warnings: Nothing explicit this chapter. Some suggestive stuff but the real smut begins next chapter, so if you want more you better let me know!

“Are you fucking kidding me?”

He's doing it again. Of course he's doing it again.

You tilt your head forward, forehead dropping into your hands. Heatedly, you mutter your annoyance under your breath, thumbs rubbing at throbbing temples and eyes squeezing shut when the music picks up to an ear ringing volume.

Eddie Munson took sick pleasure in riling you up – you were certain of that given how he only ever seemed to plug in his guitar when it was time for you to study your coursework, wrecking your concentration and making your temper skyrocket with a kind of ease only he was capable of.

For years, you’d taken issue with the fact that your trailer neighbored his own, your bedroom becoming an echo chamber for every blaring chord progression and heavily distorted guitar riff that strummed out from Eddie's open window.

And as always, you felt the need to make your displeasure known.

Abandoning your textbooks, you hastily shove your shoes on to stomp over next door. You knew from painful experience that it was best to head behind the Munson’s trailer and approach Eddie’s bedroom window than to pound on the front door, the sound of his playing almost always too loud for him to notice your knocking.

Trampling over the patchy, dry lawn that lay between your homes, you made your way across, rounding the corner and striding up to the open window, fuming with thoughts of what you’d yell at him this time when you caught sight of the metalhead.

As expected, he's rocking out in the center of his unruly bedroom. No doubt having tuned the rest of the world out, channeling so much of his wild, boundless energy into his playing.

His mop of dark messy curls aren't tied back today, allowed to sway, tumble and whip around his face as he played to an audience of some devilish looking posters and a couple figurines that stood on his crowded desk, probably a part of that fantasy game he's always going on about.

He's dressed in grey sweats that hang low around his hips and a ratty old band tee that tended to ride up, you couldn't help but notice.

‘At least he’s got clothes on today’, you thought to yourself mirthlessly, only a touch thankful for the silver lining of not having to confront him while he's shirtless or in his boxers again. Not that he’d ever minded you seeing him like that before.

Your last encounter with Eddie was one you hoped to soon forget, cringing because he'd caught your gaze wandering when you came over to reprimand him for the noise again, becoming noticeably distracted by his bare chest and the tattoos adorning it.

You don't know how it happened, only that you fell into a sort of daze when your eyes slipped lower to follow the slope of his pale tummy, leading to the sparse trail of dark hair which thickened below his belly button and disappeared underneath the waistband of his boxers.

D'you want a picture or something, darling?, he'd quipped, growing even more pleased with himself when your face turned hot and the embarrassment of getting caught had you stuttering out the first thing you could manage.

"F-fuck off, Munson", you spit back and retreated awkwardly, the sound of his barking laughter as you did so ringing in your ears long after you made it back into your room and hid underneath your blankets for a good hour.

Yeah, that was hard to live down. As was trying to expunge the image of Eddie's unclothed torso from your mind.

Most times he could anticipate your arrival, like a lightning storm only he could forecast but this time he hasn’t seemed to noticed you yet, tongue pinched between his lips in concentration while his fingers travelled skillfully over the ebony fretboard of his guitar.

Watching him play like that sometimes made you think that if he hadn't plagued you for half your life with all of his antics, you might have admitted that he was good musician - that he had talent most people didn't care to acknowledge and maybe even go so far as to say that you found it impressive that he’d managed teach himself how to play in lieu of any lessons.

But you weren’t about to sing Eddie Munson's praises. Not when he was seconds away from making you pop a vein.

Taking a deep breath in, you prepared yourself to start the unpleasant cycle of bickering with your neighbor once again, hoping against hope that, at the very least, it'll be a short exchange this time.

“Ed-"

You meant to catch his attention with a single shout but the heated call flattens on your tongue in an instant, heart beat kicking up as you watch what he does next.

He lifts his treasured Warlock and you're half afraid for him when he casually flips the front of the instrument towards his face, its angular design and jagged edges enough to worry you even when he played on it the regular way.

But it's when his tongue stretches out, long and slick like a serpent, that things start to feel...hazy. Speechlessly, you stare as he slides it along one of the guitar's six strings, following the length of it from near the bottom of the fretboard while his left hand continued to flit over the strings by the neck, creating harmonics in a way you’d never thought was possible before.

Are my palms sweating?

The sound begins to shift again and your eyes bulge when he slides his tongue back down, flicking and picking the guitar strings by the tip of it with more speed and dexterity than you'd thought was possible, his fingers continuing to move seamlessly to hold down every note.

Eyes closed (and there was no chance of you letting that happen) there was no way you could've told the difference than if he’d been playing with his fingers all along, the sound just as sharp and crisp as as every time before.

It's filthy, bordering on vulgar the way he’s moving the silky pink muscle so expertly, so much so that it makes you feel like you're intruding, peeping in on something that only happened behind closed doors.

But that gnawing feeling isn't anywhere near enough to make you stop looking. Your gaze stays planted firmly on Eddie's mouth, the sight making your head crowd with static and your belly swirl with heat. Your thighs had been clamped together too, you realize, a sickening realization dawning over you when they rub together, registering the dampness pooling between them underneath your skirt.

Oh my god…am I w-?

And just as abruptly as the realization had sunk in, the song ends. Deafening silence returns to your shared corner of the trailer park when Eddie sets the guitar back down to hang by the strap fixed over his shoulder, eyes flicking to you as if he'd known all along that you'd been standing there, gawking at him.

"So, what do you think? pretty good, right? been working on it for weeks", he pants out, chest rising and falling softly with each labored breath.

Somehow, this feels so much worse than when he caught you staring the last time.

With luck, you're able to shake yourself out of your trance like state, round eyes narrowing in preparation to berate him as originally intended

"Fucking hell, Eddie would you keep it down? I'm trying to study!", you agonize, scrambling to find your fury again.

But your tone doesn’t seem to bother him, it rarely ever did. So he leans through the open window, elbows resting on the window pane, eyeing you up and down all amused.

"You look stressed", he observes, and it's the flippant way in which he does it that ticks you off, with the kind of lopsided smile you’d often described as annoying. For the most part because he’d almost always done something to that effect before flashing you one.

"I am", you confirm with an acidic glare, hoping he couldn't tell how frazzled his little performance had left you.

"And you're not helping so knock it off"

Turning on your heel, you're desperate to retreat back to your place for a reprieve, heart hammering inside your chest when he calls out to you again.

"I could help you relax, y'know"

The way he says it makes you pause, like he's about to let you in on a secret.

Your skin prickles with goosebumps. "I'm not buying weed from you Eddie", you answer back over your shoulder, trying to look unimpressed as you attempt to turn him down.

"I wouldn't charge", the boy winks at you without missing a beat, undeterred by your cold attitude and you hate that his persistence makes your face feel hot.

"But that's not what I was going to suggest"

"Oh?"

You turn around to face him again, intrigue building.

He takes a moment to scan you thoughtfully, brows furrowing, almost as if he's weighing the outcomes of what might happen if he were to continue.

"You liked what you saw, right?", his brown eyes flicked down to his guitar and back up to you in quick reference to what you were hoping to avoid.

The mention of what you'd witnessed him doing with his tongue brings that hot, sticky feeling sitting at the base of your stomach back in full force, alarm bells ringing in your head.

"What does that have to do with anything?", you ask cautiously, realizing a second too late that you’ve only confirmed his suspicion.

"Well..."

Eddie curls a finger up at you, rings glinting in the sunlight, beckoning you closer and for some reason you actually oblige, stepping up to his window until you’re only a foot apart from one another.

Low and throaty, he whispers to you. "I can do a lot more with my tongue than just shred on my guitar", flicking the muscle salaciously between his lips like a viper ready to strike.

It should revolt you, watching the crude gesture courtesy of the bane next door, the implication behind it enough to make your skin crawl.

So why doesn't it?

Why does it make you want to leap at him and close the distance between the two of you, hungry to feel his tongue against your own?

"You're disgusting", you tell him instead in an attempt to deflect, voice wavering through the lie.

But he's too astute to be fooled now. "And you like it", he counters easily.

"So are you going to cut the bullshit and climb in here or what?"

You stare at the hand he holds out to you and before you can think to just walk away, before you can pull yourself together and stifle the roaring fire inside lapping at your bones, your fingers have found their way to his.

[ckret2]

Chapter 47 of human Bill Cipher thinking that being imprisoned in the Mystery Shack is looking pretty good right now:

The Eclipse: Part 5

Bill and Ford are just... so energized and enthusiastic after their near death experience. Not to mention fashionable.

But they've got nothing on Dipper.

And, at long last, Ford and Dipper badger Bill—who's just too tired to lie—into explaining what kind of an "eclipse" involves a giant flying axolotl making gravity disappear.

####

When they reached the cave, Ford discovered that his antique lantern was too waterlogged to light.

"I'm not sure how we're getting to the top now," Ford said. The cavern directly behind the waterfall had some ambient lighting, but it wouldn't carry very far. "I know you can see, but I don't trust you to lead me through a cave system in the dark, no offense." He was surprised at himself for saying no offense.

"If I was planning to let you fall off a cliff, I could've saved myself a swim in the lake." Bill had taken off his backpack and was rummaging through it. "Didn't your lantern go out when you took four-eyes hiking through here? You should have learned your lesson."

Bill must have meant Fiddleford, though it was strange to hear him single out Fiddleford as "four-eyes" when Ford wore glasses too. "I did learn my lesson. I brought three flashlights as backup," Ford said. "Which are in Dipper's backpack."

Bill laughed weakly.

"Did you bring a flashlight?"

"Better." Bill pulled out a kazoo. He blew a stream of water from it, shook it, and then took a deep breath and played a long high note that wavered up and down.

Ford cringed at the noise. "Bill, what—?"

Bill held up a finger to silence Ford. Okay, fine. He was curious now.

It took a few moments of increasingly irritating kazoo playing, but Ford heard a soft clinking sound coming from the deeper caverns; and then several geodites—small creatures that looked like stone orbs with crystal limbs and teeth and glowing eyes—curiously emerged into the main cavern. Ford hadn't seen these creatures since he'd documented them in the eighties. He hadn't known they could be summoned via kazoo. They began making a high pitched humming along with Bill's kazooing. 

"There you are." Bill stuffed the kazoo into his backpack and crouched down, holding out a hand until a couple of geodites crept closer to inspect it; and then he scooped up the closest one. The others startled into breaking off singing, but hovered nearby, chirping and clicking. "Okay, grab a flashlight." The light the geodites' eyes gave off wasn't very bright; but it was enough for Ford to see Bill's smug smirk. They proceeded into the caves, and a dozen-odd more geodites—perhaps out of curiosity, perhaps out of concern for the two hostages—followed along behind them.

The climb went much slower than it had just a few hours earlier. Unsurprisingly, without low gravity on his side, Bill was the holdup this time. Not only was he not as experienced in spelunking as Ford, but between his waterlogged dress shoes and his borrowed trout slippers he didn't have any appropriate footwear, and he'd elected to carefully climb barefoot again. When Ford had climbed up this path with Fiddleford in the 80s, it had been a six hour climb. He had no idea how long it would take with Bill.

But even at that, Ford hadn't expected Bill to need to pause so often to get his energy back. It seemed like the more Ford recovered from their fall in the lake, the weaker Bill got. In any other situation, he'd suspect Bill of slowing them down on purpose, but after... well, even that aside, Ford couldn't think of any reason Bill would want to delay getting home.

"It's just this body that's dizzy," Bill said, the fourth time they had to stop for him to sit. "Probably one of those... counterproductive stress reactions human bodies get." He wiped a film of sweat off his forehead, then stopped to examine how his hand trembled when his geodite's spotlight eyes fixed on it. "That or it's because I've only had a handful of cereal for the past two days."

Ford stared at him. "You what? Why?"

Bill shrugged. "Body wouldn't let me get more down. Wasn't my idea."

"Well, for goodness's sake, eat something now."

Bill took off his backpack, pulled out a cereal box, and opened it. He grimaced. He poured out a puddle of sugary lake water and dissolved cereal.

Of course. "Here." Ford pulled a tube of astronaut meat out of his backpack and offered it over. "It's not the most nutritionally complete meal supplement, but it's something. It'll have protein."

Bill took the tube with a grimace, but squeezed out a dollop of meat paste and licked it; and then he gagged so hard he doubled over. He clapped a hand over his mouth to keep from retching and offered the tube back. "Mmmf." The geodite hopped out of his lap in alarm and retreated to the group of hangers-on traveling with them.

The meat paste wasn't great, but that was a disproportionate reaction out of the alien who liked to mix chocolate sauce and mustard. This was a bigger problem than Ford had anticipated. "Keep it. If you can get down even a tiny bit every few minutes, that's better than nothing."

Bill nodded jerkily.

"I think it's better if we reach Dipper and get out of here as soon as possible."

Bill nodded more enthusiastically.

What would they do if Bill couldn't make it the whole way? Would Ford have to leave him in the cave and come back for him later? Ford hadn't tied the infinity belt's cable to Bill like he'd meant to, he just realized. It seemed unnecessarily cruel to try now; but it might be useful if he did have to leave Bill behind. He didn't know that they had any better option, he couldn't carry Bill all the way up and down. Especially since Bill had let go of his geodite, and Ford suspected the rest might abandon them if he put down his own...

They'd have to figure that out if it came to it. For now, they kept walking—Ford glancing back regularly to check on Bill, and Bill pretending he didn't notice.

####

After another half hour and another two increasingly frequent breaks, Ford saw a faint light in the tunnels ahead—yellow-white, not like the geodites' natural blues and purples. "Bill, is that...?"

"Hm?" Bill looked in the direction Ford was pointing. His right eye twitched, and then he had to squeeze his eyes shut in pain. "Yep. Boy child at 12 o'clock."

Ford called out, "Dipper?"

"Great Uncle Ford!" Dipper's voice echoed through the caves. There was a sound of clattering rocks as Dipper scrabbled down the tunnel to join them. The geodites scattered in fear, peering out from behind stalagmites as Dipper's flashlight swept over the scene. "Grunkle Ford! Are you okay?"

"Yes, yes, I'm fine. Are you—?"

Dipper collided with Ford to hug him. (Ford held his geodite out to the side so he could return a one-armed hug.) "I'm so sorry I saw you go over the cliff but I couldn't do anything I was in the mindscape the whole time something sucked my soul out of my body—"

"Not it, I'm innocent," Bill said unnecessarily, "nobody look at me." He'd taken advantage of the break to immediately sit on the ground. His abandoned geodite crept back over to check on him.

"—and—and wow, that was the Axolotl you were talking about, right?" Dipper let go of Ford to gesture like a fisherman demonstrating the size of an enormous catch, "It was huge, it had to be—I don't know, as long as the county? The whole state? How did it get so big? Is the Axolotl an alien or some kind of mutant Earth axolotl? Are all axolotls aliens—?"

"Now, hold on," Ford said, putting a hand on Dipper's shoulder, "what huge axolotl? What are you talking about?"

"You didn't see it?" Dipper paused, looked Ford up and down, and said, "What are you wearing?"

Ford grimaced, tugged his bandanna up a little higher, and turned his geodite away when it tried to aim its spotlight eyes at his neck to see what he was doing. "We had to borrow some dry clothes."

"He couldn't see the Axolotl," Bill said. "You shouldn't have, either."

"Sor-ry. Getting sucked out of my body wasn't my idea—"

"Hold on," Ford said again. "What do you mean, sucked out of your body?"

As they headed back down toward the waterfall, Dipper and Ford exchanged their versions of events. It didn't take long for them to realize Bill had saved both their lives with a swift efficiency that, had it been applied to any less altruistic a task, could have been called "ruthless." They didn't say anything, but neither one could stop from glancing back toward Bill.

"What?" he snapped, clinging to his geodite a little tighter like he thought they were planning to take it. "I don't owe you an explanation. You're not dead! Be grateful. Stop looking at me."

They stopped looking at him. Bill should be gloating about them owing him their lives. He should be convincing them they had to pay back their debt. Silence alone would have been worrying; but bristling like he wanted them to forget what he'd done was baffling.

As Dipper finished explaining his version of events, he said, "I think I remember meeting the Axolotl before—like you said." He directed this last comment back over his shoulder toward Bill.

Bill—whose entire attention had been focused for the last ten minutes on walking without collapsing, tripping, or dropping his geodite—simply muttered, "My condolences."

"Wait," Ford said, "You've... met a giant invisible axolotl before?"

"Mabel and I both did."

"When?"

Dipper opened his mouth, paused, and glanced back again at Bill for help.

It took a few seconds for Bill to register the question. "Oh—they've never met before. Not in this reality."

Exasperated, Dipper asked, "Then why do I remember it?"

"I told you—echoes," Bill said. When Dipper continued giving him an expectant look, Bill sighed deeply and said, "This is an embarrassing oversimplification, but you're at least familiar with the concept of branching timelines, right?"

"Of course I am. Every time you make a decision, the timeline splits into two paths—"

"Cute that you think it caps out at two," Bill said. "And a decision doesn't always split the timeline, sometimes the branches collapse back together depending on the gravity of the decision you made. I don't literally mean a decision 'you' made—you've never made a decision that important—but sure, you've got the basic idea."

"Fine," Dipper snapped. "So I met it on another branch, right? When?"

"Never," Bill said.

"Okay. Yes. But there is a branch where... some version of me met it. Right?"

"It depends on how you define 'is.'"

Dipper puffed out his cheeks with the effort of restraining a yell. He looked at Ford for either help or sympathy.

Ford winked surreptitiously at Dipper and said, "It's probably some complicated chronological issue. I doubt Bill can explain it in a way humans can understand." Under his breath, he loudly muttered, "Some 'teacher.'"

Bill straight-armed Ford aside to walk beside Dipper. "You humans have no sense of humor," he said. "I said you met him never because it's literally true. You had an accident that landed you in a time and space outside time and space—the meeting happened never and nowhere. It's where he prefers to take visitors. That timeline terminated after your meeting—and I don't mean you died, I mean he terminated that entire timeline."

"Really?" Dipper shivered. "With... With everyone in it? Why did he do that? Did something dangerous happen in that timeline, or was it unstable, or...?"

"That's how he usually ends casual meet-and-greets," Bill said. "Higher dimensional beings. He sees your reality from a perspective unimaginable to you. Remember when I told you you're just a movie projecting on a wall to him; he's got no problem with pulling the film out of the reel to inspect a few frames and then turning the entire projector off when he's done. What does he care if that's somebody's entire reality?" He paused to think that over. "Maybe the projector metaphor's getting strained. Imagine flipping through a book with all the pages out of order, and meeting him is like somehow flipping to a page outside the book... No, that's a little too contrived. I'll stick with the projector."

"When did we... when would we have met him?" Dipper asked. "And—when I say 'when' I mean—you know what I mean."

"You mean, when would you have made the decisions that could have led to you meeting him? Depending on your perspective, either last August or 207̃05. Time travel was involved."

"Last August..." Dipper thought back. "Was that when we were—?"

"Treasure hunting, yeah. By the by, I never asked—" Bill gestured vaguely around them at everything in general, "—which dimension did I end up in? Is this the one where you went hunting in the 1400s or 1800s?"

"Uh—1800s."

"Hm. Knew this wasn't a 207̃05 treasure hunt timeline, Questiony doesn't have a pet enslaved time pirate."

"A what?"

"So you never had a chance of meeting the Axolotl anyway," Bill said. "Hey, fun fact! Did you know there's a time pocket where twelve million alternate versions of you, your sister, and the puppet with the goggles failed at your quest and plummeted out of time? I wonder how long the last of them survived! I meant to check in after Weirdmageddon. Human flesh isn't that nutritious and doesn't have much water, but with millions of bodies and a little determination— Hey, wanna know how long you all were there before you started resorting to cannibalism—?"

"No," Ford said before Dipper had to. "And I'll thank you not to get off topic to try to give my gnephew more nightmares."

Bill shot him a sideways glance. "Remind me to tell you about the time pocket formed by all the timelines where you and Specs did your first portal test without checking your math."

"So if I wasn't even supposed to meet him—how did I see him today?" Dipper asked. "Did he pull me out of my body into the mindscape so we could talk, or...? But he didn't even tell me anything, was he just trying to get me to remember meeting him in the terminated timeline—?"

"He wasn't trying to do anything," Bill said. "He wasn't here for you, he didn't care. Shadow on the wall."

"Then what was he here for? You?"

It took Bill too long to answer. He just shrugged vaguely. "Probably not."

"Huh." Instead of questioning Bill, Dipper briefly turned introspective himself, gaze far away and thoughtful. "I think I remember a little more about meeting the Axolotl now. The first time, I mean."

"Oh, do you?" Bill asked. "Ha! Poor kid."

"Mabel and I were in some kind of rocket car?" Dipper's brows furrowed in concentration. "And the Axolotl had a... bean bag chair?"

Bill scoffed. "He still has that old thing?! Wow."

"It was really comfortable."

"It's also really tacky."

"You talked about him like he was some kind of... of big... eldritch cosmic horror thing," Dipper said. "What kind of a cosmic horror has bean bag chairs?"

"What, do you think being a vast multidimensional amphibious monstrosity with an incomprehensible mind and a body that can only been seen in lower dimensions as grotesque shapeshifting cross-sections protects you from having bad taste? He'll flay your sanity straight out of your gray matter—and you won't even have the comfort of knowing your mind-shredder had nice interior decor sensibilities!"

"I can sympathize with the experience," Ford muttered. "I was driven to the brink of paranoid madness by a nightmare demon who thinks Doric columns go with checkerboard flooring."

Bill let out a shrill "Ha!" and smacked Ford's shoulder.

"But he remembered me when we met," Dipper went on. "He told me to say hi to Mabel. And—the last time we met, we—talked. I don't remember it all yet, but... you were wrong about him. There was nothing insanity-inducing about him. He was just... nice."

"You don't think the madness sets in all at once, do you?" Bill turned back to Dipper, with an air of what Ford uncomfortably felt like was ill intent. "Go on then—what did you talk about? You can't remember it, can you? Why not? Just a harmless little conversation, right?"

Dipper frowned in thought. "There was something important, but—I can't remember what it was. What was it?" He muttered, "I know it was something important—"

"And there we go!" Bill gestured at Dipper with a flourish, triumphant. "Now you're digging for the significance of the whole thing. You're trying to comprehend the motives of something that has a state of existence your mind wasn't built to understand! You'll either go mad trying to understand his motives—or you'll go mad because you do understand. You're doomed now, kid—this is gonna haunt you for the rest of your days." He laughed. "Try to stop thinking about it now while you're ahead!"

"I'm not going insane," Dipper said. "Just shut up, I'm trying to remember."

"'I'm not obsessed, I swear! I can stop thinking about it any time I want!' Sure."

"Shut up," Dipper repeated. "It had to have been something important! Otherwise why would he dragged me out of my body and—and shown me the fourth dimension just so I could meet him?"

"Don't sound so self-important! You never saw the fourth dimension; if you had, you wouldn't think he looks like an axolotl. He visited this dimension's mindscape," Bill said. "And he didn't even mean to drag you into the mindscape! It was just a side-effect of his gravitational pull. He tugged you toward him just like everything else in town; but Earth'sgravity doesn't extend through planes like the mindscape, and his does. Yanked your spirit right out of your body."

"Then why was I the only one?" Dipper demanded. "Why didn't you or Grunkle Ford leave your bodies?"

"Your spirit's more loosely attached to your body than ours."

"Why?!"

For a moment, Bill's face twisted with displeasure; and then he sighed in resignation. "Ah, heck with it. You've been astral projecting."

Dipper's mouth worked uselessly. He croaked, "What?"

"It's when you—"

"I know what it is! I mean—what? How? When?"

"At least as long as I've been here. How long have you been having those out-of-body dreams?"

"Y—!" Dipper socked Bill's arm. Bill didn't even flinch. "You said those were nightmares!"

"And I lied," Bill said tiredly.

"Why?!"

"Thought you'd be annoying about it."

"I've been dealing with this all year, you—!" Dipper groaned in aggravation. "Why am I astral projecting! I wasn't trying to learn or anything!"

"How should I know, I wasn't around. Best guess, I think I ripped up the Velcro sticking your soul to your body when I yanked you out to puppet it," Bill said. "Oops."

Dipper gaped at him in outrage. "'Oops'?! That's all you can— I've been terrified and I thought it was a nightmare and it was real all along and it was all your fault and you won't even—"

"I knew you'd be annoying."

"I'm annoying?! How would you like it if you'd spent a year getting dragged out of your body in your sleep—!"

Bill abruptly stopped walking, turned toward Dipper, and said with an intensity that startled Dipper into silence, "You don't have the slightest idea how much I'd like it. How would you like it if you'd been trying for weeks t—" Bill cut himself off before he could get more heated; and instead, only said, "If you. Wanted to get out of your body. And couldn't. And some brat down the hall is doing it without even trying."

Dipper remained frozen, jaw locked tight in a grimace, until Bill turned away and trudged on. Dipper snapped, "But I don't want to do it. And it's your fault I am."

"Great. Nobody's satisfied." Bill sighed. "Make the most of it. Watch late night TV. Learn to meditate or something, I don't care. You've got nothing to worry about, it's harmless." He paused. "As long as nothing else crawls in your body while you're outside of it."

"WHAT?!"

"It's fine. Nothing'll get you in the shack through the unicorn hair barri... hm. Well—you're safe in the shack."

"But I have to go home at the end of summer! Will something be able to get me then?!"

Bill shrugged. "Hypothetically."

"Am I gonna die?!"

"Given my understanding of human mortality? Sure, sooner or later. Wanna hear your top five most likely causes of death?"

"No! Is it possible to—to stop? Can I control the astral projecting?"

"Yeah, sure, I guess. Ask me next time you're out of your body. I'll show you"

"Can't you show me n—"

"No. Not while you're in your body."

Dipper scowled. "Fine! Next time I'm projecting, I'm kicking you awake until you help me." He turned away from Bill; and, after a moment of fuming, mumbled to himself, "If I've been astral projecting... then that time I visited the neighbors... oh, man..." He trailed off, getting lost in his own thoughts.

Keeping silent during that discussion had been agony for Ford.

Every few seconds, he'd wanted to butt in either to eagerly ask for more information about the Axolotl or astral projection, or—far more often—to express his rage on Dipper's behalf, that Bill (of course!) had put him through this, and then not even had the decency (of course!) to try to rectify it.

But it was Dipper's conversation. It was about Dipper's problem, and anyway Dipper had been trying so long to pry some sort of useful information out of Bill—it would be cruel of Ford to snatch the conversation away from him when he was finally getting somewhere. He'd have a lot to discuss with Dipper once they were home and could get away from Bill.

But staying outside the conversation had let him observe three points he might have otherwise missed.

One: Bill really wasn't himself. Back when he'd been playing as Ford's muse, whenever he got to answer questions, he'd always done it with an air of theatricality and barely-suppressed glee; and after he'd given up that act, he'd answered questions with smug arrogance, the glee turned to sadistic delight at the bad news he could deliver. Now, he simply answered them. Even his attempts to be condescending gradually got less enthusiastic until they petered out completely.

Two: Bill was answering questions he never would have answered that morning. After telling them as little as he could about the thing coming to Gravity Falls, even trying to avoid admitting it was the Axolotl, now he was freely talking about the Axolotl's taste in furniture as though he knew the beast personally. After hiding that Dipper was astral projecting for over a month, he simply told him. Heck with it. He'd admitted it was probably his fault. He'd said the last two words Ford had ever thought he'd hear come out of Bill's mouth: I lied.

Three: this was the longest Bill had walked without needing a break all day. His voice was stronger. His steps were more steady. Ford had even seen him squeeze out a few dollops of astronaut paste between comments—and he struggled to make himself swallow, but he didn't gag.

And now that Dipper had stopped asking him about the Axolotl and about astral projection, Bill's footing was growing less certain again. He wove unsteadily on the path and had to pause to lean a hand on a stalactite, taking deep breaths. "Gimme a second."

Bill was distracting himself. He was keeping himself going through conversation, the simple ritual of receiving and answering questions. Ford understood: sometimes, in desperate circumstances, you had to burn yourself out to get somewhere safe enough to collapse and recover. When you had no choice but to push yourself, the best thing you could do was think about anything but your exhausted, failing body. It made it easier to keep moving and burn through what energy you had left.

Ford had once wondered if his "muse" was some manner of creature that was compelled to answer the questions his protégés asked him. This was perhaps the closest Bill had ever gotten to actually being such an entity: answering questions because he had to to go on, and willing to give away almost anything as long as it kept him moving.

Ford stopped next to Bill. "So. The Axolotl was the source of your 'gravitational eclipse,' I suppose."

"Astute observation," Bill said flatly.

"I take it that it isn't 'eclipsing' gravity so much as canceling it out. The Axolotl must have a mass similar to Earth's, if the force it exerts flying by above us is nearly identical to the force of Earth below us."

"More or less."

"But according to Dipper's observations, this Axolotl is only the size of Oregon at most. Did he underestimate its size? Or perhaps it's incredibly dense...?"

Bill gave Ford a sharp sideways glance. Were this any other conversation on any other day, this would be when the gloating started. Well, well, well, look who finally believes I was telling the truth, finally crawling back to me to give you all the answers you can't find yourself— But Bill only looked away again, pushed himself back upright, and kept walking. "You're the square looking at the sphere and thinking it's a circle," Bill said. "The majority of the Axolotl's mass is in dimensions you can't see. The little bit of him that's visible in the mindscape is just a... a feeler. Or an anglerfish's lure. The rest of him is close enough to exert a gravitational pull—but not in a dimension you can see."

"Which dimensions does he exist in?"

"I can't tell you because your species knows so little about them that the answer wouldn't mean anything. You haven't even decided whether or not you want to officially call the dimension that time shines from the 'fourth' dimension—I could tell you he comes from the seventeenth dimension and it wouldn't mean anything but an impressively high number to you."

Dubiously, Ford asked, "Does he come from the seventeenth?"

Bill waved a hand vaguely. "Heck if I know. The most I've ever seen at once is nine, and I was on a lot of psychedelics at the time. My eyeball popped."

"Eugh." 

"Worth it, though. If you ever wanna feel cosmically insignificant in the most breathtakingly beautiful way possible, and you don't mind going blind, let me know. I think I can remember most of what I was on."

"Pass," Ford said. "If the Axolotl is so enormous, then why was only Gravity Falls affected by its gravity? At a minimum, shouldn't have the rest of the Pacific Northwest been impacted—if not the whole planet?"

"He wasn't near the rest of the Pacific Northwest. In the third dimension, Gravity Falls is obviously connected to Oregon; but in higher dimensions, it's..." He tried unsuccessfully to pantomime something mountainlike. "Imagine if the second dimension were a flat sheet of stretchy fabric. If somebody plucked the fabric up in the middle and made a peak, a creature living on the surface of the fabric would still be able to travel across its slope like it was flat, right?"

Ford tried to visualize Bill's description. "Right."

"And so if a fly flew past the peak of the fabric, it'd cross near whatever town's at that peak without getting near the towns at the bottom of the slope."

"Rrright."

"That's what Gravity Falls looks like from the fourth dimension," Bill said. "In the third dimension you can't see anything, but to fourth dimensional beings it sticks out of the fabric of spacetime like a thousand mile high pillar in the middle of a desert. That's why Time Baby put his capitol here."

Now, Ford wasn't sure that sounded right, but he didn't know enough about the seventeenth-or-whatever dimension to dispute it. "And why you kept trying to punch through to our dimension from here?" he guessed. "I imagine stretching the fabric of spacetime that far might make it easier to tear."

Bill shot him a sour look, but didn't deny it.

"Why did the gravity go down slowly for two days and then come back all at once? Did the Axolotl just leave faster than it came?"

"You know how the Doppler effect works?"

Ford hesitated. "Yes. Obviously."

"Well, in higher dimensions, gravity works like a reverse Doppler effect. It spreads out in front of a moving object—"

"Oh, come on."

"—and compresses behind the object—"

"Now you're just making up scientific-sounding nonsense because you know I can't disprove it."

"I'm not, and as soon as you get me a pen and paper I can prove it." Loftily, Bill said, "There's a simple equation that can explain higher dimensional gravity."

Ford was pretty sure he was being made fun of. He didn't mean to laugh, but he did. Dipper looked at him like he'd lost his mind; but trying to explain what was so funny would probably just make him look more insane.

Bill looked nearly as surprised.

####

"... And the smaller axolotls, what are they—heralds, worshipers? Children?"

Bill scoffed in disgust, "I don't know, I've never asked him. I see them like the flies orbiting a cow's tail. They migrate with him, that's all I know."

"Then the Axolotl really was just 'migrating'?"

"Well. Migrating in the sense that a mayfly watching a human walk back and forth to the office thinks it must be 'migrating.' He has..." Bill gestured vaguely, "duties, that mandate he travel fixed routes through the multiverse. He just happens to have a years-long workday. His commute doesn't usually take him past 46'\."

"'Duties' as in... divine duties?"

"It depends on if you worship him for doing them. I don't."

The cavern was growing light again, and the distant waterfall was audible. Ford quietly sighed in relief. Even as oddly forthcoming as Bill had been, Ford doubted that even two-thirds of the information he'd shared was true. But it was hard to tell. It had always been hard to tell.

Dipper helped Ford deflate the raft and pack it up. As he did, he said, voice low, "Is it just me, or is Bill kinda...?"

Ford cast a sideways glance across the cavern. Bill was crouched in front of the geodite he'd carried all up and down the tunnel, backpack in his lap, pouring a pile of soggy cereal onto the ground for the geodite to eat. Ford was surprised he'd gotten so attached to the creature. "I think he's been in some state of mental shock since the fall in the lake," Ford said. "And it seems he hasn't been able to keep down a full meal since we left yesterday. I suspect he's barely on his feet. The sooner we can get him back to the shack, the better."

"Oh." Dipper frowned toward Bill. (He was now pouring cold medicine on the cereal. Ford would have to ask him about geodite diets.)

"What are you thinking?"

Dipper shook his head. "I just thought... He seems like he's thinking about something. And he's giving so much away... I don't know. I wanted him to talk, but now it makes me wonder if he's scheming something."

From what Ford had seen, at the moment he doubted Bill could so much as scheme a way to ruin a picnic. But now he was second-guessing his perception. Ford knew Bill better than anyone; but that also meant Bill knew how to manipulate Ford better than anyone. What was Dipper seeing that he didn't? "Really? Do you think so?"

Dipper hesitated. "I—thought so? Maybe not." (Well, now they were both second-guessing themselves.) "I just don't know why he'd tell us so much if he isn't up to something. It feels like a distraction."

"Ah." Ford nodded. "I think the distraction is for himself."

"Mm." (Ford wasn't sure if Dipper had heard him.) "I just feel like there's—something. I can feel it in the back of my head." He stared at Bill a moment longer; then shook his head and turned away. "Maybe it's not him, maybe it's the Axolotl. He said something I can't remember. Something about degrees."

"Degrees?"

But Dipper didn't reply. He'd returned to his work, lost in his own head, mumbling under his breath the way he did whenever he was trying to work something out. Something else for Ford to ask about later.

When they got in Tate's loaned motorboat to head back out, Dipper got a look at the rainbow trout slippers Bill had put back on, and let out a choked laugh of surprise; and then that was the last sound any of them made as they crossed the lake. Ford steered, Dipper remained lost in his own thoughts, and Bill stared at his friendship bracelet, thumb running around the glass evil eyes.

####

(Finally a few mysteries solved! I hope y'all enjoyed, and I look forward to hearing what you think. Next week is another emotionally wrenching chapter!!)

[iconicstoner]

a light in the darkness

gn!reader x cedric diggory

words: 1126

summary: In an AU where Cedric survives the Triwizard tournament, but has trauma from it, y/n has to help him through a panic attack caused by his claustrophobia.

a/n: mentions what happened to Cedric in the maze in detail, mentions claustrophobia, and implied panic attack

Cedric would never be the same after the Triwizard Tournament.

Not everything had changed. He was still the same loyal and compassionate boy you’d always loved, but he would never be as carefree as he once was. Slowly, his hair had been growing out; nothing major, but just enough to cover his eyes. His sleep pattern was in a downward spiral too. Almost every night, he had grim nightmares about what happened during the tournament, and it caused him to fall asleep in his classes often. He confessed to you the terrifying memories he had from the maze. You could remember in great detail when he told you about the suffocating tunnels of ivy that surrounded him as he tried to move through the maze, making it almost impossible to breathe. The experience was suffocating. He was even more scared by the overgrown roots that wrapped around him and attempted to carry him away from the cup. He clawed at them, screaming in terror for help, but nothing he could do on his own would fight them off. Now, if he got his shoe caught on something as simple as his shoelace, it would make him turn ghostly pale, getting flashbacks to the moment he could’ve lost his life.

Despite what he went through, he kept exceptional grades and still had his friends. For him, maintaining his grades wasn’t a surprise. Not only were his professors very understanding, but studying was one of the few things he could do without ever having to think about what happened that day. He was much more surprised to discover that his friends still loved him, and that he was still as popular as always. He thought his friends would be disappointed in him, but like the incredible friends they were, they adored him just as much, and respected him for the hardship he went through. More than anything, he was glad you still loved him, even if he would never be exactly the same.

However, attention and popularity were no longer what made him feel whole. When people circled him to talk to him, it often scared him. After what happened in the maze, Cedric had intense claustrophobia, and even standing in a crowded room could set him off.

After every dark thing that happened, the only real thing he could find solace in was you, his beloved support system. You knew this, and made it a point to check on him daily, especially if he didn’t talk to you for a day. That’s how you knew when it was a dreadful day for him.

Today was different. Classes were over for the day, and you hadn’t seen him once. You thought maybe it was just a coincidence you didn’t see him in the halls, but when he didn’t show up to your shared History of Magic class, you grew worried. You’d asked around about him for what felt like hours, and eventually one of his friends told you they’d seen Cedric go to his dormitory.

You contemplated what could’ve happened as you entered the Hufflepuff common room. The smell of sweets wafted through the air, and the syrupy scent filled your nose. Usually, you loved to admire the soft yellow furniture and warm lighting, but today you went straight for the boys' dorm. You pushed open the ancient creaky oak door to Cedric’s dorm, and the scene felt all too familiar to you. Before the tournament, Cedric often invited you over, but that was becoming rare as time went on. You knew he still loved you, but it was becoming increasingly difficult for him to reach out to anyone, even just to chat.

You opened the door to find Cedric on the wood floor, sitting next to his bed, with his knees to his chest. You rushed over, quickly closed the door behind you, and sat with him.

For a while, he didn’t say anything, he just softly cried. His cheeks were red, and his breathing was shallow. His favorite gold Hufflepuff sweater had droplets of water across the front from his salty tears. You wanted to engulf him in your arms, but you knew he needed his space.

“I can’t believe what I did,” he finally said, breaking the silence. The tears in his throat were audible and heartbreaking. “A group of people tried talking to me, and I just snapped,” he’s barely able to choke out the words as he begins to sob into your shoulder.

“I know Ced, it’s okay,” you say as you brush your fingers through his soft overgrown honey hair.

“I just snapped,” he says between sobs. “They were all standing so close, and I couldn’t breathe, and all I could think about was that stupid maze.” The words leave his mouth in a quick spiral, and once they’re out he grabs you like if he doesn’t, you’ll vanish. “I shouted at them,” he says, sounding dejected. Even if those students never remembered it, he was too sweet not to blame himself.

“Cedric Diggory,” you say in a strong, but concerned tone, “no one is mad at you. The people here are considerate enough to understand what you went through, and if they can’t understand it, then maybe they deserve to be yelled at.” He doesn’t respond to you, but he holds on to you a little tighter, and presses his face into your neck. His warm, soft lips meet your skin and plant a small kiss on you, and you can feel his wet, tear-stained cheeks brush against you. “Why don’t we get you some food? You’ll feel much better,” you earnestly suggest. He moves away from your neck, keeping a firm grip on your body. Despite his disheveled appearance, he sends you a grin that makes you feel like the sun has just come out after a long winter. He nods his head in agreement and stands up with you. You watch as he fixes his hair, and changes his clothes to go down to the great hall with you. When his shirt is off, you see his sculpted, toned body, and you can’t help but giggle. He blushes, and a soft shade of pink takes over his face. He sends you a wink and quickly puts on another shirt. It seemed like Hufflepuff’s golden boy was making a return.

Once you’re out of the Hufflepuff common room he takes you by the hand and twirls you around, pulling you into him with a soft smile. Your hands connect, as if they were made to hold each other, and he traces his thumb in circles on your hand.

“You are the light of my life,” he whispers into your ear, and it’s like you can hear the smile in his voice.

[beepbeep-lettuce]

Never Enough

Gojo Satoru x Wife reader

*angst*

☆.。.：*゜☆ﾞ.。.：*゜☆.。.：*゜☆ .。.：*゜☆

Have you ever wondered what it’s like to be loved unconditionally? A true unconditional love in which you put each other above everything and everyone else. A love that to some may be considered obsessive, but to you undying. No? That’s fair, most people never get the chance to experience this. But not you. You are one of the lucky ones. Or, you thought you were. But sometimes, what you believe to be unconditional doesn’t hold the same meaning to another. And sometimes, instead of blossoming and fortifying, that love fades and withers into something much different.

☆.。.：*゜☆ﾞ.。.：*゜☆.。.：*゜☆ .。.：*゜☆

*FLASHBACK*

“Satoru!” You yelped gleefully as he picked you up from behind. Your hand immediately holding the top of your hat, preventing it from flying off of your head. Your other hand reaching down and grasping your husband’s strong arms that were now wrapped around you.

“Yes baby?” He chuckled, walking closer to the water. Taking humor in the way your body wriggled to get free of his strong hold.

“Satoru no!” You shouted, kicking your legs playfully so he’d let you go. But you knew your husband. You knew that there was no changing your fate, if he wanted you in the water there was nothing that could change his mind.

“I didn’t bring you all the way here so we could spend our honeymoon lying on the sand all month!” He said in an amused tone. Only once his waist was under the water did he put you down, his large hands still holding your waist so you wouldn’t run. Slowly he turned your body around to face him. Once again he picked you up, this time your legs wrapped around his waist instantly. Carefully, he made his way further into the crystal clear water his eyes peeking above his sunglasses, never leaving your own.

“This is nice.” You giggled as you looked down at him, your arms wrapping around the back of his neck.

“You’re nice.” He retorted, still keeping a playful tone. Once the water touched his chest he stopped walking. You both held each other, admiring each other as your lips connected in a sweet and passionate kiss.

☆.。.：*゜☆ﾞ.。.：*゜☆.。.：*゜☆ .。.

Everything was good at first. You had a loving husband, a nice house, and a bakery that you adored! But as the years went by and the two of you began to settle into marriage. Slowly but surely Satoru began to slip away from you, subtly pulling away. It started slow at first. He wouldn’t text you as much during the day, then he wouldn’t call to check up on you. (which he would do religiously before as he “wanted to talk to his cute wifey as much as he could”) Naturally, you had raised your efforts and began checking in on him and trying to call him throughout the day rather than waiting for him to. However, this only seemed to push him away further. This continued and slowly you noticed that Satoru didn’t even tell you he loved you anymore, no more kisses, no more hugs, hell he didn’t even cuddle with you anymore. And as much as you tried to adjust, you simply couldn’t, especially not after discovering something that would change your relationship forever..

“Welcome home honey!” You smiled sweetly up at your husband, a smile that didn’t quite reach your eyes. (Not that Satoru would notice) Your hands holding a home made tiramisu cake that you’d made for him. Your pink frilly apron still tied around your waist.

“Oh uh hey babe.” Satoru sighed, eyes looking past you into nothing before he remove his shoes. His reaction causing your sweet smile to fall slightly.

“How was your day? I made you a tiramisu cake! I figured you’d enjoy some dessert after the meal you had following work with your buddies!” You spoke in a deceptively relaxed manner although you were anything but. You had been in the process of making your husband’s favorite dish before he was supposed to arrive home from work when he decided to text you last minute that he was going out to dinner with some of his “coworkers”. This was nothing new, but tonight was important for you, you had planned to sit down and discuss things that would majorly impact your marriage. So you jumped straight into stress baking a new recipe you had come up with. Baking was the only way you could relax these days.

“Ah it was uh okay I guess? Im good though, im not really in the mood for dessert right now.” He replied dismissively as he made his way past you, gaze never landing on you. Ignoring your presence. You didn’t miss the scent of foreign perfume that wafted off of your husband as he walked by. Not surprisingly. As the weeks- months? passed you’d noticed it on his clothing after he’d come home from “working overtime”. Of course you never brought it up, opting to give your husband the benefit of the doubt and figured it was from one of his female coworkers. However, in the back of your mind you knew the truth you just weren’t ready to accept it, nor what was to come after.

“Really, Satoru? You NEVER pass the chance to eat my treats. What’s going on? You’ve been coming home later and later lately. I’m not dense. I know what’s happening.” Your normal bubbly and cheerful demeanor slipping as you reached your limit. You followed your husband into the kitchen, setting the tray harshly onto the counter and removing your apron before hurriedly blocking Satoru’s path to your bedroom. Eyes looking up at him defiantly, searching for some sort of answer in his face. But like it had been for a while now, at least around you, Satoru’s expression was cold and uncaring.

“What are you on about now? I’ve just had a lot to do at work lately, SOME of us have to work and not play kitchen at our little bakeries all day you know? And if you’ve forgotten, I FUND that stupid bakery.” He scoffed as his eyes finally met yours. His face contorting into a scowl. Ouch

“I’m not stupid Satoru. I know what you’re doing. Did you not think I’d catch on to when you started to taking your phone into the restroom with you when you shower? Or how you changed your password? Do you think I don’t smell that cheap perfume on you?” You jab your finger into his chest. Your voice raising and whatever was left of your calm facade crumbles, your eyes well up in frustration.

“Seriously? You don’t know what you’re talking about. I can’t even come back from a long day of work without you fucking nagging and bothering me the second I step in the door.” He retorts as he grabs your wrist a little too hard, yanking your hand from his chest.

“Tell me the fucking truth, Satoru! When did I stop being enough for you? Do you not love me anymore? Is there..someone else?” You cried as hot tears fell down your flushed cheeks, still maintaining eye contact with him. A flash of guilt appearing for only a moment in his blue eyes.

“Maybe I just appreciate my own space! Not you texting me the whole day asking what I’m doing and all that stupid sappy shit you always annoy me with! Maybe I got bored of the same shit over and over again every day! Did you ever consider that?” He spat pulling your wrist closer to him as his face neared yours.

“Ow Satoru! You’re hurting me! Let me go!” You cried as you wrenched your delicate wrist out of his bruising grip.

“Don’t run away now sweetheart! You wanted this! You wanted to start shit with me, you could have just stayed quiet and continued to be a perfect little house wife while I go bust my ass to keep a roof over your fucking head!” The man that had once wanted to bring down the moon and stars for you shouted. His piercing blue eyes that you’d once found breath taking had now faded into a dark clouded hue that was foreign to you. This wasn’t your beloved Satoru, this was not the sweet and loving man that you’d vowed to stay with in sickness and in health.

“I don’t even know who you are anymore..this isn’t the man I fell in love with.” you sighed defeatedly, your gaze falling down to your feet as you cradled your now bruised wrist. Satoru’s face morphed into a shocked expression as he snapped out of whatever trance he was in. He examined you, tears still falling and staining your face, your tender wrist an angry shade of red that was certain to turn into a nasty bruise.

“Y/n I..” he stuttered, his confidence faltering as he reached out to touch you. You flinched away from him though, and instead of backing up into your room you carefully removed your wedding ring, placing it into his open palm.

“I can’t do this anymore.. I’m sorry” you whispered still looking down at your ring. You couldn’t bring yourself to look into his eyes. And in an unexpected burst of movement you brushed past him, rushing to the front door and out to your car. Satoru not moving, his still shocked gaze following your figure as he watched you leave. Seconds passed and the roar of your engine coming to life was what finally snapped him out of his stupor, his long legs carrying him outside a moment too late as he watched your car pull away down the street.

☆.*・･:*:･｡☆｡･:*:・*.☆ ☆.*・･:*:･｡☆｡･

After a while of staring down the empty road he noticed gentle droplets of rain hitting the ground around him, forcing him to retreat back inside the now cold and empty house to process what had just happened.

“I’m sorry..” whispering to himself as he walked back into the kitchen. His eyes falling onto the long forgotten meal that you had cooked for him as well as the tiramisu and your pink apron discarded haphazardly on the ground.

“I’m such an asshole” Sighing he reached to pick it up causing some items from the apron pocket to fall out, clattering to the ground. It wasn’t until he bent down once again to pick up the mystery items, that he realized what they were.

“What is..? Holy shit..” he gasped running a shaking hand through his hair, stumbling back. Dropping the items on the counter, he ran out to his car frantically pulling his phone out to dial one of his only remaining friends.

What were the mysterious items he found you ask? Two positive pregnancy tests and a sonogram of what looked to be a small little clump in the center of the image.

“She’s pregnant”

☆.。.：*゜☆ﾞ.。.：*゜☆.。.：*゜☆ .。.：

(・ε・`*)…

*kinda revised but not really*

Part 2

[sweatervest-obsessed]

spencer just comforting reader after a bad mental health day and helping them to take a break and shower/or bathe🌼🫶🏻

Honestly, yeah. So true. I based this off of my experiences of just trying to even get out of bed to get to the shower, so I hope you like it!!!

“I see you’re still in bed.”

“Oh my god. You really are a genius.”

Spencer doesn’t miss much, especially not the sarcasm in your voice. He’s pretty perceptive when it comes to you. He knows what coffee order to get you by the way you kiss him in the morning. He knows what book you’ll want to read when you get home by the way you sign your name. He knows that for you to have stayed in bed all day means that you really just need someone to be there for you.

And that’s what he’ll do.

He quietly toes off his shoes and climbs onto his side of the bed—close enough that you can feel the heat coming from his body, but far away enough because he doesn’t know if you wanted to be touched.

Your head was your worst enemy some days. And it’s not like you didn’t try to fight it, you tried so fucking hard. You had even picked out an outfit and laid it on the chair next to the bathroom. But once you flipped the light switch on in the bathroom and saw yourself in the mirror; your brain flipped a switch too.

Which resulted with all the lights off, and you just in bed, over thinking and falling further and further into the pit of your mind.

Spencer whispered your name, bringing you back from where it was your mind had wandered off to again.

Nowhere good was the conclusion he came to. He gently placed his hand on your arms, waiting to see your reaction.

He watched as your body released some of the tension it was holding, and took that as his sign.

Spencer managed to take your hand and squeeze it slightly. “Want to take a shower?”

“That requires moving.” You stated.

There was no malice, but there was no excitement. Just a fact.

“Maybe you’re the genius.” He teased slightly, squeezing your hand. It caused you to let out a huff of air, which was all he could ask for.

Spencer has been to a dark place before. He knew some variation of what you were felling, how heavy it was, how your brain felt like tv static. He had discovered along the way, that the best way to be there for you, was to shower.

Something something about the metaphor of washing it down the drain. is what you would say when he’d ask you about it a couple of months ago, poking fun at yourself.

“Can’t we do a bath instead.”

Your voice cut through the memory. It was so unlike your normal voice; small, exhausted. It caused him to run his thumb across your hand, nodding.

“You’d have to get up for that too.”

“I hate it when you’re right.” You grumbled, rolling over just enough to be able to lift your head and make eye contact with the pretty man sitting next to you.

“I’m always right.”

That caused you to snort, a small laugh escaped your lips. It was one short second, but it meant the world to Spencer.

“Lavender or Vanilla.”

“You can’t make me get up and also make choices.” Your face rolled back into the pillow, but your hand still held onto his.

His hand was so warm, so soft. His heartbeat was pulling your focus from whatever place your mind had been stuck in. You knew what he was doing, distracting you, making you match his breathing, but you didn’t care.

Spencer didn’t move to go set up the bath. He stayed there rubbing you hand with his thumb, enjoying your company because you were enough for him. Just your presence was enough.

“Tell me something.” You mumbled, wanting to hear him, slightly upset that he stopped talking.

“Did you know that Australia is wider than the moon.”

You frowned a bit and looked up at him. That one caught you off guard. “What.”

“The moon is 2,113 miles wide, or 3,400 kilometers, and Australia is 2,485 miles, or 4,000 kilometers, wide.”

“That feels wrong.” You mutter, squeezing his hand.

“Right? Okay, how about Bert and Ernie from Sesame Street are named after the police officer and the taxi driver in Its a Wonderful Life.”

“I knew that already.” You smiled at him slightly. “You’re losing your touch.”

He smiled down at you, leaning over and gently kissing your forehead, making all of the tension float away.

“How about a bath now.”

“Sounds like you’re just trying to get me naked Doctor Reid.”

That made Spencer’s cheeks tinge pink. “No-No. I just…I know that, uh, when people have depressive episodes they tend to ignore their hygiene because the feel like they don’t deserve it and it’s a Monday meaning you were going to shower this morning, and-and I know you didn’t because there’s no towel on the hook on the bathroom door and—“

You squeezed his hand, effectively ending his breathless ramble. “I’m teasing Spence.”

“How did that turn into you comforting me.” He sighed and squeezed your hand back.

Eventually, the two of you made it to the bathroom. It was lavender scented with hints of the coconut, barely any light from the two candles Spencer had lit, opting out of turning the lights on. Shirts and socks were littered across the ground as you both sank into the water. The heat causing the rest of the headache you were feeling yo disappear, or maybe it was the man sitting behind you with his arms wrapped around your waist. Your skin against his.

The steam cleared your senses, filling your nose with the smell of his shampoo as he tried to quietly open the bottle, causing you to giggle slightly as he fumbled with the lid.

You melted under Spencer’s hands as he massaged your head, kissing your shoulders as he went.

That small part of you whispered in your ear that you didn’t deserve this.

But Spencer’s whispers in your other ear easily drowned it out, slowly bringing you back to him, piece by piece, soap bubble by soap bubble, kiss by kiss.

[sashi-ya]

𝐊𝐈𝐍𝐊𝐓𝐎𝐁𝐄𝐑 𝟐𝟑 DAY 9: BANKAI Kuchiki Byakuya 𝘹 𝘍! 𝘙𝘦𝘢𝘥𝘦𝘳

Requested by: anon ➡ sashi my love! can we please have day nine with Byakuya with an afab reader, she/her pron? you are an amazing writer, we love u! 💗💗 tw: mdni. a first part of an old idea I had. If you all wish me to keep going with the story I totally will! I based this fic in an old poem I wrote called 𝑨 𝑺𝒐𝒖𝒍 𝑭𝒆𝒍𝒍 𝒊𝒏 𝑳𝒐𝒗𝒆 𝑾𝒊𝒕𝒉 𝒂 𝑯𝒖𝒎𝒂𝒏. shower sex. sex with a "stranger". maybe confusing and romantic too. 𝐦𝐚𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐥𝐢𝐬𝐭

It has been the same since you can remember; running away from those things. Monsters with white masks and a ravenous desire of swallowing you in just one bite.

You can also see ghosts. And sometimes, even some strange beings dressed in black uniforms with swords here and there.

However, your childhood hasn’t been easy. Being scolded for lying, and sometimes taken to the doctors because of your “wild imagination”

So much you’ve been scolded and bullied that you simply stopped alerting others about that “invisible” menace and kept it secret for yourself… you got used to, after all, to those monsters and how to avoid them… Soon, however, you learnt you can’t always win by yourself…

You feel it. You know it must be closer to you. At least one or two. Maybe a bigger one? Maybe a lot of them?

You grab your bag and start walking faster. With all your senses alerted, you think of the better way to get to a certain place in Karakura town; the Tsubakidai park. Somehow, when you get to a little old shrine, hidden behind tall grass you feel safe. It is always the same, you feel like you are lacking air and then pass out. By the time you wake up, there isn’t any monster following you no more and you are safe to go back home where somehow you sleep soundly feeling a warm mantle of protection falling upon you.

You can feel their stomps getting louder; you can’t act calm now; you should run to the park, as fast as you can. There are no taxis available, it’s cold, it’s dark, the night has already engulfed the lives of the citizens of Karakura.

Crossing the river, just a little bit more (Name)… you will be safe is you run through the bridge. But there is no time to do so, so your legs should get wet. The river isn’t deep, it only gets up to your ankles.

You keep running, taking a brief look behind you. Is not one. Is not two. There are at least, ten of those monsters. As if someone had put a bait to call them all to this damned town.

The slippery river bottom and your shoes aren’t compatible, and your knees hit the ground the moment you slip. You pray it should be enough, you are just a few meters away from the little shrine. Whatever keeps you safe will help you… right?

The claw of the biggest of them, with a scary white mask covering mostly of his “face”, seems to be moving in slow motion as you finally close your eyes waiting for your death.

“Scatter, Senbonzakura”

You open your eyes to discover the most beautiful pink rain of shining petals. However, those alluring sakura flowers cut the monster in pieces, with a violence so unproper of a blooming sapling. How could something so pretty be so deadly?

In between the blushing glow, facing the creatures, stands a man of long hair and white haori covering his black uniform. His hands hold what seems to be the hilt of a sword with no edge, and his impassible attitude before those scary monsters is at least admirable.

You realize that soon, your lungs are begging for more oxygen as that crushing feeling you always experience reaches you again. It’s both torturing, but also calming. This means, you will be safe...

But you were far from it, just yet.

The man turns around with a velocity your eyes can barely follow. His arm suddenly passes around your waist, pulling you so closer to him it even feels disrespectful.

When you finally catch up with the events happening, your eyes ease the blurriness to focus on the finest features you ever came across with. His sharp mandible, his deep blue eyes, the delicacy of his traits equals the fearless sight during battle.

“I am not sure how you are able to see me, but you must stay exactly this way. Or you will die” he tells you, pulling you even closer to his body to the point of almost nuzzling on his chest. With a big jump back, he gets out from the river and now both lay on the shoreline right under the bridge.

You blink repeatedly, you are probably dreaming. This can’t be happening, there is no way such a prince has come to rescue you.

His free hand have no rest, as uncountable numbers of monsters keep appearing. That’s why, you can see in his eyes he has determined something.

“BANKAI… SENBONZAKURA KAGEYOSHI”

The sword in his hand is now sliding down, as if he had let it fall. But instead of hitting the ground, the edge pierces the floor with no effort. Around you, enormous blades stand still, forming some kind of structure built of thousands of them.

Explosively, they turn to million of pieces. And now you understand that what looked like uncountable cherry blossoms were the pieces of those swords.

“I have a safe zone around me, and only me. Should you move away, and the blades will cut you with absolutely no mercy” he informs you, calm but dominantly. Perhaps there is too much of arrogance in his voice, but he is definitely saving your life now, so you must obey.

“I am not moving away from you a single inch, sir” “Very well. This hollows keep coming and I’m not exactly sure why. It won’t take much, though”

You hug him. You need to be sure you won’t move -or maybe it is because he is too irresistible not to do so-. And when you do, he gasps. It is as if both of your skins reacted in different ways than none of you were expecting to.

His gloved, refined hand, moves up and down in swift delicate motions guiding the petals and cutting the “hollows” that violently try to trespass the protective curtain of flowers around you two.

One of them seem to be strong enough to take the cuts, coming as close as possible to you two. Your protector, quickly covers you completely, as his eyes seem to have telekinetic control of the petals. He creates a wave so strong that a blinding pink light explodes, destroying everything once and for all.

When everything is over, the roaring sounds disappear. There is only the music of the river bubbling next to you and the panting of both of you.

You feel your shoulder wet, thinking it must have been due to your fall in the river. But a sweet look confirms it’s blood.

“Sir! You are hurt! Let me help you!” you desperately chime, when you realize his arm has an opened bleeding wound.

“How are you? Are you hurt?” he asks, calmly, brushing your question off. He is strong, surely. But you can’t leave him this way.

You realize none of you have stopped hugging the other. It feels comfortable, as if you have always belonged to his arms.

“I am… ok, sir… Thank you for saving me” you murmur, wondering if he is going to tell you his name some time.

He closes his eyes, and nods. He sighs in relief. “I’m glad you are fine. Where do you live?” he asks, letting you go for the first time since he arrived.

“I can walk by my own, sir. I don’t mean to bother you… however, being hurt… uhm there is a pharmacy nearby I could buy some stuff to cu-“

“I am not a human, miss. Don’t worry about me” he cuts you short, stating something that’s pretty obvious by now.

You nod and start walking back home, you are cold, trembling. You are completely wet, and the night breeze detrimentally makes it worse.

The finest white fabric covers your shoulders. Golden details hanging on each side and your eyes meeting his.

“Sir I… this is…” you try to give him his haori back, but he is not taking it.

“It’s just a cheap garment. Cover yourself”

You silently walk towards your home, with the scent of his clothing engulfing you in a delightful experience. It is soft and manly, and for sure expensive. You wonder what kind of being he might be, even if for you he could be considered an angel, a knight.

“Mh, you live by yourself right?” he asks, all of a sudden a few meters away from your home. How does he know? Was it him who protected you all the time when you ran to the tori?

“Yes… how- never mind. My name is (Name). What’s your name, Sir?” you ask, you at least wish to know who saved you.

“Kuchiki Byakuya. Captain of the sixth squa…” he stops himself from further talking. He realised you are just a human and shouldn’t know about it.

You smile. Of course, he is some kind of captain or important person. You, however, don’t mind. He is coming from another dimension, that’s for sure. No man looks as perfect as him in this world.

“Thank you so much for saving my life, Kuchiki Byakuya. Would you like to come in? If it’s not too much to ask, I would like to cure your wound”

Byakuya seems reluctant to say yes. Yet, he nods and follows you inside your little house in complete silence.

You immediately show him where to sit on your living room as you quickly go grab some gauze and some antiseptic.

Soon enough you find him looking at your television. He seems to be inspecting the appliance with great interest.

“Do you like me to turn it on for you, Mr. Kuchiki?” “Honestly, I have no idea what this does so I’d much rather prefer not to”

You giggle sweetly. Of course televisions aren’t a thing in his dimension or wherever he comes from. He is dressed as if he lived during Edo period, you highly doubt there is such thing as satellite television…

“So, let me see your wound please” you murmur, a little shy, with the curing supplies on your hands.

Byakuya nods and uncovers his shoulder, letting his black shihakusho fall down. Half his chest and lean arm flash beautiful pale skin with a scratch on it.

It’s no time to lust, but to act. He needs attention now.

With utmost care, you pour some drops of antiseptic solution over his shoulder. The liquid runs in form of big drops down his arm and chest, and he flinches before the subtle burning sensation.

“I’m sorry, Byakuya. I know it’s a little bit uncomfortable, but I’ll be quick I promise” you inform him, as diligently clean the scratch and the dried blood all around.

“This doesn’t hurt. I don’t need you curing me, I can do it. I am staying because I am still wondering why so many hollows were following you… and why you are able to see me… you are loaded with heavy spiritual pressure” he spits. He is for sure not a very friendly pal.

He keeps insisting with the fact you are able to see him, and soon you realize why.

“Sir, are you a ghost?! I’ve seen ghosts all of my life, but you- I can touch you and talk to you and… the scent of your sk-“ you stop. That’s embarrassing, but also true. You were never able to touch one of the ghosts you saw before.

Byakuya grabs your hand. You widen your eyes.

“I know you do. But I don’t know what changed for you to see me now and not before” he confesses, pulling you even closer to him. He is somehow inspecting something in you, you can’t quite see.

So, he is indeed the man saving you from the monsters then… what’s his motivation? Why he protects you?

“I am honestly glad to be able to see you at least Mr. Kuchiki. I owe you my life, not once but uncountable times. How should I repay you?” you ask, coming even more close to him.

Byakuya keeps pulling softly from your arm, his soft fingers tracing paths on the inside of it. Your legs hit his knees, it’s difficult to maintain yourself standing.

“I’ve been watching you for a long time, (Name). You don’t need to repay me. Please be safe until we found out what’s the deal with your high spiritual pressure… but I need you not to tell anyone else about this. Even if other people dressed as me come to talk to you, simply ignore them. Promise me you will”

You swallow. How many invisible threats have you been put under throughout your life?

“So, are you staying the night… Byakuya?” you ask, sincerely and shamefully. You don’t want him to go, and now you begin to think that every time he saved you in silence he probably stayed by your side all night…  

Byakuya nods. He knows you are not stupid; he knows you know. He understands that tonight, more than any night, he must stay right by your side.

No words were said. He followed you to your bedroom. Because both knew that this haven’t been the first time…

“I bet you sat there all night, Byakuya…” you laugh, pointing at a chair you found warmth every now and then without nobody sitting there. “Or maybe in my closet…?” you joke.

“No, the closet is not my style. My sister’s, however…” he mumbles, with a soft smile showing in the commissure of his mouth.

A smile; this man knows how to smile?! Oh, how beautiful was that.

You giggle sweetly, as you scrutinize some comfortable clothes to offer him. He is still wet, he shouldn’t be.

“Here, this should fit. It was going to be a gift for my brother. But… anyway. You can take a shower, I will give you towels… you- can use my hairbrush too” you tell him, while lending him a pair of grey jogging pants and a white shirt.

His hands graze yours, and a simple touch makes you shiver; weak.

You indicate him to follow you to your bathroom. “Here. I’m sure you know how this works” you point towards the shower tab.

“You should take a bath first. You are absolutely wet. I just have my feet a little cold” Byakuya insists, almost whispering behind you. There isn’t much space in your tiny bathroom.

“Then we should bathe together” you joke, taking your hand to your mouth and laughing happily while opening the tab for him.

However, Byakuya has some trouble catching which sayings are simply jokes and which ones are serious propositions…

His delicate hands land on your waist. A jolt of electricity runs through your body, ending in a gasp coming out of your mouth.

He slowly turns you around to face him, committing a sin that nobody should learn about.

“I’d like to do that” he murmurs, as your back hits the acrylic shower screen and Byakuya approaches your lips with his.

You look up at him. He might have been watching you for a long time… but this is the first time your eyes see his face. Even if you tried to deny his presence every time you felt it around you.

Almost instinctively your hand reaches for his cheek, and somehow all of your doubts suddenly fade away. Whether this is real or not, safe or not you simply don’t know.

His lips crash with yours in a soft but needy peck. Byakuya’s body sticks to yours. Soon you two begin kissing desperately, lustfully, sexually.

It seems to you that the kiss turned liberating for him. Who knows how many nights he spent wanting to join his mouth with yours…

It doesn’t take much for his hands to finally undress you. Your dampened clothes falling to the floor, tangling a little around your ankles. His clothes, also falling to the floor. Those baggy clothes can’t hide the perfect anatomy before your eyes.

“You are beautiful” Byakuya mumbles, as your body presents in full display once and for all.

“I’m sure you already knew how I looked…” you murmur, thinking he could be capable of peaking through your shower during those nights where he cared for you in secret.

“I would never, ever, disrespect you. I never once tried to peak through” he confesses, perhaps even feeling “stupid” for not doing it.

On tippy toes, you plant a sweet kiss on his cheek. “I know. For some reason, I feel like I’ve known you since the very moment I was born”

Byakuya’s eyes get instantly coated with a glossy mantle of tears. Even if he tries to hide it, he is not really able to do so. And instead, he lifts you up from your thighs.

Kissing you more and more deeply, with the steam of the shower already replacing the oxygen in your lungs, he gets inside the shower with you.

The hot water rains on both of you. His raven hair, falls gracefully on his shoulders and wide back. It tangles in between your fingers that rest on the nape of his neck.

“I wish to make love to you” he moans, with lingering lips.

You sigh in response; you can’t even talk. He is a stranger and still feels like your soul is bounded to his… why?

You hug his waist with your legs, feeling his sex graze yours from how hard he is getting. He is holding back, just not to penetrate you right away… even if that’s exactly what you two are desperate to do.

“Please… do it now” you beg, kissing the scratch he got on his arm earlier.

Byakuya moves your hair out of your face a places a soft kiss on your forehead with his eyes closed.

“Yes… after so long…” he grunts, allowing his hips to finally impale you. While you didn’t have to wait, he did. But when he begins to move in and out, it feels as if you were pleading for this for an eternity.

The back of your head hits against the wet tiles of your shower. Byakuya’s sharp teeth bite your neck, your skins slap against the other while there is no space in between your bellies.

The more he rams into you, the more you carve your heels on the small of his back and pull from his beautiful black hair.

Byakuya grunts. You moan, loudly. As if it might be the last time your bodies will join, you keep connected until the hot water runs out. Orgasming, one, two, three times. And who knows how many more times.

Dripping, full of his release, he carries you in arms to your bed. “I can’t get enough of you…” he whispers, as he deposits you over the mattress.

“Then don’t go. Stay and love me more. Protect me, with those sharp petals…”

“This is gonna be the death of me, (Name)…”

(to be continued)

taglist: @miabiaria @carmenthedreamer @stygianoir @electronicwitchcollection @aizenwifey @deputy-videogamer @efrodd17 @mizugami @uzxotic @cyberdazetragedy @bookandyarndragon 💖

[twisted-wonderland-shenanigans]

I remember you mentioned humans are weird stuff, and the red eyes things that hans have when lights flashes to them

What about tails? Humans don't have tails and we balance quite well without one most of the time and our natural buoyancy in water, how would the monster au be when they learning from that

And to add something funny when they see our soft padded feet and our habit to grab stuff

Ooooh, lots of good fun stuff to explore here! >:3 It’s so much fun imagining non-humans reacting to human based things, let alone trying to figure out how and why we’re so biologically weird to them (join the club, boys, even we consider ourselves to be really weird when most of us don’t even know what half the organs in our bodies do)! 😆

The red eye effect I can imagine Cater discovering by pure accident (and subsequently accidentally throwing his phone in panic). 🤣

//Heartslabyul Lounge Room//

Cater: “Hey, Yuu! Let’s take a selfie together~!”

Yuu: “Uh…sure, but isn’t it a little dark in here?”

Cater: “Yeah, but that’s what camera flashes are for. Ace, Trey, get in here for a group selfie~!”

Ace: “Sure, I’m down!”

Trey: “I’d rather not, thank you.”

Cater: “Suit yourself. Say cheese~!”

Yuu and Ace: “Cheese!”

Click!

Cater: “Okay, let’s take a look and post i-GYAH!!!” *launches into the air with his wings and clings to the rafters, dropping his phone in the process*

Trey: “Cater?! What’s wrong??”

Cater: “What’s going on with your eyes in the pic, Yuu?!”

Yuu: *confused as they pick up his phone and stare at the picture* “Ah darn it, I hate the red eye effect.”

Ace: “The red eye what??” *peers over shoulder and shudders* “Dude. That…that’s creepy as hell!”

Yuu: “It happens when the camera flashes in low light. Don’t you guys experience red-eye in photos?”

Cater: “No! Or…well, maybe? We call it ‘silver eye’ or ‘white eye’ when the flash reflects off our pupils, but I’ve never seen it be red before! I don’t even know if the filter to remove the effect would even work on that…”

Trey: “I guess we managed to find yet another difference between monsters and humans.”

///

Once word got back to the researchers of this effect, they were able to realize that not only did humans lack the same reflective surface as monsters, but that the camera flash reflected the rich blood supply in the back of the eye. Depending on the eye color of the human in question, it would become more prominent in paler eye colors—a fact that soon tied into the rare phenomenon of certain canine and feline monsters with blue and green eyes having similar effects to their own eyes.

When it comes to tails, it comes as a surprise to the researchers that humans did in fact have a tail bone, yet evolutionally speaking, it didn’t serve any obvious purpose…on the surface. In reality, the tail bone served as a support to help Yuu sit. When compared to the other monsters, it seemed Yuu had better balance sitting on virtually any surface—including uneven ones. “Not that it’s always comfortable to do so,” as one researcher noted after seeing Yuu somehow find a decent spot on the bumpy rock with an uncomfortable expression on their face.

Now, as for the natural buoyancy in water (unless you’re someone who has a lot of muscle mass and struggles to stay afloat or someone who just doesn’t know how to swim at all), the monsters might find it quite a surprise to see Yuu just floating on their back in the pool. They might even think that one of the aquatic monsters was holding them up…only to discover that no, they were just…floating there. For no reason other than it was comfortable.

RIP the monsters’ nerves if Yuu were to do the “dead man’s float” in the pool. 😂

For the feet grab thing, I’d imagine this takes place shortly after the “hoof-shoe discovery” post here. >v>

///

Ace: “This is so weird.” *pokes the fleshy part of Yuu’s foot* “How do you guys even walk with these things? Doesn’t it hurt?”

Yuu: “Not unless we step on broken glass or shell shards and sharp rocks.” *squeaks when he pokes again and pulls foot back* “Hey, that tickles!”

Deuce: “It…tickles?”

Random Student: “Hey, hurry up! Coach says we need to clean up the field or he’ll make us run more laps.”

Ace: “Okay, okay, yeesh! You good, Yuu?”

Yuu: “Yeah, I’m good! I’ll just leave my shoes off for a bit. The grass feels really nice!”

Ace: “Seriously, how are you humans so weird?”

*The monster students gather the larger, heavier items while Yuu starts gathering the lighter and smaller pieces left behind until their arms are full and a cloth falls out of the pile*

Deuce: “Here, let me get that for you.”

Yuu: “No thanks, I got it.”

Ace: “You literally have your hands fu-”

Yuu: *uses one foot to grab the cloth, twisting their leg around until they can grab the cloth with their opposite hand and continues walking* “See? I got it!”

Ace: *stares with everyone else in shock and disbelief* “…seriously, why the fuck are humans so weird??”

///

And thus began a new Magicam challenge for monsters to try (that don’t have hooves of course…Cater assures everyone that an alternate challenge is currently in the works so he can participate as well): try and pick up random objects with your talons and put it in a box like a human! If you use your hands to grab them off the floor or you don’t get it within the time limit, you fail the challenge. It became an instant hit on Magicam, with many struggling to recreate the same prehensile motions that—so far—only avian monsters have been able to mimic.

I can just imagine the muscle cramps some might’ve gone through trying to do this challenge. 🤣

[reidswrite]

One of each

Spencer Reid returns home after another exhausting trip working for the FBI, where he has spent most of his life. Now, on the verge of fifty-three years old, he finds himself thinking about Ethan and the life they could have had if he hadn't turned that love down to become an FBI agent almost 30 years ago.

Warnings: Alcohol/Drugs use, mention of suicide (not from main characters).

Word count: 2.4k

Turning the door handle slowly, the cold air in the apartment was the first sensation Spencer felt. It was empty, dark and quiet, almost as if he lived somewhere in the back of a library, on the shelves that aren't visited by students or readers who seek comfort between pages. He liked it. He liked the silence, the tranquility, the feeling of having a world of his own. Having joined the FBI just over 30 years ago, some cases were still hard to deal with, like the one from the last three days that sent the team to a small town in rural Texas. Arriving back at the apartment after dealing with so much chaos and adrenaline was like turning off the noise in his mind for a moment.

Dropping his cross-body bag on the floor next to the sofa, he headed towards the cabinet that held an expensive old whiskey and a couple of crystal glasses. Reid had promised himself that he would never give in to the habit of drinking away his own thoughts, but after all this time, so much loss and so much trauma, he no longer cared about old promises. He could feel the first sip burning down his throat as he leaned back in the armchair taking a deep breath. The street outside was illuminated by lamp posts and a few people were walking around. He liked to observe all those strangers and spot the small things about them, definitely a very profiler way of spending free time outside of work. After a few seconds a well-groomed young man walked by fidgeting his hands and breathing quickly. If Spencer could take a guess he would say that he was probably nervous for a first date.

Reid smiled to himself as he remembered the times when he used to feel like that. Anxious to see him. Breaking out in a cold sweat when he looked at him. His heart leaping out of his chest every time their lips met. God, he missed it more than anything else.

They were both 19 when they first met in graduate school after university. Two prodigies, the youngest in their class. Spencer had to deal with the awkwardness of not being the only genius in the room, something that had never happened before in his life. If that wasn't enough, they were roommates. Apparently the director of the dormitories decided that the best idea would be to pair the two youngest up together because they would “get along more easily and become friends”. He hated that director for three whole months. He hated the overbearing way Ethan spoke. He hated how he assumed he knew everything. Hated his voice, hearing him breathe, watching him sleep. Hated how he left his shoes untidy and his side of the closet a mess. Hated sharing his space, both physically and academically. Hated him so much that he was not even able to detach his lips from the brunette's when Ethan came into the room slightly stoned after a Halloween party and confessed that he couldn't stop thinking about Spencer. And, after that night, he hated every second of his life in which he wasn't with him.

Their relationship began hesitantly, with neither of them truly understanding how to deal with what they were feeling. Neither of them had even realized that they liked men until they started to love hating each other. Neither of them had had that experience. Two nerds who graduated from high school too early to be invited to parties with cheap alcohol poured into red cups where teenagers learned how to kiss in guest toilets. Together they discovered how to love, in every sense of the word. They spent every Friday night on the balcony of their apartment, Ethan with a weed cigarette between his fingers while Spencer read and talked enthusiastically about thousands of different facts that his superhuman brain had stored for years because no one had had the patience to listen to him talk. No one until then. The brunette smiled as he released the smoke through his nose. Every word that left Spencer's mouth mesmerized Ethan, almost in a hypotonic way. He couldn't imagine anything he liked better in the world than listening to his boyfriend talk.

Yes, boyfriend. It became official after almost two months when a girl hit on him in front of Spencer in a coffee shop. He tried to hide his jealousy but couldn't hold his tongue as he responded with false sympathy that the other man wasn't available. Ethan found it so adorable that he couldn't help but laugh, interlacing their hands as they walked back to the dormitory. The next day, when Spencer came home from his last class, a single rose and two pairs of colorful socks were laying on his desk. The first pair was striped in vibrant green and orange while the other was completely red with some animated animals drawn on it.

- One of each. - He was snapped out of his thoughts by the sound of Ethan behind him.

- What? - Reid asked, still confused.

- One foot from each pair. - the brunette said as if it were obvious and sat down on the chair, putting the striped sock on his right foot and the red sock on his left.

Spencer made a funny expression, still not quite understanding what he meant.

- All my life I felt like an intruder, like someone who didn't deserve to receive the love I saw others getting. I felt weird, I was excluded, I was bullied. I believed for years that no one would be able to love me because of my personality and who I truly am, but you have shown me otherwise. With you I don't feel like an intruder, I feel at home, like we were meant to be. - made a brief pause reaching for the remaining socks. - This one is weird like me. - he pointed to the striped one. - And this one is weird like you. - he pointed to the other foot. - Together they're even weirder and perhaps others will never understand, but we don't need others' comprehension to make this meaningful. I love you, Spencer. I want to spend the rest of my life with you.

Today, thirty years later, he still remembers it each morning when he puts on his mismatched socks. He couldn't help but think about how that crazy peculiar proposal gave him the confidence to be who he wanted to be, even if others didn't understand. Ethan taught him that he didn't have to diminish himself, hide or try to fit in to be part of something. In the right place he would be appreciated exactly for who he truly is, he didn't have to hide his interests or the way he thought. In fact, his genius brain saved more lives than any of the frat idiots who made his life hell in college could ever imagine. Dr. Spencer Reid. Agent in the FBI's behavioral analysis unit.

But if he began to think about all the implications his career has had on his life, he'd need three more glasses of that whiskey.

Not that he didn't like it, on the contrary. He was proud of each and every case he solved, his studies, the methods he developed, his awards and even of the time he spent wrongfully incarcerated. He was proud of the work he had done during all these years and the people he had helped, but not of the implications it has had on his life. Witnessing the death of friends, the sufferings of people he loved, experiencing more traumas than he could possibly count, not attending his own mother's funeral because sinking into his work seemed like an easier way to escape. Losing Ethan and the life they could have had together.

And although he loved the stillness of that apartment, Spencer couldn't help closing his eyes and imagining coming home to the aroma of the delicious Italian food that only Ethan knew how to make.

He would leave his shoulder bag by the sofa and hug his husband from behind, placing a kiss on the back of his neck while whispering how much he had missed him. They would be interrupted by the two kids (not so kids anymore) coming into the kitchen chattering loudly. Anna would be a senior in High School while Luke was just starting middle school. The daughter came first, adopted by the couple at two years old and named after her grandmother Diana who was the most affectionate granny on earth. Luke came later, adopted when he was just a few months old and named after Ethan's father, Lucas, who would fly from Italy to the United States whenever he had the chance to visit. Anna would tell her fathers about the stress she was under when it came to choosing colleges, while their youngest would talk excitedly about the goals he had scored at soccer practice that afternoon. Spencer would laugh at the jumble of voices trying to pay attention to everyone at once, only to be interrupted by the barking of the dog who also wanted to be part of the family moment. Kiky was an almost seven-year-old golden retriever, originally called Rocky but Luke couldn't pronounce the full name when they adopted it.

He would work at the local library and they would spend the weekends with the family in a park, Ethan playing with the children while Spencer read something enjoying the wind swaying his already long hair. No long work trips, no trophies, no students or lives saved, just a comfortable, happy domestic dream. Reid found himself lost in this imaginary scenario far more often than he would ever admit to anyone. It was his escape from all the scars that his choice had given him. That choice he really wished he could go back in time and make everything different.

- I don't want to. - Ethan said, running his hands through his hair. - I can't do this, I can't join the FBI, I don't want to live in fear of dying. I can't be like my mother.

- Babe please, think about it, it's the chance of our lives. - Spencer insisted, wanting to cry.

- I love you, Spencer. I love you like I've never loved anyone else and that's exactly why I can't do this. I want to have a home, build a family, be happy like we are now. You know I grew up watching what being a cop made to my mom and I promised myself every day that I would never do that with my life. - He said with tearful eyes before mouthing the phrase that would change their lives forever. - I'm not going to hold you here, if that's your dream then you need to go, but you're going by yourself and our story ends right now.

And he left. Spencer packed everything needed and looked at his now ex-boyfriend one last time before never looking back. He knew that neither of them was wrong, they had different ideas on how life should be and they weren't going to deprive each other of that. Ethan witnessed his mother drowning in an alcohol addiction as he was growing up, every loss at work, every new scar, every day with that badge pushed her a little further down the glass. Of course he admired her. He admired the work she did and knew that someone had to do it, but the price to pay was too high. She lost her marriage and later lost custody of her children. She gradually fell out of touch and finally, on a Thursday morning in December, she lost the chance of seeing them grow up forever. On the letter next to her body, she asked for forgiveness for not being the mother she should have been and confessed to a life full of self-blame. A heroine who nobody realized also needed to be saved.

When the FBI offer came, Ethan didn't think twice before turning it down, but something in Spencer was ignited. He saw an opportunity to save people. A good psychologist would probably say that Reid's obsession with saving everyone derived from the fact that he subconsciously knew he would never be able to save the one he truly wanted, his own mother. And there, for the first time, the couple entered an impasse that was greater than the love they felt for each other. Two inner children who were hurt and traumatized in different ways and who sought healing through opposite paths. There was no resentment between them, only the question of what it would have been like if things were different. Spencer often wondered if Ethan also imagined the life they would have had together. He wondered if Halloween was also his favorite holiday because it reminded him of that first kiss. He wondered if he still wore mismatched socks, if he left his sneakers untidy and his wardrobe disorganized. He wondered if he still had dimples next to his eyes when he smiled and if he still breathed heavily when he slept. He wondered if he thought of them whenever he saw the moon and remembered all those Fridays on the room's balcony. He wondered what life could have been like if he had chosen love over his career.

He was snapped out of his thoughts when a car braked sharply in the street he was observing, almost hitting a pedestrian and causing a bit of a commotion that soon subsided. Spencer took a final sip of the bitter liquid in his glass, grimacing and trying to remember when he had started to like it, probably an inheritance from David Rossi. He took the cup back to the kitchen and when he found the dark room again, he decided that maybe this was the moment to do something about all of it. Blaming the alcohol in his veins, Reid picked up the phone and dialed the forbidden number in his contact list, finding it ironic that his heart was racing faster in that moment than it had been during the last three days when he was hunting a serial killer.

The call rang three times before a very familiar voice answered, more mature and huskier than he remembered, but still close enough to send shivers down his spine.

- Hi Ethan, it's Spencer. - He breathed for a moment trying to gain confidence, after all he hadn't actually planned to do that. - I know it's been a while but can we talk?

[totowlff]

chapter three — first lecture

➝ toto discovers that giving himself to a woman is the best thing that can happen to a man

➝ word count: 3,1k

➝ warnings: smut, d/s dynamics, masturbation, oral sex, cum play, praise kink

➝ author’s note: i could be arrested for this. i hope I'm not.

Three days.

Ava's silence lasted three seemingly endless days.

Three days in which Toto couldn't stop thinking about her and the way she had, with just a few words, brought him to his knees. The way she had made him beg for a touch, for an action, for an order to finally experience what she was capable of providing for him.

However, the first order he had received as Ava’s submissive was to leave.

The walk back to the car that night was bitter. It wasn't like Toto wasn't used to life's setbacks or frustrations, but it reached a deeper layer of him. It wasn't like losing a race or having a bad date, but something worse, more painful. It was like being rejected, humiliated, like he wasn't good enough for Ava to give her attention to.

Toto felt suffocated, and he could only do one thing after he got into the driver's seat of the car.

— Fuck! — he shouted, punching the steering wheel.

In the following days, a cooler head prevailed, and Toto was able to reflect better on what had happened and ended up concluding the obvious: what had happened had been the result of his behavior and not necessarily Ava's will. However, he still believed that he deserved a second chance to show that he was capable of obeying her the way she wanted.

The chance came through a message, simply with the day, time and location. And there he was, in exactly the same place as 72 hours before, with his heart pounding inside his chest.

Ava opened the door with a mischievous smile on her nude painted lips.

— Good evening, little boy — she said, in a sensual tone that ran through Toto's body like a caress. “Focus, for God’s sake, focus,” he thought to himself.

— Good evening, ma'am.

He walked through the door with his shoulders tense, trying to focus on his own breathing and not on the way Ava looked at him with a mischievous gleam in her eyes, much less on the black satin robe with its far from modest neckline. After locking the apartment door, she asked him to come with her, the click of her high heels echoing through the hallway.

Upon entering the gray room, Toto felt a different aroma invade his nostrils. It was a smell that reminded him of the perfume Ava wore, with its musky and sweet notes, but without the main element that made that aroma unique, which was the smell of her skin.

That thought made a warm wave run through his skin.

— Is everything okay? — Ava asked.

— Yes, ma'am.

— I hope you've used the last few days to rethink your behavior — she said, as she went to the bed and sat down on the mattress, which was strangely empty, with just a dark sheet on it.

— Yes, I did, ma'am — Toto said, making a conscious effort to keep his eyes on Ava's face and not on the skin exposed by her robe’s neckline.

— I assume that this time you will follow our protocol correctly, right?

He pursed his lips.

— I will, ma'am.

— Then, we can begin, as before.

Letting out a sigh, Toto began to undress, starting with the baby blue shirt he was wearing. Then, it was time to undo the belt and the cream-colored pants, sliding the fabric down the legs along with the underwear. Unlike the first time, when the excitement he felt became painful, he was a little more relaxed, calm. In the end, he needed to be, especially if he wanted to please Ava. And that's what he wanted most, as he knelt on the floor, his eyes fixed on the pale wood.

A few seconds of silence passed inside the room.

— Did you touch yourself before you came here? — Ava asked, her voice stern.

— No, ma'am.

— You know I'll find out if you did — she said, the creaking of the bed springs as well as the click of her shoes indicating that she had gotten up — And you already know I'm not the merciful type when it comes to punishments.

Toto couldn't find any answer to give Ava. He knew that if he tried to deny it, she would distrust his word, even if it was the truth. In this room, he needed to choose his battles carefully, especially if he wanted the chance to have her for himself.

After a few more seconds of silence, he heard the muffled sound of something landing on the ground, but he didn't dare move. He couldn't fail at that moment, he couldn't miss that chance.

— Good boy — Ava said, softly — You can raise your head.

Looking up, Toto noticed that her robe was on the floor, allowing him to finally see her body. Wearing lace lingerie, the arabesques embroidered in black thread left little to his imagination, allowing Toto to not only see her hard nipples beneath the fabric, but also to catch a glimpse of her pussy.

Ava was beautiful. Probably the most beautiful woman he had ever seen in his life.

— Stand up — she ordered, her voice firm.

Rising quickly, Toto felt the familiar tingling begin to grow below his navel, as well as his skin getting warmer and warmer. It was impossible not to feel that way, especially when his eyes couldn't move away from Ava's breasts, whose size was perfect for his hands. He wanted to touch her, needed to touch her.

— Do you like it? — she asked.

— What? — Toto returned, confused.

— Do you like what you see?

He felt his heart beating heavily inside his chest, as she approached him.

— Yes, ma'am.

— Do you want to touch me? — Ava questioned, stopping in front of him.

Toto blinked.

— Would you let me, ma'am?

Ava smiled a little.

— Why not? — she said, her hand moving up his chest until it stopped on his face — After all, you’ve been such a good boy tonight, respecting all my rules...

He felt his breath catch in his throat.

— Please, ma'am — Toto managed to whisper, his skin burning where Ava was touching him.

After sliding her tongue across her lips, she brought Toto's face towards her, capturing his lips in a slow, delicate kiss. Placing his hands carefully on her waist, he felt as if fireworks were exploding inside him, while a taste of alcohol, similar to cognac, invaded his taste buds. He had never been a fan of that drink, but tasting it on Ava's tongue was completely different.

He wanted more.

Pulling away slightly, Ava was breathing heavily.

— Do you want to continue? — she asked.

—That's what I want most, ma’am.

— Then lie down on the bed, little boy.

Taking a deep breath, he turned away from Ava and walked over to the mattress. After brushing his fingertips against the sheet, which reminded him of satin, he settled down, while the high heels’ clicks indicated that his dominant was walking around the bed. However, the expectation that consumed him inside prevented him from turning his face to follow her movement.

— A little to the middle — she ordered, to which Toto promptly complied. Then, taking one of his arms, Ava wrapped a satin sash around his wrist, tying it tightly — Is that okay?

— Yes, ma'am.

Then it was the turn of his legs and then, his other arm, all immobilized with the same type of satin sash, the touch of which was soft but firm against his skin. After she asked him to test the knots to confirm that all movement was restricted, Ava finally climbed onto the bed, positioning herself between his open legs.

— I think you deserve an explanation for what happened that night — she said, as she placed a hand on his thigh.

— You mean…

— The reason I sent you away.

He swallowed hard.

— It was because I disobeyed you, right? — Toto whispered.

— Well, that was one part of it — Ava replied — But it wasn't just that.

His eyes met hers as her hand caressed his leg.

— I sent you away to show that, even though the submissive has an important role in the bedroom, the dominant person decides what will happen and if it will happen — she continued — If one party isn’t invested or doesn't want it, nothing will happen, and I wasn’t invested that night. I didn’t want to do anything.

— But, you made me take off my clothes — Toto stuttered, as he felt Ava's fingers move up his skin.

— Because I wanted to find out if you were really willing to submit to me. If you wouldn't give up the moment I put my vision into practice. If you wouldn't go back to your normal posture as soon as I started touching you — she said, as she lightly brushed a fingernail along the length of his cock — And, if I may say so, you surprised me, little boy.

— Surprised? — he asked in a low voice, trying not to let the almost unbearable heat running through his skin take his focus off his conversation with Ava.

— I thought it would take longer to tame you, so to speak — she replied, wrapping her hand around his cock, her thumb brushing the underside of his tip — But I could tell that you really wanted to submit to me. You just needed to learn to control your own desires first.

— Control?

— Yes, control — Ava said, a small smile on her face as she stroked him slowly, almost like a tease — You have no idea the things you can feel when you are able to control your own impulses, instincts and desires.

— I want — he stuttered, feeling a warm wave run over his own skin.

— What do you want?

— I want to learn — Toto said, stopping when Ava's palm brushed against the head of his dick. After sighing deeply, he managed to continue — To control myself, ma'am.

The menace and glee that shone in her eyes was undeniable. He had said what she wanted to hear.

— And you will, little boy — Ava replied — Tonight.

Moving her hand up and down, she began to pump her hand up and down his cock, building a rhythm without rush or urgency. Her fingers squeezed his dick with the right pressure, which, combined with the movement, made Toto close his eyes and let out a low, but audible moan.

— Do you like it, little boy?

— Mhm — he murmured, feeling the familiar pressure build just below his navel.

— Do you want me to go faster? — Ava asked.

— Yes, please, yes — Toto moaned, his hands searching for something to hold on to, but stopping at the restraints she had put on his wrists.

— Yes? — she slowed down the movement of her hands, causing a whimper to escape his lips — Just yes?

— Yes, ma'am — he managed to stammer, making her smile.

— Good boy — Ava murmured, before resuming the rhythm of ministrations.

  From that point on, Toto could no longer pay attention to Ava's hands or her look full of malice. He could only focus on the feeling of her fingers sliding down his cock, taking him to the place he had imagined going so many times after entering that room.

— Are you close?

— Yes, ma’am — Toto panted.

— You need to come, don't you? You need to feel your cum dripping from your dick, covering my entire hand, don't you? There's nothing more you want than that, right? Tell me.

— Please, ma'am, please...

— Tell me what you want, tell me what you're thinking — Ava ordered.

— I want — he tried to elaborate, but her voice dissolved into a growl as she began to use her thumb on the back of the tip of his dick, where the head met the rest. It was as if Ava had shocked him, her entire body twitching deliciously at just the light brush of her finger.

— I can only do what you want if you tell me, little boy — she murmured, as he felt something warm fall on the head of his cock. Opening his eyes with difficulty, Toto realized that Ava was spreading saliva over the sensitive skin, her tongue moistening her lips, as if she was preparing them to finally break him for good.

— I want to come, ma’am.

She smiled, mischievously.

— But, already? — Ava asked, as she adjusted herself on the bed. Positioned on her stomach, her face was close to his dick, which was shining in the soft light of the room — I've barely started...

— Ma’am, please…

— Who knew you would be such a needy little thing, Wolff — she murmured, while one of her hands massaged his balls — So desperate for something so simple, that you could do it yourself...

Toto no longer knew how to respond, especially when the desire made his entire body tense, his muscles begging for relief.

— Please — he whimpered again.

— But you preferred to wait for me, for my touch — Ava said, placing a kiss on his leg — That shows how good you can be for me, little boy. And I'm sure you can be even better.

As he felt Ava's warm tongue slide along his member, Toto felt his eyes fill with tears, a loud moan escaping his lips. This was definitely torture.

— Ava — he whispered, groaning again when her finger brushed the spot behind the head of his dick again. However, she suddenly stopped. Opening his eyes, he found Ava rising from the spot between her legs, a serious, almost grim expression on her face. “Fuck, fuck, fuck,” Toto thought.

— Ava? Did you call me Ava?

— No, no, I didn’t…

— Am I going to have to go over the rules with you?

— No, no, please don’t…

Then, a loud crack, followed by a burning sensation on his inner thigh, made him whimper, trying to move away. However, Toto felt no pain, much less discomfort from the slap he had received.

He felt pleasure, which spread in a warm wave through his body.

— Here, I'm not Ava — she said, in a serious tone — I'm your mistress. Your ma’am. The only woman who can make you feel good. Got it, boy?

— Yes, ma'am — the words came out in a thin voice, while her hand slowly pumped his member again.

Letting his head fall on the mattress, Toto's breathing was heavy, as if he were doing a strenuous exercise, even though he was still, just being touched by Ava. And, as agonizing as it was, he wasn't sorry for having handed himself over to her. If he was good, she would reward him, he was sure.

And he was doing his best to be good to her, even though the sensation of explosion was imminent, the muscles in his legs quivering as she kept pace with the thrusts of her fist.

— You’re already close, aren't you? — Ava asked, in a teasing voice, making him raise his head — I can feel your balls contracting, as well as your cock. You don't want to, you need to come, don't you?

— Please, please, please…

— Why should I let you come, little boy?

Toto's mind was filled with fog, words lost on dry lips. He couldn't think about anything other than the pressure of Ava's hand around his dick, the feeling so close and yet so far from orgasm. He just needed that, he just needed her to take him to heaven like she promised if he was good.

He had been good, he was sure he had been good.

— Please — Toto stammered.

— I asked you a question, boy. And I want an answer.

— I’ve been good, ma'am. I was good.

Ava then gave a smile, not malicious or mischievous, but sincere.

— You have been very good for me, little boy — she said, as she repositioned herself, kneeling on the mattress — Now, you're going to count down from ten, slowly, and, as soon as you reach zero, you're allowed to come, okay?

— Yes, ma'am — Toto replied, his voice trembling.

Satisfied with the answer, she moved her mouth to his dick, moving her head up and down the length, using her hands to stimulate the base. That was all it took for him to fall back onto the mattress, his eyes rolling back and a knot getting tighter and tighter below his navel.

— Ten... Nine... Eight — he began to count, clasping his hands that were bound by the satin sashes, his nails digging into his skin — Seven... Six... Five...

Ava's mouth was hot, the suction was perfect, the pressure from her fingers was ideal. She had been born to suck him, to take him whole in her mouth and show him what real pleasure was.

— Four… Three… Two… One…

Then, Ava lifted her face from his dick, speeding up the movement of her hand.

— Zero — he groaned, before giving in to the overwhelming sensation that ran through his body.

The ecstasy caused him to release himself onto Ava's hand and his own belly, a loud moan escaping his lips, his chest heaving as he arched his back. The sensation was sublime, unlike anything he had ever experienced before. there. It was as if every orgasm before that had been shallow, perfunctory, almost like an obligation.

This orgasm, though, was a reward for being good, for obeying his mistress. It was more delicious than he could have imagined.

Shutting his eyes close, he didn't see her expression as she watched him reach his apex for the first time. However, somewhere in the back of his mind, Toto could hear Ava whispering softly, almost like a caress in his ears.

— You have no idea how beautiful you are, coming for me — she said, as her fingertips slid down his shaft, collecting the white liquid that had flowed from his cock — So beautiful, so perfect, just like I imagined.

Leaning over his body, Ava stopped close to his face with a smile on her lips. Then, she brought her index finger to the tip of her tongue, tasting his release. The sight was enough for a shiver to run through his body, a heavy sigh escaping his lips.

— You're delicious, little boy — she said, bringing her fingers to his mouth. Ava didn't need to say anything for him to open his lips and taste his own pleasure, the sweet and slightly metallic flavor invading his taste buds — The most delicious I've ever tasted.

Slipping her fingers out of his mouth, she slid the tips of them down his abdomen, collecting more cum. Taking them again for Toto to lick, he did so voraciously, his eyes fixed on Ava's, while she smiled, satisfied, just the way he wanted.

— I'm going to untie you, okay? — she whispered, as his tongue slipped over her fingers, cleaning them. With a positive nod, Ava removed her fingers from his mouth and left the bed, busying herself with freeing him from the satin restraints. And it was watching her caress one of the marks left by the knots on his skin that Toto was sure.

Ava was unlike any woman he had ever met.

[skelebellie]

FIRST MEETINGS

million knives [stampede] x plant?reader drabble

synopsis: you meet knives for the first time. he thinks your someone else.

content warning: mentions of sharp weapons, blood, and physical altercations

this an equal household. i pine after all siblings equally. [aka i think knives is a goofy dude and his characterization in stampede is kiss kiss].

—————

it was a particularly normal day as you spent your time around town, discovering odd patterned geological formations that helped adhere the homes to the sand below it.

was it the smartest idea to go into a dark alley alone. no. did you think anything would happen to you in the middle day. also no.

you were lost in the sauce. failing to notice the screams of town folk as you observed the calcified rock. one moment you were holding it and then boom, it was dark.

when you woke up, you were shocked to be in a white room. it sent shivers up your spine, as the environment caused old memories to rise to the surface. questions could wait until later, for now you’d try to get out of here. hopefully the town was still there when you got back.

the door was unlocked, odd considering you were kidnapped.

you also didn’t have shoes on, thankfully that old socks separated the floor and your feet. you could sense your bag somewhere within the building, your body able to feel the shawl of plant material that you had been born with, always tucked into your bag.

it was like you were an assassin, peering around every corner and ears on high alert.

the closer you got to your objective, the quieter it seemed to get. an odd sense of loneliness filling the room.

you had found your bag and shawl, even your shoes (thank god, you didn’t have the money for new ones). the only downside being that some blondie covered in a robe was holding it, allowing light to shine through the transparent shawl.

you became defensive knowing he was touching something as important as your shawl, so you started making fast paces towards him. “Hey! You shouldn’t touch things that don’t belong-“. The sense of danger came first, luckily stopping you from making too much contact with the tail of sharp objects that wrapped around you. it certainly didn’t save your overalls, as a large rip formed across the front panel. damnit, now you’d have to sew it back again.

“anything plant belongs to me. im its rightful owner, a god” blondie chided at you, only causing more anger to bubble up to your throat. “J.J Doe, right? Elusive scientist who has published series of plant based experiments. No committee or board to shift through your work, your research seems to pop up in small town libraries. Never the same one.” The man stepped down from his pedestal, inching closer to you. You backed up, only for a reactive spindle of metal(?) to wrap around your neck. it swiped, leaving a sliver of blood and for the stop part of your turtleneck to fall to the ground. the more he keeps going the more work you’ll have to do to fix whatever clothes you have.

“i detest humans, a species of parasitic worms who use plants as tools for their selfish survival. however, I hate those who knowingly use their will to torture my brotheren even more.” he was too close for comfort now. a string of knives swiping close to your forehead, which you barely dodged by shifting backwards. the shift in weight caused you to fall backwards, rows of spindles wrapping around your legs, keeping you from getting up from the floor.

“should i take a finger for each sin you have committed. maybe slowly sever you limb from limb, so you may know the suffering of the plants who you experimented on. maybe-“ You were too focused on the rows of knives wrapped around your legs to notice that he now stood atop of you. crouching to straddle you as his eyes sent daggers into your mind, like a searing hot flash of static. “i should do it with my own hands. as disgusting as you vile creatures are.” his hand slowly began to approach your neck. his weapons should have instilled enough fear into you, but now you seemed petrified, tears threatening to pour at the very thought of him touching you.

“disgusting.” he muttered, looking down as you. his hand wrapped around your neck, and immediately began to squirm, your leg receiving shallow cuts as it brushed against the sharp cage around it. the contact sent an immediate blossom of heat from your neck. you wish it was another gang of badland raiders, anything but an independent plant. you covered yourself up to avoid making contact with anyone, trying to prevent the surge of information that you would receive and give which writhed out of your control.

behind closed eyes, you could see the blossom of blue, geometric shapes spreading from your chest to your neck, reaching out to the man who’s hand was around your neck. the closer it got the more erratic you reacted. It seemed like the man above you no longer intended to kill you, for now. Instead he fixated his eyes to the spread of patterns slowly approaching his hand, his own body reacting in a similair manner. the contact left your mind heavy with shocks of malice, anger, and pain? The scorching sensation caused a moan of pain to spill from your lips as fat tears fell from your eyes.

The man above you felt the fear over the connection, a dark pit of misunderstanding and embarrassment overflowing with an ebb and flow of confusion. flashes of images of syringes and scalpels as you held the blade towards yourself, harvesting your flash to run under analysis. you hadn’t been experimenting on other plants, you had been experimenting on parts of yourself.

the cage around your legs unwinded, as did the hand around your neck. you quickly moved your arms to cover your eyes, still unable to cope with the wave of information that was forced into your head. however, your action failed as another hand wrapped around your wrists to move your arms from your face, revealing puffy eyes and still falling tears. another hand came up to caress underneath your lashes, gathering the salty tears before they could run onto the floor.

“interesting. not entirely human, not entirely plant.” the contact caused a shocking sensation underneath your skin, flinching as his thumb made lazy circles on your cheek. you relaxed, feeling as if the threat of danger was finally over with. until the blunt end of a knife slammed into the already bruised skin at the base of your neck. knocking you out once more.

[urachiiiiii]

masterlist for my human au atwow headcanons!!

(mostly for reference when I'm writing so there's some pretty specific things; might update it ocasionally)

Jake

slight dad bod

either in classical home depot dad attire or using the clothes from his 20s there's no in between

looks great with stubble and goes days without shaving but never to the point of growing a full beard (says it makes him look old)

used to have a "show me your boobs if you hate racism" shirt but Neytiri made him get rid of it when she got pregnant

uses the same beat-up running shoes from when he was a teen for any occasion

a sucker for bands from his teens to this day. will die loyal to the late 90s bc he's a young soul (Neytiri says he's just a manchild)

lets his hair grow out after the navy and it makes him look so much younger. Neytiri is actually spooked at how much he looks like he traveled back in time to his teens

used to pick up Spider to go to school when his dad wouldnt take him

never reads the instructions on how to assemble the ikea furniture but somehow gets it done perfectly every single time

cried when he found out about Kiri's first time bc his little girl was growing up too fast for him to keep up

big Queen enthusiast and raised his kids knowing every lyric to every song. if he's listening to bohemian rhapsody on the living room speakers you BET every single one of the Sullys will belt out the mama part no matter how far away they are located

likes to play rough with the kids like he did with Tommy when they were small and they all love it but he doesn't do it as much ever since Tuk hit her head on the ceiling when she was 5

used one of Neytiri's organic face masks once only to discover he's allergic to nuts. one trip to the ER later and now they are forbidden to enter the house

insists on driving the whole way on road trips even though Neytiri insists on switching

swears like a sailor and has to hold himself near Tuk because she's a big copycat and Neytiri wants her to be innocent for a little longer unlike her other children

emotionally stunted to the point where he really wants to express his feelings but it just doesn't come out bc he was never taught how to properly do so when he was young. his love language is more based on actions rather than words because of that

too hardheaded to wear sunscreen, always goes home from the beach looking like a shrimp

don't talk to him before his morning coffee

Neytiri

absolutely despised Jake's accent and taught him out of it once he moved to Pandora (pretend it's a country and not a planet) just bc she was so annoyed whenever he talked

forced every single one of the kids (and Jake) to download life360 ever since Tuk got lost in the mall and they found her hiding inside a mannequin's skirt three hours later

her love language is physical affection, always hugging and kissing and patting her children's heads even if they complain

very liberal about subjects that would embarrass other parents; she was raised without shame and is very comfortable with human nature. whenever the kids need to confide something like first periods, first times and emotional stuff like that they always go to her first

Mo'at is black and Eytukan was traditional na'vi; her dark skin tone is her mother's but she inherited her father's hair so it's naturally straight like in the movies. Neteyam's hair is like hers but Lo'ak and Tuk's are like their grandma's

cleans the entire house whenever she needs to calm herself

hc her working as an elementary teacher, inspired by her own experience with Grace and how well she did; she wishes she could be a good influence for young children as her own teacher was

really loud inside her own home, yells a lot even when she's not mad, she's just a naturally loud speaker

threw Lo'ak's GTA cd out the window like a frisbee when she found out you could hire hookers and run over people

early bird, wakes up at like 5 in the morning even on the weekends

uses organic and/or homemade products on her hair and skin

always snacking on some fruit

walks around the house naked all the time as if they didn't have any windows or neighbors

after her dad's death she has at least one of his personal beads on her hair at all times. even when it's loose she makes one tiny braid to put a bead on

really tall and slender body, Tuk says she's built like a model

eats about anything people offer her, no matter how exotic. Jake still gags when he remembers the beetle incident on their honeymoon

Neteyam

Starboy is his favorite album of all time (sidewalks is his and Lo'ak's ultimate comfort song bc it has kendrick in it)

has asthma but even so he's really good at most sports as long as he doesn't overdo it

kind of a fuckboy but not in a player way. he just doesn't have the time for anything serious so he blows off some steam once in a while but doesn't commit. he makes his intentions clear for everyone involved tho

very clean and needs to take at least 2 showers everyday or else he feels icky

no gag reflex (really cool party tricks except when he actually chokes on something)

got his belly button pierced so that he could match his mother's own. also let Kiri pierce his septum after she pierced her nose (it got infected oops)

loves dancing and knew basically all the choreos in dance central by heart. is too shy to go off in public though unless his siblings dance with him or he's drunk

shoe crazy. has so many pairs and treats them all so well, doesn't let anyone borrow them and if you step on one of those you might just as well jump off a bridge. you're dead mate

made fun of his mom for playing candy crush once but ended up downloading it and liking the game more than she did (still plays it to this day unironically)

splotch of vitiligo on the back of his neck the shade of his dad's skin that kind of resembles texas (Jake tells him it's the only real proof people need to know he's actually his son. Lo'ak calls him 99 dark chocolate)

has a very high pain tolerance but secretly likes to be coddled so he turns into a baby whenever he gets a harmless injury just so people can take care of him

sagittarius

contact lenses for reading but has a pair of glasses he uses sometimes when at home

when Ao'nung flirted with him at first he would scoff and act annoyed but started to miss it when he stopped doing it because he asked to

never actively came out to his parents. they just used their sixth sense and decided he was gay one day when he was a boy and once he grew up and didn't correct them they just went w it

overall masculine but picked some feminine traits from his mother and grandma (sitting w his legs crossed, painting his nails, tweezing his eyebrows and using feminine clothing sometimes)

Neytiri's face with Jake's body

really ticklish

Kiri

on the spectrum

nonbinary but doesn't really care about how she passes, pronouns and stuff like that. mostly just does her thing whenever and however she feels like it

sneezes like a grandpa

natural ginger but dyes her hair and eyebrows black bc she doesn't like standing out from her siblings too much (being white is already enough)

had a colossal crush on Spider when going through puberty but will never admit it

had her first epileptic episode when watching Lo'ak play geometry dash on the family tablet; the game has since been banned from the house to her brothers dismay

cuts her hair herself

paints all over her walls

has mild emetophobia so she doesn't drink or go on roller coasters bc she's scared she'll throw up; gags whenever she hears the sound of gagging

pierced the side of her nose and gave herself 2 stick and poke tattoos when she was 15; Neytiri was furious she didn't ask her to do it instead

loathes the feeling of Jake's stubble due to her sensory issues but still makes an effort when it's hugging/kissing time bc she knows he likes it and doesn't want him to feel bad and shave it

freckles and moles all over her body

has more body hair than most girls but refuses to shave and sometimes paints her arm hair just to see people's baffled reactions

bites down on things and people randomly out of nowhere and no one knows why, not even herself (her favorite target is Tuk's head)

stims by pulling her hair, listening to the same song over and over again, rocking back and forth and (strangely) smelling people, especially Rotxo

VERY sensitive to smells. steers far away from Lo'ak whenever he hasn't showered in a bit or starts sweating

doodles on every single thing in her possession. the whole bathroom mirror is full of drawings and even if someone cleans it they just come back

not shy at all, just an introvert. most people actually think she's very pleasant and knows how to carry a good conversation (she simply chooses not to)

aquarius

had the nasty habit of putting her finger inside people's mouths when they yawned; stopped doing that after Neytiri bit her once

Lo'ak

astoundingly HORRIFYING posture. his shadow looks like a tim burton character

lactose intolerant but loves cheesy things (always forgets his lactase tablets and has to go running to the bathroom whenever he eats out)

mildly managed (?) adhd and anger issues

aries (surprise surprise)

considers himself bi but would rather DIE than actually enter a romantic relationship with a man

used to make gagging sounds at Kiri just to see her suffer whenever she pissed him off when they were kids. stopped after she actually threw up one day and his mom yelled at him

real life definition of the light skin stare; caramel skin, blue eyes like his daddy, jaw and cheekbones to kill for and full lips. constantly doing The Face™ just to see Tuk laugh

acts tough but is kind of a pussy and gets scared really easily when it comes to horror movies, roller coasters and stuff like that

has a big brownish burn mark on his hip from when he tried to make french fries and dropped a pan of hot oil; tells people he just has vitiligo like his brother but for some reason they don't believe him (doesn't know that vitiligo only comes in white and his siblings don't tell him bc its funny seeing him embarrass himself)

sleeps with his mouth open and drools an ocean every night, constantly has Neteyam washing the pillow cover

whenever his mom has an appointment at the beauty salon he goes with her just to see Tsireya working. secretly likes it when she has free time and practices on his nails but would rather be caught dead than say it out loud

calls Kiri a racist whenever she says anything against him and watches her get flustered and splutter like its the funniest thing in the world (it indeed is)

pierced one ear but passed out when Neytiri went to pierce the other bc he has no pain tolerance whatsoever

doesn't stink per se, he's always got some cologne and body spray on and has good hygiene; the thing is he sweats really easily and has a naturally strong body odor so he doesn't smell all the time, but when he does its really strong

in love with Tsireya's stomach rolls

Jake's face with Neytiri's body

Tuktirey

despite common belief she is definitely NOT an ipad kid. this child runs around jumping anywhere every chance she gets; very physically active and can't stand still playing with one thing for too long

has absolutely no shame at all. runs around butt-naked and uses the toilet with her siblings still in the bathroom all the time, simply couldn't give less of a fuck (it's a Neytiri trait but she will never admit it)

watches coryxkenshin with Neteyam every chance they get and both enjoy it equally bc he's funny as hell and family friendly at that

has a gap on her front teeth she uses to squirt choco milk out of (Lo'ak thinks it's the funniest shit he's ever seen but Neteyam always yells at her when she does it)

loves touching her dad's stubble and loves it when he gives her kisses because it tickles

taller than most kids her age (Neytiri hopes she grows even more before her first period so that she doesn't stop growing and end up a sixth-grade sized teen)

crackhead gemini

knows more than the grown ups think she does but acts innocent and clueless to create awkward moments because she likes seeing them squirm (menace)

has a really slow brain to mouth filter, always says the rudest and most awkward things even when she doesn't mean to, ends up embarrassing people really easily

loves feeling useful, you could ask her to paint the fence with water and she would do it if she thought it was helping you

really easy to please; plays with girl and boy toys, uses boy and girl clothes, could be satisfied both by going to the movies or playing on a puddle of mud

took a while to speak and her first word was "dumb" after seeing Neteyam walk into a glass door

annoys her siblings until they let her tag along to their teenage adventures; thankfully most of their friends like her

covers for the teens when they need it but it always comes with a cost (makes them buy candy and robux for her)

kind of kid to crawl inside public bathroom stalls through under the door (Neytiri and Kiri can't let go of her hand anymore when they go)

Tonowari

Maori king

built like a refrigerator, works out but somehow still manages to have a beer belly (Ronal finds it very endearing)

even tho he's always busy bc of his job as mayor he finds time to do house chores, not just because he wants to ease Ronal's burden but also bc he actually likes acting like a housewife (it relaxes him)

meanest man to ever exist behind a grill. doesn't matter if he shouldnt or cant, he WILL grill every single thing in his line of sight

fishing dad!! takes the kids on fishing trips monthly and they love it. has a picture of him with a fish about his size from when he was twelve and cherishes it to this day

was a really cool guy in his teens, a total chick magnet and competed in surfing. his childhood acquaintances say how much Ao'nung reminds of him back then all the time and he's so proud of it

passed out in the room seeing Ao being born. thought he was prepared when it was Tsireya's turn but Ronal passed out so he did too

inhumane alcohol tolerance; usually when they have a cookout he drinks the whole day without even realizing and everybody wonders if he's secretly an alcoholic but no. he's just built different

the other women in the neighborhood are soooo jealous of Ronal because he's the best husband ever

didn't actually plan on becoming mayor; the people actually asked him to do so because he's so likable and such a natural leader it was such a great fit

has really full eyebrows he also passed on to his kids. Ronal tries tweezing them but he doesn't let her

socks with sandals

does woodwork as a hobby, creates some beautiful traditional stuff and actually built most of the furniture in the house. currently making a big swing for when the baby is a bit older (Ao and Reya are jealous)

the house they currently live in is a house built long ago that is passed down to the respective mayors. it was already a really nice house but he made sure to renovate all of it himself bc he's a handy dad

built a small pool house in the backyard under the excuse that the teens needed a spot to hang out when they have friends over. he secretly meant for it to be Rotxo's space for when he needed some alone time. he let him decorate it the way he liked and it's more of a guest house nowadays bc his nephew managed to turn the thing into an actual livable place

accidentally one-ups all the dads in town without noticing (oh your son started swimming? thats really nice, Ao'nung started at two years old! :D)

Ronal

was a family doctor but decided to quit once she got pregnant to focus on her family. is now the headmaster of Awa'atlu's local high school and the students are terrified of her (she loves it)

wine mom

also an ingredient mom

people think she's so much younger than Tonowari but she's actually the oldest one (she's past her fifties don't tell anyone)

has a big wooden box of every gift and letter the kids have given her throughout the years

gossiping is one of her favorite pastimes but she's not fake about it. she'll talk shit ab you for sure AND will do it to your face too but will also give you advice if you ask her for it

skincare queen!! full of oils and lotions to prevent stretch marks when she's pregnant, always smells divine because of it

knits whenever she's stressed out. usually does rugs and blankets though since Awa'atlu is so damn warm no one would be insane enough to put on a sweater

made a handmade individual album for every one of the kids from their birth to now

has mad steel guts; could see a plane crash and burn right in front of her and wouldn't even flinch, which is good for emergencies but also freaks people out (understandably). her excuse is that being a doctor and raising three children does that

made sure all of her births were natural just to prove she was strong enough to do so even though no one ever doubted her

Roa (pretend shes a bulldog) was a pregnancy gift from Rotxo's dad (who was also her twin). she didn't like it that much bc shes not really big on animals but when he died she warmed up to her because she reminded her of her brother. now they even sleep in the same bed and nobody is allowed to discipline Roa but her because she "doesn't want any of them treating her badly"

strict open door and visible hands policies when the kids' friends come over. also never let any of them alone with strangers when they were smaller

treats Rotxo as if he was her own son and will murder anyone that dares say otherwise

she was pregnant once before Ao'nung but had a miscarriage due to stress; it was one of the main reasons she quit her job, she didn't want to risk that happening again and feeling that amount of pain once more

wasnt really big on the idea of tattoos when she was younger and didn't want to do any even if it was part of the Metkayina culture. changed her mind instantly when she saw Tonowari's first tattoo and how great it looked on him

always know when the kids are up to no good and think they're slick (side eyes Tsireya whenever her and Lo'ak are under a blanket together and never lets Ao and Neteyam sleep in the same room)

is harder on Ao'nung rather than her other children not because he's the eldest but because she sees so much of her teen self in him. she doesn't want him to lose his best years by isolating himself due to being so judgemental and full of himself like she was

does most of her chores with Tsireya and really appreciates how much she takes after her father - she always offers help right away and does everything with a smile on her face even if she doesn't know how to do it and she really admires her daughter for it

Ao'nung

looks great with facial hair but doesn't grow a beard bc his mom doesn't let him (it reminds her of how old she's getting so she makes him shave it off). once he's finally able to rock a light goatee without her interfering she swoons at how handsome her big baby looks

used to be a chubby kid but after puberty and several growth spurts along with swimming he's in amazing shape for his age. also works out with his dad sometimes

could wash his hair with only dish soap and it would still be naturally majestic. only uses plain shampoo and conditioner (it revolts everyone in the house)

tallest in the friend group and keeps putting things out of people's reach because he's kind of a dick

got a matching traditional Metkayina tattoo with Rotxo as soon as he turned eighteen (Ronal let the younger one do it even though he wasn't of age just because she thought it was so cute)

really squirmish unlike his mother and will pass out immediately at the sight of blood

doesn't listen to music all that much, so his taste is mostly Rotxo's and Tsireya's songs

the only reason they got a pool built in the first place was because of him. develops chronic depression whenever he's dry for too long (Ronal says his father used to be just like him and compares him to a little fish)

snacks on the most diabolical things ever (raw pasta with peanut butter and such delicacies) because hes too lazy to cook a proper meal just for himself

talks big talk but actually can't fight for shit 💀 the attitude makes up for it at least

best swimmer Awa'atlu High has seen ever since his dad

plays the guitar and had a band with Rotxo and Reya just for shits and giggles. they were actually pretty good but that didnt last long (the fame of having the total of 10 people watching their covers was getting to his head)

laughs at people presenting in front of the class (when its his turn he tells them to shut the fuck up obviously)

although he's really known at school due to his abilities and parents most of the kids don't like him because of his resting bitch face syndrome, they think he's stuck-up when he's actually just chilling

leo

snores like a truck

kind of mf to turn to you in class with the most devilish grin when the teacher is scolding you just so you laugh and get scolded even more

asked Rotxo to share a room with him because he didn't want to be lonely

Rotxo

goes surfing to Three Brothers Rocks at least once a month to smoke with Ao

baby blue and aqua green braces

younger than Ao'nung but is one year ahead so he's in his grade

pisces

very insecure ab his looks because he's smaller than others his age and has braces and acne scars. truth is he's a cutie pie and once he hits his last stop in puberty train he has the potential to be a chick magnet

his hair routine is insanely detailed. puts a lot of effort into it and it shows. absolutely beautiful tight curls

naturally smart; doesn't make as much of an effort as Neteyam or Tsireya but still has very above average grades

sometimes people look at him and just laugh because he zones out so often it looks like there are absolutely no thoughts behind those big ol green eyes

even though he's smart, the subjects only make sense in his own head, so he is a terrible teacher

will be talking to you looking like a cutie patootie while listening to the most explicit horniest whorish songs on planet earth on his earphones. AND he knows all the lyrics too

asked Tonowari for a huge aquarium in the living room, takes care of the little fishies religiously and knows how to differentiate all of them, also gave them all names

certified munch

pretty shy but once he gets to know you says the most out of pocket things ever because he hardly has any filter. so unintentionally funny

knows beatbox and plays the drums, so when he drops a beat out of nowhere he gets everyone turnt because its actually pretty good (Lo'ak starts freestyling on it most of the time but they all shut him down real quick)

makes bracelets and necklaces for the people he loves

type of person to start telling a story and have a laughing fit in the middle of it so no one actually understands it by the end

an absolute beast on the drums. actually the only way he found to healthily manage his anger so whenever he plays he goes all out to the point it's just scary (or hot but that's for you to decide)

Tsireya

slightly chubby and has wide hips and big thighs like her mother; used to be insecure about it but started not minding as much as she got older.

very healthy, loves salad and fruit and natural juices and smoothies and all of the things most teens hate

loves pink. its her favorite color of all time and she has dyed some streaks of her hair when she was younger (didn't look great but she loved it regardless bc it was pink!!)

started working in a beauty salon and trained her nail painting skills on everyone for a month. nobody complained bc she's actually really talented and they came out great everytime

big sza beyonce and doja cat gal. ocasionally listens to kim petras bc she's pretty and bc she thinks some of her songs are funny

loves sweet things for breakfast

takes a lot after her mother in her mannerisms but looks just like her father and is a total daddy's girl

carries a huge 2-liter hydroflask with a dangling bell keychain with her everywhere she goes and it annoys the shit out of everyone. doesn't care bc shes unbothered hydrated and flourishing

always wearing lip gloss

watches courteezy religiously and thinks she's the funniest

has a pet hamster named Shuu The Third; the other two didn't manage to escape Tonowari's grasp (he sat on them)

has an entire desk in her room just for doing her makeup. it's a very natural aesthetic, never looks exaggerated but it takes a lot of care nevertheless

in love with Lo'ak's smile. thinks he's the most handsome boy alive even when he looks like an evil santa helper

very girly girl and takes a lot of pride in it, people usually thinks she's dumb or superficial bc of her looks but she's full of personality and really smart; actually just likes the process of putting effort into her appearance

has HELLISH periods. her parents were actually scared she was developing a personality disorder after puberty because her pms turns her into a straight up bitch (turns out she just had endometriosis and was in excruciating pain most of the time)

has the voice of an angel and would sing on her brothers band just because she liked seeing them have fun with something other than swimming and surfing

ugliest laugh of all time. sounds like that one girl on that vine "not to be racist or anything but asian people..."

makes her own scented candles and spreads them all around the house

really good dancer, made her own dance club with some of her friends at school

cancer

Spider

speaks fluent spanish

runs real fast and also does parkour. doesn't even break a sweat, this boys got some insane stamina

huge '80s and '90s latino music fanboy bc of his mama

kind of dude to say stuff like "later skater", "smell you later" and "deuces" unironically

legally changes his name to Spider Socorro as soon as he gets the chance (middle name is Oscar so it actually spells S.O.S which he thinks is rad as fuck)

only smaller than Ao'nung in their friend group and constantly being asked to pick things up from high places (ao put them there probably)

absolute whore for spicy food and has crazy tolerance. Lo'ak always challenges him to food competitions (loses every time)

had a gigantic crush on Kiri while going through puberty and lowkey still does but he cherishes their friendship too much to tell her. kind of also thinks she deserves better

breaks bones like they're made of glass bc he has no survival instincts and throws himself off of ledges and small buildings like it's nothing thinking he has plot armor (very much does not)

hair straight in the roots, curly in the middle and wavy at the ends. absolute mad genetics

corniest mf to ever exist, will use the most stupid pickup lines ever but he enjoys it so much they actually turn funny

not exactly ripped but he does have plenty of muscle and the girls in school all wonder what he does to have a six pack (absolutely nothing, just climbs walls all day and has crazy metabolism privileges)

skates ever since he was a kid, total sk8er boy

terrible swimmer, can't hold his breath for shit

his closet consists of flannels and jeans and one single pair of beat up converses

taurus

has dyslexia so has a hard time at school and barely gets any help from his father, Neteyam and Kiri do their best to help him though

[sockmeat]

 𝐅𝐄𝐌 𝐑𝐄𝐀𝐃𝐄𝐑 -- 𝑫𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒎𝒔 𝒅𝒐 𝒄𝒐𝒎𝒆 𝒕𝒓𝒖𝒆 (𝑨𝒍𝒍 𝑰 𝒄𝒂𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒌 𝒐𝒇 𝒊𝒔 𝒚𝒐𝒖) -- 𝐀𝐋𝐀𝐒𝐓𝐎𝐑 (𝑯𝒂𝒛𝒃𝒊𝒏 𝑯𝒐𝒕𝒆𝒍)

(𝐰𝐜): 1,855

𝐒𝐮𝐦𝐦𝐚𝐫𝐲: After finding your crush with another woman on Valentine's day, you prepare to hole yourself up in your house until your shame passes. But when they show up at your door uninvited with a proposal, you discover that not all hope is lost.

(𝐀/𝐍): I’m actually proud of this,, even if the pacing is absolute dog shit

𝐖𝐚𝐫𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠(𝐬): Alastor’s a little forceful at the end (maybe, not really), Reader is a little bit of a dumby but that’s why I love her

                                                       𓆩♡𓆪

   Trudging around the house, you gathered everything you needed to survive the next few hours. It was a beautiful day out--the birds were chirping, the sun was shining, and the couples were buzzing down the street. It indeed was the perfect day. Anyone would be happy.

But here you are, on the verge of tears because of a man that was never yours.

    Of course he isn't yours. Everyone wanted him. He was polite, well-mannered, well-off, and attractive. He had a passion for radio shows and charming anyone he laid his eyes on--though, that could be unintentional. He had fair, olive skin, beautiful brown eyes to match, and shiny brown hair you would die to run your hands through. Who wouldn't be charmed by him? He's the perfect man.

    When you first heard of him, you followed your heart and applied to work at his studio. It was a miracle he accepted. You had no experience, after all. At first, you would only run errands for them and those he would speak with, but soon you became more. You would give him ideas and, to your delight, he never chastised you. He only encouraged your creativity. It wasn't long until you became a staple of the radio channel and Alastor became a staple in your heart.

    Like a fool, you believed he felt the same for you. You believed his heart and soul were made for you—that you were made for each other.

    Earlier today, you found him chatting with a girl, who had a small, heart-shaped box of chocolates in her hand. Her face was flushed as she looked up at Alastor with doe eyes. Margaret was known by everyone in town as a wisenheimer; why would Alastor choose her of all people?

    Your heart clenched at the memory. “I’m so stupid,” you whimper.

    Dragging your feet, you roamed into the kitchen, collecting your favorite snacks from your cupboards. As you left the kitchen, the radio triggered itself and began playing Alastor’s channel.

    “Hello and happy Valentine’s day, the holiday for passion and love! Nearly everyone has a valentine,” spoke Alastor, his voice nearly being covered by the feedback. You felt lighter at the sound of his voice. “Speaking of which, Arthur, do you have a Valentine?”

    Shuffling came from the radio before a foreign voice spoke, “As a matter of fact, I do. I have to get my wiggle on so I can meet with the missus for lunch. What about you, Alastor, do you have a valentine?”

    “Not yet, my friend, but I will by the end of the day. I’m dizzy with a dame, you see, but I haven’t seen her all morning!” Alastor sighs and Arthur hums.

“You’ll get her. Hey, butt me, will ya?”

    Out of impulse, you twist the dial to a random channel—any channel, as long as it isn’t his. Outgoing jazz music played on the radio and soothed your nerves. You kicked your house shoes off your feet and collapsed onto the couch, tossing the throw pillows and decorative blanket over your person.

    Now underneath the pile, all you could see was darkness. The song ended and another softer, smoother song played. Gradually, you pieced together a scene to cure your newfound boredom.

    A giant, golden room, bustling full of people. Every woman wore an elegant dress and every man wore a handsome suit with a unique flower. The room had a dozen pillars on the longest walls, parallel to each other, which extended to the highest point of the ceiling to make it appear round.

    On the ceiling, golden engravings complimented a giant mural. A few chandeliers hung from the ceiling, adding shimmers to the walls as the light deflected from them. Curtains, red as a rose, matched the velvet chairs that hugged the walls, all of which were empty.

All of it reminded you of him.

    You felt discouraged, the thought of Alastor bringing back the memory of him with Margaret. But you lit up when you remembered something—this is your dream! You could make anything you want happen.

    You could have a world where there was no Margaret, where you were the only dame that wanted Alastor’s hand—where Alastor only had eyes for you.

    Looking down at yourself, you concentrated on giving yourself a dress. A red, thin-strapped, sequin dress appeared on your body. Black, silk, elbow-length gloves showed themselves on your arms, and a fan in your hand to match. A pearl necklace made itself around your neck and a matching set of earrings clipped themselves to your ears.

Maybe you would never actually wear this, but you felt damn good pretending.

    Suddenly, the door to the ballroom opened. A silhouette appeared in the door frame. They strolled in quickly, cutting their way through the dancing couples and straight to you.

    As they grew closer, you recognized their face. Your heart fluttered when you realized it was Alastor. He wasn’t wearing his usual outfit; instead of a blouse and red vest, he wore an elegant, red suit with a black bow. His usual, pretty smile stretched across his face as he locked eyes with you.

    “Hello, my dear,” Alastor cooed, stopping in front of you and staring into your eyes.

    “Al,” you sighed, dreamily. “Hello.”

    Gently, Alastor brings a hand to your forehead. “Are you feeling alright? You look a little feverish,” he said rhetorically, already knowing the reason your face was hot.

    “I am now that you’re here,” you say confidently, moving your hands to his chest, suddenly feeling confident. Alastor’s smile grew as he looked down at you.

    Offering his right hand out, he said with a smile, “Would you do me the honors of being my dance partner?”

    “How charming,” you giggle. “I would love to.” Gently, you place your hand in his. Almost eagerly, he leads you to the dance floor.

    As if you were always there, you blend in with the others dancers effortlessly. Your right hand held his left, and your left hand sat comfortably on his shoulder as he held your waist with his right hand. You felt light as a feather as you waltzed across the dance floor, maintaining eye contact with Alastor at every step. Every movement he made was confident and purposeful.

    “You look ravishing, darling. I’ve waited all day for this moment,” he whispered, leaning close enough so you could hear him.

    “As do you, my love,” you gushed, heart fluttering under his gaze. Around him, you felt like an open book—one that he read as often and as thoroughly as he could.

    As the tension grew, your arms moved to loop around Alastor’s neck, while he moved to cradle your waist. He pressed his cheek against yours, nuzzling close to your ear to whisper sweet nothings.

    His murmurs were unintelligible, for you were too tired to understand, so you enjoyed the feeling of his breath fanning against your ear instead. The hairs on your neck stood on edge as you closed your eyes to appreciate the moment.

    You only opened your eyes when the whispers stopped and Alastor’s hand moved to your cheek once again. Once you came out of your bliss, you noticed the scenery changed. Instead of being in a ballroom, you were on a balcony.

    The sky was dark and littered with stars. The full moon hovered behind Alastor, making him look ethereal. You didn’t bother seeing what else changed. You were too busy admiring the man in front of you.

    “You have bewitched me—heart, body, and soul,” Alastor stated, breaking the silence. He led his other hand to cup your empty cheek. “I wish to never be parted from you from this day on. You’re all I think about. I’m crazy for you, my darling doe,” he broke eye contact for a moment to glance at your lips before looking back at you.

Like he was asking for permission.

“Oh, Al,” you mutter, thoroughly smitten by his words. “Please kiss me.”

    “It’d be my pleasure,” he hummed, tilting his head and leaning close. You reciprocated, excited to finally share a kiss with the one you’ve been pining over for so long. His eyes closed, as did yours. Your lips brushed against his—

    You woke with a jolt when you heard knocking at your door. “Rats,” you curse, throwing the blanket and pillows to the floor and scrambling to fix yourself. “Just a moment!” You yell, throwing your house shoes on and hastily fixing the couch, as well as your hair.

    “Are you alright in there? I hear a lot of movement,” a voice calls from behind the door. “Should I call for someone?”

    “NO!--I mean—” You yank the door open, breathless, and smiling. “See? Right as rain! No need to call for anyone,” You crowed nervously, nearly fainting when you saw the man you were just dreaming about holding a giant bouquet of roses at your door.

     “If you say so,” Alastor hums, glancing over your panting figure. “Right! I’m here for a proposal. Will you do me the honors of being my valentine?” He asks nonchalantly, pushing the bouquiet toward you.

    “Wait–I thought Margaret was your valentine,” you asked, ignoring the flowers and staring expectantly at Alastor.

    Alastor stepped into your house, prepared for the long conversation. “Margaret is merely a harlot, my dear. You have nothing to worry about, I assure you,” he explained without a beat.

    “...How do I know I can trust you?” You asked him, “You looked awfully happy with her.” That was a lie—you only saw the back of his head. You had no way of knowing how he felt in the situation.

    Alastor takes a step toward you, to which you take a step backward. “I love you. And I believe you love me,” he states, looking down on you fondly.

    “You’re quite wrong. This has only been an adventure to me,” you sputtle, feeling vulnerable under his gaze.

     “That isn’t true, my dear. I see the way you look at me. I hear how you talk about me. You are as infatuated with me as I am with you,” he takes another step.

    Desperate for distance, an advantage, you speak, “It is true! You smiled at me, I was flattered. It was an adventure for a holiday mood,” you tell him, stepping back until your back met the wall.

     Alastor takes a moment to place the bouquet on the couch before resuming his approach. “You may as well take my heart, It’s already full of you. You walked with it the day we met,” he vowed, placing his arms on either side of you.

    “You’re a fool, Alastor,” you shutter, silently relishing in his presence. Alastor smiles brightly, pressing his forehead against yours and looking deep into your eyes.

    “But isn’t any man who falls in love?” He asks, guiding one of your hands to the back of his neck as he leans close. With one swoop, Alastor pressed his lips against yours, locking you into a kiss. Your heart soars in your chest.

You finally got the man you desire most. Maybe dreams do come true.

                                                        𓆩♡𓆪

[white-wolf-buckaroo]

Chapter 5: I Plunge to my Death

This episode is what I call the 'turning point' of the show where Percy really discovers what he's capable of, and also the end of the first half of the first season! Can't believe we're already here. Hope you enjoy it!

Word count: 7500 ish

Warnings: Does the Chimera count?

Fic masterlist here!

The soothing rattle of the train put Emily to sleep almost instantly when they went to bed. She was exhausted, even if it had only been the first days of their quest.

They were back on track now, on their way to Los Angeles still in time for the solstice. They would complete the quest, and avoid a war between the gods. Yep, everything would be great.

Except her sleep that night: she was still shaken up from their visit to Aunty Em’s place, not as much because of fighting multiple monsters the same day (she was more than prepared for that), but because of their conversation with Medusa. Emily knew that not all monsters were brainless or soulless creatures, but having an actual talk with someone as the gorgon, who had been around for ages, and had different opinions than the ones Emily was used to hearing, had certainly been an experience.

Medusa’s words resonated in her head during her sleep: The gods want you to believe that they are infallible. But they only want what all bullies want: they want us to blame ourselves for their own shortcomings.

Emily hadn’t seen her father in years. Well, except in the official ceremonies like the winter solstice, when they visited Olympus. But she hadn’t spoken to him in years. Still, she thought of him every day when making her offerings, even though she knew he probably didn’t think of her maybe more than once a month, if he ever did. He was the one who had left, after all. He didn’t want anything else to do with her anymore.

It killed her not to know the reasoning behind his actions. What seemed more logical to her, is that it had been her fault. That’s why she trained to be better, and better and better every single day. Not to make him see he was wrong for abandoning her… but to demonstrate that she was worthy of his love.

She woke up earlier than expected, heart racing after her overthinking thought didn’t let her be even during her sleep – it was still dark outside. Above them was a pitch black sky, from what she could see from her place on the floor (after the flying shoes incident they had let Grover take one of the bunkbeds, and both Percy and Emily had lost against Annabeth on rock, paper, scissors, so the both of them were on mattresses on the floor). There were also stars shining above them, almost flying by with the train’s fast pace.

It was a relief that, wherever she would go, she could always look up to the sky and find the same stars she stared at every night at camp.

She realized then that Percy and Annabeth were awake too, because they were talking. Maybe she had woken up because of them; she could, and would, definitely blame them.

“… I gotta say, that doesn’t make a lot of sense to me”

“What doesn’t make sense to you?”

“The way you guys all talk” answered Percy “The way the gods want us to think… Gotta burn an offering to get a parent’s attention. Gotta beat up on Clarisse just to get my father to admit he’s my father. It isn’t supposed to work that way” he sighed, defeated “People who are close to you aren’t supposed to treat you that way”

The thing is, the gods weren’t close to their children. Demigods wanted them to be, sure, but they just… weren’t. That’s the sad truth behind it, and the reason why things worked like they did in their world.

Emily listened to Annabeth telling Percy how she ran away when she was seven, a story she had heard many times, years ago for the first time. Emily knew that Annabeth missed her father, but that her insecurities wouldn’t let her give in to his pleadings to come back to him.

If Emily still had her mother, she would leave camp half-blood to be with her in a heartbeat.

“It isn’t the gods who think that way” replied Annabeth, to Percy’s previous comment “It’s everybody. But at least with the gods you know the rules: show them respect and they’ll be in your corner no matter what”

“The gods didn’t help us when we were at Medusa’s, though”

“Gods can’t interfere”

Both Percy and Annabeth looked over at Emily when she talked, surprised that she was awake.

“What do you mean?” asked Percy.

“This is a quest. We have to get this done by ourselves. If we can’t deal with small problems like a monster getting in our way… well, then we shouldn’t be on a mission in the first place”

“A monster doesn’t seem like a small problem to me but okay, whatever you say” Percy shrugged “But still, we are kids. They are our parents. Dads and Moms are supposed to protect their children”

“The gods do… in their own way” Emily was staring at the ceiling, rather than at Percy, engrossed in her mind “Athena gifted Annabeth her invisibility cap. Your father transmitted to you the ability to heal when you are in contact with water. They care for you guys”

Percy took in her words, noticing she hadn’t mentioned herself nor her dad. He didn’t know what her relationship to Ares was like, but he did remember Medusa saying that the god had cared for his child, in past tense, but not in present tense. He did know how her relationship to Clarisse was, and some others of the Ares cabin from what he had seen at camp. He liked Emily because she wasn’t as brute as them, but he also knew that there was a lot about her he didn’t know yet – she was still a daughter of the God of War.

He wanted to ask her more about it, but he didn’t know how to be tactful. So he just blatantly did:

“What about your dad? Ares?”

“What about him?” she didn’t sound very keen on talking about that topic.

“Has he gotten you anything like Annabeth’s mom for her?”

“Yeah, he did. Some weapons, like my throwing knife. It’s been… years, though, since he’s gifted me anything. The last thing… was his ring. I guess that was his goodbye” she grasped at it with her fingers over her chest, biting her lip; it was attached to her camp necklace, ever since the day she had received it from him. She didn’t want to dwell in her feelings too much, so she quickly forced herself to recover “He also got me some emotional traumas, like for the most of us. The usual for the God of War”

Above them, on the upper mattress of the bunk, Grover groaned while he woke up, totally displeased to do so.

“You awake?” asked Percy.

“I am now, thanks”

“You okay?”

“He’s super grouchy when he doesn’t get enough sleep”

Grover mimicked Annabeth doing a high pitched voice, groaning again.

“Wow” replied Percy, unimpressed. That was a side of Grover he hadn’t seen yet.

“You’ve never been on the road with him before” said Annabeth “A little different than a froofy boarding school, isn’t it?”

“Who’s froofy? You’re froofy!” complained Grover, words slurred with sleep “… What’s froofy?”

“I think you need to eat, Grover” suggested Emily, holding back a smile. She shouldn’t be amused by his torture… but she kind of was enjoying this too much.

Grover did eat a lot at breakfast; at dawn, after they couldn’t sleep anymore, they had all gotten dressed and had made it out of their wagon. The train didn’t have a five star meal restaurant, but some apple juice, bread, fruit and cookies, which was more than enough for three demigods and a satyr – well, maybe not so much for Grover, but he got all the grapes in exchange for the sausages he didn’t want.

“Seems like Apollo is driving around fast today” mumbled Emily, watching how the sky outside the train was quickly turning lighter colours, with the sun almost up in the sky “If he decided to make the sun rise later than it should… we’d have more time to complete our quest, right? ‘Cause of the solstice”

“In two days we will reach Los Angeles, there is still plenty of time before our deadline to reach the Underworld”

“Can I ask a dumb question?”

Annabeth, Emily and Grover all looked at Percy with an eyebrow raised, unsure about what he was about to say.

“It’s like you need me to make fun of you” commented Annabeth, across from him. She was sitting with Grover, whereas Emily was with Percy.

“Annie, be nice”

“Shoot” added Grover, to Percy.

“I’ve never been to Los Angeles before. I’m guessing neither of you have been to Los Angeles as well… So, how will we have any idea where we’re going?”

“No idea” answered Grover. Great “But that’s like step thirty-seven, and we’re still on step four. We’ll cross that bridge when we get there”

Emily knew by Percy’s face that he still wasn’t convinced.

“Follow-up stupid question” ah, there it was.

“Dude” muttered Annabeth.

“The Oracle… it said ‘And you shall fail to save what matters most in the end’. Back in Jersey I told you the Oracle said this quest would fail. And no one’s mentioned it since. Seems like… something we ought to be taking a little more seriously, don’t you think?”

“Don’t think too much about what the Oracle said” Emily bit her lip, thoughtful “She’s super wise and stuff, but her premonitions are also super tricky. They’re more like… guidelines, but not something to be followed by step by step. Relax about it”

“Sounds easier said than done” Percy huffed, turning to look outside of the window… when he saw something that caught his eye “Hey… are those…?”

“Centaurs”

A family of four, riding through the field on the right side of the train. Wild, and free.

“No one even knows they’re there”

“Chiron taught us that there used to be herds of them, everywhere” explained Emily, watching the family of centaurs move into the distance “Now… not so many”

“What happened to them?”

“Humans” mumbled the satyr, bitterly “A few thousand years ago… the God of the Wild, Pan, disappeared. And ever since, without Pan to protect the natural world, humans have been trying really hard to chip away at it”

“The bravest satyrs volunteer to become Searchers” added Annabeth “To try to find Pan. None have ever returned”

“Your uncle… the one we found at Medusa’s, Ferdinand” Percy quickly connected the dots, for once “He was a Searcher?”

Grover nodded, sadly. Annabeth and Emily looked at him with pity, like Percy.

“The Oracle didn’t say the quest would fail” Annabeth wasn’t done with that conversation yet, apparently “ ‘Fail to save what matters most’ could mean a lot of things. It’s what Emily said: this is how prophecies work. That’s how fate works. It could mean a lot of things. The harder you work to understand, the harder it gets to understand. Sometimes you’ve just gotta’ let it come to you when it’s ready”

And then, they were interrupted:

“Excuse me” they looked up, seeing one of the train’s security guards next to them “Can I see your tickets, please?”

“Why?” asked Emily, defensive, as Annabeth took them out of her backpack and handed them to the security guard. He didn’t answer her, though.

“You’re in cabin 17B?” he asked this time, and they nodded “You’re gonna have to come with me”

“Excuse me?” Emily knew she had a problem with holding her tongue, but she was working on it. Most times “We’ve done nothing wrong”

“Please, follow me”

Annabeth shot her friend a look that screamed ‘shut up’, and they all obeyed the man, following him back to the wagon were the cabins were. There was a loud noise of wind whooshing, that they didn’t recall hearing before when they left to get breakfast. When the security guard stopped at their cabin, they noticed the door was open, they understood where all of the wind was coming from: their window was shattered, there was glass everywhere, the beds they had made were now undone, and all their stuff was upside down. Emily’s eyes also caught a mark near the ceiling, above the now demolished window in the wooden panel: four equidistant lines, four claw marks.

“You wanna explain?”

As much as they defended themselves to the officer, he didn’t listen to them. On top of that, he even had a witness who apparently said she had hear the window smash followed by children’s voices. Both Emily and Annabeth looked at the woman the officer was pointing at: she was talking to another security guard, giving her statement on what she had heard. Percy complained behind them to the officer, while they assessed the woman: she was tall, lean, well dressed. Her face was pretty thin, her jawline and her cheekbones prominent.

Emily thought she looked like the typical suburban mom who got into other people’s business. Then again, she hadn’t been outside camp in a very long time, so she didn’t really know where that thought came from.

“Are we under arrest?”

The officer didn’t like Annabeth’s tone. He liked it even less when she repeated the question.

Now they were under arrest.

They held them back at the breakfast wagon, the four of them sitting at the same table as before again. Emily glanced at the ‘witness’ who was still giving her statement, now to the officer that had arrested them, while the other security guard watched them.

“So… We’re just killing time until we find out that guy’s like a werewolf or something, right?”

Grover, Emily and Annabeth glanced at the security officer talking to the witness, who looked back at them at the same time, and then they turned back to Percy.

“Doesn’t seem like a werewolf to me”

“More like a grouchy man with a superiority complex” mumbled Emily.

“Emi, not helpful” scolded Annabeth.

“Come on, look at us. Look at me!” she made what she called ‘a cute face’; she was a cute kid so it wasn’t that hard “Who could ever think I could harm anyone? Or shatter a window like that?”

“You definitely are capable of that. Not saying you would” answered Grover, immediately correcting himself “But you can”

“Well, that’s my perfect cover”

“We’re losing focus” reprimanded Annabeth “But I’m with you, he doesn’t seem like a monster”

“Then what’s going on here then? Why would anyone tear our room apart?”

“Maybe they were looking for something” suggested, Grover, looking at Percy.

“But we don’t have anything”

“The people who think you stole Zeus’s master bolt might disagree”

“But it’s like Percy said, we don’t have it”

“Exactly. They’re not gonna find something we don’t have”

“We need to get out of this before we get delayed”

Annabeth was interrupted, this time by the woman who claimed had heard them shatter the window and put their room upside down. The witness tapped her on the shoulder, acting concerned, and asked them if she could sit across from them. She even got the security guard who was watching them to walk away, saying she thought she was making them nervous.

Emily thought the woman had no right to seem this nice when she was acting so suspiciously.

She had a bag with her, with a pet inside. It was closed, but the thing was trembling so much it made the whole bag shiver; it made Emily kinda nervous.

“You poor dears must be scared” the woman told them, smiling oh too warmly “Your parents aren’t here, aren’t they? You poor things… But don’t worry. I’m a mom. I know what it’s like” she shushed her pet, tapping the bag lightly before turning back to the three demigods and the satyr again “I want you to know… I don’t actually think that you made that mess back there. I just wanted a moment alone with you. There are some things I need you to understand-“

“You have something on your jacket” Grover interrupted her, signalling to her right shoulder. All of them looked at that spot, seeing small pieces of something shiny “It looks like… glass” the woman’s smile was becoming more unsettling every passing second “No one smashed out the windows from inside our cabin. Someone smashed them in, from the outside”

The pet inside the woman’s bag began grunting, whimpering for her, and she turned back to it, kneeling before the back talking to the animal:

“Yes sweetheart, I know, I know… You’re impatient” the animal sniffed again “Oh… But we’re almost there” she stood up then again, turning to the heroes “This isn’t your fault” her tone had switched to a much more serious one, less sweet “But sadly, you’re going to have to bear the burden of your parents’ mistakes today”

“Listen, lady” said Percy, next to Emily on their bench “I don’t know who you are, but I think I know what you are”

A pain in the ass, though Emily.

“We’ve run across a few monsters like you and we’ve sent them all packing”

“Monsters like me?” the woman scoffed “Well… Of course they’re like me. They were my children”

It all made sense then.

Well, to all except Percy. But Annabeth, Emily and Grover knew then who they had standing before them:

“The Mother of Monsters” mumbled Grover, afraid.

“Echidna”

The pet, or more like the monster, inside the woman’s bag, began growling again, harsher this time. Its mother shushed it, but they felt like it wouldn’t stay calm much longer.

“Monster is such an odd word” Echidna sounded like the typical teacher who tried to lecture her students about something “Considering my grandmother is your great-grandmother” she said to Percy, looking then at the girls “And your great-great grandmother. This has always been a family story” she shrugged “But… to my eye, the demigod is the more dangerous creature. Disruptive. Violent. If I exist for anything… It is to stand in the way of monsters, like you”

The four of them were starting to feel something unsettling in their stomachs when the monster growled again.

“My little one here… She’s just a pup now, bless her heart” explained the Mother of Monsters “Today… you will be her prey” she looked at them expectantly, excited “Are you afraid yet?” they were, but they wouldn’t show it “Oh, it’s alright. Fear is natural. It’s also essential to the hunt. Your fear, your doubt, your confusion…” the monster growled louder as she chuckled “I needed you to understand what was happening, so that she could track the scent. So she could… learn, and grow, because… that’s what a good mother does for her children. Not that you would know”

The monster stilled, but the bag’s zip began opening from the inside.

Emily felt a nervous feeling growing inside her stomach, and her heartbeat picking up. This wasn’t good.

They heard one final growl, and the bag opened.

“You should run now”

A giant claw leapt out of the bag right at them. Emily ducked immediately, her senses sharpened from years of training, but Percy wasn’t that fast, and so when Emily was out of the way the claw went straight into his left shoulder.

The claw itself was attached to a long tail that backtracked once it had stabbed one of them, and before it could attack again Annabeth jumped right on it, dagger in hand; with all the force she could muster she stabbed the monster’s tail with her weapon, hopefully hurting it enough to slow it down in its hunt for them.

“Go!” she screamed to them.

Emily, Grover and Percy ran to the nearest exit, Annabeth following swiftly behind them. The security guards yelled for them to stay put, while Echidna tended to her hurt child. The heroes ran as fast as they could to the next wagons.

The train was slowly stopping; they had only made it to St. Louis.

Annabeth stayed a few steps behind to block one of the doors, although they knew it wasn’t to much use; only by its tail, they knew that the monster that was chasing them was huge. At least the door would hold back the security guards.

“Percy!” Grover tore a stinger out of his left shoulder, where the monster had gotten to him.

“What is that?” asked the blonde, nervous.

“What kind of monsters have stingers?” asked now Emily, frantic.

“I don’t know, I mean… nothing good probably”

Percy felt okay, at least for now. He didn’t really feel any pain, but maybe it was because he was so full of adrenaline and fear for the monster chasing them. Something huge rattled the wagons behind them; it was getting close.

“We gotta move!”

The train stopped right on time for them to jump off to the rails. They put a few meters between them and the train, and then they looked back, trying to locate the monster. It was nowhere in sight.

“Why isn’t it chasing us?”

“Echidna said whatever she was hiding in that carrier, it’s young” explained Annabeth.

“What do you mean by that?” Percy didn’t understand.

“It’s still a pup, so it will stay close to it’s mother. She’ll tell the monster where to go, teaching it to hunt. In this case, hunt us”

“We aren’t gonna be able to outrun them for very long”

The began to move outside of the train station, trying to put distance between them and the Mother of Monsters and her child.

“We don’t need to” refuted Annabeth “We just need a safe place to hole up”

“And prepare ourselves to fight” added Emily.

“Some safe place. Okay…” Percy was still trying to wrap his head around the fact that he had been stabbed by a monster with an hopefully not poisonous stinger, although if he paid attention to the wound, he could feel it starting to get itchy. He hoped the feeling was only in his head “Any ideas where we might find one of those? Any of you ever been to St. Louis?”

“I know a place” answered Annabeth; her and Emily were walking between the two boys as they made their way through an ally “A sanctuary, dedicated to Athena, built by one of her demigod children a long time ago”

“There is an Athenian temple hidden somewhere in the middle of downtown St. Louis?” wondered Grover, incredulous.

“Yes… Except it’s not all that hidden”

They ran as fast as they could trying at the same time to not draw too much attention to them. Emily trusted her friend blindly, but she hoped they wouldn’t take too long to get to her Athenian temple.

Annabeth led them to a huge square, right below the arch of St. Louis:

“This is the temple?”

“A monument to Athena” she nodded “It’s six-hundred and thirty feet wide, six-hundred and thirty feet tall, both to within an inch. It’s got no internal support! Each side is balanced perfectly against the other. The arch is held up by symmetry. It’s held up by math! It’s…-“

“A safe place for us?” interrupted Emily. She knew how Annabeth could get when it came to architecture.

“It is” she confirmed, as they made their way in “Another cool fact is that it’s also earthquake proved, so Poseidon can’t ruin it”

“Nice” mumbled the god’s son.

They made their way through a group of kids who were visiting the monument, blending in. Emily glared at them when they stared at them passing through, hand on her dagger in case someone turned out to be a monster waiting to attack them; if they were regular mortals, the mist would make sure they didn’t see or get hurt by the blade anyways.

They stopped in front of an exhibition about hunting in the past, where there was a skull of a buffalo next to an old shotgun. Grover became upset seeing it, sad look on his face while Annabeth tried to remind him of the true meaning of the temple, who it was really for, not what the humans tried to make it about.

“I’m gonna go look for new train tickets” Grover looked at a picture on a wall where there was a picture of two huntsmen shooting down a buffalo, and Emily could see the sorrow in his eyes from where she was standing behind Annabeth, next to Percy “Just because we’re prey doesn’t mean we gotta be helpless”

He left then to the ticket stand, leaving the three demigods alone.

“He doesn’t like it… when people mess with animals” Percy tried to defend his behaviour, knowing that Grover didn’t mean to sound harsh. He was only upset.

“Yeah… We know” sighed Annabeth; Emily noticed that see seemed upset now too, but not with Grover. Probably more with herself “I shouldn’t have snapped at him… I just… I know”

Percy sighed too, looking at the two girls a bit uncomfortably. Until that moment, Grover had always been there to have someone to talk to or lean on to; he hadn’t been alone with the other two demigods yet. He had to try to break the ice somehow, because he was getting extremely uncomfortable with the silence.

“So… this is your mom’s place?” he asked Annabeth “Wonder if she’s around” Emily was about to tell him it didn’t work like that, but then he did the worst impression of a posh woman she had ever heard “Be right down! Just going to the potty!”

Emily let out a laugh and Annabeth smiled. Percy seemed more at ease then.

“Nice”

“I have a gift” he shrugged. He certainly did “I guess you were right, by the way. We needed a safe place and… you mom had one waiting. Pretty lucky we happened to be in the right city for it”

“Luck or fate?”

There was a heavy feeling on all of their shoulders, which was actually the usual for demigods; were their lived truly theirs, or was everything already written and thought through? Was destiny really real, fate and everything, or did they have some free range? Being children of gods wasn’t easy.

“I know you think it’s all just in my head” Annabeth began walking around, trying to distract herself, and the other two followed “That… That I tell myself my mother cares because it’s easier that way”

“I didn’t say that”

“Me neither”

“I know you haven’t” Annabeth looked to the ground, now feeling insecure, sharing her thoughts and feelings “But… I know it’s probably like that. What you really think”

“Look, I’ve only been a demigod since… last Saturday” truly, Percy was extremely new to their world “You shouldn’t listen to me. And Emily here, she’s your best friend. I mean I don’t know you guys that much but you seem pretty tight, aren’t you? I couldn’t imagine you thinking stuff like that about the other”

Annabeth knew so, under the doubts that had gotten to her, she did. Emily smiled at her reassuringly.

“You know… this is my mother’s place. But a temple, is a temple” she looked around, and then back at her friends “Maybe you could say hi to your dads while we’re here”

Percy shook his head, just as Emily, both of them rejecting the idea.

“He wouldn’t like it if I prayed to him in an Athenian temple” said Emily, still shaking her head totally dismissing the idea of doing it “And… I wouldn’t even know what to say”

That was a lie. Kind of. She had a few things she definitely wanted to tell him, preferably yell at him, but she also knew she probably would end up dead after undergoing his wrath. So she chose to better shut her mouth.

“I know” Annabeth held her friends hand, squeezing it softly. She turned to Percy then “What about you?”

“I don’t think it’s a good idea”

“What could it hurt?” insisted, the daughter of Athena.

“Your thing with your mom… I get it. It’s different. It works for you. But my father… I don’t want anything from him. He’s had his chances” he seemed defeated, although he pretended to be okay with it. Emily could see through it, and Annabeth probably too, but Emily felt his words deeper in her being; she knew what it was like to have a father who never showed up. At least Annabeth got signs of recognition from Athena from time to time… but Percy and Emily? Nothing “Honestly, you guys have done more for me in the past few days than my father has done in my entire life. And if I have to stick with someone, I…”

“Careful” warned Annabeth, face serious “I think you were about to call us friends” she smiled at him, and he smiled back “Somewhere around here the Oracle is laughing at us, but you know… Wow! Percy!”

Both girls caught him in surprise when the boy fell forward all of a sudden, pace pale and sweaty. They sat him on the ground, Emily checking him over right as Grover rushed back to them having seen Percy fall.

“What happened?!”

“I think… I think those stinger things…”

“Were poisonous?” guessed Emily, seeing him struggle to form words. She was kneeling beside him, and he nodded weakly, his blue glossy eyes glancing into her own amber ones.

“I have an idea” Annabeth rushed Grover and Emily, telling them to help her get Percy back up “Come, help me!”

And that’s how a few moments later everybody outside walking around the square in front of the Getaway arch, could see three kids sitting inside the fountain splashing a fourth one with the water, completely drenching him.

The water had healed him back at camp, so it should help with the poison too. At least, they hoped so. Percy didn’t look good. He was pale, even more than when he first collapsed, he had bags under his bloodshot eyes, he was starting to get a fever, and he was breathing heavily while he was still sweating. The water was helping him get some forces back, but he was still sick. Too sick.

“I think… I think it’s working” he muttered, getting water splashed straight into his mouth. Annabeth looked at him worried, just as Grover and Emily. He tried to stand up, but he slipped right back onto his butt, gasping “… Or not”

“Maybe it needs to be naturally running water for Poseidon to be able to heal him” wondered Annabeth out loud, thoughts racing in her mind at speed limit.

“Should we throw him in the river?”

“No!”

“Yes!”

Before they could make up their minds, the frantic horn of a car in the distance distracted them, followed by a loud crash. They perked up to the street, and saw a car being thrown and flipped in the air. People screamed when the car crashed, the windows shattering adding to the noise, and the heroes knew exactly what it meant.

“We need to get back inside. Now!”

“No, no, we need to keep trying to heal him” insisted Grover, splashing more water on Percy.

“This isn’t working, and she’s coming!”

“We can’t fight Echidna and her monster, not like this” said Emily, helping Annabeth to get Percy back up “We can find more water inside in a bathroom, from a sink or something”

“Please don’t dunk my head in a toilet” muttered Percy, but he was ignored.

“Will that be enough?”

“It’ll have to be. Come on!”

They looked back to the street once again, and a shiver ran up all of their spines: there was Echidna, making her way towards them walking slowly. They could see her creepy smile, once sweet, and it gave them chills even from a distance.

“Okay, look” Annabeth’s voice revealed how nervous she was, even if she was trying to hide it “We’ll take Percy inside, and we’ll go to the temple’s altar, all the way up”

“What’s that gonna do to us?” Grover didn’t understand what she meant.

“We’re gonna get to the altar, and we’re going to ask my mom for help”

Her friends looked at her in disbelief, recalling the moment she had told them they couldn’t ask for help, because heroes were supposed to overcome their troubles on their own when they were on a quest.

“I thought we didn’t ask for help” said Percy, still sitting in the fountain, completely drenched.

Annabeth didn’t answer. She resumed her attempt to pick him up, and with Emily’s and Grover’s help they managed, walking him to the entrance of the monument as fast as they could. She stopped then, looking back at the Mother of Monsters, frowning.

“Annabeth we have to go!” urged Emily.

“Didn’t you hear that?”

“Hear what?”

She had heard something. Whispers carried by the wind. Her friends hadn’t.

“Nothing. Come on!”

There were still school groups and regular visitors in the exhibition of the monument, all of them turning to look at them when they practically carried Percy inside towards one of the elevators. They had to make their way up to the very top before it was too late.

“She spoke to you didn’t she?” muttered Percy towards Annabeth, once they had made it inside an elevator. The four of them were alone, sitting in a circle around each other waiting for the doors to close. He was panting heavily, too tired to actually be talking that fast, but the adrenaline he had was still helping out for a bit “Alecto did that with me back in the museum in New York. When she first shew herself to me as a monster. What did she say?”

Annabeth didn’t answer. Emily followed her line of sight seeing a look of surprise and fear in her features, and outside, standing by a railing, they saw Echidna, followed by the terrifying shadow of a monster with horns.

“What is she doing here?!”

“She wasn’t supposed to be able to enter this place!”

“Was that the Chimera?”

Again, they all turned to Annabeth, except Grover, who kept on rambling about the Chimera and wondering out loud how the monster had even gotten inside the temple.

Really, how was that possible?

“Annabeth?”

Her look was set on the floor, features now tense and sorrow at the same time. It took Percy and Emily a few attempts to get her attention back to them:

“What did Echidna say to you?”

Annabeth sighed, and then she rose her chin up, her expression getting harder now.

“She said my impertinence wounded my mother’s pride. And that that will be my doom”

“Impertinence? What kind of-“

Percy realized what she meant mid-phrase. So did Emily.

“Medusa’s head”

“I embarrassed my mother” stated the girl.

“But I’m the one who sent it to Olympus!” replied Percy.

“And I helped” added Emily.

“And I signed the note!” Percy couldn’t see how this was fair. It wasn’t.

“And I went along with it” Annabeth shut both of her. She also saw how this was totally wrong, but she was trying to keep her head cool “It embarrassed her. Now, she’s angry”

Athena wanted to punish the ones responsible for getting on her pride, and she didn’t seem to care that she was putting her own daughter in danger to do that. If was Echidna told Annabeth was true, then Athena actually wanted to punish her too, for something she hadn’t done, only allowed. So much to modern parenting.

“Guys… What are we gonna do?” Grover hadn’t spoken since he had seen the Chimera (hopefully not the actual Chimera, but any other monster wouldn’t be any better, to be honest). Now he looked terrified, glancing at the numbers above the elevator doors signalling that they were close to reaching the end of the ride.

“She isn’t gonna help us when we get to the top to save Percy” replied Annabeth, referring to her mother.

“No! I meant, what are we gonna do about Echidna and Chimera?”

“We don’t really know if it’s the Chimera” mumbled Emily, nervously “She’s the Mother of Monsters, she has other children. Maybe it’s the Nemean Lion”

“The Nemean Lion is actually Echidna’s grandchild. The Chimera is the Nemean Lion’s mother”

“And still, would that be any better?!”

Emily glanced at Grover and shook her head.

“No, I guess not”

“They’re gonna be right behind us” insisted the satyr.

They reached the top too fast for their liking. The elevator bell dinged, and the doors opened revealing the final staircase that would lead them to the observatory platform at the highest point of the arch.

“We’re not gonna have much time” spoke up Annabeth, walking out the first after making sure there was no monster waiting for them. Emily and Grover walked behind her, helping a groaning Percy “They’ll be up here any minute. And if my mother isn’t going to protect us, then we’ll just have to fight it out up here”

The platform at the top of the arch had a curvy floor and small windows on the also curvy walls to look outside and appreciate the views from up there. It was also packed with people, chatting amongst themselves unaware of the imminent danger they would be facing any other second.

They had to get all the mortals out of there; there was only so much the mist could hide from them. A fight against the Mother of Monsters and her pup wouldn’t be easy to camouflage.  Annabeth thought fast, and pulled the fire alarm next to the entrance. It got an immediate response from everybody, and an automated voice spoke from the ceiling alerting the visitors to leave.

“You guys follow them down” Annabeth turned back to them, hurrying them towards the group of people who were lining up to leave.

“What?”

“Are you mental?”

“We’re not splitting up!”

“Guys, come on!” Annabeth rushed them, pulling on Grover’s arm to get him to move, but on the other side of Percy, who was held up by Emily and the satyr, she refused to move “Emily, move”

“You’re crazy if you think we’re leaving you here” she couldn’t believe Annabeth was asking that of her “I’m not going anywhere without you!”

“We’re all getting out of here” added Percy. He was starting to look like a corpse; the poison was spreading faster “Together”

“We won’t make it!” the daughter of Athena kept on pushing them towards the exit as she kept talking “The Chimera is the demigod killer. Someone has to stay back to slow her down and buy everyone some time”

Gotta say, she did have guts for a twelve year old.

“Then I’m staying with you” insisted Emily, once they had reached the door where all the mortals were leaving.

“You have to go with them, to protect them” replied her friend, signalling to the two boys. This wasn’t any easier on her; she was willing to sacrifice herself for them, but that doesn’t mean she wasn’t terrified of the thought of dying, and leaving everyone she loved behind “You’re the best fighter I know. You’ll be able to keep them safe, and complete the quest” she hugged Emily when the girl moved forward to embrace her, but she had to push her back before they’d start crying. They were running out of time “Now help Percy down the stairs, and get to the river. And then don’t stop… Not until you get to Hades. Not till you have the bolt, do you hear me?”

Emily was starting to feel nauseous. Her best friend was sacrificing herself to get them more time to complete the quest. To avoid the war. To get them out of there alive.

“Annie no…” she mumbles, but Annabeth shushed her. All the training they had gone through couldn’t have prepared them emotionally for a moment like this, but they were both warriors. As much as it hurt, they knew it was the right thing to do.

There was noise on the other end of the platform. Something heavy was walking up the staircase they had just been on a few minutes ago.

“Okay, go!”

“Wait!”

Percy stopped her from sealing the door, looking into her eyes. He reached to his pocket, letting go of Emily, and he took out a pen. His magical pen.

He took off the cap, and then pen turned into his sword, Riptide. He flipped it over, blade hanging towards the floor, and he reached his arm out towards Annabeth handing her the sword.

“Take this” he urged “Please”

Annabeth set her gaze on the sword, then back to him, and she nodded.

But when her hand reached for the handle, Percy let go of Grover as well, and taking advantage of the ongoing motion and the element of surprise, he switched places with Annabeth having her stand between Emily and Grover, who were too stunned to react. Percy looked back at them for a second before closing the door to the platform, effectively locking them out.

Instantly they began to bang the door with their palms and fists, calling out for him desperately. He was sick, weak from the poison spreading through his system. He was in no condition to fight.

He knew that as well.

“Percy no!” screamed Annabeth “Don’t do this! They’ll kill you!”

“Poseidon’s never helped me before” he said. They heard his voice through the door, as he was leaning against it for support. He was panting, weakness taking over him “He wasn’t gonna start now”

“Percy!”

“Percy no!”

“I would’ve never made it to Hades” he added, in a defeated voice. They could barely hear him anymore “But you can… And now you will”

A roar distracted him, making him glance back to the entrance of the platform. Fear took over him, but also adrenaline. Mostly fear, to be fair.

Grover, Annabeth and Emily heard the roar too, and they glanced at the door as if they could see the platform behind it, imagining Percy facing the monster and Echidna. It was his final hour, and there was nothing they could do help him.

Once the monster killed Percy, they could go on with their quest; they wanted him because everybody thought he was the lightning thief. His friends knew he wasn’t, though.

Because that’s what they were, the four of them: friends.

“No, no, no, no, no, no”

Grover tried opening the door again, but it was to no use. They all stepped back when they heard a loud roar, and something heavy hitting the floor and rolling around.

“Please, no” muttered Emily, hearing the monster roar again. This time, the roar was followed by a horrifying shriek, and even from there they could sense the heat of the fire being thrown at Percy.

There was no doubt now: he was fighting the Chimera.

Then they heard the sound of metal shrieking, and then suddenly the roaring of wind, just as back in the train. Another roar from the monster was followed by a scream, Percy’s scream.

Then there was silence.

The monster stopped growling, there was no other sound from Percy… just the wind whooshing, and some metal creaks here and there. As if by magic, they managed to open the door; the danger had passed, and the lock gave away.

“Percy!”

They rushed to the platform, but the three heroes stopped when they saw a huge hole in the middle of the floor; that was what had made that horrible metallic sound a few seconds ago.

Echidna and the Chimera were gone. But so was Percy.

“Percy?”

He didn’t answer. Emily looked around the platform, but he was nowhere in sight. Annabeth and Grover looked for him too, hoping to see him hanging by one of the metal bars of that hole, but he wasn’t there.

“Is he…?”

“He can’t” stated Annabeth “He can’t have…”

But she couldn’t know. Had the Chimera really killed Percy?

“Guys” muttered Grover; he was on the verge of a breakdown. He couldn’t have lost his best friend “Look”

He pointed over to the other side of the platform, at the other end of the huge hole; there, on the floor, was Riptide. Its blade was stained with blood, so that meant Percy had hurt the monster.

Suddenly, the sword vanished; a second ago it was there, and now it was not.

“Where did it go?”

“It’s magical” Annabeth stared at the spot where the sword had been, barely blinking “It returns to it’s owner when it gets lost. It went back to Percy”

“So he could still be alive!” Emily felt like she could breath again a bit better.

“We have to go find him”

“But the other door is still unlocked” pointed out, Grover “And he didn’t walk past us”

That left only one other way out. The three of them glanced to the hole in the floor in front of them, massive, big, and with a six hundred thirty feet fall underneath it. If he had fallen from the arch…

“The monster’s gone” Annabeth was trying to keep her cool, but she was terrified of the possibility that Percy could have… she didn’t even want to think of it “Let’s get out of here and find Percy. He has to be down there… somewhere. He has to be alive”

They prayed to the gods he was.

----

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[moorishflower]

Can I ask about Wolf and A Horse??? The working title is intriguing.

Yaha! You found it! Wolf and Horse is my original work! lol

It's the story of a tauren traveling merchant who throws a shoe while on a journey to a large city. He stops in a tiny village to have it fixed, only to discover that their blacksmith is a well-kept secret: a wardog, a biologically-altered soldier who is humanoid during the day and a massive half-wolf creature at night. The merchant is immediately intrigued by the blacksmith's surprising gentleness, but there's also the handsome houndmaster who greeted him when he arrived, and who's already promised to trim his hooves if he stays... (spoiler: the houndmaster and the blacksmith are the same man)

He couldn't move. If he moved, the thing would surely chase him, and with one hoof unshod and that ankle still tender, Rain wasn't certain he could outrun it. And this wolf was large, too. Almost as large as he was, half-hidden behind the barrel, its head poking above it, a huge, dark grey beast with threads of silver on its muzzle and eyes like two gold coins. Between the light and the barrel he couldn't see very much of it, but he could make out that it was looking at him, that it had seen him, and Rain's legs trembled with the effort of holding still. And then the wolf rose up. Up it went, up and up, onto its hind legs, which he realized weren't a wolf's legs at all, but more like a man's. When it stood to its full height it was taller than him, and none of it was actually shaped like a wolf except in the most superficial ways: it had a wolf's head, a wolf's sharp, jagged teeth and flicking ears and a wolf's lolling pink tongue, but the rest of it was broad of shoulder, corded with muscle, and arranged, at least for the most part, like a man or an elf, with a narrow waist and forearms that were striped with scars where the fur had turned silvery-white. Its hands were a man's hands but with a wolf's claws, and the fingers were long and thick, with palms and fingertips covered in dark leathery skin; it put its hands on the edge of the barrel, and Rain could hear the wood creak beneath the weight of it. It was also wearing a smith's apron. And it wasn't lunging at him. It...actually wasn't doing very much at all, just looking at him, its ears slowly drooping, its mouth snipping shut. Rain's jelly-legs threatened to give out on him at the sound of all those teeth clicking together, but it...it wasn't doing anything. It just looked...sort of sad. He had heard of things like this before, he realized. In Pic there was a disease that drove men mad, and turned them into terrible monsters under the light of the moon -- warwolves, they called them, and some noble in Albinicia had heard of it and had ordered a few of the infected brought to his kingdom. He didn't know the details of the experiments, for there must have been experiments, there must have been doctors and men of science involved, not even Albinicia was that bad...but he knew that some years back, there had been a new type of soldier on their battlefields. Wardogs, they'd called them, because they were tamer than their feral, diseased counterparts. It had all been slightly before he'd left his herd, and there were no more wardogs being made, so far as he knew. He suspected they'd run out of volunteers...yet here was one before him. What had happened to them, he thought vaguely, the wardogs who were no longer being sent out onto the field when it was discovered their bites were just as infectious as their progenitors? Were they released from active duty? Were they encouraged to retire? Were they given a pension, and saluted for their service? Or were they shunted off here, into backwoods places like Jaskie?