#he sees a life or death situation and is like aha now is the time for a joke !

[yourmomxx]

Sweet Child O’ Mine

father of mine masterlist

summary: It’s time for Dean to face what he has been so afraid of the entire time. Meanwhile, the monster that has already taken one young man’s life, is on its way to claim the next one

warnings: canon violence, child abandonment, swear words, angst, daddy issues, character death, throwing up, this is written like an episode of Supernatural

word count: 11,2k (whoops)

disclaimer: What I know about Group Homes is what I know from my country (and Google), so I apologize if I made any mistakes

pt1 pt2 pt3

@psycho-magnotheric-slime

Now

The cafeteria was loud. The mixed noise of talking children and clattering dishes and cutlery filled the air, creating a yet bearable loudness.

You were sat at one of the light blue tables, across from you your best friends Cassandra Claire and Finnegan Beckett.

Cass and Finn.

She was lowly cursing at the paper straw in her apple juice box and a few strands of her black bangs slipped into her view. The wolf cut, which had been so present a few months ago, was now already grown out and even the shortest strands of Cass’s hair were reaching her shoulders.

Finn seemed caught up in his own world as he carefully laid out little figures and symbols with his french fries. He still had a few, slightly red acne spots lingering on his skin, amongst freckles covering his nose and cheeks. His hair was flaming red, just as Roy’s had been, but other than him Finn usually hid the tousled locks under a cap.

Roy. The news of his death had hit the three of you hard. You had been a friendgroup of four, Roy and Finn, and Cass and you.

Almost a week ago you had been eating lunch at this exact table, the seat to your right had been taken, laughing about terrible jokes, bickering, and not even considering it all to end as soon as it did.

And especially how it did.

Roy’s body was still lying at the morgue. The authorities had kept it there for ‘further investigation purposes’ as they had said, so no funeral had been possible yet.

Of course, the adults had introduced all of you to helping hotlines and offered their own support in case anyone wanted to talk about their feelings and their grief in the safeness of a closed room.

Not that one of you took that into consideration.

The only way you three were coping with the whole situation was through joking around and pretending none of it ever happened. Which was fine.

You and Cass had sometimes talked in the darkness of your rooms, careful and short conversations while sleeping over because neither of you wanted to spend the night alone.

But other than that? Zero. And it was alright that way. The right moment would come.

Maybe.

“Aha!” Cass suddenly yelled out triumphantly, and startled Finn out of admiring his artwork.

You looked up at her from half-heartedly poking around in your own food, as she proudly held up the apple juice that was now pierced with what looked like the abused version of a thin straw.

You gave a small clap. “Bravo” and she grinned at you before turning to Finn.

Well done, Cassie,” he sarcastically said. “You won the hard fight against the opening of a box of apple juice.”

Cass pouted and took a sip. “You don’t appreciate my victories enough, Finn. And don't call me that. Cassie.” She dramatically shuddered at the nickname.

“I’m mentally unstable, not five.”

Finn examined her perfectly done eyeliner and makeup with skeptically raised eyebrows. “You don’t look mentally unstable to me,” he remarked.

Cass gasped. “Excuse me? Prejudices??” She exclaimed.

“You see that?” She asked, frantically pointing at her face. “See how perfect my makeup is today? That's not a good thing, dumbass! Perfect makeup means that I am absolutely mentally fucked!”

You nodded supportively, and Finn just raised his eyebrows, before he dedicated his attention back to poking around in his food.

“Don't you think that's kind of ironic?” He pointed out, and Cass simply ignored him, except for the tiny eye roll she gave.

“Guys, I need your help deciding what color I'm going to dye my hair next,” she changed the topic instead and desperately ran her hands through her hair.

Finn’s head whipped around, back to his friend. “You're honestly thinking about dying your hair right now?” He asked incredulously.

She groaned and threw him a look.

“No, Finnegan, I am not actively thinking about dying my hair, but I sense a mental breakdown coming and if I'm going to absolutely lose my shit and take it out on my hair, I want the result to look good. Otherwise, we are met with that weird yellow-green-combination again.” Cass let her body shudder dramatically.

“I liked the yellow-green-combination,” you interjected.

Cass reached over the table to lay her hand above yours and looked up at you with sweet eyes. “Thanks, hun.”

“I don’t know why you’re making such a big deal out of it,” mumbled Finn, his mouth stuffed full of fries. “Just leave them black.”

“I don’t think you quite understood how a mental breakdown works, man,” you said.

Finn shrugged and dipped a frie into his ketchup. “Whatever.”

You looked at Cass. “I’ll go shopping with you soon and then we will choose a color together,” you promised.

“Thanks,” she said and eyed Finn, “at least someone who cares if I ruin my good looks or not.”

But Finn didn’t hear her, or maybe he just ignored what she was saying. Because he changed the topic.

“Did the FBI agents get a hold of you guys yet?” He suddenly asked.

Your eyebrows shot up in confusion. “The what?”

“The FBI agents,” Finn repeated.

“Why, thank you, I got that part, but what is the FBI doing here?”

Cass just shrugged her shoulders. “Apparently they are here investigating Roy's murder.”

“What, they think someone murdered him?” You asked in disbelief.

“Well, he will not have crushed his ribs all on his own now, will he?” Finn drew a heart shape with the remaining ketchup on the plate.

“It's better than the state police,” retorted Cass, “who still think that it was some kind of ... animal attack.”

You snorted. “Yeah, right, because a bear sneaking into a castle, pushing down on someone's chest and then just leaving seems so plausible.”

Your friends raised their eyebrows in agreement.

“What did they ask you guys?” You closed your waterbottle and absentmindedly started cleaning up your plate.

Cass shrugged and leaned back in her chair with crossed arms. “Not much, the usual, I guess,” she answered, “Wanted me to tell them some things about Roy, his behavior lately, who would have wanted to hurt him…” She trailed off.

“Same here. Routine stuff,” Finn said. Then he leaned a bit closer and lowered his voice.

“To be honest, I don't really care why they're here, they are both incredibly handsome.”

“Finn!” You and Cassandra exclaimed at the same time.

“What?!” The boy widened his arms in defense. “Let me enjoy the one good thing that came from Roy's death.”

Cass shoved him in response. “God, you are a manwhore!” She grumbled.

Finn rubbed his arm with an offended pout on his lips and you giggled. “Geez, we must seem so fucked up, our best friend got murdered and here we are, joking about his death.” You shook your head lightly.

“It's what he would have wanted.” Cass scooted a bit closer on her seat and took both yours and Finn’s hand in acted solemnity.

“If I die,” she vowed, “you are now officially allowed to joke about my death as much as you want. On any occasion.”

“Sick!” You called out and Cass smirked.

“Can we please get back to the part where she said if?” Finn pointed out.

Cass rolled her eyes and pulled back.

“I'm a witch, after all,” she reminded him with a threatening silken voice that had a tone of mockery. “And one day, I will figure out the secret of necromancy, just you wait.”

Finn scoffed and grinned. “Right, you with your crystals, and your smokey sticks and your herbs and tarot cards.”

He wiggled his fingers in front of her face. “That's some real serious stuff you got there, Cass.”

She pushed him away. “Yeah, keep making fun of it. We'll see who has the last laugh when I turn immortal and outlive all of you idiots.”

Finn shook his head. He looked at you and pointed his forefinger to his temple, moving it in circles to indicate what he held of her words.

You shook your head grinning, and Cass, who noticed the interaction, promptly took Finn’s sugar-glazed donut and dumped it in his untouched mayonnaise.

"Ew! Jesus, Cass, you are disgusting!" Finn yelled as he stared at the disaster.

She just shrugged and was quick to eat her own food before he would get any ideas.

For a while, it was quiet. You continued cleaning and sorting your lunch plate, while Cass ate and Finn and her did not speak a word to each other.

It wasn’t an uncomfortable silence, though, just a break from conversation.

Eventually, Cass was the one to break it.

“So, uhm, did you guys, like - I mean, have you been thinking about Roy, too? Or, like, dreaming or something?” With every word her voice got more quiet until it was only a low mumble, drifting apart in the busy noise around.

But still everything she said managed to pierce through the air and directly into your heart.

“Why would you bring that up?” Finn asked through gritted teeth, he almost sounded mad.

Cass avoided eye contact with both of you and pressed the palms of her hands against her forehead, as if to stop it from giving her incredible pain.

“I’ve been having those horrible nightmares, since it happened,” she sighed in despair.

“It’s the same thing over and over again. I see something going into his room, but when I try to open the door, it’s locked. And I hit it, and I scream, but there’s just no sound coming out of my mouth. And when the door finally opens, there he is, lying on the bed, just-”

A heavy clatter interrupted her monologue and made you flinch. Finn had thrown his fork onto his dinner plate.

“Didn’t ask about fucking details, Cassandra,” he hissed lowly, stood up and walked away with his tray in hand.

Cass looked after him as he left and put her head in her hands with a groan.

“I didn’t mean to upset him,” she mumbled into the fabric of her sleeve.

“I know,” you said. She raised her head. You gave her a sympathetic smile.

“D’you think he hates me now?”

You shook your head no. “He’s just grieving. We all are. He will get himself together again, promise.”

For a second, her lips quirked up in a small smile.

“Come on,” you said then and swung your leg over the bench, standing up. “We’ve been sitting here for far too long anyways.”

You took your tray and Cass was quick to follow you and put the dirty dishes away.

“I didn’t have any, by the way.” Confused, she looked at you.

“Nightmares,” you added.

Cass nodded. “Yeah, didn’t think so.” She shrugged. “Guess I’ll deal with this the same way I deal with everything: completely and utterly alone.”

You jokingly shoved her at her theatrics, and she grinned. “Shut up. I’ll be damned if I let you deal with any of this on your own. Got me?”

She laid a hand upon her heart and the other on your shoulder. “You’re so sweet,” she said. “And I suppose that also includes helping me study for my biology exam which I have definitely already studied for?”

You pulled back and inhaled sharply, pretending to think. “Ah ma’am, I am afraid this feature is not included in your subscription. We apologize for any discomfort this may bring.”

“It brings a great deal of discomfort!” Cass exclaimed while you two walked the hallway to your rooms.

“You can write me an email-complaint,” you joked. “No guarantees though. You’ve had like two weeks to study for that one.”

“I know, I know, but it’s so endlessly boring and complicated!” she cried.

You shrugged. “There’s a reason I didn’t take the AP class.”

“And I will forever envy you for it.”

You stopped when you reached the two doors to your bedrooms that laid right across of each other.

“Then,” you said and bowed lightly, “farewell my friend. May your head not explode while rehearsing for the terribly difficult school subject that is AP biology.”

She flipped you off and disappeared into her room. Laughing to yourself, you opened the door and slipped into your own.

༺ ｡ ° ୨❀୧ ° ｡ ༻

Central Nebraska 2007

The past few hunting days had been rough. Sam and Dean had driven from one case to the next without a break, been beaten up by an entire pack of werewolves and hunted down a loose chupacabra outside of its usual territory.

Dean was beyond exhausted. His muscles ached, his head was pounding, and the lack of sleep was weighing his limbs down. He was practically dragging himself over the gravel path, before he swung open the door to Harvelle’s Roadhouse.

The air that hit them from inside was stuffy, warm, and smelt like sweat and alcohol. Low but loud enough music fell into an uncoordinated melody with loud chatter and the clinking of glass.

Dean felt like he had never experienced something more beautiful, after the weeks he’s had.

“Deeeeeannnn!”

He heard the excited cry of his name before he saw where it came from. He spotted a bright sundress on a small girl, and out of instinct crouched down as she sped towards him.

With a grunt, Dean picked her up in his arms mid sprint and lifted her up. Behind him, Sam closed the door again as Dean made his way over to the bar with little Y/N on his hip.

“How is my favorite girl today?” He asked her and she grinned at him.

“I’m good! I missed you,” she added.

Dean’s chest clammed with how much he loved her.

“Well, I’m back now, ready to give you allllll my attention. Come on, show me those fangs.” He nodded his head at her chin at his request, and Y/N drew her lips back and bared her teeth to him.

Dean held the hand that wasn’t holding her in front of his eyes and pretended to be blinded. “Wow, those are clean! I can’t even see anything.”

With a giggle, Y/N closed her mouth again and Dean blinked hard a few times.

“I brush them extra hard. Ask Auntie Ellen.”

Dean nodded. “I totally believe you. Every werewolf would be jealous of those teeth. Oh, did I say werewolf? I meant vampire, of course.”

Dean shook his head at himself, and Y/N beamed up at him with the brightest shining eyes he had ever seen.

“Good to see you again, boys,” Ellen greeted them and pulled out two glasses. “The usual?”

Sam and Dean nodded. Ellen started pouring. When Sam took his drink, he pointed somewhere in the back of the bar and said, “I’ll go have a talk with Ash.” Then he was gone.

Dean placed Y/N on one of the bar stools and took his seat next to her.

“Dean, can you play Operation with me?” Y/N asked him, and Dean stilled in his movement to take a sip of his drink. He opened his mouth to answer her, but Ellen was faster.

“Baby, let Dean rest for a bit. I’m sure these past few days haven’t been all sugar and cakes for him. Maybe later, alright?”

Y/N pouted a bit, but then shrugged and shuffled off the barstool. “Okay,” she said, and disappeared between the people, probably to the private rooms.

Dean looked after her and then turned back to Ellen with a thankful look on his face.

“Can’t believe that game is still so popular. I mean, I used to play with that in my childhood,” he said, and took a sip from his drink. The alcohol burned a bit down his throat, but it was exactly what he needed right now. Dean closed his eyes and sighed appreciatively.

“Really glad you’re back,” Ellen then told him honestly, as she opened up a beer for herself and folded her arms on the counter. “She’s been asking me nothing else than ‘When will Dean come back’ for the past few weeks. I can’t hear that sentence anymore.”

Dean chuckled and she took a sip.

“Yeah,” he dragged, and threw a look in the direction that Y/N had disappeared in. Ellen tilted her head and gave him a look he couldn’t quite read.

“You’re really good with her, ya know?” She twirled the bottle loosely on the counter. Dean avoided her inquiring gaze and looked into the liquor in his glass instead. He vaguely saw his reflection in it.

“’ve always been good with kids, I guess.” He shrugged it off.

Ellen hummed. Dean didn’t know what to make of it. He looked up at her again.

“For what it’s worth, she makes it really easy,” he said. Ellen raised her eyebrows. “To lo- to like her, I mean. She’s a great kid. You did good with her.”

Ellen sighed. “Yeah, I like to think I did. Wasn’t always easy.”

Dean nodded. A bit after they had met, Ellen had vaguely told him how she got to Y/N. How someone had just dumped the little girl, barely one year old, on her doorstep. No note, only a name and date of birth, and a blanket in the basket she had been put in.

When he had first heard the story, Dean’s hand had cramped around his beer bottle so hard his knuckles had turned white.

Stories like this about kids always got to him. But about this one? Hell, the lengths he would go to protect that little girl. She had made her way into his heart so easily, no preparation or caution, just boosted right into it with her bright smile and those happy eyes.

And Dean had never spent a day not wanting to know her.

Sometimes, when he thought about it, he thought about how easy it was. To love a kid. She wasn’t even his, but every time he had to say goodbye to her for God knows how long again, his heart broke a little more.

And he thought about how it was that easy, and how yet, somehow his father had not managed it. Had left his children alone, abandoned, in ran down motel rooms, without any contact for days and sometimes weeks. How he had felt absent, even when he was physically present, and how Dean could never do enough to feel enough for him.

It made him ache, but he had promised himself to never make anyone else feel this way. And maybe, just maybe, this little wonder he had come across was supposed to be his salvation.

“Dean, I have to tell you something.”

Somehow, the way Ellen said it, made Dean stiffen. A strange mixture of regret and hurt crossed her exes.

“It’s about your daddy,” she added.

“And about Y/N.”

༺ ｡ ° ୨❀୧ ° ｡ ༻

Now

If Sam had tried to read the different emotions that were crossing his older brother’s face right now, he would have given up as soon as he had started.

But one thing was certain, they were many, and probably none of them were good.

They stood in front of the wooden door to their last room.

Your room, to be exact.

And they stood there for the second time today, to be exact.

Maria had pointed them the numbers of the bedrooms where Roy Kendall’s friends lived, they had paid each of them a visit and asked them questions about the deceased.

None of those interrogations had proven to be useful to them, though.

Also, funny enough, it turns out that Cassandra Claire and Y/N Winchester’s room happened to lay just across the hallway from each other.

But when Sam offered to move on to her after finishing Cassandra’s questioning, Dean had not-so-smoothly avoided his question and decided he was in desperate need of some lunch.

Which is why, now, they were standing here, staring at the old wooden door with filled stomachs and angel Castiel in tow - who had decided to join them after all.

Said angel now leaned in closer to Sam and not so silently whispered, “Is he- frozen? Shall I wake him?”

Dean snorted and shook his head, as if Castiel’s words had actually woken him up from the sort of trance he had been trapped in.

“I’m fine,” he grumbled, still talking into the direction of the - apparently very intimidating – wooden door.

Sam raised his eyebrows, fully aware that his brother couldn’t see him. “Well then,” he said, extending his hand to the door. “Knock.”

Dean threw a murdering look over his shoulder at his little brother and took a deep breath in, shook his shoulders.

Sam resisted the urge to roll his eyes. He knew this had to be difficult for Dean, but he also wanted to get all of this over with. He could think of more fun things than spending his entire day in an orphanage, investigating a murder. Also, his suit was starting to get itchy.

The sound of Dean knocking at the door felt like a salvation. “Agents Shield and Stark and …” He threw Cas a look, “… Miller. We’re here to ask you some questions about the death of Roy Kendall.”

For a second, it was quiet. Then, “It’s open.”

The voice from inside made a chill run down Sam’s spine. He couldn’t imagine what his brother felt. But even if Dean was falling apart inside, he didn’t let his face show any of it.

Dean’s heart twisted with the door handle, as he pushed the door open and entered into the room. After him, Sam and Castiel entered, and Dean closed the door behind them again.

The room wasn’t big, but it had been decorated to be comfortable. In the middle of the wall to their right, a twin-sized bed with unified colors was placed, a small bedside table next to it.

To their left was a tall wardrobe that almost reached the ceiling, and under the window on the wall opposite them stood a nice desk.

And there, shuffling through some papers, stood a young teenage girl, with her back turned to them.

“Sorry about the mess, I-“ Dean’s heart skipped a beat as you turned around.

You hadn’t changed, not a bit, but had grown so much. The roundness in your features, like with all children, had gone away as you grew older. You had changed your hair, and your voice was different, but it was so unmistakably you that Dean needed a second to catch himself.

He feared his feet would buckle under him, as you looked at him with wide open eyes, those eyes that he remembered looked so much like your mother’s.

You felt your whole world tumble around you as you looked at them. At him. Your heart was speeding in your chest, a feeling spreading in your stomach as if you had been sucker punched.

This couldn’t be real, there was no way. But then again, there was no reason why it wouldn’t be. There were more epic scenarios you could have come up with to reunite with your … family. And nevertheless, you had stopped having dreams like that a long time ago. You had given up on hoping a day like this would come.

But now it was here, apparently, and it was so unspectacular, it was almost funny.

They walked in here, after years, in fancy suits and badges, wanting to know about- what exactly was it they wanted to know about?

You cleared your throat and took a deep breath, gathering yourself.

“What are you doing here?” Compared to the chaos inside of you, your voice sounded calm and collected, almost devoid of any emotion, and a part of you was proud.

Sam cleared his throat. You noticed he looked older.

Well, no shit. But more … drawn, from his experience. Trauma, maybe. You hadn’t been aware of much when you were a child, but that their work took a toll on them, that had been unmistaken.

And Sam’s eyes held a story that seemed as tragic as it seemed muddled.

“We heard about Roy Kendall’s death,” he answered.

Your eyebrows shot up to your hairline. They had heard about Roy. Did that mean they were here to-

“And we’re here to find out what killed him.”

What?

“What?”

“Yeah, we, uh-“ Sam shifted his weight awkwardly, “We don’t think it was a … natural death.”

“Well, no shit.” Roy’s chest had been cracked open. You were no coroner, but even you knew that couldn’t exactly be filed under the case of natural deaths.

Now, Dean took a small step forward, trying his best to hold eye contact with you, and your shoulders subconsciously stiffened.

“Y/N-,” he started.

“Dean,” you shot back.

And that wort was like a punch in his guts. Dean felt physically sick. But how could he expect any different really?

You noticed him stumbling slightly at the word, a look of hurt crossing over his face.

Good, you thought.

A part of you wanted to hit him in the chest, scream at him until your voice was raw, Why did you do this? Why did you leave me? When did you stop loving me?

But in the end, you didn’t.

You would rather die than give him the satisfaction of breaking down.

Why you thought he would feel satisfaction at your hurt, you didn’t know.

“So, Roy,” you simply said, something to break the pressing silence in the room.

Sam nodded. “Yes, exactly. We, uhm –“ He pointed to the third man you had never seen before, “and Castiel, we wanted to ask you a few things about him.”

You glanced at the guy in the trenchcoat, who raised his hand to do an awkward little wave. “Nice to meet you.”

“Too,” you said.

There was a silence again, until Dean took the floor. “So, he was one of your friends?” He asked, “That Roy kid?”

People had been doing it for days, yet something about them talking about one of your best friends in the past tense made your stomach turn with uneasiness.

You hummed in agreement.

“We’re sorry for your loss,” Sam said.

“Stick it,” you bit back, and crossed your arms in front of your chest. Sam and Dean exchanged a look.

“Did your friend mention anything … out of the ordinary happen, before he was killed?” The third guy, with the trenchcoat and the weird name which you had already forgotten, asked.

You clenched your jaw and something about the way Dean pressed his eyes shut in exasperation made you believe that this guy’s bluntness was something quite common.

“No,” you simply said. Trenchcoat frowned.

“Are you sure?” Sam asked, taking a slight step forward.

“Yes, I am. Roy never said anything about anything strange that would be in any way valuable to your case.”

“What do you mean by that?” Dean questioned.

You shrugged. “What I said.”

“Y/N, any information you can give us about Roy’s behavior before he died is extremely important and could really help us,” Sam urged.

Something about the way your name slipped off his tongue, with that sense of familiarity and normal, made your skin itch.

You took a deep breath and cleared your throat. “Well, I mean - he just mentioned that he was having those … terrible nightmares all of a sudden.” You shrugged. “Like I said, nothing that would be worth writing down.”

Sam did it anyways.

Dean tilted his head and looked at you quizzically. “Why would you think his nightmares were unusual? I mean, everyone has bad dreams from time to time.”

You shifted your weight uncomfortably. “Yeah, I know, but it’s just …” You paused. This was stupid. “It’s stupid, really, but – Roy doesn’t usually dream.”

Didn’t, you corrected in your head, but the word didn’t make it past your lips.

Sam and Dean looked at each other.

“And it was just strange, because he was having these nightmares frequently, or rather this nightmare, because it was always the exact same,” you keep rambling on.

“What was it about?” Dean asked.

You swept your hand across your forehead. “I don’t know, he wouldn’t talk much about it. Just said that it was like the worst day of his life replaying over and over.”

Dean nodded. Sam frowned in interest.

“Do you know what that was? The worst day of his life?”

You shrugged. “The day he lost his parents, probably,” you said. “The entire house burnt down right in front of him. He made it out, they didn’t.”

Your voice was quiet and pressed, still feeling bad about sharing such an intimate part of Roy’s history with those … strangers. A nagging part in the back of your mind kept telling you he wouldn’t – couldn’t – mind anymore.

Sam’s pen kept scraping over his notebook, and Dean threw a glimpse over his brother’s shoulder. As you watched them, your gaze fell on trenchcoat-guy, who was still positioned in the corner of your room, just a few steps behind them.

He was observing you with interest, blue eyes staring back into yours as if he was looking directly at your soul. Something like a chill ran down your spine.

The man tilted his head, as you diverted your attention back to Dean and Sam. His brows were furrowed.

Cas recognized you. He didn’t know where from, but you looked so weirdly … familiar. Your features, the shape of your face. They way you talked and moved.

“Your boyfriend is staring at me weirdly,” you mentioned to Dean, as you caught the man’s gaze again.

Dean turned his head and looked at him, then back to you. “Yeah, he tends to do that.”

You lifted your eyebrows and made an ‘Ah��� sound. Trenchcoat was getting weirder by the second. But at least the guy had stopped his creepy staring. For now.

“Look, I don’t want you guys here. But I understand that your presence is necessary in order to catch whatever it is that’s killing my friends. So, you just do your thing, look around a bit, kill something, and then leave. Both of you.”

With a look at the third guy in the trenchcoat, you added, “Three.”

Dean avoided your eyes, but Sam nodded jerkily and cleared his throat again. “Yeah, we uh … we understand that.”

He straightened his coat and turned to leave the room. “Thank you for your help for now, really. We’ll get in touch if we need anything else.”

You nodded simply, even though you didn’t exactly know what to make of that idea.

As Sam and trenchcoat-guy made their way to leave the room, Dean took a small step towards you and pulled something out of his suit jacket.

“And if there’s anything else you might remember or see, you can always give us a call.” You stared at the small paper he had handed to you. With dark blue pen, a phone number was sloppily scribbled on it. The edges of the paper were uneven, it had probably been ripped off a bigger sheet.

You pursed your lips and nodded.

“Yeah.” You didn’t know what else to say. Thank you wasn’t really in the cards right now. Dean cleared his throat and stepped back with a nod. Then, they left the room one by one.

“Have a nice day,” Sam said.

“You, too.” The answer came automatically. The door closed behind them with a click, and you were alone again.

The small paper suddenly felt incredibly heavy in your hand.

—

When Dean stepped through the threshold and out into the hallway, he felt like a heavy weight had been lifted off his chest. He took a deep breath like a man starved.

The sick feeling in his stomach still lingered.

He didn’t even wait for the click of the closing door before he started making his way to the exit, trusting that his brother and Castiel would follow.

His fast steps echoed over the hallway, when suddenly he felt a hand on his shoulder yank him around. Dean was staring into the eyes of his younger brother. He shook his arm to let Sam’s hand harshly fall off.

“What?”

Sam didn’t say anything, and Dean just glared at him. It was Castiel who spoke up first. His head was tilted, eyebrows scrunched, and a curious tone in his voice.

“She is your … daughter.” It wasn’t a question. Cas had figured out the root of all of Dean’s hesitation – to come here, to stay here, to investigate. All because of one person, that he knew was so close to Dean Winchester, but yet way too far than two people with their natural bond should be.

“What gave it away?” Dean turned to Cas. His tone was bitter. “The attitude or the way she hates my guts?”

Castiel looked him up and down.

“She is so similar to you,” he stated matter-of-factly, completely ignoring Dean’s sarcastic response.

Dean exchanged an annoyed look with his little brother, who simply shrugged.

“All right, now that we’ve cleared that up,” Dean gruffed and made his way down the hallway again, “Let’s go.”

He trusted that the others followed him quietly.

When they reached the gravel path that led from the small castle to their car, Sam picked up his pace to catch up with his older brother. “Dean, I’ve been thinking.”

The man scoffed. “Oh, don’t hurt yourself like that, Sammy.”

“I’m serious.” Sam halted next to his brother and pulled him to a stop with a firm hand on his shoulder. “And I think, maybe… we should sit this one out.”

The way Sam said the last bit was careful, and Dean tilted his head as he turned to his younger brother. “What are you talking about?”

“I’m just saying, maybe this case is too personal for us, Dean. Maybe we should let some other hunter take care of it.”

Dean shook his head. “No way. This is the first time in years that I get to see my daughter, I will not just throw this away.” He lifted his index finger to point it at his brother.

“Well, what exactly is it that you want to do, Dean? It’s not like the two of you have the strongest father-daughter bond!” Sam scoffed and his arms in the air.

Dean started walking towards the impala again. “I know, and that’s why I want to make things right with her.”

“What for, Dean? Just so we leave her here, again?”

"I don’t know!” Dean whirled around in fury as he yelled the words. He slumped his shoulders.

“I don’t know, okay?” He said, his voice was smaller now. “Look, let’s just … let’s finish this case. Give me some time to figure things out and then we will decide.” Dean peeled himself out of his suit jacket and tossed it in the backseat of the impala. He slammed the door. “But first, let’s save some lives.”

Sam shook his head. “Alright. Whatever you say.” He matched Dean as he opened the door to the back and tossed his jacket on the leather seats.

“By the way, where’s Cas?”

Sam threw a look around them. He was right, the angel was nowhere to be found. He shrugged. “I don’t know. Maybe he zapped to the motel again.”

Dean frowned as he pulled open the front door. The hinges squealed. “We need to have a serious talk with him about that. Can’t have him disappearing on me the entire time.”

Sam frowned. Dean meant them, right? Couldn’t have him disappearing on them the entire time. Us.

Right?

Sam decided to shrug his brother’s strange comment off for now and got in the passenger’s seat.

“We have to go there anyways. Do some research,” he said.

Dean hummed and started the car. Sam could about assume what that meant. The gravel gnarled under the Impala’s tires as they drove off.

—

Back alone in your room again, you sat on your desk chair as your playlist of favorite songs blasted through your headphones. Dark ink started covering your thighs, where you were drawing on them with your pen as you had placed them on the surface of the desk.

The past few minutes, your mind had been insanely occupied with processing what the actual fuck had just happened. Because. Well. What the actual fuck had just happened?

When they had knocked on your door, you had expected the normal questioning, something that Cass and Finn had been talking about anyways.

When you turned around, just to stare at the face of Dean Winchester, your mind had gone fully devoid of every thought ever formed.

The typical “heart slipping into your pants.”

It felt as if you had worked on autopilot, not even coherently remembering what you had said to them. Had your reaction been an appropriate one? After years of imagining this exact scenario, in all ways and forms it could’ve played out, you not being able to form a simple sentence had not been one of them.

In afterthought, maybe you should’ve punched Dean.

Maybe that would’ve been the appropriate response.

The sharp sound of a knock at your door made you startle. You pulled your headphones off your ears and turned the music off. Those things were great, but in all those years they had never quite managed to overpower the sounds around you.

Maybe that was why you were still allowed to wear them all the time.

“Who’s there?” You asked loudly into the room.

“Me.”

Your eyebrows furrowed. The fuck? How was there not a single normal person knocking on your bedroom door today?

“Who is me?” You asked again.

The door opened just the tiniest bit, creaking in the process, and through peeked the head of the third man that had accompanied Sam and Dean earlier.

Trenchcoat guy.

“It’s me,” he repeated.

You frowned. “Uhm - come in?” You invited him and lifted your feet off the table.

Trenchcoat guy carefully shuffled in through the gap in the door until he stood in your room, awkwardly, and his stiff posture made him look so out of place, it was almost funny.

When he didn’t seem to plan on doing anything more than eyeing the bookshelf on the other wall, you decided to speak up.

“I’m sorry, but I think I forgot your name.”

Slowly, he turned his attention back to you, as if he had now just remembered that you were there. “I’m Castiel,” he answered in a deep, gravelly voice.

You raised your eyebrows. “Ah. Right.” Another beat of silence. “Are you, like - Dean’s boyfriend or something?” You asked.

Castiel frowned and tilted his head. “Me and your father are not romantically involved in any way whatsoever,” he reassured you.

“Ah,” you said again. Then, “Did Dean send you?”

Castiel shook his head, almost offended at the implication. “After our … conversation, earlier, he figured you were not too enthusiastic to see him. That is why only I am here.”

You swallowed hard. No, that wasn’t true.

“He’s damn right.”

Castiel nodded.

Then it was quiet again. “Is there … anything you need?” You dragged out, unsure of what he was planning to do in here exactly.

“Well, no, not specifically, I just - wanted to talk to you,” Castiel said, though he seemed not too secure about his purpose himself. “About your father.”

“Dean,” you corrected, but were sure Castiel didn’t miss how your shoulders stiffened at it. The man in the trenchcoat frowned and dipped his head lightly.

“Yes, your father.” He repeated.

You shook your head. “He’s not my father. He’s just Dean.”

“As I understand it, you were conceived through him and your mother having sexual intercourse, therefore-“

“Okay! Thank you,” you interrupted him and raised your hand to sign stop. “What do you want?”

Castiel took a few steps closer to you, keeping his gaze fixed on the floor as he seemed to look for the right words.

“I fear your father- Dean,” he corrected himself with a look in your direction, “does feel very bad about what happened between you and him.”

You pursed your lips. “So? Did he tell you that?”

Castiel looked sheepish. “No,” he answered honestly, “But I know your- him. Just because he does not like to talk about his feelings does not mean that he does not feel them.”

You narrowed your eyes. “Let me ask you something, Castiel,” you said. He nodded. “Anything.”

“Do you know at all what happened? Between me and him?”

Again, Castiel looked away. You did not know this man. You did not know what his history with Dean was, or with Sam. But you knew that he knew nothing.

“No.” That one word confirmed it.

You bit the inside of your cheek.

“Then - excuse my choice of words - but you have no room to talk. And if Dean wants to tell me something, he can always do that himself. In person. He’s here anyway.”

Castiel nodded. “Alright.”

It was silent again, between you and him, until Castiel took in a sharp breath and leaned forward into something close to a bow.

“I’m sure they await me,” he explained. “Goodbye, Y/N.” He then turned around to open the door, but paused mid his action.

“You do look a lot like him, you know?” He said.

That’s it.

“Out,” you ordered him harshly and Castiel walked through the door, closing it behind him.

—

You had, in fact, ended up helping Cass study for her upcoming exam. Well, what means help, you had asked her questions and she had to answer them correctly - which worked expectedly not so well.

“I can just play the dead friend card,” she had joked, but you knew that she was actually actively considering it.

In that moment though, you had just skipped over her remark and continued asking her about the digestive system of a Baird’s beaked whale.

It was already late at night when the two of you finally hugged goodbye.

“Thank you so much,” she said. “You helped a lot. I’ll forget it all until tomorrow morning, but I do appreciate your effort.”

You smiled at her. “Don’t worry, you’ll nail it. Or at least not fail.”

She laughed. “You think too highly of me, Y/N.”

For a few moments, nobody said a word. “I never asked you,” Cass eventually started, “are you okay?”

You took a deep breath and shifted your weight. “Considering the circumstances, I guess. You?”

“Same thing,” she said. You laid your head back and stared at the ceiling. “It still feels weird only being three people,” you realized.

“Yeah,” Cass agreed quietly.

A few beats of silence passed, until you got yourself back together and shook your body as if to shake off your grief.

“But whatever,” you sighed. “Can’t change that now, can we?”

You looked at Cass and she hummed with a dull shrug, seeming lost in her own thoughts.

She absentmindedly opened her bedroom door, but just as she wanted to disappear into the room, you grabbed her arm to stop her for a second.

“By the way, about your nightmares,” you said, “maybe you can take some pills against that, if it gets too much. Unregulated sleep is probably worse than no sleep.”

Cass managed a tired smile. “Will try, thanks. Goodnight babes, love you,” she threw you a kiss.

“Love you too, good night,” you said back and smiled at her, waiting until she closed the door to enter your own room.

—

You didn’t know what woke you up. The glowing numbers of the digital clock on your nightstand showed it to be somewhere around half past three. Really not your usual wake-up time.

Just as you rolled around in your sheets to get your missing hours of sleep in, you heard strange shuffling outside your door. Perking up, you realized it sounded like the overlapping chatter of voices, and shoes pounding over the smooth floor.

Yeah, no way you would be going back to sleep now.

Especially not with the uncomfortable feeling that had settled into your stomach.

Stumbling a bit, your joints not quite awake yet, you trutted over to your door and creaked it open slightly.

The white light burned your eyes at the start, as you slipped out of your room and were met with the sight of multiple people fussing around not that far away.

The uneasy feeling only got worse, as you realized two things at once: The people were first responders, firefighters, to be exact. And they were all gathered around the open door across the hallway to yours.

Cass.

You moved on autopilot, as your feet carried you closer to the scene, eyes not leaving the gaping black hole that was the entrance to your best friend’s room.

“What happened?” You asked the closest paramedic next to you, a young man with brown hair and dark gear. It didn’t help much, because his voice faded out into the back of your head, as movement began to settle over the group.

The paramedic gestured his hands, as he talked to you, though that was not at all what had grabbed your attention.

You could only look at her, as she was lying sprawled out on the stretcher that was being wheeled out of her bedroom.

Cass.

But it wasn’t Cass, it couldn’t be. Dark grey plastic was wrapped around her body, covering her features as one of the firefighters that pushed the gurney zipped the material closed.

A body bag.

You felt bile rise into your throat.

Who put a seventeen-year-old in a body bag?

She wasn’t supposed to be there. What was she doing in there.

She had a biology exam tomorrow. She was supposed to join you at breakfast. In just a few hours. She was supposed to still lay in her bed and sleep, fast and sound.

Lay in her bed. Not on a moving gurney. Her bed.

You had laid in that bed. Just a few hours before.

The exam.

Breakfast.

Dark grey plastic.

Body Bag. A body. Dead. A dead body.

Dead. Dead. Gone.

Gone. Gone. Gone. Dead.

Like a distant echo, you still vaguely registered the young paramedic talking to you; he came to an abrupt stop when you bent over and threw up on his shoes.

༺ ｡ ° ୨❀୧ ° ｡ ༻

Sioux Falls 2009

The soft music that sounded through Grandpa Bobby’s old house reminded you of Auntie Ellen’s Roadhouse.

It made you a bit homesick, but for a while now, whenever you asked Dad if you could go there again, he just shook his head and said that it wasn’t possible.

That’s also the reason why you’d been living with Grandpa Bobby for very long now, he had told you.

Auntie Ellen and Jo came to visit sometimes, but it wasn’t the same. But you saw Dad much more often, and you liked that. You missed him whenever he went out and saved people.

Grandpa Bobby had told you that it was very important, what Dad and Uncle Sam did. That’s why you never complained when they stayed away for long.

Grandpa Bobby said they saved lives. Like firemen, he said. Or Sheriff Jody.

Auntie Ellen and Jo came over for a visit today. Dad had said that they were here to help him and Uncle Sam take care of something, that’s why they had to leave later.

Jo was playing your favorite boardgame with you. You had missed her. She was still very pretty. You knew your Dad thought that too.

“Alright,” Dad said, walking through the threshold that connected Grandpa Bobby’s workroom and the dinner table where you and Jo were currently playing. “It’s time to get this little Lady to sleep.”

You pouted at him.

“But Dad, I still want to stay up and play with Jo!”

Dad raised his eyebrows and threw a pointing look at his watch.

“It is already way past your bedtime, kiddo. And I heard tomorrow is a big school day?”

He was right. Tomorrow, you started your first singing lessons with all your bestest friends. Not all of them as best friends as Jo was, though.

Your shoulders slumped.

“Can I at least say Goodbye to you?”

Dean’s gaze went soft as he looked at you. He knew how hard this was for you, how he left all the time and came back for only such short periods. But he wanted to make this a better world for you to grow up in. And when all of this was over, and it would be tonight, hopefully, then he would allow himself to settle down and spend all the time he could give with you.

“Of course you can, my little love.”

Dad crouched down and lifted you up into his arms.

“Dean, Jo!” Came Auntie Ellen’s voice from the study, “We’re ready!”

Dad threw you a mysterious look as he stepped into Grandpa Bobby’s workspace, where he and Auntie Ellen and Uncle Sam already stood lined up.

You noticed the camera set up on a strange construction.

Auntie Ellen and Uncle Sam smiled when they saw you.

“You don’t mind a small addition, do you, Ellen?” Dad asked, and Auntie Ellen shook her head.

“Of course not!” She smiled, and made space for you and Dad to stand next to her. He was still carrying you in his arms, supporting your weight with his hip.

“Alright, on the count of three, all smile in the camera!” Uncle Sam said.

“One, two, three!”

You giggled when Dad tickled your stomach. You wanted to see the picture right now, but Grandpa Bobby had told you it would take a while to develop.

Enveloped in bear hugs from Auntie Ellen, Jo, Uncle Sam and Dad, to say goodbye to them, you finally agreed to go to bed.

“Dad?” You asked him, as he went to close the door behind him. Dad turned around and looked at you, snuggled into the warm blanket with your favorite stuffed animal under your arm.

“You’ll come back soon, right?”

Dad smiled at your words. “Of course I will, sweetheart. And Uncle Sam, and Auntie Ellen, and Jo. All of us.”

“You promise?”

Dad pressed a kiss into your hair.

“Don’t worry about that, baby. Sleep well.”

Even years later, Dean Winchester still carried an old photograph in his wallet, of a brunette mother, a blonde daughter, a father figure, and two brothers.

Though, one of them wasn’t looking at the camera, but rather at the small child he held on his side, his hand on her stomach as she blindingly smiled a carefree smile into the camera.

His own was dreamy as he watched her, and yes, for that moment, he dared to say, maybe even carefree as well.

༺ ｡ ° ୨❀୧ ° ｡ ༻

Now

Cass’s room was never quiet. Whether she was blasting music or playing guitar, singing her soul out in the shower or watching a move obnoxiously louder than it had to be.

Cass’s room was never quiet. Especially not as it was now.

The silver streams of light reaching through the window made her bedroom almost look so soft and inviting, as you stood there, observing, not quite in the hallway but not exactly in the room either.

It was macabre, what you saw. Not because the room looked so terrible, no, because it looked so … normal.

None of the bookshelves were tumbled over, or paper sprawled all across the floor.

The loose decoration items weren’t lying disheveled everywhere. No signs of a fight. A physical one.

The bed wasn’t made. Cass never did that.

The room looked so normal.

It looked so right.

So why wasn’t she?

“Y/N, sweetheart,” The sound of the familiar, comforting voice of Maria Whitlock reached your ears and made you slowly turn around.

Even through the blur of unshed tears in your eyes, you could make out the two familiar figures standing behind her.

“There’s someone here to talk to you.”

You blinked away the tears and caught Dean’s gaze, and for the first time since you had seen him again, his features looked so soft and merciful, towards you, it had the power to almost shatter your heart.

And you hated yourself for how much you wanted to be comforted by him, be held in his arms like the small child that once had been, only seeking safety with her-

“What are you doing here?” The question came out harsher than you had expected it to, almost an accusation. But neither Sam nor Dean did flinch at your tone.

“We wanted to talk to you.”

“Why?” It was obvious why. They knew, you knew, they knew you knew.

“I think you know about what,” Sam said, the softness in his voice grazing your stuttering heartbeat like a soft breeze.

Dean gestured in the direction of your room.

“In private.”

You didn’t want to speak alone to them. Then again, for the past almost-decade, it had been everything you could’ve wished for.

As you settled onto your bed, both Sam and Dean taking it upon themselves to find chairs to be comfortable, you felt like a small child again.

Looking at Dean, there was a familiarity that you needed, it was grounding, and you hated that it was. His presence, which had felt like home, and like safety for so long, being everything that you craved these past few days made your skin itch, because he still felt so right.

And you still felt so safe with him.

In a matter of seconds, you stood there and turned from a young woman into a small child, that wanted to throw herself in his arms and let him tell her that everything would turn out to be alright, because he was there, and he would look out for you. No matter what happened between the two of you, that had not changed, and you didn’t know what to think about it.

Sam was the first one to clear his throat. Of course he was.

“How are you feeling?”

Half-heartedly, because that was all you could muster right now, you raised an eyebrow at him. At least he had the decency to look a bit ashamed of his question.

“We’re sorry for your loss.”

Surprised, you turned your head to look at Dean. His green eyes were soft with sincerity.

“I don’t know how much she meant to you.” He glanced at Sam. “But I can imagine.”

You swallowed hard and looked back at your fumbling fingers again.

“Yeah, she was – she was great.�� Your voice broke mid-sentence and you sniffled.

You cleared your throat. “Uhm, but – anyways, that’s not why you’re here. Am I right?”

Sam and Dean exchanged a look, that could be regret as much as it could be pity, and then turned back to you.

“We’re sorry. But if we want to catch whatever is doing this, we need to have all the information,” Sam apologized.

You nodded. You already knew what they were going to ask, so you saved their time and jumped straight to the answers.

“There was nothing – unusual.” You rubbed your eyes. “She was okay just yesterday, she was- I helped her studying biology, we-“ You interrupted yourself.

Sam threw you another pitying look.

“Is there a chance she might’ve had nightmares too? You know, like Roy,” Dean asked you.

You threw your hand in the air. “Yeah, I guess,” you said. “Didn’t really think that much into it. You know, considering what happened.”

Dean bit the inside of his cheeks and gulped. “Right.”

It was quiet again. The brothers looked at each other one last time, before Sam stood up and fixed his suit jacket.

“Alright. We’re gonna leave you now.”

Please don’t.

You nodded.

Sam stretched his hand out to reach for you, but hesitated mid-air and pulled his arm back again.

“Whenever you need something,” Dean said meaningfully, before he stepped out the door, “Call us.” Call me.

You hummed absently.

The click of the lock drowned the bedroom in a deafening silence again.

—

Night came sooner than you thought it would. Sleep didn’t.

You thought, with the exhaustion that had been dragging down your bones all day long, it would only be a matter of time until exhaustion claimed you.

Without thinking about it, you grabbed your phone from your nightstand and opened up your chat with Finn.

With a sting in your heart, you realized that the last text conversation the two of you had had, had been more than a week ago.

Before all of this started.

Your keyboard clicked as you typed out the message.

hey

The answer came almost instantly.

Hey

can’t sleep either?

No

Your thumbs hovered over the buttons as you thought of what to type next.

I’m sorry we didn’t talk the entire day

It’s okay

It’s not like I came to see you either

would it be terrible to ask how you’re feeling?

Everyone’s been asking that

Oh, how you knew.

But to be honest

I don’t know

First Roy now Cass

Hasn’t reached my brain tbh

Feels more like a dream and I could wake up any second

I know what you mean

You paused for a moment, before you decided to send out the next text.

I’m still waiting for her to waltz into my room at 6 in the morning because she wants to get some mini donuts at breakfast before they’re all gone

You could practically hear the snickering laugh of Finn’s, as the icon told you he was typing out his next message.

Or letting my Alexa play the most random songs

I swear to God I’ve heard less sexual content in actual porn than that one Nicki Minaj song

first of all, it was cardi b, you pig, and

second that song is legendary

she was right to show it to you

A short while, you didn’t get an answer and you were almost afraid that Finn had either fallen asleep or that you had said something inappropriate, when the familiar ding made your screen light up.

We can catch up tomorrow

You know, maybe it would help us both

I know we haven’t been the same since all of this started, but I would really like us to be

Now more than ever

A heavy tug clamped around your heart at his words

you’re right

let’s talk tomorrow

Alright

Goodnight Y/N

good night finn

Sleep didn’t come in the first second after you plugged your phone on the charger, or even after you turned around to face the other wall.

But, as you laid on your back and felt the comforting arms of exhaustion grab after you, you had a feeling that it would’ve been worse if you had not talked to Finn.

—

Meanwhile, in the motel, Dean was slamming his third book this evening shut and tossed it onto the ever-growing pile of “absolute useless crap that nobody needed and was a total waste of time”. The name had been his idea.

Sam didn’t even look up as his brother stood up with a screeching from the wooden floor as he slid the chair back, and started pacing around the room.

“I hate this,” he mumbled under his breath.

“How is it even possible that, everywhere we look, there isn’t even the smallest hint at what we might be chasing?”

Demonstratively, he picks up a book from the pile they brought back from the library, and lets it fall on the desk again.

“Not to mention that we’re completely wasting our time here reading through this absolute crap, and we’ve got jack squat!”

The paper rustled as Sam turned another page.

“I already told you, Dean,” he muttered, eyes still concentrated on the faded ink of the book. “There was nothing online, so we had to go old-school.”

Dean kept muttering under his breath. “This is ridiculous.”

Sam rolled his eyes and placed a new book where his brother had been sitting a few minutes ago.

“If you want it to go faster and we can catch this thing, sit down and get to reading. Research doesn’t do itself.”

Dean was still cursing under his breath when he reached the second chapter.

—

The loud chatter of multiple conversations, accompanied by faint music playing in the background and the occasional clinking of glasses or beer bottles was an all too familiar mix of noises for you.

The light in the Roadhouse bar was still a warm-toned white, and the men and women all towered over you in lengths. Immediately, the feeling of home engulfed you.

You were looking around, searching for the familiar set of colorful crayons, where had your Auntie Ellen put them? You were bored and wanted to draw a pretty picture of the horse you had seen this morning.

Squeezing through the people, they all made way for you when they realized who wanted to get past them, you tried calling out for Auntie Ellen or Jo, but no tone left your throat.

A panicked feeling settled in your stomach.

Then, you spotted a tall figure just a few feet away from you. They were wearing a cool leather jacket and had their back turned to you.

You made your way over to them. You didn’t know why, but somehow you knew that this stranger could help you.

When you had almost reached them, they suddenly started moving and walked away. You wanted to cry after them, but you still couldn’t speak.

You moved your legs as fast as you could, running after them, but the people in the bar suddenly got more and more, always shoving and not making room for you anymore.

The person still hadn’t shown you their face, you could only see their back as you fought to get to them. Then, they walked through the door out of the Roadhouse.

With one last push, and a protesting yell that didn’t leave your throat, you rushed after them into the light.

With a creak, the Impala’s door swung open, and you shuffled your feet out of the car until they hit the gravel.

Dad had offered to open the door for you, but you were a big girl already, you could get out of the car on your own.

When you turned around to ask him what you were doing here, you faltered.

The Impala was gone. So was Dad. And Uncle Sam. You looked around, but they were nowhere to be found. Your breathing quickened as you realized that you were alone, somewhere you didn’t know, on stoney ground with only your bunny slippers. You didn’t even have your favorite stuffed animal with you!

“Hey, let’s go,” you suddenly heard a voice say, and turned around to see a girl with black hair stand in front of you.

Suddenly, as you had just been looking up to her, the two of you were now eye to eye. She just stared at you.

A name popped into your head.

Cass.

That’s weird. You knew a Cass. And then it hit you.

Your best friend. Roy, Finn, Cassandra. Sam and Dean.

But Cass was dead. She couldn’t be here. Looking around, you noticed that the scenery around you was blurry by the edges.

Weren’t you standing on a pathway just now? Why were you in a cafeteria?

This wasn’t real, none of it. It was a dream.

Harsh dread clawed itself into your heart like iced water. You had to get out of here. How did you get out of a dream?

You knew it, you had done this before, with your nightmares. You had to die.

You moved your feet, tried running away, but the floor wouldn’t budge, no matter how hard you tried, you didn’t move an inch, it’s like you were stuck.

You began to panic. This couldn’t be, there had to be a way for you to get out.

The next thing you knew, you lost the ground beneath your feet, and everything was black. You were falling.

You felt your organs being lifted by the air pressing you up, felt your heart pump so hard you were afraid it would jump out of your chest.

There was nothing around, only darkness, only empty.

No, no, no.

You wanted to scream, but your vocal cords were cut. Not a sound escaped your lips.

You had to get out, if there was nothing around you, how could you die?

You screamed without a sound.

If this was your dream, why couldn’t you just shape it the way you wanted?

The next thing you knew, there was light around you, and you were running again.

“Dean, look at this.” Sam slammed a massive book under Dean’s nose, dangerously close to Dean’s freshly filled coffee. Reflexive, Dean pulled the cup a few inches away.

Sam placed his finger on one of the open pages of the book. “Here,” he said. “I think this could be it.” Dean leaned forward to read.

You had landed on a road, a highway, judging by the many cars around you. This time, you actually managed to run somewhere, even if a lot slower than you usually would. Like treading through water.

It felt like you were chasing something, but you didn’t know what it was.

“If this is really it,” Dean said, when he finished reading, “Then we have a big problem.”

You did your best to remember your original plan. Right now, you were on a stripe of green next to the busy road. You had to change that.

Sam nodded heavily. “We need to get to Saint George’s immediately.”

Sam grabbed his jacket, but Dean didn’t move an inch, still staring at the handwritten words on the old paper in front of him.

You used all your strength to tread to the left, where cars were rushing from both sides over the street.

“This thing basically feeds off of bad experiences, right?”

Sam nods.

It was a red car that did it. You saw it coming as you made a beeline over the highway. As you noticed the headlights speeding towards you, for a split second you asked yourself, “What if this isn’t a dream. What if this is real.” You didn’t feel the impact when the car hit you.

“Then that means-“ Dean’s head shot up so fast Sam feared his brother would get whiplash.

“Y/N,” Dean breathed out.

Your heart was still beating rapidly in your chest when you officially woke up. The memory of the nightmare was still rushing through your minds, pictures playing behind your eyelids.

You had a hard time breathing, your chest felt as if it was carrying a hard weight that caged in your lungs.

You forced open your eyes to get yourself a glass of water. You were met with two yellow glowing orbs staring right back at you, merely inches away from your face in the darkness of the room.

You couldn’t stop the terrified scream that erupted from your throat.

oooh guys, only one chapter to go! what are we thinking? do you have any ideas on what the monster could be? and what do we think about cass and finn? comments & reblogs are always appreciated, see y’all in the next part!

[everlastiingiimmortals]

Theory: History of the Laurel Wreath Galaxy

Fair warning that I went nuts with this one and am absolutely reaching in some cases. Also, this will contain leaks about the upcoming Sigonia relic set lore, so please keep that in mind!

I established in a prior HC post that Ratio, as far as I'm concerned, is from the Laurel Wreath Galaxy. However, it was while thinking about this that I realized I missed something crucial from a Memory Bubble in the game: Rationality's Fall was a direct consequence of the Mechanical Emperor's War (referred to hereafter as MEW).

We learn from this bubble that the Philosopher's Union was overrun by robots after they massacred all of the philosophers, as well as destroyed most of the planets in the galaxy, before sentencing the Philosopher King Aurelius to his death by the Union's own laws and demanding he drink poison. We also learn that he does in fact do this, and this part of the war is what is known as Rationality's Fall, supposedly.

We also learn from Fu Xuan through Glimpses Into the Beyond that it was in fact Aha's followers who infected the robots with a virus called the "Philosopher's Poison," overthrowing the mechanical army in the Union with irony and a taste of their own medicine.

Naturally, this sent me down a long and spiraling rabbit hole, trying to place the time of this event.

My conclusion: Fucking Ancient.

You see, we know from Baiheng's journal that Screwllum is at least 800 years old in the Star Calendar, as Planet Screwllum had already been established during her travels. Do we know how many Amber Eras (AE) that is? No. Is there any sort of means of comparison or consistency for AE? No. Do we know how long the Star Calendar (SC) years are? No. But it's different from the Trailblaze Calendar, which is the closest to the Gregorian Calendar, and I guess we can assume that based on the Xianzhou's inspirations, the Star Calendar would be more similar to the Lunar Calendar. Regardless! This doesn't help us with the Amber Eras, but it's a nice point of reference all the same given that the MEW had been happening since before 3287 SC. The year now is around 8100 SC. Furthermore, we can't really tell whether Screwllum established Planet Screwllum while Rubert I was still alive or not, but it is implied to have been after Rubert's death, given the Anti-Organic Equation still infects machine life to this day and Screwllum isn't... exactly sure of the circumstances of Rubert's death. We do know that it happened many years ago, as it was "countless Amber Eras" ago. I'm going to choose a nice round number, overestimate how long the war lasted, and say maybe 5000-ish SC. That gives us 3000 years to the modern year.

So Rationality's Fall happens some time in this era, long before 5000 SC, and much of the Laurel Wreath Galaxy is destroyed as a result. What happened to the survivors?

This is where the theory gets wack.

We know that the people of the Laurel Wreath Galaxy were a space-faring people, as they were able to travel to the center of the Galaxy to engage in the Philosopher's Union with the King. Those that could escape likely did, traveling to other planets to seek refuge. I don't think it is too far of a stretch to suggest that Sigonia may have been one of those places.

Situated near the convergence of three major star clusters, Sigonia-IV has long been subjected to stellar winds from multiple stars, earning its reputation as the "eye of the storm" throughout the Cosmos. The planet's surface environment is extremely harsh, leading many civilizations to either migrate to other celestial bodies or succumb to natural disasters.

Such a harsh environment would not necessarily lead to widely available resources for space-faring -- we see this as it is with Belobog, a perfect in game example. Nor is it exactly an optimal location to settle in either, but when faced with the alternative of certain death, who wouldn't consider it? They were desperate. Is it not possible to consider, then, that perhaps the Laurelian escapees sought refuge on Sigonia, only for many of them to find they were unable to adapt to the environment and thus move on, while others attempted to survive? I posit this theory for a few reasons:

Ratio and Aventurine obviously share similar eyes, and yet only Aventurine's are commented on as being Sigonian (yes, I know this could be because of Ratio's dumb headpiece, but he also doesn't make any sort of indication towards the similarities himself, so hush).

We know from the Sigonia relic lore that the Avgin genocide was relatively recent, happening in modern history as Aventurine was just a boy when it occurred. This gives plenty of time for the Laurelian settlers to undergo genetic divergence and ultimately evolution to adapt to Sigonia's environment (under high evolutionary pressure, adaptation can happen fairly quickly as well, so at least 3000 years ish of extreme evolutionary pressure is admittedly nothing to sneeze at).

This is admittedly something I believe is more of a funny coincidence than anything, but I love to chew on regardless due to my fascination with the evolution of language, is that αυγή (avgí) in Greek means dawn. If you know, you know.

So by the modern year, the Sigonians and the Laurelians are genetically distinct enough to not be recognized as similar people, but the Sigonians could, theoretically, trace their lineage back to the ancient Laurelians.

To give a general recap of the Laurel Wreath Galaxy with this context:

The Philosopher's Union has expanded throughout the entire galaxy, championing as one of the most profound galaxies for critical thought and where countless philosophers flock to vie for a seat in the Union.

The MEW occurs, taking with it much of the galaxy, destroying the Union, and killing the last Philosopher King, Aurelius (who, by the way, was named after the Roman Emperor). This is the incident known as Rationality's Fall.

The survivors who could flee did so, some of them eventually settling on Sigonia. Those who survive evolve and adapt to the harsh environment, or perhaps remain stranded on Sigonia and must make do.

Aha's followers introduce the Philosopher's Poison into the robots in the Union and overthrow them.

Eventually, life in the Laurel Wreath Galaxy recovers and stabilizes, now with robots joining their ranks, though the Union remains a vacant amphitheater -- more an ancient monument than anything else. Nobody takes up the throne of the Philosopher King.

The IPC encounter Sigonia and try to profit, as they do.

Fast forward to the modern era, where Ratio and Aventurine are born.

...and the rest is history, if you know your lore and your leaks.

Admittedly, I do have a bone to pick with this theory, outside of the blatant overreaching, and that is Rationality's Fall. From the Curio it's my understanding that Rationality's Fall was a civil war wrought by the folly of man, and yet every other source I see, like the Memory Bubble, implies an invasion of the Union by Rubert's followers. I see two possible explanations here, one of which is more heavily likely than the other:

There were two Rationality's Falls: one by the robots invading and another after that WAS the civil war, which was man and machine alike. This is unlikely, weird, doesn't make sense, and thus I don't think this is the case.

The robots were in fact native to the galaxy and revolted after being subjected to the Anti-Organic Equation. This is more likely and a method Rubert used for converting machines to its cause, and thus it makes sense. It's possible the robots of the Laurel Wreath Galaxy didn't have sentience until the MEW, so there's little conflict here.

I had a hard time admitting to the second possibility because it meant needing to adjust my prior headcanon somewhat and it still doesn't sit right with me given the initial description of civil war, but I'll address that here:

I maintain that Ratio was from the Laurel Wreath Galaxy, and perhaps a warmongering trait still remains within his blood, but maybe it is because of this trait of his people that the Laurel Wreath Galaxy was so focused on by Rubert during the MEW in the first place. We know Rubert accused organic life of being flawed in calculation, leading to their own end and destruction, and thus needing to be eradicated. Does this not sound familiar? Rationality's Fall, the collapse of mankind, which prides itself on the ability to think and reason -- that is rationality, not calculation and probability -- and thus the world's impurities, in this case, is not referring to arrogance nor ignorance, the original philosophy of the Union, but to rationality itself, to mankind as a whole.

So, fast forward once again to the modern era. Where does this leave Ratio? A descendant of survivors who managed to stay on what few habitable planets of the Laurel Wreath Galaxy remained. Someone with personal ties and reason to care so much about the Philosopher's Union and its history. Someone who, inflamed by curiosity and with an insatiable hunger for knowledge, ends up chasing the very same philosophy that the Union, which no longer exists, prided itself on. If the previous era of the Philosopher's Union were the Roman Empire, with all of its Ancient Greek associations as well, then Ratio's era -- Ratio himself -- is the Italian Renaissance, the revival of ancient Greco-Roman culture, and thus one could argue the inheritor of the Philosopher King's legacy.

[novastardoughnut]

okay but we need to talk about this most recent Secret Life

SO... A lot just happened and I think we need to talk about it so SPOILERS:

SO... Lets talk about that Episode huh?

Jimmy didn't die first (we all knew this day would come, we all knew one day that Jimmy wouldn't be the first out because what is the statistical probability of being out first 5 times over). so what do we make of this event... well I think Lizzie dying first is another way for the watchers to get emotional reactions from the players. Now the canary still died lets not forget this, and he was the next one out, indeed the curse was broken BUUUT another part of the canary curse that is often forgotten in the rubble is that his death marks the start for the rest of the series going into that red violence/red madness era. it marks the start of the endgame. (and with Mumbo's right after we may even see a new curse arise). its a very funny thematic event to occur being that everyone throughout the whole episode was joking about Jimmy going out first again, they even held a pre-emptive funeral for him.

now already with this seasons a lot of parallels are being drawn to Last Life (we got Lizzie and Mumbo back, Mumbo made puns on his first episode back, a lot of AHA references this season etc) and now we have yet another one... THE WITHER!

now lets look at the big dogs for a moment, because indeed Mumbo did kind of join them this session, got a box of bones and everything for it. this is now a team consisting of Martyn, Jimmy and Mumbo. this team is very close to the Southlanders (it may be missing impulse and Grian but its close enough). now what happened. They spawned a WITHER (that had only ever been spawned before in Last Life) and both DIED to it one after another. (just like how they both died back to back in LL) leaving Martyn AGAIN the sole Member of his group.

in addition this time with the Wither it very much lived up to the nigh apocalyptic scenario that this situation should have been in that previous season. however with Bdubs (with his bravery) and Etho were more than capable of taking on the wither. The wither died in LL with relitively little pomp and circumstance, however in Secret Life where every heart counts, its effect becomes way more devistating on the server. last time there were a few explosions but nothing too bad, this time returning to the surface the floor devastated with explosion holes, craters and destruction. the nice walkable paths are rubble underfoot.

and yeah Martyn is yet again alone, his curse stands strong. he consistently died before Jimmy but in that moment he survived yet again to see his friends killed.

[marshymoss]

BSD 107 SPOILERS

//SPOILERS!! AHHHHH!!!! I'm putting my thoughts here because I have a moot on Twitter that I don't want to spoil things for....

OK. SO. You know how Dazai is Not having a good time rn.... like bro is seeing the pearly gates. And Chuuya (who is not in control of his own body) is on his way to kill him via Fyodor's orders.

NOW, many people, including myself... ARE SO EXCITED FOR THIS SKK REUNION!!! like... so many monumental things abouta possibly happen. SUCH AS (list off the top of my head): 1. Chuuya bite Dazai vampire style and that nullifies the curse. Aha. i can imagine the edits now. (and to see that animated at some point.. ough) 2. Skk beats up Fyodor double black style ;) 3. Skk bantering that we have missed so so so much 4. Chuuya potentially faking being vampire, lifting his hat up, and looking at Dazai... "You missed me?" OR "You look like shit. Almost makes me forgive you for that stunt you pulled with the water." 5. Dazai being carried princess style by Chuuya ahhahahtg73849ewk 6. Now, what me personally wanna see.... Chuuya BOOKING it down the halls trying to get to Dazai in time. I don't think this will happen because the shock value of seeing Chuuya actually faking being vampire wouldn't be as good. BUT OH BOY AM I IMAGINING IT. 7. oh and Chuuya having his own flashbacks ab their relationship too!!

IM SO EXCITED FOR JULY YALL. EEK.

Now, I don't think Dazai is going to die. But. It a possibility that we cannot ignore.... and I've got some angst that it can cause. Like. Agh. This is the reason I'm making this post; I want to shock others with fear. Fear that I don't want to suffer through alone. NOW, MY ANGSTY LIST FOR HOW THIS SKK INTERACTION MIGHT PLAY OUT:

Fyodor calls back vampire Chuuya (Sigma situation) and he doesn't make it to Dazai in time and Dazai dies Alone. (I don't think this is going to happen at like. All. But it could! Maybe!)

Turns out Chuuya is faking being vampire, but he gets to Dazai and it's too late to do anything (poison kicks in, bro bleeds out, etc.) He dies in his arms! ^^

Chuuya is forced to activate corruption, Dazai can't save him because BROKEN LEGS and both Chuuya and Dazai die (i will stop reading bsd.

Chuuya kills Dazai as a vampire, the curse isn't nullified (FYODOR is the one who sent Chuuya there afterall) and this is when we get Really Angsty: (1) It's obvious that Chuuya and Dazai care for each other on some level, even if you don't ship them. Chuuya would be killing somebody that he cares about, and he would probably blame himself for it. Dazai is somebody that he has known for SEVEN YEARS!! That shit would HURT!! The sheep, flags, all of his subordinates that have died on the field, now Dazai. (2) NOW as for DAZAI!! If I remember correctly, Dazai says something along the lines of "Everything I want I lose" or something like that, right?? Now. Imagine this. Dazai, someone who craves death and constantly tries to commit suicide, dies. OK so what?? No. I think that Dazai very much wants to try and stay alive, it's hinted at multiple times (15 novel, his character song, a much happier life with the ADA in contrast to the mafia, etc.). Let's circle back to what I said earlier, "Everything I want I lose." Dazai goes full circle from wanting to die -> wanting to live -> dying. It hurts and it would prove what Dazai thinks/thought is right!! Everything he wants, he can't have! (Also, cherry on top. He hates pain!! He would be dying a very, very painful death. He even says that he is in a lot of pain in the chapter) OK, ONE AGAIN I DONT THINK CHUUYA OR DAZAI IS DYING!!! im sorry. lets.. focus on the positives!!! Sskk reunion yayyy! (it's also really painful to think about them)

[anonymousewrites]

One Hell of a Love (Book 2) Chapter Nineteen

Sebastian Michaelis x Demon! Reader

Chapter Nineteen: One Hell of a Corpse

Summary: Sebastian and (Y/N) face a reanimated corpse and the truth of what the Aurora Society was up to.

            Ciel, (Y/N), and Sebastian regarded the reanimated corpse of Margaret warily. Even though she was a human body brought back, her resilience was greater now than during life. (Y/N) and Sebastian’s initial attack had garnered no results.

            “ ‘Aurora Society’s resurrection of the dead—occult it may not be.’ ” Ciel narrowed his eyes. “I never for a moment thought what Lau said would turn out to be true!”

            “Dammit, a failure, eh?” Stoker huffed in frustration as if this was just a dog that didn’t learn a trick right, not a creature that tore out a human’s throat. He glanced at his men. “What are you waiting for? Kill it!”

            “Phoenix!” The two men posed.

            (Y/N) rolled their eyes. Idiots.

            The bodyguards fired pistols at the reanimated corpse. Margaret growled and didn’t react, just stumbling slightly before turning and advancing on them. She lunged at the nearest man even as he continued shooting. Her jaws snapped closed around his neck with another sickening crunch, and he fell with a scream.

            “Useless, the lot of you!” said Stoker, running from the room as Margaret latched onto the next guard.

            “Wait!” shouted Ciel.

            “Young Master,” warned (Y/N), and Sebastian held him back.

            Margaret lifted her head and turned towards Ciel. Blood dripped from her knife and bullet wounds, and the blood of her victims splattered her jaw in a gory mess.

            “How in the world does one stop that?” said Ciel.

            “Perhaps it will do to dismember it into immobility for the time being?” said Sebastian.

            “That’s what the Chronos did to Uranus,” said (Y/N).

            “You can’t kill these guys unless you smash in their heads!” said a new voice.

            Sebastian, (Y/N), and Ciel’s heads snapped up. A man, no, a reaper, flew through the air with his death scythe towards Margaret as she stood.

            “Like so!”

            The reaper’s strange death scythe sliced through Margaret’s skull. Blood splattered the air.

            “You gotta be efficient, see?” The reaper’s fluorescent eyes glanced up at the demons and Earl.

            “That’s a—”

            Sebastian was cut off as the reaper exclaimed in annoyance. “Say what?! Ah! I knew it! This one’s dead already! That’s why I said I’d reaped her soul ‘n’ everything! I can’t freaking’ believe this!”

            “Who is that?” said Ciel.

            “You should know what he is by now,” said (Y/N).

            “Aha! This one’s still got a soul,” said the reaper, hopping onto the stage on his Death Scythe. “Ups-a-daisy!” His blade sliced into Margaret’s mother, and the Cinematic Records flew up. “Susannah Connor. Born July twenty-third, 1841. Died April nineteenth, 1889 of shock due to extensive hemorrhage. Remarks—none in particular. Judgement complete.”

            “A Grim Reaper?” realized Ciel.

            “Those outfits,” said the reaper, looking (Y/N) and Sebastian up and down. “Would you happen to be the infamous Sebby and (Nickname)?”

            (Y/N) and Sebastian nearly groaned.

            “I do very much loathe being addressed that way, but I am indeed Sebastian Michaelis, butler to the house of Phantomhive,” said Sebastian.

            “And I am the maid of the Phantomhive household, (Y/N) Noir,” said the cat demon. They remained poised and careful. If a reaper was here, the situation was definitely grim (pun intended). “And you are?”

            “Ronald Knox,” said the reaper, winking. “Grim Reaper Dispatch, Retrieval Division. Thanks for lookin’ out for my senior.”

            “Just now, you mentioned that these creatures cannot be killed ‘unless you smash in their heads,’ ” said Sebastian, ignoring the mention of Grell. “Do you Grim Reapers know something of these incidents where the incidents where the dead are brought back to life?”

            “Nah, we haven’t got any real details,” said Ronald. “But we’ve had reports of corpses being active even after their souls were collected. Management’s put in claims against us, treating the cases like the retrieval division screwed up, so I came to look into things, but turns out it’s a soulless corpse through and through, this. I mean, I culled Margaret Connor’s soul two weeks ago, no doubt about it.”

            “So the dead have not been returned to life,” said Ciel. “It’s just a moving corpse.”

            “I thought it seemed off. No soul, empty,” said (Y/N). A demon’s instincts were never wrong.

            “Is it even possible to a body without a soul to move?” remarked Sebastian.

            “Well, something’s happening with them. They have no soul and are moving,” said (Y/N).

            “The ‘brass’ says that it’s impossible too, but the Grim Reaper dispatch is investigating in the first place ‘cos the corpses really are moving, as you just saw,” said Ronald.

            “So all we know is that we can stop them from moving by ‘smashing their heads?’ ” said (Y/N).

            “Uh, yeah,” said Ronald.

            (Y/N) shrugged and smirked. “That’s enough for me to go on.”

            Ciel nodded. “Looks like we’ve got to force a confession out of Rian. C’mon, then.”

            They turned away. As soon as their backs were turned, Ronald’s death scythe roared to life. Sebastian turned and grabbed the scythe before it could cut into any of them.

            “If management gets wind of demons being on board, it’ll be a pain with them grousing on about how ‘perhaps you are concealing the fact that a noxious beast snatched souls from you?’ and stuff.” Ronald grinned and pressed the scythe closer to Sebastian’s face. “I don’t really wanna get stuck with overtime for a reason like that, so how’s about you disappear right here and now?”

            (Y/N) kicked him, and he went flying into the wall. “You reapers. Always so dramatic and chatty.” Ronald flipped back to his feet and huffed, revving his scythe.

            “I’m going on ahead!” said Ciel. He wasn’t worried about Ronald. “Once you’ve played with him, come after me!”

            “Very good, sir,” said Sebastian.

            “Hey, you should be paying attention to me!” said Ronald, swinging at them.

            (Y/N) grabbed the death scythe, and Sebastian kicked at him. Ronald jumped back, and (Y/N) threw several knives at him. The death scythe sliced through them with ease.

            “The death scythe lives up to its reputation once more, even when in such a strange shape,” said (Y/N).

            “It’s sharpness is guaranteed, hm?” remarked Sebastian.

            Ronald grinned cockily. “You betcha!” He jumped onto the back of his death scythe and drove towards Sebastian and (Y/N).

            They braced and lashed at him as he attacked, but he flipped into the air. Sebastian pivoted and threw knives at Ronald. The reaper dodged and flicked his wrist. Sebastian’s eyes flashed fuchsia as a knife sliced across his cheek. Ronald landed and grinned back at him.

            “Sebastian?” said (Y/N), keeping their eyes on Ronald.

            “Merely a scratch,” said Sebastian, cleaning the blood from his cheek.

            “Focusing on the just the death scythe ‘cos I’m a grim reaper,” said Ronald. He held his knife and smirked. “That’s the old way of doin’ things.”

            Sebastian tsked. “Children these days truly do have bad attitudes.”

            He jumped at Ronald, who dodged and swung. (Y/N) leapt over him and attacked from behind. Ronald pivoted, but (Y/N) bent backwards before kicking up at him. The hit forced him back, and Sebastain threw several knives that he narrowly avoided.

            “You two are as good as they say,” said Ronald.

            “Why, thank you,” said Sebastian.

            “I’m afraid we’ve never heard anything said of you, though…” said (Y/N), smirking.

            Ronald grinned and was about to respond when he noticed his watch and balked. “Oopsie! It’s almost time!” He zoomed towards the door on his death scythe. “I can’t be playin’ around now!”

            (Y/N) and Sebastian blinked as he went.

            “I don’t wanna get stuck writing a letter of apology ‘cos I was late. No, sir! Work’s gotta get done efficiently!” Ronald paused in the doorway and grinned back at the pair. “So on that note, see ya later, Sebby darling, (Nickname)!” Ronald winked and left the room.

            Even when she’s not here, Grell is annoying, thought (Y/N). “What was that about?”

            “I’m not sure,” said Sebastian.

            “We should find the Young Master,” said (Y/N). “If a reaper thinks something’s about to happen, then it can’t be good.”

            “Yes,” said Sebastian. He tutted. “Humans should know that the supernatural cannot be controlled. They simply cause themselves problems.”

            (Y/N) hummed, but whether it was in complete agreement or not was yet to be seen.

l

            “C-Ciel!” cried Elizabeth, holding onto Ciel on the top of the boxes as Snake and Ciel watched the reanimated corpses below tearing at their tower.

            Ciel pulled Elizabeth closer and squeezed his eyes shut. “Lizzie! I’ll protect you without fail come whatever may!”

            “How admirable of you, Young Master.”

            “Now that’s what I call gentleman-like behavior.”

            A rain of silver knives sliced down across the horde of reanimated corpses. (Y/N) and Sebastian stood at the stairs of the hold and gazed out at the hundreds of bodies. They hadn’t anticipated so many bodies to be kept aboard and to be reanimated, but they were never lucky.

            “Sebastian! (Y/N)!” shouted Ciel, holding Elizabeth tightly with Snake beside him. “Don’t just stand there! Hurry up and take care of them!”

            “As you wish,” said Sebastian. He and (Y/N) jumped down towards the horde. “This is none too refined a method, but if all that is required is to destroy their heads, this way—” Sebastian grabbed one corpse’s head. “—is by far the most expedient!” He slammed it into the ground, destroying the skull.

            Snake’s eyes widened in shock at the destructive power, and Ciel kept Elizabeth from looking. (Y/N) grinned and kicked through another reanimated corpse’s head. The two demons leapt into action. Ciel’s eyes widened. Memories of that day spun through his mind as he witnessed the carnage before him. Sebastian and (Y/N) literally tore through the reanimated humans, a perfect team in a massacring dance.

            When they stopped, blood covered the ground below them. Corpses fell in heaps beside them. Red splattered their uniforms and stained their gloves.

            “All done,” said (Y/N), smiling pleasantly as if they hadn’t torn humans limb from limb.

            “Now, please let me help you,” said Sebastian, holding out his hands.

            Ciel narrowed his eyes. “Don’t touch me with those hands. You’ll get me dirty.”

            “My apologies, sir,” said Sebastian. “We shall change out gloves right away.”

            The demons slipped on fresh gloves before Sebastian lifted Ciel down and (Y/N) assisted Elizabeth. Snake clambered down on his own, his snakes curling around him at the smell of blood.

            Ciel glared distastefully at the blood at his feet. “Couldn’t you have gone about it a little more gracefully? You were like beasts.”

            “Forgive us, but we were in a hurry,” said (Y/N).

            “Moreover, their bodies appear to be frailer than even that of the average human,” said Sebastian.

            “But why are there so many on this ship?” asked Ciel.

            “I believe—”

            (Y/N) threw several knives to the side as Sebastian spoke. Stoker squeaked as they impaled the box in front of him.

            “—we had better put that question to him,” finished Sebastian. He smirked at (Y/N), who grinned back. The pair had read each other’s mind on what to do. More and more in sync…

            “Rian Stoker!” exclaimed Ciel.

            “N-No!” Stoker backed away. “Their absolute salvation was incomplete, and I never intended for them to reanimate in such unhealthy states.”

            “They were dead. They will never be in a healthy state again,” said (Y/N). This was the truth as being a demon wasn’t exactly what one could call “healthy.”

            Sebastian grabbed Stoker’s arms. “Please just hear me out! We must hurry—Ow!”

            “There is no need to rush,” said Sebastian with fake pleasantry. “We have plenty of time until we put in at New York, so we shall listen to your story at leisure.”

            “Please wait!” cried Stoker.

            “For what? We have gotten rid of them all,” said Sebastian, raising an eyebrow.

            “No, you haven’t!” said Stoker desperately.

            “What?” said (Y/N) sharply.

            “This ship utilizes the latest reciprocating steam engines, and they and their massive boilers are installed at the center of the vessel,” the words poured out of Stoker in a panicked heap. “So this place is divided in two with the boiler rooms in the middle.”

            “So what of it?” questioned Ciel.

            “In other words, this ship has two cargo holds, one in the bow, one in the stern!” said Stoker.

            (Y/N) could have groaned. Humans messing with forces they have no experience with. All they do is get themselves killed.

            “What?!” said Ciel.

            Stoker swallowed. “And the hold in the bow…has ten times as many test subjects as the hold in the stern stored within.”

            “Did you say ten times as many?!” said Ciel in horror.

            “This is not good,” said Sebastian, keeping Stoker still as he tried to pull away.

            “ ‘Not good’ doesn’t begin to cover it!” said Ciel. “One of those monsters is bad enough—” he glanced around at the corpses around him “—and you’re telling me there are still ten times as many as this?!”

            “Then the interior of the ship is most likely crawling with droves of them,” said Sebastian.

            (Y/N)’s nose twitched, and they glared at Stoker. Their eyes flashed fuchsia, enjoying the fear in his eyes as they leaned towards him. “You foolish humans. What were you thinking? You have no magic and no knowledge of what life and death truly mean. All you could possibly reap were consequences.”

            Stoker shivered at their dark tone, and they tsked before straightening. “I—But I—!”

            Stoker attempt to defend himself was cut off by Ciel. “Sebastian, (Y/N), go ahead and get my aunt and family somewhere safe. Clear out as many corpses as you can on the way.”

            “And you, Young Master?” said Sebastian. “What of you and Lady Elizabeth?”

            “We’ll only get in your way,” said Ciel. “I do have my pistol, so we should be able to manage for a while. Return at once after you’ve secured their safety!”

            “Very good, sir,” said Sebastian, releasing Stoker and letting him collapse to his knees in fear.

            “Let’s go,” said (Y/N), and the pair took off out of the hold.

            They ran towards first class, smashing through any reanimated corpses they came across. However, the corpses never took any notice of them, instead going after the humans. They were drawn to the gatherings of people, and sure enough, that’s where they found Francis allowing people to escape into the elevators while she faced the reanimated corpses with her sword. She stabbed one through the chest, but when it didn’t fall, she furrowed her brow in confusion.

            (Y/N) moved forward and smashed its head to the ground. “Good evening, Lady Midford!” they said pleasantly.

            “We hope you have not been injured?” said Sebastian with a smile.

            “Butler! Maid!” exclaimed Francis. “What are they?”

            “We do not know enough about them ourselves,” said Sebastian.

            “But we know there is only one way to stop them: smash in their heads,” said (Y/N).

            Several corpses lunged forward. Sebastian used a knife-hand against the head of one, and (Y/N) delivered a powerful kick. Francis sliced through a corpse’s head. The reanimated humans fell.

            “Hmph. It seems you speak the truth,” said Francis. “So out of gratitude, I shall overlook that indecent face and hairstyle for today.”

            “We are deeply obliged, my Lady…” said (Y/N) and Sebastian. What’s wrong with our faces?

            “Francis, are you alright?!” Alexis ran around the corner with Edward. Both men had their swords drawn.

            “My dear!” said Francis, glad to see her husband and son.

            “Butler! Maid! Where’s Lizzie?!” demanded Edward.

            “She is with the Young Master,” said Sebastian. “Both of them are alive, sir.”

            “If they’re together, there’s nothing to worry about,” said Alexis.

            “Indeed,” said Francis. “After all, it is one’s duty to protect one’s betrothed at all costs.”

            Is she talking about Ciel or Elizabeth? wondered (Y/N).

            “He did say he would protect her ‘without fail,’ ” said Sebastian. “I have come under their orders to escort you to a safer loca—”

            “We can’t have that,” said Alexis firmly.

            “Eh?” said Sebastian, blanking.

            “The Marquessate of Midford is a house of knights that has protected England for generations,” said Alexis. “To ignore the plight of her people would go against the code of chivalry.”

            “We, the fair knights of England must be the shield that protects the weak,” declared Edward.

            How honorable, thought (Y/N).

            “Isn’t that right, Mother/Francis?” The two men looked back for Francis’s approval.

            Much less impressive. But amusing.

            “Quite!” said Francis. “Go back to Ciel and Lizzie and don’t dawdle!”

            “But…” said Sebastian.

            “What, have you no faith in our swords?” said Francis.

            (Y/N) and Sebastian exchanged looks before bowing.

            “Alright,” said Sebastian.

            “We wish for your safety, Lady Midford,” said (Y/N).

            “And tell Ciel this!” said Edward. “I won’t show him any mercy if something happens to my little sister!”

            “As you wish, sir,” said Sebastian. He glanced at (Y/N), and they nodded.

            Crack!

            Before anyone could move, a sharp sound pierced the night air over the sound of cries of fear, and the ship shook.

            “What’s going on?” exclaimed Francis. “What was that quaking just now?”

            “It cannot be,” said Sebastian, running to the nearest viewing balcony.

            “Damn,” murmured (Y/N). They could see the ice shards scattered on the deck below and the crippled side of the Campania. The ship had hit an iceberg. “It’s going to flood.”

            “Well, then, we have a job before we head back to the Young Master,” said Sebastian.

            The demons took off. Two crises in a single night? They had their work cut out for them.

Taglist:

@technikerin23

@im-making-an-effort

@izzieg3987

@jinxxangel13

@alexpangender

@otomyoli

@neenieweenie

@nex-crowley

@anxious-chick

@bellacastiel

@v1l-ismissing

@agentdedf1sh

@iamsexytrash

@oceansfloor

@neuvilleteismybby

[reilliane]

An alternative universe of vigil, if mc managed to survive longer and the shougun's back up army arrived later than ayato and the Shuumatsuban's. Imagine if Ayato managed to arrive on time, to at least be able to give mc medication. One of the shougun's army will probably see Ayato carrying mc, so they go to the Kamisato estate to confront Ayato about the warrant. Ayato, being someone who really cares for mc, decided to protest about it. But it's the Shougun's orders. So Ayato proposed to confront Ei by trying to convinced her that mc shouldn't have anything to do with the warrant for her younger brother, because she wasn't the one who interrupted the duel, she shouldn't have to endure the punishment. In this alternative universe, Ei still doesn't budge. And the only way she would let mc off of the warrant and the hunt is if she were to marry with someone who has a high status. Basically Ayato just tells her that their parents have already been planning on an arranged marriage for a while and they are already planning to sign the paper (this is a half true, since their parents only suggested it bit they never forced them to be in an arranged marriage, because they want their kids to be happy with who they choose. But they already have the papers, Ayato kept it for save keepings, if they ever need to use it. ). And so Ayato showed the proof when one of soldiers were tasked to get the papers, Ei finally agreed to let go of mc. But in exchange, mc needs to marry Ayato. Now imagine how salty and great full Kazuha will be to Ayato, after the vision hunt decree is lifted, when he knew that his sister is still alive thanks to Ayato, bit is salty because HE MARRIED HIS DEAR SISTER. o（ｉДｉ）o=> this is basically his face when he heard that Ayato needs to marry his sister, so she can still be alive. Ayaka is secretly cheering in the back, her ship since she was like... 8? has finally come true (even though it's from an arranged-live-or-die-marriage situation)

Oho, this prompt I likey~

Marriage and romance have never been on their (Ayato & MC) minds but boy I can see this happening since it's a matter of life and death.

Their relationship will be expanded on that Kaedehime post, which has become Vigil!MC's profile LMAO-

Ayato's such a gentleman, really.

He won't do anything that would go against his relationship with MC but her life is on the line and he for sure wouldn't let her slip past when he's there with the ability to save her.

The first thing he'd do once MC's safe and taken care of is to apologize. He, after all, just decided to expedite the 'faux' marriage.

MC would feel a bit hollow but in the grand scheme of things, she's extremely grateful so she says thank you. She was saved and thus given another chance at life, how can she not be thankful??

Kazuha... aha, oh Kazu dear. The bitterness he would feel because?? If he stuck around longer maybe he could've saved her (Resolve route).

He's filled to the brim with gratitude, of course. His sister was saved.

I imagine him getting the news when he was already at the Crux and he just- slightly wobbles on his feet because he can't believe it.

This prompt will actually be angsty for the Kaedehara siblings, since MC's married, she for sure can't travel around with Kazuha. And Kazuha, who likes to travel, won't be able to stay put in one place.

Yes, he can tolerate not moving around and just be there for MC, but he'll feel caged. And MC's the kind to repay the favor with all her might, so I can see her helping around the Kamisato Estate.

What does that mean?

Less sibling time that's right- little chances of redemption through action in Kazuha's case.

There is forgiveness, but their relationship remains a little more strained than ever. my heart.

[jstarswrites]

A Mystery To Solve

Here's chapter 2!

I hope you all enjoy!

The Outcasts Masterlist

Dustin woke you up the next morning, barging into your room, crashing through the door so hard it smacked against the wall and bounced off, slamming closed through sheer momentum. You desperately tried to ignore him. He knew he wasn’t supposed to wake you on the weekends. You were catching up on lost sleep and needed every precious minute you could get. And that little shit woke you up in the rudest manner possible. 

You were going to murder him. Painfully.

You pulled your pillow over your head in an attempt to block him out. Sadly, it didn’t work. And the little shit opened your blinds so you couldn’t snuggle back under the covers and ignore him by going back to sleep. You were so going to murder him. Very painfully. 

‘Wake up, y/n! Max, come here and tell her what you told me!’ Dustin all but yelled right next to your ear. 

‘I am going to make your last moments on earth, very, very, painful, Squish. This is your last and only warning,’ you muttered darkly. 

‘This is important, y/n! You know I wouldn’t wake you on the weekend for anything less than a code red!’ Dustin pushed Max forward. ‘Tell her what you told me.’

You listened to Max talk with your eyes closed. But before she was even a third of the way through, you were pushing back the covers and sprinting to your closet. Grabbing clothes, you dumped them in the bathroom before grabbing your toothbrush to listen to the rest of her story while you brushed your teeth. 

‘See? I told you it was code red,’ Dustin said smugly. Though there wasn’t as much of his usual happiness at being right. Not since Eddie was involved. Max just rolled her eyes.

‘Five minutes,’ you told them, hurriedly fixing your hair into some semblance of order. ‘And Dustin, if Eddie’s missing, you should take the grab bag from my closet.’

‘Uh, grab bag?’ Your brother asked, confusion written all over his face. 

‘I made one after Will went missing. A change of clothes for me and spares for others, food, toiletries, cash, torches, spare batteries, that kind of thing. How did you think we had enough to eat when we were trapped by Demodogs? Or I changed clothes when one exploded over me?’

‘That’s why you’re always handing out candy bars?’ Dustin asked, scrunching up his nose as he remembered the last time you were in danger. 

‘You need to eat if you want to save the world.’

‘Or how you had basically a whole first aid kit when Steve got knocked out by Billy?’ Max asked, with only a tiny pause before she said Billy’s name. You knew she was still struggling. You’d been keeping a close eye on her, but Max was stubborn like you. She wouldn’t open up just because you asked. But you loved her like a little sister, and you were worried. Worried that she wasn’t okay. No matter how hard she tried to pretend.

‘Yep, since someone always winds up with a boo-boo,’ you replied, keeping your voice casual, since Max’s face said plainly that she did not want to talk about it right now. Dustin snickered at your words and she relaxed. ‘I like to be prepared, since you know, we seem to find ourselves in life or death situations a lot. Like, every four months or so, a lot.’ 

‘Yeah, it is a lot,’ Dustin said, rummaging around in your closet. ‘Aha!’ He held up a duffle bag and slung the strap across his body. ‘Got it.’

‘Five minutes,’ you repeated as you closed the door to your bathroom.

‘But you believe me, right? About Eddie?’ Dustin called through the door. 

‘Of course I do. Eddie isn’t like that. And this sounds way too like the Mindflayer or some other denizen of the upside down to be just a coincidence. Besides, nothing in this town is ever a coincidence. I don’t even believe in them anymore. Call me paranoid, but it makes more sense to just assume there’s something trying to kill everyone and take over the world. Saves time.’

‘It does save time,’ Max agreed, as Dustin nodded.

Twenty minutes later, you pulled into the video shop parking lot. You careened out of the car and inside the building, disrupting Steve and Robin, who were at work. You let Dustin take over the computer as you grabbed a notepad and started writing down a list of Eddie’s friends and known associates. As Dustin explained what you needed, and why you were there, and not at your house, you saw Steve grimace and knew what was coming. And when he suggested going to the cops, you were proved right.

‘I just think it makes sense to be careful,’ he finished, crossing his arms defensively as he realised everyone was staring at him. 

‘You are such an ass,’ you hissed, going back to the list and writing numbers next to names. 

‘Hey, come on, y/n, that’s not fair,’ Steve protested.

‘No, it’s totally fair,’ Dustin said, as Max nodded beside him. 

‘I’m just saying that we don’t know Eddie well enough to-’

‘Except we do,’ you said, gesturing between yourself and Dustin. 

‘Eddie would never do something like this,’ Dustin added.

‘Nope.’ You shook your head. ‘And take a moment to think about why you feel that way, Steve.’

‘Well, I mean, he just looks-’

‘Uh-huh. And before Will went missing, what did you and your little sycophants think about me, huh?’ You demanded, hopping over the counter and stepping up to Steve. 

He rubbed the back of his head nervously. ‘Well, I just thought you were quiet, and kept to yourself-’

‘Bullshit.’

‘No, I-’

‘Bullshit,’ you repeated, jabbing a finger at him. ‘You thought I was like Eddie. Weird and wrong, and a freak.’

‘Not a freak, just-’ Steve broke off suddenly, as he realised everyone was glaring at him.

‘You want to finish that sentence?’ Dustin asked casually. 

‘Alright, alright. We can at least talk to Eddie before jumping to conclusions,’ Steve said finally, holding his hands up. 

‘Good,’ Dustin replied. ‘I would have hated seeing y/n knock you on your ass.’

‘What?!’

‘She could take you,’ Max nodded. 

‘Oh, a hundred percent,’ Robin agreed. 

You smiled sweetly at Steve. Unnerved, he took a hasty step back. You followed. ‘Just so you know, I am a freak, Steve. And I don’t give a shit what anyone thinks of me. Especially not the small-minded assholes in this town.’ You folded your arms and glared at him. 

‘Um, noted?’ He said questioningly. ‘And uh, sorry?’

‘Apology accepted.’ Steve gave you a nervous smile, and you returned it, making him relax. You didn’t blame Steve, but having got to know him, you had hoped he wouldn’t make the same dumb mistakes he had in the past before you all knew each other. But then, that might be overestimating the poor guy’s two tiny brain cells.

You climbed back over the counter, high-fiving Dustin and then Max as you went back to your list. 

Ten minutes later, you had your answer to where Eddie was. You piled into Steve’s car, since yours was tiny, and known to be unreliable in times like this. It didn’t take you long to get to Reefer Rick’s house, and you all climbed out as you stared at the remote house by the lake. You searched what little you could see of the house through the dirty windows for a bit until Max alerted you to the boathouse.

Stepping inside, you moved slowly, taking everything in rather than just wandering around and touching everything. If Eddie was here, or he had already left, there might be some tiny clue to his whereabouts hidden in here. And you didn’t want to miss it because you weren’t paying attention. You were worried about him. What had happened to Chrissy, well, it sounded like something out of a horror movie. And you knew from firsthand experience what seeing something like that in real life did to you.

You still had nightmares about the Demogorgon and the Mindflayer. Nothing would ever make those memories less traumatic. And Eddie was dealing with this shit alone. You’d at least had your brother, and Nancy and Jonathan, and even Steve to help you through this. And Robin this past year. Eddie had no one. And the entire town thought he’d murdered Chrissy. As if you hadn’t seen with your own two eyes that behind that ‘menacing freak’ mask lay a heart of pure gold. 

You’d seen him help the other outcasts when the bullies scored a hit. You’d watched him take in freshman when they needed someone to sit with. You’d heard from Dustin how he’d taken care of him, protected him from the other kids, the ones that you hadn’t caught. How he’d helped him to find the familiar in the newness that was high school freshman year. Just last night he’d come to your defence when Jimmy accosted you in the corridor. There wasn’t a mean bone in Eddie’s body. 

And you’d prove that to the whole town if need be.

There was a loud yell, and then a dark shape grabbed Steve and hauled him over to the wall, slamming him against it. As you got closer, while the others spoke gently to Eddie, you noticed he had a smashed beer bottle in his hand. He didn’t even own a weapon, for fuck’s sake. But sure, he was a murderer. You ignored Robin’s hand, trying to pull you back, and Steve’s worried glance to stand next to Eddie. You placed a gentle hand on his arm and waited until he’d met your eyes. 

There was a lot of pain and fear swirling around those beautiful brown eyes. Your heart broke a little as you realised how scared he was. Just like how scared you’d been when confronted with the Demogorgon for the very first time. 

‘Hey,’ you said softly. ‘It’s okay. None of us is going to hurt you, I promise.’

‘Yeah, we just want to help,’ Dustin added.

‘We know you didn’t hurt Chrissy,’ you continued gently. ‘And we know something bad happened, and you saw it. I know how that feels. We, we all do.’ 

Behind you, Max and Dustin nodded as Robin stepped closer. ‘We’ve all seen some bad stuff,’ Robin said.

Eddie’s eyes never left yours. ‘I promise you can trust me. We want to help. And Steve isn’t going to hurt you. He’s not like that. I swear.’

You stepped back and held your hand out. Eddie looked at your hand and back at Steve before releasing him. He took your hand, and you helped him over to a crate. He leant against the wall and slid down. You kept hold of his hand and knelt down in front of him. ‘You can tell us what happened, Eddie,’ you said softly, brushing curls out of his eyes. 

‘You won’t believe me.’

‘Try us,’ Max said.

‘We’ve seen a lot of weird shit,’ you added. Eddie met your eyes for a long moment before nodding. 

Slowly, he told you what had happened. Why Chrissy was at his trailer, how she’d gone into a trance and he couldn’t wake her. How she’d lifted up and her bones had broken. How he hadn’t known what to do, so he ran. Just like you had all done when confronted with the upside down denizens for the first time. 

‘There’s no shame in running,’ you said gently, making him look at you again. ‘We’ve all done it when we had to. There wasn’t anything you could do for her, I promise you. Whatever this is, it isn’t human, and it would have killed you too if you’d stayed. And then your uncle would be mourning you, and so would Dustin.’

‘And you?’ Eddie murmured, so quietly no one heard him but you.

You smiled softly. ‘And me too.’ 

‘How are you so sure it’s not human?’ He asked, as his hand squeezed yours.

‘We’ve dealt with this kind of thing before.’

Dustin explained it quickly, before you all discussed your next options. There wasn’t a lot, unfortunately. 

‘Ok, Dustin, Eddie can have the grab bag,’ you told your brother, who handed over the duffle bag, dropping it at Eddie’s feet. ‘And you guys go and see what you can find out. I’ll stay with Eddie.’

‘What?’

‘No, y/n. You come with us.’

‘Yeah, not happening.’

‘Y/N?’ Dustin asked, dragging your attention away from Eddie, who you had given a reassuring smile as your friends voiced their complaints. 

‘He shouldn’t be alone right now. I wouldn’t leave any of you alone after seeing something like that,’ you explained, rubbing your thumb across Eddie’s hand as you turned back to him. 

‘We’ll grab you some more supplies,’ Dustin nodded.

‘And we’ll keep you updated on the radio,’ Robin said. 

Steve looked ready to argue, but Max and Dustin pulled him away. 

‘Be careful,’ you pleaded, as they opened the door.

‘I’ve got them,’ Steve promised, and you relaxed a little. You knew he’d protect them. 

You turned back to Eddie to find him watching you. ‘You okay?’ You asked him, thumb rubbing gentle circles on his hand.

‘You didn’t have to stay,’ he murmured, his hand squeezed yours again, and you could see the relief in his eyes not to be alone anymore.

‘Of course I did,’ you replied, moving to sit beside him, your fingers still entwined. ‘I couldn’t leave you on your own after that. And I meant it when I said I wouldn’t want to be on my own.’

‘Well, thank you,’ he said, letting out a long breath. ‘I know it was hard letting Dustin go off without you.’ 

You nodded. ‘I know Steve and Robin will take care of him. And Max. But that doesn’t stop me from worrying.’ You ran a hand through your hair nervously. ‘They’ve already seen so much. Been through so much.’ 

‘Dustin said you’ve seen this before?’

‘Not this exactly, but something like it. We call this other dimension the upside down. It’s like a mirror of our world, but upside down. It’s all wrong. Everything there is wrong. Will and El, they’re the only ones who have been. But they spoke of it like it was, well, really, really bad.’ You explained, your thigh leaning against Eddie’s as you spoke, his eyes trained on you. 

‘And that’s where this thing is from. Whatever hurt Chrissy?’

‘Yeah. We don’t know what it is yet, but we’ll figure it out. We always do. Usually we end up naming it something D and D related,’ you said, smiling softly. 

‘Well, it is pretty good at names,’ he laughed.

You smiled at him and reached forward to drag the bag over to you. You rummaged through it, finding the radio you kept in there and switching it on, just in case. You pulled out a box of granola bars, handing them to Eddie, and a few juice cartons too, concerned he’d lived off beer or something equally useless at hydrating him. Eddie seemed amused by the juice boxes, though, raising an eyebrow at you. You only shrugged and grabbed one for yourself, and a granola bar too, since you’d missed breakfast. 

‘How do you- ah, never mind,’ Eddie trailed off uncertainly, keeping his eyes fixed on his juice box. 

‘What is it? You can ask me anything,’ you said, nudging his shoulder gently. 

Eddie sighed. ‘You seem like you just let this roll off your back. You, all of you, even Dustin, just automatically knew what to do. How?’

You took a deep breath. ‘Like I said, we’ve faced these things before. But the first time, that was really hard, because we didn’t know what we were doing, or how to deal with it. Plus, Will was missing, and I was terrified the entire time that something would happen to Dustin, too. Usually it’s easier when I have all the kids in my sight.’ 

‘So you know they’re okay?’

‘Exactly. But they get into trouble so easily. Normally, we have Joyce, Jonathon and Will’s mom, and Hopper with us at some point. They always believe us when we say something’s going on. It feels strange,’ you continued. ‘Without them here. Like we’re missing something. I guess we’ve all done this so many times now that I just expect them to be here.’

‘Must be nice, having people like that to rely on,’ Eddie said quietly.

You reached up and turned his face towards you. Eddie’s eyes met yours, his face startled. You’d surprised him. ‘You have us. You have me, I promise you. You don’t have to trust me-’

‘I trust you,’ Eddie murmured. 

You gave him a bright smile, missing the way his eyes lit up as you let his words settle into your mind. ‘Thank you. Like I said, you have us. All of us, but especially me, okay? I’m not going anywhere. And I promise it gets easier, less scary. You feel more in control once you know how to deal with this stuff.’ 

‘Guess you’d better give me the crash course,’ he joked, nudging you playfully.

‘You sure you’re ready for this?’ You joked back, keeping the conversation light, despite the grisly subject.

‘Born ready.’ Eddie grinned at you, and you smiled.

Eddie didn’t know what he would have done if he’d been left alone again. He was still reeling from last night, but the feel of your hand in his had calmed him. The smell of the shampoo you used floated across to his nose as you bent down to rummage through the duffle bag at your feet, and he watched the way the light danced across your skin. It seemed strange, though, at this point, everything was strange, but he’d only really spoken to you once or twice at school, never having the courage to approach you himself, and now here you were, calming him down, having his back, believing him, and standing by him. It was like some kind of dream. 

Maybe it really was his year, after all. 

Taglist: @efvyqrs @gnnnne

[all-yn-oween]

I saw you reblogged the OC ask game so… I have a few questions :] Don't feel pressured to find an answer for all of them, though! (Also, I'm curious about Barbara and Gilles, so I have some asks for them too 👀)

🥊 - Barbara and Kazimir ✂️ - Gustave and Gilles ✨ - Kazimir (because I'm wondering if you chose his name because of its meaning 👀) 🍎 - Gustave 🙌 - Gustave 🍕 - Jim 🎹 - Jim 💼 - Barbara 🌺 - Gilles 🎯 - Gilles 🍀 - Gilles

Thank you for asking all of that my friend 🫶!!! This is a fun exercise to do XD !!! Im gonna try to find as much answers as I can 👀

🥊- What do [Kazimir and Barbara] love to do? What do they hate?

Aha! I would see Barbara as a dancer, and she is pretty good at it too. Always the first one on the dance floor. What she would hate… I don’t picture her as being a movie fan. She would not like seating for a lot of time. Unless it’s a Mamma Mia movie.

And Kazimir… okay, don’t ask me why —because I couldn’t answer, but I feel like he would be the type to love hanging out with DOGS. Big dogs especially. (He would see videos of people walking and playing with their dogs and get fascinated and smile with sparkles in his eyes, even though he would deny it in front of Death itself.) And what does the man hate to do? Well, a lot of things. He hates iceskating. He is very bad at it— which is probably why he would hate it.

✂️- What is [Gilles’ and Gustave’s] worst memories?

For Gilles, it would be the moment he learnt about his mother’s death, with a letter, while he was away. He hated that he couldn’t do a thing to save her when she needed him.

For Gustave, I’d say when he was a child. He was still living with his parents, and he used to paint a lot at that time. When things became heated for his family after the Revolution and they left their house, Gustave claimed he didn’t want to leave — and moreover not without his paintings. His parents took them all and burned them the night they left.

✨- What is the meaning of the name of [Kazimir]?

Lsnslsndk, yup I did! :> It means “destroyer of the peace”, I thought it suited him well, considering the fact that I created him because I had the idea of one of Ivan’s men fighting with Jim…

🍎- What is [Gustave’s] relationship with his parents?

Oof- bad, very bad… They disagreed on a lot of things, and his parents never supported his decision to come back to Paris, and enroll in the army.

🙌- Does [Gustave] have any siblings?

Nope, he is an only child!! He was very close with his cousins as a kid though, but most of them left France after the 1789 Revolution. He never saw them again afterwards.

🍕- What is [Jim’s] favorite food?

Crêpes. Yes. I mean, that is if we’re considering his life in the modern times. If we get back to the 1920’s, he haven’t gotten the chance to taste them yet, so i dont know really XD…

🎹- What is [Jim’s] hobby?

The man’s would be very curious about music, learn how to play songs on various instruments. And his go-to activity when he can? Origamis. Very calming, if you ask him. Do not let him near papers, or you won’t find them ever again. Or you will, but transformed into a folded pigeon maybe.

💼- What does [Barbara] do for a living?

She would probably work in a restaurant, as a waitress. Just a job to get a good wage, but being an optimistic person, she manages to enjoy it.

🌺- Does [Gilles] have any love interest ?

Ahhh!! No he doesn’t at least not for now !!! 👀

🎯- What does [Gilles] do best?

Solving conflicts, he knows how to stay calm and focused in tensed situations. Quite the diplomat and he hates arguments— so he learnt to work around it.

🍀- What originally inspired [Gilles]?

Ahaha… Well, I was looking through my Pinterest feed. It was the moment where I started to read things about the Empire and how its army was composed, … . So Pinterest heard me, and showed a few paintings of soldiers wearing a braid… yes. That’s how it started 😂…

[voicefromthecorner]

Aha! The classic “How can I rule the world if there is no world to rule?” motivation that gets a villain to team up with the heroes. In MY TWEWY? It’s more likely than you think, apparently!

Honestly, I love seeing Sho in this situation. The last game had him be this fairly neutral self-serving agent of chaos in an Anti-Villain role and this game really has him be the exact same thing but in more of an Anti-Hero role. It’s not a massive departure nor is it too similar to what he was like last time. I’m still holding out hope that he could grow in other ways, but for now, this is just cool!

Poor Fret is only now finding out that his champion is actually set on taking over the city. Don’t worry pal, when it comes to the dark hooded jacket man who bailed you out of danger during your introduction to a deadly life-or-death afterlife contest while spewing out complicated maths terms for a whole week before abandoning you for over a week, following that, to pursue his own ambitions that led to him briefly turning into a monster that nearly killed one of your friends and then finally stepping in to help you at the last second against a wave of monsters in a context that revealed his intentions to take over the city, I think we can safely say we’ve all been there.

Also like Kariya just greeting him as casually as one would an old co-worker who saw you for the first time post-makeover.

[arcaneyouth]

I am holding up clementine and id love to learn more about her pretty please :pwease:

clementine is a fucking pathetic woman and i adore her. clementine froze to death in The Ghost Zone (actual title pending) and because of a combo of her own inability to process her death and a starving gods slim hope of someone to help his food problem, she began killing and getting more ghosts in The Ghost Zone. her job for the starving freezing god is mainly just to make more ghosts and he'll hunt for their spirits himself so she's having a great time. he doesnt eat her, she gets to kill, its great. she's having fun.

winter wonderland is a monster-of-the-week style story with the main character, December, accidentally wandering into The Ghost Zone and clementine sort of saving her from freezing to death too, and then they work to help the ghosts move on to the afterlife together <3 december doesnt know it but clementine loves toying with her victims so guiding her around and saving her n stuff is 100% clementine having fun before the kill. unfortunately for her, she is incredibly bisexual/lesbian?/i dont know man, and she falls head over heels for december as the time goes on. when december finally realizes clementine is the reason half these ghosts are even here, and also that clementine probably plans to kill her, and also that clementine has a madly obvious crush on her, december goes aha. *puts the Flirt up to 11 to save her own life and then also falls head over heels anyways* so clementine goes from main antagonist to one of the 2 main protagonists because they are kissing so much AFHGSFHSHFSDHG

clementine is really fucking bad at being nice but december won't give her lil kissies unless she actually tries to be a good person so clementines redemption arc involves december seeing a ghost, going "OH NOWS A GOOD TIME TO PRACTICE", shoving clementine at them with note cards, and watching her deadpan read off "hi. my name is clementine. i am here to help. what's your fuckin problem" "no no try that one again" "...what? oh. ahem. what seems to be your problem. is there anything i can do to help you move on." and december nods so enthusiastically while the ghost just looks uncomfortable and wants to leave. there are a few rare occassions when they meet somebody who actually sucks and december just sics clementine on them to tear them apart. its great i love their relationship. the story past that point involves a lot of trying to keep the order of icy magical girls from sending clementine to ghost jail, and clementine "conveniently" forgetting to mention she has a god to feed

other fun facts about clementine: her ghost form gave her glass legs and a glass torso, all of which are filled with hot cocoa. she's like a mini space heater cause of it but she herself can never feel warm. she's got dog ears and december likes to scratch her behind them because she gets so cuddly when it happens. her legs and torso are very fragile and she knows this and tries to stay aware of it but ends up putting herself in situations where she's going to strain and potentially break them anyways and is surprised when cracks start to form. clementine has no idea how shes supposed to handle her "unfinished business" and move on like the ghosts december helps but is fully convinced that it was supposed to involve murder

[ithinkabouttzu]

Ok now I'm up to date with how this works could I please have an Ateez ship.✨

My dream would be to live the cottagecore dream, have golden retrievers, a garden, a pretty office to write in and live somewhere isolated and peaceful with lots of land. However I do feel like this contrasts with my chaotic personality a bit, but I have many sides which means I need somebody who is able to keep up with me. My ideal partner would be a little more relaxed than me though because I feel like if I was just dating myself it would be wayy too much aha.

In my friendgroup I'm kind of the princess one a bit demanding aha,I like nice things (I blame my Taurus moon for this though) fashion, makeup, self care. I love videos games, going to theme parks, concerts, eating out with friends, partying.. just trying to absorb as much life as possible if that makes sense.

If I had to describe my physical appearance it would be like cute babyface (I hear trauma de-ages you lol) (I have a dark sense of humour ooop) and an hourglass body, my best feature is my hair it's naturally strawberry blonde, green eyes, can't live without my winged eyeliner and false lashes.

In the past I've had traumatic experiences in relationships but I'd like somebody I can really depend on and who can take good care of me. I like to be playful but also have somebody who you can have more serious deeper conversations with. Honestly I find myself to be a walking contradiction.. I love romance books but I'm cynical about love, I'm confrontational and protective over my friends but I'm also trying to seek peace in my life. I exhaust myself lol. 🐄-anon

yes ofc thank you for your request!!! 💗

I ship you with…

Choi Jongho!

Song recommendation: A Sunday Kinda Love - Etta James

- Okay I feel like he’d be this calming presence in your fast life style tbh

- mans is so down to give you the best princess treatment ever, like when y’all go shopping together, literally get anything you want and don’t worry about a budget, he just wants to take care of his bae and spoil the heck outta you!

- Appearance wise he would find you GORGEOUS OMG, like your hair is so pretty to him he just loves the color so much, and your pretty green eyes he’s obsessed literally. He tries to be lowkey about it as much as he can but he’s so whipped for you like actually

- He would be so nervous to come up to you at first but you could definitely tell he was into you by the way he was full on staring at you, i think you’d make the first move, and he’d be talking to you with the biggest

- You help him live a little, he’s usually so busy working that he doesn’t have time to just enjoy life, But when he’s with you he can live it up to the fullest, going to little amusements and concerts, he feels young with you (even tho he is young he just acts like a grandpa sometimes 🌝)

- I could see y’all just settling down and having a peaceful life together, he’s totally down for living in a cute little cottage with an even cuter pup, as long as he’s with you he doesn’t care where you guys are

- omg he’d love playing video games with you so much. Like y’all would make a little contest like, “whoever wins gets to take the other on a date” or something cute like that

- He is very protective over you, not like an overbearing type but if someone is bothering you he’s gonna give them a full on death stare, probably even just take you away from that situation, and you’d be the same for him, if someone was making him uncomfortable you’d confront them about it definitely!

- He will always try to take the best care of you. He just wants to see you happy and will always take the time to do little sweet things for you. He’s so dang thoughtful and loving omg

- You also like bring out this cute playful side of him (he is a maknae after all) banter and teasing are always needed in yalls relationship, y’all are just like two kids around eachother and it’s actually so adorable.

Thank you for requesting lovely i hope you enjoy! <3

[carolap53]

Is God Really All-Knowing? I like to refer to Peter Kreeft as “the un-philosopher.” Not that he isn’t a philosopher; in fact, he’s a first-rate philosophical thinker, with a doctorate from Fordham University, postgraduate study at Yale University, and thirty-eight years of experience as a philosophy professor at Villanova University and (since 1965) Boston College. He has taught such courses as metaphysics, ethics, mysticism, sexuality, and Oriental, Greek, medieval, and contemporary philosophy, earning such honors as the Woodrow Wilson and Yale-Sterling fellowships.

I asked Kreeft to explore God’s omniscience in relation to the problem of evil. He pushed back his chair to get more comfortable, then looked off to the side as he collected his thoughts once more.

“Let’s begin this way,” he said. “God, if he is all-wise, knows not only the present but the future. And he knows not only present good and evil but future good and evil. If his wisdom vastly exceeds ours, as the hunter’s exceeds the bear’s, it is at least possible — contrary to Charles Templeton’s analysis — that a loving God could deliberately tolerate horrible things like starvation because he foresees that in the long run that more people will be better and happier than if he miraculously intervened. That’s at least intellectually possible.”

I shook my head. “That’s still hard to accept,” I said. “It sounds like a cop-out to me.”

“Okay, then, let’s put it to the test,” Kreeft replied. “You see, God has specifically shown us very clearly how this can work. He has demonstrated how the very worst thing that has ever happened in the history of the world ended up resulting in the very best thing that has ever happened in the history of the world.”

“What do you mean?”

“I’m referring to dei-cide,” he replied. “The death of God himself on the cross. At the time, nobody saw how anything good could ever result from this tragedy. And yet God foresaw that the result would be the opening of heaven to human beings. So the worst tragedy in history brought about the most glorious event in history. And if it happened there — if the ultimate evil can result in the ultimate good — it can happen elsewhere, even in our own individual lives. Here, God lifts the curtain and lets us see it. Elsewhere he simply says, ‘Trust me.’

“All of which would mean that human life is incredibly dramatic, like a story for which you don’t know the ending rather than a scientific formula. In fact, let’s follow this dramatic story line for a minute.

“Suppose you’re the devil. You’re the enemy of God and you want to kill him, but you can’t. However, he has this ridiculous weakness of creating and loving human beings, whom you can get at. Aha! Now you’ve got hostages! So you simply come down into the world, corrupt humankind, and drag some of them to hell. When God sends prophets to enlighten them, you kill the prophets.

“Then God does the most foolish thing of all — he sends his own Son and he plays by the rules of the world. You say to yourself, ‘I can’t believe he’s that stupid! Love has addled his brains! All I have to do is inspire some of my agents — Herod, Pilate, Caiaphas, the Roman soldiers — and get him crucified.’ And that’s what you do.

“So there he hangs on the cross — forsaken by man and seemingly by God, bleeding to death and crying, ‘My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?’ What do you feel now as the devil? You feel triumph and vindication! But of course you couldn’t be more wrong. This is his supreme triumph and your supreme defeat. He stuck his heel into your mouth and you bit it and that blood destroyed you.

“Now, if that is not a freak occurrence, but it’s a paradigm of the human situation, then when we bleed and when we suffer, as Christ did, maybe the same thing is happening. Maybe this is God’s way of defeating the devil.

“At the time of the crucifixion, the disciples couldn’t see how anything good could result; similarly, as we face struggles and trials and suffering, we sometimes can’t imagine good emerging. But we’ve seen how it did in the case of Jesus, and we can trust it will in our case too. For instance, the greatest Christians in history seem to say that their sufferings ended up bringing them the closest to God — so this is the best thing that could happen, not the worst.”

Lee Strobel

[jigenshat]

why did he do this but also another top 10 cutest jigen moment

[angelictrl]

hii can i request headcanons for shin being around and then being asked out by his crush ? thanks !!

SHIN BEING AROUND AND THEN CONFESSED TO BY HIS CRUSH.

enjoy the long read n lmk if this wasn’t what you wanted ! i can redo with a non death game au !! also goddamn it, i realized i kin the bastard man. my dumb ass was like “huh ? how is this so in character ?” then i realized i projected wayyyy too much and . kinnie moment besties !!11! 😀✌ 

WARNING ;; spoilers, spoilers, SPOILERS - up to chapter 2 p2 - and angst 🤙

SHIN TSUKIMI/SOU HIYORI

at first, he’s not sure how to go about getting a crush. i mean, you guys are in a death game, he can’t go getting attached to people like this. especially not in a romantic context ... he’s got to do everything in his power to stay away from you. that’s the key to survival.

in the beginning, he’s polite and even a bit playful, being awfully keen on giving you compliments here and there, but he tries desperately to keep you at an arm’s length despite his friendly act.

being thrusted into the death game was an eye opener for him, and he became a lot more hypervigilant and paranoid due to it. thanks to this, he quickly takes note of his feelings and acknowledges them, but that doesn’t mean that he accepts them. at least, not willingly.

when his “true nature” is revealed during the main game, he’ll disregard his feelings for you and rope you in with the others. after all, he’s the one with the lowest percentage. at least you even have a higher score - no matter what it might be - and at this point, he’s mainly running on jealousy and frustration as everyone turns their back on him for being cautious.

if you dare to try and come comfort him during and/or after the trial, he’ll smile sweetly at you, but his words and tone won’t match his expression.

“... you’re quite the stubborn one, aren’t you, mx y/n ? i don’t see how you could be so cheerful and reliant on others in our situation. after all, people are dropping like flies all around us. joe, kai, and professor mishima are all examples of this. aren’t you scared ? ... no ? because ... you have allies ? ... phft. ahaha, that’s funny ... ! sure ... believe what you will naively, but know that in the end, everyone here wants to survive no matter what. and i know that you’re no exception, so stop pretending.”

and then he’ll stare into your eyes blankly, the feeling of resentment strong in his presence no matter your response or expression before swiftly leaving you to ponder on his belittling tone and harsh words.

on a lighter note, he gets extremely nervous around you, but he won’t let it show. the only thing that really does out him is the way that his palms get really sweaty as he begins overheating in his bundles of clothing along with his faint blush coating the tips of his ears, but luckily his beanie covers it up for him.

he’s really pale, so if you’re the type to tease him, he’ll act grumpy so that the red in his face looks as if he's agitated with you. he’ll even throw in an irritated sigh and huff occasionally, but he’s really just shy and not sure how to respond in the situation you two are in.

during the attractions, he subconsciously makes excuses to convince himself to go partner up with you, always trying to point out the qualities you have that would “benefit him so that he could win dilligently.”

normally, he’d go with kanna, but when it’s a more dangerous attraction, he shoos her away saying that “she’d only get in his way because she’s so weak” - not that he’s any stronger himself, but, y’know the deal.

times like these, you’re his go-to partner, and he’ll even scold you sometimes ? like what ??? but whatever, the dude’s trying to show his concern for you discreetly.

“aha, careful now, mx y/n. if you keep accepting these invitations from me so eagerly, who knows when i’ll manipulate you next or leave you to die in an attraction ? you shouldn’t trust so easily. even worse ... i might just think you’ve begun to fall in love with me ... just kidding. now, let’s begin, shall we ? after you.”

you could consider doing an attraction with him like a date. a very life-threatening and anxiety-inducing date. he’s not all too strong, but he has a strong premonition, and will make sure you don’t end up getting hurt.

he’s also a lot more smart than the people in your group give him credit for - he’s not just some rude bastard - plus, he tries to lighten the mood when he sees you panicking by trying to cheer you up.

“hey, mx y/n ... don’t seem so pale as if you’ve just seen a ghost, now. we’re almost done, so stop thinking about how far we have left to go and think about how far we’ve gotten.”

if you manage to get hurt anyhow, he’ll silently sit you down in the medical room with safalin and treat your injury himself with a sincere and fixated gaze. it’s a very intimate moment and a rare sight of his true self being exposed before he flashes you his iconic smile afterwards. he’ll jokingly tell you to stop being such a klutz before taking his leave.

nearing the end of the attractions to the subgame is when you ask him out, and he couldn’t feel more conflicted. i mean, hell, he’s fucking in love with you, but it’s at the worst time and in the worst place. though, there’s no good time or place to confess in this hellhole.

he’ll look like a fish out of water searching for words before begrudgingly looking around to make sure no one else is nearby, sighing deeply when the coast is clear. he’ll even take his beanie off his head and ruffle his hair, holding that damn hat to his chest before gazing at you sincerely.

“... mx y/n ... i do ... really like you - that’s the honest truth - but i don’t think being in a relationship at the moment is the best idea. if our feelings get out ... it could be used against us by anyone, and i wouldn’t want that ... for either of us. but - please ... don’t look so down ... when this is all over, i would love to go on a date with you.”

after he shows you the real him, shin, he’ll give you a short and inexperienced yet tender kiss, blushing evidently before snuggly fitting his beanie back on his head and wishing you goodnight with a kiss on the cheek.

he doesn’t dare remind you that he has a O.O% chance of surviving so all a relationship with him would do would break your heart. internally, he struggles with some conflict that you deserve better and he should’ve just been harsher to push you away and get over him, but something about you just turns him to putty in your hands and he can’t help it. you’re dangerous.

it also doesn’t stop him from occasionally pulling you aside when nobody is near and kissing you like it’s his last moments. which ... sadly enough, isn’t honestly far-fetched.

during the next main game, his feelings are hell to experience. despite how much he goes on and on trying to push you away to the public eye and make suspicious remarks, you just keep. coming. back. like a stray dog being fed by every flirtatious remark and touch. it’d be a whole lot more cuter and endearing to him if he wasn’t in a death game fearing for his life.

you’ve grown on him. both you and kanna have leeched onto his heart and he has to come to terms with that. he’s always felt some kind of unspoken familial bond with kanna despite the way he treats her, and seeing you always hang out with her even when he’s not around since the two of them are usually inseperable has made him fall even deeper in love with you.

... and it’s pissing him off and wearing him thin.

as much as he tries to convince everyone to vote for him, kanna keeps insisting that she should be voted for instead because it's the only logical way to survive. he’s on the verge of a panic attack, and keeps having to grip his podium tightly from ripping his hair out.

the poor guy is heaving by now, thoughts of survival, kanna, and you, all spiraling as his balance teeters. he would’ve been swaying back and forth about to fall down had it not been for the podium supporting his weight. 

god forbid you touch him in this moment. he wants nothing more than to bury his face into your chest or neck and let out all his trapped emotions, but damn it, he doesn’t want you to worry about him. all that matters anyhow is that kanna lives.

“please, y/n, please, vote for me. i’m begging you. i’ll just die anyway.”

the next two votes for you and sara are in your hands, and regardless of your vote(s), there’s a O.O% chance of you getting your happy ending.

yttd masterlist.

[husbandohunter]

Boys over flowers [Genshin Impact/Various x Reader] Part 2

Not everything had to be about fighting. Ahem Childe.

Genre: fluff, angst(?)

Characters: Zhongli, Childe, Albedo, Xiao

{Zhongli}

Out of all the bountiful possessions in the land he carved with his very own hands, the glaze lily had always been his favourite.

This flower was a nostalgia stained with time. As much as he loved them, the love he felt was more of a bittersweet sadness if anything. The loss of a friend, his mentor, someone he cherished so deeply, all of it was held into a single glaze lily.

Once as Morax, now as ordinary Zhongli, in those 6000 years he had seen it all. Even his grief for Guizhong faded into a memory.

Sometimes Zhongli felt like he was reading from a story book. Detatched while staring through an omniscient standpoint. It seems that his infinite years brought both experience and lonliness along the way.

"Zhongli? What are you staring at?"

But not when he was with you.

The glaze lily went on many journeys when he met you

He remembers the first encounter on a sunset night just as the petals  were about to bloom. You were there, crouched down, staring into his golden eyes.

“This is for you! Not many can be fully matured like this so make sure to take good care of it,” You held it out to him and he takes the stem out of your hold.

“A parting gift, I appreciate your thoughtfulness,” Zhongli sees it as a sign of a new contract, “It seems you possess a good eye when you were selecting them.”

He remembers the bouquet you presented during his birthday, the garland you placed on his head when he was reading, the vase by his desk always filled to the brim whenever you’d pay a visit to his parlour.

He remembers how the blue petals scattered across the floor the day you two married, everywhere he went so did this flower. Everytime he saw this flower, he thought of you.

Was it okay to feel like this? No one can ever replace Guizhong, was it okay to love again even when this being was much more perishable than she was? Zhongli was use to the experience of tragedy and loss as it was part of life.

Ah, so this must be what it feels like to live like a mortal.

To cherish every passing moment knowing that it won’t last forever. He will embrace it to the end. 

Old memories that were once dust rose from the soil, now reborn into a new beginning. Your curious gaze leans closer to his profile, sitting side-by-side under the blankets of your shared bed, the corners of his lips lift into a small smile.

“I’m only reminiscing, my dear. You don’t need to worry for me.” He kisses your forehead and tucked you to bed. The candle now blown out as his arms wrapped around your waist while spooning from behind.

Zhongli closed his eyes, knowing if he dreamt of a garden full of glaze lilies, there will be no sadness behind it.

{Childe}

Mother fucker would try to turn this into a sparring session.

This is why you NEVER invite Childe. If the valley were the air nomads, Childe was the fire nation. He’d stomp his muddy shoes in front of you just to get your attention simply because he knows it will piss you off.

An angry s/o means a potential fight. Win win situation.

Thus, no one blamed you for giving him a cold shoulder after that.

“Aha, looks like I went a little too far, didn’t I? Alright alright, I’ll stop trampling on your flowers from now on, you have my word. So talk to me, okay? Please?”

Alas you spare him a glance, “Make that a pinky promise.”

He didn’t know you were so serious about gardening. The Feiyun commerce guild took greate pride in cultivating the finest silk flowers in all of Teyvat and you being from that guild held up that legacy. Even if Childe tries to buy back the ones he stepped on, nothing could match the quality of your work.

Needless to say, your little hobby became a normal thing, Childe was very chaotic in nature so something more calm was nice to mediate that attitude. You taught him how to water plants, place the fertilizer and knowing which ones to pick.

But let’s be real, florist Childe isn’t that far-fetched because he is 10/10 waifu material.

Then Teucer comes in and tags along. He wanted to take some silk flowers back to Tonia until Childe informed him they’ll wilt on their way to Snezhnaya. 

“Aww, that’s too bad,” he would say while pouting, “Then I’ll give them to you big sister (Y/n)!”

“How sweet, you’ll be quite the charmer when you’re all grown up, Teucer. Maybe even better than your big brother.”

“Come on now, babe. You know that’s impossible.”

You twirled the silk flower right under your nose, the playful tone never leaving your voice, “Oh really? You and Teucer both share the same genes so yes, it is a possibility.”

An amusing glint dances in the ocean of his gaze as he gleefully remarks, “Well if you put it that way, I think Teucer would be at a very big disadvantage.”

“What do you-”

Before you could finish, Childe covers Teucer’s eyes and leans over to steal a sinful kiss, sliding his tongue inside. He purposely brushed his lips over yours after parting, completely satisfied by your flustered expression.

I love this bastard

{Xiao}

Hip hip hooray for having both Qiqi and Xiao in your party. Must be fun collecting their ascension materials.

“Adeptus Xiao!”

Your dumbass fell off the high cliff while obtaining the violet grass, Xiao yeets in from nowhere and caught you from death’s clutches.

Shall I mention that this had happened TWICE already?

Xiao carries you to safety and gently settles you down to your feet. He shot you the sharpest and most deadpan look he could muster because actions speak louder that words, he was trying to make a point.

You gave him a weary smile as the violetgrass batch limps in your hands along with the qingxins.

“I can hardly fathom how utterly stupid and moronic you can actually be. What did you think would happen when you tried to pull off that stunt? That you’d suddenly grow wings and be able to fly?”

His harsh words put you back into your place like a scolded child, “I’m sorry...I just wanted to help...”

Mah man does not watch what he says and always end up guilty. Your kicked puppy look is really going to be the death of him. He means well, just harsh when it comes to your well-being.

“Fine, give me those. I’ll take care of it.” He wouldn’t allow you to retort, he just took them from your hands and left without a word.

Let’s just say that Xiao isn’t the best when it comes to handling flowers as he would handle monesters, his touch isn’t the most delicate either and would prefer to get the job done fast. 

Sometimes he’d pull the roots our along with it, dirt and mud dripping from the bottom of the stem. Or the opposite. He pulls too hard and the stem just SNAPS and you’re left with just the blossom. 

“Does it matter? They’re only ingredients as you’ve said.”

That gave you a perfect excuse to teach him the ways of gardening and just be more delicate overall. 

At first he didn’t understand why humans were so meticulous about these things but when he saw a man present a bouquet to his wife, Xiao began to reconsider his methods. He doesn’t undersand mortal traditions as much and sticks to something simple and classy.

Don’t be surprised when you find a bunch on your desk for your birthday <3

{Albedo}

The sheer cold of dragon spine could naturally kill any botanical organisms aside from mints. The only flowers Albedo usually sees are the ones he artificially makes.

But being the genius he was, Albedo knew every variety of flowers to exist in the book. In this case, HE was the expert.

To him, the flower was the symbol of life. Albedo only knew the scientific facts of plant life and their natural functions, you on the otherhand were more familiar with the flower languages in a deeper meaning.

Today was a rare day where Albedo figured he’d step out of that freezing lab and conduct his research somewhere warmer, specifically Windrise where it’s quiet and away from the city.

“Dandelions may not be flowers but thei’re the main specialty of Mondstadt carrying the meaning of ‘freedom’! That’s probably how the Acting Grandmaster got her title.”

“Freedom...” He ponders, “I guess you cold say that.”

Albedo can’t understand why people would choose to associate meaning with plants. Where do their ideas come from? And why? Frankly, he can’t see the point in any of it. 

But at the same time, it made him happy to see you so enthusiastic about his research even if it wasn’t quite near the target. Albedo had always been so engrossed in his work and you’d just silently keep him company of the side, not many times where you both fot to nerd out on the same topic.

Emotions were still a mystery to him. It seems that even upon the most boring subjects, they don’t seem boring anymore when talking to his significant other. Soon enough, Albedo found himself putting his research aside and just listening to you talk. 

“And the Rose expresses romance and love. It’s common for lovers to give it to another during Valentines day.”

He hums cheekily, “Are you telling me that just to hint me to give one to you?”

“W-Well, I didn’t say that.”

He got nothing done. Perhaps his research can wait for another day, right now, he was more curious on what other meanings can a flower hold.

[manic-pixie-dream-dude]

Ooo, cracked moonstone!Varian AU? I wanna hear more about that! And if it has any varipunzel elements to it, because sun and moon parings are just 👌

!!!! Thank you for the interest!!!!

This AU in its broadest strokes is me mixing all my love for var with my Opinion Saltmine over the lost potential into a "what if Varian's character and his relationship w Raps was used to its full potential and we added emotional + physical pain for flavor" concoction lmao.

(ramble as per usual under the cut. Enjoy!)

It started cus I just... couldn't get over how Var's motivation became a punchline to a joke in S3. He never got to develop or mature even though he's aged like everyone else. I also had gripes w Moon!Cass and her character/relationship development. This is me having fun while trying to rectify that.

In terms of the story, I wanted Varian to start with a shard because I really liked how it'd visually resemble his one blue hair stripe. And the idea of that shard acting as a compass pin was also a very "Aha! 💡" moment for me lol.

Personally, I think it'd be neat if the moonstone was just. Fuckt Up. if Raps had held it first, it would've mended itself permanently with the healing incantation, but she doesn't, and the result is an item that inherently embodies hurt and death, now unstable and hurting its holder.

Note: I placed the opal over Varian's heart because having something directly harm such a vital organ was interesting. With it, he's hurting but without it, he might hurt even more.

I love to put my fave character in situations where they're doomed one way or another :))

--

Also yes ABSOLUTELY there's varipunzel ajdjaksk. It was sorta inevitable that the plot ended up surrounding their relationship! oh to be celestially tethered with your friend-turned-enemy......

Though the relationship isn't like Moon!Cass and Raps. It's the opposite if anything. They're on the same side when they finally get to the moonstone, both having the full intention of fixing the opal before Raps can do her Thing.

(But then Cass' Sudden But Inevitable Betrayal further fucks w everything, but that's neither here nor there.)

The progression here is more of a slow-burn 'friends to enemies to rekindled friends to "Oh my God we just wanna hang out but Evil Bitch Diety and her goons refuse to leave us alone" to lovers'.

I mentioned this in my meta post but I don't think how quickly both were to anger made much sense character-wise. Varian is a supposedly lonely kid, he'd be more forgiving of his (all things considered) first and best friend. Raps is a compassionate and empathetic person who'd be more distraught with the progression of events.

Both of them figuring out their emotions while apart and then when together is big a part of this AU. Their relationship goes from mutual hurt to mutual understanding and a desire to try again, learn to trust again.

Plus! There's the mirroring of the arcs. The grind-my-teeth-to-dust potential that I wanna expand on. Varian grapples with making his own destiny and purpose and position amidst the chaos that is his life while Rapunzel grapples with the stress of having a set destiny while balancing her friendships at the same time.

Both their arcs occur simultaneously! They gotta have long-lasting effects on each other!! THEY GOTTA!!

Even in canon, Varian is something that stays with Rapunzel for A While. I wanna see Rapunzel give him hope for the world and inspires him to become a better person!!! And for Varian to ground her and inspires her to see the world from a different perspective and become a better future queen in turn!!!!

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I also wanna mention the other characters! I don't care for Fook Hoot nor Shorty if I'm being honest but I do care for the rest of the gang. Specifically Cass and Eugene. In summary, Eugene being the person who can understand Cass where Raps doesn't is interesting and could really be used to develop their friendship.

Cass having a bond with more than one person would add to the shock of her betraying the team methinks. Right when you think she's finding comradery, things go to shit.

Also, she's still an antagonist/antagonist-adjacent, but driven with fear abt raps fully abandoning her if she finds out abt the whole Gothel thing rather than anger. Again.... doesn't make sense for it to be the main emotion when there's Other Stuff going on. This is a long way to say I'm smacking some abandonment issues onto her.

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But yeah! That's the gist for now. I really hope I get to make a whole post with the actual plot some other time, I've got Many Thoughts for this AU.

Thanks a bunch if you read up until this point! As a gift, here's wip: