#hy would turn tail and leave.

[t4t4thotrods]

it's very nice and all to see the posts that are like "your f/os love you no matter what <33". but, like, i full know that some of my f/os, if they were real, would probably ghost me if i said some shit that my bpd brain thinks of

[mold-ed]

Little bit of a comfort drabble cuzza some stuff that happened earlier this week and i need the ability to do that but anyways yadda yadda not proofread, may not make sense, lots of words,

Extremely vague situational angst/comfort (extremely lacy btw its 5 in the morning and i have work later)

Pairing is older leon and puppy reader (im insane)

Leon looked at his puppy, looked at the way she laid on her bed. Her legs were tucked up to her chest, her tail slotted between her legs. Even her ears were flattened against her head. Her plushies were all around him. He'd bought them for her after his missions away, as to say he was sorry for leaving her for days on end. He never wanted to. The goddamn D.S.O made him. He loved his puppy, and he knew that she hated when he left. He knew her struggles with abandonment issues. Thats why he was so worried about why she was curled up away from him, despite having came back home. Normally she'd be on his lap, kissing his face and whimpering, all the while her tail her tail would wag like it was going to fall off.

But not right now. He could practically smell the sadness wafting from her slightly shaking form. A small sniffle came from her, finally breaking Leon out kf his trance. He gently puts a hand on her waist, gently squeezing it. She shrugged his hand off.

"I don't wanna talk right now, Le. Jus'leave me be. Please." Her words came out softly, covered up mostly hy the sound of her sniffling.

He frowned, moving his hand. "Hey, don't be like that. C'mon, tell me what's wrong.."

She shook her head. "It's fine. Telling you or not, its futile. Won't change mucha anything."

He moved to turn her to face him, without much resistance. She looked up at him sadly, not even meaning to. He cupped her face.

"C'mon, princess. Talk to me."

She leans into his hand, nuzzling against the roughness of his hand.

"I jus'.. i don't know how t'say it. I feel like you don't love me anymore like you used to. You're so consumed in your work. I long for you. F'your warmth.. i jus'wanna feel you on me again. Youre distant. It hurts.."

She choked out her last sentence, a strangled sob ripping through her as she shoots up and hugs him, her face finding solace in his chest as she cried.

He sat speechless. Unable to really come up with anything to say. He wanted to ask how long itd gone on for, how long she'd been suffering alone like this. But he didnt want to bother her with that. So he just pulled her the rest of the way onto his lap, and got comfortable enough, making sure she was okay. His hand ran down her hair, smoothing it, while the other simply ran circles on her back. Ut felt like in no time shed fallen asleep. Oh well. Maybe hed ask what was casuing thag another day. For now, hed let her sleep.

[cutegirlmayra]

Sonamy prompt! Eggman accidentally switches Amy and Sonic's powers. Amy doesn't know how to control her new speed and is afraid of causing mass destruction, running into people or worse smacking into a large surface and you know going ker splat. Sonic has to teach her how to manage her speed and Amy in turn teaches Sonic how to masterfully use her hammer nailing combos and making sure every strike lands. They come out of this with a new appreciation for the others skill set.

(Found here x not my art, just a preview image for the story)

PROMPTS ARE ON SHUTDOWN, THAT MEANS NO SEND ME STORIES, JUST DON'T DO IT, WAIT TILL THEY REOPEN. Thank you :)

Prompt:

"Whohoho!" Eggman threw his body somewhat back in the Eggmobile, crooking his arms up as he bellowed a hearty laugh while Sonic frowned with gritted teeth. "I've got a special surprise for you this time, Sonic!" he slammed his large hands onto the edge of his floating pod and gripped his fingers to their metal lining...

"Amy?" Sonic called out, looking around to see if she was here.

"Oh-ho-hoho... Not quite." Eggman leaned up, scrunching his hairy, thick mustache with his thumb and pointer finger, smug in his deceit. "I don't really require an 'incentive' anymore to get you to come here for me, Sonic The Hedgehog. A good telegram ought to suffice~" he fanned out a hand in a wildly nonchalant gesture, but Sonic just shook his head.

"No, I mean, Amy." he smirked, already knowing Eggman had hacked Tails's Miles Electric to give him his coordinates.

"...W-wha?" Eggman leaned forward before hearing footfalls behind him, slowly turning around before his mustache hair stood on end as though electrocuted by his shock at seeing her right behind him, a large hammer ready to swing...

"Ahhhh..!!!" Amy jumped up, attempting at first swing at his Eggmobile which he hurriedly gripped the two stick controls and swerved forward to dodge.

"Yiikkes!" Eggman hollered out, as Amy rotated with a forward flip in the air and tried to swing both left and right in a combo of sorts, flipping her hammer's grip from one hand to the other in expert precision.

"You're ruining our date night!" Amy cried out, bewildered by his interruption.

"You're what!? Sonic!?" He looked back after getting nicked on the side and spinning far too many times, "Why-hy-hy-hy~" he dizzily, but finally, got the Eggmobile right-side up again. He groaned as he gripped his head before his googles animatedly flew out to hone in on Sonic's innocent expression, infuriating him.

"Why, gee, Doc. I guess Amy's got her own agenda planned out first." he shrugged, before giving Eggman a cheeky grin and wink, "Guess you'll have to reschedule your 'date' for being a pain on humanity another day, eh?" he chuckled lightly to himself as Eggman fumed in heated fury in his Eggmobile.

"Evil doesn't wait..." he smirked, pulling out a corded hand-pressed button from his Eggmobile, rearing it up, "I was hoping to run further test on this before executing it on the field... but what better test subjects than a couple of hedgehogs!?" he laughed to himself as he clicked the button when Sonic sped over to Amy, catching her in mid-fall.

"Watch out!" he cried out, as Eggman positioned his Eggmobile directly over to the two in the air.

"HAHAHA! Buh-bye to your precious date night, Sonic... The Hedgehog!"

There was a great white flash...

Sonic blinked his eyes open on the ground, rubbing his head, feeling strangely... different.

He slowly got up, "A-Amy..?" He looked around.

In all honesty, he hadn't remembered that he was supposed to meet Amy just a little ways from where Eggman's location ping had sent him.

He started to gaze over the meadow, wondering why Eggman would just leave the two alone after something strange like that... but then turned to see a flash of pink.

"Amy?" It was as quick as a blink of an eye...

"-lp..!"

"H-huh?" he turned around, having heard something travel by the wind faster than he could pick up on.

His ears flicked around a second... and he bent down just a bit as he tried to listen again...

"Hel-!"

He spun around, "Amy!?" he reached out, but... no one was there... "Amy..." He lowered his hand... before something rammed into him and he was being rocketed through the air.

"HEEEELLPPPP!!!" Amy cried out, her feet on auto-run as she couldn't control all the energy propelling her forward. "AHHH!!!!"

"AHHH!!" Sonic cried out too before realizing... "Oh, this is me." he looked down at her feet, "Wait, this isn't me! What's gotten into you!?" He turned to see that his back was squished up against her arms pushing him forward through the air.

"I can't stop this thing!" she cried out, tears blasting off her eyes as her gums flapped around, making for a funny face.

Sonic's hands quickly reached back and gripped her hands, "Just hit the brakes!" he called out.

"I don't know hoooowww!!!!" Amy cried out as they suddenly were zipped into the city.

"Oh noooo..!" Sonic kicked the air, "Right, bank right, right!"

"Stop telling me what to do and tell me HOW to do!!" she hollered out as she zipped to try and dodge cars in on-going traffic. And as Sonic tried to kick in the direction she should go, he therefore leaned and with limited visibly from Sonic in the front of herself, she just trusted his movements.

"Which way is 'stop'!?" she humorously called out.

"Just... uhh..."

"YOU DON'T KNOW?!"

"I've never had to explain it before!" Sonic spoke out in his defense, "Okay, okay, just... calm down and... uhhh... drag your heels into the ground!" he nervously looked around, trying to think fast, doing the motion with his foot and looking back to her quickly before keeping his eyes on the road again.

She watched his feet, then nodded, "I'll... I'll try!" she looked worried, but tried to get control over her feet again and slammed her foot down.

"NOT THE TOES!" Sonic's eyes shriveled into fear as they were suddenly launched in the air, he folded his arms as he rotated with his legs out in front of him, widened out with an unamused look on his half-closed eyelids, "Geez, it's like trying to teach a toddler me again how to sprint..."

"Enough with the call-outs, how do I land this thing!?" Amy wiggled her arms out in the air, as Sonic grabbed her arm and gravity did the rest.

He touched ground and Amy wobbled before sighing in relief...

"That was terrifying... how do you even moderate how fast you're-" she carelessly took a step forward.

Sonic threw out his hand, "Wait-wait-wait, Don't-!"

They were bolting forward again, like a springed rollercoaster that rocketed them forward, "Use your heeeells!!!" Sonic instructed over the wind, not really bothered by the speed, but not wanting Amy to-...

His eyes widened and he let go of her, as she screamed and was somewhat comically flattened by a building's sideface...

He put a hand over his face, tucking it down as though a muted, 'offph... ouch...' but dared not say it out loud.

He squinted an eye open, "...So... You have my super-speed?" He concluded.

She slowly felt the side of the building... then began to rip her face out of the grainy brick as the folds of the building had left traces on her skin...

She glared back at Sonic.

"YOU-!" she turned and Sonic spread out his arms.

"Don't move-!" but she disappeared in a blink of an eye. "...precariously..." he flopped the arms down. Taking on a serious tone, he looked around, "Gotta find a way to trip her up without her hurting herself... or others-!" he suddenly ran to the edge of the building to look out and see cars crashing, women pulling their skirts down, and briefcases with flies upon files flying out into the air.

"Chaos." Sonic lightly used the God of Destruction's name, before shaking his head, "Hang on, is this what Eggman had intended? If Amy has my powers... then... I should have hers, right?" he looked at his hands, flexing them in and out. "Huh... okay... I see." He tried to position his body to the side, "Hammer!" he cried out, flicking his arm.

Nothing...

"Huh?" He tilted his head and looked at his hand again, up and down, then turning it over and back up. He positioned his feet again, and cleared his voice, "Hammer." he stated more firmly, and flicked out his wrist this time.

Nah-dah...

"Oh, come on..!" he narrowed his eyes as a blur of pink sped by and he heard, "OW-OW-OWWW!!!" as she knocked over a fire-hydrant that sprang up water from how fast she had ran into it.

"Amy needs me." He focused his attention back to his hand, "I can't catch her without stopping her first." He closed his eyes...

He took a deep breath...

"Ham-ER!" he was sped into as Amy held him bridal-style in her arms.

"Stop me-he-he-he!!!" she whimpered out, at her limit of speedy destruction for the day.

"I-I'm trying to-!" Sonic admitted, holding his hand out for her to see, "But I can't seem to get your hammer to come out!"

"Wha? Oh that's easy." she fanned out her hand a moment but Sonic slipped from under her and fell back below her to the side. she opened her eyes and gasped, darting back to skid over to him and pick him up again, "Oh, Sonic! Are you alright?!"

Sonic shook his head, amazed. "You... you braked!" he cried out.

"W-what?" she tilted her head, "B-but all I was thinking about was going back to get you-"

"Well, that's how you break! Muscle reflex seems to help you, just don't think about it!" he admitted, smiling to her with a thumbs up, "Just feel it!"

"Hey, that works for my hammer, too!" she excitedly stated, "You've gotta feel something strongly to bring it out-" she was cut off, keeping her eyes and head focused on Sonic, she ran off into department stores, "LOOK OUTTT!!" she cried out to the people as she was like a steam-train bolting through the windows and walls.

Sonic kept his head first to take the hit, not wanting Amy to suffer any unwanted pains from her lack of control over his super-speed. In each store, they popped out wearing a dress for Sonic and a suit for Amy from the clothes shop, donuts all over their quills, arms, and in their mouths, a tire store had Sonic rolling in a tire by his waist and Amy like a hamster in a wheel, and the last one was a jewelers that had Rouge sitting on Amy's head in her thief attire, pulling the gems off of the hedgehogs, "Thanks~" she chimed, before flying off using her wings.

"Hey!" Amy glared back at her but Sonic took her head and brought it back forward.

"Look both ways, Amy!" he cautioned as they were coming to a fork in the road.

"AHH!!! Okay, okay, right we go!" she leaned her body and successfully, although slowly turning, got them to go right before the corned edge of the fork spiked them through...

"Hey! A feeling!" Sonic held out his hand, "I wanna save ya!"

Amy blinked her eyes, looking down at him, "Sonic..."

"Eyes on the road!"

"S-sorry!" she tried to concentrate as he saw a lamppost and held out his arm.

"Heh, I'm proud of ya-! Amy!" he felt the power surge to his hand...

Amy blushed, "R-really? But I'm doing horribly!"

"Not at all!" he felt he burst trigger on his hand and gripped whatever flexed out of it, finally summoning a-!

...Small... hammer...

"W-what!?" he blinked in great confusion as the little hammer wasn't big nor long enough to even reach and wrap the crook of itself around the poll. "Shoot." Sonic grimanced, disappointed in himself. "This hammer summoning thing is a lot harder than I thought-OFFPH!" he was dropped as Amy raced over a bridge, trying to turn around. "AMY!" he called out, worried as he saw the bridge rising.

"She'll make it, but she'll go skyrocketing into the air-!" he worriedly tried to look around for a solution.

He looked at his hand, 'Saving doesn't help, being impressed wasn't enough... what emotion am I missing?'

He heard Amy cry out, "SOOONNIIICCC!!!"

He felt his care for Amy sweep through him.

His hand quaked before summoning a decently sized hammer, but he didn't even look at it, he just started swinging his arms as fast as he could, like a motorized baseball pitch that swung the bat multiple times as they kept firing out, "AMMMYYY!!"

He tilted his body and range to try and aim for her feet.

Just before the bridge rose up, he swung a hammer that hit her toes, causing her to face-plant but skid to the very... verrrryyy tip of the bridge as it now was fully up...

And she stopped.

"Phew..." he stopped throwing the hammers, having them all topple down the raised platform as Amy lifted her head up, spitting out gravel and looking behind her.

"Oh, Sonic..." Her face was red from the skid marks,... but she was alright. "You do care..."

He put a hand to his chest and rested a second, feeling the weight of all those hammer summons now. "Those things aren't easy to lug around." he admitted.

Rushing up to catch Amy as she slid down, he held her and she held him.

"Oh, Sonic..." She teared up, "I had no idea how technical your running bursts were!"

"And I had no idea how much it took just to summon a single, decent hammer!" he admitted, pulling her somewhat away from the hug to look at her. "But... I'm glad your safe and unharmed... for the most part, Amy."

The two stared sweetly into the other's eyes... before hearing the sirens and water gushing as people shrieked in the city, and looked to see all the commotion they had caused.

"Eh-heh... heh... opps?" Amy put a dainty fist up by her mouth, embarrassed by all the destruction...

Eggman then flew down by the bridge, "WHO-HO-HO-HO! Looks like my little experiment worked after all!" he clapped his hands together, then rubbed them together as he held them firmly clasped in his enthused excitement. "You've done more harm to Square City then I could even DREAM of!" he laughed out as Amy looked to Sonic and he lowered his eyelids, annoyed. "WHAHAHA! Without your super-speed, Sonic, and a measly, little girl's hammer, you'll NEVER hope to defeat me now!"

As he gloated, Amy smiled to Sonic and moved behind him, "So, you kinda have to swing, like... like this." she took his arm across the way and showed him the proper technic.

Sonic placed an anchoring arm around her waist, gesturing out the motion she was showing him, "Oh, yeah? Like this?" he already knew the idea, but was actually building small bits of intimacy... allowing her to try and teach him as he actually did see what she meant by 'honing precision through the release' as she continued to instruct him while Eggman watched with furrowed brows.

"Wait, what... what are you two talking about..?" He didn't like what he was seeing... mostly because he felt they were ignoring him. "OUI! It's not a date, here! You can't just continue to be all lovey-dovey while I'm mocking you like this!" he stomped on the top of his Eggmobile as Sonic smirked and moved Amy to his side again, his arm still around her.

"See ya, Egghead." He spun a fresh new hammer in his hand, being just... slightly bigger than the last one... and released just as Amy had taught him.

He shook out his wrist, since the hammer was still weighed, as Amy took his hand and kissed the top of his wrist, making him smile at her sweetness.

"YAHH!!!" Eggman held on for dear life as the Hammer almost knocked him over, "W-what!? Impossible!"

"Care for another?" Sonic juggled a freshly summoned hammer in his hand...

"EEEE..!" Eggman bit his nails under his gloves as he looked to see the scattered remains of ALL THE HAMMERS Sonic had previously summoned... seeing the dents in the bridge, and how some were rolling off and falling into the large river below...

He stuck only the top of his nose over the Eggmobile as his fingers gripped the edge, peering down.

"Ehem, maybe super-speed was easier than this..." he realized that with Sonic's new found power, he could easily reach him in the air...

"Alright, you win this round, hedgehog!" he pulled out his button, floated above them, and in a flash of light- "Just remember, I've still got a few tricks up my sleeve. HEHEHEHE...! This would have worked if I had done it with you and Tails..."

After the flash, the two continued their date night... by helping clean up the mess they made around the city...

Sonic never mentioned he forget the date... after all, this was the best one they had ever had!

[themousefromfantasyland]

How the Tooth Fairy Became a Guardian

Extracted from Toothiana, Queen of the Tooth Fairy Armies, third book in the Guardians of Childhood series by William Joyce.

In this series, which served as inspiration for the DreamWorks' Rise of the Guardians, William Joyce managed to create one of the craziest and most epic origin stories for the Tooth Fairy. If I'm not mistaken, in one interview, he himself admitted how crazy it was, and how it was inspired by jungle movies he watched as a kid.

The bookworm bowed and told them, “The story of the Queen of Toothiana lies in volume six of Curious Unexplainables of the East.”

“Of course! I should have remembered that myself,” Ombric said, nodding. “Mr. Qwerty, please enlighten us.” (Ombric, the Wizard,and Qwerty, the literal bookworm, are characters that only appeared in the books)

The Guardians sat around the table while Mr. Qwerty began his tale.

“To know the story of Queen Toothiana,” he said, “you must first hear the tale of the maharaja, his slave Haroom, and the Sisters of Flight.”

“Sisters of Flight?” North interrupted.

“Sisters of Flight,” Mr. Qwerty repeated patiently. The image of a beautiful winged woman appeared on one of Mr. Qwerty’s pages. She was human-size, with long, willowy arms and legs and a heart-shaped face. But her wings were magnificent, and she held a bow and arrow of extraordinary design.

The Sisters of Flight were an immortal race of winged women who ruled the city of Punjam Hy Loo, which sits atop the steepest mountain in the mysterious lands of the Farthest East. An army of noble elephants stood guard at the base of the mountain. No humans were allowed to enter, for the mountain’s jungle was a haven for the beasts of the wild—a place where they could be safe from men and their foolishness.

Toothiana’s father was a human by the name of Haroom. He had been sold at birth into slavery as a companion for a young Indian maharaja. Despite being slave and master, the maharaja and Haroom became great friends. But the maharaja was a silly, vain boy who had his every wish and whim granted. Yet this did not make him happy, for he always wanted more.

Haroom, Toothiana's father

Haroom, who had nothing, wanted nothing and so was very content. Secretly, the maharaja admired his friend for this. For his part, Haroom admired the maharaja for knowing what he wanted—and getting it.

The maharaja loved to hunt and slay all the animals of the wild, and Haroom, who never tired of watching the powerful elegance of wild creatures such as tigers and snow leopards, was an excellent tracker. But he hated to see the animals killed, so when that moment came, he always looked away. As a slave, he could do nothing to stop his master. And so, with Haroom tracking, the maharaja killed one of every beast in his kingdom, lining the palace walls with their heads as trophies. But the one animal the maharaja coveted most continued to elude him.

In the mountain land ruled by the Sisters of Flight, there dwelled one creature that no slave, man, or ruler had ever seen: the flying elephant of Punjam Hy Loo.

The maharaja was determined to do anything to have one for his collection, but every time he tried to force his way up the mountain, the elephant army at its base turned him back. He realized that he must find another way to reach Punjam Hy Loo.

In those ancient times no man had yet discovered the mystery of flight. But after demanding advice from his wizards and soothsayers, the maharaja learned a secret: Children can fly when they dream, and when the Moon shines brightly, their dreams can become so vivid that some of them come true. Sometimes the children remember, but mostly they do not. That is why children sometimes wake up in their parents’ beds without knowing how they got there—they flew!

The wizards told the maharaja a second secret.” At this, Mr. Qwerty lowered his voice, and all the Guardians leaned closer. “The memory of everything that happens to a child is stored in that child’s baby teeth.

And so the maharaja’s wizards gave him an idea: fashion a craft of the lost teeth of children and command it to remember how to fly. The maharaja sent out a decree throughout his kingdom, stating that whenever a child lost a tooth, it must be brought to his palace. His subjects happily complied, and it was not long before he had assembled a craft unlike any other the world had ever known.

Meanwhile, the maharaja ordered Haroom to make an archer’s bow of purest gold and one single ruby-tipped arrow. When the weapon was finished, the maharaja ordered Haroom to join him aboard the craft. Then he said these magic words:

‘Remember,

remember,

the moonlit flights

of magic nights.’

And just as the royal wizards had promised, the craft flew silently through the sky, over the jungle, and past the elephants who guarded Punjam Hy Loo.

They descended from the clouds and flew into the still-sleeping city. In the misty light of dawn, the maharaja could hardly tell where the jungle ended and the city began. But Haroom, used to seeking out tracks, spotted some he had never seen before—tracks that could only belong to the flying elephant, for although they looked similar to a normal elephant’s, his keen eye saw one addition: an extra digit pointing backward, like that of a bird.

It did not take long to find the flying elephant, sleeping in a nest in the low-lying limbs of an enormous jujube tree. The maharaja raised the golden bow and took careful aim. The tip of the ruby arrow glittered in the first rays of morning sunlight. Haroom looked away.

Suddenly, there came an intense, cacophonous alarm, as if every creature of Punjam Hy Loo knew of the maharaja’s murderous intent. Charging down from the towers above came the Sisters of Flight, wings outstretched, with all manner of weapons at the ready—gleaming swords, razor-sharp daggers, fantastical flying spears with wings of their own. It was a sight so beautiful, so terrifying that Haroom and the maharaja froze.

Then the maharaja raised his bow again, this time aiming it at the Sisters of Flight. ‘Look, Haroom, an even greater prize,’ he exclaimed.

In that single moment Haroom’s whole life changed. He knew, for the very first time, what he wanted. He could not bear to see a Sister of Flight harmed. He ordered the maharaja to stop.

The maharaja paid his servant no heed. He let loose the arrow. Haroom blocked it. Its ruby tip pierced his chest, and he crumbled to the ground.

The maharaja stared in shock, then kneeled beside his fallen friend. Weeping, he tried to stop the flow of blood but could not. Haroom was dying.

The Sisters of Flight landed around them. The most beautiful of the sisters, the one the maharaja had meant to kill, approached them. ‘We did not know that any man could be so selfless,’ she said. Her sisters nodded.

With one hand, she grabbed the arrow and plucked it from Haroom’s chest, then kissed her fingertips and gently touched his wound.

Haroom stirred, and his eyes fluttered open. All he could see was the face of the Sister of Flight. And all she could see was the brave and noble Haroom.

He was a slave no more.

She took his hand, and in that instant her wings vanished.

The other sisters lunged toward the maharaja in fury. They raised their swords, and Haroom could see they meant to kill his former master. ‘He will no longer harm you,’ he said. ‘Please, let him go—send him on his way.’

The sisters looked from one to the other, then agreed. But they declared that the maharaja must leave all he brought with him. The golden bow, the ruby-tipped arrow, the flying craft of teeth, and Haroom, his only friend.

‘And one thing more. You must also leave your vanity and cruelty behind so that we can know and understand them.’

The maharaja was heartbroken but agreed.

The flying elephant glided down from his nest, and with his trunk, he touched the maharaja’s forehead, and all the vanity and cruelty went from him.

But once these things were gone, there was little left—the maharaja was as simple as a baby monkey. In fact, he even sprouted a tail and scampered away speaking gibberish, shrinking to the size of an infant.

His vanity and cruelty would never be forgotten—the flying elephant had them now, and an elephant never forgets. As for Haroom and the beautiful Sister of Flight, they were married and lived on in Punjam Hy Loo. Within a year, a child was born. A girl. Selfless like her father. Pure of heart like her mother. She was named Toothiana.

The child of Haroom and Rashmi (for that was Toothiana’s mother’s name) seemed to be a normal mortal child. As there were no other human children living in Punjam Hy Loo, her parents thought it best to raise her among other mortals, and so they settled on the outskirts of a small village at the edge of the jungle. The young girl was well loved and protected and lived a simple, happy life until she was twelve and lost her last baby tooth. That’s when all her troubles began.

“Troubles?” Katherine asked nervously. (Katherine is also another book only character. She is friend of the Guardians and future guardian herself, Mother Goose, guardian of the stories)

“Yes, troubles,” Mr. Qwerty said. “For when she lost her last baby tooth, Toothiana sprouted wings. By the end of this first miraculous day, she could fly with the speed of a bird, darting to the top of the tallest trees to choose the ripest mangoes, papayas, and starfruit for the children of the village. She played with the birds and made friends with the wind.

But while the children delighted in Toothiana’s new skill, the adults of the village were bewildered, even frightened, by this half bird, half girl. Some thought she was an evil spirit and should be killed; others saw ways to use her, as either a freak to be caged and paraded about, or to force her to fly to the palace of the new maharaja and steal his jewels.

Haroom and Rashmi knew that to keep their daughter safe, they would have to pack their few belongings and escape. And so they did, deep into the jungle. The village children, all of whom adored Toothiana, tried to persuade their parents to leave her alone. But it was no use. The grown-ups of the village had gone mad with fear and greed.

They built a large cage, hired the best hunters in the land, and asked them to capture the young girl. Among these was a hunter most mysterious. He spoke not a word and was shrouded from head to foot in tattered cloth stitched together with jungle vines. The villagers were wary of him, and even the other hunters found him peculiar. ‘He knows the jungle better than any of us—it’s as if he’s more a creature than a man,’ they remarked quietly among themselves.

But Haroom and Rashmi were as wily as any hunter. Haroom, knowing everything there was to know about tracking, could disguise their trail so that no one could follow it. And Rashmi, who could converse with any animal, enlisted their aid in confounding the hunters. Tigers, elephants, even giant pythons would intercept the hunters whenever they neared. But the hunters, eager for the riches and fame they’d receive if they caged Toothiana, would not give up.

Rashmi, Toothiana's mother

The children of the village were also determined to thwart the hunters. They defied their parents, sending word to Toothiana and her mother and father again and again whenever the hunters were stalking the jungle. Toothiana, wiser still, hid in the treetops by day, only visiting her parents in the darkest hours of the night.

After weeks of the best hunters in the land failing to capture Toothiana, the cunning villagers became more sly. They secretly followed their children and discovered where Toothiana’s parents were hiding. They left a trail of coins for the hunters to follow. But only one hunter came—the one they almost feared. It was then that the Mysterious Hunter finally spoke. His voice was strange, high-pitched, almost comical, but his words were cold as death. ‘Seize the parents,’ he snarled. ‘Make it known that I will slit their throats if Toothiana does not surrender. That will bring this child of flight out of hiding.’

His plan made sense; the villagers did as he suggested. They attacked Haroom and Rashmi’s camp. With so many against them, the two surrendered without a fight. They had told their clever daughter to never try and help them if they were ever captured.

But the Mysterious Hunter had planned for that. He shouted out to any creature that could hear, ‘The parents of the flying girl will die by dawn if she comes not!’

The creatures of the jungle hurried to warn Toothiana that her parents were doomed if she did not come. Toothiana had never disobeyed her parents, but the thought of them at the dubious mercy of these grown-ups filled her with rage and determination, and she flew straight to her parents’ aid. She dove down from the treetops, ready to kill any who would try to harm her parents.

But Haroom and Rashmi were brave and cunning as well. Haroom, who had never harmed a living creature, was prepared to stop at nothing to prevent his daughter from being enslaved. And Rashmi, like all Sisters of Flight, had been a great warrior. As Toothiana neared, they slashed and fought like beings possessed. Toothiana flickered back and forth, hovering over her mother and father, reaching for them, but she did not have the strength to lift them up over the angry mob. Rashmi thrust a stringed pouch into her daughter’s hands. ‘Keep these to remember us by. Keep these to protect yourself,’ she pleaded to her child.

'Now go!’ commanded her father. ‘GO!’

With a heartrending cry, the winged girl did as her father ordered. She flew away but stopped, unsure of what to do. Her ears filled with the sound of the vengeful mob falling upon her parents.

‘Go!’ shouted her mother.

Toothiana flew wildly and desperately away. And as she went, she screamed from the depths of her soul. It was the scream of two beings: human and animal. It was a scream so pained and fierce that it caused all the villagers who were attacking her parents to go briefly deaf. All except . . . the Mysterious Hunter. He screamed back to Toothiana. His was a scream equally unsettling—a scream of rage and hate that was more animal than human. Toothiana knew in that instant that she had a mortal enemy—one who she must kill or be killed by.

But for now she would grieve. She flew to the highest treetop and huddled deep inside its foliage. She had no tears, only the blank ache of a now-empty life. She rocked back and forth in a trance of disbelief for a full day and night. Then she remembered the pouch her mother had thrust into her hands. Trembling, she opened it. Inside was a small box carved from a single giant ruby. It was covered in feathery patterns, and Toothiana knew that the box had once been the ruby-tipped arrow that had nearly killed her parents. Inside this beautiful box was a cluster of baby teeth and a note:

Our Dearest Girl,

These are the teeth of your childhood. If you have them under your pillow as you sleep, or hold it tightly, you will remember that which you need—a memory of happy days, or of deepest hopes, or even of us in better times.

But one tooth is not yours. It is a tooth of amazing power, and from what being it comes from, we do not know.

Use it only in times of the greatest danger or need.

Your Dearest Parents

Toothiana still did not cry, not even after reading the note. She slept with her baby teeth under her pillow and took solace in the dreams and memories it gave her.

Toothiana stayed in the jungle. She began to hate her wings. Once, she had thought them wondrous things, but now she saw them as the reason for the death of her parents. Her grief and loneliness knew no depths. The creatures of the jungle did what they could to help her, by bringing her food and making her treetop sleeping places as comfortable as possible. The children of the village tried to aid as well, but they now had to be doubly cautious of the village grown-ups.

As for Toothiana, she became more and more convinced that she belonged nowhere—not among the creatures of the jungle and certainly not among the humans of the village. She was alone. When she was at her very saddest, she would take one of her baby teeth from the carved box she always carried in her mother’s pouch she now wore around her neck, and hold it until it revealed its memories.

As the lonely years passed, Toothiana saw that the village children lost much of their innocence and some of their goodness as they grew up. She began to collect their teeth, so that, in the future, she could give them back their childhood memories and remind them of their kindness, just as her own parents had done for her.

Soon the children, not wanting their parents to find out, began to hide their lost teeth under their pillows for Toothiana to find. And she, cheered by this new game of sorts, began in turn to leave behind small bits of treasure she had found in the jungle. A gold nugget here. A sprinkling of sapphire chips there.

But you can imagine the curiosity that is stirred when a five-year-old sits down to breakfast with an uncut ruby in her palm, or when a ten-year-old boy comes to the table with a pocket full of emeralds. Once again the hearts of the grown-ups filled with greed, and it wasn’t long before they forced their children to tell them how they had come upon those treasures. Soon enough they had laid a new trap for Toothiana.

One dark, cloudy night Toothiana flew to the village to make her nightly rounds. A boy named Akela had lost his two front teeth, and Toothiana had a special treasure saved for him: two beautiful uncut diamonds. But as she entered his open window, it wasn’t Akela she found. Instead the Mysterious Hunter leaped toward her. From behind his shroud of rags, she could see the strangest eyes. Close together. Beady. Not entirely human. And cold with hate.

Toothiana’s rage clouded her keen intellect. All she could think was, I must get rid of this . . . thing! But before she could act, a steel door slammed down between her and the Hunter. She glanced around with birdlike quickness. The room was not Akela’s bedroom, but, in fact, a cleverly disguised steel cage.

She was trapped! The villagers cheered as the Hunter hauled away the cage. His platoon of slavelike helpers pulled the wheeled prison away from the villagers and into the jungle. The helpers were as strangely shrouded as the Hunter who commanded them was, and seemed excited by the capture. The children wept, begging their parents to let Toothiana go free. But they would not. The Mysterious Hunter had promised them riches beyond their dreams when he sold Toothiana.

Toothiana flung herself wildly against the cage, like a cornered eagle. But it did no good. The Hunter and his minions traveled swiftly through the night, deeper into the jungle. They knew the creatures of the wild would try to help Toothiana, so they carried the one weapon every animal fears: fire.

Torches were lashed to the roof of Toothiana’s cage. The Mysterious Hunter himself carried the brightest torch of all. The animals kept their distance, but they continued to follow the eerie caravan and keep watch over Toothiana, waiting for a chance to strike.

After days of travel they arrived at the base of the steep mountain of Toothiana’s birthplace—the kingdom of Punjam Hy Loo. The great elephants that guarded the mountain were standing at the ready, shifting back and forth on their massive feet. Toothiana’s jungle friends had warned them that the Mysterious Hunter was headed their way.

The Hunter did not challenge the elephants. He ordered his minions to halt and made no move to attack. Instead, he held his flaming torch aloft. ‘I bring a treasure to the Sisters of Flight and the flying elephant king who dwell in Punjam Hy Loo!’ he shouted into the night sky. The sky was empty; there was no sign of either the winged women who ruled there, or of the flying elephant.

The Hunter called out again. ‘I bring you the half-breed daughter of Haroom and Rashmi.’ At this, an otherworldly sound—like a rustle of trees in the wind—was heard. And indeed wind did begin to blow down from the mountain. It grew stronger and more furious, with gusts that nearly put out the torches.

Toothiana knew instinctually that this wind was sent by the Sisters of Flight and that they did not trust the Hunter. She also knew that it was time to take out the box her parents had left her.

As the winds continued to rise, the Hunter grew increasingly nervous, as did his minions. They began to chatter in the oddest way, not in words, but in sounds.

Then a chorus of voices, all speaking in unison, rang out bright and clear above the howl of the wind: ‘Tell us, Hunter, why cage our child? Where be her father and mother? What trick of men do you bring us? What do you seek, you who seem of men and yet are not?’

The Hunter rocked on his feet, seething with undisguised hate. He held his torch high and stepped forward, leaning into the wind. The elephants raised their trunks but took a step back. Fire was a fearsome thing, even for these mighty beasts.

The Hunter laughed, then threw down his tattered cloak. He was no man at all, but a massive monkey. ‘A maharaja of men I once was,’ he screamed, ‘and by your doing, I am now a king of the monkeys!’ Then his troops dropped their cloaks as well. An array of monkeys revealed themselves, all armed with bows and arrows.

The Monkey King shrieked above the roaring wind, ‘You ask about her parents? Dead! By my doing! What do I seek? Revenge! On all who made me thus!’ Then he threw his torch into the herd of elephants and grabbed a bow and arrow from one of his men. He had it drawn in an instant, aimed directly at Toothiana’s heart.

Before he could let loose the arrow, the wind tripled in strength. Toothiana knew what to do. She held the ruby box tightly in her hand. ‘Mother, Father, help me,’ she whispered furiously, clenching her eyes shut. She pictured them clearly in her mind, letting herself feel the bond they had shared so deeply, letting herself remember how much they had sacrificed for her.

Suddenly, she was no longer in the cage. She was no longer a single entity, but several smaller versions of herself.

Bow drawn, the Monkey King hesitated, bewildered. How can this be? He could not remember the power of love—even though it had been this girl’s father who had loved him best—and his own memories were now fueled only by hate.

So the world turned against him once again.

The Sisters of Flight circled overhead. It was the flapping of their wings that made the great wind. It grew wilder and stranger, like a tornado. Leaves snapped off trees. Dirt swirled like a storm, and the Monkey King’s torch blew out.

Now the only light came from the Moon, and no jungle creature fears that guiding light. In an instant the elephants stampeded forward. Toothiana’s animal friends attacked. Toothiana’s mini-selves charged the Monkey King. The monkey army screamed and ran.

The king tried to grab the Toothianas, but he could not catch them. Then all the fairy-sized selves merged back into a single being. Toothiana was mystified by her new power, but she didn’t think on it. With one hand, she grabbed the Monkey King by the throat. It was as if she now had the strength of a dozen. The Monkey King cried out in terror and pain.

For an instant Toothiana felt the rage within her swell. She would snap his neck and be done with him. But the little box glowed in one hand, and the memory of her parents made her stop. She would not end this monkey man’s life. Let the jungle choose his fate.

So she let him go.

He fell to the ground, and she did not look back as she flew up to join the Sisters of Flight.

As they sped away, Toothiana and her kindred could hear the creatures of the jungle do as they saw fit with the fallen Monkey King. And his cries could be heard all the way to the Moon.

Mr. Qwerty then shut his pages. The tale, as it was written, was done.

[proudfreakmetarusonikku]

anyway I need to go to bed but I have too much energy so I am channeling it into headcanons. here u go species headcanons for Everyone on the Dream smp with explanations because I’ve put a TON of thought into this. They’re probably like half contradicted by canon but fuck it My City Now.

Dream- A (juvenile) stage of being a god. He, DreamXD, and Drista have become known as “dreamons” but that’s technically a separate species, all spawned from them. He's not really focused on being worshipped in his own right, preferring power in the mortal realm, though he’s not averse to pretending to be his brother (the god worshipped by Church Prime) or his sister (a minor goddess of death worshipped by many hidden cults) if it can help him get power. He’s got pure white skin everywhere except his face (which is pale but human-like), black blood, entirely green eyes, pointed ears, fangs, claws, and digitigrade legs ending in hoof-like claws.

George- A human, the only human on the whole server. Humans are pretty rare, vastly outnumbered by hybrids but outnumbering any other species, and “pure” humans (what we'd consider to be a completely normal appearing human) are all but nonexistent. For example, George has eyes with dark sclera and white irises.

Sapnap- A blaze hybrid. He’s got a few rods surrounding him and his eyes blaze with fire. It’s usually just warm but not hot enough to hurt but if he's agitated or upset it can easily burn hot enough to set things ablaze.

Callahan- A reindeer hybrid. He’s got antlers, reindeer ears, fur around his arms, and hooves.

Awesamdude- A creeper hybrid. He's tauric, with four insect like legs. His skin and is green and mottled and has a texture similar to leaves. His eyes are pitch black. He has a tendency to make hissing sounds when stressed, though he can’t explode like a full blooded creeper.

Alyssa- A mouse hybrid, with large mouse ears and a long tail. This definitely isn’t an in joke for the thousands of hours I spent browsing TVTropes as a child and the “what happened to the mouse” tROPE SHUT UP.

Ponk- A demon hybrid, with pointed ears, slit pupils, a small spaded tail, and small horns.

BadBoyHalo- A full blooded demon, with pointed ears, a tall stature, pitch black skin and hair, fangs, claws, hooves, a long spaded tail, long horns, and small bat like wings. He’s rather self conscious about how intimidating he looks. He's also a lich (with Skeppy as his phylactery) which is why he has pure white eyes (a trait the undead share).

TommyInnit- An absolute mess, genetic wise, since I’m taking Tommy's joke about being born in a lab and running with it. He's mostly angel, and was basically cloned from Phil's DNA (from a feather that fell off his wings that somehow someone got a hold of) but had a bunch of other hybrid and human DNA mixed in to make him somewhat stable enough to actually survive gestation. He has very small, dark wings that are useful for balance and little else, fangs, claws, and pointed ears. His bones are very light, making him fragile but a lot more dexterous. His blood is slightly off a human's, being slightly pinkish. His freckles, wings, blood, and eyes glow slightly and are patterned like the night sky. Technically undead as of his resurrection, and maintains the many injuries of his death permanently (bruises stay and don’t heal but don’t worsen, broken limbs can be moved at unnatural angles, ect.), pale, corpse like skin, and one of his eyes turned pure white.

Tubbo- A ram hybrid, with small curved ram horns, horizontal pupils, ram ears, a tail, and hooves. Nice and simple after the absolute mess that was Tommy.

Fundy- A limited shapeshifter, able to change his species, though he prefers to be in a fox-like form. He inherited this from Sally, who had similar abilities, though with more strength. He's always got certain features he inherited from each parent that he can’t change though- wings, pale skin, and ice-like freckles from Wilbur, and salmon scales coating his wings and cheeks, and ginger-and-white hair from Sally.

Punz- A dragon hybrid, with dark horns, dark sclera and slit pupils, wings just large enough for limited flight, a strong tail, fangs, claws, and blue scales coating his cheeks, wings, tail, arms, and legs. Has a natural inclination to sleep in a pile of his wealth he only holds off on when he feels it’s at risk of being stolen (which, since this is the Dream SMP, is almost constantly).

Purpled- An enderman hybrid, with small horns, pointed ears, purple blood, and ender particles surrounding him. Parts of his arms and legs are covered in leathery, pure black skin.

Wilbur- Half angel, half fucking refrigerator because cc!Wilbur hates us (affectionate). His skin is unnaturally, icy pale, and his blood is an icy blue. His freckles are the colour of ice reflecting. He's got wings from his father, large enough to glide, but they’re pale coloured and slightly transparent. He has fangs claws, and pointy ears. His blood, wings, and eyes glow slightly and are patterned like the night sky. As Ghostbur, he’s got the injuries of his death apparent at all times, though they don’t hinder him or cause him pain, corpse like skin, pure white eyes, and is permanently transparent.

JSchlatt- A ram hybrid. He’s got large ram horns, dark sclera and horizontal pupils, a ram tail, fur around his arms, and hooves.

Skeppy- A construct made to be Bad's phylactery. He's fully made of diamond, and appears as a moving human statue (though entirely made out of diamond), though he has limited shape shifting ability to change his “hair” and “clothes”, though he has to remain the same mass. He has some small red detailing on him out of redstone (which was used partially in his contruction). The egg flipped the red and teal in his colour scheme. Also he's smalllllllllllll.

Eret- Part ghost, due to being descended from Herobrine. She has pure white eyes, pointy ears, and under stress he becomes partially transparent. They tend to hide their nonhuman features (ears under hair or hats and eyes under sunglassses) and are often mistaken for human.

Jack Manifold- Started as a wolf hybrid, with large wolf ears and a tail. After dying, he came back from hell as a hellhound with red and blue “flames” coming from his eyes, ears, and replacing his missing tail he lost in one of his deaths with two made of this fire. The fire is chillingly cold to the touch, and not warm. His eyes are also monocolour, though in heterochromatic red and blue instead of the usual pure white found in undead.

Niki- A moth hybrid, with antennae, monocolour amber eyes, fluffy wings, and more fluff around her neck, wrists, and torso. These and her hair are patterned gold and black, though as of now she’s dyed them all pink. Idk I just feel like moths fit her for some reason.

Quackity- A duck hybrid, with golden wings and webbed hands and feet. He’s also a shapeshifter of sorts, however instead of shifting into different forms he shifts into different beings, from alternate realities that never came to be. These can be used to shift into near identical copies of those around him, to impersonate them, or to shift into alternate versions of people (like Mexican Dream to Dream). These aren’t Quackity, though, and as such they have their own pool of canon lives, and while he has lots of influence over them they can still act autonomously.

Karl Jacobs- An inter dimensional being made of time itself. While his current form is mostly human, he has technicolour rainbow blood, freckles, and patches on his skin, along with clock-shaped pupils that change with the time. His “natural” form is a vaguely humanoid mess of ever shifting colour.

HBomb- I didn’t know what to do with him at first- he was a cow hybrid in my pfp set- but I just think the idea of him being a chill cat hybrid who turns full nyaa whenever he’s in a maid dress to be funny so he’s a cat hybrid now. With dyed-white cat ears and a dyed-white cat tail.

Technoblade- A piglin hybrid primarily, but he’s definitely got some weird traces of other species. He’s got tusks, pink hair, pink pig ears, a pig tail, and hooves, but he’s also got paws from some other animal hybridisation in his blood, and has a tallness that suggests demon blood somewhere down the line. His red eyes aren’t natural, and only occurred after he was sacrificed to be the vessel of the Blood God.

Antfrost- A cat hybrid, with blond and brown fur, a cat tail, paws both on his hands and feet, and cat ears. He’s also got split pupils and blue sclerae (though a different shade to his irises).

Philza- An angel- the creation of a god or goddess to help serve them (Dreamon's would be an example of the angels the Dream's can create, though they’re primarily running wild nowadays.) The creation and servant of one of the gods of death, Kristen, to serve her in the mortal realm. He’s got very large feathered dark wings, pupilless unnaturally bright eyes, pointy ears, fangs, claws, and dark blood the colour of the night sky. His wings, eyes, freckles and blood glow brightly and are patterned like the night sky. Injuries reveal that he's fully inhuman under his skin, appearing to be a void of colour that also glows and is patterned like the night sky. His crows, who are messengers from the afterlife, have this same pattern on their feathers.

Conner- I don’t know much about him tbh but. He’s just a hedgehog hybrid. I mean he’s joked enough about canonically being the kid of Sonic and Elise. He’s got blue hedgehog ears and a tail, and blue spines mixed in with his dark hair.

Captain Puffy- A sheep hybrid, with small curled sheep horns, sheep ears, a fluffy sheep tail, hooves, and hair curly and soft like wool. The split in her hair between brown and white is natural, though she keeps a small section dyed rainbow.

Vikkstar- Another angel, though of a god long gone. His entire body, even his “clothes” (which are made of flesh) glow intensely bright and have the pattern of the night sky.

LazarBeam- A gingerbread hybrid, which I’d say is dumb but we’ve already had a refrigerator hybrid so. I don’t know what else to say here.

Ranboo- Half enderman, half god of some sort. Has small horns, pointy ears, an inhumanly wide mouth with fangs, claws, digitigrade feet ending in hoof-like claws, pure black and white skin, pure black and white hair and freckles on the opposite side of the skin, red and green heterochromatic eyes barely distinguishable from their sclera, and red and green blood. Hmm, I wonder what other character shares similar descriptions... :)

FoolishG- A more matured god than Dream. Appears to be made entirely out of gold, with his hair and freckles appearing like copper. His pure green eyes have a similar texture to emeralds. Also he’s like. Massive. He’s like eleven Skeppy's.

Hannah- A nymph of the forests. Has prehensile vines and flowers flowing in her hair all the way to the ground, and half of her face and one of her arms are entirely made of these prehensile vines and flowers. Makes flowers grow in her step, after being corrupted by the egg they wither around her instead.

Charlie- Slime hybrid. Honestly just kind of got the most impractical parts of being a hybrid, having random sections of skin changed into green slime which drips everywhere and kind of gets in the way. It doesn’t seem to bother him though.

[seonghwa-is-babie]

What we've been missing (pt. 2)

Ateez x male hybrid! Reader

Note: hope you guys enjoyed part 1, I really enjoy writing this series so I hope you will enjoy it too :)

The following morning, San woke up with y/n still lying on his chest. He smiled and and gently pet the hybrid until he heard shuffling from the bed above his, most likely from wooyoung waking up.

"alright San, time to wake up we have a schedule toda- what's that cat doing there?" wooyoung questioned as he got down from his bed "it's y/n, I think he couldn't sleep so he came here for the night"

Meanwhile, Yunho came down to the living room to check up on and say good morning to y/n, but to his shock, the hybrid wasn't there "good morning yunho, why so shocked?" seonghwa wondered as he walked towards the kitchen to prepare breakfast

"y/n's gone" that made seonghwa stop dead in his tracks "what? How come? I thought he liked it here" he said bummed out "we have to find him" yunho said in a panic "yunho calm down, let's try to think rational before you go out there and get lost. Where do you think he could've gone off to?"

"seonghwa, Yunho, what's all the noise about, are you guys okay?" wooyoung questioned as he came into the living room with San, who was holding y/n "y/n's gone, I don't know where he went but I'm going out to look for him"

"what do you mean he's gone? He's right here" San gestured to the cat in his arms. He put y/n down so he could go towards the two confused males. As he reached yunho, he immediately started rubbing his head on yunho's leg "y/n what happened? I thought you were sleeping on the couch"

Said male turned back human "I'm sorry, I couldn't sleep so I went to look for you, but I didn't know what room you were in so I picked a random door and it was San and wooyoung's room" yunho hugged him "you don't have to apologise, I was just worried I couldn't find you"

"alright, now that that's solved, let's go make breakfast" wooyoung said as he went to the kitchen followed by seonghwa, the others went to the living room, waiting for breakfast "y/n, we should go buy you some extra clothes after our schedule today"

"you don't have to, I-I can just wear my old clothes" y/n protested "it's okay, we really don't mind, how about we check who's schedule ends the earliest and they can take you shopping" y/n didn't feel like arguing so he just leaned into yunho

"apparently jongho and mingi finish today around the same time relatively early, they can take you, y/n" San said, petting the hybrid.

"good morning guys, good morning y/n, did you sleep well?" Hongjoong asked y/n as he stepped into the living room. He nodded, not wanting the other to worry about his less than successful sleep on the couch

"can someone wake the others up, breakfast is ready" y/n shyly volunteered "thank you y/n, mingi and Yeosang are in the same room and jongho shares his with yunho" he nodded at the information given by wooyoung and went to the rooms, back in cat form since he likes being an actual cat "since when can y/n do......that?" he heard Hongjoong say slightly shocked, slightly confused

Since most rooms were open, he picked up yunho's scent fairly quickly. trailing into the room, finding the bottom bunk empty, he concluded jongho was lying on top. Somehow he managed to climb and jump his way to the top, like cats do, and started trying to wake the maknae up

Sadly the latter was still heavy asleep, so y/n started lightly tapping jongho with his paws. He eventually did wake up and was slightly shocked at the random cat on his chest. He looked a bit closer and noticed the ears on the cat were the same as y/n's ears

"y/n? What are you doing here?" the cat gestured towards the end of the bed and meowed "you want me to go down?" he meowed again, confirming jongho's guess. He went down from his bed, helping y/n get down as well

Said hybrid then went to the only room that hadn't opened yet, Yeosang and mingi's room "you gotta wake them up too? I'll open the door for you" and he did, y/n slipping inside afterwards

⏳

After he managed to wake them up, they went to the kitchen to join the others for breakfast, y/n back in his human form. "took you long enough sleepyheads" wooyoung teased as they sat down, all except for one

"y/n, why aren't you sitting down?" snapped out of the trance "oh sorry, back home I wasn't supposed to eat with my owners" yunho got out his seat and over to the hybrid "y/n, it's okay, we're not your old home, so you don't have to follow their rules anymore"

yunho gently took hold of y/n's hands, internally gushing about how small they were compared to his, and guided him to sit down between him and san

⏳

After everyone finished breakfast and got their stuff ready, they headed towards the kq building for their daily schedules

Y/n didn't know who he should follow so he let himself get dragged by two of the members, which happened to be San and wooyoung "come on y/n, you're coming with us"

⏳

The rest of the day was pretty mundane, a regular practice day. Y/n was in awe the firts few times but eventually fell asleep on the floor, due to the lack of sleep from the previous night

San and wooyoung just finished dancing to wonderland, looking over their shoulder to find y/n sleeping, curled up in his cat form. San cooed and went to sit next to y/n

"You're getting attached" wooyoung pointed out "so what? He's cute and I wanna help him" San whined back, gently petting y/n. Wooyoung giggled and went to sit with them "he is pretty cute, and helping him is definitely nice, but what about after that. What are we gonna do when he all set to go on his own?"

San looked down at y/n's sleeping form, wondering what would actually happen? Would he want to stay with them? Would he want to go out on his own? "I-I don't know what's gonna happen, but I know we have to help him now"

⏳

They stayed like that for a while, y/n eventually climbing into San's lap. Resting after the tough choreography.

Suddenly the door opened, mingi and jongho coming in all ready to go out after their schedule "where's y/n? Yunho said you guys basically dragged him to your schedule" jongho asked, curious on where the hybrid could've gone off to.

San pointed towards his lap "are you guys going shopping already?" he pouted, bummed out he couldn't spend more time with y/n. Nonetheless he shook him awake

"y/n, it's time to go shopping" mingi said exited, but trying not to scare him off. He tried getting up, but was held back by wooyoung and San clinging onto him "can't he stay with us?" wooyoung whined

"wooyoung, San, he needs clothes" San and wooyoung reluctantly let him go at jongho's argument "fine, but we won't forgive you so easily for taking away our precious kitten!"

⏳

"pick out anything you like, y/n, we'll pay for it" they had entered the first of many stores. It seemed to be a hybrid specialist clothing store, where the pants had holes for tails, and hoodies had holes for ears and plenty of collars.

Y/n was browsing through some articles when a store worker approached him "excuse me, where's your owner? Hybrids don't usually come in on their own" she asked concerned, he panicked, realising he was technically a stray, in a desperate attempt, he scanned the store for where mingi and jongho were, finding them not that far from him, finding items they think would look good on him.

He pointed at them "oh alright, just wanted to make sure you had someone in here with you" she smiled and walked away. Little did he know they heard the entire thing and were internally gushing about it

"y/n, we found some things we think you'd like" said boy turned around, curious as to what they brought him. He was surprised they got him quite a few things "go ahead and change, we'll wait here for you"

⏳

The remainder of the day was spent with mingi and jongho taking y/n to a bunch of different stores, letting him pick out anything he wants and pay for it. Mingi was helping y/n choose his clothes whilst jongho looked out for them, still slightly worried for the hybrid

His worries were proven right when a stranger came up to them "is this yours?" he asked, pointing at y/n "yeah, what's it to you?" jongho shot back, already not trusting the situation "how come he doesn't have a collar then? Hybrids should have a collar if they have an owner" the stranger said, forcefully lifting y/n's chin to expose his neck

Jongho grabbed the strangers arm, making him let go of the hybrid "he doesn't like collars, now leave him be" he was ready to punch this guys in the face, sadly he still had his idol image to look after

"I'm just saying man, hybrids without collars are automatically seen as strays, and you know what we do to strays" he smirked and walked away, jongho glaring at the guy until he was out of sight. He turned around to make sure y/n was okay, finding him wrapped in mingi's protective hold

"y/n, are you okay?" he still had a fearful expression on his face. Jongho gently pet his head "d-do I have to get a c-collar?"

"of course not, if you're not comfortable with it, you don't have to" the duo gently lead y/n back to the dorms, but something shifted in them when he asked "was he going to take me away?"

Their hearts almost shattered from y/n's fearful tone, then and there, they made a silent promise to protect him no matter what "we wouldn't let that happen" mingi said as he wrapped his arms around the smaller one

Y/n started crying, never had he experienced people so kind and loving as these boys "it's okay y/n, we won't let anything happen to you" mingi said, gently rubbing the other's back

As y/n calmed his sobs down, he realised how tired he was and kept clinging to mingi "do you want me to carry you?" y/n shyly nodded as mingi went pick him up, putting him on his back

⏳

"we're home!" jongho said as they walked back in "finally, we were getting worried" wooyoung said as he saw them walking into the living room. Mingi sat y/n down on the couch, where he curled into himself like he did the previous night

"is he okay?" seonghwa asked concerned, noticing how the hybrid was slightly shivering "... Some guy came up to us, asked if he was ours and why he didn't have a collar, he was pretty rough with him. But we got him to back off" seonghwa nodded, concluding that y/n was still shaken up by the event

He reached out, gently caressing his head. Y/n leaned into his hand, eventually turning to face seonghwa and cling onto him. He smiled at the hybrid "I'm guessing Hongjoong's staying the night at the studio again?" he sighed "yeah, so I'm sleeping alone tonight, again"

"why don't you sleep with y/n?" seonghwa looked down at said hybrid "if he's okay with it" y/n snuggled deeper into his side. He smiled and continued petting the hybrid

"goodnight seonghwa, goodnight y/n" yunho said as he went to his room. Seonghwa grabbed a hold of y/n's hand and lead him to his room. "you can choose where you want to sleep, either in mine or Hongjoong's bed" the older went to change into his pajamas whilst y/n simply changed into his cat form and sat down on seonghwa's bed

The older walked back in after changing into his pajamas, a warm smile spread across his face as he saw the hybrid on his bed. He made his way to the bed, turning off the lights on the way "you ready to go to sleep, y/n?" said hybrid meowed and patiently waited for seonghwa to lie down

Once he did and he was under the covers, y/n laid on his chest "is it okay if I pet you?" seonghwa asked, reaching his hand out and like the previous night, y/n nudged his head against seonghwa's hand. He started gently petting him "San didn't lie, you really are as soft as a cloud"

[cloverses]

hi s. how would the cloverse squad react/respond to being bitten as a joke/as a sign of affection

i'm assuming this is not gentle nipping, and full biting- well, not super hard, but still a normal bite.

god this is long

Aagi

hy gives you a very tired look. hy doesn't even say anything. you can just feel the disappointment radiating off of hym and the silent "why" in the air

Aceline

she laughs it off- warns you that she might bite you back sometime. overall, she doesn't think too much about it, though there's a twinkle in her eye.

you'll almost certainly be bitten back later when you're least expecting it.

Adus

he pauses when you bite him. your teeth can't even begin to manage getting through his scales, so he hardly feels more than pressure.

"do you feel better about yourself now?"

you get the feeling he's been through much worse before- and, again, he barely feels it.

Alana

she yelps and lightly bats you away with a huff.

"no biting!"

she doesn't take it personally, though- just seems a little startled by your actions.

Allen

they bite you back almost immediately. if you continue, it will turn into a (play) fight- so, er, maybe let up fast, seeing as allen tends to... forget their own strength.

it's definitely going to leave a mark, though. on you. not them. so be warned! their teeth are sharp.

AN216

their eyes immediately tear up- it doesn't hurt, but you've definitely spooked them.

"did i- do something...?"

you'll probably immediately feel guilty after this one. maybe avoid biting ANN, even as a joke.

Bubbles

you try to bite them, and your mouth is filled with slime. whatever you do, do not swallow it. it will make you feel very, very unpleasant to ingest their slime.

they don't even seem to feel- or notice- it, but if they do, they immediately panic.

"s...spit it out...! bad...!"

their concern is more for you than themself, though.

Camellia

she grabs a nearby duster and smacks you in the face with it, not even blinking at the pressure.

if you're another servant, or a commoner, her response is likely "please, behave yourself. i don't have time to deal with such bad manners."

if you're higher than her role, then it's more of a "my liege, you should know better than to behave in such a way."

either way, she's radiating disappointment in your actions, and you have a feeling she won't grab something so gentle next time...

Cameron

he jumps and recoils immediately- stepping away from you if possible and holding his arms close to himself.

"ah... i'm... terribly sorry for being so rude, but... please... don't do that again, (title)..."

he keeps his distance from you for a while after that.

Copycat

their ears turn back and their tail begins flicking- you pull away only to be bit yourself.

you get the feeling they'll match every bite you give them with one of their own.

you also get the feeling they won't be so gentle with their sharp, catlike teeth next time you bite them.

but, hey, if you want to risk it-

Doe

please don't bite the child. that's all i can ask. she's not nice about it.

Dove

they laugh it off, and don't seem too bothered by your actions. in fact, he seems very entertained.

"sorry- were you hoping for a different reaction? doe used to bite a lot when she was younger."

she IS a dad, after all- it's not surprising he's not bothered by your actions.

Elad

he gives you a disappointed stare and pulls his arm away.

"would you mind not behaving like an animal?"

elad's not very fun.

Eli

before you can pull away, eli grabs your arm, leans down, and bites you back.

they're surprisingly gentle for, y'know, an undead- but they do pull away with an almost amused stare.

"you know, you should be a lot more careful biting someone who's dead. i doubt i taste very pleasant, after all."

...eli, shouldn't you be more careful biting people when you're undead?

Fate

she pulls away before you even get a chance to bite her- knowing your fate has its perks and all.

"now, now- you don't want to bleed, do you? behave like a good little mortal."

Jester

jester is delighted when you bite her. she beams and immediately pulls you closer to bite you back, though just as playfully.

"you didn't think the jester wouldn't get you back, did you? a bite for a bite! oh, but she hopes she wasn't too rough."

she's a sweetheart about it, minus the fact she bit you too.

Life

you get a mouth full of bitter plant... juice, and he only laughs it off as his body immediately mends itself. (being a plant makes you very fragile sometimes.)

"feisty, are you? well, i don't mind. it's not the first time i've been bit!"

Poku

they blink at you out of surprise, and then grin. you'll notice fairly fast how... sharp their teeth are.

"oh, you're a treat! i'd bite you back, but i think i might end up hurting you. er, satyr instincts, and all."

it certainly isn't the first time they've been bit (or otherwise injured) so they don't care too much if you do it multiple times.

Sin

it IMMEDIATELY latches onto you and bites back- harder than anticipated, probably, though not drawing blood.

it pulls away with a bit of a smug smirk, showing its teeth a little more than what you would consider normal friendly.

"sorry, but i'm the one who bites around here."

Space

you try to take a bite and your mouth stings- it's hot, and you'll be forced to let go before long.

there's only a laugh from above you, the star-shaped head spinning in place.

"thank you for the entertainment, but i don't think it would be smart to do that again- stars are hot and all."

Story

she laughs at your bite, and pats you on the head with a grin.

"oooh, careful~ i might have to bite you back if you do that again~! can't let bad deeds go unpunished, hm~?"

she'll follow up on that promise if you do.

Time

you get a mouthful of metal, and it doesn't budge in the slightest. time just gives you a very tired look.

"...i have work to get to. can you take your childish entertainment elsewhere?"

if you try again, he'll have elad kick you out of the tower.

Void

you get a mouthful of inky blackness that tastes both bitter and like nothing at all. it's... unpleasant.

when you look at the nothingness that is their face, you get chills as something stares back.

"...please don't do that again."

Wes

they tear up, but don't seem... too bothered, all things considered. it's mostly just their reaction to. most things.

"...um... can i help you with, er... something?"

they seem very... uncertain, how to approach this. you'll also get a bunch of fuzz in your mouth from their sweater, so. good for you???

[guiltyidealist]

Having read both Squirrelflight’s Hope and Veil of Shadows, have some spoilers and speculation for both. Warning: the post is long as shit and includes spoilers for Squirrelflight’s Hope and TBC up to VoS.

After VoS, I can’t deny that LBramblestar is Ashfur. Here are passages from the book that seal the deal. (I’m gonna cite the pages they were on from the PDF, since that’s what I have) In bold are pieces of text that are particularly damning.

... Bramblestar halted and plunged his nose into a thick growth of moss on the root of an oak tree, sniffing deeply. Turning to Bristlefrost, he asked her, “Is that Squirrelflight’s scent? Has she been here?” 

Bristlefrost wasn’t sure how to react. [...]  [W]hy was Bramblestar asking? Was he looking for reassurance that the exiled deputy was gone?

[...] “It smells like ... moss. “I’m not sure,” she replied to Bramblestar. “It could be.”

Bramblestar gave her a curt nod and continued toward the lake, but he was still watchful, and a few paces farther on he stopped to sniff at the debris beneath a holly bush and asked Bristlefrost the same question. There was a strange, wistful look in his eyes. [...] Even when Bramblestar and the rest of the cats reached the lakeshore and crossed into WindClan territory, the impostor still kept up his search for Squirrelflight. Why? Bristlefrost wondered. Does he feel threatened by her? Does he think she might come back and try to take leadership of the Clan? Then she saw how Bramblestar’s tail began to droop with disappointment when he couldn’t find any definite traces of the former deputy. Bristlefrost realized there must be something more behind his search. He misses her.

But then why had he sent Squirrelflight away in the first place?

Warriors: Veil of Shadows, PDF page 104-105

“Come in, come in,” Bramblestar mewed testily. “I need to talk to you.” [...] Dipping her head respectfully, she padded forward to within a tail-length of where Bramblestar sprawled in his nest.

“I’ve been in the Twolegplace, searching for Squirrelflight,” he told her. “But I haven’t caught the least hint of her scent. I was there all night, but it was no use. I don’t have the faintest idea where she is.” Apprehension began to gnaw at Bristlefrost’s belly. “Why are you looking for her?” she asked. “Squirrelflight left Clan territory, just as you ordered. Surely you don’t think she deserves more punishment?”

Bramblestar shook his head sadly. “To tell the truth ... I expected Squirrelflight to come home and ask to be taken back into ThunderClan,” he admitted. “But she hasn’t. I must have really angered her,” he continued, gazing up at the den wall as if he could see his former deputy standing there. “I know she must still love me, deep down. If I could only talk to her again...” His voice choked and he closed his eyes, resting his nose on his paws.

[...] Bramblestar’s head snapped up again. “I have a new task for you,” he rasped. “You have to search for Squirrelflight. You must find her. And when you do, you must tell her that her exile is revoked. You must get her to come back to ThunderClan.” “But what will the rest of the Clan think about that?” Bristlefrost asked. “You exiled all the codebreakers. How can you let just one come back? Wouldn’t that encourage other cats to start doubting your leadership?”

“Oh, Bristlefrost ...” Bramblestar blinked at her with a look of amused affection that made her feel cold right down to her claw-tips. “When you’re older and more experienced, you’ll realize that there is such a thing as forgiveness, even from StarClan. I’m their representative in the Clan, now that the medicine cats can’t speak to them, and I’ve decided that Squirrelflight can be forgiven, if she changes her ways. Squirrelflight is ... special.”

Warriors: Veil of Shadows, PDF pages 186-188

How much do I need to explain here? Despite previously exiling Squilf, LBramblestar wants her back... because he expected her to beg to come back. Why would he do this? Let’s look at this from an Ashfur lens: he wanted to see her grovel and beg for him just to satisfy himself. However, he still has feelings for her (though it isn’t love, because that’s..... not love) and wants her to return, as he is distressed about her absence. This is further supported by LBramble’s previous possessiveness over Squilf. The last sentence, too, supports that LBramble is Ashfur for obvious reasons.

Anybody remember Squirrelflight’s Hope and how, when Squilf and Leaf were in StarClan, the authors took the time to showcase Ashfur’s acceptance into StarClan in spite of his mistakes and Squilf’s discomfort with three separate paragraphs?

She stiffened as gray fur moved at the edge of her vision. She recognized it at once. Ashfur. The gray tom had caused so much trouble for her and for Leafpool’s kits. And yet he was here. He dipped his head as she saw him, then glanced at Hollyleaf. [...] Hollyleaf blinked calmly at the gray tom. There was no sign of anger in her gaze. Had the two cats learned to live in peace here in StarClan?

Squirrelflight nodded curtly to Ashfur. She wasn’t sure she could be as forgiving as Hollyleaf. After all, Ashfur had threatened to destroy the happiness she’d found with Bramblestar, and almost succeeded.

Warriors: Squirrelflight’s Hope, PDF page 531

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Squirrelflight could still see Ashfur out of the corner of her eye. She leaned closer to Hollyleaf. “It seems strange that he didn’t end up in the Dark Forest,” she whispered. 

Hollyleaf shrugged. “I guess, but he’s apologized. I think he’s changed.” 

Longtail narrowed his eyes. “I wouldn’t wish the Dark Forest on any cat.”

Warriors: Squirrelflight’s Hope, PDF page 532

~~~~~~~~~~~~

... Ashfur got to his paws. He signaled to Dustpelt with his tail. “Do you want to come hunting?” he called. “I’m meeting Whitestorm by the river.”

“Sure.” Dustpelt acknowledged the gray warrior with a nod. “I’d better go. Whitestorm will be waiting.” Dustpelt dipped his head. “I’ll see you when I get back.”

[...] She watched as Dustpelt met Ashfur at the entrance. “Isn’t it weird having Ashfur around?” she asked Hollyleaf.

“Not really.” Hollyleaf licked a paw absently. “After a while, what happened in the forest seems less important.”

Warriors: Squirrelflight’s Hope, PDF page 555

All the talking about forgiveness and moving on in regards to Ashfur should remind you of LBramble’s words: “... there is such a thing as forgiveness, even from StarClan.” There’s far too much weight on those words for that to be coincidental.

Okay, onto a new track. Here’s what happens when Bristlefrost Squ, Mothwing, and Squilf fake Squilf’s death:

[...] [T]he false Bramblestar padded up to join her.

His amber eyes widened as he saw the blood and fur, and then, to Bristlefrost’s astonishment, his face contorted in what looked like real grief. Hunching his shoulders, he bowed his head and flattened his ears. For a few heartbeats he seemed unable to speak.

“She’s dead ... and I killed her,” he choked out at last.

Fuck nice citation. VoS, PDF page 196

“Maybe you should get up now,” Bristlefrost suggested. “There’s a hunting patrol waiting for your orders, and a few warriors want to speak to you about border marking. And—” Bramblestar gazed at her with confusion in his face. “What are you meowing about?” he grumbled. Then he lifted a weary paw and waved her away. “Let Berrynose deal with them,” he murmured. “I don’t care about any of it. How can I? Squirrelflight is dead, and it’s my fault. If I hadn’t exiled her ...”

[...]

Bramblestar just moaned and looked away, closing his eyes as his whiskers drooped in pain. Bristlefrost wasn’t even sure that he had heard her. Then with a pitiful whine he buried his face in the bracken fronds of his nest.

He looked so miserable that Bristlefrost couldn’t suppress a pang of sympathy. For a moment she was tempted to tell him the truth, that Squirrelflight wasn’t dead at all; she just didn’t want to be found. But that would undo all our hard work. [...] She thrust the temptation away and remained silent.

VoS, PDF page 226-227

LBramble obviously gives an actual fuck about Squilf for some unknown reason... that is, the reason would be unknown if we didn’t know it was Ashfur. As said before, he still harbors feelings for her for some reason. He displays this grief again on PDF page 332.

Onto something else:

“Ungrateful cats!” Bramblestar was grumbling as he entered his den. Shadowsight slipped in behind him. “They need discipline. They need to be taught not to steal, not to question their leader, not to trespass ...” He glanced back over his shoulder. “Wouldn’t you agree, Shadowsight?”

Shadowsight’s jaw dropped, and he stood gaping, utterly astonished. The false Bramblestar was staring straight at him. [...] The ThunderClan leader bared his teeth in a grin. “That’s right ... I can see you,” he meowed. “I knew you were trespassing in our territory the minute you appeared in the camp.” Shadowsight struggled to find words. “But how?” he asked eventually. [...] “[M]aybe,” Bramblestar continued, his face still set in the same chilling grin, “it’s because spirits can always recognize other spirits.” As Shadowsight stared at him with a mixture of fear and disbelief, he thought he saw the edges of Bramblestar’s body begin to blur, as though mist were seeping out of his pelt. A heartbeat later another cat slid out like smoke from a burning fire and stood in front of Shadowsight, while the body he had left slumped to the floor of the den. A glow pulsed around the cat’s pelt; Shadowsight found it hard to make out the color of his fur. But his eyes were dark blue, so different from Bramblestar’s warm amber ones. His gaze was fixed on Shadowsight with a menacing gleam.

VoS, PDF pages 254-255

Fire imagery and blue eyes (also mentioned on PDF page 303 by Bristlefrost)? hMmmmMMMMmmmmmmm....

Finally, the most damning of them all, in the scenes following the defeat of LBramble’s forces:

She was turning to leave the den when Bramblestar stirred again and his eyes flickered open. “Squirrelflight!” he called out in a pained, wheezing gasp. [...]

Bramblestar’s chest heaved as he fought to breathe, and he finally managed to force out a few more words. [...]

“I came back ... for you.”

The effort had been too much. Bramblestar’s body sagged and his eyes closed as he lapsed back into unconsciousness.

“Is he dead?” Squirrelflight asked, her eyes wide with alarm.

Shadowsight bent over the ThunderClan leader, placing a paw on his chest and sniffing around his muzzle. “No, he’s alive,” he mewed at last. Straightening up, he added, “Squirrelflight, what did that mean? ‘I came back for you’?”

For a moment Squirrelflight seemed completely confused, gazing up at the roof of the den and back down at Bramblestar’s motionless form. “I’m starting to think there’s something familiar about this fake Bramblestar,” she murmured. “But I can’t quite put my paw on what it is, or who it might actually be. I do know one thing, though,” she added, meeting Shadowsight’s concerned gaze. “I have a terrible feeling about all of this.”

Vos, PDF page 407

If the encounter with Shadowsight hadn’t sold you, this should. At the very end of the book, Squirrelflight exclaims that she figured out who the impostor is and they leave us on that cliffhanger. The reveal of Ashfur as our villain is just a matter of time, now.

[satonthelotuspier]

Fur and Feathers

So, a Shifter AU. I’ll probably dip into this verse quite a bit. This is part 1 of XiCheng, pre-relationship (at the Cloud Recesses) and setting it up for the  later parts of their story and relationship. There’ll definitely be some Wangxian to be written here as well as more XiCheng. Throw your requests at me if you want to see other’s etc and I’ll see if I can fit them into the verse. It wasn’t touched on for the purpose of this fic but LXC is a mountain hawk-eagle, I love how this fits because many of the pictures I’ve seen have the MHE having a tufty cluster of feathers on their head which is similar to the ornament LXC wears in the live action version.

Title taken from Jordan L Hawke’s hexworld series where the animal familiars tend to use “fur and feathers” as a curse/exclamation, because I’m not very creative with titles.

3.4k of cats being cats. Crack, probably?

XiCheng Part 1

Why had he let Wei Wuxian talk him into this? Jiang Cheng thought in despair as his sleek, black-furred body slipped urgently from deep shadow to shadow, trying to avoid the Lan Sect disciples who he could hear follow behind with their light, even steps. He panicked, crouched low to the ground in the lee of a bush and looked around for any escape.

There, there was a door that was still open to the cool night air.

He put everything he had into his legs and made a dash for the doorway.

The Lan disciples spotted the form of deeper shadow moving in the darkness of the night, but as he made the door he heard one of them stop the other, “You know we can’t enter the Hanshi, Zewu-jun will have to deal with whatever it is...”

Zewu-jun! Lan Xichen! Oh fuck. His claws scrabbled to gain purchase on the wooden floor.

He had to get out of the Hanshi, now, at all costs. He’d rather face the two chasing disciples than Lan Xichen, with him vulnerable in this form.

He had just altered his momentum and changed direction for the opened doorway again, when he felt gentle hands catch him around the ribcage and lift him up.

He yowled in outrage; take your hands off of me, how dare you ruffle my beautiful, sleek fur.

“Calm down, little one” the gentle, melodious voice was of course the First Jade of Lan’s; he was in so much trouble, “What a beautiful little thing you are. I wonder where you came from. None of the new students are registered as cat shifters”

That was his mother’s fault, Madam Yu Ziyuan was mortally embarrassed her male child, instead of a majestic king cat like his tigress sister, or even a sturdy, protective dog breed like his “useless” Samoyed father, had dared to be born a domestic cat shifter. You just couldn’t trust genetics.

He hissed at the sudden movement as Lan Xichen lifted him, and he wanted to dig a hole to bury himself when he realised the other was checking his bits to determine his sex.

I will scratch your insolent eyes out, shameless creature, he howled his rage, claws flexing impotently at the end of his delicate paws.

“There, there” he was folded into the other’s arms, “such a beautiful little boy” a soft finger scratched gently at his head.

No, please, no, no, no. This was bad…

The finger moved down the scruff of his neck and hit the point directly between his slender shoulder blades.

Nooooo.

He couldn’t stop the gentle rumble that began deep in his chest as Lan Xichen rubbed at one of the spots that was guaranteed to coax his purr from him.

He wanted to dig that hole even deeper as the sound of contentment and pleasure rolled from him in waves. Like most shifters sometimes his instincts were stronger than his ability to suppress them, and sometimes Jiang Cheng couldn’t help but want to curl up in someone’s lap and be stroked like the precious baby his animal was.

Wei Wuxian loved to tease him about it. But then what did Wei Wuxian not like to tease anyone about?

He couldn’t complain too much as Wei Wuxian, his adopted brother and Jiang Yanli, his elder sister, were the only two people he could really ask to provide such a service on demand.

“That’s such a lovely sound” Lan Xichen complimented him, keeping up the fusses that caused it, perpetuating Jiang Cheng’s internal conflict.

Lan Xichen moved over to the table that contained a half-used tea set, and sat down, with Jiang Cheng in his lap.

It turned out the only shameless thing was himself, as he curled up, nose under tail, and let his animal take complete control.

It was much later that evening when Jiang Cheng stirred himself; he really ought to think about escaping and returning back to Wei Wuxian and Nie Huaisang, who would no doubt be enjoying their smuggled Emperor’s Smile, safely achieved due to Jiang Cheng’s drawing the patrolling Lan disciples away.

He rose to four paws and stretched lazily, but as he looked up into the delicate, handsome face of the first Jade of Lan, he caught such a look of melancholy and sadness he was shocked into stillness.

Lan Xichen seemed to come back from his thoughts, and the look vanished, as he realised the black cat had moved.

“Did you have a nice nap, xiao-Zizi?”

Little Purple, because of the unusual colour of his eyes in cat form.

Even though he had banished the sadness from his face there was an aura that clung to him, and Jiang Cheng’s soft heart, which he kept buried deeply under layers or sarcasm, anger and a pretence of not caring, thrummed in sympathy.

He swallowed every ounce of pride he possessed, then stretched his claws up so he  stood on his back paws, with his front on the shoulder of Lan Xichen’s robes, then he rubbed his cheek against Lan Xichen’s. This was usually a cat’s way of marking it’s family, but it was also very cute and guaranteed to make a gentle soul like Lan Xichen smile.

It did, and Jiang Cheng mewled in approval as the other’s mouth curved gently.

He considered his role fulfilled, and jumped down from Lan Xichen’s lap with the intention of leaving. Except there was a tassel. It was attached to the jade pendant hanging from Lan Xichen’s belt.

Instincts again took him as he leapt forward to catch it under his front paws, claws digging into the threads and robes.

His cat’s body, like his human body, was just reaching the end of childhood; it was all gangly legs and too-big paws and playfulness, and it was a lot harder to stop his kitten’s urge to play than it was his human’s; where he was expected to show a much higher level of maturity.

Instead of the telling off he expected Lan Xichen merely chuckled and actually began to tease him with the tassel, allowing him to chase and pounce and hunt, butt-wiggle and all. He even detached it from the pendant and tossed it across the room to watch as the leggy young cat scrabbled over to enact a killing pounce.

By the end of their playtime Jiang Cheng was so exhausted that when Lan Xichen went to sleep he also curled up on the other’s chest, uncaring of the impropriety because he was a cat, and cats didn’t care about rules. It also meant he got extra fusses, which cats, despite their sometimes cold demeanours, did care about.

***

He had hugely miscalculated, Jiang Cheng realised as he woke up the next morning alone and curled with his nose under his tail on Lan Xichen’s bed.

It wasn’t much after five in the morning, but classes began soon, and he had to make his way back across the Cloud Recesses, without the security of night shadows the colour of his fur, to hide in.

He stretched, then slunk out of the Hanshi’s door to assess his trip.

It was misty and cool and there was dew everywhere; he was going to hate this. Unless he turned back to his human form. Honestly he was ready to let his cat instincts lie for a while now anyway; they had been given free reign far too much the previous evening, and if his mother found out he would be in serious trouble.

But his human form provided far too many other complications, like explaining what a visiting disciple was doing in the first young lord of Lan’s private sanctum, and the fact he was neither stealthy nor small enough to evade detection in it.

His cat would just have to suck it up and travel through the dew-strewn morning.

He matched actions to thoughts and eventually arrived safely back at their lodgings.

Wei Wuxian scooped him up as he opened the door to Jiang Cheng’s scratching.

“Where have you been? We were just about to start combing the entire Cloud Recesses for you” Wei Wuxian set him down on his bed, and gave him the space to return to his human form.

Which he did with a deep sigh of relief.

“I was trapped in the Hanshi, with Lan Xichen. I had to stay a cat or I’d have been in so much trouble. Sometimes I suppose A-Niang’s refusal to acknowledge that I’m a cat shifter has it’s uses” he tried to make a joke of it, as he always did, but it never cut him any less that he was a disappointment to his family on something he had absolutely no control over at all.

His mother always registered his shifter form as a Xiasi hound.

Wei Wuxian held his tongue on that subject.

Nie Huaisang, who had become firm friends with the two Yunmeng boys during their first few days in Gusu, fluttered his fan nervously, “You spent the night in Lan Xichen’s rooms?”

“I was being chased by two Lan Disciples, and I ducked through the nearest door. They didn’t follow me into the Hanshi. But Lan Xichen was there, so I couldn’t get away. I had to cat”

“I would have paid to have seen you acting all cute with the First Jade of Lan” Wei Wuxian grinned, enormously entertained by the thought, “But we can’t let him find out it was you” he agreed. “You should get changed, we’ll be late for class”

“I need to bathe” really, the only thing that ruled Jiang Cheng’s world in both forms was his rigorous personal hygiene routine. He would rather die than cut it short in any way.

Wei Wuxian was fully aware of what Jiang Cheng was like and had kept a bath drawn for him.

“It will be cold, sorry, be quick, you’ll draw attention to yourself if you’re late” Wei Wuxian informed him as he moved to the door with Nie Huaisang in tow.

“I know, I’ll be done as soon as possible”

The other two left him to his toilette as he began shedding robes.

***

Carefully groomed he made it just in time to slip into the classroom and kneel at his desk before Lan Qiren and his eldest nephew, Lan Xichen arrived.

They found out immediately what Lan Xichen’s attendance was for; Jiang Cheng should have known he wouldn’t let the sudden, unexplained appearance of a cat lie.

Under the pretence of checking their administration they questioned if there were any cat shifters present as someone had thought they might have seen one the previous evening.

Jiang Cheng lowered his gaze, hiding his flush with the fall of his hair, and Wei Wuxian, being Wei Wuxian, decided to distract the room.

“Are they sure it wasn’t a sable, Lan-gongzi? I’m a sable, look at how cute I am” and he slipped into his animal form and dashed to the front of the classroom and onto the desk to show off his cuteness.

The rest of the classroom of course found this greatly amusing, and even Lan Xichen smiled a little.

“Yes, thank you Wei-gongzi, for the demonstration” he picked Wei Wuxian up and returned him to his own desk, more to protect the younger man from his uncle’s ire than any other reason, and Wei Wuxian returned to his human form.

“See, I look a lot like a cat, right?” Wei Wuxian asked with a huge smile; one that got him out of trouble with Jiang Cheng’s father every time.

“I’ll bear that in mind, Wei-gongzi” Lan Xichen left soon afterwards, having received no further clue as to the identity of his night time visitor.

***

He was returning from the library pavilion late the following evening when Jiang Cheng stumbled upon the Two Jades of Lan, who were strolling towards the Lan living areas in the soft moonlight; and Jiang Cheng caught the tail end of their conversation.

“How are you and Wei-gongzi getting along, Wangji?”

What had Jiang Cheng missed?

Apparently whatever it was, Lan Wangji had also missed it.

“Xiongzhang, I don’t understand? Wei Wuxian and I have no interaction outside of uncle’s classroom. He’s frivolous, careless, and irreverent. He also makes my nose twitch”

“That would be your inner rabbit” there was a small smile in Lan Xichen’s voice, “You should try to make more friends your own age while we have so many young cultivators here at the Cloud Recesses, Wangji, Wei-gongzi’s personality is a little trying, I’ll grant you, but he has a large heart, and he’s very personable. He would balance out your more reserved personality, and vice versa. Friendships often work best when opposites attract”

There was a soft “hmph” from the younger Jade, and the sound of gravel underfoot quickened, indicating Lan Wangji walked away from his elder brother, who chuckled softly.

Jiang Cheng hadn’t meant to spy on them, but the moment he had heard Wei Wuxian being talked of he had assumed his cat form and followed the two Jades from the shadows, ensuring he was on hand if Wei Wuxian’s reputation needed protecting. Lan Xichen had spoken nothing if not the truth, however, so now Jiang Cheng found himself left alone in the shadows near the elder Lan sibling.

He was about to stealth away when he noticed the other look up at the stars briefly. That melancholic aura surrounded him again, and Jiang Cheng was caught between following his first intention of leaving, or making himself known and trying to cheer up the elder Jade.

He tried to tell himself it wasn’t his responsibility; everyone had their own worries to carry in this world, and Lan Xichen’s were nothing to do with him.

It would have been useful if he ever listened to his own good advice.

Instead he slunk out of the shadows and pressed against Lan Xichen’s ankles.

***

Thus began nights of his sneaking off to provide whatever comfort and distraction he could to the Lan Sect heir.

He didn’t allow himself to be caught out like on the first morning though, and around the change of a day he would slink away back to his rooms, sometimes to find Wei Wuxian and Nie Huaisang engaged in drinking, which he would join them in.

Wei Wuxian began talking quite a lot about Lan Wangji, especially in his cups and Jiang Cheng couldn’t help thinking about the conversation he had overheard between the Lan siblings.

From what Wei Wuxian said it seemed Lan er-gongzi was as unreceptive of the advances Wei Wuxian made as he had been when Lan Xichen had suggested to Lan Wangji that he try to make friends.

Really Jiang Cheng wasn’t surprised; he loved Wei Wuxian like a brother, (if he was pushed on the matter and forced to admit his feelings), but he wasn’t blind to the fact Wei Wuxian was an acquired taste, and one his own palate wasn’t fully inured to on occasion.

It continued so for some weeks.

Until one night he was guilted into staying with Wei Wuxian and Nie Huaisang after the former had made a successful trip down the mountain to obtain Emperor’s Smile.

Although Wei Wuxian had a high tolerance for alcohol it did loosen his tongue, and he began complaining.

“You don’t mark us as much anymore” there was a definite pout in his voice, and Jiang Cheng started. He referred of course to the rub of a cheek against family and close friends Jiang Cheng used to scent people as his social group.

“Yes I do. As much as I can get away with here in Gusu, I can’t do it as freely as at Lotus Pier Wei Wuxian, you know what would happen to me if mother found out I let the cat out of the bag”

Wei Wuxian found his choice of idiom hilarious and laughed heartily, while Nie Huaisang waved his fan at Wei Wuxian, urging him to be quiet less they be discovered.

Then he did quieten, “No you don’t, and you never want to stay and drink with us, and Huaisang has such amazing pornography too. All you want to do is sneak away to be with Lan Xichen” the size of the pout in his voice had increased at least threefold.

He supposed he couldn’t deny he had spent most of the past weeks playing therapy animal in the Hanshi.

“Wei Wuxian, don’t be like that…”

“You give him all my fusses, you haven’t wanted to curl up in my lap since we got here. I’m your brother, I have a right!”

The last sentence was spoken at the same time as Jiang Cheng said: “Wei Wuxian…” and a third voice from the doorway added to the cacophony.

“So it was you” Lan Xichen, summoned to catch them drinking by a patrolling disciple, had walked in at the perfect point in the conversation to finally find out who the mysterious cat who visited him most nights was.

He sounded enraged.

“I would love to know what kind of silly entertainment you all took from your little scheme, but...well, never mind”

“It wasn’t entertainment” Jiang Cheng jumped to his feet, his panic dissipating into anger. His gesture had been meant as nothing but kindness, even enacted under the cloak of secrecy, and he didn’t feel he deserved such censure.

“That’s quite enough, Jiang-gongzi, you will all be punished in the morning for the rules you have broken. I feel I should write to the Council of Elders and inform them you’re misrepresenting yourself on shifter registers, too”

That threat cut deeper than any other Lan Xichen could have made, and Jiang Cheng’s already ashen complexion went a shade paler.

“You can’t, you don’t understand…”

“I said that’s enough” and the first Jade of Lan turned and left.

***

Jiang Cheng stayed only long enough to receive his punishment the following morning, then set out back to Yunmeng to enact damage control and explain to Madam Yu that her falsifying of his shifter records might be brought to light.

She was enraged, and Jiang Cheng didn’t think there was a safe space in the world for him at that moment. If he wasn’t reminded constantly what a fool he had been by his mother, he was reminded by his own memories and Lan Xichen’s anger.

He could only stay out of her way; hiding for the most part with Jiang Yanli.

His sister kept him sane, giving him the sympathy and protection he so desperately needed at the moment.

Wei Wuxian wrote shortly after his return, to inform him he had spoken rather sharply on his behalf to Lan Xichen, explaining his motivations, that it definitely hadn’t been for the purposes of entertainment at the first Jade’s expense.

He had also begged the other to not write to the Council of Elders, explaining it wasn’t Jiang Cheng’s choice, nor fault, that he was falsely registered on all his shifter documentation.

A while later he received a second letter. The cloud seal, and elegant script suggested it might be from Lan Xichen. His childish first instinct was to burn it immediately, unread.  He was still bitter the other hadn’t given him a chance to explain, and had had him punished for a kindness.

But he also wanted vindication.

Eventually the second motivation won out and he read it.

It wasn’t quite the full exoneration he had wanted. But the Lan Sect heir did apologise for reacting as he had, so immediately and without allowing Jiang Cheng to offer any defence on his own behalf.

Lan Xichen informed him he wouldn’t write to the Council, and that he would keep his secret on that issue given the circumstances.

Lan Xichen did still blame him for being so secretive about his identity, and said he should never have assumed Lan Xichen would welcome that kind of interference. Which Jiang Cheng accepted fully. He had entirely taken it upon himself to provide comfort.

Finally the first Jade of Lan suggested they meet to discuss the matter and set it to rest.

Not a chance.

Once he had read the letter fully Jiang Cheng did burn it, and didn’t reply.

A fourteen year old boy, no matter how mature he was expected to be, wouldn’t so easily forgive such a humiliation.

[pi-cat000]

MSA time travel idea (part 35)

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, Vivi POV, 8, 9, 10, Lewis POV, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, Lance POV 18, 19, Lewis POV 2, 21 , 22, Vivi POV 2, 24, 25  Lewis POV 3,  Mystery POV , Vivi POV 3, 29, Lewis POV 4, 31, ViVi POV 4 , 33, 34

Part 36: here

.

LEWIS POV:

Whereas he barely felt the knife stabbing into him, Lewis definitely feels it come out. It doesn’t help that the thing pretending to be Arthur seems to be going out of its way to cause as much pain as possible. And yes, there is a lot of pain. Even with a whole lot of adrenaline smoothing over the worst of it, it is probably the worst thing Lewis has ever experienced. It briefly whites out his vision, so he almost misses Arthur as he steps out of the torchlight. What Lewis does see, in amongst the white spots, is that twisted uncanny smile, smug and self-assured. Nothing like any expression he has seen Arthur make before. It’s all wrong.

Lewis doesn’t remember kneeling, but he must have because suddenly Vivi is crouched in front of him, supporting his weight, preventing from face-planting into the concrete. Quickly, she ties her scarf around his side.

“I’m fine,” He mutters, trying to wave her away, “Go after Arthur.”

“You’ve been stabbed,” Vivi objects, frustrated, adding, “…and I can’t,” blue eyes meeting his before flicking over to Mystery who is blocking her way. The dog is glowing red, and his growls make Lewis’s neck prickle with unease despite not being the target. Right. Because, not only is Arthur possessed by that thing, but Mystery is a supernatural whatever as well. If he weren’t in so much pain, the revelation would be more impactful.

His next words are drowned out by another louder shout.

“ALRIGHT ASSHOLE…STOP RIGHT THERE!”

Both he and Vivi turn. Lewis stares openly at the middle-aged man who seems to have materialised from the gloom, holding a shotgun that moves between all three of them, landing on Arthur.

“Nobody move.” Is ordered in a tone consisting of visibly uncontained rage which doesn’t bode well in the slightest. Just when Lewis thinks they are done with the nasty surprises, another one comes crawling from the woodwork. Lewis struggles to stand so he’s ready to run if need be, his side throbs with a spike of intense pain.

The man, Lewis vaguely recognises him but, with the darkened surroundings, he is hard to really place, addresses Vivi, “Never heard of Arthur huh?”

Vivi stiffens, and Lewis realises, with a quick note of leather clothing, that this must be the leather-wearing crazy guy from earlier. Though, given the circumstances, perhaps he isn’t as crazy as initially thought.

“Good thing I didn’t believe yah now isn’t. You kids are in some real shit,” The man glowers past them, “I finally got ya. Nowhere to run now.”

“I’m sorry. Have we met? You human’s all look alike,” The body snatcher, Lewis refuses to think of this thing as Arthur, sounds mildly irritated.

“You fucking know who I am!”

“Oh, don’t flatter yourself.” Lewis recognises one of his chef knives as it is waved around flippantly.

“Sonofabitch. You’re going to regret messing with…”

“Hold it. Wait…” The body snatcher interrupts, clicking its fingers, “I remember. Wait. No…I’ve lost it. Maybe give me a hint?”

The man’s face twists into a snarl of furry, “Slimy rat-bastard…If you think for one…”

“Oh! I’ve got it! Mickey. No. Micky. Yes. Apologies. You were such a useless, forgettable host that it completely slipped my mind.” If the body snatcher is trying to make the other man mad, it is succeeding. Worried, Lewis observes the livid expression on the gunman’s face. Even in the dark, the rage is very apparent.

“How is that gunshot wound treating you? It looks infected.”

“How about I give you a matching one, and you can tell me all about it!?”

“Tch,” Arthur’s green eyes narrow losing some of their humour. Then, seemingly addressing none of the people present, it comments, “And this is exactly why leaving hosts alive always backfires.”

Before, when the creature had been supposedly conversing with Mystery, it had made clear eye-contact with the dog. Now, it gestures loosely into the middle distance. It’s talking to Arthur, he realises, and it simultaneously fills him with hope and makes him sick to the stomach.

“They all get this notion in their head that it’s my fault their pathetic lives went down the toilet. And then it’s all ‘you’ll pay for this’ and whatnot.” It turns Arthur’s eyes back to Micky, “I suppose you’re still mad about your brother. Dan was it?”

“Don’t say you dare say his name!”

“Dan? Short for Daniel? The most promising exorcist in three generations and far better than you could ever be? That Daniel? …Maybe if you’d been even half of what he was, you wouldn’t have been possessed so damn easily. I mean, this kid put up more of a fight, and he’s pretty much a walking collection of neurosis.’”

“I said shut the fuck up!”

“Did you even go back to bury him, or did you just leave him there? What happened to all the ritual, funeral nonsense to send his soul on its merry way? How disrespectful.”

The gun clicks. It’s like it wants to get shot! Lewis feels Vivi tense beside him and knows that she has come to the same conclusion.

“Stop!” Vivi lurches uprights, trying and failing to dodge around Mystery. “If you shoot, you’ll kill Arthur!”

“That fucking brat sent us to our deaths. He’s just as guilty.”

The body snatcher sniggers, “I’m sure Dan would be very unimpressed at how you’re threatening this poor innocent human. I mean, if he weren’t a shish-kebab at the bottom of a cave.”

A loud, almost animalistic, yell. In the fraction of an instant before the gun goes off, Arthur’s body lurches to the right. For a moment, it looks like Arthur might manage to dodge. Lewis’s breath catches.

Crack.

The gun fires. Arthur flickers. It is as if, for a split second, there are two people overlayed atop each other. If the body snatcher is planning to dodge, protecting both itself and Arthur, it fails, stumbling, visibly hurt.

Next, there is an explosion of energy, briefly lighting the space with ominous red. From the flash leaps a giant canid creature with many lashing tails, obstructing his view. The gunman, obviously just as surprised by its appearance, turns wildly, aiming the gun at the new threat. A second shot discharges with another loud crack, point-blank, right into second monster’s chest. The giant- Lewis thinks it might be a fox- doesn’t falter, slamming into the gun-wielding maniac, jaws closing on the weapon.

“Arthur!” Vivi’s voice snaps his attention back to Arthur. Lewis is not sure where the bullet has hit but the way the body snatcher’s face twists, spitting to itself, “You little shit,” before toppling over backwards, means it hit somewhere. He struggles to follow Vivi, who has already run forward, ignoring how his side burns and his breath is more laboured than it should be. Lewis hurries up to his prone friend, spotting the quickly spreading stain of red on Arthur’s left shoulder.

“Shit. Shit. Shit.” Vivi mutters, “Bleeding…that’s a lot of blood. Need to control the bleeding.” She pulls off her shirt, placing it over the wound, pressing down. Arthur’s eyes snap open, bright green, focusing on Vivi and then on him. They flicker to golden-brown.

“Arthur?” Vivi breaths, also noticing the change.

“Vi…”

“Shh. Don’t speak. Everything will be okay. I don’t think its hit anything important. Just lie still.”

Gold flickers to green again, and Arthur grins, “What’s…up. You…goin…watch him die …with me?” The words get chocked off when the gold returns. The smiles twists into something more pained. Lewis leans in as Arthur tries to speak again.

“No.” Vivi puts out a hand, leaving a red mark on his shirt, “Don’t make skin contact.”

Green and gold flicker again, so fast that the two colours bleed into each other like coloured ink running together. “Even if …you save him…I’ll be here. You’ll never get me out…He’ll be mine for…” It’s the body snatcher, struggling to form words as blood trickles out the corner of Arthur’s mouth.

“Don’t talk,” Vivi snaps. The hand nearest to him twitches, trying to touch her wrist. But the blood loss has made it slow and lethargic, allowing Vivi to draw away.

“Lewis, hold his arm down so it doesn’t try to grab me. I need to keep pressure on this. Do you have your phone on you? We need to call for help, like an ambulance, and….”

Vivi’s instructions wash over him as he stares at the hand then back at Arthur. If they do save Arthur, then they would be right back to where they started, with this thing piloting around his friend’s body. Probably, hurting Arthur in the process because he can’t imagine that it’s a present experience. Lewis takes his phone from his back pocket and places in on the ground.

“Lew…is.” It’s Arthur again, barely managing to speak, breathing hard as Vivi pushes down, stemming the worst of the flow. Even the two words sound so defeated and sad. Lewis can’t just do nothing. Not when he can save Arthur from this thing. In that moment, in the seconds between Arthur’s breathing and the sounds of fighting behind him, Lewis reaches to take Arthur’s hand.

“Look after Arthur.” He orders. Vivi makes a brief noise of objection, but it is too late.

Skin against skin.

Arthur’s hand is unnaturally cold.

There is a sharp pain in his palm which travels up the limb. Quickly, he lurches upright, stumbling two steps back to get as far away from Vivi and Arthur as possible. A portion of his arm begins to turn a sickly green, which travels up towards his shoulder. Arthur, the real Arthur, is now the picture of horror.

“W…hy?” His friend coughs. Lewis finds he can’t respond, body frozen. Slowly, green creeps, inching along, making his skin crawl.

Then, a heavy weight hits him from behind, causing him to stagger. Jaws and sharp teeth clamp down around his upper arm, halting the green. One large, red eye stares at him, almost apologetic. As if moving in slow motion, Lewis sees the fox bite and hears the crunch of bone splintering. Blood droplets spin hypnotically in the air.

It is probably fortunate that, right then, Lewis is yanked back and away. If he can’t handle the pain of a stab wound, he can’t imagine enjoying the sensation of having his arm ripped apart. This is what Lewis thinks while he falls into deeper, more complete darkness.

He is falling, nothingness surrounding him. He is falling right up until he isn’t.

Above him, a ceiling fades into view. Confused, he blinks at the pale grey roof overhead. Is he dead? He doesn’t feel dead. Hurriedly, Lewis sits upright, grasping for his arm. It is still there, attached to his shoulder, no worse for wear. Except, Lewis’s eyes widen, watching the limb flicker, disappearing then reappearing. He can feel it and move it, but when he stares at it for too long, it doesn’t seem real. Transparent.

“…have known… too good to be true….It’s always too good to be true…” The irritated voice, though muffled, is familiar. Lewis twists, searching for its source, finding himself on the floor of a grey-coloured version of the Kingsman workshop. However, unlike Kingsman Mechanics, which was always alive with activity and the sound of machinery, everything here is still and eerily silent. Through the open garage doors, instead of the Tempo desert, Lewis sees an expanse of endless grey void. Across the floor and ceiling spreads several jagged cracks like the room is seconds from falling to pieces.

“…there was no way in any of the hells that some punk human would get away with breaking The Rules and not have it blow up in their stupid face...”

Leaning against the workbench, a few feet away, is Arthur. Only, it’s not Arthur. The skin is tinted green, not unlike his arm in those brief moments before Lewis was pulled down here.

“…and I just got suckered in like some witless porn.” Growling, kicking the bench irritably, not-Arthur grumbles, “What a waste of potential.”

Slowly, Lewis tries to climb to his feet without catching its attention. He is unsuccessful because, no sooner has he moved, its eyes snap to him. Now, instead of bright green, they are flecked with golden yellow.

“Hello Lewis,” It greets in a voice so like Arthur’s that it grates on Lewis’s ears. A larger crack appears across the ceiling, lengthening, almost splitting the room in half. Grey dust rains down around them, and the room shakes.

“Nice of you to stop by, even if it is for a few seconds. I was so looking forward to possessing you too. It really is a shame.”

Lewis glares at the twisted, mock version of his friend, who, despite everything, is still grinning. Now his mind is no longer muddled with the pain of a stab wound, there is new mounting anger. He clenches a fist.

“What’s the matter big guy? Had a rough day? Not often you get stabbed by your best friend now is it?”

Lewis should be scared. This thing has made it apparent that it didn’t give two shits about killing him. Hell, this bastard had stabbed him. Lewis glances briefly at his side. There is no wound to be seen. In his mind’s eye, he sees the last few minutes flash past. He can see Arthur, in pain. His best friend had looked so defeated. Somehow he knows it is this things fault. Everything until now, all the supernatural weirdness and confusion, this thing is at the centre of it all. No, Lewis isn’t scared. He's furious.

"There's the Lewis I was waiting to see. None of that sentimental concerned crap…only anger,” The fake-Arthur grins wider, noting his rage.

"This is your fault." He snaps in lieu of a proper come-back, taking an aggressive step forward clenching and unclenching his fist. "What did you do to Arthur.”

“Hehe, still more worried about Arthur? You really should adjust your priorities, considering there is a high chance that my removal will kill you. Losing an arm isn’t pretty.”

Lewis twitches. The rage builds. It builds in waves, expanding to fill his chest and, before he knows it, he’s across the room, picking the fake-Arthur up by the shirt, and slamming into a wall. There is no real-Arthur here to hold him back. He wants to wipe that smile off its face and make it pay for all the stress and hurt it has forced on all of them in the last few days.

“What happened to Arthur!”

A scoff of contempt. “Nothing happened to Artie, aside from getting shot, he’s back in his body. All he had to do was sit back and not interfere, but instead, he got in the way like the suicidal little shit he is. I’d watch out for that, your friend is a real basket case.”

Lewis sees fire and red. He slams the creature against the wall, causing new cracks to form and spread like a spider web. It feels unevenly satisfying to hurt this creature. It feels good right up until the body snatcher turns its face into something that looks almost exactly like Arthur. No smug smile. Just pain. If it weren’t for the green skin, Lewis might have believed it.

“So willing to hurt Arthur. You’re giving me goosebumps.”

His grip falters. “You’re not Arthur,” He retorts.

“No. But I look like him.  Not that that matters when assigning blame. No wonder Arthur is scared of you.”

His anger simmers down into something more akin to apprehension. Before, outside his family diner, the demon had said something about knowing the truth behind Arthur’s reason for avoiding him. What did this thing know?

Lewis grits his teeth, "I didn't do anything to Arthur. I couldn’t of. It must be something else. Another variable." That’s what Vivi said, and she is right. Why does it sound like he's trying to convince himself now?

"Is that what you think, or is that what our good friend Vivi thinks? She's smart, I'll give you that, a real catch, but you can't rely on her for everything. You have to make your own decisions based on what you want. You know Arthur is scared. You saw it. Pure fear."

The body snatcher gives him a shove in the chest, forcing Lewis to drop the other to the floor. Tense, he watches it spend a moment straitening its shirt in a very Arthur-like move. Suddenly, he feels very guilty despite knowing this was only a replica of his friend.

It grins again, glancing up, “I can show you, you know. I have Arthur’s memories. I can leave them behind before I’m forced to leave." More cracks are appearing now, covering every surface like one half of the room is about to fall away. Deliberately, fake-Arthur leans towards him, “What do you say?”

“Arthur will tell me the truth when he’s ready.” Lewis wants to object further but finds the words stuck.

It laughs, an unpleasant sound, full of malice, “Not if he thinks the truth will hurt you. He’ll continue lying for forever if he thinks it’ll protect you. Besides, you might die right now, so Arthur might not even get the chance. Then you’ll never know.”

Uneasy, Lewis swallows, realising that it is right. Arthur would lie to protect him and Vivi. It is probably the reason why he’d been lying for the last few weeks.  Lewis frowns down at the ground, breaking eye contact, trying to work through what he actually wants and not liking the answer. Its got him. Despite knowing that having Arthur’s memories is a bad idea that it will cause more harm than good, he finds he doesn’t care.

"Well, do you want the truth or not? Quickly now, I don't have a lot of time here."

Why is Arthur scared? He needs to know why. He desperately needs to know.

“I want to know.” He says it before he can really help it.

One elongated step and the body snatcher is suddenly close, acting before Lewis can change his mind. He attempts to move back, but the body snatcher is reaching up, grabbing his collar, yanking him down to eye level, “Good choice.”

Lewis instinctively pulls back, but the faker's eyes swirl hypnotically, shifting to a more potent green, holding him in place.

"It’s been nice talking, I think I’m beginning to see why Arthur’s so damn obsessed with you, so much delicious internal conflict...but alas our time is up.”

The walls around them crumble, splintering apart.

“It may be a day, a year or even a few decades, but I’ll be back so we’ll meet again. That's a promise."

The workshop dissolves.

"Until then, enjoy Arthur’s memories. And remember, you wanted this."

..

Note: Lewis joins Arthur in the pit of bad decisions. 

Part 36: here

[kyokkou]

𝐚𝐧 𝐨𝐟𝐟𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐟𝐫𝐨𝐦 𝐚 𝐝𝐞𝐦𝐨𝐧 | part eight. first year of the reiwa era (2019- )

☼ part seven. ☼

                    ❝No matter how far apart we may be                     Our dreams never cease eternally                     I shall find all my dreams that I lost on my way.❞

          THE DREAMS HAD RETURNED to Hikaru in the recent years, happening fairly regularly now that Kiku had begun to see their house spirit and even get along with her in spite of her mischievous personality, yet the inugami never showed himself. It was the same dream again; they had just met, and were sharing a meal. Hikaru could ask all the questions he wanted, but inugami's answers were muted. When Hikaru woke up, he felt lost; if it wasn't for Kiku and the children, he might go about his days like some sort of zombie.           THE CHILDREN WERE OUT WITH KIKU and one of the ships visiting from Yokosuka-- her name was Oyashio, and Kiku had taken a liking to how dutiful and studious she was; surely, she could be trusted with babysitting duty outside of her job, couldn't she? Hikaru had been worried at first, but seeing that Akimitsu had even begun to warm up to her, it was hard not to admit that perhaps she was a good candidate to come get them after school and watch them until he and Kiku returned home from their respective jobs... and he also found himself saying this out loud as he left some sweets in the store room for their zashiki warashi.

          ❝OH, YOU REALLY ARE WORRIED, AREN'T YOU?❞ She asked, laughing a little as she picked up the offering and began to eat. ❝Akimitsu-kun really likes Oyashio. He tells me so many things. I like Akimitsu.❞           ❝HE TALKS TO YOU REGULARLY?❞ Hikaru answered with his own question-- it was rare that Akimitsu spoke to anyone but him, and he still called Kiku a demon in spite of being corrected all the time. His trust was still not repaired, and Hikaru worried it never would be. ❝Well, I suppose you can tell I'm worried whether I say it or not...❞           ❝OF COURSE I CAN, you've been more restless in your sleep. That's when I move his books around,❞ she admitted. Hikaru didn't bother scolding her; it was just what she did as their resident house spirit. That, and he was a little too concerned that he was noticably having a hard time sleeping. He might not be able to hide it from Kiku, but he also didn't want to explain why he was having such difficulties.           ❝DID YOU EVER MEET AN INUGAMI who used to come here? He had red eyes and two tails--❞ Hikaru blurted out his question rather desperately-- if anyone should know, shouldn't it be her? ❝He was very kind towards me, and he always said he would repay me somehow, but I haven't seen him in so long-- at least not in person... and I wonder if he might be displeased with me for the years that I couldn't see any of you.❞           THE ANSWER HE GOT came in the form of her playful laughter as she devoured the last bit of the food he had brought for her, and he didn't know what to make of it. ❝Of course I know him, he's still here. He likes you a lot,❞ she responded, her words muffled slightly as she chomped on the mochi-- but as soon as she swallowed the last mouthful, she jumped up and ran off, getting lost in all of the clutter of the storeroom. Down on the ground floor, the dogs were barking like mad-- the rest of the family had returned home.           WEEK AFTER WEEK he brought different kinds of sweets as offerings and ask over and over again how she knew he was here-- and in that case, where was he? If the inugami wasn't angry with him, then why couldn't Hikaru see him anymore? Why were all of his dreams leading him to think that he had somehow ruined their friendship? The house spirit sighed as she stood up, another plate of sweets consumed without answers for Hikaru.           ❝I TOLD YOU HE'S BEEN HERE THE WHOLE TIME,and if you have to keep asking, I want more sweets in return! This game isn't fun anymore...❞ she answered with a slight whine. Hikaru gave an apologetic bow and took the empty plate back, mumbling a quick apology and promising to stop as he left the storeroom to go make dinner. He was quiet most of the night, claiming he was simply tired from not getting enough rest the past few weeks and blaming work. Kiku was easy to satisfy when he was too tired for persistence, and Hikaru was thankful for it. As he curled up to sleep, he dreaded the dreams that awaited him.           ❝WHY CAN'T YOU SPEAK TO ME-- are you angry with me? I don't know what I can do to make it up to you,❞ Hikaru pleaded. He watched helplessly as the inugami mouthed his answer, unable to speak as per usual in these dreams. This time, though, Hikaru reached out to grab him as he turned to leave. Instantaneously, the inugami burst into a flurry of snowy white chrysanthemums. Hikaru's distress was not limited to his dream; Kiku was up for the morning, and watching Hikaru whimper in his sleep. It didn't take long before he couldn't stand to watch his discomfort anymore, and he gently nudged him awake.           WHEN HIKARU'S EYES SLOWLY OPENED he spent a solid thirty seconds staring at the ceiling, and reached up to brush away the sleep from his eyes, only to find dried tears. Ashamed, he looked over at Kiku, still sitting next to him with one hand on his shoulder. This time, though, Hikaru's eyes finally met Kiku's gaze, and his chest tightened suddenly.                                                 PART NINE (FINAL) COMING SOON!

[raven-moon33]

concept

In Journey to the West, nearly every time Sanzang gets captured by demons, it is due to him wholeheartedly believing the half-baked sob stories disguised demons give him while simultaneously ignoring Wukong’s warnings on what these demons really are. (Despite the fact it’s been proven time and again over the course of nearly two decades that Wukong has Sanzang’s back and no reason to lie about demons-in-disguise).

I think (and correct me if I’m wrong here) that it can generally be agreed that even the most gullible and stubborn amongst us would quickly grow to trust Wukong’s judgement on these things by the third or fourth could’ve-easily-been-avoided encounters with bloodthirsty demons.

Now, keeping this in mind, we must also remember that, in order to attain Buddhahood, Sanzang had to undergo 81 tribulations. In fact, many of the group’s misadventures were the direct results of celestial interference in order to ensure Sanzang faced the neccessary number of trials.

Taking both of these facts into account, I would now like to submit before the jury that a conversation along these lines likely occured between Sanzang and the Bodhisattva Guanyin either before or very early on in the journey:

(Guanyin)G: What’s that you’re packing?

(Sanzang)S: This? It’s my long staff. My elders have trained me in the art of self defense so I will be sufficiently prepared for any dangers I may encounter on the long journey ahead of me.

G: Oh, you won’t be needing that. I have arranged it so that you’ll be getting four powerful disciples who will protect you on your journey.

S: That’s very kind of you Bodhisattva, but shouldn’t I be able to defend myself in case I get captured by demons or rogues? I don’t want to be helpless after all.

G: Yeah, about that...You remember that the journey to enlightenment involves overcoming obstacles?

S: ...Yes...?

G: Well, in your case it’s going to take 81 life-or-death type trials, so it’ll make things easier if you just let things happen y’know? So no weapons or self defense for you mister.

S: That...that seems a tad...excessive...must I really undergo 81 trials involving such danger? Is that a prerequisite for all monks looking to become Buddhas?

G: Well no, typically you just have to relinquish all worldly attachments and strive to do good in all things to become a Buddha, but see, I’m looking to redeem a few spirits- your future disciples fyi- and one of them in particular is going to have to save you A LOT in order to redeem himself for his past crimes. :)

S: ??! And who have you chosen to be my disciples exactly??

And, in no particular order, a few more similar conversations/events throughout the journey west:

S: There’s no way in heck I’m eating this chick’s food. She’s clearly a demon and that rice is definitely poison. I better yell for Wukong before Wuneng chokes on his own saliva or Wujing and Bailong try her food-

G: (Speaking directly into his mind) No wait! This is a perfect opportunity!

S: For what??

G: For one of your trials! We have to squeeze a lot of them in, so might as well start early. And this one wasn’t even planned!

S: But Bodhisattva, I’m pretty sure she’s trying to eat me.

G: That’s the idea.

S: ...Are you really trying to help me or were we enemies in a past life?

G: Great just like that. Okay now tell him you want him gone and to never both you or your disciples again.

S: But he’s only trying to protect me!

G: Oh don’t worry, he’ll ‘convince’ you to let him stay. It’ll take at least two more times before he actually leaves.

S: Don’t we need him to stay on the journey??

G: Well of course we do silly! We’ll just give him a few days to realize how he misses you lot and once you, Wujing, and Bailong get captured or immobolized by a demon we’ll send Wuneng back to get him. Wukong learns the power of friendship and Wuneng gets knocked down a peg. Win-win!

S: Is this demon really powerful enough to capture the three of us and make Wuneng desperate enough to beg Wukong for help?

G: Oh not a chance. I’m talking about the other one up the road.

S: WHAT-

S: Oh yeah, random child tied to a tree, supposedly for days yet showing no sign of dehydration or bodily damage. That’s not suspicious or anything.

G: Now Sanzang-

S: I know, I know. 81 tribulations yadda yadda yadda.

G: Atta’ boy! Oh, before I forget, it might be hard tied up and stuff, but could you try to make sure Wukong doesn’t do too much damage to this one? I’m liking the looks of him and think I might want to make him my disciple.

S: ...why- I don’t- WHY ARE YOU LIKE THIS?

(Wukong)W: Master they’re demons! If you go with them they’ll eat you!

S: (Cringing internally) Now Wukong, how could you say this slander about such honest, hard-working souls?

(Wuneng/Pigsy)P: Yes yes, such kind souls! You should listen to Master, eldest brother. Never could such fine-featured ladies harbor any sinister intentions!

W: But Master they’re tricking you! 

S: (Internal pained sigh) Enough Wukong. I won’t listen to such stories. Go, get us fruit or rice before we leave for today’s travel.

W: But-

P: You heard Master! Go get some food for him!

S: Why do you do this Wuneng? I am THIS CLOSE to whacking you upside the head. This is difficult enough without you antagonizing him, so get your head out of your OH FOR THE LOVE OF BUDDHA QUIT DROOLING! JOURNEY OR NO JOURNEY I WILL SMACK YOU.

S: (Fighting the urge to bang his head into the nearest wall) Wukong how could this elderly woman possibly be a demon?

W: SHE HAS FANGS MASTER! FANGS!

S: She’s already explained about her family’s curse-

W: WHY DO YOU NEVER BELIEVE ME?!

S: Trust me Wukong, this hurts me WAY more than it hurts you.

S: They didn’t even tie the bonds properly. If I wiggle my wrists in a certain way I can probably get them off with no trouble-

G: No Sanzang stay where you are. Wukong’s going to be there soon. 

S: They are debating whether to bake or boil me and escape is literally RIGHT THERE-

G: But I have a thing planned! It’s going to be awesome!

S: (Screams in frustration)

S: (Tied up and hanging from the ceiling with his disciples in similar positions) (Deadpan) Oh wow. They turned out to be demons. Who could’ve possibly seen this coming?

G: Stop it! Do you want your disciples to catch on?

S: OH WELL NOW THAT YOU MENTION IT-

And such is our favorite monk’s life throughout the journey west. :)

BONUS:

(Wujing, Bailong, and Wuneng are currently captured by demons while Sanzang and Wukong are figuring out a plan to rescue them)

W: Master, my brothers’ lives are in danger. I know that you don’t trust me, but-

S: Alright you know what? No. That is it. I’m done with this.

W: Wh-

S: GUANYIN GET DOWN HERE!

W: ...Master, Guanyin is a holy Bodhisattva, you can’t just-

G: (Appears) Sanzang-

S: Oh no, don’t you ‘Sanzang’ me! I’ve been doing this for 13 Buddha-forsaken years! No more!

G: You know how much planning I’ve put into this?

S: I don’t care! I’m sick of playing the idiot!

G: But this was going to produce the perfect amount of angst and character development!

S: Angst?! CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT?! Are you serious?!

G: This story is going to become legend and be passed down for hundreds of generations, we might as well throw in some drama for the younger demographic!

S: YOU’RE PUTTING MY DISCIPLES THROUGH THIS FOR ENTERTAINMENT VALUE??

W: What are you-

S&G, in unison: NOT NOW WUKONG!

(Wukong sits quietly and watches the continuing argument in a mixture of growing confusion, amusement, and anger)

S: I DON’T HAVE TIME FOR THIS MY DISCIPLES ARE IN DANGER!

G: Is that any different than usual?

S: YES because my first disciple THINKS I DON’T TRUST HIM!!

W: Wait, you trust me?

S: Of course I do! I trust you with my life!

W: (With a gobsmacked expression) ...Oh.

S: (Distressed noises) (Gestures frantically at Wukong) Do you see Guanyin?! Do you see what I’ve done to him?!

G: (Relunctantly) Yes but, be that as it may-

S: No! We’re telling him! If you don’t want me to tell the others fine, but he at least deserves to know!

G: Sanzang we can’t just-

W: (Now a little less shell-shock at all the plot twists suddenly developing) Actually...(casually twirling staff with a sharp-toothed grin)...I think you’ll find you can tell me whatever it is you’re hiding. Wouldn’t want me to get bored of this argument and go looking for entertainment elsewhere- (significant glance heavensward) -would we?

G: (Nervous sweat) Well y-yes but your crown-

S: Which can now only be controlled by me. (Raises eyebrow and gives Guanyin a deadpan look) Correct?

G: ...

W: Wait, so you’ve really known right from the start when we’re dealing with a demon? Every single time?

S: It’s not as if any of them even TRIED to be halfway convincing. At least you’ll get into character; most of the demons we’ve encountered don’t even prepare their cover stories before they try fooling us! Quite frankly it’s insulting, even when I’m playing the idiot.

W: So when you take the pig’s word over mine...?

S: DON’T EVEN GET ME STARTED ON THAT TROUBLEMAKING LECHER-

When several days later (after Wukong has rescued the other disciples of course) they come across a beautiful young woman who’s been robbed by a group of bandits, Sanzang is at least able to take comfort in the quick look he shares with Wukong before they listen to her flimsy rambling tale. (And quietly laugh together in the moments they go unnoticed by the others over her very obvious tail).

[odditycollector]

[ @nightpool asked: Agatha and the gang (or some subset of the characters thereof) hijack a Justice]

I originally answered this ask properly but the readmore broke so maybe this will work.

The bodies were strewn over the corridor in a variety of entertainingly awkward poses. They still smelled alive – mostly – but the entire swarming army had collapsed the instant Agatha shut down the mind of the airship.

Yeah, yeah, okay. So it wasn’t an airship, what with there being no air on the outside of it. But acknowledging the idea of a Nothing-ship set his temples throbbing, and Dimo was NOT going to think about it until events inevitably set that up to be the only way to stop everyone from dying.

Agatha killed the ship several hours ago, and none of the bodies had moved since. So they were nothing but puppets, but if they worked like humans as much as they looked like humans they were going to have problems pretty quick, being all bent over with elbows under their asses or heads tangled up in their knees. The blood was going to get stopped up in there.

That was fine with him. Damn creepy empty-eyed puppet things. They were tough to kill, yes, but no fun to fight even so. There wasn’t enough personality in them.

But… as soon as Agatha got the ship in her control, they’d be HER creepy puppet soldiers. And Dimo could really use some properly functioning fighting guys as as backup. Not so many that he couldn’t tear them apart one-and-a-half handed – just in case something new was waiting to go wrong on him – but at least a few seconds’ worth of cannon fodder that wouldn’t just fall over first thing because their feet stopped working.

From the room to his side, there was a clang, a shuffle like dominoes falling, and the first few threads of soft humming that could still, at this early stage, have been mistaken for music. The sound folded, twisting over itself into a chorusing atonal braid: that low, familiar vibration that raised the fur under his collar and rattled in the space between his fingertips and claws.

An enemy army slept at his feet, and he yearned that it would awaken so he could put it down properly, not clean Spark magic but fangs in throat and the Horde around him and the blood-slimed spoils of battle dragged back for the Masters….

But there were no other Jaegers here, and the most memorable moment of today’s battle had been Agatha firing a death ray through the ship and getting herself blown out into – as it turned out – Nothing, and Dimo jumping after her because what else was he supposed to do about that.

No. Wanting more fighting was stupid, and he didn’t get to be stupid anymore.

But PLANNING for more fighting, whether he wanted it or not…

The closest of the ship’s puppet soldiers was resting mid-somersault a few feet from the doorway. Dimo gently kicked it over, so that its limbs were sprawling in more or less reasonable directions. There. One down.

He was working on number three when Agatha’s cat stalked into view. “Hoy dere, kitty cat,” Dimo said.

Instead of returning the greeting, Krosp frowned at where Dimo was untangling a boot and an elbow. But you couldn’t take that sort of thing personally with cats.

“What happened to your hand?” Krosp said.

“Ho, dis ting?” Dimo examined his mechanical prosthetic, as if only just now noticing he was down two fingers and a good portion of the wrist and palm. “Ah, vell, hyu know.” He swung the thumb of his good hand at the doorway behind him. “De Mistress, she vos needink some parts.”

Dimo didn’t elaborate, therefore leaving it ambiguous whether Agatha had politely asked him if he had any extra fingers that he wasn’t particularly using at the moment and that, perchance, she might borrow if Dimo found himself so inclined; or whether Dimo had taken his attention off of her for five damn seconds to deal with a flailing tube that was starting to catch on fire, and when he had glanced down half his hand had apparently detached from his arm and walked across the room and hopped up onto her workbench all by itself.

“Uh huh,” said Krosp, who had been around enough Sparks in his short feline life that he certainly did ‘know’. “That explains why you finally let her out of your sight, anyway.”

“Hrmph. She iz a big gurl, und hy iz schtill in screaming distance,” Dimo said reasonably, and resisted the urge to immediately spin around and check on her again. “But vhere iz Miz Zeetha? Hy vos expecting her to come back vit hyu.”

“Do you remember that one section Agatha said was probably still powered on, just isolated from the rest of the ship?”

“Yah, sure.”

“Yeah. We looked into it after talking to the prisoners. Most of it was a training room, with moving targets and armoured clank arms, but it was all going haywire without the main brain to control it. Zeetha stayed to,” Krosp rolled his eyes up, as if reading her words from the air above Dimo’s hat, “manually shut them off. For good.”

Dimo nodded at this. “So Miz Zeetha iz fighting clenks, und hyu iz running interrogations,” he mused, “und hy iz tucking dese guys verra nicely into sleepytime.” He kicked over the next soldier maybe a little less carefully than he could have.

“Right,” Krosp said. “About that. Shouldn’t you be finishing them off, not fixing them? They’re practically revenants.”

“Hy dunno,” Dimo said. “Dey’ve got a sheep for brainz, but it depends how it got in dere, yah? Besides,” he added with alarming cheerfulness, “dey’s Miz Agatha’s revenants now, so ve gots to ask her first bout shtuff like dot!”

Krosp’s his tail swished unhappily back and forth. There were implications in Dimo’s last statement that Krosp liked even less than Dimo did, but he was too smart to be baited into an argument.

And what the hell was Dimo doing, trying to start one?

Agatha’s humming was still growing in complexity, and Dimo could now hear the subtle way it changed with every noise he and the cat made. Reflecting their words or nullifying them. Dimo was growling slightly, under his breath, and he recognized the vibrations through Agatha’s voice before he noticed them in his own throat.

“Hokay.” Dimo scrubbed his flesh hand over his face, like that would scrape away all the stupid hiding under there. Maybe it was hard to wait here, alone, and do nothing. But he’d done harder things. “So did dey say anytink useful?”

“What?”

“De prisoners. Dot hyu interrogated?”

The cat’s tail swished again. “I have no idea. Maybe they were giving me the personal address of the Celestial Milkman, but they don’t speak any language I’ve ever heard of.”

“Or mebbe dey do, and dey iz pretendink?”

“No,” Krosp said. “They wanted to talk to me. I’m sure of it.”

“Hoy, hy know dis one. Iz it cuz hyu iz a cute kitty?”

“Yes, exactly! I’m adorable! And Zeetha is terrifying! But here’s what I did get. This place is called ‘Radch’.”

Dimo rolled that one around his memories. He’d been a lot of places but: “Neffer heard ov it.”

“Neither have I. Just like they’ve never heard of Europa. Or England. Or Africa. Or even America.”

“Dem,” Dimo said. “Ve IZ far away. Dis von’t be an easy one.”

Krosp said, “But there’s one more thing they managed to communicate. Apparently these people have an alliance of some kind with someone called the ‘Presger’.”

“Neffer heard ov dem eiffer.”

“I know,” said Krosp, “but they really, REALLY wanted us to know that. I don’t understand it, and I don’t like it.”

“Vell, tink ov de bright side, hey? Mebbe dese Presgers iz more fun to punch den de puppet guys.” For illustration, Dimo nudged another limp body until its head rolled out of its armpit.

“Sometimes,” Krosp said, “I honestly can’t tell if you’re serious or not.”

Dimo had a short bit of clowning he was tempted to launch into - Ho, ho, I iz not serious, I iz Dimo! - but Agatha spared him.

Her humming was interrupted by a loud banging and a short surprised “hah!”. Krosp’s ears flicked. “Aren’t you going to make sure she didn’t start another fire?”

“No, iz hokay,” Dimo said. He still heard Agatha’s movement and smelled only cold blood from some of the puppet soldiers.

There was another prolonged crashing, this one followed by maniacal laughter and a 'ZAAAPPP’.

Dimo sniffed again. “Dere hyu go,” he said to the cat. “NOW dere iz a fire.”

And then Agatha ran out of the doorway, with flushed cheeks and a full madgirl grin, and Dimo saw exactly WHAT she had set on fire.

Agatha’s gaze darted around the hallway, and seemed to land on him only by chance. “Dimo! Do you KNOW what electricity is?”

“YEZ!” Dimo grabbed the jacket from a puppet soldier and tore it free, sending the body flying. “It iz de bright blue ting wot goes ZAP and den hyu iz on fire!”

“WRONG!” Agatha roared in triumph. “Electricity is not a THING! It is merely movement, but of what? OF WHAT? Of NOTHING! Merely a mathematical analog of what we have so naively called probabilistic– WHAT ARE YOU DOING?! HOW **DARE** YOU ATTACK ME!!!!!”

“I iz not attacking hyu!” Dimo snarled plaintively. “I iz attacking DE FIRE.”

“FIRE? HAH! BUT THERE IS NO SUCH THING” - She grabbed Dimo by the collar and slammed him into the wall. - “AS FIRE!!”

Dimo was out of the practice of cringing, at least in any sort of satisfying manner, but he probably did a fair approximation as he tried to simultaneously angle his hat away from the flames crawling down Agatha’s jacket arm, and his face from the device she was clutching in her other hand. It had recently been his pinkie finger, but Dimo assumed it had been turned into a death ray by now.

“Fire is only a word for the sufficiently rapid chemical oxidative process, but there are layers of reality beneath the chemical, beneath the energetic – AHAHAHAHA! As if those were in truth different things! – and I have seen once more what I have seen and forgotten. There are layers and levels and layers of fundamental forces we have scarcely dared to imagine and FIRE is merely a REORDERING OF INFORMATION!”

A terrible, but belatedly obvious possibility was blooming in Dimo’s brain like one of the Red Heterodyne’s flesh eating fungus bombs.

“Ah, Mistress,” he started carefully. “Does hyu VANT to be on fire?”

Agatha blinked. The question had thrown off the rhythm of her ranting. “I– What?”

“Vot?”

Her eyes drifted away from his face. She had broken from the madness place enough to notice the flames reaching up her jacket, and was staring at them like they were distantly reminding her of something or other.

Then her eyes went suddenly wide. “Ahh!” She dropped Dimo and swung her flaming arm away from him. “Ow! Ow!”

“Hokay!” Now THIS was a problem he was set up to solve. Dimo grabbed the jacket’s burning sleeve and ripped it off at the shoulder.

Not too many moments later, Zeetha jogged into view. She had a bar of jointed metal swung over her back as an impromptu souvenir.

“Hello then, what are we up to?” she offered in happy greeting. “I smell barbeque!”

Krosp swept his arm across the hallway. Dimo was jumping up and down on a smoldering piece of once-white cloth while Agatha, wearing the other half of the labcoat, frowned at a suspiciously familiar metal finger sticking out of a shifting pyramidal block.

“Good news,” Krosp intoned. “Agatha disproved fire.”

[yourcoolfriendwithallthecandy]

Magic and Miracles and BEYOND Chapter 4

Ok, so for those who don’t know I face cast Miracle Laurie as Hazel Stevens, Titus Drautos’ love interest (*cough* love of his life *cough*) and in the upper right hand corner is my face cast for Ada, @the-immortal-marshal ‘s OC, she gave me Ada’s particulars forever ago so now I’ve just finally face cast her. And we have TADA I finally found a face I liked for Charlotte Stevens. Hazel’s sister who is of African American and Chinese decent. And I am OBSESSED with Empresses in the Palace which is a six episode long mini series that USED to be on Netflix, you can find it on Amazon Prime video now. And there is a lot of symbolism from that show that I’ve taken and run wild with because in this fic Gilgamesh (who I have taken so many liberties with) is a Chinese drug lord who thinks of himself as an Emperor and calls Charlotte his Empress. And Cor is obsessed with taking him down (like he is in the canon-verse). 

Ok so you can read it here -> AO3 or below. Tumblr, be cool, keep it under a cut. 

Magic and Miracles and BEYOND

Chapter 4

“Ok, I stand corrected, this is my favorite house.” Selena announced as she came into the mansion in California wine country that was styled in a blend of Italianate, Spanish and Mediterranean. With it’s overall warm tones and clay tile roof. She fell head over heels in love with it.

“Knew it would be,” Ravus beamed.

“I want our house to be exactly like this.” Selena urged Ravus who chuckled.

“Yeah, I figured as much.” Ravus nodded in agreement, having figured that the moment they hit the road.

“Yeah, you can keep the house on the coast Luna, I love that location but I love and adore this house and the vineyards are just...spectacular. It’s so beautiful I think I’m gonna cry.” Selena teased herself as her eyes actually started to water which only got Ravus to pull her into his embrace and kiss the crown of her head.  

“Well Ravus did buy you that place up the coast so you’re only a stroll down the beach away.” Luna teased her.

“Yeah,” Selena sighed wistfully before she gave Ravus a quick peck on the lips before she had him really show her around.

“Holy shit!” Selena exclaimed when she saw the wine cellar.

“Yeah, this wine cellar alone is worth as much as the actual house I think.” Ravus speculated.

“It’s all dry isn’t it?” Selena asked in disappointment.

“Actually, no,” Ravus began as he hunted through the cellar. “Yes! This Darling, is ice wine. And it is exceptionally sweet.” Ravus said as he handed her a little mini bottle.

“Should we chill this first?” Selena asked as she looked it over.

“Yes, yes we should.” Ravus nodded as he used a special wine bottle carrier box to put in a half dozen bottles in, going through the rows picking out different ones before filling the box full and putting it down before getting another before he turned the corner and it was like it kept expanding, Ravus going through the bottles like anyone would go through a library to look at books.

“Does it ever end? I could get lost in here.” Selena teased as Ravus grinned but kept his eyes moving through all the labels.

“You could.” Ravus answered but only half teasing himself before his phone went off.

“Yeah?” Ravus answered.

“Where are you?” Luna asked.

“In the wine cellar?” Ravus answered.

“Where at in the wine cellar?” Luna asked.

“I’m at the Rieslings, just about to head into the Moscatos. I already handed Darling some ice wines.” Ravus answered.

“Ooh, could you get me my favorite please?” Luna requested.

“Sure, what does Jock Strap want?” Ravus asked.

“Oh he’s found the bar, he’s good.” Luna snorted a laugh.

“Well then get me my favorite.” Ravus insisted.

“Already gotten.” Luna reassured him.

“Thanks, when you guys figure out what to get for dinner call me back.” Ravus urged his sister.

“Yup.” Luna nodded.  

“That’s really kind of sad that the house is so big, you have to call each other on your phones to talk to each other.” Selena teased as she leaned up against a brick wall and gave him a giddy smile.

“Oh trust me, once we start our family, you’ll be happy it’s as big as it is, in fact I think you’ll love it down here because it’ll be the one part of the house where the kids won’t be allowed to play and you’ll have some nice ‘quiet mommy time’.” Ravus gently teased her with a look that had Selena wishing she could speed up time just to get to that and she just couldn’t help but pull him away from the wines to pull him flush with her to kiss him deeply.

“Can’t wait.” Selena purred when they broke for air and Ravus put the box down but only to allow him to pin her to the brick wall behind her before he picked her up so that her legs wrapped around his waist and her arms wrapped around his shoulders as he slipped her panties to the side since she was wearing a sundress as he unzipped his shorts and quickly entered her and moaned with her.

“I can, it’ll be worth the wait. I promise.” Ravus beamed at her.

“Aww,” Selena fawned.

Meanwhile Hazel and Titus were about to get ready to go to the store when Hazel checked her phone for the time before the screen went haywire for a moment as Titus’ phone did the same before both her phone and Titus’ phone turned themselves off and wouldn’t turn back on and Hazel inhaled sharply as her eyes went wide with terror because she knew what was going to happen next.

“Titus, you either need to get to the car right now or you need to get into my bathroom and don’t come out unless I come in and get you.” Hazel immediately ordered and Titus blinked in surprise when he saw how terrified she suddenly looked.

“What are you talking about?” Titus asked.

“No time to explain, here.” Hazel decided for him before she seemed to pull a gun out from under her breakfast bar and put it into his hand and shoved him into the bathroom.

“Sit right here, don’t move, don’t make a sound and shoot anyone but me who tries to come in.” Hazel ordered, keeping her voice whisper quiet but the hiss to her voice put him on edge before Hazel quickly locked the bathroom and quickly ran to her door and pulled out another hand gun and watched through the keyhole as Charlotte and two body guards came walking purposefully down the hallway, each body guard taking up an end to the hall to leave Charlotte to approach Hazel’s door alone before she knocked her special knock.

“Please tell me you’ve come to say goodbye.” Hazel told her sister in Mandarin when she opened the door for her sister, her gun visible at her side as Charlotte came strutting into Hazel’s apartment as Hazel shut the door behind her as she warily watched her sister.

“I came with a warning.” Charlotte began and Hazel’s stomach dropped. “You should go out to dinner tonight.” Charlotte suggested.

“Where and with who?” Hazel’s eyes narrowed suspiciously.

“It doesn’t matter where but I think you’ll know with who.” Charlotte grinned as she laid a manila envelope on the counter.

“What part of ‘I never want to be involved’ is hard to understand?” Hazel bit out.

“It’s Heaven’s wish, either serve the warning or you can try to Witchhazel.” Charlotte returned coolly and Hazel’s jaw clenched. “Your choice.” Charlotte shrugged before she stood in front of Hazel with a challenging smirk before hugging her sister before Hazel begrudgingly returned it.

“Why can’t you both go back to Hong Kong? At least you’d be safer there.” Hazel asked as she hugged her sister tighter, always feeling like she was seeing her sister for the last time when her sister came to her like this.

“Soon.” Charlotte answered and Hazel knew that was the closest to a straight answer she could ever get from Charlotte.

“Ok.” Hazel whispered.

“Now tell Titus hi for me and to keep his nose out of our business.” Charlotte offered in English as she let go of her sister and left, snapping her fingers once she was in the hallway before both henchmen were back at her side as she left the building as Hazel blew out a shaky breath as her cheeks burned as she put the gun back into it’s hiding spot and went over to the manila envelope and opened it to find a tiny flash drive and found 50 thousand dollars with it. Hazel just huffed and shook her head. She took the money out and when she did, she found ‘Warhorn Lion’ written on a piece of yellow paper that almost looked and felt like tissue paper but was in fact a recreation of the paper used by Chinese Emperors to write edicts and orders on- on the inside of the envelope in Mandarin calligraphy and Hazel just closed her eyes and fought not to cry.  

“Shit.” Hazel hissed as she got gloves on and took it out and folded it carefully, damning her hands for shaking. At least it wasn’t Titus’ name. She put the paper and the flash drive into a new envelope and into her purse before she put the money into her lock box and once she was done she took her gloves off and threw them away before she knocked on the door to the bathroom off her bedroom where she had put Titus.

“It’s safe now Baby.” Hazel called out softly as she unlocked the door and opened it to find Titus still sitting in the same spot she left him in.

“What the fuck is going on?” Titus demanded as he stood up and stared at her incredulously.

“If I answered that, I’d have to kill you myself.” Hazel answered defeated-ly as she took her gun back to put it away.

“What kind of convoluted clandestine bullshit is that?!” Titus spat angrily as he followed her and took note of where it had come from in the first place, having sat right there before and not having the smallest clue it had been there the whole time.

“The kind of convoluted clandestine bullshit that will get you killed, moreover it’s the kind of convoluted clandestine bullshit that puts car bombs under cars and straps C4 to someone’s chest and tells them to walk into hospitals and schools with the power to bring anyone to their knees before it lops off their heads, that kind. The kind that already knows your name, where you work, your routines, the truck you drive and where you are at all times. The kind that’s kept a tail on me since I went to college, the kind that has already buried the last nosy boyfriend. So do yourself a favor if you want to live and let it go and never, ever breathe a word of this ever again. This is your one warning. The next time you bring this up, that sniper on that roof right over there will shoot you and I’ll have to change the carpet again because blood doesn’t come out from white carpet well.” Hazel snarled as she pointed her finger into his chest, the tip digging into his flesh hard every time she said the word ‘you’ as tears flowed freely from her eyes as her expression was a pleading one as Titus just stared in shock at her as he finally really sensed what kind of predicament and danger she must be in and all he wanted to do was make her feel safe again, he didn’t care if he had to set the world on fire to do it either. He knew Hazel was smart, brilliant even and as badass as the day was long but if his Hazel was this scared, she would only have every justification to be so.

“Ok.” Titus answered softly as finally nodded as he brought her in and hugged her tight and kissed the crown of her head.

“Obviously you don’t have a choice in this. If this is the way it has to be then it’s the way it has to be.” Titus offered as Hazel just broke down crying and bawled into his chest and when she was done, she pulled herself back together and kissed him so deeply it started their own familiar chain of events and once satisfied, they left and went about their day, Titus doing his best to act like nothing was wrong and that nothing had happened out of the usual.

“Hey you wanna meet up with Cor and Ada for dinner?” Hazel asked innocently as they were putting their groceries away.

“Yeah sure.” Titus nodded and texted Cor.

“Where to?” Titus asked Hazel.

“I don’t care, whatever they want is fine.” Hazel waived off. “Actually I could go for some rice noodles though, maybe Chinese? Japanese? Vietnamese? Thai? Something like that.” Hazel waived off.  

“The Mandarin?” Titus suggested, knowing that was her favorite Chinese restaurant, it was a bit upscale but very authentic and the whole menu was in Mandarin and English and he loved the way Hazel could order for them in nothing but Mandarin and get things that weren’t even on the menu.

“Perfect.” Hazel beamed and once at the restaurant, Cor was exceptionally happy and even giddy because he had gotten a break in the Gilgamesh case that day and Hazel was grateful that she wasn’t sitting right next to him but feared for Ada, knowing that Ada was in grave danger but was powerless to say anything to her directly. Hazel excused herself from the table and took her server aside as she went to the bathroom and gave her a hundred dollar bill if she put the envelope into Cor’s bill. Hazel having taken the envelope out with a tissue and put it into a folded napkin to hand to the server who thought it was some kind of practical joke before the owner, who had been watching over them, took the envelope and looked inside before their eyes went wide for a moment and made a quick phone call before they nodded and got a red envelope and wrote something out with a calligraphy pen and comped not just Cor and Ada’s meal but Titus and Hazel’s too.

“Mr. Leonis, could you please come with me?” The owner asked Cor as he came and pointed to the bill as if the card had gotten declined.

“Oh, that shouldn’t of...” Cor said as he got up and got his wallet out as he followed the owner to the cash register.

“Oh no, your card wasn’t declined, no your meal was taken care of already but I didn’t want to disturb your party by handing you this.” The owner said as he handed Leonis a red cash envelope typically given to newly weds at their wedding.

“What does this say?” Cor asked as he pointed to the writing on the envelope.

“It says ‘compliments of Emperor Gilgamesh’.” The owner answered.

“Fuck.” Cor breathed. “Is he here? Like right now?” Cor asked the owner.

“Of course not. Even if he was, you could not do anything Marshal.” The owner pointed out with a smug grin.

“I could have you arrested for aiding and abetting.” Cor threatened.

“Perhaps you should look at the flash drive first before you make any foolish threats.” The owner suggested sagely as Cor narrowed his eyes and got the flash drive and put it into his phone before picture after picture of Ada and Ada and himself came up on the screen before a new message came into his phone with a picture of himself, Ada and Titus in the cross-hairs from a scope while they were still there at the restaurant and Cor looked up and searched the room, trying to find the threats and the vantage points these pictures were taken from.

“It really would be quite rude to answer generosity with disrespect. Perhaps you should go home now.” The owner suggested. “And please do not think that my restaurant is unique in that his Majesty has reign here. There is no where any of you could ever go that he would not come for you.” The owner warned. “And if I may let you in on a secret. His Majesty is being lenient with you and has written your name in black. This is your warning that you have come too close. If you come any closer, he will write your name in white. White is the color of death in our culture. And it will be as if he would have written your death warrant.” The owner added and Cor gulped.

“Understood.” Cor nodded before he went back to the table and tried to casually get them all out of there as the owner came and thanked them for coming and invited them back as he handed Hazel a to go container of her favorite dumplings- raw so she could steam them herself when she got home and once back in Titus’ truck Hazel found a thick black card with what Gilgamesh liked to referred to her as written in gold ink along with a quick message of thanks.

“What does that say?” Titus asked as he noticed it.

“It says ‘thank you’ and my name.” Hazel answered honestly.

“I’ve never gotten a thank you for getting takeout from here.” Titus frowned.

“Well you’re not on first name basis and friends with the family.” Hazel tried to reason with a lop sided grin as Titus nodded in understanding.

“So that’s why our meal was free?” Titus asked.

“Yup.” Hazel nodded.

“So...I’m thinking we should take up a new hobby together.” Titus began.

“Which is?” Hazel asked curiously.

“Shooting. I’m already into hunting, I need to be a better shooter though.” Titus realized as he squeezed her hand a little tighter and gave her a gentle yet reassuring look and watched as Hazel’s grin grew into a full blown smile.

“That would be...amazing.” Hazel praised as she squeezed his hand back tightly and just fell in love with him a little more. Because usually right about now any guy would be running for the hills but instead, Titus was making plans to stay and try to help her.

“Wanna stay at my house tonight?” Titus asked.

“Hell yeah.” Hazel nodded as Titus then turned to head to his house since Hazel already had enough of her things to stay there for a few months straight already.

Once back at his house, Titus put her dumplings in the fridge before he turned to face her, wanting to tell her a thousand different things all at once as he had thought about her predicament all day.

“So, if I wanted my house as secure and defend-able as possible, how would I go about that?” Titus asked her before she grabbed the shopping list pad off of his fridge and a pen and handed them to him.

“Take notes.” Hazel grinned as Titus returned her grin and took them before Hazel began to go through the whole house and tell him exactly how to accomplish that and insisted that she pay for it all because it would be getting quite costly but it was investment in Titus’ well being and would help her sleep easier at night.

[azzandra]

Cave Felem

Girl Genius Event Week Day 3: Construct / Clank / Machine

Words: ~1200

(Part 1) (Part 2)

Cats were not uncommon on space stations or ships. Any place that facilitated the traffic of people or freight tended to be plagued by vermin, and even technology specifically developed to deal with this problem had its limits. When the DNA scanners, energy nets, organic dischargers and cleaning automats with switchblades all failed, nothing could beat a good old fashioned cat for murder with great prejudice.

What stations tended not to have, however, were uplifted cats. It was not uncommon for frontier or backwater colonies to have uplifted animals, but this was seen as a practice typical to obscure outposts, where extra working hands were always needed, and if the extra working hands were also not recognized as people, that was all the better excuse not to pay a wage. Core Worlds abhorred even the creation of uplifted animals as inhumane, and the traders who kept the flow of commerce between the frontier and the Core Worlds tended to share in that attitude.

Krosp was... an interesting outlier, on a series of levels. Agatha still didn't know what he'd been doing on the station, except his creator had apparently run foul of Captain Wulfenbach's militia. But he was unusually sharp even for an uplifted animal, and self-interested in a way that tended to be eliminated on a gene level during the modification process.

Which was perhaps why Krosp was the first one to notice when the pack of mercenaries caught up with them.

"There's three of them," Krosp informed Agatha in an undertone, poking his whiskers out of her backpack just enough to be heard.

Agatha was in the middle of haggling for parts, so she didn't pause to respond to Krosp, but her negotiations turned more aggressive after that.

They'd gotten as far as the Zumzum asteroid belt colony before Baba Yaga's rickety old hyperstream engine finally gave out. They could have surfed the hyperstream for a while longer, letting it take them all the way into wild space, but there was no saying if they'd run into an outpost before they ran out of steam. Zumzum was the last civilized marker on their map.

Agatha didn't get the part she needed, but she left the machine shop behind and walked into the flow of traffic. There wasn't much of it; as a trading post, Zumzum was secondary at best, and made its living off asteroid mining. But in the crepuscular lighting of the colony, kept at 40% to preserve energy, Agatha was hoping she could at least lose the tail.

She dodged between two buildings, climbed up a ladder, scooted across a thick pipeline, and dropped into an alleyway on the other side of the marketplace. It looked like a refueling station just off the space dock, but it was empty of workers at this hour. The colony was small, but it was built into an asteroid, and it was twisty, especially since they were clever about the artificial gravity. You looked up, and what you saw wasn't sky, but more buildings. Maybe that labyrinthine nature would be enough to help her escape pursuit.

She had to let Zeetha know about this pursuit. But calling her might be too risky, if the mercenaries were listening for any transmissions.

Agatha heard footsteps, and that sent her scurrying for a nearby grate, which she pried loose so she could hide into the crawlspace behind it. She had just enough time to pull the grate back into place before the footsteps turned a corner.

She help her breath, straining to listen and be quiet both at once, but the loudest thing was the thundering of her heart. Both she and Krosp stood absolutely frozen as they waited. The footsteps seemed to make a short circuit of the area just outside, and then fade into the distance.

The entire thing must have taken just five minutes, but Agatha was shaking with tension by the end. It might have just been paranoia, and whoever that was hadn't even been looking for them, but after the narrow escape out of Mechanicsburg, Agatha didn't want to take any risks.

Krosp's ears flicked, swiveling back and forth as he strained to listen for any sign of approach.

"I think they may be gone," he said.

"Oh, good." Agatha pushed the grate off the entrance, careful not to rattle it too loudly. "We need to find Zeetha and--ack!"

Agatha was interrupted by a hand clamping down on her forearm as soon as she tried to leave the crawlspace, and dragging her out.

Krosp hissed as Agatha was dragged out, her feet kicking and stirring up dust.

"Hoy! Look vot ve got here!" a cheerful voice rang out, and that was when Krosp zipped out and jumped right onto the face of Agatha's attacked.

The mercenary staggered back, dropping Agatha as he suddenly had a face full of claws to deal with.

"Agatha, run!" Krosp yelled, digging in viciously.

But when he glimpsed back at her, she was already in the clutches of a second mercenary, and--how had Krosp not heard two of them get so close?

Krosp froze with his claws still planted right in the face of the mercenary he'd attacked. He looked unusually green, now that Krosp thought about it. Baseline humans didn't usually come in that kind of coloration. And if this wasn't a human, then what--

The moment of hesitation was enough for the mercenary to grab Krosp by the scruff of his neck and peel him off, holding Krosp at arm's length.

"Goot kitty," the green one spoke, grinning even with the bleeding furrows on his face and neck, "but ve iz not goink to hurt hyu."

The grip on his scruff was immobilizing, sending a numbness down from Krosp's jaw to the rest of his body. But the mercenary dropped him, and Krosp landed gracefully on his feet. His fur stood on end as he hissed and prepared for another attack. There were three of them now, Krosp noticed. How were they this stealthy?

Agatha was not out of the fight yet. She snarled as she swung at her own opponent, managing a punch to the neck that would have made Zeetha proud. Most armor was vulnerable at the joints, and she'd been drilling Agatha on the weak points for every model.

"Hy giff up!" Agatha's opponent said, throwing up his arms, and this actually had Agatha freeze in place, unsure about the sincerity of the statement, but unwilling to keep waling on someone who wasn't fighting back.

"Ve iz ezpecially not goink to hurt you," the green humanoid continued, and then fell to one knee, much to Krosp's confusion. "Miztress," he added, his grin still in place as his eyes were turned down.

Agatha looked flabbergasted for a moment. The second mercenary took off his helmet to reveal a purple complexion and a mane of enviably glossy hair. He knelt as well. And the third mercenary, who had a horn sticking out of his head and had foregone a helmet completely, joined them.

"Krosp, they're Jagers," Agatha whispered to him, awed and even a little scared. "Uh... please rise?"

The Jagers were on their feet with surprising speed, grinning at her.

"Hyu haff a goot cat," the green one told her, voice rumbling with approval. "But how'z about ve do de fighting for hyu now?"

[itbeajen]

Tsukishima Kei | More Than [2/4]

I have no idea why, but I think tumblr ate this post.  More Than - Hybrid!AU - Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Sweets | Feather Light | Not Choosing | Crows

"Hey, who is that?" "He came in with Iwaizumi-san." "A transfer? At this time?" "Look, he's a hybrid.." "He's a really pretty hybrid though." "He's an avian hybrid too!" "Aren't those rare?!" "What if he's a..." "Oy oy, don't say those stuff in front of Iwaizumi-san, she'll get upset you know." You ignored the whispers as Tsukishima trailed behind you lazily. He looked good in the school uniform, but what caught everyone's attention was his wings. How was it that such a rare type of hybrid was found in a school like this? "Oh! [F/N]-chan!" a small petite blonde girl and a freckled boy waved at you. You waved back, before glancing back to Tsukishima to make sure he was following you. Tsukishima's eyes narrowed at the freckled boy before his eyes widened in surprise, "Yamaguchi?" Yamaguchi's bunny ears perked up momentarily, before his eyes widened and a bright smile was on his face, "Tsukki?!"

You glanced between the two, clearly obvious to see that the bunny and the crow knew each other and you asked, "Tadashi-kun, you know Tsukishima?" Yamaguchi nodded eagerly, his bunny ears flopping along, and he smiled, "We were in the same adoption center. It's been six years though. Woah, Tsukki you grew so tall!" Tsukishima nodded and he asked, "You've been here this whole time?" "Yup! I haven't left Miyagi, and well," Yamaguchi let out a small laugh before glancing at Yachi, "She's my ma-" "F-f-f-f-friend. I'm Y-Yachi. Yachi Hitoka, and you?" Yachi nervously butt in. Although the shorter girl was clearly a nervous wreck to be meeting someone new, and that someone had to be as intimidating as Tsukishima the shorter girl was more for the idea of sounding like a nervous wreck than to hear what Yamaguchi was about to say. It was obvious what Yamaguchi wanted to say, but it seemed as though Yachi was like you, absolutely against the idea of someone "owning" a hybrid. Tsukishima blinked at the petite blonde and he mumbled, "Nice to meet you. I'm Tsukishima Kei, a De-" Tsukishima never got to finish that sentence as a hand covered his mouth. He glared down to see you on your tippy-toes, blocking him from saying the last syllable and Yamaguchi and Yachi looked at the two of you in confusion. You glared at Tsukishima and he glared back and you hissed, "Can not call yourself thatfor once?!" Tsukishima glared and growled, "I am a defect." His golden orbs pierced through yours and you were close to flinching before looking away. You quickly mutter out an apology to Yachi and Yamaguchi before dragging him away from the duo and you mumbled, "Do not ever call yourself a defect." Tsukishima raised an eyebrow and asked, "Why? It's a fact." The moment you looked up and made eye contact with him, Tsukishima flinched. Your normally bright [e/c] orbs were now filled with dislike and slight irritation, and you repeated, "You. Are. Not." Tsukishima swallowed his words, and nodded before he looked away. Your gaze lingered on his for a bit longer before you sighed, and quickly mumbled an apology. You back away from him and run a hand through your black locks of hair. The tall blonde noticed the change in the atmosphere around you, but before he could say anything, you push the taller male towards your friends before you walked the opposite direction, claiming to have something to do. Yamaguchi exchanges a glance with Tsukishima. He gives his old friend a small smile, "Don't say things like that Tsukki." Yachi nodded in agreement, and Yamaguchi continued, "Or you'll end up making her cry."

Tsukishima sat next to Yamaguchi and listened to the latter catch him up to date about what happened during the time period they were separated. Yamaguchi has been living in peace with Yachi. Yachi wasn't actually the one who adopted him, but she was the one who ultimately saved him from the adoption center, since he was too shy, too timid, too much of not what they expected; a disappointment basically. At those words, Tsukishima looked at his friend and asked, "But you look a lot happier now." Yamaguchi was slightly shocked and he laughed, "Yup! Yachi-san and Iwaizumi-san are really nice to me and," Yamaguchi paused, a wistful look in his eyes, "they make me feel alive." Tsukishima's eyes widened at the term. It wasn't something he could relate to, and the unfamiliarity of it made him curious. As though testing it on his tongue, he slowly asked, "Alive?" Yamaguchi nodded, his eyes now closed, a fond smile on his face, "Yup. Alive." Yamaguchi lazily opened his eyes and asked, "What about you Tsukki?" "Me?" Yamaguchi nodded and Tsukishima sighed, "I've been fine." "Are you staying with Iwaizumi-san?" "Mm," Tsukishima nodded, "More or less." "She didn't... Did she... She didn't adopt you, right?" Yamaguchi hesitantly asked, and Tsukishima's eyes widened, "No." Yamaguchi laughed out of relief, his bunny ears flopping around, "That sounds like Iwaizumi-san." "Does it?" Yamaguchi nodded, "Yeah," he had a fond smile on his face, and for some reason Tsukishima was increasingly more intrigued by you as his old friend continued talking, "Iwaizumi-san doesn't treat us like we're hybrids. She sees us as equals. You see, she's the one who keeps pushing for all the equality in this high school, that's why so many of us are here." The freckled boy tilted his head, indicating the other hybrids that were attending school normally. Tsukishima looked around, and he softly mumbled, "I see." You're nothing that I'm used to. Why are you so different? 

"Iwa-chan," a male voice rang out, and Iwaizumi flinched, "What do you want, Shittykawa?" "Ne, ne," Oikawa continued, "Is it true [F/N]-chi adopted a hybrid? What kind is he?" "Not adopted. She found him. And he looks like a crow," Iwaizumi responded dully, still wondering about how long that hybrid was going to stay with them. It's been several weeks now and although Tsukishima has shown signs of warming up to you, he's only been polite and distant to the rest of the family, nothing like that Iwaizumi was used to when it came to hybrids. Oikawa's eyes narrowed, "A crow?" "Yeah." "With blonde hair?" Iwaizumi's eyes widened, and he softly mumbled, "Yeah, why?" "He was abandoned right?" "Not sure, [F/N] found him at the bus stop." Iwaizumi and Oikawa exchanged a look and Oikawa sighed, "You know, I only know this because of social media, but he's really popular, that hybrid. He's one of the few avians that came out like expected. The only con is his personality. He has nothing that he's supposed to have when it comes to full obedience to their master." "Yeah, kind of noticed that," Iwaizumi mumbled, "He only listens to [F/N]." Oikawa smirks, and Iwaizumi scowls, "He only listens to her half the time." The scowl on the older Iwaizumi lightened up though, and he softly mumbled, "It's only been a couple of weeks and she's already so comfortable around him though." "[F/N]-chi is?" Iwaizumi nodded as he continued cleaning up the gym with his best friend and Oikawa paused, a soft smile on his face, "Isn't that a good thing then?" "Not if he leaves," Iwaizumi curses underneath his breath. Oikawa sees the look of anguish that briefly flickered across his friend's face, and softly mumbled, "Iwa-chan."

"Why am I here again?" Tsukishima asked as he watched two idiotic duos, not one pair, but two, scream across the court about a receive that had a weird name.Something along the lines of, ROLLING THUNDER, but that wasn't any of his business, now was it His eyes narrowed at the short orange haired wolf-child who was literally like a piece of the sun bouncing around. Too bright, don't want to deal with this. He scoffed before sitting down on the bench beside Yachi, who immediately flinched. Yachi was definitely not used to Tsukishima's brashness, or his cold demeanor, but she couldn't do much but smile as he saw how intently he watched over you and Yamaguchi. Especially you. If Yachi were to describe it, Tsukishima's vision of you was a student to a teacher, he was mildly interested in the way that would be considered, "learning", but at the same time, was slightly irritated with the way you were. Tsukishima couldn't help it though, in all his years, he has never been treated as anything more than a defect, so why was it that someone like you was so kind to him? It made no sense to him. "Ne, [F/N]-chan!" The short orange hair 1st year called out. His tail was wagging at the speed of light, catching your attention as you were addressing the volleyball manager, Kiyoko. You looked over, giving Kiyoko an apologetic nod and replied, "What's up Shoyo-kun?" "Who's the tall guy?" Tsukishima's scowl deepened and you glanced over at him, stifling a giggle at the blonde's unwilling nature to meet others and smiled sweetly at Hinata, "He's Tsukishima Kei. A friend of mine." This time Tsukishima's eyes widened and an eyebrow was raised in even more confusion. Since when were we friends? I'm a Defect, and to top it off, I'm not even human. "Ooh," Hinata's eyes glimmered with interest before he casually asked, "Is he going to join the volleyball club?" "Hah?" / "I didn't think of that." Both of you responded at the same time, and you turned to him, "You don't want to Tsukishima?" "Tch." I don't belong here. You pouted at the taller male's scowl, but it was quickly wiped off your face and you said, "It's his choice. I make no decisions for him." Tsukishima looks at you from the corner of his eyes, clearly curious about how indirectly direct you were about your standing to him. So we're friends, and not in an owner-pet relationship? His scowl lightened subtly and he was about to say something, but was cut off by that orange ball of sunshine. "Eh, but last time you brought in a hy-" Hinata's mouth was clamped shut by Tanaka and Nishinoya as they saw you flinch and you subconsciously took a step back. You give them a weak smile and a bow before quickly grabbing your bag. You slung it across your shoulder and announced, "Have a nice day." Hinata broke free and cried, "Wait! [F/N]-chan!" But you paid no mind to him as you exited the gym, the door shutting close not-too-gently and the atmosphere inside the gym dropped below zero. "Hi-na-ta," a low voice growled out. The short boy flinched and cowered behind his setter. The volleyball captain, Daichi was making his way towards the short first year, but only to be stopped from going into full on lecture mode by the vice captain, Sugawara. The silver haired fox smiled warmly at him before turning to Hinata and he said, "Hinata, you know how [F/N]-chan is when you call us that." Hinata pouted, "I didn't mean to. I just..." His ears drooped and his tail went slack as it swished back and forth to show how guilty he felt, and he mumbled, "I'm still not used to how nice everyone is." Tsukishima silently agreed. He could relate to that. He was also not yet adjusted to the kindness you had shown him. After all, in the past, it was always the same treatment. Bare minimum amount of food, water, and occasional new clothes. But whenever it was showcase time, he was given the best treatment. Any other time, he was literally hung in a cage above the lobby rooms. Unknowingly his fists were clenched to the point his knuckles were white, and Yamaguchi noticed, gently placing a hand on Tsukishima's shoulder. "Tsukki," Yamaguchi called out, pulling him out of his dark thoughts, and he hesitantly said, "I think... you need to find [F/N]-san, before you get left behind here." It hit Tsukishima immediately that you were the only one with the keys to the house, and the tall male bowed and bid his farewells to the volleyball club as he rushed out, looking for you. But he didn't have to look too far, you were waiting against the railing, your eyes downcast, a sad glimmer in them. No longer were they the bright [e/c] orbs that normally shined with life, they were dull, as though plagued by thoughts that swallowed all the life in you. "Oy." You looked up, and the life came back, a bit duller than normal, but it was better than what Tsukishima just saw. That was a part of you that the tall blonde was not quite ready to confront. Although he was curious as to what it was that was haunting your thoughts, he wasn't quite sure on how to approach that, and avoided the matter. "Let's go home." The way back home was silent, not an uncomfortable or awkward one, but one that was shared between the two of you comfortably. Neither of you complaining about it at all. But at the bus stop where you first met, an unpleasant sight awaited Tsukishima and the taller male stopped in his tracks, his eyes narrowed as his fist clenched. You noticed your taller companion stop, as you look between him and the male at the bus stop. "Kei." "Nii-san." Your eyes widened, but the moment Tsukishima's 'older brother' glanced at you, Tsukishima grabbed your wrist, pulling you behind him. And you don't make a single noise as you felt the pressure on your wrist. There was something about the male that put the normally indifferent blonde into agitation. "You need to stop running away from home and just come back." "I was abandoned again, you call that running away from home, Nii-san?" "That's not what Master told us.." The older Tsukishima responded. His eyes narrowed at you and he asked, "Did you get a new Master, Kei? Is she the reason you ran away?" "She's not my master," Tsukishima pauses when he feels you grab the hem of his shirt and he continues, "Besides, I'm a defect, unlike you Akiteru." No one wants me, not like you. Everyone takes good care of you cause you're so devoted to your owners. But I was never like that. Akiteru sighed and he asked, "I see. So? What are you going to do now? Live with her? Master got rid of his proof that you were ever his, so you could." He paused, and in a sad tone, "If you wanted to." Tsukishima's eyes widened. It was one thing knowing about it, but hearing the fact from his own brother's mouth was a lot to take in. Tsukishima truly was abandoned with no where to go. He didn't belong anywhere, and- What's the fucking point of living if one flaw in me means that I'm not worth anything anymore?! That one flaw, my personality, for f*ck's sake, is all they need to deem me a defect. Something useless. I'm still alive aren't I? Just because I'm not everything they had expected me to be. Because I am a disappointment. He clenches his fists even tighter, but a smaller hand that was once on his back gently took a hold of his. Unknowingly, he relaxes slightly as he glances back at you and he freezes. Why? Why are you looking at me like that? It's not pity, or sadness. Why do you look like you're upset for me? We haven't even known each other for so long, yet why? Why are you looking at me as though you care? Tsukishima's hands relaxed and you slipped yours into his, before standing beside him and you softly state, "Please leave." Tsukishima and Akiteru look at you in shock and you repeat, "Please leave. You're agitating Tsukishima-kun, and as his friend I don't appreciate that." You frown and softly mumble, "And if you really are his brother, wouldn't you want him to be happier? If he's happier here, then let him stay." If he really wanted to leave, he would, but he didn't. He hasn't. A small part of you whispered to yourself, He won't. Both of their eyes widened and Akiteru sends you a small smile before fondly turning to his younger brother, "You found a good Master." "I'm not his Master," you corrected him. And Akiteru's eyes raised, you reassuringly squeeze Tsukishima's hand before letting go and you smiled brightly, "I'm his friend." Akiteru mimicked a fish before he smiled, "I see." He laughed, before asking, "May I ask for your name?" "Iwaizumi [F/N]." "Iwa-chan, then," Akiteru smiled, and you pouted slightly cause that nickname belonged to your brother, not you, and he bowed, "Thank you for taking care of Kei. I'll come back to visit every now and then." Akiteru left just as suddenly as he came, but as you watched him walk away you softly asked, "Are you okay?" "Tch, mind your own business." Tsukishima looked away from you. He still felt the warmth from your hands and it bothered him. It bothered him how much that simple gesture had effected him. But what bothered him most was the fact that he was truly abandoned. Something within him told him that it wasn't okay, that he had to find a new owner. However, that part wasn't him, it was what those scientists had programmed into his DNA. But a very small part was cheering for joy. The part that indicated that Tsukishima was a defect. I'm free. The idea of being free was so much that he stood there in a daze, before realizing that he was zoned out while staring straight at you. Your [e/c] eyes still holding his gaze, and you cutely tilted your head to the side, confused as to why Tsukishima was so silent, yet looked so peaceful. "I don't have an owner." "No, you don't." you easily responded. Still confused as to why Tsukishima's demeanor was so strange, almost as though there was both conflict and peace raging within him. And then you softly added, "You don't need one Tsukishima-kun." His eyes widened as he heard your last sentence, and a small smile graced your features and you continued, "You are your own person, Tsukishima. Don't let anyone else tell you otherwise."

Upon arriving home, you noticed the second pair of shoes and you unconsciously let out a groan, causing the blonde male to look at you weirdly and before you could respond you hear a familiar, "[F/N]-CHII!!" Oikawa peeked his fluffy brown head into the doorway and you lazily greet, "Hi Tooru-nii." "Don't call him that [F/N]." "Oh ho!" Oikawa's eyes narrowed as he examined Tsukishima. Both of you visibly stiffen before you toss your schoolbag at his face. Oikawa doesn't dodge it, as he was too engrossed with Tsukishima's wings, and gets hit straight on his face with your bag, causing Iwaizumi to laugh and Tsukishima to smirk while you glowered at the taller male. "Can you stop staring at him like that Tooru-nii," You slowly ask. You were obviously unhappy with the tall brunette and Oikawa holds his hands out as an apology, and you sigh, "I'll be in my room." You gave him a strained smile before going up the stairs towards your room. Tsukishima hesitated to follow you upstairs to seek his own little safety in the bedroom he was given, but Iwaizumi shakes his head and he asks, "She seems more irritable.. what happened?" Tsukishima didn't respond right away. Do I tell them... do I not tell them? But before Tsukishima could say anything, Oikawa asked, "Did someone come for you?" Tsukishima narrowed his eyes and Iwaizumi muttered a quick and harsh, "Oikawa!" And the former nodded his head, and Oikawa whined, "I don't want [F/N] to get hurt Iwa-chan! What if he leaves her?!" Why would I...? I have no where else to go. Tsukishima tilted his head in confusion and Oikawa sighs, "Sorry, I get protective of [F/N] too. She's like my younger sister too." Oikawa gives Iwaizumi and Tsukishima a weak smile and Iwaizumi let's out a breath of relief and mumbles, "Don't worry about that, Tsukishima."

Tsukishima laid sprawled out on the guest bed, wondering if he truly was allowed to stay. They seemed okay with him being here, but... What if they got sick of him? What if they want me to leave? That I'm being a burden. He stared blankly at the ceiling before he closed his eyes. Why is this such a pain? Should I not stay longer? I have no where else to go. And I feel so empty, as though all purpose in my life is gone because I was abandoned. But am I really alone, I'm with the Iwaizumis and- "Tsukishima?" You softly called out from the other side of the door. The male sat up, and mumbled an almost inaudible 'come in' and you slowly opened the door. You were wearing one of Hajime's old sweaters and short shorts, and Tsukishima had to fight the urge to stare at your legs as you came in, closing the door behind you. Before the tall blonde could say anything to you, he held it all back as he saw the way you were leaning against the door. You lowered your head, and he saw your lips move but he didn't hear exactly what it was you said. "What did you say?" "I'm sorry." "For what?" "I... I basically forced you into adjusting to a new life and I didn't even ask for your opinion or consent. I didn't ask if you wanted to go to school, I just kind of strung you along. And even if I give you so many of your own choices, I'm limiting you to what I do and-" "You have nothing to apologize for." You lifted your head as you noticed how the distance between the two of you had shrunk. And that small part of him tells him to stay with you. Protect you. Hold you close. And he immediately looked away from you. A small 'tch' leaving his mouth and you flinched, "Sorry for troubling you Tsukishima." Once you closed the door, you mentally berated yourself. What was I thinking? I got so invested in trying to make his life better, yet all I did was make him even more confused. I'm not supposed to hold him back. What am I doing?... saying I want all hybrids to be capable of making their own choices and yet here I am, forcing one to follow my pace. I'm such a hypocrite... I'm doing nothing more than repeating the same mistakes as before.