#i figured out how so many critters are coming inside :)

[tan1shere]

Bitter Sweet

Ellie williams x fem reader !

Summary: you're the sweetest soul around Jackson, perfect girlfriend, perfect friends. Everything seems to be perfect but it isn't. You get bullied, but no one sees it. You hide your feelings until one day it gets really bad

A/n: just thought of this in bed, I'm feeling a lil insecure myself so i hope you girlies get warm fuzzies at this cute lil fic (I haven't proof read this yet so- if there's any mistakes pretend I'm an amazing speller 🥰)

Warnings: none just fluff really. Reader is insecure about body, so maybe if it triggers you or you don't want to cry or I dunno, just thought I'd mention :) kinda angst??? But also not-? Body shaming-? (Do not condone whatsoever. But I relate a tiny bit- sadly- anyways)

Masterlist

You enjoyed days like these, the sunshine kisses your beautiful bronze skin, the slight tan arising from the beautiful summer air. You were currently attending to your garden, listening to all the critters making their pretty musical songs. When you get a tap on your shoulder startling you. You stand up and look to find your girlfriend, Ellie looming over you. You get up fanning out your skirt from any dirt. "Sorry angel. Didn't mean to give you a fright." You smile at her. "No no it's alright." You speak softly going to kiss her. "What have you got planned for today?" She swipes a loose strand of hair behind your ear.

"Just picking out some flowers for my new vase." You smile brightly at her. She returns that smile, looking around at your garden. "How about you Els." You ask going to grab some of the flowers and heading inside. "Me, Dina, Jesse, and a few others were going to go out later and ofcourse I'm asking you to tag along." You weren't a very outgoing person, you kept to yourself. You knew Jesse and Dina, although you aren't one hundred percent comfortable around them. You stuck close to Ellie, always. She was your rock. "Uhhh maybe." You go over to your sink, her following close behind. "You'll be with me baby I'll make sure everything's ok."

You contemplate. "Maybe Els. I dunno I'm not use to New people." She goes closer to you. "I know I know, but I really want you there. Please?" You think more, really not sure. "I guess it couldn't hurt." You smile slightly. She smiles more. "Awesome I'll come pick you up later." She kisses your cheek, leaving you to your thoughts as she leaves out the door. You didn't have a good feeling about this.

Few hours had passed and it was almost the time Ellie was suppose to pick you up. You were just looking in the mirror you constantly wore skirts and cute blouses. You examined your body, your stomach, thighs, arms. Even if you aren't big or anything you still feel awful about your body. Stretch marks, your pale skin. You wanted to cry. If you were completely honest you just wanted to stay home. But seeing Ellie so happy made you happy. You get up to a knock on the door, going and opening it. "You look beautiful." She says smiling at you. Lies. You knew she was just being kind. You never really believed her when she'd compliment you. You just couldn't.

"Where are we going?" She leads you out. "Dinas, she's having it at hers." "And how many people will be there?" You ask nervous. "Uhh maybe like 10 at most." You sigh. She was so outgoing, so enthusiastic, knew everyone and anyone. You don't know what she even saw in you. You were so different. "We don't have to be there for long." She nods with a tiny smile. You nod back. Still not even wanting to leave in the first place. Your bed sounds so much more comfortable right now.

Once you're at Dinas, she greets you by the door. "Hey you two, come in." You both step inside hearing some music and voices. You stay close behind Ellies tall figure like a puppy dog. "Thanks Dee." She smiles at Dina, going into the kitchen to get a drink. You kept on following, when some giggling girls walking past, caught your attention. One looked you up and down. And definitely not in a good way. They all walk on by grabbing their own drinks. You felt queasy. "So we could just chill in here, maybe dance." You just nod along to her words. This was going to be a long night.

You had just told Ellie you needed to use the bathroom, heading down a hallway, full of drunk teens. The smell was putrid, some even making out. Once you approached the bathroom you notice the same girl from earlier and her little group. You decide on whether or not you should speak up, or hold this unbearable pee until you get home. "U-uhm.. excuse me.." Your voice was weak, frightened of these strangers. "Oh I'm sorry, did you say something?" The main one spat. One of her friends snickering. "I need to use the bathroom.." You didn't want to make eye contact. You couldn't.

"Sorry but you might want to speak up. Can't quite hear you when you talk like a toddler." You go silent. "Still can't hear you." She smirks. You really don't know what to do. Should you leave? "Well come on, spit it out. And this time, try not to speak like a my little pony character." Its the way you caught onto what she was saying right away. That made you want to run, but you felt glued, like you couldn't. "Aren't you Ellie Williams girlfriend?" You look at the blonde infront of you. "U-uh yeah." You stutter. "Pft, I have no idea what she sees in you. She could do way, better." Her friends laugh yet again. "I mean come on, you follow her around like a lost dog. Think that lil bit you did just then was the first time I've heard you speak." You go to leave, just wanting to go home.

But she grabs your wrist. "Oh look girls, she's even the size of a toddler." She fake pouts as they giggle. You hated how tiny your wrists were. You hated it. You hated how small your hands were. You never held Ellies hand, you were afraid she'd view you differently. "Damn, do you even eat." You blink at her. You ate perfectly fine. You don't even know why you look like this. "I- i-" She let's go. "Y-you." She mocks with a snicker. "Go back to being a lil follower to your girlfriend. You pathetic twig." You felt tears threatening to spill at any moment now. And all you could do was run. "Careful you might break something!" She calls out, turning to laugh with her friends. Bitches.

You ran out of that horrid house, tears streaming down your face, sprinting to yours. Feeling your eyes blur as you slam your door and sink to the floor. You let it all out now. How can someone be so cruel. But oh they were so incredibly right. That's why it hurt so much. They saw what you saw. The truth. Suddenly there was a banging on the door to be found with Ellies worried voice. "Babe, open up please." You sniffle. "J-just go home Ellie.." There was a pause. "You know damn well I'm not doing that, please let me in." Your shakey frame moves out of the way to let her in.

"Hey hey whats going on with you-" She goes to reach for your arms but you immediately make sure that doesn't happen. She feels her heart break. "Y-you don't wanna touch that.." She furrows her brows in utter confusion. "Baby what are you on about." If she wasn't worried before she really fucking is now. "No.. you- you don't wanna be with some twig wh-who can't even talk to people properly." You sob out feeling your body ache. "Babe where is this coming fro-" You look at her. "My brain. Everyone, you-" She shakes her head. "Woah woah woah. Calm down, I don't know what's going on but you need to breathe." You cry more. "I- I can't.. my brain won't shut up, I'm ugly Ellie i- I am.. and everyone sees that."

She was shocked but that slowly turns into a tiny giggle. She moves closer to you grabbing your face gently. "Do you have any idea how naturally gorgeous you are." You look at her still feeling tears. You know she's caught on. "Whoever said these things are clearly big fucking cunts." You were shocked by the language she used, but you let out a tiny dry laugh, feeling your throat and eyes hurt from the crying. "And if it's who I think it is, there's one thing they need that you don't." You listen, wondering what that was. "They need makeup. You don't. And that is something you should be truly proud of." You melt at her lovely words. She rubs her thumb under your eye gently. Wiping away those pesky tears.

"Your natural beauty is my favorite thing in this whole world, so please. Never change. And it's not like you're unhealthy. You eat often and good. When they're over there, eating crap, getting sick. If anything they're the ones who should be vividly insecure. And they are, jealousy." She looks at every inch of your face admiringly. "Bitches." You blurt out making her smile so big. "Yeah, bitches." She kisses your nose. "Please never change because I fell inlove with my natural sweet baby. You're beautiful just the way you are angel. And I will remind you every single day. I'll kiss everything you don't like. And I'll do that everyday." You lean up on your tiptoes to kiss her. She kisses back sweetly.

"Why don't we get into bed and watch a movie, sound good?" You nod at her. "I love you Els." "I love you too my precious girl."

A/n: If you are struggling with your insecurities please know you're never alone in that and I hope this made you realize how everyone's perfect in their own way. I may not see that all the time in myself. But I do know my worth <3 (also not saying that makeups horrible I literally wear it often, but no one needs it to truly feel pretty. I enjoy doing it because it's fun!)

[hiwelcometothemonstersancturary]

so, I read the whole "House Tour (not the house we wanted, but the house we have)", and I loved it so much, and I asked a question after reading it because of the ending, so what was everyone's reaction of toys eating pizza for the first time?

Your First Ever Pizza Night

Synopsis: Angel has to teach the toys how to eat pizza. It's confusing.

---

James' eyes were so wide you thought they would pop out of his head. You nervously smiled at him, feeling the eyes of the toys staring at you from inside the house. "Thank you for your work", you tell him, money in hand. "I, uhm, am sorry for how Catnap tried to scare you away".

"I-it's okay!", he shakes his head. "No big deal, don't worry, Angel".

You eye the group from behind. Catnap tilts his head, still not very trusting of the stranger. You figured that would be the tenth human he talks to in more than a decade. "Take care, okay?"

"You too", he takes the money, counts, and then sighs. You also sigh, giving him a pat in the back. "Man, you really scared everyone out there. I thought you had... You know".

"I've been clean for years. I wouldn't do that", you reassure him. "And now I have those guys to look out for".

Your friend chuckles. "Feeling the weight of parenting on your shoulders already?"

"Urgh, don't even let me start talking about it", you smile. "Okay, I'll head inside now. I don't think half of them know what pizza is".

You tell James your goodbyes, watching him leave. You feel guilty for having him deliver so many pizzas to you, but it is what it is, the kids (your kids) must be hungry. You prepare yourself mentally before entering the house, closing the front door:

"So! Who's hungry?"

Dogday adjusts himself in the sofa as most of the mini toys yell "me!", rushing towards you, including the mini huggy that was using him as an oversized pillow. You laugh as they swarm you, and you pick up Driver and Bunzo on your arms. The little green huggy stims her hands, while Bunzo climbs on your shoulders: "Show us what that pizza thing is! Show us!"

"Bunzo, you're going to fall if you keep like this", Long Legs warns him, stretching all the way from the other corner of the living room to shoosh the crowd away. One catbee blows a raspberry at her, annoyed. "Get away from them! They're going to fall if you guys keep on like this!", the same catbee from before repeats the gesture, but now a candy cat and a bron imitate her gesture. "Angel!"

"You heard her", your warn the little ones. "C'mon, guys".

They coo away, and you watch Catnap proudly looking after the mini critters, most of whom didn't swarm you. He really is their big brother, uh...?

"Okay, guys. Are you ready?"

Driver stims again as you enter the kitchen, piles of pizza boxes distributed in the counters. Delight is counting them, muttering numbers under her breath, and stops when she notices you: "We have 26 boxes for 80 of us! They may last up to a week if we are careful".

"... What?", you chuckle. "Delight, no. The Prototype gave me enough money to feed everyone for years to come, we don't need to ration our food. You can eat as much as you want to".

You grab the first box you find. Bunzo tries to climb your head to take a look, and you laugh. "Eat as much as we want to? I'm going to explode, then!"

You bring the box to the living room, knowing well the kids are waiting for you to take the first slice. You show the box to Dogday, currently incapable of leaving the sofa thanks to his surgery stitches still being fresh. He deserves to see the first slice, you figured.

"You seeing this, pup?"

"With my two eyes!", Dogday nods. Catnap has approached you, and, with a smile, you open the box: "Behold: Pizza!"

"OOOO!", Bunzo yells. Huggy, who was following you around like a shadow, claps his hands, surprised. Kissy is still holding Poppy, who copies Huggy's clapping.

"It's been so long since I saw a real pizza!", the doll smiles. "And it smells even better!"

"This one is pepperoni pizza. There's 8 slices in every box - you guys should all take one. Eat as much as you want to!"

You take a piece, offering it to Bunzo, who grabs from your hand and shoves it on his mouth. You try your best not to accidentally drop him or Driver thanks to your chukling as he tries to deal with the cheese hanging out from his mouth. "Is elishious! Wha is disss?"

"You're going to get food on Angel's hair", Long Legs politely lifts Bunzo up from your head, using her arm to hold him. "And that's called... Cheese".

"Elishious!", he jumps.

"Please try not to choke!", you offer the next slice to Dogday. The big puppy's eyes go wide, and he shakes his head.

"Give it to the others, Angel..."

"There's enough for everyone, dummy, now eat" you take another slice, giving it to Long Legs, who stared at Bunzo in horror as he was still trying to deal with the cheese. "Theeere you go".

The pink spider stares at her slice with a strange look. She eyes Bunzo, then Dogday, who was holding his own as if it were a delicate piece of ceramic, then opens her mouth, then closes it.

"You eat pizza like this, Long Legs", you grab a slice of your own, biting it and using your teeth and fingers to free yourself from the cheese. Still chewing, you add: "Use your hands to deal with the cheese, everyone, you guys don't want to put too much into your mouths or you'll end up choking on your own food!"

You offered the next slice to Kissy, who stared at it with sparkling eyes before taking her first bite. Huggy bites his in one go, and Driver takes the last one before Delight appears, giving you a new box, still of pepperoni.

"Thank you", you give her a nod. "C'mon, take a slice! You too, Driver".

The mini wuggy jumps from your shoulder, and Delight gives a slice to her first before taking one herself. She blinks many time. "Ooh... This is very... Interesting...?"

She gives it another bite.

"Lots of different tastes... And it's so warm and soft!"

You sigh, noticing Dogday had given his slice to a catbee. "Pizzas aren't exactly soft, but I guess they look like it, considering what you guys had to eat..."

You offer a slice to Catnap.

The feline lowers his head. "Savior, please feed the others first...", he asks. "They're hungrier than me".

"You and Dogday have a lot to learn, uh?", you shake your head. "Okay, kiddos, you heard your boss. There!", you put the box in the ground, watching as the critters stare at you, hesitant. "One slice for each, don't fight each other for more, we have a lot of boxes. Speaking of which, can someone grab the other box... Oh!"

Delight chuckles, one box in each hand. She's polite in the way she gives it to everyone, despite all her isolation. Huggy, on the other hand, is less careful thanks to his lack of proper coordination, but he manages to feed all the mini huggies with some help from Kissy.

Dogday only eats after he's sure every single other toy is doing so. By that point, you're sitting on the sofa, Poppy using a plate, knife and fork to each her own slice of pizza. Catnap merely stares.

"Oh... Ooooh!", the orange dog mutters. His tail is wagging. "A-Angel, this is incredible!"

"Nah, it's just pizza. You're going to have fancier food as soon as I get more groceries".

"Fancier food? Are... Are you sure?"

"The doctors are going to kill me if I don't give you all the nutritients", Dogday stares. "Not literally! It's just a joke!"

"Ah", he sighs, forcing himself to laugh. "Even fancier food, uh...?"

"More!", Bunzo yells, jumping up and down. "I ate two slices already, but I crave more! I think I'll explode!"

"Please don't explode", you mutter. "It hurts".

The bunny mischievously laughs, running towards the kitchen. You eye Catnap, who eyes you back with a head tilt.

"Aren't you going to eat?"

"I... Ate yesterday, savior".

You hear a growl coming from his stomach. "Your 'savior' wants you to eat. Go on, you gotta get those calories. No one should starve".

For the first time since the confrontation agains the Prototype, Catnap lowers his ears and fidgets, nervously looking away from you. Around him, the small critters all eat their own slices, some trying to comfort him with a headbonk or by cuddling next to him.

"Catnap", Dogday calls. "You need to set up a good example for... Them", he points to the critters. "They aren't going to eat more if they see you aren't doing so".

"You know well how our rules work, Dogday. They eat first. Me, second".

"And now you are outside PlayCo. and playing by my own rules, kitty", you bite another slice of pizza, before offering the box to Catnap. "Go on, even Dogday and Long Legs are doing so".

"..."

Catnap's stomach once again growls. Using his hand, he takes a single slice out of the remaining three, eating it in one bite. You patiently wait for his reaction.

His eyes become brighter. His tail curls and moves left and right, and his ears go up as well. He stares at you, asking for permission, and you nod. He eats his second one almost immediately, now using both of his hands so he can take more bites and savor the taste more.

You chuckle, grabbing another box next to you and opening it for him and Dogday to share. The two bigger critters have the same sparkle in their eyes, and both go to their next slice almost at the same time.

This... Feels nice. All of this "family" stuff. Seeing them light up and talk about how this ordinary pizza is the best thing in the entire world, how they are eating so much when only at their second slice. It feels nice. They really are acting like normal kids would.

Maybe we can indeed become the parent they need...?

[zxxccx]

Fumigation

This is a work of fiction. All characters are 18+. Contains male fart fetish content.

I guess I kind of brought this on myself. They always say what goes around comes around, but I still think my friend took things too far. I'll admit, my little prank was pretty embarrassing for him. I spilled water on the crotch of his shorts right before he had to get up in front of the class and do a presentation. He was pretty pissed (pun intended), but he took it like a champ and actually aced his presentation. Afterwards, we both kind of laughed it off and he admitted that I got him good. We played pranks on each other all the time, so I thought this was part of our little game and figured he'd to something to embarrass me a little at some point and then we'd be even. Oh how wrong I was!

To fully understand what happened to me, you need to know a little more about my friend or more specifically his job. College is expensive, so in order to help pay off his loans, he worked part-time in addition to attending classes. They recently discovered that high doses of methane could kill certain household pests which lead to a revolution in the fumigation industry. It didn't take long for them to make the connection between methane and human farts. So now, most fumigation jobs could done by hooking a really gassy guy up to the building's ventilation system and having him let rip. People didn't necessarily love the lingering smell that remained afterwards, but it eventually faded and was safer than the harsh chemicals they used to use.

My friend is an extremely gassy guy (and having been the victim of many a fart prank from him, I could personally vouch that his gas is particularly potent), so getting a job as a part-time fumigator was a no-brainer for him. I remember when he first got the job, he thought it was hilarious that he was essentially being paid to fart. I told him he got lucky and that he better do a good job because if he got fired he'd never find anyone else crazy enough to pay for his rancid gas. He immediately turned my words against me by wrestling me to the floor, sitting directly on my face, ripping ass repeatedly, and not letting me up until I agreed to pay him $20 and thank him for providing me with such amazing service.

…

Back to now, my friend told me I had to see the house he just got hired to fumigate. Apparently it was one of those McMansions you only see in really high end neighborhoods. When he went for the initial consultation, he saw they had a home gym, a movie theater, a game room, and all that. He said he could give me a quick tour before he got started and then I could “watch the master at work”. I didn't want to be anywhere near him while he “worked”, but he assured me all his gas would be filtered into the house and I wouldn't have to smell any of it. So we drove there. It was a hot day, so on the way he offered to run into 7-Eleven and grab us both sodas which I greatly appreciated.

When we got there, I saw he wasn't kidding about the size of the house. As we walked up, I asked how he could possibly gas out the whole place. I know he was a powerful farter, but this seemed almost impossible. We stopped by the A/C unit outside, and he told me how the system worked. There was a hose plugged into the A/C unit and the other end went into the back of a harness that looked kind of like a pair of rubber boxers. They had to be rubber, my friend explained, in order to be airtight. The hose would be positioned so that it sat right between his bare ass cheeks and inline with his asshole. He would then fart and it would go into the A/C unit which would circulate the air throughout the whole house. Given how intense his gas was, and with the power of the A/C fan to help spread it, I had full confidence he'd be able to make the whole house reek in no time.

After he finished showing me his setup, we went inside and he started giving me a tour. I was worried about coming into contact with whatever critters the owner was trying to get rid of, but my friend assured me that this was a termite fumigation. We went through a bunch of the rooms, and my friend went definitely right about how impressive the place was. I was admiring the home theater when all of the sudden I felt off. My friend asked me if I was okay and I said I felt a little woozy. My friend suggested that I sit down and then said something to the effect of “gee, I hope no one messed with your soda…” Before I had time to process what that meant, I blacked out.

…

I woke up dazed and confused. My friend was looking down at me grinning. I tried to say something but my mouth was taped shut. I also realized that was tied spread eagle on an unfamiliar bed with each of my limbs secured to one of the bedposts. I gave my friend an inquisitive look and he started to explain the situation. Apparently, he was still pretty upset about how I embarrassed him in class. He had been thinking for a while about how to get me back, and then he came up with a brilliant idea. He knew how much I hated his farts, so why not use that against me. He put something in my soda to knock me out, and while I was passed out he tied me to one of the beds in the house. I was still going to get to see his work, but I was going to experience it from the inside. He even gagged me to make things more “fun” for me and to ensure that I fully got to experience his gas.

I started freaking out. There's no way he could do this. Wasn't it dangerous? He simply pointed out that he couldn't understand what I was saying and didn't care. This was going to happen to me whether I wanted it to or not. He then double checked the ropes to make sure there was no way I could escape. He also added a couple extra layers of tape to my mouth to make sure that I could only breathe through nose. After teasing me a bit more and telling me to think twice before messing with him on the future, he said it was time to get started. I tried to plead with him one more time but he left and assured me that he was going to love every second of this.

After a few minutes, I heard the A/C turn on. I really tried to struggle and free myself, but it was no use. I was fully stuck and there was no way out. I laid there filled with dread, waiting for the inevitable. Then it happened: I head the first fart rip through the vents. I didn't smell anything yet, but the fans were blowing strong. I heard another longer fart rip and then another. They just kept coming. It took a bit, but the smell finally started to reach my nose. I panicked but there was nothing I could do. I just had to lie there and take it. With each fart, the smell around me intensified. What started off as an unpleasant sulfuric smell escalated into full on raw sewage territory. I don't think I've ever smelled anything this bad before. And still it kept going. My friend was ripping nonstop and I was trapped in his fart cloud. You know how sometimes a smell is so powerful you can actually taste it? That started happening to me here. Even though I was gagged, my mouth began to fill with the bitter taste of my friend’s gas. My eyes even started to burn and I had to close them. I was fully and completely consumed by farts. After several minutes of pure torture, I finally slipped into unconsciousness.

…

I woke up a few times, but the lingering smell was so strong that I was immediately knocked back out. I finally came to on the lawn in front of the house. I was initially terrified to see a person in a gas mask looking down at me, but it was pulled off to reveal my laughing friend underneath it. Evidently the smell was so strong that, when he went in to drag me out, he had to wear a gas mask. I went to take a much needed breath of fresh air only to be shocked when I still smelled my friend's gas. I panicked and when I explained what was happening my friend laughed so hard that he fell over. I had been subjected to his gas for so long that it had imprinted on my sense of smell. I lost it and flipped out. He told me this is what I deserved for embarrassing him, but I told him he went way too far. I kept yelling at him, but he said if I didn't stop complaining he'd drag me back inside and leave me there. That shut me up.

As I was getting in the car, he jokingly reminded me that I didn't finish my soda. I glared at him. Then he got in and his face crinkled up. He immediately rolled down the windows and told me that I reeked. I told him that it was his fault and he jokingly said that he marked me as his territory. I sulked the whole way back and when he finally dropped me off at my dorm, I took the longest shower of my life. Unfortunately, it wasn't enough. It took over a week for me to be able to breathe in without smelling a hint of his gas and even longer for me to be able to walk around campus without people crossing the street to get away from the smell that was embedded in my skin. My friend made sure to tell everyone we knew what happened and they all thought it was hilarious. I wanted to get back at him so badly, but I was too afraid. I never wanted to experience anything like that ever again, so I let it go…as much as I could at least. Anytime my friend ripped ass near me from that point on, my mind always brought me back to being tied up on that bed surrounded by his gas. My body would shudder at the memory and my friend would laugh and rip another one just to drive home the point that I would never truly be free from his gas.

[colderdrafts]

12 - Tomorrow

Underground visitor, gn reader x monster (male drider). Sfw. First Previous Next

It should be around here, shouldn't it?

You stretch your back with a sigh, sore from standing bent forward for a bit too long. You've been wandering around the forest outside Dren’s home for a while now, scanning the ground for your lost device. It’s a hazzle pushing past bushes and leaf litter, remnants of the storm’s destruction not helping matters.

"A little black square with a dark 'skreen'," Dren repeats to himself for the third time, voice balancing uncertainty like he believes this is an elaborate prank. Still, he’s adamant to assist your pursuit, moving through his own forest space. He blows some of his unruly black locks out of his face when leaning down. "And it allows you to talk to someone at once, despite not being in their vicinity?"

"Yep," you call over your shoulder, jumping over some heavy fallen branches. "Very handy, if I do say so myself."

Dren hums in agreement.

There's a loud crash from his direction, and you spin on your heel at the sudden sound.

You find Dren casually hurling timber of a fallen tree further into the woods to get a better look at the bushes crushed underneath it. He picks up another large log with his front legs, seemingly unaware of his startling you, gets his arms under it, and simply throws it aside with a low grunt of effort.

You can’t resist admiring his casual strength for a moment. The perfect sync between the two halves of his body, despite them being put together in such a strange way, are like two separate creatures working together as a unit.

Dren looks up from the lumber he’s been toiling with, catching your eye. There’s a certain knowing warmth in his expression, and it makes you briefly wonder if he was showing off on purpose.

You distract yourself by looking back to your own bushes.

"Damn, give me a heart attack, would you?" you laugh, busying yourself by moving away branches. "What did those poor trees do to you?"

"I would prefer not to," Dren replies simply, grabbing and throwing aside another fallen log. "And they got in my wa – ah, oops. Apologies, critter."

There’s a frantic rustling and movement from something low on the forest floor. Seems his lumbering startled a brown ground-dwelling bird from it's hide in the underbrush. It flaps it's wings from the scare with a shriek, darting left, then right, then settling for the nearest exit being between Dren’s legs, under his abdomen, and then out on the open path.

Dren patiently stands very still while the bird figures out how to ‘escape’ him. It quickly seeks shelter in the deeper forest.

"Careful over there, 'Scary'," you tease him, watching the poor creature go. "We’re not out here to disturb the wildlife."

"I did apologize," Dren chuckles, re-starting his previous task.

You smile fondly, and return to your own patch.

The area you’re in should be around the place where you first appeared when the Darkness yanked you, if your ability to estimate distance is still functional. You had a palm on a tree, and from there you spotted the rocky entrance to the cave – it should be around here somewhere. You grin as another loud crash follows Dren’s part of the objective. He’s as destructive as the storm at this point.

It takes a while, combing the forest floor with shared effort. You cover as many bases as you can, desperation pushing you past the boundaries of your initial estimations. No dice. Perhaps it’s ambitious to think you’d be able to locate a small phone in an entire forest.

Perhaps it’s ambitious to think it’ll allow you to leave, something inside your mind purrs.

You stubbornly ignore both the thought, and the aching in your heart that comes along with it. The annoying pressure, however, remains.

The path you followed when you were walking home that fateful night isn’t exactly as you remember, but again, this is not where you used to be. You suppress a humored snort when yet another soft thud comes from the forest – yet halt, when you realize the sound didn’t come from Dren’s direction.

Careful.

Right after, you hear the unmistakable sound of footsteps approaching. And judging from the sound of the gait, it’s someone walking on two legs.

You look around, and true enough, further down the path you spot a sole individual calmly walking towards you. Anxiety spikes in you at the sight. There’s no way the stranger haven’t heard you rustling about, and now, they’ve seen you too. From this distance you spot canine features of the stranger’s face, and a furry body clad in protective leather.

You quietly look her in the eye at her approach, hesitant to call for Dren to put him and his young in a dangerous spot. And for all you know, your paranoia is completely unneeded.

The wolf-person approaches, eyeing you. Her face is relaxed, and no teeth bares when she speaks.

“Why are you out here on your own, sentry?” the wolf asks in a clear voice, stopping a generous few meters from you. You note a sharp spear attached to her back, the point glinting slightly in the dwindling sunlight.

“I’m not,” you inform the wolf.

“They’re not,” Dren reaffirms, appearing from between the trees. He swiftly steps to your side, not taking his eyes off the wolf you’re talking to. He chitters lowly. “Isn’t it a little early for you to be out and about?”

The wolf immediately focuses on him, subtly taking a wary step back. “Isn’t it a little late for you?” she counters.

Dren hisses. “Not quite yet.”

The adversary attitude is slightly concerning. As much as Dren is solitary, he usually at least maintains a polite demeanor when talking to other common-folk. That he deliberately has cast it away in favor of beefing himself up a bit tells you this is not just any common-folk.

You’d probably do well to get out of this interaction as soon as possible.

“You should leave,” you tell the wolf, trying your best to sound disarming. “We don’t want any trouble.”

“Neither do I,” the wolf replies, looking at you. “I was just out for a walk when I heard you scurrying about. Not often we see your kind around here.”

“I get that a lot,” you grumble. You nod toward the road. “Now you’ve seen me. You can go now.”

“That I have,” she agrees. She eyes Dren. “Lucky one, eh? Are you-”

“Leave,” Dren cuts her off with a snarl, not so subtly letting the wolf know his patience is running thin.

You pause to look at him and find his eyes hardened, subtly brandishing his fangs. You’ve not seen him like this since the clash with Morgan. You can almost feel the vibrations in the air from his lower body searching for any indication of an attack.

You slowly step closer to him – you know he can feel you coming – and place your palm against the side of his waist. His warmth is there immediately, but it doesn’t travel through you as usual. Dren doesn’t remove his eyes from the wolf.

“-looking for something?” the wolf continues regardless, watching your attempt to calm her adversary. She plants her feet slightly apart, like preparing to bolt.

“What’s it to you?” you ask, trying to sound calm. Better keep things smooth while the wolf is still here.

“Nothing. Just curious,” the wolf replies cautiously. “And I’ve found this thing. It smells like you, so I put two and two together.”

The wolf carefully reaches into a pocket with her other palm out, a placating gesture. And, of course, she pull back out your black ‘skreen’, holding it with two clawed fingers like it could burn her if she's not careful.

Drat.

“This is what you’re looking for, isn’t it?” the wolf asks, sounding almost like a statement. She could probably spot the way your eyes widened at the sight of it.

There’s no point lying. That is, indeed, a thing you very much need.

“It is,” you reply as casually as you can. “I lost it a while ago.”

“Give it back,” Dren demands. “It doesn't belong to you.”

“Well, it doesn't belong to you either, by the looks of it,” the wolf growls back at him. She focuses on you. “It belongs to the sentry. So. I’ll make you a deal. I’ll give it back no trouble, and you make sure your custodian lets me leave this forest alive?”

Alive? What? Does she honestly think that – well. A look at your companion, and supposedly it’d make sense for her to think that she maybe won’t. It still surprises you just how easily violent this world can get. But why even approach you then?

He’s not my- is in the front of your mind for a reply, but perhaps it’s better shut off for now. The wolf assumes you have any inkling of control over Dren’s actions, and that might work to your advantage here. As far as you know him, Dren doesn't want to fight either, he’s just determined to show he’s well prepared in case things were to escalate. Perhaps you can utilize that advantage so they don’t.

“Alright. Give me my device, and you can go,” you state, gently squeezing Dren’s side. You’re not sure if you’re apologizing for, or asking for permission to speak on his behalf. “I promise.”

The wolf observes you for a second, assessing your words. Supposedly deciding to trust them, she casually throws the phone to you. You manage to catch it.

“I’ll be on my way, then,” the wolf says. “Done deal.”

She casts one last glance back at you, before swiftly retreating into the deeper woods.

You can feel Dren’s leg pressing against your back. You lean against his side and put your hand on it, feeling the rough hairs there underneath your palm.

“You alright?” you ask lowly.

Dren is quiet a moment, staring at the hastily retreating back of the wolf. He huffs. “No. I do not like their kind, and I especially do not like them this close to my home.”

“That was a hunter, wasn’t it?” you say. You hesitate a moment. “What do you think she was doing here?”

“Scouting,” Dren growls. “Common-folk like her don’t go far from their homes for pleasantries.”

You could choose to hope that a pleasant walk to take in the brown and red hues of fall in this forest would be motivation enough for the wolf. But even you know that's probably naive.

“I have a guess as to what they’re scouting for,” you mutter, looking up at your companion.

Dren gives a short nod, still looking dead ahead. “You’d be correct.”

And curse your correctness, because here you are, having just let a new potential threat to Dren’s existence go on its merry way.

Should you have let him take care of it instead?

Dren keeps staring in the direction to wolf left, waiting a minute until she's completely out of view. He takes a deep breath, and leans down to gently press his face against your cheek momentarily. You lean back into him, reveling in his comforting warmth in the cool air around you.

“I’m sorry. Should I not have – should you just have -” you ask, without finishing the sentence.

“No,” Dren replies quickly. “There’s no need to fight today if it can be avoided. I will deal with this at another time.” He sighs, and gently nudges you to change the tone a bit. “But we got your skreen, did we not?”

“My ‘skreen’,” you echo him, smiling while holding it up for display. “Yeah. We did.”

You press the power button momentarily. Nothing happens. Either it’s out of power, or the rain and laying in the cold, wet dirt for who knows how long has simply done enough damage to break it.

Dren zeroes in on the strange device in your hands, squinting and blinking in succession. It’s as if he's trying to get it to tell him its secrets.

"What an odd little thing," he muses. Then he looks at you and smiles. "The ‘skreen’ as well, I suppose."

You snort, and playfully push at his furred shoulder. "Very funny. But this is awesome! Maybe now I actually have a better shot at getting this whole Darkness business attracted to this place again."

"And how will this work?” Dren asks, intrigued. “Will you be able to catch the Darkness with this object of yours?"

His question makes you pause. Truthfully, you hadn’t thought too far ahead on that aspect of your plan. You’d mainly focused on getting a starting point. Yet now the device rests easily in your palm, and so far nothing has happened.

"I'm not really sure," you admit. "My idea was like - waving it around and hope something happens. ‘Darkness grows in the spaces between us’, so maybe if I create one point for magic and one without..? You know, me and the phone on one end, this whole shabbang of a world on the other?” you continue, feeling the weight of your words crumbling the already paper-thin plan.

You take a second to adjust to the feeling. Dren patiently watches you think things through.

“In hindsight, probably not? Then maybe it would have happened by now," you ponder, turning the phone over in your hands. "So what am I missing?"

Perhaps you got too caught up in a potential easy fix to think it the whole way through. Why should this work any differently than you just being here, without any magic in you?

Dren thinks for a beat, frowning. He gets the same expression when he tries to remember something he’s read. "I’m still not well-versed in this – but the harpy also said magic is quite simple. Perhaps it’s just as you said. Maybe we need to cultivate a space where it can grow. Between us," Dren thinks out loud. “Magic and non-magic. Like you and me.”

"What you mean like - the two of us?” you ask. “You want to help me?"

"If I can," Dren nods. “She said your skreen is completely non-magic? And it’s in a place it’s not supposed to be in. It’s an outlier in this world. Something that’s bound to attract attention.”

“So if we try and generate a space, and have the pho-screen as, what, some sort of a lure?”

“Maybe?” Dren says. “We could give it a try.”

“I thought you said magic’s dangerous,” you argue. “Are you sure this is a good idea?”

“Well, I will not do anything beyond my natural abilities,” Dren reassures you. “I’m not the strongest, but perhaps I can – nudge, a reaction a bit.”

“How?”

“I’ll do what I would normally do,” Dren says. “But I will not tie anything together. I promised I would never deliberately use my ability with you, and this is not my intend here.”

No strings attached. Do you trust it’ll stay that way?

“Alright,” you say assuredly, showing the thought down. “If you think it’ll work.”

“Truthfully, I have no idea. But working or not, you will feel it,” Dren warns. He’s wringing his hands again. “It will only affect you.”

“I know,” you say, remembering the harpy’s words. You’re not sure you understand exactly what Dren aims to do, considering the natural limits to his abilities. But you do understand he wouldn’t do anything if he didn’t feel both of you could handle it. He's had odd ideas before. Might as well indulge him in this one. “Well. It’s worth a shot.”

Later you’re back outside the entrance to the cave – away from prying eyes – and Dren has directed you to stand a few paces away from him. The phone is placed in the middle. Seem the idea is to take it very literally, and using it to symbolize the space between you.

It almost feels a little silly, standing around to do this sort of odd improvised ritual. But worst case, nothing happens, and you're back to square one. Might as well check all bases. The cool air gently blows through the trees, and you glance at the place where you planted your flowers. A thought of how they might be doing down there in the dirt passes.

“Ready?” Dren asks, perhaps noting your momentary distraction.

“Yeah,” you reply. “Go ahead.”

Dren closes his eyes, and you can hear him chittering, claws working on the ground, sensing the air all around him. He steps in place for a bit, like trying to find a proper spot to hold on to. You stand to attention, suddenly feeling a little anxious as you wait in silence.

Dren opens his eyes suddenly, settling on something, and juts forward, completely locking his focus on you.

He catches your eye with a vivid stare that drills into you, so intense you simply can't tear your eyes away from it. His eyes are like four black holes, eager to swallow you in your entirety.

You feel a shift in the temperature as something warm slowly, slowly creeps up over your arms and gently flows through your skin, comforting and familiar. It’s Dren’s influence, you realize, the extend of what he can do. It makes the hairs on the back of your neck stand on end, a tingling sensation all over. It’s very much unlike the unpleasant experience you had with a certain other person who did something similar.

“Dren-” you breathe softly, feeling the warmth traveling through your bones, and you find you mostly just want it to keep going.

He purrs in response, and you stare into his eyes and find nothing there but pure contentment, enjoying being able to feel you so intimately. Then you can feel a want to go further, get closer, get inside, and a pain, a struggle, trying to hold himself back. You’re reaching for him as much as he is you, and the space between you is almost maddening, churning with need from forced separation.

“Don’t,” Dren hisses suddenly, and you realize you’ve taken a few steps toward him. You didn't even notice when you started moving. “Don’t come any closer.”

Your vision gets blurry as you suddenly get woozy, just feeling the sensation of Dren’s whole being intertwining with yours.

Dren says something again, and you can’t make it out. His voice seems fuzzy and obstructed, like listening through heavy glass. It takes another second to realize that you didn’t see his mouth moving. Dren wasn’t the one trying to speak.

Something wraps around you limbs, and there’s a scurrying of movement all around you, almost like a noise of rapid steps through water. Suddenly it’s hard to breathe, a dizzying and suffocating cloud surrounding you. There’s a stranger there, an outlier, something that doesn’t fit, and I want to get to it, tie it down, I want to understand it, I want to have it, see it, hear it, feel it, love it, make it mine -

It’s quiet.

And it’s dark. You don’t remember closing your eyes, but you do dare open them again.

There, in the space between you and Dren, on top of the phone, is a small, black void. It gently flows and sways, independent of the wind.

It’s like a hole in the air itself. The complete opposite of taking up space.

The sight makes your brain hurt and you gasp in surprise. In an instant it’s gone, as is Dren’s warmth, and you find yourself shivering from the sudden cold that claws its way through you, gripping tight.

No, no, no, no, something inside you squeals like in a panic. No!

Dren’s breathing heavily, closing and opening his fists, his legs stepping in place, agitated. “No,” he mutters to himself, gritting his teeth. He rubs his face with his hands in distress. “No.”

“Dren-?” you call out warily, still staring at the spot where the thing vanished. Your legs feel wobbly, and you support yourself with a hand on a tree. The tightness in your chest increases tenfold and you hiss in pain. “Are you okay?”

Dren looks up at you through his fingers, focusing on calming his breath. “Yes,” he whispers.

You keep your eyes on the spot the void vanished. “Whatever you did - I- I think it worked.”

“Yes,” Dren says again. He swallows hard. “I think it did, too.”

“But – what the hell was that other thing?” you voice feels hoarse. “That wasn’t you, was it?”

“I-” Dren begins. “I don’t think so? It didn’t feel like it.”

Is that just what interacting with darkness feels like? It didn’t exactly feel like Morgan, either. But you most certainly feel them now. You put your hand over your chest and breathe deeply, waiting for it to settle.

“Why did you stop?” you ask once you’ve calmed a bit.

“I – I wasn’t ready, yet,” Dren replies. “It was a test, and now we know we can do it. But I felt like – like I was throwing you away. I want to plan when we do it for real.” He fidgets with his hands, settling down to your eye level with a huff. “This is not going to be easy.”

You cautiously approach the phone lying in the grass, staring at the innocent looking thing. Nothing about it suggests right now it has just acted like some sort of artifact of the human world, helping you gain access to darkness. Still, you carefully step around it like it’s firework that hasn’t gone off as it should.

“Seems you can do that kind of magic, after all,” you tease him gently, settling down next to him and leaning against his side.

Dren breathes out in relief, wrapping a pedipalp around your middle and pulling you to him. He hesitates. “I don’t know what I did. I thought I just connected with you without – tying, anything.”

“Whatever it was, it worked. We created the space we needed,” you reassure him, idly running your hand over the appendage around your stomach.

“We did,” he agrees quietly.

"Dren?” you say.

“Yes?”

You look up at him. “Do you have any idea what an actual fucking genius you are?"

His face slightly flushes from the sudden compliment. He waves you off. "Come now, I just-"

"Nope,” you state, reaching for him. He obliges and leans down, and you cup his face, staring him in the eye. “Actual genius, right there. Doing magic on the fly like that. You figured this whole thing out. And, you read non-fiction for fun."

Dren laughs softly, carefully putting his palms over your hands on his face. "I am a nerd.”

You grin, leaning your forehead against his. "Damn right you're a nerd."

You can feel his mandibles brushing across your cheek as he leans in further, settling with his arms over your shoulders. There’s an odd pull in your face then, heat in your cheeks of anticipation at the subtle movement, like you were expecting a kiss.

"Now we know it works – when will we do this?" Dren asks calmly. It doesn’t seem he’s noticed. “When will we try this out?”

"Well - whenever we can, I guess?" you ponder, absentmindedly running a thumb over his cheek. "I mean -"

That would be it, wouldn’t it? You still for a moment, indulging in his warmth like a reassurance.

"Tomorrow?" Dren suggests helpfully, gently squeezing you. "I will not stop you if you wish to go at once, but if you'll indulge me for one last evening, I would love to keep you for a bit. Even though I know it selfish," he chuckles. "But it's up to you."

"Tomorrow," you repeat, holding him a little tighter. In some way, ‘tomorrow’ doesn't sound very pleasant either. "Yeah. Sounds good."

Back at the cave you take a seat in front of the fireplace in the now-finished woven chair. Dren settles on your right.

"I'm sorry you went through all this trouble to craft this and now I won’t even be able to use it much," you sigh, gesturing at the item. It’s very comfortable. "But I'm grateful none the less."

Dren smiles at you, but it doesn’t really reach his eyes. "It's alright. Maybe I can trade it come spring."

"Or maybe you'll find someone else who can make use of it," you joke suggestively, elbowing his side in an attempt to lighten the mood. It’s your joke, but even you feel it doesn’t really alleviate anything.

Dren politely let’s it pass without acknowledging it. He focuses on the fireplace, and you watch as the light dances in his black eyes. "Maybe."

A silence settles over the living room for a moment. Usually conversation flows so naturally in his company, but seemingly you both find yourselves at a loss for words.

"You look tired all the time," you tell him eventually, just to say something. “I’m worried about you, you know.”

"Well, you needn’t worry, but I am tired," he replies, humored. "My body is merely preparing for the next coming time. It’s completely normal."

He sounds reassuring, but a lingering thought remains with you. Mainly having to do with who you encountered in the woods today. Supposedly your plan will work, but you’re leaving Dren behind in a state more risky than when he first found you. A gnawing guilt forces you to address it.

You grab his hand and squeeze it. “Dren what are you going to do – about the hunter and-”

“Do not concern yourself with this,” Dren says immediately, almost startling you. He looks at you intently. “This is not your issue. I’ve dealt with this before, and I can do so again.”

You pause and look into him for a moment. He’s being very genuine – he truly doesn’t believe you should fight his battles.

But there’s something else there, a subtle fear that rings so deeply into his very being, something you know he’s been fighting his entire life. And it’s about to happen again. And he doesn’t have any assurance, again, to what the outcome of all of this will be.

Still, he’s adamant that you should go. It’s almost infuriating.

You sigh. “But-”

“No. I am too fond of you to force you into any more danger of my world,” he says seriously. “Tomorrow, we will summon darkness again. You will interact with it, and you will go back home.”

“Dren,” you say patiently, equally serious. “I brought this hunter here. If they try to get to you-”

He smiles then, a fondness over your protectiveness. It stops you dead in your tracks.

“They will always try to get to me,” he says, a little softer. “They would have found me sooner or later, no matter where I went. This particular individual would have come all the same, had you been here or not. Do not take this guilt when it’s not yours to carry. Me and mine will be fine.”

He sounds so certain. But you’re not sure who he’s trying to convince.

You glance down and find one of his hands is now on your waist. You don’t know what else to do, so you simply let yourself fall into him, reaching your arms around the space where his torso meets the abdomen, your face leaning against his chest.

Dren envelops you at once. “Sweetness-” he sighs.

You share a moment of calm, listening to his gentle chittering, feeling his arms around you, breathing in his reassuring earthy scent. Then, you feel him take a deep breath before he reaches down, grabs onto your legs with his pedipalps and promptly lifts you off the ground.

“Woah, hey!” you laugh, shifting your grip and adjust your arms around his shoulders instead, when suddenly he starts walking. “Where are we going?”

“We’re going for a walk,” Dren mutters. His voice is warm on your neck, and he gently squeezes you. “Or, well. I’ll be walking. You’ll just - be here.”

“My favorite place to be,” you joke. He hums in response.

Dren brings you to the blue cave once again, the twinkling lights on the side of the cave shining like small stars.

“Hold on,” he warns, before he grabs hold of the side of the wall and starts climbing.

You let out a startled noise at the sudden movement, and hang onto Dren a little tighter.

“Almost there,” Dren reassures you with a chuckle. You get the feeling he’s enjoying this.

He doesn't stop there, bringing you up the far wall and stretches again, reaching for the roof. There’s a sudden pull in your body as your world’s is turned around. You’re upside down.

“Dren,” you protest, feeling the blood rush to you head. “Hey-!”

He turns you around and settles you over his chest, him hanging upside down, using the strings around him like a makeshift hammock. You’re lying flat against his chest, your legs dangling freely over the space where his torso and abdomen meet.

“Is this alright?” Dren teases once you’ve settled a little better. His hands are on your thighs, a reminder he’s not going to let you fall.

“A little warning might’ve been appreciated,” you grunt, eyeing the very hard rock of the cave floor below. Then you stare at the annoying arachnid looking up at you with bemused wonder in his eyes, and you unfortunately can’t find it in yourself to be mad at him. Just like he probably planned.

You give in easily, and lean down to rest against him again, and his hands travel up over your back, securing you there.

“But yeah. This is very much okay,” you sigh, feeling his warmth once again.

“I’ve always wanted to do this,” Dren admits quietly, almost embarrassed. “I hope you don’t mind.”

“No, no,” you placate quickly. You reach your arms up to reach the back of his head, running your fingers through the unruly mess that is his hair. “No. It’s nice.”

He hums in delight at the attention.

You don’t know how long you lie there in the silence, just enjoying the quiet moment. A lot has happened, hasn't it? You've been her for a little over a week, and barely graced the surface of everything in this world. If anyone is looking for you back home, what will you tell them when you get back?

How could you ever explain what's brought you here? But if Darkness got you here in the first place, who's to say it won't get you back again someday?

Maybe you'd want it to. Then there's a churning inside you, and it turns to 'maybe not'.

“Hey, Dren?” you call out softly after a while.

His response is a chitter and a very deep breath. It would seem he’s fast asleep.

You suppress a laugh, leaving him to his rest. Your brainstorming can wait. “Sleep tight.”

You close your eyes to give in to the moment you’re sharing with him. But you don’t sleep right away. Partially, maybe, it’s because you want to remain here, awake to experience this fully. Another part, unwelcome and annoyingly clawing at the back of your mind, says it wouldn’t be wise to drift off just yet.

And why not? It’s late, you probably should get some sleep. Stubbornly, you lean your face into the crook of Dren’s neck. Still, try as you might to cling to the comforting heat radiating off of him, it’s not quite enough. Something demands your attention, and you once again find your peace broken.

Maybe it’s the disturbance from earlier that’s been amplifying the pain in your heart. Maybe it’s the way you’ve been trying to ignore it. Maybe it’s just getting stronger.

Or maybe it just knows you're going away soon. You can almost smell them.

"I'm going," you whisper to no one through gritted teeth, taking refuge in the warmth of the body you’re resting on. "And you can't stop me."

Don't, something inside you says. Don't. Please don't.

From the arms around your back to the chest rising and falling under your chin and to the faint pull on your heart, you can't tell who's asking this of you.

There’s a disturbance in your body, and you try to focus on shutting it down, anything to alleviate the maddening pressure inside of you. You feel clammy and cold, like a fever is coming on, anxious and restless. Like your body is anticipating something will go terribly wrong, despite you being tucked away in Dren’s arms, as safe as you can possibly get.

You look at the face next to you, sleeping peacefully, and lean in, pressing your forehead against his and enjoying the low purr that escapes him as you do so.

Fuck, tomorrow is going to be the roughest day of your life, isn't it? The fact that you wouldn't wake up to hearing his voice or being able to indulge in his warmth anymore? The thought makes your heart ache, the dull pull of your parasite alongside the pain of losing someone who’s grown so close to you. You brush a strand of his unruly black hair out of his face, staring at the four closed eyelids. Almost like you want him to wake up so you can talk for a little more, just bask in his presence while you still can.

How selfish. He’s nearing hibernation and needs his rest. He’s going to miss you as much as you’ll miss him, and you shouldn’t make it harder than it needs to be.

You carefully unravel yourself from his arms, silently apologizing as he stirs slightly.

Move, you think. I need to move. Get a clear head again before you’ll be able to fully rest.

“Dren?” you say, leaning back to look at his sleeping face. “Could you let me down?”

He doesn’t respond, so you gently cup his face, watching his mandibles click together as you do.

“Could you let me down?” you ask again, nudging him.

One of his eyes finally cracks open to take you in. Then, the three others follow. He blinks in succession, bleary. “Hmm?”

“I’m getting a little restless. I think I’ll go get some water,” you elaborate. “But you’ll need to let me down.”

Dren closes his eyes again and, with a groan, grips around your stomach with his front legs. He gingerly lifts you off of him, rolls over, stretches toward the ground, and places you on the floor.

He retreats back under the ceiling. “Let me know when you’re done,” he yawns.

A second later, his breathing evens out.

Slowing down, huh? The guy is close to a full stop. Good thing he’s still able to recognize you.

You get going. If anything, a brisk walk should help clear your head.

You reach the lake shortly after, letting the sights of the glinting lanterns sparkling in the dark water, the sounds of gentle droplets and flow wash over you. You sigh, and lean down to wash up a bit.

The cool water brings some clarity. The gnawing anxiety seems a little lesser now that you’ve given your flight-response something to work with, but it’s still there. Why didn’t Dren’s presence calm it this time? You were literally right on top of him.

Something’s wrong.

“Yeah, no shit,” you grumble, splashing some more water on your face.

It’s not enough. I need to move.

And go where? It’s in the middle of the night.

Still, walking feels right, right now. Perhaps you should take the last opportunity you have to do some exploration. You've somewhat learned the back and forth between the places you mostly frequent, but this system is huge - you're honestly curious to see what else Dren hides in these walls.

You huff, picking back up a lantern to continue. Yeah, that’s better. Just gotta keep moving.

[historianthesecond]

Hiii~ I LOVE who came in with the sea (very thrilled to read where the story is going!!) So I wanted to request a fic inspired on that

Maybe where mermaid!reader is married with Nikolai, and they both live in the palace, and from time to time Nikolai surprises reader swimming at the lake, so he just likes to see by the docks and watch her hehehe

Thank you! Have a happy week >:3

Hi! Sorry this one took so long kdjdjkdjk I'm not still 100% about this, but I'm struggling with writing rn so I hope you like it 🙈

Moonlight Mirror

Nikolai Lantsov x Mermaid!Fem!Reader---1.2K----SFW

Tags: Established Relationship | No Plot Pure Fluff |

Nikolai was used to hearing the sudden splashes of water around the lake while he tinkered with the Hummingbird, or any of his new ships, the movement creating waves that crashed along the polished hull.

You made him company in those strange moments in which either of you had many duties to complete in the day—you could always cuddle in bed and work until the oil lamp emptied.

It was late already, with his mind so focused he couldn't figure out how many bells had just chimed, the metallic echo falling into the still night air, the critters from the gardens around quickly restarting their melody.

Sighing, he took a rag and cleaned his hands, long streaks of black oil marking the white cotton. Nikolai put them on the seat he was just occupying, his eyes drawn to watch over the wooden rail at the still surface of the water.

You surely were enjoying the cold water at the bottom, which how a layer of sweat clung to his shirt, the summer air feeling more like the hellish breeze that blew from the ovens inside the kitchen than a break from the inclement weather.

The wooden boards of the docks creaked under his boots until he stopped at the edge of the one occupied by the ramp to climb into the ship. The water looked like a mirror, showing the almost full moon dotted with stars in the clear sky.

While he sat, ripples broke the calmness as your head surfaced, the dorsal fins around your ears shining silver against the moonlight.

You beamed, submerging your head in the water once again before appearing right in front of him seconds later.

“Hi, handsome,” you said, your hair floating around the water. You handed him a wrench that had slipped out his hands a couple of hours ago, as you always loved to look for shiny things underwater, your wedding ring shining gold catching his attention with the movement.

It was common to end up surprised at catching a glimpse of it now and then. That you were married to him despite everything you had to endure, so much that sometimes he thought it was wiser to just let you go.

His hands interlaced with yours, the wrench secured in the middle of the dock. A giggle bubbled out your lips when you felt his lips brushing your inner wrist.

"Come here, lovely," Nikolai muttered against your skin, leaning against you to carry you out of the water. He was used to feeling the smooth and cold surface of your tail, white and silver and artic blue that curled around him. "I missed you," he said, nuzzling his nose in the crook of your neck. You still smelled like the stormy seas of the north, of salt and fresh, cold wind blowing over the icebergs navigating over the infinity of cerulean blue.

You laughed, moving your tail up and down to fit better on his lap. “I was here all the time.”

“Not close enough.” To prove his point he held you closer, not caring that now his clothes were soaked. It wasn’t the first time, and it wouldn’t be the last. “This close would do. For now.”

You looked at him, some beads of water running down your face, eyes blinking between the yellow tones with vertical slits, like trapped amber, and your human ones, sweet and filled with adoration. “You wouldn’t finish anything if I were this close.”

Nikolai chuckled, hands lovingly cradling your body. “My wife truly is the wisest.”

Crooning your neck, you looked back at the shadowy silhouette of the Hummingbird, its ghostly sails carefully tied into the masts. You could reminisce about all the times you’d been aboard its tiny deck, flying one with the clouds as Nikolai pointed down at the cities you passed by, seeing colorful roofs and tall churches and schools, new bridges being built and roads open through the hills.

Your new home, you thought, leaning closer to Nikolai's warm arms around your waist. This is what home is about.

“Is she ready?” you asked, pulling his head slightly away to clean a stain of oil off his cheek.

His eyes twinkled with pride. "Yes. I fixed the engine so the turbines could help balance the hull. It seems last time I didn't oil them completely, thus why they got stuck."

Thankfully, he had crashed into a thick canopy not so far from the Grand Palace. With a visit from the physician and the Healers, he recovered enough to try his new invention again after a couple of days.

Nikolai kissed the top of your head. “Are you going to Notvy Zem with me then?” he said, a sly grin on his face.

“Are you going to use this business trip as another makeshift honeymoon?” you couldn’t stop from asking, which made him laugh. It wouldn’t help that you did go to Notvy Zem in your real honeymoon, three years ago.

“It’s almost our anniversary.”

“Your priorities astound me, Kolya.”

He smiled, trailing a path of kisses down your neck. “It’s on you for being so enticing,” Nikolai muttered against your ear, your body wiggling as you got ticklish from his soft, fleeting kisses.

You hummed, giving in quickly under his touch. “Of course, I’ll go with you.”

Truth was, Nikolai wanted to swim with you on the tropical shores of the foreign nation, there where the water was turquoise clear, colorful, and blooming with life around the coral reefs. You seldom wanted to swim with him in the lake in front of the Little Palace for how cold and profound it was, fearing something would happen to him.

"No," you said about two months before your wedding, blocking his way toward the docks. "Last time you caught a cold. It's dangerous."

"I'm healthy again, my love. I'll be fine." But you weren't convinced, dragging him back to your room where he settled with sharing a warm bathtub.

Which reminded him... "Let's go, gorgeous." You slipped out of his grasp once your tail was gone, with him standing up and unbuttoning his coat to cover you with it before you could protest. “A refreshing bath is awaiting us.”

“But my clothes—” you started, feeling the soft fabric of velvet and cotton against your bare back. It wasn’t cold to wear one, but the fabric smelled like him, like expensive cologne and brandy and burned oil, so you kept it.

“They won’t be needed,” he told you, and you were about to gasp, faking shock even if your stomach was fluttering.

Nikolai fetched them, your light skirts and silk blouse hung over his shoulder as he squatted down to lift you in his arms. You hung onto him, kissing the outline of his jaw as he walked back to the Grand Palace, the guards nodding in your direction as they were used to the view by now.

You with your face hidden in the crook of his neck, a boyish smile on his lips as he gazed down at you as if you'd been lighting up the stars that were flicking you goodnight with your hands. Words weren't necessary anymore; love was shown as clear as the sky of that peaceful summer night.

[twst-drabbles]

Octavinelle 13

Summary: Over the years, you’ve learned of the many vacation houses that Crowley had. And, of course, he decided to pack up all your bags for you, along with your pets, to go to a nice lakeside vacation house. Because of the curious and independent nature of the seafolk, you’ve taken up novice fishing to lure them out.

Magic is real convenient honestly. You may have your gripes about it and how it’s completely changed the way the job industry valued people such as you, but you can’t deny the large amount of good it’s done to your life. One of those blessings coming in the form of a lamp with a bug repellent spell in it. Sure, you can’t turn it on by yourself, but that’s what Crowley is there for. Now you don’t have to deal with the sticky and clammy feeling of spraying bug repellent on yourself.

You leaned back against the dock that had no reason to have delicate gold engravings in it and bobbed your fishing pole. Well, it’s not quite a fishing pole, it’s a kid’s version of one, just a stick with some string but still! You had a little lure tied to it, shaped like a worm that you can make shake and wave.

Azul, the good little critter he was, was sitting on your lap, grabbing the pole with you as though he can help with your fishing endeavors. He’s trying his best but you can tell he’s way too sleepy from the way his head occasionally jerked.

“What are you doing?” Crowley said as he heaved the now empty cooler onto his shoulder. He could use his magic but he said he wanted to feel like an outdoor man even though he could not be farther from the look in his weird floral shirt.

“Trying to catch two little rascals,” Jade and Floyd did not hesitate to dive into the lake and now they don’t want to come out, “I’ll be inside in a moment, don’t mind me.”

Crowley grunted as he adjusted the weight on his shoulder. “I could just, mm, grab them for you. It’s no trouble, combing through a lake.”

Yeah you know. He’d have no trouble magicking all the water into the air for you to go through, showoff that he is, but you’d rather catch them yourself. It’s more fun that way.

Then, finally, there was a tug on the string. You forgot that Azul was on your lap, so when you yanked the fishing pole high into the air, your guppy was shocked awake and rolled to the side.

“Sorry.” You said as your arm struck out and cause the two squirming figures of your little eels. Jade had his teeth sunk into the head of the fake worm while Floyd was clamped on the fat body. “Got you both. I was calling for you but you two ignored me. Azul’s getting your snacks for that.”

The dual chirps of despair and glee almost pierced your ears. Either way, it made you laugh.

[satoru-is-the-way]

Din Djarin x Reader

My Fandom Master List for Din Stories and more!

 A/N: SPOILERS FOR MANDALORIAN SEASON 3! I loved the first episodes so decided to make a little fanfic over Episode One!

Warnings: IMPLIED SMUT, MENTIONS OF SMUT, and angst

Summary: On Nevarro Greef Karga offers (Y/n) and Din a working position and a nice home to become a 'family'. However they both want different things.

"A Home"

Don't you know I'm no good for you?

I've learned to lose you, can't afford to

Tore my shirt to stop you bleedin'

But nothin' ever stops you leavin'

Quiet when I'm comin' home and I'm on my own

I could lie, say I like it like that..

"His name is Grogu." (Y/n) (L/n) and Din Djarin replied in sync.

"If you say so. Now come I want to show you something." High Magistrate Greef Karga waved their corrections and ventured back into his office. He walled around his desk and with one quick hand motion a hologram appears depicting a map of his town.

"There is a beautiful parcel right here down by the flats." Greef points to the sector which lights up correspondingly. (Y/n) eyes carefully evaluated the sector. A perfect home they could make. Nevarro's economy is accelerating beyond what (Y/n) would have imagined. Not only this but they are independent of the New Republic. This area would be for raising their child. It was obviously to Greef that (Y/n) liked the appeal of settling down. However before she could answer Din voiced his wants, as always.

"I appreciate the offer," Din shook his head ," But We have some matters to look after." At this Greef's eyebrows knit.

"I am confused...I thought you both completed your mission but here you are running around with the same little critter." He glanced towards Grogu. The child meanwhile enjoyed his new discovery, the office chair, using his force abilities to spin himself.

"It's more complicated. We completed our quest but a year later Grogu returned to us." Din sighed stopping the chair. Grogu made a noise of protest, "I removed my helmet and now I'm an apostate." He finished. (Y/n) glanced down at the map once more.

Their relationship had been complicated. She had accompanied Din and Grogu since day one. It had been the two, a clan of three, traveling the galaxy in search of a Jedi master. Over this period feelings are bound to form. Many assumed they were a couple and Grogu is their adopted son. That is not far from the truth. While both are quite aware of their feelings neither has yet made a move to become 'official' She remembered vividly the day he removed his helmet, the day they lost Grogu, and they day he finally took her in the bed. To feel him move inside of her. Their lips hunger, deprived and starved. That had been their first and only time in sexual intercourse. After that, it was simple hand-holding, cuddling, and he did not remove his helmet since. But they talked about a future, a family, so when Grogu returned on Tatooine (Y/n) figured this was the galaxy's way of telling her the time is now. Plus Greef is handing them an elegant home for free?!

"Which is all the more reason for you both to stay here. Where you are from, Din, you are an apostate. But here you would be landed gentry." Greef argued. "You two could be stable and this little guy can grow up here. Go to school and be a normal kid."

"It's worth a look." (Y/n) adds Din tilted his head in her direction. "We should go check out the place." If She could see Din's face he would look at (Y/n) in disbelief. How could she be saying this?! Out of all people, (Y/n) would be the only one to understand him. Din is extremely vocal about his want to atone for the crime of removing his helmet.

"No," Din replied voice low and unwavering. The bounty hunters both started at each other in silence unwilling to break. That is one thing Greef knew about them both, too damn stubborn. It felt like hours had passed since Din spoke.

"I-I didn't mean to cause a couples fight." He stutters out.

"We aren't a couple!" (Y/n) and Din both quickly answered. Grogu looked up from his chair with a hand full of red candies.

"I am going with Grogu to look at the parcel. Your beskar ass is more than happy to stay here." (Y/n) replies and shoulder checks Din before picking Grogu up. She turned to Greef who instantly gave her the directions mainly out of fear.

"I said no." Din orders quickly following her out.

"You don't own me!" She yelled on the verge of crying.

"I don't care!" He grabbed her arm pulling her back into his chest. "I want you to marry me. Belong to me and only me!" Din said into her ear. (Y/n) shivers at the idea of being married to Din, being (Y/n) Djarin, raising Grogu, and having his children.

"Then I want this! I need a home. I want a family. I need stability, Din!" She yelled.

"I will give you that but my creed matters!"

"Matters more than me?! More than Grogu?!" (Y/n) growled causing the child to whimper

"Don't bring him into this." Din warned her.

"Why not? You removed your helmet for him. As a sign of your love. Then you know what we did after." (Y/n) suggested in a way Grogu wouldn't know. "But after that nothing. I waited far too long for you finally to admit you want to be with me. I won't marry you. Din, I understand that you feel you have to do this because they took you in and saved you. Made you a Mandalorian. But I figured being with me, with Grogu, and starting a family would mean more. But I guess I was wrong." Din kept silent and slowly let's his grip go.

"I love you. Please don't do this." He begged.

"Do what?! As for a life? For a family! I want this for us Din! I love the Galaxy and traveling but I need a home."

"You and Grogu are my home." Din cups her cheek but (Y/n) pulls away.

"This , us, whatever this is. I'm done." She turned away letting the tears fall leaving him standing there defeated.

Don't you know too much already?

I'll only hurt you if you let me

Call me friend but keep me closer (call me back)

And I'll call you when *my missions* over

It has been a week since they argued. She did not see a trace of Din. Greef on the hand talked about how Din is a complete mess. The man has not left Nevarro's local pub until they kicked him out at the end of the night. (Y/n) tried to be happy living here but without Din to hold her at night...she could not sleep. How selfish was she!? Din loved her and wanted to get married...But their stubbornness got the better of them.

"He needs you." Greef sat down in the dining room chair. Currently, Grogu sat in the highchair as you feed him. "I never would have mentioned it...If I knew it would cause problems."

"No, you did nothing wrong. I felt this way...After Grogu left. Din and I want the same thing but in different ways." Grogu whimpers at his dad's name. "We traveled with Grogu all that time. It wasn't until we left that he finally admitted how he felt. Din removed his helmet and...he was an apostate. They took him in after losing his home. Din almost died but these Mandalorians saved him. He feels dedicated to them but I...I need stability now." (Y/n) frowns.

"I offered him a nice hotel. Din refused. He is located here." Greef gave her an address. "Din is in a cheap motel. Let me have the baby. He needs time with Uncle Greef." The man beems and Grogu squeals knowing he could get away with anything being with Greef.

"Fine. Mind your manners Grogu or else you will be in trouble." (Y/n) tone is motherly she crossed her arms giving the baby a look.

But nothin' is better sometimes

Once we've both said our goodbyes

Let's just let it go

Let me let you go

A knock came on the door and Din quickly opened the door. (Y/n) is caught off guard being met with a pair of soft brown eyes. "Please don't leave me." Din's unfiltered voice almost cause her to fall to her knees and beg his forgiveness. "Please I love you too much." He whispered pulling (Y/n) into a passion-filled kiss. The female melts and becomes putty in his strong arms. She pushed him back and quickly shuts the door. Din groaned feeling her body pressed against his.

"I won't leave you, Din." She responds.

"Let me...try and atone. If I can't then I'll come back here with you and Grogu. We will make a life." He whispered and (Y/n).

"Take me..." She begged. That is all Din needed to hear before making love to her all day long.

[yansurnummu]

Little Fox

(ft. @tilliphont's boy, Bjalin. thank you for letting me borrow him <3 )

1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6

Of course, many Reach clans had stories of creatures of the night. Cunning things, with pale skin and blood-red eyes, like a person but inhuman all at once. Some would say they feared the sun, dwelling in castles in the grand caverns below empty Dwemer halls. Some would say they inhabited the cracks and crevices of the mountains, and with bat-like features they would hibernate, hanging from the ceilings.

You mustn't play near the Karth, little ones, the clan-witch would say, for the life-stealers hide ‘neath the ice, and they'll steal you too, should you stray!

Donobhan had never been one to listen to the Elders. He strayed and wandered, often forgetting to watch his step. 

Why would you do that? His father would scold with barely-concealed frustration. 

Donobhan couldn't come up with an answer. It didn't seem like a big deal. No one got hurt. He and Daighre were just having fun, exploring and looking at insects and critters in the woods. I don't know, he replied, not understanding the anger directed at him that then followed.

There is something wicked about that boy, Daighre’s mother lamented from inside the yurt. 

The cold air stung his eyes as he ran from the camp. He threw himself in the snow on the banks of the Karth, part of him fearing that the tears might freeze onto his face. He sat there, sobbing for what felt like hours, not noticing the crunching of snow behind him until arms curled tightly around him.

I'm sorry, Daighre said, her voice shaking. It's not fair. They're not fair to you.

Why am I like this? Why do I make a mess of everything? he cried. I don’t want to! I want to be good, but no matter how I try, it’s never enough!

He knew she didn't have an answer for him; but her being there was enough. He didn’t feel as alone, crying into her soft furred collar, her arms squeezing around him tightly.

The whistling of the kettle finally became loud enough to pull him from his memories back into the present. Donobhan grimaced, quickly jumping to his feet and pulling the bubbling-over kettle off the flame.

“Ah, shit…” he cursed to himself, rubbing his eyes. Some days were harder than others.

Where had his line of thought begun? He sighed, leaving the kettle to cool and stepping through the curtain of the yurt, feeling like he needed to get some air.

Outside, he stared up at the afternoon sky. It was moderately cloudy, though not terribly cold, most of the snow having melted now in the early Spring months. He breathed in, feeling his anxiety simmering down now that he was no longer trapped inside.

Beside him, he heard Calahan push through the curtain to join him outside. Donobhan watched him curiously as he bounded off, barking happily at something, until he caught a shape approaching off in the distance.

Grinning, he rushed back inside, finishing the task of making canis root tea, this time with one additional cup.

“Hello there!” Donobhan called once the figure was close enough, setting two cups of tea down on the bench beside the doused campfire. In reply, he received a wave and a warm smile as Bjalin approached. Calahan trotted happily beside him, rushing back to Donobhan, wagging his tail like he’d found a treasure out in the melting snow.

Getting a hug from Bjalin was like having every joint along his spine corrected in ways he didn’t know he needed. He was a big man, even by Nord standards, and Donobhan had to reach to wrap his arms around his neck, burying his nose in a cloak that smelled of oiled leather and pine. But he was so kind and gentle, unlike other Nords who had only met him with scorn. He laughed, his heart fluttering, as Bjalin pressed a kiss to his temple, his soft beard tickling his face.

“It’s so good to see you, my friend,” Donobhan grinned, pulling away from the hug but keeping his hands at his shoulders.

“You as well,” he gestured with his hands, slowly, knowing that Donobhan was still learning. “I brought you a few things from town.”

“Oh, you are like a Vateshran’s hero,” he smiled, leaning up to press his lips to the corner of Bjalin’s mouth. “Come on, then, you must be tired, and cold. I just made some tea.”

Bjalin smiled and nodded, leaving a hand at the small of Donobhan’s back as he led him towards the bench.

He conversed with Bjalin for a number of hours. It had been a while since he had seen the man, the tundra too dangerous to traverse at such a length in the dead of winter. He was grateful for the company, and the distraction.

As night began to fall, Bjalin accompanied him as he walked the perimeter, tending to the magical wards keeping the spirits peaceful. The chill of the night brought him back to his earlier thread of thought, and he wondered…

“Have you ever met a vampire?” Donobhan asked, glancing at Bjalin at his side, who gave him a puzzled look.

“No,” he tapped two fingers to his thumb, slowly, even though it was a sign that Donobhan knew well enough. He then gave a curious smile, raising his hand near his head for the next sign. “Why?”

“Uh,” Donobhan chewed his lip, regretting opening his mouth on the topic. “I don't know. I was just curious if you knew anything about them.” 

Bjalin sighed through his nose, looking elsewhere, seemingly thinking.

“I couldn't tell you much,” he gestured as they walked. “You hear stories, in town. But from what I understand, it's a disease like any other.”

“Sorry, a what?” Donobhan frowned, a little embarrassed.

“Disease,” he moved both hands in circular motions that Donobhan had a hard time tracking, before spelling it out, letter by letter.

“Ah,” his gaze fell to the ground ahead of him, a little dejected. Thinking of it as a disease didn't make it sound very pleasant at all. 

Bjalin tapped the back of his hand against Donobhan's shoulder, signaling he had more to say. His eyes were soft when Donobhan looked back at him.

“You can talk to me. There's something on your mind, I know it.”

Donobhan sighed, knowing that the anxiety was just in his head. Bjalin was a kind man with an open mind, and he should feel safe telling him things.

“I think I may have… befriended a vampire,” Donobhan said, grimacing now that it had finally been said aloud.

Bjalin raised his brow, looking taken aback, but not horrified, like Donobhan had feared. 

“And?” he pinched his fingertips together, moving them to the side of his chest with a curious cock of his head. “I'm just glad you've made a friend. It's not good to be all alone out here.”

A smile crept onto Donobhan’s lips then, the rest of the tension draining from his body.

“Aye, you're right, aren't you?” he chuckled, relieved. “I don't know. I think I felt… intimidated, when I learned what they are. Not afraid, really, they're very sweet and I like them a lot, but just… well, that's a really powerful creature, and here they are, sitting at my little campfire and listening to my little stories! Felt a tad surreal, I suppose,” he pouted.

Bjalin huffed a silent laugh.

“Can I meet them?” he gestured with a grin.

“Well, I'll ask them, but I wouldn't get your hopes up,” he frowned, patting Bjalin’s shoulder. “They're very shy. It was like trying to earn the trust of a fox. I thought I was seeing a ghost for months.”

Bjalin gave him an amused look, that if Donobhan didn't know better, he might describe as smug.

“What?” he asked, cautious.

“My little fox,” he gestured, bringing his thumb and forefinger to form a circle, a nose, the rest of his fingers spread out like whiskers. Donobhan could feel his face turn as red as his hair.

“Oh, stop it, you,” he chuckled, batting playfully at Bjalin's hand. Bjalin grinned, throwing his arm around Donobhan's shoulder as they continued their walk.

Pet name aside, he caught the underlying meaning. All of them had been through their own lives of being burned at every turn. Donobhan had been slow to trust Bjalin, years ago. Bjalin, himself, was functionally an outcast of his village.

Donobhan realized then, that learning to reach out, even if it hurt, felt more brave than just giving up because it might end poorly.

He wondered if Asha-ammu felt similarly.

[peachdoodledump]

taps mic

Octonauts Royal AU (i have no idea how monarchy works cause our country is a democratic one so i'm relying heavily on royalty portrayed in media and research)

Captain Barnacles is the King so he's technically renamed as King Barnacles with his sister, Princess Bianca and her children, Princess Ursa and Prince Orson

Dashi is Barnacles' Royal Advisor and one that he usually asks for any updates in their kingdom and the first to face guests when they visit. She's often called 'Lady Dashi'

Peso is the head of the medical household and is the king's good friend. A lot of his siblings like to visit the castle. He has the title of "Doctor" but he would rather be called by his actual name.

Professor Inkling is the royal diplomat and is in charge of foreseeing the education system in their kingdom

Shellington is the assistant diplomant, often inside the library with Professor Inkling. Students and scholars often call him "Dr. Shellington."

Kwazii is the general of the royal guard and does not disclose any information about his past. He has the title of "General." The king was kind enough to trust him after he bravely saved creatures during a tsunami. He used his grandfather's boat to save critters who were washed away.

A lot of pirates are considered enemies by the villagers in the kingdom but when Kwazii came around, their viewpoint changed. Of course, there are still pirates who don't abide to the law but Kwazii wants to change that.

Tweak is the court engineer and leads the royal association of innovators. She lives outside the palace with her father, Sir Marsh. Most of the villagers call her "Ms. Tweak."

Tunip and his siblings are the chamberlains and chefs in charge of managing the household

Extra info:

Other kingdoms exist outside theirs and the members of the palace are actually considered the Royal rescue team (aka Octonauts). The name Octonauts was suggested by Professor Inkling as a metaphor that like an octopus' tentacles, their help reaches out to many places

They don't have good technology yet so their communication relied through dove and parrot messengers

A bit of plot that's related with above and beyond (and kinda like the main story that made me come up with this au)

Reports of the lake waters decreasing because of some fellow taking barrels filled with water at night. When Barnacles gets this report, Kwazii volunteers to spy in the woods to capture the thief in which Barnacles agrees and reminds him to not hesitate to call for help when he needs it. The dove messengers will be on the lookout on the trees as well.

At night Kwazii stands guard, and hides behind the bushes and when he finally spots a silhouette sneaking between the trees to the lake, Kwazii jumps with his sword out, making the cloaked figure run away.

But since Kwazii is a cat and cats have good night vision, he chases the cloaked figure through the woods and sees how the other perfectly jumps branch to branch (even somersaults to the grass) and mutters "Yeow, they've got some acrobatic skills."

He almost loses the figure until they stop when they spot a baby squirrel falling down from a tall branch. Kwazii is about to catch it when the mystery person nabs it first and brings it back up.

Not only did Kwazii realize that this person had acrobatic skills, but they also had compassion. Anyways, there was no time to think about that when they've got more pressing issues.

So, the cloaked figure continues to run but since Kwazii has his cat-like speed, he sprints and tackles the cloaked figure to the ground. He places a foot onto the other's chest and points his broadsword to stop the person from escaping.

"You're not going anywhere, you scurvy thief." Then as he tries to make up what the face looks like, the clouds reveal the moon and lightens the whole forest. That's when Kwazii realizes that the perpetrator is a macaque. They don't have a lot of macaques in the village. Maybe not even one. So, this macaque is probably an outsider.

"I didn't steal anything! The name's Paani and—"

"You keep taking the water from the lake inside our kingdom. Sounds a lot like stealing to me." Then, Kwazii points the broadsword closer.

"That sword... are you perhaps a pirate?"

"Now, how'd you know that?"

"Because—" then Paani quick as lighting, he snatches the sword using his prehensile tail and Kwazii lets out a quick 'huh?' Before his leg is grabbed by Paani's free paws and pins him against the ground. "—usually they'd hold their swords on their right paw," Paani innocently stated, throwing the sword from his tail up to his right paw with a glint under the moonlight. "And they have eyepatches."

Kwazii, fully taken aback with the quick movements of the macaque, can only blink at him while trying to squirm his way out of Paani's weight against him. "What does that have to do with anything?!"

Paani, who shifts his weight onto the foot currently resting above Kwazii's chest, ignores his question. "I was just bringing the water to some thirsty animals outside the kingdom. The rising temperatures are not good for the critters, you know?"

"Then why didn't you say so in the first place?!" Then he coughs, asking for Paani to get his foot away from him cause it's a very uncomfortable position to talk while lying down and having weight pressed against his chest. To which Paani quickly apologizes and returns his sword.

Then Kwazii tells Paani about the mission of the Octonauts and how they want to help every creature in need, may it be outside of the kingdom or not.

So, then Paani agrees to finally ask for help from the palace but before they do, they hear a shriek far from the forest and both of them agree to track down the commotion. When they arrive, they see that a forest fire broke out and is spreading fast. Without warning, Paani takes off his cloak and shoves it to Kwazii "Take this," he says in a hurry and sprints to the fire.

"Wha— that was your plan?!" Realizing that Paani's too far to hear him, he signals for the dove on the lookout and alerts it to quickly tell the king about the forest fire. Code orange.

Kwazii wears the cloak and helps the nearby critters to evacuate and thankfully, Paani gets out of the fire unscathed with small critters in his arms. At that same time, the Octonauts arrive and Peso instantly helps the injured using cloth bandages.

After everything, Kwazii explains that Paani is the one who took the water out of their lake during the past days for the animals outside of their kingdom. Paani then thanks the Octonauts for helping him and his royal highness, King Barnacles, asks him if he wants to join their association and Paani agrees, as long as he can explore beyond the kingdom territory and follow the water where it goes. That's when Paani gets the title of the "Royal Scout," in charge of giving reports about the weather and any abnormalities in the water.

"Welcome to our team, Paani!" Peso exclaims and Dashi agrees. She then notices Kwazii's cloak. "That cloak looks new. Did you have it tailored, general?"

Kwazii realizes he still had the cloak on and tries to remove it. "Oh, this isn't mine. It's Paani's."

"I actually have more of that in my bag. You can keep it, Kwazii."

Unlike Kwazii, whose focus is on the fact that Paani has more cloaks just in store, Dashi and Peso exclaims at the same time "You called the general, 'Kwazii?!'"

Paani is completely baffled. "What? Did I say something wrong?"

Kwazii shakes his head. "Don't mind them, matey. Welcome to the Octonauts!"

(This is not a full fanfic and just an AU so I apologize for the abundance of grammatical errors T_T)

[pbandjesse]

It's only 730 and it so dark out! It's not even daylights savings yet. Ridiculous.

Today was a busy day! It was a fun day though even if my body is vaguely uncomfortable. I had to wake up at 730 (oh weird exactly 13 hours ago) so I could get ready to go to the walk in doctors appointment with James. I very much did not want to go to the doctor. But James wanted us to go so we did.

We had a little trouble getting there. Just traffic and bad drivers. I loved my outfit though so even though I wasn't feeling amazing, mostly because I wasn't all the way awake, I felt really cute and good. I just got this sweater tank dress and it's super cozy. James said I liked glamorous.

We got to the doctor right as they opened. And were the first ones in. We had to fill out some papers. But pretty quickly they took us back together! I liked that!

We weigh the same. Our blood pressure was good. James resting heart rate was 59. I didn't catch what mine was.

We would go into a room to wait and eventually I was taken back to be seen by myself.

The doctor was pleased that I was seeing the rhumatologist and that so many of my issues are getting better. He was very concerned when I told him about my A1C test from the summer and so I had to get a finger prick test and my glucose thankfully was 80 and that's in the normal range. So the panic everyone was radiating lessened but they are concerned by my shaky hands and seeing black spots. I will be going back to gert blood work with them soon. They only do it there on Tuesdays and Thursdays though so I have to figure that out. I'll figure that out tomorrow.

We would finish up there around 930. And we decided to go get breakfast at Southside.

I always like eating there. And it was fun sitting with James and just talking about buying a house and life and the day. I just love spending time with my James. They did have a little sadness in their eyes today and told me they were just having a hard time. They have those days sometimes. I do to so I understand.

After breakfast we headed to highlandtown for my meeting. We waited a few minutes but we were still wildly early. So we would run over to target to use their bathroom and then come back. I was feeling a little weird. My body felt weird. But I tried to shake that off and be positive.

We got back to highlandtown and James would wait in the car and read. I walked over to creative alliance but I wasn't sure how to get inside. Another woman was waiting so I headed over there. But then Parker was at the door and he thought she was me and it was very funny to me. I think my height surprised him. It is not my fault I am so small!!

Parker is great though. He gave me a tour of both buildings. Both just beautifully designed spaces. I loved seeing the behind the scenes and seeing the set spaces. I did not know that they had artist in residences there and they are legit apartments! That's so cool!

We would sit in the classroom where my workshops will be and I got to envision how that would lay out. And we spent a really good amount of time talking through my STEAM programs I've been working on. And he wants to put three on the calendar in the new year. So I am going to propose those to camp tomorrow. And if they are down I'll get that all sorted. A critter talk and felt craft, a native species heart wall hanging, and a paper making with native seed inclusion project. I think it will be super cool and give camp a whole new audience.

I also shared with him about this blog and the overarching project it was and has become. How I work on it for about an hour if not more every night. How it has made me a better writer in ways but also just helps me find center after a long day. He was impressed. He is trying the artist way daily pages and I think I inspired him a little and that was really cool.

After our meeting I was in a great mood and went back to the car to see my husband. I stopped to take a picture of a flower. And was excited to tell them everything but they seemed so sad. I hate when I can't fix everything for them but they said they were okay and I told them all about the meeting while we drove back to target.

We didn't have to get much. James was really excited they had the nail polish they really like but they haven't had anywhere for a year. I was frustrated that I couldn't find any of the things I had wanted. I got a different brand of body oil. We did get a cute glass candy machine that I'm going to keep thread in. And we got a second CO2 tank for the soda stream. It was a productive trip.

We left target and drove to the zoo! The plan was to just ride the train. And that was exactly as much activity as I think either of us could handle. We get free tickets to the zoo on October so we needed to take advantage of it one more time.

I loved seeing the prairie dogs again. One for really close and I got to watch him eat a leaf. Just peak male performance. Love a prairie dog.

We went through the victorian walk where all the old cages are. It's funny how much they say in all their signs that they don't have any animals in them anymore when they have multiple birds in them. Birds are the only thing that should be kept in those cages. The snowy owl seems happy in there.

It was busy at the zoo entrance. It was closer to 130 and all the school groups were on their way out. No big deal. They weren't taking the train so it wasn't busy over there. We got our ticket and while we waited we took kissy pictures.

The train was fun. I wish it went around more of the whole park but it was neat seeing the miniature long horns. Which are still 1800lbs but compared to a regular long horn at 4000 it is miniature. We also got to see a lemur in the walkway!! In all my time visiting this zoo I have never seen that! I also liked their spooky decorations and the train conductor gave a good little talk about stuff. Like spiders and bags and why they are important.

Once the train ride was done I asked James if they wanted to go look at anything. We went to the otters but no luck, plus the water was way way down. Maybe they go somewhere else when it gets cold? Or they were just inside. We did get to see the bats and I really enjoyed that. I should be able to see them with more light but also I know that's not fair to the bats. I was happy to see them as much as I could.

It was time to go though. We walked through the bird area but they still won't let you in because of avian flu. Still fun to get in the giant birds nests and feel cozy. James was surprised that I was able to easily get in and out of the orioles nest. I was surprised how big it was inside.

After we left the zoo we decided to go get a milkshake. James drove us to Hamden and we went to the charmery.

I decided on an otterbein sugar cookie milkshake and it was great. But we also tried the butternut squash and clove. Which was essential pumpkin pie but slightly different. I was unsure because sometimes clove just tastes like a candle but it was good so we got a pint to take home. This also filled up James's punch card! Neat! We get to spin the wheel next time we're there.

We headed home. And I was glad to be back. I was ready to rest. James would start the laundry and I worked on my charm collection project for an hour. They would go for a bike ride and I got cozy and laid down.

I wanted to nap but it did not work. So instead I just chilled and watched videos.

When James came back I would move to the living room. They would make me pasta and green beans for dinner and I trimmed my cuticles. I ate to much and my stomach hurt (and still does). James would go play DND and I took a bath. I used my the end of my body oil and it felt very nice. Let's hope the new brand is nice too.

We have been in bed for a while now. I am really ready to sleep. Tomorrow I have a Native American feildtrip. Sarah is helping me run it and I really hope it goes smoothly. I have to get things ready in the morning. She pulled all of the materials out but I need to run around and make sure it's all good. I think it will be fine but still. Nerves.

I hope you are all well. I hope you sleep tight. And feel good tomorrow. I love you all. Goodnight!

[dorimimimimi]

The big question now is Beau’s and Dori’s story… It was confirmed that Beau is Dori’s child but it gets one thinking whether Beau is biologically Dori’s or did she just adopt Beau?

Though in Dori’s perspective Beau is Dori’s child whether Beau is adopted. Dori loved that child whether they were biologically hers. She doesn’t find the appeal why it would matter to others.

Because in her terms whether or not it was biological both ways the child would have still been loved regardless if they were by her blood.

But what one must question has a quite simple answer. It was during a stormy night where Dori was roaming around the ruins of an old civilization. Where she came across a different sound way different from the rain. It sounded like a baby crying.

Dori was quite curious, so she had checked out the unfamiliar noise. When searching around the area of the noise was where. She found a little area where it showed a basket where some wood slabs seemed to act as a shield from the rain.

When coming near the basket in high alert Dori crouched down to inspect what’s inside the basket to be making the unfamiliar noise. To which she came in contact with a crying baby.

Dori looked at the small human in surprise since she had never seen a baby in her life. Not to mention not knowing how to deal with a crying one in fact.

So she then picked up the baby while looking at them with a puzzled look. Wondering how to quiet the newborn down. The only idea on her mind was to cradle the small human. So she did and to where it had worked well indeed.

Though when cradling the baby the small human looked at Dori in confusion then to happiness. To which it quite surprised Dori in the sight of a mere baby actually being happy to see her presence much less.

She contemplated whether she would bring the baby back with her at her domain. While it had seemed like forever the small child called out to her which completed the option. Which was to bring the small human with her so she can figure out what to do with them.

…

When arriving Dori then wondered what to call the little critter, Until an idea popped into her head ‘Beau Leifu.’

*Many years later*

During those years Dori learned about caring for a Human. To where she adopted Beau so she can always monitor the small future poet.

The only thing that wouldn’t change is the way Dori cares for Beau.

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

Beau: Hey Doooorrrriiiii

Dori: Yes little one? ☺️

Beau: Am I adopted? 🤔

Dori: … What?😐

Beau. Am I adopted

Dori: What makes you ask that??

Beau: Just curious. 🤔

Dori: … Hm.. I’ll tell you when you're older.

Beau: Mom… I’M LITERALLY 18… HOW OLD DO I HAVE TO WAIT?!!!

Dori: Until I feel like it’s the time to. 😊

Beau:… 😔

———————————————————————

Though I’m getting started on trying to animate this. It may take a month or two. 😭

@beauleifu

[goodlucktai]

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Longest Tag: 130 characters

#and it’s like even if technically this is a virus that is causing people to hunt and eat each other u can still call it what it is

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

If you’d like another Rise prompt, maybe something about Donnie’s battleshell? If that’s too vague, maybe its origins, or maybe what Splinter thinks about it?

this is also set in the human splinter au <3

x

When Donatello was a baby, Yoshi didn’t worry quite as much about his soft shell. He and his brothers were all the same sort of fragile, questionable mutation and its potential effects aside, and Yoshi panicked over each of them an equal amount.

They played hard. They always wanted to climb and run and tumble. Yoshi is inclined to blame the ooze that psychotic goat-man alchemist pumped them full of, because blaming him is neat and comfortable and makes Yoshi feel warm inside.

But Yoshi has also spent a not-insignificant amount of his fortune on parenting books and magazine subscriptions, and according to the experts, children are just tiny crazy people who will run at full-speed into a wall multiple times for no reason.

Which is fine. Yoshi has been a papa for almost four years now and it’s quite possible that he’ll never want to be anything else ever again for as long as he lives. His boys have secured their place in his heart and no amount of broken windows or crayon-scribbled walls or gutted kitchen appliances (???) will change that.

The problem is that Donatello’s shell doesn’t afford him the same protection that his brothers’ do. He’s as fast and strong as the other three, and easily twice as smart, but he’s just not as hardy.

Yoshi has no idea what he would do without his credit card and his talent manager-turned-reluctant-godmother. Between the two of them, he has an answer for everything.

“I don’t want to,” Donatello announces before Yoshi has even opened his mouth.

“You don’t want to go roller-skating?” he says, affecting a tone of complete surprise. It causes Donatello’s chubby face to fold into an epic pout, which is adorable, which makes up for how frustrating he can be when he digs his little heels in about something.

“No, papa, I want to go. But I don’t want to wear that dum-dum thing.”

“Your Auntie Hala is going to cry for days and days when I tell her how much you hate the present she got you,” Yoshi tells him solemnly.

Donatello considers this. Then he says, “Don’t tell her.”

Ah, logic Yoshi can’t actually find fault with. He never would have guessed he’d spend his early thirties losing so many arguments with a turtle toddler. 

“You are wise beyond your years,” he says, wondering what it will look like when Donatello is a teenager, and whether or not Yoshi will survive it.

The ‘dum-dum thing’ in question is a modified back brace, meant for children with spinal disorders. Yoshi is pretty sure this qualifies. The reason Donatello hates it so much is the modifications Yoshi made to it; namely, the memory foam cover for his leathery carapace. It’s bulky and it slows him down and he hates falling behind the other three. Lately he’s taken to sitting out of their games because he would rather tinker by himself than wear the brace.

Yoshi is a little worried about that. He hasn’t come up with a way to make everyone happy yet, and he’s losing sleep trying to figure it out.

Leonardo pokes his head through the doorway. “Papa you said we were going,” he whines. “How come we’re not?”

“Negotiations have broken down,” Yoshi says, kneading his forehead with his palm.

“Dunno what that is,” Leonardo declares and visibly puts it out of his mind as not his problem. “Don-don, come on. We’re gonna skate.”

“No,” Donatello declares. His mouth is screwed up, brow furrowed, fully ready to be a little monster about it. “I don’t want to go if I have to wear the dumb fake shell.”

Leonardo tips his head to one side, considering this. It’s no secret to his brothers that Donatello has no fondness for the brace. This usually culminates in one or three of them helping him to escape it, and then hiding it somewhere stupid for Yoshi to find like the world’s worst Easter Egg hunt.

“We’re twins,” Leonardo says with all the unyielding certainty of a schoolteacher discussing matters with an obstinate child. “So we have to share. I’ll wear it, and then Donnie will wear it, and then it’s fair.”

Somehow—Yoshi can’t believe this, but somehow the logic goes to work. Donatello’s expression shifts from mullish to thoughtful. The most stubborn little treasure in Yoshi’s entire life is giving ground.

“It’s fair,” he agrees. He and Leonardo turn their big brown eyes up to Yoshi expectantly.

Honestly, Yoshi can’t believe he’s not going to have to wrestle Donatello into the brace for once in their lives. He’s a little embarrassed his second youngest child thought of this neat little solution before him. It costs him absolutely nothing to agree, and he straps the brace onto Leonardo’s back instead. When they get to the rink, one that Yoshi has unapologetically rented out for the afternoon so his kids can play freely, they’ll switch, and Donatello will wear it while the four of them turn inline skating into a contact sport.

And nearly a decade down the road, when Donatello is building advanced technology the way other kids his age are building blanket forts out of the couch cushions and Yoshi’s best sheets (re: his siblings) and he has long-since traded the brace for an armored shell of his own design, he goes from absolutely refusing to put it on to pretty much never letting anyone see him without it, ever, or else.

Because no son of Yoshi’s would understand the idea of a happy middle ground. It’s all or nothing, go big or go home in this house.

This is when the twin thing continues to save the day.

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140 notes - Posted November 2, 2022

#4

all the things that i could live without

rise of the tmnt pairing: don & leo word count: 1349 title borrowed from if i didn’t have you by banners post-movie

read on ao3

x

“Hamato Donatello,” Leo said, his even tone riding the line of good humor and sternness both. “How much shell time have you had today?”

Donnie pointedly doesn’t look up from his iPad. Making eye contact in these moments is too risky. Leo can clock a lie with such accuracy that Donnie thinks it must be a secondary mutation or something, because it certainly isn't natural. The only reason any of them get away with anything is because Donnie’s twin is an agent of chaos, more likely to encourage their stupidity than put a kibosh on it.

Shell time, however, is one of Those Things Leo Takes Very Seriously.

“Scoff,” Donnie says. “I’ll take a break in a minute, I want to finish reading this dissertation I found about chronic musculoskeletal pain and physiotherapy. Not all of it can be applied to us, given that it’s written by humans for humans, but—”

“Dude, it’s like four PM.” Leo’s tone has made its choice, leaning away from amused and into firm. Nooo. “You’re not gonna be able to sleep tonight if you don’t stretch out soon.”

“And I will, soon,” Don replies. It’s the pinnacle of absurdity that they’re talking about his stupid spine when Leo is the one recovering from multiple traumatic injuries.

Leo doesn’t think so, because of course he doesn’t. He’s like a dog with a bone. His persistent personality has saved all their shells more than a dozen times but that doesn’t mean Donnie has to like it when it’s aimed against him.

“We can do this the easy way or the hard way,” the slider says with no small amount of showmanship.

Despite himself, Donnie glances up from his tablet. He can feel himself go soft to match his dumb shell, even if it doesn’t show on his face. He loves Leo so much, even when Leo’s being his absolute worst self, and right now Leo is being his best. Warmth unspools like fiber cable in Donnie’s chest, prickly and sparking.

They came so close to losing him. What would they have done without him? It’s frightening to think about. For once in his life, Donnie doesn’t want to know.  

He sits back in his chair, ignoring the twinge in his lower back the way he’s ignored it for the past three hours, and says, “What does the hard way look like?”

“You’re gonna hate it.”

“Color me intrigued.”

Leo shrugs and starts to lift himself up. The infirmary bed is raised at an angle, to help Leo breathe and reduce the risk of pneumonia that has kept Don awake at night, but now he’s pushing himself upright all the way, kicking at his blanket with the foot that isn’t casted.

“Oh my god, stop, I hate it,” Donnie blurts, all but flinging his tablet aside in his rush to put an end to this nightmare. “You win, you monster!”

Smugly, Leo says, “I always win. Even when I lose.”

“Oh, you must be feeling better,” Don tells him, easing him back down with gentle hands that don’t match his annoyed tone. “Because once again, you are completely delusional.”

It earns him a chuckle, a wheezing shade of what should have been a loud, lively thing, but it feels like a victory anyway. Don will take it. He won’t let it go.

Leo pats the bed beside him. Donnie sighs performatively, but he’s turtle enough to admit when he’s been outplayed.

The battle shell disengages with a hiss of hydraulics and he sets it aside. It’s such an immediate relief to work out his shoulders, and twist his fragile spine, that he maybe should have taken it off earlier, after all.

“Bring your tablet over here,” Leo says. “I wanna watch that baking show where no one knows what they’re doing.”

Donnie settles in beside him, and he doesn’t outwardly fuss the way Raph and Mikey and Casey all do, but he’s very, very careful behind the casual manner. His brother’s body was so broken, almost beyond repair. He has months of recovery left, and as the team medic, Leo knows that.

But he did what he did for the sake of his family and now he just wants to be close to them. He doesn’t want to be shut away in the infirmary and tiptoed around and hugged so gingerly that the mean voice in his brain is able to convince him that the space and distance and reluctant touches are because he did something wrong.

That mean inner voice that Leo sometimes listens to is as much his siblings’ sworn enemy as the Shredder ever was.

So, after a clan meeting taken when Leo was finally, fitfully asleep, and one educational screening of Patch Adams that made Casey and Raph both cry, they decided to forgo all the values of traditional medicine and give Leo what he needed instead.

They’re hardier than baseline humans are, and if the Krang couldn’t kill Leo in its own dimension than it’s likely nothing can, and these are the arguments Leo makes to be allowed out of bed.

See the full post

156 notes - Posted September 15, 2022

#3

for what it’s worth, it was worth all the while

rise of the tmnt pairing: raph & everyone, raph & casey word count: 2153 title borrowed from good riddance by green day post-movie

read on ao3 

x

Leo’s arms squeeze tight around them for three seconds, four—and then they fall loose. He slumps forward and would have hit the ground if Donnie and Mikey didn’t scramble to support his sudden deadweight.

They push him back upright, and then ease him into a careful lean against Raph’s cracked plastron. Raph wraps sore hands carefully around Leo’s slim shoulders, hyper-aware of every cut and bruise on his little brother’s battered body.

Leo’s head lolls as if he’s asleep, or—as if he’s asleep.

The giddy relief of an extremely close victory drains away in favor of fear. All three of them are shaking with the leftover dregs of adrenaline.

“What’s wrong with him?” Mikey asks shrilly. He’s clutching Leo’s arm like he doesn’t trust Leo to remain solid if he lets go.

“You want that list alphabetically or in descending order of how much each issue complicates my life?” Donnie replies shortly, lowering the lenses of his goggles over his eyes.

If it were anyone else, Raph and Mikey both would have snapped at the inappropriately irreverent tone—but it’s Donatello. They know how he wears his worry. Whatever he’s picking up with his scan, it’s causing his lips to thin, and lines to tighten around his eyes.

He’s an engineer, not a medic—Leo fills that uncredited role—but Donnie is Leo’s usual extra set of hands in the infirmary, so he picked up a thing or two. Raph can tell, from the careful, deliberate way he touches his twin’s neck and feels around the base of his skull, that Donnie is mentally rehearsing everything he knows about head trauma and spinal injuries.

“It should be safe to move him,” he finally says, sitting back on his heels. Absolutely none of that worry, poorly moonlighting as dispassion, has left his eyes. “I want him back home in the medbay immediately. Like, a week ago immediately. But,” he adds, uncomfortable being the voice of comfort and doing his best with it regardless, “he’ll be okay.”

It’s like Raph’s shell was too tight right up until that moment, crushing his lungs and restricting his air. And now he can breathe again.

“Of course he will,” he chokes out.

“It’s not a medbay if it’s not on a spaceship,” Mikey replies absently, doing a decent job of sounding like he’s not on the verge of hysterics as he helps tuck Leo safely into the crook of Raph’s arm. “You normally just call it the spa.”

“Ninety-nine percent of the time we only use that room for mud masks and manicures. So sue me.”

“Alright,” Raph butts in, not unkindly, “we can argue about it later. I’m sure Leo will have some key points to add. Donnie, the tank is out of commission for the time being—do you have any other ride you could call for us? If not, we might need to, uh—borrow one.”

He can’t even bring himself to feel guilty about it. He would do a lot worse than steal a car for his family, even if it sets a bad example. Donnie’s frown deepens as he taps on his holo-gauntlet, which Raph takes as a sign that he doesn’t actually have a secret fleet of vehicles he can summon from now that most of his tech has been soundly smashed by the Krang.

“Way ahead of you, mister,” a voice chimes in from the comms, and as one, the turtles glance at the glowing emblem on Raph’s forearm.

“April?” Mikey’s voice shoots upwards gladly. “Hey! You’re okay!”

“Of course I am, what’s a little city-wide alien invasion? I went to public school. And you boys need to update me pronto! Splints and I have been losing our minds over here! We got Leo back?”

“Yeah, we got him,” Raph affirms. He holds Leo a little tighter. They very nearly almost didn’t get him. “You can thank Mikey for that.”

Their sister makes a choked noise, what was clearly a sob before she strangled it into submission. “Angelo, you’re getting one helluva hug from me the second I see you. Brace yourself, baby.”

“Consider me braced,” Mikey says. His smile is shaky, but he manages to keep it.

“We just picked up Future Boy, and we’re on our way to you now. Give us two shakes—maybe three. Traffic’s kind of not great.”

“Ten-four, Apricot,” Donnie says, and then the comm goes silent, and the three of them just sort of look at each other.

With help on the way, and nothing to do but wait, there’s time for the hurts they’ve been too busy for to finally settle in.

Raph can barely keep his right eye open, it burns so much. His left shoulder is a solid ache. Mikey’s hands are still shaking, and Raph thinks maybe it has less to do with adrenaline than he thought, and more to do with that golden portal he tore open out of sheer stubborn, inexhaustible love. And Donnie is sitting in that tense, stiff way he only does when his battle shell is hurting more than it’s helping, his mouth set in a firm line that Raph knows means he’s gone nonverbal for the time being.

Still… still.

See the full post

164 notes - Posted August 22, 2022

#2

Prompt: rise!Raph’s relationship with sweaters/jackets and how they always tear

x

Raph is twelve when he finally gets the jacket he’s been dreaming of forever—since he saw it in a magazine April left in the lair weeks and weeks ago. 

Pops doesn’t usually go in for new clothes. They’re harder for him to get his hands on, and Raph can definitely understand his school of thought—new clothes would only stay new-ish for a handful of hours, given the rough way he and his brothers tumble around and play. 

But Raph really wants this jacket. And he swears up and down that he’ll take care of it, he won’t practice ninja or skateboard or play in it. 

April’s mom works at a big fancy department store and she’s happy to use her perks for one of her daughter’s best friends. Pops has lots of ‘savings’ leftover from his old job, even though he refuses to tell them what he used to do, no matter how much they pester him about it. So on Raph’s next birthday, he gets the jacket. 

He’s so excited. Normally his presents are things that he and his siblings can all share—and he’s happy with that! He loves to share with them! But this is nice, too. Having something that’s just his. 

“Put it on, Raph, let’s see!” April says eagerly over the sound of his brothers’ raucous cheering, so as soon as Splinter hands it over, Raph does. 

And it rips. 

He can hear the sound of shredding fabric. It seems impossibly loud. It shouldn’t cut through the noise of the party like it does, but it does. Everyone gets very quiet. 

The thing is—Raph is built different, just like Donnie. But where Donnie is soft, Raph is sharp. He’s always had to be very careful with his brothers, because one wrong move and he could accidentally hurt them. He’s grown up that way, being careful of others. He forgets to be careful with himself. 

“Red, it’s alright,” Pops says quickly, laying a hand on his arm. “We can get you a new one.”

But the same thing would just happen again, no matter how many replacements they buy him. 

Raphael is the oldest, and he has to set a good example, and throwing a tantrum or bursting into tears at his birthday party isn’t a good example. So he wrestles for control of his expression and says, “Let me just stick this in my room real quick,” and then vanishes as quickly as he can so the sniffles don’t start until his siblings can’t hear him. 

In his bedroom, he slides the jacket back off, wincing when the torn parts of the sleeves catch against his rough skin. He wants to throw it far away from him, but it's still a gift. He sets it down instead, folded inward so none of the tears show.

When Raph gets back to the atrium, he’s managed to come up with a grin, and he waves away his brothers’ worried glances. April has forced the party back into momentum by sheer force of her substantial willpower, though she does spare Raph a soft, big-sister-look that promises they’ll be talking about it later. 

Years and years down the road, that particular birthday is a crystallized memory, one he thinks back on a lot. It’s the first time Raph remembers hating something about himself. But he also remembers that the feeling only survived until that same evening, a few hours later, when Leo poked his head through Raph’s bedroom door.

“Raph, c’mon, birthday dinner.”

It’s tradition, by now, for each of them to end their birthday with their favorite takeout at their favorite place in the underground, just the four of them. (This has to be negotiated days in advance of the twins’ birthday, because arguing for sport, and sometimes in song, is one of their favorite hobbies.) Raph’s is easy, though—the City Hall loop station, with its massive arched ceilings and the beautiful broken skylights. Donnie even gets the lights on for him, so the whole place is glowing and warm.

He can already smell pepperoni and garlic. He can hear Donnie and Mikey talking further down the hall, a little more subdued than usual. He should go out there since they’re waiting for him. He doesn’t want to disappoint them, but he isn’t sure if he can find a cheerful face to put on. He thinks he wants to just…stay in his room, maybe. 

Then Leo says, “But can I please wear your jacket?? Please please pleaaaaase, Raphie?”

Raph blinks, glancing up at him. The gaping surprise makes his tear-sticky face feel funny. 

“The one I just got? Leon, it’s—” Ruined, he can’t bring himself to say. He can’t even bring himself to look at it.

“The coolest thing ever, I know,” his little brother says enthusiastically, pushing the door open the rest of the way and hurrying inside. He snatches the jacket up off the back of the chair it’s resting on and holds it out at arms’ length, admiring the details. “Honestly—can I be honest with you? I didn’t think much of it at first, like, when I saw it in the magazine. But after your modifications?” He whistles low, something he learned to do specifically to annoy Donatello.

“Modifications?” Raph says uncertainly. 

“Yeah! DIY style is big, you know! And ripped clothes are in.” 

Leo slides the jacket on. It’s comically big on him, and the holes in the arms are mostly hidden by the way the fabric bunches up; the tears along the shoulders are more obvious. It does something unhappy to Raph’s stomach when he sees them. 

But then Leo starts posing in the mirror, and pats himself down for a camera he doesn’t have, and hollers down the hallway for Donnie to come get a picture of him. 

It must be cool if Leo thinks it’s cool. 

“So?” Leo asks with those big puppy-dog eyes he taught Mikey when they were little, to absolutely everyone’s detriment and Leo’s eternal chagrin. “Can I, Raph?”

See the full post

205 notes - Posted October 20, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

have this <3

oh i LOVE this, their expressions are so MUCH, you pulled this scene directly from the story with absolute precision, thank you for the food 🥺😭🙏

248 notes - Posted October 17, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

[deadxlv]

Far Away Soul, White Cold Star 💫

Chapter: 17 p.4 “Dark Hearts..and Lustful Anger..”

If that small critter was here I'm sure you would've lost your shit if something were to happen to him

I hope you recognize I am the one giving you this speed

Do you know she can read any movement you aren't actually getting lucky

Subtract my strength and you have nothing

What if that animal thing died in your arms how would you react?

Let me in

Just let me in

Please

Oh cmon I know you love me

You crave me

You..Need..Me

Like...I-I..said..I..

I Fucking..Hate YOU!!!!!!!

Crossing the border you finally make it back, the forest is charred to a crisp now, smoke bellowing out all around you it almost makes you snap out of your anger. Taking it in along with the reek scent of burnt animal corpses and smoke you grow disappointed, not in this strange woman but in yourself, you could have done so much more to avert from this all happening. Taking further steps getting away from the ash as best you could you make it back into the remaining woods, deep inside you the slithering of that thing makes your skin crawl, why does it always have to be pain..why do we all have to suffer..

Taking a sharp turn, a scent, a strange perfume lingering in the wind, joyful cackling and your senses are back to their tips as if ready for the feeling of being torn apart from the inside out again. Coming from the smoke you see a figure approaching, instinct and the voices in your head telling you not to, but in a fit of arrogance you thrust yourself at them. Claws and Razor like teeth bared you attack like a wild animal without a conscience..

"That's what she wanted..and you fell right into her trap~"

From the darkness of the smoldering hot ground in front of you a gigantic fist made of sediment and rotting plant vegetation breaks through the dust clouds, moving so fast it almost immediately makes contact with your small body, towering over you many more come from thy earth and begin to strike at you aimlessly. Hijìn face scrunched up as hundreds of tons of stone slammed right into him head on, clenching his jaw so hard it began to bleed, head throbbing immensely, and blood from vines within stabbing at his flesh was a world of pain. The large fist pummeled him into the ground shooting rubble everywhere as all you could hear is the man yelling out muffled by the fist driving him deeper and deeper in, Hijìn barely able to move his arms was able to pushback against the stone fist alleviating some of the pressure. Instantly he was snatched and yanked out of the ground by the same hand and just as he caught a breath of fresh air to his right he sensed something coming, glancing another hand came right at him going straight in to smack him with hands wide open. Digging his feet into the ground he blocked with both arms but it was all meaningless, the hand came and ripped the whole ground beneath him off causing him to topple through the air. A few more hands forming here and there as he was bounced around viciously by the attacks, each one wearing him down and causing his drive to wane. Exhausted he was sent limply flying about through the forest floor, rolling on the ground, slamming against random tree branches, bouncing off rock formations, before getting smacked one by a stray rock hand pounding him into the ground last time rendering him unconscious. Eyes fluttering one last time you doze off, but just before you fall under you can barely make out someone coming in from the darkness towards you, in weakness you mutter out, "K..Kk-ÿr..u?."

Out from the forest stepping on the burnt bodies of small plants and critters trying their best to survive came V or so the clone, she seemed like she was in a hurry, quickly looking about as if seeing if the actual V was anywhere nearby. Quickly wrapping some wire around their dirtied hands they tightened it causing them to cut at their hands, the clone hissed in pain silently to themselves as black blood seeped down the wire onto the unconscious man beneath her. The clone grabbed the man by the shoulder and made him lay on his back, his resting face making the strange entity giggle to themselves almost as if flustered, eyes peering through the dismay watching the scene unfold. Unbuttoning their shirt slightly until their cleavage was revealed, The Clone would sit on Hijìn's pelvis looking down at him, "Poor Poor little Creature..she wants you so bad..but all she is...is a fool~", her body slid down slowly resting her chest onto his, skin softly passing over one another until she fully layed down on top of him. "Sadly our time together won't be long..but out of all of those I've killed- you would've been my favorite~", the clone said giggling in a high pitch voice until the sound of slicing pierced the wind. The clone held their hand out to gore out Hijìn's neck with her long nails with a shocked look on her face, a long gold and white blade ripped through her chest and sliced her neck in half from its insertion. Coughing out large amounts of black blood the Clone collapsed on top of Hijìn promptly turning into ash and leaf litter, such a real life looking person can truly be nothing but a farce, a lie, a mirror of yourself pictured onto other peoples minds. That's what V thought as she plunged her blade through the clone and to Hijìn below, a emotionless stare down at what she did just made the emptiness within her grow, for a moment her mind wavered off her actions to think of what she just witnessed. It was if Fate strew her off her designated path and made her into some whore.., but amidst her own thoughts she felt her blade quiver in her grip, snapping out of it she looked down and saw Hijìn's hand extended out grabbing the blade so harshly it smashed the sharpened edge. One black void-like eye wide open, black bulging veins across the revealed skin, and infamous ear to ear grin was plastered on the man's body, with a loud cackle the man would stand up back to his feet in an instant staring down the woman saying, "You've been hunting for me ay..? Pfft..cute...I'm gonna love this and so will you~".

Forgone and without any sense of love or desire within her own soul V stared back at the infected man taken form, the parasite taking full advantage of the situation and grabbed control the instant it was available. Blind eyes met with a single void eye of the man, flames encircling them as they stood up to one another, she looked up at him emotionlessly not even caring at this change only knowing her goal is to harvest as soon as possible, and the parasite took this all in..control..Again~!. His face seemed to glitch in place as he looked at V from head to toe, his skin tingled from the sensation of that black tar like substance the parasite was made of coursing through his veins, licking his lips which turned back into the same constant frozen grin he would say, "You gonna hit me in my perfect face or are you gonna pussy out and let me run away again~?!." A sigh softly escaping her tainted black lips and V took a step back, Hijìn stared at her with his only one open eye keeping the same smiling face on looking confused with one eyebrow raised. She stretched her shoulder out in the open for no reason, taking her time she would bend over to touch her toes, lean to the side and stretch her back, to grab her head and snap it both ways making two loud popping noises before she cracked it back to normal. Opening her blind eyes, which reflected the glow of the white flames around them, would soon disappear as she took a step forward vanishing into thin air, just as she moved she reappeared the instant later having her right arm extended out holding another blade glaring deeply into the eyes of Hijìn whom looked confused still. Just as he glanced at her blade his body immediately reacted, arms darting in all directions and eye throbbing from intense movements, the sound of blade slashes came at blinding speeds so fast normal Hijìn wouldn't have been able to see them. "Your what I've been looking for..now let yourself die- I hunt..I'm the predator..you'll be nothing more than prey for all those ahead of you..if you ever make it past me of course..", V said to the blocking infected man in a monotone tone of voice, the slashes going on and on it seemed they never stop cutting at his skin here and there even slicing some small tentacle pieces of the parasite off his body back onto the ground.

Through all the slashes the infected man kept the same happy demeanor the whole time, slashes soon coming to an end it even got redundant as now the slashes didn't even seem to cut his skin, and just as it stopped the two vanished from the area leaving but a trace of their existence. Popping back in out of nowhere in a distant section of the forest the fight would begin anew, ripping through the trees was the sounds of blade clashing and tearing of hard leather, Hijìn and V would get into a multitude of clashes of fist and steel echoing across the woods. Hijìn thrusting his fists out at break neck speeds while V skid on one boot in the ground darting across tree to tree avoiding each attack, he vanished again to appear ramming V into a pile of rock rubble, she scoffed at the pain as she faced up to see the man pinning her down with claws bared ready to strike her. Hijìn tactically struck at her face and chest only to no avail as she even in this pinned position was able to not only block but dodge each attack before screaming out in a loud shriek knocking the man back. Feet planted into the ground Hijìn slid back a few meters away with arms fully extended, she came out of nowhere from behind holding her blade, eyes glowing a bright neon green as she sliced at him, Hijìn did a back flip and looked at her upside down laughing out like a immature child just as he punched her face straight into the ground knocking her off balance. A whole tree came and smacked him from behind after flying out from the woods making him stagger, jerking back and she ran at him holding two large boulders in her hands, V used those suv sized boulders like gauntlets with her fists embedded deep within them to strike at him. Even though they were large she moved swiftly with them almost as if she didn't even have them on, Hijìn swerved left and right hopping over other branches and trees coming at him making this seem like a game, a branch slapping his face making him jerk back and two immensely powerful punches which crushed the boulders into dust knocked him back.

Rolling of her shoulder and hopping on one leg left and right signified she was just getting started, Hijìn hopped back landing on one hand as if not effected by gravity, gracefully standing back up without even having to move his arm from its standard position, she simply walked up to him casually like they weren't just fighting and punched him square in the face. "Just because we come from the same place doesn't mean we're family..your just a power amplifier..nothing more so actually do something..I'm getting bored", V mumbled out in the same monotone tone of voice to the infected man who faltered back from the punch, even though she was around two feet and a half shorter than him she seemed to posses more physical strength than he had and she took advantage of that always. Head served right from the same punch, Hijìn would stop moving back and pause for a second only to mutter, "Issue is..I'm not Her slave..", jerking back and a barrage of tentacle slices, punches, and claw attacks erupted from the man point blank at V's face. The attacks being so swift and powerful it shredded everything around them leaving nothing but the wood scrap of trees and dust from rock, smile plastered across his face Hijìn looked ahead after it all cleared before turning right and seeing V, she stared at him with a blank look on her face almost as if disappointed, "I swear..I feel like that day is a fleeting memory for how this fight has been going on for..your..just..so..weak..", she muttered in a monotone lifeless expression. Growling out Hijìn lashed out and in that same instant she disappeared, he swiped left, right, up, down, anywhere near hm, but nothing worked; Out from behind she would walk over and calmly tap his back, glaring back at her Hijìn snarled under his very breath as saliva dripped from his mouth like a mad rodent, "Hmn- every single action..every single attempt..I've given it to you..there is no umph..no power..just speed I guess, I'll still harvest you from this creatures brain, but I honestly expected more..again your forgetting one obvious fact..", V said getting closer to the man who watched in dismay. "I..see..your Fate..I know how this ends..and you'll never change the outcome..I know every attack before you even throw them, that's what being a actual threat is..a danger to one's being- I let you touch me so I can gauge your strength..guess you really are a empty husk of a anomaly..shame you let his surrogate father die to the life sucking power of the Cauldron..Tch better known as the Well of Forgone Souls..or the Fáqûire (Fa-Que-ire), uneducated dogmatic filth..", V's voice so calm yet filled with such hatred let the message ring so deep it made even the parasite stagger in his pursuits, grin wearing off his face and sole open eye losing its blood lust the man took a few steps back and paused, like if accepting the reality of it all...it really did turn into a losing battle.

  Those in the stars are the only ones who can achieve perfection, glistening darts of light which travel forever more until there is no sun to light the way, reminded of your place in the world as a simple pest organism by someone higher only deepens the faults within yourself. With your love gone and lust waned you can only feel the soul ripping feeling plunge it's way into your chest, tearing every fiber in your being until the very thing you call upon cries back at you for to save them, your eyes, sober from all the tears, open one last time to hear said cries. A piece of you slowly getting ripped from your chest with claws of night plunging ever so deeper into your being causing you to finally give in, holding that piece of pain in your arms one last time you let said force take hold once more..what's always been within you...speak it- B-blood...say it again..B..Blood..one last time..

Blood..

  A gaping hole in Hijìn's chest as V plunged her black claws into the man's chest who stood there in abject weakness, eyes dripping in clear tears fell down her bloodied arm, she passed her thumb over the dropped tears and brushed them onto her white button up shirt. The parasite in its entirety was in the palm of her hands, it seemed grotesque and very large for a parasite, it had been feeding off him slowly his whole life until now where it seemed to stagnate, she clenched it plunging her nails into it as she opened her mouth almost as if wanting to take a bite out of it. Internal screaming from the parasite as if writhed in pain, it's fleshy black tar like body flailing around as her teeth grew nearer and nearer by the second, all to close to the end before her hand gripping the parasite gets crunched under immense force. She whined in abject pain before her whole forearm was ripped from her elbow revealing a fleshy inside, faltering back she held her arm as small tentacle came from within her open wound to try and reconnect her arm, whining out in torture she would glance up to see both eyes of Hijìn clear but absolutely fallen deep in eternal abhorrence to her very existence. Her torn forearm pried off his parasite before it was plunged back into his chest and instantly sealed, her forearm thrown at her face and immediately reconnected she looked at him fearful, just this once she finally felt the horrid pain she had felt that one time occur one final time and it cemented those memories back in to haunt her. At that very moment she could barely make out the infuriated face of the man who jerked his arm all the way back with a clenched fist so tight it made his hands bleed from his nails digging into his very flesh, pictures of her future flashing in her head she grew even more mortified as reality drew nearer with each passing second. Time feeling like it had slowed down for her, all she could witness as her sight fixed itself after her arm had been torn off was the slow moving fist that silently approached her face, unable to move the bloodied fist slowly crushed her face caving it into itself. Pieces of her face getting pulverized into chunks of black blood and green meat as she was launched far back, Hijin faltering forward as he held the right side of his face growling like a feral animal, he was subconsciously trying to contain it, but with the sensation of force on his knuckles and blood all over his arm he just let go.

  Body flopped over on the ground V would lay there with a mutilated face, white hair all over the place her body jerked itself back up, her face instantly getting reformed as she clenched her teeth and grew agitated at such an action. Her very ignorance just like the last time taking hold, Hijìn jerking his hand back trying to hit her again like the dumb animal he was roared out a ear drum tearing bellow from within to this demonic woman, seeing this she did the very same but just as she jerked her arm back her whole arm appeared to mutate itself and grow many times its size. Just as Hijìn lunged in for a punch so did V with her large thorn covered muscle fiber monster-like arm which was many times her size, fists colliding the two created a shockwave that flattened trees for miles around even knocking many clouds in the area into nothing but vapor in the wind, yelling at one another incredibly loudly as their fists pushed at one another like two crashing waves it shattered the very ground  beneath them. Falling back Hijìn would ride upon the large rubble coming from the implosion, hopping from piece to piece trying to find that damnable woman, just as he turned a corner the hairs on his neck rose up and V came crashing down upon him with her giant mutant arm plowing through all the debris. Skidding on solid ground again as debris flew all around them Hijìn would face up to V appearing right above him just before she threw a massive blow straight at him causing another implosion of the ground beneath their feet, disappearing in the rubble Hijìn came out the dust plume holding V by the collar punching her square in the face over and over again, then again Hijìn slamming headfirst into the hard limestone ground bouncing for a brief moment as V planted her foot into the ground and back handed Hijìn with her fist sending him flying off. Chain wrapped around his arm he finally pulled one of his blades out and with a swing he latched himself to a tree launching himself back at her, she blocked with her other arm which seemed to wane from the strength of his kick to wrap her own tentacles from her body around his face neck grinding him along the ground, him growling and grunting as crap got in his eyes and mouth.

  Slice of a green slithering mess and a pull back of one's attack Hijìn sprung back up only to be met with a flurry of punches from V using her massive arm, he seemingly dodged them with some infected assistance aiding him in this fight to then launching a full force kick straight at V's face, the kick being so powerful it caused a vacuum from the air getting turned into plasma, the heat of said plasma burning at his shin and making his attack seem like its born of flame. She already seen this way ahead and sent a bulge like pulse from her right arm which turned back to normal that flowed to her left arm instantly making it mutated and gigantic before sending it to block the kick, Hijìn yelling out as he blew right past the arm smacking her prime in the side off into the distance. Like a feral animal he got on all fours and chased after her not letting a moment of this pass, V now driving her nails into the grassy root filled ground making it seem like a large monster set those claw marks would kick off and charge back at the man forming a large jade crystalline crossbow on the forearm of the mutant hand blasting the same green explosive attack at Hijìn point blank. He was around ten meters away when she thrusted her arm forward to do said attack and just at the last second she would shoot it his instincts kicked in, grabbing both of his chains and lunging them straight at the incoming projectile he was flung back into the air a few couple feet, using his body weight and immense strength from his people he began to swing in the air rapidly, controlling the explosive within the grips of his blades. V saw the outcome and would instead arm a second one and immediately launch it to kill Hijìn for sure with a double explosion, the second attack incoming Hijìn would roar out as he flung the initial attack back at V at even a stronger speed while dodging right from the second attack, which grinded past his cheek burning him slightly before flying off into the air and detonating. The outcome being the same V was hit head on with the attack, dragged down the ground leaving a deep tunnel from the passage as a good distance away a massive explosion would occur sending plant life and debris everywhere, the reminiscent green glow illuminating the Man who stood there panting heavily completely bloody and covered in scars and bruises. Snorting out still pissed and coated in a deep red pulsing energy Hijìn would jump over a ledge and after the woman who seemed to have been near vaporized from her own attack, sniffling along the deep tunnel he would pick up on a familiar scent..he wasn't supposed to be here not now!?

  Scurrying between knocked over trees and avoiding the forest fires Kÿr would come into view out in the open, he had a worried look on his face as he turned all about trying to find his friend, locking eyes with one another the two would pause before the small Sirlàn would dart at full speed to the man. Hijìn mumbled out to try and stop the creature but it was too late and Kÿr tackle hugged his thigh nearly making him fall over, exclaiming out in a worried tone of voice Kÿr said, "Y-ya never came back?! What the hell?! L-like we all got scared..don't worry they're safe now! I-I am sure of it..", Kÿr looking around would grow fearful from all the destruction after crossing miles upon miles of forests all day trying to find his friend once again. "Wh..what Happened..what happened to you man..? Wh..", Kÿr said shocked at all the destruction, letting go of his friends leg for a moment as he scanned the area, Hijìn was on edge as her scent grew so strong it became pungent almost like a stench. From the rubble not so far away emerged V, arms back to normal sizes, clothes torn up, body covered in equal amounts of cuts and bruises she would hear the ever so faint voice of Kÿr. She began to softly chuckle to herself, unbelieving of such a foolish move and a change of fate, now projected upon her and even greater victory than the one before with a oh so sweeter finale to break alls resolve. Hijìn and Kÿr moved ever so carefully together until they laid eyes upon the mad woman one final time, Kÿr extended his arms creating large barrel explosive rifles connecting to his arms and Hijìn clenching his fists getting infuriated even more by her presence as they wanted to make their move, however, amidst their attempts to move in on the weakened woman they would immediately stop and freeze.

Clenching of her fists and sinister laughing echoing out of her fanged mouth V would stand on top of a large pile of rubble and plant matter, sunlight gracing her with an audience all around the world she would soon stop and smile. Not even looking at the two boys before she stomped her foot on the ground and with a minute pause she began to scream out in abject agony, her body would glow a blinding light as it began to rapidly change. Kÿr watching in horror saw something he couldn't even imagine..Hijìn stepped back as it grew larger and larger and the woman became unrecognizable as the ground trembled violently and her screams emanating so raw it let the world know who the true goddess was..

Purge Your souls there is nothing else, you've left me no FUCKING CHOICE!! TASTE THE FULL MIGHT OF THE DAUGHTER OF FATE!! May the All Father Send his Regards in Eternal Suffering!

The Goddess is ME!!

[existentialdreadinc]

Pest Control

When David returned to the motel there was a cardboard box sitting next to the television with a post-it note affixed to the top.

Thought you might appreciate these.  -Angie

Inside were three stacks of VHS tapes, all bare plastic rectangles without any sleeves or adhesive labels to indicate what might be on them.

David spread them out on the bed counting eighteen in total; he picked one at random and slotted it into the VCR.

The display changed from bright blue to deep red and a moment later a white capital R appeared followed by an E and then a V until eventually the full title, REVENGE OF THE SEWER RATS, had materialized on the screen.

David chuckled to himself.  

He liked low-budget horror flicks, especially ones that came out in the early consumer video era when anyone with a camcorder and some crimson corn syrup could make a movie.  This one wasn’t a film he was familiar with, though the first few minutes made it look like a bargain basement version of Willard.  Strange guy hanging out in a storm drain holding court over chihuahua-sized rodents that were obviously made out of rubber.

David restacked the remaining tapes and placed them back in the box so he could stretch out on the bed.  He’d considered heading back to the office to see if they’d left any information about his next assignment, but figured waiting till tomorrow morning wouldn’t hurt anything.

                                                                                                                      *****

When David opened his eyes the only illumination was coming from the flickering blue screen of the television.

The last thing he remembered was the protagonist in the movie telling his whiskered minions to flee right before the cops shot him full of holes in an abandoned shoe factory.  He couldn’t recall feeling tired much less falling asleep, but it was dark outside again and when he sat up David could feel his stomach cramp in hunger.

David grabbed his clothes and threw them on, intending to make another late night trip over to Round The Clock.  He exited the room and was halfway to his car when he heard a voice call after him.

“Wondering if I might get your assistance with something?”

Angie was standing just outside the motel office smoking a cigarette.

David jogged over, nearly tripping in the process when the tip of his sneaker snagged on one of the many deep divots littering the parking lot.

“Careful there.” Angie said.  “Dipshit who owns this place ain’t real keen on upkeep.  It’s the reason I never throw anything away, cause god knows when I’d get a replacement.”

“That reminds me, thanks for those tapes.”

“I can’t vouch for their contents, but figured it was better than staring at nothing.”

“Appreciate it. So how can I help?”

“There’s a critter in the dumpster that needs dealing with.  Normally I’m a live-and-let-live kinda person, but this thing bit one of our cleaning staff and that poor girl is in the hospital with a nasty infection.”

“Shouldn’t we call animal control?”

“Closest thing we got is local law enforcement and I don’t think the sheriff or his slack-jawed deputies are likely to be of much help seeing as how they’re usually at the bar by now.”

“I see.”

“All I really need is for you to flush the thing out and I’ll handle the rest.”

“Are you gonna shoot it?”

Angie looked at David like he’d just suggested stepping in front of a speeding bus.  

“That’d be a real good way for one or both of us to join Becky in the E.R. assuming we didn’t bleed to death first.”

“Well then what are you planning to do?”

Angie held up a finger and then slipped back into the office.  A few minutes later she returned with a wooden baseball bat that looked like it could be a museum piece.

A shiver ran up David’s spine and the palms of his hands felt clammy.

“You sure you’re up for this?”

David nodded.

“Alright then, let’s go.”

The two of them walked past a row of turquoise doors until they’d reached the opposite end of the building.  Three dark brown dumpsters stood side-by-side.

“Pretty sure I heard it moving around in the middle one.”  Angie said.

“Any ideas on how to get the thing out of there?”

Angie shrugged. “That’s your job.  I’m just here to dispatch the little fucker.”

David sighed and looked around.  

Leaning against the side of the dumpster paddock was a wooden pallet.  He pulled off one of the slats, using it to prop open the plastic cover on the center trash bin.  David grabbed hold of the pallet on either side and hefted it up just high enough to clear the lip of the dumpster.  He gave it a hard shove and there was an echoing boom as the wood impacted against the bottom of the container.

“Think that’ll work?” Angie said.

This time it was David’s turn to shrug as they both stood back and stared at the opening.

There was some scuttling back and forth between one end and other, but then it fell silent.

David cautiously approached the dumpster and crouched down on his haunches.  He repeatedly struck the front of the bin with the side of his fist, making it sound like peals of thunder were emanating from the inside.

There was a frantic scrabbling of claws as David watched a shape leap from the end of the pallet and land next to him.  The creature was partially obscured in shadow, but its size was clearly much larger than any possum or racoon.

It reared up over his hunched form on hind legs as David tried and failed to make his body respond.

His eyes winced shut, bracing for the inevitable, when he heard the meaty crunch of Angie’s bat as it slammed into the animal.

Other sounds followed that made David sick to his stomach, and he waited for the silence to return before daring to open them again.

[middle-name-queer]

Huh.

I got something kinda heavy on my mind I wanna write down. Tw: suicide mention

My nephew turned ten this past month. Ten years ago I was 14 and struggling through suicidal thoughts for the first time. My sister told the family she was pregnant and I figured I'd hang around just long enough to meet the kid. I meant that, I didn't want him to get to know me because I didn't want him to miss me, but I was gonna put it off just long enough to spend a little time with him.

He had a party today. I didn't know what to get him, and he gets so many gifts, so I just talked with him. I do have a book in mind I want to gift him for Christmas. Anyway, I found a preying mantis in the yard. I scooped her up and brought her to him. He's not scared of bugs, I'd like to think I helped in part with that. This isn't the first time I found a critter and brought it to him, he's always been eager to hold them himself. He's a gentle kid, he does well with them. After he showed his friends and they all screamed we took her to the garden, he knelt down to give her one last look. He's a very thoughtful boy.

I watched him comfort his friend. Another boy who realized he couldn't eat the food at the party due to an allergy, he was embarrassed and didn't want to admit he had forgotten. My nephew assured him it was okay, that it's no big deal, put his arm around him and patted his back. He offered this other child so much comfort with such confidence. He walked with his friend back to the grill to help him sort it out with his mom. I felt proud of him. He's a good friend, a good kid.

I guess I'm just glad I'm around still. More than ever. I'm glad I get to watch him grow up. I'm glad he remembers me. I just, didn't quite realize how much time has gone by since I first started struggling in that way. I don't ever want him to know about all this. Certainly not as a child but not even when he's grown. It's just strange, looking at him, giving him a hug goodbye, I was so close to never really knowing him.

I still struggle as you might know or imagine. Just last August I wasn't in my best frame of mind and had a rather scary night. After that I decided I had to do something to help myself, now I take my med lol. I think it's making a big difference, more time will tell though. But I'm hopeful. Or perhaps cautiously optimistic. The world makes it.... more challenging. All the goings on. The things we can't control. But at least the call isn't coming from inside the house anymore lmao. Anyway. Weird day.

[sunflowerdaisybee]

Hello! May I request some hc of C!Feral boys + Ranbutler + C!Punz's reaction to reader's specimen collections? Reader love to collecting fungus, bones, insect and stuff like these, even got a whole room of it , but they never show their friends because they thought it will scares them. But since they all knows each other more and more, reader finally decided to show them the room

（for ranbutler is like, he works for reader's family but reader never let anyone go in that room, until one day reader really needs someone help her to put the latest collection on wall）

I merged these two because they’re basically the same thing so uh, here ya go! :]

Summary: Reader has an odd hobby, here’s how some people would react

Pairing: P!Feral Boys, P!Ranbutler, P!Punz X Reader

Pronouns: They/them

[A/n]: Requests are closed, please check back later <3

Dream:

This was before he was taken to prison, he had come to visit you

He had been your friend for a long while and yet had never quite seen the inside of your home, so today he decided he would

Of course he had gotten your permission to look around and had rather quickly stumbled into the room

He stood in the doorway in awe, eyes cautiously scanning over every item. There were shelves along two of the walls, covered in jarred specimens and skeletal figures. Hung on the wall we framed bugs and many other strange items.

“What is this?”

Dream was completely awestruck at the room. He thought it was fascinating and asked questions about everything

There were many times you had to either take something out of his hands or tell him not to touch it as he just wants to pick everything up

When he was put in prison, if you stayed his friend, he would ask for updates on things you’ve added to the room and ask you to take pictures to show him

Sapnap:

He found the room completely by accident, he was looking for the bathroom and got lost

As soon as the door opened he closed it immediately, paused for a moment, then opened it again

He simply was not ready for what was inside the room

“What is this place?” Sapnap walked slowly into the room, looking at all the items coating the walls. Coming across a posed skeletal figure he brought a gentle hand up to touch it, curious of the decoration.

He was nervous at first but warmed up to it rather quickly, you’ll go looking for him and find him curiously looking at all the things in there

He’ll ask if they’re real and get a little grossed when you said yes but his curiosity would over power it

He would help you to collect new things from the Nether and from dangerous places, interested in how you collect them and get them home

Karl:

Another one who finds it by accident, just walks in

Doesn’t even fully register what everything is, he got distracted by all the cool framed bugs and didn’t even look at everything else till you walked in

His favorite was a colorful butterfly you had framed and hung up

“What’s in here?” Karl opened the door and looked around, immediately taking notice of all the bugs to the right of him. He walked over, leaving the door open behind him, and gazed at all of the critters. Though one butterfly in specific caught his eye.

“It’s beautiful.”

Will only ask questions about the bugs he likes, isn’t too interested in the rest

He offers to help you catch and collect new things, even asking you to teach him so he can collect his own

When he time travelled he would bring back things for the both of you, the hobby was something he never seemed to forget

Quackity:

He was helping you move into Las Nevadas and had helped you unpack and set up the room with all of you strange items

He thought it was odd but everyone has their quirks

Wasn’t too interested in it but asked questions anyways

“Where do you get all of these?” Quackity listened to your response, still helping to set up.

“Do you think you could get me a couple of bugs? They would look cool in the offices.” He genuinely felt that but also thought of it as a way to subtly say that he didn’t mind your hobby. And he was right, they did look quite marvelous when hung in the offices.

Will occasionally ask if you have or can get a specific item or bug as he thinks it would look good somewhere, always pays you for it

He overall doesn’t hate it but doesn’t love it, he thinks it’s cool but just not for him

He does find it sweet when Charlie talks about all the interesting facts you told him though, just meant he wouldn’t have to ask you himself

George:

He found it when you showed it to him

Generally doesn’t care, just as long as everything in that room stays in that room then he doesn’t mind

It’s not that he hates it, it just kinda creeps him out

George walked into the room hesitantly, you had asked him to grab something you left in there earlier and he had of course agreed. Going for the item, he tried his best to not make eye contact with anything, instead looking down towards the ground. He couldn’t seem to shake the feeling of being watched though so he quickly grabbed what was needed and left.

If you ever tried to gift him anything of the sorts he would accept it, but hide it in a spare chest and take it out whenever you were coming over

He knows that they’re dead but it just looks so life like, it’s unsettling

He supports you and your decisions just as long as he doesn’t have to be involved in it

Punz:

You were showing him the room and that’s how he first saw it

He finds it pretty cool, looking over all the different critters and creatures on display

As you a couple questions and becomes interested enough to want to start collecting himself, doesn’t

Punz looked at all the different items on the wall, his interest peaked as he glanced from item to item. You had spent years collecting these items and they were stunning, he yearned for the dedication and the pride that your items held. He wanted to be a part of your hobby, he wanted to collect things like this for himself.

He asked you to teach him everything you knew, if you were willing, as he wanted to take up the hobby as well

He would talk to you about it all the time, asking for tips and showing you things he added to his personal collection

Loves to trade with you, especially for things that he wouldn’t be able to obtain himself

Ranbutler:

He had stumbled across the room when you were left home alone with him and had dragged him in to see it

Everything seem marvelous and the chipper way you talked and danced about as you showed everything to him made it that much more interesting

When you told him he could speak he would ask dozens of questions about everything

Ranbutler nearly lost his composure when you grabbed his wrist and started tugging him away from his duties. Though he was quick to regain himself when he had seen what you were so excited about. He listened intently as you went on and on about not having anyone to show and how you were so in love with everything that the room held.

Would definitely help you clean all the item in the room if you asked him too, he loves being in the room

If he could he would collect items of a similar sort, he finds the fascinating and quite beautiful

Loves to spend time in the room with you, helping you clean as you tell stories and facts about each of the different items

Taglist: @joyfullymulti @minty-ghast @rokkyy