#i told my sister and she thought it was creepy so i stopped telling anyone

[am-i-the-asshole-official]

AITA for causing my friend to be married off without her consent?

I know that seems very bad, and I DO think it's very very bad, but my friend herself didn't blame me explicitly and thinks none of what happened is my fault, but i still feel guilty about it so I'm leaving the judgement to the Tumblr court. I apologize for the length of this post.

We (27F) have been best friends since we were 6. I'm from the middle east while she is African, this part is very important. She lived here since she was born, however she moved back to her country after graduation, but now lives in the UK with her husband so we've been online friends ever since her graduation.

Anyway, this is something that happened when we were in middle school. We were both 13, my friend confided in me that she has a crush on a certain boy who was also African. She clearly told me not to tell anyone about this, but I went ahead and told her African friends right in front of her. That in itself was very AH of me, I broke her trust and revealed her secret, and I didn't even apologize later.

In our culture a crush is just something to giggle and laugh about, which is why I didn't consider what I did was a big deal and I had a poor judgment not taking in consideration that her culture might perceive things differently.

Anyway, her friends spread the word, and it reached her family. They accused her of being in relationship with him (she wasn't) which is very scandalous in both of our cultures. She was proven innocent and I thought that was the end of it.

However, in high school when we were 17, she had a thing for a different boy, who had the same name as the boy she previously had a crush on, this was hardly a coincidence since Muhammad is a common name. She talked with him and exchanged gifts and that was about it. She set clear boundaries that they can't do anything until marriage, however that all happened behind her parents' back and when she got found, they assumed it was the same boy and that she had been meeting up with him since middle school, so it was hard to believe that they didn't do anything at all. They locked her up at home, took her phone and beat her. She somehow was able to contact a mutual friend, who in return contacted me to help because we were neighbors and could go to my friend's house anytime I wanted. The message I received from our mutual friend wasn't clear, I had no idea what was happening, I was just told to go and stay with her, they assumed her parents wouldn't dare to hit her in front of me and that's why I was needed. Anyway I went and sat with her, they called her to the kitchen so she could get snacks and tea for me, but when she went they closed the door and started beating her up again because they figured she asked for me to come. I was shaking the whole time having no idea what to do, I considered telling my mom but I decided against it because she was a good friend with my friend's mother so she wouldn't believe it, or she'd believe my friend is a bad girl and I wouldn't be allowed to hang out with her anymore.

Thanfully they stopped beating her up after a couple of days, and things went wack to normal.

Later when she was 20, a rich man proposed to her, who was a family friend. He was a total psycho, he stalked her to college, waiting for her outside and did many other creepy things. She told her family, but they didn't believe her. They thought she was making it up because she didn't want to marry him, but they told her she had no choice because she had a bad reputation and no man would want to be with her, and that she was lucky a rich man would want to be with her. They even turned away other suitors because they assumed they'd change their mind if they knew about her past. She has 5 sisters and none of them received the same treatment. She's the only one who was forced to get married because of her reputation.

She accepted her fate and married him. She asked me to attent the wedding, I had no idea if she wanted me for emotional support, or that she just her best friend to be with her in her wedding, but either way I couldn't attend because she was in a whole different continent and I wasn't independent yet to travel on my own, and my family members were busy and couldn't travel with me. My friend was adamant about having me there, she even tried to arrange for her wedding to be held in my country, but her request was denied since most of her relatives wouldn't be able to attend. The only thing I could do to make up for this was to draw myself attending her wedding and hugging her in her wedding dress after she sent her wedding pics.

I kept in contact with her asking how she's doing, how her husband treats her etc, but she told me he was fine, that he seemed like a completely different person and that he loves her for real, and she's happy. It's not as bad as she thought it would be. It was hard to believe considering his previous actions, but what mattered most that my friend was happy.

She moved to the UK with her husband and we lost contact for a while, but when we finally talked she was always busy and could barely talk a lot. Many things were happening in her life and I only knew the gist of it because she didn't always have time to sit down and facetime me. But currently her husband is not so good. I don't know enough details to know if he's abusive or just AH, but he also cheats on her. She is planning a divorce when the time is right, and is glad she's independent enough that her family can't have a say in the matter anymore, but it will be tough on her specially since she has two children so far, and will probably have more before she could arrange for a divorce. I support her with whatever decision she'd makes, but I can't help but think none of this would have happened if I just kept my mouth shut at 13. To this day, I still wonder why she didn't stop talking to me when I did that. I don't think I deserve her friendship, yet to this day, she's alway telling me I'm the most wonderful person she met and that she's very grateful to have me in her life. Throughout the events of this story, she has always vented to me as if wasn't my fault. And all I could do was nodding along. Couldn't even help her or fix the situation, or even say something supportive, but she's grateful to me regardless. Recently she opened up to me at how she can't make friends anymore because she had terrible experiences since her college days, that her so called friends end up hurting her in the worst possible way and she feels none of the friends she will ever make would treat her well like I do. I didn't ask about what she went through (but I plan to once she has time) because I was so stunned that she thinks the way I treat her is any good. I replied by saying that I'm not perfect either, and that I have hurt her so much in the past. She was confused, and asked me to give her an example. I brought up the fact I divulged her secret at 13 but I was surprised she said she didn't remember that but it was probaly a harmless joke and I should stop worrying over something dumb I said as a dumb teenager because for sure I wouldn't act the same way now.

I didn't discuss this further to avoid bringing back terrible memories for her, but I'm shocked how she doesn't remember it considering everything that happened to her because of it. In fact, I started wondering if she even remembers the things that happened to her because of what I did, because if she forgot those too, it could be her brain blocking traumatic memories.

So Tumblr, AITA or am I just over thinking?

What are these acronyms?

[lina-lovebug]

You Are Mine, p. 3

Synposis: You and Quaritch are mated but your sister, Neytiri, cannot accept him

Warnings: cussing, Neytiri hating Quaritch

Usually in a situation like this, Miles Quaritch would be yelling and pissed off.

But him falling into a stream because he tried catching a fish with his bare hands and his mate laughing at him only brought him pure joy.

"Oh, you think this is funny?" Miles questioned, grabbing me by my hands and pulling me in.

I gasped as the cold water hit my skin and hit his chest playfully.

"You skxawng!"

Your laughter was heard from miles around. Neytiris' ears flicked downwards, and she growled under her breath.

"What's wrong?" Kiri questioned.

"She should not have mated with him," Neytiri expressed, "He is a bad man. He is the reason your grandfather is dead."

"Nothing could ever change what he did, mom. But I can see he's trying to make amends-"

"Nothing can-!"

"He loves her, mom!" Kiri stopped Neytiri.

"I can see it. There's a reason they met, and why Aunt (Y/N) fell in love with him. You trust your sister, and I know that my aunt would not be tricked like this," Kiri saw the love between them, and it wasn't fake. Miles Quaritch wasn't deceiving her.

But Neytiri wouldn't believe it.

He's a monster and always would be, in her eyes.

He killed their father.

"He regrets it. I can-"

"Kiri, you are young. You cannot fathom what he has done."

"It wasn't just him! I love dad, but he knew. He knew what was coming and you still love him."

"It was different-!"

"Hey, hey, what's going on?" Jake interrupted, hearing the commotion as he came home with Lo'ak and Neteyam.

"Dad, please, you have to give Miles a chance. You were once one of them, you thought like them, you even thought of us as savages," Now that hurt Jake.

"I swear to you on Eywa that he's changed. He loves (Y/N)."

"I can see it," Lo'ak spoke up.

"The way he watches her was weird, but it wasn't in a creepy way. He looks at her like you look at mom," Lo'ak told Jake, who knew the truth but it was Quaritch. He hated the natives more than anyone.

And yet he mated with one of them.

"Hey, is everything alright?"

Neytiri looked back to see him. He was wearing Na'vi clothing, he looked like Na'vi, but she knows hatred when it's infront of her.

"You will never be one of us," Neytiri sneered before walking away, Neteyam and Lo'ak following after their mother.

Miles ears fell back, knowing this wouldn't be easy.

"I don't give a damn what she tells me, but (Y/N) misses her sister. I can't stand seeing her like this," Despite how hard he's tried, he knew that all his mate wanted was for her sister to forgive her and accept him.

And the problem of the humans. They had to have figured out by now that Miles betrayed them and had to be looking.

Fighting his own spaud was going to be a bitch.

"I don't like you all that much right now either, but I know (Y/N), and she wouldn't choose if she didn't know that you've changed," Maybe she was right. Just like Jake, Miles had grown to see the beauty of Pandora and its people.

"Oh, and Miles?"

"Yes?"

Jake had punched him in the face, causing Spider and Tuk to gasp.

"That's for trying to kill me."

"Yeah, I should've seen that coming."

But before anything else, everyone heard a scream. Miles ears folded back, recognizing the voice as his (Y/N).

Him and Jake exchanged a look of worry before running in the direction of the scream.

What happened? Is she okay? Why did I leave her alone?

Thousands of thoughts were racing through his mind, regretting every second he wasn't by your side.

"Tell me who sent you!"

"Let go of me, bitch!"

Only to find (Y/N) holding Corporal Lyle by his queue and with a dagger to his throat. Blood dripped from his nose and mouth, showing that he got a good beat down in the few seconds it took them to get to her.

"Colonel! Tell this bitch to let go of me!" But then he noticed something. . .off. His Corporal wasn't in his gear but instead, he looked like one of them.

"So it's true. You did run off. For what?! Some quick native pussy?!"

Before Miles could beat the living shit out of him, an arrow shot through the brush and into his skull.

That arrow was so fast, and if Neytiri was feeling extra vengeful, she could've easily killed him. She glanced at Miles as she came out of the bush.

"You better be ready to lay down your life for her," Neytiri hissed, and (Y/N) looked towards her mate.

"Always."

[cornertheculprit]

see like what's so so so fucked about bridge to the turnabout is that the final witness on the stand is maya. the final witness on the stand is maya and she is lying through her teeth and she knows it and phoenix knows it and she knows he knows and he knows she knows he knows. this is maya who is so self-sacrificing. who once wrote to phoenix that he should get engarde a guilty verdict even if it meant her life. who once pushed past phoenix and told him to run while she threw herself at von karma for him. for their case. this is maya who mia told to take care of phoenix for her. this is maya who believes in phoenix more than absolutely anyone.

and this is phoenix who has promised maya he would never abandon her. this is phoenix who has told maya to her face that he would never desert her. this is phoenix who once came so so close to pinning corrida's death on adrian andrews just so she would be alive and safe. this is phoenix who admitted that maya was the closest person to him. this is phoenix who mia asked to watch over maya and who responded "of course" with no hesitation. this is phoenix who ran across a burning bridge to try and reach her on the off-chance that she might be in danger.

this is phoenix and maya, the friendship that we've seen develop over the course of three games. and maya is lying on the stand and begging phoenix to please just stop. to please just listen to her. because she knows he knows and phoenix looks at her and goes "...may i?" because he is going to drag the truth into the light like he always does. he knows this. she knows this. in any other situation she would not let him get away with settling for anything less than the truth and so even at the cost of hurting her he will drag the truth out of her. and she believes in him more than anyone and that makes it all worse because she knows he'll do it. that's why she believes in him in the first place. and the thing is? the real kicker of it all? they're doing it for the same reason:

Maya: ...... I knew it... You've figured it out, haven't you, Nick...?

Phoenix: (Maya... I guess you were doing your best to cover for Godot... ...for the same reason, huh?)

even when they were at odds they were still thinking alike. and then it's phoenix begging maya to tell the truth, and this time he says "don't bother trying to hide anything, because i'll know." he knows her like the back of his hand just like she knows him. the same way she knew that he would figure out where she was being held when she was kidnapped: "i thought you'd come. i knew you would." phoenix is urging her in this trial the same way maya urged him by leaving him that note in farewell, my turnabout: speak the truth, even if it hurts you. even if it hurts me. even if it hurts all of us. i believe in your ability to speak the truth. it's "now listen up! you'd better get engarde a guilty sentence, ok!? if you get that creepy slimebag a not guilty, i'll never forgive you, ever!" and it's "...please, maya. testify. [...] i want to hear the truth from your own lips..." it's looking at a person you love, your best friend, the "person closest" to you, your self-proclaimed "big sister", somebody that you'll believe in until the sky falls down, and saying that the truth matters more than anything else. what a FUCKING case man

[enbysiriusblack]

Lily & Sirius- third year

"I didn't know you had a brother, Black."

Sirius scoffed, staring up at Lily with a frown, "So?"

"I have a sister. She's older, though."

"Why would I care about that?"

Lily huffed, dropping onto the sofa next to him, "Don't be an eejit. I'm being nice to you, okay? So you have to be nice to me. For now."

Sirius stared at her for a moment before glancing away and muttering, "Fine."

Lily nodded, "Do you get on with him? Your brother?"

"No."

"Thought so. I don't really get on with my sister either, she's such a bitch."

Sirius frowned, "I don't- Regulus isn't a bitch."

"Why don't you get on then? Like- my sister is a bitch, she's always so pissed off and tries to get me in trouble for every little thing. I don't like her because she's just not nice to me- to barely anyone. Is your brother not the same?"

Sirius immediately shook his head, "No. He's just an idiot. He's so obsessed with trying to please our parents, and he fell for all that blood purity stuff and he's twelve and already acts like he knows exactly what he's going to do in life, which is all just following along my family's bigotry. But... he's still my little brother, you know? He hates violence, and he used to always talk about finding ways to free all the house elves, and he loves playing the piano more than anything, and he hates when his food touches, and he used to climb into my bed whenever he had a nightmare, and his sock got a hole in so he decided to make me this weird little toy out of it- he called it lion, because it was orange and had a bit coming out of it that looked like a mane."

Lily's face dropped, "I don't think I'm a good person."

"What?" Sirius laughed, "Come on, Evans. Everyone knows you're a good person."

Lily shook her head, "I can't- I can't love my sister like you love Regulus. I have such similar memories, and I know I loved her when we were younger. But now I just feel nothing towards her. She just makes me mad that I've got all these memories of her and me getting along but nothing to do with them."

Sirius shrugged, "Tell me about them."

"What?"

"I told you about Regulus. It's your turn now, tell me about your sister."

Lily leaned against Sirius' shoulder, "Petunia. She's a couple years older, always boasts about that. But um. She always looked after me, when we were kids. Our parents worked, so she'd do most of the housework and make lunch for us. There was this huge hill on our way to school, and we had this game where we rolled down it and the one who got the furthest won. She stopped playing when we got older, said she hates getting dirty. Her bedroom is opposite mine, so we kept our doors open and would have conversations just through miming. She always closes her door now. But, we used to play this game where we pretended to be fairies and would find dead plants and bring them back to life. We stopped after she saw me manage to do it with magic, it was an accident, but she said it was cheating and really creepy."

Sirius leaned his head against Lily's, "She does sound like a bitch."

Lily snorted, "Yeah... your brother sounds nice. Maybe you'll help him, y'know, teach him to not be so easily led and bigoted."

Sirius smiled, "Yeah, maybe."

Lily looked up at Sirius, "You can stop being nice to me now."

"Nah, you're not so bad."

Lily laughed, "Neither are you. Can't believe you're friends with Potter."

Sirius immediately stood up, "Okay, yeah. Moment over."

"Oh, come on, Sirius! Thought we were becoming friends!"

Sirius glared at her, "We can be friends but no insulting James in my presence."

Lily thought about it for a moment before nodding, "deal."

She spat into her hand and held it out. Sirius frowned in disgust.

"Come on", she huffed, hand still out, "It's how you become friends forever, as long as we follow our deal."

Sirius hesitantly spat into his hand and placed in Lily's, "This feels disgusting."

Lily grinned, "Well now we're friends for life."

Sirius grinned back, "friends for life."

[anakeions]

AITA for hiring a group of mercenaries to kidnap my sister?

i (??) have a younger sister (??) who can’t seem to accept that i’m an adult with my own life. i leave home sometimes to take care of my own matters (don’t ask) and every time she throws a fit. this time when i came back she decided to run away to “give me a taste of my own medicine” or something like that. anyway she ran off to the sewers in the city and i frankly didn’t give a shit enough to go after her

while i was facilitating mass death in a small rural town i met these freaks who wouldn’t shut up and stop asking questions. i reluctantly agreed to help them stop the mass death and destroy the tormented soul haunting the forest under the agreement that they wouldn’t tell anyone who actually started it (i want the culprit to have a peaceful life) and wouldn’t pursue the subject any further. i took full responsibility for it (my sister calls me a “guilt sponge” whatever that means) and told them that i never wanted to see them again and left, and i thought that they all thoroughly hated me but their freakass bard kept screaming my name in the streets making a fool of himself.

anyway theyre one of those “righteous” “adventuring parties” and so i figured they’d love to have their egos boosted by finding some kid in the sewers. i warned them that she was way stronger than i am and they brushed it off, and lo and behold she knocked out the freakass bard twice. they DID bring her back safely—it seemed like she had a good time—but everyone was being an asshole and their fucked up sorcerer kept making jabs at me and so now i’m wondering what i could’ve done differently? usually i just blackmail people which seems to work pretty well.

TLDR; i asked an “adventuring party” that i (unfortunately) know to go fight my sister in the sewers after she ran away. AITA?

(extra: does anyone know how to disappear completely? the freakass bard is being really creepy and i’m kind of tired of it)

[captain-lessship]

Roommates Pt. 1

A/n: used to be posted on the Ao3 TheSavyCorner. I wrote it with my friends and they gave up on fanfic and I have given up on Ao3 so here!

You yawned as you bobbed your head. You were dozing off already.

"Alright, sleeping beauty, wake up." Ajax snapped his fingers in front of you. You blinked awake.

"Why do we have to be up so early?" you rubbed your eyes.

"To get an Education. Duh," he said. You rolled your eyes as you shook your head, dust coming from your hair, making your friend yawn.

"We could easily learn at ten in the morning. Not eight."

"Watch your dust, Sandman. Now I want a nap... No wonder you're always sleeping." he said, voice trailing off as his eyes closed. You snickered as you pulled a marker from your pocket. You were stopped when the bell rang, you put it in your pocket and shook the boy beside you awake.

You were walking through the courtyard when Ajax saw her—his crush that you were not supposed to tell anyone about: Enid. You followed as he walked to her. 

You felt a twinge of envy at the blonde. Her smile was bright, full of life. Her hair was beautiful and always perfect. Her eyes glimmered and turned into a charming crescent when she smiled. 

You looked in the puddle at your feet, seeing your murky appearance. You knew you weren’t a very good-looking individual. Your eyes were glossed over with sleep, your lips were chapped and your hair wasn’t the best style or the best color. But you wanted to be handsome. But you weren’t. 

"Enid, You're never going to believe the dirt I heard about your new Roommate! I heard she eats..."

You were dozing off again when you got bumped into by a girl, who looked very familiar, while she walked on and Enid followed.

Ajax turned to you, "Bro... She's-"

"Scary as hell? That's an Addams for you."

"Cousins..."

"Creepiest of such."

Ajax looked at you, "How are you two related again?"

"Her grandmama is the sister of my grandpa."

"Ohh... I just thought you'd be farther across on the family tree."

"Why? Not creepy and kooky enough for you?"

"Yup" you said just above a whisper. Ajax and you looked at each other and laughed lightly, the two of you walked away. You took a glance at your pipe dream: there was no way Ajax Petropolus liked you.

You were twirling your sand around in the air, watching as the leaves got swirled into a tornado and saw it go to you our best friend, Ajax, who was painting his boat for the Poe Cup when he told you the idea, you were skeptical and it grew worse when he asked you to do his makeup. Which of course, you did.

“Dude… who chose this theme?”

“Xavier.”

Ah of course. Mr. Popular. You scoffed, “Why doesn’t he just dare himself holding the Cup and call it good?”

“C’mon dude, I got a good feeling about this year! Speaking of good feelings… if we put the other teams to sle-“

You pulled back the brush of white face paint, “No. I said I would help with your costume. I even said I would practice to make sure you like it. But I am not rowing.”

This was the fifth make up look you had tried on the Gorgon and it was the best in your opinion. He gave you the puppy dog eyes. “Please! I will never ask you for something ever again.”

You raised your eyebrow, “We both know that is bull shit.”

“Okay okay, I will pay you.”

“Bro, you’re broke. I literally had to by you snacks last night.” You said, motioning at the bag of hot Cheetos and gummy worms.

“Will you do it because you’re my friend and you love me?” He said, smiling at you.

“Ajax. It’s a no. Besides, I am sure Xavier can convince someone to paddle him to his little flag.”

Ajax huffed, “Enid said she’d convince Wednesday. Imagine how bad it’ll look if they get their grumpy one to compete and we don’t?”

You looked at him with a deadpan expression.

“Okay,” he said, closing his eyes so you could touch it up, “She said she’d try.”

“Honesty is the best policy.” You joked. 

You felt a twinge of regret. “I… I am sorry.”

“What do you mean?”

You sighed, “I can’t swim, Ajax.”

The boy was quiet for a moment, “Is that why you always skip the lake parties?”

“Yeah… I’m scared of the water.”

“I’m sorry for pushing you, dude. It ain’t that deep and you’re right! We can find someone else!”

You smiled as you held up the mirror for the boy, “Open.”   You were watching as Ajax came ashore, sopping wet. A small grin of sincerity appeared on your face when you handed him a towel. He laughed when he saw you. You smiled as he dabbed at the dripping face paint.

“Sorry about the art work dude.”

“Speaking of artwork,” Your attention turned to Xavier. He was throwing a small fit. You rolled your “Water color not your strong suit?” You asked.

He glared at you.

You smirked, “Cat got your tongue? And the trophy.”

He jerked the towel from your hand, making you laugh lightly. Ajax looked at you.

“Dude… he did his best.”

You looked away from him, “I know. I’m sorry. You were great.”

Ajax looked at you before lightly nodding and walked away. You cursed yourself

“You are easily annoyed.” You heard a monotone voice say. You turned to see Wednesday.

“Ah, well,” you sighed, “Congrats by the way.”

“Thank you. I need to ask you a few questions. “

“Uh,” you looked to the group of people leaving to go up to Ophelia Hall. “Right now or after the presentation?”

“Right after, beside the Edgar Allan Poe Statue.” She said, turning to follow the crowd. You trailed behind her.

After the winning team got changed, you and other students watched as they did a small celebration, it was a big deal to most people. You clapped as you walked to the statue to wait.   You watched as she walked to you, taking out a small note pad.

“I need to ask you about the specifics of your powers.”

“Oh, alright, what do you need to know?”

“You make people fall asleep. Right?”

“Yea. It’s a type of sand, think sandman legend. “

“Do you make them dream? Is there anything else you can do with the sand?”

“Well… I could make someone dream but not right now, well, I can share someone's dreams. I can move it around and make shapes with it. Kinda like sand telekinesis.”

“ So it can be learned. The dream giving.”

“Yea, but it takes a lot of energy.” You said.

“Can you give your sand to other people to use?”

You stopped, “Uh, well… yes but we’re not supposed to.”

“Could you give some to me?”

“Why?”

She stared through you for a moment, as if deciding to tell the truth. “You know about the monster that attacked me and murdered Rowan?”

You felt a twinge of worry internally, “Yea, I do. Are you worried it’ll come back? Is that why you need the sand?”

“Good to know that someone else believes me. Yes, that is one of the reasons I need the sand.”

You sighed, “what’s the other reason?”

She looked down, “I need a secure way to… sneak out.”

You sighed, “Well. I am really not supposed to give my sand out. And your mother put the entire family on alert. ”

“I need this. It is going to help me with my investigation of the monster.”

“Whoa, wait, you just said you’d be worried about it coming back, not going looking for it.”

“It’s part of the plan to find it but I need the sand in case.”

You stared at her, your eyes scanning her face. “Wednesday, I am only doing this because you’re Enid’s friend and my favorite cousin.” Ajax had influenced you. Being friendly with everyone. 

“Thank you,” she stopped for a moment “I enjoy our partnership with each other.” 

You smiled, “Alright, Partner in Crime. Do you have a jar? Or like-Oh.” A jar was pulled from her pocket.

You smirked, “How’d you know I’d say yes?”

“Intuition.”

In other words, You got played. Family bonds.

You put the jar in your hand, “Okay, I need you to back up and cover your eyes, mouth and nose.”

Wednesday pulled out a small pair of glasses, “I want to see how it works.”

“Well, it’s not luxurious but hey, it gets the job done.” You breathed in and held your hand up to your mouth, aimed for the jar and blew. Gold dust came from your body and some blew off, slowly falling to the floor. You were not very accurate but you got it in the jar.

“There you go.” You said as you screwed on the lid of the jar and handed it to her.

“Thank you. I know it’s a risk and I owe you a favor now, which is not a situation I enjoy being in. Is there something I can do for you?”

You thought for a moment, “Next Poe Cup, don’t compete.”

“Deal.”

[paradiecircus]

~This one is called “2” and it’s another messy one! Obviously, since it’s based off the song 2 by H.E.R. Been having some fun with Bamon lately and I thought it would be funny if Bonnie was found to be a little out of character when Jeremy cheated on her with a GHOST of girlfriend’s past/passed! Of course she and Jeremy aren’t together at this point but this is the moment the Bamon scandal begins, the night after he THOUGHT he kissed Elena. I won’t spoil what’s going on here but reblog if you wanna know what happens next or if you love Bamon! Enjoy this snippet that picks up at the beginning of season 2, thanks!!!~

. . . . . .

Bonnie was about to lose her mind. Friday night, after a long day, and here she was with Damon Salvatore of all people. All he was doing was complaining about how Elena was in denial over her feelings for him and there was no convincing him that maybe she just loved Stefan so fully, she had no eyes for anyone else.

There was no point in telling him that Elena was human, sometimes she did have intrusive thoughts regarding Damon. It would only exacerbate his mission to prove he was the better man for her. How could he know that? He only saw how happy she was with Stefan and wanted that for himself. He couldn’t possibly be sure she’d be happy with him, considering she couldn’t stand him. Stefan made Elena happy during the darkest time in her life. Would kind of best friend would she be if she helped Damon crush that over his fixation that was borderline obsessive? And quite frankly, creepy.

Besides, Bonnie knew Elena, she’d never kiss him. If that actually happened her and Caroline would have already called an emergency girls only meeting. They told each other EVERYTHING.

“Then who’d I kiss, Bonnie?” Damon asked, sitting on the couch adjacent to her. “Those sad, brown eyes, looking up at me. The way she just thinks about all the ways she’s gonna try to let me down easy. That’s how she was looking at me. I couldn’t help it, I had to show her how I feel. I know I’m no good but for her… I love her,”

She threw her hands up. “I don’t know, maybe you were-”

“And don’t say I was drunk, I didn’t hit the bourbon until AFTER she pretended that she never let me put my lips on her,”

Bonnie stood up, exasperated. “You know what? I need a drink,”

“Now you’re thinking, Bennett,” he clicked his tongue and shot a finger gun at her.

If I had just let him burn, she thought, I wouldn’t be neck deep in this pointless debate. Like she told Stefan, it was only because Elena loved him. And Stefan could never truly hate his brother. Big of him because if Bonnie had a vampire sister who kissed her man, she’d have aneurysms until graduation. That was still a year away.

She went to the fridge to grab a beer. “Maybe, you’re just doing a little too much thinking lately. Stop mulling it over. Just look at the facts,” she listed them as she came back to the living room. “Elena is dating Stefan. Elena LOVES Stefan and she would never cheat on him, especially knowing how Katherine manipulated you both,” she grabbed his hand. “It’s time to start getting over them, Damon. Both of them,” he looked down at their clasped hands and cocked an eyebrow.

Bonnie released his hand and realized she forgot the bottle opener. “Damn, forgot the-”

She stood up again when Damon grabbed her arm suddenly. “Let me help you with that,”

Instead of getting up and heading towards the kitchen, he sunk to his knees before Bonnie, who frowned at him. “Uh, Damon? The kitchen ain’t down there,”

He ran his hands up the side of her jeans, pressing his palms into her ass, then moving towards her zipper.

“I’ll give you something better than a cold beer. Something hot,” he unbuttoned her jeans and pulled the zipper down.

Out of sheer panic and genuine shock, Bonnie conjured an aneurysm. Only nothing happened!

“Are you trying to burst the blood vessels in my brain? Tsk, tsk, Bonnie, I’m just trying to take your advice and get over Face 1 and Face 2,” he slowly slid the pair down her legs.

“But… I thought you said you loved her,” Bonnie didn’t understand why she was letting him take her pants off, much less why she was willingly stepping out of them for him. It made even less sense that he was guiding her to lie on her back on the sofa while he pulled off her underwear. And she didn’t stop him!

“Shh… no more talk about them. Focus on right here, right now,” he looked into her eyes and his pupils widened. He pushed her legs open.

He must have been compelling her! That didn’t make it okay for him to seduce her! “Damon I don’t think we should- ahh… oh! Mmmm,”

“Can I keep going?” He asked after he’d swiped his tongue right down her… RIGHT THERE! He’d licked her RIGHT THERE and now her body craved more.

“Yes!”

He resumed what he was doing until her back was arching up off the couch, her thighs were trembling, and she couldn’t stop crying out in pure ecstasy if she wanted to. Her peak of pleasure was so impactful that it activated her magic again, bursting every lightbulb in the house.

Damon smacked his lips as he pulled away. “Mm, tasty. You’re right, I feel much better now,” he smacked her bottom and stood up. “Well, the mediocre people of Mystic Falls are safe for the night. Thanks to you, Witchy,”

She was still gasping. “G- glad I could… help… ohmm…”

“See ya,” he whistled as he left.

“Ohhhh, Damon, you BETTER not kill anyone,” she murmured as she laid there in the dark. With a wave of her hand, she magically lit the candles on the fireplace mantle.

[justanothergreb]

Quite a few things have been bothering me lately, particularly around being judged for some of my choices in life but my big one I really want to get off my chest - I don't need to be judged or garner sympathy and looks for dating a 22/23 year old when I was 16/17. Particularly from my partner of 10 years who seems to have conveniently forgotten most of my relationship history (more on that another time). He actually said he found it creepy and disgusting this week and pulled a face like I have never seen before which made me feel incredibly annoyed. I'm not here to garner pity or be told I was groomed by the way, just sharing to get it off my chest.

I met M when I was 15 at football with my dad. M worked with my dad and came up to say hello. At the time M was completely "my type" - tall, skinny, skinhead, piercings, a softboi in his manner - but there was never a chance in hell I was allowed a boyfriend with my parents, especially not one who was older. I found M's attempts at flirting with my dad around funny (and now looking back, fucking brazen), not bothered I was 15 and about to start sixth form. I still trusted my dad implicitly then, so would tell him when he tried to slip me his number or attempt to ask me out.

If you're wondering if he knew I was only 15, yes he did. Most people knew how old I was but anyone who didn't often aged me in my early 20s and would comment I acted more like I was at uni than sixth form. No one was more stunned than me when, after a good few months of seeing M around a lot, my parents allowed him to take me on a date. By now I was 17, very much into him and excited. I'd skived school (to do a geography project in Wollaton Park) and was so excited to go out. He wasn't my first proper kiss (those are stories for other days) but he was my first proper boyfriend not from the internet. He was my first for pretty much everything. He was caring, passionate but at times overwhelming. Lovebombing was definitely his thing and I would get grand gifts and love notes. You'd think I would have loved it but it was just a bit much.

I still remember my dad telling me off for texting M while he was at work and took great pleasure in telling him to see who text who first and to kindly not read my phone bills. I wonder if my dad thought he could control this relationship and that's why he seemingly encouraged it? Put his daughter with someone he could control to try and stop me from fleeing his control.

He felt mature but I quickly discovered he was anything but. I imagine it was exactly like what dating someone my own age was like with the difference being he had a disposable income. Childish, obsessed with sex, no emotional maturity. I still remember he once asked me at 17 to actually pay for things on dates. I literally had a Sunday job and money from Connexions. At 18 I felt like I was the full adult in the relationship and secretly couldn't wait to get away to uni. He never understood why I wanted to go and took no interest in any of it. I still remember being utterly horrified that his idea of a uni present was to buy me a vibrator and I remember angrily giving it back to him saying I would not be needing or using that. It was mortifying.

We broke up a few weeks later. I was fed up of him paying no attention to my life and the few phone calls we had he attempted to turn into phone sex, something I still have no desire to partake in (sorry if anyone wanted me to hop on the phone sex as a side gig). I had also started to develop feelings for one of my room mates which were surprisingly reciprocated one slightly drunken evening with a passionate kiss instigated on his end. I couldn't live with the guilt and broke up with M immediately the day after never mentioning the kiss or T1. My dad tried to guilt me into getting back with him to no avail.

A few months later, M ended up with my friends sister, 2 years younger than me. He broke up with her just a few weeks after she gave birth to their son and God knows what he does now. His ex is thriving and just got married, which is why this story has been shared with you all. Showing my partner her wedding photo triggered the story again and the judgement.

Do I think I was groomed? Honestly no. I gave as good as I got flirting with him and remember actively encouraging him. He was both mature but immature. Would I do it again? Absolutely. I wouldn't be part of the person I am today if I hadn't have had my experiences with M. Have I just waffled? Yep but it was good to get it out.

[servin-up-surveys]

survey #138

What was the last heavy thing you lifted? By MY unhealthy standards, a small toolbox. I rode with Mom to Nicole's house to fix her sink, and it's what Mom brought along and she needed help carrying things inside (we brought our dog with us, so she had to take her carrier).

Is July an important month for you? My sister Katie was born on the 4th actually, but generally, no. I honestly hate July, it's too fucking hot.

If someone looked inside your mind right now, what would they find? honestly right now they probably wouldn't know what the fuck they're looking at lmfao

Are you good at reading body language? I'm honestly probably hyper-observant of it, to where I see meanings that aren't actually there.

Do you have an anchor tattoo? Would you ever get one? No to both.

What is something that is creepy to you? Facebook/socials stalking people you like came to my mind, idk that's just going too far to me. Like sure if you meet someone you're interested in and want a bit more info, hell, it's probably even safe to check things out once, but digging for miles and checking obsessively just isn't healthy imo.

What do you need right now? I thought about it, but I don't wanna go here right now.

What do you consider to be cruel? Besides the extremely obvious things that basically everyone can agree on, trophy hunting. Like I immediately hate your fucking guts if you go out and murder a living creature going about its peaceful life JUST for the fun of it and to mount their dead heads on your walls and shit. Hunting for food doesn't bother me (like, that deer you killed almost ABSOLUTELY had a better life than the countless livestock forced into nightmarish existences that we accept as "normal"), but even then, I think it should be done solemnly and without gloating, and immense gratefulness for that animal's completely unwilling sacrifice.

Do you love to daydream? Yes, probably to a fault.

What’s your favorite shade of yellow? I'm really not a big fan of yellow, it's one of my least favorite colors, but I guess I'll go with amber, that I do like.

Has anyone told you to calm down recently? lol no, I think the people who know me know that it's not that fucking simple, and I would get legitimately pissed off if someone said this to me as someone with chronic, severe anxiety problems.

When did you last panic? I don't want to talk about this.

Are you currently tired? Yes. I got just about no fucking sleep last night and it really pisses me off because I was going to help Mom with the kids today, especially because Ryder gets really disappointed when I'm not there and I already wasn't last week, but there was no way in hell I was getting up early enough this morning. I just texted my mom at like, 2 AM or some shit telling her to let me sleep.

What helps you get by? My mom, Girt, Mazzy, Tez, Girt's family and to some extent mine, medication, therapy, creative expression, being stubborn.

When did you last wear a mask? It's been a few weeks, most places I go to now have stopped mandating it.

Does it hurt you when others are rude for no reason? Yes, because I'm sensitive as shit.

If you could say anything to your father right now, what would it be? WOW what timing, I just messaged him happy birthday lol but I'd love to tell him that in person.

What’s the fastest you’ve ever driven? Probably around like, 75mph accidentally on the highway.

When did it last rain? Today; it's been going on and off. It was absolutely pouring earlier.

Have you ever been admitted to a hospital? Like 6 or so times, but never for physical issues, just mental. I woulda preferred the physical shit.

Has anyone blamed you for something you didn’t do? I don't know if she meant for it to come across as straight-up blame, but it absolutely did: in the message Sara sent me after I cut our friendship off, she decided it was a great idea to phrase herself VERY MUCH SO in a way that makes it sound like she blamed me for almost attempting suicide. Don't get me FUCKING started on this topic, I take exactly 0% fault for shit that she decides to do when it's not like I fucking bullied her or something, but I still think about it sometimes anyway.

How much is gasoline where you are? I haven't been paying attention, but a google search tells me the cheapest right now in my county is $3.27.

How are you doing today? Not great, but way more numb today than I've been the past few.

What is the last song you listened to in a car? It was "Zeig dich" by Rammstein. I'm surprised I remember, I generally don't when surveys ask this, lol.

Do you currently feel calm? No.

Are you good at making new friends? No, I'm too shy. It's easier online, but I still don't like reaching out.

Are there any important things happening this week? Sunday my sisters and I are having lunch with Dad and his wife for his birthday, and I also obviously have PT this week, and I think therapy (thank fucking god) too.

If comfortable answering, have you or would you ever be admitted into a mental hospital? Already said earlier that I have been, but the last part of this question is very inaccurate and misleading; involuntary commitment exists and has happened to me, like you don't GET to choose. You can get a lawyer to shorten your stay, but you're going to the mental hospital anyway.

What’s a color you think is underrated? Uh... I don't really know. OH, maybe green, like nature-y shades? I think green's a less popular color, but the shades that remind you of being outside, like mossy, seafoam, or forest greens, c'mon, they're fantastic.

Would you rather never be sick again or be rich? uh, BE RICH???????? Do you know how much good that would do?????????????

When did you last hear thunder? Today.

What all have you put in the trash today? Uh the lid that seals the top of the meal replacement shakes I drink, but the bottle itself went in the recycling bin, and I also put cans of the flavored water I drink in there.

Do you enjoy blueberry muffins? omg yes, I LOVE these.

What’s something you will never forget? The night of the breakup with Jason.

What’s the most bitter pill you’ve ever taken? Uh I'm just gonna take this literally, in which case I think Lamictal, a med I was on for a long time. It's a big pill and it regularly would hit the roof of my mouth, and on god when that shit happens, you want to DIE afterwards because of the taste it leaves.

What is a popular TV show or movie that you do not like? Years ago, Girt and I watched the original three Star Wars movies, and neither of us got the appeal like, at all. Whatsoever. Unrelated to my opinion of the films but do y'all know how SHOCKED I was to hear Yoda's voice for the first time like THAT WAS NOT WHAT I WAS EXPECTING

When was the last time you felt like “getting into someone’s pants”? I don't share information like this man anyway literally yesterday

What is your favorite energy drink, if you have a favorite at all? Shockingly, I don't like energy drinks; they're just way too sweet for me, and when a drink is too sweet for ME, that says something.

Would you have kids with the last person you kissed? Maybe someday, idk.

Would you mind living near large predatory animals? Yeah sure, idc. We live in an area where black bears exist, but they are VERY rare to see in this county.

What’s your biggest priority right now? Honestly I kinda think getting a job has officially outrun my attention to improving my mental health. Maybe. Idk. I'm just desperate.

If you’ve stayed overnight in a hospital, how did you entertain yourself? Well, because I was only ever in the ER overnight for suicidal reasons, my options were extremely limited; I was only sometimes allowed a book, and it had to be approved by the staff. Usually I just slept, or tried to anyway, because their beds are ABSOLUTE and utter shit. They really need to give you more options, like the most insane I've ever felt was during those long ER stays where I was just kept in this small room with nothing to do like some neglected animal. It does NOT help your mental state; it only ever made it worse.

Are your hands unsteady? Yeah, I have what's called essential tremors. I feel like they've improved, though, especially the less medicated I am.

Do you think you’re pretty? No. It's insane, I've always thought of myself as ugly, since literal childhood, but where I am now in life, I'd give anything to look like how I did as a teenager again.

Have you ever added someone you don’t know on Facebook? This was accidentally the case with Jason; I thought he was a different Jason that I actually did somewhat know. Y'know I never asked how he ever even found my name + account lol, according to him he just saw me in the school hall one day and was immediately like "yup I need to know her," lol wish you hadn't bro

Who’s the last guy you texted? My dad.

Who do you know that wears the most makeup? Probably my friend Summer, but I want to make it abundantly clear that this should not be seen as a bad thing. She's a very talented cosmetologist and makeup just makes her happy.

Have you ever been tied up? No.

Are you anyone’s first love? I don't know. I used to think that was the case with Sara, but to be honest, I don't think she really romantically loved me.

If you could find one long-lost friend of the past, who would it be? Megan.

Was your sixth grade teacher a man or a woman? By middle school, we had different teachers for each subject, so.

Who was the last person you had a deep conversation with? Girt.

Has anyone ever told you they were in love with you? I'm certain Jason did and I'm pretty sure Girt has.

Do you prefer boys to shave down there? I prefer that boys/men do whatever the fuck they want with their own body, I literally have no opinion. People who treat body hair like it's disgusting and/or uncleanly are due to grow the fuck up.

How much does your mother know about your sex life (or lack thereof)? She knows I've done things, but what those "things" are I've never shared. She knows I'm a virgin + why.

Do you enjoy watching cooking shows? LMAO YES, Girt and I do this so much and were last night too.

Did you lose friends when you started dating someone? No.

When was the last time you went to an ice cream parlor? What kind of ice cream did you get? Oh wow you just unlocked a memory I forgot I had, it woulda been when I visited Sara, I think the last time. Her dad took us and I think her youngest brother to this local place that they love, despite it being fucking freezing lol, but it's never too cold for ice cream. I don't remember what I got, but they had a ginormous amount of options to mix together.

Did you go to school with anyone named Ashley? What was that person like? Well in high school my older sister Ashley was briefly there while I was, and back then she was very independent, studious, ambitious, but also very reclusive; she didn't leave her room a lot and when she did, it was usually to go somewhere. Back then she was also the kind that couldn't leave the house without makeup, and it always broke my heart, like my sister has always been gorgeous. Thankfully she's WAY past that now.

What color is the vehicle that you travel in most often? White.

Do you have any nieces or nephews? When was the last time you saw them? I have a shitload if you include my half-siblings, but I only regularly see Ashley's three kids. I saw them like... two weeks ago? I have a nephew by my brother that I haven't met yet, which sucks. Actually Katie also has a kid or maybe even two that I haven't met. Your family being strewn about all over the country fucking sucks.

Do you know the story of how your grandparents met? No, for neither pair of them.

Do you have a relative or close friend named Peter? When was the last time you saw that person? I actually don't think I know a single Peter.

Have you ever had an ex who wanted to get back together? What did you say to them? Well, I guess Girt. He said yes when I asked him back out, so he was obviously up for it.

[diaryofawifeinchaos]

A Wall of Silence

We haven't really spoken since Tuesday. I don't even know why. His boss is in town, so we went to dinner with him and his coworker. I thought it went well, overall. I didn't bring up anything too personal. My husband tapped my leg under the table once to signal I stop talking about something, but that was it. We drove his boss and coworker back to the hotel, and once they got out, he was silent. With the exception of telling me to do something, he has been since. I tried to break the silence. Multiple times I asked him to tell me why he was upset. Nothing.  We came home and he went to bed without me.  

He's working at the office this week, instead of home as usual. Tuesday morning, I helped him get ready - filled his water bottle, made breakfast, packed snacks. Everything was fine. He wanted to be there around 8am, so I made sure I was sure to be ready to drop him off. He got a DUI before our wedding a few months ago, and I've been his chauffeur while he doesn't have a license. We texted a few times through the day. I was excited because I got accepted into a freelance writing program and told him about it. Not surprisingly, he found ways to rain on my parade then criticized me for adding it to my LinkedIn profile. Before I picked him up at the end of the day, I had to stop at his doctor's office to pick up some documents. This made me about 10 minutes late to pick him up. He also got on me for the path I drove him to work in the morning, so I had to show him how complicated the path he chose was to drive home. His car might as well be a boat and it's too big for city streets. I nearly damaged it proving my point.

On the way home he shared with me that one of his boss's referred to my sister as "creepy." For context, my husband invited his employers to our wedding as a way to show off. My sister has a mental disability and felt like she connected with this woman and her husband. From what I was told, they texted back and forth a few weeks before his boss ghosted my sister entirely. My sister had a lot going on, thought she had a new friend to talk to, and shared some intimate details about her life with this woman. I didn't know she had ghosted and he already told me to get my sister to stop talking to his boss four months ago. He's convinced anyone in my family speaking to people he works with will jeopardize his job. Turns out they haven't spoken in six months. This woman got in my husband's head about my sister being bad news and how getting caught up with her would just get him in trouble. This led to an argument where I got the classic "I told you so"... even though this happened before I asked my sister to find other friends.

Once we got through that argument and I was able to convince him that his boss was in the wrong (who holds on to stuff like that for six months?), he informed me we were going out. I changed my clothes and tried to style my hair. I liked what I did with my hair, but he made it clear he didn't. "What do you think of your hair right now," he asked with a shit-eating grin.

"I can't do much with it, but I think it's okay. Why?"

"Okay, sure. If you like it then... let's go?"

"What's wrong with my hair? You should let me know if it looks bad. I don't want to look stupid."

"No, baby. You said you don't like being told what to do, so I am keeping my opinion to myself."

"Dude, just fix whatever it is. Otherwise I'll be thinking about it all night."

He proceeded to comb over my hair in what I can only describe as a "classic Karen do". Then he kept asking about the jacket I was wearing. His implication was that I purchased it without his knowledge. I actually bought it years ago from a company that no longer makes anything other than swimsuits. I had to prove it to him by showing the tag and the company website.

When we were leaving, I asked him to confirm the address we were picking up his boss from more than once. He then decided we should stop and get his boss a gift on the way. There were no gift shops along the way, and the one he wanted was ten minutes in the wrong direction. After we determined there wasn't enough time, I asked why we didn't get something sooner when he knew his boss was coming for weeks. He just said, "Because I'm dumb," and I told him that wasn't an appropriate answer. Once we arrived at the hotel, his boss informs him that we are not at the correct place and gave us the address I had asked for. I have become more bold in my confrontations with him so he can see his own behavior. I pointed out to my husband that if this had been the other way around, him driving and me giving directions, he would have been livid. I was annoyed, but not mad. Even so, he opted to minimize my feelings. As we were driving, he started a bizarre conversation with me. He asked, "What is your greatest life accomplishment to date?" I know he was baiting me to say something along the lines of being married to him, but I was still annoyed, so I gave an honest answer. 

"My greatest accomplishment is failing to kill myself."

He used this as an opportunity to open an entirely inappropriate conversation about my suicidal history, which ended with him calling my trauma "garbage." It was another reminder of how out of touch with mental health wellness he is. 

Once his boss was in the car, the conversation pivoted, and now we're back to the beginning of this story. The next morning, we had a brief conversation. He was annoyed I didn't repeat what I did the morning before. "What? No breakfast?"

"You didn't ask. Besides, I thought we were leaving an hour ago."

"Didn't you hear them talking at the table? I don't need to be in until 9."

"Sure, I heard them say they were going at 9, but you didn't confirm that you were going at 9. Last we discussed, you said, 'same time tomorrow.'"

From there, he grabbed a granola bar, and I drove him to work in silence. The only other time he spoke to me was when he text me to let me know he got a ride home from his coworker, and decided to order food. I had an evening workshop anyway. For the rest of the evening he was on the phone with a friend, whom he had me talk to, and then watched tv in our bedroom while I tried to sleep. I have been working to get up earlier in the morning, but he does things to try and sabotage my routine.

Today is day three of stonewalling. The only words he spoke were to confirm I was taking him to work this morning. I specifically didn't play music in hopes it would prompt him to say something. I have plans with my mother this evening. I'm sure he will either be in bed or drunk by the time I get home. This round is sitting in second place as far as time unspoken goes. First place is still the time he told me my time is not as valuable as his, which is why I should take care of all the chores in addition to my forty hour work week. That's a story for another day.

Keep shining,

D 

[lekendall]

Audio version of this chapter and a lot more chapters available on my website.

Tamika Wood's Birthday Party

Chapter Two: Before

1 2 3 4 5

Alan Sebastian

I don’t remember meeting Scott. I suppose I must have done at some point. I didn’t remember him being there when I’d started in year seven but he was there now. I think he must have started at the start of year 10 that year. He was in most of the same classes as me. I didn’t share many classes with Michelle which was a little odd because it wasn’t a very large school.

I’m not a very social person. I didn’t feel the need to make friends at school. Michelle hadn’t had time for me at school since we’d gone to high school but she seemed happy enough to hang out with me at home and I had my imagination to keep me company at any time she wasn’t available. I spent a lot of time worrying about whether I was in the right place at the right time and had done all of the expected reading and homework. And very little time thinking about what other people thought of me.

I knew I was odd. Enough people had told me that. I knew I sometimes made people uncomfortable with my way of speaking and the way I didn’t look at people’s eyes.

Michelle had tried to coach me for a while. Told me to look at people’s eyeballs. Told me when to smile and what to say. But then people told me that the way I looked too much at people’s eyes was creepy and I decided the whole thing was pointless.

I was much happier when I just tried not to care what people thought. So I mostly tried to leave other people alone and they left me alone.

At some point, probably around March or April, Scott started to talk to me a lot. It took me a while to notice it because he generally just talked a lot to anyone that was nearby. I’d noticed that I’d been the closest person nearby fairly often before I considered the idea that he might be seeking me out specifically.

I did not know what to do with that.

“How do you know if someone wants to be your friend?” I’d asked my mother and sister at the dinner table one day.

They both looked at me, shocked. Looking back, now, I wonder if it was the question specifically or just that I had asked it. I was usually pretty content to listen to them talking and supply answers only if I was asked something.

It’d probably surprise people if they learned I often tried not to talk. I’d often enough tried when I was a child to engage with someone else by listing names of things or explaining how something worked that was interesting to me. I’d been informed that these subjects were extremely boring and I wasn’t sure how to talk about the things that others deemed ‘interesting’. So I just stopped doing it, I suppose.

It was easier with Michelle. We’ve had our own secret language since we were little kids. You can’t bore someone to tears in Bibby language. There aren’t enough words.

“Is there someone at school who you think wants to be your friend, Alan Sebastian?” asked Gillian. She looked and sounded concerned.

“Who is it?” asked Michelle sharply, “a boy or a girl?”. She seemed defensive.

People often assume I have more trouble reading people’s emotions than I do. It’s not that I can’t tell what other people are feeling. It’s that I get confused when it doesn’t match what they are saying or seem related in any way to what I said. It feels safer just to ignore it and go with what people say.

Treat people how you would want to be treated is the golden rule, after all. People often assume I’m thinking or feeling something wildly different to what I actually am. They claim they ‘know what I meant’ when they didn’t. I wish other people would just listen to the words I actually say instead of what they think they heard. So that’s what I try and do.

“Yes,” I said to Gillian, “A boy,” I told Michelle.

“Who is it and why do you think he wants to be friends with you?” asked Michelle.

“It’s Scott Maher and I don’t know,” I replied, “I don’t really understand why anyone would want to be friends with me. He has lots of other friends. Everyone likes him. So I don’t know why he would want to be friends with me. It’s a bit confusing.”

They looked at each other.

“Does he ask anything from you? Does he want you to give him anything?” Asked Gillian.

“No,” I said.

They were quiet.

“You both seem worried,” I said, “I don’t understand why.”

“I just don’t want anyone to take advantage of you, sweetheart,” said Gillian. I don’t like it when she calls me that. My name is Alan Sebastian and it’s confusing to me because she also calls Michelle ‘sweetheart’ and there is a potential ambiguity there which makes me uncomfortable.

“Remember when you used to give your toy cars to Alexander in primary school? Until I punched him in the face.” Michelle smirked.

That made sense. There isn’t any reason anyone would want to be my friend so if someone wants to spend time with me it might be just because I have something that they want and think that I might give it to them. But I stopped giving people things just because they asked a long time ago. I didn’t want Michelle to punch anyone else in the face.

“I don’t think he wants anything from me,” I told them, “He just sits next to me in class sometimes and talks to me. He talks a lot. He doesn’t seem to expect me to say much or anything. But sometimes I do and he says I am a good listener. He does call me ‘Al’ though which isn’t my name and I don’t like it.”

“Maybe he just wants to be your friend,” said Gillian. Which is what I’d said at first and then she’d tried to argue against it and now was arguing with me again from the other side. It was very confusing.

“Do you want to be his friend?” asked Michelle.

“I don’t know.” I had said.

I didn’t really know what to do with the idea that he (maybe) wanted to be my friend. And it wasn’t until I did want him to be my friend that I realised that up until that point I actually had not.

We were in the library, because I often went there at lunch time to do homework so that I didn’t have to worry about it when I was actually at home. I used to worry that it might not be right to do homework at school because it’s called homework. But as it turns out that’s just what it is called and it doesn’t matter whether you do it at home or somewhere else.

I was getting frustrated because I couldn’t get the correct answer to one of my maths problems. It made me angry which made me feel like I might cry which made me angrier at myself. My hands were shaking.

“Hey Al,” said Scott, “What’s wrong?”

“Alan Sebastian,” I said.

Sometimes people ask “what’s wrong” and they mean “calm down, you’re making a big deal out of nothing,” but Scott didn’t seem put out by my distress and confidently told me that that the book was wrong.

Scott was confident a lot of the time. Or acted so. He spoke with authority on many topics. But Maths was one subject we didn’t take together. Maths was streamed at our school, according to ability. I was in the highest stream and he was in one of the lower ones. He didn’t even look at my working. Just the question and the given answer. He told me what the answer should be and it was the same as mine. He didn’t even think about it. Didn’t write anything down.

But the next day in class the teacher informed us that the answer to that problem in the book was wrong. My answer had been correct after all.

“How did you know the answer to that question?” I asked him later.

“I don’t know.” He said, “I mean that’s not true I do know I just… I don’t know how to explain. I’m not good at maths. I don’t know how to do all of the working part and I skip too many steps and guess the answer.”

I watched him do his maths homework after that. I’d told him if he wanted to hang out with me while I did my homework in the library then he should do his too. He told me that was a good idea and that he might actually turn some of his homework in that way. He started coming over to my house even. I’d do my homework and he’d start his and try and do it but end up getting up and walking around touching everything.

I’d always been so stressed about school work. About doing it and getting it in on time. It was astonishing to me that he could just… not do it. And nothing terrible had happened. He hadn’t got detention or been expelled or gotten into trouble. Not that I’d imagined the consequences for not turning in homework should be so very dire: I’d never got that far. The prospect of not doing a thing I knew I was supposed to do was too terrifying in and of itself.

And I watched him. He’d quickly write all the answers down first and then go back and try and fill in the working. Get distracted. Miss questions. Spill his water bottle on the paper. Knock everything onto the floor. Lose it entirely or forget to turn it in.

And I thought… if he only had to do that first part. Writing all the answers down. He’d probably get full marks.

“How do you do that?” I asked him. “Know what all the answers are?”

“I’m just guessing.” He said.

“You’re not though. You’ve got all the answers right.”

“Like when you know the answer but can’t explain why. I was always told off for guessing. You’re supposed to do all the steps in between and I hate it because it’s so boring.”

“I don’t think you know what the word ‘guess’ means,” I said.

“Yes I do!” he laughed.

“A guess is when you don’t know the answer and you make it up. Guess the answer to um… 53 x 47”

“2491” he said.

“What’s the square root of what you just said?”

“Like… almost fifty.” He said.

“That’s not guessing. And it’s also kind of terrifying.” I said. I had goosebumps.

“I know I can do that with bigger numbers than other people but like… if I asked you to guess the answer to 2 + 2 you just know it. Without having to write it down.”

“That’s not what the word ‘guess’ means though”

“It means something different in maths than in other things,” he said. And normally he was the one who confidently told me things and it made my heart race to tell him he was wrong about something. But I showed him in the dictionary and he couldn’t supply any evidence for his assertion and eventually he gave up and said I must be right.

I asked him why he wasn’t in the highest math stream with me and he told me he wasn’t good at maths. He was okay at arithmetic, he conceded. But he didn’t get good marks.

He started to get better marks, after we did our homework together.

I started to keep track of Scott’s homework and assignments, where they differed from mine.

“Your essay is due on the 26th of April.” I told him, “so you should start working on it.”

“No it isn’t. It can’t be.”

“Why not?”

“Because the 26th of April is a Sunday this year,” he said.

Scott is worse at keeping track of time than I am. I keep on top of my schedule through leveraging my own anxiety. Scott is regularly astonished by the current date or time. He rarely even knows what day it is.

“What day is it today?” I asked him.

“I have no idea, Al, you’re the one that knows that,” he said.

“Alan Sebastian,” I corrected him.

Scott couldn’t concentrate on anything that bored him even slightly. But he could read a book in an hour. He’d lost library borrowing privileges because he’d lost too many library books but he’d pick up a book and read it straight through without stopping. I watched him. People would accuse him of faking reading because he was turning the pages so fast. But I knew him. He couldn’t sit still to watch a movie. He was always fidgeting and putting things in his mouth. When he read he was finally still – only his eyes flicking back and forth and his hand turning the pages.

He was interesting to me. When he was reading it was safe to look at him. The way his hair curled unevenly. Tight ringlets around his collar and softer waves around his ears. A mixture of different shades of blonde and even brown. His eyes were multicoloured too – brown and green and grey and blue and yellow. I learned the location of every freckle on his arm and rated all his smiles based on the depth of the dimples in his cheeks. He was a contradiction in so many ways and I wanted to understand all of them.

“I like your eyes.” I told him one day, without thinking to stop myself.

“They can’t even decide what colour they are,” he said.

I’d known I was attracted to him for a while. I’d noticed how good looking he was even before I’d known him much or liked him as a person.

But that moment when he held my gaze, my heart thundered in my chest and that was when I knew I loved him and I wanted him to kiss me. I wanted to kiss him and I didn’t think I would ever be able to stop.

Scott

I remember the exact moment I first met Alan Sebastian Parker. It was my first day at my new school after moving to my Dad’s place and I saw him standing slightly apart from the rest of the class with his very straight back and his head cocked slightly to the side. He was different from everyone and he didn’t even seem to mind.

I couldn’t help but mind what people thought of me. I wanted to be liked. I needed to be liked. At my old school I hadn’t been. And I was determined it would be different here.

People hadn’t liked me there. They’d asked to share my lunch and I’d happily do so. I loved to share. It gave me no joy to have something that was only mine. I wanted to enjoy other people’s enjoyment. Then they’d eat half my lunch and then laugh at me and throw the rest of my sandwich on the ground when I asked for some of theirs.

There was a girl once, I don’t remember her name. But she told me she was desperately thirsty and could she have a sip of my Popper juice box. “Just one sip” she said and she made eye contact with me as she drank the whole thing down in front of me without taking a breath.

People hadn’t liked me and I hadn’t quite known why. Until they started to call me names and I learned what those words meant and I realised… I had to make sure that wasn’t true again.

I needed to be liked. I needed to be approved of.

Alan Sebastian didn’t appear to have those worries and that was intoxicating to me. I wanted to be near him. I wanted to absorb him and become him. I was drawn to him. It’s funny because although I wanted and needed everyone else to like and approve of me I never felt like I set out to make him like me. I was happy just to be near him. He didn’t give many opinions about things, not at first. He always seemed hesitant to say whether he did or did not like something. Anything. A book. A colour. A food. So whether he did or did not like me seemed like unattainable knowledge. Therefore I didn’t really worry about it.

I liked him a lot. Too much really for my resolution to be different. To be better. To be manlier. To be cool.

I kissed a lot of people that weren’t him. Girls, obviously. In the hopes that it would help. But it didn’t really.

Being around him too much felt dangerous. Like I might end up on the wrong side of a line I didn’t want to cross. A line I didn’t want to admit was even there. But being around him also made me feel so safe. Like being in the eye of a storm and if I stayed there, with him, for long enough I might gain some sense of control.

I felt so out of control most of the time. I couldn’t restrain my impulses to do and say things I’d realise, even immediately, weren’t so wise.

You know those game shows where someone stands in a sort of dome and they blow money around and someone has to catch as much as they can before. the timer runs out? I felt like that. There was no point even attempting to keep track of anything, time, my belongings, my thoughts or feelings. Unless I was actively holding onto it it was whirling around, out of touch and out of reach. And there was only so much I could hold on to at one time.

So I kissed a lot of people. First was Dawn who I liked a lot, obviously. She was older. She

Then later there were others. Girls from school. Tiffany, Tamika and at least two girls named Jessica. And so I knew what to do. If they wanted. And it wasn’t that I wanted them so much as I wanted to be wanted.

But it never lasted. I couldn’t seem to say no to people. Or admit that I maybe wanted to. But when I’d get dumped I’d feel like my heart was being torn to shreds even if I hadn’t thought I’d liked her that much at the time. Being rejected made me hurt so much I felt like I would die from it.

I never really know what to do with my feelings. There are too many of them and they are too strong. Kissing girls didn’t help me handle my feelings for Alan Sebastian. But it gave me something to do.

[ceylon-tae]

Part 3 of 4 This was going to be a footnote on Part 2 but I have strong feelings about this. A previous version of this post used the term “DDNOS” ( dissociative disorder not otherwise specified) because in 2019, I only had an updated copy of the DSM-IV. In 2020 I obtained a copy of the DSM-V and realized the category name was changed to “OSDD” (other specified dissociative disorder). I want to make a point of talking about PTSD and Dissociative Identities. I don’t know what specific kinds of content warnings to put on this. Um. I’m going to talk about other people reacting to DID/OSDD/DDNOS and things that look like it, my experience with dissociation, parts, and recovery. I worked on it a lot this year. Disclaimer that I am not a trained professional, but I HAVE lived with OSDD ever since I can remember, I have been diagnosed, and going through this workbook I mentioned in Part 2 has made a lot of things click into place. I have OSDD and not DID because I don’t ‘lose time’ where I don’t at least know what happened (a requirement for a DID diagnosis in the DSM). This was originally a very long, very angry rant, but I can sum it up in two parts: Dear people who don’t have a dissociative disorder and Dear People who do have a dissociative disorder

The first part is directed at people without DID who are inclined to say: “People who talk to themselves are creepy, lol you're fictionkin? Cringe” DID and other dissociative disorders are responses to trauma. Most people you’ll see talking to various parts of themselves are not faking it. They’re working with what they have. It’s far more normal than you think. If you think that’s cringe, consider shutting the fuck up, growing some fucking compassion, and minding your own fucking business. Don’t harass strangers about it. The second part is directed at people with DID who are inclined to say: ”But some people fake having it because it’s trendy, or try to force themselves to have it, and kinnies make us look bad” Cool I don’t care, you don’t harass strangers about it. Of course having to deal with dismissive or ignorant randos on the internet is exhausting. Trolls and attention-seekers are a drag. It sucks. But there’s assholes and morons everywhere, of every stripe, with every ‘excuse’. Block them. If they’re young and ignorant? You don’t have to educate them. You can block them. There are also people all over this website who would rather commiserate than actually try recovery. That’s sad. But it’s also not your problem. I was over 30 by the time I realized PTSD and dissociation were the medical names for what I was experiencing. If you had told me, as a teenager, that my dissociative disorder was a symptom of PTSD and “please go to therapy”, I would have probably reacted very negatively to that. Partly because I'd have already been in and out of therapy since I was 9, and I would’ve been under no obligation to tell you that. It’s not that my therapist was bad, or that she didn’t know how to treat me. She admitted she simply didn’t want me to feel “broken” since I was already handling it and re-connecting my parts pretty well. But my mental health has been struggling the past few years. In 2019, I needed to know. Now I know. The teenager out there with the upbeat roleplay blog who insists their incredibly important fictionkin / headmate / etc. has “nothing to do” with PTSD? That kid might well have PTSD and not know it. Do NOT say they’re faking it. Do NOT tell them to stop. Do NOT tell them to go to therapy and get a diagnosis, or to get a “better” coping mechanism. Unless they’re a fake account intentionally created to mock DID (like many fake accounts acephobes create to mock asexuality), it’s NOT your problem. Their recovery is also not your problem. If you don’t know them personally, it’s not your problem. Save your concern-trolling, don’t screencap that shit, and mind your own fucking business. Furthermore, fictional parts or alters or ‘headmates’ or whatever else you call them are extremely common. Lots of people reading might already know this. Oftentimes when a kid lived in a terrifying situation for a long time, the only place they saw safety and caring was in a fictional story, and they needed that in their life. That’s also the reason why fictional alters are usually the parts that care for or protect other parts. Although there are toxic ways to use this coping mechanism, it is not a “bad” coping mechanism itself. It’s a good one. Ask Boon, Steele, and Van Der Hart if you don’t believe me (Boon, S., Steele, K.,& Van Der Hart, O. (2011). Coping with Trauma-Related Dissociation. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc.). If you try to slap that out of their hands because you simply don’t like it, fuck you. That’s the short version. :) Okay enough being mad, let’s talk about ways that having / recovering with a dissociative disorder doesn’t have to be Constant Suffering 24/7/365 If you want to write down the conversations you’re having with yourself, for any reason, please don’t be scared do that. It’s probably much safer if you write them down on paper rather than putting them online, but I’m not your mom. When you write down your conversations, all parts of you can see it right there on the page if one of you is being mean to another part of you. That way, it’s easier to try to change that behavior. It can keep those parts of you accountable. If you’re discussing a topic you personally struggle with, and happen to think of a good solution together, writing it down also means you can read it later and remember how you “worked out this issue” before. It can be a record of your successes. And later, you can reread them and see how much you’ve grown. If some parts don’t want to talk to you, or if there are parts who give you problems, there is real help you can get for that. You CAN work on that. Again, this is the workbook I’ve been using this year. It is very in-depth: Boon, S., Steele, K.,& Van Der Hart, O. (2011). Coping with Trauma-Related Dissociation. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc. One of my other friends (who was ALSO diagnosed with PTSD and DID in her thirties) has recommended me this workbook which I’ve bought but not started. It mentions parts but is mainly focused on Complex PTSD: Shwartz, Arielle. (2016). The Complex PTSD Workbook. Berkeley, Althea Press. Also here, have a relevant image from Wikipedia in this really long text post:

If someday (even just for a little while), you forget that there were ever parts of you that you felt disconnected from? Fucking superb, you beautiful kintsugi. Here’s the part where I soapbox more. “Recovery” should NOT mean “never mentioning your separate selves again”. It definitely shouldn’t mean you have to stop talking to any of your parts. The goal should be to get all of your parts working together in harmony, not forcibly reducing you to one melody. Heck, here’s a third metaphor that means a lot to me personally. When I’m at my best it, feels like I’m mixing different colors to get just the right hue appropriate to the situation. It’s not that the paint bottles don’t exist anymore - I’m just not stuck painting from just one or two bottles, and I don’t have to paint straight from the bottles anymore either. Boon, Steele, and Van Der Hart literally call it “blending”. I’d been doing it (and using this metaphor) long before reading that but imagine my excitement reading that. Sweet validation. If you’re just starting working with your parts, that can come later. Step #1 is having all your parts acknowledge each other, and talk to each other. Then you try to get better at cooperating together. You’ll do your best to make sure no one gets overwhelmed, and make sure everyone’s needs are met in a feasible manner. And see if you can do a better job at comforting each other. That’s not me soapboxing, that’s straight from the book. If you can do that much, that's a huge step forward to a healthier life. I’m so fucking proud of you. Dissociating and losing time sucks. Being “plural” or whatever you want to call it doesn’t have to suck. Every part of you deserves to feel this good, this connected, and cooperative. Recovery isn’t easy. Even when they give you a workbook with simple prompts and “fill in your own answer” pages. (Which I have.) Even if you think “oh but I already know myself(s) and we’re all fine” but you seem to be struggling in other areas of your mental health (which was me), I guarantee you there will be shit you didn’t know about yourself(s). And it can only get better after you address it, hopefully with professional help. I’m saying you’re doing a bad job on your own, but if you think you could be doing better, go for it. It will be uncomfortable, but whatever little steps you can take (without destabilizing yourself), it’s FUCKING WORTH IT. Notes: Boon, S., Steele, K.,& Van Der Hart, O. (2011). Coping with Trauma-Related Dissociation. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc. Currently finishing up this workbook so yeah I’m really excited about it

[arc-misadventures]

good, first I have to say that I always like your short stories. now I know I'm annoying with jeanne's requests so on that side I'm sorry if I overwhelm you. But I reaffirm my taste by asking for more anyway, femAu) while phyrra destroys jeanne's swimsuits I overlooked a certain detail, jeanne does not like to show her body too much so in the end she arrives with a sleeveless sweatshirt during all her time in the pool. Thanks

I don’t mind your asks. Bar the music ones, mostly because I don’t like any of the songs you recommend, so later, I’m just gonna post one with a song I can work with.

But, in the mean time, useless lesbians!

\\\

Swimming Woes

Blake: Did you see them?

Pyrrha: No, Jeanne locked herself behind a changing room stall! There was no way I could steal a glance!

Blake: Did you try asking her if she needed help to try, and get into her stall?

Pyrrha: Listen, I admit I’m a little thirsty for my partner…

Blake: A little?

Pyrrha: Okay, I’m dying of dehydration! But, I respect my partners right to her privacy!

Blake: At least you admit it.

Pyrrha: Like you’re one to talk.

Blake: Hey!

Pyrrha: Besides, we’re at a privately rented pool, all for ourselves! No one can stop us, and I made sure, Jeanne had no choice but to buy a bikini after I destroyed all of her old ones! She’ll have no choice, but to… Oh, come on?!

Blake: What’s…? Oh… Oh no…

~~~

Yang: Hey Little-G~! Glad you could finally join us!

Jeanne: H-Hey, Yang. Little G? What are you referring to…?

Yang: A couple of things~!

Jeanne: I’m starting to regret going shopping with you…

Yang: Nah, you loved it.

Jeanne: Not sure about it now… Oh, uhh… N-Nice bikini, it suits you.

Yang: Thanks! It’s big enough to contain my girls~! What about you, looks like you got one that’s big enough for yours.

Jeanne: Nothing as fancy as yours, rather plain really.

Yang: Hard to find anything fancy in my size. Doubly so for you isn’t it~!

Jeanne: Did I ever tell you that, that smug smile of yours is unnerving?

Yang: No, but thank you for telling me.

Jeanne: My pleasure~!

Yang: So, what’s with the jacket? It’s practically covering all of you. Except those luscious legs of yours~!

Jeanne: I-I’m uncomfortable showing too much skin. People, stare too much, I don’t like it!

Yang: Bull! You we’re more than willing to show me~!

Jeanne: That’s different.

Yang: Oh, yeah, why’s that?

Jeanne: You remind me of one of my sisters. It’s partly why I like being around you so much.

Yang: Ow… That hurts, and here I thought we had a special bond together… Turns out I was just another sister to you! And nothing more!

Jeanne: You’re a terrible actor…

Yang: Still feel betrayed. Now, take it off and jump into the water, it’s perfect!

Jeanne: I-I don’t want anyone staring at me…

Yang: Pfft too late for that! That sweater is only emphasizing something juicy is under there~! We can already tell you’ve got a big chest! See, Weiss, and Ruby are already giving you soulless death glares!

~~~

Ruby, and Weiss stare into the blank, void less space at, Jeanne as dark organ music plays behind them.

~~~

Jeanne: (Shudder) Creepy…

Yang: Such is the fury of the small chested… anyway, take it off, I’m dying to see it!

Jeanne: N-No!

Yang: Oh, come on, please!

Jeanne: No.

Yang: Not even for your big sisterrr…Ahh?!!

Jeanne: …

Yang: You pushed me in?!

Jeanne: And, you played the sister card. And, for the record, you are the younger sister.

Yang: Am not.

~~~

Pyrrha: Grrr…!

Blake: Told you waiting for, Yang wouldn’t work.

Pyrrha: Fine then! Time for drastic measures…

Blake: Drastic? What are you going to do; Use your semblance on her?

Pyrrha: No, that won’t work! It will open it up, but it will still remain hidden! This is a drastic measure!

Blake: Okay, you’re going a little crazy here, so… What are you going to do?

Pyrrha: Observe… Nora!

Nora: Hey, Pyr-Pyr~!

Pyrrha: Nora! i need your help!

Nora: Need me to help you steal a glance at Jeanne’s mommy milkers?

Pyrrha: What…?

Blake: Her what…?

Nora: Her boobs, right? You want to see her big, big jugs? Key word, big! Like seriously, what did she eat to get so big…

Pyrrha: You’ve seen them?!

Blake: When?! How?!

Nora: Shower, peaked on her just like I do with everyone else.

Pyrrha: Wait, what…?

Blake: Y-You don’t really peak on everyone… do you.

Nora: Mole. Left cheek.

Blake: Okay, how the fuck?!

Nora: So, what’s in it for me?

Pyrrha: My debit card, and a pancake house of your choosing.

Nora: S-Seriously?!

Pyrrha: All yours for one day: Will you do it?!

Nora: Hell yeah I do!

Pyrrha: Excellent!

Ren: You’re going to regret this.

Pyrrha: Like hell I will!

Ren: Tell that to your bank account…

Blake: Ren, she’s thirsty as is, don’t try and stop her now.

Ren: Fair…

~~~

Yang: I can’t believe you pushed me in…

Jeanne: You were just sitting on the edge, posing.

Yang: Hey, with a body like this, you don’t think I’m not going to show it off?

Jeanne: We all know you, there’s nothing for you to show off.

Yang: Ow, why must you hurt me so?!

Jeanne: Some one has too…

Yang: How can you be so mean Nee-San!

Jeanne: …

Jeanne: Pray that you die a…?!

Nora: Hello!

Jeanne: Ahh?! Nora! Don’t do that!

Nora: Never…

Jeanne: Okay then… You need anything, Nora?

Nora: For you to have some fun!

Jeanne: I am having fun though.

Nora: You’re wearing a sweater at a pool; take that off and get going!

Jeanne: Nora, I’m fine you…?!

Nora: Less talking, more pool!

Before, Jeanne could say another wood, Nora removed her jack and pushed her in the water before she could let out a scream, she was already in the water.

Yang: Hahaha! See how it feels!

Jeanne: Nora?! Why?!

Nora: Can’t enjoy the pool when you’re standing on the sidelines!

Jeanne: I was gonna get in eventually…

Nora: Yeah, eventually…

~~~

Pyrrha: Crap!

Blake: What’s wrong?

Pyrrha: The ripples in the water are distorting the image… We need to get her out of there!

Nora: Didn’t you her to go into the pool?

Pyrrha: No, I wanted to see her bare, bikini clad body! Now she’s all wet!

Blake: That’s… That’s not really a bad thing…

Pyrrha: What are you… You… Yooooouuuuuu…

Water droplets slowly fell across her body, showing the soft and subtle curves of her body. The white and black trim of her bikini highlighted the mature and elegance of her well developed body. The eyes of all of her friends fell upon her as they all left the pool. Not a word leaving their lips as they saw perfection before them. Jeanne sighed in exasperation as she grabbed her long locks of hair, ringing them of the excess water.

Jeanne: Ahh… I wanted to do some stretches before I went in… Did you have to push me in?

Blake: Yes, yes she absolutely had to…

Jeanne: What, why? Oh… you’re staring at them, aren’t you.

Weiss: Life’s so unfair…

Ruby: First, Yang, now Jeanne…?

Nora: Just like the first time I saw them.

Ren: First, what…?

Yang: Nice bikini!

Blake: Glorious…

Pyrrha: …

Jeanne: Okay, I have a big…!

Yang: Huge.

Jeanne: A huge chest! You never knew because I have really good bra’s that make them appear smaller. And, I genuinely don’t like to show them off! And, thank you, Yang, I appreciate it.

Yang: No problem, Little-G~!

Jeanne: At least it’s better than, Vomit Girl… Okay, have you gotten it all of your system?

Ren: Yes.

Nora: Yes!

Weiss: I hate you so much…

Ruby: Big boobs are overrated…

Yang: Yes, but I can still enjoy the view!

Blake: They must be soft as clouds…

Pyrrha: …

Jeanne: Blake, stop talking…

Blake: Huh?Oh! S-Sorry…

Jeanne: I expected better of you… Hey? Pyrrha, are you okay?

Pyrrha: I can die now…

Jeanne: W-What? What are you…?!

Blood slowly tricked down, Pyrrha’s nose as her red faced body slowly tipped backwards and fainted.

Jeanne: Pyrrha?! PYRRHA?!!

[cutepastelstarsalior]

I just got back from watching Disney Encanto and I have some ✨headcanons✨ tw: self harm

Listen; if I was Dolores and I had to spend the last years hearing my uncle live in the god damn wall of my house I would be dang confused and also piss off.

When it’s nighttime and Dolores hears Bruno muttering and knocking, it’s hard for her to sleep. And when your from a family that has emotional issues and bottle things up, it comes out

Dolores will sometimes bang on the wall, quietly, whispering threats “Bruno if you don’t shut Up i swear I WILL go find you and hit you” her threats are empty but she still makes them when she’s tired

When she was younger she try to tell parents, and the other grownup about Bruno, no one believe her and her parents would make her stop talking about Bruno

Around breakfast and dinner time she can hear Bruno so she sometimes leaves food for him and his rats.

When it to loud and Dolores gets overstimulated, she goes to a quite part of the house and tries to relax and calm down. She sadly doesn’t have any headphones but she uses pillows to cover her ears and sleeps with a heavy blanket.

Even though Dolores can hear everything, she don’t like complete silence, sometimes she would go outside and listen to natural or she’ll hum. White noise.

Bruno kind of knows that Dolores know he there, he don’t come out that much, when he does it usually to get food. One night during a heavy rainstorm Dolores can’t sleep so Bruno ends up in Dolores’s room and he just sits near her, telling her stories from his childhood or fairytales.

Both Bruno and Luisa have negative self thoughts, while Luisa is more positive and trying to get better, she keeps burning herself out and overworks, and if she mess up she either cries or tell herself that she’s worthless and physically hurts herself. (Pitching, pulling, punching, biting)

Bruno on the other hand mostly talk negative about himself, he self deprecating himself through humor (calling himself creepy, weird, odd), it doesn’t help that he has his rituals (I headcanon him having autism, OCD, dissociate, and depression) he’s also has minor agoraphobia.

During his teens I feel like Bruno really internalize what people were saying about him. He feel weak compared to his sisters and felt outcasted, it didn’t help that he was the only male at the time and people expected him to be a leader or physically strong.

Because of how everyone treated him I think has problems with eating (in the movie he gives his food to the rats and I didn’t see him eat) and well as self harm. The scars he has are around his upper arms and shoulders, but also on his torsos. I feel like during a low low moment he try to physically remove his eyes to get rid of his power. Julieta found and stopped him. In a panic Bruno threat to cursedJulieta if she told anyone about what she saw.

That’s all the headcanon I have for now!

[rrickgrrimes8]

hi! i was thinking if you could write an imagine of reader being rick and lori's daughter and sister to carl, rj and judith. i don't have a specific idea in mind, but just her before and after the time jump, struggling with being there when lori and carl died, and looking for rick with daryl, her relationship with her siblings and michonne, maybe maggie and hershel too (i was thinking since carl was 10 when it all started, she was 7 so now she's 17) thank you so much, and btw i loved your imagines i've read so far 💞

Being a Grimes ~ Rick Grimes x Grimes!reader

thank you so much for requesting i really enjoyed making this one. i also have a series kinda like this about Jacey Grimes which i’m currently making a book two for.

warnings: alluding to sexual assault or rape, suicide, death, gore (lemme know if i’ve missed anything off here)

sorry if there is any mistakes please tell if there is and give me feedback i’d love to here back from yall

masterlist

request guidelines

request are open

It was strange for y/n. This world would be strange for anyone really. But she was different. At only a mere 7 years old when the world went to shit she struggled as did many others. With the recent loss of her father - one she didn't entirely understand - still protruding through her heart, it was hard - so hard. 

When it happened she was at daycare. The teaching assistant tried and successfully ate the teacher in front of her. She was next and was so close to being eaten until Shane rushed in. He kicked Ms Twune and grabbed y/n. Her mom sobbed at the sight of her, covered in blood and the tears smothering her daughters face. Carl was shocked too. He wanted nothing more than to protect his little sister. His dad always used to tell him that that was his duty - his job. And he hated how he had failed in this moment. 

They made it to the quarry soon after. Y/n thought the group was nice - well mostly. The Dixon brothers scared her was what she told her brother or any of the children she had befriended. But she was lying. Yes, she was scared but only of Merle. He was creepy and mean to anyone he saw. Daryl was somewhat the same but he always found himself being nicer to the young child. And often kept her company when Lori and Shane went for a ‘walk’ in the woods. Glenn was another she found herself drawn to. He unlike Daryl happily invited her company. Glenn was sweet and funny. He never failed at making her laugh till she felt like she was going to pee. They were good friends which came to a fault when he had to go on runs. She’d scream and cry and refuse to let go of him because she was afraid that what happened to her father would happen to him. 

That’s what happened earlier that morning. Glenn and a few others were going into Atlanta, despite her dismay. Glenn assured her he’d be fine, which she didn't believe and continued her tantrum. 

“Can yer’ shut that damn baby up?” Merle spat covering his ears. 

Shane shot him a threatening glare while Glenn stayed preoccupied with the distraught girl. “Hey, it's okay. I’m coming back,” He insisted holding her tightly at his hip, “I promise you, sweet girl.” 

“No, b-b-but dada promise too a-a-and h-he,” She stopped herself, sobs erupting from her small body. 

“I know sweet girl, I know. But I’ll be back I know I will.” Glenn placed her on the back of the RV, “I tell you what I’ll bring you back some of your favourite sweeties, huh? Would you like that?” 

Giddily she nodded at his proposition, “Yes! Yes!” 

“Alright, then I’ll bring back some for you, okay?” She nodded smiling cheerfully, “I love you, kid.” 

“I luv you too, dumbass,” y/n giggled. 

Glenn looked around cautiously hoping no one heard that “Hey sweet girl you can't say that.” 

“W-what? Why?” the child began to cry again, “Y-y-you say it.” 

“I know b-but its adult words okay? Not y/n words. When you're older, alright?” She nodded her head again kissing his cheeks softly and hugging him. “Thank you, sweet girl. I’ll see you soon,” He kissed the top of her head and started towards the car smiling as she shouted, “With sweeties!”

The group returned hours later bearing a new man instead of Merle. Y/n waited patiently for Glenn and the aforementioned sweets. "Gen!" She screamed happily still unable to say his name fully. The man sprinted over to her, pulling her into a much-needed cuddle after the day he had. 

"It's Glenn, sweetheart," He chuckled while correcting. 

"Oh sorry Gen," She wrapped her dainty arms around his neck. 

"That's okay, sweet girl. I missed you." 

"I missed you too," She whispered before letting out a longwinded 'ew', "You stinky, Gen." 

The man smelt his shirt and nodded as the potent smell of walkers reached his nose. "I know yucky right?" 

"Yucky!" Y/n buried her face in Glenn's shirt ignoring the stench and just enjoying his company. She always became clingy like this after coming home from a run. He loved it. On runs, if he ever encountered a life-threatening situation - like the one today - he always finds himself realising how much she means to him. Glenn saw her as a little sister - one almost replacing the ones that were cruely ripped from him when this began. 

"How was it?" She inquired. 

"Not fun, sweet girl. But I got your sweeties and a nice man helped us out. Saved us," She beamed. 

"I like the good man. I'll give him two kisses when I see him. Maybe even one of my sweeties," Glenn chuckled. 

"Why two kisses, y/n?" 

"One for saving you. Two for bringing you hom," Glenn grinned contently and kissed her forehead. 

"Its home bubs with an e on the end." 

"Oh," She mumbled burying herself again. 

"Oh my God," Someone muttered as they exited the van. 

"Dad! Dad!" Carl screamed causing Glenn to snap his head in their direction. Carl came running towards the man, Rick, who had saved them in Atlanta. Y/n hadn't moved yet as she feared it was only a dream. That her dada wasn't really here. 

"Sweet girl," He pulled her out of his neck, "Look it's your dad." The child gazed over to where her brother had run to. Sure enough, it was her dad. He held Carl as he cried, looking to Y/n wanting to hold her too. 

"Dada!" She screamed jumping out of Glenn's arms dangerously. The girl scraped her knee on the way down but continued throwing herself into the hug. 

"Oh, Carl! Y/n!" She kissed all over his face childishly, "I luv you, dada." 

"I love you too, baby girl."

~

The years hadn't been kind to Y/n. She lost so much. Too much in fact that it had driven her to the depts of insanity and made her do things to herself, to others that she more than resented. The first loss was her mothers. She wasn't there like Carl was but the grief burned through her still. Y/n was too young to understand it really. Just how she was when Rick supposedly died. Y/n couldn't understand where her mom had gone she just knew she had a little sister now. One she swore to protect. 

She thought she had failed that when the prison fell. The young child was on her own. Injured and lost. She wandered through the woods for days until she stumbled across a group. The group were mean and despite her resistance wouldn't let her go. They hurt her in ways she didn't and wouldn't speak of it even now. But that all changed when Daryl showed up. He protected her - stopped them from hurting her. And eventually led her back to her family. Where for the first time she began to fear her father. 

Terminus was next. The people there snatched her from her family. She was forced to watch from afar as they were guided into the crate. Rick fought against them, Carl too but it was to no use. They had sectioned her off in a playroom. Every once in a while an older woman came in to fed and played with her. She hated it. Being in this world for more than a year now she knew that people like them didn't just want to play even if she did. She learnt that from the Claimers. 

Carol found her. Although having never have been all that close to the older woman - the only relation being the closeness between y/n and Sophia - seeing her after so long made her cry out of joy. Carol was happy too as she rushed out of that place to take her to safety. The pair ended up in the woods. Carol had stopped a moment ago to clean the dirt from her face, "lemme help." 

The girl sat up from where she was put down and cupped some water splashing it on Carol's face. Carol flinched as the water hit her, "Uh thank you." 

"Welcome," She looked away getting distracted by the nearing sound of footsteps. 

"Get behind me, y/n," Carol ordered to which she shook her head. 

"No it dada," She ran away from the woman and towards the group. 

"Y/n come back here!" Y/n continued ignoring Carols pleas and crashed herself into the back of Rick's legs. 

The father shot around and began to cry as he saw the child he thought he lost at his feet. "Oh, baby!" He collected the girl in his arms. Carl rushed to them too happy to see her alive after Gareth claimed he killed her. "Oh y/n, never leave me again, okay?" He looked directly into her matching blue eyes, "Promise me." 

"I promise, dada." 

Later Carol led them to Judith. Y/n was over the moon and refused to let her out of her sight, which was exactly what Rick was doing too. They found the church a while after. There they had some semblance of peace. She was glad to have Glenn back - Maggie too. Along with the new people although Eugene was a bit weird. 

At the church was also when the questions started. Daryl had told Rick about the group they were with and regretfully had to inform the father how she was there before him. Rick asked y/n - begged her - to tell her what happened. But she refused. She couldn't say what happened. What they did, which just made Rick fear more. Eventually, she spoke a little about it. She was vague and could barely string two words together without crying. He hated it. He hated how this was a reality for his daughter. He saw the bruises they left. And he couldn't understand how someone could touch his child. Or how he could be so powerless to stop it. 

Bob died. She didn't really know the man but it still upset her. Beth too. Although she was a lot closer to her. Beth was one of her only friends and was someone who would look after her when her father couldn't. They bonded and now she was gone. 

After Beth's demise, they spent lots of time on the road. They suffered, almost died countless times but they prevailed. They got stronger - she got stronger. And they eventually found Alexandria. There everything was good again like how it was at the prison or even before this hell. She liked it there and didn't understand why the others were so sceptical. 

Though that didn't last for long. Y/n began to hate the place when Carl got shot. Alexandria almost stole her brother from her. So she despised it. She refused to leave her brother's side as he adjusted to his injury. Yes, he found it annoying how she wouldn't leave him be and he often snapped at her. But she was there when he needed her. Despite the age difference and the many years of memories they had lost to this fight, she understood his pain. When he saw himself as ugly, a monster even, she made him think otherwise. She kept him afloat, which he was eternally thankful for. 

Glenn was next. 

She didn't believe it even after she was forced to see it with her own two eyes. She was next to Glenn in the lineup. She had to watch up close. Y/n had to be mocked by that man. She had to stay the whole night with her best friends brains on her face. After that night she blamed herself. She told herself that if Negan was just one person off she would be dead and he would live. He would get to see his child born and grow old with Maggie like they had spoken about. She wholeheartedly believed he deserved to live over her. 

The war with Negan shook her to the core. At the time his face filled her nightmares. He just looked so normal. He looked nice even. Yet he hurt and he hurt and he hurt. 

He killed her Glenn. And then Carl. It wasn't Negans fault although she did blame him. Carl had gotten bit. Y/n held his hand as he died in that tunnel as the home they had built above them fell. She got a letter too - even though she would rather have preferred to have her brother back. In the letter, Carl told her how proud he was of her - how thankful he was to have her as a sister. He told her to protect Judith, their dad and Michonne, who she had recently begun to call momma. 

After Carl's death, y/n shut herself from the world well everyone except her father. For days she would cry until she couldn't anymore. She would scream and scream until her voice was gone. She just didn't understand why it had to be Carl? Why mom? Why Glenn? Why Beth? Why was it never her? The following weeks she found herself wishing it would be her next. She could never bring herself to say it out loud but with any battle, any fight, anything, she wished it would be her. 

So when she lost her father her whole world fell apart. He was her consistent so why did he leave her? She was at the bridge that day. Daryl held her crying frame as Rick set off that final shot blowing him and the walkers off the bridge. Y/n Grimes' father was dead. 

She stayed in Alexandria for a while afterwards. For the sole reason to protect her siblings. Yes, siblings - plural. Somehow through all the bad some good came from it. She just wished her father and Carl could've seen it. RJ Grimes came into this world 9 months later. And he was perfect. For months she would assist in taking care of him as Michonne wasn't doing the greatest without the love of her life. Truth be told neither was y/n she was just better at hiding it. 

Until one night it all became too much. Y/n didn't know how it happened but she found herself balancing on the edge of her window. She wanted to jump - to end it. But she just couldn't will herself to do it. And when Daryl showed up she knew she couldn't. "Hey step away from ta window, alrigh'," The man ordered as he saw her shaking frame rocking back and forth. 

"I-i can't," She sobbed. 

"Ye' ya can. Jus' step back I'll catch ya," Daryl moved closer but paused when she shouted to stop. 

"I can't, Daryl. They're all gone. They're all dead," The tears clouded her eyes. She shut them tightly picturing her families faces wanting so badly to join them. 

"Please jus' step back, y/n. Yer' not alone. I'm here," He croaked the tears floating down his cheeks, "Don't jump." 

"I love you, Daryl." 

"I love ya too, okay? So step away from the window," He watched as she turned her head slightly catching his eyes. 

"I love you but I can't. Tell mom, RJ and Judy I love them as well." 

Suddenly she went to fall forward but Daryl reacted quicker. He gripped her waist pulling her into the room unwilling to release his grasp. "Yer' not leaving me," He told her as she cried into his shoulder, "Yer' cant leave me." Overhearing the chaos, Michonne entered her daughter's room to see the window wide open and the two of them crying. Daryl looked at her. The look telling her all she needed to know. Michonne began to cry herself and joined them on the ground. 

"Y/n?" A small voice called from the door frame. 

"Judith go back to bed, okay?" Michonne told her but Judith continued towards her sister. The girl said nothing as she wiped her sister's tears and held her hand.

It was 5 years later now. After her attempt, she left Alexandria with Daryl in search of her father. She didn't believe he was alive despite everything inside her wanting to. But Daryl did and after what happened they became a lot closer. He was happy she joined him. Even though the act of being out there was gruelling at times he was glad he could look after her. And if something would've happened to her while he was gone he could never have forgiven himself. Understandably Michonne was angry that y/n decided to leave. Y/n was her daughter and Michone her mother. They needed each other but she was willing to let Y/n leave to figure that out. It brought her peace looking for her father. 

The silence was her favourite and as Daryl wasn't much of a talker she got lots of it. They got a dog too, which Daryl cleverly named Dog. Everything was a messed up version of okay but it was still good. Being out there made her find her purpose. She went home a lot more than Daryl did, which pleased her siblings and mother. It was always for a few days never longer as she feared she'd stay forever and she couldn't. As much as Alexandria is good it also drives y/n to a dark place. One she was in that night. She lost so much there. And staring at those four walls drove her insane. It didn't help how Negan was imprisoned there. Just thinking how close he was made her skin crawl. She knew how Rick visited him when he was alive that he believed Carl was right about the killing. That it had to stop. Y/n knew he was right too but she could never bring herself to one admit or two face Negan. 

It felt like a story she read as a child when the Whisperers showed up. Like Negan, they scared her. So when she was told about his escape she only assumed the worst. The Whisperers took so many from them. Like Enid for example. Her story was cut short because of them. The two never really spoke but she understood how she and Carl felt for each other at a time. So ultimately it felt like she lost her final piece of Carl when she died. Y/n wished she had spoken to her when she could've. She wished she could've heard the untold stories they shared. She needed to know about Carl's final years with her. But now she's gone too along with those memories. 

The war with the Whisperers took everything from them. The Kingdom. Hilltop. Alexandria. Along with the lives they lost in the process. With the group separated she found herself protecting Judy and RJ. Michonne had gone. Where she had gone to, y/n had no idea. For a messed up reason, she began to prepare herself for her mother's death before it was even announced. That was until she got the call. She was okay and... apparently so was Rick. 

Disbelief was what hit her first. She couldn't hear his voice nor see his face so how could she know it was true. Michonne didn't know either she couldn't if he was really there, still alive. That night of the call she left. Without hesitation, she kissed RJ and Judith's heads, told them she loved them and told them to tell everyone else that and left. She left in the direction Michonne had told her. 

She left to find her father. And she knew she wouldn't return until she did. "I'm coming, dad."

[dp-marvel94]

Below the Greenhouse

For Phic Phight 2021. Prompt by @ave-aria: Maddie discovers the depths of Vlad's obsessions when she stumbles upon his secret lab. Despite the shock, part of her almost isn't surprised by the stolen Fenton Tech, the ripoff ghost portal, or the eerie Holo-Maddie—but the clone she finds floating in the pod at the back of the room? That's another matter entirely.

Word Count: 7,951

Also on AO3 and Fanfiction.net

Note:

Me: *sees a prompt with the word clone*

Me: Oh no.

We all know why this happened.

 Maddie knew Vlad Masters was a creep. She did. And she’d known this for a while, even when she, Jack, and Vlad were in college. Before his accident, she had known he'd been preparing to profess his “love” and ask her out, even though he’d known full-well she and Jack were dating. And while, that might have been forgivable back then, when all of them were young and naive and Vlad didn’t hold such bitterness towards her husband, it wasn't now.

Now, Maddie knew Vlad was hopelessly bitter. After his accident, he’d refused to talk to them. He’d shut them out of his room when they visited the hospital and after he’d been released, he’d refused their phone calls and ignored their letters. Eventually, she and Jack gave up and they moved on with their lives.

That was, until Vlad chose to reconnect. And unfortunately, Vlad was worse than ever. More smug. More arrogant. More creepy. He ignored the fact that Maddie was happily married with children and he still insisted that she should leave the love of her life for him. 

Maddie really only tolerated him for Jack’s sake. Her husband still enthusiastically loved the man who’d been his best friend in college and she couldn’t bear to crush his spirit, though the woman was increasingly doubting her choice to stay silent now.

And now, Maddie realized that Vlad was much more despicable than she thought.

It started with a series of strange phone calls. The voice was robotic, yet strangely familiar sounding. It reminded her of her mother or maybe her sister? Either way, the sound somehow tugged at her heartstrings just as much as it made her shiver anxiously.

“Please save him.” The woman’s voice asked, an oddly flat plea.

“Tell me who you are.” Maddie demanded, not for the first time.

The speaker ignored the question, continuing. “I cannot get Number 6 out myself. Please save him.”

“You keep saying that, every time you call this number.” The woman sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose. This was the fifth time she had gotten a call like this. All from an almost emotionless, staticky voice. All begging her to save someone or something called Number 6. Something she couldn’t seem to get anymore information about. “But who is number six?” Maddie asked, trying, probably futilely to learn more.

The answer surprised her. “Number 6 is just a boy. He should be free. He does not belong in a laboratory.”

Maddie frowned, brows furrowed in confusion “A laboratory?”

“That is correct.” The robotic voice answered.

“I’m sorry, are you talking about an actual child? What is a child doing in a laboratory?” The woman wrinkled her nose in disgust.

“Number 6 is physically younger than the age of majority and therefore meets the definition of a child.”

“Okay?” Maddie furrowed her brow and repeated herself more severely. “Why are you keeping a child in your laboratory?”

There was a pause. “I am not permitted to share that information.”

That made the woman’s stomach flop. “And why not?”

“My dearest has forbidden me from discussing the details of his experiments with outsiders.”

Maddie frowned again. “Then why are you talking to me?”

“You are a loophole.” The speaker said without hesitation.

That gave the ghost hunter pause. She opened her mouth to ask more when there was a mechanical whirl across the line.

The fast, choppy words cut through. “Dearest will be leaving on a trip tonight and be away for the next three days.” 

“Wait, what are you-” Maddie started.

“The address is 600 North Maple Drive. Enter through the trapdoor in the greenhouse. I will be waiting.”

Across the line, a male voice called from far away. “Pull up the data from the last test, dear. And prepare the subject for sample collection.”

Maddie shivered; there was something familiar-

“Please hurry. Save him.” The robotic female voice whispered before the line cut off.

Maddie sighed, dropping the phone. She put her head in her hands. She didn’t know what to make of that. At first, she had thought these mysterious calls were pranks. Maybe even a ghost trying to trick her. Except…. That didn’t feel right. It had been a week and no ghost had acted against her or her family. No ghost would wait this long to act and no human prankster would continue this charade for this long either.

So who had been calling her and what do they really want? Could the speaker really be asking for her help? The idea made dread pool in her stomach, especially now. Now that she had more information. Now she had a location. And that was Vlad’s address. And that other voice...it had sounded like… Vlad, as if the speaker was in fact in Vlad’s mansion. Her stomach flopped. He’d been talking about data from a test and preparing a subject for sample collection. That in and of itself wasn’t necessarily that alarming. Vlad had a background in science. He could be conducting research, just like she and Jack did out of their own basement. Except…

Number 6 is just a boy. He should be free. He does not belong in a laboratory. The words rang in her head, making her feel sick.

Maddie sat for a long while, staring at the phone. So many questions clashed in her mind and she wanted answers. What was really happening here? And how would she learn the truth?

An idea started forming in her mind. A surely bad, horrible idea. She still had no idea who had been calling her. It probably was a trap. So why did she want to follow the instructions? And the prospect of sneaking onto Vlad Master’s property? She could get in serious trouble. And for what? Vlad would never do anything as immoral as what the speaker hinted at. Except...what if? Doubt grew in her mind. What if?

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

That was how Maddie found herself pulling up to Vlad’s mansion in Amity Park. The woman sighed, putting the car into park and taking the key out of the ignition. She was really doing this, wasn’t she? The scientist could hardly believe her own actions. But it was the middle of the night and she was alone, in the small forest behind the mansion. 

Silently, Maddie got out of the car and started sneaking across the yard. She hadn’t told Jack where she was going. Maybe that was a mistake but the woman somehow knew he’d try to talk her out of this. And he would have a point. Yet the woman was still driven forward despite her better judgement. 

Arriving in front of the greenhouse, the ghost hunter stopped. She looked side to side, checking to see if anyone was watching. The yard was quiet and bare, only the sound of night insects cutting through the air. Maddie looked back into the building. To the left of the door was a blinking red light but other than that, inside was dark. Tentatively, Maddie jiggled the greenhouse’s door handle. It didn’t budge at first but then there was a buzz and a click. The door unlocked and the woman frowned, watching the blinking light turn from red to white. Was that a security system? And...had the door just unlocked for her?

Maddie bit her lip. She considered turning back but...she wanted answers. Instead, she pulled her ectostaff out of her belt. A blow to the head from it would be just as effective on a human attacker as it would be on a ghost.

The woman opened the door, quickly stepping though. She closed it and cautiously crossed the room. From what she could tell in the dark, this was a normal greenhouse. She breathed deeply, taking in the wet earthy smell of dirt, the soft perfume of flowers, and… She sniffed. That scent, old batteries, ozone, and citrus. That was familiar. Was that ectoplasm? 

Maddie turned, eyes searching for the tell-tell glow of a ghost. Her gaze fixed on something a few rows over. The huntress continued forward, brow wrinkling at the sight. Unsurprisingly, these were plants but….a faint glow enveloped the snow white leaves, the orange and black fruits. Tentatively, she reached forward and cupped one of the fruits. Even through her gloves, she could feel the ghostly chill. 

Maddie’s frown deepened. She’d never seen anything like this before. Was this some kind of ghostly plant? And in Vlad’s greenhouse of all places? Where did it come from? How did the billionaire procure it? And why hadn’t he said anything to her and Jack?

With that thought, the ghost hunters’ stomach flopped with nerves. There was actually something here, something out of the ordinary. Her mind turned back to those phone calls, the reason she was here in the first place. The speaker had said something about a trapdoor.

With that, Maddie pulled a flashlight out of her belt and flicked it on. She looked down, searching, and her eyes widened. Oh….well then. There, not three feet in front of her, was the door. The woman approached. Crouching down, she put down her staff and grasped the flashlight between her teeth. With both hands, she pulled the door up, revealing a short ladder leading to a narrow passageway.

The ghost hunter furrowed her brow, hesitating for a moment. She braced herself, forcing her shoulders to relax to dislodge some of the anxiety. Maddie stood up straight. She grabbed her staff and started lowering herself down the ladder. Once she was at the bottom, the woman turned and pointed the flashlight down the passageway. There, maybe ten feet in front of her was a metal blast door.

Dread rose in Maddie at the sight but she tried to push it down. This was probably an old cellar, or maybe even a bomb shelter. Rich people tended to have those, didn’t they? It could be…..

The woman stepped forward. Tentatively, she placed a hand on the opening mechanism. It looked like a wheel that she’d need both hands to open. She moved to return her staff to her belt but before she could, a mechanical whirl sounded. The wheel started turning. Paling Maddie rapidly stepped back. Her heart pounded in fear of being caught.

Then the door swung open with a groan. The ghost hunter registered bright light pouring through the opening. She blinked for a moment, her eyes adjusting to the change. Then she registered the translucent figure floating across the doorway. 

Maddie scowled, acting on instinct. “Take that ghost.” She swung her staff but the blow never connected, instead sailing through the blue clad figure without resistance.

“I am not a ghost.” A familiar, robotic voice responded.

It was then that Maddie finally registered what she was seeing. She gasped in shock. It was herself, except floating, translucent, and...glitching around the edges? “What are you?” She breathed.

“I am the MADDIE program, an artificial intelligence meant to emulate Dr. Madeline Fenton.”

The ghost hunter stared for a long moment in confusion. She hadn’t expected a response and now her mind couldn’t catch up, barely processing what she was seeing.

The hologram floated backward, motioning into the door. “Come inside.”

Maddie blinked, registering the words. Her eyes flitted from her strange double to the interior of the room. Concrete floor, metallic walls, sturdy work tables, and….a soft green light. It looked familiar, very much like the Fentonworks lab. The woman’s heart skipped a beat. She’d already come this far….

The huntress took a few steps forward and crossed the threshold, all the while keeping her eyes on the hologram. The other figure was unmoving and silent, not even blinking. After another long moment staring, Maddie warily looked around. As she’d glimpsed, there were shiny metal work tables and shelves. A station with a microscope, centrifuge, and table top incubator. She frowned, eyes falling on glowing vials of ectoplasm. 

This was a lab, obviously. A ghost research lab, based on the ectoplasm. But below Vlad’s greenhouse? Her eyes flickered to another table, this one holding familiar looking devices. Ectoguns, slim and silvery with a design Maddie knew intimately, despite the unfamiliar logo and red accents.

The woman walked forward, tentatively hefting the gun. “This looks like our model 35.” She stated seriously.

Maddie then turned, facing the source of the soft green light. Her jaw dropped at the sight of the swirling green. “That’s a portal. A ghost portal.” She muttered. 

The scientist took in the design of the frame, of the ecto-filtrater and the control panel. That was her and Jack’s design as well. Her mind swam, information bouncing around senselessly as she tried to make sense of all this. This was a lab. A ghost research lab. A hidden, secret research lab in Vlad Master’s backyard, below his greenhouse. Vlad’s secret lab. But...why?

She bit her lip, her eyes falling on the Fenton Works designed weapons and the portal. Their stolen designs. Maddie could barely believe it, yet she wasn’t as surprised as she should be. Vlad still having an interest in ghosts? The creepy billionaire stealing their blueprints? Why did that seem all too plausible?

“Dr. Fenton?” A staticy voice asked behind her.

Maddie turned, frown deepening as she took in the hologram again. Her mouth felt dry. “He….Vlad...made a hologram that looks and sounds like me.” She felt sickened at the thought, at the evidence in front of her. 

“Yes. I was modeled after Dr. Madeline Fenton.” The hologram replied.

The ghost hunter put a hand on her head, feeling a headache grow. It made sense, in a sick kind of way. Vlad had a fascination with her. He was not exactly subtle in his ‘affections.’ Of course he would create this creepy copy. “Why?” She groaned, in rising anger.

“I was created to serve as a digital assistance and security system.”

Maddie looked up, blinking in confusion. She hadn’t been expecting an answer. The woman then frowned, realizing something. A security system? Did that mean… “You unlocked the greenhouse door for me...and turned off the security system.”

“That is correct.” The hologram replied.

The ghost hunter wrinkled her brow. “Why?”

Somehow, almost imperceptibly, the figure’s expression softened. “You came to take Number 6 away from here.”

That gave Maddie pause, her eyes widening slightly as she took in the AI with new eyes. “You were the one calling me.” 

It finally hit her. The voice on the phone, the monotone one that reminded her of her mother and sister. It was this AI, this AI which sounded very much like Maddie herself. Of course she hadn’t recognized that. Most people don’t know what they really sound like outside of their own head and Maddie herself was no exception.

“Yes, I did.” The AI confirmed. “Please save him.”

“Him?” Maddie bit her lip, feeling that familiar dread again. “Number 6? Who is this person?”

The hologram floated toward the other side of the room, towards a tall cylindrical metal tube that Maddie hadn’t noticed yet. “Come.” She motioned the ghost hunter to approach.

The huntress did so, fixing a studious gaze on the tube.

“Viewing panel opening.” The AI announced as the whirl of gears sounded throughout the room.

In front of the cylinder, metal paneling slid apart. Slowly a gap opened, making the inside of the pod visible. Maddie first registered neon green ectoplasm swirling in some kind of solution. Then her jaw dropped. There, suspended in the chamber was a lithe figure. It looked male, the form of a young teenager. For a moment, the ghost hunter registered white hair and a black and white garment. Phantom? Had Vlad managed to capture Phantom? No...that….

Her brow furrowed, stepping closer. She examined the glowing body. The figure’s appearance was shifting. Its skin was a mosaic of ghostly blue and a pale, more human color in ever changing, shifting patches. The black and white garment also shifted, seeming to grow and spread over the body before retreating, leaving bare skin. On the head was a mop of black and white hair, the patches rapidly changing color and appearing to move across the skull.

Maddie frowned. There was a resemblance to Phantom. (How? How in the world?) But this wasn’t the same being. “This is a ghost.” Her brow wrinkled in confusion, despite her confidence of the fact.

“Yes.” The MADDIE program answered plainly. 

The scientist turned. “I am not letting a ghost out of here.”

The hologram frowned. “Number Six is a boy. He deserves to be free.”

Maddie pointed. “But….that is a ghost.”

“Yes.” The AI confirmed again. “But he is also a boy. Observe.” The translucent figure waved a hand over one of the computers. “Display subject’s vials.”

Instantly, readings appeared on the screen, a rhythmic beeping commencing. The ghost hunter studied the words and numbers. “Oxygen saturation, Blood Glucose, Blood pressure, Heart Rate.” Her brow furrowed. “These are vials for a human.”

“Yes. These are Number six’s vials.” 

Maddie scrunched her nose in disbelief. “But...this is a ghost.” 

But the sound of the heart monitor pounded in her head. She turned, facing the figure in the tube again. The readings could be fake. But why? And why did Vlad have a ghost captured in his lab? And why did it resemble Phantom? Or at least, it seemed to. Not that she’d ever been this close to Phantom before but the white hair, suit, and lithe figure were the same. She took in the shifting appearance. And what was that? An attempt at shapeshifting?

Maddie turned back to the screen, reading again. At the top, it read Clone Six, 100% stability. “Clone?” The woman questioned. “Clone of who? Of Phantom?”

“Yes.” The AI answered. In response, the ghost hunter turned sharply. The hologram continued. “Subject Six has completed the gestation period and is now viable and capable of living outside the artificial womb.”

Maddie blinked rapidly. There was a lot of information there. “Clone? Vlad cloned Phantom and...it’s ready?”

“Yes. He is stable.” The hologram turned. “Please save him. Take him away from dearest.”

“Look.” The scientist pinched the bridge of her nose. “I am not letting this ghost go.”

“He is a boy.” The AI insisted.

“You say that but-”

“And a ghost.” The hologram continued. “He is a living boy and a ghost.”

Maddie’s heart skipped a beat. “Living?”

She turned back to the chamber, something in her resonating at the word. The strands of black hair, the human colored skin, the patches that did not glow. She looked up into the face and something itched in the back of her mind. It looked familiar, not just because the ghost looked like Phantom.

Maddie took another step. She reached forward until she was touching the glass. The heart monitor steadily beeped as the figure in the chamber twitched.

The huntress shook her head, denying. “That’s just...not possible. Someone can’t be a ghost and a human.” What the AI was saying was nonsensical, completely impossible. So why did Maddie not feel certain?

“Initiate wake up sequence.” The AI declared.

Startled, Maddie’s head whipped to the side. “What are you-”

In the chamber, something thumped. The woman’s head turned to see flailing limbs. The figure’s eyes suddenly popped open, one blue and one green panickedly flickering around the room. The rate of the heart monitor increased. The being thrashed, chest spasming. A hand pounded against the glass. 

“What did you do?” Maddie demanded of the AI.

There was no answer, just fearful flailing within the tube. The ghostly figure’s gaze shifted down and fell on Maddie. The eyes widened, silently begging. More pounding of hands on the inside of the glass. The beeping increased, pounding into the woman’s head. The ghost boy blinked and the eyes were blue, icy blue. The gaze, the familiar gaze stabbed Maddie in the heart.

The woman panicked, her own heart race. Her eyes ripped away from the boy. What do I do? What do I do? Her mind raced. Her gaze fell on a large button marked, Emergency release. She acted without thinking, slamming her hand down on the button.

There was hiss and a beep from the chamber. In the blink of an eye, the glass wall of the chamber parted. Maddie yelped, jumping back as water and ectoplasm poured out. The liquid soaked her anyway. Then, the boy inside the tub was falling. He tipped forward and the woman reached out to catch him on instinct.

A surprisingly heavy body fell onto the ghost hunter. Her knees threatened to buckle under the sudden impact. Instead she wobbled and wrapped one arm around the lithe body. Shakily, Maddie lowered herself to her knees, taking the ghostly figure with her.

Numbly, hardly believing what she’d just done, the woman huddled on the floor. She tensed at the being reached towards her. A part of her brain screamed that it was unsafe to be so near to a ghost, yet she didn’t move as ungloved hands weakly grabbed onto her jumpsuit and the ghost pressed into her chest, as if it was hugging her. 

Maddie looked down at the being, marveling at the sight. Its appearance was still shifting. Black and white hair. Black jumpsuit and bare skin. Patches of ghostly blue and pale human skin. The woman could feel the ectoplasmic energy, the ghostly chill radiating off the being as well but..... Its glow...there was something off. The glow was dimming. It flickered like a light bulb before cutting off.

In front of her came a whine as the ghost buried its head into her shoulder. Soft cold breath caressed her check. Breathe? Maddie’s heart skipped a breath. She could feel the chest rising and falling with fast breaths, pressed against her as it was. And that beeping. Maddie glanced up at the display. The heart monitor was still keeping pace with a rapidly fluttering heart.

The scientists breath lodged in her throat. No this was...ghosts didn’t breath. They didn’t have heart beats. They didn’t…. She looked down at the shaking figure again and her world turned upside down. The black suit was receding, evaporating. It disappeared off the arms and chest, every part of the body she could see, leaving bare skin below. And that skin, it was changing. Pale peach-tinted skin was rapidly replacing the inhuman blue. A warm breath blew over her check, the ghostly chill quickly vanishing. The weight pressed into her increased, the fingers holding onto her becoming warm and solid. And on the head, black overtook white until she was staring down at the full black head of hair.

Maddie’s mind stopped unable to process. This was...she was...in front...of her...this was... She blinked rapidly, as if the sign would change but...the lack of glow, the human skin tone, the warmth, the breathing, the black hair. That..that damn heart monitor. This...this was...no...no way. The ghost hunter shakily, wrapped her arms around the now hyperventilating figure. She winced feeling the warm, solid skin under her gloves. This was impossible but….

This...this was a human. No ghost...no ghost could fake this. No shapeshifting would give a ghost human warmth and a heartbeat. And she could feel it, the rapidly fluttering heart pressed against her own. 

The ghost whined again. No. no. The boy. The boy who had just been a ghost but had changed. The boy who’d just been inside that pod. Who was shaking and hyperventilating in front of her. Another whine. A tear fell onto her shoulder.

Maddie’s mind finally caught up. Her arms shifted into a more proper hug, hands reaching up to run through the black hair. “Shhh. Shh. It’s okay.” The woman whispered. “Breath with me. In.” She breathed in deliberately. “And out.” She pushed the air out of her lungs. “In and Out.”

The boy copied, his breaths following hers. In and out. In and out. His breathing slowed as did the beeping of the heart monitor. Slowly, so slowly, his shaking subsided but the boy didn’t let go of her suit.

Maddie stayed still, questions bombarding her now that the boy was calmed. This boy, who was he? Where had he come from? Why...why did Vlad have a teenager in his lab? And why did he have a ghost that could change into a human? Or was this a human who could turn into a ghost? Her mind raced, her own heart rate increasing with overwhelming confusion. How was this possible? What was this kid?

She looked down, an idea sparking. That ghost disease that all the teenagers supposedly got. The disease that gave them ghost powers. She and Jack had never seen any of the supposedly infected students. They’d dismissed the claims as absurd. Humans could not have ghost powers. Yet Jazz and Danny’s friend, Sam, had both insisted that they’d gotten sick and both had displayed a ghostly ability. And if...if that was true….. She paled, the overheard words from the last phone call hitting her. Tests, sample collection, subject, experiment. If Vlad was experimenting with that disease, experimenting with ectoplasm on...on….

“Where...where am I?” A quiet male voice asked, directly in front of her. Maddie stiffened at the words, roughly pulled out of her thoughts. “What’s happening?”

The woman’s heart stopped. That voice. That voice. Oh god. Suddenly shaking, she unwrapped her arms from the boy. Gently, so gently, she grabbed his wrists and pulled his hands off of her. The boy seemed to shrink in on himself at that, shoulders falling. 

He sniffled but Maddie shushed it. “Look...look up at me.” She quietly asked. Slowly, the teenager obeyed and again, the mother felt like her world was turned on its head. Familiar, icy blue eyes met hers. The curve of that nose, the round chin, the slightly chubby cheeks. Oh god, she knew...she knew this face intimately. A trembling hand reached out to touch, cupping the boy’s cheek. “Danny?” Maddie asked, before she could really think.

The blue eyes widened, looking at her with the most pure and innocent hope she’d even seen. “Danny? Is that...is that my name?”

The woman’s expression fell, her mind catching up to the question, to what she was seeing. No, this couldn't be Danny. She had just seen him earlier that night. And on the face in front of her….The freckles….the freckles were wrong, laid out in a different pattern. And the scar above his lips, where was it? The mother glanced down, at his collar bone. The birthmark wasn’t there. And...her heart skipped a beat. No, he was too young, maybe two years younger than her son’s current age of 16.

The woman removed her hand. “No. I’m sorry. You’re not….you look like him, like Danny. So I thought….But you’re not...you’re not him.”

The boy’s shoulders fell and his eyes fixed down. The suddenly heartbroken, lonely look broke Maddie’s heart. “Oh. Then...who am I?”

The ghost hunter frowned at the question, her mind trying to form an answer. Who was this boy who looked like her Danny? Wait…. The words on his vitals display flashed in her mind. Clone number 6. Clone. “You’re a clone.” She blinked, mouth falling open. “You’re a clone of my son.”

The boy looked up, raising a brow. “What’s a clone?”

Maddie flushed at the question. It was so innocent. And his eyes, staring up at her like she had the answer to every question in the universe. “That’s...that’s complicated.” She glanced down, cheeks reddening in a sudden realization. “Let’s umm...let’s get you some clothes first.” The mother blushed for a moment. He’d been naked this whole time, while they’d been hugging and she had been comforting him.

“Clothes?” The boy tilted his head and the innocent confusion, the lack of embarrassment, just about killed Maddie. This looked like a teenager but obviously he wasn’t actually one.

The mother pushed the thought away, head surveying the room for something to cover the child with. She gaze fixed on something white hanging on one of the walls. Lab coats. Maddie started pushing herself to her feet.

The boy whimpered, grabbing her hand. “Don’t leave me.”

Maddie’s expression softened. “I’m not. I’m just going to get you something to wear.”

Shakily, she stood and walked across the lab. All the while, the woman could feel the eyes on the back of her head. But she ignored it, focusing on grabbing a coat. She pulled the white garment off the peg and quickly returned. Maddie then knelt down and held out the coat. The boy looked at it with no recognition as if he had no idea what to do with it. He probably didn’t.

“I can put it on you then. Hold out your arms.” Maddie instructed.

The boy, the clone, (this was a clone, a clone of her son. Her son. How? Why? What?). The clone did as she said and the woman dressed him as if he was a little child. (He probably was). The woman tried to smile comfortingly as she fastened the buttons. “There you go. All covered up.”

The boy looked at the sleeves curiously. They hung past his hands as the garment swallowed him. He waved his arms, watching the ends flap. The child laughed at the sight.

Maddie’s heart clenched at the child-like display. But then she turned her attention to the AI that had been silently watching the entire time. Standing, she scowled. “Is he a clone of my son?”

“Yes.” The MADDIE program replied. “Subject Number 6 is a clone of Daniel James Fenton.”

Maddie looked down again. Somehow, despite how impossible this was, that made perfect sense. The appearance was nearly identical, to perfect for strangers. And….she swallowed. Vlad had a sick fascination with her children, with Danny in particular. She knew the man fancied himself something of a godfather, with his pet names, presents, and advice. And Danny despised it, much more than any teenage boy should even if said godfather had a tendency to flirt with his mother.

The woman paled, all sorts of horrible idea coming into her head. What Vlad must want from Danny, what he must really want from her son. And to do the scientifically impossible? She shivered. Tests, experiments. She remembered the hybrid ghostly appearance, the ectoenergy flowing off of him. From some the ghostly disease? But… “Wait...you said that he was clone of Phantom earlier?”

The hologram’s response was cut off by a scream from the floor. Maddie’s eyes flicked down panickedly as the clone looked up at her. “My...my arm...it’s gone.”

The woman’s eyes just about popped out of her skull. His left sleeve with the hand and arm inside of it were gone. Maddie knelt down, reaching towards where the limb should be. Her hand hit something solid and chilly. She rapidly blinked. “It’s invisible. Your arm is invisible.” Panic rose in her. Ghostly abilities. There were ghostly abilities. He had ghost powers.

“Invisible?!” The boy shrieked. 

Maddie’s heart clenched. That sounded just like Danny, her son when he was scared. The boy’s mouth was open with panic, his breath increasing. And all the woman could see was her son. Her son’s face, screwed up with panic and fear. It made her soul ache. She gently wrapped her hand around his invisible one. “It’s still there but you need to calm down. Breath with me. Like before. Okay. In and out.”

The boy copied her action once and his hand returned to visibility. He threw himself forward into her arms. Maddie returned the hug without hesitation. Then a breath later, cold swept over her. The body in her arms disappeared, turning into cold mist. Both the woman and the boy screamed as he turned intangible and fell through her.

Maddie rapidly stood, stepping back. What was happening?! On the floor, the boy returned to solidity, the slightly translucent appearance disappearing. He rolled onto his back, panting. The beeping of the monitor increased with his breathing as his face scrunched up fearfully. 

Then a heartbeat later, just when Maddie thought she was done with surprises for tonight, something else stole the breath from her lungs. A white ring of light formed around the boy’s waist. It spread up and down his body and everything the light touched changed. The scientist blinked away the spots in her vision. And there, writhing on the floor with a panicked expression, was Phantom. Or...he looked like Phantom. White hair, black and white jumpsuit, panic filled green eyes.

It suddenly all hit Maddie like a tractor-trailer. He was a clone of Danny.. .and he was a clone of Phantom. Of Phantom. Danny...it clicked into place. Oh god, Danny’s accident with the portal. Him setting off all their equipment. His badly hidden injuries. Falling grades, skipping class, not sleeping. Oh god. Danny was Phantom. Danny Fenton was Danny Phantom. That...that was a pun, damnit. Of course her son would name himself after a pun. And… her eyes fixed on the boy on the floor. His face even stayed the same! No wonder Phantom avoided getting close to them!

In front of her, the clone was hyperventilating again. “What’s happening to me?!” He cried, tears welling in his eyes. His legs were fused into a ghostly tail which lashed in front of him.

The mother’s brain kicked into gear, her motherly instincts taking over again. She knelt down. “Sweetie. Sweetie. Calm down. I’m here.” 

She grabbed his arm, intending to pull him into a sitting position but he was so light, as light as a balloon. With the slightest tug, he was pulled into the air, floated. Maddie pulled the ghost boy into her arms. She cupped the back of his head.

“What’s...what’s happening to me?” He cried again.

“I don’t know.” Maddie answered honestly. She had only the barest idea of what all was going on. But still... “I’ll figure it out. I’ll help you. You’re safe. I’m right here.”

The boy wiggled in her hold, crying into her shoulders. “I...I don’t understand. I don’t understand. Who...who am I? Who are you? Where are we?”

Maddie didn’t know. Or rather she didn't know how to answer those questions without making him more scared. She desperately wished she did know. She’d have to have a long conversation with Danny about him being Phantom and about what is actually going on between him and Vlad but for now...she hugged the boy tighter.

A long minute later, light passed over the clone again. He became heavy and warm in Maddie’s arms. His knees wobbled for a moment before steadying as Maddie held him up. “There, you’re doing it. You can stand.” His posture strengthened and the shaking stopped. Finally, the mother asked. “Do you think you can stand on your own?”

“I...I think so?” The boy said, uncertainly.

“Alright. I’m going to step away slowly. I’ll catch you if you start to fall.” Maddie reassured.

The child nodded as the woman backed away. He wobbled, tipping forward but the ghost hunter gently grabbed him. They stood, hands on each other's forearm for a long pause, until the boy steadied himself. He looked down at his feet, lifting one before putting it down and then doing the same with the opposite. Finally, he let go of Maddie’s arms. After hesitating, the mother did the same.

The boy studied her compassionate face, brow furrowed with deep thought. “Who are you...to me?”

Maddie considered, studying his face in kind. Her son’s face. A face so like her Danny’s. He was a clone, a clone of her son. Meaning...he was her own flesh and blood. Her lips pursed in thought. More importantly...he was a child. A confused, scared child who needed her help. And before she was a ghost hunter and scientist, Maddie was and would always be a mother.

“I’m your mother.” She said without hesitation, smiling. “Your mom.”

“Mom?” The boy asked, testing out the word. 

Maddie nodded, reaching forward and gently whipping one of his tears away with her thumb. “I’m your mom.”

The child smiled, his eyes lighting up like that was the most wonderful thing he had ever heard. It very well could be. “Mom.” The word rang out with so many emotions, with some much love that Maddie’s heart swelled. The boy stepped forward hugging her again.

The mother ran her finger through his hair. “Yes baby. I’m here to take you home."

“You will take him away from here, then?” A staticy voice asked, beside the pair.

Maddie turned, pulling away to look at the AI. Beside her, the clone tilted his head as he looked between the two but didn’t ask.

The scientist nodded. “Yes. I think I understand why you called me now.” Of course she did. This was an AI made to copy her, something of a digital clone. If Maddie was in her place, she would not so easily agree to whatever Vlad had planned. She would not leave a child here to be experimented on. And as the MADDIE programs 'original’, for lack of a better word, she wasn’t exactly an outsider and therefore a loophole.

The hologram nodded. “I will disable the microchip then.” A light on the monitor blinked out and the beeping of the heart monitor stopped. The AI then turned to the computer. She pointed to a flash drive plugged into one of the ports. “That contains all research data. Take it with you.” 

Maddie obeyed, taking the drive. The AI winked. “Excellent. Delete all research data. Command alpha-06-gamma-58-epsilon.”

There was a loud dial tone and the computer fritzed, the monitor wavering until a blue screen reading ‘System Deletion’ in large print was displayed.

Maddie raised a brow, impressed at the AI. 

Then the clone asked. “What about you? Are you coming with us?”

The program shook her head. “No dear. I am not like you. My purpose is served.” The AI turned to deliberately look at Maddie. “Number 6 has been saved.”

The boy frowned at the statement as did the mother, considering the statement and the depth of it. She didn’t know what to make of it except...it almost felt like one mother was handing off her son to another.

“Go on.” The MADDIE program encouraged. "You may go out the way you came and I will lock the doors behind you." She frowned. "I will distract dearest for as long as I can."

Maddie wrinkled her nose in disgust. "I suppose you can't just call him Vlad?"

"No." The AI almost sounded annoyed. "My programming is most inconvenient."

The ghost hunter nodded in understanding. Then she turned to face the clone. "Come on then sweetie." She wrapped one arm around the boy and started leading him towards the door. Before passing through, the women turned back to face the hologram. "Thank you."

The corner of MADDIE program's lip turned up as she offered an accepting nod. The pair then turned back towards the still open door. The clone wobbled slightly, progressing slowly as he gained more confidence. Maddie carefully stepped across the threshold with the boy still at her side. Once they were in the tunnel, a gap sounded from beside her.

"What is it?" The mother glanced to the side, eyes wide with concern.

"The ground's cold." The boy muttered.

"Oh." Maddie looked down. "You're not wearing any shoes." She'd have to get him some once they got home and some proper clothes. "Just step carefully, okay? Actually…." With her free hand, she pulled out her flashlight and shone it on the bare ground in front of them. "There." 

The pair advanced carefully, Maddie helping the boy to clumsily climb up the ladder. They crossed the greenhouse and the mother pulled the boy along as he eagerly studied their surroundings. 

"It smells nice in here." The clone commented, sniffing the air.

"It does." Maddie agreed. 

Arriving at the door, she finally opened it and the two found themselves in the open air. The boy suddenly stopped, looking down. 

He hummed in the back of his throat, pleased. "I like the grass under my feet." Maddie looked down to find the kid wiggling his toes. Then there was an awed whisper. "Wow. Are those the stars?"

The mother looked up again to find him staring up at the sky in wonder. Maddie smiled. "Yes, they are. Aren't they beautiful?"

"Yeah." He breathed.

Maddie let him look up in awe, as she herself marveled. She couldn't help but be reminded of Danny's love of the stars. But even with the resemblance, he was a different person from her Danny, wasn't he? She could already see little difference. This child-like wonder was something she hadn’t seen in her son very often now. But still she wondered. This clone seemed to know the words for things. He could speak clearly and had good coordination all things considered. How was that even remotely possible? And yet he still had the air of someone who had never seen the world before, like every was new. Because it likely was.

With that, Maddie cut off her musing. "Come on sweetie. We need to keep going."

The mother hated cutting off his exploration, especially as his expression fell. But the boy nodded anyway, taking a step forward. The pair continued, cutting across the yard, into the trees, and to the car. Maddie clicked the fob to unlock the vehicle. She guided the boy to the car, opened the passenger's side door, and helped him sit. The mother then walked around and opened the driver's side door and sat down herself.

Maddie turned to find the clone looking at his seat belt curiously. She reached over. "Here let me help you." She buckled him in.

The boy hummed, fidgeting in his seat while Maddie buckled herself in. She put the key in the ignition and started the engine. Instantly, the radio started, a song from their local eighties station broadcasting through. The clone flinched at the sudden sound before relaxing. 

He turned, looking at the woman with wide eyes. "What's that?"

Maddie smiled. "It's music."

"Right. Music." The boy nodded. He tilted his head, listening to the song. After a moment, his head bobbed in time. "I think I like music." He hummed along, wiggling in his seat.

It made Maddie want to laugh so she did. She chuckled as she put the car into drive and pulled away. She turned into the road and started driving back towards Fentonworks. The song ended just as they pulled up at a red light.

The clone turned to face her. "Where are we going?"

She looked at him out the corner of her eye. "We're going home, like I said earlier."

He nodded. "Right yeah. I remember that." He hummed. "What will we do when we get there?"

Maddie paused, considering the question. "Well...we’ll talk to your dad and your….Danny and Jazz….and we’ll figure all of this out.” 

She’d hesitated for a moment, thinking to refer to Danny and Jazz as his brother and sister. But Maddie had no idea how they’d take this. Hopefully well. Those two were good kids but living with a clone of yourself….Maddie could hardly imagine. At least Jack would be eager and welcoming. She knew her husband well enough to be sure….Oh boy, she really should have told him something about all of this before she’d left.

"All of this….you mean the….clone thing and…" He bit his lip. "The flashing light and the floating and disappearing and falling through things?"

"Ghost powers." Maddie said, brow furrowing. "You have ghost powers. As far as I can tell, you're some kind of ghost human hybrid? Not that I knew that was possible until less than an hour ago…." She frowned. "Nor did I know you existed."

The boy frowned, looking worried. His lips pursed. "So...you don't know what my name is then, do you?”

Maddie's heart fell. In front of them, the light turned green. The woman turned back, removing her foot off the gas. The car pulled away before the mother pulled into a parking lot. 

She took a deep breath, the impossibleness of the situation hitting her. She was sitting in her car with a clone of her son. A clone that she’d found in the secret laboratory below Vlad Master’s greenhouse. A human-ghost hybrid clone of her son who was also a hybrid. She had another son now. A son who she now had to tell that she didn't know his name, because he likely didn't have one yet.

Maddie put a comforting hand on his arm. “I’m sorry.” She gently apologized. “You’re right. I don’t know. And sadly….” She took a deep breath. “And I know this will be hard to hear but...all I know is that hologram called you Number 6 and...that’s not exactly a name, is it? ” 

His lip quivered, eyes starting to water. “But….that’s….”

The mother took his hands and squeezed it. “That will change. Your father and I can pick out a name for you; that’s what parents normally do for their children. Or….if you have something in mind, we’ll happily call you that.”

The clone looked down, biting his lip in consideration. “I’ll...I’ll think about it.”

Maddie’s face softened. “Alright sweetie.”

He turned his head up, blinking at her. “Sweetie? Can that be my name?”

The question was asked so innocently that Maddie couldn’t help but laugh. “No. That’s a pet name. I call all my kids that.”

“Oh.” He blushed in embarrassment. “Well that’s...at least, that means I’m one of your kids.”

The mother nodded her head. “Yes, of course. You’re my son.” It should have been surprising how much her heart swelled with love at the statement but well….Maddie had made up her mind. This was her son. Not Vlad Masters’ experiment. Not just Danny’s clone. Her son and Vlad was not taking him away from her.

They would have a lot to figure out. A name for this boy. His complete origin as a clone. How to deal with having a third child, one who’d just appeared overnight. They’d have to deal with the implications of her revelation that Danny was Phantom. And Vlad...what he’d done was horrible. He’d stolen blueprints and her son’s DNA. He’d experimented on a human or...humans. She internally frowned; he was clone number 6. Did that mean that there had been five others? 

Either way, Vlad was deplorable. There, in the depth of his lab, below something as innocuous and normal as his greenhouse, Maddie had discovered that and the true depth of his obsession with her and her family. And now she knew, Vlad needed to be stopped. He needed to be punished. But what exactly to do with him, considering how taking him down would likely expose Danny’s identity as Phantom? Yes, they had a lot to deal with but….

Maddie leaned forward to kiss her new son’s forehead. “You have a family now. And a home. And everything else we’ll figure out together.”

A soft smile crept across his face. “I like how that sounds.”

“Good.” Maddie smiled. “Now...are you ready to go meet the rest of your family?”

“Yeah.” He squeezed the hand still holding hers. “I’m ready Mom.”