#if seatbelt has no fans I am no longer of this earth

[scootkiddo]

what was more culturally significant. the renaissance. or seatbelt.

[silhouetteofacedar]

Impersonal, Ch. 7

Previous Chapter - AO3 - MSR, Rated E

The game had ended and he wasn’t surprised.

He expected this. He prepared himself all day Saturday by running six miles, jacking off twice, and mopping his entire apartment. He didn’t even own a mop; he actually went out and bought one. By the time Sunday morning rolled around he was ready for the inevitable collapse of their precarious sexual arrangement and greeted Scully with aplomb.

And then she paid for breakfast.

That was unexpected. When the FBI wasn’t footing the bill, they usually split the tab, or threw a “you can get the next one” down on the table alongside crumpled bills.

He had been joking about it being a date, but then she paid. And it meant something. Her big blue eyes pinned him to the booth, had him trapped and squirming like an insect on a card as she laid a hand over the check. “I’ve got it,” she said, and his senses were suddenly ignited. He could feel thick sunshine pouring over them, lighting up Scully’s hair like a smudge of cinnamon. Her lips looked so sweet and soft, and the very idea that he might never feel them again stole his breath. He felt dry and empty, a desiccated housefly body lying on a windowsill.

He thanked her for breakfast, and his throat was lined with dust.

Their parting was weird. Hinting that he was still available to her was an insane risk, and she turned it into a joke about Frohike. Unless she actually thought he was the one joking about Frohike, which he has to admit wouldn’t be out of character for him.

He’s tired of joking, tired of hiding, tired of dancing around his intentions. Tired of wanting and not asking, tired of being in his own damn way.

Scully has given him a graceful exit, a neatly drawn map back to their pre-sex starting point. And not for the first time, Mulder wads up the map and tosses it aside. Scully made her move; it was time for him do the same.

What that move would be, he has no idea.

It takes him eleven days. No wonder Scully took matters into her own hands the first time around. Inspiration strikes him during his drive from Alexandria to D.C. the next Thursday morning, when he crosses the Potomac and gets a glimpse of faraway blossoms.

He waits until 4:47 that afternoon to say anything.

“Hey Scully, you doing anything tonight?” he asks, rifling through a stack of papers as though he’s attending to FBI business and not trying to work up courage like a schoolboy.

Her glossy red head is bent over a file, pen at her lip. “Besides folding an obscenely large pile of laundry, my schedule seems fairly empty,” she replies. She looks up at him suspiciously. “Why, Mulder?”

“No reason, really. There’s just something I wanted to show you, get your opinion on.”

“Is it related to a case?”

He opens a desk drawer, pretending to look for something. “Well it could be a totally natural phenomenon, but who can say for certain without proper investigation?”

Scully sighs. “Fine, I’ll bite. And speaking of bites, I’m starving. If we’re going to work off the clock, can we at least eat?”

“Wanna stop for Chinese? We can take it with us. We’re not going far, the food should still be hot when we get to our secondary location.”

They take Mulder’s car, picking up several cartons of food from a restaurant in Chinatown a few blocks up from the Hoover building before making their way towards the National Mall. Mulder parks in the lot near the Washington Monument.

“You weren’t kidding when you said we weren’t going far,” Scully says, gathering up the bag of takeout. “What exactly are we looking for?”

“That,” he replies, pointing ahead.

Hundreds of cherry trees line the Tidal Basin, their leaves almost entirely obscured by tufts of blossoms. Scully steps onto the path, open-mouthed.

“Oh my god,” she murmurs.

Mulder shoves his hands in his pockets. “Pretty fantastic, huh?”

“Mulder,” she says in awe, looking sideways at him, “What are we doing here?”

He shrugs. “I just wanted to see them.”

“At night?”

“Daylight’s for tourists, Scully.”

———

They’re sitting on the damp grass, endeavoring to split the last egg roll using only their dueling pairs of chopsticks.

“This is impossible, Scully. I’m going to use my hands.”

“Then I definitely don’t want the other half,” she says.

“Are you implying something about my hygiene?”

“I’ve seen some of the places your hands have been, Mulder.”

He wiggles his eyebrows at her, and she rolls her eyes.

“Not what I meant,” she says softly. “But the point still stands.”

Mulder lays back on the lawn, his long coat fanning wide. Scully pulls an edge of it towards her, scoots closer so she can rest her pantyhose-clad calves on it instead of the grass.

“I’ve always preferred the blossoms at night,” he says. “There’s something ghostly about them, all pink and white against the dark sky. Not an ominous kind of ghostly, however; if good spirits exist, I think they’d look like these trees. You know most early European religions feature some sort of reverence for trees or forests, whether as spiritual gathering places or deities themselves-“

“Mulder.”

“Hm?”

“Are you going to eat that egg roll, or can I have it?”

He passes her the carton. “And-”

“Why did you bring me here, Mulder?”

He glances at her and is surprised to see a tenderness in her eyes. His gaze returns to the branches above.

“I just figured I owe you a nice trip to a forest, and this one won’t require any paperwork.”

Scully smiles. “That’s a very considerate choice, Mulder, especially since I’m always the one doing said paperwork.”

“You’re more succinct and readable than I am, apparently. And Skinner clearly likes you better.”

“Didn’t you punch him in the face once?”

“That’s beside the point. I think he has a bit of a crush on you, Scully.”

She rolls her eyes. “What?” Mulder asks.

“I just… it’s nothing, It’s been a long day. And it’s cold out here.”

Mulder sits up and withdraws his arms from the sleeves of his overcoat.

“No- Mulder, don’t, I’m fine.”

“Move your legs,” he instructs, pulling the edge of the coat out from under her. He stands and drapes it around her shoulders before plopping back down on the grass next to her.

“Thanks,” she says. “Still, it’s getting late.”

He glances at his watch. “It’s seven-thirty on a Thursday. You got somewhere to be?” His arm bumps her shoulder companionably. “Come on, just a little longer. Maybe we’ll see something unidentified in the sky.”

He grins at her and the corner of her mouth twitches in reply. “Well, I guess I don’t have a choice,” she sighs. “You drove us here.”

He feels a slight increase of pressure against his arm and realizes that Scully is ever so slightly leaning into him. A gentle warmth glows in his belly, and he glances sidelong at her.

I’m a lucky son of a bitch, he thinks.

“How so?” Scully asks.

Oh. He said it out loud. He clears his throat, tries to steer his thoughts back into safer waters.

“Well, for one thing, I’m not dead,” he says. “Not for lack of trying.”

Scully nods solemnly.

“I’ve seen incredible things, things people spend their whole lives looking for, hoping for, believing in. I’ve tasted proof, held the truth in my hands. And in spite of everything, I’m still here. We’re still here. That’s pretty goddamn lucky.”

“I don’t feel very lucky,” Scully says softly. “Sometimes I feel like I’ve fucked up every good thing I’ve ever had a chance at. My father certainly thought so, at least for a long time.”

They sit silently for a moment. “Without you, I’d be long dead,” Mulder admits.

“I know,” Scully replies. “I’m always awed by your resilience, actually. I can’t take all the credit for your continued survival.”

“Yeah, you can,” he says, getting to his feet and dusting stray blades of grass off his slacks. He holds out a hand and helps her to her feet. Her fingers are cool against his palm, and he wonders if she’d notice if he didn’t let go. Probably.

He wants to pull her in by the lapels of his coat, gather her to his chest, hold her for no reason other than he can. Kiss her brow, smell her hair, feel her small hands sliding under his suit jacket. He wants her just as she is, for exactly who she is.

But he’s a chickenshit, so instead he just walks beside her along the Tidal Basin, under the cherry blossoms, and doesn’t hold her hand.

They spend the five minute drive back to the Bureau in comfortable silence. Scully leans her head against the car window, and Mulder briefly wonders if she’ll fall asleep. He loves when she nods off while he’s driving; it makes him feel safe. She makes him feel safe.

He parks a few spots away from her car in the Bureau parking garage, turns off the engine. Scully gathers up her briefcase, leaving Mulder’s coat draped open on the passenger seat.

“Why are you getting out?” she asks, seeing Mulder unbuckling his seatbelt.

“I need a file from the office,” he lies. He exits the car and goes around to her side. “I’ll walk you to your door, it’s on my way.”

It’s twenty feet from her car to his. “Thank you, Mulder,” Scully says sardonically, fishing her keys out of her coat pocket. “If I weren’t armed, that would have been very thoughtful of you.”

“Don’t mention it,” he replies. He takes a step forward.

“What are you doing?” Scully asks, one hand on her car door, keys in the other.

“Nothing,” he replies quickly. “I’ll see you tomorrow.” God, she’s so small, this could so easily go wrong-

He pitches forward, bending down, and presses his lips to the fullness of her cheek. His nose brushes the soft skin under her eye and he inhales sharply, drawing back.

They blink at each other. “Bye,” Mulder offers.

Scully nods. “Yes. Goodnight.” She glances to the elevators. “Was there actually a file you needed?”

He just looks at her, and she presses her lips together in understanding. “Right. Well, I’m leaving, so… see you tomorrow then.”

Right. Despite recent events, the earth was still spinning.

Later, when he hangs his overcoat, he notices the faintest scent of her shampoo on the collar.

[jackdawyt]

Hello Thedosians, I am here today to explain 6 fan theories that must come true in the next Dragon Age instalment.

Saria and I have been researching and tinfoiling away on many popular fan theories that plenty of others have theorized as well. Please note, these are all theories, and we would love to hear your ideas in the comment section below. There is no right or wrong when it comes to speculation.

But without further ado, put those tinfoil hats on, and strap seatbelts to your ears because we're going to take them on the ride of their lives!

Theory: I believe the Blight emerged from a Blighted Titan

The origin of the blight is quite the mystery throughout Thedas with many sources having their own validation on how the blights began:

Chantry-folk talk about a Maker casting a blight onto his failed creations as a plague for punishment of man's excessive pride.

The blight was to be the tool by with the Maker would end all of creation. They preached that it came from the Void, a place of nothing. (Codex entry: Lyrium).

In Threnodies, The Chant of Light exclusively condemns the kinsman of the Tevinter Imperium for the blight's existence.

Threnodies 8.13: "The Chant says that the Maker created the blight as he cast down the seven magisters who blackened the Golden City. Twisted and corrupted, the seven found the Old God Dumat snoozing, their taint spread onto Dumat, cursing the dragon and unleashing the first blight onto Thedas."

However, Tevinter's Imperial Chantry claims that The Chant of Light is a fabrication, a lie to spite the Imperium. Henceforth, the Imperial Chantry believes that the darkspawn have always existed, even before the blights. The main culprits for the blackening of the Golden City and mankind's corruption are the lies of the Old Gods, not mortal pride.

Contradicting the chantry's tale of the blight. As history recalls, it was the Dwarven Kingdoms that were the first to fall to the darkspawn. While the Dwarves don't care for the blight's origin, or what causes it, a pair of Dwarven scouts do believe that the Darkspawn were created by a queen broodmother - the first in existence - responsible for breeding all darkspawn.

Perhaps at the very heart of our world sits a queen—the first mother. Instead of focusing on her children, we should target broodmothers and ensure that future reinforcements will never be born. Codex entry: The Eternal Battle: Darkspawn.

Even The Grey Wardens believe that the Blight is a spiritual corruption that pervades all that it touches, and that all Archdemons must be destroyed in order to stop any future Blights.

Now, According to Solas this is untrue - he indicates that killing all the Archdemons would not stop the blights, the hordes of Darkspawn would still continue to ravage Thedas. He knows that there is something much worse that's behind the blight.

So, the majority of humans in Thedas believe in either the Maker creating the blight, or the blight already existing in the Black City. While the Dwarves don't care as long as the blight can be stopped, and the Grey Wardens are adamant that the Archdemons' death will end the blights.

In short - it seems no-one in Thedas knows what caused the Blight, and those few who do dare say a word. *Stares at Solas*

However, there is something that we do know regarding the origin of the blight! The substance known as "red lyrium" is intrinsically tied to the blight, because red lyrium actually has Blight within it, spreading the taint:

"Red lyrium... it has the Blight."

—Bianca Davri

Regular lyrium is the blood of the world-shaping Titans, the substance empowers magic because it is a conductor that "bridges the gap between the dreamer’s world and the waking world." - (World of Thedas, Vol. 1).

It's used by mages to strengthen magical spells and abilities, while Templar's use it to maintain their immunity to magic, and repel spells.

However, Red Lyrium is blighted Titan blood - corrupted and distorted - carrying this plague throughout the land. Unlike regular lyrium which requires you to digest it in order for it to impact you, just being around red lyrium will significantly affect you.

The substance is most unique, it can thin the veil, allowing spirits and demons to interact with the "real" world. Prolonged exposure will change not only your mental outlook but your physical appearance too. When a templar ingests red lyrium, it improves their powers, grants them new ones and pushes their strength beyond measures.

Once consumed you can become easily become addicted. The more a Templar ingests, the more likely it is for the red lyrium to manifest - descending the subject into pure madness and crystallizing their body until it's pure red lyrium, not being recognized as having once been a human.  

What's most concerning is how Red Lyrium came to be, the mystery still alludes us today. However, we can assume that it comes from a Titan, more apropos - a blighted Titan.

Based on Codex entries, we know that in the time before the veil, the Kingdom of the Elven hunted and declared war against the Titans.

"In this place we prepare to hunt the pillars of the earth. Their workers scurry, witless, soulless. This death will be a mercy. We will make the earth blossom with their passing."

Mythal, the God of Justice, personally slew a Titan, destroying the dwarf kingdom.

"Hail Mythal, adjudicator and savior! She has struck down the pillars of the earth and rendered their demesne unto the People! Praise her name forever!" - Trespasser DLC.

With the defeat of a Titan, the Ancient Elves discovered lyrium from its body. The elves continued to fight with the Titans, mining their bodies for lyrium and "something else". Potentially, their hearts that control the will of the Fade.

"The runes say the Evanuris fought the Titans. They mined their bodies for lyrium and... something else. It's not clear." - Trespasser DLC.

Lyrium has plenty of benefits to a mage, however, if Titan's created the Fade, perhaps their heart's can change the will of the Fade and that's why the elven people needed to slay one, so they can acquire a heart and change their reality.

Believing that the Titans were slain, the elves resumed their lyrium mining operations, until something changed. The normal lyrium became red lyrium, affecting the workers at an alarming rate, nothing could stop this.

"For a moment, the scent of blood fills the air, and there is a vivid image of green vines growing and enveloping a sphere of fire. The vision grows dark. An aeon seems to pass. Then the runes crackle, as if filled with an angry energy. A new vision appears: elves collapsing caverns, sealing the Deep Roads with stone and magic. Terror, heart-pounding, ice-cold, as the last of the spells is cast. A voice whispers:"

"What the Evanuris in their greed could unleash would end us all. Let this place be forgotten. Let no one wake its anger. The People must rise before their false gods destroy them all." - Codex entry: Veilfire Runes in the Deep Roads.

The blight spread through red lyrium onto the Elven workers, killing and turning them into tainted ghouls. With their meddling, the Evanuris already knew what the Blight could do even to them and their people...

"One day Andruil grew tired of hunting mortal men and beasts. She began stalking The Forgotten Ones, wicked things that thrive in the abyss. Yet even a god should not linger there, and each time she entered the Void, Andruil suffered longer and longer periods of madness after returning." Codex entry: Elven God Andruil.

They figured out that the Titan was not really dead and since the Blight infects only living beings, they had no choice but to seal the mining place.

The Evanuris returned, using red lyrium as a weapon, becoming mad. Mythal protests and is betrayed and "slain", Solas forges a trap for the remaining Evanuris, creating the veil and sealing the tainted "gods" away. Not only did the veil's creation lock away the blighted Evanuris, but the veil was needed to prevent the Titans from waking up.

"He broke the dreams to keep the old dreams from waking."

- Cole

In some regards, Solas saved the elven kingdom by severing the connection the Titans had with their "children".

Finally, we make it to the theory: I believe that the blight originated within a Titan.

Before the veil, the Titans exacted their revenge, blighted and breaking the seals of its prison with its newly acquired slaves - the elven people. it mentally called the dwarves and made them break the seals from outside thus freeing it and in turn, it infected them with the taint and made them its slaves - a corrupted form of a hive-mind.

It planned to strike vengeance upon the Evanuris. After some time, through its newly acquired slaves, it found the prisons of the sleeping Old Gods and decided to infect them too. planning to unleash the Taint upon Thedas.

The Old Gods, slaves of the blighted Titan and the generals of its army: they command the entire Darkspawn horde and in turn, they are commanded by the Titan to do its bidding.

Whether the blight came from the Titans like a defensive mechanism, or a plague to defend itself from hostile forces, or if the ancient elves/forbidden ones concocted the blight by using blood magic on a slain Titan. It's still unknown.

The blight could be a natural infection. Red lyrium might just be Titan cancer, a piece of their biology mutating mid-life and turning into something destructive and dangerous. That's why the blight has so many Titan properties. It has a Hive-Mind because Titans have Hive-Minds. It Sings, because Titans Sing.

With the veil in place, the Titans returned to a remorseful slumber. Angry because they can't reconnect with their children, awaiting the chance to embrace them once more. This yearning anger has manifested throughout the years with the growth of red lyrium, and the blight's progress.

The Titans have a strong connection to The Fade, or at least an association with it. When the Magisters used blood magic to physically cross the Veil and enter the Black City, the reestablished connection between the physical world and the dreaming Fade unleashed the blight again.

With the veil's destruction, surely a blight the likes of which have never been seen would be released onto Thedas. The Titan's pain will be heard by all.

We are here

We have waited

We have slept

We are sundered

We are crippled

We are polluted

We endure

We wait

We have found the dreams again

We will awaken - Whispers Written in Red Lyrium.

__________________________________________________________

Theory: I believe Solas is a Spirit of Wisdom/Pride in the time of Arlathan

Let's start at the beginning. His name:

Solas - In elven, means: 'Pride’

Pride is mentioned a lot in ancient elven texts, and it's used in the common dialogue of ancient elven tongue. But the only time Pride is mentioned throughout the knowledge of spirits and demons, Pride is represented as a demon.

Pride Demons are known as probably the most powerful demons out there.

"because they, among all their kind, most resemble men; as clever and manipulative as the desire demon, with a penchant for cruel irony that is almost human"  -Beyond the Veil: Spirits & Demons.

In it's corrupted form, it's a malicious beast, known for it's 7 eyes. Much like the Dread Wolf’s depiction in it’s given mural…

Now there's a lot of spirits we have met in the Fade throughout Thedas, in this case, Wisdom Spirits are known for giving knowledge. Knowledge of either lore or history from the past ages.

The thing about a spirit’s nature is that it's evident who they are, and what their name describes them as, so it's easy to interpret their purpose. Cole as Compassion fixes up relationships, mourning those of the dead, and help resolve hard situations in which is hard without the need of Compassion.

The hard thing to notice is that if a Pride Demon resembles so much of humanity, and Wisdom is the opposite spectrum of Pride. Wisdom would also resemble this trait, of being human. Making Solas that much easier to tie into our reality.

"Wisdom and Purpose are too easily twisted into Pride and Desire" -Solas

The Chant of Light, says, the Spirits are the first children of the Maker. He turned his back on them because they lacked a soul – they could twist the Fade to their liking, but lacked the ability to imagine and create, and thus emulate their creator.

The only entity we can come across in ancient elvehn would be Elgar'nan,

‘Elgar’ translated in elvhen means "spirit"

‘nan’ translated means "revenge, or vengeance"

So it directly translates as ‘Spirit of Revenge/Vengeance’, whom Elgar’nan’s purpose as a God is as well...

Thus, the Evanuris could all be implemented as spirits first and came into existence to a body…

The Fade began as an "ocean of dreams" and was reduced to a well when the Maker used its "emerald waters", lyrium. He "took from the Fade a measure of its living flesh" and created men.

"They made bodies from the earth. And the earth was afraid. It fought back. But they made it forget ." — Cole

Solas begins to tell the Inquisitor that the Evanuris were remembered as Gods due to war against someone else. Either the Forgotten Ones or the Titans, it doesn't seem to matter when the result seems to resonate in Solas much more than we would expect...

I believe that when Mythal came to seek Solas for more wisdom when he was a spirit. She actually needed him for this war. What I mean is that he would now become seated as a left-hand man to Mythal - a general to help the People into the justice needed for their power.

Solas; probably being convinced, for the time being, comes into a body:

He did not want a body. But she asked him to come. — Cole

He becomes a guardian to her side, a servant of Mythal. Mythal describes those into her service more of a gift than a boon. So those who felt convinced for seeking knowledge or power must have been willing to be at her side just like Solas was.

“You didn’t do it to be right, you did it to save them.”

Solas, what is Cole talking about?

A mistake… One of many made by a much younger elf who thought he knew everything…”

Solas, as a Wisdom spirit had no desire to enter this world with a body, (such as limiting things), but for whatever reason 'she' asked him to come, she being Mythal.

‘He wants to give wisdom not orders. He isn’t that kind of wolf’ — Cole

Solas loathes his purpose. He’s Pride, but he hates it, he wants to change, wants to be Wisdom, but that’s not his purpose at this moment….

He envies Cole’s purpose as a spirit of Compassion:

‘You don’t have to envy me Solas.’ — Cole

He is sad to see his friends depart this world, knowing things are being forgotten, broken, and lost. He will endure, and he will be their Pride.

__________________________________________________________

Theory: The Griffons Are Alive, And The Wardens Know It

The Weisshaupt conspiracy:

Fortress Weisshaupt has stood through the ages as the Grey Warden’s headquarters, it is located in the southern Anderfels. During the height of the Wardens' power, the fortress was a thriving place, accommodated thousands of Wardens and a large stable of griffons.

Griffons are heroic winged beasts that joined the fights with their Grey Warden counterparts in the previous blights, as warden and beast shared an unbreakable bond throughout Weisshaupt's history.

Each of the defeated Old God’s remains are memorialized in Weisshaupt’s treasury, declaring the grand victory that the previous wardens had claimed in the name of the group.

The castle is a reflection of everything the Wardens have stood for, throughout the ages. However, in the current Dragon Age, Weisshaupt has become a barren place with a garrison of only a few hundred, the griffons are long extinct, and the reigning First Warden is rarely present.

The Grey Wardens have become irrelevant in the current age with the last blight that occurred over 10 years ago. In actuality, the Wardens have become a hindering, reckless group. During the crisis of Corypheus’s ascension to Godhood, the Orlais Grey Wardens submitted themselves to Tevinter, so they could defeat the two remaining Old God and “end the blights” once and for all.

Once Thedas’s only protectors, and now blinded by their own cause. The Wardens couldn’t even see the real enemy in front of them. And since those events, the group has become even more corrupt with rumours reporting on broken ties between the leaders at Weisshaupt, and how a civil war awaits each of them.

“Rumors abound that they severed ties with their leaders at Weisshaupt, and that a bitter war now rages between them.”

“What becomes of Hawke/Loghain/Stroud/Alistair is unknown – save that all news out of Weisshaupt soon ends.”

“Does the sudden silence indicate a battle within... or something far worse?”

Morrigan, Epilogue

Weisshaupt fortress remains silent, having gone dark from the rest of the group, but why? What caused the Wardens to stop communicating with each other? Was it merely to stop the corruption of the group from spreading, or is something even more aloof?

Have the Wardens finally met their own demise? Has each brother fought their sister? What has truly become of the Weisshaupt Wardens?

Well, perhaps it’s not as suspect as everyone in Thedas is making it out to be. The Wardens have always been a highly suspect group with many secrets, most of the general public don’t understand the Joining, there are plenty of things that the Wardens keep hidden from the average Thedosian.

So, what exactly could the Wardens of Weisshaupt be harbouring, that would force them to isolate themselves from the rest of the group?

Well, in 9:41 Dragon, several Warden-Recruits are assigned to Weisshaupt and begin a research project into records from the Fourth Blight. While there, one of the recruits discovers the diary of Isseya, a Grey Warden from the Exalted Age which reveals that there is a clutch of live Griffons hidden in the Anderfels. The new Wardens successfully rescue the griffons and resolve to return them to Weisshaupt where they will have the facilities to help the griffons re-establish themselves.

Valya; one of the recruits who found the griffon clutch, shows hesitancy at informing the wardens of her discovery. Valya says of the First Warden, Chamberlain of the Grey and High Constable:

"I don't trust them to place the griffons' well-being over power or politics." (pg 280).

Could the Wardens of Weisshaupt be fighting over what is to come for these griffons? Who controls them? How they will be raised? What will their purpose be?

The sheer existence and resurgence of Griffons in the Dragon Age could have caused the need for a sudden silence across the group, if the people of Thedas knew this secret, it could be dramatic.

And with the corrupted Wardens in the South, it may not be in Weisshaupt’s best interest to share this information with the rest of the Wardens for fear of this secret being revealed.

Perhaps this has caused a rebellion inside the Fortress, splitting the group’s leaders over the future of these griffons, and if the people of Thedas deserve to know. With factions within the Grey Wardens both agreeing and disagreeing with sharing this news to the rest of the Wardens.

A civil war brews in the Wardens HQ, will what’s left of the Griffons preserve in this Age? Or will the ignorance of the Wardens once more be an obstacle for the existence of these beasts?

Can the Warden’s rise up to their former glory? Or will they soon meet their demise? As it stands, Weisshaupt remains in the dark, the Wardens are waring amongst themselves, while the fabled Griffons return to the Dragon Age.

__________________________________________________________

Theory: I believe the Evanuris will return once the Veil is torn.

Solas' plan involves tearing down the Veil and restoring the 'time of the elves'. It is stated that when the Veil is torn, the Evanuris will return. But why does that not bode well?

'They were fickle, they amassed wars against one another' — Solas

The Evanuris are known to be power-hungry tyrants that used the bidding of their slaves for power. The more power they received, the more the threat they posed against the world.

'Had I not created the Veil, the Evanuris would have destroyed the entire world' — Solas

It is stated that Falon'Din began wars to amass more slaves, and filled lakes as wide as oceans for those who wouldn't bow low to his shadow.

Andruil, made armors of the Void, hunting the Forgotten Ones in the thrill of the hunt. And brought back plagues and speaking about madness, things forgotten.

‘One day Andruil grew tired of hunting mortal men and beasts. She began stalking The Forgotten Ones, wicked things that thrive in the abyss. Yet even a god should not linger there, and each time she entered the Void, Andruil suffered longer and longer periods of madness after returning.

Andruil put on armor made of the Void, and all forgot her true face. She made weapons of darkness, and plague ate her lands. She howled things meant to be forgotten, and the other gods became fearful Andruil would hunt them in turn.’  — Translated from ancient elven found in the Arbor Wilds, source unverified.

Ghilan'nain made monstrous beasts that threatened both the skies of the heavens and the depths of the earth. Even rumored to have used the body of slaves and animals as armor.

Elgar'nan cast down the sun unto the earth, seeping the life's blood onto the land. Eidolons were made by thousands of slaves built upon mountains, screaming his worship upon the lands.

'You said that the Elvhen Gods went too far. What did they do they made you move against them?' — Inquisitor

'They killed Mythal' — Solas

The Evanuris plotted out the kill the All-Mother of the Pantheon. They were crazed by reaching for ultimate power, by killing even their own kin to do so.

“She cared for her people, she protected them, she was a voice of reason, and in their lust for power, they killed her” — Solas

The Evanuris warred against one another commonly, this civil war began first with them being generals against the Forbidden and Forgotten Ones.

'Long ago, there were two clans of gods, the Creators, who looked after the people, the Forgotten Ones preyed upon us' - Merrill

'After the war ended, they became respected elders, then kings, and finally Gods, the Evanuris.' — Solas

They banished those of that kin and were rose up into godhood for their power. Sent them to belong in the Abyss, and thrive on things forgotten to somehow bring their People into glory. However, that did not last, slaves represented power in the Pantheon.

Such power was not given freely, all were threatened by each of their knowledge and striked against one another to become divine. When Mythal became a voice of reason to protect her own People, they killed her and began planning to gain power against all who opposed them, making them almost unstoppable.

Solas then began a plan to stop this once and for all:

'Fen'Harel was clever. He went to each side and told them the other had forged a terrible weapon, a blade that would end the war.' — Merrill

Solas trapped both the Gods, by putting them in their respectful places, banishing them to an eternity of torment.

'He sealed them both in their realms forever.' — Merrill

'And when they went too far, I formed the Veil and banished them forever' — Solas

'You banished the false Gods, you didn't kill them?' — Inquisitor

Solas then created the Veil to trap the false gods into their respective prisons.

'Hiding, hurting, and to wake them.' — Cole

The Evanuris were now trapped from destroying the world, Solas begins to state that he finally freed the elvhen people, but their results ended in destroying their world as well...

But there are still some remnants of being alive to return once again:

“You meet Mythal did you not? The first of my People do not die so easily” — Solas

Since the Evanuris will return, I believe their remnants must already grasp some remains of beings of Thedas. Just as similar as to when the Breach stirred the Titan, the Evanuris could be having the same effect as well.

"There are no gods. There is only the subject and the object, the actor and the acted upon. Those with will to earn dominance over others gain title not by nature but by deed."

"Let Andruil's bow crack, let June's fire grow cold. Let them build temples and lure the faithful with promises. Their pride will consume them, and I, forgotten, will claim power of my own, apart from them until I strike in mastery." —  Codex entry: Geldauran's Claim

__________________________________________________________

Theory: I believe the Dread Wolf will Rise.

'When He rises, everyone will see' — Sandal

It is already claimed in the teaser trailer that the Dread Wolf will rise. Solas, the next antagonist will rise up against his opposers in the next instalment.

However, the Dread Wolf rising doesn't have to be him doing so physically, but rather, rising up to take responsibility in ending our Veil-like world to restore his elvhen People.

'I will save the elvhen people, even if this world may die' — Solas

Particularly, what will Solas 'rise up' to do when ending our world? The mural we saw looks as if the Dread Wolf is rising much higher above the elvhen bald-figure, and poses as a threat with its red eyes. Could Solas be looking for a source of power to rise against the Veil?

'The shadows will part, and the skies will open wide.' — Sandal

'I would've entered the Fade using the mark you now bear, then I would have torn down the Veil. As this world burned in the raw-chaos, I would've restored the world of my time, the world of the elves. ' — Solas

At the beginning of the Inquisition, Solas kept at a nearby village to retrieve the Orb that carried power over a period of time for millennia. Solas' plan was to retrieve the Orb after Corypheus had died unlocking it, and then have the mark which the Inquisitor bears.

His plan the whole time for this world, was to destroy it and revive the world of his time with the elvhen and also the evil Evanuris.  He gave the orb to Corypheus so it could gain enough power to tear down the Veil, which is what he wanted all along. He would have risen up to power and created a plan to destroy the Evanuris before they got their chances of gaining ultimate power.

I believe not only his first personal plan involves him rising up to power against the Pantheon. But that he also 'rose' from a slumber he took. Solas now has awoken to a Tranquil-like world, and will begin his journey to go against the forces of this world. Seeking help where he can reach with spirits and the elvhen, and then opening the Veil in the sky and render the Fade into the Waking world as one.

'I was too weak to unlock it after my slumber' — Solas

He seemed quite sad when the orb broke after all the orb was key to opening eluvians and the Fade.

After defeating Corypheus, Solas’s last chance after the Orb broke was to reach out to Mythal and gain enough power to tear down the Veil. He takes the remnants she bestows to him, and he begins his journey to rise up against the Veil. He starts by taking over control of the eluvians, unleashing spirits to fight against the Qunari threat.

Solas isn't messing around this time, he finally has some amount of power to break the Veil and restore a world before it becomes bad. But how will he rise?

Thedas knows very little of the Dread Wolf, known as a treacherous, merciless, figure that is heavily feared in Dalish tales, the Evanuris fear it too.

'The pages of this book-memory?- warn of a terrible danger, a wolf with slavering black jaws and pits for eyes. The Evanuris-the elven gods-stand in a ring around it, as if preventing it from attacking.

"Beware the forms of Fen'Harel The Dread Wolf comes in humble guises, a wanderer who knows much of the People and their spirits. He will offer advice that seems fair, but turns slowly to poison. Remember the price of treason, and keep in your heart the mercy of your gods."'

— Note: The Treachery of the Wolf

This depiction of Solas having pits for eyes, and slavering black jaws, they warn those of the terrible danger coming. Wherever the Evanrus are hiding, they are surrounding this Dread Wolf to prevent any attacks. What could be speculated is the factor that Solas and the Dread Wolf could be different aspects of each other, like Corypheus puts an aspect in his Red Lyrium Dragon. This, could be closer to a red lyrium wolf.

What if, as described in the codex, Solas is going to finally reach the place were the Evanuris are hiding, use this aspect of himself, the Dread Wolf, to rip open the Veil?

However, the Veil is to be known recently to be weaker than it has ever been since the Breach:

The Tevinters once theorised that the Veil is thin in places that have seen great bloodshed. — Codex entry: Tears in the Veil

Demons seize every opportunity, every tear in the Veil, to enter our world. The Breach is living proof of the chaos it can unleash. In Hushed Whispers was living proof of how the world can become...

But it is theorized that the Veil tends to be weaker in places that feature, or have experienced, extensive death or use of magic.

‘Small tears occur naturally when magic weakens the Veil or when Spirits cluster at an area that has seen many deaths’ — Solas

The tear occurs because spirits are attracted to death and they press against the Veil. The Veil is particularly thin at night when most people sleep and spirits are most active. The use of blood magic can allow the Veil to be torn so that demons may physically pass through it into the waking world.

Once the Veil is torn in places, it is extremely difficult to mend, and some might even say impossible. "Mending" these Tears, i.e. strengthening the Veil, is extremely difficult. Depending on the level of damage done to the Veil, it can be closed through several methods ei. The Anchor.

One place that is particularly known to have the Veil thinner, is Kirkwall. A lot of chaos was constantly influenced upon that city, and that is ultimately where we first located Red Lyrium as well…

It is well known that the Veil is thin in Kirkwall, small wonder given the suffering in the city. But we've discovered the magisters were deliberately thinning it even further. Beneath the city, demons can contact even normal men. Did they seek the Black City to compound the madness of their previous efforts? Or was it something else? We've found a chamber where the Veil is at its thinnest, long-since looted, but the power is still there. — Band of Three,  The Enigma of Kirkwall

What is known is that places around Thedas where deaths/chaos have occurred more than frequently are now further weakening the Veil. For Solas, that only means an easy key to breaking the barrier that separates the Fade from the Waking World.

“You’d murder countless people?” — The Inquisitor

‘Wouldn’t you to save your own?’ — Solas

The sky may have never healed ever since the Inquisitor sealed the breach, which may prove worthy for Solas’s plan to destroy the veil. His execution to tearing down the Veil might work once and for all.

And the sky is healed. Healthy, whole, there’s just that left to remember.. - Cole.

A new dawn is appearing, the dawn is coming upon Thedas.

‘One day the magic will come back - all of it. Everyone will be just like they were.’ — Sandal

Solas will rise as the Dread wolf to take the Veil down, and whether his plans are fully executed, could be the end of our time…

‘We aren’t even people to you?’ — Inquisitor

‘Not at first, you showed me I was wrong, you were people and you deserved better. Like all the rest I used after one hopeless battle after another.’ — Solas

__________________________________________________________

Theory: I believe that Mythal is the true Antagonist of Dragon Age.

'For a reckoning that will shake the very heavens. She was betrayed, as I was betrayed, as the world was betrayed! Mythal clawed and crawled through the ages to me, and I will see her avenged!' — Flemeth/Mythal

All Mother, all Protector, a voice of reason, who calmed Elgar'nan's rage, has been betrayed by her own kin. She is the Goddess of Justice and is due for her bidding.

In Ancient times of Arlathan, Mythal, born out of a sea of the Earth's tears.

"In most stories, Mythal rights wrongs while exercising motherly kindness." — Morrigan

She was the aducator of her Elvhen People. Making sure threats were kept at bay, and opposers stuck down for justice.

“Let fly your voice to Mythal. Deliverer of justice. Protector of sun and earth alike.

Pray to Mythal and she would smite your enemies, leaving them in agony" — Morrigan

Mythal was a speaker for all people and even the Evanuris, yet her actions were recorded to be sinister like the rest of the Evanuris:

'Other paint her as dark, vengeful.' — Morrigan

Being more than the other Evanuris gave Mythal an edge, a way to take any of them on and win. hence her dark side being interpreted in tales. She demonstrates this ability in confrontation with Andruil.

So Mythal spread rumors of a monstrous creature and took the form of a great serpent, waiting for Andruil at the base of a mountain.

When Andruil came, Mythal sprang on the hunter. They fought for three days and nights, Andruil slashing deep gouges in the serpent's hide. But Mythal's magic sapped Andruil's strength and stole her knowledge of how to find the Void. After this, the great hunter could never make her way back to the abyss, and peace returned.

— Translated from ancient elven found in the Arbor Wilds, source unverified.

This also makes her nigh impossible to defeat, but she has one glaring weakness: her desire to protect the People. In the time of Arlathan, Titans were threatening the Elvhen, and Mythal sought out the Titan to stop the chaos of their lands.

"Hail Mythal, adjudicator and savior! She has struck down the pillars of the earth and rendered their demesne unto the People! Praise her name forever!"

—  Codex entry: Veilfire Runes in the Deep Roads

So, when the People kill their first Titan, and in the process unleash the Blight:

'The vision grows dark. An aeon seems to pass. Then the runes crackle as if filled with angry energy.

A new vision appears: elves collapsing caverns, sealing the Deep Roads with stone and magic.

Terror, heart-pounding, ice-cold, as the last of the spells, is cast.'

—  Codex entry: Veilfire Runes in the Deep Roads

Mythal, having a closer association with the Land (the Stone, the Titans) knows exactly what has happened and sacrifices herself to keep the Taint at bay. She splits herself into aspects and buries them as a magical seal against the Taint, replacing the lost Titan. One aspect she keeps on the surface world, to remain among the People. This sacrifice made her vulnerable and the other Evanuris did not hesitate to strike.

'they killed Mythal, a crime for which an eternity of torment is the only fitting punishment.' — Solas

Then Solas moves against the Evanuris, creating the Veil and banishing them into their respective prisons until the bidding of Mythal comes. In which, she has put herself into aspects that effect chaos throughout the lands, buying time for power, until she becomes one again. It awakens and takes form when an uncorrupted piece of Mythal is found by a Tainted priest, their form becoming malicious and broken, until an effective ritual to retrieve the soul uncorrupted...

Flemeth, as we know now to be Mythal, has been manipulating the Ages ever since, she enforces the effective immortality unto her bodies of her daughter to live an abnormal life to endure the ages, all the while.

'Seeking the Justice denied to her' — Flemeth

Mythal has been quite busy after her death when Solas created the Veil, it seems that

'Mythal still endures' — Solas

Solas is now enforcing her plan, it seems to pain him that his mistakes cause further action to take place with Flemeth.

'I am so sorry' — Solas, Epilogue

Solas respects Mythal. He once sealed away the Thedosian versions of heaven and hell and shook the world to its foundations in order to avenge her murder. Now, his own mistake—getting the Orb to Corypheus—means that he himself will now have to take her life and do her bidding.

She plans to seek revenge for the Evanuris, she does not care for the Veil-like world, she believes it was a last-minute effort against an enemy, she seeks to bring all into the new Age, where she rules, the Dragon Age.

'A soul is not forced upon the unwilling, Morrigan, you were never in danger from me.' — Flemeth

[my-brothers-corrupted]

My Brothers, Corrupted

Chapter 2 : Section 8 : Thievery

Anti has, at last, brought Blue to the place where he always meant to bring him. He isn’t sure, anymore, if Blue will even survive the spell he plans to cast, but it doesn’t seem to matter to him. Meanwhile, their enemies surround and find them. Final section of the chapter.

Trigger warnings for major abuse, fire, blood and cutting, dog bites, violent attack on a character while they struggle, and violent battle, including deaths and some gore.

Find Chapter One here.

Find Chapter Two here.

 Section Eight of Chapter Two: Thievery

Anonymous asked: If you don’t treat Blue’s wounds, they could get infected.

“This place is beautiful,” he whispers.

Trick looks up.

It is the first Doktor has spoken in hours, and the first time Trick has lifted his head up from hiding in his shoulder in just as long a time.

The car comes to a stop in thick, uncut grass, swaying like scratchy curtains around the tires. Trick glances at Anti, gripping and ungripping the wheel of the car, and then out the window.

The sun is falling down, slow, slow, coating the earth in a syrupy red and orange paint. White wisps of young clouds drift not far overhead, pressed on by a warm, quiet twilight wind.

Before them, a great swollen river sings its soft and gentle way through heavy, tropical frond trees, cutting through the beachy sand of the earth.

“Do you feel that?” asks Anti, in a voice softer than the murmur of the river.

“Do… do I feel what, Anti?” asks Trick.

Anti does not answer, staring out at the river. Trick glances to his side at a faint wheezing noise and finds Dapper heaving quietly for air, his eyes blown wide and his thin form a-tremble.

“Anti?” whimpers Trick. “I think something’s wrong with Dapper!”

Anti hums, unbuckling his seatbelt. “He can feel it,” he says. “He can feel it. Come on, let’s go. Red, get up.”

Red yelps as the hand connects with his ear and rouses himself immediately, tearing off his seatbelt and trying to leap out of the car, only to be yanked back by his hand still cuffed to Dapper’s. Dapper groans out a warning noise, managing to bare his teeth at Red before sinking back into silent rocking, clutching his bear to his chest like a baby. Noodle mewls.

“Can we be uncuffed, please?” Red asks. “We’re sorry we disobeyed.”

“No. It’s not punishment, Red, it’s to keep you together. You’re watching over Dap until we are gone from this place. If any harm comes to him, it’s on you. You are not to be separated from him. Do you understand?”

Red swallows, glancing back at his little brother, dead to the world behind him. “Yes, Anti, of course.”

“Good. Dok, Trick, let’s go. We’re running out of time.” Anti extracts his backpack from the car and pulls out the stolen leather tome for which Red shed blood, tucking it under his arm. “They’re close now, and I don’t know how many they’ll bring. We have to be fast.”

“Anti, maybe they’re right,” coughs Dok, reading the message. “Blue’s body is unwell. If you would just let me - ”

“No time now,” says Anti, coming around the car to help get Dapper out. “No time now. Come on, I want to hide you.”

pixie-in-trebleland asked: Dok, as much as I agree with you, I think you all are going to be safer listening to Anti for now.

Doktor glances at you and swallows as he nods, getting up - ah, fuck, he’s so sore, but it’s not like he was about to move with Trick halfway on his lap and scared out of his mind. He helps his twin jump down from the car and into the thick, itchy grass, accepting a hand to help him get out afterwards.

“Oh, it’s hot as hell,” groans Trick, fanning himself and slapping at mosquitoes.

“Don’t roll up your pants, there might be ticks,” Dok warns. “Can we get the water out of the back, Anti?”

“Hm? Oh, sure. Just a second, let me - ”

And Blue’s body crumples to the ground with a glitch that makes the front of the car start to smoke. Anti reappears beside him, wiping his halfway-corporeal hands on his halfway-corporeal pants.

“Ready to try something fun?” Anti mocks him, shoving Blue back down into the grass when he tries to rise. “Red, get your fucking idiot twin down to the beach. Now.”

Dapper is clutching his bear to his stomach, halfway curled in on himself.

“I can feel everything,” complain his hands. “I can feel birds coming towards us!”

He covers his face with his fingers, afraid of having his eyes plucked out.

Anonymous asked: Dapper, Red, are you two alright?

“We are great,” pants Red, his voice too high-pitched and shaking like a motorcycle engine, frantically enthusiastic. “Aren’t we, Dapper?”

Dapper growls when Red turns to look at him, trying to back away, but the handcuffs keep them close.

“Okay, okay,” laughs Red, clutching at his hair. “Everything’s fine!”

He hears Anti tell him to get Blue to his feet and hurries towards his twin, dragging Dapper along behind him, still growling and hiding his eyes from the birds.

“Here, Blue, it’s okay, it’s okay.” Red reaches down to grab Blue’s shoulders, pulling him heavily to his feet. “We’re fine, we’re fine. Let’s go down to the beach like Anti said, okay?”

“Ro,” croaks Blue, clutching dizzily at his shirt. “Ow, ow!”

“What’s wrong?”

Blue spits out bile and crashes into his chest, struggling to breathe. “I’m burned, I’m burned!” he croaks frantically, pulling at the black shirt Anti put on him. “I’m fucking black and red! My h-hands are ruined! What happened, what’s happening? Dok, help me, help me!”

“Sh, sh, please, please.” Red tries desperately to quiet him. “Stop, stop, sh, Anti will punish you! You don’t want that! Come here, come here, let’s go down to the beach.”

badlypostedeverything asked: Blue, just go along with what your brothers tell you to do for now, Anti seems to be in a bad mood and you don't want to be even more hurt or punished

“What did he do to me?” weeps Blue, trying to tug back against Red, who only increases his determination to pull him down to the beach. “Wh-why did nobody come to help us? What’s wrong with Dapper? Baby, look at me, look at big brother, it’s okay, sweetie, what’s so scary?”

But Dapper will not let himself be touched or approached, yanking back on the handcuffs, his teeth out and ready to bite again.

“Blue, listen to them!” cries Red, a crooked smile imprinted on his mouth, shaking his twin by the shoulders. “We’ve just gotta go along with it for now! Anti says as soon as this is done, everything will be okay again and he’ll have fixed our mistake! Tomorrow we’ll be all safe and okay again! We just have to do what we’re told!”

“No, no, Red, p-please - ”

“Blue!” screams Red, shaking him again, harder. “Are you listening to me?”

“Okay, okay,” whimpers Blue, grabbing at his arms. “Okay, please just make this stop!”

“There’s my twin,” pants Red, clutching his arms too tight. “There’s my twin. Here, come on, I’ll carry you if I have to. Here we go. We can dip our feet in the river. Doesn’t it look cool?”

Blue cries and clutches at the dogtags around his twin’s throat for comfort, rubbing the word “Rojo” beneath his fingers. “Okay, Ro, okay, okay…”

Anonymous asked: "Yeah.. I don't think so. I could tell something wasn't right while I wasn't checking in. Guess I was right. Just know, /pal/, if you fuck up one more time, /I/ will start casting some spells, and you won't know what'll hit you. (Hold on, other me. Hold on for a little while longer. You did great. You did perfect. I want to help you.)" -PF!M

“Hold on, hold on,” whispers Blue, following Red down to the beach. He tries to reach for Dapper again, but his little brother doesn’t even seem to be registering that he’s there anymore, hiding his face in his bear’s alpaca fur between signs about magic and birds. “Hold on for a little while longer. I c-can do that. I can do that. Where are we? I don’t understand. I’ve never felt magic this strong. What is this place?”

cest-mellow asked: blue antis going to try and take the rest of your magic away

Blue lets out a weak laugh. “T-take my magic? That’s not something you can do. That’s a part of my soul. That’s how I am. In the world, that’s how I… be in the world. Not something that can be taken from me. Definitely not by Anti. Anti is a magical being, not a magician. How’s he going to cast something like that? How would he learn black magic like that?”

Blue touches his mouth, staring around him. “Then again… if big spells were going to be cast, this would be the place to do it. Some horribly strong magic on this river. In this place.”

bupine asked: blue, anti stole a book from genesis, the woman dapper was torturing, and that has TONS of black magic in it. who fuckin knows what shit anti picked up from that

Blue stares at you for a long moment.

Then he turns to Red.

“Red,” he says, shaking. “Red, I think Anti’s going to kill me.”

“Anti’s not going to kill you,” sighs Red, relaxing now that they sit on the beach. “He told me he could make you stop giving off that magical signal.”

“Sure, by stripping it out of me! Red - ”

“Then let him strip it out of you, Blue! All it’s done is hurt you! Your hands tearing themselves apart, setting shit on fire and making plants explode out of the ground, drawing those people to us!”

Blue’s eyes water up. “I thought you wanted someone to help us.”

“Well, nobody fucking came, did they, Azul?”

Red turns his back on him, staring out at the river, breathing hard.

“Even if they could… there’s only ever punishment for trying to get away. I have to stay with Anti. I have to be good.”

“Red,” tries Blue again. “Ro - ”

“Red,” calls Anti, stepping down the beach towards them. “I want you to take your little brother and hide. Don’t let him get hurt. Anybody tries to take him away from you, you kill them.”

He reaches into his backpack and pulls out a thick, shining machete. He tosses it through the air and Red startles, barely catching it instead of getting cut.

“There you go, stupid boy. Take Dapper to the trees and stay out of sight, no matter what. No matter what, you stay out of sight.”

“Yes, Anti.”

Red gets to his feet, adjusting his backpack over his shoulder and reaching out to snatch Dapper’s hand, ignoring his growling and tugging away.

“Red?” calls Blue, trying to grab his sleeve. “Red?”

“Be good, Blue.”

“Red - Jackie - I’m afraid, please - ”

“Be good, Blue.” Red pauses for just a second to look back at him, panting on the shore of that river, his hair burned, his skin reddened, his eyes wide and full of tears.

“I’ll see you soon.”

And Blue, clutching at a great dark burn over his heart, can’t seem to find the strength to do anything other than watch him walk away.

pixie-in-trebleland asked: ...Dap? I think Blue is in some serious danger.

Dapper stares around him as Red tugs him deeper and deeper into the forest, trying to tuck his bear into his little drawstring bag and get out his fine knife instead.

“I can feel birds coming,” he tries to tell Red, reaching for his sleeve. “There are birds all around. There are birds coming from the North and the South. There are ravens and condors and they all smell like magic. Red? Red? I think we’re all in some serious danger. I think someone is coming. I think Blue will be hurt. I think - I think - ”

For a moment, a flash of silver in his eyes, but you can see it flicker and fade away, and Red pulls him back, back, back into the forest, until even you have lost track of where they are, murmuring reassurances to the only little brother he can protect at all now.

Anonymous asked: "Just say the word and I can be there to help. Don't let them see you react to this. Stay quiet. If you realize something bad is about to happen, call for help. I promise, I will be there. Not long now, friend. Keep holding on." -PF!M

“Oh, shut the hell up,” scowls Anti, scooping the camera off the rocky beach. “You’re not coming. You’re not doing anything. No one is.”

Blue is panting beside him, staring up at him from behind that mask, his blue eyes wide. “Anti… listen, I - ”

“You’ve already said all you’re getting the chance to say,” snaps Anti. “So you remembered yourself, huh? You woke up and remembered everything? And right away, decided to betray me?”

“No,” cries Blue. “I - remembered? No, no, I just - I was tired, Anti, I wanted Red to stop hitting us, I never meant to sell you out, I just - ”

“You’re a fucking liar!” screams Anti, grabbing him by the collar of his shirt. “You remembered you used to be one of those Lapwing magicians and you called your little friends thinking they could kill me, right? Isn’t that just magnificent? Well, I got news for you, Blue - nobody’s going to be here in time to save you.”

He turns back to the car. “Trick! Dok! Come down here and help me.”

Anonymous asked: Okay, Mr. I-read-exactly-one-book-about-magic, do you even realize what you might be risking here? That maybe blue and his magic can't and shouldn't be separated?

“I was biding my time. Waiting to read everything, and thoroughly, thoroughly, to make sure that he would be safe, because I take care of my own. But then Blue just had to go and rat me out.”

Anti tugs Blue to his feet, something like anguish flashing through his face.

“Little traitor! You sold me out. Now I know you can’t be trusted with your magic. Either I strip it out of your chest, or you will use it to tear my family away from me!”

Anti hauls him forward and Blue lets out a small shriek as he is dragged into the river.

“Now it doesn’t matter what happens to you, coward deer of a boy.”

abirbable asked: Dap, you need to try and get ahold of yourself! Anti’s about to hurt Marvin really badly! Red says he’s trying to protect you, but you can’t trust him right now!

“Well, thanks,” snaps Red, trying to get Dapper to sit down with him underneath a thick copse of trees and behind a rock. “You’re all really fucking helpful tonight, aren’t you? Dap, stop, please!”

Dapper is thrashing on his handcuff, snapping at Red like a really pissed off corgi that can’t quite get off its chain.

“This is who you’re trying to rally to arms?” Red shouts at you, trying to stop Dapper from hurting himself. His wrist is already blue beneath the handcuffs. “He’s having a psychotic episode and you’re asking him to go attack his family! Blue will be fine, Anti told me he would make sure everything’s okay! Dap, please, please, oh, fuck, don’t hit your head like that, come here, bud, come here - there’s no birds coming, little man, please stop saying that - ”

Anonymous asked: what’s wrong with you, Red? Why are you now giving up? For the love of god don’t you dare leave Marvin alone to die by a thing that just told you to beat your little brother up, the whole reason you’re in this mess in the first place! Don’t you dare turn your back Jackie! Don’t do it!

Red closes his eyes tight and turns away from you, trying to hold Dapper against his chest, praying he’ll tire himself out again soon.

“I have to be good,” he breathes, pinning down Dapper’s wrists, avoiding his gnashing teeth. “I can be good, I can be good, I can be good. Everything will be fine tomorrow. Everything will be fine tomorrow.”

He rocks himself and Dapper beneath the trees, trying to ignore his little brother’s groans and frantic singing, by now incomprehensibly disorganized.

pixie-in-trebleland asked: Dok? We aren't going to be able to get through Trick for now, but Blue is in grave danger. You need to help him!

Trick pads down towards the beach with his backpack on his shoulder, a gun across his back, and a kitten in his arms, hurrying to Anti’s side. Doktor takes off his coat, far too hot in this part of the world, and takes his own backpack out of the car, frowning over at the camera still stuck on the window.

“What’s got you so worked up? I can get Blue something if he needs it, but I don’t know exactly what you want from me. I think we’re going as soon as Anti finishes some spell to help Blue control his magic so we don’t get chased down like this again. I think - ”

He pauses, blinking back towards the road they came down on. Are there other cars coming? He could swear he hears engines.

Anonymous asked: Dok, Anti might kill Blue. Please you have to stop him, anything. Red is being an idiot and Dapper is stuck with him trying to get away to help. Please Dok, Henrik, do something!

Dok stares down the beach. Trick is helping Anti restrain Blue.

Doktor’s face shifts with worry, glancing back towards the sound of other cars.

“Anti!” he calls, moving forward a little. “I think maybe we should hide or… get ready?”

Anonymous asked: When have you EVER been able to trust Anti, Red? Huh? You don’t understand that he’s been using you for his own benefit and satisfaction, that he doesn’t fucking care about you at all, he wants to humiliate you and strip you of everything you were before to get back at a average guy named Jack. You cannot take his word as law when he shoves you in a dog muzzle and forces you TO BEAT YOUR BEOTHERS. WAKE UP JACKIE.

“This isn’t something that can be escaped,” mumbles Red, his eyes strangely dead. “Trick even tried to kill himself and couldn’t get away… I have to watch Dapper. I can keep him safe. That’s all I can do.”

Anonymous asked: I think you should get down to the beach, Dok. We think the spell Anti wants to cast might be a little... rough? On Blue? So it might be a good idea that you're there sooner rather than later, just in case.

“Mh, okay.” Dok makes sure he’s got his biggest med kit in his backpack and his gun in his pocket and starts off down towards the beach, the wind making his hair sway.

immabethehero asked: Blue!!! Find the book and destroy it!!

Blue’s teeth grit in his mouth as Anti hauls him deeper into the river. The powerful, overwhelming feeling of magic crushing down on him seems to increase with every step, until his body is practically humming with it. He is exhausted from the wounds across his body and the exertion of last night - oh, could it only have been last night that a stop to all this felt so close? - but in this river, he feels some strength returning as if - as if -

“The equator,” he gasps, whirling on Anti. “We’re at the equator.”

A cold grin snakes like a centipede onto Anti’s mouth.

“That we are, my dear.”

“You were planning this all along,” chokes Blue. “From Norway, even.”

“Oh, longer than that, Blue. I always suspected it would have to be torn out of you once I caught you. You’re not like Dapper… he’s not a normal magician. But you? With your spells and your flowers? I knew you would never be able to control yourself. Besides, I’m quite looking forward to consuming your energy like a snake with an egg.”

Blue screams and yanks his arm free from Anti’s grasp, trying to grab the backpack from him, but Anti only laughs aloud and strikes the side of his head so hard he’s woozy. He is shoved down on his knees in the river, choking as water sprays against his mouth.

“Trick, help!” he screams. “Trick! Dok! Red! Dapper! I don’t want to die, I don’t want to die like this!”

“Trick,” sings Anti. “Come here and help me hold your brother down.”

Anti pulls a knife out of his pocket.

Anonymous asked: Red, if you think this is what being "good" is, then you've forgotten everything, and we KNOW you haven't

“I don’t have a choice!” he screams, trying and failing to keep his voice down, his eyes squeezed tightly shut. “I don’t have a choice, I don’t have a choice, I don’t have a choice! Leave me alone, leave me alone, stop talking! Why is everything so loud? Leave me alone, you don’t know anything, you’ve never understood anything, please!”

Anonymous asked: And what happens when he kills Marvin, Red. What happens then? Is everything going to be okay? Are you going to be able to live with yourself?

“No!” screams Red, his voice breaking down the middle, curling himself in on Dapper, who shakes in silence in his arms. “No, I don’t want him to die! I don’t want this to be real, I don’t want this to be happening! I don’t want to be alive! Stop talking! Stop talking! Stop talking!”

Anonymous asked: Dapper dapper dapper dapper can you reverse? Please tell me you can still reverse right?

Dapper barely seems to be able to hear you, let around reverse. He shakes in Red’s arms, intermittently trying to attack his brother and protect himself, rubbing at his chest and signing incoherently about monsters and birds and home and ghosts and brothers. He has lost track of the timeline entirely, and now all he knows is that he is afraid, and angry, and in pain.

nikkilbook asked: Dapper, I think you’re right. There are birds coming. They’re coming because of what Blue did on the mountain, but that was the whole point. It might get dangerous, but I think they’re coming to help. Stay with Red for now, but be ready to move. Anti’s the reason Marvin’s magic smelled wrong—he did something just before the fire. And he’s trying to steal the rest of it away, to hide it underneath his own so no one will ever smell it again. He’s trying to kill your brother a second time.

Dapper clutches at his head, groaning and letting his head fall back onto Red’s shoulder. It’s the most trust he’s shown him in hours, and Red knows it’s only because he can’t keep reality straight right now, but he won’t look this gift horse in the mouth. He squishes in on Dapper and grabs him gently by the throat, keeping him pinned between his body and against his shoulder. Dapper groans and closes his eyes, trying to stop thinking, his face twitching and his body stiff.

bupine asked: red, we understand more than you think we do. we know how you used to be, how happy you were, what you were like as a family. you loved each other without violence or punishment. you can be that again. you came to anti to save dapper, to save jj, because you knew you loved him and being with anti wasn't safe and he deserved better. none of this is your fault. there's still time to save your twin from being killed. please, red. he could die. anti's too worked up to care if he kills him.

“I’m never going back to that person I was,” Red whispers, stroking Dapper’s hair. “Carver was right. Anti has killed him. I need to stop pretending to be something I’m not. A hero… a good person… Anti’s brother… no, no… all I can do now is be his. That’s all that’s left. That name Blue called… Jackie? Jackie is dead. And has been so long he is rotting.”

Anonymous asked: Red, Jackie, you always have a choice. You just have to be willing to make it. Remember? It’s just like the rope and the muzzle, you can always take it off, it’s only there to serve it’s purpose of silencing you. But you’ve always had to choice to take it off, and you did and you can do it again. That’s all Anti is, a rope, a muzzle, a chain, that you can take off at anytime. So do it, take it off and run. Be who you want to be, be a protector, a hero. You don’t have to be Jackie or Red, be you.

Ro shakes his head numbly, back and forth, back and forth.

“No,” he mumbles, setting his head down against the rock that hides him and his little brother. “No. I’m tired. I’m tired.”

nikkilbook asked: Red, do you recognize me? Of all the things I’ve said to you, all the things I’ve asked your brothers to do, have I ever tried to hurt you? Please, can you trust me? Even for just one hour more?

Red stares at you through darkened eyes, his thin mouth bloodless and his face blue with bruising.

His eyes flicker away again.

“I should never have gone up that mountain,” he says. “I should never have disobeyed. This is where I have let it take me.”

He reaches forward to pick up the camera in his hand, and he turns you away from himself, and stops reading.

immabethehero asked: TRICK. You don't want to do this!!!! Your brother's gonna die!!!!

Trick has a fistful of Blue’s hair. He holds him in the river, just barely keeping his mouth above the water.

“Anti?” he whispers.

“What, Trick?”

“He’s not really going to die, is he?”

Anti pulls Blue’s arm free from the water, holding it up.

“Anti, I’m afraid.”

Anti slices a scoring cut deep into his own wrist, drawing immediate blood to mix with the swift clear water of the river. Trick’s eyes widen with a soft gasp through his teeth, resisting the urge to stagger back, feeling nauseous.

“Stop thinking, Trick.”

abirbable asked: I have a sinking feeling that he has a way to take your magic anyway... That creepy book Anti’s been reading probably had some dark magic he can actually use. If you know any prayers, you might wanna say them, Blue.

“Holy shit,” whispers Blue, tears coursing down his cheeks. “Holy shit. I - I - I only know poetry.”

“Save it.” Anti pulls his arm up and sets the silver blade to it. “It won’t help you.”

“Anti, Anti, master,” chokes Blue, writhing beneath Trick’s grip. “Please don’t do this, I’m sorry! I swear I wasn’t trying to sell you out, I just wanted it to stop! I still love you, I always have and I always will!”

“You threatened to kill me just hours again!” screeches Anti, pressing the blade into his skin until a thin line of blood runs out. “You want me dead! You little traitor!”

Blue’s voice rises into a crescendo of despair. “I needed you to stop! Can’t you see what you’re doing to Red is destroying him? There’s nothing worse you could do to him than making him hurt us like this!”

“I don’t care! He betrayed me too!”

“He’d die for you! Anti, we would stand with you against anything that threatened our family - cops, magicians, a whole pantheon of gods, I don’t care! I’d fight them all for you! But I can’t watch you hurt us anymore! I won’t! This isn’t what you promised me!”

Anti laughs shakily, his blade trembling against Blue’s arm. “Remember that, do you? You broke that promise when you went up that mountain. I’m done. The orders are coming to take my boys away from me. I have to do what I have to do to keep the ones I can.” His eyes are red and wet.

Anonymous asked: Dok, Trick, anyone who’s listening, you have to make sure the magicians get here. You can’t just let Blue die like this. I know how much Anti has tricked you into thinking this way of life is okay, but it isn’t. You have to leave, this may be your last chance to save him!

Dok’s eyes widen, turning back to watch the road again.

“Magicians?” he whimpers, glancing back at his brothers on the beach. “Are they really coming?”

His hands twitch and grip together, his teeth gritted in his mouth. He takes off down towards the river at a sprint now, pushing his body fast as it can go.

“Anti!” he cries. “There’s someone close!”

Anti turns to look back at him, pausing to put a hand on Trick’s shoulder.

“Trick, find a nest to set up in and guard your brother. Anyone tries to get near Blue and I - ”

“Bullet to the brain,” Trick finishes. Yes, he knows his place, knows what he has to do.

Anti leans suddenly forward to kiss his hair, drawing him close and squeezing his shoulder tight.

“Hey,” he says. “I love you, Trickshot.”

Trick draws in a shaky breath, laughing. “I love you too, Anti.”

“Go. Keep Dok safe. Watch my back, little brother. And don’t let anyone take you away from me, no matter what sort of lies they tell.”

whydoilovesomanyvillians asked: Anti I think that they know where you are already doing this would solve nothing

“This is my only chance to get rid of that horrible signal he gives off,” stammers Anti. “I don’t have the strength to do it anywhere other than here at the center of the world. I have to do this or I will never be able to hide him. I will never be able to keep him. And if I can’t keep him, I have to kill him or let him go, and if I let him go he will always be waiting to steal the others from me, and I can never rest, I can never rest, I can never have a goddamn moment of peace!”

Anti chokes and cuts deeper into Blue’s arm, drawing a cry out of him.

Anonymous asked: Remember that you're back to a life with consequences since Dapper's out of commission....

Anti grits his teeth, trying to keep his footing in the rushing water.

“No, no, no,” Blue is whimpering. “I don’t want to die like this.”

“I don’t think you will,” Anti chokes out suddenly. “I was just - I was scaring you. You - you might, but I don’t think so. I haven’t read all of it, but I - it’s just magic. It’s what you do all day. Stop whining at me, you’ll be fine.”

He shakes his head to clear it and finally finishes the deep cut in Blue’s arm, pulling him up to face him as he wails and getting the book out of his bag.

Anonymous asked: Someone. Is. COMING.

Yes, someone is.

It’s beautiful out here. Thick grasses tugs at the black rubber tires of a car, and now the sun is so low in the sky she gives up her last purple rays in a sleepy twilight sigh. That grand river sweeps through the earth like a smile, rushing water carrying good clean water wherever it can go. The trees dance and sway.

A woman steps out of a car. From the camera on the window of the stole car the boys took, you can see her, as you did once before on Christmas Eve - the huge woman with a face full of flawless make-up and a thick sheet of gorgeous, shining black hair hanging down from her back. As the darkness falls, she holds up a palm full of bright golden light.

“He’s down by the river,” she says in Spanish. “He wouldn’t have come here if not to use the spellbook he stole from Tomas’s body. We act quickly, but with caution.”

“The Colombians are late,” grumbles a woman beside her. “Only time will tell if the Argentinians send anyone at all.”

There are five Peruvian magicians in total.

And two of them, you recognize.

Genesis and Hermann stand side-by-side on one side of the car, hurrying around its front to stare down at the scene before them. Hermann is slower than Genesis, who, tightly wound in gauze, nevertheless looks far better than she did the last time you saw her.

“Don’t die for the sake of these men,” cautions a fourth magician, who towers over the rest of them, tall and with a great dark beard. He holds in his hand a small gun. “The things that have happened to them are not their fault, but they are dangerous now, and the corruption is laid in deep. If you have no choice but to kill them, you kill them. This is the way it must be.”

Genesis and Hermann exchange glances. Hermann plucks at a necklace around his throat and nods.

abirbable asked: Holy fuck, Anti you need to stop. You aren’t even SURE if this’ll kill Blue?! It’s just magic?! You’re totally unhinged trying to keep these boys with you! If you call them your brothers then you wouldn’t be doing this!!!

“It’s just a manipulation, the brotherhood,” mumbles Anti, tracing Blue’s jaw with his thumb. “I’ve told you that a hundred times. It’s not real. It never has been.

“Fuck,” whispers Anti a moment later, a shuddering breath falling from his parted lips. “Even with the mask, you look so much more like him than I have ever been able to.”

Anonymous asked: You're lying, Anti. Magic isn't what Marvin does. It's what he IS. Getting rid of it will kill him and you know it. If you're going to take this step, going to go this far, going to murder one of your brothers with no way to ever take it back, at least be honest about it.

“No,” mumbles Anti. “He’ll be fine, he… he always seemed to survive, back when I really wanted him dead. Jack didn’t make him to be weak, he was always… so… maybe that was why he loved him so much, he never seemed to shatter the way that I always do…”

bupine asked: fucking hell, anti, you know it doesn't have to be like this. listen to what blue's saying, for once? give him another chance before you do something you will definitely regret

Anti shakes his head rapidly, yanking at Blue’s jaw. All Blue can do is stare up at him.

“It won’t kill you,” he whispers. “I’ll - I’ll stop, if it seems like it will. How does that sound? And then - oh, Blue, it will all be okay. The magic will be hidden, and we’ll all be safe. We’ll take everyone and run as far as we can, and I’ll keep everyone hidden until we’re somewhere new, and we’ll stay there for a long time, as long as we want, and just live. I’ll even make it up to you, okay? You’re going to be just fine.”

“Anti,” mumbles Blue. “It will hurt. Please.”

“I’ll make it right later. I will. You’ll be fine. Come on, tell me you love me.”

Blue stares up at him, mouth slightly open. Anguish passes across Anti’s face and he snarls, squeezing at his jaw. “Tell me you love me!”

Anonymous asked: then fucking die, Anti.

Anti screams in rage, shoving Blue down into the river. “Stupid fucking boy! You can die then, for all I care! I’ve never fucking loved you or any of them, I hope you know that! You fucking disgust me! Stupid, slippery little coward! You’re the one who ran! You’re the one who lost Henrik and Chase!”

nikkilbook asked: Anti, I’m gonna need you to pick whether you care or not because I am emotionally frakkin done with what you’ve done to these boys and I will not take any more of your stunted toddler-brain bull crap.

“Stunted toddler-brain bull crap!” Anti laughs like it’s the funniest thing he’s ever heard, tearing through the pages of the book. “Toddler-brain, haha… I’m seven, I’m seven, hahaha, is that old enough?”

Anonymous asked: coward, coward, coward, anti. you're a coward for doing this.

“Shut the fuck up!” screams Anti. “Stop it! I’ll shut you all up!”

He grabs Blue’s bleeding arm in his own and lets the blood mingle, his eyes turning a deep black.

spicydanhowell asked: there are people literally hot on your trail right now and you have two boys having meltdowns handcuffed together and unable to fight and people are hurt. if you want to keep "your" boys, you should fucking run instead of torturing marvin

“I’ll be able to hide them once this is done,” Anti tells you hysterically, squeezing Blue’s arm until he cries out. “I’ll be able to hide him and then we’ll all run.”

nikkilbook asked: Have some dignity, Anti. Tonight is not a night for lies.

“What does the truth fucking matter? What has it ever mattered? Stop pretending you care about me or any of them! This is just a story to you and I am not a prop, I am taking action, and he will be exactly the way I want him to be!”

Anonymous asked: Don't worry Marvin, someone is coming.

“Someone help me!” screams Blue, thrashing in the water.

“Shut up!” Anti replies even louder, more and more incensed. “Stop it! No one will save you! I’m the one in control! I’ll show you! I’ll show you!”

Anonymous asked: "Anti hurt your brothers and made them thank him for it."

Rage like a fire lights up in Blue’s chest as he remembers the old mantra that once helped him keep himself intact.

“You hurt my brothers and made them thank you for it!” he shrieks, trying his damnedest to strike Anti, though the collar around his throat and the grip on him makes it nearly impossible. “You drove Trick to suicide and watched Doktor shudder through silent panic attacks! You made Dapper beat Red and Red beat all of us! You’ve let us starve, suffer, choke, hang! Take it, then, if you want my magic! Take it! You will never be able to keep us all as slaves, no matter what you do, no matter what you fucking try! You will never be my master! No matter how many times I fall, one day all fucking five of us will get back up together!”

Anti screams his fury and strikes Blue in the face, driving him back to dizziness, half-fainting in Anti’s grip.

Anonymous asked: Poor anti so jealous of love, so jealous of something you don't even know how to feel. So jealous of jack, so jealous of magic. Do us a favor and run away with your tail between your legs like the mangy kitten you are

Anti cackles wildly, a horrible light in his eyes.

“Let’s see Jack do this,” he breathes, and finds the right pages in his book.

immabethehero asked: Genesis! Hermann!!! Trickshot (the one with the gun and the cat) has given orders to shoot hsi brothers if you come near. So be careful!! Attack while invisible or something!

“Oh, look!” Genesis points toward the car, her face lighting up as she catches sight of you. “Look, the camera elves are here!”

“These are the cameras that communicate with them?” asks the woman with the dark, shining hair.

“Yes! Christofer, break the window for me, will you?”

The towering man shrugs and points his gun. A second later Genesis is pushing glass away from the door and scooping the camera off the windowsill.

“They say there’s a sniper in the trees,” she tells her friends. “But it’s the man who spared my life, I know it.”

“I’ll handle him,” mutters Christofer, stalking off towards the trees.

“We’ll go down to the river,” says the older woman. “But you two are injured. Genesis, you have your mission?”

“Yes, Emmanuela.”

“And what is it?”

Genesis clears her throat. “I’m too injured to be doing a great deal of transporting right now. But I can get myself home to base with whoever I have in tow. So I will grab one of the men and take him to safety, and that way at least one of them is safe.”

“Good work. Come on, Juana. I fear we are too late already.”

abirbable asked: BLUE GET UP AND RUN!

“I’m chained!” chokes Blue, laughing. “You know that!”

Anti grips his collar tighter.

Anonymous asked: Red please Blue is screaming for help you have to stop Anti. Dok, Trick, Dapper, anyone fucking stop him WE CAN ONLY DO SO MUCH

Doktor looks up at the little camera set beside him and Trick in their hiding place. “Hell! Trick, he’s really getting hurt!”

“Just stay low, Dok.”

“I don’t want Blue to die, Trick.”

“Just stay low, Dok! There are people right up there who want to take us away and kill us just because Anti is our brother! Anti won’t hurt Blue, I’m sure. He’s just scared of his punishment. This is what’s coming to him for going up the mountain like that.”

pixie-in-trebleland asked: Trick, the lady from the shed is here to save you guys! Genesis Is here to save you. DO NOT SHOOT!

“Anti told me not to listen to anyone trying to take me away,” Trick tells you, aiming his gun steadfastly up the hill, listening for any sign of any on-comer. “I’ll shoot anyone who tries to get close to us or Blue and Anti.”

Anonymous asked: Dok, Trick, Anti will MOST DEFINITELY HURT HIM if he thinks it means getting to keep the rest of you. You can’t just stand by and watch!!

Doktor gets to his feet.

“Deutsch!” cries Trick, terrified. “Get down! You’re going to get hurt!”

Dok is crying. Trick doesn’t know why.

“I don’t want Blue to get hurt,” he repeats stiffly, pushing his glasses up on his nose. “I don’t want Blue to get hurt.”

Trick breathes hard, staring between his gun and his twin. Beneath his stomach, Noodle mewls.

Anonymous asked: You’re a Phoenix, Marvin. Stay strong, love, don’t give that monster any type of satisfaction.

Blue breathes in deep, staring up at Anti, his eyes fixed. As his little brother turns between him and the book, Blue sees something in his eyes he has been blind to for a long time.

“You’re afraid of me,” he says. “You’re afraid of me, Anti.”

Anti stops short, his fingers on the words of the spell.

“I think you always have been.”

nikkilbook asked: That’s what Anti says to do, Trick. What does Chase say to do?

“You know that’s the word that makes the camera screech!” snaps Trick, grabbing at his ears. “I can’t hear it! Just stop!”

“I’m going to the beach,” says Dok, stepping out of the nest.

Trick jolts, his eyes huge.

Anonymous asked: Are you actually willing to let him die, Trick?

Trick squeezes his eyes shut. A moment later, he gives you the tiniest shake of his head.

“I just… have to trust Anti…”

Anonymous asked: Blue, isnt there any spell you can cast? You just need to stall, help is on the way

Anti grips Blue’s jaw squeezed shut before he can answer, keeping him contained. He’s still weak from last night, where he expended all his energy.

abirbable asked: And if he does die, what do you think will happen with all the others? Will any of them be okay with one of their brothers being dead?! Will you put them under and convince them they didn’t have a brother? That Red didn’t have a twin?

“He won’t die,” says Anti. “He has to live.”

“You’ve gotten too used to playing god with my little brother’s power,” Blue manages. “You’re reckless.”

Anti laughs, the first time you’ve heard him laugh today that sounds genuine. “Oh, wow… you always used to tell me that. Said it would be my downfall. Even when we were just small…”

immabethehero asked: Keep thinking Trick, if you let Anti do this, your brother will be worse than death. Bupine said: Anti HAS hurt blue, trick. He’s cut his wrist and he’s going to die if you guys don’t do something.

Trick shudders and gets to his feet, startling his brother.

“Dok,” he croaks. “Where you go, I’ll go. I - ”

“No,” Dok surprises him, turning around to grab his shoulders. “No, no, your punishment will be much greater than mine if you leave your post. Besides, we don’t want these people to catch us and hurt us. Trick, stay here.”

“Deutsch! I’m not leaving you, no way.”

“Please.”

Dok’s hands are on his shoulder. Their twin eyes meet. Ah, when was the last time Trick saw a light like that in his brother’s eyes?

“Please, Trick, let me do this.”

The trees sway above them in a tangle of darkening greenery as night falls quiet around them. Trick steps forward, closing his eyes, and wraps his arms around his brother.

“Just don’t do anything stupid,” he tries to tease, tugging at Doktor’s hair.

“You and I both know I am incapable of any such thing,” replies Doktor shortly, making his twin laugh.

Trick draws away, smiling. “Got all your doctor stuff?”

Dok has everything in his bag, from clothes and coffee to his med kit. “Got it.”

“Hey, Dok?”

“Yeah?”

Trick has eyes like the ocean where the light meets the water.

“I just really love you,” he says, very softly. “More than anything.”

A smile dawns like a morning on Doktor’s mouth and he chuckles, leaning in to press their foreheads together. His glasses bump against Trick’s nose.

“More than Anti?” he whispers, so soft you barely pick up on it.

“More than Anti,” Trick whispers back.

Doktor gives the warmest hum of gratitude, drawing away. He steps down from the nest.

“I love you too, Trick. More than anything.”

And then he is gone, darting down towards the beach.

Trick watches him go, holding Noodle to his chest.

Then he turns back to his gun.

whydoilovesomanyvillians asked: Blue scream people are here to help

“It’s too late for all that,” says Anti. “It’s too late. You said what you wanted to say, all of you did. It’s time, Blue. It’s time, Marvin.”

Anonymous asked: Genesis and Hermann, I doubt you can hear this but you SERIOUSLY need to hurry up.

“Guys!” Genesis calls to the older women. “I think the demon is already acting!”

“Is he that one or that one?” frowns the smaller of the two, pointing down at the river. “They all look the same.”

“Oh.” Genesis stares down at the scene, where Blue and Anti are silhouettes in the water. “I… can’t tell. I don’t even know if one of those is the demon. Sometimes the red one and the one in the vest do horrible things for him, so they could be holding the other one in the river.”

Anonymous asked: Only one? Okay okay....Red and Dapper are hiding in the forest. Jameson is the most lucid but he’s scared. They’re the farthest away from the others so they might be your best shot at teleporting. I’d take some else with you though.

“Someone else? Okay, I will try. I’m not sure I can carry two at once anyway. Is there one alone I could go get? We can’t get down to the river until the sniper is gone from the trees!”

Anonymous asked: DIE THEN, ANTI. If you want peace so badly, DIE.

And this, at last, is Anti’s final breaking point.

For a second, he lifts his head up to the moon, like he’s looking for someone who isn’t there.

Then he laughs aloud, forcing himself to concentrate.

“This will make me powerful!” he reminds himself. “This will help me hide! This will keep me safe with at least four of my pets, right?”

He cards a hand through Blue’s hair, tearing his head back.

“This is what I have to do. This is what I want to do! I’ve always fucking hated you, Marvin, do you know that?”

“Please,” chokes Blue. “I’m not… I’m not…”

“You’re close enough,” snaps Anti. “And you will be until I have stolen this last, disgusting remnant from you. This last shred of power that Jack gave you to torment me.”

The book is in an ancient tongue.

Anti cannot speak it. He can barely read it. It’s taken him days. He hasn’t read the entire page.

But he read most of it. And at the top, in its quiet, poetic script, it tells him “the spell is best performed in one’s native tongue.”

Anti turns to Blue.

In Gaelic, he speaks: “What I need, I lack. What you have, I will take.”

Their arms are intertwined. Copper leaks down Anti and Blue’s arms, drifting down into the cool water of the Rio Puturnayo.

“That which is magic, make blood of, and share it.”

For this spell, there is no fire. For this spell, there are no plants.

Anti’s eyes widen for just a second.

He clutches at his chest.

Blue slumps down in the water, only for Anti to drag him back to shore.

Rough panting falls from the demon’s mouth. You hear Anti gag, once. His mouth fills up with blood and overflows. One eye is black. One eyes is blue.

“Ah, ah,” he croaks. “It burns.”

He collapses on the shore of the river.

Anonymous asked: WHAT THE FUCK DID YOU JUST DO.

Blood is spilling from Anti’s mouth rapidly. Barely conscious, his eyes remain slightly open, his form flickering in low shuddering buzzes of glitching, his right eye glowing a horrible neon blue.

“Uh, uh,” you hear him choke, convulsing. “Uh, uh.”

His face is taut with pain.

“Anti!”

Doktor falls down at his knees beside both his brothers, pulling Blue to his lap and putting his hand on Anti’s shoulder.

“What did you do?” cries Dok, grabbing at Blue’s throat for a pulse. “Why - what have you - why would you do this when we trusted you to - Blue, Blue, wake up, hey! Are you with me? Oh, fuck, why are you so fucking cold? I - oh!”

Doktor lets out a breath like a wheeze, nearly collapsing alongside his brothers.

“His heart is still beating.”

abirbable asked: ...Blue? Are you alive?

Doktor clutches at Blue’s face, clinging to that pulse beneath his chin, wiping fluid streams of sticky blood from his brother’s bleeding eyes. Blue has gone pale as papal smoke, unmoving on the bank of the river.

“He’s alive, he’s alive,” pants Dok. “But I don’t know what happened to him exactly. Blue, can you hear me? I need to get him somewhere safe before we’re caught and taken away and killed! I need to get them both - Anti! Please lie still!”

But Anti has shifted from convulsions into a heady determination of twitching, struggling on shaking arms to push himself up on the beach. He wheezes like a dying thing, fountains of blood pouring from his eyes, and Dok, watching it run down the sand towards the river, cannot help but give a tiny, squeaking laugh, like he’s been caught up in a video game with so much gore it’s supposed to be a joke.

“I… feel like a fucking hurricane,” chokes Anti, spitting onto the earth and breathing hard, dragging himself to his knees. “I have never in all my life felt power like this.”

He sways and Dok reaches forward to catch him, only to fall back in terror as Anti’s form shifts, shifts, shifts.

The great black dog bares fangs dripping red.

“Nothing will take you from me now,” snarls a voice from every side, and the magicians coming down the hill towards the river pause as one. Emmanuela glares down at the water, her black hair swaying behind her.

“Now that,” she says. “Is a great darkness indeed.”

Anonymous asked: Probably not for long, Dok. You need to give Blue to the magicians. Anti stole all his magic and it’s likely he won’t be well for very long. The magicians can help him, maybe even heal him. They won’t hurt him.

“Give Blue to the magicians?” Doktor curls his trembling body around his older brother, hugging Blue’s body - gone cold, cold as old bone - to his chest. “No, no, no, I want to go back home and look after him. Oxygen, maybe - even a stimulant, look how still he is, I - oh, God protect us. What’s wrong with you, my dear brother?”

nikkilbook asked: ...if you can only take one, take Trick. It will break their hearts, but Trick needs to be away from Anti. He is a good man, a father. If you can only take one, take Chase Brody. Anonymous asked: Genesis, if you want someone alone, then Trick is hiding in a nest, but he has a gun. Doktor, who I don’t think you know, is also alone and heading to the river. Just thought you should know

“There’s two of them separated from each other,” Genesis calls. She is following after Christofer, who bounds ahead of her and Hermann, who is still limping from a stab wound from a certain time traveler. “I’ll try to grab one of them.”

“Maybe I can pin the gunman down and you can take him back,” Christofer agrees. “Maybe, don’t get your hopes up. Anyone you can’t take, we will have to restrain and get in the car if we can.”

“You’ll have to be careful with that,” grumbles Hermann, his bottom lip pouting. “Half of them are magic and the other half will put a blade in you for trying to help.”

“You’re just sore you lost, pequeño,” grins Christofer. “Enough, now. I need to find the sniper. Hide yourselves.”

Genesis and Hermann sigh in sync and exchange glances, reaching out to hold each other’s hands. A moment later, they have disappeared entirely, but you are still peeking out of Genesis’s bag.

Anonymous asked: dok, LOOK at anti. he's basically stolen your brother's fucking soul, dude, get blue AWAY from him

“He’s just trying to hide him,” cries Dok, curled over Blue’s body. “He’s just trying to hide all of us!”

He lets out a small, frightened cry as barking erupts in the trees farther up the hill - Anti catching up to Emmanuela and Juana.

“He will make them pay for trying to hurt and steal all of us,” croaks Dok, hiding his tears in his brother’s shirt. “My big brother will kill the lot of them and then we can all be safe again. Then we can all go home together, and I will take care of my whole family. Anti will tear the magicians apart.”

badlypostedeverything asked: So, whats the plan Anti? Where are you going

The black dog courses like a river in the darkness up the hill, his snout full of blood and the scent of hot fresh magic. He can tell where the magicians are.

“I see you,” sings a giggling voice from all sides, and Emmanuela pulls a heavy old axe, homemade and ancient, from her side. Her figure towers huge and powerful in the darkness.

“Come on, then,” she calls. She lifts up a free hand and light fills it again, golden and glowing. “Come on. How much of the light can a shadow like you take?”

Anti lunges forward.

immabethehero asked: Christopher? Trick, the guy who spared Genesis, has the exact orders of "shooting anyone who tries to take him or his brothers away". Choose your words carefully!

“Oh,” you hear Genesis laugh, creeping through the trees with her friend. “I think you’ve misunderstood. Christofer does not talk. There are no words to choose. He will simply attack. Let’s hope that guard boy does not give him reason to believe he cannot be saved.”

nikkilbook asked: Genesis! The demon has Blue—Marvin, the Lapwing magician—down at the river. Trickshot, the sniper, is somewhere in the trees with orders to shoot if someone tries to take his brothers away. Red, the one you fought at Christmas, is handcuffed to Dapper, who is having a psychotic episode and can’t tell what’s going on around him. Be careful, but please—help them! Anonymous asked: thank god someone is here. Be careful! Trick is hiding in the trees with a sniper guarding Anti and Blue. If he sees you, you’re dead

You hear Trick’s grim laugh from the camera on the nest, settled next to the scope of his gun. His body is low to the ground, on his belly like a snake, waiting, waiting, watching. Nothing will pass by him to touch Blue and Doktor.

“Selling me out, are you?” he whispers, his hands gripping coldly at his gun.

He lies with you in the darkness. Something howls far away. He knows it is Anti. He thinks he sees fire and his eyes widen.

A cracking in the forest trees alerts him and he turns, silent and steady, his blue eyes aglow with cold moonlight.

Okay, Trick, think. Red said there was one who could disappear and cast ice like Blue casts fire, and another who could transport, and another with hands full of light…

But he doesn’t know who’s coming to get him.

And he is afraid of what will happen to his family if he lets them by. Whatever comes, he knows they could handle it if it were all six of them together, with Anti at the wheel, and Dok by his side, Red protecting them, Dapper watching over them, and Blue caring for them all no matter what happened. Sometimes his life is like hell on earth, but that’s why they have to stick together. He couldn’t get through this alone.

He won’t be taken from Anti’s side. From Dok’s, from Blue’s, from Red and Dapper’s. He won’t!

The smallest movement in the trees.

Trick pulls the trigger and takes the impact of the kickback and the bang, loud enough to make his ears ring.

Christofer lets out a cry and charges forward, tackling Trick to the floor of his nest. At his side, Noodle lets out a yowl, trying to avoid being crushed, and Trick screams his fury, scrabbling to get his hands free. “Get off me!” he screams. “Get off!”

He drives his elbow up towards Christofer’s face, making him gasp and fall back, clutching at his bleeding nose.

Anonymous asked: Guys, please, we're begging you, they don't want to kill you, they're here because they want to help you! we trust them, don't you trust us? when have we ever tried to hurt you?

“No, no, no!” shrieks Trick. “Anti told me you were bad! Anti told me not to listen! Anti told me you would kill us! Anti told me you would kill him! I will never let that fucking happen!”

He grabs his sniper and swings hard, bashing the grip into Christofer’s face. Roaring like a bear, Christofer snatches at Trick’s collar, but Trick’s shirts are worn from Red grabbing him in the exact same place, and he tears himself free with a growling ripping sound, whirling around to bring that huge gun to bear. Ice explodes in front of him and slicks the ground underneath his feet, freezing his gun in place and sending him slipping hard to the earth, crying out as he hits the ground. He can hear Noodle howling and he chokes, scrambling desperately to get back to his feet.

But he isn’t as fast as Christofer. Trick screams like he’s being killed as he is wrapped up in the all-encompassing arms of the enormous man, feeling himself pinned against his chest.

Anonymous asked: Dok, you will never be safe with Anti. I’m so sorry, but please, take Blue and yourself to the magicians. Blue’s injuries are magic related and there’s no way you’d be able to fully heal him alone with a limited amount of resources. They can help, that’s who Blue called for to save all of you. You will never stop running away if you stay with Anti, there will never be an end to the torture and the nightmares. Marvin will die if you do not make a decision quickly.

The gunshot ricochets through the trees and sets the birds to flight.

They are not the only ones.

Terrified by the noise, you barely have time to realize what he’s doing before he has tugged Blue low to the river and hidden his body in the tallest of the grass on the bank. For a second, he looks like he might lie down with him - but then, through the forest, he hears Trick begin to scream.

Dok is sprinting back through the forest the way he came, a cry on his mouth.

“Trickshot!”

bupine asked: trick, please listen to us. wouldn't you want to see your kids again? please remember, chase brody, remember who you are, remember that you're not anti's!! Anonymous asked: ANTI DROVE YOU TO SUICIDE TRICK STOP TELLING YOURSELF EVERYTHING WILL GO BACK TO THE WAY IT WAS BECAUSE IT WONT! AFTER TODAY NOTHING WILL BE THE SAME! YOU KNOW THIS! Anonymous asked: who has ever hurt you more, Chase? Us or Anti?

“No, no, no!” screams Trick, writhing like a rabid dog in Christofer’s grip. “No, no! He loves me, he has to, or what has this all been for? Why am I even alive if he doesn’t? He has to! He has to! He can’t have been lying all this time! Let me go! Let me go! I want to go back to my master!”

He can hear his captor calling out above him, exasperated. “Genesis, get this poor brainwashed son of a bitch back to - ”

A gun clicks.

Christofer stiffens and Trickshot stills, opening his eyes.

Doktor stands in the copse before them, pointing his little handgun right at Christofer’s head.

“Let him go,” he pants.

He has killed men before. But they were always pinned down, and Anti was helping him press the scalpel deeper into the brain.

“Let him go,” he says. “Right now, or I’ll kill you.”

Christofer stares at him, mouth calm, eyes stormy. He is a big, big man, but he is not invulnerable, and he warned the others not to die for souls already lost.

Anonymous asked: dok, please. put it down.

Dok glances over at you, his mouth slightly open. His hand trembles on the gun.

“Deutsch?” chokes Trick, staring at him. “Henrik? I - I want to go home.”

And then a girl with short, dark hair and amber eyes appears behind Doktor with no warning at all, and the second she wraps her arms around him -

He is gone.

Anonymous asked: GENESIS GRAB MARVIN HES ALONE BY THE RIVER GO GO GO GO

Hermann picks up the dropped camera and sprints off down towards the river as fast as he can.

Anonymous asked: emmanuela, mi amiga, swing FAST and swing HARD

“Now there’s a voice I like!” cries Emmanuela, and she meets Anti’s back with the head of her axe. He yelps and snarls, biting forward to snap at her legs, but a burst of white light is enough to burn at him and he darts away again, circling her and Juana rapidly.

“Stupid sorcerer,” growls Anti, his eyes shifting colors rapidly. “I took up residence right under your nose and you still would never have found me if his magic hadn’t overflowed. And now it belongs to me.”

Juana lets out a cry as fire erupts in a circle around them, driving them into the center, where grass rises around their feet as if to grab them. Anti staggers, flickering between dog and man, laughing wildly as blood comes running out of his eyes and makes him shake, nearly overwhelmed.

“It must sting!” calls Emmanuela. “To be something as horrible as you, and filled with that much pure good magic! It will kill you, demon! I promise you that, if you keep it, it will kill you.”

“I,” snarls Anti, stalking forward again. “Am not a fucking demon! Our powers are brothers and what comes from Jack cannot destroy me!”

He leaps at Juana and there is, before she can do anything, a huge bite in her arm, making her scream. She points a small handgun at him, only for his body to disappear in a flash of glitching colors. Emmanuela lashes out once, twice, at the pattern of glitches that precede his appearance, but she manages to land only a glancing blow on him as he glitches around her, appearing and disappearing, sometimes two or three of him surrounding her at once, teeth bared, eyes wild, fangs red -

She lashes out a kick at his snout and drives forward with her light, an explosion of gold. Somewhere, the demon creature is screaming. This magic is antithesis. He appears again coated in burns, his fur singed and his tongue hanging desperately out of his mouth, but still he is leaping forward again, still he attacks, until -

He hears Trickshot start to scream.

Anti turns and races back towards his brothers.

In his wake, fire.

Anonymous asked: OH MY GOD I don’t know whether to cry or scream. Bupine asked: DOK DON’T KILL HIM. PLEASE. PLEASE FUCKING LISTEN TO US YOU WILL REGRET IT FOR THE REST OF YOUR LIFE IF YOU DO. THIS IS YOUR ONLY CHANCE TO BE FREE AND HAPPY, THIS IS ALL YOU HAVE!! HENRIK, PLEASE JUST LISTEN!! Two anons and immabethehero sent similar messages and were added

Trick stares at the space where his twin was.

“D… Dok?” he whispers.

He can feel his body going numb.

“Hey, it’s okay, little man,” mumbles Christofer, setting him down and readjusting his grip on him. Trick has stopped struggling, staring blankly at that empty place in the trees. “We can take you right to him if you just - ”

“Dok?” Trick whimpers, his eyes filling up with tears. “Dok? Deutsch? B-bro?”

“Sh, pequeño, sh, it’s okay,” sighs Christofer. “It’s okay, we’ll get you back to him. You just come with us.”

But Trick isn’t listening.

For a second, he is nothing but hot, rapid tears and a limp body in Christofer’s arms.

And then you see the fury fill him up.

“Anti!” he screams, so loud his throat could tear. “Anti! They stole my twin from me!”

“Idiot man,” hisses Christofer, struggling to hold him.

immabethehero asked: Wait where did Red and Dapper go? Did you already kidnap them? Red chose to ignore several other miscellaneous messages, but they were still added here.

Red hears the screaming too.

Alarmed, he finally calls a stop on giving you the silent treatment and snatches the camera up at your insistent beeping, his eyes wide. “What’s - what’s happening, I - kidnap us, who’s coming to…”

A gleam of light catches his eye, and Dapper stirs wearily beside him, rubbing at his reddened face. For a second, the light is gone again, and they are in darkness in the heavy foliage of the forest.

And then Red sees firelight flickering towards him.

You hear deep, heavy breaths as he tries to stay calm, his body tense and ready.

cest-mellow asked: dapper? red? where are you guys? the magicians are here to help you, they won’t hurt you!

“Help us?” gasps Red. “Have you forgotten I fucking killed one of them? I - I - they tied me down! They beat me, they - no, no, no, I don’t want to be stolen again, I don’t want to be taken away! They tied me up, I won’t go, I won’t!”

“There’s the ravens,” Dapper signs distantly, his hands floaty and distracted. “The condors are coming too. Oh, Red, and the fire… it’s growing, we’re in the trees…”

His hands reach out for it off in the distance. Red yanks him to his feet and crowds him behind him, staring off at the light. “How do I get back to Anti now?” he whimpers, protecting Dapper’s body with his own.

whydoilovesomanyvillians asked: Red docs gone, Marvin's if I had to guess dead and anti it also sounds like hes gonna die

Red’s blood runs cold.

He stares at you, frozen.

“No, no,” he whimpers, staggering forward. “Then I have to go back! I have to go… Blue? Dead?”

Dapper gives a little whine, tugging against the handcuffs, trying to pull him away from the fire, growing rapid in the trees.

abirbable asked: Please save Marvin, but be gentle! He’s barely alive! Three other anons sent similar messages and were added.

Hermann races down towards the river until his feet are soaked in the water.

He has to find the hiding place, here along the shore. For a moment, you can only watch him splash helplessly through the reeds and the tall grass, searching, searching, alone in the water, until at last -

“Oh,” whispers Hermann, sinking to his knees beside him. “Oh, poor thing.”

Blue’s still body lies silent in the grass, his face gone from white to grey, his lips faintly blue. Hermann reaches out to touch his face.

“Cold,” he mumbles. “Oh, brother, can’t help you there, I’m afraid…”

He finds a thin, thready heartbeat trembling in Blue’s throat.

“I will find a healing spell. But I don’t know what good it will do… to have his heart ripped out of his chest like this… Madre de Dios, ayúdanos…”

Anonymous asked: Hermann? Have you found Marvin yet? Will you help him?

“How could I not help?” Hermann shakes a little from the exertion of running, but he does not waver in his goal, his hand falling away from the old wound on his side. “What a terrible thing to happen to somebody. I must warn you, though… I am not much of a healer.”

“You think the Chileans would mind if I borrowed some Neruda?”

Hermann sits down at Blue’s side, his hand hovering over his quiet chest.

“For once on the face of the earth,” he whispers, and his power is not like Blue’s, for only a faint white light arises in his eyes - beautiful nonetheless, cool as November ice. “Let’s not speak any language. Let’s stop for one second, and not move our arms so much.”

Blue is unmoving. He seems not even to breathe.

“Fisherman in the cold sea would not harm whales,” murmurs Hermann like a prayer. “And the man gathering salt would look at his hurt hands.”

You see, now, something that is like Blue’s magic about him - the same brand of fatigue. Hermann sways, tired already, tired from everything, but still holding out his hands over Blue’s heart. He remembers Red calling for him the day Hermann and his friends nearly took him.

“Perhaps a huge silence might interrupt this sadness.”

Blue gives a soft breath, his chest shuddering.

“This sadness of never understanding ourselves.”

Hermann rubs gently at his shoulder. His face has paled, paled, paled in the cold night light.

“Now I’ll count up to twelve,” he whispers, his eyes sliding shut. “And you keep quiet… and I will go.”

Blue’s mouth turns from blue to pink. Another whole breath enters his lips.

Hermann slides to the ground, panting.

cest-mellow asked: marvin? can you hear us? are you okay?

His eyes slide ever so slightly open on the bank of the shore. Hermann gives a little gasp, putting a hand on his chest.

“You startled me, amigo. ¿Cómo estás?”

Blue breathes slow and thin, staring up at the sky. His eyes are bizarrely colorless, as though cataracts had formed over him, and he shivers despite the heat.

“Red?” he whispers.

“No,” murmurs Hermann, squeezing his hand. “I’m here to help.”

Blue stares up at him.

“Anti?” he asks.

“No, no.” Hermann is frowning now, sitting hunched over him. “Can you see me at all?”

Blue blinks slowly, his eyes sliding shut again.

“You’re a blur,” he mumbles. “I’m so cold… Where’s Red?”

“Why don’t you just rest?” suggests Hermann, patting his hand. “You just take it easy.”

“… Safe?”

“Safe. Safe. Sh, now. It is all going to be just fine.”

Hermann tries not to look at the growing fire behind him. He will wade into the river if he has to, but he’s not sure he can get back up the hill safely, and his body is hurting him badly, threatening to make him faint.

bupine asked: red, blue's not dead! he's ok! one of the magicians saved him, he'll be ok if you don't hurt any of the magicians, please!

Red backs away slightly, clutching Dapper’s hand. There is smoke around the two of them now.

“Don’t fight the magicians?” he coughs, as Dapper wriggles out of his over-hot vest. “What do I… I… I don’t know what to do. Just tell me where to go to get to Anti again!”

bupine asked: anti's off fighting one of the magicians. he's in the form of a dog now as far as I'm aware

“Why doesn’t he come get me?” sobs Red, clutching at his heart. “He told me to protect Dap but I don’t know what to do!”

He staggers back towards the fire one more time, knowing full well Anti is somewhere on the other side of that blaze with Blue and Trick and Dok - or whoever is left alive.

Dapper whistles shrilly, his panic rising. He yanks against the handcuffs, but his big brother isn’t even paying attention to him.

“The trees are on fire!” he tries to tell him. “Red, above us!”

He breaks down into coughing, unable to back away. Red can’t seem to tear his eyes off the fire.

cest-mellow asked: the magicians are trying to help you, anti is the one who created the fires. stick with them and they’ll get you to safety, all of you. Anonymous asked: they saved his life, Red, we saw it happen! Anti almost killed him but the magicians saved his life!

Red bites down on his tongue, terrified. Dapper’s coughing finally catches his attention and he turns, wide-eyed, to see his little brother sinking to the forest floor, clutching at his chest as smoke fills them both up.

bupine asked: red, DON'T DO ANYTHING RASH. you can't protect dapper if you're dead.

“R-rash? Like run? M-maybe Anti is just testing my loyalty again? Maybe we’re supposed to burn? But then he’ll scoop us out before we die… like that one Bible story… in the furnace, God knows you love him…”

pixie-in-trebleland asked: Dap, Red, you need to get outta there! FAST. Three anons sent similar messages and were added.

“Oh, fuck,” whispers Red, his eyes full of light. “Oh, fuck.”

“Red,” Dapper is signing, over and over again. “Red!”

Red turns to him and pulls him back to his feet, grabbing his hand again.

“We’ll regroup with Anti later,” he shouts, a last-ditch attempt to convince himself he’s not disobeying. “He told me to protect you. Come on, we need to get the hell out of here!”

“That’s what I’ve been trying to tell you, dickhead!”

“Hey! When did your hands get so fucking filthy!”

They are tearing through the forest together, their hands clasped, trying to breathe as the smoke only grows thicker.

“To the river, we should go to the river,” chokes Dapper.

“I can’t go through the river, I have Anti’s camera!”

“Red, we’re going to fucking burn!”

“We’ll lose our connection to him!”

“Red! Red, please!”

And Dapper, the youngest - oh, how long has he played baby, played carver, played Anti’s, all the while trying to keep his own head fixed on straight, halfway into a psychotic episode and terrified out of his mind -

Dapper wraps his arms around Red’s chest and begins to sob. Sometimes survival is just manipulation.

“I don’t want to die, I’m scared, I’m scared!” he signs, desperate. “Don’t let me get hurt, big brother, I don’t want the birds to catch me, I don’t want the fire to come!”

And what is Red going to do - refuse his baby brother while he’s crying?

nikkilbook asked: Dap, why don’t you want the birds to catch you? The ravens at least seem to be friends.

“I plucked so many feathers out,” cries Dapper, gripping at his knife in his vest. “I know she’ll hurt me!”

“Don’t worry about that now,” calls Red, pulling him down towards the river. “I’m not going to let anyone take you from me. I swear, Dapper. Come on!”

Anonymous asked: Jameson, Genesis said this to us personally - she said if you got free, she would forgive you. We promise you she did, you have nothing to fear!

“I swear to God these fucking cameras work for them,” snaps Red, pulling him away before he can answer you.

hollenka99 asked: If it's any consolation, Dok might be safe from the fires. It's not much but at least that's one brother you don't have to worry as much about, right?

Red laughs wildly, and even he doesn’t know if the tears in his eyes are from the smoke or the fear or from the everything, the everything, the disaster that this fucking week has been. He might have a meltdown right here on the forest floor.

“At least Dok is safe,” he chokes. “With Anti, yeah? At least Dok is safe.”

nikkilbook asked: I don’t know where Anti is. But get to the river—that’s where Blue is, and it might offer some protection from the smoke and the fire. Many more people and anons added similar messages telling Red to get out of the forest.

“We’re going, we’re going,” gasps Red, and he and Dapper have reached the shore of the river, but they are more than a mile now from Anti and the others, and the river moves down, down, down farther away. Red trembles, but Dapper’s hand in his own gives him his purpose and his strength, and he squeezes his fingers and heads down towards the water, coughing.

“You just hold on to me,” he calls, pulling Dapper to his back. “It’s not going to be easy to swim with handcuffs on. You got to trust me.”

Dapper shivers, trying to focus. He seems to remember a great anger towards Red - or… Jackie? Or Roser? Or… where are they? Why is Jackie red-haired? What’s happening, he thought -

“Dapper!” Red cries, clutching his face. “Come on, come on! Listen to big brother! I got you, I got you. Do you trust me?”

“Oh - okay, Jackie.”

“I’m not - okay. Don’t be scared. Hold on to me. Let’s go.”

He’s wading into the water. Deeper and deeper.

You’re about to be swallowed up by the water.

“I’m about to lose you,” he says.

He tells himself he’s talking to Anti. He’s not.

“Please just… please just… I hope this isn’t the last time you see me.”

A nervous laugh from his mouth. A little brother clinging to his shoulders. The water lapping at his arms.

“I… I’m sorry if I… I know I haven’t always been…”

He stops short, just for a second, pulling you off his shoulder and turning to smile at you. His eyes are red, but his mouth, for once, has found its calm. He holds Dapper tight in his other hand.

“Thanks for everything,” he croaks. “Goodbye.”

He turns the camera off and shoves it in his bag, and plunges into the safety of the river, drifting farther and farther away from Anti, from Blue, from everyone, and your signal cuts out.

the-weirdest-fan asked: Genesis, I dont know if anyone mentioned it, but Trick has a kitten with him. Please take the kitten as well. I don't want it to die.

“Okay, scoop your kitten up,” sighs Christofer, still grappling with a hysterical, screaming Trickshot. “Here you go, come on, gringo, it wants you.”

Noodle mewls as he is passed into Trick’s trembling hands. Trick sobs wildly and clutches his kitten to his chest, hyper-ventilating against his fur.

“Yeah, there you go,” soothes Christofer, clapping Trick’s shoulder hard enough to make him hiccup. He doesn’t have a particularly soothing voice - he sounds like Morgan Freeman gargling rocks - but he’s trying.

hollenka99 asked: Please be careful with Trick. Obviously, do what you must to get him back to the car and make him stay there long enough for you to leave. But be careful because he's not going to accept your help (which I probably don't have to tell you). Also, look out. There's company heading your way.

“Okay, we’re being careful, real careful.” Christofer pats Trick again and turns him around, ignoring a scared little squeak as he starts to march Trick up the hill. “We’ll take you back to the other man and get the monster out of your head if we can, okay, little man?”

“No, no,” cries Trick, clutching at his kitten. “No, no, don’t want to.”

“Here, give me that camera, boy, you don’t need to be talking to him now.”

Trick sobs as you are taken away from him, mumbling about Doktor and Anti and dying. Christofer stares skeptically down at you.

“Company? Are the Colombians here? I hope Emmanuela and Juana are handling the demon alright. I think maybe I should turn you off, if you’re talking to the demon.”

Anonymous asked: Chase hang in there, they're going to take you to dok. genesis is gonna return the kindness you did by letting her go.

“We’re going to Dok?” whimpers Trick.

“That’s right, man.”

“What about A-A-Anti?”

“Don’t worry about him now. Come on, you poor fucking sap.”

Anonymous asked: oh fuck, oh fuck everything is bad genesis y'all need to snatch whoever you can and RUN, anti's basically just swallowed a goddamn nuclear bomb

Christofer stops short, staring at you. “A nuclear…”

He turns his head, surveying the scene around him. To his relief, help does in fact seem to be coming - he sees another couple cars up on the hill, and people coming out of them, directing each other. He’s fairly sure it’s the Colombians, of the Order of the Condor, or maybe the Argentinians, of the Hornero.

But not everything is good news.

“Oh, mierda,” he breathes. “The forest is burning.”

immabethehero asked: Genesis? Hermann needs help and Red and Dapper are trapped in the fire. immabethehero asked: Nevermind, Red and Dapper are in the water. Possibly Drowning. Genesis, you and the others good?

Hermann is sitting on the beach of the river with Blue asleep in his arms. He rocks his body gently back and forth, humming to himself as the fire gets closer.

“Genesis is gone,” he says softly. “Back to safety. She’s still hurt from the other day, so Emmanuela will not let her come and go.”

Anonymous asked: hermann, hermano, thank you. go now, as fast as you can!

“I’m sorry,” mumbles Hermann. “I don’t know that I have the strength to rise - I certainly cannot carry him through the fire…”

hollenka99 asked: Hermann, anything you can do to help will be greatly appreciated. So long as you're doing your best, that's enough for now. Good luck with the healing spell.

“Thank you,” whispers Hermann. “I’ve done all I can now. I’m sorry. I’ll carry him into the river if I have to, but that is the only safety I can offer now.”

Blue is breathing well enough for you to see it, now, but he is terribly pale, his eyes faintly open, but clouded and dull. His mouth trembles slightly open. He lets Hermann rock him, mumbling to himself. He feels like he is floating above his own body and he cannot remember his name or where he is in the world.

Anonymous asked: Christofer bro idk if you lift, but if you can get Chase secure you need to go get Hermann and our friend Marvin. I hope you can carry two dudes at once

“I can carry these little gringos. Where is Hermann? I must go get someone to help me with the fire, I will not take this little man down there. I will hurry to get him tied down in the car.”

Anonymous asked: Get out at fast as you can, while you still can. Anti will do anything to hold onto what he has, and if he notices you getting away with one of his possessions he will attack.

“What sort of a monster is this?” scowls Christofer. “It is unnatural for a demon to be so interested in keeping humans like this, and to have such power. There is some corruption in it. It has to be killed.”

Trick screeches and kicks at Christofer’s back, thrown over his shoulders like a huge teddy bear. “That’s my brother!” he shrieks. “He’s not a fucking demon! You don’t understand! He’ll kill you, fucker!”

Anonymous asked: Christopher, please, please, stay alert! Anti might come running since he hears Trick screaming, he's currently a big black dog pumped with magic and he would fuck your shit up, please be careful!

Christofer startles, staring around him.

He thought he heard something snap in the trees.

A low growl curls through the air around him.

“Okay,” mumbles Christofer, pulling Trick down from his shoulder and holding him in front of his chest. “Alright, demonio, where are you?”

Anti is on his left, a dog.

On his right, a deer.

Before him, a man.

All of them flickering and then gone in an instant.

He burns with power. His eyes are black with two bright blue glowing irises in the middle.

“Give me back my boy,” hisses a voice which glitches and spasms and growls. “Give me back my pet.”

“Others are coming,” warns Christofer slowly. His arm is wrapped around Trick’s neck, tight, tight. “You can’t beat everyone.”

“Are you sure?” echoes Anti’s voice. “Are you so sure?”

Anonymous asked: Christofer, Anti is coming and he’s coming FAST. Just hold on to Trick and run, you can’t fight him

“Ay! You there?” someone is calling through the trees in Spanish, footsteps approaching. “Emmanuela called us to come help!”

Christofer turns slowly in a circle in his little copse of trees. He just needs to buy time. He just needs to buy time to get away and bring this shuddering, hypnotized, abused little creature back to safety. Back to the twin with the glasses.

Don’t die for these men, he remembers himself saying. Not everyone can be saved.

He pulls a knife out of his pant pocket. Trick gives a short, hysterical giggle, feeling ready to faint.

“Is - is that a knife in your pocket?” he asks. “Or are you just - ”

“What are you talking about?”

“Old joke,” snorts Trick. “It’s - ”

Anti lunges forward and Trick screams as he is grabbed by the ankle and dragged away. Christofer bellows and swings his knife at Anti, catching him on the back, and Anti howls and drops Trick, whirling around to meet Christofer, lunging onto his chest.

“Hey!” someone shouts. Trick watches in horror as teeth burrow deep into Christofer’s chest and throat, leaving him wailing aloud, only for more magicians to appear from the trees, one of them pulling a bow and arrow back and aiming at Anti, who disappears into a blur of glitches. Suddenly Trick is being aimed at instead.

“Stay away from him!” Taking the form of a man again, Anti shoves into the woman, drawing a line across her stomach with a knife. She kicks up at him with a burst of electricity and he shrieks, his body dissolving.

“Anti!” cries Trick.

“Go to Blue on the river! Now, Trick, now! I’ll catch up with you but don’t stop running!”

“Anti, there’s a dozen more coming down from the hill!”

“Go, Trick! Now!”

And Anti falls upon a growing group of magicians like a wild thing, fire exploding on the earth around him, with great plants growing, growing, growing out of the earth, spreading the fire further. Glitching is his best tool now - he can move from place to place before he can be struck, fleeing from the strongest blows. A great fury is burning in his chest, so bright it is painful - he swears he can feel that Doktor is gone, like one of his ribs was removed. He has not been so far from any of his boys since he captured Blue, and not knowing where he is - whether he is even alive -

“I’ll make you fucking pay for this!” he screams, even as a gun is pointed at his head. “You stole my boy from me!”

Anonymous asked: Anti, you’ve already lost.

“No, no,” groans Anti, glitching farther and farther away from the fight, pushed back towards the great river, fire lighting up the air around him. He can hear more and more humans yelling at him, surrounding him, attacking him - a bullet cracks in the air around him and he gasps, crumpling to the ground for just a moment as steel whizzes past his ear, drawing more blood. He is dizzy and overwhelmed, power still flowing with his blood out of his mouth and ears and eyes. He looks like a monster and he knows it. He laughs aloud.

“Wrangle the goddamn thing!”

“It doesn’t act like a normal demon!”

“It’s stolen someone’s power and entangled itself with technology and electric signals.”

“Unnatural in every sense.”

“Are we sure this is even a demon?”

He screams and tears forward again, burying his teeth in another throat. A club is brought down hard on his head and he wails, glitching away, his form beginning to collapse.

Anonymous asked: jesus can someone just axe this damn dog already

“Hey, cool, a camera!” says a young man in Spanish, picking you up.

“Damascus!” someone berates, and Damascus shrieks and drops it as a dog tears past his head, nearly ripping his ear off. He scrambles away and another magician lashes out at Anti, only to have him get a grip on their ankle and snap.

abirbable asked: Christopher, I think you need to run... You don’t have the strength to face the demon, so the river might be your only chance!

“Maria, get Christofer to safety!”

“I’ve got him!”

You can see his body being dragged away, out of the burning forest, by a small girl much stronger than she looks. Another magician is trying to call down water to stop the fire, but it continues to burn.

“We have to put this out!”

“We have to stop the demon first!”

“And find the men it captured!”

“There’s no time for that! The whole forest could be gone and the fire could be spreading to the fields and the villages!”

immabethehero asked: Christofer? Hermann needs help . He’s still on the beach and Blue is with them.

“They say one of the Peruvians is down there!”

“We can’t get to him through this fire.”

“Or past the fucking - ah! Get the fucking thing off!”

“Julio!”

Anti is breaking down.

Anonymous asked: Aw, poor Anti. Your control is slipping through your fingers like sand.

Anti chokes up blood onto the earth and laughs as the fire begins to grow to unmanageable heights, the magicians darting to get away from both him and the flames, unable to fight in a burning forest. He will track them down one-by-one, then, and pick up Dapper and Red, and go find his Doktor, and then everything will be fine.

“Back, back, back,” he groans, swaying. “Give him back to me.”

Anonymous asked: anti you can't sustain this

He laughs. “I will do… what I have to do! I - I can still catch these goddamn sorcerers. I can still - ”

A terrible light blinds him and he shrieks, falling to his side as a dog much smaller than his usual form.

There, amidst the fire and the smoke, her long, black, shining hair glowing, stands Emmanuela, glowing like a star - pure bright magic, burning Anti deeper and deeper.

He is staggering away before he can stop himself, gasping and tearing at his face. “No, no, no!”

“Emmanuela!” someone screams. “Don’t go into that fire!”

“We have to go find the other men!” Emmanuela screams.

“The fire is spreading! We have to put it out! If we find them, then we find them, but we have to put this fire out! We need your frost kid, where is he?”

“Injured! You can ask nothing of him, send others in his stead, maybe if we can reach the edges of the fire on time we can stop it from spreading! Don’t hurt the men if you find them!”

“Damascus, Ella, Maria, take the others and split up, get to putting the fire out!”

Anti tries to register what they’re saying, but his brain is full of pain and buzzing, aching, stinging magic, and he thinks he is a deer, trying not to collapse to its knees in the middle of a forest he set on fire.

Anonymous asked: this can't be it, this can't be how magic works, it can't be so cruel, marvin, if you're awake, jesus christ I don't even know what

“Cruel?” mumbles Blue.

He stares up at the sky, but cannot see the stars.

“No, no… it’s just… me. My flowers… my warmth… healing and spells whispered in Spanish poetry, protection and safety and the smell of the forest after it rains…”

He tilts his head up slightly. All he can make out is a small figure moving towards him and a great, burning light in the distance.

“What has he done with my magic?” he chokes, tears rolling down his cheeks. Hermann tries to shush him, wiping them away. “What has he done with my soul?”

Anonymous asked: Blue, you’re going to need to stay very still. Don’t waste your energy, you’re still extremely weak. He’s here to help, we promise.

“They’re right, just rest,” murmurs Hermann, petting his shoulder. “Try not to think about it. I… I’ll do everything I can for you. Just take it easy, my friend.”

abirbable asked: Hang on, Hermann! Help is on the way!

Hermann turns hopeful eyes towards the forest.

But there is only one person coming.

Trick runs towards them with his face tear-stained and a kitten on his chest. Hermann grits his teeth together, trying to think. He doesn’t have the strength for a fight right now. The fire only comes closer.

“Hey,” he mumbles - to you, to Blue, to everything. “I’m sorry.”

Anonymous asked: Hermann, can you swim? Or at least float, and keep Marvin up as well? You might have to go down the river

“Come, come,” he murmurs, scooping Blue up in his arms. “We should get in the water before the fire comes.”

Trick is shouting behind him, crying out for him to stop.

“Give me my brother!” he calls. “Stop, stop, don’t hurt him!”

Hermann pulls Blue gently to the water and carries him in until he is awash to the stomach, carrying Blue in his arms. He turns them away from the fire, buries his face in Blue’s shoulder, and hums an old song of praise, because he doesn’t know what else to sing.

Anonymous asked: trick, help blue and hermann get back to the sorcerers. they can bring you to dok, anti can't.

Trick stumbles towards Blue and Hermann, shaking like an animal in a wire trap.

“I just want this to be over,” he moans, holding Noodle a little too tight. “I w-want this to stop.”

Anonymous asked: Trick, don’t hurt them.

“He won’t hurt Blue? Please, my big brother…”

whydoilovesomanyvillians asked: Can trick look at this camera because if so that man isnt trying to hurt him trick he saved marvins life

“Saved him?” chokes Trick, stumbling forward. “Saved him?”

“He’s okay, he’s okay,” whispers Hermann, sunk low in that river, praying Trick does not carry another gun. “We’re okay, we’re okay.”

Anonymous asked: Blue, there will be time to mourn your magic later. You're you with or without it, no matter how much it hurts. Just rest. People will come to help.

Blue hums softly and blinks up at the darkness around him, finding a familiar shape blurred before him. He sighs and reaches out for Trick, exhausted.

“You okay, love?” he murmurs, trying to find him in the dull light of his clouded vision. “Why are you crying? Come here, tell me…”

immabethehero asked: Hey magicians? One of you might need to save Dapper and Red. Dapper has a knife and a mustache, Red had red hair and an existential crisis

You can no longer find a magician on any of your cameras - some of them have been cracked and warped by the heat, others are abandoned on the ground. You will have to trust in what they said - if they find them, they will help them, but first they must put out a fire now raging for more than a mile down the banks of the Rio Puturnayo.

pixie-in-trebleland asked: Anti, you're only hurting yourself at this point. Stop.

“No,” groans Anti, and now he is just a frayed and exhausted Jack, stumbling through the fire, a knife still clutched in his hands. “If I run, how will I find Doktor? I failed him… I want him, I want him back, my - my pet, my Henrik…”

He stumbles to his knees. Pain is slicing him in half, bitter and sweet magic clashing together horribly in his chest, and he can taste and smell and see nothing but copper and fire. The heat has begun to lick at him and he watches in numb astonishment as he begins to burn the way that men burn, the ends of his fingers blackening against the earth of the forest. Self-preservation drives him back to his feet, gasping for pain.

“If I run, I… how will I ever get them back? If I run… where is Doktor? Where is Doktor? Where did I let them take him, why wasn’t I watching, why didn’t he scream? I… I… If I run…”

nikkilbook asked: Trick, look at them. Anti left Blue to die on the beach after ripping out his soul. Hermann’s helping him float in the water to keep him away from the fire. abirbable and five anons sent similar messages and were added.

Tears well up and overflow in Trick’s eyes.

He is stepping down into the water, wading towards Blue and Hermann.

“It’s okay, it’s okay,” Hermann reassures softly, reaching out for him, holding Blue to his chest. “Look, we’re okay. Come hold your brother, he wants to see you.”

And then Trick is buried in Blue’s chest, holding his brother around those fragile ribs, clutching him close.

“Blue, Blue, Blue,” he croaks, kissing his face. “No, no, no, don’t go, stay with me.”

“Not going anywhere,” promises Blue softly, pulling him down so he can press a kiss into his hair. “Not going anywhere, amata.”

“Just rest, okay? Just rest, it’s alright, I’ll carry you. It’s okay. I love you, I’m sorry.”

“I love you, I love you. It’s okay, little brother. It’s okay.”

Anonymous asked: hey anti? it's okay.

Anti breathes in.

Breathes out.

Smoke and magic.

“It’s okay, it’s okay,” he whispers, stepping towards the river. “Hey, Anti, it’s okay.”

He is trotting slowly down towards the beach, numb to the shouting and screaming behind him, numb to the fire.

“I’ll get him back, won’t I?” he breathes. “I’ll find him again. It’s okay, it’s okay… just one battle lost, I… I have to protect what I have left.”

They’re there before him in the river - Trick and Blue and - did Dapper or Red come back? Who…

Anti stops short on the beach of the river, staring down at the water.

Hermann stares back, Blue held between himself and Trick.

Anonymous asked: hermann, marvin, i dont know if it will help much but i wanted to send you something by dylan thomas: do not go gentle into that good night, old age should burn and rave at close of day, rage, rage against the dying of the light. grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight, blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay, rage, rage against the dying of the light. i wish you luck

“Do not go gentle into that good night,” whispers Hermann, drawing Trick and Blue to his chest. “Old age should burn and rave at close of day…”

He never takes his gaze from Anti’s black and blue eyes.

“Rage, rage, against the dying of the light.”

Anti steps into the water and wades towards them. His blood runs into the water.

“Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight…”

Anti pulls out a knife, his body glitching and spasming unnaturally, horribly, painfully.

“Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay.”

Anti stands before him, Trick and Blue between them, a fire burning behind them.

“Rage, rage,” whispers Hermann. “Against the dying of the light.”

Anti is holding out his arms.

Hermann breathes.

In.

Out.

“No,” he whispers. “You will have to take them from me.”

Anti’s eyes narrow.

But he does not strike out.

Gently, he reaches out, and takes from Hermann Blue’s body, pulling him to his own chest, wrapping his tired arms around him. Trick pulls away too, his face pale and reddened at the eyes, his gaze dead and sorry and all full of longing as he meets Hermann’s eyes for one moment longer.

Hermann will never forget that gaze.

Anti turns and carries Blue down the shallows of the river, across to the safety of the other side. Trick follows blindly, holding Noodle tight to his shoulder, tears running down his face, though he never once looks back at Hermann.

Hermann stands in the river for a long, long time.

Until the fire is gone out, and those who remain alive behind him have reconvened, and worried hands are drawing his exhausted body from the water, passing him to Emmanuela, who pulls him to her chest and kisses his face til he stops saying “I’m sorry, Mama, I’m sorry,” over and over and over again.

abirbable asked: Trick... you just lost your last chance at being okay and happy. If you go with Anti, only pain and sorrow await you and your brothers... Why have you shunned those who might help you?

“Time to be quiet,” says Anti softly, placing the camera in his backpack. “We have no need of you now.”

Anonymous asked: Yeah, speaking of Anti, how's that fire treating him?

“Anti?” comes a tired whisper from behind him.

His voice is flat and dead when he speaks.

“Yes, love.”

“You’re all covered in burns… you and Blue both…”

Trick never receives a reply. Noodle is crying in his arms and he holds his cat close to his chest, stroking his perfect golden ears.

“Anti?”

“Yes, love.”

“Where are we going?”

“I’m going to take you and Blue far away to heal.”

“Oh.”

They trudge on through the darkness. They give off no signal. With Blue’s magic buried under Anti’s, they are finally hidden.

“Anti?”

“Yes.”

“Are the others really gone?”

Night birds call from the trees. Insects chirrup and leap around Trick’s legs, following him curiously through the underbrush of the Amazon.

“Yes, Trick.”

“Even… even Red and Dapper?”

“I don’t know where they are. I can’t feel them close. The magicians must have taken them as well.”

“Oh.”

His stomach aches and pulls at him and his legs are sore and eaten up, even though he listened to Dok, and didn’t roll his pants legs up. There is blood somewhere on him, but he can’t seem to focus on where - just knows that he is sticky, and hot, and tired.

But at least he’s not a prisoner.

“Anti?” he whispers, the quietest one yet.

“We’ll get them back,” Anti answers, before he even needs to speak the words out loud. “We’ll get them back.”

He turns around for the first time all night, Blue dangling from his arms. Trick stares up at him in the darkness, his eyes wet.

“Don’t cry,” whispers Anti, leaning in to kiss his hair. “I’m going to make this right again. I’m going to see Blue well again and find the oldest and the youngest. I’m going to get your twin back for you.”

“You promise?” whispers Trick, clinging to his shirt, just for a moment.

“Yes,” whispers Anti. “Yes. I promise.”

He’s made assurances like these before.

Assurances of happiness, and brotherhood, and an end to the pain.

On a beach in Norway, he made promises to the man now lain across his arms.

He regrets, now, that he did not keep them.

But you will never hear him say that out loud.

 End Chapter Two: That Which is Stolen

[anistarrose]

This is Your Last Ride Ever, Forever (TAZ Amnesty x Balance)

Summary: Ned meets the Grim Reaper, who’s surprisingly encouraging of breaking the laws of life and death to stop the apocalypse.

Word Count: ~2100

Warnings: (canonical) major character death, character undeath, canon-typical violence

AO3: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19192672

A little Amnesty/Balance crossover to help cope. (Title is from Lifetime Achievement Award by Lemon Demon!)

***

The stars are beautiful, and then they’re gone…

And then, they’re replaced by a million spiraling lights, dancing above a serene blue sea.

Ned doesn’t join them, though. He feels anything but serene — no, he’s the roaring ocean that’s torn up and whirled around by a cyclone. He’s the weight that turns the storm deadly as it batters away at the harbor, as it rushes in to drown anyone who thought they could trust the sea.

But even now, he refuses to accept it as the end of the story.

Where’s Dani? Where’s the gate?

Am I dead? I can’t die yet, I still haven’t warned anyone that the shapeshifter was after the goat…

I still haven’t finished cleaning up the mess I made…

It’s ironic, perhaps, how close he came to leaving them just a few hours ago when now he’s so desperate to return — but really, there’s no excuse for him not to have seen this coming. Every time Ned thinks he’s lost it all, thinks he’s hit rock bottom, he’s proven wrong and finds himself sinking lower and lower — so why should this time have been any different?

A jagged rift slices through the air just a few feet in front of him, and he dives towards it without thinking. He’ll do anything to get back to them even for the briefest of moments, anything to warn them —

Appearing out of nowhere, a scythe swings in a broad arc, binding the rift shut before coming to a stop just inches away from Ned. He can feel the power emanating from it with a instinctive certainty he’s never before had about magical objects, and he knows in the back of his mind that one touch of that blade will banish him to the furthest depths of the afterlife, from which he might never see Kepler again even if he spent a whole century struggling to climb back out.

The figure holding the scythe is cloaked in black robes, their face obscured, and something tells Ned that missing him with the scythe was a calculated choice, an intentional choice. That if they’d meant to strike him, they would have, and that would have been the end of that.

But the scythe-wielder — a humanoid, somewhat stout figure with sparks of red electricity dancing all across their sleeves like static electricity — doesn’t make any further move to attack, and instead procures a book from within the folds of their robe. It floats in the air alongside their head, flipping through pages all on its own as if assigned to search for a particular entry.

“Look, bud, I don’t really want to send you to the Eternal Stockade,” the figure addresses him, voice masculine and tone surprisingly casual. “You look pretty disoriented, and I can’t really blame you — but you did just try to make a break for it, and if it turns out you’re a repeat offender, I can’t in good conscience let you keep hanging around in the low-security sector.”

He says all of this in such a matter-of-fact tone that Ned is left at a complete loss for words. Of all the visions of the afterlife he’d ever entertained, none of them had been so full of… bureaucracy.

The pages of the book come to a standstill, and the figure raises a skeletal hand up towards his shadow-obscured face, allowing Ned to catch a glimpse of something reflective — adjusted glasses?

“Let’s see here… Edmund ‘Ned’ Chicane, human, only one death — good for you! — at age sixty-three. You’re good to go, then — just don’t try anything like this again, or I’ll have to lock you up.”

Ned finally manages to collect himself, and choke out a few words. “You’re the Grim Reaper, aren’t you?”

The specter approximates a shrug. “Well, not the Grim Reaper. There’s three of us, for one thing, but… well, I guess it’s a pretty accurate description aside from that.”

Another thing Ned had never imagined was that death incarnate would be so willing to make casual conversation, but the realization gives him all kinds of hope. Escaping prison — and supernatural prison, at that — would be a daunting task, but just talking his way out of a bad situation? That, he could do.

“Well, you know, Mr. Reaper, if I may call you that — I’m a huge fan of yours, loved you in ‘The Masque of the Red Death!’ And I would really hate to throw a wrench in the operation you have set up here, but…”

The reaper’s book vanishes in a plume of smoke, and his grip on his scythe tightens. “Okay, I think we both know what you’re playing at here, and let me just warn you now — even if I did want to let you go, it’s not my decision to make. I already told you I wasn’t the only reaper, and even if we all agreed to let back into the world of the living, the Raven Queen would never sign off on it. Flattering me isn’t gonna get you anywhere.”

“But I need to get back!” Ned blurts out. “I made a mistake, a whole pile of mistakes, and I need to fix them — there is an entire planet, an entire world in danger because of me! The apocalypse is impending for a whole world of innocent, sapient creatures, and hardly anyone knows the truth of it! Hardly anyone can stop it, except me and —”

The reaper flinches at the mention of a world in danger, but Ned doesn’t notice because the words, the confessions, the pleas are now pouring out of his mouth too fast to contain. “Except me and the rest of the Pine Guard, but I left them without doing nearly enough to help, to make it up to them — so I need to get back, just for a few hours! Just to make sure they’ll be alright! To warn them, and — and to say goodbye, because they and Kirby were still the closest thing I ever had to a family…”

He’s oblivious to the enchantment the reaper has cast, compelling him to speak the truth — because if telling the truth meant getting back to Kepler, meant saving the world and in particular the Pine Guard… then not even Ned Chicane would dare to lie.

“Just a big, weird, dumb family of cryptids and magicians and park rangers and crazy old men trying to stave off the apocalypse together! I can’t abandon them now, I can’t —”

“Shh.” The reaper holds up a hand. “Shh, it’s alright. I just need to check something, okay?”

With his scythe, he cuts a small tear in the dimension, edges of the rift glowing a vibrant green. Yet the inside of the gash shows nothing but a churning storm of dark purple clouds that cover the night sky, blotting out the stars as the wind roars and howls like chained beast straining to be free.

“Yikes. It really does look apocalyptic in there. Tell you what, Ned…”

In the shadowy void beneath the cowl of his robe, a devious smile lights up. “Legally, there’s nothing I can do to help you. But if it just so happened that Edmund Chicane was an unnaturally skilled necromancer, who overpowered me and stole my scythe to slip back into his own plane of existence… well, he’d need a corporeal form to be much of a help to anyone, but surely someone of his skill level could reanimate his body without any help from me whatsoever… I’m sure he’d be in a good position to avert the apocalypse, in that case.”

“Thank you,” Ned whispers, but the reaper quickly raises a finger to his lips.

“Don’t thank me yet,” he replies. “Really, you should know… a stunt like that, it’s gonna earn you a lot of prison time. I’m gonna have to bring you back here eventually, and when that happens, a bunch of folks are going to want you locked up in the Eternal Stockade. I can try my best to get your sentence mitigated, but… the Stockade’s not a nice place, even if you’re only in for a few decades.”

“I don’t care. I’ve done prison time before.”

The reaper nods slowly, and with a flick of his scythe, he tears a longer gash in the air, widening the small rift he’d opened before.

Before he steps through, though, he waves a hand across his robes, and stands still for a moment as they melt away into… a plain white shirt, battered denim jacket, and faded pair of blue jeans, worn by possibly the most mundane-looking middle-aged man Ned has ever laid eyes upon.

“Now, Mr. Reaper, I realize that I’m deeply indebted to you,” Ned says, “but that said, what on Earth are you wearing?”

“Can’t walk around looking like a skeleton if I’m gonna sneak over to your dead body and resurrect it,” the reaper answers. “And just call me Barry, by the way.”

***

Kirby is speeding across Kepler in a stolen car with a screaming goatman buckled up in the back seat, and none of it feels real. Street signs and traffic lights pass by in unidentifiable blurs, but he doesn’t dare take a hand off the steering wheel to wipe his tears away. His knuckles are white, and the old station wagon’s engine is groaning from the exertion —

The four-armed figure of pure white light springs down onto the car, and a spiderweb of cracks spreads across the windshield. Kirby slams the brakes on instinct, and Billy lets out an anguished bleat as his head collides with the back of the driver seat.

“Fuck!” Kirby shouts as two of the figure’s arms jab in through the windshield, grasping at thin air at first but stretching ever closer to him, and he fumbles with his seatbelt and flings the door open. “C’mon, goat, we gotta run!”

“Duuuuuck!” Billy bleats, flailing his arms nowhere near his buckle as Kirby opens his door. Somehow, the seatbelt has gotten twisted all around his horns, and he won’t stop jerking his head around long enough for Kirby to untangle him.

“Stay still, please stay still, we don’t have any time —”

Billy’s head abruptly jerks up, and his slitted eyes fixate on something just past Kirby. “Nedddddd!”

“Ned’s not gonna be able to help us anymore,” Kirby chokes out. “Please —”

A firm hand lands on Kirby’s shoulder, and his blood runs cold as he realizes he can make out a white glow in his peripheral vision. The figure squeezes tighter and tighter, dragging him back from the car and away from Billy —

He hears the satisfying swish of a blade swinging through the air, and the figure’s grip goes limp. He collapses to his knees, and around him, tiny particles of light drift through the air, winking out one at a time like lightning bugs.

Behind him, a familiar voice remarks: “Got here just in the nick of time, didn’t I?”

Immediately, Kirby staggers to his feet and whirls around. “You — you died! I saw it on the drones! How —”

His voice cuts off, as his brain begins to process what his eyes are seeing.

Ned is smiling slightly, but it’s not that fake showman’s smile that he always wears at the Cryptonomica. No, today his smile is confident and determined — and just a little bit melancholic, too, in a way that someone who doesn’t know Ned as well as Kirby does could easily miss.

But then again, maybe Kirby doesn’t know Ned as well as he thinks, because Ned is currently wielding a giant ebony scythe with a long silver blade, and standing above the glowing, bisected body of the four-armed figure. Even as it disintegrates, it’s clear that it was sliced in half at the waist by a single clean cut.

And perhaps most damning of all is Ned’s shirt — ripped and bloodied just above the stomach even though the bare skin shows no sign of a wound, and the body as a whole shows no signs of being dead as an injury like that should surely mean.

“What happened to you?”

Ned’s smile widens, and the melancholy immediately drains right out of his expression as he launches into his familiar “storyteller” mode.

“To put it succinctly, my friend, I met Death and we struck a deal! He’s a surprisingly helpful fellow, you know — he did wear a truly unconscionable amount of denim, but there’s no accounting for taste.”

***

(Thanks for reading, feedback/reblogs are welcomed as always!)

[flairmagazineblog]

Exclusive Interview: Selling Sunset

Netflix is getting most of us through the pandemic and Season 2 of the real-estate meets reality show, Selling Sunset, couldn’t have been released at a better time. What’s more ideal than binge-watching the sale of ultra-luxurious properties to the rich and famous while jade rolling on the couch? 

If you haven’t already binge-watched the entire season then fasten your seatbelts! The American reality show follows the Oppenheim Group’s incredible team of realtors as they broker multi-million dollar deals in Louboutins and designer outfits. Unlike most reality shows, Selling Sunset is a refreshing mix of business and pleasure focusing on both the personal and professional lives of the cast. As you can expect from a reality show, it isn’t all fun and games on the Sunset Strip; the ladies are friends as well as fierce competitors as they strive to outsell one another. Flair Magazine was lucky enough to sit down with two of the stars of the show, Christine Quinn and Heather Rae Young to ask them some of our burning questions.

Christine Quinn

How has your life changed since Selling Sunset was aired on Netflix? 

 Since Selling Sunset has aired, I have been blessed with so many opportunities and new friends!  I did the show because I wanted to entertain and inspire people.  I love interacting with fans.  Social media is such an incredible platform.  I have really enjoyed using my platform as a neutral place for love and kindness. 

Spill the tea! Have you worked with any celebrities? How was it? 

I have worked with loads of celebrities.  I am always surprised on how down to earth and humble most of them are.  I am currently working with Karamo Brown, from ‘Queer Eye’ on Netflix. I look forward to helping him find the home of his dreams. He is such a positive person who prides himself on helping people become the best versions of themselves.  Naturally, I knew we would be the perfect match! I showed a home to Kendal Jenner once. She is naturally stunning and super chill.  I have also worked with Orlando Bloom, he was an absolute blast.

Season 2 of Selling Sunset is out now on Netflix and most of us have already binge-watched it. Can you tell fans what they can expect in Season 3?

Season 3 is the best season yet. I am currently undergoing construction on my home.  You will see an exclusive ‘sneak peek’ of me working with my designer to transform my dream home.  The viewers will also join me in the wedding planning journey, all the way through to the big day.  During the finale, my dream wedding finally comes to life!  There are so many intricate details, and surprises that I can’t wait to share.

(Season 3 will premiere on August 7, 2020)

What is a must-have home design feature that you are currently obsessed with?

 I love to cook and my kitchen is the favorite part of my home.  Beverages are my jam. Flavored waters, sodas, juice, etc.  We decided to incorporate a special glass ‘beverage’ fridge as a display feature in our home.  I want it to be treated as a piece of art with neatly organized drinks by color.  I was actually inspired by Kris Jenner for this piece.  She always has an immaculately clean glass fridge full of refreshing options.  I am a sucker for a fancy bubbly water.

What is your favourite part of working at the Oppenheim Group? 

The family dynamic we have is really special. We are all friends outside of the office, and strive to create a causal, yet fun, work environment. We set our own schedules, and are able to work when we want, and we can be selective with clients.  I love being able to set my own hours and be my own boss.

Heather Rae Young

How has your life changed since Selling Sunset was aired on Netflix?  

Wow life changed a lot for me not only in my personal life but my business life. I am in an amazing  relationship with Tarek El Moussa (from HGTV’s “Flip or Flop” and “Flipping 101”) you get to see the beginning of my relationship unfold with him and his children and how I navigate through balancing a new relationship and my busy work life. We have now been together 1o months and we are so in love. It’s amazing because we are both in the same business and both on TV and have so much in common. He really understands me and my work and we can bounce ideas off each other and I can turn to him for advice since he’s been in this business longer than me. 

After season 1 of “Selling Sunset” came out, we had a lot of  fake buyers and I had to navigate who was real and who wasn’t. I think being a a woman real estate agent in this cut throat business gave me credibility.

Spill the tea! Have you worked with any celebrities? How was it? 

I have personally worked with professional athletes, but the Oppenheim group as a team works with many celebrities.

Season 2 of Selling Sunset is out now on Netflix and most of us have already binge-watched it. Can you tell fans what they can expect in Season 3? 

Well, in my opinion season 2 is juicier with more drama than season 1. Season 3 has even more drama plus more gorgeous real estate, a wedding, a divorce and much more. We are so excited to show the world the amazing homes, designs and architecture that we get to see on an everyday basis. 

What is a must-have home design feature that you are currently obsessed with? 

I am obsessed with mid-century modern design and adding textures to walls. Don’t be afraid to add wallpaper. Sexy lighting to me is one of the most important features in a home. I also love carpet in the master bedroom and master closet. I love waking up and putting my feet down on something warm and soft. 

What is your favourite part of working at the Oppenheim Group? 

It’s a boutique agency so it’s small, which I love because we are like a family, we push each other to be better and work harder. It’s a cut-throat business and other agents can be tough. It’s nice to know we can count on each other with business matters and our personal lives.

Exclusive Interview: Selling Sunset was originally published on FLAIR MAGAZINE