#its fine he's a freak who smokes weird

[d1s1ntegrated]

i’ve been listening to this song on repeat and can’t get shiggy out of my head. can you please write something along these lines, cause oh my god would this be so hot🥵

porn star dancing shigaraki pov x stripper reader

summary: dabi drags shigaraki to a "titty bar" for his 21st birthday, because "being a virgin at 21 is like a dog who's never had a biscuit". 

cw: quirkless au! dabi and shiggy are best friends, drinking, strip club setting, shiggy's pov, alt!reader, oral virginity loss, language, nudity, oral (male rec), groping, whining, pining, slightsub!tomura, virgin!tomura, slightlydom!reader, teasing, private lap dance, happy ending lol, handjob, headshoving, dirty talk, basically just shiggy being an epic simp loser. wc: ~4230 words

this is from tomura's pov. i felt it would convey his sluttiness best :)

·̩̩̥͙＊*���̩̩͙✩•̩̩͙*˚　　˚*•̩̩͙✩•̩̩͙*˚＊·̩̩̥͙

"GET OFF THE GAME, DUMBASS. WE'RE GOING OUT". dabi's voice shouts from down the hall. i sigh and roll my eyes, yanking my headset off my head. usually, i'd ignore him, but i knew he wouldn't leave me alone today. i tried not to make a big deal about it, but he's been making a stink about my birthday for months now, as if drinking legally at a bar would feel any different than drinking illegally in my room. but, hell, if it gets him to shut up, i guess.

i groan and stretch myself out of my gaming chair, giving my prized possession a solemn goodbye, and trod out of my room. dabi is waiting in the hallway, leaning against the wall. "there you are, freak. you ready to go get wasted with a bunch of topless bitches?" he looks me up and down, smiling sadistically. i shrug, and he pats my shoulder.

"come on, lets get trashed." i know i can't argue with him, so i follow him out the door, thinking about how badly i'd rather go back to my room and play league. whatever.

---------------------------------------------------- the club is sketchy, to say the least. a dark grey exterior with no windows, just one neon sign above that reads "the silk iris" in flashy pink lettering. at least it's not named some weird shit like "vixen den".

i suck air in through my teeth as dabi lights a cigarette next to me. "can we go home?" i say miserably next to him. he chuckles, taking a long drag.

"fuck no, shigs. we're goin' in, and i'm gonna tell those pretty girlies in there that it's your birthday" he flashes his teeth at me and instead of a smile, i see a predator baring its fangs in warning. fuck my life. i try to beg him not to, but he's unreceptive.

"please, dabi, i'll go in, fine, but dont tell them shit, please" i clasp my hands together and shake them at him, as if im praying. but if dabi was a god, he was a cruel and evil one, who doesn't answer prayers.

"fine fine, shigaraki. i'll be nice, i promise." he curls his lips and tosses the finished cigarette to the ground, crushing the filter under his boot. he grabs my shoulder and guides me with an iron grip to the door. "lets go!" he slaps my back hard and i grimace. no going back now.

the door pushes open and immediately, the smell of heavy smoke and cheap cologne rushes my sinuses. theres another door between the club and the entrance, and a part of me wishes i could just sit in the lobby all night. but dabi whips his id out, and i reluctantly follow. we flash them at the bouncer, who nods and grins wide when he sees mine. "happy birthday man. have fun". his voice is gruff and deep, his body towering over mine. i force a slight smile, and nod "thanks" before begrudgingly going through the door.

the lights are low, thank god. deep reds and purples accent the darkly-painted walls, and the carpet is patterned with some vampiric-looking textile, and i study it intently. the music is so loud, the bass shakes my eardrums, and i groan. if i'm gonna be here all night, i'm gonna need a drink. dabi knows this already, and he drags me over to the bar and nods to an empty stool. i slink onto the worn leather and he yanks my hood off my head before he sits next to me. i grumble but he ignores me, and flags down the bartender.

a tall, slender girl in a very tiny bikini top struts over, big pearly smile on her face. her red hair curls gently around her face, and she greets us with a very peppy voice. "hi boys! what can i get for ya?"

dabi eyes the girl up and down and leans back in his seat a bit, giant smirk plastered to his face. his piercings tug at his lips as he answers, "hey doll. it's actually my buddy's birthday today," he claps my shoulder again and i shrink into myself, "what do you recommend?"

the girl claps her hands together and jumps a bit. "happy birthday sweetheart!" those teeth smile at me again, somehow wider than last time. she turns back to dabi and asks, "is this his first time?"

dabi answers with a bellowing laugh, "ohhh yeah. shig's gonna turn into a man tonight" he nudges me and i force out a laugh.

"well, shig," the bartender drags my name out sleazily, "i have just the thing for you." she trots away from us for a few moments, returning with a shot glass full of a bright green substance. "you like fruity drinks?" she asks and nods at me. i shrug and reply "i'm not sure". she lets out a high-pitched giggle and looks to dabi.

"and for you?""whatever's on tap, sweetheart. and a shot of jameson." his voice is low and he's still grinning. she returns half a second later with a tall beer glass, and a little shot of whiskey. she nods at us and says as she tends to another customer now, "ill start a tab for you boys."

i hesitantly pick up the shot glass and dabi picks his up with me. he raises his brows and laughs. "take the shot, pussy". he clinks his glass against mine and i take a deep breath as we take the first shot. it goes down surprisingly easy, much easier than the cheap whiskeys and vodkas i'm used to. its...actually fucking delicious. the bartender notices us and claps. she brings me another one a minute later and i take it fearlessly, the liquid shooting down to my core, warming me up. "thats a green tea shot, love. just in case you wanna order some more" she winks at me as she slides another shot to dabi, "my shift ends in about 5 minutes, so you'll have to order them yourself from now on! happy birthday, sweetie!" i smile at her, feeling my nerves slowly melting away. i thank her and turn to dabi.

"this isn't so bad" i give him a thumbs-up, and he returns it. he picks up the tiny glass and shoots it back, chasing it with the remainder of his beer. he blinks away the burn and shakes his head. "bartender was cute, eh?" he stifles a belch into his fist and claps my back again. "lets go, emo boy." i slide off the stool and follow him.

he leads me to a couple of seats near the stage. i did my best to avoid looking before, but now it was right in front of me. a couple of girls, about six or seven, were twirling around poles, walking up and down the stage, as men greedily shove their hands to touch them, stroke their legs, grab their asses. some shove dollar bills into their waistbands, others hand them bigger bills: tens, twenties, even some fifties. i scoff and take a seat next to dabi, who's already got his wallet out. he hands me a wad of ones, and i sigh.

"i'm not gonna shove my hands into some poor girls panties," i say to him. he glares at me and rolls his eyes. "the more you shove in there, the closer you get to having it, shig. its like buying pussy, bro. come on, just watch." he stands and leans over the stage as a short blonde crawls over, and he beckons her with a finger. he slides his hand over her barely-clothed tits and shoves a couple bills between them. she blows a kiss at him and stands, spinning around a pole and waving at a few of the men before the girls rotate. this goes on for a few minutes, and i feel myself growing uncomfortable with myself.

i grit my teeth and stand next to dabi, and do my best to entice one of the girls over to me. however, once the girl comes over to me, i panic, and end up just handing her a few of the bills in my hand. i wave and immediately smack myself in the face. stupid idiot, what the fuck was that? dabi notices my folly and laughs at me and shakes his head.

"you dumbass, what the hell was THAT?" he raises his voice over the music and i purse my lips.

"i dont know" i say quietly. my head is spinning from the alcohol. i groan and sit back in my seat, afraid to embarrass myself further. suddenly, the music quiets down, and a voice rings through the speaker, announcing a solo act. "please welcome the beautiful, the terrifying, the eat-your-heart-out....calypso!" the group of men cheer as they hear the name. i look confused as the lights switch to a deep sanguine red, and the music switches over from the bass-boosted r&b and rap to metal. a few of the men get up and go to the bar, but watch as they order drinks.

dabi gets up and i call out for him, but he raises a hand and says, "im getting drinks, dude chill! you'll be fine for two minutes!!" the lights brighten again as a girl comes onto the stage. she, like the others, is dressed scantily, but...differently. my eyes widen as she approaches further. she grabs one of the poles and swings her leg around it, and i can't peel my eyes away. her thigh grips the metal, her fishnets so tight against her, i can see the soft skin poking through the holes. the material stretches thin over her ass, which is plump, with only a tiny g-string to cover it. she drops to the floor and lays on her back, her tits spreading in the top as men grab at her, and she slaps them away. they cheer and lay the bills onto the stage, and she gradually grabs the money, shoving it down her top herself.

dabi returns and hands me another shot. i swiftly take it, not taking my eyes off the dancer on the stage. she wraps her hands around another pole and spins a few times before dropping back down, onto her knees this time. i bite my lip and dabi nudges me with his elbow.

"you like that one, shiggy?" he shouts over the heavy guitar solo. i nod slowly and watch her intently. he chuckles beside me and nods. calypso gets to the edge of the stage and i smack the rest of the ones i have in my hand right next to her tall, chunky boots. she notices me and stares down at me and licks her lips, and i feel myself melt. she bends over slowly and grabs the cash, and drags her long fingernail up my neck and jaw. i gulp as she winks at me and whispers something, but i cant hear her over the music.

i feel myself twitch in my pants. i smile weakly up at her and she turns away, collecting the rest of the money on the wooden floor. she then slowly grabs one of the strings of her top and pulls it, slowly unraveling the knot. she spins around as she pulls the top off completely, and tosses it haphazardly in my direction. i scramble up from my seat and grasp at it, unable to control my impulses. i greedily fist it and shove it into my hoodie pocket, hoping she doesn't notice who took it. i fling back in my seat and dabi high fives me.

"WOOOOO! ATTA BOY!" he shouts at me and downs the rest of his glass. i look back up to calypso on the stage, spinning around another pole sleazily. her movements are fluid and flawless, and i swallow the excess drool in my mouth as i watch her. the way her tits look, her supple curves, the jiggle of her ass against the metal and wood as she dances around the stage. none of the other women on the stage before had gotten my attention, but...she did. i cover my lap with my hands and spread my legs to hide the raging hard-on against my tight jeans.

the song ends after an excruciating few minutes and i let out the breath i didnt know i was holding. as she exists the stage, she drags a clawed hand against the mirror wall at the back of the stage. the whole crowd cheers, a few of the men going so far as to shout her name out. the next solo act comes out and i stand up, deciding to hide in the bathroom for a second. fuck, this doesnt look odd or anything.

i tap dabi's shoulder and tell him "i gotta piss, i'll be back" and he just nods as he stares intently at the next dancer.

i rush into the bathroom and slam the door behind me, locking the stall. i sigh and press myself against the shoddy stall door and yank the top i shoved into my pocket out. i press it to my face and inhale. my cock jumps in my pants as i do so, and i stifle a moan. it smells so sweet, and spicy, and just so fucking good. i palm at the front of my jeans as i inhale. fuck, her tits were in here. fuck. i rub my thumb over the soft material, imagining how it rubbed against her nipples, how the strings tugged at the weight of her tits. i shudder and shake my head, shoving the top back into my pocket. not here. i'll have all the time in the world to get off once i'm home, i remind myself. don't be the guy that jerks it in the public bathroom.

i gather myself as best as possible, splashing water on my face before exiting the bathroom. i shiver at the cold on my feverish face and push the heavy door open to see dabi standing outside, grinning maniacally.

"guess what, birthday bitch?" he tilts his head at me and chuckles. i stare with genuine fear as he points to one of the doors across from me.

"you see those doors, buddy?" i nod my head. "you know what's behind those doors?" i shake my head. the third door to the right opens and a man exits, looking absolutely blown away. a girl in a tight white bikini exists after him, looking distracted. fuck.

"dabi, nonononono, i do NOT want a private dance, nonono please" i tug at his jacket and he shakes me off.

"too bad, buddy. you're gettin' one." i whimper out in fear and clench my jaw. "come on, dumbass. youre 21 now. and youre still a virgin. it's kinda sad. at least get the experience of a lap dance, my god."

"dabi, i do not want a lap dance, i want to go-"

"shigaraki, a virgin at 21 is like a puppy who's never had a biscuit before. now go. second door. have fun!" he laughs evilly again and saunters off to the bar again, leaving me to my own devices.

i could run right now, or...

or i could man up and go get a fucking lap dance.

in private.

with a girl.

fuck it, i say to myself and go up to the second door. i take a deep breath and turn the knob, entering slowly. its empty.

what the fuck?

i take a seat on the giant plush....couch? futon? bed thing? i'm not quite sure, but it wraps around the room in a U-shape. the walls are made of all mirrors, with a sound system laid into the wall, and speakers next to the ceiling. i sit in the middle of the leather seats and scratch my neck anxiously. either dabi set me up real good, or...

a knock at the door startles me out of my thought and i look up. the door swings open and swiftly shuts. i recognize the body...the face...calypso walks in and raises her brows at me. every bit of my drunkenness dissipates at the sight.

"you're the birthday boy, huh? that's convenient. can i get my top back?" she says, her voice low and drawn out. she stares down at me and my eyes feel like they're going to fall out of my head. she's wearing something different now: a tight red top with a thong, pulled up around her hips, accentuating her curves. her boots are frighteningly large, thick leather straps and buckles crossing over her calves and thighs.

i fumble over my words as i pull the top out of my pocket, "i, how did you kn- i'm sorry" i wince at my own voice, and she laughs.

"giant mirror. the look on your face. i'm not dumb" she leans in and whispers the last lines into my ear, sending a shiver down my spine.

"oh...okay" i choke out. "sorry" i repeat, and she stands.

"good boy" she nods, and presses a button on the stereo. "porn star dancing" begins to play. i bite my lip and look up at her nervously. she traces my jaw with her nail, just like she did earlier, and climbs into my lap.

"do you want a lap dance, pretty boy?" her voice is sweet and sultry in my ears. i grip her thighs instinctively as she grinds into me slightly and i nod furiously. any intention i had of resisting is gone, as i glance at her ass in the mirror across from us. her thighs are warm and plush, and as she stands back up, i have to stifle my whimper. she turns around and bends over, giving me the perfect view of her ass. i reach out to grab it, and she turns around.

"ah ah, no touching yet, pretty boy." i exhale hard at the way the nickname rolls off her tongue. she continues to bend and sway in front of me, and my desperation grows. my saliva builds rapidly at the sight of her supple body teasing me, and i swallow hard again.

she brings herself back to face me, pushing her soft tits against me. they smell the same as her top, soft and spicy and sweet. i moan and plant a kiss to the flesh and she lets out a soft "hmm". i take this as an okay to touch her, and i bring my hand down hard on her ass, gripping it tightly. she gasps and flashes her wild eyes at me. she sits fully in my lap, grinding her ass against me, bouncing and bending on me.

i cant help but harden back up, my cock beating against it's jean prison again. my breath quickens as she slides off, and suddenly drags a hand to my upper thigh, squeezing it hard. i gasp at the touch and she laughs, a sickeningly seductive smile painting her beautiful face. my eyes roll back as she palms the front of my jeans.

wait.

i look to her now as she licks her lips and bites her lip. she drops down to her knees, her eyes glassy and half-shut as she stares up at me. i look at her in the mirror again, seeing her boots pressing against her plump ass again. i groan and push my hair back, and she fiddles with the front of my pants.

"your friend out there said you were a virgin, is that right?" she draws out, wicked and teasing. i nod and my cheeks flush with embarrassment. "you want me to fix that?" she questions nonchalantly as she pops the button of my jeans.

"wait, what?" i stumble, and she chuckles softly.

"i don't do this for everyone, you know." she points a cruel finger at me, "but when i saw how desperate you got out there, i honestly wondered if i could break you. thank god your friend asked me for the dance, otherwise i'd have to come find you myself" she laughs lowly, and i shiver.

i cant find the words, so i just nod furiously. she smiles up at me and unzips the front of my jeans. i help her by pushing down my boxers, letting my cock spring free. she gives a soft surprised look, and i furrow my brows.

"you're much bigger than i expected" she whispers, and wraps a hand lazily around my shaft. if i wasn't so turned on right now, i might take that offensively. but as she wraps her pouty lips around the tip, i throw my head back, ignoring any cues that this might not be a part of the lap dance.

her tongue swirls luridly around my tip, causing me to gasp. i'm already overstimulated, my cock twitching and jumping at her touch. she takes me deeper down her throat until her nose buries into my skin, and she lets out a low hum against the throbbing appendage. as i moan, she wraps her hand back around, sliding it alongside where she sucks me off, the doubled sensation causing my hips to buck up. she giggles around my dick as she sucks it, and i tangle my pale fingers into her hair. its so soft, just like the rest of her. she moans softly at the sensation of me pulling it, and i whimper. she pulls off of me with a gentle "pop" and i groan.

"you sound so fucking pathetic, pretty boy" she whispers.

"t-tomura. call me tomura" i choke out in rushed breath, and she nods.

"tomura. pretty name for a pretty boy" she nods, and i cant help but moan again at how she says my name. she brings my cock back into her mouth and drags her tongue all the way up, wrapping her soft fingers around my balls and squeezing gently. my body feels like its on fire and i start to feel myself breaking.

"ah-ah, ha, fuck" my breaths tangle with the mantra of swears and incoherent noises spilling from my mouth. i make no effort to stifle myself, there's no point. i grip her hair harder and she presses her teeth ever so slightly into the flesh of my cock, and i tremble. the sensations are driving me wild, and i completely lose control. i watch as her mouth slides up and down, her spit dripping down my length, tangling with the mess of precum already spilling from me.

"hnng, fuck, agh, ah ah, ah, i'm gonna" i whimper out, and she only looks up at me, not stopping. her grip on my balls tightens as i twitch inside her warm mouth, and the sight sends me over the edge.

"god, FUCK, fuck, ah, fuck, i'm cumming, oh fuck, i'm cumming" i pant out, and shove her head all the way down as my cock sputters. she chokes slightly around me as i feel the thick ribbons shoot down her tight throat. i whimper and moan out unapologetically, and she keeps sucking even after i finish, sending volts of electricity through my entire body. she pulls off of me sloppily, a string of drool and cum dripping from her lips. i twitch as the aftershock rumbles through me, feeling the alcohol (and blood) rush back to my head. my breathing staggered. she wipes her mouth with the bottom of my hoodie, and stands.

"you did such a good job, tomura" her voice is slightly raspy as she praises me, and strokes my face. i smile weakly up at her.

"th-thank you, calypso" i breathe out, and she returns the soft smile.

"happy birthday, pretty boy" she turns the music down and heads for the door.

"wait" i bleat out, and she turns, "can we...can i see you again?" she laughs with an exhale, and grins.

"come back next weekend." she replies, and my heart seizes. i nod and look at the floor.

"can i have your number?" i ask quietly.

she chuckles and shakes her head no.

"do you want...the top back?" i hand it to her, and she shakes her head.

"consider it your birthday present." and she walks out the door before i can respond. i shove the top back in my pocket and fix my clothes, checking myself in the mirror before exiting a couple minutes after her.

as always, dabi is standing across from the door, unlit cigarette hanging from his lip. "how'd it go, buddy?" he chortles, and i look up at him.

"we're coming back next weekend" i say, and without another word, i head out the front doors. the bouncer nods at us as we exit, and dabi follows behind with a "fuck yes!".

when we return home, i fling myself into my bed and yank the top out of my pocket. i examine every speck of glitter, the tag, everything. i slip the padding out of it, just for shits, and notice in thin black ink:

"your lucky day.

XXX-XXX-XXXX."

⭑*•̩̩͙⊱••••✩••••̩̩͙⊰•*⭑

hope u enjoyed! i finished this at 3:50am and poured my whole ass heart into it. i had a lot of fun writing this :D

lmk if i should write more from shigs pov, or if a reader pov would be better, i tried to be experimental ;-;

thank u for the request as always!!

xoxo

[tobiasdrake]

So, the film opens with the atomic bombing of Nagasaki in WWII. A scene I'd love to hear a Japanese perspective on because it feels weird to me.

So, they see two enemy planes flying towards Nagasaki which is that city across the bay. Immediately, the entire camp goes into a total panic.

Soldiers are fleeing the camp on foot.

The officers all get together to commit seppuku together.

Yashida releases all the POWs from their camp. He does this by slicing off the padlock with a katana. I don't know the physics well enough to know if that would actually hold up, but I do know they're setting him up to be an Anime Warrior Superperson so I'm not going to question it too much.

They also take a moment to note that Yashida made this choice in the heat of the moment. There were no orders to release the prisoners; He's just demonstrating his own kind heart. This is conveyed through a guard in a tower shooting at the escaping POWs until Yashida yells at him to hold his fire.

Logan, down in a pit, apparently knows a lot about atomic bombs. Enough to know that a bomb delivered by a B-29 to Nagasaki will wipe out this military base across the bay. He calls out the type of plane specifically like, "Oh yeah, that's the A-Bomb plane, those deliver A-Bombs".

Logan is a Canadian foot soldier who's been imprisoned in a well for an indeterminate length of this war. Would he be able to see an American B-29 in the distance and go "Yep, that means an atom bomb is incoming; better hide in a well to avoid the blast radius."

Then the bomb goes off.

Yashida looks directly into the flash and is totally fine. Um.

Logan then grabs Yashida and jumps back into the well with him. He can't seal the well, so he grabs a big chunk of metal that I guess was just lying around and throws that over Yashida.

Fortuanately, metal is famous for its ability to remain cold under intense heat. So while Logan gets barbecued by atomic fire, Yashida is safe and sound save for one part of his face where the heat got in through a small hole in the metal plate.

Yashida gets up and watches a smoking husk of meat regenerate back into a man. Reasonably freaked out by this, he tries to exit the well, but Logan stops him.

Logan looks up at the sky and sees all the nuclear fallout in the air. So he makes Yashida stay down here in an open-air hole in the ground where the fallout can't reach them.

Honestly, Logan seems to know a startling amount about nuclear bombs. Was he on the Manhattan Project?

This is all....

I dunno. This is the Nagasaki bombing, so Hiroshima just happened three days ago. So it's not like they wouldn't know what's coming. But I don't know. This whole "OH MY GOD THE AMERICANS ARE COMING KILL YOURSELVES OR RUN LIKE HELL" thing gives me a strong whiff of history written by Americans.

I don't know. Maybe I'm just paranoid due to the lack of any Japanese creatives involved with the making of this film. I have no idea what this moment in history must have been like on the ground. I can't even imagine. But this feels very Hollywood.

I cannot say with certainty that any of this is wrong. I am not a scholar of nuclear physics, nor am I well-versed in Japanese military culture circa-1945.

But this whole scene just feels weird to me. Either I don't know enough to explain why this is all wrong, or I don't know enough to understand that it's actually right. But I'm definitely having the creeping sensation of knowing that I don't have enough information to parse what I'm seeing.

(As an aside, I have seen some people point out that this is a dream sequence to explain away how weird it feels. But I don't accept that explanation. What Logan is dreaming up is clearly meant to be the memory of a real event that he lived through. Yashida is not a made-up giraffe man his brain invented to process his feelings about WWII. The events of this day in Logan's history drive the rest of the film.)

[petersbaby]

HI YOU LEGALLY HAVE TO LISTEN TO THIS SONG WHILE YOU READ THIS FIC ITS A LAW I DECLARED AND IF YOU DONT ILL CATCH YOU

I adore you - Gareth Emerson x reader

Warnings: alcohol/drinking, some angst, smut, loss of virginity so a bit of classic and obligatory awkwardness. Gareth is aged up to 18

Get me a drink, I get drunk off one sip

Just so I can adore you

I want the entire street out of town

Just so I can be alone with you

And I'll go when you're ready

My head's gettin' heavy

Pressed against your arm

I adore you

♡

-

“No, dude, I don’t wanna go. Besides, we were supposed to practice tonight.”

“We practice plenty, Gareth, we’re fucking great.” Eddie says, as if it’s the most obvious ‘duh’ statement ever said.

Jeff walks back into the room where they were hanging out.

“What do you say, practice or party?” Eddie asks the boy, who looks confused.

“Uh, I think we should just practice. You know, like we usually do.” He stammers, looking between Gareth and Eddie who both wanted him to side with them.

“Yeah? I heard Y/N is gonna be there.” Eddie offers, and Gareth’s heart drops into his stomach.

“And her friend too? The hot one?”

“Yep.” He nods.

“Party.” Jeff decides immediately.

“God damn it, fine, but only to get out of being forced to babysit while my parents go on some gross date.”

-

“You know me, right? Like, do you know me at all?” You ask, laying on your bed while your best friend applies lipgloss in your mirror.

“I do, and you’re lovely, but you’ve gotta come out of your shell.”

It had been almost a year since you got here, and you had a small group of friends. She was definitely the best, even though she sometimes pushed your boundaries. Your best friend is a popular girl, one who sort of took you under her wing from the beginning.

“This,” you gesture broadly at your bedroom, “is my shell. And I like it in here.”

“What if I told you I got the host to invite the freaks?” She smiles convincingly, wiggling her eyebrows.

Gareth. That meant Gareth.

“W-wha- why would that change anything?”

“You can mingle with them, they’re pretty awkward too, and I know about your crush on the drummer kid.”

“Okay so first, I’m not awkward, you’re insulting me. Second….”

You trail off.

“Thinking about him? The fluffy hair and the red shirt with the arms cut off?”

“Fuck.” You sigh. “Fine.”

“There we go. I did you a favor. Let’s find you something to wear and get a little makeup on you.” She turns to you and starts picturing your look. She goes to look through your closet, which feels weirdly personal for some reason.

You end up in a dress you’ve never worn that she promises is sexy but feels all too exposing, with mascara applied and vanilla gloss on your lips. Then, it’s a waiting game, counting down til it’s time to go.

-

“Ooh, I see some of my good friends. I’m gonna run over to see them. I’ll be right back.”

“You’re just abandoning me? You can’t just leave me.” You whisper-shout.

“You’ll be okay. Drink, it’ll help you have fun.”

You sigh and go to the kitchen, getting an alcoholic beverage that tasted like kool-aid and battery acid. It was strong, whatever it is, getting a buzz going rather quickly and you soon felt a little less intimidated by this whole thing. You take a moment to kind of just sit back, and watch.

-

“Oh, shit, they’re already here. That’s her car.” Jeff comments excitedly, pointing at your friend’s shiny blue sedan.

Gareth shuts his car door, putting his keys in his pocket and joining his two friends to walk into the party together. He decided to drive himself because he knew he’d probably end up wanting to leave early, Eddie and Jeff rode in Eddie’s van.

“Oh, god.” Gareth groans quietly. His stomach is full of dancing butterflies and his chest is all of a sudden pounding. He definitely should’ve smoked a joint before this, or something. Anything.

They get to the door, the long dark haired boy clutches the handle of a beat-up old tin lunch box.

“I’m gonna start finding customers, you two do whatever but nothing weird enough to get us kicked out of here.” Eddie pats both of them on the shoulder and disappears.

“We should drink, right?” Jeff asks uncomfortably. There were a lot of people.

“Right. Definitely.”

They both head to where a group of people were congregated, some of them giving dirty looks and disapproving frowns. The crowd dispersed, and the stared at two options: shitty cans of beer, or a giant tub of mystery liquid that everyone is dumping there solo cups in. That can’t be sanitary.

Gareth gives him a look when he reaches for a cup.

“What? It’s better than beer.” He defends.

“Hard pass.” Gareth shouts, grabbing a beer and popping the tab. He takes his first sip and nearly chokes on it when he sees you just then. Across the kitchen, sipping on your drink, you looked beautiful.

Little black dress but with converse instead of flats or heels, hair straightened and flowing, lips glistening while you try not to bite them. You lock eyes with Gareth, you both looked a little overwhelmed and scared so you decide to just come up to him. What’s the worst that could happen?

“Y/N, hi,” he blurted out, and you smiled. Already tipsy.

“Hi. Are you having fun?” You ask, knowing the answer.

“Well, I-“

“Hey Y/N, where’s your friend, the hot one?” Jeff asks loudly, and Gareth punches him hard in the shoulder.

“I’m sorry for him, he doesn’t usually drink.” Gareth explains. “Stop interrupting people and being an asshat.” He says the second part to his friend.

“Fine, I’m just gonna go find Eddie. He’s not such a buzzkill.”

He walks off, not seeing Gareth roll his eyes.

“Do you wanna… hang out?”

“Yeah, yeah, of course.”

“I came with my friend but she left me.” You gesture to the space around you.

“I know how that feels.” He takes a big swig of his beer.

“Do you smoke? I’m dyin’ to get some fresh air.”

“Uh, only socially.” He lies. He doesn’t smoke cigarettes, but you don’t really know that so it sounds convincing.

“Well let’s go be social outside.” You giggle, pulling his wrist.

You both end up at an outdoor patio table, you sit down and take out two cigarettes and your lighter from your bag. You light yours, but he doesn’t, placing it behind his ear instead.

“I’ll save it for later.” He explains.

While he watches you, he sees that you’re slightly shivering and shifting around awkwardly.

“You don’t usually dress like that. It’s pretty, but it’s not you.” He comments, looking at your dress.

He sees me, he looks at me enough to know how I dress.

You remain calm, casual, smooth, despite your thoughts.

“You are very right. It was not my outfit of choice, trust me.” You laugh. His gaze lingers for a moment too long and becomes a stare, eyes practically boring a hole in your body. You take the last hit and toss your cigarette butt onto the pavement, standing up.

“Back inside?” You ask, and he nods, cheeks tinged pink.

You finally finish the last bit of drink that was in your cup, swallowing it quickly due to the taste.

“You want me to take that? I’m out too.” He offers.

“Yes, please.”

“Okay.” He nods and walks to the kitchen with his head down.

You scan the room for your friend, or really, any of your friends. All you see is a bunch of vaguely familiar faces who’ve passed you in the hall.

“I’m back,” Gareth blurts out, suddenly right beside you.

“Jesus, Gare, you scared me.” You laugh, clutching your chest.

The nickname you just applied to him pulls at his heartstrings and makes him almost feel like passing out or perhaps… waking up? This could all just be a good dream. He was spending time with the girl he liked most, the girl he adored and never even dared to compare himself to. You were on another level, out of his league. Beyond.

He has another beer in his hand now, but doesn’t drink it, just to have something to hold.

“Do you wanna dance?” You ask him, grabbing his wrist again. He hesitates.

“I don’t really- I don’t uh…”

“C’mon. Sure you do.”

You pull him to the “dance floor,” which was just a living room. The room was dark with flashing colorful lights and strobes and music filled the atmosphere.

Still tipsy, you start to dance to the music, carefree and getting lost in the moment. He just stands, stunned, watching you. His mouth is ever so slightly parted open as he gazes at you and appreciates the way your body moves. After a few songs, you look to see him still there, same spot you left him in, still.

“Are you okay?” You ask, concerned.

“Oh, yeah, I’m okay. I just don’t dance, like I said.”

“You will with me. Next slow song, you’re dancing with me.” You giggle drunkly. You notice it, too, and decide to set the cup down. Good decision, probably.

“Please.” You add.

A heart meltingly sweet smile spread across his face that he couldn’t help.

“Maybe.”

-

“Okay, so this is like, so simple. Your hands go on my hips, mine go on your shoulders. Yeah?”

“Y-yeah.” He nervously brings his hands to your waist and gently moves them downwards to come to rest at your hips. You draped your arms over his shoulders and just swayed together, in the music.

Everything else was a blur, everything else didn’t even exist, it was just you two. His eyes have a glimmer in them that you can’t really place.

It was want, desire, possibly love. He couldn’t say that out loud, though, couldn’t fully face that fact. For some reason, the time feels right, so you lean in and press your soft lips against his.

He gasps, taking in a sharp breath without meaning to, and you stop. Before you could ask if something was wrong, he reconnected your lips together. Yours tasted of cherry and cigarettes and vanilla, and he filed that away to remember forever.

You were perfect. Your hands move from his shoulders to his face, placing a hand on each cheek and pulling him impossibly closer.

After a while, you begin to remember that you are not actually the only people in the room and the kiss was getting pretty deep.

“You wanna find an empty room?” You bite your lip.

“S-sure.”

You head up the stairs and he follows behind you. Once you find a bedroom rather quickly, you shut yourselves in and lock the door. He presses you up against it, tongue returning back to your mouth, teeth clashing.

It’s so vulgar and so intense that you subconsciously start to moan into the kiss, lightly. The situation and the sounds you were making were gonna drive him insane, he was so turned on it almost hurt but he just wanted to kiss you for as long as possible in case this never happens again.

“C’mon, the door is locked.” You remind him, moving to the bed. You plop down, laying flat on the mattress, and you spread open your legs when he approaches. You wanted it now, you needed it now. Straight to the point, bold.

“Jesus Christ.”

He looks away, like he’s seeing something he’s not allowed to be looking at, but returns his gaze to you once he shakes the awe off. He comes to slot himself between your legs, dress riding up to your hips and exposing your green lace panties completely to him.

You squirm as he stares, silently begging him to do something. You try to pull him by the shirt on top of you, but he doesn’t quite let you.

“Wait.”

“What?” You ask, clueless and a little frustrated.

“I can’t do this, I’m sorry.”

You just blink, tears stinging in your eyes.

“Why not?” You ask, voice breaking. You really fucking liked him and he was standing in front of you, rejecting you.

“No no, I didn’t mean it like that. I want to. It’s just… the situation.”

You tilt your head to the side like a confused puppy.

“You’re drunk, are you not?”

“Well yeah, a little..”

“It’s just- this would be my first…. time. If it’s gonna happen, it has to be different, better. Not drunk, not impulsive, not in a stranger’s bedroom.”

“Your first…” you trail off, an “oh” expression forming once you put the pieces together.

“It’s okay. We can just.. we can just go back to what we were doing.” You pull your dress back down, standing up, and a sniffle escapes.

“Did you really want to? Me? If I hurt your feelings, I didn’t-“

“It’s okay, Gare. I guess not.”

You leave the room quickly, embarrassed. You felt guilty for getting upset that he didn’t want to have sex with you. That was shitty, but you just couldn’t help but take it to heart a little. You weren’t special enough.

“Shit, shit, shit.” Gareth says to himself. He feels he just fucked up a once in a lifetime chance. If he left it like this, you were likely to never speak again.

You go back out to the table by yourself, pulling out and lighting a cigarette between your lips. Once you finished it, you were gonna go in and try to find your friend to tell her you wanted to leave.

In case she says no, that she doesn’t want to leave just yet, you try to think of someone else who could come pick you up and bring you home.

“Hey.” The sounds of footsteps come from behind you and the fluffy haired boy sat down near you.

You didn’t respond, just looked at him and took a drag of your cigarette.

“If you want me to go away, I will, I just wanted to try and explain.”

You just nod, slowly.

“I’m really putting myself out there by saying this and may regret saying it but I like you a lot. Since the day I saw you, the day you showed up at our school. You were wearing those same converses.” You look down at your feet and back up at him.

“And this has been the best night of my life, I got to fucking kiss you and that’s far more than I ever expected. It was amazing and I loved every second, I just don’t want you to have sex with me because you’re drunk and you think you like me tonight. I just didn’t want it to mean nothing to you.”

Silence fills the air besides crickets and the muffled music.

“I like you too, dumbass. Yes, since that day too.”

“Oh. Wait, are you being serious?”

“Yes, I am. Why would I lie?”

“I don’t know, I just- you’re beautiful and I’m me and it doesn’t make sense.”

“So what’s the point? What are you saying?” You shrug, emotionally numb and becoming closed off from him.

“I’m saying… god, don’t make me say it out loud.”

“You wanna fuck me after all?” You guess.

He blushes.

“I do. I really do, but I want you to be sober. Can you give it a couple hours?”

You nod, starting to understand. You sort of made a big deal out of nothing.

“A couple of hours at my house, maybe? I honestly don’t want to be here anymore.”

“Uh, sure. You’ll just have to give me directions on the way.” You smile at each other and stand up, walking to his car. He doesn’t think about his friends or how he’s leaving them behind, that doesn’t matter.

You hop into the passengers seat and he mentally curses himself for not opening the door for you. You happily tell him all the right turns to make to get to your house.

-

You pull up to the house, and he turns the car off. He follows you as you fumble for your house key and unlock the door, then leading him to your bedroom.

“It’s uh, it’s messy. My friend made me try a bunch of different outfits before this.” You gesture to the clothing piles in the floor as you set your stuff down onto your bed.

“If you think this is messy, I definitely shouldn’t let you see MY room.” He laughs. “Nobody’s here. Isn’t it scary to be all alone at night?”

“Eh. Sometimes. I’m used to it, though. Do you want something to eat?”

“Yeah, sure.” He agrees.

You both head to your kitchen and you find some pizza in the fridge. You show it to him as if to say ‘this good?’ And he shrugs, so you heat it up.

“You can go sit down, I’ll bring you yours.”

He walks over to the couch, sitting, really relishing in the silence.

When you come to join him, you notice it more than you usually would, so you suggest turning on the tv for some sound. It was kind of spooky, now that you think about it. Too quiet.

You watch a movie and eat your pizza, making comments and laughing at all the super corny and cheesy parts. During the last half of the movie, you had your head leaned on his shoulder and he gently played with your hair.

With food in your stomach, you felt back to normal again, albeit just a little sleepy.

“So… my bed is okay?” You say once the credits finish rolling.

“Wha- how are you still fucked up?” He looks flabbergasted.

“I’m not. I’m completely sober, and yes, I still want you.” You say, seriously.

He’s surprised for some reason, expecting your feelings for him to dissipate magically once you were back to your normal self.

“Shit, yes, your bed is good.” He agrees, quickly.

You giggle and run down the hall to your room and he dumbly follows, closing your door for no reason other than to feel private even though there was nobody else around.

You take his face in your hands, pulling him in to kiss you. You run your tongue along his lips, silently asking for permission and being granted it.

It gets heavy quickly, just like before, and you both move closer and closer to your bed until he practically pushes you down on to it, climbing on top of you.

You spread your legs open again for him, and this time he doesn’t panic. He presses against your core with his jean-clad boner and it makes you whimper needily.

“Fuck,” he says into your mouth. “You sound so pretty.”

You push the straps of your dress off of your shoulders, trying to help him get you undressed. He reaches behind you and unzips it slowly and then pushes it down off your body. You’re left in your bra and panties, vulnerable under his gaze as he marvels at your beauty.

“I-I can’t tell if you’re staring at me in a good or a bad way,” you chuckle lightly, waiting for words from him.

“So good. It’s so good. I just- holy shit.”

“You can touch me, you know, if you want to.”

He touches your stomach first, canvassing the warm skin of your hips and abdomen, snaking around to your waist. You let him explore, but when he slows down, you take his hands in yours and guide them to your breasts, squeezing his hand beneath yours.

He gets enough confidence to continue on his own, and you let your hands fall away as he takes generous handfuls and squeezes, groping you just right. Your lower half tries to seek out any feeling, rubbing your pantied cunt up against his harder than ever cock through his jeans.

His breathing is heavy, hard. Intense. He was feeling so many things that he didn’t know what he’d even say if he were to speak right now.

“Take them off, we can make each other feel so good. Please.” You beg him, looking up into his eyes. His eyes lock with yours and he melts, submitting to whatever you could possibly ask of him.

His hands leave your body to take the clothes off his own. He gets his jeans off, and he has a huge tent in his boxers, which you gaze upon subtly.

“Shirt, too, or…?” He asks, unconfidently.

“Whatever you’re comfortable taking off.”

“Okay.” He takes his layers off, leaving on the plain white wife beater he was wearing beneath his shirt and jacket.

“So handsome.” You compliment, genuinely. This is the most you’d ever seen of him and he was so, so lovely.

“Stop it.” He blushes, not knowing what to say to that, trying to brush it off.

You reach between your legs to touch yourself while you looked at him, shamelessly staring.

“God, that needy?” He asks jokingly. His attempt at cracking a joke did not land in this situation, and you answered him seriously.

“Mhm. Need your cock, need it now.”

“Jesus fucking Christ.” He groans at your vulgar words towards him.

“Please. Whenever you’re ready, please.” You whine, still rubbing circles over your clit.

“Can I turn the light off?” He asks suddenly. It felt a little too intense, he felt self conscious to an extent in that moment.

“Mhm. Whatever you want. I’ll just turn the lamp on instead.”

He gets up to flick the light switch and you reach to your bedside table to pull the string on your lamp, turning it on and providing a nice sun glow.

“Better?” You ask, and he nods.

His hands return to your tits and you take it upon yourself to remove your bra, the barrier. Your nipples pebbled when the cool air hit them and he gently runs his fingers over them, pinching ever so slightly.

He seems to find a fascination with your tits, and you encourage him to explore them with his mouth as well. He kisses your collarbones, all over your chest, between your tits, the top of your tits, then finally takes a nipple into his mouth.

“Ah, fuck, Gare. Your mouth is so fucking good.”

This only encouraged him to lick and such harder, almost forgetting to give attention to the other breast as well.

This wasn’t all about you, you reminded yourself. You just whine beneath him while he has his fun, and you know that your panties are beyond soaking at this point.

You hook your fingers in them and wiggle them off, because they don’t really serve any purpose. You buck your hips up against his, trying to grind against him wherever you can. He eventually noticed your desperation but still seemed a bit nervous about this next part.

Regardless, he pushes his boxers down and off, climbing on top of you. He jumps straight to pressing the tip of his leaking pink cock right against your entrance.

“I’m so wet for you, it’s all for you. Such a good fucking boy.” You moan.

He groans in response, that last part ignited something deep inside him that he decided he would unpack later.

“Can I put it in? You ready?”

“Yes, please.”

“Shit, alright.”

He applies more pressure, tip slipping inside first.

“Oh, god. Oh, shit.”

More. He pushes in even further, sinking into you with no resistance.

“Fuck fuck fuck.”

He was overwhelmed, but in the best possible way. A way he never could’ve imagined feeling. You didn’t get a good look at his cock, but it was big. You knew that. You stretched more with each inch you took, pussy swallowing and sucking him in.

“So big, Gare, feels so good. Mmh, feels so fucking good.”

His head falls forward to rest on your shoulder, and he keeps up his movements, bottoming out and groaning out loudly once he does.

You moan even a little louder than him, knowing nobody’s home gives you the opportunity to do that. Your noises and your words of praise were killing him, he wanted to be good for you forever. A good boy.

He fucks you still with his head buried into where your neck and shoulder meet before finally bringing it back up so you could see his face. His hair was crazier than ever and a couple of strands of hair stick to his forehead with sweat.

He feels it coming, rapidly approaching, but doesn’t want to underwhelm you. You notice his thrusts soon become faulty and haphazard as he tried to restrain himself, but you granted him relief. You didn’t want him to struggle.

“You can let go, sweet boy. Want you to cum.”

In a few more thrusts, he does, and you feel it painting your walls and his cock pulsing against them.

“Fuck.” He couldn’t hold it any longer,

He keeps lazily fucking into you until he’s completely milked, finally pulling out and laying down beside you.

Once he finally catches his breath, he realizes something.

“I didn’t make you- you were supposed to-“ he turns to look at you, worried. You had already climbed under the sheets, covering your body with them and laying down.

“Don’t worry about me right now. It was amazing, no matter if I finished or not. Was it good for you?”

“There’s no way you’re seriously asking me that.” He says incredulously.

“Just wanted to make sure,” you shrugged, “you know what you can do for me though?”

“What?”

“Cuddle.”

You open your arms and reach them out, giving grabby hands. He smiled and climbed beneath the covers with you, taking your naked body in his arms and holding it, close and tight.

After a while, he breaks the silence, overthinking.

“Are you just trying to make me feel better? I mean, was it actually any good? I can take the truth, and I wanna know how I did.”

You giggle.

“Do you want me to be blunt, Gare?”

“Definitely. I think so, at least.”

“You were very good, and at times, I wondered if you really hadn’t done anything before.” You start, “So good that it made me question your supposed lack of experience. Are you happy with that?”

He nods, blushing, and he hates that he’s blushing.

“But I still didn’t…”

“You’re so sweet. If you want to make it even that badly, I can teach you some things. Not now, though, but someday.”

“There’ll be a someday?” He asked, a little child-like excitement in his voice.

“Yes, there will be, if you want there to be.” You smile. “Special enough?”

“Absolutely. God, I’m so lucky.”

[twoidiotwriters1]

Daughter of Olympus (Leo Valdez xFem!Oc)

A/N: October is going way too fast stop it -Danny Words: 2,645 Series' Masterlist Previous Chapter / Next Chapter Listen to: 'Hallelujah' -by Oh Wonder

XXI: Prodigal Assholes Return

The fake spider takes us back to Hephaestus, once we're there he stares into space like he's seeing something we can't, then a blast shakes the ground.

"It's done," he turns to us. "You should get going."

"What about Percy?" Annabeth frowns.

"All in due time, missy, but first..." he points at me. "You. Come closer."

The god regards me with a grumpy face, he's always frowning, but this feels judgy. Am I really so annoying? "You're young and weak," he says. "No weapon in that camp of yours will do."

He reaches for something on a nearby workbench and hands it to me: A compass. I keep my palm open, staring at the item in confusion but not daring to ask how a compass can make a good weapon.

"That's Almighty," sounds like a name more than a description. "I made it from scraps of armor of only the greatest heroes. It holds the power of every monster and divine being that ever bled over it. Use it wisely."

I want to retort: "I'm not an idiot, this is a compass", but it feels weird. I could carry this thing in my pocket and forget it's there. This has to be a weapon, I just need to figure out how it works. 

"Thank you," I beam. "I don't deserve this..."

"Of course not," a puff of dark smoke comes out of his beard. "You'll do what's needed to deserve it. Don't disappoint me, Jackson, my son's counting on you."

"Going okay?" Piper crouches between their seats.

"Aces," Leo glances at Jason when he stands behind Piper. "So what's the Wolf House?"

"An abandoned mansion in the Sonoma Valley. A demigod built it—Jack London."

"He an actor?"

"Writer. Adventure stuff, right? Call of the Wild? White Fang?"

"Yeah. He was a son of Mercury—I mean, Hermes. He was an adventurer, traveled the world. He was even a hobo for a while. Then he made a fortune writing. He bought a big ranch in the country and decided to build this huge mansion—the Wolf House."

"Named that 'cause he wrote about wolves?"

"Partially. But the site, and the reason he wrote about wolves—he was dropping hints about his personal experience. There're a lot of holes in his life story—how he was born, who his dad was, why he wandered around so much—stuff you can only explain if you know he was a demigod."

"So Jack London went to Camp Half-Blood?" Leo asks.

"No," Jason and Ara share a look. "No, he didn't."

"Bro, you're freaking me out with the mysterious talk. Are you remembering your past or not?"

"Pieces. Only pieces. None of it good. The Wolf House is on sacred ground. It's where London started his journey as a child—where he found out he was a demigod. That's why he returned there. He thought he could live there, claim that land, but it wasn't meant for him. The Wolf House was cursed. It burned in a fire a week before he and his wife were supposed to move in. A few years later, London died, and his ashes were buried on the site."

"At least they didn't burn him with the house, that shows you he was favored..." Ara muses.

Leo snorts. "So it's a common thing for demigods to be blessed with dying?"

"Pretty much," she grins.

"So," Piper looks at Jason. "How do you know all this?"

"I started my journey there too," Jason's blue eyes are getting darker. "It's a powerful place for demigods, a dangerous place. If Gaea can claim it, use its power to entomb Hera on the solstice and raise Porphyrion—that might be enough to awaken the earth goddess fully."

Ara's itch is getting worse. Piper gave her nectar, but she heated up way too quickly. She thinks it's unfair, Piper spent most of the quest feeding on nectar and ambrosia and she was fine.

"Thirty minutes out," Leo announces. "If you want to get some rest, now's a good time."

Jason goes to the back and secures himself before dozing off, but Piper stays with them. Ara tries to get comfortable, but the space is too narrow. "I think I'll join Jason," she sighs. "I don't think sleep will fix me, but maybe it'll freshen me up."

When she gets up, Piper looks at her funny. "When Dad woke up, he told me he saw our mother's eyes in you. He didn't know how to describe them, but I see what he meant."

Ara could say the same thing about Piper's, but when she tries to speak her throat closes up and her gaze gets a little teary, so she moves without saying anything and Piper takes her seat.

 Leo winks at her over the aviator glasses. "Get your beauty sleep, doll."

The girl takes the row of seats facing Jason, she's careful to lie on her healthy side. Ara thinks about the exact moment she decided to be more than just an Aphrodite.

Hephaestus sends us back to camp with a snap of his fingers. 

Lily hugs me tight and doesn't let go. "How was it? Did you learn anything?"

"Yeah," I whisper. "I have something to show you!"

No one cares about me, they all surround Annabeth and leave me alone. Only one camper apart from Lily notices I'm leaving, and he follows us as I show my friend the compass. 

"Lord Hephaestus gave it to me. In person."

"What!" She stares at it in shock. "What did he say?"

"Contains the power of monsters and whatnot," I frown. "He said I didn't deserve it. Not yet."

"You know what this means?"

"The gods are paying attention to her," Michael speaks behind me.

"Hey!" I give him a hug. "Look at this!"

"Made by the god of blacksmith himself..." He examines the compass with an intent gaze.

"He might become your patron," Lily's grey eyes widen in excitement. Michael taps his nose in response, agreeing with her.

"Yeah!" I smile. "There's something I want to try..."

I press the little nob at the top, and the compass grows in size until I'm holding a sword. It has a strange glow that no other weapon has, not even Percy's. As if Hephaestus dipped one of its sides in gold.

"Holy Athena!" Lily gasps. "Hephaestus armed you!"

Michael's eyes sparkle with ambition. "I think it's time we step up your training."

"But I can't stay here," I pout. "My brother's coming back soon, and once he's here we'll go back to the labyrinth." 

The others don't look too worried, it's Percy, after all. I swing my weapon around, it feels perfectly balanced.

"This is great, bug," Michael pats my shoulder. "Experience will teach you what we can't."

I notice the Greek Alpha on the handle, I press on it and it goes back to being a compass. 

Half an hour after our arrival, we find out about the explosion. I'm in complete denial just like Annabeth. We're talking about Percy, for Poseidon's sake!

"No."

"Ara, this is standard protocol."

"You'll scare her for no reason," I say, voice quivering.

"It's his mom," Chiron insists. "She has to know."

I'm afraid Sally will give me back to camp if Percy dies. I know it's a wild assumption, but I've been living with them for only two years, I barely got used to calling Sally my mom, and I'm growing so fond of Paul... If Percy dies, who can assure me Sally won't resent me?

I do call her, in the end.

"You have to be patient, okay? Percy's probably with Grover and Tyson..."

I agree with her because we both need to hear it. "Yes, Mom."

"Look after yourself, eat and sleep, or they won't let you go back once he shows up..."

"Mom?"

"Yes, sweetheart?"

"I'm sorry."

"Oh, Ara," she cries. "This isn't your fault." 

I pour all of my energy into training. Now that I have a sword I'm progressing at an amazing speed. Lily and Michael can tell I need it, but when Quintus disappears, Mrs. O'Leary doesn't allow us to approach the arena as often as before. She appears to be in some kind of distress.

The lava wall became my expertise. I broke the record of fastest climber, beating the Hermes kid who held the title for five years straight. His time was five minutes. Mine's three.

One day while we're training, Clarisse walks past, sees me and Michael, and yells at us, snatching Michael's sword to take his place. 

"You," she points at me with the sharp end. "Nice sword."

"Thank you!" I beam. "Hephaestus gave it to me!"

Clarisse glares at me, but she almost looks surprised. "You're jabbing at Michael like you're trying to fish him out of the water."

"She's learning," Mike argues, thinking she's making fun of me. "You're too big for her, Clarisse, it's not fair."

"Newsflash, punk, life isn't fair," she snaps. "She's going back to the labyrinth, she'll fight things that are twice her size."

"You don't think I'm being foolish?" I ask.

My friend shrugs. "I don't judge soldiers by their looks, only their commitment to battle. I've seen how you suck it up when Drew fights you."

Michael frowns. "Drew Tanaka?"

Clarisse attacks me without warning. She's brutal. Every muscle in my body ends up hurting and it's torture, so Michael has to carry me to the infirmary.

We find Chris Rodriguez there, and he's in terrible condition. That explains Clarisse's sudden urge to put me in shape. Michael places me on a bed, and as he teaches me—and Will Solace—how to treat someone after a tough training, he asks me about Drew while applying K-tape on my back.

"So why is she annoying you?"

I sigh. "She's minded her business lately, I think she's decent enough to let me worry about Percy in peace."

"But why was she bullying you?"

"I'm not telling you," I scowl. "I don't want you scheming with Lily—"

"Who said anything about that?" He presses a bag of ice against my wrist. "I just wanna know why I'll be hating Drew from now on."

I stare at him. "I really wish I could believe you."

"Drew doesn't like her because Ara's not a proper Aphrodite" Lily walks into the infirmary playing with her pocket knife.

Michael looks over his shoulder and smiles. "Atta girl!"

"The Stolls told me," Lily continues. Michael tries to take her knife away and she dodges his hand. "They found out she's been bullying Ara ages ago, but the kiddo asked them to stay out of it. Connor was dying to tell me."

I pout. "Bullying is such a dramatic term..."

"It's the right term," Michael raises a brow. "Silena knows about this?"

"No," Lily sits next to me, still playing with the knife. "Drew's a charmspeaker like Ara. She's got everyone scared."

"Silena's got charmspeak too," Mike frowns, removing the bag of ice.

"I don't need help!" I argue. "This is my fight!"

Lily hums. "If you're sure you can take it..."

"I've been through worse," I sulk. "She's not a real problem."

"Tough beast," Mike boops my nose. "Put that away!" He barks at Lily to stop her fidgeting with the sharp blade.

When Ara wakes up, Jason's crouching between Leo and Piper's seats. "Get ready, we've got to be getting close."

There is not much she can do, her left arm is restrained against her body, her clothes are torn, and she's shivering thanks to the snowstorm around them. The only thing intact is her stupid cloak.

"There!" Jason points ahead and the copter makes an abrupt turn.

As they get closer, the sounds of the fight become louder. Ara's instincts kick in and the itch on her arm intensifies, she's ready to join the battle. Leo makes a successful landing in the middle of a clearing, but they spot something large coming straight at them.

"Out!" Jason grabs her and jumps out of the chopper. 

He makes sure to land on his back, which is probably not good for him, but it's certainly a relief for Ara's beaten body. The helicopter gets crushed under a gigantic snowball. 

Ara pushes herself off of Jason with difficulty. "Thanks..."

"No problem," he coughs. 

They go to Piper, who's checking on Leo. He's shivering, Aphrodite took away his jacket when they got sent to California. "Guess we owe that ranger lady a new helicopter."

"Fighting's over there," Piper's about to point when she realizes something. "No... it's all around us."

"Jason! Ara!" Thalia runs up to them.

An Earthborn comes out of nowhere and tries to attack her. Leo shouts a warning and Thalia turns, shooting her last arrow at the creature. As she approaches to retrieve it, she realizes it's broken.

"That was my last one," she stomps on the clay. "Stupid ogre." 

"Nice shot, though," Leo comments.

"Just in time," Thalia approaches them with urgency. "My Hunters are holding a perimeter around the mansion, but we'll be overrun any minute."

"By Earthborn?" Jason frowns.

"And wolves—Lycaon's minions. Also storm spirits—" 

"But we gave them to Aeolus!" Piper says angrily.

"Who tried to kill us," Leo makes a face. "Maybe he's helping Gaea again."

"I don't know. But the monsters keep re-forming almost as fast as we can kill them. We took the Wolf House with no problem: surprised the guards and sent them straight to Tartarus. But then this freak snowstorm blew in. Wave after wave of monsters started attacking. Now we're surrounded. I don't know who or what is leading the assault, but I think they planned this. It was a trap to kill anyone who tried to rescue Hera."

"It's so good to be back on this bullshit," Ara says. "I was so bummed out after the war, thinking I wouldn't get to experience a painful death..."

Thalia notices the bandages and her eyes widen. "What happened to you?"

Ara's almost the same age as Thalia now, but there's something about her that makes Ara feel like she's still eleven years old. 

"Your brother threw lightning at me," she blurts out.

"I didn't!" Jason blushes. "It was an accident!"

"We're sidetracking," Ara interrupts him anxiously. "Thalia, your hunters are too busy to help me, so I'll make do with the arm I've got left. Where's Hera?"

"Inside. We tried to free her, but we can't figure out how to break the cage. It's only a few minutes until the sun goes down. Hera thinks that's the moment when Porphyrion will be reborn. Plus, most monsters are stronger at night. If we don't free Hera soon..."

"Love high stakes, especially when they're about the annihilation of humanity as we know it..." Ara mutters in a bad mood as they walk forward.

Once they enter the ruins, Jason stumbles and Leo catches him. "Hey! None of that, man. What's wrong?"

"This place... Sorry... It came rushing back to me."

"You remembered something?" Ara asks.

Thalia's voice breaks a little. "This is where my mom took us when Jason was a child. She left him here, told me he was dead. He just disappeared."

"She gave me to the wolves, at Hera's insistence. She gave me to Lupa."

"That part I didn't know. Who is Lupa?"

"The Roman version of Chiron, I guess," Ara replies.

The ground shakes as more explosions happen around them. 

"Maybe this isn't the time for questions," Leo speaks. "Show us the goddess."

Annabeth finds out I've been training with a new sword and asks if it's the compass Hephaestus gave me. Her face has a shadow of something else than just worry, I think she's proud. 

Now she, Clarisse, Beckendorf, Lily, and Michael are training me. Some are trying to distract themselves, the others are trying to distract me. 

Beckendorf is over the moon when I tell him I met his father. "He thinks you're fit for the forges!"

"Does he?" I ask skeptically.

"Come!" He insists. "I'll teach you how to give maintenance to the chariots..."

Cabin Nine begins to treat me like a real apprentice, not someone trying to avoid her actual chores. Michael doesn't go easy on me either. These two weeks could've been my most prolific at camp, but Percy's still missing, and each passing day feels like a stronger confirmation of his demise.

I read Lily's book of myths to pass the time (and not think about Percy), there are pages missing, but I don't know what those are about, the index has been censored with black marker.

Next Chapter ->

Taglist.

siriuslysirius1107 @ask-giggles1303 @ash-the-hoarder @im-planning-something-look @bandshirts-andbooks @coolninjapaper @thewaterlily @whenisthefall @1randomcomic @you-bloody-shank @sunflowergraves @owlalex44 @taylordaughter @typicalsolangelolover @writingmia @espressopatronum454 @slytherinnqueen @orbitingpolaris

[eriquin]

The Prophetic D&D Game, Part 9

We begin the third session of the game. This time, Mike is missing, os they're down a paladin. I'm sure it'll be fine.

(master post)

Part 9

The next person to miss a session was Mike, to the consternation of his two close friends. Dustin had clearly told them the results of his conversation with Eddie, and the three of them regularly whispered with each other about the game. Eddie could tell that they were still suspicious about his character designs, but it was Grant who came to his rescue on that front.

“There’s a little bit of the people you know in every character you make up,” he said when it came up at a Vecna game. “You can’t help that, if you’re creative. Didn’t you have a friend who liked to DM before he moved away? Write to him and ask about it sometime.”

But Grant actually pouted about Mike being missing at their next Cursed session. When asked, he told the group that he’d had a ton of great ideas on how to exploit the fact that Mike was convinced that Natalia was based on his sister. “I was going to torture him with it,” he said, grinning. “You know. As a lesson on the difference between reality and the game.”

“Now that we’ve all established that Grant is chaotic evil, let’s move on,” Eddie said, eliciting snickers from his players. Grant even provided a deep, evil laugh for game ambiance, which led to the players speculating about Natalia being the real killer. 

“He wouldn’t do that to us,” Dustin said, glancing at Eddie.

“I think we all know that he would,” Gareth said, “but that makes it equally likely that he won’t, just to spite us. There’s no use metagaming it.” 

“It could be that someone’s possessed,” Jeff said, waving one of pages with character history on it. “Just like the last body-snatcher stuff he had written up. You know, the one where one of the bad guys broke free of the mind-control at the last minute? Maybe we’re dealing with another, uh... What did he call the pod people in this?” 

“Flayed,” Lucas supplied with a hint of dread in his voice. “They were flayed.”

Dustin gave him a surprised look, then glanced back at the rest of the players. “Yeah, like they were victims of a mind flayer, you know?”

Eddie crossed his arms but tried to keep his face from giving anything away. He’d never said anything in his notes about a mind flayer or used the term flayed. He suspected that the boys were throwing in their own interpretation of the demonic realm as being part of the Underdark, but that wasn’t what he was going for. If the other players took them at their word, he would have a good chance to surprise them with the actual villain. 

But Grant was better at remembering fine details, and he shook his head. “No, it wasn’t a mind flayer. Illithids are monstrous creatures with psychic powers in the Underdark, but they’re human-sized. I can see how you’d get confused, since they have a hive mind that controls their colonies. But the thing that our cleric saw was something gigantic, like a huge spider creature made of smoke that infected everything. It reminded me of something out of Lovecraft, really... And the weird pod people were each like the Blob, or the Thing, you know? But more cohesive and menacing.” He grinned at Eddie. “Honestly? Creepy as fuck, man. I like it.” 

Eddie couldn’t help but grin back. “Yeah? It’s like something out of my nightmares, you know? Melting people down and reforming them as its puppets. Glad you liked that one.”

“Yeah, I don’t want any deeper look into your brain, freak,” Grant said. “And yet, I keep coming back to your games.” 

“You love it,” Eddie said. “But anyway, I didn’t write down a name for the pod people. You can call them whatever you like.” 

He saw Lucas and Dustin exchange significant looks and mouth something. They seemed to be having a silent argument. Gareth was the one to call them on it. “Something you want to share with the group, boys?” he asked. 

They looked embarrassed to have been called out, but also did another bit of silent communication before answering. “No,” Lucas said. “It’s nothing.”

“Yeah,” Dustin added. “Nothing important. Let’s just play.” 

So they got started. Everyone picked the same characters. Gareth asked if he could play both Maya and Joe, but Eddie refused. He didn’t want to see what Gareth would do with Mike’s character in his absence. This meant that Eddie had to play him, though, because he also wasn’t going to put up with any of the guys making a crack about shoving the character in the closet. So when Grant and Gareth had their character come up with a plan to infiltrate the insane asylum and talk to Sir Englund about the last set of murders, he proposed that Joe go with them. 

“Eh, no,” Grant said flatly.

Eddie boggled at him. “And why not? Joe’s got the charisma you need for a caper like this. He would be useful.”

Gareth snickered. “Yeah, I’m sure he’s very charming,” he said. “We need stealth, and he’s a big dumb paladin. Let the illusionist handle it.” He waved his hand gracefully at himself. “Besides, Natalia’s got brains and charm. I think we can deal with this without Joe.”

Grant smiled. “I think it would just be better if Joe stayed behind with the other characters. They’re more likely to get into trouble, you know?” 

Eddie sighed and rolled his eyes. “Whatever, fine. Sadie, Gaten, Caleb? Joe is at your disposal if you get into combat, but until then he’s just gonna be chilling out nearby. Okay?” 

Lucas snickered and elbowed Dustin. “Babysitter.” 

“Oh my God.” Dustin cackled, pulling his hat down to cover his face briefly. “I can’t wait to tell Mike about this. He’s gonna hate it so much.” 

Eddie glared at them. He got up halfway out of his seat and clapped his hands together, twice, to get their attention. “So what are you doing, babies? Chop chop, what’s your plan?” 

Dustin and Lucas jumped back a bit at this, but Jeff leaned forward to help them get back into the game. “We have to deal with Sadie being cursed, right? What’s she doing to deal with that?” 

Lucas furrowed his brow. “Well, we don’t know any cure for it, right? She’d probably... Man, I don’t know. It’s kind of terrible. What would you guys do if you knew you might die and there was nothing you could do about it?” 

Dustin got a blank look on his face. “Jesus,” he muttered, giving it some serious thought. “Uh, I don’t know. Probably tell my mom that I love her?” 

Jeff nodded. “Yeah, me too.” 

“Yeah,” Lucas said. “That sounds about right. Sadie’s going to try to go see her family. She still has family in town somewhere, right?” 

Eddie shrugged and nodded. “Yep, her mom at least. Are you all going?” 

The three of them looked at each other and nodded. They discussed for a little longer what they’d do in Sadie’s place to generate more ideas on how their group would kill time while Eddie moved over to working with Gareth and Grant on their trek to the madhouse. 

Tagging by request: @weirdandabsurd42, @10moonymhrivertam

[rei-does-stuff]

CH HEADCANNON INFODUMP LETS GO

-The UN is a semi-robot

He has a robotic body but he himself was a demon who kinda just possessed that robotic shell, if that makes sense

-America has a special interest in sunglasses! He has a huge collection of them and can tell you in extreme detail all about them!

-I feel like Italy would have a crush/a thing for America but sadly for her America is well— yk 💅

-The most UK possess England the more England kinda, forgets who he is

It’s little stuff like forgetting where he is, forgetting where he puts something but then it gets more serious, he starts to forget his name, he has to rummage through his trash for old mail just so he can remember his address, and so on and so forth

England comes back home dazed and confused as fuck because he has no idea what happened, Portugal sees this and helps him up, gives him some tea and everything because she’s a good wife and he’s like “thank you so much, who are you again?”

-Pakistan is the type of Muslim who smokes and (sometimes) drinks despite constantly preaching about how it’s bad and against islam,

Hypocrite like most of us tbh jdhshshhs

He never admits it though, you could have photo proof and hed be like “thats not me nooo i never drink, never touched one in my life!”

-WAIT WAIT YK WHAT PAKISTAN DOES WITH NO SHAME WHATSOEVER?? FUCKING PAN PARAG (IF YOU DONT KNOW WHAT THAT IS ITS ESSENTIALLY THIS LIKE CHEWING TOBACCO MY MOM LOVES IT)

HE HAS TGAT SHIT NO PROBLEM DOESNT EVEN DENY IT

-All Humans in my chverse are these grey eyeless freaks (image for reference)

I imagine they have the flag of whatever country they’re from on their cheek so u know if they’re like german or smth

Also despite not having eyes they can see just fine

Only the countries see them as grey eyeless freaks, to the humans they just look normal to each other, they see the ch’s as chs, they think they look weird but they run the government so what can they do yk?

-Germany has a sweet tooth and is often caught stealing sweets from other countries

-Okay so the best way I can describe this hc is, y’know how jinx in arcane sees visions her friends and sister to show how broken her mental state is?

Its kinda like that but with the UK is manifestation of his growing conscious and guilt with him ignoring it and going deeper and deeper into a horrid HORRID path

Cause like he’s a demon hes not supposed to really give a shit but in the back of his mind he’s growing to care and he doesn’t want that yk

And that’s everything!!

[meinbamf-archive]

« brenton thwaites, 28, he/him, comic » ∙∙ loading case file for KURT WAGNER. known aliases, if any: NIGHTCRAWLER. current location: NEW YORK, NEW YORK. current occupation: DRAMA TEACHER/MUTANT ACTIVIST. he has been known to be FIERCELY LOYAL and STUBBORN, so proceed with caution. their current alliance: UNDECIDED.

SHORT BIO

abandoned at birth in bavaria, kurt was adopted by a circus fortune teller who found him as a baby. with his unusual velvety blue fur, yellow eyes, and prehensile tail, he was an instant crowd favorite: people came from all over to see the flying fiend and his acrobatic tricks. when he was 16, the circus came under new management and the new owner attempted to sell kurt to a freak show. he fled from the one home he ever new, pursued by an angry mob. he was found hiding in a church by charles xavier, who promptly took the young mutant back to america.

he found a new lease on life in new york, surrounded by fellow mutants in a safe haven. he’s settled well, finding his place as the heart of xavier’s ragtag team of mutants. though most of his focus falls to teaching and campaigning for mutant equality, becoming a poster child for non-human mutants everywhere.

BASIC

name ... konrad christian szardos wagner

nicknames ... kurt, fuzzball, elf, blue

date of birth ... june 15th, 1995

zodiac ... gemini sun, capricorn moon, aquarius rising

mutation ... oh man... right off the bat he's blue and covered with fine hair. he's got three digits on each hand, including an opposable thumb. 2 toes on each foot. uhhh a prehensile tail that can support his full body weight. he's got canine fangs and is prone to biting his tongue when he speaks. also got a weird spine! he can do all sorts of stuff that would break a regular person's spine!

powers ... his main ability is teleportation! he teleports by traveling thorugh the pocket brimstone dimension, which leaves a cloud of smoke that smells like brimstone and sulfur whenever he teleports. there are a lot more specifics to this power that i will get bored naming off.

alias ... nightcrawler

nationality/species ... german/mutant ( homo superior )

languages spoken ... fluent in german, english, french, and italian. was telepathically implanted with the ability to speak russian and japanese.

orientation ... bisexual, with a slight female preference but he really doesn't care

pronouns ... he/him

PHYSICAL APPEARANCE

height ... 5'9" ( 1.75 m )

body build ... muscular, especially in his upper body. he's been a a trained gymnast/acrobat since he was child.

eye color ... solid yellow, they glow in the dark :)

hair type & color ... he got thick, wavy black hair. its darker than the fur that covers his body. he keeps it on the shorter side, hair in his face is one of his biggest pet peeves.

face claim ... brenton thwaites

distinguishing marks ... see mutations above

voice / accent ... german; despite living in america for a number of years now, his accent remains fairly strong. he has a tendency of switching between english and german when speaks.

clothing style ... kind of basic to be honest. its hard to find clothes that account for long tails. he's a fan of button up shirts and slacks, sometimes he spices it up with a fun pattern. he doesn't wear shoes often when he's not in costume, not a lot shoes on the market for his weird feet. but who needs shoes when you can teleport everywhere???

PERSONALITY

good traits ... loyal, kind-hearted, eternal optimist, faithful, honest, jovial

bad traits ... none <3 stubborn, hard on himself, insecure, struggles with very black and white thinking

personality type ... infp

archetype ... the lover

goals / desires ... to be accepted. he's very aware of the gawking and staring that comes naturally with his appearance, just once he would like to walk into a room without his image inducer and have nobody bat and eye.

fears ... dying. like every good catholic boy, he was instilled with the fear of the almighty power of heaven and hell and wondering where he'll go in the end is a thought that keeps him up at night.

what would throw this character's life into complete turmoil ... losing the x-men. kurt has never been an independent, solo act. teamwork and found family is all the guy knows, he would not survive 5 minutes having to do something alone.

character's soft spot ... babies, also grumpy ageless canadians

hobbies ... fencing, writing, pulling pranks, flirting with people

habits ... he will randomly start doing contortionist tricks, maybe its to show off, who knows? don't be surprised if he just randomly starts walking on his hands and then does the most gnarly looking back bend to stand back up.

PAST

hometown ... somewhere in the bavarian alps in germany. exact location is kind of murky, his father's castle was burned to the ground shortly after a demon baby ( kurt ) was born in its walls.

childhood ... was abandoned at birth due his physical mutation. adopted by a fortune teller in a traveling circus where he perfomed as an acrobat for most his early life.

dream job ... if he wasn't too busy fighting villains and for mutant rights, kurt would want to be an actor in hollywood.

education ... was homeschooled on the road with the circus, but got a full high school/college education at xaviers

FAMILY

mother ... raven darkholme / mystique

father ... baron christian wagner

relationships ... i choose to ignore the retcon about his father actually being a demon. he never met his father and honestly that doesn't upset him much anymore. as for his mother... they have a very strained relationship, its one thing to be abandoned at birth, its a whole other can of worms when your mother comes back and is constantly trying to ruin your life further. they've reached an uneasy peace. a bonus member of this is irene adler, mystique's wife and kurt's other evil mother -- we love a guy with evil lesbian moms

adopted mother ... margali szardos

relationship ... more mommy issues incoming. kurt can't catch a break with the women who raised him. she took him in when no one else would and raised him like one of her own. part of him will always love her... even if she was the one leading the mob as he was chased away from the one home he ever knew.

adopted sister ... jimaine szardos

adopted brother ... stephen szardos ( deceased )

foster sister ... anna marie / rogue

relationships ... he doesn't truly know how many siblings he really has. jimaine and stephen were a staple part of his childhood, loving him like a brother regardless of the fact they weren't biologically related. the last time kurt was in germany, stephen died by his sword. there is a deep set guilt that's kept him away from his adopted family ever since. rogue and kurt met later in life, bonded by the trauma that is having mystique for a mother. he cares about her a lot.

'child' ... pickles the bamf

relationship ... bamfs are a race of tiny teleporting pests accidentally made from kurt's dna. while most of them were banished back to their home dimension, pickles stayed around. kurt feels bad for the little guy so as the only one able to communicate with them, he kept him around.

PRESENT

current location ... westchester, new york, united states of america

currently living with ... the x-men at the mansion! just a simple teleportation commute into the city

pets ... pickles is technically a pet i guess

religion ... catholic :) he's a devout catholic ( almost became a priest once! ) racked with religious guilt!

political affiliation ... tends to lean more leftist. he is very much a 'stick with the mutants, humans come right after' kind of guy.

FAVORITES

weather ... kurt loves sunny days! sunlight warming his skin, a soft breeze blowing through his fur is when he's at his happiest.

color ... purple

music ... truly the definition of will listen to anything. though he has a soft spot for 60s and 70s music.

movie ... oh he is such a sucker for golden age of hollywood movies. he has watched every errol flynn movie multiple times, his favorite being captain blood (1935). kurt loves old adventure movies.

sport ... baseball ( only when the x-men play ) and competitive gymnastics

beverage ... was recently introduced to starbucks frappuchinos and he's a changed man. but has been known to out-drink even wolverine when it comes to german pale ales.

food ... such a soup guy, doesn't matter what kind or time of year he loves soup.

animal ... if you ask him, he'll just say birds. no specific kind, just birds.

[wickedsrest-rp-archive]

Blast to the Past || POTW with Aylin, Jake, & Leah

TIMING: Current PARTIES: @onlyaylin @hackysacking @phoenixleah SUMMARY: A few White Crest locals end up in White Crest in the late 1700s when the Horrors originally began. After some digging, a pattern is noticed and it’s not so promising.

Lately, Jake had often dreamed of a house burning as the evening sun blazed like an ember in the smok-choked dusk sky. He’d bolt awake on his dorm room bed, drenched in sweat as he struggled against ropes tying him to a stake. Jake’d apparently cussed and cried out in pain so much in these dreams that it’d woken other guys in the fraternity house, leading to the awkwardness of Jake coming to his senses while being surrounded by confused half-naked dorm-mates keeping to keep him pinned down while trying to assure a frantically delirious and struggling Jake that he wasn’t covered in burns, no one was coming for his family. 

 Dude, it's fine. There’s no burns. See, look at your hands! Just breathe man. Uh….Jake…could you stop choking Martin now? K’thanks. 

 It was embarrassing on too many levels to count. Jake’s dormmates didn’t give him too much shit about it beyond the occasional joke while playing pool at Dells after work. The casual surreality and death rate of White Crest had acclimated the guys into aimable numbness for long enough that they didn't sweat the small stuff any more. Nevertheless, Jake hated scaring them with whatever these recurring nightmares were, not to mention disturbing the sleep of student-athletes who already didn’t get enough of it most weeks between school, their jobs, and practice. Like with most things in life that Jake couldn’t explain, he focused on forgetting and suppressing it, trying to exhaust himself into dreamlessness through doubling his work out routine and picking up the strongest sleep meds he could afford. 

 But then Jake found the house in real life, and everything felt like it was falling to pieces all over again. 

 What’d drawn Jake onto that lonely road into the woods after practice, he couldn’t really say. Jake often felt tugging pulls like this, draws towards random bullshit and lonely places where the air seemed to hum with a subtle energy that made Jake’s blood sing. But sounded weird, and Jake was a normal dude in a normal town who did only normal things. So therefore, he obviously had a good reason for trekking into the woods and across jagged ravines, hair still wet from the locker room shows and gym bag thrown over one shoulder. He’d just forgotten for now. But it was surely a good reason, and mostly importantly, a normal everyday reason that could’ve belonged to anyone. 

  Not a freak. Please, please, I don’t want to be a freak. Call me basic. Tell me im kinna boring and pathetic. That’s fine! Just anything but a freak. No! This isn't real. This can’t be real. 

 “This isn’t real,” Jake mumbled helplessly aloud as he looked at the old burned farmhouse that’d already been overtaken by the forest centuries before Jake was even a horny thought in his parents’ brains. But the exact ruined replica of the house from Jake’s dreams rudely refused to stop existing besides an overgrown orchard of apple trees and a vivid woodland meadow of  poppies, primrose, monkshood, and henbane. “This is just DeJa Vu,” Jake said to himself more frantically as his physical surroundings stubbornly continued to exist and remain impossibly familiar. “Yeah, shit like…its just…” 

 The sky darkened above the farmhouse and the light around Jake reddened as the sun became an angry furnace-bright eye in a sky darkened by sourceless smoke. The sun gew bright as the smoke thickened, blazing light and the suffocating scent of char choking out Jake’s surroundings until he passed out on knees while still gagging and grimacing through the searing pain. 

 The lilting of songbirds in the trees woke Jake from the murky depths of unconsciousness. He stirred with a groan, feeling the polyester of his gym bag against his cheek and the bare unearvently packed dirt of a well-trodden forest road beneath him. Weird like, there hadn’t been a road hiking up here. Hell, there’d barely even been a game trail. 

 Jake opened his eyes to see a colonial farmhouse with panelled wood walls, a wide-plank deck and exposed wood beams. Smoke wafted into the air from a rough stone chimney. Cows grazed in the meadow while a fluffy cat languished on the deck and watched chickens cluck and pluck at worms in the warm summer grass. 

 “This…isn’t real,” Jake reminded him, trying to fight back the panic threatening to crash into his brain like an ocean tide. 

  All she’d wanted to do was go for a small walk before trying a hand at cooking dinner for herself and Ceyda. Aylin knew that, of the two of them, Ceyda was the far better cook, but she also knew that Ceyda was working hard, and even though Aylin was taking classes in order to try and graduate relatively on time with others her age, time to cook was certainly not a bad thing. It kept her busy, too - and keeping her mind occupied was never a bad idea. So she’d set off, and somehow had ended up in a part of the woods she’d never been in before.

 Which was very uncharacteristic for her. Aylin liked to plan things as much as possible - especially ever since her sixteenth birthday. Before that, she certainly hadn’t been entirely spontaneous, but she had certainly had more of a spark to her - a curiosity that let her explore the world without risking an anxiety attack.

 She tended to avoid the woods, where possible. Open spaces meant she could see everything around her better, which meant things were less likely to sneak up on her, which meant that she would be just fine. Or at least that was what she told herself. Aylin wasn’t certain if this was something she always believed, though - or if it was just something she’d repeated to herself enough times to trick her brain into thinking it was true.

 So when she’d shut her eyes for just a moment, she hadn’t expected to wake up and find herself in a place she’d never been before. Aylin pressed her tongue against the roof of her mouth, and did her best to focus on things around her, on how her body was feeling. She pulled out her phone, wanting to text Ceyda - to say hi, excuse me, I got lost and you’re always the best at finding me so could you please do that?? - but there was no service, and so she took another deep breath as she turned around and noticed another figure. “I - um, I am sorry to intrude, but I seem to have gotten super lost?” She wasn’t sure why she phrased it like a question. Maybe because most of this all seemed like one of her terrible dreams.

The library had been especially busy lately, with people filing in with all sorts of research questions that ranged anywhere from King Henry VIII’s 6 wives to how to tame an Ustra to become a house pet.  Leah’s mind should have been swirling from the questions, but instead it was somewhere far off, thinking of everything that had been happening with the people she loved lately.  

 She was looking down at the desk as she was filling out some paperwork, when a sound from the back of the library distracted her enough to make her look up from her work.  It was the strangest thing, because it was almost as if she’d heard a bird- it was a sound that one would usually only hear if they were outside in the open.  When she looked up, she had to squint, because instead of the library in front of her, she was surrounded by a setting she didn’t recognize.  Old buildings, old fashioned clothing from people (who were looking toward her with the sort of strange and accusing looks one had nightmares about in high school, and, worst of all, no books in sight. If she didn’t know any better, she would have sworn that she somehow transported herself to the 1700s.   She looked down at her desk to realize it had disappeared, though until then, she swore her arms had been resting on it.  

 This was bad.  It was bad for a million reasons.  The first, and probably most pressing, was that the accusing whispers of the people that surrounded her were a lot more dangerous than just high school embarrassment.  If she was right about her time period, then even her odd outfit would have been enough to convince those around her that she might have been a witch that needed to be taken care of.  And what was worse, if she actually had traveled back in time, she didn’t have access to the scribe journals to figure out how to get herself back.  She huffed, looking around herself with wide, panicked eyes, trying to find an out.

 To Leah’s surprise, her eyes landed on three other people who seemed, based on their clothes at least, to be from the same century as her.  She even recognized one from the library, a sweet regular who had sometimes reminded her a lot of herself.

 Thinking quickly, Leah walked double time toward the other woman, trying her best to not draw attention to either of them.  As she did, she tried to wave toward the two men near them, gesturing toward a clearing not to far from where they were all standing.  “We need to get out of here”, she said when she reached Aylin, grabbing her arm gently.  “We need to get out of here quickly”.  

 Leah was smart. Leah knew all the best book recommendations and was always nice to talk to whenever Aylin came by the library. Which gave her a small bit of comfort - or at least as much as was possible, given that she still had absolutely no clue as to what was going on or why she’d ended up in a place that very much didn’t feel like where she’d started out on her walk. There weren’t any planned historical reenactments in the town that she was aware of, though it was always possible that she’d missed some sort of memo.

 So her hand on Aylin’s arm was welcome and steadying, and she nodded, “yes, I - but how?” She glanced over to the two others who appeared to be just as out of place as she and Leah were. “I don’t even know how I got here, and knowing how you got somewhere’s usually the first step to knowing how to get out of that somewhere.” She sighed, gaze finally drifting to the people who looked more at place where they were. People who also were looking increasingly irritated, the more she observed them, and she twisted a strand of hair around her fingertips. 

 “What are your names?” She asked, nodding towards the two men, “I - I’m Aylin, and I know her,” she nodded to Leah, “I also - well, I was just walking and I don’t really know how I ended up here. Which I know is sort of me repeating myself from earlier but the point still stands and…” she trailed off, squeezing her eyes shut for a moment, “my aunt’s going to be worried if I’m not home for dinner.” 

 Jake had run from the farmhouse and down the hill. Even in his panic and confusion, Jake had been unerringly drawn to the only people around here that’d dressed normally. As often happened when Jake was disoriented or indeperate need, he got these strangely intense vibes that often drew him towards those something or someone close to the need that was in his brain. One might’ve called it clairvoyance if such a thing was possible, but obviously a normal dude like Jake only had the eerily precise sense of direction we all get when stranded in a strange land with no landmarks we recognize. 

 So Jake didn’t find it odd that he’d somehow dodged around wagons, horses, alleys, dock workers, and latrine pits to find the only three people here who looked at all familiar. That is just how jogging works. Coach called it ‘visualizing the goal.’ 

 Oh look! The Librarian! 

 In fact, Jake was so good at visualizing that he’d already figured out how all these archaic surroundings were normal actually and going great. 

“Woah! Miss Ramirez this is aaaaawesome,” Jake effused, cheeks still flushed from his sprint down the hill from a farmhouse that hadn’t his dreams. “Damn this art thing is going great,” he commented about an art exhibition he’d talked with Leah about months ago, seamlessly deciding that it was definitely today and featured colonial architecture on a massive scale. “Oh hi!” Jake rounded on the other two people here doing Art for books or reading or something. The young man beamed with a solipsist bliss that ignored the stares and troubled murmurs around them. “Is this your guys first Ren Fair with the Library! Its mine! Aw shit? Are you gonna fight with lances Miss Ramirez, are you good with lances?”

 “As much as I hold confidence in the fact that the White Crest Library would be able to put on such an artful, accurate production, that is not what’s going on here.”   Leah hadn’t recognized Jake until he was closer, but she couldn’t help her little smirk of pride at the fact that he knew the library could throw quite the party.  She’d have to remember to make him patron of the month sometime soon. The people around them were getting increasingly braver with their whispers, and though accusing glances were being shot their way, people were avoiding going near them like the plague.  As if being a witch was somehow proximally contagious.  Leah wanted to roll her eyes, but the issue was much to pressing to be annoyed with. At least their distance would give them all a chance to talk. She would survive being burned at the stake.  Heck, it wouldn’t be worse than a regular Tuesday for her.  But she couldn’t say the same for her three companions.

 “I know this sounds absolutely insane, but I think, it seems… we might have actually…”  It was hard for her to say it.  She never choked out the truth to strangers or acquaintances.  She barely told friends about how much she knew about the supernatural.  But desperate times called for desperate measures.  “We’ve traveled back in time.”  There.  It was out there.  “And the three of us either need to find somewhere to hide, or some conveniently placed and sized clothing before we’re all put on trial al la ‘The Crucible’.

  Back in time? Aylin shook her head - but of course, it made sense. She remembered others talking about ending up in different places, and she could feel her heartbeat quicken as she thought more about it. “Hiding, that I’m a fan of.” That’s what I’m a natural at, anyhow. “But if, while hiding, we find outfits, even if they are not the best fit, I vote we take those anyhow, and we can always pay someone back later, ‘cause I don’t want to get arrested for robbery.” 

 She blinked a few times, rapidly, “Oh, I’m Aylin - uh, Aylin Kaplan, if we’re doing full names. I go to the university and live with my aunt and I would very much like to get back to where she is, because I don’t want to worry her.”

 “Oooooooooh.” False comprehension dawned over Jake's face, lighting up his blue eyes and bringing dimples to his smile. “Back in time,” Jake said with farcical slowness, before looking over his shoulder to give a passing puritan fellow a knowing wink and finger-guns, to show that Jake was definitely in on the joke of these very hard-core renaissance fair workers. 

 “We should steal clothes from a clothesline or something,” Jake suggested. “It’s how it goes in movies.”

 “Leah.  The librarian”, Leah said, mostly to Sam since Jake and Aylin knew who she was.  She didn’t expect any of them to take to her theory so quickly, mostly because to a layman it must have sounded ridiculous, but she was a bit concerned that Jake seemed to still think this was a bit.  Would he act with enough haste if he didn’t know their lives were really at stake?

 “I don’t think clotheslines exist yet”, she mused, looking around them to see if she could find any just in case.  “Maybe we should just… start walking?  Together, of course, and away enough from everyone else.  If we see any spare clothes we should grab them.  I’m sure we can pull something presentable enough together, right?”  She was completely grasping at straws, and completely panicked.  

“Someone told me about time being a bit weird,” Aylin looked between the others, “and I don’t think this is the same town I woke up in, so I guess if I ever end up in a physics class I’ll have to ask about the mechanics of time travel.” She giggled, in an attempt to lighten the mood.

 “I vote for the starting to walk, and maybe not speaking unless spoken to? Just to be extra safe, since we don’t know if these people will support us and I’d super rather not get into trouble.” Aylin took a few steps forward, “and yes, I think we’ll find at least something.” Or at least that was what she’d tell herself again and again - because if she said it enough times, it had to become true, didn’t it? “How does this way look?”

 “I think I saw some back that way yeah,” Jake claimed, despite not having come from anywhere remotely in the direction Aylin had indicated. “I’m Jake by the way! Hi!” 

 “Oh wait,” Jake said as he progressed down a path of mud interspersed with erratic patches of cobblestones. “I should have an Amishy name now …like…Jake-a-diah!”

 Jakeadiah led the way through colonial White Crest as if he’d been born there, led by a wordless knowing that he didn’t bother to question. He wove around thatched houses, rancid stockyards full of animals, and warehouses of stacked crates whose wooden sides were branded with seals from all over the vast British empire. 

 Somehow Jakeadiah knew a local washerwoman had abandoned her work to attend to a dispute at the marketplace. He pivoted at the end of an alley to a small cobblestone cul-de-sac where a wooden wash-bin stood beside many sets of clothes in various states of questionable repair. “Fuck yeah! Oatmeal Guy hats,” Jake explained as he seized a broad-brimmed black hat that apparently reminded him of the Quaker Oats mascot. 

Jakeadiah.  Right.  Leah watched her companions and the strangers around them carefully as they made their way through the town, led by Jakeadiah himself.   Somehow, by a miracle of luck, he lead them to a pile of clothes, and it was just the luck they needed.  “Oh my god, Jake!  Way to pull through!”  She grinned and pulled Aylin over, perusing through the clothes until she found one that might just fit.  Step one was done, and at least they’d be out of the townspeople’s prying eyes for the time being.   The thought made her much less panicky.  Things like this happened all the time in White Crest, and she couldn’t help but be fascinated by their surroundings now they the present danger was at bay.

 “I’m almost positive we’re still in White Crest”, she said, holding her arms up.  The sleeves on the dress were a bit too long, so she pulled them up to rest on her wrists.  “I think we should waste the rest of our time here figuring out exactly what year we’re in.  You’d be surprised by how far back the town archives go… anyone up for going to find them now?”

“I don’t think there’s a way to turn a Turkish name Amish-y,” Aylin bit her lip, “but yours works nicely!” She couldn’t hide her grin as he led them to a place that did, in fact, actually have clothing that it appeared nobody else was using. Thankfully Leah was willing to help her find clothes, and she quickly pulled a dress over her head and replaced her shoes with the era-appropriate flats. She still wanted to get back to Ceyda as fast as was possible, but she didn’t dare pull her phone out - she knew that the people, whoever they were, would likely be on her about that.

 “Yeah, some of this looks familiar and -” she nodded enthusiastically, “books. Books are very good and something you can rely on.” Aylin took in a deep breath, “I vote for finding any sort of archives or record rooms that we can.”

Jakeadiah, now clad in a farmer’s simple linen shirt, beige breeches, boots, and a broad weathered hat after a polite dip behind a corner to change, watched his companions confer amongst themselves. Jake’s eyes flicked between their features. A naturally social guy, Jake picked up on the interpersonal vibes here even if his brain still blocked out the obvious. 

 They weren’t taking this like a game. They were concerned, tense even. Jakeadiah decided to put it down to them being serious method actors, but his heart knew that wasn’t true. Something was very wrong here, and though Jake refused to think on why, he felt the need to help these folks nonetheless. “Probably won’t be too hard to find books, not sure most people around here have books that aren’t bibles or farmer almanacs in their house,” Jake affirmed ‘in character’ with a touch less blitheness than before. 

Leah nodded affirmatively, pleased that they all seemed to be on the same page about finding some literature.  If there was any luck left for them, they might even find some old Scribe writings amongst the towns typical archives, and maybe something there might help explain the whole thing.  “The bank by the Common was supposedly once the site of some old town Archives before they were moved to where they are today.  Or… not today, in 2022.  Because where we are, today, is not…”  She held her head, getting confused.  “You get the point.”

 She looked around them, trying her hardest to locate anything that looked familiar. “Problem is, I have no idea where we are in relation to that…”.  She looked between them, biting her lip.  “Do you think any of the familiarity you see might lead us to the future Common?”

“Today as in the today we came from, not the one we wound up in.” Aylin nodded along, “I mean, I’m still relatively new to the town, so I don’t know if I know my way around most places, but uh -” she squinted, “I guess we’d need to find an open space? Do you know if they tore anything down to make the Common?” Her gaze flicked over to Jake, “oh, she means like history books and stuff that not everyone has, I think.” She felt her cheeks flush, “not to put words in her mouth or in yours, but I think like - news clippings? History about the town? People’ve valued that for years, I think.”

 Aylin took in another sharp breath, lest her anxieties lead to too much rambling. “But Leah’s the history-slash-book expert, here. I can tell you a bit about rocks, but as far as this town goes, I’m still a newbie.”

 Their path toward the Archives came to be blocked by a cluster of townsfolk, who had a lot of difficult questions in where exactly the four strangers had come from. The commotion inevitably drew more curious onlookers and snatches of the conversation being bandied began to make Jake deeply uncomfortable. No consent forms had been signed for some of the old timey punishments being mentioned  here. 

 But he could tell this growing crowd to chill, a shout I’d warning from further down the road was followed by the sight of an out of control carriage. The driver had been thrown from his seat and the carriage now careened down the street, the panicked horses sending the carriages’ bulk slamming through storefronts as bent wheels carved deep groves in the muddy street. 

 “Charity!”

 A cry from a man in the crowd drew Jake’s eyes to a girl that was running to join the angry crowd out of curiosity. The crowd had been so focused on the strangers that they hadn’t seen the approaching coach until too late. The girl's bonneted head turned towards the coach without time to comprehend. 

 The adrenaline of the moment surged into Jake, the thudding in his temples and deadly urgency of the moment left no room for the lies he believed for safety. Jake the store clerk hesitated, and Jake the summoner stepped up in his stead. 

 Jake raised a hand and made a twisting motion, as if he were turning a door knob, but the fabric of space twisted instead. 

 The girl seemed to collapse in on herself, shattering into glassy fragments in a horrifying millisecond of spatial distortion. The shards that’d once been Charity Florence were sucked into a hole of blue fire that’d appeared in the air, like the fragments of a broken mirror swirling down into a burning drain. 

 The carriage slammed into the space where Charity had been an instant before. Shattered pieces of the deck and coach door mingled in a thunderclap of broken wood and screaming horses. 

 The crowd that’d gathered to admonish the outsiders were stunned by the tumult for a good half a minute. Wide eyes flicked from the ruins of the carriage collision site across the street, to whimpering young woman whose shoulder was now held by Jake, his hand still alight with flickering blue radiance that gave  off no heat. 

 The hush was broken by the wailing of Charity, whose cries mingled with the screaming horses still struggling to disentangle themselves from the carriage wreckage. In between bouts of gasping hyperventilation, Charity tore herself from her rescuers gasp and began tearful rambling about fire, strange hellish vistas, and other half-coherent phantasmagoria. Mr. Florence rushed forward to take his daughter in his arms, and wary eyes narrowed at the young man who was still lit by the fading blue glow of magic around him. 

 “He’s one of those folk from the Rainer farm,” noted one elder in the crowd, surveying Jake’s face with narrow eyes. “Look at his face, hair, eyes, he’s the spitting likeness of them…” 

 Sinister consensus spread amongst the crowd, apparently connecting Jake to a certain Rainer family of questionable repute who has a suspicious habit of knowing things they shouldn’t. 

 Remembering the farm he’d seen in both his dreams and upon first landing here, Jake turn to his companions, shaking the last glow of himself. “Hey uh guys…let’s uh…do books now.”

 If Leah weren’t horrified by the potential consequences of what she and the already angry townspeople just witnessed, she would have been fascinated.  Jake was a spellcaster, or she assumed he was, and phasing people in an out of danger like some sort of modern day super hero.  Was his belief that the library was putting on an elaborate historical event all an act?  Or was he like Regan, so naive to the world of the supernatural despite being smack dab in the middle of it.  None of that really mattered, she supposed, since people like Jake were the very people that the village around them were hoping to eradicate.  Their growing agitation was evident, and Leah worried they’d soon strike like a swarm of bees.  

 Distraction… distraction…. They needed a distraction if they planned on getting enough of a headstart to find anything together.   She looked past the crowd that was now growing even more, toward a tree standing alone on the side of the road.  “Uhh… look over there!”, she said, pointing in its direction.  By the time the townspeople looked over, she had already made it burst into flames, but all it did mostly was cause another wave of panic amongst the townspeople.

 “Books. Right!”  She grabbed both of their wrists, finding a small hole in the wall of anger and led them out of it, running as fast as she could with the outfit and the mud at their feet and the panic rising through her.  She thought she might have saw a clearing like Aylin had suggested up ahead, but she couldn’t trust her eyes.  If they stopped running for even a moment, the village would have caught up with them.  “Anyone see a clearing?  Or anything that looks like The Common?”

She felt sick to her stomach. Aylin watched with wide eyes as someone seemed to fall into herself, and then explode into flames - and if she’d had any doubts about her desperate need to get back to Ceyda (which she hadn’t) they would have entirely flown out the window by now. This was very much not the way to stay undercover, because Aylin was fairly certain that exploding things was going to draw attention, even if they were dressed era-appropriate. 

 She felt herself gasp as something else caught fire, though she was grateful that Jake and Leah seemed to have a handle on the distractions, because she didn’t know what she had to offer in that regard. Aylin nodded, feeling herself relax just slightly as Leah grabbed her wrist. “Yes, let’s go. Books. Now.” She kept easy pace with Leah and Jake, “I - there’s maybe a space over there? Given that it’s away from everyone in town, I vote we maybe possibly try it? If you both want.”

 Jake ran alongside the others, droplets of sweat beading down his forehead in a weariness that had nothing to do with the exertion of running. The athlete was accustomed to the wear and tear of exercise, but the tiredness uncoiling in his chest didn’t feel like that. It was a different kind of exhaustion, going far deeper than tendons and panting lungs. Jake recognized that feeling. It came over him alot weird shit went down, like part of himself had been burnt as fuel. 

 As always happened when Jake had unwelcome realizations about the world, he instinctively shoved the thought away. A lifetime of mental barriers, denial, and determined ignorance attempt to bulldoze these the last five minutes into some dark of his brain. As he had so many times before, Jake stubbornly decided nothing he had seen was real. This feeling wasn’t real. None of this was real. 

 Yet the unwelcome thoughts remained. Magic hummed in Jake’s veins like the lethal current of an exposed ground-wire, set free in a moment of stress. 

 Jake’s breaths grew heavy as he ran with the other time travelers…no no…they were just at ren fair…no wait isn’t that a lie?…this is some production they have gong here…stop stop you know that isn’t true…fuck how did these ren fair get the blue fireworks to work like that…that stuff was me, it was always me…and that woosh fire pyrotechnics right after! Awesome…god this hurts, please stop fuck my head…Y’know. We’re kinna tapped on this ren fair? Like, shouldn’t we probably head home after this whole chase skit and…

 The sides of an alley collapsed behind Jake, imploding as walls rippled with jello-like wobbles, stretched across the alley to merge with the other wall, and together blinked out of existence entirely. The two neighboring houses collapsed behind the group in a cloud of mortar and shingles as the roof caved in where entire walls had been a second before. 

 “Yeah sure! That clearing, awesome,” agreed Jake with a tense note of panic starting to infect his normally calm tenor. 

“Jake, this is just a ren fair, remember?  You need to relax, okay?  I think for everyone’s safety, you need to be calm.”  There was no chance he believed this was an act anymore, but maybe if he could pretend to believe it long enough for them to find some literature, they could get out of here without the whole town imploding before they all had a chance to be born.  Leah looked into the direction Aylin was indicating, deciding it was good enough for her and doing her best to lead the others in the direction.

 By a miracle, or maybe just by sheer dumb luck, Aylin’s guess happened to be right.   Even luckier, they had somehow outrun the angry mob, at least for now.  They came to a building that she recognized fully- she knew it in her time as ‘the bank by the common’, never bothering to learn it’s actual name or even what branch it was a part of.  Now that she thought of it, she briefly wondered if it was part of some elaborate cover up.  Either way, if her calculations were correct, this building should have just been for record keeping at this point.  She looked between her companions, then, and reached forward to knock on the door.  “Do you think anyone’s working?  Maybe everyone’s gone to see the commotion we caused.”

Jake seemed to be worried now, too, which certainly didn’t do much of anything to quell Aylin’s anxieties. “Yes, being calm’s better. Good, if possible. Even if it can be hard.” Aylin took in a deep breath of her own. “Try to name five things you can see… four things you can touch,” she scrunched up her nose, “three things you can hear, two things you can smell, and one thing you can taste.” Aylin reached into her bag, “I’ve got these sour candies that I bring along for when I feel panicky, and they work. I like the lemon or black cherry best. But blue raspberry, apple, and watermelon are also pretty good, I think?” She held out the bag to Leah, too. “If you’d like one, you’re welcome to them.”

 She didn’t think that her actual knowledge of the town had played any sort of role in their happening upon the clearing. “I don’t think anybody’s working, and I mean, they don’t have cellphones so even if someone is, they won’t know that the rest of everyone’s after us.” Aylin unwrapped one of the candies (black cherry) and placed it on her tongue. “I’m ready whenever you both are.”

 Jake could feel the edges of this dimension as his hands wear running along the folds of origami. The world he knew, a single reality with firm boundaries, was a lie. Born with the ability to feel and rip holes in the fabric of space, the young summoner’s dimensional awareness seemed ratcheted to a fever pitch after being suppressed for so long.

 Jake felt as if he were walking on a ceiling made of glass, the endless worlds and abysses between dimensions yawning out in layers upon layers beneath. One wrong step, a stray thought, one second of this energy building without him being released, and Jake felt like he mind plunge though the brittle surface of reality, falling through layers of alien universes that seemed stacked atop each other like a stuffed crust four meat pizza with a delicious sauce of lightless void.

 “Oh uh thanks I uh thanks,” Jake stammered as Leah and Aylin offered comfort in their own way. He accepted Leah’s explanation and the candy from Aylin with a nervous swallow and more breathless gratitude. Candy and a fantasy weren’t necessarily comfort by themselves, but it was the caring behind those gestures, the assurance that in all this chaos and overwhelming sensation there were strangers who cared about him, that seemed to shelter him from the storm inside. 

 Jake tried to focus on his three companions, watching their expressions, listening to their voices, and letting the current problem distract him from the vertigo and gut fear of falling through this world like a glitching video game. 

 Jake walked up to the door with the reckless courage of a desperate man, and pushed the door open inward. “I don’t see anyone,” he said tentatively after ducking his head inside. 

Leah happily took one of the watermelon candies, making sure to remember this trick for the next time something was going incredibly wrong in town.  Maybe White Crest should invest in some bags of candy at every corner, if only to make people feel more at ease.  “These things turn my tongue colors”, she said to them, her mouth tripping over the candy as she spoke.   It was a lame attempt to lighten the mood for Jake’s sake.  She wondered how much he knew about what he was, and how much he knew about everything else.

 Leah was surprised at Jake’s courage, but not disappointed in it.  It was more than she had been able to muster, anyway.  She looked at Aylin with a grin before she ventured inside, looking around at the shelves and shelves of books lined up behind a vacant table.  They looked old and new at the same time- the same charm of some of her oldest tomes without all the dust and disrepair that normally accompanied them.  “I don’t even know where to start”, she muttered in awe.  In a moment of weakness, she forgot completely about their mission and rushed toward the books to start reading, pulling one down immediately.  “There’s so many of them!”

“They do that to my tongue too. Also would not recommend putting four in your mouth at a time, that gets overwhelming.” Aylin put on her best smile, because for once, she was fairly certain that someone else was more out of their league and comfort zone than she was. So long as no werewolves showed up, she was going to do her best to put on a brave face for as long as she could.

 “There are so many books,” Aylin stared around the room - it was incredible, and she couldn’t help but smile. It was comforting to know that no matter what, books were something that had that sort of effect on her - one of wonder and amazement. “There’s a local section here, I think.” She said, wandering over and grabbing a book, “though I think there’s a lot of local sections,” she scrunched up her nose. “I guess we should just start reading?”

 Jake was not a scholar or even a big reader in general. His parents had militantly instilled an intellectual disinterest in their children, emphasizing the uselessness of impractical knowledge. Knowledge was a danger, for it was often the key to the deepest parts of oneself and the Rainsbottoms desperately wanted that to stay locked. 

 But danger and stress had been lockpicks despite all that repression, and now Jake walked amongst the rough-hewn shelves, colonial boots shuffling occasionally against the wood floor as he struggled with detertixy in these cramped archaic shoes. He ran his fingers over leather book covers with spines that were ridged from the raised cords they’d been sown over. In a moment of light piercing his tunnel vision, Jake was struck by just how much he didn’t know. It was a frequent thought honestly, but…

 For the first time, that unknown excited Jake instead of scared him. Something dormant in him had finally stirred and it was starving in a way that Jake had never allowed himself to feel. 

 Jake started retrieving books for his companions to read. Occasionally Jake would lose focus, and his unconscious intention would cause a book to teleport from the shelf straight to the table in a flash of blue light and a dull clap of displaced air. Jake flushed a progressively darker shade of sheepish red as it became ever more undeniable that the summoner himself was the source of these yeeting books “Sorry uh, like uh maybe it’s like magnets or uh….,” Jake rambled reflexive explanations as he brought Leah and Aylin whatever they needed, believing his own lies a little less each time. 

Leah appreciated Aylin’s presence.  It was a calm brightness, filled with an innocence that she wasn’t always sure she could muster in such a circumstance.   She smiled at the girl, then took down a few books of her own.  When books starting flying seemingly of their own accord onto the table, she chanced a glance at Jakeadiah himself.  “Maybe it’s something more special than magnets, who knows.  Jake…”, she chanced, hoping he’d look up at her.  “Once this… renaissance fair is all over, you should come by the library.  I have a couple of books I think you might be interested in.”

 She started to glance through the books, and all of them were incredible and otherworldly.  But none seemed like the scribe tomes she had hoped would have made their way there.  It wasn’t long before she felt like they had been reading for hours, but to no avail.

 She felt safe in libraries. Aylin figured that this was a good portion of the reason why she’d clicked with Leah right away, and for all his apparent confusion, Jake also seemed to appreciate the library, which made any lingering doubts she’d held about him (of which there’d been maybe half a doubt) dissipate “Leah’s basically the smartest person I know,” Aylin affirmed to Leah’s comment to Jake. “Besides, the White Crest library is super pretty and a fun place to hang out in!” 

 They settled into reading, and Aylin allowed herself to be lost in the books, pouring over them in some attempt to find anything that could help. She didn’t know what exactly she was supposed to look for, but she figured that coming across even half of an answer would be an improvement over knowing nothing at all.

 After what felt like it had to be a few hours she came across something that seemed familiar - oddly so to what she’d seen people mentioning back home. Aylin scanned through the page - yesterday, the houses shifted and ones I’d never seen appeared - one part read, and as she continued to read, it became more clear that shifting buildings were not the only similarity. Fish smells too, time repeating itself, and much more.

 “Uh…” she began, “Leah? Jake? I think I found something.” She motioned for both of them to come over. “Seems like whatever oddness that’s happening back - now? Back wherever we belong apparently has happened before.” She held out a book towards Leah. “I haven’t finished reading, so I don’t know how they made it stop but…” Aylin took in a shaking breath. “This gives a whole new meaning to the idea of history repeating itself, right?”

 Jake hadn’t had many willing trips to the library that weren’t part of a scavenger hunt or to humor a date more intellectual himself. Twenty four hours ago Jake would have met Leah’s offer to visit the library and Aylin’s affirmation with an aimable shrug and self-deprecating comments about him not being a books kinna guy, the same explanation he used for sleeping through classes and quickly counting cracks in ceiling while peers debated morality or politics. 

 But today Jake’s world was unraveling. He was confused, exhausted, and afraid, but somehow these new fears had replaced the old. Jake wasn’t at all who he’d thought he was and though that uncertainty was painful, that pain made him forget the same old bonehead script. “Uh i mean, if you have books on um…. magnets,” look Jake was making progress but we definitely were not ready for the other m-word yet. “And stuff that be really uh…oh holy shi..!” Jake let out a yelp before self-consciously clearing his throat as the large almanac he’d been looking at on the shelf vanished and materialized on an abrupt thud and flash of blue on the table next to him. “That’d be awesome,” Jake concluded belatedly while eyeing the latest mischief the awesome and terrible power of magnets had wrought. 

 Jake listened as Aylin explained that the future and past were connected. Jake’s mind told him that was insane, but the summoner’s instincts, the primal part of him that had felt the wild magic and spatial distortion that’d brought them here, knew it was true. “So like, is this like…a bad thing,” Jake asked tentatively, not quite ready to accept the full implications of what’d been said, “like we gotta warn White Crest to quit the torches and man-tights or we’ll keep making the same mistakes kinna deal?”

Leah looked up when Aylin called her and Jake over, and immediately dropped what she was reading (an admittedly useless archive of the known local arsonists, but she couldn’t help herself).  She walked over to stand behind her marveling at what she had found.   “Wait, Aylin, this is…” daylight savings repeating following whispers coming from seemingly nowhere…  it matched up completely with what had been happening in their White Crest.  “History is repeating itself… literally”.  She looked between Jake and Aylin’s book before she continued reading, responding to Jake at the same time.  “It’s only bad if the outcome is bad, I think.  I mean, cyclical happenings are actually a lot more common on earth than you think.  Some even think there are some species who have cyclical lifespans.”  She tucked hair behind her ear, knowing all too well about that particular subject.  “Sometimes you just have to wait these sort of things out.”

 She continued reading down, trying to find some sort of indication where the circle started itself again.  “I don’t… all of the writings seem to just… stop”, she said, pulling away from the book.

 “Man-tights?” Aylin looked over to Jake inquisitively, “but uh, I’m not sure.” Leah began talking, and though Aylin was grateful to have found something of potential use, she figured that Leah, being someone who worked in a library, was the defacto expert in this situation. “There’s a jellyfish that never dies, but - that’s not the point, sorry.” She swallowed at Leah’s next comment. “They can’t,” she took the book from her hands, “no - there’s no way, we’ve gotta have some other book somewhere else.” She flipped through the pages. “Why would someone just stop writing?”

 Jake wasn’t sure how the immortal Jellyfish fit into this whole cycle and bad writing thing fit with these stupid vanishing books and this freaky renaissance fair, but the seriousness of their situation had fully pierced his brain. The adrenaline rush of danger heightened Jake’s awareness, both wonder and anxiety pushed onto his brain’s backburner by the primal need to be present in the perilous moment. 

 Jake followed muted sounds of stirring outside and a growing sense of unease. The athlete made his way to the archive’s door with quiet strides, not wanting to distract his more intellectual companions from putting all this together. Jake eeked open the door open in a cracked he hoped wouldn’t be perceptible from the outside. 

 The course wood grains of the door and frame obscured Jake’s vision with annoying splinters that blocked details, but he caught vibes nonetheless. Fiery lights were emerging around the edge of some thatch houses. A crowd of locals carrying torches and long-barreled muskets were peeling off the town’s main road into the curving cul-de-sac the archives occupied. Many boots clomped with steady wet steps in the muddy path and torches were flailing pillars of light in the dimming evening. 

 Ok 

 Seriously 

 Fuck Rennaisance Fairs. 

 Official Score 0/10

 “Um, sorry to interrupt but like, we might be running out of time here,” Jake cautioned his companions. 

 Leah knew what might make a whole world of someone’s stop writing, and the more she looked through the books, the more the outcome was clear.  There was a pattern that was being followed, one that always restarted after White Crest people just seemed to… disappear.  She looked at Aylin, pressing her lips together but not sharing her assumptions.  She didn’t want to scare either of them, especially not before they got the information they needed.

If Jake’s concerned words didn’t catch her attention, the commotion outside would have.  The warmth of fire coming toward them, something that normally brought her so much comfort, sent a wave of panic whirling through her chest.  She looked to Aylin again, and then starting grabbing as many of the papers they were reading as she could.  Maybe if they got back with enough of them, they would have some semblance of an idea of what to expect before their eventual demise.  

 “Jake… do you think you could…make those magnets work well enough to flash us back to the future?”, she asked in a huff, still collecting all the pages she could.

“My aunt is going to be worried if I don’t come back soon.” Truthfully, Ceyda was probably worried the moment that Aylin’s phone didn’t register when she went to check on her location. But thinking about that too much right now wasn’t going to do anyone any sort of good. She watched Leah grab some of the papers, and began to do the same herself - she didn’t know what good it would be, but if this was anything akin to her family’s hunter journals, they would be worth saving, ten-fold.

 “Anything to get us back to the future would be super duper welcome, and like, if you want a thanks for it, I’ll buy you pizza or cookies or anything.” Aylin squeaked. So much for not freaking out.

  Jake was about to reply that the magnet stuff was just some weird thing that yanked people and books, when an axe plunged through the door he’d just locked behind him. Wood chips exploded out into the space Jake’s head had been just a few seconds earlier. Demands to come out in the name of god and crown thundered across the square outside, rising over the sound of barked orders and softer voices lilting together in prayers against evil. 

 Jake had always been the shortest guy on his sports teams, and thus was well used to putting up a fiercer from then his stature probably warranted. However, he had no action hero delusions about his chances against an entire armed crowd. 

 Jake turned to his companions, and saw his fear mirrored in their eyes. 

 They were all going to die. Everyone in this room was going to be chopped up, hung, or burned to death. Leah and Aylin were going to die because they needed something from Jake he could not give, needed him to pull his weight with a strength he didn’t possess. 

 Shame felt like tar in Jake’s lungs as the door collapsed inward in shards of wood. Faces and voices flooded into the room. Fingers pointed at Jake and once more shouts and insults about those ‘Rainer folk’ were flung his way. Cruciform icons and worriedly pious hand gestures were followed by demands for Jake to repent for his family’s crimes, to come with them. 

 In a surreal moment, that hush before chaos, Jake realized that these people were afraid of him. 

 Relatable, Jake was afraid of Jake these days. 

 The many times great grandchild of Elijah Rainer looked on the people who’d hunted his ancestors into hiding. The word ‘witch’ was hurled at Jake by a red-faced minister whose voice thundered out the almighty’s command that his kind shouldn’t be suffered to live. It was ridiculous. Insane. Yet, something in Jake knew it was true. Had he always known? 

 The charging crowd halted mid-step as the room heaved, solid matter buckling as if were waves on a turbulent sea. 

 “Yeah dude like….fucking magnets, how do they work?

 A nova of blue light drowned out the fire screams, and prayers, consuming all light and feeling until the only sensation in the sapphire void was the steady clicking of a clock. 

[falsebooles123]

Finding the First Gay Kiss - Diary of a Big Ole Gay 12.25.22

Hey Whores Merry Christmas. Do you ever have a social interaction where you feel like you came off rude but that the other person was still kinda in the wrong. I just don't like people making personnal comments that don't need to be made.

(are gifsets you always make me feel better)

anyway I have 6 more days to watch gay movies before the new year and then I have to figure out how I want to meter this shit out.

I'm firmly withing the 1930s luckily so I can enjoy the benifits and lack of focus that sound film presents so thats nice and I'm also about halfway through the project after spending every waking moment for a month and a half watching old silent films.

I still hate my job and I will be doing my absolute mostest to get out of that fucking sandtrap as soon as I can but before I do that sluts and hobags lets talk about the movies I watched.

Viktor und Viktoria (1933) dir. Reinhold Schünzel

so once again I am posting a gif of a newer remake of the film because you whores can't appreciate fine cinema.

So Victor and Victoria for those not in the know is a film about a women who pretends to be a man who is in fact a female impersanator. sheninigans, (that trope were a woman wants to get dick but she can't cause shes in boymode, (fuck um gay hamlet, Sylvia Scarlet, even the clinging vine in like a really weird way), ensue.

the original is actually pretty fun. Its in german and its a musical so its a little hard to get into the music.

(the lure is actually a really great example of a foreign film which songs still work but thats more because the music is translated more poetically and because the visual language of the musical has evolved. )

The Film shows a lot of feelings torwards the female impersanators that are less nuanced in the general culteral miasma of the earlier decades. Viktor OG is ashamed to admit that he is a female impersanator in a way that implies homophobia. Conflict arises when Policeman come into arrest Victoria for cross-dressing. Not for being a man pretending to be a women on stage, but a woman pretending to a man off of it. Mirroring the way that while the Feminine togs of vaudvilled were reveled and applauded, Those transvestic freaks on the street were not.

overall this is a really fun comedy that helops brind some clarity to the tropes that were seeing in this period and I also love *checks notes* Renate Muller crying like a little bitch after seeing her boy crush deliver a dozen roses to his fiance. Good shit.

Un Chant D'amour (1950) dir. Jean Genet

so this is the only film by director Jean Genet and it is very gay. We start off with these more artsy shots of trying to catch a bouquet of flowers and blowing smoke into peoples mouths and end with what can only discribe as unstimulated masturbation and gun worship. Its a very gay and a curious mixture of lets say 2000s Joe Gage and Robert Yang's Tearoom.

(so the game features you handling peoples "guns" in a bathroom but you get the idea its a lot of male cruising and phallic imagedry.)

this does feature THE FIRST GAY KISS, so far but it is like a few other artistic films like Scorpio Rising that were very underground and also sued for obscenity. So fun times. This film is also bordoring on pornographic. its artsy but once again unstimulated sexual acts in a sexualized manner.

Blonde Venus (1932) dir Josef von Sternberg

so this is a curious but I really don't know how this ended up on the list. Marlene Dietrich is bisexual and there are some vaguly queer aspects, (a lesbian coded character, dietrich apparently flirts with a women while wearing a suit in a blink and you miss it moment), but these are very slim and not entirely noticible.

the actually film itself mirrors things like Manslaughter! and Pandora's Box where you have this powerful sexpot of a women who falls on hard times because of IDK the inherant degenarcy of being a sexual liberated woman. This one has some similar elements to Morocco but to a lesser extant and while I definetly liked this movie because theres this type of golden age glamor and atmosphere that just is so intoxicating. It is simply put not that gay.

One of the things that I have to contend with is that some of the resources I have arn't always accurate or through some miscalculation I simply added a film that was listed for weird reasons. For instance we have Judith of Bethulia which is on this list because oh a pet theory by an academic which is honestly not that strong, Twelth Night by Sandor Sara is on the list because of the name. Turns out the hungarian experimental short film while being super cool and aestetic some absolute kino, it doesn't have anything to do with the play its just the random play that occurs within the film but is never actually shown. The actually film is like a meditation on ruralism and the tedium that comes with it or something.

Slyvia Scarlett (1935) dir George Cukor

Fun Fact: One of my Coworkers told me and I quote "Katherine Hepburn is not a lesbian, she had high functioning aspugers"

which is a lot to unpack. First aspergers tends to imply being high functioning. Second, the notion of high/low functioning, as far as I understand, isn't loved by the autism community. Like it has a lot of abliest notions of assigning moral worth to the ability to create profit which is honestly just a prevelant aspect of capitalism torwards various different handycaps and disabilities.

also this is really fucking important having autism or any type of nuerodiversity has absolutely fuck-all with being gay.

Sure I don't have a smoking gun of Kathering Hepburn eating out some scarlet starlet but I'm also not calling Hepburn a Lesbian because shes wearing pants, I'm understanding her as queer coded because she was a woman who was gender-expansive, who did queer shit in her movies, and also theres a lot of memoirs that explicite confirm that information. Sure I can pretend that this was all a smeer campaign by some hollywood exec or I could take the fact that hollywood was kinda gay and she constantly collabed with the likes of dorothy arzner, George Cukor, and Cary Grant who which by the way whores was most likely pretty bisexual.

(this is what pops up when I type in Randolph Scott x Cary Grant)

But lets get into the actually movie. so this starts off with a classic Cross Dressing plot. Katherne Hepburn like oh let me just go full boymode and she sticks to it for a extremly long time. The only time that she stops is when she's literally trying to fuck a man. A man btw who absolutely was planning on fucking her in boymode. This entire movie is literally just a bunch of queers being like, "OMG we couldn't kiss that would be gay" and then winking at the haes code.

(I was trying to find that snl skit where ben alleck plays an ex-gay at a conversion therapy camp and hes doing this thing were his ex-gay boyfriend is trying to kiss him and instead of telling him to stop hes literally just opening his mouth so that there lips don't touch and its honestly kinda an amazing setup. fuck I'm going to have to make a gifset so that It exists.)

What I'm getting at is that not even Cate Blanchett could make a movie this gay and not like pussy just a little.

As You Like It (1936) dir. Paul Czinner

so this got added because I tried to add all of the cross dressing shakespear plays to my list at some point before I decided I had enough and needed to start getting to the watching phrase of this, (that moment was in my memory last week or something), This film is kinda gay but like I said in my review on LB its cause the play is kinda gay.

Rosalind has a female simp in the form of her cousin, whose like constnatly being snooty over the fact she has a boycrush and there is literally a whole scenaria where her boycrush comes up to her in boymode and is like how do I get over her.

and shes like "yeah what if I this twink just pretended to be your girlfriend bro" and hes like hell yeah.

This is "straight guy uses my ass as a a fleshlight" gay this is I'm not gay dude I'm just horny and my girlfriend won't put out gay. What I'm saying is that Laurence Olivier is a DL Cruiser who doesn't want to admit that he kinda likes dudes. which is fine come out when your ready orlando but this shit is gay and also you know who else was probably bisexual WIlliam fucking Shakespear of Avon. the bard of avon more like the bottom of avon am I right ladies.

Ok on to the last thing.

The Magyk Lantern Cycle Dir. Kenneth Anger

I've been trying to watch through all of Kenneth Angers films in order. which is differcult since many of his juvanalia is hidden or unaccesable from me. but I have managed to see so far, Fireworks, Eux D'artifice, Puce Moment, Scorpio Rising, and Inaugeration of the Pleasure Dome the Last two being actually on my list. His films are kinda hard to parse, there intense, mentally, visually, thematically but at the same time watching something like Anger or Deyen or Brakhage or some shit are honestly just super cool and make me feel like a bad bitch. While i'm on this subject shoutout to Le Cinima Club which has a lot of cool stuff like this.

I will update you more next week with gay shit. Once we get to the actually new year I will have to reassess how hard I want to go with this project.

UP NEXT: A LIST OF MOVIES I CANNOT FIND.

[crvptydgaming]

Since I haven’t updated since Session Two, the text below the read more is a recap of all the sessions since.

It has been a time.

We went on a field trip to an ancient forest to learn some things, and some weird robots showed up and started burning the forest down. we made friends with a magical weed plant who became a dryad so that was cool and we curbstomped the robots. We rescued the fire elemental they were using and named it baby, he lives in a lantern now. 

 We were hanging out at school when a baby like...titan? or something? woke up and was threatening the school. The one pregnant girl [we'll come back to that] went into labor and our resident farm boy helped her until the nurse got there. we helped protect the little kids. 

 WE SOLVED THE PROBLEM WITH THEM NOT BEING ABLE TO HAVE BABIES. They were inbreeding too much lmao, and the one pregnant girl was like really respected and loved because she managed to carry a baby to term. 

 So we made 'friends' with a devil who had a stall selling random crap, he tried to sell us a bag of devouring in a bag of holding's place. we saw through it, got a contract out of him, so we became trading buddies. we trade him stuff from the outer realms, where earth is, and he gives us first dibs on his new stuff. we arranged with Management of the market to get him a permanent store. we purchased 4 storefronts. he swapped between them 

So Management is like...an eldritch being. looking at him is terrifying. He has a halflink assistant that he mind melds with to communicate with people. If they are able to last a month they are able to retire with full benefits. Abby fucking negotiated with that guy. That's something i should have mentioned and a testament to how terrifying she is.

 We take our transmutation teacher and the pe teacher to a concert! in our realm! we go to a nightclub after and accidentally teach humans magic. 

Abby and Oliver also end up in a threesome with a girl we called McDonalds girl for the longest time [her name is Sadie] 

 abby's parents found out about her magic and that they could also do magic. they are...coping well, remarkably. less so wit the fact that she made a deal with a devil and LESS so with the magical weed smoking but that's fine. 

 Derek got a hold of the actual holy grail. he showed us, we went to our devil friend and went 'cool religious artifacts?' so he stole a heap from gods of the outer realm and we purchased them. Needless to say the gods got mad, sent their angels down, and started pummelling the devil. abby, and her balls of steel, told them she wanted to speak to the manager. SO she and the gang had a meeting with literal gods, including some greek gods, and God as well as ones like Inanna and 'lesser' gods of earth. God has a hard on for Derek but he refuses to do anything out of sheet shock lmao 

 Abby and Oliver become oracles of Athena and Inanna respectively. 

 We literally have a sit down with the magic council who are very hard to meet with to tell them how they fucked up biologically, and what they can do to fix it. 

 Oliver buys a house, uses our Illusion teacher, Alanysmith to pretend to be his dad, Abby's parents freak and that's how we learn we are half siblings.

Abby and Oliver find out they are HALF SIBLINGS. 

Deep Breath. There’s more.

All that happened in around a month.

But first some notes;

Headmistress is kinda sus. So I asked the librarian if he could find me a book on the history of her or her family. He STOLE HER DIARY FOR ME. Turns out her sister had decided to fall in love with a Gnome or a Dwarf or something short and so prejudice did its thing. Her sister died before she graduated school and my character firmly believed that headmistress killed her. Still up for debate. The woman is emotional when it comes to her sister, who knows. 

 First time we went to the market we made friends with a Dragonborn and his half-orc godchild who had been left in his care after the parents died. Their names are Bimrap and Gram. The godchild is a toddler. Abby loves him and would murder for him. 

 Oliver transitioned using magic near the start of the game! 

The gang got banned from all gold exchanges in Adelaide, because 1AUD = 80GP, and we went “Oh, we can exchange this for more money” so we did...So now Abby has hh... 10,080,120,000gp

We also invented the “Stall Market”

now back to what happened next

Everyone goes to church, Derrick puts everyone to Sleep after Yahweh [God] tries to hit on him again. We found out the priest was cheating on his wife it was a WHOLE MESS. 

Back to the market and we find out that Bimrap his concerned about Gram because Gram has been ruining all his good swords by chewing on them??? CONCERN. Ask the school nurse for help. Turns out his gums keep healing over the breaks in them for his teeth to come through. Needs surgery to help.

It's time for the quarterly intercollegiate tournament - Enchantment edition! We like the teacher. Her ex was there, bullied her, we humiliated him. The prize was a dragon egg. Some idiots tried to steal it and we stopped them, egg hatched and imprinted on Derek. Derek is now a mum. 

This was also the session that both Oliver and his player learned that Luggage eats people. 

We learn how to turn spells into potions. Gram comes for surgery. We learn that half-species don't get fair treatment as that's why nobody would help the literal baby. Abby gets MAD. Oliver gets MAD. We start getting riled up and determined to change the way things are for half-species. Confront one of our teachers who according to the curriculum has to teach that half-species are lesser than their two parental parts. We convince him otherwise, pay him to change the curriculum. Now for the war on all this shit to happen when we have time. 

 It's time for Derek to Multiclass! He's multiclassing into Druid, as the school's land is actually owned by Elves, and they are all shoehorned into being Druids. Derek is chill with the Elves so he gets invited to their big gathering that they do where he gets to pick his multiclass. I think he picked stars. It was a very chill event. 

 Abby's Multiclass! She's a bard! We go to a music festival for bards after Briminox is invited to perform on the main stage! They arrive and see Count Voltaire. Abby is determined to fuck the man. She goes and looks over all of the different bard schools before actually deciding on Count Voltaire's, it's College of Eloquence and makes sense for her in character.  She literally just acts aloof and like she has never heard with him to flirt with him. She and the gang do backup/roadie stuff for Briminox including fireworks and make his show good. She also gets to sing a song on stage with him! This impresses the Count. He had already invited her to the afterparty but now she succeeds. She goes, gets in an orgy with a bunch of potential teachers he introduced her to, but picks him lmao. 

 Oliver's multiclass! We get to go to the artificer festival, Tinker Town! First we visit the Kobold Artificers at the markets and teach them to make fireworks without glass. They literally snort the gunpowder, it's wild. We go to the festival. We let a lot of people in by paying too much at the ticket booth. We go to the showbags stall and get A LOT of showbags, and overhear a halfling mother saying that because someone nicely paid for their entrance they can get showbags for the kids. We slip 20 gold coins into her purse and run away. We then go to our friend who is a cobbler at the regular markets. We taught him how to make roller skates back in the first time we went. He got invited to the main stage to show them off, we offer to do tricks and shit on stage, and since Briminox came with us [we need someone to watch us when we go to other realms still] we say he should play on stage. He got fucking WASTED tho so we have to sober him up. Cobbler tells us about his enemy going on stage after him, a man who has claimed to 're-invent the wheel' we're like nah we'll have none of that son.

We go to this man's stall, use Disguise Self to make ourselves look like a Halfling, a Kobold and a 6-year old girl respectively and we RUIN THIS MAN'S WHOLE CAREER by bullying him into submission. Then, Abby calls Count Voltaire and is like 'hey you wanna perform with Briminox?' and he's like 'hell yeah' and so this little cobbler guy ends up with a fucking show for rollerskates with us doing mad tricks, fireworks, and 2 famous bards belting out music.

Time to introduce a new PC! The group head to Victoria by train for Abby’s cousin’s wedding! It’s in Rosebud, Victoria. They vibe for a bit after arrival before coming across some older members of the town holding a small riot outside a gaming store claiming it is a gateway to hell blah blah, satanic panic, and they spot a teenager clearly trying to distract them. 

They decide to help, in their own ways, and eventually the adults leave. The gang notice that this kid has ended up with one of the letters they recieved that got them into their school. They freak the fuck out. More kids arrive, friends of this kid, whose name is Victor, also with fucking letters. This leads everyone inside and upstairs at the gaming store and explaining magic and stuff to them. They have pizza, chill, the usual. 

The wedding happens, then the gang meet the other, newer gang at the beach, along with the Headmistress [who abby sent Brimanox to go get] who explains things properly to the new kids and she adds Victor to our group’s Cabal leaving the other four to their own. We take Victor to the market; he ends up with a weasel for a familiar, and gets on our mad collection of Crystal devices. 

Anyway we're chaotic neutral at best with a few evil leanings from time to time. But its a great game and I love it.

[melancholicmoonlight]

Blog Rules

Quick mun info: Grayson, 22, it/its he/him. I write ocs.

Follows from: @eatingthebodyofgod

Basic rp rules: don’t goddmod, dont tell me how to write my muses, don’t spam, be patient. no harry potter, terfs, zionists, etc.

Do not, under any circumstances, reblog one of my threads unless you are part of it. If you liked it, great. Just please respect me and my partners and don't reblog. I will block you.

I do reblog-chain type threads, as I’m most comfortable with that, but I don’t mind trying dm/server roleplay on discord

I really do not care how long your responses are, but please know that mine will be short. The most I respond with is one to two paragraphs, or short, quick-fire responses with a sentence or two. It’s pretty simple and quick to the point for actions and descriptions. I usually write more for dialogue if I can, though, but I tend stay away from writing out my muse's thoughts in detail if I find it unnecessary(like if they’re fighting someone or if it sounds repetitive). I can attempt more, if needed and if given enough to write so much to. Please know that I am not in any way a legit writer, I don’t write fanfic or my own works out of roleplay, I just like playing with my little freaks and throwing them around like dolls.

Don't reblog m!as or question prompts from me without sending at least one ask. I am not a meme resource. If you can't think of what to send, reblog from the source if it is available (you may reblog from me if it isn't), otherwise I will probably block you.

I do not use gifs/photos or elaborate, fancy formatting or elaborate tags. You can, but don’t expect me to.

I don’t use face claims for muses, either, but I do draw! If you want to know what a muse of mine looks like, I can attempt a quick sketch of them for you! It just might not be in color.

If you’re gonna send me things over anon where my muse is supposed to know it’s from yours, please tell me in dms beforehand or state who it is from in the ask. I’m usually too tired to piece things together and I like to be told what is going on so I’m not confused.

I don’t personally have any triggers, but I will not write out certain topics as I find them to be unnecessary. Dm to ask. || with that being said, muses are allowed to discuss trauma they have with other muses.

Some tw’s for this blog are: Body horror, horror in general, gore, blood, violence, cannibalism, alcohol use, smoking, guns, knives, murder, hallucinations, and possibly more. And also swearing. I tend to leave these untagged on threads, but please don’t be scared to ask me to tag something if you need me to.

If you haven’t guessed, I like horror and drama. Fluff and every day scenarios aren’t out of the question, though, they’re just less interesting to me sometimes. It depends on the plot. I can’t just do two muses hanging out if there’s not something for them to do or talk about, I will run out of things fast.

If you wanna say something happened out of thread between our muses, ask.

Please don’t have your muses suddenly know what my muses have done in threads that you have no involvement in. Don’t have them know my muses when they have never met, unless they heard about them or something. If you want them to have established knowledge or relationships, please ask.

I don’t like fourth wall breaks.

Do not force ships. If you think a muse pairing is cute, run it by me. I’d rather it happen naturally, though.

No graphic ns/fw or sm/ut. Most I will do is a fade to black.

Do not control my muses. If you need them to do a certain thing to progress the thread, then that’s fine. But do not tell me to have them act a certain way or say/do something different because you personally didn’t like it.

If my muse is mean to yours, do not take it personally. It is not me saying I don’t like you or your muses, it is my muse acting in character.

Don’t be weird about people of color. It will be an automatic block if I notice.

Don’t demonize people with “scary” disorders. Jamie has a form of psychotic depression. This might cause him to act out, but he isn’t dangerous because of his disorder. If your muse reacts negatively to how he might act, then that is fine, I have no problems with that. But I ask that you, the writer, to have some sympathy or at the very least keep any negative comments about it to yourself, as having a disorder like that can be troubling to the person experiencing it, too.

If you call Jamie “the mute man” or whatever or overly focus on any muse’s disabilities or infantilize them for their disabilities, I will not write with you. You’re weird.

Don’t be weird about fat people. Ex; calling a fat person “friend shaped” or saying they “look like they’d give good hugs”. You may be thinking it’s a compliment, but it is actually very strange to say that about someone because they are bigger. You wouldn’t say stuff like that about a skinny person.

Don’t infantilize muses for their sexualities or gender expression. For example, Killian is asexual. She is also a grown woman. She knows what sex is and is capable of discussing it. She is not an innocent little baby for being asexual. Another example: Jamie is a trans man. He is in his 40s. Being a trans man does not make him a “soft boi” or innocent, it just means he transitioned into a man.

Just don’t infantilize anyone. Please. For the love of god. Especially Jamie. Please please do not treat that man like a baby he is in his forties!!!!!!

If you do want to rp with me, you can either dm me to plot or just go ahead and shoot me an ask of whatever. Just be sure to specify which muse it’s for. And if you really wanna be cool, send me an emoji I guess. For proof that you’ve read everything. And it should be of this 🪕shitty little banjo.

[undercoverinparadise]

The L Word (gasp)

I often ponder the moral implications of using one person to get over another. It's bad, I agree. That being said, if a smoker admitted that smoking is bad and they wanted to quit nobody would bat an eye if they struggle.

Similarly, I just can't get him out of my mind. It's wrong. Totally wrong. I know I should be upset because of how it would affect me but my only objection is that it'll never happen... again. It's not that there's nothing for this other guy, it's just that I think of him how I used to think of everybody else. Not very much.

But the guy I'm getting over is putting up a good fight. I just can't get him out of my mind. It's terrible, really. I want to apologize. I want to make him angry. I want to get it off my chest and ruin us again or just ruin me. It's so juvenile, right?

I (would) drop everything for him.

If I miss a message I cry. If he's online I'm online, waiting. If he want's me I want him too. I'm obsessed with him. Utterly, totally. To a degree I began to worry. It was a manic sort of feeling and it controlled every aspect of my life. It prevents me from moving on.

I've told people about him. Again. I'm lying though, I say he's somebody new. Everybody thinks I should do it, tell him, and move on. They're happy and they say "anybody was better than that guy."

It is that guy, dumbass. It's always been that guy.

The L word. I'm feeling it. Limerence.

It's debilitating. I think of him, I fantasize about him. It's been getting better since I started talking about it; since I started lying about him and it starting feeling more plausible and dare I say acceptable? I've been hyperfocused on a connection that isn't there and obsessing non-stop.

Not that I'm a total freak. I think about him when I masturbate. Okay? I think about him holding me if I have trouble sleeping. Sometimes when I need somebody to talk to I wish I could talk to him again. Not that I can't but I let him message me first, now. Though, we'll never talk like we did, I think.

I don't think it's weird, just unhealthy. He's gone and for as long as he's still around I'm not going to accept that.

And the worst part? If he ever expressed anything for me again I'd have to reject him. He held on so long last time. It's not just guilt, but it mostly is. I know me; I would and will do it again. When I reject him I want him to talk me into it. I don't want it to be all my fault this time.

This time it won't be anybody's fault. I'll be better, I'll treat him right. I'll be devoted. I wont be stupid and blind.

Good thing there isn't a "this time," right? I'm obsessed but I'm not stupid. I don't think it's a good idea either. I want to be rejected, though. Maybe I'll express everything I'm feeling for my own benefit. It'll hurt him and me. At least its a means to an end.

Limerence is such a stupid concept. If I only realize I loved him after he's gone but the love I feel is limerence does that mean I never loved him? No, I did once.

I try not to blame myself. I had my reasons for being cruel. I don't think they matter, though. I should blame myself because at the end of the day I hurt him and that's my fault reasons or not. And I never apologized.

I have a newfound respect for him; a realization that I should move on with my life so he can move on with his.

On a final note: my reasons may not have been so good, either. I was being blackmailed "Love, Simon" style (somewhat) a few months ago. Turns out it didn't matter since the nude photos and conversations they had of me were from a friend who was signed into my account and not because they had access to my account.

I can't believe I had to pretend to be a lesbian for that. (Always will be a bisexual, either way lol.) That was stupid. They did share the screenshots like they said they would and when my girlfriend saw them we broke up. That was fine because the whole reason we dated was so that the admin at school brushed the whole situation off as a breakup.

Aren't I smart?

I really lucked out with that 2 for 1 breakup deal though because things didn't go back after that. And, on second thought, I didn't have to break up with him and pretend to be a lesbian because if the admin team saw the revenge porn of me they probably would have assumed it was nothing anyways.

Anywho I'm getting off topic. God I'm a fucking degenerate. No wonder why the world hates me, I'm a fucking dickhead. Oh well.

[malacandrax]

“Explain shotgunning to me”

I read 'The Affliction of the Feeling' by nondz on ao3 and it absolutely killed me, I had to get this scene out of my head.

[butterflypxke]

I HANDED IN MY LAST SIXTH FORM ASSIGNMENT EVER TODAY SKSBDHKDK

What in the fuck am I meant to do for the next two months???

[ratherbefangirling]

⏳Out of Time⌛

Part 1 | 2 | 3

Character Focus: Jimin, Jungkook, Reader

Genre: Fluff, Angst, Established relationships

Summary: he wanted to love you but should you let him?

Warning ⚠️: Past Trauma, Unhealthy relationship, mentions of hospitals, hospitalisation and abortion

It's not like you have other options and it's not a bad arrangement what you would be saving on rent you could by more stuff with.. desserts books clothes anything.

"Please treat me well." Jungkook says.

You nod your head embarrassed at the formal tone.

The dinner passed fairly well.

Even though Namjoon tried to interact with both of you you could see the struggle he had in toning down and balancing his y/n personality vs his Jungkook personality.

The both of you adjusted fairly well and other than his gaming at ungodly hours there wasn't much he did that irritated you.

You had taken a week of from work. To cope. Barely leaving your bed. Your room was messy but you were too blind to notice it.

You even forgot that your mom was coming to visit you and your boyfriend... um ex.

Your phone rang and you talked to your mom.

And everything was normal until she told you she was coming this weekend. Which was two days later and she was excited to meet your boyfriend.

As soon as she hung up. You set to clean the room and the house.

"What's with the commotion." Jungkook asked.

"My mom's coming in the weekend." You replied brain empty.

"Oh cool." He said and was going to leave when you let out an inhuman cry.

"Oh no.. I'm doomed."

"Are you on drugs?" Jungkook enquired.

You shook your head only mildly offended.

"Does your mom hate smoking?."

"What.." You say in disbelief.

"'Um I don't smoke."  You tell him

"'I know I couldn't smell it."  He comments.

"No its you."

"Me.? I'm an angel "

You stop yourself from rolling your eyes.

Boys. Men. The male gender.

"So I told my mom I live with my boyfriend which was true but we broke up."

"So tell her that where's the problem."

"You don't get it Jungkook. If I tell her that she'll ask who are you and if she gets to know we just met that too through my Internet friend. Now I'm living with a boy with tattoos.. no offence, I think they're hot but she is going to freak and demand I come back home. She barely let me make friends back home I love her but I can't go back." You sat full on panic ranting.

"Hey calm down. Why don't you tell her  that I'm your boyfriend."  He suggests simply.

"Oh my god Jeon Jungkook you're an angel."  You whoop with excitement.

Jungkook grins at you coolly.

"Y/n have you seen my tie."

"I swear Jungkook I told you a hundred times put it with your coats."

"Sorry y/n ssi .. now hurry I'm getting late."

You massaged your head.

It was going to be fine.

Suddenly you feel nauseas you run to the bathroom and vomit.

"Y/n... are you OK?" Your husband asks.

"It's fine I did feel weird yesterday after eating at that shitty diner."

"I've told you this a thousand times Eun Tak may be your best friend but she has some questionable dining choices I don't want a repeat of that eating expired food episode. I get she's a content creator but I was the one one who had to take care of you when you got hospitalised."

You wanted to argue with him but you remembered how he had been so vulnerable then.

+

'I thought I lost you god dammit..'

' I... couldn't even tell you I love you *your full name* '

'Please be OK please come back to me'

+

"Sorry kook."  You say apologetic

"I'll email your office. Stay at home today." His phone rang. "I need to go but if you're not OK call me don't wait for it to get worse."

You nod.

You go to bed but after a while of lying down you realise sleep has escaped you.

You open the TV to watch something to pass time.

And today we have on show the rising star the special guest soloist Jimin... his latest song Serendipity has topped charts.

"Jimin shi... Can you tell us more about the song?"

Some how you find yourself unable to change the channel.

Were you over him?

Were you bored ?

Did you refuse to allow him any control over you?

You didn't know.

"This song is part of the story my album tells Serendipity is a love that found me unexpectedly and blessed me selflessly." You scoff.

"So a story Jimin shi what story are you telling or more importantly whose?"

Jimin smiled his pretty smile.

"While 'Serendipity' speaks about the love that was unexpected and is a saving grace and also the title. The other songs when listened in the exact order tell you the story of a nostalgic love. I hope you enjoy listening to them as much ad I did making them. Please give a lot of love to me and to them"

"Sounds fascinating. Who was your inspiration behind this. Anyone in particular."

"My fans of course mochi's Saranghae. They always inspire me to do my best. I was lost and did not know what to do and then just like magic they came they saw in me what I couldn't see myself and brought me here."

"This was Jimin and that's all for today folks."

You scoff but then again what did you expect.

When Jungkook came he found you listening to music. Tears dripping in your eyes. Worried he wiped your tears .

Startled you almost dropped the laptop.

"Is it paining, love? Do you want to go to the hospital."

"I'm fine Jungkook." You assure him

"Please y/n why are you crying."

"I just heard a very sad song... I mean technically it wasn't sad... but I'm... I'm just moody."

"Ah that time of the month."

You wanted to hit him but he wasn't wrong a week before your periods were set to arrive you would be moody if you were crying it was OK but somehow if you were happy god forbid then the week of your periods would have Jungkook tiptoeing around you and appeasing you with your favourite food.

"Hug?" He asks.

You nod and let him pull you in his embrace. It's safe and it's home.

The house was cleaner than its ever been. Luckily your mum was only coming for two days. You and Jungkook had prepared your back story. You had requested he wear long shirts too hide his tattoo's. Your mom was aware that your boyfriend wore earrings. That happened when you'd told her about the couple earrings Jimin had gifted you for valentines. You were counting on Jungkook's cute face to calm and reassure your mother.

You had prepared her favourite dishes and even desert. Though the servings of dessert kept disappearing courtesy of Jungkook. Because I quote 'It's too good almost like coffee one cup is never enough.'

You noted the detail though. Keeping it for later use. In case Jungkook need bribing.

You remember your first date with Jungkook or the first official one anyway. Despite the fact you lived together and had confessed to liking each other you had yet to go on a date. Soon after confessing that he liked you he had to go visit his dad who wasn't feeling well.

The last moments of your shared time together you practically stuck to him. He cooed at your behaviour calling you a baby.

"This baby is now your chosen mess." You had whined.

He had laughed and pecking the top of your head before grabbing the last of his stuff and completing his packing.

"See you soon." He said as he left the car.

You had both decided not to let you drop him off at the train station in case you both started bawling.

"You kept your socks and your charger right? Do you have your ticket. Check it one more time."

"Yes Y/n, I do. Don't worry."

"'Call me ok?"

"Ofcourse. Don't be too sad I will come back before you know it. Go on and enjoy making a mess of the house without me nagging at you."

"Hey between the two of us you're the messy one." You complain he only laughs in response.

You do miss him as you eat alone or when you see the door of his bedroom that's closed. Still he regularly calls you up mostly late night since you have work in the morning and he spends time with his family in the evening. The calls aren't very long because you can't sleep late and get up early. Still it's the highlight if your day.

It's on these calls he proposes to go on a date. With tossing back and forth of ideas you both decide to go to an amusement park after admitting you hadn't been on a proper roller coaster before.

"What do you mean you haven't been on a roller coaster. That is literally a crime against humanity." Jungkook says from across the phone screen.

"No need to be over dramatic." You reply.

"It really is I can't imagine it happening."

"I saw Final Destination and was slightly creeper of and then one of my friends had vomited after riding one so I decided I would do it after I became an adult but since than I've barely had any opportunity to like finally do it. Its been a long time since I went to an amusement park."

"Worry No longer Jeon Jungkook to the rescue. I will remedy the situation."

"No doubt you will."

"Maybe we can try going on roller coaster till one of us vomits." Jungkook suggests cheekily.

"Jungkook no. Absolutely not. It's a date. It's supposed to be enjoyable."

"As long as you're with me there isn't much I can not enjoy."

"Ah.." You sit flustered by his sudden suaveness.

The day of the date comes you're dressed prettily. You even booked an appointment at the salon to get your hair done. Despite temptation leading you on the opposite direction, knowing Jungkook you wear comfortable shoes that go with your outfit.

However good or bad your stamina might be it is pretty nonexistent in front of Jungkook. Who in combination with excitement is like a bunny on steroids.

Still even though your feet ache by the end of the day, all you remember is laughing so loud that your stomach hurt and Jungkook offering you a piggyback ride.

You think life loves playing games with you.

Due to Jungkook's insistance you go get yourself checked. After spending the whole day in the hospital getting checked and waiting. The doctor tells you might be pregnant and gives you an appointmentwith the gynaecologist. You feel restless, unsure. All sort of thoughts clogging your brain. Were you ready to be a mom? How would Jungkook react? Were you ready for this in your relationship only a few days ago you were crying about Jimin? Was this fair to Jungkook's and your unborn child.

You are quite when you come home. Still not ready to face the world you hide under your blanket. That's how Jungkook finds you.

"I told Namjoon Hyung that you're not feeling well. He just hopes you get well in time for the wedding because he's not sure what he'll do without you. And I got our clothes ironed. And the jewellery you ordered is here too."

"Thank you." You say.

He falls beside you on the bed.

"Come closer." He says and you obey. It's quite and nice and you decide whatever happens you'll face it together like you've always done.

On the day of Namjoon's wedding you feel better. You almost cry when you see Namjoon. Its like a mother hen watching her chick grow. Jungkook is both concerned and possessive.

When Namjoon talks to his other friends. Jungkook pulls you aside. Arms around your waist.

"Hey love I would appreciate if you would stop crying over a man that's not me." He says slightly pouty.

"I'm sorry. I can't help it. It's just he's struggled a lot to reach here. When we first met. He was struggling with anxiety and depression and generally going through a tough time. And I'm so proud of him for fighting and not giving up on himself his life. I just I've seen that growth and strength in him and Jungkookie.. it gives me hope."

Jungkook softens at your words. It's true you and Namjoon were similar in that way life hadn't been easy for you and while he envied your bond both because he had admired Namjoon a lot and because he loved you. He had come to accept the difference. He remembered early on in your relationship you guys had gotten into a fight and it was memorable because after it was over you'd sat him down and told him the reason why you didn't talk about your difficulties with him initially because he had not experienced it and thus couldn't relate while you appreciated him you didn't want to be sad with him all the time, you were scared he would leave.

He was surprised because he thought you didn't tell him because you didn't trust him. From then on you both had worked actively to prevent any miscommunication.

Understanding and loving were different things. Him trying to understand you was enough for you.

Still there would always be a part of him which wanted you to only rely on him. He wanted to give you everything the world could offer. But since he couldn't do that he just kissed your forehead.

"My silly beautiful crybaby wife." He says fond.

The ceremony is beautiful. There's laughter. You both give speeches. It's a wonderful evening.

Jungkook gets up to get some dessert. You sit and massage your legs. Walking around all day in heavy clothes and heels is taxing. You get impatient waiting for Jungkook. So you go to find him. Except you find something.. or should I say someone else.

"Jimin." You gasp and he turns towards you and he's just as shining and just as beautiful as the first time you saw him.

"Y/n." He acknowledges.

Your world is spinning. You feel an incoming headache.

"I ... What are you doing here?"

"I'm the brides cousin."

"Oh."

"And you?"

"I'm the grooms bestfriend."

He suppresses a sigh. There's a frown on his face and you want to remove it. It was bad for his face, since the early days of your relationship he had asked you to look for it and warn him.

"No bad lines on your face." You say force of habit and then shut your mouth.

He looks at you surprised. " Actually, I knew I saw the speech. Great speech by the way."

He says and there's silence. You think of things to say.

"Is it too late if I ask you to take me back?"

"I'm married." You state.

"I know and I dont care if I'm your side piece. I just want you back."

"Do you even listen to yourself?" You say exasperated.

"I'm sorry I didn't mean it that way I just want to be a part of your life in any way that's possible. I want to be able to buy you things, to hold you, to kiss you, to love you." Your eyes widen in shock and some part of you feels miserable but a larger part just feels anger.

"Jimin you're being ridiculous. Just stop. " You tell him.

"Please take my number. If you ever change your mind. I did this for us and if I can't have you then what's the point. Just my card.. wait I will give you my card." Still insisting.

He opens his wallet and takes out his information card.

Jungkooks hand on your waist surprises you. You hope he hasn't heard your conversation with Jimin. It would end up being ugly. You couldn't ruin your bestfriends wedding day.

"Who's this love?" He asks you his head on your shoulder.

You can feel the anger rise in Jimin but he puts on a smile.

"Park Jimin. We used to be acquaintances." He says and your thrown back into the bitter days that Jimin introduced you as such.

"Hmm. I'm Jeon Jungkook. Y/n's husband. Hope you don't mind I will be taking my wife with me." Jungkook says guiding you away.

You suppress a smile at his jealousy. You think it's cute. Still your stomach is unsettled.

"I can't leave you one minute and have someone not flirt with you." Jungkook remarks.

"I'm sorry Kookie. I promise I didn't... I wasn't.." You are trembling. Things can't go wrong. Not now. Not ever. Not again.

"I know baby. Its just you're so pretty. I'm so happy you are mine." He says holding your hands firmly and pressing a kiss to your forehead. It's reassuring even though a dredge of guilt still lingers.

Jungkook wonders what happened to you to make you this way.

+

When Jungkook and you had first started dating. He was over the moon. You were pretty, kind, understanding and perfect in every way.

Until he had noticed your odd behaviour.

One day Namjoon had come up to him.

"I'm glad for both of you but you really need to stop hogging my bestfriend. We literally never hang out since you've started dating. It's always Jungkook this and Jungkook that."

Jungkook was confused but he didn't think much of it. He mentioned it at dinner.

"Y/n Joon came up to me telling he was missing you."

You dropped the spoon you were holding.

"I-I can explain."

Jungkook furrowed his brow. Why would you explain?

"I'm sorry. I I promise there's nothing. We are just friends."

Jungkooks expression must have worsened because he could see that you were on the edge of tears.

"Love, Y/n..." he approaches you and you stiffen. He doesn't understand what's happening.

"Look at me." He tells you softly.

You look like a kicked puppy.

He holds you hands.

"It's fine. I was just saying Namjoon is your bestfriend. You guys should hang out more just cause we are dating doesn't mean your life evolves around me."

"You don't want me around. Am I being to clingy??" You ask.

"No of course not. I love you babe and I love spending time with you but don't you think it'd be healthier if we don't neglect our friends."

"So you're not angry?"

"No obviously not."

The incident might have been strange for Jungkook but it had been strange for you too. Jimin would never let you be with any guys especially alone even before you guys started dating. And as far as your friends were concerned especially female ones they were always to busy to make time for you and even when they did all they could talk about was their partner so you gradually built distance.

+

After you leave with Jungkook, Jimin looks at you both for a long time. He feels angry and jealous. You were his. He took deep breaths. He hoped soon enough you too realised nobody could treat you better than him.

Jungkook decided to come pick you up from your appointment. He hadn't the time to check where you'd been referred to until he's standing outside the hospital.

Third floor you'd told him. When he sees the sign of gynaecology. His heart beats faster. If it is what he thinks it is. He is Euphoric. You've made him the happiest man. He's grinning as he looks for you, until he sees you bent over and crying papers in your hand. Worry rises in his throat.

"Y/n." He says softly holding you in an embrace. "What's it love?"

"I'm... I.. pregnant."

"Is it ... do you..." he takes in a deep breath queasy at the possibility." Do you not want?"

You shake your head no and he feels relieved. A weight lifted of him. Sometimes you took time to process things. The news probably hadn't settled in you yet.

"Let's go home, yes?" He asks. Hands in his throughout you reach home. After your crying session you're tired so Jungkook tucks you into the bed.

Your phone rings. It's Namjoon's message and a missed call.

He picks it up.

Namjoon : why didn't you tell me Jimin was there and you met him

Are you okay? We were just checking pictures of the wedding party. I swear I didn't know.

I know how tough it was. He contacted Jieun for your number but I heard so I told her I'd ask you first.

I know you're an adult and you both loved each other and broke up because of his career but I hope you don't end up doing something stupid. *message deleted*

So let me know?

Jungkook dropped your phone but luckily you stayed asleep. Now your reaction made sense.

You didn't want him. He was just a replacement of Jimin. Despite what logic dictated. He searched up Jimin on the Internet.

Jimin; he realised was every thing he wasn't and all parts you liked about him at the same time. He could see it clearly.

You always praising his singing you liked sweet voices huh , supporting him but also having anxiety whenever he had a project were you worried he'd choose his job over you ,Making him wear colored clothing different styles trying to turn him cute like your ex.

He looked at you sleeping and felt suffocated. He left his wedding band in the on the dining table. He was at loss.

Never did he imagine such a day would come in his life. You were the love of his life but was he the love of yours. For the first time he felt insecure in your relationship.

Is this how you felt all the time? He never felt burdened for reassuring you but now he understood you more and couldn't help but feel sad.

He cried in the bathroom.

When you wake up Jungkook's missing. You guess he's probably at the gym. You text him to get groceries. You decide to eat something. Now you were responsible for healthy eating of two. You put a hand on your belly.

"Don't worry little one. Mommy is going to take care of you."

You make yourself a sandwich and decide to sit at the dining table to eat. There's Jungkook's wedding band. Surely it's a mistake.

Anxiety creeps up and you are unable to swallow the food you were eating.

He must have removed it but you can't convince yourself because he never removes it.

The lock to your apartment opens. There's Jungkook coming in empty handed.

"Didn't you see my message?" You ask.

He looks up at you.

"No." He replies and goes to the kitchen. He looks sweaty from a workout. He makes himself a vegetable smoothie.

You go behind him but he doesn't say anything.

"I uh. You're not wearing your wedding band."

"It felt suffocating."

"Did your ring size grow? Do we need to go to the jeweller?"

"No. Just leave it." He dismisses.

"What's wrong ggukie?"

"Why don't you tell me?" He turns back anger rising in his voice.

"'..nothing nothings wrong." You say suddenly very unsure of yourself.

"Why were you crying?" He asks softer noticing your previous discomfort.

"I was just overwhelmed." You reply.

"Ha you sure I thought it was because of Jimin." And it comes out stronger than Jungkook intended but also because he wasn't planning to confront you.

You stumble back.

"How do you know about Jimin." You ask goosebumps visible on your arms.

"So you were really." He says half talking to himself.

"Jungkook who told you about Jimin." You ask desperation in your voice.

"No one I saw Namjoon texting you about him."

You stay quiet. He scoffs.

"Mind telling me about Jimin." He says sarcastically.

"I .." You take a deep breath. "He's my ex .. the ex."

He keeps the glass in the sink. Holding its edges as if steeling himself.

"So when are you leaving?"

"What do you mean?" You ask confused.

"Clearly you still have feelings for him."

You don't respond and Jungkook waits, when you still stay frozen he leaves slamming the door shut.

You don't talk to each other for a whole week.

You are torn. It's the longest you've gone without speaking to each other. You wonder when you'll finally be free of your past.

So you decide to write. Write down your feelings.

You want to say you hate him. That you wish you had never met him. That he ruined your life and broke your heart. Its true that he abandoned you and for that a part of you would never forgive him. But a greater part of you had loved him, been madly desperately in love and even now that part of you still wishes that he is happy.

Jimin stands infront of you.

He starts to speak but you stop him.

"Let me speak because if I don't now I don't think I will be able to....I hated you for a long time because I thought you broke my trust but that wasn't it. Looking back I realised both of us might have loved each other but we never trusted each other. Now I know that a relationship is nothing without trust. Because when you 'fall' in love its because you trust the person you love will catch you. I forgive you because I loved you once and more importantly I love myself and respect my partner enough to not let myself be consumed by the shadow of doubts that relationship left me."

"Y/n.. I." Jimin speaks up.

"No, please let me complete it. I hope you too find happiness because you're a great person. I hope you're more sure of yourself now. And despite the bad times, we had happy days and in honor of those I wish you find happiness like I've found with Jungkook. The happiness of coming home after a long day. That being said I sincerely hope that I never see you again." You say, your eyes are teary.

Jimin reaches out to wipe your tears but stops himself. He's lost the right to touch you, to wipe your tears. He doesn't realise when his eyes start watering.

"I'm.. really.. I'm so sorry but I'm thankful for having known you, for having loved you " and I still do even if you may not want me he wants to add.. "Thank you. I understand even though you never want to see me, I hope we do cross paths because you're one of the best things life gave me."

You close your eyes wishing he would disappear and Jungkook would come.

"I hope you're happy and you stay happy for a long time. Good bye." He says and turns because even now he can't watch you go.

"Good bye, Jimin." You hear footsteps fading.

You open your eyes and the sun is setting on the horizon. Your phone rings. It's a reminder you'd set for a day that wouldn't happen.

A wedding with Jimin.

It's almost poetic. You delete it. Finally you're free. It feels like the best time to move on.

Jungkook's voice calls you out. You turn to him. His face lit with joy as he realises you have come to see him for his lunch break. He rushes to hold you in his arms greeting you by kissing your cheek and rubbing you're pregnant belly.

He wants to ask why you're crying but since the unpredictability of your moods due to your hormones he's learnt better than to ask and send you in a spiral again. He trusts you to tell him if he can help for now he's going to enjoy his lunch break shrouding his wife

Jimin despite himself turns back and finds you giggling in Jungkook's arms. His phone rings its a reminder that had been set many years ago. He deletes it. He hides his face with a cap and goes on with his way. Determined not to look back again.

Fin.

Dear Jungkook,

Of all of things running through my head the thing that I am sure about is I love you.

It's a tragedy that heart bursting with joy and heartache are two sides of the same coin of love.

Before you the person who taught me love was Jimin but if I were to say which side of love I learnt through him it would be heartache.

He came into my life suddenly and filled it with novelty but he left just the same leaving a gaping wound.

A wound that was healed by you.

It is true I was sad that day but not because I wanted him back because I wondered what life could have been if things were different.

You thought I'd leave you for him and I felt betrayed that you didn't trust our love, trust me. Maybe that's why I ignored you instead of appeasing you. This has been the longest week of my life.

And I could say so many things but all I want to say is

I love you and I want to love you till the last breath of my soul and I want to be loved by you the way you love me and only the way you love me and only you. Steady, warm and reliant.

Only yours,

Mrs. Jeon Jungkook 💖

Authors Note 📝

Painful to the end 💔 😢. Have some tissues and cookies. But also sweet.

You may wonder why I didnt show the resolution between the fight with Jungkook.

I think it would be very emotional with both of them crying and waking up eyes swollen but also cuddled up and Jungkook whining how he almost died. And Y/n making him promise not to start imagining things by himself and never letting her go because she'd actually die but he shuts her up saying don't even talk about it.

Hope you enjoyed reading it. Have a nice day.

Remember Tumblr works by reblogs. Let me know what you think.

[luimagines]

oooh i have an idea, how would dear reader reacts to the chain's secrets? they could be canon like wolfie being twi, or something you headcanon!

Masterlist

I procrastinated on this one admittedly because I had no idea where to take it but after writing out a list and appointing a secret to each boy. I have it done.

Some things are definitely headcanons.

Part one will include Hyrule, Sky, Warrior, Four and Wild.

Content under the cut!

Hyrule

The battle wasn’t necessarily hard to deal with- the monsters weren’t difficult to deal with and there weren’t a lot of them to begin with.

You slashed, dashed and kicked every enemy away from you and watched as they fell to your blade. Every new step revealed a new purple cloud as you danced around the battle field.

You saw Wild and Twilight fighting back to back with practiced ease and handling it as well as you were. Warrior and Sky was side by side closer to Time and Legend than the rest of the group was and Four and Wind were up in the trees striking the enemy down at a distance and no doubt scheming something while the going was easy.

The only one you had no idea where he was, was Hyrule.

And that didn’t take a lot to dive into your brain and wriggle uncomfortably until your own insecure thoughts pushed you to go look for him.

Between the monsters and the land mines of purple smoke, it was a little difficult to find him.

But when you do- he does something you don’t fully understand at first.

You manage to run into him in a clearing, but he doesn’t notice you at first. Instead, you see him take his sword and run it through his palm. His blood coats the length of his blade, and it drips down his hand onto the grass below.

He watches the monsters in front of him and dances for a minute around them before he takes a breath and kills them effortlessly.

You frown and step toward him. “Why did you do that?”

Hyrule jumps higher than should be physically possible and doesn’t catch himself on the way down. He falls flat on his butt and looks up at you with wide and startled eyes.

“Are you ok?” You kneels next to him and go to take his injured hand. “What on earth were you trying to do?

Hyrule jerks his hand back like you’ve burned him and you see the magic flow through the air around his wound- closing it like it never happened.

“Link?” You frown again and slowly place your hand in your lap. You’re confused and a little afraid for him. You know that blood magic is taboo for a reason and is typically avoided more often than not because of its’s dark nature- but you never thought Hyrule of all people would dabble in it.

“I’m fine.”

“Link.” You stress a little more. “What were you trying to do? I didn’t think you were capable of blood magic... At least you don’t usually use those kind of spells. Is that why you fight on your own for a while each time?”

“I’m not using blood magic.” Hyrule frowns and stands abruptly. 

“Then why-?”

“It’s not important.”

“Hyrule, you’re hurting yourself. I’d say that that’s pretty important.”

“It’s not a big deal.”

“Don’t make me get Time.” You threaten. “I’ll get Legend too. I bet they’ll get some answers out of you.”

“You won’t just drop it, will you?” He sneers

“Nope.” You stand and cross your arms. “What were you trying to do?”

“I was just checking something.”

You raise an eyebrow. “Like if a curse would work or something?”

Hyrule tenses and he crosses his arms- instantly looking away from you.

“WERE YOU ACTUALLY TRYING TO CAST A CURSE?!” You screech.

“THE CURSE WAS CAST ON ME!” He yells back.

You both still for a moment and wait for the forest to show any signs that others might have heard you.

The sounds of distant fighting continues and after a minute of waiting some more, no one shows up to check on either of you, so you’re safe.

You turn back to your companion and furrows your eyebrows. You lower your voice just above a whisper just in case someone might be on the way but now you need answers. “What the hell is that supposed to mean?”

He scowls- a face you’re not used to seeing on him and throws his arms down his sides in anger. “Back home, Ganon cast a curse on me. The monsters need my blood in order to resurrect him and I can’t risk letting any monsters from my time getting to me. I need to check if the other monsters will follow suit.”

You blink, not expecting that answer but your anger flares up regardless. “So you go out on your own to check this curse because your blood is needed to resurrect hatred incarnate? What if you’re overpowered? What if they do react to it? How are we supposed to help you if you’re alone?”

“It’s my problem to deal with. I don’t need-”

“Shut up.” You scowl and grab him by the shoulders. You shake him roughly for as long as you speak. “We are your friends! We care about you! We don’t want to see you hurt! We’re going to help you! Whether you want it or not- we’re not to let you deal with this alone. Not while we’re here.”

“Stop shaking me.”

You let him go.

“I won’t tell the others because I know you wouldn’t like that.” You say. “But this stops today. You hear me? None of us are just going to let these freaks near you and this is not necessary while you have a whole team of heroes just as pissed about the situation as you are. You hear me?”

“Loud and clear.”

“How clear?”

“Crystal.”

“Good.”

Sky 

Sky wakes up one day with a far away look in his eye which immediately puts you on edge.

Not only that but to make it worse, he doesn’t stop looking at you.

He looks scared.

Every five minutes you swear you catch him looking in your direction only to look away in haste when you look back at him.

No one is saying anything and it doesn’t help your paranoia.

With some people walking ahead you, you step back and take a spot next to Sky. You notice that he’s tense and walking robotically, and trying to match your pace. “Dude, what’s up? You’re freaking me out.”

Sky trips over himself and finally looks you in the eye. “What do you mean?”

“You woke up like you saw a ghost. You’ve been looking over to me every five minutes and even now you look like you want to sprint away from me. Did I do something?”

“I.. Ummm...” Sky stutters for a minute before swallowing whatever lump was in his throat. “I just had a dream... is all.... I’ll get over it.”

“I’m assuming it had something to do with me then.”

“No, not exactly.” Sky’s quick to speak even if you can see the beginning’s of sweat collect on his brow. “It’s not a big deal.”

“Want to talk about it?” You tilt your head. “It looks like it really shook you up.”

“Oh, um, I-”

“Maybe you died and Sky freaked out.” Legend pushes you forward and away from Sky. “He doesn’t have to talk about it if he doesn’t want to.”

“Ok, my god, Legend slow down! Not everyone is as emotionally constipated as you! Talking about things is healthy and important!” You shout over your shoulder, trying to dig your heels into the dirt with little to no luck.

Legend seems a bit stronger right now that he usually is, you bet it’s his power bracelet.

If Sky actually looks a bit paler at Legend’s claim than neither of you notice.

The day passes a little calmer after that, Sky seeming to have calmed down enough to not be so weird and it something you’re quick to forget about.

By the time the afternoon hits, a bunch of dark and foreboding storm clouds roll in.

Somehow, Sky manages to find it in himself to walk next to you again and does his best to stay close.

You don’t mind it and even jokingly pull his sail cloth over your head when it begins to rain on your group. It’s not particularly strong and there’s not a lot of options to rest and take cover, so you bare with it. Sky lets you keep the sail cloth over your head surprisingly.

But then there’s thunder and you see lightning in the distance and bite your lip. “Maybe we should hunker down or something?”

The rain goes from gentle drops to a down pour within seconds and the group runs a bit to gain as much cover as you can in the nearby tree line.

Sky pushes himself in front of you and shoves you behind him with enough force that you’re fully knocked over. In one fluid motion he lifts the Master Sword skyward and charges the blade, tossing it away from the group in a glowing blue arc. It cuts through the grass and even splits the first tree it strikes in half before dissipated into the air. 

You would have been struck by lightning if he didn’t do that.

“Sky?” You get up and try to wipe as much mud off of your pants as you can. “Are you ok? How did you know that would happen?”

Sky gulps and takes a deep breath as he looks at you with wide eyes and understanding. “I saw it in a dream.”

“Oh...” You gasp and reach out to him shakily, putting your hand on his shoulder. “You have dreams then?”

“Yes.” Sky looks at his sword and hesitantly puts it away. ��Sometimes.”

“Ok then...” You nod and look around the group. They’re all in varying stages of shock, surprise and concern.

Everyone is looking at Sky.

“We need to get out of the storm.” You say in lieu of changing the topic. ” Who knows if there’s more lightning on the way and there’s a lot of metal within the group.“

“Right.” Time nods and does a not so subtle double take in his attempt to leave it be. “Let’s go.”

You nod back and nod once more to Sky and wrap your arm around his shoulder. you lead him forward and lean into his space to whisper into his ear. “Thanks.”

“I’m just glad I made in time.”

“We’ll talk later ok?” You smile in hopes of alleviating some of the tension. “I have some questions if you’re willing to indulge me.”

“I suppose it’s only fair.”

Warrior

“He’s a cute kid.” Warrior mentions randomly one day. 

You startle and jump, nearly dropping the image. You scramble to catch it and successfully do so after playing hot potato with yourself.

“Warrior, a little warning please.” You sigh and attempt to clean your finger print smudges on the glass. “But yeah, my little brother is cute. I hope he stays that way.”

“I don’t think you have much to worry about.” Warrior shrugs. “He grows up to be a fine and upstanding young man. Good looks run in the family. ”

You scoff and roll your eyes. “Thank you, I’m sure they do.”

Warrior comes to stand next to you and gently turns the glass over to see the image better.

“Warrior?”

“Hm?”

“Am I doing the right thing?” You sigh.

“What do you mean? I’d say you are. Sacrificing yourself for the good of a better tomorrow- for your family- for your loved ones- but that’s not what you’re talking about are you?” Warrior lets you take the image back.

“But he’s so young... and I’m supposed to take care of him.” You gulp. “I just want him to be safe and sound and healthy but I can’t really do that from- from... I’m here instead.“

“Well... no said it was going to be easy.” Warrior offers lamely.

“What if he grows up to hate me?” You clench the glass tighter at the thought. “I just abandoned him, didn’t I? Oh my god-”

“Hey. He loves you.” Warrior takes your shoulders in his hands and shakes you somewhat. “He admires you greatly. You’re his hero. He looks up to you even now. He’ll understand when the time comes.”

“Even now?” You sniff. “What does that mean?”

“Years have passed and he hasn’t stopped looking up to you and how you did everything you could for him, for Zelda and he’s trying to make you proud-”

“Warrior he’s five, how do you know this?”

His mouth shuts with a click of his teeth.

“Warrior.” 

“Um... I... He...”

“Link.” You pocket the glass and face him head on. “When did you meet my brother?”

He stares at you for a moment and deflates. “During... during the war of my era.”  

“...What?”

Warrior hisses and brings his hand to scratch the back of his neck. “He showed up around the same time that Wind did but he talked about you.... and I guess you talk to him about me because he wasn’t really surprised at what was happening.”

“How old was he?” You bite your lip, already dreading the news.

“Older than me actually.” He offers with a tight smile. “I never asked him but if I had to guess I would have put him in his mid twenties. The oldest Link to start his adventure compared to the rest of us...”

“But he still...” You deflate as well and hug your arms around yourself. “He still has to go doesn’t he? I can’t save him from it. Even now, I... I can’t- I fail him in the end then.” 

“He doesn’t see it that way at all.” Warrior catches you before you fall to your knees in despair. “He admires everything you’ve done for him, everything you’re currently doing. You kept him from danger for as long as you could- until he was old enough to take on his destiny. That’s more than any of us could say.”

“I don’t want him to go through any of it though.” You sob and lean into Warrior for support. “That’s my baby brother Warrior- how am I supposed to be ok with this?”

“I don’t think there is a way.” He admits. “Nor do I think you should be.”

“I can’t keep him from it.”

“But you can and have been postponing it.” Warrior rubs circles into your shoulder as you cry. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to upset you even more.”

“I miss him.”

“You’ll see him again.” Warrior grips you tightly. “He also did very well all things considered. He became an older brother to me and to Sprite and Wind... I don’t think Wind has figured it out yet that your brother and Lucky are the same Link though.”

You sniffle and calm down slightly. “Was he awesome?”

A laugh is startled out of him and he chokes on the snort and cough that tries to leave him at the same time. “I’d say he was better than me... And he claims to have never held a sword until then.”

“Good.” You nod. “He’s the best brother in the whole world.”

“Yeah, he was.”

Four

You’re walking on a random trail as the day dies down and you’re partner is Four for the hour.

The sun rests behind you comfortably and you talk about the different weapons from each others Hyrule. You’re no smith- but you do think it’s an interesting process and try to take notes where you can.

As you trade your notes and laugh at the more ridiculous stories from one another, you look down and notice something weird with Four’s shadow.

It almost looked like it was laughing along too... in the opposite direction that Four was looking in. But you blink and it’s as if it never there.

Maybe you’re tired.

You have been walking all day and perhaps it was a trick of the light.

You don’t think on it too much and go back to talking with your friend.

Hours later-you’d think that it would be the end of it but it isn’t.

In fact, you can’t sleep. And the way it moved was different than it should have been and the more you look into the memory there more obscurities than there should be. Not to mention that Four gets weird around shadows or whenever they are mentioned.

You stare up at the star filled sky as you think about the incident.

“I’m telling you I think they saw me.” A new voice says.

You’re thrust into the moment and attune your hearing to the direction it came from.

“I think you’re thinking too much into it. How could they have seen you?” It’s Four.

You close your eyes and roll over in the same direction, pretending to still be asleep.

The voices take a minute to pick up again when you do that.

They were watching you.

“They stared at me for a solid minute- how did you miss that?” New voices hisses.

“They were laughing-”

“You were laughing, you love sick fool. They looked at me. They saw me. I’m going to blow the secret and you’re not even listening to my warning.”

Your eyes snap open and you push yourself up as quickly as you can.

You instantly spot Four sitting by the fire, but you’re not surprised by that. What really takes your attention is the new person next to him- who looks uncannily like your friend.

But with purple hair...

And red eyes...

And darker skin...

“Four what the hell?” You blurt.

Four responds quickly and as intelligently as he can manage.  “Uhhhh...”

The person next to him curses and runs a hand through his hair. “I told you. I told you. I told you.”

You lock eyes with the new guy and introduce yourself.

He huffs and crosses his arms, his face darkening slightly- or again- maybe it was a trick of the light. “I’m Four’s shadow.”

“His... shadow...?”

“Yes. That’s what I said.”

You nod, wide eyed before turning to Four with a million questions in your eyes. He can see it and holds his hand up to his mouth, pressing his knuckles harshly against his teeth as he waits for them to start flowing out of your mouth.

“Love sick fool?”

“Shadow you snitch!” Four screeches and takes a swing at him.

His cry is loud enough rouse some of the others but only really wakes up two of them. You stare tensely as Time and Legend sit up fast enough to nearly throw themselves into the fire as they turn to Four.

“Sorry.” You whisper yell to save his honor.

Shadow is nowhere to be found.

Time and Legend turn to you as the only other one awake and each raise an eyebrow in tandem.

“Ni-nightmare. I yelled. I’m sorry.” You try to act like you just woke up as well and try to hunker down into your blankets.

Time sighs and wipes his eyes. “You ok?”

“I will be.” You try to smile but you’re too nervous and it comes out more forced than it should- but perhaps that helps you sell your little fib.

Legend for his part glares at you before he sits down with a solid thump and throws himself dramatically back into his bedroll. 

No words are exchanged between you two.

“Everything alright Four?” Time yawns as he also begins to lie down again.

“Yeah. All good here.” Four laugh nervously and waves him away.

Time nods, no longer paying attention and slowly... nearly half an hour later, you see that the two of them have fallen asleep again. Thankfully neither of them seem to realize that it didn’t sound like your voice at all.

Shadow appears again from somewhere and takes his spot next to Four. “Nice going.”

“Shut up.”

“Four, I have questions.” You sit up and make your way over to the two of them.

Shadow raises an eyebrow. “What’s there to explain?”

“Everything?”

“Ok. Ok. Both of you, don’t start. You caught us fair and square. Sit down.” Four sighs and gestures to the other spot next to him. “It’ll take a while.”

“Done.” You grin and nearly run over a sleeping Sky in the process. “Tell me everything.”

Wild

“Has anyone seen Mr. Champion?” You glance up after doing a supply check through your bag. You’re running a little low on rations and know the resident cook usually has some to spare.

But you haven’t seen him in a while.

“Didn’t he go to get fire wood?” Wind tilts his head.

“Wasn’t that at least an hour ago?” You respond, furrowing your eyebrows as you think about it more. Where did Wild go?

“He hasn’t come back yet?” Warrior sits up straighter. Now the rest of the group is a little more aware of their missing member and each start subconsciously checking the tree line as if he were about to come back that very second.

“I can go look for him.” You offer, standing up. “Maybe he got distracted. We are in a new area.”

“Oh great, he could be miles away and we’d never know.” Legend groans and throws his head back. “Just what we needed.”

“Have a little faith Vet.” You snort. With a quick jump and skip over the supplies, you begin to leave the camp behind. “Try calling him Wind, I’ll see if I can go find our missing chef before dinner.”

“Please do.” Time nods. “We’ll start a full search party if you’re not back within the next hour though. It’s getting too dark.”

“Noted.”

“I could find him faster.” You hear Twilight say but you’re already too far away to back down now.

Truthfully, you have no idea where to start- but you imagine that to find Wild- one must think like Wild.

You pick a direction and stick with it.

At some point maybe fifteen minutes in you reach a small creek and begin to follow to stream upwards.

It’s really more like you’re taking a hike than searching for your friend and you begin to feel a little stupid even if realistically there’s no other way for this to be done.

That is- until you see him anyway.

He’s seems to be frozen in place, staring off into the distance with his hands still held mid air, gripping the canteen he appears to have been filling up.

It confuses you and you stand there staring at him to move- to blink- to do something. But he doesn’t. “Wild?”

No response.

“Champion?” You call a little louder and begin to tip toe a little closer to him. You’re afraid that even the slightest snapping of a twig would break whatever spell he’s under and you don’t fancy a violent reaction out the man who can easily blow the whole area up with little to nothing.

But still no response.

“Link!” You hiss and eventually reach his side. He hasn’t once turned in your direction or even acknowledged your presence and you begin to doubt that he’s even conscious.

His eyes are open and he’s knelt beside the creek but maybe he got hit with some magic or something- you don’t know.

You gulp and place a hand on his shoulder. You shake him lightly but when that also proves to not do anything you begin to shake him more and more until you nearly throw him over-but he does not react at all.

“Oh boy... What on earth happened to you?” You bite you lip and begin to look around. He’s too heavy for you to carry on your own and also too far away to yell for help or assistance.

You should have dragged Twilight with you.

Suddenly he takes a deep breath and blinks rapidly, shaking himself back into the present. 

You freeze and tense up considerably as you watch him come back to himself.

Wild stretches and looks up at the sky before standing up. “Twilight’s not going to like this.”

“No. I don’t think so.” You reply.

He freezes as well and looks at you by only shifting his eyes. “How long were you here for?”

“A while...” You admit. “Maybe fifteen minutes. You were gone for over an hour. I got worried.”

“Oh. That’s not so bad then.”

“You ok?” You gulp and slowly drop your shoulders from your ears and unclench your fists.

“Yup. Peachy.”

You nod and continue to lower your guard- not trusting this one bit. “May I ask what that was?”

“Just a memory.” He shrugs and tries to walk past you.

“A memory?” You frown and turn on your heel to follow him. “A memory? I shook you head enough to nearly throw you into the water and you claim it was because of a flashback? I’ve heard of disassociation before but I think this is more like astral projection through dimensions. You were completely gone!”

“It happens from time to time. Nothing to worry about.”

“What if something came up behind you and killed you?” You argue. “I’d say that’s something to worry about. Does this happen often?”

“Everyone once in a while. Maybe once every other month. It depends really. It doesn’t happen as often as it did in the beginning though.” Wild admits and gestures for you to follow him.

You do- but you keep asking him questions.

“So this is normal?”

“For me? Yes.”

“For you?”

“I...” Wild hisses slightly as another thought comes to his mind. “I never told you did I?

“I don’t know what you’re talking about but I’m going to assume that no, you didn’t.”

“I get memories from my old life from time to time when something triggers them. I used to have amnesia but I’ve got most of the my memories back at this point... By now it’s just filling in little blanks.” Wild shrugs. “Nothing to worry about.”

“Oh...” Understanding calms you somewhat. At least it’s not a magic spell or anything. “How did you get amnesia? Do you remember that?”

Wild stops in his tracks and looks at the ground momentarily before looking up again and walking forward. “I died.”

“I’m sorry what?”

“I died.”

“Huh?”

“I. Died.”

“WILD!” You tense up again and follow him without hesitation. “What do you mean you died? Did you heart just stop or were you like blow up or something- Oh my god! I’m so sorry! I’m being super insensitive right now, aren’t I? But I don’t understand! I don’t- Wild- Link- you can’t just drop a bomb like that. Are you like a ghost or something? No. Wait. You can bleed and I’ve seen you crash into more walls and rocks than I care to admit.”

“This isn’t exactly the reaction I was expecting.” Wild frowns and cuts you off. 

“ArE YOu oK?!”

“I’m here aren’t I?”

“But that’s not what I mean- How can that even make sense-”

“Where did you think I got my scars from?” Wild cuts you off once more with a barely restrained snort as he bites his lip.

“Oh my god.”

“I’m fine I promise.”

“Wild nooo....” You whine and Wild thinks for a minute that the information upset you so much that you’re going to cry. “Who did it? I’ll kill them with my bare hands. Who hurt you?”

Wild comes to a full stop again and sighs. Deep and tired but he tilts his head and offers you his hand. “Do you want the short story or the long?”

“Long story please.”

For the first time since this conversation started, Wild smiles even if it’s faint and subtle. “Alright, let’s take the scenic route back. This might take a while.”

Part 2