#keep in mind i ummm. have only animated once before and that was years ago and very very very short

[skenpiel]

@eebie DANCE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! the dance is from this video ♪(^∇^*)

[babybottlepop96]

Home Again Chapter 1

Jean x Marco

Summary: Jeana and Marco have been friends since the tender ages of 5 and 7. They grow together and fall in love.... then Jean disappears.

Warnings: This story will contains mentions of past rape and abuse. The violence parts will probably be descriptive, but the rape will not be. There will be eventual smut further along into the story. 

~20 Years Ago~

"Jean, honey, this is mommy's new boss, Mr. Bott. He is the man who is going to help us, so I need you to be on your best behavior, okay?" The small five year old with ash blonde hair, dark brown undercut and honey golden eyes nodded his head as he stared at the tall dark haired man with dark chocolate eyes.

"Nice to meet you Master Jean." The man smiled down at the boy with a warm smile. "This is my son, Marco, he just turned seven a few months ago. Heard you enjoy dinosaurs and superheroes?" Jean nodded as he stared at the boy just two years older than himself with wide eyes, mapping out all the freckles along his tanned skin, milk chocolate eyes staring back into his own with a smile that could make the grumpiest of men relax. "Marco has a boatload of dinosaur and superhero toys, Marco, why don't you show Jean your room?" Marco smiled, grabbing Jean's hand and dragging him up the giant spiral staircase to the second floor.

Once inside the room, Jean's jaw dropped, the size of Marco's bedroom was bigger than his whole house combined. The ceiling was high with detailed trim along the edges, painted in a dark brown and a pale maroon shade of red. The bed was bigger than what any seven year old should have, a giant flat screen tv was mounted onto the wall across from the bed and games, movies and toys filled the rest of the room. "Do you want to play a video game? I have Spyro the dragon, Crash Bandicoot, Mario Kart?" The freckles kid asked, naming off games while setting up one of the many gaming consoles he owned.

"I… ummm.." Jean stood there nervously, rocking on his feet while twiddling his tiny thumbs. "I've never played a video game before." He looked up to see Marco smiling at him.

"That's okay! I'll teach you! We can start with Mario Kart, it's a multiplayer game, so I'll be able to teach you!" He smiled proudly as if he just won first place at the spelling bee.

"Oh, okay! Thank you!" Jean grabbed the controller Marco handed out to him with shaky hands. The two sat down on the squishy blue and purple bean bag chairs and started a game, Marco showing him how to pick his character, how to move and control the kart and how to throw the special abilities gained when hitting the boxes with the question marks.

"So, Jean, what's your favorite color?"

"Purple." Jean spoke as he tried to concentrate on what he was doing on the screen, still having a bit of trouble with the turns.

"Cool! Mines red!" Marco spoke as he gestures to the room around them. 

"Favorite food?" Jean asked, stealing a glance at the older kid next to him, he couldn't help but smile, Marco's smile was infectious.

"Spaghetti! Well, all kinds of pasta! Penne, ravioli, ricotta-"

"I thought ricotta was a cheese?" Jean questioned, he wasn't actually sure himself, he just knew that cheese was a luxury in his home, never having enough money most of the time for really fancy things like cheeses.

"Oh, yeah! It is!" Marco giggled, "I just really like ricotta cheese." Jean giggled too, this kid was alright. "You're my new best friend, Jean."

~8 Years Later~

"Will you just shut up, Yeager?" A thirteen year old Jean Kirstein, as calmly as he could, spoke with his fist balled up at his sides as he walked out of the middle school building.

"Come on, Kirstein, didn't your poor piss excuse for a mother teach you it isn't nice to tell people to shut up?" Eren, the school bully, asshole and dick, in Jean's opinion, insulted. That's when Jean's resolve faded into nothing and landed a swift punch to the tanned, unblemished skin, a crunch was heard throughout the whole parking lot. Eren fell to the ground but quickly regained his strength and landed a kick to Jean's guy. The wind was knocked from Jean's lungs, but his anger was dominant. He lunged for the bastard who insulted his mother, the only parent he ever knew who worked her ass off to make sure he survived, to give the douche-nozzle a good pounding, but warm, strong arms held him back before hos fist could collide with it's intended target.

"Jean." A warm voice whispered in his ear, Marco. He relaxed in the freckles arms but he was still livid. "Let's go." Then, he was dragged off to the black Chevy Impala.

"Is that your boyfriend Horse Face? Man, I knew you were fruity but seriously? You could do better!" Jean almost got out Marco's grip, but the taller, older teen had his grip firm and all but threw the teen into the back seat.

"Jean-" 

"No, don't start Marco! He taunted me about how I have to live my life, insulted my mother, then insulted you! He deserved to get his lights punched out!" Jean yelled, unshed tears forming in the corners of his Carmel eyes, threatening to spill any second. Marco just simply drew the younger into his arms and the driver drove towards Bott Manor. "He… he doesn't have to be so mean! I never did anything to him!" 

When they finally pulled into the Manor, Marco led Jean to his room, the same room they first became friends in eight years ago. The stuffed animals and small toys are now replaced with books, CDs and even more games and movies. Marco sat them down on the bed and neither spoke for a few minutes. "He was right, ya know." Marco finally spoke and Jean looked at him like he had four heads. "You could do better than me, if we were together."

"Marco Bott, you stop right there! No one could ever replace you! You are literally the best person alive! If I had the balls to kiss you I would!" Jean and Marco's eyes widened and Jean turned into a blushing, flustered mess. "Oh my god! I'm so sorry! I.. I don't know why I said tha-", but Jean couldn't finish, Marco's lips pressed firmly against his in a gentle yet passionate kiss that spoke thousands of words and so many feelings. 

"I love you Jean." Marco whispered as they pulled apart, foreheads still touching as both tried to regain their breath and slow their hearts. Jean cupped Marco's face in his hands and kissed him again.

"I love you too, Marco."

~2 Years Later~

Jean Kirstein, fifteen year old freshman at Trost High, walked through the park on his way home after work. He hates his job, hates working behind the counter at the local Taco Bell, hates that Eren works there too in the kitchen as a prep cook, hates dealing with annoying ass customers with snarky attitudes complaining that their crunch wrap supreme doesn't have enough sour cream. Well sorry, Karen, I don't make the fucking food nor do I determine how much sour cream goes on it. Today was a particularly bad day, Eren called off claiming he was sick when Jean really knew he was out with his "boyfriend" leaving him to prepare food and take orders. Then someone took a dump on the men's bathroom floor, didn't even try to aim for the fucking toilet! Just took a shot right there in the middle of the goddamn floor which he had to clean up himself while his manager bitched about him not doing his job at the counter. All Jean wanted to do was go home, talk to his boyfriend for a little before he eventually went to bed and got up early the next day for school.

It was a simple request that he wished for while the clock ticked by slowly. Jean was so into his own head, he never heard the footsteps coming up behind him until it was too late. A wet cloth covered his nose and mouth, his eyes widened for a second before the world faded to black.

-------------

"We have to find him!" Marco shouted at his father who was looking at him with a solemn expression. Marco paced back and forth in front of his father's desk, hands taking through his u kept hair. He has barely slept a wink since Jean vanished three days ago, his mind wondering about all the worst scenarios it could think of.

"We are trying, son, but we have no evidence of anything taking place. No struggle, no personal belongings, nothing to suggest anything has even happened."

"But Jean couldn't have just vanished into thin air! He wouldn't run away either! He loved his mom too much to just up and leave her and me…" Marco trailed off, thinking about his and Jean's time together over the last two years. Picnic and arcade dates, eating pizza and hot wings while they binge watched their favorite tv series at that moment, the soft and gentle kisses they shared between one another before they parted ways, always promising to text each other once they got home, letting the other one know they got there safe. That's the single most reason why Marco knew something was wrong. Neither of them forgot to send the 'im home safe and sound' text. Not once, in the ten years that they've known each other, did they miss sending that text. Even as children and Marco's father gave Mrs. Kirstein a cell phone as a gift to keep in contact, did they miss THAT text.

"Son, we are doing everything we can to find Jean. But we also need to think rationally, Jean might not ever be found." Marco froze at those words, Jean may be lost forever? He may never see those honey eyes, beautiful smile, perfect sketches and vibrant paintings painted by those slender pale hands and fingers? May never run his hands through those soft locks of ash and brown ever again? That's when Marco broke, he screamed and fell to the floor in a fetal position on the floor. His father looked at him with hurt in his own dark chocolate eyes, for him, his son and Jean's mother who was currently out looking for her only child as they speak. Don Bott rose from his leather chair and walked around the desk, kneeling in front of his son. He put his hand on his back and whispered a pained, "I'm sorry, Marco."

~10 Years Later (Present Day)~

Here he was, once again, at an underground auction. Mr. Bott hated these things, but he had no other choice, ever since Mrs. Kirstein passed away three years ago from a drunk driving accident, he hasn't been able to find someone who cleaned as well as she had. Every person he hired had an attitude or just didn't speak at all, always forgetting to dust the book shelves or take out the trash. So he relented and took up on Mr. Ackerman's suggestion to go to an auction. Getting there early to get a good seat, Mr. Bott, along with Mr. Ackerman, Mr. Braun and Mr. Hoover, the Dons of their respected parts of New York City, all sat down to converse while the auction for the…. Pleasure portion of the auction slowly came to a close. Mr. Bott cringed as the scum of New York bid money on these poor people just for the gratification of getting their dick in a hole.

"And now for our last and best prize of the night!" The auctioneer spoke as the Dons sighed in relief, none of them liked the idea of people being sold for pleasure as they themselves, tried for years to get it under control but never succeeding. "This one has been in the business for ten years, used and a bit rough looking, but this little beauty will be the best fuck you ever had. Clean and pliant, not a bad body either if I do say so myself. Number 54!" The announcer spoke as someone roughly shoved a young man out into the center of the room. The numbers flying from the crowd started pouring in left and right and it got the Dons wondering whom this "prize" was. "Three-thousand!" "Ten-thousand!" "Twenty Five-thousand!"

"Two hundred-thousand!" The crowd went quiet after hearing the deep booming voice coming from the front row.

"Two hundred-thousand! Going once! Going twice! Sold! To Do Bott!" The young man was then hauled out of the room to be prepped for leaving the facility.

--------------

"Dad! I'm home! Reiner, Bert, Mikasa, Eren and Armin are here too!" Marco called from the doorway as he and the others walked into the Manor. "Dad?!"

"In the living room son!" He heard his father call and the group walked towards the sound.

"What's up? We heard your voicemail and hauled ass here. What happened?" Marco asked as soon as he saw his father, eyes brimmed with tears and a small smile. The others in the room, specifically Dr. Yeager, looked at them, small sad but slightly happy smiles on their faces. "What's going on here?" The group looked at each other, confused and concern plastered on their faces. Once Mr. Bott moved to the side and gestured to the couch, it was then that the group realized what was happening. On the couch asleep, lay a thin pale man, dark circles under his eyes, bruises and scars and even some fresh wounds, now neatly stitched up thanks to Dr. Yeager, littering his almost naked form. Marco stared at the man laying on the pale green couch and tears flooded down his cheeks. "Jean?"

[whitecatindisguise]

Ummm, ok. You said you took oneshot requests so...hehe, you don’t have to do this at all, it’s just an idea. But what about a little oneshot of Human Ruddiger au? Idk. :P

Okay, let's do this. Hope it turns out well 😅

TW: blood, injury

Little Raccoon Boy

Varian was walking through the forest near Old Corona, humming softly. He had a leather satchel draped over his shoulder, already filled with several herbs and flowers which he could use in his alchemy later.

Suddenly, he heard a quiet whimper from the nearby bushes. He stopped, intrigued, and slowly approached the source of the sound. He pushed away the branches and to see what was going on.

To his surprise, and horror, he saw a young boy, probably around 7 years old, lying on the grass and crying. His left leg was stuck in the bear trap villagers put out in the forest to keep the animals from stealing their crops.

Varian's mind froze as he observed the scene, the blood visible on the kid's leg. He gulped down the wave of coming nausea at the sight of blood. No time for that.

He quickly, but carefully emerged from the bushes and approached the crying child. The boy startled at his arrival, and tried to shuffle away, resulting in the trap burying itself deeper into the leg. The boy cried out in pain.

"Shhh, hey. It's alright." Varian raised his hands in the air to show they were empty. "I'm not going to hurt you. I only want to help."

The boy ceased his crying, but was still watching Varian with wide, terrified eyes. Varian slowly came closer and kneeled next to the boy, suppressing another wave of nausea.

"O-okay. I'm going to open the trap now and get our your leg." He said and looked up at the kid.

The boy was silent and eyed Varian fearfully. His grey eyes slowly moved to the trap and back to the young teen. Finally he seemed to understand and slowly nodded his head. Varian took a deep breath and grabbed the sides of the trap.

"This is going to hurt, but I'll try to be as gentle as possible." He warned and gave the boy a reassuring smile.

The kid let out another cry of pain when the trap opened, and Varian worked fast to move it away, before releasing his hold, the sharp metal smacking shut the moment he did so.

The child's leg didn't look so good. The metal went in deep and the wound was bleeding heavily. Varian's vision swum for a moment, but he shook his head and untied his apron, securing it tightly around the injury.

"This needs to be cleaned and bandaged properly." He said more to himself than to the kid. He eyed the terrified boy and weighed his options. He could take him to the medic, but he knew for a fact the man was absent right now, taking a trip to the capital in need of some medicines. Or, he could take the boy back home with him, which was actually closer than the clinic, and had some of his own medicines which would be able to help.

Making up his mind, Varian stood up and held up a hand to the kid. The grey eyes stared at him perplexed, the boy cocking his head in puzzlement.

"Come on, I'll take you home. We can take care of your leg there." The alchemist said and smiled in a way that, hopefully, would calm the kid down enough to trust him.

The small boy seemed to think for a few moments, before he reluctantly grabbed the held-out hand. Varian gently helped him stand up. The boy suddenly hissed in pain and fell back down, when he unconsciously put the weight on the injured leg. The grey eyes welled with tears and Varian took only a moment to assess situation and decide on the next course of action.

Slowly and calmly explaining what he was doing, he picked up the kid to secure him safely on his back and made his way home. He could feel the boy stiffen when they entered the village, but also look around in, what seemed like, curiosity.

Dad was working on the pumpkin patch in front of the house when they arrived. He looked up to his son and his brows furrowed in the unrecognizable expression at the sight of the boy on Varian's back.

"Found him in the forest. His leg got stuck in one of the bear traps." Varian quickly explained. "Dr. Therry is in the capital today, so-"

Dad's eyes landed on the kid's leg, blood starting to seep through the apron and he nodded quickly. They entered the house and dad motioned for Varian to set the boy on the kitchen table, while he left to bring bandages and water to clean the wound.

When the large man came back, the kid seemed to tense, eyes wide in fear. He started to tremble and unconsciously hid behind Varian, hands gripping the teen's shirt.

"Hey, it's okay. It's just dad." The alchemist tried to calm the boy down with a reassuring smile. "He might look scare but he won't hurt you."

After some more cooing, the kid finally let dad approach and unwrap the wounded leg. The father and son duo worked together at cleaning and treating to the injury, Varian leaving only for a moment to bring some ointment of his own design which helped in healing wounds faster.

When he came back from his lab, the boy almost jump down from the table to hug him, if not stopped by dad.

"He seems to feel comfortable around you." Quirin commented as Varian spread the medicine over the wound and let his dad bandage the leg. "He tensed up the moment you left his sight."

"I wonder how did he even got in the forest. I've never seen him around the village." Varian pondered as the kid once again reached for his sleeve and grabbed to it.

"Neither have I." Dad nodded and looked up at the kid, who shrunk a little under the man's gaze. "He's also strangely quiet."

"Didn't say a word since I found him." The alchemist confirmed. Dad finished wrapping the bandage and smiled gently.

"All done, little one. Luckily the trap didn't break any bones or muscles, so it should heal in a week or so." He brushed the boy's head in a friendly manner.

The kid tensed at the touch at first, but quickly noticed it didn't mean any harm, so he eagerly leaned to the touch. Varian smiled at the boy and helped him down, the kid quickly wrapping him in a hug once he was standing on the floor.

"Oofff, you need a bath, kid." The alchemist scrunched his nose. "You smell like you haven't washed for MONTHS."

"I'll get the water ready." Quirin chuckled and Varian nodded in appreciation.

"Come on, let's see if any of my old clothes will fit you. Yours need a proper washing too." The teen untangled the boy from around his waist and took his hand instead, leading the boy upstairs.

By the time dad came back, saying the bath was ready, they managed to find some grey shirt, black trousers and a pair of shoes which were almost the kid's size. The shoes were a little too big, and the shirt needed a belt around the waist, but the could work with that until his own clothes were clean.

Varian helped the kid undress and wash, the boy very interested in bubbles that filled the tub. He didn't seem to mind Varian scrubbing away the dirt from his back, humming in delight the whole time.

"Say... do you have a name?" Varian asked as he helped the kid dry with a towel. Grey eyes looked up at him, the head cocked to the side in puzzlement. "A name. Like... I'm Varian." The teen pointed at himself and then at the boy. "And you?"

The kid blinked and then grinned cheerfully, but not saying anything. Varian sighed. Great, he was probably mute.

"Okay then, but I can't keep calling you kid . Do you want me to choose one for you?" He asked and the boy thought for a moment before nodding fervently. "Okay... how about... Damien?" The boy scrunched his nose in disgust and shook his head. "No? Then... Thomas?" Another shake. "Nate? Brian?" Two shakes again. "Flynn?" Varian asked hopefully. The kid seemed to think for a moment but shook his head again.

Varian sighed as he watched the boy put on the trousers and the shirt, wondering how easy it was for parents to choose the name for their children. They didn't have choice in the matter. If your parents decided you'll be called Glenn or Stanley, then that's what you were stuck with for your whole life. But choosing a name for a 7-year-old kid?

"Ruddiger?" He tried again, remembering the name of the dog they used to have when he was younger. It died of old age few years ago, but Varian still kinda missed him.

The boy stopped at his attempt to put on a shoe and looked up at Varian, eyes glistening. He nodded once, twice, so many times the alchemist thought for a moment his head is going to fall off.

"Great! Ruddiger it is!" He confirmed with a small chuckle.

"Boys! The dinner is ready!" They heard dad's voice from the kitchen. Varian grabbed the kid's hand and led him downstairs.

Little did any of them know, this was the day little Ruddiger came into their lives and was there to stay.

------

Okay, so that escalated quickly. As you requested, fluff with a speck of angst. Hope you like it.

[surveys-at-your-service]

Survey #345

“this is the year where hope fails you  /  the test subjects run the experiment  /  and the bastards you know, is the hero you hate”

Do you have any scars from burns? No. Have you ever built a snowman? Yes. Growing up, Dad would always help my sisters and I make them. Good memories. How about a sand castle? Yeah, but not any impressive ones at all. Just the ones where you fill a pail with sand and flip it over. Have you ever used crutches? Tried when I tore a ligament in my foot, but the pair we had were too tall for me to use them comfortably at all, so I never really "used" them. Have you ever been in a tree house? No. Would you ever move to China? No. Did you ever go to daycare as a kid? I went to one for literally a day because Mom was disgusted with how I was treated. I accidentally wandered into the wrong room or something and one of the guardians slapped my hand when she scolded me, and I think I sobbed the rest of the day, but partially because I had AWFUL separation anxiety from my mom. Afterwards, Mom just had people she knew babysit my sisters and me. Who’s one of the most talented people you know? What are they talented at? As for people who are still in my life/I still consider to "know," I'm unsure, but only because there are so many talented people in my life. One of my older sisters is a fantastic cake decorator and artist in general, and my little sister is truly skilled with working with children; she's a kid magnet. Sara is really good at animation, and I wish she'd do it more! Do you usually pay with cash, debit card, or credit card? Cash. I don't have a credit or debit card. Are you the type of person who can make friends with just about anyone? Yeah, but I have my limits. I'm very open-minded and can befriend people with a wide range of beliefs and personalities, but I know where to draw the line. There comes a point where giving your friendship to someone is like passively supporting their ways, and I don't want to do that if those are overwhelmingly negative and/or hateful. Have you ever experienced a medical emergency? Well yeah, I overdosed on cold medicine. I was surprisingly okay, but I assume it's because I was taken to the hospital fast enough for fluids? Idk. What was the last thing you borrowed from someone? Ummm no clue. Are you muscular? Uh, no. When you go to a restaurant, do you prefer to sit at a booth or a table? Booth. What’s something you think everyone should do/experience at least once in their life? Love. Has your car ever been broken into? I don't have a car, but neither of my parents' has been. Have you ever recorded yourself doing a cover of a song? No. Do you watch television shows more in the dark or the day time? I just don't watch TV. Are there any movies out there that basically make you want to puke? None that I've seen, no. But I won't watch The Human Centipede for this exact reason, as I KNOW it would make me hurl. Any secrets you’d never tell anyone? No matter how close they are to you? Yes. Do you consider yourself a promiscuous person? Not even slightly. Do you know anyone who has AIDS? What about yourself? I don't know anyone with it, no, and I don't have it either. Has anyone ever mistaken you to be a member of the opposite sex? No. What’s your favorite hair color on the opposite sex that you love? I like colored hair, but if we're talking natural colors, then black. Have you ever had a child before? If so, what’s his/her name? Nope, never gonna have one. Which baby animal is your favorite? Meerkats for sure. I also love kittens. Do you like jam on your toast and biscuits? Yeah. Are there any plants in your home? No. What food does honey go best with? *shrug* Have you ever carved a pumpkin? Yeah. Have you ever reread a book? I read Because of Winn-Dixie twice, and I've read Meerkat Manor: Flower of the Kalahari countless times, although after the first read, I skipped over Clutton-Brock's massive tangents that had nothing to do with meerkats. They really took away from the book, imo. Would you ever like to own a chandelier? Sure, like above the dinner table. It's not a big deal for me, though. What scent is the last body wash you used? Oh my god, it's this cinnamon bun scent that I got for I think my b-day, and I LOVE it. It's going to suck when it's gone. Do you have any religious symbols in your home? Probably somewhere, I just don't pay attention. What religion do you identify with, if any? None. Do you enjoy flavored coffee? If so, which flavor is your favorite? I don't like coffee at all. Do you know someone who has asthma? Yeah, my mom. What is the most controversial thing you’ve done? Come out as bi, I guess. Other than interviews, do you ever “dress to impress?" No. Are you currently listening to music? Yeah: "The Man Who Made a Monster" by Dance With the Dead. When was the last time you got really nervous? I should NOT be blanking on this, but I sure am. I don't think I've been REALLY nervous in a while, but certainly nervous like... always. What was the first thing you ate today? I had a bagel. Have you ever had one of those elementary-school boy/girlfriends? No; I didn't have my first boyfriend 'til the 7th grade. Name something random in your car: I don't have my own car. What do you want to tell someone who has died (and who is it, if anything)? I wish I could tell Steve Irwin thank you and that he truly did change the world. I think a lot about just how unspeakably proud he would be of his children and how madly in love he'd be with Bindi's newborn. That family is the definition of wholesome, and I desperately wish Steve was still around. Have you ever stolen from a friend or family member? Wow, no. Would/did you cheat on someone for revenge? Or if they wouldn’t find out? No, that's incredibly childish. If you got pregnant right now, would you keep the baby? The only way I could get pregnant right now was if I was, God fucking forbid, raped. I don't think I'd be able to keep it; it would scar me for life, but at the same time, even though I'm pro-choice, I don't know if I could go through with an abortion without feeling like shit and forever thinking "well you could've just given it up for adoption." I don't like thinking about this topic. Any history with eating disorders (or tendencies)? No, thankfully. I've had bulimic thoughts before, but I've never acted on them. Does your family have a secret? No. If single, would you knowingly be who someone cheats on someone else with? Nooope. Guilt would eat me alive. Have you ever contemplated physically hurting yourself or another? I have hurt myself, but never other people. Choose one living person you’d like to meet. I won't have lived a full life w/o meeting Mark at least once laksdj;flakwjer. Who is someone you know would take a bullet for you? My mom would without a millisecond's hesitation. I'm sure Dad would, too. The next time you are on an airplane, where will you be traveling to? Most likely Illinois to visit Sara again. Where is your dad from? Ohio. Aside from your own, whose house did you last set foot into? My older sister's. What is something that makes you very squeamish? Vomit is #1. Do you even use an alarm clock, or do you just use your phone? I use my phone. Have you ever moved to a different state? No. Lived in NC my whole life. Can you do long division in your head? I can't do math in my head period. Do you have a wide imagination? Oh yes. Would you mind living on a farm? I wouldn't want to. Farms take way too much maintenance. Do you enjoy watching horror films? Oh yeah. Have you ever been to Niagara Falls? No, but I'd love to. Who are you in love with? Nobody. When is the last time you took a picture? I took a picture of Venus like a week ago when I had her out of her terrarium and she was just coiled between my arm and the laptop, totally chillin' out. I was IN a picture just a couple days ago, because my eldest sister came over to visit with her husband. It was great. Do you wash your own car or make the car wash do it? I don't have a car. Are you a fan of parties? Not big ones, no. I'd enjoy chilling out with a few people I'm friends with/know, just chatting and hanging out. Next trip you’re going to take? I don't know. My sister Misty's wedding is coming up soon, but we doubt we'll be able to go because of 1.) Mom's car would never make the drive, and 2.) Covid, and Mom's immunocompromised. It sucks, but she's being understanding about it. Were you in honor roll in school? Yeah. If you could know one thing about the future, what would it be? If I'll ever be happy with my life. What’s your favorite lunch meat? Ham. Do you drink your soda from a straw? I don't like to, no, because I drink faster via a straw, and I like to drag my soda out throughout the day so I don't go through more than I should. Do you like hot sauce? Yesssssss. Do you like Ellen Degeneres? Sure, she seems like a great person. Who do you think is the cutest celebrity? UMMMMMM like have you ever seen Mark Fischbach laugh?????? Did you ever play softball? For quite a long time as a kid, yeah. Would you like to live to be 110 years old? No, that sounds like torture. I don't want to live to where I'm essentially a walking (if even) corpse. No energy, no strength... no thanks. Do you like getting your picture taken? NO. Ever seen a tornado? Thank fuck no. When you were little, did you do gymnastics? No. Do you know anyone who is pregnant? I know a number of people who are. Two are due very soon. Do you like being the X or the O when you play tic-tac-toe? I like being the X. Have you ever tried crowd surfing? No. Do you like the movie Bambi? If so, who is your favorite on there? I've actually somehow never seen it, though I would like to. Do you like onion rings? No. Are you more afraid of going to the doctor or dentist? I'm not really afraid of either, but I dislike going to the doctor more. Have you ever been to an animal shelter? Yeah. Have you ever bought yourself or someone else lingerie? No. Have you ever had a serious issue involving your eyes? Nothing more than needing glasses. When you were a teenager, did your parents set rules about dating? Not really, besides the obvious age gap stuff. I was allowed to follow my heart with who I was interested in, really. Have you ever lived with a person who you tried to avoid at all costs? There were times like this with Dad when my parents were still together and he was in a bad mood, especially if he was drinking. Have you ever committed a crime that directly harmed another person? No. What is your worst childhood memory? There was this very weird three day period where I could've sworn up and down I was constantly on the verge of puking. On the third night, Mom finally took me to the hospital, but they couldn't find anything wrong. Oddly enough, I felt better the next morning... The whole situation was fucking awful for someone who was and still is terrified of vomiting. Do you remember where you first drove to after getting your license? I don't have my license. What did you get into trouble for the most when you were a kid? Being on the computer too much. What is your favourite game show to watch? Family Feud with Steve Harvey. When’s the last time had to cover a coworker’s shift? Never. Is there a word you have an emotional connection to? "Petrichor." How about a sound? Any emotional connection to a sound? LOTS of songs. Where is your favourite place to get fries? Bojangle's. Their seasoning is *chef's kiss* Do you always have a stock of alcohol in your house? No. Have you ever fainted? Yes. Do you get out of bed on the left side or right side? Left. Do you fall asleep with your mouth open or closed? It embarrasses me for some reason, but usually open, because I have a hard time breathing through my nose when I lie down for some reason? I don't take allergy medicine though when I'm really supposed to, so that might explain it... Is there a book you keep telling yourself you’ll read but still haven’t? I have Margaret Atwood's The Testaments that I want to read, but Wings of Fire has taken precedent, so I really don't know if I'll get to it. It would also be nice to catch up with Erin Hunter's Warriors, but that I know I won't do. Did your family ever own a vacation home? No. Have you ever opened a wine bottle? Nope. Have you been inside of a police station? No. What would you never change about yourself? I mean, there's a number of things. I would never allow myself to lose my empathy and compassion for others, for one. I'll never grow a head too big for my body. Do you pretty much need a car to get around where you live? Yeah. Public transport isn't a big thing here, especially outside the cities, and living in the South, places are pretty spread out/not within reasonable walking distance. Have you been to Australia? No, and I'm honestly too scared to go, even though I think it would be extremely cool. All the venomous animals just frighten me, and I find huntsman spiders to be TERRIFYING, regardless of how harmless they are. Do you mind drinking room-temperature water? UGH, I absolutely do mind. I HAVE to drink cold water. If it's even slightly on the warm side, it makes me want to gag.

[munofsilver]

Stuck In Between Chapter 2

This is once again for @gaalee-bingo This chapter is Sharing a bed from bingo bounce card 1. You can read it one Ao3. Summary: After a visit from an old friend Gaara hears some good news. Later on, Lee knows he will have to stay the night, but there is only one bed and two people.

The food was the best thing Lee ate in years. He couldn’t help himself and gobbled it down quickly. Now he kind of regrets it since he has the hiccups. The plates Gaara and Lee were using turned back into yellow leaves. “Where is he getting all these colored leaves?” Lee wonders. It’s spring, and the trees are full of green still. Not to mention Gaara never left the cave since Lee been here. By now, Lee gets it that Gaara lives in this cave, but Lee still has questions. 

With the rain, Lee can’t tell what time it is. He did see some sun not that long ago, so he knows it’s daytime, at least. Now that the hiccups are gone, Lee tries to get some answers. It seems Gaara has something to say. 

“Since you will be here for a while, I should know your name.” 

A red flag enters Lee’s mind. He remembers that if humans give their name to a yokai, they will own you and control you. Lee doesn’t want to be controlled again. He just escaped from that. With another sigh of annoyance, Gaara speaks up again, “Not all yokai can steal a person’s name. The ones that do will try to either force you or trick you into giving it. I only suggested it. I can’t do anything with your name, but if you’re that worried, you can give me a fake one.”

Lee doesn’t have any other name but his own and the one that his captured called him. He is done with that life, so his only option is, “My name is Lee.” 

Gaara’s ears rise, and he looks towards the back of the cave. He puts out the fire and places a hand on the cave wall. It opens as it did before, “Another one is coming.” 

Lee stands up as the cave opening starts it’s closing. Without a word, the young man enters the new opening. Gaara takes his hand off, and it closes. He heads to the back of the cave and claps his hands or together like he was going to pry, only to rub them a bit as he moves them over his head. He opens his hands and brings them down in front of his face, then on the wall. The cave’s back then fades away as four turtle looking creatures come out, followed by another tanuki. The four kappas leave, each giving a little wave at Gaara, while the tanuki stays. 

“Want me to keep it open?” Gaara asked. 

“I can open it myself on this side,” the tanuki said, sitting by a rock. 

Gaara closed his hands, and the wall returned, “What do I owe the pleasure, Shukaku?” 

Shukaku places a leaf on the rock and transforms it into a table. He places two cups and a bottle on the table along with some tasty human treats, “I’m here to celebrate.” Shukaku answered while pouring sake into the cups. 

“Celebrate what? Is my father letting me back into the yokai world, and I can see my siblings again?” Gaara sits down and takes the cup Shukaku slides over. 

“No luck with that, I’m afraid. You can still only visit by chance. I’ll try again next time I see him,” Shukaku raises his sake cup, “I’m here to tell you that you’re going to be an uncle,” Shukaku clings his cup with Gaara’s and gulps the sake. 

Gaara doesn’t move like a deer in headlights, “You mean, Temari is…” “Is with child,” Shukaku cuts off Gaara. 

A small smile appears on Gaara. He’s happy his sister found love. Gaara movies the hair that was covering his forehead and brushed a hand over his mark. “I guess this means she won’t be visiting much for a while,” Gaara takes a sip of the sake. 

Shukaku pours himself another cup full, “You’re father doesn’t know. She wanted me to tell you first,” he slams down his sake, “Kankuro does know.” 

Gaara finishes his sake and pours himself another one, “How is he?” 

“Fine. Still hates the human world. That reminds me he wants me to bring you something,” Shukaku brings out a colored box made out of marble.

Gaara has never seen Kankuro make or own anything so beautiful before. He reaches for it as Shukaku slides it over. 

“He didn’t make it. Kankuro said it belonged to your mother.” 

Gaara freezes in mid-reach. His mother, this was once his mother’s. The thought of his mother made Gaara move away from the box, “I’ll open it later,” he mumbled. 

Once the bottle of sake is gone, Shukaku leaves, turning the table back into a rock. Gaara picks up the leaf that the older tanuki left behind and adds it with the others in his magic leaf box. Placing both boxes on a shelf, he keeps hidden. Gaara traces his hand across the one that was once his mother’s before closing the closet. He starts the fire up again and opens the way for Lee. 

Lee was standing in front of the wall; there’s not much else he could do. There’s not much light, only a small opening that Lee couldn’t reach or climb too. After a while of staring at the wall, Lee looks around this little room. The only thing in the room was a garden. Lee remembered Gaara saying he had one. Lee makes his way towards the garden, but when he got closer, something stopped him. 

Some invisible force was blocking his way. Soon everything got blurry, and Lee felt a bit sleepy. He was about to pass out when he heard Gaara’s voice, “Enough, let the human go!” 

Like that, Lee’s vision returned to normal, and he is no longer tired. He is very confused, “Sorry, that is something to keep others out. I don’t want anyone to damage my garden,” Gaara says as he drags Lee out. 

“I would never do anything to your garden. I only wanted to look at it,” Lee defends himself. 

“I don’t want anyone looking at it either,” Gaara snarled non threateningly. 

“Then why put me in there then?” Lee breaks free from Gaara’s grip. 

“I needed someplace to hide you. Who knows who is coming out of the yokai world or what they will do if they see you,” Gaara growled threateningly. 

“I thought yokai wandered around everywhere,” Lee shyly says. 

“You humans have everything about yokai wrong. For the most part,” Gaara stops walking and turns to face Lee. “One major thing is we usually look nothing like in the pictures you humans drew of us,” Gaara crosses his arms. 

“I can tell since you have a human form,” Lee looks Gaara up and down, “How do you look in your animal form? If you don’t mind me asking.”

“Different than other tanukis,” Gaara looks away, “I hate it.” 

Lee leaves it at that. He doesn’t want to upset his host. On a rock, Lee noticed some rice balls that weren’t there before. “Did you make those?” Lee points to them. 

Gaara looks over his shoulder at the rice balls. Then he focused back at Lee, “No. A friend stopped by and forgot them when he left. You can have some if you want.” 

Lee can’t remember the last time he had rice balls. His father, Gai, would pack him rice balls before Lee heads out sometimes. That was a long time ago, sadly. Does he dare take some? He did have a big breakfast this morning. Lee is starting to get hungry again, so he gives in and takes two rice balls. Leaving one left that Gaara took for himself. 

Little did Lee know that half the day is already gone. Looking outside, Lee can see a patch of less sun until finally, he sees the moon. Something pops into Lee’s head. 

“With all this rain, won’t the animal and humans that live in the forest drown?” 

Gaara looks up from whatever he was doing; Lee couldn’t see, “No. The animals were giving warning before the rain sprite came, No humans live in the forest. They pass through,” Gaara goes back to his thing. 

“Everything will be fine then?” Lee asks, daring to sneak closer to Gaara.

“Always has been. Do you usually worry so much?” 

“Does it bother you?” Lee is behind Gaara now. 

Gaara knows Lee is looking over his shoulder. He doesn’t mind; Lee will have to learn the hard way. There are two light green leaves in front of Gaara; he has already hidden the box. The tanuki places a hand on each of the leaves and closes his eyes. Lee watches in awe, wondering what he’s doing. There was a puff of smoke that made Lee light-headed, and two light green blankets replace the leaves. 

“That’s how you do it,” Lee didn’t know he spoke out loud. 

Gaara doesn’t say anything picks them up, and moves to a rock near the wall on the right. Placing a dead looking leaf on it and more smoke and a bed was there. That could fit two people. 

“Are you suggesting we share the same bed?” Lee’s eyes widen with shock. 

“We’re both males and will have our clothes on. It’s not like we will be doing anything,” Gaara looks at Lee, “You’re not suggesting anything, are you?” Gaara raised an eyebrow if he had one.  

“No, not at all,” Lee raises his hands and shakes them with his head, “I was only wondering, why not make two beds?” Lee pokes his two index fingers together.

It has been years since Lee slept in a bed. He almost forgot what they looked like. Sleeping on anything other than a cold hard floor is welcoming for Lee, even if it means sharing it with a tanuki. 

“I can only make one, but I can make it any size,” Gaara looks at the bed, “I’ll make it bigger next time if you want.”

“It should be fine. Thank you,” Lee smiles. 

Gaara seems confused. Besides his siblings, no one has ever thanked him. Now the young tanuki doesn’t quite know what to say or do. Should he even say or do anything? 

“Ummm. You are welcome,” Gaara slowly says. 

Lee decides he wants to help, taking the blankets, he starts to make the bed, while Gaara stands there watching. Working, Lee starts to hums a tune that Gaara remembers from his childhood. Before he died, Gaara’s uncle Yashamaru would hum the same tune to Gaara every night before bed. Once done, Lee turns around to see Gaara staring at him, looking hurt. Before Lee could say anything, Gaara asks a question. 

“How do you know that tune?” 

“It’s a very well known lullaby in the village I was born,” Lee answers. 

Gaara doesn’t react, but Lee continues, “There are words to it. I don’t remember. My father didn’t know the words, only the tune.” 

Gaara only nods. They stare at each other for a few minutes before Gaara walks away. 

“I have to attend to my garden for a bit. Feel free to go to bed if you want,” Gaara says looking, over his shoulder. 

Lee watches Gaara enter the wall, still unsure how he does that. Lee gets into the bed. It’s nice, soft, and surprisingly warm. Wrapping the blanket around his leg, Lee smiles as he closes his eyes. “I miss sleeping in a bed,” Lee sighs as he rolls to his side back, facing the wall. 

“You don’t sleep in a bed? I thought humans did.” 

Lee’s eyes open wide. Laying next to Lee on his side, facing him was Gaara. He was not expecting the yokai to be back so soon. Lee scouts back a bit. Bring the blanket towards his neck.

“We do sleep in beds. I used to long ago.” 

“Why don’t you anymore?” Gaara blinks. 

Not wanting to talk about it, Lee fakes a yawn, “I’m getting tired. I’m going to sleep now,” Lee pretends to fall asleep. Gaara keeps staring at him, and Lee can feel it. Looking over Lee, Gaara noticed a few small bruises on his neck. Like someone was choking him or wearing something very tight. Look both old and new; some were almost healed. Gaara turns his back towards Lee and drifts off into sleep. 

In the morning, Lee felt something soft around his arms and tickling his ear. He wakes up to see he is hugging Gaara’s tail. He’s facing Gaara, whose back is towards him hugging his big fluffy tanuki tail. It appears that Gaara doesn’t notice, but Lee lets go anyway. Too scared to see if Gaara is awake or not, so Lee acts like he’s asleep. 

“Do you like my tail?” 

Hearing Gaara made Lee pull the blanket over his head to hide his blush. Gaara wags his tail a little. When he knows Lee isn’t going to say anything, he rolls over to face him. 

“I only ask because most of the night, you were hugging my tail while petting it. Keep saying how fluffy and soft it is.” 

Lee can’t believe he did all that and that Gaara noticed it. Was he awake all night, or did Lee hugging his tail wake him up? Perhaps Gaara doesn’t sleep much; he is a yokai tanuki after all. When did Lee start all the petting and hugging? 

“My ears may not be fluffy, but they are soft if you want to touch them?” 

Taking the blanket off his head. Lee is looking at Gaara’s tanuki ears. They flick and turn to the side. Gaara sighs as he gets out of bed. 

“Maybe later someone is coming,” he glanced over his shoulder at Lee. 

He only nods, knowing full well what he means and needs to do. Getting out of bed even though he didn’t want to, Lee walks over to the wall. He is showing his hands to Gaara. 

“I promise I won’t look at your garden.” 

“Don’t worry. The room I’ll open for you will have something you can see and touch if you want,” Gaara walks next to Lee and opens the wall. 

Lee sees Gaara placing his hand on the wall and pushing it. Then the wall opens like before. The confused human will ask later right now he enters the room so Gaara can do what he needs to. If only he can stop thinking about that soft fluffy tail tickling his ear. 

[crystalk17]

Encounter With the Only Human/ Mouse of a Time

This is a chapter about how Thomas found out about Virgil’ s transformations. So far he is the only person that knows he can transform like the others. All this time Thomas has been a great Creator and friend by keeping Virgil’s secret. He wants Virgil to talk about it, but he stresses how much he doesn’t want the others to find out. Not yet.

Warning: High Anxiety, hand-holding, feeling of being trapped, Arguing, fear of the unknown. Somewhat bad thoughts about harm from another.

Click here for Master Post! Previous and next few chapters here! 

Do you want to know one interesting fact about the Side’s animal forms? Not many people would think so, but the sides don’t always have control over their animal forms. Each Side has a degree of control, but most changes are brought upon by a loss of emotions.

For example, Logan tends to have the most control over his transformations. Out of all the Sides, he has the most control because he can usually look at the situation with a logical side, calming himself down. Not saying he has total control, there have been a few times when Roman and him have gotten into an argument, causing his transformation to be forced.

Now thinking about it...any time Logan is forced to transform into a bird; it is always because Roman gets under his skin and tries to out reason him on decisions with a completely different outlook than his own.

Patton and Virgil have the least control over their transformations. All it takes is for Patton to be overwhelmed with happy feelings and excitement, accidentally triggering a transformation. For the dark-colored side, it’s always the opposite. He just needs to feel uncomfortable and nervous for his transformation to kick in...that’s where the situation lies.

Virgil feels like he has to hide himself away in his room all the time. He used to be able to hang out with his fellow sides, but then Roman would start to constantly get on his case for...well...basically existing. Creativity has gotten better at accepting Virgil as a Light Side since it was evident he was not going anywhere, but there was always this pressure to fit in and not cause trouble for Thomas.

Then, on top of that general fact, he was always feeling nervous because of his instinct. The purple side could be sitting on the couch watching TV, feeling fine. Minding his own business. He could have just talked with Roman, not even a few minutes ago, but then he would see the cat. His heartbeat would rise instantly, going a mile a minute. His hands would start shaking like he just pulled himself off a ledge. He also wouldn’t be able to stand still. All because Roman, the cat just walked in and his mouse instincts were telling him to run. That’s a cat. Get away.

This would happen any time he witnessed one of the animals walk into the same room, so he just couldn’t handle it anymore. He couldn’t risk being seen like that... So he did the simplest solution he could think of... Stay in his room. That is, until Thomas called upon him.

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Thomas was already in a situation he wished he didn’t present to his fellow sides because no one could seem to help him out. The human watched a video on YouTube. He loved it. He loved it so much he was inspired to make his own video about the content. Thomas said he would change the content but leave the plot, so it wasn’t copying, but of course Roman and Logan had some advice of their own. Logic said it would be morally wrong to take someone else's plot period. Someone else thought of it first. They would have put so much hard work into it, why take their credit away?. Just because Thomas would change a few things, that does not mean it still was not stealing. The creative side was, of course, on the opposite side of the conversation. He said as long as the video wasn't exact, Thomas would be safe. It wasn’t wrong to take inspiration from another.

In all honesty, the conversation had been going on for about an hour at this point. The YouTuber was getting tired of the conversation, and was so close to just saying “ Forget what I said, I’ll just make something else.”

Back in the mindscape, Virgil was getting ready for his own adventure. To sleep. He was also tired of hearing those two argue all day long and wanted to pass the time. What better way than to take a long nap until all of this resolved itself.

Virgil knew he was by himself. It was his room. His mindscape. But he had to make sure. He looked around his room, just expecting one of the other sides to teleport onto his property as if that would happen. He was told his room was so depressing the last time the others were in his room. Virgil looked under his bed by crouching down, looking left, then right, just to make sure everything was in its place. He then approached his door, slowly opened it up, and looked around in the hallway. He knew Logan and Roman were still with Thomas, but knowing his luck, he would get comfortable then a visitor would knock on his door like Deceit or Patton.

Anxiety looked to the left one more time, as a precaution, then slowly closed the door to give the quietness a few extra seconds to make it clear no one was in the mindscape.

Virgil sighed once the door was completely closed, leaning his back up against it to support himself. He slid to the floor, pulling his knees to his chest. He placed his head down on his crossed arms and started to think out loud.

“ Now would be the time. Honestly the best time to do it. I would not be noticed, plus the other sides are busy arguing. It’s not like with a project like this Thomas would call me in any way.”

Virgil closed his eyes and sighed once more. “ Alright. Let’s do this. I can’t keep being scared to transform. I’m fine. I’m safe.”

He took a deep breath in, held it for a few seconds, then released it. When he released his breath, it seemed like he also released all his worries with that one blow. All his anxiety and shakiness stopped. He opened his eyes, noticing the purple smoke to appear. A flash of small light and it was all done. The small mouse looked around, twitching its nose and whiskers trying to recheck his surroundings. He stood up on his hind legs, looking around.

As soon as he transformed, he could just feel his senses being heightened and his surroundings seem instantly different. Everything was towering from this perspective, but in all honesty he already knew this fact. Virgil scurried across the floor trying to reach his bed.

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The creator, at this point, was irritated. He was sitting on the couch, hunched over, rubbing at his temples. He cared for and even thought of Roman and Logan as family, but this was getting ridiculous.

Thomas removed his hands from his head, peering up at the two who were basically in a screaming match at this point. He looked down once more but immediately forced himself up to see the other two.

“Look. I appreciate both of your points of view, but we are getting nowhere. We need to bring in another component into this. We need a third voice. Maybe that will help clear the room.”

Logan stopped arguing with Roman immediately. He was even in mid-sentence, talking about how many people get reported each year for plagiarism on YouTube alone. “ Wait...who are you thinking? You have all you need right in front of you. Literally.”

Thomas began to think. “ I honestly do not think Patton would help much in this situation...so why not Virgil?”

Roman stared at Thomas like he just threw up in front of them all then tried to walk away like he did nothing. “ Virgil? How would that Emo Vampire help us in this situation?”

Thomas glared at Roman. He knew how Thomas felt about calling Virgil names.

“Sorry. Habit...but still how will finding out your anxiety help with this decision?”

“In all honesty you two are making me sick of my voice. So we need something done.”The human started to call for the anxious side. Usually, if he willed his sides in the room, or he called for them by name, that particular side would show up immediately. There was never a delay...except this time.

“Virgil!” Thomas looked around in confusion. He couldn’t place it. Where was he?

Roman and Logan continued to argue, ignoring Thomas for the time being. They were in their little world probably about to change any moment from how intense the two were getting into it. Roman was getting aggravated while Logan was just standing there with his arms crossed with a smug smile plastered on his face, even though he was feeling his insides turn from the irritation.

The human walked off to the side trying to decipher why Virgil did not heed his call. He knew all of his sides always took advantage of being outside of the mindscape. He honestly didn’t know if they could ignore him anyway.

He sat down on the couch, more aggravated than when he had to explain to the other sides that the used to be dark side was not a bad guy. (We all remember those two episodes.) Thomas removed his hands from his face. He slowly lifted his head to watch the two argue some more, but something caught his eye. It seemed pitch black, but small. Thomas looked over at the two arguing one more time, realizing they didn’t notice anything and followed behind slowly. He stood up, looking around for the...creature making his way to the hall. He stopped before leaving the room and waved his hand over at Roman and Logan hoping to grab their attention. “ Ummm hey...do you mind if we continue this some other time? I don’t have to even make a video for another week anyway.”He didn’t stop looking in the hallway very curiously.

Roman abruptly stopped his arguing, looking towards the irritated human horribly confused. “ If we must.”

Logan took his turn and watched. He could easily notice from the small details and gestures that something was up. Thomas was looking all over the place, at least his eyes, his hands were shaking from his anxiety perking up, and his body was facing the hallway instead of at them. “ May I suggest, Roman, that we give Thomas here some time to contemplate the suggestions we have given him? He looks a bit overwhelmed at this point.”

Roman looked a bit taken back and humiliated since he never noticed the little details Logan must have picked up on. He was too focused on himself to even consider how Thomas was acting or feeling. “ Yes! We shall give him some time to contemplate the ideas and realize I am correct!”He raised one hand into the air while the other was near his chest, sinking down to disappear with a pose to show off. All Logan could do was roll his eyes, and somewhat his head, and sunk down, allowing a small bit of his petty side to show.

The YouTuber gave a small smile from their display of childishness but immediately walked into the hall looking for the creature. He walked in looking at all the doors trying to see if any trace was left from the creature. He about got to the end thinking to himself “ Maybe it slipped into one of the rooms?” but abruptly stopped walking when he noticed a black and smaller than normal mouse. It wasn’t small enough to slip through the cracks under the doors but was half the size of a normal full-grown animal. He could tell from his position that the creature was terrified. It was not moving, letting out a chorus of small shaky sounds.

Thomas proceeded to get closer, and with every step the mouse seemed to scrunch itself closer to the wall. Thomas stopped, so he wasn’t on top of the creature then crouched down on the ground to get even closer. “ Come here little guy. Can’t have you here. Don’t really belong here of all places.”

As he approached the rodent with his hands, he could just feel a sudden rush of anxiety and fear wash over him. It seemed like an aura was washing over him. He could just feel exactly what this creature was feeling, yet it was familiar. Thomas reached out and gently grabbed the creature in front of him, holding him in a gentle grasp. He wasn't trying to pet the mouse, not knowing where it has been, but tried to calm it down with his voice, so it didn’t escape. “I’m just going got take you back outside.” He finally noticed the purple fur netted in with the black. The mouse looked up at him, revealing its adorable features, but also dark purple under both his eyes in a messy way. There were scratches of dark purple throughout the fur only one up close would notice. He then noticed the tip was purple as well. From far away it just looked like a discolored black.

Thomas sat cross-legged on the ground holding the mouse in his lap.

Poor Virgil had no idea what was happening. He was honestly in his room in the mindscape, trying to get used to the sensation of his animal form, when he heard Thomas call for him. He tried to fight the call as much as he could, but since he was slowly developing into a Light-side he couldn’t ignore the call, just like the others. Virgil was looking at some objects on his desk when the next moment he was still a mouse and appeared in the living room with the loud and huge Light sides. Logan and Roman must have been arguing again. Internally he sighed, but it came out as a huff from the creature. Some other incidents happened and now he was cornered by this human, who didn’t know who he was.

He always dreaded this day. Being found. He just figured it would be by Patton or Roman. Not Thomas. Thomas picked his body up and placed him by his chest. All the mouse could picture was, what was going to happen? Humans hated rodents. If they didn’t, they would keep them as pets. Virgil started to physically shake and closed his eyes.

This got even worse when he witnessed his creator clasp both hands around his body. What was he doing?! Was he going to get rid of the pest here and now? Thomas was a human, but he never even seen him kill a spider. That was the logic side’s job. He saw the hands clasp around his whole form and come closer and closer to him. This couldn’t be happening. So many things were running through his head.

This is it. He wanted all Dark sides out of his life, now he will. It’s his one chance to get rid of me without protest from the others. No life without anxiety. It’s not like many of the others would care anyway. Princy would probably be rejoicing anyway.

“Virgil. Why didn’t you tell us...or at least me?” He felt his body come closer to the human’s chest, finally removing a hand.

Thomas could just feel the anxiety, along with all of his feelings of fear wash away as soon as he said Virgil’s name. The mouse looked up at his huge figure in response to his voice. Suddenly a purple smoke cloud appeared and the weight in his hands released and diminished. Virgil was sitting on the ground with Thomas with his head on his shoulder. “ I wanted to for so long. I was just too scared of all the possibilities and reactions.”

[dangermousie]

I adore Faith so because to me it is pretty much a more adult, smarter version of Fushigi Yuugi, a manga/anime I was obsessed with years ago. Think about it - we have a cheerful heroine who has been transported from modern times to a violent fantasy world. This heroine loves to eat, is viewed as a divine symbol and the King requests her help. Her OTP is a deadly warrior with a tragic past who is beyond obsessed with protecting her. Oh, and the bad guy loves mind games, collects people with powers and has a slashtastic fixation on the hero. See? Fushigi Yuugi.

Choi Young is in a dungeon, all chained up, but what guts me is he keeps thinking of the little King dying to protect him and here, in 'privacy', he can cry again. And he is thinking of Eun Soo's words about his dirty hands (he's basically thinking of all the worst stuff, right?). And his face! But then OMG I literally started screeching like a banshee with a head cold - he kept the flower he gave her! In the aspirin bottle she gave him (is he starting a 'things ES gave me' collection?) and he thinks of her giving it to him, but underlying it all her comments about the smell of blood - her being bothered by it bothers him. Ohhhhh. (And, this is why I love 720p - you can see the unshed tear in his eye as he lies down).

I love it when his father said that the lake has never been frozen - because that is true - it was a dreamscape representation of his self, not real - and just like the lake, CY was never frozen no matter how he tried - there was all that warmth and life waiting to be brought out (after quite a symbolic baptismal dip). Caring for Eun Soo, grief/vengeance for the little King and loyalty to Gongmin who is, at last, worthy of it, brought on this change.

Also, the entire conversation between CY and the King is amazing, but what stood out for me was that (1) Gongmin explained what he was trying to do and how he was trying to protect Eun Soo by giving her to Gi Chul - he finally realized that to earn trust you must give it - I think being secure in CY's loyalty at last made him realize that. And CY needed to know that Gongmin does care about people (2) That CY is madly concerned if ES is OK. (3) That CY tells him the King knows who he fights, but he also must know why he fights.

The man who gets out of jail only to (in part) make sure you are OK, is a keeper. I love that he watches her, hidden, as she looks at that flower and remembers him. And that he catches her as she almost falls off a gorge (while trying to get away from Gi Chul when his back is turned) and then silently disappears. Mmmmm swooooooon every bodyguard trope I love.

I love the grin on Gongmin's face when he sees Choi Young. And I love that he says he found why he must fight and he wants CY to teach him how. And CY telling him that Kings don't fight - Gongmin should ask him, CY, to fight for him. I love that CY is not a duty-following automaton any more, with his heart in ashes - he has found a cause, a King, and a woman to live for.

And then, conversation with the King concluded, Eun Soo protected, Choi Young returns to jail and this conversation with Gi Chul follows that gives me chills. GC explaining that he wanted to make CY his man and all of that was to that end (ummm, once again, hardcore Fushigi Yuugi similarities). And CY, eyes burning, telling him that by his actions, Gi Ghul made him want to live - before CY just wanted to die in peace but GC wouldn't let him and now he wants to live, he has a cause to fight for. Oh, Gi Chul, you unleashed your worst nightmare. (Well, worst nightmare except for wrinkles and fat pouches).

What really gets me is the way Eun Soo looks at Choi Young - warm and proud. She looks gorgeous enough to take your breath away.

[the-fiction-witch]

Kisses

TV SHOW DOCTOR WHO

COUPLE TIMOTHY LATIMER AGE UP X READER

RATING SWEET+ KINDA FLIRTY

"I'm going to find you" the little voice giggled making me laugh a little too as I hid myself away among the coats and old shoes "Timothy…" she giggled and I heard her little footsteps run past my hiding place "Timothy where are you?" She giggled 

I laughed a little but instantly realized my mistake as the door flew open and a hand grabbed mine pulling me out the cupboard "I found you!" She giggled 

"Well done y/n" I laughed 

"I win, I win, I win" she smiled jumping up and down in her little dress, I sighed and gave her a little kiss on the cheek making her giggle even more. In some ways I kinda loved little y/n, she was one of the cooks here at schools daughters her youngest I do believe, and she often comes in with her mother and helps her work as well as sneaking away with me, we often plaid kiss chase, and hide and seek in the school while I was skipping classes and in some ways I found her irresistible mostly because she was adorable 

"Y/n!" Her mother called from the kitchens 

"Oohh see you later Timothy" she waved running off down the halls to go help her mother I sat on my bed as she left and began reading my book as the other boys came back from class 

"Where have you been?" Harrison

"Around" I shrug 

"What were you running around with that dirty little kitchen girl again?" 

"What's it to you?"

"I don't know why you hang around with her so much, it's not even like you can fool around with her" 

"There's other stuff you can do with a girl then fooling around"

"Like what?"

"Like having a conversation? Playing games? Reading?" 

"Sounds dull" he sighed "still not too long is it? A little while and she'll be nice and ready" he smirked 

"What are you talking about?"

"Well her birthdays coming up isn't it? A little while longer and you'll...you know, be able to-"

"Are you actually suggesting what I think you are?" I asked a little discusted and he nodded "I'm not going to have sex with her, she's not old enough, she's still a child" 

"Only for a little while longer, after that you two can do whatever you want"

"I'm not having sex with y/n!" I argue 

"Make love whatever" he sighed sitting on his own bed with his book 

"I'm not going to have sex with y/n! Not now not ever!" 

I sat a little in my own head everyone was so happy to be coming home, of course I was happy to be home too however I knew knowone was there waiting for me, I knew what had happened to my family while I was away I'm all that's left now so I knew there wasn't much point in celebrating all that much, all I had where the few friends I had made and the fee boys from the school who are still with us. Once we arrived I jumped off trying to hurry away not wanting to see everyone running to the arms of loved ones. The village seemed so small now even if I once seemed infinitely large to me I saw the school on the horizon as misted and haunting as it ever was I tried to look more but someone jumped and hugged me tighter then I had ever been hugged before their arms around me tightly squeezing me i looked down seeing the y/h/c girl nuzzled into my chest I was a little unsure what to do about it 

"I'm so happy your home" she smiled

"Uuuhhh…. Thank you" I nodded patting her head "uuuuuuhhh, who are you?" I asked she moved away and gently giggled fiddling with her hands and fixing her little light blue dress 

"I guess it has been a while, I hardly recognized you" she smiled "don't you remember me at all?'

"Ummm no, I'm sorry" I told her 

"Timothy it's me" she smiled and I was none the wiser "y/n?"

"Y/N!" I said in shock looking at her 

I have been gone a while! She was beautiful, no longer the little girl I used to race around the school corridors with...she was a lady now and a very beautiful lady too. She had matured not just emotionally but physically too and it hell had grown! I thought I grew in the four years we've been apart but whoa… she grew more in some uhh much better places too

"It has been a while hasn't it" she giggled

"It has, I'm so sorry I didn't recognize you" I told her hugging her close 

"Aww it's alright Timothy I hardly did either, you grew like a weed" she giggled pulling away but still holding my hands 

"You uhh… I don't even know where to begin" I smiled and she blushed innocently hiding her face away "you're beautiful,"

"Aww Timothy that's so sweet" she smiled "ohh I have to go I have work to do, maybe I'll meet you at the village hall later at the party?" She asks and I nodded "okay" she smiled giving me another hug "welcome home Tim, see you later" she smiled giving my cheek a kiss before she moved and began heading off somewhere "save me a dance" she smiled waving me goodbye as she went so I smiled waving back even if I was a little in my own world 

"Hey harrison?" I asked as she headed over having greeted his family

"Yeah?" He asked confused what I was doing

"You remember a few years ago… we were talking about y/n?"

"Yeah?"

"And I said…"

"I'm not going to have sex with y/n not now not ever?" He quoted 

"Yeah… I would uhh id like to retract that" 

I stood outside the village hall having a cigarette as I had picked it up while away, watching the night sky, for once being calm and quiet I had almost forgotten what that was like. The only sounds were the whistle of wind through the trees, the odd sounds of birds and other animals around this time of night and the music I could hear coming from inside. I strangely missed the sounds of war like the quiet made me uncomfortable.

"Good evening" a familiar voice smiled I turned and saw y/n In a beautiful blue and purple dress her hair done up perfectly even a little make up I was in awe of her a moment 

"Uhh hi" I smiled flicking away my cigarette "I uhh I didn't think you could get any more beautiful… I stand corrected" 

"Awww Timothy you're such a sweetie" she smiled holding my arm and giving my cheek a little kiss "so… did you want to dance? Or we could just stay out here and watch the stars" she smiled holding my arm tightly

"I don't mind," I shrug so she laughed and tugged me inside where almost everyone else in the village was dancing and drinking she held my hand and tugged me close to her and it suddenly hit me "wait y/n...I uhh I don't know how to dance" I blushed 

"Aww it's okay Timothy, I can teach you" she smiled she took my hand and rested it on her waist I was a little shocked, she took my other hand holding it rather tightly I was a little scared being his close to her I haven't been so close to her in years especially as… a couple of things where preventing us from being any closer. She slowly moved slowly showing me what to do even if I tripped up and almost dropped he at one point, I forget how many times I stood on her feet which made her laugh as I always started apologizing like a idiot I started to get into a bit of a rhythm and stopped treading on her feet even managing to spin her out and back in without messing up

"Aww see your getting it" she smiled "but don't look at your feet" she laughed pushing my chin up "look at me" she smiled

"I uuuh I want to… but I uhh I trip if I'm not looking at my feet" I blushed 

"You'll be fine, trust me" she smiled so I did my best not to look down at my feet even if I got distracted a lot and crashed into a table at one point, I did like dancing with her, holding her close in my arms keeping her safe, looking at her sweet smile grow wider and her face flush red when we messed up. We must have danced for hours and I didn't really care, even if we messed up and even if I don't think we were ever in time with the song being played I was the happiest I've been in years.

We ended up with both my hands on her waist, hers on my shoulders, her head against my chest and my chin on her head I don't even think we were really dancing anymore just gently Swaying together almost everyone had gone home now just us a few others only two other couples still dancing I knew she was getting tried as every so often she would let out a adorable little yawn. But I didn't want to stop, I can't remember feeling so happy, I just wanted to stay like this with her in my arms forever. 

"Uuummm Timothy it's getting late" she smiled 

"Uuummm.." I hummed back 

"Are you ignoring me?" She giggled

"A little" 

"I thought you didn't want to dance?"

"Ummm… well now I don't want to stop"

"Okay, one more song Mr Latimer" she smiled squeezing me a little tighter so I held her a little tighter too we danced for one more song and as soon as it was over she moved away slightly her hands still on my shoulders but mine had moved her hips were she moved away I couldn't help Looking at her lips I know she saw me looking having flushed a bright red blush looking innocently at the floor till I picked her head up gently pushing her chin with my hand 

"I missed you" I smiled 

"I missed you too" she smiled a single tear rolling down her cheek

"What's wrong? Why are you crying?' I asked wiping the tear away 

"I don't want you to go away again" she said "if you go I might lose you forever next time"

"Y/n…" I cooed "I promise you, I'm never leaving you behind again" I told her pulling her sweet face to mine and kissing her beautiful lips she kissed back happily, I didn't ever want to stop I wanted to kiss her till the end of time itself till she slowly pulled away her smile wide and her face so adorable as she realized everyone here just saw us kissing "y/n… will you marry me?'

"Ooh Timothy!" She smiled crying again hugging me tighter than ever pressing kisses all over my skin...

[exid-though]

I’m new to exid and kinda confused, can you help me with the girls’ names/nicknames?

YEAH okay so 

Solji the beautiful siren with the chubbiest cheeks in the world and the prettiest lips known to man was born Heo Solji and she just goes by Solji but because she’s the mom of the group since she’s the leader and is really caring and cuddly but also can be scary she gets called lots of “mom/mother” nicknames like the girls straight up address her as “mom” a lot during Showtime EXID like literally instead of Solji they would often yell “mom” to get her attention it’s adorable. And ofc fans call her mom for the same reason so like Heo Mother/Mama is something we say a lot, “mama Solji”, etc. Soul.G was her DJ name or something like that? some type of stage name years ago but now she does just use Solji. Heo Bad Gas was something that existed like years ago from way back in like 2012/2013 because when they dieted and ate boiled eggs she got really bad gas. They mentioned it during the first season of BUTBUT TV but don’t actually use this often? It was really just a let’s make fun of each other thing for the moment ips? Mostly just things having to do with mom and also Baby Heo she’s said before is one of her favorite nicknames of hers. I mean she is straight up the cutest woman in the world and she’s the youngest in her family so Baby Heo somehow fits her like just as much as mama Solji and all those.  ummm when she first debuted she introduced herself as “EXID’s Honey Vocal” for obvious reasons come on  and I tag her memether I think? don’t I lol? yeah anyway cause she’s their mother and she’s obsessed with memes, the other members (Hyelin I think but maybe Elly idk??) revealed that Solji sends tons of memes to their group chat. She’s also nicknamed Tweety I forgot about that one cause she looks like Tweety lol and the girls said she looks like Piglet too. And the animal she looks most like is a sloth? that was also lowkey about her being tired all the time while she was sick though so idk if that’s entirely fair lol. A koala is another one that one’s more fair too lol we’ll go with koala. 

LE is the rapper ofc her real name/birth name is Ahn Hyo-Jin and her English name is Ahn Elly. When she was an underground rapper before she joined EXID she chose Elly as her stage name which is also why some people get confused and say “Elly is her old stage name not her name/english name/etc” but it was/is her English name she confirmed it on an early season of BUTBUT TV when talking with Hani, her name on instagram is also literally “ellybaby” and “Ahn Elly” like she only really seems to use LE as a stage name and people call her both Elly and Hyojin off stage cause both are right ig? But yeah so LE is LE, Elly, and Hyojin all and then when you get into nicknames and not just like other names ig? she got nicknamed Elsa after Frozen’s Elsa a while ago cause she looks like her lol. Daisy Duck also because she looks like Daisy Duck but I haven’t heard anyone use that in a long time? “Elly/LE baby” or “Elly/LE baby the crazy” is a nickname that’s a reference to a line she had in a song where she started her verse with “elly baby the crazy”. I tag her euterpe because that’s the muse of lyric poetry and Elly writes all of EXID’s songs to date and has written for other artists as well. She’s so cool. She’s the “Tom” to Jeonghwa’s “Jerry” because she’s like a grumpy cat that likes to beat up Jeonghwa the mischievous mouse. idk what else? She’s the dad of the group like Solji is the mom? Oh and she first introduced herself as the group’s “Charisma” just like Solji is the group’s “Honey Vocal” and it makes sense cause she’s scary af. Or at least it seems until you realize she’s a giant softy and cries just as easily as Heo “crybaby” Solji herself. 

Hani’s real name is Ahn Hee-Yeon, but she does mostly go by Hani. In the same episode of BUTBUT TV (I really wish I had screenshots I mean I might but I don’t think I do but like idk someone will find it eventually) that Elly said Elly was her English name, Hani said that around the time she was born (I think it was either that or right before or right after or maybe just before?? so just know that at some point lol) her parents lived in the US and they liked calling her Hani/Honey growing up cause it’s their favorite American/English term of endearment and she mentioned even family and friends call her Hani more often than they call her Heeyeon normally but they’ve also seemed to be calling her Heeyeon more often and that was a while ago so maybe she’s just moving from it a bit? Or they’re just like eh we need to call you Heeyeon to properly yell at you when you do creepy shit. She was nicknamed Ms. Puff a long time ago during like their debut year because of her hair and face at the time she looked like Ms Puff. She was first introduced as the group’s “Brain” because she’s super smart, has a high IQ, enjoys studying/studies really well. She’s also very meticulous and perfectionistic? don’t know if that’s a word but you get it. So generally she’s a giant nerd she also literally wasn’t/isn’t a good dancer so she takes notes on what exact angles and movements make her look best while dancing and it’s clearly worked out well since a video of her dancing saved the group from disbandment lol. Because of that video too she’s nicknamed “Fancam Goddess” by like media people and stuff in Korea. She’s nicknamed Ahn Hyung by a lot of people because she’s “manly” or whatever. Which she isn’t really she’s just awkward and likes girls. And she’s good at sports but like Sistar are sports goddesses and they’re not called manly like Heeyeon is it’s just a combination of her being awkward and sporty and chill and people thinking that’s not feminine so it must be manly. anyway. She actually doesn’t seem to mind that much and embraces that nickname a lot and EXID as a group go with the jokes about them being more like a boy group than a girl group because they’re all such dorks who don’t know how to protect an image so it’s not really as annoying to me at all as it would be should any of them esp Hani have ever said they thought it was dumb. moving on though cause that’s a whole other topic. So she was actually originally “EXID’s Brain” from debut and onward a bit until she started introducing herself as EXID’s “Brain and Rose” because she thinks she’s as beautiful as a rose/a rose fits her really well and that over the years changed to her just introducing herself as “EXID’s Rose”. This was literally her own braggy decision and that’s why you might see someone say she and Elly too actually are the braggy members of the group bc like they are?? Heeyeon can’t stop complimenting herself and Elly literally said there’s nothing she can’t do but we stan confident queens who know their self worth.  always. 

Hyelin is the cute little small baby one who’s absolutely wild and uncontrollable so she is either called something cute like her original introduction being “EXID’s Cutie” (but I also remember her being “EXID’s Cute Bad Girl” around 2012/2013 idk why but like I remember that being a thing she said and not just cutie idk) or “My Way Lini”/”My Way Hyelin” because she just does what she wants. Like she’s the second youngest (oh yeah fake maknae too that’s a thing ig?) but who can really ever be mad at Lini? She curses on national television and their own leader is laughing about it she does what she wants and she gets away with what she wants. She not only curses and uses slang and dialect a lot but she also kinda just… generally says what she wants. She openly stated her eyebrows were tattooed, talked about what plastic surgeries each member should get, allegedly picked up a microphone at a show cause she heard fans talking shit and literally said “to all the fans of monsta x, we aren’t dating” and like??? that’s not something she wouldn’t do so who’s gonna deny that really? She just can’t control her mouth and doesn’t actually seem to want to really? so “my way Lini” fits her really well. She’s nicknamed Lini cause it’s just a cute nickname for Hyelin, Hyelini is also a thing. JjeopJjeop/jjeopjjeopi is a nickname that comes from her chewing really loudly/obnoxiously when she eats. Him Hyelini cause she’s super strong (like stronger than she should be where’d you get your superpowers lini baby??). Him means strong btw it’s not  another manly joke. She’s a good wrestler and beats their own manager at those arcade punching games. Baby bird because she looks like/is like EXID’s little baby birdy. she’s cute and small and they love her sm. Her English name is Jenny but no one ever calls her Jenny lol? Voldemort is a good one that comes from her famous impressions of Voldemort (her Voldemort sunbaenim)

Jeonghwa is nicknamed “maeboli” most famously I think?because she likes to do things that she knows will bother the older members and she literally is always asking for a beating. A radio dj asked for some clarification on this once and Jeonghwa just said “this isn’t a misunderstanding at all, I really do that” like the girl just enjoys making people chase her around and yell at her. It’s funniest when paired with Elly’s personality because she and Elly are the “Tom and Jerry” of EXID. They’re constantly chasing each other around and Elly is Jeonghwa’s favorite victim and vice versa cause Elly keeps fake bugs in her purse to scare Jeonghwa with. they’re just such dorks idk what to say. Jeonghwa purposefully is really loud and her voice is really high-pitched and she uses it to get on the girls nerves. She’s also called “EXID’s Sunflower” by fans sometimes because her and Heeyeon are the visuals of EXID and she’s more of the bright tall cheerful etc sunflower. She’s also called “pure visual” of EXID because her visuals/looks whatever are veery “pure” and innocent looking she’s got sparkly eyes and she’s just generally got a really friendly and innocent look esp compared to Heeyeon’s sharp and sexy look so the sunflower vs rose and pure vs sexy visual thing is probably why they’re both officially the visuals of EXID like imagine choosing between the two of them anyway. She gets called lady and princess Jjong/Park/Jeonghwa a lot cause she’s basically the “most lady-like” out of the members (or so it seems). and she just looks like a pretty lady with her pretty eyes and round face and her long ass limbs that make her the size of a tree. she got called a monkey sometimes during like Showtime years beause of her limbs too lol she’s got long arms and a small face and so she looks like one of those cute little monkeys I forgot what kind though. Merida was a nickname that started and ended with her orange hair from 2017 when they promoted Eclipse but she’s still merida in my tags just cause I still haven’t changed it. I’ll do it eventually. ummmm?? She was apparently Park Foot Odor for some time around debut but she denies this whole thing. That was from the same episode of BUTBUT TV where Solji’s gas and Elly being dirty was talked about too. Also we call her Jjong a lot just like how we call Hyelin Lini. 

There’s definitely more but like I can’t think of them rn? Sorry. 

[hairringtonsteve]

ii. sound and vision. [quixotic]

[steve harrington x reader (female)]

series summary: everyone that knew the truth about hawkins lab thought it was over, that it was all over. they thought that the fighting was over, the bad men were gone. the portal was closed. people were safe. you, however, you knew the truth. things were far from over. and they were coming fast.

word count: 6,510 words

a/n: hey folks! it’s been a minute, but here we are, chapter two, just as promised! this is set up in the new format, so links will be found in the first reblog of this! i’m pretty psyched for everyone to read it, so please let me know your thoughts!  tw: language and violence

• • • • • • • • •

“Seb, no!” Somewhere behind you, something heavy clattered to the ground. You shoved passed the sheriff and the other guy, darting to Seb. His arms wrapped around your waist as he shoved his face into your side, muffling his sobs. You could feel him rubbing his face against your shirt to wipe the blood and snot away from his nose. Tee was looking at you, her whole body trembling. “Let me handle this,” you murmured, giving her a small nod.

You turned around, shifting so you were partially shielding Tee and Seb. The sheriff raised his eyebrows at you, lifting his hands a little to show that he was unarmed, like you were some skittish animal that he was dealing with.

“Why are you kids here?”

“Why are you here?” You fired back, your voice shrill. You could see the gun on the sheriff’s hip, the sight of it sending a sharp pang of fear through you. “You can’t do this without a warrant.” Doctor Arayed had yelled that once when people from the military had visited the lab once, years ago. The same tension that had been in her voice then was in your voice now. “You can’t just do this.”

“Look, kid, don’t start with me. You’re already trespassing on private property and you tried to sell stolen records at the record shop. Just tell me why you’re here.”

You glanced over to the other guy that was with the sheriff, realizing it was the one from the shop. He’d been the one that was looking through the records, the one with the nice hair. You glared at him.

“What, did he tell you that?” You asked, motioning to him. “His buddy was just probably annoyed that he overpaid for the records. They were my records.”

“I thought you said they were your grandpa’s records?” The guy piped up.

Your glare turned into a scowl. “They were my grandpa’s and he gave them to me, dumbass,” you snapped.

The guy put his hands on his hips and frowned. “You sure about —”

“Harrington, can it,” the sheriff snapped.

“But she—”

“Would you shut the hell up?” The words flew out of your mouth just as the sheriff said the same thing.  Your heart was pounding in your chest as you glanced over to the gun that was on the sheriff’s hip once more. The easiest way to get it away from him would be to use Seb, but he was still firmly attached to your side, his fists bunching into your shirt as he trembled.

“They’re your grandpa’s records?” The sheriff clarified. You gave a sharp nod of your head. “The records were your grandfather’s, and what? This his cabin too?”

“Yeah, it’s his.”

“You sure about that?”

The tension was swirling through the air. Tee had her hand pressed against the back of your shirt, and you could feel the inhuman amount of heat coming from her. You took your foot and tried to subtly jab it into her leg behind you. She let out a little yelp, but got the message. The heat receded. The sheriff was still looking at you with a frown, and it was as though you could feel this whole thing unraveling, second by second.

“You’re sure that this is your grandfather’s cabin?” The sheriff asked once more.

There was one day when one of the new scientists had let you sneak into the breakroom and watch some movie about cowboys. This one had been in color. You’d sat curled up on a plastic chair, legs stretched out on another chair as you watched the scenes play out. You’d been fascinated by the entire thing, but the finale had been your favorite. Somewhere near the end of the movie, there had been this big standoff between everyone. Everyone was standing in a circle, all with their guns aimed at each other, ready to kill each other in an attempt to live.

This reminded you of that.

You were Blondie, the sheriff was Angel Eyes, and the guy that the sheriff had called Harrington was Tuco — except for the fact that he wasn’t ugly.

Somewhere in the back of your mind, you could almost hear the music.

“I’m positive.”

The sheriff shook his head and sighed. “C’mon, kid. Cut the shit.”

“I’m not lying to you. This is my grandfather’s—”

“No, this is my grandfather’s cabin.”

Oh.

Oh.

“Prove it.” Your voice shook despite your hardest efforts. Seb dug his nails into your side through your shirt, hard enough that you almost winced. He was mumbling something, just soft enough for you to catch.

“I don’t wanna go back.”

“You see that box over there, with the books?” The sheriff continued on, unaware of Seb’s words as he pointed to a cardboard box in the corner of the room. “You see what it says?” In thick, black marker the word HOPPER was scrawled messily on the side. “I’m Hopper. Those are my books, and those were my records that you sold earlier today.” The room was quiet save for the crickets starting to come to life outside. A breeze floated through the open door. “You want to try again this time? Why are you here?”

This was it. The panic was rising within you and your mind went blank. He was going to call the feds and they were going to come get the three of you and you’d be handcuffed in the back of a van again and you couldn’t breathe and —

And suddenly Seb wasn’t shoved into your side anymore. He was darting towards the open door, his little legs carrying him as fast as they could. Hopper noticed him a second too late, missing as he went to grab him. Seb was almost outside when another set of arms wrapped around his side, lifting him up into the air and holding on tight.

“I’ve got him!” Harrington yelled, struggling to hold on tight. Seb was kicking his legs in all directions, just like you’d taught him to.

“Seb!” Tee yelled, moving to go forward. She pushed passed you, stopping only when you grabbed her shoulder and yanked her back.

“You can’t,” you hissed, giving her an imploring look. Her escalating things would only make things worse. You looked over to the sheriff and Harrington, an unrelenting fury racing through you at the sight of Seb thrashing around like that. “Let him go.”

“You tell us why you’re here, and we’ll let him go,” Hopper said, giving you a pointed look. You tried to remember what the three of you had talked about, but it was hard to recall when Seb started kicking even harder and screaming. Tears were streaming down his face as he continued to move.

“Lemme go, lemme go! Get away!” Blood started streaming from his nose, covering the blood that had started to dry from earlier.

Fuck.

“Our parents… They… They hurt us,” Tee said, jerking her shoulder away from your grasp. Seb quieted down a little at the sound of her voice, slowing down just enough for the two of you to make eye contact. You shook your head at him. Seb frowned, opening his mouth to argue but you shook your head once more. He kept jerking around, but the trickle of blood stopped.

“They hurt you?” Hopper asked, furrowing his brow as he looked to her, not even noticing what was going on between you and Seb. Harrington, however, was fixing you with a weird look, his eyebrows pushed together as he tried to keep Seb still.

“We had to get out.” She tugged the sleeve of her shirt up to reveal a nasty gash on her arm. The stitches were messy. You’d done them yourself. “We had to get him out.”

Hopper looked between the two of you, his gaze settling on you once more. He looked at you long and hard before turning to Harrington. “Let him go.”

Harrington dropped his knees a little to set Seb on the floor. The second he loosened his arms Seb was jerking them away from him and sprinting back to you.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry, El. I just got scared ‘n the door was right there ‘n…” He trailed off, the snot and blood streaming together in a giant mess. You crouched down and set both of your hands on his shoulders.

“Hey, you were brave, okay?” You whispered, offering him a small smile. “You did exactly what I told you to do, and that was to try and get away.” You leaned forward and pressed a small kiss against his forehead.

Hopper ran a hand over his face and sighed. “Where are you kids from?”

“Muncie.” You’d seen the sign for the town a few days ago and had thought it sounded weird. He looked to where you were still crouching, holding your gaze for a few moments too long, like he was trying to suss out the truth.

“Muncie. Huh,” he said after a few seconds of deliberation.

You tilted your chin up a little bit, jutting out your jaw as you waited for him to continue on. You didn’t even have to reach out to pick up on his emotions. They were swirling around him, all together in a giant mess.

He glanced over to Harrington. Harrington raised his eyebrows and offered Hopper a shrug of his shoulders. Turning back to the three of you, Hopper let out a slow breath. “Ummm…” He trailed off, gathering his thoughts. “All right, look. Whatever’s going on with you kids, I’m in no position to do anything about it tonight. You three stay here for the night, and we’ll figure all of this out in the morning. Deal?”

It was too good to be true. There was no logical way that he would just let the three of you stay there without doing anything. But despite everything, he still felt trustworthy to you, just like he had in the car earlier that day. Seb was leaning against you by then, making it harder to keep your balance. The three of you needed sleep and a place to stay for the night, so you ignored the imploring look that Tee was giving you, and nodded your head.

“Deal.”

• • • • • • • • •

The couch in the cabin was uncomfortable.

It was lumpy and bumpy, the fabric covering it making you itch the second you sat down. It wasn’t comfortable by any means and sleeping on it would have been near impossible. So it worked out, then, that you’d ended up staying awake the entire night anyway. You’d lain there in the dark, counting the ticks from the clock in the counter while you stared up at the dark ceiling. It was easier to blame the lack of sleep on the couch rather than the fact that you were positive that they were going to come slamming through the doors and get the three of you once more.

At some point, the sun had started to crawl up into the sky and cast little beams of light through the curtains.

You rolled over onto your side, huffing softly as you shoved your face into the rough couch cushion. Last night had been a shit show.

An absolute shit show.

It was hard to pinpoint what had been the worst part of it. You turned it over and over in your head, but it was all jumbled up into one steaming pile of crap. All you kept seeing was Seb’s face screwed up, tears sliding down his cheeks as blood dripped from his nose. What if you’d gotten there a few seconds late? What if he’d really hurt Hopper? What if he’d managed to kill someone? How was he supposed to live with that or understand it? Your heart gave a painful squeeze at the mere thought of it.

You needed to get it together.

A knock at the door made you jump up, shoving the blanket away only to cause it to pool around your legs, making you almost trip. The knock sounded again, this time more insistent. You kicked at the blanket as you stepped forward. Peeking through the curtain, you caught Hopper’s gaze. He shot you a frown.

“Would you relax, kid? I brought you breakfast.” He held up a plastic bag with what looked to be various containers in them. “Now open the door.”

You scrunched up your nose as you let the curtain drop away and reached over to slide the bolt to the right. You turned the lock on the doorknob, opening it up to reveal Hopper offering you a small smile. “Thought you guys might want some real food.”

“Oh. Thanks,” you said, eyeing him warily as you stepped aside. He walked over to the counters, dropping everything next to the sink.

“Where are the other two?” He asked as you shut the door.

Instinct told you to lie, to say that they were outside playing or that they’d left in the middle of the night over some argument. But you glanced over to the clock. It was a little after seven.

And he still felt trustworthy.

“They’re sleeping in the bedroom.” You crossed your arms, watching him. He was grabbing styrofoam containers and laying them out in a line. “What’s in there?”

He turned to look at you over his shoulder before nodding towards the food. “Come over here and check it out. I didn’t know what you guys liked, so I got a little of everything from the diner that’s down the road.” He stepped away from the food, crossing the kitchen to start rummaging through a drawer. You waited until he was engrossed in what he was doing before you stepped over to the containers. One by one you opened them up, a sharp stab of hunger hitting your stomach every time you laid your eyes on the different kinds of food. Pancakes, waffles, eggs, bacon, sausage — even some stuff you didn’t know — all there for you and the others to eat.

You settled on the one with waffles and bacon.

Turning around, you jumped to realize that Hopper had made his way back to the food. “Here,” he said, holding out a fork and a knife. “You can eat while we talk.”

It wasn’t until you were situated at the table that he walked over and took the seat across from you, setting a mug in front of you before putting the other in front of him. You hadn’t noticed it before, but he must’ve had a thermos shoved in the bag as well since he started pouring steaming coffee into your  mug. It was already a lighter brown color, so he must’ve added some milk beforehand. It was a nice thought.

You kept your gaze focused on your plate as you shove a piece of bacon into your mouth. It was hard not to groan at the taste of it — real, actual bacon that was practically melting in your mouth. You couldn’t help the grin that flickered across your lips.

“It’s good, right?” He asked. You glanced over to him. His eyes were fixed on you as he lifted his mug up to take a drink.

“Uh, yeah. It is.” There was a part of you that wanted to play it cool, to not show that you’d been living off of nothing but what had been in the cabin. There was another part of you — a larger part of you — that wanted to say screw it and shovel bacon into your mouth. So you did, taking a large bite of it while your stomach thanked you. “Why aren’t you eating anything?” You asked after you’d swallowed.

“I already ate.”

You bobbed your head as you took the third piece of bacon and ate that too. There was a little container of syrup that made your eyes widen. For a second, you almost forgot that he was even there. Tearing off the cover, you dumped it onto the waffle. Your stomach growled. You grabbed your fork and used it to saw off a piece of waffle before stuffing it into your mouth. Without a word, Hopper slid over a plastic container. He took the lid off, revealing a stick of room-temperature butter.

“Holy shit,” you mumbled through a mouth full of food. Your eyes flicked over to Hopper, wide and sheepish. “Sorry,” you said as you swallowed.

He shook his head and chuckled. “Don’t worry about it. My girl likes waffles too.”

You raised a brow. That explained all the waffles. “You got a kid?”

“Yeah, I got a kid. Her name’s Jane.” He watched as you grabbed your knife and used it to get a huge chunk of butter onto it. You slathered it onto the waffle as he continued on. “What about you? You got a kid?”

“They’re my siblings,” you said, pausing in your movements to make a face at him.

“I didn’t — I wasn’t saying that,” he grumbled. “It just seems odd to me that a couple of kids end up here from uh, where was it? Merrillville?”

“Muncie.” You continued to butter the waffle, glancing between your food and Hopper. It wasn’t that hard to figure out what he was doing. Your story was sketchy at best.

And he knew it.

“Right, Muncie.” He hummed, drumming his fingers against his coffee mug. He took a sip from it, nodding his head slow as he set it back down. “You mind telling me what happened that made you leave?” Hopper asked, raising a brow at you.

You paused.

It was hard dropping from the heating vents onto the ground. The fluorescent lights were flickering in the hallway, the dark streaks of blood marring the walls. Vee had miscalculated the height and twisted her ankle when she jumped. You craned your neck to see her. She had one hand clamped around her mouth to stifle any cries while the other was blindly feeling for her ankle. Your heart was stuttering in your chest. Somewhere nearby, there was the scuffling sound of someone — or something — moving.

“You alright?” You asked, soft in the darkness.

“It fuckin’ hurts.” She was mumbling her words, but it was hard to tell if it was just to keep quiet, or to make sure that she didn’t alert the things to her presence. She squeezed her eyes shut and moved her hand from her mouth to the floor to drag herself away.

You waited until she was far enough out of the way to hop down yourself. Relaxing your legs as you hopped down made the jump easier. It still stung, but it wasn’t as jarring. You let your body go limp as you hit the ground. “Fuck me, that hurt,” you muttered. Vee let out a snort.

“Right?” She winced as she moved to sit up. Her ankle was swollen. “We’re gonna need shoes. And an ankle brace, if there is one.”

“There should be one in the supply closet. You wait here, I’ll go grab it.” You stood up, grunting a little at the ache in your shoulder. Rolling it back made it hurt worse. That was great. You glanced around for a moment and frowned. “Will you be all right out here?”

“I’ll be fine. You saw how I took out the thing. I’ll be good.”

You watched her for a moment and frowned. You could feel the fear rolling off of her in waves, but calling out her false bravado wasn’t going to help with anything. “Just keep your back to the wall, okay?”

She rolled her eyes. “I’ll be fine, mom. Go.” You gave her a lingering look before starting down the hall.

The supply closet was only two doors down, but it felt like the hallway stretched on forever. There were memories carved into the tile flooring. You couldn’t count how many times you’d walked down them, whether it be to help with an experiment, or to get some bloodwork done. For years, it had your favorite place to be. It had been home.

But then Brenner had arrived.

And now there were bloody handprints on the walls and bodies littering the ground.

You set your foot down, too focused on the blood dripping from a broken window to pay attention. A sharp pain shot through it, making you freeze. “Shit.” You looked through the window into Doctor Lepner’s office. The emergency lighting was on, flashing on and off, but there wasn’t any movement. For the time being, it was safe. You lifted your foot gingerly off the ground. A large shard of glass was stuck in it.

Sucking in a deep breath, you hopped the handful of feet over to the supply closet and opened the door. It was almost pitch black in there, so you left the door open a crack for light. The glass was the first thing that needed to be taken care of. You bit down on your lip and pulled it out, like ripping off a bandaid. You could feel it scrape against your skin, the jagged edges tearing a little as it came out. Blood gushed and you fumbled for a first aid kit.

Thankfully, all of the supply closets in the building were laid out the same. You grabbed a bottle of rubbing alcohol and dumped it onto your foot, trying not to scream as it began to disinfect the wound. It stung and it burned, but at least it wasn’t like getting bit by one of those things. You felt around until your fingers found some of the medical tape. That could work. You began to wind the tape around your foot, keeping it tight to stop the bleeding.

At some point while you were winding, you could hear it — a crunch on the glass.

It was heavy, like the thud of combat boots hitting the ground. Your mind raced. It sounded like two sets of boots. You couldn’t breathe.

“There’s one.” You shrunk back against the wall, praying to whatever higher being there was to save you. God, Allah, Buddha, whatever the hell a saint was; you didn’t care who it was that saved you, just that it did. But then another thought occurred to you.

Vee was still out there.

They weren’t talking about you.

They were talking about her.

“C’mere, sweetheart. No one’s going to hurt you.” That was a lie. The voice — it sounded male, but you couldn’t be sure — had tension lacing through it. You shifted a little to peek through the crack. Two barrels of a rifle came into view. What was there to do? If you stepped out, it was two against one. You’d never manipulated two people at once before. And even if you managed to get the one, the other could still shoot you or Vee.

“Then put down the guns,” Vee said. Her voice was wavering. Where there was tension and anxiety radiating from the two men, it was nothing but fear when it came to Vee.

“Just stand up and come here. We won’t hurt you.”

“I can’t stand up. My ankle got rolled.” There was a pause. “Just put the guns down and help me.”

“You come here.”

“Did you not hear me, dumbass? My ankle is fucked. I’m not moving on my own.” Jesus, Vee. She’d always had a hard time keeping her mouth shut. For once in her life, she just needed to shut up.

“Then crawl.”

The men continued down the hallway. You watched them pass, holding your breath until they were a few feet away. It was difficult to see passed them, but they came to a stop. Just beyond their shoulders, you could see Vee moving to stand. It took her a few moments. They were long moments, stretching on forever as she grunted and whimpered.

You realized that she’d hurt a lot worse on the fall than just her ankle.

“Come here.” It was the man on the left that spoke. He’d straightened up as the words came out, his grip on the gun tightening.

“Where are my friends?”

“They’re safe. We’ll take you to them.” A spike of nerves shot through the man so hard you felt it yourself. You hadn’t even had to reach out to feel his emotions. It was just there and screaming at you, a blaring red beacon flashing LIE LIE LIE over and over again.

“I find that hard to bel-“ Her words got cut off, strangled to a stop. You took a risk and opened the door a little wider. A third man in combat armor had his arm around her neck, a handgun pressed against her head.

You hadn’t thought about checking the other end of the hallway.

“I’ve got her. I’ll take her to the containment unit, you two finish the sweep of the floor.” The third man had started to move, but Vee dropped her weight, making him almost tip over.

Everything that happened next was in flashes. One second the third man was going to yell at her, the next blood was rushing out of Vee’s nose. Her eyes narrowed, nostrils flaring as she gave a sharp snap of her head. The pair of men’s necks followed. It was a sharp crunch that echoed through the hallway. Their bodies fell to the floor, guns clattering on the ground. One was looking right at you; his eyes were wide open, staring at nothing. Dead.

You couldn’t breathe. Your body trembled in that darkness as the seconds seemed to stretch on and on. The man that had an arm around her neck still stood there, staring at the sight that lay before him. His arm loosened a little and you could hear Vee gasping for breath. You could feel his fear mingling with hers, almost to the point of fogging up your brain. Maybe he’d let her go. Maybe the two of you could escape.

A gunshot rang out.

Vee’s body slumped to the ground. Reddish-brownish liquid poured from her head. You could see it from where you were, staining the white tile. The man stood above her, staring down at her lifeless form before he started off the opposite way down the hall.

The seconds felt like years until he rounded the corner. You waited a few more just to be safe, and then you were swinging the door open and running out, ignoring the sting of your foot. “Vee, Vee, Vee,” you mumbled, tears making their way down your cheeks. Your knees hit the tile, streaking her blood as you grabbed her hand. Nothing made sense. “Wake up.” Nothing was happening. “Please wake up.”

It was hard to tell how long you were there for. It could have only been a few minutes, but it felt months. Something went numb inside of you. You let your fingertips drift over her eyelids, shutting them gently. You pressed a kiss against her forehead, your thumb brushing against her skin.

It was still warm.

“Elise?” Hopper prompted. You looked down at your food for a moment before back to him.

“Dad got drunk,” you said, starting off soft. “He got drunk a lot, and get pissed at my mom for not making him a turkey pot pie…” You trailed off, trying to remember how the rest of that line from that movie that the three of you had snuck into ended up. “Mom was bad too, but it wasn’t — she —” You made your voice crack a little to buy yourself some time. What was it that the character — was it Bender? — had said? Something about a cigarette? “Seb spilled paint in the garage and Dad was smoking a cigar, so he was gonna take it and, well, you know?” You said, miming holding a cigar and jabbing it at him.

“Jesus,” Hopper said, sighing. He sat back in his chair, fixing you with a concerned gaze. Guilt twisted in your gut, turning it sour. “He get him?”

You shook your head. “No, I wouldn’t let him. But after that, we were out. Like I said. I took them, and we left Muncie.”

Hopper took another sip of his coffee as he watched you. “Muncie’s a good ways away. How’d you make it here?”

You thought back to the car that you’d stolen, and ditched two towns over. “We took the bus and walked the rest of the way.” Did the bus even make it to Hawkins? You focused a little, forcing power into your next words. “It wasn’t a far walk. It was the easiest way.” A dull headache spread across the front of your head, making you wince. You needed some food if you were going to convince him further. But the words took hold, making him nod and blink a couple of times as though he’d just woken up.

“Makes sense,” Hopper murmured, reaching up to scratch at his scruff of a beard. “So what’s the plan here, huh? You kidnap your siblings and then…?”

“It’s not — I’m not — Look, I get that you’re the sheriff, or whatever, but can’t you just look the other way?” You were half-tempted to make him look the other way, but there was a weariness that was settling in you. If you kept pushing yourself, you’d be useless for a day or two. “We’ll leave, get out of your hair, and you never have to see us again.”

He watched you carefully, his arms resting on his legs as he leaned forward in his chair. A moment passed, and then another. You could hear Seb and Tee talking in the other room, their voices muffled. “Stay here a couple of days, rest up. I’ll bring you some food.” He ran a hand over his face. You stared at him, wide-eyed. “After that, we’ll get you some bus passes, all right?”

“Why?”

“Why what?”

“Why are you helping us?” You crossed your arms over your chest, setting your jaw. You were getting nothing from him but genuine concern. It was weird.

He shrugged, taking in a deep breath through his nose and letting it out through his mouth. “You kids need it, and I’m not in the habit of neglecting my job.”

“Are you gonna call CPS?” The first time you’d heard about child protective services, you’d thought that it was a good thing. A group of people were supposed to protect children. That made sense. You’d thought they could help you.

You’d been severely wrong.

“No, kid. I won’t call CPS. The last thing you need is for the three of you to be separated.” Your shoulders sagged at his words, relief flooding through you. There was no sign that he was lying to you.

“Thank you,” you whispered, the words coming out a little cracked and broken.

He looked at you, the corners around his eyes softening a little as he watched you. “It’s no problem, kid.”

• • • • • • • • •

Two days passed, and things were almost… comfortable. You were still on edge a little. The other shoe had to drop at some point, but currently, it was nice. Seb got to actually play outside for once, and even Tee had been enjoying just laying around and doing nothing. Hopper would show up once a day with some food, usually around five or so, and check in with the three of them. He’d always crouch down when he’d talk to Seb, listening attentively as Seb would recount whatever he’d done that day. It reminded you of the dads that you’d seen on TV, how they’d act with their kids.

It made your chest ache.

“When’s Hopper getting here?” Seb asked, his hair falling down into his eyes. “I wanna show him my picture,” he said, waving the paper in the air. Tee snatched it from his hands as she walked behind him and darted out of his reach. “TEE!” He screeched, launching his body from the chair to chase after her.

Laughter filled the cabin as Tee dodged every single one of Seb’s attempts. “You’ve gotta be faster than that, squirt,” she taunted as she ran towards the couch. From the kitchen, Seb gave a sharp tilt of his head. A second later, Tee was hitting the ground hard. “Not cool, shit-for-brains.” She was ready to tear after him when you grabbed her shoulder.

“You started it, shit-for-brains,” you said, the corners of your mouth twitching into a little smirk. She went to argue back when there was a knock at the door. The three of you froze. There was a beat of silence before a “Kid, open up!” sounded through the door. Your shoulders slumped as you walked forward. Behind you, you could hear Seb taunting Tee as he took back his artwork.

“Hey, what took you so —” You cut yourself off as you opened the door, eyes widening a little when you realized that there was someone with him.

“Elise, this is Joyce, a… Friend of mine. Joyce, this is Elise.”

“Hi,” she said. There was a kindness radiating off of her that even someone without powers would feel it. “I’ve heard a lot about you.”

You just stared at her for a moment before nodding your head. You stepped aside, letting the two of them walk in. As you closed the door behind them, you could hear Tee and Seb making their soft hello’s. When you turned around, Seb was back at the table with a marker in his hand while Tee shifted her weight from one foot to the other.

“I’m Theresa, Reese for short,” you heard her say, sticking to the plan —  Elise, Reese, and Sebastian Smith, the runaways from Muncie. The two of them started talking a little as you  made your way over to Hopper.

“Who is she?”

“A friend of mine, like I said.” He stopped taking out the food to look over to you. “Relax, kid. She works as a cashier in town. She just wanted to check on you guys, making sure that I’m feeding you right.”

“That’s only because if he could, he’d just feed you all Eggos,” Joyce chimed in from across the room. She made her way over to the refrigerator, ignoring Hopper’s words that everything was fine, and he was feeding them healthy enough.

Just as she opened the freezer to find nothing but boxes of Eggos and ice, Seb piped up. “We eat asghettios too!”

“Hop, these kids can’t live off of Spaghettios and Eggos,” Joyce said, frowning as she looked through the boxes.

“Hey, I was gonna —” Hopper started to speak before she cut him off.

“Diner food doesn’t count.” She turned around to point a finger at him. You had to clap a hand over your mouth to muffle the laughter. Glancing over to you, she cocked a brow as she shut the freezer door. “When was the last time you had a home-cooked meal?”

You blinked at her. You’d gotten food at the lab, three nutritious meals a day, but something was telling you that that wasn’t what she was talking about at all. “It’s been… awhile.”

“Would you be comfortable having dinner at our place?” She glanced over to Hopper, who was looking between the two of you with a small frown on his face. “You kids deserve to have some good food in you.”

“Oh, I don’t know. I’m not sure what —”

“We’ll go!” Tee said, giving you a quick, sharp grin. “We’d love to.”

“It’s settled, then. Tomorrow night. Hop will pick you up and bring you over for dinner.” She paused for a second before adding, “There’ll probably be some kids hanging around too, if that’s okay?”

It wasn’t ideal, but Tee and Seb probably needed to be around normal people for once. As you went to answer, Hopper was placing a hand on Joyce’s shoulder and nodding towards the front porch. “Can I talk to you for a second?”

Instead of replying right away, Joyce looked over to him and rolled her eyes, smiling faintly. “Sure, Hop.” She turned to you and smiled. “We’ll be right back.”

The second they were outside, the three of you ran over to the window to listen in.

“Joyce, you can’t go around taking in every stray kid you find.”

“Says the man that adopted Jane.”

“That was different and you know it. We knew what the story was there, we don’t with these kids.” You leaned forward a little, trying to get a better view of the two of them without disturbing the curtain. They were almost chest to chest out on the porch, Joyce looking up at Hopper with a small smile on her face.

“It’s dinner, Hop.” She leaned up on her toes and pressed a quick kiss against his lips. “Besides,” she began as she fell back onto the balls of her feet. “If I have to get one more call from Steve Harrington about how I really need to invite them over for dinner because The Party would be good for them, I’m going to lose my mind.”

You pulled away from the window a little, frowning. Harrington. You wondered if Steve Harrington was the same Harrington that had been there the other night with Hopper. You hadn’t seen him since that night, and Hopper hadn’t mentioned him again.

Your stomach twisted at the memory of him holding Seb in his arms while the kid thrashed and screamed. You shook your head and looked back out the window.

“You really think it’s a good idea to have them over for dinner just because Steve Harrington thinks he knows what he’s talking about? The kid can barely handle working at some ice cream parlor and a record store. What makes you think he’s right?”

“Well I wasn’t thinking that he was right before I got here,” she said, frowning at him. “But he’s concerned, Hop. And I am too. He said that they looked scared, that they reminded him of El.”

Seb’s finger jabbed into your side. “How can El remind him of us when you’re El?” He asked, scrunching up his face in confusion.

“Different El, dude,” you murmured.

Hopper was shaking his head when you turned your attention back outside. “I’m not going to talk you out of this, am I?”

Joyce smiled up at him and shook her head. “No, you’re not.” She went on to say something else, but you missed it when Tee grabbed at your arm.

“Come on, they’re gonna come back in soon,” she said, pulling you away. The three of you scrambled away from the window just as the door opened. Hopper was behind Joyce as they walked in, a small smile sliding across his features. He looked to the three of you standing in front of the couch and shook his head, chuckling.

“Looks like you’re coming to dinner.”

“If that’s all right,” Joyce added, giving you a warm smile. “It’s okay if you don’t.”

There was only a moment of hesitation before you nodded your head. “It looks like we’re going to dinner.”

• • • • • • • • • 

please reblog/like/comment/send me an ask with your thoughts!

[aquaticsapphic]

if its not too much, all the asks! and for #60: what time in your weekly routine do you treasure most?

ooo wow okay! if you want me to expand on anything leave me a second ask I guess?

1. selfieI’ll post this separately bc I know tumblr likes to fuck up formatting

2. what would you name your future kids?I don’t really think I’ll have kids, but I really like silly related names like naming one john and the other kennedy, or one james and the other madison, etc.

3. do you miss anyone?hmm maybe my brother? he’s a rad dude

4. what are you looking forward to?when I got this ask, the weekend. hmm.... now I don’t really know what it would be. I don’t really know honestly. I don’t feel like I’m ready for most of the fun stuff I should be looking forward to (d&d, winter break, etc.)

5. is there anyone who can always make you smile?I honestly don’t keep track

6. is it hard for you to get over someone?maybe? this past week I haven’t been able to stop thinking about ex friends from my high school, so I feel like that really skews my answer

7. what was your life like last year?answered!

8. have you ever cried because you were so annoyed?over half of the times I cry is bc I’m annoyed

9. who did you last see in person?bree!

10. are you good at hiding your feelings?I’d like to think so

11. are you listening to music right now?yup! I got bored of listening to my Spotify Discover Weekly, so now I’m listening to..... character genres....... right now it’s I’m A King Bee by The Stone Foxes (guess which oc it’s for and you get bonus points)

12. what is something you want right now?umm..... I’m kind of sleepy? but not enough to want to sleep..... that’s the only thing that comes to mind though.

13. how do you feel right now?pretty content! a little sleepy.

14. when was the last time someone of the opposite sex hugged you?I don’t really keep track..... a few days ago?

15. personality descriptioncalm, chaotic neutral, nonchalant, gay

16. have you ever wanted to tell someone something but you didn't?hmm, I don’t think so? I say what I want and I don’t say what I don’t wantactually I take it back. I have so many good comebacks I never got to use in the moment. please let me redeem myself.

17. opinion on insecurities.yeah.... they’re here

18. do you miss how thing were a year ago?oh hell no. I’d take physical sickness over mental sickness any day.

19. have you ever been to New York?just once! last winter, actually.

20. what is your favourite song at the moment?Razorback - Rachel Mallin

21. age and birthday?21 actually, and nov 8!

22. description of crush.a real fuckin’ cutie

23. fear(s)hate roaches. yuck. gross.

24. height5′8″

25. role modelI look up to a lot of different people for a lot of different things.

26. idol(s)What’s The Difference

27. things i hatebugs!! slimy things!! lack of motivation!!

28. i'll love you if...you devote your entire life to me

29. favourite film(s)answered!

30. favourite tv show(s)MTV’s Scream is p good. I really like The Good Place.

31. 3 random facts- I currently have 236 tabs open (save my browser)- I’m Gay- I can’t think of 3 random facts for some weird reason

32. are your friends mainly girls or guys?girls and nb or gnc people!

33. something you want to learnhmmm I wanna read Macbeth, but if that doesn’t count as “learning”, I think learning a spoken language besides english would be cool

35. favourite subjectpsych!

36. 3 dreams you want to fulfill?umm it doesn’t ask for them to be realistic, so I’d like to be royalty, super rich, and super hot.

37. favourite actor/actressummm hmmm..... natalie dormer

38. favourite comedian(s)not really a fan of comedy..... maybe kate mckinnon?

39. favourite sport(s)I really like basketball

40. favourite memoryhmmm, my ex's 16th birthday party. a group of friends and I all went to the beach and dug a huge ass hole and played games and watched movies and it was really fun

41. relationship statussingle

42. favourite book(s)song of the sparrow / the great gatsby

43. favourite song everHollow Moon - AWOLNATION

44. age you get mistaken forI don’t really know. I don’t think anybody’s told me lately.

45. how you found out about your idolwhen I heard ‘royals’ on the radio

46. what my last text message saysfb messenger - “Lum/river momma?” to breetext - “Will do!” to my dad

48. turn offscigarette smoking, racist, sexist, conservatives, significant age gap (I can’t for the life of me find cate blanchett to be sexy, sorry), dicks, noncon, etc, etc, etc.

49. where i want to be right nowI like being in my dorm room actually

50. favourite picture of your idolprobably that one rockin’ picture of lorde w her scorpio emblazoned jean jacket

51. starsignscorpio

52. something i'm talented atsleeping excessively long amounts of time

53. 5 things that make me happy- friends!- queer representation!- mermaids!- d&d!- the light of my life: catsby 💞💞💞💞💞

54. something thats worrying me at the momentthe papers I have due......

56. favourite food(s)strawberries!!

57. favourite animal(s)answered!

58. description of my best friendwhich one?

59. why i joined tumblroriginally just bc I wanted to see what it was all about and my friends had accounts and said it was cool and wanted me to sign upthis account I made bc I missed tumblr tbh

60. ask me anything you want#60: what time in your weekly routine do you treasure most?I like when I’m in bed trying to get to sleep but still kind of winding down, where I’m just scrolling through tumblr or playing acpc and just generally relaxing and winding down before I fall asleep

[oleanderblume]

spaghettieds

I was tagged by @spaghettieds

Rules: tag ten of your followers you want to get to know better

Name: Christen

Gender: I’m Nonbinary (or agender, since we are a system and just go fornothing in particular)

Star Sign: Virgo

Height: 5′4

What images do you have set as your desktop/lock screen: lol, i think its one of those default landscape settings? its like a snow covered valley with a few trees.

Have you ever had a crush on a teacher: No, but we have had pretty attractive teachers, one being a coach Baleau and a mr Ochoa, who were both considerably attractive and had very nice asses

What was your last text message: to my mom “I’m carpooling with Carolyn (my sister) to nana and gee’s since i’m on the way” the funny thing is this was a complete and total lie, as we are currently crashing on our sisters couch until we get the van fixed/buy a new one, which might happen tomorrow!

What do you see yourself doing in 10 years: probably chillaxing somewhere obscure in a fold out char next to the van hopefully in Thailand somewhere? 

If you could be anywhere else right now where would you be:in my van, not feeling like a burden every time i see my sister

What was your coolest Halloween Costume: I was a little sister from bioshock 2 (the concept design was objectively better done than both the burial at sea dlc and the original game) had the giant needle and everything, wore that costume/cosplay to fandays 2013, there’s even a picture on their website :)

What’s your favorite 90s show: we were only like 5 in the 90s so i guess we’ll do the bleed in 90s and go with hey Arnold because who doesn’t love football headed mediocre kids?

Who was your last kiss: i kissed my cat yesterday when i took him for a walk

Have you ever been stood up: no, never dated enough to get stood up, but i have accidentally stood up a lot of other people. usually because we forget lol.

Favorite ice cream flavor: birthday cake or chocolate chip cookie dough. also green tea ice cream 

Have you ever been to Las Vegas: No, we will visit when we take our “Border of America” trip in the next year or so though. yippee~

Your favorite pair of shoes: my Earth Spirit brand hippie shoes i got for 12 bucks at wal mart, they have lasted me two years and have awesome arch support!

What is your favorite flavor: fruity stuff or creamy stuff, no coconuts at all, or sour cream.

What’s your favorite book: recently read books include The Darkest Minds and We Were Liars, but we don't have a particular favorite book

What’s the stupidest thing you’ve ever done: once i was looking for a realy big bowl of salad we had just made, looked in the fridge, the pantry, the cubbard and cabinets only to realize it was directly in front of me. also, on a regular basis we misread our schedule and end up anywhere from and hour to a whole 5 hours before our shift starts.  

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Wonderful Little Spitfire

Aggressively Nonbinary. (He/him/his) (They/them/theirs) I really love my boyfriend (who designed this blog - go follow him @fyodor-dolokhov and @incorrect-dwsa-quotes).

I was tagged by @spookyskarsgard

Rules: tag ten of your followers you want to get to know better

Name: Milo

Gender: I’m Nonbinary as fuck y’all

Star Sign: Taurus

Height: 5′7

What images do you have set as your desktop/lock screen: on my personal laptop it’s a picture of me and my dog, on my school laptop it’s a gecko, and on my phone my lock screen is a really cute picture of my super dorky boyfriend pouting like a nerd.

Have you ever had a crush on a teacher: Not really? I dunno, I mean I thought my middle school history teacher was attractive- but like it wasn’t a crush? I just appreciated his really awesome fashion sense.

What was your last text message: Ummm, “Momma, Baloo is flopping around like a dead fish. Why is my dog so weird?” Baloo is my emotional support animal, btw!

What do you see yourself doing in 10 years: A police officer in the K-9 unit, living with my significant other, (my current boyfriend if I’m lucky enough to keep the nerd in my life) and owning a snake or two, and some cats and a dog.

If you could be anywhere else right now where would you be: Alaska.

What was your coolest Halloween Costume: My Dipper Pinea costume from last year. It was awesome. I have a picture of it somewhere on my tumblr if y’all wanna see! 😇

What’s your favorite 90s show: Boy Meets World. I watch it all the time.

Who was your last kiss: My cute ass boyfriend.

Have you ever been stood up: Yeah, someone asked me out on a date in 6th grade right after I came back from pines rest and they never showed. I found out it was a dare afterword. It SUCKED.

Favorite ice cream flavor: Mint chocolate chip, or chocolate deer tracks probably.

Have you ever been to Las Vegas: Nope. I’m going sometime this year though, when my dad goes for work. My momma and I are going with him.

Your favorite pair of shoes: Just my tennis shoes. They’re comfy so yanno.

What is your favorite flavor: coconut maybe?

What’s your favorite book: That’s like asking me to pick a child. But I love reading the unedited version of ‘The Diary of Anne Frank’. It really puts things in perspective.

What’s the stupidest thing you’ve ever done: Mmmm, I mean I fell down my boyfriends’ stairs two days ago and dislocated my tailbone, so maybe that?

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@thefailuresystem  @snorlax-and-co  @syskids  @system-in-the-stars  @systemofstars @pepperoniwhirlwind

[howlsmovinglibrary]

All of the question tags!!

Damn, it seems that this is what happens when you run out of phone data and are away from wifi for a while. The 11 questions tags take over.

Imma gonna answer every tag that I can find in this one long post, and sweet jesus I’m not tagging anyone in this particular chain, for fear of starting some kind of infinite loop that eventually becomes sentient and takes over the world.

So, time to seriously overshare!!

From @books-are-portals​

1. Favourite mythological being (of any kind)?

It’s a tie between dragons and unicorns, and you know what that means…..FIGHT!

2. Least favourite drink?

I hate coke/diet coke/pepsi/cola. I’m quite intolerant to caffeine in large doses, so the last time I drank a glass of coke, at like 4pm in the afternoon probably about 8 years ago, it kept me away until 3am D:

3. What book(s) do you recommend for everyone?

The Wicked and the Divine comics. It’s hella diverse, the art is amazing, and it’s about insanely powerful magical pop star gods. EVERYONE SHOULD READ.

4. Can you touch the tip of your nose with your tongue?

No – I have both an incredibly small nose and a very stubby tongue.

5. Least favourite book protagonist?

Ummm, bar all the protagonists from classics that I could endlessly moan on about all day and all night (I’m looking at you, Pamela), I’m going to say Zoey from The House of Night series, for all her toxic slut shaming, double standards, and just generally horribly written narrative voice (‘bullpoopy’ is a word that will forever be branded on my mind).

6. What TV show/film makes you happy?

Brooklyn Nine Nine is my go-to happy tv show, Spirited Away/Howl’s Moving Castle are the film equivalent.

7. Favourite trope?

Anything where a platonic friendship (particularly between two women) gets prioritised above a romantic relationship.

8. What piece of fictional technology would you like to have?

An alethiometer from HDM – it tells you the truth, but not enough to stop you from being in control of your own fate (the beauty of a book about free will, I guess.)

9. Finish sentence: I didn’t get enough sleep last night because…

…my back aches from lugging all my books to storage.

10. Favourite food to eat when you’re feeling down?

To be honest, it’s probably toast (with peanut butter if it’s been a really bad day).

11. Can you knit?

I can, but I can’t knit well. If you want a scarf, I can, in theory, do that. Anything that isn’t just one uniform band of the same stitch and I am not the person for the job.

********

From @heretherebebooks

1. Have you ever fallen out of love with a book? Why?

There are a lot of standard answers: ACOTAR, Twilight, etc. but my most recent is Borderline by Mishell Baker – I really like books with ‘unlikeable’ protagonists so I gave this a very high rating on first review, but I didn’t realise how damaging this representation of BPD is until I read multiple own voices reviews on the subject.

2. What’s the strangest book-related dream you’ve ever had? 

I have a lot of book dreams which feature me as the protagonist in my favourite fantasy novels, but then when I try to use magic to defend myself my brain goes ‘but Emma, magic doesn’t exist’ and so I’m suddenly facing down a demon hoard with no powers whatsoever.

3. Have you read a book that you didn’t really appreciate until later on? 

Ash by Malinda Lo is the main one for this, because  I didn’t appreciate that Ash is not supposed to get with the unbelievably hot fairy prince…until I reread five years later and saw that the hot fairy prince is a dick.

4. What book would you like to see a musical adaptation of? (Bonus: any ideas for song titles?)

To be honest, I just want Starkid to do a ‘A Very Potter Musical’ version of Cursed Child and watch the fanfiction of the fanfiction.

5. Have you ever thrown a book across the room? What was it? 

Ms Marvel Volume 4 (my ship was sunk…for now, anyway).

6. What book cover do you absolutely hate? How would you redesign it?

The Falconer and Dark Days Club UK covers are just super tacky – I’d take the Falconer US covers, and replace the Dark Days standard ‘pretty woman in fragile looking pose’ covers with either ‘plain looking woman fighting a fuck tonne of demons’ or just ‘fuck tonne of demons’, which is what the story is about anyway.

7. Have you ever cosplayed a character? Who?

I’m read this question at a con while dressed as Newt Scamander, so…. (last year I was Violet from the Rat Queen comics).

8. What’s the last book that made you want to scream from the rooftop? 

Six Wakes by Mur Lafferty (the thing I screamed was “MURDER. IN. SPAAAACEEE!” when my housemate asked me what it was about, although I was not on a rooftop at the time.)

9. What’s your favourite subgenre? 

My new favourite is ‘geeky contemporary’, bonus points if it’s ‘geek convention contemporary’ (Queens of Geek, Geekerella, Unconventional)

10. If you could bring an author back to life to write one more book, who would it be? 

I think Angela Carter could write one hell of a feminist YA fairy tale retelling, so I’m gonna bring her back.

11. Mug full of tea on your bed - yay or nay?

I just….I don’t live life this dangerously xD

*********

From @bookcub:

1. Who was the last character you related to and what were they from?  

Luca from The Burning City by Amanda Foody – he was basically the reason I kept reading that book, which otherwise wasn’t really my cup of tea, despite being a perfectly good book. He was the love interest, and was explicitly demiromantic. Although I’m not entirely sure where I place on the ace spectrum, and also felt that his portrayal was a little bit too cut and dry – with no sexual attraction until the MC shows up and then all the sexual attraction immediately at once with not really any grey area – his indifferent attitude towards sex as a general concept until those feelings latch onto a specific person, and his hesitation surrounding how to handle a relationship when it’s not something he’s has to consider before that point, were both very relatable for me. It certainly fitted my experience a little better than Tash Hearts Tolstoy.

2. What’s your favorite genre of music? 

Hmmm…there’s a wide range but I guess singer songwriter covers it? I care more about a song’s lyrics than what genre it’s in.

3. Which tags on tumblr do you follow and why? 

*whispers* I still don’t really understand how following tags works…..(someone plz explain)

4. Do you have any book related jewelry? 

I have a necklace of an owl delivering a Hogwarts letter, and Howl’s earrings from the Ghibli movie.

5. Thoughts on booklr being dead? 

I think the parts of booklr that were active a few years ago might be dead, but that’s just one specific group of people and they’ve probably moved on for a reason. Given it’s only in the last year or so that I’m getting notes and making friends, if booklr truly is dead then it seems that I’m either a necromancer, or having one hell of a party in the graveyard.

6. What are some of your favorite picture books from when you were a kid?

We’re Going On a Bear Hunt is the classic (my parents used to sing it to me to get me to go on hikes). When I could read for myself, Varjak Paw. 

7. What’s the first book you remember reading or being read to you? 

My dad read me the first and half of the second Harry Potter books on the Eurostar train from London to Disneyland Paris.

8. What’s your favorite dystopian novel and why? 

Hmmm, I’m not really a fan of dystopias all that much (more of a fantasy person), but I really like the Wolf by Wolf series, which I think counts due to it being alt. history, and The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood. The first because a) it has fantasy elements, and b) A* character development over the duology. The second because it was the first ‘literary’ book I read for school and enjoyed, and because the TV show has been one of my favourite things this year.

9. Where do you get/buy most of your books? 

Truthfully, Amazon. I’m trying to do better now that I’m no longer strapped for cash.

10. Favorite animal? 

Cats. Fluffy, smooshy faced cats in particular ^^.

11. What book release are you anxious for (one you know the release date for) (yeah that means not Doors or Stone) 

It’s a toss-up between The Stone Sky by NK. Jemisin (which is out like, next week!!), Provenance by Ann Leckie, and Warcross by Marie Lu.

**********

From @accidentalspaceexplorer:

1. What do you think of science fiction?

I think it is good when written well, where the focus on world building doesn’t leave the characters one dimensional. Unfortunately I also think it is coded masculine in a number of ways - the focus on a ‘logical, technological’ world rather than ‘illogical’ femme coded magic  -  which means that sometimes I find it quite an frustrating and alienating genre. 

2. What’s one of your pet peeves?

Mansplaining. Currently there’s this really horrible man at my book club who keeps trying to explain narrative to me and I’m like, dude, I’m an English Literature graduate.

3. If you could pick one magic system to exist in real life, what would it be?

Oh, fuck. There’s so many that would be amazing, but I think the main I always gravitate back to is Elemental magic a la the Avatar universe, because that was the first type of magic system I fell in love with.

4. What is your favorite tree?

Cherry blossom

5. Do you have any plants around the house?

I do not own any personally, but my housemate has like fifteen spider plants to which I like to think I am a caring godmother figure.

6. What is the book with the weirdest premise that you’ve read and would recommend?

The Jane Austen Project - time travellers go back to Regency era Britain to befriend Austen and try to steal one of her lost manuscripts.

7. Have you loved books for as long as you can remember, or was there a particular event that sparked you becoming a reader?

As long as I can remember - I remember giving a presentation in class about how I was going to be any author at age 9.

8. What is your favorite recipe?

Lemon meringue cake - cake, lemon curd, a fuck tonne of meringue, what’s not to love?

9. Do you reread books? If not, why not? If so, what’s one that you reread again and again?

Yes. Always reread. My three main ones are The Dark Days Club, Uprooted, and (of course) Howl’s Moving Castle.

10. What’s your favorite weather?

Cold sunshine in winter. 

11. Do you read every day?

Pretty much (I read on my lunch break at work).

I think that’s every outstanding question answered - sorry if I’ve missed anyone!

[surveys-at-your-service]

Survey #333

“imaginary chain  /  the one you never break  /  seething all alone”

Do you have any fears you would rarely admit to anyone? Nah, I'm pretty open about what I'm afraid of. What website do you spend most of your time on? YouTube. What class in high school did you struggle with the most? I honestly don't remember with certainty, but it was probably math or economics. At least, I think econ was my senior year. What could you talk about for hours? Mark, meerkats, a few game franchises... maybe a couple more topics. Who is your favorite character from Harry Potter? I wouldn't know. Do you salt your popcorn? Yes. Do you have a Steam account? Yeah, but I don't have many games on there and rarely touch the ones I do. Do you like gaming? I do, but not as much as I did for most of my life. I mostly just play WoW now, and even that I'm not that into anymore. Part of it though comes from not buying any new games that I'm interested in because 1.) no money and 2.) no proper console, and you can only replay games so many times before you're just... yeah, done. Do you like reading books? Some days. Do you like religion? All things considered? No. Do you like Grand Theft Auto V? Y'know, growing up, I actually liked watching my younger neighbor play one of those games, but I don't remember which. Though he never actually "played" it... just ran around wreaking havoc, lol. I do however think GTAV was the one that Jason and Jacob started playing together when we moved into the apartment, and I thought the story was okay; I don't think they ever got far into it, though. Definitely wasn't Jason's sort of game, and I don't think it was too much up Jacob's alley, either. Can you twerk? I haven't tried and you will never see me try either, lmao. Do you have a Spotify account? Yes, but I almost never use it. If the last person you kissed tried to kiss you again, would you start kissing them back? Yes. If your best friend of the opposite sex tried to kiss you, would you start kissing them back? No. Have you ever kissed someone who has previously kissed someone you hated? Yes, because of how badly she hurt him. I don't have any negative feelings towards her now, though. We're actually friends, haha. The irony. Are you an easy lay? What weird wording. But whatever, quite the polar opposite actually. When’s the last time you said you were sorry? A few days ago. Are there any songs you listen to everyday? No. Would you like living on the coast? As someone who lives in a state hit by hurricanes usually every year and has seen the incredible damage they usually bring to the coast, no. I don't like the smell or gritty feel of salty air, either. When’s the last time you were really late to something? No idea. That's usually not a problem with me. Why did you stop liking the last person you liked? The last person I actually stopped like-liking would be Girt, and that would be because I just came to the realization I saw him too much as my brother instead of boyfriend. It just always felt awkward. Do you still talk to that person? Yeah, we're good. No hard feelings or anything between us. Are you keeping a secret from someone who needs to know the truth? No. Do you trust easily? Fuck no. I'll be cautious, at least to some degree, about new people for a while. What is the last song to make you cry? Since I've actually behaved and not listened to any trigger songs, it's been a long while, but it was probably "Another Life" by Motionless In White. Last person you hung up on? I'm sure some automated message. I barely ever answer the phone to numbers I don't recognize, though. Where was your last car ride to and from? To Wal-Mart w/ Mom to pick up our order and then back home. Next big outing? *shrug* Do you find it difficult to stay invested in online relationships? Not really, no. Considering I'm by far my most authentic self online, I actually tend to appreciate virtual friends more, if I'm being honest. I try to keep up with those people. Are you the type of person who pays close attention to the release dates of movies, music, etc., and will, for example, go see a movie or buy an album on the date it is released? If so, when is the last time you did so? Not really, no. I think I saw Warcraft the day it came into theaters, though. Do movies often make you cry? What kind of films/scenes make you tear up most? Yep. Tragic romance tends to do it the most, I think. Do you use any apps to track your health or medications? I have one to track my menstrual cycle as well as another that tracks my daily caloric intake, but I'm bad at using it because it's tedious if I actually have to measure something. Whose opinions/recommendations do you value most? Ummm if you mean like, in general, probably my mom's. But this most certainly depends on the subject I'm taking feedback on. What is something society "expects" you to do that you don't want to do and/or don't plan on doing? Shaving my legs came to mind first. Granted, I will if there is almost any chance of someone seeing them, but otherwise, I just don't care. We respect women with body hair on this account and see them as no less feminine. Are you interested in architecture? Is there any particular style that you're drawn to? I think it's cool, yeah. I should have an answer for this, given architecture was a massive focus in Art History the last time I was in school... Roman architecture comes to my head first, if that says anything. What was one of your favorite things from the nineties? BOY OH BOY, SO MUCH!! I'm probably gonna say the toys. There was some dope shit, man. Do you collect things pertaining to an animal? ANYTHING and EVERYTHING featuring a meerkat!!!!! :''') Do you wish that people were kinder to spiders? Well, yes. I hope everyone in their heart wishes this, even if they're afraid of them. They're very important to our ecosystem, and none are out there to harm us; their existence does us a favor. Where do you normally order pizza from? Domino's (my favorite) or LIttle Caesar's for the price. Did your parents keep anything of yours from when you were a baby? Oh yes, loads of stuff that's stored away somewhere. Do you own one of those "____ For Dummies" books? No, but I feel like we had one at some point? What was the last VHS tape that you watched? Yikes, who knows. Did you watch Boy Meets World back in the day? I actually didn't, no. Our old neighbor though loved it so much that she named her daughter Tapanga (deliberately spelled that way). Who is your favorite Scooby Doo character? I never really had one. Maybe Thelma. If I were to give you a coloring book, what would you want its theme to be? Animals. Have you ever won a stuffed animal at a carnival? Possibly a small one. I can tell you I did however accidentally stab the guy who ran the dart-throwing booth though, lmfao. He was obviously fine, and it wasn't a bad wound. I felt SOOOOOO bad. Are you a fan of narwhals? I'm a fan of any animal. Narwhals are definitely fascinating creatures. Grape or orange soda? Orange. Grape-flavored soda ain't my thing. Have you ever wanted to vlog? Noooo. My life is so painstakingly boring and repetitive. Did you have a favorite Disney movie as a child? It was and still is The Lion King. Do you or have you ever owned a portable gaming console? Yeah, a GameBoy Advance and Nintendo DS. Is shyness cute? It definitely can be. Have you ever had alcohol poisoning before? No. Do you like to gossip, or do you prefer to keep your mouth shut? I'm not a gossip fan. Have you ever vandalized someone else’s property before? Most definitely not. Are your parents divorced? Yes. Have you ever been under suicide watch for 72 hours in a psychiatric ward? Yes; at least here, that's protocol when you're admitted for suicidal thoughts/tendencies. Have you ever gone through your significant other’s phone or social media accounts, or do you respect their privacy? Absolutely not. That shit pisses me off so badly. Do you wear any sort of clothing for religious reasons? No. What's something you worked extremely hard to get? My sanity back. Sounds so dramatic, but I'm literally not kidding. Have you ever been labeled negatively or otherwise been called something extremely derogatory? Not that I remember. How many kids do you want to have? I don't want kids, but to entertain the question, when I did, I wanted three. It's fuckin wild to imagine for even a second that I once wanted that. Do you believe that being gay is a sin? *eye roll* Are you any good at photography? If so, what’s your specialty? I mean it with modesty, but I think I'm pretty good. My favorite thing to photograph are animals, but I generally take most pictures of people by request or pay. Judging by my deviantART account, my nature pics definitely get the most attention. Have you ever been a member of a gang before? Fuckin yikes, no. An infamous gang tried breaking into my childhood home once, so you can probably gather that I would never take part in their "big bad guys" bullshit. Have you ever felt like you were neither male nor female? No, I'm comfortable as a cisgender female. Do you like oatmeal raisin cookies? NO. Anything with raisins = NO. Do you think you’re attractive? No. Has a teacher ever caught and read a note you were passing in class? No, not that I really passed notes to begin with. I'd be mortified, regardless of what it was about. Would you rather live in a tropical or arctic climate? Arctic. Do you have an older brother? Yes. He's technically my half-brother, but I don't see "half"s. Have either of your parents ever been to jail? No. Are your collarbones prominent? Bitch I wish so I could get the damn dermal piercings I've wanted for years. Have you ever in your life worn overalls? As a kid, yeah. So ugly. Do you love yourself? It's... weird. Therapy is making me realize that a part of me, maybe even the bigger one, doesn't, but at the exact same time, I know I have worth just like every other human. I just don't treat myself like I do. What TV shows do you keep up with? None, until Meerkat Manor returns this summer. :') When’s the last time it snowed where you live? A couple months ago we got a little bit of it. Is your belly button pierced? No, but it would be if I was actually skinny. Just in my personal opinion, I don't at all think that that piercing would look nice on someone as overweight as me. Even if my damn dreams come true and I lose all the weight I want, my stomach will never look "normal," even after I get the excess skin removal surgery that will be very high on my priority list for my own self-image that's been nothing but loathsome since 2016. What is your favourite dinosaur? Spinosaurus is the obvious answer. What do you remember the most about your childhood? Lots of imagination. Parents arguing. Playing with my little sister. What age did you get your first hair cut? I have no idea. Do you have a favourite toy from childhood still? No. I wish I hadn't gotten rid of it. Have you ever made bread? No. Would you ever consider shaving your head? Nah. Would you like to live in a realm where the zombie apocalypse is possible? Who says we don't now? Zombifying parasites already exist among insects and such, so like... it's not unimaginable to one day see one developed enough to infect humans. I sure as fuck hope not, but. What do you use to dry your clothes? (Tumble dryer, radiator, etc) We have a dryer. Do you ever play the built-in games on your computer? Which ones? Nah. What was the last spontaneous thing you did? I did this many, many months ago, but I guess watch an episode of The Witcher by my own volition. I don't really do spontaneous things with how routine I am, but I had a random urge to check it out one morning. How loud can you whistle? Not very loud at all. Does anything on your body hurt or itch right now? My knees really hurt. They're getting worse. When was the last time you built a sandcastle? There's noooo telling, it's been many years. Have you ever ridden a mechanical bull? No. Well, not a *real* one, anyway. Just the little ones for kids. If you had to appear on a game show, which one would you choose? Family Feud. What is your favorite hot beverage? Hot chocolate. Do you have an alter ego? Describe them: No. Food: Are you adventurous or do you stick to what you know? I absolutely stick to what I know. I am SO picky. Is there anything (out of the obvious) that makes you feel really ill? I'm not immediately sure, but there's probably something. Do you bump into things often? Yes. I've always had this weird habit of like... drifting when I walk, so I do this easily. I just kinda wander to the sides a bit without realizing it. What design is on your calendar this year? I don't have a current one. Did you enjoy playing Hop Scotch when you were younger? I did. Do you feel uncomfortable going to the movies by yourself? Nah, not really. I did that with Warcraft and it was actually pretty chill. When thinking about your dream home, what do you think would be your favorite thing to shop for? The ~g o t h i c~ decor. Do you ever listen to those lo-fi hip hop/study music playlists on YouTube/Spotify? No. Are you likelier to work harder if you’re being paid? If not, what drives you to give your best effort? I mean, yeah. I'd assume that's pretty normal. Does the fashion sense of a potential partner matter to you? No. Is there anything that you prefer to write down rather than type? I'm unsure. If you download/torrent things, do you remember the first thing you ever torrented? Oh, the Limewire days of music pirating... but no, I don't remember. What was the last thing you posted on Instagram? Something photography-related, but I don't feel like checking. What do you wish your hair looked like? I wish I could pull off pastel pink hair rn. It also desperately needs a trim. Do you still feel anything for the first person you fell in love with? I'm sure I always will, at least a little. Do you get any magazines in the mail? No. Have you ever paid for any kind of online membership? Uhhhhh have I? I don't think so. Who’d you last see in a tux? Probably the groom of the last wedding I shot. Do you record any TV shows and watch them later? No, but I used to do that big time because I loved "rewatching" stuff when I was on the computer. Out of everyone you know, who was the most heart? My mother, big time. Who’s the bravest person you know? Also my mother. Or Sara. What profession do you admire the most? Teachers might just win. The patience that must take, among so many other things. Have you ever made a fake profile, for any reason? No.

[necrofox]

Part #1 Esper and Sebastian

               Esper had been working hard on the farm that year, things seemed to be going pretty well. The difficult years were behind her and most of what she had to do each day was feed and milk the animals and collect the eggs. Having found that she had a talent in mining early on in her time in Pelican town, she had all the necessary metals to make sure her  crops were more or less automated in their care. The hot summer sun bore down on Crescent farm as she made her way to the barn, lugging the equipment she would need for her work.

"Good morning Ladies!" Esper crooned in a sing song voice as she entered the barn, the smell of hay and animal waste welcoming her like an old friend. Just a few years ago, she would have been repulsed by the aroma, but now it was comforting. She sang as she worked, she always did. Only on the farm though, she was much too self conscious to sing in front of anyone but the "Ladies" as she referred to her livestock. The Ladies didn't judge her, or make fun of her behind her back, they loved her and needed her. She trusted very few people like she did her animals, people were often rude or just didn't understand her.

               Mostly they talked about her weight, Esper was a larger girl. Five foot five inches and two hundred and sixty pounds to be exact, not that she'd tell anyone who asked, and she had been asked. She worked hard every day on the farm, she went on long forays into the mines, she walked everywhere she went, but she just couldn't seem to lose any weight. she had definitely toned up and become much stronger since moving to Pelican town, which was more than she had hoped for considering she hadn't been planning on resurrecting her grandfathers farm at all. She had planned on using it as a free place to live while she saved up to buy her own condo in Zuzu city.    

               Well things happen, and she let curiosity get the better of her. Could she do it,  she asked her self. Could she possibly take this ramshackle old farm and turn it into something living and green? well it turned out that she could but  boy were there times when she wanted to give up. Esper  hated it in Pelican town at first.

               Everyone in Pelican town was so...perfect. At first glance anyway. She was intimidated, such a small place, everyone knows everyone. When Lewis had tasked her with introducing her self to everyone she nearly had a panic attack. "I'm an outsider" She thought, "They'll never accept me, let alone like me." In some cases she was right, in others she was completely wrong. She had actually made some pretty good friends in town. There was pretty Abigail, the perky, geeky, goth-type girl  who lived in the apartment attached to the general store. They had pretty much become best friends, they had so much in common. They both had a love for the occult, the mines, dark and spooky things, dying their hair and so on.

               There was Sam, The bubbly skateboard guy, sometimes a little too hyper for Esper's reserved attitude, but he was a sweet person, Always inviting her out when he and his group of friends would hang out. The official trio was Abigail, Sam and that brings us to Sebastian. Esper sighed involuntarily as she thought of his name. He was perfect, a mysterious loner with a secret warmth to him. He spent most of his time in his basement room working at his free lance programming job, but he also played table top role playing games, ( a favorite pastime of Esper's) read comics, and had a motorcycle. He was the only other smoker in town, which was how they met at first.

               She had just come out of the mines, it was in her first autumn in the valley. She had had a particularly rough run in the caves and was feeling rather beat up. She had quit smoking  about a year ago but she could have really used a smoke then. That's when she saw him standing under a tree near the lake, smoking. She normally wouldn't have done this, but she was desperate for a smoke. She approached the tall, lean man, her voice a little shaky. "Hey, you wouldn't happen to have one to spare would you?" Sebastian turned to look at her, a little surprised as no one else smoked in this little hole of a town. His Violet eyes were met with large inquisitive Lavender ones, the eyes of someone who might run away any moment. He didn't know why, but it made him laugh. Here was this short, chubby girl, silver hair up in a messy bun on top of her head, face covered in scratches and her hands and arms not doing much better. She looked so pathetic, but there was some kind of determination in her face too, some underlying toughness under that soft face. "Heh, sure" he said , opening the pack and gesturing for her to take one.

               "Ummm, sorry, do you have a lighter too?" Esper squeaked

               "you want me to smoke it for you too?" He asked sarcastically, raising one eyebrow. He handed over the lighter and she gratefully light her cigarette and took a long slow drag. She looked sheepish.

               "Nah, I think I Can handle it" She replied with half a grin. Sebastian didn't usually find himself talking to new people all that often, but they talked that night for about an hour, smoking up half his pack of cigarettes.  They talked about all sorts of things, the mines, shadow brutes, different gems she found down there, programming, table top games, namely The Solorian Chronicles. He invited her to the next session of the game with himself , Sam and Abigail. She'd been attending  a game in his basement room every week from then on till this day.

               Esper shook herself out of her own thoughts, she always got all dreamy when she thought of Sebastian. She would never tell him, or anyone else for that matter. She was pretty sure he had a thing for Abby, and she didn't want to get in the way. Besides, someone as amazing as Sebastian would never give someone like her the time of day, not like that, not how she wanted him. Esper felt a buzzing  in her pocket, her phone chirped cheerfully from the front of her jeans. She wiped her hands on her pants and pulled it out. It was a text message from Sebastian.  "Don't forget, game tonight" was all it said, but it still made her heart flutter. He probably sent the exact same message to Abby and Sam, but it didn't matter to her.

               Esper finished her work on the farm and stood back looking at everything. Three years work had really turned this place around she thought. She grinned and headed into the house to shower and get ready for game, she usually showed up early to hang out with Sebastian for a bit while he finished up whatever job he was working on. She made quick work of her shower and put on fresh clothes, black jeans and a black V-neck Tee shirt, with her black and white checker print high-tops. She let kept her hair down and applied make up, she always wore make up to cover up the freckles across her nose and cheeks. She wasn't necessarily self conscious of the freckles, it was just that they stood out so much on her pale skin.

               Ready to go , She headed out the back entrance to the farm, closer to the mountain path to Sebastian's house. As usual, she foraged any rare plants she could find on the way over, nothing much this time of year, she had mostly foraged them dry. She liked taking the back way better than going through town for a couple reasons. For one it was much faster, secondly it avoided any run ins with people from town she didn't want to see. The first few trips to Sebastian's, she realized Haley would usually be hanging out in the park near the fountain that time of day.  She was one such person she didn't get along with what so ever. She always had something nasty to say to her, disguising it with syrupy sweet "concern" Esper could tell the difference though. She pushed the thought out of her mind, nothing was going to ruin her day.

               Before she knew it she was at the mountain home of Robin and her husband Demetrius. they lived there with their daughter Maru and son Sebastian. Though Demetrius was only Sebastian's step father. Esper let herself in as always and was cheerfully greeted by Robin.  

"Hi, Esper!", Robin chirped "Sebby is downstairs on the computer"  Esper smiled warmly at Robin.

"Thanks, I'll see myself down" Esper returned. She walked slowly down the stairs and gave a little knock before letting herself into Sebastian's room. It was a little chilly down there , thanks to the stone walls and it being a basement.

               "Hey", said Sebastian, not looking up from the computer, fingers working the keyboard furiously. "Go ahead and make yourself at home, I'm really involved in this right now, just be a few"  he mumbled as he stared at the screen. This was the way it usually happened when she would show up early for game. Sebastian would keep working for about ten to fifteen minutes and Esper would flop down on his bed catching up on his latest comics. It saved her a ton of money in comics.

               She flopped down on the bed and started rummaging through the stack of comics on the floor next to it. once she was satisfied with one, she relaxed and started reading, comfortable in her surroundings. As nervous as she could be about Sebastian, she felt oddly at home down in his basement room, there with him working, It just felt natural. The quiet hum of the electronics and Sebastian tapping away at the keyboard and mouse relaxed her so. She started to feel sleepy, she hadn't realized how tired she was. She found herself dozing, opening her eyes every few moments and then back out again.

               The next thing she knew, she started awake , comic on her chest, Sebastian had rolled over in his chair and he was looking at her with a weird look on his face. What was that look on his face, she had seen it somewhere before, but definitely not on him. Esper propped herself up on her elbows, she felt weird laying back on his bed with him so close.

               "Sorry, was I out long?" She inquired with a yawn.

"Just a few minutes" Sebastian said nonchalantly as he slid off the chair and sat on the edge of the bed, next to her. Esper scooted over a little to give him some room, and to make herself feel a little less awkward, which Sebastian took and closed the distance between them. He was now sitting almost up against her legs, angled towards her face. Esper felt her face grow hot and her heart begin to beat faster. Why was he sitting so close?

               "You know, I was kind of annoyed at first when you started coming over early while I was working,  but I've really come to enjoy your visits." Sebastian spoke matter of factly. He was not the kind of guy to sugar coat anything. He really was starting to grow more and more fond of her, and not just as a friend. Some people might judge him for liking a  chubby girl, but that didn't matter to him anymore, besides when did he ever care what anyone thought, now wasn't the time to start.

"Y-yeah?" Esper Stammered.

"Yeah", he said , getting ever so slightly closer to her. Esper swore she could see her heart start to beat out of her chest.  Sebastian was acting so weird, so completely out of character for him

"Well, we're friends, I like spending time with you" She replied. Friends, right? They were friends, this was a thing friends did, sit together like this. She kept telling herself in her head. She felt like she was going to melt with him so close to her like this. It was everything she wanted but she knew she couldn't have it. It wasn't right, she was sure there was something between him and Abigail, she couldn't get in the way. She looked around the room nervously, looking anywhere but his face.

               Sebastian reached out and ran his fingers through a lock of her silver hair, playing with it. His fingers brushed her cheek as they tangled into her long hair. She couldn't help her eyes going a little wide, her face somehow felt even hotter than before.

"Right, good friends" Sebastian murmured as he began to lean in closer. She couldn't take it anymore, her heart was racing, but her mind was racing faster yet. What was going on, Friends, they were friends. She couldn't betray Abigail, she was her best female friend, if she let this happen and she ever found out maybe she'd never speak to her again.  Maybe Sebastian was just leaning in to tell her a secret she told herself, knowing it wasn't true. Anything to cloud the truth, she couldn't handle this, she just didn't know how to process it.

               Just as Sebastian was about to lean in bit closer, she leapt from the bed, practically knocking him over. She grabbed her pack and booked it for the door. Sebastian looked flabbergasted.

"W-Where are you going?" He asked with a start

"I, Uh, I forgot I had a doctor's appointment" Esper lied, and he knew she was lying. Esper avoided Harvey like the plague. She wouldn't make a doctor's appointment unless she was dying, and even then would probably have to dragged there. Sebastian furrowed his brow.

"What about game?" He asked

"I'm going to have to miss it tonight" she said, her back to him, already opening the door and making her way up the stairs. He tried to go after her, but she was already up the stairs and leaving by the time he was up.

"Hey Esper, did you forget something" Robin asked, a concerned look on her face as she pretty mush ran past her to get out the front door. Esper gave a hurried nod as she ran out the front door, she didn't stop running. She ran all the way to the farm on the mountain path, to the back entrance and didn't stop until she was in her own front door. She slumped up against it as she shut it, beginning to cry. I'm such an idiot... she thought.

[wombatportrait]

I am mad they blocked this story and only let subscribers see it. But I busted through that wall. (It is a metaphor!) I copied it for you.

Liebe Grüße,

Donna

-

Painstaking: Alison Douglas at work. Pictures: Justine Walpole

It is an often overlooked but proven scientific fact that wombats have feelings too. Evolution did not, however, provide the humble wombat with the anatomical means to verbally express its feelings, or a natural place in which to do so. No coastal Buddhist wombat retreat, for example, where these quadrupedal marsupials might form trust circles to emotionally release themselves from the burden of playing second fiddle to the self-satisfied koala, or ponder the viciousness of the sociopathic dingo, or truly convey the overwhelming anxiety that sometimes makes a wombat just want to dig a hole in the ground and crawl deep inside. Stop the world, I want to waddle off.

Late November, 2016: Queensland Museum taxidermist and senior preparator Alison Douglas slips on a pair of surgical gloves as she pads through a basement room past a stack of arcing whale rib bones the size of two-person tent frames. She passes a large steel macerating tank where a long-deceased marine turtle is being boiled and stripped of gunk and grit before it’s transferred to a taxidermist’s table. She passes a freezer room filled with tagged specimens: “Echidnas”, “Prep birds”, “Possum”. Each animal’s tag contains details of where and when it was found. “You can have the most beautiful ­specimen in the world but if it doesn’t have its location and date then it’s useless to science,” Douglas says. ­Science needs the animal’s story.

She comes to a back room with a word fixed to its entry: “Skinning”. A stuffed ringtail possum sits on a perch in the corner of the room. A corkboard on the wall features detailed colour portraits of animals, and Post-it note messages between colleagues: “Cat skull for Caroline.” The room is lined with drawers with various tags speaking of their contents: “Red eyes”, “Yellow eyes”, “Paired brown eyes”. Drawers full of taxidermy patching fur. Another marked “Skins, Bones and Bits”.

There’s a dead animal beneath a sheet on Douglas’s stainless steel workbench. She removes the sheet slowly. It’s a common wombat. Brown fur, lumpy body, curled in a ball like it’s sleeping. “Here he is,” she says. “Tonka.”

She stands back and looks at that face. The bare nose. The serene eyes. The odd tenderness that emanates from the little guy, somehow soulful even in death. “He’s got such a beautiful face,” she says. “He looks like someone, doesn’t he?”

He does. Someone old and wise; someone you might have cared about. Someone with feelings.

“He just looks so peaceful,” she says. She takes a deep breath, feels the weight of the task before her. “Tonka’s not so important scientifically,” she says. “But he’s very important to people.”

Tonka the wombat had any number of reasons to feel sad throughout his short life. After his mum was killed by a car eight years ago, Tonka was rescued from her pouch and hand-reared by humans at Billabong Sanctuary, a native animal wildlife park near Townsville, north Queensland. Lacking the necessary smarts for the wild, Tonka was destined for a lifetime in captivity. But if he longed for life beyond the park enclosure he rarely let it show, rejoicing in the constant companionship of a ­loving team of rangers with whom he cuddled, played, walked, ate, napped. Some nights staff members would take him home to meet their families, prop him up on the living room couch with mum, dad and the kids, and settle in for another episode of The Block. Before long, Tonka the wombat became the park’s star attraction, dazzling groups at the morning and afternoon wombat shows with his charm and insatiable zest for life. Where some marsupials recoiled from the hugs of tourists, Tonka seemed to grow in spirit and confidence with every warm embrace. Male wombats wanted to be him, female wombats wanted to be with him.

Then, in early February 2011, Category 5 Cyclone Yasi tore through Billabong Sanctuary, smashing enclosures, destroying displays, uprooting trees. Miraculously no animals perished, but the park was closed for 10 weeks as an army of rangers and volunteers worked on the clear-up.

Tonka the wombat went off his food. No ­matter what the rangers placed in front of him, even his beloved carrots and sweet potato, he wouldn’t eat it. He dropped 20 per cent of his body weight in a matter of weeks. Just as alarmingly, he had suddenly retreated into himself. The wildly charismatic Austin Powers of the marsupial world inexplicably lost his mojo. It was as if Cyclone Yasi had blown away into ­oblivion and taken Tonka’s spark with it.

Park management consulted the best veterinary minds money could buy. They did blood tests, looked for internal damage, tested for disease and infection, checked his body for broken bones or bruising. Physically, there was nothing. So how to explain the reduced interest in once pleasurable activities, the loss of energy and slowed behaviour, the increased desire to sleep and the loss of appetite? The vets had nothing to offer, except to say bare-nosed wombats have feelings too. Tonka the wombat, it seemed, was living with clinical depression.

“He’s a bit chunky,” Douglas says, studying her subject on the metal workbench. “He’ll take a bit to thaw. He needs to be thawed out before we remove the skin. There’s no getting around that with taxidermy. You do have to skin the animal. It’s quite confronting – there’s blood and there’s guts and it’s kind of like a butcher’s shop in a way, especially with an animal of Tonka’s size.”

Douglas has worked as a taxidermist at Queensland Museum for 16 years, moving into it from a background in visual arts and props and puppet-making for theatre. “My interest is not in taxidermy as such; it’s very much museum taxidermy, for the purpose of conservation. It’s about teaching people about the animals. It is sometimes the only way of seeing these animals that you would otherwise never get up close to.”

A rustic leather case of medical tools is open on her workbench: scalpels, rat’s tooth tweezers for removing flesh from hard-to-reach places, ­pliers and scissors and wire cutters and fine metal scoops designed specifically for scooping the brains out of birds’ skulls. She has a selection of drill bits for working on the bones of larger animals and fixing specimens to wooden perches.

She studies Tonka on the bench. She will draw some sketches before she skins, capture the curve of his muscles, the sag of his body fat. “You’re ­trying to recreate the body shape that comes out of the animal,” she says. “You’re taking the skin off like a glove. The whole body comes out in one piece.” She moves closer to Tonka’s face. “There is something important about seeing him at this point,” she says. “I’m trying to preserve that face as much as possible.”

It was this face that was plastered under ­headlines around the world. “Wombat Diagnosed with Depression” wrote the Daily Mail. “Depressed Orphan Wombat” declared The Huffington Post. “Wombat Diagnosed with Clinical Depression” reported the Daily Mirror.

It seemed so absurd, a clinically depressed wombat. While scientists considered whether it was even possible, animal lovers across the social media world sent deep, life-affirming messages to the inexplicably gloomy bare-nosed wombat in Townsville, Queensland.“Focus on the little things, Tonka.”“Just keep waddling, Tonka, one paw at a time.”“Stars can’t shine without darkness, Tonka.”

“One hundred per cent, he had depression,” says Samm Sherman, a 27-year-old PhD candidate at James Cook University’s College of Science and Engineering, and the former Billabong Sanctuary wildlife carer who was closer to Tonka than anyone. Sherman documented her close friendship with Tonka through a series of Instagram images tagged “#bestfriendisawombat”.

“That wasn’t a joke,” she says. “It truly wasn’t a joke. He was my best friend. You can ask the ­people I worked with. They saw it. I loved him immediately when I saw him. He was just so ­special. I would take him for walks. I’d give him cuddles, a little chin scratch. I mean, I know we didn’t hang out all the time and it’s not like we’d go to the movies or anything, I’m not delusional, but if I was ever ­frustrated or stressed or anything I could go to him and give him a cuddle and I’d feel better. And… ummm… yeah.”

She pauses for a moment. “I miss him,” she says. She pauses for another moment. “Thanks for making me cry at work.”

Tina Janssen has spent the past decade ­running Safe Haven, a wombat research and rehabilitation centre in Mt Larcom, near Rockhampton. She was one of many experts Billabong Sanctuary ­consulted during Tonka’s downturn. “Yes, I think they can feel sadness,” she says. “Wombats are a very funny animal. They sulk. They don’t like change. That’s one of the big things with wombats. If you feed them, for example, at a certain time every day and then, all of a sudden, you change that, they will quite likely not eat.

“They’re really intelligent. People say, ‘Stubborn as a mule’ and I always say, ‘Well, you’ve never met a wombat’. They just dig in. And they get attachments. I have a captive-born wombat that I’ve cared for for 12 years and just recently I went away and for three nights she didn’t eat. If they have a square water bowl then you better bloody give them water in the square water bowl.”

Cyclone Yasi brought great change to Billabong Sanctuary. With the park’s rangers focused on the clean-up effort, Tonka’s daily routine was torn asunder. With no visitors for 10 weeks, he was denied his morning and afternoon wombat shows, something akin to Olivier being asked to wait ­forever in the wings at the Old Vic.

“He loved those shows,” Sherman says. “I would see him before the shows some days. He would be waiting at his gate, like, ‘Come on, let’s go people’.” The born entertainer. Tonka came alive before a gig. “He loved the cuddles from people. He needed the cuddles. I think it stemmed from not having a mum. But when the park was closed for a couple of months while they fixed everything up, there was no time for him to be cuddled.”

By the time the park was ready for its grand reopening, Tonka was considered too physically and emotionally fragile to resume the shows, and another wombat took his place. “When he saw the people, he walked up to the fence like [he was ­asking] ‘Why aren’t you picking me up for the show?’” Sherman says. “So one of the rangers took him out to meet people again. And, then, after his first cuddles he went back into his enclosure and started eating again. It genuinely was because he wasn’t getting his cuddles from people that he wasn’t eating.” Billabong Sanctuary’s star attraction was back, and so was Tonka’s self-esteem.

Valentine’s Day. Alison Douglas walks into her museum basement work room, past two cast and painted pythons and a taxidermy deer that’s been donated to the museum by a member of the public. She enters the skinning room, where Tonka waits on her workbench. He looks playful. She’s captured him at a typically spirited moment, tugging on the shoelace of a Billabong Sanctuary ranger. “He came together all right in the end,” Douglas says. “I wanted to show that he wasn’t just any wombat, he meant something more to people. I was trying to get that sense of fun and connection he had to anyone who came along.”

She worked on him over summer. His skin was put in a tanning solution for three weeks and washed. She cast his ears and the shape of his back. She cast his skull and rebuilt it with expanding foam, and gave him glass black eyes. The insides of his body and legs were painstakingly crafted from natural plant fibres and bound tightly with string. “He was quite a challenge because during his treatment [after death] he had patches of fur removed, which limited the choices of ­positions he could be in,” she says. “The patching wasn’t as straightforward as it usually would be because there wasn’t much to work with, but I’m happy with him.” Her time with Tonka has ended. Time to take him upstairs where others can enjoy his company. Time to say goodbye.

Samm Sherman remembers when she said goodbye to Tonka. It was June last year, and Tonka had been diagnosed with kidney failure. “I’m gonna tear up again,” she says, taking a breath. “I wasn’t working there anymore by then but I still visited quite often... And the last couple of days, when it seemed like he was really having a hard time of it, we’d go and he wasn’t really eating much but he ate a pear. He didn’t stand up for a bit but he ate this pear lying down. He didn’t usually eat pears but it was because it was soft and full of fluid. And then they told us they were going to take him to the vet to euthanise him.”

She pauses again. “That was the right call because there was nothing they could do,” she says. “He had irreversible kidney damage and his quality of life was really poor. He seemed really unhappy. A bunch of us went in and gave him some cuddles. And we said our goodbyes.”

She showered Tonka with nose kisses. She scratched him on the spot on his back where he loved being scratched and he curled up in her arms. She didn’t know what he was thinking but she had an idea of what he was feeling because she felt it too. “And I told him I loved him,” she says.

Sherman went home and waited for the world to hear the news of Tonka the wombat’s passing. She watched the hundreds of condolence messages land in Billabong Sanctuary’s Facebook page, messages from across the world.

Jill Halliday: “I didn’t even know what a wombat was before I cuddled the lovely Tonka. I know how sad we feel from meeting him once so it must be awful for everyone at Billabong Sanctuary.”

Linda Chillon: “I hope that you’ll find peace and happiness wherever you are.”

Crystal Allen: “Oh no, poor Tonka. My two youngest boys come to visit each school holidays and knew his story off by heart.”

Kerrianne Chappell: “Noooo! I don’t believe it. I don’t want to believe it!”

In the museum basement taxidermy room, ­Alison Douglas throws a half-smile at this perfect and still version of Tonka. Soon the great performer will be back where he belongs, in front of crowds of fawning strangers. Douglas is relieved. She wanted to do him justice. She hopes people see the same thing she sees when she looks at him now, something she was trying to capture, something beyond science, something more closely related to feelings.

“He was loved,” she says. “And they loved him because they knew him.”

Tonka and Alison ­Douglas will be part of the Let’s Talk Taxidermy event on March 24-25 at the World Science Festival in Brisbane. worldsciencefestival.com.au