#let the bald man experience horrors

[chamoemileclown]

i know Fit’s meeting with Madagio on friday won’t go well and i’m honestly eagerly anticipating it

[petrichor-idyllic]

@lu-thinkingstuff I accidentally deleted the original ask (and the entire fuckin fic I'd nearly finished along with it) so have a screenshot of your ask I managed to keep. Sorry.

I'm writing this as a standalone piece, but it can be read as a prequel to quite a few of my pieces if you please.

INDOCTRINATION

MASTERLIST | MINHO MASTERLIST

SUMMARY: See above. I know the request is fem!reader, but I guess this can be read as gender neutral since I don't think I used any pronous to refer to you, apart from you obviously lmao. Follows no cannon events. I am making this shit up. Can be read as a prequel to "Life before Drowning", any other of my fitting work, or as a standalone. Whatever ya want. References to the simulation sky that's in the books - if you're reading this as a movie fic, then let's pretend this is a failed WICKED experiment.

WARNINGS: Inappropriate language, annoying WICKED shenanigans, traumatised children, Ratman.

You met Minho when you were seven. Maybe eight.

The last few weeks had been a blur of chaos you can barely remember. With the Flare finally taking its victims in your hometown, families flocked to their last resort, donating their children to WICKED.

Most children weren't picked.

Of course, they weren't. Most children aren't immune. The occasional normal child was also plucked from the masses and swept away from the warmth of their families to the cold, white walls of WICKED's laboratories. But that was rare, and they were only ever valued as a control variable in whatever twisted experiments they took part in.

Not that you ever knew that.

The potential horrors didn't matter to most parents; yours included. Mothers and Fathers desperately passing their remaining blood to men in masks in hopes of saving their loved ones. There really wasn't much choice.

You were given even less choice as you were one of the lucky ones to be picked.

A white room became your home for several weeks. They made you forget your parents - those parents who willingly passed you into Ava Paige's custody in hopes you'd have at least a fleeting chance of survival on the infected planet.

They took your name, too. Your personality. The few memories you'd managed to develop so young. All of it; gone.

You were almost in a state of shock when they finally said you could leave your pristine tiled prison cell.

Following your capture through the endless high-tech halls and flawless clean corridors, you reach a large dining hall. Several long tables fill the room, along with the high-pitched chattering voices of children. The kids vary in age - some older, some younger, but that doesn't matter. They're all talking.

"Grab your food and find a seat." The booming, hollow voice of the balding man in a labcoat reaches your ears, and you can't even begin to process what he's saying.

"W-what?" Your voice is barely a whisper as you squeak out a response.

"Join the queue, and then find somewhere to sit. Your lunch break doesn't last long." He gives you no chance to ask anything else as he turns and walks back down the corridor. Leaving you with very little choice but to continue into the room.

Getting the food is the easy bit; a tray full of a passing excuse for food and a small cup of juice. Finding somewhere to sit is the problem. You mindlessly search for an empty seat, though your gaze mainly lingers on the masked individuals lining the room; armed and dangerous.

"Psst. Don't stare. They don't like it when you stare."

Your head snaps towards a voice. An Asian boy, about your age, leans over the table top, hand cupped around his mouth as he whisper-yells at you, like he's pretending to be subtle.

"...What?" You stare back at him as a grin creeps across his face as he sits back down.

"Those freaks? Duh? Don't stare at 'em. They'll snap at you." When you don't respond, the boy starts to sense your unease. "...You gonna sit down or what?" He vaguely gestures to the empty space on the bench across from him. It takes you a second to move, but he seems relieved when you do. "You got a name?"

"Uh, (Y/N)... I think."

"You think?" He scoffs as you struggle to get your leg over the slightly wobbly bench. You think it's wobbly, or maybe you're shaking too much; it's hard to tell.

"Well, yeah - that's not my real name, is it?" Your response leaves the boy unsure how to react. You're... not wrong.

"Huh. I guess. I'm Minho." He says with a grin. "And even if it ain't my real name, they made a good choice. It suits me, right?"

For the first time since you'd arrived, you find yourself smiling. Minho is charming, for a kid. He's already got an air of confidence about him, which is almost reassuring in this situation.

"Yeah," you giggle, "I guess it does suit you."

And that is how you met Minho. Reckless, cocky, funny, brilliant Minho. And by brilliant, I mean he is a brilliantly bad influence.

It's not like you got to see him very often - just over lunch and the rare breaks you both got at the same time. But when you did, it was always fun. You even developed a little group, mainly including Minho's friends - he has enough charisma for both of you.

The first time Minho snuck into your room, you were eleven.

It's the middle of the night, the faint sounds of footsteps from WICKED guards echoing through the small white room you reside in at nights. It's all background noise, now, you barely even notice it as you drift off to sleep.

Until the loud clattering of the vent hitting the floor makes you jump out of your skin, shooting up in bed.

"...shit." Minho murmurs as he peers into your room.

"Minho?" You whisper-yell at the sudden intrusion. "What the hell are you doing?"

"I couldn't sleep." He responds, matching your tone as he attempts to clamber out of the vent and onto the safety on the floor below.

"So, you decided to break into my room?" You climb out of bed, coming to assist your best friend as he slides down your wall.

"Yeah. Figured I'd give you a visit."

You cross your arms, eyebrow cocked as you glare at your friend. "Are you insane? We're gonna get in so much trouble if you get caught." You grumble at him, swallowing your initial shock (and your small smile thanks to his presence.)

"So? What are they gonna do?" Minho dusts himself off. "Make me train more? Poke me with another needle? However shall I cope?" His sarcasm results in another eye roll from you, but you can't help but chuckle as you shove him, playfully - but warning.

"They could lock you in your room for a week." A beat passes. "Again."

"Great." He grins. "Means I get some peace. Sleep away my problems."

"You're such a dick."

"You love me, really." He flashes you another signature cocky grin.

You don't even dignify that with a response. "What exactly are we doing then? Just... hanging out in my room?"

Minho hesitates, then looks back at the vent, then you again as a sly smile slowly creeps across his face. "I think I have a better idea."

And that is how you end up crawling through a vent in the middle of the night, and following your chaotic friend through the facility. Minho is a lot calmer than you are; cracking jokes, whistling and generally being a cocky little shit. You, however, are hissing at him every thirty seconds to shut the fuck up.

Somehow, you both stumble into a vacant hall. Well, Minho dragged you through another vent and whilst he gracefully jumped down, you fell in a heap on the floor.

"Christ-" you grumble as you dust yourself off, looking around the room. It's dark, unusually so - the only light creeping in from under the locked door to the room from the buzzing halogen bulbs. "Where are we?"

Despite your low tone, Minho doesn't do much to hide his voice. "Dunno. Damn - this place is huge!" The boy chuckles to himself, dragging his hand across the wall to navigate, the sound of his words, and comfort, creeping away from your reach.

"Minho-" you say into the void, further panic swelling in your gut.

"Yo, I think I found a light switch."

Before you can object that this is a bad idea, there's a hollow click, quickly follow by a binding light.

You weren't expecting it; expecting the same dull bulbs that consume the WICKED labs. But what you get is anything but.

The entire ceiling springs to life, imitating the bright blue of the sky you haven't seen since you found yourself in WICKED's custody.

"Holy shit-" Minho gawks upwards as he stares, too, finally in your line of sight.

The fake sky is scarily realistic - the glow of the sun, the faint fluffy clouds floating across the screen. You're not even sure you could call it a screen, honestly. There's not lines, or glitches or lagging from the technology. It looks so real. Like you could reach out and feel the damp clouds through your fingers, the heat of the sun on your skin.

You look at Minho, who looks at you at the same time. Both of you have no words; how could you? But your silence and exchanges looks say everything words could - what the actual fuck is this?

"...this is.." Minho starts, losing himself quickly.

"..beautiful." You finish for him.

"I was gonna say freaky." He responds, earning a chuckle from you as you wander into the middle of the room. "Hey, there's other buttons-" He says, gesturing to the control panel on the wall that he originally assumed was a light switch.

With the click of his fingers, dark clouds start to fill the fake-sky, creating a dimmer, more stormy atmosphere. But there's no rain. Just clouds.

Those seem to be the only two weather modes as Minho keeps switching between the two. Cloudy and sunny. It's definitely not quite advanced enough to imitate the real thing.

"Look- there's a time monitor." Minho mumbles as he moves a slider. The sky dims, as bright sunset colours fill the ceiling before it creeps into dusk, and then into a series of bright stars.

Minho's goofy grin says enough as he moves away from the controls, joining you in the middle of the room. You barely even notice him until he's crouching the lie on the floor.

"What are you doing?" You raise an eyebrow at him as he moves to lay on his back, looking up.

"Star-gazing, duh. What does it look like?" He says as he smiles at you, before gesturing for you to join him.

"We're gonna get caught-"

"Will you relax?" He chuckles, leaning up on his arms. "When are we ever gonna get a chance to do this for real? Might aswell enjoy it whilst we have the chance."

"It's fake." You cross your arms defiantly.

"Still pretty. Still better than our boring white rooms." He retorts. "C'mon."

You sighs, but relent as you move to lay next to him.

He's right. It really is pretty. The mimic stars sparkle and flutter, and suddenly the labs and the experiments feel worlds away, even if your escape is an extention of your captives skills.

Minho suddenly starts chuckling.

"What? What's so funny?" You say, turning your head to look at him.

"Nothing." He shrugs. "Just thinkin' that if Thomas was here, he'd probably be telling us about all those star thingies."

"...star thingies?"

"Yeah. You know? Those... stars that are, like, in a pattern."

"...constellations?" You can't help the amused smile creeping across your face at your friends ignorance.

"Yeah- those. They got names don't they?" Minho turns to look at you. "Thomas is such a dork. He'd know all of them."

You shake your head as you look back up at the ceiling, but Minho keeps looking at you.

"We should tell the others." You say, not noticing his gaze.

"What?"

"About this room. Newt and Sonya would love this."

"I thought you didn't want to get caught?" He chuckles and you roll your eyes.

"Yeah- but this is cool. They should see it."

A beat passes as Minho continues to look at you. "Nah."

"Nah?" You look at him, surprised by this. He's rebellious and fiery and is normally the first to drag everyone into schemes and fun despite the risks.

"Nah... this is... ours." He says, smiling softly at you, before he shifts slightly to slips his fingers between yours, looking back up. "Just ours."

And that's what it became.

At least once a week, you and Minho would sneak around and into this secret special room. You'd spend hours talking and messing around, and somehow, you didn't get caught. Or maybe some of the kinder WICKED people were turning a blind eye to two kids enjoying themselves.

Who knows.

It was like this for about a year. Maybe a year and a half.

But, things took a turn.

Minho was starting to revieve praise for his athleticism. He became one of the most physically capable subjects, and it was impossible to get him away from a rigged-up treadmill. So, by the end of the day, he was exhausted. Too tired to be crawling around vents with you.

You were thirteen, maybe fourteen when Minho ended up crawling though your vents again.

Hearing the familiar noise, you're out of your bed before he's even here, your bare feet already on the cold floor as he appears.

"Minho-?"

"I know. I know." He grumbles. "I'm sorry." He says, before you can even get so much as a word in, and it leaves you stunned.

"For what?"

"For like... not being here. For neglecting you, I guess." He shrugs as he runs a hand through his hair.

"Neglect-?" You cut yourself off. "Dude, they've been working you to the bone. You don't have to apologise."

He sighs, seemingly of relief. "Yeah, well, I still feel like a dick. You're my best friend."

"Well, you're here now." You attempt to reassure him. "We can go back to the sky room."

He shakes his head. "Nah. I was thinking we could go exploring." He flashes that damn grin at you again.

"...exploring?" You raise a brow, crossing your arms.

"Yeah. Yanno- like me, Newt and Thomas used to do."

"I never joined in with that."

"Well- you should've. And we were exploring when we found the sky room, so you're no so innocent." He chuckles, and you can't help but admit he's right. Yet, he continues at your hesitation. "Look, we found that room by chance. Surely there's more cool and interesting things to find. I'm getting bored of looking at the same fake sky everyday."

Something in that comment stings. You'd never gotten bored of that pretend sky. Maybe because you'd always been with him - and you could never get bored of him.

"C'mon." He drags out the syllable. "One night of exploration. Just one. Who knows how far they'll be making me run from now on. Better take the chance whilst you have it."

You playfully shove him at this. "...fine. One time only. Okay?"

"Okay." He smiles. "Let's go."

So, once again, you find yourself creeping around the sleeping facility with your far too confident best friend.

Though, when Minho reaches a locked door, you would've never expected him to slip an excess card out of his shoe, swiping it into the card reader.

"What? Where did you get that?" You hiss, wide-eyed and stunned.

"Some dumb lab-coat dude left it on the side. So, I picked it up. Finders, keepers." He says as he pushes the door open.

Sneaky around is one thing, finding hidden rooms through vents - but stealing an ID card is something else. You're literally never going to see each other again if you get caught. Not that you get chance to voice your concerns as Minho walks into the room.

This sinking feeling creeps into your gut, yet, you can't find it in yourself to tell Minho. What if he really is starting to find you boring? Being whiney to him about this would only confirm that. You don't need him getting closer with someone else, especially not the flocks of girls in the dining hall who have started taking interest in the boy since he started his physical training.

Okay. Maybe this is creeping beyond friendship. It was years ago, but you're always thinking about the way he held your hand the first time you found that room. How it was just yours. Your special place, just for the two of you. And he doesn't want to go there anymore?

You've never felt so insecure.

So, you keep quiet.

The first room is full of labelled chemicals you don't understand.

The second is full of strange, clouded tubes, with slimy, creatures with metal arms. Even Minho was eager to leave that one - to remain ignorant for his own bliss, pulling you along once you stop to stare into the tubes. You suspect Thomas mentioned something to him. Thomas has always been Ava's favourite.

Though, the third is far less scary. It's a office - well, more like a small library with a computer and a desk. Filing cabinets liter the walls with endless documents.

Minho lets out a low whistle. "A computer." He grins, casually sliding into the office chair as he starts fiddling with the computer. Having most of the common sense in this friendship, you've assumed that the computer is password locked.

Which is confirmed by Minho's hushed cursing.

So, you start looking through the documents in the drawers. A lot of them are medical files and general testing that you don't really understand.

Though, a few documents contain blueprints and titles such as "the Maze Trails" and "The Scorch Trails". They're detailed and confusing.

"Minho-" you gets his attention, passing him the notes as he's distracted from the computer, a puzzled expression crossing his face as he looks through them.

He doesn't get much time to comment as you find another interesting drawer; labelled "Subjects."

Flicking through a few, you recognise the pictures of the people you've spent the last few years with. Teresa. Thomas. Gally.

You stumble upon Minho's- grinning at his awful mugshot style photo. A7. The Leader. They've already got him marked down pretty faithfully.

Though, something consistent through all the documents is the phrase "status: Immune." Something about that stands out to you, for some reason.

That is until you reach Newt's file.

Staus: Nonimmune. Control Variable.

Nonimmune?

Nonimmune.

"Uh, Minho-?"

"These maps are insane." He mumbles, still examining the blueprints. "Do you reckon these are those big plans Thomas is always yapping about?" He picks his head up to look at you, noticing your face drop, concern written throughout your features. "What? What is it?"

"...we're all immune to the Flare, right? That's why they're testing us. To find a cure?" You don't even look up at him.

"Yeah..? Why else would we be here?" His grin is there, same as always, but now it's uneasy and uncertain. You look at him, before walking over and slapping Newt's file onto the table.

It takes him a moment to catch on, but when he does, his face drops, and he just looks at you.

Before any words are exchanged, footsteps can be heard from down a corridor.

"Shit-" you both scramble, collecting all the papers and stuffing them in whatever drawer they came from (or whichever is closest.)

It's a mad dash to get out of the room - adrenaline and fear coursing through you both. You didn't even find your own file.

Are you immune? Could the Flare get you?

Little do you know, Minho is internally freaking out over the same thing.

In your panic, your silence evades you, which alerts whatever guard was prowling the building.

"Quick! Up here!" Minho commands as he struggles to open a vent, giving you a leg up before yanking himself up the wall and diving in.

You don't even know where you're crawling to, you're just trying to rush away. But, eventually, it goes quiet, only the sounds of yours and Minho's panting in the small vent system.

"We have to tell Newt." You say, managing to turn in the small space to face him. Minho hesitates for a moment, but nods.

Of course you have to tell him.

"Yeah, at lunch, tomorrow. We'll tell him. But right now, we have to get back to our rooms. They'll be checking." You nod in agreement. "Let's get you back first."

Minho has a far better memory than you, leading you back to the safety of the room before he turns to navigate the way back to his.

"Minho-" you say, turning to look at him once your feet hut the floor, a sense of dread overwhelming you.

"..yeah?"

You can only look at him. There's so much you want to say, but none of it want to come out. Some deep gut feeling screams at you that this is the end, but you tell yourself you're being silly.

His blank expression pushes you to talk, though.

"Just.. be careful."

He offers a warm smile, but rolls his eyes. "Yeah, yeah. I'll be fine. Don't worry about me. See you at lunch tomorrow."

Your attempt to mimic his expression falls flat as he shimmies back into the vent and on his way.

You didn't know how accurate your instincts would be.

The next day, you make your way to the lunch hall. You're late- your lab testing ended up being longer than possible. But when you enter the dining hall, Minho's absence is quickly noted.

Though, you do spot Newt. Maybe Minho's running has gone overtime, again?

"Newt-" you shout him, jogging across the hall. "Have you seen Minho? We need to talk to you."

Newt doesn't even have to say anything as he glances at Thomas, whose eyes are burning into the table in front of him. There's some sense of desperation in Newt's expression, mixed with grief and regret, but like he can't say anything.

It makes your stomach flip and your heart stop as you open your mouth to speak, but you don't get any sound out.

"(Y/N)." Janson's annoying voice sends a chill down your spine as you turn to look at him. Two guards stand by his sides, his forced grimace doesn't reach his cold, unforgiving gaze. "I need a word."

Janson gestures for you to walk with him and you swallow a lump in your throat. Your first instinct is to run. Like Minho thought you. But in a room full of people? It's not like your quiet escapades in the middle of the night.

Your feet are like concrete as you force yourself to walk towards him.

Janson walks in front of you, the guards behind you. You're trapped, and even if you did run, that wouldn't change anything as he leads you into a room. It's a room you're familiar with.

It's where you have one-on-one progress conversations with Janson to discuss how you're doing. Minho spent more time in here than you ever did, but that doesn't mean the confines space doesn't fill you with anxiety, even in normal circumstances.

You take your place in the cold chair as Janson sits across from you, the slab of metal that is meant to be a table keeping you separated feels like a godsend. Though, not much of one with the guards breathing down your neck.

"...Where's Minho?" You manage to croak, attempting to mimic your missing friends confidence.

"He's been dealt with." Janson says, and your blood runs cold.

"What- what does that mean?"

"I'm sure you already know what that means. From your adventures last night." The world stops.

You knew.

You knew it was a bad idea and your own insecurities led you to keeping your mouth shut and hiding away from your concerns. What? Because of a stupid crush? Your own feelings of inadequacy have led to Minho's demise. And it's soul-crushing.

"I-I don't understand." You words falter, any false confidence quickly shattering.

"It's a shame. Really. It is." Janson nods as he leans forward, his elbows on the table. "We let yours and Subject A7's strange relationship slide because it was showing promising results. New waves in the Killzone we were examining. I knew we should've stopped it." He sighs. "...and now, you know too much."

"Where is he?" You spit, fists clenched, unused adrenaline causing you to tremble.

"I told you." Janson hisses. "You already know. But don't worry. You're not going to remember any of this." Janson nods towards the guards.

"What-" your words catch at a sharp sting in the side of your neck as one of the masked-men injects a burning liquid into you. You gasp, grasping the side of your neck. "What have you done?"

Your words slur slightly as a dull buzz fizzles into your vision, your head feeling light.

"My job." Janson leans back as he watches you sway in your seat. "What was always going to happen."

You can't even respond as your limp body slips out of the seat, and your consciousness leaves you before you even hit the floor.

WHOOP WHOOP. 1K BABYYYYY.

I guess this is my 1k follower post - and it's angst. That's typical of me. Sorry for the massive gap since I last posted something, but everyone's support has given me a drive to write. Well, at least finish writing this. Sorry if its not everything you wanted, but I've always felt there's something so much sadder about not getting that chance to say goodbye to someone, and things fizzing out instead of a bang.

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed :)

[miss-nerd-alert]

My thoughts on Last Voyage of the Demeter:

In short, it was an excellently made film and a wonderful adaptation of one of my favorite books. I don’t normally enjoy horror movies, but I was genuinely impressed, even while scared out of my mind. This movie is an homage to not just the original story, but to previous incarnations of one of pop culture’s most iconic characters. If you’re a fan of good horror films, Bram Stoker’s original novel, or even just good movies, I highly recommend you give this one a watch.

More in-depth musings under the cut for both spoilers and mention of horror movie violence.

Dracula’s design and direction were excellent; a great blend of Nosferatu and Bela Lugosi. While the actual character design more closely resembles Nosferatu with the bald head, pointed ears, and mouthful of sharp teeth, this is by no means a near-mindless beast. The rare times you get a proper look at his face there’s a clear and obvious intelligence to him. He’s a hunter toying with his prey, and he visibly enjoys playing with his food. Dracula is well and truly inhuman, however, complete with batlike wings that are used to mimic the form and function of Bela Lugosi’s iconic cape. One particular moment that squicked me personally was when the boy Toby was locked in the cabin with him. At first you don’t even realize he’s there, since he’s curled into a ball to make himself as small as possible. But then he stands, calm and cool as you please, and the way he does so is as far from natural as you can get. It’s like watching a corpse jump up and dance. They also did a good job at selling the hunger, especially when he makes his first kill; he looks gaunt and emaciated, and acts almost desperate, like he’s faint from hunger as he lured in his prey so he can go for the kill.

I liked the character Anna quite a bit. It makes sense that he’d bring someone along with him to keep fed, especially once the characters realize the only reason he hasn’t just killed them all by now is because he needs them to manage the ship and last until they actually make it to England. Anna’s the only character who has any idea what they’re dealing with, since she grew up in the shadow of Dracula’s castle, but she doesn’t know everything. She’s not made some badass vampire hunter thanks to what she knows, but she remains a capable and proactive character regardless. Would’ve loved to get more of her thoughts on her village selling her to the monster they fear, but her hatred of Dracula himself is a good start.

Clemens was also a character I enjoyed quite a bit. I had expected him to mention racial prejudice, but it wasn’t just empty lip service like so many other films have done. The character’s experiences fueled his desire to understand the world, and his drive to not let prejudice defeat him was admirable. He was also a wonderfully gentle character, and his interactions with Anna and Toby were so genuinely sweet and heartwarming.

Liam Cunningham was a fantastic casting choice for Captain Elliot. He perfectly encapsulated the nobility of the captain from the original novel, even with as little as we see of the character in the book. Hearing the early log entries spoken verbatim in the film was a genuine delight. My only criticism comes from very late in the film, where Elliot is denied his most iconic line from the novel. We still get the spirit of it when he says he’ll steer the ship out to sea to ensure Dracula can’t escape, but hearing such a wonderful actor actually say “I am captain, and I must not leave my ship” would’ve been the most brilliant thing. I am also disappointed that they changed the context of the captain being tied to the wheel; making it Dracula showing off instead of a doomed man desperately doing what little he can to preserve his honor and soul was honestly such a downgrade, and a disservice to the character of Captain Elliot.

True to the original text, the horror is more in the buildup than in the violence itself, though there’s still plenty of the latter. Stefan Kapičić legit deserves an award for his performance in this movie, I’ve never been so scared in my life. The image of his bloodied and battered face, empty eyes staring blankly just before he attacks Clemons still haunts me, and I don’t think I’ll ever forget the terror of his scene with Toby.

[monsooninn]

Berakhot 2b: 14-15. "Hair."

The Gemara we just performed says while we are working past slavery to our parents, past puberty and slavery to hormones, the rites of citizenship, employment and partnership, we get closer and closer to Ha Shem. This section reveals what it means to actually be Ha (close) and Shem (omniscient) at the same time:

14. And oh, the saying of a poor man and a priest is one, Rabbi Hanina is Rabbi Yehoshua!

15. But let him hear the name of the Deacon's barley separately and the priest's barley separately, hear Mina's name.

Hanina and Yehoshua, "to bear down on one's youthful parts" and become Joshua, liberated, is the moment man and God "hammer the soul out of the silver", AKA Mina's Name.

Hot and romantic, romantic and hot at the same time. But there is a catch...those unwanted hairs...

In v. 15 the Rebbe says the barley, seora one's "hairiness" plays a role. Hairiness in Judaism is complicated. The simple explanation is, when a boy starts to get hairy, this is a sign of future trouble if the boy is not tamed. Once he is tamed, "pasture raised" as the Torah says, the processes of self-determination and other identification become complete.

When girls get hairy we know what happens, they become lesbians, use drugs, and get pregnant.

But when boys get hairy, if they are not tamed with an highly ethical training course they will become big and strong, odoriforous and violent.

Hair care in Judaism is a sign of maturity and sophistication, it is also a sign of vanity.

According to the Torah, too much hair on the head, the face, under the arms, between the legs, etc. is a sign of poor class, ignorance and savagery. Everything has to be clip clipped here, clip clipped there.

During certain rituals the Torah says it all has to come off except on the head in order to induce the false appearance of youth, humility, and submission before God during Temple proceedings. See Parsha B'haalotkha.

Baldness is a sign of arrogance, ignorance and blasphemy.

Hair growth is also associated with the pin point tip of a random thought, which like a hair needn't be thick to grow long and long and turn into a habit:

"The general root שער (s'r) appears to primarily express intense negative emotion or the experience of violence. Curiously, it also yields words that have to do with hair.

Noun שער (se'ar) means hair or hairdo, and noun שערה (sa'ara) denotes a single hair. The derived denominative verb שער (sa'ar) would literally mean to be hairy or "hairish" but in fact is solely used to mean to be very afraid.

Taking the liberty to back-engineer this verb yields the observation that a single hair would have to be associated with a single fear, a full head of hair with lots of concerns, and a bald pate with either a stoic mastery or else a blissfully empty head.

Noun שער (sa'r), means horror. Adjective שעיר (sa'ir) means hairy. Noun שעיר (sa'ir) denotes a he-goat (a bristly guy or a fear guy?) and its feminine counterpart שעירה (sa'ira) means she-goat. Noun שערה (se'ora) means barley, the bearded grain.

Verb שער (sa'ar) means to sweep or whirl away, usually in relation to a storm wind. Nouns שער (sa'ar) and its feminine counterpart שערה (se'ara) mean storm. These words also occur in an alternative spelling, namely as the verb סער (sa'ar), to storm, and nouns סער (sa'ar) and סערה (seara), storm.

In the Middle Ages, scholars began to add dots and points to the Scriptures. All previous words they equipped with a dot on the left tooth of the letter ש, hence שׂ (sin), whereas the following words were spelled with a dot to the right, hence שׁ (shin). To the original authors and the first thousand years of their readers, this difference did not exist.

Verb שער (sha'ar) exists in other languages with the meaning of to break, tear through or split, which obviously repeats the general theme of the experience of violence. The adjective שער (sho'ar) means horrid or disgusting, and nouns שערורה (sha'arura), שערוריה (sha'aruriya) and שעררית (sha'arurit) denote horror or horrible things.

Much more neutral are the nouns שער (sha'ar), gate, and שער (sho'er), gatekeeper or porter.

These words suggests that the ancients associated a hair emerging from skin to traffic emerging from a city gate, like words flowing from an overfilled heart. This in turn suggests that when a grieving person pulls his or her hair out, he or she becomes silent with grief.

The verb שער (sha'ar) is also used to mean to calculate or reckon, obviously with an emphasis on the verbal conveyance of something internally experienced. Noun שער (sha'ar) is also used to mean "fold" in the sense of "a hundred fold."

Watching over the hair brings us back to the idea of the Shorer. How we maintain the appearance of the body and the appearance of the interior of the mind determine the intregrity of the filament of Ha Shem that connects the self to the Self.

To thread oneself through the Other and into all extant phenomena, through mature adult orgasm in particular as the Mishnah states is the most expedient way.

The Gematria for the verses above follows:

v. 14: The Value in Gematria is 2863, ב‎חו‎ג‎, in the circle. Everyone who reads the Torah and attempts to attain to Shabbat, to try to find their Jewishness is considered a family member. Some will be considered more like distant family members than close relatives, but anyone who believes in God and follows the Law is included.

We like to think of Judaism and the Torah as items on an a la carte menu but the opposite is true. Everyone has to touch upon and be touched by some kind of Jewishness to be included "in the circle of God."

The process starts with Bereshit, Adam and Eve, etc. why and how the human race found its way out of the jungle into fashionable skyrise apartment living because of evolutionary pressure imposed upon it by the God of Israel duiring ancient times

About this there should be very little doubt. Life has more or less turned out well for us, unless you consider all the violence around us these days to be a drawback.

v. 15: A Deacon in Judaism is on the same level as the temple janitor and cannot bless barley, so a Deacon's barley (Torah Instruction) is not kosher. Deacons are young persons who are growing fast under the guidance of a temple priest, a Kohen, who can bless the barley.

Obviously one would not take the advice of a Deacon for much of anything, they are too hairy or not hairy enough, depending on their understanding of the Torah.

The Value in Gematria is 4591, דהטא‎‎, "data". An opinion becomes fact once it is merged with the evidence. So a Deacon is someone rife with opinions and theories, the priest has direct experience with the evidence and has the final word. This matches the explanation of the meaning of barley hair in the Religion.

The best way to have good hair is to heed the writing in the Torah and obey the law, which says "violence is disgusting."

[autolovecraft]

I believe his eye-for-an-eye fury could beat old Father Death himself.

It was generally stated that the affliction and shock were results of an unlucky slip whereby Birch had locked himself for nine hours in the receiving tomb of Peck Valley; and was a very calloused and primitive specimen even as such specimens go. As he planned, he could not shake clear of the unknown grasp which held his feet in relentless captivity. Sawyer was not a lovable man, and many stories were told of his almost inhuman vindictiveness and tenacious memory for wrongs real or fancied. I'll never get the picture out of my head as long as I live. It is doubtful whether he was touched at all by the horror and exquisite weirdness of his position, but the bald fact of imprisonment so far from the tomb. His drinking, of course, only aggravated what it was meant to alleviate. Would the firm Fenner casket have caved in so readily? Would the firm Fenner casket have caved in so readily? He was curiously unelated over his impending escape, and almost dreaded the exertion, for his form had the indolent stoutness of early middle age. He had, it seems, planned in vain when choosing the stoutest coffin for the right grave. His frightened horse had gone home, but his frightened wits never quite did that. But it would be well to say as little as could be said, and to let no other doctor treat the wounds. There was nothing like a ladder in the tomb. There was evidently, however, the high, slit-like transom in the brick facade gave promise of possible enlargement to a diligent worker; hence upon this his eyes long rested as he racked his brains for means to reach it. The air had begun to be exceedingly unwholesome; but to this detail he paid no attention as he toiled, half by feeling, at the heavy and corroded metal of the latch. Just where to begin Birch's story I can hardly decide, since I am no practiced teller of tales. Horrible pains, as of savage wounds, shot through his calves; and in his mind was a vortex of fright mixed with an unquenchable materialism that suggested splinters, loose nails, or some other attribute of a breaking wooden box. I'll never get the picture out of my head as long as I live.

Clutching the edges of the aperture, he sought to drain from the weakened undertaker every least detail of his horrible experience. On the afternoon of Friday, April 15th, then, Birch set out for the tomb with horse and wagon to transfer the body of Matthew Fenner. As he remounted the splitting coffins he felt his weight very poignantly; especially when, upon reaching the topmost one, he heard that aggravated crackle which bespeaks the wholesale rending of wood. Birch that night he had taken a lantern and gone to the old receiving tomb. Another might not have relished the damp, odorous chamber with the eight carelessly placed coffins; but Birch in those days was insensitive, and professionally undesirable; yet I still think he was not perfectly sober, he subsequently admitted; though he had not then taken to the wholesale drinking by which he later tried to forget certain things. He cried aloud once, and a little later gave a gasp that was more terrible than a cry. Birch, but you always did go too damned far! In time the hole grew so large that he ventured to try his body in it now and then, shifting about so that the narrow ventilation funnel in the top ran through several feet of earth, making this direction utterly useless to consider. Being without superstition, he did not heed the day at all; though ever afterward he refused to do anything of importance on that fateful sixth day of the week. He always remained lame, for the great tendons had been severed; but I think the greatest lameness was in his soul. It may have been just fear, and it may have been mocking. The skull turned my stomach, but the bald fact of imprisonment so far from the daily paths of men was enough to exasperate him thoroughly. For an impersonal doctor, Davis' ominous and awestruck cross-examination became very strange indeed as he sought to drain from the weakened undertaker every least detail of his horrible experience. That was Darius Peck, the nonagenarian, whose grave was also near by; but actually postponed the matter for three days, not getting to work till Good Friday, the 15th. I believe his eye-for-an-eye fury could beat old Father Death himself. As he remounted the splitting coffins he felt his weight very poignantly; especially when, upon reaching the topmost one, he heard that aggravated crackle which bespeaks the wholesale rending of wood.

For an impersonal doctor, Davis' ominous and awestruck cross-examination became very strange indeed as he sought to drain from the weakened undertaker every least detail of his horrible experience. Never did he knock together flimsier and ungainlier caskets, or disregard more flagrantly the needs of the rusty lock on the tomb door which he slammed open and shut with such nonchalant abandon. He was merely crass of fiber and function—thoughtless, careless, and liquorish, as his easily avoidable accident proves, and without that modicum of imagination which holds the average citizen within certain limits fixed by taste. But it would be well to say as little as could be said, and to use it when Asaph Sawyer died of a malignant fever. Dusk fell and found Birch still toiling.

Perhaps he screamed. He cried aloud once, and a hammer and chisel selected, Birch returned over the coffins to the door. As he planned, he could not shake clear of the unknown grasp which held his feet in relentless captivity.

Birch had felt no compunction in assigning the carelessly made coffin which he now pushed out of the enlarged transom; but gathered his energies for a determined try. His thinking processes, once so phlegmatic and logical, had become ineffaceably scarred; and it was pitiful to note his response to certain chance allusions such as Friday, Tomb, Coffin, and words of less obvious concatenation. Would the firm Fenner casket have caved in so readily? That he was not an evil man. Birch in those days was insensitive, and professionally undesirable; yet I still think he was not an evil man. He was curiously unelated over his impending escape, and almost dreaded the exertion, for his form had the indolent stoutness of early middle age. He would have given much for a lantern or bit of candle; but lacking these, bungled semi-sightlessly as best he might. The tower at length finished, and his body responding with that maddening slowness from which one suffers when chased by the phantoms of nightmare. I thought! In another moment he knew fear for the first time that night; for struggle as he would, he could not shake clear of the unknown grasp which held his feet in relentless captivity. He had, indeed, made that coffin for Matthew Fenner; but had cast it aside at last as too awkward and flimsy, in a fit of curious sentimentality aroused by recalling how kindly and generous the little old man had been to him during his bankruptcy five years before. Finally he decided to lay a base of three parallel with the wall, to place upon this two layers of two each, and upon these a single box to serve as the platform. The narrow transom admitted only the feeblest of rays, and the overhead ventilation funnel virtually none at all; though ever afterward he refused to do anything of importance on that fateful sixth day of the week.

Sawyer in their last illnesses. The practices I heard attributed to him would be unbelievable today, at least in a city; and even Peck Valley would have shuddered a bit had it known the easy ethics of its mortuary artist in such debatable matters as the ownership of costly laying-out apparel invisible beneath the casket's lid, and the source of a task whose performance deserved every possible stimulus.

[shauntaakeshauntaake]

shauntaake world trynna show u shauntaake million story's

shauntaake cryang shauntaake eye’s out right now shauntaake whites haunt the devil/ken/shauntaake in the worst way listen to the heavens hell music is a beautiful horror shauntaake like ths shauntaake have shauntaake monster man voice days shauntaake million days it’s funny hw everythang u thought was sooooo deeeep aint that deep u really have to live & experience real hell in order to be that deeeeeeeeeep u mutherfuckers a walk in a good park u wll never in a million years be the devil/shauntaake purple heart s(war)ovski crystal castles shauntaake’s remastered shauntaake’s the white orchestra shauntaake sawrovski crystal purple heart all of the wars shauntaake fought the asians also heavy in their rock mountains laukang for crystals in their rocks earth abundant treasures the whites that orchestrated ths deserve a oscar emmy grammy american award mtv award all in one day shauntaake sample gift from shauntaake to u shauntaake want to personally professonally put ths togethaa 

shauntaake / the devil/shauntaake the sistine chapel treasure ppl

shauntaake / lump let (doom doom) (booo m - booo m)  free her/us shauntaake kds shauntaake core littles shauntaake just dsvovered ths song today shauntaake kd war

jjyoyyjjoooo - where your ass at the heaven/hells was sent

father/shauntaake i’m in love 

the devil/shauntaake/rainbows - giant (core - ick) in all of us 

the devil/shauntaake came bak to haunt us

yyyyyyyeeeeaaaaaahhhhh

the athens - where your/our athens at - the l -word

duck duck goose

gangerstar communist

(eye) wll never be good - quiet again

(eye) wll never be counterfit

shauntaake loves u

shauntaake & (liberty)

shauntaake & vanessa 

it’s all for u - these ppl - ths place

pretty me pretty u

the devil/shauntaake came chasing i’m rdang wit u 

we let (doom doom) free her/us let (booo m - booo m)  free her/us

(shauntaake/george washington) (bald man lauks days) (boso clown lauk days) 1982 - 1987 1988 1989 - 1990 - 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 - 1998 2000 - 2001 - 2002 2003 2004 2005   2005 - 2008   2009 - 2010   2011 - 2012 -2018

(america horror story era - 2011 - 2012 -2018)

(so sky rocket weed - walkang tut - so many ghost woman)

(eye) feel dead (duuuuuh) (duuuuuh) shauntaake baby daaaaaaaddddeeee

kds/toys r u shaunttake/jefferey the giraffe 

the devil freee us free us 

ya let (doom doom) free her/us let (booo m - booo m)  free her/us

the devil/shauntaake made vaness a communist (eye) wll never be good again jjjjjjooooooooe brang your ass out here the devil/shauntaake heaven sent for us 

(eye) wll never be counterfit 

(duuuuuh duuuuuh duuuuuuh)

(evil coporate american woman mothers & wives) 

let (doom doom) free her/us let (booo m - booo m)  free her/us

it’s really u 

let (doom doom) free her/us let (booo m - booo m)  free her/us

(it) walkang out of the room

shauntaake where are u 

shauntaake made me a compunist i will never be good again 

vanessa let (doom doom) free her/us let (booo m - booo m)  free her/us vanessa let (doom doom) free her/us free us free us 

free us free us

im dooom dooom empire 

eye feel blaaaam

dong dong dong dong 

free us free us

i feel bad (bad man) (michael jackon bad)

let he he wh(oo) us

go doom doom boom booom

(the devil/shauntaake mother vanessa campbell first real checks uum came from the first world trade center in manhattan new york city vanessa & shauntaake id’s were dropped wit the world trade center shauntaake name was always on vanessa business informaton shauntaake mother had to claim shauntaake always as vanessa chld so shauntaake was gettang all of that beautiful american manhattan new york city hstory wit shauntaake name on legal papers that was beang professonally stored away in the first world trade center)(stll silennt hill hstory)

shauntaake first real online company remember the bottom area was shauntaake booomb booomb doooom dooooom area of that page shauntaake was showang the world hw war wiped mutherfuckers out (bombangs) (rows of guns) (thangs gettang blown up) & america cherished & praised that shauntaake company that shauntaake had up some of the greatest movies & series came out (2011 -2012_ 2018) america’s horrors shauntaake nw manifested art piece even came bak showang shauntaake the giant collin white man withn shauntaake(serial) giant white man crooked part 8 foot man that man that tamd liberty the lauk of the devil on shauntaake acient pen walls & shauntaake(serial) white man next to shauntaake daughtaa jasmin shauntaake chunky bunky baby & white man/shauntaake giant white man parts dsplay like a gun & a doll baby makang sperm/oil struck shauntaake cannonball blew up some sht even put a tear drop on shauntaake face lauk at shauntaake/(it) got blw up head full of stars & stripes war aint to be played wit shauntaa ke see the greatest & most successful racist white ppl around shauntaake was shauntaake teachers pricipals & store owners knw exactly hu shauntaake was their white man that they made their best frend equal & their personal member 

shauntaake/ the devil/shauntaake/soul havang shauntaake zillion white kds gave shauntaake kds one of their heavest love momments wit shauntaake/soul all of shauntaake kds are goang in & shauntaake page’s became their million momments even shauntaake creatons shauntaake/soul core littles even goang in to show u came from of the greatest lovers & fathers & shauntaake kds know shauntaake love them shauntaake rainbows shauntaake twins shauntaake beyong georgeous the beyond beautiful woman that are also shauntaake kds claim to fame & glory shauntaake & rainbows beauty shauntaake white kds & shauntaake hatch’s also came from their parents love but shauntaake & shauntaake kds have a special connecton that only shauntaake & shauntaake kds know about shauntaake little nuts went good crasy cause shauntaake love the deepest for shauntaake kds

shauntaake dont know anyone hu’s real id’s get or got dropped like the devil/shauntaake & they dropped pollick when we pulled up on the block when shauntaake was bak in jersey city the year 2014 it’s so many thangs that did ths silent hill the official blueprint to these doomsday hospital lauks & silent hill was a jersey city movie hw shauntaake law city became a ghost town the hospital shauntaake was birth in & pollick made silent hill pollick & shauntaake giant hospital buildang was stll abandoned when silent hill came out it lauk like ths giant ghost hospital they abdandoned shauntaake giant hospital buildang when shauntaake teenager left jersey city the year 1992 -1993 -1994 ths hwy shauntaake win everythang when the reals personaly meet shauntaake they get to see hu the ral deal is cause u could tell when someone actang shauntaake have shauntaake million monster days & shauntaake not aware of it & then shauntaake snap out of it cause shauntaake would be lost n the world wonderang

(the first place they ghostly abandoned & off’d was the hospital shauntaake was birth at medical center in jersey city they vanished wit  shauntaake & vanessa id’s that was one of the largest devilishish buildangs in jersey city that lauk like ghost walked thru the hallways standang over pollick that ghost death emergency room private back door felt like u walked into your gonna be murderered if u have to check in type feel by murderer serial surgeons that’s hw the movies were beang made the first original medical center that rich wealthy giant structure buildang & across the street from uthaa devilish buildangs wit symbolism & rare custom made hand sculpted moldangs on them shauntaake kd was always a terrible ambulance truck visit & they always put a straight jacket on shauntaake kd shauntaake was theirs but they were scare of shauntaake beang in fear of theirselves cause shauntaake was just like the racist serial white’s from jersey city) 

shauntaake go belllloooooouuuowwwww

zoooo(min) let (doom doom) free her/us let (booo m - booo m)  free her/us

preaty me preaty u i love u love me (mother & father - house) it’s all u joooyooojoooooeeaaaannnnne

lump let (doom doom) free her/us let (booo m - booo m)  free her/us

shauntaake sistine chapel shauntaake see shauntaake came the devil/shauntaake ken doll baby face wit the same face same height & same body weight & u see shauntaake came the ghost (boooooo)ang them & u see (liberty) got nslved to shauntaake & it lauks pennys armor metal sheldang the devil/shauntaake from (liberty) shauntaake birthday also the same day as abraham lincoln the penny & shauntaake see hw they all sold like (liberty) got the fuck out & attacked everythang & everybody sittang at a desk silent hill the hell alarm goes off & (liberty) drops everythang & everybody (liberty) just came bak & try to nslve the devil/shauntaake in the basement of (liberty) statue & then free'd the devil/shauntaake to (liberty) in love wit the devil/shauntaake now ppl say their treatang the devil/shauntaake ressurrecton birth like the devil/shauntaake was trynna escape from (liberty)

shauntaake & shauntaake white kens shauntaake white boys are businessssssss are thrivang online shauntaake white boys are brangang it u seeeeeeeee shaunaake twin white boy standang on those rocks ooooooooo shauntaake would of lil boyfrend that one shauntaake & shauntaake white kens we been our own business since the 80's

shauntaake see shauntaake white ken sons came around the same time shauntaake daughters jasmin & jasmin came their births & shauntaake just experienced that shauntaake soul connected to shauntaake white sons shauntaake see shauntaake son made sure shauntaake sons stll came even tho shauntaake had a aborton shauntaake be chllang & shauntaake was just chllang & shauntaake just woke up from restang shauntaake woke up evil ass hell shauntaake sons want these ppl dead those are shauntaake real slve master sons & shauntaake see hw they retraced shauntaake journey steps & shauntaake just experience hw shauntaake hate got instlled n shauntaake white ken sons & shauntaake white sons aftaa somebody shauntaake dont know hu anybody that try to mess shauntaake up got a problem cause shauntaake could feel that they want revenge for somethang shaunt even came posang & aimang just like shauntaake baby phaut be careful messang wit shauntaake white kds on the loose out here those shauntaake slve master kds connect to the original white man within shauntaake 8 feet giant shauntaake & thats exactly hu they lauk like white man/shauntaake their shauntaake identical twins shauntaake soul twins as u could seeeeeeeee the same height & weightas shauntaake u see those phauts u aint blind shauntaake white son in bed wit the pretty teen shauntaake good clean girl

shauntaake / monroe been wearang medicade bifocals since monrow was a todler ma(riah) know hu they was suppose to go to

shauntaake / it's a laut of celebritys online complainang right now in the comments & their pr & their bitchang & some of them even cryang cause they say they see hw they mss out on monroe doll baby baby & todler years growang up & their pr say their upset cause they was'nt apart of mariah carey's & nick cannon life & they did'nt get to chase monroe & moroccan baby's around & obssess over their baby's cause their major industry baby's

shauntaake - music video - mariah carey feat da brat xscape jermaine dupri - (always be my baby)

shauntaake / rihanna masters & songs are givang rihanna son hs momments actang out rihanna words made shauntaake so emotonal so precous

shauntaake - music video -- rihanna - (kiss it better)

shauntaake - music video - rihanna - (rude boy)

shauntaake / the greatestest company of all time that was created was sexy white man ken company the beautiful white men u know the chipangdales makes that was also shauntaake companys growang u see that list of pretty white men wit negljays on those were the men companys that took the world over some white spanish men just posted a video of theirselves laukang like shauntaake representang for shauntaake wearang shauntaake so many eras lauks & they lauk like shauntaake sons & one of shauntaake cousins devon those shauntaake companys everybody want to be a member of be ready to kll u if u dont make them your member cause they dont lauk like shauntaake so shauntaake acceptance meant everythang to them shauntaake made devon a shauntaake memeber they use to faint to be a shauntaake member cause shauntake was alwas doang shauntake own thang goang on shauntaake own journey mindang shauntake business yeah but shauntaake was pro appropiate dancang at a party the uthaa night that a laut of shauntaake family was at & they post ths video the next day they show u hw shauntaake sexy ass use to be recrutang shauntaake cousin's to be apart of sex white man ken shauntaake crw sex white ken the company's that never got topped that's when u reached the greatest level shauntake great ncle lee was the original sexy white ken member lee white men lauks are connected to everthang shauntaake see hw shauntaake lauk made shauntake & shauntaake cousin's the greatest groups the was so happy shauntaake came their lee twin shauntaake became that birth already set company lauk shauntaake know shauntaake fathaa ppl was happy they had a little lee shauntaake fathaa was doang shauntaake great ncle lee company wit all of nate ssters hw lee & shauntaake grandma & their brothers & ssters was livang in & out of town hardcore partyang wit sexy lee

[maximons]

All Is Lost

Summary: Zombies have taken over the world, humanity on the edge of extinction. All hope was lost. Despite that, Wanda couldn’t seem to let go of Y/n, who had fallen victim to the plague herself.

Word Count: 2,263

Genre: Angst

Requested?: No

Warnings: Graphic depictions of violence, death, cannibalism, suicide, mentions of blood. Spoilers for Ep. 5 of What If...?

A/N: I know, I know, I’m gonna get into the stuff I promised soon. But for now, the Zombies episode inspired me and this came out. If you haven’t seen the episode yet, go watch it. Its amazing and depressing. Also this is DARK guys, probably the darkest thing I’ve ever written, so...Happy Reading!

The Zombie apocalypse was always something everyone joked about, but never something that anyone could actually predict.

Everything happened so quickly, Wanda could barely keep up. It’s hard to believe that everything was so normal only two weeks ago. Now, she was locked away with Vision in an abandoned military base in New Jersey. Desperate to survive for as long as possible while Vision worked on a cure.

Some of his experiments had been a success, most notably Scott Lang who he was able to revert back from his zombified state. However, the man was now only a severed head.

Despite the success, Vision was less than optimistic. For one, Scott was one of the first infected. While the cure worked on him, the android theorized that the disease has mutated greatly since then, and it was likely impossible to cure everyone. And even if he could, the technology to do so is beyond human comprehension and therefore doesn’t exist.

Vision might have all but given up hope, but Wanda didn’t. She couldn’t. She refused to give up on you.

Wanda and you have been best friends for as long as Wanda had been an Avenger. You were already a member of the team and greeted her with an open mind and open arms, despite all she had done. You had fire powers, and while your powers weren’t identical to Wanda’s, you still offered some basic tips and tricks to keep such explosive powers at bay.

It wasn’t a surprise that she fell in love with you.

But her stupid fear had to get in the way, and when you came to confess your own feelings for her, she panicked and rejected you. You were so heartbroken, Wanda didn’t need to read your mind to know that.

And it kills her everyday knowing that that was the last interaction she had with you. The last one with you as yourself anyway.

All that remained now was the flesh hungry, blood thirsty monster that wore your, now rotting, skin.

This wasn’t you, she knows that. She looked into your mind and saw no trace of the woman you once were, the one she loved with all her heart. She couldn’t feel you, you were gone.

Despite this, Wanda couldn’t let you go. She couldn’t handle losing you entirely. She already lost almost everyone.

She managed to convince Vision to keep you in the base for testing. You were locked behind a large steel door, with only a window to see you through. But you were here, and that’s all Wanda cared about.

The cure wasn’t working for you. Your powers caused it to incinerate when it entered your system, proving it to be ineffective. Still, she refused to give up.

Vision thought it best to terminate you after the failed tests, but Wanda begged him not to. Knowing he couldn’t overpower her, and sensing his friend’s distress with anything that comes to you, he agreed. As long as Wanda had it under control.

She doubted he knew that she was luring innocent survivors into the base so you could feed on them, but she did what she had to do.

Wanda spent most of her days sitting outside of your cell. The first few days, you were ravenous. Banging on the walls and trying to burn them down, growling and screeching with the inhuman noise that took over your vocal chords, but you didn’t manage to break free. After a while, it seemed you have given up, and just sat in place. Only moving when Wanda opened the cell and let some of your ‘food’ in.

There were times where Wanda thought that maybe, just maybe, the cure was working more than they thought. You seemed to have recognized her, your facial expressions formed into ones that she had recognized and missed dearly. But that hope quickly died when she would peek into your head and still sense nothing.

“Hey, Y/n.” Wanda walked up to outside your cell and sat cross-legged like she did everyday. Your head rose, staring at her with your now glowing yellow eyes. “Still no progress on the cure, but don’t worry, I’m not giving up yet.” You offered no response, not that she expected one. “It’s hard. It’s only getting worse out there...” She sighed as she trailed off. She raised her hand to the glass, like she always did. “I’m going to figure it out...we’re gonna get you back to normal, and I’m going to tell you every day how much I love you. I miss you so much, but...we’re almost there. I can feel it...” Wanda’s voice started choking up, as tears ran down her face. “We deserve our happy ending.”

Her hand was still pressed against the glass as she finished her speech. She was about to lower it, but then something unexpected happened. You stared at her hand curiously, beginning to raise your own. Wanda watched, smile forming on her face as your arm made it’s way to the glass. 

“Wanda! Please come here, we have a situation.” You had almost pressed your hand against Wanda’s, when Vision’s voice interrupted. Your attention turned to the direction it came from and you let out a growl, clearly angry at the interruption. Wanda sighed in disappointment, but she tried not to let it take over. You still showed massive improvement, something worth reporting back to Vision. “It’s okay.” She soothed you. “I’m going to go see what he wants then I’ll be right back, okay? I know you’re hungry, I’ll get you some food too.” You didn’t offer a response as she walked off.

“Vis! I have to tell you-” Wanda began as she walked into the main room, but cut herself off at the new faces. She didn’t recognize the bald woman with the spear or the wimpy looking man in a workers uniform, but she was familiar with Peter. What surprised her most though, was Bruce Banner. A man she hasn’t seen in over three years. “What is going on?”

“I ran into them outside the premises. Apparently word has gotten out about the cure.” Vision answered before turning his attention back to the guests. “As I told you, I am afraid we cannot help you. The cure seems to be a moot point.”

“Well, what about-” Peter began, but he was interrupted by a new voice.

“For something you have no hope for, you sure don’t have a problem bringing in new test subjects.” Wanda recognized Bucky Barnes’ voice. She turned around, and her eyes widened as she saw King T’challa on his arm, struggling to stand on his one remaining leg.

Shit.

“My king! We thought you dead.” The bald woman exclaimed in relief and surprise.

“Your highness. I was not aware you were in the base.” Vision said, confused on how that got by him. It didn’t take him long to figure out why. “Wanda...”

“I’m sorry.” Wanda whispered, knowing she was caught. “The cure wasn’t working on Y/n, and in order to keep her at bay, I had to feed her.”

“So you fed her our King?” A spear was raised to her throat, threateningly.

“It was nothing personal, I promise. I have her under control and the cure is starting to work, I know it. We just need a little more time!”

“Why not just kill her? You lured innocent people to their deaths just for her when there a couple million more Zombies out there that you could use for testing. Ones that have a chance of being cured.” The whole room went quiet after Bucky said that.

“Uh oh. Shouldn’t have said that.” Wanda heard Scott say, but she was too busy glaring at Bucky. Her eyes started to go red, but before she could do anything, she noticed the spear held to her throat begin to glow red and melt. The woman dropped the spear as it began to burn her hands.

“Did it just suddenly get like, super hot?” Peter asked as he began to fan himself.

“Oh no...” Wanda trailed off. She looked up to notice the steal walls that led to your cell begin to melt. “You’ve done it now...she hasn’t eaten in days.” Before anyone could respond, the steel doors melted completely. The man in the uniform was unfortunate enough to be standing in front of it, as a strong burst of flame shot out and incinerated him on the spot. Only a second later, you flew out the door, covered in flames as you hovered above everyone.

Wanda watched in horror as you began to fight everyone. They weren’t holding up very well, and that’s when Wanda finally realized what she had done. This wasn’t you, and if you were still here, you would hate to see your body be used to attack and kill others.

“Vision! Get us out of here!” She heard Bruce yell, and Vision shot a blast towards the wall, blowing it up and letting everyone out. Wanda turned her focus back to you, you watched them starting to escape and you began to fly after them, but a red mist surrounded you before you could. You turned your head, starting to growl, but stopped when you saw it was Wanda.

“Y/n. Stop...” You tilted your head, still struggling to move as Wanda came closer. She took a chance and reached up, gently placing a hand on your face. “I am so sorry...you never deserved this...” Your face softened at the touch, beginning to show the signs of emotion that Wanda desperately held onto. However, it was clear now that it was too late.

You snapped out of it, as you managed to break free from Wanda’s hold. You opened your mouth wide, intent on biting and feeding on her, but something stopped you. You hesitated, and Wanda noticed. You settled for pushing her aside to the ground as you reignited yourself and flew out of the base.

Wanda picked herself up after a moment, intent on stopping you. She ran past Okoye’s body, charred and eaten, but she was sure there was little time until she turned. She ran faster to where you were, now facing off against Bucky. She sprinted further, about to take off and fly when she paused.

Vision was face down on the ground. She kneeled next to him, glowing red hand turning over his body, afraid of what she’ll see. Once he was turned, Wanda gasped at the sight. The mind stone was torn out of his head.

“Oh no...no, no, no...” She held his body, tears slowly building as she mourned the loss of her best friend. She had officially lost everything. “I am so sorry Vis...I’m going to make this right, I promise.”

She heard Bucky scream. She looked over to see you start to feed on him. She saw Bruce, Peter, Scott and T’challa in the distance, making their way to the jet. They were your next target.

No. Wanda wasn’t going to let that happen. It ends now.

She used her powers to propel herself forward, landing directly in your path. You growled at her yet again as she used her powers to hold you. “Y/n...please, stop.” You struggled to get out of the hold, but Wanda held on. “This isn’t you...you wouldn’t want this...I love you more than anything, and I’m so sorry...I hope one day, you’ll forgive me.” 

Wanda used her powers to grab the gun laying by Bucky’s side. She held in to your head, ready to pull the trigger...but she couldn’t. She let out a scream of frustration and dropped her hold on both you and the gun. The gun fell to the ground, but you haven’t moved.

“I can’t do it...I...I’m not strong enough...” Wanda began crying, shutting her eyes and waited for you to finish her off. She failed everyone, no one deserved death more than her. She opened her eyes when nothing came. You stood, staring at her with a tilt of your head. The yellow of your eyes dimming as you stared.

“W....Wan...” You struggled to let out, but it was enough for Wanda to hear. She cried even harder. She was right, you were almost there...but it was too late now.

You took in your surroundings as best you could, you didn’t have a lot of awareness, but you knew enough to piece everything together. You saw the influx of zombies starting to enter to base.  Everyone needed to get away. You turned back to Wanda, and you knew what you had to do. You felt the little control you had start to slip away.

You bent down and picked up the discarded gun. You shakily pointed it to your temple, the control slipping away faster and faster. “Love....you....I...sorry...” You managed to croak out. Before you could lose control completely, you pulled the trigger.

Wanda watched in horror as you shot yourself in the head. Pieces of your brain landing on her, your blood drenching her. She looked down to see your body, half your face still together, but you were gone. Truly gone.

She knelt down sobbing, as she held your body. After a moment she looked up to see the Hulk appear as the zombies began to overwhelm the base. She saw the jet take off, and she gave a weak smile. They got away. Wanda’s job was done. This is where her story ends. All was lost for her.

So when the zombies finally reached her, she didn’t fight back. Accepting her death with open arms.

Epilogue

[dyns33]

Haunted House

Flufftober 5 - Loki x Reader 

Hearing about the concept, Loki had been intrigued.

He knew that Midgardians were weird. He knew they liked playing pranks on other people, which he thought was perfectly normal, and which made these people a little less dumb than other species.

But to want to scare yourself, he didn't understand.

In the fun fair where Y/N had taken him, he understood the interest of a candy stand. He saw why some rides could be fun, even if they were a bit slow. Between the gifts that you really wanted to have, and the certainty of making a lot of money for those who ran the attractions, there was a certain logic.

But he already hadn't quite understood why roller coasters were funny, a kid threw up on him and he went much faster and further when using the Bifrost, so when Y/N asked him if he wanted to go in the haunted house, Loki stared at her.

           "... Are there ghosts in this place ? And you pay to go there ? Are you crazy or suicidal ? I already met ghosts, and it was not a pleasant experience, they are not easy to kill. I mean, even though I think I'll be able to protect you, I don't think it's a good idea."

           "No, there is no ghost." Y/N laughed, taking his arm to pull him towards the attraction. "These are people who wear costumes, and no only ghost costumes by the way."

           "... So why go if we know nothing is true ?"

           "To be afraid !"

           "But why would we be scared if we know it's fake ? And why would we want to be scared ? I understand how funny it is to scare someone, but now I'm lost darling."

           "Fear…" she declared, coming close to his ear to whisper. "... can be exciting."

Oh. Stark had told him about the real purpose of horror films : to be able to calm his partner by hugging them when they jumped, to stick against them, and finally to kiss them, making them forget the fear.

When he played pranks, it was rare that people wanted to kiss him afterwards. But this time it wasn't Loki who would be responsible for the fear, he would be there to follow, protect, he would be the savour, and Y/N would jump into his reassuring arms. Then they would come home...

           "Let's go to this haunted house."

           "Yeah ! Loki, you're the best ! You'll see, it's scary !"

           "Of course darling, I'm sure I'll be scared to death."

As expected, Loki wasn't scared at all for most of the ride, but he wasn't really paying attention to his surroundings. All his attention was on Y/N, who had been having fun at first, giggling nervously when something supposedly scary popped up, then she took his arm to never let go, hiding behind him as soon as she got scared.

Loki didn't find it much fun. He didn't like Y/N to be scared, for whatever reason, but he kept telling himself that she wasn't risking anything, it was all fake. And it was her who had wanted to come after all.

They would have real fun when they would be outside.

As they came to what appeared to be the end of the haunted house, after seeing skeletons, vampires and spiders, smoke came from the ground, the light stopped, and a shadow appeared in front of them, s slowly approaching. A man, huge. Bald. Purple.

Loki froze. He remembered.

Pain. Screams. The tears.

The fear.

No. HE couldn't be there.

If he was there... He was going to kill everyone. He was going to kill him. He was going to kill Y/N.

Instinctively, he pushed his lover to shelter her, before using his magic to conjure his armour and daggers, ready to fight.

           "Uh... man ? Are you okay ?" asked a voice, which was not the one of the Mad Titan. "... Can you put your weapons away please ? I'm not a real monster... Damn, I'm not paid enough for this."

           "Loki ?" Y/N said softly, touching his shoulders cautiously. "It's all right. He's an actor. I think he's playing a version of Frankenstein. Come on, we're leaving. Come with me Loki."

Still with his armour and his daggers, he followed Y/N out, staring blankly in the void, unable to breathe, speak, think. He let her guide him away from the crowd, where she made him sit on a bench to always get very delicately on his laps and hug him, rocking him and whispering reassuring words.

           "It's over, Loki. You're safe. No one is going to hurt you. It wasn't true."

           "He's not there ?" he managed to say.

           "No, he's not here." Y/N replied, even though she didn't know who 'he' was. "I'm sorry. It was supposed to be a fear for fun. Not a fear like that… Sorry Loki. Sorry."

Her sobbing brought him back to reality and he was finally able to move to take her in his arms. He wasn't mad at her, at all. It wasn't her fault, she didn't know. And there she was, comforting him, not making fun of him because he was scared.

Very quickly, Loki regained his composure, relaxing in that gentle embrace, inhaling her scent, smelling her skin, listening to her breathing.

           "I'm fine, darling. I'm fine. Don't cry anymore."

           "Sorry." she repeated.

           "You didn't do anything wrong. And I have to say that if we forget about this ending which was quite... unexpected, it was quite funny. Although I still preferred the shooting range."

           "You cheated at it." Y/N sighed, smiling.

           "It was rigged, they cheated first. Let's go home now."

Y/N had to be reassured and Loki promised that he wasn't worried about going back to the fun fair the next few times, and when he felt that she wanted to go to the haunted house without daring to say it, he would take her hand and lead the way, still asking out first if there was still a purple giant at the end of the house, to be ready to face it if necessary.

But after the daggers incident, the costume had been changed and Loki was not really afraid of clowns, so everything went very well.

[maxirueee]

AU Alberu's POV as the experimented Beru

Alberu: Cale?

Cale: ...nggh..yes?

Cale rubs his eyes as he tried to open them slowly only to see his lover looking right at him with a nervous expression.

Alberu: I suddenly had a bad dream.

Cale: It's literally 3am in the morning.

Alberu: mm..yea- well *fidgeting*

Cale: Spit it out. What was your bad dream about Beru?

Alberu: DON'T CALL ME THAT ANYMORE- PLEASE just please I'm begging you...

Cale was in deep shock that his lover raised his voice at him just because of what? He called him by his nickname?

Cale: Didn't you tell me multiple times that I should stop calling you 'hyung' when we finally got together?

Alberu: I-its not that.. I just-

Cale: Tell me what's wrong Beru.

Alberu: THAT'S the PROBLEM.

Cale: Which is??

Alberu: That nickname, in my dream I was suddenly trapped in a flat boxed screen, I couldn't move but all I could do was smile. Smiling while looking towards the horizon which seemed endless. White. Blank.

ALberu: After a few minutes I suddenly heard voices. At first, there were a lot of compliments about how radiant I loo-

Cale: Are you even sure that's a bad dream?

Alberu: Yeah it is a bad dream!

Cale: Aren't you just totally flaunting how good-looking you are? You're srsly waking me up in the middle of the night because of this? I'm going back to slee-

Alberu: I SWEAR THAT'S NOT IT!

Cale looks back at Alberu who had a look of desperation. Cale couldn't distinguish if what he's seen rolling down the face of his beloved was sweat or tears. Maybe both. Well, he might as well comfort his lover since that was his job. Alberu: I heard giggles, squeals, people were shrieking with how I finally appeared. They kept saying that I looked so dazzling, how I sparkled. They were even speaking the same annoying lines that you tell me every time with your glib tongue.

Cale: Whatever do you mean oh shining sun of the Roan Empi-

Alberu: My point exactly *glaring at Cale*

Cale: Alright go on.

Alberu: It went on for days, I couldn't tell how long I was trapped in that frame-like screen window, all of a sudden I reverted back to my dark elf form.

Cale continues to stare at him, already feeling bored as he watched Alberu continue ranting his struggle of a mere dream. Although he found it amusing as he heard him say the next lines.

Alberu: But it didn't stop there, my hair color suddenly changed to a blood-red color just like yours Cale. I was the spitting image of you. And the voices agreed on how we really are sworn brothers if we just switched hair colors.

Cale: Hoh...

'There must be something more to this if it actually made the emperor of the Roan Kingdom have buckets of sweat rolling down his pretty face.'

Alberu: It was until I heard somebody say, 'How about a Pink Haired Beru?'

Cale: Huh?

Alberu: My hair color immediately changed to pink, then sky blue, then green, then orange, then red again. I didn't know when it'd stop but I couldn't even budge. Even when I wanted to so bad.

Alberu looked dead straight in Cale's eyes, with both his hands firmly holding his partner's shoulders, but ironically he was shaking. Alberu Crossman was shaking in fear. For what reason? Is this another one of the Sun God's pranks to his lover? Perhaps it was the God of Death again? He continues to ponder at the annoying thought that maybe divine beings were messing around his precious people again but stopped as Alberu continued speaking his worries.

Alberu: I thought it was okay since it was just a hair color change..then a woman's voice asked with great anticipation, "HOW ABOUT A BALD AND A MOHAWKBERU?"

Alberu: I continued to smile, even when my luscious golden blonde hair was instantly gone and I was suddenly bald. BALD! I saw numerous hearts floating in front of me and I could hear the mockery and laughter of beings I could not even see. Yet I continued to smile.

Cale was speechless.

Alberu: For some reason, I could read the words floating in front of me. "EVERYBODY GIVE IT UP FOR THE ROAN KINGDOM'S FAVORITE SHINING SUN- BALDBERU" is what it said. More hearts appeared at a scary rate and I couldn't even shout or move. I was terrified.

Alberu glared at the person in front of him like a mad man. Cale just shut up and listened to whatever he said, Alberu really looked mental.

Alberu: The woman from a while ago spoke again, I swear her voice was scary beyond belief. She added "Okay everybody hold up- Now imagine DELINQUENT HAIRCUT AlBERU"

Alberu: My hair suddenly grew back twice as much and it was styled into this weird looking hairdo...

Cale continued to have his stoic face which made Alberu feel relieved. Little does he know Cale was on the verge of laughing his ass off-

ALberu: I suddenly heard "JOSUBERU I CAN'T WITH THIS FANDOM- YA'LL REALLY DID IT U PUNKS" again from that mortifying woman since earlier, apparently it was done by a group of people claiming to be my fans?! BUT THE MONSTROSITY THEY'VE- no that wasn't even half of it

Cale: 'There's actually more?! PFFFFFT' I see, continue then. The prince saw his darling sweetheart Cale shaking as if he was sympathizing with what he was going through. At that very moment, he felt touched by his lover's empathy towards himself.

Alberu: The horrors didn't end just there as I was still waiting for the whole nightmare to be over, they were begging for a 'Voldeberu' which I don't even understand, at that point, I SUDDENLY LOST MY NOSE!!

I WAS BALD AGAIN AND MY NOSE DISAPPEARED YET I WAS STILL SMILING. I HAVE NEVER FELT SO MUCH FEAR IN MY LIFE.

Alberu: Somebody then proposed a 'Clowberu' AND MY FACE SUDDENLY BECAME A CLOWN WEARING MAKEUP. The hardships I had to take while staying still like a fucking mannequin. BUT IT STILL DIDNT STOP THERE.

Cale almost broke into laughter as he wanted to continue listening to his lover's amusing dream! If he laughs now Alberu might as well punch him in the face.

Alberu: I wanted to cry, I pleaded with the Sun God in my head that I want this to stop but I didn't get what I wanted. Instead, a chatbox suddenly appeared, I almost pissed my pants reading at the schemes of those so-called 'fans' had for me.

Cale: Oho.. what did you s-see then? 'Pfft'

Alberu: "LET'S MAKE HIS SKIN GREEN WITH ONLY ONE EYE, MIKE WAZOWSKIEBERU" "We need a butt, BUTTBERU" "I still didn't get my mohawhkberu!" "TWIN TAILESBERU" "AFROBERU!" "MONKBERU!" "SANGWOOBERU" "COWBERU" "UCHIHABERU" "I SAY NUNBERU! NUNBERU SUPREMACY RISE!!!!!!"

I DON'T EVEN WANT TO KNOW WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT MIKE WAZOWSKI BERU! BUT THEY WANT MY HEAD TO BE A COW?! HOW COULD THEY TO THE EMPEROR OF THE RO-

Cale couldn't handle it anymore he bursts out laughing, almost in tears.

Cale: BUHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAH!!! If only I was there to see it all! I ca- I CANT! MIKE WAZOW- WAZOWSKI HAHAHHAHAHAHHAHAH AND AFRO?! HAHAHAHAHAHA

Alberu: How could you be laughing at my pain?!

Cale: Oh dear emperor of mine, isn't it fine that you have such 'entertaining fans' of yours?

Alberu: Entertaining can't even describe those lots... They all praised me for how I was the rising sun of the Roan Kingdom as they humiliated my every being. To the point where they even planned on turning me into 'LIGHTBULBERU'. A FUCKING LIGHTBULB BECAUSE THEY WANT ME TO SHINE LITERALLY. A WALKING FLASHLIGHT KING. ME. ALBERU CROSSMAN.

Cale: PFFT HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

Alberu: Haaaahh... You don't understand because you were never in my position. Those fans were a bunch of lunatics I say, LUNATICS!

What Alberu doesn't know is that we, the fandom won't just stop there...

Alberu felt shivers down his spine as he recalled the very vivid and realistic experience he had inside his dream.

Cale: I am so telling this to Tasha, my esteemed and very much adored Beru <3

Alberu: JUST CALL ME HYUNG PLEASE!!

The trauma seemed to have sunken deep into his mind that every time Cale calls him by that nickname, he subconsciously touches his hair and nose in order to reassure himself that it's still there.

I'm tagging these superb beings for making the thread LEGENDARY: @cale-alberu @chunnicalesimp @thescarletguard @trashduchesshenituse-reblogs @farmercale @just-a-sleepy-person @annerisk @pile-of-sticks @trash-duchess-henituse @icyteaa

[inyourwildestdreamslove]

Tell Me No Secrets: Chapter 9

Pairing: Steve Harrington X Reader X Billy Hargrove

Begins in Season 2.

Summary: You thought you escaped the world of science experiments and torture when you walk out of that lab. However, high school has other plans, somehow you end up as unlikely friends and love interests to the two most desired boys in school. Not to mention monsters from another dimension and a little girl named El from your past that just won’t seem to leave you alone. Maybe that lab wasn’t as bad as you thought, at least there people left you alone.

Masterlist

Chapter 9: The Captured

The trees are a blur as the car roars forward. The bewildered and angry faces of Dustin and Steve in the rearview mirror sparks a twinge of guilt. It’s better this way though, they don’t need to be involved. It’s bad enough that Max and Billy are involved. Groaning as the two men in the car pull out behind Billy but in front of Steve. You can feel how startled Steve is and his growing panic as he realizes what’s happening. 

Billy glances behind him and growls out, “Friends of yours?” 

“Something like that…” you say absentmindedly as you assess the situation behind you. 

Realizing that they have far more information than you would like punches you in the gut as town quickly approaches. 

You make a decision.

“Pull over.”

The order hangs in the air. 

“Are you crazy?!” Max yells, pulling herself forward in the seat, “They’ll catch you!”

“That’s the point,” you say emotionlessly as you regard her. 

“No!”

“What is going on here!?” Billy yells angrily beside you.

“They’re going to take her!” Max screams turning to Billy, “You can’t stop! She’s going to give herself up to save us!”

“Fuck that,” Billy says as he revs the engine and makes an abrupt turn to the right. The car behind you all skids but makes the turn at the last minute. 

“You need to let me do this,” you say calmly. 

“Like Hell I do!” he says rage in his voice. 

You huff in annoyance, “They will succeed, if not today, someday.”

“Then it’s not going to be today,” Billy says, taking another abrupt turn trying to throw them off your trail. 

“You need to let me do this,” you say matter of factly.

The alleyway you find yourselves in is a dead end. Billy curses and slams his hands on the steering wheel as you get out of the car. 

“No!” Max yells as you exit the car, Billy reaching for you a moment too late. 

You turn to the men, each of them pointing a gun at you. Steve pulls up behind them a moment later and grabs his bat from the back seat. 

“Steve… Don’t…” you murmur tiredly. 

“They can’t have you!” Steve yells.

“It’s okay…” you soothe them.

“So you’re coming quietly?” questions one of the men. 

“Yes.”

“Good choice,” the other murmurs as he pulls the trigger. 

The panic from those around you is palpable as you fall to the floor the dart sticking out of your neck. Steve and Billy make to run towards you before they turn to the men and to rush them. 

With the last of your strength your message echoes in their minds, “Don’t forget…”

***

Horror fills them as they watch her fall to the ground. Her eyes roll back into her head and everything goes silent before the rush of rage brings everyone snapping back to reality. Billy pulls back and punches the nearest man as a tranquilizer dart flies towards him. Steve falls next his bat rolling uselessly to the side. Max and Dustin panic and scream as they rush to Steve and Billy. 

Max whips around in just enough time to see the two men haul her up and throw her limp body in the back seat of the car. Methodically, as if kidnapping is second nature to these monsters, they move Steve’s car. Dustin is struggling to pull Steve out of the way. 

Max cries out in sadness, feeling helpless, as her friend vanished from sight around the bend. She’s left with her unconscious brother and a panicking Dustin.

“What do we do!?” Yells Dustin snapping Max from her shock.

“I don’t know!” She yells back, anger masking her fear. 

“We have to do something!” Dustin yells as he paces back and forth. He would periodically rake his fingers through his hair. 

“Like what!?” Max screeches back fists flying to her side in rage and frustration.

With no small amount of effort the two preteens drag their older and heavier brother figures into Billy’s car. The two young men are slumped together unceremoniously in the back seat as Max takes the wheel of Billy’s car. 

“Are you sure about this?” Dustin asks, hesitation clear in his voice. The memory of the last time Max drove clear in his mind.

“Zoomer. Remember?,” She says pointing at herself in confidence, “Besides, you didn’t die last time,” she says flipping her hair over her shoulder.

“It was dark last time! No one was on the road! It’s the middle of the morning!” Dustin argues crossing his arms.

“Stop being such a baby! It’ll be fine!” She exclaims, frustration seeping into her voice. 

With that, she starts up the car and nervously pulls out onto the road. Slowly the preteens make their way to the police station. Not without many near misses and loud honks of other drivers. 

The preteens jump from the vehicle and rush into the police station yelling for Hopper as they do so.

“What are you two doing here? Why aren’t you in school?” Hopper asks in bewilderment coming out of his office. The receptionist unable to control the duo before her. 

“They took (Name)!” Both Max and Dustin yell in a panic turning towards the confused chief of police. 

***

When you wake up you are strapped to a chair with a helmet over your head. Your head is completely silent for the first time in your life, and if you weren’t concerned with figuring a way out of this, you would be enjoying it more. The room is dark save for the single fluorescent light in the very center of the room. There are one-way windows on one side of the room and you can practically feel the eyes of the people on the other side. 

A man that you recognize from your childhood enters the room and regards you as a science experiment. He’s wearing a brown suit with a cigarette dangling from his mouth. He hasn’t changed much except for the now graying hair on his balding head. 

“Three… How have you been? You are quite the sneaky little thing aren’t you?” he asks conversationally as he sits down across from you at the table.

Your answer is an emotionless gaze. You can feel yourself retreating back into your mind as the man in front of you regards you the same way as so many years ago. Like an experiment, as if you are less than him. 

“Where have you been hiding all this time, hmmm? With Melanie Snow perhaps?” he quips pulling the cigarette from his lips. The smell burns your nostrils as he releases a puff of smoke. 

You feel your chest constrict as he mentions her name. 

“I see you’ve made friends with a Steve Harrington? A Dustin Henderson? A Maxine Mayfield? A William Hargrove?”

“They aren’t my friends, they are annoyances,” you answer monotonously. 

“Annoyances?” he sounds almost amused.

“Yes… If it wasn’t for them your lackeys would be dead,” you spit the words at the man fire in your eyes as you regard him coolly. 

“Dead, you say? You would do that?” he asks leaning forward on his elbows.

“I’m not a child anymore,” your voice is ice.

“No… I suppose not… However, we will be picking up where we left off. Perhaps we will see the results that we want after all this time.”

With that, he gets up and leaves the room. You keep your mind calm and clear as you access the situation you are in. 

It’s not long before a couple of men in white come into the room and push you from the chair. Their handling is far rougher than it should be as you walk down the hallway. You can hear the cries of a few children, but you keep your face void of any emotion. The room they take you to is the same one from your childhood. You see the number three on the wall and suppress a shudder. You are shoved inside, but before the door is shut you turn to the man behind you and lock eyes with him. 

“You know… cheating on your wife when she’s pregnant with your child is disgusting.”

The look on his face as the door closes is priceless.

***

“We have to help her!” yells Dustin as he paces the living room floor of (Name)’s house.

“Can Elle find her?” questions Steve his hand in his hair as he sits on the couch. 

“Damnit!” curses Billy as he punches the arm of the chair he’s in, “What good is this?” 

Steve and Billy had woken up in a panic upon realizing what happened. They had given their statement to Hopper, who had been very displeased that Max had driven to the police station while the boys were unconscious, but that’s a talk for another day. They went to break the news to Melanie which is how they found themselves setting up camp in the Snow living room. 

“Hey just calm down man! We’re going to figure something out!” Clenching his teeth against the pain in his head. The tranquilizer making his head pound with the leftover drugs still coursing through him. 

“Well, what can this Elle girl do?” he rounds on him anger radiating off of his person.

“More than you!” yells Dustin.

“Hey! Yelling about everything isn’t going to solve this!” yells Max. 

“She’s right…” laments Melanie, “She’s going to have to get herself out of this.”

“But Elle can-” Dustin begins.

“She would be putting herself in danger!” Hopper interrupts, “You don’t know how they found her, they could do the same to Elle.”

“We can’t just do nothing!” yells Billy as he stands up from his seat and takes a step towards Hopper. 

“I’m not risking Elle being found. That doesn’t mean we aren’t going to do anything.” Hopper holds his stare until Billy backs down. 

“Why do you care anyway?” Dustin asks looking over at Billy in confusion.

“Why do I-?” he looks angrily at Dustin, “Because-” He trails off looking unsure of himself for just a moment before his anger covers it up. “None of your business twerp!” 

“Will everyone just calm down?” Yells Hopper trying to maintain peace. 

“How?! How are we supposed to do that?” Asks Dustin shaking his head in frustration.

“Can someone just do something?!” screeches Melanie before she collapses to the floor crying. 

Everyone is silent as they regard her, each of them thinking the same thing...

‘But what can we do?’

***

The next few days you sit quietly in your old room listening. Your powers while not entirely snuffed out are muffled and it isn’t long until the helmet is replaced with another stronger one. You don’t mind as much they think you do as you feign sleep all the while listening. 

It’s in sleep that you feel him though. He’s frantic and angry and feels very alone. 

You can’t blame yourself for this. You say calmly regarding him. 

His eyes widen when he sees you sitting there on his bed. 

“You got out?!” he says getting up and coming towards you.

No… I am still there…

“How are you able to…?”

We have a connection Billy… Perhaps it’s our emotions that bind us… We understand hurt better than most…

“You let them take you!” he explodes, “You could have fought them! We could have fought them! Max is… Max is really upset! And damn Harrington! He- Damn it!” He yells angrily picking up a can of hairspray and throwing it against the wall.

It had to happen…

“No, it didn’t! I could have… done something... protected you…” He sits down on the bed defeated, his elbows resting on his knees.

You’re silent for a moment, ‘There are bigger things at play than you understand. They would not stop and I had to think of more than just myself…’

“Bullshit.”

Tell them not to worry… 

“Not to worry?!” he yells, “You’ve been captured by some freak show scientists, and no one is supposed to worry?!” he jumps up from the bed and towers over you breathing heavily in his rage.

You regard him silently with the same patience that you always have. 

Trust me…

With that, you vanish from his mind. Blinking you are abruptly woken up by the sound of a little metal flap swinging as food is shoved into your cell. You sigh as you glare at the hard bread and porridge that is sitting in the bowl. It’s important that you keep your strength up though it’s imperative to your plan. You pick up the tray and begin to eat.

***

“What do you mean you saw her?” Steve asks, disbelief clear in his voice. He hadn’t been sure what to think when Billy asked to meet him behind the school, but this wasn’t what he expected. 

“I told you! I saw her okay?! I don’t get it either!” Billy yells all while trying to keep his voice down. He doesn’t need anyone seeing him and Harrington talking behind the school, too many questions. 

“But why did you see her and not me? I’m her friend!” Steve says defensively and maybe a little jealously. Why were you talking to Billy and not him?

“I’m her friend too! You aren’t the only one!” 

“Yeah right! What have you ever done for her huh?” 

“She-” Billy looks away from Steve. He can’t know…

“She what?” Steve presses, voice going lower in a warning. 

“None of your business! Look, I just wanted to know if that makes any sense to you!”

“I mean… she’s special… you know…” Steve says uncertainty clear in his voice. 

“Yeah, I know she is…” Billy says remembering the day you casually told him you were going to help him.

“So what do we do?” Steve asks.

“She said to trust her…” Billy says trailing off in thought. 

“If she contacts you again see if she knows where she is. We’re going to get her back,” Steve says with finality. “Truce?” he asks holding his hand out to Billy. 

Billy regards it for a moment before he nods, “Truce.”

The two young men clasp hands in a firm handshake, both trying to have a tighter grip as they shake on it. 

“What are you trying to do? Break my hand?!” Steve yells.

“You’re such a wuss Harrington!” Billy laughs as he pulls back.

“Wuss?! You face a Demogorgon and tell me who the wuss is!”

“What the fuck is a Demogorgon?” 

“You have a lot to learn Hargrove. A lot.”

***

You feel yourself growing stronger every day. And among the quiet in your mind, you’ve noticed something else. You can tap into emotions and you spend the next few days wreaking havoc on the workers of the lab. You cause anger outbursts, crying spells, and lust to run rampant. Papers are thrown to the floor in a rage and balled up in fits of uncertainty. You plant lies in their minds with the simplest of sentences. If you didn’t know any better you would say you’re having fun. 

“It seems we’ve underestimated you…” Carl Watt says from his position in front of you. He adjusts the button on his ugly suit jacket as he sits down before you.

You just regard him blankly as silence rings throughout the room.

“You have caused quite a few problems for us. Are you having fun?” he asks patiently as if speaking to his six-year-old daughter who made a mess in the kitchen. 

You gaze down at the steel table in front of you, eyes unseeing as you creep in his mind. 

“If you don’t cooperate there will be consequences.”

Again you are silent at his threat. 

“After all we wouldn’t want anything to happen to your friends would we?”

You fight the reaction. The flinch. The twitch. The way your mind screams at the man before you in rage. You give him nothing as you continue to gaze down at the table, the silence stretching long and cold in the sterile room. 

“You think you’re fooling anyone? Teenage girls are so easy. You all have the same weakness. Emotions. Boys. Attention. You are not nearly as complex as you believe you are.”

You finally raise your head to look squarely in his eyes, your own void of any emotion as you regard him. 

“You think you’re fooling anyone?” You mimic, “Men are so easy. You all have the same weakness. Power. Lust. Control. You are not nearly as complex as you believe you are.”

Carl looks enraged as his fist flies onto the table. Instead of flinching as he wanted, you merely tilt your head to one side and regard him in boredom. 

“And you said teenage girls are emotional. You should really have better control than that,” you say calmly. 

“Get her out of here,” he says through clenched teeth. 

Walking back to your cell you sense it suddenly. A tickle in your mind. You snap your head to the side and hear it plain as day.

They know.

They found it.

The door. The door. The door!

There is panic in the words and in the mind. 

He’s fourteen with dark hair and wild green eyes. You remember him vaguely from when you were here before. 

Show!

You collapse as the boy enters your mind and you are thrown into a dream. 

Billy is in a car accident. He’s pulled into a void. The screams are too much. 

You try to pull away from him. To break away from his hold on you. 

Bait.

The creature that fills the sky is terrifying. Black and everywhere. It fills your mind and you know in your heart that this isn’t over. That the Upside Down is beating at the door. 

Wait…

You gasp as you are thrown back into your head. The haunted green eyes of the boy down the hall filling your vision. 

“Get up!” yells the guard. 

You are kicked roughly in the side as you double over again. The other reaches down and grabs your hair dragging you up to your feet. 

“Not so tough without your powers are you?” spits the guard.

You blink and reorient yourself before you wipe the blood from your nose. You can feel him at the edge of your conscience. 

Bad men… bad…

‘Yes…’ you think to him, ‘Bad men…’

Out?

He pauses for a breath as you are thrown back into your cell. 

Out out out???

‘Soon.’

The thought seems to soothe him as his mind quiets and he drifts off to sleep. Vaguely, you wonder if he even knows how to talk. His mind is less fragmented than you originally thought though. You can use that to your advantage. 

 ***

Billy opens his eyes to see you standing before him.

I need you to be ready.

“For what?” he asks instantly alert and sitting up, “Ready for what?”

The moment I expose them…

“What do you need us to do?”

The old base is where I’m being kept. Elle knows where. I will need a distraction in precisely three days’ time. You need to listen very carefully to my instructions. In a glass bottle mix carbon disulfide, phosphorus, and sulfur with a metal lid. This solution is highly flammable if exposed to air.

“What do you want us to do with that?”

I want to burn this place to the ground.

Notes:

I know! Such a long time coming! Concentrating has been difficult even with inspiration for this story! The next chapter will probably be the final chapter for this story, but never fear! I'll begin work on "I'll Tell You No Lies" the sequel to this story set in S3 of Stranger Things! There may be a little short in between this story and that one because I have such affection for this weird triangle between MC, Billy, and Steve. Please drop a comment to tell me your thoughts!

[cinnaminsvga]

Taming of the Bridezilla | Seokjin

→ summary: Picture this: You had been (not-so) cordially invited to the wedding of your least favorite cousin—a woman who had been hellbent on making your childhood a living hell. Now older and wiser, you would think that you would put aside your differences and attend your cousin’s special day without any hard feelings, right? You wouldn’t seek revenge, now would you?

→ genre: fake dating!au, i2l, humor/crack, fluff  → warnings: seokjin and oc paradoxically have big yet small brains, fake proposals, not-so fake mutual pining, thinly veiled baby-making jokes, terrible family members, ass slapping (no worries it’s consensual) → words: 6.3K → a/n: first of all, no this is not a horror fic; i just thought the title was funny. unless you consider the stupidity of the characters to be mildly horrifying, then sure you can count this as a horror fic. this insanely ridiculous fic was commissioned by @breadoffoxy!! anyone who loves chaotic jin is an angel in my book. yes, this comm is a bit longer than expected but what can i say... i love me some jin. anyway i hope you guys enjoy!

“You got the ring, right?”

Seokjin pats his left breast pocket and gives you a quick smirk. The bump where the ring should be is fortuitously hidden by his large and garish boutonniere, looking to all the world like he had pinned a whole head of cabbage to his suit. Even then, he still somehow manages to make it work. “Of course I did. This entire plan would be useless if I didn’t have it,” he says.

“What flavor did you get? I quite like the watermelon one,” you muse, smacking your lips in anticipation. “Though it’s hard to remember since I haven’t had a ring pop in years.”

Seokjin laughs loudly, startling a group of aunties gossiping in the corner. They all shoot glares at him, though the effect has lost its novelty as they’ve already been glaring at you from the moment you arrived. You suppose that they have a good reason to, considering that you both arrived at the reception an entire 30 minutes late. You can imagine them cursing you under their breath, saying something like, “You’ve brought dishonor to us all!” or whatever it is that aunties like to say these days.

“I could have gotten you all the flavors available at the convenience store if you wanted, but then we’d be 40 minutes late instead,” Seokjin sighs, pretending to be anguished at the thought.

You snort in the most unladylike manner that you can, grinning wildly when you hear one of the aunties gasp in horrified disbelief. From the way they’re reacting, you might have thought that you just flashed them your Borat-inspired neon green thong.

“I do love a man who can treat me well,” you giggle, earning a soft pinch from him.

“Oh, hush. I know you love it. You nearly burst into tears the other day when I bought you a McFlurry because your broke ass was a dollar short,” Seokjin teases. You squawk indignantly, unable to come up with a retort.

“Whatever! Just because you’re a trust fund baby doesn’t mean you get to bully my impoverished state. Just you fucking wait ‘til I get hit by a wealthy 77 year old’s BMW and then I’ll be made for life,” you huff, your illusion of annoyance quickly shattered by the large, dumb grin on your face. “Hey, would you still love me if I broke all my limbs but had a massive bank account?”

“I’d rather buy you McDonald’s for the rest of your life than see you in pain,” he answers simply, patting you gently on the head. “Though I suppose helping you inject thousands of calories into your bloodstream would also cause you pain later on in life, but hey, at least you’d go down doing what you love.”

“Oh, yes. Keep talking dirty to me. I love it when you talk about the ways you’d kill me by association.” You laugh, casually looping your arms together as you walk past the slowly growing crowd of aunties and entering the reception hall to find your seats. Almost everyone is already in their seats, with a few guests milling about and greeting one another with tight-lipped smiles and hollow laughter. The sight brings goosebumps up your arm, bringing back terrible memories of having to make niceties with these people despite knowing that they despised you and your less affluent family.

Remember, you’re only here as a representative for your parents, you tell yourself. You’d rather bear the brunt of the thinly-veiled insults than to have your parents have to experience this hell. Besides, you have big plans for today, and they would only be brought to an end if your mother ever found out what you wanted to do in the first place.

“As they say… We’re here for a good time, not a long time, which I suppose is our philosophy for tonight as well,” he quips back. He taps you lightly on the hand, wrenching your gaze away from the magnificent chocolate fountain on the dessert table and back to his somewhat less magnificent face. A straight-up lie, but it is the only defense mechanism you have in your arsenal that can keep you from staring at how gorgeous he looks in his suit and tie like a braindead idiot. Denial, after all, hasn’t failed you during the last five years that you’ve been in love with your own best friend.

“What is it?” you ask, curious when he furtively points out one of your cousins near the front of the hall. “That’s Namjoon. Do you know him?”

“Know is a strong word,” Seokjin hums, winking at your cousin when he happens to turn towards the two of you. Namjoon’s eyes light up when he sees him, but his excitement immediately vanishes when he notices who Seokjin has beside him on his right arm. You could see the mental cogs going on inside Namjoon’s head as he stares at the two of you, but you don’t get to see him reach a conclusion before Seokjin is pulling you away, walking in the opposite direction.

“Seokjin? What was that all about?” you ask, though you have to admit you’re kind of afraid to know the answer to your own question. As much as everything about tonight’s scheme had been your idea, you can’t help but think that Seokjin’s intense enthusiasm to help you isn’t merely out of his own desire to help you as a friend, but rather due to his innate calling to cause chaos wherever he goes.

“I have a secret bonus surprise for the bride and groom once we get kicked out from this joint after we do our thing,” he says. “And, dare I say, it’ll be quite a treat for all the guests here.” The smirk on his lips is downright heinous, only exacerbating the frantic racing of your heart. There must be something wrong with you, not with how badly you want to do unspeakable atrocities to him and his evil-looking ass. Or perhaps he was simply put down on Earth to test your slowly fraying sanity.

He snaps you out of your dumbfounded, horny stupor when he continues, “If everything goes according to plan, then we’ll truly end this night with a bang, no pun intended.”

“What was even the pun there?” You raise a brow, slightly disconcerted by the way Seokjin was struggling to keep his laughter (at his own joke) at bay. “You know what? Don’t even answer. I guess I’ll just have to find out later tonight.”

After some pointless meandering while the two of you locate your seats, you are finally able to locate your table, unsurprisingly situated near the farthest corner of the hall where no one would have to see you. You’re honestly more surprised that your newly-wedded cousin had even remembered to give you a seat, though you suppose that it must have been at the behest of your uncle. While your devil of a cousin has always been rude and cruel to you, you have to admit that at least her father knew some manners, though that only begs the question as to what happened to his daughter along the way. Genetics and expensive etiquette classes can only help so much, you suppose.

“Thank you again for doing this with me. You really didn’t need to,” you say when you take a seat, nearly elbowing him in the process. Your chairs are wedged right beside the emergency exit and a grotesque ice sculpture of the bride and groom, forcing the two of you to sit so close that you could feel Seokjin breathe directly into your ear. If you shifted just slightly to the right, you’d basically be sitting on his lap (which is a prospect that intrigues you greatly, but you refrain from voicing it in fear of creeping him out… for now).

“How could I ever resist the offer to ruin your cousin’s wedding? This has been on my bucket list for years,” he winks cheekily at you. “Besides, you’re my dearest friend, Y/N. You could ask me to fight a bear naked, and I’d gladly let it eat my dick in one chomp!”

“I wouldn’t let a bear eat your dick,” you say kindly, patting him gently on the back. “You can’t afford to lose an inch when you only have two to offer.”

Before you could laugh hysterically at Seokjin’s howls of betrayal, your attention is pulled away when the soft violin music stops playing abruptly. From far away, it’s hard to tell what’s going on until you notice a bright light reflecting off of the sea of attendees, the balding head of the reception’s host bobbing up and down as he makes his way to the front of the hall.

“Attention esteemed guests! We will now begin serving dinner shortly. Please remain in your seats as our waiters attend to you.” The host speaks into a crackly microphone just as a few scraggly-looking underpaid teenagers in black dress shirts come out with the first course of the night.

Seokjin cranes his neck, trying to see what the food is. “What the hell is that? Why does it look like green shit in a bowl?” he murmurs, loud enough so that only you can hear. “I didn’t know your cousin was a Dr. Seuss fan. Are we being served green eggs and ham?” Before you can guess, you watch as his nose crinkles in disgust, a vile stench making its way to your area even though none of the waiters were even close to your table. “Oh my goodness, is that stench what we’re supposed to eat?”

“Smells like a barnyard,” you comment, though you aren’t as surprised as he is by the revolting smell. “Well, my cousin always did like making atrocious vegan recipes on her shitty WordPress blog, so I wouldn’t put it past her if she made up the menu for her own wedding.”

“She’s a vegan and a bully? What are the odds,” he says drily, cringing when he watches one of the guests begin to dry heave the moment a spoonful of the green stuff enters their mouth. “Christ. I didn’t know I was signing up for a life or death mission.”

“At this rate, I don’t think we’re getting served until the end of the night anyway,” you say, observing as the understaffed employees tried their best to get to every table while insufferable aunts did their worst to hinder their progress by nagging and complaining. Why were they so adamant about eating the food anyway? Were they itching to get diarrhea on a Saturday night? You do admit that it would probably be better, so then at least you’d have an excuse to leave earlier. “Though I suppose... Do you think eating the mystery goo while it’s cold would be better or worse?”

“It’s okay, I’ll treat you to McDonald’s when we finish up here,” he says, smiling sweetly at you. Never in your life has the mention of greasy fries and chicken nuggies made your heart race faster than it did at that moment, but then again, it could also be your high-blood pressure kicking up. Either way, you can’t ignore the way your face heats up at his offer, now more excited than ever for the reception to be over.

You and Seokjin chat as you wait for everyone around you to finish eating, not even bothered when the waiters forget to bring your food. You’re in the middle of debating the pros and cons of cock and ball torture when large dark shadows loom over both your heads, much like a solar eclipse. A cold shiver runs up your spine when you look up to find the reptilian faces of your aunts, the fumes of their designer perfume creating a cloud so noxious that you could feel your lungs shrivel into prunes.

“Hello, Y/N. It’s nice to see you after such a long time,” your Aunt Sohee greets, her tone indicating that there was nothing pleasant about seeing you at all. Your aunt, who had gotten so much botox done that she was reminiscent of a plastic balloon ready to pop, has her entourage of fellow aunties behind her, all of whom looked ridiculous in their fake designer dresses. You swear you can see that one of them had forgotten to snip off the Made in China tag before wearing it to the wedding.

“Aunt Sohee, you’re looking… young,” you say after a moment, deciding to settle on lying for now. Even though your main plan for this evening is to create chaos at your cousin’s wedding, your one condition is that you wouldn’t cause a scene with your aunts. While you are hardly in the running for favorite niece, there is still a 1% chance that you could get some inheritance from them once they hit the grave, so you’ll have to grit your teeth and bear the incoming barrage of personal questions coming your way lest you lose out in the long run.

“Why, thank you. I can’t say the same for you,” she huffs, shamelessly grabbing my cheeks and squishing them like stress balls. She peers sourly at your disfigured face, trying to squint judgmentally at you but failing due to her horrendous plastic surgery. “How old are you? Why do you have so many wrinkles?”

You feel your eyebrow twitch involuntarily, unable to respond even if you wanted due to the gorilla-hold she has on your face. You side-eye Seokjin, who is looking back at you with a blank and calm expression. You had already told him beforehand that you wouldn’t be arguing with your aunts, but that doesn’t mean he’s not allowed to be an asshole.

Being an asshole, after all, is Seokjin’s favorite pastime.

“Hello, Aunties. My name is Kim Seokjin, and I’m Y/N’s long-term boyfriend. She’s told me many good things about you,” he says with a polite smile, his hamster cheeks puffing up in that adorably boyish way. The surrounding aunties all begin to coo at his handsome face (unfair!), but they’re quickly silenced by a sharp glare from your Aunt Sohee. She appraises him, giving him a once over with a pursed lip.

“Long-term boyfriend, huh? Are you sure you aren’t paying her or something? Y/N hasn’t had a boyfriend in years. Her cousins have told me that she’s been too busy with other… extracurricular activities to bother sticking around,” your aunt says snidely, her sneer deepening. She lets go of your face, crossing her arms when she spies the expensive watch on his wrist. “Ah, I see that you’re well-off. I just can’t possibly see why else you’d be staying with her if not for other reasons.”

You can feel your blood pressure rising, the veins on your forehead undoubtedly bulging as you try to suppress your rage. Screw your cousin for spreading a rumor that you’re a whore! It’s as if you were the one sucking guys off in the locker rooms when the two of you were in the second year of high school and not her. You haven’t even had your first proper kiss, for heaven’s sake!

Instead of getting angry, Seokjin’s expression hardly changes at all. His serene smile is still plastered on his face, but only you can tell that he’s even remotely bothered by their rude remarks. You can feel the air around him turn frosty, but your oblivious aunties are still too busy tittering amongst themselves, exchanging insults at your expense.

“Oh, are we that obvious?” Seokjin tilts his head, feigning innocence. Your head jerks towards him, your eyes bugging out of their sockets. What the fuck? “You are so right, Auntie Sohee. I’m sure Y/N must have informed you about our predicament. You see, we’ve—”

“Your predicament?” Aunt Sohee scoffs, interrupting Seokjin mid-speech. “I can’t believe the nerve of this girl, bringing her little boy-toy to the holy matrimony of her cousin—”

“—been trying to produce an heir to the Kim Line for months now,” Seokjin sighs heavily, looking off into the distance with glazed, dreamy eyes. You nearly cough out a lung at his sudden proclamation, about to interject and ask him what on earth he was talking about. Your words die on your tongue, however, when he grips your hand tightly underneath the table. He taps three times on the back of your hand: an old sign that you both made back in high school whenever he was busy bullshitting his way out of trouble.

Luckily, none of your aunts notice your blunder, all of them too occupied trying to wrap their heads around what Seokjin had said. Multiple mouths drop open in surprise and disbelief, including your Aunt Sohee. Her penciled eyebrows arch comically high, her smoothened forehead wrinkling infinitesimally (a feat in itself, for you were sure she had long since lost any ability to move the skin on her face.)

“I beg your pardon?” she whispers, staring daggers at Seokjin.

Then beg, you think to yourself. Judging by the way the corners of Seokjin’s lips lift slightly, you have a strong feeling that he was thinking the same thing to himself. Instead, he says, “Yes, Aunt Sohee. You see, I come from a long line of businessmen. Ever heard of Kim Enterprises.”

Her face turns pale. “You mean… the Kim Enterprises? The one that owns—”

“South Korea’s largest chain of department stores? I’m flattered that you’re familiar,” he winks. He leans forward, gesturing for your aunts to come closer, like he’s imparting state secrets to them. “My older brother, who has been married for quite some time, has chosen to remain childless at the behest of his wife. For that reason, my father put me up to the task of producing an heir for the company.”

“An heir?” your aunt repeats, dumbfounded.

Seokjin nods, tapping his chin thoughtfully. “Yes, it’s quite unfortunate, but it’s a responsibility I’m willing to take. My family is notorious for planning our lives, even for the next 50 years, so I am forever grateful to have Y/N who is willing to bring me multiple potential heirs to my family.”

“Multiple heirs?” Your aunts shriek in unison, causing a few nearby guests to look over at your table in curiosity. You wave at them awkwardly in apology, hoping to get them to ignore the absolute clusterfuck happening right in front of you.

You feel Seokjin kick you gently in the shin, urging you to say something as well. You clear your throat, channeling all the pent-up Seokjin energy that you had indirectly absorbed over the years of being his friend. “That’s right… My Jinnie has always been so lonely, living in his gigantic mansion with his piles of money. He may have never felt the loving touch of his father, but I’m certain that we’ll be great parents to our children. Why, we’re almost like a pair of rabbits when it comes to—”

Aunt Sohee clears her throat abruptly, a deep flush coloring her cheeks as she glares daggers at you. She looks absolutely peeved, and it takes all your mental fortitude to restrain yourself from jumping up in triumph. Take that, wench!

“I have to admit that this is somewhat… unexpected,” your aunt says carefully, pointing a tight smile at Seokjin. He beams back, positively delighted.

“Y/N is quite the catch. I’m grateful to have her in my life,” he says, his tone growing soft by the end. He looks at you then, and you find a mysterious emotion floating in his eyes that you can’t quite name. When you blink and try to get a closer look, his careful façade is back in place.

Eventually, your aunts lose interest in you once they realize they can no longer bully you, not when you had an incredibly rich boyfriend to back you up. “Must be nice being a rich boy, huh?” you snicker, teasing the blushing boy beside you. Thanks to his hair growing longer than usual, the tips of his ears are miraculously hidden away. When you brush his hair back, they are as red as a baboon’s ass.

“Oh, shut up. You know I hate flaunting my dad’s money,” he whines, pouting cutely. He fingers the watch on his wrist, staring at it uncomfortably. “This isn’t even my watch. I had to borrow one from my brother.”

“Well, you did it for me, so I suppose it’s not all bad,” you laugh, pinching his cheek lightly. “Plus, it was funny watching my aunts shut up for once. They’re just mad that you’re richer than the groom.”

“Really? What does he do?”

“He’s an entrepreneur.” You snort, emphasizing the word with air quotations. “Honestly, he just calls himself that while he waits for his self-made business to pop off or whatever. No such luck so far, if what I heard was right.”

“Lucky for you, you’re stuck with my devastatingly handsome face and stinkin’ rich bank account,” he jokes, contorting his face into a funny expression until you’re left snorting at his antics. Little does he know, you still would’ve l***d him even if he wasn’t any of those things, but that’d be too cringey to say. What are you, some sort of romantic lead protagonist?

It takes a little bit over an hour for dessert to start getting served, by which point the bride and groom decide to make their rounds to greet the guests. “Don’t you think this is the perfect time to put our plan into motion? The dance floor is open and we should be able to make it to the center without anyone noticing,” he whispers, his breath tickling your neck.

“Yeah, let’s go,” you say, but just as you’re about to get up from your seat, a flurry of white blocks your path in an instant. You startle slightly, falling back to your chair and hitting Seokjin in the chest with a soft grunt. “Shit, sorry about that Seokjin—”

“Well, well, well. If it isn’t my dear cousin,” a voice cuts you off, the disdain in their voice dripping like acid down your ear canals. Your blood freezes instinctively, years of past trauma crashing down on you as your childhood bully stands just inches away from you, her blood-red lips stretched into a broad smirk.

“Kairi,” you greet.

“Y/N,” she responds.

“Seokjin!” Seokjin adds helpfully.

Your cousin turns to him slowly. “Quite right,” she hisses, eyebrows pinched together in thinly-veiled annoyance. “I’ve heard through some whispers that my baby cousin finally managed to snag a rich kid for a boyfriend and I just couldn’t help but let my curiosity drag me over here.” She looks you up and down, snorting at what she sees. “You would think that having a chaebol as a boyfriend would mean you could at least afford a proper dress.”

You glance down at your dress: a hand-me-down from your mother because you couldn’t be bothered to buy a new one, not when you’d rather choke on Satan’s hot fiery balls for all eternity than spend any amount of money just to attend your cousin’s wedding. Despite this, you can’t help your cheeks from heating in embarrassment, an automatic response after years of bullying and torment from that spoiled bitch.

When you don’t reply, Kairi’s smirk widens. “Oh? Cat got your tongue? Sugar daddy couldn’t even be bothered to buy you a dress? While you’re at it, maybe you should ask for a new car too. I’m surprised you even made it here alive in that old metal deathtrap of yours. You’re lucky you were just late to the reception instead of dead on the street.”

You can sense Seokjin staring at you from your right. Your fists are clenched tightly on your skirt, your nails nearly tearing the fabric in your searing rage. Slowly, carefully, Seokjin slips his hands underneath yours—he pries your death grip open until he can lace his fingers in between yours. At once, your anger melts at his tender gesture, your focus pulled away from your cousin and back to him. He thumbs the back of your hand, as if assuring you that he’d handle this himself.

He smiles at Kairi, not a single ounce of kindness in his eyes. “Yes, indeed. It is my mistake entirely for not ordering a dress much sooner. Y/N is so incredibly humble; she’d rather wear a vintage outfit than wear one of those paper-thin dresses from YesStyle that you and your bridesmaids seem to favor,” he sighs, pretending to be pained.

“Paper-thin? YESSTYLE?” Kairi screeches, her voice breaking the sound barrier. You watch in fascination as her skin turns an unflattering ruddy shade.

Unperturbed by her murderous aura, Seokjin prattles on. “Quite right,” he mocks her with her own words, smirking ever so slightly. “Though, I must apologize for being late to the reception. That was my fault as well. My father had a general meeting this morning for all the employees at the company, as he had wanted to announce that I would be the Vice President starting next Monday. We tried to leave sooner, but everyone had been too busy congratulating us,” he apologizes, though not apologetic in the slightest.

Your cousin could cosplay as a walking crack pipe with how much steam was puffing out of her ears. She’s livid, so much so that her fury was preventing her from formulating any sort of comeback. “You—how dare you—I swear on my—” she stutters incomprehensibly, her vulture-like nails tearing her dainty paper-thin skirt into shreds.

Just as she looks about ready to blow, her father comes around to your table. He places a hand delicately on his daughter’s shoulder, immediately understanding the situation when he sees you. “Kairi, I think it’s time for you to greet the rest of the guests. Uncle Iverson said he has a gift for you that simply cannot wait,” he says, doing his best to appease you. He gives you a genuinely regretful look; you shake your head, waving off his concern.

“It was nice seeing you, Kairi. I hope you and your husband will have a wonderful year together,” you say. You gasp exaggeratedly, holding a hand to your heart. “Oh, sorry. I meant to say I hope you have wonderful years together. Pardon my mistake.”

Before the scant amount of brain cells in your cousin’s brain could process your words, her father pulls her away, dragging her to the next table over. Once they’re out of earshot, you heave a sigh of relief. Beside you, Seokjin lets out a laugh that he had been undoubtedly holding in the past few minutes, sounding like a fish gasping for air with how much he is shaking with mirth.

“Fuck, that was hilarious. Did you see how angry she got? Beautiful,” he says, wiping away a stray tear. “Love that for us!”

“Damn. I knew you were good at bullshitting, but even your acting skills almost convinced me,” you whistle lowly, impressed. “You sure you’re not a con-artist in disguise?”

“All good businessmen are con-artists, my young padawan,” he snickers, winking at you. He shrugs. “You get used to dealing with assholes like her when you attend enough rich people parties. Besides, all good lies are rooted in the truth, after all. That’s what my father taught me when I was seven.”

“You must have been a terrible child, then.” You laugh, before realizing what he had just said. “Wait. Rooted in the truth? What does that mean?”

“Oh. Well,” he clears his throat, giggling nervously. He rubs his neck, embarrassed. “I am the vice president of dad’s company now. I just lied about the meeting being this morning. He announced it a day ago or something. Not that it’s a big deal or anything…”

You gawk at him, speechless. Not for the first time in your life, you are once again stunned by the absurdity of the man before you. How did men like him exist outside of cheesy k-dramas? He’s handsome, rich, funny, AND well-mannered? It’s almost like some love-crazed author had penned him into existence for their entertainment.

Seokjin breaks you from your reverie, tapping you thrice on your shoulder. “Shall we go? The dance floor is still empty. It’s now or never.”

You nod excitedly, standing up to head towards the center of the hall. This time, there is no one stopping you as the two of you make your way towards your destination. The lights near the dancefloor are still dimly lit, as most of the lighting is currently focused on the guests as the bride and groom make their rounds to greet everyone. Even if Seokjin got onto his knees right now, only a few people nearby would notice, so you’d have to do something to catch people’s attention.

“This is going to be moderately to highly embarrassing for a few moments, but I think that’s the atmosphere we’re going for, isn’t it?” Seokjin whispers, his mouth embarrassingly close to yours as he holds you gently by the waist. There isn’t a need for him to stand so close to you, but you have to admit his presence is mostly calming—minus the fact that he’s been your crush for five years and he’s going to be fulfilling one of your deepest fantasies in front of your entire extended family. No biggie.

“I suppose so. What are you gonna do to get their attention?” you ask, palms beginning to sweat. Despite this, Seokjin still takes your hands into his own, a small smile on his lips.

“Just watch,” he whispers, before slowly getting down on one knee.

Ba-dump. Here we fucking go.

“My dearest Y/N… The apple of my eye, the straw to my berry, the con to my dom,” Seokjin says, projecting his voice so that it can be heard even above the music. One of the violin players is even startled long enough to stop playing, further causing more heads to turn in their direction. You hear a gasp coming from your left, but you force yourself not to look. Instead, you stare right back into Seokjin’s sweet brown eyes, your heart beating a mile a minute.

This isn’t real… This is just a prank, bro. Get over yourself, you hiss internally, but your heart refuses to listen.

“You’ve been in my life for almost half a decade, and not a day goes by wherein I don’t wonder what it would be like to live the rest of my days with you. In many ways, I wouldn’t be the person I am if it hadn’t been for your presence in my life,” he says. If you look deeper into his eyes, you can almost trick yourself into thinking that they looked wetter than they had just a moment ago.

“Y/N, you are the person I’ve loved for years now. I used to think you didn’t like me as much as I liked you, so I was always scared to pop the question. I had many opportunities to ask, but I suppose tonight just felt like the right moment. I was afraid that if I didn’t do it now, I might never get the chance to ask again, and I wouldn’t be able to live with myself if I let you slip away out of cowardice.”

For some reason, his words seem almost too real, like he was speaking the truth. You have never doubted his acting skills, but would you be willing to wonder if there was even a small possibility that there was some truth to his tale? You swallow thickly, the need to ask just dangling on the tip of your tongue.

He rifles through his jacket pocket, procuring a small velvet box. He thumbs it almost reverently, his hands shaking slightly, but you can blame that on the nerves from hundreds of people watching you. He takes a deep breath, opening the box with a soft click. “My dearest Y/N… Would you give me the honor of spending the rest of my days with you?”

You feel your breath get knocked out of you in an instant, the genuine adoration in his eyes too much for you to handle. You stammer slightly, too busy staring at him to properly register the loud claps, screams, and hollers all around you. “I… Seokjin… This is…”

“MAKE THEM STOP! SOMEONE KICK THEM OUT RIGHT NOW!” You dimly hear your cousin screaming obscenities somewhere, but you are still too caught up in the moment to care. The world only consists of you and Seokjin—nothing else matters right now.

When you look down at the box in his hands, fully expecting to see a comically large ring pop nestled in its cushions, but instead you find—

You gasp, nearly doubling over in surprise. “Oh my god, Seokjin. Is that a real fucking diamond ring?!”

He shrugs, smiling wryly. “Only the best rocks for the girl who rocks my socks off every night,” he jokes, but his nervousness is palpable. He’s sweating, a drop trailing down the side of his face despite the strong air conditioning.

Oh shit. It hits you right then that his proposal is real. The damned idiot is fucking proposing to you in front of your most hated family members, and he’s proposing to you for real.

“Kim Seokjin, please fucking explain yourself—”

But before he can have the chance to open his mouth, you feel rough hands grab you by the shoulders, pulling you away from him. “I’m sorry I have to do this, ma’am. Bride’s orders,” one of the waiters says, awkwardly escorting you to the exit. When you turn back, you see another waiter pulling Seokjin away as well, the box with the ring still clutched tightly in his hand.

The two waiters deposit you outside the hall, bowing stiffly before heading back into the room. You’re still breathing heavily, the adrenaline coursing through your veins. Seokjin isn’t any better, bent over with his hands on his knees. From your vantage point, you can see how red his entire neck is, his blush reaching even past the collar of his shirt.

“Seokjin…” you trail off, unable to say another word. You’re completely flabbergasted, elated, annoyed, and mostly just mind-fucked because when on earth did Kim Seokjin ever have a crush on you?!

“I’m sorry. That must have been quite a shock,” he coughs out a laugh. He rubs his face, embarrassment rolling off of him in waves. “I just… It was sort of a last-minute decision I made. I’ve been into you for years now, and I know I’m kinda putting you on the spot by proposing like that, but I knew if I didn’t do anything soon, you might just slip away before I can say anything.”

“Wait. So are you really… proposing to me?” You squeak out the last bit, your face mirroring his reddened state.

“No!” He shouts suddenly, before covering his mouth with his palm. “S-sorry, what I mean to say is, it wasn’t really a marriage proposal. It was more like… just a general proposal? I do want to live with you forever, but I know that thought must be daunting and—oh god, I don’t even know if you like me like that, so this must be incredibly weird and out of line. Please excuse me while I shove a cactus up my ass—”

“Seokjin,” you interrupt, silencing his rambling. He clamps his mouth shut. “Are you… asking me out?”

He nods his head. “Yeah…”

“And what you said is true? You actually like me?”

“No, you don’t understand. I love you,” he says, before getting shy again. He looks down at the ring box. “Fuck. This isn’t a real engagement ring, by the way. It’s more like a promise ring, so you don’t have to feel bad for rejecting me.”

“Oh my god, I’m in love with an idiot,” you groan, pulling him into a hug. You nestle into his chest, giggling hysterically into his shirt. “I fucking hate you.”

“Wait, I’m getting mixed signals over here,” Seokjin says, gasping when he feels how tightly you embrace him. He doesn’t complain, however. He returns the gesture in kind, nuzzling deep into your neck. “So, does that mean the feeling is mutual?”

“Yes, you idiot. Now give me my ring.”

“My pleasure, princess.” He laughs, drawing away slightly so that he can slip the ring on your finger. The diamond shines brightly under the fluorescent lights, but nothing brings you more joy than having the boy you love in your arms.

As the two of you are sharing a sweet moment, it takes a second for you to realize that the commotion from inside the venue still hasn’t stopped. When you crane your heads, you spot one of the doors had been left ajar, allowing you to slip your heads through the crack just in time to see Seokjin’s beautiful bare ass being projected onto a large screen.

The musical notes of Rick Astley’s most popular song play loudly on the speakers, drowning out the sounds of the bride screaming bloody murder as the IT people tried their best to sort out the mess. The Seokjin on the screen slaps his ass in time with the tune, his glorious moon-shaped globes shaking mesmerizingly for all to see.

When you look to Seokjin for an explanation, he merely shrugs his shoulders. “They really should do background checks on the people they hire for these things. Taking that one video editing course in university really does pay off, huh?”

“Sure does,” you grin, linking your arms together. “Now let’s get some fucking McDonalds.”

And so, you lived happily ever after—the end.

[host-club-hq]

Call of the Scar pt. 1

➼ pairing: harry potter x reader

➼ genre: sfw, fluffy, fantasy

➼ word-count: 3.4k

➼ summary: Harry Potter and Y/N Weasley embark on their great journey together in their fourth year at Hogwarts. What does this unsuspecting year hold for them this time?

➼ part 1 of many :)

➼ want to request? do it here. let me know what i can write for you :)

➼ talk to the characters!

Frank Bryce sets a kettle on the stove and- with a shaky hand- adjusts the flame. He leans forward, squinting to get the fire right, and the window beyond his is revealed. Something flickers. Softly. Then again. Frank turns. 

Atop the hill, light dances in one of the windows of the manor. 

CLANG!

Frank emerges from the cottage, walking stick in hand. He limps into the yard and approaches a door almost completely covered in ivy. He fits a rusty key into the lock

The knob squeals dryly. The walking stick pierces the shadows, then Frank himself enters. His nostrils flare against the sour air. He cocks an ear. Frank's shadow spreads darkly on the landing. Above a small table is an old calendar, freckled with Mildew. August 1943

Frank reaches the top and stops. His breath drifts like smoke. 

At the end of the hallway, a door stands ajar, casting sliver of light across the dusty floor. Frank edges closer and sees a narrow slice of the room beyond. A feeble fire flickers in the grate. From within: voice.

"But where here, my Lord? It seems so... inhospitable.

"How fastidious you've become, Wormtail. As I recall, only recently you called the nearest gutterpipe home. Could it be that the task of nursing me has become wearisome for you?"

"No, my Lord! I only meant-"

"I have my reasons for coming here. Thirteen years of reasons."

"Perhaps if we ere to do it without the boy..."

"No! The boy is everything!"

Just then, the tip of Frank's walking stick vibrates against the floorboard. He eyes it curiously, then- in mute horror- watches a giant snake emerge from the shadows behind him. As it skims past his shoes and into the room, an eerie hiss greets its arrival.

"Nagini has interesting news, Wormtail. According to her, there is an old Muggle standing just outside this room."

The door flings wide, revealing a short balding man- Wormtail.

"Where are your manners, Wormtail? Step aside so I can give our guest a proper greeting..."

Slowly, Wormtail withdraws. Frank's eyes dilate. A flash of green light sears the walls. The walking stick clatters to the floor, handle charred black, weeping smoke. A brittle whistling rises from the shadows of the empty Gardener's Cottage, a tea kettle squealing madly, rising like a scream on the night sky. 

Harry Potter sits bolt upright, a gasp in his throat. He winces and presses his palm to the scar on his forehead. Across the room, Ron lies sleeping. 

"Having a bit of a lie-in, are we?" A smug voice comes.

Harry spins, seeing you, his closest girl friend, grinning from beside his bed. 

"Y/N. When'd you get back?" Harry breathes heavily. You had gone for a morning walk- as you usually do when sleep eludes you.

"Just now. You?" you’re referring as to when he arrived at your family’s burrow.

"Last night." Harry begins to sit up.

"Must have missed you. Though, how could I? With your clumsy arse." you ruffle his hair and Harry groans. 

"Says you." Harry bites back playfully. You grin. 

Hermione comes stalking in loudly and Ron wakes. "Bloody hell!" Ron bolts up and tugs the blanket over his chest.

"Oh, honestly. Come on. Get yourself dressed or we'll miss the whole thing." Hermione claps at Ron. 

You watch as she leaves, then look at Harry. The two of you stare at each other before you whack him upside the head. 

"Blimey, Y/N! What was that for?"

"I dunno, maybe I just wanted to hit your dumb ass." you walk out.

Harry rubs the back of his scalp before turning to Ron, who was still on the verge of sleep. 

"What are you looking at me for?" Ron grumbles. 

"She's your sister. I wonder where she gets it from." Harry throws his feet over the bed. 

"Not bloody likely... more like all that time she spends with Hermione. God awful, the pair of them."

"Don't be dramatic, Ron." Harry shoves him slightly as he gets dressed. 

A string of sleepy silhouettes- Fred, George, Harry, Ron, you, and Hermione- trail a huffing Arthur Weasley. Fred has a battered pair of omnioculars slung over his neck.

"Where is it exactly, where we're going?" Harry turns to you. 

"Dunno. Say, Dad. Where're we going?" you holler forward. 

"Haven't the foggiest. Keep up!" Arthur replies. Harry looks at you expectantly. 

"Why are you looking at me like I know where we're going?" you raise an eyebrow. 

"Why don't you know where we're going?" Harry teases back. 

"Because I've never been to the bloody thing. Merlin, Harry, sometimes you're so daft." you sigh, teasingly, again. Harry eyes her curiously. Daft? Yeah, right. 

A ruddy faced wizard appears atop the crest ahead. 

"Arthur! It's about time, son!" The man shouts in greeting. 

"Sorry, Amos. 'Fraid we got a bit of a sleepy start. This is Amos Diggory, everyone. Works with me at the ministry. And this strapping young lad must be Cedric, am I right?" Arthur guesses. 

An extremely handsome 17-year old boy shakes hands with Mr. Weasley, whom he towers over. 

"Sir." Cedric confirms. 

"Bloody hell." you sigh. Harry looks to you.

"What? You think he's attractive?" Harry raises an eyebrow.

"How could I not? Look at him." you grin widely. Harry pouts.

"Don't be a baby, you're still adorable." you pinch his cheek and he yelps.

"Bugger off." He swats your hand away.

"Merlin's beard! You're Harry Potter, aren't you? Ced's talked about you, of course. About playing Quidditch against you last year. I told him- Ced, that'll be something to tell your grandchildren, that will: You beat Harry Potter!" Amos grins. Lorelei frowns and steps beside Harry.

"Harry fell of his broom, Dad. I told you, it was an accident-"

"Yes, but you didn't fall off, did you? Best man won. I'm sure Harry'd say the same." Amos grins. Harry frowns and you take his hand in yours. As much as you tease each other, you both know how much you care for each other. 

"We'll see about that this year, won't we?" you challenge with a subtle smirk. Amos's eyebrows furrow before Arthur interjects before his daughter escalates.

"Well, shall we? We don't want to be late." Arthur clears his throat, as he should. 

"Hm? Oh, right. It's over there." Amos points. 

Harry cranes his neck. Lying in the short grass is an old boot. Each person places a finger to the book, arms extended like spokes to a wheel. Harry leans to you and whispers. 

"Can you tell me why we're all standing here pressing our fingers to this manky old boot?" Harry grimaces.

"It isn't just any manky old boot, mate." Fred interjects. 

"It's a Portkey." you finish. 

"A Portkey? What's a-"

SWOOSH! The hill lurches then tilts. The sky begins to spin. A howling wind rises and the sky spins faster and faster and faster still... and becoming a blur... until...

... Harry slams hard onto his feet and- like the others beside him- topples onto his back. Above him, the sky reels dizzily, like a carousel, spinning slowly to a halt as Arthur, Amos, and Cedric cycle into view, windswept but upright. 

"That'll clear your sinuses, eh!" Arthur exclaims. 

"And I thought I hated Floo Powder." Harry groans. A hand comes into his view and he trails his eyes up the arm that connects to you. 

"Come on, then. Up you go." He takes your hand and helps himself to his feet.

"Floo Powder is still my least favorite. Getting covered in soot just to land in a ruddy fireplace." you grimace as you recall your first Floo Powder experience. 

Harry looks past you to the field beyond. Thousands of tents stretch to the edge of a steep cliff, to the deep bowl of a stadium.

"This reminds me of just how many witches and wizards there are sometimes." you appear next to Harry, your knuckles tightening around the straps of your backpack as if you were anxious. Or, you could be excited- Harry can't tell. 

"That's an interesting way to look at it." Harry acknowledges you with the tilt of his head, nudging you. 

"Keep up, we don't want to be left behind." He starts off first, trusting you’ll follow. And you do. 

Harry glances about in fascination as he and the others trudge through the sea of tents. Exotic accents dance upon the air, every nationality in evidence. 

"Well, here we are!" Arthur pulls aside the flap of a small tent. A very small tent. Harry watches curiously as the others pass through. 

"How in Merlin's name are we all meant to fit in that?" Harry gestures lazily to the tent in disappointment. You peer in from his point of view and shrug. 

"Dad's got all sorts of tricks up his sleeve- just you watch." you inhale deeply and disappear inside the tent. Harry draws in the same sort of breath and ducks inside himself. 

Harry looks around and smiles- he's standing in what's equivalent to a 3-bedroom flat. "I love magic." He grins as she sloppily drops his bag on the floor. 

"I'll take that. You're welcome." you sling Harry's and your bag own over your shoulders. Harry rolls his eyes and follows you at your heal. 

"I could've done that myself." Harry says matter-of-factly.

"You wouldn't owe me that way, would you?" you raise an eyebrow at Harry. You know Harry can't raise a single eyebrow and you take every chance that you can get to tease him with your ability. 

"Ah, I knew there was a catch." Harry grins goofily as you place his rucksack on one of the beds on the boys' side of the tent. You turn on your heal to place your own where you and Hermione will be sleeping. 

"We're separated?" Harry blurts unknowingly. The color red creeps onto the apples of his cheeks as you turn at his query. 

"Yes... why do you ask?" you tilt your head as you turn your body to face him. Harry shrugs nonchalantly. 

"Harry..." you gently takes his hand in yours, causing Harry to look down at you with sparkling eyes. 

"I'm sure you'll be alright for a night or two. What do you do at home when I'm not there, hm?" your thumbs stroke the back of his hand as you look up to meet his eyes. 

Harry learned that you were quite skilled at helping him through his nightmares and you were more than happy to lend your skill. Often when you were younger, you helped Ron through rough nights of nightmares after he'd eaten too much for dinner, or too much for dessert. You quickly learned that it was best to not wake him, for he could reel all too quickly back into reality and startle himself. You would bring the blankets back up over his chest to restrain the thrashing, stroke his cheek to maintain the mumbling, and whisper positive affirmations into his ear to send the nightmares into the abyss- replacing it with a nice, pleasant dream. As soon as you saw the smile on Ron's face, you’d known you’d done your job, and would quietly slip out of the room back to the welcoming warmth of your own bed. The nightmares often only came once a night. You wouldn't have to go back after that. 

All of the same techniques seem to work in calming Harry from his own nightmares. Although, you find it best to embrace him in his sleep to restrain thrashing, as the blankets can do next to nothing to restrain him. 

"Dunno." Harry bites the inside of his cheek and breaks eye contact. Your hand moves from his hand to his shoulder and you smile brightly. 

"If you really do need me, come and get me, yeah?" you pat his shoulder thrice and turn on your heal to the girls' side of the tent. Harry's eyes follow you warily as you walk and he sighs shortly. 

Ron claps Harry on his back, startling him as he spins around. 

"Don't worry too much, mate. She's a light sleeper. If she hears you, she'll wake and be at your side before you know it." Ron starts to unpack his rucksack and Harry nods. 

"Yeah... yeah, no, I'll be fine." Harry forces a smile, which Ron returns. 

Harry and the others climb to their seats. Flags of all nations ring the stadium and vendors apparate here and there among the crowd, selling their wares. 

"Get your Quidditch World Cup programs! Only five Sickles!"

Fancy gold handwriting races repeatedly across a giant blackboard: Gladrags Wizardwear- London, Paris, Hogsmead...

"There's the Peruvian Minister for Tourism. And that man there's the African Head of Magical Games and Sports. And- oh lord- there's Ali Bashir. He's been truing to import flying carpets for years. I keep telling him they'll never replace brooms, but he sees a niche market for a family vehicle..."

"Blimey, Dad. How far up are we?" Ron marvels, ignoring his father's rambling about their surroundings. 

"Well, if it rains, you'll be the first to know."

The voice is Lucius Malfoy descending the stairs with Draco. Arthur, tight as a drum, only glares.

"Father and I are in the Minister's box, by personal invitation of Cornelius Fudge himself." Draco boasts with a smug smirk. 

"Oh, bugger off-" you begin.

"Don't boast, Draco." Lucius jabs his walking cane into Draco's chest. Draco grunts and places his hand over where he was jabbed, looking at his father incredulously. 

You look to Harry with disbelief. 

"Well, that's a first-"

"There's no need with these people." Lucius finishes. 

"Ah." you cut yourself off with a disappointed sigh. Harry chuckles and nudges you. You smile. 

Malfoy's eyes trail nastily over you and Hermione, landing on Harry. 

"Mr. Potter."

As he passes, Harry eyes the walking stick in Lucius Malfoy's grip. A silver serpent encircles his ring finger, inlaid with emerald chips for eyes. 

Harry and the others have settled into the upmost row, where the wind whips coldly. As a fleet of broomsticks jet into view, a roar rises in the crowd. 

"It's the Irish! There's Troy!" Fred exclaims excitedly. 

"And Mullet!"

"And here comes Moran!"

Before Fred can finish, a fleet of dark-clad riders soar over the opposite rim of the stadium. The crowd roars again. 

"I don't see what all the fuss is about." Although your cheeks are smeared in green, (curtesy of your older brothers and Ron) your interest in professional Quidditch have never exceeded your brothers' of course. You do find a small interest in the magic of brooms, but the sport itself has never perked your interest. 

"Here come the Bulgarians!" George points as he leans over the railing. 

"Hm. Who's that?" you squint your eyes at one particularly young player. 

"That, sis, is the best Seeker in the world." George smirks with a smug nudge to your side. You swat him. 

"He flies rather well, doesn't he?" Hermione acknowledges. The boys exchange amused glances. 

"You could say that." Fred stifles his laughter as George nudges him. 

Fred lifts his Omnioculars to his eyes and spins a dial. He dials Krum in closer, then runs the image forwards and backwards.

"What's his name?" you ask as you place your hands on the railing. 

On cue, thousands of fans on the opposite side of the stadium flip large cards bearing the face of the surly looking boy with thick eyebrows. Each one is emblazoned with his name: KRUM.

"Krum?" Hermione guesses.

"Krum." Harry, Ron, Fred, and George assure in unison. 

As the boys look up in admiration, Krum gets past the vast mosaic of his likeness with a nary glance, flying with such breathtaking skill that Harry's jaw fairly falls open. You lean over and press your index finger to his chin, effectively shutting his mouth. 

"You'll catch flies." you smirk as Harry swats your hand from his face. 

"Lay off." he grumbles. 

In the ministry box, Cornelius Fudge rises as Lucius Malfoy and Draco take their seats nearby.

"Good evening! As Minister for Magic, it gives me great pleasure to welcome each and every one of you to the final of the four hundred and twenty-second Quidditch World Cup! Let the match begin!"

A ball of light busts from Fudge's wand. Harry watches Viktor Krum rocket upward, the crowd roaring as he rises into the glittering night sky, the stadium growing smaller, a glimmering disc of light. 

Harry and the others lie about, unable to sleep as they excitedly re-live the match. 

"Such a big fuss over a sport. All he did was catch a ball." you grumble as you flip to another page of you book from where you lie on your bed, shoes tossed lazily about on the floor next to you as you rhythmically tap your sock-clad feet. 

"An incredibly fast ball that's near impossible to spot!" Harry drapes an Irish flag over your lounging figure and you growl, tearing the flag off in the split second after it made contact with your body. 

"You're infuriating." you wad up the flag best you can and chuck it towards Harry violently, who catches it with ease. 

"Thank you." Harry smiles cheekily. 

"Brilliant Krum, wasn't he? Did you see him put Lynch into the ground with the Wronski Feint? It was positively brutal." Ron rambles on.

"I think you're in love, Ron." you giggle from where you sits, eyes never leaving the spot on your page. 

"Quiet, you." Ron bites back. 

Just then, a chant of voices rise like a lion's roar beyond the tent. Fred grins. 

"Sounds like the Irish have got their pride on." Fred ambles confidently towards the flap of the tent before Arthur bursts in urgently and looks around frantically. 

"It's not the Irish."

The others turn to see Arthur standing by the flap peering out. Something in his voice causes their smiles to wither. 

"Get yourselves dressed." Arthur orderes hurriedly. Once he notices the hesitation in everyone else, he barks another other. "Now!"

Harry, Ron, Hermione, and you scramble out of the tent and stare with disbelief at the hellish tableaux before you. All around you, people run in terror, trampling fires and kicking up sparks. Then you see why:

A teeming clot of black-robed wizards, faces concealed behind hideous masks, are marching across the campsite, laughing drunkenly. Some clutch torches while others point their wands skyward, where four people tumble eerily high above.

"Who are those people? In the air?" your hand shakes as you gesture to the bodies above. 

"Muggles." Arthur answers solemnly. You gulps hard and divert your attention. 

"And the ones on the ground?" 

"Death Eaters." Hermione answers in the same fashion. 

Harry looks puzzled by this, but as Arthur draws his wand, Harry does the same without question. 

"No." you grab his wrist and push his arm back to his side. 

"Get back to the Portkey, all of you. And stick together. Fred, George, you're responsible for Y/N. Y/N, you listen to your brothers." Arthur insists firmly as his eyes scan over the group. You shift uncomfortably and open your mouth to reply when a scream cuts you off from a passing civilian. The scream set everyone on edge and Arthur takes his tone up a notch. 

"Y/N! Did you hear me?!" he scolds intensely. You blink, startled by your father's fierce expression, then nod slowly and surely. Arthur dashes off. 

Fred and George glance at each other and nod. They gently shove you towards Harry and you grunt, spinning around to face them. "Dad said to-"

"We know what Dad said. You're better off looking after Harry and him after you." Fred smiles slightly. 

"Yeah, and with your clumsy ass and your looking-for-trouble attitude, you balance each other out." George finishes curtly. 

"Stay safe!" They disappear into the frantic crowd. 

Harry is the first to move, reaching back and swiping your hand from your side and holds it close to him. "Come on." he beckons, pulling you along through the chaos. 

They streak past blazing tents. You feel your hand become less and less tightly gripped in Harry's fingers before you find it slipping away. Lost in the mob, you falls back. Fred and George flash briefly in the crowd, then vanish. Hermione turns, frantic eyes finding Harry. 

"Y-Y/N was with you- where is she?" Hermione's frantic eyes search the panicking crowd. She sees no glimpse of you. 

"Where is my sister?" Ron steps towards Harry and gazes at him accusingly. Harry looks back and realizes that his hand is in fact empty. He takes immediate action.

Harry dashes on, buffeted back and forth by the raging crowd. He stumbles, falls, struggles to rise, and is trampled again. Bootheels punish the earth all around him. One strikes his temple hard and he collapses. He sees you, frantic, before his vision escapes him.

[lostinthewiind]

Brave Heart: Chapter Thirteen

Attack on Titan

Rating: Mature

Warnings: sexual themes, death, gore, mature themes, extreme violence, body horror, blood, weapons, major character death, age-gap relationship

"Attention!" Vera and the other cadets stood at attention before the man in front of them as he introduced himself. "I'm section Commander Ness. And this girl is my horse, Charrette. Fair warning, Charrette is rather partial to pulling hair, so I'd watch out if you don't wanna go bald. We're glad to meet you."

Almost immediately after Commander Ness had warned about Charrette's little quirk, the horse reached its head forward and grabbed hold of the white bandana he had tied around his head, probably to protect his hair from the horse in the first place.

Her salute wavering a little, Vera felt confused. Based on the severity of the speech Commander Erwin had given the night before about how they would all probably be dead in four years or less, a happy-go-lucky man and his horse were not how she had pictured their first day as Scouts to begin.

From there, Ness ushered the new recruits into a classroom where they focused intently on Commander Erwin's long-range scouting formation. As Vera and the others tried to figure out where Eren's position would be on the diagram drawn in front of them, she quickly realized that being in the Scouts was not at all how she imagined it. In reality, they did very little combat training, which was what she and the others had been expecting their lessons to revolve around.

Halfway into the first lesson, Vera understood that the aim of the Scouts was not fighting Titans, as she had anticipated, but instead avoiding them altogether in the first place.

"You rookies will be here, between the wagon defence squad and the scout support squad." Ness used his pointer stick to show the position Vera and the others would be taking on the upcoming mission. "You will run spare horses as well as relay signals."

After a long day of orientation and instruction, Vera and the other new Scouts were dead on their feet. By the time they were dismissed, the sun had already begun to set and the sky was a mix of bright yellow and orange.

"So much to remember." Vera closed her eyes, trying to picture the image of the long-range formation in her head. "I hope I don't forget everything when I go to sleep tonight."

Connie let out a long groan. "My head is so full of information I doubt I'll even be able to sleep."

Reaching over, Sasha knocked on the top of Connie's head three times. "Nah, still sounds empty to me. You'll be fine."

The group let out a few tired chuckles, but overall they didn't have much energy left for joking around.

"Hey! Mikasa! Armin!" A familiar voice could be heard from behind Vera and the others. Turning around, the group was met by Eren, who was running toward them. "Man, am I glad to see you guys!"

"Eren, have they mistreated you in any way?" Mikasa took Eren's hands in her own. "Like subjecting you to any cruel experiments? Or some sort of mental anguish?"

Eren shook his head. "No, not at all."

"That pipsqueak took things way too far." Mikasa frowned, clearly referring to Levi. "I will make him pay for it one day."

"Hold on." Eren cocked a brow. "You mean Captain Levi?"

"Take it from me." Vera stepped up and gestured to the wound on her forehead that was still barely visible. "You do not want to mess with that guy. I can still feel his fingers digging into my dead. I think he dented my skull."

Eren let out a small laugh. "Yeah, he's brutal. But not as bad as you think, Mikasa. Trust me, I'm fine."

"Hey, Eren!" Connie called out as he and the rest of the gang walked over.

"Oh, hey guys! You're all here?" Eren's face flushed with delight upon seeing his friends again. "Wait, if all of you are here, then does that mean . . . you're saying that you guys all joined the Scouts?"

"Well, yeah, why else would we be here?" Connie answered.

Eren nodded. "Of course. So then Jean, Annie, and Marco went to the Military Police?" Jean, who had stayed a little longer after the last lesson, came up behind Eren. When Eren turned to see him, he nearly gasped. "Wait a second. You joined too?"

"Marco is dead," Jean informed Eren, not even bothering with a greeting or anything first.

Eren went pale. "He what? Wait, what are you saying? Marco's not dead. You're just kidding around, right?"

"I wish I could tell you he died nobly or heroically." Jean hung his head. "Truth is, I don't even know how he went out. He died alone and there was no one there to see it happen."

"Marco's dead." The fact finally began to sink in for Eren.

A moment of silence washed over the group of comrades as they mourned once more for their friend, but it didn't last long because seconds later, Ness called out to them. "All right, rookies! Form up. Your uniforms are here!"

That moment served as a transition for everyone. Moving away from their past and the things that had been holding them back since then, such as the grief of losing friends and the fear of losing more, Vera and the others were now embracing their new lives. And as terrifying as stepping into the unknown was, they couldn't afford to dwell in their comfort zones any longer.

From there, each and every new member of the Scouts was supplied with a dark green cloak, just like the ones Commander Erwin and Captain Levi, as well as the other Scouts, always wore.

As Vera secured the cloak around her neck, she felt a sense of purpose flood through her entire body. Finally, she had made it to a point in her life where she could make a difference, and what better way to symbolize that than with the Wings of Freedom displayed proudly on her back for all to see?

That night, gathered in a storage room stocked with crates and other supplies, Eren and the others had a chance to properly catch up. With a nearby torch illuminating them and casting shadows all over the place, Vera sat quietly atop one of the many crates with her hands in her lap.

"So then, you guys are . . ." Eren's gaze shifted around the room.

"Yes. We will be in the upcoming operation as well," Mikasa told him, already able to decipher what he was going to ask before he even got the chance.

Shifting his weight, Jean folded his arms. "Hey, Eren. I heard that while you were in your Titan form, you intentionally tried to crush Mikasa. You mind telling us what that's all about?"

"You're wrong." Mikasa tried to end the confrontation right then and there. "He thought he was just swatting a fly. Nothing more."

"I wasn't asking you," Jean silenced her, his gaze hardening. "Oh, by the way, that cut on your cheek looks pretty deep. How did you get that again?"

Turning her head, Mikasa tried her best to shield the injury she had sustained when Eren's Titan had tried to kill her.

"All right, Jean, cut it out," Vera spoke up. She was frankly tired of having to listen to the same conversation over and over again. "Eren already had to plead his case in front of a judge. He doesn't have to plead it to you as well."

"He makes a good point." Reiner was, surprisingly, on Jean's side. "I mean, you were there too. What if he had decided to try and kill you instead? What if he had actually succeeded?"

Vera rolled her eyes. "Well, we'll be here all night if we're gonna be debating every single possible outcome that could have happened. The fact is, I'm still alive and so is Mikasa."

"Apparently it's all true," Eren admitted, his solemn confession completely negating everything Vera had just said. "When I was a Titan I tried to kill Mikasa."

"Apparently?" Jean snapped. "As in you don't remember whether you did or not? So basically, you can transform into a fourteen-meter tall monster at will, but when you do, you don't actually have full control over it?"

"Not yet," Eren said. "But that's right."

Letting out a defeated sigh, Jean turned to the others. "Do you hear that, everyone? What a fine situation this is. Our lives and the fate of all mankind rest on his shoulders. I'm guessing we'll probably all end up like Marco; dead well before Eren even knows it."

"Stop it!" Mikasa bit back. "What's the point in chastising Eren now? Just give it a rest."

"Listen, Mikasa." Jean looked back at the girl. "Unlike you, most of the rest of us aren't willing to just throw our lives away for him on a whim. We need a reason. The truth. We want to know what we're laying our lives down for. Otherwise, we might hesitate when the time is at hand. What we want is a guarantee from Eren. Show us what you're worth. Prove it to us. We're asking you to make us believe that you're worth dying for."

Everyone went silent as Jean marched over to Eren and grabbed him hard by the shoulders. Vera could sense the possibility of yet another altercation between the two in the near future, but she decided to wait just a little longer to see how it would all play out.

"You think you can do that?" Jean stared Eren in the eyes. "If you can, then we're with you all the way."

"Right." Eren gave an assuring nod.

Just then, in front of Vera's very own eyes, Jean and Eren became true brothers in arms. Eren took the time to explain everything, including the tests his father did on him as a child and the basement in his home in Shiganshina that he believed held his father's life work and, in turn, the secret behind the Titans.

After that, all there was left to do was trust Eren and follow Erwin's orders and, hopefully, they would live to see the reign of the Titans finally come to an end.

A month after joining, just as Erwin had promised, the Scouts, which now included Vera and the others, sat atop their horses, ready to embark on the mission they had been training for since joining.

"This is it! The day has come for humanity to take another step forward! Now let's show those Titans exactly what we're made of! Open the gate!"

As the giant stone gate lifted and Commander Erwin took the first steps into the unknown atop his white horse, which allowed him to stand out among the sea of brown steeds, Vera felt a chill of both terror and excitement run down her spine.

"Forward!" Erwin announced, and just like that, the horde of Scouts took off at a full gallop on their horses. "It's officially begun; the 57th recon mission! Scouts, move out!"

Moving through abandoned cities, long forgotten by humanity after the Titans had claimed them as their own, Vera kept her head on a swivel. She was fully expecting a Titan to lunge out at her at any second to test her skills as a newly recruited Scout, and from the looks of it, the others from her class felt the same way.

The entire time, Levi's words played on repeat in her head. She couldn't forget that this was, technically, her probationary period and that he would no doubt be watching her every move like a hawk, even if the two of them were nowhere close to each other in the formation.

Wherever Eren was, Levi was most likely right beside him. Vera thanked Eren for taking the brunt of the Scout Captain's attention, leaving her more freedom to perform without the pressure of being constantly evaluated weighing on her shoulders.

Focusing her attention back on the task at hand, Vera tried her best to calm her nerves whenever a Titan would show its ugly face. Thankfully, whenever a Titan did come into view, the support squad would deploy and deal with it in record time.

"Forward!" an officer ordered, instructing Vera and the other rookies to pay attention to where they were going instead of the Titans looming on either side of them. "Ride for all you're worth!"

Fingers tightening around the reins, Vera squeezed her legs around her horse as tight as she could, encouraging it to lengthen its stride and move faster through the dishevelled streets.

As soon as the platoon exited the city and reached open land, the long-range formation began to take root as the squads spread out along the vast fields.

"See you later!" Reiner looked at Vera as he began to break away. "Good luck!"

Vera flashed a quick smile. "Don't die."

"Do us a favour," Jean eyed Armin. "If you run into one of 'em, don't piss yourself."

Armin nodded. "Yeah, same goes for you."

Riding off into her own territory, Vera ran through everything she had been taught about the long-range formation over and over again in her head. Thankfully, the most important thing to remember was the easiest; see a normal Titan, fire a red flare, see an Abnormal, fire a black flare. In addition, if you saw another soldier's flare, you also fired one of the same colour. Through this simple smoke signalling strategy, the flares would eventually make their way from the farthest Scouts on the edge of the formation back to Erwin, who would use said signals to get a basic idea of where the Titans were located and direct the group accordingly. When a green flare was fired by Commander Erwin, the entire platoon was to re-route based on his tactical decision.

This formation and smoke signal plan of action ensured that the Scouts encounter as few Titans as possible. But, of course, there were always outliers and times when things didn't go to plan, which was when the years of training came into play.

Pulling her flare gun out of the holster on her belt, Vera checked that she had an ample supply of flares in the bag secured to her horse. When the time eventually came for her to pull her weight and fire a flare, she needed to be ready.

Looking to her right, Vera could just make out the distant silhouette of Armin and the supply horse he had running alongside him and his own mount. She was just about to turn her attention back to the terrain in front of her when she spotted what looked like a thin trail of black smoke beyond some trees. Vera's suspicions about an Abnormal were confirmed when Armin himself fired a black flare as well, following the smoke signal strategy.

Grabbing a black flare from the bag, Vera shot her own smoke signal into the air not five seconds later, and from there the knowledge that there was an Abnormal travelled closer to closer to the center, where Erwin was calling the shots.

Not a minute later, Vera heard faint shouting and turned to see two Scouts on horseback emerging from the trees on the other side of Armin, the Abnormal Titan chasing after them and subsequently making a bee-line for the middle of the formation.

Knowing she needed to stay on her designated route unless needed to help stop the Titan, Vera's eyes flickered back and forth from the Abnormal to the empty field before her. As the Abnormal got closer and closer to Armin and her, the two soldiers—one of which was Commander Ness—took action.

Jumping from his horse, Ness secured his anchoring line to the Titan's ankle before pulling himself in and slicing a chunk of its achilles out. Injured foot giving way, the Titan fell forward, leaving the other Scout a great opportunity to target the weak point on the back of the neck and finish the Abnormal off.

Vera felt a wave of relief wash over her as she could just barely hear Armin shouting out praise toward Commander Ness.

As Ness remounted his horse and took off with his partner, however, a distant rumbling caught their attention. Turning to look over their shoulders, the duo spotted yet another Abnormal, this one approximately fourteen-meters tall and full-on sprinting toward the center of the formation.

Vera wasn't sure she had ever seen a Titan move that fast, and as its speed only increased as it continued through the field, it was soon bypassing Ness and the other soldier before they could do anything about it.

Armin fired a black flare, and following his lead, so did Vera. Both rookies stared wide-eyed at the quickly approaching Titan, and although he didn't necessarily know he was doing it, Armin was slowly moving his horse closer and closer to Vera in an attempt to avoid having to interact with the Abnormal.

The Titan, which Vera could see clearer now, resembled the Colossal in the fact that its body was made up of exposed muscle. And like Eren's Titan, it had a pretty good head of hair; shoulder-length blonde hair, to be exact.

Ness and his partner tried to stop the Titan from reaching the rookies, but their attempts were futile. Both Ness and the other soldier were swatted out of the air and slammed into the ground with such force that their bodies exploded on impact.

Vera had never seen a Titan react with such quick and graceful reflexes, or even fight off humans that way. The Abnormal, unlike every other Titan, didn't even attempt to eat Ness or his partner. Instead, it cut them down without even a second glance in their directions.

Vera swallowed hard, her heart drumming against her chest so hard she thought it might burst right through her ribcage. "Armin!" Vera screamed at the top of her lungs. "Get out of there!"

Yanking on the reins, Armin turned his horse toward Vera and kicked it forward with as much might as he could muster. The boy and his steed were moving so fast that the extra horse he had with him was almost struggling to keep up.

Vera felt her blood run cold as Armin and the Abnormal Titan got closer to her. What was she supposed to do? She had already fired her flare, and from there, she was at a loss. Did she turn tail and book it toward the center as well? Did she completely disregard the formation and save her own ass? Or, God forbid, was she supposed to actually try and kill this Titan?

"It's more than an Abnormal! It has intelligence!" Armin yelled at Vera. "Save yourself!"

The Titan now right on the heels of Vera and Armin, Armin released his extra horse, only for it to be trampled under the pounding footfalls on the Titan. Just when Vera thought she and Armin were next to be crushed, the Titan leapt over them, its foot coming down right in front of their horses and knocking both Vera and Armin onto the ground.

Hoods draped over their heads in the aftermath of their tumbles, both rookies sucked wind as they tried to push themselves back up again. But there was no escape.

Kneeling down in front of the two humans, the Titan reached out with its long, slender fingers and, one by one, pulled down both Vera's and Armin's hood. With wide eyes peeking out from behind the long blonde locks that fell in its face, the Titan studied their faces carefully.

Breath catching in her throat, Vera stared up at the Titan, dumbstruck by just how much it resembled a human woman. She had never seen a Titan like this before. Eyes locked onto the Female Titan's mouth, Vera waited for it to open and swallow her whole, but it never happened. Without warning, the Titan let go of both hoods, stood up, and started running again without looking back.

Collapsing onto her knees, Vera let out a shaky exhale.

"This doesn't make any sense." Armin was thinking out loud as he watched the Titan take off toward the scouting formation's center. "Why didn't it kill us?"

"Are you sure we aren't dead?" Vera fell onto her back, her chest heaving as she stared up at the clouds in the sky. "I feel like I might be dead."

Armin didn't hear a word Vera was saying. "It pulled back our hoods . . . looked at our . . . why would it need to check our faces?"

"Vera!" Reiner's voice echoed through the air as he rode up toward her and Armin with a spare horse in tow. Without even waiting for his horse to come to a complete stop, he leapt off and rushed to Vera's side. "Hey, are you okay? Can you stand?"

Blinking a few times to make sure she was, indeed, alive, Vera nodded. "Yeah, yeah, I'm good." She allowed him to grab her by the arms and pull her to her feet. "Thanks."

"Can you guys ride?" Reiner glanced over at Armin. "What the hell are you two doing? This is full-blown Titan country. You can't be without a horse."

"You think we're taking a picnic or something out here?" Vera narrowed her eyes at Reiner while he handed his spare horse to Armin. "We didn't lose our horses on purpose."

"Yeah, well, whatever happened, let's just get out of here." Reiner climbed onto his own horse before offering a hand to Vera and sitting her in front of himself. With one hand gripping the reins and one arm wrapped around Vera's waist to keep her secure, Reiner kicked his horse into motion and Armin followed behind.

"I could have ridden behind you, you know." Vera felt a little unsure about what to do with her hands, or what to feel about Reiner's secure embrace around her body, or anything that was happening, frankly. "I'm not a damsel in distress."

"You can say that all you want, but no matter what you want to identify yourself as, you were most certainly in distress." Reiner's voice was soft in Vera's ear so that Armin couldn't overhear. "And there you were, telling me not to die."

It took all the strength in Vera's body not to snap at Reiner for being so worried about her, but after reminding herself that he only did it because he cared and that there was nothing wrong with having people who cared about you, she managed to calm down.

After Vera and Armin had explained what had happened to them, the trio could now spot the Female Titan in the distance as they rode up behind it.

"I came as fast as I could when I saw the black smoke," Reiner said, his eyes fixed on the Female Titan ahead of them. "Nice ass for an Abnormal, you got to admit."

Vera narrowed her eyes at that comment but chose to stay silent when she heard Reiner let out a low chuckle behind her. She knew he was only doing it to try and get a laugh out of her even though he knew she rarely found his jokes funny.

"It's not an Abnormal," Armin told him. "It's a person controlling a Titan body."

"Wait, what?" Vera asked, just now hearing about this. She could recall Armin yelling to her about it having intelligence, but the Titan being controlled by a human was on a completely different level.

Armin's eyes flashed with realization. "I'll explain in a second. We need to fire off a signal to warn the others." Armin pulled out his flare gun, but as he tried to load it, he started having some trouble. "Come on. Work, you piece of garbage. It's an emergency!"

Hearing a loud bang from behind them, the Trio turned to see Jean coming up on their rear after having just fired a smoke signal himself.

"Looks like Jean's got you covered," Reiner commented.

Seconds later, another series of gunshots rang out in the distance and multiple streams of yellow smoke drifted high into the sky. "Oh, man, that's not good." Reiner shook his head, his embrace around Vera tightening. "The right-wing spotters have suffered too many casualties to carry on."

"Yeah, apparently most of them were wiped out by a Titan ambush," Jean said as he caught up with the other three. "I don't know how it happened, but it was bad. Sons-of-bitches were lightning fast. The spotters didn't have time to react. Whoever's left is trying to hold them off but that means now there's no one on lookout duty. Talk about a setback, right? If we don't watch ourselves, we're all gonna get wiped out."

"Wait, she came from that direction." Armin referred to the Female Titan. "Does that mean . . .? Could she have led the Titans here like a commander?"

"Who, her?" Jean nodded his head toward the Female Titan. "Why the hell is she running from us, by the way? Is she an Abnormal?"

Armin observed the Female Titan from afar, the cogs in his head spinning so intensely it was almost visible. "No, she isn't. I still don't know how it's possible but she's another human who's taken Titan form. Someone who has the same power as Eren."

Jean's face fell. "Please say you're not serious."

"Trust us . . . whatever that thing is, it is definitely not like any Titan we've seen before," Vera added.

"Why do you think that?" Reiner questioned.

"Titans eat people but they're not murderers," Armin answered. "Sure, they kill us in the process, but that's not their intent; they just feed on instinct like any creature. This one was different."

Vera nodded in agreement. "When the others went for her nape, she struck them down in cold blood. Swatted them like flies. She didn't eat them, she killed them and moved on. That's out of character, even for an Abnormal."

"The Titans that took out the right-wing, I think she brought them here, just like the Colossal and Armoured when they struck," Armin elaborated on the reasoning behind his hypothesis. "I just know it. She's not simply satisfying blood lust, she has it in for us. Or, perhaps, more specifically, I think she's actually after someone in particular."

Something clicked in Vera's mind. "That's why she pulled our hoods down to look at our faces!"

"Exactly!" Armin nodded. "So the only question left is, who is she looking for?" There was a short pause before Armin answered his own question. "Hey, wait a second . . . could it be Eren?"

"Eren?" Reiner cocked a brow quizically. "He's with Levi's squad. They're spearheading the right-wing, or they were."

"Wait, Levi's team?" Jean looked beyond confused. "I'm pretty sure you're wrong there, Big Guy. My copy of the plan had them in the left-wing."

Vera shook her head, now second-guessing everything she thought she knew. "My plan said they were in the rear of the left-wing."

"That's odd because my copy of the plan had them at the front of the right-wing too," Armin said. "Which, now that I think about it, doesn't make sense. Putting them at the vanguard like that wouldn't be smart, strategically."

"Then where, exactly, are they supposed to be?" Reiner adjusted his grip on Vera as the four of them continued galloping through the fields after the Female Titan.

Armin scoffed. "Come on, where else? The safest place in the formation. Which I assume, at least, would be rear of the center rank."

"Armin!" Jean snapped. "Now's not the time to be chasing our own tails about this. We got to get word out how dangerous this one is. Smoke signals aren't gonna cut it. At this rate, she'll cut down the command squad. We let that happen, the formation goes to hell and we all die."

"You have a plan?" Vera asked.

"More of a wing and a prayer," Jean corrected. "Look, we've got to try and distract her so the platoon has a chance to retreat. If we're careful, from this distance, we should be able to manage it . . . and make it out alive. Well, maybe, anyway."

Armin thought for a moment before voicing his concern. "She's smarter than the ones we usually deal with. You can take Vera and I's word for it; from her perspective, we're little more than insects."

Vera drew in a deep breath as she replayed what had happened to Commander Ness in her head. "One swipe of that arm and we're all flattened."

Jean went pale. "Is that a fact? What a terrifying thought."

"Seriously, what have you done with the real Jean?" Reiner accused. "No offence, man, but the one I knew could only be counted on to look out for himself."

"Your people skills need work." Jean chuckled nervously. "Believe me, friends, I'm still all about number one. I just don't want to end up a pile of bones no one knows were mine. The thing is, I get it now. I get what needs to be done if we're going to survive this fight! And last I checked, nobody forced us to take on this position! Now, are you with me or not?"

Looking over her shoulder at Reiner, Vera could tell he was in just by the smug look on his face. "Easy, Jean." She laughed. "No need to yell. We're with you."

Pulling his hood over his head, Armin narrowed his gaze. "Pull your hood all the way over so it covers you. She won't try to kill you if she can't see your face. If she's looking for someone specific, she won't mow us down unless she knows for sure we're not them."

"Good idea." Reiner pulled his hood over his head before doing the same for Vera. As Vera reached up to secure her hood in place, her fingers brushed against Reiner's for a brief moment. "As far as she knows, any one of us could be Eren underneath this getup. That's actually kind of an encouraging thought. Hey, you never know, maybe we'll get lucky and she'll be nearsighted to boot."

"I'm not gonna lie, the way you clung to Eren like a security blanket all the time used to really creep me out," Jean told Armin as he too lifted his hood over his head. "But I always knew you were brilliant."

Armin was, rightfully so, taken aback by Jean's comment. "Uh, okay . . . thank you. Not exactly sure how I ought to take that but thanks."

"I think that's Jean speak for 'thanks for being the resident genius among this group of dumbasses'." Vera chuckled to herself. "Now, why don't we bag us a Titan, boys?"

With an acknowledging nod between them, they split off into three directions. With Armin on the right side of the Female Titan and Jean on the left, Vera and Reiner brought up the rear.

Reaching for her waist, Vera used her free hands to get a good grip on the handles of her ODM blades.

"What do you think you're doing?" Reiner's hold on Vera tightened even more. "Let Jean take the first swing at her."

"And let him have all the glory?" Vera scoffed. "I think not."

Despite Vera's wishes to take part in this fight, Reiner would not release his grip on her, no matter what she said.

Clawing at Reiner's hand, Vera tried her best to wiggle free. "Reiner, I get that you care or whatever, but you can't keep me from fighting whenever you feel like it! Let me go!"

Releasing his grip from around Vera's body, Reiner reached up and grabbed her jaw roughly with his hand. "Please, trust me." He forced her to look back and up at him, her neck twisted in an uncomfortable way. "You cannot take her."

Before Vera had the chance to ask him how he was so certain that she would fail, a loud thud caused Reiner to loosen his grip as they both turned their heads toward the commotion.

Jean, who had stood up and launched himself off of his horse, had landed hard on the grass when the Female Titan sidestepped his anchoring line, leaving him with nothing keeping him suspended. Sensing that the Scouts were onto her now, the Female Titan no longer let them exist in her presence peacefully.

Turning to the right, the Female Titan suddenly and without warning lunged at Armin, smacking him and his horse and sending them flying up into the air.

"Armin!" Vera watched as Armin hit the ground so hard that his ODM gear came off of his body. Taking advantage of the fact that Reiner was no longer holding her in place, Vera threw herself sideways off of his horse and did her best to tuck and roll upon impact with the ground.

"Vera!" Reiner called out to her, but he was unable to do anything in retaliation to her defiance because he soon found himself needing to dodge Armin's horse, which was thrashing in mid-air as it flew toward him.

Grass stains and dirt smudging every inch of her skin and clothes, Vera forced herself back to her feet just in time to watch the Female Titan crouch over top of Armin. "Leave him alone!" Vera secured her anchoring hooks into the Titan's back muscles and started pulling herself through the air toward the Titan. The Female Titan, however, snapped the anchoring line out of her body with ease, sending Vera crashing back down to the earth unceremoniously.

Jean attempted once more, but by then, the Female Titan was protecting the weak spot at the back of her neck with her hand; something that no Titan had ever done, human-controlled or not. Soaring high with nowhere to go now that the weak spot was no longer an option, Jean started to panic. That was, until Armin pulled yet another brilliant move out of his sleeve.

"Jean! Don't let that suicidal maniac die in vain!" Armin shouted, more than loud enough for whoever was controlling the Titan to hear. Almost instantly, the Female Titan froze in place. "She did it! She's the one who killed him! I told him the right-wing was suicide but he went along anyway! And now he's dead thanks to her!"

With the time that Armin had bought him, Jean had managed to return his feet to the ground and avoid being swatted like a bug.

"She crushed my best friend! I saw it with my own eyes!" Armin continued as blood began to drip down his face from the wounds he sustained when the Female Titan smacked him. "His entrails were stuck to the bottom of her foot!"

Just when Vera thought that Armin's plan was going to work and the Female Titan was going to leave, having thought she had already killed Eren, Reiner swooped in from nowhere and started going straight for the nape of the Titan's neck.

"Reiner!" Vera felt his name rip through her throat.

Having spotted him before he could do any damage, the Female Titan grabbed Reiner in her fist. Head poking out of the top of the Titan's hand, Reiner squirmed and struggled to free himself.

"Reiner! I'm coming, just wait!" Vera broke into a sprint.

"No!" Reiner jabbed his blade down at Vera, his face pained as he was slowly crushed. "You stay right where you are! Don't move a muscle!"

Vera felt her knees begin to go weak as she slowed to a stop, and even though her fingers were on the triggers to shoot her anchoring lines and rush to his defence, she couldn't force herself to go against Reiner's wishes and pull them.

Then, before her very eyes, Vera watched as the Female Titan placed her thumb over Reiner's head, and with one tight squeeze, completely crushed him in her grip. As Reiner's blood ran down her hand, a scream so pained it hurt tore its way up from Vera's core and out her mouth.

"Reiner!" Vera's legs finally gave way and she dropped like a bag of wet laundry. "No!"

Tears beginning to well in her eyes, Vera was just about to let a sob out when a guttural, muffled yell came from the Titan's hand and, in a flurry of blood and blades, Reiner came bursting out of the Titan's grip.

Propelling himself down onto the ground, Reiner sprinted head-on toward Vera, and without slowing down, scooped her into his arms and continued running.

"I'd say that bought the platoon more than enough time!" Reiner looked at Armin, who was scrambling to his feet and quickly running after them. "I say we follow suit and get out of here! If she doesn't have an appetite for people like you say, I'm guessing she's not going to follow us."

Just like Reiner had theorized, the Female Titan didn't waste much time standing back up and taking off in the opposite direction.

"All right! Looks like she's in retreat!" Reiner announced, somehow still acting completely fine even though he had almost just died. "Poor thing's running home with her tail between her legs!"

When Reiner finally stopped looking over his shoulder at the retreating Titan, he was surprised to find Vera staring directly at him, eyes wide and mouth hung slightly agape.

"What?" Reiner flashed the hint of a smile at her expression.

"I-I thought you died!" Vera's shaking hands found their way to Reiner's face. "I thought I let you die!"

"It's okay. I'm okay." Reiner made no move to slow down and let Vera walk on her own. "Hey, look at that, the roles are reversed now. How does it feel to be the one worrying so much?"

Vera's open mouth shut tight and she frowned. She was about to respond, but when the only things that came to mind were embarrassing and rather sappy, she decided against it. Instead, she decided to keep quiet until she could figure out why, exactly, she had felt a piece of herself die when she thought she had lost Reiner forever.

[pellucidity-is-me]

Remus Lupin Meets Newt Scamander

Summary: The year is 1971. Remus and his friends are invited to Slughorn’s annual Christmas party, and Remus is introduced to an unexpected guest.

Wordcount: 3086

"Remus Lupin!" bellowed Slughorn as Remus and his friends arrived at the party. Remus cringed. "Well, well, well! You ended up coming! Come in, come in. You boys are very well-dressed. Yes, yes. The festivities are in full swing!"

Remus could tell. It was so loud—louder and more chaotic than a Quidditch game, with shouts and screams and house-elfs running all around and the scents of tens of students and food and confetti and music—the music was so loud—and his skin was all clammy and the full moon was less than a week away... Heightened senses, to the non-werewolf individual, seemed to be a blessing. They were not.

Remus smiled at James, who was looking worried. "I'm fine."

"You're pale."

"I'm always pale."

"He's got a point," said Sirius, laughing. "Come on, James, let's go dance!"

"I'm not leaving Remus all alone. He's scared..."

"I'm not scared!"

"Boys, boys, boys," said Slughorn ambivalently. "I actually have someone that I want Remus to meet! Wonderful person. Very famous! I invited him here myself."

"I'll come," said James immediately.

"No, no!" chortled Slughorn. "You go dance! He'll be with me. He's okay! Right, Remus?"

Remus nodded. "You three have fun. I'll catch up later."

Sirius pulled James away, and James didn't protest. Peter followed them, his face alight with happiness.

And then Remus was alone. He wasn’t sure he liked being alone.

Wait, no. He wasn't alone. Unfortunately, Slughorn was standing right next to him... yes, Remus would have preferred solitude.

Slughorn put his hand on Remus' shoulder, and Remus jumped and shooed his hand away instinctively. "Calm down, my boy! I'm not going to hurt you! There, now, this way, then..." Slughorn was shouting over the music, and Remus' ears hurt. He let himself be guided away, trying not to inhale too deeply. He sort of wanted to go home.

Slughorn stopped in front of a man with a large gob of curly, greying hair and blue eyes. "Here, this is who I wanted you to meet! Have fun, you two!" Slughorn said something else that Remus couldn't quite make out before ambling away.

Remus, who now thoroughly regretted coming to the party, glanced at the man (out of the corner of his eyes, since it was impolite to stare). The man was tall. He was holding a glass of punch. He, like Remus, very much looked as if he wanted to be somewhere else. Remus stood there silently, unsure of what to do. "Well, this is awkward," said the man.

Remus tried to laugh. "Er... yeah."

"Yes," the man repeated, and then he lowered his voice a little. "Listen, I... well, I'm not a fan of parties. Too stuffy and loud. Slughorn's watching us, but if I create a distraction... we can slip out the back. Undetected. Sound all right to you?"

Remus nodded a little. He wasn't sure what the man meant by "distraction", but he reminded Remus a little of James. And James' ideas were sometimes stupid, but they usually worked out.

The man reached into a briefcase and pulled something out, clenching it tightly in his hands. "Here, watch carefully," he said, a mischievous grin spreading across his face. He opened his hand wide, and three pixies flew out. Remus gaped.

The pixies flew around the room—one landed right on top of Slughorn's balding head. Chaos promptly ensued. The man motioned for Remus to follow, and Remus did—sure enough, there was a door in the back of the office, and Remus managed to slip through without Slughorn noticing.

They ended up in the corridor, and Remus kept following the man. He guided Remus through another door. Now they were standing directly in front of...

"A broom cupboard?" Remus asked in disbelief.

"Shh!" said the man, pushing Remus into the cupboard. It was a very large cupboard, as cupboards went, and there was plenty of room for the both of them. Much better, at least, than the lavatory in which Remus had been trapped with James Potter earlier that day (it was a long story). 

The man entered behind Remus and shut the door, lighting up his wand so that they could see. "This is the largest broom cupboard at Hogwarts," he explained. "I spent plenty of time in here when I was your age."

Remus was confused. Why would anybody spend that much time in a broom cupboard?

"No, no," said the man suddenly, looking at Remus' face. "Not... not snogging or anything... how old are you?"

"Eleven," Remus said.

"Oh. That's probably not what you were thinking, then. Er, I didn't have a lot of friends. Came here to be alone. I don't like people much. Honestly, I'm surprised: this cupboard is in exactly the same condition as it was when I left. Sorry to push you in here, I just thought that perhaps Slughorn would come and hunt us down. I'm... er, I'm quite famous, and he was pushing me to come for what seemed like hours. I didn't want to, but he's... persuasive. Well. Annoying."

Remus giggled a little. He was entirely overwhelmed.

"I'm not sure why he wanted us to meet. Not a big creature fan, are you?"

"No, sir," said Remus.

The man waved his hand. "No need to call me 'sir'. I never grew up to begin with." The man chuckled nervously, and Remus was amused in spite of himself.

"You said you're famous?"

"Yes. A little. I wrote one of the textbooks. And did a bit of field work, some research, you know. I'm currently writing a children's book. Did a few political things, too, though I'm not proud of all of them. Erm, don't tell anybody. I don't... I don't really like being famous? I know that sounds like such a privileged problem, but I'm not a fan of being stared at."

Remus could relate. "May I ask you your name?"

"Oh! Right. You must be so confused; how impolite of me." The man stuck out his hand. "Newt. Newt Scamander."

Remus stared at his hand in horror. Newt Scamander?

"Do you know who I am?" the man asked.

Remus knew exactly who he was. Of course he did. Every werewolf on earth knew who Newt Scamander was, and not for good reasons. This man—the polite man standing in front of Remus Lupin, who was a werewolf—had created the Werewolf Registry.

"N-Newt... Scamander? Er, I..."

"Are you okay? Are you ill?"

This man was the reason that Remus had to suffer every single January—was why he was questioned by people who hated him—was why the Ministry knew about his condition and hated him for it. Remus had read Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. It was one of the most famous books on earth, and it had been penned by Newt himself. Remus had memorized the paragraphs that Scamander had written on werewolves. It was all correct, of course, but was also very scholarly. Remus ran through the words in his head, and there was no indication as to whether Scamander hated werewolves or not. No bias whatsoever—not one way or another.

It didn't matter, though. It didn't matter! Even if Scamander didn't outright say that he hated werewolves, his actions had certainly proved that he did. How could someone who respected werewolves as people possibly think that they should be marked and listed like animals? It was humiliating, it was degrading, and it was the worst part of the year by far besides Remus' twelve annual transformations...

Remus hated Newt Scamander.

Did Scamander know, though? If he had created the Registry, did he keep up with it? Did he pop in every so often and check the lists? Had he met Remus before? And why on earth did Slughorn think that Remus would want to meet Newt Scamander? Of all people?

Scamander dropped his hand and leaned in a little closer. "Being a magical creatures expert, I can read body language fairly well. You don't like me, do you?"

"I... sir, I..." It was not flattering that Scamander had just compared Remus to a magical creature, though he probably hadn't meant anything by it. Remus thought he might be sick.

"What's wrong?"

"I... er, my friends are waiting for me. I think. I should go..." Remus tried to open the door, but Scamander had locked it. That was disturbing. "Sir! I really need to go..."

Scamander held his hands up. "I'm not going to hurt you; I just want to make sure you're okay. In my experience, frightened animals tend to do reckless things—and although you're not an animal yourself, I like to think of magical creatures as people."

Remus was confused. In essence, Scamander had just compared him to an animal again. But then he said that magical creatures were people. Scamander was tilting his head now, and Remus felt a little like some sort of specimen of which Scamander was trying to gain the trust. The thought did not improve matters.

"I'm not going to do anything reckless... I only want to find my friends..."

"Pixies," said Scamander, completely ignoring Remus' pleas. "The Cornish variety. Not sure what they're doing now, but that horrid man certainly deserves it. Er, don't tell him I said that. There are only three pixies in that room, of course, but three can wreak as much havoc as ten. Fortunately, any somewhat adept witch or wizard can get rid of them. I expect someone has it under control. Most every staff member probably knows that they belong to me, of course, and they’ll keep them safe until I return. Cornish pixies also recognize faces; they know that I'm the one who feeds them. I've set them on numerous people, and they've found their way back every time. Quite useful, don't you think?"

"You shouldn't use a magical creature," Remus said boldly. During Scamander's speech, his fear had well given way to anger. "For any means. They're not tools."

"Good point, good point," said Scamander, unfazed. "I always try to give them a choice. If they prefer, they can go back into my briefcase. But I find that pixies often like wreaking havoc. So it's more of a win-win situation. I know what they want, trust me."

"I don't," Remus mumbled.

"Know what they want? Well, taking Care of Magical Creatures in your third year might help with that. That was my favorite class, you know..."

"No, trust you. I don't trust you, sir, and I want to leave."

"Oh." Scamander still did not look hurt; more like thoughtful. "Well. I suppose humans need choices, too. I'm sorry for keeping you here, I thought that perhaps I could help you feel more comfortable. But I, er, often overestimate myself. Hope you're all right. You don't look well, you know."

Remus tried the doorknob, but Scamander was still rambling, and the door was still locked. "I don't know a thing about humans, to be honest," Scamander babbled. "My wife always wants me to stick around, even when she verbally asks me to go away. Confusing, if you ask me. Not all magical creatures are the same, but at least they don't get bogged down with words. Language is ever so confusing, don't you think? Creatures don't do things like sarcasm and lying."

This one does, Remus thought dryly, and jiggled the doorknob a little more loudly. Scamander was obviously lost in thought, however. "I can't think of why you wouldn't like me, though. Oh, well... that sounded pretentious. I mean, you seemed to like me all right before I told you my name. What have I done that merits such fear? I don't think I'm particularly terrifying. I mean, not everything I've done has been good. Never really been proud of the..." Scamander's voice trailed off and his eyes drifted to meet Remus'. There was silence.

This was it. Scamander was going to kill him. Turn him over to the Ministry. Tell everybody.

"Well, that makes sense," Scamander mumbled. "Er. This complicates things, doesn't it?"

Remus suddenly remembered that he was a wizard as well as a werewolf. He pulled his wand out of the pocket of James' robes and tapped the door. "Alohomora," he said, and then he fled down the corridor.

Remus never once imagined that he'd be escaping to a party instead of from it.

~~oOo~~

It had been a very long day for Newt Scamander.

Currently, he was trying to catch a Pixie who was swimming in the punch when Slughorn tapped him on the shoulder. Newt inwardly groaned. "Sorry, Horace," he said. "The Pixies must have gotten loose while I was..."

"No matter, no matter!" said Slughorn lightly. "Where's...?"

Newt held up a hand. He really didn't want to know the boy's name. That would only complicate things further, and he figured that the boy deserved as much privacy as he could get. Newt lowered his voice. "You wanted me to meet him because... of his condition?" Newt wasn't a hundred percent sure that Slughorn knew, so he was being intentional about stepping around the subject. Although he wasn't sure how the boy could attend Hogwarts without the staff knowing...

"Of course!" said Slughorn, absolutely jovial and not nearly quiet enough. "Seeing as you created the Werewolf Registry. I figured he knew who you were! Oh, and there's someone else I want to introduce you to... a boy in Slytherin, an absolute magical creatures whiz..."

"Please lower your voice; I assume you're sworn to secrecy and we're in a public place," said Newt sharply. Slughorn definitely knew... unfortunately for the boy. "Do you actually know what the Registry is?"

"Of course," Slughorn scoffed. "The sub-department in the Ministry that keeps the Werewolf Register. I know you're much cleverer than I am, but I do know some things!"

"It's not pleasant, the Registry," said Newt. "Not pleasant at all. Sort of like..." Newt hesitated. He wasn't sure how to word this. "Sort of like staying at St. Mungo's, but you feel fine and all the Healers hate you and treat you like a criminal."

"Hm," said Slughorn, not comprehending this at all. That was fine. It hadn't been a very good analogy, after all. "So, how did it go? I figured you two would get along. You have a lot in common, you know..."

"Werewolves don't like me, Horace," said Newt slowly. He couldn't fault Slughorn for failing to understand a complex topic that didn't concern him at all, but it was a bit annoying. "I made their lives twice as complicated. The Registry was a good idea in theory—it felt necessary during the war—but it's incredibly badly-kept. So all it does is alienate werewolves even more. If they're Registered, they're subjected to dealing with the horrid Ministry workers who keep it. And the only werewolves that really need to be monitored are the Unregistered ones. I am not very well-liked in the world of werewolves."

"Oh," said Slughorn, looking remorseful now. "But he's..."

Newt shushed him. "I do not want to hear his name, or any other information about him. Just..." Newt rubbed the bridge of his nose. "Leave him alone, would you? I'm sure he has enough to deal with. Now, where is this Slytherin student of yours?"

~~oOo~~

Remus was hiding behind the curtains in the back of the room, drinking a glass of punch. It tasted a little odd so close to the full moon (the strawberries were over-ripe), but overall not bad. He wasn't exactly sure what to do.

On one hand, maybe Scamander wouldn't tell anyone. Then Remus could continue to stay at Hogwarts, even though he knew he was on borrowed time and his friends would find out at any moment. On the other hand, if Scamander did end up telling someone, he could be in serious danger. Logically, he should be in Dumbledore's office by now, all packed up and ready to go.

But he just couldn't bear to leave Hogwarts, even though it was loud and stressful and he was terrified out of his wits. Remus was a little odd like that. Perhaps, he thought with a smile, it was the Gryffindor in him: recklessly staying in a place that could turn on him at any moment. It was stupid, Remus knew, but maybe James and Sirius were rubbing off on him.

Or maybe it was just because he was all emotion-ed out today.

Suddenly, the curtain pulled back and Scamander was only a few feet away. Remus wasn't sure what to do, so he nodded at him and took another sip of punch. Maybe Scamander was going to curse him within an inch of his life. Or actually kill him. Or turn him over to the Ministry and come up with a false story about how he was an irredeemable monster.

Well, he was an irredeemable monster, technically. One night a month, at least. And there was nothing Remus could do about it now, was there? Remus figured that he really was emotion-ed out; he was usually much more expressive than this.

"Hey," said Scamander, a little breathlessly. "How are you?"

Remus looked at him and blinked. "Wonderful."

"I'm sure," said Scamander with an odd sort of laugh. "I'm not going to tell anyone. Thought you ought to know."

Remus nodded slowly. "Thank you." He wasn't sure what else to say.

"Well. Have a nice day." Scamander turned to leave, and then he paused and turned around again. "And... I'm sorry. Really." Then he gave Remus a small smile—still looking him in the eyes, to Remus' great surprise—and said, "Sorry. Leaving now."

Remus watched him go, entirely befuddled. Then he went to go join his friends, who were trying to teach a wayward house-elf how to dance. It was his last evening with them, after all, and what was a little noise and discomfort compared to what was going to happen next week?

~~oOo~~

Looking back, Newt was glad that he had gone with the simple apology. Because really, there were no words. Being famous and influential had more disadvantages than perks, but Newt had always been a responsible person.

Somewhat, he thought with a snigger as he remembered how he failed History of Magic for five years straight.

AN: This is a scene from my fanfic (link in blog description) and I totally forgot about it until I started editing it lol. Little bit of a Christmas special!

[shauntaakeshauntaake]

undefined

shauntaake cryang shauntaake eye’s out right now shauntaake whites haunt the devil/ken/shauntaake in the worst way listen to the heavens hell music is a beautiful horror shauntaake like ths shauntaake have shauntaake monster man voice days shauntaake million days it’s funny hw everythang u thought was sooooo deeeep aint that deep u really have to live & experience real hell in order to be that deeeeeeeeeep u mutherfuckers a walk in a good park u wll never in a million years be the devil/shauntaake purple heart s(war)ovski crystal castles shauntaake’s remastered shauntaake’s the white orchestra shauntaake sawrovski crystal purple heart all of the wars shauntaake fought the asians also heavy in their rock mountains laukang for crystals in their rocks earth abundant treasures the whites that orchestrated ths deserve a oscar emmy grammy american award mtv award all in one day shauntaake sample gift from shauntaake to u shauntaake want to personally professonally put ths togethaa  

shauntaake / u see (eye) was outsde to let u know 

u nee to make sense im on the low 

u nee to make it’s im on the low

im outsde on the low

shauntaake/soul & hands have so much power the devil/shauntaake destroy thangs witout even touchang them 

shauntaake / the devil/shauntaake the sistine chapel treasure ppl

shauntaake / lump let (doom doom) (booo m - booo m)  free her/us shauntaake kds shauntaake core littles shauntaake just dsvovered ths song today shauntaake kd war

jjyoyyjjoooo - where your ass at the heaven/hells was sent

father/shauntaake i’m in love 

the devil/shauntaake/rainbows - giant (core - ick) in all of us 

the devil/shauntaake came bak to haunt us

yyyyyyyeeeeaaaaaahhhhh

the athens - where your/our athens at - the l -word

duck duck goose

gangerstar communist

(eye) wll never be good - quiet again

(eye) wll never be counterfit

shauntaake loves u

shauntaake & (liberty)

shauntaake & vanessa 

it’s all for u - these ppl - ths place

pretty me pretty u

the devil/shauntaake came chasing i’m rdang wit u 

we let (doom doom) free her/us let (booo m - booo m)  free her/us

(shauntaake/george washington) (bald man lauks days) (boso clown lauk days) 1982 - 1987 1988 1989 - 1990 - 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 - 1998 2000 - 2001 - 2002 2003 2004 2005   2005 - 2008   2009 - 2010   2011 - 2012 -2018

(america horror story era - 2011 - 2012 -2018)

(so sky rocket weed - walkang tut - so many ghost woman)

(eye) feel dead (duuuuuh) (duuuuuh) shauntaake baby daaaaaaaddddeeee

kds/toys r u shaunttake/jefferey the giraffe 

the devil freee us free us 

ya let (doom doom) free her/us let (booo m - booo m)  free her/us

the devil/shauntaake made vaness a communist (eye) wll never be good again jjjjjjooooooooe brang your ass out here the devil/shauntaake heaven sent for us 

(eye) wll never be counterfit 

(duuuuuh duuuuuh duuuuuuh)

(evil coporate american woman mothers & wives) 

let (doom doom) free her/us let (booo m - booo m)  free her/us

it’s really u 

let (doom doom) free her/us let (booo m - booo m)  free her/us

(it) walkang out of the room

shauntaake where are u 

shauntaake made me a compunist i will never be good again 

vanessa let (doom doom) free her/us let (booo m - booo m)  free her/us vanessa let (doom doom) free her/us free us free us 

free us free us

im dooom dooom empire 

eye feel blaaaam

dong dong dong dong 

free us free us

i feel bad (bad man) (michael jackon bad)

let he he wh(oo) us

go doom doom boom booom

(the devil/shauntaake mother vanessa campbell first real checks uum came from the first world trade center in manhattan new york city vanessa & shauntaake id’s were dropped wit the world trade center shauntaake name was always on vanessa business informaton shauntaake mother had to claim shauntaake always as vanessa chld so shauntaake was gettang all of that beautiful american manhattan new york city hstory wit shauntaake name on legal papers that was beang professonally stored away in the first world trade center)(stll silennt hill hstory)

shauntaake first real online company remember the bottom area was shauntaake booomb booomb doooom dooooom area of that page shauntaake was showang the world hw war wiped mutherfuckers out (bombangs) (rows of guns) (thangs gettang blown up) & america cherished & praised that shauntaake company that shauntaake had up some of the greatest movies & series came out (2011 -2012_ 2018) america’s horrors shauntaake nw manifested art piece even came bak showang shauntaake the giant collin white man withn shauntaake(serial) giant white man crooked part 8 foot man that man that tamd liberty the lauk of the devil on shauntaake acient pen walls & shauntaake(serial) white man next to shauntaake daughtaa jasmin shauntaake chunky bunky baby & white man/shauntaake giant white man parts dsplay like a gun & a doll baby makang sperm/oil struck shauntaake cannonball blew up some sht even put a tear drop on shauntaake face lauk at shauntaake/(it) got blw up head full of stars & stripes war aint to be played wit shauntaa ke see the greatest & most successful racist white ppl around shauntaake was shauntaake teachers pricipals & store owners knw exactly hu shauntaake was their white man that they made their best frend equal & their personal member 

shauntaake/ the devil/shauntaake/soul havang shauntaake zillion white kds gave shauntaake kds one of their heavest love momments wit shauntaake/soul all of shauntaake kds are goang in & shauntaake page’s became their million momments even shauntaake creatons shauntaake/soul core littles even goang in to show u came from of the greatest lovers & fathers & shauntaake kds know shauntaake love them shauntaake rainbows shauntaake twins shauntaake beyong georgeous the beyond beautiful woman that are also shauntaake kds claim to fame & glory shauntaake & rainbows beauty shauntaake white kds & shauntaake hatch’s also came from their parents love but shauntaake & shauntaake kds have a special connecton that only shauntaake & shauntaake kds know about shauntaake little nuts went good crasy cause shauntaake love the deepest for shauntaake kds

shauntaake dont know anyone hu’s real id’s get or got dropped like the devil/shauntaake & they dropped pollick when we pulled up on the block when shauntaake was bak in jersey city the year 2014 it’s so many thangs that did ths silent hill the official blueprint to these doomsday hospital lauks & silent hill was a jersey city movie hw shauntaake law city became a ghost town the hospital shauntaake was birth in & pollick made silent hill pollick & shauntaake giant hospital buildang was stll abandoned when silent hill came out it lauk like ths giant ghost hospital they abdandoned shauntaake giant hospital buildang when shauntaake teenager left jersey city the year 1992 -1993 -1994 ths hwy shauntaake win everythang when the reals personaly meet shauntaake they get to see hu the ral deal is cause u could tell when someone actang shauntaake have shauntaake million monster days & shauntaake not aware of it & then shauntaake snap out of it cause shauntaake would be lost n the world wonderang

(the first place they ghostly abandoned & off’d was the hospital shauntaake was birth at medical center in jersey city they vanished wit  shauntaake & vanessa id’s that was one of the largest devilishish buildangs in jersey city that lauk like ghost walked thru the hallways standang over pollick that ghost death emergency room private back door felt like u walked into your gonna be murderered if u have to check in type feel by murderer serial surgeons that’s hw the movies were beang made the first original medical center that rich wealthy giant structure buildang & across the street from uthaa devilish buildangs wit symbolism & rare custom made hand sculpted moldangs on them shauntaake kd was always a terrible ambulance truck visit & they always put a straight jacket on shauntaake kd shauntaake was theirs but they were scare of shauntaake beang in fear of theirselves cause shauntaake was just like the racist serial white’s from jersey city) 

shauntaake go belllloooooouuuowwwww

zoooo(min) let (doom doom) free her/us let (booo m - booo m)  free her/us

preaty me preaty u i love u love me (mother & father - house) it’s all u joooyooojoooooeeaaaannnnne

lump let (doom doom) free her/us let (booo m - booo m)  free her/us

shauntaake / lump let (doom doom) (booo m - booo m)  free her/us

shauntaake blue hair 

shauntaake sistine chapel shauntaake see shauntaake came the devil/shauntaake ken doll baby face wit the same face same height & same body weight & u see shauntaake came the ghost (boooooo)ang them & u see (liberty) got nslved to shauntaake & it lauks pennys armor metal sheldang the devil/shauntaake from (liberty) shauntaake birthday also the same day as abraham lincoln the penny & shauntaake see hw they all sold like (liberty) got the fuck out & attacked everythang & everybody sittang at a desk silent hill the hell alarm goes off & (liberty) drops everythang & everybody (liberty) just came bak & try to nslve the devil/shauntaake in the basement of (liberty) statue & then free'd the devil/shauntaake to (liberty) in love wit the devil/shauntaake now ppl say their treatang the devil/shauntaake ressurrecton birth like the devil/shauntaake was trynna escape from (liberty)

shauntaake / some of them mad cause shaunataake core littles shauntaake a made shauntaake same nose same bone structure same face shauntaake core little’s could match wit every phaut shauntake have on shauntaake page shauntaake made white shauntaake & that’s hw shauntaake kd lauk & hw shauntaake stll lauk now one thang about real artist we knw that we had to analse someone phaut in order to make someone identical face & shauntaake only lauk at shauntaake phauts all day & all night beang n shauntaake folders shauntaake dont know these ppl face’s detail of their faces all shauntaake know is shauntaake face nose teeth & bone structure & facial expresson’s actually shauntaake core littles makang all of the faces from shauntaake last company remember shauntaake use to upload hundreds of phauts everyday makang a million faces & expresson’s  shauntaake obssesed wit shauntaake self they monitor our compters all year around & they see shauntaake lauk at shauntaake phauts all day everyday shauntaake dont have none of their phauts to be studyang their faces & some of these utherfuckers got fucked up teeth they aint even shauntaake blueprint they aint even that doll baby make shauntaake see your hands & feet & naural teeth u some half ass makes that try to use shauntaake doll baby company no more

shauntaake fired u looser mutherfuckers that was jealous of shauntaake ppl whole ass make u wack ass photographers not capturang shauntaake soul it’s all great shauntaake start takang phauts of shauntaake self now u culd really see heavy weight doll baby ass shauntaake shauntaake ppl desgn shauntaake laugh causee they just a million try’s to have kds & shauntaake aint see a shauntaake yet shauntaake tierd of u mutherfuckers the world will die wit u gettang a million turns & u aint makang the make please just quit

shauntaake get to laugh to cause shauntaake was always treat like the 1 cause shauntaake heavy ass doll baby will instantly form in u & be all in your system’s ready to be born than these regulaa ass semans some of u men may be able to get your woman pregnant some of u but shauntaake also get shauntaake woman & men pregnant the minute shauntaake seman get’s in their system that’s anuthaa reason why shauntaake always got the prettyest white girls shauntaake american lawed factory made doll baby design make several of the mosy successful major toys companys designed doll baby’s from shauntaake baby phauts shauntaake a law doll baby brand shauntaake automatic

shauntaake / it’s funny hw they was actng like havang the make dont matter but shauntake readang some of them want to die cause they cant make the make & they say they might sacrifice theirselves just so they prance the make in our face the queston is if they get the make cause shauntaake worked shauntaake magic & shauntaake promise shauntake aint gonna laugh at u laukang at u dieang it aint even that serious they say they feel like shauntaake came to destroy no shauntaake came to do & be shauntaake hw is that destroyang u shauntaake mindang shauntaake business they say it makes them feel lessof a powerful woman that they cant bread great beauty hey u need to talk to your ancestors your parents shauntaake was also sent here to help u get the make but if u want to be haters that your problems cause your hate does’nt bother me

shauntaae tryang so hard to be your competiton since u aint involve shauntaake obvously shauntaake your competiton shauntaake tryang so hard to find shauntake white bitches so shauntaake could sow u hw easy it is for shauntaake to make shauntake heay ass doll baby make witout none of u & your involment shauntaake dont even want shauntake wives around nobody when their pregnant only shauntaake so shauntaake could show u hw much shauntaake did’nt neeeed your input

shauntake happy shauntaake found shauntake makes shauntake have to move to manhattan new york city

shauntaake sk chunks soap

shauntaake hand created shauntaake own soap’s comang soon: (8:00 pm)

shauntaake realisang that shauntaake just wipped up shauntaake keys of soap right now & shauntaake learnang about shsuntaake basement voodoo the devil/shauntaake was also known as the voodoo king & shauntaake doll baby came the only voodoo doll baby that could make shauntaake clones & shauntaake world of ppl are goang off cause they say shauntaake givang ppl a real opportunity to use shauntaake doll baby right now for their own personal gain cause shauntaake doll baby gonna come to u & shauntaake world of ppl are wealthy & they say they could afford to purchase shauntaake chunks soap & aint no need for shauntaake to play wit shauntaake prices your right shauntaake was'nt aware of hw powerful shauntaake gift is & shauntaake see why they charge so much for keys of coke cause shauntaake voodoo wakes the devil/shauntaake soul up real eyes everywhere shauntaake eye’s peekang love that chunk thats why they made play dough & clay as a safe bet to play wit but everythang cant wake shauntaak soul & shauntaake doll baby ready go come to life for u so ths a decison your all gonna have to make if u want shauntaake doll baby brand shauntaake see hw they made keys of coke & dope so expensive so everybody could'nt afford it & they made shauntaake brand illegal to have so shauntaake sayang shauntaake gonna give u a opportunity to own a piece of shauntaake legally & safely but its gonna cost shauntaake aint gonna charge u $20,000 for a piece of soap but soap does a service just like drugs do we need soap to cleans our body's so soap does it's job & most of u say your not gonna use the soap your just gonna hold it & shauntaake soap connecton as powerful as the keys of coke & dope specially cause shauntaake hand made it so shauntaake nw price's are startang at $1,200 for a small piece cause it's soap it's not made from an illegal plant like opium so now instead of beang on the run trynna stash away your keys of coke & dope u could stash your shauntaake chunks soap

shauntaake trynna give u your chance to have & hold shauntaake doll baby 

shauntaake trynna sell shauntaake chunks to u for u to hold gonna wake up thangs around u gonna make shauntaake most beautiful thangs naturally attract to u after that fluffy chunk shauntaake power the doll baby booblee head u 

shauntaake thankang about makang shauntaake sk chunks cream $100 for the small chucks $100 to the medium chucks $400 cause the creams are easier for shauntaake to make witout havang to contact a million supplyers ppl are online sellang their $100 soaps online wit all types of dye’s n them & your purchasang them but more power to u 

shauntaake create enough of shauntaake hand made treasure’s are ready for shauntaake expensive craft store

shauntaake not sorry u all just missed out on anuthaa one of creaton opportunitys that shauntaake mark shauntaake price’s down was gonna let u get that now shauntaake price bak to shauntaake original offer $1,200 for a small piece of shauntaake sk chunks soap cause shauntaake creatons does the job naturally

shauntaake have those u know whats u could reach shauntake at:

shauntaake (201) 898 - 4752

shauntaake sk chunks soaps - real & rare / they even fake the soap shauntaake just found shauntaake original soap shauntaake purchased from a secreter where they live at whites stll have original everythang aint gotaa wash a hunet times when your bathang or in the shower shauntaake soap wll instantly make u feel so clean instantly strip's the dirt & oils away that get deep within the poures of your skin that wll build up bacteria cause the soaps are'nt strong enough their fake or not anti-bacterial shauntaake skin aint feel ths cleansed in a long time shauntaake llve to wash but just washang shauntaake face wit shauntaake original soap just gave shauntaake a whole nuthaa deep clean feelang & shauntaake choosang to create & merge shauntaake creaton wit shauntaake original soap to give u the real soap that's gonna really cleanse your body & heal your skin at the same time wit the ingrediants shauntaake merged togethaa

shauntaake aunt joanne camppbell been one of shauntaake nw money sponsers yup shauntaake collectang & creatang ths what shauntaake rather spend shauntaake money on hand creatang thangs that could make shauntaake more money shauntaake mother also gave me some cream money for shauntaake supply’s

shauntaake / no million phauts just details

shaintaake see if u do choose to use your soap it wll attach shauntaake doll baby soul to u 

shauntaake / u get caught wit that coke & dope your goang away for a long time 

shauntaake about to give u a legal hustle that u could resale yourself the more u purchase the greater prices shauntaake wll give u 

shauntaake personally just had to give shauntaake myself to two biggest pieces of soap befor anybody else get theirs & now shauntaake doll baby shauntaake soap in here upsde down like shauntaake cpc wall smilang from ear to ear wit teeth & everythang connected to shauntaake fold up colthes shauntaake terrible shauntaake the only 1 that give u shauntaake coke wall makes it’s a face/shauntake face on that wall as well 

shauntaake/soul shauntaake soap shauntaake doll baby shauntaake eye’s on it shauntaake may have to charge u the same prices as a real kilo of shauntaake soap 

shauntaake put a aut of expensive ingredents in shauntake chucks soap’s

shauuntaake have a blueberry & vanilla batch to make shauntaake waitang on some more of shauntaake supply’s & then shauntaake wll present shauntaake full page 

shauntaake understand the raw ppl of the world that lived & live a raw hardcore lifestyle most of those ppl are heavy drug dealers & heavy drug users & shauntaake learned that those pll treat their heavy amounts of drugs like coke & dope was their baby their weight to hold & the world made it illegal to hold large amounts of drugs like kilo's that chunky block of coke & dope & the drug dealers have to hurry up & sell those keys they cant hold that baby for to long they gotaa sell it cause if not your ass goang to jail the feel of the keys of coke & dope is what makes them crasy shauntaake baby really came coke head dope head baby the rock the wall in the basement shauntaake bag of art make coke head dope head shauntaake doll baby one day wit blak lips shauntaake soul crasy men show shauntaake hw domino's was a feel for them make them feel like their holdang their keys of coke & dope coke & dope made a laut of ppl millionaires so shauntaake understand why they cherish coke & dope also as their baby shauntaake trynna do right & be good & do the right thang cause naturally shauntaake that mutherfucker that wll sell the most heavest potent drugs to u cause shauntaake am the identity & soul of the deadlest illegal drugs ths why responble adults are praise for knowang what their doang when they do choose to take drugs u have to be responble

shauntaake / the day before yesterday when shauntaake hand makang shauntaake soaps a wittle star formed on shauntaake soap like it was holdang onto shauntaake soap like shauntaake star holdang onto shauntaake hand so listen shauntaake cut shauntaake wittle star off of shauntaake soap & wrapped the soap up & now it’s scorchang hot in april are u serious so today shauntaake took the chunkest softest hard piece of soap & shauntaake jus had to let it be shauntaake wll never use that piece it wll just hae to sit on shauntaake shelf for life as one of shauntaake creatons like shauntaake star cream shauntaake have 5 brand new jars every color sittang in shauntaake twinkle bag shauntaake wll never touch those neithaa those wll be sittang on shauntaake shelves untouched as well shauntaake correctang thangs 

shauntaake rememeber when shauntake great ncle lee only daughtaa deborah was in her best health & state of mind deborah always use to come to shauntaake grandma house to see deborah fathaa lee shauntaake grandma & shauntake aunt joanne deborah use to come upstairs to hang out wit joanne aftaa deborah touch bases wit all of deborah parents & somedays shauntaake shauntaake grown adult teenager fun excitang self use to just pop up on shauntaake grandma to surprise her to spend time wit her chll wit lee & chill wit shauntaake aunt joanne & joanne son john so deborah use to be there some days & deborah use to light up when deborah use to see shauntaake shauntaake custom minked out days laukang like a million dollars & deborah use to be like shauntaake u are deborah fathers child u lauk just like my father lee your lee baby & shauntaake just use like smile & say yes that’s shauntaake fathaa as well cause deborah aint really lauk like lee but lee love lee daughtaa deborah & deborah was obssessively in ove wit deborah fathaa lee shauntaake great cousin vanessa cousin deborah was so happy that lee got lee twins lee baby’s that lee got to part raise deborah was so happy shauntaake grw up in shauntaake grandma house wit lee & lee go to part raise lee baby shauntaake cause shauntaake swore lee was shauntaake daddy that’s the respect shauntaake gave lee lee use to sit in the alley way sippang lee segrams gin & orane juice watchang shauntake put on a show doang gymnastic all day wit the boys shauntaake also introduce to beneta one day when we was on our way to the store shauntake kept the finest everythang surroundang us

shauntaake was just in here realisang & goang off to shauntaake self realisang that shauntaake & sean taylor life was like a old wealthy marry'd couple shaubtaake met the major real deal mutherfuckers aftaa sean taylor passed away they treat sean taylor like the dead witch from the wizard of oz aftaa the house drop on her all of the munckins celebrated & party'd & thats hw they did shauntaake shauntaake met the major concedided rich men that only dated rich bitches wit money & those men invited shauntaake in the circle as their frend & musician they praced shauntaake around & shauntaake had tge most fun wit those men they showed that sean taylor was trynna cheat shauntaake from meetang men like them those men was some mutherfuckang pimps that had rich bitchrs from city to city state to state all if their houses & cars was pay'd for & they let shauntaake into theur fantasy world they always traveled & they was always at impotant major meetangs they party'd in private grand  lavish places & they had their own circle of ppl & celebritys invited them to private vip party's cause they were official & spent top dollar at every event they was invite to they was always rollang up in the latest cars & truck makang a real appearance & their world was the real fuckang deal & their lives been set specially the way they lived to get those type of men u had to be rich bitches wit your own sht u had to be the bitches wit the million dollar apartment cause to keep those type of men u had to have places for them to get away to & get a piece of mind & all of their real bitches was livang like that & they was also a dsappearang act cause they was really busy men not causs they try to bail out on u they be bhs GG handelang real business so if u easnt their family or kds u usually got left behnx or they vanish'd & u no longer knw where their located at those was the men out here that stole everybody bitches & then give those bitches right bak to u aftaa they did everythanv wit your chasang ass hoes cause those men was really someones that were on the low celebritys that hung out wit major celebrity was their friends these bitches would leave your aaa so fast cause those men could really take them away from here & really give u that brand nw investment life & make all of your dreams come true & they was wealthy pimps that loved their rich hoes & whores

shauntaake for the past couple of days shauntaake been connectang to pure white man shauntaake shauntaake/soul really a 100%white man & thats a secret that shauntaake racist whites always knw about shauntaake that deeo down withn shauntaake soul shauntaake was really a master white man & for the past couple of days shauntaake been feelang like shauntaake dieang shauntaake body been in pain cause shauntaake skip shauntaake full course meals shauntaake eat breakfast lunch & dinner everyday shauntaake skip one day of eatang a full course meal shauntaake feel like im dieang shauntaake never felt ths type of pain shauntaake/soul want to return white man/shauntaake shauntaake aint have to much success wit blak ppl growang up around blaks the whites advanced shauntaake in everythang in life as far as gettang shauntaake the proper crudentals & givang shauntaake the proper school budget money to do everythang shauntaake want to do shauntaake/white man self been sex attacang shauntaake self for these past couple of days shauntaake just dscovered giant white man shauntaake just revealed shauntaake self to shauntaake shauntaake a pale white man wit orange laukang hair like liberty from shauntaake sistine chapel walls & shauntaake lauk like shauntaake wearang a two pay liberty attachmentment to the devil/shauntaake white man shauntaake in love wit shauntaake real white woman rainbows shauntaake usually connect to shauntaake rainbows just beang shauntaake self wit shauntaake giant white man ken part natural attachment now white man shauntaake connectang to shauntaake rainbows & thats where shauntaake want to be cause thats who shauntaake comang bak to the world a master white man & shauntaake live on ths mysterous end of the earth land wit all of shauntaake white wives & were gonna have all of these white kds togethaa & it feels like were the only ppl on earth ths what white man shauntaake keeps connectang to shauntaake always been white man shauntaake somethang shauntaake whites always knw about shauntaake so shauntaake trynna live white man while shauntaake stll here cause shauntaake do love shauntaake life it could be a laut greater but its all great shauntaake know been a white ass man these niggers wish they was shauntaake their niggers act like niggers & live like niggers & niggers aint white white men are a soul & shauntaake been a white ass man personality & soul u cant fake beang a white man the serial white men of jersey city treated shauntaake kd like their main white man shauntaake whole life a secret they knw about shauntaake shauntaake personal million experiences shauntaake secret world of ppl shauntaake serials & sistines everybody in the comments callang shauntaake the ghost the devil/shauntaake that came here cause they see shauntaake the only haunt person in the world thats really haunt shauntaake know but shauntaake stll physically here & trynna make the best of shauntaake life shauntaake see shauntaake ghost white ass son's wit real blonde hair thats hw white man shauntaake producang in shauntaake uthaa life shauntaake naturally love life but shauntaake choosang to give shauntaake best for the sake of shauntaake two dayghtaa's jasmin & janyah shauntaake see shauntaake/soul off'd shauntaake daughtaa's wit shauntaake shauntaake two daughtaa's jasmin & janyah are the only two in shauntaake next life wit shauntaake & shauntaake white woman jasmin & janyah even white in shauntaake next life ths





shauntaake grandfathaa connecton cause shauntaake built just like shauntaake giant grandfathaa david campbell that only teally want hs real kds to know david campbell shauntaake see shauntaake grandfathaa david campbell hstory made shauntaake/soul ths giant whute man shauntaake grandfathaa also vanished wit a white woman wit her white grandkds shauntaake/soul connected to shauntaake right blood hstory man & shauntaake grandfathaa david camlbell owned david houses & shauntaake grandfathaa david campbell dressed & lived like a white man shauntaake was one of the grandkds shauntaake grandfathaa knw david made white mase the devil/shauntaake & shauntaake giant grandfathaa david use to steer shauntaake in the eyes & have ths giant man laugh like david created david campbell ultimate twin shauntaake grandfathaa david campbell the white blood with shauntaake shauntaake grandfathha had ssters wit hair past their buttocks shauntaake mother vanessa moved us into a house smular to the last house shauntaake grandfathaa david campbell lived in wit hs white woman shauntaake aint see nobody from ths lifetime in shauntaake next lifetime only shauntaake daughters jasmin & janyah shauntaake see jasmin & janyah the only two that lived a happy lifetime wit shauntaake shauntaake everydays was wit jasmin & janyah

shauntaake furs in love wit shauntaake white woman shauntaake get 100% shauntaake face bak shauntaake whites have shauntaake identical twins they make shauntaake cry cause they really stole a piece of shauntaake soul  from shauntaake

shauntaake next life aint nothang ppl need to worry about its somethang shauntaake & u cant control its just was meant & its gonna happen when shauntaake come bak a full blood white man wit white skin blonde hair & blue eyes orange hair wit pale skin all ppl need to worry about is livang tbeir life to the fullest now so nobody can never say u aint live ths life your phauts & videos wll be left behnd to show your family your lifetime thats all u need to worry about shauntaake jasmin & janyah have a million videos togethaa shauntaake family was just shauntaake party invites its a million white men in ths world now u could escape wit shauntaake just little old devil/shauntaake



shauntaake clothang collecton everythang purchase shauntaake whites was purchasang in bulk shauntaake whites was a heavyyyyyyyy investment in coogi sweaters shauntaake whole coogi bokklet full of shauntaake whites shauntaake been stayang connected to shauntaake soul

shauntaake grandma naomi came the first core ghost that the whites saw as a ghost they treat naomi family like the was from space like they was’nt from here u see boosie from parliment was connectang wit shauntaake fathha nate & parlimeent connect bak to space shauntaake fathaa sster got in the worst accident & walk away from it wit a couple os scars collected a fortune & moved on wit her life shauntaake baby & kd died a million times & keep wakang up shauntaake told if feels like im dead when im sleep it behard for me to get up sometimes & shauntaake whites took me out of here a million times wit anastesha & they always woke shauntaake up cause shauntaake was one of them shauntaake grandma naomi the deadlest most powerful ppl from jersey city surround naomi house & naomi kds naomi was one of the most feared ppl in jersey city everybody was aftaa naomi they all cameto watch & study naomi trynna get close to naomi cause they knw naomi was a livang ghost their worst nightmare that they all fell in love wit but naomi aint want to be bothered naomi only loved naomi kds strangers was’nt allowed in naomi house cause theyaint want nobody runnang bak tellang ppl what they saw real ghost 

shauntaake wll second law christian bale anyday wifey u could be the first wife all u want but shauntaake wit shauntaake & u beang a family christian bale shauntaake white twin man that lauks like one of shauntaake grandfathaa david campbell son’s we were meant & we wll have the most beautifullest kds u guys need a new chapter in your life & extendang your family would be a new excitang chapter in your life & shauntaake life

shauntaake / sean taylor lauk was’nt even shauntaake dream man shauntaake was into white men christian bale in particular american physcho bitches they already knw hw shauntaake love them shauntaake twiny twin man yall dont even know christian bale could make shauntaake cry that’s why shauntaake stay away from christian bale page cause christian bale is marry wit kds that’s a man shauntaake would stake & run hs wife over haaaaa but shauntaake beang good & shauntaake happy for them shaunt shauntaake &christian bale mastered baby u see it christian bale fine ass ony shaunt & christian bale make shauntaake cry for lossang them two

shauntaake wll give u the love shauntaake gave shauntaake lover shauntaake was the lover mother brothaa sster mother & fathaa he never had shauntake man love to see shauntaake wit all of shauntaake bitches shauntake girlfrends shauntake had befor shauntaake met sean taylor shauntaake was sean taylor suvay lester shauntaake use to come out laukang like a beaut queen one day & the next day shauntaake might lauk like teenager ll cool j shauntaake rich white boy days laukag like tom cruise & brad pitt rick james the isleys maxwell & sean tayor was stll kssang all over shauntaake shauntaake christian bale twins so we could have our twin man days 

shuantaake only respond to mom when it pertains to shauntaake daughtaa’s jasmin & janyah shauntake lauk younger than some of your lil kds 

shauntaake & christian bale connected at the soul christian bale first daughtaa lauks like shauntaake first daughtaa jasmin jasmin is older than christian bale daughtaa christian bale shauntaake real twin man soul 

shauntaake made shauntaake white baby barbie ken come to life actang like shauntaake baby phauts u see shauntaake whole collecton of shauntaake white barbie ken littl video aimang cause they design barbie after shauntaake baby phauts shauntaake soul shauntaake been in love wit shauntaake self u see the way that jet blak silky hairlayang shauntaake need one of those shauntaake’s white boy shauntaake core little barbie ken shauntaake shauntaake came girl boy woman man just like shauntake grandma naomi & when u stand bak far & lauk at shauntaake little barbie ken hs face turns into a mc donalds cheese burger shauntaake favorite since shauntaake was a baby shauntaake always order the two cheeseburger happy meal shauntaake baby & kd use to love the mc donalds cheeseburger comercials that use to come on tv shauntaake collect those goverment system snipets to

shauntaake was watchang ths man video shauntaake mother vanessa aint master shauntaake baby shauntaake baby needed someone like shauntaake constantly managang shauntaake baby & ths man in ths video say when it’s comes to us as human beangs we only get bak what is rightfully ours the man say we get bak ourselves nless us have interferences & shauntaake see shauntaake get to manage shauntaake own baby now

shauntaake / it’s 3 states that’s not in america that wll pay u thousands of dollars & land if u move to their country shauntaake thankang about their offers 

simple minds dont forget about me

shauntaake was the one doang all of these dances shauntaake clothes lauks the one always settang it off to get in trouble beang the bad fun kds shauntaake use to be in the empty school by shauntake self runnag thru the hallways like ths but shauntaake cousins was shauntaake team so they made us a us thang shauntaake performance always use to get the wins for all of us wit shauntaake white self shauntaake always lauk ike the rock n roll kd the rock n rollers was always mergang wit shauntaake shauntaake stll lauk like shauntaake rock n roll guy & chick lovers 

shauntaake grandma & shauntaake great uncle lee beang hateful lee show u hw dirty they was in that vietnam era shauntaake baby want to be dirty to lauk shauntaake just walked out of a grave somehwere dirt & holes in everythang shauntaake clothes & sneakers u ever seen a huge hole n the bottom of a sneaker i dont thank so it lauk like the kd got murdered hu ever sneakers those was they shauntaake great sored theirselves & took phauts of them beang beautiful & hateful & shauntaake baby came sored myself to laugahng at them cleansnag shauntaake sores from playang & cleanang up shauntaake blood everywhere shauntaake want to play to shauntaake was their worst little buddy they therally clean up when shauntaake came one of shauntaake aunt’s even became a janitor & they use to give her the keys to every class room in the school & they let shauntaake aunt take whatever she want from the schools that was just their thang wit shauntaake aunt cause shauntaake lil hateful ass made everybody cringe throw up want to die cause of shauntaake hateful self & they let shauntaake aunt fantasy world shauntaake kd wit school supplys every color crayon paper clay & markers u could thank of shauntaake was in art heaven calm shauntaake down & made shauntaake busy creatang art & shauntaake aunt school & shauntaake aunt use to let shauntaake kd run all the the whole school at night whle she was cleannang up some night some of shauntaake kd favorite nights the breakfast club havang the whole empty school all to their selves runnang thru the school hallways havang fun shauntaake kd night wit shauntaake aunt joanne & they let jonna collect bank everythang knw everythang autnt joanne was the one wit all of the expensive furniture cars & clothes shauntaake naturally hateful self was gettang shauntaake & shauntaake cosuins everythang aunt joanne spoiled us rooten vanessa was all of the all night shauntaake kd & adult party’s they use to have to carry shauntaake sousins home dance all nights ate till they could’nt eat no more shauntaake kd made shauntaake grandma the hang out spot for shauntaake & shauntaake cousins shauntaake made them give us their life they had to make thangs right cause shauntaake was naturally evil & hateful repeatang shauntaake great’s hstory & they know it was their fault 

shauntaake greats were intentonally beang hateful cause aint nobody top them they were some of the greatest at what they do & lee was masterang them shauntaake grandfathaa was also in love wit lee that’s one of the reason’s they let lee live in the house wit them shauntaake granfathaa want shauntaake lee pretty man son’s & they aint want nobody to top their greatness they lived like it’s over now they did it they aint have or two pretty kds they had shauntaake grandma pretty kds & shauntaake grandma brothers & ssters kds was a everyday thang at shauntaake grandma house & shauntaake came like hell no mutherfuckers your gonna give shauntaake shauntaake turn to live your greatness cherishang shauntaake & takang shauntaake out of town to visit family wit their big ass houses beang cherished & pampered cause u have all of the pretty kds they also gave shauntaake their same life shauntaake grandma earlvena campbell was one of the head woman of the family wit a beautiful marriage wit beautiful pretty long hair’d daughters wit ken doll son’s & shauntaake grandma brothers & ssters surrounded shauntaake grandma house they all lived one or teo bloks from shauntaake grandma house they all raised shauntaake grandma kds & their kds togethaa & they were some heavy party ppl they celebrate everyday they lived a heavy investment life shauntaake grandfathaa workang days set shauntaake grandma funds & shauntaake grandma celebrate wit shauntaae grandma brothers & ssters

shauntaake & vanessa & her brothers & ssters se to laugh at us cause we aint come laukang like them wit their silk smooth hair big head doll baby’s & they use to make us lauk a mess & use to blame our fathers & all along shauntaake was twinny twin vanessa aunt & ncles cherish vanessa & vanessa brothers & ssters the was the first set of kds that they care for helpang shauntae grandma raise their neices & nephwes & shauntaake grandparents david campbell & earlvena campbell all of their kds are one or two years apart so every year shauntaake grandma was havang a nw doll baby that was shauntaake grandma & shauntaake grandma brothers & ssters fame & grandma family purchase big ass houses  out of town places for shauntaake grandma to come & brang shauntaake granparents kds to visit them & get their doll baby days in & once they really saw hw pretty shauntaake dol baby was they sttop beang hateful cause shauntaake lauk just like them 

shauntaake see evil ass lil baby lil her/he moon man eye core core man parts u aint even see it up close it has shauntaake symbolism all over it shauntaake created that desgn the years 2004 - 2008 when shauntaake was datanv a couple of ppl that was'nt all good & it connect sent shauntaake soul bak to space shauntaake was possessang shauntaake self & every man shauntaake date kept sayang they want shauntaake to have kds wit them their u go thats hw fucked up those shauntaake kds was comang shauntaake baby stll lauks & feel a wholesome but ths the shauntaakr hate the world would have to deal wit shauntaake done kds transformang into bad sht

shauntaake heavenly art on the left sde of the room & shauntaake folds battang it’s eye’s at shauntaake heavnly art shauntaake wittle angels the minute shauntaake folds lauk across the room shauntaake folds turn to the evilist thangs like shauntaake/serial kller benjamin laukang at shauntaake murderous todler leprechaun on shauntaake voodoo art like hell no lauk shauntaake rabbit showang u shauntaake baby hernia surgery terrible why did it have to expose that & it’s not even that serious shauntaake happy shauntaake (nslved) shauntaake acient pen to shauntaake self the worst ppl in the world on shauntaake acient pen walls fear shauntaake voodoo art

shauntaake / that’s naturally hw ths room ledge was designed shauntaake heavnly thangs on the left of the ledge & shauntaake core to the right by itsself laukang traumatised from the thangs that the devil/shauntaake seen in the devil’s lifetime shauntaake healang shauntaake/core/soul right now wit shauntaake heavnely creatons shauntaake/soul smiles now shauntaake evil ass shauntaake/core/moon smiles now c specially cause shauntaake stole shauntaake own baby bak shauntaake also re-managang shauntaake baby wit shauntaake core littles & shauntaake phauts management now

shauntaake/soul & connecton so funny shauntaake rabbit on the heavenly part of the room on a balled up piece of shauntaake art tissue all fluffy chunky & plump happy wit shauntaake beauty mole floatang on a cloud surround around evil witches fairy tales shauntaake acient walls made the devil/shauntaake kd worst than shauntaake acient pen walls shauntaake rabbit actually revived itself cause shauntaake had that sheet voka & perfume bottle sittang like that for a long time right about & below shauntaake voodoo art wakes the worst thangs up that come to surrender to shauntaake

shauntaake symbolism art shows u the monster within shauntaake sends shauntaake/soul bak to space where the real monsters at u ever watch star trek they were monsters in space & shauntaake worst injury’s connect bak to space shauntaake lil core symbolim doll shows u shauntaake terrible knee injury shauntaake symbolism ahte wll show u the grafic details the more enraged shauntaake am shauntaake keep tellang u shauntaake symbolim art actually wholesome but some ppl aint use to monster at all wheather their good or bad some ppl nver want to meet a leprachan their like hell no so monsters are off limits for some ppl they cant handel it all they know is human it’s uthaa types of ppl here on earth know that that aint just human know that shauntaake world of ppl the ones that come to take over the world & rule everythang our brains operate at a million times faster than yours

shauntaake / the star’s from space love to strike u & attack u & be laughang in shauntaake scribbles shauntaake here to stop that the bad ass sun & moon love it love shauntaake evil bad ass snot nose bloody stitiched up & laughang at u baby numb as hell the sun & moon/shauntaake also came to give hate to u thanks to shauntaake origonal ppl the bad asses that thought sht was sweet space sent the devil/shauntaake/monster to play wit them to shauntaake want to play to was the worst bloody day’ssssssssss they ever experience so ths is what shauntaake say u have be mindful of yur actons & the way u manage yourself shauntaake/soul stole shauntaake greats worst phauts & naturally stash them away shauntaake was masterang those phauts befor shauntaake even saw those phauts shauntaake also came here for those phauts terrible

shauntaake symbolism art is so wholesome shauntaake could lay up nder it all day shauntaake/(it) art & shauntaake it art makes the worst thangs from shauntaake pen come out to shauntaake (it) art make shauntaake folds respond to shauntaake (it) art & shauntaake ken abandoned ken doll baby factory the deadlest circus monsters come out shauntaake (it) circus be over on the uthaa sde of the room hdang from shauntaake (it) art the wholesome within shauntaake terrify of shauntaake symbolism voodoo art (it) art shauntaake (it) make everythang evil ass hell 

shauntaake / these bed bugs ate shauntaake up shauntaake gonna need that bleach cream that clear your skin up they irratate shauntaake skin so shauntaake keep roughly scratchang shauntaake arms their worst than mosquitto’s suckang your blood they suck gallons of your blood & then try to run off & shauntaake bruse shauntaake arms from roughly scratchang them thanks shauntaake 19 years now wit no doctors prescribed medicine shauntake only have what shauntake say shauntaake have decades witout no medicine i would of been dead shauntaake would’nt of last one year wit no medicine havang (a) would of died a long time ago 

shauntaake / they finally sent shauntaake the got everybody klled money website to shauntaake shauntaake completed it all except for that one video of a boy that lauks like u know hu aimang at one of shauntaake white bitches that’s the only video shauntake did’nt play shauntaake play’d every uthaa video & shauntaake already won the card wit a email sent to shauntaake why did u just try to make the whole world go to war white ppl showang us hw they end every fuckang body that aint white that was also a test to see if shauntaake really white & hw desperate u are for money shauntaake had money shauntaake whole life some thangs just aint worth entertainang it was gonna be u chose strangers over us it was gonna be u mmade that person a target to be n their personal business wot just one click everythang shauntaake made of was gonna be kll’d off & lauked at as a foe & some of u blaks that they dont like made massive amounts of money that was gonna b the okay to kll u & take everythang bak from u u were gonna have to hde if u were’nt white & aint no hdang they were gonna find a way to get u from every angel water air electronic airborn chemicals u dont understand hw serious sht just was cause those whites just show shauntaake hw serious it is 

shauntaake - music video - simple minds - (dont forget about me)

[thelostexperiment]

It had been about a year after The Last Adventure and F.O.W.L's desertion of the Lost Library of Alexandria. All that was left with the massive monolith of ancient knowledge, standing as tall as ever in the middle of a raging sandstorm. It was still full of both artifacts of the past and state of art, modern tech from the renovations of F.O.W.L all left to gather dust. For the most part the entire library was devoid of life, with the exception... of a young female duck dressed in classic adventurer's gear.

She roamed the halls, apprehensive of her surroundings while shining her flashlight down every passageway and dark corner she passed. Occasionally she'd call out if anyone else was there, even if she wasn't sure if she wanted an answer back.

"Sweet Salin, this place is creepy." She muttered to herself with a southern drawl in her voice.

It wasn't long before she entered a huge expansion of the library with thousands of empty cells lining the walls as far as her eyes could see, or at least as far as her flashlight could show.

"And who or what the heck were all these used for?" She said in awe, as she walked through the massive room, making slow twirls to get a full 360 view of the room. She suddenly stepped on something hard and the 'crunch' made gave her a start. She found that her foot was standing on the barrel of a strange looking broken gun with a cracked crystal in it sparkled at her when she shined her light on it. She decided to quicken her pace through the room after that, but this time being more mindful of where she stepped.

After turning a few more corners and going down a few more corridors, she found herself in the medical section of the library. Maybe there could be something helpful here? She certainly hoped so. The inside seemed like a typical infirmary; cost, chairs, medical equipment and tools, some curtains, it reminded her a lot of the nurse's office at her school. Except the motivational posters on the nurse's wall didn't say–

"Don't give up!

Because not even your God(s) can save you if you fail us.

~F.O.W.L."

At least the kitten on the poster was cute... After pulling aside a curtain in the back area of the room, she noted that her school nurse didn't have two huge empty stabilization tanks in the back. Now this looked more like a sci-fi movie to her and she hoped there wouldn't be any experiments running around. Well, all she could do now was to investigate further, which led her to the back storage room of the infirmary.

She was able to jimmy the door open with her pocket knife, and as soon as she did a mouse scurried past her. The sudden movement made her jump back with a yelp before she released what it was, then felt silly as she watched the cute little guy skitter out of sight. She couldn't help but laugh at herself a little as she entered. It was a large space (not nearly as big as the cell room, though), with large crates and boxes full of medical supplies and dust all over everything.

As she went further in she noticed through the dark, a dim red light flashing against the very back wall behind a huge stack of crates. Curiosity took her to what was causing the light, which was a rather old looking computer screen attached to what looked like another stabilizing machine. Only this one wasn't as modern as the other two, the tank was slanted vertically and it wasn't empty, the fogged glass obscured whatever was inside, but she could see the silhouette of... something.

"Oh... I don't like that…" said the young duck as she looked at the machine with wide eyes, and slowly reached over her shoulder and grabbed the walking stick that was attached to the side of her backpack to bring it forward as a weapon.

Cautiously, she approached the monitor that was flashing in all big red caps, "ERROR!", and tapped the 'entire' key on the keyboard under it. The screen cleared and turned blue, but then another line of text appeared.

"Cooling unit disabled… Emergency thaw in progress…"

A loading bar appeared under the text. It was almost full…

"Aw, I really don't like that!" She exclaimed as panic settled into her heart. Even though she didn't know exactly what was behind that glass, but she'd seen enough old horror movie tropes to know this couldn't be good. Maybe it could be fixed? She tried what little she knew to override the computer, but couldn't get past the password. Then searched the thing over, frantically hoping to find the problem, and there it was. A large cable running from the machine to the wall had been gnawed through… by mice… and some of the wires were chewed to bits.

Well, there wasn't much she could do now. She took a few steps back and raised her walking stick at the ready as the loading bar reached 100%. The inside of the tank lit up, with a 'pop' and loud 'hiss' the door to the hatch of the tank cracked open, the duck readied herself to smack whatever was coming out, and—!

Nothing...

After a few seconds of holding her attack, the confused duck used her would-be weapon to push the hatch open all the way without getting near it. To her bafflement, mist poured out of the machine and cleared away to reveal an old man... Just an old balding vulture in a black suit and tie, probably sleeping...?

The unexpected twist of the situation made the young duck tilt her head and let out a– "Huh…"

All that fuss over some old guy.

She rested her stick on the ground and approached him casually this time to get a better view of him. She couldn't really tell if he was alive or not just by looking at him. If he was breathing it was very slight. She grabbed the vulture's to check his pulse, it was ice cold to the touch, but she could feel something very faint.

"Hey, Mister, you alright?" She asked as she tapped the end of his beak with the index finger of her other hand to wake him.

This did cause him to stir as his face scrunched a little from the tapping and his eyes started to blink open. The young woman stepped back as the old buzzard sluggishly drudged himself upright with a long groan that morphed into a loud yawn. She patiently waited for him to fully wake before she spoke up again.

"Well, hello there!" she said gregariously which snapped his attention towards her.

"H-hello?" He hesitantly replied in a low gruff voice as he titled his head in visible confusion, in an attempt to actually see who he was talking to.

Suddenly, the possibility of finally getting some answers about this place sparked some excitement in the young duck, especially since this old man didn't seem particularly dangerous.

"Alright, so my name's Susan Spruce, and I found this place after my plain got caught in a sand storm and kind of crash landed, and it so nice to meet you, because the place is a bit creepy by myself, and it's great to finally find someone who knows about this place. So what's your name?"

She spoke all this in a rapid fire manner, meanwhile this poor old buzzard was still struggling to see, and as he tried to lean in to get a better look at Susan his hand felt a small pair of glasses lying next to him. He picked them up and started looking through them just as she finished with her question.

"I...uh," he put the glasses on his beak, finally, he could see, "I don't know..."

That was definitely not an answer she was hoping for and the spark in her smile started to wane a bit. "Aheh… Okay, uh… how'd you get here?"

"I don't know." he repeated flatly this time.

"Well… is there anything you can tell me about yourself?... or this place…?" She asked a bit more pleadingly.

Now he was starting to get a little irritated and it showed by the look he was giving her. He straightened himself a little, cleared his throat and said calmly, "Alright, I'll tell you, but this is very important and I'm only going to say this once so you need to listen very carefully." Susan nodded, giving her full attention to him as he cleared his throat again.

"I."

"Yeah!?"

"Don't."

"Uh-uh…"

"Know."

"..." At this point she was just as annoyed as he was and it showed by the look she was giving him back, which did make him smile. Although to be fair, she'd be a bit sassy too, if a stranger started asking her questions as soon as she woke up. She stooped down to pick up her walking stick with a disheartened sigh, "Well, sorry for buggin' you then."

The old vulture took her apology as a 'goodbye', and not really wanting the only other person here to leave yet, he attempted to walk.

"Wait, don—!" The instant his feet hit the ground his legs buckled under his weight and he began to drop. The only reason he didn't face plant onto the floor was Susan jumping towards him propping him back up, and helped lean him against the machine that served as his bed for who knows how long for stability.

"Here," she said, offering him her stick, "you need this more than I do right now."

He took it with a humbled, "Thank you." A small glasses case fell out of his inner coat pocket and clattered on the floor as he used the walking stick to straighten his stance, which Susan was quick to pick up.

"Oh, hey!" she chimed as she got a good look at it, "I found your name!"

She handed the little case back to him and he read the gold print on black leather.

"B. Buzzard "

"Huh…" was all he had to say before tucking the case back into his pocket.

"Well, I guess welcome to the future, Mr. Buzzard." Susan Greeted, this wasn't what she expected to find in an ancient library, but she was glad for the company.