#so getting them through trickshots seems to be out of the question

[heartful-cake]

thinking of peach's inexplicable power to generate or find 1-up mushrooms in mario galaxy. like how much energy does that take? is this even usually possible for an inhabitant within the mushroom world? like mario and co. generate 1-up mushrooms by doing enough trick shots and comboing enemies, but i don't think peach usually is surrounded by enemies when she's captured, which means she has to generate them herself right? unless she keeps finding them on bowser's airships or wherever she's being held? is this an extension of her white magic? it definitely fits with her personality and other skill sets, but i'm just so curious how her sending mario 1-up mushrooms logically works out...

[forevercloudnine]

new 52 riddlebat ship meme

(@heroes-etc picked me out a lot of questions and we’re still going. This set is from this ship meme.)

1. Who makes the first move and how?

Ostensibly it would be Edward, if putting together a subtext-laden citywide scavenger hunt that threatens the lives of hundreds counts as “making the first move.” But there’s a limit to how much deliberately obfuscating any expression of your feelings can be considered making any move at all. He also doesn’t seem to really know what he wants from Bruce — in “Alone,” he’s quick to say that he designed the puzzles to lead Batman to him on purpose, but doesn’t have an answer when questioned on what he wanted Batman to do other than catch him.

So even though Edward is technically the instigator here, he places the burden of actually doing something entirely on Batman. Which is difficult, because Riddler’s increased brutality in the New 52 makes him like the last possible version of the character Bruce would choose to pursue. BUT Scott Snyder made Batjokes practically text in this continuity, so obviously New 52 Bruce does not have a problem getting overly emotionally involved with supervillains who have unrealistically large body counts. In fact, the brutality may work to Edward’s advantage here; if he caused enough damage, maybe Bruce would kidnap him and keep him in the Batcave the way it was revealed he was keeping the Joker in Dark Days: The Casting #1. 

What could be more romantic than being imprisoned in the batcave? Well, probably a lot of things, really. But in this case, having a lot of quality time together in which Riddler is not actively murdering anyone is probably the only way that these two could work out what they have going on between them. 

Edward could also earn his way down there by figuring out Batman’s identity, which he’s clearly pretty close to in Batman Annual #4. There’s only so much mental distance between “Bruce Wayne is obsessed with the death of his parents and his drive for justice and revenge has led him to bring Batman into existence, making him responsible for everything Batman has ever done” and “Bruce Wayne IS Batman,” especially when Bruce Wayne does things like climb museum exhibits to leave through the skylight or pull off a trickshot that ruins Riddler’s whole evil plan directly in front of Edward’s face.

And if he DID figure it out, New 52 Riddler would probably be less courteous about its secrecy than Joker is. (Not that Joker is THAT polite about it, given that he keeps trying to use the information to either kill Bruce’s whole family, or... I don’t know... whatever he did with Wayne Enterprises in Joker War. Wait, is THAT why Bruce was keeping Joker in the Batcave in Rebirth?) 

So just to review, I am *checks notes* arguing that Bruce would instigate a romantic relationship by kidnapping Edward and imprisoning him against his will. Yes, that sounds about right for DC’s current continuity.

6. Who would they ask if they ever had a threesome?

If Riddler DOESN’T know Batman’s secret identity, then he would want to have a threesome with Bruce Wayne. Batman Annual #4 suggests that he might have already been a bit obsessed with Bruce even before suspecting his involvement with Batman, given that he talks about how watching Bruce in the tabloids growing up was everyone’s “favorite tv show” and reminisces about learning a lot of information about Bruce’s life that way, including stuff that wouldn’t have made it to the news, like Bruce anonymously setting his teacher’s yard on fire as a teenager.

It’s actually almost a Batman Forever vibe, or it would be if New 52 Edward wasn’t so much less endearing. Is his childhood fascination with Bruce part of why he got a job working for Bruce’s uncle at Wayne Enterprises as an adult, or was that just a happy accident in his preparations for Zero Year? Either way, he’s clearly obsessed with Bruce now, and he’s definitely under the impression that Batman knows him well. So as long as he didn’t know they were the same person, he would probably try to arrange a ménage à trois (wouldn’t that be awkward).

If he DID know they were the same person, then unfortunately Edward would definitely try and instigate a threesome with Joker. I’m not saying it would work, I’m just saying that all of the War of Jokes and Riddles reads like Edward trying to insert himself in the middle of Batjokes and getting rejected by both of them repeatedly.

Joker wasn’t interested the first time Riddler came on to him (or the second time, literally in the same office, Edward please learn how to read a room), so he probably wouldn’t go for it if Edward tried again. But if The War and Jokes and Riddles demonstrated anything, it’s that Edward doesn’t know how to take a hint, so he’d probably try again regardless. And then blame Bruce when it doesn’t work, probably. I always thought it was dumb when Riddler hyped up the oh-so-horrible thing that Batman did to him in the War of Jokes and Riddles in Batman #19, only for it to turn out that Bruce just, like... almost stabbed him.... but didn’t. After Riddler had ALREADY betrayed him.

But it makes more sense that Edward is being such a dramatic bitch if you’re instead interpreting “I still remember what he did” as just a summary of the conga line of rejection that Riddler received over the course of that arc from both sides of Batjokes.

(TWOJAR as helpfully summarized by @heroes-etc​)

11. What do they hide from one another?

I don’t think they can really hide anything from each other, actually. I mean there’s the obvious “Batman is hiding his secret identity” and “Riddler is hiding evil scheme of the week #39.” But Bruce is the “World’s Greatest Detective” as per usual, and Edward is actually not that far behind him in this continuity (even if his delusions can cause him to project and misinterpret his findings, i.e. assuming that Bruce purposefully went bankrupt so that Riddler and the other Arkhamites would have to live in Wayne Manor and be reminded of him every second of every day). Batman Annual #4 has a great example of this where Edward reveals that he knows about how Bruce tried to treat his paranoid vigilante compulsions with shock therapy when he was a teenager. No one but Alfred and the doctors know about that — and I’m just assuming that Alfred knew, it’s not something that was stated in Zero Year.

Bruce obviously solves pretty much every riddle that Edward puts in front of him, but he picks up on the stuff that Riddler is purposefully trying to obscure too. Whether he was researching Edward ahead of time (likely) or just so good at snap psychoanalysis he should have a job at Arkham (possible, Zero Year was written by Scott Snyder), his summary of Edward’s life during their first interaction as Batman and Riddler in Batman #31 is clearly too accurate for Edward’s comfort, as it ruins what had previously been excitement on Riddler’s part that Batman was still alive. 

So good luck to both of them at hiding absolutely anything from each other. The best they can hope for is if WHEN the other person finds what they’ve been hiding, they misinterpret either the information or the reason why it was hidden from them in the first place. Both of them are always willing to jump to the worst case scenario (which, given who they’re dealing with, fair enough), so I’m sure the resulting miscommunication would be both extremely entertaining and highly likely to lead to city-wide destruction.

27. Why do their friends get annoyed with them?

Does New 52 Riddler even have friends? He and Scarecrow claim to have respect for each other in Detective Comics ft. Scarecrow #23.3, but it’s in the context of Scarecrow lying and manipulating all the rogues in the lead up to Forever Evil, and it comes about three panels after Riddler passive aggressively mocks Jonathan’s childhood trauma at the hands of his “daddy.” (Rude, Edward. Rude and gross.)

If they are friends, then the reasons why Riddler dating Scarecrow’s arch nemesis would annoy Jonathan are pretty self-explanatory. Also Edward is clearly the kind of person who would taunt the rest of the Arkhamites with any privileges earned/information gleaned from getting closer to the Bat. When I was younger my mother would always warn me not to waste emotional energy on girls who ditch their friends to prioritize their relationship as soon as they get a new boyfriend. Well, Riddler is that girl.

Bruce’s friends and family obviously also have nearly infinite reasons to be annoyed with Bruce for dating a supervillain (shoutout to Duke Thomas, who was unfortunate enough to have Riddler’s Zero Year during the most formative time of his childhood), but Barbara Gordon would doubtlessly be more pissed than most. Riddler deciding that he’s in love with Batgirl out of the blue (despite them never having met before?) when he finds out that Batman’s marrying Catwoman was already irritating, but I can only imagine how much MORE annoying it would be in the context of Riddler later hooking up with Batman.

If Barbara ever found out about them hooking up, she would immediately have war flashbacks to Batman: Prelude to the Wedding pt. 3. She has a great memory so unfortunately she probably has perfect recall of having to spend an entire evening listening to a pre-recorded monologue of Riddler philosophizing about why he’s not bitter that Batman and Catwoman are getting married and how he’s still straight even though he’s never felt lasting attraction to a woman. And then she would rightfully go apeshit.

29. Why do they fall a little bit more in love?

Thinking of how this question could possibly be answered from Bruce’s perspective made me laugh out loud, which is probably not a good sign given that I’m 4/5 of the way through writing a ship meme for him and Edward. But Riddler is just. So much in the New 52. Okay, I’m taking it seriously now. WHY DOES HE FALL MORE IN LOVE. Well, the fastest way to Bruce’s heart (other than being an attractive woman with dark hair, green eyes, and ambiguous morals) is to assist him in his crusade against crime. While that doesn’t initially seem like something Edward would do (as we see in Batgirl vs. Riddler, he seems to think the key to romance is “mixtapes”), he does go out of his way to give Bruce information about a Gotham-wide criminal conspiracy in Batman Eternal #39. He doesn’t appreciate that Batman’s current opponent is actively trying to wear him down — he wants to fight the Bat at his best, when he can think clearly. So he gives Bruce information he needs to solve the mystery.

Edward seems to also be under the impression that this would endear him to Batman, because he gives Batman a series of riddles that lead Bruce right to him so that they can talk in person. And then gets very surprised when Bruce subsequently arrests him. You’re still a criminal, Edward. This is like the first favor you’ve ever done him. Do it a dozen more times and then MAYBE you’ll start getting the free passes he’s been handing out to Harley and Ivy. But Bruce DOES save him from an avalanche after this, even though in the past Bruce has left him to die out of apathy (The War of Jokes and Riddles) or actively tried to kill him (also The War of Jokes and Riddles). So Edward IS winning him over, just very, very slowly.

Riddler pretty obviously just enjoys having someone to talk to that he feels is “on his level.” Even though he’s already arranged for Bruce Wayne’s assassination by the first time they meet in Batman #39, he obviously enjoys conversing with someone who can and will unravel his riddles and double meanings, to the point that afterwards he musingly wishes that they’d have an opportunity to talk again. Obviously they do, but it’s no thanks to Riddler. You can just NOT assassinate someone if you think they’re hot, Edward.

It’s what seemingly endears him to Batman too (at least, until Bruce ruins the mood by calling him an attention whore in front of all of Gotham). Though it’s basically always bad news for him, Edward clearly enjoys any time that Bruce or Batman exhibits his intelligence. 

[derireo]

A3! And What Sports They’d Play ↦ All Troupes

So.. I was talking to a friend about the sports we used to play in the past. I loved sports as a kid and thinking of Haikyu also pushed me to do this. All troupes are included, and individual characters gets their own sport and my take on how well I think they’d do in it!

Kind of went off on Autumn and Winter Troupe;; sorry.

Uh, E-Sports, of course. He gets absolutely winded from walking, so sitting down and competitively playing a game he loves is his dream. On particularly intense matches, he breaks a heavy sweat and needs a lot of water and snacks to keep himself focused and in the game.

He's a popular player and a great one as well! Sometimes he gets asked to host little bits of the tournaments he attends because he has such a big fanbase and he's awesome at entertainment despite his normally deadpan tone with jokes.

He has a lot of energy, so I think running in track or doing marathons would be good for him. Afterall, he's one of the first to run after Tsuzuru in the prologue of the game. He isn't the best nor is he the fastest runner, but his stamina is impressive and lets him outlast many of his competitors.

I also see him doing kayaking? Not competitively, but he definitely loves the thrill of crashing down small waterfalls and regaining his balance right after. The flow of the currents is exhilarating and he has a good sense of balance, so he'd rarely overturn in a kayak (which is absolutely dangerous by the way).

He wouldn't do any competitive sports, but skate/longboarding is something I can definitely see him doing. If he needs time to himself or just simply wants to chill, he'll go out and enjoy the breeze as he boards down the bike lane in the park or on the road, hands in pockets.

He becomes a bit of an attraction at skate parks though. He's always seen there on his board, headphones donned and hands in pockets like I said; effortlessly performing tricks that a lot of other skaters would struggle doing. People are very attracted to the sight, and he lures them in whenever someone finds out he's at the park that day.

He's already suffering so much and is always tired— I wouldn't put it past him to play shuffleboard. It's not a laborious sport, and he can play with anyone like his siblings or any elders who need the company. It's a slow paced sport and is great for sleepy Tsuzuru who needs a break from scrip writing. I don't know if there were any canon stories of him actually being involved in a sport at some point, but I think he'd be pretty okay at tennis or table tennis.

Tennis is a very intense sport so he didn't play it for long because practice cut into his studying, his part-time jobs, and his babysitting. Table tennis is similar to tennis with it's concept, except you can just kind of stand in one spot and don't have to run around as much. It's a fun game to play with his siblings since they enjoy it so much, and they always run after the ball so he doesn't have to do much other than play along with them and clean up when they're done.

I honestly have no idea with Citron. I don't remember any canon details of Zahra (I think that's where he's from?) so I don't want to assume what kind of environment he was in that would influence his choice of athletics, but I think he would enjoy swimming! In the beach event, he ran into the water happily with Kazunari if I can remember, and I'd like to think he had a good body type for water.

There's also another part of me that thinks he'd love skydiving! The thrill of jumping out of the helicopter and letting the winds beat against him as he soared down towards the ground below would be awesome. He's practically shouting for joy as he glides down and loves the look of the city from above. Impressively enough, he can do flips in the air and loves twirling around, much to the dismay of other skydivers as they fear for him.

He's not one for actively moving, but ballet seemed interesting to him and he wanted to try it out. He had no idea how intense ballet was, from strict teachers, to getting blisters on his ankles and feet, Yuki actually almost quit. What prevented him from doing so was probably watching a performance where his seniors were giving the juniors an extravagant scene to watch and they inspired Yuki to keep going.

I would have said acrobatics/gymnastics as well, but Yuki's arms aren't very strong and he doesn't like doing flashy things like that anyways (no offense...? I don't know, I haven't watched videos of this sport in years). If he did pursue acrobatics/gymnastics, I'm not sure if he'd be amazing at it, but he would definitely be decent! He's got the flare;;

Running! Since he was in track for a while and was rumoured to be great at it, he would definitely be doing marathons and track alongside Sakuya. He had great speed and a stamina to match so he's a terribly good opponent to go against if you like to get pushed past your limits. If he kept pursuing track he would train during late nights and early morning with Tasuku, who has his routine jogs at those times.

Absolutely adores the sport too! His team of runners were basically second family to him, so if he chose to return, he would have the time of his life growing as a sportsman with them. He would grow into a fine and very popular runner! Hitting his growth spurt would only make him an even more fearsome competitor as his legs would get longer and his intense training with Omi and Tasuku would get his stamina maxed out.

He has no time to do sports since he's always acting, so I honestly can't say what he'd do. He isn't the best runner either and extreme sports is out of the question since he's a bit of a scaredy cat. I guess he would enjoy a casual game of table tennis though? But despite liking the sport, I'm going to say that he kind of sucks at it. He understands the rules and everything, but his rhythm is off and he never manages to hit the ball back.

He's good at receiving a strike back though! He's always lucky at standing in the right spot with his paddle in the correct position to receive a smash hit, and that's basically the only time he wins a point because he catches his opponent off guard. It doesn't happen often though, so he still gets absolutely destroyed during a game of table tennis.

I believe Misumi would be amazing at track & field. He runs extremely fast for one, and he does parkour like no other; he would definitely place first in sports like long jump, high jump, pole vault, and sprints. He doesn't have a particular favourite event to do though, but always does his best when someone gives him an incentive to do his best.

Izumi and Omi offer him triangle onigiri? He's going to run as fast as he can! Jump as high as he can and as far as he can! No one will be able to stop Misumi. But then again, competitive parkour is a thing, I'm pretty sure, so he can just do that sport for fun and still place in the top 3 at least. He would be terrible awesome at Ultimate Frisbee, but the disc isn't a triangle, so. :p

Him? Sports? No.

I'm kidding. Do not know at all what sport he would enjoy playing, but billiards is something that suits him in my opinion. It doesn't have to be competitive, but he's greatly skilled at handling a cue stick, and his aim is impeccable. He's real lucky with trick-shots too, so don't go and start betting money with him; you'll definitely splurge all of your cash on him within seconds.

Sigh. It's super annoying that he's good at everything, and sports are no exception. He plays futsal with Omi and Tasuku the most, and is very light on his feet. He's so good that during competitive games he'll do a trickshot and score, or will play around with his check and do something like dribble the ball between their legs when they're at their most vulnerable.

I'm sure he would fall in love with ice hockey, though. Ice hockey is fast paced and is a contact sport so Banri would feel free on the ice rink. Good thing is that he's pretty good looking, so he's a fan favourite player. The cold air biting into his skin as he pushes himself across the rink to get to the puck is exciting and he loves body checking opponents into the walls (this also makes him a controversial player since he plays rough and dirty).

He'd be a monster at competitive martial arts. Taekwondo especially, considering his kicks come in hot and fast. His spinning kicks are ones to avoid if you go against him, but he's so quick on his feet and can kick higher than his head so you might get a quick KO if you can't read his body language fast enough. Judo is also high on the list despite it being more of a grappling and throwing sport, but Juza's quick reflexes make him a difficult opponent to beat. Normally wins a match using jiu-jitsu grappling techniques on the floor.

He would also be great at ice hockey. His large figure and quick feet would make him a great player, and his posture is always low to the ground so it wouldn't be easy to knock him over on the rink. Not exactly the best at dribbling the puck though, but give him a one-timer when he's open and he'll send that thing flying through the net. No one tries to pick fights with him on the rink though lol, he's notorious for one hit ko's.

Taichi gives off the chaotic vibes of Nishinoya from Haikyu, but he would suck at volleyball so I'm giving him badminton cause height doesn't matter too much I think as long as he's quick on his feet and is able to read the body language of his opponents well. His form would be perfect though and he's super agile so getting to that shuttlecock is no problem for him. He's got a bit of muscle too so he can send those babies flying!

Doesn't really use strategy most of the time, so he'll just keep hitting and receiving the shuttlecock however he wants until his opponent tires or until someone messed up a smash. No one else in Mankai plays badminton so finding him a coach is a bit difficult. He eventually learns other ways to hit the shuttlecock, so when he learns how to slice or do drop shots, he's a little monster on the court!

Oh, the sports he would play.. Obviously, he plays futsal with Tasuku unless you haven't seen his card where he's playing as goalkeeper! With that information, he would absolutely destroy volleyball teams as a middle. Now I don't know if calling middles 'middle blocker' and outside hitters 'wing spikers' is like.. a cultural thing, and I know that's what they call the players in Haikyu, but it definitely catches me off guard and really confused lol. So, yeah! Omi would be amazing as a middle in the front since he's so tall and can shuffle fast on his feet to block a front row opponent. He's like Tendou in a way where he's great at reading people, the only thing is that he's better than Tendou (no offense, I'm serious) because he doesn't need to guess. He already knows. UGH, I want to go off on volleyball (both indoor & outdoor), but this part is getting long. Lmk if you want to hear me talk more about A3! & volleyball.

American football/rugby. Don't tell me I'm wrong please, I'll cry. Both of these are a full contact sport, and looking at Omi's past and his physical structure, you can't tell me he would not obliterate everyone on the field. He is either the offensive guard or the tackle. He will not start offensive plays, but he will end defensive plays. He stops any player from tackling their centre and tackles those who try to hit a blindside. I don't know much about rugby other than it is just as rough as American Football, just with less protective gear. I'm stopping here because I'm thirsting too much for Omi rn.

HOO, baby! When I looked at Sakyo, I just knew he would be able to do something with swords, so I chose kendo/fencing. Keno is a traditional martial art stemming from Japan and is practised with wooden swords. I won't say I know much about the sport, but it is definitely tense and is very noisy. Noisy because kendokas/kenshis shout whenever they strike, this is to show their spirit. Sakyo kind of hates shouting during the sport, but it definitely lets off some steam and gives him more momentum when he strikes.

I also think fencing because there are swords involved here too, it's just that it seems to be more of a European sport and has some sort of specific footwork involved. The piste may seem a bit narrow as well compared to kendo where they have a whole floor to themselves, so Sakyo doesn't practice fencing as often. (The clothing he's required to wear for this sport is also quite stifling as well.)

I'm ngl, but I didn't know what sport to give Tsumugi, omg, so I ended up giving him cup stacking. You know, you remember; I feel like you should do some research if you don't though because cup stacking was a huge thing in the early 2000's (?) and kids were setting world records here and there non-stop. Tsumugi uses his hands a lot for things like gardening, tutoring, bouquet arranging, etc, so he's deft and talented with them.

As long as he puts his mind to it, cup stacking is a piece of cake for him. He doesn't play anymore, but every now and then he'll look at his old kit in the corner of his room and will set it up with Tasuku in the lounge room for everyone to have a go at it. He loves the thrill and the way his adrenaline runs through his veins as he focuses on trying not to mess up the stack down.

HOOOO! Okay, so we already know Tasuku plays futsal so I'm not going to bother, but man.. He would be the same as Omi in volleyball; an absolute monster of a middle player. He's well rounded in the sport, so his coaches/team actually refuse to switch him out with a libero/defence specialist. His digs are almost on point with the setter, and he's always at the right spot when receiving, making sure no one gets an empty spot on the court.

When he's in the front blocking or hitting, he's almost always successful, and since he trains a lot with different drills and regimes, he perfects a lot of things like tipping, tooling, slicing, and even setting. His height added along with his vertical makes it almost impossible for opponents to block him, and when he's feeling good in a game, he'll start doing things like float serves and jump serves. If he's feeling any better, he'll play around and start doing slide hits at the front or will hit from position A on the back court (left corner facing the net). He'd also do swimming!!!!!!!!! BUT THIS IS GETTING TOO LONG

Definitely would do archery/darts. He's got impeccable aim if you take evidence from his outside work chats with Banri and has no problem pulling the string on a bow. Archery is difficult and I am not lying. Pulling the string until it's taut takes a large amount of strength and it digs deep into your fingertips, leaving calluses after one or two pulls.

Figuring out the trajectory and weighing in the factors of weather (if you're outside) takes a lot of skill and practice, and Hisoka always manages to hit the centre of the target with no hesitancy with his release of the string. His hands are all rough from the string digging into his fingers all the time, showing you how long he's been practising the sport.

I don't think Homare was very athletic growing up. I'm saying this only because his body type is quite lean and he's a poet after all who seems to stay inside more often than not if he isn't meeting with an editor/publisher. I think figure skating would suit him very well as it is an elegant and cold weathered sport. I also think he would fall in love with the suits if Yuki made them as they'd sparkle brilliantly and show off his flare as a skater.

He figure skates as a casual hobby rather than competitive, but he definitely makes a lot of famous friends in the community due to his whimsical personality and beautiful posture.

Kyudo (Japanese archery) was a sport that popped into my mind for Azuma, despite the strain it puts on the skin of his fingertips. His skin is very delicate with how much he takes care of it, so he wears a glove on his dominant hand to protect him. Kyudo seems to be more of a peaceful archery, and with the sight of Azuma in the kyudo uniform, the scene in front of you would be quite serene and calming.

I also think he would be great at figure skating since his body is lithe and he has lovely facial features that would complement the body suits that Yuki would create for him. His long hair flowing in the breeze he creates as he glides throughout the rink would be gorgeous along with the way his body looks as he does an axle in the air. His performances on the rink are always mesmerising, and he'll receive a few claps from fellow rink goers when he's in the centre just casually practising.

[my-brothers-corrupted]

Chapter Four - Part 6

Anti finds out about the missing medication.

Tws for severe abuse/torture, bruising, blood, imprisonment, and hypnosis.

Part 6 - Grantaire

“Ro?” says Blue carefully, stepping slow so as not to disturb a potentially out-of-his-mind older brother. “You want to tell me what the hell you’re doing?”

Red laughs. “You sound like you’re wondering if I’ve lost it.”

“I might be.”

“Well, I might have,” replies Red cryptically, and then turns to grin at him. He puts the shovel into the ground beside him and smacks his gloved hands together to rid them of dirt, standing over the hole he’s made in the front lawn.

One of at least five you can see.

“Diggin’ traps!” says Red. “So if anybody tries to come to the house, they’ll break their dumb-ass ankles.”

Blue breathes out an amused snort, shaking his head at him. “Better than doing nothing, I guess.”

“You doing okay? Come sit with me and I’ll dig if you want.”

Blue wants to tell him he’s okay, but it’s not been true for a few days. “Yeah, I’ll sit with you. Need some sun.”

“You do,” agrees Ro, frowning over at his moon-pale twin with his foggy, tired eyes. “Yeah.”

pine-storm-season asked: Hello Red, and hello Blue! Has today been uneventful so far?

“Yeah, pretty quiet, which I am more than grateful for,” says Ro, brushing sweat off his forehead. There’s exercise equipment in the basement and the motivation to be strong and fit again is one of the small things that keeps him going. “I think Dapper’s the only one who’s not going a little nuts with the confinement, though. None of us have, like, things to do, really. Usually we help Dok with a clinic or Anti sends us out to do shit. But now we’re just stuck. I gotta get out of this houseeeeee.”

He draws the word out, stabbing into the earth with greater ferocity, but he keeps a warm smile on his mouth, because in all honesty things could be a lot worse. Blue looks at him, thinking. He doesn’t really know where his brother’s at in his head these days, really - he just knows that Red tries to pretend he’s not as sad as he is, and that his priority is always their safety, and that he hasn’t laid a cruel hand on anyone since the day Anti stole him away again.

“If you have any other ideas for how to keep people out, please let me know,” says Red. “I’ll do it. At this point I’m up for anything. I think Dapper’s sharpening spikes on the porch, but in all honesty, I didn’t even think to question the little nightmare.”

Anonymous asked: Where's trick now? Is he still with Anti?

You find Dok at the bottom of the stairs.

He doesn’t even look up at you, just nods.

—

“There are reasons I do the things I do, you know,” says Anti.

You only have to look once to see that he has Trick in a deep thrall. Trick is practically in his lap, letting Anti sew up a hole in his shirt, his arms around his brother’s neck.

“You slapped Dapper,” says Trick, unhappy despite the glaze over his eyes and the faint sway of his head. “Please don’t hit him. I think maybe you’re also… I need you to not do that.”

“Tricks, if there isn’t a little force, everybody falls out of line. There’s a lot of control issues in this family, a lot of personalities that clash and problems in their heads. If I didn’t use a little force here and there, everyone would fall apart, pet. Dapper would have to go to a mental hospital and Red would run off with that guy he barely remembers and Dok - well, you’ve saved him from himself enough times to know what Dok does if no one’s there to save him from himself.”

Trick shivers, shaking his head. “I don’t want Dok to get hurt.”

“Okay, so don’t be so scared when I have to shove everybody around a little or when you have to shove somebody around a little, for that matter. Weren’t you obedient for Red when he used a little force?”

“Yeah, always.”

“You’re Red now. So don’t be so chickenshit. You have to protect the others from themselves. You’re right. If Dok would just take off those necklaces, wouldn’t everything be so much easier?”

“So much easier.”

“Don’t let him get all weepy with you just cause you had to put him in his place. He’ll get used to it. Without it, he would run off or hurt himself. All of them would. And then you’d be alone, Trickshot. You’d be all alone in the world again. No one would care about you. Is that what you want?”

“No,” insists Trick, shaking his head harder. “No, no.”

“Okay, then,” purrs Anti, stroking his hair, his pretty green hair, curling at the front. “Then everything’s good, my darling, isn’t it?”

Trick smiles at him, touching his cheek. Anti closes his eyes at the feeling of his little brother’s fingers in his beard, tangled up with him.

“Everything’s good,” agrees Trick. “Everything’s perfect, Anti.”

Anonymous asked: Geez Anti, you really got him in the palm of your hand uh? That much hypnosis can't be good for trick in the long term

“Hmmm,” grumbles Anti, dissatisfied. He hates thinking about that. Right now, he just wants to know that one of them is his without a doubt, without hesitation. And he will keep this one close to his chest - no matter what it takes. “He’s okay.”

“I feel good,” chirrups Trick. “I feel okay.”

“Yeah, sweet boy. You’re okay.”

Anonymous asked: Hey, Dok. You doing alright, bud?

“Everything’s great,” he says.

And it’s probably meant to be sarcastic, but really he just looks tired. Dapper ducks his head into the entryway, finding his brother sitting alone on the stairs, as he has all morning, without moving.

Anonymous asked: Oh dok... I'm so sorry. It seems like Anti keep burrowing his hold deeper into trick. You're probably going to be alone for a bit

Dok buries his face in his hands.

Very tired. Very tired of this fight. Very ready to be gone. Maybe for good. Very ready for something to change. But it never does. It never does. It never -

A hand descends on his shoulder, enveloping it. He looks up, eyes wide.

“You’re not alone,” signs Dapper, sitting down beside him. “You are never alone.”

Anonymous asked: Is blue alright? ":(

“This is my fault. I should have been watching you. I should have known the sun would be too much for you. It’s like thirty degrees out here.”

Red helps Blue towards the house, clutching him to his chest. Blue wants to tell him his constant self-blame is hardly ever deserved, but he’s feeling - hell, he doesn’t know if unwell even begins to cover it anymore. He’s faint and nauseous and that feeling is back - like there’s something beneath his skin. Like there’s something inside the folds of his brain. Like he’s a stiff white puppet on taut, tight strings, choking.

He’s tough. He is. He always has been. He always tries to be.

Right now, he just wants his big brother to make everything stop hurting.

“Red,” he cries, slumping down against his bed. “I don’t want to be here anymore.”

Red paces around the room, stressed, wetting a washcloth in the bathroom next to the sink.

“I want to stop feeling bad, Red, please touch me, please put your hands on me, this isn’t my skin…”

Red recognizes the mantra with a sharp fear. He had hoped that night where Blue was clinging to him and begging for his hands on him would be the only one of its kind.

The realization that the damage Anti is causing could be lasting terrifies him.

“I’m here,” he says, putting a washcloth on his head and his hands on his sides, stroking him through his shirt. “I’m here and so are you. Blue. Azul. My twin. My brother. You’re the only one here with me.”

Anonymous asked: So when is trick going to be allowed back downstairs? Are you going to keep him with you for much longer, Anti?

“I just want to hang out a little,” says Anti, setting Trick down beside him as he finishes the hole in his shirt. “Play a game with me, Trick. Or play a game and I’ll watch. I like to hear you talking. Sometimes it’s quiet with just Dap and I up here. I like to hear you talking.”

Anonymous asked: hey, blue, love. it's just you. it's just you, buddy. how about you curl up with red and we can talk to you, and try to distract you. would you like that, blue?

“Fuck, I can’t think straight,” whispers Blue.

“But that’s not new,” whispers back Red.

There’s a moment of confusion from Blue - and then the most begrudging smile Red’s ever seen.

“Fuck you,” laughs Blue, touching his hair. “Goddamn. When I throw up all over you, it’s because of that.”

Red snuggles down next to him in bed. “That’s fair.”

“You can talk with us as long as you like,” says Blue.

His voice is weak and tired. Pressed against his ribs, Roser can feel just how thready his heartbeat is.

It’s a new kind of fear for him. In the past, the best way to survive has always been to outlast Anti’s temper tantrums, protecting his siblings as best he can as they happen and taking care of any injuries, trusting that Anti and Dapper would not let one of them die, no matter how cruel their master can be.

But ever since that night Blue wouldn’t let him let go of him, Red has begun to wonder -

Maybe this is a storm we cannot sail through.

Maybe we should go.

He loves Anti.

But not enough to let him do this to his heart.

Anonymous asked: hey, blue! birds or reptiles? (in other words, the cat-or-dog question but with animals you probably hadn't thought about before.) and what about you, red?

“Ah.” Blue laughs weakly. “Um, birds, yeah. For sure.”

“I want a snake,” says Red.

“Fuck’s sake.”

“I do.”

“You’d have to feed it little baby mice.”

“That’s nature! I am ready and willing! Or maybe a skink.”

Anonymous asked: hell yeah, bird gang! snakes are pretty cool though, too. my family has a bunch of really silly chickens, sometimes they'll do stuff like sleep outside in the rain,,, while literally sitting on the door to the henhouse,,,,, or steal all the plums from the plum trees we have. they're good birds though, although they are dumbasses sometimes. does noodle do dumb cat things like that, too?

“I don’t know, I think he does,” says Blue, shaking his head a little. “Um. He falls off the bed sometimes.”

“Let’s let Blue have a lie-down for a while,” sighs Red, sitting up beside him. “You’re looking so pale.”

“Really don’t feel well,” he murmurs. “Really don’t.”

Red looks down at him, his hand across his white face, his eyes closed.

“Okay,” he says, beneath his breath. “We’ll go to the hospital tomorrow, then. And if Dark catches me… then Dark catches me.”

Anonymous asked: Yeah, we're here, Dok. We're with you, bud. We're supporting you however we can.

“Thank you,” sighs Dok. “You, at least, never seem to fall for his tricks. I’m grateful.”

Red steps into the hallway, a slightly dazed look in his eyes.

“Red?” asks Dapper, cocking his head at him. “Everything okay?”

Red blinks and then nods. Dapper doesn’t need to know. It’s safer if he doesn’t. “Yes, buddy, no worries.”

He’ll pack. He needs til tomorrow to try and steal the IDs out of Anti’s room - assuming he’s made new ones since the fire. He’ll get snacks and ready a lie.

He’ll get his twin help. No more waiting around. He is big brother, and he makes his own decisions.

Anonymous asked: do you want to try to sleep a bit, blue? that might help.

Blue does end up sleeping. He sleeps deep and hard, and Red is grateful. He hopes Blue is getting used to being himself at night again. He is still sleeping while Red gets his backpack and begins to shove things inside.

He puts brownies and apples and granola into their own little ziploc bags, and damn, isn’t that a privilege in its own right after all this time? He never thought he’d feel rich holding ziploc bags. A couple changes of clothes for both of them follow their snacks in, as well as what little money he has - Colombian pesos, already near worthless in their own country, now worth even less wherever he is now. He gets a camera and a charger and tucks it away just in case. Their toothbrushes. A comb. Deodorant. A blanket. Bag’s full.

“What else, what else?” he mumbles. “Can you think of anything? I’ll need to get the IDs out of Anti’s room if he’s made more. Most of the time, I’d try to go without them, but my fear is - ”

He gives a deep, mournful sigh, brushing his hair out of his eyes.

“My fear is we might be in America.”

“Dun dun dun,” mumbles a sleepy Blue from his bed, and Red barks out a laugh.

“Go back to bed, dumbass. I got this handled.”

“I just let you do your own thing.” Blue turns back over and goes back to sleep.

Anonymous asked: what's your plan here, red? that might help with figuring out anything you've missed.

“I just - I’ll just get him to the hospital. I know where the road is, I think I remember. I can carry him if he’s tired. I’ll carry him the whole way if I have to, but I’m hoping we can hitchhike. We’ll get to a hospital. Sneak him out if I gotta cause we don’t have insurance. And if Anti comes to get us, at least he’ll have gotten a little help by the time he - ”

There’s a crash from upstairs and a short scream.

Red stiffens and stills, listening.

Anonymous asked: bringing him into the forest? do you think that is a safer option than waiting another few days?

Red sighs, running his fingers through his hair. “I… I don’t know. Maybe I’m being hasty. I - ”

Trick rushes past the door. Red looks up, startled. “Bud? What’s going on?”

“Where’s Dok?”

“Downstairs, I think. Hey, wait! What’s happening?”

“Dude,” says Trick, shaking his head. “Man, I’d hide.”

He tears down the basement stairs.

Red looks up.

Anti’s staring down from the banister upstairs, holding a half-empty bottle of small, white, anti-psychotics.

Anonymous asked: what is it, anti?

“Oh, nothing much, nothing much, nothing much,” says Anti, voice completely unglitching. “Not that much at all.”

Red backs up and returns to his room, standing in front of Blue as he sleeps. Anti stalks down the stairs step at a time, step at a time, step at a time. He puts his lips together and whistles a pretty old song you’ve heard Dap whistling a time or two - daisy, daisy, give me your answer, do…

“Where’s my little boy at?” he says, but the whistling keeps going even as his mouth moves, echoing around the walls of the house. “Where’s my dapper darling? That was silly of you, Monochroma. That was silly. Thinking you could steal from big brother.”

Anonymous asked: dapper did nothing, anti. he did not steal from you.

“Mm-hm, mm-hm, mm-hm,” nods Anti. “Definitely. Definitely. There you are, sugar.”

Dapper looks up from the piece of sourdough bread he’s eating, covered in golden butter. He’s sitting on the kitchen counter in Dok’s shorts and one of Blue’s t-shirts, his hair curling up from his eyes, his black eyelashes shining in the morning light. He sees the look on Anti’s face and sets his bread carefully down beside him, sitting up straight on the kitchen counter.

Anti steps forward and pulls him down by the collar until they’re nose to nose. He grins coldly at his pet, stroking the soft curls on the back of Dapper’s neck.

He leans in and puts his mouth against Dapper’s ear.

“I’m going to ask you this once,” he whispers, voice jovial and easy-going. “And you’re going to tell me. Or you won’t like the consequences very much at all. Where’s your Haldol, little mister? Huh?”

Dapper does not swallow or shake. He stares dead ahead, silent, unmoving. Trying to find a way to answer.

Anonymous asked: ??? Anti are you not HOLDING his haldol right now? What are you talking about?

“Don’t play dumb,” growls Anti, the faux pleasantry wearing off a little. “I know there was more. I have footage.”

Your screens all flash and you can see him the morning before Red stole it, sitting in his bedroom, sulking and rolling the Haldol around in his hands. “There was more of it. You disobeyed me directly. That wasn’t very clever.”

Dapper stares at him, pursing his mouth.

pine-storm-season asked: Is it not with you, anti? If it's not, i don't think Dapper knows where it is.

“No,” signs Dapper, shaking his head. “Okay, I give up. I’m sorry. I stole it.”

“So where is it?”

Dapper is stuck again, letting out a low, trembling breath.

“Unless someone else stole it for you?”

pine-storm-season asked: Red, where's Dapper's medicine? Anti's questioning him.

“Fuck fuck fuck,” whispers Red, pacing for a second before he darts out into the hall and stands in front of the kitchen, trying to get a look. Anti turns and looks right at him. He’s pressing Dapper into the back of the wall behind the counter, his hands gripping too tight at their little brother’s knees. Red feels a wave of revulsion for him and can’t even put a finger on why.

pine-storm-season asked: Anti, can you let Dapper go? I'm sure he gets the point.

“He’ll get the fucking point if he doesn’t start talking,” snarls Anti, slamming Dapper back against the wall.

There is a weak clattering as eleven more Haldol pills fall onto the table. Dapper and Anti turn to look at Red, holding out his hand.

“It was me,” he says. “Dapper didn’t have anything to do with it. Punish me, Anti, not him. He didn’t even know. He didn’t know where I hid them or that I was going to steal them. Leave him alone.”

Anti steps back from Dapper, letting him go. He stands in the middle of the kitchen, staring down at the little white pills. He pauses and turns to the sink, spitting out blood. It tastes like betrayal in his mouth. Like weakness in his mouth. He straightens up again, eyes gleaming, and Red feels a chill up his body.

“First I’m going to torture you,” he says, pointing at Red. “And then I’m going to string your little brother up to show you what happens when you work against me.”

“No! Anti, he wasn’t a part of - ”

Anti slams into Red and grabs him by the head, tearing out strands of his hair.

pine-storm-season asked: Dapper was not involved, Anti. Dapper didn't even know it was happening until it already had.

“He should have goddamn told me,” yells Anti. “He would have known the second that Red gave it to him what had happened! He thinks he can pretend he’s always so fucking innocent! He’s sneaky, I know that, you think I don’t know that? You think I don’t know, you little brat? You get it from me!”

Dapper is on Anti’s shoulder, trying to yank him off his older brother. Anti slams his elbow into his face and throws him back, dragging Red towards the stairs.

“Ro!” croaks Blue from his bedroom door. “Anti, don’t!”

“You want to be involved, you little witch? I’ll use you for goddamn kindling. Come here, Blue, I need a body.”

Blue’s eyes widen in alarm and he rushes towards the basement.

“You can’t get away from me! You all belong to me! You’ll do what I fucking say! Little traitors, little rats! You think you can outsmart me, think you can beat me down to the earth again? I’ll strip you into leather! Think Jack made you all stronger than me? Clever? More sly? I’ll rip you apart!”

bupine asked: trick? where are you? anti's upset, your brothers are in trouble. i suspect you can calm him down.

Trick is in the guest bedroom, him and Dok playing with pieces of string for Noodle to chase. He knows his brother hasn’t heard the commotion upstairs, because he looks happy and calm, laughing when Noodle leaps after his piece of string. Trick gets up and goes to the door. He hears the dull thud of someone striking the floor and steps back, looking at Dok.

“Haha, he gets so frustrated, look at his face!”

Dok is smiling, wide and calm. He hugged him when he came back downstairs and won’t stop holding his hand. He’s here. He’s okay.

His twin is okay. Sometimes the others need a little force.

“Haha,” repeats Trick flimsily. “Ah, yeah. Yeah. He’s cute.”

He shuts the door behind him and goes back to sitting with Dok.

cest-mellow asked: trick you NEED to go upstairs. anti is going to possess blue again and he’s gonna torture red. is that the force you think they deserve? all for getting dapper his medicine he NEEDS? should they be punished for taking care of one another? is this the force you agree with??

“There’s nothing I can do,” whispers Trick, pushing you away.

Anonymous asked: Trick, the scar on your hand, the sting in your cheek, he slapped Dapper right in front of you. He's not "using a little force". He's hurting them because he's angry and violent and he wants to see them in pain and no other reason! He's done the same to you and your twin for years.

Trick rubs anxiously at the burn on his hand, using his other hand to rub at Dok’s shoulder. They’re so used to casually touching each other it doesn’t even make his twin look up.

Yes. Anti has hurt him and his twin for years. But not today. Today, he is the favorite, and he can keep his zwilling safe.

Anonymous asked: Trick I need you to understand that whatever anti told you, this isn't "force" or"punishment" he explicitly used the word "TORTURE"

Trick’s face seems to break. He grits his teeth hard, shaking his head and curling in on himself.

“Hey,” murmurs Dok, looking over. “Hey, what’s wrong?”

Trick doesn’t answer. Dok glances over at you, seeing the camera flash, and takes it carefully into his hands. Within moments, he is on his feet, headed to the door.

“No, no,” cries Trick. “Stay down here, Dok.”

“What’s going on?” Dok’s voice is afraid.

pine-storm-season asked: Trick, Anti's mad because Red got Dapper his medicine, and I think he might go after Blue, who did nothing. At least calm him down so he won't hurt Blue too, okay? Blue did nothing to deserve that, even if you believe the others did.

“Shit,” hisses Dok, tearing open the door.

Trick is there, grabbing him, a second later.

Dok stares down at the hand wrapped around his bruised wrist, his heart thudding hard in his chest. Slowly, he turns to his twin. Trick’s eyes are blue flames.

“My love,” says Henrik. “It is time you start making choices about the man you are becoming.”

“Don’t go,” says Trick. “This isn’t about morality. This isn’t about me. He will hurt you again.”

Something inside Henrik’s chest breaks clean open.

“Again?”

Trick turns his eyes away.

“You knew. Or guessed, anyway. You suspected.”

Trick cannot look him in the eyes. Something in Henrik’s chest is oozing hurt. Crimson as the sun when the trees are burning.

Anonymous asked: Trick, I know how much Dok means to you. Trust me, I know how much this kills you. You just want to do what you can to keep your twin safe. But everyone else, they're your brothers, too. Red sat with you at night, y'all talked about serious stuff and silly stuff like the dorks you are. Blue sat with you after YOU attacked Dok. They don't want you to be hurt. They would try to keep Anti away if he ever wanted to "punish" you, or worse. Brothers shouldn't hurt each other, Trick. I think you can believe that if you really try. Brothers shouldn't hurt each other. And you can help.

“I don’t - I don’t want…”

Dok can’t tell if he’s stammering or just trying to find the words. Trick is looking at him. Trick’s hand rises slowly and his fingers touch Dok’s throat, wrapping loosely around, but just like the other night, Dok doesn’t protest or fight. Trick pushes him back just a little and Dok goes, hitting the wall.

“I don’t… want to be something that hurts you. Or any of them. I don’t… think brothers hurt each other?”

Henrik doesn’t know why he sounds confused, but he sees the truth still alive in his brother.

“Let me go, Chase,” he says. “Please.”

cest-mellow asked: trick, loving your brothers doesnt just mean cooked sausage and cakes and holding them in their sleep. it doesn’t just mean getting them water when their hands have been mangled and it doesn’t just mean calming them down. you have to protect them and defend them from what’s hurting them. and what’s hurting them is anti. he told red “i am going to torture you, and then string your little brother up.” protect. your brothers.

“But that - that - that’s what I want it to mean, Deutsch,” Trick says. “That’s what I want it to mean cause then nothing would ever have to change.”

“Was that happiness, Trick?” asks Dok, shaking his head. “Was that all you hoped for?”

“You besides me while I sleep? Your hands against my shoulders while I keep guard over us? You eating sausage and playing with our cat? Yes, that’s all that I hope for. That’s everything I hope for.”

Dok’s face contorts with tears, but still he smiles.

“I want better for you - for all of us - than having to live in fear all the time. I want you to want for more than my companionship. I want you to hope for things, to live for people other than me. I want you to know you’re not so worthless that you have to chase the love of someone who hurts you all the time.”

Trick shakes his head hard, tears running down his face. “He does love me.”

“I want you to find your babies again, if you can.”

“No, don’t talk about them!” cries Trick, letting go of Dok’s neck and falling back. “Stop it, Dok! My head hurts!”

���I think you do want for greater things, desperately so. I think you just pretend because you’re scared of things not staying the same. But Trick, no matter what happens, I’m here and I love you.”

“No, you’re wrong!” shouts Trick. “You’re wrong! There isn’t anything more than this for me! If you leave, if you all go, if Anti lets you escape - I’ll be alone! Don’t go! I just want you to stay. I just want everyone to stay. Stop talking about things beyond this. There’s nothing beyond this.”

“Then here we are,” says Dok, his voice raw. “But one way or another, whether or not things are changing, Blue and Red and Dapper are upstairs, about to get hurt, and it would be wrong of us not to try and help them. I’m going upstairs. Are you coming with me?”

bupine asked: trick, this is really serious. red, blue and dapper are in danger and you're anti's current favourite, so you could maybe try to help. please, trick. i know you're having fun and i'm sorry to have to intrude, but they're going to be really badly hurt. red especially. he took medicine for dapper to prevent him from going into a psychotic episode and anti's very, very angry. is there anything you can do?

“Does Dapper deserve to be without his medication? Can you call that right? Acceptable, appropriate? Do you think Red deserves to be hurt than for no other reason than that he tried to keep his youngest brother healthy?”

Trick turns away from him, shaking his head, rubbing at his temples.

Dok turns his eyes away and steps through the door.

Trick’s hand is on his wrist again, stopping him.

Anonymous asked: Henrik, stay here please. It's safer for Trick to go, yeah? Trick will help them.

“I’ll go,” says Trick. “If you stay.”

Dok’s tongue flicks out to wet his tongue. “You promise me you will try to help?”

“I promise,” says Trick. “On my life.”

He touches his hand to Dok’s chest, above his beating heart.

“On my life.”

Anonymous asked: trick, i'm worried. i know you want dok safe and protected, but you deserve to be protected too. you deserve to not hurt. and i'm worried anti will hurt you, either physically because he doesn't want you to try to help or by hynotizing you again, really badly. he's already the reason it's so hard to keep your thoughts sometimes, and to imagine better things for yourself. if you and dok are together, you can have each other's backs. your safety is not less important than dok's.

“Well, theirs isn’t worth less than mine either,” says Trick, heading up the stairs. “So if I can share the pain with them a little, or at least make it less, I will try. Or we just all get hurt. But sometimes you die with your friends instead of running away, yeah? Let Dok be Marius and I’ll be that loyal drunk-ass Grantaire. Cause you know, Grantaire didn’t ever give a damn about the revolution, not really. He just loved his friends that much. Deutsch loves that book, you know. He loves a lot of books. Nerd. I had to make him stop reading Hamlet so much, once… he would whisper the lines to Horatio when he thought I was sleeping. Had them memorized. Had the whole thing memorized. Horatio, I am killed… ah, let Dok be Horatio for a hot minute, and the rest of us all go down in pointless sword fights. But not pointless, either. Not pointless. Or that’s what Dok said.”

cest-mellow asked: thank you trick. but. please hurry.

Upstairs, Anti is already wearing Blue’s body, and any fatigue he had seems to have fallen away - to be remembered, of course, next morning, with interest added. He has Red in the bathroom upstairs, the rosey one that stinks of lotions and bathbombs, holding him over the tub to let the blood fill it up, the tub stoppered and filling with dark lines of venomously dark crimson, the lot of Dapper’s white pills scattered along the porcelain floor. Red bleeds from a deep cut in his throat, his eyes closed, his face silent. He has always survived like this - sitting as quiet as he can, not protesting, waiting for Anti’s rage to blow over. It’s the closest thing to safety he can have right now. He knows that through long years of experience.

In his head, he’s far away. Dermot Kennedy is playing. Max’s hands are at his waist. There’s still the pain, and the sticky sensations of blood and skin against his own, but they’re more bearable with the image of Max in front of him, smiling at him, swaying. He leans close and whispers something Red can’t hear. Ro tastes Starbursts.

“You think you’re better than me?” shrieks Anti, scratching Blue’s white nails down the cut in Red’s throat. “Cause he made you so perfect? You think you can disobey me? I’m the one in control now, Jackie! I’m the one who won! You’re nothing! Look at you! Pathetic! Lying there as I bleed you. I’ll teach you to try and undermine me, to try and hurt me. You’re never pulling that hero shit again. Fucking traitor. You belong to me, not him! You’re never making me mortal again!”

Dapper is slumped against the bathroom floor, unmoving, his eyes closed, a yellow bruise appearing on the whole left side of his face.

Anonymous asked: Okay. Thank you, Trick. We'll be with you, bud.

Warm arms wrap around Anti’s shoulders, pinning his arms to his chest for a second. He whirls, snarling - and Trick’s eyes, unhappy and scared, look back at him.

Jack’s eyes.

“You gotta stop, man,” says Trick, and that’s all. “You gotta stop, like, yesterday.”

Anonymous asked: Anti stop it. Dapper had nothing to do with it first of all. Second, what good is possibly going to come from torturing your two strongest when you're playing games with Dark? You're just handicapping yourself by injuring Dap or Red. Plus, it'll drive them away, make it easier for Dark to worm their way in because they have a hatred for you already.

Anti grinds his teeth so hard you do, in fact, see one fall apart. He regrows it as a fang, a deep growl thriving in his chest.

“You shut the fuck up,” he hisses. “And you get off me. Right now, Trick.”

Trick shivers, but doesn’t let go. He hides his face between Anti’s shoulder-blades, whimpering.

Anonymous asked: Anti, please leave Red be. I know you want him to suffer, and to punish him for what he did, but this could easily kill him. At least, if you will not stop, do something else to hurt him? This is going to seriously damage him, and I don't know how long it's already been happening.

“I - I wouldn’t kill him,” protests Anti in a snarl.

“You can be a little out of control sometimes,” mumbles Trick against his back. “You could.”

“Well, if I did…” Anti trails off, looking down at Dap, unconscious at his feet. No turning back til he wakes up.

Anonymous asked: please, anti?

“Please,” snarls Anti. “Please, they say. As if that… as if… please, they say. Huh.”

But his voice is getting weak and he knows it, so he shuts himself up. For a moment, there’s just Anti with his eyes closed, and Trick rubbing his hands into the muscles of his back, just like Dok always did for him. Anti leans back slightly, his head faltering onto Trick’s shoulder.

“You did used to just say that, when I was scaring you,” he says. “Like you had nothing else to say.”

Trick doesn’t know what he means. He just stands there, massaging his back. He lets one of his hands intertwine with Anti’s hair, hoping to keep him in place.

Anonymous asked: Blood loss is a dangerous thing, Anti. Red might end up struggling somewhat to survive, and he's one of your strongest. I know you wouldn't purposefully kill him, but you might not catch yourself until too late.

“You have to be careful,” agrees Trick quietly. “I don’t think this is what you meant by force.”

Anti stares down at his hands for a second, riddled in blood. He has cut throats too deeply before in the past. And he wasn’t able to amend for that.

He just wanted to feel that Red was as weak as he sometimes feels. Being weaker than Red is not an option. Not again. Never again.

But at least he has his little brother under his heel. Anti rubs distractedly at Trick’s waist, panting harshly in the cold emptiness of the bathroom.

Anonymous asked: Come on, Anti. Let's let Dok bandage Red up now, and he'll most likely survive, okay? Red has suffered enough for what he did. You beat him, yeah? Let Dok help him now.

“No, no,” growls Anti, shaking out his head, stepping away from Trick a little. “No. You don’t have any control over me. Any. You or you.”

He turns and gives Trick a dark look. His little brother makes his posture small and re-buries himself in Anti’s back, hugging him around his waist. Anti fumes, torn. Now that he’s stopped he’s a little worried that Dapper hasn’t woken up. Did he drop him that hard?

No! He shakes it off again, snarling and biting his teeth at nothing at all, because he sees threats everywhere and always, and any amount of control shared is weakness to him.

“I’ll get chain. Stay here.”

“No, please, Anti, please. Let Dok see them. And let Blue go, please.”

“Trick,” he warns, voice low and dangerous.

Anonymous asked: No one is trying to control you right now, Anti. We're scared, we're the weak ones begging at you to just not kill them. To just not hinder your assets like this. No one is trying to control you, we are literally simpering and grovelling.

Anti stares at you for a second.

Then he laughs, shaking his head, and suddenly he just looks bewildered and tired and maybe a little younger than he did a moment ago.

“I don’t… get it?” he laughs. “I don’t… I… you never stop trying to help? Fuck’s sake, I had thought you would all fall off, one by one, as you realized you couldn’t do anything. But fuck, you’ll do anything for them. What the hell? It was going to be my last little defeat over you. Not just that you lost them, not just that Jack’s story stopped. You walking away from it - giving up on them - moving on? That would have been the sweetest victory. But you never do quite go. I don’t get it…”

He drops his knife on the ground, shaking his head.

Dapper and Red said that maybe, with the timeline broken, only the people who really loved them could still remember who they are.

What does that make you?

Anonymous asked: Anti, we're asking you because you have all the control here. We don't. We're asking to let Red be helped, because we're very worried about him, but we can't do anything if you say no. I just think that Red might die if you don't let him be helped.

“But I can’t just let them go, no way,” says Anti, shaking his head and sighing. “They still gotta learn their lessons - and you pansies never like to let them sit with a little well-deserved pain. I’ll go get chain and I’ll look after them myself. Trick, don’t go anywhere. You can be a little shit too, don’t think I’ve forgotten.”

Anti paces off, running a shaky hand through his wild green hair.

Trick falls to his knees at his big brother’s side, taking Red’s face between his hands and trying to lift him up without hurting him worse. The wound bleeds heavy, but it isn’t as deep as it could be. Trick feels carefully around the cut and knows that it won’t be fatal. Dok taught him how to check. How to look after them.

“Oh, Ro, fuck, it must hurt like crazy. Are you okay? Are you with me?”

Red smiles faintly, eyes still closed. Max is kissing the side of his hair.

“I’m with you,” he whispers.

pine-storm-season asked: Anti, can you at least let Dok or someone bandage the cut on his throat? It'll still hurt just as bad, but it'll stop bleeding.

Trick tears his shirt apart without hesitation, tying the closest approximation to bandages he has without leaving this bathroom.

“Won’t be perfect, but it might slow it down a little,” he soothes.

“Ohh, no, Trick, please, I’d rather have the pain than a tight collar. I hate things rubbing against me that tight.”

Trick winces. “You might not like what Anti’s got planned for you, buddy.”

“Just check on Dap, I can take the rest…”

pine-storm-season asked: Red, hang on, buddy. You'll be okay, yeah? You'll be okay. Can we help you with anything, Red?

“I’m good, I’m good, I’m bleeding, what else do you want from me?”

Anonymous asked: ohh, man, well done trick. scary as shit. i'm glad you're okay. itll mean a lot to them that you're there and watching over them how you can, thank you.

“I don’t know that I did much at all,” says Trick. “But I think things could have been a lot worse.”

Anonymous asked: Have you noticed some of us haven't given up on /you/ either, Anti? We always mediate and try to calm you when you rage because some of us haven't given up on you either. Always searching for good somewhere in that sewage pit heart heh.

“Awww! So stupid of you!” He shape-shifts his pupils into sweet black hearts and then rolls his eyes.

pine-storm-season asked: We just want to help. Is there anything Trick can do to fix the makeshift bandages on your throat, Red?

“He, um. He put them on me! They are there and slowing down the blood loss. But if you have any ideas - ” He coughs as his voice breaks. “I am open to them. Fuck, I think I better sign.”

pine-storm-season asked: When Anti comes back, we can try to convince him to let someone bandage your throat properly. And we can talk to you unless Anti takes the cameras. Does that sound alright, Red?

“Okay, buddy,” he signs, giving you a fragile grin.

Anonymous asked: i guess just take deep breaths for now, red, buddy. keep moving that oxygen around. try not to move a lot, and focus on keeping calm. uhhh as much as you can. because, granted, shit's fucked atm

“In my family, when is shit unfucked?”

“Lie still,” begs Trick. “Come on, man.”

But the reality of what happened is beginning to hit Red. He leans back against the tub, eyes welling, and sighs as he tries to stay calm.

Anonymous asked: Feckin A+ with the heart-eyes-motherfucker move, mr. sewage pit. 10/10.

“Thanks,” answers Anti testily, taking thin chain from the drawer beside his bed.

Anonymous asked: things definitely wouldve gone way worse if you hadn't come, tricksy. you came up here to help, that's so huge. and you helped calm anti down a little, kept his focus away from them for a bit. you did a lot, trick. i'm sorry the burden was put on your shoulders but you handled it as well as you could, and i'm really really happy you didnt get hurt

“Thank you,” he says quietly. “I should have… I should have come sooner, but…”

He turns away from you, shaking his head. Not ready to talk about it.

cest-mellow asked: dapper? are you awake too?

“No, he’s out,” mumbles Trick, touching his little brother’s neck for a pulse. “Oh, tell me he didn’t…”

Turning Dapper onto his side does not make things look better. He kicked him, curled up there against the floor, until Dapper could barely breathe, and then slammed him down against the ground. Dapper is bruised black and blue, his whole body looking small and fragile, and the gash in his wrist has come open and bleeds slowly against the floor. Trick pulls his little brother to his body, hot shame washing over him. He should have come up sooner. He wasn’t going to come at all. He could have killed him. What does Anti know about ribs piercing lungs and head trauma? He reaches down to begin re-wrapping Dapper’s wrist, but then Anti is back, silver in his hands.

Anonymous asked: All this screaming about traitors and sneaks sure does make you seem... weak, honestly. Like you don't even trust that your own strings are still wrapped tight. Like come on Anti, this is the smallest ""betrayal"" that I could possibly imagine and you're having a temper-tantrum. It's okay man, chill down just a bit.

Anti’s face draws back in a snarl - an expression that is fast becoming his norm. His nails dig into his palms as he glares at you, drawing his own blood.

Anonymous asked: Heads up for a bit of maybe-too-soon humor, Red, but last time I gave blood, I got to eat starbursts after to keep my blood sugar good! So, once you all get out of this, I'll owe you some starbursts. You can eat all the pink and red ones but I demand the orange. And Max gets stuck with the yellow ones 'cause he didn't get his throat slit and he can deal with it. Very exclusive club of blood-losers-getting-yummy-candy.

“Oh, fuck yeah,” Red whispers before Anti kicks the camera away from him, scowling. You sit across the room, spun around to look back at the tub where Red is lying, coughing.

Anonymous asked: Anti, dude, are you literally so paranoid and overdramatic that Red just getting some pills for him counts as "working against you" in your brain? Calm down, man, you're making yourself look weak.

“I’ll show you goddamn ‘weak,’” hisses Anti, grabbing Red by the hair and dragging him up, to his feet, shoving him down in the tub.

“Anti!” begs Trick, but his brother ignores him. He wraps the chain tight, tight, tight around Red shoulders and legs and shoves the other side against the metal of the tub faucet, using Blue’s fire to melt the two together, chaining Red securely to the tub. Red is crying by now despite a firm, defiant smile on his mouth, his eyes squeezed tightly shut. Anti huffs out a bitter laugh and shoves his head before turning to get Dapper too.

“Don’t chain him in there, come on.”

Anti shoves Dapper’s body against Red and ties him into the chains. For a moment, Dapper, disturbed by the movement, awakens and looks dazedly up at his brother, wondering if this is real - he’s never been tied up with anything more than a little rope for as long as he can remember, and Anti hasn’t done much more than slap him around a little or, once, toss him down the stairs since his snap. Usually he’s too scared to do anything more than that. Dapper feels a thrill of alarm. Anti’s fear of Dapper snapping has finally been out-weighed by his fear of losing control over him.

“What?” bites Anti, slapping him. Dapper jolts and shivers, sinking down against Red’s body, letting himself fade away again inside the belly of the bathtub.

scunneredzombie asked: Anti, please be careful with the chains on Dapper... He could potentially have cracked ribs that could puncture his lungs with any excess pressure and kill him, and with that level of head trauma something could be seriously wrong. All I ask is that you let him see dok soon as you feel... okay with that. He could die from this, and there would be no way to fix it.

“It’s just around his neck,” sneers Anti, as if that makes things any better. He rises to his feet and beckons to Trick.

“You. Come with me.”

“Anti, I…”

“I said. Come with me. NOW, Trick.”

Trick hastens to his feet and, trembling, follows after him, casting one last look on his tired brothers, who have fallen quietly together, Dapper unconscious, Red weeping in silence, in pain.

Anonymous asked: yeah, i know, red. we can distract you, if you'd like. do you want us to do that, or to just leave you with trick?

“I… I think,” says Ro, his voice whimpering. “Um. I think I’m just going to take a nap, if that’s okay. I don’t want to be awake right now.”

aether-mae asked: Red buddy, it’s best you do that with all the brothers (minus anti) for the best results. They all need it

Best you run with all his brothers, you mean.

Not just Blue. Not just a short trip to the hospital.

Take all your brothers and run.

Ro turns his head, his breathing struggling with quiet sobs no matter how quickly he tries to bite them down.

“I was just going to take Blue away for a few days,” he cries. “And then maybe come back, if he was okay. Or find a way to get him out of here and then come back myself, to keep looking after the others. The best way to protect them has always been to weather the storm, to weather as much of it for them as I can. Always. Always.”

He turns his head as best he can, coughing on his weak throat, and if he twists his body, he can see: bruises, black and yellow, bruises and blood from the open wrist of his little brother. Tears pour down his cheeks. He rocks himself carefully in the tub, trying not to cry out aloud. Pain and fear. Pain and fear.

That’s his brother.

That’s his lonely, brave, funny, disabled, beautiful, courageous, kind, deadly, perfect baby brother.

And Anti beat him til his whole body was one big bruise.

Jackie opens his mouth and lets himself cry loud and ferocious, tears making his face hot, sobs ripping from his ripped throat. His whole chest shakes with it. He cries so hard it hurts.

“JJ, I’m going to get you out of here,” swears Jackie, pressing their heads together. “My little brother, I promise. We’re all getting the fuck out of here, and we are never coming back.”

Anonymous asked: If you torture or hurt Trick (or Dok for that matter) for doing quite literally nothing but stopping you from killing your two strongest, then I hereby proclaim you have officially lost your gourds. You've won already tonight, Anti. You've won, and they are all hurting and weak. Let it rest.

“No, no, no,” purrs Anti, drawing Trick carefully into his bedroom and putting a hand on the back of his neck, stroking gently at his hair. “No, you stopped me before I did something stupid. That was probably good, huh?”

Relief washes over Trick. He nods eagerly, touching Anti’s arm. “Yeah, I just didn’t want you to hurt anybody!”

“Innocent enough for now,” says Anti, a little bit of a growl in his voice making Trick grovel politely a little, smiling sweetly up at Anti, like a kid embarrassed but also proud to have been caught doing something both clever and against the rules. “But let’s not pretend that you didn’t let the cameras and Dok talk you into this.”

Trick’s faux innocence - a trait he is learning much as Dapper once learned it - falls swiftly away, leaving him nervous and small. “Sorry, Anti.”

“It’s okay,” sighs Anti, stroking his hair. “It’s okay. But I can’t just let this… rift in you continue. You belong to me. Not to Dok. Not to them. To me.”

Trick nods quickly, pursing his mouth and stroking his fingers along the bend of Anti’s elbow. “Okay, master, yes. I’m sorry.”

“No worries, darling. I just want you to do something for me that’s going to be good for everyone involved, alright?”

“Oh?”

Anti smiles, humming. He leans forward, knocking their foreheads together, and looks Trick dead in the eyes.

“Get those necklaces off your twin in the next three days,” says Anti, sugar-sweet, his eyes drizzling to black. “Or I will murder him in his sleep and leave his corpse in the bed beside you.”

Trick freezes solid, eyes blown wide. He looks into Anti’s eyes and finds no lies.

Not this time.

“Okay, pumpkin?” chirps Anti, pulling back. “How’s that sound?”

Trick opens his mouth to protest - and then the power of Anti’s eyes drowns him, and he hears himself giggle without any reason to laugh, and feels himself lean eagerly forward, hugging Anti earnestly to his heart, his arms wrapping deliriously around him.

“There you go,” sighs Anti, sinking back onto the bed and bringing Trick with him, holding his warm body to his chest. “There’s my Jack.”

Anonymous asked: That's okay, Red, love. You sleep. We'll do our best to keep you safe.

And Red sleeps.

Pressed to his little brother. Chained up, cold, in that bloody bathtub, agonized more by the sensation of the chains than of the cut in his throat. But he dreams of Max and safety and his siblings, and that is all that matters.

Dapper, in his sleep, shifts closer to him.

You will do your best to keep them safe. You promised.

From this point on in the story, it will be possible to permanently lose major characters.

[synoxshots]

Tagged by @sentinelapologist to answer some video game questions and rest assured I am about to give some very embarassing answers! (I wish I was kidding)

GAMES:

First game you ever played: This is gonna date me! Right so. I can’t remember it well but Fifa 98 definitely had an indoor stadium so I must have played that, because it wasn’t on Fifa 99 which I have much clearer memories of playing. But that would have come out when I was like, 3/4 years old so I’m not sure if I actually played it so much as went OOH! at whatever my brother/cousin (because we would have been at my aunt’s to actually have computer games) were doing. Or if we were behind the curve with getting it (also very likely). Definitely played Fifa 99 on my cousin’s computer for many years, also Lego Racers (which heh, I redownloaded earlier in the year as well for the nostalgia kick - no lies it holds up!). I have a lot of nostalgia for late 90s/early 00s video game graphics because of this, and tbh Fifa games probably peaked with 99. 

Favourite game: Honestly I’m so invested in SWTOR so it’s hard not to say that, it’s had the biggest impact on my life like. Open world + Star Wars? the dream. I’m more of a SW fan than a gamer so it was definitely the universe that drew me into it in the first place. Also BOTW because oh my god. And I only got into that once lockdown hit this year but honestly, I cannot say how much I adore it.

Game you’ve played through multiple times: Super super into the Lego games, so Lego Star Wars - to the point we had it on the Xbox, and then I’ve downloaded it on Steam and played through it multiple times on the pc. And I’m a completionist, so that’s like, collecting everything not just going through the story once. Fun story, the prequel games were released before RotS came out so I got the basic outline of the film from that game first oops. Also I’ve played through the Crash Bandicoot GBA games quite a bit too.

Game you hated at first but now you love: Don’t think I have one? Because yeah if I’m hating it right off I’m not gonna stick with it. Which is probs why I’m really fussy about buying games and replay so much stuff instead. I have my comfort zone okay

Game you used to love but now you hate: I spent a lot of hours playing Runescape in my life, and every now and then nostalgia tells me ‘hey log in!’ and within two minutes I realise it is the grindiest game ever. I still have my account from when I was like, 11, though, which is a substantial chunk of my life. Also League of Legends - I joined it because a few friends roped me in and it was great when we could play together but going it alone was pretty brutal because fuck up a tiny bit and boom, toxicity. So then I just played ARAM mode and not SR with others, then just stopped altogether. May be partly why group-finder scares me so much, though also y’know social anxiety in general. But let’s not get into that.

Your favourite game atmosphere/setting(s): BOTW for sure, I can just lose myself in that world forever. The music is fab as well and I’ve been trying to learn a bit of it on guitar, music adds a lot to a game/film/anything for me so yeah. But it’s also visually just so beautiful. There’s a lot of planets in SWTOR as well, Tython, Voss, etc.

Game with the best group/companion(s): I don’t really play a great deal of games where I have companions really so gotta say SWTOR! Smuggler gang is my favourite. Just all out nonsense.

A game with your favourite ending: literally drawing a blank here. I think a lot of things I’ve played have been the type to go on and on. 

A game with the worst ending: as above. maybe I just don’t finish things? That said the final boss fight in I think the second of the Crash trilogy games was super disappointing and didn’t match how insanely hard I found that game. (And I’m talking as an adult hahaha, I got the Switch ones this year). also kinda with you on the end of the agent storyline too, I left that one til last because the internet raved about how good it was but in the end I was...underwhelmed. 

Best character customisation: struggling to actually think of games I’ve played with character customisation as opposed to ones where I’m just given a character/choose from a selection. and it’ll be a real sad indicator if I say SWTOR because I am constantly complaining about the creator. though I do like outfit designer. hmm, pass.

HERO AND COMPANIONS:

Your favourite playable character: does it count if they’re my own? haha. in SWTOR I’d generally say a smuggler because I seem to come up with 5000 different ideas for OCs and playing as a gunslinger is super fun (and I’ve learnt to love scoundrel too!). And then in the Lego games I’d play as Shaak Ti a lot, but that was first because she looked cool though I do think she’s neat generally! But she probably doesn’t count as a video game character. Ooooh Link as well, because I’m getting more and more into Zelda games.

Your favourite companion(s): *cough* Theron. Kira. T7. Risha. Guss. Blizz. Gault. Torian. Felix. Nadia. Vette. Talos. Ugh, loads tbh, I’ll forget them all. *gesticulates generally at SWTOR*

RELATIONSHIPS:

Favourite game friendships: I live for the smuggler crew dynamic, and the BH crew as well. And the Jedi Knight/Kira friendship warms my soul. 

Favourite game relationships: obv I’m super biased but Theron/Knight. Smuggler/Risha. Consular/Felix. BH/Torian. I’ll just list my otps here shall I? SWTOR is the only game I’ve done where there’s been relationships I think. still haven’t finished KOTOR.

Favourite companion banter: smuggler crew probably again. Smuggler just never stops. not sure about between companions though there’s a bit of it with the smug as well.

A relationship you weren’t sure of but loved: I knew going into the Docmance how many people hated it but I really enjoyed it! Suited how my Knight was at that point. 

A character you wish you could romance: Elara with f!Trooper, hoping that becomes more of a thing going forward. Also I wanna kiss Tau. And Anri. Basically I see a cool woman come along and I’m just like...is this a love interest?

FUN:

Shoutout to a random NPC: hey Numen Brock! And Lemda Avesta as the first wlw I got to kiss in game!

A game you love watching playthroughs for and want to play: I don’t really watch playthroughs a great deal so I got nothing here! and when I watch playthroughs they’re normally of games I already know well because I wanna experience them first for myself? So I like watching BOTW challenge/speedrun/trickshot videos and stuff sometimes, and ACNH island tours but that’s because I know the games.

Love watching playthroughs but won’t ever play: as above really, but if I don’t have the intention to play them then I’m almost certainly not watching vids of.

Why do you play video games?: uhhhh. because I enjoy them, but also escapism I guess? like it’s easier to throw myself into another world and focus and fixate on that rather than dealing with the general...stuff. it’s a type of relief sometimes innit. 

anyway if you’ve made it this far down in reading this then consider yourself tagged, because this was a long’un!

[basically-rainbow-aus]

The next two RWBabies the admins have created! Kusagi and Lavica are childhood best friends.

Just like the other four RWBabies on this blog, Kusagi and Lavica will be open to questions.

(Once again, their bios will be under the cut, and they’re still long:)

Kusagi Ren (Based on Bonnie Parker)

Name Inspiration: ‘Kusa’ can mean herb in Japanese, ‘Gi’ can mean righteousness in Japanese

Nickname(s): ‘Kusa’ by Lie and Lavica, ‘Gigi’ by Fox and Byakuren, ‘Ren’ by anyone and everyone

Iolite-isms: Weed, Stoner, Pink Eye, Herbivore, Picasso

Languages: RSL

Gender: Male

Species: Human

Aura Colour: Pink

Schools and Team: Sanctum Academy (combat school), Haven Academy (Academy)/Past Member of Team DBRK (Daybreak)

Bestie Better Than The Restie: Lavica Politan

Homeplace: Kuroyuri

Orientation: Asexual Heteroromantic

Semblance: Commute, a semblance that is shared between Kusagi and his sister Byakuren together. It is a semblance that is always active. It allows Kusagi to sense his sister’s emotions and in turn read her movements, meaning they have access to flawless teamwork and team attacks, aware of exactly where to strike and when to attack without harming Byakuren. 

Weapon: Lilypads, a pair of leg bracers that are hooked up to a projectile, long-range firing mechanism that fires off a colourless firework or flare. They are slightly heavier than that of Byakuren’s Blunt Retribution and can haul more weight and thus more projectiles.

Voiced by: No one

Trivia: 

His fathers are the reason he enjoys tea as much as he does. His favourite kind is skullcap tea.

Kusagi was born clinically mute similar to Neo but was only diagnosed when Fox found it curious that he never made a sound when he cried or laughed at age four.

He is very close with both his fathers but also his Aunt Nora, finding common ground with her on the basis on fashion sense and their shared love of pinks. He is always overjoyed whenever she and Ruby choose to visit Kuroyuri.

He loves music and will actively seek out quiet places when he feels overwhelmed by the noise of life so he can listen through his headphones in peace.

Late nighttime is the first time he meets one Lavica Politan, his best friend aside from his little sister. Though the two can barely speak a word between them at first, with some assistance from Neo in the way of RSL lessons for Kusagi, they become very good friends very quickly. He often assists as extra guard for her while she runs the crime of Anima. It is also with Lavica that he became a protector and guardian for Cinnabarus after finding him in the Politan residence attic.

Though he cannot sing, he can play bass guitar.

Kusagi is extremely protective and connected to his little sister Byakuren since their shared Semblance prevailed when he was five and she was four. The emotional and mental attachment between the two means that if Kusagi is seperated from her, he’ll feel as though a piece of him is missing and will risk just about anything just to ensure her safety and closeness. Byakuren also acts as his scribe in most situations where people don’t know RSL.

He’s an early bird and doesn’t go to sleep well. 

His favourite meal is fruit salad with maple syrup and honey. He’s a sucker for all things sweet and lovely.

Although he doesn’t wear it day-to-day, Kusagi’s Huntsman garb includes a transulcent pink veil that covers his mouth. He finds that it draws attention away from his lack of voice and towards how he can communicate.

Lavica Politan (Based on the Cheshire Cat and Pompeii)

Name Inspiration: Lava Red and Lava Grey

Nickname(s): ‘Lav’ or ‘Lavi’ by anyone and everyone, ‘Ma’am’ by syndicate members and teammates

Iolite-isms: Little Bitch, Pompeii, Sir, Magma Pop

Languages: RSL, Valean, North Mistrali, South Mistrali, limited Vacuan

Gender: Female

Species: Human

Aura Colour: Red

Schools and Team: No combat school, Haven Academy (Academy)/Leader of Team LCRC (Liquorice)

Bestie Better Than The Restie: Kusagi Ren

Homeplace: Northern Anima, later Kuroyuri

Orientation: Asexual Aromantic

Semblance: Visionary, an illusionary semblance that gives Lavica similar abilities to her Mom. Using just the thought of her mind and a bit of Aura extension, she can create illusions of objects or even people with little to no strain. Her power seems almost limitless and surpasses that of Neo. It does, however, come with a temporary effect. If an illusion takes too much damage or cannot be held anymore, then they will disappear into ash and embers, though if Lavica is in an emotional state then the illusion will erupt into a flame will vaporise itself withins three seconds of its life. To keep this flame from appearing, she practices calming techniques such as Tai Chi every morning with her foster brother, Cinnabarus. 

Weapon: Trickshot, a cane that, when a button on the side is pressed, extends at the hook to reveal an umbrella’s canopy. The canopy is fused with a special mesh of carbon fibres, allowing them to absorb heat and withstand blasts but also perform lightly, creating the perfect shield and showmanship tool. The base of the cane can also pop open to reveal a firing mechanism capable of releasing a few shots at a time. A blade mechanism is also built into the cane’s hook, which can extend and divide itself in blade form to achieve a wider surface area and thus a further damage capacity. The top of the canopy is also emblazoned with a flame symbol that acts as a Dust absorber and can lauch an attack back at its initial weilder. 

Voiced by: Brina Michelle Palencia

Trivia: 

Neo and Cinder had Lavica after Team WTCH had split off, Salem having been defeated. With Watts and Tyrian hiding out in Atlas and Hazel off the face of Remnant in a matter of days, Cinder returned to Neo. Lavica was welcomed into the world with flashfire from Cinder and a smile from Neo, the former leaving soon after her birth.

Lavica arrived in Kuroyuri when she was three, having tipped up with an injured Neo and no Cinder in sight. It was that night she met Kusagi Ren, her future best friend. The Ren family quickly became a constant presence in the Politans’ lives, providing easy access to services, respect and later better resources than they would’ve had alone out in Anima.

She is hot-headed and short-tempered similarly to Cinder. Running a crime syndicate and ensuring no-one gets hurt without your say so while juggling being a Huntress is not an easy job, to say the least.

She has a somewhat foster brother in the form of Cinnabarus, as she and Kusagi found him in her attic when they were both eight and chose to raise him with limited success.

Lavica has no interest in finding a partner. Her mothers’ “divorce” broke her ideals of love long before she could even grasp it.

She’s a night owl and often breaks into Kusagi’s room while he’s awake.

Although she is a decent Huntress alongside her sustained team, she is quite occupied and passionate about keeping tabs on the crime syndicate of Anima she rules with an iron fist. The only exclusion is Rooke Branwen and said Branwen’s tribe, as the girls have clashed many times over the years and Lavica now simply uses her as a source of information on whoever she needs to find.

Although she has been trained since she was five and Neo trusts her immensely, Lavica was not allowed to leave her mother’s side or the village of Kuroyuri until she was fifteen. The constant threat of Cinder returning for a “visit” and harming Lavica has always been a paranoia of the Rens and Neo alike.

Her favourite meal is either katsu chicken curry with coriander and lime or the ever-delicious pancakes Lie makes with strawberries and pumpkin spice powder.

[asherranceoftheheart]

Vacation - Jacksepticeye Drabble

Summary:  In which Anti has to bribe Henrik to get a small break from the stress of having to take care of the entire Septic Family. Fandom: Jacksepticeye Universe Characters: Antisepticeye, Henrik Von Schneeplestein, Sean Mcloughlin, Mentions of other Egos Genre: Fluff, Family Warnings: Soft!Anti

He’s not a coward.

A brown haired glitch demon warred with himself as he stood in front of a certain doctor’s office. When the Septic HQ was established after the egos started popping up one after the other, Henrik commandeered the spacious room on the ground floor that had a great view of the main staircase and the entrance hall just in case any of the other egos tried to sneak past the doctor when they were sick or injured. None of them fought with him over the room especially when he wore that gleam in his eyes that said if they even tried to fight him, they will lose.

Angus and Jackie were the guiltiest of the sin of trying to hide their injuries from Henrik due to their adventures and heroic escapades. The duo would often attempt to scale the HQ’s walls to sneak in via the window of their rooms. While it was an open secret that Anti and Marvin would either teleport or glitch directly into their rooms to avoid the fussy doctor.

However... all of those tricks were merely temporary solutions. The trouble children already lost count of the many times they woke up to Henrik menacingly hovering over them with a syringe filled with an ominously glowing liquid in his hands.

Much to the chagrin of the Septics, Henrik was born with a bullshit radar that would tell him if anything’s wrong with any of them. Anti asked Sean once why the fuck he’d give the doctor that talent and his Other would just shrug and answer that they all needed a nanny that’ll make sure that they were all healthy.

A loud crash disturbed Anti’s thoughts and he eyed the door warily when he heard muffled German curses coming from the owner of the room. Anti really didn’t want to face the dragon but his neck wound reopened itself in the middle of the night. He woke up to his neck feeling raw and sore with some itchiness that he resisted to scratch since Henrik would bitch about him making the wound worse.

He could technically handle the wound being open but the blood kept on staining all of his shirts and Marvin’s one step closer into committing fratricide if he kept ruining his outfits. The stylish man never stopped giving him the dirty look when he wore his infamous black shirt and ripped jeans for an entire week.

The door was suddenly ripped open and Henrik stood in front of him in all his grumpy and motherhenning glory.

“Well? Are you coming in or not?” Henrik demanded and glowered at Anti before spinning around and storming back into his office without waiting for a reply.

Seeing Henrik’s current temperament, Anti doesn’t care if the others called him a coward. He doesn’t want to be the one to bear all of the man’s foul mood.

/Pussy./ Sean oh-so-helpfully jeered through their connection.

\You’re the one who’s been playing the game of Hide and Seek with the Doc for the past few weeks since you don’t want a check up, Sean.\ Anti sneered back and slightly smirked at the telling silence from his Other.

Outloud, the glitch warily addressed Henrik, “Seems you’re quite busy Doc. Maybe I should come back later…”

“Oh no you don’t! You’re not getting me to hunt you down again.” Anti winced at the loud clatter of medical equipment being slammed on the table.

Henrik glared at him and pointed towards the seat in front of him.

“Sit.” The doctor’s eyes flashed, practically daring Anti to disobey.

A part of the demon—the part that’s bristling at the nerve of a human ordering him around—told him to turn his back on Henrik (that has got to be the stupidest idea his mind ever came up with since Henrik is fully capable of stabbing him with a sedative in the back) and walk the fuck away. But the part of him that has any semblance of self-preservation told him to just get this over with before Henrik actually snapped.

He decided that he didn’t want Henrik to kill all of them in their sleep tonight.

Anti kept his eyes on the doctor who raised an eyebrow back at him as he sat himself down on the seat. Once Henrik saw that Anti wasn’t going to make his work hard, he started fussing over him, checking his neck wound here and there while asking with a semi-gentle voice if this hurt or if he felt anything wrong compared to the usual regarding his wound. Anti obediently answered all of his questions and patiently sat still as Henrik started cleaning his neck. He hissed when the antiseptic stung as the doctor carefully dabbed it all over and inside the wound with a gentleness that you wouldn’t expect from the grumpy man.

“Why did it even open this time? You were not fighting with Dark or the other dark sides again, are you?” Henrik tutted while he got out the sterilized needle and string. “Don’t answer that. You’ll get blood in my white sheets again.”

The glitch demon rolled his eyes and gave the younger ego an unamused look. He wasn’t stupid.

Henrik then began complaining to him about how he wished he and the others took better care of themselves while he started to stitch the wound close again. Jackie keeps getting hurt on his missions for his reckless bravery and has the gall to hide them from him even though Henrik has been warning him about making his injuries worse than if he just told Henrik. Marvin tries to hide some of the bad effects of spells gone wrong and keeps on drinking experimental potions that could mess him up. Angus needs to be more careful in his adventures and needs a constant check up after each of his ventures because the man might have forgotten to apply first aid on his injuries. Shawn needs to go to therapy for his trauma and to stop cooping himself up in his room. For that matter, Jaques also needs to stop hiding in his room and remember to take care of himself since he often forgets to eat or rest when he’s deep into his art.

Robbie needs to take better care of his zombified body since it’s so easy to dismember him and to stop forgetting his routine checkups. Chase has made massive progress on being sober for six months and has been maintaining his meds and therapy but he’s just as much of a workaholic as Sean and loves doing dangerous trickshots that leaves Henrik frazzled. Jamie is a good man but that one loves bar hopping and getting into fights along with Wilford!

Henrik breathed in deeply and finished the stitching with flourish. Anti reached up and gingerly touched the stitches before looking up at the younger ego with furrowed brows.

“Doc…” Anti paused because what else can he say to the entire thing?

“And you! A-and Sean!” Henrik gritted his teeth as he glared at Anti who was by now frowning. There was a soft clatter from when he dropped the dirty needle in the metal tray. “You two need to learn to come to me when you’re both feeling unwell! I… I—!”

Suddenly, Henrik just lost steam in the middle of his tirade. He shuddered and dropped down to the nearby bed exhaustively. He held his head in his hands and Anti thought he looked like Atlas carrying the entire world on his shoulders.

/… We’ve been making everything far too hard on Hen, huh?/ He could taste the guilt comin from Sean’s side along with his own.

Anti sat down beside his younger brother and wrapped an arm around his waist in a one sided embrace. The younger ego leaned on him and the demon could feel some of the tension leave his body at Anti’s quiet support.

“I just worry about you all too much,” whispered Henrik with a weary chuckle.

“You do,” Anti agreed as he stared up at the ceiling. “But that’s what keeps us all alive and kicking.”

Henrik snorted. Anti was glad to hear a hint of amusement in the sound.

“You would all kill each other or would have burned this entire house down without me.”

“What can I say? You’re the holder of one of the remaining three brain cells in our crew while I have the second and the others are sharing the last one between them.”

“Ha. You think too highly of yourself. I for one believe that Chase has the other one and you’re sharing the last one with the others.”

“Wha— Chase? Really?”

“That man can herd all of you in far better than I or Sean can with just a disappointed look… He’s also been the one feeding all of us.”

“... I hate to say this but you’re absolutely fucking right.”

“Of course I am. I’m not sharing a brain cell with all of you, remember?”

“Rude.”

“You’re the one who admitted it.” Anti could feel Henrik rolling his eyes at him.

“Anyway,” Anti decided to change the subject before the doctor started to pick on him again, “you’re really stressed, Doc. You should rest or even have a vacation.”

Henrik’s head whipped up at that. The glasses had embedded marking on the doctor’s face and while it amused Anti a bit, he braced himself for the inevitable protests.

“I can’t do that! You’ll all die!” Henrik exclaimed.

“Oi. Give us some credit. Chase is still here, he’ll make sure we won’t die while you’re gone for a while.” Anti’s face twisted down as a thought entered his mind. He can’t believe he’s about to suggest this.

/I mean… Technically, you’re the eldest along with Angus. While you don’t think so, everyone really does respect you Anti./ Sean dryly commented but the sincerity of his belief in his words carried out through the connection.

\Hush you.\ Anti absently sent back but he couldn’t deny the flash of pride and happiness at Sean’s words.

“I’ll help Chase control our bunch and keep them all alive and safe while you’re on your vacation,” said Anti with a grimace on his lips. “I can’t bother Dark for now anyway. He said he’s gonna gut me if I showed my face within the next two months.”

Technically, that still wouldn’t have stopped him and the Doc’s incredulous look showed that he didn’t quite believe that excuse either.

“I’ll drag Sean over for the check up if you have a few days off.” Anti figured he might as well sweeten the deal.

/Hey! You can’t just toss me underneath the bus like that!/ Sean cursed, his ire making Anti smile.

\It’s for the greater good Seany boy~ We want Henrik to be better and you also need to take better care of yourself and as your Other, it’s my duty to uphold that. So… It’s a win-win situation for all of us!\ Anti cheerily sent back as if one of the reasons why he dragged Sean down with him isn’t out of spite.

/Bull-fucking-shit./ His Other called him out.

Anti tuned him out with brighter spirits to see Henrik’s calculative look. The doctor was smart enough to not immediately deny the deal that was offered to him. If there was anyone who could force Sean to take care of himself, it’s Anti.

He resisted the urge to smile.

“Two days.” Henrik bartered.

“A week and I’ll drag Sean, Jackaboy, and Marvin in.” Anti shot back and didn’t resist the grin this time as Henrik’s eyes sharpened.

Gotcha~!

“... Fine. I will go on a vacation.” The doctor grumbled as he reached up and checked the stitches. “That does not hurt, right?”

Anti scrunched up his nose at the tiny twinge from the poking.

“Nah,” he dismissed the doctor’s concern, “just a bit sore but it aint that bad.”

Henrik nodded and stood up. He reached for the clean towel and started carefully wiping away the dried blood from the stitched up wound. Once he saw that Anti’s neck was fully clean, he offered a hand to the seated demon who took it graciously and allowed himself to be pulled up.

“Do make sure not to kill each other and burn the house down while I’m away,” Henrik wryly told Anti who was already making his way out of the office to change out of his stained shirt.

Anti didn’t even turn and instead just raised a hand to wave nonchalantly and said, “Yeah, yeah, just make sure you actually relaxed during your vacay and rest.”

“Thank you Anti.” It was quiet and only Anti with his increased senses would have heard it.

The only indication that Anti heard was the small pause that lasted for no more than five seconds before he closed the door behind him with a bang.

Henrik allowed a smile to pull up at the corner of his lips. Anti, the eldest ego who have been with Sean far longer than any of them was definitely sharp around the edges but he dulls them only for their Creator and the other Septics. He was definitely the subtle kind of fussy older brother to all of them and only those who actually knew him would notice it.

The doctor turned back to cleaning up the medical instruments he used to fix up Anti, he was absently already planning out what he’ll need to prepare before his vacation so that Anti and Chase’s jobs are going to be so much easier while he’s gone.

Anti was walking back to his room, mind already formulating plans to wrangle the other Septics. He wasn’t doing this for the Doc (lies). It would just be annoying if the main caretaker was gone or indisposed far longer than the vacation if he got sick from overworking. If that happened then no one will make sure that the idiots are taking care of themselves.

/Just admit you’re a sap for all of us and go./ Sean was rolling his eyes at him, he just knew it.

\Shut the fuck up, bitch.\

[abysskeeper]

otpop if trickshot is the name he chooses

“Soooo…I heard you finally picked a name.” Tavon looked up from putting the last of his gear away at the quiet knock on the doorframe and the not quite question that could only be said to him. Spectre stood against the wall next to the doorway, trying to be too nonchalant as she played with one of the strings on her sweatshirt. “Trickshot, huh?” she asked, and the slightly forced casual tone of her voice suggested something was wrong with his choice.

“I see news travels fast around here,” he remarked, amused that the news had made it to her that quickly. He had only solidified the name about an hour ago. Then again, he could easily see her waiting to find out what he chose and when. “Yes, that is correct. Trickshot is what I chose,” he added and paused, studying her for a moment. The discomfort she felt probably wouldn’t have been noticeable to most, but he watched her shift on her feet and her grip on her sweatshirt string tightened every so slightly for a fraction of a second. “Is there an issue with the name?”

“N-no!—” There was definitely an issue with the name. “—It’s just…I dunno. I guess I just sort of expected you to stick with Crosshair,” she admitted, though that hardly seemed to be enough to give her that much pause. “I don’t know why,” she continued with a shrug, “Every side switch usually comes with a name change, it only makes sense. I think I just got used to Crosshair…even when you were a pain in my side. It fit…” she was rambling, and her eyes grew wider when she realized what she had said, “N-not that Trickshot doesn’t fit! It does! It’s a g-great name it’ll just take some getting used to, is all.”

That certainly wasn’t all of it. She already knew a change in his name was inevitable, he had told her as such. She would have had time to adjust to no longer calling him Crosshair, even if she did not yet know what to replace the name with. No, her hesitation and discomfort was not regarding the name change, it was regarding the name Trickshot itself. But before he could ask what the real problem was, why she seemed so nervous and adamantly casual about the topic, approaching footsteps dragged their attention to the door.

“Trick!” Tavon noted with confusion both of them perked up at the white-haired boy’s call. The kid looked between the two of them and laughed a little, “Sorry, I know you’re new here, Trickshot. We usually go by our given names around here.” With his apology said, White Reaper turned his attention back to Spectre—Trick—and handed her a stack of papers.

Oh.

“It’s not an immediate need, but you’ve been requested to look over these,” the kid said.

“Thanks, Thane,” she said and quickly leafed through what was likely new intel for an assignment, “I’ll get back to him by tonight.”

“Of course, ma’am,” Thane nodded and turned to him one last time, “Welcome aboard…uh…Trickshot.”

He probably would have supplied Thane with his actual name if he was focused on that part of the conversation, it was apparently what they went by around here. Yet all he could really do was look at the woman standing in front of him, trying far too hard to look busy reading the papers she was handed to avoid looking at him. He didn’t register when Thane left, or if he even knew what he had just inadvertently caused, but the silence enveloped them for several moments.

“So Trick is…your name?” Tavon asked cautiously, slowly, but needing to break the uncomfortable silence spanning between them.

“It’s what I go by here, yes,” she answered, still not looking up at him. He noticed her choice of wording in her answer, but decided not to tackle that for now. There was something greater to deal with first.

“I only knew you as Spectre.” Well, that wasn’t entirely true. Since he had learned the beastly Hellhound and the teleporter Spectre were one and the same, he knew her by two names. And it seemed so foolish now, that he had never bothered to ask for her real name. But then, she had never asked for his either, he had offered it freely when he switched.

In the end, he supposed it also didn’t matter. He still knew her, no matter her name. It simply would have saved them from the irony now.

“I apologize, had I known…” he trailed off, acknowledging what he was about to say was not entirely true either. Had he known, he might have been even more pulled towards the name. Even after this new revelation, he already felt more settled into the name, like something he hadn’t even known was jutting out had finally settled into place. It was reassuring to know he had picked correctly. Still, it was no longer just his feelings he had to consider, “I can change it, if you wish.”

“It’s fine,” she shook her head and finally spared him a glance. At the disbelieving look he gave her, she huffed a sigh and let her hand holding the papers fall to her side. “Really, it is. You don’t have to change it,” she insisted, “I like the name, it suits you. I was ecstatic upon hearing it…” she paused and he noticed the slightest bit of a blush creeping into her cheeks. She shook her head and continued, “I just…I also really want to know how you came to it.”

“It was always on the list,” Tavon admitted, “Trickshots are part of the whole routine, after all. Many of the heroes around here told me it was my best option. They said you would likely appreciate it best as well, now I understand why.”

Her blush darkened, “T-they did?”

“Yes,” he nodded, “Archangel, in particular, was quite adamant about the subject. She practically insisted Trickshot was the best choice.”

“Chris would,” Trick rolled her eyes, “So that’s why you chose it?”

He shrugged again, “Most everyone was already willing to call me by it, and I could see myself going by it, I figured that should be enough.” He hesitated, “Still, I sincerely mean I will change it if you wish me to.”

She shook her head and smiled, blush still prominent on her cheeks, and he was once again thankful to finally be on the same side as her. That smile had quickly become one of his few weaknesses in the field. “How many times do I have to tell you that I do like it in order to convince you?” she asked.

“Your initial reaction was mildly concerning,” he retorted and she rolled her eyes at him, “Still, I am glad. With this newfound information, I am further drawn to it. Trickshot is too fitting, I believe.”

“Is it?”

“Well…” And there were a thousand explanations he wanted to give her as to why. How he was now shooting, fighting for her. Or how she was the one who had given him a shot in the first place. That it only made too much sense to inexplicably tie his journey to her, and that he wanted everyone to know he was tied to her. Yet none of that seemed to be appropriate, at the current juncture. Eventually, perhaps, but not now.

“…You did take a chance on me,” Tavon answered instead. And it wasn’t a lie, it just was not everything he wanted the answer to be. “I am your shot now, so to speak. It would do me well to remember that in the field, I do not want to disappoint. You, nor anyone else, but you most of all.”

“R-ri-right,” she agreed, and he had not thought it possible for her face to get any redder until it happened. She pulled the papers back to look at them again, and the small smile came back to her face after her initial shock at his words. “W-well,” she cleared her throat, “Well, not that I think you ever could, but I am glad you don’t want to disappoint me,” she glanced down at her papers again, “I should…uh…probably go start seriously looking these over.”

He nodded, “Of course.”

Her flustered state was still evident, but her sincerity shone through in her eyes, “Seriously though, welcome aboard, Trickshot.”

He was glad she turned away, because he hadn’t expected hearing his new name from her lips to make him feel as light inside as it had, and he found himself quietly saying to her retreating form, “Thank you, Trick.”

[scribblehoneybee]

58 with Chase and JJ? (Maybe some timewarp stuff? 👀)

Timewarp grins as he slips the watch back into his pocket. He looks down at the hero, once again bound and entranced, ready to bend to his will. “You’re just too easy, love,” he taunts, a huff of laughter rising when the hero simply hums in response.

He tilts Trickshot’s face up to meet his. The hero’s eyes are distant and unfocused, a golden sheen dancing across them. “Lovely, just perfect,” he praises, patting the hero’s cheek, “Now remember, eyes on me while I’m speaking to you. We wouldn’t want you to miss anything, would we?”

Trickshot shakes his head slowly, swaying gently in his seat. The motion must’ve made him dizzy.

“Oh you poor thing, can’t even shake his pretty little head on his own. Now tell me love, why are you here?”

To serve you.

“To serve you,” he replies after a moment, voice slurred and monotone.

“Yes! Perfect again,” he grins wickedly, eyes glinting in the dim light, “And how can you best serve me?”

However you ple-

“By giving in to you. Completely.”

Timewarp blinks. That… isn’t the response he had worked to program into the hero. “And how exactly do you plan on doing that, hero?”

“Untie my mask.”

“What?” He leans in close, searching the hero’s eyes for some spark of resistance, but there’s nothing. Only adoration and blind obedience. “I don’t much like practical jokes, you know.”

“I exist only to serve your desires.”

Timewarp grabs the hero’s face, grip tight and punishing “I didn’t tell you to say that, hero. You listen to me.”

“I want you to know.”

“No you don’t!! There are rules!! What is wrong with you?”

“You want to know.”

Timewarp takes a step back. Something is definitely wrong. “No!! I don’t care I never-”

A hand darts out and latches onto his wrist. The ropes that had once bound the hero lay smoldering on the floor. His grip burns, and Timewarp screams.

“Let me go!! What the hell is this?” He tries to pull away, but the hero’s grip is too strong. His eyes glow with his powers, and Timewarp feels himself being drawn into them. They’re just so warm, and bright. It almost feels…

Safe.

Timewarp’s head spins with an all too familiar sensation. His thoughts begin to melt away, weighing him down deeper, and deeper, like molten iron dragging him into the depths of his mind. Just as he’s about to fold under the pressure, a voice comes to him.

“You control me.”

“I… control you.”

“I am yours.”

“You are mine.”

“You have always wanted this.”

“No I…” Timewarp tries to blink, to clear his head, but his eyes are still fixed on Trickshot’s. “I’ve… always wanted this.”

The voice speaks a final time, “You have waited for this moment for a long time.”

He is helpless to resist.

“I’ve waited for this moment… for a long time.”

His hands reach up as if pulled by strings. In the corners of his fixed, burning vision, he sees himself grab the long strips of orange fabric.

He pulls the knot loose, and the mask flutters to the ground.

-

Jameson jerks awake, breath coming fast and heavy. The dream that woke him dances on the edge of his mind, just out of reach, taunting him with its contents. He counts his breaths in… and out, tugging a trembling hand through his sweat drenched hair.

“Babe? Something wrong?” a sleepy voice questions from beside him. Warm arms reach out to wrap around his waist.

The light from the window washes over the room - the city is never truly dark, and Jameson prefers it that way. It also makes it easier to have late night conversations. “Just a dream, sorry,” he signs. He leans down to press a soft kiss to Chase’s lips.

The other man hums, smiling. “S’okay, was it a nightmare? You seem kinda freaked out.”

“I’m… not sure,” his hands pause as he tries to recall the dream. But it’s gone, leaving a strange nagging feeling in its place. “I think you were there?”

Chase sits up with a groan, bones cracking as he stretches. He leans over to pepper Jameson’s neck with light kisses. “Well I guess I wasn’t doing my job, then.”

“And what might that be?” he giggles, pulling Chase closer.

“Keeping you safe and happy,” Chase says, voice quiet and tender. When he pulls back his eyes are shining with adoration. Jameson swears he could melt.

“You’re such a sap, sunflower.”

Chase laughs, “Sunflowers don’t have sap! They have pollen, and seeds,” he pauses, suddenly looking thoughtful. “Do either of those count? Like are they the same thing?”

Jameson thinks for a moment, thrown off by the sudden shift in conversation. “Flowers have nectar, if that’s what you mean?”

“Yeah, that!” Chase grins, “So I’m… a nectar.”

Jameson snorts, “You’re something alright.” He leans in for another kiss, heart swelling. The little offended noise he makes against his lips only makes the feeling double. He loves this boy far too much. It’s not fair.

“Well,” Chase says, pulling away and flopping back on the pillows, “I’m a sleepy something.” He reaches out and caresses Jameson’s cheek, and the other man leans into the touch. “Ready to go back to sleep?”

Jameson nods, returning to his spot curled against Chase’s chest. He’s so warm, and he always knows exactly how to get Jameson’s mind off of things. He can’t decide which he’s more grateful for right now in the cold bedroom.

Chase is snoring before Jameson even manages to get comfortable. He smiles, tilting his head up to kiss just under Chase’s jaw.

After waiting a moment to make sure he’s really asleep, Jameson relaxes and allows his voice to reach out to Chase’s mind. It echoes around gently, pulling the other deeper into sleep.

“Goodnight, sunshine. I love you so much.”

Chase hums, subconsciously pulling him closer, and Jameson drifts back to sleep with a smile still on his face.

[my-brothers-corrupted]

Chapter Four: Intro

A week after Peru, we find our characters together again. Time to play this game one last time.

tws: choking, threats, mentions of torture

-

Intro

Cold light drifts in through the window of Trickshot’s nest.

He sits with one hand wrapped around Dok’s gun and the other wrapped around Dok’s hand. Clear blue eyes stare out at the cold grey pavement and the sheen of the bulky cars arranged like guardians around the motel with an intensity that has been his as long as you have known him.

And only growing, these days - the steel in his face.

At his side you can make out the familiar shape of his twin, pressed close to his body. Dok is holding him like he’s a rock-climber and Trick is the last thing keeping him pressed to the side of this steep and shifting mountain. You can hear him breathing. Exhausted. Trick plays quietly with his gun.

Maybe, once Anti comes back, he will sleep, but for now he watches, he watches, he watches. Nothing, he promises himself, will take Dok from his side again.

No matter what is coming.

cest-mellow asked: hey trick. you doing okay tonight?

Trick jumps at the beeping and whirls with Dok’s gun gripped, but it’s only Anti’s bag making noises and he rolls his eyes, calming again. You’re watching them through a camera high up on the wall of the hotel, but none of them look up at you.

“Mhh?” comes a confused noise from the other side of the room.

“It’s just the cameras, Blue,” Dok murmurs. “Go back to sleep.”

Blankets shuffle and go quiet again.

“Are you going to get the camera?” asks Dok, who’s mostly squished under his twin’s weight.

Trick purses his mouth and shrugs, turning back to the window. Dok doesn’t protest. He extricates himself from his brother’s limbs and pads over to take you gently from Anti’s bag.

“Hi,” he says, carrying the camera back to the window. “We’re okay, right, Trick?”

“Better when the others come back and we can get out of this shithole,” grumbles Trick.

But for someone who’s putting on a grumpy front, the way he reaches out to push a curl of Dok’s hair from his face sure is fond.

pine-storm-season asked: Hello! Are you guys relatively okay? How are you doing?

Henrik shifts uneasily, gripping his stomach for a second, but his smile comes back quick. “Trick and I are good, yes?”

“We’re fine,” says Trick. “Jet-lagged, tired. Bored. But things are looking up. Anti is finding us a real place to stay. Which is, like, weird, but I think maybe great news?”

“Usually he just finds the first empty house or warehouse or something and we stay there,” explains Dok.

“But this time he says we’re going to stay somewhere nice cause he’s got to help the others to - I mean, to help Dap to readjust. But he’s already doing better than he was a few days ago.”

“I wish Anti wouldn’t take him out for dirty work, though,” grumbles Henrik, turning back to the window. “Not good for him.”

“Oh, come on. There’s nowhere he could be safer than with Anti.”

“Emotionally, though.”

“Emotionally? Anti loves that little shit.”

There’s a slight tension between them. They stare at each other for a second, and then turn away awkwardly, looking back out the window.

“Blue’s not doing so hot, though,” adds Dok after a second, and Trick turns uncertainly back towards the bed behind them, his eyes dark.

Anonymous asked: Blue? Are you okay?

“Blue. Blue!” calls Henrik gently, turning back towards his brother. With both of the twins angled towards you, you can see them better. They’re wearing the same outfit, green jackets over white t-shirts and dark jeans on their legs, but Anti has yet to cut their hair identically again. While Trick’s is vivid green and long and curly in the front, Dok’s is trimmed short, short, short, leaving just a little on the top to stick up. Just the way he likes it. “The cameras have missed you.”

The blankets shift. You hear Blue breathing sleepily.

“You’ve been sleeping all day,” Dok prompts him gently. “Let’s get up and walk around a little.”

Blue groans and tumbles over in bed. Dok smiles and gets up, padding towards him, taking you with and leaving Trick watching uncertainly from the window.

bupine asked: what's wrong with blue?

“What’s wrong with you?” teases Dok, putting you on the bedside table and leaning in over Blue’s blanket-wrapped body, shaking his brother’s shoulder. “Lazy? Sleepy? Just love bed?”

“Siiiiick,” groans out Blue, pushing irritably at his brother’s prodding hands.

“Yeah, he’s been very tired,” says Dok, petting his short white hair. “He - he struggles in the world.”

“They were with me in Singapore,” mumbles Blue. “They know. Just more of the same.”

“I don’t know,” answers Dok, his amusement fading. “I worry you’re only getting more tired.”

The blankets don’t shift. Blue is trying to go back to sleep.

“You are resting too much, love,” Henrik prompts him softly. “Come on, up we get.”

“Too tired.”

“You can do it. Come on. Doktor is in. Give me a hand.”

Reluctantly, Blue allows himself to be pulled up to sit on the bed, his grey face listing wearily.

pine-storm-season asked: Hey, Blue, how are you doing? There was some chaos happening when we last saw you guys.

“Lots of chaos,” murmurs Blue, and he manages to wince and smile at the same time, clutching Dok’s shoulder as he helps him to his feet, pressing his cane into his hands. “What a miserable day.”

“Dap’s okay and we’re okay and it’s going to be alright,” Henrik answers softly, squeezing his palm.

“Mmhhh,” sighs Blue, resting on his shoulder as he rises.

“Walk around with me.”

“There’s nowhere to walk in here.”

“Just around the beds. And then tomorrow we’ll be somewhere new, with a little more space.”

“Or chained up in a basement somewhere.”

“We’ll deal with that if it happens. For now, we hold to hope.”

Henrik gives him his arm and they walk back and forth between the bathroom and the door of the motel room, heads pressed close together. Trick is staring at them with a sort of silence on his face, his eyebrows bunched together and his mouth uncertain. He glances at you and seems to remember you’re there, scowling and turning away from his brothers, curling up in his nest, waiting for Anti to come home.

pine-storm-season asked: Are you okay, Trick?

“Great,” says Trick flatly. “Can we just - why did Anti turn them on again? Now?”

“Stop being a little loser,” chides Blue, stepping over to ruffle his hair.

“Hey!”

“Look at this mess,” giggles Blue, leaning his weight on his back.

“Blue! Get off! Dork, haha!”

He’s smiling when he pushes Blue away, touching his brother’s cheek fondly. “Dumb-ass pretty boy.”

“Aww! You think I’m pretty?”

Despite the teasing, Blue looks genuinely buoyed.

“Yeah, Blue, course you’re pretty. We have the same face, after all. Except Dok, he’s pug-ugly.”

Dok jabs Trick in the side hard enough to make him yelp and Blue is left steadying himself on his cane as Trick lunges for his twin, trying to get him by the ear while Dok yells his protest and tries to dig his fingers back into Trick’s side.

“Hey,” warns Blue suddenly, tearing his eyes away from his brothers’ play-fighting. “Someone’s coming.”

cest-mellow asked: still got those necklaces, henrik?

Henrik turns to you as Trick pulls away from him, his blue eyes flashing. “You bet your ass,” he tells you with gritted, smiling teeth, bared the way a dog bares his fangs. “He keeps burning his fingers trying to take them off me. They’re not going anywhere.”

He wraps his fingers around the three little bumps underneath his shirt.

spicydanhowell asked: blue, dok, i'm so sorry about what happened to you. this isn't forever.

“It is Anti, finally!” cheers Trick, leaping up onto the windowsill and watching for him to reach the door, waving at the trio of brothers coming up the way. “Look, Red’s doing his dreamy thing again.”

Blue and Dok exchange looks, Dok moving to support him again. Blue hides against his hair for a second, breathing in the smell of him again.

“This isn’t forever,” Dok repeats quietly.

“One month, right?” Blue grips his hand.

“One month. I’m with you.”

“I’m with you. I’m here.”

Anonymous asked: How’s noodle doing trick?

“Oh, my gosh! The only question that matters! I’ll get him real quick before Anti comes back!”

Instantly perked up, he races to the middle of the room, where an extra door connects the motel room to the one beside it. He pulls it open - “oh, Dok, give me the camera!” - and carries you inside, where a slinky golden cat races up to greet him, purring and butting his head against his ankles.

Anonymous asked: Cat? Cat? You have cat, noodle cat?

“Who’s my good kitty? Who’s my good baby? Noodle cat, mwah, mwah.”

He scoops his cat up and smothers his head in kisses, devolving into cooing baby talk and rocking his cat against his body while Noodle meows. As reluctant as he is to see you, he loves showing off his cat.

“Okay, baby, stay in here, papa will be back. Yes, you have to, muffin, you know Anti doesn’t want to see you. Who’s my baby? Yes, there’s my Noodle.”

Anonymous asked: How is everyone Trick? Are you doing okay?

“I’m okay! Everyone looks okay, I think.”

Leaving Pot Noodle behind, Trick closes the door gently and returns to Blue’s room, where his siblings have relegated themselves to the bed, watching the door cautiously. Trick steps forward to open it before the others have even reached it, grinning out at the world.

“Hi, Anti,” he says cheerfully.

Anti moves into his space and kisses the side of his head, his eyes boring into Blue and Dok’s as he presses his mouth to Trick’s fervently green hair. Blue turns his eyes away and Dok shrinks in on himself, clutching Blue’s hand.

“Hi-ya,” answers Anti pertly, his eyes flickering from black to blue. His hair grows out fluffy and green to match Trick’s and he draws back to smile at him. “Everything okay?”

“Yes, Anti. Everything okay with you guys?”

“No hitches at all. Not a scratch on anybody. When was the last time you had a kill that easy, Dap?”

Deep blue eyes stare back at Anti from the doorway. Dapper’s hand rests on the wall outside the motel like he can’t quite make himself step in.

But he does.

“Can’t remember,” he signs back in slow movements, removing the jacket from his shoulders. You see Blue stiffen as though injured. Dapper’s dress shirt is soaked in blood. He pulls it off, his expression mildly unhappy, and takes another shirt out of Henrik’s backpack.

“You’ll need a shower first, Dap,” Blue tells him. “It’s on your skin.”

“So it is.” He stares down at his hands.

“Go clean yourself up,” Anti orders. “Go, go. There’s a good boy. You check in with Dok before you fall asleep tonight. Where’s his medicine, Dok?”

“Here, Anti,” replies Dok, patting the bedside table.

“Good, good. So yes! Everyone is okay. Everything is okay. And now that we’ve got that done, we can move in to a new place tomorrow.”

Trick straightens up. “Really? Like a real house?”

“Oh, you’re going to like it, Rikki-Tricki-Tavi,” answers Anti smugly, glitching the blood off his hands. “You’re all just going to love it.”

Anonymous asked: Why does anti not want to see noodle trick? D:

“Anti doesn’t like animals,” Blue reminds you in a whisper, curled up at Dok’s side.

cest-mellow asked: what do you mean by “dreamy thing” trickster?

Red’s behind the others, moving slow and steady, kicking peacefully at a rock. Trick laughs to himself and points you at him, sitting down on the bed with Blue and Dok while Anti moves over towards his computer on the second bed. Everyone watches Red come into the room, his eyes unfocused and faraway, a faint smile on his face.

“Red?” calls Blue.

Red doesn’t answer, shutting the door gently behind him and moving forward - promptly smacking his hip into the minifridge. “Ow!” he yelps, stumbling back and looking up in alarm, confused to see everyone staring back at him.

Trick bursts into laughter, mimicking the way Red’s head was bobbing, as though he were listening to music.

“You spaced out again,” Blue tells him.

“Fuck,” hisses Red, rubbing his hip. “Shut up, Trick!”

“Fucking idiot,” laughs Anti. “Pay attention. Still dreaming of your boyfriend?”

Red flushes, humiliated, and moves towards the door to the other room.

“Camera,” Anti reminds him pointedly, and Red rushes back to grab one from his bag before darting back into the room and shutting the door beside him, leaving Blue staring worriedly after him.

bupine asked: red, are you ok? if you're worried about max, he's ok as far as we know.

“Oh, great,” says Red, still the color of his name, not quite meeting the gaze of you. He’s irritated and fast-moving, shaking his hands out again and again. “Well, that makes everything just peachy, then.”

He forces himself to sit down, staring out the window.

“Sorry. Things have just been weird lately.”

cest-mellow asked: jaki3 are you alright? has anti hurt you, do you have to stay in a separate room?

“No, no, I’m okay,” sighs Red, running his hands through his hair. “I mean, I just watched my baby brother tear this helpless fat guy to shreds, but hey, that’s just my life. Nah, Anti hasn’t hurt me, he just keeps making fun of me. And I can handle that. I think he’s pissed I was with Max at all when he found us. That I let Dap near Max.”

He puts his chin in his hands, his eyes drifting a little again. “Doesn’t like for me to talk about it, so I don’t…”

A smile floats across his mouth. He stares dreamily out the window, his legs swinging over the side of the bed when he sits down.

“Oh! Why am I in a separate room? Anti just got two, that’s all. And we gotta keep the doors closed cause of this little guy.” He pats Noodle’s head and the cat purrs, crawling into his lap. “Blue will come in and sleep with me tonight, though, so I’m not alone.”

pine-storm-season asked: Yeah, they probably have been. Is this a common occurrence, Red?

“I’ve been spacing out a lot, yeah,” grumbles Red, cheeks dark. “Stupid. I keep getting in trouble cause of it. Anti doesn’t think I’m listening to him. So now Trick’s been telling me what to do.”

He rolls his eyes. “Blue and me got in too much trouble lately. Not really top dogs anymore, I guess. But it’s almost a relief. I don’t think I want to have to push anybody around anymore. Anti says I’m going soft on him.”

pine-storm-season asked: Are you and your brothers more equal now, then?

“No, uh, well.” Red laughs. “When I say we’re not on top anymore? Trick’s in charge now. And he’s wrapped around Anti’s fucking pinkie these days. He’ll snap at Dok himself if he thinks he’s getting short with Anti.”

Red’s eyes fall for a moment. He picks at the raggedy sheets on his bed.

“I’m worried about him. Not acting like himself.”

pixie-in-trebleland asked: Hey Red! What's got you distracted?

He shrugs and gives a small smile, though it’s equal parts sad and happy.

“Don’t know,” he says. “I space out sometimes when I’m overwhelmed and stuff. But this isn’t that. I used to be able to focus pretty clearly on right now. But now it’s like… I don’t know. I just keep thinking about different things. I guess I’m thinking more about the future. And not just about making sure everybody’s going to have enough to eat. I can just… imagine things, now, I guess. That I didn’t before. I imagine a different future than I did before.”

He scratches Noodle’s tummy, letting out a low sigh. “But it’s just dreaming.”

The door to his room swings open and he turns to smile at Blue, but it isn’t Blue there.

Trick holds his backpack to his stomach nervously, staring at Red.

“What?”

“Um. Anti told me to stay in here tonight.”

Red straightens up, blinking. “What? In here?”

“Yeah.”

“What, like, share the bed with me? Where’s Blue? And Dok?”

“I don’t know, staying in that bed, I guess,” says Trick, looking stressed.

“Anti wants you and me to stay together?”

“That’s what I said!”

They stare at each other, seeing each other’s discomfort mirrored.

“Anti’s not… taking us away from Blue and Dok, right?”

Trick shrugs, chewing on his lip. “I just got him back,” he mumbles.

cest-mellow asked: anti, why are you separating the boys from their twins..?

“Trick, tell the cameras I don’t answer to them.”

“Cameras, Anti doesn’t answer to you.”

Anti laughs. “You little kiss-ass. I was kidding.”

“Okay, but actually I would… not mind knowing the answer either,” offers Red weakly. “If that’s okay, master.”

“I’m still figuring it out. You’re still twins with your twins. Don’t ask questions, just do what I say.”

Trick stares at Dok, their eyes meeting. Dok tries to reassure him, but his smile is small and afraid, his hands stretched out towards him. Trick tries to smile back.

“It’s late,” says Anti. “We’ll move early tomorrow. Get some sleep.”

Trick swallows and signs good night at Dok before slipping into the second room. Red stares back at him, looking tense.

“Well, this is going to be fun,” says Trick.

In the other room, Anti’s smile has not changed. He stalks towards Blue and Dok. Before they have a chance to say anything, he has a hand on both their throats, pushing them down onto the bed. Blue closes his eyes, trying to breathe slow and calm. Doktor stares back at Anti, his eyes furious and scared.

“You two,” breathes Anti, his eyes drizzling to black, teeth sharpening in his mouth. “Are still trying to be my little trouble-makers, aren’t you? You think I’m going to give you free reign with your twins knowing what you know? Knowing how you feel?”

“Hurt me now and I’ll shout so Red hears me,” threatens Blue, panting.

Anti shoves against his throat, making him choke. “Right. Good luck with that. No, Blue. I still need your body at nights to get me through the sickness I get otherwise. And you, Dok…”

He moves his hand to Dok’s stomach and squeezes. Tears well up in Dok’s eyes, but he does not make a noise.

“Good,” growls Anti. “You know what will happen if you tell him?”

Dok nods swiftly, closing his eyes.

“Then keep your fucking mouth shut. Sooner you break back into shape, the sooner I’ll let you sleep next to Trick again. For now, you stay with me at nights, and you’ll look after Dapper and Blue. Understand?”

Dok nods again, tears washing down his cheeks.

Anti shoves him off the bed. Dok crashes to the ground and scurries into the corner, hiding his face in his thighs.

Blue chokes again, beginning to get desperate for air. Anti crawls over his body and leans down on him, gripping his head to turn his eyes towards him, and there is nothing Dok can do to stop him from possessing his brother once again.

“We’re playing this game just one more time.” Anti licks Blue’s lips, throwing his head and adjusting his clothes, sitting up in the fragile body no matter the strain he causes it. “Just one more time, like Red said. And I intend to fucking win.”

Dapper steps out of the bathroom, toweling off his hair. Doktor will not look at him. Anti looks back at him with Blue’s eyes.

Something hot and painful twists inside his gut, but when Anti reaches out for him, he goes quietly, and he lays down at his brother’s side like he always does.

Playing this game just one more time.

Henrik wraps his fingers around the ravens on his chest and he grits his fierce teeth in his mouth.

Well, then. Let’s play.

.

Dapper waits until Anti is asleep.

He does not like to be touched by him, these days. He does not want to be held. He does not want to share a bed. Especially when it is Blue beside him, trapped beneath Anti’s power. He does not want to see his sibling in pain.

Anyway, he can see Dok trembling in the bed beside his own.

He slips out from beneath Anti’s arms wrapped around his throat, pausing to make sure his breathing stays heavy and thick. When Anti does not wake, Dapper slinks to his feet and touches Dok’s shoulder.

Dok jumps so hard he nearly slams their heads together. Dapper holds him gently down and rubs his shoulder, waiting for him to calm.

“What?” whispers Dok, astonished. “Dap, are you - ”

He holds a finger to his mouth and takes Dok’s hands, pulling him out of bed and leading him to the bathroom.

“Are you okay, Dap?”

“Sit on the counter.”

“What?”

“Sit,” he repeats, pushing him. “Sit, sit.”

Dok has been crying. His face is still red. He turns his head away and hoists himself onto the counter, staring at Dapper like he might be the one possessed.

“What, I never given you an order before?”

“I don’t believe you have,” replies Dok. “Or woken me up for anything.”

“Usually you have Trick to look after you,” answers Dapper, and he reaches for Dok’s shirt.

Dok’s hands grab his own, his eyes wide.

Dapper looks back at him, not letting go.

“Don’t look,” breathes Dok, his voice shaking. “Don’t, there’s… I’m self-conscious, I…”

Dapper laughs again, his random, wild laugh without any noise but a humorless huffing.

“Did Anti tell you?” asks Dok, feeling his cheeks heat.

Dapper snorts and shakes his head. He helps Doktor pull the shirt over his head.

“Anti doesn’t have to tell me anything,” he replies shortly, taking the med kit from beneath the sink. “I know everything he does. You shouldn’t have tried to stitch this up yourself.”

Dok closes his eyes as Dapper’s hands run over the deep cut in his stomach, coated in struggling stitches.

“They’ll hold.”

“Since when do you know anything about stitches?” whispers Dok.

“Since I’ve bandaged myself and Red up a hundred times before, that’s since when.” He gets antiseptic from the bag and begins cleaning the wound. “I don’t like to be under-estimated, my darling.”

“I thought that was how you survived,” Dok pants back, staring at him.

Dapper doesn’t answer.

“I don’t know what’s going on with you these days,” says Dok, coughing at the pain as Dapper cleans the wound Anti gave him. “I’m scared you’re still suicidal and you won’t tell anyone. Your expressions are always wrong and I don’t know if it’s the schizophrenia or something else going on with you. I want to say you’re not acting right, but the truth is, I don’t remember how you used to act. Or who you used to be… I think a different person than this.”

Dapper looks up at him for a second, and then away.

“Are you angry, Dapper?”

He gets a bandage out of the bag and begins pressing it onto the wound, tearing away the sticky sides of the big white band-aid.

“Are you still suicidal?”

“No one here knows me,” Dapper tells him suddenly, his hands nearly in his face. “Let’s not pretend that you do.”

Henrik stares back at him, his face still hot from crying.

Dapper softens again, brushing water from his cheeks.

“I love you,” he says. “I know how to take care of myself. You should do the same. Tell Anti what he wants to hear, take the necklaces off, and go back to your twin. Be grateful you have the chance to earn one.”

“Don’t say that to me,” whispers Henrik. “I know that’s not what you want. I know. We all saw how badly you wanted things to change on the side of that cliff, Dapper. Don’t lie to me.”

Dapper watches the floor.

“I love you,” Dok adds, touching his cheek. “Even if I don’t know who you are… whoever that person is, I love him.”

Dapper closes his eyes for a second. He looks up again a moment later, his eyes tired, and he leans in to kiss Dok’s cheek, holding the back of his head.

“I love you too. But Anti is going to keep doing things like this to you. And I know you won’t tell Trick.”

“I can’t watch him get hurt because of me.”

“I know.”

“You looked after me just now. I want to look after you too. And Anti says I can. Promise me you’ll be honest with me, Dapper. I can’t watch you go back to the place you were in last week.”

Dapper stares at him for a long time.

“And I can’t watch you go back to being Anti’s favorite thing to hurt.”

Henrik’s mouth parts. He isn’t sure what to say.

“None of you know how hellish Anti could make your life, really,” whisper Dapper’s hands. “You, and all of our siblings, and anyone on the cameras - none of you know. I am the only one who remembers. I am the only one who still has the nightmares. I am the only one who still carries that. Doktor. Don’t make Anti angry again. If you think that what you remember is bad… you don’t want to remember the rest.”

Dapper kisses him again, on the heel of his palm, and for a second, the emotion on his face is real and right and true, and he does not laugh.

“Go back to sleep, H-healing,” he signs. “And don’t risk your life and your sanity on the promises of ravens.”

He draws away from him, his blue eyes dark. Henrik sits on the counter for a long time, in silence, his hand over the bandaged wound in his side.

[a-heist-of-words]

“Where are they?” - JSE Fanfic

It was "that day" of "those days".

That day when everything just went to shit, so anything that happened on top of that was just... might as well, you know?

I had just finished recording a video, but not trickshots for my channel or even an "I'm sorry I've been inactive for a while" vlog. This was for a friend. My best friend. 

He had many more subscribers than me, and it should stay like that. He'd worked so hard for it all... it wouldn't be fair if it just... went away. I had only a couple thousand, and I'm sure most of them were bots anyways.

I looked enough like him that I could pretend to be him, but I didn't have his attitude. His fans noticed, but they were willing to buy into the fiction. Until that video...

It wasn't my fault, alright? I didn't know that the game would hit so hard, so close to home. But, for a second, I forgot what channel I was recording for, and I let my true identity slip. By the time I noticed, there was no more time to record again, so I just let it upload like that. The fans would be more upset by a missing video than by my little mishap.

People noticed. Of course they did. The others immediately sent me messages. I'd failed. Again. I had one job, and I'd failed. They'd handle my mess, they said. I should just sit tight and do nothing. Well, that was one thing I could do.

I remember the lights flickering and then going out. Power outage. Great. At least the video was up, I thought as I lit a few candles. The tiny flames made my body cast long shadows on the walls. It was an eerie reminder that I was all too real, along with all the things I'd done wrong. I needed a drink.

I remember pouring myself the first glass, the first sip of liquid fire running down my throat, numbing it so I couldn't feel the second, the third...

Then, my phone rang. I had a special ringtone for her. I had a special everything for her, even if, for her, I was nothing special.

"Stacy?" I answered, trying to keep my words from slurring, which of course made it all the worse. But she didn't comment on it. She sounded this close to panicking.

"Chase, are the kids with you?" she asked. "No, I took them to your mother's, like you asked," I replied. "She says they're not there. Chase, I swear to God..." "They're not here!" I said, perhaps a bit too harshly. I took a deep breath. When I exhaled, I heard something... was that... laughter?

"Hold on... I... I think they're here?" I said, my voice rising to a question. But I had taken them home, hadn't I? I had dropped them off right at the door, I had told them I loved them, and they had gone in, and then I had come back to record and upload my... Jack’s... video.

Then again, they were very smart kids. They could've come back, found their way back, to spend more time with me. The thought made me smile, a bit of short-lived hope. They wanted to be with Daddy.

Stacy was quiet for a few seconds, but I knew her well enough to sense the anger through the phone. "I'm on my way." "Stacy, wait...!" I started, but she had already hung up. 

Great. There went my weekend privileges. I heard more laughter, a precious sound that somehow seemed out of place in this dark house that wasn’t even mine. All of Jack’s recording stuff was here, and his home was much nicer than my apartment anyways... 

I got up, leaving the empty glass next to my hat and the one picture Stacy let me keep of them.

"Sweetie?" I called. The hallways were very dark, even for this time of night. The candlelight was soon engulfed by shadows. I struck my lighter a couple of times. I didn't smoke, but I had always carried a lighter around, just in case. "Come on..." I muttered at the sparks. I had to get a new lighter; this one was dying.

The tiny flame was enough for me to more or less see where I was going. I heard them giggling again, and I walked following the sound. It was not time for hide and seek... but then again, it was always time for hide and seek. Anything they wanted.

When they started screaming, that's when I started running. I heard other voices, whispers, coming from seemingly all around me. And then crying. I couldn't tell which one it was, but I knew it was one of my kids. And they were scared... No. They were terrified.

A door on the far end of the hallway opened, and unnatural red light poured out. I was blinded for a second, used to the tiny amber glow of my lighter. When my eyes adjusted, I could see a black silhouette in the doorway. It seemed to warp and unfocus, but it wasn't my eyes playing tricks on me. I was not drunk enough for this. No... this man, this creature, whatever it was... it was glitching in and out of existence all on its own.

"Who's there?" I called, trying to sound braver than I felt.

He turned around slowly, the red light hiding most of his factions. But I could tell he was smiling, the hideous grin of a predator, of a monster. One of his eyes glinted, a strange green shine that I could only relate to a lens flare in the movies. I felt like I was floating and falling, my mind trying to separate from my body and still very much grounded in this living nightmare it was trying to escape.

"Where are they?" I asked, and my voice sounded far away and underwater. I could no longer hear my children, and I hoped in vain that they were hiding, and I knew with terrifying certainty that they were not. "What do you want from me?!"

He didn't answer. He sauntered towards me. His body seemed solid enough, but he seemed to warp through reality. I could see his face better now. He was like me, but he was not me. He was not from this world. The last thing I saw before his hand clamped around my throat were his eyes, blacker than the nothing that consumed me as I finally collapsed.

[griim]

lieshot​:

The fact of the matter was that is would have been EASIER to have simply died in that warehouse. After the initial bullets had torn through his skin, it hadn’t been so bad. The shock of it all had made him feel NUMB. No pain, just an overwhelming exhaustion that had settled in. The only bad thing had been his own thoughts in that moment. The panic of death settling in, remembering every mistake he had made. Wondering just how it would affect his brother and regretting their last conversations. And then there had been relief when he felt himself being taken away. The thought that he was being saved, that he just might make it out—— now, it was a feeling that DISGUSTED him. If only he had known.   ❝  Trust me, Gemma. It would have been better to die.  ❞  She could be glad he was here now, glad that she had SOMEONE. That wouldn’t negate his own death wish in that moment. The moment that changed everything, that changed him so much. From hero to villain in the eyes of many.

He couldn’t blame her assumption, though. That was what probably most people thought that thought they knew him. In the eyes of the outside world, he was a member of the mafia that disappeared and came back as Trickshot. Most wouldn’t even think twice on his death and assumed that it was all some damn planned VACATION or some shit. Maybe during that time, people simply assumed the lack of a body was because of his ties to the underground. They were real good at covering their tracks but to not even ATTEMPT to find him? Especially his brother with all of his damn connections should have found him. 

The touch on his arm drew him back, almost flinching away before blue eyes moved up to find Gemma standing there. He let out a breath he hadn’t even realised he had been holding, relaxing under her touch and teeth biting the inside of his cheek as he fought to COMPOSE himself again. He hated looking a damn mess.  ❝  Ain’t your fault. Clint probably didn’t even look into who my friends might be to invite them to the funeral. Probably wasn’t even one if I know him. But I bet if you were, you woulda tried looking anyways once you saw there wasn’t a body. You’re determined as hell.  ❞  Couldn’t be mad at her for what she didn’t know. Just like she seemed to be realising he had simply been satiating his own paranoia in the questions he had been asking her. 

As for becoming his old self again, that was a far cry from what he wanted. Everything that had happened had left Barney DISILLUSIONED with it all. He had wanted to be one of those heroes and played it well. Now heroes were those that took to the skies rather than the things he and Gemma had done in the good old days. The FBI had let him down, the heroes of the modern day had done the same. Barney shook his head, standing up to his full height once again though he didn’t pull his arm away from her touch.  

❝  I’m not interested in that anymore. I don’t wanna be that guy. That guy was a stupid idiot that thought the FBI or the military would have my back. Military left us on our own in Kabul. FBI left me in that hellhole. I ain’t that fuckin’ idiot anymore and I’m not interested in playing a good guy again. Good guys get shot up in a warehouse ‘cause they got in too deep. I don’t make those MISTAKES now.  ❞  Barney wasn’t rebuilding his life. He was forging his own new path away from the lines of good and evil. Instead, he walked the path of grey. He could at any point go to the courts and petition to be listed as ALIVE once more but he hadn’t. Why should he?

Let the old Barney rot in the grave that held an empty casket and Trickshot would take his place.

The old Barney had hurt others, sure. But he had always thought it a NECESSITY in order to help others. When he had waited for Clint that day before getting on the bus to join the army alone, it had been for the best. When he had let the world think he was some sort of criminal, it had been to try and get the mafia locked up finally and, again,  FOR THE BEST. He had sacrificed so much to do what was right and gave such little time for himself. The only good thing to come out of hell was the FREEDOM that came with it. To decide for himself and not for others. And now he knew better, knew to keep himself out of such situations. No one would ever put him in such a situation again.

His arm that she had been touching moved as she continued speaking, only to fully grasp her own. It wasn’t that he didn’t trust her at all, just the mere thought of someone else watching his back was  FOREIGN one. Once upon a time, he had been the one looking out for others and himself. The older brother, the protector, the one that took the punches so others didn’t have to, even in his military and FBI days. It was who he had always been.  ❝  I trust you. Thing is, save for when we served together, I was watching the backs of others and they didn’t bother to do the same. So gonna take some used to. But I got no issues going down SWINGING right beside ya. It’s how I figured I’d always end up anyways.   ❞  A bit of dark humour and yet the truth. No way in hell would people like them get a HAPPY ENDING and die of old age somewhere. It wasn’t how they were raised, wasn’t in their very blood to just STOP FIGHTING.

The fucks that did all this to them, it was their own fault and it would bring hell upon their heads for messing with them in the first place. 

The idea of taking on HYDRA, though, to hunt them down and make them pay? It meant stepping out of the shadows and putting himself more on the map for them to remember and try to seize once more. But wouldn’t it be better than waiting around for them to realise? Take BACK the control that they had stolen from him for ten years.  ❝  Well those Avengers sure as shit aren’t doin’ much about them. I guess if somebody’s gotta, why not make it a revenger slaughter? I’ve heard some rumours about some bases and I’ve taken OUT a few people already that tried to sneak into my life. I do deep, deep digs into anyone that gives me a job and I’ve found one of those assholes a few times. But it means you might be goin’ up against your dad, you know that, right?  ❞  He didn’t have such PERSONAL ties to the people that hurt him. Just nameless faces he could care less about and it made the kill that much EASIER. But Barney also had no issues going toe-to-toe with his own brother but not everyone could shake off the past like that.

Why was this reunion so hard? This was what she wanted so desperately wasn't it? Someone from her past that had a deep connection with her. Gemma deserved some fucking reprieve, did she not? ‘No, no, you don’t, Gemma. He would rather be dead than be with you, just like Jordan is.’ That voice sounded so much like her father, constantly reminding her why she was alone, why she deserved to be alone. Maybe it was easier if they forgot one another, moved on, and did what they did in life, survive. He could have a semi-normal life, not one attached to Gemma Harding. Blinking several times, she did her damnedest to make sure NO tears fell from her eyes, no matter what happened here between them. Crying would never be an option. “Not to me. You wouldn’t have been better off. But who knows, maybe that is me being selfish and wanting you here.” Muttering, Gemma quickly looked away, fuck her feelings, right? It was selfish to want him to stick around after the shit he had been through, and even when Gemma wished the same for herself, she could not seem to die. Always just in the grasps of death only to be kept alive, and for what? To see her friends say they would be better off dead? To see the one person she loved in life die before her eyes. If that was the case, why continue to feel anything for anyone? “Maybe I wanted to have my friend back. I guess that was stupid too. To think I could help him and maybe we could go back to some sense of normal, even if it isn’t our old selves again.”

‘Am I that bad to be around? This whole time he had not been happy to see me. Even with his past, you’d think he would be happy to fucking see me.’ After all, they had been through Gemma thought she at least deserved that.

As he flinched, she moved her arm away, too much Gemma knew that look. Barney did not want to be touched, and she did just that. But Gemma felt that it was a way of comforting a friend. It was what Jordan used to do. And, as much as she flinched and acted as she hated it, she desperately wanted to feel it again. Gemma wished someone would do that to her, reach out and touch her. Comfort her. “Yeah, I doubt he did. Most people are fucking selfish and blindsided. Besides, he made it big. So, I guess the little people down below don't matter anymore. And, yeah, there was a funeral. When I was given the job to find, you. I, uh, looked into you, and that’s when I found the grave.” Taking in a deep breath, Gemma felt the tears coming. Sucking them in, she continued, “I visited your grave and-” stopping for a while, she coughed and cleared her throat. “I visited Reaper’s grave.”  Nodding, Gemma finally admitted what happened to Reaper, though barely able to say it. “And I couldn’t dig up your grave, but you are right… The moment I would have known there was not a body, I would have turned the world over to find you. Or a body, unlike what they did to-” Biting back the rest of what she wanted to say, she turned away from him, in case her tears decided to betray her and fall. ‘Fuck feelings and people in general.’  Rubbing the bridge of her nose, Gemma felt a headache coming. This was too happening at once, too much mental noise for her to handle.

“Sorry, let’s um. Change the subject.” Gemma quickly spoke, “Yeah. I am determined as hell. And you know that got me into a lot of shit in the service.”

Oh, she agreed. The military did not give to fucking shits about them, any of them. They let Jordan's body remain overseas in some sandy grave. They did not even entertain the fucking idea of going to look for Jordan. She did not even get to say goodbye. With her back turned, Gemma continued to replay that day in her mind. Her reloading, the sound of the bullet hitting him, then her screaming for a medevac that never came. Being pulled away by her brothers in arms, only to watch the building go up in flames. ‘Go, it’s okay.’ No, Jordan it’s not okay. Once again, Gemma blinked back tears, and for a second, she was back there, overseas, the sounds of gunfire and the smell of blood and sand. Back then, she was foolish to believe that she was going to make a difference and that she was a hero. Sniffling, Gemma gulped back a sob, “yeah, I am not falling for that shit anymore. The military left us to die in Kabul, Barney. Don’t fucking sugarcoat it. I did what I had to do to make sure you and the rest got home… And you know what, it never got any fucking better, they parade you around and give you honors and promotions only so they can push you back out and watch you DIE.” The last words came out in more of a hiss than speaking. She HATED what they did. Gemma wished she could make them suffer like she has had to do day in and day out. Like thousands of other veterans.

“Good, then maybe you can join me. You know I don’t leave any man behind to fucking rot.” Gemma replies, turning back to him, eyes watery yet no tears falling, jaw tense, as if she relaxed at all, the tears would begin to fall. “We don’t need any more heroes in this fucking world, Barney. We need survivors, and I think we have been doing a damned good job at it. Don’t you?” Let the Avengers and SHIELD play dress up and run around ‘saving’ people, but in the end, the world would forget them. It was people like Barney and herself that did the work. The shit that was not front-page news. “We can work together as a team, do shit our way and make a name for ourselves. Those old fools who trusted the military and shit can die like they were supposed to.” Gemma was not going to go out like a flame in the wind, forgotten and out in a flash, no. Gemma was going to go out with a bang and would be remembered.

Standing near him, she hoped he did not think she was crazy for saying what she said, but it was how she felt. The world did not need heroes who thought they were ‘right.' There were always two sides to everything. The military taught her that. As she was about to open her mouth, she felt him grasp her arm, lips wiggled a little, trying to force a smile but forgetting how. Gemma nodded, “I know you used to look after the others. But luckily with me, I don’t think you will have to do that. Or, if you do, I will return the favor. I can’t lose another person I care about deeply and trust.” Gemma knew she could not mentally take that weight again. She would not recover. “Take as long as you need to get used to it, trust me, I'm gonna have to get used to having someone around me again. Other than Nicole. Which I’m not sure you’ve met her yet.” It had been a hot minute since they had been around one another, and Gemma had lost a few memories. So Barney might have met her, but she was not sure. ‘Go down swinging beside her,’ that had a nice ring to it. Laughing, Gemma agreed, “you know I think the same thing. I always pictured; you, me, and Reaper. So we will have to make them think there are three of us.” Gemma playfully punched his arm, hiding all the heartache that bellowed beneath the surface.

“Besides, since when do we take vacations?” She teased a little. Neither of them knew how to relax, which was kind of funny. “The Avengers are too busy playing dress-up. They don’t do shit that isn’t front-page shit, so, yeah, we can handle it. Besides, I bet you would enjoy making them pay. Because I know I will.” Gemma paused, becoming stiff, “I know it will. He has his disgusting hands deep within HYDRA .” She wanted to make him pay, taking over ten years of her life and making her suffer nearly daily. Gemma had a plan for him. The chair would soon be calling his name, “and I know that the moment I get near him, he will know how to fuck with my head, BUT I will make sure that I am the one to kill him. Barney, promise me that you will let me be the one to kill him.”

[scaryteddybear]

Hurricane - A SDMN Fic

CHAPTER ONE

“For fucks sake Skye!” Kaylyn exclaimed with egg dripping from her head. “I’m done, I’m done,” Kaylyn rose from the seat and walked away from the cameras view. After getting a paper towel from Sandra and wiping her face she ended her video with a quick bye.

Kaylyn turned the camera off and looked at her friends.

“You should take a shower,” Jenny said and Kaylyn laughed a little.

“Yeah, that’s a good idea. Do you wanna help clean up afterwards?” She answered.

“Sure,” Sandra said, and the others nodded.

Kaylyn walked to her room and grabbed a change of clothes and a towel. She went to the shower and washed her hair and body quickly, getting rid of all the egg, yoghurt and frube. She dried herself with the towel and blew her hair dry.  After putting on the clothes and jamming to some music she went into the living room to help clean up.

It didn’t take long to tidy up since they had put down some tarp on the floor and just had to throw it outside. Kaylyn grabbed her camera and put it in her room before walking into the kitchen to talk with the rest of the girls.

They mostly sat on their phones, going on Twitter and liking and retweeting fans posts, and chatted about random stuff. After a while it was time for Skye and Sandra to go back to their apartment just a few blocks away and Kaylyn walked them to the door.

“Football tomorrow, yeah?” Kaylyn asked.

“Yep, we’ll see you at the pitch. Be there at nine,” Skye answered with a smile. The girls waved goodbye and the door closed.

 Now it was only Kaylyn and Jenny left considering they lived together.

“Do you want to order food?” Jenny asked Kaylyn when she got back into the kitchen.

“Yes! I’m starving. TGIF?” Kaylyn requested and Jenny nodded in response.

Kaylyn quickly dialed the phone number to TGIF and ordered their usual.

“I’m gonna go and start editing, watch the door will you?” Kaylyn said and without waiting for an answer she went into her room and turned on her computer.

 30 minutes later Jenny knocked on Kaylyn’s door and mentioned that the food was there. Kaylyn got up from her seat and followed Jenny to the kitchen where they started to devour the food without much conversation. When they were done and had put away the plates they went into their rooms and started to work on the content they put on YouTube.

At around 9 PM British time they put out their videos. A “Patience Test” for Kaylyn and a “January Favorites” for Jenny.  When that was done Kaylyn went into the bathroom and started to get ready for bed, she was soon joined by Jenny.

“How are you feeling about tomorrow Kay?” Jenny asked.

“I’m excited! It’s been quite a while since we did some football challenges,” Kaylyn responded. Their night routine was swiftly done and they once again went their separate ways after bidding goodnight.  

  Jen and Kay arrived to the pitch a little late, but lucky for them Sandra and Skye were already there, doing some keepy ups while waiting.

“Great you’re here, let’s get going!” Sandra said when the girls were in hearing distance.

Everyone laughed as they started to set up their cameras. Jenny and Kaylyn quickly warmed up and they started to do the videos. First up was Skye’s “Call out penalty challenge”. Sandra stood in goal while the others said to the camera which part of the goal they were going to attempt to score in.

“So Jenny won. No surprise, Sandra’s shit in goal,” Skye told the camera.  

“Hey! Fuck off!” Sandra interrupted. All girls giggled and Skye finished doing her outro.

“What’s up next?” Kaylyn asked.

“We’ll do my blind penalties?” Sandra replied in a questioning tone. They all agreed and Sandra began setting up her cameras.

While she was doing that some noises came from the metal door leading to the pitch, Kaylyn looked over to the ruckus and saw a group of guys trying to get in. She looked over to Jenny and after seeing Jenny nod they walked over to the door. On their way there the boys stopped trying to get in.

When they got closer they could make out the features of the boys, who we’re more like young adults than teenagers, and what was most prominent was the way a few of them roamed their eyes over the girls bodies.

“Do you need anything?” Jenny asked with a smirk.

“You don’t reckon you could let us in?” a blond boy in the front asked.

“I don’t know. We’re kinda busy over here. Can’t you take another pitch?” Jenny answered sweetly.

“It’s occupied everywhere else. You’re not even using the entire place!” the blond boy ranted.

“Sorry buddy. We got here first. Maybe come earlier next time,” Kaylyn explained with a small smirk.

With that said they turned around and walked back to their friends, not so discreetly high-fiving.

“What did they want?” Sandra asked after kicking a ball, trying to hit the crossbar.

“Only wanted to use the pitch. Doesn’t matter though, they’re not getting in,” Jenny answered with a mischievous smile.

“Well, you didn’t get them to leave. They’re still at the door,” Skye pointed out.

Kaylyn just shrugged, “Sandra, you ready?”

Sandra nodded in response and they began doing the video. It went smoothly, if you count smoothly as only one person scoring, and they were soon starting their third video of the day “crossbar challenge” and then the fourth “woodwork challenge”.  After all the videos were done it was time for lunch, so they packed everything into their bags and went on a search for the nearest Nando’s.

There they got a little surprise – a group of boys who wanted to play football on the very same pitch the girls played on. Only the guys were there, so they were all alone. When they first opened the door into the restaurant the girls were laughing about how Skye tripped on the way. They didn’t notice the boys until they had sat down in a booth and began looking through the menus.

“Oh, fuck,” Jenny whispered when she noticed the other group.

“What’s wrong?” Sandra asked.

“The ones sitting over there are the boys that we didn’t let into the pitch,” Jenny whispered.

“So?” Skye said.

“I don’t know. I just pointed it out” Jenny defended herself.  

“Well, why don’t we just ignore them like we ignore the haters?” Kaylyn said with a giggle.

“Yaass gurl,” Skye laughed.

They ordered their food and while they waited social media took up their time. Just when the food arrived the boys left, the blonde one that Kay and Jen had spoken to giving them a glare. Kaylyn met his eyes and gave him a smirk, although that seemed to make him angrier considering he flipped her off when he went outside.

“Hey, are we uploading the football vids today?” Kaylyn asked in between chewing her food.

“I think so. We’ll have all afternoon editing anyways. You two are coming over to our place right?” Skye answered.

“Yeah, I think so. We just have to go and get our stuff,” Kaylyn responded.

When they had finished eating they separated ways, only to meet up again soon after.  

  About a week later the girls were once again back at the football pitch. They were just warming up, thinking about which videos they wanted to film and generally having a good time.

“For fucks sake!” Jen exclaimed before metal clanging was heard from the door. The girls looked over and once again the boys were there.

“I’ll go,” Kaylyn offered before anyone said anything. She quickly walked over to the door and stood in front of it with a raised eyebrow and her arms crossed.

“Can you let us in?” a bearded man asked.

“Is the rest taken?” she responded.

“Yes,” the blonde boy she had spoken to before cut in.

Kaylyn thought for a moment, but before she could say anything the guy continued.

“You lot are YouTubers, yeah?” after seeing her nod he kept going “so are we, and it’s been quite a while since we’ve uploaded a football video. Can you just let us in?”

“Sure,” she gave in, “just stay on one half of the pitch and don’t disturb us, okay?”

Kaylyn opened the door, and the boys streamed in.

“Not even a thank you?” she uttered before closing the door.

“Thank you!” the blonde boy yelled back.

Kaylyn just shook her head before walking back to the girls.

“Why’d you let them in?” Sandra asked.

“Because they’re YouTubers like us,” was Kay’s simple answer.

After finally deciding what to do they started filming.  It was quite annoying though hearing laughs and screams come from across the field. Along with balls that had been shot in the wrong direction. One time Kaylyn looked at the boys and saw that even if they fucked around they did have some skills, especially the blonde boy and the one in the snapback. She watched one of them execute a great trickshot for a penalty.

And when the girls didn’t watch the boys, but were concentrated on their own thing the boys were watching them.

“They’re quite good, innit?” Ethan said to Simon and Tobi who were watching the girls do penalties. One of them managed to put it top bins and all the other girls went crazy.

“Yeah, they are aren’t they? And they’re quite good looking to,” Simon answered with a cheeky smile.

“Harry, crossbar!” Josh yelled.

Harry took a ball and shot it towards the crossbar, which it hit. But he did underestimate the power and the ball bounced back towards the girls side. And unfortunately it hit one of their cameras.

“Oh shit!” Harry exclaimed and at the same time Jenny yelled angrily “what the fuck, you dickhead!”  

[arcanakrp-blog]

SONG MIJOO – THE EMPRESS. AGENT 03.

                                                  [ FILE TYPE: CLASSIFIED ]

//: LOADING PROFILE: SONG MIJOO …

international age: 24 birthplace: seoul, south korea arcana: the empress team number: 1

//: LOADING MUTATION: WEAPONS PROFICIENCY …

application one: enhanced marksmanship — perhaps her personal favorite ability, this gives mijoo terrifyingly heightened accuracy with any projectile. she can quickly calculate where to aim based on environmental factors, how fast the target is moving, how far the target actually is, what the weight and speed of her weapon is, among other factors that may come into play. she, of course, still has to physically aim the weapon or projectile in that correctly calculated place, but with focus and the enhanced nature of the ability, it’s often not incredibly difficult to do so.

application two: weapon calling — this gives mijoo the ability to call weapons to her using nothing but her mind. the longer she has “bonded” with a weapon, the stronger the ability is. for example, she can call an enemy’s weapon out of their hand, pocket, wherever as long as it’s within her current vision. but if it’s her own weapon, one that she’s worn in, so to speak, she can call it without having visual of it as long as it’s relatively nearby (the stronger the bond, the farther it can be). though, of course, her weapons fly towards her in a normal throwing speed, so it’s more useful for her weapons to be closer to her when calling them, rather than being half a mile away.

application three: adoptive muscle memory (weaponry) — this gives mijoo the ability to watch and, literally, learn. she can not know what a weapon is even called, but if she watches someone else use it to its full ability, she’ll be able to mimic that usage down to the little intricacies. this is, however, also limited in that she can only learn what she sees. so if, for example, she only sees someone shoot a machine gun, she won’t learn how to reload it.

overall strengths and weaknesses:

— with regards to her enhanced marksmanship, while her calculations are precisely accurate and her aim perfectly in place, it’s still just that – a calculation. she can account for wind speed and target movement all she wants, but if something unaccounted for obstructs the path of her projectile in the split second between her launching the weapon and the target, there’s nothing she can do to prevent that. but when it works just right, it’s very satisfying and she enjoys trickshotting, such as reflecting a shot off walls or other surfaces, to show off a bit.

similarly, she enjoys using weapon calling in more abstract ways, treating knives like boomerangs to cut targets on the way back to her. or making flashy entrances by throwing guns at the target then calling them back just before they hit their face, catching them mid-air before aiming the barrel right at the target, a smile smug on her face. and okay, maybe that’s not entirely practical, but she enjoys doing it. at least, when it works out right.

just like with her enhanced marksmanship, her weapon calling can be obstructed relatively easily. her weapons travel back to her at normal throwing speeds, so if a target or anyone in the vicinity has good reaction speed, they can easily catch a weapon that she’s thrown or is on the way back to her. even more, weapon calling doesn’t give her superhuman strength of any form, so if she tries to call a large, heavy iron sledgehammer? it will still fly over to her no problem, but actually being able to carry and wield the thing is another question entirely.

and just the same applies to her adoptive muscle memory – she may be able to watch someone swing around that same heavy sledgehammer and learn how to do so, but that doesn’t mean she can actually hold the thing and carry out the learned actions. and if she runs out of arrows? bullets? well, she’s out of luck there because she has no ability to summon ammo out of thin air. but still, she can make a weapon out of anything if she tries hard enough.

//: LOADING HISTORY ..

PRE-MUTATION

i.

if life is a game, song mijoo was born a chess pawn.

in reality, she was a product of too much alcohol and a night full of mistakes. the first mistake being her mom deciding to leave her fiancé’s apartment in a fit of rage. the second, spending her night at a nightclub nursing a bottle of… vodka, was it? she could never remember. the third, going home with some guy that couldn’t keep his hands off her all night. the fourth and perhaps the most important, not using protection.

nine months and one lie to her fiancé later, song mijoo was born and her mother didn’t want her or the man she was supposed to marry. so she ran away. much later in life, mijoo’s father tells her that’s what her mom was best at anyway. running away. it was only a matter of when.

her father, on the other hand, was a man of many talents. but staying still was not one of them, either. no, his talents were of the deceptive kind. he was an actor. well, aspiring, struggling, and never called back after all his lackluster auditions, but an actor nonetheless. maybe he wasn’t meant for the stage, for cameras and scripted lines on stacks of paper, but on the streets? that was where he shined, able to muster trustworthy grins or sinister smirks, able to speak in busan satoori or english with no korean accent heavy on foreign words. he needed to make money somehow what with his minimum wage job at the movie theater useless and his botched auditions getting him nowhere. and so he was a conman, a thief, and mijoo was the perfect pawn to aid him.

ii.

a struggling, single father with a beautiful baby daughter just trying to get by. it was the perfect cover story for short scams or distractions, because for one who wouldn’t give him pity? and second, it wasn’t exactly a lie.

her father was well versed in half-truths, just one of the many skills of the trade that mijoo inevitably picked up herself.

she learned a lot of things from her father this way. how to cry on cue, or frown, or smile; how to slip her hand into someone’s pocket unnoticed, or shake someone’s hand and slide their watch off, or pick a basic lock with nothing but the bobby pin in her hair. she learned how to respond to ara, nayeon, mina, yoojoo, and a plethora of other names as if they were her own, sometimes wondering if one of those names was her mother’s. her father never would tell her.

they lived in various apartments littered across seoul, moving often just to stay safe. she transferred often and never made any friends, but she attended school like any other girl her age. and instead of hagwons or other after school activities, she helped her dad grocery shop at food markets, a distraction with a cute smile to warm the hearts of the grandmas manning the stands, or when she grew older, a charmer who could convince them to give her freebies, heavy discounts. she trolled tourist and heavily populated streets, itaewon, insadong, myeongdong, hongdae, and came home with a backpack full of cash, watches, jewelry to pawn. her grades were nothing to write home about as a result, but that didn’t matter anyway. university, a career, living an honest life was never in her forecast when her father only taught her time and time again that there was always a shortcut to get what you want.

iii.

one of the most important lessons her father taught her, however, was that of betrayal.

at eighteen when she picked the wrong pocket and landed herself in handcuffs, her father never came when they called. and when she was released with nothing more than a warning because the victim had taken a sudden liking to her, he was no where to be found. not at their new apartment, not at their old one, not at his legal job, anywhere. much later, far removed from the incident, she assumed it was for his own safety. a single father with a minimum wage job, a thief of a daughter, and an apartment well above their means was sure to raise some flags, after all. but in the moment, all mijoo saw was red.

she learned long ago when he taught her how to make a smile seem genuine to always be wary of people. but she learned a lot more that day: to never trust anyone under any circumstances, how to hold a grudge, and that her mother wasn’t the only one good at running away.

iv.

she made do with that she had, got rid of her dad’s worthless possessions and pawned the rest. she stayed in seoul because it was all she ever knew, landed a job at the café below her apartment through charm alone, and spent her nights the only way she knew how: quiet giggles and a brush of her hand against some poor guy who would wake up the next morning with nothing in his wallet but his ID and a thank you note. she had burner phones for every name, one for eunsol, another for jiyeon, another for minhee, and more, some lasting longer than others, but never long enough to tie her down. at nineteen, twenty, twenty-one, it was her mission to search and destroy and maybe get some money, jewelry, whatever they would buy her while she was at it.

v.

but at twenty-two, a meteor shower came falling and her mission changed.

POST-MUTATION

vi.

her powers didn’t take very long to manifest. maybe one week after the forest and that odd meteor plagued her dreams, mijoo found herself waking up to a knife stuck in the wall beside her bed. instead of pulling it out, it fell off when she simply thought about it and came flying towards her. she ducked, of course, and it shattered the mirror behind her. but when she looked at the cracked glass, fingers carefully tracing the lines, she saw herself smiling back. small and genuine, just like father had taught her, but real like he could never muster.

it couldn’t have been more perfect, really. she always kept mace with her, a pocket knife too dangling with the rest of her keychains. it was a necessity when playing with emotions, after all, she never knew who could react violently. but now? well, she’d always been a bit reckless, readily putting herself in potentially dangerous situations, but having the power to call weapons to her at the ready, to almost never miss a shot? in mijoo’s mind, this was all a calling to throw all caution to the wind and make the world her oyster.

the compound had other plans for her, though.

vii.

maybe it was the time she hustled an entire pool hall out of their money while playing some darts, betting that rather than just getting boring bullseyes, she could split their darts with hers every time. or maybe it was the time she called a weapon out of her then-chef-boyfriend’s hand and held it at his neck for saying something about her new haircut (it was just a joke, she explained, she wasn’t actually going to cut skin). whatever it was, something alerted the arc right away and went to recruit her quickly, one of the very first to join.

she was reluctant at first, but they didn’t give her much of a choice anyway, and they’d promised her answers, told her of a third skill she wasn’t aware of that allowed her to simply watch and literally learn how to use weapons, won her over with a training ground to hone her new skills freely.

viii.

song mijoo was never loyal to anyone, to any place, always moving, always ready to drop someone at the drop of a hat. her father had broken her long before she had a chance to be put together, taught her how to be selfish, independent. but with the compound, with others who were like her, supernatural and strange, she felt like she had a purpose beyond getting money. she felt like she had some sort of makeshift family that would bail her out if she got in trouble – especially when they were grouped into teams, appointing her (and her partner) as some sort of leader.

it was a strange feeling at first, and she still mainly trusted herself first and foremost, struggling to trust all the new recruits as they came in one by one until they were twenty-six. but as months passed, the strange feeling dissipated and, at least tentatively, she learned to trust her team and the compound.

[my-brothers-corrupted]

My Brothers, Corrupted

Chapter 1 : Section 1 : The Newcomer

This is how our story begins. From here, everything there is to be found out is found out through your questions.

Trigger warnings: (not necessarily a complete list! Please tell me if you need others added up here because I’m just trying to remember what’s in here) blood, torture, kidnapping, extreme distress, and abuse.

See this chapter’s masterlist here.

Part One of Chapter One: The Newcomer

Cold light drifts in through the window of Trickshot’s nest.

He sits with a blanket drawn loosely across his shoulders, his hand on his sniper but the gun down, down on his lap instead of hoisted onto the sill as usual. Clear blue eyes are fixed on the pine tree view outside his window, watching with an intensity that has only been his characteristic since the early days.

The early days of what he remembers, anyway.

At his side you can make out the shape of another man, asleep under piles of blankets, his face hidden close to Trickshot’s thigh. A soft fuzz of brown hair sticks out from under the blankets. You can hear him breathing. Trickshot plays with the barrel of his gun, staring, waiting, at watch, as always.

Once the sun dawns, perhaps he will sleep, but perhaps not. Today, after all, may well be the long-awaited day.

Eventually, the man at Trickshot’s side stirs and awakens, pushing up out of the blankets with a groan and slumping wearily against Trick’s back. His brother doesn’t respond, fixated on the window. Doktor reaches around to find broken glasses on the floor and puts them on, glancing around the house. There is no static in the air, no flickering lights, not even the soft hum of electricity.

“When is he coming home?” he whimpers, rubbing sleepily at his face.

“Stop whining,” hisses Trick. “Soon enough.”

But he too is beginning to look worn.

Anonymous asked: Hello? Hi? Are you guys okay?

Trickshot starts and glances over at the camera. Doktor grins and goes to pick it up, holding it up so you can see the both of them and the view through the window. “Hello,” he says. He reaches up to itch at a scratch on his face, but Trick smacks his hand away with a pointed “stop picking at that!”

“We’re okay,” says Doktor. “Just bored. We’re waiting for our brothers to come back home.”

Anonymous asked: Oh? Who's missing?

“Red and Anti,” grumbles Trickshot. “And they’re supposed to be bringing someone else home with them.”

A loud thud sounds through the ceiling and Trick and Dok both jolt hard, glancing up.

“He’s probably wearing out,” comments Doktor.

“Who gives a fuck?” growls Trick.

“You should, if he passes out it means something went wrong. Red and Anti only get as many chances as he gives them.”

optimistic-violinist asked: So pumped about this blog!! One thing I've always wondered, who got corrupted first and what was the order after that? Thanks so much!!

The boys exchange glances and laugh. “Corrupted!” snorts Trick.

“I like that, ‘corrupted,’” giggles Doktor. “It is not like this, my friend, it is more like - coming around to something that was always true. Becoming more fully what you always should have been.”

Trick nods solemnly.

“Trick and I came here together. Red and Dapper were already with Anti by the time we did. They were, after all, the ones that brought us home. That is what I remember. What little I remember…”

He pauses, frowning out the window. Trick reaches out to touch the back of his head, just for a second, and Doktor nods, a confirmation of a question they often ask each other.

“You okay?”

“I’m okay.”

Wordlessly.

Anonymous asked: Was that dapper??

“Yeah, he’s upstairs,” sighs Trick. “It’s a working night for him. But if he does his goddamn job right, we won’t have a problem. Dok, maybe you better check he didn’t faint again. He - ”

“Hey,” says Doktor, cutting him off. “Thought I saw something move on the path.”

They both jolt to attention, sitting up like dogs alerted by a squirrel and looking out the window.

Anonymous asked: what's outside?

“Holy shit,” whispers Trick, sinking down against the windowsill. “Holy shit.”

Doktor, for his part, leaps to his feet and hurries toward the door, calling a hurried “is everyone okay?”

The path from their house leads through the forest and out towards the cold fall ocean. Coming along the dirt path is two men in black hoods. Across Red’s shoulders is slung Marvin the Magnificent.

Unconscious.

Bleeding.

Found at last.

“Hey, puppies,” calls Anti, drawing back his hood.

His eyes are green and black. Blood coats his throat and his hands. He is, at last, victorious, and for a moment, your view looking out from the window, you could swear that it is you he is smiling at.

“Look what the cat dragged in!”

Anonymous asked: Oh?? A stranger? A new, old brother? Who's Anti and Red brought?

“They really found him,” mumbles Trick, huddled up in his blankets, gripping the gun frailly. “The magician. We’ve been searching for him for a really long time.”

Doktor grins and runs to meet them on the path, where he is promptly scooped into Anti’s arms and lifted up into a hug. Anti presses a kiss into his hair and slings an arm around his shoulder, turning him towards Red, who stands, panting and pale, with Marvin across his shoulders.

“Look, Dok-Dok, I brought you a new patient,” says Anti. His voice glitches only a little and his form is quite opaque; he seems very stable. He allows Doktor to run anxious hands over his stomach and neck, but there is no wound despite the blood.

“You did it,” purrs Doktor, pushing up against his shoulder. “Finally, we’re all here. Now we’re complete, yes, Anti?”

“Yes, now you’re all complete. Pretty matching set. Red, get him inside, downstairs. Want him chained up before he comes to. He’s still not himself. Has to be broken in. But soon we’ll all be together, just like we were meant to be.”

Trickshot has come to stand in the doorway. He watches, white-mouthed, as Red moves past him with Marvin in tow.

“Hey, Anti.” Trick dares to speak up. “Wh - what’s his name?”

For a moment, Marvin’s eyes flicker over, ever-so-slightly, though only Trick sees. He is stopped short by the look in them - a sudden and painful desperation, complete with agony, turning the warm ocean color of his irises to a terrible despair. Despite his weakness, still there is something in his eyes - his eyes, his eyes, deeper blue than the night sky - that is not quite human.

“This is Red’s twin, as Doktor is yours,” says Anti. He moves to Trickshot and runs a fond hand through his hair. Trick relaxes against his hands, sighing wearily.

“This is Blue.”

With the soft cry of a thing in its death throes, Blue lets his eyes slide shut once more.

 Anonymous asked: How bloody is Red?

As Anti moves on, speaking with Trick, Doktor turns his attention to Red and Blue and follows them down the stairs. He no longer needs to be ordered to take care of his brothers - this has been his duty since even before he became Anti’s.

The basement is dark and smells strongly of iron. Doktor shivers as he reaches the bottom of the creaking wood stairs, where flecks of carpet remain affixed to the concrete floor. You can hear Red panting hard as he sets Marvin down in the corner and fetches chain from the closet. There is plenty of it in there.

“Are you well?” asks Doktor, tilting his head.

Red pushes down his hood, revealing a dark stain of blood bloomed like a flower in his hair. He turns, exhausted, to Doktor, and mumbles something incomprehensible. With a soft dripping sound, your attention is turned to his bleeding wrists. They are blackened with deep, weeping burns. Red’s eyes flicker.

Anonymous asked: Is he gonna be okay?

Doktor glances at you and makes an uncertain face. He knows he should move in to help him, but that’s not always easy with Red.

“What happened to your risks?” he asks.

“Wrists, Deutsch,” grumbles Red. “What do you think?”

“The cat can burn like that?”

“He’s powerful,” admits Red. For a second, he shakes off the weariness and straightens up. “And I caught him, so! Anyway, he’ll be a good asset, you know. Anti will be pleased with me.” He grins proudly.

“So sure?” asks Doktor. A grim smile flashes across his face. “Sounded like Dapper wasn’t doing so well upstairs. Maybe you messed it up a few times?”

Red pales. “D - did he faint?”

“Didn’t check.”

Red turns away from him, hiding his fear, panting. He groans through a wave of dizziness and clutches his bleeding wrists.

“Here.” Doktor is suddenly at his side, reaching out to take his hands. “Let’s get these bandaged up. I have some burn stuff.”

“Ugh,” mumbles Red. He wants to pull away, but suddenly it’s difficult to stand. Shaking, he tumbles against Doktor’s chest, and can’t seem to get back up. His head is bleeding rapidly. Doktor swears and sinks to the ground with him, putting pressure to the - oh, shit, his skull is fractured.

“Not doing so hot, are you, Reddy?”

“Fuck you,” groans Red.

“You’ll be okay, but may be a couple painful days. Best hope your concussion doesn’t damage anything permanent. Let’s get you bandaged up, yes?”

Anonymous asked: Did Red get those injuries when Blue tried to defend himself?

“Yes,” grumbles Red, slurring over his own tongue. “I tried… I tried to talk him down… Anti said we were brothers once, and I told him we could be again. But he wouldn’t come with us. I think he was afraid. He kept calling a name, so I guess he expected someone to come help him, but no one answered. I came after him when he ran and he grabbed me. Threw me against the wall too, with this… blue light. He might have beat me, but Anti stepped in.”

Anonymous asked: Is Red gonna be allowed time to recover, Dok? Is there anything more you can do for him?

“I’ll do my best. I’m the best doctor.” Doktor grins slightly strangely, one side of his mouth still frowning. “Come on, Red, let’s go.”

He checks that Blue is chained securely to the wall and heaves Red back up to his feet, pulling him up the stairs and bringing him to the corner on the other side of the room from Trick’s nest, where what was once a kitchen island provides a bit of privacy for a small green sleeping bag. He lies Red down on it and brushes the hair out of his face, grabbing a first aid kit from nearby - always nearby - and beginning to disinfect the cuts and burns. He wraps his head up tight, thinking about all the different things he would do if he were in a real hospital - if he had heavy sutures and oxygen and ointment for the burns…

“I do my best,” he says, to you, to the house, to no one. “I do my best.”

Red writhes in silence on the sleeping bag, gripping the fabric, his teeth tightly pressed together in his mouth. It’s just pain. It’s just pain.

Doktor is the only one allowed to see him in it.

spicydanhowell asked: red, do you think maybe the kitty was happier on his own? if you were brothers once before, do you know why you left him? (also doc, i hope you make him rest. a skull fracture could mean fainting, vomiting, blurred vision, and confusion :( it could take weeks to heal and he seems like he's in a fragile state)

“Happier on his own.” Red laughs breathily, sweating against his sleeping bag. His eyes crack open and he stares at you, blood welling slowly in the white bandages around his head. “Happier… he was miserable! You should have seen him! Curled up on his cardboard, clutching those old pictures to his chest! Crying the moment he saw me, pathetic! And so… so fucking alone.”

He glances up at Doktor and finds him distracted. Quietly, he continues.

“I would never want to be that alone. He’ll be with us now. We’re meant to be together. Don’t you think so? Now he’s here, my twin. Now we’re together, like we should be. Why would he be happier alone? No, no… he’ll be happy soon. It’s going to be okay. I’m going to look out for him. And I’m not - I’m not fragile.”

“He is fragile,” interrupts Doktor immediately.

“I’m not fragile.”

“He is fragile.”

“Deutsch, I am about to - ”

Doktor tightens the bandages and Red yelps, falling dizzily against his bag.

“Fucker,” he groans, and Doktor laughs.

“He won’t get weeks,” admits Dok. “But maybe a little time off… unless Anti’s mad at him, for exhausting his little puppy.”

Red snickers and then groans, covering his face with his hands.

Anonymous asked: oh! if blue and red are twins, and doktor and trickshot are twins, would that make dapper anti's twin?

Trickshot is curled up in his nest, cleaning his gun, looking white. “In a sense,” he sighs, and spares you a smile, because you’re not wrong and he likes having someone to talk to. “That’s a good enough guess. Functionally, I suppose. Twins sleep in the same bed and Dapper sleeps up there with Anti, when Anti sleeps. Twins look after each other and Anti and Dapper watch each other’s back, unless Anti is angry with him. But twins are equals too, or close enough, and Dapper, no matter how fucking spoiled he is - ” His voice cracks and he scowls, gripping his gun too tight. “ - Dapper is not that.”

Trick pauses, glancing up at the light from his window.

“Anyway, Doktor and I are usually together. And Dapper - Dapper spends his days alone.”

Anonymous asked: can you guys even see Dapper? When was the last time any of you interacted with him?

“We aren’t allowed to go upstairs when Anti is home,” says Trick, pushing overgrown hair out of his eyes. “I suppose Dapper is just too… fucking pretentious to…”

His voice shakes and he stops, sinking down tighter in his hiding space. “I used to see him a lot. Not any more. Doktor checks on him sometimes, when Anti’s not home.”

“Did you check on him while we were gone?” asks Anti suddenly.

Trick jolts and looks up. You cannot see Anti off camera, but Trick certainly hadn’t seen him only a moment before.

“N-no,” he stammers, clutching his gun tight.

“Hm,” says Anti, and turns away, heading for the stairs.

Trick relaxes as Anti’s focus moves away from him, breathing out a low, shaky breath.

musical-in-theory asked: Dapper, are you okay up there?

“Good question,” says Anti, grabbing the camera as he moves up the stairs. The screen flickers and glitches violently, but when he reaches a room in the attic and sets you down on the bed, it stops again.

You see, in one corner of the room, a young man in a yellow jumper slumped frailly against the wall, looking white. He blinks open tired eyes and reaches out his hands at the sight of Anti.

“How you doing, little one?” purrs Anti, moving over to him and scooping him up on his arms, hauling him onto the bed. He sits down at Dapper’s side and begins brushing his hair out of his eyes, humming.

“Fine,” sign Dapper’s shaking hands.

“Tired?”

“Not so bad, Anti.”

“How many times did you have to redo last night?”

“Just four, Anti.”

Anti sits back and breathes deep, pausing in thought. Dapper shakes quietly at his side.

“Okay,” says Anti finally. “Okay.”

And he disappears in a scattering of static.

Dapper’s hands grip at the empty place where his brother used to be for just a moment, but there is nothing there. Finally he turns to you, frowning wearily, curling his hands in his big yellow jumper.

He blinks uncertainly at you, and then, calming, repeats, “fine, fine. I’m fine. I’m fine. Tired. I’m fine.”

He sighs and rubs at his head, his mouth blueish.

Anonymous asked: so uh, what now? Anti finally has the full set, so what's next?

“Well,” says Trick, sitting up straight. “First of all, Blue has to be turned into - ”

The room explodes into static.

Trick does not even scream, only throws himself to the floor, curling tightly into a ball, gripping at his ears. Your screen has turned a dozen different colors, but the midday sun has failed you entirely; the room is cloaked in darkness. In the other corner, you see Doktor leap to his feet and take off towards Trick, only to crumple to his feet halfway through the room, as a huge black dog appears in the center of everything.

A low growl lives in its throat. Doktor pants at its feet, shaking hard, averting his eyes.

The dog turns away from him.

Doktor scrambles across the room and throws himself over Trickshot’s body, hiding too. Upstairs, sobbing through the floorboards.

“How many times?” shudders Anti’s terrible voice, from nowhere, from everywhere, a shaking, dozen-toned layer of sound. “How many times does the little one have to clean up your messes?”

“Please, please,” screams Red. He is not visible, hidden behind his island, alone in the corner. “I brought him back to you, please! I did it, I did it!”

“On the fourth round,” snarls the dog, barely audible through the awful shrieking, barely visible through the spasming glitches. “Four times, he redoes the night. You’re supposed to be the little hero. Do you want to be thrown out, broken toy?”

“No, please! I don’t even know what went wrong! I don’t know what I did! I’m sorry, I’m sorry!”

The dog lunges out of your view and a scream echoes through the room. For a second, the screen cuts out.

“Next time,” you hear Anti’s voice say. “Do it right the first time.”

So now - what now? - now they try to survive this.

Anti has things to do. Anti has things he needs them for. That is why they are still alive, and the story is not over yet.

hollenka99 asked: In all fairness, none of you (except Dapper of course) know which attempt you're on. Don't you always assume it's the first go? If Dapper didn't have his watch, you probably wouldn't get a 2nd try anyway.

“Yes,” whispers Doktor. “We never know if something goes wrong, and he must change it back.”

Trick shakes beneath him. They hide against the blankets. Red is moaning in his corner, soft choking gasps cutting through the aching noise.

“So we must just hope - we must just hope that nothing goes wrong. There is no knowing. There is no knowing.”

Anonymous asked: Can you tell us more about Dapper? Or can we talk to him? Thaaanks :) ((and why is his nickname Carver??))

Dapper wipes slowly at tears in his eyes. He is hiding beneath the bed, leaving the camera out in front of him.

“Hi,” he signs, with a fragile, flickering smile, snuffling. “Yes, please, you can talk to me anytime… no one ever talks to me up here.

“Carver’s my nickname because I’m good with a knife. Like Anti. It’s a compliment - I’m like him in many ways.” His mouth trembles and he closes his eyes, sighing deep. “It’s a good thing. It’s - it’s good.”

musical-in-theory asked: Marvin? Hang in there! Your brothers need you to stay strong!

The ocean eyes flicker open, and in the darkness, seem to shiver.

“My brothers,” whispers Marvin.

There is blood on him. You do not know whose it is.

“Look what Jackie did to me… oh, oh, fuck, please, I don’t want to be a slave!” He yanks against his chains, suddenly frantic, panting hard. “No, no, no, not like this, not like fucking this! Jackie! Jackie! Please! Where are my little brothers, where are you? I don’t want to be a slave! I don’t want to be a slave!”

He screams so loud his voice breaks and slumps down in his chains, shaking, shaking like a shot dog.

“Supposed to save them,” he whispers, staring at his shackled wrists. “Not like this, not like this…”

Anonymous asked: Aw, Marv. :( That's rough, buddy. We're rooting for you, though! Do you have a plan for escaping, or resisting Anti? You might not have much time to figure it out.

“Might not have much time.” Marvin laughs breathily, straining off the wall, tugging on the chains. “You’re right about that, my friend. Fuck, resist him - he gets close and I’ll burn him to ash and bone - but then - ” His voice cracks and trembles. “I couldn’t stop him to save Chaser and Schneep, I don’t know that I can stop him for myself. But I - I have to, I will!”

He looks up with teeth gritted, blue eyes flashing.

“I can do this. I am Magnificent. I’ll be the one to kill him. And my brothers… whoever’s left alive… we’ll all go home together. We’ll all…” Tears well in his eyes, he drops his head. “All go home together…”

juju-on-that-yeet asked: you: oh poor sweet marv, who did this to him?? (I had made a comment in the tags of a post asking who could do this to Marvin) also you: *did this to him* (i'm not complaining tho ^^)

Marvin laughs and then groans, reaching up to touch at the dried blood of a thick cut across his cheek. He is bent awkwardly over on himself, breathing thin.

oasisofgalaxies asked: Hey Marvin, all is not lost! I believe in you, I believe you can make it out, you aren't done yet. Keep fighting Marvin, we have you're back!

He bites hard on his lip, looking at you.

“I’ve been feeling like all is lost for weeks now,” he coughs. “Thank you, I’ll try. I think if I - ”

Footsteps on the stairs. He starts and stiffens, teeth snarling back in his mouth, glaring up at the light that falls towards him from the room above, piercing the darkness.

Anonymous asked: Good luck, Marvin! Remember your strengths and your enemies' weaknesses. You can make it! Stay resolute!

“Weaknesses,” whispers Marvin. “Weaknesses, his haste, his fury, I - ”

“Heya, puppet.”

Marvin breathes deep and looks up.

A flash of light, and Anti is before him, his eyes black and green.

“Kitty Cat, you have been a hard little animal to track down, do you know that? I’m so proud of you, what good little sneak you are. What a good little thief you’ll be. Such a clever pet.”

“Fuck off, Anti,” whispers Marvin.

“Not feeling friendly, but that’s okay. Street cats rarely do. We’ll give you some time. We can go easy. Just takes some time, and then you’re mine.”

Marvin kicks out uselessly, trying to strike Anti’s shins, but he can’t reach.

Anti sighs. “Well. Maybe I’ll go easy after I’ve taught you a lesson.”

A glitch and he is kneeling across from Marvin, gripping his face so hard his cheeks will bruise. Marvin yelps, trying to bite.

“Because I’m going to be honest, Magnificence,” hisses Anti. “I have lain next to your darling brothers for weeks and weeks and weeks now. And the only thing I have dreamt of, for as long as I can remember, is making you howl for mercy.”

Marvin spits at him and Anti snarls, turning away to wipe it off his face.

“Kinky!” Marv quips, summoning a ball of fire in his hand.

Anti puts a blade through his palm before he can move. Marvin screams, crumpling in on himself. Blood, blood down his wrist.

florenceisfalling asked: red, are you okay? why do you and doktor not get along?

Red is shuddering on his side of the room, trying not to choke on vomit. His arm bleeds heavily into his sleeping bag. Dog’s teeth, dog’s teeth wounds in his wrist.

“He’s not okay,” whispers Trick.

“I’m not going close to him while Anti’s angry with him,” replies Doktor, shaking. “I’m not. He’ll hit me or Anti will. Do I have to? I won’t. I won’t.”

They are huddled side-by-side in their blankets, waiting for the smell of fury to recede from the house.

“Red’s angry all the time,” says Trick. “Always trying to prove something. Guess who gets smacked around when there’s no one else for him to snap at?”

“I think we used to get along,” mumbles Doktor, his eyes slightly glazed. “Didn’t we? I can’t remember. Anyway, we’re not allowed to talk to each other except in emergencies. Is just me and Trick, most of the time. But now…”

Red lets out a hollow scream. You can hear his head striking against the wood floor as he writhes.

Anonymous asked: Wait, there are actual dog teeth in Red's arm? Anti can transform like that? That must be scary!

Anti whirls on you, grinning. “Scary! Don’t you like a pretty dog?”

He is a dog again, huge and darker than fur should be, his head down, his eyes wicked in the darkness. Marvin screams, throwing himself back against the wall.

“I can be many things,” says Anti, in a voice low, low, growling, aching. He is a man again, faceless. He is a shadow, with a reddened eye. He is a child holding a knife. He is a hyena. A man, horned in a halo. “I can be anything. I can be love, I can be hatred. That is why I have won, time and time again.”

He turns back to Marvin.

“Gods like me make pets of men.”

And then - and then, he is just Jack again, a blue-eyed boy, messy beard and tied back hair, not tall, not strongly built. Just a man in a t-shirt and ripped skinny jeans.

“Wasn’t that spooky!” he says, mimicking the voice Jack used for goofing around. “Oh no, is a demon!”

He bursts into laughter and sits down at Marvin’s side. Marvin is shaking hard, his teeth gritting furiously.

“Fucking monster,” he hisses.

“Hey, man, come on,” protests Anti, smiling gently at him. His voice is no longer high-pitched or glitching. He just sounds human. “Don’t have to be a dick about it. Look, I’m sorry I stabbed you. I have a shitty temper. Still working on it. But, listen, Blue, it’s time for us to bury the hatchet instead of the body. I’m not so bad. I’ll prove it to you. What do you think?”

He turns back to you and winks. “Huh? Whatcha think?”

musical-in-theory asked: Marvin don’t listen to him! Fight, magic man! Fight for your brothers!!

Marvin drives his elbow up towards Anti’s face, but Anti grabs his arm before any blow falls, and then he snatches the other wrist too, and shoves Marvin up against the wall. He’s stronger than he should be. “Now, now, Blue,” he soothes. “Calmer, calmer.”

“Get off me!” screams Marvin, thrashing. Anti pins him tighter, pressing gently on his throat.

“Sh, sh,” he whispers, trying to meet Marvin’s eyes, squeezed tightly shut. “Let’s be okay. It’s okay. Here, look at me, come on. How about a calmative, huh? Come on, open your eyes. It’s okay. Poor thing, all bloody. All alone on the streets, poor stray thing, so scared. Open your eyes.”

He pricks at Marvin’s eyes with his nails, trying to pull up the eyelid. Marvin fights. Anti glitches bright and colorful, spasming with light, and the visual stimulus is enough to make Marvin blink, and then -

Anti’s fucking eyes.

“There you go, there you go,” whispers Anti. “Poor thing, it’s okay. Sh, sh.”

Deeper than oceans, moving faintly through a myriad of colors, and Marvin feels sick, and then well, and then warm, and then cold. He cannot move. You see his arms slacken and fall to the ground. Anti touches his face.

“We’ll just start with a little,” says Anti. “Just to calm down, right? It’s okay. I know new cats need some space. So you promise me that you won’t go running anywhere, and I promise I’ll let you out of those awful chains. Okay?”

Blue gapes dumbly, staring at him, following his eyes like he’s enchanted.

“Okay?” Anti prompts again, softly.

“Okay,” whispers Blue.

“Good boy,” says Anti. “Good job.”

He lets go of Blue’s face and rises to his feet. He turns away and returns a moment later with a key in hand.

“Hey,” gasps Marvin, shaking his head. “Hey! I know what the fuck you’re doing, bastard, no, I won’t let you into my head like this, I won’t - ”

Anti crouches down and takes his hands in his own. Once again, Blue is immediately hooked on his eyes, staring, panting, drowning.

“Haven’t you wondered, Blue, how it is I turned your brothers against you?”

Marvin groans and shakes his head. Fighting, he has to keep fighting.

“There are two things I used. Power - my own, you see, and isn’t it nice? And love. That’s yours and your brothers’. And I’m really looking forward to seeing it destroy you, like it destroyed the others.”

He unlocks Marvin’s wrists and the chains fall away. Marvin stares up at him, glaring.

“That spell won’t hold,” he hisses. “You can’t stop me from running.”

“If it was just power alone, maybe it wouldn’t be able to,” shrugs Anti. “But it’s not. Leave if you can. You’d be the first one to be able to. Good luck.”

His form flickers and disappears.

And it is Marvin left alone, sitting in the basement, unchained.

“What the fuck?” he whispers.

snow-lavender asked: Wait, so what happened to Jack in this timeline?? ...Do we want to know?

“Who?” ask Trick and Dok in sync, tilting their heads in opposite directions at you.

Anonymous asked: What are you gonna do now... Blue?

His eyes flicker irritably over to the camera. “Oh, someone thinks they’re clever, do they? Ugh, I feel like shit, what the fuck?”

There had been a minute there when the pain receded… when it was just him and that power, and he was floating in nothing, floating on the Dead Sea, easy, weightless, drifting…

“Fuck!” he hisses, gripping at his head. “I have to keep it fucking together! What am I going to do now? I’m going to go get my brothers and go!”

He drags himself to his feet, only momentarily blinded by the pain, and pants his way to the bottom of the stairs, determined, ferocious -

Hesitating.

“Are they all… alive?” he asks, shakily. “All they all just… just puppets? Robots, dead-faced, slumped in corners, waiting to be used? Do they still look like themselves? Do they know me? Are my little brothers even alive?”

loganandoli asked: Doktor, Trick, do you know if Anti can hear or see our messages? Asking for a friend.

“Umm,” says Trick. “Probably?”

“He sees lots of e - of elle - of - ,”

“Ee-leck-trick-ull,” pronounces Trick politely. Doktor nods.

“Electrical signals. Messages and such. But things come and go from these cameras, from the town, from the mountains, from the boats on the sea, bouncing off the satellites in the sky and bouncing around. Some things he will only glance at. Some things, though, will catch his attention. But, hey, no need to be worrying! Anti doesn’t seem to mind us having chats, yes?”

Trick hums, leaning back against the wall. “He just keeps us safe, so unless you’re trying to hurt us, why would he care? Right?”

They exchange glances, declare each other’s logic sound, and nod in sync.

“Can we get some lunch?” asks Dok.

“How are we going to do that while Red’s over there by the cupboards?”

Dok sighs and leans back, resigned to wait.

Anonymous asked: I have, uh. Bad news? Your brothers are alive, but.. not well. Mentally and physically. They aren’t too fond of each other anymore. I think. Their memories seem to be gone also...

“Aren’t too fond of each other?” Marvin stares up at the doorway above him. “What do you mean? They loved each other so much. That’s not something even Anti can strip away. Even - even with memories g-gone.”

He turns to look at you, more afraid than he was with Anti standing above him. “Right?”

loganandoli asked: They don’t even know their own names anymore, Marvin. Anti is turning them against each other. We all believe in you!! You can do it!! You can save them!!

“Their names, fuck,” whispers Marvin, tears squeezing out of his eyes. “I called for Jackie so many times but it was like he didn’t even recognize his own name. It’s like he just stripped them away from themselves. I’m so scared of what they’ll be like, I… but you’re right, I need to get them and get out. I need to save them. I can, I can, I can. Jackie, Schneep, Chaser, James…”

Anonymous asked: I'll be straight with you, Marv, it's not good. Jackie attacked you and brought you here in the first place, with Dapper's help; they're obviously not okay. But you just got puppeted by Anti too, and you came back almost immediately. Don't let their current state discourage you. There has to be a way to save them. And even if you can't get them all out now, anywhere's better than here!

Marvin nods, setting foot on the stairs. “Okay, okay. You’re right. Not good. But anywhere’s better than here. Anywhere’s better than here.

“And at least I get to see them again. I get to see my brothers again. Oh, I…”

Anonymous asked: Oh god Marv, yah.. their love has been stripped away and thrown in the scrap pit. Some get alone better than others... but their memories are gone. They’ve started another life in the fearful shadow of Anti.

“Fearful shadow of Anti, fearful…” He wipes at his forehead. “Maybe I can still convince them to go. Does he really treat them so well, that they stay? Haven’t they ever tried to come back to me? That’s… that’s how I got caught, you know.”

He laughs frailly, making his way to the top of the stairs. “Trying to send a signal to Chase and Schneep. They were with me, and then… stolen. I kept hoping… but they never came home to me…”

spicydanhowell asked: hey doc, why won't anti let you near red when he's angry with him? you can't even go grab some food? he'd let you stop red from bleeding out, right?

“I should,” whimpers Dok, sinking down closer at Trick’s side. Trick plays anxiously with his gun, surveying the room and the window, vigilant as ever. He hasn’t slept in a while - he rarely does on Anti’s bad days - and it’s making them both nervous. “But often when Anti lashes out at Red, next thing Red does is lash out at me when I am meant to help.”

A brief fury flashes through his eyes. Trick makes a low rumbling noise and Dok sighs, trying to stay calm, resting his head on Trick’s knee.

“We do need food soon,” he adds wearily. “Kill a rabbit for me, Trick.”

Trick smiles fondly down at him, just for a moment, and turns back to his sight.

musical-in-theory asked: Anti was telling the truth in a way. He’s using their love for each other against them. The same love they had for each other has now been turned to love for Anti, thus pitting then against one another. Be careful Marv. They’re a bit territorial of the glitch.

“Pitting my brothers against each other,” hisses Marvin, gripping the handle of the door. “My brothers, my brothers. No, we need to go. We’re going, we’re going, I’ll - ”

He opens the door.

The red point of a laser scope sits in the middle of his chest.

“Don’t. Fucking. Move.”

spicydanhowell asked: careful marv! they don't trust you now! but they won't hurt you, they wouldn't risk making anti angry

Trick cocks his gun, sliding forward on his knees, so Doktor is behind him. “You fucking sure about that?”

Marvin stares at him, frozen solid.

It’s been three months since he saw him. The last time they spoke was over the phone, and Chase was crying for him to come back, there was someone outside, someone coming for him and Henrik, where did you go, Marvin, please, I don’t want to be Anti’s -

Anonymous asked: Trick, careful! Anti wants the full set, remember? You can't hurt Blue too badly.

“They’re right, don’t do anything crazy,” mumbles Doktor at his side.

“Why are you out of the basement?” snaps Trick.

“Anti let me out,” Marvin manages finally, lifting up his hands. “It’s me, love. It’s okay. Are you two okay?”

“You better fucking pray that’s true,” hisses Trick. “You make one wrong move and don’t think I won’t - ”

He is interrupted by a low whine from the corner of the room closest to Marv.

Trick glances at Red’s island, his mouth tightening uncertainly.

“Who’s that?” asks Marvin, moving towards him.

florenceisfalling asked: please don't hurt marv, blue, whatever- he's trying to help. cant you see that?

“If he looks after Red,” whispers Doktor. “We don’t have to.”

“Right, right.” Trick’s eyes are wide and frantic. He clutches the gun too tightly. Can’t seem to make himself move. Fuck, he can’t remember the last time a threat was actually inside the house, and not outside the window. And there’s so many of those shaky old half-memories he sometimes gets buzzing inside his head, like a swarm of bees you can hear but not see. “Right, I… I’ll just keep an eye on him. I’ll just - it’s fine. Anti let him out. It’s okay.”

Marvin nods slowly, reassuringly, and at last takes his eyes off Trick’s, moving slowly towards the island. “I’m just going to check on this, okay? I’m just going to sit down over here, how’s that?”

“Fine,” rasps Trick. “Fine. Fine. Okay.”

musical-in-theory asked: Marvin, I’m not sure you want to know...

“Oh, fuck, Jackie!” cries Marvin. “Oh, no, no, no, oh, it’s okay, brother, it’s okay!”

He falls to his knees at Red’s side, out of view of Chase’s scope behind the island. His brother - or what was once his brother, he doesn’t know anymore - is lying white-faced as a dead thing on a stained sleeping bag, breathing thin and fast. Blood slicks his bandaged head and his torn up right arm, where teeth have torn apart gauze. His eyes roll wildly in his head; he moans.

Anonymous asked: Oh, Marv, please steel yourself if you go over there. Jackie's not doing too well and he tends to lash out.

“Jackie, Jackie,” whispers Marvin, touching his cheek. “Buddy, hey, are you with me?”

Blue eyes slide open, and so does his mouth, revealing white teeth. Marvin only has a second to register the animal look in his eyes before Red has reached up with his good hand to grab him, tightly, by the throat. Marvin screams raggedly, trying to yank himself away, scrambling at Red’s hands.

“Look what you did to,” chokes Red. “You and Dapper, you and Dapper, you, you - ”

“You were trying to kidnap me!” gasps Marvin, striking at his chest, and then, when that does not free him, reaching out to grab Red’s other wrist. Red screams, dropping him, and they both recoil from each other, slamming against the wall on one side, and the cupboards of the island on the other.

“Okay,” whispers Marvin, panting. “Tends to lash out. Noted.”

Red groans and slackens against the wall, tears running down his face. Ashamed, he turns his head away, mumbling incoherently, delirious with pain. He wraps his good arm around himself and rubs his shoulder.

spicydanhowell asked: doc, red is literally going to die if you don't do anything. who cares if anti gets mad at you for helping him?? isn't red's life worth taking a beating for??

“That’s a good fucking point,” snaps Marvin, watching Red struggle. He puts his head up above the island, frowning. “He could be dying. Why haven’t you done anything, Henrik?”

A shot explodes through the air and a bullet buries itself in the wall a centimeter away from Marvin’s head. Shocked breathless, Marvin falls to the ground as though he has in fact been shot, completely deafened by the shot, loud enough to split eardrums.

“That was your one and only warning!” screams Trick, his voice hoarse. “Next time, I kill you, no fucking joke, do you understand me? Do you understand me? We don’t say that name. If I ever hear it again, I’ll blow your brains all over that wall.”

As though struck down by the effort of these words, he crumples backwards, gripping frailly at his gun, and sits panting hard. Doktor tries to pull his face towards him, but Trick just groans and stares at the floor, shaking frailly.

“Okay,” whispers Marvin. “Okay. I guess I’ll, uh. I guess I’ll take care of this myself.”

Shaking so hard he can barely breathe, he starts pulling open cupboards, looking for the first aid kit.

“Farthest on the right,” comes Doktor’s small voice.

Marvin finds the kit. “Thanks, H - brother.”

musical-in-theory asked: Marvin please get out of there! There’s not much you can do for them while you’re someplace that Anti has influence over

“You’re right,” mumbles Marvin, pulling gauze and a sewing needle and sutures out of his kit. “But I can’t move him like this. He’s lost a lot of blood and I think his head’s… bad. He needs to rest.”

He turns to Red, holding the needle. Red stares back, eyes slitted.

“This is going to be really fun,” whispers Marvin. He clears his throat. “Red. You need to let me help you.”

Anonymous asked: Anti definitely does not treat them well... but you still probably can't count on their help. Literally all they know is Anti, and they just want his love and approval. Maybe be careful about interacting with any of them? Chase and Henrik still seem close, so you might be able to use that if you have to. I think all of them are scared of Jackie.

“Those two do seem close,” mumbles Marv, running a hand through his hair. “I didn’t expect any parts of any of them to still be intact, but… they still protect each other. You’re right, I need to be careful. Fuck, I wish any of them were themselves…”

He swallows hard and returns his attention to Red.

“Everybody’s scared of you?” asks Marvin, frowning. “Is that why nobody helped?”

Red stares back at him, sinking down against the wall. His eyes flicker and close.

“It’s okay. I’m here now.”

And, fuck, Marvin can’t help it, he’s crying. It’s been months since he saw him. He spent a long time thinking he was dead, killed when he went to try and save Jameson, and never came home.

“I’m here now,” repeats Marvin, and he slides forward on the floor, and tumbles against Red’s good shoulder, pulling him into one-half of a hug.

Anonymous asked: Red, I think you should let Blue does what he needs to. Anti trusted him enough to let him upstairs, right? And if Anti's unhappy about it, he can take it out on Blue later. But if you let Blue help you now, you'll be able to get back to helping Anti sooner. You've got to interact with your new twin sooner or later.

Red glances over at you, some of the aggression fading from his eyes. He blinks, reviewing your reasoning, and finds it sound. He does want to get better. Then he can make up for failing Anti. And, yes, maybe even help him bring his twin to heel.

He glances down at Marvin, drawing away from the little hug. In an act that surprises even himself, he reaches out and touches Marvin’s back, rubbing gently down his shoulder, just once. Marvin jumps and then relaxes, beaming.

“There you go,” chokes Marvin. “It’s me, do you remember me?”

Red lies back against the wall, staring at him. Marvin touches the side of his face and Red breathes out, letting his eyes slide shut. Strange, Doktor is never so gentle with him. Strange, he can’t seem to remember the last time anyone at all was gentle with him.

“Can I stitch that arm up for you?” asks Marvin evenly, stroking his thumb down his beard.

Red glances over at you one more time, and then nods.

loganandoli asked: Hey Carver! Are you doing ok? You said you liked people talking to you so, where did you get that jumper? Is yellow your favorite color?

Carver stands at the top of the attic stairs, his head poking out from behind the wall. He blinks and slides away again, unable to get a glimpse of the boys downstairs, and not allowed to join them. He sinks to the floor and stares dead-eyed at the floor.

“I’m okay,” he signs, without emotion. “Suppose I should be used to the gunshots by now. I do like people talking to me… No one ever talks to me… Who would want to, I just spend all day up here, alone, alone, alone, while the others are together… Bored, bored, bored…”

This last sign is just a tapping of the chin, and he does it again and again, flatly, more like stimming than signing. One of the sleeves of his sweater tumbles down his arm and he glances at it, eyes brightening slightly as he remembers the other half of your question.

“Anti got me the jumper,” he signs reverently, curling up in the big soft fabric. “He said my old clothes were silly. I don’t remember them, but they must have been. And I love my jumper. I love yellow. He says I’m the only light in the house.”

Anonymous asked: Where does Anti go when he's not with any of you, Carver? Does he leave you unattended often? I imagine it must get lonely.

“Oh, I’m alone often, but don’t - ” Carver shivers and glances around the hallway. “Don’t say lonely, Anti doesn’t like it. When he’s gone, I don’t know where he goes. He never tells me, just says ‘stay put, be good boy.’ So I do. I think he becomes…” Carver struggles to find the right signs, frowning. “Like the internet. In the computers. Lightning, color, screech, glitch.”

spicydanhowell asked: carver, what does anti do when he spends time with you? does he take care of you? does he ever do anything to hurt you?

“Anti,” signs Carver, getting to his feet. You watch as he begins pacing back and forth across the hallway, and then just turning in circles, back and forth, back and forth. “I wish he was here now! We tussle sometimes or I lie on his lap and read if he brings me a book, and sometimes we even watch something on the computer! Old movies, I love them, I love it when he’s home! And then sometimes we go out, of course, and sometimes he wears me and sometimes I wear me, but one way or another we’re together, and we do things that he says are important.”

Apparently dizzy from the circling, Dapper flops unceremoniously to the ground and crosses his legs, peering forward at you. A certain light in his eyes wars with a glazed sort of joy.

“Of course he takes care of me, that’s my big brother and I’m his favorite toy. We eat together and sleep together and he got me my clothes and my charcoal. I love, love, love my Anti. He hurts me when he’s bored. I love, love, love… of course he takes care of me, that’s my big brother and I’m his favorite toy. We eat together and sleep together and he got me my clothes and my charcoal. I love, love, love…”

His hands falter and fall. He stares blankly at the wall.

“I wish someone would come see me,” he sighs. “I wish Poe would come back.”

Anonymous asked: Do you have a window up there, or something to keep you entertained? Maybe we could play a game while we're here!

Dapper claps his hands together and leaps to his feet. “Can we play a game? Can we? Or tell me a story, or anything, anything. Look, come here, I’ll show you my window.”

He picks up the camera and carries you back to the big room in the attic, where a small but comfy bed is still mussed from a nap. He gets on the bed, on his knees, and carries you over to a small circular window. He pushes back the glass and breathes in deep, setting his chin on the sill and closing his eyes. For a second, all his frantic movements and twitching are gone, and he sits at peace, his eyes clear.

Outside the window, pine trees and the rocking ocean. Bird cry and washing waves. Carver whistles a sad little song to himself, breathing, breathing, breathing.

optimistic-violinist asked (similar questions copied and added by musical-in-theory and anon: ((You're probably gonna get a lot of these, but)) Who's Poe? Also, your jumper is lovely Carver. Yellow's my favorite color :)

“It is lovely!” cheers Dapper, beaming at you. “I love the yellow! I am sunny, sun, star, yellow.”

He draws you back slightly so you can get a better view of the pine trees. “Poe is my friend, she comes sometimes when I have food. Clever, clever girl, I love my Poe. But she hasn’t come in some days. Maybe I don’t have anything shiny or tasty enough. I wish she would come see me, even if she pecked my fingers again. Silly. My pretty girl. I need to find something to get her to come again.”

Anonymous asked: So Anti, nice little dollhouse you've got here. I know you've still got a "toy" to break in, but uh what's the plan after your full set is in place? You throwing a house party? Will you invite Jack? Or is he... not in the picture?

Static consumes your screen and then disappears again, revealing Anti now, summoned by his name. He is smiling at you, cool and self-satisfied.

“It is a nice little dollhouse,” he purrs, stepping closer to the camera.

You can’t tell where he is. Nowhere in the house.

“But don’t worry, we won’t be here long. We’ll have to have a house party somewhere else. I still have things to do, hearts to eat… You know how it is. But as for that last idea…”

Anti’s eyes are momentarily distant, he looks away from you.

“I’m… happy with what I have,” he says, drawing away.

He plays with the knife in his hands, shaking his head. “I’m fine like this. Don’t need anything else. I have them to keep me company. I don’t need him. That’s what I told him, that’s what I… he can’t find me. We��re safe.”

He looks back up at you and moves closer again. With surprising gentleness, he picks you up. “It’s just us and the boys,” he says, smiling. “It’s okay. We’re okay. And don’t worry, okay? Don’t have to be so skeptical. I do need to break Blue in, but I’ll be gentle, alright? Just because I like to have my fun doesn’t mean I want the poor thing shattered. I worry I took some of the others too far, you know… my shaky little puppies…”

Anonymous asked: Oh! Is poe a raven?

Dapper waves his hands in silent applause, grinning. “She’s huge and beautiful! I love her! When do you think she’ll come see me again?”

Anonymous asked: I was thinking of I Spy! There's a lot more to look for outside a window than in just the attic. Do you want to try spying for things, Carver?

“Oh, yes, please.” Carver sets his chin on the sill again, looking seriously out the window. “Should I go first? I spy, with my little eye… something. . . I’m colorblind. Uh, something flying! It’s probably orange. Ah! I wish it would come up here!”

Anon asked: Could it be a little bird? And if you don’t mind me asking, what kind of colorblind are you? Spicydanhowell commented: butterfly??? Ari-trash commented: a bird? Snow-lavender commented: Flying orange… Oh! Is someone throwing fruit at the window?

(Reblog) “Throwing fruit at the window!” That makes him laugh, bouncing on his knees on the bed. “No, but good guess, all good guesses! But only one right. It’s a butterfly! Good job! You’re all good at this game.

“And I’m about as colorblind as I can be. The whole world is black, white, and grey to me. But I wouldn’t know any different. Colors are just words to me.”

He puts his hand on his chin and sighs. “Tell you what,” he says, smiling at you. “Come back in a few hours and ask me again, and I’ll spy something really beautiful for you if Anti’s not with me. It’s my favorite thing about living up here.”

snow-lavender asked: Hey Trick, I'm a little confused, maybe you could clear this up. Is there a reason Dok's old name is super-bad-no-no-territory, but Red's isn't?

“Fuck,” hisses Trick. “Did he say his name? When? Did you hear it, Dok?”

“Probably,” shrugs Dok, peeking up from the nest. “But I can’t remember what it was.”

“I need to pay more attention.”

“You did your best.”

“I can’t remember what Red used to be called by the bad man. If you hear it, please tell me. Actually, don’t! I shouldn’t remember it! But - oh, I don’t know.”

His face is white with exhaustion. His stomach is snarling.

“It’s okay,” says Dok, but when he reaches out to touch his shoulder, Trick pushes his hand away.

florenceisfalling asked: what do you mean "[you're] safe," anti? would jack even present a threat at this point? and i also feel like you don't really understand the definition of gentle

Anti snarls and turns away from you. “Jack’s nothing now. They belong to me now and he’s not stealing them away. He can’t do anything. Of course he’s not a threat. As if anything could be…”

He straightens up again and breathes in deep.

“Nothing threatens me. Time itself belongs to me now. Without mortality, what is there to present a threat?”

cutiepotato777 asked: Anti. Who is your favorite puppet and why? :P

“There’s a real question.” He pulls you closer. “Favorite? I try not to have favorites, they all just need to be treated in different ways. Some of them are more timid than others. Some of them need more affection, some of them need more punishment. Obviously little Dapper, so powerful, so erratic - he has to stay close to me. But Trick and Doktor have learned to keep each other in line, and Red works best when he feels like he’s failing. So you see they all get what they need, and I still love them all despite their differences.”

He smiles into the distance. It’s growing closer to evening and he’s outside, cool fall sunlight drifting over his brown hair and turning it red. His eyes are full of clear lovely light.

“My puppets. My family. I still love them all.”

florenceisfalling asked: dapper, if you're /completely/ colorblind, how do you love yellow so much?

“Anti tells me it’s nice! He says I’m the only light in the house. Did I tell you that already? I love yellow. Anti likes it. And my jumper is yellow, and I love my jumper. Happy color. We’re happy here.”

spicydanhowell asked: marv... i hate to say it but maybe you should just look for a way to slip out now. come back for them when your strong enough, yeah?

“Okay, yeah, yeah.” He’s finishing bandaging up Red’s wrist and his brother is slack against his shoulder, his face still taut with pain. “Yeah, I’ll just… go. Maybe I could, um…” He glances at Red, and then at you, and mimics falling asleep. Glancing back at the med kit, he searches for something to stop his pain and let him sleep.

“Doktor, do we have any morphine?” he asks.

“Is Red… calmer?”

“Yeah, he just seems exhausted, and he’s in a lot of pain.”

There’s a long pause. He hears a creaking noise, some heated whispering from the other side of the room, and then, a moment later, Doktor appears in the camera’s view, standing behind Blue.

“I might,” he says. “Or something for the pain, anyway.”

Marvin chokes on a sudden wave of emotion, staring up at him. “Okay,” he manages. “Um, I’ll just - I’ll just let you handle that.”

“No, wait a moment,” protests Doktor, sitting down beside him. “Let me see hand.”

“Look, bud, I have to go.”

“Hand,” demands Doktor, adjusting his broken glasses.

Marvin glances at you, but holds out his hand, slicked in both Red’s blood and his own.

“I must stitch this up for you, is all the way through.”

Not waiting for an answer, Doktor picks up the needle and thread. Both Red and Doktor hold onto Marvin. Trick, anxious without his twin, sits pointing his gun at the island. Marvin’s eyes flicker frantically back and forth as he considers.

Anonymous asked: hey carver... do you feel well? in your head and in your body? are you safe? fed? you can tell us if you're not okay

For a second, Carver just stares out the window.

“Can I tell you a secret?” he signs after a moment, not looking at you. “Some days, I think I’m losing my mind. I’m scared. I don’t know what’s happening to me anymore. It’s like my brain knows something I don’t. I’m supposed to be happy. Usually I am… but it’s so much happiness… it’s so much happiness at once, and I sometimes faint I’m so happy, with my heart going so fast and everything so white and then… it’s darkness again…”

musical-in-theory asked: Dapper, are you sure that’s happiness?

“I feel wonderful when it happens. I don’t know what else it could be. I just wish it wasn’t so painful afterwards. It just - ”

The camera screen glitches hard. Anti appears in the doorway, looking a little worn, wearing Jack’s form. Dapper turns quickly, his heart jumping, and his face lights up with relief when he sees him. “Anti!”

“Hi, baby.” Anti comes up to him and plants a kiss in his hair, sitting down on the bed and then pulling him to lie down beside him. Dapper goes willingly, curling up on Anti’s chest, and Anti closes his eyes, sighing deep.

“Feeling better?” he asks. Dapper nods against him.

“M’kay. Good.” He opens his eyes up again to look down at him, smiling faintly at his big blue eyes. “They talking to you?”

“Yeah.”

“Being nice?”

“Yeah.”

“Good, they better.” He covers Carver’s eyes with a gentle hand and turns his head to you, smiling coldly. For a second, his eye is vividly red. “And not ask any stupid questions if they want to keep talking to you.”

Anonymous asked: Marvin, for the moment at least, I suggest sitting your ass right down. All eyes are on you, tensions are high. They're expecting you to pull something and they're not having it. As much as I want to see you escape, I want you to escape with as few bullet holes as possible. In the meantime, build up a somewhat stable level of trust, yeah?

“But this might be my only chance to - ow!” He winces as Doktor pricks his skin, beginning to sew up both sides of the wound Anti gave him. Red, only partially conscious, growls out a warning, and it’s Doktor turn to flinch - but they all fall silent, and nothing happens. In short order, Doktor cleans Marvin up, bandaging his hand and even his bruised ribs, looking him over with hands just as warm and as careful as they were the last time they were together, on the run, whispering reassurances to each other in the darkness, we’ll be safe, it’s okay, we’ll get Jackie and Jameson back, don’t give up on them, don’t give up on yourself…

Marvin blinks away tears, staring at him. “I’ve missed you so much,” he whispers.

Doktor cannot meet his eyes. “I don’t remember you,” he says. “And I’m not the person you used to know.”

“Aren’t you?” asks Marvin.

Doktor ignores him. He gives Red a mild sedative and together they lie him down inside his sleeping bag, mostly out now, and still clinging to Marvin’s hand.

“Is he out?” asks Trick warily.

“Yes,” calls Doktor, wiping his bloodied hands on his jeans.

“So we can get something to eat?”

Doktor bites his lip and glances at Marvin, closer to the cupboards than he is. “Um… Could we have something to eat, Blue?”

Marvin blinks. “Fuck, why would you need me to decide that?”

“Red usually keeps track of the food… We’re not to take things without permission.”

Marvin turns to the cupboard and begins pulling things out. “Okay, guys,” he sighs, glancing back at Doktor’s hollowed face. “What do you want to eat?”

musical-in-theory asked: Well, Anti? You have your little kitten down there making friends, yanking on your strings. How pompous do you have to be to expect him to not have an impact on your stupid manipulations, you glitch bitch?

“Oh, no,” moans Anti, frowning at you. “Oh no, whatever will I do?”

He pulls Dapper closer to his chest, grinning slowly as he runs his hands down his back, kissing gently at his hair. “What would I possibly do if something went wrong? If only I had cameras all over the house and a time traveler and a sniper and could turn into a hunting dog and hadn’t enchanted him or cut a liter or two of blood out of his hand and wasn’t right upstairs and…. I’m boring myself. Leave me alone, will you, it’s time for bed.” He grips Dapper’s cheek and pinches it hard enough to make his little brother grimace. “Isn’t it, baby? Get under the covers, you must be tired. Let’s get some sleep. Let Blue have his few days of resistance. He’ll falter fast. All’s well.”

Anonymous asked: how much food does red manage to get? do you all get to eat every day?

“That’s a good question,” says Marvin, digging through the cupboards. “How much do you all get? Where does Red get it?”

“From in town,” shrugs Doktor. “What do you figure?”

“Anti gives him money.”

“Yeah, or someone steals it.”

Marvin grimaces, but Trick and Dok are just watching his hands as he pulls out granola bars, apples, some wheat cereal, canned fruit, blueberry bagels, a little tin of tomatoes, uncooked noodles, beans - “Protein,” Trick mumbles, reaching out to take them from him.

“Tell me this isn’t it,” sighs Marvin.

“Well, usually we have more,” grumbles Trick, picking the can open with nail-cracked fingers. “And I’m pretty sure Red hides a lot of other stuff, for in case we get hungry, or if Anti decides… But, well, lately everybody’s been focused on catching you.”

“Do you get enough to eat?”

Trick and Dok exchange glances.

“In your medical opinion?” suggests Marvin, turning irritably to the older of the two.

“Mhhh,” Doktor hums. He opens his mouth after a second, but a quick shove from Trick shuts him up again, and the two sit in silence, avoiding Marvin’s eyes.

Marvin sighs and slides two cans of peaches and the whole box of wheat cereal over to them. He is rewarded, to his surprise, with bright smiles from the both of them, and they scoot a little closer, shoulder-to-shoulder.

“I’ve got to find more food,” mumbles Marvin, rubbing his head. “This isn’t enough to run away on, and you’re looking like some hungry little motherfuckers, I’ll tell you that much.”

“Well, then, you better be good,” suggests Dok, nodding practically. “That’s how you earn more to eat.”

“Maybe Anti’ll even let us go into town instead of Red,” sighs Trick. “And we could get real food, cooked stuff…”

He sighs. He is hungry. He’s not always hungry, but… he is hungry.

At least the newcomer seems pretty cool. For now, anyway. Inevitably, Trick has found, at the end of the day there is no one who can be trusted not to turn against him and Doktor.

He does what he has to to keep them alive.

Anonymous asked: Marvin... psst... hey Anti’s asleep and he thinks he’s got you pinned. Now would be a great time to pull a trick and get away.

Marvin glances at his little brothers, eating, and at Red, asleep beside him. Extricating himself from Red’s grip on his arm - Red moans, reaching out for him - he brings himself to his feet, still wincing from his injured ribs.

“Um, I’m just going to glance outside,” he tells the boys. Trick glares narrowly at him, but Doktor doesn’t even bother looking up, and Marvin makes his way to the door of the little cabin where they live, putting a hand on the doorframe and stepping over the -

Stepping over the -

Stepping over the -

“What the fuck?” chokes Blue, shaking in the doorway. “Why can’t I move?”

No, no, nope. He’s not getting stuck like this. He’s not going to be a prisoner of his own head. He can do this. Focus! he tells himself. Focus!

“Hey,” growls Trick, turning his attention to him.

“Best not to strain yourself,” warns Doktor.

No, no. Block them out. Focus. He’s not a slave, not a pet, not a pawn. He’s Marvin the fucking Magnificent, and he -

He sets his foot over the doorstep.

“Holy shit!” he cheers, panting hard, his hands on his heart. Relief floods up his chest and he balances himself against the side of the house, gasping. Okay, he wasn’t actually sure he could do that. But he could! It was just -

Flick. Flick. Flick.

Marvin turns his head.

Anti is sitting on a log in the front of the property, flipping a silver knife over and over and over in his hand, staring out at the sea.

Terrified, Marvin swallows hard and creeps back into the house, falling shakily to his knees and bending in on himself, trying to breathe.

“I thought he was asleep upstairs,” he gasps.

It’s kind of starting to hit him that this is real.

Anti caught him. Anti caught him. After all this time, Anti caught him, and he’s here, and he’s very, very, very scared of what’s going to happen to him and his family.

He begins to cry.

Doktor and Trick watch him.

“He’s always watching,” mumbles Doktor.

And upstairs, curled against his little brother’s body, Anti turns over in his sleep, smiling.

 Anonymous asked: Dapper, you mentioned anti gave you charcoal. Do you draw? Can you show me what you use it for?

Morning breaks cold over the house, and Marvin wakes up ashamed of having slept.

Trick and Doktor, after a heated debate in the corner, eventually gave up one of their blankets so that he could lie down beside Red, and then retreated to their nest. You saw Trick spend the night curled up, but Doktor sits awake, watching out the window. A few hours ago, Trick was whimpering, but Doktor shook him a few times and he quieted again.

Red wakes up and sees Marvin a couple feet away. He moves away, watching him suspiciously, but he’s too tired to get up. He eats a granola bar, carefully taking stock of everything they have, and looks carefully over his own injuries.

And Dapper?

“Oh, my charcoals!” he signs, leaping to his feet and grabbing the camera off the windowsill. “Silly, silly, should have showed you right away, look, look.”

He turns you to the walls, once painted white, now chipped and coated in black chalk. Dapper whistles and spins you slowly around the room, showing off proudly.

They’re stunningly intricate and very lovely, except for that some of them appear to have been hastily drawn over, like the big deer in the corner - gorgeously depicted in careful, curving lines, only to be marred by huge dark streaks of charcoal drawn haphazardly across its face. On another wall is a pair of wings curling around a human body, and on another, Anti, or one of his brothers, anyway, low to the ground, turned away from him, holding a knife. The fourth wall is just the same pattern, a tiny swooping curve, over and over and over again, until the whole wall seems to shift with movement as you watch. This piece does not seem to have been done entirely in chalk, as parts of it shine darkly in the morning light.

“Good?” he asks, turning your view back to him. Suddenly he is shyer, brushing unkempt hair out of his face and watching you carefully, his cheeks slightly flushed. “I have more in the hallway, do you want to see?”

loganandoli asked: Of course we want to see more Carver!! Those drawings are beautiful! Did you use references or did you just draw most of them from your imagination?

He smiles brightly at you and all but skips into the hallway besides the stairs, showing the wall. This is a huge drawing of a raven’s head from the side. Sharp eyes stare darkly at you; the bird is shaded and coated in shadow, and as you watch, Dapper reaches out a careful hand and smooths a stroke of its feather with hands deeply scarred.

He turns you back to him for just a second. “Need to fix this,” he says.

He disappears and you see the wall behind him - a cracked mess of charcoal in a shattered wall that looks like it’s been stabbed a time or two. You think there used to be a landscape there, but it’s been smeared and destroyed past recognition.

Dapper reappears with a short stick of charcoal in one hand. He smiles at you and leans down to pick you up, a little shakily, with one hand, and turns you back to the drawing. The camera sways and Dapper gives a little gasp, reaching out to steady it before he drops it.

There is a quick thunk of something hitting the floor, and then rolling. Seeing that he’s dropped his charcoal, Dapper sets you down hastily and scrambles after it, reaching -

Too late. It goes thunk, thunk, thunk down the stairs.

He stands with empty hands, staring after it, despair written all over his face. His hands reach up to sign, but he can’t manage to say anything at all. He slides back into the darkness, staring down from the attic, torn between one of his only sources of entertainment - one of his only sources of expression - and the order Anti gave him.

Stay in the fucking attic.

He sinks to his knees, covering his mouth with blackened hands.

Anonymous asked: Are you allowed out in the hallway, Dapper? Do you ever get to go downstairs? But yes, I like your art very much and would like to see more!

“I’m allowed in the hallway but not downstairs,” he signs frantically, squeezing back tears. “Thank you, though, at least… at least I have the pictures still… even if I lost my…” He sniffles and wipes at his eyes, bitter. “No, I never go downstairs. And no one ever comes up. The other ones hate me, did you know… I think we used to be friends, but not anymore. You should see how they look at me… nobody wants me but Anti… They’re not going to get me my charcoal, even if they wanted to, Anti doesn’t allow them up here with me.”

Anonymous asked: 'Morning, Red. How are you feeling?

Red swallows dryly and glances at you. “Um, better,” he says, trying to muster a smile. “It’s just pain… I slept better than I usually do. I hope I’ll be able to walk around. I need to go into town and make sure the boys have enough food. Blue, too now, oh… I need to get him a sleeping bag and some clothes and things. Fuck, and Dapper’s meds!” He runs a shaky hand through his hair, looking stressed. “I don’t have hardly anything saved, I don’t know if we’ll have enough this week.”

He glances up at Marvin, who’s closed his eyes and laid back down on his blanket. Watching him, Red’s face softens slightly.

loganandoli asked: Hey Marvin.. did you hear that thumping noise by the stairs? If you did, you should check it out.

The thud of the charcoal falling down interrupts them all.

Doktor tenses over Trick’s sleeping body, curving a hand around his shoulder and grabbing his brother’s gun, just in case. The younger of the two is the better shot, but Deutsch has steady surgeon’s hands and he knows how to use the sniper. One of them is always keeping watch.

Alarmed, Red tries to rise, but he can’t get himself up on the first try, and Marvin reaches out to push him back down. Red jolts away from his touch, snarling.

“Chill out, man!” snaps Marvin. “Goddamn! If I was going to hurt you I would have done it already! Here, stay there, I’ll go see what that was.”

“It might be dangerous!”

Marvin rolls his eyes and points at you. “They said I should check it out, didn’t they? Try to calm down, man. I’ll go look.”

He gets up and steps around the island. The little chunk of chalk sits by his feet. Frowning, he reaches down to pick it up, and earns a soft gasp from the top of the stairs.

He can see no one above him in the dark attic. Holding still, Marvin squints up, and waits, in the tense silence that follows, for anything, for Anti.

A small movement in the darkness, nervous, shy.

“Hey,” whispers Marvin. “Is that… you? Jameson?”

There’s a low hiss from Red and Doktor, and he turns to see them moving away from him, shaking their heads, real fear in their eyes. Ugh, they’re so fucking paranoid about names. Marvin puts a foot on the bottom of the stairs, trying to smile up at Dapper, and this is enough to elicit a full cry of warning from Red, peeping his head up over the island.

“Blue, don’t go up there!”

“My name’s Marvin,” he snaps, and moves towards his little brother.

Anonymous asked: what is anti going to do with marvin now? he's trapped, but he's still totally himself

Your screen fizzles and words play across the image of Marvin moving up the stairs in glitching zalgo font.

“I don’t punish til the rules are broken,” reads Anti’s message.

Marvin is not yet in the attic. Dapper is not yet on the stairs.

“But once they are…”

A black shadow flashes over your vision. “Blue,” warns Red, louder. He cannot drag himself to his feet. “Blue, come back, don’t go up there!”

“That is when the learning happens.”

musical-in-theory asked: Anti, you mf!! Don’t you dare lay a hand on him!!! If I wasn’t trapped via the laws of fictionality I’d come beat your ass into next week myself!!

Laughter in the back of your audio.

“Hey, hey,” Marvin is soothing, making his way up the stairs. He can make out Dapper’s body now, huddled against the back wall, his knees drawn up to his chest. “It’s okay, I’m not going to hurt you. Did you drop this?”

Dapper’s fingers twitch. He hides his face.

Marvin rises, a step away from the attic floor, and stops, waiting, trying to give him time to uncurl. He stares down at his youngest brother.

He remembers a man as sharp as the blade of a knife but infinitely kinder. Talented, passionate, clever gentle Jamie, picking up violin one week and art the next, making suet for the birds and spending hours digging up weeds in the garden before darting off to whatever job he’d found for the week. He was unpredictable until you needed him, at which point he could, with an emotional astuteness Marvin had never seen anywhere else, appear like a little ghost to check on you.

Marvin doesn’t believe that a man like that could ever just be erased. This is still his Jameson.

He hasn’t seen him in more than a year.

Long curls fall into his silver eyes. Shifting a little closer, Marvin reaches out and brushes them away, revealing tears and a dangerous sort of wariness.

“Here,” murmurs Marvin, holding up the chalk. “Here, it’s okay.”

With shaking hands, Dapper reaches out to take it from him.

“There you go!” gasps Marvin, tears building in his eyes. “There, it’s okay! It’s me, it’s Marvin. Fuck, I - I’ve missed you so much!”

He reaches out to grip Dapper’s hand. Dapper jumps, and then his mouth splits into a huge and joyful smile, uncurling slightly, letting his knees drop and reaching out for some affection, touching Marvin’s cheek. Relieved to find one brother apparently cognizant of who he is, Marvin grabs his little brother’s hand to kiss it and steps up besides him, murmuring, “Jamie, Jamie, I’ve missed you-”

There is barely time for the fear to return to Dapper’s eyes before Anti appears.

Marvin gives a choking cry, staggering back as something slices hard against his neck. Anti flashes into existence in front of Dapper, reaching out to grab Marvin by the bleeding throat.

“Touch my baby!” he screeches, shaking him hard. Marvin tries desperately to scramble away. “Touch my little one! You are not allowed up here! No one is allowed to be up here with him! How dare you lay your fucking hands on him!”

There is a slam as Marvin is slammed against the side of the stairs, and then Anti spots Dapper scrambling away out of the corner of his eyes. “Oh, think you’re off the hook? As if you didn’t smile at him? As if you didn’t - ”

Marvin yanks himself from his grip and tumbles backwards, falling down the stairs a lot harder than a chunk of charcoal.

spicydanhowell asked: fuck, doktor, go get marvin he's hurt really badly!!

“Aww, is he hurt really badly, is he hurt?” Anti mimics viciously, grabbing Dapper’s wrist and dragging him after him as he makes his way down the stairs. “He’s not fucking hurt yet, is that what you think the worst of it is?”

“Anti, he didn’t know, he didn’t know,” cries Red.

“He knows because you told him!” snarls Anti. “You did what you were supposed to. Doktor and Trick know that what you say goes. But our little cat needs to learn his lesson. Then he’ll know.”

Marvin is splayed out on the bottom of the stairs, screaming. His wrist is completely shattered and the rest of the pain is not something he can pinpoint - just a terrible agony through his whole body. Anti grabs him by the back of the hair and drags him up, up, but he can’t make himself stand.

“You’ll get up,” snarls Anti. “Or you can go down these stairs the same way.”

Dapper is yanking against Anti’s grip, weeping. “Sorry, sorry, sorry!” he signs, over and over again, shaking his hand up near his head. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry, Anti, so sorry, please, please!”

Anti shoves him towards the basement and drags Marvin up after him, opening the terrible door to the basement.

It falls shut behind the three of them with a terrible finality.

Red lies slumped against his bag, too numb to cry. Trick and Doktor sit next to each other shaking, staring at the crushed piece of charcoal lying at the bottom of the stairs.

Anonymous asked: What are you guys going to do with blue now?

“Well,” says Anti, setting you on a shelf in the basement. Marvin is writhing on the floor, while Dapper backs towards the corner. “First we string the puppet up-”

His body glitches out of existence and something flashes like a shadow across Dapper’s body, you see him jerk backwards, still begging with his hands “no, no, please, please!”

His body spasms and he tumbles to his knees. Colors pass over him in sharp bursts of light, making him shake his head and cover his eyes. You see, for a second, a face that is not his own, and then -

Then he is rising to his feet, eyes pitch, and he reaches down to drag Marvin to the wall, chaining his wrists again, the one broken, the other bandaged from the knife wound.

“Then we carve the puppet,” signs Anti, pressing Marvin against the wall and pulling out a knife. Marvin begins to scream, slamming his head against the chains in his desperation to get free.

“It’s a process, you see,” signs Anti, pausing between slashes. “It’s a shattering, and then a rebuilding. A stripping away of everything, an offer of all he never knew he wanted. It’s affection one second and blood the next. It’s… an art.”

Dapper’s hands are still smudged in charcoal. Anti leaves it all over Marvin’s chest and arms. Marvin screams for a long time.

The feed stays up the whole time, but, eventually, you turn your eyes away.

 End Section 1 of Chapter 1: The Newcomer

Find this chapter’s masterlist here.

[my-brothers-corrupted]

My Brothers, Corrupted

Chapter 2 : Section 4 : Lights in the Darkness

To regain his control, Anti forced Dapper back into a more compliant headspace and exerted a great deal of mental energy to put him and Trick back in their places. Things are tense and painful day-to-day, but fortunately, they have something coming up for all of them to look forward to.

Trigger warnings for abuse, mentions of overdose and suicide, and violence.

Find Chapter One here.

Find Chapter Two here.

 Section Four of Chapter Two: Lights in the Darkness

Anonymous asked: DAPPER HOLY SHIT I MEAN GOOD FOR YOU KICK HIS ASS BUT ALSO MAYBE DON'T DO THAT CAUSE YOU MIGHT DIE OR GET PUNISHED AND THAT'S NOT GONNA HELP YOUR CASE AND AS MUCH AS I WANNA ENCOURAGE YOU I ABSOLUTELY IMPLORE YOU TO PLEASE CALM THE FUCK DOWN

Dapper is shaking when your view returns.

He wears a black vest buttoned up tight over a clean white shirt. There is a tie around his throat, and a black dog’s collar beneath the tie. His hands are still tied, but looser now, letting his hands slump, letting the blood return to his fingertips.

He’s looking at you, but not looking at you.

Die or get punished? Die or get punished? No, no, no, he doesn’t want that, of course he doesn’t want that… He wouldn’t want to do anything to upset his master… No, he’s a better puppy than that, surely.

Anonymous asked: yo please leave dapper alone? you did kind of deserve that slap tbh, and besides it wasn't really his fault. just don't hurt him or ruin his shit or whatever goddamnit

“L-look,” comes a raspy, shaking voice.

A hand appears on your screen and runs its fingers through Dapper’s hair, tugging at the soft, downy curls.

Dapper smiles sweetly, letting his eyes slip shut as he’s petted.

“Hurt him? Ruin him? No… no… he’s better now, you see… I just have to… I just…”

Soft coughing interrupts Anti and he staggers away.

the-weirdest-fan asked: *applause* Very immersive! Though the message is a bit predictable, sometimes that's a good thing! Good preformance!

“Predictable,” mumbles Anti weakly. “No, I don’t want… hate… fucking circles.”

You watch him stumble against his bed, his face completely bloodless, his eyes glazed over and drifting.

“Anti?” whimpers Trick, poking his head up on the other side of the bed, that yellow collar fastened tight around his throat. “Master? You okay?”

cest-mellow asked: anti what happened to you...?

“Get… get… nothing, nothing, turn - turn the camera off again.”

He waves his hand, grimacing, as if to switch you off, but there’s no effect. Wringing his hands like a nervous little kid, Trick gets up to go to his side. He sets a steadying hand on Anti’s shoulder and his brother leans into it, listing as his eyes droop and his form flickers.

“Anti, you’re scaring me,” whimpers Trick.

“I’m fine, puppy,” Anti manages frailly. “Just tired from the - from the - T-trick - ”

He faints into Trickshot’s chest.

Anonymous asked: Geez anti just leave the poor guy alone

Whatever his plans, they’re over now. Dapper won’t be hurt again today.

Anti is well and truly unconscious. Trick and Dapper, attentive and over-affectionate, ignore you completely as they do their best to take care of him, hauling his semi-corporeal body into the bed and getting a wet washcloth from the bathroom to drape over his eyes. Trick, nearly crying, crawls into bed beside Anti and wraps his arms around him, curling his fingers through his hair and whispering assurances and devotions.

Dapper sits at the end of the bed and guards, eyes wide, staring at the fairy lights draped over the door, so deep in his own head he can hardly think of anything but Anti.

But there is at least one moment where Trick whispers “Dap, are you okay?” and Dap nods, and turns gently to him, and gives him the same question. Trick shakes his head, but promises that he’ll be fine as soon as Anti wakes up. That would make everything better.

They have each other, at least.

Doktor is alone in his room, sobbing his way through the aftermath of the horribly strong power he can still feel eating away at his free will, mumbling in German and dissociating so hard he can’t make his fingers move. Eventually, he will collapse into unconscious on his mattress, and spend the rest of the day asleep.

Red and Blue come back hours later, perfectly content, home from a day in the city.

They find the lunch of fried potatoes they made uneaten by anyone.

Banging on Anti and Trick’s door gets them no answer from anyone. Trick and Dapper are not allowed to talk to anyone outside of the room, and they are, after all, very good at following the rules.

The day passes coldly.

Anonymous asked: I'm no doctor, but seems more like he took the drugs rather than sold them... Speaking of doctors, I think there's someone you might want to fetch.

Trick is awake first.

He comes over to check on the camera, brushing his fingers through his hair and yawning as he wakes up. His face is a little pale - he smiles, but there is an unnerving emptiness to it.

“We can’t get the doctor for Anti because we aren’t allowed to talk to anyone outside the door, and it’s locked anyway, so he couldn’t come in. I… I am worried about him, though. He’s not usually here when I wake up, just leaves me my medicine and goes.”

He turns back to look at the bed, setting you down on the counter again. Anti stirs slightly and Trick returns to his side, reaching out gently to touch his shoulder.

“Anti? Are you okay?”

Anti can’t seem to lift his head up off the pillows. “Trick,” he mumbles, rubbing at his face. He becomes aware of a second warm body at his side and stiffens, turning to regard the figure pressed up against his chest, sleeping soundly.

Ah, what a relief - the child belongs to him again.

A little strengthened, Anti runs a hand through Dapper’s hair and drags himself sitting up on shaky arms.

“Is it the 22nd?” he mumbles, grey-faced. “I do need to see Dok.”

Anonymous asked: damn anti you are not keeping together well hgfjhdfg

“Shut the fuck up,” Anti snaps, in a voice like a kid with strep. “I could turn you off forever in a goddamn second, you know. I’m fine, I’m… Trick-Trick, get me - no, no, never mind, I’m fine.”

He pushes himself to standing and staggers, collapsing to his hands and knees for a second. Trick gasps and hovers anxiously over him, prevented from falling down beside him by Anti’s hand reaching up to stop him.

“It’s fine,” coughs Anti, blood soaking his bandages thick, thick. “Don’t fucking touch me. I need to get Dok his present.”

“M-maybe you should just take it easy, Anti.”

“Shut the hell up, Trick, you’re the one who was so desperate for me to remember. Go get a goddamn shower, you’re a mess. I’ll be back in a minute.”

He staggers to his feet and heads out the door, his form glitching fuzzily.

reverseblackholeofwords asked: Dok are you okay? Heads up because Anti is headed your way...

The beeping of the camera jerks Blue awake.

“What?” he mumbles, rolling off his mattress. Red, who was lying on his chest, grumbles and turns onto his other side, snuffling sleepily.

“Anti’s coming for Dok? He’s in trouble again?”

Wide awake, Blue leaps to his feet and turns around and -

Oh. There, on the other side of the room, is Doktor on his mattress, sound asleep, pale as clean linen.

“Should we not have slept in the same room?” pants Blue, moving around the room like he’s looking for something that isn’t there. “Is Anti angry? Dok was just so sick-looking when I came home, and I got scared, and then when he woke up he wasn’t - he was just mumbling to himself and not answering when I called him, of course I brought him to sleep with us, he’s so lonely lately - oh, my little brother.”

Blue gets down beside Doktor and puts a hand on the back of his head, shaking him gently. “Hey, Alle, you with me?”

Dok stirs, his face tightening.

“Mh?”

“Dok,” murmurs Blue, rubbing the back of his neck, an optimist’s smile rising on his mouth despite himself at his sleepy face. “Wake up.”

“What’s going on?”

“Um, I don’t know. I think Anti - ”

“I’ll head him off,” comes a voice from behind him. Blue turns to see Red rising, the stiffness of sleep already fading from him. His face has taken on that calmness again.

“I’ll check what’s going on. Make sure Dok’s okay. Love you.”

“What? Red, be careful. Love you too, of course.”

Red is already slipping out into the hallway, just in time to nearly bump chests with Anti.

“Watch it, Red!” he snaps.

“Anti! We didn’t hear from you or Trick at all last night, I was worried! We - ”

“Yeah, yeah, okay. Never mind. Is Dok up?”

“Yes, Anti. Is everything okay?”

“Where’s those candles I told you to get?”

“My bag in the clinic, Anti.”

Anti staggers slightly as he moves past him and Red frowns, something lighting up in his eyes. He watches his little brother walk but knows better than to offer help.

“Here, here, here,” mumbles Anti, picking up the backpack and taking out a plastic bag stuffed full of tall white candles. “Mh, perfect! Good boy.”

“Anti?” says Red softly. “Are you okay?”

There’s blood on his shirt again, not only where it was yesterday but also on his back, heavy around his lowest ribs.

Anti ignores him and returns, turning to enter Doktor’s room.

He gasps and drops the candles.

“Where is he?” he shrieks, whirling on Red. “Where is my boy, where is my healer?”

“Anti, Anti! Please, he’s just in our room!”

Blood comes seeping out of Anti’s eyes and Red steps back as his little brother bursts into a painful bout of coughing, clutching at his chest. “In your room?” he gasps around choking. “Why? Who told you you could do that? He’s separated for a reason.”

“Anti, something was wrong with him last night.” Fuck, but Red has gotten good at stopping his voice from trembling. “Your caretaker made the decision to bring Dok to our room, to make sure he didn’t worsen during the night.”

Cool, clipped, professional, distant. The mention of Blue seems to soothe Anti a little, and he wipes the streams of blood into red smudges on his face.

“Whatever,” he manages finally, his eyes dark, his chest still working a little too fast. “Get out, then. Go make breakfast. Need to talk to my Deutsch.”

He shoves past Red and into his room. “You too, Blue!”

Blue comes scurrying out of the room, whispering a reassurance to Doktor before hurrying away.

Feeling dizzy, Dok does his best to sit up, his eyes wide.

Anonymous asked: December 22nd and candles... Hanukkah?

For a second, Doktor is frozen, staring at your lens.

“No…” he says softly. “He wouldn’t have remembered, he wouldn’t have… he doesn’t…”

“I resent that,” comes a voice from the doorway.

Doktor looks up at Anti. Anti looks back, frowning a little.

The window casts him in a glow of warm gold light. He stands with his hand holding the doorframe, a little pale, a little tired, a little weak. With the blood on his face, he looks soft and hurting, and at the look in Doktor’s eyes, he offers a small smile.

“You really didn’t think I’d do anything?”

“Didn’t…. didn’t know you cared. Especially considering… lately, I…”

“Don’t worry about that right now,” says Anti, stepping in and shutting the door behind him. “I wouldn’t not give you your holiday just because of that. I can be merciful, you know. How are you doing after last night?”

“Oh… okay. Now.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah. Yeah, fine, fine. Did you really, um - did you really get me candles?”

Doktor’s voice is shaking hard. Anti’s smile curves slyly up and he hums, sitting down beside him on the mattress, and hands the plastic bag over, throwing a lighter from his pocket in as well.

Doktor picks up a tall white candle and holds it up to the light. The wax is smooth and warm beneath his fingers, wafting a faint smell that awakens in him the vestiges of soft old memories, like felt at the edges of his mind. Firelight, fried pancakes, the lilt of cheerful voices chattering on his every side, laughter…

Warmed down to the inside of his chest, he lets out a soft hum and places the candles lovingly back in the bag. A tear drips down onto his present and he clutches the bag to his chest, looking up at Anti.

“Thank you,” he whispers.

“Course. Listen, Dok…”

Anti shifts and Doktor braces himself, looking over at him.

“I’ve been… hard on you lately. I… I’m sorry.”

A weight ascends from Doktor’s chest. He can barely breathe.

“Oh… no, no, it’s okay!”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah, I mean - I - you’re right, really, I should have been watching Trick and Dapper better, both of them - ”

“Well, yeah,” sighs Anti, frowning at the ceiling. “Of course.”

“And I - I know I could do better, at a lot of things. I never meant to make you angry, Anti, I didn’t, I - I’m sorry for everything, master, I’m sorry I didn’t - didn’t stop him and didn’t save him and don’t deserve him - ”

“Come on, Dok, come on!” protests Anti, laughing now. “Don’t cry!”

“But I just - I just - and I appreciate the candles and all, I do, so, so much, but I was wondering - ”

“Dok, calm down, fuck. Haha, you’re so easily worked up these days! It’s a good day, let’s leave it at that. Here, have fun with your candles. There should be other presents too, but I’ll just let Red give them to you on Christmas with everybody else’s, okay?”

Deutsch’s mouth hangs open lamely, his eyes bright and streaming tears. He tries to get his lips to move, his tongue to answer, tries to get the words out -

He can’t fucking do it. He can’t ask for the one thing he really wants. He bows his head, clutching the candles to his heart, feeling utterly alone.

“Happy Hanukkah, Dok,” purrs Anti, giving him one last brush of his hair before getting to his feet, preparing to leave.

“Thank you,” whispers Doktor, curling in on himself. “Thank you, Anti.”

Anonymous asked: is there a way dok can see trick? it will do them both good to see each other

Anti pauses and turns to read the message.

His eyes widen slightly and he turns to Dok just in time to catch a glimpse of something he has rarely, if ever, seen on his face - a desperation like a dying soldier’s, a desperation like someone watching their loved one pass away before their eyes.

Anti stares at Dok, confused. He glances back at you, thinking.

“P-please…” It falls from Doktor’s mouth like a Hanukkah blessing. “Please, Anti… even just for Christmas day… even just for a moment… please…”

Anti shakes his head slightly, frowning. A little blood is trickling from his mouth now, and he wipes it away, feeling a little faint.

“I don’t know… I don’t think it’s a good… I mean, I guess I won’t want Trick and Dap to be apart from the rest of you on Christmas, but…”

cest-mellow asked: letting them see each other would be the greatest christmas gift you could ever give them. they would be so grateful, so so thankful, anti. just for christmas. a few hours won’t hurt, you know? and it’ll be something they can work toward! if everyone is good, good things happen. please..?

Anti sighs, rubbing at his eyes a little. Fuck, but he aches.

“I will be very careful,” promises Dok softly. “And very good.”

“Yeah?”

“Yes. Yes, sir.”

Anti glances at your message again.

“Mh… okay.”

Doktor nearly leaps up from the mattress, his eyes shining.

“If you are very, very good these next few days. Do you understand me? No trouble at all, Doktor, not a peep out of you to cause me the slightest headache. Then you can see Trick for a day.”

“Okay! Okay, yes, that sounds - yes, I can do that. I can.”

Doktor’s practically vibrating. He folds his hands carefully over his candles. Blessings are already singing through his head.

“Okay,” says Anti, casting a gentle gaze at him. Doktor simpers under the warmth, his eyes lighting up with something he’s been missing for some time now - devotion. “Bye, Dok-Dok.”

“Anti?”

“What?”

“Tell me if you need anything - anything at all.”

“Will do, Allemagne.”

Anti heads out the door.

There’s a pause.

Doktor throws himself back on his mattress and lets out a cry of pure ferocious joy through gritted, grinning teeth, striking his hand on the bed once, twice.

“Hölle ja!” he screams, lifting his arms to the sun, beaming. “Hölle ja, best first of Hanukkah ever!”

Your other camera follows Anti back towards his room. He’s laughing.

“Isn’t he so fucking easy to please?”

Anonymous asked: Pssst, Dapper! Did you...did you really forget everything?

You find Dapper up, but not on his own - he’s propped against the headboard of the bed, his face nearly slack, but still smiling faintly. Eyes circled heavily in blue stare blankly back at you, and he lifts his loosely tied hands like a marionette, his body jerking. Even his face twitches.

“I’ve forgotten nothing,” he assures you, signing slower than usual. For a second his hands hesitate, wandering down to reach around the back of the ribs, shaking, but then he rights himself. “How many times has Anti reset my head, and always the broken mind snaps back again, and fragments come to me like a rush of alcohol, disrupting everything, crooning old memories at me like siren song. No, this is just…”

His hands fall slowly towards the bed. His eyes drift dizzily away.

“Just… reversion… keep my head trapped back there, like I was when I was young… what’s… happening to me…”

“You need some medicine,” a strong voice interrupts him, and Anti appears in the doorway, smiling. Trick slinks away from him, smiling nervously, but Anti ignores him, stepping over towards Dapper and pulling a bottle of prescription medicine out of his hoodie pocket. He unclicks the child safety lock and shakes a pill into his hand, reaching out to press it to Dapper’s lips.

There is a small twelve printed on the tiny white surface.

“Come on, so.”

“Oh, okay, yes, sir, but Anti, this - this isn’t my medicine.”

“Well, it is now.”

“Oh, but my medicine - Anti, I haven’t had it yet and I don’t want my mind to - can’t I please have my medicine, I - ”

“Dapper, stop playing games and take this. It’s to replace the Haldol. Okay?”

Dapper stares up at him, that twisted smile still fixed on his mouth.

“Okay. Yes, Anti.”

He parts his lips and lets Anti place it on his tongue.

“There.” Anti tugs on a strand of his curly hair, smiling slickly at him. “All better now, yeah?”

Dapper’s eyes do not shine, but his smile does.

“Yes, Anti.”

“There’s my good boy.”

His mouth is, very slightly, leaking blood.

Anonymous asked: Is there something wrong, Anti?

Anti moves slightly away from Dapper, licking at his bloodied lips.

“No,” he murmurs, seeming to barely register the question. “No, of course not… I can… I can control all this… soon all will be well again. All will be well again soon.”

He sinks down onto the bed, steadying himself. What little color was in his face is draining.

“Just a little tired.”

Anonymous asked: Boys do you have a Christmas tree?

Dapper drifts in and out of nightmares.

A swollen river rushes past his feet. His dress shoes are soaked. He can hear someone yelling. Fire in the distance. Fire getting closer.

Dapper turns over in his sleep. A moment later, he is yanked back, held tight under Trickshot’s arm.

Anti glitches past him in a spasm of coding and color and blood. Dapper can taste his copper magic on the air. Dapper can smell ocean water and a forest soaked in rain. He can hear someone crying.

He whimpers in his sleep. Trick does not awaken.

He sees Blue stand.

And then he sees Blue fall.

Blood slicks his white face.

“Blue!” someone screams, but no one goes to him, no one answers. “Blue!”

Blue does not get up.

Dapper jerks awake, grabbing at the sheets around him, panting so hard he can barely sit up. Trick grumbles at him, tugging sleepily at his shirt, trying to get him to calm down while still half-asleep.

“Why are you fussing, Dap, I’m tired…”

“Sorry. Sorry. It’s nothing. Go to sleep. Go back to sleep.”

Trick is already slipping back onto his pillows.

Dapper sighs and begins carefully smoothing down his dress shirt, wrinkled from wearing it to bed. He spends long minutes using his fingers to press the folds down, and again, and again, trying to get the wrinkles away, without much success. He straightens his tie - far too tight around his neck, far too tight - and finally rises. He uses the bathroom and trims his beard and mustache carefully before making his way over to you and checking over the messages.

“Christmas tree?” He glances around the room, confused, staring out the window, where sun and heat pour cheerfully through the windows. “It’s… Christmas?”

“It’s like the 24th or something,” mumbles Trick, rubbing at his face. “Cause Hannukah was the 22nd…” He yawns hugely and turns back on his side, trying to decide whether or not to go to bed. His neck is beginning to bruise from the collar he wears.

Dapper brightens a little, standing up straighter. “Maybe we will get a Christmas tree or something, then! It doesn’t look like Christmas at all outside. After all, it’s - ”

He pauses and glances towards the door as voices trail back to the end of the hall.

“Can I get anything?”

“Within reason. Anything you need and some real presents for each other. Not just food and medicine and clothes and stuff, Red, something you can actually enjoy.”

“Well, we enjoy not starving,” Red answers, in what Dapper thinks is probably a joke. Probably.

“Haha.” Anti’s voice is a dry, weary rasp. “Just do it.”

“Yes, Anti. Can I bring Trick and Dap?”

“What? No. Why would you possibly do that?”

“Well, they’d probably like to pick stuff out for each other, you know?”

“No, I don’t know. They’ll get presents and you’ll pick out plenty for the others. There’s no reason for them to choose their own just to give them away. You can take Dok, though, if you want. I’m sick of his moping.”

“He liked having his candles, though. He’s been quiet. He’s been good.”

“See that he stays that way, if you take him into town.”

“Yes, Anti.”

And then the door to Dapper’s room creaks open, and he gets a half-second where his gaze meets Red’s, and then Anti is stepping in and shutting it behind him.

“Hi, Anti,” signs Dapper eagerly, reaching out for a hug, but Anti is already brushing past him and getting back into bed. He gives a small gasp as he tears slightly at the wound on his back, but a second later he is growling it away, curling his body around Trickshot’s, and closing his eyes once again.

Dapper sighs, disappointment dripping down his face. For a second, he stares hungrily at the locked handle of the door, listening to the sounds of Red and Blue getting ready to leave the house, to wander, to be free for the day, even to buy things for the people they love.

Dapper sits down beneath the windowsill, staring out at the sky.

“I love my little puppetbox,” his hands insist, and then again: “I love my little puppetbox.”

He finds his puppets and a red blanket - no, it’s a red curtain of some sort - and he curls up in the corner and begins to play alone, a blank smile on his mouth.

Anonymous asked: Merry Christmas, boys. We love you!! ....you too, Anti, you salty turtle.

Red is standing in the clinic, shaking just a little. In the other room, you can hear Dok and Blue talking quietly.

After a few minutes, Red lifts up the wad of cash that he’s been given and begins to count it - carefully, carefully, carefully, his family’s holiday held there in his hands.

His breathing picks up and his eyes alight.

“Merry Christmas to you too,” he giggles, glancing up at you.

And then:

“Merry Christmas to you too!” he shouts, slamming a foot against the ground and whirling in a circle with a joyful whoop. Cries of protest at being startled arise from the bedroom and he laughs, darting towards Blue and Doktor, who look up at him with concern in their eyes.

“Roser, you are being so loud!”

“Get your shoes on!”

“What?”

“Get your shoes on, we’re going into town! We get to go pick out presents, dude!”

“Wait - really?”

Red shoves the cash into Blue’s hands and darts away to grab his shoes and his backpack. “Dok, you too!” he sings, hurrying around the house. “I’ll let you pick some stuff out, even!”

Doktor shrinks slightly in on himself, frowning.

“Oh, I don’t know…”

“Deutsch, you have to go.” A Blue growing in excitement hastens to his feet and finds his boots, tugging them on without delay. “Who wants to be stuck in this little house all day anyway?”

“Long time since I was out of the house… I don’t know. Maybe I should stay. Someone could come needing help.”

bupine asked: dok, if you go out you can get a gift for trick!!

“Oh… I suppose that’s true.”

“Red, you’ll let Dok get something just for Trick, won’t you?”

“Yeah, sure! I can’t remember the last time we had this much cash.”

“But what will I get him?”

“Hey, everybody will be happy to help you figure it out.”

“But what if he doesn’t like it? What if he doesn’t want it at all anymore?”

“Dok,” scolds Blue, pulling his little brother to his feet. Doktor follows anxiously, refusing to meet Blue’s eyes once he’s up, playing with the end of his tattered shirt.

“Deutsch, look at me.”

Dok sighs and obeys, looking up. Blue takes his chin carefully in his hands.

“Trick loves you.”

Doktor softens, something like agony or maybe relief moving through his eyes. Sometimes they’re not all that different.

“He’ll love anything you get him. And he is going to be so excited to see you tomorrow. Okay?”

Doktor swallows and nods, wringing his hands together.

“You promise?”

Blue leans forward to hug him tight, wrapping his arms around Dok’s shoulders and feeling him relax. “Of course,” he reassures, patting his shoulder. “Of course.”

Red re-enters the room and holds a backpack out to Blue and a spare drawstring bag out to Doktor, who accepts it with a faint smile on his mouth, already thinking about what he’ll get his brother.

“Okay, here’s what I’m wondering.” Red pulls his hood up over his eyes and heads towards the door, handing each of his brothers a blueberry bagel and a bottle of water before the three of them head out for the day. “Do we want to go to the classic like grocery store shop place in the nicer part of town first, or do we start with that funky little tourist market where all the white people go for their cute-ass souvenirs and the vecinos sell whatever they can get their hands on? I think we’ll have time for both, but I’m not sure.”

“You just want one of those alpaca-fur stuffed animals,” snorts Blue, his boots kicking up dirt as he leaps out the door.

Red beams, turning to him. He’s more excited than you’ve seen him in a long time.

“Maaaybe.”

They dissolve into giggles and reach back to Doktor, who, finding himself the youngest, consents to let them hold his hands, just like he and Trick held Dapper’s on that fall day so far away now.

Anonymous asked: Will y’all get anything for Anti?

Red’s mouth fills up with a smile.

“Yeah,” he laughs, counting through his cash again, trailing down the mountain. Rocks slide and shift and sharpen beneath his feet, but he’s gotten pretty used to it. Dok is a little less steady - there are a couple times he’s grateful he’s being held up.

“Yeah, I think I will get him something. Not sure what, though, haha. He’s, uh. Impossible to get anything for. I hope he doesn’t get pissed off or upset or anything… and he isn’t looking well, these days, you know… so white all the time, but he won’t let Dok look at him at all…”

Dok and Blue exchange looks, letting Red lead them down the mountainside.

“Nothing ever seems to really make him happy, no matter what I do. I think he - ”

“Red,” Blue interrupts him warmly, drawing his attention away. “Why don’t we worry about that when we get where we’re going? Look, the vecinos are waving.”

Red turns to see a pair of little kids sitting on the concrete steps up on the other side of the buildings, the older one waving shyly.

“Hola,” calls Blue, releasing Dok’s hand. “Que pasa, pequeñas?”

“Hola, médico,” answers the older, making Doktor smile.

“Hola, gringos,” calls the smaller one, and Red bursts into laughter, waving back.

“Hey!” calls Blue in Spanish. “You tell your mama, when she’s ready to have her baby, send one of you to come get the médico, okay? Feliz Navidad.”

“Feliz Navidad!” they answer, turning back the way they came to return a stray chicken to their home. Red’s mood is brightened and his thoughts distracted. They will greet many people on the way down the mountain, and though not all of them will be happy to see them, Blue can’t help but think they’re starting to be a part of this community.

“It’s good for people to see you,” calls Blue, taking Dok’s hand again. “They trust you better and better each day. That man you stitched up yesterday has a big family, you know. They are better off because you’re here.”

Dok’s cheeks are flushed with pride.

You’re not sure you’ve ever seen that look in his eyes before.

Anonymous asked: Ooo, Dok, what do you think you’ll get Trick? And what will y’all get for Dap?

They travel down the mountain.

“Trick might want, like, some stuff of his own. I can’t even remember what he has back there anymore. New clothes?”

“Maybe a big blanket or something.”

“He loves that little piece of paper he has.”

They travel through the city, chatting side-by-side on a crowded Christmas Eve bus.

“Dap we gotta get more art supplies for.”

“Yeah, yeah. There’s other stuff he likes too, though. Some soft kid stuff. Isn’t that what he likes?”

“Well, some days.”

“Yeah, and then other days all he wants is a knife and some purpose.”

“He’s fucking changeable.”

“Well, who can blame him? We’ll find some stuff for him when we’re there. Anyway, Anti said he got some things for everyone anyway. I’m sure he covered his little darlings.”

They travel to the market.

“Damn. What is this place?”

Blue and Red turn to grin at their little brother.

“Oh, Dok. You got a lot to explore.”

Red hands him a wad of cash.

“Let’s go a little wild.”

cest-mellow asked: dok, you should get trick something he can keep with him, like a sweater or blanket or a stuffed toy. and then keep it next to you, hold it tight to you so when he gets it it smells like you! a way for him to have you near while anti takes care of him, you know?

Dok parts from his brothers the first chance he gets, promising to be back in an hour. As much as he loves them, he can’t remember the last time he had any real alone time. Even with Dapper and Trick away, there is always one of the twins close at hand, and nowhere but his lonely little room to retreat to, where there is nothing to do. Even amid crowds of people moving from stall to stall, he feels more alone and more at peace than he has in some time. It gives a little energy back to him and he straightens up as he walks amid colorful stalls with clothes, toys, fried food, paintings, sculptures, and more, and more, and more, counting through his cash.

“It’s been a long fucking time since I had money to spend on… whatever I want,” he murmurs, still a little in disbelief. “I have 200 soles. How can I even spend that much money?”

He circles back through the first line of stalls, so he can see everything again with a little more attention paid.

“Something soft for Trick, something he can keep with him… clothes would be the best way to ensure Anti did not take it away for reminding him of me. And he does need new ones.”

He pauses outside a store with packaged clothes covered in bootleg American merchandising and begins sorting through a box of sweatshirts, examining each one by one. You see his confidence grow as he looks through them, laughing a little at goofy slogans and pictures. Eventually he pulls out a plain but warmly knit and plush soft blue sweater and a hooded black sweatshirt with a polar bear in sunglasses on it.

“Which one you think?”

bupine asked: oh definitely the polar bear with sunglasses, no doubt about it. Anon asked: Polar bear!! It’ll make him laugh.

“I thought you might say that,” laughs Dok, picking it up in his arms. “Kind of his style, uh? He used to joke much more.”

He buys the sweater for 30 soles with broken Spanish and a smile for the worn-down teenager running the stand.

reverseblackholeofwords asked: Blue, will you get something special for Dap? I think he could use the extra love right now.

“Something special for Dap… something special for Dap… hm.”

Blue ducks under a line of knitted ponchos hanging from the ceiling of a shop and steps in to a little stuffy shop, so soft and cute it makes him laugh out loud.

“There you go, mission accomplished,” laughs Red, picking up a little cat stuffy. “Oh, these are the alpaca ones, hell yes. Blue, just get him, like, four.”

“You know Dap’s not an actual ten-year-old, right?”

“Aw, come on. What else has he ever been interested in but cute shit, toys, and the knives Anti gives him? May as well be a little kid, way he acts.”

Something flickers through Blue’s eyes, and you see him draw away from his twin a little, frowning.

“Don’t say that,” he scolds softly, turning towards the animals.

“Hey, I love him for it. Cute little guy.”

“Come on. I know neither of us remember much - ”

“Anything.”

“But there has to have been things that Dapper liked before… he started acting like this, I guess.”

“I don’t know, Blue. I think he’s always been like that. He’s just - he never really grew up, you know? He’s just a little kid, really. That’s what Anti says, and he knows Dapper better than anyone.”

Blue sighs, but chooses to brush past it. “Tell you what,” he says. “You pick out one of the animals for him, and I’ll try to find something a little more… adult, too. He’ll like them both.”

“Hey, when it comes to looking after everybody, you’re the boss.” Red accepts his brother’s authority like he knows he should. Obedience, lately, comes so easy to him that he no longer has to think to fall into the place where Anti wants him to be.

Besides, he loves the stuffed animals.

He picks out a white bear for Dapper, almost unbelievably soft with warm alpaca fur. He takes a deep whiff of its cozy scent and presses his face to it for a second, savoring the softness on his face.

“That’s the good shit,” he whispers to you, grinning, and grabs a second toy discreetly - a little black alpaca. He doesn’t notice Blue slyly picking out a white and ginger one on the other side of the store, watching carefully to make sure Red does not notice, both of their eyes brightening from the secrecy of it.

Cest-mellow requested: maybe blue gets red a tiny little spider-man plush, like the ones that go on backpacks and stuff? And maybe red gets blue some kinda ring that he put engravings on or inside :00 saying something sweet or their names !

Red wanders away from the stuffed animal shop with his bag, distracted by glittering on the other side of the market. One of the biggest stalls in the market is just hand-made silver jewelry. He smiles down at the earrings and necklaces, a little entranced.

“Better not to look here, though,” he reasons gently. “See, most of the shit in the market is cheap, but this stuff is real, you know, and they charge fair for it. Which is good. Just not for us. Reminds me of Blue, though! Anti’s kind of the one who likes to dress him up, but I love to see him a little fancy. Cause he lives for it, you know, he takes a lot of pride in his jewelry and his… his…”

He pauses, his eyes fixed on the rings.

“Fuck,” he whispers. “That’s pretty.”

He reaches out to touch a thin silver ring, carved into vines, with one rose in the middle.

“Reminds me so much of Blue,” he murmurs. “I’m not even sure why. Maybe I… no. I’m supposed to be responsible.”

He stares at the ring, conflicted.

On your other camera, Blue is having no such qualms. You find him laughing his ass off two stores away, too out of breath to explain why. He can only show you the little home-made Spiderman keychain he found. Its face is completely messed up and it’s red and black instead of red and blue. He buys it for 20 soles and continues, still giggling. Red will love that for his backpack.

Anonymous asked: Pssst, Red, I know this is supposed to be festive and all, but did you get rid of Blue’s chain yet? This might be a good place to throw it out before Anti has a surprise inspection. Also does Dap need meds? We will not have another repeat of what happened last time. Anyways, happy hunting!

Red pauses, a little alarmed. His eyes flicker around the store, and then he lifts up a finger to his mouth.

“Oh, the chain I was thinking of getting Blue for Christmas?” he continues calmly. “Already handled it. But it… it was in the bag with Doktor’s candles.”

His mouth trembles slightly. He runs his fingers over the curves of the ring, again and again.

“Christmas might be difficult tomorrow, depending on what he saw,” he says. “But I hope to make it good for my brothers at least. Anyway, Anti is handling Dapper’s medication. We should have plenty of supplies since we hit that truck.”

spicydanhowell asked: (((( blease can dok get trick a little wind up music box? i had one as a kid that was like a lullaby and it would be perfect for him

Dok wanders through the market, distracted by the sound of gentle music.

He’s got a couple bags with him now - a pair of matching red and blue shirts with Star Wars characters on them, because no one can complain about Kylo Ren like his big brothers, a big plastic bag full of dried apples for Dapper, because he’s seen him go through them like a starving sugar bat, and a tiny, half-foot, light-up Christmas tree he found, for all of his brothers.

But the music draws him away.

It’s something starry and soft.

And sad.

Reminds him a lot of Trick.

He finds a pair of girls examining it at the back of a quiet clothes and art shop, chattering in Spanish, but they eventually wander away, and Dok sidles up in their place, taking it into his hands.

It��s nothing but a carved box of wood with a plastic music player inside, a little ocean scene painted on the top. Stars in a dark sky stare down under a swaying ocean, and when he winds the box, the soft, sad, lovely music begins to play again.

The shopkeep watches him.

“Beautiful?” he asks, sparing Dok a smile.

Dok glances up. “Sí,” he mumbles. “¿Cuánto es?”

“50 soles.”

Most of his cash. That’s okay. There are some things worth having. He hands it over with a quiet “gracias” and does not ask for a bag.

He holds it in his hands. It is so beautiful to him he can barely stand to hold it.

He feels dirty.

He retreats into a quiet corner of the market, holding the box in his hands. He plays the music over and over again, until one warm silver tear drips down his lined face.

He wants to see his brother again.

cest-mellow requested: DOG TAGS !!! blue could get red some dog tags !!! ok sorry I’m done popping off now

You find Blue bartering with a shopkeeper in Spanish.

“75 soles.”

“40.”

“Gringo, you’re playing games!”

Blue laughs and holds the blank dog tags up again.

“Fine, 55.”

“If you want the inscription, 60 at the least.”

“The inscription is only one word.”

“Oh? What sort of dog tags have only one word?”

Blue beams and holds them out.

“Only one word, sir.”

The shopkeeper glares at him for a moment, and then the look softens away with a short, barking laugh. “Fine! Fine. 55 for one word. What do you want it to say?”

Blue leans eagerly over the little printing machine.

“Rojo!”

“Rojo, huh? And you’re Azul, I suppose.”

Blue runs a hand through his dyed hair, grinning as they exchange a freshly printed dog tag on a small chain for 55 soles.

“Feliz Navidad, Señor!”

“Feliz Navidad!”

Blue moves away again, smiling at the tags. He thinks that’s pretty cool. The market is beginning to quiet, but there are still people milling around - a pair of teenage girls with college t-shirts, an older man with silver-white hair, a young guy in a green jacket, with a black baseball cap pulled low over his eyes, a couple stalls down from Blue.

“That should be good for Red,” Blue hums. “Except maybe some clothes or shoes or something.”

Anonymous asked: Blue, do you think Dapper would like a pocket watch?

“Ah, yes! He has one, actually! That’s very good thinking though, he’s obsessive with that thing sometimes. I’m not sure, though, it never seems to be on quite the right time. Maybe he needs a new one. Seems a little broken to me.”

Anonymous asked: "Maybe try.. something sentimental for Dap? That isn't very specific, I know, but I think he'd appreciate a nice necklace, or a photo frame. Oh! Maybe a polaroid! He may like that!" -PF!H

“Hm… I like that.”

Blue is rounding some of the shops farther away from the main market, thinking. There’s a lot of painting and painted sculptures and things back here, all of them lovely. But he isn’t sure Dap would be able to put anything up that he didn’t make himself.

There are, however, photo frames - nice ones, hand-painted, large enough for a full sheet of sketch paper.

“He could put something of his own in there,” murmurs Blue, reaching out to touch a large photo frame with birds painted around the corners. “He might really like that. Excuse me, Señora? Cuanto es?”

He buys it at a good price and tucks it carefully into his backpack.

“That was a really good idea! Thank you!”

pixie-in-trebleland asked: Who's next, guys?

After about an hour, Red, Blue, and Doktor meet back where they began, chatting about some of the things they found. They all laugh at Dap’s little white bear and Trick’s polar bear hoodie.

“Okay, next!” Red claps his hands together. “Let’s go check out the real store a few blocks down, okay? There’s some stuff I think we should get just for the house and stuff. And then we still need a few more presents. I want to make sure everybody gets at least a couple, yeah? But Anti got some for everyone too, I think, so we should be good either way.”

He turns to you, grinning, as he steps down the stairs of the market, leading his brothers away. A few people are trailing away with them - a man with his child slung over his shoulders, a young girl running errands for her mother, and a younger guy with a green coat and a black cap tugged low over his eyes.

bupine asked: get dap some art stuff remember! he'll definitely appreciate that

“Yes!” sings Red, leading his brothers back to the art section. “Number one rule of getting Dapper presents, right? What sort of things does he like?”

“I remember when we took him to the store in Norway,” offers Dok, taking a box of charcoals, colored pastel chalks, and a sketchbook off the wall. “Is that good?”

whydoilovesomanyvillians requested: can jamie get some art supplies

“No, they’re right!” protests Blue, drifting farther along the wall. “Let’s get him more than that, this is his favorite thing.”

“Maybe paints?” Dok shrugs, putting his hands in his pockets. “Does he like painting?”

“He might if he tried it, I expect.” Red picks a cheap watercoloring kit and some paper off the wall.

“How about some nice colored pencils, too?” Blue takes a big box of brand pencils off the wall. “I know he’d use these. Is that okay, Red?”

“Yeah. He’s had a rough time lately and I haven’t gotten him much else. This will all last him a while. Pile it on. He’ll love that.”

Anonymous asked: Hey blue,,, weird question but can you see the guy with the black baseball cap around?

Blue’s standing in the aisle with the sewing stuff, wondering if he could patch up some of his brother’s clothes.

“Hm?” he asks, glancing around. “There’s a guy with a black baseball cap down there, by the posters. You mean him?”

Anonymous asked: Boys I think there’s someone following you...but I don’t think he wants to hurt you guys.

Red reads your message.

You watch his smile fade away.

He draws away from you slightly, his whole body tensing. Blue, seeming to notice the difference, reaches forward to touch his shoulder. Red flinches and jerks away, trying to smile at him.

“Tell you what,” he grins stiffly. “Take your brother to get some of the blankets we’ve been talking about. Yeah?”

“Red, is everything - ”

“Yeah, Blue?”

Blue deflates, taking Dok’s hand.

“Yes, Red.”

“Good. I’ll be there in a minute.”

Dok and Blue head towards the other side of the store.

Red stares at you, his expression darkening again.

“Describe them to me.”

whydoilovesomanyvillians asked: Hey wait wasn't that guy with the hat tucked down over his face near blue before

“The guy with the hat?”

Red darts along one aisle, two, glancing around. He checks the aisle with the toys, the sewing, the crafts, the art supplies, the posters, the carvings.

“Where did he go?”

Anonymous asked: Red don’t fucking hurt him I stg if it’s who I think it is....black cap and green jacket. He’s been following Blue for the last three, four stops?

Red looks like he’s going to stop breathing, his face very white and his teeth gritted tightly, tightly, tightly in his mouth.

“Following Blue? Following Blue? Following my Blue?”

Anonymous asked: He's young, green coat with a black hat pulled low, but careful Red, you don't know if he's really trouble or not. Maybe he's just curious.

“Just curious? Just curious so he follows Blue? No, no, no. Nobody trails my family, I don’t care who the fuck he is, I’ll kill him. I’ll kill him.”

Anonymous asked: Blue??? That guy you spotted earlier, is he still following you??? Oh gosh please be careful. If he is go back to Red!! NOW

Blue whirls around, grabbing Dok suddenly to his chest over by the clothes section.

His eyes are narrowed slits. He squeezes Dok’s shoulders and glances slowly around.

“Don’t see anyone,” he mumbles.

Something like fear flickers through his eyes.

His hands glow faintly blue.

“Blue!” hisses Dok, grabbing his fingers.

“Wh - oh, shit, shit - ”

“Sh, sh,” soothes Dok. “Put them in your pockets and let’s just calm down for a moment. Everything’s okay, Blue. I don’t think anyone’s following us.”

Anonymous asked: Oh gosh did he follow Blue when he left with Dok?

Distressed, Red turns to follow his twin, casting looks in every direction. The store is busy on Christmas Eve, though, and he can’t seem to find the man you described.

whydoilovesomanyvillians asked: Blue did see him last in the store red

“Okay, maybe he’s following Blue himself somehow. I’ll look in their area.

Anonymous asked: Yes Blue, but don’t fight him yet please, we need to see his face, can you get close?

“I think I saw the guy you’re talking about. A tall guy with a lot of dark hair. I didn’t recognize his face.”

Anonymous asked: Are you very good at killing people quietly Red? Are you allowed to without telling Anti? Seems like it would attract a lot of attention and put you all in even more danger maybe, should you all just leave and go home?

Red bares his teeth savagely. For a second he does not look at all like Blue or Dok or Trick or Dapper.

“Master gave me my orders. My duty to protect them. Trust me - if someone was following us, he would be more than happy for me to drag the corpse back home to him.”

He moves coldly down the aisles, brushing blood-red hair out of his eyes.

“And… yes.

“I am very good at that.”

Anonymous asked: Why don’t we get some more information on the guy before we try to kill him, okay? Red, you need to find Blue and Dok before the man does. Don’t panic okay? You’re the big brother, you’ll keep them safe like you always do.

“Information doesn’t matter if someone’s following us,” snaps Red.

But a moment later, he is calming himself again, breathing through his teeth.

“You’re right though. I have to stay calm or I’ll scare the others. Everything’s fine. If someone’s following us it will be easy to eliminate him. I’ll keep them safe. I’ll keep everybody safe.”

Anonymous asked: Information is good though, I mean what if...what if it’s the people Anti says is hunting you guys? (I mean maybe they’re good but y’know...who knows I wouldn’t go off that) anti might appreciate that type of knowledge y’know?

Red groans a little, gripping at his hair.

“But I… Anti never tells me anything about the people who are following us… I don’t know what to look for.”

He sighs, letting his hands drop again.

“We’ll just have to see what we see when we find him. Maybe he realized I’d noticed him and ran away.”

whydoilovesomanyvillians asked: Blue how are you doing right now have you seen him

“No, I don’t see him.”

pixie-in-trebleland asked: Red, letting your temper flare isn't going to help anyone. Keep a cool head and maybe he'll back off. Just keep your eyes peeled and lay low.

Red lets off a small, anxious growl of a noise, but he catches sight of Blue and Dok again and relaxes a little.

“Hey,” he calls, touching both of their shoulders. “You okay? Blue, why are you so pale?”

“Oh,” says Blue, his hands stuffed in his pockets. “It’s nothing.”

Red frowns. “Are you sure?”

“Maybe we can talk about it later?” Blue glances at Dok, who frowns.

“Fine. Fine.” Red pats both of their shoulders and turns around, thinking.

bupine asked: pleeeeeeease don't kill him, you'll just draw bad attention to yourself and anti will be pissed. why don't you talk to him and ask what he wants first, then kill later if u still feel like it (though i don't condone it)

Red sighs.

“Okay. Fair enough. Please tell us if you see him again, though. I’ll have to bring this up to Anti. He’ll know what to do. Maybe he’ll know who it is that could be coming.”

Anonymous asked: Oh no, oh no! Let's not make the boys panic over nothing, right? It's a small town. Some guy being in the same place as them doesn't have to mean anything. It's probably best just to let everyone do as they will, and not rock the boat. Yeah? Anyone could see these messages, after all.

“Right, right, right,” Red murmurs, rocking on his heels. “Yeah… yeah, you know, maybe it was just a coincidence.”

You can almost see it in his eyes that he doesn’t believe his own words, but Dok, at least, doesn’t seem concerned, and Blue is calming the longer he does not see the man.

“Okay,” sighs Red, turning to his brothers. “This doesn’t get to ruin our holiday, so now we’re playing Present-Buying: Speed Edition. Go grab the things you need and then let’s go, okay? I want to get home. You two go and I’ll be close behind just… keeping an eye out. Fifteen minutes, okay?”

“Yes, Red.”

“Dok?”

“Yes, Red.”

“There’s my good boys. See you in a minute.”

He slips away.

Anonymous asked: Do not go home. He might be waiting to follow you guys back....well I mean you could go home but we’re trying not to get people killed right? The smaller the mess, happier the glitch bitch.

“If someone tries to follow us up the mountain, I will know them by the uncertainty of their feet and the barking of the dogs behind them. I will know them by the men calling threats disguised as greetings to the stranger in their midst. I will know them by the sliding dust and the rocks the split sneakers and spill blood along the treacherous path my feet know better than the insides of my shoes.”

Red walks along a store aisle, a shadow in his eyes.

“That place is my home now, and I am Anti’s best guard dog. The mountain keeps us safe. Nothing is going to - oh, hey, Blue would like this!”

reverseblackholeofwords requested: Maybe Red could get Blue one of those night lights that shines stars on the ceiling? It’s got all kinds of constellations and stuff? Idk if that’s all that plausible but I think it’d be cute

Red reaches out to take a little battery-powered night light into his hand, with constellation patterns in the top.

“Fuck, you’re right, this is cute as hell. And Blue would love this. Pretty cheap, too - here, I’ll get one for Trick and Dap’s room too.”

Anonymous asked: Wow, that’s it. That’s red’s character in a nutshell. Why am I not surprised.

“Okay,” Red draws out, shaking his head, rolling his eyes.

Trying very hard to be annoyed.

the-weirdest-fan requested: As I’ve mostly been interacting with Anti, I feel it’d make sense for me to suggest something for him. Maybe get more cameras? As for the others, I’d say get them a fan or two. Took me forever to think of those, when it really shouldn’t have, sorry if they’re bad. Thank you mod, and happy holidays!

“Fans!” cries Red. “That’s the other thing I’ve been wanting for the house, you don’t know how hot it gets at day - and then cooler at night, but that’s our only relief. Well, I can get a couple of these little, little ones anyway. Can’t carry the normal ones right now, but maybe I can put aside some money. Better than nothing, right?

“And cameras - damn, I should get him batteries for his cameras, that’s probably best. Then he doesn’t have to use his own energy so much. Some of them still run on batteries, I think. Thank you!”

Anonymous asked: Red, you started with a Batman-style threat and it ended as a Darkwing Duck-style introduction. And I love it.

“What the hell is Darkwing Duck? Hey, you take that back! No way, I’m Batman!”

dancing-anon asked: Djlafjal Sorry I know im spamming you but like- what if the boyes get a massive blanket and they all get to snuggle under it when Anti lets them be together- (I just love this au sorry)

Blue and Dok head over towards the home stuff on the other side of the store, Dok casting confused glances between Red and the hand holding his own.

“Wait, what’s going on?”

“It’s nothing, honey,” mumbles Blue distractedly. “Don’t worry about it.”

Dok scowls. He’s starting to get tired of being the middle man between holding all the responsibility and none of it. If he were a couple months older… or maybe it’s just because Anti knows he’s a shitty fighter.

He sighs and returns to Blue’s side.

“Okay, big blanket, big blanket…”

“Blue, why are we getting a big blanket?”

“What, you like sleeping on your mattress without anything to cover you? Cozy in your jeans and t-shirt?”

Dok sighs. “That mattress isn’t even mine. Anti only got it for Dapper.”

Blue looks over at him, a flicker of sympathy on his mouth. “Well, all the more reason to make sure we have a couple blankets around. Anyway, I think Red likes having things like that when he’s… upset.”

“You’ll get two?”

“Yeah, let’s go with that. Here - ah, the big fuzzy blankets. Feel these, Alle.”

Dok reaches out to touch the blankets and can’t help a smile from crossing his mouth.

“Soft,” he admits.

“Yeah.”

Blue picks out a purple one and a red one, humming to himself enthusiastically. Dok is distracted by some of the ones a little farther down the aisle.

Anonymous asked: Nope, you did this to yourself, Red. We will forever tease you now.

“No, no, no! Hey, you’re all bastards! I’m easily distracted! That’s not my fault. What’s the opposite of saying merry Christmas, huh? I’m going to fight you all.”

He nearly crashes into someone in his protest and has to duck away. When he brings his attention back to you, he is laughing, with a bright red blush glowing on his cheeks.

“Ahhh,” he chuckles - or maybe groans - hiding his face. “I don’t know if you guys knew this but… I’m a little dumb.”

Anonymous asked: Don’t worry, we knew that lonnnnnng before you were ever Red, sweetheart.

“Hey! Haha, wait, what do you mean? No, maybe I don’t want to know.”

Anonymous asked: Awww get Trick a fluffy blanket!! Then it’ll be like a hug from his Deutsch every time he uses it. Oh wait wait wait, what if you got him a music player? With that song, Saturn on it? It’s by Sleeping at Last and you mentioned it being his favorite when in the shed. I think he’d love it a lot. Although I’m not sure how much money you guys have...or if you could even find one there.

pixie-in-trebleland asked: What if you guys try to find a weighted blanket for Trick?

bupine requested: I really wanna see dok get something for trick to help with his anxiety and stuff, like a weighted blanket (if he doesn’t already have one I don’t remember) or a fidget toy or literally anything dsugdufg I just want trick to feel better!!

“Blue?”

“Yeah, bud?”

Blue looks up to see Dok with his arms full of a small but weighty yellow sun-pattern blanket.

“Can I… can I get this? I don’t… have quite enough.”

Blue softens and reaches over to run his hands down the heavy fabric before checking the price tag. “Not terrible, really. I haven’t gotten him anything yet. I’ll help you with it.”

Doktor relaxes, holding the blanket and Trick’s sweatshirt close to his chest. “Thank you, Blau. Really, I…”

“I know, Deutsch. I know.”

Doktor smiles at him, a little vigor back in his grin.

“About ready to go?”

“Yeah.”

“Let’s go find Roser.”

reverseblackholeofwords asked: Blue? How's the uh... Glowing?

Dok snatches one of Blue’s hands out of his pockets to double-check it.

“Looks okay now,” he declares, turning his hand over a couple times.

“In your professional opinion?” asks Blue.

“Always.”

Blue laughs and then sighs, looking down at his fingers.

“I don’t… know how to make it come and go. I think I used to, once. But now it just burns.”

Dok frowns, staring at his hands.

pixie-in-trebleland asked: Hey Red, do you have anything in mind for Dap? Or for Dok?

“Yeah! Well, I got Dap his bear, so I hope that’s good. But Dok I wanted to get him coffee. Cause he never gets it, but he always talks about it, haha. And maybe… well, I don’t think they have nice, like, doctor’s coats here… but some day, I really think he should have a nice coat. I’ve never been able to afford it before.”

He sighs, glancing down at his cash.

“Maybe, um. For his birthday, I could ask Anti to get it for him. I think their birthday is in May. 14th? Maybe? Ah, bad big brother alert. But anyway, some coffee. Hey, don’t my other boys like tea? I’ll get some… um… what kind of tea is good tea? For Trick and Dap?”

immabethehero asked: (May 14th is near the main camera's birthday.) Dok's birthday is September 15th!

“September? Dok’s and Trick’s?”

Red pauses, confused. For a second, he almost looks pained.

“No, no… I… I don’t think that’s right. I think it’s in May. That’s their day.”

immabethehero asked: I feel like all of them would like stuffed animals. maybe Anti would as well! Craft supplies for Dapper and Blue likesketchbooks and drawing pencils!!! Maybe a card set for Blue!!! Running shoes for Red or a hoodie. a new Nerf Gun for Trick! A puzzle book for Doc?

“Ah, cards for Blue! And puzzles for Dok! Like logic puzzles? Dude, I actually think he’d love that.”

Red checks that Blue and Dok aren’t far off and that there is no one in a baseball cap in sight, and then hurries to the book section to grab both.

On his camera, Blue laughs at a tiny little Nerf pistol and grabs it for Trick, making Dok smile.

cest-mellow asked: did anti give you guys different birthdays? when is your birthday, red? and blues and dapper and anti?

“Dapper’s birthday is October 31 and Anti’s is August 3rd. I don’t actually remember our birthday, haha! Anti will surprise us, I suppose. Isn’t that funny? Sometimes I really don’t remember anything at all. I guess I hit my head really hard. Or… something.”

immabethehero asked: WAIT THEY SHARE A BIRTHDAY???? OH!!! Uh perhaps!!! Make sense to put it in the middle of their real birth months. May 13th?

“Ha, I don’t think Anti would make up a birthday for us. He remembers better than the rest of us is all. May 13 or 14 or something, I think.”

Anonymous asked: I take it the "birthdays" mark when Anti popped into your lives, rather than actual creation. Only worth bothering with if he's involved somehow.

“Haha,” says Red, but he looks uncomfortable. “Um, I don’t know. You’d have to talk to Anti.”

bupine asked: what are you guys getting for anti then? if anything at all fhffghfhg he seems like the type of guy who's Somewhat difficult to buy gifts for

“I don’t know,” sighs Red, a little stressed. “What does he need? Gauze, bleach, batteries, cords, wires, computers, radios, tvs… he has everything, I don’t know. What does Anti even like? Getting us stuff? Hacking shit? Damn, I miss when we used to spend days hacking that… channel, or whatever. Can’t remember the last time I coded. Used to be speedy. Taking care of us? When we’re being good, haha. He likes that - he’s controlling, even, sometimes. Maybe he wants, um…”

Red pauses, staring.

He’s next to this little display of succulents and cacti.

He watches it for a long time.

“Nope,” he says, taking one step away. “I do not have the courage to get Anti anything as stupid as a cactus. I don’t think I’ll get him anything but the batteries… ugh, but that’s so lame…”

Anonymous asked: Get Anti a stress ball. Or a rubix cube. Or crochet hooks. Dude needs a hobby.

“Haha! Yeah… maybe he does.”

Red pauses, looking around him.

“But… I don’t have it in me to tell him that.”

He spots Blue and Dok and heads back towards them, trying to put his smile back on.

“Let’s just go. I never seem to do quite right by him.”

Anonymous asked: Do y’all have everything? It might be time to head home.

“Yeah,” grins Red wearily. “Yeah, let’s head out. Bus’ll be at the stop soon.”

They pay, pack what they can into their backpacks and bags, and head out the store. It doesn’t take them long to get back to the bus stop, chatting the whole way, with Red eagerly quizzing his siblings on what they got him, and the two of them refusing to answer honestly, though Doktor makes mention of some fancy Anti-Stupidity gear he thinks the both of them will benefit from.

By the time they get on the bus, Doktor is sleepier than he would ever admit, warm in the equator sun and tired by much more exercise than he’s used to. Feeling warm in more than one sense, he allows his head to drop onto Blue’s shoulder, and closes his eyes with his brother’s arm around him.

Which is when he hears: “Red! Red!”

“What?”

“Red - the man - ”

And both of his siblings, on either side of him, stiffen like sculptures.

Anonymous asked: Is everything okay?? Is the man back

Red turns you on his shoulder so you can see. A glimpse of his white face and taut mouth, and then you can see the man.

He sits on the other side of the bus, that cap low over his eyes. Dark curls of hair drift about his shoulders. He has a fine, thin mouth and long hands stretched over his knees. He stands. There were seats when Dok and Blue and Red got on, but not when the man did.

“Red,” whispers Blue, though he does not know what for.

“Yes,” says Red, in answer to nothing and everything. “Yes.”

Anonymous asked: Ay, just play it cool. Let the guy make the first move if he does at all. It could just be a coincidence, right?

“Let’s see if it is,” whispers Red through his teeth, tightening his grip on his twin’s hand. “Blue, you know the way back home.”

“What?”

“At the next stop, take your little brother and get off. If he tries to follow you, he won’t get far.”

“Red, I’m not leaving you behind.”

“Did I give you an order?”

“Don’t start that with me, we both know - ”

“Did I give you an order?” spits Red, whirling on him.

Blue quiets, his mouth trembling just a little.

“Well? Did I?”

“Yes, Red.”

“Is your duty to me or to Dok?”

“To… to my little brothers. But Red - ”

“At the next stop, you take Dok and get off. You go home whether or not I follow. Understood? Blue, am I understood?”

“Yes, Red. Yes.”

“Good, then.”

There is a long pause between them. Doktor has not opened his eyes. Sometimes he finds it easier to pretend things aren’t happening. His whole life seems to be arguing and putting brothers back in their places.

“I love you,” says Red shortly.

“I love you too,” answers Blue, with nothing but grief.

Anonymous asked: Blue don’t explode, just relax and maybe hold Dok’s hand? Just try to keep a grip on your magic.

Blue winces and sinks down in his seat, clutching onto Dok’s hand. At this, his little brother, still playing asleep at his side, gives a short, firm squeeze in response - cool, measured, professional.

He sets his head down on Doktor’s and tries to breathe.

The next stop comes with the hissing of the brakes and the rough exhale of weary smoke. Blue clutches the fuzzy blanket on his chest and gets up, pulling Dok along with him. His eyes set straight ahead, he refuses to look at the man as he walks, refuses to look as he passes, refuses to look as he exits the bus…

Still, he catches one thing - the small, delicate symbol of a raven on a leather bracelet on the man’s wrist.

The man moves as if to get off as well, but then, as Doktor and Blue pass him, he jolts slightly and waits, but no one else comes. After long minutes have passed, after the bus has started off again, he turns casually back and sees -

Red’s eyes.

Blue as cold ocean water.

Burning into him like a wood fire.

He turns around again and stares out the window of the bus as Red’s eyes bore into him.

Anonymous asked: Get off at a different stop. If he follows still, lose him and either walk from there or get on the bus again to your actual stop. How long is it between bus routes?

“I don’t know,” mumbles Red. You shake slightly on his shoulder as his leg bounces at a hundred kilometers a minute. “This might be my chance to follow him. I can stalk him somewhere we won’t be seen. Or, maybe, now that he knows I’m aware of him, he’ll be smart and just leave us be… the next stop is a couple miles from my usual stop, but I don’t mind if I have to walk.”

He pauses, chewing on his lip, his eyes flickering around. After a moment he draws out the shitty old flip-phone he carries sometimes and reaches down to the contacts to click on the only name there: Anti.

The phone rings and rings, but doesn’t pick up.

Has he ever not picked up before?

Red swears, tucking it away again, glaring at the back of the man’s head.

“I don’t know if I should follow or just go home. I need to find out what’s happening, but I’m also alone and he could be dangerous.”

spicydanhowell asked: don't follow him, red. just try anti again. if he doesn't pick up, go home and tell him what happened. it would be very dangerous to go all by yourself

Red likes that idea. He grabs the phone and tries again, eager for his little brother’s assurances.

The phone vibrates patiently, again and again.

Then it stops.

“Anti?” calls Red, after a moment, when he doesn’t get a greeting. “Are you there?”

A slight buzz on the other end of the line.

He thinks he can hear someone shouting somewhere.

“Anti?” repeats Red, a little frightened. “Anti?”

There’s a soft clicking - familiar, somehow.

“Dapper?”

Something slams in the background. Someone whistles.

Red waits, but no answer ever comes.

The call ends.

Anonymous asked: Do NOT go home. Don’t lead him to your house or the others.

“He can’t follow me,” mumbles Red, eyes angry. “Nobody could follow me up the mountain without me noticing. But I could trail him for a while and make sure he knows I’ll kill him if he tries to follow me anywhere.”

Anonymous asked: Red, you can handle yourself. Get off at the next stop and then try to get away, or stay on the bus stall for time so Blue and Dok can get back and tell Anti. Try to determine if he has any weapons on him. Are you armed?

“I’m always armed.”

Red touches the pocket of his hoodie, where a retractable staff you’ve seen before sits in its pouch. “It’s not much, but it’s enough.”

He pauses, thinking. “Even if I lost him, you’re right - I need to make sure Blue and Dok get back to Anti. And if they can tell him what’s going on, there’s less need for me to be there. Maybe I should follow… at least for a little while…”

The bus sighs to a stop.

bupine asked: i feel like you should follow him! it's clear he wants something with you and your brothers, and if he turns out to be a threat you can eliminate him. otherwise he'll just kind of be out there, doing god knows what. following him and finding out what his objective is would make it safer for you and your brothers in the long run, as long as you don't do anything stupid or reckless

His chest bubbles with anger. He gets to his feet.

“I’ll follow him for a little while. Stay with me, okay? If something happens, you’ll need to be able to tell my brothers.”

The man walks off the bus without looking at him, and Red slips through the crowd after him. He could swear that he can feel the connection between them - the cold bond of predator and prey.

He doesn’t know which role he’s playing. Heat burns crimson in his chest.

pixie-in-trebleland asked: Try to be objective, Jackie. You're going to need as many wits about you as you can!

“Objective,” he mumbles, sliding through the crowd. He moves always from crowd to crowd, hiding spot to hiding spot, blending in to blending in again somewhere new, a chameleon with a red hood drawn over his head.

“Objective with someone stalking my Blue.” He stands out in the open for a moment, but no one spares him a second glance as he stands casually and glances at his phone, one figure among hundreds. You lose track of the man’s head, but Red never does.

“The last time someone was chasing us, Trick nearly killed himself and we had to flee our home. The time before that, I’m told Dok was shot and Anti nearly died protecting him. Feels like we’re always being hunted. I don’t care who by anymore. I just want my family to be safe. If I could just get rid of the people who hunt us. If I could just get rid of everyone who ever came near us…”

He slips away again. You are in a quieter part of the city now. Laundry hangs out of the glass-less windows of concrete houses and dogs eye Red warily from the shade of dark alleyways. Women walk home with their keys clutched tightly between their fingers. Red follows the man.

Anonymous asked: Get off in a public place and then wait. If its in a public area, he can’t do anything without drawing the attention of other people. Figure out what he wants, and stall as long as you can. Make sure there are plenty escape routes if you need to get away, and be careful.

“That’s a good point… but we’re getting less public as we go. He may be intentionally leading me somewhere quieter. Could even be a trap, I don’t know… I don’t know who he is or what he wants. I’m used to running from cops, PIs, government workers, anybody official, you know? But he just looks so normal. Maybe he’s plain-clothes, but he’s so young, and almost disheveled. He could - hey!”

Red hisses and withdraws into the shadows of a building, staring down the alleyway where he thought he’d seen the man go.

“He disappeared! There’s no doors down there that I can see. How did he do that?”

He pauses, staring, but the man does not reappear.

He tries not to shiver in a sudden chill wind.

Anonymous asked: Red, he’s leading you away from a public place! Get away, he’s trying to corner you!

Grinding his teeth, Red withdraws slightly, staring around him. The people on the street all seem to have retreated into homes and run-down buildings, or maybe they’ve all gone away entirely.

Wind ruffles through Red’s hair.

There is something very hard in his eyes.

He takes a step into the alley.

Anonymous asked: Jackie, random question, are there any birds nearby?

Jackie glances around.

A pair of swallows flit through the air as little black figures far above him.

Above a closed restaurant down the block, a worn statue of an owl perches with dead eyes.

Across the street, he makes eye contact with a carrion bird, bald and wrinkled and hateful in the filthy street, glaring at him with ragged wings and scarred face.

“The birds work for the bourgeoisie?” he jokes weakly, trying to smile at you.

Something crunches in the alley. He whirls back around.

There is still no one there he can see.

reverseblackholeofwords asked: Red, has anyone *magical* ever come after you guys before? Maybe someone who can sense Blue's power?

Red is backing away now, his mouth taut.

“Sometimes Anti talks about old friends… from when we belonged to our first master. Sometimes Anti talks about hiding Blue’s and Dapper’s scents… but I can never smell anything on them.

“Sometimes I think the world has a lot more danger in it than Anti lets me see. Sometimes I think there are things only he and Blue and Dapper can see.”

Anonymous asked: Blue, Dok, are you two doing okay? Red tried to call Anti but Dapper picked up instead...either Anti passed out again or something’s up. Be careful but hurry home! Red is going to tail the guy for a little bit and see what he wants. We have no idea if there’s more than one guy though, so keep an eye out.

“Oh, fuck, I wish he wouldn’t,” gasps Blue, halfway sprinting down the street, Dok clinging to his hand at his side. “Did he really go to trail someone all on his own? Fuck, he’s going to get hurt! What, and now Anti’s not answering? Fuck, fuck.”

“Blue,” Dok insists, tugging at his sleeve. “Try to calm down, he can handle himself.”

“I don’t want him to get hurt.”

“I know. Me neither. But we don’t know where he is right now. Let’s just get home and make sure everyone’s okay back there. For all we know, Red will be waiting for us, uh?”

Blue gives a long exhale through his teeth, trying to listen to his little brother.

“Okay. Okay. Not far now, just a few more miles.”

“Ahhh,” groans Doktor. “I’m tired already. Anti let me get so fat…”

Blue snorts out a laugh despite himself, and Dok winks when he turns back to smile at him.

Anonymous asked: Hey Blue, are shapeshifters a thing?

“Oh, hm.” Blue frowns, trying to think. “Oh, I remember so little… I’m not supposed to talk about magic, you know… but hey, you’ve seen Anti, haven’t you? You know there are things that are not quite human, that can change at will. And then there are things like me, that are quite human, but… different. Touched by something not quite human. And then there are beings like Dapper. I remember so little… I used to know, shit, I swear I used to know…”

bupine asked: ok, starting to think this was a bad idea. probably get the fuck outta there red, tell anti about what happened and see if he can do anything about it. we don't want you to get fucking shanked fhejgfhjcjgd. badlypostedmusicals and three anons voiced similar concerns and were copied here.

“You know what,” breathes Red, backing away. “I think you might be right.”

But he cannot seem to turn his back on the alley.

Something is there.

He cannot see it. He cannot smell it. He cannot find it at all. But he feels it the same way he could swear he feels it when Anti is home or away - like something is shifting, pulsing, unraveling in his rapid heart.

“Okay,” he whispers, to you, to himself, to anyone who might be listening. “I’m just… going to go now.”

He turns his back on the alley. You turn with him.

And so it is that you do not see the man coming -

All you know is that suddenly, Red is jerked back, and he cries aloud in his shock and his fear, and, at the very corner of your vision, you can see the silver gleam of the knife at his throat.

Arms wearing the green sleeves of the man’s coat press it sharply to his Adam’s apple.

“Muévete,” comes a sharp, hissing whisper. “Y te mataré, demonio.”

He yanks Red back down the alley, deeper into the shadows.

Anonymous asked: The man knows about Anti

Red chokes as blood blooms on his neck, dragged back into the alley, panting.

The man knows about Anti. The man knows about Anti.

His little brother, his commander, his universe. How long has he protected him? How much has he seen him through? Anti’s given him everything he has. Anti’s sacrificed himself more than once to give Red everything he has.

The man knows about Anti. The man knows about my little brother, splayed out in his bed back home, sick with fatigue and distress. The man knows about my Anti.

Fury explodes across Red’s brain.

“Get the fuck off me!” he screams, and he shoves himself back so hard the man slams into the wall of the alleyway. Blood sprays across Red’s neck and he gasps, but it is not deep enough to stop him, and he leaps away from the man’s grasp and whirls on him, grabbing him by the coat.

whydoilovesomanyvillians asked: But who is it though

“Who are you?” shouts Red, slamming him back against the wall of the alley once, twice. “Who are you, you bastard, you creep! I’ll kill you! I’m going to fucking kill you!”

The man gives a wordless shout and kicks out at Red’s chest. Red barely back away, stumbling back and nearly slipping on - ice? Here? In the heat?

Red gasps and turns back to the man - but he is vanished again.

“What the fuck?” Red whispers, stepping off the patch of ice beneath his feet.

And then something slams into him, and he crumples to the ground, crying out at the sensation of an elbow connecting with his nose. The man reappears as though he’d been photo-shopped out a second ago, and suddenly he is pinning Red to the earth and drawing back a cold silver knife. Ice crackles and grows beneath Red’s body, holding him in place.

“Capataz de esclavos,” spits the man. “Liberaré a los otros hombres por tu muerte!”

“No hablo español, gilipollas!” Red returns, furious. “Let me go!”

Anonymous asked: Goddammit Anti this is why you piCK UP YOUR PHONE!

Checking back on your camera in Trick’s room, you see Anti startle awake at the persistent beeping of the camera, panting hard just from the shock of getting up. His black eyes fix blearily on you and his hands clench and unclench on his blankets as he tries dazedly to get the message through his head.

“Pick up my phone?” he coughs, trying to push the blankets off his legs. When did everything get so heavy. “My… my phone, where… where are all my boys…”

He stares around the room, licking at his dry lips. A little blood comes running from his eyes and he groans as his distress rises.

“Trick!” he croaks out, in a voice that shakes like an earthquake. “Dapper! Where are you? Where are all my boys? What’s going on? Need my computer, my…”

He swings his legs over the side of the bed and has to stop there, the color draining from his face. You see a great dark stain of blood seeping into the bedsheets where he lay.

“D-Doktor,” he whispers, his eyes drifting. “Doktor, I want my…”

Anonymous asked: ANTI YOU GET YOUR SAD ASS UP NOW AND FIX THIS ! JACKIE JUST GOT SNATCHED AND THE MAN KNOWS WHO YOU ARE

“Snatched?”

Anti’s voice glitches horribly. Every noise you can hear from his camera begins to ring painfully through your ears.

He staggers to his feet, blood pouring down his face.

“Snatched? Snatched? My Red? Who, who? Where is my boy? Where is my guard dog? No, no, no, get him back for me, give him back! Dapper! Dapper! Jameson! Where are my fucking boys? Give him back, give him back! Hoodie! Red!”

He tries to glitch away from you and you hear him give a scream before he reappears a second later and crumples on the side of his bed, wailing.

Anonymous asked: (excuse my translator spanish, but-) Dumbass, él es uno de esos hombres que estás tratando de liberar! ¡Detener!

I also would like to apologize for my translator Spanish. Feel free to help me out if you know better - as you’ve seen, I prefer to just put what’s being said in italicized English, but we can’t do that without Blue to translate. I would never use translator Spanish for a fic but on an ask blog where we’re writing without drafts or an actual translators to help me in real time, I hope you’ll forgive me. :) Thanks for sticking with me!

The man blinks down at the camera, confused.

“¿No él?” He stares down at Red. Red glares back up. “¿Quién es la oscuridad dentro de sus cabezas?”

“I’ll show you la oscuridad,” hisses Red, and he slams his knee through the ice that binds him, and drives it up and into the man’s stomach.

Anonymous asked: Anti, I don't know where exactly, but blue and Dok split off from Red to get away from the guy, they would be closest to red but we don't know where any of them are specifically. Hell I don't even know why trick and dapper aren't responding to you. Did you do something?

“No, no, I’ve been asleep, I thought they’d be here with me, Trick always sleeps when I sleep and Dap was just playing like a good boy, wh-where have my boys gone? My window is, why… I - split from Red, where did he… where would he go, who would hurt him, my Red…”

Anti shudders suddenly and jerks to the side, spitting a long stream of blood from his mouth. He’s starting to get very white. His pupils are pinpricks in blue and brown eyes.

Anonymous asked: shit shit shit!! blue, red just got attacked! you have to get to anti for help!

“What?” shouts Blue, stopping in the middle of the pathway. A woman pokes her head out of her doorway, frowning.

bupine asked: hey blue, dok, just thought y'all should know that red just got fuckin jumped in an alleyway by some random dude, not quite sure who it is but anyway more on this story as it develops i guess?? stay strong and get home quickly guys I'm sure he'll be just fine

“Holy shit!” shouts Blue, letting go of Doktor’s hand and beginning to sprint up the mountain, something Dok thinks should probably be impossible, seeing as he can’t seem to go two steps without slipping.

“Blue, wait!” he cries, struggling up the mountain after his brother. “Blue, your hands! Calm down! You must calm down, your hands! Idiot, wait!”

Anonymous asked: Oh gosh Blue, the man he knows what Anti is and he’s got Red now

“He knows… he knows what Anti is?”

Blue finally pauses, staring back down the mountain, his eyes wet.

You can see so much of the city from here. From the slums grow silver buildings towering up over crowded streets. Gorgeous churches spread wide their gardens and cathedrals, bustling marketplaces swarm with chattering people, the mountainside crawls with little houses and hard-working people for as far as the eye can see. And down, down, down from the mountain, the ocean spreads its arms to hug the whole city, glittering blue in the December sun.

“Fuck, Red,” Blue whispers. “Please be okay. Whoever we’re dealing with… this is no ordinary enemy.”

Anonymous asked: Blue, the man who attacked Red is only attacking him because he thinks he’s Anti. He wants to free all of you, he’s good!

“Free us? Free us from what? He’ll take Red away from us! Anti can’t help it that he was made looking like a monster! He can’t help it what he is! We don’t need to be freed from anyone! That’s my little brother!”

He turns his eyes back towards the house, panting.

“And he’s in trouble, now. Dok, come on!”

Anonymous asked: Okay, what about energy? Can you sense magical “scents” or whatever? Is there something people like you can see that others, like Red, can’t?

“I do get the smells Anti talks about,” Blue admits, panting his way up the mountain. “I smell dust and copper and petrichor when Dapper uses his magic, most of the time. And Anti I can always sense - he seems to make the air burn. Sometimes my hands, too, but I don’t know why. He says I used to fear him, in another life. I guess part of me still thinks he’s dangerous… treacherous heart. I don’t know about seeing things, though. Maybe?”

Anonymous asked: Yes, but we’ve managed to get the man to stop for now. But dapper and Trick have disappeared and Anti is basically dying on the floor in their bedroom. He was calling for...Doktor.

“Dapper and Trick are gone? What? This is fucking crazy, this is crazy! Okay, we’re almost there, just let me get to the house… fuck, Dok, can’t you keep up?”

“Fuck you,” calls Dok, looking stressed. “I’m going so fast right now, arschloch. It’s a mountain, Blue, and my bag is heavy. How are you doing this with your arms full of blankets?”

Blue keeps heading up the path.

Anonymous asked: Marvin, I don’t think you believe that, do you? Anti has taken everything away from you. Look at what he’s done now! He’s trapped Trick- Chase- in a room for being drepressed! He’s brainwashed Jackie into becoming a guard dog, conditioned Henrik to be his servant, and raised Jameson as a child on a leash! You know this isn’t right. Can’t you remember?! You came after them, that’s why you’re here now, you came to free your brothers and got trapped!

“No!” screams Blue.

At last he stumbles like Doktor as the sand shifts beneath him and he yelps as he crumples to his knees, unable to catch himself with his arms full.

“No, that’s not true! Don’t say that, don’t you dare fucking say that! Anti’s given us everything we have! Anti’s all that keeps us safe! Anti loves us, loves Trick and Dok and Red and Dapper! He isn’t always perfect, I know, but he does what he thinks is best for us! I know that! He loves me, he has to! Otherwise, what is all of this fucking for?”

He strikes the jagged rubble of the mountainside with a scream.

And the mountain - the mountain that has become his home, his heart, his sanctuary - the mountain rumbles in return.

Blue stares down at hands that glow blue as fire, horrified. He hears people crying out farther down the mountain and sees, from the corner of his eyes, the vecinos running for cover. But no earthquake follows, no collapse - the one rumble answers him alone.

He can’t breathe. His hands glow.

“Blue.”

Warm hands fall to his shoulders with a grounding pressure and someone shakes him relentlessly, forcing him to look up. He meets Doktor’s eyes with his own shocked gaze, and he sees in his little brother’s face a familiar kind of strength - strength like Red’s, cool and unshakeable, steadfast and protective.

Doktor holds his shoulders. Blue meets his gaze.

The glowing fades.

“We don’t have time for this,” says Dok, very softly.

“I know,” whispers Blue, a tear tracing a path down his face. “I’m so sorry. Let’s go.”

Dok reaches down to help him.

And Blue, the elder, accepts his little brother’s help, and gets back to his feet.

nikkilbook asked: Someone supernatural was following the boys, and Red lagged behind to keep the others safe. Do we have permission to have Dapper rewind? And for Blue to use his power to help defend them? This guy knows about you.

“No, no, no, no blue power,” Anti mumbles, his eyes rolling a little in his skull. “That’s why… how else would someone have found us, how… no blue power, no, no….”

badlypostedmusicals asked: Guys, the man is after Anti. Once he's through with red he will go after him, and I don't think that he's strong enough to fend off an attack. Maybe one of you should go back?

“Let me check in at the house first.” Blue tries to keep his voice steady.

cest-mellow asked: dok? blue are you gonna be home soon? anti needs dok, he’s hurt.

“Here we are, here we are.” Stressed, Blue tugs open the door of the clinic they have made their home with one of the keys Anti allows him to keep. But even before he can push in to the house, Doktor is pushing past him, and dashing to the room at the end of the hall.

“Still locked!” he cries, yanking on the handle. “Master, let us in! Anti, I’m here, I’m here, little brother! It’s me, it’s okay! Trick? Trick, are you in there?”

“The eyes said Trick and Dapper weren’t in there with him,” Blue calls. “If the door is locked, they must have gotten out another way!”

He darts back out of the door and circles around the house, finding the shattered window that leads to Trick’s room - a tiny, tiny window, barely big enough to let the light in, let alone a body. But there are footprints in the dirt beneath the sill.

Blue swears and uses the new blankets to brush glass from the open window, jumping up to squeeze in as best he can. He gets a couple cuts on his hands and back, but it does not matter.

Anti is very still beside the bed, his white face dripping blood.

“Oh, oh, Anti,” gasps Blue, running to his side. “Oh, love, what were you thinking? Why didn’t you just tell us, amata?”

Anti barely stirs, his lips parting. His eyes closed.

Blue gets up to let Doktor in.

“Anti, Anti!” Doktor dissolves into German babbling, falling down at Anti’s side and pulling him into his arms, already holding his first aid kit. “It’s okay, it’s okay, it’s okay! I fix, I fix!”

At the sound of his voice, something stirs behind the closed door of the bathroom.

badlypostedmusicals asked: Is it one of Anti's old friends? Do you remember anything he may have told you?

“I can’t imagine Anit having any kind of old friends,” mumbles Blue, brushing hair from his torturer’s face. “He’s a little paranoid, I don’t know if you’ve noticed. I think you mean an old enemy… No, I don’t know, I don’t know who it could be. Something strange about that sigil on his arm… almost familiar, but from so long ago. Lifetimes ago.”

“You should be careful what you speak of,” warns Dok lowly, pulling Anti’s shirt off. It glitches oddly and disappears, but Anti is still wearing a shirt.

“His fucking anatomy!” Doktor shouts, slamming his hand against the ground. “He’s barely a physical being, how am I supposed to do this?”

“Just bandage him up with the shirt on or something, Dok! Give him medicine or something!”

“His body has rejected every medicine I’ve ever given him and my twin would get punished for it every time. No, no. Let me see if I can bind him up - maybe if I distract him I can get the shirt to go away? Or something? Fuck, this wound is new, but you know what this is?”

Doktor points to a soaking wound in Anti’s back. His eyes are full of tears.

“This is where Carver stabbed him. Weeks ago now. He has never once let me look at it. I have not been a good enough doctor to earn his trust.”

He hiccups through sobs, yanking gauze out of his bag. “This is all my fault. Now I don’t even know where my little brothers are. He was right - I can’t protect anyone he gives to me.”

Anonymous asked: Oh god I’m going to cry, is that Trick behind the door?

Doktor stiffens, staring at the camera, his hands frozen around the gauze.

“Dok,” warns Blue, grabbing his shoulders in mimicry of his own comfort. “Dok, stay focused. Anti needs you.”

“T-trick… behind the door? In the bathroom?”

“Dok, stay with Anti, let me check - ”

“No!” cries Dok, leaping to his feet and shoving the gauze into Blue’s hands. “No, I’ll just check real quick!”

“Deutsch, what the hell are you thinking? You’re going to get in so much fucking trouble!”

“Just wrap that around Anti’s back! I’ll be right back!”

And he practically leaps over Blue to get to the bathroom in the back of the room, his heart thudding so hard in his chest he can barely breathe. He remembers, so vividly, waking up to Dapper’s shrill, desperate whistling, finding his baby brother curled over his twin, Trickshot shaking like a riptide as his body went into shock from the overdose. He remembers being so distressed he could barely save him, working over the sound of Anti’s screaming and the feeling of his heartbeat dwindling beneath his hands. He remembers spilled pills and vomit.

“No,” he gasps, pulling open the bathroom door. “No, no, no.”

“Dok?” comes Trick’s small voice. “Is that… really you?”

He lies pale against the wall beside the shower, his face blotchy and red from crying. It makes his eyes seem brighter than ever - he stares up at Doktor like the whole of the sky is there in his gaze.

“You’re a dream,” mumbles Trick dazedly. “I… I’ve wanted to see you for so long.”

Doktor trembles above him, trying to find the strength to kneel down at his side. Tears flow down his cheeks.

“How many did you take?” he whispers, in a ghost’s voice.

The bathroom floor is littered with pills - Fanapt, Dapper’s latest prescription. Anti kept it in the drawer beside the bed.

“None,” whispers Trick in reply.

Doktor is sobbing, clutching at his chest. He crumples at his twin’s side and reaches out to hold his face between his hands, halfway to hysterical.

“How many did you take?” he screams.

“None.”

“How many, how many?”

“None. None, I swear.”

“I can’t do this again!”

“I know.”

“I can’t lose you, please, please, no!”

“It’s okay. It’s okay.”

“Tell me you didn’t do this, tell me you didn’t take any!”

“I didn’t. I didn’t.”

Doktor dissolves into tears on his shoulder, throwing himself over Trick’s body, and then, after so long, they are holding each other again.

Trick holds him so tight he could shatter for the love of it, letting Doktor press him back hard against the wall, clutching at his hair and pushing his face into his shoulder. Hot wet tears fall down on Doktor’s head.

“Don’t cry, don’t cry,” sobs Trick. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry for scaring you.”

“You really didn’t take any? You really didn’t? Swear to me, swear to me on everything you are.”

“I’ll swear to you on the only thing I’m fucking living for,” Trick cries, pressing his lips to the side of his head. “In your name, I swear, I didn’t take any, not a single one. I was going to, I wanted to. I needed this to stop. This hurts so fucking much some days I can’t do anything but scream and sleep. I needed it to stop - but then I kept seeing you crying over me, I kept hearing you calling my name. I was conscious the whole time you were saving my life, Dok, do you know that? I could hear you. I wanted to die when I took the Percocet, but I took it all back the goddamn second I heard you crying, Deutsch, Deutsch - ”

They collapse into each other’s arms again, half splayed out on the floor of that bathroom, but it doesn’t matter, it doesn’t matter. Nothing matters but that he’s here, he’s here, here in his arms, here in his arms, safe and alive and perfect as ever.

“I love you so much,” Doktor sobs. “I love you so fucking much.”

And Trick - Trick, there in his weakness and in his strength, Trick in his whole and in his shattered pieces - Trick looks at his brother, at his twin, at his heart, and he gives him back the word that Anti lets every twin safeguard for the other:

“I love you too, Henrik.”

And if Doktor leans in and lays his head back on his shoulder, whispering promises and assurances and affectations and a secret name of his own keeping, holding his twin so close he can feel his steady heartbeat, well, there is no one awake who is going to stop them from being, in that moment, the people they were always meant to be.

cest-mellow asked: ok, we found trick, but wheres dapper? Whydoilovesomanyvillians and pixie-in-trebleland also asked where they were and were copied here.

“Trick, do you know?”

“Oh, no… I heard him breaking the window, actually, but I was kind of… out of it. Barely registered it. Look, he tore the shower rod out to smash it in.”

Blue opens the bathroom door and grabs Dok by the collar, hauling him back to his feet.

“If you two are done re-enacting a reverse ending of Romeo and Juliet, you’ll remember that we’re in the middle of a fucking emergency! Thank you! Dok, clean Anti up. Trick, what the hell do you mean? Was he running away? Was he pyschotic, is he okay?”

“I don’t think so! He seemed fine this morning! A little twitchy, maybe, a little stuck in his own head, but you know Dap.”

“Ugh, why is it so fucking dusty in here? You have two rooms and you can’t even keep them clean. It smells like an antique shop in here.”

“I don’t smell anything, dude. Put your hands up straight and give me a complete sentence, I want to check for stroke.”

“Trickshot!”

Blue hauls him to his feet and drags him towards the door. “Since you weren’t watching, you can be the one who helps me look for him. Put your shoes on, let’s go!”

the-weirdest-fan asked: Anti, calm down. You can't go to him like this. Red's handling it fine, and if things go wrong, which is unlikely to happen, you can get Dapper to reverse. It's okay that you can't control this situation right now, because if you try to you might not be able to control anything later. So please calm yourself. Lie down. Rest.

Doktor sits down with Anti again, patching him up as best he can with steady, practiced hands.

“Dapper,” he moans, shifting in his sleep. “Dok…”

“Here I am, here I am,” murmurs Doktor, wiping blood from his face with a cool washcloth. “Listen to them, time to rest. Everything will be okay. The good doctor’s got you. Rest. You never do, my brother.”

Anonymous asked: Red, are you okay?

“Just - fucking - peachy!”

Red is a snarling, furious whirlwind of a fighter, not fast but strong, strong and sturdy and venomous, spinning his staff around in his hands like a hypnotist with something to prove. He has driven the man back, back, towards the wall, forcing him on the defensive with nothing but the small knife. The stranger leaps to the side as Red swings the staff hard at his arm, threatening to shatter bone, and darts forward a moment later to aim a stab at Red’s side. But Red knows better than anything how to spar with someone wielding a knife - he sees the oncoming blade, tracks it trajectory, and raises a foot to kick it straight out of the man’s hand.

The stranger backs away, eyes darkening.

“My baby brother still plays with dolls and he could kick your ass with both his hands behind his back,” roars Red, spinning the staff around again. “Who the fuck do you think you are, holding a knife to my throat, stalking my fucking family? I’ll kill you!”

He leaps forward staff swinging. The man raises his hand and spikes of ice explode from the ground in front of Red, making him yelp with surprise. One of them slams hard into his face and he howls, dropping his staff to clutch at his cheek. Without hesitating, the man follows up on the attack with a burst of ice in mid-air that slashes, cold, across Red’s stomach, cutting a line through his hoodie. He yells and crumples to his knees, fumbling for his staff as blood begins to leak through his hoodie.

“Don’t know how to handle clean magic, do you?” crows the stranger in a heavy accent, retrieving his knife. “Everything inside you is corrupted, I can smell it! Would it be a mercy to put you to death, Rojo?”

“Fuck you,” snarls Red, looking up with teeth gritted and blood-soaked. He grabs his staff and staggers back to his feet, his heart pumping hard in his chest.

Anonymous asked: RED CUT IT OUT for a second! Let us sort this out! El demonio que buscas. Los hemos estado apoyando lo mejor que hemos podido. Disculpe nuestro amigo aquí ... él no sabe nada mejor.

“Perhaps you are right,” pants the stranger, spinning his blade in his hand. “Perhaps he does not know any better. Su cabeza esta llena de sombras. But still I must to defend myself.”

“I wouldn’t say must,” spits Red, stalking forward again, a wild light in his eyes. “You could make this a lot easier on yourself if you let me impale you where you stand, after all.”

Anonymous asked: Red he might think you're Anti

“Anti,” breathes the stranger. “Is that your demon, prisionero?”

“Don’t say his fucking name!” Red screams, and drives forward with the staff again, swinging it hard at his head. The stranger ducks and strikes at Red’s legs, earning a bloody slash across Red’s knee but also taking a solid kick to the side. He falls back, groaning and grabbing at the raven bracelet on his arm, which begins to glow a fervent snow white.

Red strikes at him again and again and the man falls back under the onslaught. He tries to summon ice again, but Red shatters it or leaps away. He swings with his blade, but it’s like a bee-sting to Red - he knows well the cut of a blade. It’s only when Red lands a solid blow to his head that the young man is able to leap away, clutching at his skull - and when Red turns around to face him, he has disappeared again.

Red pants, his eyes flickering in every direction.

“I know you’re still there,” he growls, and he sounds so much like Anti the voice almost seems to glitch.

cest-mellow asked: red, tell the man you aren’t anti. tell him who you are!

“I am Anti,” snarls Red. “I am Anti’s. I am an extension of him. I am a weapon of his. I am a limb of his, an instrument, a belonging. Red is just a nickname. Red is just a designation. All I am is Anti’s.”

The young man re-appears again, as if from nowhere.

The hat has fallen away and you can see his face clearly now. He is perhaps twenty-five, with a head of dark curls, and enormous, beautiful black eyes. Heavy eyebrows and a nose that looks like it’s had its fair share of shatterings accent his face. His fine mouth is parted; his expression filled with a great many things - pity. Sympathy. Pain. Warmth.

“It does not have to be this way,” he calls, soft but sure. “It does not have to be like this at all. Weren’t you someone before the darkness took you, amigo? Did you not once have a name?”

Red stands staring at him, panting like a bull in an arena.

“My name,” says the man, reaching out a hand. “Is Hermann. What was yours?”

Anonymous asked: "Woah.. Hey.. Red, buddy, take a breath. Even though Anti is hurt he looks like he doesn't want to hurt the others. At least let him explain." -PF!M

“No… no, no, no. He’s dangerous! I know he is! I won’t listen to this! Stop talking! You’re wrong - there was nothing before Anti! No name, no person, nothing! Nothing that mattered, anyway!”

Old images flicker before his eyes - his brothers smiling and dressed strangely, Blue braiding long hair, a warm house with flowers growing in through the porch, a faraway darkness and a nearby love.

But he can’t seem to hold on to a single one of them. They slip way from him like sand through the hourglass. He backs away, shaking his head, blinking.

“You’re - you’re trying to hypnotize me!” he shouts, holding up the staff again. “You’re trying to get inside my head!”

Hermann backs away, shaking his head.

“You do not want to do this, prisionero. I do not want to hurt you. But if you to attack me, then we must fighting.”

Red tightens his grip on his staff.

“Guess we must.”

Anonymous asked: Red get out of there. You don't know if he has friends. Go to Anti and the others while you still can.

“No, he’s going to pay for coming after my family!”

Red shatters ice with his staff and leaps the shards, swinging a fist at Hermann’s head. Hermann draws back and then aims a kick at Red’s side and a slash at his head, forcing him to block with both hands, the one holding the staff causing Hermann to cry out in pain and retreat. Red follows up with ferocity, swinging like a baseball player with nothing to lose. He strikes Hermann once, twice, and then places his foot too quickly and tumbles to the ground as he finds ice beneath his shoes. Hermann bears down on him a second later, tackling him to the earth and covering him halfway in ice again, pressing that blade back to his throat. But Red only smiles - he got out of this once, after all, and he’ll do it again, and then wipe that sick pity off this little insect’s fucking face.

Hatred burns in his chest so raw and hot it almost makes him gag, but he gets more used to the sensation with every chore, with every mission, with every sacrifice he makes to his master. What does it matter to him now? This hatred is a part of him. This hatred is what feeds and devours him.

He wills his knee to jerk up again, to shatter the ice -

But, ah, he ought to have heeded your warning.

The steel toe of a boot connects with the side of his head, making the whole world go white for a second as he screams, dazed as warmth fills up his hair. A second blade comes down to touch his throat, and then someone is sitting on his chest, pushing him down hard into the earth and shouting at him in rapid Spanish. Through eyes half-filled with sparks, he gazes up to see two new faces joining Hermann’s, a pair of women with fury in their eyes.

A second blow connects with his head and he gasps, spinning nearly into unconsciousness. A sudden fear wraps around his heart and his fingers scrabble for his phone, Anti’s name falling, mangled by concussion, from his bleeding mouth.

“Anti, Anti, master, help me!”

nikkilbook asked: Dust—Blue, remember your own words! You said Dap’s magic smells of dust and petrichor! He’s already turned back once already!

“Oh, shit,” whispers Blue, standing in the doorway of his house, staring down at the city. “What could have gone so wrong that Dapper turned back time without even Anti’s permission?”

Anonymous asked: "N-No- Please don't- Jackie! Please, don't! Your name is Jackie! Please, listen to him, he wants to help! Don't make the same mistake I did, I'm begging you!" -PF!H

“My name is Red,” he croaks, clinging woozily to consciousness. “My name is… Anti…”

He feels his body hauled out of the ice and thrown onto the hard gravel of the alley, scraping his face and rose-scarred calves. Hermann and his friends are babbling above him.

“Este hombre está demasiado loco para encarcelar.”

“Deberíamos sacarlo de su miseria. Mira lo miserable que es.“

“No puedo matar a un hombre inocente!”

“El no es inocente. El pertenece a la oscuridad!”

“Enough, enough!” calls the oldest of the three, a woman with shining black hair and enough make-up to make her aging face look entirely flawless. “Stop scaring him! Look how he shakes. He’s beat. We take him back. Genesis, bind up his hands. El no es un mago.”

Red gasps as ruthless hands bind his wrists tightly in thick twine and someone grabs him roughly by the back of his throat, dragging him to his feet. Tears prick in his eyes and he screams, trying to find the strength to struggle. Blood is dripping down the side of his face.

Anonymous asked: Red, they won't kill you. At least not yet. Sit tight, get your strength back. (Maybe something else, too, if you dig deep enough, who knows) Watch. Listen. Find out what you can. We can help you piece together some Spanish if need be. I'm running off of college-level Spanish that I failed twice and have been out of for two years; it's not much but I'm trying for you, okay?

Red bursts into frantic giggles, his eyes fixed wildly on you. He swallows hard, beginning to shake, grimacing at the sensation of rope and fear and flesh pressed to his own. Horrible, horrible, horrible.

“I’m not great at languages either,” he wheezes, trying to straighten up in Genesis’ grip. “Thank you.”

He closes his eyes as her grip only tightens. Horrible, horrible, horrible.

“Will you please - ” He stammers as back as Trick in his fear - “Will you please tell my twin and my brothers that I love - I love - I love them v-very much, and I want them to have a merry Christmas without me, and I’m so - I’m so sorry I didn’t bring everybody’s presents home. I failed them, I’m sorry, I love them, I love them. Blue, I love you.”

Anonymous asked: Hermann (and friends), I don’t know if you’re reading this but, you have to get out of there with Jackie/Red. Anti and the others will be looking for him soon and they aren’t going to be nice about it. Get him somewhere safe ASAP and lay low, the rest will be harder to free when they’re like this.

“Look, he has this little camera with the messages on it… see, someone speaks to him.”

“El demonio.”

“No, see, they warn us.”

“Don’t play with it, Hermann, it’s probably cursed or something. Vamonos. We will take him back for now. If he cannot be convinced or freed… well, we do what we have to do, yes?”

“They say someone will come looking for him.”

“No one is going to catch us right now. After all, the - what was that?”

A rock clatters off a garbage can and lands on the street beside them.

Hermann, Genesis, and the older woman exchange glances.

And then Anti’s little pet is upon them.

Carver has never worn his name better - not cutting up bodies to hide them for Anti, not tearing apart flesh to get answers to Anti’s questions out of prisoners, not flying into battle at his brother’s side. No, Carver has always had the greatest ferocity when set loose from his chain and given a body to protect.

Anti taught him to fight fucking dirty, unpredictable, and he lashes out wildly with his teeth bared. Red was the one who taught him speed and a deadly unconcern for pain - he needed it to combat his older brother’s strength. And his own power sits inside his hands, the most cutting weapon of them all, because no matter how strong or cruel or intelligent the enemy, Anti’s youngest puppet has one advantage no one else has ever beaten him at:

He’s already fought this fight once before.

He dodges a blow from Genesis before she’s even thrown it, grabs her by her short hair, and yanks her away from her allies, kicking her in a weak spot he discovered the first time around - the inside of her right knees. She crumples with a yell and he avenges the blows she gave to his brother’s head by driving his foot into her face, shattering the nose in a spray of blood. The older woman gives a cry and pushes a hand out towards him, casting him in an impossibly bright light, but, with his eyes closed, he still remembers where she was the first time they fought, and he throws a knife blind. She screams as it tears through her arm badly, forcing her to stagger back and clutch at the swiftly-bleeding wound. And the tricky invisible boy - you could tell Carver his name is Hermann, but he would not care even if he listened - oh, yes, Carver remembers where he stands.

For a moment, Dapper is still, letting him think he’s escaped him, letting him think he cannot be seen. His eyes glow a fervent silver. Looking at them is like looking at an over-full moon.

He whirls around and slams a knife into the air.

Hermann re-appears with a scream, grabbing at the dagger buried in his stomach. Genesis cries his name, hauling herself to her feet, but Carver ignores her, savoring, for a moment, his victory. Hermann stares up at his silver eyes with the infinite black of his own, something hateful and angry and cold building in the gaze between them.

“You, then,” he whispers, gritting his teeth as blood wells up on his tongue. “You, then, are the demon.”

Carver does not smile or frown. His eyes are cool. His pockets are full of finger puppets.

Genesis grabs Hermann’s arm and then the two are gone with a sudden gust of wind, not invisible now, but transported. Carver does not care,so long as they do not get away with Red this time. He steps over his brother’s body, curled in on itself on the ground, and stalks towards the older woman, his mouth curving up in a snarl.

“You back off,” she shouts, pulling what looks like a hatchet out of her backpack and hefting it in her good arm. Ah, damn. Carver should have remembered to cut the left arm instead of the right. But he will still beat her.

She swings in a one-two-three pattern and he dodges almost without looking, slipping behind her to grab her by that long, beautiful hair and yank her back painfully hard. She cries out in fury and drives the hatchet back at him - tricky, that one almost caught him! He giggles and backs away, his face twitching.

Genesis re-appears and grabs her friend. Carver does not move to stop them when they disappear. As long as they are gone, and Red remains.

He can always finish them off when his master commands him.

For a long time, Carver only stands there, staring at the spot where the women had been. Eventually, you watch his shoulders sink, and his gaze slacken, and a sort of confusion, a sort of numbness, return to his blood-freckled face.

“Red?” ask his hands. He frowns down at his brother. “Why are you crying?”

Red hides his face in his bound hands, trying to stop the tears from coursing down his cheeks.

Dapper kneels down beside him and puts a careful hand on the fabric of his hoodie, his face falling with sympathy.

“You were scared?”

He cuts Red’s hands free.

“Didn’t you know I’d come save you like I always do?”

Sobbing, Red reaches up to clutch at his little brother’s sleeves, drawing Dapper down to his chest, and Dapper goes obediently, lying his head down like a tired little kid resting on his brother’s body.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry,” Red cries, rubbing his back. “I’m sorry you had to come save me, I’m sorry I was stupid, I’m sorry I made you fight when you’re hurting, I’m sorry I haven’t been a better brother to you, I’m sorry…”

Dapper doesn’t bother trying to quiet him. He lays there with his head on Red’s chest, and he lets his brother cry.

“Everything’s okay now, Red. Everything’s okay.”

bupine asked: RED HOLY SHIT KICK HIS ASS GET OUT OF THERE GOOO

Dapper giggles a little, pressing his forehead against Red’s chest. “Is that what you tried to do?”

“Y-yes, I should have been able to take him…”

“He surprised you. He was full of magic. It doesn’t matter now. We know about them, don’t we? So that’s helpful. Not a complete loss.”

He gets up and reaches down to help Red, who grimaces as he is drawn to his feet. His stomach is bleeding frighteningly heavy now, and he can’t seem to see straight no matter how hard he focuses. He thinks he might vomit.

Dapper uses the crisp white sleeve of his dress shirt to wipe blood from Red’s face. Teary-eyed, Red bows his head and allows it.

“There we go,” murmurs Dapper. His right cheek tightens and un-tightens, tightens and un-tightens.

“Dap? Why are you twitching like that?”

Dapper gives a little irritated whimper and rubs at his face. “Can’t make it stop.”

“Took your medicine this morning?”

“Took what Anti gave me.”

“Are you okay?”

“… Don’t know. Never happened before.”

Red sighs and tries to stand steady, brushing Dapper away when he reaches out to help. “We better get you home.”

Dapper gives a small, chirruping whistle.

Anonymous asked: Blue and Trick: Dapper is with Red! They're both a little shaken; Red is bloody but he'll be okay once he's bandaged up, I think. Dapper seems to be experiencing side effects. I'm not sure if you want to meet up with them or trust that they'll make it back in their own, but either way, the danger seems to be past for now.

“Oh,” breathes Blue, sinking to his knees right there on the mountainside, grabbing at his heart. “Ohhhhh.”

Trick whoops and claps his hands together, his face brighter than you’ve seen it in days and soaking in the sun. “Let’s go meet them! I could use some time out of that little room! It’s gorgeous out here, wow! Look at that view!”

He leaps up on a big rock and stares out at the ocean, a big smile on his face. “I bet Dapper and Red kicked ass today! And now they’re coming home, and tomorrow we get Christmas all together, and Doktor’s going to patch up Anti and Red, and everything’s going to be okay!”

Blue is still there on his knees behind him, staring up at him. There is something in his eyes - love, joy, warmth, gratitude.

It’s nice to see him happy again, even if he knows it can’t last forever. It’s good to see his spirits rising.

“Come on,” says Blue fondly, reaching out to take Trick’s hand. Trick, oscillating between desperately touch-starved and completely invaded for far too long, jerks back in surprise for only a moment before wrapping his fingers around Blue’s and turning to smile at him. “Let’s go get our brothers.”

cest-mellow asked: dapper? jameson? where’d you go?

“Oh, it was easy,” explains Dapper as they walk, going slow for Red’s sake. “I got the call from Red’s phone because Anti was sleeping and I thought he seemed like he was in trouble, so I decided to go to him. I knew Anti would give me permission to save him if it was a real emergency. Especially as I have been a very good boy for the last three days.”

He straightens up proudly, clutching at the back of Red’s hoodie as he walks.

“I felt well enough to make it down the mountainside and I followed the GPS on Anti’s phone.” Dapper pulls it out of his pocket, a sleek little black phone with a lot of weird apps downloaded and no screensaver or background. “Found Red a little too late, though. He was already bound up and stuff, so I didn’t have his help. I lost the first time I fought - or I killed the old lady, anyway, but the girl took Red away. And I knew Anti wouldn’t like that. So, snap!”

Dapper snaps his fingers and makes Red jump, his face a little haggard and quite white.

“I turned back and tried again knowing how they would fight. Or something within me knew how they would fight. Blood is just blood, you know? And it’s always flowing and flowing.”

He begins whistling a little, his twitching face interrupting his song, and Red looks back at him with concern in his eyes.

“Little man, are you sure you took your medicine?”

“Took what Anti gave me, sir.”

Red sighs and reaches back to pull him under his arm. Dapper simpers pettishly and lies his head against his chest, beaming up at him.

They make their way back to the mountain, slow, slow, and it would just about kill Red to have to walk the whole way up, but luckily Blue and Trick spot them from the top and race down to meet them and help Red.

If Blue is a little disconcerted by the change in Dapper’s behavior that has taken place over the last three days, he chooses to make no comment, only scoops his little brother into a hug and praises him for saving Red the whole way up the mountain.

Anonymous asked: Doktor this is not your fault. You are not a failure. You can save Anti, just like you’ve saved everyone else. You’ve protected Dapper, directed both Blue and Trick onto the right path. Mistakes come and go and you should not be ashamed of them. They help us grow. Sadly, you cannot save everyone but if you focus on that then you will never save anyone. Trust in your abilities and judgment, Dok, because we do. You’ve got this.

You find Dok sitting beside Anti’s bed, his face blank.

Beneath the covers, Anti is very still. He breathes steady, pale but alive, wrapped up in bandages. Dok’s even managed to get him shirtless. He hopes it helps, but, with Anti, it’s difficult to say.

“I think he’ll be okay,” he whispers.

He’s staring down at his hands.

Curling and uncurling.

“I can save Anti,” he whispers to himself, trying, deliberately, to internalize your message. “I’m not a failure.”

He sits alone for a long time, holding his knees to his chest, looking tired.

But then the door opens, and chattering comes with it, and the stomping of feet, and a smile lights up slowly on his face again.

His family. His friends. His brothers. His twin.

Returned.

Beaming, Doktor gets to his feet, and goes to help his family.

badlypostedmusicals asked: Boys who are still functional, why don't you try and make the house a little more secure and bring all of your blankets to anti's room so you can be together

“To Anti’s room?” whispers Blue, eyes wide. “I’m not so sure he’d like that… Better to let sleeping dogs lie, you know. But I am going to grab those blankets!”

Anonymous asked: Yeah, I’m crying, oh lord.

It was, after all, quite a day.

Red cries for how gently Doktor patches him up and how warmly Blue holds his hand through it.  It’s late afternoon, but Doktor prescribes a good long sleep before they try any processing, and Red, exhausted, agrees. He and Blue lie down under a big, fuzzy, purple blanket, their limbs tangled up and their heads close together, and they wish each other a merry Christmas eve in grateful whispers before going to bed at four in the morning.

Trick and Doktor are drawn back to each other like magnets, and they hug for so long Trick nearly drifts off against his shoulder, which makes them both laugh and dissolve into enthusiastic teasing. You watch Doktor’s energy spike higher than you’ve seen it in days, and soon the two of them have borrowed Blue’s new cards to play a passionate game of whispered BS with Dapper in their room, giggling the whole time and calling each other for every bluff. That night, Dapper retreats back to Anti’s room, but Trick elects to stay with Dok, not caring, for once, what Anti would say. They light his candles together. Doktor whispers his blessings with tears running down his face and Trick buried against his chest, and then they curl up beneath their window, and, like they always used to, they watch until the sun goes down.

And if Dapper cries a little too, as the adrenaline of the fight leaves him, replaced by a cold and growing horror as he remembers blood beneath Carver’s hands and the weight of the knife clutched between his fingers, well… he has Anti to snuggle up with, doesn’t he? There’s nothing else he needs. Everyone else has a twin, and him? He has Anti.

He stares around the room and realizes that soon, he will once again be trapped.

His face twitches.

Anonymous asked: It's a Christmas miracle! You're all together again and that's what matters! Fix each other up and get some sleep before tomorrow comes, okay? Merry Christmas, boys!! And a happy Hanukkah to you, Dok!

“It is kind of a miracle, huh?” murmurs Dok, staring up at the ceiling.

Trick is fast asleep beside him. He looks well. His body’s warm.

“I think we always feel like the oil’s going to run out,” Doktor continues softly, holding him. “Like that’s it, that’s all. This is the last of it. And once it’s gone, we’re done for.

But then… you have miracles.”

He pulls Trick closer to his chest, sighing warmly.

Content on Christmas Eve, on the third day of Hanukkah.

“And the oil does not run out. The enemy does not win like you thought he would. You keep fighting and you light your candles and you hold your head up and trust in things greater than yourself, and they sustain you when you thought you couldn’t keep going, not for another day, not for another moment.”

Doktor closes his eyes. The smile on his mouth is warm as the flame of his candles.

“You have your lights in the darkness,” he whispers, dozing off. “You have enough oil after all.”

End Section Four of Chapter Two.

Find the next section here.