#the things that happened in that library

[kiwiplaetzchen]

"We do so adore restricted areas, don't we?"

"We shouldn't go in there. Which is exactly why we should. Now take heed. There's a chance we could get caught."

[thebiscuitlabryinth]

[prev]

In the end, it doesn't matter. His plans, his intentions, his hopes, none of it matters.

In his dreams, it is disturbingly easy for Pure Vanilla to forget that the world is larger than the two of them, full of Cookies with their own plans and motives. In the careful cradle of his dreams, cocooned within Shadow Milk's constant presence, he hadn't even considered that there were other options.

Now, he is forced to confront them, and he can barely pay attention to anything. He isn't sure what happened in the first place, everything moving too quickly for him to process a thing. There is chaos everywhere, a flurry of colours and sounds and happenings whipping around him like a hurricane, the veil of darkness turning it all into a blur. The air is thrumming with unleashed archaic power, pricking his dough like pins and needles, and it all goes straight to his head, making him dizzy.

His grip on his staff is tight, leaning against it as he closes his eyes and borrows its gaze in the hopes of having a clearer view. It is just as indecipherable through his staff though, which means he isn't seeing things – the world really is coming apart at the seams, his nightmares unfurling before him.

And worst of all, Pure Vanilla is awake. He is wide, wide awake and cold with shock.

"There you are!"

Arms wrap around his shoulders from behind, the voice chiming delightedly in his ear. Pure Vanilla pulls away with a violent jerk of his body, not quite having the mind to be surprised that the arms let him, spinning around to face the other.

Shadow Milk stands, practically glowing with giddy joy, in a newly-crafted body of fresh dough, and it is strange to see him so solid. He stretches his arms above his head, leaning from side to side, before turning in a circle with a flourish, as if to show the body off.

"Wonderful, isn't it? And with this, Little Miss Guardian can't lock us back up again so easily! Certainly not with a dirty little trick like patching up some cracks." His voice is jovial, even as irritation flickers over his eyes at the memory of his encounter with White Lily. It disappears quickly, swallowed by tide of something that could almost be taken as childlike excitement. "Ah, it's so fun to have my own body again!"

It's the sort of happiness Pure Vanilla had hoped to see from him, but seeing it now, it just makes his heart ache fiercely, his chest seconds away from caving in. He is beautiful, a fact preserved even through the filter of his staff's eye, and everything is falling apart around him.

"What are you doing?" He asks, hardly more than a whisper, hardly able to manage those words anyway. It isn't the fact that Shadow Milk is out, physically here in front of him that makes him feel queasy. If it were only that, Pure Vanilla suspects he'd match him in his joy. It isn't even that he grabbed the first opportunity to escape, even if it wasn't following Pure Vanilla's plans for negotiation.

It is the upheaval sweeping around him, a complete lack of care for the surroundings and exactly as Shadow Milk was before, that is what hurts. Pure Vanilla had never lied when he said he believed in him.

"Celebrating, of course! This is my greatly anticipated grand return!" Shadow Milk announces cheerfully, taking an overdramatic bow before glancing at Pure Vanilla with a cheeky grin. His eyes glitter like stars, in that way that always mesmerises him. "Come on, Vani, dance with me!"

He reaches for both of Pure Vanilla's hands, not fazed by the fact that one is still holding his staff. He simply traps Pure Vanilla's hand between his and the staff as he pulls him towards him, using the momentum to whirl them around. Pure Vanilla stumbles, and without thinking, he scrambles to hold Shadow Milk back, his stomach and head churning uselessly.

It must show on his face, the horrible turbulance within him, because Shadow Milk's eyes all squint at him, some softly, others teasingly. He lets go of the hand not on his staff, instead wrapping his arm around Pure Vanilla's waist to offer him more stability. "What are you looking so gloomy for? Isn't this what you wanted?"

"Not like this, you know that." Pure Vanilla whispers, his now free hand balling into a fist and falling weakly to rest against Shadow Milk's shoulder. His sadness leaks heavy into his tone, but he can't help it, can barely articulate himself. "I wanted you to be better."

Shadow Milk doesn't reply for a moment, still dragging him through the motions of a partner dance. He seems to realise Pure Vanilla isn't planning to open his eyes anytime soon, because his eyes slide over to make contact with him through his staff, his grin simmering down to a smile, still unbearably cheerful. "You didn't truly believe that would work, did you?"

It's a harmless question, in the grand scheme of things, in the whirlpool of everything happening around them, but it feels like a cracking punch to the stomach. Shadow Milk had seemed reluctant at first, but he had never outright refused his idea. By the end of it, he even seemed to be considering it seriously, but something said as bluntly as that must be his true feelings–

"So you lied to me." Pure Vanilla murmurs hollowly, the cracks in his heart filling with sticky disappointment, all towards himself. He can't bring himself to hate Shadow Milk for acting within his own nature, not when he should have known. "...Of course you did."

For the first time since he regained a physical form, Shadow Milk's smile drops completely, replaced with a fake pout. Though it seems lighthearted, the stars in his eyes spark with annoyance.

"I would never! How could you say such a terrible thing about me, after all we've been through?" Shadow Milk laments with exaggerated sorrow, throwing Pure Vanilla into an awkward twirl as his free hand rests against his own forehead like a hapless maiden. Pure Vanilla's brain seems to scramble at the sudden movement, barely gathering his bearings as Shadow Milk's arm returns to his waist. He thinks he may be sick.

"Remember, I said you could try your little plan out, not that I ever agreed to it." Shadow Milk reminds him in a low croon, lined with condescension. "I even told you I thought it was a stupid idea! I may be the Beast of Deceit, but I never directly lied to you. I'm a little hurt you assumed I did. I thought you knew me better than that!"

And Pure Vanilla can't muster a response to that, spirit growing soggier by the second, because it is true. His hope had led him into assumptions that were misguided, how can he blame Shadow Milk for that?

Somewhere in the background, there is the rumble of an explosion.

"You might have been able to convince me, you know." Shadow Milk adds with a gossamer thin smile, his voice growing more serious. "There was just one eensy-weensy problem with your argument."

Pure Vanilla trips over something behind him with a frazzled yelp, unconsiously gripping Shadow Milk's shoulder as his hat falls off, and Shadow Milk uses the momentum to lower him into a dip, bowing over him as he finally pauses their dance.

"You assumed that I need to be fixed," Shadow Milk spits the words through his teeth with a slight growl, curling his lip disdainfully as he pushes their faces far too close together, "but there's nothing to fix. We paid the price for having power the Witches' themselves gave us, all because of their cowardice and fickleness." He huffs, smiling with a lack of mirth. "Good punishments always teach a lesson, you say, but our punishment was unjust, decided on a whim. What lesson could it possibly teach?"

Pure Vanilla stares at him wordlessly, ears buzzing nervously. He feels vaguely like he is in freefall, his body tensing in anticipation of hitting the ground.

Instead, like a switch is flipped, Shadow Milk's stormy expression clears back into that pleasant merriment.

"But enough about all that," Shadow Milk says with faux politeness as he straightens up smoothly, jerking Pure Vanilla back onto his feet and sweeping him back into a circling dance, "now is the time for celebration! Relax!"

Shadow Milk draws Pure Vanilla even closer to him, almost pressing their bodies together, and Pure Vanilla, despite himself, is struck by the warmth of it. Shadow Milk has always been cold to the touch in his dreams but here, in this new body, he is too warm, radiating a heat that suggests getting too close will burn.

Shadow Milk hums a jaunty tune in his ear as they sway to and fro, and Pure Vanilla's darts his gaze around in an attempt to ground his thoughts. He must focus. He isn't sure where the others are – are the children safe? Where is White Lily? Shadow Milk isn't the only one who escaped, of that he is certain, so it is likely they are surrounded by danger on all sides, and that isn't even taking Dark Enchantress' forces into consideration. But if Shadow Milk is focused on him here, that is at least one less Beast for them to handle.

There you are, he had said when he found him. Shadow Milk had been seeking him out specifically, and surely not just for an innocent dance, so why—

Pure Vanilla glances down with sinking dread and realisation, jam turning cold.

"You're here for the Soul Jam, aren't you?" He murmurs, more to himself than Shadow Milk, but he must hear anyway, because his humming trails off. Pure Vanilla doesn't give him time to process the words though, yanking his staff up and suddenly there is light.

It is an extremely clumsy spell that misses by a mile – Pure Vanilla isn't awfully practised in offensive magic, and on top of that, his dough is shaking with too many emotions – but it does the trick. The bright flash startles Shadow Milk just enough for his grip to loosen, and Pure Vanilla wastes no time in scrambling back and away.

He gets a good few paces away before he is stopped by firm tug on his wrist, almost knocking him over. The beginning of real fear begins to well within him as he looks down to find himself caught by a dozen strings, shimmering like spun silk, all leading back to Shadow Milk's own hands as he approaches through the parting haze.

"I didn't know you had that in you. Bravo!" He laughs as he claps, seeming to be at ease, the attack doing nothing to dampen his mood. He comes to a stop nearby, wrapping the strings around his hand once, twice before pulling Pure Vanilla forward in a long, smooth motion that allows Shadow Milk to tuck his arm behind his back as he leans forward to meet him. "But to answer your question..."

Shadow Milk reaches up to grab the clasp that holds his Soul Jam as Pure Vanilla strains against the strings, knowing that despite any fondness he might have for him, he had never planned to let him have this. He braces for it to be ripped off, he braces for it to be gently pried away for him – he isn't sure which would be worse.

He does not brace for Shadow Milk to bend down and press a delicate kiss against its smooth surface.

"I'm here for the Soul Jam and you." He smirks against it, eyes flicking up from its sapphire shine to Pure Vanilla's stunned face, frozen in place. "That shouldn't be a surprise to you, after all our time spent together."

"You must be joking." Pure Vanilla chokes out before he can say any more, voice stuffy with conflicting emotions, gripping his staff so tightly he's distantly worried it may snap. His head is swimming, so much so that he worries he will faint, even though he's never been prone to it. "You don't mean that."

"I do." Shadow Milk replies with breezy confidence, his expression falling neutral as he straightens up just enough to press their foreheads together. It is not quite as impactful with Pure Vanilla seeing through his staff, but the contact between their dough still burns. "I like you. So, because I like you, I've come to collect everything."

Pure Vanilla is seeing through his staff, so he knows he is not imagining the solemn furrow of his brow, the slight pinch of his mouth, the lifetimes behind his eyes, the lifetimes he has fallen for. He is sure, almost instinctively, that he is telling the truth, and the mere thought makes his insides collapse into themselves like an agonising supernova.

"Please," he begs helplessly, strangely hoarse, abandoning his staff's eye and welcoming the darkness, unable to look anymore, "don't do this to me. It's–"

–cruel, but the word gets stuck in his throat. It is an accidental cruelty, and it hurts, hurts more than anything else, more than words can describe, even more than the all-encompassing ache of Dark Enchantress' first appearance, and the realisation that she shared White Lily's shadow. At least, then, Dark Enchantress was clear in her hatred, never allowing an opportunity for hope to fester. For all the pain that caused, the distance kept his head clearer.

But what is he meant to do now, knowing that Shadow Milk Cookie, for all he has done and will do, is sincere when he says he likes him? It is an irony that burdens him like a curse, but he almost wishes that it was a lie. It would be painful either way, but surely being tricked outright and mocked for it would be easier to cut clean from, to compartmentalise.

An ugly, painful sob rattles through his chest, and he bites down on it before it can leave his mouth, shoulders curling inwards like a wilting plant. Shadow Milk's arms loop around them, weighing them down further.

"Look at me." He calls, calm and low and stern, a professor's tone, and Pure Vanilla shudders with another swallowed sob.

"Look at me, Pure Vanilla." He repeats, a little louder, but it is the use of his name that catches his attention like a snare. Shadow Milk doesn't often use his proper name, not when it is just the two of them.

Pure Vanilla finally opens his own eyes, slowly and with difficulty, gummy with unshed tears and unable to make out anything beyond colourful shapes. Shadow Milk's face takes up his whole vision either way, and it makes his pain worsen. He can't look at him, not now, with everything that makes up Pure Vanilla jumbled into a mess and the world around them jumbled to match.

Surprising himself, Pure Vanilla sluggishly shifts to bury his face in Shadow Milk's shoulder, his shaking hands dropping his staff to clumsily grip his back in tight fistfuls. It surprises Shadow Milk too, judging by his slight jolt, but his arms tighten like a noose around his neck, pulling him close into a hug.

"You're awful." Pure Vanilla croaks, muffled and aching, squeezing his eyes shut again and soaking in the searing heat of the other, eating him alive.

Between them, the Virtue of Knowledge hums discordantly, its fractured pieces reunited at last. Shadow Milk chuckles, a sound Pure Vanilla feels rather than hears.

"If I'm awful," he says lightly, rocking them from side to side in a soothing rhythm, "then you must be too."

fin.

[fairydrowning]

In my "can't continue under this circumstances" era.

[pratchettquotes]

Some people like to settle down with a good book. No-one in possession of a complete set of marbles would like to settle down with a book of magic, because even the individual words have a private and vindictive life of their own and reading them, in short, is a kind of mental Indian wrestling. Many a young wizard has tried to read a grimoire that is too strong for him, and people who've heard the screams have found only his pointy shoes with the classic wisp of smoke coming out of them and a book which is, perhaps, just a little fatter. Things can happen to browsers in magical libraries that make having your face pulled off by tentacled monstrosities from the Dungeon Dimensions seem a mere light massage by comparison.

Terry Pratchett, Mort

[ollylotl]

if you couldnt tell by my username.... recent riptide episode was MADE for me :3 i LOVE axolotls so heres a quick doodle of the axolotl hivemind form thingies of the riptide pirates

[chasingfictions]

BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER | PROPHECY GIRL (1997)

"you face the master and you'll die." "maybe. maybe i'll take him with me."

[raiiny-bay]

making something (maybe)

[cerise-grenadine]

older Snape fans, what are your oldest works like?

i’m curious 🤭

found the old display book where i stored my second (and longest)(and unfinished) fanfic and i’ll have you know the highlight was Severus stabbing a dragon in the throat with a poisoned dagger to save Hogwarts, in front of everyone 🙌🏻

he was able to jump on the dragon because he had ✨angel wings✨ black covered in ebony feathers, of course 🖤

and every chapter had deep poetic introductory quotes bc i was a dramatic teenager.

[howtotrainyouragents]

I was falling asleep and I had a funny thought about Luffy stealing an armload of library books for Robin. 1) because that's exactly the kinda thing he would do and 2) it’s not necessary, it’s a freakin’ library, but he heard the words “check out limit” and thought, “You can’t put a limit on my friend or what I would do for them.”

It gets funnier bc stealing an armload of books off the shelf all at once can only really end in two disastrous ways: 1) either he drops half of them as he trying to run or 2) he's trying to take them off the top shelf, and he’s about to knock himself out with about a thousand books crashing into him

[sysig]

Wouldn’t want him getting lost now, would we (Patreon)

[sugarsnappeases]

snippet!!

thank you to my dearest most precious beloved angels @sixlane @themuseoftheviolets @quillkiller @effiepotterisamilf @orbitfalls for the tags <33 sorry about how late this is but i come bearing a long-ish bartylily snippet to maybe make up for that... everyone say hiiiii library fic!! it is sooo happening baby

There’s someone in the back room, a man lounging in one of the chairs around the little circular table. Specifically in the chair which she normally sits in when she eats her breaktime yoghurts, but she supposes she doesn’t really have a claim to it, being as she’s been gone for two months, and it’s not actually her chair. She doesn’t recognise this man though, and he doesn’t look at all like the kind of person you might expect or want to find in a library, let alone in the back room as if he were an employee.  He doesn’t look over as she comes in, just keeps flipping a stack of coasters up off the edge of the table and catching them mid-air, as if he were at a pub instead of in the back room of Lily’s library, flipping beer-mats instead of Ms. Pince’s nice ceramic coasters.  She takes her coat off and hangs it on the same hook as always, the second one from the left, wondering if she should do something about this stranger who she thinks might be trespassing, in a library of all places. He’s wearing a kind of grotty, oversized hoodie that’s definitely seen better days, judging from it’s off-grey colour and how mangled the cuffs are, and what might be the tightest pair of black jeans she’s ever seen, replete with rips and a chain, clinging to what might be the longest pair of legs she’s ever seen. He’s like if one of those ‘unconventional’ editorial models had been living in a skip for a few years, like if the guy that you saw out with a different girl every single time you went to the club had done a truly heinous home dye job and turned emo.  He is not the sort of man that Lily would ever want to have in her immediate vicinity. And he’s sitting in Lily’s chair, in Lily’s library, encroaching on the sanctity of it. Not to mention messing with Ms. Pince’s fancy coasters. “Excuse me,” she says, because, really, he had nearly dropped the stack with that last flip and she can’t just let some random man hang around in the employee-only area.  He glances over at her, still flipping the fucking coasters, looks her up and down, and then grins. He doesn’t say anything, just stares at her, grinning widely, teeth on display, eyes lit up like she’s just told him that he’s won the lottery. He has annoyingly perfect teeth.  Lily frowns, “What are you doing?”

no pressure tags for some more of my dearest most precious beloved angels @inevitablestars @static-radio-ao3 @fernhelm @itsjaywalkers @carniferous

[fictionadventurer]

There's nothing quite like the euphoria of finding a book at exactly the right time. A book that you might mildly enjoy or even dislike at another time, but you happen to come across it in just the right mood or mindset, or at just the right age or just the right time of year, so it fits perfectly into your heart and it's elevated into something spectacular.

[mooncheese3]

yueliujiu anon here saying if ur too shy to answer my last ask -- it's ok! but also, if you have any more yueliujiu thoughts pls feel free to dump!! id love to hear them 🥺🥺🥺

OH MB MB THATS MB IT WASNT THAT I WAS SHY THAT TIME I JUST HAVENT BEEN CHECKING MY NOTIFS AT ALL LIKE

GNNGHAGGG MY BAD

ANYWHO HDNFN yeaa :DDD u are the anon in mermaid qijiu reblog :DDDD genuinely cant stop thinking about them now also im totally gonna join yqy weekend now that i have been made awareRAWGRH SPREADING THE YLJ AGENDA

thoughts on how lqg is so used to having a big family and how hes never worried about losing their support vs qijiu whose longest familial bond has only ever been each other and how they always worry about losing that so they try their damnest to tie themselves together (and this doesnt always translate well)

idk what theyll do about that i just know that hurts and it hurts good

but also small-town!sv au wherein yqy is the mayor, lqg is a newly transferred cop, and sqq is the local librarian & part-time language tutor (also a retired criminal investigator)

basically 'beyond evil' vibes where lqg is investigating a case gone cold, aka the qiu massacre thing. SO LIKE. hes following a lead everyone else deemed outlandish, but the thing is his instincts have never failed him before, and those instincts are telling him hes on the right path

it just so happens that path leads right to a little town up in the mountains, whose mayor is a charismatic man named yqy. yqy is kind, thoughtful, and just. he smooths problems out quickly and can manage many things at once. right beside yqy is sqq, the only flaw lqg can find in yqy

sqq is an acidic man. the mayors wrapped around the guy's finger and the mayor himself doesnt care; he knows too much, is what lqg thinks. lqg notices sqq's aversion to fire, notices how his stare lingers on flames that burn too close. he notices how sqq easily lockpicks the libarary's door when the rust in the lock finally overpowers the key, how sqq seems to be hated by all yet is frequently hired by the parents who gossip about him. lmy tells him over the phone that if sqq really were the suspect, hed have been around 16 when the qiu massacre happened—isnt that too much?

despite agreeing with his sister, he cant shake the feeling that a teenage sqq would be capable of it

(SPOILER ALERT BC I CANT HELP IT SJ WASNT THE ONE WHO STARTED THE FIRE THAT KILLED EVERYONE--THO HE DID KILL A HANDFUL OF PEOPLE--IT WAS YQY. SQQ IS JUST COVERING UP FOR HIM AND PAINTING HIMSELF AS THE SOLE TARGET BC HE FEELS RESPONSIBLE FOR IT AND BC THATS HIS QIGE!!!!! NO ONE IS ALLOWED TO HURT HIM!!!!!!!!

additionally to sqq he feels that qht deserves to at least find peace in finally "figuring out" why her family died in such a horrible way and getting justice. she was innocent after all. so if that means he needs to rot in jail for the rest of his life he'll let lqg do his job and finally close the qiu case

yqy is less than pleased btw. he tries to take suspicions off of sqq but it just makes it worse)

idk how the plot goes i just need some enemies/you-can-tell-theres-tension-between-them-but-they-never-argue to lovers action

[airenyah]

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

[gay-artificer]

I've seen people be like downpour ruined how people see five pebbles and im gonna be honest if you were here for any number of years pre-downpour the fandom was always god-awful with the nuance in his character. thats not a downpour thing thats a fandom thing

[chiropteracupola]

just a couple of creepy 18th-century innkeepers talking shop!

[featuring @borisyvain's lazarus mcclure and my own james webster]