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sxnnimoon · 4 years ago

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Little One pt. 6

Part 6 is here babies! I hope you all love it and I hope you all have a great weekend! (also if anyone knows to do those text and social media posts of artists and celebs please let me know!)

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“Park seo joon… WHY?!” you glared at him.

“Oh come on princess,” he smirked. “You should know me better than anyone else.”

You tried to move away from his hand that came to your face.

“You were mine before theirs.” he grabbed your face.

“You’re crazy.” you said, barely above a whisper.

“It was only a matter of time before I could have you all for myself.” he smirked leaning in.

You whispered out a no before he let go of your face. He took a few steps away from you before he turned around and hit you, instantly apologizing.

You spit out a bit of blood, you wanted nothing more than to cry out but tried keeping yourself together.

“What will you gain from this?” you looked up at him with disgust.

“What aren’t you getting?” he tilted his head. “I finally have what's mine. You would be mine if they didn’t come into the picture. They always took away what was mine.”

You were confused on what he meant but you could see the sadness in his eyes for a split second, but it soon switched to anger.

He rushed towards you. Fear setting in, not knowing what he was going to do. He untied you from the chair leaving your feet and hands bound. He picked you up, carrying you out of the empty room. You tried looking at where you were, all you could see was a carpeted floor and paintings scattered on the wall. It felt familiar, like you had been here before but you couldn’t think of where. Before you knew it you were thrown on to a bed. You clutched the shirt that covered your body tight feeling the sleeves slip down your shoulders. Looking around the room you could finally piece together where you were.

“The villa…” you whispered.

He chuckled darkly, he knew you figured it out.

“Why bring me here?” you looked at him confused. “They will find me. It’s only a matter of ti-“

He slapped you.

“ENOUGH!” he yelled, making you jump back. “Let them come. It won’t end well for them.”

He left the room soon after. You couldn’t believe he would bring you to the one place they would find you, the villa your family owned, it was where you met Seo Joon in your high school days, it also had been a place you would bring the boys when you wanted a few days away in the woods for peace and quiet. You both were best friends up until you married. His behavior changed once you started seeing any of the boys, it had become clingy and possessive. You never knew him like that, he was always the sweet, shy and smart Park Seo Joon. you couldn’t grasp where it all went wrong. It saddened you but you had to remain strong, you couldn’t let your guard down.

A few hours passed and he finally returned, this time with food and water. He walked towards you, making you tense up and move away. He pulled you by your ankles. You tried fighting back.

“I’m untying you, chill the fuck out.” he hissed. “Now don’t try anything.” he pointed at you before sitting in the chair across from where you were.

“Now eat,” he grumbled.

You stared at the food, not having the strength to move.

“I may have taken you but i can assure you it’s not poisoned.” he said rolling his eyes.

You ate slowly.

“Now that you have me, what will you do to me?” you ask him.

He liked that you wanted to ‘talk’ to him, you knew he wouldn’t shut up once you got him going. As he went on listing all the things he was gonna do you were getting uncomfortable and disgusted. You also could sense and hear commotion from outside. He obviously didn’t notice. It wasn’t until you could see movement under the door that you changed up your plan.

“You are insane.” you said with disgust. “You really think I would have been with you back then let alone now? We made out once, ONE time seo joon. You really think I would fuck someone like you?” you decided to get him riled up which would get him off guard.

You could see the fiery expression in his eyes at your words.

“Honestly, you aren’t even man enough for this. You are nothing but a scared little boy who is just pissed that the one thing he wants isn’t his and doesn’t want him back.” you fake pouted.

“Keep it up,” he said lowly pointing a finger at you.

“Or what? You are nothing compared to my men. Unlike you, they know the difference between protectiveness and borderline crazy.” you knew it was working, you could see the feet stop in front of the door.

“THAT'S IT!” he yelled before charging at you.

He was stopped in his tracks when the door was bussed down.

“WHAT TH-” he was cut off by a gunshot.

You screamed. You looked up seeing Yeonjun. He was one of Hoseok’s best men.

“IS HE DEAD.” you shouted, looking at him passed out on the floor.

“He’s still alive, just wounded.” Beomgyu said, checking his pulse.

“Death would be too easy.” Yoongi said walking in.

“YOU'RE HERE!” you jumped into his arms.

He held you tight against him.

“ARE YOU REAL?!” You said, frantically running your hands all over his face.

“Yes we’re real little one.” Jin said coming into the room.

“Get him out of here. I’ll deal with him later.” Hoseok said, coming into view, The others, not too far behind.

“Why would he do this?” You looked down pouting.

“We found files he kept hidden with nothing but pictures of you Miss.” Beomgyu said.

“And a few of the bosses with holes through their heads.” Taehyun said. “Not to mention the nude ones…”

He looked at you with sympathy.

You shook your head.

“I want to see them.” You said, wiping tears off your face.

“..baby..” Joon said, coming towards you.

You put a hand up for him to stop.

“I want to see EVERYTHING. No arguments” You said sternly.

They nodded.

You all began walking out to the SUV’s ready to head home.

“Everything you need is already at the hotel.” Yeonjun said.

“Thank you.” You gave a small smile.

“We’re staying at one of the hotels while everything gets moved into the new house.” Taehyung said.

You nodded.

A new place meant new beginnings, but also much more hidden and higher security.

Arriving at the hotel you walked ahead of them instantly going to your room not wanting to be bothered.

Once in your room you noticed two huge boxes filled with files. You were an hour and a half into the first box barely making a dent. You cried here and there, You couldn’t believe how much he had stalked you. All the trips you went on, all the meetings, you in your restaurant, club. He was everywhere. It wasn’t until you got to the second box that you felt disgusted. The entire second box was nothing but you nude. You cried harder. This man was supposed to be like a brother to you, but he was too good to be true. He was at your wedding for god sake. You all let him in and this is how things ended up. You were sitting there with your head in your hands when your phone went off.

It was Taehyung.

Tae Baby🐾✨

T- are you okay?

T- I can hear you through the walls :(

Y- that doesn’t begin to cover it….

Y- cuddles?

T- omw

You soon heard a knock. You walked over to the door and opened it seeing him made you smile. You hugged him, his scent instantly making you forget everything. You get safe. Though the line of work he does he was definitely one of the softer ones out of the seven but also one the most feared along with Jimin. You stood there for a while before going to lay down.

Tae went to clear the bed taking notice of the photos left out. He covered his mouth, he was hurt and disgusted.

“Let’s just lay down.” You say taking the boxes away.

“How could we let him do this to you?” He whispered.

“We won’t be seeing him anytime soon, he’s done for baby.” You reassured him.

“We could have prevented this.” He said, trying not to cry.

“We didn’t know love,” you rested a hand on his cheek. “No one knew he could do this. Now let’s go to bed.” You kissed him.

He pulled you tight, he didn’t want you out of his sight. He thought he lost you.

As much as any of them didn’t want to admit it, you were their weakness. And it hit them hard thinking you were gone.

As you lay there in the dark, Tae wrapped in your arms you couldn’t help being wide awake. The images of the previous events running through your mind on repeat. The glow of your phone lit up the room. You were curious about who would be texting you at 3am. Eyes squinting you read the name.

Jiminie😚❤️

JM- are you awake?

Y- i am

JM- can I come in?

Y- you can :)

You locked your phone before trying your best to slip out of Taehyung's grasp. You put a pillow between you so he could still have something to hold on to for the time being. You walked to the door just before he knocked.

He smiled as you opened the door. He went to talk but you put a finger to your lips and pointed in the direction of a sleepy Taehyung.

He nodded and closed the door behind him.

He pulled you in close.

“Let’s just lay down.” You whispered, a yawn following.

Laying down in the middle of the two, your back facing Tae who immediately wrapped his body around you making you and Jimin giggle.

You played with eachothers hands neither one speaking. You could feel your eyes getting heavy.

“Sleep my love.” He said. “We’ll be here to protect you.”

He kissed your head and you were soon deep in sleep. You woke up to the sun in your face and tangled in arms and legs. You tried your best to wiggle out but Jimin’s hold on you tightened. You tapped his cheek earning a groan from him.

“I need to pee.” You said struggling to sit up.

“Don’t leave.” Taehyung whined.

“Do you really wanna sleep in a wet bed?” You smirked down at him.

“I am up.” He shot up.

Jimin slowly got up at the sudden movement.

You giggled and shook your head before going to the bathroom.

Walking out you hear the boys on the phone.

“Alright, we’ll pack everything up and head on out.” Tae said into the phone. “Okay bye.”

“What was that about?” You asked.

“Everything is moved into the house.” He smiled.

“We can head over once you are ready.” Jimin said.

It didn’t take long to gather everything. Down at the lobby you only saw one vehicle.

“Where are the others?” You raised a brow.

“They are already there making sure the security is set right.” Jimin said.

Upon arrival they put in a code to open the gates which wasn’t new but the long driveway was. It definitely had its similarities and differences. Walking into the house you could hear Hoseok and Joon giving demands about bodyguards for each of you. You walked in and all eyes were on you.

“Come meet your guard's love.” Joon said.

“I want to choose my own.” You demanded.

They both gave you a look. After the last two you wanted to make sure you were protected at all costs.

“I want Yeonjun and Soobin.” You said. “Don’t fight me on this Hoseok. Them plus Beomgyu have gone above and beyond for our family and I trust them with my life.”

“Okay.” He said.

“I can assure you all will do your absolute best to protect me and my family.” Joon said. “You’re dismissed.”

They stood there just looking at you.

“What?” you said, raising your brows.

“You…” Hoseok said, “amaze me.”

He smiled, running a hand through his hair.

“And here I thought you were too sweet to give out demands.” Jungkook said, smirking.

You stuck your tongue out at him.

“You guys must be rubbing off on me.” you shrugged walking away.

You walked around the house and property, making yourself acquainted with it all. Yeonjun and Soobin not too far behind keeping watch.

You walked to the balcony overlooking the trees, it was beautiful and the sunset added a nice touch.

“We could live here.” you said to yourself. “We could start a family here.”

You were too in thought to realize Soobin was calling you.

“Miss. The bosses need you back at the house, they say it’s time for dinner.” he said.

You nodded leading the way.

#bts mafia au #bts mafia fic #mafia bts #bts mafia imagine #bts imagines #bts #bts fanfic #bts smut #bts x reader #imagines

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hannahstumble · 11 months ago

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Hey there, welcome to Palia!! 👋 We kinda have a system when it comes to groves and callouts, and it’s ok! People have been super helpful when I was asking questions about everything in the chat when I was first starting out, and now I love to help out others too!

So, first up is some of those acronyms. Ft means flow tree! And when you see the number and letter combos on the map, those are coordinates on the map! There’s a grid with letters running down one side, and numbers on the other! So, if someone says FT c7 , that means there’s a flow tree at that exact square! We use to grid to call out the different resources we can find on the map to help each other out! The community it really sweet 💖

For groves, here’s a map from Reddit of all the possible locations they can pop up ! I’ve used this a LOT to try and find the groves, makes it a lot easier to find where they are. Every hour at the top of the hour in real life, in game time midnight, a grove spawns! It makes this WHOOOOSHHH sound and we run to the usual spots to check where it spawned. When someone finds it, they call it out in chat where it is! Before we had the grid, which isn’t on this particular map pic, we would just call out the locations. Like, Statue Garden, or Windy, stuff like that. We still do that too and the coordinates.

Then after they call it out in the chat, to let them know to wait, we type “omw” in the chat. We all head to the grove, hit each tree once to get a share of the flow wood. Then we wait for everybody to come to the grove, then say a in game time of when to chop. Usually 3am in game time, but sometimes can be later if we’re waiting for people. And that’s ok! Sometimes someone sets down a lure and we all catch some bugs while we wait!! It’s fun! Then, once we’re there, we chop! It’s really a lot of fun!!

Oh! And if you see a few other abbreviations in the chat, here’s what they mean!! Pal is short of Palium, a rarer ore node that spawns across the map. DD usually means Disco Deer, short for the Proudhorned Sernuk. Or, disco dog, which are these blue and white Majuin! They kinda look like wolves tbh ahaha. There’s also a daily rummage pile down at the beach, one in Kilima each real life day, some sometimes people say where those are in the chat. There’s also a website for that, palia.th.gl showing where all the things are! And flares are like these fireworks that we shoot off and they look like a glowing light in the sky to mark where something is!

I think that’s about everything!! Hope this helps ya out and welcome to Palia!! 💖💖💖💖👏👏👏🫂

i messed up a flow tree callout and didnt wait long enough and a bunch of people came after it was already cut and im sorry if i did that to you :( :( i never done it before and didnt know what to do and panicked😩from now on im gonna wait at least a minute and a half because i was too quick with it

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moving-wright-along · 4 years ago

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bury me in your mind

this started as a sort of high school AU but it just turned into a whole nother beast. its a little over 4k words. i apologize in advance. Ticci Toby x a gender neutral reader warnings: mentions of violence and a fuckload of cursing. kinda angsy? but only towards the end

Toby hates high school and he hates every stupid fucker in the whole damn building.

The only exception to his burning hatred is you.

His English class is the only class that keeps Toby sane throughout the day, because it’s the class he gets to sit next to you. People naturally steer away from him once they notice the occasional twitches and jerks of his body, like their tiny brains have an alarm that goes off whenever they see anything that might not be ‘normal’. Toby decided a long time ago that it was probably for the best, and started to avoid everyone else as much as they avoided him. Yet on the first day, you sat beside him without being forced, and with plenty of other seats available.

At first he thinks you’re weird, but you don’t try to talk to him and you don’t flinch or lean away from him when he twitches, so you’re cool in his book.

Toby starts admiring you after about a week into the semester. He’s sitting in his seat, minding his own fucking business because he’s apparently one of the only people in this whole town that can, when some dumbass jock comes up and starts throwing out insults disguised as ‘friendly’ questions about his conditions. Toby immediately has to shove down the urge to sucker punch the idiot in the nose, but he promised his mom to try not to get into fights this year. And hell, he’s a mama's boy at heart still so he’s trying to indulge her. But goddamn is it hard.

“Jesus fucking Christ,” It takes a moment for Toby to register that you were the one that just spoke up.

“Don’t you have anything better to do than insult people over things they can’t control and be fucking annoying? Get a hobby.”

And- Wow, Toby really hopes he’s not as slack jawed as the other guy is, cause he looks like an idiot with his mouth open like that. The guy tries stuttering something out but it's drowned out by several people laughing and a few of the guy's so-called friends jeering him because 'damn dude, the quiet kid just owned your ass’. The teacher steps in and everyone quiets down, their attention thankfully taken off your corner of the room.

Toby has the decency to stutter out a quiet 'thanks’ that you just shrug off. You instantly became way more than just 'cool’ in Toby’s book.

He wants to say so much more than thanks, like how you’re the first person to stand up for him besides his sister in a long time, and how pretty he thinks you are, but he keeps his stupid mouth shut and his head down. The two of you don’t talk again until a few days later.

There’s a substitute teacher that day, but they’re clearly not very good at their job considering the class is way louder than usual. Toby grits his teeth and just tries to focus on his worksheet, resisting the urge to clap his hands over his ears. Every noise- every high pitched laugh, every pencil thrown across the room, every scrapping of chair legs on the floor- seems to send him further towards a total breakdown, every one of his senses completely overloaded. He jumps when he feels a soft poke on his arm. You hold out your other earbud to him.

“Wanna listen?” You ask. He stares blankly for a moment, and he guesses that he waits too long to reply because after a moment you roll your eyes and hold out your hand a little further.

“Come on man, I don’t bite unless I have to.” You smile a little, and it takes him a second to realize you’re joking. He’s quick to react after that.

His heart pounds hard as he takes the earbud from you and jams it into his ear, trying not to think about your fingers brushing together for a split second. He spends the rest of class silently noting the titles and lyrics of songs on your playlist as they pass. He ends up listening to those same songs when he gets home, his mind replaying the encounter over and over.

The two of you could almost be considered friends after that. You share your earbuds with him frequently, you lower your voice and whisper comments or jokes to him occasionally and he always has to bite the inside of his mouth to keep from snickering too loud. At first you only talk about assignments and whatever book your class is reading but soon you’re talking about all kinds of things.

Toby notices a lot of little things about you around this time. You sit a little closer to him than before since your earbuds don’t reach that far, and you spend more time zoning out and doodling in class than you do paying attention. You say you hate english but he’s starting to think you just say that to have something to complain about, because you’re not nearly as bad at it as you claim to be.

Unbeknownst to Toby, you notice things about him too. He shies away when you get a little to close and his breath hitches when you poke at him or whisper to get his attention. Everyone seems weary or even scared of him but you quickly find out that he’s… kind of a dork. He likes to read and loves sci-fi and adventure stories and he blushes when you discover that he likes the occasional romance as well. He talks a lot when you get him going about a topic he enjoys and then gets bashful when he realizes just how long he was talking. He lives close to the woods and he loves being outside and has a strange amount of knowledge about the local flora and fauna. He apologizes too much and keeps his mouth shut tight when other people are around and his voice is naturally kind of soft even though he has a tendency to be louder than he thinks he is.

You like him. He’s sweet.

Toby still struggles with people in other classes and in the halls every-fucking-where else, but at the very least he has English with you.

The year passes quickly. Toby gets you a Christmas gift after the holiday break is over- a pair of new earbuds because you had texted him complaining about your current ones giving out and you feel bad because you didn’t think to get him anything. You buy some random candy since you don’t know what he likes and give it to him the next day and even though you feel like an asshole for not giving him a real gift he smiles at you like it’s the best thing he’s ever received and you silently vow to get him something better for his birthday..

You buy him a box of Valentine's chocolates but chicken out before giving them to him so you just lie and say that you got them from your mom and you share the kind of gross candies in the back of class and try not to let the shame show on your face. He gives you a pink frog plushie with a messed up eye and claims he got it because he thought it would make you laugh and it does. You really wish you’d just given him the stupid box.

You’re getting ready for bed a few days later when you get a text from him. You raise an eyebrow as you cross the room to your phone and look it over.

‘Need to get out of the house for a while. I was gonna wander around in the woods like a dumb teenager, wanna come?’

You roll your eyes. You imagine that if you looked out the window right now you’d spot Toby outside your house already. Your friend knew you had a hard time saying no to him and abused his power to no end.

'its a school night dummy.’

'and almost midnight’

‘Yeah… Anyway, how’s that science project that’s due tomorrow coming along for you?’

Shit. You totally forgot about that.

'asshole’

‘Haha. You could always skip and finish it tomorrow.’

'ugh’ ‘you let me forget on purpose’

‘You have no proof of that.’ ‘I’ll buy you an energy drink and snacks?’

'open with that next time. omw’

At least you were right about him already waiting for you. Toby grins at you a little and you punch him in the arm lightly once you’ve successfully climbed out of your window. True to his word, Toby buys you a Monster and teases you about your flavor choices.

“The original monster is fucking gross-” You say, scrunching your nose up at the very thought of it.

“It’s- It’s not that bad! You’re j-just a baby.” Toby argues back as he wanders down the aisles, grabbing whatever snacks and candies catch his or your attention.

“You’re not even supposed to drink Monster, loser.”

Toby shrugs, ducking his head and hiding his smile behind his hood. You wish he’d smile a bit more openly.

Toby pays the gas station attendant for your haul and the two of you start walking in the same direction as his house, wandering past it and into the nearby woods. You’re a little freaked out walking around the dark woods at night, but Toby seems totally at home. Although, he practically grew up in these woods, so you suppose it’s only fair.

“Why the fuck is it so cold? It’s spring.” You complain. You thought it’d be warmer and you’re practically freezing in your long sleeve shirt.

“It’s barely March.” Toby retorts.

“Whatever.”

“Wanna wear my jacket?” Toby offers, although he pales when you look up at him and he turns his gaze away. The dark hides his expression, but it’s pretty easy to tell that he’s embarrassed.

“Sure.” You answer, trying to sound casual. Before you know it you’re wrapped up in his jacket. It’s already a bit too big on him cause he’s way skinnier than he should be so it hangs off your frame and covers your hands. It’s nice, though you try not to think too hard about how much you enjoy wearing it, or how it smells like that awful body spray he uses that you can’t seem to complain about.

“You sure you’re not cold, though?” You ask.

“Eh. C-CIPA stuff makes feeling temperature we-weird anyway.” He shrugs. You forget sometimes that he doesn’t feel pain. The following silence is awkward and you’re still trying not to focus too much on the fact that giving someone your jacket is an inherently romantic gesture, so you decide to bully him a bit to take your mind off it.

“Where’d you even get this thing anyway? Who in the right mind sells a brown jacket with striped sleeves and a blue hood?” You ask and he snorts. You’ve made it clear before through teasing just how silly you find his jacket’s design to be. Toby rolls his eyes.

“W-Wasn’t always a blue hood. I fell out of a tree once and ripped the original h-hood on the w-way down. Lyra just took the hood off-off one of her old jackets and s-sewed it on.”

You roll your eyes and chuckle. He’s the only person you know that would have a story like that.

The two of you wander around together and talk, and as you walk you wonder what his reaction would be if you just reached out and held his hand. Too bad you’re too much of a coward to try.

As if on cue, Toby pauses in his tracks and reaches out to grab your sleeve. He tugs you gently in a different direction.

“Come on. T-This way.”

“Where’re we going?” You ask.

Toby glances over his shoulder at you, and you notice a hint of a smile across his face.

“There’s this o-old tower th-thing close by. I like hanging out there sometimes.”

Toby leads you into a clearing, and you find yourself in front of a tall red tower.

“What is this thing?”

“D-Dunno. I guess it use-used to be a climbing wall or something.”

You stare at some of the graffiti on the outer walls as Toby walks around to the other side.

“Come on!” He calls. You follow him around to the back of the tower and find that one side is open, allowing access to the inside. Caution tape and trash litters the ground inside and Toby is halfway up a ladder to the top.

“We’re climbing up…? This looks rickety as hell, man.”

“It’s fine,” Toby assures, pausing at the top to turn and look down at you. “I’ve climbed this thing pl-plenty of times.”

“I dunno…”

“Come on. D-don’t be a baby, it’s fine.” He teases and makes himself comfortable on the top of the wall.

“That’s exactly what the guy says to the girl before something really bad happens in a horror movie.” You argue, though you can’t fight back a smile as you climb up anyway.

“We’re not in a ho-horror movie though.” Toby says, taking your hand and helping you sit beside him. You sit close to him and your sides press together. You feel a surge of pride when you remember that he used to shy away from you a lot when you first met, but now you can casually touch like this with no issue.

You open and share snacks together, and you let Toby take a sip of your drink to see if he likes the flavor or not. You watch him raise it to his mouth and your brain screams something at you about an indirect kiss and you quickly shove that thought aside and stomp on it.

Sure, Toby is cute and he’s a good friend, but you don’t like him like that. Definitely not. Would you kiss the crap out of his stupid adorable face if you knew it wouldn’t scare him off? Of course. But that doesn’t mean you have some kind of lame crush on him.

“Ca-Can I… tell you something?” He starts, seeming a bit bashful all of the sudden. Your heart kicks into overdrive. Oh fuck, okay, maybe you we’re lying about not having a little bit of a crush.

“Of course.” You say, trying not to let your voice waver. He hesitates.

“U-Uh. N-Nevermind, actually! Heh.”

You raise a brow.

“Oh come on, what was it?” You ask.

“Ju-just!” Toby looks a bit panicked as he fumbles. “Um. Just thinking about th-that book I’m reading. I think I already told you about it though. D-Did I tell you about the main character and his friend’s fight?”

Even if you didn’t know Toby that well, you’d still know he was lying. He’s a pretty bad liar. Your heart sinks a bit but you don’t push the subject.

“Oh, yeah you did.” You say, a little disappointed. Toby rambles for a few minutes about his book and conversation continues easily enough.

“Oh!” Toby jumps, and suddenly turns to you with a big smile. “M-My sister is coming over this weekend!”

“Lyra, right?”

“Y-Yeah. She’s coming to visit f-from college.” He says, and he looks really happy. “Y-you should come over and meet her. She’d l-love you.”

That sentiment makes you feel warm inside. Toby speaks very highly of his sister, so you really hope she likes you.

“Sounds like a plan to me.” You say and Toby beams at you.

“You seem excited.” You smile and nudge him with your elbow.

“Y-yeah. She goes to school kind of far away, so it’s been a while sin-since I’ve seen her.” Toby looks away, his tone becoming a bit more serious. “F-for a long time I felt like Lyra w-was the only per-person who really cared about me… W-well. Until I met you.”

Your heart melts a little and you can’t resist letting your head thunk onto his shoulder. Toby stiffens, but makes no move to stop you.

“She sounds great, I can’t wait to meet her.”

Toby hums, and you sit together for a while longer until you realize it’s almost 3 am. You carefully climb back down the ladder, Toby following and you watch as he jumps down the last foot of ladder and lands on his feet with a soft thunk. You’re about to walk off before he catches your attention again.

“Oh! I-I almost forgot,” He says, then starts examining the walls, as if looking for something. “H-Here it is.”

You approach to see what he’s talking about, and you find a low section of wall with Toby’s name messily carved into it.

“Wanna carve something too?” He asks. You hum an affirmative and Toby withdraws a small pocket knife from his jean pocket and hands it to you.

“I’m not gonna question why you have a knife.” You say, chuckling tiredly as you knelt and began carefully carving.

“F-For protection, obviously.” Toby says, his tone teasing. “One of u-us has to keep us safe. Since we’re in a horror movie now.”

You roll your eyes and finish up your carving, moving aside so Toby could see it. You carved your own name underneath his, adding a plus sign between them. You watch him flush slightly, trying not to blush yourself.

“Now everyone will know we were here together.” You say, justifying yourself as you passed his knife back.

He walks you home and you reluctantly give his jacket back once you’re in your driveway. You’re about to climb back through your window when Toby speaks up.

“U-um…” He starts. You look back to see him rocking on his feet. He steps forward, and hesitates for a second before pulling you into a quick hug.

“T-thanks for hanging out with me. A-And-and for being my friend. Bye!”

Toby lets go and runs off before you can say anything back. You find yourself grinning from ear to ear as you slip into bed, quickly unlocking your phone and opening his contact.

'you’re welcome, loser <3’

You skip school the next day like Toby suggested, convincing your mom of a killer headache when she comes in to see why you’re not up. You imagine the eyebags from your lack of sleep help your case pretty well since she doesn’t make a fuss about it. You finish up some neglected work and waste the day away. It’s Friday, and you know Lyra is supposed to come into town today. You figure Toby will message you later about plans to meet up.

So you find it strange when you don’t hear from Toby at all that weekend. You feel a little down about it, but maybe Lyra just didn’t feel like hanging out, and he was probably busy with family stuff, so you don’t question it.

When he doesn’t show up to class on Monday, you figure he’s just spending more time with his family. Then, when two more days go by without seeing him or getting a text back, you worry that he got into a fight and got suspended or something. You’re properly freaking out by the time the week is up.

You’d only been to Toby’s house once before and that was only when all of his family was out of the house for the night. Other than that he was always kind of weird about you coming over. If you hung out outside of school it either had to be at your place or somewhere else. And now here you were, marching over to get an answer.

You notice a car in the driveway and hesitate. You didn’t want to risk interacting with his dad. Toby never told you any specifics, but he seriously hated that guy. You look up at Toby’s window and notice a shadow move across the curtains. He’s in there.

You don’t want to recreate a shitty teen movie and throw rocks at his window, and if texting him worked then you would’ve gotten an answer days ago. Using the railing of the porch, you haul yourself as quietly onto the roof outside his window as possible. Fuck, you really hope it’s him in there and not one of his parents or something. Gently, you knock on the glass. There’s no response for a minute, and you’re about to knock again when the curtains yank back and scare the shit out of you. You’re met with Toby’s shocked face on the other side, as if you both were equally startled by one another.

“Uhh… Hi?” You say weakly. Toby struggles to yank the window up and drags you inside. You stumble into his bedroom and his hands grip your biceps hard.

“What the fuck are you doing here?” He hisses.

“I was worried about you!” You snap, keeping your voice as low as his. “You’ve been out all week and you never- replied…”

Your anger completely melts away when you finally get a good look at the state he’s in. His arms and hands are bandaged up and his face is marred with little scratches and a nasty bruise beneath his eye. He raises an eyebrow like he has no idea why you’re looking at him like that. His breath hitches when you absentmindedly reach out and place a hand on his cheek, just below the bruise and rub a bit with your thumb.

“What happened to you?” You ask, softly. Toby suddenly jumps back, like your touch burnt him. His arms wrap tight around his chest and he avoids your gaze and you try not to be hurt by that.

“C-Car accident.”

“You were in a fucking car accident?!” You whisper-scream.

“I’m fine.” He insists. He doesn’t look fine to you at all. “S-Sorry I did-didn’t tell you. Ph-Phone’s been turned off for a few days…”

He glances at his nightstand and you follow his gaze to his phone, connected to the charger but the front is completely shattered. He probably just didn’t want to look at it.

Toby stays silent for a moment before speaking up again.

“Are you mad at me?”

“What? No- God no, Tobes, I was just worried. It’s okay, really. I’m sorry I freaked out and climbed onto your roof and knocked on your window.”

Toby finally grins a little at your remark, but it drops off his face quickly.

“…You should go. I don’t want my parents to know you’re here.” Toby herds you towards the window, and you go without any struggle. All you wanted was to see that he was okay, and you supposed you got your answer.

“Alright, alright, but you better text me later, okay?”

Toby smiles a little again, but it looks forced.

“Y-Yeah. I’ll try.”

You head back home, and you don’t get any texts. You spend the next few days in silent frustration while you’re still ignored by your friend. Maybe something else happened that he’s not telling you about? Sure, a car accident is traumatizing, but he seemed more or less okay? There has to be some other reason he’s avoiding you.

All it takes is a quick scroll through your local news site to find the obituary. Lyra Rogers. Your hands freeze on your laptop’s mouse in silent horror. Holy shit, his sister died in that crash. You’re suddenly overcome with sadness. Toby talked about Lyra a lot- about his cool older sister in college a few towns away who always looked out for him. You never got to meet her. Fuck, no wonder he’s been so distant.

Every ounce of frustration leaves your body and you slump over. You just accept that you’re probably not going to see your friend anytime soon. You consider giving him your condolences, but you don’t want to risk bringing it up and hurting him more. Besides, Toby’s never been one to want people’s sympathy or pity. You suppose he’ll reach out when he’s ready.

The next few days are sporadic. You get an apology text from Toby and he updates you about his condition, though he’s vague and only mentions that he’s going to see a doctor. You don’t get much else. English class is boring without him. Toby goes completely silent again.

You figure he just needs time to himself to heal, but you’re constantly worried about him in the back of your mind. One morning you’re passing through the living room while getting ready for school and you pause in front of the TV, your mother having left it on the news. Your heart stops mid beat in your chest.

Brutally murdered… fire… missing…

You feel bile rise in your throat and you slap a hand over your mouth to stop yourself from being sick, backing away from the TV. Tears flow down your cheeks. There’s no way this is real, right? Toby wouldn’t do that. Your Toby wouldn’t do that.

You quickly retreat to your room, ignoring your mother's shout from downstairs. You whip out your phone, foregoing your text messages and going straight to calling him. You need to hear from him, you need him to tell you that it was all a lie and that he was innocent.

Your first call goes unanswered, but the second goes through after two rings. You gasp a little and listen hard for a moment. You think you can hear breathing, the distant crunching of leaves.

“Toby?” You ask. The call ends immediately. The rest of your calls are unanswered. You resort to texts after a few minutes, hoping that he was at least reading them.

You skip school the next few days- you don’t want to hear what anyone else has to say on the situation, no one knew Toby like you knew him, and you can’t guarantee that you won’t lunge at someone for bad mouthing him. Although, you never thought Toby would kill someone either, so maybe you didn’t know him that well after all.

Your life feels like it's falling apart. You’re like a carnival ride violently swinging back and forth between the five stages of grief, jumping around like it’s fucking hopscotch.

You push yourself out of bed that weekend in a strange rush of determination. You were just making yourself more miserable by sitting around and wallowing in bed all day, you’re driving yourself crazy like that. Pushing past the want to just lay down again, you get dressed and decide to go on a walk. Maybe fresh air will make you feel better.

Without even trying, you somehow end up close to Toby’s house. For a second, you consider going up to the door and knocking, maybe talk to his mom a bit. You’ve never met her before, but Toby seemed fond of her. Maybe she’d let you, you don’t know, take one of his jackets to remember him by? Or was that way too weird?

You realize with a sinking feeling that Connie Rogers lost her daughter, son, and husband within the short span of a few weeks. She most certainly has more important things to deal with than some kid showing up on her door and asking to rifle through her son’s stuff. Maybe you could talk to her sometime, but not now. You push past and walk into the woods behind their house, wandering around until you somehow end up at the tower you visited with him only a few days ago.

You collapse into a heap and slump against the wall. The floodgates swing open and all your emotions come rushing out, and you let them.

You scream and cry without having to worry about anyone hearing you. You sob uncontrollably for a few minutes, then you curse Toby’s name and yell at him for tricking you into being his friend- then your brain makes you imagine what his face would look like if you had said that to his face and then you’re just sad again. You shrink in on yourself, crying and saying that you didn’t mean it. You don’t know why you bother saying anything to him out loud anyway, it’s not like he can hear you.

You wish he was dead, that they’d found a body after he escaped. At least then you’d know where he was. Then you could go to his grave and punch his headstone, or you could just sit there and talk as if everything was normal. But there’s no body, so there’s no grave. Knowing that he was likely alive out there somewhere is somehow more painful.

“You stupid jerk.” You say between disgusting, hiccupping sobs. You wipe at your face with your sleeve, trying to calm yourself.

If only you knew he was hiding up in a tree, a measly few feet away at the edge of the clearing, clutching at his chest as if it would keep his heart from clawing its way out.

#ticci toby #ticci toby x reader #toby rogers #toby rogers x reader #toby aaron rogers #lmk if theres spelling errors or smth im illiterate #this went way out of control lol this is so much longer than intended #my writing

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pparkerpoetry · 4 years ago

Text

Face Reality (Part 8)

Title: A Touch Too Close to Insanity (and the comfort of a family written in the stars)

Summary: The castle has fallen and so have the skies, but which one of them is the Atlas that keeps it up? Is it the traveler, who carries the burden of what was undone but is forever in his mind, or is it the one that, without, the world would have ended in fire long ago?

or, Ranboo picks up more strays. (ft. family fluff)

- Chapter One - Chapter Nine

Masterlist

So, Ranboo did his best to make sure that no one was alone for long. He could tell when people needed longer to gather their thoughts, but he made sure to intervene before they spiraled. He made sure to intervene before it was too late.

_______________

Ranboo didn’t like being alone. He doubted anyone else truly did, either. They might seek out a space of their own, they might avoid contact for a day, but in the end, they came back. The thing was, after all they’d been through, the line between alone and lonely was growing as thin as the good graces of the gods.

Sometimes this extended to people outside of his family, and sometimes, he was late. Not too late, but certainly overdue.

The sun was shining, and Ranboo had woken up with restless limbs. He needed to leave his room, he needed to leave this little hole in the wall. Not permanently, just for a break.

After he yelled out a goodbye to Sam and was answered back several times over, Ranboo took a stroll down memory lane in the form of a thin wood path that was worn and old. There were places where he had to step over rotting planks, and he didn’t entirely trust it, but the buildings that lined it brought him to a different time. He’d changed since then, so had his surroundings, and though he was happy, a part of him wished for simpler times.

Were they simple? Or was his mind just lying to him? He wasn’t sure anymore.

Ranboo paused at the end of a giant crater, the huge flag set at the bottom still waving. He managed a weak smile, and thought of the times that he hadn’t been a part of. Did the others miss those times? Or was his mind just coming up with reasons to pity himself? He wasn’t sure. He never had been.

He turned when his eyes started watering with the tears he’d never shed back then, and his eyes landed on a castle. The castle, he supposed. Eret’s. The beacons had long since stopped shining, and the walls were crumbling. No maintenance had been kept up, and it showed. It really was a shame that such a beautiful thing had fallen, but so seemed the theme of this story.

His legs moved without him telling them to, bringing him to the entrance. He walked past the towers that once had stood tall and proud, but now bowed to the power of wind and rain. The staircase that brought him to the castle was full of loose stones, and the grass was overgrown. He frowned at the state it was in. Hadn’t Eret been looking after it?

There were holes in the structure, as if there had been smaller explosions, or maybe just a really strong fist. Anger can change people.

Eyebrows furrowing, he raised a fist to knock on the door. Maybe someone was there.

The door swung open when he brought his hand down. A wave of dust flew into the air, making him cough. When he recovered from his coughing fit, he continued down the hall to the throne room, feeling as if he was intruding.

All signs should’ve pointed to something. That something was wrong, not completely conforming to the rest of the narrative.

Footsteps in the dust that was so thick they could only be recent. Dried drops of red on the stone. The lack of wildlife in the building when the entrance was open. And, if he listened hard enough, the ragged breath that could only be that of an injured human.

It took a while for Ranboo’s eyes to adjust to the darkness of the throne room. In the pitch black, he could almost see the ghosts of the memories running through the halls, laughter and chatter filling them with painful reminders of times that would never return. All he saw, though, was a crumbling throne. And, on top of it, a crumbling king.

“Eret?” He whispered, scared to get closer.

Eret, if that was who it was anymore, looked up. Their breathing was ragged and pained, their voice low and filled with emotion. “Ranboo?”

Ranboo walked closer, even daring to walk up the slight stairs to the throne to put a hand on Eret’s shoulder. “What happened to you?”

“What didn’t?” The laugh that followed was bitter and grateful at the same time. Bitter at what he’d done, grateful that everything had happened to him and not someone else. “Creepers, skeletons, other mobs. Myself. Time. No one cares about me anymore, Ranboo. The castle is dark. Nothing matters anymore. It used to be so beautiful, Ranboo, and now it’s all dark.”

The castle was dark, but as Ranboo looked into Eret’s eyes, it wasn’t the only thing. “What do you mean? Didn’t you get a fresh start after Dream was imprisoned? Tommy and Tubbo forgave you. They did a long time ago, I think.”

Eret let out a laugh that sounded a touch too close to insanity. She was still hunched over the throne that had stopped being a comfort a long time in the past, a curse remaining from times that had faded. “I was forgiven by everyone. Almost, at least. I was forgiven by everyone that mattered, anyway. I was forgiven by them, yes, but not by myself. And now? I pay the price for what I did.”

Ranboo moved closer, and he could see himself in the reflection. Not just in Eret’s tarnished crown, the metal showing his face and his concern. Not just in their eyes, that looked up at him, hopelessly, begging him silently for a reason to stay alive. Not just in their shaking body that brought him back to the panic room, but in his soul. Eret’s soul was dark and unmoving, a flame gone out. A flame that had once burned so bright that it brought the world down with it.

Maybe they weren’t so different, after all.

The hybrid held out his arms and gathered Eret into a hug, tightening it when his body began to shake with the emotion that years in isolation had kept him from showing.

“Tommy and I used to be so close. He’d make these stupid paper crowns that always got ruined in the rain, but he’d run back inside and make more. He followed me around. I like to think that we were like brothers,” Eret’s voice cracked. “But then I went and ruined it, for a title that was never even real in the first place. And then, in Dream’s cavern, he hid behind me first, and I thought that maybe we’d get back what we had. But I saw him with Techno. Sam. Tubbo. He didn’t need me anymore. I thought that he’d need me just as much as I needed him, but when I plunged a knife into his back, he was the one that healed it when I should’ve. He’d grown up without me, and he would never need me back as much as I needed him. It hurt.”

Ranboo hummed, but stopped when his hand hit something damp. He pulled his hand back and to his horror, blood stained the fingertips. “Eret? Are you alright?”

Eret cackled. “I never was, Ranboo. I never was. They all realized that when they stopped visiting, or they would’ve, if they’d bother to check on me. But they didn’t. I was a whisper in an orchestra of tragedy, and no one heard me. Why would they? Some part of me didn’t want their help anyway. It’d just hurt them- no, me- more.”

Ranboo slowly helped Eret up, trying to remain calm. Trying to hold together a facade that Eret would lean on. Trying to help someone that needed his help more than ever.

“C’mon, Eret. Let’s go home.” He walked past the dust, trying to kick up as little of it as possible.

They’d made it pretty far into Sam’s forest before Eret went completely limp. Ranboo tried to not let the panic seep into his bones, but he knew that this was bad. Very, very bad. He set Eret down so that he was peacefully laying on the ground, and he messaged Sam his coordinates.

Hurry. Eret injured.

Sam’s response was swift.

Omw. stay put

It didn’t take long, as Sam was true to his word. Together, they lifted Eret up and managed to get back to Sam’s base, but it took longer than Ranboo would have liked. But then again, he couldn’t be picky.

As much as he wanted to stay, Sam made Ranboo leave the medical room that had been constructed. Sam’s eyes held too much regret to be healthy. Ranboo followed his order.

He walked out to where some of the others were. Tommy and Tubbo immediately went up to him, claiming that Sam had made them stay out of the way and wouldn’t tell them what happened.

“It’s Eret.” Ranboo started, unsure of how they would take the news. “He’s uh… He’s been alone in the castle. Hasn’t forgiven himself for what happened.” He didn’t elaborate, but Tommy and Tubbo got the implication.

Tommy’s feathers fluffed up. “He’s been alone up there? I thought he’d left.” The unspoken ‘me’ at the end of the sentence echoed through the silence. No one had the courage to mention it.

Fundy sniffled. “I- me, too.”

Tommy sat down and put a wing around Fundy, wincing a little at the pull on his feathers, but staying. They stayed that way until Sam came in, hair sweaty and hands suspiciously clean, as if he was hiding something.

When Sam walked in, they stood up, asking if Eret was okay.

“He will be,” Sam started, “but not for a while. His wounds need to heal.” He didn’t mention how deep they were. Physical and mental.

Again, the hidden message was received. They were getting good at family communication, Ranboo mused.

Eret needed a reminder that he was needed, and if he got it in the form of a fox barreling into his chest and a protective wing around his shoulder the minute he was awake, no one mentioned it. They didn’t need to, Eret was already part of the family. Puffy nearly cried the first time she visited to see him. They’d been old friends from lands that had been forgotten in the minds of many, and they missed each other more than they’d care to admit. Even Niki teared up a little, and offered him a room at their house.

Eret was needed, and no matter how long it would take to convince them that it was true, they’d be there. No more would their love be lost to time, fated to be the wisps of a ghost wandering through the hall of a dark, abandoned castle with a crumbling throne.

_______________

Though he might not have realized it, Ranboo was gaining the odd little hobby of adopting strays. They were rarely animals, although there was the occasional bird or cat. But, no, they were mostly humans. Or at least, partially. Fundy, Eret, Purpled. It didn’t stop there, though.

He’d remember the day that he found this particular stray for years after it had passed into the horizon of time, his questions lost to the winds of destiny. Some of them were never answered.

Ranboo had another one of his itchy fits, which he was starting to think of as his sixth sense of someone in need. It’d been pretty accurate so far, but as he found his way to a gently rolling plains biome, there was nothing in sight. No one in sight. His itch had faded, instead replaced with a heavy feeling in his guts, keeping him there.

It was towards dusk when something actually happened. The wind picked up and it got chilly, then cold, then freezing. Ranboo stood up and backed away a little, and if he squinted right, he could’ve sworn that the air was blowing in a circle formation.

It was- there, it was getting clearer.

The colors started next, all purples and blues with hints of green and black. Ranboo realized a beat too late that it looked like a portal and therefore he should get out of the way more- instead, he was thrown down the hill in a tumble by the increasingly strong winds as he barely registered something (someone?) getting pushed out of the portal.

He stopped moving at the bottom of the hill and didn’t even bother getting back up before the winds had gone and all was peaceful again. Then, he climbed the gentle slope again.

He paused when he saw a lump on the peak, and froze more when it turned to look at him.

The brown hair was straggly and grimy, and the eyes told stories that his voice would never bear to tell. Ranboo recognized the hopeless look, but it wouldn’t occur to him until much later that it was the same look that had stared back at him in a water reflection back in the End.

“Karl?” Ranboo asked incredulously.

Karl lay there, too weak to do anything but sigh in relief.

Ranboo waited a moment for Karl to catch his breath before asking another question. “Are you okay?” It seemed the easiest of his questions to answer, but Karl still hesitated.

“I am now.”

If Ranboo was waiting for Karl to elaborate, he didn’t. At least, not then, but he did a bit later when he’d gotten the energy to sit up and look up at Ranboo.

“I’m a time traveler. D’you know that?” Ranboo wordlessly shook his head. It wasn’t the oddest thing to happen to him. “I can’t really control it, though. Not completely. I did what I could, though. Interfere to keep the worst things that might happen from actually happening. And, finally, I’m done. I can rest.”

Ranboo thought about that. “You knew I’d go to the End? Why didn’t you stop me?”

Karl hummed. “I actually didn’t. That’s unique to this timeline, but then again, so is this whole family you’ve got going on. There’s fragments of it across times, but nowhere as full and pure as this one.” Karl tried to look at Ranboo again, but flinched at the gaze of a red eye. “This is the best possible outcome, I think. Even if it has its faults.”

“Do you know what I’m going to do next? How do you know what timeline you’re in?”

Karl looked up at the sky, thinking of a white city and the shining books left there for him. “I just do, uh…”

“Ranboo. My name is Ranboo. I can’t really blame you for forgetting, because it’s me, but… are you sure you’re okay?” The hybrid squinted at the man that still sat on the grass.

The man chuckled. “I like to say so, but… I’m losing myself. I barely remember Quackity, and…” His eyes filled with horror. “Who’s the one with the white headband? The name? Why can’t I remember?”

“Hey, it’s okay.” Ranboo said, sitting down as well. “His name is Sapnap. What else do you not remember?”

So, they sat there until the sun started setting, talking about everything and anything. Ranboo couldn’t help but feel the urge to protect someone who had memory issues like he did, and Karl? Well, Karl knew just what Ranboo had been through and what he would’ve gone through if he hadn’t placed that inconspicuous purple and black book right where Tommy would find it.

They sat there until the stars showed their beauty, because the pair hadn’t had time to just rest and look at the sky in ages. Ranboo looked over eventually. Karl was looking tired, and if Ranboo was a time-traveling superhero, he would be, too.

“We have an extra room, if you want to rest.”

Karl smiled slightly, the lopsided grin looking odd on a face that had only known sadness and grief for so long. “Thanks, but no. I need to find Sapnap and Quackity. They’ve probably been wondering where I am, and I miss them.”

They both stood up and exchanged a hug. Ranboo sighed. “Well, don’t be a stranger. Bring them to visit sometime, too. You’re always welcome.”

They’d be parting there into opposite directions, but Karl paused to say one last thing. “Y’know, Ranboo? You’re the one thing keeping everything together. Without you, this world burned a long time ago.” Ranboo could see the flames in his eyes, and he knew that Karl wouldn’t lie. Not about that. “Just remember that. You’re important.”

With that, the two turned so their backs faced each other, and Ranboo made his way home. Sam was still up, waiting on him like a typical dad or older brother (he really was a mix of the two depending on who it was, wasn’t he?) would.

“Where’ve you been, Ranboo?” It was clear Sam was concerned, even though he could’ve messaged any time.

“I was chatting with Karl. Sorry, we got caught up with the conversation.”

Sam visibly sagged with relief. “Alright. That’s fine, I was just-”

“Worried?” Ranboo teased. “Okay, dad.”

It was said in a joking way, but it was the first of many times. The second person to call Sam their dad wasn’t surprising. It was Tommy, of course, said in the midst of a wing-preening session.

Tommy was purring, for when did he not, when his wings were involved? It just felt so nice-

Fundy laughed as Sam was preening Tommy’s wings. “Look at you! You just melt, awww.” It wasn’t said in a mean way, it was endearing and affectionate.

Tommy managed to get a hand up to flip Fundy off. “Fuck off, fox boy.” This was said a little more maliciously, but there was no heat behind it. Not when the words were slurred with sleep and happiness.

Our favorite enderman hybrid walked in next, and sat down by Sam to help with Tommy’s wings. They all fought over who would help, but no one bothered to take Ranboo’s place. Sam must’ve touched a part that was particularly sensitive, because Tommy leaned into the touch with a ferocity that knocked Sam down.

“Whoa,” Sam said. “That’s new. You’re getting stronger.”

“Of course I am,” Tommy mumbled, “I am a big-” Ranboo touched his wings again.

“A big what?” Ranboo asked, a grin finding its way onto his face.

“A big m-”

Ranboo touched the wings again, and laughed as Tommy trailed off into another purr.

Sam smiled affectionately. “You’re a big softie, that’s what you are, Tommy. All of you guys are.”

While the others tried to protest, Tommy didn’t bother. He just wanted his wings to be touched more. “Only… Only for you, dad.” He leaned back into Sam and promptly fell asleep, and didn’t even wake up when the room laughed at the ridiculousness of it all.

They all had a slumber party in the living room that night to watch a movie, and everyone got to take turns preening and petting Tommy’s wings. Eret looked overjoyed to be allowed to touch them, and at the end of it all, Tommy got distressed that he couldn’t cover everyone with his wings, so everyone crammed together so that he could as they watched a movie.

“Whose foot is that, digging into my side?” Fundy asked, poking it.

“Mine, stop.” Ranboo said. Then, “Ow, who's pulling my hair?”

“My bad.” Tubbo said. “I can’t see the screen.”

Sam ducked down. “Sorry.”

Puffy and Niki were fine, cuddling at the edges of Tommy’s wings while Eret was curled into the feathers closer to Tommy. Purpled had been apprehensive about joining the group, but Tommy’s distressed trill had convinced him, so he found himself stretched across everyone as he was the last to join.

And, in the middle of the chaos, Tommy purred loud and contentedly, wings stretched across his family. He radiated warmth, and everyone knew he wasn’t even watching the movie in his cuddly euphoria.

Miles away, there was a house with three others, close and safe. Karl smiled as he watched a fireplace crackle, and he knew that finally, he’d done something right. He was safe, and so was everyone else.

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zeetasposts · 5 years ago

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Hello, hello, hello! I loved your head canons about the warlords' ages and I wonder if you can write head canons of the warlords' profession, not in modern AU but the warlords deciding to go to the future with MC and well, the profession they would have!! Thank you so muuuuuuuuuch. 💕

Hi hi, love! 🌻Thank you sooo much for the ask! This is legit my third time writing this up, the first time I did this, I forgot to save the word file, and the second time my laptop crashed right after I finished writing it😭....... But finally, here it is🌻! I’m so happy you liked my HC, I hope you enjoy this one, and I hope you have a good day! ❤🔥

Headcanon: Warlords and their future jobs

Nobunaga

I think the second Nobunaga arrives in the future he would become a businessman

He would start off small from your apartment, but within the month he will turn into the biggest corporate leader, having thousands of people working under him

He would spend the first few weeks just chilling in the future with you but soon start to get bored

He would also, low key feel like its wrong for you to be supporting both of you

He does some research on stock trading and then starts playing around with your life savings

Good thing for you, Nobunaga is a clever man, and he manages to triple the money in a week by playing around on the stock market

He uses the income made, to start a small business, which soon starts growing at the speed of light

This man will not be able to work for someone so I can definitely see him being the CEO of his own company

He will be the ruler of the corporate world in no time

It’s pretty funny how in the span of a year he has earned the old name he once carried in the past “Devil king.”

Masamune

This is a no brainer

Obviously he will be a chef

I think he would start off small like finding a job at a local café but then soon take the culinary world by storm

It started off when the two of you went to eat at one of your favourite cafes

He enjoyed the food so much, he couldn’t help but pop into the kitchen to thank the chef (◕‿◕✿)

The kitchen was absolute mayhem and the chef had told him that he was very short-staffed

And that is how Masa got his first future job

He worked in the café for a few months picking up experience and learning to use all the futuristic equipment

From there, he bounced around from place to place learning all sorts of cool culinary techniques

I think at the end of the day he will most likely open his own restaurant

One that specializes in authentic Japanese cuisine

Hell I wouldn’t be surprised if he opened a branch of the restaurant in Nobunagas company

Mitsunari

I can see this cutie angel being a teacher or professor

I think he would be a great academic and educator

I can actually, see this boi being a professor teaching all sorts of subjects from statistics to the art of war ヾ(●ε●)ノ

The first few weeks of being in the future with you, he spends in the library absorbing as much knowledge as possible

One day while he is sitting and reading up on every and any subject, he overhears a group of struggling professors at a nearby table

Apparently they had been trying to solve a certain equation for months now but to no luck (ﾉಠдಠ)ﾉ︵┻━┻

Mitsunari walks up to the group and cheerily asks if he can be of some assistance (◕ᴗ◕✿)

Usually the group would just laugh and chase the random stranger away but desperate times…

They hand Mitsunari the equation and this clever boi takes one look at it and starts writing out the answer

The math professors were sister shook… Like he didn’t even freaken, need a calculator (◯Δ◯∥)

They legit offered him a job as a lecturer and he soon becomes the students’ favourite absent minded professor (◕‿◕✿)

I think he will most definitely also publish a few research papers as well and contribute to the body of knowledge in all sorts of subjects

Ieyasu

Also super easy he will either be a vet or a doctor although I am leaning more towards veterinarian cause of his love for animals

He will most likely join Mitsunari in university, cause he is a super-smart porcupine he will become a certified vet in no time

Also spends the first few weeks of being in the future at the library absorbing as much medical knowledge as possible

He gets the idea of becoming a vet after watching a bunch of animal rescue shows on the national geographic channel

While you are at work he starts volunteering at an animal rescue during the day to pass the time

That is where he met one of the vets that help out at the rescue in their free time, he legit liked Ieyasu so much he took him on as an apprentice, while Ieyasu was busy completing his studies

Later on he will most likely have his own veterinary practise

I honestly wouldn’t be surprised if he starts his own animal rescue on the side as well

Within two years the two of you move to live on a big plot with all yours and Ieyasus rescued pets

Hideyoshi

Hideyoshi could go one of two ways hehe

If Nobunaga comes to the future with yall then you best be sure this boy is ganna help Nobunaga rule the corporate world

Buuuut if it’s just the two of you, I 100% see him becoming a primary school teacher

Like he would just be so good with kids

He is basically trademarked as mama hen anyways, so why not put him in a primary school to teach lil chics

I think he would be such a good teacher, supportive, kind, and patient

He has enough practise lecturing Nobunaga for bad behaviour, so he might as well put that to good use correcting the behaviours of troublesome kids

He gets into teaching when your sister drops her kid off at your apartment to babysit

You had work, so the only one that could care for the child was, the mother hen himself

He sat and taught the little boy how to read and write, this impressed your sister so much that she recommended him for the position of substitute English teacher at her child’s school

At first Hideyoshi worked as a substitute teacher, but soon he became the designated aftercare teacher and within a few months he was teaching his own class

The children absolutely adored him although they would sneak behind the school building to eat candy cause, they didn’t want to get yet another lecture from Yoshi on the negative health consequences of their favourite sugary treats

Mitsuhide

100% detective (¬‿¬)

I mean can you just imagine how sexy he would look in a trenchcoat… like OMW (づ￣ ³￣)づ

The first few weeks of spending time with you in the future you introduce him to CSI and Law and order and he is super fascinated

You are so amazed by the fact that he can figure out who the perp is 5 minutes into the show

The crime in your neighbourhood was pretty bad, but since Mitsuhide’s arrival something crazy happened

The crime seemed to disappear.

Like no more robberies, no more drunks walking up and down the street, just peaceful quiet calm neighbourhood

One day as the two of you were buying snacks for your CSI bingeing session, two armed men came into the convenience store

You looked over at your lover who seemed completely unphased, like one of the robbers were legit pointing a gun in his face, yet Mitsuhide looked uninterested

Within a blink of an eye, Mitushide managed to disarm the men and tie them up

The police were hella impressed with the way Mitsuhide handled things

He helped the police department solve a few petty crimes in your neighbourhood and soon they started calling him up, to help them crack some difficult cases

After a while he becomes the most famous and popular detective in town

The government low key recruits him as an agent to help them

Kenshin

Again I don’t see Kenshin working for anyone

I think the first few weeks the two of you arrive, bunnies start following him around

Looks like the bunny lord is never safe from the love of the cute fluffy creatures

The two of you will definitely be living on a bunny farm

Kenshin, although he doesn’t admit it, has a soft spot for the cute fluffy creatures

So the bunny farm is actually more of a bunny rescue although that’s just his part-time job

As he adapts to the future, I can see the farm transforming into being a bunny and sake farm

Lol Kenshin loves Sake so much

He knows how good sake should taste, so naturally he starts to make his own and sell it

This starts one day when a friend of yours invites the two of you to a sake tasting

The instructor was so impressed with Kenshin’s keen sense of taste that they got to talking and before Kenshin knew it, he had two people willing to sponsor him, to start his own sake brand

Naturally he never backs down from a challenge

He actually goes on to become the largest Sake producer and bunny rescue

Yukimura

I can legit see this boy doing something active like being a firefighter or gym instructor- cause lets be real this boi is ripped

Or actually maybe both

The first few weeks of being in the future he managed to save 2 peoples lives by fearlessly running in a burning building

The firefighters were legit so impressed they decided to take him on as an intern

He got some of the perks, i.e. free gym membership to stay fit

That’s when he started giving out a few pieces of advice to the people around him

“Like seriously dummy, don’t you even know how to do a proper squat, u legit ganna hurt your back if ya keep doing it like that.”

The members of the gym appreciated his advice so much, some of them started paying him to become their instructor, and soon the gym decided to hire him part-time

Now when Yuki isn't running into burning buildings saving people he is training people in the gym

Best be sure he is gonna drag you to the gym with him

Shingen

Hehe I’ll admit I’m not too sure what this boi would get up to in the future

I think the first few weeks will be spent with you just adapting and getting to know everything

I think he would continue on with his carpentry

He kinda starts to notice your apartment is furnished in super cheap furniture

You tell him you are just a student in this time and don’t really have money to buy anything fancy

He buys a few cheap pieces of wood and starts furnishing your apartment with the most beautifully crafted furniture

Some of your friends visit the two of you and notice the remarkable craftsmanship and start commissioning him to make them some furniture

After a while he becomes the best carpenter in town

Goes on to open up a shop selling the different furniture he makes

I can see him hiring people in need, and that need a fresh start and then teaching them the trade to be able to make something of themselves

I can also see him volunteering at rescues and fostering bear cubs cause he misses his so much

I hope you enjoyed this dear and thanks again for the ask! ❤❤🔥🌻

169 notes · View notes

renaerys · 5 years ago

Text

PPG One-Shot: Back At You (Butch/Buttercup)

A T-rated Greens one shot I did for our resident gothic heroine @avesthetea over on AO3! 💚

A heartfelt shoutout to the Instagram clown cult. Y’all know who you are and how much you inspire me to chronicle Brick’s eternal suffering in new and creative ways. It’s what we do.

Summary: When Buttercup's birthday planning falls apart at the last minute, the last person she would ever expect offers his help (or horror, depending on your perspective).

xxx

Buttercup’s phone buzzed on the nightstand by her head, and she jerked awake. Swallowing the bitter sleep taste, she wiped her mouth and fumbled for the phone. Head still buried in the pillow, she answered: “What time is it?”

“Time to get your ass to the precinct,” said Ty, her partner at the Citiesville Police Department. “Chief Foolery’s all hands meeting starts in twenty minutes. Tell me you’re not still asleep.”

Buttercup sprang up on her elbows and checked the time on her phone. Shit, she was going to be late. “Shit, I’m going to be late!”

“Girl, that’s what I’m tellin’ you—”

“Gotta go, bye!” Buttercup hung up the phone and would have launched out of bed if not for the arm that slipped around her waist and pulled her back down.

“Five more minutes,” Butch grumbled.

Buttercup lost her balance and ended up with her bare back flush against his equally bare chest. His breath was hot on the back of her neck where he pushed his nose among her loose black hair. “Butch, I have to go,” she said in a warning tone.

He chuckled, and it sent a thrill of heat down her spine and under the covers, where he pushed a knee between her thighs. “Why go when you could come?” The arm he’d looped around her waist traveled low beneath the sheets.

Buttercup groaned at his crass joke and caught his wrist before he could carry out the threat. “Because if I’m not at CPD headquarters in twenty minutes, Foolery’s going to pop a hemorrhoid—”

Butch flipped them over with his Super speed, and her back hit the mattress beneath him. He loomed over her, those green eyes acid-bright in the early morning sunlight streaming through his bedroom window. Her traitorous gaze raked up his chest, over the shadow of stubble on his jaw, and settled on those fast darkening eyes as he admired her in turn. But the moment he bent down to kiss her, she slipped out from under him in a flash of green and darted across the room. In a matter of seconds, she’d pulled out a spare change of clothes from the lone dresser drawer he’d cleared out for her use.

“Leaving me hangin’? For real?” Butch complained as he flopped back down among the sheets with a yawn.

“You’ll live. But I won’t if I’m late for this fuckery.” She dressed quickly in dark jeans and a button-up blouse before heading to the connecting bathroom Butch shared with his daughter, Brisa.

“Missin’ out!” Butch called from the bedroom.

Yeah, Buttercup thought as she combed through the tangles in her hair with her fingers and ran the water to brush her teeth. A knock on the door interrupted her morning ablutions, and Brisa entered through her bedroom door.

“G’morning,” she said. Her brown hair was a frizzy mess, and she clutched a stuffed purple Pretty Puff Pony under one arm.

Despite her haste to get out of there and jet to work, Buttercup spared the little girl a soft smile. “Morning, kid. You’re up early.”

Brisa grinned wide. “I couldn’t sleep.”

Buttercup’s smile fell immediately. “Did Butch sneak you that second chocolate bar after dinner last night? Goddamnit—Butch!”

“What, change your mind?” he called. “I knew you couldn’t leave before climbing my morning wood.”

Brisa made a face like she was going to ask, and Buttercup slammed Butch’s bedroom door shut. “Never mind. Let me guess, you were too excited to sleep because today’s your birthday, right?”

Brisa blinked up at her and smiled, her questions forgotten. “Yeah! Oh my gosh, we’re gonna have so much fun!”

Buttercup chuckled and ruffled her messy hair. “For sure. But first, I have to go to work.”

“You’ll be back for my party, right?”

“One hundred percent.”

“Pinky promise?” Brisa held out her little finger.

Buttercup hooked her pinky around Brisa’s. “I promise. Now go get dressed and brush your teeth. I’ll check on your dad.”

“Okay!”

Buttercup breezed through the bedroom, chucked Butch his sweat pants with a cautionary “Hide your dick,” and flew out of her paramour’s two-bedroom apartment in downtown Townsville just as Brisa came bursting in excited to start the day.

xxx

The morning was a complete waste of time, and a bitter part of Buttercup lamented not skipping out in favor of staying in bed with Butch.

“Well, at least nobody died today,” Ty said as he and munched on his doner kebab lunch to go. “Yet.”

Buttercup sucked down half of a water bottle after scarfing down her own lunch. They had stopped at the food truck parked a couple blocks from the precinct, opting for a quick fix as they watched oblivious pedestrians lost to their Air Pods. “Welcome back to active duty, Mr. Brightside.”

Ty chuckled, low and deep. After a few months of healing and rigorous physical therapy, his legs were completely healed and he’d finally been cleared for work that didn’t involve pushing papers at his desk. Once more standing tall with the sun shining off his bald head, Buttercup could not have been happier to have her partner back to his old self by her side.

“You bring it outta me.” Ty winked.

“You ready to head out?” she asked, tossing her wrapper in a corner trashcan. Traffic was shit as usual midday on a Saturday, but they had time before Brisa’s party was slated to start.

“Sure. Lemme just text Melanie.”

Buttercup figured she better catch up with Butch while she waited for Ty and make sure he was on the ball.

[Buttercup: Did you pick up the cake?]

After a few seconds, he replied.

[Butch: Omw with B. You still on clown duty?]

Buttercup groaned at the reminder.

[Buttercup: Can I just say he died and couldn’t make it?]

[Butch: Sure, if you want to crush B’s hopes and dreams 💔😈]

“Kill me.”

“What’s wrong now?” Ty asked.

Buttercup pocketed her phone and led the way to the precinct parking lot where Ty’s car was parked. “Just grappling with some casual childhood trauma coming back to bite me in the ass.”

Ty side-eyed her. “Which one?”

“Ha ha.”

They made it to his red hatchback, and Buttercup slipped into the passenger seat.

“This about Brisa’s birthday party?” Ty asked.

Buttercup groaned again and tugged at her loose hair. “Of all the things, a clown? I thought they were universally considered nightmare fodder for kids these days.”

“Speakin’ of which, I think I remember a psychotic clown attacking Townsville back in the day.”

“You remember correctly.” Buttercup glowered out the window as Ty eased them into traffic toward the Golden Bay Bridge. “But it was the one thing she said she just had to have because some other dumb kid in her class got one for her party.”

“Ah. Six years old and already the social food chain’s tuggin’ on her.”

“Whatever. I never cared about that shit when I was a kid.”

Ty smiled to himself. “Uh-huh.”

Buttercup resigned herself to her unfortunate fate and dialed the company she’d previously contracted to rent a clown for the afternoon. After about five minutes on the phone, she hung up.

“What was that all about?” Ty asked. “Problem?”

Buttercup stared straight ahead as the Golden Bay Bridge’s suspender cables passed her by. “The clown died.”

Ty laughed.

“Ty.” Buttercup looked directly at him. “The guy got hit by a bus on his way to work today and he died.”

Ty shut up. “Oh, uh… Shit.”

A pause.

“I mean, is there another clown, or…?”

“I don’t fucking know,” Buttercup snapped. All she could think of was how Brisa was going to be so upset that the one goddamned thing she had asked for wasn’t going to happen because there was no time to book a new party clown on such short notice on a Saturday.

When Ty shifted in his seat, the leather squeaked loudly in the fuming silence he wisely chose not to break, until he did. “So, should I—”

“Just drive. I’ll think of something…” Buttercup said as she pulled out her phone and tried not to completely lose her shit as she dialed the one person who always seemed to know what to do in a crisis.

“Hey, Blossom,” Buttercup said gravely after her sister picked up. “I think I need some help.”

xxx

When Buttercup and Ty parked in front of her childhood home, guests had already begun arriving. Bubbles was outside greeting people and directing them to the backyard for the festivities. When she spotted Buttercup and Ty, she waved. “Hey, there you are!”

“Have you seen Blossom?” Buttercup asked.

Bubbles pushed up the sleeves of her chunky lavender sweater and looked around. “I think she and Princess were setting up the piñata. Is everything okay—”

Buttercup dashed to the backyard in a blaze of green, leaving Ty to make his way inside at a more sedate pace. The backyard was already teeming with people. Brisa was playing tag with her best friend Richie and a few other kids, while Boomer stacked presents on a table by the back door. Mike and Robin led the day drinking charge by pouring out sangria for the adults and juice for the kids. Buttercup nearly crashed through the green tissue streamers criss-crossing the enclosed backyard in her haste to locate her sister, who was in fact stringing up a red monster-shaped piñata with Princess Morbucks. Or rather, Blossom was doing all the work while Princess held two glasses of bloody sangria and provided live commentary.

“Whoever invented piñatas had the right idea is all I’m saying,” Princess said as she sipped her drink. She was annoyingly chic as usual in designer jeans, dark boots, and a purple silk blouse that probably cost more than the pittance Buttercup’s government paycheck brought in every month.

“You think so?” Blossom said, floating near a high branch so she could toss the suspension rope over it.

“Of course. You’re rewarded with candy for smashing the shit out of your mortal enemy. What could be better than that?”

Blossom grinned. “Mortal enemy in effigy.” She patted the red monster’s snout. “But you’re not wrong.”

“Obviously.” Princess handed her back her sangria, and they shared a knowing laugh.

“Blossom,” Buttercup said.

Blossom smoothed the front of her navy skirt as she turned toward Buttercup. “You’re here. Everything all right?”

Buttercup eyed Princess watching them. “I was going to ask you the same thing. Any progress on the clown front?”

“I’m sorry, the what?” Princess asked.

Blossom’s pink eyes softened, and she put a hand on Buttercup’s shoulder. “I took care of it, don’t worry.”

“Wait, really? How? I called five other rental companies, but everything’s booked solid.”

Blossom’s smile turned devious. “Trust me. Brisa’s going to be very pleased.” Buttercup wanted to argue, but her sister squeezed her shoulder in a silent entreaty. “Just enjoy the party. Boomer, Bubbles, and I have everything under control.”

“Speaking of control,” Princess had her phone out when Blossom turned back to her, “where is that prima donna? He’s not answering any of my texts.”

“Brick’s running a little late,” Blossom said as she led Princess away. “Wardrobe malfunction…”

Their voices faded to the background as Buttercup watched them. Two peas in a fucking pod, and she still didn’t really get what Blossom saw in Princess. If Princess hadn’t played such an integral part in things a couple months back, she would never have given the woman a second thought beyond “Hard pass.”

People, however, had a tendency to surprise when it was down to the wire.

“Heads up, Buttercup!”

Buttercup automatically caught the child hurtling through the air like a tossed water balloon before he could crack his head open.

“O-Oh! Hi, Buttercup,” said Richie, meek and curled in on himself like he’d forgotten he was no longer fragile.

Brisa came dashing over. “Nice catch!”

Buttercup peeled Richie off her and dropped him flat on his ass in the grass. “Brisa, don’t yeet your friends. Bubbles will have an aneurism if she catches you.”

Brisa blushed, abashed. “Sorry…”

Buttercup cracked a smile and winked, and Brisa lit up.

“I’m okay!” Richie, Super resilient, hopped onto his feet and shook out his fluffy blond hair. “Um, does this mean I’m ‘it’ now?”

“No, I wanna play with the clown!” Brisa announced.

Buttercup’s face fell. “Uh, about that…”

Brisa blinked up at her. “He’s coming to my party, right?”

The flicker of doubt that passed through Brisa’s big brown eyes cracked Buttercup’s cold stone heart. She struggled for the words to let her down gently, because whatever Blossom had managed to put together so last minute wasn’t going to be the colorful surprise Buttercup had gone out of her way to book and customize a month in advance.

A round of squeals from the other kids across the yard drew her attention, where they had gathered around Mike at the garden door. “Okay, settle down, kiddos! He’s a little shy. Now, where’s the birthday girl at? Hey, Brisa!”

“C’mon, Brisa, let’s go,” Richie said, tugging on her hand.

But she held her ground and didn’t budge. Buttercup wanted to die.

“Brisa, look,” she began.

The door behind Mike slid open, and out stepped what Buttercup could only describe as her personal revenge fantasy gone morbidly wrong. Brick had never looked so sour in his life.

“Oh! Uh, ta-da!” Mike said hastily as he stepped aside for the person formerly known as Brick until his murder by dishonor.

His steps squeaked in his oversized red shoes, and the striped red and yellow overalls he wore over a polkadot shirt ballooned out at his legs. He looked like a tropical bowling pin. He looked fucking absurd.

“It’s Flameo Hotman! Say hello, kids,” Mike said.

Brick shot Mike a scathing glare that may have incinerated him where he stood if the tiny party hat and enormous red clown nose didn’t ruin the effect. “The hell it is.”

Buttercup had no problem averting her eyes from the literal clownery to focus on Brisa, who was still staring and petrified. Oh shit, oh fuck, she was upset and it was Buttercup’s entire fault—

“Uncle Brick?” Brisa blurted out.

Brick’s lurid eyes passed over Buttercup and landed on Brisa. If Buttercup hadn’t been looking right at him, she would never have believed the way they softened just a little. He pursed his lips and lifted his elastic-tied party hat off his short red hair. It snapped back in place when he let go. “Happy birthday, Brisa.”

Brisa immediately dashed out of Richie’s grip in a sprint too fast to be human and body slammed Brick where he stood. With a grunt, he managed to catch her and keep his balance as she hugged him tight around his inflated waist and laughed. “You look so funny!”

Brick coughed. “Yeah, that’s sort of the point…”

The other kids took that as their cue to also mob Brick, and soon he was adrift in a sea of grubby hands and demands for balloon animals and magic tricks. Buttercup could not believe her eyes. She could hardly remember the last time she saw Brick dressed anything other than to the nines, and now…

“Fuck me,” she wheezed, too stunned even to laugh, it was that heinous.

“Pretty good, huh?” Bubbles sidled up to her with a wrapped present for Brisa under her arm.

Buttercup swallowed hard. She didn’t trust her voice as she watched Brick—Brick—snap at Brisa’s friends to line up in an orderly fashion if they wanted their faces painted, and no cutting the line or there would be consequences.

“The costume’s a little janky, but I didn’t have a lot of notice when Blossom told me we needed something colorful for him to wear,” Bubbles went on.

“Why?” Buttercup croaked. She turned to her baby sister, who seemed totally nonchalant existing in a universe where the selfish clown Blossom had chosen to keep for reasons Buttercup could not sympathize with deigned to dress as a literal fucking clown.

Bubbles slipped her hand in Buttercup’s and squeezed affectionately as they watched Brick paint the requested unicorn on Richie’s face as seriously as if it were a goddamned Monet. “I think this is his way of trying,” she said.

Buttercup would never forget that day two months ago when Butch asked her to come over after Brick had broken down and apologized to Boomer and him and all he wanted to do was break something, to feel it shatter in his hands, so why not her, who couldn’t break? That fight had been one of their most brutal, even compared to their rows in high school in the throes of raging hormones exacerbated by Chemical X.

They hadn’t spoken as they rinsed the dirt and sweat from each other after—Buttercup had been worried about setting him off again after he had settled into some sort of quiet serenity with his fingers in her hair, pulling the tangles out under the warm water like an artist honing his craft. Those hands were always working, always looking for something to crush.

“You ever love someone, but you don’t like them?” he’d asked her as she wrung the water from her hair and he stared at his hollow-eyed reflection in the mirror.

Buttercup was pulled from the memory when Blossom came out of the house to snap pictures on her phone of the kids with their painted faces, a bright smile on her face as Brick continued to ignore the entire world and focus on his task with surprisingly minimal complaint. Buttercup supposed that if anyone could dress like an ass-backwards buffoon and maintain some pretense of dignity, it was Brick.

“Yeah, I guess,” she said at length. She squeezed Bubbles’ hand back.

He’s trying something, all right.

xxx

“I want a dog, please!” asked a snot-nosed kid inexplicably dressed in a full dinosaur suit.

Butch watched Brick from the picnic table he’d plopped down on with a cold beer and three entire pizza boxes set aside entirely for Boomer and himself.

Brick frowned so deeply he looked like he was trying to pass a hardened turd. Wordless, he blew up a long red balloon, tied it off at the end, and handed it to the little boy. “Here.”

The kid accepted the unfolded balloon with quizzical look. “Huh? This isn't a dog.”

“Yeah, it is,” Brick said. “It’s a hot dog.”

“But that’s not what I asked—hey!” The kid squealed when Brick squirted him with water from the rubber flower on his overall strap.

“Next,” Brick said in a tone that promised medieval torture.

Cowed, the dinosaur kid slumped away with his shitty balloon, and the next little girl in line made her request.

“It had to be a bet,” Butch said grimly as he watched his brother pawn a “magic wand” on the little girl who asked for a monkey. She trudged off with the unfolded purple balloon and look in her eyes like she’d seen the hidden darkness of this world.

Boomer shrugged and swallowed a bite of pizza. He had his back to Brick, but he spared a glance over his shoulder. “I don’t know.”

“I mean, he’s gotta know the pictures will live on forever. This is unlimited blackmail.”

That got a little chuckle out of Boomer. Butch ruffled his bangs too roughly to be entirely affectionate, and Boomer swatted him away. “Dude, my hair.”

“Want me to get you a balloon dick?”

Boomer’s gaze flickered to him, and for a moment Butch was transported back twenty years to Mojo’s Observatory. He and Boomer were sometimes left by themselves while Mojo and Brick tinkered in the old man’s lab well into the night with nothing to do and no one to talk to but each other. On nights like that, Butch didn’t really mind it when Boomer crawled into his bunk and fell asleep there. The room always felt a little colder and darker without Brick there.

“I’m fine,” Boomer said.

Butch searched his eyes, blue and expressive and always shining like he might cry or laugh. He had always envied Boomer that ability to project, to offer a connection, even if it was only pain. He’d always been good at that.

“Really,” Boomer added, hardening his gaze like a fucking mind reader. “I’ll be fine.”

“Yeah.” Butch wondered how long it would take for that to be true. “You know, it’s been a couple months—”

“Butch,” Boomer said, cold like he never was.

Butch hopped off the table and put a hand on Boomer’s shoulder. “It’s been a couple months, but it’s not a race. There’s no finish line to cross.”

Boomer chuckled, but it sounded kind of like a wheeze. His hand was cool on Butch’s where he squeezed him. “Thanks, Butch.”

Butch patted his back. As he was leaving, heard Boomer call, “Make mine blue.”

Butch chuckled. “Sure.”

Fucking sap.

At least Butch wasn’t the only one.

He made his way to the terrace, where Brick was set up with balloons and the face painting station. When Brick noticed his brother waiting in line, the balloon he was inflating went up in flames and disintegrated to ashes, leaving him looking as flushed as his stupid clown nose.

“I’m out of balloons, kids. Go dig a hole or something,” he said to the remaining two children.

“Huh? But there’s a whole bag—” one little boy with enormous glasses started to say.

Brick fired his laser eye beams at the bag of balloons and blew it up. “What bag?”

The kids stalked off in a sulk, and Butch sauntered up to the chair Bubbles had brought out from the kitchen table.

“Bitch move,” he said, plopping down. “I promised Boomer I’d bring him a blue cock, made special with love.”

“Uh-huh,” Brick said. He watched Butch with those shifty red eyes like he might lash out and attack him.

Amused and a little nervous, Butch sank into the chair with much bravado and man-spreading. “Paint me like one of your French girls.”

Brick narrowed his eyes, but he picked up the paints and sat down in the opposite chair without a word, until: “What do you want?”

“I dunno, something cool. A rocket ship.”

Silence. Brick leaned in close to apply the paint with a thin brush, meticulous and anal like he was with everything he did. Butch didn’t have to see his face to know he was concentrating way too hard.

“I can feel the vibrations of you clenching your asshole from here,” Butch said. “Relax.”

“I’m relaxed.”

“Fuck off.”

Brick put down the brush. “If you keep talking, this is going to turn out shitty.”

Butch shut up. Brick resumed painting.

After a moment, Butch closed his eyes. There was something soothing about the soft scrape of the brush against his cheek. Behind his eyelids, he saw a much younger version of Brick covered in paint and grinning fiercely, king of the world, until Butch hit him with his paintball gun right in the kisser. Green paint exploded everywhere, and Boomer fell on his ass laughing. Brick angrily wiped the paint from his eyes in a goopy mess and lobbed it back at Butch, who was too far gone to care. Rolling on the grass and covered in paint, he couldn’t remember a happier afternoon spent with his brothers and Mojo. At least, not until Brisa came along.

Butch sucked in a breath as he opened his eyes and dispelled that trance-like memory. Brick didn’t even snap at him when he turned his head to look right at him. His face was pinched: his mouth too thin and his eyes too wide as he waited for another pot shot to the face.

“You look stupid,” Butch said.

“I know,” Brick said.

“Really fucking stupid.”

Brick’s eye twitched. “I know.”

“Thanks.”

Brick swallowed. “It’s her birthday.”

“Yeah, but I’m your brother. So thanks.”

It was not often that Brick was flabbergasted, but the dude looked like someone had just grabbed him by his oversized red nose. Butch burst into a sly smirk and did just that. To his sadistic satisfaction, it squeaked when he squeezed it.

“Honk honk, motherfucker,” Butch said.

It took Brick all of two seconds to ditch his bewilderment and swat Butch’s hand away. “Shit head.”

“Clown.”

To Butch’s immense surprise, Brick let him have the last word. Well, damn. He chuckled and leaned back in the chair so Brick could finish painting his cheek. Two months and he barely saw the guy on purpose, and now this.

“I’m burning every picture Blossom took today,” Brick said at length.

Butch chuckled. “You forgot about the cloud.”

“I’m burning that too.”

“Now you’re just being a whiny bitch.”

“Wipe Bubbles’ phone and I’ll pay you.”

“Eh, maybe just grab a beer sometime.” It came out so naturally that he didn’t even think about it. Brick, too, was taken aback. The more he saw it today, the less Butch liked that surprised look in his older brother’s eyes. It was fucking weird. “Seriously. It’s been a minute.”

Brick didn’t move. He didn’t even breathe. “Yeah, cool.”

“Cool.”

Cool.

“Hold on, almost done,” Brick said, and grabbed Butch’s chin to turn his face.

Butch’s eyes found Brisa running around with a large, green balloon crown on her head and her cheeks painted with rainbows, and his gaze softened. It was almost time for cake.

“Done,” Brick announced.

Before Butch could reply to that, there was a small commotion at the backyard gate with Bubbles, who followed a very short, very hairy monkey inside.

“Grandpa Mojo?” Brisa stopped playing with her friends to greet the old monkey. He had a box with a green bow on top so perfectly wrapped a department store may have done it. His arms were rigid as they held it out and Bubbles hovered just behind him, watchful.

“Good afternoon, Brisa. I have procured you a gift to celebrate, rejoice, and otherwise partake in various forms of merriment on this day of your birth, which is to say, your birthday, thus, the day you were born.”

Nearby, Blossom paused picking up trash with Robin to eye Mojo askance, nonchalant in that low key frightening I-will-blow-your-dick-off way she had. Buttercup was chatting away with Mitch Mitchelson and Clara Clearly, but she too had eyes only for Mojo.

Brisa blushed cutely, suddenly shy. “Thank you.” She accepted the gift and looked between Mojo and Bubbles. “Um, will you stay for cake?”

Mojo’s green skin turned a ghastly shade of pink. It took a Butch a moment to realize he was blushing. He was sure he had never seen Mojo blush before.

Mojo cleared his throat. “I do not eat cake,” he said with finality.

“Oh…” Brisa clutched her new gift to her chest.

“But, I suppose… I could sample a beverage while I am here. A guest ought not turn away hospitality when it is offered.”

Brisa just smiled brightly and reached for Mojo’s crusty old paw. “I have juice. Oh! And you have to stay for the piñata. Have you met Richie? He’s my best friend in the whole world!”

“I do not think—” Mojo lost his words as he was pulled along by his Super granddaughter whether he liked it or not.

“Hey.”

Brick’s hand on Butch’s shoulder exerting Super pressure made him looked down at his hands, which sparked with green power. He clenched his fists and fizzled it out.

“You good?” Brick asked, low and grave.

Butch sniffled. “Yeah, I’m good. Habit.” He paused, then: “I invited him. Boomer said it was fine.”

Brick nodded. “Okay.”

Butch’s stupid heart clenched. “I meant to text you—”

“Blossom told me. It’s fine, drop it.”

He should have dropped it. Two months ago he would have, happily. What the fuck did it matter now when it never had growing up? But that was two months ago. “Don’t fucking do that.”

Brick frosted over and got up. “Do what.”

“Hey.” Butch grabbed him by his ridiculous overalls. “You and me. No girls. Battle and beers, like the old days.”

Brick was a cold hard bastard, but even he had his cracks, and right now he broke like an egg, slack-jawed and lame.

“Tomorrow,” Butch said.

Brick nodded numbly. “Tomorrow.”

Butch smirked and got up to leave, but Brick’s voice stopped him one last time.

“Thanks, Butch.”

“Sure.”

“Tell Boomer it’s a consolation.”

“Huh?”

But he got nothing more out of Brick once Blossom and Princess showed up.

“Oh. My. God. Wait, let’s take a selfie.” Princess managed to get her arm around Brick’s neck, but he snatched her phone before she could take a picture.

“No fucking way, Princess,” he said.

Blossom grabbed his chin and kissed him right there, shameless. It was enough to distract him so Princess could reclaim her phone. “You know, I kind of like you as a clown.”

“I don’t.” Princess managed to snap a picture of Brick and Blossom. “But you’re pulling off the striped overalls, I have to say.”

“Burn that.” Brick advanced, but Blossom pulled him back with a laugh.

“Why so serious, Brick?” she teased.

Princess stuck her tongue out at him.

Butch left them to their childish shit; it was time for cake, and he had a brand new six-year-old to impress.

xxx

Buttercup was having a surprisingly good time. Between pizza with Butch and Boomer, hanging out with her sisters, and the everlasting memories that were clown Brick saved to her iCloud where he would never find them, today was turning out surprisingly well. Butch caught her eye across the yard and gestured inside, so she excused herself from the conversation with Ty and his sister to followed him.

He was in the kitchen when she found him.

“Hey, doll. Cornering me for dirty kitchen sex?” he teased.

Buttercup laughed at the sight of him, two percent bravado and ninety-eight percent imbecile. “Let me grab you a glass of water for that thirst.”

The cake he’d bought sat in a box in the fridge with Brisa’s name scribbled on the lid. Buttercup brought it out and set it on the counter. Then, she hunted for the colorful party platter Bubbles kept for special occasions.

Butch’s arms slipped around her waist from behind, and he pressed his nose to her loose hair. “Mm, you smell like pepperoni.”

“Eat my dick,” Buttercup said.

“I like it.”

“I bet you do, you horny carnivore.”

“Nooo, not the dirty talk,” he whined, pressing a kiss to her neck and pulling her back against him.

Buttercup fought against her growing smile as she opened the cake box and transferred the treat to the platter. “You need rehab.”

“If that’s your kink.”

Buttercup snorted. “Shut up and help me with this.”

They loaded up the chocolate cake on the platter, and Buttercup found the candles in a drawer.

“Got some shit on your nose,” Butch said.

“What?” He dabbed his chocolate frosted finger on the tip of her nose the moment she turned toward him, and she swatted his hand away. “Oh, come on. What are you, five?” She wiped the frosting from her nose and licked her finger clean.

No sooner had she finished than he grabbed her chin and kissed her deeply. In the quiet of the kitchen with no one around to see them, Buttercup gave into feeling and curled her fingers in his flannel shirt. When he smiled against her like the swooning buffoon he’d always been at heart, she laughed and pulled him closer.

His hands found their way over the curve of her ass, as they always did, and pulled her against him with a squeeze. “Fuck, I want you.”

“You always want me.”

“Have you seen your ass? You’d want you too.” He gave her another squeeze, and she had to bite her lip to stifle a moan.

Buttercup slipped her fingers through his hair, full and soft on top and shorn short behind the ears. For a moment, they simply stared at each other as Buttercup marveled at how much she wanted this, wanted him. She had never wanted anyone as much as she wanted him, so badly she could feel it threatening to tear her in two.

“You have all this power,” he murmured, soft like it was a precious secret he clung to.

Buttercup could have laughed at how much he underestimated his own power of her. “Back at you.”

“No.” He touched his forehead to hers and breathed like they finally had time. “Not like you. Not like this.” His hand moved to her waist as if to lead her in a dance. “You have me, Buttercup.”

Buttercup’s eyes burned with a foreign heat, unwelcome. Butch used to scare her when he spoke to her like this; now, she could only bite her lip and wait for the threat of tears to pass. “Back at you,” she said again, shaky and so fucking grateful.

They stayed that way a moment, in the kitchen of her childhood home with the warm smell of chocolate and the low din of the party outside, and for the first time that day, Buttercup felt the tension ease from her shoulders.

“By the way,” Butch said, his eyes still closed and his forehead still pressed against her, “I’m fucking the shit out of you when we get back to my place.”

Buttercup smirked. “Great example you’re setting for your daughter.”

“I got her new headphones with noise canceling.”

“She’s going to notice if we break the tub again.”

“There’s a hose. She can bathe with that.”

“Just pressure wash her like a truck.”

“Fast, efficient, and it’ll save on the water bill.”

“You don’t even pay for water, the landlord does.”

“Hey, I’m a good Samaritan lookin’ out for my neighbors.”

“Screw the neighbors.” Buttercup ran her fingers over his lips, down his chin to his chest, where his heart thundered under her touch. “I want you to fuck the shit out of me.”

Butch laughed hoarsely. “Maybe I should ask Boomer to take Brisa tonight.”

They parted, and Buttercup was about to tell him to grab the cake while she hunted for a knife when she finally noticed his cheek. “Did Brick do that?”

“The rocket ship? Yeah, good excuse to talk to him.”

“A rocket ship, huh?” Buttercup smiled so brightly her cheeks began to hurt. “That was nice of him.”

Butch gave her a weird look. “Whatever, we’re hanging out tomorrow. After today, I figure he can use it.”

Buttercup’s throat wrenched as she tried her best not to burst out laughing. “Don’t quote me, but he sort of saved my ass today. The other clown died.”

“Shut up.”

“I’m serious, he literally died.”

“Wow, party almost ruined.”

“I mean, also a man is dead.”

“Oh, shit, yeah you’re right. Sorry. I guess don’t tell Brisa.”

Buttercup rolled her eyes. “Jesus Christ. Grab that cake and don’t drop it.”

xxx

Brisa grinned to the point of bursting as everyone sang Happy Birthday to her and she blew out her candles. Cake went by in a breeze as the kids screamed about presents next. Like some hot, pink angel, Blossom took charge of the activities with Robin’s and Buttercup’s assistance and made sure the kids were thoroughly entertained so that Butch could eat his cake and watch his little girl enjoy her special day.

Now, seated on the picnic table again with Boomer and Bubbles, he dug into the slice Bubbles said she couldn’t finish.

“Hey, Butch,” Boomer said, chill.

“Yeah?” Butch asked.

“Why’s there a huge dick on your face?”

“Huh?”

On Butch’s other side, Bubbles poked his painted cheek. “It’s a very proportionate dick. Good dimensions.”

Boomer wheezed into his beer. Butch choked on his cake. At the next table over, Brick, that soggy ballsack, stood chatting with Princess Morbucks and Mike Believe still in his full clown regalia sipping sangria through a bendy straw. The moment he felt Butch’s eyes on him, he grinned maliciously around his straw.

“Motherfucker—” Butch tried to get up, but Bubbles grabbed his wrist.

“Language, Butch. There are children around,” she sang, cheerful as a fucking bell.

Butch pointed at Brick. “You—you clown!”

“Hey, that’s Flameo Hotman to you,” said Mike, with all the confidence of someone who didn’t know he was about to be drop-kicked in the face.

Princess squinted at Butch. “Is that a cock on your face?”

“It sure is,” Boomer said, mid-heart attack.

“Daddy, come hit the piñata with me!” Brisa came bounding over with a stick and a blindfold.

“Great timing, Brisa!” Bubbles shoved Butch way too hard toward his overeager daughter, and he had no choice but to accept the stick and blindfold.

“Uh, right,” he stammered, trying to reign it in. It was her birthday; Brick and his dick pic clownery could wait.

A hand on Butch’s shoulder squeezed too hard to be entirely friendly, and he turned to get a face full of said clown.

“Honk honk, motherfucker,” Brick said under his breath.

Butch raised his hand to decapitate his brother right there, but Brisa yanked him with her Super strength, and he had no choice but to let it lie.

The sight of Buttercup nearby watching him take his place at the piñata should have mollified him, but she had let him walk out of that kitchen dick pic’d, a betrayal of the highest order…and a quality prank, if he was honest.

He’d let his guard down around her.

It was his own mistake, underestimating her.

The heat of a challenge in her eyes as she watched him lift the blindfold to his eyes set fire to his blood. After all was said and done today and Butch left Brisa with Brick because fuck his fancy Saturday plans, Butch would take Buttercup’s advice and screw the neighbors. Tonight they were putting on a show.

With a self-satisfied grin, Butch lowered the blindfold, readied the stick, and imagined the red piñata was Brick in his ridiculous clown nose.

xxx

Hm, seeding the future Buttercup and Brick friendship I’ve been waiting so long to dive into for this universe? It’s more likely than you think. 👀

Thank you so much for reading! Long live the clown cult (Blossom ghostwrote this). 🤡

#Powerpuff Girls #ppg fic #Butchercup #PPG Butch #PPG Buttercup #PPG Greens #Butch #Buttercup #Greens #PPG BTM #PPG Clown Cult #Brick suffers so we can go on living

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melodie3672 · 4 years ago

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All Over Again Ch. 3

All Over Again (All Route)

[Heads Up: The name of MC will be Octavia Dillyne. There are different routes I made. I suggest you read the route of your LI in Endless Summer.]

[In this chapter, it is labeled ‘All Route’ because no matter which route you read, they will have the same dialogue.]

Chapter 3: “I’m in Your Heart Forever”

A woman stands in front of a mirror, brushing her hair. It takes a while for her to finish, and when she does, she checks her phone: two messages. Opening the messages app, two messages come from a ‘Shaila’.

“Heya! Are you ready yet?” sent at four-eight a.m.

“...I’m guessing you’re snoring too loud, you couldn’t hear your own alarm XD.” She rolls her eyes, but smiles despite herself. “Anyways, omw to your place rn.” sent at four twenty-six a.m.

Releasing an exhausted sigh, she puts her phone down and gazes upon the balcony. Her feet carry her there, giving her the chance to admire The City that Never Sleeps. She fiddles with something in her hands: a doubloon.

...

The same woman wakes up in an unfamiliar room, alone. The place had a bed, a window, a door, and medical supplies. Looking around, brows furrowed, it was clear she doesn’t know the place, or how she got there. Muffled voices can be heard on the other side. Standing up, she leans toward the door, trying to eavesdrop on someone’s conversation.

“And this gal here… precious one... You said... then you deal... wait, sir, don’t go in there yet-- sir!”

The door swings open, causing the woman to stumble backwards a bit. A boy in his fifteens stands in front of her, with white long hair, wearing a black sweater with colorful swirls, jogging pants and snickers. He looks up at the woman, raising his hand to fix his glasses.

“Octavia? You’re up?” He closes the door behind him. It looks like he hasn’t slept all night.

“Zen, what were you doing out there?”

“What were you doing out in the woods?!”

“The woods?” She questioned herself.

“What happened?”

“I-I... I... don’t remember!”

“Then what do you remember?” She pauses, trying to recall.

“...Watching ‘Lord of The Rings’ with you.”

“ ‘Lord of The Rings’... I don’t remember any of that. You don’t remember anything else? Like, what happened to you before those months?”

“Months?!”

“You were in a coma, but now you’re awake!”

“But this doesn’t look anything like a hospital room! And why was I in a coma?”

“How should I know? Only you should!”

“Look, can you just--” She sighs. “Can you stop yelling at me?” He runs a hand through his hair, trying to calm down.

“I’m sorry, sis.” Sensing the trouble in him, she pulls him in for a hug.

“It’s okay, Zen. I’m okay now.” After a while, she pulls back.

“Don’t you have it? The one I gave to you?” He pulls something out of his pocket.

“Yeah, here it is. The doubloon.”

“ ‘I’m in your heart forever.’ Keep this with you, and I’ll never go away, no matter how far you think we both are.” She ruffles her brother’s hair, making him chuckle, like he always does.

...

A knock on the door echoes through the room, interrupting her train of thought.

“Coming!”

She grabs her bag and rushes to open the door. Another woman stands in front of her.

“Octavia! Good to see you!” She throws her arms around the blonde woman and gives her a bear hug.

“Oomph! It’s… good to see you, Shaila!” She lets go of her.

“Seems like someone’s excited.” Said Octavia.

“I wouldn’t miss it for the world.” Octavia ushers her into the couch.

“Coffee?”

“No thanks, I’m good.” She shrugs and pours herself some coffee instead. Silence hangs in the room, no one knowing what to say next.

“You really do like the outdoors, don’t you, Shaila?”

“Don’t you? It’s got fresh air, hot springs, beautiful scenery...” She sits up straight. “Did you bring your camera with you?”

“Never leave home without it.”

“I’m pretty sure you do.” They laugh.

“Okay, maybe I don’t when I go to work, but you know what I mean.”

As she takes a sip from her coffee, her phone vibrates.

“That’s probably them.”

“Then let’s get going.”

The two walked out of Octavia’s apartment and into the bustling streets of New York.

Airport, Four Forty-One a.m.

Walking the floor tiles of the airport, the two search for their other friends. Suddenly, a flashback hits her.

...

“Yeah, here it is. The doubloon.”

“ ‘I'm in your heart forever.’ Keep this with you, and I’ll never go away, no matter how far you think we both are.” She ruffles her brother’s hair, making him chuckle. The door opens, a man entering the room.

“All right, kiddo. Time for you to get out.”

“But Octavia--”

“Only you are coming with us.” He takes a step towards Zen, but he stops him.

“Octavia...” He clasps both of her hands in his.

“Zen?”

But he doesn’t listen, nor respond. After he gets escorted out of the room, she realizes there's something in her palms: a doubloon. Her brows furrowed in confusion. Why would he give her this? What is he trying to say? Does Zen know something she doesn’t? Or was it--

“You could’ve stopped this from happening!”

The sound of yelling is heard outside the room.

“Zen??” She rushes towards the door to try and get a better hearing.

“Listen, young man. If you don’t shut up now, the deal will be off.”

“Deal? What deal?” Octavia asked herself as she pressed her ear to the door, despite how loud they already are.

“Ah! Let me go!” There’s a pause... BAAM! The sound of a gun rings in the air.

“Zen!” She swings the door open, and witnesses the scene in front of her. There’s a bloody Zen on his knees, hunched over, clutching his abdomen. Blood seeps through his fingers, and it feels like it goes on forever. He sobs and groans from the pain. Two guards stand behind him and his murderer stands in front, his gun still aiming at Zen.

“No-- Zen!” Octavia tries to rush to Zen’s aid, but the two guards stop her! She tries so desperately to wrestle out of their grip, but to no avail. She just watches helplessly at her brother, his sobs’ the only thing they hear.

“Octavia…”

...

The flashback ends and she hears familiar voices talking in front of her.

“Earth to Octavia!” She finally pays attention to them.

“You okay? We're passing the hallway now.”

“I-I’m... in... heart forever...” Her friends give confused glances to each other as she shakes herself off from her daze.

“Yeah. Let’s go.”

Few Hours Later, La Huerta

“Finally! My back was getting cramped in there!” The five walk out of the airplane.

“Octavia! You still have your cam, right?” Shaila runs to the center of the tarmac and strikes a pose. “Take a picture of us!”

“Yeah!”

The others run next to Shaila as Octavia sets up her camera.

"All right everyone. Three… two… one…"

Click! She shows the picture to her friends.

“Let’s go now.”

Few Minutes Later

“Do you guys think there’s a hotel?”

“What kind of a question is that? Of course there’s one!”

“I don’t think anyone would enjoy sleeping in the forest.”

One by one, they stop in front of a destroyed building, where the Celestial was once standing.

“... Alright, who jinxed it??”

“What the hell happened here?”

“This was supposed to be where The Celestial stands.” Mark, one of their friends, said.

“Nobody bothered to deal with this?”

“A 25 storied, 1,200 suite, once ranked top ten in Travel and Leisure hotel is taken down, why?”

They all look at Octavia.

“How the hell do you know all that?” She thinks for a second.

“... good question. At least we’re only staying here for a day. And look. A beach!”

She points to the sea, it’s waves crashing against the beach, it’s tides shimmering under the sun.

“Last one there is a fish out of water!” Everyone raced toward the beach, laughing and having fun.

Hours Later

They trek the forest of La Huerta in search of…

“Why are we here, again?”

“Octavia and Ron wanted to find something.”

“Find what, exactly? And why the hell do it at night?”

Octavia and Ron look at each other with surprise before replying.

“None of your business, Mark.”

He raises his hands in the air.

“Okay. I’ll back off.”

Octavia pulls Ron closer and whispers next to him.

“You suggested, too?”

“Yes, looks like you did as well! Why did you wanna come here?”

“It’s... personal. All I can say is that I have unfinished business that needs taking care of.” Those words sound awfully familiar to her.

“So why did you suggest?”

“It’s complicated, but it’s none of your business as well.”

She crosses her arms and looks away, the disturbance she feels is evident. Shaila changes the topic.

“Hey, look. These flowers are glowing!”

“Oh my god... there’s so many of them!”

Flowers glow pink and blue peacefully around them, giving light in the dark night.

“They’re so…”

“Beautiful? Pretty? Wonderful?”

“That’s practically the same thing.”

“No, they look… familiar. Like, I’ve seen them before.”

“Maybe you found them on the internet.”

“No, it’s like--” She stops herself.

“... Yeah. You’re probably right.”

They continue walking through the forest, Octavia slowly trailing behind. Then, there’s this strange feeling within her. Like a beast who wants out of his cage. Suddenly, everything goes dark.

Minutes Later

“What the-- How did I get here?” She stands a few feet away from a cliff’s edge, none of her friends in sight. Suddenly, a man, with short, curly hair, wearing a white and blue colored t-shirt, and a woman, wearing a turquoise hoodie and a ponytail, appear in front of her, making her yelp in surprise. They even seem surprised, themselves.

“Octavia?”

The woman approaches her, but Octavia backs away.

“Who are you?” She asked her.

“Octavia, you don’t remember me?”

A third one comes running towards them; a woman with red hair, a dolphin choker around her neck. She looks at you.

“...Octavia?”

“Wait, how do you know my name?” Then, there’s that nagging feeling. That feeling when that beast from before might come out of its cage at any moment.

“Oh my god... stay away from me, please!”

“Easy, easy! We’re not a threat.” The man said as the other woman backed off. There’s a moment of silence, until...

“Listen, we got off the wrong foot back there…”

Hours Later, New York City, Midnight

Gazing out the window, Octavia watches the city, thinking of the mysteries she has in her life. Why was she in a coma for months? What ‘deal’ was Zen talking about? Why is Zen the only family member she knows and saw? And her childhood, she can’t remember. All those questions remained unanswered for five years. But now…

“Two days.” She said softly. “I’m meeting them in two days.”

Exhausted, she walks to the bed and immediately falls asleep.

Tag list: @7248lb1213

Next Chapter on 6th January, 2021

#jake mckenzie #Jake x MC #Estela Montoya #estela x mc #quinn kelly #Quinn x MC #sean gayle #Sean x MC #Endless Summer #Choices: Endless Summer #la huerta #choices: stories you play #choices #es mc #es

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duskastormgrove · 4 years ago

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SSO February Prompt Day 14: Your Valentine

something different for this prompt, i decided to write and post something for the first time in 6 years!

this is a oneshot about my oc making a gift for ydris, i had intended for it to be able to be interpreted as platonic but uhhh that didn’t happen! anyway don’t razz me too hard im out of practice.

This was not nearly enough bee balm. Duska had thought her crafting larder well stocked but while she had flax coming out of her ears her supply of bee balm meant the dye would not nearly be purple enough. She had a full day of stutching, crimping and brushing the flax and spinning it into thread, there was no way she could spare the time to grab more. However, Duska was lucky enough to have very loyal (and very bored) friends, and her first instinct was to pull up her chat with Alex.

D: girl help

A: what you need bb

D: bee balm

D: as much as you can carry

A: can I ask what for?

D: valentine’s gift I’m making

A: :o

A: omw

True to her word, Alex was in Valedale and jogging to the workshop within the hour. In her arms was a bundle of bee balm and her fingers were faintly green from furiously yanking up the stems.

“You’re a lifesaver Alex,”Duska groaned in relief, immediately relieving her friend of her burden and starting to strip the blossoms from the stems.

“Least I could do considering you helped me ask Maya out last Christmas!” Alex hoisted herself up onto the only uncluttered workbench to watch Duska work. She was silent for all of thirty seconds before the prodding began, “sooooo, who’s the lucky person?”

Duska pointedly ignored her and threw the flowers into a boiling pot. She stirred and hummed in a satisfied way when the violet colour began to bleed into the water. She didn’t look up when Alex came to stand behind her and look into the pot as well. Eventually Duska banged the spoon on the side of the pot and dropped it onto the bench.

“You’re thinking too hard, I can see the smoke coming out of your ears,” she snapped, jabbing a finger at Alex’s forehead.

“It’s just- the colour looked familiar but like, I don’t want to assume or anything but uh… it’s circus bae, right?”

“Please. Never call him that again I feel part of me die when you do,” Duska moaned, rubbing her temples. “But yes, I’m making a new ringmaster’s jacket for Ydris. I felt bad I scorched his usual one.”

“When he was keeping Concorde prisoner and turned you into a 5 carat Lusitano?”

“You know it wasn’t out of malice, Alex. It’s hard to explain but when he talked about Pandoria under threat from Garnok he seemed so hopeless and scared. I really think he was desperate and taking desperate measures.”

Alex was quiet for a while and sat herself back on the workbench. Duska put the lid on the pot and waited until it started rattling before she turned the heat down to a simmer. Another hour or so and she could start straining the colour away from the flowers. In the meantime she could stutch more flax and get it ready to be spun on the wheel. She might even have time to make cloth on the loom today!

“Is this the part where you beat the shit out of the plants?” Alex asked, swinging her legs in excitement, “Can I help out? Please? I’ll beat it up so good I promise!” Duska sighed but laid the stems over the board and showed Alex how to beat the fibres out properly with the stutching stick. Soon the Lightning Circle Rider was happily smacking the flax and Duska could sit at the wheel and start spinning lengths of thread from the flax she’d stutched, crimped and brushed out earlier. The sounds of the wheel turning and the steady thumpthumpthump of Alex working away were almost soothing to Duska’s ears. Alex was a chatty type of friend, moreso than Lisa or Anne but there was no such thing as an uncomfortable silence with her, simply working in the same room was enough for her, especially if she thought she was being helpful.

“All finished!” Alex proclaimed as she ran the last of the coarse flax through the brush, “Can I do anything else Dus?”

“Nothing that I can think of,” Duska said regretfully, “thanks so much for today, I really appreciate it.”

“Eh, that’s what pals are for!” Alex said, slapping a hand on Duska’s shoulder and went to leave the workshop, “I’ll see you at the Galentine’s trail ride!” Duska waved fondly and rolled her shoulders before hunching back over the spinning wheel, just an hour or so more and she could move to the loom, another backbreaker.

“Oh and Duska?” Duska looked up from the wheel, to see Alex’s face, smiling but with a worried crease to her brow, “Be careful alright?”

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“Sorry I’m late Daxton, took forever to load these screens onto Clover’s back, nearly dropped them in the Hollow Woods too!” Duska hipchecked the door to Daxton’s shop open and sidled in sideways with the two enormous screens she had prepared in advance. Silk, for the inside of the jacket, had a fairly straightforward dyeing process that would lead to a nice pattern. For this one in particular she only needed two screens but she also needed dye baths and a silk dyeing setup she simply didn’t have. This is where Daxton came in. The anxious tailor had a delightful array of fancy tailor tools and was willing to help her in return for all the deliveries and favours she’d done for him in the last two years.

“Don’t worry, things are slow today,” Daxton reassured her as he grabbed the other side of the screens and helped Duska carry them to the back, “Give me a second I want to clean these up, go check those fabric samples on the desk and make sure they’re the colours you want.” Duska did as instructed, while Daxton polished the screens off with a cloth that reminded her of a cloth she used to scrub the dust off of her horses before a show.

“All good, these are exactly what I’m looking for,” Duska said, laying the fabric down and grabbing a roll of silk material to lay across the rack. She taped it flat and Daxton lay the screen over it, double-checking the placement before he grabbed the bottle of dye. The purple dye went on first and Daxton dragged a large squeegee across the screen to spread it evenly onto the silk. When he moved the screen to the next spot Duska could see the purple pattern, with white blank spaces waiting for the next dye.

“Oh fuck yeah this looks awesome Dax!” she exclaimed and the tailor shushed her.

“Please! I need to concentrate or something awful might happen!” Not willing to take a chance on whether or not this was Daxton’s paranoia at work or an actual possibility, Duska kept silent and simply hovered over his shoulder and watched until the fabric was covered in purple dye.

“Next screen,” Daxton said, wiping sweat from his forehead. Duska hurried to remove the old one and set up the new one. She felt strangely useless here, with Daxton in his element and blasting through silk like no one’s business. This time the gold dye was poured on, and it filled the blank spaces the first screen had left. By the time Daxton reached the end of the roll it was filled entirely with the repeating pattern and Duska was waiting anxiously with a glass of water.

“Aideen’s light, Dax! This is perfect!”

“Okay, we’ll wait until it dries and then you can take it home!” Daxton readjusted his thick glasses to admire his handiwork and gratefully took the glass, “What are you making with this anyway?”

“Oh it’s a Valentine’s day gift.”

The colour drained from Daxton’s face and the hand holding his water began to tremble.

“Jeepers, glad you didn’t tell me it was so important, I would’ve messed it up for sure!”

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It wasn’t unusual for Farah to find her chief apprentice clattering around in the workshop before dawn. Duska was a hard worker and liked to get the orders done and delivered early to free up the rest of her day. She was a busy woman from what Farah saw of her zooming around on various horses and doing chores for residents of Valedale. What was unusual, was the amount of swearing coming from down by the river.

“Everything okay here?” she asked cautiously. Duska looked up, several pins hanging from her mouth and fabric aggressively clutched in her hands.

“It’s fine. It’s… swell.”

“Not sure I believe that one,” Farah laughed, feeling it was safe to approach her apprentice, “Let me in there, I can help out, are we doing a jacket?” She might have felt bad for intruding but Duska’s immediate look of relief assuaged those worries.

“It’s the lapels, I’m stuggling with them, if you could fix them I could finally start the epaulettes?” Duska asked hopefully.

“No problem, it’s a beautiful jacket so far, I love the silk pattern!”

“Thanks, Daxton helped me out with it, it turned out exactly how I wanted,” Duska explained as she went around the back of the mannequin to start sewing the golden fringed epaulettes onto the shoulders, “This is the first time I’ve made a Valentine’s gift, I’m… admittedly a little stressed about it.” Farah raised an eyebrow.

“It’s a lot of effort for a Valentine’s gift.”

“Well, he doesn’t celebrate Christmas, and I’m pretty sure he doesn’t have a birthday.”

“He… doesn’t-”

“Don’t worry about it. Just know this is the best time for a gift.” Farah didn’t quite know how to respond so she simply continued on with the lapels in silence. Well, almost silence. Her grandmother always sang while she worked so Farah had picked up the habit too. If she listened carefully after a while she could hear Duska quietly humming along. The two of them finished their respective tasks fairly quickly, and stood back to look at the whole piece together.

“Looks good! Just the cuffs and buttons left yeah? I can help with them if you’d like?” Farah offered, but Duska shook her head.

“I want to do the finishing touches myself, feels a bit more personal that way, if that makes sense?”

“No, no, I get it. Best of luck with it, whoever the lucky person is he’s sure to love it!” Farah turned to go back to the request board, she’d cover the orders today, Duska deserved the day to herself to finish her work. Farah couldn’t help but wonder who such an extravagant ringmaster’s jacket would be meant for.

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

February 14th. Now or never. Duska had been tense all morning, and now as she was carefully packing the box into her delivery satchel she almost felt queasy with nerves. This wasn’t such a big deal, the jacket was nice! Ydris wasn’t going to blast her to dust because she gave him a gift, was he? At worst he’d treat it the same as Isebell’s Yule gift and simply not open it. That would almost be preferable. It was still early in the morning so maybe she could simply drop the package into the delivery box and take off before she was noticed. That was a pretty solid plan, she’d have to leave straight away though.

“Duska?”

There goes that plan.

“Sorry Duska, but if you’re heading in that direction could you deliver this herbal tea to Mrs. Holdsworth?” Farah looked contrite enough that Duska loaded the tea into the bag without a word. She was taking Cinder, her beloved soul horse, if any horse was going to give her the confidence she needed it would be the silver dapple mare. With a pat and a cluck of her tongue, Cinder ambled towards the woodland road to Silverglade Village and beyond. A short detour to Moorland wouldn’t add too much time to her journey, not with the way Cinder liked to gallop down the trail leading there. Speaking of which, the warmblood began to toss her head and pull at the bit when they cleared the woods.

“Alright lady, let ‘em have it,”Duska acquiesced, letting the reins go long. Cinder took off with glee, mane flapping, hooves pounding, and nearly jostling Duska right out of the saddle. This pace would definitely keep them on time!

“I have your tea leaves Mrs. H,” Duska greeted her favourite neighbourhood witch.

“Thank you darling, sit down and have a cup with me why don’t you?” Mrs Holdsworth patted the picnic bench and Duska was sorely tempted to delay the inevitable by having tea and a chat with her.

“Sorry but, I kind of have an important delivery to do, maybe tomorrow?”

“A gift for a paramour?” Mrs. Holdsworth guessed, a little too accurately and with a glint in her eye.

“Ugh. Who told you?”

“Alex is never a great keeper of secrets, but to give her credit she only confided in me because she was worried,” Mrs. Holdsworth propped her cane against the bench and sat down, “Let me have a peek.” Duska reluctantly dismounted and let Cinder graze while she carefully unboxed the jacket and displayed it to the wise old woman.

Mrs. Holdsworth took her time examining the jacket, turning over the sleeves, peering at the stitching over her half rim glasses and rubbing a thumb over the silk lining. Duska almost felt like she was being assessed for an exam. She wanted to get a good grade on the ‘Old Woman Critiques Your Lovesick Tailoring Exam’. A totally fine and normal thing to want.

“Hm!” Mrs. Holdsworth finally proclaimed. She shuffled over to the base of one of the cherry trees in her yard and bent down, grabbing a handful of grass in the shadow of the tree. “Show me the front again?” Duska flipped the jacket and came closer, careful not to let the coattails drag in the dirt. Mrs. Holdsworth threaded the grass through one of the button holes and tied a knot in the stems. She put her hands on her hips and nodded approvingly. “There you are dearie, now off you go, Valentine’s Day waits for no one!”

Duska repacked the jacket cautiously and looked closer at the grass. Instead of simple blades, Mrs. Holdsworth had put a small bouquet of clovers into the topmost button hole.

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

Time was now of the essence. Duska slid off Cinder’s back as soon she skidded to a halt at Nilmer’s Highland and sprinted to the delivery box. Any courage she’d built up on her exhilarating gallop to get there was rapidly deserting her and she wanted to vault back onto Cinder and scamper back to Valedale as fast as humanly possible. Still, ‘fast as humanly possible’ wasn’t enough to outspeed a leisurely Pandorian stroll, as to her horror, the door of the wagon swung open just as the delivery box lid swung closed.

“Little dove!” Ydris boomed, “to what do I owe the pleasure? I don’t recall making an order at Ms. Farah’s quaint little workshop.” Duska couldn’t do anything to intervene as Ydris flipped the lid and dipped his hand in for the box. “Oh?” He hummed, gently tugging at the ribbon, “a gift for the amazing Ydris? I appear to have an admirer, my dove.”

“Sure seems so,” Duska managed through gritted teeth. He smirked at her and started to prod and poke and shake the box, holding it to his ear and tapping a rhythm on the side. “I know you’re not from around here,” Duska intoned heavily, “but it’s considered rude to look at the box and not open it.”

“Silly me! Let me unravel this mystery!” With one yank on the ribbon the knot fell apart, somehow, and Ydris discarded it over his shoulder. He opened the lid, casting that to one side and too khold of the jacket by the lapels, letting the other half of the packaging fall too. “What do we have… here...?”

Duska held her breath as Ydris fell silent. Silence was unnerving with the ringmaster, as was the look he was giving his gift. His face was carefully expressionless as he turned the coat over, gently brushing his hand over the eggplant purple linen. He drifted up to the golden epaulettes, twirling the fringe between his fingers. Finally he opened the jacket, revealing the purple and gold repeating pattern of-

“Panda rays,” he breathed. There was something almost reverent about the way he traced their shapes and Duska felt almost like she shouldn’t be watching him.

“Yeah they’re one of the nicer things I’ve met from Pandoria, sweet little guys,” she responded, looking to fill the awkward quiet. Ydris looked over at her, seeming surprised at her presence, like he’d forgotten she was there. He shook his head and his smirk was back in its usual place.

“One of? Should I consider that a compliment?” Ydris held the jacket out to her and a horrible swooping feeling in her stomach made her hands shake as she took it, but she was quickly relieved of it again as he whipped his old coat off and traded it for his new one in one fluid motion. He pulled the jacket on with a flourish and twirled in a circle to make the tailcoats flare outwards. “How do I look, little dove?”

“I’d trust you to run a circus looking like that,” Duska smiled weakly, feeling relieved that the ringmaster seemed to like it.

“Ah,” Ydris’ twirling came to a stop and he looked suddenly thoughtful, “but I cannot accept this, I have nothing to give you in return.” Duska began to stammer that there was no need to return the favour but Ydris shushed her. “All I can offer, temporarily, is this.”

He took her hand, softly, gently, like a breeze gently tugging it upwards. He leaned forward, all two metres of him, and when she could feel his breath on her skin he snapped his eyes up to meet hers.

“May I?” Thrown by his question Duska just nodded, and he gently pressed his lips to the back of her hand. Her skin tingled and when she dared to look a soft pink mark was glowing on her hand. “Anytime, anywhere, press here and call me, and I’ll come and find you, no matter what, that is a solemn vow, my dove,” Ydris murmured, in a tone far softer than she’d ever heard from him before.

“T-thank you, Ydris, this is… it’s… I’m honoured you’d trust me with this.” Ydris stood upright, straightening his jacket and looking almost flustered.

“Yes well, maybe wear gloves around your druid friends. It’s a one-way ticket to the druid jail under that quaint summer house.”

“Well if that happens you’ll have to come and rescue me like a dashing knight, won’t you?” Ydris smirked but Duska didn’t miss the faint blush that appeared on his cheeks. It almost glowed like the mark he’d left on her.

“I suppose I shall, and I shall do it looking quite splendid, little dove.”

#ssofebruaryprompt #sso #star stable online #star stable

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