#also something something about River not really knowing his own mom and now having Catherine as his mother figure

[scarletta-ec]

Original Sin Story: Re_Crime

[AFTERWORD]

So this is mainly mothy talking about the original book so I guess this means I get to go through my process. More or less just my patch notes from this build of Original Sin Story: Crime.

Part 1

First, I made Maria a little older when she was caught in a storm. I wanted to distance Levia from lightning and make Maria a more Miku-ish age rather than a typical Rin age. 

Basically, I’m increasing Levia’s association with wind instead of lightning.

Next was Miroku’s name. I don’t know, it’s an alright name but it feels weird for a surname from later EC being a first name of a not-Jakokuese character here. I first renamed him Nemanja, but then found a Slavic G- name I liked, Gavriil. It’s an equivalent to “Gabriel” which is the name of an archangel.

I liked the first few chapters so not too much has changed. It got exponentially more and more divided from the source material as the book quality went down.

I haven’t changed too much of the worldbuilding or politics cause that is not my strong point, lol. It’s serviceable so I let it be.

I added a description of curled platinum blond hair for Irta Li because I think he should look like Alucard.

Changed the “gear” system of time to “period” since that term is an actual expression of time and is not used in-universe/in the book for this purpose.

Changed Adam and Gammon’s reactions to being late. I just feel maybe Adam shouldn’t be so smug and Gammon such an ass.

I didn’t change anything about Vaju, but his description makes me think of the Capitol elite from The Hunger Games.

Part 2

Didn’t feel like settling on “Mogura” or “Mole People” for those people who dig up Second Period relics, so I just titled them Excavators.

Kept the magic car cause it’s pretty dope and it made my friend go feral cause she predicted it.

Genderbent Raiou into Raijoou because I always imagined the Zvezdas as matriarchal and instead of switching it so Raiou was the late parent, I just said screw it, Eve gets two moms.

I like the idea of Horus Solnste being his own character but there’s really no way to make it work without even more rewrites so he’s still Seth here.

Raijoou’s wife still claims to have found Eve in a river. This is an in-story lie and a meta misdirection.

Added that Adam and Eve have a year to two year difference in age, but they’re both around 20.

I found the whale thing kind of dumb so I just made Catherine a “white blur under the waves” (i.e. a dead sunken body). I get it was a Jonah’s whale reference but I don’t think she needs to literally be a whale for her to fulfill that reference, like how Seth is never a literal snake.

Changed the mention of “THE White Army” to “A White Army”. Raisa mentions a test of her “Second Regiment”. I changed her from a Salem inheritor to a Vlad inheritor (who uses fire magic). This “Second Regiment” is an undead army that are all white, like the Netsuma humans of her First Regiment. Though the zombies are resistant to regular fighting, lightning gets them down quite easily.

I have to say, I wasn’t really chill with Meta being a Gilles inheritor when the info came out but the Red Devotees are so terrifying I couldn’t change it.

Salem inheritor fire is not fire magic. The Netsuma are not all Vlad inheritors like Raisa, but they are all skilled in the fire arts, that is, fire spells and weapons. The arts don’t cover blue flames, as only Salem inheritors produce that.

I made Eve a Held sect member from the start, for more conflict between her and Zellana as Zellana proceeds to be an asshole about Held. Since Nemu isn’t too close to the forest, Eve hasn’t seen Held for herself, so she tries not to cause so much of a fuss, aware she’s in a Levia sect majority place.

Part 3

Adam doesn’t have a direct memory of any river. He was just already out in the open as a very young child as far as he could remember.

Adam is still caught up in a storm like the original tsunami and is saved by Catherine.

Made Horus/Seth as less of a dick than he is, by him being unable to bring Adam to Maria (or reveal Adam as Maria’s son) since Maria’s visitors really are restricted and enforced.

It’s unclear if Horus really did update Maria on Adam’s condition as he claims, decide depending on how you want to see him.

Made Gammon and Adam’s relationship just a bit more pining-y, so when Gammon is drunk he just leans on Adam instead of the counter.

Changed the fucking STUPID Levia inheritor bullshit with Venom. Venom is now connected to Gilles Inheritors. Kept the dead body experimentation part so it’s uncomfortably close to the truth.

Made Adam a little less willing to commit homicide.

MADE ADAM KEEP HIS STUPID, GROSS PLAN ON THE BACKBURNER. HE DOESN’T GO THROUGH WITH IT.

Adam circumvents Seth for the recipe for Venom. This is very important.

Horus/Seth has told Adam about the river children, not telling Adam he is one of those. Adam thus assumes he must be one of them. This is further misdirection.

Raijoou is still a founding member of Apocalypse.

Seth isn’t around so much while Adam and Eve hang out, so as far as Adam is aware, Seth doesn’t know he’s using Venom. This is important as well.

Gammon flirts with Adam but slyly takes it back before he notices.

Adam is already paranoid that he’s given Eve too much Venom (this is unchanged from the source but still important for the payoff)

Scene with Catherine is unchanged, because I love her and this scene.

When Eve has the stillbirth, Seth implies something on Adam’s part is what caused it. The pieces all come together: Seth may have created Venom, but Adam went behind his back to get Venom, used it while trying to keep Seth from knowing about it, thus making this all Adam’s fault. Seth didn’t even convince him to use it, either.

Part 4

Seth gets a black eyes and is being creepy when pistol-whipped. Also his glasses were sent flying off his face.

Finally, Seth clears the meticulous shit I set up, lmao.

After Maria was rendered sterile and her twins were gotten rid of, she still wanted a child and enlisted Seth to make it happen.

The twins aren’t Adam and Eve. Seth kept the boy in cryostasis in Lunaca Labora for his destruction powers, and gave the girl to the Lighwatch Temple so he could keep a close eye on her. These are Amostia and Elluka, respectively.

Adam is essentially a tube-grown human. He’s not a ghoul child because he was made with two sets of DNA, Maria’s and a foreign man to obscure Adam’s phenotype.

Lunaca Labora is a large underground complex, with secret entrances spanning to and from many important capital buildings.

Thus, when Apocalypse bombed one of these buildings, this caused a collapse in the section of Lunaca Labora below it, the chaos in which Adam disappeared.

It was incidents like this that made Raijoou leave Apocalypse and take a wife in the quiet village of Nemu once again.

Horus had met both Raijoou and her wife, Inanna while searching Evillious.

I named her wife Inanna because I wanted a name that resembled “inazumi” to fit Raijoou’s lightning theme, in addition to Inanna meaning “lady” and “heaven/sky”, and being a Sumerian goddess equated to Ishtar.

Without Raijoou’s input, Inanna enlisted Horus to make them a child, she she couldn’t have any, and of course not with Raijoou.

Eve is fashioned the same way as Adam- made with two sets of DNA donated by Inanna and Raijoou.

She was a backburner project so she was finished about a year after both Adam and Meta. Seth had also made Eve a HER carrier.

Since Raijoou is a Held inheritor, Eve ended up as one, too. Noticing this early in her development, it got Seth interested in making ghoul children with inheritor abilities.

Seth is still a shitty father, but I made it less..... cartoonishly horrible. Not better, just less awful. Seth is already a twisted guy, so he tried raising Adam the way he himself was raised, the only way he could think of: purely for their intelligence. Seth had gifted child syndrome, I’m calling it.

Seth tried making Gilles inheritor ghoul children specifically because they were hard to make. If he could get them correctly, he could make any kind of inheritor.

When he failed, he melted down their compositions since they were now useless. This is where Venom really comes from.

His first success was Meta, which opened the door for more inheritors.

Seth would have preferred Cain and Abel be born alive, as he swapped the God Seed for Seeds of Malice when they were first conceived. (Notice how Seth just always has it with him and is the first to brandish it, even in OSS: Crime?) Eve being a HER carrier would have increased Cain and Abel’s chances of being born with HERS.

They did indeed die because Eve had too much Venom. Not because of some really gross lazy ass-pull of a plot twist. That’d be crazy, right?

Eve was actually immune to Venom because as the Held inheritor test tube human Seth made, her own powers cancelled Venom’s powers out.

But even though the drug did not affect her mind, it was still in her bloodstream.

Normally, that’s not a problem, but Venom’s side effects in a pregnant person include deformities in the developing fetus(es) that can kill in utero (the same general reason Gilles Inheritors were so hard to make)

Eve still went mad after the stillbirth, which is not because of all the Venom in her bloodstream, the trauma activated the self-hypnosis (another Held inheritor power) she uses throughout the series. It’s a self defense tactic to protect her from the death of her children, by making her think they are alive and well.

That hypnosis will last a VERY long time, it’s in constant action like a flexing muscle, though its effects waver. I imagine it’d make her kind of despondent or tired since she’s just constantly using her inheritor powers without even realizing it.

Seth is definitely puppeting all these disasters but Cain and Abel’s deaths are on Adam’s hands.

Part 5

RAISA AND META ARE ACTUALLY FRIENDS, LIKE MOTHY ORIGINALLY SAID.

I mean honestly they’re like casual, informal girlfriends. It’s like they never actually asked the other out but when they spar for fighting practice they pin each other a lot. They just like being near each other. Looking at each other. They drink together a lot.

I made Meta not such a bitch about Raisa, too. Like, Jesus Christ, mothy. Meta is now worried for Raisa because she’s such a hellbeast in battle, not cause she hates her for [404 REASON NOT FOUND].

Meta didn’t really have any impression of Raisa when Pale suggested they recruit her, mainly agreeing because it beefed up their forces, coming to know her because they had since lived together with the rest of Apocalypse.

Meta finds Raisa’s scar (particularly around her mouth) distracting because they aren’t covered up behind a mask like they usually are.

Raisa literally climbs onto Meta’s bed and probably over Meta so they can be face to face.

Meta’s almost not even listening, cause Raisa’s hair is like a glowing white next to her red face. Meta, please stop thinking about how pretty your girlfriend is and listen.

Instead of completely pointless amnesia, Meta simply wishes to not dwell on her past. It’s more of a conscious effort to repress that time of her life than actual locked-away memories.

To nonamnesiac Meta, her life really only meant something once she was around 20.

HEY, INSTEAD OF CHILD META BEING ASSAULTED, LET ME PROPOSE: 

Much like Adam, Meta had nothing to do but wander around the country, though she more often broke into homes and stole than he did.

Her Gilles inheritor charms allowed her to weasel her way out of trouble, but she always thought people went easy on her because she was a homeless child.

Her powers/the genuine pity of onlookers sometimes allowed her to SCP-1076 her way into a home, but she always felt out of place and would usually end up running away again.

Meta was caught up in an attack by Apocalypse but as the action was winding down, Pale found her and recruited her, her murdering a hostage as a sort of initiation.

The Royal Capital Army’s armor can’t be breached by Raisa’s fire. This is important later on.

Meta is done zoning out so she hugs Raisa to make her stop shouting.

Some very subtle rewording that implies Meta wasn’t dressed before Raisa left the room. Not necessarily naked, but maybe in whatever nightclothes she had. I imagine just lingerie though.

Milky is dressed as she usually is, on top of the covers while Pale is under them.

Made Meta less so goddamn spiteful about Milky??

Basically Meta and Pale kind of joke with each other about their other partners, Raisa and Milky respectively. Apocalypse is a big ol’ polycule, minus Yegor. Cause he’s a creep.

Kept the cute stuff Meta thinks about Pale... who’d have thought their relationship would be the least garbage out of the original book?

Changed a little bit about Pale’s music box tinkering. He’s not making something, he’s taking it apart. Though he plans to put it back together to get better at making things.

Meta is still thinking about Raisa so she accidentally brings her up when they’re discussing the mole in the group.

Meta genuinely doesn’t think Raisa is the mole, and defends her when Pale asks if she’s implying something.

The woman Meta comes across is still? Eve? I have no goddamn idea why it can’t be her in the original so, you’re welcome mothy, I fixed it.

The fog and fighting has knocked out Adam, whom Eve is cradling. The fog is a byproduct of Venom so it doesn’t affect Meta nor Eve.

Eve is so stressed, so hypnosis is going into overdrive to the point she can’t even get her children’s names right. or she could just be so upset that she’s slurring her words. 

Raisa has somehow come into intel that says Yegor is the mole and is conspiring to capture Meta, so she abandoned her trip north to warn or help Meta.

Raisa is not immune to Venom, but the mask she uses to cover her scars is helping filter some of it out so she’s still lucid enough to yell to Meta.

The fog has overtaken most of the scene, Eve has escaped with Adam, and Capital Army forces are closing in on Meta.

Raisa tackles Meta to the ground in an effort to cover her and unleashes an explosion (that ends up knocking the both of them out) in an effort to keep them away.

Elluka is older on account of being Maria’s twin daughter. She’s still quite youthful anyways.

Removed the second period legacy room mumbo jumbo. It can just be a Third Period anti-magic room.

Yegor Asayev looks like V from V For Vendetta, because I said so.

Instead of dying like a punk and offscreen no less, Raisa was killed immediately after her stunt to protect Meta. Remember, her fire can’t penetrate the army’s armor. She was aware of this but it was all she could think to do, or to do at all.

Yegor doesn’t know how Raisa caught wind of his betrayal and wonders if he has a mole of his own. I don’t either. It’s for intrigue!!

Made Meta more... emotional. Cause she kind of seemed not to care too much. Like obviously she was angry and defeated but since in this version, someone she loved, Raisa, died protecting her, all in vain, she’s even more griefstricken.

Meta and Elluka are friends by the barest means. Meta tried scaring her to get what she wanted, but Meta ends up giving her advice. This is how it was in the original but I still want to highlight it.

Instead of a pendant, Seth’s plan and map is kept in a glass bottle on Meta’s person.

Seth remains a little shit in this scene because he’s honestly the best part of the original book.

Elluka still cries for Meta, because of their rapport. God, I just think it’s so sweet.

Kept the baby Pale thing. I mean in the original it was probably added to make the age gap between Elluka and Kiril less YIKES, but I wasn’t quite sure how to take it out. Even if Elluka is older in this continuity, I think Pale being de-aged doesn’t hurt.

Hansel and Gretel are preemies!

Clearly something is up with Gammon, so I added he’s being tying his hair differently and smiling more often.

Since it was traveling into Maria’s maze that marked this changed, I changed his hair tie from high to low to match Irina’s low braid to suggest Maria might be in there.

I think it’s weird if Gammon himself was just kind of removed from the story by another character in his body so I made it ambiguous as to whether he’s still in there or not.

Looking at the babies forces Meta to think about her own childhood.

Meta can’t drain the tanks without letting the babies fall, so she dives inside, disconnects them from their support tubes and breaks them from the inside.

Yes, I’m aware the strength needed to break the glass would have to be fucking IMMENSE since it can handle the pressure from containing a building’s worth of heavy fluid, but shut up, Meta is buff in this continuity. Besides, the glass probably isn’t made to withstand sharp, repeated points of stress from the inside as opposed to the designed entire surface area pressure. I’m sure someone who’s into physics is reading this and pulling their hair out and I’m sorry. Not sorry enough to fix it. sdfghj

I want the incident that allowed Adam to escape to be the same one Meta escaped in, but I have NO idea if I can make that work in the timeline. I sure which there was a goddamn calendar system for this, mothy.

I have no idea what the hell mothy is talking about with Levia’s blessing, but anyways I kept it vague about how the babies are immune to the Venom fog. The wording is more in line with what we hear during Lust Arc when IR is talking about Mikulia’s immunity to Sateriasis’ lust spell.

Part 6

Kept the fourth wall breaking with Eve. That shit’s too great.

Definitely made the pre-demonic Venom Sword Raisa’s sword that they confiscated.

Eve picks up her Held worshiping habits again. They technically never went away but it was hard to do deep in Levianta.

Part 7

Adam doesn’t recognize Meta. To be honest, I can’t tell if he DOES recognize her in the original or not. But for sure here, he doesn’t point her out as Meta.

Adam is kind of silently panicking, so he just says sorry for every movement of the shovel he makes to bury her.

The time placements are all over the place in this chapter, just ignore it.

Eve’s self-hypnosis is still in full effect when they escape deep into Elphegort.

I sort of added a whole scene? More like I took stuff from other scenes and added enough to make it its own scene.

Her hypnosis was in complete swing when she came in the door, but Adam and the reality of Meta’s death finally broke it. Her denial from now on is normal self-denial, not the result of an inheritor ability defense mechanism.

Even though Eve has, on some level, acknowledged her wrongdoing and the reality of things, she still finds comfort in the babies.

I know earlier I made Adam less willing to commit homicide but I find his even just contemplating infanticide darkly humorous. Like, what the fuck, Adam? Of course he doesn’t follow through on it, though.

Kept Gretel being weirdly conscious of everything while Hansel is just a normal baby. I love the idea of Gretel being a creepy horror movie baby who knows more than she should and Hansel is just here vibing.

Remember that Adam thinks she’s done all this because he drugged her with Venom. He is indeed responsible for killing her unborn children with Venom, but he isn’t aware Venom hasn’t affected her mentally.

So Eve’s Original Sin is killing Meta and taking her babies, and Adam’s Original Sin is “ruining Eve” and thus killing her children.

Part 8

Added how Seth technically had Maria’s permission to do what he did, but he still took advantage of that, so even revealing that wouldn’t make him look good. It’s not officially reported cause it could lend him some credence.

Kept his edgy little manifesto because it makes me laugh.

Didn’t take out the Pale/Kiril thing because honestly that was an adequate turn of events.

Glossary

Levianta was founded by a cabal of mages who discovered Second Period artifacts. Magic is powerful, but requires time and preparation to use—however, the old technology streamlined the usage of magic, making it easier and more useful for technological advance. The woman who would become the first queen was named Alice Merry-Go-Round, and she is the one who realized this.

She hired people to dig up the technology in the temple, but was faced with resistance from the local populace, who revered Levia-Behemo using that temple. Alice put a wall around it in response, and this became the “first wall”. More walls were built and eventually this became a fortress.

Her followers named it Alicegrad, and Alice herself founded Levianta with herself as the queen. Still, they faced resistance from the natives. To appease them, Alice declared Levia-Behemo as the country’s god, and made a council of 12 people. Six of them were mages who served under her, and six were comprised of the local natives. Levianta grew prosperous. 

When the first queen died, her daughter inherited her position and took on the name of Alice Merry-Go-Round herself. Since then, every queen has taken that name. The one who appears in the story is the seventh one.

Alices 1 through 4 are based on Alice of Human Sacrifice, broken by the Fifth one.

Loop Octopus and Vaju are of the 6 mage families in the senate. Asayev and Li are of the 6 native local families. The families are supposed to be equal, but there are great gaps between them. Example being Loop Octopus has taken much of Vaju’s wealth, and there are two Loop Octopuses on the senate now (Gammon and his younger brother, Nazar, the family’s heir).

Lighwatch is a place where they raise queen candidates, but also has things like jail cells and execution devices like Torcia Tower. Lighwatch collects girls with Levia inheritor powers. They are able to remove “malice” from people’s hearts, and also hear the “voice of god”. Yegor is able to tell them by sight, as he is an inheritor of Behemo, who can see another person’s inheritor powers. Zellana and Elluka are orphans.

There were different varieties of Ghoul Children when it came to the artificial personalities they had. “Clean” refers to those that have no memories, “Preset” refers to those that have pre-made false memories, and “Copy” refers to those that have identical memories to Seth.

Catherine was a marine scientist, and married to Gilles. They rode along in the Climb One. They had a son, but he was sickly and did not ride on the same ship as them.

For this reason she grew jealous towards female psychologist Rahab, whose two children were able to board the ship with her. When she realized that Rahab was having an affair with Gilles, her jealousy turned to rage. She conspired with Lich to kill Rahab, but in the end was killed by Lich, who she realized too late was really “malice” wearing his form.

So then, I guess I’m gonna have to fix Original Sin Story: Punishment, whether I want to or not. Can’t wait to see what fuckery awaits us in it.

#infoedit #story #fanfic #patch notes #original sin story #ec #evillious chronicles #is this salty? yes #get your daily dose of sodium here

[bluboothalassophile]

Love all of your jayrae fics! Was wondering if you would please be able to write a fix about raven and Roy's friendship or how they get along?

Hello,

I actually have a long story for them going, Yee Naaldlooshi, so I hope you enjoy Chapter 2! 

Featuring a cross over with the Mystery Inc Gang!

The Ranch...

Raven stood in Durango, Colorado, the wind tugging on her braid as she felt ancient magic pulsing through the grounds she stood on. It was rather quaint, and beautiful here, they were at a gas station by the river, which was gently rolling on by. She leaned on the hood of the car, looking at the scenery around her, it wasn’t like anything she’d ever seen outside of old westerns.

Lian was giggling as she ran towards her, and Raven smiled as she caught the girl.

“Rae! Lookie!” she ordered holding up a keychain.

“It’s lovely sweetie,” Raven said. The pure innocent joy Lian had was infectious and soothing on Rae’s empathy.

“Daddy say I can give it to his…bwoder,” Lian said.

“Brother,” Raven corrected. “And it’ll be a lovely gift.”

“Think he’ll like me?” Lian whispered in a loud hushed tone.

“I think it’d be hard for him not to like you,” Raven said.

“Ready to hit the road ladies?” Roy appeared then.

“Yeah,” Lian giggled in delight as Raven loaded her up into the car. Twisting around Raven pulled up the buckles for the carseat and tapped Lian’s nose lightly when she was all secure; her keychain clutched firmly in her hands.

“We’re forty minutes out from Farmington, and I think twenty from your aunt’s farm,” Roy said.

Raven said nothing to that.

“Family’s not bad, Rae,” Roy pointed out starting up the car.

“I have a family,” she pointed out. “And I don’t, Roy I’ll never be able to live with myself if something happens to them because of me. At least Victor, Harley and Ivy can take care of themselves. Alice and them, they can’t.”

“Hey, I get it, but they’re your family, you’ll need to accept that one day.”

“I do accept it, which was why I was willing to stay away.”

“Family doesn’t do that, trust me, and Jason for that matter, on this. They don’t disappear just because it’d be easy or convenient for you.

“I could wish, right?” she sighed.

“No,” he chuckled. “It’ll be fine, Rae. It’ll be fun!”

Raven knew that she and Roy had drastically different opinions on what was and was not fun. She had a feeling that this was about as fun for her as Artemis and Wally’s wedding would be for Roy. Not that he had a bad relationship with his family, but rather he and Artemis butted heads all the time, and Wally was his best friend marrying a girl who was like his little sister. Rae saw the reasons for Roy’s discomfort about the wedding, but they were going.

 Once they were on the road again Raven watched the scenery as Lian talked about everything she wanted to do. She was mostly fascinated with the idea of horses, she wanted to ride one. Roy thought it was amusing and said he’d look into if Bird still had the horses for her to ride.

“You never said how you were tied to the tribes,” Raven said when Lian had fallen asleep and they drew near the Reservations. She could feel Roy’s tensions building.

“My dad, my biological dad, not Ollie, he was a Game Warden, he and my biological mom had me kind of young, it didn’t work out well. His second wife was a part of the tribe, Catherine was a sweetheart,” Roy admitted.

“What happened?”

“She died, Dad stayed on the Res with her family, so did I, and then dad died, and well, you know, I’m a fuck up,” Roy muttered the last bit more to himself than her.

“You’re not,” Raven said softly. He turned to look at her, and she smiled a bit. “We all mess up, make mistakes, do things we regret,” she said softly.

“Yeah, but, black out drunk, I think I killed Bird’s dad,” he said.

“I don’t think so,” Raven said levelly. “You’re not a killer Roy.”

“You sure about that? I am an Outlaw,” he said roguishly.

“Positive, it takes a killer to know a killer,” Raven said levelly. Roy was safe, he wasn’t afraid to take lethal action if push came to shove, but he worked so hard on not doing that. He did hand out crippling injuries, but he had never killed a single person as far as the knew.

“I think Thea and Brave Bow would disagree with you,” he said levelly.

“I don’t think so.”

“Rae, you’re not always right,” he pointed out.

“Maybe not, but I am right about this, Roy Harper. You are no killer.” She stated.

They turned onto a dusty road and Raven blinked; not seeing a street sign.

“Are you sure this is the road?” she sputtered.

“Yeah, I’m sure.”

“There’s no name,” she started.

“A lot of the roads aren’t marked; it’s just… just pay attention to where we’re going and we’ll be good.

~~~*~*~*~~~

Mary-Beth was bored. She was very bored.

Not that she didn’t like visiting her mother’s ranch, but she preferred life on Long Island with all her friends, and schooling.

They had come out here though for a few months, because her mom’s right hand man, John Trujillo, who was in charge of the while they were in New York, had called about a problem. Apparently an oil company wanted to take mom’s family land, so the dispute wasn’t pretty.

However, Alice had also managed to invite Rachel here for a weekend; that was a massive feat apparently which had her mother reorganizing and redecorating the guest rooms repeatedly.

The house her family lived in was built by her grandfather Alan, when he had settled in New Mexico. Her grandmother, Oolijee had refused to leave her family lands, so her grandfather had asked to build her a house. It was a massive house, seven bedrooms, five washrooms, plumbing, electricity, a huge kitchen, open porch and massive windows around to see the mountains. It was a nice house, and there were huge stables, and a nice house for the ranch hands to live in too. She knew it was nice, very nice, and well maintained, her grandfather had operated the property into a solid ranch; much to her grandmother’s delight, and kept it prosperous. It was a beautiful property, even her great-grandfather who had held nothing but disdain at best for her grandfather, had been impressed.

Mary looked up from her phone when John appeared at the foot of the stairs leading towards the house.

“Miss Roth,” he said softly.

“Mom’s in the guestrooms preparing for cousin Rachel and her friends,” she said to him. He nodded.

John Trujillo was a very intimidating man, a hard face, with dark eyes. He looked like the warriors of old honestly, even with his long hair styled like a mohawk. She didn’t understand why her mother had hired him, but the man was terrifying. So soft spoken and good with animals. Mary looked out at the expanse of nothing for miles until the mountains and sighed.

She was bored and there was no cell service!

~~~*~*~*~~~

John Trujillo was walking out of the house when an old car pulled up in a cloud of dust. He had gone to Alice because one of the ranch hand’s son had gone missing; Shiye was a good young lad but he was missing all the same, which was something of a concern. Alice had said to take out search parties, but to keep it quiet in case the person who had done the abduction was watching. She had also suggested ramping up security, which he agreed with.

John watched as a young woman got out of the car first. She had many piercings on her ears, that he could see, large sunglasses perched on her nose, long loose black hair that seemed to fall however it pleased around her, and a face of contradictions. She looked like Angela, he thought, and she looked very familiar. He couldn’t place his finger on why she looked familiar but she did.

She walked next to a tall man with red hair and a lean build, who was holding a black hair toddler with bright green eyes.

“Are you sure this is the place Roy?” the woman asked, her voice was a voice meant for seduction. Smokey, graveled, and beautiful, now he recognized her.

The Raven.

It had been many decades since he had last seen her. She was a beautiful young woman, he didn’t need her to remove her glasses to know those dark eyes were raking over him, assessing him to be a threat or alley.

“Well, it’s the right place, cous,” Mary’s voice said behind him.

“It’s nice to see you again Mary-Beth,” the Raven’s voice said smoothly.

“Rachel,” Mary said tightly. “This is mom’s right hand, and the head of the Ranch, John Trujillo,” Mary introduced him. “John, this is Rachel Roth, my Aunt Angela’s daughter.”

“A pleasure to meet you,” the Raven said holding her hand out.

He didn’t touch the empath as he tilted his head a bit in acknowledgement before walking by her. She was a small, slight woman and he saw those dark eyes watch him as walked by.

If the Raven was here then whatever was taking the children wasn’t no damn coyote; he would bet her arrival to mean the supernatural was stirring once again.

~~~*~*~*~~~

Shaggy didn’t struggle under Daphne’s bags as they walked to the car she had rented them to meet up with Fred and Velma.

A lot had changed over the years, but the jobs for PIs never really did. Daphne ran her blog, built her name up as a reporter, while Velma was still into all sorts of science work that he didn’t understand, and Fred was a budding author.

And he… well, when he wasn’t a PI he actually was a chef, at a restaurant he had opened up back in Coolsville. He’d have stayed in Louisiana, but he just couldn’t. Besides, yearly visits to check in on Grimwood Academy were taken and he got to see everything going on down at the plantation. The school had decided to plant Moonscar Island Chili Peppers. He had acquired Moonscar Island after Simone Lenoir’s and Lena Dupree’s ‘disappearance. Special Agent Beau Neville had all but begged him to so no one else got drawn into the weir voodoo.

Shaggy had because his own family’s plantation was close enough that acquiring the island was just an expansion of his plantation.

Yes, he kept his family’s ancient money and plantations a secret from the gang but he didn’t know how they’d look at him if they knew. Daphne knew, but her family was insanely rich and Mayflower old in the states with their wealth. Shaggy’s family was mostly French and had settled in New Oreleans area, it was because his mom married a Yank that he had grown up in Coolsville rather than on the family plantation.

“You’re here!” Fred shouted in glee, Velma smiled.

“We figured we’d pick you up at the airport rather than making you drive all the way up,” Velma said as she got out of the Mystery van.

“RELMA!” Scooby bellowed as he pounced her in glee.

“Thanks!” Daphne said.

“Yeah, thanks!” Shaggy grinned as Fred took some of the bags that belonged to Daphne.

“Just like old times,” Fred said.

“She doesn’t pack less,” Shaggy muttered as they packed up the van. The gang took their normal seats, he was sitting with Scooby as they looked over the custom Scooby snacks Velma had picked up for them.

“It is a weird case, and no one’s digging into it,” Velma said.

“Why not?”

“Alice said they don’t look into reservation problems and there aren’t enough cops on the reservation to look into this, and all the leads are dead ends,” Fred said.

“That’s sad,” Daphne said.

“Yeah,” Shaggy agreed as Scooby’s head rested on his shoulder. He didn’t like solving mysteries, but they did make him feel like he was giving something back to life by solving them.

Despite the PTS, anxiety and his ADHD going off the wall when they worked them.

#bluboothalassophile #fanfic #yee naaldlooshii #hopes for a bastard universe #hopes for a bastard #hopes for a bastard: yee naaldlooshii #roy harper #raven #lian harper #alice roth #mary-beth williams #john trujillo #shaggy rogers #daphne blake #scooby doo #velma dinkley #fred jones #shaphne

[rivertellsstories]

The Tuck family throughout the years

Word count: around 6000

Proofread: ha. Please tell me if there are words missing, it happens a lot

Summary: a prequel to the musical from Mae’s point of view

Warnings: Jesse falls from a tree (starts after ‘that’s just how parenting works’ and ends at ‘it wasn’t like Mae Tuck had never noticed…’)

The first time Mae had really spoken to Angus was when she was a tiny, but feisty eleven year old and he a clumsy twelve year old with two left hands. Of course she knew his name, because in this little town in the west, everybody knew each other.

She had been feeding the chickens on the farm when her father had introduced a gaggle of boys to her. None of them had been farmers’ sons and her father was kind enough to teach these children all about a farmer’s life. When these boys got married, they would probably be marrying into a farmer’s family and it would be a bit late for them to learn how to milk cows then. By letting these boys help him, her father killed two birds with one stone. They got education out of it and he a helping hand.

“Mae, could you tell them what you are doing right now?” The urge to roll her eyes became nearly unbearable, but she decided to be polite. “Feeding the chickens. Does one of you want to help me?” Some of the boys scoffed and one grinned. Typical. The lot of them felt too high and mighty to get mud on their shoes and approach a bunch of stinking birds. She felt sorry for the future wives of these boys.

“I’ll help.” A big boy said and Mae flashed him a smile. While he climbed over the fence and went toward her, she observed him. She noticed how he fiddled with his sleeves and the way he carried himself. Insistently he looked at the floor, as though he was hoping that it would swallow him. She handed him the bucket with food and watched as it slipped from his fingers and crashed onto the ground. Perplexed she blinked a few times and as she stared at him in bewilderment, his face coloured a deep shade of red. He kneeled to get the bucket while simultaneously getting mud on his pants and Mae groaned, while the other boys laughed in the background.

The malicious sound of their laughter made Mae glare into their direction. With her hands on her hips, she yelled: “You lazy bunch of good-for-nothings should shut your traps!” For a moment it shut them up, but then the snickering started again and some of them mimicked her stance while whispering in high-pitched voices. Frustrated, she grabbed Angus’ sleeve and pulled him along to the house. “Let’s get you cleaned up. I can’t handle this much stupid at once, so I’ll come along.” From a distance she could hear her father lecturing the boys and she smiled in satisfaction, though she still hated it that they hadn’t taken her seriously.

A few days after that incident, she ran into Angus again. Well, it was hard to not run into someone if they were in the same class as you. There were around fifty children in their class, all from various ages. The teacher didn’t get a lot done with his enormous group of students, but Mae had learned how to read, write and count so she was pretty much satisfied.

He was seated on the corner of a bench on the last row and the other boys on the bench were trying to shove him off of it. Irritation was painted across his face, but he still said nothing to them. Stubbornly, he kept pushing them back. The whole scene was so damned stupid that Mae couldn’t help but comment on it.

“You know, if you all stop pushing and pulling, you could all sit comfortably on that bench. Hell, I could join you all and there still would be space enough.”

“Are you that desperate to join us sweetheart?” a boy named William leered. Unimpressed she gave him a onceover. “No, I have more class than that. I just saw you all being stupid and thought that it would be kind of me to help you all out.” Immediately after that sentence she turned around and took her usual seat in the front. The whole lesson long, the boys she heard the boys whisper but paid them no mind.

That afternoon, she found herself at the river just outside her town. Those boys had gotten tired of gossiping about her and had taken to tugging on her hair. It had been grating on her nerves, but she was far too proud to even spare them a glance. As she watched the river slowly lapping at the shore, she calmed down. People were and would always, be kind of stupid. Life was just trying to figure out how to deal with all the different kinds of stupid you met.

Behind her, she heard a branch snap and someone breathing a soft “Oh.” As she turned around, she recognized Angus. Her eyebrows shot up in confusion until she saw the fishing rod in his hand and remembered that he was the son of a fisher. He gave her an awkward wave and said: “I’ll leave if you want me to.”

She tilted her head in confusion. “Why would I want that? I don’t own this place.” He shrugged. “I feel like we’ve ran into each other an absurd amount of times this past week and I didn’t want to make you feel uncomfortable. I swear I’m not following you around.”

“That’s considerate of you. Your presence doesn’t bother me, so feel free to…” she gestured at the river. “fish or something.” Nervously he nodded and picked at his shirt. “I’m not very good at doing things when people are watching me.”

“Well then”, Mae said and a smile tugged on her lips,“ I suppose that you’ll have to get used to my presence then. Let’s be friends.” She mimicked tipping a non-existent hat. “Mae Miller, pleasure to meet you.” He curtsied clumsily and she laughed. “Angus Tuck at your service.”

-

Over the years, Angus and Mae became regular appearances at each other’s houses. Angus had become quite skilled at feeding chickens by then and James, Angus’ father, had dubbed Mae an expert fisherwoman. Seventeen year old Angus had also grown out of his gangly awkwardness and had become, as Mae’s mother put it, a most handsome and capable young man. Mae had snorted at that comment and Angus had kicked her underneath the table.

Angus’ mother had called Mae a gentle and most beautiful lady. Angus had laughed out loud at that and she had chased him around his house with a fishing rod. Just as she thought she had cornered him, he opened the door and escaped. She could have given up at that moment, but stubborn as she was, she let out a war cry and followed her friend.

At the river, they collapsed underneath a tree. As she laid her head on his shoulder, she gave him a half-assed tap on the head with the fishing rod. “You deserve that. For being mean.”

She got a snort in return. “Excuse you. You also made fun of me when your mom complimented me.” With a smile dancing around her lips, she squished his cheeks. “It’s not that I don’t agree with my mother. You are a most handsome man, but it’s the ‘capable’ part that got me. I got instant flashbacks to our first meeting.”

Groaning, he laid his head upon hers. “Erase that from your memory please. Forget it ever happened.” As she answered him with a: “No way, that’s my best memory of you”, he got up and took the rod out of her hand. With fondness she watched as he wrote with it on the wet riverside. Angus loved to write poems on the wet sand and watch the water erase it forever. Mae held this knowledge close to her heart and wondered if he would ever tell her what he wrote down. She could never decipher his writing but hoped that maybe one day, he would tell her.

Suddenly, a smug smile broke through his pensive demeanour. “So you think I’m handsome huh?” For a moment she was confused as to what he was talking about. Then it hit her and she shrugged. “Duh, I have eyes.” She’s not going to stroke his ego by blushing and stuttering, though she felt like her heart was going to leap right out of her chest. “But I’m not the only one. If I have to listen to Catherine Davis talking about you one more time, I will fling myself into this river.”

The annoyance on her face made him laugh. “I suppose you don’t have the trouble of people talking like that about me.” He shrugged. “It’s not like I’ve got many friends beside you, Mae.”

“Even if you did, I doubt that they had anything nice to say about the redheaded goblin girl.” With a frown on his face, he sat down beside her and jostled their shoulders together. “Hey, hey. What’s that face for?” he asked as he gently poked her cheek. “I don’t know”, she said listlessly as she held a fiery red curl between her fingertips. “I just feel…less than the other girls. I feel as though I’m too annoying, as though my laugh is ugly and my hair too red. I feel as though being less visually appealing makes me less of a human being to other people.”

She let out a choked laugh. “Isn’t that funny?” she asked with tears brimming her eyes. “Mae Miller” he breathed and wrapped his arms around her. Immediately she buried her face in his chest and hoped that he wouldn’t notice that she was crying. But her shoulders jolted as she sobbed and he hugged her tighter. Being in his arms was warm and soothing and slowly she calmed down.

As she withdrew herself from his arms, she apologized. “Sorry. That was a bit overdramatic of me, I believe.” The sentence made him glower. “Like hell it was. You listen to me Mae Miller and listen well. First off, whoever made you feel this way can go to hell. Second off, sometimes you are annoying, but you annoy me in the best way possible. You’re fierce, stubborn and gentle at the same time and it’s amazing. Thirdly, your laugh isn’t ugly. You may sounds like a dying pig, but it’s cute I swear. And lastly, your are gorgeous.”

In the way he set his jaw, she knew that he was ready to argue about it for hours if needed. “I’ll accept that I’m awesome”, she said and Angus pumped his arm in victory. “But I stand by the fact that red is an ugly colour.” When she saw his raised eyebrow, she knew that he had taken the sentence as a challenge. “I’ll make you eat those words”, he promised her.

It was barely six in the morning and someone was tapping on her window. Confused and still sleepy, she got out of bed and walked towards her window. When she saw Angus’ face, she looked at the fishing rod on her wall. It had been a gift for her twelfth birthday. She hadn’t been friends with Angus that long at that point and he had been quite clueless about what to give her. Over the years the rod had become an object that she connected with fond memories. It would be a shame if she broke it while whacking Angus over the head with it, but it would also be a beautiful tribute to their friendship. The handing over of the fishing rod would become a full cycle as it got reunited with its first owner.

Sighing deeply, she opened the window. “What are you doing here? The sun isn’t even up yet.” He gave her a self-satisfied smirk. “Exactly. Now get some clothes on and come with me. I promise it’ll be worth it.” The protest died in her throat as she heard the excitement in his voice. “Give me twenty minutes”, she groaned.

Twenty minutes later, she and Angus were sitting on a hill, a blanket underneath them and a basket between them. “Angus, what are we doing here?” she asked and he shushed her. “Wait”, he told her and passed her some bread from the basket. As she slowly munched on the fresh loaf of bread, the sun started to rise.

A gentle red coloured the sky and Mae forgot to breathe for a moment. Soon other colours followed and various shades of red, orange and yellow danced across the sky. The chill morning air and the chirping of birds, combined with the taste and smell of fresh bread turned this sunrise magical in a way that Mae would never be able to describe. “Oh Angus”, she sighed. “This is stunning.” As he watched sunbeams highlight her freckles and morning light set her red hair ablaze, he breathed a quiet: “Yeah.”

-

Angus’ eighteenth birthday was coming up and Mae had a vague idea about what to get him. The only problem was that to get her gift, she had to leave town. To make the surprise bigger, she decided to not tell Angus that she would be gone for a few days.

When she returned, she had a hard time finding him. This was both confusing and worrisome at the same time, because she thought that knew Angus well enough to tell where he would be by now. What was even weirder to her, was the fact that Angus’ mother had refused to talk to her and had slammed the door as soon as she saw Mae.

There was one place she hadn’t checked yet and she felt kind of dumb when she found Angus there. Of course he would be at the river, scratching poems into the mud. She frowned when she saw the bitter expression on his face. “Hey Angus, what’s going on?” she yelled and when he turned to face her, she saw tears on his face. Within seconds, she had his face in her hands. “Who?” she asked furiously. “I thought you decided that I wasn’t worth the effort anymore”, he confessed. “I thought you left.” While swallowing her own tears down, she reassured that she wouldn’t, hell she couldn’t, would never be able to leave him. “Angus Tuck, you’re one of a kind. There’s no way you’ll ever get rid of me.” She pressed a packet into his hands. “I was actually getting this for you. Eighteen tomorrow huh?” With shaking hands he opened the present, unveiling a sketchbook and a set of pencils. “Now you can write your poems down, if you want to.” He stared at the present for a long time and Mae started to get worried. “Angus? You alright?” He threw his arms around her and spun her around enthusiastically. “Mae Miller, you’re amazing.”

-

“Mae, I need your help”, nineteen year old Angus said as he stormed into her house. She looked up from the table she had been setting and saw her friend wiping his undoubtedly sweaty hands on his trousers. “Hello Angus”, Mae’s mom chirped and gave her daughter an big wink. Mae stared at her mom in utter confusion before turning towards her friend. “Whose body do I need to bury?” she asked grinning and her mother bristled. Angus ignored Mae’s mother and blurted: “Teach me how to dance.”

For a moment she was confused, but then she remembered that within a week the spring festival would be held. “Angus you sly dog”, she grinned. “Are you planning on asking a girl to dance on the last night of the spring festival?” Asking someone to dance with you then, was like asking their hand in marriage. He nodded. “Yes. I’m planning on asking the best girl of all.” The words made something inside of Mae twist and churn, but she decided to ignore it. “Well then big boy, auntie Mae will make sure that you don’t stomp on her feet too often.”

“Angus, what are you doing?” “Dancing” he huffed in a frustrated manner. He was getting impatient but there was no way that Mae was allowing him to enter the dance floor with his current skills. She told him that he was dancing off beat and he grumbled that there was no beat to be off to. “Wait a minute”, she said and let go of his hands. When she returned, she had a music box in her hands. “Here’s your beat.”

Admittedly, it went way better with the gentle music playing in the background. “You’re doing rather well”, she told him and he grinned. “Should I try anything fancy? Maybe dip you or something?” “Absolutely not”, she laughed. Twirling through the living room with Angus’ arms around her felt pleasant. His body was warm against hers and she swore that she could feel his heartbeat. When their eyes met, she shivered and the grip he had on her tightened the tiniest bit. “I think you’ll do great”, she managed to say and pulled back. “Good luck with asking your girl.”

The evening of the dance Mae pestered Angus to go seek his girl. “Man up Angus Tuck and ask her!” He gave her a confident nod and strode away and came right back. “Angus, what are you?” Mae stared in confusion until he held his hand out. “May I have this dance?” For a moment she was completely and utterly speechless. Then she threw herself into his arms with a dazzling smile. “Yes Angus. I personally give you permission to ruin my toes again. I love you, you big doofus.” Before they got to the dancing part, they were already kissing.

-

There was something different about todays twenty year old Angus Tuck and Mae couldn’t put her finger on what exactly it was. He had been grinning and smiling all day and whenever she asked about it, he rebuffed it. Her and his parents seemed to be in on it as well and they wouldn’t give anything away either. It was frustrating to say the least.

Seeing her mother’s music box in Angus’ hands was what finally gave away what was about to happen. Her mother had told her how Mae’s grandmother had given it to her daughter’s future husband. The day of the ceremony itself, Mae’s father had given it to her mother. Now, Mae’s mother had given it to Angus and Mae couldn’t be happier.

It was late in the evening and Angus had taken her to the river. Out of his pocket he got the sketchbook she had given him for his eighteenth birthday. This was the first time he allowed her to read one of his poems and anticipation built in her chest as he started to speak.

“April’s kiss, our very first

May there be more to come

In true love I’ve been immersed

And each day, I’ll give you some

You knew it all along

So did I

It was plain to see

April, May, June, July

A Sunday when the chapel’s free

True love is in short supply

Darling Mae,

Marry me”

“Yes” she breathed and kissed her future husband deeply. “Gods yes.”

-

The news spread fast. Everywhere they went, be it alone or together, people wished them luck with their future marriage and although she got these wishes on a daily basis, she never got tired of them. People whom she had known all her life were congratulating her and it filled her with warmth. Girls who had been in her class stopped her on the street, smiling as they told her about their own wedding and older ladies and mothers told her all about the joys of motherhood. She welcomed every piece of advice about that topic with open arms.

Angus got winks and secretive smiles from the other villagers as well. He went a step further than she did and actively sought out older, married woman to ask them how to be a good husband and listened intently as grandmothers told him fondly about all the little things that made starting your own family so enjoyable.

“Last chance to run lad” an older man had said and Angus had shot him a confused look. “You’re getting tied down soon buddy, this is your last chance to run. Run, or its bye bye freedom and hello to your wife.”, he clarified and Angus had smiled wide. “Wife.” He repeated, letting the word roll around in his mouth before he repeated it louder with a beaming smile. “I’m getting married!” he yelled and ran towards her, picked her up and spun her around. “I’m getting married and you’ll be my wife. I will be your husband.” He was stating obvious facts, but the giddy and obviously elated way he did it, made Mae grin as well. “Indeed. Mae Tuck has a nice ring to it, doesn’t it?” Angus didn’t stop smiling for the rest of that day.

It was a night in November when they tied the knot and Mae spent the day drunk on utter happiness. She remembered her mother braiding a blackberry bow into her hair, whispering about how her child was growing up. The tears were evident in her voice and Mae had forbidden her from crying with tears in her own eyes. “No crying on my wedding”, she choked out. Mother and daughter hugged before she walked down aisle.

The one who broke the no crying at the wedding rule first was not her mother, but her husband to be himself. As they met before the altar, she gently wiped away the tears on his cheeks. “If you start crying, I’m going to cry too. Stop that you doofus.” He gave her a watery smile. “I’m just so damn happy.” As tears streamed down her face, she chuckled. “Me too.”

They exchanged their vows and had to keep themselves from giggling while doing it. When she was fifteen she had told Angus that vows were stupid and he had agreed. She had it elegantly put it this way: “I don’t give a damn about what he promises me in front of a priest. It’s the everyday life that’ll make me appreciate my future husband, not his fancy words at an event that happens only once in our lives.”

“Mae Tuck”, he started and gave himself to smile about it. “Mae Tuck”, he repeated “You’ve grown on me. Or rather, you stubbornly attached yourself to me and never let go. I love and admire you and I don’t think anything will change that. I look forward to building a life and family together with you, I look forward to waking up next to you, I look forward to…you. And I always will.”

She opened with: “My dearest husband” and Angus gasped at that. God, she loved him. “I look forward to looking back.” The sentence seemed to confuse him, so she explained: “One day when I’m old and grey, I’ll be sitting in a rocking chair as our children and our grandchildren play in our garden. I’ll take your hand like this.” She gently his hand and squeezed it. “and reminiscence about everything we’ve done together. I can’t wait till that day, where I can’t tell my grandchildren about all the times you’ve made me happy in one afternoon, because there will be way too many.”

The two of them were so busy staring at each other that they barely heard the priest say: “You may now kiss the bride.” The kiss they shared was one they would cherish forever.

That night her father danced with her and told her this was one of the best moments of his life and Mae couldn’t agree more.

-

Roughly nine months later, Angus knocked on the Miller’s door in a state of panic. As Sarah, Mae’s mother, opened the door, he gasped: Mae’s giving birth. Please help.“ Within minutes a bunch of older women were helping his wife. They had tried to get him out of the room but he had refused. "Like hell I’ll leave her alone right now”, she heard him say and she giggled through the pain.

A long nine hours later, she was tired out of her mind and her both her husband and new-born were crying. Between his tears he managed to say: “Another milestone in our relationship.” He looked at her with shimmering eyes. “Let’s call him that.” She sat herself up and glared at her husband. “Angus, we’re not calling our son milestone.” He shook his head. “No not milestone, have a bit more faith in me. Miles. Let’s call our boy Miles.” That night she fell asleep with her little Miles tucked between her and her husband.

Miles definitely took more after her than after Angus. But he was way more himself than he was either of them. The stubbornness, that was all her and his studiousness was definitely from Angus’ side. But the things that made Miles unmistakably Miles were his blunt and sharp words. He was polite (they raised their boy right after all), but not interested in faking interest in people or topics he wasn’t interested in. He said exactly what was on his mind and it was both frustrating and endearing.

Five years later, they were blessed with another child. A few days before the child was born, Miles decided that he was going to hate ‘it’ with all his might. The then family of three had sat together and she and Angus had pried until they knew why Miles was so intent on hating his future sibling. “Lizzie says that parents make another child because they aren’t happy with the first.” Her son burst into tears after that and she placed him on her lap and hugged him close. “Oh honey, that’s not true at all. I love you dearly. Daddy and I just thought it would be swell for you to have someone to play with.”

“I already have Rose to play with”, he sulked, “and I’m five and babies are…not.”

Her husband kissed their son on the forehead. “That’s true Miles. But the baby will take a lot of attention and you can help if you want to. Also, never doubt that mommy and I love you. If you ever feel like we’re ignoring you or you want attention, just tug on one of our sleeves. We’re here for you Miles and we’ll always be.”

Miles hiccupped and nodded. “Okay then. I’ll judge it-” “them”, she corrected her son and he pulled a pouty face. “It”, he stubbornly continued. “When it’s born. Acceptable?” It wasn’t ideal, but at least he was willing to compromise. “Acceptable.”

Another baby boy joined the family, Angus cried again and Miles watched his little brother with distaste. “He’s…” Miles seemed to be considering his next words carefully. “Jucky”, he decided and her husband messed up his hair. “We have to wash him dummy.” Miles exited the room immediately with the sentence: “Good luck dad.”

Later that day, Miles climbed on her bed again and watched his brother with curious eyes. “He’s less jucky now”, he said and poked the baby’s cheek. At that moment, he opened his eyes and he and Miles stared at each other. Miles broke the silence. “He can’t do a lot, can he? He’s tiny, dumb and immobile. I’ll have to take very good care of him, don’t I?” Although he had insulted his brother, she heard the affection in his voice and silently, she was proud of him. “What’s his name?” Miles asked, still looking at his sibling. “Daddy and I thought that it would be nice if you chose a name for him.” Miles looked at her in surprise. “Really?” She nodded in confirmation and Miles pondered over it. “Jesse then. His name is Jesse.” The name rung a bell in the back of her mind, but she didn’t know exactly where she had heard the name before. “Jesse is a wonderful name, Miles. Thank you.”

A few days later, Mae left the house with Jesse in her arms. As she exited the door, she heard Rose, their neighbours’ five year old, yell: “Jesse, come here! Here, Jesse, here!” Totally confused she looked at her son in her arms and then she scanned the surroundings. When she laid eyes on Miles, Rose and Rose’s dog, everything fell into place. “MILES TUCK” she screamed. “TELL ME YOU DIDN’T NAME YOUR BROTHER AFTER YOUR NEIGHBOUR’S DOG!“ The guilty look in his eyes told her everything she needed to know.

Jesse and Miles couldn’t be any more different, but Mae Tuck loved her boys nonetheless. Jesse was a naïve kid with an ever-present smile on his face, ready to believe everything people tried to sell him. Miles was a natural scowling sceptic, but both boys shared a curious nature. The could bicker for hours but if both of them wanted to know or do something, they got it done in record time.

-

The year Miles and Jesse turned twenty-two and seventeen respectively, they left their little town in the west to settle in the east. Miles had been grumpy for the whole journey and Jesse wouldn’t stop pestering him. She suspected that Miles’ foul mood was because he had to leave Rose behind. The two had been steadily growing closer and she felt sorry for her oldest son, but their farm had gone up in flames and they had wanted to move eastward for years.

When they were the thirstiest they had been during the trip, they stumbled upon a spring. Before she could stop him, Jesse jumped straight into it. Miles had a little more reservation and kneeled down to drink. While he was drinking, Jesse pulled him into the spring as well and both boys started to fight like little children. Mae watched them with a fond smile and decided to drink as well. Next to her Angus sighed and joined his family as well. The worst this spring could probably do was get one of them sick for a week.

-

Barely a year later, Miles and Rose were reunited. It had been a lazy Monday evening when somebody had knocked on their door. “I’ll get it”, Miles had sighed and when he opened the door, Rose had kissed him smack dab on the lips. For the first time in her life, Mae saw her oldest completely speechless. Her husband snorted in amusement and told Miles: “Let the lady in, you fool. I raised you better than this.” Miles nodded dumbly and stuttering, he offered her a chair.

That evening Rose told them that her old town held no future for her, so she decided to leave. “That town didn’t have what I wanted, so I decided to look for my fortune somewhere else”, she said as she slyly eyed Miles, who turned an interesting shade of red. “That fortune being my brother’s-” “JESSE”

It came as a surprise to nobody when Miles and Rose showed up with matching rings and smiles. With tear-filled eyes she congratulated them and kissed her son and daughter on their cheeks.

The day of the marriage, she braided her own blackberry bow into Rose’s hair. The girl’s own mother didn’t approve of her daughter’s actions and had decided that she wanted to break ties with her daughter. “Rose darling, I want you to know that, even though I wasn’t the one who gave birth to you, you are my daughter and you will always be. You’re a Tuck now and Tuck ties are everlasting. The young woman kissed her cheek and whispered: "Thank you mom. I love you.”

When Thomas was born, Mae saw Angus in Miles more than ever. Just like her husband, her son cried as he held his new-born child and through his tears he smiled and vowed to do everything in his power to protect his child. Jesus Christ, she was a grandmother now.

Everything was perfect and Mae found herself wishing that this moment would last forever.

-

Miles was a loving, but strict parent. Every day he taught Thomas new things and the lessons always started at twelve o'clock sharp. Today, the bouncy seven year old had managed to escape out of his father’s clutches and ran away screaming, Miles hot on his trail. The two of them zoomed through the garden and Thomas yelled for Jesse’s help. Never one to say no to his nephew, Jesse ran past Thomas, gave him a quick high-five and ran straight towards his older brother. “You’re going down Miles!” he screeched as he tackled him to the ground. Thomas had also turned around and just like Jesse, he sat down on his father.

“Dad, we’ve got you! No more lessons for me!” the kid whooped and Miles groaned. “Oh no, I’ve been caught” Miles sighed and played dead. “Noooooo!!!!” Thomas squawked. “You can’t die daddy. Never!” From beneath his son and brother Miles wheezed: “That’s a bit hard kiddo. But I’ll promise you this: I will always be there for you.” Thomas looked at his father with the wide eyed look all children seemed to possess up to a certain age. “Promise?” he asked and Miles pushed Jesse of his body and snuggled his son close. “Promise buddy.”

Something unreadable crossed over Rose’s face, who had been watching the scene unfold as well. “Something wrong, honey?” Mae asked and Rose shook her head. “No, just thinking.” Mae watched her with curiosity. “Worrying that hard will give you wrinkles, love.” Rose looked at her husband and son and she seemed to make a decision in her head. “I was just thinking that I would do anything to keep Thomas safe.” Mae gave her an affectionate pat on the head. “You and Miles both, love. That’s just how parenting works.”

-

Everything seemed fine until Jesse fell from the tree in Miles’ backyard and as she caught the moment her youngest son’s body made contact with the ground with a sickening sound, she screamed. Within seconds, she was seated beside him and as she lifted his upper body from the ground, his head lolled back lifelessly. With shaking fingers, Miles reached out towards Jesse. “Mom?” his voice sounded so small and instantly she was reminded of him and Jesse playing as children in their old yard. “Mom is he…” Miles couldn’t get the word ‘dead’ over his lips. Rose, who hadn’t seen what happened came closer. “What is going-oh my god.” She softly tucked a few strands of bloodstained blond hair behind his ear. “Jesse”, she breathed and Mae could hear the pain and sadness Rose felt as she looked at her younger brother’s body. Mae herself felt numb. There was no way that Jesse, her youngest, was gone already right?

With a cough, Jesse shot up. “Fuck!” he yelped. “That hurt!” While he was busy spitting out blood, the realisation that he had survived falling from a great height while landing on his head. The same disbelief was painted over Miles’ and Rose’s faces, but what could they do?

-

It wasn’t like Mae Tuck had never noticed that she looked really good for her age. This seemed to be a shared family trait, as her husband and sons seemed to be ageless as well. It could be considered a blessing, until the moment Jesse barely looked older than Thomas and Rose had almost as much grey hairs as Mae herself.

-

One day, Mae came home to her oldest sitting at her dinner table, hands in his dark brown hair. “Miles?” she called out and when he looked up, his face crumpled and he broke into tears. “They’re gone.” She wished that she didn’t immediately know what he was talking about. Rose had done what she considered the best for her child.

Hopelessly, she tried to console him. At that moment, Jesse entered the room with dishevelled clothes and rapidly healing bruises on his face. Without him telling her, she knew that he had taken a fall again. She didn’t want to think about the fact that it may not have been a fall at all.

As she sat there with her boys in her arms and her husband nowhere in sight (he was probably sleeping again. As of late, thathad been happening a lot), she hoped that time would heal their wounds. Time. They had plenty of it now and Mae wondered if it was worth it.

#tuck everlasting #tuck everlasting musical #mae tuck #angus tuck #miles tuck #jesse tuck #thomas tuck #rose tuck #fanfic #rivers stuff

[assbuttyourlife]

When We Were Young - Chapter Sixteen

Pairing : Misha/OFC

Warnings : Language, Fire, trauma, PTSD, family members’ death (including child), therapy, flashbacks (not in every chapter), injuries, cheating. Long fic. Angst, fluff, Smut. Mention of suicide.

Words : 5794

Summary : After her grandmother’s funeral, Lily must return to the place she lived in when she was young and has to confront the ghosts of her past. She will run into an old friend that she thought was lost forever.

WWWY Masterlist

AO3 link

CHAPTER 16 - UNDER THE STARS

Lily and Misha spent the afternoon at Brook Park, exploring all the places they used to hang out on, the waterfall near the wooden bridge being their favorite spot. They used to come here often during the weekend, even when the weather was not very good, sometimes with their families to enjoy a barbecue together, but most of the time just the two of them so they could fool around without being caught. As they sat on a big flat stone in the river, Lily explained to Misha that this was where she'd read her grandmother's letter, Katie by her side. She remembered her words : Take your time... Don't do anything that doesn't feel right, and when he asked her if selling the estates felt right to her, she had to admit it didn't, but she didn't know what else to do. He promised he would help her figure it out if she needed to, suggesting a few ideas about what she could do with the houses, but she clearly wasn't convinced. For dinner, they went to eat at their favorite restaurant. It was a small and cozy place in town, and they were amazed to see the people who owned it back then were still the same and remembered them perfectly. That's also where they learnt that every person who knew Lily's family in town thought they all died in the fire. Mrs Jones, the old lady who cooked, even had to get out of her kitchen to check if she heard right when her daughter told her Lily and Misha were here.

“I knew I wasn't crazy! I saw you on TV once and when I said to Catherine 'it's the Krushnic boy!' she said I was crazy because you were supposed to be dead, but I knew it!”

Lily laughed quietly. She hadn't changed a bit! She always had been very straightforward and told what she thought when she thought it, which often leaded to awkward situations.

“Aw look at you, you're so handsome! And even rich now, from what I understood!” She winked at Misha.

Yeah... Just as Lily predicted... awkward. But she wasn't done, she turned to Lily and cupped her flushing face.

“I thought I would never see this pretty face again! You look so much like your mother! You haven't changed that much... except that weird hair color but whatever.”

Misha snorted and hid his mouth with his hand to not show he wanted to laugh.

“What are you doing now, Lily?” Mrs Jones sat at a table and asked them to join her, while her daughter brought them some drinks.

“I'm a professional violinist at the Seattle Symphony Orchestra.”

The old lady clapped her hand in excitement.

“Oooh that's lovely! I remember you played in the school orchestra indeed! So what brings you busy heads back in our quiet little town?”

Misha was very quiet, but he really enjoyed this little reunion.

“We're actually here to... umm... move on and maybe find some answers. What happened in 1990 is still very blurry for us.” Lily explained.

Mrs Jones was very surprised to learn that they found each other back only a few months ago.

“Really? It didn't tilt when you saw that handsome face in your TV?”

Lily almost sarcastically thanked her for reminding her that she wasted years with Misha because of this, but she knew the old lady meant well.

“I don't... watch TV that much.” She replied shyly and cleared her throat.

Misha decided it was time to step in the conversation to avoid more awkwardness.

“Any chance you could clarify a few details about the night of the fire or what happened next?”

She looked up and squinted her eyes, visibly trying to remember anything she could. "There was an article in the local newspaper the day after it happened. It clearly said that no one from the Hagen family survived. It was a little more vague about your family, Misha, because they didn't clearly name you, but it was obvious for the people who knew you at the time that you all passed. I still have the article if you wanna read it."

Lily glanced at him and nodded.

“That would help us a lot, Mrs Jones. Thank you!”

The old woman asked her daughter to go get the box where she kept every articles about the people she knew (which was a lot!), and finally found what she was seeking and handed it to Lily who put it down on the table between her and Misha so he could read too.

NORTHFIELD : TRAGIC OUTCOME IN HAGEN'S FARM

By Leslie Shepherd.

Fire crews have left the scene of a devastating fire in Hagen's Farm's main house. Half of the property was destroyed.

The fire was extinguished at 6.30am after burning for roughly an hour.

Three persons were taken to hospital to be treated for smoke inhalation and fire wounds, but saddly succumbed to their injuries later in the morning.

The fire is not being treated as suspicious.

We all will remember the Hagen's Family thanks to the very respected Simon Hagen who devoted his whole life to make our county a better place, especially for our children.

His wife, Bethany, is now the last member of this beloved family, as her daughter-in-law Mary (42), granddaughter Elise (16) and grandson Ryan (6) were found dead when the fire crew arrived.

The article was short, but full of lies! Who the hell was so eager to see them all dead and spread that stupid rumor ruining their lives in the process? Misha swore to her he would find out.

Reading this crap made Lily's anger grow.

“They didn't even mention you or any member of your family!”

Misha looked at her and couldn't hide his bitterness.

“You were part of the respected family, we were just nobody. I'm not surprised. But I don't look so bad for someone who succumbed to my injuries in the hospital, right?”

He took a photo of the article with his phone, knowing his mom and Sasha would want to read it too.

“I would really love to find that Leslie Shepherd to ask who she had her information from.”

Lily had to admit she was curious too and the idea was tempting, but they were supposed to go back home the next day and probably would have no time to go to the newspaper's offices.

Mrs Jones stood up to head back to her kitchen.

“I will help you if you need to. I was very sad to know Bethany was all alone when obviously it wasn't true.”

Lily thanked the old woman and quickly explained what they did and where they went after the fire, and they finally ordered their meal.

They ate quickly and went to buy camping supplies before going back to the farm. Thankfully, it was late August, the days were still long, so it wasn't dark when they arrived. Misha parked the car at the end of the road, near the wooden sign, and they were now standing on the cross path between the pond and the cottage, with their suitcases and all of their stuff. "So... Where do you wanna sleep?" Misha asked playfully, the excitement in his voice was almost palpable. "I already know what you're gonna reply, but I'd say in safety inside the cottage?" He glanced at her sideways with a smirk. "And what am I going to reply, smartass?" She lowered her voice trying to imitate his sarcastic tone, puppetting her hand and lolling her head at the same time. "Oh come on, Lily that's the easy way, where is your adventurous side? We need to sleep in the cold night among the spiders and the rats!" He burst out laughing at her lame imitation. "Bats and Raccoons too!" He mocked. She slapped his arm.

"I hate ya! What other crazy plan do you propose?" He rubbed his arm, pretending she hurt him. "No need for such violence! I thought we could just lay on the grass in the house's backyard or something. Or maybe near the willow tree? Like we did for your twelfth birthday, you know... back when you weren't a woosie..." "Oh right, I remember that night. I particularly enjoyed the snake paying me a visit in my sleeping bag. Good times!" His brows raised and his face lightened with a huge grin. "Are you sure it was a snake?" She frowned and innocently looked at him, confused. "What else could it b-" She paused and opened her mouth wide, inhaling in shock. "Oh you dog! We were way too young for that!" He laughed, crinkling his nose which accentuated his wrinkles and she couldn't help smiling back at him, thinking it was the cutest thing she'd ever seen. He had always been cute, or at least that's what she thought, but he really aged up well. Misha started to walk towards the pond and she followed, dragging her feet. "Remind me to take a smaller suitcase next time!" She huffed carrying all of her stuff and pulling at her suitcase. "Stop complaining, we're almost there!" "Why did we take all of our stuff with us since we're going to sleep outside anyway?" "Because rule number one: Never let anything behind in a car, especially when it's a rental car." When they arrived at the pond, Misha put his stuff down in the small waterfront cabin. " Right, because leaving our stuff in the nature like that is so much safer..." "Lily..." She heard his threatening voice and stopped settling her bags to turn around and look at him, not liking this tone too much. As soon as she made eye contact, he grabbed her by the hips and lifted her on his shoulder. "You will learn to behave."

Oh no not again!

He walked towards the small pier and she understood what he had in mind. "Oh my god, Misha, no! I'm sorry! I will be nice! Promise!" He kept walking with her struggling on his shoulder, slapping his back. "Noooo!!! Please! I'm so so sorry! I won't complain anymore! It's gross in there!! I'll stink like rotten mud!!" He ignored her protest and her kicks. "It's called nature scent. You'll fit in perfectly after that, animals won't bother you tonight.”

When he stepped on the pier, he tried to lift her to throw her in the water but she gripped tight on his shirt, almost ripping it.

“Please noooooooo! I'll do what you want! It's full of frogs and fishes and... Oh god please no!!”

“Yeah, and sharks. I can't be bought, no need to bargain.”

He managed to grab her wrists to keep her from clinging to him, and he finally threw her in the cold dark green and smelly water. She splashed in it in a glorious “Aaahhhh!” and Misha took his phone out while she was swimming in the surface, swiping her sticky hair out of her face and spiting water in a cough.

That was priceless!

He was breathless but he managed to laugh anyway.

“You're dead, Krushnic! Oh Jesus fucking Christ, it's fucking cold... and gross!”

She couldn't get out of the water by the pier that was too high, and as the water was deep where they were, she had to swim to reach for the beach and get out.

Misha was still on the pier with his phone in his hand.

“Don't take pictures!!” she yelled.

He chuckled.

“I'm not!”

“I see you! Oh god you better run fast because when I get out- AAAAAAAAAAAH!!! I felt something on my leg!!!”

“It's a shark! Swim faster!” He was now giggling hysterically.

Lily ran out of the water and laid on the grass a few seconds to catch her breath, before standing up and walking towards Misha with a deadly look on her face.

“Put that damn phone away!”

“Say hi, you're live!”

She froze. “WHAT???”

Oh no he didn't...

“2568 people watching right now. They say hi, by the way!”

She ran next to him and tried to catch his phone, but of course he extended his arm high up to film from above, and as he was much taller, she couldn't reach it despite her jumps.

“Alright guys, I got a situation here, I gotta go. Wish me luck. Bye!”

Misha ended the livestream and threw his phone in his pocket.

As they were still on the pier, Lily suddenly pushed him, but he resisted and her attempt to give him the same treatment failed miserably. He ran away from the pier but she followed. She kept chasing him as they were now running up the path towards the cottage, but she forgot he was a fast runner and she soon got out of breath.

She had an idea though...

When he turned to look back at her, she pretended to fall and stayed down, trying to catch her breath. He immediately stopped in his track and ran back.

“Lily!” He screamed, worried she might've hurt herself.

Oh Misha... SO predictable!

He crouched down when he was next to her. She sat on the grass and gave him a devilish gaze.

“You're weak, Krushnic...”

He understood she played him and winced.

“And you... have a tiny frog on your shoulder.”

She jumped.

“AAAAAAAHHH!!!! GET IT OFF!!!”

She looked at her shoulders but saw nothing. When she turned back at Misha, he was laying down holding his stomach, laughing his ass off.

“What are you, twelve?”

“You deserved it. I told you, you will learn to behave.”

She looked down at herself and pouted.

“I'm wet.”

All Misha could answer was “Mmmh...” suggestively, so she squinted at him and turned back to reach the waterfront cabin and go change.

While she was busy changing into a dry pair of jeans and a sailor shirt, Misha found the main power switch and tried to turn it on because the night was now falling fast so they'd soon be in the dark. It surprisingly worked after a few tries, and the lights around the pound and inside the cabin turned on.

“I'm impressed, MacGyver!”

He smirked but didn't say anything, searching through the bags he brought from the store.

“I think we need a little treat now.” He triumphantly showed the marshmallow pack.

“Oooh... sounds great. How do you plan to do that?”

“Well... we need a fire.”

From all the stupid things he said since she knew him, it was probably the lamest.

“You can't be serious.”

He stopped picking up rocks from the ground to stare into her eyes.

“Deadly.”

Was he pushing her to fight or something? She really didn't like that idea!

“This is the stupidest idea of all time.”

“Why? Just because you're scared?”

She scoffed. “I'm not!”

He arranged a few rocks into a circle and put some wood and dry herbs inside before searching his bag for a lighter.

“Yeah, you are!”

She looked around her... They were in the nature, among grass and dry herbs and trees, what could go wrong?

“Okay maybe I am... but have you looked around you? That's a bad idea.”

“I know what I'm doing.” He replied while crouching down.

He lighted the fire and when she saw the flames and smelled the smoke, she panicked and said the meanest, cruelest and dumbest thing ever, regretting it the second it split out of her mouth.

“If it turns bad, I'll let you burn this time.”

Stunned, Misha stood up and looked away from the fire to stare at her and shake his head, only to see her with both her hands slapped on her mouth and her eyes wide open, a look of horror in her glassy green eyes.

“I'm sorry... Misha...” she whispered shamefully and stepped closer to him. “I didn't mean that.”

It was so awful and she felt so bad when she saw the pain on his face that the tears she tried to hold back suddenly burst forth like water from a dam, running down her face. She wrapped her arms around his waist and hugged him tight, hands clutching at his shirt, burring her face in his chest and talking between loud sobs, barely able to form words.

“Misha, I'm s-so s-sorry... I d-don't know w-what-...”

Misha sighed and closed his eyes, his chin resting on top of her head. He wrapped his arms around her shoulders and shushed her.

“I know. It's fine, Lily.”

He slowly rocked her as her tears were soaking his shirt, and it soothed her immediately. She felt a bit better, feeling the warmth of his muscular chest and hearing his steady heartbeat and breath.

He pulled back just enough to take her chin in his right hand and lift it up so she could look at him, not breaking their embrace. His heart broke a little when he saw her crumpled face all wet from her tears. He could see how heavy the load of fear and guilt was in her reddened eyes.

He leaned down his head and left a quick but very soft kiss on her lips. She shut her eyes tight and leaned to kiss him back desperately, deepening it a little while cupping his face between her shaky hands.

She broke the kiss and sank into his blue eyes.

“I'm a monster.” She whispered holding his gaze.

He sniffed and smirked.

“I'll call you Nessy then... you sure smell like it.”

She had forgotten she was bathing in the smelly pond just a few minutes ago. She pulled back from his embrace very fast to smell her arm skin.

“Damn! I'll be back...”

She ran to the cabin and searched for the wipes she luckily carried everywhere, and after using almost all of them, she finally smelled better and went back to the beach where Misha was sitting next to the fire.

She sat next to him and stared at the fire, the yellow flames reflecting in her eyes.

“Mmh now you smell like... Maison's ass when I just changed her diaper.”

She snorted and took a stick to grill her first marshmallow.

“Why did you call your daughter Maison?” She asked while eating her candy.

“Because she will always feel like home to me.”

“Aw, that's cute!”

“Her middle name is Mary. To remind me of my first home...”

She stopped chewing to look at him. She couldn't believe he considered her mom's house like his first home... He was already a teenager when he moved in and he traveled a lot, but it was just hard to think he never considered any place like home before that time. She shook that thought from her head quickly before she could be overwhelmed by emotion. She had cried enough for the day.

“Why West then?”

“That I don't know... It just sounded great to us and we weren't inspired... Well, we had an original idea but it sounded too weird and I had sort of a bad experience with strange names so we kept it for his middle name.”

We...

She couldn't help the sting in her heart when he was talking about his family with such tenderness.

“What's his middle name?”

“Anaximander.”

Silence.

They could only hear the fire cracking and the crickets chirping.

Misha turned to glance at her with a smirk, proud of himself.

“That's... uncommon.” She cleared her throat.

“That's the point. He was a Greek Philosopher that Vicki, being the nerdy smartass that she is, liked a lot, and I found the name funny so we went with it.”

“Okay... Why not. At least there are good chances that he will forever be unique.” She chuckled.

“He still hadn't forgotten you promised to teach him how to play the piano by the way.”

She smiled, chewing on her second marshmallow.

“I will... I just hope he's more patient than you were!”

“Hey! I was the perfect student! I still can play the letter for Elise you know, I'm not completely rusted.”

Right... She taught him how to play the Beethoven piece when they were fourteen. He heard her play it once, on the grand piano in her grandma's house, and he liked it a lot. When he asked her what it was called and she told him it was named like her, he immediately wanted to learn how to play it for her.

That was Misha... always full of cute little attentions for her. How can you not fall for someone like that when you're an innocent and romantic teenage girl dreaming of true love?

“I'd be curious to hear that.” She gave him a sweet smile and he nodded.

“So... Talking about kids... You never wanted to be a mother?”

He had a gift to ask for the most embarrassing questions... She sighed and glanced at her feet.

"I did once... When it became serious with Peter." He frowned, his features twisting in something that almost looked like disgust.

“Really? With him?”

She gave him her biggest bitchface.

“He was good with me and we loved each other. We made a lot of plans. I just didn't... I never imagined he could be so stupid. Love is blind, obviously.”

Misha looked down at the fire. It was his turn to feel the sting in his heart now.

“Well it's a good thing you had no children then... Didn't he want that too?”

“Yes, he did. We tried but... I can't have kids.”

"You can't?" "No. When it didn't work, we went to the doctor and they found something wrong with me. Probably due to a shock or a surgical procedure in my childhood. They say I have like... 2% chances of conceiving. So basically none." He didn't know how to react. There was a time when he hesitated to have kids, but knowing the possibility was there was still reassuring somehow. Now that his kids were born, he couldn't imagine what it must feel like to know this could never happen, especially for a woman. "How do you feel about that?" She smiled weakly but it didn't reach her eyes.

"I'm... sort of okay with it. It was hard at first but I got over it, especially now that Peter is gone. Everything happens for a reason... I'm probably not shaped to be a good mom." Misha clenched his teeth. He could see she was bitter, but what she just said was unacceptable for him. "You're the granddaughter of Simon Hagen and the daughter of Mary... You definitely have the perfect parent gene. If it happened for a reason, it's because he is not shaped to be a good dad." She giggled bitterly. "I guess I'll buy a cat then!" "Do you still love him?" He asked, suddenly very serious. She frowned.

"I'm... not sure. My feelings are a bit messy those days.”

“You think?” He scoffed.

She suddenly remembered the night she spent with Peter not so long ago and couldn't look at Misha in the eyes anymore.

“Plus who cares? I can't forget nor forgive what he did to me... And yet look at me... I did the same to Vicki." Her eyes reddened and she looked down, once more feeling mortified.

Misha observed her sadly.

“Don't do that to me, Lily.”

She looked up to him and made eye contact, wondering what he was talking about.

“Don't push me away just because you're scared of what you fear could happen with my family.” “How can I live with myself knowing I'm destroying it? How can I look myself in a mirror after that, Misha? Why is it so hard for you to understand? I don't want you to lose more than you already have!”

He took a deep breath.

“If I wasn't married, would you consider resuming our relationship? Would you still want the things we wanted when we were sixteen? Would you surrender and stop running away?”

He took her hand and waited patiently for her answer, focusing on the orange glow in her eyes from the dying fire.

“You don't build anything with ifs.” She replied in a whisper.

“Answer the question. Please.”

He wouldn't give up this time, he needed answers, he needed to be sure she wanted the same as he did.

She hesitated but held his pleading gaze.

“Yes, probably.” She swallowed. “But-”

“No ifs and buts.” He interrupted harshly. He had his answer, it was all he needed to hear. She still loved him, he knew that, he could feel it, and one day she would say it back again.

He suddenly stood up and stepped on the fire.

“Geez, Misha! What the fuck?” She screamed, jumping from her spot and grabbed his arm to pull him away from it.

“We're out of marshmallows, we don't need the fire anymore. Or maybe you would prefer to let it burn all night and expend on the whole land?” He raised his eyebrow, amused by her unjustified fear.

“Oh... right. Sorry. Bad reflex.” She let go of his arm, happy that the dark night was hiding her blushing cheeks.

Misha walked towards the cabin and grabbed the sleeping bags, blankets and pillows.

“Time to settle for the night!”

He walked around the pond and through the bridge to reach the place where the willow tree was proudly standing, put one blanket on the ground, the two sleeping bags on it, settled the pillows against the trunk of the tree, one more blanket on top, and turned to look at Lily.

“Doesn't it look comfy?”

She had to admit it didn't look bad.

“Let's try it then.” She said laying down and leaning against the pillow.

“It is pretty comfy!”

Misha smiled and did the same, and they were soon silently lying at the foot of the tree next to each other. It was dark, but the floor lamp near the bridge gave them a weak glow so it wasn't too spooky. They could hear the frogs croaking near the water and the soft breath of the wind in the falling leaves of the willow tree above them. They were so thick that they could barely see the stars.

Misha rolled on his side and put his hand under his face to support him.

“Let's play.”

She chuckled.

“Aren't we a little old for this?”

“Never! There are still tons of things we don't know about each other. So... I'm gonna ask you a question, and then you answer and ask me one and so on, until we fall asleep, because I wanna know everything.”

“Oh god we really are sixteen again! Alright... Shoot.”

He decided to start easy, focusing first on what he didn't know anything about: her job.

“What's your favorite piece of music to play?”

“Oww, hard to pick only one!” She wined looking at the sky.

“Try!”

“Okay, let me think...” She thought about it a moment, trying to look for a piece she could play forever without being tired of it.

“Umm, I'd say Bohemian Rhapsody.”

“Nice choice! I didn't even know you could play that with an orchestra to be honest.”

“Oh God shame on you, it means I really need to take you with me to hear a few concerts.”

“Anytime.” Misha replied with a huge smile lightening his face.

Lily played with a lock of  her hair while she thought about her question.

“My turn! I'll go for the same kind of question: What's your favorite episode of Supernatural you played in?”

That was an easy one for Misha, good thing about being away for conventions was that he was pretty much ready for about every questions she could ask.

“The French Mistake. Because we all got to make fun of ourselves and it was hilarious. You'll have to watch it to understand what I'm talking about though.”

“Yeah, I will eventually have to buy a TV.” Lily laughed which gave Misha the time to ask another one.

“Next question: How many serious relationships did you have ?”

Oh boy... that was awfully direct.

“Uuuh... It's kinda hard to tell.”

Misha sat up straight, his eyes popping out.

“THAT many???”

Lily raised both hands.

“Nooo, no! Who do you think I am? I mean it depends on when you consider a relationship is becoming serious you know... I don't...” She sighed in defeat, not bothering finishing her sentence.

“Hey! Don't wimp out! I'm not judging. Promise.” He encouraged her, being very curious now.

“Alright, alright... I'd say... Two?”

That was kind of a surprise, he expected way more than this considering she wasn't married.

“Only two? Including me?”

“Well... yeah. Why? Do you think I wanna marry every guy I meet or what?”

“Geez I hope not. So me and... Peter? Is that it?”

“Hey that's way more than one question, you're cheating! Why do you wanna know anyway?”

Misha had actually tons of questions about everything that happened to her, but he couldn't ask everything in one night, could he?

“I don't know, I'm just curious I guess. I'm married for years and you're not so... since we're the same age I just imagined you had more than two serious relationships in your life, that's all.”

“Well you were wrong. It's rare enough to find someone you love and trust to spend your entire life with, even more rare to find a second one, I guess that's it for me, at least for this life.” Lily laughed nervously, staring down at her hands.

“What about the non-serious relationships then?”

“You're asking way to many questions, I think this is my turn, Mr Collins.”

She had a strange way to insist on his name everytime she said it, it almost sounded like she didn't like it.

“Alright, but don't think you're out with this one.”

Lily cleared her throat.

“Do you have any regret?”

Misha scoffed and shook his head.

“I always say you can't have regrets, you have to learn from your mistakes, but yeah... I regret filming Karla, I regret insisting with my mom to go to the beach instead of going back here earlier to give your grandpa his Christmas presents when he was still alive, I often regret Castiel's voice but that's my bad... I regret we didn't go to sleep on the beach on June 29th 1990 like I wanted to...”

June 29th 1990... The night of the fire. She completely forgot about that. Misha wanted to sneak out of the farm that night and go to the park's beach with Lily to celebrate the beginning of the summer holidays.

But Lily thought it was too cold and she preferred the coziness of her bedroom so she insisted to stay. She told him they could go another night, but fate decided otherwise.

She turned on her side to face him as he stopped talking for a while, lost in his memories.

“I'm not blaming you for anything, just to be clear.” Misha pointed out.

“I know. But where would we be today if it never happened? What would've happened in the morning when I would've come home to see a burnt house and my family dead because I left to have a good time with my boyfriend? Would we still be together? Would you be an actor today? Would you be happy and famous and loved by thousands of people?”

“We will never know. But if I'd have to chose between you and my career, Castiel would certainly not have my face today.”

That was a touching answer and a very emotional moment... until Lily heard something moving in the high herbs behinds them and froze. She gripped on Misha's forearm.

“Did you hear that?”

He did, but it was probably the wind, or maybe a harmless rodent and frankly, he didn't care. Lily looked at the direction of the noise and winced.

“I'm sure there's someone.”

“Seriously? Who would be here in the middle of the night, Lily? Just ignore it.”

“I don't know but... I saw a shadow moving...”

“Oh it's probably a ghost then. You can relax, I have salt.”

She looked at him confused.

“Salt?”

He chuckled.

“Don't worry about it. I work too much. Just come here and ignore the noises, it's just the wind, really.”

He extended his right arm and offered her to snuggle against him. She hesitated a few seconds, but when she saw he wouldn't pull his arm back, she gave in and laid against him, her head on his chest and her left arm on his waist. He wrapped his arm around her and stroked her hair away from her face gently.

She shivered against him, feeling the warmth of his body contrasting with the chill of the night, and he groaned weakly when she squirmed, enjoying her proximity a little too much.

“Lily... if you keep doing that I will have a serious manly problem...”

She froze a second but looked up to him before sitting up and getting inside the sleeping bag.

“Sorry.”

He did the same, sensing they would fall asleep soon, and they moved back to their snugly position right after.

Misha sighed. It was so pleasant to lay under the tree with her again, under the stars.

“Can we just stay like this forever?” He whispered.

She smiled weakly.

“I wish.”

He leaned his head a little to softly kiss the top of her forehead.

“I don't even want to think about what life would be without you again. I don't know how I survived.”

She closed her eyes, melting in his words. She just looked up and gave him a faint smile before tenderly kissing his cheek. Her whole body and soul wanted to say 'I love you' at that moment, but she couldn't resolve herself to say it. She had no right.

“Goodnight, Misha.”

She fell asleep in his arms one more time.

#misha collins #fanfiction #young!misha #long fic #slow built #when we were young #misha/OFC

[theliterateape]

Book Club Made Me Read It | The Changeling

By Kari Castor

I’m a member of a small, informal, friends, and friends-of-friends book club. We try to read one book every 5 five weeks or so. The rules are simple: Everyone gets an opportunity to pick a book for the book club to read. Each member must pick a book that they have not personally read before and each member is responsible for leading the discussion after we read their selection. Sometimes the books are good. Sometimes they are not. I review them here regardless of their quality.

I’m a bitch and don’t care about ruining the experience for you, so I’m going to include spoilers whenever I please. That’s your only warning. Proceed at your own risk.

The Changeling by Victor LaValle

Sigh. I wanted to like this one. I thought I was going to like this one. Hell, I did rather like the first 128 pages of this one, which makes it a real shame when the whole thing shits the bed in the final two-thirds.

Here’s the problem: Victor LaValle’s The Changeling is not a novel. It is at least three separate stories that are loosely stitched together into some vague semblance of a novel. It is an effective and frightening novella stretched into an increasingly disappointing novel. It is a bunch of ideas, about parenthood and family legacies and the dangers of the internet, with which the author would like to whack you about the head. It is a heavy-handed fairy tale that bemoans the heavy-handedness of fairy tales.

The first 128 pages are primarily the story of a relationship. Apollo Kagwa’s father left when he was a child, and he has felt the loss echo acutely across his life. Apollo meets, woos, and marries Emma Valentine, and they have a child. Apollo is deliriously happy to be a father, and he vows to be everything to his own son that he wishes his father could have been to him. Meanwhile, Emma slips increasingly into darkness and despair, refusing to call baby Brian by his name, refusing to care for him, insisting that he isn’t Brian at all. Apollo and Emma’s relationship grows antagonistic. Frustrated and angry at her inability to snap out of it, he pushes her away and devotes himself wholly to Brian. Emma’s presence in the story (which is told primarily from Apollo’s perspective) begins to feel more like that of a malevolent spirit than of a co-parent and partner. And then one day, Apollo wakes up chained with a bike lock to a steam pipe in their apartment and a kettle is whistling on the stove, and Brian is wailing in his bedroom. And Emma, Emma who has been insisting that the baby is wrong, takes a hammer to Apollo’s face and the kettle of boiling water to Brian’s room with the words, “It’s not a baby.”

And holy shit if this book had ended right there, I’d be writing a very different review right now. The vibrancy of their early relationship with each other, the slow creep of horror as things become more and more wrong in the Kagwa-Valentine household, the awful question of whether Emma might actually be right, the visceral brutality of the final scenes… It works. It’s good.

Unfortunately, the book doesn’t end there. Instead, it takes one of the dullest turns for the fantastical that I’ve ever encountered.

The narrative continues after a time skip: Baby Brian is dead and buried, and Emma is missing, a fugitive from the law. Apollo, a used-bookseller, sells a rare book to a weird nerd who says he hopes to win his wife back with an extravagant gift, and then the nerd tells Apollo that he knows Emma is alive, and that his internet friends helped track her down. Apollo thinks this is great news, because he wants to kill Emma himself for murdering their child, so he and the weird nerd go on an adventure together to a magical island on the East River inhabited by women and children. The women there all, like Emma, killed their babies on the basis of a belief that it wasn’t their baby. Apollo starts to believe this fake baby thing might hold some water after all, and then we find out that his weird nerd buddy is actually a bad guy and the evidence of his badness is that… he killed his baby. Yeah, I know, but you see, he killed his real baby and not his fake baby, and that makes all the difference. Anyway, then his mysterious bad guy friends show up to wreak havoc and everyone flees the island and none of it really matters.

The whole island episode is about one hundred pages long and could be lifted entirely out of the book with no real loss to the plot.

I should probably curb my impulse to continue summarizing the absolutely whack plot of this book, in large part because I’m afraid that the short version will make it sound much more interesting than it actually is, but the whole thing ends with Apollo finding Emma, who is a witch now, and they fuck and get back together without ever bothering to have a conversation about the fact that she hammered his fucking face in and maybe they should look for a couples counselor or something. Also, a troll has been trying to raise the real not-dead baby Brian, so Apollo and Emma kill the troll and get their baby back and also murder both the weird nerd who bought the rare book and the nerd’s dad, but not before the dad does a straight-up Bond-villain exposition dump to explain everything about how a troll emigrated to New York with a bunch of Norwegians in the 1820s and now his family is responsible for stealing real babies and replacing them with fake changeling babies, so the troll can try to raise the real babies (except it always fucks up and eats them instead).

The book… takes one of the dullest turns for the fantastical that I’ve ever encountered.

Meanwhile, there’s a B-plot about Apollo’s absent father, which eventually reveals that Apollo’s dad tried to kill him (in a fit of If I can’t have him, no one gets to.) as a toddler. Also, Emma’s mom tried to kill her and her sister as part of a murder-suicide. Basically this book is an exercise in How many subplots and backstories centered on the themes of ‘family secrets’ and ‘violence committed by parents in the name of their children’ can I cram into a single book? There is a distinct lack of subtlety at work in this book.

Much to-do is made about the dangers of posting things on Facebook (people will know things about you!), which mostly reads as though it is written by someone who has never actually used Facebook himself but asked his friend to tell him about it. The book twice uses the exact same metaphor about how dangerous it is: That putting stuff about your life on the internet is like inviting a vampire into your home — you’ve compromised your safety by making your private world accessible to the monsters. One of the villains (the aforementioned weird nerd) is an internet troll working in cahoots with an actual troll. I cannot roll my eyes hard enough to convey my exasperation with this.

There’s a bunch of miscellaneous shit that seems like it’s meant to be symbolic or important but just… isn’t. There’s a room that has four space heaters in it, which seems like it’s an important detail given how many times the extreme heat in the room is referenced, but it turns out the only reason there are four space heaters in that room is that the plot requires a way for Apollo and Emma set a house fire later, and four space heaters fits the bill nicely. Another example: The narration specifically remarks upon a headstone with the name Catherine Linton on it, at the cemetery where not-Brian is buried, but it doesn’t appear to mean anything... Did the author intend some symbolic significance there that he failed to convey? (At best, I can come up with some loose connection to the general “fucked up families” theme that runs rampant in The Changeling.) Is it supposed to be a fun little easter egg for the lit nerd who recognizes that name as a character from Wuthering Heights? Is it just “Look at how smart I am, I can drop in random literary references” masturbatory bullshit?

Honestly, an extraordinary amount of stuff happens in this book, and most of it is a mix of astonishingly boring and ham-fisted. It tries really hard to weave an epic modern fairy tale about parenthood, but there are too many abrupt left turns into entirely new plots and not enough cohesion and interweaving of threads throughout the whole tale. Classic fairy tales can do that sort of thing and still work in no small part because they’re short, but this is a 430-page book, which is actually just several ideas for different novellas loosely Frankensteined together, and all of them end up being less interesting collectively than any one of them might have been on its own.

MY RATING: 2/5 stars

POSITIVE REINFORCEMENT FOR: Writing a solid 128-page novella about a woman who might have serious postpartum depression or might actually have identified that her baby is a changeling and no one else can see it.

PLEASE NO MORE: Everything after page 128.

SHOUT-OUT TO: Victor LaValle's Destroyer, which is a comic book unrelated to The Changeling aside from the fact that it has the same author. But the full title of the comic book is legit Victor LaValle's Destroyer, which is just… awful. Why would you do that? Sorry Victor LaValle, but you’re nowhere near good enough or famous enough to justify putting your own name as a possessive in the title, and I don’t care if it’s your fault or the publisher’s fault, fuck everyone involved in that decision.

#books #book club #Book Club Made Me Read It #The Changeling #Victor LaValle #infanticide #masturbatory literary bullshit #trolls