Chapter 14: ν
Pairing: dottore x angel!reader
Summary: You are a Heavenly Messenger from Celestia that’s been captured by a mysterious Doctor
CW: None
Word count: 3.7k
"Now the moment of truth. Are you ready, my dear?"
"Of course. Let's experiment in blasphemy, Doctor."
Dottore chuckles at your utterance of his own words, a sly grin crawling on his face. You watch closely as he prepares for such a momentous experiment, your wings twitching with anticipation against your back. Even if your head still aches and your left eye remains blind, you wouldn't have missed this for all of Teyvat--not after all the work you and the Doctor have done.
And how eager you are to start. You’re just as excited as he is. That morbid curiosity and desire to spite the divine took hold of your thoughts before you even knew it had.
Yes, you are truly his assistant now.
You observe Dottore set down a multitude of instruments on the table in front of him including a couple of empty vials and a clean syringe.
“What are you doing?” You ask, leaning against the cool, metal table.
“Taking a blood sample," Dottore explains. He reaches for a thin rubber band, wrapping it around his upper arm and using his sharp teeth to tighten it. "Naturally, a clone of mine needs my own DNA.”
You nod before approaching the Doctor. Dottore cocks his head slightly at you. He's wearing his mask today. You're slightly relieved. After all, such a barrier made it hard to read his emotions and as you place a hand on his arm, you can’t help but feel your cheeks grow slightly pink as you say,
“Let me help.”
You quietly readjust the band he so haphazardly tied around himself. He wouldn’t have let you anywhere near him before, but now, he seems grateful for the aid. You raise an eyebrow watching as Dottore sips from a very stained coffee mug.
“You shouldn’t be drinking that now. It will spoil the samples."
Dottore snorts.
"Hmph... caffeine would only affect a trial if I were testing the samples, not for something like this," He states, shortly. "Also how do you even know that, let alone how to do this?"
Dottore turns to frown slightly at you, but there's a hint of amusement in his voice. You give the Doctor a half shrug.
"You've done it a number of times to me before. It's not like I'm completely oblivious," You tell him. You feel a small grin forming on your face as you add, "Also, I read your other experiment journals when I get bored."
"I don't remember giving you permission to read those."
"You did, actually. I just waited until you're hyper focused on your work to ask so you'll say yes without thinking."
"How sly."
You can imagine him narrowing his beady, crimson eyes at you as he always did after the familiar sigh of exasperation he gives. But you know he isn't truly upset. He’d say something if he was-- the Doctor, despite all his secrets, isn’t one to hide his anger. You delicately grab the syringe on the table, the sharp silver tip hovers over the Doctor's exposed skin.
"Now hush and hold still."
You prick him with ease. It’s much easier to stop yourself from shying away from the needle when you aren’t on the receiving end. Almost instantly, scarlet blood oozes from the tapped vein through the attached tube into the vial on the desk. The lab is quiet as you focus on your work before Dottore lets out a small chuckle.
"It's almost unbelievable you're able to execute a task so adequately simply by watching others and reading a few notes,” He muses.
"I am a quick learner.”
When you're finished, you gently take out the needle, bandaging the area tightly so the pressure stops the bleeding. It's surprisingly clean for your first time.
"There. Ha. Ironic it's me poking you this time, huh?"
"Indeed."
Dottore reaches for the now full vials. On the table is a vial of your own blood, intertwined with two realms' energies and collected soon after that previous brutal trial you endured. You don’t like looking at your own blood but you cannot avert your eyes as he carefully fuses it with his own. The two liquids commingle seamlessly until it is impossible to separate them, let alone tell them apart. Perhaps it is the Archon Residue or the Abyssal energy, but when he is finished, the final product is an electric blue, swimming and sparkling against its containment.
It's almost beautiful in a morbid way.
You watch Dottore inject the lifeless doll on the vivisection table with the mixture. Almost instantly, the once still vessel shifts from a blank slate to one that looks exactly like Dottore. On its neck, is a small 4-pointed star on the injection site. You tentatively reach out with a trembling hand and feel the clone's wrist. A pulse. Its chest rises and falls slowly under the thin sheet that covers most of its body. You look at Dottore with wide eyes.
"You...we... did it."
Dottore lifts up his mask, turning to you with a toothy grin.
"Of course we did, little birdie."
"Falling asleep while studying? How quaint."
You jolt awake, sitting up as your heart jumps into your chest upon hearing a sudden voice. You turn to the door only to see the newest face in the lab: Omega. You immediately recognize the doppelganger from the small vial that dangles casually from his ear as he approaches you. You were the one to give it to him at your first introduction, filled with the iridescent, blue liquid that runs through his very veins.
“A book on poisons? I didn’t think you’d be interested in such things,” Omega muses.
Despite his humorous words, Omega doesn’t sound too pleased to see you in the lab. You ignore the slight edge in his voice and the hard gaze that bores into you. His disapproval doesn't bother you. You pursue your lips tightly.
After all, the feeling is mutual.
“Who are you trying to murder, hm?” Omega jokes, setting down a box of supplies he just obtained in a nearby closet and spreading his arms across the desk you were using, leaning forward to smirk at you. He grabs the book from under you, turning its pages, but certainly not reading any of their contents. Even his mannerisms are uncannily identical.
The perfect experiment.
The perfect clone.
You narrow your eyes.
“It shall be you if you don’t stop with these needless questions, Omega.”
“How cold.”
You sigh and lean back in your chair. The fogginess of sleep still plagues your mind-- you'd be lying if you said that your sleep has been anywhere near adequate lately. But with what you were researching, you did not need sleep. You rub your eyes, yawning as you peer at Omega.
“Where is he, by the way? The Doctor?”
Omega closes your book, tossing it back onto the table.
“Downstairs. Prime continues to work ever so diligently on mastering Khemia and the nuances of my makeup.”
Prime. That’s what he calls the Doctor.
“And continue to have you check up on me like a child,” You mutter.
Your complaints are a bit too loud and he clicks his tongue in response.
“You seem discontented despite this being the most expected outcome,” Omega raises an eyebrow. “You of all people must know Prime puts work above all other matters in his busy life.”
“Tch.”
Despite his reprimands, Omega puts a hand on your shoulder with a sweet, sympathetic smile.
How odd.
They are the same, but this “Dottore” was right-handed as opposed to the one you knew.
The one you preferred.
“How sweet. Do you miss him that much? I will be sure to tell Prime.”
“Don’t you dare,” You glare at him. “You’ve meddled in my business enough.”
He chuckles.
“Though with that look you’re giving me, perhaps it is wiser to mind my own.”
Despite the obvious success in Omega’s creation, there’s an unsettlingly still coldness that followed the synthetic lifeform. He is never unkind to you. On the contrary, he treats you with the utmost respect and- in some cases- even softer than the Doctor himself. But though Omega looks and sounds human, there is something eerily unnatural about him. Perhaps it is because you saw him come to life-- you know this man was nothing more than a breathing puppet.
No, it’s something else, something unnerving that makes you wary of this individual like you were of the Doctor when you first arrived here-- As if this doll come to life is somehow a threat to an immortal being such as yourself.
Or perhaps you are merely jealous of him.
Jealousy is such a childish emotion.
Still, you can’t help but feel its tendrils seep into your veins each time you see Omega instead of the real Doctor. You rarely see Dottore nowadays. He holes himself up downstairs, working closely with Omega as his assistant. You offered to help multiple times, but your condition worsened so he confines you to the same floor as your room. He tells you to rest, but your mind is the most unrestful thing in this room. Still, you obey as you always did and let your emotional and perhaps irrational thoughts run wild in the silence. Not even your books can silence what you feel.
The fear of being replaced.
"Do you dislike me?"
Your eye flickers with surprise at the sudden question.
"What?"
"I know you heard the question, darling."
You are quiet for a moment. You look back at Omega. And for a slight, fleeting moment, you wish that experiment had failed. At first, you wish to tell him that. To show your heart on your sleeve, to let your anger run wild.
But you don’t.
"No."
Omega openly laughs at that.
What a familiar yet foreign laugh.
"You are a terrible liar. I see the ways your eye skirts when it lands upon me. The way you quickly excuse yourself when I enter a room. Does my existence bother you so much?"
You scowl at him before quietly standing up. Dizziness clouds your head when you do-- just another damn effect from this unbudging ailment. You fold your arms, gazing upon your adversary with an annoyed expression.
"You're quite talkative today." You say bluntly before waving a hand dismissively. "Perhaps it is uncanny to have another here so much like the Doctor."
Omega cocks his head.
"But you hold him in such high regard. Wouldn't such a similarity be welcomed?"
You shake your head.
“You are too similar. Like you could replace him and not even I would never notice. The uncanniness of it all, the oddness of having two of the same individuals in such proximity-- it is unnerving.”
Omega ponders your words for a moment before shaking his head.
“How interesting,” He remarks before giving you a slight grin. “But a baseless deduction founded upon anxiety. Don't you worry your little head about such things. After all, you’re supposed to be resting.”
With that, Omega ruffles your hair playfully as the Doctor did so often before picking up the box he'd set down and exiting without another word.
And as you continue to sit in the now empty lab, you realize you really did wish it was the Doctor instead of him who'd done so.
"That took quite a bit."
Dottore says as he continues to work. He doesn’t even turn to face Omega, still invested in the various samples and tools laid before him.
"Your assistant was quite chatty,” Omega replies as he sets down a box with a low thump. “It's a wonder you've managed to finish any work with her around."
“Oh? Is she finally warming up to you?”
Omega snorts.
“Wishful thinking. She sees me as her warden more than anything.”
“Well, she must understand it is for her own good. I can’t have her around such chemicals in her state.”
“True, but her emotional immaturity makes her quite childish,” Omega states, crossing his arms as he leans against the table. “She obviously misses you.”
Dottore frowns at that. Deep down, he does feel slightly guilty for neglecting you. However, he is on the precipice of a new invention. He couldn’t simply stop for your whims. You must have understood that, right?
“Though.. it is also obvious that you miss her ,” Omega laughs humorlessly.
Dottore stiffens at that.
"Huh? What a baseless accusation,” Dottore furrows his brow. After a short pause, he strokes his chin. “Well, I suppose I do miss her utility, yes. She is quite an efficient assistant."
" Uh huh. "
Dottore turns towards Omega with narrowed eyes.
"You're bold. Mocking your own creator like that."
Omega smirks.
"Come now. I know that even you have a sense of humor…And are not one to deny such obvious facts."
Am I always this exasperating?
"Do not overthink such things, Omega. Such childishness holds no weight in my mind." Dottore scoffs before gesturing at what lays in front of him. "Now then, shall we continue working or do I have to sew your mouth shut to keep such idiotic things from leaving it?"
“Fine, fine.”
Dottore picks up the messily scrawled documents on the table, gesturing at them.
"As I saw saying, having multiple copies of myself is efficient but we can improve such a feat even more. If we were to create a hive mind of sorts. Share our thoughts, goals, and progress seamlessly-"
"We would be able to achieve more than any scholar with only one lifetime," Omega interrupts. Slight interest flickers in his eyes.
"Exactly."
"I have to say such a proposition is ambitious and will be arduous even for us,” Omega grins. “And meddling with the laws of our lifetime like that is the work of a heretic is it not?"
"Quite so and you approve."
"I do. After all, I am you."
Dottore gives a chuckle at that. He nods at the large freezer in the back of this secondary laboratory.
“Omega, get the sample 7716 in the freezer now. It should be ready.”
“Yes sir.”
It is certainly odd to have another individual identical to himself work beside him, but despite the grievances and annoyances, Dottore revels in such a creation. A successful experiment is already something that made him madly giddy but for that creation to be another set of hands to help him with his own intellect-- well, Dottore can proudly say that this certainly was his magnum opus.
...However, despite his irritation, Omega had been correct. Dottore did miss you as his assistant.
Because no matter how useful his clone is, you are, in his mind, quite irreplaceable.
“Prime, sir, there is something wrong with these samples. I think you’ll need to take a look,” Omega approaches Dottore with a sullen expression.
Dottore groans. For a moment, he wonders if the freezer is broken once more. He admitted that he hadn't been as meticulous with his laboratory upkeep in the recent months. What a pain it would be for everything stored in there to be ruined by mere neglect.
“Augh, fine I’ll look.”
Dottore reluctantly pauses what he's doing and enters the dark, cold room through the slightly ajar door. His breath materializes as thin, white clouds in front of his face and a shiver runs down his spine. After some time, Dottore finds the samples in a clearly marked box in the back. He raises an eyebrow in mild confusion.
These are perfectly fine…
SLAM!
“What the-"
Dottore whips around only to find the freezer door completely shut. He rushes towards it, only to find that it’s been locked. A silhouette shadows over the foggy window on the metal door. The person on the other side slides the window open, a dull expression on his face and no attempt to unlock the door.
No, no, no this is all wrong.
Dottore narrows his eyes.
“Omega, what the hell are you doing?” He asks, dangerously calm.
Omega peers back at Dottore, an almost lazy expression on his face.
"Oh my…." He drawls. "Are you that slow? Hmph…You really are the lesser of us."
No. Dottore realizes what’s happening, but he doesn’t want to admit it.
He is not one to admit he is wrong so easily.
I would not betray myself when our potential is so much stronger together.
This is utterly illogical.
Dottore clenches his fists. He's trying to keep a calm composure-- to not let this anger get the best of him.
But to be betrayed by even myself…
Dottore sighs, rubbing his face. He gazes at Omega, disdain making his skin crawl for the creation he once held so much pride for.
“Tch, what a pity. You were supposed to be perfect. I did all the calculations…" Dottore says with a shake of his head. He rubs his temples. "I expected more from you. How disappointing.”
It's then that Omega breaks out in a fit of mocking laughter.
“Ha. Hahaha!” Omega runs his fingers through his hair, his grin widening as he stares at Dottore. He lifts his head slightly. Omega leans forward, hands clasped behind his back.
"Expect perfection? Of course you would."
Oh, that sickening grin.
His expression suddenly shifts to a cold frown.
"Fear not, you didn't fail-- I know how that gnaws at your feeble mind," Omega crosses his arms. "Even from my short existence, I know that I am perfect. Yes, our abilities are the same-- but I am so much more than you.”
Dottore can feel the freezing temperatures of the storage room seeping into his bones. He bites back a chatter, not wanting to give Omega the satisfaction. His eyes dart around the dimly lit freezer for something he could use to break out of here and demolish this doppelganger.
Keep him talking while you think of an escape.
“Oh, please do explain,” Dottore retorts through clenched teeth.
“Of course, sir ," Omega grin grows even bigger as he looks down condescendingly at his creator.
Dottore did not like to be looked down upon.
This bastard.
"I have all your memories and yet am able to see them objectively like an attendee of the Fontainian theater," Omega continues. He begins to pace back and forth like a caged wolf as he speaks, gesturing with his gloves hands. His red eyes are sadistically wild as he gloats.
"You're incredibly pathetic,” The clone giggles. “So insecure... It's pitiful. Not to mention your gross attachment to your assistant. Even someone of your quality is so utterly, disappointingly…human.”
How could he be so stupid.
Dottore bares his teeth.
"You are nothing but a puppet, mimicking me without any chance of fully encapsulating my greatness," Dottore snarls, poison lacing each of his words. "As for my ‘attachment’ to Y/N... it's a symbiotic relationship that would be illogical to sever prematurely."
"Hmm…'I suppose, Doctor.'" Omega teases, mimicking your voice. He rolls his eyes. "Ah, there's no need to be upset, Prime. It is understandable why you cling so desperately to her. You humans are so eager for even a sliver of acceptance."
Omega examines his own hand made of flesh, sighing.
"It's a shame that you created me to be just like you. Are you so insecure that a version of you cannot even usurp yourself?"
Omega chuckles at Dottore's face etched with rage. He clicks his tongue, pressing a gloved finger against his cheek.
"See, that is exactly why I am superior. I have all your experiences without their mental toll, especially from your more... negative experiences,” He states. Omega leans closer, a slight smile still playing on his lips.
“But isn’t that what you wanted in the end? How many times have you wished to be able to remove such loathsome traits from yourself?” Omega asks, slightly tilting his head before laughing once more, extending his arms wide in front of him.
“Revel in your success, fellow scholar! I am you without those parts you loathe about yourself-- which is quite a lot! After all, under that conceited, egotistic façade is a sad, simple boy that couldn't even convince his village to keep him. Isn't that right, Zandik?"
How could I be so, so stupid.
“When I get out of here, I am going to break you apart piece by piece," Dottore says quietly.
"Ah. Can't deal with your own shortcomings so you're going to put me down like a dog?" Omega sighs once more. "However, that will be incredibly difficult form your position."
Omega clicks his tongue.
"Ah. You've stalled me long enough. Haven't found a way to escape yet? Pity. Where is that cocky ingenuity of yours?" Omega asks. "Or have you emptied your mind for thoughts of your dear little birdie?"
Dottore watches as Omega's slender fingers reach towards his ear, detaching the dangling vial and putting it on the metal surface besides him. He ruffles his already messy hair, masking the pierced lobe beneath his mint blue locks.
"You will regret this," Dottore chokes out.
Omega simply smiles.
“I doubt that,” Omega says. “Now if you'll excuse me, I must deal with the nuisance upstairs. Oh, can you imagine the look on her face? When she feels her dear Doctor's fingers around that slender neck of hers. But it won't be the first time you've strangled your assistant, hm?"
Do not touch her.
I’ll kill you.
I’ll fucking kill you.
Omega laughs manically. Before Dottore can reply, he sharply pulls the lever. The window snaps shut with a loud clunk, signifying its locking. In the pitch black freezer, Dottore can feel the blood rushing in his ears as he breathes heavily.
I have to escape.
But all he can feel is the crushing feeling of failure that leaves him planted in place.
He'd made yet another mistake. How many more failures would litter this path he walked? Despite all his accolations, all his boastful words, the shadow of all his miscalculations loomed over his mind like the ever present figure of death does for regular mortals. The scholar would never admit he was wrong-- But it still ate him up.
Oh, it devoured him.
So as the Doctor cannibalizes himself, the dagger in his back remains dug into his flesh. He was never one to trust others. Trust is a weakness like kindness and other human follies. He only needs his own mind.
And yet, even that is wrong.
Dottore feels his hands tremble. Is he angry? No, it's so much more. He knows screaming won't help him, but Dottore bottles all his anger and frustrations and places them on a shelf in his mind. How fragile that shelf is and as it collapses, Dottore presses his hands against the rapidly frosting glass, screaming curse after curse.
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My Brothers, Corrupted
Book Five: Final Section
As we draw to a close, the brothers name kittens and look back at where they used to be. Masterlist
Tws for grief, past abuse, and past distress. Tws may not be completely exhaustive - keep in mind the heaviness of the fic and look out for yourself.
Thank you to @lehhoh7822 for taking the time to compile this book! Genuinely, I would never have been able to post all this without you. Everyone who is reading it again is only do so because of your generosity with your time. Thanks.
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unpredictably-ghostly asked:
No, I think you might be right, it's about time for us to step back. You guys are moving on from your time with Anti, and we were a part of that, but now things are getting better, you don't really need us anymore. We're all so proud of you for how far you've come, and for all the wonderful things there can be in your futures. You deserve independence and freedom, and if that means we have to start saying goodbye, that's what we can do <3
“I mean, it’s - it’s about us stepping back, not you,” says Marvin tenderly, glancing away. “You were there in Anti’s time, yeah, but not in a bad way. Like the way my brothers were there when Anti was there. Not in a bad way.”
He hears Henrik laughing from the room over. There’s evening light in Marvin’s eyes.
“Has been a long time, hasn’t it?” he muses. “I don’t think it��s occurred to the others so much that maybe it’s a little strange to have you around. Schneep in particular is really attached to having you around. I think ever since he was alone with the magicians in Peru he’s been very attached. But you’ve been something very stable to all of us, through a lot of different phases. I don’t know how to express to you how valuable that’s been.”
He’s maybe shy about it, because he won’t quite look at you.
“Anyway, it’s just a heads up,” he adds. “Just a thought.”
scunneredzombie asked:
Of course you can be on camera less guys! You've done so much healing, we're one of the last pieces of the past, and it makes sense to slowly let us go. Just be sure to update us any time you can, we love seeing you healthy and thriving and healing.
“Yeah, updates,” nods Marvin. “We could do that. Maybe start to move towards interacting more normally. Like updating a friend instead of live-streaming your life for them.”
He chuckles. “There will be less and less worth ‘live-streaming,’ as we move past some of our drama and put ourselves back together more and more. And that, I think, is a good thing.”
Anonymous asked:
We've been a line of truth and sanity for you guys for a long long time now, I understand why Henrik and all of you would be attached to us
“Right,” says Marvin, scraping his fingers over his scalp. “Sometimes the only line of truth and sanity. But at the same time, it’s not exactly healthy to be over-reliant on anonymous strangers talking to us from countries away, no matter how much we appreciate you all. And I don’t want you to feel that you have to watch over us, either. Certainly we couldn’t have gotten here without you, but we are here now, you know? It will have ups and downs, but we’re learning to make our own decisions a little easier. To solve our own problems without needing as much encouragement and help as we used to. That being said… you are a dearly comforting safety net.”
crystalninjaphoenix asked:
It's okay, Marvin. I will admit, I'll be a bit sad, but we can't constantly be there, you know? That'll probably have some sort of effect on you guys. Don't worry about it. We're okay.
Marvin smiles at you, shaking his head.
“I figure for all the worrying you’ve done for us, it’s only fair to worry a little bit in return. I’m glad that Anti’s system remained running even after he died. The thought that we could have just been cut off from you then and there… that would have been fucking hopeless. Sometimes you were the only voices we put any faith in. The only stability we had to cling to.”
It’s uncharacteristically soft. Uncharacteristically needy, in the sense that he hates letting most anyone know he needs them. But you know that by now. You know him.
“Thank you for that,” he says, quiet and firm. “For everything.”
Anonymous asked:
Privacy is something you lot haven't had in years. I think turning us off now and then is alright, you deserve to have times just for yourself. No audience, no cameras, no livestreaming. Just brothers, family, and healing.
“Yep, we’re a little weird like that,” grins Marvin, shaking out his hair again. Just a little bit longer, and he can tie it back. “After the way Anti watched us, having you around without him there was no problem at all. But you’ve never been a burden to us. The lack of privacy, we’ve barely even started recognizing it until now. Change can be scary, but it can also be good.”
The giggling of his nephew and niece draws him from his severity, and he straightens up and smiles like you weren’t talking at all.
“Well, look who it is,” he calls, shaking his head, and ruffles up their hair when they come over to hug him, all full of smiles. “The little devils themselves.”
“Uncle Marvin, are you going to do some magic so Daddy can come see me in Sweden?” asks Hunter, clinging to his pants.
“Of course I am, darling. My friends and I are already working on the mirror so you and Dad can visit each other no problem. Why? Is Mum talking about going home?”
“She said school is going to start,” says Izzy. “So we have to go home on Thursday. But can’t we go to school here?”
“I’m sorry, my dears, but your mother has her work and her life in Sweden now, and it’s better for you to have some stability. But I’m sure Mom and Dad are working out how to have you visit Dad a lot as well. He would even come live closer if he needed to - although I’m hoping I can help work around it.”
He glances out of the side window to see Chase and Stacy deep in conversation on the front porch.
Anonymous asked:
Is something going on Chase?
Marvin tilts his head, looking at Stacy’s face. Chase is turned away from him, but Stacy is looking up at his little brother with big doe eyes.
Marvin cranks the side-window open, just a little.
“You don’t even remember, like, why we split up and all that, and it’s not really fair for me to say one way or the other - ”
“No, I get that, really, Stace, I just - I just want to know where we stand, okay? You’re right, I don’t remember all of it. All my heart knows when I look at you is the way I used to feel, the way we used to be in love, and I just need to know - ”
Marvin closes the window abruptly, blinking.
Anonymous asked:
Marvin, I think you used to have a cat named Queenie? A big fluffy white one! You should ask around and see if anyone has pictures of her, I'm pretty sure the cat collar belonged to her.
Okay, you’re totally correct but quick note: I got too sad to kill Queenie and Athanasius so I used my artistic license and changed their names in this one lol. If you want to refer to them as Queenie and Athanasius that’s no problem, I’ll just have Marvin call them Soup (the female one) and Feichin (the male one), which are the silly names I picked for them in this story. Just so you know!! Either way is fine.
“Aw, a big fluffy cat,” murmurs Marvin, his mouth filling up with a frown. “Poor little things were so ragged on the… you know, on the porch.”
It still makes him sad. He wishes that big fluffy cat were waiting for him now.
Stacy’s pushing in through the door a minute later, and he turns to her with a smile. “Hey,” he says.
She hugs him from the side, which has become their daily greeting. He didn’t need Stacy to explain to him that they had always been close friends: he had felt his warmth for her from the first moment he saw her. He squeezes his sister against him. “Everything okay?”
She hums, nodding for a moment before looking up at him. Her eyes are clean and her mouth smiles. “Yeah,” she says. “Yeah, I think everything is.”
“You can talk to me anytime if you need.”
“We’re okay.”
“Okay. Well, hey, I was wondering if you had any old pictures of my cats?”
Stacy furrows her brow and pulls her phone. “Well, I ought to, seeing as you used to send them to me en masse.”
She holds her phone up for him a moment later, and Marvin’s breath catches in his throat a little.
It’s him on a red couch, leaning back casually, a pair of cats both standing on his legs and resting their front paws on his shoulders. There is a huge, fluffy white one resting primly against his chest and a smaller bengal squinting warmly at the camera.
“Aw,” is all Marvin manages, touching the side of the phone gingerly.
“I’ll send them to you, okay?” offers Stacy.
“Thanks.”
Chase comes in after Stacy, sparing Marvin a smile as he sets some groceries down in their semi-functional kitchen. “Want me to get started on dinner?”
“Oh, I’ll do it, no worries! You just spend some time with the kids and their uncles.”
“Okay.”
Chase comes back to sit down on the floor beside Marvin, who’s still fixed on that image, and his hands resting on the backs of his pets.
Anonymous asked:
(Right, I should've realized the name change!!) Marvin, do you think it would help if you got a cat again? Maybe a friend for Noodle! Or do you feel it would hurt more than help?
“A friend for Noodle,” says Chase eagerly.
Marvin snorts. “Um, I don’t know,” he sighs. “Just reluctant, I guess. Kind of feels like - maybe it’s silly. Kind of just feels like a betrayal. I didn’t even remember my cats. My own cats. That just sucks. And even if I get new ones, it won’t be them again.”
He sighs. “Wish I was a necromancer.”
Chase sinks into his side after a moment, warm and present. Marvin turns and brushes at his hair, smiling at him.
Anonymous asked:
So Chase, how's it going with Stacy?
“Ohhh,” says Chase, turning a little pink. He plays with his fingers. “Oh, you know, fine.”
Marvin is grinning at him. Chase flushes as he looks at him. “What?”
“You were talking pretty loud,” admits Marvin.
Chase sinks a little farther against the wall, smiling a bit despite himself.
“You’re a bold man making a go at her,” says Marvin.
Chase chuckles. “Stupid man. How could I not, though? She’s so pretty.”
“Is she going to give you another chance?”
“No,” says Chase. “But that’s okay. She said it wasn’t fair to me for her to remember all the bad shit we did to each other and me to not remember. She said we broke up for good reasons and right now we need to focus on the kids, which is true. We’re going to learn to be partners in parenting before we even talk about anything else. And that felt right.”
Marvin sets his head back, humming.
“She said she wanted me to date some other people first anyway,” adds Chase. “And that she’s seen some guys here and there and we both need to figure ourselves out a little bit. That felt right too.”
“Yeah?”
“Yes. But then, just at the end, she said that she still does remember how good it was when we were in love, and that maybe, if we figure things out over the next couple years, and I stay sober - well, we could talk about it again then. But she didn’t want me to wait around for her. She said to go meet people and just worry about myself and the kids.”
Chase closes his eyes and sets his head down on Marvin’s shoulder. “So I think that will all be alright. Just to grow on my own. And now I know.”
“She cut you loose,” says Marvin fondly.
“Yes,” says Chase. “I won’t obsess over her so much now. I’m a free man, Marv.”
“That you are,” says Marvin, kissing the side of his head. “Now and forever.”
“Amen.”
Anonymous asked:
Any luck getting in contact with the Ravens, guys? Henrik I'm sure you miss them majorly, and I'd love for them to get to see you so safe and healthy
“You know, I left them a message just yesterday,” says Henrik, watching a movie with JJ and, now that they’ve run in, the kids. “Marvin’s friends helped find the number, some magic directory, I suppose. Haha. But they did not answer and then the voice message was in Spanish, so I just left a message asking for Emmanuela or Hermann or someone, and hopefully they will call me back. I would like to speak with them very much.”
“Hey.” Chase pokes his head in the door, smiling at his brothers and his children. “Come on and get some dinner.”
They leave the laptop with you on the bed, and as they crowd into the dining room, you realize there are no cameras in there at all: just nearby ones that, over the course of the next hour, send you the sound of their laughter many times over.
.
Anonymous asked:
Have you guys thought about trying to contact Jack? He might remember you once he sees you, like how Dark slowly remembered Anti. It might be worth a shot.
This is an idea I toyed with including, but ultimately, I have decided to leave it to you to imagine whether or not they would contact Jack again and what his reaction might be. Whatever you think is canon, is canon. Thank you for asking.
Okay, guys… if I can hold to my guns, the next scene should be the last :’)
Anonymous asked:
Hey Trick, you should surprise Henrik with some hanukkah candles! The last time he got to celebrate was still in captivity, getting to connect with his religion in a freer state of mind would be wonderful.
“It’s September now,” Henrik says. “Rosh Hashanah will be closer.”
“Summer’s ending,” complains Chase. “I don’t want it to get cold.”
“I do. I will like to see all the leaves turn color and fall onto the grass. And I will have coffee all day and make pie.”
Chase sends him the football along with a look of faux despair, and they laugh as it bounces off Henrik’s foot and nearly hits him in the face. The red ball, a little deflated, rolls back and forth between them on the soft hot grass.
“We can celebrate Rosh Hashanah exactly as you like,” Chase continues, kicking the ball up and catching it on his knee before bouncing it back to his brother. “And Hannukkah too, when it comes. You can have candles and all the latkes you can eat.”
Marvin rests in the grass nearby, Noodle purring next to him as he reads Inkheart. The ball rolls close to him.
“I’m not getting that for you if you hit me with it,” he warns.
Henrik appears above him with the ball, looking mischievous, and Marvin lets out a short bark of warning as he mimics dropping the ball right onto Marvin’s face, catching it again at the last moment. Marvin swats at his ankles in vengeance and Henrik darts away again, laughing.
“Miscreants,” mumbles Marvin, lying back again and stroking Noodle’s back. Jameson waters the flowers around the house and the little cat graves, wandering around the property and the border of the forest with no shoes and total freedom.
Anonymous asked:
So out of curiosity, are all of you in therapy now? If not you should be! All of you need it, even if things feel slowly better, you'll need a professional to help you work through the traumatic memories and feelings. - 🎒
“JJ sees a psychiatrist,” says Chase. “And has a social worker from the hospital checking in with him. Marvin does go to therapy. Him and I have our appointments at the same time, with different shrinks in the same office building. Jackie has been distracted with everything, but from what I understand, he plans to keep going to see someone. Schneep probably needs to see a clinical psychologist too. We’re trying to find someone a little more specialized. Since his triggers are kind of intense. He will, though.”
Henrik nods, returning the ball to his brother. “Need to see a trauma specialist who has worked with torture and abduction before.”
Chase’s mouth purses unhappily, something flashing through his face. But as soon as the grief and the fear appears, Chase lets it go again, closing his eyes for a second and letting it settle back into his mind. They’re safe. There is no reason to grieve anymore, or not right now, anyway. He’s here.
Marvin has cut Henrik’s hair and it is short and neat. His new glasses are still unbroken and always clean of smudges. He wears a t-shirt and sweatpants as they play on the front lawn, and the scars, though visible from several meters back, do not bother him.
They’re not as identical as they once were, Chase supposes, scratching a hand through his flop of hair, his face dotted in freckling. But he thinks maybe that’s a good thing.
Anonymous asked:
Do you still feel any dysphoria over your body, Marv? You've come a long way and I'm proud of you!
Marvin hums, settling the book on his chest for a second and closing his eyes. The warm sun soaks into his skin. Against his body, Noodle is a heavy, fuzzy, reassuring weight.
He isn’t in pain. The body is his.
“My skin isn’t a prison anymore,” he says, running his hands over Noodle’s fur. “I dream, sometimes, that Anti is under my flesh again, and I wake up sick and hating myself. But then I try to take care of myself in revenge.”
He grins coldly, shaking his head.
“It’s my last rebellion against him. He tried to make me hate myself so much. Hate my body. Tried to take my autonomy from me. And I would want to hurt myself because of it. But now - it’s been months since he died. Months since he possessed me. And I won’t give him the privilege of still having control over me and my body. So when I want to hurt myself and hate myself and hide, I get a hot cup of mint tea and wrap my blankets around me and put on clean clothes. I take a long warm shower. I put on my favorite jewelry and comb my hair. I eat. I walk in the forest. Brush my teeth. Kiss our cat.”
His eyes open lazily. The sunlight makes the blue so clear you could swim in it. He is spread out in the grass in a soft white shirt and shorts, his ears and fingers glittering with jewelry. He sinks a hand into the long, overgrown grass, and you see tiny flowers bud up around his palm, a ladybug crawling onto his wrist out of curiosity.
“So I guess I still feel dysphoric, sometimes, yeah. Sometimes cause of Anti and sometimes because I don’t want to be a man today and sometimes because I just want to punish myself for the things that I went through. But I rebel against it… I love myself instead.”
[Anonymous asked:
Sending this as a scene request because it feels like it's too late in the story to send it to Trick. But do you think he'd ever get in contact with Xin Yi again? How would that go? Would they still have crushes on each other, would they end up together? Can we see how that would go when/if it happened? Ty Bee!
I will have to leave that one up to you to imagine - sorry I cannot fulfill the scene request <3 If you want him to find her again, of course he does. I’m not sure how he would - maybe she still runs that same hawker stand with her family back in Singapore, and the boys will go back and travel to all the places they once hid, and meet these people on better terms. Chase’s memory of Xin Yi is limited because Anti tried to get rid of her in his head, but he might remember her better if he could see her again.
I can tell you that my personal headcanon is that Xin Yi and the sunbird magician in Singapore, Caleb, met after what happened, because Xin Yi came back to look for Chase when he disappeared and Caleb was her only lead. She found out through Caleb about magic and the monster in that house who burned him so badly.
Caleb survived Anti’s attack and is rebuilding the sunbird order in Singapore. I like to think Xin Yi is helping him.]
Anonymous asked:
So what are you going to do with yourself now, Marv? Mostly magician stuff? I think it should be up to you what you become after all this! You're free and strong now. I hope you know now you were always beautiful, even with shaved hair and sick in your eyes. You've always been someone worth loving.
Marvin beams, sitting up in the grass and stretching luxuriously. “A lot of magician stuff, I expect,” he says, a little amused. “But then again, my friends tell me I did some translation work before all this. I went to school for linguistics, I guess, which is why I speak a few different languages. I can do… a lot of things, really.”
He grins at the blue sky. “I can do anything.”
And he is beautiful in the same way that that sick survivor in the hospital bed was beautiful, because he is still hoping for something.
“I feel beautiful,” he adds. “Thank you. For the days when I didn’t, and you told me I was worth having anyway.”
Anonymous asked:
What has Jackie been so busy with??
“Well,” says Chase. “He was working a lot at the theater. And then he got stabbed and was on bedrest. And then he met Max! So he’s been kind of distracted from therapy, in general.”
Anonymous asked:
Seems I missed a few days, but check in time! What's everyone's emotional status? All good in septiceye world? - 🎒
“Good,” say the twins together, rolling the ball between them.
“The kids are going to come stay with me for a whole weekend as soon as the magic mirror or whatever is cleared for travel,” says Chase proudly. “And I haven’t had anything to drink since that girl gave me wine. It wasn’t even good wine. And Schneep’s been looking at jobs.”
“Oh, only a little,” says Henrik. “Just discovering what my options might be if I want to try and work again. Maybe a little later. For now, I am content to rest, and we are not so short on funds that I must return to work.”
Marvin stands up, patting Noodle on the head. “And I think I’ve answered the question,” he says. He straightens up and his eyes find his youngest brother just within the forest, kneeling and working in the dirt. Marvin flashes him a thumbs up. Jameson blinks at him for a second, but eventually gives a thumbs up in return before going back to his task.
Marvin is distracted by the buzzing in his pocket. He pulls out the cell phone they share between them and accepts the call from an unknown number.
“Is it Jackie?” asks Chase.
Marvin shakes his head, listening for a minute. The twins exchange confused looks as he turns away from them and talks.
“Henrik,” he calls after a moment. “Come here.”
He holds the phone out to him.
unpredictably-ghostly asked:
Oh? Who's calling??
Henrik approaches his brother skeptically. “Don’t do this to me, Marvin,” he warns. “Don’t mess with me on this.”
Marvin just grins and passes the phone to him. Henrik bites his teeth together for a second before taking it and setting it to his ear.
“Hello?” he says.
A couple voices hush each other on the other side. “Henrik?” calls a voice.
Something catches in his chest. “Oh! My friends!”
He hears a wild shriek and then, an ocean away, the raucous, delighted laughter of a group of Peruvian magicians, who have been waiting to hear from him this whole time.
Henrik hears himself laughing too.
“He lives! Long live the doctor!”
“Henrik, you ass, we thought we might never hear from you again!”
“Are you well? Hey, let me talk! Henrik, are you well?”
“I hope you sent that monster back to hell where he belongs!”
“I’m well,” he laughs, clinging to the phone. “I’m - I’m well, yes. I’m very well now, oh.”
nikkilbook asked:
Whatcha working on, Jaimer?
Jameson glances back at you, eyebrows raised.
“Nothing,” he signs after a second, his body hiding his project. “Just… gardening.”
He hears the hollering from Henrik on the phone and looks back to see him smiling and talking to his friends. Jameson looks back to his task, a breath falling from his mouth, almost a sigh. In his hands, a rounded stone. He sets it on the ground with a grimace, wiping at the sweat on his forehead.
nikkilbook asked:
Gardening for y’all, or for the kitties?
Jameson shrugs. “For me, I guess.”
He sets another rock down on top of the other, running his fingers over it.
Anonymous asked:
Chase, JJ, do you hang out together now? Do you feel more like proper brothers, love each other, treat each other with respect? I feel like that'd be a mark of extreme healing for you two after Anti made you to hate each other so badly all that time ago.
Chase pulls his attention away from Henrik with a chuckle, knowing he’ll want to talk to his friends for a while. He lets the football come to a rest beneath his foot and spots Jamie working alone beneath the trees.
“Everything changed when I was given a taste of what it really must have been like to be him for so long,” he says, gazing out at him. “When I realized it wasn’t actually being spoiled or treated better than the rest of us. It was just another version of abuse.”
He treads out towards him, his cat running over to walk with him. “I think my hatred for him died that day Anti dragged us both up to his room in the California house and locked us in together for so long. My head was so scrambled. He was the only thing I was clinging to. And Anti treated me so warmly, but so terribly at the same time. What a form of torture: to be that confused and hated and loved at the same time. If I didn’t have Jameson there, I would have lost myself… permanently, I think. I could never have fought free without him helping me. He saved me. I think maybe we saved each other. Since then, I don’t have any anger for him, not anywhere inside me. He’s my brother. And I sure respect the fuck out of him for fucking surviving the treatment Anti put him through. For being able to fight at all after that - he’s one of the toughest sons of bitches I know.
"Now we’re working on being friends too. We went out for coffee the other day, to make up for the day I missed last week, and it was good between us. He does get so shy though. Not even of other people. Just of me. There’s a part of me that feels he’s still waiting to be rejected by the rest of us: for us to decide he’s not worth the trouble, or that he’s too much like Anti, or something like that. But it’s something we just have to affirm to him again and again - that he belongs with us, that we love him. I’d like to see him bold again. I will see him bold again. I’m tired of seeing him afraid.”
Noodle runs ahead of Chase with a meow to greet JJ, pulling his attention back to them. Chase smiles at him and JJ manages a twitch of a smile back at him before turning away again, kneeling over his project.
Chase kneels down beside him, touching his hand.
“Hey,” he says. “Hey, what’s wrong? Look at me.”
JJ looks back at him, a little red-eyed. Chase touches his shoulder, his thumb grazing his chin.
After a moment, JJ sinks into his side. Chase holds him against his chest.
“What’s the matter, love?”
“Love,” JJ signs back, pressing it against his brother’s heart, and then he just sighs and closes his eyes.
nikkilbook asked:
Is it a cairn for the twin you could have had?
Chase touches the smooth surface of the little set of stones JJ has set up in the woods. Jameson hides his face in one hand, refusing to look up at him.
“Jamie,” says Chase. “Hey, we’re okay.”
Jameson finally lets his hand fall from his eyes, shaking his head.
“I’m just sick of not being normal,” he says. “Everybody else gets to have their twin. Everybody else gets to be together. I’m just his fucked-up other half. And I hate that I miss him most of all.”
Jameson’s face contorts with fury and grief. He sinks back onto his heels, closing his eyes and hiding his face again.
“I’m always going to be set apart from the rest of you,” he says. “I wish I could have been enough to make him love me.”
“That’s not - ”
“I know it’s not,” Jameson interrupts. “I know I never could have. I know he chose to be the way he was. I always knew it. But it doesn’t make me feel any better. I’m sorry, Chase.”
Chase looks up at him, blinking. “For what?”
“For not getting everyone a better ending,” he says. “ For everything. For not having a happy ending for you sooner.”
“Why is that on you?” asks Chase, startled.
“I’m supposed to fix things,” says JJ helplessly. “That’s why - that’s why he made me, but I still can’t - ”
His words falter from his hands. Chase presses closer to him and hugs him tightly, pulling his head against his shoulder.
“C'mon, then,” murmurs Chase, pulling away from him after a second.
“What?” asks JJ.
Chase gets up on his feet and wanders in a circle for a moment, leaning down to pick up a medium-sized stone. He comes back to JJ’s side and kneels, placing the stone atop the ones JJ has already erected.
Jameson wipes at the tears on his face and gets back up, collecting stones of his own. They work in silence. Noodle purrs beside the little stack of rocks, his tail thumping against the dirt and leaves, until they have a little tower of stone in front of them.
Chase runs his fingers over the side of it.
“Don’t tell Marvin I made it for Anti,” asks JJ.
“Marvin can get over himself if he still has problems with you grieving him,” returns Chase, turning to tug a strand of JJ’s hair fondly. “JJ, I miss him too sometimes.”
“Really?”
“Yeah. Of course. The way he could make you feel like you were special, like you were precious - and then of course, he’d tear you down again afterwards, but it only made it feel so much better when you could win his approval again. He was a horrible kind of addiction.”
Chase looks at his brother. “It’s okay if you’re sad instead of angry sometimes. If your feelings towards him are complicated, that’s okay. You were with him your whole life. But Jay, you gotta start letting go of the past.”
“I’ve been thinking about something, though,” says JJ, scooting towards him. “Look, I’m feeling better these days. My medication’s working, I’m not delusional, I’m stable, nobody’s hurting me. Chase, I think I could start time-traveling again.”
“What? Jamie, that’s not - ”
“I think I could make things better,” Jameson insists. “What if I could go back and relive some of it - ”
“Relive?”
“And fix some things because I know how to make it right now!”
“You want to go back to Anti, go through all that shit again, just so you could maybe get us here faster?”
“Chase, I could save Henrik from being tortured! I could stop Anti from ever taking Marvin’s body from him! I could give us a happy ending!”
Chase grabs his arm with a sudden vehemence, something hot rising in his face. He pulls Jameson out of the forest, back to the clearing, and points him towards their home.
Henrik and Marvin are clinging to each other’s hands, laughing as Henrik talks to his friends over the phone. There are flowers and butterflies in the lawn. The house is undisturbed, unbloodied, safe.
“What about this is not a happy ending to you?” asks Chase, pulling Jameson’s gaze to him. “Why do you have to blame yourself for things that Anti did?”
“Because maybe I could make them right,” stutter Jameson’s hands. “That’s my job.”
Chase shakes his head at him, gripping his hand for a moment.
“Your only job is to be our brother,” he says. “And there is nothing in the world that is worth you going back to Anti’s arms again, JJ.”
scunneredzombie asked:
JJ, just because you're a time traveler doesn't make it your job to fix everything. You spent most of your life so hypnotised you didn't even know the snake in your rabbit's den. How could you have known to fix it? Don't blame yourself for the suffering, it's no one's fault but Anti's. Trauma is trauma and you all are going to have it no matter the fixing you do. It is not your job to fix everything. You are not a tool for a means.
“Sometimes I knew he was a snake,” protests JJ weakly. “He was just… my snake.”
Chase snorts, stepping forward to brush tears from his face. “Sometimes you did, and sometimes you didn’t. But there was never all that much you could do about it until you had some help, JJ. And that’s okay.”
“I should have been the first to rebel,” says JJ. “I should have.”
“It’s the past, James.” He cups his brother’s face between his hands. “It’s done. And they’re right. You are not his tool, you don’t have to fix things, and you definitely aren’t here just to right Anti’s mistakes.”
JJ closes his eyes and leans into his hands, exhausted.
“I guess that while he’s dead completely to the rest of us… you’ve been sitting here in the knowledge that you could go back to him whenever you wanted. Huh?”
Jameson’s face contorts with pain. He doesn’t answer.
“Have you ever gone back to see him?”
Blue eyes flash open. JJ shakes his head no.
Chase purses his mouth. “I want to believe that, really, but I happen to know you are a pretty damn good actor when you need to be.”
Jameson lets out a ragged breath. “Just a few times. It was before… before I started getting better. I haven’t in at least a month.”
“What are you trying to get by doing that?” asks Chase, bewildered. “I can’t even imagine wanting to go back to those times.”
JJ wipes at his face. “I just want you all to stop being in pain.”
Chase sighs out, long and slow. He reaches for JJ’s hand and pulls him back into the trees, towards the cairn. They stop together and Chase rotates their hands. In the light, the smooth, puckered skin of the burn on his hand gleams.
“Look at this,” says Chase. “Anti did this to me. I lit a fire to keep us warm and he threw me into it. It hurt really badly. It traumatized me. The scar will never go away.”
He meets JJ’s gaze. “And if you told me you could go back in time and make that moment never happen, I would tell you not to.”
Noodle is purring against their legs, twining between their ankles. He runs forward into the trees, free as can be, golden-hot in the sun.
“JJ, sometimes pain makes you realize things you couldn’t see before, and sometimes pain is just pain, and it sucks, and it hurts you for a long time. But it’s still a part of who I am. It still reminds me that I was strong enough to escape, that I never have to let anyone put me back in that place, that I got out with my life and I should treasure every moment of freedom I have. Sure, there are a couple times where it would have just been better even in the long-run for us not to have been hurt, or chained up, or tortured… but if you start trying to fix all of them, you will tear yourself apart in the process. And I would much rather have you than one less scar on my hand.
"Bad things don’t always happen for a reason, but we find the meaning in them anyway. The past is gone, Jameson. You and me and our family - we are what remains.”
“I love you,” mouths Jameson, not pulling his hand away.
Chase pulls them to their knees and sets their shared hands on top of the smooth surface of that little cairn in the woods.
“Bury Anti here,” says Chase softly. “Leave him in the past with the rest of the pain, little brother. Let Anti rest right here, and let him go.”
Anonymous asked:
The past is the past, and Anti can never hurt you again. Jameson, you are more than half of a whole. You have always been whole all on your own. Anti will always be part of you, but let that part come to rest. Let that part fall off like a skin tag, useless and only there to hurt.
Jameson runs his fingers over the stones, sighing. It takes up so much of his waking hours: the regret over the things he could have done better, or sooner, or differently. It seems like every time his brothers are in pain, it’s his fault.
But that was what Anti wanted him to think. It was just another cage he kept him in.
He’s his own person, and he belongs with his real brothers, not the broken reflection of someone who should have loved him but never did. He knows better. Chase is right - he has to let go of the past.
Besides, why should this not be the right ending? Why should this not be called happiness? Every ending has some pain in it. Some imperfections. There will be hard days, going forward. Painful days and difficult days and days where he is full of regret and has to see the others in pain. But they will come back from each of those days and keep going anyway. They will have coffee and blankets and fresh snow in the winter. Chocolate and church services. Dates with new people, birthday parties, and long walks in the forest whenever they feel like it. A home, and a family, and a hug when your heart hurts.
Is that not a happy ending?
“Noodle, Noodle,” calls Chase, pulling Jameson from his reflection as the bushes rustle. “Come here, baby!”
Noodle darts out of the bushes and comes warmly to Chase’s side, his chest rumbling. Chase laughs and brushes at his back, but then the bushes give another rustle, and there is a soft noise that makes both him and Jameson look up.
Noodle mewls and jumps back towards the bushes, purring. Chase and Jameson exchange glances and get to their feet.
“A squirrel?” asks Jameson.
“He wouldn’t be purring at a squirrel, he’d have tried to bring it back to me in his mouth. Noodle?”
A languid meow from the bushes, and then a second one, and two pairs of eyes peek out at Jameson and Chase from the bushes.
Anonymous asked:
Cats?? Maybe kittens??
“Marvin! Marvin, come here, come now!”
The shouting of his name makes Marvin whip around in alarm, but it only takes him a second to realize it’s accompanied by loud laughter and a couple of the shrieking noises Chase makes whenever Noodle does something really cute. Marvin snorts and looks at Henrik, who rolls his eyes back at him, and they both head towards the trees to see what Noodle’s done now.
Chase and Jameson are on their knees in the dirt, laughing. “What is it now, you dorks?” asks Marvin, moving over to stand above them.
His heart leaps to his throat.
“Holy shit,” he breathes.
Chase looks up at him, beaming and red in the face with excitement. Jameson is smoothing his hands lovingly over the back of a huge white cat with thick, matted fur, no older than six months by his guess. She rests on her back, purring, apparently unalarmed by all the loud humans around her. Noodle beats his tail against her, humming.
“How is this possible?” asks Marvin. “We saw their bodies. The cats - they’re dead.”
“This is a different cat,” Jameson tells him. “I would know if it were the same ones.”
“But it looks like the other cat!”
Jameson smiles up at him. “You had a boy and a girl cat. They wandered a lot. Did as they pleased. It’s not impossible that they might have had a little nest of kittens we hadn’t found out about yet.”
Marvin reaches out, breathless. The cat looks up at him with these clear blue eyes, like a fancy little show cat might have. He touches her tenderly and she lets him. When he wraps his arms around her, she allows him to pull her to his chest.
“Oh, there’s another one!” cries Henrik, and at once Marvin’s brothers are leaping up to look at to try and cajole over the second cat, just as pretty and white as its sibling. But Marvin can’t get over the one in his arms.
She purrs at him, warm against his chest. By all accounts she should be feral, but she isn’t. Maybe he did know these kittens, once. Maybe he just forgot.
“My little girl,” he breathes, stroking her head. “My little friend. You come back to me.”
He looks up at the feeling of eyes set upon him and sees Jameson smiling at him. His eyes are slightly red. Marvin reaches out his free hand to touch his face, concerned.
“You alright?” he asks.
“Yes,” signs Jameson. “Yes, I think so.”
Anonymous asked:
Ohh Marvin! Marvin you have kittens! What do you think you'll name them? Oh, what about some of the names we suggested for you back when you were struggling a bit with self image, like Maeve and Ciara and Uathach?
Marvin laughs, rocking the cat in his arms.
“Okay, guys,” he says, squishing the cat to his chest. “There is a girl cat here and - did you catch the other one?”
“She’s friendly too!” shouts Chase.
“And also a white cat?”
“She has grey booties!”
“Holy shit.”
“I know!”
Marvin turns his attention back to you, laughing. “In celebration of us finding at least two cats in the woods… please feel free to submit your name suggestions. Haha. Shit, do you remember when we first got Noodle? And now this? This is the best day of my life.”
If you’d like, we can name them the same way we named Noodle: send in name suggestions and we can count notes to vote for which you like. I will put these three names as the first suggestions.
Okay I was going to leave a good deal of time but I got so many right away we might have to just go with those lol! Sorry if someone did not get to send suggestions I did not realize they would come so fast ahhh!! but thank you hahah <3
The boys are all crowded around the camera, laughing and holding the cats. Noodle curls around their legs, wondering why he is suddenly not getting everyone’s attention, until JJ takes pity on him and scoops him up too.
Both girls are remarkably calm. The one with the grey stockings has a little grey on her face as well.
“Okay, okay, lemme see,” says Chase. “I’m hearing Roisin and Caragh - ”
“Roisin is sooo cute,” says Marvin.
“Amber and Amethyst - ”
“I think that’s Steven Universe,” says Henrik.
“Or just cute names!” protests JJ.
“Brigid and Cailleach - ”
“Not Call-each, Chaser, it’s pronounced like Callie-ah.”
“Heaven and Angel, and then… these are some separate ones. Should we name them both separately or in a pair?”
“Let’s pick two of these duo names we like,” says Marvin. “So I like Peanut and Jam, that’s funny.”
“And I like Turkey Leg and Chicken Leg,” laughs JJ.
“And then… we’ll say Stockings and something elegant, which we can pick if we need to. And Boots and Dove. And then if you do like one of the names but don’t like the other one, you can say that and we’ll see what we can do.”
I’ll post them in pairs and we can workshop from there if needed :) like if things get close we can narrow it down starting with these pairs. leave a like, comment, reblog, or send an ask to vote for the one you like. thanks guys
I feel bad leaving people out so if you want to send some last minute ones in GO GO GO
Option 1: Roisin and Caragh (pronounced Cara I believe)
Option 2: Amber and Amethyst
Option 3: Brighid and Cailleach
Option 4: Heaven and Angel
Option 5: Chicken Leg and Turkey Leg
Option 6: Peanut and Jam
Option 7: Stockings and something to be determined, maybe Adoline
Option 8: Boots and another silly name or color-based name, maybe Boots and Dove
Option 9: Stockings and Roisin
Option 10: Maeve and Ciara and Uathach (pronounced oo-a-hah) (we will pick 2/3 if needed) or other names from Irish mythology like Siobhra (pronounced sheefra)
We are down to three choices: Stockings and Roisin, Turkey Leg and Chicken Leg, or Peanuts and Jam. For those of you who voted for different options or anyone else who wants to cast a vote, feel free to choose between those three now!
Anonymous asked:
Good duo names: Lemon/Lime, Chicken Leg/Turkey Leg, Pumpkin Pie/Apple Pie, Juice/Soda, Peanut/Jam
“Peanut and Jam,” laughs Marvin, and it’s enough to send a fit of laughter through all four of them, huddled around their cats in the woods. “That’s very good.”
“Peanut should be the white one,” says JJ. “And Jam the grey and white one. They’re so cute.”
Chase gives a sudden gasp, drawing everyone’s attention to him in a flash. His hand rises to cover his mouth.
“Chase?” asks Henrik. “What is it?”
Chase’s alarm crinkles into mirth at the sides of his eyes. His chest starts to shake in a giggle.
“I’ve just realized something,” he says.
“What?” asks Marvin.
“Well.” He clears his throat. “Noodle has been running around unchecked out here for a couple weeks now…”
“And?”
“And he’s not neutered.”
Everyone looks at Noodle. He rumbles innocently back at them.
“Kittens!” cries Marvin.
“No,” laughs Henrik. “We need to get him neutered right away, why did we never - ?”
“Well, he’s an indoor cat, he never - ”
“No, I want kittens, I want kittens so bad!”
They’re all just laughing like wild, like it’s the funniest thing they’ve ever heard. Kittens and new cats and Marvin so lit up in delight - they’re laughing like everything is good in the world.
“Hey! Anybody home?”
“Jackie!” cries Marvin. “You’re back! Look at this!”
He’s racing back towards the house with a cat in his arms, and Jackie is there in the doorway, flushed with color, in a clean red hoodie, beaming at them in the sunlight. Noodle reaches out to lick Jam’s face and Henrik snatches her away, scolding him, while his brothers are already looking back through the names you sent them to pick what they might, one day, name kittens.
nikkilbook asked:
Hey Jackie—if you haven’t quite finished riding off into the sunset with your Prince Charming, one last suggestion. You said you wanted to watch more movies. When you have a second, I want you to sit down with your man and a bunch of gigantic peanut butter cookies or some shiz and watch every episode of LOKI, just back to back. Heck, you’ve probably got more than one season by now, so watch those too. Then go out and buy all the Loki-centric comics starting from the aftermath of SEIGE in what, 2010? and going until at least the end of AGENT OF ASGARD in 2015. Feel free to get others, too. Most importantly, read the author’s note in the back of the first issue of AOA, and remember, from me to you: everything you have done, everything you have survived, has been for yourself. Because yourself, Jackie, the self you were before and the self that you became in the fires and the self that you built from ashes and love, is a self absolutely worth fighting for.
Oh, and Max? We haven’t had the chance to talk up til this point, but I wanted to tell you this: you have my blessing to marry my son. ;) I wish both of you unending peace.
“Loki, huh?” asks Jackie, grinning at you from the doorway of his home, the wind playing with his hair. “Yeah, I think we’ll have time for that. We have time for everything now, don’t we? Loki, sure - anything for you.”
He looks back at Max inside the house. Their eyes meet and a whole world of something passes between them. Max retreats to the kitchen with a box of presents in his arms, giving Jackie some time to say hello.
He’s right, after all. They have all the time in the world.
Jackie stands in the doorway alone, watching his brothers come towards him.
“It was well worth the fight,” he says. “I was well worth the fight.”
badlypostedeverything asked:
Its been a while since i checked in with you all. We're all proud of you.
“Oh, so this is what happens when I leave for a few days?” asks Jackie, shaking his head as Marvin rushes towards him. “You get cats to fill the absence.”
Marvin throws his free arm around Jackie’s neck, setting his head down on his brother’s shoulder for a long moment. Peanut sniffs curiously at him, looking up at him with those ridiculous blue eyes.
“I missed you,” says Marvin. “Was it a good time?”
Jackie squeezes him in return, breathing in the familiar smell of him. The flower and flame smell never left him, not even when Anti stripped the magic from him. They used to lie close together and try to survive together on nothing more but the warmth the other gave off. He’s still warm to the touch now.
“Yeah,” he says. “Very good.”
Their younger brothers are approaching from the trees. Jackie fills his eyes with the sight of them. Days he’s been away, but here they are, playing in the sun and walking close to each other, like nothing ever separated the three of them.
The camera draws his fond gaze and he straightens up, smiling.
“Thank you,” he says. “I’m proud of us too.”
“Jackie!” Chase runs forward to hug him too, and of course Henrik comes right with him, holding the second cat up to Jackie’s face. Jackie knocks their heads together and scratches under the cat’s chin.
“What have you been talking about for the cameras to be proud of us?” Jackie asks Marvin, touching his hand as Chase and Henrik continue to chatter about the cats.
“Nothing,” replies Marvin. “Just… being happy. And saying goodbye.”
Jackie hums and hugs him again, pressing their heads together. Peanut squirms free of their arms and Jam follows suit, and the girls weave towards each other, knocking their heads and purring like mad, their white tails curling around each other, and close their eyes.
scunneredzombie asked:
Taking care of you guys has been my main goal for a long, long time now. It fills me with so much joy to see you free enough that you don't need our watching eye anymore. Thank you for letting us free you, but most of all thank you for freeing yourselves. I'll miss you all, but I know you have so much happiness ahead! Jackieboyman, Marvin the Magnificent, Chase Brody, Henrik von Schneeplestein, Jameson Jackson... Your lives will be beautiful!
“Oh,” says Chase, peeking over at the camera. “That’s a lot of taking care of us. Now you just have to make sure your main goal is taking care of yourself.”
He smiles at you, tugging at the brim of his hat, flipped around backwards.
“If we see you guys less going forward, we still won’t forget. You did a lot for us. I’m glad I’ve had a friend on the days where I felt like I was all alone.”
One of his brothers calls for him and he turns to look back, to look at his family gathered around him. Marvin and Jackie and JJ and Henrik.
“Yeah,” he says contentedly. “I think you’re right. I think everything is going to be just beautiful.”
Anonymous asked:
Healing will come for each one of you ❣️ Safety is imminent
“Safety is a cat in your arms,” says Marvin, kissing Jam’s head and squeezing her to his chest.
“Marvin,” scolds Henrik. “She’s filthy!”
Marvin laughs, just because it’s good to hear Henrik reprimand him.
“Who cares?” he says. “She’s mine.”
Healing feels very close indeed when your brothers are around you and there are cats to cuddle with. He knows, by now, that even on his own he is whole and complete, but we discover ourselves in the way we love others, and he is finding himself again these days. In his brothers, in his friends…
“In a little white cat,” he whispers. “I can see the self that Anti tried to take from me. He really thought he could kill me on that beach. He really thought he could string my cats up and wipe all of me out of existence forever.”
He kisses Jam again.
“What a fool.”
Here in his home, in his forest, with his family, he is very much alive.
Anonymous asked:
Dapper, Trickshot, Doctor, Red, and Blue. Names you never have to be addressed by again, identities you should never have had to take on in the first place. I'm glad you all were able to rediscover yourselves as Jameson, Chase, Schneep, Jackie, and Marvin. A little worse for wear maybe, but still you all the same.
Henrik chuckles to himself, running his gaze over the heavy scarring down his arms and hands. “A little worse for wear, huh?”
He bows his head for a moment, pushing his glasses up on his nose. He was lost for a long time. It seemed to him that he would never escape the cage Anti trapped him in, even after he was gone.
“I am a little worse for wear,” he says. “Some days my body hurts, and some days I get stuck in this head of mine again. But I would not take it back. This was the price of the fight I fought for myself. My reward…”
Jameson, Chase, Jackie, Marvin. In bloom. Henrik smiles. His teeth are crooked. His eyes are very blue.
“My reward has been most worthwhile. And I expect it shall continue to be, for as long as I continue to breathe.”
nikkilbook asked:
Jackie, Jackie, Jackie Jackie Jackie—you did it. You found yourself, you found the boy in the red hood again. You’re not wearing a mask anymore, you’re you. Everyone knows I’m horribly biased—it’s no secret who my favorite is. I couldn’t always be here, but do you know why I kept coming back, even when I didn’t know exactly what was happening? You were hurting, and you were trying, and you were breaking, and then trying again. It echoed something in me, and watching you work toward your happy ending, watching you GET your happy ending and knowing there would be more happy beginnings, middles, and endings for the rest of your lives even if I’m not there to see it, and most of all getting to help you, message by message, however much it was worth to you—it put another brick in the little house I’m building inside me, the one that reminds me that I’m going to get a happy ending to. Every moment of sunshine I got to help make or watch was a reassurance that I’m going to be okay too.
Here’s to another happy beginning, my Jackieboy. Good luck, and thank you. From your friend.
—
[to bee:] (And thank YOU most of all, my dearest friend. May all your stories have happy endings, too)
“Hey, come on now,” chuckles Jackie, wrapping an arm around Max’s waist as he returns to him. “That’s too sweet, haha.”
“It’s true, though,” says Max, reaching up to wipe a fallen eyelash from Jackie’s cheek, his fingers brushing through his beard. “Getting to help you is a privilege.”
Jackie’s expression softens and reddens. “Max.”
“You are a very strong person,” says Max.
“I wouldn’t have gotten here alone.”
“That doesn’t make you weak.”
Jackie’s eyes crinkle. He looks at Max, and then at you, and in the light through the windows of the home, he is lit up in gold and red, and his future stretches before him like a road already glowing at his feet.
“You are going to get a happy ending,” Jackie tells you, shy and earnest. “Because it turns out, even someone like me deserves one. And even when things are so bad you can’t for the life of you see the way out - well, the future comes anyway, and the past always becomes the past, and you feel yourself breathe again. Without even meaning to, sometimes. A breath in - a breath out. Still alive. Still moving forward. It never becomes perfect. But peace is… attainable. What a revolutionary concept to that person chained to Anti’s side, hungry and hurting. He never would have believed it. It is my deep privilege to know that that person is a part of me - that he survived, and kept breathing… and now he gets to be happy.
"Thank you for keeping him company. For giving him hope. He would not have made it without you.”
Anonymous asked:
I can't express just how much strength and resilience you've all shown getting through all of this. And just how much trust you managed to put in us as well, just strangers who were supposed to observe. There were times when your obstacles seemed impossible to deal with and yet you all made it through to today, happy and together. You've all been through hell and back so I hope you know you all deserve the little piece of heaven you're building with each other here
“Please, strangers?” laughs Henrik. “You are not strangers. You were there with us for… for all year, maybe! You think I do not remember each one of you? Think I cannot tell your styles apart, the kind of questions you ask, think I do not know you all by wording and punctuation and interests? I am a genius, right? You are not strangers. You are company when I would otherwise have been all alone in the world.”
“Honestly,” says Chase, flopping onto the couch beside his twin. “I hope that that’s the fucking lesson, if there is one. You can go through the worst shit and still come out of it not just alive, but… happy.”
He and Henrik exchange looks, their hands brushing on the couch. Whole books in the way they look at each other. Whole stories they will never forget.
“I tried killing myself more than once,” says Chase softly. “Because at the time, it was a certainty to me - an absolute certainty - that things would never get better. There was nothing you could have said to convince me that they would. It wasn’t about hope at that point. Just survival. And I survived until you helped me hope again… and then live again.”
Henrik squeezes his fingers.
Yes, novels and books between their gazes, and you, my friends, are the ones who have born witness to it.
“I’m glad I’m alive,” whispers Chase. “I’m glad I didn’t die.”
“My brother,” says Henrik. “Me too.”
crystalninjaphoenix asked:
I hope you guys enjoy yourselves ^-^
“Yes,” calls Marvin, clapping his hands together. “That’s what we should do, enjoy ourselves. The fridge is full! Let’s have food, all we can eat. And we’ll play games or play football in the yard or watch a show or something. We have found our lost cats, and Jackie is here with our brother-in-law, and everything is good in the world: let’s have a party.”
Anonymous asked:
It's funny, Jameson, you used to refer to your brothers as ghosts. Do the ghosts of Dapper, Red, Blue, Trick, & Dok haunt you now? I hope for your sake that you only see the living now, after all this time.
Jameson breathes out a slow breath.
Warm air through his hair, across his skin. His clothes are clean, just a little grass-stained at the knees. Clear blue eyes, soft hair, long eyelashes.
Do you remember the boy hidden in the basement? Drawing charcoal pictures into the walls, tied by his throat?
Jameson looks down at his hands.
He pulls the silver clock from his pocket, gripping in his hand this present from Jack, this deep power always thrumming through him.
His brothers are talking and laughing in the kitchen. Jackie and Max wrap together like two sides of the sea, all lovey-dovey eyes and lingering glances, while Henrik and Chase and Marvin all work in tandem, joking and cooking and playing with the cats.
Jameson closes his eyes.
Just for a moment, you see:
Red reappears in the hallway, his eyes dark. He steps slowly towards Blue. His twin, realizing his mistake, falls deathly silent, sinking back against the counter, until Red is standing nearly chest-to-chest with him, staring down.
Blue swallows, looking anywhere but at Red.
“Don’t,” whispers Red. “Bother your master.”
Blue chews on his lip, his eyes flashing.
“Am I understood?”
“Yes, Red.”
Red pauses just a second longer before turning to limp back towards his room, that chain heavy around his ankle. Blue swallows again and again, blinking rapidly.
And Jameson is watching all this. In his mind, he can see it whenever he wants. Blue turns away from Red. Red slinks back to his room. He curls in on himself like a dog broken into submission, silent and miserable, and Blue bites back on tears in the kitchen.
Jameson slides towards that past version of his brothers, still so present to him despite everything. He places a hand on Blue’s shoulder.
His brother turns to him quickly, startled.
“Darling,” he gasps, touching JJ’s face. “You better get back to Anti before you get in trouble.”
Jameson pauses, staring at him.
He wraps his arms around Blue’s neck.
After a second, Blue’s arms return to circle around him.
It’s going to be okay, Jameson tries to tell him with his hands at his back. I know it doesn’t feel that way now, but it will.
And for a moment, you see:
Dok stares down at the hand wrapped around his bruised wrist, his heart thudding hard in his chest. Slowly, he turns to his twin. Trick’s eyes are blue flames.
“My love,” says Henrik. “It is time you start making choices about the man you are becoming.”
“Don’t go,” says Trick. “This isn’t about morality. This isn’t about me. He will hurt you again.”
Something inside Henrik’s chest breaks clean open.
“Again?”
Trick turns his eyes away.
“You knew. Or guessed, anyway. You suspected.”
Trick cannot look him in the eyes. Something in Henrik’s chest is oozing hurt. Crimson as the sun when the trees are burning.
“There’s a future where you don’t have to hurt each other anymore,” JJ tries to tell them, looking at that canyon between them. “You can still save each other. Don’t give up.”
They whisper words between each other and pull apart. Misery in Dok’s face. Fatal resignation in Trick’s.
Just ghosts, struggling across the earth.
And for a moment, you see:
He sits back against the headboard, chewing on the nail of his thumb, distressed.
“Then again, there are nice parts to resetting your head… to make the pain fade away into the background…”
He breathes out deep.
“To free the person you were from the sin of the man you’ve become… To be Carver, not… J… to forget what used to make you happy, so you can stop hoping for it, and live misery more peacefully…”
Dapper stares out the window. The northern lights are breathing through the sky, and he quiets, watching them, forgetting what he was talking about.
“And then Anti loves you better,” he adds softly, his hand on his brother’s head. “So… what else matters?”
Jameson stares at the old person of himself.
He stares at his own ghost.
Steps towards him in the silver river of his power.
Breathes.
Dapper looks up at him, blinking. The rope lies around him, binding him, chaining his throat. He shakes his head at Jameson, confused, in the basement of a house in Norway.
“What are you doing here?” he asks. “You’re dead. We’re dead.”
“Do I look dead to you?” asks Jameson.
Dapper just stares at him. His eyes are hollow.
“There’s no life for us now. We are… a gravestone.”
Jameson kneels down in front of him. Reaches out to touch his chalk-stained cheek.
“One day,” he says. “You will breathe again. There are still things worth having. Still freedom. Still a world beyond Anti.”
Dapper’s eyes burn and water. He shakes his head at Jameson.
“No. No… it’s not true.”
“It is,” Jameson insists. “I am true. There is life still. No more isolation. No more despair.”
“No more despair,” Dapper signs back, a whisper of a movement, disbelieving as an unfamiliar prayer. “No more despair.”
“Dapper?”
Jameson turns.
In the doorway of the room, Anti looks back at him, surprised.
“What’s going on? You’re using your power. Stop that. Come here.”
And if JJ wanted to, he could.
He could fall into his arms one more time. He could kiss his face. He could let you speak to him. He could fall back to that boy with the rope around his neck in an instant.
But he doesn’t. He won’t.
“You’re dead,” he signs, and he lets his power go.
The sunlight burns lovingly down on him again. The roar of his brother’s voices and laughter returns in his ear. He is standing in the doorway, and no one seems to have noticed this short moment of recollection, this sudden return to things that are lost.
He looks around at his brothers.
His Chase. His Henrik. His Marvin. His Jackie.
It is time to leave the ghosts in the past.
“Jamie!” calls Jackie. “I missed you! Come here and give me a hug!”
“Jameson, hey, come taste this for me, see if you like it…”
“We need to pick out a movie! What should we watch, James?”
“Oh, look, haha, Peanuts wants some attention from you. Are you coming over here?”
Light and sound and warmth and brotherhood.
He looks back to the forest, just for a moment.
Anti is at rest beneath those stones in the woods. He will never haunt them again.
“Yes,” says Jameson, stepping towards his brothers, alive and aglow in the late summer sun. “Yes, I’m coming. I’m here.”
No more haunting. No more isolation. No more despair.
“I’m here.”
End Chapter Five: Resurrection
.
Dear Madeleine, Em, Ghost, Tristan, Noah, Crystal, Dino, Arthyr, Cookie, Jamie, Ari, Luigi, Carpe, Mae, Tiri, Leo, Rose, Nikki, JJ, Pat, and all my silent, secret readers…
I hope you know that I have no irritation for anyone who only read part-way through this story. Not only is it wildly, ridiculously long, spanning years and hundreds of thousands of words, but I struggled through many parts of this last section, and I think there was more than one time where my mental health, my situation, and my fear of ending this story that I love so much all impacted the quality of the writing.
That being said, I can tell you now: you all hold a special place in my little writer heart for seeing this through to the end with me.
I could not have finished it without you. Your quiet support, your input, your passion, your encouragement, your art, your writing. You are my co-authors. Some of you have been here since the very fucking beginning, which blows me away. It’s unbelievable. I don’t know how to tell you how glad I am that we have shared this.
For anyone who has read this story at all over the years, even if you did not, for any reason, make it to the end, your help is no less appreciated and I still remember so many of you (Rei, Pixie, Cael, June, Catherine, Darki, Villains, Holly, BP, Amy, Autumn, and too many more for me to even start listing without being scared of leaving you out). You might be surprised how many of you I still associate with specific asks, comments, and art pieces. Thank you.
Our characters fought for themselves and for each other. For their kids and their loved ones. For freedom and joy and the hope that they had to hold on to with blood-stained and tired hands. But there were so many times when your words and your presence and your genuine care and belief in them was the only thing they were clinging to that I can very safely tell you, my friends: they were also fighting for you. To prove to someone who believed in them all along that yes, yes, YES - I will be happy and well again one day.
I am thinking in particular of Tristan’s art piece where Marvin cries “are you happy to see me like this?” as he begins to be forced into the character of Blue. It was the very first chapter, some 800,000 words and a couple of years ago. He was in a lot of pain then. He lost himself. And now, he has found him again.
I hope now, that as you look at our dear characters, you can safely say that yes, you are, in fact, happy to see them like this.
Perhaps this last little thank you note to you is too serious, as there were a lot of times we were just having fun and some of those times are still my very favorites. But I do hope that, going forward, there might be a couple lessons you can take from these characters we shared: to know that you are worthy of love, not abuse, no matter what you have done, to fight for your own happiness even when it feels impossible, and to recognize that there is always hope for a better future.
You are very deserving of that love, that happiness, and that future.
Thank you for everything - for every time you lifted me up, for every time you showed compassion and encouragement to the very idea of someone in need of your help, for every second that you spent speaking to, depicting, or just reading about our characters. Thank you for writing this story with me.
-
If you have enjoyed MBC at all now or in the past, please consider contributing back by donating to your local charities, particularly those that benefit people like our characters: survivors of domestic violence, those with mental illnesses and/or disabilities, those living in poverty, and more. I thought about compiling a small list, but I’m guessing that many of you have ideas for places that you trust or are familiar with, like local food pantries or homeless shelters, or maybe next time you see someone like Jack doing a fundraiser for a charity or even just someone on the internet trying to find some help while in a tough spot, you could consider donating with the story in mind. Just thought I’d take a minute to try to direct all the love that you have helped put into this story towards a real world goal <3
I hope that reading about the characters in such tough situations will remind us to be compassionate and aware towards those in difficult situations, even if it is just a stranger having a hard day.
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