#and like oak would be be strong but I think it grows kinda slow?

[fennopunk]

You know those wooden furnitures that are grown into the right shape by bending and pruning the tree as a sapling? I want to do that, but make a cane :D

I don't think it would even take terribly long. Probably few years at least, yeah, depending on what tree species I chose and the size of the sapling, but not like decades or something.

#solarpunk #cripplepunk #and like I have a perfectly fine cane currently plus my joints probably wont magically get better any time soon #so it's not like I'm in a hurry #willow would grow fast but I don't think it would be strong enough #and like oak would be be strong but I think it grows kinda slow?

[missnmikaelson-main]

Until I Met You - Chapter 1

Once upon a time Elena Gilbert had a plan. A bright shiny plan - not to be confused with one of Caroline’s neurotic lists. Her’s was more generic. Grow up and go to school; figure out what she wanted to be; share a dorm with Bonnie and Caroline.

It was a nice plan.

The plan never included car crashes or vampire boyfriends, kidnapping (kinda?) or doppelgängers.

And what the heck is a doppelgänger?

She had a plan... once.

The plan didn’t include crying about a boyfriend’s ex or obtaining new passports in sketchy apartments.

She never asked for happily ever after; just normalcy.

She’s pretty sure life’s not meant to be this complicated.

AN: I do not own The Vampire Diaries (nor any related fandoms). Y’all know things would have gone very differently if I did.

Anyway this labour of love has been in the works for months (maybe a year now, lol) with the lovely @kol-and-elena-fanfiction​. I hope everyone enjoys it as much as we’ve enjoyed talking about it.

Happy reading, darlings!

Chapter 1 - December 2, 2009

The image burned across her retinas, obscuring the stretch of dark asphalt. Hot tears stung her eyes, corrupting the path ahead.

But the picture — that stupid picture — it refused to leave her mind.

She sped through the night, breaking several traffic laws, passed her house and the town square with no clear destination in mind.

Where did one go when they discovered a web of lies?

The Jeep revved across Wickery Bridge and up the hill, finally slowing near the opening of a narrow path. She parked the car and hopped out with the tintype clutched in her hand.

Maybe she should have felt bad about stealing, but he lied to her, and if she were honest she hadn’t thought of tossing the image away.

It was her proof; evidence of his deception.

She walked the path slowly at first, relishing the crunch of leaves underfoot, hardly noticing the gradual increase in pace. The closer she got to the rush of water the faster she moved until she raced the last few meters and burst out of the trees.

She misjudged her speed and skidded to a halt at the river’s edge.

Her arms flailed, windmilling uselessly at her sides. Ice cold water rushed up to meet her with the promise of head colds and bruises, but her body never broke the surface.

Strong hands curled in her jacket; yanked her backwards. They settled on her waist several paces from the river.

She jerked away. Two people with possessed the required strength to lift her like a rag doll.

She had no desire to talk to either of them.

“Leave me alone!” She heaved through sobs.

She slid down the rough bark of an oak tree and dragged her knees up to her chest; gripped them tight with her arms. The stupid picture bent in her palm.

Accusations — half formed — filtered through her mind, but refused to twist around her tongue.

“Now if I had done that you would have taken a dive into freezing water, and your shivers would be for a very different reason, darling.”

Her heart thumped hard once, and then stilled. Slowly she dragged her eyes up to the wavering shape.

He stood taller than Stefan — taller than Damon even — she could tell as he crouched in front of her; he might be taller than Jeremy, but not by much. And his accent was definitely not from Northern Virginia.

She caught her sleeve with her fingertips, using the fabric to wipe at her eyes and bring him into further focus.

He had dark eyes that reflected the moonlight, a mouth that tipped up further on one side and a cleft in his chin. He didn’t look much older than her, but then… neither did Stefan.

She pressed the tintype into her stomach until her knuckles turned white, mentally scolding herself for thinking her good samaritan was anything less than a good samaritan.

Her eyes burned as she looked down to his hands, grasped lightly between his legs; he could have worked out a lot, possessing a concealed strength greater than his athletic build suggested, or he might have seen her falling and experienced an adrenaline rush. Just because his eyes held a predator’s gleam didn’t mean anything. They probably didn’t even have it; she had to be seeing things where they weren’t.

Gold sparkled under a beam of moonlight, banded around a blue stone.

She pushed farther into the tree, reaching for the vervain necklace at her throat and scraping nothing but skin. Vaguely, she remembered flinging the trinket off as she raced out of the boarding house.

Stupid, she bit her cheek, why would you take the damn picture and leave your only safeguard?

She knew the answer. The picture was proof, evidence of her sanity; she had to take it to back up her reasons and remind herself why she had thrown off the necklace — the physical sign of the relationship.

She hadn’t been stupid for leaving the vervain; she had been stupid to sleep with him before knowing everything.

She was the inadvertent place holder.

Stupid.

“You…” she swallowed, taking a deep breath to steady her voice. It wavered only slightly when she continued. “You kept me from falling. Now you can go.”

“What kind of gentleman would I be if I left you alone while you’re clearly upset?” His eyes searched her face, flickering from her too bright eyes to her red tipped nose.

“The kind that listens,” she mumbled, propping her chin on her knees.

“You’ll find I’m an excellent listener,” he chuckled, sitting back on the grass. He drew up one leg and draped his arm over his knee, stretching the other out towards her — stopping at her ankle.

She glanced down, feeling the warmth of his leg through the inches of space separating them. When she looked up he had adopted a relaxed stance, leaning his shoulders against another tree.

“Dangerous things lurk in the dark, love,” his cheerful tone sobered. “I’d be remiss to leave you alone out here.”

“What’s more dangerous than a complete stranger?” Her throat ached, threatening further tears.

“All me to introduce myself then, Kol Mikaelson,” he straightened up with a wicked grin and held out his hand, capturing her stiff fingers and lifting them to his lips, bestowing a chaste kiss to her knuckles. “At your service.”

The greeting reminded her of the hero in old movies and Austen novels.

“Elena Gilbert,” she drew her tingling hand back and met his eyes. Tilting her head at his curious expression — as if he had expected her to recognize him by name; he shook it off so fast she wasn’t entirely sure she had seen it.

“It’s a pleasure to make your acquaintance,” he leaned against the tree. “Now that we’re on a first name basis why don’t you tell me all about this terrible, no good night you’ve endured.”

“What makes you think I’m having a bad night?” Elena plucked a loose thread in her jeans.

“I have a sister who’s suffered more heartache than she ought,” he picked up a leaf, twirling the stem between his fingers, “I recognize heartbroken tears when I see them. Where is the scoundrel responsible? Shall I kill him for you?”

Unbidden, a giggle bubbled up. She slapped her hand over her mouth to stifle the sound. She shouldn’t laugh at his jokes, for all she knew they weren’t jokes; if she was right then he had the strength to maim Stefan and maybe Damon too. Possibly at the same time.

“Or is it a her?” His brows rose.

“Would that make a difference?” She felt her mood lightening. She couldn’t help it. There was something about his easy smile that calmed her. In the back of her mind she recognized that as probably a bad thing, but she couldn’t bring herself to care.

“Do you think I wouldn’t fight a woman, darling?” He chuckled.

“Well,” her eyes sparkled, “you are the ‘gentleman’ who wouldn’t leave me alone in the dark.”

“You don’t seem in the right frame of mind to defend yourself if the need were to arise,” he pointed the leaf at her. “I’ve been in more fights with Rebekah than I care to admit.”

“Your sister?” She traced the edges of the tintype, still concealed by her raised legs.

“My parents were not pleased when my brothers and I taught her how to fight,” he nodded, a fond smile on his lips. “But enough about my baby sister, tell me what your wretched lover has done.”

Lover, Elena shivered. She could still feel his hands on her, raising gooseflesh on her skin. Had he touched her like that? Had she responded the same way?

“He lied to me,” she gritted her teeth, spitting out the words.

“Ahh,” Kol nodded. “So he’s broken your trust as well as your heart. If you don’t mind my asking, love: what was this lie that sent you running into the night?”

“I don’t think you’d believe me.” She shifted, clutching the old picture in both hands.

“Try me,” he smirked. “There is little in this world that I wouldn’t believe.”

Elena slid her legs outwards, ankle brushing his knee, until she could see the faint outline of the portrait in her lap. She stared at the face she knew so well, stealing glances at him through her lashes. A faint flush tinged her cheeks when his foot hooked around her heel.

She focused her eyes on the loose curls framing the face and traced the thin letters inked across the bottom. “He, uh… he told me about his ex…”

Elena lapsed into silence, unsure how to explain the situation without sounding completely crazy.

“So,” he crumbled the leaf, “is it a ‘still in love with the ex-girlfriend’ situation.”

“No,” she shook her head, frowning, “yes…”

She glared at the picture, wanting to hate the girl inside, but not knowing enough information; who was to say what Stefan and Damon had told her was true.

“Maybe.”

“Those are the three options,” he teased.

“I don’t know which it is…” she pushed her hands through her hair, dropping the picture in her lap. Fresh tears sprang up in her eyes. “I… I think maybe, leaning towards yes.”

“And why is that?” His fingers caught her shoelace and twisted.

“Because…” she pressed her lips into a line, looking through her lashes at the tintype. “Because I look like her.”

“You’re upset over a passing resemblance to his ex?” She heard the confusion in his voice.

“It’s not a passing resemblance,” she sniffled, willing her tears to cease. “I look just like her,” a bitter laugh rose in her throat, breaking the night, “we could have been twins.”

She traced the letters again.

Katherine, 1864

++++

“Twins?” He chuckled. Unease grew in his chest. In his mind his brother’s face swam. Hadn’t he been somewhere in the area recently on the hunt for the moonstone?

“Yeah,” she pressed the heel of her palm to her mouth and looked out over the water, watching the moonlight play across the ripples.

She knew what he was, of that he had no doubt. The way her heart had jumped. The frequent glances towards his daylight ring. And the speed with which she had reached for her throat were all dead giveaways.

The real question was whether she knew what she was.

He doubted it.

If someone had told her anything she would have tried to run the second he told her his name.

His eyes fell to the tintype across her knees. It was too new to be from Katerina’s human years, but he would not have put it past his brother to have caught up with the wench at some point and kept it quiet.

Nor would it have surprised him if he kept a portrait; he was sentimental that way. He should have hidden it better though, especially after starting something with the little human. If the plan was to keep the girl close until everything could be gathered for the ritual then Elijah had seriously fucked up.

“I guess that explains why he and his brother were so obsessed with me,” she murmured low enough that human ears might have missed it.

“His brother?” Kol’s brows knit together. Was Nik somewhere in town too? Neither of them were exactly easy to track down.

Not that he had tried.

“Yeah,” she startled, glancing at him through the corner of her eye. “He tried to kiss me the first week of school, and I slapped him. Turns out they both dated her.”

He nodded slowly, remembering Rebekah relaying the story, a decade after the fact, of how Katerina had wrapped their brothers around her little finger, or so she had thought; Elijah had been ensnared, lured by his weakness for her face, but Nik had simply kept her close, warming his bed and lulling her into a sense of security until it was time.

“I wouldn’t be surprised if getting close to me was why he enrolled in school.”

Her quiet musing drew him out of the sixteenth century and back to the twenty-first.

School?

Elijah and Nik were both too old to pass for students. At best they could have taken up false teaching positions, but she spoke of someone posing as a classmate.

“Why do I look like her?” She stared down at the tintype, clutching it tight.

“Twins separated at birth,” he suggested, half lost in thought. He still wasn’t sure why he hadn’t compelled her. Doppelgängers were a one in a hundred billion occurrence — it could be years before another appeared.

He should take her far away and hold her until the stone could be found for the ritual. That was what Nik would have done.

But he wasn’t Nik.

“That’s not it,” she shook her head.

“Are you certain?”

Elijah would have taken her too, or kept a close watch on her, but if that were the case he would have sensed his brother’s presence. He would have smelt him on her, but the fading strains of sex held no resemblance to him.

“I’m positive.” Her eyes snapped to his and his breath caught at what he saw reflected beneath the tears. Intelligence shone back with a healthy dose of suspicion. “What are you doing out here in the middle of the night?”

“I was on the nostalgia tour,” he shrugged, waving one hand towards the waterfall. “When I was a boy my siblings and I used to swim there when the summer sun grew hot enough to blister our skin.”

“How long ago was that?” She swiped her sleeve under her eyes.

“I don’t think you’d believe me,” he chuckled.

“Try me,” her brows rose. “There is little in this world that I wouldn’t believe.”

There was a gleam in her eye that he suspected was reflected in his own. She played with fire and she knew it.

“Honestly, Elena, I don’t remember how long ago it was.” He smirked as her eyes widened. “Don’t act the innocent lamb darling; I’ve seen the way you’re looking at my ring. You know what I am.”

He straightened his spine, lowering and crossing his legs as he did. He placed one hand on her extended ankle, feeling the rush of blood underneath her skin and reaching for the tintype with the other.

“Tell me, love,” he flipped the picture over, scanning the woman’s face, “what’s the name of this lover of yours?”

“Why?” She swallowed, dropping her eyes to the fingers curled around her leg. “Are you going to kill him?”

“Do you want me to?” He tipped the photograph towards her. “I thought at first my brother — he does have a thing for women that look like you — but it’s not him.”

“How do you know that?” She leaned forward, pulled in by his hypnotic gaze.

“Simple, love,” he tapped a long finger over the writing. “He would never label her portrait with a false name.”

“F…”

“False,” he nodded, placing the tintype in her hand. “Her given name is Katerina.”

“Was…” She murmured.

“Was?” He breathed.

“They told me she died in a fire when the town rounded up all of the v…” she bit down on her cheek.

“Vampires?” He caught her chin with his finger. “It’s not a dirty word love,” warmth flooded his chest when she flushed. “So, she’s dead then,” he cleared his throat, “Nik won’t be pleased.”

“Nik?” She chewed her bottom lip.

“My brother.”

“Oh,” she lowered her eyes.

“Not the same one I thought you were involved with,” he clarified, lowering his hand to his knee. “Nik never cared for Katerina.”

“What was she like?” Elena tucked her hair behind her ear, twisting around to watch the river.

“You don’t want an answer to that,” he shook his head, “which is just as well since I couldn’t tell you anyway.”

“I thought you knew her?” He heard the frown in her voice.

“Knew of her,” he tilted his head, listening to her accelerated heart. He should just take her and go. A living Petrova would surely get his brother off his back, and then he wouldn’t have to hide from his family — at least for a time; Nik’s gratitude would save him the threat of a dagger for a while.

He should take her and go, so why were they still talking?

“I never actually met her.”

“So you can’t tell me anything,” she sighed, curling in on herself.

“I can tell you what she was,” he rubbed circles over her ankle.

“She was a vampire,” Elena scoffed. “What else is there to know?”

“What she was before, and what you are now” his thumb slipped under the hem of her jeans, meeting cool skin. “But first tell me his name.”

“Why?”

“I’m not going to kill him,” he sighed then flashed her a wink. “Unless you want me to…”

“I don’t,” she gritted her teeth.

“Not even a little bit?” He teased.

“Kol,” her eyes narrowed, warning evident in her tone.

He chuckled, unsure how she expected to intimidate him.

“Do you know the last person to use that tone with me lost his tongue?” He tilted his head.

“Are you trying to scare me?” She lifted her chin.

“Is it working?” He countered.

“No.” Her heart skipped a beat.

“You’re a terrible liar,” he gently squeezed her ankle, “but don’t worry, darling. I happen to like pretty little things with sharp tongues.”

“You’re not going to kill him?” Her skin burned where he touched her.

“I prefer not to kill unless necessary, and since you don’t want him dead his death is unnecessary,” he held her gaze. “I’ll refrain from taking his life, Elena, but I will have to compel him.”

“You can’t compel him,” she shook her head.

“Is he on vervain?” He cocked an eyebrow.

“He’s a vampire,” she shook her head. An adorable line appeared between her brows.

“That makes no difference to me, love,” his fingers smoothed over her heel. “I’m a special kind of vampire.”

++++

She stared out the window, gaping at the blank expressions on Stefan and Damon’s faces.

Kol slipped behind the wheel and turned over the ignition, watching her from the corner of his eye as he pulled away.

They grew smaller in the side mirror until she could barely see them and had to twist in her seat to get a last glimpse. The vacancy in their eyes when they looked at her had chilled her to the bone.

“You made them forget me,” she curled her fingers around the seatbelt.

“I told you I was going to,” he turned onto the main road.

“You didn’t tell me why,” she whispered, shivering, “or what you know about Katherine.”

He sped up, reaching over to fiddle with the console. A blast of warm air hit her in the face and she relaxed into the seat.

Her eyes darted to the street signs as they passed.

“You’re not taking me home, are you?” Maple Street faded behind them.

“Bravo, darling!” He smirked, turning off towards the highway.

In the back of her mind she knew she should be upset over that knowledge, but aside from a lingering chill she was comfortable in the front seat of his Porsche.

“You compelled me, didn’t you?”

“Only to be at ease, love,” he shifted gears, accelerating. Then he reached into his pocket and lifted a familiar locket.

“I don’t want that,” she crossed her arms and felt her heart hammer in her chest. “Stefan gave it to me and I don’t want it.”

His skin sizzled under the metal, burning thanks to the herb within. “Take the vervain out. It’s not easy to come by around here and I’d rather not have you terrified I’m going to compel you into submission at every turn.”

She took the locket, watching as his skin healed before her eyes. How old did he have to be to not react to the pain?

“You want me to have vervain?” She frowned, flipping open the hinge. The tiny purple flowers tumbled out onto her palm. “I want answers Kol; you’re kidnapping me. I have the right to know why.”

He flipped open the centre console and reached inside for the only item. Elena tilted her head, examining the bundle of blue cloth. It rested in his palm, tied shut with a length of silver ribbon.

“It’s a gris gris,” he slipped the bag into her hand, taking the locket back.

“A gris gris?” She turned the bag over.

“A talisman,” he explained, shifting gears again, “meant to protect the wearer from evil.”

“Does it work?” A sweet smell rose from the bag.

“I don’t know,” he shrugged one shoulder, “but I do know that if you open the bag and add the vervain it will protect you from compulsion.”

She did as he said and secured the silver ribbon around her neck, tucking the bag neatly under her shirt.

“Answers,” she prompted, twisting in her seat.

“What would you like to know first?” He rested his elbow on the door, turning to catch her eyes and then look back to the road.

“Why are you kidnapping me?”

“To understand that you have to know what you are?”

“Okay,” she sighed, rolling her eyes. “What am I?”

“You saw the picture, Elena. What do you think you are?” Headlights flashed bright enough to blind him in the rearview mirror; he readjusted.

“I don’t know,” she shook her head. “Clones?”

“I see you’re still new to the supernatural,” he chuckled. “You think science can answer magic, but they rarely intersect.”

“Why don’t you choose where to start then?” She played with the gris gris under her shirt. “You clearly have something in mind.”

“Are you sure you’re not too tired? It’s a long story, love.” He glanced through the corner of his eye, smirking when she glared at him. “Alright, settle in for a crash course on vampirism. Actually, what did Stefan tell you? So I know what to skip.”

“That he had to drink blood to survive and he would burn without his ring,” she chewed her bottom lip.

“But nothing about how vampires came to be?” He watched her shake her head and frowned. Over a hundred years and he had learned nothing about what he was.

“Is that important?” She drummed her fingers over her thigh.

“A thousand years ago the first vampires were created using the blood of the first doppelgänger. That’s what you and Katerina are by the way: carbon copies of the first.”

“So I am a clone,” her eyes flickered to the road.

“Far more random than that,” he chuckled. “My siblings and I are the first vampires in history, turned by our mother who was a powerful witch.”

“Your mom turned you into a vampire?” Her stomach knotted. “Why would she do that?”

“To protect us. She was a genius witch and an overprotective matriarch, so when my younger brother was killed by werewolves she went a little crazy. It was only after the fact that we discovered my mother had an affair, the results of which were my brother Nik.”

“Werewolves?” Skepticism dripped from her tongue.

“You have no problem with vampires and witches, but wolves is where you draw the line?” He shifted lanes.

“Fair enough,” she sighed, closing her eyes and tipping her head back against the seat.

His eyes flickered to her throat, watching the pulse of blood fluttering under her skin. He licked his teeth, poking at an extended canine.

“My mother decided it was unnatural for him to be both a vampire and a wolf so she bound his werewolf half using the same blood that made us vampires.”

Elena drew in slow breaths and twisted her fingers in her shirt. “How come you didn’t know until after what he was?”

“Because wolves are cursed. They could go there entire lives without ever knowing what they are provided,” he held up a finger, “they don’t trigger the curse.”

“And how do they trigger it?”

“By taking a human life,” he tightened his hold on the wheel. He could still hear the screams of agony after Nik first succumbed to the bloodlust. “We tried to resist, but the hunger — the thirst —was greater than any we had ever known. It took years before we had any semblance of control.”

“So,” she swallowed, pressing her tongue to the roof of her mouth, “Nik was both.”

“He still is,” Kol murmured, “but his werewolf half is bound. It’s been his mission to unbind it these last thousand years.”

“Understandable,” she tilted her head, watching the lines flash by through the window.

“You think so?” He forced his hands to relax before he damaged the steering wheel. He was over a thousand years old; he could handle the intoxicating aroma of her blood.

“It’s half of who he is,” she shrugged, “and you said he’s been denied that for a thousand years. What’s taking him so long to undo it?”

“The ritual is simple enough, but the ingredients are difficult to come by. He has to have the stone his wolf side was bound to, and it was stolen by Katerina in the late fifteenth century. Then he needs a powerful witch to perform the spell and three sacrifices.”

“S… sacrifices?” She squeaked, colour fading from her cheeks.

“A vampire and a werewolf to represent both sides of himself, and the doppelgänger,” he watched her carefully, ready to grab her arm if she tried to open the door and roll out, but she didn’t move.

“You’re going to kill me,” she swallowed. Cold flooded her body, holding her frozen in place.

“No, no, love,” he reached for her hand, “weren’t you listening?”

Her fingers trembled in his hold.

“Your brother is going to kill me,” she amended. Her pulse slammed in her ears.

“Exactly,” he frowned, rubbing his thumb over the side of her hand.

“But so are you,” she stared down at their joined hands.

“I’m not killing you Elena.”

“You’re taking me to your brothers aren’t you?” She didn’t require an answer. His silence was enough. “You’re giving me to your brother like some sort of sick Christmas present so he can kill me. What the hell did I do to deserve that?”

“Nothing,” he squeezed her hand, meeting her wide eyes when they hit a broad stretch of empty road. “You are a supernatural loophole, and it’s not your fault. You’re just a girl caught up in the mess.”

“Then take me home and leave me out of it,” she pleaded.

“I can’t do that love,” he shook his head. “My other brother is near to Mystic Falls. It’s only a matter of time before he discovers your existence and takes you to Nik.”

“So what?” She pulled her hand back. “You’re trying to beat him to the punch.”

“I beat him to the punch when I stumbled upon you in the woods, Elena,” he laid his palm over the stick shift. “I just haven’t decided what I’m going to do about it yet.”

Her thundering heart stilled. “You’re not taking me to Nik?”

He took a turnoff towards Washington and the vampire with a knack for falsifying travel documents. They would both need a new identity until he came to a decision.

“Familial loyalty only goes so far, Elena. So no, for now I am not taking you to Nik.”

++++

Hundreds of boxes stood in precarious stacks that towered above her head. They were crammed in everywhere from floor to ceiling. The occasional paper stuck out, bent at a crinkled angle under box lids. She suspected the only thing keeping the entire room from toppling over and crushing her bones was how tightly they were stacked in place; she couldn’t have wedged a piece of paper between any of them.

How the man found anything was beyond her comprehension. Maybe he didn’t need to access the impossible to reach files.

Maybe he’d been doing whatever it was he did for so long that the information was obsolete.

Maybe he was just a packrat.

Pack-vamp? Elena giggled, and then slapped her hand over her mouth when Kol cast her a questioning look.

“Tuck your hair behind your ears,” Paul adjusted a lamp, “and get the smile under control.”

She did as instructed and swept her hair back from her face, biting her cheek.

“Good,” he stared at the screen, “chin up.”

“Why do passport photo’s have to look like mugshots?” Elena sighed, wiping all emotion from her features. “I feel like I’m at the DMV.”

“That would imply a certain legality,” Paul rolled his eyes. “Hold that.”

A bright flash went off. She closed her eyes when it passed and opened them, blinking away the impression on her retinas until she could make out Kol’s form in front of the printer. He was holding a small burgundy book

“I don’t understand why I needed a new passport,” she rubbed at her eyes. “If you’d just taken me home I could have gotten mine.”

“And such a lovely passport it was,” Paul murmured, taking the memory card from his camera and moving to the computer.

“You need a new passport because you need a new identity,” Kol flipped open the passport in his hand. “Running off with you only works if nobody recognizes your name.”

“But nobody knows my name.”

++++

She lounged in the gazebo, draping one leg over the other appearing at ease. She should have cowered in fear, or bolted upon sighting him, but then again, she had called him.

She wasn’t the same girl he had once known. Any trace of innocence had long since left her eyes. And her sweet smile had disappeared, replaced by a tight smirk.

He decided the expression on her face was decidedly smug.

“Is it death that you desire?” His fingers curled around his jacket, fastening the button. “You must if you’ve worked up the nerve to call me.”

“Quite the opposite,” she uncrossed her legs, standing in a fluid motion. She stole across the empty space, tipping her chin up an inch to look him in the eye as she placed her open palm on his chest. “I called you because I want to live.”

His hand moved in a blur of motion, closing around her wrist. Bones strained beneath his fingers.

“You presume I will stand against my brother for you,” his eyes narrowed.

“I think you’ll broker a deal for me,” she smiled, serene in spite of her protesting wrist. With her free hand she reached into her back pocket.

He eyed the white stone, watching how it shone in the moonlight.

“You want to buy your freedom with something you stole?” He chuckled. Her nerve was amusing at least.

“Of course not,” her lips curled back in a feline grin. “Only one thing will gain my freedom, and we both know what it is.”

“We also know that the one thing you need will never exist again,” he scoffed.

She arched an eyebrow and tilted her head waiting a moment until he nodded for her to continue. And she did, leaning into his personal space. She looked up at him through her lashes and breathed softly.

“Did I ever tell you why I was in England?”

@kol-and-elena-fanfiction @elejahforever @elejah-wonderland@cry-btch​ @geekofmanyfandoms​ @morsmornte​ @xanderling​ @bellemorte180​ @iw1shiknew​ @blndbandt

#kolena #the vampire diaries #tvd #the originals #elena gilbert #elijah mikaelson #kol mikaelson #katherine pierce

[pearlplusau]

Pearlplusau Chapter 7 part 2 - Familiar?

now available below:

Another option -> heres a link to part 2 posted in AO3!

Since the kindergarten was in constant darkness, Amethyst has never seen anything so… bright before. The brightest shade of light she’s ever experienced other than the warppad was that one open area where the dark, gloomy clouds would be drifted away from that are. It was the only ray of sunshine she has ever experienced. She had touched the little, but weak sunray, and felt warmth all around her hand. It was so different than the usual cold air of the kindergarten, but in a good way. But now, she’s travelling in a warp pad with the beautiful giant lady beside her. The light of the warp pad may be as bright as the little ray of sunshine, but it didn’t give out the warmth she experienced. As for the travelling, she never though she would be leaving the place she called home, what’s worse, there was this small little cloud of regret hanging around her, telling her leaving was a very bad idea. But the pink lady looked so sure, so kind and confident of what she’s doing, taking this new gem away from her home? That’s not how she thinks, that’s honestly how amethyst felt, being taken away from her own home, and be willing to do so just because this lady said so! The pink lady announced to her one audience, “We’re almost there! Oh you’re gonna love it!” Amethyst involuntarily felt a surge of excitement, but she wasn’t actually excited, she should be more nervous than the feeling she’s having now… When they finally landed in the new location, it was apparently early morning as the sun was rising into the sky. They appeared to be in a cave, surrounded by water, brief stairs up and down, neatly placed tiles and a huge door behind her. Rose held out her hand to the new gem, “Come, let me show you around first.” And led Amethyst down the several stairs, slowly and carefully making their way out of the cave and into the white grains and sand. The texture felt weird to amethyst as she was used to the solid hard dirt and rocks scattered around. But here, there was not a lot of rocks, just a bunch of white, tiny looking pebbles and water splashing onto the shore. It was the first time Amethyst left the kindergarten, and she’s already feeling rather uneasy with all these… new experiences. The duo circled around the pre-beach city land, where dozens of flowers and plants bloomed in the midst. Rose ran ahead, beckoning the purple gem to come along. She twirled around within the beautiful flowers, throwing her arms all around, showing how much she loves the planet and its beauty. “These here are called Flowers, they are all their own individuals, but ultimately, it takes more than one flower to bloom into a huge patch like this!” Amethyst walked up to a flower and noticed how its…glowing with health? Her fascination on the unusually strong and glowing little plant life caught Rose’s attention. The big gem slyly admitted, “I may have…used some of my abilities to grow a few missing patches here and there-” she said as she turned in embarrassment, awkwardly stroking her tuffs of hair. “Plants like these may not live long, as from our observation, they only live at most for one season, but they are all so very much worth it!” When she turned back, she noticed Amethyst laying within the flowers, as if she found herself a flowerbed to lie down after all this time. She was moving her arms and legs as if shes making a snow angle from the flower patch- Rose found that to be a very fun idea indeed and joined the small gem as they basked in the giant flower patches, each making a “flower angle” to commemorate the first every joy they had together. SWISH SWISH SWISH HEHEHE The duo had their fun for a while, playing in the patches, showering each other with flower petals, and playing hide and seek. Tho, Rose was a lot easier to find with her big fluffy hair and figure, while amethyst was just the right size to become invisible and be one within the flower patches. After a few losses for Rose, she suggested they move on to something else. She gave out her hand to the little gem, who was covered in flower petals, and gently pulled her out of the patches.

“Come on, there’s something else I would like to show you.” She led Amethyst into a beautiful forest, dotted with freshly grown oaks and little saplings covered in dirt. Leaves were fluttering around the atmosphere while also gliding around the rays of sunlight that shone through the little gaps and fissures. The two gems stopped at a flowing river, where the fresh, clear water streamed Living creatures, mostly animals like butterflies, lions, but also the mentions of humans “They kinda look like us, except they don’t live longer than a century and theyre very, very fragile. Us gems are very different from humans, so if you ever meet one, you have to be extremely careful not to hurt them, even if you don’t mean to. Amethyst tried to get close, but Rose stopped her before she took another step closer. The small gem turned her head back to see Rose carrying a worried expression, “Maybe we should start with observing them before we interact with them, they’ve never seen you before, so maybe we should start slow, alright?” Before Amethyst could say anything, the human at the distance got up and disappeared into the forest. The small gem sighed; she was so excited to meet other new people! Rose reassured she’ll be able to meet them soon enough. “We’ll get to know them sometime in the future, come on, let’s head back to the temple and I’ll introduce you to the gems!! The two gems held hands and started strolling back to the temple. There’s no awkward chemistry between the two, as they projected a simple mother daughter relationship, or even a sibling relationship, where one of them energetically leaped around the larger figure, while the figure in the middle giggled at the little ball of energy circling her and constantly made her laugh with great joy and longed snickers! They reached the temple. Rose asked Amethyst to stay behind so she can surprise them. Just then, Garnet, Pearl and Coral warped back from their mission Pearl reporting what happened as Coral and Garnet added on their own little details “Oh Rose, you should’ve seen Garnet’s new gauntlet rockets and Coral’s amazing strike on that gem, with those two final blows, the gem monster was poofed in an instant! Coral chimed in, “Well, we would’ve been able to throw in the final blow without your brilliant, strategic idea! Your plan made all the difference!” Pearl blushed at the complement, “Why thank you Coral!” While the two pearls were getting along well, the fusion stood behind and gleamed at the stronger friendship between the two pearls, looking very proud of both of them. And judging from the grin, it was pretty clear to Rose that, the mission somehow got the three of them closer together. As Rose slowly shuffled around, being suspiciously quiet, the gems noticed a little figure hiding behind her white dress. Pearl was the first to spoke.

P: uh, Rose…what do you have there? The small gem hid behind Rose while a smoothy suddenly appeared on her hand. R: A smoothy

Coral, who kept her eyes on the new gem, asked, “What’s a smoothy?” Before Rose could answer the definition of the contraption in hand, Garnet interrupted by stating, “The smoothy is not something we should be concerned about right now…” while eyeing on the new, yet unexpected little gem. “Garnet’s right.” Pearl agreed, “Rose, please tell me you didn’t bought that…thing with you?” Amethyst decided to hide behind Rose completely after hearing that statement. Rose slowly turned and calmed her down before she said more. “Pearl, you should think before you say, otherwise someone might get their feelings hurt you know?” Rose suggested while holding on to the small, frightened gem. Pearl was a quick thinker, and it seemed that Rose took a liking to the little gem, which was rather typical of the leader. She’s a kind gem that wouldn’t take no for an answer after spending a certain amount of time with the object, Pearl of all gems should know better than to refuse whatever Rose brought in. Coral and Garnet turned to Pearl, who sighed in desperation, “Rose, may we know where and how did you find…her?” The big gem slowly, and abruptly responded, “I…uh, was taking a stroll in the kindergarten until I noticed her hiding in one of the holes! Yeap! That’s how it happened! Totally not moping around the places we hurt and trying to bring justice by destroying those that caused it! Haha…ha…” Rose, looking embarrassed, tried very hard not to do or say anything more. The three gems were trying their best to interpret her words as positive statements, but from their time together, they pretty much got the idea of how things went down exactly. Coral stood a step forward, “Rose, are you sure about this? She’s not like the other Amethyst gems we know. I mean, compared to the other quartz friends we had, she’s small, she can barely speak, and probably doesn’t know anything about being a gem!” Rose took that information and digested it for a short while before she came up with ideas to counter those issues. “She can learn! While I was talking to her, I noticed she repeat whatever I said, just in a different way to convey another message! As for not knowing what being a gem is about, that’s okay too! We can teach her without having her go through any of those Homeworld stuff, wouldn’t that be great!?” Rose was gleaming at the idea of a gem with no prior knowledge to how gems are “supposed” to be and allowing themselves to be whatever they want to be! Amethyst came out just a little bit from her hiding and repeated the last word she heard, “Great!” before scuttling back. Coral still doesn’t look convinced as she turned to the fusion, “Garnet, what do you think?” “Hmmmm…” Garnet made a look that could only mean one thing, she’s trying to see the little gem’s future. Future vision can be tricky, but it’s good to see what could potentially happen when we add in another factor into the equation. Her shades shone as the possibilities were carefully drafted and narrowed down to the most likely events. “In the futures where we accept her, I see her adapting to our lifestyle, but nothing much on how it’s going to end. There’s a possibility of her being a great asset to us, but there’s also the possibility of her being a greater liability than we could ever imagine.” “I like those odds!” Rose gleamed at the wide range of unpredictability. Coral didn’t want to rain on Rose’s parade or be a wet blanket seeing her being so happy. But she’s also not completely on board with this…new gem appearing out of nowhere. Pearl was the first to speak, “It’s always been just the four of us, I don’t know about having that unproperly developed gem into the team. It’s rather suspicious that she suddenly shows up at the kindergarten when that place has been shut down centuries ago! She might be a spy from homeworld for all we know! Or worse!” Coral gasped in horror and whispered, “Ohno…There’s something worse than spies!?” “Coral please,” Garnet reminded, “focus.” It was up to that point where Rose finally realized why the gems were not on board with the idea of adding a

new member. Homeworld was still a threat, they’re never safe if they keep including new people they don’t know. It’s only been some time since the blinding light turned all the gems on Earth into corrupted monsters. A lot of them were still out there, alone, confused, and most importantly, scared. Those gems were once powerful individuals that were indestructible, but now, they’re terrified gem monsters running around, fleeing from who knows what, not knowing what to do in their current state. But this Amethyst, the sweet, innocent, and lonely gem, won’t be facing that kind of terror any longer when she has us. Rose took one more look at Amethyst, who was trying her best to be unnoticed by the other gems, and was determined to take her in. “Now Crystal gems, don’t you see this is our only chance to have a gem untainted with the rules of Homeworld?” Rose started her topic with the recollection of the crystal gem origin. “Wasn’t that what we were fighting for? To be free of Homeworld’s rules and to live without a care? To preserve the life on Earth instead of taking it, and leaving nothing behind?” Rose continued, “The earth, the rebellion-” “Its more than just that! It’s also for love! The love for ourselves, and the love we have for each other! We never get to show our love anywhere except here! And right now, we have Amethyst who has been living in an abandoned kindergarten, and has probably never been loved through her entire existence! If we neglect her, we’re going against everything we’ve worked so hard for. Besides, she’s a newcomer who had never experienced the horrible tragedy of Homeworld. I mean, isn’t this a good thing we found her right before any homeworld gems did?” She didn’t wait for a response and proceeded, “We can teach her everything about the earth and the crystal gems. Coral! You can teach her what being a Crystal Gem is all about! Pearl! You could teach her about speech and physical formation! Garnet! You could teach her about our current missions or even gem fusion! I know she’s different from us, but she can handle this! With us keeping her safe, she won’t have to face any of those linear rules like staying within your duty, or being cast away as off colours when you don’t fit in with the others?” “She can be a free gem right from the start, without facing the trauma we had. What do you say?” Rose’s words were being very persuasive and all, but none of the gems seemed to budge towards the ideas from their dear leader. “Rose, please, still this is a risk to take. Risks that could potentially have an impact on our freedom and the earth!” Garnet spoke with a hint of fear, perhaps took a glance towards the possibilities of the future. Pearl and Coral, each holding an arm, both stayed silent, but ultimately agreed with the fusion. “Come on you guys, give her a chance, if you get to actually talk to her it might change your minds!” Rose turned around, but failed to see the small gem that was hiding behind her mere seconds ago. “Uh…Amethyst?” Rose called out, but heard no response, nor saw the small figure behind her anywhere. But all she saw were footprints leading back to the temple, and noticed the warp pad was just activated. Amethyst went back home.

(A/N: Heyyyy so this is the second part of the newest chapter. As you may have known, i was pretty busy with the end of the University studies and internship, so i kinda had my hands full to do anything like writing for fun!

Now, this is the end of part 2, where i tried to keep things a bit more interesting, but not too complicated that it would go on for more than 3 parts.

And again, sorry for the lack of visuals. Some of you might prefer reading with the images, and unfortunately, i currently do not have the motivation to be drawing, even if most of them would be tracing from screenshots of the show itself.

When the chapter gets done, i might be doing some of the screenshot edits and reblog them under the written chapters. So theres that to look forward to.

Anyways, thanks for reading and liking this story i wrote. It's not as glamorous and interesting as the previous chapters, but it's still something i consider worth venturing into.

Thanks again and see ya next time! Bye!)

#stevenuniverse #amethyst #rosequartz #amethystorigin #pearlplusau

[yourinnerprimschoolmarm]

Lines taken from various songs by First Aid Kit, Crooked Still, or The Sweeplings. Always feel free to edit and change to your heart’s content to better accommodate your muses!

" There they laid my own true lover. " " She's gone from me forever more. " " I left her there back in the mountain to see the world, riches to gain. " " When I returned, no earthly treasure could ease this heart so filled with pain. " " I'll go away and I will wander. " " Undone in sorrow I'll remain. " " Carry me home when the light in my eyes does fade. " " Lay down my bones knowing I'll be in a better place. " " Don't you weep for I am freedom-bound. " " Release my soul. Carry me home. " " Quietly, you let me go. " " Oh, I'm in too deep. " " Brick by brick the walls are closing in around my feet. " " What is done is done. " " Hush. " " What I've done is killing me. " " Release me-- let me start all over and bury it away. " " It's my day to pay. " " It's me you've come to take. " " By midnight time, I could not see if I were you or you were me. " " As I was looking for a way to disappear, amongst the quiet things and all these empty streets, I found a way to reappear. " " I'll follow you where you go. " " I need your condolence and your trust, but I won't ask for much. " " There's a heavy load upon our backs of things we carry from the past. " " I'll only ask for so much. " " Each moment brings it nigh. " " And all your glories stand revealed to our admiring eye. " " You mortal powers decay fast as you bring the night of death. " " You bring eternal day. " " Have courage and be bold. " " Dark night and clouds and gloomy fear and dragons often roar. But when the gospel trump we hear, we'll press for Canaan's shore. " " Put up your walls and hide away. " " Flesh and bones takes its toll. " " Everything we had's been torn apart. " " The floors have been quiet. " " Oh, the bitter winds are coming in, and I'm already missing the summer. " " I've been told I was born to endure this kinda weather. " " I'm not asking much of you. " " Just sing, little darling, sing with me. " " Now so much I know that things don't grow if you don't bless them with your patience. " " I held up the door for every stranger with a promise. " " That's the strength that I lack. " " Yes, I might have lied to you. But you wouldn't have benefited from knowing the truth. " " I need you know at long last. " " Feeling sad and lonesome-- I'll tell you the reason why. " " Oh, my love, tell her to come back home. " " Coffee grows on white oak trees. The river flows with brandy. The hillside's lined with ginger cakes, and my Dony's sweet as candy. " " If you see my Dony, tell her I'm sitting at home. " " I am in love, and I am lost. But I'd rather be broken than empty. " " I'd rather be shattered than hollow. " " I'd rather be by your side. " " We said 'we are going to get out of here. '" " When will we get out of here? " " Now I can't believe that it will be so long til we both are here, looking out at this city and knowing all we ever wanted is gone. " " Time is a fickle thing. Let's see what it can bring. " " I can not leave you behind. " " When I grow up, I want to be a forester. Run through the moss on high heels... that's what I'll do. " " When I grow up, I want live near the sea. " " I put my soul in what I do. " " I never liked that sad look. " " I'm very good with plants. " " When my friends are away, they let me keep the soil moist. " " On the seventh day I rest for a minute or two, then back on my feet to call for you. " " Too much time spent on nothing, waiting for a moment to arise. " " I'm waiting for him to catch me. " " Oh, thy love runs deep. " " Leave the past where it lies. " " Only in time we will find we're alive. " " In the air, our echoes heard, flowing far from where we were. " " Wolf-mother, where you been? You look so worn, so thin. " " Wolf-father, at the door, you don't smile anymore. " " Keep the spirit strong. " " Keep holding on. " " And I hope for a trace to lead me back home from this place, but there was no sound there was only me and my disgrace. " " Oh, lend a mending hand. " " We can't take back the words we spoke, the promises we've released. " " Oh, how we lost it... " " Change is sure to come, now that everything's gone wrong. " " We can't pull back what's overboard, sunk into the black beneath. " " Borrowed time has found an end. " " Oh, how we lost it, all of what we once were. " " Had I wings, I would fly away and be at rest. " " Went out one night to make a little round. I met little Sadie and I shot her down. " " I began to think of what a deed I'd done. Grabbed my hat and away I did run. " " I murdered little Sadie in the first degree. " " There was a little ship, and she sailed upon the sea. The name of the ship was The Golden Vanity. " " Then up spoke a little cabin boy, saying 'What will you give me if them I will destroy?' " " Love, I always kept my distance. " " I'm losing hold. " " My empire, in ashes around me, and somehow I feel like it's all right in place. " " Now I'm letting go. " " Catch me, dear, I'm falling-- my walls are coming down. " " My defense is all but gone. " " I don't want to wait anymore. I'm tired of looking for answers. " " Take me some place where there's music and there's laughter. " " I don't know if I'm scared of dying, but I'm scared of living too fast, too slow. " " I try not to hold on to what is gone. I try to do right what is wrong. I try to keep on keeping on. " " I won't take the easy road. " " I've woken up in a hotel room, my worries as big as the moon, having no idea who or what or where I am. " " Something good comes with the bad. A song's never just sad-- there's hope. There's a silver lining. Show me my silver lining. " " Show me my silver lining. " " Follow me down to the shore. We can cast our sails and grab the ores. We can float away and not come back. Darling, if you'd just take my hand..." " Freedom is as far as we can see... darling, if you'd just come with me. " " Here is where we decide, by the setting sun and rising tide, if we stay and fade or test our reach. " " Darling, won't you just come with me. " " Leave our note in the old oak tree, carve it deep so the old can read. The only thing of us that's left behind are the words we left here. " " You can leave behind most anything, but some you never will. " " You can hide the tracks of smaller things, keep it buried underneath. " " Oh, I feel it coming for me. Can't escape the nights that we've been through. " " Old regrets, they never let go. Oh, how my soul weeps for you. " " It's hard living and letting go when your past is waging war. " " My soul weeps-- things I should have done, things I can't outrun... " " I'm not willing to lose you. " " I'm not willing to say goodbye. " " Give me oceans or canyons, so deep they stretch for millions of miles. I'll cross any divide, not a flicker of doubt. No danger I wouldn't dare, to be with you. " " Trust me, sweetheart, I'll be here. " " I'll bring you back from anywhere. " " It shone like gold. " " No gold can stay. " " What if our hard work ends in despair? " " What if the road won't take me there? " " Oh, I wish, for once, it could stay gold. " " What if to love and be loved's not enough? " " What if I fall and can't bear to get up? " " But there is only forward, no other way. Tomorrow is your hope at the end of the day. And gold turns gray. "

#rp sentence meme #rp sentence starters #sentence starters #rp meme #my memes #hoo #another sentence meme #been a while for one of those hasn't it?

[hazelrainartappreciation]

Memories-Fragment 1

~A new writing series I’m starting; a collection of short drabbles and ficlets based on my headcanons for Hazel and Gretchen. Today’s installment is a short story based on how, drawing from the original fairy tale of Hansel and Gretel, their father is a woodcutter (here he works for a lumber company) and how Hazel tries to get a job there too to help his family..

--Hugo didn't bother looking up when he heard the soft knock at his office door, being too focused on his mountain of paperwork and fighting off the remains of a hangover from the night before. Instead he called a short, “Yeah? Come in.”

The door swung open, and it was only when he could sense the figure standing silently for some time he sighed and looked up. His eyebrow raised at the tall, deep brown-haired young man in his office, hands clasped behind his back, looking awkwardly at a withering plant sitting on a cabinet as he awaited acknowledgment.

“Hazel? Did your dad send you for something?” asked Hugo.

The teen turned his attention to him, “No, I came here on my own. I have a question, actually...”

Hugo leaned back in his chair and gestured for Hazel to sit, which he accepted then cleared his throat, “Gretchen and I have been helping here for a long time. We know the job well, and I feel it's time I joined as an official employee. If there's a position open, I'll take it.”

He felt his eye twitch, and it took several moments for Hugo to digest and think of an appropriate response to this. He wasn't sure what his expression revealed, but Hazel stared back at him with an unnerving amount of calm confidence in his green-flecked eyes for someone so young. At length he leaned forward and folded his hands on the desk, lips pursed into a thin line.

“Does your dad know you were planning this?”

“I was going to tell him after.”

“Remind me how old you are.”

“I'm fourteen.”

“I should think that would end this conversation.”

“You've never had an issue with us lending a hand before.”Hazel replied coolly.

“Kid...listen...” Hugo removed his glasses and pinched his brow-ridge, squeezing his eyes shut, “Your dad just kinda dragged you two along one day and well, it's hard to say no to Barrett Rainart when he's insistent. I never made a fuss after we had a chat and I made it clear if anything happened to you two, it was his choice to bring you along and my hands were clean of it. But now,” he glanced back up, “Now you're telling me you want to be an official employee. That's a whole different ballgame. There's rules, and accountability. Logging is a dangerous job, and that's not counting the goddamn Grimm. I cannot hire a fourteen year old, even if you have probably more hours under your belt than some of my guys.”

Hazel clenched his jaw, having had a feeling something like this would happen. His hands balled into fists in his lap before he relaxed them and took a slow, deep breath.

All he wanted was to help the family. Money had been tight, especially after their father had been injured and was at first out of work, then was forced to work reduced shifts. A lot of days they had very little to eat. Gretchen, in her unwavering optimism and tenacity, had taken to gathering as many wild fruits and plants as she could and selling the extras in the nearby town, even teaching herself to make baskets to accompany them and sell separately. She never made much, but oftentimes it was the difference between going to bed hungry or having at least some food in them.

Hazel, having no artistic or creative talents, had tried to gain employment at a bunch of places in town, however he found himself facing the same issue as here; no one wanted to hire someone so young, even if he was already as tall as some adults. In desperation, he opted to try and follow in his father's footsteps, having learned a great deal from the times they had accompanied him over the years. It had been a two-fold plan on Barrett's part; the kids wouldn't be alone all day, and could learn a good work ethic as well as be, essentially, his assistants. It had worked, and the twins had become unofficially 'adopted' by the rest of the employees...including the foreman seated across from him now.

As his thoughts wandered, Hazel had been staring at his lap, but now he looked back up with that stoic determination that ran in his family, “What would I have to do to prove I'm strong enough to do this?”

“Look, it's not a matter of strength, well I mean, yeah okay some of it is-for the brother's sake you're fourteen you're just starting to grow some facial hair!-it's also a lot of red tape nonsense that I'm gonna be honest, I don't feel like dealing with, not to mention I can't in good conscious . So Hazel, I'm sorry, you're a great kid, really you are but I just...I can't.”

Swallowing hard and fighting back the tears of frustration, Hazel slowly repeated, “What must I do?”

Mumbling and swearing under his breath, Hugo rubbed his face and grabbed a bottle of water and a couple stomach-soothing pills, downing them before resting his elbows on his huge desk...and an idea formed. It was stupid, but maybe...

Sitting back up, Hugo smiled slyly, lacing his fingers together and calmly resting his chin on them, “Alright. You want in that bad? I've got a little test for you. See this desk? This thing is solid oak. Whenever I need to rearrange this office it takes two grown men to move it, but, if you can do it yourself, I'll hire you.”

“Do I have your word?” asked Hazel.

Hugo nodded, “Aye kid, you do,” he stood and moved a bunch of items off the top, “Now come on, let's see if you're strong enough.”

Standing himself, Hazel stretched his arms, then his back and rolled his shoulders before moving to grasp the edges of the desk. Hugo stood a short distance away, trying to hide his smug grin; there was no way in hell he'd be able to move it. Bracing and locking his legs, Hazel took several slow breaths then tightened his grip, digging his feet into the floor for leverage as he tried to hoist the furniture piece. For a few moments nothing happened, and Hugo was about to tell him that was that-

And then to his astonishment and dismay, the legs nearest Hazel lifted off the floor, not by much, but enough he was able to pivot the desk around several inches, where he let it fall back to the floor with a deep thud. The teen gave another quick stretch, then turned to face Hugo, one eyebrow raising in expectancy.

“What? You only moved it a little. I meant if you could actually change it's location.” grumbled Hugo, planting his hands on his hips.

“If I remember correctly,” retorted Hazel as he crossed his arms, “All you said was if I moved it, not how far I could. You did give your word.”

At length, lips pursed before shaking his head and walking to his desk's new spot, Hugo slapped the papers he had been holding upon it. Pulling his chair around, he sat and pulled an employment form from a drawer, sliding it and a pen across the surface toward Hazel.

“Your dad is gonna wring my neck...”

Hazel locked the front door behind him as he arrived home later that evening, his copy of the employment agreement in hand. The first thing he saw was Gretchen at the kitchen table with a small pile of reeds and other supplies in front of her as she worked on another basket. Looking up she grinned, though he could see the tiredness in her face.

“Hey you. Was wondering when you'd get back,” her eyes caught the paper, “What's that?”

Hazel carefully unfolded it to show her, “My employment contract.”

“Who the heck hired you?!”

“Father's company.”

Gretchen gaped at him, then clenched the fibers in her hands a little tighter, “He...you did talk to him about it right?”

“About what?” came a deep voice from their living room.

The twins locked eyes, both knowing how this was going to go and having a brief, silent conversation as they often did, their expressions and gestures saying all that was needed; Gretchen's brows knitted as her eyes flicked from the living room back to her brother, 'He's going to be angry.' Hazel's gaze dropped to the floor, his shoulders sagging, 'I know,' then he gave her a soft, brave smile, 'I'll be okay'. She rested one hand over her heart briefly, then stood and gave him a nod and touched her lips before climbing the ladder to their loft bedroom, 'I love you, good luck, we'll talk later'.

Hazel covered his heart for a moment as well, watching her vanish into the dark of the loft. Hearing their father clear his throat and ask for him to come in, he drew a breath and entered, still holding the paperwork. His father sat in his large armchair, a glass of amber-colored liquid in one hand and a book in the the other, the latter of which he set down to turn his attention to his son, expression coldly stern.

“Now. What's going on?”

#rwby #rwby hazel #fanfiction #rwby headcanon #rwby gretchen #*there's more to you [Hazel] #*i miss you [gretchen]

[the-fiction-witch]

The Old Swing

MOVIE NANNY MCPHEE AGE UP

COUPLE SIMON X READER

RATING SWEET AS SUGAR

I remember first moving into that little farm house, I didn't think much of it really. I chose my room and went off to explore the garden, as I did I found an oak tree with a swing. It was just some rope and a little wooden board but I loved it even if I had to get on my toes just to reach it. Listening to the wind whistling through the trees, the birds in their nests, the swing creaking as it moved.

I looked over to the other side of the tree seeing the house next door. It was tall much like our own. I could see farm animals and children running about doing things, a tree house built into one of the taller trees there.

I saw a man stood at the doorstep with a boy he looked the eldest of the children over there and the closest to my own age I saw him whisper something to the boy and he looked unhappy before I saw the boy heading his way, he wondered thought his siblings and thought the garden of his house jumping the wooden fence between us and coming up to me fiddling his feet around in the dirt 

"Hello"

"Hello" I smiled back

"My father says I should come say hello to you"

"Ooh… well that's very nice of you" I smiled 

"You just moved in didn't you?" He asks and I nodded "I'm Simon"

"Y/n" I smiled offering my hand as my mother had taught me, he glanced to his father and looked a little unhappy but gave my hand a kiss anyway 

"Could I sit and swing with you?" He asks 

"Sure," I smiled, moving over a little as he sat beside me on the swing.

I smiled as I sat in the little wooden swing that hangs from the old oak tree. Swinging my feet the very tips of my toes just grazed the ground as the swing swung me back and forth slightly creaking as it did. My little dress sometimes fluttered in the gentle breeze and my pigtails sat perfectly on my shoulders.

"Good morning…" The familiar voice smiled, I looked up and saw Simon from next door in his usual blue fluffy jumper, his hair a mess and his face plastered in dirt. 

"Morning, did you get dragged through a hedge backwards?" I asked as he sat on my swing with me 

"No why?"

"Because I look like you did" I laughed fixing his hair even if he tried to fight me off 

"Ughh y/n" he whines 

"Ohh come here" I said grabbing a little of the apron of my dress licking it and wiping across his face to clean off the mud and dirt

"Ughhh y/n nooo!!" He complained trying to fight me the whole time 

"There all better" I smiled 

"I hate you sometimes" he pouted 

"You love me really" I giggled 

I sat swinging on my swing trying to get as high as I could when I saw the familiar but jumping the fence

"Y/n? What are you doing?" He asked 

"I'm trying to go higher!" I giggled

"I don't think you can get any higher"

"I can! I know I can!"

"I'll help" he smiled moving behind my swing whenever I went back he would push me every time he did I would get higher and higher, I knew I'm some days Simon was kinda a bad kid but I don't know I always felt safe with him, like I was sure he wouldn't pull a prank on me or do something mean to me, like of all the people in the world I was the only one he wouldn't do that to, I was giggling like crazy as my hair flew through the air the faster and higher I swung. 

I sat in my swing reading my book when I heard a little voice 

"Hi y/n" he blushed 

"Hi Simon" I smiled moving so he could sit with me 

"What are you reading?"

"Cinderella"

"What's it about?"

"It's about a beautiful lady who people are mean to and then her fairy godmother comes and gives he a beautiful dress… that's as far as I've got" I explain

"It sounds nice," he smiled 

"How many times did you get in trouble this week?"

"I didn't this week I swear" he says and I glared at him 

"Okay… twice" he sighed 

"What for?" I asked 

"One for scaring the nanny" he sighed 

"How did you scare the nanny?" 

"I didn't actually do anything it was Eric and Lilly they pretended to be building a bomb" he explained

"Your brother isn't really building a bomb is he?" I asked 

"I'm not sure that's a question for Eric," he shrugs 

"Then what?"

"Then cook caught me stealing cookies" 

"Simon" I laughed

"It was this morning, I was going to bring them out here for us" he explained

"Of course you where" I laughed even if I didn't believe him "but that's two times you for in trouble" I laughed "so only three kisses for you" I smiled giving his cheek a kiss, then his forehead then his other cheek making him blush bright red and wiping away my kisses.

I had stopped using my swing for a while, I don't know why, maybe it was school work, maybe I just didn't have the time. But when I went back to it I felt strange, 

The old oak tree higher than I ever could have imagined a tree could be, the beaches full of birds nests, birds often fluttering about inside as they went in and out, a couple of squirrels stuttering about up and down the branches, a rather large hole high up where an owl would sometimes poke his head out to investigate things going on, a little family of hedgehogs living in the undergrowth below the tree, the grass had overgrown, weeds, wildflowers and ivy grew on everything, the only place that didn't was the space under the swing as it had been turned to nothing by well trod dirt from years of playing on the swing. The swing itself the rope worn but strong, ivy swirling up and down it. The wooden plank had almost divots in it from where me and Simon would sit on it everyday even if only the wind swung it nowadays.

I moved thought the grass in my little sundress slowly sitting in the swing gently moving it by running my feet across the floor 

"Hey" a voice said making me jump I looked to the fence and saw Simon his jumper gone replaced by a tattered old blue waistcoat instead as his jumper no longer fit him, as he was growing like a weed as now I only came up to just below his shoulders when we stood side by side, 

"Hey" I smiled. I hadn't seen him much lately. We were both kinda busy with life I guess. 

"You look beautiful there" he smiles 

"What?" I laughed a little surprised as he came over leaning in the tree 

"You always looked cute on your swing… now you look, beautiful" he smiled

"Aww Simon, that's sweet" I giggled "hey come on" I smiled tapping the space on the swing he blushed a little but came and sat beside me on my swing holding onto the rope picking at some of the ivy leaves 

"Feels like forever since I was sat beside you" he smiled 

"It does, I missed you" I smiled 

"I missed you too" he blushed as he did. I noticed some dirt in his cheek so I licked my finger and gently cleaned it for him "really?" He laughs

"Your never going to be too old for me to have to wipe muck off your face Simon" I smiled giving his cheek a kiss where I cleaned 

"I know…" he laughs looking at me alot as we gently move the swing "y/n? Could I kiss you?"

"I've been kissing you every week since you were nine? Seven?" I laughed 

"Not like that y/n, I meant like kiss you, kiss you" he says and I looked a little confused at him "... On the lips?"

"Ooohh, well I don't know Simon, it would get us in a lot of trouble" I blushed 

"When have I ever minded being in trouble?" He asks " just one little kiss" 

"Well… alright" I smiled I watched him as he looked at me his cheeks red with blush but I could feel the heat in my own, he absentmindedly licked across his bottom lip as his eyes flicked from my own to my lips and back again repeatedly his arm that was closest to me moved to the back corner of the swing the corner behind me so his arm went across my back he tenderly moved an inch forward and I did too trying not to look at him innocently turning my face away 

"Please y/n, don't turn away" he says sweetly his hand on my chin moving me to look back at him I smiled and so did he before he moved closer so our noses almost touched I could feel the heat of his breath and body close to my own his hand moved back to hold the rope of the swing nervously the light of the golden setting sun across his face reflecting in his molten chocolate eyes he took In a sharp breath before he moved closing the space between us atlast his lips graced my barely touching them at all the smooth texture of his lips against my own felt like silk across skin the movement as he relaxed a little from a more direct puckered kiss to a molding of my lips against his own as he continued to move closer so our lips could push against each other, the heat rising in my face and my chest, we both began to move our mouths slowly and tenderly they moved against each without resistance as if they fit together perfectly like a puzzle as if my lips were meant to kiss his, our lips designed specifically to interlock. The slow clicking of our kisses all I could hear in his world of joy and calm.

Simon began to pull back so I did as well putting as much space between us as I could in his little swing, 

"So…" he says 

"So" I smiled looking across the garden 

"That was my first kiss…"

"Mine too" I blushed unsure about what we had just done 

"I don't know why I waited so long" he smiled kissing my cheek and slipping his hand into my own intertwined his fingers with mine "it was amazing my love"

"Aww Simon, I liked it too" I smiled moving a little my hand still holding his own as I pulled him to be more central ok my swing and I moved my head to rest on his chest, he put an arm around me keeping me close to him.

[gh0stlyfixation]

Eggnog

Requested: I've noticed no one has asked 4 the reader as a dhampir. So an idea clicked Christmas Eve party at the Mikaelson's. the reader had forgotten that eggnog has alcohol, which is like vervain to her. Making her weak, tho cause an opposite effect vampire side appears. The only way to help sober her up is by blood but it's been years since she in need of any unless a major injury can't heal. Could you do a react of the Mikaelssons finding out + Mad Klaus on why she didn't tell him and fluff at the end?

Authors note: okay so I had no idea what a Dhampir was and honestly I thought it was a missed spelled word but I got a feeling that I should look it up and apparently is a human and vampire. So that cool. I learned something new anyway, continue❤️

Before the originals or there parents were thought of, there was you, Y/N. In 908 AD, you were born into the line of powerful witches. The story kinda went like the Mikaelsons. The mother lost too many children and because of that, she did a spell to make her children immortal.

Your kind of species of vampires is different. You are a human and a vampire, known as a Dhampir. Your kind hates human blood, but love human food. You can see anything that is invisible and can practice sorcery. The only weakness you have is the black oak stake.

You've lived for over 1,000 years. You and your siblings kept quiet. Till one day you witnessed your neighbors being turned into the creature of the night.

"Ester made them the demons too." Said your sibling.

"Shh!" You said.

And almost 1,000 years later, in June 2016 you met the family. They had heard about your family. Just like the normal vampire feared the originals, the originals feared you, though you were harmless.

The rumors of Y/L/N's family were horrendous. The supernatural community figured you drank the blood of all vampires, wolves, and witches. They thought you can kill anyone with just one look, and much more. But all your family really did was keep to themselves.

Your father was proud of his family. He didn't make them into a killing family. Your family helped the creatures in need. Deers who've been shot, creatures with wings who lost the ability to fly, all healed with one touch. They made your family out to be the devil but in reality, you all were angels.

But in June, you went back to your homeland. Your family stayed behind because they lived there new home, but you didn't feel right there. Mystic Falls was the new name, the town was little and cozy but in the air, you could smell the supernatural.

"I'm telling you Y/S/N, the scent is strong. There little humans but so many supernatural creatures." You said over the phone as you sat down in the bar of the little diner.

When you hung the phone up you couldn't help but notice eyes staring straight at you. You looked up to see two men with brown and black hair looking right at you, one which you've seen before, Niklaus.

You felt uncomfortable, they obviously New who you were and after staring back at them you decided to leave. You didn't want to be part of this. Instead, you went to the cemetery, where your mother was buried after she was staked by a scared person who happened to have a black oak stake.

"Oh mother, this world has gotten to cruel to us. I mean I save animals after I've drunk out of them but the whole community thinks I'm a monster. Thinks our family is the devil. I practice magic and I drink animal blood, then heal them. It's been over 1,200 years. God that's a long time to live." You said to the tomb.

"You are telling me." Said a voice. You stood up quickly and back up into your mother grave.

Your breathing slowed down when you saw it was Niklaus.

"Niklaus." You said.

"You've heard of me?" He asked.

"Not only have I heard of you but I watched your kind be created. We were neighbors before you turned. You know, the neighbors who never left the house." You said fast.

Klaus nodded with a little smile. "Yes, the 'creepy people who only left the house at night'." He said.

Since that night you lived with the Mikaelsons. You always helped them in times of need since the there family got into trouble. Your family loved them as well. They visited often and would help with the battles.

On one night of peace, Klaus decided to throw a Christmas Eve ball of only friends and family. Your family could not show up due to circumstances. You were slightly disappointed but you knew you would have fun.

Klaus and you have become close and you depended on him a lot. He knew you inside and out. He loved you but you were to blind to see.

In your room, you sat down on your bed in the dress you were to wear at the ball. It was a rather revealing dress, but you love the color. A knock at the door was heard.

"Come in." You said softly.

Klaus couldn't get enough of your voice but when he walked in and saw you in your dress he was speechless.

"I, uh, just wanted to see if you were ready." He said staring at you. "You look amazing by the way." He said. You smiled at him and stood up.

"Thank you, Nik." You said and kissed his cheek as you walk by to put earrings on.

As the party started you stuck with Rebekah as the brothers mingled with the guest.

"Oh, I love Christmas," Rebekah stated.

"I do too." You said with a smile as you drunk some sprite.

"Drink some eggnog instead. It's super good!" She said taking your glass of sprit away and giving you a glass of eggnog.

Rebekah walked away to meet with an old friend and you took a rather big sip of the eggnog, but you immediately knew something was wrong. There was alcohol in it.

Alcohol was the only way your vampire side would appear. You would become weak quickly and fangs would appear. Elijah came over to talk to you but you grabbed his arm, "please take me out of this room Elijah." You said quickly.

Elijah didn't think a second before he quickly but calmly took you to another room.

"What's happened?" He asked panickily.

"There was alcohol in that eggnog and Dphamirs can't have alcohol unless they want to become weak and sick and have fangs lusting for human blood." You said

Elijah quickly left the room then came back with Rebekah and Klaus.

"What's happened to her?" Rebekah asked as she rushed to your sweating body.

"She's going to lose control because of the alcohol in the eggnog. She needs blood now." Elijah said.

Klaus ran to the refrigerator and grabbed many bags of blood and you tore them open quickly and drank them all. Your face was covered in blood. They have never seen you like this.

"Why didn't you tell us?" Klaus asked. He was clearly upset.

"Because. I never expected to drink it. It's been years and honestly, I forgot." You said placing the last bag on the table.

"You forgot? How do you forget?" Yelled Klaus.

"Nik, it was a mistake," Rebekah said trying to calm the angry brother but instead he stormed out.

"Y/N, you should've told us." Said Rebekah with a sigh.

"I just forgot." You said

You were frustrated and annoyed.

Elijah was very concerned by how that little of alcohol can cause you to become uncontrollable. He didn't say anything though. He didn't want to offend you.

"I guess I should talk to Klaus." You said with a sigh. Hopefully, you could reason with him

You found Klaus out mingling with the guest a smile on his face that you knew was a lie. Klaus saw you walk in. No matter how mad he was at you he still couldn't stop gazing at you and your perfection.

A slow song came on a people paired up leaving you alone to watch. Klaus slowly made his way to you.

"I may be mad at you but I can't let you stand there alone while dates dance," Klaus said as he held his hand out to you.

"Thank you, Nik." You quietly said.

You placed his arms on the sides of his shoulders and danced along to the song.

"I'm sorry I never told you. It's just been years since it's happened and I never thought any of it." You said.

"It's alright love. Now that we know it's alright." He said calmly.

"Your never this calm. Why are you?" You asked

Klaus sighed, "Because of Y/N. I love you and I can't ever be mad at you." Klaus said.

You looked at him in shock. "You love me?" You asked.

You watch this man grow up and you watched him destroy towns and city's and he just said that he loved you.

"I do." He stated simply.

You smiled for a moment and kissed him. This was the best feeling you've had in a long time

#klaus mikaelson #klaus mikaelson imagine #elijah mikaelson x reader #rebekah mikaelson #rebekah mikaelson imagine #Kol mikaelson #kol mikaelson imagine #freya mikaelson #freya mikaelson imagine #finn mikaelson #finn mikaelson imagine #elijah mikaelson imagines #elijah mikealson imagine #elijah mikaelson #hayley marshall #haylijah #hayley marshall imagine #vampire #dphampir #the originals #the original IMAGINES #the originals imagine

[blatherkatt]

Title: The Calm Is Terrifying When The Storm Is All You Know [Homestuck]

Chapter 33: Declarations 

Summary: There were two kinds of trolls who went to Earth: rich shitheads with too much money and free time, and desperate assholes who couldn’t survive on Alternia, even with the best efforts of the young Condesce. Karkat hated the planet almost immediately, but with his home planet too dangerous for mutants, he really didn’t have any choice but to hide out on this weird little diurnal planet. At least he’d be safe. Or so he thought, right before blundering his way into an accidental friendship with the son of an anti-troll terrorist.

Rating: M

Chapter Warnings: Implied/Mentioned abuse, mentions of terrorism, death mention, injury mention, depiction of an emotional breakdown, trauma aftermath; Illustrated; Pesterlog

FIRST | PREVIOUS | NEXT

— carcinoGeneticist [CG] began trolling tipsyGnostalgic [TG] —

CG: WHERE THE FUCK ARE YOU?

— tipsyGnostalgic [TG] is an idle chum! —

CG: FUCK YOU, I CAN SEE THAT FOR MYSELF, YOU PIECE OF SHIT PROGRAM. I’M GONNA FUCKING YELL ANYWAY.

CG: I THOUGHT YOU WERE GOING TO PICK ME UP AT NOON. IT’S LIKE, 1:30 AND YOU STILL AREN’T HERE, WHAT GIVES?

CG: IF YOU GOT KIDNAPPED, TOO, I SWEAR TO FUCK I’M PERSONALLY PUTTING THIS ENTIRE GODDAMN FAMILY UNDER PERMANENT WATCH.

CG: I’M NOT ABOVE SITTING ON YOU ASSHOLES IF THATS WHAT IT TAKES.

TG: okay first off i know youre like a literal alien but heres a protip for ya:

TG: general human earth etiquette is to not text people who you know are probably driving?

TG: its like a whole thing

CG: WHY

TG: idk probs because texting while driving’s a great way to fucking crash lol

TG: anyway!!

TG: yeah im real sorry about that mom fucking rang me up like

TG: hi im at the airport come get me!

TG: out of fucking nowhere because everything has to be a fucking hassle with this woman

TG: so i had to go get her

CG: WHY THE FUCK WAS SHE AT THE AIRPORT?

TG: because fuck me is why

TG: and THEN shes like

TG: ooooh i gotta do some mysterious whatthefuckever errand at some mall out in the middle of nowhere

TG: so now im sitting in the parking lot waiting for her to get back which might be a while because her bad leg’s been acting up lately

TG: and thats why im not there yet >:(

CG: WAIT. WAIT, HOLD ON, I’M CONFUSED.

CG: BY “MOM” ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT RACHEL? I DIDN’T EVEN THINK SHE HAD A BAD LEG.

TG: nonono

TG: ray is like. dirk and dave and rose’s mom

TG: i dont call her mom i just call her aunt ray cuz shes not my mom yknow

TG: my mom is aunt ray’s sister

TG: aunt ramona? they talk about her?

CG: OOOOOOH. YEAH.

CG: THE WOMAN WHO WRITES THOSE SHITTY SUPERNATURAL ROMANCE BOOKS KANAYA LOVES.

TG: hahaha yeah her trashy shit is great

CG: SHE’S HERE?

TG: apparently!!!!!!!!

CG: I’M SENSING SOME BITTERNESS.

TG: ugh its fine she just always does shit like this

TG: womans always gotta make a fuckin entrance even if that means not telling anyone shes coming

TG: and its goddamn annoying as shit!!

TG: but its fine i get it shes here to help out and we are kinda all hands on deck

TG: speaking of tho i heard something about kanaya not coming along after all?

CG: NOT YET, NO.

CG: SHE’S BEEN TALKING TO ROSE, AND APPARENTLY DAVE’S BEEN PRETTY UNEASY WITH THE NUMBER OF NEW FACES AT THE HIVE.

CG: HOUSE. WHATEVER.

CG: TEREZI’S PROTECTION DETAIL HAS HIM KIND OF ON EDGE, I GUESS?

CG: SHE’S GONNA COME AROUND LATER PROBABLY. AND MIGHT END UP STAYING WITH PORRIM AND KEEP IT TO VISITS, AT LEAST UNTIL THINGS SETTLE DOWN A BIT.

CG: SO IT’S JUST ME FOR NOW.

TG: ooooh yeah geez i bet

TG: poor dave :( :( :(

TG: i gotta tell you and mom some uh. serious shit about him when i pick you both up

TG: id pass it on here but its probs better if i just tell you face to face?

CG: OH, WONDERFUL!

CG: MORE NO DOUBT HORRIFIC NEWS REGARDING DAVE.

CG: I CAN’T WAIT. THIS PANIC ATTACK’S GONNA BE ONE FOR THE RECORD BOOKS, I CAN JUST FEEL IT!!!

TG: :(

TG: tl;dr hes not in great shape but hes getting better but theres some stuff we gotta go over

TG: jfc mom what the fuck are you doing its been ages

CG: SO WAIT. SHE JUST HAD YOU DRIVE HER OUT SOMEWHERE AND WALKED OFF ALONE?

TG: yeah

TG: woman can take care of herself just fine so like im not worried??

TG: but still, like. cmon woman!!! whatever it is hurry up a little

TG: it cant be that important we got places to be

In terms of location, it was almost an outlet mall; somewhat detached from the nearest city and surrounded by forest. It was mostly all one building, positioned in a dip in the ground next to a clear stream, and these features had helped make it a serviceable fortress during the invasion, although Derek had regularly complained that he’d have preferred a site that held the high ground. Still, they’d made do; the roof was high enough that one could see for quite some distance, the stream offered fresh water, the trees provided decent enough cover during skirmishes, and the walls were thick enough to turn away most weather and weapons. It hadn’t been much, but it had served well enough as home for six years for around threescore ragtag survivors-turned-fighters.

Out in the surrounding forest, those who hadn’t survived that conflict still lay buried in pitiful graves marked only with a stone or a chunk of wood. There hadn’t been time to properly put anyone to rest; it had been risky enough for two or three people to slip out during a stretch of quiet with a shovel and a body. They simply hadn’t been able to afford to have any sort of formal burial, not with the threat of an attack constantly looming.

Even so, even so…

Derek had picked a spot he would remember.

In life, the oak tree would have been the kind people would have thought of as a monarch, with branches spread wide and gnarled wood ancient and strong, holding children in its branches as easily as if they were made of nothing; but the tree had already been dead by the time the invasion started, a great, ancient, dried-out husk. Even so, decades later, it still stood, its branches reaching toward the sky, the other trees forming a circle around it as though too respectful to come too close. Mushrooms and trails of greenery crept about a quarter of the way up the ancient trunk.

At its roots, a rotting wooden spar stuck up out of the ground. This, too, had been reclaimed by flowers, grasses and mushrooms, decorating the splintered and decayed timber with dark summer greens and pale white-and-lavender blooms.

Derek Strider, down on one knee with his sheathed sword held in his right hand, sighed. Of course, the trouble with having to bury the dead so hastily meant that there’d been no one to look over the graves, so it was to be expected that it be in such disrepair, but even so, seeing this one choked out by the invading flora was…

It wasn’t right.

Overhead, the ancient branches rustled slightly, and the raucous calling of a bird broke the silence. Derek narrowed his eyes and ignored it, tried to write the disrespectful noise out of the scene.

The crow seemed to have other ideas. The bird lighted down on the wooden grave marker, red eyes fixed on Derek’s face. It flapped its wings a few times, cawing incessantly. Derek scowled, unsheathed his sword, and struck —

The blade passed through the bird with no resistance whatsoever. The creature’s body split in two, bloodlessly, as though Derek had cut through smoke — it even looked like smoke, like a cloud cut in two by a passing jet. As Derek looked on, uncomprehending and with a growing sense of dread, the bird’s body seemed to pull itself back together, a video played in reverse, and the bird’s accusatory squawks started up again as though nothing had happened.

Derek was on his feet in an instance, stepping away from the beast, and as he did, he happened to look up…

Perched on nearly every branch of the old tree were ravens. Unlike the crow, they were all silent, and aside from the occasional shifting of a foot or tilting of a head, motionless. Scores of staring animal eyes bored into him.

Derek had never been a superstitious man, but nor was he the sort of fool to ignore the truth his own eyes showed him. He’d spent six years fighting alongside a witch, and seen enough to learn that some things really couldn’t be explained away as coincidence.

Had it been anyone else, he would have responded to the sound of footsteps approaching this site with a furious attack; even Ben knew better than to disturb him here. But when he whirled to face the intruder, he froze.

She’d aged more since he’d last seen her than he would have expected. Hints of silver streaked her hair, and she leaned heavily on her gnarled black cane. A faint breeze stirred the black fabric of her dress, playing with the light shawl laying across her shoulders. The crow had fallen silent.

“Put that thing away before you take someone’s eye out,” said Ramona, nodding nonchalantly at Derek’s sword.

Derek narrowed his eyes, and did not respond aloud, instead choosing to slowly and deliberately slide the sword back into its sheathe. Only after his left hand had returned to his side did Ramona nod and continue.

“That’s better,” she said. “Now we can talk things over like reasonable adults. Mind you, I ought to do the world a favor and wipe you out right now,” and Derek took a slow, deep breath at that, as she continued, “But I’d prefer not to desecrate your brother’s grave by staining it with your blood. I respect him far too much for that. You, however, have somehow managed to exceed all of my worst expectations to a nearly unfathomable degree, as of late. I’ve held off on this confrontation out of respect for the past, but I can see now that this was a mistake.”

Derek shifted. “Everything I’ve done has been to protect our damn planet, Ramona,” he started, but was cut off.

“Really?” she said, “Well, then. I’m not about to attempt to ask you to cease killing trolls, as we both know that would be pointless, but I would very much like to know how exactly burning your own son alive plays into your grand battle strategy?”

“He…he turned on us,” Derek said, through gritted teeth, “He forced my hand, left me no choice!”

“He is a child!” Ramona snapped. “And you, of all people, should know better! If you really must follow this path of self-destruction to its end, fine, but he should never have been involved!”

“I—”

“And in any case, you had a perfectly good sword on hand, I’m sure. If young Dave really did need to die, you could have executed him with minimal pain, but no, you wanted him to hurt, to know he was dying and to fear you and suffer as he passed. How do you justify that, Derek? How does anyone, especially a child, deserve anything of the sort?”

The eyes of the ravens and that damned crow still drilled into him. He could feel the stares on his back, but kept his eyes locked on Ramona’s, refusing to back down.

He wasn’t going to take back what he’d done. There’d be no guilt, he’d done nothing wrong except overreact a bit. It was justified. That…that boy wasn’t Dave. Ramona was using the name like a blade, but she’d not win that way. He didn’t deserve the fucking name, didn’t deserve to have anything to do with Dave, he never would have let Rachel name the kid that if he’d known he was going to grow up to be such a pathetic, useless little coward.

“I don’t have to explain myself to you,” he said.

“No, I suppose you don’t,” said Ramona, folding her hands over the top of her cane. “I’ve a fairly good idea, in any case.” She sighed. “The war is over, Derek. The time to put aside this violence and misery is long since behind us. Our children do not deserve to grow up as we did.”

“The trolls are still here,” Derek spat.

There was a long silence. Ramona sighed again.

“Fine, then,” she said, “So be it. Do as you will. Chase violence as long as you like. But if you come near my family again, I will consider it an act of war.”

She turned, and he was tempted to take the bait, to try attacking her while her back was turned, but he held still. It was infuriating, knowing what a pointed insult turning her back on him was, knowing that she knew he would not risk attacking her—but she was right. She was much too dangerous.

“Come along, little one,” she said, abruptly. The crow rose off the grave and flew to land on top of Ramona’s cane. If Derek had cared to pay any attention, he might have noticed the crow look back at him with something like regret in its eyes, but Derek was already far too lost in his own thoughts.

As one bird, the ravens took wing, dispersing in all directions, leaving him alone again.

The trouble with trying to go from Alternian to English was a multifaceted one, to be sure, but so far the most obnoxious piece of it that Karkat could see was the tendency of guides on how to speak English to simply use the closest Alternian equivalent as an English word’s translation. More and more, the two languages were notably extremely different, and while he could speak English well enough that he’d never had any serious problems, there were any number of words that he kept tripping over as a result of a translation being extremely unclear and culturally misleading.

Witches, for instance, were clearly something very different on Earth. The Alternian word that was translated to English as “witch” was, like most Alternian words, a series of noises in the ‘click and growl’ family that most humans lacked the anatomy to create, and generally refered to certain lowblood prophets and healers in Alternian folklore. They were those who lived away from society and who, through some lucky genetics and convenient psychic powers, were able to fend of drones and effectively disappear from the world at large’s knowledge. They kept to themselves, sought to harm no one who didn’t attack them first, offered shelter to the weak and the hunted, and as such were always portrayed as utterly despicable beings in fiction, as no writer with any sense of self-preservation had dared to portray such reckless treachery under the rule of the last Condesce. There might have been some changes to the lore under the new one’s rule, but things like that changed slow.

In any case, they certainly weren’t anything like the old woman in a shawl who was sitting next to Roxy in the front of her car.

She was dressed all in black, for one thing. Alternian witches didn’t tend to wear much black. Some Alternian witches didn’t tend to wear all that much clothing at all, really. Most seemed to belong to ancient religions that weren’t particularly fond of shirts.

Ramona was definitely magic as shit, though, Rachel’d been right about that much. Was that all a witch was on Earth, just someone with magic? Fuck, if that were the case, then probably like at least a third of all trolls were witches by Earth’s standards. Then again, maybe magic was another poorly translated word? English didn’t seem to have a word to separate “things that we (read: trolls) know exist, like psychic powers and psiionics and ghosts and chucklevoodoos,” and “things that are super fake and don’t actually happen ever and make no sense.”

Whatever. In any case, Ramona didn’t look at all like Karkat had expected, and when he climbed into the back of the car, she didn’t react to his presence with anything stronger than an amiable nod. She seemed to have her mind on other things, and was largely silent at first.

Roxy wasn’t; she immediately piped up happily as Karkat swung open the door with a “Hey, man! Sorry about taking so long! Can you, uh, do me a favor and check on Jaspers? He’s in the carrier behind Mom, Rose asked me to pick him up while she and Aunt Ray were gone. He’s been missing them a lot, all staring out the window and kneading his blanket and shit, and he’s not a huge fan of car rides.”

“He’s asleep,” Karkat said after glancing into the little crate.

“Awesome. Alright, buckle up and we’ll get this damn show on the road.”

“On the road again, just can’t wait to get on—”

Karkat tilted his head as the car’s radio abruptly changed from quietly playing some human pop song over to something much louder and completely different. Ramona stifled a snort as Roxy stabbed a button, switching the radio back to the previous channel.

“No, thank you,” she said, glaring. “Christ, the fuck is with this thing today, I swear to god.”

“I suppose it may simply be getting into the spirit of things,” said Ramona with a smile. As the car pulled away from the curb, she turned back a bit to face Karkat. “It’s Karkat, isn’t it? Rachel’s been sending me any number of emails with updates, and from the sound of things, you’ve been rather instrumental in bringing young Dave back into the fold, so to speak.”

“…Into the what?”

“It’s a figure of speech, meaning in this case that you’ve helped us return him home as well as helping him to adjust to being there,” she said. “For which you have all of our heartfelt thanks. Ours is perhaps not the most functional of families, but it  is ours, and as I’m sure you’ve seen firsthand, ripping away a piece of it the way Derek did has had some very painful consequences for all involved. We owe you a great deal.”

“Yeah, man!” Roxy said. “And from what Rose has been telling me, you were kind of a big part of why he finally spilled what he knows. Which, he did bee-tee-dubs, which means he’s off house arrest finally, so that’s good—”

“—And a partridge in a pear tree,” the radio crackled.

“What the fuck? It’s August,” Roxy scowled. She turned the radio off altogether as Ramona glanced hurriedly out the window.

“Speaking of Dave,” Karkat said, hopefully before anyone got distracted again, “Roxy, you mentioned that there was something that you needed to say face to face?”

“Right, shoot, yeah,” said Roxy. The car turned onto the long road that led eventually to the Lalonde hive. “Okay, so, like. There’s definitely some shit you should know before we get there, but I wanna preface it all real clearly by saying that Dave’s okay, y’know? He’s got a lot of healing to do, but the doctors said that as long as he’s looked after and we change bandages and shit and he gets plenty of rest, he’s definitely not in any danger anymore. He’s…weak, but he’s not like gonna keel over at any moment, okay?”

“Not actually making me feel any better, Roxy!” said Karkat. Oh, boy, with a preface like that…

“Well, fuck, I tried, I guess. Uh. So, Dave did get hurt…pretty bad, and there were some other complications—oh, for fuck’s sake!!”

“Watch me, watch me, hey, watch me, watch me!” The radio was louder than ever. Ramona’s hand flew up, poorly hiding a grin.

Karkat leaned around Roxy’s seat to glare at her.

“What the fuck, Roxy,” said Karkat.

“I’m not doing this!” Roxy said, waving her hand wildly. “I swear to fuck, I wouldn’t! I really do need to pass on some shit about poor Dave, and the radio’s never done this before? It’s been acting up since a little before we picked you up, keeps changing on its own and shit, augh!”

She fought with the controls, but the song stopped only for a moment before getting even louder.

“Why the fuck do you humans even have this obnoxious song?! Who listens to this?? It’s literally just some squawking wiggler screeching for its lusus’s attention!”

“I mean, I kinda love it for that honestly, it’s terrible and stupid and wonderful, but like, come the fuck on??? What’s with this thing?! Now is not the time!”

“Ass ass ass ass ass ass ass ass ass ass—“

“GOD, that’s even worse!!” Roxy yelled, slamming her fist down on the dashboard. “Fucking stop!!”

“That’s enough for now,” Ramona said, almost murmuring it.

The radio turned off. Karkat and Roxy both turned a suspicious eye on Ramona, and with equal simultaneity, decided to drop it for now.

“Anyway,” Roxy said slowly, “What I was trying to say is, um…Karkat, do you know what it means for someone to ‘flatline?’ Because, um. Dave kinda did, for like, a minute and a half.”

Karkat shook his head, realized Roxy probably couldn’t see him with her eyes on the road, and said, “Uh, I have no idea what that word means, no.”

“Well, um…”

“It refers to a heart monitor indicating that the heart has ceased beating,” Ramona said. “The machine indicates activity with a line which shows peaks and valleys, and it goes flat when that activity has stopped, thus, ‘flatline’. The organ we call a heart serves an equivalent function to what trolls call a ‘blood pusher’ or a ‘pump biscuit.’”

Karkat felt for a moment like his own pump biscuit had stopped.

“Shit, Mom, when did you get so good at translating to trolls?” Roxy murmured.

Ramona shrugged. “I’ve made efforts to reach out,” she said. “The war ended, after all, and since we’re allies now, it doesn’t hurt to learn about each others’ cultures.”

“His fucking—What?!” Karkat screeched, unable to keep the harsh buzzing whine out of his voice. God, that was such a moirail noise, and any other time he’d have yelled at himself for not keeping it under control, but not now, not when… “His fucking blood pusher stopped and I’m supposed to be calm!?!”

“They got it moving again!” Roxy said. “He’s okay now, the doctors said it was going strong! It was, um, mostly just exhaustion, they think? Like, the burn wounds could’ve killed him on their own, sure, but they got on those quick enough that if he’d been healthy to begin with he probably wouldn’t have been so bad off? But between ten years of, you know…and just, apparently he hasn’t been eating enough even while he’s been back with us? And Ray’s gonna get on his ass about that, but, just—look, the thing is, Dirk doesn’t know about this yet, and Aunt Ray’s asked that we try to keep it that way, and I don’t really get why but I think she has her reasons?”

Karkat was definitely hyperventilating, oh fuck, oh fuck—Ramona’s hand reached back to touch his own, snapping him out of it.

“It’s fine to be worried,” she said, gentle. “I promise you, though, it is as Roxy says: he’ll be fine given time to recover and the safety with which to do so. He’ll be alive when we get there.” She sat back in her chair, turning towards the road again. “As for Dirk, I suspect Rachel is waiting for things to settle down before breaking it to him gently. He is, for better or worse, very like his father, and Derek handled his brother’s death poorly, in large part because at the time we could not afford to mourn. Rachel probably wants to make sure that Dirk does not feel he has to force himself to be strong when she tells him.”

“Makes sense, I guess,” Roxy muttered. “Anyway, the main thing about that is that he’s not got a lot of energy right now, so don’t…take it personally if he just falls asleep on you sometimes? Especially with the painkillers he’s on, apparently that’s a side effect, too. He can walk short distances, but he gets wobbly quick and needs help sometimes, so there’s that too.”

“Fuck,” said Karkat, softly.

The next ten minutes of the ride were carried out in tense silence. This was broken by the radio once again bursting back on and blasting the ass song again, at which point Roxy threatened to pull over and smash the fucking thing to smithereens.

By the time they actually got to the fucking house, Karkat felt like his soul was going to vibrate right out of his fucking body with impatience. They had yet another delay in the form of Terezi’s protection detail—Terezi herself wasn’t there, but some officers were, and they insisted on knowing about any weapons the three of them had as well as names, and went in to check with the family while making them all wait outside by the car. Karkat already had his fucking bag in hand, he was ready to go, but no, they had to go through this tedious procedure! Sure, it was probably a smart move, and when he was feeling a little more sensible he’d be more okay with it as it was the sort of thing that probably would make them all feel a bit safer (especially poor fucking Dave), but right now the were a pain in the ass and he was going to fucking explode!!! If they didn’t!!! Let him get in the fucking hive!!!!!

Rose stepped out as they were still talking to the police, and for the first time in his life Karkat was unspeakably happy to see her. She quickly confirmed to the police that all three of them were in fact expected and trusted by this household, and then gently let Jaspers out of his carrier. The cat immediately yowled and threw himself into her arms, kneading at her shoulders and rubbing his face against hers, and it all would have been super cute if Karkat didn’t have his mind on other fucking things.

“Come on in,” Rose said, nodding towards the door. “Dirk’s on the couch and Dave’s in Mom’s room, as neither of them can handle stairs right now and Dave needs his bandages changed at least twice a day. Karkat, do you—”

She was talking to air. He was already in the fucking door.

And then had to face the fact that he’d never actually been to Rachel’s room. Fuck. Rachel was coming up the hall, though, and a slightly bewildered young human (wait, fuck, that was Dirk, what happened to his hair? It looked so weird hanging down like that instead of spiked up) was sitting on the couch with an Earth husktop on his lap. Roxy pushed in the door with Ramona right behind her, dropped a heavy wheeled bag right next to the door, and immediately launched herself at Dirk, who gave a startled yelp as she did so.

Rachel rested a hand on Karkat’s shoulder as she passed him, rushing up toward Ramona throwing her arms around her shoulders. The two shared a long hug, and Rachel kissed Ramona’s cheek.

“God, I’m so glad you’re here,” Karkat heard Rachel murmur, before Rose tapped his shoulder.

“I was asking if you knew where Mom’s room is,” Rose said.

“Uh.”

“It’s down the hall to the observatory, but you take a left before you get to it. Make sure to make plenty of noise on the way over, Dave gets really jumpy when he’s the only person in that room. He can’t block the door since we need to be able to come in and out, and it’s got him a bit on edge.”

Karkat nodded, unable to get any words out past the lump in his throat. He more or less just dropped his bag on the ground and pushed past, zooming around toward the room indicated. Dave looked half-asleep when Karkat pushed the door open, and waved as he sat up with some effort.

God, the photo Rose had taken didn’t do justice to how fucking bad he looked. There were bruises across his face and neck turned a weird greenish-gray but still dark against his skin, and bandages everywhere, his hair was a mess (although that might have just been from sleeping). He was in some oversized shirt with an Earth hoofbeast on the front that was probably Dirk’s judging by the size, and Karkat had no idea why Dave had it on but right now he didn’t care.

“Hey, man, uh. Shit’s been crazy, huh?” Dave said with an awkward grin. He didn’t have his shades on either, which made sense if he’d been sleeping, except they weren’t on the bedside table (which did instead contain a nearly empty glass of water, several bottles of pills and salves, and a first aid kit from which clean cloth bandages overflowed).

Two weeks of emotion boiled over all at once. Wordless, Karkat stomped across the room and grabbed Dave’s stupid fucking shirt in both hands and tugged him close.

“It was three days, Dave,” Karkat hissed.

“Wha—?”

“Three days! And you got yourself fucking kidnapped by a terrorist on day goddamn two!! What the fuck, Dave?!” His voice was threatening to abandon him, but Karkat forced it right back into place by sheer willpower. This tangent would not be fucking stopped, hell no. “I take my eyes off of you for two days, and you get yourself into shit again! What the fuck!!! Do you have any idea how-how fucking agonizing it’s been waiting for news?! And you’re just sitting there like ‘Oh, hey! What’s up?’ What’s up is my foot up your waste chute, you hopeless fucking—!” Okay, nope, his voice was leaving after all, actually. He felt tears roll down his face, and he should’ve been more worried about that, but Dave already knew about his blood color and he was the only troll in the house right now, so, fuck it, fuck it all! Helpless, he tugged Dave closer again, letting his face press against that stupid shirt, claws still twisted into the fabric as he sobbed.

“Holy shit,” Dave muttered.

“I was so fucking scared,” Karkat gasped. This was pathetic, they weren’t remotely a couple, Karkat had no right to be this worked up and he knew it, but…Dave wasn’t exactly pushing him away, either, was he?

“I’m sorry, man, I didn’t even…It wasn’t planned this time, it just sorta happened, and Dirk got hurt, and I…”

“I’m not actually angry at you, despite having so much right to be that legislacerators everywhere have preemptively declared me innocent. I’m just fucking screaming for the sake of it, dumbass.”

“Oh.”

The awkward pause that followed was filled with only the sound of Karkat’s weeping, which, fuck, he was probably too fucking embarrassed to tell him off. Except…Dave’s hand lifted up to rest gently against Karkat’s back, so, maybe he didn’t mind that much? Was that wishful thinking?

“Sorry for this,” he said, just in case, as he pulled away a bit. “It’s really fucking embarrassing, I know, I just…”

“It’s cool, man,” said Dave. Then, with a wink, he said, “I know you got your massive Strider homocrush, it’s only natural—”

“Dave, I swear to fuck, injured or not, I will pummel you into dust with a fucking pillow, don’t test me!” Karkat snapped.

Dave snorted. “Hey, man, it’s fine, everyone’s allowed to be a lil gay sometimes with their friends, it’s only natural.”

“I’ll ‘natural’ you!! Motherfucker, I spent the two weeks worrying about your wellbeing and you come at me with more of this bullshit!!”

Dave cackled with laughter. Karkat rolled his eyes and sniffled. He feigned annoyance as best he could, but, God, it was such a relief to hear Dave laugh. Rubbing a sweater sleeve furiously across his eyes, Karkat pulled back, sitting awkwardly on the edge of the bed. “Okay, but seriously, what’s with the shirt?” he asked, gesturing at the floating head of the hoofbeast. It wasn’t even a joke or a drawing. It was just…a straight photo of a hoofbeast’s face, with no text or explanation of any sort. What the fuck??

Dave glanced down, and snickered. “Oh, shit. Uh, yeah, we needed something that’s easy to get me in and out of, since the bandages on this fuckin’ burn need to be changed like, a lot, not to mention the gross-ass cream they have us slathering all over it on the regular. We tried a button down, but the buttons were kinda chafing, and like…who the fuck wants to ruin a fancy shirt with gross burn juices, right? And Dirk’s shit is more comfortable, and this one’s big enough that it’s real easy to take off even if I’m high on the damn painkillers.”

Karkat winced slightly, but decided not to comment. The scream from the video echoed somewhere in his think pan. “Where’re your shades?”

“Bro fuckin’ stepped on them or something, man, I dunno. They fell off at some point, and they were already cracked before all that, and Terezi just found pieces. Which fucking sucks, I mean God dammit, those were a gift from John. Shit sucks.”

“John?” Karkat tipped his head.

“Yeah, he’s like, an old friend of mine. Have I not mentioned him to you? Whatever, he, uh.” Dave scratched at the side of his head. “He was an online friend from before Bro started doing the, uh, raid shit, and I kept talking to him and another friend, Jade, for a while afterwards even though I wasn’t supposed to?”

“Jade’s name I remember,” Karkat said.

“Haha, yeah, yeah cuz I told you about…anyway.” He cleared his throat. “I guess since Dirk’s college is starting up again soon, not that he’s going for the first couple weeks with his leg and a fucking concussion, but, it’s starting up, and John’s sister goes there too, and he’s gonna come with so we’ll be able to hang out for a bit? Which is fuckin’ rad, I haven’t even talked to the guy in three years and we’re finally meeting in person.”

“You want him to be here? While you’re this badly injured?” Karkat yelped.

Dave blinked at him like he’d just grown a secondary head.

“I mean, yeah?” Dave said. “Like, yeah, I’m not in great shape and I guess it’ll be a lil weird for him to see me like this, but I’ve missed him.” Before Karkat could press the question further, though, Dave yawned. “Ugh, fuck, I wanna keep talking, but I’m…halfway to falling asleep, shit.”

“Oh,” said Karkat. He got up, ready to leave. He wanted to stay, wanted to curl himself around Dave’s obnoxiously lanky frame as best he could and protect this fragile idiot human from the entire universe, but…it wasn’t his place, was it? No.

“You leaving?” said Dave, rubbing at his unbruised eye.

“You said you wanna sleep,” Karkat said.

“Right. Uh. Could you, like…fill this back up for me, then, I guess?” Dave said.

“…Sure,” said Karkat.

He was…still confused, but Dave was tired, so he didn’t press. But he couldn’t wrap his head around wanting a friend around while he was so injured—well, he’d wanted Karkat around, hadn’t he? He’d seemed happy to see him, aside from the, uh, yelling. Still, it didn’t make sense! Every troll knew as a small child that the only people you could trust when you were injured were your lusus, your moirail, and maybe your matesprit! Anyone else might take advantage of the weakness and kill you, that was just basic logic! But Dave didn’t even seem to be thinking about it.

And…and yet, come to think of it, Roxy’d been awfully forthright about how bad Dave’s condition was. Hell, she’d heard it from Rose, who seemed like the one most likely to know not to spread that weakness, but the humans were all sharing it and passing it around. It wasn’t just that they didn’t seem to care who knew that Dave and Dirk were injured, it was like they wanted people to know.

And as he filled up the glass of water in the kitchen, he watched as Roxy and Dirk talked on the couch, as Dirk told her that he’d passed on the news of their condition to Jane already, that Rose had told her and Dave’s friends, and it just kept going. Everyone had to be up to date on the fact that both brothers were injured and vulnerable, and yet…

“I hope the flight wasn’t too long,” Rachel was saying to Ramona.

“Nothing would be too long right now,” she said in turn, blowing gently on a cup of tea that Rachel had just poured her. “Times like these, we all need to do our part. I know I might not be able to do much, mind you. My leg’s been acting up something fierce, as of late, but I’ll do whatever I can.”

Something clicked. All at once, the curtains pulled back and Karkat saw the whole picture—saw maybe not what it always was, and certainly not what the Lalondes achieved on any sort of regular basis, but what it was supposed to be, how it was meant to work.

On Alternia, everyone lived in constant competition. Trolls had to be strong as close to all the time as they possibly could, or at the very least find a moirail who could, because otherwise their society wouldn’t particularly care much if they died. That just meant they didn’t deserve to be a part of the gene pool or to contribute to society. If they were injured badly and left vulnerable, it was seen as normal for others to take advantage of that weakness and exert power or outright kill a rival. It was how they survived so long, or so the cultural narrative had so long stated: by this competition, the strongest survive. Nevermind that this survival was built on the corpses of uncountable trolls who didn’t make the cut, it Worked.

As a result, trolls had been bewildered just as Karkat had by how humans as a species managed to be so frail and yet so reckless and to still survive, especially when they didn’t exactly have the kind of numbers that trolls did. Humans lacked the numbers to be expendable, lacked the strength and toughness that kept Trolls alive, and yet they looked Death in the eye and pointed and laughed, and pushed themselves to extremes for no purpose other than to have some warped idea of fun. It was a question that had lingered around his consciousness for ages; how the fuck do humans even work as a species? How had such a seemingly doomed race not died off yet?

The answer that hit him now, as he watched Roxy help Dirk stand up and balance himself on a pair of crutches, was that humans didn’t have to be strong all the time, and that was the magic of their little social units, their families—they took care of each other. No one person had to be good at everything, or so good at one thing that it could keep them safe in any situation. It didn’t matter that their skin was thin or that they weren’t particularly strong or fast, they always, always had others around who would pick up the slack, others who would come even across oceans to offer what aid they could in times of strife; they weaved together all their strengths and weaknesses into a fabric able to withstand just about anything. Fuck, no wonder they’d wanted Dave back so badly. The Lalondes may have been less a tapestry and more a patchwork quilt, but it was still their quilt, and Dave was a part of it….

He felt a near-agonizing pang of envy that he didn’t have a quilt of his own. Humans might have been stupid about a lot of things, but this…this they’d gotten right.  

“Fucking water? Is that really the best you could think of? Fucking dumbass,” Dave muttered to himself. God. This was stupid. This was all really fucking stupid. He couldn’t even deal with being alone while he was asleep, for Chrissakes! Too scared of nightmares of a big mean dog, like some fuckin’ little kid.

Yeah, he was tired, but he really, really didn’t wanna be alone right now, was the thing. Not with that fucking troll-drug-induced nightmare lingering around the edges, waiting to chase him down again at its first chance. But. Like. Karkat was kind of right? Bros don’t watch each other sleep, that’s fuckin’ creepy. Like. Okay, so maybe they’d done a bit of that way back when Karkat had been kidnapped, but they didn’t have a choice back then, and anyways they mostly slept at the same time during that experience, which was super different from just asking his best alien friend to fuckin’ hold his hand so the  bad dreams wouldn’t get him. Fuck.

So he’d asked Karkat to refill his glass, even though he wasn’t thirsty right now, because it was an excuse to make Karkat come back, at least for a few more minutes, and they could talk for a bit, and maybe Dave’d stop being tired, wouldn’t that be rad.

Karkat came back in looking really thoughtful. He handed the glass over, and Dave took a sip to try and look like he hadn’t been 100% bullshitting there, and mumbled a thanks as he set it down. Then, just as a thought, he jerked his head toward the rest of the bed—it was a big king-sized one, probably left over from before the divorce and Mom had just never downsized or whatever, so there was a lot of space to Dave’s right—and told Karkat he could sit down if he wanted, Dave wasn’t gonna, like, pass out right this minute or anything, haha.

Karkat stayed quiet, which was fuckin’ weird, but he did sit down. He stared at the sheets for a minute, and then spoke up suddenly, saying, “I think I get it.”

“Get what?” said Dave.

“Why they wanted you back so bad,” said Karkat. “I mean, way back when you were first arrested. I kind of fought with Dirk over it at one point, because my only experience with the word Dirk used for why you should be with him was fucking Strider. And also I think I get why this shit all works, for humans in general. I mean, I’m probably just saying obvious shit, but it’s not how trolls work, we don’t take care of each other, not like this.”

Dave tipped his head.

“I mean with the whole fucking family thing,” Karkat said, rolling his eyes. “I’ve been trying to get it this whole time, but this shit’s used to justify so much bullshit with you humans, and I think I get it now, and why it’s so fucking important to you as a species.”

Dave snorted. “Dude, it’s not that big a thing—”

“It is, though! It just seems normal to humans because it’s how you always work, but, Dave, I’m serious, back on Alternia it’s every troll for themself. Maybe you  have one person who has your back if you’ve got a moirail, maybe some are lucky like me and have friends who are actually consistently on your side and won’t take the first chance they get to kill you or fuck you up some other way, but we definitely don’t have a whole cluster of others we can just fall back on any time we’re met with something we can’t handle alone.”

“Makes sense, I guess,” Dave started, but Karkat just kept going. Apparently he’d had some sort of fuckin’ epiphany in the past two minutes.

“It took me so fucking long to get this, but I get it now! You know what I don’t get, though, is why the fuck you ever tried to convince me that Strider is part of your fucking family.”

Something in Dave dropped like a stone.

He’d…had a similar thought, really. Repeatedly. Multiple times, over the past week or so. He’d been kind of trying to avoid it, because every time it popped up, he got really stressed out.

“And don’t give me any of the bullshit about being ‘related’ or what the fuck ever, I don’t wanna hear it,” Karkat kept right on going. “I still don’t get why you humans care so much about that. The whole point of this family thing is that you all take care of each other, not that you’re related or whatever! Your aunt’s here, did you know that? She flew across an entire fucking ocean just to make sure she could help out you and Dirk! What the fuck did Strider ever do for you?”

It was a good question. And the answer, of course, was: aside from trying to  kill him, do you mean? Hahaha.

Karkat was still talking, but Dave wasn’t really hearing him. Fuck, this had been a mistake, he should’ve taken his chances with the fucking nightmare dog. That was better than this old song and dance with his own thoughts.

The facts were pretty simple. He’d operated under pretty clear logic when he went up against Bro: We’re family, so he loves me, so therefore if I ask him to let me leave and explain that I really can’t deal with this, he’ll let me go. Except, Bro had tried to kill him, which meant that…

That was as far as Dave ever got. He couldn’t think any farther than that.

He felt like…like the next thought should be obvious, but he couldn’t make himself think it. It was too big—not so much a square peg in a round hole as it was trying to cram a grain silo into a pinhole, and the thought threatened to overwhelm and destroy him, so instead of thinking it, his brain kept rejecting it, the effect being like a broken record skip-skip-skipping, over and over, repeating the last thought he could get to before the Big One, because he couldn’t not think the Big One, either…

It was so fucking stupid, it was just a thought, why couldn’t he…

“Hah, yeah, now that you mention it, I guess I was always kinda wrong about this shit, wasn’t I?” Dave said, unable to stop the sardonic laughter bubbling up in his throat. “I mean, fuck, no wonder it took you so long to get, I probably gave you the wrong idea. My dumb ass was convinced he’d never try to kill me, cuz we’re family, and, well, here we fuckin’ are!”

Skip, skip, skip—

Karkat was still talking in stuttered phrases in the gaps of Dave’s own flood of words, looking almost scared, but Dave didn’t comprehned any of them, and anyway, the ranting had started, there was no stopping this shit now. “Like, what the fuck was I even thinking, right? I really thought that was gonna work, that somehow he’d just let me go if I asked, like a fucking idiot! Haha, what a fuckin’ dipshit, right?! And here I was thinking he—” Frantic laughter bubbled up, overtaking the words, not that more would’ve come, that next thought was just too big. Was he crying? Fuck, Karkat didn’t need to see any of this shit, but he couldn’t stop, couldn’t think

Skip, skip, skip, skip, skipskipskipskipskipskip—

It wasn’t Karkat’s fault. It really wasn’t. He might’ve set it off, but the storm had been building up for days, now, and it broke hard, sweeping Dave up in a torrent of just wordless mental screaming. He couldn’t think the next thought. He couldn’t. But the thing was damming him up, and he couldn’t ignore it anymore, and he was stuck in the middle and left to just completely melt down and dissipate into the flood.

A sound like a cicada crossed with the creakiest horror movie door ever to creak ripped through the tides, and suddenly Dave found himself tugged into a full body hug, wrapped up in four limbs with his face pressed into a thick sweater. The touch dragged him out of the flood and onto dry land, brought him back into now before he even knew what was happening. Karkat’s whole chest was vibrating with some intense cricket-cat hybrid purr, and this should’ve been so embarrassing but he was so tired and so lost and it was fucking comforting, so who the fuck cared. Who cared anymore. It was all bullshit. He could be embarrassed later.

Too soon, Karkat seemed to have the same thought, and tried to pull away. “Shit, sorry, I shouldn’t—fuck, I’m so sorry, this is really presumptive and I know you aren’t even into boys,” he babbled.

Dave groaned, wrapping his arms around Karkat’s chest and pulling him close. “Dude, if you try to make this about alien romance right now, I swear to fuck,” he gasped out between harsh sobs. Christ, he was going harder than Karkat did like twenty minutes earlier, what the fuck.

Karkat paused. Good. It meant his warm arms were still there. “Dave, I…I mean, this is troll romance, this is textbook moiraillegience, and I shouldn’t just be throwing myself at you because you had a moment of weakness, no matter how bad I, uh.”

Dave sniffled, wracked his brain for a moment…Karkat had explained this stuff about a million times, which one was…”That’s like…the bros quadrant, right?”

“The what.”

“The one that’s, like, platonic and shit.”

“…Yeah?” The cricket-purr started up again, cautiously.

“We fuckin’ kinda do most of that shit already, don’t we?” Like. Yeah. He wasn’t gay. That was still a thing. But Karkat was warm and solid and real and Dave was fucking exhausted and didn’t want to be alone, especially not when he felt right now like he was wrapped in safety. “Please, Karkat,” he added, because why not beg. He was already at maximum pathetic, there was no digging this hole lower, fuck it. “I really don’t wanna be alone right now, just, please don’t go.”

Karkat was quiet for a long moment, but finally, the cricket-purr went back to full volume and Karkat’s arms tightened around him.

“Okay,” Karkat said quietly. Dave let out a breath he’d barely known he’d been holding and went back to crying.

“We’re going to have to talk about this later,” Karkat murmured, which put him at about normal volume for anyone else.

“Later, then,” said Dave, and let himself finally fall the fuck asleep.

#dave strider #karkat vantas #davekat #roxy lalonde #longpost// #u BET UR BUTT THIS OENS GOIN IN THE DAVEKAT TAG #ITS ABOUT TIME #fanfic #fanfiction #calmvsstormfic #calmvsstormchapter #katt does a writing #jkdfsgfjhsfjshf not the best start to a relationship but like its something #lord this got long. #why tf did i think 32 and 33 would ever fit into one chapter.

[madaramaddymad]

Would it be ok if I requested an Itachi's natal chart? Zodiac maniac here too! 💕💕💕 I'm so happy somebody is in this fandom (I'm kinda new to it! Sorry!!!) is also a zodiac manic!

MMMM!! I THINK WE SHOULD UNITE! im so happy that im not the only alien in this ♥

                                    Itachi Uchiha Natal Chart

                         Sun sign: basic identity, “true self”, our ego

                                          Sun sign in ♊ (Gemini)

         {taken from Naruto data, but for me he is not so much Gemini as he       should be, because he is kinda slow, passive.. since Gemini is an air sign and they bearly exist, compared to Earth,Water&Earth. The only trait that could be taken is his brilliant mind and intelligence.)

Affectionate, kind and generous, the Gemini Sun Sign personality can be very thoughtful about others… as long as it doesn’t interfere too much with what they want to do. They quickly learn to use their assets to their benefit, and may become unscrupulous and cunning in extreme situations.Many born with a Gemini Sun Sign are considered intuitive and may be downright brilliant. They love mental challenges, even though their concentration is short-lived. They love to soak up knowledge, but don’t like the task of learning. They often fit the description of “jack of all trades, master of none.” They like to analyze, but since they can see both sides of an issue, they have great difficulty making decisions. Some Gemini can use their natural intelligence to control this dual nature so it becomes very efficient and useful.Expressive and quick-witted.

                             Rising/ Ascending sing: the first impression                                               we make on others to a personal level, how we                                          come across to strangers, a mask we wear in public.

                                Rising/ Ascending in ♉(Taurus)

{Okay, so it would be either Cancer/Taurus, but i would leave Venus for Cancer, because if it was Cancer Rising, then he would be kinda… soft.. emotional, easily to be crushed… also Itachi is slow (or atleast for me, because my aspects are BOOM BOOM POW, everything to be as fast as possible..) and as we know Water&Earth are slow, but he is slow more like an Earth type, also he is a home person, family, roots.. etc)

Taurus Rising is steady and capable. They are stable and responsible, and they are loyal to the core to those they love. They radiate presence… there is no doubting when a Taurus Rising is in the room. Resistant to change, it can be hard work to convince this sign to try something new. They have a strong stubborn streak and become set in their ways. Before they try anything they must feel it out. Security is the most important thing in the world to them, so they don’t want to do anything that would jeopardize it. Taurus Ascendant is careful and cautious. They can be inflexible and single-minded. Think more of the oak tree and less of the willow. They love the good things in life, and may tend towards the self-indulgent. Material possessions can be very important to them, and they may become collectors of some type of object. Taurus Ascendant likes nice clothing with a soft feel to them. They prefer classic to overdone. Always appearing well dressed, they can look good when mowing the lawn. Physically, many of them are built sturdy and strong. Their love of fine food may work against them health-wise. This sign is also prone to throat problems, which in turn may extend up into the ear in the form of infections or earaches. Taurus Rising is a comforting presence. They are soothing for their stability, and have an attractive inner peace. At the same time, they are rather passive and long-suffering. Taurus Rising wants to see their success.  (he is extremely loyal, didn’t betray his village)

                               Moon: emotional instincts and habits,                                        deepest personal needs, the sun is the head- moon is the heart

                                             Moon in ♒(Aquarius)

{should be Aquarius, or something not that emotionally-expressing. Itachi is very good at controlling his emotions and his face is always calm, unable to be read. We can’t compare Naruto’s emotions to Itachi. He is really humanian. The double air (Gemini+Aquarius) would make his mind even greaterand better at strategy. The Gemini makes him perfect at spying, the Clan&Konoha, and the Aquarius makes him not relieve it)

Aquarius Moon is very observant. They love to study human nature and analyze why everyone around them acts the way they do. They are often shy themselves, and may appear a bit detached.They can be idealistic and progressive, but they pretend that jealousy, fear and possessiveness don’t exist… that they are somehow above such petty emotions.They can be very stubborn about getting their way. As they get older, they learn to handle themselves better. They feel a strong need for independence at any age. They take great pride in their family, and will often brag of their accomplishments. Moon in Aquarius may be prone to temper tantrums when young, even though as they grow they end up feeling that emotions are “messy.” While they can be so good at understanding others’ motivations and behaviors, they often lose touch with their own. This happens because they get too caught up in what they want to achieve rather than what is reality. (Itachi always cared for other, but got lost when he was in duality of spying). Aquarius Moon Sign person is kind and compassionate, though it may tend to be shown more as a broad philosophy rather than in actual actions. While they may seem aloof, in fact they enjoy the eccentricities of those around them, and they feel confident in giving their partners a lot of freedom. Their optimism and friendliness helps them attract lots of friends. When they are unhappy, they tend to focus on their activities to such an extent that those around them have difficulty figuring out that something is wrong.Aquarius Moon is an intellectual that is both intense and intuitive. They love all aspects of freedom, both on a personal level as well as in the wider sense for humanity. They can work long hours to support a cause they believe in. Playful and childlike, they can have a great sense of humor, but they must be cautious they don’t inadvertently hurt an other’s feelings while trying to be funny. They are great dreamers, preferring to keep their head in the clouds at times.

he laso nonstop asks question about or existance, what is life, why do we even exist.. etc… things that an ordinary person does not care about

                                     Mercury: communication, intellect, speech, mind

                                            Mercury in ♋ (Caner)

{Itachi’s voice is calm, he doesen’t talk fast like some airy sign, as his basic is.. but rather steady&slow. His Gemini&Aquarius mind make him think good enough, so his speech would be purposeful&understanding. Yet im not so sure for his Mercury what shall be, Taurus or Cancer, but Cancer applies okay, also i feel as if he bring the water melanchony within him)

Mercury in Cancer is sensitive and withdrawn. They are very thoughtful of others. They are shy and may choose not to talk at all. They may respond slowly, giving the impression of being a deep thinker, which they very well may be. They like to meditate on a problem, and reflect on their experiences.They are great listeners, and can actually make decisions faster than it appears. Cancer Mercury has a terrific memory, too… especially if it is emotional in nature. They come across as gentle, intuitive, sentimental people. They take things very personally, which can make them appear defensive. At the same time, they can also make you feel protected and warm. They can appear to be hiding something even when they are not, which can cause Cancer Mercury some trouble.Mercury in Cancer learns best when they feel balanced emotionally. They can remember a lot of information, though they prefer to focus on a subject and approach their problems step by step. They are empathic and can pick up the feelings of others. They are good at putting themselves in the other person’s place.Cancer Mercury does not like to argue. They will go out of their way to avoid it if possible. At the same time, they are good at starting an argument. They do this very subtly, and then feel hurt when others argue back. Mercury in Cancer is very considerate of others, which engenders sympathy and support when they need it. They are very good at giving motherly advice. When they are upset, they tend to sulk.This imbues the person with a slower mental processing speed than most of the other sign positions because thought processes are deep, heavy and meaningful. Every thought is accompanied by its own unique feeling and has a personal meaning. Feelings are naturally personal, and so It’s difficult for those with this position to think objectively. However, because everything their minds encounter is remembered emotionally, they have excellent memories. They aren’t storage vaults for endless trivia, but they remember everything that matters to them for what seems like forever. When they recall it, they also recall the feeling that was originally experienced with it.

                                        Venus: love, harmony, our style,                                                                how we dress up, our soft loving side

                                              Venus in ♋(Caner)

{he cooks, he cleans.. he is stay-at-home, loving, caring. It is a bit weird, because his Gemini&Aqua combination are not as expressing and compared to the Cancer, he should find it hard combining them)

Cancer Venus wants a committed, predictable relationship. They are sensitive and crave security, comfort and love. They show their love for their partner by taking care of them. They are more attentive to their partner’s feelings than their words. They may be a bit moody, and may resort to pouting or the silent treatment to get attention. They don’t like a lot of rationalization and they don’t like impersonal treatment. Emotional confrontations don’t scare them at all, yet they are frequently afraid they will be left. Cancer Venus has a long memory, and it is difficult for them to forget an injury. Sometimes they will retreat into themselves, and it can be difficult to get them to come back out into the open.A Venus in Cancer person loves to snuggle and they appreciate sentimental gestures. They are closely attached to their home and family. Rejection is one of their biggest fears, and they can try some very frustrating ploys to find out if you love them or not. They need to feel secure and cared for. When these needs are met, they are patient, loving and dependable. They insist on sincerity from their partner, and will amaze you with how well they can remember every word you say or every thing you do. The Venus in Cancer person is very intuitive, and they find it easy to read your character and feelings. They will care for you accordingly. This can be comforting or intimidating, depending on how their partner reacts to this ability. While they are not always aware of their own charm, they can be very attractive to the opposite sex. Cancer Venus is attracted to those who need them, and they may end up making sure their loved ones continue to need them. Cancer Venus is very sensitive and they react emotionally to any circumstance. They can be hurt easily, even though they tend to hide this vulnerability behind their dignity. They are good listeners. They tend to be cautious in love because they are trying to protect themselves. As a friend, Cancer Venus is adept at creating a second family out of their friends. They enjoy creating new traditions, and are usually very thoughtful about birthdays and holiday celebrations. They are loyal and like to keep in touch, no matter what the distance. They are good at nurturing their friends, although if they get hurt emotionally, they can find it difficult to trust again. They are very impressionable, and may end up picking up on the mood of the person they are spending time with. Cancer Venus looks like someone with a big heart. This is very attractive to others. They also appear wise and are surrounded by a warmth that wraps around those surrounding them. Once they trust someone, they are very affectionate.

                                 Mars: how a person goes after goals,                                                       courage, sex drive, agression, will, energy

                                         Mars in ♉ (Taurus)

Taurus Mars is very reliable and dependable. They are practical and have great endurance. They can be obstinate, which can be frustrating to everyone around them. This can be taken to a very immature level at times. They like to build things, cultivate an art or enjoy pleasures of the senses. They can get jealous, as they see their partner as belonging only to them. Possession is important to them. Taurus Mars is passionate and grounded. They project an air of confidence. Their honesty gives them great integrity. They excel in anything that requires dedication and discipline.People born under a Mars in Taurus are often rather sensual people. Some are slow to arousal, but theirs is an earthy and powerful sensuality. Taurus anger is slow, but sure.

OKAY SO I THINK THIS IS ALL. And it was super hard to choose between Cancer or Taurus for Mercury, because if it’s Cancer, then he becomes too sensitive, but i think it’s fine, since he has air&earth, which are best at hiding feelings. We can just wonder how much he is in duality of himself. Tearing apart between heart&brain. 

#itachi uchiha #taurus mars #mars in taurus #venus in cancer #mercury in cancer #sun in gemini #gemini #taurus rising #taurus ascendant #aquarius moon #moon in aquarius