#the first one’s supposed to be the shrieking shack incident | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

emeraldart · 1 year

Text

We need more swap AUs with Willow as the human so I made one myself. Everyone stays the same but Willow and Luz switch places. The first episode is under the cut — it’s pretty long. I’ll probably be doing comics and and other random eps later!

Willow Park sat in the principal’s office, crossing her arms. Principal Hal briefly addresses her parents. She blew some dyed blue-green hair from her eyes, eyeing her science project wearily. So what if her robot malfunctioned? This wouldn’t have happened if she just got to study botany as she’d wanted.

“Mr. Parks, your daughter’s project went disastrously wrong. Again,” Principal Hal said, bluntly, “Her grades have been slipping lately. I fear that if her grades don’t improve, we’ll have to send her to summer school.”

“That seems awfully drastic,” Papa defended.

“I don’t know, Gil, we do want her to succeed in life,” Dad countered.

“Don’t I get a say in this?” Willow declared.

“This is the first of many incidents, Willow,” Papa said, “I think you should really consider this.”

Before she knew it, Willow was staring outside her house, waiting for the bus to summer school. She fiddled with her small cactus. She took her plants everywhere with her, despite her fathers protests that botany wouldn’t open nearly as many opportunities.

“Don’t worry, Will,” Dad comforted, “You’ll be so busy learning mechanics… and doing math, the time will fly by!”

“But I don’t like any of that stuff!” Willow protested. “I like working on my garden and being outside!”

“This is all so you get better opportunities,” Papa said, “You’ll make so many friends, but you have to try and let this gardening stuff go.”

“Ok…”

Willow threw away her cactus, frowning. Her dads left and she immediately started to dig through the trash for her beloved plant. It was gone. Willow looked up, spotting a small owl holding the little pot in its mouth. Owls weren’t supposed to be out during the day… and they definitely didn’t fish plants out of the trash. She chased it, following it through the old shack near her house through an odd door with an eye on it.

“Get back here you adorable little owl!”

Willow paused when she realized she was in a tent. She fingered a strange blue plant. She’d seen weird plants before, but never like this. She was snapped out of her thoughts by a voice.

“Finally, you’re back.”

Willow peered through the flaps of the tent, seeing a strange, old lady. She had gray hair and gold eyes. Her skin was so pale it was practically white.

“Now, let’s see what we got here.”

The owl flies to the top of her large stick, and the lady spun it around. The owl turned to wood. Willow held back a gasp, readying herself. For what, she was not sure.

The lady took out a phone. “Garbage.” She took out a ring. “Garbage.” She took out some brilliantly shiny chalice. “Garbage.”

She took out some joke glasses with springs. “Now this…” The lady put them on. “This will make me rich!”

Willow gasps quietly as the woman grabbed her plant.

“This… eh, I don’t really have a use for this,” the lady gestured to throw out the plant.

Willow ran in and grabbed it, nervously mumbling an apology before making a break for it. She pulled the flap of the tent aside, running up to the weird door. It proceeds to fold up, disappearing into a small briefcase. Willow turned around, facing her strange pursuer.

“You’re not going anywhere,” she threatened.

Willow held in a shriek and dove under the tent. She skidded to a stop as she found herself at the edge of a cliff. Dragons flew through the air. Giant bugs functioned as buses. Disgustingly fascinating beasts roamed. Willow screamed.

“This… this is a dream, right?” she laughed, nervously. A fairy flew up next to her. “Oh… uh, nice fairy…”

“Give me your skin!” the fairy cried.

Willow yelped and swatted the fairy to the floor, flinching.

“Am I dead? I’m dead, aren’t I? This is the bad place then, I guess,” Willow rambled.

“You wish,” the same woman from before grabs Willow’s shoulder and drags her back to the tent, sitting her down on a stool. Willow clenched her fists, ready to fight back if she had to.

“I’m just here for my plant. Please, don’t eat my skin. And if you try… you’ll uh, regret it!” Willow threatened or at least tried to.

“Eat you? Why would I eat… a potential customer?” Willow tilted her head, confused.

“Can I offer you a human foot filled with holes?” she took out a green croc. “A bar of green human candy? Oh, oh! How about this black shadow box that reflects only sadness?” She grabbed a bar of deodorant, followed by an old-fashioned television.

Willow laughed. “It can do waaaay more than that.”

She looked around the table before finding some batteries. She took the television from the lady and placed the batteries in, turning it on. An old exercise video starts playing. A crowd immediately gathered. People started to bid higher and higher amounts of money for it, asking unusual questions.

“What did you say your name was?” the woman asked.

“...Willow, Willow Park,” Willow told her, hesitantly.

“Well, Willow, that was pretty clever… for a human,” the woman said.

“For a human?”

“Oh, dear child,” she began, removing her bandanna to reveal two pointy ears. “I’m not like you.” She jumped onto the table. “I’m Eda the Owl Lady, the most powerful witch on the Boiling Isles!”

“A witch?” Willow asked.

“I am respected, feared-” she continued before she was cut off by a masked stranger smashing the T.V.

“Busted!” the guard said, as customers started to scatter. “Eda the Owl Lady, you are wanted for misuse of magic and demonic misdemeanors.” Willow gasped. “You are hereby ordered to come with me to the Conformatoruium!

Eda freed her arm. “Will you guys quit following me around? I haven’t done squat.”

The guard ignored her. “And you’re coming too,” he grabbed Willow, who yelped, “for fraternizing with a criminal.”

“Hey!” Willow flailed around, uselessly.

“Oh, all right, all right, you win,” Eda conceded. “Just let me get my stuff.”

She rummaged under the table, grabbing the staff from earlier. She swung the staff, hitting the guard. He hit the floor with a thud. Eda spun the staff, making all the contents of her stand float before drifting into a bundle on her staff. Willow shakily got up.

“Whoops, can’t forget this.” Eda pulled a key out of her hair, pressing a button. The door-turned-briefcase vanishes.

“Follow me, human.”

Willow ran after her. “This is crazy! I’m gonna die here!”

“Ha! I won’t let them hurt you,” Eda said, cocky. “A human like you is more valuable to me alive than dead.”

“Are you trying to be suspicious? I can’t believe-” Willow yelled as Eda cheered, pulling them both onto the staff and taking off.

The guard ran in, seconds too late. “You won't get away with this, Owl Lady! Yeah, all right. You did. You got away with it. She got away with it, everybody! Typical.”

Eda flew through the skies, Willow keeping her eyes screwed shut.

“You can open your eyes now, human.”

Willow gasped when she saw they were flying. “Okay, it’s just a flying staff, some monsters, and a witch. That’s a normal Earth thing.”

Eda laughed. “This is the Boiling Isles. Every myth you humans have is caused by a little of our world leaking into yours.”

Creatures flew by, including a strange lion with the head of a pigeon. Willow vaguely recognized it as a griffin from folklore, although more grotesque. It proceeded to breathe out a stream of living spiders, falling from the sky.

“Eww…” Willow murmured.

“Yep. Griffins, vampires, giraffes-” Eda listed before Willow cut her off.

“Giraffes?”

“Oh yeah, we banished those guys. Bunch of freaks.”

Eda landed the staff and jumped off. Her hand remained. It moved, causing Willow to jump off the staff in shock.

“Oops,” she said, screwing it back on, “That happens sometimes.”

“Well… this has been, uh, interesting,” Willow said. “But I really have to get going. Mind helping me get back home?”

“Only if you help me first,” Eda chuckled. “Ah, now come along, human.”

Willow gasped as a peculiar house came into view. Owls flew around, laughing. She didn’t know owls could do that. The house itself was reasonably tall, with a tower and a large window resembling an eye.

“I won’t have to fight off any guards, will I?” Willow worried.

“Nope. My house has a state-of-the-art defense system.”

A strange… owl… sits on the door, tilting its head. It was round with large eyes.

“Hoot-hoot! Password, please!” it (he?) bellowed.

Eda poked his eyes, making him shout.

“We got no time for this, Hooty. Let us in,” Eda grumbled.

“All right, all right! Geez! You have let me have any fun! Ow! Hoot!” Hooty complained.

Hooty opened his mouth to encompass the door. Willow winced as they walked in, although fascinated.

“Welcome to…” Eda snapped her fingers, “the Owl House!”

The candles lit up and Willow looked around in wonder.

“Where I hide away from the pressures of modern life. Also the cops. Also ex-boyfriends.”

“I really respect that,” Willow said, “So do you live here all alone?”

“Actually,” Eda replied, “I have a roommate.”

A shadow loomed from the hall. “Who dares intrude upon I, the King of Demons?” The creature stepped out to reveal a small, dog-like creature with a skull on his head. He squeaked a rubber duck. Willow scooped him up.

“You’re so cute! Eda, who’s this little cutie?” Willow cooed.

“I’m not cute!” King whined. “Eda, who is this monster?”

Eda pulled Willow away from King. “Oh, this is Willow, the human. She’s here to help us with our little… situation.”

“Oh, hooray!” King cheered.

“Wait. I definitely don’t like the sound of whatever your situation is. I just want to get home,” Willow said.

“Just… let me explain,” Eda sighed. “King was once a mighty king of demons, until his Crown of Power was stolen, and became… this.” Willow cooed at King again. “The crown is being held by the evil Warden Wrath and locked away behind a magical force field only a human can break through. A human like you. If you help us retrieve his crown, we’ll send you back to your realm. So whaddya say?”

“It doesn’t seem like I’m being given a choice here,” Willow grumbled.

“Nope. We got no time to lose,” Eda grabbed Willow’s arm and they walked off.

“Where are we going?”

“Somewhere super fun!”

The group found themselves at an ominous building, lightning crackling around them. A selection of wanted posters covered the wall as the group stared up at the castle-like structure.

“The Conformatorium. A place for those considered unsuitable for society,” Eda deadpanned.

Willow peeled Eda’s wanted poster off the wall. “Woah. These guys really are after you, huh?”

“Yep. But we’re never caught because we’re too slippery,” Eda said with a wink.

“Try to catch me when I’m covered in grease. I’m a squirmy little fella. You and I will sneak up to the top of the tower, where they’re keeping my crown,” King squealed.

“And I’m gonna make sure the Warden’s distracted,” Eda added.

“I didn’t bring a disguise,” Willow said.

“Eh, I don’t think you’ll need one,” Eda reassured her. “Just punch anyone that gives you trouble.”

“You get me, Eda, you get me.”

Eda slammed her staff onto the ground, creating a disk that lifted them up. “Hang on tight. See you guys at the top of the tower!”

The disk floated up to the window, letting Willow and King reach the inside of the tower. The duo moved through the hall, eyes catching the cells.

“Hey, lady, how’d you get out of your cell?” a prisoner asked.

“Oh, um, I’m not a criminal,” Willow replied.

“Neither are we,” the prisoner grumbled. “The stupid warden likes to lock up people who don’t fit in. Like, I write fanfics of food falling in love. I like food, I like love… Just let me write about it!”

“I’m here because I like eating my own eyes,” another prisoner added.

“We are agents of fwee expwession! They will never siwence us!” a small prisoner cried.

“Yeah, she’s really into conspiracy theories,” the first prisoner groaned.

“The world is a simulation! We are but playthings for a higher being!”

“That’s… that’s not right. You guys just… want to be yourselves. Like me,” Willow murmured.

Willow was briefly distracted by some footsteps, running into a cell and pulling the bars in front of her. She covered her mouth as a man, the Warden, she assumed, thundered in. His emotionless mask met the prisoners.

“I can hear you,” he said. “Just what are you fools whispering about?” He picked up Eda’s fallen poster. “Ah, the Owl Lady.” The Warden’s arm warped into a hammer, slamming into Willow’s cell. “I’ll get my hands on her soon enough.”

He briefly glanced into Willow’s cell, where she held King protectively. The small prisoner shouted defiantly, causing the Warden to open to cell and grab her.

“Let this be a lesson to all of you. There’s no place for you in society if you can’t fit in.”

Willow waited as he stomped away, before clambering out of the cell. She approached the other prisoners.

“I can still get you guys out… at least,” she smiled, weakly, opening their cells. “Good luck!”

Willow ran off, reaching Eda. She flew through the halls on her staff. She told Willow the Warden was distracted. Willow grew uneasy at the thought of him torturing the prisoner she failed to rescue. They eventually reached a large door labeled “Contraband.” King eagerly ran up to the door, cheering about power. Eda laughed at his antics.

“Why are they locked up here? They’re just being themselves…” Willow said, more to herself than Eda.

She snapped out of her thoughts to find King attempting and failing to break through a glimmering barrier. Willow took a breath before walking into the pillar, finding piles of confiscated junk. At the top, she saw a glowing crown. She winced. That couldn’t be it… Willow groaned as King eagerly grabbed for the Burger Queen crown.

“That crown doesn’t give him any powers, does it?”

“Uh, no. Oh, look at us Willow. King and I don’t have much in this world, we only have each other. So if that dumb crown is important to him, it’s important to me. Besides, us weirdos have to stick together.”

Willow got caught off guard by the comment. She was used to avoiding her weirdness in an attempt to keep her grades up and keep bullies away. She always kept her head down.

“Well, we owe you one. Let’s get out of here before the Warden finds out and loses his head.”

The Warden stormed in. “Too late.”

With a sharp swing, he cut off Eda’s head. It fell into Willow’s arms, who shrieked in shock.

“Ow. I hate it when that happens.” Willow fought the urge to retch.

“Normally I’d question this but…” Willow groaned, “This really isn’t the weirdest thing to happen today.”

The Warden proceeded to give a speech to Eda, ending with… asking her out? Willow commented on the misogyny of holding someone hostage to ask them out. Wrath grabbed her, yelling to stay out of it. Guess he didn’t appreciate social justice. Willow wriggled to get free as Eda spit in his face. Taking the opportunity, Willow grabbed Eda’s staff and slammed it over the Warden. She grabbed Eda’s head and bolted. Eda’s body freed King and they all climbed onto the staff.

“How does this work exactly?”

“Gun it, magic stick!” Eda commanded.

Wrath gave chase as they flew through the halls. Willow reached out and pulled as many levers as she could freeing the prisoners. Wrath’s tentacle-like arms got closer, and they all fell to the ground outside the Conformatorium. Willow tried to help but they waved her off, telling her to return to the human realm. She found the prisoners from before, but they had no desire to escape.

“Don’t you get it?” Willow asked, “It doesn’t matter if you’re weird, or unconventional, or just do things differently. Sometimes success is being happy, not just doing what you’re supposed to be doing.”

“Why are you helping us?”

“Because us weirdos have to stick together,” Willow cheered, “And no one should be punished for who they are!”

The Warden had Eda and King cornered. Willow and the other prisoners tackled him, Willow using Eda’s staff in an attempt to knock him unconscious. The prisoners tied his tentacle arms together, rendering his attacks useless. Humiliated, he ran, and Willow cheered.

They flew back to the Owl House, where, as promised, Eda got the door ready. King and Eda waved goodbye, and Willow looked at them wistfully. A magical world was right here. Summer school was back home.

“I don’t know,” Willow began. “My dads want me to be happy, but I don’t want to keep learning stupid engineers. I want to study plants and learn how to help them grow. This place is full of magic to do stuff like that here.”

“What exactly are you proposing, kid?” Eda asked.

“I want to stay and become a witch, like you.”

“That’s ridiculous, humans can’t become witches,” Eda smirked.

“There’s a first time for everything.”

King climbed onto Eda’s shoulders. “Let her stay! She can make us snacks.”

“All right. I could use some help keeping this goofball out of the cupboards,” Eda conceded. “I can teach you anything about spells or whatever plant nerd stuff if you work for me.”

“Deal.”

So Willow found herself getting ready for bed in the Owl House. Her sleeping bad uncurled fully as she hit the ground and yawned. Her phone buzzed.

Dad: How’s summer camp?

Papa: Are you having fun?

Willow looked up, to where King had entered the room.

“Your sleep cocoon looks fluffy,” he said, awkwardly. Willow patted it, gesturing him to come to sit. He curled into a little ball next to her. She smiled warmly.

Willow: I think I’m gonna like it here.

#toh au #toh #the owl house #willow park #toh swap au #this au is gonna have #huntlow #as the main ship #but still tons of #lumity #incoming

33 notes · View notes

janeyseymour · 3 years

Text

Dangerous Desires- pt 7

chapter 1. chapter 2. chapter 3. chapter 4. chapter 5. chapter 6.

Kat gets into some trouble and school, and Jane has to take care of the aftermath.

Katherine Howard liked to blend in with the walls at school. Considering she had already been through 14 schools since beginning kindergarten at age five and she was only sixteen, it was just easier that way- it’s not like she made any friends she would keep in touch with anyway.

But after the last house, and switching into a school that was known for being rather snobbish, to say the teen had anxiety about going to this school was an understatement.

It had been a few weeks since she started living with Jane, and so far she had just blended in for the first week in this school. That’s how she liked it. Well, until this day. It started the second she walked into the homeroom. She had been in this area before, but that was when everyone was younger and kids were a fair degree nicer. Now, they were cold and cruel and didn’t care.

“Kat Howard’s back,” she heard one of the students in the hallway tell his friend.

“Not for long. You know how that girl bounces around. Such a shame, she’s a pretty little thing,” the friend, presumably a jock and flirt, snorted.

“Of course that’s what you’re thinking about,” the first boy smacked the other upside the head. “She is hot though. But are you willing to shack up with someone who isn’t a virgin?”

“I mean,” the second male shrugged. “She’s hot. And besides, we don’t know if that rumor’s true or not.”

“Of course it’s true man. You’ve seen her. Plays the whole innocence card until she doesn’t and then she dips and leaves for another school. There’s no way she hasn’t lost it.”

(It wasn’t true. Katherine was indeed a virgin, and she couldn’t believe she hadn’t escaped the terrible and ruthless rumors from the last school she was at.)

Looks of disgust and judgement were thrown her way throughout the day, but she only continued to do her best to be invisible.

And it was working- until lunchtime came around.

The girl was sitting by herself at lunch as she had done so for the past week, when she was so rudely interrupted by a girl slamming her hand down on the table hard enough to make Katherine practically jump out of her seat.

“You’re Kat Howard, right?” A preppy girl leaned down so that she was eye-level with the skittish teen.

“Uhm,” Kat worried her lip through her teeth.

“You are, aren’t you? Or do you not know?” the snobby girl laughed in distaste. Kat nodded mutely.

“Well, listen here.” She jabbed Katherine in the chest with her perfectly manicured finger. “Stay away from my man, or you’ll have it coming for you.”

“I-” Kat stuttered. “I don’t even know who you are?”

“How could you not know who I am? Oh, is it because all you’ve done for the past however many years is bounce around from foster home to foster home?”

“I-I’m sorry,” was all the girl could muster out.

“Yeah, you better be fucking sorry. My boyfriend was talking about you earlier, and I swear to God if I ever hear your name come out of his mouth again-”

“Hey, Kaylie, what’s going on over here?” A teacher interrupted.

“Nothing Mr! Just greeting the new student!” The girl, who she now knew was named Kaylie, smiled sweetly at the teacher who had come to intervene. The teacher seemed satisfied with this answer and began to back away.

With the teacher gone, the preppy teen had gotten far too close to Katherine for comfort.

“If I ever see you around my boyfriend again,” she sneered. “I will fuck you up more than any other foster home has before. That’s a promise.”

Kaylie stood upright, smoothed out her skirt, and plastered on a sinister smile. “Have a good day now, and welcome to the school!” she exclaimed loudly before skipping away.

Katherine, on the other hand, was frozen in her spot. She knew how cruel high school students could be, but she never thought they would stoop so low. And what Kaylie had threatened, well it terrified her honestly. The house that she was in before Jane- it royally fucked her over and left her more terrified than she had thought possible.

Feelings of anxiety and panic were overwhelming the young girl, and it was clear to her that she was about to spiral more than she would ever like to, much less in a public area of the school. Her brain told her to get up and run to the bathroom- the nurse’s office- the front office- anywhere. But her feet stuck to the ground below her as though she was being weighed down by concrete.

The next thing she knew, people, who she could only assume in her haze were teachers, were picking her up from her spot at the table. She came back around just enough to feel their hands on her body- hands touching her in places that teachers really shouldn’t have been. Hands that reminded her of-

She heard screaming. A piercing scream that was louder than she had ever heard before. And then she realized the high pitched shrieks were coming from her. She didn’t know she even had it in her anymore to fight like this. She thought it had been beaten out of her a long time ago. With this newfound voice of hers, she began to try to fight her way out of it, thrashing about like a wild animal trying to escape its predator.

“Let her go!” a new, more gentle voice called out from the distance. “It’s clear that this girl is having a panic attack, and I’m sure a bunch of hands on her is the last thing she needs right now! Let her go, and back away from her!” The last sentence echoed through the cafeteria, and the hands slowly let her go.

“Katherine, yes?” the gentle voice spoke from a distance. “It’s Nurse Mack. I need you to give me any sort of signal that you can hear me, okay?” Katherine didn't respond in fear. “Katherine, dear?”

When the teen didn't respond again, she heard one of the teachers who had their hands on her curse, “Jesus Christ Courtney! She’s just being insubordinate!”

“I need all of you to leave,” she stated finitely. When she was met with varying degrees of objection, her voice turned smooth with honey, but the words she spoke were threatening. “Out, or I will report you to the principal and the police for having your hands all over this young girl’s body. Surely, you don’t want that? Yes?”

In her haze, Katherine could tell that this woman truly was trying to help her. It wasn’t some sort of sick and twisted joke to lure her into a false sense of security. When the others had left, she tried to take a deep breath in attempts to ground herself. It would come out shaky, but it was better than feeling as though she was suffocating.

“That’s it honey, yeah. Can you try to take another deep breath for me?” The nurse continued to coach her through her panic. Eventually, she had calmed down enough for the nurse to be able to speak to her effectively.

“Alright love, do you think we could take a walk down to my office? You can lie down there until you’re feeling a bit better,” Ms. Mack offered. Katherine nodded and stood on wobbly legs.

When the two entered the office, the girl wasn’t quite sure what to do, so she stood in the door frame for a few moments.

“Would you like to lie down?” Katherine shook her head no. “Okay dear. How about you just sit with me for a few moments. I just have a couple phone calls to make.” The nurse pulled up a chair next to hers and gestured to it kindly before dialing a number on the phone.

“Hi, is this Jane Seymour? ...Yes, it’s Courtney... I’m well, thank you. I do have Katherine down in my office and I have a feeling the school will be calling you if they haven’t- oh, wonderful.” The teen couldn't miss the sarcasm dripping in the nurse’s voice. “She had a panic attack, and I haven’t been able to talk to Henry yet, but I do suspect he’s going to try to get her into some trouble as he does with the foster kids... I know, it’s horrible. I’ll do my best to stand up for Katherine, but I am afraid I’m on thin ice with him as of lately... coddling the children, or at least that’s what he’s calling it... yes. I’ll see you soon, thanks. Bye.”

“You called my foster placement?” Katherine looked up curiously once the nurse had hung up the phone. ��I did. Not to get you into trouble or anything. Jane and I have had correspondence in the past, and I find it’s usually best if I chat with her first. Not because she’ll be mad or anything, no she would never be. It’s for reasons above you- she and the principal have a not-so-great past, and if she has background knowledge of what's-” the phone ringing interrupted Miss Mack. She stole a glance at the caller ID before groaning.

“Hi, yes, this is Miss Mack, and- well yes, I do have Katherine... she wasn’t being insubordinate, she was having a panic attack and should not be repri-... for what I’m not sure, but it’s clear she was not okay and... yes Dr. Tudor. I’ll bring her when she’s feeling better... she’s still not very responsive and I do think that... okay, okay. I’ll bring her down. Thank you, bye.” The nurse placed the phone back on its dock, not even trying to hide her annoyance with the principal.

“This damned school couldn’t give half a shit about anyone here but their grades,” she

muttered under breath.

She turned to face the poor girl next to her with a solemn look. “Unfortunately, I have to

take you down to the front office. I’ll do my best to defend you, but the worst thing that should happen is you’ll be given detention.” Katherine nodded slowly before allowing herself to be led to the office.

“Katherine Howard, only been here for a few weeks and already causing trouble,” the principal addressed her not-so-kindly. “Should’ve listened to the other principals in the surrounding schools I suppose. I’ve already called your foster mother and she’s on her way to-”

“No!” was the first thing that had come out of the girl’s mouth since the whole incident had occurred. “She had a really important meeting today and-”

“It’s already been handled. She’s on her way now to pick you up and see you through. For your insubordination, you’re being suspended for the rest of the week.”

Many thoughts swirled around Katherine’s mind. Would Jane be mad? Would she hit her? Would she throw her out of the house? Or maybe, considering how kind Jane had been so far, would she get a talking to and that be that?

“Sir, if I may,” Miss Mack interrupted. “I have to try to explain again that she was not being insubordinate on purpose. She was having a panic attack, and when I got to the cafeteria, some of the other male teachers had their hands on her and-”

“Are you instigating that the other teachers were the cause of this, Miss Mack?”

“No sir,” she stated. “What I’m saying is she was clearly already in the midst of her panic when these men came towards her and only continued to make the situation worse for her. If you would please-”

“I’d advise you to stop talking now Courtney. You’re already on thin ice, and another strike against you and you could be-”

“Dr. Tudor? Ms. Seymour is here now. Should I bring her in or?” the receptionist stated quietly, eyes veering anywhere but towards the principal.

“Bring her in.” The receptionist stepped aside for the blonde to march herself. Somehow, the woman looked just as wonderful as she had when she walked out the door that morning, albeit a bit frazzled.

“Hi love,” Jane’s warm eyes met fearful ones, but one glance at her and the teen couldn’t help but feel that maybe it would be okay after all. There was no malice behind the blue-grey eyes- there never was when she was looking at the girl. “We’ll sort this out, and then I’ll take you home, yes?” She turned to the principal.

“Henry,” she practically spat out, any trace of warmth now gone. “What is it?”

“Oh Jane, it’s always a pleasure,” a sinister smirk appeared on the principal’s face. “Is that really how you should act with your foster daughter in the room? You shouldn’t be mad at me- maybe your foster-”

“I doubt Kat did anything worth me leaving my meeting, and it's just your horrid management skills. Now,” she turned towards the nurse who had refused to leave the room. “Miss Mack, can you tell me what happened?”

The nurse began to explain what had happened before the principal interrupted, “This is my school Jane Seymour, and if I say she’s to be suspended, that’s what will happen. Miss Mack, go back to your office and mind your own damn business, or it would really be a shame for you to-” he was about to threaten firing her when the nurse simply held up a calm and steady hand.

“Yes sir.” With that, she turned to leave, but not before mouthing to the blonde, ‘I can’t afford to lose this job.’ Jane gave her a sympathetic smile and nod.

“She’s suspended for the next week, and I don’t want to hear anymore about Katherine refusing to listen to the directions of her teachers again, or she will face expulsion. Have I made myself clear?”

“Sure Henry,” the woman scoffed, not so much as giving him a second glance and instead running a gentle hand over her foster daughter’s- hoping and praying that she could signal that it didn’t matter what Henry had said; she was going to be just fine.

“Katherine?” The principal looked at her expectantly.

“Yes sir,” Katherine agreed lowly, head hung in shame.

The two had made it back to the house in silence. The teen wasn’t quite sure what to make of Jane. She had expected to be yelled at within the first ten seconds of getting into the car, but it never came. She was expecting glares to be shot at her whenever the older woman could get a chance. She was even expecting to possibly be struck by what was usually such a soft hand. But it never came. Silence had washed over them, but it wasn’t a terrible silence. Daggers never shot from the blonde’s eyes; every once in a while, Katherine would lift her head slightly to take a look at the woman next to her only to be met with the same blue-grey eyes filled with more love and compassion than she could ever imagine. A hint of concern was mixed in there, but the teen chose to see the warmth mostly. The soft hand that had found its way over Katherine’s in the office never once left; the warm and kind hand had held on tight, without an ounce of selfishness to it-, all in attempts to convey silently that everything would be alright.

Jane only let go of her sweet girl’s hand when she made moves to get out of the car, but Katherine stayed still.

“Honey, are you ready to go inside?” The older woman asked when she noticed the teen had yet to even unbuckle her seatbelt. The look of uncertainty in the girl’s eyes was confused and wary- almost as if... almost as if she was expecting Jane to yell at her and beat her once they were behind closed doors. “We don’t have to of course. If you’re comfortable out here, we can stay out here.” The blonde settled herself back into the car, prepared to sit with her girl for as long as she needed. She gently stretched her hand back out over Katherine’s.

The two sat in silence for quite some time. There was no, “Enough of this Katherine. You’re being silly. Let’s go inside.” No, Jane Seymour was the most patient woman you would meet, and she was more than happy to sit in silence in her car for the time that Katherine needed.

They had been sitting in the car for just over two hours when the silence was broken with Katherine’s body betraying her and let out a small hiccup. Jane, who had recently begun to doze off in the car, groaned softly and allowed her eyes to glance over to the teen without the teen noticing. She was crying, and it appeared she had been crying since the blonde allowed herself to close her eyes. It was as if this sweet and innocent girl had learned how to cry silently- much practice was clear. The way her body shook so softly that if Jane hadn’t been paying attention, she may have never noticed it- even with her hand still holding Kat’s. The way there was no heavy breathing or choked out sobs like Jane tended to- just silent tears streaming steadily down the girl’s face as regularly as water flows through the stream.

“Kat? Love, what’s wrong?” Jane repositioned herself so she could get a better look at the girl in the passenger seat.

“Oh,” the teen jumped a bit in her seat as she wiped furiously at her tears. “You’re awake! I'm fine. We can go in now.”

“Sweetheart, I don’t want to push you, but it’s clear you’re not okay. We don’t have to talk about it if you don’t wa-”

“I’m so sorry,” Katherine practically threw herself at the woman. “I’m so sorry,” she repeated over and over, openly weeping now.

Jane, who had opened up her arms and was now awkwardly leaning over the armrest to embrace the girl, just gently shushed her and murmured soft and sweet nothings to the girl until she had calmed down a bit.

“How about we go inside, prepare dinner, and then we can talk? It might be a tad more comfortable than the car?” the blonde suggested lightly. Katherine nodded solemnly, but hesitantly.

“We don’t have to if you don’t want to, but-”

“No,” Kat stated firmly. “We can. I’m being silly.”

“I’m sure you have good reason as to why you wanted to stay in the car so long, dear,” Jane affirmed. “But, if you’re ready, let’s get going. I was thinking of making your favorite casserole tonight?” The shy blush and smile that appeared on Katherine’s face made Jane’s heart melt.

The two had sat down after preparing dinner together, Kat’s chair much closer to Jane than she had ever dared to be before.

“So love, we do have to talk about what happened today,” Jane spoke softly after she swallowed her mouthful. Kat nodded slowly. “Do you want to tell me what happened?”

The teen launched into her story, every so often looking at the woman before her to see if there were any signs of annoyance or agitation. There never was.

“I’m just- I’m really sorry you had to miss your meeting. I know it was a big meeting with your boss for your promotion, and I’m sure I got you into trouble, and I-”

“Well, I won’t lie to you: my boss wasn’t very happy about me leaving so suddenly, but he knows that any foster child that is in my house comes before a blasted job. And love, your mental wellbeing is more important to me than any sort of promotion I could or could not get,” Jane told her softly.

“That’s what you say now,” Kat muttered under her breath, but the blonde picked up on it.

“I want you to hear me out on this Kat. I know you’ve heard it in the past, but I truly mean it. You matter more to me than anything else in my life. All of the kids who have been through my house hold a very special place in my heart, and you are no different,” she spoke in a gentle but firm tone.

‘You are different though. You’re so much different than any other child,’ Jane added in her head.

“But it was such a stupid reason to get pulled from work. You’re not even like, slightly mad?”

“It’s not a stupid reason at all, sweetheart. You can't help the panic that stormed its way through your body,” Jane sighed before admitting the next part, “And, I understand because sometimes I get them too.”

“You do?” Kat looked astonished. No foster parent that she had ever lived with before had ever admitted to being anything less than... Well, no foster parent had ever admitted to her that they also struggled sometimes. She knew they did, but no one had ever blatantly admitted it before. Jane nodded silently, a sign that it would be something they would speak about later.

“I do. So I understand the feeling. And I know that you would never do anything purposefully to get me out of that meeting.”

“So, you’re not upset? Not mad? Not going to yell and scream at me? Not hit me?” Kat asked so casually that it truly made Jane’s mouth fall wide open in shock.

“Of course not honey.” Jane’s eyes went wide. “Is that- is that why you didn’t want to get out of the car?”

“Everything’s hidden behind closed doors,” Kat sighed, eyes dulled and slightly glazed over. “It’s happened before.”

“I will never, ever lay a finger on you that isn't full of love and care. It won’t ever happen. And I rarely raise my voice. It happens, yes- I’ll admit to that. But it’s few and far between, and even if I get frustrated with you: I will never strike you. Not now, not ever. That’s a promise, my sweet girl.” The blonde understood these fears. She hadn’t lived Katherine’s life, but anger and violence was seemingly all she knew. Jane knew she had already promised herself to show Katherine a different light before, but she promised herself again in that moment.

“O-Okay,” the teen’s eyes came back to life. “I’m not in trouble or anything? You don’t like... want to take away my phone or something?”

“No dear. You’re not in any trouble at all. You didn’t do anything wrong, and that principal is just an idiot,” the woman scoffed. “I’m sorry you had to go through all of that... bullshit.”

A present day Jane was lovingly stroking her soon-to-be daughter’s hair listening to her tell the tale when she felt a laugh being suppressed against her night shirt.

“What’s so funny young lady?” Jane sounded mock-annoyed, making sure to make it evident she was joking.

“It’s just... that was the first time I had ever heard you curse. It was pretty funny,” Kat continued to giggle softly.

“Well, I suppose it can be quite funny when those who don’t have mouths like a sailor curse,” Jane mused. “So love, what was the point of that story?”

“You didn’t give up on me that day either. Most would’ve dropped me right back off at the social services office claiming they couldn’t handle such a trouble maker. But you, you didn’t,” although she knew Jane never would, there was a hint of confusion laced in her soft voice.

“Well of course not. I would never dream of it,” Jane stated clearly.

“You were the first foster parent I lived with who heard me out.”

“Every child deserves to have their voice heard, especially in situations like that.”

“You were the first ever foster parent to admit to me that you weren’t perfect.”

“No one’s perfect, love.”

“Well, I know that. But, everyone just likes to pretend that they’re perfect, and then they show that they aren’t. You... you admit that you aren’t perfect, and yet you still are the closest thing to perfect that I’ve ever seen,” Kat smiled up at her soon-to-be mother, moving impossibly closer into her hold.

Jane sighed, pressing yet another gentle kiss to the teen’s hairline. “Well, that’s very sweet of you, but you and I both know I’m not perfect. Far from it. By you my dear, you are a gift to me and this world. Imperfections and all, I would never dare to lose you.”

#six the musical fanfiction #six the musical fanfic #six musical #six the musical #six fanfiction #six fanfic #jane seymour six #six jane seymour #kat howard #katherine howard six #six katherine howard

14 notes · View notes

padfootagain · 4 years

Text

Snowstorm and Sabacc

Here I come again with a new fic for my winter event! I used our favourite reckless pilot Poe Dameron to write the snowstorm trope :)

Just a lot of fluff, I hope you all like it!

Gif not mine

Word Count :2778

"You know, when I said that I was tired of waiting around in the base and longed for some fresh air, I didn’t mean an air that fresh."

Poe merely chuckled, the sound carried away by the loud wind that roared through the branches of the trees around you. You didn’t need to hear his laughter to know that he was laughing, though. You knew him enough to know perfectly well what he was up to.

"I guess General Organa did take your word for it," he spoke loudly to cover the sound of the elements raging all around you.

"By fresh air, I didn’t mean a bleeding blizzard!" you complained just as you walked through some soft snow, your legs buried up to you knee.

You cursed between your teeth, before asking Poe for help. The pilot’s smile that lightened his features was too amused to your liking. But then, you loved when he smiled, even if it was caused by your ridicule, and that made you even madder at him.

"Just help me out, would you?" You shot him a glare as he took your hand and helped you out of the snow.

The walk through the woods was everything but simple. The terrain was rough, and the heavy snow that had been falling non-stop for a couple of weeks didn’t make the situation any easier.

Tall evergreen trees formed the forest, and you were easily lost through their resemblance. The wind turned the atmosphere colder for you than what it really was, and through the snow hitting your cheeks and wetting every inch of your body despite your warm clothes, you were starting to worry about hypothermia. For someone who came from a tropical planet, you found that Poe was surprisingly stern against these elements.

Beyond the trees, the sun was beginning to fall dangerously close to the horizon. The drop in temperatures that would follow could be lethal. And the snowstorm that was only beginning was announced to block all your movements for at least two days. You had to reach that rebel bunker in time.

"It’s not far from here, just a little further," Poe told you, as if reading your mind. "We’ll be there before nightfall."

"And if we’re not?"

"We will be."

You had always admired that side of Poe. The confident, passionate spark that seemed to be always burning behind his brown eyes. No matter how bad the situation looked, he was always the one to contradict the odds. You were a little less optimistic though.

Poe was right though, and you didn’t need so long to reach the shelter the General had promised. You were to retrieve some maps there, and use the bunker as a refuge while the storm passed. The transport coming to pick you up was to show up right after the storm lifted. That gave you two days to relax and try to understand the documents you were here to pick up. You weren’t sure what they were about. You had vaguely understood that it was about Rey, but the rest was unclear.

For now though, all you were worried about was to get to that door and finally be free of these snowflakes and wind.

The chalet was little more than four walls and a roof creaking under the pressure of the elements, threatening to be knocked down at any minute, it was far off from the bunker you had been promised. It stood in the middle of the forest, with no element to make the spot special through the ocean of trees. You wondered why it had been built there of all places. Maybe it was pure luck.

Lichens and other parasite plants grew on the rotting wood that enclosed the safe space. You wondered how the windows could be intact, but despite the dirt covering them, the glass was undamaged. A chimney shot out of one side of the roof, silent and unused. The cabin had been abandoned a long time ago.

Poe forced the door opened, but the rotten wood gave up without much of a fight.

Besides dust, there was a table and a couple of chairs inside, what one would need to cook and a bed. The hearth was empty, but there was some wood by the chimney, and it seemed that there was enough to get you through the night.

"What a delightful room we have," you mumbled, putting your backpack down by the closed door.

"Who could want a suite on Naboo when they can have this!" Poe chuckled.

"A frozen cabin in the middle of a snowstorm. You’re right, it’s much better than a warm bath and a soft bed."

"Come on, grumpy. Give me a hand with the fire, before we both freeze to death for real."

Soon there were red flames in the hearth, and Poe and you settled around the warmth. You reached for the device hidden in your backpack. You turned it on, signalling your position to the resistance.

"How long before the transport arrives after the storm?" you asked Poe.

"A good day," he answered, sniffing. "But first, we cross our fingers and pray the stars that this old shack won’t fall on our heads."

"You’ve got a point," you darkly agreed just as a loud blow shook the whole frame of the house, making every piece of wood crack and shriek in pain.

"Let’s get ready for the night, Y/L/N," he changed the subject, patting your shoulder.

The walls around you cracked again, and you were certain to see them move. You heaved a sigh… why did you have to play the hero and join the resistance in the first place?

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

"You know, of all things you could have carried across the galaxy – and I mean all the useful things that we could have used to survive – I can't believe you chose to carry a game of Sabacc."

Poe merely laughed at your remark, and won another game. You heaved a frustrated sigh.

"Lucky we're not waging with money, or I would be broke by now," you pointed out.

"You underestimated your opponent," he joked. "That ought to teach you a lesson."

"Sure does!"

"You know what kind of Sabacc game would have been fun to play, and would have not made you lose all your money?"

"Why do I have a feeling you're going to propose a form of the game where we're supposed to lose our clothes instead…"

"Exactly! Strip Sabacc!"

"That could have been arguably a good idea if we were extremely drunk, if we were not on a frozen planet and a very cold shack, and of course, if Bantas had wings," you replied, rolling your eyes.

"You're no fun, Y/L/N!"

"You're an idiot, Dameron."

Outside the snowstorm raged still, but Poe's game was a good distraction from the roaring wind. The insulation in the cabin was terrible to say the least, and the temperature was very low still, despite a fire now burning in the tiny hearth behind you. You were still wearing as many warm clothes as you could. Despite your need to sleep, the loud wind howling through the branches of the trees all around the cabin made it impossible for both of you to find peace. So, instead, you were playing, waiting for your exhaustion to be overwhelming enough for the two of you to collapse into sleep.

The game started again, but the more time flew by, the less focused you became. Thoughts drifted more and more as your fatigue grew stronger, until your mind settled back on your previous mission.

Of course, it had to. You kept on thinking about that one mission, or more precisely, about that one moment…

Poe and you caught in a crossfire, no back up, BB-8 and your ship taken away, and odds so terribly low even Poe was growing desperate.

Then the flash of red light from the shot of a blaster, bursting through the night, violent contrast with the darkness all around you. Poe falling back against the wall that sheltered both of you, holding his side, slipping down along the bricks to the ground.

You remembered the blood next, your hands pressed against the hole carved in his flesh and skin, trying to stop the liquid from flowing out. But you were failing.

You remembered Poe's reassuring smile, his eyelids drooping closed as his strengths left him, his breathes shallower and shallower every time air left his lungs. And yet, he was smiling.

He was joking about him having a bad day, while you were panicking, not knowing how to save him, what to do, how to get back to base…

He was your best friend, and you had longed for a while now for him to be even more. You couldn't lose him…

You remembered his voice, low and raspy, coming out in breathy whispers distorted with pain as he raised his hand to your cheek.

I guess, if it's my last chance to do it…

And then there were a pair of lips on yours.

You hadn't talked about the whole incident again. While Poe recovered, it seemed inappropriate. And after he had recovered, well… you had missed a couple of opportunities to do so, and you were rarely alone.

You guessed now was probably the best opportunity you would get.

"Poe… I meant to ask you…"

You left your words suspended in mid-air, your sentence unfinished, and the pilot before you merely encouraged you to continue with a curious look.

"About… our last mission together…"

"What about it?"

He didn't seem willing to let his guard down. You wondered if he merely ignored his act as a way to protect himself or if he genuinely didn't remember anything. After all, he was dying at the time.

"Well… do you remember… when you were hurt, you… I mean… Do you remember what happened then?"

"Well, you dragged me away from the fight, bandaged me the best you could. I guess we could say that you saved my life, and I owe you one."

You slowly nodded.

"And… nothing else? You don't remember anything else that happened then? Something that… you did?"

Poe remained silent for a moment, frowning, and he put down his cards. He seemed to focus, searching his memories. You couldn't breathe.

He softly hummed while thinking, and leaned across the tiny table.

"I think I know what you're referring to," he slowly nodded.

"Well… don't you think we ought to talk about it?"

"Do we?"

"I think we do, yes."

"What do you want to say about it then?"

You had to admit that you didn't expect him to react like this, so casually, avoiding the point. You recognized the ghost of an amused smile at the corner of his lips.

You guessed he would make you spit it out yourself, and you hated him for it.

"Well, first thing, I'd like to know if you… I mean…" you stuttered, tripping upon your own words and your heartbeat erratic in your chest. "Did you mean that? I mean… you kissed me. Did you mean it or was it… just… a kiss because you thought you were dying and you would have kissed basically anyone who was there?"

His smile grew more evident, pulled from the shadows to shed a bright light on the room. There was a mix of tenderness and amusement painted all over his features that made you forget about the storm outside, that quietened the roaring wind and the snow smashed against the windows. The threat of the First Order suddenly felt remote, too far to be relevant now. But then, Poe had always had this effect on you. Just one of his smiles made you feel perfectly safe.

"You think I spend all my free time kissing strangers around the galaxy?" he asked back with a joking tone.

But you were not in a mood for laughing it off.

"No, but you were dying."

"Right… losing lots of blood too, if I remember right."

"Exactly! Perhaps you weren't thinking straight."

He remained silent for a moment, before reaching for your hand. His hold was reassuring and warm, calloused fingers brushing softly against the back of your hand. And while you stared at his dark brown eyes, looking almost black in the dim light shed by the burning flames, the world around you vanished, disappearing to leave only his gaze. When he answered, his voice was low and as warm as the flames by your side.

"Maybe I was thinking more clearly than I ever have before."

You stopped breathing altogether.

"What?"

He heaved a sigh.

"I… I've felt like this for a long time. Didn't mean to blow up our friendship, our team, though. Plus… a war isn't the best place to get involved in a relationship. But then, I almost died and… It sounds cliché, but dying does make you realize a thing or two. Like… the fact that it's worth taking the risk. I've been hiding my feelings for so long, and maybe the secret is not worth the stakes. Perhaps the leap of faith is worth the risk to fall. I know the war is making everything harder, and I know that we're friends but… I haven't seen you as a mere friend in a long, long time."

He gave you a sad smile, releasing a long breath he didn't even know he was holding, and he surprised you as you found withheld tears shining in his dark brown eyes.

"No matter what you say now, you can't imagine how good it feels to let it all out," he chuckled, out of breath.

You only noticed the tears rolling down your cheeks when you felt their salty taste pass your lip.

"That's a hell of a confession, Dameron," you smiled through your tears.

"You want a hell of a confession?" he asked, tightening his hold on your fingers. "How about: I love you, Y/N?"

It was your turn to tighten your hold on his hand. You were trapped in his dark, almost black irises because you could see the truth in his gaze, you could hear his honesty in his soft tone, feel how genuine his touch was. And you knew that he meant it all.

"We were kind of stupid to wait for so long, right?" you asked, brushing your tears away and grinning instead.

"Is that the beginning of a confession I hear, Y/L/N?"

You were about to speak again when the wind blew stronger than before, and the noise was so loud that you couldn't ignore it. The shout creaked through the branches of the trees, high-pitched and low at the same time, almost a human voice coming out of the shadows. Your belief in the Force made you wonder if it was a spirit of some kind. Both you and Poe had looked at the window in a jolt, but the sound slowly waned, swallowed by the night again. You focused on Poe again as you heard the table being pushed aside to allow him to get closer to you.

"It's just the wind," he whispered, and you were painfully aware of how close his face had come to yours now. "It's just a storm. It will pass, like all storms do."

You smiled again.

"Well, you've been a storm blowing upon my life for years, and you give me no sign that you'll pass any time soon."

He chuckled, and nodded in response.

"Some kind of storms are good to have around," he argued.

"You know what? I think that for once, you're right."

Your two smiles widened at the joke, and his face was now close enough to yours for you to feel his warm breath against your lips.

"I think I've got an idea or two for us to pass the time while this storm outside rages on," he offered.

"What could that be?"

"A surprise I think you'll like it."

"Really?"

"Really."

You let him lean closer, and closer, and closer until your lips brushed, touched, intertwined.

When you eventually broke away, the words escaped you without giving you a chance to hold them back.

"I love you, Poe."

The pilot could only grin.

"I hoped you'd say that."

The next moment, his lips were on yours again, your fingers lost in his dark curls, and his arms wrapped around you to draw you closer, impossibly close. The game of Sabacc was left disregarded next to you, the snowstorm forgotten, even the war seemed too far to be cared for.

It was just the two of you. And it was enough.

*******************************************

Taglist : @ponycake27 @horsesreign @xinyourdreamsx @jbluevelvet @notkeppeki @daynigt-dreamer-stuff @fudgeflyss @stuckupstucky @snek-shit @suchatinyinfinity @i-padfootblack-things @buckybsarmy @heyohheyitsgabi@jigsawlover10 @emyyjemyy @addictedtofictionalcharacters @wangmangagavroche @that-bwitch @wearetalkingtoyou @mxrihollxd @iwanttomeetnewpeople @yana-versio

#poe #poe x reader #poe dameron x reader #poe dameron #poe fanfiction #poe imagine #poe dameron imagine #poe dameron fanfiction #sw #sw fanfic #star wars #star was fanfic #sw imagine #star wars imagine #imagine #fanfiction #fanfic #writing

436 notes · View notes

teffyjeffy · 4 years

Text

Fabric Tears (Part 1)

SKIP TO PART 2

SKIP TO PART 3

NEXT CHAPTER (Coming Soon to the Mystery Shack!)

ONCE UPON A TIME...

TABLE OF CONTENTS

It was a quiet night in Gravity Falls.

...okay, no it wasn't.

Owls were hooting, bats were shrieking, cults were chanting, the usual stuff.

Most of the townsfolk on the other hand were sound asleep, oblivious to the eerie noises surrounding them outside their living spaces. They took no notice of the gnomes scrounging for food. Of the black cats hissing a warning. Of the wind howling at the moon.

Because of this obliviousness, nobody noticed the pitter patter of a lone critter stumbling down the road, malnourished and shivering from the snow that stuck to it like soot. The critter scuffled down the streets blindly, letting out small ragged huffs of air. Eventually the critter had no strength left. It crawled its way to the nearest shelter it could find. Luck was on its side apparently, as there was a giant spot up ahead. It had lights that could keep the creature warm, and an overhead structure to keep it sheltered. But food... it needed food...

The animal's blurry senses could not pick up any source of food, so it moped along, hoping to at least find a good place to rest.

Then... it saw something in the distance... a large structure, lights shining all around it, inside and out. The obscured figure rushed over to find a way inside. But it's depleted strength made it impossible to find a way in. Feeling sleep overcome themself quickly, the creature huddled over to the softest thing it could feel, and huddled up against it for warmth. Oh... there was food too... it managed to get a few nibbles in before drifting to sleep

It would resume its hunt for other food tomorrow night...

GravityTale

Everybody at the Mystery Shack was dead.

Figuratively, of course.

The Mystery Shack was finally ready to open to the public. But as the last slab of wood was hammered into the ceiling of the gift shop, and the last exhibit burnt in the Tim incident was finally replaced, the whole crew came to a realization.

After all of that work, the last thing anybody wanted to do was spend the day dealing with the mad rush that always comes with the reopening of a popular store.

"All in favor of not opening the shack today, say aye," announced Wendy from her usual spot in the gift shop.

"Aye," replied human and monster alike, except for Sans, who was out cold.

And so that was that. Today was immediately established as a take-it-easy day.

It appeared that Mabel missed the memo.

"What do you mean 'No?'" she griped at Dipper, who was refusing to get out of bed to play with her.

"I mean the phrase that is usually uttered in order to express disagreement, disapproval, and a whole lot of other words that start with 'dis-' that I am way too tired to recite right now," mumbled Dipper in his bed. "And violently shaking my bed is not going to help you change my mind. So cut it out."

Mabel paced around the room, her hands up in exasperation. "It's a sunny winter wonderland outside, and you're telling me I'm the only one eager to get out there and enjoy it?!"

"That's precisely what I'm telling you," Dipper groaned in his pillow. "With all the stress of fixing the shack, and nothing around to fuel me but coffee and Pitt Cola that I'm tired of drinking, I feel like I'm at Death's door. Like, Death has a welcome mat out for me and everything. Maybe he's even making tea."

"Not with your current attitude he wouldn't," grumbled Mabel. "He'd just give you more coffee and Pitt Cola."

"Then let me sleep! The more you keep me awake, the more cranky I'll get from it!" argued Dipper.

But Mabel was quick to shoot back. "If I let you fall asleep now, you're just gonna wake up in the middle of the night while I'm asleep! That's no fun, Dipper! Stop being such a Mr. No-Fun!"

Dipper simply grumbled back at her. "Just drop it Mabel. I'm tired. I'm only getting out of this bed if a future-me teleports in here and demands that I do so."

A second went by. Two seconds. Three seconds. No time machines materialized in the kids' bedroom.

"I rest my case," said Dipper, before pulling the covers over his head. Any further attempts to get him out of bed were futile.

Mabel frowned. "The next time we have a snowball fight, your team is going to get an automatic penalty."

But Dipper was already fast asleep.

Mabel huffed, opening the door to exit the bedroom.

WHAM!

Only to collide right into Frisk.

The collision sent both kids to the ground, landing on their bottoms somewhat painfully.

"Owwwwww," Mabel muttered, before looking up and seeing who it was. "Oh! Hey Frisk!"

"Hi Mabel," greeted Frisk, rubbing their forehead as they stood back up with Mabel's help. "Sorry about that. I should have knocked..."

"Don't worry about it~! I've collided with Dipper's forehead so many times in my life, I barely feel a thing now!" she said while beaming with pride.

"That's... good I suppose," said Frisk with a gentle chuckle of embarrassment.

"So watcha up to?" asked Mabel, causing Frisk to stumble a second, still not used to how quickly Mabel could change subjects.

"I'm um... pretending to look for my dress-up cowboy lasso," said Frisk, looking back with a hint of annoyance towards the stars that lead down to the first floor. "Dad insists it must be somewhere in this shack, but I am almost certain that it was gone before my family and I entered the Mystery Shack for the first time."

"Huh," said Mabel, putting a hand to her chin and looking upwards at nothing. "Perhaps some gnomes snatched it while you weren't looking?"

"That seems very possible, albeit unlikely," said Frisk, ending the topic by tilting their head to see Dipper's slumbering figure and asking, "He still isn't up?"

"Nope," growled Mabel. "He's insistent that he won't change his mind later, either. Ugh, and I had a bunch of winter activities planned for today!"

"Well that's a shame," said Frisk. "But then again, when it came to maintaining order in the shack for the past couple of days, Dipper did do the most work out of all of us."

"Like what?" asked Mabel.

"Well..."

"Papyrus, what are you doing?! Spaghetti is not meant to be baked at that temperature! Grunkle Stan, where do we keep the fire extinguisher again?!"

"No Mettaton, I cannot listen to your historical life of glamour right now, I need to put out another fire in the museum! Now hand over the hose, and stop pouring it all over yourself! And while we're on the subject, how come you don't rust or short circuit by doing that?!"

"Undyne! It's a washing machine! It's not going to hurt you or anyone else, so just put the spear away! Wwwwwwhoawhoawhoa WHOA HEY DON'T AIM IT AT ME!!!"

"Napstablook, I appreciate it, but I don't think that you are capable of helping me move this piece of furniture. No no no don't cry! I wasn't trying to bring you down, I mean you're LITERALLY incapable of- oh! H-hey Mettaton! Hoo boy... you look like you're ready to kill me..."

"Yeeeeaaaaaahhhh I guess you're right," concluded Mabel.

"I really am sorry that my family can be a handful sometimes," said Frisk somewhat embarrassed.

"Nawwwwww it's alright! It's a lot of fun!" said Mabel, patting Frisk on the back.

"I am pleased you feel that way, but I have a feeling that Dipper would disagree with you," said Frisk in a joking manner.

"Well that's because he would rather suffer from his lack of energy instead of taking some time to drink some Mabel Juice. If he did, he would never complain about being too tired ever again!" countered Mabel, speaking as if she was a superhero addressing a nation.

Frisk laughed. "You know, you keep bringing that drink up. But for a drink that you're always talking about, I don't believe I have had a chance to try it."

Stars twinkled in Mabel's eyes. "Well then let's put a stop to that! TO THE KITCHEN!"

Before Frisk could agree or disagree, Mabel was pulling them down the stairs and into the kitchen.

Mabel pulled out a seat for Frisk, who calmly sat down. After that, Mabel darted for the fridge and cupboards, snatching an unidentifiable liquid, some ice cubes, and a whole lot of sugar. She didn't bother to shut any of the cupboards as she went over to grab a couple of measuring pitchers and measure out more sugar than actual liquid. After that, Mabel poured the sugar and juice into a giant mixing bowl and rushed off to hunt down the other ingredients. All the while, Mabel was eagerly explaining the process to Frisk.

It was during this excited chatter that Frisk observed Mabel open another cupboard and take out a box of... crayons?

"Ummmmmm," said Frisk.

"No interrupting!" hollered Mabel in an off-key sing songy voice, dumping the (yep, those were definitely) crayons into the mixture. "Never disrupt Master Juice Mixer Mabel when she is guiding her newest pupil through the process!"

"I um..." Frisk paused for a second before pushing through "I l-like my drinks without crayons. I er... I don't like the way they taste."

Mabel paused. After an awkward amount of time passed, she looked down at the now-empty box of crayons that was floating at the top of her brew. Her gaze eventually trailed down further, to spot the aforementioned crayons that had sunk to the bottom of the bowl. Frisk still did not know what made Mabel tick, but their guess was that Mabel would simply tell them that the recipe calls for food coloring. As such, Frisk was ready to give her some alternative solutions. Such as using normal food coloring.

So it was a little surprising for Frisk to see Mabel's smile become a concerned frown.

"...was I responsible for this?" asked Mabel.

"...I believe you were," replied Frisk awkwardly.

"That's.... pfft, yeah, those crayons are not supposed to be in there. Heh wow, how did I manage get so sidetracked...?" concluded Mabel, dumping the bowl and starting over, her face a little more pink than before.

Well that was... weird. Now the mood of the whole room felt... extremely awkward. It was the same uncomfortable atmosphere that Frisk experienced when they forgot to get hot dogs for Dipper and Monster Kid, during the Bike Romp Race...

Frisk concluded that desperate measures were necessary in order to bring the mood back into a state of normalcy.

It was time to unleash... the puns.

"It's fine Mabel. I'm sure the fruit juice will come out just fine, as long as you concentrate on doing your best~"

Mabel had to halt the process of making the drink just so she could keep a straight face. This sudden pun-attack could not go unpunished, of course. So she retaliated. Hard.

"Ha!" said Mabel, standing up in a pompous stance, her left hand on her hip and her right hand open and hovering a few centimetres in front of her mouth in mock laughter. "A stranger waltzes in and has the gall to coach me on how I concoct my signature drink? You clearly are not one of my staff! You mean to overthrow me! I Vitamin-C right through your pathetic scheme~!"

Frisk snorted. "Why no, what ever gave you that idea~? I beg of you to take a step back and recon-Cider my intentions!"

"How dare you!" reprimanded Mabel, giggles no longer able to be withheld. "I will hear no more from you! Cease this attack, or face Juicetice!"

"Okay! I sugarrender! I sugarrender!" hollered Frisk, holding their hands up in a mock-yielding before flopping down on the table in a fit of laughter, while Mabel was sprawled on the floor cackling.

"That's another swift and powerful victory for me!" said Mabel when she finally regained composure. "Just wait till I tell Undyne!"

"She'll be quite impressed, I'm sure," said Frisk, playfully. "Careful though, she might challenge you to a fight if you boast too much."

After a few minutes, the questionable drink was ready for serving. Mabel grabbed a few translucent mugs and poured out the Mabel Juice, allowing her own glass to have just a little more of the drink than Frisk's. Frisk thanked Mabel as she gave them their drink, despite how uneasy Frisk felt about the whole situation.

"You ready to give your body a giant wake up call?" said Mabel excitedly.

"No time like the present..." said Frisk nervously.

Frisk took a decent sip of the concoction while Mabel downed hers in just a couple of gulps.

"SO!!!" barked Mabel, slamming her fists on the table and almost spilling the startled Frisk's drink. "What do ya think? It's good, right?"

The lack of crayons definitely helped, thought Frisk.

"Very energizing," spoke Frisk.

Frisk felt that their answer was peasant enough, so they grew a little concerned when Mabel's response was with a slightly slacked jaw accompanied by absolute silence.

"M-Mabel? You oka-?"

"eeeeeeeeeeEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!" screamed Mabel, leaping out of her seat and running around the kitchen. "FRISK LIKES MY DRINK!!! FRISK LIKES MY DRIIIIIIIINK!!!"

Frisk couldn't help but laugh at the spectacle before them. "I guess so!"

At that point, Stan decided to step in.

"Alright ya trouble makers, I'm gonna have to confiscate these for the time being," said Stanley, carefully yanking the drinks out of the kids' hands and returning them to the mixing bowl, which he put in the fridge. "You're gonna have to wait till tomorrow to finish the rest."

"Awwwwww why?" pouted Mabel.

"Because as we all have established, today is a take-it-easy day," explained Stan, before calling outside. "Right Soos?"

"That's right, Mr. Pines!" answered Soos with a thumbs up. "All dudes within the Mystery Shack are being subjected to a 24 hour stress free environment with no exceptions. I cannot stress this enough. Oh wait, heh, guess that defeats the purpose. Wow, this is harder than I thought..."

"You see?" said Stan, returning his focus to the kids. "You gotta understand, we've all had a giant string of eventful days. New faces, bedding arrangements, the Mystery Shack getting destroyed again, me training for a bike competition and winning it- you folks seeing the pattern here yet?" A single nod from both children was all the man needed. "We've all been running on adrenaline for a good long while now, and we're starting to feel the aftermath of it. So just this once, you're going to have to lower the energy, Mabel. Or at least the volume of it."

"C'monnnnnnnnnnn" guffawed Mabel, one hand giving a wrist flick while the other hand rested on Frisk's shoulder. "It's not like there's other folks here that are as anti-Mabel-Energy as Dipper is today."

It wasn't like she was lying. She saw energetic faces all around the place. Papyrus was as attentive as always, sitting in one of the four living room chairs (since Soos had finally gotten around to adding more seats to the shack from the storage room to accommodate for the monsters) and he seemed to be... knitting. Asgore didn't appear to be exhausted either; the only sigh he gave was one of contentment as he sat on the back porch couch and took in the scent of pine covered in snow. Napstablook was never capable of falling asleep, and as he fazed into the living room, he seemed to have a face that suggested that he felt lucky that ghosts never feel tired. Mettaton had just replenished his battery, so he could be heard loudly singing from the basement. Sans was snoring in the attic, but it's not like Mabel had to worry about waking him up. Stanford was studying in his lab, and it was located deep enough underground that no chaos on the surface floor could distract him, not unless the chaos was catastrophic. So honestly, where was the harm?

Stan shook his head with a slight frown. "I dunno about that, sweet cheeks," he said with a grumble, pointing to the gift shop.

Frisk followed Stan's gaze and scanned the gift shop as well. They then turned back to look at Mabel, their face emanating concern. "He's right, Mabel."

Now Mabel was curious. She peered over to the gift shop to see what kind of fuss was happening over there.

What she found were Toriel and Wendy, who appeared to be having a normal conversation. But Mabel was a dowsing rod when it came to cheerfulness. And boy oh boy were Toriel and Wendy devoid of it.

Toriel seemed especially distant. She still greeted anybody who passed by with a cordial "Hello," and she always gave nods and similar minuscule movements in response to whatever Wendy was talking about. But the Goat Mom's usual cheer and open personality was disturbingly lacking today.

Wendy, while not looking as troubled as Toriel seemed to be, appeared miserably drained. Her complexion was paler than usual, her hair wasn't as brushed, and the bags under her eyes looked heavier than... heavy stuff.

"Whoa," managed Mabel, looking back to Stan and Frisk.

"So yeah," said Stan, "Let's try to keep the noise down, eh kiddos? For their sake if not my own?" He added, ruffling Mabel's hair.

"Of course, Mr. Stanley," said Frisk with a nod of understanding, before adding a little more quietly, "Are Mabel and I still allowed to play?"

"Huh," said Stan with a huff. "Looks like someone's trying to find a loophole in my instructions."

Frisk blanched slightly. "Well sir I-"

"I like your style, kid. We'll make a shady businessperson out of you yet!" declared Stanley, hefting Frisk up to give them a noogie. Frisk, having grown accustomed to Undyne's noogies, found Stan's to actually be ticklish.

"Sure, go on and play! Knock yourselves out!" said Stan, setting a softly laughing Frisk back down in their seat. "This is considered a 'me day' after all!"

"Can it really be called a 'me day' when all of us are expected to relax today?" asked Mabel slyly. "Sounds more like an 'everyone day' to me!"

"Mabel, sweetie, I already have my snot nosed smart-alec of a brother criticizing me on my grammar. I don't need my bubbly grand niece chastising me on my word choices. Besides, calling it an 'everyone day' makes you sound like Karl Marx. And we all know what that lead to."

"I dunnooooo," said Mabel, looking off to the side and giving a comical shrug, which gave Frisk a small chuckle. "'Mabel Marx' has a nice ring to it~!"

"Yeah well so does 'Stanley Stalin,' but you don't see me changing my name to that, do ya?" countered Stanley.

"Good point," said Mabel with a nod, before walking up to Frisk, gripping their arm, and pulling them out of their seat. "Welp, I'mma go play with Frisk now! C'mon Frisk! Let's see what Undyne and Alphys are doing! I wanna tell them about my drink!"

"O-okay!" said Frisk, slightly startled but not putting up a fight as they were guided away from the kitchen. "S-see you later, Mr. Stanley!"

"Play nice now!" said Stanley. "Oh, and hey! It'd be best if you left my brother alone for the time being, alright?! He’s trying to coax some info out of that weirdo Tim, and I have a feeling it isn’t going so well! The runt chucked a globe at me just for startling him!"

"Got it!" Mabel hollered, while Frisk simply gave the man an 'OK' sign. Then they both darted off.

Under his breath, Stanley muttered, "That man really needs to cool his jets sometimes..."

"Is This Action Of Globe Throwing A Habit Of Yours?" asked the metal head of Tim. "If It Is, I Must Urge You To Drop This Habit As It Is Unhealthy To Maintaining Strong Relationships To Friends and Family."

"Argh!" groaned Stanford, pounding his hands on the desk in front of him and darting his head to glare at the talking scrap metal. "No, it is not a habit, and if you would stop freaking out every time I say 'proph-' ... I mean, every time I say that word, I may not feel so inclined to throw things! So why can't you just cooperate?!"

"Sir, This Is No Mere Bug That I Can Just Erase. It Is Elusive As Much As It Is Exclusive. But If It Makes You Feel Better, I Am Able To Bring Up Other Methods Of Destruction Without Being Overpowered By The Error That You Identify As 'Insanity.'"

"That's not going to help me much, Tim. But I suppose it gives you credibility. Alright fine, go ahead," said Stanford, tapping his foot impatiently.

"As You Wish," said Tim. "Storms. Solar Explosion. Volcanoes. Tidal Waves. War. Meteors-"

"Okay that's enough," said Stanford, holding up a finger to halt Tim's explanation. "You made your point."

"Perhaps We Should Save This Conversation For Another Time. Maybe Then, I Will Have Figured How To Delete This Malicious Program. Perhaps With A Proper Wipe Of My Memory Banks, I May-"

"No no no hold on. Your memory of this pro-... omen is important. I just need to find away to coax it out of you without triggering the bug."

Stanford took a long deep breath. "Now then. Let's start from the top again. A couple weeks back, my grand nephew presented me with this black journal that he found. At the end of the first page, it appears to speak of what seems like a proph- let me rephrase that-"

"Stop Thinking About Not Saying 'Prophecy.'"

"Tim, I'm not a helpless buffoon. I can keep myself from saying- wait, how come you have no problem saying 'prophecy?!' Oh shoot-"

"THE ANOMALY WILL DOOM ALL." shrieked Tim, eyes glowing red while sirens blared throughout the lab. "IF THE DOOR STAYS LOCKED, ALL IS LOST! LOST!! LOOOOOOOOSSSSST!!!"

"Sigh... Nice going, Stanford..." cussed the scientist to himself, reaching for his ray gun once again to shut the screaming contraption up.

Mabel was just finishing up explaining her drink, with Frisk alongside her, to Undyne and Alphys in the museum when the shack quivered for a second.

"Whoa, did you feel that Alphys?" said Undyne, standing up straight "Something caused the floor to violently rumble. Another attack? Would people get mad if I said I wanted that to happen?"

"Th-they probably wouldn't get mad at you Undyne," responded Alphys, having also felt the rumble. "B-but I reeeeaally hope we aren't getting attacked again. Stanley would s-surely make us leave if the shack were to be destroyed a second time. Especially after we had j-just finished fixing it."

"No worries, ladies!" chirped Mabel, "It's probably Grunkle Ford. Grunkle Stan said that he's been toying with Tim's head and that the results were leaving him um..."

"Frustrated?" tried Frisk.

"Yeah, frustrated!" said a smiling Mabel. "Grunkle Ford tends to get a little explosive-happy when he's frustrated. But only while working in his lab."

"Why is he trying to get information from the head of a murderous AI? Doesn't that sound a little counterproductive?" questioned Undyne with slight exasperation.

"Y-yes, it is quite improbable that Tim will be willing or able to t-tell us anything," said Alphys, her hands marginally fidgeting. "B-but unfortunately, Tim is the only lead we have to find out if this a-anomaly is simply a glitch in the AI's system or is actually a real-life threat."

"Hm. You have a fair point there babe," said Undyne, satisfied with Alphys's answer. "Well, if that anomaly exists, it better stop existing reeeeaaal soon, or it's gonna have to say hello to my fists! And then it'll immediately have to say goodbye to my fists! BECAUSE I WILL KILL IT! WITH MY FISTS! NNNNNNNGAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"

"U-undyne, please lower your voice," said Alphys in nervous hushed tones. "Some of our friends are trying to n-nap."

"Pfft. Lower my voice? You know I can't just do that," said Undyne, folding her arms almost in a grumpy pout.

Mabel looked to Frisk. "I connect with this woman on a spiritual level."

Alphys fidgeted with her hands. "W-w-well then how about we go outside for a walk? O-or a run if you prefer? That way you can shout all you want without bothering anybody in the shack?" suggested Alphys, her own cheeks beginning to turn pink.

Frisk caught this and smirked at Undyne. "Undyne, I believe you are being asked out on a date~"

"M-maybe," timidly admitted Alphys, looking down to the ground, smiling despite her embarrassment.

Undyne blushed as well, her normally huge toothy grin shrinking down to a tiny nervous smile, almost cat-like. "No fair Alphys, you know I can't say no when it comes to going on a date with you..."

Alphys shyly chuckled. "It's my ultimate t-trap card."

"Oooh, maybe we'll encounter the anomaly while we're outside!" said Undyne to Alphys, the former's fists clenching in excitement. "And then you can watch me bash its skull in!"

"I fear for the survival of the anomaly's skull," said Frisk, making Mabel giggle.

"W-well if we stumble across it, I'll leave it to you, Undyne" said Alphys, a smile on her face.

"Shall we?" said Undyne, extending her hand with a grin.

"S-sure," said Alphys, taking Undyne's hand bashfully.

Without warning, Undyne flung Alphys onto her shoulders, and they charged out of the exhibit room and out the front door.

"Are they always like this?" asked Mabel to Frisk. "Please tell me the answer is yes."

"The answer is yes," confirmed Frisk, their classic stoic expression never leaving them.

"I have no idea if you are being sincere or just parroting what I said," said Mabel bluntly.

"And thus, I have created the one mystery that shall never ever be solved by either of the Pines Twins," said Frisk, a tiny smirk showing on their face.

"If Dipper was here, he would smack you for that remark," teased Mabel.

"He can try~" said Frisk, the smirk becoming a smile.

Papyrus had just finished putting his knitting needles and scarf away in the small lamp cabinet next to him in order to take a quick break, when he noticed a very peculiar occurrence happening right in front of him.

Toriel had unplugged the television from the wall and was getting ready to pick it up from the floor.

"UM, QUEEN TORIEL?" said Papyrus, cocking his head. "MIGHT I ASK WHAT YOU ARE DOING?"

"What I am doing is none of your concern. And please stop calling me 'Queen' Toriel," said Toriel, in a very harsh, un-Toriel-like tone.

"THE WEIGHT OF THAT TELEVISION SEEMS TO BE AGGRAVATING YOU, MISS TORIEL," incorrectly deduced Papyrus. "NOT TO FEAR, FOR I AM TRAINED IN THE ARTS OF LIFTING TV'S! GENTLY SETTING THEM DOWN, ON THE OTHER HAND, TENDS TO BE MESSY. BECAUSE MY ARMS FALL OFF."

Toriel's took in a very strained inhale of breath, before she released her tension with a deep sigh. "I do not need any help lifting this television, thank you Papyrus. But if you would be so kind as to not look into this matter any further, I would greatly appreciate it."

"OF COURSE, MADAM!" bellowed Papyrus with a hearty salute. The salute then slowly descended as Papyrus's face expressed confusion. "UM... WHAT MATTER ARE WE EVEN TALKING ABOUT?"

"Nothing Papyrus, nothing," said Toriel with a half hearted chuckle as she resumed carrying the heavy television out of the living room.

Mabel and Frisk tiptoed through the gift shop, not wanting to bother a cranky Wendy who was venting to Napstabook. The ghost was, to his credit, listening very attentively.

"Then Undyne says that I should look them all in the eye and yell 'If any of you have a problem with that, I'll suplex you into a mountain!' Which, I mean, I appreciate her willing to help, but nothing she ever suggests to me is a good idea when put into practice. It's frustrating, you know?"

"I'm sorry to hear that................" mumbled Napstablook sincerely. "I would offer you my own advice, but I'm sure you'll only find it worse than Undyne's...................."

"Napstablook, you absolute sugarcube, all I need is your listening ear right now."

"I technically don't have ears......................"

As soon as Mabel had both of her feet on the living room carpet, she bounded right up to the still-confused Papyrus.

"Hey there Pappy Man!" said Mabel, using her inside voice but vigorously waving hello to make up for it.

"HM?" said Papyrus, Mabel's greeting shaking him out of his stupor. "OH! GREETINGS, MABEL! HAVE YOU ALSO COME TO TAKE A PIECE OF FURNITURE? IF SO, I WILL GLADLY HELP YOU CARRY IT!"

It took a second for the baffled Mabel to realize the TV was missing. "Huh. I was wondering why this room seemed a little roomier than usual..."

"We do not require any furniture, thank you Papyrus," said Frisk, having caught up to Mabel. "May we ask who it was that took the television?"

"I WOULD LOVE TO!" exclaimed Papyrus. "HOWEVER, I WAS ASKED TO NOT LOOK ANY FURTHER INTO THE MATTER!"

"Oh..." said Frisk, hiding their disappointment. "And... who asked you to not do that? Is it somebody we know?"

"OH YES, IT IS SOMEONE YOU KNOW VERY WELL!" said Papyrus with a single solid nod.

"So, not a burglar then?" said Mabel, almost bummed out that there wouldn't be an opportunity to chase a robber down the streets of Gravity Falls. On her list of things to do when she was the only energetic person in the room, chasing a robber was number four. Numbers three, two, and one were classified.

"CORRECT, HUMAN MABEL! MISS TORIEL IS MANY THINGS, BUT A BURGLAR IS NOT ONE OF THOSE THINGS," said Papyrus proudly, before realizing his mistake two seconds later. "NYOO HOO HOO!!! I PROMISED HER I WOULD NOT LOOK FURTHER INTO THE MATTER, BUT I CANNOT HELP IT! WHAT IS SHE PLANNING TO USE THE TELEVISION FOR?!"

"Mother took the TV?" said Frisk, perplexed by the answer inadvertently given to them by Papyrus. "But why would-"

Frisk's eyebrows rose up in sudden understanding, and they went uncomfortably silent for a few seconds, much to the curiosity of Mabel, and Papyrus to a lesser extent.

"Thank you Papyrus. I appreciate your honesty," said Frisk, ending the subject before anybody could say anything. Just as quickly, Frisk started up a new conversation, having now noticed the knitting needles poking out of the lamp cabinet. "Papyrus, are you knitting something?"

Papyrus beamed, all too eager to talk about what he was currently working on. He opened the lamp cabinet to bring the needles and scarf out and showcase them to the two kids. "INDEED I AM, HUMAN! MISS TORIEL HAD BROUGHT THE IDEA UP TO ME AFTER TASTING MY LATEST (AND DARE I SAY GREATEST) SPAGHETTI DISH! I'M SUPPOSING SHE BELIEVED THAT I HAD ACHIEVED THE MAXIMUM LEVEL OF CULINARY PERFECTION, BECAUSE SHE WAS VERY INSISTENT THAT I PERHAPS MOVE ON TO A NEW HOBBY!"

The kids were pretty certain that Toriel's reasons for doing this were different than from what Papyrus believed them to be.

"SO I DECIDED THAT IF I HAD MASTERED SPAGHETTI AS AN EDIBLE DISH, PERHAPS I COULD MASTER THE ART OF SPAGHETTI THROUGH A DIFFERENT CREATIVE OUTLET!"

Frisk and Mabel realized that the primary colors of the scarf that Papyrus was knitting were faded orange and vibrant red.

"You're making a scarf that looks like spaghetti?!" asked Mabel, her eyes brimming with total awe.

"YOU GOT IT!" said Papyrus excitedly. "I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, WILL REVOLUTIONIZE THE FASHION INDUSTRY WITH MY AMAZING SPAGHETTI SCARF!!!"

"Ooh! OOH!" said a bouncing Mabel, a super awesome amazing idea spawning in her head. "Can you knit Teddy bears?! Do you charge for them? What do you require? I'll give you the money from my Brother's secret stash! I'll give you every single one of my friendship wristbands! I'll give you the schematics for the Human Sized Hamster Ball." pleaded Mabel, getting right up to Papyrus's ear-socket to intensely whisper the last part.

"OF COURSE I CAN KNIT TEDDY BEARS, LITTLE MABEL! UNFORTUNATELY I HAVE YET TO MAKE ONE THAT IS RECOGNIZED AS A TEDDY BEAR BY EVERYBODY ELSE. THEY USUALLY MISTAKE THEM FOR OTHER OBJECTS. LIKE A PILE OF LEAVES, FOR EXAMPLE. OR A SMASHED CAKE. OR TRAMPLED FLOWERS. SANS ONCE MISTOOK ONE OF MY KNITTED TEDDY BEARS FOR THIS VERY PECULIAR RESIDUE THAT SPAWNS WHEN A HUMAN 'DRINKS' TOO MUCH... BUT HE ASSURED ME THAT HIS EYES WERE STILL BLURRY FROM JUST WAKING UP AND THAT HE WAS CERTAIN THAT IT WOULD LOOK A LOT BETTER IF HE WAS FULLY AWAKE. WHICH IS WEIRD BECAUSE HE MOST CERTAINLY HAS NO EYES... WHICH LEADS ME TO BELIEVE THAT HE WAS LYING TO ME... WHY WOULD HE FEEL THE NEED TO LIE ABOUT HIS OPINION OF ONE'S ART? ISN'T ART SUPPOSED TO BE OPEN TO THE VIEWER'S INTERPRETATION? THAT'S WHAT UNDYNE TOLD ME ONCE, AFTER SHE HAD ALMOST SET ONE OF FRISK'S DRAWINGS ON FIRE BECAUSE THEY MADE HER FACE LOOK SILLY..."

"Did Undyne really try to do that?" asked Mabel to Frisk, in surprise.

"She did try," confirmed Frisk, with a stoic-faced nod. "She failed though. She left my drawing alone. She used to tell me it was because she wanted to come up with a better punishment for the drawing. But quite recently, she admitted that she caught a glimpse of how upset I was and decided not to go through with torching the drawing I made."

"Can I see the drawing?" asked Mabel sweetly.

"No," answered Frisk, maintaining their emotionless expression flawlessly. "Undyne's face is too weird. You may develop the urge to light my drawing on fire."

"Nawwwwwwww, no I wouldn't!" said Mabel, jokingly rolling her eyes as she smiled brightly. "I'd put it in my scrapbook!"

"I cannot risk it," said Frisk, clearly joking.

"You cannot hide from Mabel Piiiiiines! No secret is safe from herrrrrrrr! She knows all, and whatever she doesn't know about, she leaaarrrnnns aboooooouuuuut!" said Mabel, moaning and wiggling her outstretched hands like a cliche ghost from any old Saturday morning cartoon.

"That sounds like a massive invasion of privacy," pointed out Frisk.

"No secret is saaaaaaaaafffeeeeee~!" wailed Mabel, completely ignoring Frisk.

"ACTUALLY, WHILE WE ARE STILL ON THE TOPIC OF TEDDY BEARS," chirped up Papyrus, "I BELIEVE THAT THE LAST TIME I SAW KING ASGORE, HE WAS HOLDING WHAT LOOKED LIKE A TEDDY BEAR IN HIS HANDS. HE DIDN'T LOOK TOO EXCITED ABOUT IT THOUGH... PERHAPS HE HAS FORGOTTEN WHAT A TEDDY BEAR LOOKS LIKE?"

"Well then perhaps we shall visit him next?" Frisk asked Mabel.

"Well duh! Of course we are!" said the very excited Mabel, taking Frisk's arm. "Have fun with the knitting, Papyrus!"

"WILL DO!" hollered Papyrus, waving enthusiastically as Mabel and Frisk made their way to the back porch to meet up with Asgore.

Asgore wouldn't say that the object in his hands disturbed him, but he would not say that it didn't unsettle him either.

The Teddy bear that he currently hand in his hands had seen better days. Its dark plum fur was damp from snow and crusty from dirt. There was also a substantial amount of stuffing that was missing from it, but no matter how hard Asgore investigated, he could not find a single tear in the stuffed animal's stitching.

"Strange..." muttered Asgore, for perhaps the fifth time since discovering the stuffed toy curled up next to the tattered couch.

Did it belong to Mabel? Asgore wanted to say yes, but then again, Mabel was a girl who treated stuffed animals like her own children, surely she would not let a Teddy bear become so void of stuffing. And she had a knack for keeping track of her items. If this bear belonged to her, it never would have ended up abandoned outside in the first place...

Maybe the lack of stuffing meant it belonged to Undyne? No, of course not, don't be silly Asgore. Undyne was ferocious, yes, but she is not one to use her own stuffed animal for training practice. And if she did, the Teddy bear would be in tatters...

Maybe Frisk? No, once again. Of the many toys that they had brought up to the surface after their journey in the underground, a Teddy bear was never in Frisk's box. And besides, Frisk is as kind to stuffed animals as Mabel is.

Asgore continued to list off possible owners of the strange toy, and all of them resulted in a no. He was so preoccupied with figuring out this mystery that he never saw Mabel sneaking up on him to scare him. Or so she thought.

Instead, Asgore startled her by jerking his head in her direction, a joyful smile on his face.

"Why howdy Mabel! Trying to give this old soul a scare, are you? I apologize, it will take more than that to catch me by surprise."

"Awwwwww man! Why do you have to be so cool, Goat Dad?!" complimented a pouting Mabel.

Asgore responded with a boisterous laugh, reaching out to scratch Mabel's head with a big warm fluffy paw. "I don't know if I see myself as 'cool'. Just 'prepared.'"

"What are you doing out here, Dad?" asked Frisk, joining Mabel. "I find you sitting on this couch more often than I find you inside. Aren't you cold?"

"Not at all, child!" laughed Asgore. "Winter on the surface is a wonderland compared to the underground. As for what I am currently doing out here..."

Then Asgore held up the malnourished looking Teddy bear for the children to see.

"I found this small toy nestled up next to the couch. I have no idea where it came from or who it may belong to. Would either of you have an idea?"

Frisk took the stuffed animal to inspect it more thoroughly. As they did so, a frown slowly developed on their face.

"There's something about this bear that I don't like..." commented Frisk.

Mabel peaked behind Frisk's shoulders, since Frisk appeared to be too focused on the item to hand it over to her. As she inspected it, her expression turned quizzical.

"It's probably because this poor Teddy is absolutely filthy!" remarked Mabel. "He needs a bath, pronto!"

"Well yes, but that's not what I meant-" Frisk attempted to interject, but the blink of an eye, the Teddy bear was gone from their hands and into Mabel's hands.

"Just look at the poor guy!” said Mabel. “He looks miserable!"

"Are you sure that it's the dirt that's making the Teddy bear look miserable, and not the facial thread itself?" replied Frisk after a few seconds of silence.

They weren't far off. Looking at the toy's face, the stitches and threads definitely gave the Teddy bear a forlorn expression.

"Okay so maybe the designer of this bear hated their job and wanted to let the whole world know," said Mabel, rolling her eyes. "But a clean bear is a happy bear, even if their stitched face does not reflect it!"

"Let her wash the bear Frisk," kindly advised Asgore. "It's best that we have it nice and clean in case its owner shows up to the shack looking for it."

Frisk pouted for a second before conceding with a nod of their head. "Yes Dad."

"Very good," beamed Asgore. He ended the issue by patting Frisk on the head, which managed to coax a smile out of the young ambassador.

"Great! Meet you at the laundry room!" squealed Mabel, darting back inside the house with bear in hand, not feeling the need to drag Frisk with her this time.

This gave Frisk a chance to get up on the couch and sit next to their father. They looked up at him, their stoic expression showing a hint of concern.

"Um... Dad? Mother hasn’t been looking too well..."

"I know, Frisk," said Asgore, his voice low and somber. "As much as it hurts though, we need to leave her be. It's what she wants."

"But is she like this every year? Isn’t that unhealthy for her?" asked Frisk with growing concern.

Asgore gave a long sigh, sinking into the couch despite his sitting position remaining rigid. "That is probably the case, my child. But you know how bad I am at making the right call when it comes to those who are in distress.”

Frisk looked down, not knowing how to reply to that. Instead, they slumped off of the couch, walking over to the back door leading back inside the shack. They turned to Asgore, looking ready to say one last thing, but debating whether or not it will have any effect. Finally, they spoke.

"Then I will."

And they opened the door and walked back inside.

The king let out a downtrodden sigh, unaware of the miniature hole in the side of the couch that appeared to have been bitten into recently.

"And those are the steps involved!" finished Mabel.

"My my! Such a complex system~! Even though I'm sure I could come up with a much better one~ Alas, you beat me to the punch~ I envy you, little Mabel~! " Mabel had decided to chat with Mettaton, who was in his EX model, while waiting for the loud drying machine to finish drying off the Teddy bear. The discussion had started with Mabel's plans for fixing the Teddy bear, and eventually evolved into discussing an interesting monster from the Underground, named Woshua.

"So wait," said Mabel, "The reason you guys didn't have washing machines in the underground was because you had somebody who was basically their own washing machine? That's wild!"

"Indeed!" confirmed the charming robot. "He was not a fan of it though. At first, the poor fellow was very cross with being one of the very few sources of cleanliness in the underground. And even though they loved to clean, and eventually grew used to their new role in the underground, it was only a matter of time before they began to grow tired of it. Burnout is never to be taken lightly, darling. Remember that~"

"Oh believe me, I'm aware," said Mabel with a wearied huff of laughter. "I've been trying to teach my brother that lesson for the last five years. Actually, for the last forever."

"Oh yes~ The boy gags at the mere thought of taking a break," chuckled Mettaton, before deciding to change the subject. "So, you said that Asgore found this beaten up stuffed toy next to the couch outside? And nobody has seen it prior to today? Sounds like the perfect premise for a B-list horror flick~"

"You mean a flick where the animation is stop-motion and the monsters are made of clay?"

"Well I wouldn't stoop to such shallow effects if I was directing that kind of movie. But yes~"

"Would I be the leading costume designer?!"

"You would splatter bright and loud colors on every single costume, for every single lead and ensemble member, and completely ruin the common color palette of horror movies," said Mettaton. "Of course you would be my leading costume designer~" he added with a smile of delight.

Just then, the dryer emitted a small *ding!* and the machine grew silent.

"Allow me~" said Mettaton, extending his arms to fetch the toy from the dryer without ever having to shift from where he was standing, eyes closed and a glamorous smirk donning his face, like he just finished juggling ten knives flawlessly.

Mabel giggled, rolling her eyes in a teasing manner, and took the bear from the proud robot's hand. "If I could be as glamorous as you are, I don't think my body would be able to handle it. My spirit would break free from this physical vessel and ascend to Glamour Heaven."

"Of course it would! Which is why I, a ghost in the vessel of a robot, am the only one capable of reaching such heights! Although... doing so would mean losing contact with my friends and family, so... I'm going to hold off on that for a while."

"Awwww that's really sweet of you to think of them!" said Mabel, squeezing her bear and swinging it from side to side while keeping it close to her chest.

"Thank you Mabel," said Mettaton, giving the young girl the most genuine smile she had ever seen from him.

Mabel beamed back, and lifted the bear to give it a proper look now that it had been cleaned.

Except for the sullen expression that remained on the toy's face, the bear looked much better. Its fur was radiant and smooth, and its cute beady eyes almost shined. The bear was still somewhat raggedy due to its lack of stuffing, but Mabel decided that she would address that on a later date. Knitting was one thing, but sewing a bear back up was a different beast. A beast she could easily vanquish, but the only weapon in her current arsenal that could slay the beast with was the Mystery Shack's old sewing machine. And that thing was loud. And given the typical luck of the twins, it was probably haunted too.

"I hope this new companion of yours does not spark envy from your pet pig," joked Mettaton, bringing Mabel back to reality.

"Naaah, Waddles is very understanding! Besides, he's lately been very occupied by playing around with Frisk's dog."

"Frisk doesn't own a dog though..."

Suddenly the door for the washing machine burst open, revealing a pig and a Samoyed dog, both sopping wet and smiling. They leaped out of the device, shook themselves clean, yipped and oinked with supposed satisfaction, and trotted out of the laundry room.

"Oh!" exclaimed Mettaton in understanding. "That dog!"

"Yeah, that's the fluff-ruff that I was talking about!" said Mabel, not appearing to be phased by the fact that both the puppy and Waddles managed to get inside an active washing machine and survive. She did know however that there was no collar around the puppy's neck.

"Yeah, he's a curious fellow," admitted Mettaton. "I don't think anybody I know has ownership of that particular puppy. Actually, he has this look in his eyes, like he believes he owns us."

"What, you think we are dealing with a possible puppy dog uprising?!" said Mabel, seeming more excited by the idea than intimidated by it.

"That would be headline-worthy indeed~ Don't let your guard down, my little maple leaf~" joked Mettaton, using the nickname that he had established for Mabel.

"Oh stop," replied Mabel, playfully elbowing Mettaton's leg, since that was as high as her elbow could reach.

"I should probably get going," continued Mabel. "Don't wish to keep you from your singing! Sounds great by the way! The next time I host a karaoke night, remind me to invite you!"

"No need to invite me! I am more than happy to crash your party~" proudly proclaimed Mettaton, which Mabel guessed was his way of expressing gratitude for being invited. "Now run along, darling~!"

When Frisk found Mabel again, it was in the parlor room. She was in a rocking chair, rocking back and forth excitedly, her arms extended forward and wiggling the bear in her hands.

"And I’m gonna call you Mr. SnuggleLots, and you'll be the honorary guest at my next tea party, and I'll introduce you to Waddles, ooh, OOH! And also I'm gonna find a way to get more stuffing for you so you can be all plushy again!! GO ME!!!"

"Hello again, Mabel," greeted Frisk.

"Frisk!" exclaimed an excited Mabel, her face lighting up when she saw them. She sprung out of the rocking chair, shoving the Teddy bear into Frisk's field of vision so it was the only thing that they could see. "Look at this sparkling clean little cub! Isn't he the cuuuuuuutest thing ever!?"

"I admit that he looks a little better now that he is clean," admitted Frisk, "but I'm still unnerved by how abandoned he looks."

"One step at a time, Frisko," soothed Mabel, patting Frisk on their shoulder. "I am going to put Mr. SnuggleLots through Mabel's Rehabiliteddy Program™!"

"Mabel's Rehabiliteddy Program™?" repeated Frisk, subconsciously surprised by their own curiosity. "What is that?"

"A list of steps I've made for abandoned Teddy bears that I find. I would have told you about this earlier if you joined me in the laundry room, but it's okay; I'm telling you now!"

"So what are the daily steps?"

"Day one is washing the bear. Day two is feeding the bear. Day three is a tea party for the bear. For Mr. SnuggleLots, I may need to add a fourth day for emergency surgery to take care of his unsatisfactory level of stuffing."

"Or to locate the owner of the bear," responded Frisk.

Hearing that, a thought crossed Mabel's mind.

"Yeah, but, here's the thing," said Mabel, beginning to lightly pace in a circle, "What if this bear has no owner?"

"What gave you that idea, Mabel?" asked Frisk, tilting their head and raising an eyebrow inquisitively.

"Mettaton and I encountered the white dog again. You know, the one that I saw in the cave full of ice crystals? Ooo that reminds me I still want to make a charm necklace with the crystal that you gave me BUT ANYWAY-! That dog? He had no owner!"

"So you believe we are dealing with a stray Teddy bear?" deduced Frisk, having followed Mabel's line of thinking after deciding that explaining the difference between stuffed animals and pets to her would be futile.

"I'm not saying we are," corrected Mabel, lightly poking Frisk in the center of their chest. "But I'm saying we could be."

"I see," said Frisk.

"So, if need be, day five will be dedicated to finding a home for this little tyke if we can't locate his original owner!" concluded Mabel, squishing the bear one more time before setting it down on the rocking chair. It said in a sitting position for a few seconds before the insufficient amount of stuffing caused it to slump over. "Day four will definitely be for stuffing him up again though."

"That sounds like a plan," concurred Frisk. "I have one more question though."

"Ask away!" said Mabel, folding her arms and taking a proud stance.

"Is there any downside to doing more than one step on the same day?" proposed Frisk.

"Not really..." said Mabel, beginning to gently pace in a circle as she contemplated Frisk's question. "It depends on how the bear is feeling. I can just tell from the fur and the face if they wish to speed up the process or not. But for Mr. SnuggleLots..." she glances to the slouched form of the thin bear, "I believe taking our time is crucial. As much as I don't wish to spread it out, it is better in the long run. Malnourished creatures can easily get sick if you try to take care of them all at once."

"You learned that from Dipper, didn't you?" said Frisk with a knowing smirk.

Mabel blushed slightly. "Yeah..." she admitted, "...but I'm the one who puts his knowledge to good use!" she added, regaining her honor.

"Well that's good," said Frisk, the smirk becoming a smile. Then they walked over to the bear and picked it up. "We should probably get this guy to our bedroom."

The rest of the day went by relatively quickly. Frisk and Mabel enjoyed dinner with the rest of the crew, though Dipper was absent, and Sans as well, strangely. All the while, Mr. SnuggleLots was sitting pretty and piper atop the nightstand that separated Dipper's bed from Mabel's. When Frisk and Mabel returned to the bedroom, Dipper was still fast asleep.

"Wanna draw a mustache on him???" asked Mabel with a devilish grin.

"It's best we don't test him," said Frisk, before adding with a sly smirk "Another time perhaps~"

Mabel giggled once more before stifling a yawn. "Goodnight Frisk."

"Goodnight Mabel," replied Frisk, sleeping into their sleeping bag.

Then the lights went off.

Just as Mabel suspected, the middle of the night had Dipper suddenly turning in his bed. But it wasn't because of how royally messed up his atomic clock was.

It was in fact because his face was being blasted with hot air that smelled like dog breath.

“mmmmf… mmmno… no I don’t need anymore candy… mm? chocolate taffy? Mmmmmy favorrriiiite…"

Then there was an audible "huff" and Dipper was wide awake.

"Wha...?"

And there, atop of Dipper's chest, face hovering over his...

Was a plum furred, hungry bear. One that was very much alive. And Drooling.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!"

PART 2

SKIP TO PART 3

NEXT CHAPTER (Coming Soon to the Mystery Shack!)

ONCE UPON A TIME...

TABLE OF CONTENTS

#gravitytale #gravity falls #undertale #underfalls #surprise!#I forgot I used to post these to tumblr in parts #and I definitely thought this was enough for a part one #hope you enjoyed!

44 notes · View notes

nearly-theyre · 4 years

Text

haikyuu: multi-work series fic recs!

hello friends! we are back at it again with another fic rec list ~

find me on twitter and ao3 (where you can see all the fics I didn’t get to put on this rec list!) ~

LET’S BEGIN

FORMAT:

“title” (ratings) by author (a ✰ means the series is HIGHLY recommended!)

link

Works: # Complete: Yes/No

Warnings: will consist of ALL warnings present in the series, although each warning present may not be present in EVERY fic of the series

description / notes of the series OR the summary of the first fic

WARNINGS AND WORKS/COMPLETE ARE AS OF 8/3/2020 !!!! MAKE SURE YOU ALWAYS READ WARNINGS/TAGS/SUMMARIES BEFORE READING!

“cafe backrooms and serendiptuous shenanigans.” (NR) by turnaboutcafe

https://archiveofourown.org/series/1774060

Works: 4 Complete: No

Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings

in which the haikyuu!! characters work in a university cafe.

in publishing order i. what a bother. / kuroken ii. personal space. / iwaoi iii. cafe latte. / bokuaka iv. wrong order. / kagehina

“Being Human” (T/M/E) by shions_heart

https://archiveofourown.org/series/660140

Works: 7 Complete: No

Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings / No Archive Warnings Apply / Graphic Depictions of Violence

Set in an alternate world of magic, witches, and demons, our volleyball sons learn about life, love, and what it means to be human.

“Sometimes You Just Clique” (G/T) by SoVeryAverageMe

https://archiveofourown.org/series/695778

Works: 2 Complete: No

Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply

No one expected the spoiled rich kid, popular football captain, arrogant school genius, and uptight class president to become best friends following The Incident™ their junior year. Underneath their differing facades and personal armors, lay a bed of similar insecurities and anxieties. This is the story of how they met and what happened afterwards, because sometimes when you meet the right group of people you just... clique.

“omam verse” (T/M/E) by shions_heart

https://archiveofourown.org/series/403992

Works: 4 Complete: No

Warnings: Graphic Depictions of Violence / Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings

Though some may believe they're monsters, those closest to them know they're just men learning how to love in this world of magic, demons, and faeries.

“iwfyitd verse” (G/T/M/E) by shions_heart, knightswatch ✰

https://archiveofourown.org/series/378352

Works: 7 Complete: Yes

Warnings: Graphic Depictions of Violence / Major Character Death / Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings

The story of a band of Super Soldiers trying to save the world, and their loved ones who fight alongside them.

“a park in amsterdam” (M) by Resamille

https://archiveofourown.org/series/1239377

Works: 2 Complete: No

Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings

Summary of the first fic: They come together unexpectedly. They each have memories: a friend once held dear, now gone. The trail has led them here, and maybe, along the way, they remember each other too.

Or: Over twenty years ago, witch law decreed a split between magic and non-magic worlds. Five humans were the first casualties in the protest. Their five soulmates were left to pick up the pieces.

“Hanamaki Disease: Disturbing the peace of volleyball teams everywhere” (G/T) by Ink_stained_quills

https://archiveofourown.org/series/1604839

Works: 4 Complete: No

Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply

Hanamaki disease: when Hanamaki Takahiro must “eyy” whenever he sees someone crushing. A friend to couples and menace to pining people everywhere (or is he?)

“Seijoh Sweets: Aoba Johsai Artisinal Bakery” (T) by FindingSchmomo

https://archiveofourown.org/series/525493

Works: 3 Complete: No

Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply

Collection of Oneshots taking place in my Aoba Johsai Bakery AU

“Haikyuu at Hogwarts” (G/T) by Killthespare ✰

https://archiveofourown.org/series/952755

Works: 4 Complete: No

Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply / Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings

Pretty much as the title suggests: a Hogwarts!AU with Haikyuu. It's planned as a seven book series so definitely a longer series. This first few can be read out of order with only minor confusion (about as easily as the first few Harry Potter books can) but there is an overall series plot in addition to the individual plots of each story. As of the fourth book, the previous third story should really be read before the fourth or later books.

So far, the stories in order: 1.) Shouyou Hinata and the Mirror of Erised (complete) 2.) Koushi Sugawara and the Heir of Slytherin (complete) 3.) Yu Nishinoya and the Shrieking Shack (complete) 4.) Tooru Oikawa and the Triwizard Tournament (in progress)

“hq detective AUs” (M) by valiantarmor ✰

https://archiveofourown.org/series/234750

Works: 3 Complete: Yes

Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply / Graphic Depictions of Violence

A series of detective AUs.

“Carving Out A Life” (M/T) by RoseSakura ✰

https://archiveofourown.org/series/1429972

Works: 2 Complete: No

Warnings: Graphic Depictions of Violence / No Archive Warnings Apply

Zombie Apocalypse AUs - including both longer stories and little one shots

“The Big Bads” (T) by fandom_cat

https://archiveofourown.org/series/1612339

Works: 2 Complete: No

Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply

A collection of chats between different HQ characters! Works can be read separately but what's the fun in that? ;) Oh, and gay: gay everywhere.

Lots of things getting discussed. Mostly light-hearted though, fun was had, jokes were made. Any additional trigger warnings listed before chapters.

“chiaroscuro” (T) by newamsterdam ✰

https://archiveofourown.org/series/434134

Works: 2 Complete: No

Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply

chiaroscuro: the interplay of darkness and light.

“We’re called guardians,” Kuro says. “Over time, people have had different names for us, but it really all comes back to that. We’re shifters, shaper-changers… the name doesn’t really matter. What does is that we’re supposed to keep the two kinds of magical forces in the world balanced.” He rattles this off with a roll of his eyes, as though it’s something he’s heard many times over.

Kenma thinks back to the curling snake made of shadows, to Sugawara’s words: People who shine brightly attract a lot of darkness.

“Shadows and light,” he says, not quite a question.

Kuro nods approvingly. “Basically, yeah. There’s a bit more to it than that—shadow magic is born of independence, of isolation and loneliness. Light magic is connections, the relationships between people. Most people have a low dose of both, go through their entire lives not realizing there’s magic in the world.”

“But not you,” Kenma prompts.

“Unfortunately.”

“Circle Universe” (T) by sandersonsister (REQUIRES AO3 ACCT) ✰

https://archiveofourown.org/series/826590

Works: 2 Complete: No

Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings / No Archive Warnings Apply

Summary of the first fic: It was the omega’s that initiated the courtships, the omega’s that decided who was needed in the circle. But it didn’t worry Kenma. Honestly, there was a particular reason it didn't worry him.

That reason was Kuroo.

He always knew the two of them would be together. And he thought that was enough. He was wrong.

“not just good business” (G/T/NR) by ilgaksu

https://archiveofourown.org/series/307530

Works: 7 Complete: No

Warnings: Graphic Depictions of Violence / Underage / Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings

Description: credit to hamlet-themouse for their invaluable beta throughout this series so far.

Summary of the first fic: It's been years since Kenma bought that pearly-pink powder and tried it on to go meet Kuroo after his shift, been years since Kuroo wiped his hands on his overalls and looked up and said don't you touch them like that. It's been years since he opened the door to the mob. They are the mob now. They're the ones knocking down the doors.

“Shiratorizawa Family” (G) by someonelikej

https://archiveofourown.org/series/1857982

Works: 2 Complete: No

Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply

Mostly non-related one-shots and short stories portraying the Shiratorizawa team as a family.

“Domestic Cats” (M) by Avogara

https://archiveofourown.org/series/1717717

Works: 2 Complete: No

Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply

A collection of domestic, homey, post-timeskip Kuroken fluff

“‘Til Human Voices Wake Us” (T) by strikinglight

https://archiveofourown.org/series/393289

Works: 2 Complete: Yes

Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings / No Archive Warnings Apply

Haikyuu Pacific Rim Diptych, feat. Daisuga and Kuroken as primary victims

“The Heart of Nekoma” (T/M) by shions_heart

https://archiveofourown.org/series/339679

Works: 3 Complete: Yes

Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings

The story of a penniless thief and the magical gem who steals his heart.

“brunch friends” (T/M) by newamsterdam ✰

https://archiveofourown.org/series/612757

Works: 3 Complete: No

Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply

Summary of the first fic: “Iwaizumi’s left his cell phone on the bench, and while Suga keeps his gaze away from Iwaizumi the phone lights up with a new message.

Iwa-chan, it reads, Have a good day today! Good luck! <3 <3 <3

Suga chokes. It’s hard to imagine anyone calling the scowling and fierce Doctor Iwaizumi “Iwa-chan.” But marriage probably comes with all sorts of liberties.

Mrs. Iwaizumi must be quite the doting wife, Suga thinks. Delivering hand-made bentos and sending along loving messages.”

No one really knows much about the new surgical resident, Doctor Iwaizumi, other than the fact that he's married. Suga's determined to find out more, and make a friend of him in the process

“Among Us” (M) by dgalerab ✰

https://archiveofourown.org/series/540973

Works: 5 Complete: No

Warnings: Graphic Depictions of Violence / Rape/Non-Con / Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings

X-men AU with my favorite volleydorks.

“It’s A Good Life” (G/T) by LisaVanDerMolen

https://archiveofourown.org/series/1615756

Works: 3 Complete: No

Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply / Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings

Summary of the first fic: Kenma opened his eyes again and looked at the door. The dark hallway greeted him, something was wrong. And then he saw it, a small figure peeking at him from behind the door. Big golden eyes like his own greeted him. Kenma felt himself smiling at the sight in front of him, when he heard soft sniffles.

Kenma and Kuroo awaken to their kid crying and comfort him while not knowing what's wrong.

And that’s all for today folks! Hit me up here on tumblr or in my twitter DM’s if you want more recs or want to discuss any of the fics on this list in more depth! I’m happy to help you find the perfect series!

Show these authors some love - don’t forget to kudos, comment, and message them on their socials to show your appreciation!

take your meds, drink water, eat some food, get enough sleep, and reach out to someone today! I love you and you got this!

#haikyuu #haikyuu fic recs #fanfiction #fic recs #writing #fandom #ao3 #archive of our own #n e ways i love fanfiction and these authors deserve more love!

6 notes · View notes

alternislatronemhq · 4 years

Photo

Congrats, Steph, you have been accepted to AL for the role of Remus Lupin (FC: Ross Butler). Steph, wow, what a great application! I think it can be really easy for Remus to be portrayed only one way, and I’m so excited to see how you explored his differences in this storyline. He’s really hurting and bitter because of the betrayal of his friends, and that is going to be such an interesting thing to see played out. With the way you got into his head, I have full confidence that you’ll do that really well! Please send in your blog (no sideblogs for first characters, please) in the next 24 hours and be sure to take a look at our new player checklist.Welcome home, we’re so excited to have you join the family!

OOC

name — Steph age — 26 pronouns — she/her timezone — GMT+1 activity level — I work in a supermarket which is very busy at the moment, so won’t get on every day necessarily but will be around a few times a week easily, particularly afternoon UK time.

IC Overview

name — Remus Lupin age — 26 gender — Male (he/him) sexuality — Gay (closeted)

patronus — Wolf. Remus hates that the animal which best represents his soul is the one which has defined his life in such a negative way. Therefore, he never casts a corporeal patronus when he summons one.

boggart — The Full Moon. This is representative of Remus’ fear of what he becomes each month, his dread of each upcoming full moon and the way each that has passed leaves scars mental as well as physical.

IC In Depth

personality traits —

+ selfless: Remus would do anything for his friends no matter the cost to him.

+ compassionate: Possibly an odd trait for somebody known as a prankster, Remus sees the good in those around him and empathises with them. He would take the side of an underdog over the easier but less righteous choice. His compassionate nature has also helped him to forgive people when they have done wrong in the past, in particular Sirius after the incident of Severus Snape and the Whomping Willow. However, forgiving himself and forgiving Sirius again after the breakdown of the Marauders feels impossible.

+ astute: While Remus generally has to work at being book smart, his sharp perception of the world comes naturally. He can think quickly and intuitively to turn a situation to his advantage, whether that is in finding loopholes for the next marauder prank, in assessing a situation that might be about to turn sour or in identifying somebody who needs a word of encouragement.

- people pleaser: In school, this manifested in Remus’s tendency to look the other way when the other Marauders are breaking rules. He would not participate if he didn’t really agree with what they were doing but he certainly didn’t do anything to stop or stand up to his friends. The biggest threat to his self-esteem is the idea of being unwanted, unloved, or a disappointment.

- self-deprecating: Remus hates everything that reminds him of his lycanthropy, especially the parts of his personality which are shaped by his condition. Though the support of his friends has helped him come to terms with his fate in the past, Remus has always been prone to some doubt and shame over the werewolf part of him. Knowing that Sirius lost trust in him was hard for him but now he almost accepts it as inevitable because he doesn’t feel like he deserved the friendship of the Marauders in the first place.

- vengeful: While Remus will forgive somebody for one wrong if they show contrition, if somebody earns his anger then they should beware. On the wrong side of him, Remus is a force to be reckoned with.

character biography —

(Tws: illness, smoking-related illness, death, depression, poverty and homelessness)

From the night he was bitten, Remus grew up in isolation units and hospital wards and the confining four walls of his bedroom. His life would forever be shaped by that monthly pattern and a fear of others finding out. His home-schooling involved not just basic numeracy and literacy but also astronomy and muggle physics and an extensive education into what it meant to be a werewolf. Every last galleon that they owned went into searching for a cure or moving to another town after their latest neighbours started to suspect something was amiss with the family, a few spare coins each month for each of their vices: Lyall’s italian coffee and books, cigarettes and music records for Hope, and chocolate frogs and colouring pencils for remus. In between other lessons, Lyall Lupin did everything he could to ensure Remus would be prepared for a nomadic adulthood — a life on the streets, friendless and penniless — deaf to Hope’s pleas that they try and help him get back to some notion of a normal life.

Hope’s wish finally came true in the form of Professor Dumbledore, not long since appointed as headmaster of Hogwarts, showing up on their doorstep. Remus was so excited to go to school that he barely noticed his parents’ worried exchanges and fears. It was only later, when Remus started to compare the next year’s full moons to his new school calendar that it dawned on him just how complicated this would be. It was his mother who suggested that he could say she had a chronic illness and that he was visiting her whenever there was a Full Moon but he had not known James Potter, Sirius Black and Peter Pettigrew for long before he realised they would not buy that as a reason for skipping classes or being absent from the dorm every month like clockwork. Remus, glad to finally have friends and terrified he would lose them if they found out the truth, made up different and increasingly more elaborate stories but he wasn’t a good enough liar to hide from his best friends.

The four of them grew closer than Remus could have ever hoped for. They accepted him and supported him. They helped him keep his secret from their other classmates and they were constantly coming up with ways to make things easier for him, whether it was ensuring he didn’t fall behind in classes or sneaking him sweets and tea the morning after a transformation. They learnt to become animagi and Remus couldn’t be more grateful.

Everything seemed to go wrong at once. a betrayal from his best of friends — his only friends — revealing the secret his life had been devoted to keeping for the purpose of playing a cheap and fatal prank on Snape. Remus felt convinced all three of them were in on it because they always were. He avoided and argued and was the most miserable he had been since starting Hogwarts. It was during this period of low that he had a careers meeting that highlighted how dim his prospects after school would be and remus was reminded of what his father had tried to impress on him all these years — that werewolves weren’t supposed to have the sort of life he had been playing at, with education and friends and happiness. The next full moon was during the Easter holidays and unable to bear sitting in the Shrieking Shack alone, he went home. He asked his parents why him. Unable to fob him off with any more half-truths or excuses, his father finally opened up about Greyback. Remus had to hear how his father had once held the same prejudices about werewolves as the rest of the wizarding world and make his own conclusion that maybe he still did. After all, he had almost stopped Remus from living his life after the bite, no matter how much he claimed it was for Remus’ own good. The resulting argument was brutal but soon cut short by hacking coughs and Lyall turning on his wife and snapping at her to stop smoking those damn things. Her hand was shaking as she ignored him and tried to light the cigarette anyway. Remus noticed for the first time that she looked very ill, so ill that his using her as an excuse all those months appeared to be coming back to bite him.

They had been his first ever friends and when Remus returned to school he knew he could avoid them no longer. He needed them. Life would be much too lonely without them, especially if Hope’s days were numbered and, besides, he had grown too used to their being by his side during transformations. He refused to let them talk about it, insisting he didn’t want to relive it when in fact a part of him was worried that talking it through would remind him how betrayed he had felt. He reminded himself of what he had always believed: that he wasn’t good enough for them. That he was nothing more than a monster and at least he should be grateful that they still wanted his friendship. He was indebted to them. How could he keep pushing them away when they equalled the happiest moments of his life so far? Even with that awful incident, none of them were a part of the worst moments of his life. So, he let them fall back together and patch up the cracks in their friendship with jokes and pranks and throwing themselves towards war, knowing that it didn’t matter to him how they felt. They could pity him and fear him and be prepared to brush him away without a second thought again. He would die for them anyway.

Life after Hogwarts was predictably difficult. Employers wizarding and muggle alike did not look kindly on him taking sick leave less than a month after being hired and inevitably after the second Full Moon he was circling ads in the newspaper again. It wasn’t long before the Order of the Phoenix became his primary concern and though the very thought of seeing Greyback again made him felt akin to walking into hell, he found himself accepting the mission of the Order’s spy amongst the werewolves. Only Dumbledore knew the task he was undertaking, the majority of the Order having no idea of his condition and those who did he was forbidden to talk to them about it. Remus started to slip away from himself. He was incredibly lonely without being able to talk to his best friends and each minute with the werewolves brought more danger, more emotional strain, and more questions about whether he had ever really deserved his years pretending to be a normal wizard. The werewolves he had befriended didn’t understand why he would want to live amongst humans and there were others who would never be friendly with him as long as that was the case.

By 1981, Remus felt completely isolated. His mother died early in the year and his relationship with his father was worse than ever. Transformations with the Marauders were a distant memory and instead he spent his Full Moons forced into a life of violence he had always been determined to avoid. He barely saw any of the Order outside of meetings and his attendance at those was becoming increasingly difficult. When he did come back, it was hard to know his place in the meetings, unable to talk about what he had been doing and knowing so little about everybody else’s lives. Only Peter seemed to remember that he was missing so much and made a point of keeping Remus in the loop but so often that consisted of lost lives and disappearances and Remus came to dread the times he would sneak away from the packs. Talks of spies did not help. It was impossible for Remus to think of any of the Order as betraying them and he told the group as much, fiercely insisting that this was what the Death Eaters wanted ⁠— for them to be torn apart by their own paranoia.

So distant from it all, Remus did not realise how guilty he had made himself look until after it all was over. James was in hospital, basically gone, and Peter in Azkaban and it had only happened because Sirius suspected Remus. Fleeing from the werewolves the moment word reached him that the war was over turned out to be a bad idea because all of a sudden Remus found himself with nothing. The friendless and penniless life of the streets that his father had prepared him for was now a reality and he would rather sleep rough than face the guilt that if he had been there, if he had just disobeyed Dumbledore enough to tell the Marauders what he was involved in, if he had been a better friend to Peter, maybe none of this would have happened. It was better than facing Sirius, who was the one person he thought would understand that Remus could never betray them.

plot ideas —

I have always imagined James to be the one who is able to ground Remus and keep him together so without him there, Remus has spiralled. The memory of the Marauders is something bitter now, with Peter’s betrayal and the gaping hole that James leaves and this is a big part of Remus not making an effort to reconnect with Sirius. He definitely spends a lot of time next to James’ bed in St Mungo’s. Even now, if he needs to talk to someone, James is his first port of call. Remus’s certainty that James is never coming back means sometimes he will say things he wouldn’t voice otherwise. Maybe if James does wake up, he heard more than Remus wanted him to.

I would love some other werewolves and some plots involving those werewolves Remus did befriend during the war. He almost feels guilty for liking and empathising with some of them and hates that he relates to them but it had been nice to have people who really understood.

He’s trying to act like his life isn’t falling apart around him for Harry’s sake and so that he can still see Harry while trying to hold both Lily and Sirius at a distance. This will involve a lot of pretending that things aren’t as bad as they really are, that he can manage Full Moons alone and that he is finding legitimate ways to get a proper meal between offers of charity from old friends.

The love he once had for the Marauders is difficult to define. They were his found family and his brothers, the first friends he ever had, the only people he trusted with his whole self. The battle to come to terms with himself not only as a werewolf but a gay werewolf was something he never fully managed though had there been no war the Marauders would have got him there eventually. Now, he’s left wondering where the lines are between platonic and romantic love. The men in his life have been nothing but sex, his ability to trust having been broken too far for anything more. In terms of ships, Remus will be slow to get into anything and it would have to be based on chemistry and a gradual building of trust. He might wonder sometimes if he was in love with James though that is mostly because in his anger at Peter and Sirius he has transferred all the love he held for the Marauders as a unit onto James to make it easier to process the betrayal. It’s no longer the three of them he is grateful to for making Hogwarts the best seven years of his life, but James. No longer the three of them who made him feel worthy of love and friendship but James. In believing that, he can almost cope.

If he’s going to accept help from anybody these days it will be someone who was less a part of the war and who doesn’t have their own family to think about. Much as he values people like Mary and Frank for sticking by him through all the lowest points of his depression, they have their own lives away from him, their own children to consider and Remus feels guilty whenever they express any concern for him. I’d love for him to develop a friendship with someone who makes it easier for him to let others help him, and who might be able to offer him a place to stay more permanently.

extra —

in terms of the canon that Remus believed Sirius to be the spy, I’ve always headcanoned that as being after the war. He apologised to Sirius because he believed the world when they told him Sirius had betrayed the Potters but I can’t see Remus as having suspected that beforehand. I can’t see Remus being able to think badly of the three boys who became animagi for him, not until it’s all too late. Also, I have a general pinterest board for Remus here, though it includes things from various RPs

#al:accepted #remus lupin

2 notes · View notes

lord-dusk · 5 years

Photo

Jurassic Emblem-Chapter 8

Guess who came home?? :3

Commander Anna, the general of Askr’s military commandment, had summoned the raptors and some of the other Heroes in the meeting room. She was discussing some very serious issues happening around Askr, most notably, the changes to the entire ecosystem done by what the scouts can only describe as “aberrant forms”. Anna was collecting herself, and she listed so far the aberrant forms identified:

Basilice.

Sobek and Gorgonorhea.

Henoka.

Styracostegas.

Emmatross.

One of the effects that Anna had said was already happening was the fact somewhere up in Nifl, the sun-god Helios was frozen solid by a “giant icicle-covered serpent.” Blue snarled. Unlike the medieval warriors she was with, Blue and her sisters knew that these aberrant forms were heinous-hybrids created by the controversial Henry Wu, and she needed to destroy them quickly. Her life was already fried by those red-eyed mangled-tooth fatherf**kers and she didn’t want anyone else to suffer the same fate.

And coincidentally, outside the meeting room, Askr’s summoner and tactician Kiran shrieked out a macaw-style gasp. Lucina and the raptors rushed out.

And there, above the groveling,thirsty, pathetic form of Kiran, was a goddess in a pelagic-blue yukata, waving her shark-like crocodilian tail in patience like some Hoshidan deity. Blue didn’t had to blink her eyes to find out who that woman was.

It was the Island Goddess Ryukami, the mosasaurus who not only protected Nublar(before she swam out into the open sea), she was also the heroine that leapt out of her lagoon, pulled the Indominus rex into the water, and devoured her like a roast chicken.

.“Hunh. I was quite busy tearing apart a Chinese shark-finning vessel and I was just about to swallow the last fisherman when you pulled me to this strange dimension,” Ryukami said. “Tell me, human. What reason do you have for interrupting my meal?”

Kiran formed his words meekly. “P-please....Please...H-help me l-land....Vel-velouria and....and....Leanne....”.

Ryukami ignored him. She fixed her gaze on Blue, Lucina, Echo, Delta, and Charlie.

“Hmm. Oh. Hello, little lizards.” the crocodilian whale greeted. “I didn’t expect to see you girls. Especially to you, blue one-” she paused. “Wait, wasn’t there only one raptor left on Nublar? Particularly a charcoal one with a blue stripe?

Blue smiled.”It’s okay Ryu. I think I can explain things along-”

“Oh wow! It’s Ryukami from the Mosasaurus Feeding Show! Look at those sharp teeth of yours! Can i have your autograph?”

For the first time in 80 million years, a velociraptor has tackled a mosasaur. Specifically, Charlie had sprung unto Ryukami, face pressed against the goddess’s chest, and shaking her hands.

“Well, dear child, do you have anything I can sign my name on?”

Charlie brought out her Nintendo Switch. “Sure! You can sign on the back!”

*********

When the meeting had ended and the raptors explain the situation to Ryukami, the mosasaur agreed to ferry them to the icy isle of Nifl. But they were some hurdles to overcome.

First was Teba and Warbler. After the incident in which the two criminals attempted to run-off with the frozen embryos, they were thrown in the cellar awaiting judgement. Lucina and Blue had some very powerful urges to mangle the already injured mercenaries, but Anna wouldn’t allow it presently and declared that Teba and Warbler shall not be executed until they scrutinize the morals of the formers’ agenda. Besides, no one exactly knew how to deal with dilophosaur that spat venom out of its beak and an amphibian with katana-sharp dorsal spines. And as such, as much they’d like to accompany Blue and Lucina on their mission, Echo, Delta, and Charlie decided to stay watch and monitor the samurai and the drunk dilo.

“If they pull something I’m going to tear them apart bit by bloody, bony bit!” Echo cracked her claws in anticipation.

“When Askr finds out what these belligerent iguanas are really up to, then yes.” Delta replied.

“Um, I understand I am in no position to ask, but may I have some water?” Teba requested from within the cell. Warbler lay at the back corner, dozing off.

“You just answered your own question Pouter-Flounder,” Charlie answered back. “it’s called drinking pee.”

And second, as much of a kind reptile Ryukami was, a deity didn’t grant a wish for free. If you wanted a god to grant your wishes you had to offer up a payment.

And by payment, I mean a person or several to sacrifice to the mosasaur.

Initially, Lucina tried to process everything down. Sacrificing people to the dragon-gods can’t be good, she thought, until she considered that in order to obtain the “Good Ending” in Awakening, the Shepherds chopped up and raped, and devoured every last denizen in Plegia. After all, humans, both good and bad, loved to end chaos by BRINGING FORTH chaos. A negative factor multiplied by a negative factor always lead to a positive. Therefore, Lucina decided to sacrifice Henry and Tharja, as well as male Robin to Ryukami.

“Aaaaaaaah, this is the happiest day of my life!” Henry chirped as the mosasaurus crunched downed on his ribs and slurped up his intestines like sausage pasta.

As an added bonus, Ryukami had blessed both Lucina and Blue with water-magic, which not only increased their vitality and endurance, it also allowed them to convert the surrounding water into atmospheric air in case shit happens and the two raptors find themselves 30 meters below the surface.

“The trip to Nifl will take about a two or three days by me so you ought to be thankful for my gifts,” Ryukami said. “Now, is everyone ready?”

********

The night sky was a deep-blue color, a gorgeous complement to the turquoise waters. The air was cool and kind to the skin, which would have been perfect for relaxation.

But there was no time for relaxation. For the past several days(or lacking thereof) there was no sunlight. As Helios the sun-god was turned into a kakigori, an icy cold night was spreading from Nifl to Askr, placing photosynthetic activity in jeopardy.

Blue and Lucina were perched on Ryukami’s head and hand, respectively. When asked why she couldn’t have simply used her Dragonstone to morph into her crocodilian-whale form, Ryukami claimed she had left it at the bottom of Dragon’s Reef.

Even gods have accidents, I suppose, Blue thought.

Lucina broke the silence. “Hey Sole Survivor, have you killed your own parent?”

Blue perked her head.”......Why do you ask?”

“I know I had to kill my previous mother in order to save my father and country. What about you?”

“That’s a very morbid question Future Witness. Were you part of the tiger-raptor tribe on Site B? Did you cannibalize your own sibling as well? To answer your question though, I did not. But that’s not to say I didn’t put Papa and his friends’ lives in danger multiple times.”

“I nearly killed my father as well-in fact, the world where I’m from, I had to detonate my re-animated father like the walking flesh-grenade he was.”

“You know, if I died, my ghost would be more than happy to tell my daughters to eat my body,” Ryukami joined in. “There will be times when children will literally want a part of their parents-at least physically.”

“Well, my ex-mother’s flesh tasted rather like lobster and centipede mixed with sperm-covered pants,” Lucina said.

“Okay Future Witness, can we talk about something else? We already had a chapter dedicated to your hobbies.” Blue remarked.

“Alright,” Lucina answered. “I’ve always wanted to ask you this anyway. What is your papa like? I’ll take note if there is a slight,slight,slight chance I’ll meet him.”

“A nice guy. A bit of a jerk who only goes by his own rules, drinks beer, and lives in the most beautiful shack on the outskirts of the jungle. But as someone who’s raised me and my sisters ever since we were hatchlings,he is the best person in my entire world, so much so I’ll slice up security guards for him.”

“I see.”

Just then Ryukami had stopped at a large ice-floe. “We’re here.” Ryukami announced.

#jurassic emblem #fire emblem heroes #jurassic world #blue #lucina #blucina #raptor squad #ryukami #mosasaurus #mosasaurus wife #fanfiction #fire emblem

7 notes · View notes

fawninthewinter · 6 years

Note

For the prompt ask, if you're up for this: Team Rocket and #30 :D

“Well, dat was unexpected.”

There was a delightful teasing tone in Meowth's voice as it rang from the entrance to the cave the quartet had made their home in during their time in the Alola region.

“Wobb-uffet”. The blue blob slowly and flatly chimed after his feline companion , fruit and groceries bundled in his arms.

Meowth’s words were very appropriate for the scenario both him and Wobbuffet as well as Jessie and James had accidently stumbled into. Meowth and Wobbuffet had been prepared to come home with a large amount of food to feast on that night, but had definitely not been prepared to find the two human members of the team gently cuddling on the makeshift leaf beds while pressing their lips together as soon as they had returned from their grocery run.

Meowth had waited until they had gently pulled apart until he made his and Wobbuffet's presence known. He hadn't wanted to spoil their tender moment or his own entertainment he found in watching the end of their kiss.

Jessie’s eyes shot right open at the sound of Meowth's voice, and her head whipped to his and Wobbuffet's direction. To say the expression on her face was a shocked one would have been an understatement. James reacted similarly, his face now flashing bright red with embarrassment, and eyes as wide as Jessie's were now.

“Meowth! Wobbuffet!” Jessie shrieked their names before thrusting herself up into a sitting position on the nest of leaves she and James had made themselves comfortable on. She quickly narrowed her eyes at her feline teammate in annoyance, though red was still spread from cheek to cheek in spite of her glare. “Don't you knock first?”

“No door, Jess.” Meowth pointed to the cave entrance with his free paw while he held a small bag of goods in the other one to emphasize the fact that their base wasn't located in anything fancy like a building or even something like a shack. Though it was obvious Jessie had asked that as a rhetorical question out of annoyance at her and James being discovered at the end of their activity by him and Wobbuffet.

“We didn't expect you back so soon.” James told him awkwardly, lightly ruffling the hair on the back of his head with his hand, face still bright red and eyes closed, smiling sheepishly.

“Oh, you're welcome for goin’ ta get da dinna and givin' youse da time alone ya clearly needed.” Meowth teased in response to James’ on the spot statement as he and Wobbuffet walked over to the opposite side of the nests to place the groceries down in a pile. Wobbuffet couldn't help but start to smile slowly and pretend he had seen absolutely nothing while wobbling slowly beside his feline friend. He did slowly say a “Wobb-u” while he put his bags of goods down. Of course the carefree blue blob was never one to ponder on things nor did he have too much to say on topics of just about any kind, but Meowth did have to wonder if Wobbuffet had any sort of knowledge about human romance or lewd activities when it came to them, or if he had ever seen a sight before. If that was the case (which it most likely was judging by the patient Pokémon's reaction), the scratch cat doubted that this incident would be an exception for Wobbuffet when it came to not thinking or being bothered by things too much. It wasn't as if the blob could talk to his trainer and her partner about their love lives directly without translation anyhow like Meowth could.

The two human members of the quartet shared a soft gaze, no longer all that bewildered about what had just happened as much as they were unsure of what to say to their furry partner about the ordeal. James managed to let out a small sigh.

“You weren't really supposed to see that, Meowth.” Even his tone of voice didn't indicate any embarrassment in it anymore as it did uneasiness surrounding the topic where the cat was concerned.

“Yeah, no kiddin', Jimmy. Kind a' figured dat when we walked in and you was too busy kissin’ and all ta acknowledge our presence til’ I said sometin'”. Meowth deadpanned at him. “What was dat all about, anyways?” he asked genuinely, growing curious. “I mean, I knew youse was close and tought dat maybe ya did tink’ about each utta’ dat way, but why do dat lovey dovey stuff now of all times?”

“Why is it any of your business, Meowth?” The scratch cat searched for any hint of real aggressiveness in Jessie's voice, but only found a slight edge in it.

“Gotta say, I'm kinda hurt dere. As your teammate an' important part of da team at dat, ain't I entitled ta know dese t’ings?” Meowth would have normally chided them this jokingly and worded it as such, but he found himself feeling a pang of hurt at whatever went on between them when he and Wobbuffet were gone possibly intended to be kept from him. Underneath his usual egotistical demeanor he had just showcased with the last sentence, there was part of him that felt like he was being pushed to the sidelines of the group by information like this being kept from him. Though there was another part that reminded him that he did just walk in on the two of them locking lips and arms with each other when he would usually find just about anything else happening when returning with groceries. So perhaps wanting details right away before letting the dust settle was asking a bit much. Regardless, it didn't make the feeling of being left out disappear entirely.

“Y’know, if yas wanted time to yourselves, all ya had ta do was say so.” Meowth decided that the next best course of action was to pretend it didn't bother him. “I ain't judgin’”.

Their voices must have been loud enough to be heard by those in ear range because Mareanie began to stir against the cave wall where she had obviously been taking a nap against. She slowly opened half of one eye, muttering a slow and quiet “mar-ee" as she did so. Once she caught a glimpse of her trainer sitting up in a nest with his co-worker, she opened both of them in alarm despite not knowing what just went on. It had become a habit of hers to grow worried wherever James was concerned. Even when she knew her trainer was safe and near her. Meowth had become accustomed to her even being curious about what went on involving him. The brutal star Pokèmon had even talked with the feline about her feelings surrounding her lavender haired trainer from time to time. And he was pretty sure he caught a glimpse of Mimikyu sinking behind the railing from the wooden staircase leading to the floor above they had built as another level for the base until it had completely vanished from eyesight, only masking half of itself visible from where it peeked in the first place. If one were to look hard enough and was agile about it. The Pikachu lookalike sent a chill down Meowth's spine as always with its presence. Whether clear or subtle. Meowth knew it had most likely witnessed what went on between his taller partners. Being honest with himself, Meowth couldn't say he was surprised knowing the ghostly Pika imposter.

“I wasn’t worried that you were! I just think it's very rude of a fur ball to walk in on two people's private and romantic love making sessions.” Jessie sneered at him. “That goes for big blue blobs as well.” She addressed her patient, joyful Pokémon and fourth member of their team who was now resting his body against the pile of goods they had made with the groceries they had fetched.

“Wobbu Wobbu” Wobbuffet rubbed the back of his head with an innocent smile on his face. That was all he could do as the type of Pokémon he was. Like Meowth, he had now way of knowing what he was going to find his trainer and her co-worker and partner up to. He just had a much less cynical and more honest and childlike way of showing his reaction to this type of thing than his cat friend did.

“And what do you mean you figured we thought about each other that way? What the hell gave you that impression?” There was definitely the usual rash in her tone of voice, but Meowth still found no real aggressiveness in it as she asked him this. There hadn't even been when she had just chided him and Wobbuffet for walking in on her and James kissing with their arms wrapped around the other.

“I take it ya mean before and aside from dis?” Meowth asked jokingly, quite obviously knowing the answer to that very well. “I mean, humans may be weird, but dey don't usually start cuddlin' and smoochin' unless dey have real strong feelins' for each utta.”

Meowth knew it would be wise of him to just drop the real answer to Jessie's question rather than drag the wisecracks out further less he take a berry to the face or wake up with a collar around his neck in the morning. This was Jessie he was teasing after all.

In opposition to his temperamental partner, James was continuously rubbing soft circles around the nest of leaves with his now gloveless fingers, lightly clutching a few against his palm here and there. Presumably out of anxious anticipation for Meowth's answer. Either that or it was a small way to deal with awkwardness of being placed in this situation along with Jessie.

“Hey, I neva said dat I knew for sure, I just t'ought it might happen eventu'ly.” Meowth decided to remark in his defense. “Youse two practically spend every minute of your current lives togedda, I din't really t'ink ya'd even need anyone else. Besides me of course.”

“Wobb?” A curious voice pondered from behind him. Meowth turned to see a confused look on the blue blob's face, and an arm rested against the side of his cylinder shaped head. He could read the gesture too easily. Being a Pokémon himself, no one understood his fellow Pokémon’s psyche more than he did.

“An’ of course you too, Wobbuffet.” Meowth added, catching a smile form from the patient Pokémon's squiggly mouth. Less than two seconds following Wobbuffet’s reminder, he heard a rash “Marea!”

Shifting his gaze to Mareanie, the brutal star was shooting a glare in his direction. Those who spent time around her didn't even need to be a Pokémon- not even a talking one at that- to even guess what her thoughts were on not being included on Meowth’s short list of those there for the two of them- James anyway.

“Ok, Ok, youse too. Geez.” That seemed to do it for her, though she did bounce right over to James to settle down next to him right away.

“Sides, I doubt da two of youse really have a chance wit’ anyone else, da rate you're goin' now. Might not of noticed, but not too many folks are pinin’ afta a couple of dopey bad guys like you. You're as good as stuck wit' each utta.” Meowth couldn't help but add one of his ribs at their expenses. Jessie’s fist meeting his face being a risk worth taking for a good one.

“Oh, how heartwarming, Meowth. Thank you so much for truly putting it into words.” Jessie grumbled as she picked her gloves up off the ground from the spot beside the nest right next to her and swiftly slipped them back onto her hands and over the lower half of her arms before abruptly standing up.

“Speak for yourself, Meowth.” James mumbled in agreement, following Jessie in slipping his own gloves back on, and pulling himself up off the bed of leaves and onto his feet.

“Well, now you know Meowth. Anyway, we have food so let's just drop it and eat.” Jessie suggested. She marched over to the pile, and knelt down next to it before grabbing an apple from the selections. She glanced at James, having noticed he hadn't joined them quite yet. Her gaze grew softer in opposition to her hard one when she had been talking to Meowth about what he had witnessed. A light smile actually spread across her face. James had to have caught it before he started moving toward their newly stocked food, because he stopped to gaze back at his partner in crime, his eyes locked on hers, and a smile as soft as soft-if not softer- than hers. This tender look between them lasted a few seconds longer and would have been expected to be broken up by Wobbuffet announcing his name proudly under normal circumstances. Instead, it was broken by Jessie. “Well, when I asked that I meant it James. Are you hungry or aren’t you?”

“Oh. Of course I am.” James confirmed. There was an indication that he had needed some time to think about everything they had just occurred at the moment, but he did manage to get up and walk over to the food pile without stopping or slowing down. Mareanie bounced alongside him, and nudged right up next to him when he had chosen a spot beside Jessie. That is to say, she nudged in right between them.

Wobbuffet had long chosen his place between his trainer and his feline friend, picking up berries to plop into his mouth one after the other. Occasionally he looked over at Jessie and James with a big smile on his face. Meowth studied his fellow Pokémon’s actions, as well as the way Jessie and James continuously glanced at one another. It brought him back to his ponderings on other Pokémon's knowledge of human relationships. Wobbuffet was not blind nor innocent when it came to romance in general. The blob had developed romantic feelings himself for a couple other Pokémon in the past. One a Kirlia whom he was willing to fight against his teammates for, and the other a Wobbuffet herself. And the way he looked at them now, it was clear he had known what Jessie and James were doing when he and walked into the base meant they were interested in each other as more than best friends. It was just that Wobbuffet never cared too much about anything other than being there for those he cared about. Never one to complain about, dwell on, or question these sort of things. As long as Jessie was happy, he was happy.

Thinking about his fellow Pokémon’s reactions to the subject matter did take his mind back to feeling as if he was being sidelined by not knowing what happened between the two of them earlier. He wasn't being entirely true when he said that he figured his best friends may have thought about each other romantically. He knew they were as close as two people could be, and he did suppose if any two people were made for each other, it was them- but the things he had teased them about were mostly just that; teasing. He never would have assumed they were meant to be for sure. And he certainly didn't expect to find out by walking in on them pressing their lips together and locking arms while sharing a nest. That feeling of wanting to know what went on when he wasn't there to see it coupled with curiosity began nagging to hard. He eventually put down the half eaten apple he held in his paw, and ask about it.

“Before we eat any more, do ya really mind tellin' Me-owth what happened between da two of yas while Wobbuffet an' I was away gettin' grub?”

James slowly finished chewing the pieces of apple in his mouth, and swallowed them before looking back at Jessie, this time with more of a sheepish smile akin to the look he had when Meowth had asked them about it before. Jessie shared a more subdued one with him, before giving Meowth a quick sidelined glance.

“Hey, if y’don't want me ta know the details, dat's fine. Just wonderin'.” Meowth couldn't help but grump a bit as he said it.

James sighed. “It's not that, Meowth. Truth be told, we don't actually know ourselves.”

Jessie rested a hand on her opposite shoulder, and her chin on her arm. As if she herself was thinking of the right explanation. “While you two were gone, James and I started talking to each other. I mean about more than just usual things like expanding our base or the next scheme. James was...” Before she said another word she immediately paused to shake her head, remove her hand from her shoulder, and glance at James, signaling to him that perhaps he should explain what was on his mind at the time. “Well, what is it you were thinking about?”

“I was thinking about the future. More so, our future. And place in the universe. I know we all have thought about that in the past at least once, but I don't recall getting a chance to really talk about it with anyone. Jessie happened to be here though.”

“I noticed something was up with you when you were staring at a cave wall with a blank expression on your face. Like you were lost in thoughts. Don't ask why, but it was too weird for comfort, so I asked him if anything was the matter.” She explained to the smallest and furriest member of the team. “We started talking about things like the past and what the future held for us. What our destiny was truly to be. And our current position in life.” Jessie trailed off a bit during the latter sentence. It didn't last too long as she went right back to explaining the best she could. “Something sparked between us, I suppose. There were things about each other I don't think either of us had known.” Her focus switched over to James as she said that. Her eyes once again softened, and she found herself frozen in her current posture. “While you were out, we talked about the things that trouble us and the things that make where we are now worthwhile. It was like I now thought of James in a different light.”

“Guess you could say I thought the same about Jessie now too.” James said. “I think it was after we agreed some of the worthwhile things are this. All of us.” He felt Mareanie nuzzle up against his leg, letting out a small “Marea” as she did so.

Meowth took another chunk out of his apple and plopped a berry in his mouth. “So dat's what happened, huh? So's I guess it was unexpected for da two of youse as well.”

“What do you mean by that, Meowth?” James asked, genuinely curious.

“I mean it’s funny how love can come at da most unexpected times in da most unexpected ways. I ain't much of a fortune tella’, but whateva is meant to happen for you, I'm gonna be right dere with ya. Da future is unexpected too, but whateva it hold for us, we'll all experience it togedda. For the glory of Team Rocket. We are a team afta all.”

“Wobbuffet!” A joyful cry came from the blue blob complete with the salute that had become so iconic amongst all of them.

Jessie gave the scratch cat a smile, followed by James. “Touching, but is that the best you have in terms of fortune, Meowth? That's what we've been saying for a long time now.”

“Like I said, I'm a philosopher, not a fortune tella’.”

“Well, I suppose you're right.”

“Thank you, Meowth.” James concluded.

Satisfied by their response, Meowth went back to happily munching away. It wasn't long after he had finished the last of his apple and gotten some more berries and a Malasada down that everyone heard the stomping of large paws headed toward the direction of their base.

“You know, I have no idea why we bother to get food when Bewear is just going to come back with it anyway.” James responded to the big bear stomping along with.

Bewear made its fuzzy pink and white head visible first, poking its head into the base before bringing its entire body into it, berries and fruit of all kinds bundled up in its fore paws.

“Well, you all ready for it again?” Jessie sighed. They had long accepted the Pokemon's tight hugs and being lifted right off the ground to be carted off with it, but it didn't make what was to come whenever it made its presence known to them any more pleasant.

Bewear stopped in front of the pile to take a long look at it and to observe the two people and three Pokemon enjoying what they had been feasting on from it. Of course it had now known at least some if them had been out to get all this food. Nevertheless, it dropped the rations it had presumably gathered for it and all of them onto the pile.

“Well, we certainly won’t go hungry now.” James pointed out.

“Wobb-uffet.”

“Mareanie.”

Bewear began stalking over to them. Meowth put his paws up in a feeble manner and began to attempt to explain them to the strong arm Pokémon. “Bewear, ya see we figured ya must tire out from bringin' us grub all da time, so we went out and got-"

Meowth didn't have a chance to finish as Bewear plopped itself behind them, and reached its enormous furry arms and front paws around their semi circle, bringing the five of them into yet another tight group hug. Though it wasn't tight enough to squeeze them like it had done to them before countless times. Rather it was more like a genuine bear hug. They felt themselves fall back with Bewear as the large Pokémon lay itself down on its back. Its warm and furry arms kept them locked in the hug.

“Jessie, when you said to me earlier that you supposed the good and bad of our position in life might turn out to be worthwhile someday, where does all this affection from Bewear fall into?” James asked.

Jessie just nuzzled her cheek against Bewear's arm. “Surprisingly, I don't know. But I'm sure there's some good to it. After all, thanks to it we don't go hungry. And it does come in handy quite often.” There was a soft tone in her voice. It sounded as if there was something from Bewear that she had been missing for most of her life. Knowing Jessie's background, neither Meowth or James were fazed by it at all.

James chuckled lightly. “I suppose Bewear is officially one of us as well now, and part of our future as well.”

Meowth closed his eyes and got comfortable between his human teammates and under the warmth and coziness of Bewear's arms. He himself really did have no idea what the future held for them, but maybe unpredictability and the unexpected ways of life were some of the greatest things about it. They would all find out together anyway. And maybe the odds were in their favor after all. He knew one thing for certain though; he was glad they were all sharing a nest right now instead of only two of them. He decided not to say that thought aloud though, even as a joke. Whether Jessie and James would have found it funny, or pounded him for it, some things were best left unknown.

#ask the kat #anon #kat writes #team rocket #here it is #finally #pokemon #pokeani #my fanfics

9 notes · View notes

necromaniackat · 5 years

Text

Finders Keepers

Chapter 3: Get Your Wands Ready

I don’t know how but Mackyla managed to drag me to Hogsmeade with Ella to go dress shopping. I’ve been friends with Mac for six years and to this day I have no idea how she manages to pull me into doing things I’m not keen on doing. It’s been this way ever since our first year when she managed to convince me to sneak to Hogsmeade after curfew to meet some of her Hogwarts friends. Of course, her friends were a bit older than us and she snogged a third-year boy most of the time while I was on edge about being out so late with the notorious Sirius Black on the loose and being spotted in in Dufftown. He’s not high on the list of threats since He-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named came back. Therefore, I always carry my wand in the sleeve of my coat or robes, even when I sleep. I refuse to be caught off guard by anything or anyone.

The snowy walk to Hogsmeade was filled with Mac kicking snow balls until they exploded back into snowflakes while Ella skipped through the ankle high snow. I lingered behind them with my hands shoved into the pockets of my coat. The cold wind bit at my cheeks and ears. I wish I had my hat to cover my head, but Ella gave it to a house elf to free him. I don’t mind that she didn’t ask first, it was for a good cause.

“Eliese! What kind of person are you?! Come play in the snow!” Ella exclaimed, finally standing still in the snow. I shook my head at my dear friend and grinned. Ella acts as if the snow won’t be here tomorrow and the days after until the weather starts getting warmer and the sun comes out to stay.

“I’m the kind of person who wants their hat back from that house elf!” I shouted back at her with a smile. Ella grinned back at me, walking backwards. But all the fun and games came to an end on the outskirts of Hogsmeade. My blood began to boil, and my face reddened with anger. There is one word I despise above all rest of the horrible words the fill peoples’ vocabularies and it was clear as day being put out there for all to hear. It made me look at my sunflower friend, Mac. Her face was as white as snow and she wore a distant look in her pretty blue eyes.

“What are you doing here, mud blood?” Kaitlyn Murphy demanded as the mouth of the village. She was talking to Mac, but Ella stepped in. I could only stand there and stare wide eyed at the group of Seamus house girls standing with Kaitlyn. I couldn’t believe they were doing this in Hogsmeade, but these are their taunting grounds. But it looks like they’re waiting for someone and we just so happened to have stumbled upon them and their unnecessary commentary.

“She has every right to be here just like the rest of us.” Ella bravely claimed with an expression made of stone. Ella was a ditzy and bubbly but when people she cares for are attacked, she refuses to stand aside and let it happen. Ella is the first one in, last one out type of person. I admire that about her. I nodded in agreement. Kaitlyn gave a snarled half smile as if she knew something we didn’t before her body language changed to defensive.

“For now.” Kaitlyn commented coldly. Kaitlyn Murphy has tormented almost every girl in our year for one reason or another. Her prime targets are the muggle born girls, most likely Mackyla. She’s been doing this since the first train ride to Hogsmeade Station our first year. She found out Mackyla was muggle born and decided to humiliate her on the train in front of our peers. That’s actually how we became friends, I stepped in and helped Mac get away from them and their rude comments. Kaitlyn isn’t afraid to use the term mud blood and show where she stands with muggle born wizards and witches in the magical community.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” I piped up in a curious tone. Kaitlyn’s head snapped in my direction and a wicked smile curled at her lips. It made me slide my wand into my hand and grip it tight, ready to fight if need be.

“Times are changing. Things are going to be very different around here soon.” Kaitlyn replied in a threatening tone that made a chill crawl up my spine. The group of girls disbanded from the entrance of Hogsmeade silently, leaving the three of us standing there unsure of what to make of Kaitlyn’s response. Usually it’s hard to take her seriously because she isn’t the smartest witch but for some reason the ominous tone of her voice made things very serious. Kaitlyn is known to agree that only pure blood should be given magical education while muggles and half-bloods, and muggle born wizards and witches are treated like second class citizens.

Without much thought I hooked my arm around Mac and pulled her into the safety of Hogsmeade, trying to escape that moment by leaving the mouth of the village. Ella followed closely behind. I felt terrible for Mackyla, she doesn’t know her parents, so she doesn’t know if she’s pure blood or not. But people assume she’s part muggle because she grew up in the muggle world. As if being muggle born is a crime. It’s not, people don’t decide who their parents are so why are they being punished for it? Mackyla has never let being muggle born stop her from being an intelligent, kind, hard working person. But Ella and I can see the names get to her.

“So, dress shopping, eh? Where are we going?” I directed everyone’s attention away from the scene that just unfolded. Mackyla looked at me with a small smile nudging at the corners of her mouth.

“The Witch’s Closet. They’re having a Yule sale.” Mac said in a light tone of voice. She seemed to have moved past the whole incident.

Ella rejoined the two of us, hooking her arm around Mac as well. We walked down the snow main street. I remember our first official visit to Hogsmeade back in third year when we were actually allowed to go to Hogsmeade but that didn’t stop my two friends from dragging me there dozens of times before we were permitted to actually go. My aunty started working at the post office in Hogsmeade during my third year, so I’d go visit her sometimes. I enjoyed going to see the Shrieking Shack. Mac and Ella didn’t think it was that cool, even though I did.

My dad almost didn’t sign the permission slip for me to go. He doesn’t like me being on my own in the first place and then Cedric Diggory died and now the Dark Lord is back, my dad nearly had a stroke when I began to pack for school again. He didn’t want me to come back to school this year, but he knows how much my education means to me. I reassured him that I can handle myself.

“So, what type of dress are you looking for ‘Liese?” Mackyla asked curiously, looking at me over the racks of dresses. I nosed through the rack of pretty formal dresses, my eyes moved up to see the sheer concentration on her face. I shrugged slightly.

“I don’t know.” I sighed. Professor Fitzgerald told me my attitude towards the Yule Ball better changed otherwise I’ll be sitting in detention with her for a month. I still don’t want to go but I’m putting an effort to appear pleasant at the Yule Ball.

“Oh! Oh! Try this one!” Ella exclaimed, bounding towards me with a dress at hand. Mackyla and I looked at her as she handed me a lovely grey-silver dress.

“Is it my size?” I asked sheepishly.

“Who cares?! Try it on!” Ella cheered, shoving the dress into my chest then directed me to the dressing room. She pushed me into the booth then ripped the curtain closed. I huffed at her excitement, brushing my hair bushing my ear. I peeled off the warm clothes so I could try on the dress. The dress was made of silver silk that was floor length with a sweet heart neckline but a silvery white lace covering the cleavage area.

I sighed at the sight of me in the dress. It fit me well and it was something I’d wear. I stepped out of the dressing room to show my friends. They both stared at me wide eyed, their jaws were dropped. I suddenly felt very awkward standing there.

“So?” I wanted to know their honest opinion on how I looked. I didn’t care too much how I looked to other people, but I do care about my friends and what they think. And by the looks of it, they liked the dress.

“I never knew you could look so elegant but at the same time look so, you.” Mac commented with a smile. Mac always tells me I look like a plain Jane but with a little elbow grease I’d look stunning. Mac and Ella began to shower me with compliments when the bell over the door rang and my attention was caught by abnormally blond hair, it was the boy from class. His almost silver-blue eyes found me immediately. I could swear I knew him from somewhere besides class, but I don’t remember where. A sinking feeling overcame me when Kaitlyn came leaping into the store behind him, immediately latching onto his arm. And there goes any respect I had for him.

The moment Kaitlyn saw us a look of pure disgust distorted her face.

“What are you lot doing here?” She demanded coldly, still holding close the blond boy. I rolled my eyes at her demand. As if it couldn’t be more obvious. I mean, I’m totally not standing here in a dress with my friends, who’s arms are full of potential dresses.

“Dress shopping for the Yule Ball, that’s what we’re doing here.” I remarked the obvious, stepping forward to meet her eye to eye. I’ve never been afraid of Kaitlyn. She wants control over people.

“It’s bad enough mud bloods are allowed at St Therese, but now they’re allowed to attend our social gatherings.” Kaitlyn sneered at Mac once again. I narrowed my eyes at her.

“I swear, if you call my friend that one more time,”

“You’ll what? Or else what?” Kaitlyn taunted mercilessly.

“You’ll be sorry.” I added in a low voice. I was being dead serious, if she kept using that word, I was going to act against her. I’ve never been afraid of her and I never will be.

In one swift movement Kaitlyn drew her wand from out of nowhere. My instincts kicked in and I summoned my wand from the sleeve of my coat. It appeared in my hand at the speed of light. I stood in a defensive position, ready for the fight of my life.

“No. You’ll be sorry.” She retorted with her wand pointed at me. And I pointed mine at her. The blond haired boy silently sneered at the scene unfolding.

“Oi!” A woman’s voice cut through the tension, causing all of us to look at the red haired shop keeper.

“No magic outside of school! Wands away!” Without much of a second thought, my wand lowered down to my side. I was mildly disappointed that we didn’t get to duel. Kaitlyn believes she’s better at everything than me. But our grades say otherwise.

“Right, let’s go to a different store seeing as the filthy mud blood has touched everything.” Kaitlyn growled before turning on her heel to leave. The blond haired boy followed close behind as they left the store. I felt my entire body relax in their absence. I put my wand back in my coat, realizing Mac had her hand hovering over the pocket of her long coat. She was ready to fight just like I was.

“Good idea putting the accio charm on your wand.” Ella lightly said after a moment of silence. Mac nodded hastily. Mac and Ella both seemed surprised by the fact that I put an accio charm on my wand so I can summon it whenever. I can do wandless magic and have been able to since second year.

“You guys don’t have to keep defending me.” Mac said sullenly for the billionth time. I wonder if she knows that we know that we don’t have to defend her, we want to. If you don’t fight for what’s right every time, then you don’t fight for what’s right. I know Mac doesn’t like being called names and I don’t like it either. One of the rules at St Therese is there is zero tolerance for bullying so most of the bullying happens off the school grounds. Somehow people find a way to do anything they want.

“Yes, we do. It’s the right thing to do.” Ella spoke gently, putting her hand on Mac’s shoulder. Mac smiled and nuzzled Ella’s hand slightly.

“Besides, it’s fun seeing Kaitlyn fume with rage because she can’t control us.” Ella added with a devilish smirk, causing both me and Mac to laugh.

“But really, ‘Liese, you need to get this dress.” Mac told me with a great big smile. I smiled back at my best friend. I’ve always adored how fast Mac can bounce back from these things. I know the bullying get to her and it gets to me too, but Mac has this way of being able to carry on despite it all. Mac gets the blunt of it, but Ella and I get bullied too. My dad being in the muggle world and all, I get picked on and called a mud blood even though I’m a pure blood.

#dracomalfoy #draco malfoy #draco imagine #harry potter #harry potter and the half blood prince #writing #writer #writers #My writing #wattpad #hogwartsschoolofwitchcraftandwizardry #hogwarts #hogsmeade #Magic #wizard #witch #fanfiction #fan fiction

1 note · View note

anistarrose · 6 years

Text

I Get It (Maybel 2018 Week 2: Comfort)

Word count: ~2300

Summary: Weirdmageddon is over, but that doesn’t mean everything is happy and perfect. Hurt/Comfort, more or less.

Warnings: Brief mention of suicidal intentions (everyone ends up okay at the end), brief canon-typical violence

This is my fic for @themonthofmaybel Week 2! I was so sure I was going to finish this one on time, but I guess it wasn’t meant to be. I finished the actual writing a few days ago, but the editing didn’t go as quickly as I’d hoped. (Apologies for the bare-bones summary, but I don’t it to be too spoilery.)

“There’s gotta be something we can do to jog his memory!” Mabel cries.

“There isn’t,” replies Grunkle Ford. He turns toward her, and she can see his eyes are just as wet as hers. “I’m sorry. Stan’s gone.”

No. Stan can’t be gone. He can’t be! I thought – I thought everything was going to be okay…

“I know my Grunkle is in there somewhere! There’s gotta be something around here that can help bring him back!” She notices her scrapbook lying on the floor and grabs it, jumping on to Stan’s chair and opening it up in her lap. “This’ll work! This has to work!”

“Here’s the first day we came to Gravity Falls, Grunkle Stan! And here’s a macaroni interpretation of my emotions!”

She flips through more pages, afraid to look at Stan’s face to see if he found anything familiar or if he was just becoming more confused.

“That time we went fishing? That Summerween we spent together?” Dipper adds.

“The time – the time we all fell into the bottomless pit?” stammers Soos. “The days we all hung out at the pool and you showed me the perfect lawn chair? Mister Pines?”

“The time you let Mabel run the Mystery Shack for a bet?”

This is wrong. This is all wrong. Why is this happening?

“Stanley, do you remember the portal? Do you remember all… all the work you did to save me?” Ford has his hand on his brother’s shoulder, but he isn’t making eye contact.

“I…” Stan shakes his head. “I’m sorry, I’m trying, but… I just don’t…”

“No!” Mabel cries, clapping her hands over her ears. “No, no, no! This isn’t how it’s supposed to go! Grunkle Stan, you’re supposed to remember! I know you are!”

“Oh no, kiddo, don’t… I’m okay, really…”

“You’re not okay! None of this is okay!” Mabel shrieks with more volume than she’d intended, jumping down from the chair. She rushes over to where Waddles is sniffing at the wreckage from the Shack-O-Tron battle and picks him up, setting him back down on Stan’s lap.

“What about Waddles?” she pleads. “You’ve gotta remember Waddles!”

Stan just blinks. “Uh, right, Waddles. Yeah, that’s a… real cute pig you got there, huh?”

“Grunkle Stan, you – you saved him from a pterodactyl! There’s no way you forgot that! Right?”

“I… what?”

Mabel bursts into tears.

No, no, no, this isn’t right, Waddles was supposed to work, if Waddles didn’t work than what will...

“Oh no, sweetie, don’t cry… I’m so sorry, I’m really trying to remember…”

Waddles jumps down from Stan’s lap and makes his way to Mabel’s side, bumping his nose against her shin. Mabel just curls up into a ball. She can’t bear to see her grunkle’s confused face any more.

After some amount of time – it could have been a minute or an hour, she feels Dipper put a hand on her shoulder.

“Please, just leave me be!”

“Yeesh, drama queen, relax! I’m just trying to comfort my favorite sister!”

No. Not him. No no no no no this isn’t right this isn’t happening no no no no no –

“You’ve been saying that word a lot recently, Shooting Star! Why don’t you give yes a shot? It works pretty well alongside some maniacal laughter – here, I’ll demonstrate!”

Mabel will not look up and see those slit yellow eyes and psychotic smile on her brother’s face. She refuses.

“What are you doing in my brother’s body?” she asks, face still buried against her knees. “My grunkles killed you!” This is wrong this can’t be happening what is wrong with me –

“Did they? I can’t say I remember anything like that – oh, too soon? Sorry, I forgot I was supposed to be comforting you, like the fantastic brother I am!” Stifling a laugh, he squeezes her shoulder much harder.

On instinct, Mabel jerks away. “Let go of me, you triangular –” She slams into a railing that collapses beneath her, and nearly topples over the edge – where is she? – before Bipper grabs her by the arm.

“Woah there, Shooting Star, don’t want to fall to Earth just yet, do we?”

“I said let go of me!”

Bipper’s grin grows even wider. “Are you sure you want that?” He gestures to the spray-painted wooden cylinder behind him. “Haven’t you even noticed where we are? I mean, falling now would be a pretty exhilarating experience – that’s why I’m here in the first place! – but for you it would kinda be a one-time thing, you know?”

They’re on the water tower. Mabel is leaning over more than a hundred feet of thin air. How are they on the water tower?

“Here’s the deal, Shooting Star. I’m going to give you two options. I could pull you to safety right now, but if I do that, I’m going to go for a little skydive myself. Or, I let go of you right now, but your brother’s body gets to go down on the ladder and have him inhabit it again. Got it?”

“I – why would you make me make a choice like that?”

“Just for the heck of it!” Bipper replies gleefully. “What other reason is there to do anything?”

“I –” It’s raining now, her hair is blowing in the wind, she needs more time to think of a way out –

Mabel, can you hear me?

“Dipper?”

“Your brother can’t help you now, Shooting Star!” Bipper cackles.

Mabel, are you okay? It’s unmistakably Dipper’s voice.

“Dipper, help me!” Mabel cries.

Mabel, it’s just a nightmare! Whatever is happening, you’re safe, I promise!

“Time’s up! Given how selfish you’ve been all summer, I’ll just assume you chose to save yourself and pull you up now before I –”

“NO! I won’t let you!” Mabel lunges forward as Bipper began to pull, knocking him flat and pinning him to the platform. “You’re staying right here until you give my brother his body back!”

“Oof! Mabel, it’s me! Everything’s okay, I promise!”

Mabel opens her eyes. She has Dipper pinned to the floor of the attic. His expression is very startled, but it’s his. One of her sheets is still tangled around her leg.

“Oh, no! Dipper, are you okay? I thought – I didn’t realize I was –”

“Hey, it’s okay. It was just a bad dream, I tried to help but I guess I made it worse, I’ll know better next time – not that I hope there’s going to be a next time, I – uh, do you want to talk about it, or am I just making things worse?”

Holding back tears, Mabel runs from the room.

“Oh no, Mabel, I’m sorry!”

I could have hurt him – how am I supposed to explain why – he wouldn’t get it – the dream was right I’m self-centered and horrible and I make everything worse for everyone –

She bursts out the door and barely stops herself before slamming into Stan, who’s sitting on the porch.

“Whoa there, pumpkin, what’s going on?” He turns around and frowns as he notices her expression. “What’s wrong?”

“Grunkle Stan, you remember me, right? Please say you remember me! You’ve gotta –”

Stan hugs her. “Of course I do, Mabel. Some of my memories might still be settling into place, but you and that pig of yours were two of the first things to come back, remember?”

In that moment of relief, Mabel gives up on trying not to cry. “I know, Grunkle Stan,” she sobs, “or at least I should have known, I just – I needed –”

Stan pats her head. “It’s okay. I get it.”

He’s quiet for a moment as Mabel slowly gets her tears under control.

“You had a nightmare about me forgetting, didn’t you?”

“How’d you know?”

Stan sighs. “I get those kinds of dreams too, sweetie – well, for different reasons, but I know what waking up is like sometimes. The night I finally remembered the portal… incident, I woke up convinced Stanford was still stuck on the other side. Couldn’t understand how I got upstairs and why I wasn’t down in the basement trying to fix the thing. Didn’t snap out of it until Ford heard me trip in the hallway and I saw him in the flesh.”

“Oh no!” Mabel gasps. “Grunkle Stan, that’s – that’s really – I’m so sorry!”

Stan steps back, frowning. “Oh, I knew I shouldn’t have told you. I just wanted you to know that you weren’t –”

“What? No! Why would you say that?” Mabel asks him.

“Why… what?”

“Shouldn’t have told me? You’ve got it all wrong! Why didn’t you tell us you were going though that?! We could have helped you feel better!”

“I…” Stan looks genuinely surprised. “I didn’t want you and Dipper to worry about me. And, I guess, I didn’t think you’d get why I was so convinced that Ford was still… well, that sounds stupid now, huh. Of course you’d understand, that’s why I’m telling you in the first –”

“Oink!”

“Oh, Waddles!” Mabel scoops up her pig as he waddled onto the porch. “I didn’t make you worry, did I?”

Dipper follows Waddles out. “Mabel, I’m so sorry that I just made you feel worse…”

“Dipper, I’m the one that should be apologizing to you!” Mabel blurts out. “I knocked you down and ran away without telling you what was wrong because I thought you wouldn’t understand and wouldn’t forgive me! But I was being stupid, wasn’t I?”

“Mabel, I don’t understand…”

Stan puts a hand on Mabel’s shoulder. “Hey, I’m not going to pretend I know exactly what happened, but don’t go blaming yourself, okay? That goes for you too, Dipper.”

“Grunkle Stan?” Dipper sounds concerned. “What are you doing out here?”

“Just talking to Mabel about nightmares, and I guess about being stubborn and not telling other people what’s goin' on.”

Dipper smiles sadly. “I might be a little guilty of that myself…”

Mabel had wondered about that. The two previous nights, she’d heard some noise from Dipper’s side of the room and woken up, only for him to assure her that everything was fine and apologize for waking her. “Hey, Dipper. Promise me that next time something like that happens, you’ll let us all know so we can help you, right? And that goes for you too, Grunkle Stan!”

Before Stan can reply, Ford appears in the doorway behind Dipper.

"Is everything alright?” he asks.

“Oh no, Grunkle Ford, did we wake you up?”

Ford shakes his head. “No. Well, kind of, but I’m a naturally light sleeper. You could have accidentally rolled out of your bed in your sleep and it would have woken me.”

“Ha, Dipper used to do that all the time! They had to put a fence thing on his bed so he didn’t fall out every night!”

Dipper gently punches his sister’s arm, red with embarrassment but not upset. “Hey, you needed it on your bed for almost as long!”

Ford chuckles. “I suppose everything is more or less alright, then, if you’re making fun of each other.”

“It wasn’t alright a few minutes ago,” Mabel explains. “But it’s getting better. Talking to people helps. I know that now.”

“Good to hear.” He sits down on the couch. “It’s difficult to readjust to… well, simply to no one being in danger.”

“Yeah,” Mabel agrees, “but we’ve got each other…” Her voice trails off.

“Something wrong, pumpkin?” Stan asks as he gets up to join Ford on the couch.

“It’s just… what will we do when Dipper and I leave Gravity Falls? I mean, I’ll have him and you guys will have each other, but…”

Ford’s eyes light up. “Mabel, I assure you that you won’t have to worry about that. Dipper showed me how to set up a webcam on my new laptop, so we can call you two and talk face-to-face when you’re in California and we’re on –” He shoots a quick glance at Stan, “Well, when we’re in Gravity Falls or anywhere else we might end up.”

“We were going to tell you all about it with a cool demonstration tomorrow morning,” Dipper explains.

“We could do it right now, if you want!” Ford adds, and the battle in his mind between enthusiasm and exhaustion is visible on his face. Exhaustion wins, narrowly. “Though it might be better to wait until morning. I’m pretty comfortable here.”

“Join us on the couch, kids,” says Stan. “I know you’re younger than we are, but if we stay here talkin' out our issues for much longer your butts are gonna hurt in the morning.”

“Good plan,” agrees Mabel. She goes to sit in Stan’s lap, but Waddles gets there first, and Stan fakes a look of disgust but lets him stay.

“If you ever need to talk about something – anything, nightmares or otherwise – please, just call us,” Ford assures the kids.

Mabel nods. “We will. But you better do the same, Grunkle Stan and Grunkle Ford!”

“Of course, pumpkin,” Stan tells her.

"We will,” Ford adds, and then follows it with something under his breath that sounds like Timezones be damned. Stan gives him a suspicious – though not angry – look, but doesn’t say anything.

They all stay on the couch, four Pines and one pig, until Soos comes to work in the morning and accidentally wakes them up. Even with the bugs flying through the air and creatures roaring in the woods, it’s the best night of sleep any of them have had in weeks.

Thanks for reading! I don’t have that much experience writing in present tense, and almost ended up writing this one in the past tense, but I think I’m satisfied with how it turned out.

(IRUG ZDVQ’W DFWXDOOB DVOHHS. KH ZDV ELQJH-ZDWFKLQJ GXFNWHFWLYH.)

#monthofmaybel2018 #gravity falls #mabel pines #dipper pines #stanley pines #stanford pines #waddles the pig #suicide cw #(like i said everyone ends up okay but be safe people)#i had a bit of trouble writing this one but i'm finally happy with it #cipher is caesar -3 if you're interested

17 notes · View notes

shinobicyrus · 7 years

Text

“Tooth and Claw”

Haven’t written much Phandom stuff lately, so I thought I’d try something for this year’s Ectober. This one’s for October 26th: TEETH

It was probably a bad sign how long it took for Tucker to figure out which of the tech in his bag was beeping. Had to crouch over it on the sidewalk sifting through a tablet, an old phone, his backup battery charger, two different generations of game boys, his backup-backup charger; Sam always warned him he was slowly sliding down a slippery silicon slope into pseudo-hoarding.

He found the culprit near the bottom of the bag: a Fenton ecto-scope tangled up in some old cables for a model of PDA he…didn’t actually own anymore. Sam must never know.

It was a cobbled-together monster made from grave-robbing radio-shacks and amateur soldering kits. Taking it out of the bag only made it vibrate and beep more urgently. The scope took some finagling with a few stuck knobs and dials before the static on screen resolved into something informative: the pixelated silhouettes of trees and a cold-spot slithering past them in toxic, neon green.

Tucker lowered the scope and squinted down the block. The park was that way. Damn. Rustling through his pockets, he pulled out his main phone and pinged Danny on the secure messenger app they’d set up for Phantom stuff- because it wasn’t paranoia when the government really was hunting you down.

GROUPCHAT: WHO YA GONNA CALL? (THE D)

You: Code Green in the park You: class idk whatever the hell AW SHIT THAT’S BIG is Danny: ok I can be there in 8 Danny: keep your head down till I get there

Tucker typed back ‘You know me,’ and added a scardey-faced emoticon.

Danny: :/ You: I choose to interpret that as loving concern for my safety You: don’t text and fly have you learned nothing from the billboard incident You: such a bad role model You: Thing of the kids You: *think You: Plz hurry

Tucker pocketed his phone before Danny remembered the talk-to-text feature. Or if Sam logged on. Like he needed their reminders not to try stuff solo. He was fully capable on standing on a streetcorner like a good sidekick and wait for the big kids to come and-

A scream cut through the night, echoes elongating on concrete and broken asphalt.

From the park.

Where the monster-ghost was.

Tucker groaned. “Aw hell,” and ran down the street towards it.

Being a technophillic pseudo-shut-in whose primary mode of exercise was patrolling haunted warehouses and fleeing for his life, Tucker was pretty unfamiliar with the park. The light from the scattering of streetlamps following the paths was too few and far between, and the shadows from the trees offered too many places for an attack to come from. Honestly, even without the ghost this place was a deathtrap.

But whatever, he was committed. He had a Fenton wrist blaster raised and trained on anything that sounded bigger than a grasshopper while he followed the chiming ectoscope.

It all resembled a scene from one of Sam’s Femalien movies a little too close for comfort: the squad of buff, hypermasculine space marines of the spacepatriachy, gung-ho and completely unaware how quickly their collective space-asses were about to get wrecked.

He kept walking. The ectoscope pinged faster. Danny said eight minutes, right? And that was…not eight minutes ago, but sooner than it was earlier. All he had to do was rescue the nice human people from being chewtoys and preferably not get full-ghosted himself.

A twig snapped. Tucker almost shot a startled rabbit, eyes shining on the edge of a streetlight. It hopped away until it melted into the long shadows of the mini-woods.

“This is a good plan,” Tucker decided. Out loud. On the record.

Further down the path, where the path looped around a copse of trees and the scarce light flickered weakly, Tucker heard another scream.

He ran towards it. Look out, creatures of the netherworld, it’s a coward with a guuuun!

Around the bend, the lights were completely out, smothered and snuffed by a low buzzing hum that smelled like ozone and made the ectoscope sputter into a snowstorm of static. There was still plenty of light to see by. Sick, witch-cauldron green radiating from the ghost swimming ethereally in the air like a giant watersnake, only segmented, SUV-sized, and a head that was more a gaping chasm of sawteeth than actual head.

That sarlacc mouth was perfectly sized to swallow up a lady in jogger clothes, who was pretty much paralyzed with fear…or maybe it was some kind of hypnotic gaze? Maybe that was what the noise was: lulling the prey just long enough to send them to the Boba-Fett Place.

Tucker threw the ectoscope aside, braced the arm with the wrist-blaster, and shot right down the thing’s ugly mouth.

The low buzzing in the air cut off into a gurgling screech. It reared up, spitting up ecto-bile and vaporized gullet. Tucker’s next two shots hit along its body, making it spasm mid-air like a breathless fish to crash writhing into the grass.

“Wha-?” The lady said, either broken by the spell or just plain baffled by daring rescue. Tuck ran up to stand between her and the ghost, blaster at the ready.

“Just go, I’ll hold it off!” Tucker yelled over his shoulder. “Don’t worry about me, I’ll be-”

Annnddd she was already gone. Oh wow she could really book it. Guess that explained the jogging shorts. Still.

“What, not even half a second of hesitation?!” Tucker yelled at the receding sound of her shoes. “I know I told you to run, but jeez, a little concern for- oh hi you’re up.”

The baby shai-hulud had risen back up, not floating but still long enough to cast a shadow over him. From that close, its outraged roar smelled a little like sun-rotted roadkill.

“Okay, you’re a little mad, I hear you,” Tucker leveled the blaster at it. “But here’s my rebuttal.”

Then the blaster didn’t fire.

Tucker rapidly thumbed the firing switch again. A third time. The blaster shuddered a bit on his wrist, made an sad, tired electric whine. It sounded too much like a whomp whomp on helium.

“Uh…I don’t suppose you’d let me find someplace to plug this in?” He yelped and dove to the side when the ghost lunged at him. “AH! Guess that’s a ‘no’!”

Oh God how had he thought this was a good plan.

Tucker ran, pulled out every stop he knew from years of tactically fleeing horrifying undead monsters. Thankfully however he’d hurt it before kept it from flying after him, and it didn’t seem smart enough to phase through the trash cans, streetlights, and park benches that got in its way. Or maybe it was just super pissed.

Somehow he managed to pull out his phone in the middle of a zigzag, checked the time. Another three minutes? Two? Like Danny was ever freaking on time for anything in his half-life. “Call Danny!” He yelled.

The phone showed him a profile pic of Danielle and Tucker cosplaying at last year’s nerd-con. “Calling ‘DANI’…”

“Wrong one stupid clone-racist phone! CALL DANNY!”

“Calling ‘DADDY…’“

“How the fuck even?!”

Technology you’ve failed me. I’ve shown you nothing but allegedly obsessive love and you do me like that.

The ghost’s glow cast behind him warned Tucker just in time to skid beneath a low-branch and let it ram into the tree instead. Wood crunched and he shuddered thinking of being chewed and ground down to the bone between those teeth.

It was okay, the plan was going great. He was still alive, stalling for time. Danny would get here, follow the sound of ghost roars and Tucker’s manly not-panicking screams, thermos the worm, then grab some nice post-hunt midnight bro-grub and crack jokes about how Tucker almost got eaten by-

Something snagged his ankle, cutting Tucker’s speed from adrenaline-fueled to face-meets-ground with gravity-speed. Screw you too, psychics.

He managed to throw up his arms in time to shield his face. Pain lanced up his forearm and burned scraps into his palms. His glasses where askew, the world gone crooked and blurred. Neck twisted to follow the cold, wet feeling slowly dragging him through a bed of dead leaves.

A long, slick glowing tendril coming from the ghost’s mouth pulled him closer and closer into its waiting maw. The hum turned into hungry, gleeful gurgles.

Oh. This was. This was not in the plan.

Tucker dug his raw hands into the ground, dragging fistfuls of leaves and wet dirt. The light from his phone screen was just an arms length ahead, pulling away, no matter how much he kicked and scrambled and tried to pull himself forward. He thought there’d be more screaming and babbling on his end. Instead he was focusing every molecule of air on breathing, trying to get his crappy body Sam used for workout fodder to fight, stop that grinding progress towards it.

He was close enough to kick it, watch its expectant slobber dribble on his ripped cargo pants. Stupidly, he adjusted his glasses; got a nice, non-blurry view of that garbage disposal mouth, a hungry pit lined with thumb-sized teeth he could reach up and touch.

Tucker’s entire life, the whole of him, boiled down to this. He always figured his last thoughts would be of his mom, crammed between Sam and Danny on his too-small bed binging bad anime, the way Ingrid bit her lip nervously before she decided to give him his first kiss.

Instead, he just swallowed and said: “Oh Grandmother, what big teeth you have.”

Jesus, good thing no one was around to hear that.

“LASU LIN IRI!”

A furious growl tore through the trees- a wrecking ball of black and green slammed into the side of the ghost-worm. It reared up and shrieked with pain, the tendril around Tucker’s ankle somehow slack and severed.

The smart thing would be to move. Tucker numbly continued to sit there, jaw hanging as his rescuer clung to the side of the ghost-worm and tore into it with massive claws.

“Wulf?”

The ghost-worm bucked and wiggled, then body-slammed itself into the ground, forcing Wulf to leap off and land on all fours. His eyes were solid green and burning, snarling something in ghost Tucker couldn’t catch. They went at each other, tearing the small forest around them apart. The worm’s hide was pierced and bleeding in a dozen places, but it had desperation and a metric fuckton of bulk to throw around.

Wulf took cover in the trees, leaping from branch to branch, constantly circling and taking advantage of every opportunity to claw at its blind spots (how did it see though? did it even have eyes where the hell were its eyes?). Tucker realized his mistake when it dawned on him how much energy Wulf was wasting trying to keep that thing’s attention off of him, how Wulf was trying to protect him.

The worm must have realized it at the same time. Tucker saw it coming, tried to yell and warn him, but it came too fast- Wulf was blindsided by the worm’s tail end, flew and hit the trunk of a tree and went down hard. Pulled himself up with strain shaking his shoulders.

The worm let out a skree of victory and hurled itself towards Wulf. Faster than Tucker could shout, he saved himself by cutting a portal into solid air and diving in just before the worm hit, flattening itself and splintering the tree like a brittle toothpick.

It rolled and flopped on the ground, like it was having some kind of tantrum. Pulling itself back up, its mouth-head swiveled around, searching for some sign of Wulf, until it settled back on Tucker.

“Don’t look at me, I don’t know where he went.”

A muffled, tearing noise came from somewhere in the worm’s middle.

“Nevermind.”

Wulf burst out of worm’s midsection claws first with a howl, an explosion like a sledgehammer to a watermelon that splattered Tucker and everything in sight with green. The worm didn’t even have any breath left inside, much less insides at all, to even make a dying noise as it fell over like a deflated hose.

Panting, splattered with goopy green chunks on his claws and in his fur, Wulf stood in the clearing and panted hard. His eyes were still narrowed and dangerous, ears flat against his big head and hackles raised. Tucker had forgotten how big he was, half again as tall with enough shoulder width and muscle that would have brought Dax Baxter to weep impotent tears.

“Uh…Wulf? You okay buddy? Amiko?”

Wulf’s ears shot up, the hunch in his shoulders straightening as he spun around to look at Tucker with huge, concerned eyes. “Amiko Tuck!”

He dove at him, predator fast, and before Tucker could even flinch Wulf’s huge paws picked up Tucker and held him at Wulf’s eye-level. “Ĉu vi estas bone? Ĉu ĝi vundis vin?” His muzzle scrunched adorably as he sniffed Tucker up and down.

“Ah-ah!, that tickles! Haha- okay okay I’m fine, man. Ne…ne- nenio estas rompita.” He smiled with a split lip. “Danke al vi.”

“Sed,” A paw easily braceleted around Tucker’s wrist. “Viaj manoj…”

“Just a scrape man, really,” Tucker assured him. “It could have been- would have been a hell of a lot worse.”

Wulf’s left ear flicked, then looked pointedly at Tucker’s hands. Shaking like leaves in Wulf’s grip. It hurt his palms for Tucker to clench his fist, but it stopped the worst of the shakes. There was nothing he could do to stop the shaking in his heart, how hyperaware he was of his own pulse, the distant but twinging pain in arm, his ankle. The pressure behind his eyes.

“Please don’t tell Danny and Sam?” He asked, voice a little weaker. “I-I don’t want them to know how close it was. They’d only get worried.”

“Por bona kialo,” Wulf reprimanded him gently.

“Please? Bonvolu?”

It was funny to see a wolf’s brow furrow with deep thoughts, until finally Wulf hugged Tucker tight to his chest. A giant, fuzzy, protective barrier he could wrap his arms around.

“Thanks Wulf, you’re the best.”

“I know,” he managed, then touched his big, wet nose Tucker’s.

Heat flooded his face. “Oh my God did you just give me a dog-kiss? Is that a thing you just did?”

“Not dog,” Wulf corrected him. “Lupo.”

“You are missing the point of-”

“Tucker!” A voice dropped in from the sky.

Of course this is when Danny would get here. This is his life, this is what he deserves.

Danny floated above the torn up ground and pulverized trees and gaped at the slowly melting leftovers of the ghost-worm. “What the hell- what is Wulf doing here?”

Tucker crossed his arms across and played up snuggling against Wulf’s ghost-hoodie. Not like they weren’t both covered in worm-goop anyways. “Lucky for me you’re not the only ghost-friend I have and this one is both cuddlier and more reliable.”

“I thought I told you to sit tight until I got here!”

“An innocent midnight jogger with bad judgement and possibly insomnia was in danger. What was I supposed to do, ask it to hold up until the real hero showed up?”

That seemed to cut off whatever else Danny was planning to say. “I. There was- yeah okay that’s fair. Good work, Tuck.”

Wulf and Tucker cleared their throats.

“Both of you. Thanks for having Tucker’s back, Wulf.”

Wulf shrugged, “Ne dankinde. Tucker havis ĝin sub kontrolo.”

“I’m…going to assume that means ‘you’re welcome.’“

“Dude,” Tucker said. “Duolingo. Esperanto ain’t that hard.”

“Iz not.” Wulf said. “English.”

Danny and Tucker both laughed at the smug look on Wulf’s face.

“Well you two look thoroughly disgusting,” Danny said. “Want to skip the traditional after-hunt bro-snack and get you home to get cleaned up?”

“Hell no,” Tucker said mutinously. “Wulf and I can go back to the apartment to get cleaned, you can pick up some burgers for all three of us for being late.”

Wulf’s tail swished away some stray leaves behind him “Burgers?”

Danny blanched at the thought of paying for enough food to satisfy two grown men and a giant werewolf-ghost, but between Tucker’s guilt-trip look and Wulf’s puppy eyes, he sighed. “Okay, okay fine, I’ve got food duty. But he stays in your room until you two get that crap off you. I don’t want the whole apartment smelling like double-dead worm monster and wet dog.”

“Lupo,” They said together. Wulf’s ears perked and he grinned at Tucker with a mouthful of fangs.

186 notes · View notes