#troublemaker wallpaper

[kpop-locks]

꒰ ˀˀ ↷ troublemaker ; now era ”♡ᵎ ꒱

like/reblog | @moodscreens

don’t repost our work or claim it as yours

#maju #troublemaker #troublemaker lockscreen #troublemaker lockscreens #troublemaker edit #troublemaker edits #troublemaker wallpaper #troublemaker wallpapers #hyuna #kim hyuna #hyunseung

[lightlycareless]

because why not. I crave a highschool au with naoya. warnings: highschool au. suguru and satoru being annoying af.

Thinking about that one scene where Gojo and Geto are talking about the former’s phone wallpaper, how he just changed it to model Inoue Waka, and in the English dub, calls her hot.

Let’s say that for a moment you manage to overhear a similar conversation while in jujutsu high. The two of them essentially comparing wallpapers of the women they consider “hottest” and what not.

It causes you to grow both insecure, because yes, even when they were insufferable jerks, they weren’t lying when saying that the women they had on their phones are what many consider hot—words you wouldn’t usually describe yourself with, less believe anyone else thought of you.

And curious, because your seemingly one-sided crush on Naoya leads you to wonder if he has the same… habit of putting pictures of women he liked, or at least found attractive, on his home screen, and what it meant for your feelings if that were the case.

So, you take on the mission of getting a glance at Naoya’s phone, which surprisingly ended up being the hardest task you had yet to complete that semester—and all because he was super defensive of his items, especially his cellphone!

Even for the silliest, dumbest type of excuses, like “I need to make a call and I have no service, can I borrow your phone?” does not make him budge.  He just says no to whatever you come up with, and it makes your intrigue grow bigger and bigger the more he denies you!

What is he hiding? Contrary to Satoru and Suguru, is he ashamed of having pictures like that on his phone?

Or maybe…

Does he have those kinds of pictures instead??

Oh, this is even worse than you imagined! Because not only is Naoya wholeheartedly interested in other women, completely different from you—he’s also a big pervert!!

If so, how disappointing… but at the same time, you had no proof to call this as the truth so… you’d continue trying to figure out who he had on his home screen.

And then, the day you found out who held the special place of his phone’s wallpaper finally arrived.

It happened so uneventfully too, probably through the dumbest reasons yet, but you’re not to complain if it gave you the results you sought after.

The way you obtained a glimpse of Naoya’s wallpaper ultimately was because Gojo stole his phone just for that. Yeah. It was that easy. Perhaps you should’ve asked him for help from the very beginning, although the thought of telling him why you needed Naoya’s phone quickly reminded you that you had done right in avoiding him.

 “Changed your home screen again?” Geto asks, looking over to Gojo’s phone, who was quick to show off his screen with a cheeky grin, affirming his observation.

“Newest catalogue—hot, right?”

“If you say so” Naoya says under his breath, seemingly annoyed by their lack of taste or perhaps the crude topic when there were a thousand things more interesting that women (as if he hadn’t done that before).

He intended his comment to be kept solely to himself, but to the troublemakers Suguru and Satoru, this was anything but loud and clear.

“What, don’t think she’s up to your standards?” Satoru would instigate, making the young heir not precisely retract his words, but rather act like he was hearing things.

“I didn’t say that.”

“No, I heard what you say—think you’re above Inoue-chan?”

Naoya cringes at the familiarity in which Satoru refers to a model, of all people…

“I don’t even know her” Naoya rolls his eyes, feigning indifference and hoping to move past this conversation, but it’s well known that once Satoru sets his eyes on a victim, it’s very difficult, if not impossible, to escape his grasps. Naoya marked his fate the moment he joined their conversation.

“Ah, now that’s a lie if I ever heard one” Satoru counters. “So what, don’t have anyone on your phone? Too good for that, hm?”

“What does it matter to you?” he snaps, and this just seems to fuel Satoru even further.

“Then you leave me no choice.”

“What are you—”

With unmatched speed, as expected of the Gojo heir, Satoru grabs Naoya’s arms as his most trusted accomplice understands what’s expected of him and reaches for his pocket, taking out his cell phone.

The look in Naoya’s eyes is one you’d never forget, one that almost made you jump between the two and demand them to leave him alone—but your curiosity was getting the best of you, so you allowed them to continue with their brutish ways. Besides, you intended to console him after getting your answers, just as you always did whenever he felt down, so maybe it wasn’t that… bad…?

“Hey—HEY!” Naoya yelps, tugging and throwing against Satoru’s hold, exhorting his very best to get his phone back—but to no avail, for he could never, no matter the circumstance, beat the strongest sorcerers. That much he should know now. “Give it back!”

“Damn—what the hell do you have in that phone? Porn or something?” Satoru snickers at his reaction, looking back to Suguru. “Just open it already, I want to know who the talented Naoya has as wallpaper.”

You swallow as the anticipation slowly began to kill you.

The moment you were waiting for, the one that made you put in so much effort but always fell short no matter what you did, finally arrived.

It was only a question of lifting the screen and looking at it for your greatest desire (that week, at least) to be granted.

Having curiosity of his own, especially after Naoya’s defensive behavior, Geto hastily grasps the screen by the edges and begins to flip it open.

You swear Suguru was teasing you given the way he slowly opened the phone (he didn’t—you just felt it that way) making your heart jump to your throat, ears ringing while anxiously waiting for Naoya’s secret to finally unveil itself!

Only for your heart to sink down to your stomach when Suguru’s face twists into one of confusion, perhaps even… disgust?

You tried your hardest to not jump and ask what he saw, appear as if you weren’t closely listening to their conversation and give away your interest in Naoya, but his reaction and silence just made it impossible, and without much resistance, you quickly succumb to your curiosity.

“What is—” is all that you manage to muster before Satoru’s shriek quiets you immediately.

“Huh?!” Gojo exclaims “You have her?!”

Who is it?

Who does Naoya have on his phone screen??

Is it someone you know?? Does he like her? No—Does he like that?!?!

IS SHE NAKED as you initially thought??!?!

Aside from the last question, it was safe to say that Naoya did like her, because it was none other than—

“Asuka, from Evangelion?” Suguru asks skeptically, looking back to Naoya, almost as if he didn’t believe his eyes.

“What, got a problem with that??” Naoya frowns, beyond irritated and embarrassed at this point. Satoru releases him.

“None—only that I didn’t think of you as an otaku!” Satoru snorted. “Who would’ve thought that the great heir of the Zen’in liked anime?! How embarrassing!”

“You’re not any better” Suguru murmurs.

“Give me that!” Naoya hisses, abruptly taking the phone out of Suguru’s hands—the latter giving up the item willingly. “And of course you’d laugh, your taste in everything is shit! You wouldn’t know what was good even if it hit you!”

“That’s not true” Satoru smirks “I like anime too—Digimon, you know?”

“Yeah, no one cares.” Naoya frowns, abruptly standing up from his desk and heading towards the exit, presumably to cool off, take out his frustrations in some way, or save himself from further humiliation.

And that was it—you managed to discover who he had on his phone.

As much as you felt bad that Naoya was essentially forced to disclose that fact, you were kind of elated that you got the answer you searched for, and subsequently, knew what it meant for your feelings towards him.

In other words, you had no… physical competition, per say. He could just like that character because she’s funny, cool, or something else, not because he had actual feelings for her!

You can’t help but smile at this thought, for it gave you the clearance you needed to keep harboring feelings for him—although… would he like you better if you knew who she was? Was she from his favorite anime? If so, you had lots of work to do.

For now, you can relax knowing he didn’t like someone from school. At least until he likes you back, of course.

Oh, but if you only knew that he didn’t have Asuka in the beginning.

No, he had someone else entirely, only changing his home screen once he caught up to your intentions, not wanting to show you either—glad he had done so right before Satoru and Suguru got the idea of joining your little crusade (A thing you’d had to clear up if ever given the chance to.)

Maybe you’ll figure out who it was in time. Maybe not. Only fate, and his efforts, can decide that.

But until then, he’ll keep the fact that he had you, as his wallpaper, a secret.

Naoya is a nerd. prove me wrong.

#naoya zenin #naoya zen'in #naoya x reader #naoya zenin x reader #naoya zenin x you #jjk naoya #naoya zen'in x reader #jjk x reader #jjk fluff #jjk x you #prompt series: jujutsu kaisen #i'm telling y'all i need to write this au

[djs-sideblog-for-pog-trains]

so. um. @mean-scarlet-deceiver's post about thomas and henry's relationship has been living in my brain rent free for the past month and i have been turning over a scene for just as long.

so. i tried to write it. i hope you don't mind, jobey. and also you're right. they are Hard to get right. if i had to put an era on this i'd call it BG (Before Gordon).

about 1.5k, full fic under the cut

--- --- ---

Thomas keeps shooting glances at the sheds as he bustles around the yard.

It… the hired help from the other railway, the engines who are slightly too full of themselves for Thomas’ liking (and he’s made sure to let them know as such) have been talking loudly all morning, as they were getting ready to take their trains, about… the new engine.

Henry. Even if he couldn’t have remembered Henry’s name, the other two have been saying it loudly enough to carry around the yard that Thomas certainly has the picture now. And… Thomas’ lip curls as he hears their newest comment as he goes past.

“Hey!” he calls, boiling over, and the two hired engines look at him. “It’s 9am already. Are you going to actually go take your trains, or are you just going to sit and preen all day?”

“What would you know, little Thomas?” one of them calls back, all smarmy and smug. Thomas’ lip curls even more into a full on frown. Eugh. Tender engines.

“About running a railway on time?” Thomas snaps back. “Clearly more than you! Are you waiting for Sir Topham Hatt to personally invite you, or?”

They huff and sneer and pout at him, but they do still steam off one by one. However, they each shoot Henry a knowing and cruel side-eye as they go that makes Thomas bristle, despite himself.

Henry is still in his berth in the sheds. Well, he’s half-in, half-out. He only seemed to have made it so far before he… stopped. And he’s been going all sorts of shades of red as the others’ gossip had gotten louder and louder as he waited for his driver to return with an engineer of some sort.

Henry isn’t looking at Thomas now, but his eyes had snapped to the tank engine when Thomas had spoken up. He’s instead closed his eyes, puffed out his cheeks, and seems to be trying – and trying hard – to… to what? To move?

Thomas tries not to stare, as he moves trucks into the siding they’re expected to be found in. Why is he trying so hard?

Eventually, Henry does actually move – but he… Thomas frowns again. Henry moves backwards, back into the shed. The wheesh Henry lets out as he comes to a halt is limp and weak.

Henry has been here, what, all of a month, maybe two at this point. Thomas hasn’t heard… many kind things, actually, so far, which is weird because look at him. Henry’s huge – Henry’s the biggest engine Thomas has ever seen, and he’s surely powerful to boot.

But Henry… Well, Edward said that Henry is sick, and sick often.

“Why?” Thomas had asked, as they had approached the shed. “What’s wrong with him?”

“Thomas,” Edward had reprimanded, and that’s when Thomas had realised Henry was in earshot, and clearly trying to pretend he wasn’t.

And that had been that.

Thomas had seen Sir Topham Hatt come out of his office at the station to watch Henry’s comings and goings, and more often than not with a stormy expression on his face. And Thomas didn’t get that either. Problems get the stormy expression. Troublemakers get the stormy expressions (Thomas would know). And Henry seems… too…

Thomas biffs his truck ahead of him as he turns his thoughts over.

Too… quiet? Too wallpaper? Too chameleon? Too…?

He snorts to himself. Whatever Henry is, he’s too much of it. And certainly too much of it to be a troublemaker, not like those mainline engines. It’s not like Thomas has gotten to know Henry yet, and it’s not like Henry has given him the opportunity to, either: but Thomas doesn’t get the impression Henry wants to be trouble. But he has to be… there has to be something wrong here, otherwise the Fat Controller wouldn’t be so upset.

Thomas hears a sniff from behind him as he backs down his stretch of track, and realises it’s come from the sheds.

And Thomas sighs quietly. …Then again, if nothing was wrong, Henry wouldn’t be so upset either.

“Those two,” Thomas says, before he can think, and Henry has gone absolutely silent, eyes flicking over to Thomas as Thomas pauses on a nearby siding for just a moment. “Bloody wankers, the pair of them.”

The silence holds for another second or two, before Thomas is rewarded with a shaky laugh.

“…I noticed,” says Henry.

“All those mainline tossers, really,” Thomas continues, and he keeps talking even as his work takes him all around the yard, speaking up so Henry can still hear him. “I almost wish the Fat Controller wouldn’t hire them. Sure, we need more wheels on rails, but they don’t seem to know a blazing thing about this railway.”

Henry – in the shadow of the shed – purses his lips, before he lets out another sigh, another limp wheesh of steam.

“I would hardly say I do, either,” he says miserably.

Thomas frowns, and comes to a halt a little too sharply with a big woosh of steam.

“Of course you do,” he replies, indignant. Henry’s a big engine, he should- why would he say that?  Sure, Henry hasn’t been here long, but he’s a big engine, he should know plenty. “More than them, anyway.”

Henry sighs. He doesn’t argue, but Thomas’ fire flickers in annoyance as he can read of Henry’s face that Henry doesn’t agree either.

“I mean, you wouldn’t have been bought if-”

“Don’t.”

Thomas’ mouth hangs open for a second, before he closes it, blinks, and glances at Henry.

Henry looks even more upset. Great job, Thomas.

“I’m just saying-”

“Well, don’t,” Henry cuts him off again, sounding grumpier. And he’s gone from miserable to grumpy – that’s a win in Thomas’ book. “I’m particularly not in the mood to hear how I’d be more useful as a tin can.”

“The only tin cans around here are those self-important mainland pricks,” Thomas shoots back, and Henry side-eyes him – suspicious. “I’m not convinced they know what a timetable is, let alone how to read one. What kind of engine hangs around in the sheds when there’s work to… be…?”

Thomas trails off, and Henry… actually laughs. It’s tired and it’s bitter, but it’s a real laugh and it’s better than miserable.

“…Well, I want to assume you’re going to go work. When you can.”

“Optimism,” Henry says dryly. “I admire that in an engine.”

Thomas scrunches up his face. “I don’t understand you,” he says bluntly, in a way he’s sure Edward would scold him for if he was with them. “You’re miserable in the sheds, you’re miserable out on the line, you’re miserable doing nothing and you’re miserable pulling trains.”

Henry stares at Thomas for a moment, before his eyes flick away.

“If I could get out of this yard and actually pull trains, I’d do it in a heartbeat,” Thomas says, far more dreamily than he’ meant to, and he cringes a little, chuffing out of where he can see Henry’s face, because he doesn’t need to hear an earful about it from another big engine.

“…You’re small,” Henry says, slowly, not accusatorily nor really condescendingly. He sounds more …confused than anything. “…And you’re useful, here.”

“And?” Thomas snaps back, defensive. “I could be useful anywhere.”

Henry’s silent for another moment, like he’s really chewing that statement over.

Then, eventually, he surprises Thomas by saying, “…I suppose you would be better than those two.”

And Thomas lets out a sharp bark of laughter, shooting Henry a grin as he goes by, and punctuating it with a hoot and a whistle – delighted. The enthusiasm makes Henry blink, before slowly, a smile of his own spreads across his face; one that sharpens to match Thomas’.

“You’re most certainly right! And besides. You let them get to you, you let them win,” Thomas agrees. “And they’re far too useless for that.”

Henry laughs again. Thomas lets out another peep-peep and a woosh of steam of his own, pleased to have earnt it. Footsteps crunch over the gravel of the yard, and Thomas spots Henry’s driver returning with a couple of engineers in tow before Henry does, and replies to their hellos as he bustles past.

“Hello, lad,” Henry’s driver says to Henry, patting his side. “We’ll have you right as rain in no-time, alright?"

Henry sighs again, but does actually smile back at his driver.

His driver blinks in fond surprise as the engineers get to work finding the newest problem. “You’re in good spirits, all of a sudden.” Then, he glances at Thomas as the tank engine goes past. “Making friends?”

“More so finding the only engine in this yard with a thought in his smokebox, it seems,” Henry says dryly, loud enough for Thomas to hear, and that makes Thomas snort in amusement.

He does call back, “Hey, now, be nice to Edward!”

And the engineers and Henry’s driver alike seem relieved when the two engines laugh together.

Thomas watches them work to get Henry’s steam up, and Henry’s finally pulling out of the sheds a good half-hour later. Thomas whistles goodbye as Henry chuffs away.

He smiles with the satisfaction of a job well done when Henry, completely of his own volition, whistles a goodbye in return as he disappears off down the line.

Then, Thomas returns to his trucks, and gives them a good biff once more, ignoring how this time, they really shriek. He – and Henry, he imagines – can’t wait for those mainlanders’ contracts to run out.

#ttte #thomas the tank engine #ttte henry #ttte thomas #ttte fic #dj's writing #i never realised how much i rely on nodding as gestural filler in my writing until im writing engines who cant nod #i hope a) you don't mind and b) this is good #i wanted to draw this originally but it eluded me badly #i dont know if Henry would actually be that forthcoming about his self-depricating comments but ALSO he's very miserable #and probably is trying to make Thomas leave him alone via making him uncomfortable. this however does not work #mostly bc thomas doesn't believe in pity parties. unless they're for himself. #excuse the tag ramble. im thinking about them hard

[nogenderbee]

Platonic obey me brothers reaction to MC dating Solomon?

Absolutely! I also added that brothers have a little crush on MC while discovering they're dating Solomon since I LIVE for ANGST~ (hope you don't mind) but despite that, I hope you'll enjoy this <3

Brothers react to reader dating Solomon

TagList: @indi-has-fallen @vodka-glrl @miya-akane

⊱ Lucifer really thought that you know your own value but... is Solomon really your best choice?

⊱ at first he really tried to find some rational reasons why you could fall for him but as much as he tried, it didn't work

"What is it that they see in him? Let me think... high status, good at magic, troublemaker, always interrupting, loud... no, I don't know what they see in him."

⊱ yeah, he don't understands it all...

⊱ also, he'll never admit it but he does feel like you could've done better, he's not feeling angry or jealous, he just thinks you could do better than dating troublemaker like him

⊱ sure, he'd much prefer if you dated him but someone else who's reliable and little serious would definitely be much better for role of your lover

⊱ whenever you tell him about your recent date, he'd always find something to complain about and it always has to do with your boyfriend

⊱ honestly, if you'd get 1 grimm for every time he "sercretly" suggested you break up with him, you'd be like a millionaire right now

"That doesn't sound like enjoyable date to me. Although everyone have their preferences, I assume..."

⊱ you don't know how sad Mammon was when he discovered that you're dating sorcerer, of course if you told him yourself then you probably did since he's really bad at pretending he doesn't care

⊱ for first couple of days after discovering that, he probably avoided you and if you'd ask him about it, he'd say he simply has some business to do

"What ya mean I'm avoiding ya?! THE Mammon simply has business to do! Those sweet money don't come that easily, ya know?"

⊱ he probably won't admit it but the truth it, he'll give up every single grimm he has just to be at that sorcerer human place

⊱ I swear if you ever be all lovey dovey with Solomon while he's watching, he'll start making disgusting face or maybe even leave the room

⊱ suprisingly tho, he never insulted your boyfriend around you just because he's dating you, sure, he made some face of disgust but he usually is nice compared to some of his other brothers

⊱ I dare you to tell him about your date and he'll start complaining sooo much about it

"Alright, well I don't really care about that stupid date of yours! C'mon don't waste my time and let's do what we supposed to in the first place!"

⊱ looking at fact that Levi is literally Avatar of Envy, you can only imagine how much jealousy he felt in that moment

⊱ boy literally can't sleep at night because he's thinking if he's really worse that Solomon

⊱ trust me when I say that he actually tried to find some points putting him in better light but he ended up understanding why you picked human sorcerer over him...

⊱ that doesn't change the fact that he can't sleep at night, he still can't but instead of thinking he just feels sad and maybe game all night to focus on something else

"Am I really that bad...? I mean I must be better than Solomon at least! He's talented, smart, handsome, successful... yeah, no, I am worse..."

⊱ this boo is on his phone basically all the time and when your partner is around, he's not even looking up from his phone, even if it's just staring on his wallpaper

⊱ of course he'd prefer if you'd just broke up with him but then again, you're always so nice to him so there's no way HE will bring his friend down

⊱ so if you ever try telling him about your date, he'll be silent and just add from time to time something like "oh yeah, that's nice"

"That's nice... have a nice date then, I assume... I will just... play in my room... alone..."

⊱ again, someone who's sin affects his reaction, as an Avatar of Wrath, Satan will be furious when he discovered you're dating the sorcerer

⊱ although obviously he tried to control himself since he doesn't want to scare you away and that wouldn't be very polite of him, so as much as he hates it, he's trying it be calm

⊱ don't be surprised if he randomly leaves tho, better that then him yelling at you or your boyfriend

"That's one way to suffer in your life... No, I'm not complaining or anything. You're free to do anything you want."

⊱ he'll try to not say anything mean when your partner is around but he will send him some states filled with pure madness from time to time

⊱ unlike others, he doesn't even try to find some positives in Solomon but he still sees why you'd choose him

⊱ as much as he'd like to just beat up say mean stuff to your partner, he also wouldn't want to harm your opinion on him

⊱ alright but talking to him about your date is something he definitely won't be able to handle so he'll probably just straight up tell you that he's not interested

"Sorry to brak it up to you but I don't have slightest interest in your date."

⊱ finally, one of the boys who's actually supportive of your relationship even tho it hurts him

⊱ Asmo definitely was you biggest supporter when you told him you're dating sorcerer, like he accepted it easily or even knew from beginning that you're going to be together

⊱ of course on every sleepover with him, he absolutely has to ask you everything about your boyfriend

⊱ part of him just likes the gossips and the other just wants to make sure he's treating you like you deserve

"Alright, hon, we're having sleepover at my room today! How's that, huh?"

⊱ his behavior doesn't really change much after you found a new boyfriend, sure, he is slightly less affectionate with you but that's really it

⊱ as you can imagine, he's all in for listening about how your date went and even will give you some nice recommendations on to where to have another one

"Let me think... Do you want date in formal or fun style? If formal, I'd mostly suggest you ask Beel for restaurants recommendations... If fun then I might just have couple of places in mind~"

⊱ another one that's completely supportive despite being sad you didn't choose him

⊱ Beel won't ask for any details but he'll gladly listen to what you have to say about your new lover

"Congratulations! I'm happy that both of you are now happy together!"

⊱ it's a little different when telling him about your date, he'll ask for details just to make sure you had a great time there

⊱ I know he's sweet and all but let me tell you something: he WILL beat up Solomon if he hurts you, if not then he's safe!

⊱ he doesn't really act any different towards you or your partner, he's still his same and usual sweet self

⊱ although he is more hungry and always has to snack on something when you start talking about your boyfriend but he's telling you it's just his gluttony

⊱ while that's not fully a lie, it's also not complete truth, he also prefers to have something else to focus on, as much as he enjoys listening how happy you are in your relationship, it also makes him sad it's not him

"Ah? About your date? Yeah, of course you can tell me about it! I'd be glad to listen! Just let me grab some snacks first."

⊱ I'm so sure Belphie would be last one to know about your relationship, like maybe he just slept through your monologue about you getting a boyfriend

⊱ but once he finally discovers that, he'll act like he completely don't care but looking at how much he naps, it's easy to say that it's a lie

⊱ whenever you even try to start the topic of your boyfriend, he'll simply reply that he's too lazy to listen and much rather to take a nap

"Are you gonna ramble? Alright, then you ramble and I'll take a nap. Goodnight."

⊱ it's even worse when you try to tell him about your date, if you start, he's ready to even leave the room

⊱ change in his behavior really will depend on how close you were before you started dating Solomon

⊱ if you were close then nothing will change except him randomly falling asleep when topic of your boyfriend starts, but if you weren't so close them he's slightly distancing himself from you

⊱ similar to Beel tho: your boyfriend hurts you and he hurts him but unlike his twin, he's not afraid to tell that to his face

"Tell me if he will ever do something to you. I'll make sure to have some chat with him if he does."

❉⊱•═•⊰❉⊱•═•⊰❉⊱•═•⊰❉⊱•═•⊰❉⊱•═•⊰❉⊱•═•⊰❉

#obey me #x reader #obey me x reader #obey me lucifer #obey me mammon #obey me levi #obey me leviathan #obey me satan #obey me asmo #obey me asmodeus #obey me beel #obey me beelzebub #obey me belphie #obey me belphegor #obey me lucifer x reader #obey me mammon x reader #obey me levi x reader #obey me leviathan x reader #obey me satan x reader #obey me asmo x reader #obey me asmodeus x reader #obey me beel x reader #obey me beelzebub x reader #obey me belphie x reader #obey me belphegor x reader #platonic #angst #headcanons #obey me angst #obey me headcanons

[mirageofadesert]

Give me more morally gray characters ...

Let me interrupt my regular program for a brief rant about Downton Abbey and Thomas Barrow… well, not really regular as I've been too busy to watch anything with subtitles for the past few weeks. Instead, I passively binged on Downton Abbey while working.

I love morally gray characters, be it Tantai Jin from TTEOTM or Spike from Buffy. One of my favorite characters is Thomas Barrow from Downton Abbey. (Spoiler Alert, TW // suicide, homophobia, conversion therapy)

Thomas is everything I need in a character ... unhinged, angsty and gay.

I loved him from the first rude line to the last. He starts out as a delightful troublemaker with a cruel streak born of fear, hurt and the desire to be respected, fit in and belong. He is, as Baxter understands so well, his own worst enemy, having perfected self-sabotage over the years.

A supporting character for most of the show, the footman-turned-butler's story is usually prioritized over his character development - meaning the writers know where they want him to end up each season, even if it contradicts previous characterizations. This leaves the audience with a character who can be hard to follow at times.

The writing really got on my nerves at times. From conveniently forgetting his medical training when they want him to despair during his job hunt, to pulling any kind of cunning out of him when they want him to appear changed (and depressed), Thomas is always what the showrunners need him to be, but not necessary what would make sense for his character. I'm still annoyed that they made him go through medical torture in the form of conversion therapy and a suicide attempt, and then glossed over these traumatic incidents in favor of boring other storylines. Or how they portrayed his war injury as an act of cowardice rather than desperation.

What I love about him is that he was still a coherent character who remained a morally gray character (the last film aside, because they sort of forgot to give him any of his character traits back). Thomas would still lash out when he was angry or hurt, would still manipulate others for his own gain, and would still feel wronged by the world. Once the world has brought him to his knees, he understands that he has only himself to blame, and he tries to do better - which has its ups and downs. The Thomas we see in the final and in the films still wants to belong, is still a desperate romantic, but he is also so incredibly insecure in a rather endearing way.

Younger Thomas was rather stiff but dignified, trying to appear immaculate, trying to hide the fact that he felt he was anything but. Once the mask comes off, he goes from being a reluctant cat to being full of nervous puppy energy. As a neurodivergent person who has recently struggled with not being able to masks well, I can relate a little too much to this version of Thomas.

Most characters, that start out as villains, either change completely (like Tantai Jin), their behavior will be excused (like Mo Ran or Spike) or they sacrifice themselves for the greater good to redeem themselves (like Spike). Thomas stays more on less morally gray. We understand the reasons better, why he would lash out at others, and we can feel sorry for him. He had a harder life than most, but that still does not undo the harm he has done to others.

All in all, the last film was a bit of a disappointment for me, mainly because a lot of the characters felt a bit off. I had to watch the film twice to get behind the romance with Guy Dexter. What Guy meets is Thomas desire to be respected as a person, to be seen as worthwhile, to escape the life as decorative wallpaper and to finally have a romantic relationship with someone that is rather enthusiastic about him. A lot of their relationships seems to have developed off-screen, based on Guy knowing who Carson was during his proposal and understanding how uncertain Thomas still feels about his role in the household. I wish them well - but not at the expense of Thomas being excluded from the rumoured 3rd film. I hope it takes place in the USA and we get to see him again!

I really wish we would see more morally gray characters like this, even through a quick look into the fandom of Downton Abbey shows me, that not everybody can handle it.

#downton abbey #thomas barrow

[twistedroseytoesy]

Hi! It's 🎵anon! Could I request Octavinelle with an s/o who uses music to influence emotions?

🎵 anon! It’s nice to see you again! And of course I can!!

this got so soft. Tooth-rotting fluff ahead!

Description

Some sort of magic was imbued into your voice as you came to NRC. you didn't discover this ability until later when the ghosts were calmed one rather loud night. With grims help and the insistence of Ace, you discovered many different songs could bring out different emotions. with rock bringing rage, excitement, and energy. to lullabies putting people to sleep immediately. Pop brings out a joyful childishness, and country music makes everyone have an accent for a bit. It might not be the best of magical abilities, but it has definitely come in handy when dealing with the emotionally constipated mess of the NRC school of troublemakers.

Octavinelle

Azul: It was complicated at first, and the events of book 3 go very similarly to the little mermaid, he steals your voice and the amazing power it contains that has never been seen or heard of before, he HAD to have it, you understand right? After the overblot incident, he wanted to hear you sing but was ashamed of how selfish he was for stealing it from you. Over time you two become friends and start to date, your songs pulling him like a siren's call to the deep. This man is putty in your hands and would die for you if you asked. At the end of the day, you two harmonize together, singing gentle and calming songs to wind down from the day's usual chaos and antics. When he hears your voice he leaves his work immediately. begged Asked you to sing for the lounge on weekends, it would bring in revenue and help build up your confidence! and he would be able to hear your voice that much more he loves it so much please. Happily basks in whatever music you sing, and shares what he feels for you. Your songs pulled him out of his shell that much more and he loves you so much for it.

His favorite songs to hear from you are love songs, inspirational music, and hymns.

Jade: Oya~ was the first to discover your unique ability when he was foraging for mushrooms near ramshackle, you were singing pop music from home and Jade could feel a sort of unnatural giddiness in his heart as he listened. Got some information from the first years about it. He cornered asked you if you would be alright with experimenting on your unique ability with him. At first, it was all business and curiosity about your ability, but as the weeks went by he found himself growing fond of your vocal abilities and how excited you were that you had some form of music. You bring out deeper emotions that Jade is not used to (I headcanon that jade is a sociopath, who doesn't feel emotions much). He starts to do smaller sessions with you and even joins in on your singing, even confessing his love for you through a song you introduced to him. You sing songs of nature and joy as you both hunt and forage in the mountain lovers club. He has hearts in his eyes as you sing and examine a mushroom, took a photo, and has it saved as his wallpaper. supported the idea of you singing in the lounge, he would happily accompany you on the stage if you're shy about it. Come now darling~ won't you sing for him?

Jade's favorite types of songs to hear from you are little jingles (they make him chuckle), love songs, any nature-themed songs, and smooth jazz.

Floyd: Calles you "humpback whale" they are known most often as the singing whale species. He finds it fitting for your nice voice and how it reaches and affects things and people around you. He LOVES to hear you sing and usually tries to sing along with you if he knows the song. Happily listens to you if it's a softer song. Recorded you singing a lullaby from the coral sea, he can't fall asleep without hearing it now. Loves to give you song ideas and will hype you to sing if you're shy about your abilities. He even starts to work on bettering his singing to see if he can have any effect on you like you do so much with him. If anyone dares to say anything negative against your voice you'll never see them again, or at least you won't see them out of a wheelchair. Happily pushes the idea of you singing in the lounge along with jade and Azul, just so he can hear you sing as he works.

His favorite songs you sing are pop, rock, and children's songs.

#🎵 anon #octavinelle #azul x reader #azul ashengrotto #my stuff #my writing #jade leech #Floyd leech #tweels #octatrio #twst x reader #Floyd x reader #jade x reader #asks #thank you! #honestly had so much fun laughing at how different songs would affect and cause different emotions #blues would calm people and make them poetic #Jazz makes people want to dance and have a drink to chat the night away with friends #Disco makes people want to stand out and be bright #theres so many to choose from #and of course the lyrics would cause different emotions too! #this is an amazing and new favorite idea #new favorite superpower #is it the oolest #not really but to me it is! #and it would get me to look up so much music #or make up my own #roses ramblings

[zoe-oneesama]

what is your opinion about this episode?

What, Troublemaker? Hm, off the top of my head it's an episode of Missed Opportunity and Unfair Writer Intervention for the Sake of Humiliating the Main Character Unnecessarily.

Penny gets akumatized in "Troublemaker" because she's stretched too thin. She takes on too many responsibilities to the point that the people around her are completely dependent on her and she takes on more duties than she needs to and it overwhelms her.

Hm, sounds a lot like aNOTHER character we know quite well.

Marinette, it's Marinette.

This could've been a good episode to teach Marinette that she needs to find a work/life balance by showing her how it can be detrimental to your own mental health. By having Penny be akumatized over the same thing Marinette often puts herself through (double booking herself, offering up extras like race banners for events that don't need them, making the smoothness of events entirely her own responsibility when it's not) could've made Marinette look at how she handles these things and make changes so she won't be overwhelmed.

They could've changed the ending so that instead of Jagged declaring how much he needed Penny, which was part of the problem, he could've offered some way to HELP Penny - hiring an assistant for her to help her, giving her time off every once in a while, reflecting on his own "demands" (he wanted to eat breakfast off the back of Polar Bear at the start of this episode, maybe he should think about how unnecessary that is?!). It could've shown Marinette that it's okay to ask for help too, maybe reach out to her parents or Alya or Fu (at this point).

But no, we can't do that. If we taught Marinette to have an actual balance over her civilian life and superhero life, we can't have her stuck in awkward situations because she forgot something she promised to do or superheroing pushed all her responsibilities to be due on the same day! And where's the fun in giving Marinette an easier time?

SPEAKING of not giving Marinette an easier time, how about we talk about the fact that her Adrien photos duplicated themselves to cover 5x more of her bedroom just so it would be that much more embarrassing to be shown on live tv? Why was that necessary? She already has his photos up, has a homemade computer screen background of Adrien with hearts on it. Jagged only needed ONE of those things to be just as embarrassing, there is no reason to add photos like wallpaper all over her room or hide them under her...mattress?? And chaise lounge?

Like, is that funny? Did people think it was funny when it came out?

And it amounted to nothing. She was so embarrassed (seriously I would DIE if that were me) and no one teased her, she wasn't bullied by Chloe, and Adrien still thinks she doesn't have feelings for him because after being exposed all over Paris in the most shame inducing way he thought it was a good idea to corner her and try to "confirm" whether or not she had feelings for him and in her panic she lied.

Because what was the show going to do, have her confirm it with only 2 minutes of the episode left? Please.

So now we miss out on Adrien being on the same level as Ladybug, having just realized in Season 2 that Marinette/Chat Noir has feelings for them and navigating their friendships with that new knowledge. Balance? In this show? We don't know her!

It's just so frustrating from a writing perspective that this could've been such a good episode for Marinette to learn a lesson she actually NEEDED, that is applicable to MANY people irl who overwork themselves because they want to be helpful, but the writers made it about the Love Square (big shocker there) and then didn't even do anything interesting with that. They needlessly escalate Marinette's picture collection just to shame her for being in love with the person the writer's WANT her to end up with and then write it off as not a big deal.

The fact that Penny was akumatized instead of Marinette told me everything I needed about where Marinette places in the importance of things tbh.

#ml salt #writing salt #troublemaker salt #troublemaker #ask zoe #an essay by zoe

[mimimui]

꒰ mi's 1k event ꒱

— i've had 1k for a while now, but never knew how to celebrate it ! i decided on a little writing event :b but make sure to read my rules first

⤹ what to request

send me a request with character/s of your choice, and a prompt based off my menu

⤹ how to request

along the lines of "can i request (character/s) with (menu item)?" + always say thank you !!

˗ˏˋ menu ˎˊ˗

halo-halo

... finding you out in the rain and they bring you home.

leche flan

... introducing you to their family for the first time.

biko

... answering 36 questions that lead to love together.

suman

... picking you up at the airport.

kutsinta

... first kiss.

pichi-pichi

... last kiss.

puto

... confesses to you when they think you're asleep.

bibingka

... taking a picture of you sleeping and sets it as their wallpaper.

bilo bilo

... waking up next to them.

mais con yelo

... playing video games with them.

cassava cake

... wrapping their arm around your waist when you talk to someone for too long.

ube jam

... stoping to tie your shoelace for you when you're walking together.

buko pandan

... hiding your relationship/secret dating.

polvoron

... "i can't focus when you look at me like that."

taho

... "kiss me, please?"

turon

... "no, don't cry. i hate it when you cry."

sans rival

... client!(character/s) & tattoo artist!reader

sorbetes

... non-showbiz!(character/s) & famous!reader

buko pie

... student council president!(character/s) & troublemaker!reader

reblogs are appreciated, thank you (˶ᵔ ᵕ ᵔ˶)

#genshin x reader #genshin impact x reader #bllk x reader #blue lock x reader #hsr x reader #honkai star rail x reader #jjk x reader #jujutsu kaisen x reader

[acefaun]

Sanderson Zodiacs

Synopsis: You’d been waiting all month for this moment. After much preparation with your zodiac boyfriends, it was time for the summoning! Of course, something that was all in good fun turned quickly into a night of distress when there were witches on the hunt for a starry-eyed goddess. 

✨Masterlist✨ Female goldfish!

A/n: Happy Halloween! 🎃 If you don’t have some crazy Halloween Party to go to, join these guys! We’re having our own Halloween Party! Let’s summon witches! Another glorious fanfiction! …Makes me sick! We got fanart with this one, YAY! It’s also my masterpiece thus far in my artistic journey, so I’m pretty proud of it! This is definitely going up on my facebook! 😚

–Word Count: 8,925–

The sky was barely getting a hint of that darker blue color the closer the sun drew to the horizon. The edge of the sky was starting to glow a dim orange color. It was almost time for a Halloween party-of-four! The other gods had to attend a ceremony in the Heavens where they would meet and greet with the returning souls of humans. The souls of the dead returning was a bigger event for the gods than it was for the humans of Earth, who treated it more as a game.

The only reason I was able to snag Ichthys, Dui, and Teorus was because they were the troublemakers of the two departments, and they wouldn't be sorely missed. Besides, my the zodiac gods wanted me to have a happy Halloween as well. I couldn't do that if I were home alone and moping… So what would be better than a Halloween party with a Hocus Pocus theme?

The mansion was elaborately decorated for the occasion. The entire mansion felt eerie, from the entrance all the way to the living room. The lights were turned off, replaced with light from candles, jack-o-lanterns, and the moonlight through the windows. There were cobwebs everywhere, but that only added to how old everything looked. Similar to how the outside of the mansion appeared to be falling apart, the inside matched perfectly. The once-clean marble was replaced with planks of wood, and the wallpaper was peeling everywhere. It would’ve been scary the way it was without the addition of a light fog that rolled across the floor. 

It seemed my additional plastic trinkets weren’t going to be necessary for this party. Walking into the living room, I paused, taking in the equally spooky atmosphere. It might’ve seemed more welcoming if Ichthys, Dui, and Teorus would have been there like they promised. But my eyes locked onto something that was set up on a wide coffee table. Was that the book from Hocus Pocus?! I bolted over to kneel on the floor as I eagerly flipped through the book. It was everything like the movie. It left me wondering if they actually stole these props. 

Too occupied with the realistic book, I hadn’t noticed anyone was there until arms wrapped around me from behind. I don’t think I would’ve been so scared if it weren’t three pairs of hands gripping at me, forcing a startled shriek from my lips. Though, it only took a moment for me to recognize who was harassing me.

My eyes narrowed as I both heard and felt Ichthys’ laughter from behind me. His head leaned against my shoulder, his tongue sticking out playfully. “We got you! Happy Halloween!”

Pouting, I tugged out of their hands, finding that all of them were in on Ichthys’ prank. “Not fair… You guys nearly gave me a heart attack! You can’t just gang up on me like this when the mansion’s all scary-looking.” If the mansion didn’t look like it could pass for a haunted house, I wouldn’t be so jumpy. “Well… Anyway, whatever! Did you guys get this stuff from the movie?”

“We actually got the book from the Heavens,” Dui explained, though he didn’t look too comfortable about the memory of it.

Ichthys, on the other hand, was grinning as if this was his biggest achievement in life. “It took really hard work to take this from the palace without anyone noticing. Luckily, everyone was pretty occupied with other things today.”

Teorus nodded his head in agreement, but he appeared more on Dui’s side of things. Neither of them seemed comfortable with the lengths they had to go through to get the book. “It was actually in the forbidden section,” Teorus added, “So, while it wasn’t hard for us to get in… it was hard to smuggle it out without getting caught.”

Ichthys grinned at their successful heist of the library as he held out a candle made with pale wax. My mind was quick to recognize that as well, and I exclaimed, “You got the spell book and a black flame candle?!”

Dui nodded, a smile spreading across his face thanks to my contagious excitement. “We followed the ingredients from the book, so it’s an authentic black-flame candle. So… uh,” he paused, tilting his head. The ingredients didn’t seem too special in creating a black flame, but what did he know about witchy stuff? “It should have a black flame. And there’s only one way to test it.”

“Ah,” I praised nervously, “I have chills; this is so cool! You guys are the best! Just- You have to promise you won’t take advantage and try and scare me!” My eyes were evenly trained on them to make sure they heeded my warning. I didn’t need to have more heart attacks than I could handle in the spooky mansion. 

Teorus pat my head like a child and reassured, “We won’t do anything scary. But after we do our ritual, we can dress up and go trick-or-treating! (Name), do people give out milk for Halloween?”

I fell silent at his odd question. Last time I checked… no one in their right mind would give out milk for Halloween. But who was I to crush his dreams? “Well, there’s such thing as candy that’s made with milk. Like… milk chocolate? Yeah. So you’ll get candy-milk! That’s it!”

His eyes began to glow with excitement as he grabbed my arm, pulling me over to the small coffee table where they had their candles ready. “Come on, virgin! Light our candle so we can go get milk candy from humans!”

My eyebrows furrowed together, half-glaring at him. I lightly smacked his hand off of mine as he pulled me to kneel on the floor with him. “Don’t start calling me a virgin, weirdo!” Huffing, I gestured for Ichthys and Dui to join us on the opposite side of the rectangular table. “Let’s get the party started then! How does that saying go again…? On All Hallow’s Eve, when the moon is round, a virgin will summon them from under the ground!” 

Grabbing one of the longer candle sticks, I used the small flame to carefully light the candle that was sitting on the table. Almost instantaneously, a black flame was atop the candle, and we all stared at it in wonder. Ichthys was the first to make a comment, “Hey, Dui, I guess this makes you a witch now! You can make magic candles!”

I would’ve made a joke to go along, but I couldn’t help but feel unsettled… as if something weren’t quite right in the air. Teorus also had an expression that told me he felt something off.

After a quiet moment, all the candles went out in the room suddenly, and I latched onto Teorus like my life depended on it. I shouted accusingly, “You said you wouldn't play more pranks and scare me!”

“Ichthys?” Dui called the pisces for an explanation.

“It wasn’t me,” he quickly tried to defend himself. Or… maybe it was? He definitely didn’t turn out all the lights, though! “Teo, did you do this just so (Name) would jump on you?”

“No way,” Teorus argued, though he wasn’t going to be one to complain that I latched onto him for protection. Needless to say, it wasn’t any of us that did it… “Maybe it was a gust of wind?”

I pulled back, trying my best to give him a questioning look despite how dark it was. “Really? A gust of wind strong enough to blow out the fire place inside the mansion?” It sounded like the most ridiculous things ever, but it was better than the other possibility… My eyes popped open as the flames suddenly reappeared on the surrounding candles, the black flame still lit as it was before. My limbs started trembling as I wondered if this was like the movie. I didn’t want to die!

“Hey…” Dui muttered, our eyes scanning the still room. “I don't have a very good feeling about this…”

If the gods were uneasy about this entire thing, then how was I supposed to feel? But glancing around the room, I quietly asked, “If things do go south… the mansion is considered hallowed ground, right? Even if they wanted to… witches couldn’t come in… right?” 

“Well…” Ichthys scratched the back of his head, drawing glares from both Dui and Teorus. Ichthys, yet again, did something he wasn’t supposed to, therefore putting all of us in unnecessary danger. Well, that’s what his face was telling us. But seeing our expressions, he quickly tried to brush it off, “It’s not like I completely masked the divinity of the mansion. I just wanted to make it feel more scary in here. But… if all else fails, we can always escape to the Heavens, or just hide in our rooms.”

“Right,” I snapped, gesturing around the room. “Let’s just escape to the Heavens while the witches are feasting on children and becoming eternally youthful! Perfect plan from the gods in charge of protecting humanity!”

Dui tried patting my head to get me to calm down. We were all pretty high-strung with the way our ‘perfect’ night was going, but we didn’t need to be fighting. “Calm down, guys. The obvious answer to our problem is just to keep the book away from them until the sun rises. We’re gods. They’ll never find us.”

I nodded my head, agreeing with Dui’s logic. Just based on the movie, we already had a higher chance of success. We knew exactly how to beat them. Despite the comfort of having a sound battle plan, my heart leapt in my chest as we heard the echoes of cackling filling the empty mansion. Weakly, I muttered, “It’s the Sanderson sisters…” 

We all watched the door in apprehension as a voice exclaimed, “What a disgustingly large house… BOOOK!” 

I flinched, snatching the book out of the air before it could fly out of the living room. Dui pulled me out of sight behind a bookshelf just in time for the doors of the living room to burst open and reveal the three ancient witches. I didn’t have time to see where Ichthys or Teorus were hiding before Dui pulled me into hiding, but I hoped they stayed hidden and unnoticed wherever they were. 

Sarah danced around the room, her arms flinging her sleeves around as she sang, “A virgin lit the candle again, Winnie!”

“Ah,” Winifred gleamed at the black flame that sat on the table amongst the other seemingly useless knickknacks. “It seems they did. Which means… they have my book. Mary!”

“Yes, Winnie?” Mary and Sarah listened intently to their sister’s orders. I watched them quietly from behind the bookshelf, but I knew we couldn’t stay there forever. They were searching around the room pretty thoroughly, starting from the middle.

Winifred gestured around the room for them to get searching. “Sniff our little virgin out.”

I wasn’t the only one who figured out that by Mary sniffing closer to the candle, she would get my scent first. Then it would only be a matter of time before they found our hiding spot. Dui caught onto this predicament and held me closer in case he needed to make any sudden moves to get me out of danger.

We waited with bated breath for them to do something or say anything more. I leaned closer against Dui, trying to make us smaller and less noticeable. 

“Winnie…” Mary called with a subtle smile, her eyes flickering around the room. “I smell… children.” Though, she didn’t look like she had an exact location. I figured it was probably because Teorus and Ichthys were hiding elsewhere, so our scents were probably a little everywhere. I was sure that was some kind of plus, but I knew better than to think that a witch whose power was in her nose wouldn’t be able to figure things out. Based on the movie, their goal was usually to find the youngest one. Unfortunately, that meant me—who was also their black-flame virgin, as well as the current holder of their precious book. Aside from Ichthys being the youngest god, I was less than a fraction of their age. Still, when it boiled down to it, we were all considerably younger than any of the other gods; I was sure that fact alone made all of us targets.

With the witches drawing steadily closer to us, however, Dui firmly wrapped his arms around me, ready to get me out of harm’s way at a moment’s notice. But as if to save us the trouble of getting caught, Ichthys was the first to burst out from where he was hiding. “Hey!” Seeing the witches in person for the first time, he hummed, shaking his head. “Yeah, you’re not as pretty as I thought you’d be. You should definitely leave this place before we kick you out.”

Despite Sarah and Mary fretting over a boy, Winifred seemed surprised to see Ichthys… as if she knew him. But she wasn’t faltering in the face of this newcomer. In fact, she sounded quite familiar as she hissed, “Ah, a pesky little god. I could only imagine how sweet a soul like yours might taste.” 

Before she could attempt to attack Ichthys, Teorus distracted her, throwing a plastic skull at her. “Why don’t you witches go fight someone your own strength? You think you stand a chance against gods?”

As much as the three witches were interested in the power of the gods, it was too bad they were outnumbered four to three. But… two gods were sure to do the trick against three witches, right? At least, that was what was going through Teorus’ mind as he shouted, “Dui, run!” 

Fleeing with the book made sense and was really the only choice we had here. But how were we supposed to flee when we had the full attention of those witches who were quick to corner us? 

Dui seemed to have the same doubt of mind as I did, since he made sure I was behind him as we faced off with the two younger sisters. Teorus and Ichthys were occupied by Winifred, who was waiting for Sarah and Mary to retrieve her book from me—or freed from me, at least.

“H- Hang on,” Dui weakly said, hesitant to face the two surely powerless witches. “I don’t want to hit ladies… Plus, I’m a god; I could really hurt you. You should stay away from (Name), or else we won’t be gentle.”

“We?” Mary couldn’t help but chuckle at how I seemed to hide further behind Dui. This seemed like an easy hurdle to jump, in their opinion. “Your little friend might have trouble keeping hold of that book.”

The minute they tried to distract Dui by going separate directions around him. After all, Dui couldn’t stop both of them at the same time… right? 

Oh, how wrong they were to underestimate a god. Dui’s expression shifted, and a scowl crossed his face as he glowered at them. “That softie wasn’t talking about the goldfish!” Snapping his fingers, the two witches were shoved back a decent distance from me. But, he knew that wouldn’t get rid of the problem. Turning, I flinched as Shadow Dui glared at me, snapping, “What are you waiting for, idiot? Go to the Heavens. I thought the whole point of this god-damn fight was so they don’t get that book.” 

He was right… but I was too alarmed to leave their side. Well, that wasn’t exactly the problem either. I quickly exclaimed, “But I can’t go through the door without one of you, and- and that wouldn’t stop them from causing trouble on Earth!” My eyes flickered to Ichthys and Teorus, but they didn’t look like they’d be able to slip away without giving Winifred an opening to come after her book. My grip tightened around the living book in my arms. 

These witches were just humans, when it came down to it. Sure, my gods weren’t as powerful as usually because of the general darkness and negative energy of Halloween night, but we still had to overpower these guys! Well, that’s the optimism I was going off of, anyway.

Dui hissed, “Then we’re just going to have to get you into a freaking church!” He sounded sarcastic, but if we couldn’t leave Earth, and we had to keep the book away from the witches, then his suggestion sounded like the best option. After all, the goal of the Sanderson sisters wasn’t to catch childish gods; their goal was to get their book back so they could make their youth potion. Their dilemma was that they couldn’t make their potion without their book, and I wasn’t planning on letting it go anytime soon. 

“Agh~”

A sudden shout made everyone pause, the room falling silent. My wide eyes flickered to where Teorus and Ichthys were once fighting Winifred. “Ichthys…?” I apprehensively called out. He was in pain and he was… shrinking?

Right before our eyes, Ichthys shrunk into a black cat. We weren’t really sure what to expect from a witch turning a god into an animal, but Ichthys’ laughter rang out through the room as if this were just some funny game. “Wow,” he cheered, “now it’s just like the movie, huh?” 

Winifred smiled triumphantly over the defeated god. “Well, meddlesome god down… two more to go.” Her powers were able to best a god, further securing their position as the most powerful witches in history. 

While the situation wasn’t as fun as he was making it out to be… that was, indeed, an Ichthys response to danger. It only made me warily sigh, while Shadow Dui snarled, “You damn fish!”

Teorus relented, stepping between Ichthys and Winifred. “There’s nothing we can do now. Ichthys, go help (Name)!” 

“I’m on it!” Ichthys agreed without hesitation, swapping places with Dui who worked on distracting the sisters with Teorus. Bolting past me, Ichthys encouraged, “C’mon, (Name). I don’t have hands to open doors anymore; keep up!” 

I rolled my eyes, frantically following him through the dim halls of the mansion, opening doors per his directions until we finally made it out of the mansion's front door. I absolutely wasn’t made to be running around like this… 

Ichthys, on the other hand, seemed like he was living for every second of this excitement. Irritated, I snapped at him, “Stop enjoying this!” This was far worse than the movie, in my opinion. The movie didn’t show that they could overpower even gods on Halloween night! Besides, what good was Ichthys as a cat? Ichthys couldn’t fight back like this. Not to mention if Winifred did that to Teorus and Dui… “Ichthys,” I murmured as we slowed our pace to a walk, “we need help from the other gods.”

“Don’t worry,” he responded quite confidently. “You’ve got me, Dui, and Teo.”

I shot him an uncertain glare. “You mean I have Dui and Teo. What good are you? You can’t even fix yourself.”

“Hey…” Ichthys sounded disappointed that I thought so little of him. “I might be smaller, but I’m still a god. I might’ve had my guard down around some humans, but when it comes to keeping you safe, I’m giving you my all.”

“I…” I faltered, exhaling tiredly. “I’m sorry. I know you are. It’s just that this isn’t about me. This book puts everyone in danger. I’m starting to have my suspicions about why it was locked up in the Heavens.”

“Yeah,” Ichthys uttered, his ears falling. It was a slight movement, but it was enough for me to notice as he sullenly added, “I guess I messed up pretty big this time.”

Noting the heavy mood that was suddenly bearing over us, I suggested cheerfully, “It’s like you said, isn’t it? This is like the movie. What do three old hags have against modern gods? Besides, there’s no mess you can make that we can’t clean up. Haven’t all your years in the Department of Punishments taught you that?”

I smiled as I heard him chuckle. That’s right, there was no point in being negative. We had to do what we could, given the circumstances. At least he seemed more cheerful, as our destination was whatever church we came across first. 

We had a good plan, everything was figured out, and we were sure we would make it until morning. If only more trouble wasn’t stirred up the closer we got to the tree line. What kind of luck did we have to emerge head first into two dark gods? 

Crow and Servillah were loitering around the forest, which was brimming with dark energy on Halloween night. However, even they seemed thoroughly surprised to find me, the ex-goddess, running straight into them. They never in their wildest dreams expected me to walk right into their arms. 

Though, we were both seemingly at a loss for words to exchange. Face-to-face with each other, there was awkward silence. 

After a brief moment, having had time to comprehend the current situation, the dark gods were more than pleased. Crow grinned, the first to speak. “I can’t believe some dimwitted goddess like you actually had the gull to come into a forest brimming with dark energy!”

Before I had a chance to escape their presence, Servillah grabbed my shoulder, jerking me towards them. The sudden motion along with the way his fingers dug into my skin made me wince and cry out, “O- Ow!”

Seeing me in pain, Ichthys hissed defensively, lunging into Servillah’s face with his claws extended. The dark god was easily startled, quickly releasing me in favor of prying the cat off of his face. “Wait,” Crow ushered the other dark god to be still so he could help. 

With Ichthys serving as a distraction, I stumbled away from the two dark gods, scrambling behind a tree and staring at them with wide eyes. 

“Stupid beast!” Servillah growled at the cat as Crow finally pried Ichthys off of him, throwing him to the ground. 

The two dark gods were about to approach me again, when Ichthys darted between us, interrupting, “I’m not going to let you lay a hand on her! (Name), stay behind me!” 

Both of the dark gods were surprised by the cat speaking; but they were no less pleased with the amusing situation as they realized… this creature before them was a god.

Servillah regarded his friend, “Hey, Crow… How do you suppose a god snaps his fingers… when he doesn’t have any fingers?”

Crow, grinning, replied, “I suppose… he doesn’t.” There was a pause as the two seemed to register the situation as they spotted the all-too-familiar book in my arms. “Those Sanderson witches scared you straight into our waiting grasp, did they? Regardless of how they were resurrected this time round, I guess we’ll have to give them a little reward for their good work. Now, goddess, don’t do anything stupid and come with us.”

Seeing that they were going to grab for me once again, I was quick to use the book as a weapon of self-defense. At least I wasn’t alone, and that was a comforting thought as Ichthys helped in fending off Crow from one side while I took my chances swinging the heavy book at Servillah. 

Of course, our defenses could only last so long before the book was knocked out of my hands. I was sure I was on the verge of being snatched away to the Under Realm before my saviors showed up.

Dui and Teorus arrived just in time to scare the dark gods away—though it took a little convincing, via their powers. 

After our momentary success, Ichthys then glanced between the two other gods curiously. “Hey, you guys were pretty fast. How did you two manage to get away from all three of the witches?”

Teorus smiled as if it were nothing and explained, “Well, our powers are a little weak on Halloween, but we still had enough power in the mansion to make a bunch of voice-activated books that would respond to Winifred’s voice… So those three are going through a bunch of books right now.”

Smugly, Dui added, “They’ll have to go through them one by one to find out they’re all made with divine power. Though, I doubt it will hold them up long with the dark gods suddenly around.”

Ichthys excitedly said, “At least this gives us time to come up with some sort of counter plan.”

“I- I don’t think it does,” I said, sounding particularly nervous as I revealed the fault in our position, “The dark gods took the book…”

“What?!” The three gods were shocked. Though, Ichthys was looking disappointed again, his head drooping as he mourned, “I messed up again. I couldn’t keep you safe or keep the book from falling into their hands.” 

Teorus comforted, “It’s okay, Ikky. It’s not like it’s all your fault. Besides, you protected (Name) until we got here to help. You did what you could.” He sighed. “We should have been more careful and really checked this stuff out before stealing from the palace library.”

“Right…” Dui sorrowfully agreed, “We could have just taken the things from the movie, like (Name) said.” He winced. “Meaning… we should probably fix all of this before Zyglavis finds out.”

“Then our goal is to get the book back and protect the humans!” Ichthys nodded, pausing in thought. “Should we sneak back into the mansion?”

“I don’t think the witches would stay there, though, would they?” Teorus tilted his head with furrowed eyebrows as we tried to work through this problem of ours.

I shrugged my shoulders in silent response. “Maybe we could give it a look? It’s gotta be better than standing around waiting to figure out what to do.”

“I agree with Teo,” Dui offered his opinion. “I don’t think they’d stay at the mansion for longer than necessary—especially if those dark gods are helping them now. If they stayed in the mansion too long, not only would it hurt them, but it would also alert the other gods in the Heavens.”

Ichthys sighed, his tail wavering behind him as he sat on the ground. “While that might help us… I don’t really want to face Zyglavis’ wrath for freeing ancient witches…”

“Well, I’ll take Leo’s wrath over losing (Name),” Teorus decided with a firm pout. “They would all be more powerful, just coming from the Heavens. Being on Earth on the darkest night of the year hasn’t been very helpful for replenishing our powers. Otherwise, we’d have already turned you back, Ikky.”

“I guess you’re right,” Ichthys reluctantly agreed. “But they’d have to notice something was wrong first, and who knows if that’ll happen.” He exhaled again. “Let’s start by scanning nearby areas for dark power. We’ll be able to single out where those witches went from there.”

***

Hours passed, searching ceaselessly for the three witches and the dark gods, but nothing came up in their search. 

“All this walking around, and we haven’t found anything,” I griped, growing frustrated as I followed along the road with the two gods and the cat. “It’s not like they’re summoning children or anything like in the movie, otherwise we’d be able to find them easily—follow the zombie children to their secret witch hide-out. But… also… if they’re not eating children by now… what are they doing?”

Dui shrugged tiredly, his shoulders sagging. “I’m not sure… but this going in and out of places with dark energy is getting really draining. At this rate, we might become like Ichthys.”

Teorus added, “I wish we could have just gone trick-or-treating with you instead, (Name). I was really looking forward to getting that milk chocolate stuff you were talking about.”

Ichthys nodded his head as he bemoaned, “Yeah, it would’ve been super fun to dress up in costumes and walk around Earth with all the humans. I bet I could’ve played some awesome pranks tonight.”

“I feel like we’ve been trick-or-treating for witches, going from place to place with no results,” I pouted, compared our long night of witch-hunting to trick-or-treating, though the two really weren’t anything alike. “It’s not fair that we can’t seem to get good or bad results. There haven’t been any tricks or treats all night. That’s not how trick-or-treating works!” 

“Trick-or-treat!”

“Waah~” I felt like the air was knocked out of me all at once as my body was lifted off of the ground suddenly, an arm crushing around my rib cage. I wanted the arm to release me, but at the same time, I had no idea how high I was dangling in the air. 

The only thing that revealed my position was the cackling of the three Sanderson sisters. As quick as I was taken, the gods tried to race to my side in a panic. Only… they found that they couldn’t fly to my rescue. Teorus’ eyes were wide as he sputtered, “H- Huh…? Hey, why can’t we fly now? The dark energy shouldn’t be making us this weak.” 

“The gods haven’t realized they were cursed…” Sarah softly sung, “The little goddess has been draining your powers all night.” 

The gods were confused, but I was even more so. “I- I haven’t,” I argued. Surely one of us would have recognized something like that. But it was growing hard to keep my optimistic thoughts with me when I could have been the cause of their weakness. We needed answers. “What are you talking about…?”

“Ah, but you have.” Winifred drawled. “Our dear companions put it on you when they first had you in their grasp. Mary,” she demanded, gesturing for her sister to prove it.

Then, Mary lowered my collar, exposing a dark tattoo on my shoulder. It seemed like such an obvious place, but of course we never would have been looking for something like that on me. 

Dui’s eyes widened as he muttered, “A curse… We never even noticed…” He looked exceedingly guilty for missing something so important. 

“No wonder we were so weak,” Teorus lamented. “We couldn’t even help Ichthys because of that thing. It’s been draining our powers, it wasn’t the dark energy on Earth to blame.” 

Sarah chirped, “Now they understand.” 

“Let us go!” Winifred ordered, “We can’t have this little goddess slipping away from us again.”

The gods were clearly fearful as they watched the witches fly away with me. Ichthys hopped onto Dui’s shoulder, doing his best to get as close to me as possible as he yelled, “We’ll be right behind you, (Name)! We’re coming!” 

The three gods would never leave me with witches and dark gods to steal my soul. Now, however, Ichthys was kind of wishing for Zyglavis to hurry down to Earth with all his wrath. 

***

Midnight… It was officially midnight; meaning, that it was November 1st. The other gods had to collectively agree that they were relieved to finally be done with their long night of Halloween. 

Tauxolouve sighed, complaining, “Why does it feel like All Hallow’s Eve lasted longer this year?”

Aigonotus nodded in agreement, his head leaning to rest on Tauxolouve’s shoulder. “There were way too many spirits to talk to this year…” He grumbled tiredly, “I can’t wait to see (Name).” 

Karno pointed out with a knowing smile, “You just want to use her lap as a pillow, don’t you?” Wordlessly, Aigonorus nodded his head in acknowledgement. It was pretty obvious what his intentions were.

Krioff added in confusion, “Shouldn’t (Name) be sleeping right now? You better not wake her up.” 

Partheno nodded with a slight shrug. “Perhaps… Trick-or-treating is over, in any case, and I’m sure she had her hands absolutely full with those three.” 

However, as the three wishes gods and two punishments gods walked into the mansion, they have to pause, finding Huedhaut and Leon neck to neck with Zyglavis and Scorpio. While the sight wasn’t that uncommon between the two ministers, there was an odd feeling in the mansion that wasn’t so familiar. Not to mention, it looked very eerie, like an actual haunted house. 

Though everyone was tense and silent, Karno was the first to address it. “What’s going on here?”

Leon’s sharp eyes shot to Karno. “Those troublesome-”

“Those three stole a very important book from the Heavens for (Name),” Huedhaut interrupted Leon with a powerfully frightening scowl of his own. Moments like these, Huedhaut looked like he belonged in the Department of Punishments. “While their intentions were well, they should have known better than to summon witches.”

“Witches…?” Aigonorus was wide away with that startling news. His nose scrunched up. “Where’s (Name)?”

Zyglavis’ eyes darkened. “We’re searching for all of them now. Let me be clear, we’re not dealing with anything relatively good. These particular witches have been on the Punishment’s list for centuries, as they are in cahoots with the dark gods; the Dark King being the master they serve.”

Leon added, “This dark presence in the mansion can only mean that there’s been trouble.” 

The gods were clearly frustrated that they had this problem running around Earth once again. Scorpio criticized them, “They honestly thought it was just a movie? Stupid problem children… Stupid goldfish… If it were just a movie, we wouldn’t have had that stupid book locked away in the Heavens.” 

Tauxolouve sighed, asking, “Well, should we find and help them?”

Irritated, Leon answered, “We need to clean up this mess around the mansion first. If we don’t get rid of this dark energy now, we won’t be able to help anyone.”

“Besides,” Krioff said bluntly, however helpfully, “The sun’s going to come up in a few hours. Won’t those witches just turn to dust?”

Zyglavis sighed, rubbing his forehead. Everyone was sure he would refute that and explain that movies aren’t accurate, but he surprised them with an affirmative answer, “That’s right, but there are still hours left until then, and we should prepare for the worst.” 

“But hope for the best,” Tauxolouve added optimistically. Of course, all the gods knew I wouldn’t fold to any old witches when I tended to put them, gods, in their places almost on a daily basis.

***

The air was suffocatingly still. The only sound to be heard in the silence was the cawing of crows along with the murmurs of the witches and dark gods a short distance away from me.

I was nervous to be tied to a chair in the middle of a forest, somewhere that would likely take Ichthys, Teorus, and Dui a while to reach since they weren’t able to fly. Not to mention, the dark gods were there too, likely deciding what to do next with me. The sun was still a few hours away from rising, I knew, but it couldn’t come fast enough. I was stuck with these witches until then…

Servillah observed me from where he stood, noting that I was stubbornly refusing to meet their gazes or acknowledge their presence. Still, in my position, I wouldn’t be going anywhere anytime soon. “Good,” he commented, “Now that we’re certain she can’t move… We’re going to take care of those pesky gods and make sure they doing interfere. You three take care of the ritual to summon the Dark King. When we come back… we can get started. I’m sure her soul will be ready by then.”

Watching the two dark gods leave, we were once again left in uncomfortable silence as the witches prepared their potions and spells. Clearly, there was still work to be done before they would use my soul. But… maybe I could stall them. 

“Y- You know…” I stuttered, trying to convince the witches to spill their plans. “You’re not being very good villains.”

“I thought…” Sarah uttered, glancing worriedly between her two sisters, “we were being really evil witches…”

With their skeptical expressions, I took my chance to continue, clearly having them with hook and bait. “What I mean to say… is… that typically, in modern times, there’s usually an evil monologue. You know, to hype up your purpose for doing… whatever it is you’re doing; and… I don’t know, scare your captive by giving them a scary overview of what’s happening?” I was only slightly confident in this distraction plan, but the worst they could say was no… right?

Seeing them huddle together, I pursed my lips as I watched them deliberate over my words. But finally, they turned back to me with wicked grins. Winifred started, “Very well, little goddess. Our master would be pleased to have a trembling goddess at his feet when he returns.”

I flinched in surprise—though, maybe I shouldn’t have been surprised. So, they were going to bring back the Dark King. They were serious about it… and I supposed this was a perfect place for it. I didn’t have to act apprehensive as I asked this time, “You’re… not talking about who I think you’re talking about… Are you?”

“Yes,” Winifred only smirked as she answered me. This ‘villain’ role and getting their captive to tremble in fear was quite simple. 

Mary added with a hungry grin. “We’re going to get a filling portion of thine soul for catching thee from those pesky gods.”

Sarah sighed happily over my shoulder, “What a delicious soul our little reborn goddess must have…” 

“But,” Winifred paused. “Let us explain why the little goddess is so special, hm? Even just a small portion of thy divine soul shall grant us eternal youth!”

“We’ll be young and beautiful forever!” Sarah danced giddily. 

They were too excited over this… I had to keep stalling, pressing for as much information as they were willing to spill. “My gods would never let you get away with this!” 

Mary wheezed out a laugh as she pointed out, “Your soul is going to resurrect the dark lord… and those gods are going to die.”

“Mary,” Winifred ordered excitedly, “The potion, retrieve it, now!” The three witches were moving about excitedly as they brought the potion before me. 

The three witches were crowding me. I didn’t like this; I didn’t like how Winifred’s nails were digging into my cheeks, angling my head up. Attempting to get my mouth open was no small task, but it was easily done with a bit of persuasion—pain. 

The potion didn’t taste good, and I definitely didn’t want to know what was mixed in it, as I was forced to choke it down. 

“Now…” Winifred contemplated, “What was the next step?”

Reading from a sheet of crumpled paper, Sarah said, “Let… simmer for… 60… minutes!”

“Now, that doesn’t sound right, dear sister,” Mary lightly chastised her, pulling the paper from her hands. Though, Mary tilted her head at the words written on the page. “But it is… Winnie, are we going to have to wait an hour to taste her?”

Winifred snatched the paper out of their hands, hissing at the directions. “Indeed,” she uttered in distaste. “Tis because this little soul is a divine one. It will take time for the potion to extract the undamaged soul from her.” The explanation made sense; however, they disliked having to wait for something that was so tempting. “Regardless, we have to wait for the Dark gods to return and complete the ritual to summon his highness.”

The three sisters collectively sighed. “Alas.”

***

After a long hour of waiting, it seemed the return of the dark gods wasn’t growing any nearer, and there were a measly three hours before the sun would rise. Suffice to say, the witches were growing restless with my delicious soul teasing them, glimmering around my tired form.

“They wouldn’t notice…” Mary started carefully, “if we took… just a taste…?”

“Not a sniff,” Winifred shot a glare to her sister, “Not a taste, until they return.”

They sat tiredly like impatient children with a cookie in front of them. 

“Hey!” A shout came from further within the forest. “Hey! Catch that god!” 

Their heads snapped up as a small black cat bound up to them, skidding to a stop in the dirt as he ended up beside my tied feet. Ichthys’ eyes were wide as he looked between the three witches and me. “(Name)! I’m here to save you!” 

The witches were suddenly surrounding Ichthys as Winifred spoke down to him, “I think not. You may have escaped the wrath of those dark gods, but you won’t escape from us a second time! Take a look, your beloved little goddess has already succumbed to our potion! It’s only a matter of time now…” 

Ichthys’s tail swished behind him as he stood protectively between me and the witches. His head tilted as he shot back, “I would look… but I think it’s you who needs to turn and take a look behind you!” 

Turning, they were surprised to find Teorus and Dui still alive—and, not to mention, in very personalized robes that looked unironically similar to Sarah and Mary’s outfits. 

The sisters were clearly flustered over this, as Mary pointed out, “I thought they were supposed to be dead…” 

“I know!” Winifred huffed, clearly angry with how things were looking. But the gods were clearly at the disadvantage here. “We needn’t worry. We’ll handle them ourselves.”

“So, is that what you think?” Ichthys suddenly asked again, drawing the attention of the witches, who suddenly found themselves surrounded. Ichthys was no longer a cat, but, in fact, dressed in a very… ironically familiar robe. 

The little kerfuffle between gods and witches didn’t last nearly as long as the first time, and it only ended with the three gods standing proudly between me and the witches. The three gods stood close enough to spare their powers to undo the effects of that nasty potion, while still being in a good position to protect and defend you. 

With the effects of the potion wearing off, I gazed at the three gods in a daze, as if waking up from a dream. “Dui…?” My head lulled slightly as I lifted it to try and take in the situation. “Ichthys and Teo?” I blinked, swearing that I was still dreaming—and maybe had been this whole time. Only, if it were a dream, I was sure I wouldn’t be tied to a chair in the middle of a creepy forest. My eyebrows furrowed as I asked, “Why are you… the Sanderson Zodiacs?”

“Hah!” Teorus laughed. “I like that name. Yeah, let’s go with that.” 

My eyebrows furrowed as I failed to make sense of what was happening. “But… I thought your powers were drained because of me?”

“If you’re the one that was draining our powers, what do you think happened the minute they took you away from us?” Dui smartly asked, pausing to let me connect the dots. But they still had business to take care of. “Sit tight for us, (Name). We’re almost finished here.”

Their attention went back to the witches, and I watched in awe to see what my gods were planning on doing. With their powers recharged, this was bound to be an interesting show for me. 

“Do you want to know something cool about Teo?” Ichthys gestured to the blond god, pausing with a dark grin before he pointed out, “He’s the god of time…” This time he paused to try and let the threat settle in.

“Oh!” I exclaimed excitedly, seeing what they were getting at. This was a perfect strategy; Teorus could make the sun rise early! Why hadn’t they thought of this before? “Of course…!”

“And now,” Teorus grinned, and I waited with bated breath for him to continue. “I’d like to introduce you to a little thing known as daylight savings time.” 

There was a quiet pause and Dui sighed loudly in disappointment. I turned my head away, muttering, “You just… couldn’t leave that line out of it…?” I groaned quietly; I thought he was going to say something scary, something that would dissuade them from returning again. What I hadn’t expected… was for him to mock a line from the movie… “Please… go back to being the scary and intimidating god of time.”

“And what are you going to do?” Winifred mockingly asked, “Give yourselves more time to save your little goddess?”

“We could do that,” Dui—or maybe this was Shadow Dui who came out—agreed. His tone was just as mocking, and his grin was just as unpleasant. “Or we can speed things up a little! I’m sure you wouldn’t mind if we turned the lights on!”

“Ah, Winnie,” Sarah called, “The sun! It’s rising!” 

“Curses!” Winifred screeched furiously. “Damn you, gods! We’ll be back! And when we do, your little reborn goddess will be ours!” 

Suddenly, my vision darkened as I felt Ichthys’ hands hover over my eyes. Softly, he whispered, “This… isn’t quite like the movie, so I’ll have to cover your eyes for this part.”

***

“Hm?” Krioff’s attention was stolen by a sudden glimmer outside the window, far in the distance, and his eyebrows furrowed as he found the sun rising. “That’s weird… Wasn’t the sun supposed to rise in an hour from now?”

“No worries,” Tauxolouve eased, smiling at the sight of the rising sun. “This is a sign that things went well, don’t you think?”

“I agree,” Huedhaut added, looking out of the window with a fond smile. “(Name)’s just fine in the hands of our three troublemakers.”

“Tch…” Scorpio scoffed off to the side. “Those brats are gonna get what’s comin’ to them when they get back to this mansion.”

Tauxolouve nodded his head as if content with the fact that the three gods were going to be punished very thoroughly by likely both ministers and vice ministers. “Yeah… This was a stressful Halloween.”

***

The grass was cold beneath me as I leaned back on my hands, sitting beside Teorus, Dui, and Ichthys. The only thing that warmed me up was the feeling of the sun that was rising just above the horizon. I pursed my lips, hesitant to break the peaceful silence, but finally, I had to speak, “You know… you guys are going to be in a lot of trouble when we go back.” I paused, adding, “Especially since you kept me out all night… Well, more-so for the dark gods and witches stuff… but, well, you know.”

There were solemn nods of agreement. “Yeah,” Dui verbally agreed with me, but he had something else on his mind. “Hey, (Name)... we still didn’t get to celebrate Halloween with you, though. Do you think we could hold off on going back just yet?”

Ichthys eagerly suggested, “Yeah! Can’t we go to your place for the day until Zyglavis and the others calm down?”

Teorus leaned toward me eagerly, “Please? I know we didn’t get to go trick-or-treating, but I really want to try some of that milk chocolate!” 

I sighed loudly, but I couldn’t deny my finely dressed Sanderson Zodiacs. I glanced over at them. “Are you three planning on staying in costume all day?” They glanced at each other before collectively nodding. “Fine,” I relented. “It’s November first, so the Halloween candy should be on sale today…” Glancing at their eager expressions, a huff of laughter left my lips. “Alright. Let’s stop at the store on our way to my place.”

They followed me like excited little Sanderson ducklings down the street. Teorus praised, “You’re so good to us, (Name), letting us stay at your place so we don’t get in trouble with Ziggy and Leo.” 

“And letting us celebrate Halloween with you a day late,” Dui added with his usually friendly smile.

Ichthys peered over my shoulder with an equally innocent smile. “You know how much we love you?”

I scoffed, angling my head up with a somewhat satisfied smirk. “Problem children… C’mon.”

#star crossed myth #star crossed myth fanfic #scm teorus #scm ichthys #scm dui #scm shadow dui #fanfic #zodiac gods #department of wishes #department of punishments #happy halloween #my art #fan art #spooky season #trick or treat #hocus pocus #crossover fanfic #hocus pocus fanart #star crossed myth fanart #artists on tumblr

[volunteerfelinedetectives]

Wrote this chaotic little piece for @cherrycokeisnice, basically everyone gets snowed in together. Cleo/Jake, all the friendships, and Moxie/Ellington if you choose to read it that way. Huge thanks to @asouefanworkevent for organising the exchange

The first day went off without a hitch. Moxie and Kellar were of course the first to arrive, Moxie bright and eager as always as she stepped out of the Bellerophon taxi, typewriter for once not in her hand.

Instead she was helping Pip and Squeak carry in all the admittedly rather surprising stuff Cleo had sent them out to find over the previous week, blankets and houseplants and cooking utensils and lamps and absolutely anything colourful, to match with Cleo’s rebellious addition of more and more bright clothes to her wardrobe. Kellar had somehow obtained an enormous antique metal umbrella stand which he was trying, without much luck, to haul up the front steps. Ornette Lost and Lizzie Haines arrived last together, Ornette dragging a sledge loaded with wallpaper and paint through the quickly falling snow and Lizzie staggering under the weight of a heap of curtains and canopies in a rainbow of colours and fabrics.

“Is that everyone?” asked a slightly exasperated Jake, his clothes covered in flour from a mishap involving Moxie, an overfilled storage cupboard and an enormous high-tech blender they were trying to carry.

“Not quite,” replied Cleo calmly once the entirely responsible journalist was out of sight, reaching up a slender hand to brush some additional flour from Jake’s cheek. “I have an associate coming to live with us for a while. In fact, I need to go and meet her in the library now.” And with that she grabbed her coat and bolted out the door, leaving her sweetheart bewildered and suspicious in her wake. Jake shrugged, and went to help Moxie out in the kitchen.

The morning was a blur of constant activity and almost as constant accidents, and by the time everyone settled down to lunch (stuffed mushrooms involving more herbs and spices that anyone in the group apart from Jake could even name) they were all regretting not arriving in more casual clothes. The source of all the chaos was not incompetence on the part of any of them, indeed the living room was looking far more beautiful than it ever had from the work of endless interior designers hired by Ignatius Knight. Instead the problem was, bizarrely, that the place was overrun with stray cats. Yes, you read that correctly: glassware was crashing to the ground everywhere, wallpaper had been scratched down as soon as put up, and a particularly large ginger moggy seemed to have decided Moxie’s typewriter was a bed. This was the last straw. Moxie had her suspicions about who was behind this, and fortunately one of the troublemakers had left a convenient trail of painted paw prints for her to follow. She grinned to herself as she trailed them up the stairs and along the corridor to the study door; mysteries were almost never this easy to solve.

The door to the study was slightly ajar, and it the creak it let out as she pushed it open was loud enough to make her jump back before tentatively making her way in. All four walls were lined with huge and heavy-looking books, and at the back of the room a leather-cushioned chair faced a massive desk carved from a disturbingly familiar dark wood. Slowly, the chair begun to swivel round, and Moxie’s heart threw itself against her chest as she saw who was sitting there. Hair so dark it made the blackest of ink look grey, eyes almost luminescently green. She wore a long, luxurious black silk dress Moxie was pretty sure was Cleo’s, and her long fingers were resting on the head of a white Persian cat with electric blue eyes, which bared its teeth at Moxie as she tentatively approached.

“Hello, Moxie,” Ellington greeted in a slow, honeyed voice, smiling a smile that might have meant anything.

Out of all the people Cleo could have been inviting over? (She had overheard, of course). Ellington?

Moxie did her best to disguise a grimace as she looked the older girl in the eyes. She cut straight to the chase.

“What are you planning this time?” Ellington’s smile faded and her brows furrowed as she began to slowly steer the chair away from Moxie. “I don’t know what you mean. I needed a place to hide from the police, that’s all.”

“You’ve completely flooded the house with every stray cat in town, Ellington.”

She grimaced at the interruption, but carried on speaking.

“I was looking after all of them when I was living in Black Cat Coffee and I don’t know where else they could go. Cleo invited all of them here with me, she told me we’d be safe.”

“After everything that happened? She still trusts you?”

“Listen, Moxie. I’m not another story to be told or case to be unravelled. I’m not here to hurt anyone or sabotage anything. I’m just trying to live, like we all are. The only difference is that I don’t want to simply forget it all.” To Moxie’s horror, there were tears welling up in Ellington’s eyes.

“Wait!” Moxie called out, but she simply pushed past her and ran out of the room, feline draped round her shoulders like a living, breathing fur collar. Moxie wanted to be here, she really did, but she was still uncertain of Ellington and whether she really did mean well. She drifted towards the window and watched the snow that had begun to fall outside, concealing all of Stain’d-by-the-sea’s secrets and dangers beneath an unassuming canopy of white. Part of her imagined that once the snow melted away the town would be rewritten, all of its dark history washed away as it emerged like a butterfly from a cocoon. She knew that made no sense, but what was it that Lemony had once said? ‘There’s nothing wrong with occasionally staring out of a window and thinking nonsense, as long as the nonsense is yours.” Something like that, at least.

She was startled out of her meditation by Cleo’s voice calling her up to the guest bedrooms, sounding more than a little exasperated. She found Cleo sitting just outside a huge, empty room, furniture cluttering the hallway around her.

“I’m sorry if I worried you, I just need someone strong to help me get all this stuff in here. “

Moxie nodded, ready for the task. She was used to carrying things, and any opportunity to spend more time with Cleo was an opportunity she was willing to take. They were in reality very distant cousins, but Cleo seemed like a sister to her nonetheless. They got to work, Moxie carrying or pushing the furniture to the right place and Cleo stringing up fairy lights and heaping blankets and pillows onto the bed, chatting all the while about their universally agreed favourite subject, literature.

“You need to read Fahrenheit 451 if you haven’t, it’s a masterpiece of dystopian fiction,” Cleo was saying as she attached a hanging basket of ferns to a hook at the top of the wardrobe.

“I have,” Moxie replied, bending down to tighten a loose screw on the desk. “I know it’s unfair to compare two completely different writers but when it comes to classic dystopia I’ll always prefer 1984.”

“Much as I love 1984 as well, Fahrenheit 451 feels so much more real to me, like that’s slowly becoming our world.“

A good natured argument does indeed firm up a friendship, and this particular one became so engaging that Moxie completely forgot to ask who the room was being prepared for until dinner that evening. Crab linguine, to be precise. Moxie spent a long while thanking Jake for preparing the food, as well as helping to lay the table, so by the time she could sit down there was only one remaining seat between Kellar and Ellington. She reluctantly took it, avoiding the older girl’s gaze until she felt a tap on the shoulder.

“Thank you for helping with my room,” Ellington whispered, twirling the pasta absentmindedly round her fork.

“That was yours?” Moxie asked, a little too loud for her liking. She wasn’t too keen on the fact that she’d unwittingly done a large favour for Ellington, but thought that perhaps at least appearing to trust her would be the best way of finding out what she was planning. So she lowered her voice, leaned in and said, “Look. I’m sorry about accusing you of doing something bad earlier, I just find it hard not to question everything after all that business with— with your father.”

Ellington shivered; actually trembled despite the warm fire burning in the hearth, and for a moment Moxie was afraid she’d said the wrong thing entirely. But then Ellington turned to her and their eyes locked together as she replied.

“I know exactly how you feel. I spend most of my time afraid I’ll never be able to trust anyone ever again. If even the kindest man I knew was capable of such treacherous things…,” She didn’t finish her sentence, but the second clause hung in the air between them like an echo. …then there is no telling what anyone will do.

They ate the rest of the meal in an amiable silence, trying to keep track of the others’ conversations but finding that they faded in and out, the mingling voices unable to compete with the endless questions and contradictions swimming through their minds. The plan was for everyone to stay the night, and they did, but for reasons unique to each person nobody went upstairs to bed. Instead those who managed to sleep at all did so on couches and chairs in the lounge, books still open on chests that rose and fell like an untroubled sea.

“It’s… 5 o’clock in the morning…” Jake blearily checked his watch then turned to face Pecuchet ‘Squeak’ Bellerophon, who had been vigorously shaking his shoulders for the past three minutes.

“It’s the snow!” Squeak exclaimed without so much as an apology or a ‘good morning’. “It’s too thick and the doors won’t open. We’re snowed in!”

Jake grimaced as he pulled himself up to look; he was hoping to tend to the garden that day, but it seemed like that would be impossible. Sure enough, the snow outside was several feet deep, and so dense it was impossible to even open the door to shovel a path. He tried the other doors and found it exactly the same. They were well and truly trapped. He sighed and went to get the others up from the numerous pieces of furniture they were draped over, with the exception of Cleo who hadn’t slept a wink that night and was now standing in the kitchen with a cup of coffee in one hand, slathering concealer over the dark circles beneath her eyes. She headed for the door the moment she saw him, not even giving him the chance to say good morning before she disappeared up the stairs. No doubt she was extremely busy with something, he thought; he’d get her a bit of breakfast, something to keep her going during the day. He brought the omelette up to the study and poked his head round the door; she was writing furiously in a black notebook and seemingly didn’t even see him as he placed the food on the desk and a kiss on her cheek. Cleo worked so unbelievably hard; he acknowledged that fact with that rare, perfectly balanced mix of admiration and dread.

“105…106…107…” Cleo wasn’t the only one already going stir-crazy from being stuck inside. Ornette had seen potential in the endless scraps of wastepaper left behind from the previous day’s activities and was now attempting the age-old tradition of folding a thousand origami cranes. Once they were done, she decided, she would string them together into a huge canopy of folded paper birds, her most ambitious project yet and a symbol of all the hopes and wishes she had for her re-emerging town. Already there were birds made from every possible type of paper in every nook and cranny of the house, and Kellar Haines, who had been watching with eager curiosity and gathering the creations together for her, could see that she wasn’t planning on stopping any time soon.

And Moxie was sitting at her desk in the guest room that had been specially set up for her, just writing and writing and writing. Getting everything from the day before down in great detail before typing out an impulsive opinion piece on Lemony Snicket, which had very few good things to say. She was right in the middle of a particularly scathing paragraph when she heard a knock on the door connecting her room to Ellington’s. Ellington herself breezed in without waiting for Moxie to answer, brushing a stack of books carelessly aside as she perched herself on the end of the desk. Moxie wished she could be annoyed at the way Ellington treated the world like she owned it, but the truth was that everything in her vicinity did seem to suddenly revolve around her like the Earth’s gravity pulling meteors into orbit.

“Sorry to intrude,” Ellington said after an awkwardly long period of Moxie looking up at her in silence. “But window in my bedroom is tiny and I needed somewhere well-lit to read without going downstairs and waking anyone up.”

Despite it being seven in the morning, everyone was already awake, although Ellington had no way of knowing that.

“What are you reading?” Moxie asked, eager to strengthen the bond that was growing between them. Keep your friends close and your enemies closer. But was she an enemy? Whatever she was reading, it was obviously good, as she didn’t seem to hear what Moxie had said. So she moved her typewriter onto the bed, keen not to disturb her for some reason she couldn’t possibly understand.

The Associates were quieter than they had ever been in one another’s company, as if the snow had buried all their memories, their shared aspirations and dreams. But one thing that couldn’t be buried was how safe they felt around each other, the knowledge that they could make mistakes without everything they had built together falling apart. Which was why Jake hadn’t bothered Cleo in her study at all that day, however much he yearned for her company. He understood her need to always be working hard, always striving to compensate for everything her parents did. But sometimes she forgot that she too was worth something, and when 4 o’clock in the afternoon struck and she still hadn’t come out or said a word to anyone, he decided to finally knock on the door. She opened it and her hands were deathly pale and trembling, exhaustion in her icy blue eyes which she had been trying to fight with the five or six now empty coffee cups scattered around the room. She pulled him inside and kissed him almost desperately, and he leaned into her, keen to give her the support and affection she clearly needed so much. Cleo was on one side of him and the study wall was on the other, and in the moment the whole world seemed that small, that perfect. She pulled away, a rare sheepish smile creeping up her face. “Sorry, sorry, I just— I really needed that,” she whispered breathlessly, running a hand through Jake’s hair as she pulled him down onto an ottoman in the corner of the room.

“Don’t worry,” he replied equally breathlessly. “You don’t have to apologise for anything with me, I’m here when you need me, here because you need me here.” Cleo was chaotic sometimes, troubled and secretive, but Jake knew he could never love anyone else as much as he loved her.

“I don’t know what I’d do without you,” he murmured, resting his head on Cleo’s shoulder as she picked up a book from a nearby table, taking the break she needed at last.

While the two of them sat together in silence and Kellar was still trying to gather the folded paper birds scattered all over the building, something rather exciting had been unearthed in a suitcase upstairs.

“You have what?” Ornette shouted, gazing at Ellington bug-eyed. “You could sell that for enough money to get you safely out of the country for the rest of your life!”

“Well, maybe I love these songs too much to do that. It’s nice to have music almost nobody else has heard, something I’ll only share with the right people.”

“She’s right,” Lizzie chimed in. “If everything can be bought or sold or invested then it loses its original purpose entirely. Auction that CD off and it’ll never be played again, just sold off to richer and richer people at higher and higher prices.”

Ellington reached out a long fingernail to press the button on the CD player, and placed the iridescent disc in its slot, and Ornette was overcome with a rush of endorphins as she heard a familiar voice sing new melodies, new words.

“Hold on, I know someone else who might want to hear this,” Ornette interrupted, moving towards the telephone, picking it up and dialling a number.

“Moxie, come up here! You won’t believe what Ellington has! No, not a weapon, not anything even remotely sinister. Illegal, yes, but purely noble in its intentions. Yep, a pirated CD containing Melanie Martinez songs that were never officially released and might not be found anywhere else in the world. Yes, I’m serious.” Ornette hung up the phone and spun to face Ellington and Lizzie with a thrilled expression.

“She’s coming!”

“So his name actually was Lemony?”

“I couldn’t believe it either until his sister told me. It always sounded made-up, like the kind of name you’d tell a company to avoid getting newsletters.”

She was always going to mess this up, Moxie thought to herself. The plan was to keep a close eye on Ellington and prevent her from getting into any mischief, and it wasn’t supposed to involve sitting cross-legged on Ellington’s bed with her hands temporarily incapacitated by the black varnish drying on her nails, courtesy of Ellington. It definitely wasn’t supposed to involve Moxie having the time of her life hanging out with her. Maybe it was just the excitement of her first proper sleepover, but she was finding Ellington surprisingly fun to be around when they weren’t directly in the midst of intrigue. The evening so far had been a blur of music and games and conversation, over the course of which they had all ended up with completely new hairstyles. Ellington’s hair had been plaited and wound into a spiral at the back of her head, Moxie’s straightened into a chin-length bob, Lizzie had a new fringe which cast her eyes in shadow and Ornette’s was let down from its usual yellow scrunchie and pulled into row upon row of tight braids decorated with colourful beads. Moxie thought they all looked transformed, shifting rapidly from the uncertain girls they were six months ago to the wilder, freer ones they were becoming. The connection she felt to them was new, unfamiliar and exciting, and even though she still had her doubts about Ellington her bed was so comfy and she was tired…

The rays of the sunrise shone through the curtains over the East Window, waking her up the next morning to see Ellington bringing over a tray on which were two steaming cups of coffee. Really, Moxie? Falling asleep in Ellington’s bed?

“Sorry I didn’t wake you up,” she said gently, brushing a lock of hair out of Moxie’s face. “You just looked so cosy there and I couldn’t bring myself to do it. Don’t worry, I think the couch in here is even more comfortable than the bed!”

Moxie reluctantly took a sip of the coffee Ellington had handed her, and discovered with reluctant gratitude that she had prepared it with milk, sugar and cinnamon, adding a delightful mild sweetness to a normally bitter drink. The coffee reminded her somewhat of Ellington herself that morning, everything dark and sinister had somehow melted away and she seemed kinder and less villainous than she ever had before.

Meanwhile, Cleo awoke to the smell of freshly baked cinnamon rolls, something that would be comforting to most people but made Cleo’s heartbeat quicken and her breathing stop. Here she was, in her bedroom in the family home, the familiar smell of cinnamon rolls that were never for her wafting up at her from the kitchen. Had she only dreamed all the friendships she had made over the past six months, or that she was free from her parents at last? Without stopping to get slippers or a dressing gown, she bolted down the stairs to the kitchen where she was greeted by a rather bemused Jake.

“Are you ok, sweetheart?” he enquired with a nervous smile. “I made you breakfast.” Cleo managed an equally nervous smile back as she hoisted herself onto the kitchen counter and pulled Jake closer to her, kissing him softly on the forehead.

“Everything’s alright, Jake,” her voice tapered off ever so slightly. “It’s just that I’ve never actually had a cinnamon roll before. Zada and Zora always made them, but my parents had me on this ridiculous diet. I wasn’t even allowed a slice of cake on my birthday.”

“That’s dreadful, Cleo! We need to fix that, right now.” With mock solemnity, he fetched the tray from the other end of the room and handed her one of the warm pastries, oozing with cinnamon and cream cheese frosting. She bit in, and in that moment she could have sworn she had never tasted anything quite as heavenly.

“I can make them for you more often if you’d like,” Jake told her, grabbing one for himself from the tray. And this, she always said, was the moment the full extent of her newfound freedom hit her. It was also the moment she ran to the window and discovered the snow had melted just enough for them to go outside again.

Back upstairs, Moxie and Ellington had almost finished their coffee.

“You know,” Ellington declared suddenly, “I might actually try and sneak out today given the snow’s melted.”

“It has?”

“Not completely, but enough for us to leave the building.”

Ellington pulled on a black trench coat that was draped over a chair in the corner, and half-ran, half-leaped down the main stairs in the centre of the building, landing in the hallway with cat-like precision and gliding towards the door.

She knew that this was a rather silly idea, but she was never the kind of girl to allow herself to be contained for long. The world, or at least Stain’d-by-the-sea, was beckoning. As she turned the handle on the door she felt Moxie come up behind her.

“Mind if I join you?” she asked, and Ellington smiled deviously to herself.

“Of course you can, a walk is almost never any fun when you’re alone,” Ellington replied, doing her best to sound casual. “But I’m not carrying that typewriter.”

Moxie laughed, flinging open the door with her typical enthusiasm and taking off running down the path towards the town while Ellington lingered behind, bunching up snow in her gloved hands.

The snowball hit Moxie on the back of the head, almost knocking her hat off. She rapidly turned around.

“What was that for?” she shouted.

“What was what for?” Ellington replied innocently, hurling another snowball in Moxie’s direction. To Ellington’s utter astonishment she caught it and threw it right back, hitting Ellington before she had time to recover from the surprise and dodge it. Of course, there was now no way of deescalating the situation, and of course, like with most snowball fights, others began to join in. Namely, Pip and Squeak, who had observed the action from a window and had jumped at the opportunity to cause mischief. Much to Ellington’s chagrin they were fighting firmly on Moxie’s side, and she didn’t stand a chance until Ornette dashed in front of her out of nowhere, carrying a small arsenal of snowballs she had been surreptitiously preparing in the yard. Soon everyone was involved; Jake and Kellar joining Moxie’s side and Cleo and Lizzie teaming up with Ellington. It was the first snowball fight any of them had had in years, and it was wonderful just to play like the children who they’d never been allowed to be, all system of teams and sides quickly forgotten as they ran shouting and laughing down the slightly less empty streets, much further than Ellington was technically supposed to go from her hiding place in Cleo’s home. Many years later, Moxie and Ellington would always say this was the moment that any trace of a rivalry between them disappeared, and they were just two girls on a winter morning, holding hands as they ran to catch up with the others by the sea.

Cleo drew her coat around her as she sat down on the pier overlooking the restored sea, the dams holding it back from the town’s edge having been long since destroyed. She shook the remaining snow from her hair, accidentally elbowing Jake who had come to sit down next to her. He rested his head on her shoulder and took her hand in his. “You’ve done so much more for the world this year than most people do in their lifetimes, and you’re still just sixteen. Look around at what you’ve made, Cleo,” She turned and saw Ellington smiling shyly, drenched through from the still-raging snowball fight, and Moxie draping a coat over her shoulders, their faces illuminated by the golden dawn. She saw the cobbled road cutting through the houses to the town square, and the empty pedestal awaiting the planned memorial to a great sub-librarian they once knew. And she saw the pen-shaped building she once looked upon with shame rising high above the town, no longer looking like it intended to cross it out, but instead poised ready to write a new beginning. “We’ve got whole lives ahead of us. Let’s go live them.”

#asoue #lemony snicket #a series of unfortunate events #all the wrong questions #atwq #ellington feint #jake hix #cleo knight #ornette lost #kellar haines #pip bellerophon #squeak bellerophon #lizzie haines #wicked way exchange

[twsted-roses]

❝ 𝕋𝕨𝕚𝕤𝕥𝕖𝕕 𝔹𝕦𝕥𝕥𝕠𝕟𝕤 ❞

Author’s Note: Most of these are from my thoughts from the time I was brain rotting about Twisted Wonderland x Coraline AU two months ago so this might sound a lil bit messy, sorry not sorry about that dears. 💦 

                                               ❀⊱┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄⊰❀

                                  ᴛᴡɪsᴛᴇᴅ ᴡᴏɴᴅᴇʀʟᴀɴᴅ ᴄᴏʀᴀʟɪɴᴇ ᴀᴜ 

Where everything is fine and there are no Overblots and such, everyone has button eyes just like the Coraline's "Other Family" however in this AU my Idea is that MC either dreamt about the Mirror in their room or MC accidentally found a secret hidden door in the Dorm, kinda like the same exact door from Coraline where there's like a small door covered up with wallpaper, and that's also one of my ideas, however I think I prefer MC finding the secret hidden door inside the dorm cuz it would be cool if MC accidentally found it while they we're cleaning the Ramshackle.

MC would probably be doing some Spring Cleaning when BAM! they found the door and got curious enough and tried to ask the ghosts abt it and this could go both ways, the ghosts either know alot/little abt the door or they don't know nothing at all abt the door.

Either way MC's curiosity got the better of them and tried to find the key to the door and once they found it they tried cutting off the wallpaper covering the door and once they did they inserted the key to the door and found nothing but bricks inside it however like in the movie once it was night time the bricks behind the door we're gone and with this MC woke up and found the door was finally accessible for them and once they entered it was still the same ol' Ramschakle Dorm and school.

But not too long after they entered this whole new world they quickly noticed that something was off abt it, everyone had button eyes and it was like the complete opposite of the Twisted Wonderland that they knew, here the students actually get along instead of being troublemakers and such, what's surprising it that Crowley is actually very responsible for his work unlike in the other world, and in this world there are no Overblots or anything.

                                               ❀⊱┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄⊰❀

This AU follows the same as the Movie Coraline, where Coraline kept coming back to the Button World during the night but eventually like Coraline's Mother, MC was stopped from visiting the Button World for a while, probably because MC's friends started noticing small differences happening to MC and all that stuff but again like Coraline.

MC found a way to visit the button world once again however this time the people in the Button World of NRC slowly tried convincing MC to stay with them saying that it's more fun here with them more than the Normal NRC world where Overblots and things happen.

All MC needed to do was to say yes, and MC would officially be part of their Twisted Button World, if they agreed to sew buttons onto MC's eye's, and to which MC denied but the Button Versions of the Twst Characters insisted, yet they let it go for now, secretly trapping MC.

I want to ramble more on this but I’ll just say that after they trapped MC, MC was set off on a mission to find a way to exit the Button world and return back to the Normal Twisted Wonderland World but ofc like in the Movie there are obstacles.

And the obstacles are the  Dorm Leaders, dorm Members, Staff, and anyone else in this Twisted Button World, and for MC to exit/find away to escape this world they must find/take a certain item from each dorm.

Kinda like how Coraline was finding the eyes of the missing children that the Beldam had hidden, but ofc with the obstacles in the way it isn’t going to be that easy for MC to find these items in each dorm, but luckily for them with the help of a hand held mirror that they got from Sam in the normal Twisted Wonderland world, they are able to identify the items that they need to take.

But again like Coraline, MC later loses the hand held mirror during their hunt for the remaining items thus making it 10x harder for them more because with each dorm they battle against the fight becomes more and more harder and the items are much more harder to find or reach.

Since some items are either hidden around the place of the dormitory in plain sight or they are on the Dorm leaders, which are extremely hard to reach not only because of how strong each Dorm Leader is but also because of the other dorm member’s surrounding them like a shield/barrier

                                               ❀⊱┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄⊰❀

(This next part is an Idea from my bestay @call-me-aesthetic so credits to her!!)

However there are some character’s in this Twisted Button World that does not wish to harm MC, like Kalim and Ortho but are sadly forced to, mostly Ortho who is forced to attack MC by this Twisted Button Worlds’ Crowley.

Basically Button eyed Ortho is like Coraline’s other Father in that scene where he was forced to attack Coraline and in the midst of it you can tell that he wasn’t doing this on purpose based on his dialogue where he said “Sorry. I’m so sorry. Mother’s...... making me.” And for Ortho it’s the Headmaster so it’s like “Sorry. I’m so sorry. Headmaster’s ...... making me.”

                                               ❀⊱┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄⊰❀

Anyways, that’s all I wish share about this Twisted Wonderland Coraline AU for now since it’s late and my body is kinda tired, but I might share more ideas soon.

#twisted wonderland #twst #twisted wonderland coraline au #twst wonderland coraline au #twisted wonderland au #twst au #twst writing #dire crowley #twst crowley #kalim al asim #twst kalim #ortho shroud #twst ortho #twst x reader #twisted wonderland x reader #💐rose's rambles #🍃garden stories

[ofhope-a]

“And where the hell do you think you're going?”

Kaito was going for a look of intimidation, the badass final boss of an area; instead, at the end of a bleak hallway, wallpaper peeling and grass biting at his ankles, Kaito heaved and huffed, a thin line of sweat racing down his neck.

If not a danger to others, Kokichi, allowed to travel amongst the halls with no means of communicating his whereabouts, was a danger to himself, as well. Arguably, that fact didn't hold as much urgency as the latter, Kaito Momota's sole mission -- outside of gracing the Milky Way -- was capturing this, this... whatever Kokichi Ouma was. Evil, maybe. A villain, possibly. A troublemaker, definitely. No matter his agenda, to leave him free, liable to do whatever, say whatever, it resembled letting free a lion from its cage.

“You aren't running away from me this time! Not until you tell us whatever the hell's going on in that screwed up head of yours.”

No person, no creature, no living being behaved as irrationally, as uncaringly. Death now lurked along these halls; no outlines, no wafts of iron, but a crushing sensation of death nonetheless. To get hung-up over a lost one was, in Kaito's mind, stupid... but to utter not a word of sorrow, to not clench his fist in despair or in anger... to instead laugh in its face, what kind of person could do that?

(Were he not so antagonistic toward Kiibo and the Monokubs, Kaito might have suspected Kokichi a side-project of Monokuma.)

“You ain't fooling me, so spit it out already!”

@ultlie // starter!

#Kokichi I'm sorry he's so mean. He just Doesn't Understand. #We love Kokichi on this blog though. #Thank you for liking my starter! I hope this is okay; I kind of placed it before Kirumi's trial if that's okay? I'm all for talking out #specifics though! Let me know if you need or want something different! #I wanted to toss Fuyuhiko at you because short kings + same voice actor but I figured we'd have to nail down some stuff. #THAT SAID: s o o n.

[miam0re]

Inazuma Cakes

Starred/Asterisk’d Posts are Multiple Character Postss

Sweet Cakes

Your Wallpaper is a Picture of Him*

Champagne Cakes(18+)

Cupcakes(18+)

Type of Pussy Eater*

Who’s Really In Charge*

Forced (con) Breeding Thirst*

Sweet Cakes

Group Project (Tevyat Top School collab w/@.bumbleklee)

Christmas, Cuddles and Cat- KazuhaXReaderXThoma(secret santa ‘21)*

Mistletoe Moments(3)*

Visiting a Beloved’s Grave (angst)*

Dancing in the Forest (Mia’s Valentine’s Writing Collab '22)

Champagne Cakes(18+)

Punishment

Worthy

Cupcakes(18+)

Do Anything

Sitting on his Lap*

Best Friend’s Sister

Giving him a ‘fuck me’ face

Wall sex 

Sleepy Sex with Kazuzu

Sweet Cakes

Champagne Cakes(18+)

Help me, Daddy*

I Found Your Vibrator*

A Rich Man's Slut*

Cupcakes(18+)

Childe/Ayato (almost) Threesome Thirst*

Treat His Mistress (Thoma/Reader/Ayato)*

Water Clone (1)

Late Night Vibrations 

Sweet Cakes

Christmas, Cuddles and Cat- KazuhaXReaderXThoma(secret santa '21)*

Mistletoe Moments(3)*

Champagne Cakes(18+)

The Thought of You

Help me, Daddy*

I Found Your Vibrator*

Cupcakes(18+)

Treat His Mistress (Thoma/Reader/Ayato)*

Sweet Cakes

Champagne Cakes(18+)

Cupcakes(18+)

Itto’s Cock: The Perfect Meal

Punishing Sub!Itto

Sweet Cakes

Champagne Cakes(18+)

I Found Your Vibrator*

Cupcakes(18+)

Sitting on his Lap*

Just Two Horny Gremlins and You*

Cockwarming Softie Scara

Student Council President!Scaramouch X Troublemaker!Reader

Sweet Cakes

Mistletoe Moments(3)*

Champagne Cakes(18+)

Cupcakes(18+)

Playtime

#mia.navigation #mia.megaphone

[talesofsorrowandofruin]

Manuscript Search Tag

Thanks for tagging me, @weaver-of-fantasies-and-fables and @kaiusvnoir! :D

Words: grit, slam, high, soft, yellow, silent, share, drop and real. These are from The Power and the Glory, Gracemeadow Manor, and The Unfortunate Moth:

Grit:

Tananerl was less a principality and more a loose association of kingdoms and tribes who were forced to work together with gritted teeth. As such its capital was constantly disputed. Five thousand years ago Ilaran came up with the idea of having two capitals, a temporary summer one and a permanent winter one. The summer one was a different city each year and moved around all the kingdoms in turn. The winter one was Magdrőd-Keszgy, capital of Ahalál. Ilaran might only be Prince of Tananerl, but he was also still King of Ahalál.

Slam:

Doors slammed and the building shook. Abi's hand brushed against a doorknob. She grabbed it and staggered into the room beyond. It was dark as midnight. She stayed close to the wall as she tried to feel her way to the other side of the room. Someone was still slamming doors. With a jolt she realised, That's gunfire.

High:

"I said I meddled in necromancy and accidentally killed myself. Then I -- also accidentally -- brought myself back to life. Actually, you might say I annoyed Death into bringing me back. She doesn't have a high opinion of necromancers. In fact I suspect she went out of her way to ruin everything for me."

Soft:

Abi circled overhead. Her feathers shone so brightly she looked like a small comet. She landed on the gate of the spaceport. It was the only way in and Irímé lay facing it so nothing could sneak up on them. She trilled softly. In this form Irímé had no way to tell her he couldn't understand her. He tried to get the message across by tilting his head to the side and giving her an unimpressed look.

Yellow:

By the time the servants finally showed Abihira into her sister's living room she would have happily raised an army of the dead just to destroy the house. The sight that greeted her was not calculated to improve her mood or raise her opinion of the palace. Líusal's living room was a riot of colour and tastelessness. Never before had Abihira seen wallpaper with stripes of magenta and sickly yellow. She hoped she never saw it again.

Silent:

Jane unlocked the back door. Her hands were covered in blood but they left no mark on the white paint. Arthur was a silent presence at her side. She didn't speak to him.

Share:

Phil counted back from ten as she left the balcony. Her room was much smaller — and less expensive — than her aunt's, but it had one advantage: it had a phone. This was solely for her aunt's convenience. When staying in hotels Rachael Patton-Langdale refused to have a phone in her own room where it could disturb her sleep. She was much more cavalier about her niece's sleep being disturbed. Phil had lost count of the times she'd been jolted awake by some business partner of her aunt's phoning about stocks and shares and goodness knew what.

Drop:

Colman dropped the last sheaf of papers on top of the pile. He watched without apparent surprise as they promptly slid off and fell to the floor. Yo-han resisted the urge to suggest he should take housekeeping lessons.

Real:

After the first two days the gossip about Mirio and Lian's supposed engagement mostly died down. Somehow or other word got out that Abi was a notorious troublemaker -- which was true -- and that led to the rumour that she'd probably eloped with Lian herself -- which was so far from the truth that Mirio found it a real struggle to keep a straight face. That rumour was widely believed in the court. Mirio almost felt sorry for Abi. Almost.

Tagging @whimsyqueen, @eccaiia, @verba-writing, @pandawriterstuff, and anyone else who wants to do this! :D New words: cat, crumble, crash and concern.

#tag game #writing #my writing #my WIPs #WIP: necromancer #WIP: manor #WIP: moth

[winterapocalypse]

Winter Apocalypse Chapter 21

Robert (and also Beric)

The gamekeeper's house was… peculiar.

Gothic enough, to be sure - the walls were old, damp black wood, covered in old wallpaper which was also old, worn and damp, a color that must have once been black but was now just greyish. . Disturbing to the right degree. The wallpaper had once been patterned with skulls and bones – now it was just pale stains.

The curtains were black and dusty and torn by some beast, letting in the faint light of the crescent moon into the black sky. Even the man who lived there, the Undertaker, was dressed completely in black, and full of tears and scars and marked by time and battles at least as much as his hut.

Aston was in the cabin alone with Undertaker- or rather, they were the only two alive. There were many other people in the shed, but none of them were actually alive.

Everyone knew of the strange mania of what they called the Undertaker for death, and the upside-down corpses of the animals he had personally buried proved it. They said he was born a squib and had obtained his magic through secondary means, exploiting the favors of strange gods from distant continents and attracting thousand-year-old curses upon himself.

Bullshit. Aston didn't believe it. She herself knew magicians who practiced necromancy, or at least tried, and sometimes it even worked. Not that way.

Into the hut, shuffling his feet heavily, a tall, gigantic fat man entered her, taller than the tall Aston and almost the size of the girl's older brother. His beard was black and thick and stained with dried blood, and his Gryffindor teacher's tunic was also all stained with blood. He was the former headmaster of the school, Robert Baratheon, older brother of Stannis - the defense against wizarding professor and Renly, a Slytherin troublemaker in his final year. And he had died a few years earlier while he had gone into the Dark Forest and had been attacked by some wild and dangerous animal that inhabited that forest, which was forbidden to students for that reason.

But the professors - and even the principal - should have emerged unscathed, with the grandiose magical and combative powers that he had been able to demonstrate in all those almost twenty years of teaching.

The rumor was circulating among the Ravenclaws that it wasn't an animal that slaughtered him in that way at all, but nothing more than the secret animagus of some other teacher there in the school, envious of his title.

Aston had doubts about Professor Cersei Lannister, who had now even succeeded her late husband Robert, becoming her headmaster in turn and ruling Winter Hogwarts with an iron fist.

"Oh, you're a Royce, huh? Lord Royce's middle daughter I suppose." Robert said, almost ruffling her hair. Aston withdrew angrily. She didn't want that undead old man to ruin her hairdo.

"You have your brother's size but the bad temper of your lineage." Robert Baratheon replied to that gesture.

The undertaker, as everyone called him Undertaker, arrived in the room shortly afterwards accompanied by the little boy he had found in the woods. He was now a little more stable on his thin legs, and he was visibly shaking. The Undertaker still didn't speak - that man rarely did, and maybe it was for the best - but he pushed him towards Aston, who tried to grab him as best he could while he almost fell to the ground. He found it on him and realized to his horror that he weighed almost nothing, probably only the weight of his bones and the heavy Winter Hogwarts clothes he was wearing.

He looked up at Aston, and if she avoided looking at the gash on his throat, the missing eye and the skull split in one place, Aston could almost have called him cute. Short, soft, reddish-blond hair, green eyes (now only one) and pale complexion, made even lighter by death.

"So it's… it's dangerous?" Aston asked both the Baratheon zombie and the Gravedigger, and neither responded.

"I'm not." however, the boy under her hissed, much shorter than Aston's almost six feet tall.

"My name is Beric Dondarrion, I'm part of Hufflepgsd! I'm from…"

The air of pride that he had put on himself for a moment suddenly collapsed when he realized that he didn't remember many things about himself.

"All zombies lose some memories of their past life, that's normal." Beric cheered him up, but he burst out in a fit of anger. "I'm not a zombie! Don't call me a zombie!" he chirped nervously.

"Everyone's nervous tonight!" Robert said, saying a few swear words and leaving.

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#winter apocalypse #Aston Royce #beric dondarrion #robert baratheon #the undertaker

[qualiaofthreedots]

Walls can be books...

There are walls in my grandmother's house at the countryside. Right now it's a spare room at the end of the kitchen where we dry our tea and a picture of me and her hangs in the corner but once it was the room where she slept.

So when I was little and had to bear a week staying in the countryside ( even though now I plan around everything just to escape to here) ... there I was, forced to take a mid day nap.

So we unfolded the couch in the room, my grandmother went of to work in the garden and I had to sleep.

Of course being a hyperactive little child, sleep was the last thing on my mind. But God forbid I would be caught with my eyes open.

So I fell in love with the walls... the wallpaper that covered them had symbols on it, lines and swirls that went from the bottom to the top. So, I would spend the hour of my sleeping time finding paths and trails within them. I would play games within them, create stories and characters. At some point, I started to get excited for my "naps."

Years later, when I was in around 4th grade, I would come to the countryside with my parents on the weekends. My bed would now be situated in a different room, one for me, one for my brother and one for my parents. My parents worked really hard and me and my brother were really big troublemakers - we would not give them a second of peace. So they would make us have a mid day rest.

Now I was in a different room, no more of my fun wallpaper, no more stories...or so I thought.

See in this room we had a wall made of stone and tiles so when the stove on the opposite side of the wall which was the kitchens wall, would burn, we would get the warmth through the wall. I slept near this wall... and the tiles were made up of small different coloured squares. So I found other paths and labyrinths, and I made new stories. Characters from the previous wallpaper would come to this tile and be confused about the new terrain.

Now we have a second floor where my bed is, and it has plain grey walls, but thanks to my childhood, I can now draw stories and labyrinths within my own mind on even blank grey walls. But I do sneek into the old rooms from time to time just to say hi to the characters I left behind.

#writing #stories #culture #poetry #art #wallpaper