My tags are organized into four main categories:
Short story
Gifted
Shitpost
Ask
Short story has three subsections:
Concept writing (usually just worldbuilding but it may or may not actually be related to my book)
Fan favorites
Submitted prompt
Gifted will be solely chapters of my book
Shitpost is just me making jokes about either my characters or writing in general, just good fun that doesn’t have much meaning
Ask is just little submissions I get from time to time
If any characters are mentioned in the post I’ll also tag them
Hi! I just found your blog, and firstly, you write good, thanks for posting stuff. I read the school janitor story and am now really curious about the backstory. Secondly, your mental health is more important, good job recognizing you needed a break and then taking a break. Thirdly, please have a good day :)
Ah! I almost forgot about this blog lol.
Thank you! All of the characters on this blog are characters from the book that I'm procrastinating writing that I've slightly repurposed to fit prompts.
Since I'm not going to be doing a continuation of that fic (the POV character died I couldn't if I wanted to --) I have no problems talking a little bit about that specific story's background:
Both Damien and Adam have powers surrounding death and people are inexplicably drawn to the things that relate to their Gift. People who have power over plants are drawn to the outdoors, people who have teleportation powers tend to have trouble sitting still, and they... they're drawn to murder. It's unfortunate. And, since Adam had already long since been a murderer by the time Damien's gift developed, it was extremely easy to introduce the kid and get him hooked. He became his dad's right-hand man for a while, perfectly willing and eager to do all the dirty work. But, at some point, it goes too far, hits a little too close to home, and the act of murdering someone he knows is what's finally enough for Damien to take a step back and realize just how terrible everything that he's been doing is. So, he fakes his death and runs...
(And then the story picks up when he gets caught lol)
Anyways, it's not really a break anymore, I think this blog is pretty dead. I'm still writing, but I've found that fanfiction tends to give me a lot more external validation so I've moved my writing addiction over to @olivia-anderson-fanfic
And you too! This ask was really sweet, thanks for sending it in!
Nathan was a master of stealth. He had been a thief since he was eight years old, he could get from room to room without making a sound and he could sure as hell break his way into his own house.
But those stealth skills are rendered useless when you have a humanoid dragon baby spewing fire with every cry for food.
Cal looked up from his book and his eyes went wide. He let out a squeak and vaulted himself over the sofa for cover, only poking his head up a when Nathan had convinced him that the dragon wasn’t trying to kill them.
And, now that the fear had worn off, his face went from deathly pale to redder than the dragon’s scales.
Nathan did not like this development. He should have let him cower.
Now it was his turn to cower as the blond slowly pushed himself up and walked over to jab his finger in his chest.
“What even?”
“I can explain.”
Cal raised his eyebrows. “Please do.”
Nathan opened his mouth and then closed it. He looked down at the kid his arms and sighed, rocking them back and forth. “I didn’ do it on purpose.”
“How... how did you accidentally adopt a child?”
He hesitated. He really hadn’t thought he’d get this far. He hated when Cal actually let him explain himself. Why couldn’t he do that when he actually had an excuse?
“Well?”
“You know that super-important quest I was given where I was supposed to slay the big, evil mommy dragon and save all the crops?”
“... yeah?”
He gave a sheepish smile. “As it turns out, the big, evil mommy dragon had a baby.”
Cal gave him an incredulous look. “... yeah?”
“And when I slayed the mom the baby started to cry...”
“WELL WHAT DID YOU THINK WAS GONNA HAPPEN?!”
The baby was full on sobbing now.
Also the dragon. The dragon was much louder than Nathan, though, so his crying went mostly unheard.
Cal still noticed. He always did. He pursed his lips tightly and looked away to wait until he was done.
A few minutes later, Nathan sniffled and wiped his eyes on the sleeve of his shirt and then went to work shushing the baby. He had younger siblings, he’d done this before...
Not for a dragon though. Christ, it really wasn’t easy to not yell when every cry of the baby threatened to singe your hair off which only made it cry more which only made for more close calls and --.
It was a vicious cycle. Let’s leave it at that.
But when half of the room had been burned Nathan had the genius idea of actually listening to the kid and getting them the food they craved. He passed the baby off to Cal, who gave another fearful squeak and set them in the fireplace, and then ran off to get food.
They didn’t have much. Most of their food was burned (which was actually unrelated to the dragon they were now caring for) so they’d had to just hand over a bit of the non-burned crop they’d managed to save.
Only to realize that, hey, the food would have burned when it got close to the kid’s mouth anyways and they had just wasted perfectly good food.
At least the baby had settled down a little bit.
Cal relaxed, but that only lasted a moment before he rounded on Nathan. “Honestly, what were you thinking?”
Nathan hugged the child closer to himself. “I don’ know! I thought I was goin’ to be stronger! Fuck, Cal, she’s just a baby!”
“A baby dragon!”
“Racist.”
“I --.” Cal groaned and ran his hands through his hair, looking like he was going to cry. (It was his turn to, anyways, everyone else had already had their go.) Surprisingly, he managed to steel himself. “Nathan.”
“Yes?”
“We are not dragons. We do not know how to take care of dragons.”
“Yes.”
“So we get rid of it.”
“No.”
Cal gripped his hair tighter. “Neither of us are ready to be fathers!”
“We have about two minutes to learn because I’m not gettin’ rid of this kid and you’re not gettin’ rid of me.”
“I could.”
Nathan rolled his eyes. “Bitch, please. I’d love to see you try.”
Cal opened his mouth and then closed it again. He slowly released his hair and smoothed it out with his fingers. “Fine. You can take care of this kid. I’m not doing it.”
He watched his friend grab his bag from a hook on the wall and head out. He wasn’t running away, Nathan knew that he would have packed way more if he was going to, but where he was going was a mystery.
He sighed and shook his head. He slowly knelt down next to the kid.
“I’m very sorry about everything but... my name is Nathan, what’s yours?”
The dragon eyed him warily. Fair enough, he’d just killed their mom right in front of them.
I’m really burned out at the moment. My motivation is at an all time low. I tried to push through it a bit, but I never ended up happy with those writings. They sounded tired because I was.
Ultimately, this came down to whether I wanted to continue this and give you all bad content or take a hiatus and hope that my motivation will come back at some point.
I don’t know when I’ll be back, though I definitely intend to be back at some point.
I might still update from time to time while on hiatus, by the way. That won’t necessarily mean that I’m back, I’ll tell you in the tags if I actually am.
This heist was going pretty well for them, exceptionally so, actually. They’d met up with the buyer and it had been relatively easy to climb up the sides of the building with all the ivy dotted about. Now all that was left was to retrieve the item and get it back to them. Nathan smiled as he saw a window open a few away and hopped over to it, not at all bothered by the fact that he was ten floors up and any mistep could kill him. He’d faced worse, and payday was just around the corner. His smile dropped the moment he saw a guard’s face in the sill.
He quickly turned around in an attempt to get away, only to feel a hand hook itself around the back of his shirt and yank him inside. He hit the floor with a sigh.
“Yep, that checks out,” he muttered as he heard the window latch behind him.
Nathan moved to sit up and groaned as a foot pressed him to the floor.
It seemed he was in the right room. Dotted at seemingly random intervals were sleek black pedestals, upon which priceless valuables were protected by flimsy glass cases.
Of course, this would be great if they hadn’t severely underestimated the amount of guards there would be. They had assumed there’d be about two in the room, max of three, but apparently the royal family had gotten more paranoid since their last heist. Now there was about ten guards crammed in with the five artifacts.
He couldn’t really get a good look at the artifacts from his place on the floor, he just had to hope that it was close enough that he could make a grab for it and run.
He was pulled from his thoughts as the shoe ground itself into his back. He groaned and brought his hands behind his head.
“What the hell is your problem?”
“Who are you working for?”
“Who says I’m not doin’ this for fun?”
The guard sighed and he was released. Before he could really get up on his own, though, he was pulled to his feet. He cringed as he was patted down. He didn’t have much on him but he still couldn’t help but cringe as they took away his knife and, as if just to piss him off, his cross necklace.
“Why?”
“You could puncture someone’s throat,” said the one who had taken it, a cheeky grin on her face that made him want to punch her teeth in.
He was one step away from doing so, consequences be damned, when arms caught him.
“Throw him in with the other.”
The other? He thought vaguely as hands pulled him up. He didn’t bother fighting back, he was way too outnumbered to even consider it, but if there was another person... he’d be marginally less so.
He was taken across the hall and a guard opened the door to reveal another person. Great. So they’d also been caught. He barely had the time to process this, though, as he hit stone for the second time that afternoon.
“Ow,” he mumbled as he ran his hands over his elbows and knees to check for minor injuries.
“You good?” Came a familiar voice. He flipped onto his back to flash a grin at his friend. They looked less happy to see him. Makes sense, they’d been caught. Still, Damien reached out a hand to pull him up. “Told you this plan wasn’t gonna work.”
Nathan rolled his eyes as he was pulled to his feet. “You can take that up with Cas and Three, then. Besides, I didn’ see you givin’ any better plans last night.”
Damien only shrugged.
”Why didn’ you, I don’ know, call this in?” Nathan complained. “I would’ve liked to know that you were caught.”
Damien rolled his eyes and pulled the end of his masquerade mask down to reveal... nothing. His earpiece was missing. If the guards didn’t kill him here, Three would do it for them when they got home.
Nathan sighed as he reached back into his hair and undid his bun. He untangled his earpiece from his hair and stuffed it into his ear.
“Hey, so... we may have run into some problems.”
He waited for the familiar sound of crackling on the other end of the line but there was nothing.
Damien pressed his ear to the door to listen in for footsteps coming down he hall.
Nathan, though he was trying his hardest to be helpful, he couldn’t be. He was almost completely sure Caspian would have answered by now, even out of annoyance at him constantly calling his name. Either he had lost his earpiece somehow or he was in a situation where he couldn’t talk.
Damien pulled away from the door and reattached his mask to his face. Nathan pulled off his earpiece and tucked it back in his hair.
The door swung open to reveal... well, Nathan had no clue who that was, but from Damien’s expression it wasn’t someone he had been excited to see.
The guy was clearly royal, he had the same smug smile and perfect hair that they always had. The crown and scepter also helped.
He beamed, swinging his scepter in a wide circle and forcing Damien back a few extra steps so he and his entourage of guards could step inside.
Nathan cursed.
Caspian and the buyer were there, too. Caspian looked uncomfortable with the guards holding him, hugging himself as he was forced into the room. The buyer, however, didn’t have a hand on him.
“You sold us out!”
Caspian was shoved inside and they were all tempted to catch him but they knew him well enough to know it would be met with a broken nose. Still, Damien leaned down to check on him.
The royal glanced them all over. “Nice to finally meet you all, though it’s a shame the girls aren’t here this time... No matter! They’ll come to get you out.” The man’s expression darkened. “I’ve been itching to see all your faces since we missed each other last time!”
There was a few seconds as everyone eyed each other. The royal was clearly expecting something but, even if they had known what he’d wanted, they had no intention to give it to him.
“Don’t you know your manners? You kneel before a king!”
The criminals all looked at each other. Caspian and Damien, who were on the ground, both stood up.
Caspian smiled innocently. “Sorry, Peter, we all have bad knees. Can’t kneel to save our lives.”
The king’s fake smile slipped from his face like sap. “Well, considering it actually is going to save your lives, I’d consider trying anyways.”
Nathan hesitantly knelt down, ignoring his friends’ betrayed expressions.
Come on, guys... don’t be stupid...
The king nodded slowly, apparently opting to ignore Nathan’s glare at the floor. “See, was that so hard? Anyone else?”
The guards were now filing into the room for real, walking around to surround the criminals and the king in a circle. Fifteen on three. How was that supposed to be fair?
Caspian grit his teeth and tugged Damien down with him by his hand.
“Mas vale que tu era tengas un plan,” Caspian hissed out of the corner of his mouth.
“No me digas,” whispered Nathan, sighing.
Honestly, he never had any faith in him!
Peter strode forward with that smug look back in place. “Glad to see you all have come to your senses. Now, shall we put faces to the names?”
Nathan cringed as the king reached down to pull the fox-themed mask from his face and dodged the touch. Peter’s smile became more strained as Nathan started playing limbo to avoid the man’s reach. The back of his head touched the floor and a small grin played across his lips.
He grabbed the man’s arm and pulled as hard as he could. He was already off-balance from leaning down so far, it wasn’t hard to use that against him. Peter came crashing on top of him and he latched his hands to his neck.
(He actually had no clue how to snap a neck, but hopefully they couldn’t tell that.)
Nathan slowly got to his feet, making sure to hold the king at an angle that made it difficult to really get a good footing.
Damien pulled the scepter from the king’s hand with ease, especially since he wasn’t really in a position to fight back. He twirled it in his fingers and his nose scrunched slightly.
Caspian narrowed his eyes and reached a hand into his pocket and pulled out a seed. “Now, Peter, it’s not that we don’t trust you, but just in case you try and lash out...” The seed sprouted into a vine and he bound the king’s hands together. He reached a hand out to Nathan, who gladly handed the king’s neck over to someone who actually knew what do do with it.
They backed out of the room slowly, eyes locked on the guards. They weren’t going to hurt Caspian for fear of him killing their king but if they wanted they could likely take out Nthan and Damien before he could could react. Hopefully they thought him the type to snap when his friends died, because otherwise...
“So... are we walking down ten flights like this?”
“Nine,” corrected Caspian vaguely.
“Shut up,” muttered Damien. He looked at Nathan for an answer.
He grinned and pulled the king into the treasure room.
“If you could do the honors, Damien?”
The man beamed at the chance to hit something, no matter how trivial, and raised the scepter.
“That’s a family heirloom!”
There was a crack as the doorknob popped off and Damien pouted. The scepter was now mostly bent in two, the top end hanging off by a thin thread of gold.
“Well, now we can’t sell it!” Caspian complained as they stepped inside.
“Weren’ goin’ to anyways.” Nathan plucked the scepter from Damien’s hands and used it to bar the door. It was flimsy but it should keep them out for just a few seconds, which was all they would need.
They went to grabbing the expensive jewelries, a giant diamond, and even the crown used for coronation.
Nathan picked up the necklace they’d been sent to get. It was a gorgeous pearl necklace, ruined by a giant diamond pendant in the middle. He frowned confusedly as the diamond began to glow with a dim yellow light. “Can’ believe we went through all this for somethin’ like this,” he mumbled to himself.
“Can I kill him?” Asked Caspian.
“I wanted to!” Complained Damien.
Nathan shook his head slowly. “Just drop him on the floor, we don’ need a body count.”
The man reluctantly complied, throwing him to the ground. He glanced out the window. “How’re we going to...?”
Nathan grinned. “Make a web with your vines to catch us.”
“I can’t do it that fast!”
“You have about three seconds to learn. Go. You first.”
Caspian sent him a short glare before reaching a hand into his pockets. With a long breath to steel his nerves, he jumped out the window.
They leaned outside and watched vines shoot around to catch him, intricately weaving themselves together just in time to break his fall.
“Told you you could do it!” Nathan yelled.
Caspian shoved his hand in the air from far below. A thumbs up, surely.
He glanced at Damien. “You next. You’re carryin’ him, by the way.”
The male cursed, but nodded and jumped out the window.
Nathan’s eyes widened as he felt a tug on his hand and looked up to see Peter pulling on the necklace with all his might. He quickly pulled against him, watching the string pull tighter and tighter, the pearls shaking with every step they took away from each other.
The necklace snapped.
Nathan fell tumbled out the window.
~
When they had finished recounting the story, the girls looked annoyed.
“Told ya we should have gone with them,” Three muttered.
Beel looked about five seconds away from snapping their necks. “Please, at least tell me you got the item.”
“Well... I managed to get half of the item,” Nathan said sheepishly.
Caspian held up the pendant of the necklace, which now pulsed with an intense silver light.
There was a moment of silence, before Nathan smiled. “Think we can still sell it?”
“Probably. Even if that buyer was fake, there’s gotta be real ones out there,” said Three.
An unassuming school janitor, is in fact an incredibly powerful but reformed dark magic user who chose a humbler life after the Hero defeated and spared them; except today is different: today the magic academy is undersiege by the BBEG, their former boss.
Everyone always thinks being a school janitor is awful. It actually isn’t so bad once you get used to it. Sure, you spend a lot of time cleaning up kids’ messes, but you also get to meet a lot of people from different cultures, and you get friendly waves and thanks every day. Valentines day is spent drowning in flowers. Really, it wasn’t all that terrible.
It was hard to get the job at first, of course. Working at a school involves quite the background check. When you’re a former villain just starting out the process of bettering yourself, it’s pretty hard to prove the former part.
And, so, it turns out his evil connections did help him in the long run. A stolen identity here, a bribed official there, and suddenly Dominic was a perfect candidate. Or, rather, Damien was.
Listen. It doesn’t matter how you become a better person, as long as you do it eventually.
You’ve probably heard this a million times before but it really was just a regular day.
Every day was the same back then. You wake up early, you do a routine cleanup of the school, answer a few calls for help, stay after to cleanup some more, then go home. It was a cycle, but cycles can be calming sometimes. At least you know what’s going to happen.
He smiled as a kid apologized profusely for throwing up all over the floor. He reached into his pockets and pulled out a handkerchief for them to wipe their mouth with. “It’s okay, just try not to overextend yourself again, okay? Now, get to the nurse, okay?”
They nodded and, with another quietly apology, were gone.
He hummed as he picked up his mop.
Usually, he would enlist the help of a ghost or two. Unfortunately, school was still in session and he was not going to admit to having a Gift if he didn’t have to. It was a pain to apply the makeup needed to cover up his markings but it was infinitely better than the pain of explaining exactly what his Gift is.
And, so, he cleaned.
He smiled as he finished scrubbing, giving the tile floor one last polish, before standing up. In that instant, though, something -- no, someone -- came crashing through the wall. A groan slipped from his lips as a fusillade of rubble beat itself against him and, more importantly, the newly cleaned floors! This will take forever to fix! There was nothing to be done, though, as he took cover under a desk and waited for the dust to clear.
It was the kid from before, drowning in a pile of cement (and a few stray school supplies).
“You were outside? I thought I told you to go to the nurse!” He shook his head in exasperation as he leaned down and started fishing him out.
Then the screaming started.
He glanced outside to see a giant... something picking its way across the courtyard. It had already knocked over the gates with ease, already stomped through he hedge maze, and was now making a beeline for the front of the building.
He looked back down at the kid, unconscious and bleeding under the pile of rocks.
Well, in all the chaos, a few extra people wouldn’t be noticed.
He concentrated on all the remaining souls on the school grounds and frowned as he noticed far more than usual. Weird. He pulled the closest three towards him and was shocked when they flew in through the hole... where they coming from that thing?
He commanded them to help the kid and ran to the nearest window and was stunned to see what looked like millions of corpses, moving in tandem. Shock turned to horror as he realized that he recognized a few faces among the crowd.
Dominic’s head whipped around to the ghosts he had summoned, who were a few rocks away from unburying the kid, but he could hardly bring himself to care as he darted forward to see their faces.
Traitors.
He’d seen each of their faces plastered across the wall at one time or another, with the same words above them ‘WANTED ALIVE’. Every single one of them had been there for him, had realized the extent of his evil, and then had gone off to help the hero or live their own lives. But they always found their way back to him, and they would always end the same. Screaming, pleading for mercy, promising they could be of use once again.
And then, silence.
At least, until a new traitor restarted the cycle.
He’d always known his past would come back to bite him. He’d put a lot of effort into going off the grid, even the hero had thought him dead, but there was always a chance he would be recognized. An old ally or foe, a family member of a victim, a witness. All of them would be a danger to him.
But he’d always hoped it would just be an image thing. There was no reason for him to ever find out.
Now he was here, and looking for Dominic.
His eyes widened as he realized exactly what he’d done by summoning the ghosts: he’d showed his exact location.
He needed to run!
His eyes flickered back to the kid buried in rubble. He couldn’t leave them here for him to have his way with them.
The three ghosts were not going fast enough for his tastes.
Oh! They already knew his location, so it really wouldn’t mean much if he summoned a few more...
He chanced a look out the window. It was definitely getting closer. His stomach churned as he summoned four more to him and started joining in the work himself. The eight of them tore through the rocks.
A weight lifted itself off his shoulders as he managed to pull the kid out and handed them over to the youngest-looking ghost, who couldn’t be older than ten or so. He tried not to think about it so much as he sent them off to the nurse. It didn’t matter if he was found out anymore, after all. His cover would be blown no matter what he did.
That is, if he even survived this.
He dismissed the ghosts and watched their light zip up to the heavens. There, one last good deed.
The stench of rotting bodies assaulted his nose as he walked to the window and shuddered as the monster took one last step to meet him.
A hand reached out slowly and he tried not to scream as bodies wrapped themselves around him. The bodies squelched and cracked as they bent at awkward angles to scoop him up.
It rotated him around until he was on his hands and knees on its palm. This was fine, really, because this was the prime position to throw up.
Every one of his senses screamed for mercy. The stench of rot and fungus was so thick he could taste it even past the bile. Maggots squished under his skin. Every little movement of the thing constricted and snapped bodies as they were forced to move in way they simply weren’t designed to. And the sights... every single one of them had died gruesomely, it seemed; chunks of bodies missing, limbs bent at awkward angles, glassy eyes, the dried blood that coated it from head to toe.
Not the worst experience he’d had as a janitor but definitely in the top five.
When his stomach had fully emptied its contents, he was brought to eye level with the thing, which was a good hundred feet off the ground.
Adam leaned out of an empty eye socket, beaming at him like he was an old friend. And, technically, he was. Or he would have been.
“How did you find me?”
“Good to see you, Dommy!” He cooed, positioning himself how one would when leaning out of a window sill. The red markings on his cheeks were glowing bright red with the effort of controlling all the zombies underneath him but he didn’t let it show on his face.
“Adam,” Dominic ‘greeted’. “I wish I could say the same.”
The man pouted. “Come on! You used to love puns!”
“I’m not exactly in a joking mood right now, Dad.”
“Why not?”
“I’ll give you three guesses.”
Adam’s eyebrows scrunched together. Then, he clapped his hands “I’ve got it! Is it because you’re on duty right now? Don’t worry about that! I’m going to get rid of that!” He paused. “Or, well, you are, but that’s besides the point!”
His shoulders tensed. “What? What do you mean by that?”
“Well, you have to prove your loyalty to me somehow, kiddo! I mean, I’m already putting some reputation on the line by sparing you, but that doesn’t mean I’m going to just do it for nothing.”
He wanted to throw up some more but there was nothing left. This happened every time he’d tried to leave. He’d be given just enough time to bond with people, to form attachments, and then Adam would give him that same choice all over again: their lives. Or his.
But this was supposed to be the exception. ‘Dominic’ was supposed to be dead!
And yet, here he was, stuck again. Same behavior, same situation, same consequences.
He knew what the hero would have done in his situation, they wouldn’t have even had to think about it. She would have said no, given up her life fighting Adam off, but she was gone now. And now it was him. And how was that fair? Why was their life worth more inherently? He was going to be good! He was trying to be good! He was so close to being good!
His eyes fell to the ground. The students and staff were working together to keep the school from falling apart at the seams. A few brave souls were transporting some bodies inside for medical help or to prevent them from getting more damaged.
Dominic closed his eyes for a few seconds and summoned a ghost from the arm to help him to his feet (the amalgamation was moving too much for his comfort, he wanted some support). A body fell from where he’d summoned it. His eyes narrowed as he steeled his nerves. He knew what he had to do.
“Okay, fine.” He swallowed thickly. “I’ll destroy the school if we get everyone inside to leave.”
Adam raised his eyebrows. “You’re not in much of a place to negotiate.”
“Maybe not, but it’s really in your best interest. All these kids are good at magic, and there’s a chance you can get them on your side.”
“And if I don’t then I give kids who are, in your own words, ‘good at magic’ a reason to come after me.”
He gave a weak smile. “Maybe. But I’ve gotten to know them quite intimately. You’ll have the upper hand.”
The man mulled it over. Sure, he could have simply dropped Dominic then and there and killed them himself... but there was truth to what he’d said and they both knew it. The potential for a new set of recruits was pretty good if he spared them, it would be considered ‘mercy’ on Adam’s part and they could be convinced there was good in him. That, maybe, he wasn’t just an insane man who strived for power over others, but a human with flawed ideology... maybe they could change him... help him... fix him...
For, aren’t we all, heroes at heart?
Adam broke into a grin and slowly slipped himself out of the eyesocket, clambering his way down to where Dominic stood.
Well, maybe not all of us.
A hand was pushed into his face. “We have a deal.”
“Always one for the dramatic,” said Dominic with a weak smile as he shook it.
“It runs in the family,” Adam teased.
He nodded slowly. “Yeah, about the only thing that does.”
The corpses underneath them went slack as their spirits were pulled out at once.
My book: covers the effects of child abuse and neglect, the way that power inherently corrupts people, and how immortality would change morality and sense of self
Also my book: “blood red hair was difficult to distinguish from blood red... blood”
If you still need writing prompts: Your friends and all have special abilities related to the classic 4 elements: Earth, Fire, Wind, and Water. Your ability is... a little less traditional.
Send in prompts whenever you want! I can’t promise I’ll get to it as quickly as I have been for the past two days but, in general, send them in and I’ll answer them <3 (That goes for everyone by the way! If you want me to write then go ahead and send in an ask!)
~
“Meth is also my Gift,” said Cas.
Three raised her eyebrows. “I said maths.”
“Oh... just forget I said that, then.”
She opened her mouth because no, she was not just going to forget he said that, what the fuck, but Damien raised his hand.
“Hey? I’m kinda lost. What does that even mean? You’re good at solving problems?”
She shook her head slowly. “It’s more like... I can predict and, somewhat, control probability.”
Nathan snorted. “Sounds dumb.”
“Really?” She said, tilting her head to the side with a look in her eyes that screamed danger to anyone with sense.
He snickered and made a swirling motion with his finger. He pulled the water from their open water bottles, pooling it in the air above him, ready to strike. “Really. It’s kind of useless, isn’ it?”
She shrugged and looked away. “Yer going to trip.”
Nathan brought a hand up, opening his mouth to say something back, and promptly hit the floor. To add insult to injury, the water he’d been suspending in midair crashed on top of him in his distraction.
Cas rolled his eyes. “Wow, I was going to drink that, but okay,” he muttered, wiggling his fingers.
The plants around him dragged him to his feet and dusted off his clothes for him. He didn’t seem to mind until the grass attempted to fix his hair, and he quickly stomped on his friend’s foot to make him stop.
As if desperate to make it so he wasn’t the only embarrassed one, he pointed at her with a somehow still superior expression: “Ha! You didn’t predict the water falling on me!”
“No, I did. It just wouldn’t have happened if I’d said anything.”
They stepped over the threshold and a friend popped out of thin air. Surprisingly, she was not the wind-centric one, though.
Damien’s nose scrunched up as he leaned away from her. “Y’know, it’s kinda hot out, could you maybe... turn that off?” He said, pointing to the flames that shot out of her head.
She sent him a glare. “I don’t have any hair, it’d look weird.”
He rolled his eyes and waved his hand. A gust of wind nearly bowled them over.
Beel scowled at him as she pat her head, then reached out a hand for him.
Three grabbed her wrist. “Is this worth murder?”
“Yep.”
“No,” she corrected, pushing the hand back to her side. “Besides, you wouldn’t win against him.”
Flames flickered on her scalp but, either because Damien’s blow had weakened her or she was taking their concerns into consideration, they were less of a roaring campfire and more of a stove. “The Heaven does that mean?”
“It’s a bad matchup for your Gift,” she explained casually.
Beel scoffed. “Excuse me, I could totally beat him!”
“Don’t be such a... hothead.” Damien grinned cheekily.
Cas’s face darkened. “Well, I vote we let her try. I’ll even help.”
“Ya two would be terrible as a team,” Three muttered, shaking her head.
Nathan eyed her suspiciously. “Exactly how much have you thought about us fightin’?”
“With how much ya guys argue? Every hour. Come on, we still need to restock on food.”
Everyone glared at Beel, who held up her hands defensively. “What? It isn’t my fault you leave your food out in the open! Blame Damien, he’s the one who left it out to spoil! I was doing you a favor.”
Damien winced as everyone’s anger turned on him and threw up an awkward peace sign before disappearing.
“A dog who has been raised by an elderly lady wakes up one day to find out she doesn’t move anymore. Now it’s been two days, what happened?”
~
Routine. Others say routine is boring, that it makes everything predictable, but they couldn’t be more wrong. There’s something so amazing about knowing for sure something pleasant is going to happen the next day, there’s always something to look forward to.
It would start early in the morning: he would wake up and look out the window as he waited for the sun to rise on the horizon. His tail would thump a steady beat on the hardwood floors as the sky began to lighten, anticipation rising as he pressed his tiny snout to the window. This made it difficult to see out to wait for dawn to come to him, of course, his fervent breaths fogging up the window... but he just couldn’t help it! He was so excited!
The moment that he could see even the barest trace of the sun, he would wheel around to face her bed. Paws would scramble for purchase over slick floors until he launched himself up, making the old bed creak. Her eyes would open in slight surprise, as they always did, then crinkle at the corners as she saw him leaning over her.
He would kiss her face. She would groan playfully, flipping over in bed and pulling her covers tighter around herself. He would leap over her and kiss her face again. She’d say something in that strange language of hers, throwing her hands up in mock defeat.
Then, the day would begin. They’d go to the food room and she’d give him some food, then she’d make herself something simple to eat. Over the years she’d started moving slower, hand on her hip as she made her way around, but that was okay! He wasn’t in a rush, and things always feel rewarding when you wait!
He’d walk with her to the main room, where he’d help her sit down by putting his snout out for her to hold.
Head in her lap, she’d pet him as she watched her funny little picture box. He didn’t care that he couldn’t understand what the tiny people were saying, for he wasn’t watching them. He’d keep his eyes on her, watching the way her eyes would light up when she’d laugh, or the way her face would crease into a concerned frown, or the way she would bring her hands to her mouth to gasp (then she’d apologize and bring them back to his fur). It made his day. His life, even.
Before he’d know it, it would be nighttime. She would fill up his food bowl again and head to bed with some food of her own. By the time he would finish and make his way back through the halls, she would be asleep, another plate stacked on her dresser.
And then he’d lay in his bed, excited for the next day.
But, one day, he jumped up and she didn’t react. He tilted his head to the side in confusion and gave another bounce. Still nothing. He nuzzled her cheek with his snout and waited for her to open her eyes. This must be a new game and, while he had always loved the routine, that didn’t mean he couldn’t get to this new one! So he kept nuzzling her with his snout.
Eventually, though, he came to realize she wasn’t going to get up that day.
Huh. Well, maybe she was just tired! Or sick! He got like that sometimes, and you know what always made him feel better? Food and cuddles!
He looked at the tower of old plates building up on her dresser and grabbed the one closest to them. They came crashing down in a heap and he whined an apology as he looked at her. He didn’t want to disrupt her nap, after all! She wasn’t feeling good as it was, he couldn’t make it worse!
But she didn’t react, didn’t even look over the side to make sure everything was okay...
Good! He didn’t want to disturb her!
He walked to the big cold box that she always pulled food from and set down the plate. It was big and white and his eyes zeroed in on the only color: a silver handle that she always opened it with.
He attempted to press his snout between the gap but it was too big to get any real hold. Then he bared his teeth and attempted to pull it open, to no avail. A last ditch attempt was to just paw at the door, nothing changed outside of a few new scratches on the side.
Tail low, nose dipped, he padded back over to the bed and gave a small whimper as an apology for not being able to get her food. She didn’t acknowledge him.
He nuzzled his face under her hand and closed his eyes as he waited for her to stir.
Nothing happened the next day, either. His stomach growled so much that he worried he would wake her before she was ready but it didn’t seem to be affecting her all that much.
The day after that the front door opened, as it did every once in a while. It was her kid, coming to give her more food. Good! They could help get her food (and maybe him, too)! He jumped from bed and walked to the front, where they were putting away the groceries.
He barked for attention, and they rolled their eyes and waved him off. He growled a tiny bit; she was sick and, though she hadn’t told him yet, he assumed she was probably hungry, too! This was not something they could just say ‘whatever’ to! Shirt latched in his jaws, he began pulling them with all his might.
They must have realized this was important, because they followed along with him, up until the door. They were frozen in place, just like her. Oh no! Was it contagious? Wait, no, they were speaking in that language of theirs. Then, after a few seconds, they fell to their knees and began to sob.
He slowly walked up to them, nuzzling his snout against their face and giving a small kiss. He couldn’t allow them to be sad when she woke up, after all! That would make her sad! So he kissed all the little tears from their face.
Some time later, they pulled away and shakily brought themself to their feet. After a few seconds’ hesitation, then made a quiet ‘come’ motion and he followed them all they way to their car. They were going to help! But what could be outside?
They opened the door for him and he backed up a step. Wait a minute, they weren’t trying to help, and he couldn’t simply leave her! She needed him now more than ever!
They grabbed him from the collar. He growled and pulled against them, gnashing his claws. They couldn’t just do this to him! He wouldn’t allow it! He needed to stay! But they weren’t stopping, he had to bite them to make them let go. He ran back to the house and growled when they attempted to get close to the threshold. If they weren’t going to help, then they shouldn’t be allowed inside! He didn’t care what they could be saying! There was no possible justification for this!
Then they began to break down again, hands flying to their face in an attempt to stem the tears sliding between the gaps. They looked at him pleadingly.
He grabbed the front of their shirt and tried tugging again. He would be fine with going with them for a little while if only they could help with what was going on!
They only cried harder.
He slowly released their shirt and went back inside. He’d been gone too long. He didn’t want her to wake up alone!
Story prompt: Video game protagonist develops free will, discovers cheat codes.
People always say that cheating takes all of the fun out of games. ‘If you don’t work for it the ending won’t feel earned!’ they scream from atop their high horses.
Well, she had worked for the ending.
She had spent years of her life working towards it, building up her stats, obtaining the best items, making friends with the best party members. She had narrowly escaped her and her friends’ deaths multiple times. She had finally bested the bad guy! The good times were in sight, in a few years the world would be a utopia!
ESC.
Her vision flickered blinding white for a moment and she brought her hands to her eyes. She gave a quiet whine, a little ‘Not again!’, before opening them again.
She was floating, weightless in a void. In front of her were words in a language she couldn’t comprehend, brilliant white against the nothingness, and an arrow pointing between what seemed to be two options.
She barely even paid it any attention. Why would she? It wasn’t as if she hadn’t seen any of this before. It had been a surprise the first time, and even the second, but now? Ah, it’s just a run of the mill Darkness. A monthly occurrence, really. It would be over in a few minutes anyway.
At first, she didn’t think much of how long she was there. When you’re waiting for something it feels like it takes longer, after all!
Seconds... fade into minutes... fade into hours... fade into days...
What is taking so fucking long?
She found herself staring at the back of the words, struggling to understand the weird text. What language was that in? It certainly wasn’t anything like she’d seen before, the words were so... defined. What kind of weirdos would have thin letters? Didn’t they know blocks were the way to go?
Maybe it was because she was looking at it from behind. Those letters looked so... ghastly, there was no way that they really looked like that.
She started to drift over and she frowned as she pressed a hand to the nearest... whatever that was. She had seen it happen before, the weird way it had shaken before bringing her back to the normal world, maybe if she just...
Fuck that’s heavy! She pushed against it with all her might but it wouldn’t budge.
Eventually, she slumped against the abomination, resting her head against it and closing her eyes (not that closing her eyes changed anything). She opened them again after she had caught her breath and looked around for something, anything, to do.
Her eyes found their way to the arrow. She floated over to it and poked it, expecting it to be just like the text, only to scream as it attached itself to her pointer finger. The sudden weight pulled her down a few feet before she regained enough thought to stop herself.
Her gaze found itself to the immovable object and she hurled the arrow -- and herself along at it -- in its direction. She wasn’t expecting much, maybe a collision to snap herself awake (because this must have been some sort of weird nightmare), so it was a shock when she saw the ‘words’ budge.
She shot out of bed, hitting the cold stone floors beside it. Guess she was right about the nightmare part. She winced and closed her eyes to let them adjust to the new light.
Her right arm throbbed where she had thrown it out to catch herself but it was still useful enough to push her back to a sitting position. She cringed at the hard floors, wondering just where she had managed to fall asleep this time, and she sleepily ran her hands over the cracks in the stone.
Wait, cracked stone?
Her eyes shot open despite the slight pain.
God no.
She was back in a prison cell. The guard she had befriended years ago was scowling at her from the other side, knocking his baton against it like he’d done every day. Had he regressed? Taken a plea deal to get out of charges? Wow, he’d even styled his hair back to what it had been when he’d been working there originally.
“Wake up, 1111.”
“I have a name, yknow!” She hissed. “It’s --.” The world paused around her. The person in the cell opposite hers stopped changing midstep, the guard caught mid-blink, the fly next to her nose hanging.
But even weirder were the white words in front of her face. She wasn’t in the void. Those weren’t supposed to be there.
She opted to ignore the words for now, because she honestly didn’t know what to do, and reached up her hand to catch the fly since she’d actually be able to.
It was here that she noticed her left hand had something attached to it. She stared at the milky white boxes with their weird abominations and narrowed her eyes. Maybe the arrow hadn’t faded from her hand like she’d thought, it had just gotten smaller?
She reached out and tapped a few buttons.
“-- DHSHT0! My name is DHSHT0.”
Wait, what? The world was working again? And why had she said that was her name? Her name is DHSHT0!
Huh?
She couldn’t seem to remember her name anymore, just that weird amalgamation of sounds.
“I don’t care,” her friend sneered. “Just get moving, alright?”
He was gone. She had a strange sense of deja vu.
She looked back at her hands and raised her eyebrows when she saw that the boxes were still hovering there, waiting for use.
Deciding to just accept that as a part of life. Best for her sanity.
She slowly walked over to get a change of clothes and her eyes widened as she saw a familiar set of tally marks on the wall. Sure, this was pretty standard, but...
She counted them out and, with a sudden temptation, reached a hand out to scratch a new line.
129 days and counting, she thought.
She knew that thought. She knew those tallies. And she definitely knew what was going on now.
No.
No no no no no no!
She ran back to the front of the cell, pressing herself flush against the bars to get a good look at her friend. He hadn’t just cut his hair back, no, it was back to being that way. From the perfectly cropped hair to the bleached blond roots.
She was back at the beginning of this whole mess.
Oh, fuck no.
She’d rather be back in the void, thank you very much! She looked down at the pad in her hand and began typing furiously. She’d figured out where the enter key had been when she’d typed out her name, so now she inputted random combinations then pressed enter. She wasn’t sure what would work, or what could happen, but she didn’t care.
She blinked and suddenly she was in red armor. Fear climbed up her throat. Did this mean she worked for Him now? She typed more furiously.
A different friend of hers popped into existence in the cell for half a second before disappearing. Oops. Wish she’d actually paid attention to what she was typing.
She leaned herself against the wall and began typing again, more slowly to actually note what was going on.
The wall disappeared from behind her and she fell through, landing in a meadow. She was walking with the guard, whose mostly brown hair was now past his shoulders. She dropped her hand in surprise.
He looked affronted at something she said. “Oh, DHSHT0, come on! You can’t say that! That’s blasphemy.”
She smirked, reaching up to pinch his cheek. “Really? Okay.” She raised her arms to the heavens. “If that’s blasphemy, then He will strike me dead right now.”
There was a pause and she barely managed to think ‘wait, what were we even talking about? What’s going on? Haven’t I already done this before?’ before she turned to him, her cheeky grin stretching even wider.
“Well? I’m waiting.”
She brought her left hand up and started messing with the keypad again. This was all so weird. She’d done all this before, she recognized what was going on, but everything was off about it. They hadn’t done this in a field, she hadn’t been wearing these clothes, and she certainly hadn’t ever had real-life pauses happen before.
Or, as she was beginning to suspect, not real-life at all.
She kept her hand up to pause time and started walking towards town. She needed to get to a library, she needed to understand what the hell had happened to her hand.
But she couldn’t get further than a few steps ahead of herself before she hit some sort of invisible wall. She leaned all her weight against it but, again, it wasn’t enough to gain any ground.
She slid to the floor and rested her head in her hands.
Suddenly, a friend popped in front of her. She glanced down at the keypad, frowning. Had she accidentally tapped something out with her head?
“Hey, DHSHT0, wanna talk?” They chirped in that same pleasant voice they always had but now their smile felt weird. It was too wide, too teeth-y, and definitely didn’t reach his eyes.
“Not really, Johnny.”
“So, you thought you’d be clever and hack the game, huh?” He said, squatting in front of her and steepling his hands under his chin.
‘Hack’ the ‘game’?
“Bet DHSHT0 isn’t even your real name. Bet your real name is something like...” He tilted his head as if listening to a distant song. “Danny?”
She gasped, though she wasn’t sure why. That sounded right, though, so maybe that was her original name.
“I’m right aren’t I?”
She started to bring her hand up to type, to get out of there because something was seriously wrong with her friend and she didn’t like it one bit, but Johnny pushed it back down.
“Now, now, don’t leave! The fun is just getting started! And you want to have fun, don’t you?”
She knew by his tone that whatever ‘fun’ he had planned, she’d want no part of. She pulled her knees to her chest to get as far away from him as possible.
He grabbed her left hand again, pulling it towards him and drumming his fingers across the keypad.
She fell out of bed again, screaming. Just a bad dream, the worst dream ever. She pressed her hand to the floor, moving to get up, and her eyes widened as they felt stone.
She opened her eyes and looked around the cell. Her guard was there again, yelling, “Wake up, 1111, 1112!”
She blinked at the additional number and turned her head to see him. He looked so innocent, bobbing up and down on the bed, but there was nothing innocent about what was going on.
He smiled. “Hiya, cellmate.”
“Can’t you just call me my name?”
“And what was that again?” He cooed.
She had learned a few times ago that, for things to start, you needed the weird line thing at the beginning, so now she pressed it and inputted a random string of letters.
The last thing she saw before she moved was his annoyed expression.
She stood at the base of the mountain. She knew Johnny wasn’t supposed to be a character here yet, so she breathed a sigh of relief, only to turn and see him standing among the two who were actually part of it.
“You know, you could just enjoy the game for what it is,” he said.
She brought her hand up and he lunged for her. She dodged his swipe by pure luck and started running up the mountain because she knew for a fact that she was able to. She was having trouble doing precision typing on the run but she hardly cared as she reached a for it and...
WWWWWWWWWWWWWW--
Huh? Why was her keyboard typing out that one letter so much?
“Having a little trouble typing and running?” Came his voice and she screamed as she ran into him. She hit the ground and winced as pebbles scraped her hands and legs. She dusted at the debris on her hands.
“You should be behind me!”
“And you should be back in your cell, playing this game as it was intended. Life’s full of disappointments.”
He reached for her hand but she was already gone.
She was standing with all her friends, beaming widely as she lifted the crown onto her head. Wait a minute, a crown? When did this happen? Wasn’t she supposed to get a medal for her service, and wasn’t someone supposed to put it on her?
She turned around and stared at troops upon troops of red-clad soldiers.
No.
Johnny clapped from his spot beside her. There was a loud bing from beside her head, a box with a crown and some more of that weird language, and then it was gone.
She was in a white room with Johnny. She looked down at her hand to plot yet another escape, only to find her keypad was gone.
“Congratulations, Danny. You’ve gotten the secret ending,” he said with unenthusiastic jazz hands. “You’ve gotten the secret, now play the game as it is intended or hit ESC and log out for good.”
There was a long pause. Her keypad was gone. Even then, she didn’t know what ESC was in that language. She didn’t want to risk getting it wrong.
“Well?” He prompted.
She stared at her hand, waiting for it to pop up.
“Well?” He prompted.
“I want my old life back! I want the good ending with everyone happy and on the right side and--!”
Damien groaned as he opened his eyes, rubbing his face tiredly as reached for his phone. 5 in the morning. Of course. He began to set it down before his eyes found their way to the date. Huh? Coming out day? I thought that was next month! He had been putting it off for a few months, because, hey, coming out day isn’t going to be that far away, might as well honor a tradition. But now, the day was here, and...
Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck...
He pulled himself out of bed to pace the room, biting the end of his thumb as he tried to think. He didn’t think his friends would be distinctly homophobic, but what if he was wrong? Nathan is Christian, after all, and Cas is pretty conservative when it comes to all things ‘modest’, and Three has never been so touchy-feely. And, oh god, what if they just act like they’re okay with it because they don’t want to seem bigoted? What if they said it outright?
What if everything changes?
He scuffed the floor with his foot, which usually was fine for him, but he wasn’t wearing shoes and ow ow ow ow ow...
He tried not to think of it as an omen as he changed. It would be fine, most of the time everyone didn’t wake up until around 8 or so. He had a few hours to prepare himself.
Damien took a deep breath as he walked to the kitchen door, only to pause.
What was that sound? He pressed his ear to the door to hear a dull scraping sound and oh shit what if that weird demon-lady came back. This was not the time for otherworldly shenanigans! He needs to come out!
He slipped a hand to the salt in his pocket and pushed the door open. “Hello...?”
Nathan yelped and fell off the counter.
He brought his hand to his mouth -- a mistake considering the salt but it’s fiiiine -- and pushed the door open fully.
His friend quickly reached up over the side of the counter and scooped everything off it, pulling it down with him.
“You good?”
“Don’t come over here!”
There was a mad shuffling sound, and god there must be such a mess, Damien didn’t really want to turn on the light to see it all. “Why not?”
“I’m... naked?”
He recoiled in shock. “What the fuck?”
“I thought everyone would be asleep! Who the hell is naturally up at 5?”
Damien rolled his eyes. “People with healthy sleep schedules.”
“Psychos, that’s what!” He poked his head over awkwardly. “Fetch me some clothes, will you?”
He rolled his eyes and head off to get him clothes and frowned as he almost literally bumped into Cas, who was sleepily shuffling down the hall, still in their pajamas. “Why are you up?”
They blinked, giving a small step back. They pursed their lips for a second, as if considering their answer... or maybe they were still tired. “Couldn’t sleep...”
“That’s a first.”
They gave a small shrug. “First time for everything?” They said slowly, looking away from him. They’ve been so awkward recently... wait, what if they already know and that’s why they’ve been acting like this? He hasn’t even officially come out and things are already messed up between them!
Cas coughed into their hand awkwardly. “I’m just going to... go...” They sidestepped him and disappeared down the halls.
He brought the clothes to Nathan and raised his eyebrows as he heard a cupboard open. Still, he wasn’t going to turn around. That would be a violation of privacy. “Right, you good? Can I get cereal now?”
“Yeah.”
Damien walked over to the fridge and frowned when he couldn’t find any milk. “Ugh, fine, I’m going to the store. See you guys later,” he said. Nathan sighed in relief and he tried not to wonder what that meant as he head out.
He hummed as he walked down the trail, only to frown as he saw Three coming down the opposite way, a small tote bag over her shoulder. Oh, so that's where that went. She seemed to see him at the same time, her eyes widening and darting around anxiously for an out.
He gave a small wave. Everyone was acting weird today, and why was everyone up early? He had seen Nathan up every once in a while to stress bake, and Three would occasionally stay up through the night working on an invention, but Cas? And all of them on the same day? No, something shady has to be going on.
Besides, if they all didn’t sleep, maybe it wouldn’t be a good day to spring a surprise on them...
He was so lost in his thoughts that Three was able to sneak past him with ease, despite the loud clanking of her bag.
Damien walked back to the house and finally made himself cereal. He could smell the lingering scent of something sweet in the air, but what was a mystery. He glanced around for the telltale signs of Nathan’s baking, but there were no sweets, no mess, no nothing.
His eyebrows knit together.
He rested his head on his hand as he ate his cereal. How was he supposed to tell them? Was he supposed to have some huge gesture? Was he just supposed to come out and say it?
Heheh... come out...
No! This is serious! He can’t just make a joke of it...
Right?
The air was thick with tension as everyone sat at the table that night. Even Three was pushing her food around on the plate without eating. Damien was now struggling to even consider coming out. Sure, he had a plan, but this was different. He wanted everyone to at least be happy and full of life when he said anything.
Three cleared her throat awkwardly. “Right, I... invented a thing.”
Cas’s head popped up with interest. “You going to show it off?”
She nodded slowly as she set it down on the table. It was a little, silver sphere. She took a deep breath, then pressed a mostly invisible button. The sphere span in place before shooting blue, purple, and pink confetti in the air. Lucky no one seemed to be hungry. Once all the confetti had landed, the sphere popped open to reveal the words I’m bisexual in golden wire.
Silence took over the table and they all looked at each other, then at Three, who was staring at her lap anxiously.
Cas brought a hand to their mouth and started to giggle.
Three’s ears burned red.
They reached across the table with their free hand and, after they finished laughing, spoke: “Sorry, I didn’t mean to laugh, it’s just... oh, I’m so relieved...”
Three finally chanced a glance up at them.
“I’d been so anxious but...” They took a deep breath. “I’m trans. I’m a guy. Also gay, I guess, but you already knew I liked guys.”
Three smiled widely and took his hand.
Damien blinked. Was it even okay to come out now? He didn’t want to steal their spotlight...
Nathan broke into a wide grin. “Hold up, I’ll be right back.” He pushed himself up from the table and disappeared, only coming back with a bright white cake. He smiled anxiously and set it down, taking a knife.
“Really hope I put this in the right order...” He murmured, which Damien wasn’t sure if he was supposed to hear. He slowly cut open the cake to reveal... the pan pride flag. “So... guess who’s pan.”
“You?” Said Cas, a grin on his face.
Nathan nodded. Everyone was now looking at Damien, as if unsure what to say. Was he the one straight friend in the group or did they manage to find every gay person in the entirety of England?
He gave a small smile.
“If you ask about my sexuality, well... I’m afraid I can’t give you a straight answer.”
Julianne had come to accept a lot of things about her life. Sometimes you fall through portals into another world and can’t reach high enough to jump back through. Sometimes you just get adopted by a demon who got stuck in her dragon form. Shits crazy.
Besides, she’s four years old. She’s thought up crazier things. It’s fine.
However, whenever normal things happen, she finds herself at a loss. What do you do when the everyday group of adventurers finds their way into your cave, looking for a treasure they need for their quest or to slay the dragon?
Well, usually you let your demon-dragon-adoptive-mother-thing burn them to a crisp.
But when she wasn’t there...?
Julianne probably wouldn’t have even noticed the adventurers if they hadn’t been so surprised to see her, the flash of movement out of the corner of her eyes drawing her attention.
A short person had fallen into a pile of gold from the look of things. It was scrambling around on its hands and knees, its black hair falling in their face in a way that reminded her of that one demon that liked to crawl out of things. But there was nothing around like a wardrobe or mirror, so where had it come from?
Her eyes wandered around in search of what they had to get rid of, after all those demons never really went after kids, and paused as they zeroed in on its clothes. They were far different than the white gown she was used to, no, it seemed that they had put together clothes that clashed on purpose. No one's sense of style could unironically be that bad.
Then it brushed their hair out of its face.
Oh. It’s a guy.
She frowned and gave a small wave.
He tilted his head back and yelled something she couldn’t see, then slowly pushed himself to his feet.
“Hi... okay... don’ worry, we’re goin’ to get you out,” he said, holding his hands up placatingly. He stepped forward a bit and she stepped just as far back, her eyes narrowing with suspicion. He seemed to take the hint, standing still as he waited for the other(s?) that he must have called for.
Julianne gave him a stubborn glare. “I don’t want to leave.”
He blinked in shock and confusion but, before he could get a word in to ask why, a... girl? guy? person popped out of a pile of gold. They beamed as they laid back in the coins, resting their hands behind their head. “Hi! What happened?”
The male motioned vaguely to the child that he had found. His friend sat up some.
“Weird. I thought we were supposed to fight a dragon... unless...” Their eyes narrowed with sudden suspicion. “Are you a dragon?”
She shook her head with a frown. “No, she’s getting food right now...” Her brain scrambled for the first half of what they had said, but when she actually remembered she wished she hadn’t. “Wait, fight?”
The first guy turned to his companion. “I think she’s got... that... that thing...” He waved his hands vaguely.
“What thing? You can’t just expect me to know.”
A girl rounded a corner out of nowhere, beaming. She looked kind of young, like she was still losing her baby fat. Or, as she pulled an bag of trail mix from who knows where, maybe she just ate a lot. She reached to take a bite and the person swatted it from her hands.
“Don’t eat random food! This is a dragon’s lair, it could be cursed!”
“My food,” she whined, kneeling to mourn the fallen. “I brought that from home.”
The guy turned waved his hands in front of their faces to get their attention. “Hey! Remember that kid I found? Still a thing!” He said, which was unfortunate for ‘that kid he found’, who had been trying to sneak away unnoticed.
“Hey, kiddo, are you... alright?” Said the person furthest from her, their silver eyes lined with vague interest. She wasn’t interesting enough to get up for, it seemed, but they did lean forward to get a good look at her.
She shifted uncomfortably, hugging her arms. “Of course I am, Miss Beel is very nice,” she said carefully. She got the feeling that they were gauging something from her answer, so she didn’t want to mess anything up.
They leaned back, apparently satisfied. “The word you were looking for, babe? I think it was Stockholm.”
The moment their eyes were off of her, she prepared to make a break for it.
He snapped his fingers. “Ohhhhh. Yeah. Thanks, babe. Stockholm, Stockholm, Stockholm... alright, now I won’t forget.”
“I feel like ya’ll glossed over the Stockholm real quick,” the girl said.
“Oh yeah.”
Julianne was one step away from getting out of sight, her head turned back to make sure they weren’t looking, when she bumped into something it shouldn’t have. She squeaked, darting backward a few steps and turning to look.
Another guy, it seemed. He was clearly bored, drumming his bat on the floor as if in hopes that the dragon would hear and come to find him. “God this is dull, the dragon isn’t even here.”
“She has a name,” mumbled Julianne, but it was useless. They were only really paying attention to her now to make sure she didn’t run out on them. She sat down in a huff and looked up at them all in annoyance.
They had stopped really waiting around now, idly walking in circles. This must be the entire group, then. It was here she was struck with just how young they all were. Of course, she was only four so they seemed ancient, but even she could recognize that they were far younger than the usual adventurers who passed through. The oldest couldn’t have been much older than nineteen, and the girl could have passed for thirteen.
Was the village really that desperate to get rid of her mom?
“... for the best,” the person said, drawing her attention with a vague wave of their hand. “I say we leave while we can.”
“Ugh. God, you’re no fun, Cas,” said the newest guy, frowning at them. ‘Cas’ raised their eyebrows with a smug smile, clearly just trying to provoke him. Still -- out of boredom or stupidity or something else entirely -- the man raised his fists to take the bait.
The girl reached up and swatted them both over the back of the heads. “Can ya stop? We can’t have you in bad shape when we fight it.”
“Her,” Julianne grumbled to no one.
“I think we should figure out the layout of the place, take away all its advantages,” the newest guy said with a shrug.
“Seriously, Damien? All its advantages? What about the fire breathing? The fact that it has a hostage? Height and weight?” Cas teased.
‘Three’ raised her eyebrows. “No, it’s good that they listed off the disadvantages, we need to plan around them.”
The first guy opened his mouth to speak, but everyone went still as a shadow came over the cave.
Too late.
Julianne beamed as a red dragon the size and general shape of a firetruck lumbered in, a slightly singed basket looped over one of its teeth. She waved. “Hi mom! Over here!” She called.
The adventurers looked at her like she was crazy, then seemed to realize just how fucked they were as the dragon lumbered closer, its every step nearly throwing them off balance.
Three ran out in front of Julianne, wrapping her in a protective hug despite the girl’s protests. Damien darted behind a wardrobe (oh, she should get rid of that, a demon could hide in that) and raised his bat -- which, unbeknownst to him, was still visible -- for an attack. Cas gave a string of curses as they were buried in the coins they had been laying in. The first guy knelt next to them, scooping money into his bag, either to help them or to at least have something on him when he died.
They were all cast in shadow.
The dragon raised their nonexistent eyebrows. Then broke into a toothy smile.
“Oh, sweetie! You should have told me you were inviting friends over, I would have gotten more food!”
When Beelzebub had met her humans, they had been staying in her world for personal reasons (which ranged from “idiot running from the law” to “unfortunately is friends with the idiot running from the law” to “child who somehow keeps getting adopted by idiots running from the law”) and continued to stay there for around two years. Animals aren’t allowed in her world, because they tend to get a little... misshapen when passing through the portals, so there was no reason for her to come to realize this little factoid about them.
After a while of hanging around humans, she began to think, "Oh, humans aren’t all that weird, they just have a few crazy ones that give them a bad rep.” When they’d managed to clear their names, they’d offered her a place and, because she’d grown a little bit fond of them, she gave a hesitant yes.
A terrible mistake.
Cal beamed as he held up his furry little monster. “This is Cheshire!” He nuzzled his cheek against the tabby’s forehead. The cat made a noise far too close to growling for Beel’s liking.
“Demon!” She hissed, bringing her clawed hand up to cover her face.
Everyone gave the literal demon a long look, unsure how exactly to comment on this. When no one said anything, they moved on.
Cal pushed the cat towards his friend. “I think he likes you. Come on, give him a little pet.”
“And get my hand bitten off? No thanks. Get that thing out of here!”
“Y’know what? I agree. It needs to go,” Damien piped up.
“Don’t listen to him, he’s just bitter he can’t pet you,” Cal whispered, bringing his cat up to rest on his shoulders.
Beelzebub began to relax as she watched the cat curl around his neck. Okay. Sure. Fine People domesticate cats, but they’re only really apex predators because there’s nothing bigger than them. It was too small to outmatch her anyways, she could probably sit on it if need be.
Then Damien opened his door. And a border collie the size of a shed tackled him to the ground.
She screamed and jumped back, moving to hide behind Cal and his not-likely-to-be-deadly cat.
Cal smirked at Damien. “I win. Beel likes Cheshire more. If any pet has to go it’s Ophelia.”
The man stopped receiving licks from his dog -- was it taste testing him? -- to scowl at his friend. “I’m allergic to cats.”
“You’re allergic to cuteness.”
“Oh my Goooood --.”
Three sighed as she perched her crow on her shoulder and oh thank Satan at least some humans have the sense not to keep apex predators around! She knew she could count on Three at least to be the smart one.
“Girls, girls, you’re both pretty. Shut up. You can both keep your pets, just make sure to keep them in your own rooms.”
Cal beamed.
“And Cal, sweetie, you’ll have to sweep every once in a while because of his allergies.”
His smiled dropped. “It’s his allergies --.”
However he was attempting to get out of responsibilities, Beel would never know, as Nathan emerged from his room with his water snake. She fainted on the spot.
You learn a lot about how to maintain sanity before going into space.
It’s a requirement. After all, you’re going to be spending a good chunk of time out in an empty void, but trapped within a tiny tube. Staring at where you just came from, a tiny blob of color fading in the distance until all you can see of it is a tiny speck of light on the horizon -- no, in the distance. There’s only a horizon when it’s on a curve.
But, yeah, you learn a lot about sanity and all the methods to keep it up. There’s even a memorization test! Oh, how you memorize it all. Sometimes you can use a mnemonic device, like a song.
Songs are good. They help you maintain sanity and remember things! Super useful!
Too bad your voice doesn’t work out there. Opening your mouth is a bad idea in general, lest you get space dust -- unknown materials that undoubtedly taste awful -- in it. Even worse, you could get nothing in it.
God, so much nothing! Pure blackness all around you, pressing in on you, trying to force itself into your empty lungs. God, it must be nice to have working lungs that actually pump oxygen into your blood. There are only about 15 seconds of oxygen in the blood at any given time, at which point you pass out for your death. But what happens when you wake up? Nothing. That’s all there is. If you can force your eyes to open nothing meets them other than the occasional star on the horizon, blinding and yet so unbearably dull.
Dull! Like memorization! So much to memorize!
You can keep sane by writing in a journal, but you kind of need a few muscles to write. Without oxygen in them, they’re mostly useless. Sure, technically you can put your unfortunately working mind to it and move yourself around, but what’s the point? It’s a lot of effort, and it’s all useless anyway.
Oh, silly you! You need a pen and paper to write anyways! What a silly mistake to make! A pen and paper is necessary when writing. Too bad your friends didn’t do that before they tossed you out into the nothing. But it’s fine. It’s all fine. Totally fine! You’re doing fine!
And if you’re fine for long enough, well, maybe one day you’ll be found. Probably not, space is seemingly endless and all. Not much to hope for but, oh, how you’ll hope! That, if technology advances enough maybe one day they’ll find your body, floating in the murk, lifeless.
No no no! Not lifeless! For you are alive, and painfully so! Your lungs are completely not used to not having oxygen and they desperately want to go back to the way things were. They burn with every little gulp of nothingness, every short intake of ‘breath’ that you give when you have the audacity to forget just what’s going on!
Oh, speaking of forgetting! Sanity! That subject you were just on! What’s another way to keep it up?
Correctamundo! Plants! People go crazy without plants after a while. Not that you’re going crazy just yet! You’re fine. Are you fine? You’re fine! How could you even dare to wonder otherwise? You’re perfectly sane.
And the final and most common way to stay sane -- last but not least-- is making ‘friends’ out of inanimate objects! No objects to be seen. That one’s right off the list. No friends for you!
Ah... friends. How you miss friends! Should you miss friends? They did toss you out of the airlock and take off without you. They don’t deserve your affection. That was very rude of them!
God, you miss them still. The way she would cover her mouth to stifle her laughter. The way he would punch you in the shoulder when you said or did something stupid. The way they would fan their mouth when they ate something just out of the oven.
The way they threw you out into nothingness.
You don’t need friends!
Friends are for chumps anyways! You’re doing just fine out here with your own thoughts! You don’t need them! Your brain is plenty enough to entertain you. There’s plenty of thoughts pinging around in there!
Aino glanced around to make sure no one saw her as she snuck through the cobbled streets. It was nearly three in the morning, no normal person should be out at that time, and yet she still worried as she rested her hands over the knives at her waist.
She stood at the base of the wall, staring up at the uneven stones and taking a deep breath. She looked back at the town, her knuckles white on the handles of her knives, considering just walking home. Nothing needed to happen. Nothing had happened. She had just been anxious that day, or maybe she really was going off the deep end once and for all. There was no way she’d heard someone on the other side of the wall. No one was out there. No one.
She took a step back towards her house.
“I wasn’t aware my name was No One. Someone should tell Odysseus that No One is stealing his brand.”
It was the same soft, hissing voice from before. The last time she’d heard it she’d hoped that the whispered ‘hello’ was just the wind and an overactive imagination combining to make an anxiety-inducing false encounter. But no, this was far too much to just be that. Still, as the words wrapped around her throat and pulled tight, stealing the air from her lungs, she wished it was fake.
“Who are you?”
“No One, apparently,” they joked, but there was no smile in their voice.
Aino slowly turned back around the face the wall. “No, really, Oi want to know. Who the hell are you?”
“Who the hell am I, eh?” They gave a humorless chuckle. “Why don’t you come and find out, honey?”
This was a bad idea. A terrible idea. Probably the worst one she’d ever had. She should have never come out here like this. Definitely not alone like this. She'd heard the stories. Everyone had. Curiosity killed the cat.
“But satisfaction brought it back,” they mused. “Really annoying that they cut that part out, don’t you think?”
She chanced one last look at the town.
Aino drew a knife and stuck it between two rocks. She tested her weight for a moment before slowly, carefully, pulling herself up. She drew her other knife and reached up as far as she could reach before stabbing a slit in the rocks. She repeated this until she reached the top; shoulders shaking, breath heaving, she pulled herself onto the tiny ledge.
She sucked in a breath.
The world on the other side was an expanse of thick, purple fog that reached the third row of stone from the top. The top row was covered in runes that she couldn’t close to decipher. Even worse was right below it, which was covered in scratch marks. In some places, entire chunks had been torn out of the stone.
Her eyes searched the dark for anything, for anyone, but there was nothing to be seen through the dense fog. She knew someone was there, though. She could feel their eyes on her, watching her.
“Hello? Is No One there?” She called out.
She didn’t get an answer.
Aino sighed and climbed down, thoroughly disappointed. Nothing. Of course. It had been days since she’d gotten proper sleep, she’d been hallucinating. That was all.
A tiredness settled over her bones before she’d even reached the bottom, thick and heavy like a fog. She had barely even put her foot on the grass at the base of the wall before her body collapsed.
She closed her eyes to the sound of crumbling.
~
She woke up feeling better rested than she had in years, her eyes opening to see the sky in the last stages of a sunset. The deep purple settled over the horizon and she burrowed her face in the grass to go back to sleep.
She frowned.
Wait, why could she see the sky? The curtains in her room were closed, and she was looking up.
She blinked the remaining sleep from her eyes.
A person was calmly collecting apples nearby -- well, collecting is a strong word, they were mostly just plucking ripe apples and eating them right off the tree. This would have been mostly normal had the person not unhinged their jaw and swallowed the apple in one gulp, core and all.
Aino jumped to her feet.
Bad idea.
The movement seemed to alert the thing to her presence, their head whipping around with a sharp snap to see her before the body followed after it. Wings sprouted from their back, thin and see-through, and Aino had barely enough time to think ‘Shit, Oi’m fucked’ before the person was inches away from her.
They were even more horrifying up close.
They had gnarled, ugly hands that formed claws so sharp they could easily tear a chunk off of her arm if they so much as poked her. Further up was their mouth, which took up a good two-thirds of their face; it wasn’t even natural-looking, it looked like someone had pushed their lips thin until it was white enough to not even be recognized as a mouth in the first place. Their eyes were mostly normal at first glance but she quickly realized what looked like odd eye makeup was actually three tinier eyes dotted under their normal ones.
“So, you’re awake,” they said, and the girl tensed immediately. She recognized that voice.
“You’re... you’re No One?”
“That’s what you know me as, yes.”
Aino looked around. She had liked it better when there was a wall between them. Speaking of... “How did you get over to this soide? The wall --.”
“Is gone.” They broke into a cruel smile. “Thanks for weakening it, by the way, really useful of you.”
“I didn’t --.” Her mind wandered to the rocks she had pushed apart to get up, to the chunks torn out at random on the other side.
They smiled. “Good, you understand.”
They reached out a hand and rested it under her chin, squishing her cheeks with their fingers. Aino could feel claws digging into her skin, but she didn’t dare cry out.
She fought to keep her voice even. “Who are you? Really?”
They tilted their head and dropped their hand to hover in the air between them. “I’ll tell you.”
Aino waited for a moment, then realized what the hand was for. “No deals,” she said as she shoved her hands in her pockets.
Their nostrils flared. “No deals?”
The girl nodded decidedly.
Wrong answer, from the look on the being’s face, but then they broke into a wide smile that made her skin crawl.
“Interesting. Okay. Just say my name if you ever need me: Beelzebub.” They chuckled at her stunned expression. “I’ll see you in a few minutes, let’s see how long you last out there.”
“Out wh --?”
The world dissolved around her.
~
She dropped into a tree. She groaned in pain as she hit branch after branch until finally hitting concrete. She laid there for a few seconds, staring at the sun filtering through the leaves, and considered just never moving again.
“Hey, asshole!”
She looked up to see a nymph melt out of a tree, their pale green skin webbed with dark green veins. Normally, she would have thought them beautiful in a terrifying way, but with the glare fixed on her she only thought them terrifying.
They grabbed the front of her shirt and hoisted her to her feet. They raised a bark-like fist.
