Another year, another Secret Santa! (Despite it being way past Christmas, but who cares? Time is an illusion.) Any way! @agent-sentinel-official I am your Secret Santa/New Year's person! Hope you enjoy!
Birds of a Feather
Years.
Decades.
Centuries.
Millennia.
They all start to bleed together after a while. Joan doesn’t remember when he stopped counting the turn of a new year. So New Year’s Eve and Day were just that to him. Days. Nothing special. But it was still amusing to see everyone around the manor do their own rituals and observances for the day. All mainly the more mortal agents and officers, but a few of the immortals (or at least those harder to kill) were having their own fun.
Joan decided to take a break and go out on to the back section of the porch. It looked out over the vast garden that was still slumbering under the winter snow, but plenty of evergreens still stood strong and proud against the bright white covering the grounds like a thick down blanket. He just didn’t expect to see Walter out there, bundled against the cold with a pair of binoculars.
“Walter?” He scanned over the man. It looked like he hadn’t moved in a while. “What are you doing out here? No New Year’s traditions?”
“This is the tradition. A newer one, at least.” He gestured out to the snow covered grounds, keeping his voice low. “Every year for the past couple years, if not decades, there have been some irruptive waves of birds looking for food farther south than they normally go. It’s not the best thing ecologically, I guess, but it’s still nice to see the birds every now and then. I think something just draws them to the manor.”
Joan’s head tilted slightly to the side. “Birdwatching? Never thought of you as a birder before. The fishing and what not doesn’t surprise me.” He thought back to the hawk he saw flying the grounds ever so often through the years. It was even circling high in the sky now. “Is that your hawk? I always wondered why it never really left the manor grounds...”
The younger immortal smiled. “That it is. Nursed it back to health and everything.” Walter put his binoculars up to his eyes again, looking towards the hawk then back over the grounds. “I guess having all the time in the world allows you to develop habits and hobbies that you wouldn’t have with a normal lifespan.”
Joan was quiet. That was true. The amount of hobbies he’s picked up throughout the years was a perfect testament to it. Maybe this was another he could pick up. “Do you mind if I join you?”
“Not at all. Feel free.” Walter gestured to the plenty of open rockers left out on the porch. “Who knows, maybe we’ll get to see something unexpected now that there’s two of us out here?”
He couldn’t help the small, soft laugh that left him as he eased himself into the old wooden rocker. “Maybe. Who knows?”
They both sat in silence, the sounds of the manor settling against the cold and occasion woodland creature filling the space for them. It was peaceful. Even if they didn’t see anything spectacular or even anything at all, Joan would consider this a good moment. And he hoped Walter would too.
“Hey Joan?”
“Yeah?” He didn’t turn from the garden and neither did Walter.
1 & 17 (for both magic & mischief and second chances)
1. What are things they both find funny?
Magic & Mischief: exchanging cat memes via text when they're not having serious discussions.
Second Chances: the antics of their children.
17. What senses (sights, smells, feelings, etc). remind them of each other?
Kieran: summer mornings down by the pond when there's no wind and a hint of fog coming off the water surface. Sweet iced tea.
Aly: laying on a picnic blanket in the afternoon with the sun warming her through. The smell of crushed grass beneath her, and the taste of clover blossoms.
Josie: standing in the middle of an ancient olive grove in the Holy Land, with the sunset filtering through the leaves. The scent of frangipani and incense smoke; the tartness of pomegranate on her tongue, and the feeling of sun-warmed rocky ground beneath her bare feet.
I'll leave it to @agents-of-virtue to divulge what senses remind Joan of Josie.
welcome to the final post of horror aus for halloween 2020! i hope you all enjoyed the ride. i apologize for not having everything ready on halloween like i originally planned. remember that the inbox and dms are always open for questions, comments and concerns. if you missed them, here are parts one, two and three. all warnings still apply, so be forewarned.
i know things are scary right now. but to quote the infamous n. gaiman: fairy tales are more than true: not because they tell us that dragons exist, but because they tell us that dragons can be beaten.
take it from me when i say that we outnumber the monsters of this world--and more importantly, take heart.
click below the cut if you, too, like doing the monster mash (no offense but it is kind of a graveyard smash...)
there’s bloodstains beneath the carpet - a ∆ au inspired by the super, co-starring technical officer drake and @agents-of-virtue's agent annabelle
it was a new start. for both drew and matthew. a new city, shining with opportunities and adventure. they had no shortage of hope--but maybe did have a little shortage of cash.
all the same, the knox-edwards boarding house wasn’t that bad. grimy and with a level of grunge akin to a garage band circa 1995, sure, but nothing unbearable.
but as drew was stuck in the hallway holding up their couch, matthew trying to figure out who needed to pivot and in what direction in order to not have furniture stuck in the doorway, he overheard it:
“what? another one? are you serious?”
two people were walking down the hallway, and they didn’t look to be much older than himself, or matthew. a man and woman, close together, as if they were conspiring.
“wait, drew, i think i got it, turn left a little bit--”
“as a heart attack. that makes it four people in three months. i’m telling you bekah, something fuckin’ weird in goin’ on here. people don’t just up and vanish from their own homes, and--oh!”
“drew! are you listening to me? turn it left!”
oh shit. oh shit. don’t act like you were obviously eavesdropping, maybe they didn’t notice...
“drew!”
“hi!”
welp. all right. be cool.
“uh--hello!” but he yelped when matthew unexpectedly let go of the couch, and it landed on the ground with a hard thud.
but drew was still processing what he heard. four people in three months? what did that mean?
won’t you cut me down? - a second chances au inspired by seven in heaven
joan, normally, wasn’t so forward. at least, not a society-thrown event where multiple agencies were represented, and especially not when he knew lilith was around and not above reprimanding an agent in front of god and everyone else in the room.
but he’d had quite a bit to drink.
the evening was winding down.
and josie... josie was breathtaking.
he couldn’t help it.
“joan--joan!” she laughed as he turned her, taking her elbow and leading her down a hallway close to one of the larger coat closets. “what are you d--”
her voice cut off abruptly to the tune of joan’s mouth on hers, and the closing of a closet door.
joan didn’t stop to think about how this particular door wasn’t room he distinctly remembered. he was tipsy and enamored and his wife consumed his senses. he didn’t care.
but he did care a while later, after they’d made themselves presentable again and opened the door to a manor that was much, much quieter than he was expecting.
and josie felt it too.
it was an odd sensation, to feel that he’d stepped out of one place and into another entirely.
josie asked quietly, “where... where did everyone go?”
mini soundtrack sampler includes: jack white, ‘i’m shakin’‘ + konrad old money & sleep steady, ‘rage’ + k. flay, ‘blood in the cut’
my hands are growing colder - an inverse functions au inspired by eli
ginny knew erik wasn’t broken. she would rather have faced down a demon or some unholy thing sprung out of the gate than ever describe him like that.
but he was--unique.
beyond the understanding of most medical doctors, at least. even aly and caroline were struggling to treat his symptoms. it was like he’d become allergic to everything around him over the course of just a few days. his symptoms were sudden, severe, and left her nervous.
it wasn’t just allergies. she knew that. and if she had to seek help outside of the society, then so be it. all that mattered to her was seeing him brought back to health.
and late one night, during a despair-fueled search through some files in the archives that looked like they hadn’t been touched in years, she found a name: dr. isabella horn.
the fact that lacey, who’d been overseeing the roanoe medical wards for ages, hadn’t heard of her, should have been a warning.
but desperate times call for desperate measures.
the next day, they were on their way to a facility in the middle of the midwest--though ‘facility’ wasn’t quite the right word. it looked more like a mansion, with nothing but wheat fields all around as far as they eye could see. the horizon was only broken by the occasional oil derrick.
and they were surprised when they had to be buzzed through pressurized, completely sterile chambers to even get inside.
but there, right at the front of the welcoming committee, was a woman with dark eyes, and an easy smile.
“good afternoon! you must be ginny and erik, welcome. i’m dr. horn.”
but ginny didn’t trust her grin.
and that should have been the second warning.
mini soundtrack sampler includes: stevie wonder, ‘superstitious’ + the killers, ‘when you were young’ + the revivalists, ‘wish i knew you’
i saw your bones on the road - a pastel goth au inspired by the silence
meli would look back on it and realize with no small sense of irony how loud it was when it began.
the screaming, the terror. how she blasted her spotify on her furious drive to guiliana’s house in the blessedly quiet suburbs, eyes constantly searching the sky. she knew that the responsible thing to do would be to listen to the coverage on the radio, but honestly? she’d heard enough. she had more than half a brain, and she knew exactly what to do.
get her girlfriend and head--okay, maybe she didn’t know exactly what to do.
but giuliana was smart. they’d figure it out together.
the government didn’t know what they were, exactly. nobody did. meli only knew that they were calling them vesps.
it was a word that she mulled over frantically. linguistics was always a welcome distraction. she thought she’d heard it before, but all she could think of was the latin vespere. it roughly translated to ‘from the evening,’ or ‘from the night.’
from the dark.
perhaps that was an apt name.
the sunset had painted the sky in shades that were obnoxiously beautiful given the circumstances, and her jeep lurched in protest as she abruptly slammed the gear shift into park in the glow of guiliana’s porch lights.
in the distance, she could hear shrieking--but not that of human beings.
mini soundtrack sampler includes: mourning ritual, ‘bad moon rising’ + twenty one pilots, ‘ride’ + royal blood, ‘trouble’s coming’
waiting for the vultures - a time traveler’s husband au inspired by the houses october built
it had been dara’s idea.
“oh it’ll be fun! think about it, italy and the states celebrate halloween with way, way different aesthetics. think of this as getting a sampler of how america does it,” she said, sitting in silvano’s lap, charm volume as far up as it would go.
and he agreed. “all right--okay. a grand adventure across the country hitting as many haunted houses as we can.”
“geez, try not to sound too excited.”
he murmured into her shoulder, “i’m mostly excited to spend time with you. but if a road trip through october is what you want, then that’s exactly what we’ll do.”
he was rewarded with kisses peppered all over his face and a very excited dara dragging him excitedly to best buy to pick up a camcorder. “what? of course we need a camera! if we record everything then it’s like--i don’t know. like it’s ours. we can go back to it whenever want, and we can show all our friends the cool places we saw when we get home!”
dara hadn’t known then.
she didn’t know it would start with one lone figure in a clown costume standing in front of the rv like he was going to charge at it. she didn’t know that they would end up surrounded, followed. abducted.
it had been dara’s idea.
and she would never forgive herself.
mini soundtrack sampler includes: van halen, ‘runnin’ with the devil’ + the 1975, ‘if you’re too shy (let me know)’ + afi, ‘miss murder’
Found this old file on me thought I'd share it with y'all.
Title: RS-MN-R163/ Finding a Sentinel
Mission Date: July 2, 1952. 0900 hours.
Reporting Agent(s): Agent Cherub
Involved Agent(s): Agent Cherub. Agent Nephilim.
Casualties: None
Synopsis: Dispatched to the the location of the 2nd in South Korea on rumors of a mysterious humanoid object that soldiers claim to be a zombie.
On July 2 1952, 0900 Agent Nephilim and the reporting agent were sent to investigate rumors of a zombie following the 2nd infantry regiment of the United States Army. Upon arrival we were greeted by a young private who took us to his commanding officer. Once there we were debriefed about the last battle that the regiment had fought in.
The regiment had lost considerable numbers and lost several officers, including a noted "Weightlifter Walter" who had been in the regiment longer than the commanding officer. That's when these "zombie" sightings started. The private said that the "zombie" looked just like this "Weightlifter Walter" and was always seen around the supplies after lights out, and that several supplies had gone missing.
Agent Nephilim then decreed that we would stake out the supplies with out consulting the reporting agent or the commanding officer.
July 2, 1952, 1900 hours. The reporting agent and Agent Nephilim made camp next to tye soldiers tents and waited till nightfall. Upon sighting a figure on the outskirts of camp, a ways away from the supplies, Agent Nephilim went sprinting towads the humanoid figure. The reporting agent chased after them and when she got close to the treeline where the figure was spotted the agent tripped and fell. The reporting agent then felt a sharp pain as a large stick had pierced her leg and had exited out he calve. In able to contain her pain, the reporting agent screamed.
The reporting agent then herd footsteps from behind and thought it was Agent Nephilim. A hand touched her shoulder and the reporting agent turned to look only to find a strange man who looked to be in his mid-60s/70s who was shirtless, had dog tags, and was covered in days old blood.
Agent Nephilim then appeared across the way and pointed their gun at the unidentified man. The man just ignored them and asked the reporting agent, "My name is Walter. Are you ok?" The reporting agent asked if the man was the previously reported "Weightlifter Walter". The man said he was and the reporting officer ordered Agent Nephilim to lower their weapon.
After the reporting agent healed herself she engaged in a short conversation with "Weightlifter Walter" and gathered that he was Officer Walter Vaughn and that he is an immortal like Agent Nephilim, albeit by different means. It was designated that Walter be brought back to the manor for further questioning.
Signed: Agent Cherub, Medical Unit, Master Sergeant.
{Thank you to @a-gentle-spy for letting me borrow Cherub's name. And thank you to @agent-annabelle for letting me borrow Nephilim even though they are a WIP. If it's hard to read with all the "reporting agent" stuff I can change it. It's just how my social work training has taught me how to do reports like this.}
Soft headcanon #20, I'd like to see what it is for each muse tbh
(-Sprite)
20) What does your muse love about themselves?
I
Love this question. Some were easier to chose. Others I had to really think.
For Bekah, she loves her hair and her nose. When she looks at pictures of her family (once she has access to pictures), she gets to see how many people share this traits with her. It's like carrying a piece of them with her throughout her entire life.
For Ash, they love their smile. They've been around for centuries and no matter how they change their appearance, their smile will always be the same. Mischievous and just a little bit crooked. They wouldn't change it for the world.
For Joan, he loves his arms. Especially when he's holding his wife. Or his children. Or all three of them at once!
For Ash: What pet names would your muse give to others?
For Joan: Is there a particular place that makes your muse feel at home?
For Rebekah: How would your muse react to being abruptly kissed by their crush?
For Ash: They tend to use the terms dearie and darling. But if they are feeling sappy (pun intended), they'll go for anything nature themed. One that has been used is "my precious piece of amber."
For Joan: Home is difficult. The meaning of it has changed so much and so often for him. But nowadays, any place that is filled with love will feel like home. Especially the arms of his wife.
But for a true feeling of the place he comes from? Groves of trees with sunlight peeking through the branches. It can be any kind of trees, but for the most authentic feeling, it should be an olive grove.
For Bekah: There are so many crushes she has, but I'm sure the reaction will be pretty much the same across all of them. If she were to be randomly, abruptly kissed by her crush, she would be surprised. But it would only take a few seconds for her to melt into their arms and affections.
