#astrachat

[hxckedvxid]

@waterfallswords astra x evelyn - vaisman house

Astra thinks, not for the first time, that the Vaisman house feels like it was made slowly and by many hands. There's nothing uniform about it, nothing that quite matches if you look too closely, and yet it holds together all the same. Not perfectly but...faithfully. Different textures linger in different corners, voices that have passed through, laughter that seems to catch in the walls, footsteps layered over one another until they blur into something steady and continuous. It should feel crowded, with so many lives brushing up against each other, but it doesn't. The constant movement never seems to disturb the deeper quiet beneath it.

She feels it in the way her shoulders have, gradually, lowered over the past few days. Like her body has decided that it's allowed to rest here. And that, more than anything, feels strange. The path that brought her here still sits unevenly in her memory, all sharp edges and blurred pieces, too many feelings layered too quickly to sort through properly. Felix's voice. Nova in her arms. That tight, suffocating pressure in her chest, like something closing in with nothing clear to fight. She remembers that. She remembers not knowing what to do with it. And then, Evelyn. The door opening before Astra even figured what was happening. It makes sense, now, in the quiet aftermath of it all, that this is where she landed. Not logical but right in the way her life often is, guided more by pull than by decision.

She finds Evelyn just as the older witch is leaving the kitchen, something warm trailing behind her. Spiced, maybe, or sweet, Astra can't quite tell, and it catches her attention immediately. She rises slightly onto her toes, a small, instinctive stretch as if that might help her see past her shoulder, but the attempt falters halfway through, her focus shifting instead. Her gaze is pulled to Evelyn herself and her smile that follows is soft but not absent. "I don't think I ever said thank you." Astra says, voice light and steady. "Not properly." she tilts her head just slightly, adjusting to a thought that hasn't quite finished forming. "I'm not sure what we would have done otherwise." the sentence trails, not from sadness but from the way her thoughts tend to slip, already drifting in the direction of things she doesn't feel like feeling just yet.

When she looks back at Evelyn, the gratitude is clearer now, flickering over her expression. "If there's anything I can do here, anything at all, just tell me." she continues and, right at the corner of her lips, a twitch of a grin pulls into place. "Aries, too. Or he'll pretend not to notice anything needs doing at all." Astra chuckles as mischief manages to twinkle behind her eyes.

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@manybcdthings astra x felix - treehouse

Her fingertips have been tracing the small star beneath Felix's cheekbone for so long it's become its own kind of rhythm. A slow glide from point to point, the soft return, again and again, until she doesn't need the light anymore. She knows the shape by memory now. By muscle. By the quiet map her hands have made of him. Even tangled this close, her nose keeps brushing his, an absent, searching nudge that makes her smile each time it happens. It still amazes her sometimes. That, without realizing it, he marked her name into his skin long before they ever belonged to each other properly.

Life is strange like that. Circular. Patient. They orbited for years without touching. Same town, same circles, the same handful of friends passing them back and forth. And Astra drifted, the way she always did. Different cities, different states, different versions of herself. Until one day the motion inside her simply…stilled. Not all at once. Not dramatically. Just the quiet, undeniable feeling that she didn't have to keep running anymore. That something had clicked into place. That she could stay. As long as it was with him.

The room is dark except for the faint blue spill from somewhere outside, enough for her to make out the outline of his face, the hollow of his eyes. They're open, she realizes, watching her the way she's been watching him. It feels late. The deep kind of late, the kind where the world outside the apartment has gone soft and distant, as if it's all been wrapped in cloth. They had been sleeping like this, limbs tangled together, breath shared. But now they're awake after both reaching for one another in the dark. "You're going to be tired tomorrow." Astra whispers at last, the words barely louder than the air between them, a sleepy smile caught inside her voice.

Her fingers slow their tracing, then stop, her palm settling against his cheek instead, warm and steady. She leans in and presses a kiss to his mouth. It's light, almost nothing. Then another. And another. Each kiss just as gentle as the last. "They say when you can’t sleep," she murmurs, her nose brushing his again, playful now. "It's because someone's thinking about you." a small breath of a laugh leaves her. "Maybe we should stop thinking about each other." but her hand stays where it is, and she doesn't move away.

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@dxrkenedheights astra x kenzie - vaisman house

It's the kind of afternoon that slips its leash and runs away, quick and quiet. Astra hasn't spoken to Kenzie in a long while. Minutes, maybe. Maybe more. And if her sister has said anything, it dissolves somewhere between the rafters and the dust. All Astra really hears is the hush of paper turning beneath their fingertips, the soft collapse of cardboard as they dig through boxes that haven't been opened in years. Nova hums to herself while she plays. That bright, tuneless sound, like she's narrating a world no one else can see.

The attic feels suspended. Sunlight angles through the small window and lays itself across the floor in pale gold slats, catching in the dust and holding it there, as if even the air is reluctant to move. Neither of them planned coming up here. And yet they are both here, cross-legged on the floor, pulling their childhood out of hiding. Astra doesn't remember what led her up the narrow steps. Maybe Kenzie. Maybe something else entirely. An impulse, maybe. A tug. Now she's staring into the face of a mother she misses in a way that no longer feels sharp, but constant. Daily. Always daily. Her grandmother's smile beams up from another page, mouth open mid song, and Astra can almost hear it, that old lullaby soothing her to sleep. There's her grandfather beside a crooked bicycle, one steadying hand at the seat, patient as gravity.

The Vaisman family looks different now. Thinner. Scattered. Even the photographs of friends... neighbors, cousins, people who once filled backyards and folding chairs feel like relics. Pets she'd forgotten. Faces she half remembers. Faces she never met at all. Time has done something irreversible to them, shaved them down to paper and gloss. For a moment, her mouth turns down before she can stop it. Her mother never met Felix. Never met Nova. The thought lands softly, but it stays.

"I wonder what makes us wave at cameras." Astra says at last, her voice quiet enough that it feels like it belongs to the room more than to her. The words don't break the silence so much as slip into it. She turns the page. There's a backyard she recognizes just beyond the attic window, decades younger and thick with people. Faces blurred by sun fade, some hands lifted mid greeting. "I don't think we ever wave at the person taking the photo, do we?" she murmurs, not looking at Kenzie and not really needing an answer, either. "Do you think we wave because we know someone, eventually, will see us? Like we're saying hello through...years?"

She closes the album gently and wipes the dust from the cover with the flat of her hand. The date emerges in her grandmother's careful script. 1964. A small sound escapes her, almost a laugh, almost not. Her throat tightens around it. "We were just stars then. Nobody even knew we were going to be here." Astra says, softer now as her fingers trace the label. "But they waved anyway. At the idea of us." Across the room, Nova lets out a delighted squeal at something only she understands, and for a second Astra feels the strange, dizzying pull of it. The way past and future press so close together they almost touch.

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@manybcdthings astra x felix - asphodel

It starts as a whisper. That's how they always begin. The softest sound that doesn't belong to the room she's in. But this one is persistent, a little louder than the others. Its voice doesn't feel like a sigh or a breeze. No...it pushes, demands. Astra had tried, gently at first. The usual banishment. A soft uncrossing, a flick of salt and iron through her hands. Then harsher things. Severing. Calling it what it is. But nothing had worked. Now it follows her.

Barefoot and shaking, she moves like she's being chased down a hallway, the hem of her skirt catching on the edge of a doorway as she slips through it. The corridor is only slightly lit at this hour and, to Astra, it feels like it hums with that wrong kind of quiet. The air feels too still, like something holding its breath. Her eyes are worry-wide, veins buzzing with the ache of magic. Her hand brushes against the wall like she needs it to stay upright. An anchor. That word keeps looping through her head like the spirit said it just to be cruel.

And then she sees a flicker of movement further down the corridor. Only when the man steps through the doorway does Astra take a breath of relief. She recognizes him, the severity of his features. Sharp jaw, sharper cheekbones. Always walking like he has as much purpose as he does disinterest. She doesn't know his name, only that he seems like someone who never fumbles. Right now, that's everything. "Wait - hey, wait, please." Astra's voice calls out, fragile and high. She crosses the space between them too fast, stumbling slightly, hands flinging up to catch hold of him and stop herself from sliding too far away. "I need...I need help, there's..." her voice trips, stutters but she keeps going. "I think it's attached. Is Mathis still here? Adrian? I've tried everything I know and I can't shut it out..."

Astra glances behind her, and for a second, the hallway seems to shudder. The lights pulse faintly. "This keeps happening, but I can't stop this one. Normally I can stop them. Adrian made me a talisman for when I...when my magic can't...but it," she's fumbling into the pocket of her cardigan now, showing him a flat disk of obsidian, dark and glassy, laced with silver circuit lines that glimmer like a frozen constellation trapped under black water. "I can't use it, it's not working."

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@secrettyrant astra x milo - the treehouse

"The dreams have stopped, haven't they?" Astra asks without looking up. The door creaks open and she already knows it's her brother. There's something about the way Milo moves that's always been unmistakable to her. Their footsteps have been in sync for their entire lives and now Astra can hear them in her bones. So she stays where she is, curled into the corner of the couch. Knees drawn in, book open in her lap but barely touched. Her eyes skim the same paragraph again and again, mind elsewhere. The quiet question of dreams gone silent. The ones that used to come, shifting images, sounds that didn't belong to anywhere else but Prague.

Now they're here. And it's stopped. "It's strange." Astra murmurs, voice thoughtful, almost like she's answering herself. She slips the book off her lap, lets it slide to the cushion beside her, and finally turns her head to look at him. "Usually, that means whatever was calling has been answered." she gestures faintly between them. "But I feel something beginning." she says, quieter, as her fingers drift toward her collarbone and touch a place that seems to hum just beneath her skin. "Not an ending. Don't you?"

With that, Astra moves slowly from the couch and her tone shifts again. A little more determined now as if she's finally let her focus return to her. "Someone who came to us has gone missing, Milo." she says, eyes flicking to the bag in her brother's hand and she reaches for it without a word. She opens it up, takes a peek inside at the ingredients. The herbs, the plants. Everything for potions, tinctures and the like. But still, Astra grins slightly. "You forgot lemons. For my tea."

[hxckedvxid]

@manybcdthings astra x felix - base

The blood. The screaming. Astra doesn't think she's processed any of it properly. She never has. Not when she was a child, and not now. She remembers standing still, like time curled in on itself, holding her by the throat. The sounds didn't reach her, not really, they felt far away like she was underwater. But the feeling of it all? Of Bouse, the wrongness, of how close it all was to ending differently. It's stuck to her skin like the blood she can't quite get off her hands. All she can think about is Nova. This is the world her little girl lives in now. Everything feels borrowed, like she's stepped into a version of herself that was necessary but not true.

Back at base, there's a hum in the walls. Even in their room, she can still hear it. It's only when her fingers touch against Felix's that it dampens, making her let out a breath. Finally. Her eyes flick up to his, not searching but checking. They're still here. He's still here. It's okay. "I know what you're going to say." Astra's voice is quiet, but somehow there's the usual conviction embedded within her words. She wets another cloth and this time turns her attention to the mess made of Felix's torso. She can see the healing bruises and breaks, repairing itself under his skin but it doesn't matter. She hates to see it at all, and she always has.

"I still want to go next time." she finishes her thought, once again her eyes on his with a more knowing look. Unmovable even though there's a shake in her breath. "Felix, I have to." Astra adds, her gaze shifting to something determined before she gently presses the cloth to his side, easing away some of the dried blood. She focuses for a moment, rhythmic with the motion. Back and forth. And then, finally, there's a slight twitch at the corner of her mouth. "Why do you always end up shirtless?"

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@secrettyrant astra x milo - the frey

Astra isn't looking where she's walking. Her steps are slow but certain, weaving through the bustle of the Frey, people moving like currents in too many directions at once. Shoulders brush, arms nudge but none of it registers. She suspects Milo is the same. Her focus is entirely on the book in her hands. Or rather, one of their many ingredient books. "I think we picked up the wrong one." Astra hums, eyes never lifting from the page, her voice light and almost amused, entirely unbothered by the possibility. "This says we used moonthistle sap before but…"

Now, finally, the book lowers. She glances up just in time to see a rather determined looking man barreling toward her with a scowl that suggests she is the problem. Astra side steps him without a blink, as if she saw him coming the whole time. "Something is telling me it went horribly wrong when we used moonthistle sap." she continues, casting a glance at the cover of the book. Of course it has no label. No title, not even the ghost of one. Inside the cover there's no notes, either. Just a single crossed out, non magical shopping list. Orange juice. Celery. Potatoes. Beetroot. Astra grins. "What a strange combination. I wonder what we ate that day." she murmurs, handing the book off to Milo. She picks up her pace as if holding it was slowing her down in the first place, slipping ahead through the stalls.

"I don't trust Past Us, Milo. We should find an alternative." Astra says, turning slightly as if her own words have struck her and her grin widens. Before she can stop it, she's already laughing. "But then I suppose, come tomorrow, we're Past Us right now, too."

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@manybcdthings astra x felix - their home

The time before sunrise has always been Astra's favorite. That quiet sliver of the world where everything holds its breath, suspended. She likes the inbetween, that's no secret. And right now, it's that fleeting moment where the light turns everything indigo and soft, the skyline washed in velvet shadow. Not quite night, not quite day. It spills through the apartment windows like dye in water, blurring sharp edges, soaking into walls, into floorboards, into skin.

Her eyes open slowly but her body already knows that Felix is next to her. That's the first thing it registers. His weight, his warmth. The way she's half curled into him, one leg tangled over his, his arm wound around her waist like he stopped her from falling out of bed in the night. One of her hands is on his shoulder, fingers twitching, seeking him without thinking like her body needs a little proof he's still there. Still hers.

Funny, she thinks. A tether was the last thing she ever wanted. The last thing she thought she would need. But that's exactly what he is. An anchor, a constant. Not heavy in the way that drags, but in the way that steadies. She watches him for a while. There's a kind of peace in his face that she rarely sees when he's awake, the sharpness gone, his brow smooth. A grin twitches on her own lips, before she sees it. Just the slightest movement in his expression. It's barely anything, the tiniest flicker behind his lashes. But it tells her, he's peeking. Astra smiles, lazy and amused. Caught.

She lets out a breath of a laugh, soft enough not to break the moment, her chin nudging down to rest on his chest so she can meet his eyes. "Were you watching me watch you?" she whispers, like it's a secret just between them. She supposes it is. Her finger taps twice against his shoulder in a steady little rhythm, not impatient, just... present. "I hope you know..." she murmurs, a playful seriousness in her tone. "I was enjoying myself thinking I was the only peeper."