Something I've noticed is that s1/s2 Alec never really dressed "ratty" per se. Sure, he had some questionable choices in clothing (*cough* denim shirt *cough* kakhis on a first date *cough*), but it's not like he was a walking fashion disaster. In the books, he pretty much dressed like a homeless person all the time, even AFTER he came out. So yeah, the fancy shirts that he's wearing in s3 are far from anything pre Magnus Alec would have worn, but it's still a big step forward for his character.
I think this adds to something that pretty much always happens in fandom. When you take book!Alec f.e. he totally did dress like a homeless person so that nobody noticed him. While book!Magnus is just a tragic fashion disaster (don’t get me started on CC’s description of him!) with glitter all over.
The “funny” thing now is that even if in the books the word glitter would have been mentioned just once, you can bet all the money you have, that the fandom would take it to the next level. Meaning: Magnus on the show or in fics based on the show is this super glittery person with a strange taste in fashion. I am not saying this is happening in all fics, don’t get me wrong! Just… in a lot. When in fact, show!Magnus knows very well how to dress (all his looks are iconic™ pls!) and is not a tragic fashion disaster that fell into the glitter pot and that CC made out of him in the books. In fact, Magnus on the show barely wears glitter, it’s very subtle, if even there at all, often it is just some highlighter.
Same with Alec. He had these hole-y sweaters and looked like a homeless person in general in the books. But show!Alec is the complete opposite. He might be not as fashionable as Magnus but the boy still doesn’t dress ratty! Some outfits might be a bit questionable (leave the denim shirt alone, he looks so fucking good! lol) but he does not wear weird sweaters with holes or other nonsense that he wore in the books.
Now, the fandom acts like show!Alec is still book!Alec. I mean we only find out about that fancy shirt yesterday but as I said, he always knew how to dress. But in fics based on the show Alec is still this fashion disaster on 2 legs that would put on pants as a shirt and other nonsense. And who only wears ratty sweaters with holes. Honestly, this stopped being “endearing” years ago. Even without us knowing about the fancy dress shirt now.
But this is hard for the fandom to accept and just to get rid of it. And like I said, this is not something that doesn’t happen in other fandoms, too. My fave example: A person eats an apple. Suddenly it is the fave fruit of that person and you can bet that in every fic that person is eating a fucking apple, that person breathes apples and one day becomes an apple.
There is a fine line about using certain traits and all and just getting waaaay over board with them.
Port of Call: MALEC!Itinerary: Ghost Hunting! 🕵️🚫👻Captain: @ghostly-malec ✨
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Alec ran up behind Magnus, laying a hand upon his boyfriend’s shoulder to signal his arrival. “By the Angel,” he breathed in a horrified awe, beholding the nightmare before them.
Magnus’s teeth were grit, hands spread before him. A steady stream of intense red-orange magic pulsed out of his palms, slamming around the crumbling house in powerful wave. He struggled as best he could to maintain a barrier and keep the structure upright, the strain of such an effort clear in the tiny beads of sweat forming all across his skin. “Mundane,” he grunted, pushing forward to send a renewed blast of energy into his barrier.
Alec’s eyes widened upon him. “What?!” he cried, but before Magnus could so much as consider elaborating he was already pulling his stele from his jacket and igniting his Speed rune. He slipped through the barrier easily enough - it was, after all, meant to contain rather than block - and disappeared behind the house’s splintered walls.
Ultimately, barely a minute passed, but to Magnus it felt like hours, his breathing growing steadily more and more labored as he renewed his efforts. Every second he couldn’t see Alec worsened the risk his magic would give out and he’d drop too many tons of wood, cement, metal, and glass upon his boyfriend, nevermind the helpless Mundane Alec was trying to extract. When the lithe young man at last did reappear, a fainted woman limp in his arms, Magnus forced himself to endure just a few more seconds, just long enough for the pair to clear the house completely, then at last released his spell and collapsed upon the ground, the building following suit at Alec’s heels.
As soon as he was clear of the crumbling debris, Alec sank to his knees and laid the woman in his arms upon the grass lawn. Quickly, he glanced up to search for Magnus, a relieved sigh escaping amid his rapid breathing when he found the Warlock on his hands and knees staring right back at him. He parted his lips to ask about the house, but before he could the answer sounded behind him.
A horrific wail tore through the air, splitting the night in two and forcing both men to cover their ears in agony. They turned their heads just in time to catch a streak of dark blue-grey tear out of the house’s remains and into a nearby thick of woods. The streetlights were lit all up and down the otherwise quaint avenue, soon joined by household after household as surrounding families woke from the disturbance.
Alec clenched his teeth and barreled towards Magnus, scooping him up in his strong arms to guide, drag if he had to, his boyfriend into the precarious cover provided by the woods’ edge. Only once they’d ducked behind the low brush lining the outermost trees did Alec pause to at last examine Magnus, truly examine him, then pull him into a tight hug upon finding him unharmed.
“Magnus, what was that thing?” Alec breathed against Magnus’s cuffed ear, his hand preciously buried amid the Warlock’s tousled locks.
Magnus leaned into Alec’s chest, silently thanking whatever powers had been at work to prolong his magic and get Alec out of the house in time. “Ghost,” he murmured between recovering breaths.
Alec loosened his grip just enough to sit back and look Magnus in the eye. Bewilderment consumed his face, furrowing his brow. “How can that be? Ghosts are supposed to be mostly benign - a little mischief here and there, but nothing like…” At a loss for words, he simply glanced towards the pile of rubble across the street.
“Wraith, more specifically,” Magnus elaborated, at last beginning to catch his breath. He twisted a bit to glance over his shoulder, regarding the destroyed lot with irritation. “They’re far more troublesome than mere ghosts, formed when the deceased suffers particularly intense emotions. Those emotions are the only thing which power and drive the resulting spirit. It makes them volatile and, unfortunately, unable to be reasoned with.”
“So how do we deal with it?” Alec resignedly sighed, turning to search the surrounding woods. “They’re still incorporeal, right?”
“Yes, but the very same emotions which form them also bind them to our world just enough to become vulnerable.” He nodded to the quiver attached to Alec’s back. “Your Angelically-charmed arrowheads, for example, would be able to finish the cross between the physical and ethereal realms.” A vacancy occupied his boyfriend’s stare, so he restated in simpler terms, “You can shoot it.”
Alec’s face immediately brightened at the news. “Oh. Well, that’s good.” He got to his feet, extending a hand to help Magnus up as well. As he did, he recalled what little he’d seen of the anguished soul, his mood steadily deflating. “I wonder what happened to make them that way.”
Magnus offered a sympathetic smile, comforting his boyfriend as best he could with a firm grasp of his shoulder. “It could be any of a number of things. Best not to think on it too much. At the end of the day, no matter what events brought this wraith into being, it doesn’t belong here, and if we don’t dispatch it a lot of Mundanes could be in trouble.”
He was right, of course, but it didn’t really make Alec feel much better about it. His hand lifted Magnus’s from his shoulder and shifted around to intertwine their fingers, then he turned to regard the dense woods stretching out before them. “We’d better hurry. Hopefully, it hasn’t gone too far.”
With Alec’s hand held tight in his, Magnus led the way deeper into the forest, his free hand lifting and curling small tendrils of soft blue magic in the air before him. “I doubt it. That thing expelled a lot of energy struggling against my barrier. If I’m right…” He looked down to his hand, or more specifically the tiny orb which had formed upon his palm. Alec gazed at it in wonder, and with a smile Magnus lightly tossed it into the air before them. “…Without something actively agitating it, it should be lingering somewhere in these woods, replenishing its stores before its next tantrum.”
The small orb floated along through the woods, twisting and weaving around the trees as it sought out the wraith’s ethereal energy. It reminded him of the Mundanes’ myths of will-o’-the-wisps, drifting deeper and deeper into dense forests in their strange and eerie beauty, and distantly he wondered if spells like this one were the very origin of such tales. Just as in those stories, Alec and Magnus followed eagerly along, hoping to find something at the end of the trail. Unlike those stories, what they sought was far from some kind of wish or benevolent spirit, though they were just as likely as those travelers to be met with ruin.
Suddenly, Magnus threw out his arm to stop Alec in his tracks. The orb had begun to swell - before it could, Magnus whipped his hand around and clenched it into a fist, the orb snuffing out like he’d capped off the air from a burning candle. Alec’s lips parted to question Magnus, but soon found ringed fingers raised before his lips.
“There,” Magnus whispered, moving his hand to point through the surrounding darkness.
Alec had to squint, but eventually his eyes adjusted to the dark and caught a subtle shift of faint light, moving subtly behind a cluster of distant trees. He nodded, confirming he saw the wraith, then slowly unhitched his bow from its strap and drew an arrow from his quiver. “My aim’s good, but not that good,” he muttered lowly. “Doesn’t help I’m not really sure what I’m aiming at.”
“Any strand of light,” Magnus murmured, carefully stepping away from Alec. His fingertips rubbed together, as if they themselves were contemplating which spell they’d employ. “Those are the places where it’s closest to physical presence.”
Alec was only half paying attention. “Where are you going?!” he hissed, arrow half-knocked upon his bow.
Magnus waved for him to relax. “Those trees are in your way, right?” His fingers tensed, curled in a claw-like fashion and bringing white-hot power sparking between them. “If I grab its attention and draw it out—”
“You mean agitate it, right?” Alec twisted around to glare at Magnus, but his boyfriend wasn’t looking his way, eyes focused upon the wraith. “Magnus. Magnus! Your magic is low! If that thing attacks you—”
“Then you’ll protect me,” Magnus finished with such abrupt and unabashed certainty it honestly caught Alec off guard. Before his boyfriend could say anything more, Magnus threw out his hand, firing a bolt of energy zig-zagging towards the wraith and crashing into a nearby tree. “Hey!” he yelled, making sure the wraith knew exactly where the attack had come from. “Over here!!!”
It worked, the wraith releasing a horrible shriek and snapping away from its momentary stasis.
“Damn it, Magnus!” Alec muttered, scrambling to right his grip upon his arrow and lodge it into place along his bow.
“Volatile” had been an understatement. The wraith was far faster, far defter, far angrier than any ghost Alec had ever seen. Though it remained difficult for Alec to perceive in the darkness, the way it burst relentlessly through branch after helpless branch betrayed the path of its charge. It closed the distance in barely an instant, focused wholly upon Magnus and intent on delivering the full brunt of its rage upon the magically-drained Warlock.
Still, Magnus threw out another shock of magic, and then another, doing what little he could to keep the wraith along a straight and predictable path. Only a few shots in, he already found himself out of breath, collapsing to his knees with just faint traces of magic still licking his fingertips.
Alec wanted to cry out, but bit his tongue to keep himself silent. If he distracted the wraith, Magnus’s efforts would be for naught. He lifted his bow and narrowed his brow, keen eyes keeping a sharp lookout on Magnus’s position.
Closer, closer… The wraith broke free of the nearest trees, mangled arms raised and mouth stretched out amid another blood-curdling cry.
Magnus looked up, eyes wide. His breath hitched, and his body tensed, and the very last remnants of his magic flickered to life upon his palms.
The glint of metal sliced the air, hardly a foot away from Magnus’s face. Acting on impulse, his legs kicked him back from the piercing motion. The forest’s floor of dense soil, fallen leaves, and snapped twigs unceremoniously greeted him…
…but not the wraith.
Magnus turned, chest heaving, to stare at the tree beside him. Alec’s arrow was still rigidly wriggling back-and-forth from where it’d sunk through the bark. A few sparse flecks of ashy blue fell like lazy snow around the arrow - the last remnants of the wraith.
Alec fell to his knees beside him, arms thrown around Magnus and face buried against his neck. “Damn it, Magnus,” Alec cursed again, hands gripping their holds of his boyfriend tightly enough to whiten his knuckles. “Why did you do that?!”
Magnus’s breath released in a sigh, and he leaned into Alec’s body. “I’m sorry I worried you, Alexander,” he chuckled, a hand lifting to lay lovingly along Alec’s forearm. With a gentle tap, he got Alec to loosen up just enough so he could pull away and regard Alec with a wide, knowing grin. “But, it worked, didn’t it?”
Alec glared at him. “I’m not letting you out of my sight for the next week, at least.”
Port of Call: MALEC!Itinerary: Haunted House! 👻🏡😱 Captain: @ghostly-malec ✨
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“You sure this is the place?”
Magnus flashed him a wicked grin. “My dear Shadowhunter, you’re not scared are you?”
“No,” Alec insisted. Looking back up at the mansion before him, he couldn’t help but shudder. “Just seems like an odd place for a demon attack, is all.”
At that, Magnus raised a brow. “Not dismantled enough?” That was an absurd notion - the place was shattered and splintered in just about place it could be. The house still stood, but they suspected only barely.
“Not… lively enough,” Alec eventually settled on. “Nothing to attack.” Finally, he reached out and pulled open the wrought-iron gate barring the overgrown lawn off from the street. It was rusted, and gave an unsettling screech as the catch dragged across the pavement.
Magnus cringed at the sound, more out of discomfort than anything else. “What happened to this place?” he murmured as they strolled up the long, winding walkway, weeds breaching through the unkempt asphalt through ugly, scar-like cracks.
“Nothing unusual,” Alec shrugged. “Some rich lady that died of old age. A ‘Mrs. Gellard,’ I think it was. Apparently, she didn’t leave a will - public records say the whole estate is tied up in legal battles while her kids fight over their inheritance.”
It was enough to make Magnus roll his eyes. “Oh, to have the frivolous concerns of the Mundane.” He sighed, almost wistfully, and turned back to Alec with a small smile. “Sometimes I envy them. Though, they can’t enjoy all the Shadow World has to offer.” He made a show of looking Alec head-to-toe, suggestively biting his lip.
Alec parted his lips to reply, but as his hand reached for the door something inside the house snapped, causing them both to jump. When nothing more followed, they relaxed, chuckling lightly to themselves. “Probably a rat, or something.”
“Probably,” Magnus agreed. He leaned over to peer past Alec into the mansion’s dark confines. The moonlight just barely breached the threshold, bathing the foyer in a soft, delicate blue light. “Or the demon.”
“Right,” Alec muttered, pulling a witchlight stone from his pocket. Magnus, whose hands had already raised in preparation of a spell, gave him a peculiar look, so he explained, “So you don’t have to waste your magic on a mystical flashlight.”
Magnus chortled and lowered his hands. “A ‘mystical flashlight’?”
Alec shrugged, willing the witchlight to life and drawing out his Seraph blade. “I haven’t finished The Complete Guide to All Things Magical. It’s a bit of a slow read - not at all as interesting as I’d hoped.”
“You should’ve started with Magic For Dummies. It’s an excellent beginner’s tome.”
The next few moments passed in near-silence, the pair of them slowly making their way through the twisting and convoluted mansion. Occasionally, one or the other of them would point at one of the deceased woman’s many eclectic decorations - gaudy sterling silver goblets, porcelain statues of absurdly-accessorized animals, frayed and tassel-trimmed couches and armchairs whose patterned upholstery could have easily doubled as bathroom wallpaper. They’d share a snicker, or a roll of the eyes, and move on to the next room, both on guard for the slightest sign of demonic activity.
But by the time they finished the first landing, still nothing out of the ordinary presented itself. Magnus lowered his hands, and Alec his blade, and they exchanged a dumbfounded look. “Like I said,” Alec repeated, “are you sure this is the place?”
“Catarina was quite clear,” Magnus insisted. “All of her patients reported strange activity from this address.”
“Aren’t they all old and senile?” Alec pointed out.
Magnus scowled. “So? With so many identical testimonies, I rather doubt—”
A loud crash interrupted him, followed by a frantic and thudding scampering, the sound so sudden it startled the both of them. Immediately, their gazes snapped to the wide stairs that curved around the expansive foyer. The gold leaf of its thick banister was chipped away in places, leaving its dark rosewood exposed in a matter that rather resembled blotches of blood or dark mold.
Alec groaned, his eyes trailing up the stairs. “I guess it’s stable enough…”
Magnus rose a brow and gestured towards them with an open palm. “Care to lead the way? You have the witchlight, after all.”
“Oh. Yeah,” Alec muttered, reluctantly moving to the lead.
The whole way up, Magnus couldn’t suppress a grin. “My, my… If I didn’t know better, I’d say you were frightened, Mr. Lightwood!”
Alec shot a quick glare over his shoulder. “Come on, you’re not even a little freaked out?”
With a casual shrug, Magnus replied, “There’s not much I haven’t gotten used to over the centuries.”
“Regardless,” Alec scoffed, “I just don’t want to fall through the floor, is all.” He frowned downward as they arrived on the next landing, the floorboards creaking painfully under their feet.
“The place does seem quite a bit more downtrodden on the inside,” Magnus thoughtfully remarked. A swift shudder followed, and reflexively his hands moved to rub his arms. “And cold.”
Alec moved closer to him with a nod. “No kidding.” He raised his witchlight, its illumination spreading far enough to reveal the whole landing, and the dark hallways lining its edge…
…and the refracting discs of two eyes, low to the ground, mounted atop a long and fanged snout of red and blue hues.
As soon as the light hit its face, both it and Magnus released blood-curdling shrieks, the thing quickly darting off down the hall while Alec whirled, wide-eyed and heart racing. The sight had scared him plenty, but Magnus…
The Warlock stared up at him reproachfully, cheeks flushing beneath the witchlight. “Quiet,” he grumbled, knowing precisely what was running through Alec’s mind.
Alec was still caught between confusion, amusement, and his own dose of fear. As he blinked, dumbfounded, he reviewed the face they’d seen, then replied, “…Magnus, that was a monkey.”
“A mandrill baboon, to be precise.”
“Right.” He turned to start leading the way towards the hall where the animal had made its retreat. “Didn’t you own a monkey?”
“That’s different!” Magnus retorted indignantly. “Ragnor was a kind and gentle monkey, not some hideous and screeching tantrum-scamp!”
Alec frowned over his shoulder. “…’Ragnor’? I thought that was your Warlock buddy?”
Magnus rolled his eyes, urging Alec to continue on down the hall with a gentle prod. “It’s a long story. Let’s just get this over with.” Under his breath, Alec barely caught him grumble as they moved, “…’demon attack’… I’ll have that witch’s—”
A resounding crash echoed from down a hall behind them, followed by more scurrying in front of them. Reflexively, they drew closer together, Alec raising his witchlight and Magnus spinning around and summoning magic sparks to his fingertips. They waited, frozen in their tracks in await of more activity. Alec tilted his head to whisper over his shoulder. “Either there’s more than one monkey, or we found our demon.”
“Wonderful,” Magnus replied with a nod. “I’ll take care of the demon.”
Alec rolled his eyes, then turned around to begin leading the way towards the other sound. “Or, we can both take care of the demon. Because that’s what we’re here for. Not monkeys.”
Magnus gave him a reproachful look. “So you’re just going to let that thing run about? It could sneak up behind us and—”
“Magnus,” Alec interrupted, turning to face his boyfriend. Magnus could see a bit of weariness tugging at his features, but he didn’t let that stop him from offering a kind smile, then moving in to press his forehead meaningfully against Magnus’s. “You’re the High Warlock of Brooklyn. You got this.”
He couldn’t exactly protest the point, so he simply pouted before continuing towards the crash. “Doesn’t mean I have to like it.”
“No,” Alec chuckled, “you don’t.”
Having Alec close by certainly helped. Even without seeing him, Magnus could feel Alec’s presence close behind, his Angelic warmth emanating off him like the rays of a midday sun. It didn’t make him feel any better about the miserable gremlin darting about unseen in the house’s foreboding shadows, but it reminded him he was no longer alone, at least. That knowledge in and of itself brought a smile to his lips, even if he felt about two seconds away from lighting the whole estate aflame just to get rid of that awful creature.
But, as they stepped quietly into another large sitting room, Magnus realized something appeared to be bothering Alec. He turned with a furrowed brow and inquired, “What is it?”
Alec’s hands had moved to fold amid his arms, awkwardly holding his Seraph blade and witchlight as best he could despite it. “Nothing,” Alec replied, a bit confused by the question. “Just a bit chilly.”
“Mmm,” Magnus murmured. The temperature had dropped even further than when they’d reached the top of the stairs. Enough cold had now set in to the desolate rooms and ominous halls that their breath plumed before their faces, and goosebumps had formed along their skin. As he considered all this, a thought occurred to Magnus. “A ghost?”
Alec appeared about to reject the notion, but even as he’d parted his lips to reply he began to realize it wasn’t as crazy as it seemed. “That’d definitely explain the cold. And the crashing.”
“But not the fur-monster.”
“No, not the monkey,” Alec snickered. “Or, at least—”
A hazy figure suddenly passed through the room, as swift as a flash of light, bringing with it a sudden pitch in temperature. Alec let out a small cry and jumped closer to Magnus. He nearly dropped the witchlight in the process, but Magnus’s hand found his, a renewed grin touching his thin lips. “So, for you it’s ghosts, then?”
It earned him a sharp glare. “At least ghosts are actually scary.”
Magnus chuckled, pleased to have a “partner in fear” as it were. “Whatever you say, my dear Shadowhunter.” He let the magic die down from his hands and turned to take in the rest of the room. “Well, I suppose we won’t be fighting anything, then.”
Although Alec was already lowering and sheathing his Seraph blade, he nonetheless asked, “There might also be an actual demon though, right?”
Magnus shook his head, still surveying the room as best he could in the witchlight’s sparse illumination. “That filthy mongrel aside, I haven’t sensed a single trace of demonic energy since we passed through that gate. Catarina’s patients were probably responding to some combination of it and the ghost.”
After warily glancing around the place the ghost had briefly appeared, Alec moved away towards the fireplace. A number of photographs framed in elegant, ornate gold lined the mantle, layers of dust dulling the faces held within. “So, we just gotta figure out how to help them move on.” He looked over his shoulder, one of the framed pictures in hand. “It’s gotta be the lady, right? Mrs. Gellard?”
Magnus nodded, narrowed eyes scouring every last detail of the room. “I’d presume so, yes. That doesn’t explain the house guest, though.”
His eyes fell upon an odd, twisting structure laying upon the floor a few yards away. With a tap to Alec’s shoulder and a point, he directed Alec’s witchlight towards it, the hot-white light peeling away the darkness to reveal something long and winding, about as thick as an arm. The severe shadows cast by the intense light made it difficult to tell exactly what it was - Alec held the answer in his hand, moving the picture forward into Magnus’s view.
“I think… the monkey is Mrs. Gellard’s pet…”
As soon as he saw the picture, Magnus quickly looked away, cringing. Sure enough, that accursed creature was pictured within the frame, perched upon a brightly-smiling woman’s lap. In his opinion, the ‘pet’ looked absolutely miserable, but then again he rather thought all members of its particular species did, constantly, all the time. “Wonderful,” he grumbled, turning to continue surveying the room. “Why couldn’t it have been an ocelot? Don’t most Mundane millionaire matrons go for ocelots? ‘Oh, what adorable little kittens!’ Did our ‘Mrs. Gellard’ not receive the memo?”
Alec rolled his eyes and set the picture frame back upon the mantle. “You’re just upset we actually do have to go address the monkey.” A tense hesitation came over him, and anxiously he looked around the room. “…That’s it, right?” he called out. “You’re upset about your pet?”
A heavy silence consumed his question for a few moments before something rustled from one corner of the room. They both jumped and spun in its direction, just in time to see some kind of rectangular, wicker container topple over, spilling its contents across the marble floor.
“Uh… Th-Thanks?” Alec called out again, hesitantly moving towards the fallen objects. He moved his witchlight ahead of him, a wide variety of various items slipping into view beneath its light.
Magnus knelt to examine then, then quickly stood up and backed away with a wrinkled nose. “Ugh. They reek!”
“The monkey’s toys?” Alec asked, taking Magnus’s place beside the objects. He reached out to warily touch his fingertips to one of them - something that looked like it used to be a stuffed animal of some sort. The fur was clumped into thick tufts, darkened where immense amounts of saliva had once dried. He made a face, plucking it off the ground between his thumb and a single fingertip, holding it far away from him. “Yep. Definitely some kind of chew toy.”
“That is disgusting.” Magnus turned to snarl at the rest of the room. “What would possibly inspire you to acquire such a ridiculous pet?!”
An angry shriek and sweep of ghastly light across the room answered, inspiring Alec to suddenly drop the toy and huddle closer to him. “Magnus! Don’t antagonize her!” he practically whimpered.
Magnus folded his arms and raised a brow at him. “Since you’re so skittish about our other-worldly friend, and I have no intention of going anywhere near that monster, perhaps you should retrieve the pet while I entertain the ghost?”
Alec was still searching the middle of the room in wide-eyed fright as he eagerly nodded. “Yes, please. I don’t enjoy things I can’t put an arrow through.”
“Given the circumstances, I’ll keep my commentary to myself.”
Alec snickered, then gave Magnus a quick hug around his shoulders and light peck to the side of his head. “I’ll be right back.”
Magnus wove him off with a strained smile. He couldn’t wait to be done with this place, back in their loft and far from Mrs. Gellard and her peculiar choice of companionship. The loft was warm and comforting, and this place was nothing but cold and dismal. Idly glancing around the room, he continued eyeing its furnishings, still pristine aside from the few things the deceased woman had knocked over. A mild guilt touched him as he realized the place probably hadn’t been much more lively in Mrs. Gellard’s life than it was in her death.
Tantrum-throwing distortion of Homo sapiens aside, of course.
He narrowed his eyes at the vacant space around him. “I suppose that’s why you acquired that wretched thing, isn’t it?”
Slowly, the wrinkled and sagging face of Mrs. Gellard phased into view, glowering at him from behind a few strands of white hair loosed from her bun. Her mouth stretched wide and she howled wordlessly at him - it didn’t do much more than rustle his wildly spiked hair, but a sudden stumbling from somewhere else in the house indicated he hadn’t been the only one to hear it.
“Go easy on him, would you?” Magnus grumbled. “He’s got enough kindness in his heart to deal with your putrid choice of company.”
Mrs. Gellard appeared to want to say something, but as she couldn’t she simply turned with a huff and upturned nose, arms folding across her chest.
Beside her, he did the same. Periodically, his eyes anxiously flickered to the room’s entry, dreading the reappearance of Mrs. Gellard’s pet. His foot began rapping upon the ground - he wondered if he really had to be there for this.
Of course you do, he thought with a resigned sigh and fond smile. Alec wouldn’t be able to face Mrs. Gellard without you, just as you wouldn’t be able to face that damn baboon. Still, his hands tightened about his arms and he glared at Mrs. Gellard. “I don’t suppose you could let it be just a little warmer?”
She sneered at him, and perhaps considered tossing some other piece of furniture in outrage, but rays of white light had drifted through into the room, soon followed by Alec’s tall silhouette. Usually, it would have been a lean and muscular frame, but a huge mass expanded his torso - Mrs. Gellard’s expression brightened, as much as it could anyway, when she saw her precious friend hooked around Alec’s neck, the Shadowhunter’s arms wrapped securely around its legs and waist.
Overjoyed, she released a hollow wail and drifted toward them - Alec jumped in surprise, the baboon freaked out in his arms, and Magnus winced and half-turned at the creature’s resulting terrifying expression. Altogether, it got Mrs. Gellard to pause, her manner falling beside a gentle, ghastly groan. Magnus moved to awkwardly attempt to comfort her, Alec meanwhile struggling to console her pet.
“H-Hey, there, it’s okay, it’s okay!” he urged, fighting to keep a secure hold of the frightened animal. His free hand reached around to stroke its back, and he half-turned so Mrs. Gellard was no longer in view. “You’re alright, buddy, you’re alright…”
Magnus released a dreamy sigh as he beheld Alec’s kindness. Mrs. Gellard eyed him beneath a risen brow. He caught her look, then after a brief pause asserted, “Alec isn’t a terrorizing ingrate.”
She rolled her eyes and looked back at Alec and her baboon. Alec was staring at her, then quickly looked to Magnus. “W-What?”
Magnus wove the matter aside. “Don’t you mind it.” He nodded towards the baboon. “And how is our… erm… friend… doing?”
Alec gave his familiarly goofy grin before regarding the creature in his arms, his hand still idly stroking its back. “We’re good. Right, buddy? We’re okay.” Still hugging the baboon close to him, he steadily walked closer to Magnus and Mrs. Gellard, a feat he found easier to accomplish if he kept his attentions trained on the baboon rather than the ghost.
The baboon remained obviously agitated in his arms, but less so at least, and finally Alec was close enough that it could reach out and touch Mrs. Gellard if it wanted - Magnus, too. He subconsciously shifted behind Mrs. Gellard, as if that might somehow protect him from her pet’s antics.
Mrs. Gellard knelt, sunken eyes drenched in pain, and warily held out her hand.
Alec, still doing everything he could to ignore her, shifted to slowly bring the ghost into the baboon’s view. “See? Everything’s… E-Everything’s okay… !” Distantly, he realized his own anxiety probably wasn’t helping things.
Nonetheless, the baboon’s wrestling gradually eased, and its tiny beady eyes stopped darting about in panic. Its calm maintained through Alec’s continuous petting, it finally started adjusting to is master’s new appearance, getting used to the bone-penetrating cold and eerie, foggy haze. It came to focus upon Mrs. Gellard’s face, at last registering her features, her smile, the intonations of her nonsensical whispering.
Finally, it released another, small cry, one that still managed to startle Magnus but was far from its earlier shrieking. It gingerly climbed down from Alec’s arms and reached out a hesitant hand - Magnus reflexively took a step back as the baboon’s hand drifted clear through Mrs. Gellard’s, and it released something like a saddened whimper.
Mrs. Gellard uttered a similar moan, then slowly rose back to a stand and fixed Alec with a hard, snarling glare.
Alec jumped to his feet and rose his hands. “S-Sorry! I don’t… What?!”
Enduring the creepy little monstrosity as best he could, Magnus stepped around and laid a hand on - well, through… - Mrs. Gellard’s shoulder. “You want to make sure your pet is taken care of, correct?”
She turned her face to Magnus, lips hard-set, and nodded once. A hand began to flail at her pet’s toys, her mouth opening to allow more wailing nonsense to spill from her tongue.
Exhausted, Magnus wove a hand and rubbed the bridge of his nose. “Yes, yes. Alec will take your pet to an exotic animal rescue. With his fine collection of belongings.” Mrs. Gellard uttered another short, curt sound, and when Magnus realized what it meant corrected, “…With her belongings.”
At last, Mrs. Gellard seemed satisfied, giving another short nod. Turning, she regarded her baboon with a smile, then finally began to fade, taking with her the air’s intense frost.
Alec sighed with relief, the color returning to his skin as much from his departing fear as the rise in temperature. “Finally. I guess we have one last stop to make before we’re done though, huh?”
Magnus groaned, hands already waving to throw a large portal into the space beside them. “I’ll get the chew toys…”
I think that comment about there being 20 extra episodes just threw everyone off, lol! When I was watching it. I was like 'wait, does this mean 30 episodes??' I just find the whole thing really strange, you know? With 10 eps starting in April, the end of the first 10 would be in June. When would they start the next 10? It just seems too clumped together.
lmao I know. Kat looked so confused. When your own network can’t remember shit they announced 6 months ago, rip.
I just hope that they just give us the whole s3 then because if they start in April with 3a and there is a hiatus and 3b maybe happening in January again, I am going to kms. I am a good person, I don’t deserve so much suffering, bye!
Has it been confirmed that the Edom story line is happening in S3? I'm asking because I've seen a few posts about it, and I wasn't sure if it was actually happening yet. If they do have it this season, I hope that wait until at least 3A. It seems to soon to do it right away.
Well, Todd Slavkin mentioned here that they “go to Edom” and that “there is someone named Asmodeus”. So there is that. How and when they are going there is still unknown at this point. But I don’t think they will do it in 3a, since they first need to “establish” Lilith and probably her connection to Jonathan. And then there is also the twist with Magnus and Lorenzo Rey, so I don’t see them doing Edom in 3a, except for maybe namedropping it (peeling the onion) when Lilith comes up.
