✧ ░ 𝕀 ℕ 𝕋 𝔸 ℕ 𝔾 𝕀 𝔹 𝕃 𝔼 。

TRIO.

OH GOD.

a child, hanna thought incredulously as jakey introduced himself to her. they’ve paired me up with a fucking child. that he was twenty-three didn’t much matter. his upbeat attitude – dare she call it optimism ? – in the face of such a tragedy had her convinced that he was nothing less than a little boy, and a heavy weight began to settle at the bottom of her stomach  as he continued on, talking about his dog, his powers, something hanna didn’t hear as she very quickly stopped listening, ears beginning to ring. it wasn’t jakey’s fault that she stared blankly at him, through him; he seemed a nice enough kid.  it just so happened that, overnight, she had lost everyone who she truly cared about on the island, and being paired with the youth didn’t exactly fill her with confidence that her lost friends would be found.

her skin crawled every time she thought about it. had ruby come home the night before ? or had she been at the circus still, helping to clean up after the first party ? had they snatched her on the way home ? had they been in their apartment, across the hall ? had ruby screamed, fought, done anything ? had she slept through the songbird’s kidnapping, ignorant and oblivious in the black of the night ? the thought of it made her sick, but oh, god, she couldn’t get it out of her mind. i could have helped her, she thought despairingly. i could have tried. i could have done something, anything, fuck –

matty had been announced missing too, and initially, hanna had seized upon it as a way to assuage her guilt. if the two were gone, they must have been together when they were taken, right ? they were inseparable. they could help each other. they could escape – but what if they had both been in the apartment, two people taken, and her none the wiser ? her thoughts chased one another around her mind, guilt pursuing anger, pursuing despair, pursuing the faintest glimmer of hope that they might be okay, that they might be found. there was another member of the search party, wasn’t there ? she didn’t know her, hadn’t known jakey ‘til he had opened his mouth – perhaps, the third person could be useful.

❛ ghosts aren’t real, kid, ❜ she managed after a long moment of silence, pulling herself back to reality, addressing the last snatch of conversation she had caught as she ran a hand through messy hair, unwashed, unbrushed, unstyled – upon realizing she was alone, and receiving the summons to the town square, she had simply thrown on her clothes from the evening before and run from the house, panic growing at the sight of the empty streets. ❛ and even if they were, there are far worse things out there. ❜ how cryptic. how true.

introductions, though – hadn’t they been making those ? their names had been called as they had been grouped together, but already, hanna had forgotten their companion’s, was forgetting jakey’s, was barely hanging on to her own. conversation could be grounding, though; could help reign in the panic she still felt before it transitioned into sheer terror. folding her arms, she looked down, lips curling back to reveal sharp teeth, growing sharper. not quite a smile – something more like a warning. ❛ hanna. people call me skeletor. ‘ dinah called her skeletor, bright, beautiful, vivacious dinah, who had disappeared overnight with everyone else, who could be dead for good this time, for all she knew. could you die twice ? would they use dinah to find out ? don’t think about it, she scolded herself desperately, but how could she not ?

❛ … skeletor, yeah. ❜ dark eyes turned upwards to meet jakey’s, teeth still elongating, sharp, pointed. feral. ❛ and i can turn into somethin’ you could really be scared of. ❜

call it dramatics; a test; a coping mechanism. a way to sound her companions out, to make sure they could hold their nerve. still, after a moment, the teeth –  the fangs – began to recede, as hanna let out a shaky exhale. as annoying as jakey’s optimism was, maybe it would be useful. negative thinking and guilt didn’t seem to be doing her much good. if only she could bottle his attitude. she looked towards jakey for a moment, trying to gauge his reaction, before turning her gaze to their companion, posing a different question, rather than echoing jakey’s much more useful one.

❛ did you … is there anyone you know who’s missing ? ❜ another empty smile, tinged with bitterness. ❛ or are you one of the lucky ones, with everyone accounted for ? ❜

      —ϟ Ophelia had been in the middle of trying to move a fridge magnet when the report had hit their solitary laboratory and they had come stumbling through. The news had been absolutely TERRIBLE, terrifying even, they had come to Aglæca as a safe haven and as a place of new discoveries, and during their first weeks it had been just that. Until NOW. It pained their golden heart to see all those affected by the tragedy, strangers and friends alike, the auburn haired tried to give an encouraging smile to everyone that meet their eyes. They weren’t an expert on investigating such things, but they had SCIENCE on their side, and if there was one thing the biochemist trusted more than anything was that EVERYTHING could be known if studied enough.

      —ϟ The auburn haired was covered head to toe in black, a first for them, but they thought it would camouflage their body into the night; that or they could be watching too many action movies before bed. Finishing the look was a black ribbon that kept their unruly curls away from the visage and their trusty gloves, especially through emotional times as these they needed to maintain such dangerous UNCONTROLLABLE palms covered. Hanging from one of their shoulders was a satchel that contained items Ophelia thought were needed, including of course, a vial of nitroglycerin just in case they needed to get defensive. 

      —ϟ As soon as the search parties were rounded up the biochemist diligently went to where their group awaited. A young boy and a rather intimidating woman met their sight and nervously they adjusted their glasses further up their nose. It felt like high school all over again, except with a much darker outcome. Ophelia smiled WARMLY at the boy, he seemed too innocent for his outward age and immediately they felt the need to protect such a thing. The female on the other hand, considering her demonstration, clearly did not need ANY protecting. And they averted their gaze before she caught them STARING. Thankful for the night, less of a chance they’ll notice the sudden crimson in their cheeks, Ophelia gnawed on their bottom lip both in thought and nerves. 

      —ϟ ❝ I’m Ophelia, ❞ they pipped softly, their voice as soft as the wind. ❝ I don’t have a nickname, though I have been called a ‘nerd’ a couple of times. High school. ❞ Shoulders lifted in a shrug as if to say ‘high school is always the worst, right?’. They played with the ends of their gloves as they looked at the female that poised them a question. Sadness mixed with anxiety rattled through them like a lightning and they gave a very solemn nod. ❝ Her name is Juniper, we’re really close. We have to do everything to find them— all of the mutants. We just have put our heads together. Tackle this as if it were any other experiment. ❞ Though the last words were muttered very lowly, intended for their ears solely.

      —ϟ ❝ OH! I feel the need to warn you both I don’t really have much control over my power yet, especially in such stressful situations. I recommend no touching and keeping a good distance, just in case. ❞ Even though they FINALLY knew the main component of their mutation, they were still a risk to others, especially considering just how many energies they could manipulate without meaning to. ❝ Shall we start walking around? Maybe we could test soil for foot prints, or for any residual blood? They all couldn’t have been drudged, some of them had to have been taken by force which by conclusion should leave marks of some kind. It’s proven that people in distress make more mistakes. ❞ Only after realizing that they had rambled about, they shut their mouth with an audible click. ❝ …but that’s just me, and my thinking. What do you guys suggest? ❞

@placebceffect​

perhaps he should’ve been more intimated by the whole ordeal  ,  by the very clearly ferocious yet vehement woman whose intimidation tactics would’ve worked on anyone that wasn’t jacob  ;  and not because he doesn’t find her threatening  ,  quite the opposite  ,  but his little  ,  pea - sized brain is almost incapable of registering such a thought  .  fear  ,  it appears  ,  is a lacklustre sensation to him now  ,  though it only further leads the placebo to ponder just how outright ludicrous  his actions could now be  ,  if he was unable to experience the emotion that would regulate his foolhardiness. 

❝     skeletor’s a cool name !      ❞   he pipes up despite it all  ,  despite angel’s tail now curling beneath her quivering frame  ,  balling herself up as she cowers  .  but the dimwitted boy is completely oblivious to most everything around him  ,  everything save the conversation at hand and even then  ,  most times  ,  he was receptive only to bits and pieces  .  to the parts he wanted to hear.  so he neglects the denial of ghosts being real  ;  they were  .  he was certain they were  .  he’s a believer in lots of things  .  in all things  ?  maybe  .  maybe he believes in everything except himself  . 

❝     ophelia’s such a pretty name  ,  too  !  mine is so boring in comparison  .  jacob  .  gross  .        ❞   

at this point he’s trying anything to continue conversation  ,  knowing perhaps he’s not quite wanted around  ,  everyone’s better off without him  .  but beatrix is missing and if there’s one thing that defines jacob hayes it’s his child - like energy  ,  whilst most of the time insufferable but also necessary for it keeps him working without stopping.  he’s relentless  ,  in a way  ,  especially when it comes to saving those he cares about  ,  and even those he doesn’t know  .  this town  ,  though it’s only housed him for a short time  ,  has become his   H O M E  .  and he’s not going to sit around do nothing  . 

❝                       me  ,  too  ,        ❞   admits he suddenly  ,  baby blues flickering over to ophelia and nodding to them with understanding  .  ❝     about the stress thing  ,  that is  .  my mutation doesn’t really hurt people  ?  but i do disappear randomly  .  .  .   i  ,  uh  ,  ah  .  they call it intangibility  .  i call it a new since  ,  is that the word  ?  news  .  .  .  ins   .  .  .  whatever it is  ,  it makes me fall through the floor a lot  .      ❞    he giggles  ,  so blissfully ignorant   ,  even  ,  of his own embarrassment  ,  that he fails to notice the slight flush which claims his cheeks and the heat creeping up the flesh of his neck  .  

❝     that’s a great idea  !  you’re really smart  ,  aren’t you  ?  we can also try to have angel sniff one of those footprints or even a torn piece of cloth or something  ,  if we find it  ?  she’s real good at fetch and finding things  ,  might be able to find a trace and lead us  .  .  .   somewhere  .       ❞   

              he wasn’t quite familiar with most of the mutants who’d gone missing  ;  or none  ,  at least  ,  save for beatrix humphrey  ,  about whom jacob was quite concerned  ,  both for herself and for her husband  .  it was a tragedy  ,  how this town was slowly falling apart but  ,  quite frankly  ,  the young lad was most disappointed to hear that he couldn’t partake in the search - and - rescue mission alongside his most trusted mentor  ;  felix had become a sort of emotional anchor which  ,  oddly enough  ,  grounded him  .  but the people he was instead selected to search with seemed friendly at least  ,  and the bright - eyed boy was more than pleased to be partitioned into the centretown group  ,  especially since it meant the ability to bring his trusted pup  ,  angel  . 

              in fact  ,  jacob might go so far as to say the white ball of fluff was their fourth member  ,  a secret weapon  ,  and though he was definitely not the investigating sort  ,  the placebo did have a passion for helping others  ,  so he would do whatever he could  ,  as best as he could  .  except  ,  right now  ,  his best consisted of him perched on a bench in town  ,  eyes skipping from person to person as the crowd from the selection subsides until eventually it was just the three of them remaining  .  

             ❝                       i’m jakey !        ❞   offered he by way of introduction  .   ❝       and this is angel  .  i  ,  uh  .  .  .   disappear sometimes  ?  by accident  ?   things go right through me  .  .  .   like a ghost  !  or  ,  no  .  not a ghost  .  those are  s c a r y  .  .  .      ❞     a pause as the hayes combs brunet strands from his visage  ,  lakeside hues flicking between both of his search - mates  .  he knew  ,  rationally  ,  that he wasn’t the brightest of the lot  ,  that he wouldn’t be much assistant in any department  ,  really  ,  but he had spirit  ;  and that had to count for something  ,  right  ?    ❝        i’m not sure where we should start looking  ,  but  .  .  .   i’m all up for any ideas  !  what do y’all think  ?         ❞

☽ » ⋆ @placebceffect

         Since she was a little girl, Quinn had heard WARS in her head. There were deaths and torture and pain. Tears as the disembodied voices cried, screams as they pleaded, and anger as they fought. Without having ever stepped a single foot inside a battle, without ever having committed a monstrous crime of her own, Quinn had witnessed more than her share of HATE. 

       But there was, of course, the good that came with the bad. Strolling past a church, she heard the wedding bells and the applause and the jovial attendees as a betrothed couple became   one.   There were the people that sacrificed themselves for the better of humanity, a peal of laughter as a particular child rolled in the perfume of flowers within a park, and so many smiles that though she could not see them, knew they were there in the way some of the voices spoke to her.

         The Academy middle school teacher perched herself on a curb, hands cradling her chin, eyes turned to a spot next to her. There was no one there, but she felt their presence. She could hear them. But with no visage to peer upon, all she saw was the blackened concrete, charred from the proximity of an inferno. They had tried to scrub away the blood left behind by those who fell, who perished completely. And they did a good job, but Quinn extended a lone finger to touch upon the shadow of what had been a pool. A frown etched into her features, the will to cry rising —

             When she heard it.

        A gasp fell from her lips, a tear streaking a pale cheek. The voice was new, LOUD, and though they had no control over whether she heard it or not, it seemed like the voice was d i r e c t e d at her. She was to convey a message, she decided. Staying only long enough to assure she heard the last of it, the Davies stood quite swiftly, and set about finding an aura that encompassed the child that had died here.

                 he’d finally managed to locate the family                    her family  ,  and put a name to the face  or  ,  rather  ,  the  b o d y  .   liana leroy  ,  or just lili  ,  as her family called her  ,  she was only nine years old  ,  and her mutation had just begun to blossom  ;  ink manipulation  ,  she was a natural - born artist  ,  they’d showed jacob her drawings and  ,  boy  ,  he’d never seen anything like it  {  the lad  ,  himself  ,  could hardly hold a pencil  ,  could barely draw a stick figure  ,  and here this little girl was  ,  outmatching picasso  .  .  .   } 

                 it was his fault  ,  or  ,  maybe  ,  it wasn’t  ,  but either way  ,  jacob hayes would be forever guilty  .  guilty that the blood of a child stained his chipped  ,  porcelain skin  ,  her lifeless eyes forever burned into his memory  ,  and no matter how much he scrubbed  ,  rubbed   ,   SEARED  the flesh off his own skin  ,  the shadow of crimson would forever remain  .  he was a broken boy  ,  incapable of preventing horrible things from happening  ,  and he was not enough  .

                             most importantly  ,  though  ,  he should’ve died in her place  .                                he’d wanted to sacrifice himself  ,  but the universe spared  HIM  instead  ,                                and it wasn’t fair  .                                                                    nothing about it was fair  .

                 and so he decided to prepare a memorial  ;  lili’s parents mentioned she’d always been a fan of daffodils  ,  because she called them daffodillies  ,  and they’d never bothered to tell her that lilies were real flora she could fawn over instead  .  so he’d scavenged for as many as he could find  ,  purchased a plush elephant  {  her favourite animal  }  ,  created a makeshift  tombstone in the shape of a miniature easel with her name and birthdate written on it  ,  and took the first  ,  of many  ,  treks to the spot of her death  ,  prepared to assemble the memorial  ,  when  .  .  .

                ❝                       you’re standing on someplace sacred .      ❞   normally  ,  he would’ve been more polite  ,  flashed a smile  ,  but today was a somber day  ,  and this blonde was standing in the precise spot she wasn’t supposed to be  .  couldn’t she see the indenture in the debris  ,  the crimson stains along the concrete,   the TEARS which had now begun to streak down his own  ,  flushed cheeks and pelleted down to the tar at his feet  ? 

             A sane person would have moved out of his way — one with the knowledge that she had. They would have, in a nano second. But Katherine? Katherine hummed in THOUGHT, still considering whether to agree with his words or not. She locked her hands behind her back, swung back and forth for a few moments before freezing whilst on the tips of her toes.. And nothing. She didn’t move, she didn’t speak, bright blues fixated on the turned-stone face of Jacob, lips twitching as if she tried to hide a smile. And maybe she did. 

            It twitched again only for a GRIN to spread smoothly, crimson against pale skin, white teeth like threats for the predator before her. “Come on now Jakey, you know we ALWAYS have fun together.” She winked, and let her heels hit the ground with a sigh getting out. “But if you’re REALLY so hellbent on doing whatever you think you need to do, I will gladly beat you with a chair until you are no longer conscious.. So what do you say?”

               he doesn’t cower away at the MENACING glare of the elder woman  ;  no  ,  this jacob hayes is vile  ,  vicious  ,  vindictive  .  he is everything one should fear  ,  he is everything the town  D O E S  fear   {  how they cower away at the mutilated bodies he leaves  ,  every night in his wake  ,  how the faces of the deceased remain agape  ,  a silent  ‘o’ in memoir of their screeching  .  .  .   }   ,  his visage then is the manifestation of evil  ,  with his sharp - toothed grin  , he could  ,  in another life  ,  be the reincarnate of Jack the Ripper  ;   but this stupid  ,  little boy shouldn’t be so lucky to be graced by that genius               no  .   he was  ,  instead  ,  merely a vessel  ,  a tool for chaos  .  and this bitch wouldn’t stand in his way any longer  . 

°✧ — @placebceffect !

°✧ — Never in Juniper’s LIFE had flora looked so pitiful, so dry & lacking vibrancy than the town square garden did.

          She had entertained the thought of fixing it up for a while, wondering if there were any official people she’d have to ask permission from, before deciding that it was easier to ask for forgiveness than permission. Besides, what harm was there in sprucing up the locale ?  If anything, the Higher Ups should be THANKFUL that Juniper was doing such a kind thing ! She was sure that if she hadn’t come along, the garden would just sit & decay, the occasion feral cat or dog deciding it was his new domain.

          Over the past week, when she wasn’t busy after school grading papers & looking over her student’s art pieces, she was out here in the tiny courtyard, bringing in bags of Miracle Grow & her own special little something. So far, she had managed to pull out weeds upon weeds, stripped the walls of their dead ivy, & replenished the soil with nutrients & much needed water.  She had uprooted a few plants that looked promising enough to replant, & saved some clippings from others to experiment with. Right now, though, she was merely TALKING to the little seedlings she had brought in from her own collection. They were starting to sprout, but there were a few that might’ve needed that little extra push.

          ❝ Cmon lil’ buddies, ❞ she coaxed, running a few fingers in the soil around them, ❝ I know you can do it ! You’ll be big and strong in no time. For now, though, Imma just… help you a little. ❞

          Gently, Juniper took one of the itty, bitty, teeny leaves between her fingers, & with a smile, the sprout began to grow & grow, until it bloomed into the prettiest daylily she had ever seen. She began to mess with the other sprouts, watching them grow & bloom into vibrant colour, unaware of the pair of eyes that had wandered into what could safely be considered her space.

              not that he didn’t   L O V E   his puppy  ,  angel  ,  with literally every fibre of his being  ,  but jacob had started to walk her even more since the explosions  ,  just a few days back  .  it was so clear to him that he was constantly beating himself up for the death of that one  ,  young girl he’d sworn to protect  ,  and then  f a i l e d  .   HE was a failure  ,  really  ;  he wouldn’t go so far as to say he loathed himself  ,  but   .  .  .   he was SAD  ,  there was no other way to describe it  ;  he was a simple lad  ,  a boy of few words  ,  fewer thoughts  ,  and the fewest of memories  .  and now a new one of them had been imprinted in his mind  ,  permanently  ,  the sight of a corpse in his hands  and   ,   finally  ,  he understood the townsfolk’s anger towards him for the murders he’d supposedly committed  .  death was ugly  ,  and the fact that it                  THIS                 was intentional was the most morbid of all  .  but there had to be a way  to make it better  . 

              the results so far had been lacklustre but  ,  still  ,  he would try  .  he’d gotten accustomed to charity work now  ,  donating all his time and energy to rebuilding the once beautiful town  ,  now desolate and desecrated with someone’s hate  .  he wasn’t sure who  ,  or why  ,  but he definitely wasn’t sharp enough to try and figure it out  ,  so he left the mysteries to the pros  ,  and the rebuilding to himself  .  he’d been working with an ironsmith for about a year now  ,  picked up on some basic techniques and was trying to trust himself enough to have confidence in his ability to create  ,  and not destroy  ,  something .

              so when his eyes befell a redhead  ,  coaxing flowers into growth  ,  jacob was instantaneously pulled towards her  .  never mind the fact that he had the attention span of a squirrel  ,  there was something almost intriguing about how the plants actually LISTENED to her  ,  how just that little inkling of colour seemed to reanimate the entire concave where the bomb had exploded  ,  leaving nothing but ashen skies and monotonous debris in its wake  .  so jacob  ,  deciding he was sick and tired of all the grey  ,  bent down next to the girl and  ,  with a bright smile  ,  extended a hand to introduce himself and his pup  . 

@placebceffect

              He ran ALL the way home. Still panicky, paranoid the nurses and other demons were chasing him, he didn’t stop for a second, and made many eyes turn towards the man sprinting as if for his life. Felix pushed not one and not two strangers out if his way as his legs carried him without stopping, until a familiar face of Jacob popped up and at some point, he just decided to drag the boy with him—for whatever reason that might have been. With all honesty, he might have just been lonely, a part of him knowing that Beatrix wouldn’t miraculously change her mind and come back, and that despite them having a couple of pets, otherwise the apartment was EMPTY. He wasn’t sure he could handle the silence with energy making his skin v i b r a t e; although it could have been just another side affect and he was merely hallucinating. 

              Inside the home, once he left the poor boy in their living room, Felix soon disappeared and then REappeared with a bunch of stuff in his grip: single shoes, dresses, tops… They were all obviously Beatrix’s belongings, and Felix seemed to be even more distressed than ever. “LISTEN, literally NOTHING is real. N o t h i n g.”

                 The mentalist dropped everything on the floor, wide eyes turning to the younger boy and he stepped closer to grip his shoulders and shake him a little bit. “Trust NO ONE. They are ALL out to get you. Now come on, help me find the kerosene.”

                  did his tutor even realize jacob had been in the midst of walking his puppy  ?  

THAT was the first thought that crossed his head as the elder man grabbed his arm and dragged him to                  he wasn’t sure where they were going  ,  had absolutely zero sense of direction  ,  and it wasn’t as though the babbling of the clearly deranged man were comprehensible to BEGIN with  ;   nothing  ,  actually  ,  made sense until they’d arrived at his home  ,  where he was then discarded into the living room  ,  angel on his lap  ,  panting  ,  white fur now marbled with rubbish  ,   which the placebo proceeds to comb off of a milky coat with the pads of his fingertips when felix resurfaces from his room  ,  a bunch of women’s clothes in hand  .

                             ❝                        kermit scene  ?   what’s  t h a t  ?                                actually  ,  better question  ,  what are you DOING   ,  felix  ?                                have you lost your  M I N D  ?      ❞

     Katherine shifted in her seat before getting up, slender body moving smoothly, like a serpentine in water. “But why don’t you put that knife down, honey — we BOTH know I could wrestle it out of your hands in my sleep.”

﹠· ░ 。✧ )┋ @thcparasite { xxx. }

❝                        how about i  d o n ’ t  ?     ❞

body is commanded to function  ;  jacob rises  ,  a gleam in his eye  ,  knife in hand  , jaw twitches with a foreboding menace  .  he refuses to cede his power to another  ,  in no way would this woman ever usurp that position from him  ;  jacob hayes is   c h a o s   ,   intimated by the predator - like growl emitted from deep within his throat  ,  by the slit glare of narrow eyes  ,   by the way he abandons his puppy in the winding  ,  cobblestone  alleyways of aglæca  .

                                       It was over before he registered it had begun. 

              In just seconds, explosions ANNIHILATED the town of Aglæca, hauntingly beautiful fireworks destroying everything in sight. There were screams and cries and an array of debris pelleting down in a rain of fire, drenching the landscape in a liquid orange. That’s when Jacob had sprinted out of his home, only to hear ANOTHER explosion   ----   This time closer. Would there be a THIRD ? 

              The answer came in the form of  D E A T H ,  and, as though by instinct, Jacob threw himself around the body of a young girl who was sitting on the sidewalk in tears, fearful for her life. He KNEW it was coming, prepared to sacrifice his life for hers, the Hayes draped his arms around the brunette, clenched his eyes, and whispered a silent prayer, a hymn of life, as the detonation proceeded.

              Only, he wasn’t dead. In fact, he wasn’t experiencing ANY pain. And a glance down at the corpse in his hands told him why. 

                                       He was INTANGIBLE. 

              ❝     No...  N O .   ❞   It was all he could muster as the tears fell freely and his body wavered between phases, as he took the young body in his hands and shook and didn’t strop trembling until he’d managed to navigate through the wreckage and find someone, ANYONE, hoping they were okay but also hoping they would HELP.

﹠· ░ 。✧ ) ┋ @thementvlist | @thcdestroyer | @joaquinfischer { xxx. }  

                                   ❝      Oh  –—  Oh no.      ❞   

         He’s blushing, fidgeting anxiously, one hand brushing back the strands of brunet hair. What could be said, really, about a game of sex and marriage and murder when it concerns your PROFESSOR and his WIFE ? The thought made him nervous, and the wavering laughter which escaped the back of his throat only served to prove it. 

Felix might not have known every single thing that existed there behind the facade of a face of each and every human being, but what he KNEW for certain was that the boy that reached out for his company was no murderer. He could separate truth from lies like black from white, even if not always it had been so simple. Ever since the disappearance of his wife and him finally pushing himself to come to the mutant filled town of Aglæca, he found himself searching for distractions here and there—and some of them were even useful, like taking the boy under his own wing and having an eye out for him, because he was (secretly, he would NEVER say it out loud or even admit to himself in silence) terrified that one day someone might have just execute him with a single bullet or hang him publicly for everyone to see. Jacob was his project—and failing the boy would have been like Felix failing himself. 

The man had already managed to make ENEMIES for sheltering the said criminal, involving himself in conflicts he shouldn’t have and threatening people he wasn’t supposed to; he was tall, but there wasn’t all that much muscle, he didn’t seem menacing in the SLIGHTEST, but his mouth could speak wonders and peel into the deepest parts of another, which often was enough to make anyone else back off, even if only for a little while.

But one thing reigned true. Jacob was a little..dumb. Maybe it wasn’t the exact word he should have used—the boy could be taught things as he later discovered working with him alone, but there was something  m i s s i n g. He was in his early twenties, but his brain appeared like one of a child’s, and when he tried to peer into that, to look deeper and solve it—it was all black and blank, another riddle he couldn’t crack. Perhaps that was yet another reason for him trying instead of brushing him off like he did to most. Felix breathed out quietly, a gentle and understanding smile formed from his lips before he shook his head in answer to Jacob’s exclamation. 

“No, Jakey. They’re FUCKING, that’s what bunnies do when the heat hits them real good at their little furry heads. It’s the same with teenagers; trust me, I would know.”

              ❝     That’s a  B A D  W O R D .    ❞   This was said with a gasp and the furrow         of his brows as Jacob literally tears his gaze away from the animals. In fact, his         hands, too, cup his face, as though he were witnessing some atrocious form         of corruption, or perhaps something grotesquely SACRED. 

                        ❝     Shouldn’t we give them privacy ? I mean... It’s not right to stare.                                We shouldn’t LOOK. It’s WRONG.    ❞

                  The proceeding blush mosaicking his face, then, was twofold; in part,             secondhand embarrassment for the poor rabbits subjected to public             disapproval, and also FIRSTHAND embarrassment, for he’d become privy             to the whispers of this very same public now scrutinizing HIM the way they             did the rabbits. Mere gossip, dinner conversation. He was nothing but an             animal to them, one much more vile and vicious than an innocent bunny rabbit. 

                        ❝      And, hey. I’m not a TEENAGER, I’m twenty three   --   I think.    ❞

              The good natured sarcasm was a last attempt to cling to his will and ignore         what now felt like a paparazzi’s worth of angered civilians whose comments         ESCALATED from ghosts of whispers to full-fledged conversation. But Jacob         was quickly failing, it’d started with the flash of disappearing hands to the blink         of his entire frame, and it would only be a matter of time, then, before his         intangibility usurped control and dominated the Hayes’ free will.

                    ❝      Sir, I don’t want to be rude, but we’ve got to get OUT of here,                              or at least I do...   ❞

                  Cheap porcelain teeth meet lip so hard he could taste that familiar droplet             of blood as it was lapped up by his tongue, a last ditch effort to not disappear             completely, leaving a pile of clothing in his wake, and the desperation in his             tone was nearing CATACLYSMIC as he begged further;

—JACOB HAYES.

      —♛ Whistling a playful tune under her breath, she balanced herself on the branch that quivered helplessly with her weight. Beatrix looked down, if she fell from the tree it would not be the most pleasant of falls, but with adrenaline cursing through her veins she could give less of a SHIT. ❝ If I fall, will you catch me? ❞ The brunette practically sung to the boy at the base of the trunk. giving him one of her dazzling smiles that spoke of promised euphorias and granted wishes. ❝ In fact, why don’t you climb up with me? ❞ When she had been young, her parents had been so overprotective that they basically caged her in the castle, so the female had never experienced a juvenile act such as tree climbing— one could say she was making up for lost experiences. 

@placebceffect

              BACK IN THE DAY he wouldn’t have hesitated to make promises of strength,          to catch ANYBODY should they fall, to be a rock, a WALL, in the face of danger.          But all that had changed, his confidence had wavered, and his cursed intangibility          now had him horrified with the prospect of any such feat, at the image of this          brunette’s body splayed on the ground, grass drenched in a bath of royal,          blue  B L O O D . 

                                             ❝    ------    As you wish, m’lady.    ❞

                    He shudders, opting instead for the lesser of the two evils, instead reliving               what he assumed would be his forgotten youth and maneuvering up the trunk               of the tree, seating himself on a sturdier branch inches away from Beatrix.               But silence was deafening in times of comfort, so he found his legs swinging,               his hands thrusted into his pockets, and a SYMPHONY of whistles orchestrated               from the gaps in his teeth now echo about the vicinity. 

The last time he went out to any sort of festival or celebration—anything with so much people and joy around, really—Beatrix had been still around. But today, the two pills he had popped in like candy worked well enough for him not to try and perform a lobotomy on himself, and he somehow went outside to fish for some distraction . Now, he was lying peacefully on the grass, tiny goats running around with ribbons around their necks, some bunnies hopping between flowers and over each other. 

It was peaceful. During the few months he spent here it was all human disappearances and murder, and a lot of headache, but today Aglæca managed to put its best facade on and pretend it wasn’t a thing. He enjoyed his private hour until a squeaky voice of a little girl pierced everything that was going on around him. ‘Mommy! What are they doing to each other?!’ — and Felix turned his attention to the scene of crime immediately, a single dark brow going up lazily. “Spring, am I right?” He spoke up to the person nearest to him, “Bunnies banging like—bunnies—and that goat seems to be into some possible action too.. Nothing celebrates the start of life like childhood trauma.”

                                                  S P R I N G .

              His favourite season, next to only summer and fall, of course. Said months meant the opportunity to indulge in sports, meant the weather he’d been acclimated to (( albeit he would never consciously remember that fact, not anymore ))... It also meant longer walks with his scrappy, little mutt, Angel. And, my, what an angel she was, a guardian angel, really, a saving grace considering all the glares Jacob had begun to receive by the townsfolk, the gossip whispering through the rustles of the leaves, of things he knew HE was incapable of doing, but everyone claimed it was him.   A    M O N S T E R .   He wasn’t the type, Jacob Hayes would never KILL anybody, but the realization that every person in the town of Aglæca was certain he had, well. It BROKE him inside. 

                                      Okay, well maybe not EVERYONE.

              His professor-turned-tutor, Felix Humphrey, was perhaps one of the select few in whom he could confide and who didn’t run away from him at the sight of this 5″11 mutant walking his nine pound dog. So he steered himself towards that beacon of hope, the only solace in a swarm of irritated townsfolk, herded together in this time of supposed, ceremonial joy, all too overwhelming for the boy who couldn’t quite even discern exactly what it was the bunnies were...   DOING.