raylen

It's actually really good. Like I think my writing is next level and I've got some pretty sick lines but I just don't know what to do with it. There's no market for Joris fanfiction. It doesn't sell to an audience because there's not enough of the audience to even sell it to. Anyways, enjoy the little snippet of random Joris propaganda.

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Basic backstory before I share this monstrosity: this story was basically the finale where a war had broken out in the world and Chris, now 18, had been drafted. Joy didn't want him to go alone so she volunteered as an teacher at a neighboring village. Think 1900's villages from M.A.S.H or something. Anyways, one of these days, Chris offers to drive her back from the school to wherever she's staying and long story short, there's a ghost in the school, they both end up seeing the horrors, and are then transported by two old friends from previous stories to the fantasy world that has been omnipresent throughout the series. Again, long story short, the concept of time is breaking and sending the world—fantasy and reality—into chaos and their job is to fix the concept of time which is obviously super confusing. They end up making their way into a wizard's house while the rest of their friends are trapped outside. The wizard is basically a jerk, Rudolph makes an appearance for some insane illogical reason, and that's where the section starts off after Chris gets off the phone with 'his mom' at the wizard's mansion:

(BTW this shit is long af so beware)

“That didn’t sound like your mom,” Joy remarked, quizzically.

Chris placed the telephone back on its stand and leaned against the desk. ”Yeah, it wasn’t. It was a Mrs. Carstairs,” he replied, sounding a bit baffled himself.

”A Mrs. Who?” Joy asked, fiddling with a handsome inkwell pen.

”I guess she’s my mom’s new neighbor,” Chris explained with a shrug.

”Oh. What’s she doing at your house?”

Chris glanced at her and the confusion written across her face. “Your mom is there too.” She raised an eyebrow and he continued. “They think we’ve been killed in action.”

Joy blinked at him, looking like she wasn’t sure if she should be amused or worried. Chris turned away, silently, waiting for her to process it.

In the end, she managed a choked out, “Killed in action? But we haven’t been!”

”That’s exactly what I told Mrs. Carstairs,” Chris replied, calmly.

Above them, the dim lights flickered slowly and then went off. Chris stiffened at the suddenness, straightening up from the desk and eyes darting around the dark room. He heard Joy set the ink pen down on the desk and then, a moment later, felt her fingers fluttering against his shirt sleeve. He relaxed somewhat.

Go to the dining room quickly

“What?” Chris murmured, turning towards Joy.

”I didn’t say anything. I thought you did,” Joy whispered from somewhere near his elbow.

The lights flickered again and a dark shape seemed to materialize in the doorway, bringing a bright glowing red light.

”And don’t ask me. I just came in,” came a breezy voice.

The lamp on the desk suddenly flooded the office in light and a reindeer stood in the room. A reindeer who would have been unfamiliar except for his red glowing nose.

Noticing their startled expressions, the reindeer sighed. ”Yes, I’m Rudolph but don’t think I’m here to take you to the North Pole. I’m here because time called me,” he explained, dipping his head.

”You too?” Chris dared to respond.

Rudolph’s head shot up and he stared at Chris in joyful surprise.

“It called you too?” He exclaimed, happily.

“Yeah…” Chris paused.

He shot a brief glance to his side at Joy, who nodded as a sort of encouragement to go on.

”…yeah. I guess it did,” Chris finished, hesitantly.

”How fortunate! I’m so lucky to have you guys as partners in time!” Rudolph went on in the same cheerful tone. “Say, what was that voice?”

”I don’t know,” Joy faltered.

Go to the dining room now! GO!

The voice was screaming at them now and Chris felt Joy flinch behind him. He glanced at Rudolph, nervously.

Go on! NOW!

The voice broke an octave as it rose, screeching above the din of the telephone ringing and ringing, rattling against its stand.

“What if there’s another time quake?” Joy murmured, anxiously.

She sounded frightened, fingers now clutching the edge of Chris’s sleeve tightly. Rudolph was skittish at the edge of the room, hooves dancing on the carpet. The phone kept ringing.

“Let’s go and hope it’s nothing too serious,” Chris finally said, catching Joy’s rather cold hand in his and leading the way out of the office.

Rudolph bounded ahead as they hurried down the stairs. The voice, now staticky and fuzzy, kept screaming incoherent words. It was incredibly unnerving and Chris could feel his heart rising to his throat as well as Joy’s trembling hand holding onto him tightly as they broke through the double doors into the dining room.

Tock looked up from a seat at the end of the table as they stumbled in, surprised then looking amused. Chris began to feel even more uneasy than before.

”Wow! You’re fast!” Tock exclaimed with a heavy laugh.

”I certainly am when I need to be,” Rudolph snapped, rather stiffly.

Chris wondered if the reindeer could also tell something was off in a way different from what they had initially felt.

“What’s wrong?” Chris demanded to know, impatiently.

Beside him, Joy let go of his hand, a disappointment that Chris only had a few seconds to dwell on before she was stepping in front of him, scowling.

”I wanted you to meet Rudolph, that’s all,” Tock replied, shrugging as if he hadn’t just caused a blurry of panic and anxiety.

Joy shook her head, exasperated. ”Is that all?” She retorted. “We found him easy enough. What’s all the ear splitting shouting for?”

Tock ignored her completely and Chris clenched his fists.

“Rudolph isn’t hard to get along with and he’ll go with you,” the old man continued, leaning back in his chair and combing through his beard with lazy resolution.

“And how long is this whole ‘finding time’ thing supposed to take?” Chris asked, suspiciously.

Tock regarded him with a stare that was quickly growing hostile. ”Well, I suppose that’s up to you now, isn’t it?” He drawled.

Joy threw her hands up in frustration and sank down into the nearby armchair. Rudolph stamped his hooves, impatiently. This was ridiculous, Chris thought. They weren’t getting anywhere with this sadistic humorist. He stepped towards Tock, defiantly.

”What about the friends we left out there?” He questioned, motioning towards the door. “You gonna let them in?”

Tock sat up and plucked a grape from the bunch sitting in the fruit bowl. “Of course not,” he responded. “This is your job, not theirs.”

Pure anger began to smolder in the pit of Chris’s stomach and he huffed, running a restless hand through his hair. Behind him, Joy had sprung to her feet in protest.

”Sir, you have to let them in! It’s dangerous out there!” She pleaded, joining Chris at his side.

Tock grumbled under his breath and stood up. “The number of time quakes in the past hour frequented at one every ten minutes,” he began. “That’s six so far. Your friends will be lucky if they escaped in one piece.” He paused, eyes glinting in the light of the chandelier as he leaned forward. “And I know for a fact they’ll be impossible to find in all that destruction.”

Joy let out a strangled gasp of horror, one hand over her mouth. Chris’s worry was drowned out by how mad he was at this point. Tock didn’t care. He was relishing in their anxious panic and fear. Nothing made sense. Chris was done.

He turned away from Tock abruptly and grabbed Joy’s hand. “Come on. We’re leaving,” He announced, trying to keep his voice from going sharp.

She startled a little but trailed after him without a word. Rudolph, who had sunk onto the floor a while earlier, clambered to his hooves, shooting anxious glances in Tock’s direction. Chris didn’t even look back to see why. They reached the door and Chris was quick to turn the doorknob and…wait.

The doorknob wouldn’t turn. It was like it was jammed. That little—! Chris turned to demand an answer from Tock but he jumped when he found the old man standing right behind him, grinning.

“You—!“ Chris began to shout in protest but Tock interrupted, seizing both of Chris and Joy’s wrists in his two hands.

”I think it’s time for the two of you to pop off to bed now,” Tock sang in a cryptic tone as Chris struggled against his unusually tight hold.

Joy was also trying her best to pull away, shooting panicked glances toward the door and suddenly Chris was so unbelievably mad that he actually started seeing red.

“Let her go, you jerk,” he growled, glaring at Tock. “She didn’t do anything to you.”

To Chris’s relief, Tock let go of Joy’s wrist with a frustrated sigh. She was fuming and the look in her eyes right afterwards told Chris she was absolutely about to jump right back in to save him. Fortunately Rudolph took the hint and slunk over, nudging Joy to the side, hastily.

—

Joy didn’t like it. She didn’t like how Tock was acting. He was mental, that was for sure and Joy wanted nothing more than to dart forward and punch him in the face. But her confidence had left her and furthermore, Rudolph was leaning against her side, keeping her put.

All she could do was watch anxiously as Tock turned all his attention to Chris.

”What about you, young man? Don’t you want to be unhanded too?” He asked with mock curiosity.

”You already did what I wanted you to do,” Chris snapped. “All I know now is what I don’t want to do.”

Tock narrowed his eyes and Joy bit her lip, nervously. She had a feeling Chris was about to say something that would send Tock over the edge and then what would they do?

”And what exactly is that?” Tock hissed.

”I. Don’t. Want. To. Save. Time,” Chris spat out and the room fell dead silent.

Joy gulped. She could see Tock’s grip on Chris’s arm tightening. Chris clenched his jaw, defiantly, and suddenly, Tock had let him go and Joy was running over to grab his arm and pull him back.

“No one can leave this place until they save time,” Tock growled out, turning away. “Now you just take your friend and go upstairs to bed. If you don’t want to save time today, you will tomorrow. Goodnight!”

Tock’s eyes were lit with fury as he charged out of the dining room.

”Congratulations!” Rudolph exclaimed, suddenly chipper and cheerful again.

”Whatever for?” Joy snapped, watching with increasing worry as Chris rubbed his wrist, wincing.

”It takes a lot to get him riled up,” Rudolph replied, solemnly. “I’ll show you to one of the bedrooms. We’ve got twenty-five by the way,” he continued, clip-clopping up the stairs.

Joy and Chris followed after as the reindeer led them down the hallways to a bedroom door at the very end. It was a dark and rather gloomy room with two beds and a large bay window seat. A soft rug was spread between the two beds and Rudolph settled down on it.

“I’ll sleep here and you two can sleep on the beds…obviously,” he said, tucking his shining nose under one front leg.

Chris sank down on one of the beds, still fussing over his wrist. Joy glanced from the sleeping Rudolph over to the window then made her way over to sit beside her best friend.

“Let me see,” she murmured, holding out her hand, expectantly.

Chris didn’t protest. He let her take his arm and flopped down on his back onto the mattress. Joy swallowed hard, taking in the streaked red handprints dug into Chris wrist.

“Does it hurt a lot?” She dared to ask.

Chris, his other arm flung over his eyes, grumbled. “Not anymore than my pride.”

Joy raised an eyebrow. “Your pride?” She faltered.

Chris peered at her from under his arm. “Don’t you think I egged him on too much? Or maybe I didn’t try hard enough?”

Joy covered the reddened mark with her own hand and glanced down at Chris with a defeated sigh.

“No. I think you did what you could. It’s just…in this situation, nothing any of us could have said would be enough,” Joy explained, trying to ease his worries.

Chris closed his eyes again and nodded. On the rug, Rudolph let out a sleepy snort and drifted back into a heavy sleep. A pre lit candle on the nightstand flickered and everything was silent.

“What’s out the window? I don’t want to sit up and look.”

”Snow.”

”Strange.”

Joy watched the falling flakes that were so familiar and yet so alien hit the glass in soft puffs of ice. Her hand grew warm on Chris’s wrist and she felt even safer when he pulled away just enough to capture her fingers in his.

“What are we going to do?” She asked, softly, fearfully.

”Nothing. For now. We’ll see how long we can hide out here”

”What about Maple and Biscuit? And Carmen too?”

”I don’t know, Joy. I don’t know.”

Joy didn’t say anything else. What else was there to say? It was late so she reluctantly pulled her hand away from Chris’s and moved to the colder opposite bed. Just as she had snuggled under the covers, she heard Chris’s voice.

”Are you okay? Your arm, I mean.”

Joy smiled. “You intimidated him and he let me go before he could hurt me, remember?”

There was a pause. “Just making sure…”

”I’m okay, Chris. Thanks for keeping me safe.”

He hummed in response. After that, it didn’t take long for Joy to fall asleep. The last thing she remembered was the sound of the snow. Muffled shuffling and rustling was the next thing she heard when she woke up a few hours later. She sat up, blinking in the darkness, and saw a blurry figure on the window seat, silhouetted by the moonlight as they bent over their shoes.

The candle was dying and with its last breath, Joy slipped out of bed into the cold room and carried it over to the window. There was Chris struggling to tie the shoelaces on his left boot. He looked up as the glowing candlelight fell over him, meeting a confused Joy’s gaze.

“Chris, what are you doing?”

Chris looked away, quickly, almost guiltily, and fumbled even more with his shoelace.

”Running away,” he muttered under his breath.

Joy’s eyes widened. She felt her chest tighten and she had to ask to be sure she heard right.

”You’re what?”

“I’m running away,” Chris repeated, refusing to look at her. “I can’t sit here just hoping they’re alright. I’m going to go find them.”

The candle was dead. Joy held the cold metal handle tightly as she sat opposite from Chris on the bed.

”How are you going to do that?” She asked, trying to keep calm.

Chris shrugged. “I don’t know. I’m just getting out of here.”

Raw images of swinging clocks and angry old men flashed in front of Joy’s eyes. She gulped, tracing the designs on the handle.

“The number of time quakes in the past hour frequented at one every ten minutes…”

”And what are your chances of making it through?” Joy continued, voice quiet and on the edge of trembling.

“That’s six so far. Your friends will be lucky if they escaped in one piece.”

”I don’t know that either. I’m not staying here though,” Chris replied, firmly.

“And I know for a fact they’ll be impossible to find in all that destruction.”

Joy took a deep breath. She was panicking on the inside as Tock’s words echoed and re-echoed. How was she supposed to tell Chris, or rather, make him realize the full extent of how dangerous it was.

“I…I can’t let you—“ she began to stammer but Chris interrupted.

”You can’t stop me, Joy. He’s trying to trap us all in here to die. If you can’t see time, how can you save it?” Chris exclaimed then added a weary, “I don’t know what I was thinking.”

Joy’s breath hitched in her throat and she choked back a sob. There was a heavy pause in the air until he finally glanced up at her. His eyes, full of a fierce determination, softened immediately once he saw her failed attempt at holding back her tears.

Before Joy had time to react, Chris was off the window seat and in front of her, gentle hands cupping her face and wiping away tears.

“Hey…” he whispered, softly. “Shhhh, don’t cry. Please? I’m not gonna leave you here by yourself.”

That wasn’t it. That wasn’t it at all, Joy thought to herself, bitterly. But was there anything she could say, anything that would let Chris reconsider this?

“I want to go back home,” she choked out and Chris smiled, reassuringly, thumb stroking the side of Joy’s cheek.

”And you will, I promise. I’m gonna go find them and then I’m gonna go get help,” Chris began, hurriedly. “Then I’ll come back for you and Maple will tell Tock off like she does with every jerk and Biscuit will probably bite him. Carmen will just…well, she’ll just be Carmen. And I’ll take you back home. We’ll go back to school and graduate and we’ll be okay.”

Strike one.

Huge clocks were ticking in Joy’s mind. What would she do if Chris left and never came back? Joy’s heart twisted tighter in her chest. She saw stairs crumbling and time elves screaming and Chris running from it all until…Joy covered her mouth with her hand to muffle another shaky sob. Chris’s brow furrowed, worried, and he tucked a flyaway strand of hair behind Joy’s ear.

”I’ll be fine, Joy,” he promised.

”Chris, what about the time quakes? What about Tock? It’s dangerous!” Joy protested, panicky.

Chris shook his head. “It’s not that dangerous, Joy. Nothing too terrible happened to us out there and Tock is just a Benjamin Button toddler with an attitude.”

Joy’s anxious gaze turned to one of defiance. “Take me with you then,” she challenged.

She saw Chris’s face fall and hoped that was the end of this. But just as quickly as Chris’s confidence had dropped, it returned.

”I can’t do that, Joy. I don’t want you to get hurt,” he admitted, gravely.

Joy reached up to close her hands around Chris’s wrists, careful with the one still flaunting a dull red mark. “Then I can’t let you go either because I don’t want you to die.” She snapped.

Chris hesitated and Joy saw the flickering doubt in his eyes. She felt relief wash over her for a split second. She could work with this. She could keep him here. He’d be safe and she’d rest easier and—

The room shook. Just barely a rumble of movement and sound but it was enough to send all the reconsidering out of Chris’s eyes. Joy’s heart sank as the candlestick slipped off the bed with a deafening crash. Rudolph’s head shot up off the rug and he stared at the pair from across the room, sleepy and confused.

Joy opened her mouth to say something, anything. But Chris’s palms were pressing against her cheeks as he left a chaste kiss on her forehead and made for the bedroom door.

Strike two.

Joy’s head was spinning because one, did he just kiss her? And two, could she really not stop him from going?! Watching him pulling on his jacket hastily in the dark was like watching a clock ticking down to midnight. Would he leave something in comparison to a glass slipper behind for her to track him down afterwards? What would she find?

“…I know for a fact they’ll be impossible to find...”

She couldn’t let him do this. How could he make it on his own through a world that was still alien and that was breaking apart at the seams? It was a suicide mission at best and she loved him too much to—

Joy froze, mid thought. She loved him too much to let him go. Oh. Oh.

“Chris, wait—“ she began, standing up.

Chris paused to glance up at her. He looked apologetic. “Joy, I’m sorry but—“

”What if…” Joy interrupted on frantic impulse. “…I told you I loved you.”

Chris’s hand fell from the doorknob, slowly, as he turned to stare at her, eyes wide.

Home run.

Joy went on. “And that, if you left and never came back, it might just break my heart because I won't just lose my best friend but also the person I…” Joy’s voice trailed off, scared she had already said too much.

The silence was heavy as they stared at each other from across the room, Chris with an unreadable expression on his face that was making Joy impossibly nervous. Finally, Chris let out a sigh that trembled, running a hand through his hair and sinking to the floor.

“Are you?” He asked, quietly.

”Am I what?”

”Telling me that?”

Joy sat down abruptly, leaning against the bed frame and hugging her knees to her chest. “I don’t know,” she murmured. “Maybe.”

Again, silence fell over the room. This time Chris looked like he was deep in thought. All Joy wanted to do was curl up into a ball, roll under the bed, and cry. She was tired of this whole time thing and confessing to her best friend had never been on the agenda because she hadn’t realized she was even in love with him until now. The whole thing was energy draining.

Chris stood up after a moment and moved to open the door.

Too out of it to make any real effort anymore, all Joy could manage was a pleading, “Don’t leave.”

Chris’s gaze and voice was soft when he replied, “I won’t.”

With that he slipped out the door. Joy almost went after him until she noticed he’d left his shoes by the door. She sank against the bedside in relief.

He wasn’t leaving.

—

You see what I mean? Cinematic gold and i wrote that(mind you a lot less grander than this rewrite) at 13. But again, there's nowhere to put it. Tumblr is the only option because at least I know there's a fandom but how many of yall are actual Joris shippers? Yeah, like two. There's even a JoyxLucifer shipper running around in here which, props to them for running what I can only assume is a one man show.

Yeah that's it. I'm running back to the Bloodymary fandom. Too long here and I feel like i'm in enemy territory for some odd reason. Must be the robot fanart or something.