Southward

Story of A P̢u̵p͠p̕e͘t (Regarding Lost Things)

[.... . .-.. .--. / .... . .-.. .--. / .... . .-.. .--.]

Available on AO3!

words: 1921 (written in fake audio-transcript format)

genre: ... spooky-ish Magnus Archives rip-off with some YouTuber Egos? more likely than you think. (no pairing this time.)

summary:

Here's a podcast in which the Host tells the unseen stories of infinite universes to the curious.

These stories are all true. They are not made up by the Host. (Those days are gone.)

Listen closely; you're in for something interesting.

In today's episode: A puppet theater, hidden in plain sight.

notes: this picture has one (1) vague easter egg and one (1) unnecessary greek mythology reference. that's how we roll.

ps: please, for the love of god, read @pxppet's story here! technically, this fantastic piece of writing threw me back into the dynamics of the two characters again, and that's what made it possible for me to publish this one thingie here today. so i owe you, @pxppet, a debt of gratitude for that. thank you so much for your wonderful work. and so, go on, everyone else, read it!

A Quiet Observer. 

(Puppet JJ seems to give ‘ze good doctor’ company during his research. Researching the possibilities of transplanting a wooden soul into a human body can get very tiresome during late nights, so a helping boost from your patient can go a long way.) :)

"Alluring" with Marvin?

“Keep your eyes on the crystal,” Marvin cooed with an soothing smile as he twirled the chain gently between his fingers. “Watch how it reflects the candlelight. Back and forth...It invites you to reflect too. Let it carry the weight of your thoughts. Let it ease your mind, take all of your stresses away.”

Herding Sheep: Chapter Two

Anti works on breaking in his new “brother”, and Henrik feels himself slowly losing his will. 

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Thwap, thwap, thwap. 

Fleshy fists bang on the door to the room in the basement, echoing up through the floor. Jameson curls in on himself, pressing against Anti’s chest in their shared bed. Something is wrong, but it’s no matter, Anti will fix it. Anti always fixes it.  

Just as he is settling back in there is a loud scream. Anti grumbles and sits up, looking young and soft in a blue hoodie, with green swirling hair and soft eyes. Jameson melts in the early morning light at his appearance. My sweet brother, he thinks, reaching up and touching Anti’s face. Anti looks down at him, smiling. 

“Is that fucking doctor bothering you, sweet boy?” Anti purrs. Jameson pouts exageratedly, rubbing his eyes, trying to seem small and frightened. Meanwhile Henrik bangs and screams in the basement. Anti growls, standing up and grabbing a knife from under his pillow. “Well well then, let’s go shut his bold little lips before he bothers you anymore.” 

Anti leaves the room, whistling Daisy Do as he tromps down the hallway toward the basement. Jameson curls up in his blankets, smiling. Anti always fixes it. 

The door bangs open nearly in Henrik’s face, causing him to stumble backward and fall on his ass. Peeking around the door, Anti slides into the room, standing over Henrik. 

“Screaming all fucking night. Banging up the doors, waking up my pet, waking up my sweet baby boy.” Anti is growling, teeth growing larger in his mouth, dog-like and fanged. Henrik pants and scrambles backward away from the glint of a knife. But he isn’t fast enough. A knife comes down into his foot, severing tendons and sending blood squelching out. Henrik screams. He empties his lungs, eyes bulging at the sight of so much of his own blood. Anti is laughing, only for a moment, tugging the chain around Henrik’s leg. 

“Hey, hey, it’s okay.” The echo and glitching is gone, replaced by a soft, boyish Irish accent. Anti squats on the floor beside Henrik, who is still groaning with the pain. “Look, sorry I stabbed you. I had to you know, you were being so loud, waking up my baby brother and all. Surely you understand, yeah?” 

Henrik squeezes his eyes shut, avoiding the glow of gold coming from his astral, beautiful eyes. Anti huffs out a breath through his nose, picking at Henrik’s eyelid. When it doesn’t open, he grips Henrik’s throat and squeezes. Hard. Henrik gags out a half-inhale, and his eyes shoot open and- Oh, oh the eyes. Henrik slumps, panting, hands limp by his side, bleeding foot creating a puddle on the floor. His chains rattle and he blinks slowly. Why was he screaming? He wanted to escape? But why, why would he ever run from this feeling. So warm, so soft, so gently he sinks into the light. Anti grins, teeth poking over his lips. 

“There’s a good puppet. You just need a little light, aren’t you so scared of the dark, love? Aren’t you scared of the darkness in you?” Henrik whimpers, hanging his head shamefully. “You want to hurt them. Those creations back at home. You want to hurt your family don’t you? Well I can help. I can bring light to you, Arzt, I c-”

Anti is cut off by a frantic fist slamming into his chest, choking the air out of him and knocking him on his ass. Henrik screams and grips his hair. “GET OUT OF MY HEAD!” Half a scream half a whine. Henrik’s breathing is unsteady and deep, trying to ground himself through the pain in his foot and the implanted warmth in his head. Anti laughs, standing up. 

“You’ll see soon. You’ll see, I can make you happy. We can have a nice life, you, me, and the pet.” Anti flips his knife in his hands. “The sooner you comply, the less pain. You don’t want pain, right? Had enough of that when I kidnapped you last time, huh?” Henrik slowly shakes his head, curling up on the floor. Anti nods his head, then turns to leave. 

“Wait- Wait! How… how long will you keep me here. Tell me that at least. How long before you kill me?”

“Kill you. Hahaha. Kill you, kill you.” Anti laughs as though it is the funniest joke he has ever heard. “Oh Henrik, confused little doctor. So lost and confused. I’m not going to kill you.” Anti turns around and grins at him, eyes dripping gold. “You belong to me, you see. And I hate to break my toys.”

Anti is gone before Henrik can even blink. His foot bleeds into the concrete. His head feels stuffed with cotton. He curls up on the floor and cries, and cries, and cries, for the home it is starting to feel he will never return to. Chase’s homecooked meals, Marvin’s glowing fire, Jackie’s protective arms. It feels already like a dream from another life. So far away from the light in the onster’s eyes. 

—

Jameson stirs mac-n-cheese in an old copper pot on the gas stove, trembling slightly. Anti isn’t happy, Anti isn’t happy and he has been a very bad pet. His nose drips blood onto his nice white shirt, staining the embroidered knife in cruel irony. 

The steady shlicking of a knife against wood threatens him from the living room as Anti carves. “Dapper, is the food almost done? Hurry the fuck uuuup.” Anti’s tone is playful and brotherly, as though he wasn’t punching Jameson in the face less than 30 minutes ago. Jameson whistles at him shakily from the kitchen, letting him know to be patient. Jameson dumps a very large helping of the noodles into Anti’s bowl, and schlops the rest into his own. He walks into the living room and sets the bowls on the coffee table. Anti does not look up from his carving. Jameson does not meet his eyes, sitting in the big armchair and stirring his mac-n-cheese around, and around, and around. 

“You looked at him without my permission. You don’t have the right to be mad at me, you should know not to look at prisoners unless I’m wearing you.”

“Yes Anti.”

“You stay away from him until he’s broken in. He’s a dark, dark man, a killer. He killed his fucking accountant, and many, many more.”

“Yes Anti.”

“He’s a lunatic.”

“Yes Anti.”

Not broken in yet. That is his excuse this time, hm? Jameson stirs his food more focusedly, avoiding his brother’s piercing gaze. He nibbles a bite of cheesy noodles. Anti carves, carves, carves, obsessive and repetitive, his gaze turned away from Jameson at last. 

“Anti?”

“What.”

“Does the prisoner get to eat?”

Anti laughs. “Not yet, but he has a pipe to drink from.”

Jameson fiddles with his fork. He peeks at the basement door. There hasn’t been any banging since this morning. He hopes big brother didn’t hurt the prisoner too badly, because he can only imagine Anti’s rage if his new toy dies. He sets his bowl down. Not hungry anymore.

Henrik lays on his cot, foot having clotted, but still aching and unusable. He sniffles into his pillows, far past the shame and pride that usually stops him from crying. He wipes away snot and squeezes his eyes shut, rocking back and forth as he thinks of home. Home, home, home. God why can he barely remember? Chase’s cooking, Marvin’s fire, Jackie’s arms around him. It is staring to feel so far away. 

Anti trudges his boots down the stairs, listening with glee to the fearful scrabbling coming from Henrik’s little room. 

“Hiya puppet,” he says as he unlocks and pushes open the door. 

“I do not belong to you, zum donnerwetter Depp!” He spits curses, trying to seem strong and unbroken. Anti smiles. A knife flips in his hand. Henrik flinches at the glint of the blade. 

“You are just begging to be all cut up again, just like last time. Just like in that basement in Germany. Ah, good times we had, hm? My blade in your skin, my hands alll over you.” His voice echoes in the room, reverberating as Henrik feels the ghosts of nails scraping and blades cutting, instinctively shifting his right arm behind his back to hide scars. 

“Asshole,” he hisses. 

“Oh come on, be friendly! No biting Arzt, bad dog.” Anti is suddenly sitting at the foot of his bed, flip, flip, flipping his blade. “You could be happy here, I think. You and me, we’re family. We shouldn’t be fighting, you’re my big brother.” Childlike, wide blue eyes look up at Henrik. Henrik’s heart skips, something untangling in his mind. His eyes fog over and he feels that same warmth and softness, the light seeping in the wrinkles of his brain. 

“My… my brother? No… No, you are a monster. You are not my-”

“Brother, big brother, come home to me.” Anti’s eyes glow golden and slip into Henrik’s weak will, and Henrik he slips into the light. Yes, yes, my family. This is my brother, why have I been running, why did I not trust him before, yes my brother. Henrik pants and falls back on the pillows, so overwhelmed with love he can hardly move. 

“Come home to me Arzt. I’ll leave you time to make up your mind. Next time I come down here you will make a choice. Right baby? You sweet little doll, you’ll come home and take care of master’s chores.” Anti seems almost daydreaming as he slips out of the door. Henrik curls up on the pillow, eyes rattling, teeth gritted. There is a great, sucking wound in his skull. Why can’t he remember? There was something to remember right? Something he was clinging to, something other than this cot and the monster’s eyes. But it doesn’t matter. Anti will fix it. Anti will come back down the stairs and fix it. Come home, come home, it echoes in the gaping hole in his skull. 

Henrik slips into a deep sleep, dreaming of fresh cooked meals, of fire and laughter, of warm protective arms around him, but none of them have faces. 

little animated snippit of a moment in @jayofmemory​ ‘s branded au! here’s the fic its from: https://jayofmemory.tumblr.com/post/184698509664/adjusting-branded-au

#<3

Many thanks to @0-chaotic-potato-0 for this clip, But here’s your definitive answer for the egos

So shut up about them being finished please- /lh /s /j

(no but seriously this is why i was upset that people were saying it was all finished without actually letting Jack say his piece.)

When Schneep Met JJ (My AU)

Alright, take two. First one got deleted by an error about a fourth of the way in. I felt part of my soul leave when that happened. 

Anyway, this is a few days after Schneep got home from the “vacation”. Schneep meets JJ for the first time and notices something unusual about him right away.

 Story is…I believe the term is under the cut?

Weiterlesen

Jameson Jackson

(art by @blackberry-s0da)

Appearance

light golden brown hair

his classic mustache + goatee

hazel brown eyes

round and youthful face

5’6’’

dapper!!! round hat! bowtie! suspenders under a sweater vest!!

dresses in shades of brown/bronze and gold

thin and wiry

pocket watch

vintage golden eyeglasses

Character

27 years old

kind and polite

but he could kick your ass if you ask for it

was not always mute

daydreams a lot

naive

modest (bc of the era he grew up in)

needs his glasses to see shit

excellent dancer (swing baby, swing!)

plucks the violin

really good with his hands! tinkering, sewing, knitting, drawing…

biromantic asexual (closeted obviously, its the 20s and he doesnt even know what those words mean anyway)

b a b y

seriously, he’s adorable

“fellas” “berries” “swell” “mooks” “what a load of moonrocks” “golly” “dame” “cuss”

hopeless romantic

loves reading fiction, especially romance novels

very touchy-feely! loves casual touches and affection

bad with modern tech

if you give him a smartphone he’ll prolly end up using it like your grandpa

typing super slow, too hard and with just one finger

he deserved better.

Backstory

did NOT start off mute

youngest of three brothers

born in a british family, with latent magical potential that was forgotten generations ago

from the 20s

used to manage his own little shop where he created and sold all kinds of objects

a clockmaker, a tinkersmith, a woodworker…

was supposed to have an arranged marriage to some rich girl

he wasn’t happy about it at all and wanted out

but also was afraid of the repercussions from his family

so one day he was just in his shop and stressing out about it

when he heard a voice coming from his phonograph, over the music

the voice started talking to him and he freaked out

but the voice reassured him, told him they were a friend

it told jj about his family, the magical potential that runs in it

he offered JJ a way out of his situation

entity: ill help you get out of this… predicament of yours, no strings attached. jj: I don’t buy that you wouldn’t want anything in return. entity: of course i want something. i want a puppet! jj: a… puppet? entity: indeed! you’re a talented artisan, aren’t you? a custom-made puppet would do nicely. see, i’m a bit of a… collector, one might say.

JJ doesn’t take the deal at first

but after a few weeks of coercing and sweet-talking

(and of JJ trying to get rid of the voice to no avail)

he eventually gives in

over a few months the voice guides jj

helps him to learn about his family history and magic

turns out spacetime magic is his family’s forte!

so with guidance he learns how to time-travel and “teleport”

then he arrives in the 21th century

but the entity tricked him and the cult captures him there

(oh no the puppet was JJ all along who could’ve seen THAT coming-)

see, the way spacetime magic works, you can only travel to the future, not the past

so he can’t ever come back to his time

the demon kept this information from him of course

the cult takes him to their base or whatever and keep him prisoner for a little while

he keeps screaming for help and pleading to be let out

so they eventually get tired

and one of the cultists slashes his throat open then heals him

he survives but his vocal cords were cut that day

this gives him a fear of knives and sharp stuff (aichmophobia)

after that he’s forced to take part in a ritual where the entity possesses his body

he makes a good enough physical vessel until the entity obtains the one it truly wants…

EGOTOBER AND WHUMPTOBER INFORMATION

Hello, I am alive for once on here. Anyway, I wanted to give everyone on Egotober and Whumptober lists before I started posting them.

My Egotober List 1. Hat - Marvin and JJ 2. Purple - Robbie and Marvin 3. Graffiti - Chase and Jackie 4. Badge - Actor and Damien 5. Water - Captain Magnum 6. Music - Yancy 7. Anger - Dark and Anti 8. Pet - Henrik 9. Shelf - Bing 10. Glitch - Anti and Google 11. Blue - Dark 12. Cute - Wilford 13. Relax - Bim and Author 14. Package - Henrik and Anti 15. Drink - Eric and Yandere 16. Film - Actor and Celine 17. Jumper Sweater - Jackie and Henrik 18. Box - Harold 19. Snack - Bim and the Jims 20. Weapon - Actor and Anti 21. Costume - Dark and Wilford 22. Dark - Dark and Actor 23. Skeleton - The Necromancer, Marvin, and Robbie 24. Eye Eyes - Anti and Henrik 25. Potion - The Necromancer and Bim 26. Nightmare - Host and Author 27. Spell - Marvin and Robbie 28. Monster - Anti and Jackie 29. Grave - BSE and Angus 30. Fear - Eric and Derek 31. Happy Halloween - ALL

And Whumptober List 1. All Trussed Up and Nowhere to Go - Illinois and Yancy 2. Talking is Overrated - Actor and Bim 3. Sticks and Stones May Break My Bones But.... - Wilford and Actor 4. Trust Fall - Blank and Anti 5. I've Got Red in my Ledger - Yancy and Actor 6. Touch and Go - Eric and Bim 7. My Spidey Sense is Tingling - Host and Actor 8. Coughing Up a Lung - Eric and Actor 9. Rumors of My Death Have Been Greatly Exaggerated - Author and all the Ipliers 10. Anxiety (Used instead of "Oops, I Did It Again") - Eric 11. Just Keep Swimming - Gongoozler and Heehoo 12. Losing Control (Used instead of "It'll Be Fun, They Said") - Actor and Author 13. That's Gonna Leave a Mark - Phantom and Marvin 14. Under Pressure - Illinois and Actor 15. Trapped (Used Instead of "Feed a Cold, Starve a Fever") - Anti and Actor 16. On a Need to Know Basis - Dr. Iplier. Jackie, and Henrik 17. Near Death Experience (Used Instead of "Field Care 101") - The Necromancer and Actor 18. The Doctor is In - Henrik and Author 19. Just a Scratch - Bim and Yancy 20. Lost and Found - Angus and BSE 21. That's Where the Blood's Supposed to Be - Host and Actor 22. They Made Me Do It - Google, Anti, and Bim 23. You Break It, You Buy It - Illinois and Ed Edgar 24. One Down, Two to Go - All Cannon JSE Egos 25. Hide and Seek - Yandere and Natpai 26. You will Go Down with This Ship - Captain Magnum and Actor 27. I'm Fine, I Prom.... - Mad and Natemare 28. It's Not Just in Your Head - Dark and Actor 29. All Work and No Play - Henrik and Anti 30. Digging Your Grave - Actor and Google 31. Hurt and Comfort - Actor, Bing, and Wilford

Anyway, that was all! Happy October everyone, and I’ll post day one for both in the next ten or so minutes.