These Thorns Are Rosy

Herding Sheep: Chapter Two

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

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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. 

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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. 

Oh Ja! Mal sehen wie viele Ihre Sprache reden werden und wie viele Google Übersetzer nehmen werden ich frage mich wie viele deutsche hier sind OwO

now that tumblr's banned the english language we should all just start communicating in our native languages, getting to decipher what everything means will be half the fun

rip to the monolingual english speakers though yall will be missed

The Septic Egos. This took me three days to make, I'm really proud of it. I hope that you guys like it.

Merry Xmas to everyone! ^^🎄

Silent Secrets Sealed

Fantasy Masks AU: Chapter Ten

A JSE Fanfic

After the action of the last chapter, this one is a bit more low-key. Or as low-key as it can get when the boys and the other Phantoms are running away from a possible search and hoping not to be discovered. Also, they seemed to have picked someone up. Who is this strange, mustached man that Chase dragged along for the ride? Perhaps he knows something about the King? Chase, Henrik, and Marvin are determined to find out. Hope you guys enjoy this mostly-dialogue-filled chapter :)

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Had winter always been this cold?

Or maybe it just felt that way because Marvin was—for the first time in years—without a talisman. Magic was warm, and he’d long developed the habit of holding onto his amulet when cold, feeling the heat inside it. He was pretty sure that had only ever warmed his hands, but it was more the feeling of it than anything else. Without a talisman, he couldn’t access that warmth. It was strange to be without that knowledge.

Of course, it could always just be a particularly cold day. The sky overhead was gloomy with clouds. And apparently, being on the water was always colder than being on land. So perhaps being on a boat sailing down a wide river wasn’t helping.

Marvin leaned over the side of the boat. Bending all the way over, he could just barely dip the tips of his fingers in the river. The water was slightly brown, and he knew that it would turn slightly green as they went deeper into the wetlands that made up the Southern Moors.

Weiterlesen

press a button to begin!

I was bored so I started playing around with Mark and Jack’s eye colors. I think these turned out okay for a first try! ^^”

Hey!! First of all congrats I’m sorry I wasn’t on tumblr to catch all the milestone stuff but I’m still proud either way💗💗💗 Second, if you’re a still doing requests could you do a JJ Disney thingy? I don’t wanna pressure you so don’t worry if you can’t, don’t work yourself too hard. Love ya 💗💗

A lot of people wanted this one huh, since it’s MerMay and tbh JJ just fits for The Little Mermaid :D

JJ x Disney AU // Request #26

The Little JJ - a little adorable merman boy who will pay a price of his voice for the opportunity to gain legs and explore the land… but for now, he’s quite happy exploring the ocean searching for different human stuff among the shipwrecks 

Commissions OPEN | Art/Idea© LAN (Do NOT use/repost without permission)

Day 3 : Mind Games.

“We all look the same anyways! How many times have you confused your friends from each other? How many times was I there, and you never had a clue? You’re all so easy to fool.”

Ack sorry I've been out all night but could I get a nose boop with, say, JJ and Marv? ❤️ - Vic

“May I ask you to explain this trick one more?”

Marvin didn’t look up from his book as he answered. “I found a tome on transfiguration and I want to test it out. I need you to hold the can so that if I do turn it into a puppy, it won’t be able to run away.”

JJ wrung his hands nervously. “Why choose me? Surely one of the others would suffice!” 

Marvin looked at JJ and realized just how nervous the young ego was. “Hey, it’ll be okay. No need to be scared,” he said softly. “I’ve got good control over my magic.”

“I know. It’s simply the fact that it’s magic at all! I trust you completely, good sir, but I trust the magic as much as I trust air travel, which is to say not at all!”

Marvin shrugged. “Fair enough, I guess. But this spell has no chance of being harmful! At worst, it makes the can grow a tail. I have some reversal spells ready just in case, if that makes you feel better. Just hold still, and it will all be fine.” He held up his hands, ready to preform the spell. JJ looked like he wanted to protest some more, but instead he held the can out at arms length and closed his eyes. 

Marvin read the spell, and softly glowing green mist began to surround his fingers. As he went on it was joined by a pale blue mist, and then the two combined. They formed a ball in Marvin’s hand, glittering with teal and turquoise. He lightly tossed the ball at the can.

Metal is a very good conductor when it comes to electricity. As it turned out, it was a conductor for certain spells as well.

There was a small flash of light. The can fell to the ground, right next to the brown puppy with the black mustache print under his nose. The puppy opened his mouth to yelp, but no sound came out. He crouched low to the ground, trembling.

“Oh my-JJ!” Marvin moved closer and picked the puppy up. he was a little Boston Terrier. Marvin held him close to his chest and pet him, trying to get him to calm down. Eventually JJ stopped shaking, and Marvin set him down on the ground again. He sat down on the ground as well. 

As guilty as he felt about turning JJ into a dog, he couldn’t help but grin and giggle. JJ padded up closer to Marvin, with his little puppy paws, and settled down in his lap. Marvin booped his nose and laughed when JJ tried to bite his finger playfully, his tiny puppy teeth not even hurting. From what Marvin could tell, based on what was the dog equivalent of a mortified expression after the fact, JJ still had his human mind but also had puppy instincts.

“Don’t worry JJ, I’ll get you turned back in no time,” he said. He pet JJ on the head. “But first…JACKIE! CHASE! SCHNEEP! GET IN HERE!”

JJ looked at him with puppy anger. “I just want to let them see you! You’re adorable!” JJ growled. “Please? Just for a minute?”

JJ stared at him. Then he started wagging his tail as a way of saying, “Fine.”