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"Ares, love, breathe," Ezra hummed, resting a hand on his husband's shoulder. Ares closed his eyes and inhaled shakily. Ezra chuckled. "You act like it's the first time we're doing this.""I know! It's just- what if we forgot something?"Genki snickered to Ares' left. "Shush old man, you heard him. It's not your first time!""Gross," Venus muttered while the husbands both rolled their eyes."Genki, tone it down or you're going to scare them," Ares scolded gruffly, but without any real heat."Wasn't that the point..?" Wasp asked disappointedly as he peeked through the kitchen door. Venus shook her head solemnly. Wasp made a mourning noise. "So should I take off my tooth necklace?""Please," Ares responded, pinching the bridge of his nose. Ezra giggled at his husband's despair."You love them," he reminded him gently."I haven't had enough coffee for this.""Aw, but you do love us!" Genki teased.Ares heaved a sigh."Irish coffee."-----Ares had done this job for a long time, but somehow, he was always as nervous as the first time. He was part of a pilot program in Depth, providing assisted living homes for suitable teenagers in the foster system. In other words, any child above the age of 12 that didn't get adopted or doesn't fit into a group home, would meet Ares at some point in their life. He was currently responsible for his 6 chaos gremlins: Venus, Genki, Wasp, Amoura, Vandacea and Shadow. Shini, although already aged out recently, continued to live with them as well, helping where she could. Six of them had two flats above the husbands, Venus opting out to live with them instead. It wasn't technically allowed, but Ares was also not technically their dad, and here he was, caring for them like one anyways. Nobody cared, anyway - being part of this pilot project gave him a lot of freedom in how he handled things since no one really knew how to regularize it. So long as none of his kids asked their assigned care worker to leave, they were free to stay here.They never did, but that didn’t mean Ares couldn’t be nervous about every new addition to their family- which brought them back to this moment.Starting today, another person would join their family.Ares walked down the streets to the familiar building of the local foster system. The walls were just the same obnoxious yellow it was the last time he visited- the only difference were the two people in front of it: a social worker in formal work attire, and a teenager. The kid was dressed in an oversized plaid shirt and baggy cargo pants, as well as black combat boots.“Hello”, Ares said, approaching the duo. “I’m Ares Moreau. Nice to meet you.”“Jade Obal”, the teen said curtly.“Alright, cool. Pronouns? I use he and him.”Jade looked genuinely taken aback, and Ares held back a sigh. The foster system really needed to step up its game.“I use gem neopronouns…”, gem trailed off, staring intently at him. Ares knew gems' entire attitude towards him now depended on his reaction.“Gem, huh? Suits you. Would you mind telling me about the grammar on the way back?”He could see Jade light up in excitement.“Sure!”Ares grinned. He turned to the social worker and held back a sigh.“Alright then. Shall we get the paperwork done?-----After everything was over, Jade followed Ares down the road, while he explained more closely what was going to happen.“You’ll be living with three other people: Genki Akui, Shadow Nycromia and Amoura Bright. There’ll be others, but they will live in the apartment next to yours.”Jade nodded, gems curiosity caught. Gem didn’t know how it would be helpful, but gem had a feeling that gem should ask anyway.“Who are the others?”Ares smiled fondly.“Shini Margrave, Vandacea Anēmalya and Wasp.”“Just Wasp?”"Yeah, just Wasp. They all live next to you. I live below, with my husband Ezra and Venus… Moreau.”“You have a daughter?”“Adopted, yes.”“Oh.”They fell back into silence until they approached a pastel-blue building. Ares was quick to lead gem inside.“Here we are.”“Wassup, old man!” A teenager, younger than Jade, sat on the railing of the front porch. Their hair was dyed red and purple, suiting the purple prostetic over the upper half of his face. She waved at them, then turned to face Jade, a smirk on its face. “I see you’ve brought fresh meat.”Jade glared at him, but Ares just rolled his eyes.“Jade, that’s Genki, any pronouns. Genki, behave for fucks sake.”Much to Jade's horror, Genki winked at Ares. “Make me, asshat~”Ares crossed his arms, seemingly unimpressed.“Genki, could you please show Jade around the house?”"Oh I'll make sure to make 'em feel real welcomed alright, you can always count on me!" Genki had a suspiciously flirty tone in their voice, making Ares’s face twist. Jade made a gagging noise.“I do not like the way that sounded.”“Aw, shame. Come on, Doll Face, let me show you around~”“Please don’t call me any more pet names.”“No promises!”They laughed and motioned Jade to follow, filling Jade in on the way."Essentially, two fossilized Homosexuals decided to build a shithouse for overgrown children to dig their little burrows in. It's like a freakshow, but people actually pay to see those, all our neighbors have to do is call CPS and we'd be all over the screens in no time." Genki laughed again. Jade frowned uneasily.“That’s… lovely.”“I know, right? Alright, we’re here. This is your room- feel free to do whatever it is you’re into. Dinner is at 7, then you’ll meet everyone else.”“Thanks, Genki.”“No worries, Sweet Cheeks!”Jade turned back to complain, but Genki was already running off, giggling to herself. Jade sighed and went into gem's room. Hopefully, this wouldn’t be too awful.—--“Genki love, stop joking and help us lay the table”, Shini interrupted his quite frankly AMAZING story rudely. Genki, of course, ignored her, opting out to put their feet on the table instead.“I’d rather be laid than do the laying if you know what I mean.”“You can get laid later, now help us you lazy ass”, Wasp complained. Genki just giggled cheerfully. In lieu of an answer, she attempted to divert the attention onto Jade entering the room.“Ayy, there you are!”Jade stopped in gem's tracks, visibly shrinking down once everyone's attention was on gem. Ezra, ever the fucking fun killer, tsked quietly at Genki.“Feet off the table, Genki. I will put you on dish duty if you don’t help.”Genki groaned loudly. Seriously! He had better things to do in his life and better people to do. They told Ezra as such, but the absolute wrinkledick just laughed it off.“How about instead of boasting about your countless bitches, you could introduce Jade?“Fiiiine…”Genki got up and gave some half-assed speech about everyone until Ezra called to dinner.“So,” Venus started, looking at Jade with intrigue.“How’d you end up here?”Jade shrugged gems shoulders. “Just don’t have any other place to go, have I? Why, don’t tell me you all have a dramatic backstory?”The entire table was silent. Venus noticed how even Ares kept his gaze carefully level.“What? No, way.” Jade stared at the group. “...Tell me?”—--“I was the first one to ever get here,” Shini said. “I had to... Take care of my parents as a child. They were neglectful and wanted me to be their perfect little princess. What they didn't realize was that they just raised an emotionally unstable child." The smile Shini wore as she finished made Jade shudder. “After their unfortunate accident, they didn’t know what to do with me, so I was placed with Ares and Ezra.”Ezra smiled in amusement. “I still remember the first day you got here. You wrestled Ares into a headlock and threatened to slit his throat should we ever force you to wear, say or do anything you didn’t want to.”Ares grunted, wary of the grins the Chaostrio wore. “Don’t look at me like that. She caught me off guard and I didn’t want to hurt her.”“You still lost to a 10-year-old, hun,” Shini teased.Ares groaned dramatically, as though he had just been stabbed. “Can we move on? Next up, we met Shadow. You don’t have to tell your story, though.”Wasp nodded enthusiastically. “Boundaries!”Shadow shrugged, placing a hand over his mask as if to assure her it was still there. “All I’m going to share is that there had been an accident. Ares found me in an alleyway and saved my life. He and Ezra fought tooth and nail to get me to stay.”Both husbands nodded in confirmation. Before anyone could ask a question, Wasp quickly changed the topic.“Veny and I were next! We stole Ares’ shit!” They grinned proudly and high-fived Venus. Venus sighed exasperatedly.“It was a little more complicated than that. Wasp and I met in a group home when we were younger. It was… less than ideal there, but we had each other, so we coped. Until they tried to separate us.”“Yeah! Something about causing too much mischief. Veny was placed into a different home, but she came back secretly at night one day. We started meeting again in secret, and planned our escape.”“When we finally pulled it off and left the home, we needed to survive somehow,” Venus explained with a shrug, “So we pickpocketed the first guy we could see. It turned out to be Dad. He noticed it though, and wanted to call our parents.”“THAT was awkward to explain, let me tell you,” Wasp added. “But in the end, the old man felt bad for us and took us in.”“Next up was me! So basically, what happened was that I was having a very intense one-on-one with a pussy-”“I think it’s best if I tell that story,” Ezra interrupted Genki, who promptly started complaining. Ezra didn’t let that stop him.“I was the one who found Genki. Well technically, it was Mozza. She found Genki in a tiny cardboard box and refused to leave her.”Genki spluttered. “That is NOT what happened, asshat! It wasn’t a motherfucking box! That was my humblest of abodes and if you weren’t an old, blind ass cocksucker, you-”“That’s kinda homophobic, Genki”, Ezra countered with a deadpan. Shadow almost spit their drink back out, and Wasp started wheezing gleefully. Genki stared at Ezra indignantly, before shooting upright and letting a tirade of swear words rain down on Ezra.“YOU ABSOLUTE PISSDICK WHAT THE FUCK YOU’RE-”Venus blended out the rest of it, giggling to herself, as did most of the others. Ezra just sat there and smiled calmly at Genki, which seemed to egg her on even more.“... AND I WILL PUT YOUR BALLS IN A BLENDER AND SLURP THEM!” Genki was panting heavily, a constant scowl plastered on his face. Ezra just nodded placatingly. “Not homophobic, got it.”“DAMN RIGHT!” Genki fell back down into their chair, looking red-faced and properly worn out from its one-sided screaming match.“Anyways,” Ares continued the story, “Ezra found Mozza hanging out with Genki and slowly, very slowly and not several without bite marks and a tetanus and rabies shot, got her to warm up to him.”“That’s… wow.” Jade looked over to Genki, seemingly impressed. “That’s quite the story.”Genki just gave a tired smirk. “I know, I’m so hot for that.”“You are a- actually never mind. Whatever you say.”“Next on the list was me,” Amoura piped up. “I wasn’t actually meant to end up here. I was fostered by a different family, and they almost adopted me. But then, my foster brother and I planned an April Fool's prank, and it went wrong. I was blamed for it and they stopped the adoption process. I had to leave, but the group home I was sent to was less than great and I didn’t fit in, so now I’m here.”“I am here since 2 months and about… 5 days?” V piped up hesitantly. I was placed in a group home, and I had these adorable little babies, Remi and Crumble in a box under my bed. Oh- they’re rats, by the way.”Jade raised gems eyebrows and nodded encouragingly.“Well, the other kids… bullied me a lot. One day, they punched the box before I could hide it away, and uhm…” She trailed off, but Ares finished the story for her.“As you can imagine, nobody was happy that V had nursed two baby rats- even less when they found out Remi was a guy and Crumble was a girl. I managed to get V out of there, and the rats, too.”V nodded enthusiastically. “They had babies! We had to separate them, so they wouldn’t get any more, but at least they’re not alone now because they have their kids!”“That’s adorable”, Jade said, smiling. V beamed at gem.“What’s your story?”Jade faltered. Right, gem should have known that that was what was going to happen.“Right, uhm… I don’t have a sick backstory like you guys. I wasn’t fit to go anywhere else, so they told me I would go here.”The lie slipped off gem’s lips easily enough. Eventually, gem would share. Today was not that day- gem just got here, after all. There were lots of conversations to still be had, trust to be built and friendships to be made. And somewhere, in between it all, Jade would find a home.Eventually.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
"Daaaaad, we're all out of honey again!" Wasp yelled from somewhere above him. Ares raised his voice. "What do you need all that honey for, anyways!"Silence greeted him. A silence that couldn't possibly mean anything good."It's a surprise!" Venus answered. Somehow, that didn't quell his worries at all."I'm only getting more honey for you if you tell me what you need it for."More silence.Ares heaved a great sigh. "V, could you add honey to our shopping list?" "Oh! Sure thing."Ares leaned onto his hoe, wiping sweat from his forehead. He let his gaze wander over the crop fields, humming in thought.The farm they lived on was a day's worth of travel away from the next big town. They'd have to load as many crops as possible onto their cart and bring Dave, the resident donkey with them. The mere thought of it made Ares want to punch something. Dave wouldn't only slow them down, he was unreasonably stubborn and lazy. Instead of one day, it would take them two to three days at least.And that, of course, meant sleeping in the forest.Ares didn't believe in the stories about the Depth's Forest. Even then, every forest was full of dangers, especially at night.However, whether the stories were true or not Ares knew they were going to have to make the trip soon. Their farm could only give them so much, especially with Vandacea refusing to have any of their farm animals killed. They still needed new clothing, a new sealing ring for their sink, and other things- honey, for example."I think we'll head out tomorrow morning. 's not like we can put it off any longer," Ares informed Vandacea. She nodded solemnly."Will we be selling some of our crops? I still have a couple of pots I made that I could bring.""That would be amazing, but don't worry about the money, kid. We'll be alright. Just have to bring Dave.""Oh, not Dave!" Wasp groaned from where he appeared on the front porch. "I hate Dave!""We all do. He slows us down every time," Venus added.Ares shrugged. "If you want to carry the pumpkins yourself, be my guest." This time, the silence was on Ares' side. He watched the two walk back in with twin frowns on their faces. Chuckling, he turned back to V. "Could you help me with dinner, please? I'll just finish this real quick."—--Morning came around about as fast as every dreaded moment in life, and V stifled a sigh as she dragged herself out of bed. The sun hadn't quite risen yet, but they wanted to leave early, so everyone had to help get the farm animals ready- they would need enough food for the next 3 days at the least, and the chicken coop still needed cleaning as well. She took an apple from the fruit bowl in the kitchen and greeted two sleepy Venus and Wasp, who were dragging several boxes of canned food out to their little cart.Both looked about as motivated as V felt. She made her way to the cows, where Ares was already preparing their cow feeder system. He gave a nod to V, who waved with a smile. She then got the cleaning supplies she needed and headed to the chicken coup, getting to work.Time passed quickly and before Wasp knew it, everyone was ready. Dave the donkey was tied to the carriage and the four of them were each equipped with a backpack. Ares carried a duffel bag on top of that."Let's go. It's not gonna get earlier."They made their way up a winding path, helping push the carriage in an attempt to speed up their journey. After a little while, they entered the Depth's Forest. V shuddered slightly, pulling her jacket tighter around herself. Wasp knew Ares didn't believe in the folktale, but that didn't stop him from decking out each of them with iron for protection. They stuck close to him and together, they made it into the woods with little fanfare. It was almost laughable easy to venture through- no weird sightings, nothing attacked them.When sundown came around, they noticed a quaint little house in a small clearing. Tired and worn from the long walk, Ares led them toward it and knocked."Hello? Is anyone here?"No answer."My name's Ares, I own the farm not too far from here. My kids and I would like to ask for shelter for the night if that is possible."Wasp tried to peek through the windows, only held back by Venus, who mumbled something about him being too nosy. Everyone jumped when the door flung open, and Venus immediately pulled Wasp back to Ares' side.In the doorframe stood a beautiful woman. She looked relatively young and held a warm, inviting smile."You're traveling, I suppose? How brave. Not many dare to pass through here."Wasp shrugged. "We need to get into town. It's the fastest way.""I understand," the woman said. "Come in, then- excuse the mess, we weren't expecting any guests.""It's fine really. Thank you for the shelter, miss..?", Ares said. The woman beamed at him."You may call me Normal. May I have your names, little ones?" She turned to the trio behind Ares.Wasp froze at the odd wording. He nudged Venus softly as a warning."Call me Bee."Normal narrowed her eyes the slightest bit, but kept her smile and ducked her head."Nice to meet you, Bee."Wasp nodded, then pointed at his family.“This is Drop, and next to her is Clue.”V looked like she was about to protest, but one stern glance towards her effectively shut her up. Ares mainly just looked confused.“Ahem… right.”Before anything else could be said, a loud crash sounded from inside the house.“GENKI YOU THIRSTY FUCK, GET OFF ME!!”Laughter rang through the hallway and two seconds later, two people chased each other past them. The first one smirked as they ran past the group. The second one, a tall dude with long brown hair and a red strand, sharp facial features and an annoyed expression, stopped in surprise when he saw them.“Oh? Do we have visitors?” His toothy grin made Wasp shudder. There was something distinctly off about these people.“They are staying the night, yes. Could you go and make dinner?”“Of course. I will see you in a bit!”With that, he walked back off. Normal led them to the living room, sitting them down and starting a random, quite frankly boring conversation Wasp zoned out of. What got their attention, however, was Genki standing in the doorway with another person, who was wearing a skull mask over its face. As soon as The two noticed Wasp staring, Genki waved him over with a smirk. Wasp approached them warily.“And who might you be, Chucklenuts?”“Bee,” Wasp answered, watching both their faces fall. “And you?”“Quip,” Genki responded casually.“I’m Key,” Skull-face said. “Why are you here, Bee?”“My family and I were looking for a place of shelter for the night.”“Ah. You have come to a great place.”“I’m glad.”“Yea yea, this is all fun and shit, but I need to show you around. You’ll love it-”“Quip, don’t overwhelm our guests.”Genki boo’ed quietly, and Wasp snickered at that.“You can show me around after dinner?”“Alright, sick!”—--At dinner, two other people were introduced: Lilly and Onyx. Venus didn’t quite understand why Wasp was acting so weird, but whenever she asked, he would just look at her solemnly and say “just be careful”. Which did just not help at all, by the way. Either way, everyone seemed nice enough. At some point, even V seemed to loosen up.“Uhm, Lilly, could you pass me the pepper, please..?” she asked tentatively. Lilly handed it over with a smile. “Thank you!” V said. Lilly beamed at her.“Of course,” she responded, then promptly drew her into a conversation. Wasp was sitting next to her, happily rambling about something or other to Key. The other man that Quip seemed to continuously flirt with didn’t introduce himself yet, but Venus figured he was just shy. His dinner was delicious, and before she knew it, Venus was starting to feel drowsy.“Getting sleepy, hun?” Normal smiled at her empathetically. “You must be, walking around all day…”Venus nodded lazily. She watched Normal smile and say something she couldn’t quite grasp. Was she really THIS sleepy?The next day, she woke up with no recollection of how she had gotten to bed.She also woke up alone in a bedroom, with the door locked.Venus’ throat went dry.It felt like a deja vu, except she had no idea where it possibly could have happened before. She had grown up on Ares farm and had never been anywhere else. She couldn’t possibly have been locked in in the future. Then why did she feel like there was a skyscraper on top of her chest, constricting any possible airflow?!
In for four, hold for seven, out for eight.
How did she know that?With trembling fingers, she started tapping a rhythm. It felt impossible to breathe alongside it, but she tried, getting more and more frustrating as time moved on.“There you go. You’re doing so great, hun.”A hand on her shoulder startled her into awareness. She could swear she had been alone a second ago, but the door was open, and Normal stood in front of her. She gave Venus a comforting smile.“Welcome back, hun. What’s got you so worked up?”“T-the door…” Venus rasped. Normal hummed softly.“Do you want to go back and see your family?”Venus nodded. Normal snapped her fingers and before she could blink, the entire group from yesterday materialized in front of them. Oh. She was in the living room?“What the fuck?” Ares spluttered. At least she wasn’t the only one confused, then.“You see”, Onyx stated smugly, “We have offered you shelter and hospitality, and while some of you,” gem glared at Wasp with something akin to annoyance. Wasp raised his chin proudly. “...have been very careful, you haven’t all been very polite yesterday, and you still owe us.”“Polite? When weren’t we polite?” V muttered meekly. Amoura giggled at her.“For example when you thanked me, silly.”“B-But that is polite!”“They’re not humans, Clue. They’re fae.” At Wasp’s explanation, V went stiff. Venus shuddered. she tried to step away from Normal, but she had her arm in an iron grip.
Fuck.
“Fae don’t exist,” Ares claimed confidently. The entire household giggled.“Wouldn’t be so sure about that, Wrinkledick,” Quip said.“Little Human, your kind can deny our existence as much as they want,” Key said, its glamor falling, showing something all too sharp, all too wild to ever be human. “It just makes our job easier.”Ares paled considerably.Wasp had to do something. With twice the confidence he actually felt, they stepped forward. “How about we make a deal,” they said. Normal’s head snapped towards them in an inhuman movement.“Elaborate?” she said.“You let us go and pass safely through this forest, and I will forget that I know the name of one of you.”It felt as though the air itself stilled.“Who’s name do you know?” the unnamed man from yesterday demanded.“Genki.”Silence.Then, Genki burst into wild giggles. Onyx and Lilly smirked in amusement, and the man chuckled.“You really think that Genki is a fae? How adorable.”“I’m just as human as you, spikey. Maybe a liiiittle less.”Wasp’s confidence wavered.“Surely your name still matters-”“But we don’t care if you know,” Key snickered. “Because you will be ours.”“And it’s not like we have none of your names, either,” Normal said. “Isn’t that right, Ares ?”Magic crackled in the air as the name was spoken. Ares shuddered uncontrollably, eyes glazing over. Normal tsked.“That just won’t do. Give us your and your friends' full names, Ares. ”“No!” Wasp yelled. Ares’ mouth moved robotically.“ Ares Moreau, Venus Moreau, Wasp, Vandacea Anēmalya. ”Genki and Jade gleefully watched as the fae - Shini, Shadow, Amoura and Leyr - took one human for each of them. They observed their memories get taken, forever lost, and watched the group be put to sleep. Tomorrow, Dave would be slaughtered in celebration, and they would feast. One year from now, they would wake up, but like Genki and Jade did - not quite human, not yet quite fae. The process itself would take a long time. But, if there was one thing the fae had, it was time. And now, dear reader, it is time for you to make the first choice. In the next chapter, one of your characters will notice something. Their reaction is what could cause your characters a lot more pain, or possibly spare them from losing their minds. What does this mean? I won't tell you. Make your choice, dear reader: Which of the characters would you deem fit to notice and warn the other characters- or perhaps push them further toward their demise?