Trash Panda

Practically Spellbound [Casually Insane + Summer]

Paxton nodded as Mirajane explained that she would prefer to stay outside of her lamp house while she could. Apparently it wasn’t as great of a place as he had thought it was, but if she didn’t like living in it, why did she seem so annoyed when he summoned her? The genie’s actions seemed to contradict what she said. If the inside of the lamp really was such a dark and dull place, he would have expected her to be rejoicing that she was free again, not wrinkling her nose whenever her new master said a word to her.

“Now, I shall return in a moment.” Mirajane said. “Simply alert me if you require my attention.” With that, she ascended right through the roof of Paxton’s bedroom. He opened his mouth to call after her, initially jumping to the conclusion that she was ditching him to run away, and then closed it again when he caught sight of the vaporous trail that followed after the genie. He had forgotten: She was still bound to the lamp and couldn’t leave even if she wanted to. Now that he thought about it, maybe that was why she was so bitter. In a sense, Mirajane was a slave to whoever picked up the lamp. That was a sad existence. He made a mental note to be nicer to her in the future.

With the genie gone, Paxton got up from his bed and walked down to the bathroom across the hallway. He looked into the mirror and frowned at the reflection that stared back at him. He looked exactly the same as before: messy black hair, wide rimmed glass perched on the bridge of his nose, and a noticeably pathetic lack of muscles. He had been gypped after all.

Paxton marched irritably back to his room. Mirajane had said to alert her if he wanted anything, but she had conveniently forgotten to mention how he could do that. He sighed and flopped down on his bed, staring at the trail of smoke that led up through the roof of his bedroom. He would just have to wait until she came back.

Stand Alone(Summers and AHeartlessNobody)

The combination of working in the fields all day and spending a night with Cassie left Serix tired enough to sleep soundly until morning, and even then he was still so far gone that he didn’t notice when she shifted beside him and sat up. He only awoke when Cassie pounced unexpectedly on his chest, startling him out of unconsciousness. She then proceeded to situate herself on top of him, pinning him so that he couldn’t get up, and leaned down to kiss him.

“Time to wake up, sleepy head,” she said teasingly. “If you don’t get up soon someone’s going to come in here and then instead of being woken up by me, you’ll be woken up by them, and you don’t want that, now do you?”

“You want me to get up?” Serix raised a brow at her. “Well, fine.” He quickly pushed her off of him and rolled over so that he was sitting on top of her, although he was careful not to put all of his weight on her. He grinned at her playfully and leaned down to kiss her on the tip of her nose, “I win.” With that, he got up and held out a hand to help her to her feet. Once she was up, he threw on a shirt and a pair of shoes —he had already put on a pair of pants last night in case one of the humans walked in on them in the morning— and held the curtain door aside.

“After you,” Serix said, waving a hand for Cassie to step through first. He had to admit; he was in a better mood now that they had worked out their differences and spent a much-needed night together. Hunter and Ryan would have a hard time provoking him to fight with them today. He felt like he could handle any kind of taunts they threw at him—so long as they didn’t get violent, of course. He would still defend himself if either of them attacked him first. He just hoped it wouldn’t have to come to that.

Serix smiled down at Cassie and rested a hand on the small of her back as they walked to the dining hall together to get breakfast.

Google Picture War

Practically Spellbound [Casually Insane + Summer]

Paxton wasn’t sure he liked the expression on Mirajane’s face when she granted his wish… or when she claimed to grant his wish. There was a showy puff of smoke and even some festive confetti, but he didn’t feel any different. He was still as lanky and unmuscular as before, and he definitely didn’t feel like he could beat anyone in a game of table tennis, let alone a physically demanding sport like lacrosse. He looked up at the genie skeptically. Had she tricked him? It was true that she didn’t seem particularly happy to serve him, but that was her job, wasn’t it? As a genie, she was supposed to grant the wishes of the person who found her lamp. That was how it worked in all of the storybooks, so maybe the lack of a revelation was just part of the magic.

“Care to go see it for yourself?” Mirajane asked.

“Well, yeah,” Paxton said, glancing at the digital clock on his desk. “But it’s almost six o’clock. By the time I get back to the school, practice will be over. I’ll just have to wait until tomorrow.” He got up from his desk chair and moved to sit more comfortably on his bed. “Earth must be pretty boring for you compared to a magical lamp, but if you’re not in a hurry, I think I’ll hold off on those other two wishes. I want to see how this one turns out first.” What he didn’t say was that he wanted to see if the first wish would be enough to win Emily over. If it was, then he could use the other two for more personal things; but if it wasn’t, then he would have to use the next one to try another angle at stealing Emily’s heart.

“So,” Paxton said, looking up at the floating genie on his desk. “Do you go back in there until I call you again, or what?” He pointed at the lamp to indicate what he was talking about.

Practically Spellbound [Casually Insane + Summer]

“No,” Paxton mumbled. “No more questions.” His first one seemed to have already irritated the genie. Typical. He couldn’t say three words to a girl without offending her somehow. Though, he supposed she probably got asked that question a lot. Who wouldn’t want more wishes if one had the opportunity to have them? Not that he was ungrateful for the three that the girl was willing to bestow upon him. Being able to change anything about his life was a dream come true. Now, if only he could just stop wasting time and think of something to ask for.

Of course, the first request to pop into his mind was for the genie to make Emily White love him, but she had already said she couldn’t do that. Still, that was what he wanted, so he just had to find a way to get around the rule. What else could he wish for that would indirectly make Emily like him? She had a thing for jocks, so maybe he could try wishing to be the star player on the lacrosse team. If that didn’t work, he still had two more wishes that he could use to try other methods of winning her over. Besides, even if none of the wishes landed him with Emily, he would still be better off than he was before: popular and sporty, just like Zach. He nodded to himself. It wasn’t a bad plan.

“Okay,” Paxton looked up at Mirajane, finally deciding on his first request. Now, he just had to cross his fingers and hope it would be enough to win a date with Emily. “I wish I was the best player on my school’s lacrosse team.”

Stand Alone(Summers and AHeartlessNobody)

Serix grinned when Cassie finally gave in and turned around. Instead of speaking, however, she rested her forehead against his and he felt her open a link between their minds, sending her emotions for him flowing across it. Annoyance, fear, worry, and love all poured through the short connection until she closed it off again. Afterwards, she leaned in to press her lips against his, and they kissed as passionately as they had on the day they were mated together. He exhaled softly when they parted, savoring their rekindled closeness.

“Serix... please,” Cassie said quietly. “I asked you this before, but please listen this time. Don’t get into any more fights. I don’t want you getting thrown into the hold. I want you here with me, safe and sound.” She kissed his neck this time, and he sighed at her touch. “I love you. And I don’t want to lose you.”

“I love you, too,” Serix murmured, running a hand down the length of her side and resting it on her waist. “I promise I’ll try harder to stop fighting. There’s nothing I can do if someone attacks me first, but I’ll stop provoking them to do it.” He hoped she could hear the sincerity in his voice. He really did want to stop getting into fights with humans like Ryan and Hunter. It was just making everyone around him miserable, Cassie especially so, and he wanted to stop disappointing her.

Serix met her lips again and closed his eyes. For a moment, he could imagine that they were back in their old hideout, far away from both the pressure of the humans and the danger of the Lunairans. For a moment, they were safe in their own little world again where they only had each other. For a moment, everything was right. He slowly pulled away again and met Cassie’s eyes, smiling at her mischievously, “So, how about we work on having that baby?”

Stand Alone(Summers and AHeartlessNobody)

Serix averted his gaze when Cassie glared at him and Ryan. Now that he was calm again, he could see just how badly he had messed up this time. He had stepped within inches of getting locked up for fighting. In his anger, he had forgotten what being separated would do to both of them. It had been selfish of him to bring that risk back to the surface and waste all of their hard work to get the half-bloods to accept him. Even if Ryan had provoked him, he shouldn’t have let the human get the better of him like that.

Cassie whirled on Ryan first, chiding him for his immaturity, but then she turned on Serix with just as much ferocity. He winced at the distress in her voice when she brought up the hold. She was far more upset than she had ever been with him before, and he hated it. He wished he could turn back the clock and stop himself from getting into that fight with Ryan. It had been pointless and only served to hurt them both in the end.

Cassie paced between them for a moment and then stopped, “You know what? This is what I’m going to do. I’m not talking to either of you. Not until I see you two getting along. Not a single word. No ifs, ands, or buts. If you two can act civilized by the end of tomorrow, then I might consider it. If not, heh, well then I guess it’s going to be pretty quiet between us, now isn’t it?” She crossed her arms. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m heading to bed. This is the last you’ll hear from me until I see a change. Goodnight, gentlemen.”

Serix stared after Cassie in dismay as she spun around and walked away from them. She was really mad if she was willing to pull a move like that. He had to force himself not to chase after her. He would probably only make things worse if he tried to plead with her now. So instead, he turned to take his own frustrations out on Ryan. They glared at each other for a moment and then sighed in unison. There was no point in feeding the flames of their battle after they had both just lost the prize.

“Look,” Serix said, holding out his hand to Ryan in the human gesture. “This doesn’t mean I like you, but I want to talk to my mate. Truce?”

“Truce,” Ryan said, reluctantly taking his hand. “But I’m not going to stop trying to get her back because of this. I can’t let an alien walk away with the love of my life.”

“The same goes for me,” Serix broke out in a grin. With that, the two shook hands and parted ways.

Serix returned to his bedroom, where Cassie had already lain down to go to sleep. He smiled and crept into the room, quietly shutting the curtain behind him, and slipped into bed with her, wrapping his arms around her middle while her back was to him. He pulled her close to himself and whispered in her ear, “Come on, Cassie. We both know you can’t stay mad at me forever.” He kissed her gently on the neck. “You were the one who wanted to have a kid here. That can’t happen if you’re going to ignore me like this.” He kissed her again and buried his face into her neck, his voice muffled against her skin, “Please?”

Practically Spellbound [Casually Insane + Summer]

“Whoa,” Paxton nearly fell out of his chair when the lamp started spewing a purple gas. His first thought was that he had somehow accidently released a hidden toxin from inside of it. But that didn’t make sense. He hadn’t knocked it around that much, and he definitely hadn’t opened it. His second thought was even less rational than the first: What if someone switched the price tag out and the lamp had cost more than twenty-five dollars and this purple vapor was the resulting curse from not paying enough for it when he left the shop? He shook his head. Ridiculous. Curses didn’t exist… But if it wasn’t a curse, then what was this strange gas?

Suddenly, the purple vapor began to take shape. Paxton gaped in bewilderment as it turned into… a girl. He closed his mouth and shook his head. This was crazy. He had to be dreaming. Genies didn’t exist; they were just mythical beings from fairytales and old movies. There was no way he could have stumbled across one in real life. He pinched the back of his hand and winced. Nope, this wasn’t a dream. There really was a legless belly dancer in his bedroom.

“Greetings,” the girl bowed to him. “I am Mirajane, Genie of this lamp. And you, young boy, are my—” She suddenly broke into a fit of coughing. Paxton’s eyes widened in disbelief as she summoned a glass of water from out of nowhere and drank it down. “Bleh... Well, that was fun. Alright, kid, let’s try again. I am Mirajane, and you are now my master. So, long story short, you get three wishes. What do you want?”

Three wishes? It was just like the storybooks Paxton had read as a child. He wondered if he could wish for more wishes, but wasn’t there a rule against that or something? Were there any other rules he needed to know about? He hadn’t heard of other rules in the books and movies, but maybe genies were different in real life. Man, he never expected that he would ever think about questions like these. It was all still so surreal.

Paxton blinked, realizing that the genie girl was still waiting for him to respond, “Uh, hi.” There he went again, springing those lady-killing one-liners. He cleared his throat, “So… you’re a genie.” Way to go, Captain Obvious. His mind reeled as he searched in vain for something to say. Would it be better to ask for something small as a warm-up wish? But he only had three wishes, so that would just waste one of them. He could usually make a list of all the things he would change about his life. Why was it so hard to think of those same things when he could actually do something about them?

“Um…” Paxton said, stalling for time. “This is probably a stupid question, but can I wish for more wishes?”

Stand Alone(Summers and AHeartlessNobody)

Serix moved to his position at the upward-center of his team’s side of the rectangle and watched the others do the same. The young human, Charlie, joined him in midfield along with Quincy. Wes and Ray stayed back by the goal box on defense, and Sarah and Monty stood at the center line as forwards. Jacob stayed at the far back to defend the goal. On the other side, Ryan and Hunter started at the center line as forwards; Cassie, Gunner, and Jerry were midfielders; Ron and Connor were defenders; and Sally was the goalie.

“Okay,” Quincy said, getting Serix’s attention one more time. “For this game, I’ll be the playmaker, Charlie will be the holding mid, and you’ll be the box-to-box.” He laughed when Serix just gave him a confused look. “There’re individual roles within defense, mid, and forward. You see, Wes is left back and Ray is right back in defense, meaning they each only cover half of the field on our side. For our forwards, Monty is the striker and Sarah is the withdrawn-striker, meaning that Monty takes most of the shots at the goal, while she acts as a decoy. They can also signal to each other to switch if Sarah has an opportunity to shoot, and Monty can act as the decoy instead. Midfield is a little more complicated. Charlie is the holding mid, which means that he mostly stays behind the center line to stop the ball before it gets to our defense. As the playmaker, I lead most of our tactical advances and formations. And as the box-to-box mid, you help keep the ball off of our side of the field and give the strikers opportunities to shoot.” He slapped Serix on the shoulder and grinned. “Don’t worry. If you ever get confused, just pass the ball to me and I’ll get it where it needs to go.”

“Don’t expect me to pass it to you every time,” Serix said, returning Quincy’s grin. “This game is actually pretty similar to a military exercise I did back on my people’s ship. I think I’ll pick it up quickly enough.”

“That’s some big talk for a noob,” Quincy whistled. “Alright then, let’s see what you’ve got.” He turned back to face the other team as Ryan kicked the ball to Hunter, starting the game. A flurry of movement ensued as everyone began repositioning themselves to play their parts in the game. Serix recalled what Quincy said about his role. He was to keep the ball off of his team’s side and give it to the strikers when he had the chance. So, when Hunter and Ryan started to pass the ball back and forth and carry it onto Jacob’s half, Serix and Charlie were there to counter them.

Charlie blocked Hunter off so Ryan couldn’t pass back, and Serix swept out a foot to steal the ball away from him. The plan was perfect in Serix’s mind, but he didn’t take into account the amount of force —or the lack thereof— he needed to use to actually take the ball. So when he kicked it out from under Ryan’s feet, it sailed right out of the boundaries. This amused Quincy to no end.

“Impressive power,” the human laughed. “But you need to work on control. Soccer’s not about how hard you can kick; it’s about how accurately you can play. Keep that in mind, okay newbie?”

“Uh, right,” Serix said, following the ball with his eyes as it bounced far outside of the painted rectangle.

Jerry went to fetch the ball and the players rearranged themselves yet again. The red-haired human threw the ball back in and the game continued. As it went on, Serix began to pick up techniques from the other, more skilled players. He went from making constant blunders to being able to steal the ball almost effortlessly whenever a member of the opposite team tried to slip past him. His rapid improvement seemed to frustrate Ryan above all the others on his team. Serix would slip the ball right out from under him every time he tried to get by until, finally, Ryan couldn’t stand it any longer.

The next time he had the ball, Ryan crossed onto Jacob’s half of the in-zone as usual, but this time when Serix moved to stop him, the human shoved him aside and kept going. Serix stumbled and stared after him, wide eyed. No one else seemed to notice— well, either that or they didn’t care.

Ryan managed to slip past the defenders and score a goal. On his way back to his own side, Serix stepped in front of him, “Hang on. That doesn’t count.”

“What do you mean?” Ryan narrowed his eyes. “Don’t be a sore loser, alien.”

“You know what I mean,” Serix glared back at him. “I’m pretty sure there’s a rule against shoving people like that.”

“Well, it’s a good thing I didn’t shove a person, then,” Ryan spat.

“Wanna say that again?” Serix snarled, stepping closer to the human.

“Of course,” Ryan smiled coldly. “I didn’t shove a person, I just moved an obstacle.”

“You make it sound so easy. Why can’t you move the same obstacle when you’re trying to get to Cassie, huh? You seem to have a much harder time of doing that. I guess she’s not as important to you as a recreational game.”

“You little bastard,” Ryan grabbed Serix by the front of his shirt, pulling him so that they were nose-to-nose. Serix did the same, catching Ryan’s shirt in his hand so that they both had each other pinned. In the next instant, he felt a set of arms hook him beneath the shoulders and rip him away from the human. He craned his neck around to see Jacob dragging him back while Quincy was doing the same with Ryan.

“Break it up, you two,” Jacob growled, and then muttered more quietly in Serix’s ear: “That’s twice in two days. You’re walking on thin ice now, so I suggest you shape up.” Serix stopped thrashing at the unspoken threat in the human’s tone. If he messed up one more time, he would land himself in the hold. He swallowed his anger and forced himself to relax. Jacob let him go.

“Game’s over, anyways,” Quincy said, releasing Ryan from his grasp. He turned to the other humans, who were watching the scene. “Come on, guys, it’s getting late. Let’s go to bed.” He herded the reluctant group towards the tunnel and glanced back over his shoulder to nod at Jacob. The latter nodded back at him and turned to face Ryan and Serix, his arms crossed over his chest.

“I don’t know what’s going on between you guys,” Jacob said angrily. “But you need to get it sorted out. Ryan, you’re supposed to be the leader here, for Christ’s sake! Get this mess fixed. I’ll see you both in the morning.” With that, he turned and followed the others out through the tunnel, leaving Serix, Ryan, and Cassie behind.

Stand Alone(Summers and AHeartlessNobody)

Serix spun around when he heard a low growl behind him. A new human had joined the group and with him was a large brown-and-black dog. The animal had its hackles raised and its head low. It bared its fangs at him hostilely. He tensed, ready to jump to his feet if the dog moved to attack him, but the human held up a hand and it relaxed, keeping its eyes trained on him but ceasing to snarl. He stared back at it, unwilling to look away in case it was still waiting for an opportunity to jump at him.

“I’m Samuel,” the new human introduced himself. “But everyone calls me Gunner.”

“Can you get your dog to back off some?” Serix said without looking away from the animal.

“Hmm, don’t think so,” the human called Gunner replied. “He’s trained to sniff out Lunairans. He’s not gonna let you outta his sight now, but don’t worry, he won’t hurt you as long as I don’t give the order.”

“Isn’t that reassuring?” Serix muttered, reluctantly turning away from the dog as another human came over to join them. He remembered this one to be Quincy, the male who woke him and Cassie up that morning.

“Hey, guys,” Quincy said. “Don’t forget, later tonight we’re having recreation. I was thinking soccer.”

Serix wondered what this “soccer” was. From context, it sounded like some sort of human activity, but Cassie had never mentioned it to him before. He listened quietly as the others went on to discuss it and Jerry turned to ask them if they were ‘up for a game.’

“I haven’t played that since I was a kid in school,” Cassie said with a smile. “But sure. Why not?”

“What’s soccer?” Serix asked.

The humans laughed and Quincy answered him, “Oh, you’ll see.” Serix frowned at the vague response, but didn’t press him. He doubted the human would explain more even if he tried.

After dinner, the group headed down to a large, spacious cavern where the other humans had already gathered. The floor was covered in strange painted markings and there were two big, netted boxes at either end of the room. Emily and Victoria went to sit off to the side with a young, light-haired female Serix hadn’t seen before, while the others joined a group of humans that were standing towards the middle of the cavern. Ryan and Jacob stood apart from the others with their arms crossed.

“Is this everyone?” Jacob asked.

“Think so,” Ryan replied. His eyes fell on Serix and he looked like he was about to add something else, but he just said: “With the addition of Cassie and the alien, there’re sixteen players. Do you want to choose first, Jake?”

“Sure,” the other male waved a hand at Quincy. “This was your idea, so I’ll take you on my team.” Quincy grinned and stepped over to join Jacob. Serix made the connection that Ryan and Jacob were the leaders in this game, and they were picking members to join their individual teams. He glanced at Ryan, easily predicting who the human was going to choose first for his group.

“Castiel,” Ryan said with a smile. “You’re with me.”

Serix squeezed his mate’s hand and gave her a quick peck on the cheek, “Knowing him, I can already guess we’re going to be on opposite sides, huh? Good luck, Cassie.” He glanced at Ryan. He wasn’t going to let the human keep riling him up over every little irritating thing he did.

“Good sportsmanship,” Jacob nodded. “I’ll take the Lunairan.” A few of the humans turned to him in surprise. Like Serix, they had probably been expecting him to be picked last. He hesitated for a moment, and then went to join Jacob’s side with Quincy.

Ryan and Jacob went on to choose the rest of their teams. By the end, Ryan had claimed Cassie, Connor, Jerry, Hunter, Gunner, Sally, and a male named Ron that Serix recognized as one of the humans who had been encouraging his fight with Hunter the day before. On the other team, Jacob claimed Serix, Quincy, Monty, Sarah, Ray, Charlie, and a male named Wes that Serix had only seen in passing. With the two sides equally divided, the leaders took their teams to opposite boxes at the ends of the cavern.

Serix caught up to Quincy as they walked to their side, “So, can I know what soccer is now, or do you expect me to start out blind?”

“Okay, okay,” Quincy laughed. “Because you’re on my team and it would be a pain in the ass for you to be clueless, I’ll fill you in.” He pointed across the room at the netted box. “That’s the target, see? The object of the game is to get the ball into that goal and keep it out of ours. You can hit the ball with any part of your body except for your hands and arms.” He gestured at the markings on the ground. “The lines on the outside are the boundaries. You can’t play outside of the giant rectangle we’re standing in. That middle line marks the division between our side and Ryan’s side, and the square around the goal is called the ‘goal box.’ You’re not allowed to go inside it unless the ball is in there or you’re the goalie, the person defending the goal. The other lines aren’t as important, so I’ll let you figure them out as we go.” He paused, thinking. “If the ball goes out-of-bounds, the team that didn’t kick it there gets to throw it back in. That’s the only time you’re allowed to use your hands if you’re not a goalie. Oh, and there’s three main positions: defense, midfield, and forward. Defense mostly stays on this side of the field to help the goalie, forwards are the people who go on offense and try to get the ball into the other team’s goal, and midfield is like backup for everyone. Since you’re new, I think we’ll start you on mid so you can get an idea of how this whole thing works.” He grinned. “So, do you think you followed all that?”

“Um, sort of,” Serix admitted. “It’s a lot to learn all at once. I think I’ll figure it out when we get started, though.”

“Good,” Quincy nodded. “Because I’m not explaining it again.” He turned to Jacob, who had taken up the goalie position. “We good to go, Jake?”

“Yeah,” Jacob nodded and called across the cave to Ryan. “We’re all good over here. You can kickoff.”