In which Cass is the anonest anon that ever anon'd

Jonah!Martin/Jon, with 'Martin' becoming the new Head of the Institute? >w>

It’s not a surprise to anyone when Martin Blackwood is the next Head of the Magnus Institute. Well, except to Tom, but Tom is an outlier and only heard about the murder six months after the fact and didn’t even realise they had a new boss. To anyone else, it has been obvious for a year already that the Lukas guy wasn’t really doing much of anything and Blackwood was the one actually sending the memos and signing the forms, behind his PA title. Which is fine! He was good at it. At this point, all that’s asked of a Head Director is not too much murder and if possible preventing any external attack on the Institute, either. Martin smiled benignly and said he can’t promise the latter but he’ll do his best for the former. Which, you know, is better than when Lukas was in charge and he claimed the opposite.

So no one’s surprised when Martin actually gets to officially put his name on the plaque of the Head Director office door (not even Tom, who hasn’t seen it).

And it isn’t surprising, either, that the Head Archivist is more often in his office than not, and neither is the shouting. He’s always been an HR nightmare with belligerence issues towards hierarchy. Rosie says this is happening more often than it did in the time of Elias, as best as she can tell because he’s never learned to book appointments, but hey, that’s only fair, he and Blackwood have always been close.

God, the horror stories about Sims as a boss, can you imagine getting to be his boss now?

It’s not surprising, either, that Blackwood is never heard shouting back. Always had the patience of a saint, Martin. He’s even learned to ease up a bit, seems like: all of Sims’ shouting doesn’t seem to be able to take down Blackwood’s light-hearted smile.

And the only thing surprising about them being seen snogging in a corridor is that Martin was the one doing the pinning. Sonja refuses to pay up the fifty pounds she owes Noor, says it’s got to be an exception, insists that they’ll catch Sims on top. So far the exception has happened three times to general knowledge, but sure, Sonja.

No, there’s nothing actually surprising about Martin Blackwood grabbing Sims by the scruff of his collar and kissing him long and deep against a wall. They’ve always been close, after all, and the door of Martin’s closet has been see-through for the last decade.

It’s just. A bit disturbing, is all. The betting pool had loads of options but everyone was agreed on the assumption that it’d be difficult to know, when (if! Stoker used to insist) it eventually happened, because Sims is such a secretive tight-arse and Martin such a nervous wreck that they would definitely keep it on the down-low. Martin being in charge is one thing, his being this — confident? cocky? preening?, is another.

That’s what directorship does to you, philosophises Kala from HR. Actually, shouldn’t that be grounds for sexual harassment, notes new girl who replaced Hannah whose name no one remembers but isn’t it Ashley or something? No, because Sims hasn’t filed a complaint, pipes in Sonja, probably because he’s the one in charge of this relationship, blah, blah, God, Sonja, just let it go and cough up the fifty pounds.

Martin’s changed, sure. It’s not necessarily a bad thing, especially when it involves this sort of promotion. In fact, there’s a general agreement that he’s looking pretty cute now that he’s taken to wearing nice suits and ditched the nerdy glasses. He might be wearing coloured contacts? It’s a nice touch, makes him look sharper, very professional.

Sims is a lucky guy, really has no business looking so shattered when Rosie congratulates him on the boyfriend. God, some people are just never happy with what they get.

“That’s not,” he tries, at which Rosie gets a pass for rolling her eyes in his face, because, three times, pal. “Never mind. Please, Rosie, tell J— Mister Blackwood that he can shove his assignment up his arse.”

“Uhh, tell him yourself. Please don’t involve me in your private life.” Except for Sonja, they’ve all already seen quite enough of it, thank you.

“Jonathan,” says Mister B. from his door, very gently. Rosie’s eyelashes flutter, also understandably, she’s quite forgiven. Martin’s changed all right. Is your voice turning into velvet also a side-effect of directorship? “Jon. Please, let’s not make a scene.”

Sims inhales and looks up at him, glaring  (smouldering, Sonja will insist later) through his eyelashes. Martin just smiles, the sweet, slightly awkward smile but with the nerves taken out and replaced by slightly patronising charm, get a grip, Rosie.

Sims doesn’t swoon.

No, what Sims does is drop the bombshell of: “I’m getting him back,” to which Mister B. replies mildly, silk whispering over steel: “And when you’re done being a child, I’ll be waiting,” and who the fuck is that about?

Sounds like it’s time for Ashley-or-whatever to go find a jar for the new office betting pool.

ALSO how is prefect!Alan these days, with the recent events from XY&Z? :w (Did he still walk on DADA teacher!Lys and Magical Caretaking!Platane sometimes.)

(AHAHAHA……….DOES THE TRIWIZARD TOURNAMENT SOUND LIKE A LEAGUE EQUIVALENT TO YOU?)

“Don’t worry, he’s still breathing,” professor Lysandre says.

Relief bowls Alan over and fills his head with fog; he leans on the ivy wall for balance, finds his own breath again, and it takes him a moment to realize that the professor has not approached Ash’s body, is not doing anything to help either of them calm down, has no reason to be here at the centre of the maze at all. 

The clouds in his brain part.

“It was you,” he says, with fang-sharp clarity. “You put my name in the Goblet of Fire.”

Professor Lysandre smiles. “You honoured my expectations. I only had to help you a little to find those Mega Evolution stones, and you figured out how to use them yourself. I did not expect you to win the first task.”

That’s a punch in Alan’s gut.

Professor Lysandre is the reason why Ash is lying on the ground right now, why Mairin has been in the infirmary for weeks, why Steven’s boyfriend’s almost drowned in the lake, why Alan went through all these insanely dangerous tasks — that hurts, that’s impossible to believe, to accept, but it’s not a slap in the face as much as the thought that the person who did all that is also the one who gave him Charizard’s help back then.

He’s shaking.

“Does professor Sycamore know?”

“Oh, dear, no. Although his knowledge was a lot of help as well. Look,” he says, and Alan recognizes the small crumpled items he takes out of his pocket instantly: the professor’s Garchomp’s torn-off fin, his Charizard’s broken claw.

“Did you know the ritual to awaken the Great Earth Dragon requires the pain of other dragons?”

The ground shakes under Alan’s feet — splits, and the professor smiles.

Fleurdelys + Alan - Hannibal AU ('First Kill')

“Is this not beautiful?” the director whispers.

Alan’s hands are shaking so much it’s sending more splatters of blood on his pants. His throat is clogged up with the bile, with a scream, with a knot, with his stomach trying to hurl itself out of his mouth and his teeth are chattering but clamped together so hard he doesn’t remember how to loosen his jaw, but he wants to say, No, wants to say, It’s the ugliest thing in the world, wants to say, I didn’t mean to, I don’t, I’m not —

(A hysterical, merciless part of his brain is also reminding him, So what? you’ve eaten that before.)

But the director’s eyes are clear and bright, striking light blue contrasting with the red covering his face, and he is beautiful.

Alan + Manon - that Essentia!AU (consequences of 'I can't get stronger with your around', yada yada >>)

She twirls the helmet between her hands, trying to think about this, trying to hesitate, trying to be a sensible and mature girl, but she knows she has already made her decision.

Just to be sure, she asks: “This’ll help?”

“It will make you stronger,” uncle Xerosic promises with a warm smile.

—

“Has Manon-kun visited lately?” the professor asks, concerned.

She hasn’t; Alan can’t blame her.

“I hope she’s fine, there have been a lot of random attacks and Pokémon thefts in the city recently…”

—

She wakes up even more tired than when she went to sleep, and her limbs ache, and her head is empty or full of cotton, and Hari-san is looking worried

but uncle Xerosic says she did great, and the suit is working, and she gave him a lot of data, and she’s a good trainer, a good battler

and she helped.

—

“I know who the thief is,” Pachira says, and then, for some unfathomable reason, she looks at Alan, her sharp smile blunted, embittered. “Someone’s learned from you, kid.”

She doesn’t even need to say one more word for the words, his words in Manon’s voice, to echo in Alan’s mind: I’ll become strong.

—

if I’m with you, Alan, I can become stronger

but if being with Alan is dangerous, and if Alan can’t be strong with us there, then

if I become stronger, Alan, I can be with you

—

He’ll be ashamed of this weakness later, but at the moment, shocked, dazed, grieving because something of Manon has been lost, he lets the whisper escape his lips: “I deserve this, don’t I.”

“Oh Arceus,” Pachira exclaims, rolling her eyes, “boy, this isn’t about you. That girl went to old Xerosic for herself.”

—

It’s only when Alan sees the mysterious thief with his own eyes and recognizes that silhouette for himself, that tuft of messy red hair peeking out of that helmet, that he realizes he got it wrong (again) (of course): she does still care about him.

The thing is he did learn, he’s understood that he had to stop taking on all the burdens on himself, had to stop pushing people away to try to protect them — and Manon knew that, Manon was always smarter than that, but he hasn’t exactly given her a lot of other options, has he.

The professor keeps saying Alan is free and safe now, that his past doesn’t matter, but that’s not true, when it keeps catching up to him and it continues to hurt the ones precious to him.

—

I want to protect you, too

if I’m strong, will you let me?

—

She beats him up and steals Lizardon’s Monster Ball.

Hari-san cries and squeaks at her until she snaps back to consciousness.

Xerosic, unbelievably, repents and lets himself be taken into custody and leaves her the suit and his team of Pokémon. Pachira is satisfied and somehow still not arrested nor fired from anywhere.

Manon and Alan both need a thousand more hugs, but this one is a good start.