PRIDE DTAE

Instructions

TW DOWN BELOW FOR DARK THEMES AND IMPLIED DEATH BE WARNED Pan hadn't been alive very long, but they already loved existing. Of course, they had always been there in some way or another, barely conscious and without form for millennia, but for many, they had only come into being recently. Pan didn't care when exactly they were made, only that they were here now and they loved themself, and their Children. They blinked their huge yellow eye once, flapping their enormous multicolored wings. They rose into the air of the not-space, which was where they stayed when they were not watching over their Children, which happened all the time. They didn't spend much time in the not-space. Pan closed their eye, searching for a soul in their wings that was in more distress than the others. They ran three hands along the side of one wing, the other arm stretching to keep their balance. There. In the back, a feather not-yet fully formed was shivering, the usual sheen that souls radiated dull and lifeless. Pan blinked in surprise. There had been a hole there before, a gap that meant something almost too terrible to believe. How had it reformed? Pan flapped their wings once, twice, and thrust themself into the World. They made their way in search of the feather's soul. It was a solemn and terrible occasion when a feather fell out. Pan could feel the soul slip from their grasp, into the nothingness that Chaos held. It broke their heart every time. This is what happened to the feather next to the dull one. Pan soared above the skies, glamour concealing them from human eyes. They followed the light of the soul in their feather, letting it guide them to the human whose soul was in distress. Pan couldn't help feeling like he remembered this path. The feather shivered more erratically as it grew closer to its place of origin. A strange tilting feeling made its way to Pan's stomach. They knew this place. They almost fell out of the sky in their grief. This was the home of Tanya Jane. Pan hovered in the air, unsure of what to do, and still reeling from the realization of whose soul the feather felt. They could hear the screams of Tanya's parents ring loudly in their head, the yells for their son, for the Taysean James that had never existed in the first place. Pan remembered trying to make the parents see, to make them feel the pain that their daughter was feeling. Pan couldn't make them see. They remembered the five minutes Tanya had to leave the house, the furious looks on her parent's faces that had made her carefully applied mascara streak down her face with the tears. Pan remembered trying to shield her from the streets, to guide her to a safe place, but Tanya, grief stricken at the loss of her own parents, unintentionally made herself an invisible shield, so that she could block out the world, and thus hiding her from Pan's eye. Pan had searched all over the world for her. Her feather fell out within the hour. Pan sucked in air they could not breathe, and made their way to the house that had held so much hate and fear. They would not let the parents hurt any more of their Children. The feather was trembling, a barely saturated purple, that grew paler as a weight grew on Pan's chest. They released the glamour on themself as they flew to the plain grey door of the house that no longer held Tanya Jane. They could hear crying from inside. They pounded on the door with all of their arms, and when no one answered, kicked the door down (Pan was a sucker for dramatic entrances). They froze. On the carpeted floor, Paulo and Jade Rivers were sobbing, hugging an equally emotional Tanya Jane, in her frizzy wig and dangle earrings. They looked up at Pan, and Paulo and Jade attempted to scramble away, to maybe call the police on this 'monster' they saw. But Tanya knew who this was. The feather shook faster than ever, a light in Tanya's chest growing brighter and brighter. Tanya stood up, smiling slightly. She held out a hand for both of her parents, who saw from their daughter to not fear this being in their house. They flanked her on either side, looking up at the strange creature. If they were able to, Pan would have cried, or hugged Tanya, but they were not able to hold any human. Tanya held out her hand, and the feather stopped shaking immediately ,as if Tanya had placated it. "They know," Tanya reassured. "It's okay." Pan bowed their head in respect before leaving, taking off into the sky with a lifted feeling in their chest. They might've smiled. OH MY GOSH THIS TOOK ME FIVE HOURS (the drawing, not the story (which seems very rushed to me, sorry)) duisdjoijijiut hjuijp I kind of redid the hair, if that's okay? I think this is a little cleaner now? supplemental