Hey Descendents Fam,

We got a request for another update and couldn't refuse. Boop.

Enjoy :)


Meanwhile...

"How can we claim to be rotten to the core if we can't even figure this kid the fuck out?" Mal growls deep in her throat and slams her hands against the rickety bookcase where she stores her paint cans.

Carlos swallows a groan. Not this again. He resists the urge to let his head hit the table. Mal had been on this kick for weeks now. He had no idea that T's shadowy past would bother her so much. He knew that if she ever found out he knew T couldn't read, and didn't tell her, he'd be dog bait… But still he couldn't bring himself to betray T in such a way. Not with the way he so diligently showed up to learn. He'd really grown to like T since then and was secretly proud of himself for having the patience to teach someone else how to do something. With every new word T learned to read the feeling seemed to grow too. He'd hate to lose that over something as petty as Mal being one upped, by just one person.

Jay sighs, "Look Mal, all I know is I end up following the kid into the red light district. A lot." He shrugs and leans back against the wall, " And it's weird that when he's going into the district I always lose him.

"Why's that weird?" Evie furrows her brow, but quickly stops herself and runs her fingers lightly over her face as if searching for wrinkles. "I never go over there anymore. Not only is it dangerous for beautiful people, but it's so full of tents and holes in the walls." She winces, "Not to mention filthy, but that seems like a good place to lose a tail if you're being followed."

"Maybe," Jay runs a hand over his jaw, "But T lets me know when he catches me following him. Since he hasn't done that over there, I'm thinking he lives… or stays there… Somewhere."

Carlos eyes narrow. He was pretty sure now, as much as T claimed otherwise, that he belonged to someone. "He has told me he's a whore's kid…" He offers hesitantly, he didn't like digging into things that people went so out of their way to hide. No way T's past would uncover anything of use to Mal, besides blackmailing purposes… But the only person that would hurt in the end was their relationship with T.

Mal snaps her head to stare Carlos down, "And this is the first time you thought to fucking mention that little conversational tidbit?"

Carlos flinches, ducking his head from her volume alone. "I-uh-I-"

"He's told me he was a urchin too." Evie quickly jumps in. "I didn't think that would be useful though…" She blinks prettily.

"Same." Jay raises one hand. "There's no guarantee that anything he's told us about himself is even true. If you want rumors, we don't really have enough time in a day to gather those." He shrugs and crosses his arms back over his chest, "Besides, most people don't even know who the ghost or shadow of the isle is. If we have a hard time finding him, how many people do you think actually notice him?"

Mal narrows her eyes suspiciously as she takes a hard look around the room. "Don't the three of you hang out with this fuck?" She accuses.

"I wish." Evie sighs dreamily.

"We don't really talk much, unless it's technique." Jay admits sheepishly.

Carlos looks away, doing his best to keep from fidgeting under Mal's glare. "T kinda comes and goes as he pleases…"

Mal throws her hands in the air, "Of-Fucking-Course.." She stomps towards an empty patch of wall, but pauses. "That might explain why he's so good with the tiny street urchins though."

Evie does her best to hide her smile. "The street urchins?"

"Don't get your panties so wet E." Mal rolls her eyes, "But yeah," She continues disdain clear in her voice, "Kid gets mobbed without the robbed."

Carlos lifts a brow. If he didn't know any better, he would say that Mal almost sounded jealous of that. Not that he would ever have the balls to call her on it. And what a weird thing for her to be envious over. Mal hated attention, unless it was for doing something wicked. Weird for her to care that the street urchins that ran away from her didn't with T.

"Oh." Evie's mouth creates a perfect circle, as she looks down, away from Mal.

Mal clenches her jaw as she lifts her hand to pinch the bridge of her nose. "So let me get this straight... All we fucking have on this kid is that he may or may not live in the red light district, may or may not have parents, likes to stalk, hates bullies, and is probably the reason we all get yelled at every time we go near Principal Facilier's garden."

Evie frowns, "Wait… Has anyone else ever seen T eat?"

Jay shakes his head.

"Yeah?" Carlos says slowly before his eyes brighten "Huh, good call-" He turns to Evie, "It is kinda weird. He like… He eats like you." Damn. He should have mentioned that sooner.

Mal's brow lifts,"He… Eats like E?" She asks quizzically as if trying to mentally picture it as she said it.

"Yes," Evie turns a delicate smile on Mal, "T is extremely well mannered." Her eyes shift from Mal to Jay as her smile widens, "He definitely puts Jay's table manners to shame."

Jay coughs, but Carlos would have put so much money on it actually covering a snort. He shoots Jay a weird look, half wondering if Jay liked getting glared at.

"Something to add Jay?" Mal demands with a glare.

"Sorry I don't meet E's standard is all." Jay holds up his hands quickly in defense.

"You should be." Evie nods, "But it's fine, one can always learn."

Mal crosses her arms over her chest before she lets out a frustrated growl. "How the fuck do we have so little?"

"Well-" Carlos starts only to stop himself.

Jay tilts his head back and forth a few times before he turns to Mal, "I think we actually have a lot, considering we had nothing a few months ago." He shrugs, "It's just a lot of things that ain't adding up."

Evie nods, "Yeah, nobody on this isle has manners as good as mine, but for a-" She curls her fingers in the air, "Street urchin to have those kinds of table manners is…" She blinks, "Well, I don't have to tell you how strange it is."

"T had years to figure out the shit he knows…" Carlos finally adds quietly. "I'm kinda with Jay on this… And you left out plants Mal. I told you before he's good with plants."

"Weird." Jay shakes his head, "How do you get good at something like that?"

"Education!" Evie exclaims, "Oh… Maybe he is an Auradonian. Good table manners, highly educated, he even enunciate words properly."

Even Carlos stares at Evie like she grew a second head.

"What the fuck would an Auradon brat be doing here unguarded and unprotected?" Mal scoffs at the idea. "And how the fuck would he have gotten here? To what point and purpose… I mean- Unless Yensid had a kid no one knows about- Which unlikely by the way- There's no way in fuck that shit is actually from there."

Carlos picks at his fingers before he dares to look up, "Um… Well, maybe we're not, you know... Looking at this the right way…"

"Well tell us what way to look at it then, genius." Mal retorts her full attention now on him.

"Right…" Carlos gulps, wishing he'd just kept his thoughts to himself, "So, knowing what we do know… What can we do to make it make sense? Like, okay, he's well mannered… Are there any high class O.V.s in the red light district? Someone"

The three look off in the distance for a moment.

"Ratcliffe?" Evie supplies, "But Percy and T-" She crinkles her nose. "There's no way those two are brothers."

"And I doubt that would explain the plant fascination." Jay adds before he falls back into thoughtful silence.

"Might just be the kid's hobbie. I doubt Mother paints." Mal plays off Jay.

"But he'd have to get books or something, right?"

"I don't know…" Carlos frowns, "To get the idea maybe-" He shrugs, "But from what I was able to discern, T figured out a lot of the properties from trial and error…"

"All the religious people are in that district." Evie points out, "And the guy that leads them."

"Oh yeah, what's that freaks name again?" Mal frowns as she crosses her arms.

"Froyo or something." Jay shrugs.

"I don't think that's right…" Evie sighs, "Not that it matters, I don't think he has any kids… Or even likes kids."

"Agreed." Mal actually shudders, "Can't see his kid hanging out with hellspawn anyway. Even Percy keeps his distance from me and Deez because we're savage abominations." She rolls her eyes, "And I doubt that would've produced whatever the fuck T is."

Carlos falls silent. But he was the kind of person who would tell someone it wasn't their place to read… That's an interesting theory. A man of the cloth, and an old one at that, would have access to lots of books. He'd have to look into it. Weren't there also rumours that some types of medicines came from the church? If it were true it would explain the books about plants and why T was into that. Hell, he'd been the one to concoct the lip gloss for Evie. It would even explain the manners. The more he thought about it, the more he found himself starting to believe that T, for whatever reason, lived at the church.

"A witch maybe?" Evie offers as she leans forward. "That would explain the plants?"

"Not all witches have manners though." Jay points out.

"And T certainly isn't my brother… And I don't think he has pink hair…"

Carlos looks up in confusion, "Why would that-"

"Mim." Mal supplies. "Duh."

"Ah" Carlos nods, "Yeah, she's kind of big on manners."

"Do any of the Sanderson Sisters have kids?" Mal asks skeptically.

"No fucking way…" Jay frowns, "What if the part about his mom being a whore wasn't a lie?" He narrows his eyes, "I know we keep thinking it's a OV, but aren't some whores like classier than others? Maybe his mom taught him manners? And the gypsies love using the plants and shit too though they tend to keep it to themselves."

"Aren't we starting to spin out here?" Carlos asks. He couldn't quite figure out what Jay said that sat weird with him, but something did. And he felt like it only went to further prove his own thoughts. This conversation, that had started so uncomfortably, had become a painful knot in his stomach. His intuition was screaming at him to stop, but his curiosity wanted to keep pushing through the warnings.

"Pup's right." Mal growls as she pushes off the wall. "We can theory shoot all we want, but that isn't getting me any closer to any real answers on this fucking kid."

"But, we'll keep it up." Jay offers.

Evie nods, "Yeah, we'll figure this out."

They turn to Carlos expectantly, "Mmhmm." He nods in agreement, unwilling to look Mal in the eye.


Hey Descendants!

Twisted here, back in the saddle, with another round of riveting questions.

What did you guys think of this chapter? Doesn't Dark do an amazing Carlos? And how do you like his leaps? Are you worried about what will happen to the C, E, and Jay if Mal ever finds out the secrets they're hiding? Are you upset they're biting their tongues? Or do you understand where they're coming from? Please for the love of Hyades let us know!

Also shout out to FC! Meant to add this sooner but you were totally spot on with T's cinnamon rolls. (Jay is for fun) He needs them. Have any of you figured out why? Tell us your theories if you got them! We want to make sure we're laying out the right clues!

And to Padfoot, thank you for always reviewing, it fuels us.