#“look here girlfriend; this is where I did or did not maul my previous not girlfriend”

[screamingcrows]

I want Celeste and Dottore to go to Sumeru together and they're both kinda enjoying themselves. It wasn't really a pressing matter and any of the clones could've handled it, Dottore just wanted to visit with his own body (and show off some special spots to Celeste). When they return, he's a little softer to hold than before, having clearly enjoyed the cuisine of his home. Even if he doesn't outright say he'd missed it, it's obvious. His cheeks a little more full than before and his skin glowing w health after eating, sleeping well, and being out in the sun

[adatheromcomaddict]

New Family

Hi everyone! Thanks for the love on my previous post!! I promised some people that I would post again soon, so here I am! 

If you read the Jasper preference on my last post, then you would know that this one is a bit of a similar storyline to that, but it’s not a jasper x reader. 

This imagine is again from my Wattpad, so go follow me on there at the same username I have on here.

Here we go!!

******

New Family

I had recently been turned by Carlisle Cullen. (You get to figure out what it was that you got saved from, also I guess the treaty doesn't exist????)

I took the last name, since he had told me that the rest of the adopted vampires had. (Do Jasper and Rose count? Also, Bella isn't a Cullen yet, but she is still there.)

But, I was yet to meet any of them. Besides Carlisle.

He took me to the hospital to recover instead of to his house.

The burning had finally stopped. Emphasis on finally.

I had been lost in my thoughts, when Carlisle opened the door.

"Y/N."

"Hello Carlisle." I replied, sitting up in my bed.

"We're going to take you home today. That is unless you have decided not to." He explained.

"No, I want to meet everyone."

"Alright. Take your time to get ready, and then we will head home."

I did everything I needed to do, when Carlisle appeared again.

"I'm ready." I smiled. I looked in the mirror on the wall, at my bright red eyes, one last time. Carlisle hadn't taken me hunting yet.

"Okay." He smiled back.

We took the drive, which should've been longer, but thanks to his driving skills was quite short, and parked in the garage. The second we walked in the house, everyone was waiting by the door.

I looked around and saw four women. One, tall, beautiful, and blonde. The other three were just as beautiful, but were all brunettes.

Then, I kept looking, and saw three boys. One was standing next to the blonde, and was quite large. Another was standing next to the shorter, pixie-cut, one, with blonde curly hair, and the final was with the girl with the delicious smell.

So that's what being thirsty felt like.

The boy next to her tightened his grip on her waist when I thought that. Strange.

The first to introduce herself to me, was the pixie-cut girl. I didn't know what else to call her.

"Hello! I'm Alice. You must be Y/N! Carlisle has told us so much about you." She grinned widely.

So, pixie-cut was named Alice. I will remember.

"And I must say, you won't need as much help as Bella here does with your wardrobe." I turned my eyes to where she was looking, and everyone stared. If I could still blush, I would be. Very brightly.

My throat started hurting. Incredibly painful, is all I could think.

I looked away then, and the woman that was now next to Carlisle introduced herself as Esme. Carlisle had told me about her. 

Blonde was next. And her, I'm assuming, boyfriend.

"I'm Rosalie. This is my husband Emmett."

"Oh, and this is Jasper." Alice said, appearing next to him again.

"Hello." He said.

Finally, I turned my head back towards the delicious one.

"Hello, Y/N. I'm Edward, and this is my girlfriend Bella. As you may have noticed, she is still a human." He explained, slowly.

"Yes, my throat noticed too." Everyone laughed quietly, except for Bella. She just looked more frightened.

When I mentioned my throat, it started to hurt like hell. I moved my hand up to it. (Bella much?)

"Yes, we should take you hunting Y/N." Carlisle said, breaking the small silence that had happened. "Does anyone want to go with her?" He asked.

"I will!" Alice exclaimed, running to me, and linking arms.

Before I could say anything, she was pulling me through the forest.

"Carlisle most likely told you, but we don't drink humans blood." Alice said.

"Yes, I know. Animals only." I laughed.

"Good. There should be a deer somewhere nearby..." She got quiet, then kept pulling me through. "We'll start easy."

When we found the deer, we chased after it, and caught it. I carefully sunk my teeth into the deer's neck, feeling sort of bad for killing the innocent creature.

When I was done drinking, I was still thirsty, but it was good enough for now.

Alice and I ran back to the house. It had only taken us a little while. Shorter than I expected.

It was around dinner time, but we didn't need to eat.

"Welcome back Y/N." Edward said.

I smiled at him, and at Bella, when I noticed in a mirror hanging on the wall that my eyes were a lighter red now.

I sighed in relief. It was creeping me out.

"Well, why don't we sit down and we can all talk about our backstories." Alice suggested. "That way, Y/N can get to know us better."

"Sounds like a plan." Esme smiled.

We all went into the sitting room.

"Well, I've already told you my story, Y/N." Carlisle said first.

"I'll go next." Edward replied.

"Carlisle told me you had the Spanish Flu. I'm sorry... that must've been... rough." Sounded like a sensible thing to say to someone that went through that.

Edward laughed.

"Well, you may not know this, but I can read minds." He said. That explains that situation.

"Well, Y/N," Alice said next, "I was institutionalized by my family. There was a tracker, someone who also tracked Bella," I looked towards Bella, and she cringed at the memory. "And someone turned me, protecting me from him. Jasper, why don't you go next."

Alice's story was a bit more sad than Edward's.

"I was in the Confederate Army. A woman named Maria turned me. Then I met Alice." He kept his story brief.

"I lost my child to lung fever." Esme said. That was abrupt. "I attempted suicide, but Carlisle found me, and turned me. Shortly after Edward." She smiled.

"Well, I was... abused... and left to die... in the middle of the street. By my fiance and his stupid friends. Then Carlisle found me, like everyone else."

"I was mauled by a bear." Emmett laughed.

"And, I'm not a vampire yet...." Bella laughed shyly.

I knew that, thanks to my thirst.

[rodeoxqueen]

SMELLS LIKE QUARAN-NEROKIRI SPIRIT 

Nero/Kyrie

“In quarantine, Nero and Kyrie spend time together.” 

Rodeo’s Two Pieces: 

First time writing for Nero/Kyrie. Tread lightly with my take of their dynamic. 

(I)- Dalgona Coffee and Cookies. 

Despite how everything was shut down and the grocery was found vacant of basic necessities, Nero was grateful to at least be with someone he loved the most. 

“Look, we probably need some time off from kickin’ demon ass anyways,” Nico explained, smoking a cigarette during the video chat. 

“Yeah, not like demons care about being six feet away. People don’t even do that.” Nero looked at himself in the little square in the corner of his phone. Clad in a grey hoodie, he hadn’t even bothered putting on anything over his boxers. No one had come to visit since the mandate to stay inside, what was the point? 

Nico was in her garage again, from what he could see in the camera view. Cigarettes and old cups of coffee littered her desk, warbled country music playing off-view. 

“Who knows, maybe I’ll make something to fix that. I was thinking a mask-gun, rapid-fire reloading.” 

“Artisan of Arms, huh?” Nero laughed, getting up from his bed. 

“You fuckin’ bet. Now I gotta go. Got some things to weld.” 

“See ya, Nico. Stay safe, alright?” 

“Yeah, yeah.” He gave a peace sign before pressing “end video call.” 

The video chat ended and Nero tucked his phone into his pocket. Even banter just wasn’t the same virtually. 

“Who was that? Nico?” Nero made it down the hallway to see Kyrie, bustling about getting things from the cupboards. 

“Yeah, still building stuff as usual.” 

Kyrie had been in their apartment’s kitchen, deciding to try her hand at some recipes she saw online. A bag of flour, too many bowls, and more chocolate than Nero remembered buying, all laid out on the table. 

Just when he wanted something to eat, he’d have to wait or his girlfriend would practically make enough to feed an army and be surprised when he didn’t want anymore. 

He opted for a cup of water instead. 

Nero admired her hair, how it looked when it wasn’t in a ponytail, how it sat perfectly on her shoulders. Seeing how she started to measure some ingredients, he took the hair tie on his wrist, careful fingers bringing it into a low ponytail. 

“Oh, thank you.” She commented, opening her booklet of recipes she had handwritten. Neat, slanted cursive in a smattering of blue, red, and black read out recipes for cookies, cakes, and bread. 

“You look busy, planning to make all of those?” Nero rested his chin on her shoulder, shrouding her with warmth. 

“Well, I don’t know how long we’re going to be stuck at home, might as well try some recipes out. Maybe we can deliver some to the orphanage.” 

“That is if I don’t eat all your prototypes first.” She laughed, birdsong to Nero’s ears. 

“As long as you help me I don’t mind if you do.” Kyrie handed him a measuring cup. Nero sighed, taking it. He always lost count of how many cups of flour he was supposed to put in the bowl. 

A jar of porous dough caught his eye as he sifted some baking soda in his white mixture. He took it from Kyrie’s side of the island. 

“Whoa, what is this? A science experiment?” Kyrie chuckled, watching Nero scrutinize the date on the white tape to the top of the mason jar. 

“No, it’s a sourdough starter! It’s basically wild yeast. We can make bread with it since people bought out all the dry yeast in the grocery store.” 

Nero shook it with curiosity and then opened the silver lid, making an “eh” face at the smell. 

“It’s yeast alright.” 

Kyrie continued whipping up the sugar and butter mixture, Nero helping himself to a handful of chocolate chips. 

“Have you talked to your uncle and father? They must be staying at the shop in Redgrave.” 

Nero shrugged. 

“Most likely, I haven’t talked to them yet. Dante probably didn’t pay the phone bill and Vergil doesn’t know how to use the phone anyways.” 

“Let’s just hope they’re getting along during this time.” 

Nero thought back to all the “family outings” he had since his uncle and father returned from hell, mostly just jobs becoming contests of strength that turned to friendly family fights. Endless banter and elbowing. 

Honestly, compared to that, standing next to his girlfriend while they shaped cookies for the oven was heaven. 

Once the chocolate chip cookie dough was done baking, Kyrie insisted they make some whipped coffee while they cooled.  

“I thought you didn’t like coffee, Kyrie.” She stooped down to find something in the lower cabinets. A robotic hand that was colored dark blue and black, his old Devil Bringer, appeared with a tiny whisk duct-taped to it. 

“Yeah, but that TikTok made it look so good.” Nero handed her the glass container of instant coffee. 

Turning on the Devil Bringer, the tiny whisk spun to life, rapidly mixing sugar, coffee, and water together. With her back turned, Nero popped a thing of cookie dough in his mouth. 

“Honestly, Nico should have patented these Devil Bringers, make a bunch of money, and maybe she’d stop trying to rip me off all those times.” 

“Support local businesses, Nero.” 

He looked over her shoulder, surprised at how an abysmal brown mixture had become fluffy and thrice its previous volume. 

Two cups of milk poured, the practically instantly whipped coffee laid on top like a decadent Mount Everest next to a still-warm plate of cookies. 

“Cheers!” Kyrie clinked glasses with him, stirring her mug vigorously with a spoon. He copied her, taking a sip of surprisingly light and sweet coffee. 

When he lowered his cup, Nero both revealed to the world a mustache of whipped coffee. 

Kyrie snorted into her cup, covering her mouth as she bit back a laugh. Embarrassed, Nero went to wipe it off when Kyrie pecked him on the lips. She drew back to reveal an imprint of the ‘stache on her own upper lip. 

“We match now.” Kyrie giggled, helping herself to another gooey cookie. 

Half a plate of cookies and two mugs properly drained of its contents, Kyrie and Nero loaded up the dishwasher to do the work. 

“This is coffee, why am I tired?” Kyrie yawned. 

The couch was this god-awful IKEA purchase that took hours for Nero to just figure out what the instructions meant. But right now, it perfectly supported both of them while they slept away their food coma. 

(II)- Curl Up And Dye. 

After the second time the mandate got lengthened, Nero could sense that Kyrie was starting to wane in her ever-positive attitude. The news had nothing good to say, and the number of shows they had binged left them indifferent to watching anything more. 

They did a lot of singing during quarantine, Kyrie always being the musical one. Evanescence was one of their favorites to sing together, Nero’s guitar skills and Kyrie’s ability to hit those high notes left many memorable nights of laughter. 

After a while, Kyrie began to just sit on the couch a lot and have Nero pay her company. 

“What’s wrong?” Kyrie sighed heavily, curling into Nero’s hoodie as he opted to stay shirtless. 

“I don’t know Nero, it just feels like everything is the same. We go through the same things every day and I just feel...trapped.” 

Nero kissed the nape of her neck, humming in agreement. 

“Look, I’m usually the one going to you for stuff like this but...it will get better. It’s been a really hard time for all of us, and we’re just watching everything go downhill. It’s not a good situation but, you got me. Always. And there’s still a lot of things we can change up if that helps.” He stroked her hair and rubbed her back, feeling her take a deep breath. 

“You’re right Nero. That really did help. Thank you for listening.” 

“Of course.” 

While he scrolled on his own phone, he didn’t heed all the things Kyrie was watching. She touched her own long hair, seeing the way other people recorded their own home-salon trims. 

“Things to change, huh?” She mumbled. 

So here they were now. 

“It looks so bad!” Kyrie exclaimed, her face in her hands, hair on the bathroom sink. Nero shook his head. 

“No it’s not, Kyrie! You look fine, just let me fix it!” In the mirror, Nero cringed at the way her hair was ridiculously over-layered. 

“Um, what did you try to do-” 

“Curtain bangs! Oh Nero, I shouldn’t have tried to change up my hair!” Kyrie was thoroughly upset, seeing how her bout of bravery lead to her bangs being mauled by her own hands. 

Nero hugged her, noting that she had been wearing his shirt while she trimmed her hair. 

Okay that shirt’s gonna itch for a while until all the hair comes out. 

“It’s okay, let me see if I can fix it.” Kyrie blushed in the mirror, groaning at how bad her hair was cut. 

“There’s no way you could make it worse than what I did.” 

Nero gingerly took the scissors Kyrie put in the sink, a little bit too small for his hands but good enough. Although he was no stylist, he could tell where Kyrie had either cut too much off or unevenly. 

Eventually, they did manage to cut it in a way that hid the previous mistakes. Kyrie took another deep breath. 

“I shouldn’t have been so impulsive.” She murmured, arms crossed. 

Nero chuckled at her rare emotional outburst. He was glad to have been able to be there for her. She always hid how she felt, helping others her way of expressing herself. Now with no one around but him, he totally understood that she felt helpless. 

No one liked being helpless. 

He kissed her cheek and a lightbulb went off in his head. 

“You wanna dye my hair?” Kyrie turned around in surprise. 

“What?” 

“I mean, who knows how long this shutdown is gonna be, it’ll be fun,” Kyrie noted how Nero had forgone shaving, his peach fuzz becoming something more. 

Honest blue eyes peered at her, wondering what she would think. Her surprise softened to a sort of relief in their solidarity. 

“What color, Nero?” 

“Neon green-” 

“Nico’s going to make fun of you.” Kyrie giggled. Nero shrugged nonchalantly. 

“I don’t mind it.” 

(III)- Can’t Get Out Of It, Get Into It. 

“Nero, you look so fucking ridiculous.” 

“Shut up, Dante.” 

His uncle finally managed to figure out how to work the virtual chat on his fossil of a computer, and Nero was already prepared to end the call. 

His father sat slightly off-camera, not in the mood to entertain Dante’s antics to ridicule his son. Although, he did look oddly radioactive with his washed-out green hair and strong quarter-past five o’clock shadow.  

“Quarantine did not do you a favor, good lord,” Dante commented, kicking his feet up on his desk. Nero flipped him off. 

“Good to know you’re still living in shambles, not surprised neither of you cleaned up after yourselves.” The number of bottles on the floor was a travesty and the couch littered with poetry books Vergil had slowly begun to hoard. 

Nico entered the zoom call, smoking another cigarette Nero was lucky to not have to smell. 

“Nice broccoli head.” 

Nero flipped her off as well. Kyrie came into view, smiling at her boyfriend’s family and their shared friends. Nero decided to get a drink, clicking a few buttons before letting Kyrie have the seat. 

As they discussed how the business would continue with Devil May Cry, Kyrie sat next to Nero. 

It was mainly business, until it got to a certain line that Dante said. 

“I don’t know, it just feels like things are just going to keep staying like this. Hate to break it to you Nero, but it’s going to be tough for a while.” 

Kyrie finally heard enough, scooching Nero aside so she could talk. 

“Kyrie, wait-” 

“We’re going to get past this. As long as humanity still keeps coming together for the sake of benefiting each other, and we keep working to make sure to keep safe, we will get past this. We just have to keep hoping, and sure, hoping isn’t always going to make you feel better. I would know. But in a time where we do feel helpless, we should connect with other people in a different way. That’s why we succeed, we keep moving, we keep adapting! And hope, hope keeps that going.” 

Kyrie took a long breath. Looking at the dumbfounded group, she waited for a response. 

“Um, Kyrie. You were muted.” Nero finally said. Kyrie realized her blunder and how Nero’s hand was attempting to unmute them. 

“Oh.” Kyrie flushed, looking embarrassed. 

“I have no idea what you just said, but that’s okay.” 

“I’m sorry, that was so awkward.” 

“Don’t worry yourself, Kyrie. I bet it was real sweet whatever you had to say,” Nico assured. 

The zoom call was full of laughter since, a business call turned to a time to discuss how each person was doing. 

Dante and Vergil had spent days and nights sparring, Vergil learning more about humanity from Dante, and “making their own pizzas.” 

Nico had continued welding and making weapons for her own curiosity rather than based off of commission-based instructions. The van finally had the vinyl player fixed and she apparently gave herself a stick-and-poke. 

“So what did you two love birds do?” Nico asked, lighting another cancer stick. 

Nero and Kyrie looked at each other, smiling at their shared memories of this strange period in human history. 

“Where do we even start?”  Kyrie said, thinking of all the days and nights that seemed to breeze by and also slowly progress. 

Nero ruffled his longer messy green hair, Kyrie tucking her curtain bangs behind her ear. As they were two peas in the pod, Nero had decided to get another set of gray sweats for Kyrie, matching finally. 

Kyrie bit into a cookie, offering Nero some. 

“Smells like quarantine spirit, huh?” Dante finger-gunned.

Nero chuckled. 

“Hell yeah.” 

[nanagoswife]

Please, Don't Go. - Chapter 12

DON'T READ FULL TAGS UNLESS YOU WANT POSSIBLE SPOILERS FOR THIS CHAPTER

Summary: We see reader and Obi-Wan after the duel with Maul, with a small twist. Then, reader and Obi-Wan go through the years until the days of the Clone Wars where a threat arises...

W/C: 5.2k

Warnings: implied intimacy, mature content, decapitation, implied cutting a being in half, death, descriptions of injury, Star Wars swears, explosions, mind manipulation

A/N: I just want to give a heads up, things get pretty dark. I actually had to slightly restrain myself slightly😅. I hope you enjoy?

- - -

The fall was far. The bottom couldn’t even be seen as he looked down. He only looked away when the Sith’s two halves were no longer in sight. Breathing heavily, he retracted the blade of his master’s lightsaber.

Without much more thought, he rushed to where Qui-Gon lay. The Jedi tried to say something but it came out as a small whimper. Surveying the wound, he determined that he would have enough time. So, Obi-Wan lifted his master and slung him across his shoulders.

Unlike getting in, he was far quicker with the red shield timing. It only stopped him once before he was able to rush to where he knew he could get help.

-

You were with Padmé, pacing in the hanger as you hoped it was where the Jedi would meet you. When you heard a pair of running steps join in, you stopped and looked to where you had seen the Jedi chase the Zabrak.

Fear struck you as you saw Obi-Wan carrying Qui-Gon on his shoulders. The look in his eyes was desperate and you immediately called for the medics who were on standby.

They must’ve been right outside because they were there almost immediately. When Obi-Wan met them, he placed his master on the floating gurney.

“You must hurry. He needs immediate treatment so that he’s still alive for Jedi Healers,” he said frantically to the lead medic. They nodded and carted the Jedi off with urgency. Padmé went with them so that it would ensure the quickest way to the best treatment.

Obi-Wan looked on with a worried but, at the same time, relieved expression.

Now alone, you placed a hand on Obi-Wan’s bicep. There was so much tension in his muscles that you thought they would strain if he didn’t relax.

“Are you alright?” You made sure to keep your tone soft. You didn’t know what happened and he could possibly also be hurt.

Finally, Obi-Wan looked at you and the tension from his body let up. His eyes softened and he nodded.

“A few bumps and bruises,” he said quietly as he moved to stand in front of you. Easily, he closed the distance and pulled you against him.

The fear that you didn’t realize you had dissipated as he held you. He was still here. He was alright.

“I love you, Obi,” you say. It was more a way to show how happy you were that he was here. That nothing terrible happened to him. You could only hope that Qui-Gon will be alright.

He exhaled and pressed a kiss to your forehead, “I love you too, Y/N.” He said it with as much meaning as you. And for a few more moments, the two of you held the other, relieved that you are both okay.

-

“I’m proud of you, Obi-Wan,” Qui-Gon said as the previous padawan bowed by the medical bed. His padawan braid was now resting in his master’s hand.

“Thank you, master.”

“And what is to happen with Anakin?” Qui-Gon looked at Obi-Wan with sincere curiosity.

“It took convincing, but I am to train the boy. They said you were too injured that it would delay his training too long,” Obi-Wan replied almost solemnly.

Qui-Gon felt slightly guilty for the young man. He wouldn’t be able to find himself as a Jedi before having to take in his own padawan. At the same time, he knew that his padawan would take it on with as much enthusiasm as he did with any other assignment. Plus, Qui-Gon would be there to help guide his old padawan.

He placed a hand on the young man’s shoulder, “Congratulations, Jedi Knight Obi-Wan Kenobi.”

-

“How is he?” you asked when Obi-Wan snuck in by your balcony. It was just close enough to the ground that he could jump up, with a little aid from the force.

Obi-Wan took quick steps to you until he slotted his lips with yours. “He’s doing well,” he said between kissing you. His hands were moving up and down your sides until one of his hands pulled you closer by the small of your back.

“Obi,” you said in a higher pitch as his lips trailed down to your neck. Then, he easily lifted you and you wrapped your legs around his waist. Sometimes you forgot how strong he was when his form was so well hidden beneath his robes.

You couldn’t help but give into it all. Every touch was electric as he slowly moved until your back met a wall. You let out a little gasp at the surprise contact, but you only melted more into him with this. There was something that only heightened your desire for him with this new experience.

“Obi,” you tried again. When he moved back to your neck and throat, you tried to suppress your pleasurable sounds as you said, “There’s something I need to tell you.”

“After,” is all he said, never pulling away from his attention on you.

“But-“ he cut you off by moving his lips back to yours. It was a silent way of telling you to shut up and just enjoy the moment. Despite your better judgement, you gave in.

-

Playfully, Obi-Wan layed on top of you, causing a giggle to come from you. He pretended to fall asleep and mocked snoring as he rested on you.

“You seem to be in a good mood,” you said as you started to trace circles on his back.

Humming in agreement, Obi-Wan moved so that he was instead propping himself on his elbow, looking down at you. You brushed a hand through his hair and no longer felt the braid or the small bunch of hair at the back of his head. All of it was smooth and there was something about it that you enjoyed just that small bit more.

“I was knighted,” he leaned down then kissed you. “Then, I found out Qui-Gon will make a full recovery,” he kissed you again. “Then, I came back to my beautiful girlfriend who I just enjoyed a very fun activity with,” he kissed you again. “And I think she still has something else to add on to my good day.”

Once again, he kissed you and you let out a groan as you felt a hand drifting over your body.

“Well, you’ll never know if you keep distracting me like this Obi.”

He flashed a cocky grin and pressed one more kiss to your lips before settling himself on his elbows, now giving you his full attention. His eyebrows were raised, imploring you to tell him whatever news you were trying to tell him before.

“I found out that I’m taking over as senator as soon as you and the Jedi Council decide it’s safe. Which means that we’ll both be on Coruscant.”

His cocky grin turned to one of true happiness.

“You can’t escape me now,” Obi-Wan teased before diving his lips back to yours. His desire began to build up again as he once again let his hands roam over the surface of your skin. It didn’t take long before his lips were trailing downward again.

You couldn’t help but always be surprised at how many times Obi-Wan could go in a night. If the two of you were allowed to be more open about it, you were almost sure it would be more. For now, you just enjoyed this moment and forgot about how you were forbidden lovers. The only thing you focused on was your lover who was slowly starting up something that you felt like you had just finished.

-

You and Obi-Wan had set a plan to how the two of you would see each other while he was training Anakin. Usually, there was always at least one night where Qui-Gon would take Anakin and do special meditative and living force connection lessons. It allowed for Obi-Wan to sneak into your apartment and spend the evening with you.

Even if you were busy and had more work to do, he patiently waited for you. That, or he would nag you until you at least came into the bed so that he could cuddle into you while you completed your duties.

“Want cuddles,” he’d say while kneeling beside you at your desk, pressing his forehead into your arm. The more you tried to say no, the more stubborn he got. It sometimes made you curious to see what new methods he would come up with to convince you.

So far, you were never disappointed. He would always hit a mark where, even if you were seeing how creative he could get, you could no longer be able to deny him.

Whenever he had to leave for a mission, the first thing he would do was come and tell you. If he couldn’t do it in person, then he’d send you a message. If he wasn’t there for that one night a week, he’d come see you multiple times.

Sometimes, he was sometimes in the senate. Usually, it was to teach Anakin about the government process of the galaxy. He would bring his padawan to see you so that he could get lessons from a politician that actually could be trusted, in Obi-Wan’s eyes.

Then, there were days where training Anakin would sometimes get to be too much. Obi-Wan would get Qui-Gon or another fellow Jedi to look after him while he said he needed time to meditate and clear his mind. In reality, he would come to you for your calming energy. By the time he left, it may as well have been like he had mediated.

This is what it was like for years. That is, until after Obi-Wan had come back from Geonosis. That day was the one time you weren’t there to join Padmé on whatever adventure she was on. It sounded like it was a good thing you hadn’t.

Anakin had lost an arm, Padmé had a ghastly gash across her back, and Obi-Wan had two lightsaber burns. One of which had caused him to limp until it fully healed.

After this, the Clone War had started. The one thing you, Padmé, and Bail Organa had fought so hard against happening. Another threat was that there were more Sith revealed. It was believed that Dooku was the master, and he had a new apprentice after Darth Maul was struck down by Obi-Wan. The new apprentice’s name, Darth Cosmar.

Obi-Wan had found this all out on Geonosis, but there was still another name that threw off the theory that the Jedi had. For now, until they found more evidence, their focus was on protecting the people of the Republic.

For Obi-Wan, his duty was to spend as much time with you before he was deployed. It was determined that he would be a Jedi general, leading the 212th Clone battalion. Appropriately, he named his ship The Negotiator. You had told him it was the only acceptable name for his flag ship.

So, Obi-Wan spent as much time as he could with you. Since Anakin was now knighted, he no longer had his padawan constantly needing his assistance.

This was everything that happened to get to the point you were now, staring into the eyes of the man you love in the dim morning light. You would’ve stayed in the moment, if it weren’t for the sudden nausea that hit you.

Quickly, you jumped up and ran to the refresher. You could hear Obi-Wan call your name worriedly as you ran to the room. You almost didn’t make it to the toilet before you vomited.

Obi-Wan came in not long after. He knelt beside you and rubbed your back as he made sure you were alright.

How could this be? You were feeling fine just before. Then, after looking back at it, your eyes went wide. No, this can’t be happening. It can’t because it could jeopardize everything. Specifically, it would put everything Obi-Wan has worked to achieve at risk.

“Y/N? What is it?” His tone was filled with concern as he continued to rub your back.

“I… I think,” you were struggling to tell him.

Would he be angry? No, he wouldn’t. Disappointed? Maybe. Either way, you were scared that this would be the reason he would leave you.

Finally, with a deep breath, you told him, “I think I’m pregnant, Obi.”

Looking up at him, you were expecting to see anything except what you did. He was smiling. Bigger than you had ever seen before. The confusion must’ve showed as he brought a hand to your cheek.

“Did you think I would be upset?”

Slowly, you nodded. He chuckled to himself.

“Now, why ever would I be upset? This is by far the happiest moment of my life,” he said before resting a hand on your stomach. He reached out through the force to see if he could feel it’s life force. And, sure enough, there it was.

When you saw the smile on his face, you couldn’t help but laugh in relief.

“Hello there, little one,” he said softly. He brought his eyes to meet yours. “This is the perfect moment.”

Once again, confusion settled over you. What else could there be?

Obi-Wan offered a hand to you, helping you to stand. He brought you back into the room and left you standing awkwardly in the middle of the room as he went into his brown cloak to retrieve something. He hid whatever it was behind his back.

“After a lot of thought, I decided to do this. I was originally planning to do this later, but now seems like the best time,” he said while stepping up in front of you.

There was something in his eyes that, for the first time in years, you couldn’t read.

“I love you so much. And I hope that something like being pregnant will never make you think that I’ll be upset. It was something that I never thought I would be able to bring you, but I wanted to. Now, we have a bright little one on their way,” he said, pressing a kiss to your forehead.

He continued, “Now, this only gives me even more of a reason to do this.” Bringing his hand in front of him, he kept his hand closed as he held it. “I want you to know that I have thought about this extensively. Also, with the war, it’s almost like the galaxy is telling me to do this before it’s too late.”

He opened up his hand and it revealed a beautiful blue crystal attached to a golden necklace. The gold wonderfully wrapped around the crystal to hold it. In a way, it reminded you of Obi-Wan’s eyes that were framed by his auburn hair.

“Will you make me the happiest man alive, and marry me?”

His question forced your eyes from the necklace to his eyes. There was nothing but sincerity in his eyes. Would he really risk his place in the Jedi Order just for you? You already know the answer.

A smile spread across your face, and you said quietly, “Yes.”

“Yes?”

“Yes,” you said with a happy laugh. Obi-Wan smiled as well before kissing you. He kissed you like it was the first time he ever did.

When you separated, he stepped behind you and put the necklace on you. You smiled as you looked down at the crystal.

“Where did you get this?”

“They found my lightsaber on Naboo,” Obi-Wan said, pressing your back to his chest as he rested his head on your shoulder. “The hilt was practically destroyed, but my previous kyber crystal was intact. So, I used it for you. This way, I’ll always be close to your heart. No matter what.”

Reaching up, you placed a hand on his cheek.

“I wish I could’ve gotten you a ring, but I thought that this would not only be perfect, but also discreet.”

“I love it. I love you,” you say before turning in his arms. “Now, what do you say about crawling back into bed and being lazy for the rest of the day.”

He put a hand over one of yours that lay on his chest, “I would say that sounds like the most wonderful plan, my love.”

-

Darth Cosmar had been after Obi-Wan for months now. At some point, he found out how Obi-Wan had a connection with you. The Sith had figured it out one day when he came to attack you. Thankfully, Obi-Wan had been tasked with protecting you.

He had laughed when he saw the way your Jedi had protected you. The way you grappled to his arm didn’t help when it came to hiding it.

With this knowledge, the blonde haired Sith started to exploit this connection. He had been threatening you often, bringing extreme concern for your safety.

As he was the only Jedi not currently needed on the front lines, Obi-Wan was tasked with protecting you. There were many fear filled nights where you clung to him as you slept. Your growing belly was something that he noticed that he always had an arm over. It was like, even in sleep, he was protecting the baby. You would smile and say how protective he already was of their child.

Thankfully, no actual attempts have been made on your life recently. It didn’t stop Obi-Wan from accompanying you to every little thing that you went through.

You didn’t mind, but there were a few other senators who didn’t take too kindly to it. They thought that talking about the senate secrets in front of him would compromise the Republic. You constantly had to remind them that the Jedi already knew every senate secret there was to know. Also, if they wanted to compromise the senate, wouldn’t they have already done that?

Currently, he was accompanying you on a diplomatic mission to Alderaan. There was a matter that you had to discuss with senator Organa, but he wasn’t able to leave his home planet. It was a matter too important that, if it were intercepted, it would cause many issues not just for the senate, but for the whole war effort.

“Remind me why we have to go there and why he can’t come back for a couple days to Coruscant?” Obi-Wan was less than thrilled to leave the city planet. He wouldn’t let you hear anything else for the last few hours.

“Because,” you started, placing a hand on his knee as you sat in the transport, “His wife, Breha, is sick. He’s staying with her until she starts to recover.”

Even though you knew he was worried, you also knew that he really did understand. Darth Cosmar had just been causing so much noise that he was afraid that something would actually happen soon.

“Obi, don’t worry. It’ll be fine. We’re almost there.”

Almost if it were to prove your point, the pilot announced that you were almost there. Qui-Gon came out from the back room and you removed your hand from Obi-Wan’s knee.

“I don’t know. I have a bad feeling about this,” Obi-Wan said.

“If it’s bothering you this much, reach out,” Qui-Gon started, “look into the force, Obi-Wan. Maybe it will help you determine if your feeling is right.”

Obi-Wan nodded and closed his eyes, plunging him into a meditative state. He sensed everything around him. He stretched his focus to the rest of the ship where everything was normal. The last place he reached to was the cockpit.

That’s where an odd sensation flooded over him. As far as he was concerned, it was one of his clones that was supposed to be piloting the ship. At least, that’s what he had thought and guaranteed before leaving. Something about their signature seemed off. Almost like it wasn’t theirs…

His eyes snapped open just before the ship was sent in a sudden dive to Alderaan’s moon. Without hesitation, he used his body to shield yours as he wasn’t sure just how quickly they were going to make this unplanned landing.

To his relief, it wasn’t a crash, but a smooth landing.

“Are you alright,” Obi-Wan quickly said, placing a hand on your stomach to feel how the baby was doing.

Concern was plain in both his tone and his expression. You nodded and he helped you from your seat. Both him and Qui-Gon immediately took up protective positions around you when the pilot started to make their way into the room.

Obi-Wan sent his old master a message through the force, telling him what he sensed before all of this happened. Qui-Gon gave him a slight nod and turned his attention to whoever was wearing the clone armour.

“You are a difficult man to find,” the voice said, not directed at any of you. Instead, it was directed behind the three of you.

When you turned, you couldn’t believe your eyes. You never thought you would ever see him again. You thought he was dead.

“Kenth!” You couldn’t help but call out his name. It was almost strange to say his name again.

Meeting your gaze, he gave you a smirk and you could not help but think that he’s hardly changed. Well, except for the now almost all grey hair.

Turning back, the one dressed as a clone now had taken off the helmet. It revealed the blonde hair and sickly yellow eyes that were too painfully familiar.

“Cosmar,” Obi-Wan growled, hand hovering above his lightsaber.

“Oh, don’t soil yourself, Kenobi. I’m not here for you. Well, I wasn’t.” The dark snarl of the Sith never failed to send shivers down your spine. “This man has been throwing a wrench in every plan my master has tried to put forth. Now, I see he was going to once again.”

“Are you not tired of competing against Dooku?” Baize spat out. “I’m surprised you don’t just kill him and properly take your place as the Sith apprentice.”

Shock rippled through both you and the two Jedi. Dooku wasn’t the master? Then who was?

“I now believe, my good Captain, that you have officially crossed a line. You put these innocent, well, mostly innocent lives at risk,” he said while staring directly at you and Obi-Wan. Your Jedi only looked on with a hard expression and was ready to act at any second.

Obi-Wan caught a quick glance at Qui-Gon, and they both nodded together. “If you want her, it won’t happen.

Cosmar laughed. “You stupid Jedi. I don’t want her alive. I have wanted her dead for months.”

Obi-Wan seemed to return the scowl that this Sith wore. There was so much tension that it was becoming unbearable. In nearly an imperceptible move, Obi-Wan nudged you towards Baize. You could see the two Jedi were ready to spring into action, and so was Darth Cosmar.

Baize took your arm and pulled you close to him, ready to run out of the ship if needed.

“Let’s have some fun, shall we?” Before you could think about what the Sith was saying, he sprung towards the Jedi, who both met him with the same ferocity.

Kenth lightly tugged at your arm, “We need to go,” he whispered. Nodding, you let him lead you out of the ship with the sounds of lightsabers clashing behind you. This was the first time in a while that you were truly worried for Obi-Wan.

“I have a ship not far from here. For now we should stay nearby in case they need help,” he said once you were safely off of the ship. When the two Jedi and the Sith came out, though, it wasn’t long before you were fleeing to the ship.

-

This fight was lasting too long. It had moved outside of the ship long ago, but Obi-Wan could see that he previous master was getting tired far quicker than he was. This small moment allowed for Cosmar to push Obi-Wan away, forcing him a good few feet away.

It was too far, as he looked up and was revisited by a familiar memory. Cosmar bested Qui-Gon and drove his saber through the Jedi’s abdomen. Unlike Maul, he didn’t take it back out the same way, but instead drove it upwards, cutting all the way through to the shoulder.

Obi-Wan couldn’t help but yell in both horror and anger. Dark thoughts started to swirl in his mind, but he pushed them aside as he stood back up. He couldn’t turn to the dark with you still alive.

“Still think you can defeat me, Kenobi,” he said in a mocking tone. It only stirred the anger in him more as he watched the Sith smugly smile.

“Oh, that’s not a question,” he replied, calling Qui-Gon’s saber to his other hand. Igniting it, he was highlighted by the green and the blue in the dark of the moon’s night. The two sabers combined put a yellow tint in his eye, and Cosmar actually felt fear rise inside himself.

Before he knew it, Obi-Wan was attacking with a new speed and force. Still, it wasn’t enough to best him.

Once again, Obi-Wan was thrown off and the Jedi and the Sith circled the other.

Then, Darth Cosmar stopped, raising his eyes to the sky, “You’re too late. My plan has worked.”

Confused, Obi-Wan directed his attention to where the Sith was gazing. He saw a Republic ship. Reaching out, he could feel your energy in that direction. He couldn’t be entirely sure if you were on it, or still on the ground.

“Three, two,” Obi-Wan had barely enough time to react to Cosmar’s countdown before the ship burst into flames and exploded in the air. He felt a snap. A snap that he hadn’t felt in years. A snap that brought the painful wrench in his heart.

Obi-Wan collapsed to his knees as he felt it was nearly impossible to breathe. No. This can’t be happening. This can’t be true, but the snap. It couldn’t be faked. A break of a connection can’t be forced. The connection was gone. You and the baby were gone. The thoughts raced in his mind as the pain in his heart grew as the realisation hit him; as the now severed connection left him feeling hollow and empty. There was now a hole in Obi-Wan’s heart.

The thoughts rapidly shifted to a dark place. Pain, suffering, anger, revenge. It all filled his mind as he slowly rose back to his feet. Both lightsabers were still in his hands. Both of these lightsabers would do perfectly. He wanted this man dead. He wanted Cosmar dead. He killed the closest thing he had to a father. He killed his unborn child. He killed you.

As Obi-Wan turned, Darth Cosmar truly showed fear. What he saw that Obi-Wan didn’t, was that the Jedi’s eyes were no longer the cool blue. No, they were now a shining shade of cyber yellow. The former Jedi was breathing heavily and was seething.

Even though he knew that there was more fighting to come, Cosmar never thought he would experience the new power the former Jedi now had. He underestimated the man’s strength that had been dulled down by the teachings of the Jedi. Obi-Wan felt like the force was now electric around him. It gave him a new energy, a new power that he now used.

When he lunged at Cosmar, he relished in the fear that he saw in the Sith’s eyes. It was like he knew what was coming. After a few furious moments, Obi-Wan had brought the Sith apprentice to his knees, his sabers crossed at his neck.

“P-please I beg you!”

Obi-Wan didn’t listen and only scoffed at the attempt of pleading for mercy before he let both blades glide through the man’s neck. There were multiple thuds as he head rolled before his body collapsed. He called the now former Sith’s lightsaber to his hand and connected it to his belt.

He was relishing every feeling around him. The force buzzed almost in excitement as he took on the darkness. There was still doubt in his mind as he looked down at the two bodies before him. In a way, he could still feel the light trying to tug him back, and he couldn’t entirely shove it away. No, he hasn’t fully turned yet, but he was leaning towards it as he took on this new feeling of the force.

“I applaud you, my boy,” a chilling voice suddenly sounded behind him. Out of pure instinct, he ignited his sabers once again, not noticing that he had replaced Qui-Gon’s green for Cosmar’s red one.

Obi-Wan was ready to strike until the figure, with one movement, retracted both blades.

“There’s no need for that, my new apprentice,” he said as he stepped closer. “Join me and I can help you gain true revenge. The true enemy wasn’t Cosmar. The Separatists hired him to kill your fiancé and your unborn child.”

As the cloaked figure came closer, he stopped at the former Sith’s body and nudged it with his boot.

“How did you-”

“I know a great deal of things. Now, if you join me, you can get revenge. For your master, your lover, and your child.”

Obi-Wan couldn’t help but find himself agreeing. It was all he knew to do. He wanted revenge and he was willing to kill anyone that may have had the slightest connection to this all.

What Obi-Wan didn’t know was that you were watching from behind a ridge not too far from him. You had seen everything along with Kenth. You could even hear the exchange between the cloaked figure and Obi-Wan. Your heart broke as you watched his now yellow eyes take over the once beautiful blues.

Kenth had held you close, keeping you from running to him. “We can’t. He’s too far gone.”

“You don’t know that,” you said as you tried to escape his hold, tears in your eyes.

When the man you loved walked away with the one who was undoubtedly the Sith, your heart shattered. He said he wouldn’t turn because of you. He promised. Could he not feel you through the force anymore? Did the Sith cut off his connection to you?

That’s what it was. Obi-Wan had told you once that, in one of his nightmares, he felt a snap and his connection to you was broken when you had died in the dream. That had to be it. The Sith had to be keeping you from him.

As you looked on, you knew you couldn’t do anything. Baize was right, he was too far gone. Still, you couldn’t help but say, “Please, Obi. Please, don’t go.”

When you had said that, he turned around as if he heard it. Desperately, he looked around to see you, but he saw nothing. It only made the doubt in his head begin to raise. The promise was broken, but you were no longer here. He was going to go through with this. He was going to get revenge for everyone that had been killed by both Cosmar and the Separatists.

- - -

Don't worry. I'm crying too.

@stardancerluv @where-fantasy-meets-reality @jaydenwoo @madmax2003 @mackycat11 @generousrunawaydonut @imabeautifulbutterfly

[wylanvnneck]

Rating: G for Giganotosaurus

Summary: Based on a TFOTA headcanon which I posted on Tumblr about Cardan and Jude visiting the Mortal world and Cardan getting introduced to pick-up lines. That he uses. Frequently. Which, of course completely irritates Jude.

Originally posted on AO3 | Previous Chapter | Masterlist

Chapter 2

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The next morning Jude wakes to the late morning sunlight streaming through the window onto the bed where Cardan still slept. Quietly, so as not to disturb him, she untangles herself from his grasp and heads to the bathroom to freshen up, having fallen asleep in her traveling clothes from earlier in the morning.

Cardan is sitting up with a lazy grin curving his lips when she comes back, his eyes trained on her.

“Good morning, wife.”

“Husband,” she returns.

He looks around the room in the daylight and his expression turns thoughtful, dark eyes deepening. “Did you...think of me when you were here?” He asks her, sounding uncharacteristically cautious

She looks straight at his face, remembering the pain she’d been in during her first days here, all those months ago. She’d spent her first few days in exile moping around and not thinking about her treacherous husband. With a little help from Vivi and many tubs of mint and chocolate chip ice cream she’d finally gotten out of her pajamas and returned to her training routines, all the more vicious as she thought up ways to get her revenge on the High King of Faerie.

“I did. I used to stay up late into the night with Vivi once Oak was asleep and we would plot ways to kill you.”

Cardan smiles a wry smile at her admission, “I’d expect nothing less from you, my sweet nemesis.”

“I know you thought of me, you’ve told me about your letters.” Letters that she would never get to see, thanks to Lady Asha.

He shifts in the bed, tail swishing in the air. “I did. I thought of you incessantly. My anger at you over Balekin didn’t last long and soon I found myself wondering why you hadn’t returned yet. I worried that you’d found the Mortal world more pleasurable than Elfhame. That you preferred your life here. In my darkest moments I’d imagine you with another. I’d imagine never seeing you again.”

His voice is racked with pain and sincerity, the anguish he’d felt written clearly on his features. “So many times, I thought of coming here. To see you, even if just from a distance. But I couldn’t leave our Kingdom, I couldn’t forsake the duties you’d entrusted  me with when you crowned me, even if you were meant to be by my side always. That throne that you’d worked so hard to save, I couldn’t risk leaving it when the threat of Madoc loomed so near. Jude, believe me when I say that my thoughts were always, always of you, my brave villain.”

His confession touches her very soul. She takes in the sight of him, broken and exposed and her heart quickens. The High King of Elfhame, her husband, who would only ever be this open and unguarded in front of her, his queen. She comes closer to him on the bed and bends down, stroking his messy black curls away from his face as she gently lowers her lips to his.

* * *

They’ve arrived on a Saturday so Oak is scarfing down a bowl of sugary cereal when she and Cardan enter the kitchen. He looks up with excitement and rushes to give his sister a bear hug, squeezing her as tightly as his 8 year old hands can. “Jude you’re finally here, I missed you!”

She playfully ruffles his nut brown hair and squeezes him back, pulling away to give him a once over, “I missed you too, Oak.”

He goes to hug Cardan while Jude finally spots Heather, Vivi’s pink-haired girlfriend who was currently by the kitchen table, making her way over to say Hi. “Good to see you again, Jude. Vivi’s just popped off to grab some groceries. Hopefully she uses actual money this time,” she rolls her eyes, smiling.

“Nice to see you too, Heather,” Jude smiles in response.

Once they’re all sat around the dining room table and Cardan and Jude are equipped with their own bowls of cereal, the multi-coloured loops of which had captured Cardan’s initial fascination and Jude now watches out of the corner of her eye as he sits stirring his breakfast, entranced, as the colours slowly bleed into the milk, turning it slightly muddy. She finds him quite adorable with that expression on his face. Maybe even charming. Not that she’d ever say it out loud.

She tunes in to what Heather is saying at the moment, “So, what do you guys wanna do today?” She looks expectantly at them and Jude tries to think of an answer but is thankfully interrupted by her brother.

“Ooh ooh, can we go to the mall today? And have pizza for lunch?” he jumps in his seat.

“Tell me, what is a ‘maul’? And what type of a food is this, ‘Pizza’?” Cardan interjects. Oak slowly turns to him with a look of horror on his face.

“You’ve never had pizza??” He turns to Heather, “We have to have pizza, Heather, we have to.” He faces Cardan once again and starts telling him all about pizza and all the different toppings and which combos worked and which didn’t and how eating pineapple on pizza was an unforgivable sin.

Heather laughs a little as she looks at Jude, “Well, I guess we’re having pizza today.”

“I guess we are,” Jude laughs back, watching her little brother excitedly explaining mortal customs to her husband.

They head out to the nearest shopping mall once Vivi’s back and they travel by bus which leads to another shock for Cardan who is in awe at the fact that this metal box was able to move on it’s own. Truly, mortals did have some funny ideas, he’d remarked, astonished.

His eyes are locked on the view outside the whole time, taking in the concrete and cement, in stark contrast to the raw natural surroundings of Faerie.  He is dressed in better fitting mortal clothes than last night which Vivi had gotten for him. A dark shirt and dark fitted jeans, with space for him to tuck his tail in. He glamours his face to appear more mortal, with rounded ears, accentuated by his usual gold studs and he is still inordinately attractive for a mortal and Jude knows he’ll be receiving lots of stares. Especially appreciative ones from girls. She is suddenly conscious of her concealed dagger.

Once they arrive Oak immediately drags them to the gaming zone, introducing Cardan to the wonders of playstations. He teaches  them how to play Mario Kart and the little character on the screen whose movements you could control was indeed, quite entertaining.

He is less enthusiastic when Heather and Vivi drag them to Sephora, the makeup store. Nevertheless, he tries his hardest to stay still and is justly rewarded with an achingly sweet candy floss that he graciously shares with everyone.

Cardan, for his part, is not only entranced by the fluffy pink treat but also by the cosmetics surrounding him, letting Heather draw Kohl on him with liquid black eyeliner and applying shiny silver highlighter on his high cheekbones. Vivi even forces Jude to try on a dark shade of red lipstick that Cardan later attempts to kiss off of her when they are alone in between the secluded store aisles.

Finally, they emerge from the store, shopping bags in tow as they head to the food court for lunch. The place is buzzing, with a multitude of smells permeating the air. Oak immediately makes a beeline for the blue and red themed food stall with a sign that reads ‘Domino’s’ in large lettering. The scent of pizza being baked is enticing and they quickly order a personal pizza each plus coca cola.

Thankfully their orders arrive quickly and Jude impatiently blows on the first slice of her barbeque chicken pizza. Next to her Cardan is considering his slice of pepperoni and cheese covered crust, no doubt fascinated by its odd composition. He seems to enjoy it after his first bite though, once it was explained that the pepperoni was not, indeed, supposed to be plucked off and eaten separately and soon they are all done.

Jude heads to the washroom to pee and whilst she’s walking back she sees Cardan being approached by a slim girl with blue streaks in her hair. He is alone, Heather and Vivi having gone somewhere with Oak and Jude quickens her stride.

She is just within earshot to hear the girl’s voice say, “Aside from being sexy, what do you do for a living?”

Jude’s eyes narrow as her husband smiles a sly grin and answers with an arrogant tilt of his head, “Rule the Kingdom of the Fae.”

He is being completely honest, after all he cannot tell a lie. But of course the girl does not know that and she looks confused and then lets out a giggle and lightly swats his arm, obviously thinking he is joking.

Jude has had enough of this and finally reaches her husband’s side and smiles at the girl, making sure that her ruby ring is on display as she takes Cardan’s arm. She immediately backs off, while Jude secretly pinches Cardan, hard, for messing with the girl.

“What was that about?”

“She asked a question. I answered it.” While his words were innocent, his grinning face gave away that he knew he’d been slightly wicked.

“Mhmm. You are incorrigible,” she rolls her eyes, finally letting her harsh grip on him go.

“You love it. Tell me Jude, did her question make you jealous?”

“Please, the females at court eye you on a daily basis back at home. It’s no surprise that they find you handsome here as well,” she responds truthfully. “I was more annoyed by your response. What happened to staying inconspicuous?”

He just smiles guiltily back at her. Shaking her head, she’s about to threaten him with a reduction of his beloved alcohol supply back home when she spots Vivi, Heather and Oak coming their way.

They spend the rest of the day at the mall in a similar fashion, introducing Cardan to the wonders of retail shopping and toy stores.  The day passes quickly and the exhausted party head home by early evening, satisfied with the day’s events.

A worn out Oak heads off to bed after extracting a promise from Jude that the two of them could play at the park alone together the next day.

It’s still too early for the adults to go to sleep and thanks to their sleeping in today they are all still wide awake.

“So, now that the little terror is asleep, what should we do?” Vivi questions, tucking a stray lock of her umber hair behind her furry pointed ears.

“Jude mentioned that there were places where mortals had night time revels, I should like to see them,” Cardan suggests.

Vivi trains her cat eyes on Jude, a feline smile on her face, “You told your husband about night clubs? Excellent. The High King of revelry in a mortal club is definitely something I need to see.”

The gleeful look in her eyes set Jude on edge. After all, she’s never been to one of these clubs herself, but surely they were not half as wild as Fae celebrations. How much trouble could Cardan get into?

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Hey, so we've approached pick up line territory (yayy, finally) but the real intro happens in the next chapter. So stay tuned🦕

Also, please let me know if you’d like to be tagged for further installations of this fic :))

[krinsbez]

Infinite Four, Refurbished: A Marvel Fanfic Concept

Here is the complete-as-of-now, refurbished version of Infinite Four, my attempt at envisioning an FF version of the eXiles or Web Warriors. Comments and suggestions welcome.

On Earth-9499729, Victor Von Doom has finally defeated the accursed RICHARDS! and assumed his rightful place as ruler of the Earth. Unwilling to rest on his laurels, Emperor Doom has begun studying the Multiverse. And when he finds out that in most realities, a version of himself is repeatedly defeated by a version of RICHARDS! he reacts….poorly.

Meanwhile, on Earth-75845525, Victor Von Doom, smarting from his latest defeat at the hands of the accursed RICHARDS!, decides to distract himself by studying the Multiverse. And when he finds out that in most realities, a version of himself is repeatedly defeated by a version of RICHARDS! he reacts….poorly.

Meanwhile, on Earth-34373402, Victor Von Doom takes a break from planning his latest attempt to defeat the accursed RICHARDS! by studying the Multiverse. And when he finds out that in most realities, a version of himself is repeatedly defeated by a version of RICHARDS! he reacts….poorly. Yeah, so in an infinite multiverse, there’s an infinite number of Dooms throwing an infinite number of shitfits over the fact that in most realities, the Richards family wins and he loses. And because Doom is often kinda bad at recognizing and/or caring that his actions can have negative consequences for everyone else, this gets very, very bad, and needs to be dealt with.

Someone has to clean up the mess, and that responsibility has been taken on by the Baxter Brain, an artificial hyper-intelligence housed inside a massive arcology that began as the combined uploaded consciousnesses of a version of the FF. But, even it’s astounding intellect and power can’t cope with ALL of the various Dooms (and Wizards, and Mad Thinkers, and Diablos, and occasionally an evil Reed) screwing things up for everyone with their egomaniacal disregard for everyone else. So, it has to recruit agents, and what better agents could their be than alternate versions of it’s previous selves? There are four teams: Alpha Team and Beta Team are each made up of an alternate Ben, Johnny, Reed and Sue; in the former case, they have additional power-sets from the "baseline", in the latter, they have additional skills or alternate powersets. In both cases, the individual team-members come from realities where they lost their version of the family. Gamma and Delta Teams are made up of versions of allies of the core four, and serve as support for Alpha and Beta. I only have two members of either ATM, help please? Alpha Team: -Reed Richards, Dr. Fantastic; from an Earth where, instead of Ben being the only member of the Four who was mode-locked, Reed was the only one who wasn’t; obviously, the celebrity adventurers thing didn’t wasn’t going to work. Desperate to find some way of curing his friends, Reed turned to magic, and eventually ended up becoming Sorcerer Supreme…which unfortunately led to the Dread Dormammu killing his family. -Johnny Storm, Ghost Torch; from a world where Reed’s guilt over turning his friends into freaks caused him to commit suicide. Unsurprisingly, this made things even worse for Sue, Ben, and Johnny, the latter of whom ended up being so lost that he joined a Satanic cult and found himself bound to a demonic Spirit of Vengeance… -Ben Grimm, Wolf-Thing; from an Earth where Reed’s moonshot wasn’t canceled, meaning that when it went to space it had adequate cosmic-ray shielding, and Ben managed to make it to the Moon without any problems whatsoever. Whilst on the Moon, however, he found a certain red gemstone…Fortunately, Reed figured out the wolf-monster stalking NYC was his best friend and built a gizmo to restore him to sanity, albeit by blasting him with cosmic rays that turned him into a rock monster. Unfortunately, he ended up dead in the process of using it (I can’t decided if Ben mauled him, or if some triggerhappy cop or something shot him by mistake) -Susan Storm, the Invincible Woman; a version of Sue who was forced to become a Herald of Galactus. Beta Team: -Dr. Maggie Wingfoot, the Human Torch; a female version of Johnny (named after her Aunt Marygay), who left the team to marry Wyatt Wingfoot and go to college, eventually earning a PhD in Mechanical Engineering. Unfortunately, at some point, something went wrong and the Baxter Building was destroyed, killing the rest of the family. Convinced that, if she’d been there she could’ve prevented it, Maggie’s marriage subsequently fell apart. -Susan McKenzie, Sub-Mariness; from a world where Reed died, leading Sue to take up with Namor; she was subsequently given an infusion of Atlantean DNA to enable to her to live underwater, and ended up with same mutations as him and Namora, but lost her cosmic-ray induced powers. -Ben Grimm, Juggernaut; during his service in the Korean War, got shot down and ended up falling in with a bunch of of Army grunts, including a pair of bickering step-brothers named Charles Xavier and Cain Marko. When they stumble onto a hidden temple, it is Ben who finds the crimson Crystal of Cytorrak and is transformed by it’s power into the Juggernaut… -Reed Richards, Director of SHIELD; from a world where the FF got caught trying to steal the shuttle. Fortunately for everyone, Nick Fury stepped in and offered his old OSS buddy a deal he couldn’t refuse; if Reed came to work for him at SHIELD, he’d make the charges against the other three go away. Not wishing to ruin his friend’s lives, Reed agreed, and became one of SHIELD’s top operatives, ultimately taking over the organization when Fury eventually went down. Gamma Team: -Victoria Von Doom-Grimm, Dr. Grim; female version of Doom, fell in love with Ben when they were in college, and subsequently married him. Unfortunately, having her genitalia on the inside didn’t make her less of a narcissistic megalomaniac, and their marriage was…rocky, with them constantly separating and getting back together. During one such separation, the fateful trip to space happened. Victoria was…displeased that her handsome husband had been turned into a monster, and was so determined to fix it, that she did not adequately test the cure she concocted. On the plus side, inadvertently making herself a widow forced her to take a good hard look at herself and try to change her ways. -Namor McKenzie-Richards-Storm, Sub-Mariner. From a world where Reed and Namor were both bisexual, resulting in Reed, Namor, and Sue all getting together. Unfortunately, this led to Reed and Sue being assassinated by one of Namor's political rivals. Also, presenting two teams of recurring sometimes enemies/sometimes allies: The Brides of Doom (women who had been married to their local version of Doom, who have dedicated themselves to cleaning up his mess): -Susan Von Doom (duh) -Ororo Von Doom (again, duh) -Victoria Von Doom (female clone of Victor. Honestly, given how egomaniacal Victor is, it’s astounding this isn’t a thing in canon) -Natasha von Doom, it’s happened in a couple weird alternates, so might as well. (thanks to Xero Key for this suggestion) A Natasha who made some different choices after the USSR fell apart, and ended up working for Doom instead of the new Russian government. -Jennifer von Doom, because a Hulk is required here. (ditto) Haven’t quite worked out how this one happened. Suggestions? -Shuri Von Doom, owing to a political marriage in order to obtain Doom’s aid in fixing the mess that resulted when one of the many attempts to oust T’Challa that failed in 616 worked. Was not happy about it, but accepted it for the greater good of Wakanda. -Anelle von Doom, likewise owing to a political marriage, albeit rather different. Anelle was even less happy about this, but her father was on an enemy-of-my-enemy kick and thought he could handle Doom after the FF were eliminated. Suffice to say, this didn’t work out so well for him. On the plus side, Emperor Victor I is actually doing a good job running the Skrull Empire, which as a bonus is a lot more work than running Latveria, reducing the amount of free time Doom has to scheme. -Emma Von Doom, from a world where the Hellfire Club thought they could get away with manipulating Doom. Unsurprisingly, they were wrong. Emma still ended up making a Heel-Face Turn eventually, though. -Loki Von Doom, from a world where the whole Cabal thing went very, VERY differently. The Token Evil teammate. The Stormborn, a collection of sons and daughters of Johnny Storm, from timelines where everyone’s favorite matchstick was killed by Doom. Said folks have therefore dedicated themselves to avenging their parent by hunting down and killing every single Doom in the Multiverse. -Namor Storm, the Human Geyser; leader of the team, son of Johnny and Namorita, named for his uncle. Has the standard human/Atlantean hybrid powerset, plus steam powers. -Agatha Evans-Storm, the Fantastic Witch; Johnny’s daughter with his OG girlfriend Dorrie Evans. Despite having a kid together, the issues that caused them to break up in 616 remained, and they separated, retaining joint custody of their daughter (who was named after her cousin Franklin’s nanny, who had recently died). Unlike her cousins she appeared to be totally normal. When she turned 13, however, she was kidnapped by Dr. Doom, who was on a magic kick and had discovered that being named after the old witch created a slight but distinct mystic connection that he could exploit as part of a plan to become the God of Witchcraft by ritually sacrificing her. She was saved, but at the cost of her father’s life. Also, she became a witch, and was subsequently apprenticed to Wanda. -Luna Storm, She-Serpent; from a world where Johnny left the FF to be with Crystal. Like her cousin Franklin, Luna is a mutant, with the power to control the weather, though it took people a bit to figure this out what with living on the Moon and all. Obviously, the subsequent history of the Inhumans was rather different, but a Terrigen Bomb was eventually released, and to everyone’s relief Luna managed to survive. She did turn into a winged snakewoman who breathes poisonous gas though, which kinda sucks. -Wyatt Storm, Speed-Hulk; Johnny and She-Hulk’s kid, named after Johnny’s BFF and Jen’s ex, Wyatt Wingfoot. As the name suggests, is a Hulk, and also a speedster. -JJ and Jeannie Storm, the Mutant Torch and Firebird; Johnny’s twin son and daughter with Rachel Summers (or Rachel Grey, whichever you prefer). They’re both Omega-class mutants like their mom; JJ is a teep, Jeannie is a teek, and they’re both pyrokinetic. Also, they can do that thing Aurora and Northstar or Fenris do, where they can become even more powerful by holding hands. -Jimmy Storm, the Human Robot; from a world where Roberta the Robot Receptionist was upgraded to sentience, and she and Johnny fell in love and got married. The one flaw in their marriage was the obvious inability to have children, and so for their second anniversary, Reed presented them with a child-form robot (named after the OG Human Torch) with an AI that was initially simple but designed to learn and grow in the way child would, albeit somewhat faster. The plan was to periodically upgrade him to simulate physical aging, but when he was two years old (though emotionally, intellectually, and in physical appearance being more like ten), Doom decided to launch a frontal assault on the Baxter Building, which involved destroying Roberta. Driven berserk by rage and grief, Johnny subsequently killed Doom, but was himself killed when Victor’s armor self-destructed, leaving Jimmy orphaned. That was ten years ago, and he has refused to change his appearance since. Like his mother, despite his harmless appearance, Jimmy is super-strong and tough, and possess a small arsenal of built-in weapons. -Ramonda Storm, the White Wolf; Johnny’s daughter with Shuri. Has no inherent powers (unless you count being able to consume the heart-shaped herb safely), but is a tactical/strategic genius on par with her Uncle T'Challa. When said uncle was injured and her Aunt Ororo killed by a Sentinel attack, she donned the long-abandoned ceremonial garb/vibranium-laced hi-tech suit of the White Wolf to assist her cousin Azari in tracking down and bringing to justice those responsible. You can imagine how she reacted when her own father was killed by Doom.

[skzsauce01]

42nd Moon Pt 11

Description: By some stroke of luck, you get off the waitlist of your biology class. You’d never have guessed you’d find your soulmate there, let alone that he already has a girlfriend… Or that he comes from a fraternity of werewolves.

Warning: animal attacking/attacked, slight horror

Word count: 1.7k

Pairing: werewolf!Hyunjin x fem!reader, werewolf!Jisung x fem!reader

Chapter List

“-- then he stuffed ice cream in my mouth while I was sleeping! Those guys just won’t let me live!”

You let out a laugh at your friend’s story as you trudge through the roots and leaves, trying to keep up with the energetic toddler in front of you.

Jisung smiles to himself and lets your melodic sound ring in his ears. It’s moments like these that he cherishes the most. Although he is exhausted from last night’s full moon activities, he’s glad he didn’t pass up the opportunity to come with you when the child begged for a walk through her favourite mountain.

“And you ate it?” you scoff humorously.

“Yes! I could have choked!” 

He waves his hands around animatedly and you can’t help but turn around and laugh at his shenanigans. As you do so, you miss a bump on the ground and lose your footing.

“Y/N!” Jisung is quick on his feet. He turns wolf to race to your location and turns back right as you fall into his arms.

“Sorry,” you groan, lifting a hand to brush away your bangs.

“N-no problem,” he stutters, heart pounding from the proximity. He shakes his head to get rid of such thoughts. No more, he scolds himself.

“What did I trip on?” you wonder once Jisung’s put you back on your feet.

You look down, and your eyes widen into giant disks. It’s a--!

“Bear!” Jisung yells.

You indeed are looking at a baby cub with a gunshot wound in its side. However, it isn’t what Jisung is referring to.

You look up to see a full grown Asian black bear snarling at you. You can only assume she’s its mother.

“Jisung,” you ask with as much composure as you can muster, “what are our chances?”

“Not good,” he replies. “Especially since there’s also her.”

You follow where he’s pointing and see Hyunjin’s daughter approaching the mother bear with child-like curiosity.

“Okay, let’s back away from the cub first,” you suggest.

The mama bear runs to her baby as soon as you and Jisung step away with your hands raised up in the air. You are about to let out a breath of relief when the mother bear snaps her head up and lets out a pained and dangerous roar. She has found the injury on her child and that the future is bleak for the shot cub.

Jisung mutters a curse. “Y/N, I’m going to get the kid, and then you’re going to jump on my back and we’re out of here, okay?”

“No, wait,” you object in the middle of yelling anything you can to get the child away from the bear. “That won’t work; not in your condition. You should run back to the house and get help.”

“I’m not leaving you here alone,” Jisung deadpans.

“Yes you are or we’re all dead.”

“Still--”

“Jisung, I’m dying anyway!” 

Your anxiety gets the better of you and you scream at your companion. This startles the toddler and she begins crying, which alarms the mother bear. You watch in horror as she stands on her hind legs, about to obliterate the wailing child. On instincts, you lunge forward and wrap yourself around her tiny body. You brace yourself for the pain, but it doesn’t come. You lift your head to see why right as Jisung takes the blow for you and is sent soaring through the air before tumbling meters across the ground.

Jisung struggles to get back on all fours. His pristine silver coat is now mixed with blood and dirt. When he is finally back on his paws, he bares his teeth at the bear, letting out a threatening snarl.

“NO!” you cry as the bear races towards the wolf.

You set the child down and jump to your feet, trying to do something, anything, to help Jisung stay alive. That is when you notice the glow on your wrist.

Hyunjin.

The brown wolf soars over your head right on time, knocking the mother bear off balance just as she is about to maul Jisung’s face. The bear is quick to get back on her feet, displaying her teeth for Hyunjin to see as the wolf steps between her and his fallen friend. Around his wrists glows a faint yellow, giving him a slight edge over what chance Jisung had. Still, can he win against a bear?

Your worries are soon put to rest when you hear more howling from a distance. Before long, the entirety of Mu Alpha Theta is by your side, backing the bear into a corner. Realizing that her chances have slimmed to zero, the mother bear lowers her head and turns back into the woods, leaving the cold body of her child behind. 

The first to speak after ensuring that she is gone is Seungmin. “We need to get Jisung medical care quick.”

“I’m fine,” he groans, earning a sharp glare from his frat brother.

“Get back into wolf form! Those injuries can kill a man!” Seungmin scolds. 

The boys load the silver canine onto Changbin’s back and begin leaving after you thanked them.

“Need a ride?” Chan offers.

You shake your head and walk towards the fallen cub. “I’ll stay with it for a little bit. Felix is calling the Humane Society from the house.”

Chan nods and raises a brow at Hyunjin. The taller male points at you, so the young leader bids you goodbye, leaving the two of you alone.

“Thanks for coming,” you say again as the remaining wolf kicks at a pebble.

He lets out a grunt with his hands in his pocket. You can tell something is off.

“H-how did you know?” you try.

Hyunjin lets out a sigh and turns sharply to face you, surprising you with his fierce gaze. He raises his soulmark and answers, “Because this started tingling. Tingling, Y/N. These are supposed to be on fire when our soulmates are in danger. I’m supposed to be drunk with power until you are safe. Do you know what this means, Y/N? Do you?”

You take a few steps back, scared by his sudden outburst.

“It means you’re dying. It means you’re going to look like that!” he finishes, pointing furiously at the cub when you don’t answer. “I mean, I already knew you were, but getting into a bear attack? Do you really want to leave that soon?”

“I’m sorry,” you squeak, unsure of what else you can say.

Hyunjin lets out another deep exhale and walks up to you, toes touching yours and taking both your wrists in his hands. “No, this isn’t your fault. I’m sorry for yelling. I just…” He turns his head towards the cub’s corpse, voice cracking as he speaks. “Looking at that makes reality so real. Too real…” He leans his forehead against yours. “And I realized that I can’t bear it. Please don’t leave, Y/N. Please. Not when I’ve… Not when I’ve finally fallen in love with you.”

The confession isn’t surprising. You two are soulmates afterall; everyone knew which way his heart would turn after his breakup. Despite this, your breath still gets caught in your throat and your body still turns rigid at his words.

“Hyunjin…” 

You don’t have to say anymore. He already knows that he’s why you’re leaving. He already knows that there is nothing that can be done about it. Well, perhaps not nothing.

He lifts his glassy eyes to look at you. His soulmate. The one above everything and everyone. But is there someone that’s an exception to “everyone”? Is his own daughter?

Hyunjin shakes his head, not believing such an idea-- the very one that he threatened Jisung against many moons ago-- passed through his head. He throws his arms around you and buries his head in your neck.

“I’m sorry,” he croaks. You can feel his tears rolling down your skin. Or is that tear yours?

Despite your better judgement and previous ideologies, you allow your arms to go around his waist. You tighten the grip you have on his shirt and close your eyes.

“I’ve told you to stop apologizing,” you whisper.

Hyunjin wakes up in cold sweat and heavy breaths from a nightmare. He swallows with great effort as he recalls the vivid images.

You laid in his arms with blood trickling from your lips onto the forest floor.

“Hyun… Jin…” you croaked as you attempt in vain to lift your hand up to caress his face.

“N-no,” he whimpered. “N-no! Don’t go! Please don’t go!”

You shook your head, telling him to come to terms with your fate.

“Who did this to you? Tell me, who did this? I swear I will not let them see another day for doing this!” he cried while holding you tighter against himself.

“It’s…” Suddenly, the orbs of your eyes turned glassy and black. “... you.”

The orbs popped and dark liquid spilled out of them. You disintegrated out of his arms, leaving nothing but blood in your wake. 

Hyunjin fell to the ground, clutching at the leaves stained by your blood as he cried.

“Y/N, please come back! Please! I… I... I’m sorry! I’m sorry!… Please don’t leave me alone. I’ll do anything!”

“Anything?”

A cry sounded from under the leaves. Hyunjin gasped in surprise at the sudden noise but wasted no time pushing away the bloodied fronds to find its source. Finally, his hands rubbed against something soft. He lifted it up off the ground and let out a blood curdling scream.

Hyunjin wills his breathing to slow as he pushes his sweaty bangs out of his face. He walks over to his daughter and picks her up into his arms. She wakes up but is too tired to say anything as her father bounces her up and down gently.

He paces around his room with a heavy decision weighing down on him. He knows what he must do to save you, but can he? The stars against the moonless sky remind him that his time to decide is running out.

“Anything?” he repeats out loud. He doesn’t have to dig through leaves to find what the question means. It’s right there in his arms this time.

~ ad.gold

Posting schedule info: Part 12 (end) will be out Sunday, May 31 at 23:00 PDT! An extra will be out May 28 23:00 PDT. Two alternative epilogues will be out June 2 and 4. Additionally: NOW UNTIL JUNE 7 12:00 PDT please send in asks regarding anything!!! >:D Answers to be posted sometime that week along with all the other asks we’ve received thus far. Thank you for all your support! 

[thdorkmagnet]

Light of the Sun and Stars Chapter 35: Believe in Babs Part 1

Summary: His whole life Marco Diaz has been raised by monsters, living under the cruel rule of their leader, Toffee. But one day Marco escapes into Mewni where he meets a magical princess and Mewman like himself, who begins teaching him all about her world. Together they will learn about life, love, and the lights within each of them, as they change their world forever.

Chapter Synopsis: Who is Babs? And what is she planning? That is just what Buff Frog and the others seek to find out. 

Check out my other stuff on Fanfiction! 

Index

Disclaimer: Star vs and all its characters are owned by Daron Nefcy and Disney. All rights go to them.

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Buff Frog was getting close. He could feel it in his bones. It was only a matter of time before the liar played her true hand and then he would have them right where he wanted them. Pretty soon Rasticore would be in no position at all to harm his child, in fact, he would be behind bars (or frozen in crystal or whatever punishment he and the Mewmans agreed on) and whoever his boss was would follow suit. Marco and Star would be safe and the world would be down and out another vile villain. He just had to be patient, any day now and he would have what he needed.

After the incident with the Assassin's Guild, Buff Frog had regrouped his efforts, this time focusing on learning as much as he could about the girl in the picture he found. It was their only lead and he wasn't going to squander it. Thankfully, it hadn't been too hard to track her down, the rats actually recognizing this one (in fact many of them seemed quite hostile toward her image when he showed them it) and they had guided him right to her doorstep. Which, much to his horror, turned out to be right in the middle of Butterfly Village.

Buff Frog was absolutely panic-stricken at this new knowledge, that a possible spy of Rasticore's was living right under Star and Marco's noses and they didn't even know it. But as terrifying a thought it was, it did make sense. How else could the assassin get so close to the kids without someone on the inside? Even with his specialty-made chainsaw that managed to bypass the anti-portal generators, Rasticore had still had enough knowledge of the area to move around without getting caught, not once, but twice. And that seemed almost impossible unless he was getting help from someone who knew the area better than he did.

This conclusion had only increased Buff Frog's desperation and so for the past few weeks, he had fully dedicated himself to finding out as much information on the young-looking Mewman as he could. He had even enlisted several of the Monsters to help him, all of them just as eager as him to expose the possible traitor and protect Marco from further harm as he was. Buff Frog had put the spying skills he had learned from his time working under Toffee to good use as he and his fellow Monsters followed her around everywhere she went, absorbing as much about her life as they could.

Now several weeks later Buff Frog had learned just about everything he could ever want to know about his target as her identity began to come to light. Her name was Babs (her last name somehow still a mystery to him) she had lived in Butterfly Village for almost ten years now, staying in a modest home in a cozy and quaint neighborhood. She kept pretty much to herself, speaking to only a few people who seemed more acquaintances than friends and with no real family to speak of. She mostly stayed at home with her startlingly large number of cats, which explained the rats' negative reaction at least. Apparently, her home was a deathtrap that had claimed one too many rat lives.

Despite her appearance, she was much older than she looked, probably in her late thirties at the most. And she also seemed quite prone to illness, not a single day had passed so far without her suffering from some sort of ailment, from a simple runny nose to pink eye to even things as serious as the Mewni-flu. Buff Frog had honestly never seen anything like it, he didn't think it was possible for someone to be as regularly sick as Babs was. He would almost feel bad for her if he didn't suspect she was partially responsible for his baby boy's life being in danger.

And that was the biggest thing, Buff Frog knew there was more to her than she was letting on. Though she kept herself guarded, he could tell there were secrets just waiting to be exposed behind her closed doors. He had picked up on her sneaky behavior, though at first, it was very subtle, a quick glance over the shoulder there, a short text message when she thought no one was looking here, but it was there, Buff Frog saw it. He was not just being paranoid and he knew it, he had spent 14 years around the emotionless Toffee, he had learned to pick up subtle clues like this. Yes, this Mewman was hiding something... something big and Buff Frog wouldn't stop until he found out exactly what it was and what connection it had to their missing assassin.

And now Buff Frog was closer than ever. Sure there had been a few setbacks along the way: like him having to, unfortunately, draw some of his time and attention away to focus on his tasks as leader, like helping out the mayor of Hydra's Point when he informed him about Ludo's search party, or Lobster Claws getting mauled by one of Babs' cats (a particularly vicious thing with a scar over its left eye) which had nearly gotten them exposed right then and there. But these hadn't deterred him, he had managed to stay strong through all of them...

And then there was Marco.

He hadn't seen the boy in a couple of weeks now and that seemed to be really affecting the boy. Not that he could blame him, his son was a pretty affectionate child and the lack of attention would naturally upset him and make him crave it all the more. Buff Frog felt terrible for this, but it couldn't be helped. He was doing this for Marco and his girlfriend, after all. To keep them safe. There was no need to get them involved in what could prove a dangerous situation. Not when he had it handled on his own. As much as he hated having to avoid his son, he knew he would understand once all was said and done... at least, Buff Frog hoped he would. If Marco ever blamed him for something like that... well, Buff Frog would rather not think about that. The bad part about it, though, was Marco already seemed to be growing suspicious, the last time they had talked on the phone the other night, his son had been extra questioning, asking him what exactly he had been up to and why he was so busy working, even asking if there was something he could do to help (which had just broken the frog father's heart). Buff Frog had done his best to deflect, but it hadn't been easy, lying to Marco made his stomach turn and brought up uncomfortable memories to a time he would rather forget.

Just a few more days, he kept reminding himself. And then it will all be over.

The frog's thoughts were interrupted as a childish whine came from next to him, Lobster Claws asking for probably the sixth time today alone, "Are we done yet?" The frog had to fight to restrain the annoyed sigh he felt creeping its way up his throat, reminding himself that his friend was just as stressed and worried about Marco as he was.

"No, not yet," the Monster leader said (again), doing his best to keep his calm, but the grumble that followed was beginning to make his nerves wear thin. His Monsters were far less patient regarding the whole affair than he was, that much was clear. While the amphibian understood that these kinds of things took time, the others didn't seem to quite grasp this, all of them wanting to forgo the slow-and-steady approach and just run over there and slap a pair of handcuffs on her wrists.

"But why do we have to wait? Why can't we just expose her for the spy she is?" the crustacean pressed, leaning back against the poll he was hiding behind.

"Because, I don't want expose her, I want her lead us to Rasticore," Buff Frog explained from his position kneeling behind an empty cart, fighting to keep his voice calm, his eyes never leaving their target as she got her usual order of catnip from one of the cart sellers in town. It was her errand day, where she would venture outside the safe confines of her house to purchase the necessities she needed to get by. It also happened to be the best time to observe her, since her subtle gestures became more obvious when she was intentionally trying to hide things from people.

There was an unintelligible grunt from next to him, Buff Frog recognizing it as coming from Potato Baby and the amphibian patiently waited for the translation, keeping his gaze focused on Babs. "Potato Baby wants to know how much longer we're gonna have to wait," Lobster Claws explained for his friend.

"As long as it takes," Buff Frog said simply, his eyes narrowing with determination.

"Uh okay, that's fine and all, but can we at least break off to go get something to eat? Cause I've got like... three stomachs to feed and all of them are growling right now," Spike Balls asked, his voice slightly muffled by the trash can he had placed over his head as a 'disguise'. It was clear that it was doing nothing to hide him at all but it was better than nothing. Even with Star's new law allowing Monsters to come and go much more freely, Spike Balls still stood out like a sore thumb.

In hindsight, Buff Frog knew bringing the biggest and most distracting Monster on his team with him to help spy probably wasn't the best idea but, as Spike Balls himself had argued, it wasn't fair that some Monsters got to go on more missions than him just because of his size. So Buff Frog had decided to let him come on the condition that he really try and keep himself hidden, a decision the Monster leader was fast regretting as it clearly wasn't Spike Balls' strong suit.

The Monster leader let out a long breath, thinking over the request for a moment. He admitted it was tempting, he was beyond hungry at this point, but he couldn't allow himself to get distracted. Someone had to be there to watch Babs, after all. Then again, Buff Frog's stomach reasoned with his mind. Maybe he could send the others to go get some food while he kept watch, that could work. Just as the amphibian opened his mouth to agree, the four froze hearing a very familiar sound, one that the Monsters would know anywhere.

A laugh. And not just any laugh. A laugh that could only belong to one person, too light and bouncy to be anyone else, too full of joy and infectious energy to be mistaken for a stranger. A sound that, under normal circumstances, would fill them with intense joy but at the moment only left them all in a panicked frenzy to not be seen. And as Buff Frog broke off his stare from Babs to look in the direction of the sound, his heart somehow both dropped and lifted at the sight of his adopted hoodie-wearing son Marco. He, Star, Jackie, and a red-haired girl Buff Frog didn't recognize were walking their way, talking amongst each other with bright smiles on their faces. His son's hand was intertwined with Star's, while his other was holding a big thing of yellow cotton candy almost the size of his head. The girls all had the same treat, though with various sizes depending on how many bites were missing from it, and all of them seemed to be quite enjoying themselves.

"Oh no, it's Marco, what do we do?" Lobster Claws hissed in fear.

"Do not panic, my friends, we still hidden, if stay quiet Marco and friends might pass by and not notice us," Buff Frog said, keeping his voice at a hushed and subdued tone. The Monsters watched silently as the four teens approached, all of them holding their breath as they came to within earshot and listening in to their conversation.

"Come on Higgs, it isn't that bad," Jackie said with a roll of her eyes, a playful smile on her lips as she turned to the red-haired girl.

"It's terrible," Higgs stated in a hard tone. "I mean corn-flavored cotton candy, who even thinks up this kind of stuff?!"

"Yeah it's definitely not for everyone," Star agreed.

"Well, I love it!" Marco exclaimed, before taking a giant bite out of his tasty treat. Once he swallowed, he quickly added, "It's like eating a cloud... made of sugar!" The boy's already wide eyes, somehow grew larger with the next bite, as his cheek marks turned into spinning circles that seemed incapable of stopping as he exclaimed in sugar-filled ecstasy, "It's literally the best thing ever!"

Despite the situation the Monster all couldn't help but smile from their hiding place, finding the boy's childlike innocence as endearing as ever.

But it seemed Higgs wasn't as amused as she just sighed in over-exaggerated annoyance, asking herself, "Why did I even let you guys talk me into this?"

"Because you love us?" Marco suggested, his eyes full of hope as he smiled at his friend.

"Please, if anything I tolerate you," the redhead scoffed with a roll of her eyes.

"Then because you had nothing better to do," Jackie said and Higgs shot her a glare.

"I'm a very important and prestigious knight," Higgs said proudly, puffing her chest out some as she spoke, something the Monsters got the feeling she did a lot. "If I wanted to I could be off right now stopping a war or slaying a dragon or something way more interesting than eating snacks and wandering around town."

"Well if you aren't having fun, you can always go back, you know," Star pointed out and Higgs predictably shouted, "No!" She cleared her throat the blush obvious on her face as she said in a composed manner, "No, that's okay, Your Highness. I'm... having fun."

The three teens all gave her knowing looks and smiles, which the redhead pretended to not notice, focusing her attention on the cotton candy as she took a large bite out of it, before nearly gagging at the horrible flavor. "Ugh, gross. Seriously this stuff should be illegal," she groaned in disgust, her entire face cringing as she fought the urge to spit the terrible tasting stuff out of her mouth.

This caused the others to laugh at the ridiculous face she was making, much to Higgs' annoyance, the girl growling under her breath and turning her face away to hide her blush once more. At this point, the group of teens were now directly next to where the Monsters all hid, Buff Frog and the others holding their breath as they waited for them to pass.

"Ah man, too bad Janna didn't want to come," Marco voiced once the laughter ceased, a sad expression crossing his face. "She's missing all the fun."

"Yeah, what a shame," Higgs sarcastically commented under her breath, resisting the urge to roll her eyes. She still had her suspicions about the creepy teen and the less time she spent around her the better.

"It was pretty weird of her to say no," Star admitted, her stomach twisting slightly with uncertainty toward her friend. "Usually she's always up for stuff like this."

"She's has been acting pretty strange lately," Jackie agreed, her normally cool, radiant eyes flashing with worry for a second. "Ever since we got back from that peace mission, she hasn't really seemed much like herself."

"Do you think we should talk to her about it?" Marco asked, his own eyes filling with concern.

"I don't know," Star thoughtfully replied, biting her lip. "You know how much she hates being asked personal questions."

"Good point," the skater muttered. "That might just make things worse."

"So what do we do?" the hooded teen questioned, looking between his two friends for an answer.

Suddenly, Higgs let out a loud huff coming to an abrupt halt, drawing the others' attention onto her. "Who cares?" the young knight argued, her face full of unbridled frustration. "That girl is the very definition of strange. If she is acting weird, it's probably so she can hide her latest evil scheme or something." Then, without warning, the girl just chucked her half-eaten cotton candy at the nearest trashcan, not even bothering to turn in its direction, before crossing her arms in front of her chest.

What the girl had failed to notice was the fact that this particular 'trashcan' happened to be the very one Spike Balls was hiding inside and rather than landing inside it, it simply bounced off the Monster's large form before falling at his feet. Spike Balls, without thinking, reached down and let the sticky substance attach itself to his oversized hand before extending it over to the still scowling Higgs.

"Here, you dropped this," he said politely, while the other Monsters just face-palmed at their friend's stupidity.

But Higgs didn't seem to notice, her focus and attention still on her friends and she simply snatched it back without a second thought. "Thanks," she said quickly, before raising her voice as she prepared to go into another rant. "And if you ask me-"

Suddenly, realization struck, as the girl froze on the spot, her gaze slowly turning to the large 'hidden' form next to her, her eyes narrowing in a threatening way. Star, Jackie, and Marco just looked on with expressions ranging from fear to confusion, staring wide-eyed at the large, unknown figure next to them. "Uh, who are you?" Higgs asked in a deadly serious tone, a fist slowly raising as she readied herself for a possible attack.

Spike Balls seemed to have realized his mistake as he nervously muttered, "Um, no one. Just... an ordinary trashcan, nothing to see here. Just go on about your business."

Marco's face lit up with recognition as he gasped out, "Spike Balls?!"

The Monster, knowing he was caught, slowly lifted the trashcan off his head, shooting the boy a sheepish grin as he greeted hesitantly, "Hey Marco."

"What are you doing here?" the hooded boy asked, his brain spinning as he tried to make sense of this strange new development.

"And why do you have a trashcan over your face?" Star added, her voice full of skepticism.

Higgs, upon realizing her friends knew this Monster and he posed no immediate threat, allowed her body to relax some, her tight muscles untensing as she lowered her fist back down, but she continued to keep a wary, vigilant eye on him just in case.

"Uhhh, well you see," Spike Balls stuttered out, clearly unsure how to answer them, his eyes darting around, looking for an escape. "I'm... not allowed to tell you."

"What? Why not?" Star asked, an eyebrow slowly raising and the Monster gulped at the accusing looks he was receiving, sweat beginning to drip down his face.

"Because I told him not to," a voice said behind them and they all turned to see Buff Frog come into view, along with Lobster Claws and Potato Baby. Spike Balls sighed in relief, glad he didn't have to keep up the charade any longer and could let his boss handle things from there.

"Dad!" Marco exclaimed in joy, racing over to hug his dad. Despite the confusing situation, he was still as happy as ever to see his father, feeling beyond starved for his attention. Buff Frog couldn't help but smile down at his child, as he gave him a gentle squeeze back.

Star, meanwhile, was still trying to make sense of it all, putting her hands on her hips as she asked in slight exasperation, "Okay, can someone please explain to us what's going on? Why were you guys hiding from us like a bunch of creeps?"

"It is... a bit complicated," Buff Frog admitted, shooting the blond royal a sheepish smile.

Marco gasped as an idea came into his head and he pulled away from his dad, looking up at him with shimmering eyes as he asked, "Was this a surprise? Are you here to surprise me with a visit?"

Buff Frog felt his heart clench and for a moment, but knew he couldn't hide the truth from him any longer and so replied honestly, "No. Sorry, my son. We weren't here to surprise you."

"Oh," the boy said, slight disappointment on his face. But it quickly disappeared as he cocked his head to the side and (as Buff Frog predicted he would) curiously asking, "Then what are you doing here?"

"We here on business," the Monster leader replied, purposely dodging the question as he still hoped from getting the kids involved unless he absolutely had to.

"Business that requires you to sneak around and hide from us," Higgs skeptically pointed out, shooting the amphibian a look that clearly said she wasn't buying a word of his story.

"What's going on, Buff Frog?" Star questioned, her tone serious and demanding and the frog faltered some under her intense gaze.

"Is nothing to concern yourselves with," the amphibian tried, still grasping onto the futile hope of keeping them out of this. "Everything fine."

"Really cause it sure looks like you're up to something," Jackie pitched in, shooting him her own doubting stare.

Now it was Lobster Claws who spoke up, chuckling awkwardly as he said, "What? No way! Whatever gave you guys that idea?"

Suddenly Boo Fly appeared, flying in out of nowhere, calling pleasantly out to his leader, "Hey Buff Frog, I tried to zzneak into the targetzz houzze like you azzked but I couldn't get inzzide." Suddenly he took notice of the others, his many eyes darting between them all before turning to the amphibian once again, a sheepish expression now on his face. "Izz thizz a bad time?"

The four teens all turned to Buff Frog with accusing looks, except Marco who just gave his dad a worried expression, softly asking, "Dad? What's going on?"

Buff Frog let out a sigh, knowing it was time to come clean. There was no point in denying it now. Although he knew the kids would want to help if they learned the truth, he also knew they wouldn't stop until they got an answer from him. So he gave them each a long look, taking in there confused but determined faces, his gaze freezing on his son as he told them all straight out, "Very well, I tell you everything." His eyes darted around cautiously for a second before he added in an even softer tone, "But first, we need go somewhere private to talk."

…

The group of Mewmans and humans all followed silently behind Buff Frog as he led them to his temporary base in Butterfly Village, the teens all beyond curious at this point as they were led along, but decided it was best to just wait for the amphibian to explain the situation in his own time. The rest of the Monsters had stayed behind, only Buff Frog breaking away from whatever he was busy doing to talk to them, informing his team to keep him posted if there were any 'new surprises' while he was gone, whatever that meant. Finally, they seemed to reach their destination as the frog came to a sudden halt, holding up a hand to signal the others to stop. "We're here," he said softly.

Higgs didn't look convinced though, as she stared at the broken-down shack before them, looking like it might topple over at any second, and said crossly, "You can't be serious."

"Am very serious. No one think to look for us here," Buff Frog replied, no hesitation in his tone.

"Yeah because no sane person would go in a rundown place like this," the knight commented under her breath.

Buff Frog just ignored this though, as he slowly lifted up the thin, torn sheet that acted as the entrance inside and turned to them, saying, "Now quickly, young ones, inside."

Star, Marco, and Jackie didn't hesitate as they all piled into the small hut, all too desperate for answers to argue. Higgs, however, didn't seem to feel the same. "There's no way I am going into that deathtrap," the girl argued, standing firm and unmoving from her spot.

"Please," the Monster leader pleaded, his eyes full of urgency. "Must hurry, before someone sees us."

"Why? Because then everyone will know you're sneaking around the village," Higgs snapped.

"Come on, Higgs," Marco insisted, giving his friend a begging look. "He's my dad, we can trust him."

"Fine," the girl grumbled under her breath, as she finally walked into the small space with a cocky, overly-confident stride. She did pause to shoot the Monster a dirty look as she passed him by, adding sharply, "But I do have half a mind to report you to General Skullnick, you know."

Buff Frog gave her a shocked look and the girl smirked proudly to herself, only to freeze seeing the inside did look a bit nicer than the outside, at the very least it looked less like it might fall apart if you breathed wrong. It was clear that the Monsters had taken some time to fix it up a bit, giving it a lived but welcoming (almost cozy) feel. "Huh, this isn't actually so bad," she muttered without realizing it.

"Da, almost as if you shouldn't judge places based on appearances," Buff Frog commented as he passed her by, giving the redhead a knowing look which caused her to frown.

"Touche," she whispered under her breath, low enough she was fairly sure he hadn't heard her.

Star, Marco, and Jackie's attention, however, was less on the actual building and more on what looked like hundreds of pictures and pieces of paper that had been plastered to the wall in an almost haphazard manner. Thin pieces of string were everywhere on the wall, forming a massive array of scattered lines, loosely and confusedly connecting the many, many bits of information together. The three teens all shared confused looks, unable to make any sense of the odd display, before turning to the Monster leader for help. "Okay, Buff Frog time to start explaining," Star said, doing her best not to sound outright demanding to him, keeping her tone as light as she could despite her frustration.

"Yeah, what's going on, dad?" Marco asked, his brown orbs filled with worry. "Why are you sneaking around and hiding from us?"

Buff Frog took in a deep breath, massaging his forehead with his fingertips for a second before admitting, "Sorry to keep all of you in dark, but didn't want get you involved unless I had to. Is very dangerous mission and want to keep you kids from getting hurt."

"Does this have something to do with Rasticore?" the hooded teen guessed. Judging by his dad's grave tone of voice and his secretive behavior lately that was really the only thing that made sense. What else would make him feel the need to not only not tell them, but keep them as far from the truth as possible? Which was why Marco wasn't surprised when the amphibian nodded in reply, though he did feel his heartbeat speed up a bit.

"Da," Buff Frog said and the girls all let out collective gasps, Marco feeling Star's grip tighten on his hand protectively. "Me and Monsters been trying to track him down for weeks now."

"And is he here in town?" Jackie asked, her voice remaining steady but her normally radiant eyes were full of fear. "Is that why you're having to sneak around?"

Buff Frog shook his head. "Not exactly," the frog said vaguely while reaching over to the picture-coated wall and pulling off a slip of paper. It was small, looking like it had been ripped in half, Marco noticed, as his dad walked over to them and held the picture up for their view. "This all we manage to find on assassin."

The teens all stared intensely at the photo, each with questioning, inquisitive frowns on their faces as they observed every inch of the seemingly unknown stranger. That was until Star's eyes lit up with recognition and she exclaimed, "Wait, I know her!"

"You do?" Buff Frog asked in surprise.

"Um, well kinda," Star corrected herself, still giving the image a thoughtful expression. "She was one of the people me and Jackie interviewed. Or at least we tried to." A sour look crossed over Star's face as she remembered how harshly she had been rejected the moment she had mentioned her commission.

"Oh yeah, the one with all those cats," Jackie pitched in, remembering the young-looking Mewman now. The skater turned to the blond, their eyes locking as she added, "No wonder she didn't want to answer any of our questions."

"So is she a spy or something?" Higgs asked, scanning her target with a grim frown, taking in every detail she could as she attempted to memorize the image. Her previous cocky nature had vanished in an instant replaced only with cold, unrelenting determination as her trained instincts began to kick in. The only thing she focused on now was the mission, all she saw was her target, her mind consumed entirely by it as she pushed out any other thoughts or emotions, just like she had been taught to do.

"We don't know," Buff Frog admitted, giving them all sheepish looks. "All we had to go on was photo." His voice hardened some as he added bitterly, "But have my suspicions."

"So what's the plan, then?" Star asked and the frog instantly recognized that tone, it was the kind of tone Star only took when she was dead set on getting involved, doing everything in her power to resolve the situation herself, and from the look his son was giving him, Buff Frog had a feeling Marco felt the same.

"No, I don't want you kids involved," the frog father said firmly, giving them each a hard stare that only a master parent could perfect, hoping to dissuade any further arguments.

Marco recognized this look and knew what it meant, but he still couldn't stop himself, he didn't want this to all fall to his dad. He wanted to help. "But Buff Frog-"

"No, my son," Buff Frog said firmly but gently, his eyes trying to convey the love and concern he was feeling to his child. "Rasticore almost hurt you twice. I know you can take care of selves, but I don't want put you at any risk."

"But isn't having a possible spy living in our village putting us at risk, already?" Star pointed out. Buff Frog said nothing to this.

"Yeah come on, Buff Frog, let us help you out," Jackie pushed, a confident smile on her face. "There's no sense in letting you do this alone."

Buff Frog seemed to be contemplating this, whispering under his breath, "Welllll..."

"Besides, we'll all be safer if we're working together," Star reasoned, hoping to convince him to change his mind with some sound logic, while Marco went a different approach, hoping to appeal to his heartstrings instead.

"Please let us help you, dad," the hooded teen begged, putting on the widest and saddest puppy-dog pout he had in his arsenal, making his eyes shimmer and his lip quiver in the cutest way he could.

Their words seemed to be breaking through to Buff Frog, his expressions showcasing his weakening resolve as his face flooded with uncertainty, finding himself torn between his parental instincts or his job as leader. There was no doubt capturing Rasticore would be much easier with help from Star and her friends but at the same time, he couldn't help but worry of what dangers he could be willingly exposing them to if he said yes.

The Mewmans could tell the Monster needed a little extra incentive if they were going to get him to agree, which was why Higgs figured now was a good time to try her approach: blackmail.

"Plus, if you don't let us help you I'm telling General Skullnick and you know how she can be," she said, betraying no emotion with her voice.

This seemed to do the trick as the Monster leader looked between each of the pleading, persuasive faces before him, his gaze softening as he seemed to have reached a decision. He finally let out a deep sigh as the last of his resistance died out, pinching the bridge of his nose as he said in a regretful tone, "Fine. You may help."

"Yes!" the group cheered, taking a moment to share high-fives, momentarily celebrating their victory. Finally, Marco turned to his dad, reassuring him, "Don't worry, dad. We won't let you down."

Buff Frog gave him a tight smile, still unsure he had made the right choice or not but ultimately decided his son deserved the benefit of the doubt and so told him in the most enthusiastic voice he could muster, "I'm sure you won't."

The four all shared joyful smiles before they seemed to get serious once again, Star clearing her throat, before asking the frog in her 'princess' voice, "Okay so what's our plan of action?"

"Well at moment, we simply been following her around, waiting for her to get in contact with Rasticore," Buff Frog explained.

"Didn't Boo Fly say something about trying to sneak into her house, though?" Jackie pointed out and Buff Frog gave her a surprised look, impressed that she had been perceptive enough to remember that.

"Da, I hoping to find more evidence inside but, unfortunately, we unable to figure out way in."

"Well that should be no problem," Star spoke up. "We do have a master lock pick on our side, after all."

"Oh yeah, we can totally ask Janna to help. That's a great idea Star," Marco complimented her, shooting her one of his signature smiles, which caused the blond to blush slightly.

"Thanks," she said, giving his hand a small squeeze while staring deep into his chocolate brown orbs.

"Yeah, I'm not so sure that's a good idea," Higgs commented and the others turned to her with questioning looks.

"Why not?" Marco asked, cocking his head to the side in curiosity.

"If this is because you still don't want to trust her, then-" Jackie started to argue feeling a need to stick up for her friend, only to be interrupted by the redhead.

"No, it's not," she stated firmly. "Well okay I don't," she added honestly, before quickly explaining, "But you guys said yourselves she's been acting weird lately, right? Are you even sure she's gonna say yes, after all, she made it pretty clear she wanted to be alone today."

Star, Marco, and Jackie all shared looks of concern at this. They hadn't considered that. Janna clearly was working through some things at the moment and needed the time alone. Could they really ask her to ditch everything just to come and help them?

"Yeah, you're right, Higgs," Star agreed sadly. "I'm not sure involving Janna is a good idea right now."

"So, how are we gonna get inside than without Janna?" Marco asked, his voice shaking some out of both concern for his friend and the hopelessness that was beginning to fill up his chest.

"Well y'know, I could give it a shot," Jackie offered and the others went slack-jawed, staring at her with looks of pure shock.

Star was unable to keep herself from muttering in astonishment, "You, Jacks?"

The skater shrugged, giving them a calm smile, "Yeah, why not? I mean, I've seen Janna pick thousands of locks before, so I got a basic idea of what to do. And the rest shouldn't be too hard to figure out."

Higgs raised a skeptical eyebrow, while Marco flashed her a trusting grin. Star and Buff Frog's faces flashed with doubt for a second, before they buried it, the blond hesitantly saying, "Wellll, if you're sure..."

"I'm sure," Jackie said, her radiant eyes filled with unwavering confidence as she pointed to herself. "I can get us inside that house, no problem."

"Very well then I leave job in your hands, but take a few Monsters with you for protection," Buff Frog suggested keeping his voice light but serious.

"I'll come with, feel like it's gonna be less boring than just sitting around and waiting for something to happen," Higgs volunteered and Jackie gave her a playful smirk.

"You know that sounds like something Janna would say," the skater teased and the young knight shot her a death glare.

"Don't compare me to her. Ever," the girl growled in a warning tone.

Jackie just shrugged and let the subject drop there, but the knowing smile never once left her lips, much to Higgs's annoyance, who began to huffily ignore her existence.

With that out of the way, Buff Frog turned to Star and Marco, telling the young couple, "I guess that means you two will be with me."

The two nodded, Star doing a salute as she said confidently, "Yep, Star and Marco at your service!"

The boy quickly reciprocated his girlfriend's actions, his whole body beginning to shake with excitement as his eyes twinkled with possibilities. "Oh man this is so exciting!" he exclaimed. "We're gonna be real spies, Star! Just like in that Mackie Hand movie, 'The Spy Who Punched Me', remember?"

Star held back a giggle as she told the boy sweetly, "Yes Marco, I remember."

"This is gonna be so awesome!" the boy cheered, pumping his fists into the air, forgetting one of them was still intertwined with Star's so that hers was forcefully thrown up, as well.

Buff Frog gave the blond royal a questioning look, asking "What is this... Mackie Hand?"

"He's this old action movie actor Marco really likes. We watched a bunch of his movies during our last date night."

"Hey Star, remember the one where he kicks that bad guy so hard they exploded!" the hooded teen suddenly shouted.

Star and Buff Frog locked eyes for a moment, the Monster with a fearful look, clearly concerned about what it was his son was being shown, and Star just shrugged sheepishly. "Um, it wasn't as violent as it sounds."

"And then remember when he ripped out that one guy's spine!" Marco continued and Star quickly slapped a hand over the boy's mouth to keep him from saying anything further.

"Shhh, Marco," she whispered to him, before chuckling nervously over to the concerned father, who's eyes were wide with terror. "They're actually way better movies than you might think."

…

It wasn't too hard to find the Monsters once again, the group camped outside a pet store (where Babs presumably was inside) keeping themselves at a safe enough distance away they didn't have to worry about being considered conspicuous. They sat on (or around in Spike Balls' case) a bench at a relativity quiet corner of Butterfly Village, only getting the occasional odd look from Mewmans passing by that had just become accustomed to any Monster within the kingdom's boundaries. When the Monsters spotted Buff Frog and the teens approaching, Lobster Claws waved over to them with a goofy grin but kept silent so he didn't attract unwanted attention. The moment they were close enough, Lobster Claws asked, "Hey guys, did you bring us anything to eat?"

The frog responded by pulling out a bag of food he had picked up on the way back and the Monsters quickly snatched it up and went to work gulping its contents down their starving throats, the group of teens just watching with a mixture of disgust and intrigue. "Anything happen while gone?" the frog asked, wanting to get the important business out of the way as quickly as he could.

The others just shook their heads, Spike Balls saying with a mouth full of food, "Nope, she's been in there pretty much since you left, boss. Lobster Claws peeked in there earlier and saw her arguing with the owner about something."

"That good to hear," the frog Monster said with relief.

"So what about you guys?" Lobster Claws asked, unable to contain his curiosity anymore as he turned his attention to his boss. "Did you tell them everything?"

Buff Frog nodded, informing them all, "Da, and we have come up with new plan to put stop to Babs and whatever she and ally are planning."

The Monsters shared confused looks at this. "But I thought we didn't want them involved," Spike Balls pointed out and the frog leader let out a deep sigh.

"That is correct. But they made good points, so I agreed to let them help us," he said simply, but not without shooting the kids a scolding glare as he did and all of them gave him sheepish looks except Higgs, who was unaffected by the attempt.

"Yeah and it's a good thing too," she commented smugly. "It's pretty obvious you needed the help since Buff Frog told us you can't even do something as simple as break into a house."

"Hey, give uzz a break, it'zz pretty heavily guarded," Boo Fly whined, crossing his arms huffily in front of his chest.

"By cats," the girl added with a scoff.

"Really vicious cats!" Lobster Claws defended.

"Didn't you use to kill people?" she asked, slowly raising a critical eyebrow.

The Monsters had no reply to this, simply avoiding her eye as they all went completely silent.

"Listen, my friends," Buff Frog spoke up, gaining control back on the situation. "Boo Fly will stay with me, while rest of you go with Jackie and redheaded girl so they be safe getting into Babs's home."

"Wait, you want us to go back there?!" Lobster Claws exclaimed in fear.

"Why afraid you might get scratched by a kitty cat," Higgs taunted.

"Well, yeah," the crustacean quickly said. "I mean have you seen that one with the scar, it's evil!"

"But, Lobster Claws, you have a shell," Jackie pointed out.

"Well yeah but it's not the pain that's the problem, it's the surprise!" the lobster Monster argued, his voice a hurt whine, as he seemed to be fighting back tears now, Potato Baby patting him gently on the back to calm him.

"Oh brother," Higgs muttered under her breath.

"Don't worry Lobster Claws," Marco spoke up, shooting the crustacean a reassuring smile. "Higgs is a knight and a really good one too, I'm sure she'll be able to protect you. Won't you Higgs?" The boy gave her an expectant smile and she felt pride surge up through her at the level of trust her friend clearly had toward her.

"Sure, I'll make sure nobody gets emotionally scarred by a bunch of house cats," she said, trying to sound sarcastic but it came out halfhearted.

"See you guys are in good hands," Star added, her voice full of admiration that only increased the feeling the redhead had. "Higgs was almost Marco's bodyguard, after all. She can handle a few stray cats."

Lobster Claws sniffed, wiping his nose with his oversized claw, his eyes now full of hope. "In that case, I'd be honored to help!" He quickly stood and saluted, Potato Baby letting out an agreeing grunt as he did the same.

"Me three," Spike Balls said, standing up far too quickly and almost knocking over a hanging lantern in the process, his circular hands fumbling to grab it to keep it from falling.

"Okay then, let's get going," Jackie said, pointing over her shoulder off in the direction to Babs' house.

The Monsters nodded in agreement and began following the girls, Jackie leading the way since she had been there once before. Star and the others watched them go until they were out of sight before the hooded teen turned to Buff Frog and asked, "Alright dad, what do we do first? Fight some ninjas, defuse a bomb, oh how about we break into a secret underground lair!"

Star and Buff Frog just smiled at the boy's precious naivety, the frog father trying to hold back his laughter as he told his son, "No Marco, don't think we need do any of that. Probably only going to follow Babs around for while and try not to be seen."

"Oh... that's fine too," the boy said in slight disappointment. Star, seeing his disheartened face, couldn't quite hold back the giggle as she put an arm around her boyfriend's waist bringing him closer to her so she could cuddle him. "Aw, Marco you're adorable!" she sighed lovingly, rubbing her cheek up against his, instantly cheering him up as he blushed and grinned ear to ear. "Sorry we can't do any of that stuff."

"Nah, it's okay," the hooded teen replied cheerfully, his upbeat attitude returning full force. "It may not be as cool as something Mackie Hand would do but it's probably for the best, I'm not sure I was all that comfortable with punching a ninja."

Boo Fly just looked between them with confusion, unable to understand a word for the last minute now, until he finally turned to his boss, hoping he would help make sense of it all. "Uhh, Buff Frog, what izz he talking about?"

…

Jackie, Higgs and the Monsters arrived at Babs' home, the young knight on high alert as she surveyed the exterior. It was a pretty nice place, she observed, modestly sized and still in good condition despite the occasional claw mark or scratch in the wooden frame. The house was only one story and by the looks of it was one bedroom. Higgs counted a total of five exits out of the house, three windows and a front and back door (because there was always a back door) and the knight was confident they could get in and out without trouble. The yard was also fairly big and clearly well taken care of, the grass cut to perfection with a white fence built all around it, most likely to keep her cats from running away. That or to discourage people from coming around, Higgs thought. She quickly scanned the neighboring homes around them and was relieved to see that the streets were currently empty and devoid of life. Perfect. Now they could go about their mission without having to worry about attracting unwanted attention, after all, it wouldn't be fun explaining to General Skullnick why she was reported breaking into an innocent Mewman's home with a bunch of Monsters.

Speaking of the Monsters, they all seemed jittery and nervous as they cast fearful eyes around the yard, clearly unnerved to see many of the 'dreaded cats' sprawled out on the grass napping in the warm sunlight and Higgs had to stop herself from rolling her eyes at the ridiculous sight. Come on, how lame could they get? They were Toffee's old right-claw Monsters after all, who knew what horrors they had seen and carried out in the last decade and yet a couple of cats had them almost petrified with fear. It was honestly just pathetic to watch.

Jackie took the initiative as she stepped up to the gate and moved to undo the latch, but stopped upon hearing the audible gasp behind her. She looked over her shoulder to see the Monsters giving her panicked expressions, and she asked in a whisper, "What, what's wrong?"

Lobster Claws just pointed with his namesake over to the snoozing felines, his eyes somehow widening even more as he let out a nervous whine. Jackie looked over in the indicated direction before shooting them a confident smile, her radiant eyes helping sooth their nerves some, as she told them all gently, "Don't worry. I promise I'll be quiet."

The Monsters seemed to relax some, allowing her to lift the latch and push the gate open without any objection. The skater made sure to keep her movements slow and careful, not wanting to disturb or wake any of the cats, but this seemed to be wearing on the young knight's patience as Higgs let out an obnoxious, exaggerated sigh. Clearly, she found the Monsters' apprehension annoying and pointless, but Jackie knew better. Buff Frog's group was definitely odd, there was no denying that, but they weren't cowards. If they were afraid of these cats than they had good reason. Or at the very least there was some merit behind it and the skater would rather not find out what it was if she could help it.

Once the gate was wide-open, the girl began tip-toeing toward the front door, careful to avoid any tails or fluffy bodies on her way, until she finally reached the entrance. She, just to be sure, tried the knob but found it locked tight. No surprise there, but it had at least been worth a try.

She turned back over her shoulder and waved the others over, the Monster moving at the same cautious pace Jackie had, all except Spike Balls, who waited outside the fenced area, acting as their lookout since his large form wouldn't be able to fit inside the small home anyways. Higgs, on the other hand, didn't even bother trying to avoid any of the felines, just striding cockily and carelessly across the yard in a few short steps and the Monsters looked like they all might have a heart attack due to the girl's far-too-fast pace.

In a manner of seconds, she was at Jackie's side, plastering on a mock shocked expression as she said sarcastically to both the skater and the Monsters, "Well look at that, I walked to the door and nothing went wrong. How shocking."

Jackie just ignored her, pulling out the small hairpin she kept on her in case of emergencies, a habit she had picked up from Janna. She silently thanked Janna for this, even though honestly she wasn't sure how she should feel knowing Janna of all people was starting to rub off on her."You should be more careful, Higgs," she scolded, while her fingers fiddled with the hairpin, feeling around inside the intricate locking mechanism of the doorknob. "We're still trying to avoid danger, remember?"

"Yeah, and these cats are way more vicious than they look, y'know," Lobster Claws added via nervous whisper.

Higgs scoffed, leaning back against the wall, before saying, "Oh whatever, I already said I was going to protect you, remember? So, therefore, you've got nothing to worry about. Besides, the only danger we're in right now is getting caught breaking into someone's house." She then turned to Jackie with a knowing look, asking impatiently, "Speaking of which, think you could speed this up a little bit before we end up getting busted."

The skater kept her focus on the task at hand, her fingers struggling to get the lock open, finding no angle or movement was quite doing the trick. "Just hang on a minute, okay. I've never done this before." She stuck her tongue out in concentration, still trying to get a feel on what exactly she was needing to do to get the stupid door open. "I think I owe Janna an apology, this is way harder than she makes it look," Jackie commented staring at the doorknob with disbelief. After several more minutes of trial and error, the skater felt something give and heard a noticeable click inside the mechanism. She pulled the hairpin out, her face lit up with pride as she said, "Got it!"

"Great, can we get inside now?" Lobster Claws asked eagerly, he and Potato Baby casting nervous glances over their shoulders, fearful the cats would wake up at any moment.

"Wait," Higgs said, taking control of the situation again as she moved protectively in front of Jackie, the serious frown returning to her face. "Gotta make sure it's safe first," the young knight continued, her tone emotionless and robotic and her movements the same as she pressed her ear up against the door frame, listening for a few seconds for any sounds of breathing. Once she was confident there was no ambush waiting for them on the other side, she pulled away and began to slowly turn the knob, her body tensed and ready in case there were any booby traps. The young knight pushed the door open and took a cautious step inside, surveying the home for any form of danger but it seemed to just be a normal house, save for the cat hair and claw marks that covered every inch of the place. The furniture was torn to shreds, it's remains lying scattered all over the floor and small cat houses and seemingly unused scratching posts were all over the living room area.

Higgs turned back to the others telling them, "Okay, guys, everything seems fine so you should be good to-"

The knight didn't even get a chance to finish her sentence as Lobster Claws and Potato Baby rushed inside the empty house, pushing Jackie in with them, before hurriedly closing the front door and letting out relieved sighs. "Oh thank goodness, I thought those cats were gonna get us for sure," Lobster Claws said, wiping his forehead with the back of his pincers looking relaxed for the first time since they got to the house.

Potato Baby mumbled something to his friend, the incoherent grunt sounding to Jackie's trained ear like an agreement.

Higgs just rolled her eyes, snapping at them, "Hey, stay focused. We're here for a reason, remember? This is no time for goofing off." She didn't give them a second to respond as she turned to Jackie and said, "Jackie you and me are gonna search the bedroom. If she is keeping secrets that'd be the most likely place she'd hide them." Her gaze snapped back to the two Monsters, who flinched at the sudden action. "You two are gonna check the other rooms in the house. If you see anything suspicious let us know."

The two saluted waiting until the redhead had turned her back to them, her and Jackie already heading off in the direction of the bedroom, before they shared a knowing look, her bossy, aggressive nature reminiscent of someone else they knew. Potato Baby mumbled something again and Lobster Claws nodded, holding back his laughter as he agreed, "Yeah, she does act pretty similar to him." The similarities were scary similar, in fact, all the girl needed was a beard and some antlers and they would be impossible to be told apart.

But the two pushed these thoughts aside, getting back down to business as they surveyed the destroyed living room, Lobster Claws asking his friend, "So where should we start looking for clues?"

The potato-like Monster pointed over to the shredded couch and the crustacean smiled at the suggestion, putting a claw on his companion's shoulder. "Good idea. People are always losing stuff in there."

Meanwhile, Jackie waited until they were out of earshot to tell the young knight in a reprimanding tone, "You know, you could try and be a little nicer to them."

Higgs just scoffed, before jabbing a finger behind her. "Why? Did you see the way they were acting back there? Oh wait, I know you did because you kept encouraging them the whole time. Honestly, Jackie, I expected more from you, but you're just as bad as they are."

Jackie gave Higgs a firm look, calmly telling her, "Look, Higgs, I know you think they're just being paranoid and weird but you haven't known them as long as I have, they aren't ones to just freak out over nothing. If they are really sure something is that dangerous than I trust them and so should you."

"I never said I didn't believe them. I'm just making sure they get over it and stop acting so afraid. It's called tough love, Jackie."

"Did Dex teach you that?" the skater asked with a raised eyebrow.

"No, my mom did," Higgs replied, with her typical sharp tongue. But her voice grew soft and almost hesitant as she added, "She taught me a lot of things, actually."

Jackie looked over at the knight sadly, telling her, "Yeah, mine too."

The two were silent for a moment as walked side by side down the hallway, avoiding each other's eye as they stared down at their feet. They entered into what they presumed to be Babs' bedroom and it was just as creepily cat-themed as the rest of the house. Her bedspread was in the shape of a giant purple cat head, small figurines of cats cluttered her desk, and her wall was coated with probably unhealthy amounts of pictures of her prized pets. The two girls looked around stunned, before Higgs slyly commented, "This lady realllly needs to get out more."

Jackie nodded in agreement, her green gaze searching for any clues toward her possibly traitorous nature. "We should start looking for clues."

"On it," Higgs said, her cocky nature vanishing in an instant as she switched over to her duty-bound side, and it was still as startling to Jackie as all the other times. It was as if someone had flipped a switch and turned her into a different person. What did the knights brainwash her as part of their training?

The skater watched for a few seconds as the redhead rifled through the dresser drawers before Jackie went to work too. She began a pretty thorough search of the room, looking underneath desks and in small spaces where it would be the easiest to hide something, she checking behind curtains and inside the tiny closet, even taking a moment to look under the bed though she figured that would be a lost cause, Babs was just too smart to hide incriminating evidence there. She let out a long sigh, before standing back up, putting her hands to her hips as she looked around the room, wondering where she hadn't thought to search yet. That's when it caught her eye: a small plush cat. It was sitting in the corner of her room, a few odd pieces of clothing and junk laying on top of it, clearly trying not to attract any attention and go unnoticed by any prying eyes, but ironically that was exactly what set off all kinds of alarms to the skater. This woman almost worshiped cats, why would she leave it forgotten in the corner instead of on full display like everything else remotely feline was in her room?

Jackie approached the toy, nothing escaping her keen eye as she studied every detail of its worn fur and glass eyes. She leaned down, brushing the loose cloth aside before lifting it up off the floor, the skater taking note that it was much heavier than it should be, considering it was presumably filled with plush and not bricks. She flipped it over and found her suspicions were correct as low and behold, there was a zipper on its belly. Jackie smiled, turning to the redhead and calling to her, "Hey, I think I found something."

Higgs dropped what she was doing and quickly rushed to the light-haired girl's side, a skeptical eyebrow slowly raising as she spotted the plush in her hands. "A stuffed cat?"

"Yeah, I think this is where Babs is keeping her secrets," the skater explained, showing her the zipper on the plushie's stomach.

"Well considering who we're dealing with I wouldn't put it past her," Higgs said in disgust, looking around at the feline shrine that was Babs' room.

Jackie didn't waste any more time as she slowly zipped the toy open, revealing the hidden stash within. It was everything they were hoping for and more, a series of paper slips which had been folded up and stuffed inside (which when inspected closer were from old missions she had been assigned), a large wad of cash which was no doubt her many payments over the years of being a world-class assassin, a small knife with what else but a cat head on the handle, a vial of what looked to be some sort of poisonous mixture, and the most incriminating of them all was the finished photo of what appeared to be a group of assassins.

And standing next to the small cat lady was the tall, menacing form of none other than Rasticore Chaos Disastervane.

Jackie frowned, reaching down and picking up the picture, studying it closely as she muttered, "This is the same picture Buff Frog showed us from before."

"Guess that proves it, then," Higgs said with a victorious smirk on her face. "Our traitor is exactly who we thought she was. Nice work, Jacks." The redhead gave the skater a hard pat on the back while shooting her an approving and impressed grin. "Now all we gotta do is show this evidence to the general and have this traitor thrown in... 'the Tower'." Higgs's voice grew intense as she mentioned Mewni's highest security fortress and prison in the entire dimension. It was well known for having the most evil of evil criminals Mewni had to offer (save for those who committed magic offenses since those fell under the MHC's jurisdiction).

As the young knight went to take the plush from Jackie's hands, the skater swiftly moving it out of reach from her swiping hand and holding a hand out to prevent any further attempts. "Wait," Jackie told the confused and slightly annoyed Higgs. "That's not the plan, remember? We're trying to catch Rasticore not expose Babs." Higgs still looked skeptical about this so Jackie quickly added, "Besides, don't you think Skullnick is gonna be way more impressed if you bring in Rasticore and Babs?"

This seemed to peak Higgs's interest, as her eyes lit up with possibilities, already imagining the status she could get if that were to happen. But she quickly buried her joy, hiding it behind her typical layer of disdain, "Ugh, fine," Higgs agreed.

Suddenly there was a loud, panicked shout from the other room and the two shared a quick look before taking off running to go check on the Monsters, the skater making sure to zip the plush back up as she did. "Guys, what's wrong?!" Jackie called to them, as she and Higgs ran the short stretch of hallway, before entering into the living room area where the girls came to a sudden stop, looking around with disbelief. The living room was somehow an even worse disaster area than it was when they left, furniture upturned and cushions were thrown about all over the place as the Monsters had clearly been busy searching in and underneath them.

But this was quickly forgotten as the two turned their attention to the Monsters who were shivering in fear, clinging to each other as they stared ahead with terrified expressions. "Lobster Claws, Potato, what's the matter? What's going on?" Jackie questioned and both Monsters just raised shaking claws up as they pointed to the door leading into Higgs' small kitchen. The skater and knight followed their intended direction, only to gasp in shock. Their eyes widened immensely upon spotting the large white cat standing menacingly in the doorway, poised and ready to attack, casting a ferocious look at them with its cheshire-like eyes. There was a scar over its left eye and part of its tail was stripped of any fur and one look at its sharp nails was enough to know that this cat was not to be messed with. Jackie felt a spark of recognition as she remembered Babs warning not to pet the cat, Warrior because he was 'a biter'. But it seemed to Jackie that there was a bit more to him than that, as a low yowl seemed to be building at the back of Warrior's throat, which only added to its sinister and unnerving appearance.

Higgs, meanwhile, was left speechless as she stared deep into the feline's yellow eyes. She could feel her heart beginning to pound away in her chest, which a part of her didn't understand. After all, she was a knight. She had been trained to face threats far worse than the one standing before her, heck she had been prepared to take down Toffee for pete's sake. But even with all those lessons, even after years of grueling training meant to rid her of any form of fear or weakness, even after all that, as she looked into the dark, sinister eyes of the house cat before her there was no denying that she... was afraid.

...

Half an hour later, time had begun to drag for Buff Frog and the others, as they all just sat on a bench, staring at the barren walls of the pet store with growing boredom. Nothing had happened at all since they split off from the others, there had been no sign of Babs yet, leaving things agonizingly slow and quiet as they just waited for the small Mewman to emerge from the store. She had been in there for a total of an hour and a half, but to Star and Marco, it felt like a year had passed, as they just sat with their heads propped up on their elbows, their eyes slowly glazing over as they fought the urge to fall asleep. Star's frustration finally grew too large for her handle as she roughly rubbed at her tired eyes, growling in anger, "Ugh, what is taking her so long?! She's been in there forever! What does she live there now?" Star quickly sat back on the bench, crossing her arms huffily in front of her chest.

Marco let out a deep sigh, before adding, "Yeah, I kinda thought spying would be more fun. The movies made it look way more action-packed than this." The boy turned to his frog father, before asking, "What do you think she's doing in there, dad?"

The amphibian's eyes narrowed as he continued to watch the store vigilantly, his eyes darting between the two windows on the building's front, hoping to spot any sign of the tiny redhead. That had just been what he had been wondering. It was unnerving not being able to see what the possible traitor was up to and the frog had begun shifting uncomfortably in his seat, growing more and more agitated by the second. Who knew what she could be doing while out of their line of vision and with every second that passed Buff Frog's questions only grew more frequent and panicked. Had she figured out they were watching her? Had she snuck out the back so she wouldn't be seen? If that was the case, she could be long gone by now and have already met up with Rasticore, free to discuss their plans to be rid of Star and his son.

The frog shuddered and told Marco in a tight voice, "Don't know. But need to find out."

He turned to his bug companion that was currently resting on his shoulder and said, "Boo Fly, please check and see what target up to."

"Again?" the fly whined, this was the fifth time in the last half hour his boss had asked him. "But I juzzt checked like a minute ago."

"Yes, but need to make sure nothing changed," the frog said sheepishly. He knew he was being ridiculous but not being able to see Babs himself was driving him nuts.

Before Boo Fly could move though, Marco jolted upright with a start, a bright smile on his face as he informed them all, "Wait a minute guys, I think I see her coming out."

Star, Buff Frog, and Boo Fly all followed the hooded boy's gaze in eager anticipation and sure enough, a small form was exiting the pet store, a sour look on her face and her empty arms crossed tightly in front of her chest.

"Bout time," Star mumbled under her breath.

The small Mewman began walking speedily down the sidewalk, purpose in her steps as she headed off to her new destination at a far faster pace than was expected for someone her size. Buff Frog jumped up from the bench, saying in a panic, "Quickly, must not let her get away."

Star and Marco were up in a second as they followed after the muscular Monster, making sure to stay close behind Buff Frog as he kept them at a safe distance while they tailed the Mewman, close enough they could still follow her movements but far enough away they didn't look too suspicious while doing so. For the next several minutes they watched as Babs went from cart seller to cart seller, staring at their trades for a few seconds before moving on without a word but with a clear, disappointed look. And as the minutes began to drag while this continued, it became apparent to Star that the cat-lover was looking for something in particular. And as luck would have it, she finally seemed to have found the item of her dreams. She was lazily scanning over the cart she was at with dull, uninterested eyes when something captured her attention, her pupils widening and her cheek marks glowing a bit brighter than before. Star watched as Babs leaned closer to the object, but from her position hiding around the corner of a nearby alley, the blond couldn't see exactly what it was the Mewman was looking at. But whatever it was, it seemed to make Babs very happy as a smile lit up her face and her eyes shimmered with intrigue and joy, a look Star didn't think she had ever seen on the small Mewman before and it genuinely caught her off-guard to see.

Babs looked up at the cart owner, who was reading a newspaper and not meeting her eye and she quickly cleared her throat to gain his attention, the man looking down at her with slight annoyance. "How much for the collar?" the cat lady asked and the man just rolled his eyes and said, "I'm sure it's much too expensive for your allowance, little girl. Now, why don't you run along to your parents and quit wasting my time."

Babs grit her teeth at the man, her eyes flashing with a dangerous look as she snapped, "I'm not a kid!"

The man looked back down at her with a judging, raised brow, as he rudely commented, "Well, there's no need to raise you're voice at me, young lady. Just because you're upset you aren't a grown-up yet is no reason to take it out on complete strangers."

This only seemed to infuriate Babs further, as her eye twitched with barely suppressed rage as she let out a groan of frustration. "For the last time, I'm not a little kid. I'm a grown adult and I don't appreciate being talked down to by a pompous, mediocre salesman," she growled at him, trying to keep her shaking fists at her side.

"Mediocre!" the cart seller shouted, attracting a few weary glances from people nearby, wondering what the fuss was about.

"Yeah, you heard me!" the small Mewman continued, unheeded by the now watchful eyes around her. "Half this merchandise is just useless junk anyway and the one and the only thing that is even remotely worth my time doesn't seem worth it after the way 'your snootiness' is treating me!" The girl did a mock impression of the man as she called him the insult and this only seemed to make the man even more agitated with her as his voice raised some in pitch.

"Well, I never!" he shouted, in such a loud, squeaky tone that it caused Star and the others to cringe. The princess didn't even know someone could make their voice go that high. "Perhaps, if you weren't such a rude individual I might consider selling to you, but since you insist on being a nuisance, I'm afraid I'm going to have to kindly ask you to leave!"

Babs let out a loud huff, turning her back on the seller. "Fine! I was just going anyway!" The small Mewman began stomping away, loudly complaining as she went, her entire face filled with rage. "Geez, this is exactly why I don't like coming here! Everybody's just a bunch of stuck-up, judgemental jerks who don't know when to leave well enough alone! Well if they don't want my business then that's fine with me! I should never have come out here in the first place!"

Star, Marco, Buff Frog, and Boo Fly all shared looks of concern, the hooded teen saying nervously, "Uh, guys I think she's going back home." Star had noticed this too, but hearing it out loud made her heart leap into her throat.

"But the otherzz are zztill in there," Boo Fly pointed out unnecessarily.

"Must do something. Now!" Buff Frog exclaimed, looking beyond panicked. The whole mission was in jeopardy. If they didn't stop Babs from leaving it was all over and Star knew she couldn't let that happen. Buff Frog was right, she had to find a way to stall her until the others finished their search.

"Like what? What do we do?" Marco asked, pulling at brown locks of hair as he desperately tried to think of an idea on how to keep the small Mewman away from her home. His breaths were coming in short and sharp as he began the earlier stages of hyperventilating, while next to him, an idea finally came to Star.

It wasn't a great idea, she knew that the second she thought it up, but it was all she had to go on and she didn't have any time to think it over. And so she just wordlessly grabbed Marco's wrist and began running over to Babs, dragging the hooded teen behind her. She ignored the almost muted gasp from Buff Frog and Boo Fly who no doubt thought that she had lost her mind, keeping her focus on the Mewman in front of her. That was until Marco spoke up. "Star, what are we doing?" her boyfriend asked in surprise and confusion and the blond merely turned over her shoulder for a second, whispering honestly to him, "I'm not really sure yet. Just follow my lead, okay?"

The boy nodded, putting his trust in Star as he picked up his pace to match hers and the blond royal couldn't help but smile at her Marco, his loyalty really did know no bounds. But fueled by the knowledge that her boyfriend was backing her up, Star turned her attention back on Babs. She sucked in a deep breath, letting her face completely drain of all emotion before she plastered on a smile and yelled in the most friendly tone she could manage, "Oh hey, Babs!"

The cat lady came to an instant stop, her body tense as she slowly turned to face the two, her face the picture of perplexed as she gasped out in confusion, "Princess?"

Star now caught up with her, waving enthusiastically, keeping the bright (and hopefully not forced) smile on her lips as she said, "Oh wow, it's so good to see you here. It's been forever!" She quickly gestured over to Marco, saying, "Oh and since you've never met before, Babs this is my boyfriend, Marco."

"Hi," the boy said shyly, giving her the tiniest of waves and the most uncomfortable of smiles.

This only seemed to baffle Babs even more, the friendliness in the girl's tone throwing her for a loop as an eyebrow slowly raised, her eyes darting between the two as she tried to make sense of it all. "Okay, what gives, princess? Why're you being so nice to me?" Suddenly, her eyes narrowed in anger as she asked accusingly, "Is this some kind of trick to get me to answer your little questionnaire?"

"No, not at all," Star said smoothly. "Actually, I just wanted to make sure there were no hard feelings about that." The royal felt her hopes rise as Babs' cold features softened slightly. "Look I know we got off on the wrong foot..."

"Yeah, you were pretty pushy," Babs rudely commented and it took every ounce of willpower Star had to keep her temper under control. She felt her hand clench slightly around Marco's, who gave her a small squeeze back to let her know it was okay, and one of her eyes twitched against her will, but other than that, she was able to completely suppress her frustration as she kept up her friendly demeanor.

"Which was why I was hoping maybe we could start over," Star said, her voice betraying her as there was just a hint of frustration in her tone. But she tried to quickly cover it up as she added extra cheerfully, "I'm sorry I made you feel I was forcing you into something. Let me make it up to you. Please?" She then gave the woman a begging smile, Marco quickly doing the same, copying his girlfriend's expression exactly. But Babs seemed unaffected by the two's attempt to persuade her, merely rolling her eyes and telling Star, "Look, princess, I ain't interested in becoming friends with you. I'm just fine on my own, got it?"

The Mewman, once again, turned to leave and Marco gave Star a lost look, clearly having no clue what to do while silently hoping his girlfriend had one more trick up her sleeve. Luckily, Star did. In fact, Star was quite certain that her secret weapon was guaranteed to work. So, without wasting another second, the blond royal calmly called out to Babs, "What if I told you I could get you that collar you were wanting?"

Babs came to an instant stop, slowly turning back toward the two, her face blank but her eyes full of mischievousness and the promise of revenge. An eyebrow slowly raised as she said, "I'm listening."

Star grinned victoriously, knowing she had the small Mewman right where she wanted her now. She had this hook, line, and sinker. "Well I couldn't help but overhear your argument back there and I wanted to help out. After all, I'm pretty sure he isn't going to refuse to sell to the princess of Mewni."

Babs gave her a suspicious glare, asking, "What's the catch?"

"There is no catch," Marco blurted out, following his girlfriend's lead. "Like Star said, she just wants to make it up to you. You are going to let her do that, right?" He gave her a cute, inquisitive look and Star silently commended the boy for his skills. Who knew Marco was such a master at manipulation?

This seemed to finally break through the last of Babs' barriers as she shrugged nonchalantly, clearly still trying to sell the whole cold and unfeeling act but the excitement in her eyes betrayed her again, as she said in barely suppressed joy, "Sure, why not? Not like you can make it any worse?"

"Great, then let's go!" Star said, pointing behind her, before the three slowly started back toward the vender, the grown Mewman following along after the eager teens. The blond royal did a quick check over her shoulder, making sure Babs was out of earshot, before turning to Marco and asking, "Wow, Marco, I'm impressed. Since when did you get so good at lying?"

The boy smiled proudly, puffing his chest out some. "Oh, that was easy. I just did what Mackie Hand did in 'Hand to Hand to Hand', y'know when he was trying to break into that underwater compound and he tricked the guards into..." Star joined in with him as they said at the same time, "Giving away their secret codes before knocking them out with his signature Tiger Kick!" The two shared a giggle, as they remembered one of their favorite parts of the movie, happy they had one more thing in common to share.

Buff Frog and Boo Fly, who had watched the whole scene from a nearby bush, shared a surprised look. At first, the two Monsters had been paralyzed with fear as they watched their youngest getting willingly dragged over to the possibly dangerous criminal and it took all of Buff Frog's willpower to keep from chasing after them. But he finally was able to smother his parental instincts and allowed the two teens to handle the situation, though every muscle in his body stayed tensed in wait the entire time, ready to jump to their rescue if need be. But it never came to that as Star and Marco (with some effort) managed to coax the girl into staying, making up some kind of lie about wanting to get to know her or something like that. The Monster leader had been sure Babs wouldn't agree to anything they said, but to both his and his fly subordinate's shock, they stared open-mouthed as the small traitor actually followed the two back over to the cart from before. "Well, would you look at that," Boo Fly commented in amazement. "They actually pulled it off."

"Yes, they did," Buff Frog agreed softly, his mind torn between feelings of both pride and fear for his son and he wasn't sure which was stronger at the moment. He just hoped that the kids knew what they were doing. "But is not over yet," he added grimly.

When Star and Marco reached the seller, they weren't too surprised to see the man's face buried back in his newspaper, seemingly unaware of their presence. Star cleared her throat to gain his attention and his eye lazily moved over to the two before darting open with recognition. He gasped, quickly tossing his forgotten paper away as he formally shouted, "Princess Star! It is an honor! What can I, as one of your humble citizens, do for you today?" He tried to bow, despite sitting in a chair, only resulting in him awkwardly tilting his head slightly downward.

Star put on the most regal voice she could as she said, "Well actually, I'm here cause a friend of mine wanted to-"

"Ah yes!" the man interrupted, his eyes landing now on Marco, who flinched at the sudden attention as the seller continued to drone on in an overly-cheery tone, "This must be the great Marco that everyone has been talking about! My, my such a handsome young man, no wonder you chose him, Princess Star. He must make you very happy!" He winked over at the now blushing teen, his cheek marks glowing a deep red to match his face.

Marco tried his best to reply to the man but he felt the words catch in his throat as his shy side resurfaced and he looked over to Star for assistance. The blond caught his begging gaze and quickly said, "Yes he does, but that's not why I'm here." Now the cart seller gave her a quizzical gaze, but Star ignored it and continued. "See another one of my friends was interested in buying one of your items earlier but there was an... issue."

Now Babs came into view with a knowing and triumphant smirk on her face, as she stood purposely next to the blond royal, clearly showing off her status to the flabbergasted Mewman. "Th-This is your friend," the man squeaked against his will, his eyes incapable of growing any wider.

"Uhh, yeah, she's totally a friend of mine," Star said with just a tiny bit of force.

"Yep, you could even say that me and the princess are best friends," Babs added with a smug look. Marco's eyes filled with hurt for a second and Star put a hand on his shoulder, shaking her head to tell him that wasn't true and he quickly calmed down, the smile returning to his face.

The cart seller was now beginning to sweat as he stuttered nervously, "Oh my, well I apologize for my rudeness earlier. I-I-I had no idea I was speaking to a friend of the princess."

"Yeah, you should be sorry," the small Mewman began, but Star quickly interrupted her, moving so she now stood between her and the seller, leaning against the side of the cart with a bright smile.

"That's okay." the princess said, hoping to get through this conversation with as little difficulty as possible. "No hard feelings. Now if you wouldn't mind allowing me to pay for my friend's collar then we'll be on our way." She looking down at the cart only to realize there was a pretty wide selection of collars being sold and, it suddenly occurred to Star, she didn't know what the one Babs was wanting even looked like. She swallowed, trying to look relaxed and play it cool while silently hoping she wasn't asked any questions she knew she couldn't answer.

Luckily, she didn't have to as the man simply told her, "Of course, Your Majesty," with another awkward bow. The blond nearly sighed in relief as the man reached down and picked up one of the collars, Star taking a moment to study it closely. It was bright red, with a shimmering layer of gold crystals all around it, which seemed to gleam with magical energy, an indented lightning bolt hanging from the front. Star tilted her head at the object, not understanding what the small assassin wanted with it so badly and she couldn't help but wonder if there was some ulterior motive for it she just couldn't see. Still, despite her worries, she didn't hesitate to hand over the payment to the man, still wanting to stay on Babs' good side and hopefully even gain her trust. The cart seller gave her a wide smile as he gave the blond royal her purchase, saying chipperly, "Thank you for your business, Your Highness. I hope to see you again sometime."

"Um, yeah, maybe," Star replied politely, before turning to leave, Babs and Marco following her lead, the small Mewman shooting one last superior grin to the cart owner who scowled back angrily now that the princess's back was turned.

Once they were far enough away, Star stopped quickly handing the collar over to the small Mewman, who eyed it giddily. "Here you go, as promised!" the blond said with a wide grin she hoped would win over the cold cat-lover.

Babs's gaze slowly shifted away from the collar and on to the smiling teen, then back to the collar, her face for once devoid of any animosity or harshness which both Star and Marco took as a good sign. But the Mewman seemed to get ahold of herself, hardening her features as she loudly cleared her throat and said in a formal, businesslike tone, "Well, I suppose that was quite impressive what you did back there for me. So for that, you have my thanks."

"Sure, no problem," the blond royal said, trying to keep up the smooth, lighthearted tone despite Babs' attempt against it.

"What's it for, anyway?" Marco asked curiously, his eyes shining with intrigue as he stared at the collar in the girl's hands.

"Oh just a little something to tame one of my cats, Warrior," Babs explained. "He is a feisty thing and lately I've been having trouble keeping him under control. Hopefully, this collar will help calm him down some. See," the woman help up the collar for them to examine, pointing at one of the golden crystals. "These magic crystals are said to be able to soothe a pet's mind, but man are they rare and hard to find."

"Neat," Star said brightly, putting her hands on her hips. "Well, glad me and Marco were able to help you out."

Babs said nothing at that, silently tucking the collar into her pocket, though she seemed deep in thought about something. "Well I better get going..." she muttered softly, turning to leave but was stopped by Star's sudden shout of, "Wait!"

The blond royal wanted to slap herself for the screw up as the small Mewman turned to her with a suspicious and questioning gaze, knowing she had just thrown their whole plan in jeopardy due to her outburst. Beside her, Marco could only gap at his girlfriend wide-eyed, the panic in his eyes the same as the ones Star was currently suffering from as she tried to think of a way out of this mess, but her brain had turned into a puddle of mush. "Why?" Babs asked in a questioning tone, her searching eyes burning into Star's skin.

"Um, wellll, because..." the girl began, but found herself unable to think of anything else to add, turning to her boyfriend for help.

Marco, catching the desperate, pleading look she was sending his way, quickly swallowed, before saying the first thing that came to mind, "Because we want to take you out to lunch!"

"What?" Babs and Star said at the same time before the blond caught herself and quickly added, "-a great idea, Marco!"

She put an arm around the boy and pulled him close to her so his head was now resting on her shoulder. "I was wanting to ask you myself, of course, but I wasn't sure how to bring it up. But good ol' Marco here, always speaking his mind." She chuckled awkwardly for a second, while the boy gave a very thin smile.

Babs, once again, seemed to be having an intense inner debate, the two teens almost able to see the gears turning in her head as she weighted out her options. Until finally, after what felt like a lifetime, she shrugged and said, "Ah, why not? I'm certainly not going to say no to free food." She turned on her heels and began walking off in the opposite direction, causing both teens to let out a silent sigh. "And in that case, we can go to my favorite place in town. Come on."

The two watched her walk away for a moment, before sharing victorious smiles and a quick high-five, Star whispering excitedly, "Nice work, Marco. Our trap is set."

"Yeah, just like in 'The Spy Who Fought Me' where Mackie Hand lures the enemy spy-" Marco began and Star quickly joined in, the two exclaiming as one, "-into that one sushi restaurant with the ninja chefs!" The young couple just shared little gleeful squeals as they reminisced about one of the coolest parts in the movie.

"Are you two coming or not?" came Babs' irritated yell up ahead and the two immediately shouted back with blushes on their cheeks, "Coming!"

They looked over their shoulder only once, spotting Buff Frog and Boo Fly watching them from inside a bush, the look of worry on the frog father's face unmistakable. The teens shot him a wink and a thumbs up to let him know they had it under control before running off after Babs. Buff Frog had to clench his claw into a tight fist to keep from reaching out to them and pulling them back to safety. But he couldn't now, not without jeopardizing all their hard work. As the Monster leader, he had no choice but to just wait and see how things played out. Still, he didn't like this, not one bit. It was one thing to try and converse and act friendly toward Babs, it was another to willingly follow said assassin to some undisclosed location that had shockwaves of panic coursing through Buff Frog's bloodstream.

"Zzooo, what do we do now, Buff Frog?" Boo Fly asked his leader, all hundreds of the small bug's eyes staring at him questioningly.

"What else?" Buff Frog muttered softly, his eyes never leaving his son's retreating form, his muscular chest clenching as his urge to protect his child and his duties as leader clashed violently within himself. "We follow and be ready to fight."

…

Jackie stood as still as a statue watching the ferocious cats every movement, as it continued to growl under its breath, its piercing eyes flicking between each of the intruders in its home. Its long, sharp claws were drawn and ready, digging into the soft carpet, ready to start tearing into the group at any second, none of whom seemed to be holding up very well as they waited for the inevitable attack. Lobster Claws and Potato Baby were almost paralyzed in fear, just continuing to cling to each other while shivering uncontrollably, letting out small moans of worry every few seconds. Higgs didn't seem to be faring much better (though she doing her best to hide this fact) the redhead's eyes wide and staring forward unblinkingly, while her body had tensed up to the point it looked painful as she tried to fight to keep her own shivers under control, but most troubling of all was the sweat slowly dripping down her face as her breathing became heavy and labored, sounding like she was on the verge of passing out.

Jackie realized that her friends would be of no help at the moment and so decided to take control of the situation herself, sucking in a breath to calm her nerves before saying in the softest, most non-threatening tone she could, "Nice kitty, good kitty. We aren't here to hurt you." She spoke slowly and calmly, hoping to convince the cat that they weren't a real threat to it or its territory. She grabbed ahold of Higgs' arm and began moving them over toward the front door, keeping her movements to a minimum so as to not startle the feline. "We're just going to go and leave you alone, okay?"

Warrior didn't respond, merely flicking his tail and lowered himself even more toward the ground, his hind legs now completely tucked up underneath him as he just continued to eye them curiously.

"Okay everyone stay calm," she told her friends in the same reserved voice, still trying to shuffle herself and Higgs over to the exit. "Let's all just move very slowly over to the door and-"

"What? I'm not running away!" Higgs suddenly exclaimed, apparently recovering from her shock all at once as she ripped her arm away from the skater. "I'm a knight and we don't back down from anything!" the girl growled, jabbing a finger over at herself, before turning to aim it over at Warrior. "Least of all some mangy feline!"

"Higgs wait, stop," Jackie tried, reaching out to grab her but the redhead was already on the move, storming over to the two Monsters as she now positioned herself between them and the dangerous cat. The light-haired girl could only face-palm and hope the young knight's ego didn't end up ruining their mission.

"We can take this stupid cat, guys! Let's show it who's boss and that we aren't gonna let it terrify us anymore? Who's with me?!" she asked turning to the two Monsters for an answer. But both of them just shared nervous looks, Lobster Claws shakily replying, "Um, yeah actually me and Potato are just gonna hang back a bit."

Higgs just groaned in annoyance as she buried her head into her hands, running them slowly down her face. "Oh come on guys, it's just a dumb cat! How bad could it really be?" Her voice cut off as Warrior suddenly struck, leaping off the ground and latching onto her arm sinking its sharp claws into her skin. It yowled and hissed at her, holding on for dear life, as the young knight screamed in terror and pain, all her training forgotten in a heartbeat as she just shook her arm around wildly as she tried desperately to dislodge this ferocious feline from her arm. "Ah, get it off! Get it off!" she yelled at the top of her lungs, while the two Monsters hovered around her with worried expressions but never got too close, out of fear of receiving Warrior's wrath themselves.

But they weren't spared this as the cat, with all the grace of a trained predator, leaped onto the girl's shoulder before launched himself toward his next target, which happened to be Lobster Claw's face. The crustacean Monster let out a high-pitched scream that put all of Marco's to shame as he began running around the room in a blind panic, knocking everything in his path over in the process. Potato Baby, desperate to help out his best friend, waited until the right moment when Lobster Claws was close enough for him to throw a punch toward the cat, hoping to knock it off the crustacean. Unfortunately, Warrior released his grip at the last second and fell to the floor, landing easily on his feet, causing the potato Monster to accidentally hit his friend hard in the face, knocking him to the ground, unconscious. Potato Baby let out a small garbled apology before he too was attacked by Warrior, who began clawing at his face, while he let out unintelligent yelps of pain.

Jackie could only watch in stunned silence, as one by one her friends were taken out by the crafty and unrelenting cat, before rushing over to help them, dropping the stuffed cat on the floor before running over to try and pull the vicious feline off of Potato Baby. "No, no, bad kitty!" she scolded as she struggled to get ahold of the hissing cat, finally managing to get Warrior to release the Monster before dropping him to the floor to check on her friend. "Potato! Are you okay?!" she asked in worry.

The Monster slowly raised its head, garbling something tiredly to her, giving her a thumbs-up, before falling limply to the floor, barely avoiding crashing into the skater. "Hey, give that back!" came a sudden shout from next to her and she turned to see Higgs running straight toward Warrior, who had the stuffed cat in its mouth, shooting them a malicious glare all the while. Jackie regretfully left the two Monsters to give chase to the feline, both girls struggling to keep up with his sporadic and smooth movements, trying to outmaneuver and corner him. But Warrior was one step ahead of them, leaping up on bookshelves and off of every piece of furniture in the room as he easily avoided capture. Finally, after Higgs tried dive-bombing the cat and ended up crash-landing into one of the home's many scratching posts after Warrior scampered out of the way at the last second, the young knight slammed a fist into the ground, angrily proclaiming, "Ugh, this isn't working?!"

"Then we need a new strategy," Jackie stated while helping her friend to her feet, searching around the room for an idea, her eyes lighting up a second later as she let out a small gasp. "And I think I've got it," the skater said confidently, a radiant grin brightening on her face. "Keep him busy!" she shouted, before rushing off to set her plan in motion, leaving Higgs alone to deal with the vile cat.

The redhead, knowing now was not the time for questions, turned back to her opponent only to freeze up as she saw Warrior now perched on the open window to the living room, staring at her with the same superior, unnerving eyes from before. "Don't you dare," Higgs growled under her breath in warning, readying herself to rush over and grab the cat before it could escape.

Warrior only let out a low yowl, before spitting the toy out on the windowsill next to him, much to Higgs surprise and slight elation. But this was short-lived as the cat suddenly let out a loud meow and an army of cats it seemed leaped through the window and into the living room, now surrounding the young knight and the unconscious Monsters. Higgs took a hesitant step back as hundreds of pairs of cheshire eyes trained in on her, getting a sudden flash to the image of a large, similar-looking eyeball that seemed to be consuming the darkest corners of her mind, whispering back her own failures, regrets, and fears and allowing them to echo and fester in her head. The girl choked on a gasp, stumbling backward as she struggled to regain control of her thoughts, clutching her head tightly and gritting her teeth in an effort to push out the dark memory.

Meanwhile, the group of cats began to craftily lower down on their hind legs, ready to pounce on the girl and exact their revenge for ever disturbing their home and messing with their stuff. That was until a voice called from the doorway to the bedroom, "Oh kitties!" Every last cat's head swerved over, only to greedily eye the small mouse toy hanging loosely from Jackie's outstretched hand. "Do you want the toy?" she asked simply, smiling as every last cat seemed to be taking the bait, moving away from Higgs and over toward her. "Then go get it!" she shouted, throwing it into the next room, an outcry of meows and hisses followed as the group of cats chased after it, rushing into the next room, Jackie moving out of the way to let them pass. The moment they were all inside, the skater slammed the door shut, trapping the felines within. She let out a sigh of relief, before looking over to check on the others, Lobster Claws and Potato Baby slowly coming to and Higgs angrily swiping an arm across her face.

"Everyone okay?" she asked, panting a bit after the intense encounter. The two Monsters nodded, though the scratches all over their body said otherwise, Lobster Claws simply stating, "I think I'm a dog person now."

"Yeah, me too," Jackie agreed, shooting him a smile before focusing her attention on Higgs, who had grown unnervingly silent.

"Are you alright, Higgs?" the skater questioned, expecting the young knight to grow defensive and cockily proclaim that of course she was okay. But instead, the girl almost acted like she hadn't even heard her, only slightly shrugging her shoulders in response while crossing her arms in front of her chest in a move that somehow seemed to make her grow suddenly smaller. "Yeah, I'm fine," she said bitterly, but lacking even a trace of emotion.

"Really, cause you don't look okay?" Lobster Claws pointed out.

This seemed to bring a fire back to the redhead as she snapped, "I said I was fine, can we just drop it already?"

Jackie noticed the girl wasn't meeting her eye and could tell something was bothering her but not wanting to push her any more than she was comfortable, simply told her, "Alright, Higgs, whatever you say."

She turned over to the two Monsters, telling them both, "Now c'mon, guys, let's get out of here."

"But what about our evidence?" Lobster Claws asked and Potato Baby nodded.

"Oh actually me and Higgs found all the evidence we'll ever need," the skater explained brightly to the two. "Right over-"

The girl's voice cut off as she saw the Warrior still standing in the windowsill, the toy cat in it's grinning fangs. "What, no way?!" Jackie exclaimed in disbelief. How was this same cat still here? How had her plan not worked? The cat made a move to leap out the window and Jackie ran forward, hoping to snatch the stuffed animal back in time, but found it was already too late, Warrior's body already halfway out the window before a single foot was off the ground.

Jackie felt the disappointment and hopelessness grow as time seemed to slow, watching their only chance at catching Rasticore escaping. Until, a sudden pair of spiked, circular hands snatched the cat out of mid-air, before lifting him out of Jackie's sight.

The skater came to an abrupt stop, her and the others standing there completely dumbfounded for a second, before they all raced to the doorway, Jackie throwing it open without hesitation. The four could only watch in stunned silence as Spike Balls held the hissing and thrashing Warrior suspended above the ground, keeping the fussy cat out at arm's length to avoid getting scratched, his eyes clenched shut as he cringed at every annoyed and irritated meow that came from the feline, the stuffed cat laying forgotten at his feet. "Spike Balls, you did it!" Jackie exclaimed, running over to snatch up the toy before anything else could happen to it.

"Did what?" the large Monster asked in confusion, his focus entirely on the increasingly agitated Warrior who was still squirming in his grip, digging its nail into his impenetrable hands.

"You helped us get back our evidence," Higgs explained, her tone still strained and off. Jackie held up the stuffed cat for them all to see.

"Oh really," Spike Balls gasped, eying the toy in disbelief. "I didn't even realize the cat had that. I just saw it about to escape and grabbed it up without thinking."

"Well it's a good thing you did," Jackie said brightly, quickly unzipping it to make sure everything was inside. "Cause without this, all of this work would have been for nothing."

Spike Balls beamed proudly at that, before jumping at receiving another loud hiss from Warrior. "Um, what do I do with this little guy?"

The others all shared a look and then a shrug, Jackie saying, "Just put him back in the house, I guess."

After the cat had been properly sealed inside (the doors and windows now closed and locked) the group could only listen in shocked silence as they heard violent scratching from the other side of the door, Warrior trying to fiercely claw his way through to reach the group and exact his revenge. All five shuddered at the strange, but traumatizing experience, Jackie wiping the sweat off her brow and Lobster Claws even letting out a relieved sigh, even Higgs looking genuinely agitated by what had happened, her eyes full of intense emotions and her hand twitching at her side.

"Well glad that's over with," Lobster Claws commented and the others nodded in agreement.

"Okay, now come on, guys," Jackie said, taking control of the situation as she gave them all a serious look as she held out the stuffed cat once more. "Let's get this back to Star and the others."

"Right," the Monsters said as one, even Potato Baby saying the phrase in his garbled language, all three doing a quick salute to the skater. Jackie's eye met Higgs but she froze as she saw the girl now looked like a ghost of her former self and Jackie couldn't help but feel her insides squeeze at the redheads instant compliance. What was going on with her?

"Alright then, let's... get going," Jackie said awkwardly, before the group left the empty lawn and started back toward the way they had come, never once looking back at the cat-infested home they were leaving behind. None of them able to completely relax until the loud hissing of the most ferocious cat any of them had ever met, finally faded into the background.

[yellowsugarwords]

Walking Dead Game FanFiction - “We Know”

Take Us Back spoilers ahead!!! Title: We Know Characters: Clementine, Louis, AJ, Ruby, Aasim, Violet Summary: After Clementine’s amputation, AJ runs back to Ericson, urgent for help. Louis, Clementine’s boyfriend, rushes to find her in a panic. Author's Note: oh my god okay thank you guys for letting me bump this sucker up because UGH I wanted to write this so damn bad Requested By: various Anons support me with ko-fi ♡ ---------♥️♥️♥️----------

“Guys!”

AJ was out of breath when he slammed through Ericson’s front gates. Louis had been cut off from him and Clem a few hours previous, and the entirety of Ericson had been sitting in nervous panic since. So, watching AJ burst in through the front gates without warning — without understanding — was terrifying to say the least.

But that wasn't what Louis cared about. Not when he dropped everything in his arms to run to him. Not when he was blindly yelling his name.

“Where’s Clementine?” Louis wailed, throwing himself to his knees, gathering the child in his arms. His stare was wide, blank, trained forward through the swinging gates. His gaze didn’t leave the dirt as AJ sobbed into his shoulder and quivered into his chest. A part of him hoped that Clementine was just behind him, somewhere in that forest just as the sunrise took the forest in its grasp. He hoped they could leave the gates open because she was right there.

“The barn,” AJ wheezed, the words dancing on his breath. “She’s in the barn.”

“The barn?” Aasim, one of the many crowding the two posed. “What barn?”

“The walker barn.” AJ managed, prying himself from Louis’ chest.

Louis’ arms didn’t leave the child’s elbows, not wanting to let him get too far away — not wanting him to disappear too. The pit in his stomach grew larger, forcing out the question he felt too sick to ask. “Why is she there if you’re here?”

AJ’s stare sat on Louis’, wobbling under his terror. The look alone answered every question. “She’s hurt.”

Before Louis knew what he was doing, he was running. He took off through the gates without a second thought. He didn’t know where he was going, he didn’t know where the barn was, he just knew it wasn’t there. Being anywhere not in Ericson meant he was closer to Clementine.

He couldn’t hear everyone screaming his name. He didn’t hear AJ’s sobs as he chased after him, each step prompting a louder wail. He didn’t hear Ruby and Aasim charge a beat later, hauling bags of medical equipment.

“Louis!”

“Which way?” He heaved, flipping around, eyes wide and mad, hair frazzled and wind-warped. He scoffed, raising his voice upon not getting a response. “AJ! Which way?”

“Louis!” Aasim yelled, skidding to a halt in front of the teen, AJ and Ruby fumbling at his heels.

“What?” He scoffed, loudly, irritably. “We don’t have time for this. Where’s the barn? Where’s Clem?”

“Louis, you need to calm down—”

AJ pointed to their right and Louis stopped listening. It wasn’t like he had been in the first place, he was too lost in his own head trying to navigate through his thoughts. He couldn't calm down, not when he was so close to losing her.

When they reached the barn, they were greeted with a slew of walkers clamouring at the walls and doors, thrashing through openings, desperately trying to squeeze their way through.

Louis didn’t slow, didn’t hesitate, didn’t think. His body reacted without hesitation, sliding through the motions as if he had done it millions of times. He grabbed a pitch fork from outside of the barn and began swinging, stabbing, and attacking every being that stood in his way.

He killed no more than he needed to. That was a waste of time.

As soon as he cleared a path, he tossed the pitchfork to the ground at Aasim’s feet if his clearing didn’t keep. AJ followed right on his heels, charging full force into the rickety barn. Ruby and Aasim pulled up the rear and stumbled behind a new swarm. The last thing AJ saw was Aasim grabbing the pitchfork and forcing Ruby behind him.

Louis was too busy running to notice they’d been held up. As long as they eventually got in, as long as they could eventually help her, that was what was most important to him. He was so lost in his panic that it was the only thing that seemed remotely important to him.

He felt numb pushing through the barn. He’d left his body long ago. Now, his body was merely going through the motions. As he entered the pen, as he spotted the splatters of crimson, the contortions of hay, the distress of the room, he felt his ears begin to ring and his eyes begin to blur.

There sat Clementine white as a sheet, propped against a stack of hay, a puddle of blood resting against the stump remnant of her left leg. Just to Clementine’s left sat the remainder of her leg — hacked off, jagged, and abandoned.

“Clem?” Louis collapsed before he’d even reached her, crawling desperately to her side. His hands clung to her shoulders, shaking her as viciously as he could shake a porcelain doll. He couldn’t risk breaking her. “Clem? Clem, oh my God.”

The rattling of footsteps sounded behind him. He didn’t turn. He couldn’t take his stare off of her. Not then. Possibly not ever.

“Oh my God—”

“Clementine,” Aasim breathed, silencing his girlfriend’s cry. Both stood silent, their medical kits crashing to the ground — the same floor that housed Clementine’s mauled leg. Ruby’s palm cupped her mouth, her face draining.

“I didn’t know what to do,” AJ wailed, kneeling beside her, taking one of her hands into his. He held it to his chest, asking for her to feel his heart beat. “I didn’t know how else to help her.”

“Help?” Aasim breathed, anger clutching his breath. “Chopping off one of her limbs was supposed to help her?”

“She got bit!” He wailed, defensive and seething. The cry caused a surge in the sounds outside. They all stayed still, silent.

Louis’ eyes didn’t flinch. His fingers brushed at her cheek, hoping to feel or squeeze another ounce of life out of her. His free hand clasped hers, as tightly as he felt he could muster. She was so pale, as if the love that filled her cheeks had long since drained.

“Help her.” He hushed, his pleads quieted by the depth of the grief in his chest. He couldn’t bring himself to turn to Ruby and Aasim — he couldn’t stand to take his gaze off Clementine for even a moment.

He didn’t need to look. Just as he parted his lips to offer his second plea, he felt their presence at his side — Ruby’s softness, Aasim’s sorrow. He felt the snap of the medical kit, the shifting of fabric on her leg, and the light chatter between the three at his side. He could hear AJ offering explanation, urgently sputtering, but Louis couldn’t make out what he was saying. He was too lost.

His thumb running in circles over Clementine’s pale, chilled cheek. He couldn’t hear anything in the world around him — he was lost in the cool of her skin, frozen alongside her. “I really need you here with me,” he whispered, choking back. “I can’t lose you. I need you.”

His words hung in the air, well aware that Ruby, Aasim and AJ could all hear his pleads. He didn’t care. He needed Clementine to hear them, however possible.

Then, her eyes twitched. From just under her lids, they shifted, and wobbled, and slowly creaked open, exposing the dimmed light beneath. They shifted, glossed over and hazy as if she wasn’t really there. After a moment, they landed on Louis. Ruby and Aasim froze their disinfecting, eyes wide, jaws agape.

Her lips parted, able to register what she was seeing. “Louis?” She managed out.

Louis smiled, tears pouring in. She was alive. She was still alive. They had a chance to keep her. “Clem, my God.” He breathed, wanting the hush to come out sweetly but instead being forced out as a restrained sob. “Thank God you’re here.”

She’d heard him. She’d returned.

Clementine gave a groggy smile — one that took every ounce of her strength to put on. She meant every inch of it. “It’s good to see you too.” She teased.

Urgently, quickly, clamouring to keep her in the state, Ruby and Aasim kept working. They fought back tears as they worked, blinking rapidly to clear their vision enough to operate.

Louis dipped in, without thinking, and grazed his lips with hers. He was as gentle as possible, not wanting to press too hard, terrified even the slightest pressure could crack her. When he pulled away, watching her eyes flutter to life with more fervour, he slid out a laugh and the tears clinging to his lashes released. “You look beautiful.”

She laughed — drearily, but with more energy than he feared — and he felt like he was home. “I don’t know about that.”

Louis smiled, his fingers tracing her knuckles in the single hand he held. His eyes never left hers. “I do.”

At first, AJ had been smiling at their tearful reunion. After that, his nose scrunched. He looked away, mortified.

“Okay,” Ruby hushed, clicking their kit shut. She was trying to move as gently as possible. “I gotta give the little man props, he did an amazing patch job. AJ is probably the reason you made it.”

Louis clung to his girl tighter. “Really?”

Ruby smiled. “He wrapped it in rope, cauterized it, elevated it. He’s a natural.”

Louis could feel his heart leap into his throat. She was okay. She was going to stay okay. She was going to make it.

“Let’s get her back,” Aasim said, hauling to his feet. He delicately took Ruby’s free hand, helping her the same. He attempted, as best he could, to block her view from the severed limb behind his back. “She needs water and rest.”

“We just need to find a way to get her back safely,” Ruby sighed, stretching. “And comfortably.”

“I’ll carry her,” Louis breathed, his words directed at the couple but trained toward his one and only.

“Louis, you—”

“Clem,” he hushed, his hand slipping from where it had been resting against her neck to clasp her shoulder. “I got you, okay? Let me hold you.” He breathed, tears clamouring up his throat.

She smiled, and even though it was weak, Louis felt as if it was kissing him. She didn’t debate, only nodded. “I know you do.” She said.

Her arms wrapped around his neck to get her off the ground. Once she was there, once she felt the warmth of his grip against her back and legs, she released. She didn’t have the strength to keep her arms wrapped up there. She didn’t have the blood.

They’d only just left the barn when her head had fallen into the crook of his neck, until her weight heaved against his chest, and until his grip grew even tighter. Now that she had faded again, now that she was entirely in his care, his palms, he needed to be more delicate than ever.

He walked slowly, hesitantly, drawing behind everyone else. Ruby and Aasim walked in front, silent, hands swinging by their sides. They couldn’t hold hands. It felt wrong, like adding salt to Louis’ wound.

AJ walked in the middle, constantly looking back to see Clem’s state, to see Louis’. Louis’ stare was downcast, either studying Clementine or the dirt path they followed. He didn’t have the heart to look ahead.

After they’d reached the school, Louis went straight for her room. AJ held open every door for them while Ruby and Aasim filled Ericson in on what had happened. Louis could feel the horror in their stares drill into his spine. He couldn’t imagine what AJ was feeling.

After Louis laid her down, elevated her leg, wrapped her in blankets, they were left alone. AJ trotted in with the occasional glass of water or cup of tea, but Willy and Omar focused on keeping him distracted. Ruby and Violet came with soup later in the day with Ruby guiding Violet to where she could set the cup.

Louis didn’t budge from his spot — a chair propped up beside her bed, watching, praying, hoping on hope that she wouldn’t stop breathing.

Just as the sun was beginning to set, as the orange and pink painted the walls, her eyes heaved open and Louis jolted to life. He’d been half asleep, ready to drop from his exhaustion and panic, but the hum that slipped through her lips fuelled him like a shot of caffeine.

“Clem,” he breathed, clutching her hand, stroking her knuckles. They felt warmer now, like her palm had been filled with life.

“Hey you,” she breathed, smiling. Before she had a chance to say anything more, Louis reached for the glass of water — using his opposite hand as he didn’t want to release his grip on her — and passed it to her. Greedily, she downed it.

It was beautiful. It meant she was okay.

“I can’t live without you, Clem.” The words fell out like a waterfall, the waves he couldn’t stop. She gulped, and set her cup down, and watched as his eyes wavering on hers. “It’s not living if you’re gone.” He continued. “It’s just existing, waiting for you to come back.”

He glanced down, wrangling the emotions running wild in his chest. With them sorted, he glanced up, reaching for her cup of semi-warm soup, hoping to give her strength. When he turned, his lips crashed into her own, her body surging to meet him halfway.

As she pulled away, his stare fluttered like wings, soaring in disbelief. Then, seeing her tender stare, he chuckled.

“Well, you don’t need to worry about that,” she said. “Because I’m not going anywhere.”

Louis smiled, lifting a spoonful of soup, leaning forward, and letting her capture it.

“I know,” he said, and knew he was being honest. ---------♥️♥️♥️----------

[deckspair]

May’s Musical Director’s Commentary

Hey guys! I'm May. You might remember me as "the one who did those nifty chatlogs and the roster page" or "the one who did all the music" or "that one mod who never said anything." Los and Mints agreed to let me write up this "director's commentary" on the music I did for DECK. There's no secret lore tidbits in here or anything, but if you liked my music you might find this an interesting glimpse into the process.

A Note On Sampling

Sampling is the practice of using preexisting audio to make new music. When I talk about what I've sampled here, I'm only going to mention particularly interesting cases. Almost all of the music I've done for DECK features audio from Free Wave Samples, so I figure that's not really worth mentioning except here. It's the other stuff that's interesting. EarthBound was an influence on my decision to pull in a bunch of audio from outside sources. I've always admired that game's use of sampling.

The First Chatlog

The chatlogs have consistently been pretty fun to do. I knew from the start that I didn't want to edit this together by hand, so I wrote a Processing sketch to render the video. It's not the most elegant thing in the world, and adding new features is a massive pain, but it's a lot easier than putting these together any other way. All I have to do is swap out the script and background shader and write a new song and I can just let the program churn away rendering a new video. (Of course, fiddling with the shader until it looks presentable takes so long that it kind of eats into the time savings.)

There's not much to say about this one. The typing sounds were graciously provided by Mints. Those with careful ears might notice the instrument playing the chords in other chatlog songs.

The Second Chatlog

One of the only interesting things about this one: the melody is actually a musical cryptogram! What it spells out is an exercise for the reader. ;) The miscellaneous background sounds are all distorted versions of stuff I recorded myself one day when my film teacher let me wander the halls with a microphone. Film school has its perks.

Rio Hachimitsu's BDA

Doing the first body drop music was pretty intimidating. The body discovery music in Danganronpa has a particular instantly recognizable quality to it. If I wanted to go for that style, I'd have to get it down perfectly. (Otherwise I'd come off as a cheap imitation.) So I decided to be original. After school PSAs would be proud.

The melody here is probably pretty familiar to you all by now. Every BDA has used some variation of this melody because I'm a sucker for leitmotif. The melody itself is a slightly modified version of the Dies Irae. (Yes, I know I'm very pretentious, but being pretentious is fun.) This is also the first instance of what I call the "death rattle." I put that strange scraping sound into every BDA and execution for consistency's sake. You can see it as the moment the soul leaves the deceased's body or the moment the onlookers realize somebody's just died... or something. The really fun part is what it is - it's a bell tree! Yknow, those tinkly whimsical things. It's just been reversed and slowed down and drenched in reverb. It's fun how malleable audio is.

Minnie Minami's EXE

This was fun! Despite being a film student for a while, I've never had to write music to sync up with a video before. (I still haven't - I'm pretty sure the video was edited to match up with the music and not vice versa.) The overall tone of this one was pretty obvious. Of course a ringleader's execution would be accompanied by messed up circus music. Anything else just wouldn't be right. There's not really much else to say about it other than that it includes samples from my toy accordion and slide whistle.

Sampled:

An old recording of Auld Lang Syne

Yasu Kozakura's BDA

The body drop's usage of mirrors really hit me in the art gut, so I figured the BDA jingle should have something to do with mirrors. This is why the melody plays forwards and backwards simultaneously, because mirrors. (Some call that kind of thing a "crab canon.")

My incredibly good and quality cat piano is also in here. A stretched out meow recorded from it forms the basis of the background chord.

NANIKO's EXE

For this one, I gave the video editor three different tracks, one for each "segment" of the execution. I did this as a cop-out because I didn't want to have to try to sync my music up with the video - this way, the editor could mash it all together.

The segment with the mirrors was an exercise in what's called "phase music", where two lines drift out of sync with each other, creating different rhythmic textures over the course of the song. (Piano Phase and Clapping Music, both by Steve Reich, are two classic examples of the form.) For some reason, echoey piano lines phasing in and out of sync feel mirror-y to me. They also form a nice musical callback to the BDA.

Sampled:

Me switching frequencies on the radio

Sayuri Nishi's BDA

Shoutout to Free Wave Samples for having a heartbeat sound. I didn't want to try to make that sound myself with drums. 

Kosuke Nakamura's EXE

This execution is significant because it's the first non-video one. Execution art wasn't my department, so I'm not going to speak on how that change affected the artists, but I found it liberating to be able to follow the more general emotional arc of the execution rather than being tethered to the pacing of a video.

When I asked Angela for guidance on where to go musically, we came to the conclusion that the proper genre would be "Tom and Jerry noir." That description alone is why I loved doing music for DECK - where else do you get the opportunity to write something with that as guidance? The most natural interpretation in my view was a song that starts out jazzy and segues into slapstick-esque classical to mirror the transition from the safety of noir to being mauled by a giant robot cat.

Also, the Slack notification sound is in there, since Los suggested a social media notification sound in the background somewhere. (Slack's basically social media for tech dorks, right?)

Sampled:

Slack

Tom and Jerry

The Missing BDAs

Unfortunately, I got preoccupied and neglected to do BDA music for the deaths in Chapter 4. Generally, there's not many interesting things to say about stuff that doesn't exist. The plan was to sample Pomp and Circumstance for Law N... but I didn't. Sorry, Froggy. I didn't have any other plans for this one.

Ukiyo-Maemi's EXE

This one relies so much on sampling it almost makes me feel bad. I got so much mileage out of the clanging percussion and the spooky background sounds that it's basically cheating. 

Sampled:

My lovely girlfriend 💕

OFF

Akira Akatsuki's BDA

I was in a very percussion-heavy mood when I wrote this. (Can you tell?) Listening to the FLCL soundtrack had me jonesing for some dramatic cymbals.

Sampled:

Earthbound

Genko Junshu's BDA

Junshu's body was found in the Navigation Station. This called to mind sonar beeps and garbled radio messages and such. This is another one that wouldn't be nearly as interesting without the sampling. Hopefully this is transformative enough to not get me labeled a hack.

Sampled:

Earthbound

Law Kiyuu's EXE

This execution actually freaked me the hell out the first time I read it. Freaked me out for like a week - something about the combination of incredible writing and the subject matter. It honestly felt calculated to scare me specifically.

Anyway, I had a lot of fun with this one. I wanted to write something as unsettling as the execution it was accompanying. The intro is supposed to represent Law thinking he's already dead. Next comes his terror (evoked with the hilariously dissonant Altered scale), and then the final spooky arrhythmic section is supposed to be him being cut apart. (Note that part of the music drifts out of sync with itself to represent Law, uh, going to pieces.) The return of the piano is supposed to evoke the flashback section. That kind of piano sound always sounds spooky and/or sentimental to me.

Not much else to say now that I've dissected (heh) basically all of the decisions I've made for this one. I'm really proud of Law's execution song - it might be my favorite out of all the ones I've done for DECK.

Sampled:

Earthbound

Persona 2: Innocent Sin

The Doug Theme

Death Note

"It's a Long Way to Tipperary"

gamer butt song

Frogbot's EXE

The original plan for this one was start this one off with a hocket-y medley of all the previous body drops and executions. However, it would have been really tedious to export then import all the relevant instruments, so I didn't do that. Instead I remixed the typical BDA theme. It's supposed to convey the shift from FrogBot's reign of despair to the triumph of getting them executed. I realized part of the way through that this segment was far too triumphant given how many people died and the fact that the submarine is about to explode, so then I just ended it by lingering on a diminished chord. I'm not a very subtle person. Frogbot's execution lacks the death rattle 'cause there's no horrifying realization that one of your classmates is dead. (Exercise for the reader: find where I hid the Flintstones theme in this song. Good luck.)

Conclusion

DECK was a lot of fun to work on. I wrote some extremely messy code, made some sick as hell videos, and wrote some pretty baller music. I got to see some wonderful artists do their work, and I got to skim some pretty intense roleplaying. Thank you to everyone who said nice things about my music and to the mods for being really cool dudes. Special thanks to Mints and Los for letting me put this long-winded rant on their blog, and thank you for reading this whole thing.

See you on the flip side, y'all.

[gravsons]

⋆ ◦ ° ☾ introduction.

hello, friends ! my name is fox and i haven’t been in a supernatural rp in..... almost a year tbh. but when i saw this one i knew i had to join ! for now i only have one muse, grayson, though i already have plans to bring another boi lmao. but anyways, i’m fox like i said, i’m currently twenty years old & my pronouns are she/they. you ain’t reading this for me though but rather my messy child grayson so all of his info under the cut ! if you’d like to plot, please like this or message me !

*  MATTHEW DADDARIO  &  CISMALE  / /  here we’ve got GRAYSON ZAHAROV,  the  FORTY-NINE  year old WEREWOLF  -  luckily, HE actually looks about TWENTY-EIGHT years old.  with a reputation for being  PROTECTIVE,  ADAPTABLE,  VIOLENT, and  HEADSTRONG, it’s surprising we haven’t heard more about them.  GRAYSON has been around faulk hollow for TWENTY YEARS, but they ain’t leaving anytime soon. you hear DIRTY LAUNDRY by BLACKBEAR? that means you’ll see ‘em soon.

early life.

he was born in a small town in washington in a very low income family; his father was not in the picture and his mother was just sixteen when she got pregnant, so gray was basically raised by his grandparents ( who were both russian and very strict, barely speaking a word of english. they weren’t very loving to him either, seeing him as their biggest failure rather than their grandson. ) and he always saw his mother more like a sister than his actual parent. 

gray is... a mess. he settled down in faulk hollow about twenty years ago but before that he would hop around the entire country, doing petty robberies in his wake to get by. it was how he met his long-time girlfriend and mother of his child--- she was a stripper at a side-of-the-road bar where he pick pocketed a couple of times. 

he has had a very lonely life ? like, he has a lot of friends and he’s always partying with people but nobody really knows him when he’s sober and that’s how it’s been since he was a kid. 

gray was bitten at the age of twenty-seven; he doesn’t remember a lot of details from that night, having been completely drunk. he was attacked on his way back to the motel he was living with his girlfriend, and learning about the supernatural was absolutely the biggest shock of his life. 

he never truly got over the turn tbh ever since he was bit he sees life a lot differently, and if he was wild and impulsive before, knowing he has eternity to amount to anything in life has made him 100% more reckless. 

when he met the mother of his baby, gray tried to leave his life of crime: they moved in together just a month after they started dating, and pretended to have that apple pie life for as long as they could--- gray even found a job at the local car shop with the little knowledge of mechanics that he had gotten from his grandfather in his childhood.

he never told her he’s a werewolf; in retrospect, that was probably the worst decision he ever made. he left every full moon, always coming up with some stupid excuse for why he had to spend the night away. in the end it tore his relationship to shreds, since his girl was absolutely convinced he was cheating on her. 

gray’s life was absolutely miserable: a job he didn’t like, constant fights at home and having to deal with literally turning into a wolf every full moon was just too much for him. he was constantly on edge, lashing out at everyone and everything with the smallest of provocation. he would never abandon his family, however, not wanting to turn out as his absent father.

in faulk.

needing a fresh start, the zaharov packed their bags and moved to faulk when their child was a toddler. gray’s explanation for the move was a tattoo parlor of a friend, where he had been offered a job. in reality, he had heard through the grapevine about how the supernatural blended in with normal humans, and he knew that was what he needed. 

gray has been working at the tattoo parlor for the past twenty years, going from a glorified receptionist to piercer to tattoo artist. five years ago he bought the parlor from its previous owner, and the shop is his happy place. art, as it turned out, was the one thing that seemed to be missing in his life; drawing calms him down, and it’s a perfect way for him to exorcise his demons.

grayson’s girlfriend passed away a year after they arrived in faulk. gray doesn’t remember much of the event, having a big fight with her on a full moon night, when he tried to stop him from leaving the house ( still unaware of his wolf other self ). the next thing he knows, gray was waking up in the morning, still in his home, with the love of his life mauled next to him. he never told anyone what happened, disposing of her body and simply telling people that she left him--- police investigated the case, but they didn’t have evidence of a crime and everyone in town knew their relationship was in complete shambles prior to her disappearing. 

after her death, gray was never the same. he tries to be a present father as much as he can, but he spends most of his time drinking & doing drugs, or at his parlor drawing.

wanted plots.

a best friend. --- someone gray would trust with his own life. this muse is the one gray goes to about everything, and one of the few people in his life that he opens up to.

friends with benefits. --- gray’s bisexual so any gender here will work ! basically someone he goes to when he wants some fun, though there are no romantic feelings between them.

a neighbor. --- i think it would be nice if this person had been his neighbor since before his girlfriend died, or moved in shortly after ? so they aren’t very good friends, and maybe this muse even suspects what he did ?

friends of all kinds. --- self explanatory, tbh.

a platonic boyfriend / girlfriend. --- everyone thinks they are dating because of their heavy pda, but the cuddling and hand-holding & lip pecking is all completely platonic for them. 

the hate fling. --- they infuriate each other to no end, and are constantly fighting, but somehow always end up falling in bed together after a drink or two. 

the party friend. --- gray is always looking for his next high, and this person is the one he calls when he’s looking for trouble.

a protective friend. --- even though he’s a grown ass man, gray never learned how to take care of himself. this person does it for him, then, whether that be making him a home made meal, taking care of him after a full moon or just dropping by with a good hangover cure.

[bluephoenixdruidicprincess]

My Super Special Awesome Sauce Supernatural Re-Watch -- Season 1 Epsiode 1, Pilot

Welcome to my Supernatural Re-Watch project in which I'm re-watching every episode of Supernatural. Why? Because I want to. I've kind of made a name for myself in the Shadowhunters fandom for my love-hate relationship with the Freeform show. So I thought, hey, since I'm reviewing a sub-par show that constantly disappoints me (Shadowhunters), I should also review a show that I love. This way, when I'm critical of Shadowhunters, my audience can get an understanding of where I come from. What it is I look for in good story telling. Or they could think I'm a hypocritical idiot. Either way, I'm doing this. And also, I love Supernatural and I'm really just looking for an excuse to watch the show and then talk about it. So here we are with the very first episode, the pilot. I would like to remind everyone that these are my own opinions and would ask that you please respect them. You don't have to agree with them. You have your own truth just as much as I have my truth. Also, I have not seen any of Season 13 so please don't spoil me for anything. 

RECAP

Our pilot episode starts off with showing something that happened in our main characters' tragic past. That once upon a time they were living a happy, normal, apple pie life. Until their mother, Mary Winchester, walks into infant Sam's room and sees a figure looming over the crib. She gives a scream and father, John Winchester, runs in and only sees the crib. He goes over to check on Sam and notices that there's blood on Sam's blanket. He looks up and sees that Mary is somehow stuck to the ceiling, mauled and dying. And then she catches fire which causes the entire house to burn. So basically this is a bad day for everyone. It was bad enough Mary got mauled by something but then she was also burned alive too? And now the family is left homeless? Tough break. Not to mention the creature that did this burned the house too -- this is not a very considerate creature. As the house is burning, John tells Dean to take baby Sam out of the house and to take care of him. This exchange is actually very important for the rest of this series in terms of Dean's character and how he views Sam. You'll see. They escape the burning house and from that point onward, John Winchester cares only for revenge. He and the boys become hunters of the supernatural in order to find the creature that killed Mary Winchester. 

Skip 20 years or so into the future, we meet a grown up Sam who we find out has left the hunter life to go to Stanford to become a lawyer. We find that he is a very smart cookie based an his LSAT result which pretty much means he has his choice of law schools to go to and even has an interview for a law school in a couple of days. He's succeeding in college, he has friends, and a very attractive, very supportive girlfriend. He's on track for a great life, really. But he refuses to talk about his past or his family to anyone in his new life which suggests that he and his family did not part amicably. He also claims to hate Halloween which is a call-back to his previous hunter life that he chose to leave behind. He's still haunted by the past. This all comes to a head later on in the night when Sam hears someone in his and Jess's (the girlfriend) apartment. Sam investigates, a round of fisticuffs ensues and it's revealed that the intruder is the brother, Dean. Dean tells Sam that their father left on a hunting trip and hasn't been seen since. He wants Sam to help find their wayward father. Sam agrees on the condition that he be back on Monday for his interview. 

So the brothers go off to their father's last known location and find a supernatural case to be worked. Men are going missing but their cars are always found on a bridge. They gather information and eventually figure out that the phenomenon that is happening is what's known as a "Woman In White." Basically, these creatures are ghosts. When they were alive, their husbands were unfaithful and in a moment of temporary insanity, these women killed their children and then subsequently killed themselves. And now as spirits, they walk up and down highways looking for unfaithful men. And if they find one, they kill him. 

Along the way of this investigation, we get a first glimpse on some of Sam and Dean's investigation techniques. In order to find out more about the men that went missing, they used fake federal marshal badges to get the police to talk to them which backfires later on in the episode when the police realizes they are not federal anything. Except maybe fugitives. They arrest Dean but Sam is able to get away in order to further investigate the woman in white. Sam eventually calls in a tip that there's a shooting somewhere in town which enables Dean to escape. Sam is then carjacked by the woman in white (Constance). Constance take Sam to her house and attempts to make Sam be unfaithful. She eventually just attacks Sam but Dean arrives in time to shoot her and Sam steps on the gas pedal of the impala and rams the car into the house. Constance had been talking about how she could never go home so now that she was inside the house, she finally had to face her children in which they were all finally able to pass on. She couldn't go home because she was too afraid to face her children and as a result, neither her or her children could pass on. Dean takes Sam back so he can do his interview. Sam enters the apartment, lays on his bed, with his eyes closed until he feels something wet hit his face (which could be foreshadowing for something that's revealed in Season 4), he looks up and sees Jess plastered to the ceiling much like what happened to Mary and just like Mary, Jess also catches on fire and burns the apartment. Another bad day and again, this is a very inconsiderate creature. Dean, just as he did as a kid, pulled Sam out of the apartment and now, all Sam can think of is revenge just as John did. 

There's also plenty of Winchester melodrama going on in this episode, as well, which is a trademark of the show. That while working the cases, the boys are often working through their own issues as well. Throughout the episode, Dean is kind of making digs at Sam's decision to leave the family business and pursue the apple pie life. Dean can't understand why it's so easy for Sam to leave and why Sam doesn't feel as strongly about revenge for their mother. Sam eventually tells Dean that he has no memory of his mother considering he was only a baby when she died and thus the thirst for revenge on his end can only go so far. Can you really desire revenge for a loss you never really knew? Obviously, Sam's statement causes anger in Dean but they eventually work through it. By the end, Dean still doesn't quite understand why Sam wants the apple pie life and is willing to abandon his family but he's also willing to let his brother live his life...until the demon attack, of course.

The Good

Really, as far as pilots go, this is a very solid pilot. Pilots are normally real beasts to handle, especially if you have a fantasy kind of setting. You have to create the world, set up the rules of the world, introduce the characters, make them quirky and likeable, all while layering on some sort of charm to the story-telling that's going to keep the audience engaged. And this pilot does it very well. All of the world building, rule-setting, character set-ups are done sporadically through the entire episode giving the audience a lot of time to breathe and really understand the story that's being told. There's very few moments where long paragraphs of exposition are given. And when they are, the actors deliver it in a way that doesn't make it sound like a college dissertation. That's a very rare skill to have. There's funny moments, there's dramatic moments and it rarely feels forced which is rare to find in a pilot. 

I love that the title screen has this very paranormal-esque motion to it as it pops up on-screen. It really sets the tone for the show you're watching. 

I felt that going back 20 years to see the tragic backstory of the family right at the very beginning was a very smart idea. Just put it there right in the beginning so your audience realizes right away the motivations of these characters. 

Going back to this episode, I had forgotten how much chemistry Jared Padalecki and Jensen Ackles have even from the very beginning. Their banter is great. It has a real rhythm to it. You feel like these two are brothers. They argue and get on eachother's nerves but you can also tell they genuinely care about the other as siblings would. I have three younger brothers; I understand how you can both love and hate your siblings at the same time.

I love the symmetry we have with the first scene and the end scene. Just how similar the two play out really makes it work and sets up the tone and the foundation of the story very well. 

I enjoyed the ghost story that was played out as well. The show found an urban myth and put their own spin on it and it was really interesting for me to watch and see how it played out. 

Right off the bat, this show makes the decision about the music. That being it's going to be classic rock and I really like it. It really sets a tone that actually works. Not to mention, it's kind of refreshing to have a show that has a different sound than the typical alternative pop that so populates a lot of the other shows currently airing. Don't get me wrong, I love Ruelle but I do get kind of sick of hearing it in every show. The classic rock really adds something to the atmosphere of the show.

The Bad

I really don't have anything too terribly bad to say. Like I said, this is a solid pilot. It succeeds more or less in everything it's trying to do. But sometimes the exposition or the manner in which it was written was a little clunky at times. But oh well. Sometimes that can’t be avoided in pilots. Even in the commentary on the DVD for this episode, the writer said he wasn’t happy with the exposition scenes.

I guess another thing would be that I've never understood John's motivations in this season for leaving clues for the boys to follow him around on. Why does he want them to follow him and complete cases he's decided to abandon? He kind of just leaves these towns wide open to have more victims for these creatures when he could've just taken care of it himself. He has no real way of knowing if Sam or Dean are actually going to take these cases or not. But it has been a while since I’ve seen all of Season 1 so maybe I'm just remembering things wrongly.

Favorite Quotes

SAM: You gotta update your cassette tapes. DEAN: Why? SAM: 1) They're cassette tapes and 2) (he lists a bunch of bands) -- it's the greatest hits of mullet rock DEAN: House rules, Sammy. Driver picks the music, shotgun shuts his cakehole. This is just really great banter. I love it.

DEAN: (to Sam) No chick flick moments. This'll become important in Season 11. I'm just saying.

SAM: (to ghost) I'm taking you home. This is just a bad-ass one liner delivered very well by Jared. All throughout the episode, Constance keeps on muttering how she wants to go home but then she can never go home and Sam has had enough of this shit so he's all, "I'm taking you home."

Well there we have it for the Supernatural pilot. I'd honestly probably give this episode an A-. It's a very strong introduction to the show. We got the motivations of our characters, we got an interesting urban legend, there were funny moments between the boys, dramatic moments between the boys and set ups for certain themes that are going to be employed later on in the story. Basically, a well-rounded pilot.

Man, it feels good to talk about something I love. So if there's anything anyone wants to discuss about this episode, please let me know. Was there something I missed? Do you like the episode as I did? Or do you think it's complete trash? Just be respectful of everyone's opinions. And remember, please no spoilers for Season 13.

[sarahsilverdog-blog-blog]

One Problem At A Time Ch. 5

SPOONMAN

All my friends are skeletons

(They beat the rhythm with their bones)

~Soundgarden

Bright morning sunlight spilled through the portholes, dappling the bed where they lay entangled in the soft sheets. Mitch was propped up on his side, supporting himself with one arm while the other traced lazy circles on the flat plane of Jamie's stomach. She was watching him through half-closed eyes, hoping he'd shift the circles a few inches higher-or lower. They had only been together a few times since his return from the dead and most of those had been hurried, hidden affairs; even when they did take more than a few rushed moments he never stayed the night in her room, or she in his. They weren't a secret, everybody knew they were... something, but it just felt too weird to be so openly girlfriend/boyfriend-y around everyone else. It was easier to slip back into their rooms in the dark; neither wanted to face anyone on an early morning walk of shame, even if it was a short one. This was the first time she had woken up beside him, wrapped in his musky morning scent, feeling the scratchy stubble of his chin rubbing the back of her neck where the sun warmed it. Sure, he'd had no room to go back to since it was currently occupied by his daughter and grandson, but she knew he wouldn’t have gone anyway because this was just another slow step in their journey to find something like a normal relationship in this not-normal world.

She could hear the rumble of the plane wakening; feet pattered past their door, sleepy voices grumbled down the hall, and they could hear the unfamiliar voices of Morris Brown and his men stirring downstairs. They would have to get up soon, there were things to do and a world to try and save but for the moment she content to just be with him, the man she thought she'd lost forever. Mitch.

His lazy circles had moved lower, and she took in a sharp breath as he whispered in her ear, "You’re beautiful, Jamie Campbell," and kissed the tender flesh at the base of her neck. "Your skin is like satin, so soft so white," he nuzzled between her breasts, making her squirm with anticipation. "I had so many dreams about us," he murmured into her belly, his beard black against her paleness, and she slid her hands into his hair, groaning softly. His next words were buried in the area between her thighs but she understood him well enough, and she answered him with her body and soul.

***

Sated and sweaty, they lay quietly together for a few more minutes. She could tell Mitch shared her aversion to leaving this room; he made no move to leave their nest either, but he looked over at her with sad reluctance. "I guess we'd better..." he motioned at the door.

“Yeah," Jamie replied. "I guess so." She sat up on the edge of the bed, loathe to leave him but then a scent wafted up to her, and she took in a deep breath. "Do you smell something?"

“ls that...bacon?" he asked, sniffing the air. "l didn't think there was any food on this plane. Just alcohol."

Jamie shook her head. "Grocery shopping isn't really my thing.”

They dressed hurriedly, both nearly salivating at the smell of bacon that had been joined by the overpowering scent of fresh, strong coffee but Mitch stopped Jamie at the bedroom door, kissed her thoroughly, then opened the door and strolled boldly from her room in the clothes he had been wearing the night before, keeping her hand firmly in his.

***

Morris Brown and his men had supplied the foodstuffs. "Your good luck, folks,” Morris said, beaming over the huge spread of bacon, eggs, fried potatoes, butter, bread, cheese, apples and bananas.

“Since we were just on a run back to HQ we resupplied at Pueblo, the border town, and stocked up on plenty of fresh tucker! A soft place to sleep inside after weeks on the road is no small gift,” he patted one of his obviously hungover men on the leg and added, “and we drank enough of your liquor last night. I'd say this is a fair trade!”

Drawn by the scent of food, everyone had made their way into the kitchen and they were busily loading up plates. Jamie and Mitch found themselves suddenly ravenous, and as they both piled food on their plate they caught each other's eyes and shared a smile. Morris Brown, who never missed a thing, saw their exchange and, noting that Mitch was clad in the previous night's attire, guffawed, “And some of us worked up mighty appetites in other ways, from the look -and the sound- of it!" Clementine didn't bother to suppress her laugh at her father's barely shamefaced eyeroll as Jamie flamed bright red and choked on the bite of bread she had just taken.

"The walls are very thin,” Abe said apologetically, patting Jamie on the back until she stopped coughing.

After everyone had eaten their fill, Mitch sighed and stood addressing Morris Brown. ”Okay, before you guys head back out on the dusty trail, I need something and I think you can help us. Dylan," he almost stumbled on the name again but caught himself, "told you about the dog that was killed by a hybrid, then came back from the dead as a hybrid? Well, his corpse is back at the IADG compound at the Barrier, and I need it to study how they are turning animals into hybrids.”

Brown shrugged. "Well, mate, that seems easy enough. Well use your little frequency doohickeys, breeze right in, breeze right out.” He elbowed one of his men in the ribs. "Maybe pick up some, uh, supplies, while we're there, boys?”

"Yeah," Mitch said slowly, "Nothing around here is ever easy. There’s a catch. I also need a fresh hybrid to compare the dogs makeup with. So, we have to tum off the doohickey to get a hybrid to come to us.”

The revelation didnt seem to bother Morris Brown in the slightest. “Well, that does put a bit of sand in the gears, doesn’t it?" He glanced at his men. "But I think we can handle it.”

***

They only had one vehicle in the bay, one of the armored SUVs so Jamie, Mitch. Abe and Dariela climbed in while Jackson and Tessa rode with Morris Brown. Mitch had programmed everyone's phone with the frequency, so they only had to open up a music app and press play for their own personal monster repellant, The drawback was it used battery power like crazy, and the most a phone tended to last while using it was fifteen minutes, so it was only for when things got really close. The plan was to ride in with the frequency blasting from one of the trucks, grab the dog and whatever supplies and data from IADG they could and then turn off the frequency until a hybrid came close enough to catch or kill.

Mitch was driving and as they pulled off of the ramp into the desert he turned on his radio, popping in a CD and cranking the volume up. Spoonman, come together with your hands, save me, I’m together with your plan, save me…

“You’re supposed to be playing the frequency, Mitch," Abe yelled over the music.

"I layered it under my favorite CD," Mitch shouted back. "Now I always have a reason to blast Soundgarden!" He sang along, drumming on the steering wheel as they bounced over the rough terrain and Jamie sang with him, though she had a terrible voice. He heard her and turned to give her a wink. Save me... Chris Cornell sang, and Mitch squeezed her hand discreetly across the front seat.

They rolled into the compound, deserted and looking much as it had when they left it the day before. The bodies of the razorbacks, dinosaur and vulture still lay on the ground and a blackened man shaped lump of charcoal lay in the middle like the most gruesome centerpiece ever.

The Australian's trucks drove into the compound behind them and Morris Brown whistled under his breath as he climbed out and looked around at the carnage. "You lot did have a scrap, eh?”

Mitch ran to the spilled IADG golf cart and found the dog, still in the black bag. He opened it to be sure and gagged as the smell of rotting meat and maggots rolled up out of the leather while Jamie covered him with her pistol. Brown and his men and Abe, Jackson, Dariela and Tessa ran into IADG headquarters, Brown and his men grabbing whatever supplies they could and Jackson and the others grabbing computers and any kind of data they could from the offices. The trucks and the SUV were loaded down and they all gathered around, looking at the scope of the damage the plane had done.

“Okay, time to turn the frequency off," Mitch said, and Chuck, Morris Brown's man, turned of his broadcast system and they all waited. Mitch had a tranquilizer gun but everyone else carried live ammo. "Remember, we need to try to get one alive.”

It didnt take long. There was a loud, roaring shriek and three of the raptor dinos came streaking into the compound. All three targeted the truck that had been blasting the frequency, and before anyone could react, they had dragged Chuck down and mauled him while he screamed. A fusillade of bullets flew into the hybrid pack and as blood and glass flew in all directions the dinos fell dead and Morris Brown ran to his comrade's side. It was too late, he was a lifeless, mangled, bloody mess, and Brown hurriedly flipped the frequency back on before dropping to the side of his dead friend.”

The elation from earlier was gone, and as Brown tended to his downed man, Jamie and Mitch quietly used the winch on the front of the SUV to pull one of the dead dinosaurs onto the roof rack. Mitch felt sick about Chuck, partly because it had been his idea that cost the man his life, but also because he couldn't help but remember how close Jamie had come to that same fate the day before. He tried not to look at the dead man as Brown and another of his men gently placed him in the back of one of their trucks because all he could see was Jamie in his place, her ivory skin red with her own blood, her beautiful face savaged and her throat ripped out, her warm hands as cold as marble-

There was a loud scream and Mitch whirled around in time to see the dead man lunging from the back of the truck at Brown, who stumbled back in terror as the bloody, butchered man fell on him in a fury. Mitch raised his tranquilizer gun and ripped off a shot that caught Chuck in the neck, and with one more mighty roar of rage he fell to the ground.

***

Mitch stayed in the lab for hours, running test after test on the dead dinosaur. Everyone left him to it except Jamie, who stayed behind to help him when she could and be an encouraging presence when she couldn't. The Australians cooked a somber lunch which they downed with alcohol, and it wasn't the first time Jamie was thankful for having a full bar; their recently un-deceased friend was locked firmly in the cell in the belly of the plane and his frequent screams and roars were disheartening to his former mates. Thankfully he was quiet unless someone went down to the cell, which Mitch had done a few times to try and collect samples but then his shrieks would shake the plane with their ferocity.

Jamie brought Mitch a plate from the kitchen, but he didn't want to eat. He seemed agitated and ran his hands through his hair making it stand out wildly. "See this molecular structure here?" he pointed to a compound on the screen. "This is from the dinosaur hybrid. This is my signature,” he said, pointing to a series of atoms. "I started using it in a high school science fair as an inside joke for my- for Max. But I didn't design this. This is from my brain but not from me, so it had to be Duncan. And he's added an extra bond just here-“ pointed at the screen, "though it doesn't change the function of this compound at all.”

“So Duncan created these hybrids in the Blue Diaspora program and he signed them with your signature, which would be why the people who took you out of the tank thought you knew what it was. And he added a small variation into your signature. So what does that mean?”

He threw his hands in the air why the difference? He could have just tagged it as me and left it at that. Why extra bond?" Mitch punched a button and another compound molecule sprang to the screen. "This is from the vulture we got a while ago. Here's the same signature molecule, just like mine, but with another variation. A different variation." He distractedly pushed his glasses back up on his nose. “I think each these variations come together at a molecular level to do something big, but l don’t know what. I need blood from every different variety of hybrid she's created to put this puzzle together.

Jamie took a step back, looking horrified. "What? Mitch, that’s impossible, I mean we don't even know how many different hybrids she’s made!”

“Yeah, that's just the first of our problems. But l do have some good news. Our zombie friend, Chuck, he doesn't have any kind of molecular variation, but he wasn't created by Abigail," he inclined his head, “at least, not first hand. But the saliva from our hybrid buddy here," he motioned to the dead dinosaur on the table, "has a sort of catalyst, a large amount of Reactive Oxygen Species- those are free radical molecules- that speed the regeneration of cells, hence our ‘resurrected' dead. But I tested Chuck himself, and he doesn’t have that extra serving of ROS molecules so he can't turn anything into a zombie, which means neither can any other zombie animal. Theoretically.”

“Luckily, Mitch Morgan's theories are usually right," Jamie said putting her hand gently over his. "And some good news is better than nothing. We need to tell the others about this.”

***

Jamie called the others to the lab, and they all crowded in around Mitch’s computer bank as he explained what he had found, though he left out the Duncan aspect in front of Brown and his men. "So, basically, if I am going to solve the hybrid puzzle I need blood samples, or even better, fresh samples, of every hybrid Abigail has created. So far we know that is razorbacks, vultures, woolly rhinos, goats, mammoths, spiders and velociraptors. We have the vulture and the dino, so we need a razorback. rhino, goat, mammoth and spider sample.”

"And snakes." Jamie added. "Giant invisible snakes.”

“Right. And snakes." He gave her a sideways look and said so that only she could hear, "Don't know how we forgot that since one ate you." He turned back to the entire group. "There may be more since we don't know how many hybrids she's created, so it's important that we know about any new variety.”

"Well, then this is good news, l guess," Dariela said, breaking in. "I intercepted a report of a hybrid polar bear creating havoc in Alaska. Supposedly it's as big as a car."

“Look," Jackson said, standing up to face them all. "We are still under a time crunch here. The more of Abigail’s hybrids that make it through the barrier into North America, the more zombie animals going to be facing. I say we split up. Mitch, you and the others take the plane and go to Alaska, Tessa and l will join Morris and his men in tracking down the hybrids that we can and getting samples." He looked at Brown. "lf you are willing."

Morris nodded. "You betcha, mate. I want a shot at that shiela responsible for this mess. And for Chuck."

Dariela looked lovingly at Abe, then squared her shoulders and said to Jackson, “I am going with you. I'm more of a soldier than a scientist, and something tells me you’re gonna need my help."

Jackson nodded, and Abe and Dariela disappeared to say a private goodbye.

Jackson, Tessa and Morris Brown put their heads together to start planning and Mitch cleared his throat. "One more thing," he said, motioning towards the kitchen. "Could you leave us some of that bacon?”

[venuaur]

So I was cleaning some of the clutter in my room and it led me to looking through my memory box, where I keep a load of things from days in my life I actually did stuff. And in this box, there’s an envelope where I’ve kept a whole lot of ticket stubs and the like, and I thought it’d be nice for my 1,000th post to list them off and reminisce a lil’ bit. Think of it as an icebreaker post about 10 months too late, if you’re into that sort of thing.

Ticket to see WWE Live at Sheffield. The main event was either Cena vs Batista for the WWE Championship or a tag including Randy and Swagger. In any event, Randy tried to RKO Cena after the match and then lost to him in about a 10 second match - Apr. 2010

Ticket to see The Inbetweeners Movie. It was the most awkward double non-date of all time so god knows we needed a movie with as much levity - Aug. 2011

Ticket to see the WWE Raw taping at Liverpool. Main event was Miz & R-Truth vs Cena & Ryder. I don’t remember ever catching myself in the crowd on the TV - Nov. 2011

Receipt for The Five Doctors, the first Classic Who DVD I ever bought. The collection’s been on ice for a while, but I haven’t forgotten about it - Dec. 2011

Ticket to my Year 11 prom. I honestly looked cute as heck and I still have the same suit. The night ended with about a 2 hour trek back to town from an afterparty in the middle of nowhere - Jun. 2012

Ticket for Y-Not, my local music festival. This was my second of three and easily the best. Got a bit hairy after I had a whole litre bottle of whiskey in 45-75 minutes, depending on who you ask. Catch me trying that today lmao - Aug. 2013

Invitation for a joint 18th birthday do at The Bridge, the easiest place to get served if you’re under 18. It’s a really cute invitation styled like a passport - Oct. 2013

Ticket to see WWE Live at Nottingham, which to date is the last time I’ve been. I think the main event was Cena vs Del Rio for the World Heavyweight Championship, but the match I remember most was Punk and Bryan vs Harper and Rowan - Nov. 2013 

Tickets for The Day of the Doctor cinema release and the celebration in London the next day. I went down with three friends and I feel truly fortunate that I was able to. We didn’t make a whole lot of noise considering, but you can catch me rocking my First Doctor cosplay for the 100th anniversary con - Nov. 2013  

Ticket for a sixth form social at The Sun Lounge, a nightclub that no longer exists. Peak underage drinking, but I seem to remember them kicking us out for something on this occasion - Dec. 2013

Ticket to go to a student conference led by Dr. Phillip Zimbardo in London. This was a school trip that required me getting up at like 4 in the morning, but it was worth it. The main thing I remember was Zimbardo popping the crowd by saying fuck. - Mar. 2014

Ticket to see The Fault in Our Stars. I went with the girl I was crushing on at the time, though sadly she was batting for the other team. We ended up sneaking wine into the movie and she rested her head on my shoulder and cried a lot, because she knew the book already - Jun. 2014

Ticket to my Year 13 prom. For reasons detailed in the next point, I went sporting a full beard and skipped out on the afterparty. I honestly don’t remember a whole lot besides that, besides arguing with my mum on the way home over something - Jul. 2014

Ticket to London Film and Comic Con. Prom was the previous day so I was a bit hungover on the journey down. I essentially went as Daniel Bryan in a tweed jacket. Got a picture with an old TARDIS console. Stood and gaped as Steven Moffat walked past me. Went and had a Pizza Hut after failing to meet Jenna Coleman for reasons I still don’t quite understand. So, I remember it both fondly and not so fondly - Jul. 2014

Train ticket for the aforementioned - Jul. 2014

Ticket to see Guardians of the Galaxy in Uttoxeter, which as far as I remember was the last movie I saw with friends before I went to uni the first time - Aug. 2014

Ticket to see Deep Breath at the cinema. I went with my best friend at the time and neither of us knew how to feel about the Twelfth Doctor afterwards. Nowadays he’s my third favourite behind Eleven and Two. - Aug. 2014

Ticket for the Doctor Who Experience in Cardiff, which to date is the only time I’ve ever been to Wales. I was there with an online friend who I knew through the RP scene here on Tumblr - Dec. 2014

Bus ticket to get to the aforementioned - Dec. 2014

Free entry flyer to watch the Royal Rumble at the Krazyhouse, Liverpool. I didn’t end up going, but I went back to Krazyhouse many times - Jan. 2015.

Ticket for the Pokemon Symphonic Evolutions concert in London. Now this was a nice day I don’t think about enough. My dad happened to be driving a band down there the same day, so I got to ride with them, which was cool even though I caught a lil’ bit of roasting. Met up with my friend and his girlfriend down there and sort of met GlitchxCity, who seemed nice - Dec. 2015

Ticket to see The Force Awakens. I was going to wait until the weekend to see it - and had already booked tickets - but when I got spoiled on Han Solo I went on the Thursday. I would go see it 4 times in total, the last time on Feb. 26th, which is my birthday - Dec. 2015

Receipt for a Star Wars themed cup, popcorn and 3D glasses. I still have all three on display. - Dec. 2015

Ticket to see Spectre. I’m a casual Bond fan at the most, but my Dad is more enthusiastic - Jan. 2016

Ticket to see The Big Short in Birmingham. This was part of a weekend visiting friends and the day after I got properly high on weed for the first time - Jan. 2016

Ticket to see Finding Dory (or Dory, as the ticket says). I don’t remember thinking much to it compared to the original - Jul. 2016

Ticket for the MMU Gamers society Christmas meal. I met Santa! She gave me a calendar with cats on it, which I still have - Dec. 2016

Ticket for the midnight showing of Rogue One. Went with the Gamers society again. My heart is still racing from the Vader scene - Dec. 2016

Ticket to see Rogue One for the second time. Probably would have been the same day I did the Christmas shopping - Dec. 2016

Bus ticket from Dubrovnik to Montenegro. The journey was several hours and cost 226 kuna, which is about £28. The two places weren’t that different, but I got a stamp in my passport for my troubles. - Jul. 2017

Ticket to see The Last Jedi for the second time, having previously dragged my sister to go see it. Probably would have been the same day I did the Christmas shopping. I’m sensing a pattern here - Dec. 2017

Ticket to see Solo. I hadn’t seen any of the trailers but I did get slightly spoiled that Maul might be in it - May 2018.

Ticket to see The Incredibles 2. I snuck in between participating in Pokemon GO community day and doing birthday shopping for my sister - Aug. 2018