#( i even drew rory for them back in the day.. )

[erporo]

i. i had to k.

[witchersmistress]

Monster pt 10

Hello my Darlings!! back with some monster today

Trigger Warning: straight up fluffy august

Word count: 2.5K

August’s POV 

your eyes filled with tears, I spun your round and kissed every inch of your face as you clung to me. Crushing you into my chest as you sobbed. I had no idea you felt so broken and unwanted. The thought that not a single person loving you drives me over the edge, i want to scour the world and burn them all to the ground.. Gripping the back of your head and wrapping an arm around your back “Wrap your arms around me” you put your arms around my neck and I picked you up by your thighs and lifted you off the ground, depositing you back on the bed. You curled up and just watched, eye glassy and conflicted. Shooting a quick text off to Ed to bring me my laptop, I pulled back the crips sheets and moved you under them. Making quick work of your leggings and socks, then your bra. 

Leaving you in you cotton panties and tucked the blankets around you, Ed knocked on the door and brought me my laptop and various other things that i was working on, Nicci trailed in behind him with a tray of a variety of food and drinks, she gave a small smile and walked back out the door, Ed clapped me on my and walked out. I stripped down to my boxer after they left the room and climbed into bed with you. Pulling you into my side, I drew circles on your shoulder and hummed a soft medley. “I want our son to be loved, he is the most important thing to me” moving my left hand to cover yours on the swell of your stomach “He is the most important thing, but he isn't my world you are” i wiped away a few stray tears as you laid your head on my chest and fell asleep. Watching your breath even out, I moved a few  pieces of hair from your eyes “ “I promise, if I steal, it will be to steal your heart. If I cheat, it’s to cheat death so I can stay with you longer. If I fight, it will be to protect you.” Then I add my own twist, “If you cry, it will be tears of happiness. If you're in pain, it will be because you're giving birth to our children.”

After placing a kiss on your head, heart and belly, i looked over at my laptop that chimed, grabbing the damn thing i looked over and it was a message from Sy and Walter

Walter: *Sends the video of August talking to you while you are sleeping*

“ I may vomit..”

That rotten motherfucker, i am going to get him one of these days

Sy: I hate to say this man but someone has to. You are pussy whipped cuz, ain't nothing you can do about it”

August: like you aren't over a 27 year old girl you’ve known your entire life?”

Sy:” shut up Gus”

Walter “Wow I've never seen you this love struck since you discovered yourself”

Sy:  “🤣 🤣 🤣 Thats  a good one Walter”

August: Seriously fuckers, your a bunch of children 🙄”

Closing out of the chat and scrolling over to my emails, most of it junks or unimportant matters, but one stands out to me, from Matthias

“Hey Boss,

We have auction night coming up but none of the other partners are available and neither are you, still continuing without one present?

Matthias 

Adjusting my laptop so that i could type, 

“Matthias,

Dont worry man one of the partners will be there, don't you worry”

August

Smiling to myself as i switched back over to chat:

August: “Since both of you are being fuckers.. Sy you’ll need to be at LUX this weekend, for the auction since i am unavailable and Walters is just a dumb fucker”

Walter: *typing* Rude..

Sy: Seriously?!?! I have other stuff I was going to do, Gus this is bullshit!!

August: Oh what were you going to do?? Masterbate to pictures of Rory?

Walter: “Damn bro that harsh.. I fucking love it”

Sy: “.........fucking asshole.. I had plans with her dad, we were going fishing”

I was typing my reply when Sy responded again:

Sy: “Fucking assholes, her dad just asked me to keep an eye on her since she is going out to LA this weekend. What the fuck am i suppose to do?”

Walter: “Wear a condom”

August: “an extra small one”

Sy: “Assholes the lot of you, this isn't fucking funny. She is his daughter like how do i deal with that, ive been wanting your daughter since she was 18, im fucking 45 years old man. It's wrong on so many levels”

August: “It's funny from where I’m sitting”

Walter: “Like I said man, wear a condom.. An extra small one and pray you don't have a heart attack”

Sy:” Fuck you man”

August: “Nah Syverson dont fuck Walter, fuck Rory” 

Sy: “🖕 i fucking hate both of you”

Walter: There sure seems to be a lot of fucking going on, just not with poor Rory, the poor thing i hope she brought a friend”

Sy: 😒 😒 😒

Letting out a sharp laugh, I startled you, your eyes flutter open, reaching across my chest, dragging your finger nails down my chest, i feel the sting, your nails leave behind along with the 4 pink marks down my chest before you settle your hand low on my abdomen and drift back off to sleep. “My sleepy little kitten, what have you done to me?” burying your face deeper into my side, with a gentle laugh, i focus back on my work. A few restful minutes pass before knocking at the door. “Come in” 

“Sorry boss” Ed said as he came in with some documents, “I know you two needed time but we found how her dad got into the estate” he extended his hand to show me some grainy footage of Ethan and his crew of misfits making their way into an old ice house. Fuck i forgot all about that, there was a passage way from there to the kitchen.

Pinching the bridge of my nose, I ran a finger gently down the bridge of your nose, “Sweet girl, I’ll be back before you know it” placing a kiss on your forehead and tucking a pillow in my place, you snuggled up closer and sighed. I didn't want to leave but I need to protect you and our son more than ever. Quickly getting dressed, I looked back at you curled up in bed. With a heavy sigh I turned and left you, hopefully for the last time.

*hours later*

Does Ethan think I am that stupid? He wanted me to find him. Slinking through the front hall, my men spread out behind me. I nodded at Ed before I opened the door and made my way into the house, walking into the den. There is no sign of anyone here. I pointed to my left and right, spreading my men out to search the property, Ed and I went further into the den, looking over plans and blueprints of my home in Paris and our current hideaway in Italy

FUUUCK!! Scrambling for my phone, I called Walter “Hello brother to what do I owe..”

I cut him off before he could finish “ I need an extraction team in Italy, immediately, she and my baby are in danger.” i heard the clicking of keys as he quickly typed and the muffled sound of voices as he barked out orders ``It's done, they will be there within the hour” the click on the other end told me that he had hung up, i quickly pulled up the cameras and saw his men making entry to the home, Nicci woke you up and threw things in a bag before handing you a prepaid cell phone, Ed came up beside me and handed me his “Baby girl listen to Nicci and do what she says, you’ll be safe in her hands and i'll see you soon”

Your POV

I remember hearing August recite an old Irish prayer, then i was being woken up by panicked Australian accent “Wake up we need to go” coming back to the land of the living, i saw Nicci throwing stuff into a bag and clothes on the bed “Quick, we need to get you to safety.” I sprang up from bed, quickly pulling on my clothes as Nicci scolded the men when they came in. “Have you no respect, she is naked” my cheeks flushing at the thought of another man seeing me naked, but more of how August would behave if he found out. Nicci handed me a cellphone, it was August “What is going on?” there was chatting on the other end of the line “Just moving you to a different location sweet girl, i'll see you when you get here” the lined clicked on the other ended and i handed the phone back to Nicci, i pulled my favorite sweater, stolen from August, i felt something scratch me along my back, hissing as it bite into my skin, Nicci came over, “What's the matter love?”

“Something is caught in my sweater” pulling at the back, she pulled it up and gasped “That rotten bastard, your father planted a bug on ya” she called for one of August’s men and they came in. she handed over the bug and they grimaced “Boss won't be too happy” he grabbed his wand and nikki snatched it. “‘I’ll do it, you don't need to be touching her” she waved it over my body and my stuff  nothing else beeped, tossing my black flats at me feet, “Come girly lets go” we rushed through the beautiful home as we were hustled out the door and into the driveway. There was  a couple, standing there talking to one of August’s men, they could have passed for August and I at a glance.

Nikki gave me a squeeze “Your safe I promise you that, come we have someone we want you to meet” i nodded as we made our way towards were they were standing. Nikki tapped the man on the shoulder and he spun around “Nikki” he spoke with a Irish accent, as he scooped her up and spun her around “Saint you eejit, put me down” he let out a loud laugh and placed her back on her feet “ We will make an irish woman out of you yet” she rolled her eyes and slapped him in the chest, she turned back to me “where are my manners, this is my brother in law Saint and his girl Nyx” i looked over at Nyx, she had to same type of build as me, from hair color and eyes, to height and build.

Nyx popped the trunk of her vehicle and opened a duffle bag “ Hi sweetness” . I wasn't expecting her to have a soft tone like she does. “Come, let's see if I have anything that matches” I nodded as we dug through the bag. Nikki chatted with Saint and August’s men, fiddling with a necklace.. She was nervous. We all were. We managed to get Nyx dressed like me, “Now for that last piece” I jumped out of my skin as Saint came up behind me. He let out a soft chuckle as Nyx stared him down “Saint dont scare the poor girl, you were raised better than that” he rubbed my shoulders and then moved to Nyx and pulled her in his arms and devoured her mouth in a passionate kiss. I was equal parts embarrassed and jealous. 

Jealous that they can be so open like they are, I don't know if I’ll ever get to have that with August or if he and I will be doomed to the shadows while my father hunts us. Somebody clearing their throat, stopped them. “If you two are finished we need to get moving” Nikki huffed at them. They broke apart and Saint retrieved a little clear bag from his pocket. “Last piece, the tracker” he looked at Nyx and indicated for her to spin around, she did and raised the sweater up, he attached the tracker to the band of her leggings and pulled her sweater back down “We are all set” confusion must have been written on my face..

“Sweetness” Nyx cooed at me “We are the diversion for you to get away safely, you and that precious baby” she winked at me. Nikki pulled me into her side, “Do not fret those two are very good at what they are doing.  Come on into the vehicle with you ", throwing one last glance over my shoulder to Nyx and Saint, he was putting his helmet before giving Nyx hers, she smiled at me and yelled “Don't worry love we’ll be seeing you again.” popping on her helmet and getting on the back of the bike and taking off. Nikki put me into the black escalade and we took off, she rubbed my shoulder as we drove to the air strip. I just couldn't get out of my own head, I wanted August but I may never have him the way I want to. I felt a tear slipping down my face as I watched the house fade into the background.

We pulled into the airfield where a plane was waiting for us and a familiar figure was pacing in front of the steps. August, he looks like he has aged 20 years since he left. The car had barely come to a stop before I was flinging off my seatbelt and opening the door.  “Woman, what is the matter with you?” Nikki called after me as I took off from the car. “August” I yelled but he didnt hear me, pumping my legs faster “AUGUST!!” I yelled with everything in my chest, he stopped pacing and looked over at me before I started running at me. I'm not sure who collided with who but that didn't matter, i wrapped myself around that man like a snake hanging from a tree. He wrapped my legs around his waist, one hand was on my back, the other one went to the back of my head, securing me to his frame. Turning around he walked up the steps, Nikki was shaking her head and laughing at me while he carried me. Passed the seats and into the private bedroom in the back. Closing the door behind him, he sat on the bed and pulled me closer to him. We did speak for several long seconds, he unwrapped my legs from his waist and he sat me on the edge of the bed while he paced around bedroom space, i fiddled with the grey throw blanket as he moved about, the plush grey carpeting with white wall and the window shades half drawn so there was some sunlight streaming in.

“August” I started as he blew out a breath and turned around to look at me. “Marry me” 

[canyouplzjust]

Of Course Its Mr. X

I couldn't leave it there, like without explaining the coolest and most tragic things that happened in that session. I just can't write for very long at a time. Anymore.

So, in the hallway of Umbrella Corp we hear the familiar thud of unstoppable footsteps. I don't have to look to know that they are coming from a LARGE man in a normal sized hat, but the hat looks small because he's so big. It's Mr. X from Resident Evil and he can definitely kill any of us in 2 hits. We took off down the hallway, Rory covered our trail with some hearty skeletons that absorbed enough hits for us to get away. Well, get to the end of the hall, in a weird room with floor to ceiling windows and we're trapped. Les used his light field projector to create the illusion that the room extends several feet out farther than it does, and puts the image of us huddled in the dead center. Well, Mr. X took the bait and just fucking smashed through the plate glass window, Michael Myers style, and walked himself out the side of a 40-story drop. holy shit.

While we were half cheering and half crying about how we were going to get down from our towering skyscraper, Max showed up to talk shit. He got real self righteous and confrontational, and when Didi just started biting back at him, I don't know, it was funny, so I laughed. He seemed so powerless and futile, scrabbling with her like that, trading barbs like tough kids at a punk show, but fuck me i guess because when I lowered my chin back down, from throwing my head back in the laughter, he was looking at me with murder in his eyes. It wasn't an empty threat. He snapped his fingers and the mystical Probability Knight appeared in the hallway, lighting up the area behind JD with his hellish glow. I didn't even have time to scream, I saw in my peripheral vision as the giant sword came through the front of JD's chest, and his body collapsed onto the floor, because I couldn't tear my eyes away from Max. Who was that looking at me through his eyes? It felt like motivated hatred, and it really wanted to hurt all of us, but was it the boy I had left behind? I'm truly sorry for what happened to him, but I don't know how we could have left without him if he wasn't truly dead. What's even possible here?

I turned to Les and yelled "Do you have a phone," as he pulled a ringing black phone out of his pants pocket, looking more surprised than I was, really. "Yes.... OK," he said into the phone, and then looked at us. In the tone of a confident man, a trustworthy hero, he said, "Lets go," and jumped out the window. We all followed without hesitation.

On the street below us, in the middle of the day, was a giant inflated parade balloon to break our fall. No damage, just a gentle bounce and the gift of help from a stranger. I think the ballon was of Pikachu... or possibly another cartoon character, and at the bottom of the fall was a spunky Fool who goes by the alias DC. I know what it stands for, but I'm not telling. She took us into the sewer (gross) and led us to a vault with inches thick lead walls that no signals could penetrate. She was from another Paragon party, and she really struggled to give us any info about her long gone friends, but she did have the arm remnants of a Neo. Use it or lose the Faire gold, Les always says, so I suggested he plug some into the arm, and lo - now he has a blink teleporter! DC wouldn't give it up for free, in trade Les and Didi drew her a Transformers comic, based on the new movies that had come out since she'd been trapped. I don't think they were very good, but I also haven't seen them sober, so its impossible to say.

Didi and Les stepped out into the hall (aka the sewer) and Didi made a call to a British sounding ex-boyfriend. He's blonde and he's dangerous and its fucking Spike. Spike met us at the edge of the city with his whole gang of bikers, and we got a ride out of the hot zone. I can't really get into it now, but Didi's got some kids that Spike has been raising for her, or raising to eat her, its still unclear. Its gonna get weird and I'm sure they are dangerous.

[elm-writes-stories]

Cuphead: Isle of Memories (Rewrite)

*Hey guys! I'm back with another episode of the rewrite of Cuphead: Isle of Memories. This is published on August 31, 2023. If you guys like this episode, don't forget to heart, reblog, and comment! That would be greatly appreciated! Have a nice day!*

Episode Three: Angels and Gamblers

Porkrind hadn't been himself lately.

Jerry was well aware of that, but he had never seen a pig so obsessed before. Porkrind had been on the floor, trying to map out Hell for a few days. He marked all the possible locations where Cassidy might be and tried to find entrances around the island. Brineybeard volunteered to go with Porkrind around the island to find any entryway to Hell, but they hadn't found anything through his scouting.

Porkrind refused to give up. If he had to get his daughter out of the Devil's hands and back home where she belonged, he will do whatever it takes. He made a promise a long time ago to take care of Cassidy to an old friend of his and he wasn't intending on quitting on that promise any time soon.

But Jerry noticed Porkrind getting bags under his eyes from the lack of sleep. Some nights, Jerry could barely sleep because of Porkrind staying up all night to find Cassidy. He tried to get Porkrind to go to sleep in the most polite way possible, but the one-eyed pig refused. Porkrind had to believe that he was close, right? Right?

Jerry didn't believe so. Dice ended up sleeping in the other room after a few days of staying with the Howling Aces since he couldn't sleep in the room Porkrind and Jerry was in. Jerry was very tempted to follow Dice and share a room with him.

Today, the kids were gone for some reason with Murray and Elder Kettle looking for them and Jerry and Dice stayed behind with the Howling Aces, who were busy doing their own thing with fixing their planes. Porkrind stayed behind too...cooped up in his room to draw out the map in Hell.

Dice and Jerry stood outside of the room, now concerned for Porkrind.

"This is the fifth day and he's still in here," Dice whispered to Jerry.

Jerry shook his head. "I've never seen him like this."

"Really?"

Jerry nodded in confirmation.

"You know, I can hear you guys talkin' behind me," Porkrind replied while drawing the map. His tone sounded irritated.

"Sorry," Jerry responded. "Eh, we're just worried about you."

"I'm fine," Porkrind answered while focusing on the map. "Don't worry about me."

"Do you need help with the map?" Dice asked with a brow raised. "You've been on it for five days."

"Nah, I'm fine," Porkrind replied without looking behind him. "Thanks anyway."

"O-Okay. If you need anything, we'll be right here," Jerry let Porkrind know.

Porkrind simply nodded.

"Come on, let's leave him be—" Jerry grabbed Dice's arm to gently pull him along until Dice moved his arm out of Jerry's grasp and peered over Porkrind's shoulder. Jerry watched in curiosity of what Dice was doing.

Porkrind noticed a silhouette looking over his shoulder, getting him to finally look up and notice King Dice. "What?"

Dice examined the map that Porkrind drew with his head tilt and his brow furrowed. "No offense, Porks, but that map for Hell is not even close to accurate."

"Porks?" Porkrind uttered with his brow raised.

"Is it okay to call you that? I was thinking of Porky, but that kind of sounded offensive. Or Po—"

"Please...don't call me Po," Porkrind replied with a frown.

"Okay, Po is definitely off-limits along with Porky. Noted," Dice noted to himself. "So, Porks it is then...unless you have any objections."

"Wait, why are you even giving me nicknames?" Porkrind probed. "You barely know me."

"Oh, I gave nicknames for everyone," Dice responded while sitting down next to the pig and crossing his legs in doing so. "For example, I called Cuphead and Mugman, Cups and Mugs. For Chalice, Chal. For Natalie, Nat. For Aurora, Rori since everyone is calling her that. For Canteen...eh, it was kind of hard to come up with the nickname that sticks with him...so I'm calling him Hughes for the time-being. Murray is still Murray. Elder Kettle is...EK. Um, Sergant O'Fera is just Sarge. Bulldog is Big Bone because of the sweet bone tattoo on his shoulder. The Yankee Yippers...I call them yippies. And for Jerry, I am debating between JJ or Jay. So...you're not the only one I'm thinking of nicknames for if that makes you feel any better."

"Immensely," Porkrind responded with a sigh.

"Oh, I forgot to mention that I nicknamed Tabitha as Tabitcha," Dice added.

Porkrind almost blurted out a laugh. "What?"

"Oh yeah, that's her nickname alright...but I'll be calling her that behind her back."

"If we ever see her again, I dare you to call her that to her face," Porkrind replied.

"Ooh, what am I getting out of that dare?" Dice asked with a flirty grin.

"A bag full of coin," Porkrind answered.

"Ooh, sounds good."

"If we ever see her again."

"I don't doubt we'll see her again soon."

Jerry smiled underneath his scarf to see Porkrind loosened up a bit around Dice.

"Okay, okay, you're distracting me," Porkrind replied while trying to focus back on the map.

"Right, the map. You have it drawn completely wrong," Dice pointed out.

"How would you know?"

"I've been down there for years. I know what I'm talking about," Dice indicated with a finger raised and drag along the map. "Let's see...hmm...okay, there are chances where Cassidy is kept in the dungeons of Hell because you know, that's where Big D would usually take the prisoners who are mortals. Even though he's not supposed to do that."

Porkrind tilted his head. "How come?"

Dice shrugged his shoulders. "Contract with the Most High...or something. I've never really pay attention to the politics of that place."

"Do you think that Cassidy might be where Mugman was at? In the prison cells by the library?" Porkrind asked.

"Possibly," Dice said. "Big D's got many places in Hell that had the lava pit, which is where the souls go to suffer and be tormented forever. He also got a big soul vault where he stuffed all the souls in. The prized soul cage was where Cuphead's soul was next to the soul vault. And—" as King Dice rambled on about all the places in Hell and where they were exactly to help Porkrind out, Porkrind stared at Dice to listen to him.

If Porkrind could say one thing he learned about Dice was that the pig could sit and listen to Dice talking for hours straight without stopping. Could anyone really blame him though? It wouldn't be a surprise if everyone else felt the same way. Dice's voice was like honey whether he was trying to lure anyone or not. If he could talk anyone in the base in giving up their souls for the Devil, he could without fail...if they didn't know him any better. It was no wonder Dice was able to get souls to the Devil without fail for a while until Cuphead and Mugman showed up on his radio show. It was no wonder people would always gather to listen to the radio with his voice specifically.

Heck, even Porkrind found a guilty pleasure in listening in to the radio show despite knowing that the game show Dice was hosting was rigged for players to win. It was a miracle that Cuphead and Mugman managed to break Dice's spell by just being their stupid chaotic selves.

"—And that's the map for Hell," Dice replied.

Porkrind didn't realize that Dice was drawing on the map the entire time, showing all the right places and spots where Cassidy might be at. Shoot, he had been thinking too much about Dice's voice.

"Sooo, any questions?" Dice asked Porkrind.

Porkrind blinked his eye. "Uhhh..."

"Sorry, I didn't mean to go on a tangent, but I figured if you are going to be working with a map, might as well be the right one, right?"

Porkrind blushed and nodded. "Yeah. Might as well."

Dice blushed back and shook it off. "Heh, well, I guess I'll leave alone. If you need anymore help, you know where to find me." He said this a flirty grin before walking away.

Porkrind blushed madly and shook it off. Ugh, it was just a stupid crush. Wait...why was he having a crush all the sudden?! Why?! Porkrind covered his face with a groan. He had to go somewhere else where he could focus more and not that stupid flirty grin Dice walked away with.

Porkrind sighed and looked at the map, which was detailed of all the possible locations of where his daughter could be at. But maybe...he needed something a bit more that might uncover the entrances to Hell. Porkrind got up and picked up the map, exiting out of the base.

~.~

Porkrind searched for his other shop that he had here a long time ago. Of course, it had been a while since he had seen it along with Cassidy seeing it. He wouldn't be surprised if she didn't know that he had another shop here in this island. Jerry already knew and he would upkeep it during his monthly trips to the other island when the oceans were safe to travel across.

Porkrind found his other shop over by where the mountain climbers were competing each other. He looked around to make sure he wasn't followed and entered into the shop. He didn't have as much stuff in this shop as he did with his old shop before it was ransacked by that crazy maniac. He entered the back of the shop, looking around for a map of the island. He found the map folded into the second shelf of the wooden shelf next to the back door. He pulled it out, dragging out something else. The book fell from the shelf, causing him to back away for a moment. He looked down and noticed the title of the old leather book.

"Memories to give to Cassidy when she grows up."

Porkrind blinked in shock and sat down on the chair, picking up the book. It turned out to be a scrapbook. Now, he was no arts and crafts kind of guy, but he thought of making the book for Cassidy ever since she ended up under his roof. He wanted to tell her everything, but he knew he couldn't put it to words. She wouldn't believed his words anyway. He had worked on it for years...although, it admittingly got lost in all the mix-up once she started to grow up.

He might have accidentally placed it in the crate to ship it to the other shop. Jerry probably didn't know about the book. Which was fine anyways. It was his secret project after all. He opened the book up and the first thing he saw was a photo of Shayna and Porkrind as kids at church in black and white. It was where it all started. Porkrind smiled a bit when he flipped the book to find the next photo of them being teenagers, sitting at a parlor shop and eating ice cream together. That must be their first date. He could hear the awkward conversations while they were dating during the time.

He flipped to the next page and frowned to see the wedding photo of Shayna and Jack, smiling together at the alter with no one else around them. Not even Porkrind. Up above the black and white photo, he saw the letters he placed together.

"This is your parents."

Porkrind flipped to the next page and saw a set of photos of Jack and Shayna's wedding. One of them was Shayna shoving cake into Jack's mouth with teasing grins, earning a chuckle from the pig. The second photo had them dancing together and laughing throughout the dance. Porkrind wasn't in the wedding photos much but that didn't matter. This was about Cassidy knowing her parents, not about him. He looked at the third photo to see Shayna and Jack on their honeymoon at the beach. The last photo was Shayna and Jack standing in front of their first house with Jack picking her up bridal style.

He kept seeing Shayna smiling through the photos the more pages he flipped until he started to tear up. He couldn't keep going. It has been fifteen years since Shayna has died, but Porkrind was still not over it. Had he grieved properly? Raising Cassidy was his promise to Shayna, a way to keep the memories of Shayna alive...

Porkrind clenched his jaw and was about to close the book until a page slipped and revealed the photo of the hospital with Jack and Shayna showing Cassidy to Porkrind. Porkrind stopped and opened it to examine it.

"Huh? I don't remember putting this here," Porkrind uttered.

Porkrind flipped through the next page to find more photos of Cassidy as a toddler, which had some burns on the corners of the black and white photos. He blinked to wonder if he was seeing things, but he wasn't. He saw Cassidy as a kitten, playing dangling toys with her pupils enlarged and Jack dangling the toys in front of his daughter with a smile. In the next photo, little Cassidy was resting on Jack's shoulder while Jack was watching Shayna cook with a fond smile.

Porkrind tried not to cry while looking at another photo to see Shayna reading a book to Cassidy while the kitten smiled in excitement. He flipped through the next page and he froze to see a picture of himself with baby Cassidy sleeping on his shoulders now. The pig turned the page and saw more photos of him and Cassidy. One of them that caught his eye was the brown photo of Porkrind and Cassidy dancing when she's a little girl. Porkrind took the photo out of the book and looked at it further. He clenched his jaw and finally released small sobs, hugging the photo. He tried not to cry so loud, but he couldn't contain it any longer.

"I'm so sorry," Porkrind uttered an apology. "I let you down. I let you both down."

With that said, he gripped the photo tightly, swearing to himself he will never let it go. 

~.~

"What are you doing?" Jerry asked Dice while watching Dice exploring the kitchen of the base.

"I am just making sure Porkrind ain't overhearing my plan," Dice replied and glanced at Jerry. "Look, he's been cooped up in his room and I kind of want to do something...eh...well..."

"Nice?"

"No, not nice...just something get him out of the room. Take in the fresh air and relax a bit, you know? And you're the only person that knows him well enough. Sooo, do you know what he likes or what gets him out of the room?"

Jerry looked around the room and leaned forward. "I'll tell you secret. It's..."

Dice leaned forward in anticipation.

"Nothing."

Dice gave him a deadpan stare. "Seriously?"

"Yes, seriously," Jerry replied. "Porkrind is the most antisocial guy I've ever met. I had to get him out of his shop by making some deliveries. And even that doesn't work because he had Cassidy run the delivers when she got older. So...there's nothing we can do to get him out of the room."

"So, we're just gonna sit there and let him wallow in obsession and guilt?"

"I don't like that solution either," Jerry said with a sigh. "Unless you got a better idea."

"Hmm...what does Porkrind like? Like maybe there's something we could give to him as a gift or something to cheer him up."

"Uh...gold and Cassidy."

"Huh? Really?"

"As far as I know him."

"Hey guys," O'Fera called while entering the kitchen. "Porkrind wasn't in his room. Do you guys know where he went?"

Dice and Jerry exchanged glances at each other.

"I have no idea."

"He might be at his other shop," Jerry predicted.

"He has another shop here?!" Dice shouted in shock.

Jerry nodded his head. "We should check there to see how he was holding up. There might be a reason he was there."

Jerry and Dice exited the kitchen and the base to find Porkrind's shop. As they reached Porkrind's shop, they heard sniffling in the shop. Was Porkrind crying in there?

Dice and Jerry exchanged gazes with Dice shrugging at Jerry.

Jerry opened the door and the door creaked, causing the sobs to die down.

"Porkrind?" Jerry uttered. He looked around the shop.

Dice and Jerry tiptoed around the shop and peeked to the back room to find Porkrind sitting on the chair, gripping a photo for dear life.

Jerry softened his gaze and approached him. "Porkrind...you okay?"

"I'm fine," Porkrind replied, his voice croaked from crying earlier.

Dice glanced over at the book and attempted to look at the pictures until Porkrind closed it and moved it away from him.

"What are you reading?" Dice asked in curiosity.

Porkrind picked the book up and stuffed the photo back into it, carrying it out of the shop. "It's nothing."

Dice and Jerry stood there, dumbfounded.

~.~

 Dice and Jerry walked around the village after exiting Porkrind's shop with Dice trying to think of something by rubbing his smooth edged chin and humming.

Jerry arched a brow at Dice, trying to read his face. "What are you thinking about?"

"Hm? Oh, I'm just remembering what you said about how Porkrind only likes gold and Cassidy, right?"

"Uh...yeah."

"Well, I was just thinking that maybe we could get him some gold and he could buy whatever he desires," Dice replied with a small smile.

"No amount of gold is ever going to help him get over his grief," Jerry responded.

"You said so yourself—"

"I know what I said. Didn't you see Porkrind in there? He had that book with pictures of Shayna and Cassi in it and he's obviously looking through it."

"Wait, what? Who's Shayna?" Dice asked.

Jerry sighed. "Well, Porkrind knows more about her than I do...but she was his childhood best friend. She died a long time ago when Cassidy was born."

"Oh," Dice uttered. "Maybe gold might buy him...uh...something nice to wear."

Jerry gave Dice a deadpan stare.

"What?! I'm trying to think of something that can be...uh..."

"Nice?"

"No! Again, not nice. Just something...uh...to get his mind off of Cassidy for a moment. You know, like going to a party or something."

Jerry snorted. "Good luck with that. I've said this before and I'll say it again, Porkrind is antisocial. He hates socializing with people."

"Is it because he lost his childhood best friend a long time ago?"

Jerry softened his gaze. "Maybe."

They suddenly heard alarm bells ringing, causing them to tense up. They shot a glance over at the bank, being robbed by a familiar cow in cowgirl clothes, sucking all the gold with her vacuum attached to her back.

"Esther?" Dice recognized.

Chips and Mr. Wheezy shoved bags of gold coins into the trunk of the black sleek car.

"I think we got everything we need!" Chips shouted and noticed Dice and Jerry. Chips saw the bug cops approaching the scene.

"Put your hands up!" one of the bug cops shouted.

Dice and Jerry turned to face them with wide eyes in fear.

Chips hurried behind Dice and pointed a small pistol on the side of Dice's head. "Don't move or I'll shoot him!"

"What the frick, man?!" Dice shouted.

Mr. Wheezy did the same thing with Jerry. "Yeah! We'll shoot them both if you don't play your cards right!"

Jerry growled and elbowed Mr. Wheezy in the gut. Mr. Wheezy doubled over as Jerry snatched the gun from Mr. Wheezy and pointed it at both of them. "Would you be so kind and let my friend go?"

Dice blushed a bit at Jerry's movement. Before Chips could let go of Dice, a dart flew into Jerry's neck. Jerry gasped and took the dart out immediately to see a purple fluff at the end of the dart. The darts flew and hit the cops approaching them. The cops passed out quickly along with Jerry.

Dice clenched his jaw as he felt something on his arm. He looked to find a dart on his arm. "Oh come on—" Everything went black quickly.

~.~

 "Thanks for the save, Phear."

"Where would you be without me?"

"I can't believe y'all robbed a bank! Can't you just get a job before robbing a bank?!"

"Sorry, dear, but the job slots are full in this village."

Dice groaned awake, his wrists bound against Jerry. He fluttered his eyes open and his vision was nothing but a blur at first. The light was the only thing blinding him in some dark place. His vision was clear finally and gasped to realize that he was in a dark cavern. He struggled in his binds and glanced over his shoulder to find Jerry still unconscious.

"Rise and shine, sleepy beauty," a familiar voice echoed.

Dice glanced up and noticed Esther Winchester staring at him with a smirk on her face.

"It's about time I see your face again since you know...your little cup blew up my wagon," Esther responded.

"Okay, that was an accident—"

"And you stole the desert limes."

Dice went silent for a moment. "But to be fair, Saltbaker didn't use the limes at all. I mean, you had the limes back, right?"

"I had to snatch it back from you," Esther growled.

"Look, I'm sorry for stealing the limes and-and blowing up your wagon. Is there a way I can make it up to you?" Dice questioned.

Esther straightened up with her arms crossed and a sneer. "Hm, you know, you could do something for me. Both you and your friend there could do something for us."

"And...what is that?" Dice asked timidly.

Esther gestured to the shattered wagon. "Help us rebuild the wagon and maybe you might get yourself some allies."

"Allies?"

"Yer fightin' against something. Something big. I can sense it. We can all sense it," Esther said, referring to the rest of the casino gang surrounding her. "Y'all didn't think we notice some weirdos in black hoods roaming around the village after that pirate guy told us about...what is it? What are they called?"

As Esther was talking, Jerry woke up and recovered his vision in a short amount of time and realized that his hands were bound...well...not all of his hands. Jerry started to cut through the zip ties with his other arms hidden underneath the green trench coat and a pocket knife.

"Uh...the Night Stalkers, I believe," Pirouletta responded.

"But they're dead. They were all dead down in Hell," Dice responded.

"They were?" Chips asked while arching a brow.

Jerry managed to cut through the zip ties that bound both him and Dice. Before Dice could understand what happened next, Jerry stood and spun around, taking off his green trench coat and pulling out his pistols with his six arms stretched out to aim at the gang.

"You better have a good reason for kidnappin' us!" Jerry growled at the gang.

"Whoa! Put the guns down, partner!" Chips shouted while raising his pistol up along with Mr. Wheezy and Phear Lap. Ginette, Pip, and Dot ducked behind Pirouletta, who took out her shotgun. Esther drew out her two pistols to aim it at Jerry.

"Boy, ya better put down yer guns or it's gonna get real messy!" Esther threatened with a Southern drawl.

"If I were you, I'd be listenin' to her," Mr. Wheezy warned.

Dice stood up and stepped between Jerry and the gang. "Whoa, whoa, let's not start a fight here. Who knows what we will summon if we start a fight in the dark caverns?"

"Nothin' will come up to get us," Esther reassured coldly. "We've checked."

"You've checked?" Dice uttered with a brow arched.

"Yepperoo," Chips responded. "Safe from the Night Stalkers...or maybe it's more cozy than out in the heating desert."

"Well, we need the wagon to shelter everyone. Do you think you can help us or not?"

Jerry lowered his guns. "What do you need us to do?"

"Well, if you can gather the planks, that would be wonderful," Esther instructed.

With that said, Dice, Jerry, Esther, and the rest of the gang started to rebuild the blue wagon plank by plank.

~.~

 Porkrind was back in the room at the Howling Aces' base, staring at the book he carried out with him. He tried not to cry while looking through the photos of Cassidy and Shayna once again. Porkrind glanced over at the maps, frowning. Brineybeard and Porkrind hadn't found the entrances to Hell from this island yet...maybe...maybe there wasn't any entrance besides the ones back in the other island.

The one-eyed pig sighed until he heard someone rushing towards the room. He perked his head up and found Dice stumbling into the room with heavy pants. He had blue paint all over his purple clothes while the die wiped the sweat off of his forehead.

"H-Hey," Dice panted.

"Hey?" Porkrind uttered.

Dice took out a bag of coin. "I got you some coin."

Porkrind arched a brow. "But you're not buying anything."

"Eh, a little birdie told me that you like gold," Dice said with a flirty grin.

Porkrind blushed and shook his head. "Keep it."

"What?" Dice questioned. "Why? You might want to purchase something."

"Like what?"

"Uh...you know, something you like. Like maybe new clothes...or new shoes. Something along those lines. You know, something to cheer ya right up."

"What cheers me up is finding my own daughter," Porkrind responded while closing the book with pictures of Cassidy and Shayna.

Dice noticed the title of the book and glanced up at Porkrind. "Touche...maybe it could for a party."

"A party?"

"Yeah, Jerry and I helped fix Esther's wagon in the cavern in the Western area. Esther decided to throw a party at the wagon and you're invited to come."

Porkrind arched a brow at Dice. "And what do you get out of this?"

"What?"

"You're doing something nice for me. It ain't something you normally do for a common folk like myself. So, what's your game?"

Dice arched a brow. "Well...I was hoping maybe you could...you know...stop isolating yourself in your room."

"I'm not isolating myself."

"Yes, you are. You do realize Jerry is worried about you."

"He shouldn't be."

"Well, he is."

Porkrind huffed.

"Look, Porks, I'm looking out for you—"

"Why?"

Dice frowned.

Porkrind arched a brow. "You don't know, huh?"

"No, I do know...it's just...it's complicated."

"Why make it complicated?"

"I don't know. You and Jerry looked out for me. I thought that maybe I return the favor at least," Dice blurted out.

Porkrind softened his gaze. "Let's call it even then." He went back to look at the book and the maps of both the island and the underworld.

Dice frowned and sighed. "Alright, alright, I'll leave you alone. But just know that you're invited to the party." With that said, Dice walked away and placed the bag of coin by the doorway.

Porkrind watched Dice's silhouette disappear, frowning more. He shook his head and tried not to think about what Dice just said. He looked to see the bag of coin staring at him right in the face. Where did he even get a bag of coin in such a short amount of time? Porkrind ignored his questions and continued to look at the maps.

Part of him felt someone standing behind him. He knew that there wasn't anyone behind but the wall. However, he could sense someone standing close behind him, almost like she was looking over his shoulder. Shayna might be disappointed in him. Maybe he wasn't going fast enough to save her daughter. He might not be doing enough to watch over Cassidy back in Hell. He made a promise he could never keep. The ghost of Shayna stood behind him, her gaze soft. She would pity at what kind of a pig he became. She walked closer and closer to him to only comfort, unaware of the cold shivers he was getting and the destructive words in his head from her presence being near him.

Porkrind stopped what he was doing and pressed his hands against the sides of his head, hearing all of the dark voices in his head.

"You're not doing enough!"

"Are you really going to wallow up here in obsession and guilt?!"

"Why can't you do something?!"

"Why did you break your promise to Shayna?!"

"WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU?!"

Porkrind clenched his fists while tears trickled from his eyes. He growled and stood up. "That's it!"

Porkrind stormed off and hurried out of his room, getting away from the ghost and the voices in his head.

~.~

The music was lively at the newly built blue wagon within the cave.

Esther gambled with her friends while Dice was the card-dealer with a smile on his face. Esther had a hot winning streak, putting both Chips and Mr. Wheezy to shame. Pirouletta didn't really care about winning, smiling at her friends enjoying themselves. Phear Lap placed his bets, trying to one-up Pip and Dot.

Ginette watched them all with her eyes rolled playfully until she noticed Jerry sitting at the bar and staring down at the whiskey glass. She walked over and leaned against the counter.

"Need somethin' stronger?" Ginnette asked.

Jerry shook his head. "No, no, it's fine. I think I had enough for today."

"You only had one drink."

"Mhm."

Ginette frowned. "So, what seems to be concerning to you?"

Jerry glanced up at the martini.

"I can tell by your face," Ginette responded.

Jerry stared down at the glass. "A...friend of mine is...um...well, he's been cooped up in his room. He lost his daughter down in the underworld and now he was trying to find a way to get down to Hell and get her back."

"His daughter?"

"Yeah, her name is Cassidy...she's the last of her kind of red cats."

"Red cats?"

Jerry nodded his head solemnly. "But I've been concerned about both of them. I don't know if Cassidy is alive or Devil is just using her corpse now as a puppet. I want to find Cassidy just as much as Porkrind does...but I don't know what I'll see once we find her. I either find her dead, puppeteer, or alive and was beaten and tortured. I don't know if I want to see any of those outcomes for Cassidy."

Ginette cleaned the glass. "Well, I'm not sure if this is gonna to make you feel better, but I figured I should tell you something. I think we're still confused on what we saw. A couple of days ago, we saw the Devil with six hooded men and two demons at his disposal and...well...this red-furred cat. I'm assumin' the cat must be this Cassidy you're talking about—"

Jerry widened his eyes in shock, his grip on the whisky glass shaking. "C-Cassi? Is she okay? Wait, where did you even see her at?"

"Last I checked, Devil was making deals with the Moonshine Mob, selling 'em some booze. But it looked too...different to be booze though," Ginette responded.

"That ain't booze," Jerry uttered in horror.

They heard someone bursting through the doors as everyone looked to see Porkrind huffing as if he had been running.

Dice brightly smiled. "Porks! You came!"

"I came to drink," Porkrind responded while looking up at Ginette. "Give me the strongest liquor you got."

"Coming right up," Ginette said while Porkrind hurried over by the counter next to Jerry.

"Porkrind, there's something you oughta know—"

"Here's the strongest we got," Ginette interrupted by placing the whiskey bottle and the whiskey glass next to Porkrind. She poured it for him.

"Leave the bottle here," Porkrind commanded, which Ginette nodded in understanding.

"Porkrind, I know what happened to—"

"Ya sure you're not up for poker?" Dice asked, sliding next to Porkrind.

"For Pete's sakes, Dice, I'm trying to tell Porkrind something important," Jerry replied while Porkrind took a gulp of whiskey between them.

"Like what?" Dice questioned.

"It's about—!"

"HEY! Haven't seen yer face 'round here, stranger!" Esther bellowed, leaning next to Dice in a drunken state.

Dice smiled. "Oh! Porkrind, meet Esther. Esther, Porkrind—"

"I'm trying to say something important—"

"Say, friend, why the long face?" Phear Lap, a skeleton horse, asked Porkrind while sitting next to Jerry.

"Yeah, you look like someone punched your eye out," Mangosteen, the black billiard ball, said with a dumber tone. He floated next to Phear Lap.

"How could you punch someone's eye out?" Pip asked while Pip and Dot were jumping together on the counter in front of Phear, stacked on top of each other as an anthropomorphic domino.

"Oh, come on, ding dong! You don't punch someone's eye out! You cut it out!" Dot responded below him while kicking Pip in the face.

"Hey!" Pip shouted with offense.

"Hey, Gin, get us another round of whatever he has!" Chips pointed.

"Will you all just shut up for one second?!" Jerry shouted.

"Geez, ya look like you need more than just one glass of whiskey—" Rumulus, the anthropomorphic whiskey bottle, replied while falling over onto the floor.

"Yeah, you need something nice and relaxing—" Ol' Ethan, the anthropomorphic whiskey glass, said while collapsing against the wall.

Jerry groaned. "It's about Cassidy! She's with the Devil!"

The music stopped dead in its tracks while everyone glanced at Jerry with wide-eyed shock.

Dice tilted his head. "Wait. What? How did you—?"

"I told him that we saw them," Ginette explained to the rest of the group.

"OH! I forgot we saw a little red cat next to that big-horned cat," Chips uttered drunkenly.

Dice blinked in shock. "Wait! Where?!"

"Saw her with Devs...trading some booze or whatever—" Ol' Ethan said while smiling drunkenly.

"They saw us and we ran before we got a closer look," Chips said with a drunken giggle and a hiccup. "It was funny actually because—because we were scrambling for our lives and hid ourselves in this cave."

"The Devil will never find us here!" Mr. Wheezy replied.

The patrons drunkenly laughed in pure euphoric before hearing something teleport behind them.

They all turned around slowly to find the Devil standing behind them outside, rubbing his nails against his chest. Porkrind and Jerry noticed Cassidy standing next to Devil, her eyes red with white slit pupils. Her grin had fangs, causing them both to look in horror.

"Oh, don't stop the party on our account—"

"RUN!!!"

Phear rushed outside of the wagon and pulled it.

"NO, CASSI!!" Porkrind shouted.

Phear Lap sprinted away from the Devil while pulling the wagon.

The Devil chuckled at their reaction while putting a hand on the cat's shoulder. "Such cowards."

Cassidy giggled maniacally.

~.~

“Are you sure you know where you’re going?” Cuphead asked Canteen as they were running from the Moonshine Casino. Cuphead was carrying passed out Mugman in his arms while Chalice was flying behind Canteen as a ghost.

“Yep! I know where I—AAH!” Canteen yelped when he slipped and tumbled down the ditch.

“Oh golly!” Chalice shouted and flew down next to Canteen. “Are you okay?!”

“Yeah, I’m okay,” Canteen said with a smile and a thumbs up.

“GET BACK HERE!!” Charlie’s voice shouted from behind them as Cuphead slid down the ditch and sprinted ahead of them. The kids trailed behind Cuphead, but it was hard to keep up when Cuphead started to speed up again.

Cuphead didn’t realize how fast he was going until he bumped into Brineybeard’s leg with Mugman in his arms.

“Ah! Lad!” Brineybeard whimpered in pain.

“Oh, sorry,” Cuphead uttered. He looked around and realized that he was by the Howling Aces’ base with O’Fera, Bulldog, the pups, Murray, and Elder Kettle approaching them.

“Where have you kids been?!” O’Fera said with a scolding tone.

Chalice and Canteen approached the group with heavy pants.

“You gotta hide us!” Canteen yelled in panic.

“From who? Wha’ are ye runnin’ from?” Brineybeard questioned.

Charlie stormed into the scene with Light Bug, Lenny, Anteater, Announcer Snail, and five other mobsters by his side. Ribby and Croaks were running behind him.

“Whoa, Charlie, let’s think for a second,” Ribby said while standing between the group and the Moonshine Mob.

“Think?! That mug possessed us and had us say some weird mumbo jumbo language!” Charlie shouted at Ribby. “There ain’t nothin’ to think about!”

“Mugman possessing people?” Elder Kettle questioned. “How?”

“I don’t know! Ask your kid!” Charlie snarled while referring to Mugman groaning awake in Cuphead’s arms.

“W-What happened?” Mugman uttered, disoriented.

“Look, as far as I know the lad, he has no malicious intentions. We dunno wha’ caused whatever control he had on ye ‘n yer gang, but we needs t’ calm down afore we could—”

“THE DEVIL IS HERE!!!!”

Everyone glanced to see Phear Lap pulling the blue wagon and running towards the group. Mugman fluttered his eyes open to finally wake up and realized what the situation was happening.

“What?” Mugman questioned.

Phear Lap stopped in front of the group, panting. His two legs were wobbling from running for so long.

Dice, Porkrind, and Jerry peeked out of the wagon and walked out of it

They hurried to the group.

“Guys, Big D is here,” Dice alerted the group.

“Big D?” Charlie questioned. “Wait, is that the gangster’s name with, uh, six hooded figures, two demons, and one red feline? That Big D?”

“You saw the Devil?!” Croaks gasped in fear.

“Cassi?!” Mugman shouted.

“Well, if that’s the Big D…then yeah, I saw ‘im! A couple of days ago! He gave us some booze though. That’s pretty much all he did,” Charlie replied while rubbing his chin.

“Although,” Light Bug added. “It strangely didn’t look like booze.”

“Well…it’s enough anyway—”

“It’s not booze,” Murray said with a shaky tone.

“So, it was Tremaine this whole time?!” Canteen shouted in fear.

“I knew there was something off about that coloring!” Chalice added.

“What in the world is Tremaine?!” Charlie asked.

“It’s where you turn into a monster,” Chalice explained.

Charlie nodded his head in understanding. “Oh, huh…I hope the patrons are not turned into monsters in the casino.”

“What about Cassi?” Mugman questioned. “Is she okay? Is she hurt?”

“Who’s Cassi?” Charlie probed.

Porkrind frowned and looked away. Jerry rubbed his shoulder while Dice clenched his teeth.

“Is-Is Cassi okay?” Mugman uttered to the three men.

Dice frowned. “Uh, let’s just say that…um…shoot, I can’t even bring myself to say it.”

“Please tell me,” Mugman begged.

Porkrind tried not to cry, gritting his teeth to help withhold the tears.

“Cassi ain’t the same person,” Jerry responded finally. “The Devil took control of her.”

Mugman’s pupils shrunk in fear. “N-No. No…”

“Yeah,” Esther added while popping her head out of the wagon. “She’s got some orange glow in her veins!”

“Wait…there’s Tremaine inside of her?” Cuphead uttered.

“We can cure her the same way we did with Mugman!” Chalice chirped excitedly.

“That doesn’t sound like a bad idea,” Canteen responded.

“Wait, wait, if Tremaine is inside of the booze and youse kids found the trail from the sewers under the casino…then—” Croaks noticed something off in the distance. He walked towards it, his eyes widening more in horror.

“Croaks?” Ribby uttered and followed his brother.

Everyone else followed the frog brothers, including the Howling Aces, Moonshine Mob, Esther, and her gang. As they approached the cliff, everyone looked on with terror.

“So…that’s Tremaine,” Charlie muttered to himself.

Right over the edge of the cliff overlooking the ocean, Tremaine was spreading across the blue waters. It wasn’t covering the entire ocean just yet, but the spread was faster than they have ever seen.

“Oh no…” Murray said.

They heard someone teleporting behind them, causing everyone to whirl around to find Devil with six hooded figures, Henchman, Stickler, and Cassidy by his side.

“Like my handiwork?” Devil replied with a cheeky grin. “I had some help.”

“You little—” Charlie growled and charged towards Devil, but was stopped by Light Bug and Lenny. “Youse got a lot nerve showin’ up here!”

Ribby and Croaks noticed Cassidy, their gazes softened.

“What did you do to Cassi?!” Croaks snarled at Devil.

“Yeah!” Ribby added before the frogs charged towards Devil, but they were held back by Brineybeard and Bulldog.

Mugman peeked through the crowd and noticed Cassidy, his heart breaking at the sight of her form now. “C-Cassi?”

It was sudden that when Cassidy saw Mugman, her red eyes with white pupils faded, reverting back to her normal eyes.

“M-Mugsy?” Cassidy recognized instantly, her tears trickling out of her eyes.

Devil lost his cheeky smirk and clenched his fist, controlling the veins inside Cassidy. Cassidy screamed in pain.

“HEY!” Ribby growled while everyone took out their weapons. They were about to charge towards Devil for torturing Cassidy until they saw twenty citizens coming towards them with Tremaine in their veins. They all came from the Moonshine Casino.

Devil smirked. “Well, hate to end the party so soon, but there is some…minor problems that needed to be fixed. Ta-Ta for now.”

With that said, Devil disappeared with Cassidy, Henchman, Stickler, and the six hooded assassins, leaving the resistance gang with the infected citizens.

“What do we do?!” Lenny shouted in panic.

Phear Lap brought his dart gun and shot the darts at the citizens, knocking them all out.

“Wow…uh…that was quick,” Ribby responded.

In the distance, they heard screams of terror from within the village and roars from more citizens infected with Tremaine.

“Back to base?” Bulldog asked O’Fera.

O’Fera nodded her head. “Yep. We got new people to hide.”

Everyone hurried back to the Howling Aces’ base to hide from the chaos that was happening in the village.

To Be Continued... 

[lindyloosims]

So I was inspired by the Sugar Valentine and Chasing ghosts posts by @stargazer-sims to revisit my own Sims bands because I miss them, so here is the first. Sweet Cacophony, the literal first band I created with The Sims! Their 3 and 4 versions are pictured above! They are from my story Love Drunk which I wrote back in 2013 on Blogger and illustrated with The Sims 3, I did a sequel too called Love Drunk 2.0 which followed the lives of the band and their partners two decades later, along with their children who were all mostly grown up and making questionable life decisions of their own. I eventually rebooted it with The Sims 4 but it was getting pretty dark so I kinda shelved it for a while. I might go back to it but we’ll see, I might even start fresh and try to be more cheery and upbeat lol. Anyway, a bit about the band!

So the rock band Sweet Cacophony was originally called Deadly Nightshade. It comprised of four young men who had been friends since high school; Dexter Maloney (lead vocals/guitar), Ashton Maloney (drums), Andrew Mitchell (backing vocals/guitar/bass) and Jeremy Price (piano/keyboard). Jeremy shockingly quit one day and left them without a keyboard player, Dexter could play so he took it on as well as being the lead singer and guitarist but it was a strain for him as he also wrote their songs. Also it has to be noted that the boys at this point still had day jobs; Ash was a firefighter, Dexy was an artist and Drew was basically a mad scientist who invented things for clients and sold them for a fortune. When Jeremy left, he took their name with him, Dexter was furious as they had gigs booked all over as Deadly Nightshade which Jeremy also stole leaving them in a crappy situation where they would turn up for a gig and were turned away because the “real band” with Jeremy as the front man had already arrived. It was the girl Dexy was madly in love with, Evelyn “Lainie” Robertson, who coined the phrase “sweet cacophony” when describing their practice sessions in their tiny flat and Dexy loved it so much that he made it their new name. Eventually, and by complete accident, the band took on Lainie’s best friend Roxanne Harmon as their new keyboard player and their rise to fame was almost instantaneous! Within months they were a global sensation and toured the world, had number one albums every time they were released and had their name in lights all over.

Music runs in the family as Dexter and Lainie’s youngest son Damon formed a band of his own called Fallen Angels with his cousin (Ashton’s son) James and Roxanne’s son Rory Hayes. Dexter and Lainie’s granddaughter Jazmine, affectionately known by her grandpa Dexy as Jazzy, becomes a solo artist to rival Taylor Swift using the stage name Jazzy in honour of her favourite grandfather, but that’s just a story in my head as I never got there in the real story. Jazzy is the daughter of Keira Maloney (Dexter & Lainie’s eldest child) and Joshua Hayes (Roxanne & Matthew Hayes’ eldest child) who only fell in love when they were twenty and eighteen respectively. Josh had loved Keira all of his life but she teased him for being a little bit overweight as a child, calling him “chubby chops” which upset him. Keira meant it affectionately and never realised until they got together just how much it had hurt Josh, she never called him that again.

So that’s just a little bit about the band, they are very dear to me and I have carried them for ten years, Dexter is probably my favourite OC ever!

[deathxproof-archive]

💖 — what was one of the greatest/happiest moments you’ve had in the rpc?

🖤 — what was one of the worst/most depressing moments you’ve had in the rpc?

💖 I cannot recall many specific ‘moments’ in either direction, however, in college I was dating a person on campus who I talked about rp with since we were talking fanfiction. A few days later I get a text from my now-ex that was just “are you arkytiorforeman and does this url sound familiar to you?” And I was like UH— yeah? yeah? where’d you pull that out from, friend? huh? how do you know that? how do you know who -I- am? Turns out one of their friends from home was a mutual (2014 Merlin RPer who’s url evades me) who I wrote with a fair amount and shipped with !! Which was just very sweet to find out !!! (Same ex also drew me Rory!Master fanart, which was ultimately incredibly sweet, and it might still be rifled in with a bunch of papers from that year.) On that note I’m also gonna be gay and say some of the happiest momence were meeting some of my good friends that I either still talk to (or only recently met) !!! or just remember having good friendships and rps and ships with <333

🖤 And I! Genuinely! Don’t! Know! I would say that more of that comes from like… Making friends and both of you goin through life stuff on other sides of screens and stuff but that is absolutely not related. And also suddenly getting an unexplainable and unsourced anxiety being in the rpc for a while before I came back. HOWEVER. This is more amusing than anything now. When I was small. No older than 17. I did not understand how notifications worked, sometimes. Did not realize that I was reblogging a couple of memes from a RPer who was much older than me multiple times, and not the SOURCE. (Donna RPer, does not matter, do not remember them, however. Adds flavor.) Woke up to them BLOWING UP in my inbox and essentially telling me to learn how to use the website and something along the lines of ‘if nobody’s sending you anything maybe that fucking says something’. Even at the time I thought it was… Pretty funny, honestly? I can’t remember if I apologized, tbh, but I think I did, and one of us blocked the other. The Drama Of It All. najsndkajnsdkjas it was silly. In retrospect now as a 25 year old I can’t imagine blowing up at a 16-17ish year old over my notifications, but tumblr’s notification system was SIGNIFICANTLY more broken back then. So.

[anyathefandom]

I feel behind on GH right now (probably because I am because I just haven't been wanting to watch GH. Legit been procrastinating on watching these episodes since last Wednesday 🙈) but what I'm getting from what I've seen from the timeline is (this is going to be soooo out of order):

Trina is still insisting that her and Spencer are just friends and we all know she's not being upfront on wanting more than friendship because she doesn't want to put herself in the position to be hurt again by Spencer and you can tell Spencer senses it too so that's why he tells her point blank that he will never hurt her again.

Fuck the Ashford men (expect for tj) forever. They need to stop being fucking nosey and keep their eyes in check.

Portia is still trying to beef with Jordan about Curtis of all people.

Trina is excited to go on her date support Spencer at Britt's memorial

Everybody on the timeline has gotten as fed up as me with Carly and Nina's lame ass rivalry. End that shit writers. RIGHT TF NEOW🙃

Crew banged. Really wished drew got the neil treatment post sex. Like where TF is a psycho with a needle when you need them.🤷

Willow is still being a dumbass. Like at this point let the bitch die if she wants to so bad. Like please frank hire me as an extra bringing out the body bag.🙃 Also it's still unbelievable to me that she's a nurse.

Rory is still being refered to as just Trina's friend.🤭

Stella is about to be messy asf at this wedding about Trina's paternity.💅

Ava seems to be officially done with Nik and is just disgusted by his very being. Also good on her for getting wyndemere. Cheers to her!🍸 sidenote: Still bitter that ViVa didn't rise and we didn't have them having sex all over wyndemere just to fuck up Nikolas's day.😢

Spencer basically: So do you think I'm ready to be a father? Trina: Umm what I think doesn't matter. Spencer: You matter to me so what you say matters🫶Trina with love: Oh then Hell no.❤️

I know something is going down with Austin and Ava but I genuinely don't know because everytime I see Austin I just ⏭️ so is it worth investing in y'all???👀

Cody still continues to be a thing which is beyond me.

it's still FREE SASHA all day every day

Also one thing about Vanna is that their either fucking or about to fuck and I love that for them.🌝

Sidenote: Legit wished drew wasn't back to kissing Carly's ass so soon because we could've gotten one night stand Jordan x drew. Hear me out. Drew who is now done with Carly is either part of Curtis's wedding party or just at the wedding as a guest runs into Portia and they start to catch up. Things go to shit at the wedding and Jordan feels exceptionally great about Portia x Curtis wedding blowing up so she celebrates by having sex with drew.

Nik and liz's mom were having a bitch off and a long the way Nik asked her mom for a favor regarding suppressing esme's memories permanently.

I saw the preview for tomorrow and I have a feeling that ava is about to give Spencer the video of nik confessing to throwing Esme over the parapet and "killing" her. I could see Spencer showing him the video and threatening Nik to surrender his parental rights and therefore Nik will probably leave town since he's burned a lot of his bridges and now he won't even have the do over baby to keep him around.

[paris-geller-was-straightwashed]

February Writing Challenge (1/28)

surprise! guess who’s doing a writer’s challenge! I’ve never done one of these before bc the idea of having to finish a writing piece every day seemed a little intimidating - but, I feel like more recently I’ve been slipping off the writing saddle and not doing as much, so I kinda wanted to try a new project and challenge myself.

I’ve collected a pile of writing prompts for the whole of february, that, with luck, I’ll fill every one out! each one will be centred around one of my otps, so if you check in each day you’ll get to see which one it is :) or, you’ll just see it in the tags LOL and if there’s anything I feel like I especially like or whatever, I’ll add it to my ao3 after the month.

without further adieu, here’s day one!

Prompt: ‘Sweet Tooth (aka binging on candy with them)’

Pairing: Rory/Paris (Gilmore Girls)

Words: 2,853 (this is my first one, but ideally they won’t be this long)

Rating: G

Notes: when I saw the prompt, I just knew it had to be gellmore, obviously :) takes place during later season; you can imagine this is after rory dumped logan after the bridesmaids fiasco, or you can simply just imagine she dumped him on her own and then her and paris got together (really, the timeline doesn’t matter, the only reason logan is mentioned is bc I couldn’t resist the roast against him in this)

Really, any garbled, frustrated noise erupting through her apartment walls should come as a concern.

But, knowing her girlfriend had absorbed herself in some, all-important secretive task, Rory could only imagine what this entailed. Her head drew up from where she was studying on her bed, breaking away mid-paragraph of her textbook – the door was closed, but it clearly didn’t take a genius to sense something was awry. The question remained though, did Rory want to go out there to calm Paris down and risk getting in trouble for prying into secrets, or stay behind and simply watch this tornado grow until it swallowed up the whole apartment?

Rory held still in the silence. Then, came some more enraged muttering and that’s not how you run a business!! and the slam of a cell phone closing. Rory sighed in defeat.

Unfortunately, she knew better.

The brunette took in a breath, straightened up and squared her shoulders, before swinging herself off her bed. When she tentatively opened her bedroom door, she found Paris hunkered over the couch, a messily scrawled paper note on the table and hissing words under her breath that probably weren’t suited for children.

“Paris…?” Rory called out, quietly broaching the couch from the side, knowing her girlfriend needed to be approached with the caution you’d give to a wounded, snarling animal “Everything okay?..”

Ever the eagle-eye, Paris quickly caught Rory from the corner of her vision. Before Rory could even blink, Paris leapt with the spring of a jack-in-the-box, swiping the paper.

“You can’t see it!” Paris yelped, spinning around to glare daggers at Rory “And what’re you doing out here?! I told you that you can’t see what I’m working on – I need a ten-foot Rory-free radius around me!!”

“Just like in high school.” Rory said dryly “Well, when I heard you lay five different kind of insults down in one sentence, plus some Portuguese which I’m definitely sure isn’t also R-rated language, I figured I should check in. You sure everything is alright –”

“It’s fine!” Paris snapped back, pulling away at the gentle hand Rory raised, and, oh no, she’s in this mood “I’m just – I’m..working out some kinks! And, you know, god forbid that I ever expect anyone else on this planet to actually use their full brain to do things!..”

“Well, is there anything I can do?” Rory offered, trying to sneakily glimpse the paper the blonde held tight in her hand “Is it an assignment? ‘Cause if your concern is that I’m going to steal your ideas, I think you can let that one go –”

“Ha! I wish it were that easy – a school paper I can accomplish in my sleep.” Paris grumbled, leaning over the couch to swipe her phone “This is ten times both more complicated and dire!”

“Paris, relax, it’s going to be okay –”

“Don’t tell me to relax!” Paris hissed back “You don’t even know what it is!!”

“Then let me help! It’s clearly stressing you out –”

“No!” came the panicked yelp, and, this time, Rory could actually see rising anxiety break through the anger glazing over the brown eyes “I-I have to do this by myself! It’s of the upmost importance I get this perfect –”

“Paris, if you just tell me what it is –”

“No, you can’t know! This is my project Gilmore, stop trying to piggyback.” Paris deflected as she went over her sheet, causing Rory to sigh “If I can just – I just need to – I..dammit, okay, fine, not that I’ll..I’ll..ugh, I can’t do that either!!..”

“Paris –”

“Rory –”

“Paris.” Rory broke in forcefully, finally able to place a hand on Paris’s back, feeling the jittery girl relax against it slightly “At this rate, you’re going to get another noise compliant put in against us. Please just tell me what it is, and then maybe I can help so that neither of us have to worry over whether the next second is the second you’ll implode.”

That got her to quiet. Paris nervously teetered on her feet, vulnerable browns holding Rory’s gaze, but you could see the metaphorical flames start to dial down. Eventually, Paris sighed, shoulders slumping and arms folding in, finally uttering so low Rory could barely hear –

“...I’mtryingtoplanourValentines..”

“..What?”

“I’m trying to plan our Valentines!!” Paris tossed up her hands, her cheeks going pink “Alright?! And I want, I need, it to go perfectly! I’ve been trying to plan but I keep coming up against blockade after blockade – and, of course, usually, there’s no wall I at least can’t bulldoze my way though, but this is different! The ideal restaurant, my top pick, is apparently booked out for a month, no exceptions, and now apparently, the waiter has too high of morals to accept my offer of two hundred bucks under the table! So I went with the next best option, but when I called them they couldn’t even guarantee a window-side view! Who the hell runs their business like that?! The other place has more availability, but I know they don’t have as many of your favourite dessert options, and obviously, I know you enough to know that’s a high priority – and that’s not even to mention the Valentines Lights stroll put on at the park I wanted to take you to after, but depending on the restaurant we’re at, we may not even make it with the fifteen minute window I laid out –...”

Rory simply stood back, letting Paris roll out her frustrations – and, listening, couldn’t help but feel herself melting. A soft smile pulled over her lips, watching the blonde. She hadn’t even imagined that this was about her, but now, of course, she should’ve expected nothing less then Paris, her Paris, wanting to make their date night perfect. No detail spared, all cards on the table.

There’s been jokes passed around that Paris wasn’t exactly the romantic type – nothing about Paris was conventional, obviously, but Rory knew enough about her to know this was just as big of a display of love as anything mushy.

Rory reached in, grasping onto Paris’s wrists. That was enough to click Paris back into reality, slowing her rant, and finally turning face to face so Rory could lean in and kiss her cheek. Paris blinked back in surprise, finding not upset or annoyance, but Rory smiling back at her.

“Paris.” Rory began, grasping on her hands “While I should expect nothing less from you for going a hundred and ten percent, trust me when I say, that I do not need all the red carpets pulled out for me, especially when it comes to Valentines day. I mean, aren’t you the first to say that it’s just a consumerist trap anyway?”

“I mean, it still is – racking up five dollars for some cheap heart shaped crap is just one of the failing points of consumerist capitalism.” There she is “But I was also single then too.”

Rory snorted “I see..”

“Also..”

“What?”

“..This is our first Valentines together.” Paris explained earnestly “And I love you. You deserve the best, to put it bluntly.”

Rory’s smile grew “..Well, that goes for you too. And I don’t want to have you stressing yourself over some extravagant event that’s one night only.”

“I’ll reiterate Gilmore – it’s our first Valentines together. It needs to be special. Frankly, you’re the best relationship I’ve ever had; you’re my best friend. I won’t go half-way for you.”

“You never go half-way for anything.” Rory couldn’t help but tease, seeing the twitch of Paris’s lips.

“This is true. The fact that you thought I wouldn’t pull out all the stops for you, or even just for any event I’m planning..”

“How foolish of me.”

“Also, I refuse to be out-done by Logan Huntzberger – I know that Rolls-Royce car show model cut-out would’ve flown you to the moon if he could’ve, and I will not fall in second place.”

An uncontrollable laugh burst out of Rory. She had to bite into her bottom lip to tamper it, rising the back of her hand to her mouth as a poor mask. Paris was, of course, deadly serious by the finger she pointed in Rory’s face, but there was still mirth dancing along her tilted lips.

“..I appreciate that.” was all Rory decided to say, smiling as she swung her and Paris’s clasped hands “But am I allowed to voice an honest opinion on this whole thing?”

“You know I only speak in honest opinions.”

“..I really don’t want a whole red-carpet, put-out-all-the-stops Valentines. I mean, you do know me Paris; I’ve never really been a Valentines gal. And..doing a whole fancy restaurant ordeal..you know I get nervous just standing in those super spotless, sparsely packed boutiques where a t-shirt costs more then a brand-new car. You put me in a restaurant booth where our neighbours are some rich guy who owns three different blocks of the town sitting with this fourth wife, I feel like I’m gunna be more nervous over that ordeal then focused on us.”

As always happens, Rory expected some kind of argument, a rebuttal, so she was pleasantly shocked when Paris just nodded mutely. Not without some disappointment though, which got Rory to squeeze their entwined hands in gentle encouragement so Paris’s nervous eyes find hers.

“I love that you wanna make it special. Again, I should’ve known better then to assume that you wouldn’t have done all you could. But, I don’t want all that glitz. I just want you.”

By now, Rory knew how to parse her words with the firecracker that was her girlfriend. And when that quiet, careful rarity of a smile grew over Paris, Rory couldn’t help her own.

It’s true, that there was something special when someone who bares sharp teeth at everyone else, allows themselves a soft happiness towards you. About being the only one who gets to see it.

But Rory also just loves that smile.

“..But you’re still expecting some kind of chocolate or dessert too, of course.” Paris finally spoke.

“Oh, well, I assumed that was a given.”

Paris scoffed warmly. She lifted her and Rory’s entwined hands up to her face, kissing the back of the pale hand.

“Just like in that ‘Princess Bride’ movie you made me rewatch at least ten times, as you wish. I will find the perfect alternative.”

“I don’t doubt it. Am I allowed to offer any kind of input or help in this whole thing?”

“Try and intervene and you’ll be sleeping with one eye open.”

“Got it.” Rory rolled her eyes playfully, pulled away when she heard her watch interrupt with a beep! “Crap, that’s the hour – I gotta get ready for my evening class. I’ll see you tonight?”

Paris hummed in reply, a wry smile still playing on her lips, altogether letting Rory know that she was back in the confidence saddle. She placed her freed fingers under Rory’s chin, tilting her face in her direction to place a light kiss at the corner of her mouth.

“You go on my love.” Paris encouraged as she began backing up towards the bedroom, holding up her scribbled piece of paper with a grin “In the meantime, I’m going to cook up an idea for the best Valentines you’d ever witnessed.”

“So we’re actually going to have desserts then?”

“Don’t insult the hand that feeds Gilmore.”

-

And impressed Rory was.

To be fair, she didn’t have a lot to go off of in the first place. After that initial bump, there were no more moments of finding Paris tearing her hair out because she couldn’t make time-constraints bend to make her Valentines plan work. She seemed to have crafted the perfect idea, content to wear a smile of secrecy and keep it from Rory.

Now, Valentines was here and come. Rory was waiting for the invite, waiting for an ask, but Paris hadn’t even said boo about her idea; now, Rory was coming off of her late study-hall group, the evening encroaching, and when she’d called her girlfriend to say she was headed home, all Paris said was that she was just waiting for Rory to walk in the door, and then things would kick off from there.

Rory wasn’t expecting anything too wild, especially after explicitly telling Paris that wasn’t what she wanted – but, that didn’t stop her from speculating. She figured when she walked in, Paris would be ushering them right back out to head to the event she’s picked out. Something like that.

What Rory wasn’t expecting, was for her to open the door and find Valentines staring back at her instead.

No, there wasn’t any red and white balloons shaped like hearts clouding the room. There were no giant ‘Be Mine!’ teddy bears, or pink hearts strung up everywhere. What was there, was a complete massacre of candy.

Their whole coffee table covered in treats. Rory couldn’t even see the table anymore. Bowls of brightly coloured confections and chocolates, lined up creating a rainbow of colour. A pile of red licorice matched beside packets of oreos. Near the table, was an ice bucket of champagne accompanied by two flute glasses.

Rory stood gobsmacked for a good couple seconds. This was the last thing she would’ve thought of – and it was the best thing she could’ve thought of.

A noise of shuffling feet got her attention. Paris had appeared, idly standing off of the couch with the ghost of a smile on her face as she watched Rory. She was dressed in a nice, white sweater and simple jeans, blonde strands of hair grazing over her cheek. Rory always did like her with her hair down.

“Told you it’d kick off the moment you opened the door.”

“Paris..” a bemused laugh fell out of Rory as she took in the sight again, sliding off her bag and kicking the door shut behind her “I – you did all this?..”

“Don’t look so surprised.” Paris raised one of her brows, but her smile widened “Putting all this together was nothing – the hardest part, really, was hiding all the candy from you.”

“Oh, yeah – where did you hide it?”

“Behind that healthy cereal I bought that you claim tastes like cardboard.”

“Devious.” Rory grinned. Paris smirked. She walked over to take the brunette’s hand, pulling her into the apartment.

“But that’s not all – if you could glance upon the kitchen counter..”

Rory turned to follow Paris’s directions, finding an all new assortment – of chocolate and caramel sauces, with some whip cream and peanut butter. Surgery condiments, which could only mean..

“Unfortunately, you don’t get the whole picture as the ice cream had to stay in the freezer, but trust me that I bought at least three different flavours so you can double-stack your sandwich.”

“Ice cream sandwiches?? Wait, so, where’s the replacement bread –”

Rory followed Paris’s pointed finger to see the oven, which was usually only used to reheat leftovers when the microwave stopped working, this time had a cooling rack ontop littered in chocolate chip cookies. Cookies. Now Rory’s jaw hit the floor.

“You baked?!”

“You can thank Nanny for those. I needed something to sandwich the ice cream, and though I’ve yet to conquer the culinary world, that woman knows a baked good well enough she was able to walk me through the steps of her signature recipe.”

“Are they edible?”

“Funny. I actually tried one afterwards, and dare I say, they’re more then edible.”

“..I can’t believe you cooked.” Rory beamed back at her girlfriend “You cooked for me.”

“I baked a simple cookie recipe Rory, it’s not rocket science.” Paris waved off, smiling back “After having to reroute my original Valentines plan, I mulled over what it is you’d really like – and, frankly, in the end, I knew you would’ve loved a night in watching all our favourites, gorging on surgery snacks, over any elaborate escapade. Or, at least, that’s what I’m hoping you’ll say..”

The way Paris was looking up at her through her lashes, nervously biting on the answer, Rory couldn’t stand how cute it was. An all new smile bloomed over her lips.

“It’s perfect.”

The smile that burst over Paris could’ve made Rory lovesick. She lit up, rocking up on her toes, her grin reaching up all the way to her ears.

“Really?..” She asked softly. Rory let out a gentle laugh. She reached into cup Paris’s faces, a tiny pull inwards so she could kiss her cheek.

“I love it so much, and I love you. The array of treats – you really know the way into a Gilmore’s heart.”

“This many years on, I’ve learned some tricks.” Paris teased back, crossing the space to softly kiss Rory in return “Happy Valentines..”

“The best one yet.”

“Does that mean I beat Huntzberger then?...”

“Well, he never make me homemade ice cream sandwiches..”

“Ha!”

“Alright, alright, hurry up with your gloating – I wanna try these sandwiches paired with that champagne I saw earlier, and I want my girlfriend to try it with me..”

“As you wish, my love.”

[zalrb]

Could you do a ranking your favorite scream movies and why?

Scream

I'm not really sure if this needs an in-depth breakdown. It's iconic. The originator. The ultimate make-fun-of-and-pay-homage-to-movie-tropes movie. The first phone call, Drew Barrymore dying in the first 5 minutes? The dialogue, the meta, the balance, it's just all so well-done.

Scream 2

Randy is correct, this one is inferior to the first but it is a great sequel and not an inferior movie. I love the Ghostface reveals, they're very fun and funny, they're so close to being my favourite (but Billy and Stu reign supreme) the conversation about desensitization and art imitating life was carried throughout and carried throughout well. Joshua Jackson and Sarah Michelle Gellar having their small roles in it is great 90s teen pop culture reference.

Scream 4

Scream 3

I'm going to talk about them together. I put Scream 4 before Scream 3 because I think Scream 4 is technically tighter and the reveal of Jill Roberts being Ghostface was more interesting than Roman's reveal, which was kind of a jump the shark moment. Scream 3 had some good elements, like Sidney getting attacked on the set of the movie-within-the-movie so her life has become blended with pop culture, and in a lot of ways the third movie is the most meta considering the actors in Stab are given the same complaints about Stab that the actors in Scream had about the movie, i.e. the constant rewrites. Roman having to do the Stab movie before he could do his romance is what happened with Wes Craven, he had to direct Scream before he could do the movie he wanted so while Stab is a movie about the characters' lives, Scream 3 is kind of a movie about what's going on with the cast. That's deep-dive inside baseball meta. But it's not very fun. It is certainly more fun than Scream 5 or 6 but it kind of drags, Sidney is hardly in it because Neve only worked 20 days, and the supporting characters aren't nearly as engaging, not like how Randy was, or even Tatum and Halli.

Scream 4 didn't feel as laborious, it's light on the meta compared to the first three, but it's back to that kind of light, tongue and cheek vibe. Emma Roberts niece to Julia Roberts playing Jill Roberts who is tired of being Sid's cousin is a very big wink. Rory Culkin being in it, great choice. Having Adam Brody and Kristen Bell and Anna Paquin and those girls from PLL and Degrassi TGN do cameos were all great pop culture references. It also delivered on the "modern horror film" rules in a more satisfying way to me than Scream 3 did on the trilogy rules, like the deaths being more gruesome or "shocking" for the time and for the franchise like Jill shooting Trevor in the balls, which wouldn't have happened before.

Scream 5 + 6 are equal to me

I find them equally joyless and charmless tbh, I have the same "meh" attitude towards both of them.

[redbootsthetimetraveller]

share more info of your ocs :) when did you start creating them?

hmm that's a question. I've always been creating little characters to draw, mostly because I never really wanted to make true fanart but making fan characters and so on was so much more interesting to me. though original character wise I have been making little stories, or actually really big stories since I don't know when to stop. one of my earliest ones was this conflict between these kingdoms and I called the people there wolves even though they. weren't wolflike in the least. (there's a deeper story to that but to keep things concise, I won't get into that) and I am genuinely considering making that into a story, but we'll see. I'm not really a high fantasy person and I have another high fantasy story that I keep thinking about a lot at the moment so I'll see

I'm gonna stick the rest of this under the cut to keep this post a bit shorter because that seems polite lol (note: this will be longwinded and rambly)

the first of my original characters who I have now would be keith.

he's been around since about 2013. coming up on ten years in april, actually! the story is, keith's a fan character. he's a doctor who oc. as you may or may not know, I have been a dr who fan (on and off) since 2003/4. I watched the first few series of new who, then stopped watching because I didn't see any episodes for a long time til 2010 and then didn't want to watch it after that, but one day in april 2013 my cousin sat me down and made me watch the snowmen and I got hooked. so hooked that I ended up having a dream about it within a few days, and I drew that dream.

the character in that dream would eventually become keith, through a few twists and turns. at first I drew him similar to how I looked at the time, but later he would become ginger whereas I am not, though at the time my hair was very reddish. funnily enough, the incarnation of him that I later turned into my oc nico was also inspired by a dream, though not a dr who related one. but a year later in 2016 I would start writing keith's story, and his appearance changed again, but I never actually drew him.

I think I might've drawn the very early stages of his current form back in 2017, but it wasn't til 2018 that I actually drew him and settled on the name 'keith neptune'. he also travels with a nebulous 'next' incarnation of the doctor so I don't have to try and get the doc's character correct lol.

keith's a bit of a nervous wreck though he's got the excuse to be one since he does get technically kidnapped about four different times within the space of about four months for him, but he's also reckless and dives into things headfirst.

the next lot of original characters I came up with are my (main) oc band, the starstrucks

the members of this band are davey, charlie, roger, snowy, pete (not to be confused with peter) and also rory and mick. there are a few characters connected to them, like sylvia, holly, mary and james (not to be confused with jimmy), though I won't get into them because that will quickly snowball into explaining every single character. I probably ought to draw up an affinity chart xc1 style!

davey's the lead singer, though he gets kicked out in 1970 because he steals some of roger's tracks to use on a solo album that he didn't tell anyone about til it released. he starts out as an arrogant, kinda spoilt nepo baby - and he is a nepo baby, the band unfortunately allows his uncle gerald to manage them and he says 'you need a singer' and he puts davey in the band. davey is actually quite a good singer, so initially they can't be that mad at him, but most of their personalities clash horribly. part of davey's problem is that he's a repressed bisexual, so hanging around with two aspec gays, another bisexual and a polysexual for four years does bring him out of the closet. he's not exactly the villain, because there isn't a villain, but he's definitely the antagonist

roger is the actual leader, and the keyboardist. he's shy, but he does have a bit of an arc where he learns to beat his social anxiety. he's still shy, but he's able to stand his ground. he writes a lot of their music, too. I can't really talk too much about him because a lot of the stuff I have worked out about him is spoilers, and I am genuinely working on presenting the story

snowy is the youngest and also has the most anger issues - davey has them, yes, but he expresses his deeprooted problems by being annoying whilst snowy sits in the corner and simmers in anger. he doesn't have the best control over his reactions, because he is autistic (though davey's meant to be the only nt, so...) and he really didn't come from a good home. in fact, the scene in which you first see him, he's literally running away. he does learn to mellow out, but it does take not being around davey for that to happen lol! he's a bit of a stereotypical resting bassist faced... bassist.

charlie's the golden retriever of the group. snowy and he have been best friends since they were kids - snowy being the type to have one friend and only that friend, meanwhile charlie just. likes people. anyway he's probably the happiest of the group; he graduates his arts degree while being a full-time musician, he marries holly and is all 'I LOVE MY WIFE!!1!', and is a positive anchor. he's the guitarist for the band.

pete is the most laidback member, and also the (original) drummer. he's been roger's best friend for years, and he's incredibly observant. he's very good at de-escalating situations, as well as being very good with emotions. he's the oldest, the most serious, but also has a very good sense of humour. he also marries his first wife, mary, at the start of the story, and part of his story is him realising he's falling out of love with her - they remain friends, it's not bitter or anything, but I feel like it's an interesting dynamic that I want to explore.

rory and mick i'll put in one paragraph. pete leaves the band in 1972 because he realises he doesn't want to be absent from his kids' lives (he has two kids with his second wife, isabelle) so the band needs a new drummer. so along comes rory, who is super similar to charlie so they get along excellently! snowy, uh. doesn't have a happy ending. about eight months afterwards, roger gets the band back together, but he needs a new bassist and he doesn't want to just have a session musician after trying that. whilst he was producing another group, he comes across mick - a session musician, and after a bit of persuasion, he joins. mick's very deadpan, but he's also rather warm when he opens up. he's not in much of the story, because the 1980s-on chapter is an epilogue of sorts, but he's significant enough that I felt the need to mention him

the other oc band I have is the midnight delusions, who I feel have more outside characters than the starstrucks do, but the characters you need to worry about most are jimmy, peter, arthur, teddy, stevie, lucky, and also katherine because she is important too.

jimmy is the on-again off-again frontman/lead guitarist for the midnight delusions, and I made him visually and name-wise similar to a certain member of led zep because I hate his guts and wanted to make someone better than him out of spite. therefore, james rafferty jade came into existence. he could genuinely be an incredible musician, but when he's not too mentally ill to leave the house (something his partner christopher gets extremely worried about) he's clashing with teddy, arthur or stevie too much to get much done.

teddy is incredibly similar to jimmy, in the sense that they're both stubborn, headstrong musicians who have similar mental illnesses. unlike jimmy, who manifests this as silent rage, teddy is similar to davey in the sense that he's annoying, slightly immature, and arrogant. but teddy's more... balanced... and there's a definite harrowing depression to him. can you tell what mental illness he might have. anyway teddy's got really complex family history but what you need to know is he was born in post-war holland to a large family where his mother was busy looking after his ever so slightly older cousins so he was neglected a lot and not treated well, and eventually he ran away to his estranged uncle who runs a boutique in london. his uncle tried to make up for his childhood by spoiling him a little, but honestly teddy has such crushing guilt all the time that it didn't turn out the same way davey's spoiling did. he's sort of the jack of all trades musically. keyboard, bass, guitar, whatever needs doing.

arthur is one of my favourite ocs if I can say so! he's the bassist, and he's also got a really complex family background, but he's very grounded. he's also completely done with everyone, which sometimes manifests as anger, but he likes to be in control, so he doesn't have the anger issues snowy does. he's a bookworm, which is how he met peter, and he's otherwise very chill, or... aloof.

peter is also one of my favourite ocs... he's laidback, incredibly hardworking - like arthur - protective and probably the most put-together of the group. he's been in charge of his sibling, morgan, since he was about sixteen/seventeen. his story is again really not something I can talk about without spoilers, but one last thing about him is that he's the rhythm guitarist.

stevie is a character I think about a lot. part of peter's story is that he has some friends ditch him whilst on a trip to america, and he'd met stevie whilst in houston, texas. they travel across the usa after stevie runs away from his awful family, inspired by peter, and eventually they both end up back in the uk and stevie, having decided to take up piano, gets dragged into the band. he plays on their first few albums but eventually he decides to leave and I don't know exactly what he does after that, but he's still a part of the story.

lucky is the ray of sunshine of the group. he's the drummer, having joined an amateur orchestra as a young teen as a percussionist and learning a lot of percussion instruments. he then played in a jazz band, before getting snagged by the band. him and stevie get along really well, despite stevie kinda hating people. his real name is either gonna be luke or lucas, but I haven't decided yet. he's more in the background like mick in the starstrucks because I don't think there is enough room to fit another angsty character with personal issues in the story, and besides. there needs to be a mediator.

and lastly, katherine is an artist, a writer, and a vital link between the two bands. so, katherine is a fellow art student with pete, roger and charlie (though he's younger than the others) and they sort of interact, but later in late 1965 roger decides to commission her for some record sleeve artwork, and they become friends. however, her housemates (who sort of form an artist collective) are either the older cousin of one of morgan's friends - how jimmy, teddy, arthur and peter know the collective - or a friend that holly has, and later works with teddy's uncle which leads to the others working with him. so I feel like she's the most important link between the two sections

anyway at the end of 2018 I wanted to come up with my own oc band, because several of my friends had their own, but it took until early 2019, a trip to my dad's and a trip interstate to housesit plus a sprinkling of extra energy for me to come up with the starstrucks. I feel like they're my best designed characters, because I used a shape for each's face (where a lot of my design variation goes to, especially when the characters don't have 'set' outfits to distinguish them by) for example, charlie used a heart, snowy used a diamond, roger a rectangle, davey an oval, and pete a pentagon. I was quite happy with them, but whilst I was too overwhelmed with my grade twelve portfolio I came up with another band; who were the midnight delusions. the only ones who remained of that were teddy and stevie. teddy originally had a doppelganger, but I dropped that character. priscilla kinda took the helm of another character, now that I think about it. but once I finished college I repurposed arthur from my english writing folio into, well, arthur, had my moment of spite and created jimmy, and lucky existed in my head but wouldn't get drawn til february 2020 lol. most of the rest appeared later, or like nico, were redesigned from older characters

anyway that was incredibly long but I hope that it was not only intelligible but also answered your question!

[acrosstimeandspace]

🗒️🌟💌 from the ask game, for vil!

Vil: Greetings Rory, and thank you for your questions! I hope the day treats you well, and I shall do my best to answer.

🗒️ - what are your favorite details about s/i that you think more people should notice?

My favorite details about Oz? Well, ae’s very level headed even in situations where most would not be, and I find that to be very admirable. As a knight, I strive to have such control over my emotions, and it is great to have such a presence on the battlefield. I oft wonder if our allies see ae as a calming presence like I do.

I also like Oz’s determination to see a task through. It’s not something that many would note of aer, because of their previous action of running away from Nohr. However, ae’s not one to leave something incomplete or someone without help. And ae couldn’t help running away for aer own safety either. So, I do wish people would notice this about ae.

🌟 - describe how you met

Ah, it was a wonderful day when we met. I was not even a general back then, just a loyal knight dedicated to protecting my people. I had happened to be visiting Castle Krakenburg to deliver the report from my duchy in person, and was allowed to stay to rest before my return trip.

I had decided to take to the castle’s library to see what literature was there when I met Oz. Ae was just a solitary figure, doing there own study but i happened to sit down at the same table and notice aer. I don’t know quite what it was that drew me in, aer quiet voice mumbling? Or perhaps how ae was so focused in on aer work? But something inside nudged me to talk to them and I struck up a conversation. And well, as they say, the rest is history.

💌 - describe your first date. was it a success, awkward, etc.?

I would personally consider it a success, considering the conditions we were under! It was quite risky to take ae on a date while we’re in war, but when one has little opportunity, you might as well strike when you have the chance.

I went for something more simple, so we picnicked in a nearby clearing. I also did my best to prepare a delicious meal to bring, but I will admit Jakob helped immensely with the preparation. The weather was good too, a nice breeze but nothing too intense. And Oz enjoyed it immensely, we even held hands! And ae even, well, they leaned on me as we rested together. I was throughly flustered by it, even now it gets my heart racing!

[digitaltariq]

On the Hero Dubai Desert Basic, Rory McIlroy and Patrick Reed Present Drama

Rory McIlroy and Patrick Reed have a protracted historical past of dueling when it issues most. The rivalry has produced some epic golf matches, essentially the most stunning of which can have been final 12 months’s Hero Dubai Desert Basic, being performed once more beginning on Thursday on the DP World Tour within the United Arab Emirates. On the 2016 Ryder Cup, held at Hazeltine Nationwide Golf Membership in Minnesota, McIlroy and Reed have been additionally pitted in opposition to one another on the ultimate day of singles matches. The pair traded unbelievable pictures on the entrance 9, nevertheless it was the interaction between them — finger wagging, shushing, cupping ears to rile up the gang — that many keep in mind. However in an indication of sportsmanship, the 2 fist-bumped strolling off one inexperienced. Reed received the match on the 18th gap. Two years later on the Masters Match, it was Reed and McIlroy battling once more. It’s the one main that McIlroy nonetheless must win to finish the profession grand slam. (He has received the USA Open, the British Open and, twice, the P.G.A. Championship.) Reed had led the event for the reason that midway mark, and within the ultimate spherical McIlroy was three pictures again. Reed received by one shot, six forward of McIlroy. Their rivalry had extremely anticipated showdowns that have been fierce and aggressive. Then got here LIV Golf, and the game splintered into two rival teams: those who went to the Saudi Arabia-backed league and those that stayed loyal to the established skilled golf excursions, the PGA and DP World Excursions. McIlroy turned a participant spokesman for the PGA Tour, whereas Reed went to LIV and have become a part of the 4Aces GC, a workforce captained by Dustin Johnson. Reed filed defamation lawsuits in opposition to the Golf Channel and several other golf writers, however the lawsuits have been dismissed and have been appealed. In McIlroy’s case, he received a subpoena on Christmas Eve 2022 when he was at house along with his household that was a part of a lawsuit in opposition to the PGA Tour and DP World Tour filed by Reed’s lawyer, Larry Klayman. Eventually 12 months’s Hero Dubai Desert Basic, McIlroy wasn’t inquisitive about chatting with Reed on the follow vary. (Reed flicked a tee at McIlroy after Reed stated McIlroy refused to acknowledge him on the driving vary.) What was stunning was the depth of the event, which got here all the way down to a duel between Reed and McIlroy. Like its counterpart, the Sentry on the PGA Tour, the Hero is often a collegial entry into the DP World Tour’s season. Dubai has created a household resort across the programs. Because the week superior, McIlroy and Reed have been circling one another within the event, and it was clear that the competitors had taken on an even bigger significance for McIlroy than a daily victory. McIlroy had grow to be the main PGA Tour participant voicing his anger in opposition to the gamers who had gone to LIV. Along with Reed, McIlroy clashed with Greg Norman, the previous world No. 1 who's LIV’s chief government. “I believe Greg must go,” McIlroy stated earlier than the Hero. “I believe he simply must exit stage left.” After the primary three rounds of final 12 months’s Hero, it appeared like McIlroy was going to coast to victory. Within the fourth spherical, with a 4 shot deficit, Reed received off to a scorching begin. At one level on the again 9 he was briefly within the lead. McIlroy drew even after a birdie on the seventeenth gap. Stepping as much as the tee of the 18th gap, McIlroy wanted a birdie to win. Hitting his third shot shut, he watched the ball roll into the opening earlier than letting out a roar. Reed had mounted a ultimate spherical cost, however completed one behind McIlroy. “Mentally, in the present day was in all probability one of many hardest rounds I've ever needed to play as a result of it might be very easy to let your feelings get in the way in which,” McIlroy stated at a information convention. “I simply needed to actually deal with myself and neglect who was up there on the leaderboard.” He added: “That is in all probability sweeter than it needs to be.” The victory had the heightened really feel of their Ryder Cup duel. Whereas LIV golfers had been stripped of their PGA Tour membership for becoming a member of the rival league, they have been allowed to play whereas a courtroom in England mulled whether or not the DP World Tour may ban them. A 12 months later, McIlroy is hanging a unique tone about LIV and its defectors. The shift got here after his Ryder Cup teammate Jon Rahm joined LIV Golf on the finish of 2023. “Finally, you possibly can say what you need and do what you need, however on the finish of the day you’re not going to have the ability to change peoples’ minds,” McIlroy stated on the “Stick to Football” podcast earlier this month. He continued, “I wouldn’t say I’ve misplaced the battle in opposition to LIV, however I’ve simply accepted the truth that that is a part of our sport now.” He stated that he was involved about what the continued division in skilled golf would imply for the game and that he hoped Rahm would nonetheless have the ability to compete within the Ryder Cup. He added that he had been too judgmental of the lads leaving to go to LIV. “On the finish of the day, we’re skilled golfers and we play to make a residing and make cash, so I perceive it,” he stated. “However I believe it’s simply created this division that can hopefully cease quickly.” McIlroy’s supervisor, Sean O’Flaherty, stated McIlroy was making ready for the Hero and didn't have something extra so as to add past what he stated on the podcast. Reed declined to remark by way of his LIV representatives. Whereas one event doesn't dictate the tenor of a season, what made final 12 months’s Hero attention-grabbing to observe was the battle between McIlroy and Reed coming all the way down to the ultimate gap. McIlroy is frightened that such aggressive battles will grow to be rarer — confined to the majors — and damage curiosity within the common tour stops that depend on huge names to attract followers. With many stars and fan favorites gone to LIV, there's much less alternative outdoors of the 4 majors for prime gamers to compete. LIV, alternatively, ensures that its 48 gamers will probably be at each occasion. “I believe what LIV and the Saudis have uncovered is that you just’re asking for tens of millions of {dollars} to sponsor these occasions, and also you’re not in a position to assure to the sponsors that the gamers are going to indicate up,” McIlroy stated on the podcast. “I can’t consider the PGA Tour has achieved so properly for therefore lengthy.” Others agree. “I believe if golf isn’t cautious you get to the purpose the place individuals say, I’m not that fired as much as watch the Phoenix Open as a result of Phil Mickelson, Brooks Koepka, Bryson DeChambeau and Rahm aren't there,” stated Hughes Norton, the agent who negotiated Tiger Woods’s first cope with Nike and the writer of the approaching guide, “Rainmaker: Superagent Hughes Norton and the Cash-Seize Explosion of Golf From Tiger to LIV and Past.” Already, longtime sponsors, together with Honda and Wells Fargo, have pulled out of PGA Tour tournaments. And different sponsors are questioning the elevated prices if their event is likely one of the eight signature occasions, which provide larger purses and assure that extra elite gamers attend, however at a price of an extra $7 million on prime of the $13 million sponsor charge, Norton stated. “Perhaps Wells Fargo stated there are six huge names who used to come back to our occasions and now they’re not there,” he stated. “Sponsors are stressed now.” If that’s the case, the game wants extra battles like final 12 months’s Hero showdown. Read the full article

[buggxd]

RORY KEANER X GN! READER

The reader in the story is gender neutral soo yeah this is rly bad I wrote this when I was half asleep soo yeah :0 ALSO this was longer than expected ☠️☠️

I’m making this at 5 am and it’s ass I’m bored and can’t find anymore Rory fics on here or Wattpad or even ao3 soo yeah. Also kinda off topic but his hair is so cute in the movie🫶

Summary Ig: Rory has a crush you and gains enough courage to tell you how he feels with a letter.(THERE IS A TIME SKIP WITH HIS AGE BUT THIS IS A FLUFF!!)

Rory and you had been friends since grade school you’re both now in your sophomore year and he’s slowly been growing a crush on you for about a year or two now quite a while he honestly thought it would go away like every other crush he’s had but it hasn’t he really feels like he’s grown a connection with you.The two of you are really close you always hang out and cheer him up when Benny and Ethan don’t wanna hang with him or when he’s feeling down and he does the same with you, Your both always there for each other. He’s been feeling more attracted to you lately the way your hair bounces when you walk or your hand when it brushing against his fingers as you both walk to each of your classes or the way your leg touches his when you sit with him at lunch or the way you meet him every morning and smile or hug him tightly before taking the bus home or the way you call him late at night just to talk about the most random things he can go on forever thinking of all the things he absolutely loves about you and the things you do, He honestly feels as if he needs to tell you his feelings towards you. It was Sunday around 3:23pm and Rory was thinking of how he was gonna confess to you he thought of a couple different ways like texting you,telling you on the phone, telling you in person and meeting up before or after school or even on the weekend but he finally thought of something that would help him fully express himself using his words, he was gonna give you a note! He was gonna write how he felt about you and then get an envelope and draw hearts and stuff on it and then he could just get to school early and leave it in your locker. He got his school binder a blue pen and crayola markers he started to write down all the things he likes about you, or well most of the things and then he started to draw little random things on the bottom half where there was already 5 lines left he drew cats Hearts stars smiley faces and a ton of random things and then drew you and him as little stick figures holding hands once he finished he folded the paper and got a baby pink envelope and put the note inside and wrote “to:y/n from: Rory AKA R-dog!:)” He glued a paper heart the was a pretty red color to seal the envelope and neatly in one of his backpack pockets being careful not to crumble it at all after he zipped up his backpack and started to play some random video game to pass time until he eventually fell asleep. The next day he woke up extra early and made his way to school there were maybe four to 6 people roaming the halls he made his way to your locker which was conveniently next to yours he took the envelope and tried to slip it into your locker through the hole/slit (idk wut their called?? If they have a name) he looked around the halls making sure no one was in there and tried to get it in again he finally got it after struggling for quite a bit after he was done he went to go find Benny and Ethan to tell them his plan but waited a bit since he got to school a little too early After finding the two brunette boys and telling them his idea Benny and Ethan stayed quiet for a second and then they started to laugh Rory went from a smile to a slightly annoyed face “what?! Why are you guys laughing?!?” He asked half annoyed half embarrassed “she DEFINITELY doesn’t like you back man” Benny said “yeah her with you?! She probably like you like a brother type friend y’know?” Ethan said slightly out of breath “C’mon guys she DEFINITELY is into ME!!” Rory said sounding for embarrassed and sad this time “yeah sure ‘r-dog’” Benny said laughing a little and emphasizing on Rory’s nickname “forget it!” Rory said annoyed and walked to his locker and saw you already had opened the letter and we’re smiling ear to ear with the darkest shade of pink on your face while reading it he walked away slightly nervous to approach you he ended up walking into the bathroom. Soon the bell rang and you made your way to your 1st period class along with other students you walked in and saw Rory sitting in the spot next to your usual seat.

You smiled at him and sat down class was going by painfully slow your 1st period was math and you had a sub and the class working on a stupidly easy math packet for extra credit it had about 4pages and you finished mid way/almost the end of class you had seen Rory was struggling so you gave him you packet and he gladly copied once he was done you asked him to turn in both of the packets he did as you asked while he was turning them in you pulled out your notebook and a pink ballpoint pen and started to doodle random things onto the paper and when he came back at peeked over and complimented you’re mini doodles “hey y/n/n can I borrow a pen?” Rory asked you nodded with a slight smile as you reached into your bag and pulled out a blue,green and red ball point pen and placed them down on the desk you both drew on the paper and you had an idea you tore a little piece of a different paper and wrote ‘I like u 2 :)’ with your pink pen and drew you and Rory as stick figures holding hands and drew hearts around them you had leaned your head over the desk so your hair and shadow was blocking the pierce of paper once you finished you folded it and waited til the bell rang to hand it to him once you did he read it immediately and his face felt so warm and he felt all nice and fuzzy inside.

TIME SKIP TO LUNCH!!

Rory got his lunch and sat with you the two of you talked and ate your food and all of a sudden Rory said in a soft happy voice”sooo.. you like me?” You looked at him “yeah” there was some silence before the blond boy spoke again “wannagooutwithme” he said all in one breath “of course!!” You said a little too loud out of excitement he schooled closer and the two of you held hand and talked til lunch was over, Throughout the rest of the day the two of you were super close holding hands giggling and blushing and overall being one of those cheesy couples but neither of you cared.

I HATE THIS SM BUT IM RLY BORED AND THIS TOOK SUPER LONG AND IDEK HOW TO END A ONESHOT TBH OR FF OR ANYTHING☠️ ANYWAYS YEAH UM THIS PROBS SUCKS LIKE RLY BAD BIT WHATEVER IG ANYWAYS UM BYE IG ?!?!XP

[imaginativeamateur]

[Sai X Reader] An Old Discovery

|2022 Flubruary Event|

Week 3: Falling in Love | Day 18: You find a drawing that Sai drew years ago, what is the subject of his artistry?

Pairing: Sai x gn!Reader

Note: Sai's debut in terms of drabbles, enjoy!

You coughed lightly, dusting off the boxes that Sai stored on the higher shelf of his study. The both of you were moving into a new home and Sai happened to be called on a mission when you two planned to pack your belongings.

You still remembered waving him off as he left with an apologetic smile, promising that he would return as soon as possible and that he would finish the work you would not get done today. Sai did not want to leave, especially since he rarely spent time with you these days due to the amount of work piling up on his place, not to mention your clashing schedules.

Reaching up to the top shelf on your tiptoes, your hand bumped into yet another box, and you could not help but question how much stuff your partner had stored up there. You rigorously dragged the wooden box down and carefully placed it on the floor, sucking in a deep breath. Now you should start wiping the boxes before packing them up. Your eyes widened when your hands moved across the very one that you just placed down—you have never seen this one before, and it seemed to be a very old one, ancient but well-reserved. Even though it was the farthest one on the shelf, this wooden box had the least dust out of all.

Curiosity took over, and you unlocked the mystery. Soon, you were more than confused, looking at the only piece of yellowing paper flat at the bottom of the box. It was a very normal page torn from a book, nothing special, or so you thought. While you were still inspecting the intriguing object, Sai had already come back from his mission and was put into an alarmed mode when he saw the paper in your hand. The raven-haired snatched the sheet away before he could say anything, his face bewildered.

“Hey?” You raised your voice curiously.

“Did you see anything?”

“No?” You replied wearily, “But why are you hiding it?”

“No, it’s nothing,” he blurted, tugging the paper behind his back. “I’ll handle the rest here, you can go rest.”

“Sai,” you demanded, your voice low-pitched, and he shuddered. “What exactly are you trying to hide?”

“You—”

“Me? You’re the one—”

“I said it’s you.”

A long silence followed his confession, and you gave him a baffled look. “Me?”

He sighed and brought the paper up, leveling it with the window, where the last rays of the sun were still powering through before returning to its slumber. Once the light shone through the thin material, you finally outlined the drawing in his hands—a picture of you sound asleep.

“This—,” you breathed out, utterly elated, but his next confession ruined it.

“I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have drawn the drool.”

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

Taglist: @dai-tsukki-desu @darling-imobsessed @animepickle7 @simping-master-69 @tirzamisu @uchiha-bride @the-tiniest-one @greenshirtimagines @adeards @chloe-secret @rory-cakes @byyalady @icedemon1314 @melovehiddlestan@sharingangirl @sakinotfound @kaimaara @ireallyhateithere2

[cowherderess]

So I started, and then soon abandoned, this prompt list last December. But I have renewed energy for fic, and a fresh fandom for inspiration! Ted Lasso, in addition to Gilmore Girls, Downton Abbey, The Americans, and Outlander that I included last year. I probably still won’t finish all 31, but you never know. 

Specific note for this one: In case you also like to know this kind of thing, Christmas Eve really did fall on a Friday in 2004. Same pattern as this year!

~*~*~*~*~

Christmas Ficlets 7/31 - Putting up the stockings

December 2004

At the end of lunch, Lorelai set her mug down on the counter and broached, in her usual roundabout way, a serious subject. “So... Rory will be home for her winter break on Wednesday.”

Luke closed the cash register. “Okay.”

“And then Friday is Christmas Eve. Usually my parents would be on vacation by then, but of course they’re not going anywhere this year. So we have to go for dinner.”

“Makes sense.”

“Does it?” She made a face. “Anyway, are you working that night?” She hastened to add, “You don’t have to come to dinner.”

He was surprised to feel a spasm of disappointment– at the prospect of not going to Richard and Emily’s house, of all places! “Yeah,” he said, fiddling with the stack of receipts, “I’ll be working.” 

Lorelai nodded, feeling unusually calm about this ask, which was even more committed than asking someone to come ice-skating: “Okay, well, once you’re done, would you want to come over?”

His hands froze. “Come over to your house?” A receipt fluttered down to the floor. “On Christmas Eve?”

“Yes. Oh, unless–” Things with Liz were better now, and maybe even Liz-type sisters took precedence over girlfriends. “–you have plans with Liz?”

“God, no. She and TJ are going to some crazy Renaissance Yule party.” He looked steadily at Lorelai. “Rory would be okay with it? I’m sure you guys have your traditions...”

“Yeah, she’s totally okay with it.” She smiled.

It was one of her shining genuine smiles, and his heart fluttered. “I’d love to.”

“You do know, it would be an overnight,” she went on.

“Overnight? Rory’s okay with that, too?” He didn’t know how he felt about that prospect, frankly.

“It’s gotta happen sometime, right?” Her eyes twinkled. “Besides, you have to be there the next morning to see what Santa leaves for you! So bring your stocking!”

“A stocking? I don’t still have a stocking. I’m a grown man.”

“Uh, grownups can have stockings. We can do anything we want.” 

It occurred to her in a flash that he probably hadn’t had someone to fill a stocking for him in a while. But she covered up her sudden sadness, knowing he wouldn’t want to discuss it in the diner at lunchtime, and cheerily kept talking: “Rory and I play Santa for each other. It’s the best. We sort of have a competition to see who can find the best gag gift. Rory’s the reigning champion; last year, she gave me a box of emergency googly eyes.”

“Emergency googly eyes?”

“Yeah, you can stick them on just about any surface that might happen to need them. My mother hated them.��

The diversion seemed to work: he smiled, and said, “That sounds like fun.”

“So you’ll come?”

“Yeah.”

“Okay great! See you then. And before then.” She leaned over the counter to give him a kiss. “Bye, doll.”

When the doorbell rang on Christmas Eve, Lorelai bounced over to answer it, to find Luke on the porch, in his usual jeans and plaid, but no hat.

“Hey, look, today you’re not wearing a hat, but I am!” She pointed to the Santa hat on her head, in case he hadn’t noticed it. Beaming, she leaned forward to kiss him, and then drew back just a little, her arms still draped around his neck. “Hi.”

“Hi.”

“Come on in! See the tree! We decorated it the other day.”

He followed her into the living room. He had helped put up the tree, as he’d done for them for years. That had been earlier in December, when Rory was still at school, so they hadn’t trimmed it then.

“Hi Luke!” Rory popped up from the sofa. She had on a green reindeer sweater and a pair of antlers. 

“Hi, Rory.”

He didn’t have any time to feel awkward and invasive, because Lorelai was tugging him over to the tree.

“Look, here’s an ornament Rory made in kindergarten.” She pulled it forward on its branch. It was in the vague shape of a tree, painted gold, with noodles glued on. “The kind of thing that looks like garbage when somebody else’s kid makes it–”

Rory rolled her eyes. “I always tell her she doesn’t need to display it anymore!”

“–but when your own kid does, you keep it forever and call it abstract genius.”

He smiled, imagining little five-year-old Rory and how seriously she had probably taken an assignment even back then. Then his mind ventured into the future, in which he and Lorelai might be praising their own kindergartener’s weird artwork. 

He felt Lorelai’s hand slip into his, and let himself be guided now to the banister.

“Santa has an early present for you,” she said.

Earlier, he’d wound the banister with greenery, and now three red stockings hung there– three?! He looked more closely, and his heart thumped. Beside the two with Lorelai and Rory painted in gold glitter, there was another, almost exactly matching, labeled Luke.

The only difference was that his was not smudged with soot.

“You may be wondering about the soot,” Lorelai said, right on cue. He squeezed her hand. “Yes, we used to string them up in the traditionally traditional place of the fireplace, but then there was that incident, and they nearly burned to bits. So now we put them on the banister.”

He had steadied himself enough to inquire, “That incident?”

“Yeah, we put some old greenery in the fireplace,” Rory explained, “and turns out it was really old, and very dry. The fire kind of exploded a little bit.”

“I really don’t know how you two are still alive,” he grumbled.

“Aw, we love you too,” Lorelai said, with a wink at Rory before turning to Luke. “Now we figured you wouldn’t want to partake in this next tradition but you can keep us company in the kitchen. We’re baking cookies!”

“Baking cookies?” he echoed. “Meaning, you’re gonna decorate the cookies you bought at Weston’s?”

Lorelai grinned. “In one!”

“And eat an amount of frosting that’s going to make me sick just thinking about it?”

“Very probably.”

“Let’s do it.”

[lunnybunny12]

Sandor Clegane X reader (Rory)

MODERN AU

A/N: This is a modern AU based off of this headcanon. 

Word count: 2036

Warnings: Swearing, alcohol, mentions of death

Master List

As an Infantry Soldier, Sandor served in the field, working to defend his country against any threats on the ground. He'd capture, destroy, and deter enemy forces, assist in reconnaissance, and help mobilize troops and weaponry to support the mission as the ground combat force. He'd seen good people get murdered, shot, hanged, killed. People with families to get back to and friends who would miss them. Sandor had neither, and yet he was allowed to return.

He took a large gulp of his drink and looked at his surroundings. Sandor had been to the bar many times before and the familiar hum of other patrons as they'd pull frothing glasses of beer to their lips was there like always. He heard the occasional clicks from the back where the pool-tables were placed. The smell of alcohol, snow and pine-scented air freshener drifted through the air as you dragged a damp rag across the bar.

"Oi Barkeep. Beer." Sandor called, fiddling some change from his pocket.

"Keys first, Dogface. Then you can drink," You retorted, not moving from your place at the bar. (Dogface- A nick-name for Infantrymen because they sleep in "Pup-tents" and hide in "dugouts")

Sandor sighed in annoyance and paused to look at you. It hadn't been the first time you had told him this, he never understood why but he knew full well that you weren't joking with him.

"Again?"

"Yes, again. now hand them over."

He begrudgingly did as he was told and slid the car keys across the bar, avoiding your outstretched hand completely. You snatched them away and placed them in your pocket, with a fake glare.

"Good boy. They'll be in the same place when you come to pick them up tomorrow." You said popping of the cap of a beer and sliding it towards him and going back to cleaning the bar.

"You're lucky you're one of the few people I can stand in this town" He grumbled.

"Oh I feel so honoured" you joked and rolled your eyes.

Since there were other customers to attend to you couldn't talk long, but it's not like he'd say much to you anyway. The community he had found himself in was quite tight-knit. Everyone knew everyone and it was tricky to not run into someone who had something to talk about. Sandor however was a very quiet individual who often kept to himself making him stand out to many of the residents.

As the night continued and other staff started their shifts, Sandor found himself looking at you from time to time. He watched you collect glasses, chat to customers, tell jokes and take orders. He found himself doing it allot recently and he didn't understand why. At some points, he had even begun te eavesdrop on your conversations since he had nothing better to do.

"Ah (y/n) hows Rory? Heard the lad had an accident" A customer asked as you took their order.

Sandor's ears pricked up. He'd never heard of a Rory before at least not from you, and from what he knew there wasn't a Rory in the village.

"Yeah, the silly thing fell down the stairs and hurt his leg. He's upstairs having a lie-down. he should be up and about in a few days though," You chuckled.

You had changed so much since he was dragged off to the army. You weren't a crazy teenager anymore but a grown woman, with a proper paying job and a life outside of work. Yet you were still the same when it came to your personality: humerus, silly, carefree, cheerful and stupid... my god were you stupid, you had to have been to be his friend.

"Right, consider me.. clocked out" You smiled to yourself and looked at Sandor.

"Why do you need to clock out? You own the bloody place." Sandor said.

"Yes, but its this new fangled technology thing that Mr Ray insisted I use, and you know what he's like. 'His town his rules.' Plus it helps me keep tabs on whos working."

"At least you understand half of the tripe you just said." Sandor joked taking another sip of his drink.

You rolled your eyes and patted his shoulder as you headed towards the door. "Goodnight everyone!" You yelled earning a cheer of goodnights.

Everything was different when Sandor went away. One day he was there and the next he wasn't, no warning, just a letter that said that he had been accepted into the army and to not expect him back for a long time, that was if he came back at all.

When he did eventually return he had also changed. His personality remained the same, as you expected but he had changed physically. He was taller, broader and stronger and his hair had been cut making his burn a more prominent feature.

If it was up to you, you would've stayed away from him but since yours was the only bar in town, he would come for a drink. Out of politeness you talked to him and sent the occasional harmless jab his way and in return he was civil. You were still angry that he hadn't said goodbye but you still cared, you must have done to take his keys.

It was misty that morning. All mornings were misty since the Autumn season rolled around. You loved Autumn. You loved the feeling of the wind rushing past your face and how the leaves crunched beneath your boots. Your favourite place to walk was at the park and since Rory had stopped limping around your apartment, you thought the park was a good idea.

Rory was a large thing. The hound was easily half your height when stood on all fours and towered above you when on his hind. In his youth, he would have been jet black and full of energy but as he aged, the fur around his snout and paws had dimmed to a light grey and he had mellowed out.

As you walked along the wet grass a sudden yelp bit through the air.

"Someone get their fucking dog!"

You immediately ran to the voice to see Sandor, on the ground with your dog licking his face.

"Rory! come here. You silly thing" you laughed as you latched the lead onto the dog's collar and pulled him away from Sandor.

The man looked awful. His hair was a mess and he was covered in dirt. The shirt he wore was the same as the day prior and he seemed half asleep.

"Were you sleeping in the bush?"

"Oh yes, I'm fine thanks for asking" Sandor huffed as he pulled himself off of the grass.

He was in a mood and in all honesty, you would be too if you were sleeping in a bush.

"What kind of dog is that? Looks like a living mop"

"He's a wolfhound and I can guarantee he's cleaner than you."

"Well, you try and stay clean when you've been sleeping in the park for 5 days," Sandor growled, dusting off some leaves from his pants.

"5 days?" you asked. "You've been sleeping here for 5 DAYS! What happened to your apartment?"

"No money to pay for an apartment."

"What about your job?"

"Why do you care?" Sandor asked, bending down to grab the blanket that was hidden in the shrubbery. He was about to walk away until you stood in front of him with a serious look.

"I care because we were friends once and I'll be dumbed if I let my friend sleep in the cold. So I will ask again... What about your job?"

The look Sandor gave you wasn't out of shock or surprise. It was a look of familiarity. A look of relaxed friendliness that you hadn't seen since before he left.

Sandor sighed and scratched his neck. " My job fired me a few weeks ago. Said that 'I have talents that could be useful elsewhere.'"

"They fired you without reason?"

"I stacked boxes (Y/n) and that's all I did."

"Load of cunts," you sighed. "Right you're coming home with me, you're gonna get a shower and we can talk about a job later."

"I didn't ask for your help."

"No, but you're getting it anyway. Follow me Dogface."

A month had passed since then and things once again changed.

You gave Sandor a job at the bar more suited to his skillset and became the security. The town was a tourist hotspot in the summer months and you would get the occasional rowdy bunch that you nor the rest of the residents liked to deal with. In the other months, Sandor would just hang around, help with any shipments that required heavy lifting and occasionally cover for a staff member. Since you couldn't have him sleeping in his car or in a bush you gave him the spare room in your apartment and when he could afford it he insisted on paying rent and wouldnt take no for an answer.

One day when Sandor came back from his shift, he was met with you, laying on the couch with Rory draped over you with his head on your chest. Rory had done this more than once and you thought it was adorable, whether it was to protect you or because he was cold you didn't know but it was adorable just the same.

"You look comfortable," Sandor said slipping off his shoes at the door.

"Oh, I am. Very much so. I was in the mood for cuddles and since you weren't here Rory stepped up" you joked, petting the sleeping dog.

At the corner of your eye, you saw Sandor's demeanour change. He straightened his posture and took a sharp breath in.

"You alright?

"I'm fine. move your legs." Sandor said sitting on the couch beside you as he leaned to grab the tv remote.

He had been doing that a lot. Whenever you joked about ding something a couple would do, he would shy away or close himself off and to be honest you were only half-joking. It why you were so upset when he left without a word of warning. You liked him but if he liked you was a different story.

"You jealous?" You asked

"Jealous?" Sandor chuffed. "Of Rory? Nah. You wouldn't go for an old dog like him"

"I like old dogs. They have more charm and personality than the younger ones." You answered as you ran your fingers through Rory's fur and kissed him on the head.

Sandor sighed and continued to look at the TV. He looked so handsome to you, he always did. Sure he was rough around the edges but its what drew you to him in the first place.

"I like you too, you know."

"What?" Sandor laughed and looked a you. He thought you were joking like you usually did but by the look on your face, you weren't.

By that point Rory had jumped off of the couch to get some water, allowing you to sit properly.

"I like you, Dogface."

"In what way?"

"In a romantic way... since before you left" a second of silence cut between you when you started laughing at yourself. Like a real laugh. "I don't know why I'm telling you this, it's not like you feel the same anyways."

"How do you know I don't like ya?"

"Look at me, Sandor. The only men in my life  are you, the customers and my dog, I'm not exactly a noble-born am I? Just a daft bar made"

You stood up and walked to the fridge to grab a few beers.

"I like a daft bar made. They're way more entertaining than the smart ones."

"Very funny" you said handing him a bottle and sitting back on the couch with a huff.

"I also like my bar made: brave, and strong, and funny. With... a nice dog and a home of her own. Look, I like you too. I like being around you. I...I like your face."

You laughed and shuffled closer to him and leant your head on his shoulder.

"Cute" you mumbled and leant up to kiss his cheek. " I like your face too"