#(also he probably has arsenic in his pocket but now he's made everyone feel too guilty to even ask)

[wellhalesbells]

I’m writing a scene with Peter into a fanfiction and he’s so dramatic when he talks I feel like his whole voice needs to be in italics. It’s like he’s reveling in every word he says it is so fucking funny. And he’s not like. A rich British guy or something. He’s just full of shit and I can’t help but be amused by him

Tumblr apparently decided that I'm better when I'm absentee because it definitely did not decide to tell me about this ask (or I was in an insomniac fugue and deleted the notification in a half-asleep state but that rarely happens so I'm blaming Tumblr).

ANYWAY! This is totes Peter for me so you are doing him exactly right. He's like if one guy in Clue picked up all the bludgeon-y murder weapons, walked around making sure everyone saw him with them while swinging them around violently, then waited for everyone to suspect him of something nefarious so he could then act the martyr when everyone found out the victim died from arsenic poisoning. Because if it's not about him, he's going to find a way to make it about him.

[brelione]

Field Trip With A Rich Bitch ll (Rafe Cameron X Reader)

Warnings:Ward Cameron,Mentions of Arsenic Poisoning,Mentions of heavy drugs,mentions of bipolar disorder,mentions of death,Rafe being too tall for every day life

He raised his eyebrows. “Where?”He asked.You rolled your eyes,wishing you had a bottle of wine to take a swig from in that moment. “What?You scared you’re gonna get mud on your shoes?”You asked.He sighed,scratching the back of his neck. “How far away is it?”He asked. “Nevermind,rich bitch,clearly you don't want to know the truth about your father.”You went to turn around but his hand grabbed your wrist quickly. “No,no it's not like that...I just wanna know where we’re going.”He mumbled.You pulled your hand from his grasp,staring down at him. “Come on,then.”You told him,beginning your walk outside the garage.His bike was nearly done,scratches holes and dents gone.The last thing to fix was the seat which wouldn't take long at all.He grabbed his phone,sliding it in his pocket.

He followed you out of the garage,waiting with his hands in his pockets as you pulled the garage door shut,bending over to place a lock on it.You could feel him staring at you. “Stop being a perv.”You grumbled,clicking the lock shut and stood back up.You could see the red blush on his cheek,spreading down his neck and ears.He was so easy to fluster.It was hilarious.Rafe had beat the living hell out of multiple teenagers,made some children cry with a glance and came from one of the most powerful families.But here you were,bossing him around,making him blush and causing him to stutter out apologies.You had that power over most people.Some kooks called you a demon and you embraced it.Most people didn't know it but you had the word tattooed on your thigh with two devil horns hovering over it.You were manipulative,assertive and strong.

You had the charm and the looks to get people to like you without knowing you and you had the glare that made the hair on the back of people’s necks stick up straight.You hadnt always been like that,only becoming this emotionless ball of rage after Ward Cameron had destroyed everything that made your life worth living.The beautiful thing was you had Ward Cameron’s one and only son wrapped around your finger and there was nothing he could do about it.Rafe was deprived of attention.Not only was Ward a terrible person but a terrible father as well.Rafe was desperate for attention now and if you gave him the attention he wanted he was all yours.You knew that and deep down he knew it too. “We’ll take the woods,I can't risk being seen with you.”You walked around the back of the garage.It was a steep hill full of rocks and some poison ivy.You knew where not to step and Rafe did his best to step the same places you did.You were pretty far ahead of him,around ten feet.Down the hill was a narrow pavement trail,cracks and holes all over it. “Anyone ever told you that you walk slow for a tall person?”You asked.

He grinned to himself,trying not to fall while also trying not to hit his head on any branches. “How long do you think we’ll be out for?”He asked.You shrugged. “Maybe an hour.”You replied,walking along the narrow pavement.Rafe wasn't used to being in the woods,at least not this deep in the woods,he was jumping at every noise. “Do you think that was a wolf?” “No.” “Did you hear that?” “No.” “Oh my god-what if there's a dead body out here?” “Rafe.We’re going to a cemetery,if there are no dead bodies then that would be a problem.” “I hate cemeteries.” “Well that sucks for you.” As you were coming to the end of the narrow pavement into the grass Rafe jumped from the crunch of a twig,grabbing onto you and pulling you to his chest.You stood stiff,his arms tightening around your waist as he listened for more sounds. “Are you going to let go of me or will I have to drag you?”You asked.He let go of you with a huff. “Do you think we should head back?”He asked.You sighed.

This was what you got from bringing a kook into the woods. “You're such a pussy.”You sighed,continuing your walk.He kept kicking the back of your heel by accident because he was so close behind you.You two walked onto the grass,looking across the field at the gravestones,benches and statues.He had come here a few times for late night drug deals and drinking with Kelce and Topper.It was a creepy old place that always made him shiver.Beer cans and red solo cups littered the ground from his previous trips here.You sighed as you looked across the graveyard to one corner,the one furthest away.He watched as you began your walk across the field.Most of the graves were covered in pollen and dirt splotches,the grass almost as tall as the stones themselves.It was gross and unkept and smelled like weed and cheap beer from gas stations.His feet were sinking into the mud,causing him to grumble something about how annoying it would be to clean them.He dragged his feet as he followed you to one large stone with vines growing up the sides.There were muddy streaks across the names like someone had tried to wipe it clean with a dirty hand.

 “Rafe,meet my parents.Mom,Dad meet the rich bitch.”You sighed,standing in front of the grave.Rafe’s eyes widened,his chest tightening.You grinned at his reaction. “What?”You asked.He opened his mouth to say something but nothing came out.What was he even supposed to say?Sorry your parents are dead and ended up in this shitty cemetery.Sorry I dealt cocaine by your parents grave.Sorry half those beer cans are mine. “Close your mouth Rafe,you look like a trout.”You smirked.He closed his mouth,gulping and tapping his leg nervously. “I bet you’re wondering what your dad has to do with this.”You spoke,observing his expression.He nodded,looking at the date on the grave.They had both died on the same day of 2004 which meant you were only two years old at the time. “You ever wonder how your father got all that money in the first place?Cause I can tell you it's definitely not whatever bull shit story he’s been telling everyone.”You used the sleeve of your yellow shirt to wipe the dirt off your parents’ names.He bit the inside of his cheek,waiting for you to continue. 

“Your dad was a dealer.He was my parents dealer.Im not talking about weed either,I mean the heavy shit.Heroin,crack,xanax.What kind of asshole deals xanax?Anyways,he sold to my parents and when they tried to get off the stuff he convinced them to keep buying from him.When they found my ma’s body they found that same heavy shit in her system.But here’s where the story gets really interesting.Not only did they find the heroin but guess what they found.Guess.”You ordered him.He blinked,glancing between you and the grave. “I-I dont know.”He mumbled.You nodded. “Arsenic.Your shitty father poisoned the drugs he gave my parents.WHo does that?”You sighed,flicking a bug off of the grave stone.He bit his lip as he took in this new information. “And he didnt get arrested or charged or anything?”He asked.

You laughed. “What do you think?You think Sarah Cameron would exist?You think you’d live in that big house with all of that nice stuff and your fancy ass gold plated spoons?No.None of that would be possible if your father got what he deserved.You know what your father got?A nice house,millions of dollars,a handsome son and multiple yachts.Thats what he got after killing my parents.You know what I had to grow up with?A one bedroom house with three cousins and a bipolar aunt.Thats what I got.”You ranted,tears stinging in your eyes as you got louder and louder.He didn't say anything,scared that only squeaks would come out.You bit your lip to hold back to the tears,the water leaking from your eyes and down your cheeks as you laughed. “And now my aunt and my baby cousin are dead too!”You gestured to the grave next to you. “And you know what else?I've had to work for 12 years of my life and you know where I live?In a shitty house thats falling apart and all I do is work on cars and bikes every single day and I cant even feel my hands anymore and I have fucking broken toes from kneeling all day and I cant even afford to go to a fucking hospital.And the only person that I can blame is your dad.”You wiped the tears from your face with your sleeves,smearing dirt across your cheekbone.

His bottom lip quivered,fingertips going numb as he listened to you.Something compelled him to step forward,grabbing your waist gently and pulling you into a hug.You did not fight him.If it were under any other circumstances then telling him that his father had been a drug lord,killed your parents,ruined your life and caused you to work every day of your life then maybe you wouldn't have accepted the hug.You never thought you’d be hugging Rafe Cameron,or any kook for that matter. “I can um...I can bring you to the hospital to get your toes fixed.”He offered.You laughed into his chest,getting tears on his shirt. “Wow,thanks.”You whispered,laughing again.He gulped,resting his chin on your head.It seemed that you had both needed a hug.You were holding onto him so tightly,holding fistfulls of his shirt in your hands.He hadnt hugged anyone in years and it seemed that you hadnt either. “Do yourself a favor and don't turn into your father.And if you keep going down the path you’re going down now then you’ll end up just like my parents.”You sighed.He frowned.

You sounded like one of those commercials of people staring at the camera with crocodile tears running down their faces as they talked about some loved one who had died and how drugs weren't the answer.You probably didn't know though,it wasn't like you could afford cable.He just nodded,knowing you did not need his attitude right now. “(Y/N).”He mumbled.You hummed,closing your eyes.You didnt cry often and never in front of people but when you did cry it stung like hell.You couldn't exactly rub your eyes with your fingers either because they had traces of oil and chemicals. “What if we piss my father off and get him to confess to the murders?”He asked.You sniffled,looking up at him with puffy eyes. “How?”You asked.

Part Three will be up this weekend!

@gabbismith​

[guessimjoiningthespidermanfandom]

Blessing in Disguise

Peter Parker x bisexual!reader

Peter Parker x fem!reader

Peter Parker x black!reader

Peter Parker x villain!reader

Warnings: Hospitals, Explosions, depictions of pain, allusions to mania and depression, self harm/unhealthy coping mechanisms, mentions of death and the dead, gambling, potential underage drinking, theft, guns, gun violence, depictions of bullet wounds, and drunk people. 

Word Count: 3.4k

Songs: All the kids are depressed- Jeremy Zucker, Everywhere- Chloe x Halle, Middle Child- J. Cole, She Knows- J. Cole, Breezeblocks- alt-J, Pussycat Doll-Flo Milli, It’s Been So Long- The Living Tombstone, Take me to Church- Hozier, Good Kid- Kendrick Lamar, Death of a Bachelor- Panic! At the Disco, Them Changes- Thundercat, Detention- Melanie Martinez, Recess- Melanie Martinez, Something for your M.I.N.D- Superorganism 

A/N: I actually hate this chapter because I feel like the writing doesn’t flow. I feel like it’s to jampacked with things that don’t do anything to push the story forward. Anyway I hope you still read it anyways. 

Series Masterlist   Previous Part   Next Part

I did the hand sign stating I’d stand. I knew I won for sure this time because I had a perfect hand of 21. The two other people playing against groaned as I was declared the winner yet again. 

Swiping the chips for the 3rd time since I’d been at the casino. I decided to take my wins and make my way to the bar that our “target” was residing. 

I had a hunch on where Carmen was but had no actual idea. I’d just text her. In the meantime I had this grown ass man to make a move on. 

I was like 97% sure I had the right guy anyway. I looked much older than usual tonight due to Carmen being a makeup goddess and I gotta say flirting can get you a long way. 

“Hey,” I spoke, sitting on the bar stool next to the man.

He looked up at me mumbling a quick hey.

“You expecting someone?” 

“Nope,” He popped the ‘p’ “What about you?”

“Same as you,”

“Now I don’t believe someone as beautiful as you is here alone,” He moved his arm that much closer to mine. I pushed out a smile and giggled. 

“I could say the same about you,” We made eye contact for a second “But no seriously, I’m just here with a girlfriend. It was my birthday yesterday but she wasn’t free so we came out today,” I lied. 

“How old did you turn?”

“Twenty Two,” He nodded seemingly content with the answer. 

“So you’re not around here are you?”

“Either you’re a genius or I’m just very bad at blending in, no I’m from New York,” 

“Ah, I have some friends in New York, which part?” 

“Harlem actually but I recently moved to Queens,” I lied again. 

“Oh I don’t many from those cities,”

“If we're being honest I don’t know many people from Queens either my life’s been more hectic ever since I moved,”

“I hear you,” He informed me, leaning on the small backing the stools had. 

We talked for about 15 more minutes, him explaining the switch between New York to Nevada. Then Carmen walked up to me and feigned drunkenness signaling she was done with her job. I made my way back. To the man who’s name I still hadn’t learned. 

“As much fun as I was having talking to you, my friend is way too drunk to be out in public so we should probably head back to the hotel.” I sat back on the barstool turning my legs towards the man batting my eyes 

“Could I possibly use your phone to call an Uber mine is dead?” 

“Yeah of course you can…” His sentence fizzed off at the end in place of where my name would be.

“Ciara,” I filled in “And you are?” 

“Jim” He started handing me the phone.

I used his phone for an entirely different reason than I’d claimed. The project Carmen had been working on was melting the wires together to fix the flash drive that works inside of phones. It hadn’t worked in years.

It took about a minute to duplicate the phone's data. I stuck the flash drive in my bra before going to give the phone back. 

Just as I started moving a loud argument broke out, by the drunk accents I could tell it would soon get violent. Seeing as I had many experiences with an aggressive drunk. I wasn’t going to take my chances and began turning towards the main exit.

 I heard the first shot echo followed by another. Soon everyone was shooting. Including Carmen who I think just wanted an excuse to shoot at people passing it off as “protecting her friends”. 

She was closer to the exit than I was so she slid me the gun and I was able to ward off anyone shooting in our general direction. Not for long though. A bullet lightly grazed my dominant arm’s shoulder; it still dug in enough to do some sweet damage. 

Fuck

What’s up with me? I haven’t been on my A game lately. 

We were also out of bullets. Mostly because we weren’t actually expecting to have to fucking shoot at people. I ducked back down behind the bar trying not to get caught on the broken glassware. 

“I think it would be a good time to do that thing?” I asked. 

She rolled her eyes 

“You know I hate doing it,”

“Well I’m literally bleeding out,” I dramatized pointing to my shoulder. “So if you want to get out of here not in body bags, do the thing,” 

“Alright, just this one time,” She begrudgingly made her way out from behind the bar and away from me. 

I covered my ears and closed my eyes as the glass around me rained down and the bar shook. I could slightly hear the cries from beneath my hands. Once she moved back over to me 

“See that wasn’t so bad, birdy,” I scrambled up to my feet ignoring the pull in my shoulder. 

I made my rounds grabbing Jim’s phone, cash, wallets, watches, and anything else that looked expensive from pockets and the ground. 

I stood awkwardly staring at my feet as I slid from side to side with my butt planted on my skateboard. 

“Hi,” I heard squinting my eyes looking up revealing a equally nervous looking Peter

“Hey,” I nodded at him. 

The conversation wasn’t as awkward as I thought it’d be he’d apparently asked Liz to prom and he said yes. Which I was definitely super happy about because why wouldn’t I be? 

Anyway who cares about that anyway. Props to Peter for not bringing up the whole ghosting everyone thing for like a week thing. Because if he didn’t bring it up I was going to act like it never happened. 

We talked about everything and anything. From favorite candies or colors to our beliefs about life after death. I’d found out his favorite candy were skittles, favorite color: red and that he was Jewish but not necessarily religious and didn’t believe in heaven or hell but he believed in the eternity of a soul. 

I’d told him that my favorite candy was F/C, my favorite color being pink and that I didn’t know what I believed in. I believed in a higher power but not that they were inherently good because of all the suffering on earth. I’d told him if they weren’t good and had abandoned us while alive. Why would they care or have any plan for us into the afterlife? I think that part is up to us, and what we believe. I’m trying not to think about death.

Then like clockwork he had to leave before 9 which is funny because it’s like he wasn’t even trying to hide his secret identity. He’d told me he lost the internship and normally his excuse to leave was the internship. 

I just guess that means he no longer has Stark’s backup. He only had it for a while anyway he’d be fine without it again. Actually when I think about it,  from his behavior he’d exhibited as Spiderman in the short few months I’d had the displeasure of knowing him as ‘Thorn’ he’d be weak. He was unconfident, relied on his tools far too much. Couldn’t see himself without the suit. So maybe he was really just going home. So he’d be fine. 

I’d also be fine. No matter how much it didn’t look like it at the moment. I’d be fine. I was always fine. I was fine without my mom, without Rose, without my dad, without Olivia and any one else I’d ever been stupid enough to get attached to. I’d bounce back. I always did. 

It’d taken Carmen much convincing to not sit around and babysit me 24/7 because of my shoulder. She was sure that I’d do something dumb and it would get infected. 

 I was sitting on MJ’s bed getting ready for homecoming. My neck jerked again as Bri attempted to detangle and braid my hair. 

If I hadn’t spiraled into the Vulture, Kingpin and SHIELD, rabbit hole I probably would have taken better care of myself and my hair. 

“Stop moving,” She tsked.

“Stop trying to rip my head off my neck,” I hissed back. 

Bri did my nails back when we were still at her house waiting for MJ to pick us up. She actually did pretty good. I think she would do great at a cosmetology school. She's pretty much into everything: hair, nails, makeup the whole nine yards. She did all of that for me. 

The make up was very simple, but I was still able to get my signature winged eyeliner. Winged eyeliner is something very dear to me mostly because Rose was the first to put me on it and I wore it everyday since. It kinda felt disrespectful to stop at this point.

The only thing left was the dress MJ had gifted me. Her mom bought her a dress but she still refused to wear dresses so she returned it for this one, she opted for a very nice pantsuit she already had. Then Bri's outfit of course matched her boyfriend’s. 

I’ve never really liked school dances they’re always so overhyped, but I go to them all anyways, because then I get in on all the drama. It helped me build up my arsenal of knowledge about everyone. 

I was sitting at one of the round tables near the entrance with MJ, Bri, and Olivia. We had a bottle of “Gatorade” open and out for anybody who wanted to drink it. I was about to drink from it when I saw Liz enter alone. 

I made my way over to her.

“Where’s Peter? I thought he asked you?” 

“I don’t even know he just ditched me,” She let out a deep breath. 

“Aw I’m sorry,” I wrapped my good arm around her shoulder.

 “Well don’t think about that asshole, you’re way out of his league anyway,” I assured her to which she let out a weak laugh. 

“Come sit with me and my friends,” 

 A girl with knockers dancing all along her head came up to before speaking 

“Why are you crying?” 

I sniffed pulling my head from my arms. 

“I miss my mom,” 

“I miss my mom sometimes but I like my grandma too,”

“Where’s your mom?” I asked.

“I don’t know my grandma says she’s sick,” She shrugged. “Where’s your mom?”

“Well my grandma says she’s in a better place now but I know that just means dead,” 

“Yeah my dad is dead too so I know what you mean, I’m Rose. What’s your name?”

“Y/N,” 

“Y/N, that's a pretty name,” She smiled. “You wanna come sit with me and my friends Y/N?”

“Y/N!”

I jumped a bit at the voice before matching it to MJ

“What?” I asked in a harsher tone then necessary.  

“Jeez sorry,” She reeled back “Someone is asking for you named Carmen. They said it’s important,” She waved her phone around. 

My face dropped and I hoped no one caught it. 

I grabbed the phone exiting the auditorium.

“Okay what’s up?” 

“You know Liz’s dad whatever her name is but yeah, He’s gonna rob that plane that’s moving everything from the Avengers tower,” She rushed

“What!?”

Holy shit 

That must be where Peter’s went. So he figured it out too. Kid’s smarter than I give him credit for.

“I’ll send you the location on your phone,”

“Why didn’t you just call me from there?”

“Because you never answer it,”

“True,” 

“Y/N?” She whispered.

“Yeah?” 

“Be careful,” 

“Always,” I smiled. 

I rushed out of the building not thinking about how I could get caught. Near the buses there was the new Shocker lying unconscious. 

I took the webshooter I found next to him. Then made a run for it. Stopping to hot wire the nearest car, I sped to one of the locations that I knew Vulture’s team kept their weapons at. I was throwing everything in the same pile. Getting ready to destroy them. 

Then the door creaked open.

I felt the bed dip as my brother sat next to me. 

“Are you coming?”

I pulled the cover off my face 

“Why should I?”

“Because you’ll regret it if you don’t,” 

“No I won’t leave me alone,” I pulled the cover back over my head. 

“You gotta eat something,” 

“No I don’t leave me alone,” 

“Y/N…”

I knew what he was going to say and I didn’t wanna hear it. 

“She would want you to eat something,”

“Fuck you! How would you ever know what she would've wanted? No one here knew her and now one will ever get the chance to again so just leave me alone,” 

“Y/N-“

“Don’t Y/N me, get the fuck out of my room,” He sat there for a second, stunned “NOW!” 

As soon as the door closed and I flipped back over

I was shaken back into the present only to find that I was pinned under the man who’d entered the room before I zoned out. He reached for the nearest weapon. I wasn’t sure exactly what it was. Which is rare. I have a whole weapons catalog in my brain. Unfortunately for him he couldn’t grab it without giving me leeway to get from underneath them. 

Unfortunately for me I put too much pressure on my arm in the seconds I took to grip my shoulder recuperating myself. The man had fired the weapon he had at the pile of weapons that I stumbled back towards. 

The weapons then emitted purple light before exploding leaving me caught under some wood and concrete as the ringing in my ears only got louder and louder.

The fire around me crackled loudly and I bit my lip.

The smoke was only getting more plentiful.

I started coughing which only got more and more painful.

When I came to myself, I wasn’t choking anymore and the fire around me had died down. I was able to push myself from underneath the rubble holding me down. Not without lots of pain though.

The dress I was wearing was torn completely, holes big enough to see what I was wearing underneath it already. 

So I just took it off.

It wasn’t like I was completely naked I was wearing boxers. Not like I haven’t left the house in a bra and shorts before. Also who gives a fuck I just almost died. 

It was like 35° but I wasn’t cold in the slightest. I was actually kind of hot.

If my phone was accurate the plane had already made it near the edge of Queens and Staten Island. Rushing there I was seconds late as I saw the plane crash after I saw two figures fighting along it. 

There was fire everywhere but I wasn’t thinking. I was just running because I couldn’t make out Peter’s shape and if he was dead- 

I swear to fucking God if he was dead. Not again. I couldn’t handle another death.

Peter was saying something. No, pleading as the Vulture stood tall with his wings still intact. He was talking about how it was a nice try and he doesn’t know what he’s messing with.

Peter might not but I knew what this was. I also knew I wasn’t letting him get away with it. 

The wings started producing visible waves of heat. Then it hit me, what Peter was trying to say. The wings were gonna blow.  I got a head start and lunged towards the man. The element of surprise was on my side. That was until he used the wings to lift himself off the ground. 

Now I was fine with parkour and other activities, but being lifted off the ground by someone else, someone who’d never interacted with me ever, is where I draw the line. Then Peter was shooting a web at the wings. To which Vulture dropped me to go after him.

Oh hell no.

“Give it up Peter,” He continued to get closer and closer as the webs were continuously cut through. 

You know how people say they see in red when they get angry? Well the opposite of that happens to me I just see black. Remembering very little to nothing.

Last thing I remembered was fire just fire. From my fingertips, arms, head. It destroyed the wings in seconds, before they had a chance to blow up on their own. 

Peter webbed up the man before moving out of my sight. 

How the fuck do you get fire coming from your body. 

 Literally what the actual fuck. 

I couldn’t breathe. 

That’s what it was, I was dying, I was probably in some coma and this was a weird hallucination my brain pushed out in its final moments.

Okay this is it. I was dying suffocating in some coma.

Or even worse this wasn’t a coma and I was going to die with my body lit on fire literally.

“Oh my God,” I gasped trying to get air into my lungs. 

I closed my eyes and when I opened them Peter was in front of me in a torn up ripoff suit. 

“Y/N,” He moved trying to catch my eye.

“Y/N, Y/N breathe…”

I couldn’t really process his words. My mind was clouded with fear, fear and anger. 

Before I knew it I was hitting my head so I wouldn’t hit anyone or anything else. It’d been a coping mechanism I used ever since I was 3. 

Peter reached for my arms reeling back after his hands came into contact with my boiling skin. 

“Y/N you have to calm down,” He moved in front of me.

I stopped moving my hands but it was still difficult to breathe.

The monitors beeped all around me and if I closed my eyes  and concentrated hard enough. I could convince myself they were birds. 

I could tell from the patter of the knock on the door that it was Rose. 

“Come in!” I called out.

She picked up the clipboard examining it. As she did every time she visited. Luckily for everyone there was no nurse she could bombard with questions and criticism. 

“How are you feeling?” She asked. 

“Itchy, like my guts are on fire,” 

To which she replied by singing the chorus to Girl on Fire. 

“Anyway,” she brought us back after our laughter. “I got you pizza today since I’m sure you’re tired of McDonald’s,”

“I don’t mind McDonald’s actually, anything is better than hospital food. Well actually, their chicken strips aren’t that bad,” 

She placed the box down on my lap. I lifted up the lid and was hit with the smell of the many herbs. I pat by my legs signaling she could sit down. She wiggled into the spot that the bar of the bed allowed. 

“What are we watching today?” 

“Uh…” I clicked on the TV “Vampire Diaries?,”

“That show is still going?

“Yeah, I don’t think it’ll ever end,” 

Somehow the show turned into us dancing around the cramped hospital room.

We spun like the ballerinas in the broken jewelry box I got from my mom. Arms flailing around. The air conditioner made a rattling noise and a half eaten pizza on the bed. The situation was probably extremely weird or unpleasant from any other perspective, but because it was her it was perfect. 

It was like the moment in rom coms where the camera zooms into the main characters dancing as the rest of the characters are put out of focus and they stare into each other’s eyes. I closed my eyes. 

When I opened them I saw Peter’s eyes above mine. 

His hands were immediately on my face making my look straight at him. 

“Are you okay?” He breathed out. 

I sat up feeling a pounding in my head and a pull in my lungs. I was met with the fact that I was definitely not on the ground. I was actually very far from the ground on some ride on the pier. My mouth was dry so it took me a minute to get the words out and when I did it hurt my throat.

“Yeah ’m okay jus’ tired,”

“Okay, well don’t go back to sleep because I think you have a concussion,” 

“You’re acting like I died or something, how long was I out dang,” I joked I always hated when things got too serious. 

“Uh probably...30 minutes? I don’t know I don’t have a watch,” He sniffed and that's when I realized he’d be crying. 

“Were you crying? I knew you cared about me,” I smiled “It was only a matter of time before you fell in love with me, I’m irresistible” 

He laughed weakly wiping his eyes “This isn’t funny,” 

I looked up at him and started uncontrollably giggling. Soon Peter was laughing too.

The moment was interrupted by a squad of police cars pulling up. I absolutely did not want to get down but my tired muscles betrayed me. I was extremely exhausted.  I literally could not move. I just had to go wherever Peter decided to take me. I honestly think I might have a few broken ribs. Nothing I haven’t dealt with before though. We stood off to the side watching as Vulture was stuffed into the back of one of the cars. 

“So Spiderman?” I smirked.

“Uh.. no?” He said as if he’s questioning himself. 

“It’s okay, I won’t tell anyone I’ve known for a while now,” I twisted my body to face him hissing as a sharp sting shot through my body “You're not very good at hiding it,”

“Hey!” He cried out “But seriously you can’t tell anyone,”

“I already said I wouldn’t, but if it makes you feel better I’ll pinky promise you, and everyone knows you can’t break a pinky promise,”

“Alright,” He sighed.

I tried to move closer again and was stopped by the pain in my sides. 

“Okay well, the offer still stands, you’re just gonna have to come over here,”

Taglist:

@tomdiddlyumptious

[bubbyleh]

magic for monsters

Darnold is woken up by a rapid knocking on his bedroom door, loud and almost as intrusive as someone barging in. Glancing over at the clock on his bedside table, he groans when he notices that it’s almost three in the morning.

Shoving Tommy’s arm off him and wiggling out from under Sunkist (those two are incredibly heavy sleepers), Darnold slips out of bed and trudges towards the door. The knocking persists up until he swings it open.

Forzen stands in the hallway, arms raised and halted in the middle of yet another deafening knock.

“What do you want?” Darnold asks, glaring at Forzen with all the force a witch with extremely scary eyes can muster.

On an unrelated note, Forzen suddenly looks like a deer caught in the headlights. He sheepishly hides his outstretched arm behind his back before speaking.

“Um. Humidity’s broken.”

It takes a few seconds for Darnold’s brain to grab hold of what Forzen’s saying. “I fixed those enchantments for you last week. It should be fine in there for another year.”

“It’s a bit dry,” Forzen counters. “Fix it please.”

Darnold sighs, mentally resisting the urge to slam the door on his cryptmate. He claps his hands together, pointing them towards his visitor. “Forzen. The enchantments are meant to replicate swamp-like conditions in your room,” he explains. “If they were broken, you’d see your pools and mud disappearing. As it stands, sometimes swamps get a little bit dry as humidity fluctuates.”

Forzen scratches at his scaled face. “Okay. Fix it?”

“I’ll adjust the humidity in the morning.” Darnold begins closing the door on Forzen. “Go. Back. To sleep.”

“No wait.” Forzen tries to shove his hand through the door, but only succeeds in getting it slammed between the doorjamb. He shouts in pain, bringing his arm back in an instant.

Darnold can hear angry French on the other side of the door, but he can’t really bring himself to care. He casts a quick silencing charm on the door before sliding back into bed with his boyfriend and their dog. Even while he’s asleep, Tommy almost immediately drapes an arm around Darnold. He lets himself drift back off to sleep, content in the fact that Forzen is probably still out there, yelling his fishy heart out.

†††

While Forzen is annoying, Darnold keeps his word and adjusts the humidity settings in his room. He does wait until after his nice and healthy breakfast, though, because Forzen deserves to wait just a little bit longer.

But finally, Darnold gets to hole himself up in his lab. He has a very special project that he’s been working on for everyone, and he’s pretty sure he’ll be able to make some headway on it today!

So, with the key he keeps on him at all times, Darnold unlocks the top drawer of his desk. Inside are several pieces of paper and six charms—each of which could easily be kept on someone’s person as a necklace, or even inside a pocket. They’re all color coded, too, so it’s easy to keep track of them.

Darnold pulls out two charms, the orange and cyan ones, with a sigh. They’re honestly going to be the simplest, with only a few damage immunity enchantments on top of the main one. To be brutally honest, Gordon and Bubby both fall apart in very low stress conditions. Seriously, a breeze could tear them apart. And in order for these to work, it’s imperative that they stay together for the most part.

Because these just aren’t some fun trinkets Darnold’s planning on giving his friends. No, if they were that simple, he wouldn’t need to keep them in a locked drawer, away from prying eyes. These are Illusion Charms, meaning, if all goes according to plan, the rest of the crypt will be able to face human society, just like he and Tommy do!

The fact that giving them access to illusions means Darnold won’t have to do their grocery shopping anymore is only a bonus.

But boy, are these charms complicated. Darnold’s going to have to wrangle sun resistance into Coomer’s, as well as work on tangibility for Joshua. And also getting Benrey a head? He’s still not sure how he’s going to work around Forzen being a fish, and therefore needing to breathe water. He’s got time to figure it out, though; he’s expecting some books from an acquaintance within the week that should help.

BANG!!!!

Darnold’s fiddling with the charms is interrupted by a deafening explosion somewhere in the crypt, followed by loud shouts.

“OH FUCK I’M ON FIRE!”

“GUYS I CAN’T FIND MY ARM!!”

“NO! MY COOKIES!”

Darnold smells smoke. In an instant, he slams the drawer shut and grabs a Fire Extinguishing Potion, sprinting out of the lab and towards the kitchen.

†††

Darnold’s not entirely sure how you can fuck up cookies so bad that you explode the entire kitchen. It’s not that hard, he’s been baking treats of all kinds since he was a kid! Pastries are an important part of

any

witch’s arsenal, and he knows for a fact that nothing inside of one can be considered dangerous!

But Darnold’s a little too tired to lecture his cryptmates about proper cookie-making procedures. Currently, he’s hunched over his main lab table, trying to figure out how to unburn the various undead body parts he’s been presented with. Bubby and Coomer are napping on a bench on the far side of the room, and Darnold is so grateful it’s past their bedtime because he honestly couldn’t deal with their shit right now on top of everything else.

Everything else is, partly, attempting to solve the problem in front of him. But it’s also Gordon and Joshua who, in light of Gordon removing his scorched arm for Darnold to deal with, have taken to messing with Benrey. Which is made easier by the fact that Benrey lost their head in the explosion.

Joshua tugs on Benrey’s shirt from behind. In an exaggerated motion, likely accounting for the fact that they’re missing four of their senses right now, Benrey turns around and attempts to scoop Joshua up. They miss, seeing as Joshua has already retreated out of their reach, giggling the entire time. Gordon, meanwhile, is trying to herd Benrey over to one of Darnold’s stepping stools so they can trip over it.

Darnold wishes Tommy were here, but sadly, Tommy had to go to the store and get Benrey a new pumpkin.

Muttering to himself, Darnold begins retrieving the ingredients for a Restoration Potion. Not technically a healing potion, so it shouldn’t accidentally bring his collection of dead limbs back to life. Theoretically, it should just get rid of the burn marks, maybe even a few of the scars Gordon and Bubby have accumulated over the years.

It’s easy to slip into Potion Mode™, to the point that Darnold barely notices Tommy’s return as he’s brewing, mixing, pretty much everything you do when making a potion. At the end of it all, he splashes the Restoration Potion across the limbs, and while the burn marks clear away, they retain their sickly dead colorations.

Perfect.

“Gordon, test this out,” Darnold tosses Gordon’s arm back towards him. He interrupts a heated debate about how Benrey’s new face should look between Gordon, Tommy, and Joshua, but that’s probably for the better.

Gordon catches his arm, quickly reattaching it to the rest of his body. He gives it a few test movements, then gives Darnold a huge thumbs up, relief apparent on his face.

“Great,” Darnold remarks. “Now I’m kicking you guys out. Take the old guys and Bubby’s legs and leave.”

Bubby, Coomer, and Benrey are all dragged out of Darnold’s lab for varying reasons (Bubby’s leglessness, Coomer’s sleepiness, and Benrey’s headlessness), Tommy offering his boyfriend a kiss as he heads out. Joshua pauses, though, eyes on Darnold’s desk as if noticing it for the first time.

Darnold realizes the top drawer is slightly ajar.

Shit.

“Oooh!” Joshua squeals. “Uncle Darnold, what’s in your desk?”

“Nothing!” Darnold slams the drawer once again, pulling out the key and making sure he locks it. “Mind your business, Joshua.”

With a frown, Joshua sulks out of Darnold’s lab.

Darnold looks at the clock on his wall. It’s barely the afternoon, but already, he feels spent. With a sigh, Darnold decides to abandon his lab today. Shutting the lights off, he resolves to go find Sunkist and snuggle with her somewhere, because honestly, she and Tommy are the only ones not disappointing him today.

[twilightknight17]

Goodbyes! Endings! Fish! Yelling!

This ending wraps up better than the original, but still leaves some things.

There is so much in this game that one loop is absolutely not enough to see and do it all.

Where last we left our intrepid idiot, he was buying flowers for his White Day dinner date.

Surely I will be allowed to leave the mall and sell my stuff and visit the Velvet Room. After all, what if I spent every last yen on items to use against the final boss? I would have no money for flowers!

But no. I am imprisoned in the mall and Morgana somehow pays for the flowers. Hanasaki has no comment on this except to wish me luck on my date. Wow.

Sojiro, who the heck do you know that your name got us a table at a fully booked formal restaurant??

Okay so this isn’t the Skytree restaurant, but SOJIRO??

....yep. That’s me. Even when someone else’s wishes mean destroying my heart. Probably hypocritical to say that while I’m on a date, though.

So it feels like there’s more people you can talk to on the last walkaround. Not just your confidants, but random people in the street, and other named characters. Mika’s at Seaside Park, Takakura, from Haru’s social link, is in Kichijoji, Dietman Matsushita is in the Scramble, the little girl from Takemi’s social link is in Yongen with her dad...

.......you’re so poetic, Yusuke. That’s lovely.

Finally, an ad perfectly tailored to me.

Maruki’s friend is in Kichijoji, and wants to know if we’ve heard from him. We have not. We are not friends. But apparently he’s still alive, which... hm.

I’m tired of his crazy stuff, sir. I just want to see my friends and go on a roadtrip in peace, thank you.

I’d never noticed before that Morgana’s eyes glow if you use third eye.

.......

So if you go to the jazz bar, you can basically have the conversation with the manager from Proof of Justice.

He’s surprised when Akira says he doesn’t know, because he never saw Goro with anyone else. He’s also worried, because he hasn’t seen Goro in a while, and wants Akira to tell him to stop by. Akira is briefly melancholy, thinking to himself, “But Akechi is already...” But then he finds Goro’s glove, still safely in his pocket, and reminds himself that their fight isn’t over yet. The jazz manager says he’s looking forward to seeing you both come in together again.

It is, Morgana! I really want this sofa. This is my sofa. It was made for me; just look at it!

ARSENE. IF YOU CAN HEAR ME, I’M SORRY FOR FORGETTING YOU IN LOCKDOWN. IT WOULD TAKE TEN HOURS TO REVERT TO A PRIOR SAVE AND COME BACK. LAVENZA GAVE ME A KEY AS A GIFT BUT WON’T LET ME IN. IT’S NOT MY FAULT.

....is this why Ryoji’s Arcana is Fortune? XD

So you can talk to a random idol singer from a Mementos mission in Akihabara and

what the fuck is this. what bonus does this give me?

Sumire is not present for the final walkaround, which is...weird. No relationship trinket? That’s disappointing. Especially considering I got a gift from some random idol.

And now it’s time for the ending. The kids are worried about being watched/pursued by the suspicious black car, which honestly, I’ve had enough suspicious black cars in relation to Persona to know that whoever this is, is not good news, police or not. ;)

But instead of sabotaging their car, don’t worry, a taxi is here to take Akira to the train station while his friends distract the men in black!

......did you dye your hair??

Anyway Akira has no sense of self-preservation because here he goes getting in a car alone with this guy.

We are not friends. I am not fistbumping you.

He does drop Akira off safely. Akira’s friends swing by for one last speedy goodbye and then are off again on a merry chase, and Akira goes home alone except for Morgana, which I have...several feelings about. The game goes out of its way to demonstrate that Goro is still alive even if Akira misses seeing him, because the whole world is based on what each person sees and feels, and Akira fucking feels in his heart that Goro is still alive and will come back to him one day.

Time to open up the other save and burn two weeks to see the Palace failure condition!

...I still sort of want to do this over and rescue Arsene. It’s not like I have much else to do these days. I just want my unholy powerhouse Arsene for NG+...

Heck.

Anyway, I’ve also learned that having two weeks to burn with no other responsibilities is great for grinding stuff for the awards. I spent like a week straight at the fishing pond and have become a Fishing God. Did you know that there’s an even bigger fish than the Guardian? Fishing pond guy was like, “In this weather, you might see...him.”

Look at this ridiculous fucking fish. XDDDD

I also went to the batting cages and I still suck at batting, but I made it eventually. The home run award is terrifying.

Okay, still a few days left, lets go play billiards, since I never went and did that during the game. I guess I’ll pick up this billiards book this guy recommends, too. I dunno why I need to be better at billiards, though, it just gives everybody social link poi--

....what the fuck is this??? This only unlocks after you read the book? You can guarantee a knockdown if you have max technical rank?? You need at least four days, 2 books, and a really expensive pool cue for this??? Akechi’s only response to you pulling off some ridiculous curved shot is, “That was pretty good”???? I made it through the whole game thinking billiards was just some way to increase everyone’s social link at once????? Aaaaaaaah??????

Morgana gets very upset the closer you get to the deadline. “We HAVE to go to the Palace tomorrow!” Okay, but have you considered...going to the temple for meditation?

...oops. He’s already mad. X’D Meditation?

Now, now, honey, don’t worry, we can technically still go tomorrow afternoon and just send the calling card when we get back. It’s fine. Today I’m gonna hang out with Shinya. Everything is under control.

....Akira, NO.

Anyway, for all of Goro’s grumpiness, he doesn’t turn down an invitation to the jazz club. Hey, it’s only fair, darling, you took me out for drinks the night before the interrogation room.

It’s only right that I return the favor the night before I betray you in return.

You showed me this place, dingus. XD

...I am. Sorry, Goro.

Akira goes to sleep the evening of 2/2 wondering if he made the right decision. That’s the problem, ‘Kira, you didn’t make a decision at all.

“I wanted you to accept my reality of your own free will.”

DON’T LIKE THAT.

Lavenza trying to reach him and just...fading away is painful.

I will say without hesitation that this is the worst ending. To copy-paste what I said elsewhere:

Akira's sleeping in the attic. Presumably for months, given the cobwebs. Where are his friends? Fallen back into their own dreams? Did they just give in without him, forget about him, never wonder where he went, because they have what they wanted? And Goro didn't even have a dream, so he's presumably left alone in a world that he can't stand but can't do anything about because it's permanent now. Maruki can't even give him Akira, because Akira's asleep, and Goro probably feels betrayed anyway. Akira's going to sleep forever, forgotten by everyone who was supposed to care about him. Even if he regrets choosing the dream world in that ending, at least he's there.

I think what's throwing me off is Maruki's absolute insistence on not changing Akira and Goro's cognition without their consent. Putting Akira to sleep feels like a loophole, but if he really believes that Goro is just a creation of his power, maybe Akira's consent is the only one that actually matters to him.

He's only ever really concerned with asking Akira. He even says on 2/2 that he knows Goro's not going to be fazed by the idea of his life being in danger. But if Akira agrees to stay in the fake reality, Goro's happy along with the rest of them, even though there's no way he agreed with Akira's decision. Maybe Maruki's willing to alter Goro to match Akira's wishes because he thinks he's not the real one. As long as Akira wants the real Goro, he doesn't have to worry about being overwritten. But if Akira's sleeping...

Maruki’s so kind, isn’t he?

The true ending feels so much more like it would lead into Scramble than vanilla. Still being chased by the police? Yeah. Everyone splitting up and therefore being out of touch for months? Yep. Seeing Joker in the window? Meta-space is still there and ready to warp into a Jail at the slightest nudge. I don’t understand Atlus’s writing decisions.

That whole thing with Goro does mean they owe us an actual sequel. The game literally says their fight isn’t over.

Beating the game means everyone is in the Thieves Den now, so we get some lovely interactions like Sojiro contemplating the Mona copter, and Makoto warning Ann not to tell Goro that she thinks Loki looks like a zebra.

Also that idol CD is some kind of ridiculous bubblegum idol pop song on my music player now. For one coin. Oh my god.

So... I guess the last thing I want to mention is Maruki. Because he’s a great character. I want to punch him more than I got to. But, and I’ve talked about this with a friend, I cannot wrap my head around how powerful he is. Takuto Maruki is a human being with a persona, just like the Thieves, and there is no explanation for how he got that strong. Yes, his persona is an elder god that evolves into some kind of creation deity, but it’s still just his persona. It’s not like Nyarlathotep acting as someone’s persona while still being a separate, ridiculously powerful entity. There’s no indication here that Azathoth or Adam are independent from their user. So I’m expected to believe that this man awoke to his persona and was able to use a power on-par with the God of Control...just from himself? No deity or monster backing him up? Really? I know he made a career studying cognitive psience, but this is...a little much. Having Nyar around would have cleared that up just from his general presence. XD

Anyway, I loved it. I loved absolutely all of it even if Okumura’s boss fight was a bitch. I think I’ve unfortunately made the decision to go back for Arsene, so I’m definitely going to play NG+ after I take a break to play something else first.

There’s three bonus bosses and the Reaper left to fight, after all. ;)

[shadowofthelamp]

I Think We Might Be Related

Summary: Johnny gets a call from a kid who claims he might be his nephew. He decides to see for himself.

(Rated teen just for a few brief gore mentions and language, pretty in line with the comics)

Based off my theory that Membrane is either Johnny C’s brother or that Johnny’s plasma donation was used to help stabilize and differentiate the Dib clone.

Wordcount: 2600

Read on ao3

Reblogs/replies/tags/likes are all super appreciated, I love hearing what people think!

The phone rang. In most houses, that’s not a very unusual occurrence. Number 777 was not most houses.

The owner of 777, (or rather, the occupant- if there was a landlord, they’d either been dismembered or made otherwise defunct a long time ago) was currently laid out on the couch, watching an old-timey show about cowboys when the loud ring rattled his eardrums. He sat up, long limbs running into each other like spaghetti in a pot before his hand curled around the phone and he picked it up.

“Hello?”

“Hi, are you…” There was a shuffling of papers. “Johnny C?” The voice sounded young.

“Is this the library- did you get my submission? Your voice is high-pitched, are you an intern? Selling your hours and youth for no pay is only killing your soul on the inside, you know. Although the library does provide the public with comic books, so I guess-”

“No, I’m not with the library. I live a little further in the city, and… I think we might be related? You might be my uncle, or something like that.” The kid’s voice quirked up the same way Johnny’s heart started doing a kickline with his lungs.

“You think?” Uncle. Uncle implied a sister or a brother. A family. He couldn't remember the last time he'd thought of family, other than turning around the soaked marshmellow of his brain that revealed jackshit about who he was.

“Yeah, it’s a… really long story, but the short version is that I was rummaging around with my DNA, and your name was one of the few on file. The others were all dead ends.”

“In your DNA?” Okay, this kid was definitely fucking with him. Served him right for even thinking about hoping for a clue. “Right, and I’m the muffin man, running off and leaving his kids in a place called dreary lane. Seriously, who does that?”

“I promise this isn’t a prank, don’t hang up! Are you still living in 684 South?”

“No.” Was that his old address? It sparked recognition that then died smoking like a match in a tray of water. It was probably a good sign, though, unless this kid was a stalker.  “777 Offmain.”

“Okay. Can I… meet you at some point? I just want to get to know you. As a person. Like me. Okay, wow, this is coming out weird. I promise I’m not an axe-murderer.”

At that, Johnny cracked up. He ruffled a hand through his hair- he liked how the longer spikes flopped over his eyes. Sometimes. Sometimes he wanted to hack it all off, not feel the grease and salt the congealed when he didn’t move long enough that his body made itself disgusting again, but then he just stuck a beanie on it and forgot all about it until the urge passed. He’d cut part of it off once and it had just sat in the kitchen for a… week? Time was funny.

“Well, we can’t both be, can we?”

“I’ll... man, my self-preservation instincts have really started going down the toilet since I started following an alien with an arsenal strapped to his back, but can I stop by tomorrow at around three?”

“Happy Friends is on at three. Make it four.”

“Alright! Sounds good. Gosh, this is exciting, I’ve never met any real family besides Dad- okay, that was oversharing. Oversharing’s bad, especially to strangers.”

“If we’re family, we’re not strangers.” Johnny’s grip on the phone tightened, and he could see the tendons and veins on the back. Hmm. Maybe he could pick up sculpting, see if he was ever any good at that. The human body was properly horrifying in mere existence.

“See you then- should I call you Johnny or what?”

“Johnny is fine for now, but if we really are related, I’ll go with Nny. So, how are we related anyways?”

“I’m not sure. I’m hoping it’ll click when we meet.”

“So, what’s your name, anyways?”

“Dib.” And with that, the line went dead and Johnny went to see if he could make anything good enough to hang up on the wall out of fingerpaints.

If his leg bounced and his chest felt vise-like, he blamed the coffee patches and the 30 hours of no sleep.

______________

Dib knocked on the door at 4:10. Johnny pulled it open, staring down at him.

“Geez, you got a water balloon pumped up inside your head or something?” He had really big glasses, the kind that said when he didn’t have them on he probably couldn’t see half a foot in front of his face without tripping over something. His skin was the same shade as Johnny’s, he was pretty sure, but he had some faint freckles. Duh, he was a kid, he probably had to go outside to go to school and stuff.

“Well, that could have been a better start.” The kid had a briefcase- what kind of kid had a briefcase? No kid that should have existed, kids should be dragging around teddy bears like Squee or grimy dolls filled with teething marks. Oh wait, he was holding out his non-briefcase hand. “I’m Dib. I’d say it’s nice to meet you but now I’m not so sure about that.” He craned his head. “Oh, wow. Your house is a mess but I’ve been in our living room when Gaz is on one of her marathons and this is only moderate compared to that. Did you try and paint your own walls?”

“Gaz? That’s a fun name. Who's she?”

“My- you know what? I’m not volunteering any more information until I get a little more on you besides your name and height. Looks like weight changed. Wow, you’re a stick.” Dib rummaged around in his pocket, pulling out a wrapper with a big grinning mascot on it and handing it to Johnny. It was a chocolate protein bar. “You can have that one, I’ve got dozens.”

Johnny tore open the wrapper, stuffing half of it in his mouth. Damn, it was good, actually. Who would want a protein bar that tasted like sawdust when you could make it sweet? “So, is there any magical connection? I like the coat, though.”

Dib beamed. “Really? Everyone says it’s too much, but I say that there’s nothing like twirling around in a good coat and feeling the wind snap on the fabric when you run.”

“Oh, that is a good feeling. One of the best. Shame I can never keep mine, they always end up tossed to the void whenever something happens or I get particularly dramatic. It always feels excellent in the moment, but then you’re left with cold shoulders and regret for the strawberry grandma candy you left behind in the back pocket.”

“You know, I think I see the resemblance.” Dib said. “I’ve got your cheekbones, and nose. Maybe you’re my uncle? Do you know Professor Membrane?”

“That guy on tv? He’s kind of fun.” Johnny watched it when it was on sometimes.

“That’s my dad. I take it he’s not your brother if that was your reaction, though.”

“Dab-”

“Dib.”

“Dib. My head’s been shot to shit, both literally and figuratively. There’s scars on the back I don’t remember getting there. I had some serious garbage claw me up, and I wouldn’t be able to tell a brother from the easter bunny unless it slapped some chocolate eggs up my ass.” He ripped another portion of the bar off with his teeth.

Dib sagged a little. “Oh… Dad’s always been really tight-lipped about any other family. I hoped-”

Johnny swallowed the chunk of chocolate protein bar. “Look, I haven’t got the answers for any existential crisis you may be having. I’ve been through quite a few of my own, if we’re being honest. But I have some chips that are going stale and a TV that has colors that make your eyes bleed that tickles pretty feelings up your skull. I also haven’t left the house in five days. If you have anything interesting to say, we can talk about it over some cartoons.”

Dib perked up again at that. “You… want to listen to me?”

“Depends on what you’ve got to say.” Johnny raised an eyebrow. “You’ve got a mouth on you, that’s for sure.”

“Oh, I’ve got loads! I love the paranormal, and some parts of math but not all of them, and also no one ever listens to me about the alien that goes to my school-”

“Alien? I’m curious, tell me more.”

Dib made a squeaking noise so strange Johnny wasn’t sure he hadn’t just had his organs spontaneously combust.  “Hey? Kid? Kid, I don’t wanna clean up another corpse already, I’m running out of trash bags.”

“You really- wait, another one?”

Johnny grabbed the knife in his belt- he’d nicked himself with it a dozen times but it was nice and convenient and he liked that. “Just a joke. I mean, kids like jokes, right? How old are you, nine?”

“I’m twelve!” Dib tugged at the bottom of his shirt. “Anyways, so there’s this alien named Zim, he is the biggest pain in my butt, and I don’t know if you remember when gravity stopped working for a bit a couple of weeks ago and everything started freaking out and going screwy, but that was him-”

“Oh, huh. I was wondering why I made footprints on the ceiling. I figured the squirrels did it.” Johnny said. “Do I have to worry about him destroying the world? Because I’m pretty sure earth is the only planet with slushie machines and it would be just criminal if the universe lost those. Shame you have to deal with people to use them, but everything has a price.”

“Apparently, aliens have slushie machines too, I’ve asked.” Dib said. “Well, I stole a couple of Zim’s files, and he orders alien versions of them with his shipments of food. But that’s not what matters, he’s trying to take over the- wait, you actually believe me?”

Geez, kid, slushies always mattered. “Sure. I got abducted on a Tuesday once. Stuck a couple of needles in me, but tossed me back down hard enough to fuck up my spine when I managed to eviscerate one. Wish I’d brought a camera, those guts looked delightful- and it was so clean! No blood, they had robot insides!”

Dib took half a step back. “Uh-”

“And it was blue, can you believe that? Like one of those crabs! The horsey ones- hey, maybe those were aliens too.”

Dib blinked, shaking his head. “Yeah, maybe. A friend of mine has a theory like that anyways. So… what do you do?”

Johnny stared at him. “Whatever I want. I go to the movies, I eat stuff, I kill people.”

Dib’s mouth twitched before he started laughing. “Pffft, you’ve got such a straight face!”

“Just so you know, if you hear any screaming, don’t worry, they’re all restrained.”

“Right, right.” Dib settled down on the couch. “Oh, nice, this is surprisingly comfortable.”

Johnny settled down next to him. He knew how to talk to Squee- poor kid barely said a word most of the time. He really needed to help him be more confident. Maybe he could get him a hampster. Pets made people more responsible, right?

Then again, Nailbunny hanging on the wall said otherwise. Although that could just be him.

But this Dib kid, he didn’t really seem at all phased. Which was weird- weren’t you supposed to be nervous around strangers? Especially ones that had houses like his, with blood splattered on the walls and a noose tucked in the corner. Maybe that big head’s meaty brain was stuffed with stuff from the aliens instead of common sense, or just figured that the new weird skinny guy was just joking. Squee had first seen him with blood splattered all over. He hugged his legs to his chest, watching the kid pull out a laptop that looked real fancy. Maybe he was rich. Oh, right, if his dad was on tv he probably was.

“Anyway this is Zim- and this is a couple sketches I’ve made of him without his disguise. I’ve seen it, but the pictures keep getting destroyed because the universe really hates me.”

“We’re in the same boat, then.” Johnny said. “If there is anything looking over the Earth, it always picks a couple people to just dump dookie on, just for shits and giggles. It’s a pain in the ass, let me tell you.”

“Yeah, it is.” Dib mumbled. “This is his little robot in a dog costume.”

“That’s kind of cute, actually.”

“Yeah, not so much when he’s also got lasers attached to him.” Dib said. “He’s not as bad a Zim, though, mostly he’s just kind of dumb.”

Dib started rambling on about routines and habits and skin texture, and Johnny kind of checked out, preferring to run his eyes over Dib’s face. He was little, for a twelve year old- but then again, it wasn’t like Johnny spent a lot of time around twelve year olds. Or anyone. Dib's glasses slid down and he adjusted them twice in a few minutes without a pause. Listening to him was almost like putting on the radio in the background to distract from the car crashes outside and the nothingless and everythingness of being a human being. His voice was kind of whiny, but the crescendos in it with the tides of how emotional he got were almost like music.

“And then he started raving about how cloning is far superior to filthy human breeding, and that’s when I started getting curious about checking out the rest of my family.” Dib was breathing hard. He had a look on his face like he wasn’t used to being allowed to talk for that long. Frankly, Johnny agreed with the alien kid that the way people reproduced was utterly repulsive, but they’d come back around to why he’d let Dib in in the first place.

“Well, verdict?”

“Huh?”

Johnny held out his arms, one leg slipping off the couch while the other loosened so his heel rested on the edge of the couch cushion and his toe pointed up at the ceiling. “On me.”

“Well. You’re kind of weird, but I guess my whole family is like that.” Dib said. “And you actually do listen to me, which is a really nice change of pace.”

“It can get boring around here, and you’re not nearly as irritating as some other people can be. At least you ramble on about fun stuff.” Johnny shrugged just as there was a shriek from the stairs. Dib’s head whipped around.

“What was that?”

“A ghost, probably. Or I need to add more electricity to the guy from the church picnic...”

Dib set a hand on his forehead. “Yeah… yeah, probably.” He patted at his pocket, then seemed satisfied by whatever was inside. “Want me to exorcise it for you?”

“Nah, I’ve gotten used to it.”

“Alright, suit yourself but the offer is open.” Dib said. “You said you had TV?”

Johnny grabbed the remote. “What kind of idiot wouldn’t?”

Dib left about an hour later after laughing at the hokey acting on some soap opera, and Johnny realized he was in good enough of a mood that he whistled over the begging when he he slid his favorite knife through a man’s chest cavity and carved him open, collecting the viscera in a bucket.

He’d give the wall monster some organ meat to go with the coating, he decided. Give it a treat. And maybe he’d invite Dib over again sometime.

[midnightlie]

prompt: “want to make out?” pairing: keith/lance notes: soft klance for days, yo. 

*

Keith is sitting there in the stove top light, going over the assignments for tomorrow, as any good team leader would, when he hears the soft scuffle of boots in the hall, quickly approaching. He sets his half-gone mug of coffee back down on the counter top and lifts his eyes from the tablet screen in front of him to look at the dark doorway. 

Lance swings into view, looking far too bright-eyed for the late hour. He’s half-dressed; his uniform jacket hangs open in the front, the sleek, black turtleneck underneath clinging to him like a second skin, his hands shoved deep into his pockets. His hair looks as though he’s done nothing but run his hands through it for hours and the yellow light from the stove falls across half of his face, turning his skin the color of warm butterscotch.

“So you are alive,” Keith says, his voice rough from hours of disuse.

Lance beams at him, pausing in the doorway. The look on his face tells him that he hadn’t expected to find company here. It also tells him that he’s glad he has. “Can’t get rid of me that easily, Kogane. Did ya miss me?”

He always misses Lance when they’re not together, but he still doesn’t know how to say that out loud. “You should eat,” he says instead, peeling his eyes away to focus back on the tablet.

“You read my mind. I am starving,” Lance admits and there’s the flicker of his shadow as he crosses in front of the light towards the cupboards on the other side of the kitchen. “I bet Hunk made something really delicious. Aw man, you should have woken me up.”

Keith grabs his coffee without looking up and takes a sip. “There’s a plate for you in the fridge,” he says simply.

The sound of Lance’s footsteps come to a stop and then change directions towards him. He glances up just in time to see Lance place one hand on the counter and then lean in, his lips brushing against the hair at Keith’s temple. “Thank you,” he murmurs, and Keith can feel warmth, all velvet and smooth and candlelight soft, rising in his chest. Lance pulls back and looks down at him with tenderness that Keith will spend his whole life making sure he deserves.

“You worked hard today; you earned that nap,” Keith tells him, running his thumb absently along the edge of his mug.

Lance rolls his eyes, but his smile is unwavering and so fond that it makes Keith’s chest hurt. “So did everyone else. You’re not giving little ol’ me special treatment just because I’m your boyfriend, are you, team leader?”

“No.” And it’s true, really, that Lance both deserved the nap and that he worked hard today. Keith doesn’t think that qualifies as special treatment at all.

Lance scoffs, the tease evident in his expression. “Then why do I even bother?”

Keith smirks, because there are about 10 different things in his arsenal that would make Lance eat those words, but looks he back at his tablet and takes another sip of coffee. “Eat, Lance.”

Lance pats his shoulder as he moves towards the fridge. “Fine, fine. What are you still doing up, anyway?”

“Going over our assignments for tomorrow. The Garrison has been breathing down Shiro’s neck about crap military standards, or something, so I figure it makes him look good if we’re prepared.” He flicks his wrist for a new page and continues to read.

“Really? You should have told me.” Lance makes so much noise pulling the plate out of the fridge and putting it in the microwave it’s a wonder that anyone in the compound is still asleep. Keith finds himself smiling about it, shaking his head slightly, thinking that he must be weird if even Lance’s inability to be quiet at midnight is endearing.

“It’s not a big deal. Don’t worry about it,” Keith says.

“Can you at least let me read, too?”

“If you want to.”

“Oh, you know I want to.” Keith doesn’t have to turn around to know that Lance is probably waggling his eyebrows or making some other exaggerated expression. Instead, he pulls out the stool beside him and gives it a pat, looking up at nothing in particular as he waits for Lance’s food to finish re-heating.

They sit in silence for a good fifteen minutes. Lance eats quickly beside him and Keith holds his hand under the table, their intertwined fingers resting on top of Keith’s thigh. His thumb rubs idle patterns against Lance’s skin, slow and lazy, their attention on the tablet as they finish reading through Shiro’s instructions together.

“So...Keith.”

“Hmm?” Keith turns off the tablet and looks over at Lance, who is leaning on the counter with his elbow, his cheek propped up in his free hand. He’s giving Keith an overly innocent look, all wide eyes and lifted eyebrows. The stove light turns him into a pretty silhouette, soft and warm around the edges, and Keith is helpless to the urge that has him bringing the back of Lance’s captive hand to his mouth and pressing a kiss there.

“I’m not tired,” Lance says. “Obviously. I just napped for, like, six hours.”

“Mm.” Keith drops their hands back to his lap, but there is heat in the pit of his stomach that asks for more.

“And judging by the amount of caffeine I know you just inhaled, you’re not tired either.”

“I guess not.”

“I think we should reward ourselves for doing our homework.”

Lance really isn’t subtle at all and Keith still hasn’t figured out if that’s on purpose or not. “Of course,” he obliges.

“Sooo…” Lance moves his eyes in a wide loop before smiling boyishly at Keith. “Want to make out?”

“I thought you’d never ask.”

Lance laughs as Keith pulls him off the stool and towards the door, leaving both the dirty dishes and the tablet on the counter. “Where are we going?”

Keith looks over his shoulder at him as he drags Lance into the dark hallway. “To make out.”

Lance smothers his answering laughter into the palm of his free hand and Keith doesn’t let him go, quickly skirting through the empty hallways and passing the Garrison soldiers on night patrol without a single glance. The walk to Keith’s destination is taking longer than Lance apparently expected, because he starts complaining about five minutes later.

“Keith,” he moans dramatically, long and drawn out, “ugh, for real, where are we going? I wanna kiss you.”

Keith abruptly stops and drags Lance in close, claiming his mouth in one chaste kiss before pulling away, drawing on all the willpower he has not to crowd Lance up against the wall right here in the middle of a hallway. It’s too dark to see Lance’s expression as he faces forward again and continues walking, but he thinks that Lance is probably smiling that dopey smile he gets when Keith indulges him.

There are plenty of dark corners around here; Keith doesn’t have to take Lance all the way down here, to the education buildings. But he’s had this idea for a while now, and he knows that Lance will appreciate it, the same way that Lance appreciates pretty much any of Keith’s ideas. Especially when they involve sneaking around and kissing.

“Do you have a make out spot from the good old days I don’t know about?” Lance whispers as Keith leads him down the last hallway.

“No,” he replies quietly. “Do you?”

“I’m sorry, I’m not the one dragging us all the way down to the--” he stops short as Keith slowly opens the last door and pulls Lance in after him. “Oh my god, Keith.”

Keith finds himself grinning as Lance’s footsteps quicken beside him.

“Oh my god, Keith. Who even are you. These are the--these are the flying simulators.”

He pulls Lance right up to the door of one pod and punches in the keycode he might have asked Pidge to hack several days ago. Not expressly for make out purposes, but this is a gigantic perk. “We can’t fly it,” Keith explains, “but--”

The door slides open and the interior is glowing a warm, dim orange, the simulation screen pitch black. Before Keith can take another step, Lance sandwiches his face between his hands, squishing his cheeks, forcing Keith to look at him.

“You brought me all the way down to the flying simulators to make out?” Lance’s voice is highly questioning, like he’s trying to figure something very important out.

“Yes…?” The word is higher than usual at the end and he raises an eyebrow, trying to gauge Lance’s reaction in just the low light of the simulation room.

“I love you so much. How are you real.”

Keith grins again, his cheeks squishing even more under Lance’s hands, and then his palms are finding Lance’s narrow waist and pulling him in until he’s flush against the line of his body. The hands on his cheeks brush back through the ends of Keith’s hair, arms wrapping around his neck. He breathes out, a gentle little tremor, and leans in, and then they’re kissing.

He walks Lance backwards into the simulator and pauses only briefly to hit a button on the inside to close the door, his hand fumbling before it finds its mark.

Lance hums against his mouth happily, half a chuckle, and then sighs and Keith can feel the way he melts into him, the way Lance lays himself against Keith’s chest and holds on tight. Keith slides one hand up and under the back of Lance’s jacket, pressing his palm to the delicious hollow between his shoulder blades and relishing the sound of approval that purrs in Lance’s throat.

“Would this be considered ‘special treatment?’” Lance breathes out as Keith settles down into the pilot’s chair and pulls Lance onto his lap. He quickly slides the jacket off of Lance’s shoulders and kisses the line of his jaw as Lance’s fingers make quick work on the buttons on Keith’s jacket.

“Well,” Keith murmurs, his mouth moving slowly towards the corner of his jaw and then down along the elegant line of Lance’s neck, “you’re special to me.”

Lance sighs, tipping his head back as his hands wrench open the last of the jacket and then slide sensually down Keith’s chest. “I bet you say that to all of your make out boys,” he says, voice airy, teasing again.

“Just one.” Heat burns through Keith like a shot of hard liquor when he opens his mouth and is rewarded with a throaty sound, vibrating there against his tongue. He tugs at the hem of Lance’s shirt and inches his fingers underneath, slow enough to heighten the anticipation, but quick enough to ease his own desperation.

“Who--Who is he?” Lance demands indignantly, playfully, but it’s weak and breathless and it has Keith’s stomach sinking deeper in on itself.

“You don’t know him,” he says, working open-mouthed kisses back up to Lance’s cheek.

Lance laughs at that, almost too loud and Keith’s heart trips over itself again, falling the way it does whenever Lance exists in any proximity to him. And it seems impossible, that someone like Lance with his unending kindness and his selfless approach to love could want someone like Keith, who is still learning how to trust people to stay. His hands and mouth become a little more hurried, a little more wanting, gripping at the hot skin beneath his touch and murmuring silent confessions against bitten red lips.

Lance then cups Keith’s jaw, slowing him down, guiding him in for a more tender kiss. His voice is so gentle and unbearably fond that Keith can scarcely breathe. “Hey, darling, we got time.”

They do have time. And Keith makes every last second count.

[daryls-dixon-antoni]

Chapter 40.) Something They Need

“So what's your story?" Jesus asks me, as I brush down a horse for the people here.

"What do you mean?" I ask.

"I mean, I used to read your husband's books. He came to the dojo I used to attend once, I remember you being there. How did you get where you are now?"

I frown, it's been a while since I'd been recognized without having to inform someone who I was. "Tyler died... most of our kids died, and Daryl was here for me. Is here for me."

"I wasn't judging. I just was curious as to how you'd end up with someone so different to who you were with." I look up into his sincere eyes and sigh.

"Daryl and I grew up very similarly. Neither of us had the best childhoods... I was almost put into a group home... my older siblings and I tried to hide how bad home was, but my younger brother messed up one day, and we knew there was no way that we'd be placed together... there were 15 of us, and the adult siblings were in no place to legally be allowed to have us... I was fifteen at the time, so... I ran away from the group home that first night, and never looked back. After a while, Tyler's mom found me. Ty and I fell in love. But he never understood me... And when the world fell, I took care of him and the kids." I look away from Jesus.

"Daryl understands you, and you don't have to take care of him. That's why?"

I nod, "That and my son told me not to push him away."

Jesus smiles at me, "I grew up in a group home after my parents died. Made it hard to connect with people; friends, boyfriends..."

I smile back, "So you get it?" He nods.

"You on the rag yet?" Daryl asks me suddenly as we're laying under the stars. Tomorrow we go help set up the explosives with Jesus and our group from Alexandria.

I glance at him; my brow furrowed in annoyance, "No, why would you even ask that?"

"Should be due." He says, casually.

"Yeah, and why's that?" I snap, sure I would know whether my period should be due long before he'd ever know.

"You had the one after Hope, Hope's three months, you ain't had a period since."

I frown, he's right. "Stress can effect them," I respond, casually. I haven't dreamt of any babies, so there's no way I'm pregnant again. So the only logical explanation truly is stress.

He braces himself up with his left arm so he can look at me easier, "You ain't pregnant and not tellin' me again, are ya?"

I laugh softly, "No, Daryl. As far as I'm aware this ovens closed for business."

He grunts out a soft, "Good."

"You don't want anymore little Daryl's running around?" I tease.

"Nah, we got Mason and Hope. That's enough." I sit up and look at him, shocked. He'd never considered Mason as his own before. He sits up quickly as well, immediately reaching for his crossbow and looking around for any signs of danger as he asks me, "What? What is it?"

I shake my head, looking at him, "Nothing, Daryl. Nothings wrong. I'm just... you just basically counted Mason as your son..."

"We been together more than a year, I've known the kid since he was small." He shrugs, "Try helpin' you raise him when I can. S'pose he's kinda my kid by this point."

"Can I kiss you?" I ask, wanting nothing more than to throw my arms around him, but I respect his new aversion towards touch.

He leans forward and kisses me before pulling away much too soon. He starts digging in his pocket for a second before pulling out what appears to be a clumsily carved and sanded ring of wood . I watch him closely as he coughs awkwardly and then holds out the wooden ring, gruffly saying, "Jesus helped me make it. It's for you if you'd take it. Well take me more like. Don't wanna spend a damned day without ya, Woman."

I take the ring gingerly and place it on my ring finger before clarifying, "Did you just propose?"

He doesn't meet my eyes as he nods, "Made one for me, too. Figure there ain't no wedding shit here, but we could says we're married. Care 'bout y' enough to be. That's if you wanna be."

I smile brightly, "Of course I want to be your wife. I'd be crazy if I didn't."

He nods once before laying back down, his body almost relaxing even. I lay down next to him, and feel him pull me closer towards him so that I'm using his arm as a pillow. I debate for awhile whether to lay an arm around his waist, not wanting to push his comfort zone, and finally decide to continue letting him pick the pace of any physical affection.

"So he gave you the ring?" Jesus asks, as we leave the gates of Hilltop. I see Daryl roll his eyes out of the corner of my eye and I grin. "Yeah, he gave it to me last night."

"Congratulations."

"Thank you."

While we lay out the explosives Jesus says, "I should've tried harder to stop Rosita and Sasha. If they'd have just waited one more day-"

Daryl cuts him off, "Well, Sasha's a good shot, and Rosita knows how to take care of herself. Probably back at Hilltop right now. Least I hope so. We're gonna need 'em. There's a whole lot of people still got to die.

I shake my head, look him dead in the eye and respond, "Jesus, there isn't any point in dwelling on the maybes, they made their choice. They know the stakes. Whatever happens, it won't be on you."

"Thanks." I nod, giving Jesus a brief smile before going back to placing the explosives down. Jesus continues on but Daryl holds me back.

"Should I worry about Jesus?"

I look at him, "What?"

"You two seem close."

I can't help the laugh that escapes, he gives me an angry look so I hold up a hand, getting my giggles under control as I say, "I never thought I'd see the day where Daryl Dixon would be jealous."

"'m not jealous," he grunts.

"Of course not." I bite my lip to hold off the new round of giggles before I continue, "Jesus isn't into girls, Daryl. But you know what? Now that I think about it, you two have grown quite close; should I be worried?"

"Shut up," he grunts, giving me an exasperated look and I start laughing.

"Anne, we're trying to remain under the radar." Rick calls from his spot.

I nod, stifling my laughter and give him my most apologetic look.

"Dammit woman..." Daryl shakes his head, and then we both go back to work.

"Think we can try to give Tara more time?" Jesus asks, softly.

I shake my head, "Nope, it's go time." I nod to Rick and Daryl and I move towards where Tara said the arsenal is, I can hear the feet of Jesus and the others following closely behind. When we get there we see two women, one with short hair the other long. Michonne shoots at the ground near their feet from her spot in the trees.

When they stop, Daryl orders, "On the ground. Now."

"Hands up!" I shout, as the long haired woman quickly follows Daryl's request, and then my own.

When the short haired woman doesn't listen, I aim my gun at her head and repeat, "We said on the ground!"

"Please," Jesus adds, kindly.

I shoot a glare his way but the woman listens then, glaring at him enough for the both of us.

I step forward to tie up short hair, but Jesus takes my arm and shakes his head. I roll my eyes but move to the other woman, effectively tying her hands as Jesus takes care of short hair.

Daryl lowers his crossbow and gives Michonne the signal.

We move the women once their bound to join the rest, getting there only to hear, "We want this to go as simply and as peacefully as possible. All of you can make it that way."

Daryl moves ponytail towards the rest of her community, "Get down over there. Keep quiet."

Rick walks up behind us, "Now, we made a lot of noise. We want to wrap this up quick; so you can send people to redirect anything coming this way. Tara said your forests are relatively clear, so we won't take any chances. No one needs to get hurt. This is just about what you have, what we need."

"Nobody's taking anything!" We all hear the woman yell, and when I turn my heart drops, she has a gun pointed on Tara and looks like she'd shoot without regret. "You need to let everyone go and leave right now. Just walk away or this one dies."

"Yeah, we'll leave you alone." Rick agrees, "But we're taking your weapons with us. That's not gonna change. It's Natania, right? Put the gun down, and let's talk about what we can change."

"No. Leave right now."

I take Daryl's bandanna subtly, and then wave it to signal Michonne, only Tara and Daryl seem to notice.

He merely glance at me, but Tara yells, "Michonne, don't!"

"We just wanna be left alone." Natania says.

"Yeah, we'll leave you alone. Just let go of her. Now. Or we'll kill you. None of us want that."

"They want us to fight The Saviors." The girl who was with Natania and Tara yells to her community.

"We tried that. We lost. Too much." Natania seethes. "We're not gonna lose anymore; not our guns, not our safety. Not after everything we've done to get here."

"We're gonna win," Tara argues. "With your guns, with or without your help."

"Natania, put the gun down." Rick agrees.

"You kill me, and you die. And my people take the guns and nothing changes."

"Maybe we should try," short hair speaks up. Some of the women mutter amongst themselves, seeming in favor of our cause.

"Grandma, stop." The girl next to Natania says. "It's over. Just talk to them, okay?"

"It's not over! They've forgotten. You've all forgotten. Some of you actually want to fight them? After everything? We can lose our guns, but us leaving this place to fight? After everything? I have to remind you! Yes. I am gonna do this, and then I'm gonna die. But it's that important. This is your life, all of you. Remember what it looks like. Remember what they did to us! You need to see this. Open your eyes!"

"Rick!" Michonne calls from her place. "Walkers!"

I hear someone punch someone just as I've turned to look for the dead, however I quickly turn back to see Natania has been punched.

The dead are also coming, a lot of them.

"Everybody up! Get the children behind us! They're coming." Rick yells.

The community jump into action immediately.

"First shift, join them on the line." Short hair orders. "Knives out. Dead only. Dead only!"

I hear Rick instruct short hair, "Don't go anywhere." He then turns to the rest of our group, "Everyone, shots within 10 feet of the line. That's it."

I aim and wait, then he yells, "Now!"

The sound of gunfire fills the forest and I continuously shoot, aiming for the heads, I'm also shown how badass this community truly is, and I can't help but be impressed.

When it's finished, Natania says, "No. We're not fighting them with you. So take your damn guns and go." She walks away.

I'm helping Jesus and Tara load up the weapons, Carl and Enid are helping as well, but, most of our people are standing around, keeping watch.

"We're gonna bring them back when it's all over." Tara informs the curly haired woman who is Natania's granddaughter.

"I-I want to go with you," she responds. "Some of us do, but not all of us, and it has to be all of us. My grandmother thinks you'll all be dead."

"Yeah, well, your grandmother's wrong about a lot of things. Where is she?"

"She didn't want to see this. She's lying down. I hit her pretty hard."

"Thanks for saving my life before. And the other time. Oh, and then the other time." I look at Tara curiously as I pass by, but don't say anything. "Maybe today. Thanks."

"Hey. Thank you. For what you're doing."

A little girl follows behind Tara asking, "You're not leaving us any?"

"Nope." Tara puts her middle finger up, "See ya later, Rachel."

"Tara," I say, appalled. "That's a child!"

"She tried killing me!" Tara retorts.

"Well okay then..." I whisper.

As we keep walking Rick asks Tara, "You okay?"

"Yeah. You're right. I don't have to feel bad."

We make it to Hill Top and see Rosita running towards us, "Hey, are you okay?"

"Where's Sasha?" Jesus asks.

"There's someone here."

We follow her to the jail and when I see who's in it, I yell, "I'ma fucking kill you!" And almost in sync both Daryl and I go to attack Dwight.

Tara and Jesus hold me back as Rick and Michonne hold Daryl back.

"Let go!" I yell, "Jesus let me fucking go!"

"Get her out of here," Rick orders, and when I glance at them, I see Daryl has stopped.

Jesus picks me up and removes me from the jail as I yell, "I will find you! And I will fucking kill you, you son of a bitch!"

"Hey!" Jesus says, once we're outside and he puts me down and I immediately try to side step him, only for him to stop me once again.

"He tortured Daryl, Jesus. He deserves to die!"

[carrietrekkie]

Firelight - Part III: A planet the sun forgot.

I wish you all a lovely evening! Here comes part 3/4.

Warnings: Fear, some kind of torture, violence. At all, not the happiest part of this story.

Part 1: Fire and Ice.

Part 2: Let´s try Starfleet.

And if you don´t mind, leave me a little Feedback!

The next few hours, maybe even days, I didn´t really know, felt like something was trying to pull my thoughts out of my body, but my body did not give in and that made someone pretty angry. I was pretty sure I was aboard a shuttle, at least that told me the dull feeling in my stomach. Something rough hit me on my shoulder, pierced my brain and forced me to open my eyes. A throbbing pain shot through my jaw and made me moan. "Enough sleep sweetheart." "What the hell?" I grabbed my head to keep from falling, then sank back against a metallic wall. "Oh, get a little hard on yourself." Someone pushed into my field of vision. "Who are you?" I grimaced when I realized who my host was, it was the agent who had been with Leland, her name was Prescot or something. "I already told Leland everything I know and Cornwell.”

"Psst." She put a finger on my lips. Shocked, I broke off. "I know, and it was pretty poor." It was probably supposed to look cute when she slightly tilted her head and blinked at me. "Well, I decided, I take that in my tender hands." "Let me guess." It was burning on my lip, where her finger had been, so I fumbled around on it myself. My lower lip was torn open, that was it. "Leland doesn´t know about it." "Of course not." She smiled again her witch smile. "Leland is a wimp, ridiculously easy to control and has not had a long time to report." "Ah ha." I closed my eyes and moved my jaw slightly, it hurts too. Not as much as what she did next. "Shit, what's that?" I winced as she removed a hypospray from my neck.

"That will help you to remember." She looked at me. "Did you even listen? I can´t remember, the little bit I know came from coincidences and situations. Any attempt to access it, has been a complete flop. " "That's why we're trying this now." The agent lifted the hypospray. "We didn´t get that far with Spock, but I was very curious how that might work." I did not have time to analyze the implications of her words, and before my eyes everything began to turn, my brain seemed to defend itself against what she had given me, with everything it could find in its arsenal. Pain, pictures, every feeling that I had at some point collapsed on me and let me tip forward on the floor. I felt something paralyzing me, it even prevented me from closing my eyes, so all I could do was stare at the ceiling of the shuttle until Prescot leaned close to me.

"Mmh, the dose was probably too high." I saw her shrug a thousand times. "Anyway." Then she dropped to her knees in front of me. "So Cathrin, let's hear, how the hell did you get here?" "What?" I tried to fight the nausea down. "I don´t know that!" "Just don´t come up with the idea of claiming these strange signals are responsible for it." She pushed me back as I tried to straighten up. "Lie down!" I growled as I hit the ground again. "I wouldn´t like to ask again." "I don´t know!" The cold metal on my cheek was doing well. "Burnham has not figured it out yet." "Oh, she will." Prescot's smile looked like a snake's. That made me choke again. "But that takes me too long." She grabbed my braid and pulled me up. "Let's try something different." She pushed me away and I couldn´t catch myself, as my head unrestrained hit the ground, I had to throw up. With a groan I rolled onto my back, still unable to close my eyes or move in coordination. Gradually, I saw her walk past me, sit down in the cockpit of the shuttle and enter a course. No sooner had she entered her coordinator than an alarm rang.

"The Federation with its narrow-minded policies." She switched off the warning tone, then gave me a look that made me shudder down into my confused innermost. "I'm sure that will be a charming excursion." Then she activated the warp drive. "Could only be that it doesn´t go out well for everyone." The picture in front of my eyes blurred, but the last thing I saw, let all hope in me collapsed. The computer displayed our new course on the screen.

Talos IV.

"No, please don´t." I fought against the wave of unconsciousness that just moved over me. "Please..." Then I felt my body tension get lost, my head rolled over and my eyes closed.

*****

At some point I came back to myself, the drugs that she had given me were still burning in my bloodstream, their effect did not seem to end. My fear paralyzed me, the images in my head drove me to the brink of madness. I felt tears rolling down my face, they burned like fire on my skin. Any nerve phage that was not completely overloaded, seemed to consist only of pain. Cold crawled through my fingers, making them stiff and I was sure that would spread into my body soon. I winced as my numb fingertips hit something metallic. It had rounded edges, its surface both smooth and rough, traversed by lines or symbols, and above a curve were elevations. Eager to finally have found something that didn´t seem to come from the arsenal of Dante's Inferno, my brain plunged onto this piece of metal in my hand. Trembling, I stroked it, groped it and counted the small round sublimities.

One, two, three, four.

I exhaled slightly, closing my eyelids over my exhausted eyes. It was his badge, I still had it in my pocket, I closed my fingers tightly, holding it tight and crafting myself a mantra that would hopefully keep me sane. That's real, you can hold on to it while it's there, you have something that they can´t take you. That will protect you. He will protect you.

++++++++

"Can you hear me? What did you do with her? " "I tried to help her memory on the jumps." Two women argued together, one voice I knew, unfortunately, but the second?

"Stop looking at me so horrified, I know what your, let's call it hosts, do here." "It will be hard to help her." The other woman spoke again, but it sounded strange. "Her thoughts must first come to rest, her body must regenerate." "I don´t want you to help her, I want you to use her memories for me." "That's not how it works."

+++++++

I felt that I was lying on a comfortable surface, I was not covered, but I was not cold or otherwise uncomfortable. However, someone stopped me when I wanted to sit up.

"No, not." A few hands landed on my shoulders, pushing me back. "You really shouldn´t get up yet." That was the woman from earlier, she smiled mildly at me and then let go of me. "Who are you?" She was beautiful, but somehow scary. Blonde long hair fell over her shoulders and I guess that her dress was too short and her shoes were totally inappropriate for this environment.

"I'm Vina." She looked at me. "You are on Talos and safe for now." "Vina?" I squinted, why did I know that name? I didn´t say anything, the thoughts in my head still felt like they were being jumbled up in a washing machine.

"We will try to help you." "Do you read my thoughts?" "Not me." She stepped aside for a moment, I following her gaze and finding three weird figures standing at the end of the room. They had huge heads, a slight green cast and looked at me like I was a lab rat.

"Oh, yes, right." I closed my eyes again. "Talos, there was something." "It's one of the few memories that clearly exists in your mind right now." "Okay, that makes sense and that's the way it used to be." I just assumed they knew what was wrong with me or Prescot had told them. "Where?" "Here. Did you think you were going to get rid of me? " "It will probably still be allowed to hope." I pinched my thumb and forefinger against my nose root. "These headaches are killing me." I blinked hard. "We couldn´t help you, your body needs to break down the chemical first." Vina now put her hand behind my back and helped me sit up. "Slowly." Immediately, everything turned and I held onto her a little. "Phew okay." I put a hand on my stomach. "Maybe that was not the best idea." I made her understand that I wanted to lie down again and she also helped me. "Thank you." "You should try to gain something." "The last thing in there came out very effectively." Now Prescot was standing by my bedside. "Maybe it's better she leaves that." "A glass of water would be nice." I tried to ignore her and looked at Vina instead. "If it doesn´t mind."

She smiled, then almost floated away. Man, how I missed to wear high heels. I took the opportunity and glared at Prescot.

"Hey, what's your problem?" "My problem is you." She leaned against the couch and leaned over to me. "In your lovely head are a few things on which Starfleet is almost as keen as on Spock's, but while they would only read it and stow away somewhere, there is something more substantial in them." "I'm reluctant to bring bad news, but they don´t have it here with profit and trade." I took a breath. "Unless you hug the Ferengi, then you might be lucky." I raised my eyebrows. "Okay, that was new."

"Ah, see." She put her hand to my chin and turned me roughly in her direction. "You just have to drill long enough." "Long is the keyword." I tried to look at her as evil as possible. "It takes time, if I should remember." "Yes, maybe." She pointed in the direction in which just the Talosians have disappeared. "But they certainly have ways to speed things up." "They will not do that!" Vina was back, a vessel in her hand. "It's not their style. They read thoughts to learn so."

"So, if they don´t learn anything from her, then I don´t know." Prescot turned and walked towards the Talosians. "She´s from the past, from another time and reality." I felt bad again as she spokes on. "Supposedly she knows things, up to hundreds of years into the future. Wouldn´t it be tempting to see that? " "Here, then you feel better." Vina helped me put something on, then she held the bottle to my lips and I drank the liquid. Immediately I wanted to vomit again. "Try to keep it to yourself." I choked it down again and slid out of her arms back onto the small pillow. I closed my eyes and in front of them pictures flashed, that I couldn´t initially assign. But I knew the blue eyes that looked at me. "Chris."

But he looked strange, as if someone had put on a costume that looked like Chris but not really fit, as if he would play the role but go his own way. I took a deep breath, then jerked off again. I tried to hold on to this look, but slipped away and tore everything that was just so clear together with me, back into the vortex, from which I still couldn´t free myself. "Cathrin, don´t try to fight it." Her melodic voice sneaked back into my mind. "We want to help you." Given Prescot's attempt to promote me like an entertainment program, I could hardly believe her. It felt like I was pulling in a thousand directions at the same time. I saw the Enterprise with all its commanders, the Borg, the Romulans, the Dominion, but as soon as I saw anything clear, it was torn from me as if someone wanted to prevent me from remembering later. Then it became too much for me and I gave up and let myself be carried away by whom or whatever.

+++++++

Something familiar crawled through my nose into my brain, it took a moment to assign it. "Chris?"

I whispered softly, just so I could be sure my thoughts wouldn´t play a trick on me again. Once again, I closed my fingers around the badge in my pocket, still hoping that it would be my anchor in reality. "I'm here." "No, no."

I shook my head, I didn´t dare to open my eyes. "Please don´t, you will be executed or you…"

Now I felt a hand on my arm. Instead of calming me, it made me nervous. I felt my heart start beating faster, adrenaline rushing back through my veins.

"That will not happen." Then he paused. "What about her?" "Agent Prescot has given her a remedy to make her memories accessible, but instead she just buried her deeper inside. Not even for the Talosians was it possible to get them out. " I heard him sigh, which somehow made me cramp myself even more. "No, this is not possible." "Cathrin." Pike pulled away from Vina, leaned toward me, then gently put his hand on my cheek. "Open your eyes, look at me!" It sounded like a command, and the part of me that slowly began to feel comfortable in Starfleet came to grips with it. I opened my eyes, looked into Christopher Pike's face and instantly felt my eyes grow to twice their size. My battered body tried to get away from him. It just didn´t get too far.

I rolled to the side of the couch and could barely put my legs down, before I would have slammed like a wet sack to the ground. Instead, I fell into his outstretched arms and was pulled back. "Let me go." I squirmed with all the strength I had left, it was not much anymore. "That's not real!" My legs slid away, then I slid down on him, feeling his knees fall and lift me up.

"It's real!" He looked at Vina, she came before his question. "There is a memory in her mind that relates to this place and she doesn´t seem to get away from it." She looked at him. "It includes you." My head rolled against his chest and he turned his attention to me. He felt the tension drain from my body, my hand just resting on his shoulder, slipping slowly down his chest. "I can´t stay here any longer, she needs a doctor and." "I understand." She smiled sadly. "It was clear from the first second when I saw how you looked at her. You love her." "Vina." Pike took a deep breath.  "You never looked at me like that." "I am so sorry."

"What are you sorry for?" This on seemed a little easier to her. "That you have found someone to give you what you need?" She took a step towards him and put a hand to his cheek. "I have decided to stay here, not you and it would be unfair for you to stop living your life." "I..." "Don´t wait too long." Then she stepped back from him. "In my experience, that's not the right way. Don´t worry, I'm fine. " "I wish you all the best." "I wish you the same." Pike pulled his communicator from his belt and snapped it open. "Pike to Tyler, two to beam." Then the transporter beam enveloped them and carried Pike away from Vina one last time, and although it took a few more days for him to admit that, he really could let her go this time.

****

As soon as the transporter dropped him off in the shuttle, he could feel a huge tension fell from him. Not that he felt directly threatened, but it was better to know that they would leave this planet in a few minutes.

"Finally." Ash Tyler jumped up and came to him. His eyes fell on Cathrin. She lay unconscious in the captain's arms, was incredibly pale, trembling and you could see in her face that a battle had rage in her head. "Oh, that doesn´t look good." Carefully, he put his hands around Cathrin's head as Pike went to his knees to lay her on the floor.

"It is not." Chris reached for the Med-Kit he had received from Dr. Culber. "OK." He pulled out one of the neural emitters and tried to activate it, but his trembling fingers thwarted him. "Damn it."

"I can do that." Tyler took the device from him, activated it and put it to her temple, then repeated the process on the other side. He allowed himself to watch the captain briefly as he prepared the hypospray, as Culber had shown them. During the entire flight Pike had been unusually quiet, nervous and very distracted for his circumstances. He seemed to have pulled himself together for the mission, but now he also noticed how this day claimed its toll. The slight head injury of this morning would do the rest. "Okay, that seems to work." Ash grabbed the hypospray, put it on Cathrin's neck, and injected the drug cocktail. Almost immediately, she seemed to relax, she started to breathe more regularly and the flashing lights on the emitters were less hectic. "We should be frowned upon from here, I'm not at all anxious to find out what surprises Prescot still has in store." Pike just wanted to get up from the floor, when he felt Tyler's hand on his shoulder. The agent smiled slightly at him, then looked at Cathrin. "Stay with her, I'll do it." "Thanks, Tyler." Ash's answer was a small nod, then he hurried forward into the cockpit and shortly thereafter the shuttle took off and left Talos IV. Chris sank to the floor beside Cathrin, throwing a blanket over her and then looking at her. Was that his fault? Should he have clarified his point of view to Leland?

In front of him, he could see the shuttle plunge into space and sink into the warp seconds later. "I'll contact Discovery as soon as we've passed Star Base 11." Tyler got up, rummaged in one of the equipment rucksacks, and came to him. "Here, you should have a drink." "Thank you." Pike accepted the bottle and took a long sip. Tyler sat down opposite him, drank too, then looked at the captain.

"It's not your fault Sir." Ash briefly checked the settings of the medical devices. "Captain Leland has some agents who would like to dispute his position." "You too?" "No." "I had to ask that." Pike's mouth twitched briefly. "I know." Tyler did the same. "She's also my friend, if I had known, I would have warned you. I know she means a lot to you."

Pike took a deep breath. He was probably a worse actor than he had thought. "We should be in radio range in thirty minutes." He got up and went back into the cockpit. Ash was fine, Pike and he were far from being friends, but the captain looked as if he could use some encouraging words, even though he was not the best officer for the job. "No persecutors or other anomalies." "OK." Chris stroked his face. That was at least halfway good news. He hesitated for a moment, then reached out and grabbed her hand. They almost disappeared in his and was cold. Tyler took care of everything, so he admitted he just didn´t have to be the captain. His head sank against his hand, which he had laid around hers, then he closed his eyes. He had no idea what he meant to call what bound them, but right now it felt like it ran through his fingers even before he could name it. He raised his head and looked at her.

"Cathrin." In front of his eyes he could see her looking at him with her green eyes.

"Hold on, please." He stroked a strand from her face.

"Do not give up."

[crystalninjaphoenix]

No Hallows’ Eve

Septics Inverted

A JSE Fanfic

How did the infamous “Say Goodbye” go down in this universe? Well, this story has an answer for you. It ended up shorter than most of my stories, for once. On a side note, today I learned the word “Hallow” means “holy” or “saint.” Well, we can’t have that here :D Hope you guys like it!

Read the intro story: Part One | Part Two

Various other AU-related stuff found here

Taglist: @evyptids @awkward-bullshit @watermelonsinmyattic @asunachinadoll @a-humble-narcissus @metautske @odysseus-is-best-boi  @acuriousquail

It was a normal apartment in the city. A nice one, but normal. The furniture was taken care of, but the room was still fairly messy, like someone had tried to clean but got tired halfway through. The setting sun shone through the open windows. The lights were off. Someone had knocked a figurine off a shelf, but otherwise nothing was touched.

Then something happened in the middle of the room. The air itself seemed to warp and bend. The world strained like somebody was trying to push through. And with a single crack, it gave. Shards of purple appeared out of nowhere only to go flying in all directions, embedding in the walls before fading away. Now, a man stood in the center of the room. He wore a black t shirt, blue jeans, and an eye patch. He didn’t move, but he wasn’t still, as his body kept glitching and distorting.

Anti shook his head to clear it of any leftover magic. “Fuc͝kín̕g̕ magi— when did he ev̛e̢n l͡e̷a̕rn̶ to͡ ̛dó t̛ha̴t?” he muttered. He thought he’d kept a close eye on him, but apparently he was wrong. Maybe he hadn’t learned too much. Enkávma a’Ousiika—the burning of something’s essence—was one of the simplest black magic spells to learn. It was a trick in the beginner’s arsenal. Maybe the magician hadn’t progressed further than that. But it was also a possibility that he didn’t want to waste his energy on a stronger spell because he didn’t think it would be needed. And he set up those wards, too. Rudimentary, but it still took Anti all day to break through them.

He looked around. They had to still be in the apartment. He hadn’t felt them leave. But where where they? “Jack?” he called, both with his voice and his mind. There was no answer.

There was a flutter of something in his stomach that he didn’t recognize. Something jittery. He didn’t like it. Frowning, Anti glitched to the kitchen. Dirty dishes were piled in the sink, just like they had been when he’d been forced out that morning. “Jack, are you here?” Nothing.

“Your fans want you to play that new game,” Anti said. “That one with the animatronics.”

“Sister Location,” Jack replied absently. He looked away from the computer screen where he was editing. Anti could’ve done that for him, but it hadn’t even occurred to him that could be an option. Jack didn’t mind, he just asked a friend to help him out. “It’s a FNaF game.”

“I know that,” Anti said, folding his arms. “Are you gonna play it?”

Jack’s eyes lit up. “Yeah. I actually had a cool idea for it. And if people like it, we could go for the whole month.”

“Really? What?”

“I want to scare the shit out of the community,” Jack grinned. “You know how I like horror. I’m thinking I could take some of that and put it in real life. Hence, the scaring-the-shit-out-of-them part. But I kinda...need you for this.”

Intrigued, Anti leaned forward. “Keep talking.”

He wasn’t in the kitchen. He wasn’t in the bathroom. He wasn’t in his bedroom. He wasn’t in the closet. None of them were. That left just one room: the recording room. That morning, Jack had dragged a table in there, along with a set of knives. That was the room where it all happened. Anti glitched into the room, looking around. If he could’ve breathed, he would’ve been breathing fast. Everything was exactly the same. The pumpkin was there, the knives hadn’t moved, the camera and its LED screen were still set up. Both of those had turned off, probably affected by the surge of released energy when the cat-themed magical girl of a magician decided to throw him out.

 “Jack, w͠he̷ré ̸̢a͟r̵e ̸y̡o̵̡u͠͞?!͢” Anti shouted. Maybe they were hiding, or magically camouflaged. Anti spun around and in a fit of glitches he was back in the living room. His hands twitched as the distortion spread outward, searching.

“Everyone is freaking out,” Anti said delightfully as he leaned over Jack’s shoulder, watching him scroll through Tumblr.

“Hell yeah they are,” Jack agreed. “They probably think I’m possessed or something. Hey look, they even caught onto your name.”

“Or they made it up and just happened to be right,” Anti rolled his eye, but he let a flicker of a smile slip out. “We gonna keep goin’ with this?”

“What do you take me for, an amateur?” Jack said, knowing full well he was making this up as he went along. “We’re gonna do something big on Halloween.”

“Like what?”

“Uh...I hadn’t thought that far. I was thinking maybe we could get some ideas from these guys. A lot of them think you’re gonna kill me...I can work with that.”

Nobody was there. Nobody was anywhere. How had they left? He would’ve sensed that! Unless they’d found some way to stop their electric signatures from being detected. Was there a spell for that? If there was, it must’ve been recent enough that he didn’t know about it. Anti told himself this. He couldn’t stand the idea that he’d been so focused on breaking the wards that he hadn’t even noticed them take Jack away. “Jack,” he muttered. “Why’d you choose t̷͟͠h̨̡͠e҉̢͏m of all people?”

“It’s okay, he’s gone,” Jack said, shutting his front door.

The lights flickered overhead as Anti made the switch from electricity to mostly flesh. He scowled. “I don’t like him,” he said without preamble.

“You don’t like anyone.”

“I hate him.”

Jack sighed. “I know. You’ve always hated him, which I don’t get. He was my roommate in university, y’know.”

“I do know, I was there. And I’m still here, listening every time he talks. You ever notice how he switches from hating his ex to wanting her back on the flip of a coin? Or how about how you just go along with whatever he says because not doing that would make you guilty? And his house mates! There are some inconsistencies in their records, and they act...strange.”

“He’s not—and I’m not—they—emotions are complicated, Anti. I don’t expect you to understand.”

“Maybe you should.”

Anti reappeared in the recording room. He was twitching more than normally, travelling across the room and back in half a second. That Enkávma a’Ousiika spell had more of an effect on him than he wanted to admit, and he made a note to avoid it in the future. He glared at the carved pumpkin on the table. He clenched his fists and fought the urge to throw it. That wouldn’t help Jack at all. But he had to do something. He growled, and slammed his hands down on the table, rattling the candles.

This was his fault. If he hadn’t been so distracted, if he had just insisted a bit more to Jack that they were not who he thought they were, maybe...maybe nothing would’ve changed.

“People are theorizing!” Jack said joyfully. “They're pulling apart the Instagram story I posted.”

Anti dissolved for a moment as he double checked all the digital platforms. “They look like they’re having fun.”

“Good!” Jack said sincerely. “That’s the point.” He picked up one of the knives—the fake one—and fiddled with it. “So, you noticed the places I left in where you could do your thing?”

“I did.”

“Perfect. Now we just need this last bit. It should look as real as possible, like you’re actually in my head.” Jack dug around in his jeans pocket and pulled out a tube of fake blood. He’d dressed similarly to Anti’s usual outfit for this occasion.

Anti hesitated, then asked something quick, before he could change his mind. “What if we could make it real?”

Jack paused. “What d’you mean?” he asked, curious.

“Human bodies run on electricity like any computer. A different source, and more complicated, but you’re electric all the same. I can use that, influence that, travel through nerves like they’re wires.”

Jack raised an eyebrow. “So you could actually possess me?”

“Not unless you want me to,” Anti explained hastily. “I was..made to understand, a long time ago, that your will is important. So I won’t take control unless you tell me to.”

Jack considered it, passing the fake knife from side to side. “Alright...we’ll try it out,” he said slowly. “But if I’m not okay with it, stop.”

Anti nodded. “Of course.”

The camera flickered on and off, in response to the glitch’s whirling thoughts as he disappeared and reappeared around the room at random. He knew where they’d probably taken Jack. Unless they had a new base he wasn’t aware of. He could get him back. Probably. They had pretty serious wards set up, and if had taken him a day to break through the hastily-made ones around the apartment—even if that was right after his essence was burned, he didn’t like his odds. He had to figure out some way to get in. He just needed to plan

But there was a part of him screaming to “Do something right now!” that he didn’t think was totally unreasonable. He could go to the police, in the meantime? He immediately dismissed the thought. A good portion of them were...not exactly moral, and the rest were lazy. They wouldn’t do anything unless the public demanded it. But...maybe there was some way to get people to notice, to get a lot of people invested in the case of the missing Jack McLoughlin.

His eyes strayed to the blinking light on the camera.

It had all gone well at first. Jack’s mind wasn’t exactly guarded, and slipping in was easy for Anti, as easy as holding his breath. He ran down Jack’s limbs, testing them out. He blinked his eyes and rolled his shoulders before finally settling down in his neurons. He could read Jack’s thoughts here, and he wasn’t upset. Somewhere between weirded out and fascinated, feeling his body move on its own, but not upset. Yet.

“I’m going to start putting the makeup on,” Anti said, using Jack’s mouth. He felt Jack’s approval.

But before they could proceed, the door to the apartment opened. Anti tensed, mentally and physically. “You expecting anyone?” he muttered. Jack was not. Jack thought it would be a good idea if Anti left so he could take care of this.

But Anti didn’t leave. He froze, sensing the familiar electric impulses of their minds. “What are they doing here?” he growled. Jack wondered who. “Three of your ‘friends.’ Hat, cat mask, glasses.” Chase, Marvin, and Schneep? “Yes, those ones.”

Jack felt relieved; this was good news. He’d thought someone had broken in. “They d̢i̛̕d̴ break in, Jack. Your door was locked.” But he knew them, surely there wasn’t a problem? Anti should just leave. And Anti almost did, but then he gritted Jack’s teeth and decided not yet.

They found the recording room easily enough, they’d all been there before. Chase opened the door and entered first, followed by Marvin, in his mask as always, and the doctor, in street clothes but carrying a strange bag that Anti didn’t like the look of at all. “Jack? Sorry, are you recording?” Chase asked. “You left your door open and we were—”

“It was locked,” Anti said. “I’m not an idiot, Brody.”

Chase’s eyes widened. Marvin and Schneep exchanged glances, moving a bit closer together. “No need to snap, dude,” Chase continued. “Or use the surname, jesus. We were just in the neighborhood and decided, hey, let’s go see Jack! I know you weren’t really planning on doin’ anything for Halloween, so we thought we could have a little get-together here. We could wait until you’re done recording, of course, but we brought games! And treats, too.”

Jack started pushing against Anti’s control, causing his hands to shake. Come on, it didn’t sound like they were up to anything. He could lurk in the wiring and watch like he always did when they were around. Then he’d see that there was nothing fishy going on.

Anti ignored him. “So is that what’s in the bag? What were you doing in this area anyway? It’s all apartment buildings. And you just happened to have shit for a party while you were roaming around the city, huh?”

“What is the matter with you?” Chase asked, suddenly angry. “You’re acting very weird, not like yourself at all!”

Anti laughed. “Oh, really?”

Marvin leaned toward Chase and said something under his breath that made him go pale. Chase looked at “Jack” with wide eyes. “Uh, dude, Jack—”

“Jack can’t answer the phone right now, can I take a message?” Anti asked in a singsong voice. Stupid? Maybe. But so much fun to watch the color drain from their faces.

Everything happened at once. Anti twitched, and the knife in his hand was suddenly real. Chase pulled Schneep to the ground as Marvin’s eyes lit up violet. A purple ball of fire launched from his hands, and Anti glitched out of the way, dragging Jack’s body with him. Jack screamed mentally, and Anti wasn’t sure if it was the breaking sensation of glitching that caused it, or the entire situation. Marvin hurled another fireball, and Anti glitched forward, taking a swipe with the knife that the magician barely managed to dodge. “Ge͞t ̨ou̵t̕! ̀Le͠ave h̶i̴m͝ ͝a̕l҉ǫņe!” Anti shouted.

“We do not have time for this!” Schneep shouted. “Do something fast!”

Marvin paused for a millisecond, then new fire shot forth, a brighter shade of purple. It curved in a wide arc, and though Anti tried to glitch away there was only so much he could do while towing a body that was not meant to break from reality. The fire hit him. It did no damage to Jack’s body, but Anti felt a sense of wrongness, of destruction and eating away. He screamed as he was ripped from Jack, left hanging in the air, no more substantial than a cluster of pixels. “Ib hauc luca, quosei ecité!” Marvin shouted, and Anti was flung away, so far away...and when he gathered the energy to return, the magician had set hasty protection spells around the apartment. He spent all day fighting to get past those, only to realize that it had been a distraction all along...

With a flick of power, Anti started the camera recording. He double-checked everything, making sure the table and pumpkin were exactly where they were when those three had barged in. He wrote the words “HELP JACK” on the whiteboard to the side. Then, he put all his effort into solidifying his body. He changed the hair color, making sure it matched Jack’s shade of green. He duplicated Jack’s tattoo. And finally, he took off his own eye-patch. There would be no hiding what was there when it was seen without a filter, but he could edit the footage well enough afterwards. He didn’t want to scare the viewers too much.

And then, Anti enacted the scene he’d planned with Jack. But a few major differences. The knife was not fake. Slowly, he cut. He could feel it tear apart his flesh, though it did not hurt. It was the first time he ever wished it did.

And then, he let his solidity fall away, and he spoke lines they had not planned. Not just warning, but anger poured out.

“You͞...̡H̶i̛s ҉mi̡nḑ ͏ẁas weak!̶ ҉Yǫu áĺĺ ̧saw t̸h̴e̷ ̶s̸i̧gn͝s, ̸ḱept hi̡m—҉” he couldn’t stay together. Reality was breaking. “I ̛am h̶er͏e҉ ͠now!҉ I͢t͏'s òn͡—y͠ou̴!͟ ̷I͞t̨'̵s ̶a̛ll̡ ́o͠u̴r̕ ̛faults.̢ T͡ǫo ̷l̴on͟g҉—li͏stene̕d̡ t́o th̡em̷.͞ Y̨o̴u all sa̵w i̕t̕ h̸a̕ppe̶n͏. ̷Yo͢u c̴o̡uld've ̢s͟top͝ped̸ ͠thįs.͠..̢b̢u̡t͟ y͏ou͞ ͠ju̴st ҉w̕a̢t̕ched.́ As th̸i̢s̴ hap̡p͠ened!” His head cracked from side to side. ̕”N̕o̡w̸—h͢e's͝—g͟o̵ne͏ ҉fo̵r̵e̵v҉er͟.”

He fell apart. But he had one last message. “G̢̀e̷͠͏t͏̷ ҉h̴i̢m҉͞ ̵b̛͢͡a̴͢c͡k҉.”

A message to himself as well. A promise.

Two days later, he reformed once again. Furious. Jack had uploaded a video the next day, explaining how it was all fake and the community didn’t need to worry. And most of them didn’t. That fact alone made Anti want to scream. Just like he said, they all watched Jack’s life and did nothing. They watched the videos he did with Brody and didn’t remark on how he did whatever he said. They listened to him talk about his friends and chose not to pick out the signs that were blatantly there.

Still, there were a few who thought the words he chose were odd for something dismissed as an evil monologue. They analyzed it, picking out bits and pieces, trying to understand. He had to keep an eye on them, nudge them in the right direction. Help them realize something was wrong, not just in the story they thought Jack was creating, but in reality itself.

Though Anti could’ve repaired the damage his own hand had done, he didn’t. It was better this way. Its seeping blood reminded him. He would not let it heal until Jack was safe.

And until those psychos paid for what they’d done to him.

[bleedingcoffee42]

Eureka AU - Part 9

Weeeeee...here we go.  Future Me is going to be so happy when she edits this and has to make up entire fields of shitpost science.  Hahaha.  

Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7, Part 8

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Ed's eyes shifted over to Mustang who now sounded a lot more like the boss they all knew.  His statement was an order, it wasn't a discussion starter, and Al was already reprogramming his tiny robots to do as asked.    He had to admit, it was good to feel like the condescending asshole was back to being himself because they genuinely needed him.

“That would avoid sending her into shock when you kill a massive load of invasive pathogens in her body.”   Knox said.  He was here to remind everyone his patient was human and this wasn't a simulation. Killing a large quantity of anything in her bloodstream could very well have consequences they were not planning for.   In theory a lot of things sounded good, but they were just desperately looking for any idea that could work at this point and that was not how he practiced medicine.   “I do like the idea of giving the virus something else to attack, that will give her own immune system a chance to fight back as well.”

“How are we going to get the nanites out of her system?”  Marcoh asked. “Now they're going to be twice as big, if not bigger, and she's already lost blood?”

Ed watched Mustang stand up, his focus seemed to have returned and his attitude noticeably changed.  He was back to commanding everyone's attention in the room, they all looked to him even though he hadn't made a sound to indicate he had an answer.  

“Chelation.” Roy said as if the answer was simple and had been there the entire time.   “Dr. Comanche has a project that is meant to extract metals from the blood stream, more than just the common treatment for lead and mercury poisoning.   It's been approved for medical use, extensive testing already.   Last proposal he submitted to me implied he was able to use it to extract valuable metals from any source.   He's trying to market it to me as a way to clean waterways of mercury, but his research paperwork tells me he's also looking to harvest more valuable non-toxic metals in the process.“

Ed saw where Mustang was going with this.  “So he has the equipment to synthesize an amino acid to do his bidding in his lab?”

Roy pulled his keys out of his pocket and held them up.  “Shall we?”

Ed smiled and together they left Al's lab to go take what Comanche had available.  Under any other circumstances he would be delighted they were pillaging his colleagues labs and utilizing the incredible array of resources in this building for good.   Right now he was just happy it was here and they were able to take advance of years of research to save someone they all held dear.   He ran over to the elevator to hit the button and open it for them both to head to the next floor. “So what tipped you off about Comanche?”

  “He clearly doesn't think my field of Thermodynamics includes equilibrium thermodynamics because he might as well have highlighted all the documentation of his side project in the proposal he submitted to me.”

“Not to defend the guy, cause he's a dick, but you are notorious for not looking at paperwork.”  Ed reminded him.  Mustang looked over at him and smiled, a smug smile, that made him think that that was a ruse.   The asshole did read everything.  

“In this instance, I thought it best to catch him harvesting his retirement income from the polluted streams instead of trying to prosecute him based on theoretical research that not judge is going to understand.”   Roy replied.  

“Or let him collect next years budget for you since his inventions are contractually property of the government while he's working in this facility.”   Ed countered.

“You have no idea how much this place costs to keep running.”  Roy said and the doors to the elevator closed and they went up to the next floor.  “You especially cost a lot of money.”

“We might not have to beg for Congressional pocket change if you spent more time being a scientist and less time as a politician.”  Ed said to him and Mustang narrowed his eyes at him.  

“There is honestly nothing good that will come from any projects I create with my specialty.”  Roy said.  “I've come to that conclusion long ago.  I'll do more good filtering what the government sees and receives from Eureka.”

“Like the flame-thrower gloves you keep in your desk?”

“Stop breaking into my office.”   Roy hissed as the bell dinged indicating they were on the next floor.   Ed snorted, as if it was his right.   Fine.  He'd put an end to that.  “I have sex with my wife on that desk.”

“What the fuck, Mustang?”

Roy smiled and stepped off the elevator and walked down the hall to Comanche's lab, room 047.   He unlocked the door and turned on the light.   Together he and Ed started turning on equipment and looking for what they needed.  “Comanche used his biological advancements in the field to get himself hired here, now he's focusing on environmental uses for his research.   I suspect he's doing that to not only gain favor within the community here, which is by nature rooted in finding cleaner and less invasive ways of doing things, but also to divert attention from what he may be doing with his original research.”

Ed was already diving into the files on the computer.    There was a lot of information here and it backed up Mustang's theory that Comanche was a really busy guy.   “Well that would explain how a dude his age can hop around on that peg leg like he's a ballerina.  He's using Chelation to clean his own  body of the wear and tear of aging.  I thought that was bullshit pseudo-science.”

“What's commercially available, yes..”  Roy said and turned on the machine that was used to synthesize the amino acids for the particular task needed.   There were profiles in the computer already for the standard uses of cleaning lead, mercury and arsenic from the body.   There was more though and Roy opened them up to see each to consider the formulas.   “EDTA for cleaning his clogged arteries and another for his joint arthritis.”

“Glad he's testing that on himself but I think keeping the obvious advances to himself is bullshit.” Ed shook his head.  “I see what you're saying about his environmental project.   Someone is a naughty alchemist, pulling lead out of the water and with it- gold.”

“He's probably old enough to have called himself an alchemist.”  Roy replied and heard Ed chuckle.   “I'm sure he's hiding it all so he can diversifiy his retirement fund,  quite the windfall when he takes this to the private sector.   I don't feel bad at all for breaking in here to use it for my own personal reasons.”

“It's personal for all of us too.” Ed said.  “Hawkeye is the best thing to happen to this town in a long time.”

“I'm well aware that if our little feuds ever came to taking sides that this town would have all stood behind her.”  Roy said, thankful that those days were behind them but also with a touch of nostalgia for the rivalry they had started with.  She made him work to outmaneuver her and that was something he couldn't say of a lot of people.  

“Alright, I have something promising here.   Let me upload Al's data and see about making us something. Metallurgy is a specialty of mine I got this.”  Ed said and connected his tablet to the computer and started to work his magic.  

“How is your brother going to handle us targeting his nanites and neutralizing them with this? I'm basically having you classify them as a toxin to have them broken down and flushed down the drain.”  Roy asked.   He didn't want to mention the Ultimate Eye tech they had thrown into the tank that was going to be destroyed with them.     He'd figure out that later.

“Al's not selfish, he understands that the sacrifice is worth it.   It's a setback, but he's patient.” Ed said and kept typing.   Heavy metals and elements were a breeze for him, he barely needed to focus to re-calibrate the program.   “Besides I'm sure he's discussing a catheter and collection bag with Knox as we speak.   Nothing gets flushed down the drain.”

“Riza will be thrilled to hear he's called 'dibs' on her piss.   Life in Eureka never ceases to keep her guessing.”  Roy said and saw data being transferred to the machine he was staring at.  Ed was fast.    He looked at the time and realized it wasn't even midnight yet.  It felt like they had been here forever, that he'd lived a few lifetimes between carrying Riza into the infirmary around 1800 and now.   This was a glimpse of her job, what happened when he was away.   This was why she was so adamant of being read in on everything that had the potential to go to hell, because when it did it was a race to stop a catastrophe.   They played on a whole different playing field here, science without regard to established rules and so often bordering on playing God. When it went wrong, it went horribly wrong.  They had so much they still needed to talk about and he hoped he got the chance.

“She'll be pissed.” Ed snorted and Mustang shot him a look.  “She hates sitting out.”

“That she does.”   Roy said and looked at the screen.  They were ready to begin synthesizing the next step in the process.  

[wolfsrainrules]

I was looking at Jurassic park crossovers so can I please see wintershock or windshieldshock with Darcy seperated on the island and her boy(s) freaking out?

Oooooooo WILL BE LOOKING AT THOSE LATER. I had fun. Also I DO know some dinos actual names, but I am entirely amused by Darcy remembering them by Land Before Time names okay.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Darcy liked dinosaurs.

Did she know any of them by name besides the T-rex? No. Not really. She just remembered them as ‘littlefoot’, ‘ducky’ ‘spike’, ‘cera’ ‘chomper’ and ‘petrie.

She liked the Land Before Time okay.

But the point was, that Bucky and Steve were both out on mission and were scheduled to stay that way for the better part of a week.

She made it three days in before Tony offered her an out from the tower.

(Darcy was a jittery worrier okay. She had to have something to do or she’d go nuts- and when she was supposed to be the voice of reason to the Scientist Three?? Well it was bad if Darcy was distracted, jittery and unhappy.)

After the third day, and the sixth explosion in just as many days, well…

Tony offered her five all expense paid distractions.

Darcy had looked them all over, until her eyes settled on the third from the left.

Jurassic World.

There was a voice- it sounded like Buck actually- that whispered about danger, risk, a failure in the previous security measures of the original Jurassic Park, and did she really want to risk it?

The another voice- it sounded like Clint- whispered “What are the chances of that happening again? The theme park has been running for months, and when else are you going to see actual dinosaurs Darce? Besides, you’ve been training with Tasha, Buck and Steve anyway. You’ve got this.”

Later, Darcy would find herself cursing that she listened to any voice that sounded like a scheming Clint, even in her own head.

~~~

Darcy leaned into her hotel bed, snuggling down into the bed. It was empty without her fellas, but Tony certainly knew how to spoil a girl anyway. The entire room was huge, and the bed sinfully comfortable. Meals and drinks had been paid in advance, and Darcy was free to wander in and out of any restaurant on the island to enjoy so long as she had her ID on her to prove she was Darcy Lewis.

She’d enjoyed her first day at the Park, rushing around to check out all the petting zoos- she took like twenty pictures of each baby- and the shows. She found herself smiling about the holographic interactive exhibit, thinking to herself that Tony could do it better, but this was damn impressive considering it wasn’t Tony to implement it.

She poked her head into any and everything she could get her hands on, and even a few things she probably shouldn’t have, but Nat and Buck would kill her if she didn’t cover her own six while out be herself. Buck and Steve probably wouldn’t like where she was when they found out anyway, but Darcy was going to enjoy herself here damn it.

The plan was to do so much in a day she was too bone tired to miss her fellas.

And then the fucking Avengers Luck sunk its fangs into her vacation.

~~~~

It started with a really bad freak storm that took out the communication towers on the island.

If your name wasn’t Darcy Lewis- with Stark tested and approved- your phone network didn’t work, Most people were rolling with it, they could still take pictures, so they didn’t mind it too much.

But Darcy still had her signal. She texted Tony, and Jane to let them both know she lived, and checked into her facebook real quick.

That was how she found out it was an Avengers Assemble back in New York, and they wouldn’t get her messages until they got back from their mission.

It was her fucking luck of course.

Not that she realized it at first.

~~~~

Darcy found herself falling back into her ‘zone’ as Clint called it. It was the place in her mind where she set her feelings of panic  aside and assessed the situation. The place where she was calm, in control, planning.

Bucky, Steve, Natasha, and Clint had helped her perfect that state of mind, had trained her in it so Darcy didn’t freeze. They wanted her to be safe in the event someone came after her.

It was instinct as soon as the alarms started blaring, warnings playing in multiple languages, as soon as the situation went out of control for her to fall into that place in her head and plan.

They were telling everyone to get indoors, due to a containment issue..

Darcy’s hands twitched and she whirled for her room.

She was armed- her entire ragtag family would have her soul if she wasn’t- but a good chunk of her more nasty weapons were hidden in her luggage.

She would have to  thank Tony for all those clever little pockets and hidden bottoms that none of the security had picked up on.

It may well save her life now.

~~~

FUCKING DINOSAURS.

This was not the up close and personal situation she had wanted.

Not even close.

Darcy rolled. dodging the flying dino- all she could think was “Petries”- bringing the enhanced widow-bite up and digging it viciously into the wing joint of the beast, snarling as it flailed and took her up off her feet for a moment. She activated the other and shoved that into the same joint. It shrieked but went down and Darcy kept going without stopping as she saved those she could and taking  down any dino she could reach.

Her heart was pounding.

She wasn’t sure what the fuck had been making the roaring noise earlier that she really hoped was not a T-rex. She shoved her emotions back, pulling on the veneer of calm and trying to let it sink into her bones.

She was Darcy Marie Lewis, she had tazed gods, survived alien invasions more than once, she was the student of Captain America, the Winter Soldier, the Black Widow and occasionally Hawkeye. She was Bucky Barnes’ and Steve Rogers’ girl, and she would come home to them.

She would not be dino food.

She fucking refused.

She reached up. tapping and specific pattern onto the back of her ear.

JARVIS’ cool tones were a balm to her nerves “Miss Lewis? Sir tells me you should be enjoying a weekend at a theme park. Has something happened?”

Her panic button had been destroyed in the mass hysteria created when dinosaurs started getting out, and she had only just managed to reach an area that allowed JARVIS through.

Someone on the island didn’t want any communications getting off the island, and they had made a point to block them.

But Darcy was beloved by the Avengers and they had equipped her for this.

“JARVIS!!! I need a fucking assemble do you understand me? There’s fucking- holy shit!”

Darcy shrieked a bit diving under a semi-destroyed restaurant awning to dodge the lunging talons. Her ears rang with the sound the escaped the flying beast- it started with a p, what the fuck was it called- as he-it?- missed its prey.

“There’s fucking DINOSAURS LOOSE JARVIS I DON’T HAVE A BIG ENOUGH FUCKING GUN FOR THIS SHIT. I DID NOT SIGN UP TO REENACT JURASSIC PARK. THIS IS THE VERY OPPOSITE OF A VACATION. I JUST FUCKING TAZED A DINOSAUR. IT FUCKING WORKED. I CANNOT FUCKING BELIEVE THIS IS MY-”

Darcy cut her rant off, staring upwards, her hands shaking just a bit.

“Oh my god.” 

Her voice was a shaking whisper as she tracked the entire flock of predators headed her way. She whirled on her feet and ran, clenching her eyes against the screams that started behind her, the press of a crowd stirred anew, with no safe direction to run.

She could hear JARVIS speaking in the background, but she tuned it out, eyes rushing over her terrain and mentally checking her arsenal of weapons against what she had already used.

She kept her eyes peeled for anyone that looked to be in charge as she run, following the sound of gunshots. Any resupply would be welcome at this point.

~~~~~

Steve stilled as his phone went off.

Bucky stilled beside him, eyes darting upward, icy blue and glinting with the hints of the Soldier.

His phone should not be going off.

It was on blackout protocols- the only ones who could override that were-

“Rogers” Steve bit out the greeting in a hard voice, already knowing he wasn’t going to like this next part.

“Steve” Tony’s voice was hard and serious and Steve straightened up automatically. “I’m sending you a recording of the last five minutes off Darcy’s ear piece, as well as live time recordings. Coulson’s going to handle your OP, you’ve been reassigned.”

Steve tensed as Darcy’s voice came over the line, loud and cursing, and terrified under the bravo.

“JARVIS!!! I need a fucking assemble do you understand me? There’s fucking- holy shit!”

The sound of Darcy shrieking at the same time with some creature he couldn’t name without all the information, the sound of her hitting the ground and rubble shifting under her weight would stick with Bucky and Steve both for the rest of their lives.

And then her voice roared over the comm- blessedly alive, but panicking under the anger:

“There’s fucking DINOSAURS LOOSE JARVIS I DON’T HAVE A BIG ENOUGH FUCKING GUN FOR THIS SHIT. I DID NOT SIGN UP TO REENACT JURASSIC PARK. THIS IS THE VERY OPPOSITE OF A VACATION. I JUST FUCKING TAZED A DINOSAUR. IT FUCKING WORKED. I CANNOT FUCKING BELIEVE THIS IS MY-”

Darcy’s voice cut out, and Steve clenched his fist so hard blood dripped from his palm even as he ignored the sound of metal giving with a screech under Bucky’s metal hand.

For one horrible instant, Steve thought Darcy might be dead and then her voice came over the line again. Soft and openly terrified. Horror ringing in her tones.

“Oh my god.” 

Steve would have jumped from the plane, without parachute, if he had thought for even a moment it would get him to their girl any faster. Out of the corner of his eye he could see Bucky standing, his hands running over a weapons check, as he pulled more and more weapons onto his person.

They were too far away.

All they could do was pray they made it on time.

~~~~~I CAN FEEL THIS VERSE GROWING MY MUSE NEEDS TO SHUT UP AND CHILL WHAT THE FUCK MUSE.

[milehigharch]

I Was Wrong. -

‘.... And here is to many, many more years of love and happiness. May we all be so blessed to find one person that we can grow with, learn from, and love for our life’s journey. Cheers.” 

A symphony of cheers echoed around me in the elaborate, yet elegantly decorated, event hall in all of Texas. Everyone raised their champagne flutes to toast my parents while they shared a kiss. It was their 50th wedding anniversary and anyone who was anyone in Texas was there. It was my sister’s and father’s doing.  My mother would have been happy having only their closest family and friends over to the ranch, slapping some ribeyes on a grill, and sharing several bottles of red to celebrate their golden anniversary. Instead we have this… ostentatious showing of what I can only imagine is my sister’s relentless pursuit to schmooze with the upper crust of Texas, and my father’s tireless need to show off exactly how much money he has. My family is wealthy, but relatively speaking, our measly 200,000 acre cattle ranch was but a blip in the Lone Star State.

I hated any event that involved wearing a tux, and more so when I had to mingle with people that didn’t give a real damn about me or my family. To make matters worse, my mind was elsewhere at the moment. I am more than slightly agitated thinking about the bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon sitting on my kitchen island. Although I knew Miles would likely not receive my gift very well, I didn’t expect it returned. He always did love pushing my buttons. I wasn’t sure if I was angry or turned on by it, but nothing had occupied my mind more in the last week. Not even this was enough of a distraction. A low growl escaped me before I downed my champagne, slamming the flute on the table, and made a beeline to my mother who was speaking to the governor’s wife. My mom looked beautiful in her purple gown. She stood out among all the white, gold, and black in the room, radiating happiness and looking nowhere near her 68 years young, but I knew she needed an escape. She hated this as much as I did. She was laughing her best fake laugh as I approached, circling my arm around her waist, and kissing her temple, plastering a charming smile on my face before turning my attention to Pamela Walker..Mrs. Walker was everything a Texas Governor’s wife should look, with her Texas sized bouffant hair and more makeup than was ever necessary outside of a circus. “Pardon me, Mrs.Walker. I’d like to steal my mother away for a dance. If that’s alright, ma’am.” I usually suppress the southern drawl in my voice but I always had it in my arsenal for special occasions, and it always worked like a charm. Mrs. Walker blushed as she placed a perfectly manicured hand on my arm. “Oh. Of course, Archibald. Please. I will go find my husband.” 

I could feel her eyes on both of us as I led my mom to the dance floor, my mom gave me a slight slap on the arm. “Archibald Kent. You did that on purpose, and I’ve never seen such a brazen display of flirting from a married woman.” She was scolding me all the while a smile curled on her crimson lips. 

“You needed me to save you. I was willing to do anything.” I grinned, giving her a twirl before I brought her back and began to sway as I Was Wrong by Chris Stapleton began to play, dancing quietly. I stole quick glances of her as she stared right up at me with her penetrating brown eyes while I scanned the room. “Out with it. I know you have something you need to say.” A sigh of relief as she squeezed my hand. 

“I know your mind is elsewhere, AJ.” I smiled at her nickname for me, she was the only one that ever called me AJ, the only one I would ever allow, and I will admit that I missed it on occasion. She paused gauging my reaction before she continued.“I haven’t seen you this unhappy since that witch…” She cleared her throat, my own brow raised, before she continued. “Is there something on your mind?” I let out a groan, avoiding her question and gaze for a moment. 

“I am not…Ow!” A pinch to the back of my arm. 

“You better not continue that sentence if you are going to lie to me.” I could never lie to her. I wasn’t going to lie, just omit. “I can see it in your eyes. Is it that young man you were seeing some time back?” I blinked, brows raised as I looked at her. I never hid things from my mother. She knew of my interest in certain proclivities, but we rarely spoke on it. Especially when my father was in such close proximity. He would never know or begin to understand or even accept that his only son was bisexual.  My mom on the other hand, was only happy if I was. “I see it is.” She nodded and continued to dance even as the song ended and faded into the next. “I cannot tell you how to live your life, AJ, but I can tell you that if someone means that much to you. If you care enough about someone that if affects your daily life, you do whatever you need to do to make things right. Fight for it or move on. Life is way too short. Your father and I have not been together 50 years because it was easy. We had to fight because we knew that everything else met nothing in the grander scheme of our lives.”  She kissed my cheek as I stood there speechless. “I also know you are your father’s son and stubborn as an ass. I won’t even pretend to think that you have no fault in why you are in the predicament you are in. As a matter of fact, you are probably fully at fault. Fix it.” 

Like  a Texas Tornado she walked away after she did her damage by calling me out, leaving me standing there in the shambles of my life wondering how I was going to put it back together..I stood there, speechless ,as people danced around me and processed all her words. She was right, as usual, but I didn’t believe I could fix what I’d done. I’m not sure if I would want to, given I could turn around and hurt Miles again. Something I vowed I would never do again. It pained me to do it once. And even though it was my decision to leave, there was a lot of unfinished business between us Words unspoken.

I exhaled a breath, and made my way into an empty hallway before taking my cell phone out of my coat pocket. “Olivia. I need to get to get to Vegas tonight. Make the arrangements and email me the itinerary when it’s finalized.” I barely gave her a chance to respond before I ended the call and was headed back into the ballroom to say my goodbyes to my mother.  I wasn’t sure if this was the best decision, but I couldn’t turn back now. I didn’t want to..

#IWasWrong #TheRedDoorsWrite

[unfolded73]

The Nonlinear Property of Time (4/4)

A Season 7 AU story with time travel. Rated Explicit. Warnings for pregnancy sex and fanservice-ilicious daddy!Killian in this last chapter.

This fic is dedicated to @allrightfine – you finally wore me down. Thanks to @j-philly-b for betaing. Thanks to @bleebug for your amazing artistic talent.

A few important notes:

1. I came up with this fic before 7x02 aired based on a lot of the speculation going on in fandom, and even after it was no longer consistent with canon, I couldn’t resist writing it. It just became more involved to fully describe the time travel scenario. Anyway, the point is Wish Hook isn’t in this. But that does not mean I’m anti-Wish Hook – surprisingly, I’m pretty psyched for that story now. So please don’t compliment this fic by slamming that character and his storyline, because I don’t really want to see that.

2. This story has a present-Killian/future-Killian/Emma threeway. If that’s not your thing, this fic might not be for you, and that’s okay!

3. This whole scenario turned out to be way more angsty than I anticipated going in. (No wonder the Doctor is such a big mope.) Which I love but also it makes me glad this isn’t what happened canon.

(Chapter 1) (Chapter 2) (Chapter 3) (NSFW Chapter 3 art)

Chapter 4

They gathered after breakfast in the clearing near Henry’s cottage.

Killian stood beside Regina, the brace for his hook propped on the pommel of his sword, watching from a distance as Henry and Emma said their goodbyes. He could tell that Emma was trying to put on a brave face, but the tears were starting to flow as she pulled her son into a hug. His older counterpart was keeping his distance from everyone, allowing time for all the farewells.

“You gonna be okay there, pirate?” Regina asked him.

He met her eyes briefly. “I was imagining what I would do if staying here to protect Henry meant that I would miss the birth of my child. That I really would miss all that time with Emma. And… if I knew that that was the only way to keep both Henry and my unborn child safe from whatever is coming…” He sighed. “I’d stay.”

She reached over and tentatively squeezed his hand. “Thank you.” Regina then let go and stepped back, her discomfort with even that brief moment of connection evident. “But that isn’t what you’re doing. You aren’t going to miss the birth of your child.”

“Then why do I hate this so much?” he asked, his jaw aching as he clenched it.

“Because living day to day without the person you love feels like torture sometimes,” Regina said. “There’s an ending in sight for you, though. Focus on that.”

Emma and Henry walked over and joined them, and Emma pulled a surprised Regina into a hug. “I’m pissed that you won’t be there when the baby comes,” she said.

Regina laughed, her voice the slightest bit watery. “I’m sure you’ll have plenty of people willing to babysit.”

Emma scoffed as she let go of Regina. “Not to babysit, just… I don’t know. I figured you’d keep me sane when the baby is crying nonstop and my mother is being annoyingly optimistic about everything.”

Killian’s attention drifted from the two women to Henry, who had wandered over to the older Killian to say goodbye to him. It was such an odd thing, he thought. First, he had to endure a period of time without his wife, and then after that a period of time without his stepson. From the younger Killian’s perspective, at the start of this slow path through time, it felt like an eternity until they would all be reunited again. His older self might have kept mum on how long it would be, but Killian knew. The subtle signs of age on the other man’s body, the desperate way he had touched his wife, the sadness in his eyes as he said goodbye to Henry now. It would be years, not months.

“Hey,” Emma said, taking his hand.

Killian swallowed around a lump in his throat. “Hey, yourself.”

She put her arms around him. “Take good care of Henry.”

He chuckled. “He’ll probably need to take care of me. I’ll be useless without you.”

“No, you won’t.” She pulled him tighter, and he could feel the rounded bump of her abdomen, a little bit more pronounced every day.

“Look after yourself, love. Eat balanced meals, and take your vitamin—”

“Killian, don’t imagine it like my life is going on without you.” She pulled back and held his face in her hands. “Imagine that I’m frozen in a bubble. Nothing’s gonna happen without you there. I’ll eat healthy and take my prenatal vitamin because you’ll be there to remind me. Okay?”

“Okay.” He blinked, feeling tears spill over onto his cheeks, and kissed her. “Not a day will go by for me that I won’t think of you.”

Her resulting smile broke his heart. “Good.” She kissed him again. “I love you so much.”

“I love you, too.” He squeezed her hand, not wanting to let go, and brought it to his lips. “Always.”

She pulled away, and he finally had to drop her hand. Killian was barely holding himself together, knowing that breaking down into sobs right in front of everyone would just make all of this harder. He reached into his pocket and pulled out the magic bean, reluctantly handing it over to his other self. “Appreciate every single day,” he told himself.

“You know I will.”

Emma went over to Henry one last time, taking his face in her hands and kissing his forehead, just the way she’d done when he was little, when she had to lean over him to do so. Now he stood almost a head taller than her, his shoulders broad. When she seemed like she might linger indefinitely, the older Killian gently guided her away.

As Killian watched, his counterpart hurled the bean, and a portal opened in the clearing. Squinting, Killian could see the black pavement of Storybrooke’s main street in the middle of the glowing spiral hole, the clock tower in the background. He felt a swell of homesickness, not just for Emma, but for Granny and Snow, David and little Neal, Ashley and Alexandra and even Zelena, gods help him — all of the people who made his adopted hometown a home.

Emma looked back, her eyes filled with tears. The other Killian put his arm around her, and before he could take another breath, the two of them turned and ran through the portal. It closed behind them, the woods left unnaturally silent in its wake.

That night, as he fell asleep listening to the sounds of the nocturnal creatures of the forest, Killian mentally marked a single line on a tally sheet inside his mind. One day down without his wife; many, many more left to go.

~*~

Storybrooke, Years Ago

At least his time in Hyperion Heights meant he didn’t have to readjust to modern life. The way to brew a pot of coffee, or run the dishwasher, or drive a car — thanks to his cursed memories, all of those tasks were at his fingertips, so to speak. And thanks to his false memories of attending the Seattle Police Academy and studying to be a detective, he was now positively overqualified to be Sheriff’s deputy in a quiet Maine town where nothing remarkable ever happened.

The day they returned to Storybrooke, he took his prosthetic hand off and put it in a drawer. It reminded him too much of those lonely months as Detective Rogers, when he didn’t even know he had a wife to miss. When he didn’t know that Henry and Ella and Lucy and Regina were his family. If Emma had any opinion about him going back to the hook, she didn’t comment on it.

He could tell when Emma would start to talk to him about something like it had happened yesterday (because of course for her, it had), then would stop and check herself and gently back up and explain. He hated that she had to do that, that she had to be reminded of all the years he’d lived without her. He wanted her happiness to be pure, not adulterated with the knowledge of the time he’d spent away from her side.

On the plus side, the waning of Emma’s morning sickness as she started the second trimester of her pregnancy combined with his having missed her so desperately meant their sex life was electric — probably the best it had ever been, even compared to those first few months after their wedding. As they lay in bed in the soft afterglow, his hand on her growing belly, he would talk to her. He told of how the first time he saw the way Henry looked at Ella, Killian knew he was a goner. How he and Regina had witnessed their small wedding in the resistance camp in the forest. How Ella had gone into labor at the most inopportune of times, and that he had helped Tiana deliver the baby while Regina held off the forces of darkness with every spell in her arsenal.

He told her about Rogers, and how lonely he’d been, even if he hadn’t known why.

Emma combed her fingers through his hair and pressed her lips to his cheek and listened. In less time than he would have credited, it was like he’d never been away from her in the first place.

He marked the days, knowing that a time would come when he would need to let himself into the pawn shop for a particular magic wand and write out instructions and take them to Zelena so that the time loop would finally be closed.

~*~

Emma shut off the shower and slid the curtain back, pausing to squeeze the excess water out of her hair before stepping out.

“Swan?” Killian called, and she could hear his footsteps through the bedroom. “Do you need a hand?”

She rolled her eyes. “I can manage to get out of the shower without falling down, babe, I promise.”

He ignored her snark, walking over and holding out his elbow. “Nonetheless, I’m here, so you might as well hold onto me.”

She glared at him, but put her wet hand on his shirt sleeve and allowed him to take some of her weight as she maneuvered over the lip of the tub with her prodigious belly. Killian handed her a fresh, fluffy towel.

“Thanks,” she said, starting to dry herself off.

“Did the shower make you feel better?”

“My back is still killing me, so not really.” She grimaced down at her protruding belly button, now an outie, and observed once again that she couldn’t see her feet. “I’m ready for you to come out of there, little girl,” she said, patting her abdomen. As if she knew she were being spoken to, the baby kicked.

“Two more weeks, love.”

“Two more weeks ‘til the due date, but that means any time from now on would be considered full term,” she said as she toweled off her hair and followed him back into the bedroom.

“I’m sorry you’re uncomfortable,” he said. “What can I do to help?”

She sighed. “Can you rub my back?”

“Of course.”

Emma hung her towel up and pulled on a pair of clean underwear and lay down on the bed on her side, bringing her knees up so that her spine curved out. “I can’t even lie down on my stomach for a proper backrub.” Complaining felt good. “And my hips hurt, which is just stupid.”

Killian lay down behind her, his hand kneading into her lower back, and she moaned in appreciation. “Right there?” he asked her somewhat unnecessarily.

“God, yes, right there,” she gasped as his fingers dug in deeper.

He stifled a groan. “How it is that you can make me hard so quickly just with the sound of your voice? It’s witchcraft, Swan.”

She turned and looked over her shoulder to see this erection he was bragging about, and sure enough, she could see the hard outline of him through his jeans. Emma snorted and turned back around. “But then you look at me and it kills your boner just as quickly.”

“I can only assume, since I have told you a hundred times that I am aroused by the sight of your pregnant body, that you are fishing for reassurance. But that’s all right, darling, I’m happy to provide it.” His hand continued to work on her back as he talked. “You are beautiful and sexy, and when I look at you, I’m in awe of the fact that you’re carrying my child and at the same time I just want to fuck you.”

Emma shivered, smiling secretly to herself. “Okay.”

“I’m glad it’s okay with you that you drive me to distraction on a daily basis.”

“And here I thought you were afraid I was going to fall down in the tub; you just wanted an excuse to see me naked.”

He chuckled. “It can’t be both?”

Emma hummed to herself, dragging a thumb over her nipple. “We can have sex now if you want.”

Leaving off the deep tissue massage, Killian began trailing his fingers up and down her spine, making her shiver again. “What about your back and your hips and whatever else is paining you, darling?”

She shrugged. “My back is better, thanks to you, and now I’m kind of horny. Look, don’t question my rapidly shifting hormonal state. There’s no explaining it.”

Laughing, he curled his body against hers and reached around to stroke her over the thin cotton of her panties. She often felt a little swollen and sensitive down there these days, and his touch had her instantly gasping and grinding against his fingers.

It was clear that Killian wanted to take his time, as he gently rolled her over onto her back to spend some quality time kissing her. Which was nice, but what Emma really wanted right now was a quick fuck, not to be romanced. On the other hand, her husband was a wonderful kisser. Not only that, she could tell by the way he was stroking his hand up and down her body that he was trying to communicate to her through touch that he still appreciated her physically. The least she could do was lie back and enjoy it.

Killian pulled down her underwear and Emma helped him, kicking it off onto the floor. Before he could resume his attentions, the baby kicked hard enough to hurt, and Emma winced. Maybe lying back and enjoying it wasn’t in the cards for her either.

“I think she wants me to turn over,” Emma said, rolling away onto her side again.

She listened as her husband undressed, and then she felt him press against her back again. This time he was all skin and hair and hard cock, falling naturally against the crease of her ass as he nuzzled her neck.

Emma tangled their legs together, none too subtly spreading her thighs and angling her hips to accept him inside. Killian made some adjustments and used his hand to guide himself into her wetness, and she groaned with relief as he filled her.

It was a familiar rhythm for them, an all-too-familiar position, and Emma found herself longing for the day when she could feel Killian pressed against her chest again, could wrap her legs around his hips and lie back and let him fuck her into the mattress. She slid her hand down between her legs and clenched her thighs, her fingers kneading and pressing against her clit. Emma didn’t need his help with this part of it; in truth, preferred to take care of herself when Killian was fucking into her from behind, but he wrapped his arm around her and put his hand over hers and it was nice, like he just wanted to feel the way she pleasured herself, like it heightened his enjoyment to do so.

Emma tilted her head back and lost herself in the friction, the delicious pressure, and then her orgasm hit suddenly, making her moan low and loud in the quiet bedroom. After a handful of strokes, Killian followed, his teeth leaving impressions in the skin of her shoulder.

The lay together for several minutes, panting, breathing gradually slowing down and in no hurry to pull apart. When he finally slipped from her body and rolled to lie on his back, Emma turned over to cuddle against his side — as close as she could, anyway, given her current shape.

He put his hand on her belly and was soon rewarded with a flurry of motion from their daughter. Killian laughed. “There she is, right on schedule. Very indignant about the things we’ve been getting up to, isn’t she?”

Emma giggled and closed her eyes, enjoying the feel of his hand on her skin. “Should we tell her when she’s older? That we used to have sex when I was heavily pregnant and that she would always kick me afterward like she was taking a karate class?”

“Oh, aye. I’m sure we’ll scar her in a myriad of ways, Swan; what’s one more?”

~*~

“Killian?”

“Up here, David!” he called, holding the front part of the diaper down with the stump of his left wrist so that he could fold the tabs over with his hand. After two weeks, he almost had it mastered. Fastening the snaps of the little garment Emma called a ‘onesie’ with nimble fingers, he scooped up the crying, wiggling infant, putting his hand under her head and his wrist under her back. “Now now, Maureen, don’t fret. I’ve got you, sweet love.”

Turning, he looked at the disarray of the baby’s room and frowned. Not exactly the kind of thing that would impress his father-in-law. Maureen snuffled, rooting against his collarbone.

David ducked his head in and grinned. “There’s my granddaughter!” he said. He made a few silly faces at the baby before holding out his arms. “May I?”

“Of course,” Killian said, passing the baby over. “Did Emma tell you to check on me?”

David gave him a guilty glance as he led Killian out of the nursery. “She might’ve mentioned that she was going to run a few errands on her own this afternoon.” He bounced the baby in the practiced way of a man who had spent many an hour with his own, and Killian envied him his natural ease. “How are you?”

“Fine. Maureen was a little fussy earlier, but that miraculous pump Emma has allows me to feed her, so—”

“Yeah, there’s a lot of things in this realm that make taking care of baby easier,” David said as the two men went downstairs. “Not that I had the opportunity to take care of Emma, but… you know.”

“Aye. Can I get you anything?”

Little Maureen’s eyelids were drooping, seduced into sleep by the way David was gently swaying back and forth. “No, I’m fine. Just wanted to see this little one and check how you were doing.”

Killian scratched behind his ear. “I mean, I’m not as good as Emma at… anything, really. But it’s…” He looked at the way his daughter’s eyelashes fluttered, at her tiny, perfect nose and pink cheeks. “She makes it all worth it. I would endure every hardship ten times over for her.”

David brushed his lips across the top of the baby’s head. “Yeah. I know exactly what you mean.”

Killian decided to take advantage of not holding a baby for once and moved to start cleaning up the kitchen.

“So…” David said, still swaying back and forth. “I noticed you’re not wearing the hook.”

“Aye,” he said, filling the sink with hot soapy water. “Even though I don’t keep it sharpened, I was still worried I might hurt her.”

“Well, don’t you have a prosthetic hand? Emma told me you had one from when you were cursed in Seattle.”

Killian frowned, turning around. “She did?”

Another guilty expression from his father-in-law. “She might’ve mentioned it.”

Turning back to the sink, Killian concentrated on his task. “It belonged to my cursed persona there. I don’t… I don’t like the reminder.”

“Of being cursed? I can understand that.”

He winced. “I don’t mean a reminder for me. I mean for Emma.”

There was a pause. “Sorry, Killian, you lost me. Reminder for Emma of what, exactly?”

He dried off his hand, giving up on the dishes and leaning against the sink. “Of the fact that I’m so far removed in time from the man I was when she told me she was pregnant with that little life ruiner,” he said with a forced smile and a nod at his daughter, now slack and sound asleep in her grandfather’s arms. “I’ve been back for more than six months, and I think she’s almost forgotten.” He grimaced and shook his head. “Not forgotten, but she doesn’t think about it every day. She’s stopped constantly checking herself on whether she’s assuming I’ll remember something I might not remember anymore. I don’t want there to be a constant reminder for Emma of the fact that I had to live a segment of my remaining years without her, after how hard we fought to be together.”

“I’m not sure you’re giving my daughter enough credit. I mean, look, you should do what makes you comfortable. Wear a—” He glanced around the kitchen. “—spatula at the end of your wrist for all I care. But I just think if you have a device that would make it easier to take care of a newborn — not that you aren’t doing an amazing job already; clearly you are — why not use it?”

“Did Emma tell you to say that?”

“No.” David smirked. “Let’s just say I read between the lines.” The baby startled herself awake and wiggled in David’s arms. Shifting her position into the crook of his elbow, he looked down into her face and grinned widely. “I still think she kind of looks like me,” he said as he booped her gently on the nose.

Killian groaned. “Not this again.”

“Come on, she has my eyes!”

“I have blue eyes, mate.”

“Yeah, whatever, pirate.”

~*~

Storybrooke, Present Day

“They’re here! They’re here!” Maureen shouted from the front room, nearly knocking over her father’s telescope in her haste to get to the front door. “Mom! Dad! They’re here!”

She wrestled open the door a little bit too forcefully, and it banged against the doorstop as she ran onto the porch.

People were piling out of the nondescript dark blue car at the curb as Zelena’s green monster pulled up behind and she and Robyn got out. Maureen was almost distracted from the new arrivals by Robyn’s blue hair. She loved Robyn’s hair. She wanted blue hair too, but her parents said she wasn’t old enough yet.

Maureen hadn’t met any of the other people, but she knew who they were. Aunt Regina, she’d seen pictures of. Henry too, although most of the pictures of him were when he was a teenager, and he looked like a grownup now. The other lady must be his wife, she thought, and the girl was their daughter, Lucy. Maureen’s dad had told her lots of stories about Lucy.

There was a blur of blonde hair as her mom ran out of the house and down the stairs and collided with Henry, hugging him tightly. Then she felt her dad’s hand on her shoulder, and Maureen looked up to see him watching the reunion. He looked kind of like he was going to cry, which made Maureen’s stomach roll over.

Regina approached and held out her hand. “Hello, there. I’m Regina.”

Maureen shook Regina’s hand. “I’m Maureen.” Regina was pretty, with dark lipstick and dark hair, and Maureen felt nervous about what to say to her. She looked up at her dad again.

He smirked at Regina. “Do we hug?” he asked her.

“Absolutely not,” Regina replied, but then she hugged Maureen’s dad anyway, which was weird.

Maureen looked back at the lawn, where her mom was talking excitedly to Henry’s wife, her voice kind of high-pitched and fast. Lucy glanced over, and Maureen waved nervously at her.

With a smile, Lucy approached. “You’re my aunt, right?”

Maureen puffed up a little bit at that. She was someone’s aunt, and that meant she had responsibilities.  “Yeah,” she said in a firm voice. “I can show you around if you want. Do you want to come see my room?”

“I delivered the package and the hook, exactly as instructed,” Zelena said. Maureen looked up out of curiosity. Zelena had delivered Dad's hook to someone? Why would she do that, Maureen wondered. For as long as she could remember, sometimes her dad had worn his hook and sometimes his mechanical hand, depending on what he needed to do. She’d asked him once why, and he had said that it took two hands to wash all the dirt off of her at the end of the day, but one hook to properly captain the Jolly Roger. She knew that last part wasn’t technically true, but after that one time a boy in her class had made fun of her dad for only having one hand, after she’d punched him and made his nose bleed, she’d decided that she didn’t really care why he wore the hook. It was pretty and she loved it.

~*~

Emma poured herself another glass of wine, smiling at the controlled chaos coming from the living room where everyone had gathered after dinner, her whole family under one roof, with kids and grandkids and great grandkids, even.

Zelena and Regina joined her in the kitchen, and she filled their empty wine glasses before they asked.

“So let me see if I’ve got this straight,” Zelena said. “You two and Hook traveled by portal to Ella’s realm by magic bean — let’s call that Point A — Hook and Regina stayed there for several years, got cursed to live in Seattle, the curse was broken with true love’s kiss, I brought the Black Fairy’s wand to them there — let’s call that Point B — Hook traveled back in time to Point A, took you back to here to Storybrooke, you had Maureen and lived happily until a few weeks ago when Hook sent me to Point B to bring him the wand. Have I got all that?”

Emma sipped her wine. “That pretty much sums it up.”

“And so for a little while there were two versions of Hook in the same place,” Zelena went on.

“For about twelve hours or so.” Emma narrowed her eyes at Zelena. “I know what you want to ask me.”

“No, you don’t, because I am going to be a bigger person than that. I don’t always have to be the comic relief, asking inappropriate questions. I’m capable of some measure of decorum, you know. I’m capable—”

“I did have sex with both of them at the same time,” Emma said.

“There isn’t enough wine in the world for this conversation,” Regina said, taking a large drink from her glass as if she were testing that theory.

Zelena put her own wine glass down and gripped Emma’s upper arms, looking her dead in the eye. “Emma, I’ve never respected you more than I do at this moment,” Zelena said reverently. “This is the true fairy tale.”

“Yeah, well, let’s keep this one out of any storybooks, okay?” Emma replied with a giggle.

~*~

“Finally, Captain Hook is starting to look his age,” Henry said as he came out onto the back porch to join Killian. Dinner had been demolished hours ago, and the two excited girls were finally in bed asleep, and Killian had taken the opportunity to sneak outside for a breath of fresh air.

“What’s that?”

Henry pointed at his hair, where Killian knew there was a liberal smattering of grey amongst the brown.

“It’s weird. It’s been two weeks since I’ve seen you, but for you, it’s been years,” his stepson said, leaning against the porch railing. “I mean, we knew this day would come, but it’s one thing to know and another to know.”

“Aye.”

“I can tell you’re happy, though. You seem settled — in a good way.”

“I’m very happy.” He scratched behind his ear. “Your mother and I missed you terribly, but it’s been a wonderful adventure, raising Maureen.”

“She’s very… spirited,” Henry said diplomatically, and Killian laughed.

“You can say it — she’s a handful.”

“Okay, she’s a handful, but she wouldn’t be my sister if she weren’t.”

“Aye, I suppose that’s true.” They stood side-by-side in silence for a few minutes, staring out at the darkened sky. “How long do you think you’ll stay here in Storybrooke?”

Henry shrugged. “For a while. There’s certainly nothing for us back on the west coast, and I don’t think any of us are in any hurry to get back to Ella’s realm.”

“That’s good news.” He knew Emma wouldn't want to let him go anytime soon.

“How do you do it?” Henry asked.

“Do what, my boy?”

Henry exhaled. “Live a normal life. A life without danger, and monsters, and curses. I grew up with all that stuff, and then for a few years, it was all so quiet. And yeah, I left home to visit other realms so that I could find my own story, and obviously, I’m glad I did. But I wonder if I didn’t also do it because I missed all the drama and danger. Maybe I’m addicted to it, a little bit. So now I’ve got a chance at my own happily ever after, my own happy beginning, and I’m terrified I’m going to screw it up because I have no idea how to just live an ordinary life.”

Killian reached over and rested his hand on Henry’s shoulder. “Well, first of all, I don’t think there’s such a thing as an ordinary life. There may not be monsters here anymore, but an interesting life doesn’t hinge on fighting monsters. It’s learning something new every day, or finding fulfillment in your work, or running through the forest pretending to be a wolf because your daughter insists you’re a wolf.”

Henry laughed. “You’re pretty wise, old man.”

“Aye, well, I’ve lived a lot of years. For example, I’ve lived the last ten years twice over, so I had plenty of time to soak up lots of extra wisdom to impart to my stepson.”

“Ugh, you’re going to be insufferable about that, aren’t you?”

Killian grinned. “You can count on it, my boy.”

END

[fmlfpl]

Lineup Lamentations - GW23

Our Transfers, Captains, and Starting 11s for the week!

—

WALSH

TRANSFERS:

OUT: Diego Rico

IN: Jack Stephens

I feel naked and alone without my Spanish lover Rico in my team anymore but it simply had to be so. I'm floating a transfer again this week and just doing a move to give me another cheapo defender who I can rotate. As shouted on the pod at 4.3 Jack seems like a good piece to have at the back until WC with their fixtures and strong underlying defensive numbers. There were certainly other more flair moves I could do but with two Livp in I am valuing the flexibility afforded with two frees ahead of their double to make a final decision about who to get in as the third and who to remove as well.

GK:

Schmeichel (bur)

Woodman the eternal continues to never let me down the legend.

Schmike, on the other hand, suddenly finds himself positioned between a goal frame, a sieve, and the enemy. Still too early to tell if no Ndidi just means they are diabolical but Burnley have been among the worst attacks in the division recently and no Smashley kinda fucks up their balance a lot.

Could see them snap back into form and just dispatch these in an easy win to nil. Hoping for it, anyway.

DEF:

Pereira (bur)

Somehow I still have Periera. He's been by far by farrrrr my worst transfer of the season but I always seem to find a reason to hold on to him and start him. It seems extremely unlikely he is in past this weekend so maybe he'll give me a farewell gift.

Alexander-Arnold (MUN)

Trent goes again nothing to say about that. Only guy I've had since GW1...well other than Woodman of course that sweet boy.

Stephens (WOL)

Jack new friend is put straight into the fire with home Wolves. Not a good on paper fixture but I could kinda see a clean here? Maybe? Not an ideal start, but he's the best option I have and when weighing him up against the other 4.4 defenders and under it looked like his near term fixtures were the best in how he can rotate with what else I've got.

Lundstram (ars)

Lastly is Pointstram.

Another not too great feeling start but also not too bad without Aubz.

Hard to imagine where an Arsecast goal can come from other than a p3p3ga set piece banger or something like this. Don't really feel like Wilder will have any trouble marking Laca out of the game. Pointstram also eye test wise looked a lot more involved in their attack last game so maybe that is a sign of things to come.

MID:

Martial (liv)

Unfortunately I'm going to have to eat a Tony M start here at Anfield. Feels not good but I still like him as a medium term hold despite the mixed fixtures.

Still don't really have any confidence that I know what a "good" fixture is for United attack anyway so I'm just blindly following the mantra of he's playing OOP striker on a top six team so he's a hold.

De Bruyne (CRY)

Kevin up against my boys this weekend we'll see if he's at DM or not. Don't really care though, honestly.

Salah (MUN)

Third mid is Mo. Good lad.

FWD:

Maupay (AVL)

Is this the weekend of Neal? Please Neal be a good Neal one time my son.

Scenic fixture...time to capitalize...or take 1 shot and blank again as per.

I want Neal to give me a sign of life so badly because I would really still like to hold him for the near term through these fixtures. Big game for him and I'll be watching him closely.

Vardy (bur)

Vardz still in there. Whatever.

Agüero (CRY)

Kun off his monster haul good job by Kun love Kun so much.

CAP:

Vardy (bur)

Sticking with Vardz as shouted on the pod.

I've really not gone to the Vardy cap well too often this season but he just seems like a very strong option against a really bad team with two really bad CBs and a really bad GK. I'd honestly be surprised if he doesn't double return.

—

ALON

TRANSFERS:

OUT: N/A

IN: N/A

When in doubt float your fuckin’ transfer...

I had a really brutal week and especially today, Friday, long and tough day.

No idea what I want to do but having two frees and a boatload of cash for next week seems really fun / good.

I’ll probably get rocked in the Cup this week by fuckin Wiscker by just rolling the same crew out again after last week’s bloodbath but maybe with my two frees and a pocket full of change I can roar back in the final two group matches and go through... It works out in my head at least...

GK:

Ryan (AVL)

Great fixture and a great fixture run so come on Mat gimme some points.

DEF:

van Dijk (MUN)

Everything says that this should be an easy Liverpool win and an easy Liverpool clean but who knows it’s still a derby...

United are absolutely terrible on set plays they have conceded the third most in the league and Liverpool have scored the tied for second most int he league so make of that what you will... VVDue? VVDong?

Söyüncü (bur)

Hoping for a Soy redemption song this week after that very sloppy mess of a match lass week... Burnley are very much there for the taking so go on SoyBoy.

Lundstram (ars)

I sleeper think that this is a great fixture... ok maybe great is an exaggeration because it’s not a ~banker~ but with how Arsenal’s been playing lately - very few shots and not much xG or sustained attack - plus no Aubz it just seems very cleanable and winnable for Sheff U from where I’m sitting. 

MID:

Salah (MUN)

Funny cheeky little interview he gave. Mo’s a good guy.

De Bruyne (CRY)

Easy keep.

Maddison (bur)

Time for a bounce-back from Leicester no fucking around. Maddo was such a steady tick merchant for me back in the good ole days I just want to taste that success again.

Sarr (tot)

Not a good fixture but definitely not a bad one either.

Sarr and Watty have been looking fabulous and will cause Spurs tons of problems for me.

Cantwell (BOU)

Lastly going for Big Todd Energy over Jiménez this week (feel free to thank me Jim owners) becaaaauuuuuseeeee just I don’t know gut feeling and shit.

Jim has been an extremely upsetting transfer in for me and I shouted Wolves being tired and bad and then they go out and lose to Man. Utd. in the cup with Jim playing the full 90′.

Also Jim has away Southampton which is now a really rough fixture so whatever I’m going for it here... Todd should fuck Eddie’s Bourney.

FWD:

Only the two FWDs for me this week since I’m benching Jimboy.

Vardy (bur)

Another in my triple leicester to bounce back -- what a chance for it !

Calvert-Lewin (whu)

I still believe in DCL and I had to defend the pick a little bit here and there this week and honestly it just made me feel better about it. And the fixture is fantastic. DCL gonna bang.

CAP:

Vardy (bur)

Just don’t really have another option who I think is nearly as good a cap. pick as Vardz is this week and it’s as simple as that...

If it’s close then maybe you go differential cap but if it’s not close I think you just cap the guy who everyone else is capping. Here we are.

Soz for a not exciting Lambs from me this week lol.

—

RANDOM SLACKER OF THE WEEK: dave (group 19)

The words of Random Slacker are not officially endorsed by this website nor any employees of FML FPL LLC.

TRANSFERS:

DISCLAIMER: I AM VERY BAD AT FPL AND YOU SHOULD NOT LISTEN TO ANYTHING I SAY!

Fun fact: I was the person who suggested random slacker lambs earlier in the season to the pod bois. That was a time when my team was ticking along and I was optimistic about rising up the ranks over the course of the season.

Now I am in the depths of darkness and have zero expectations for my team other than red arrows and I am bad and shit at FPL and you shouldn’t even bother reading this because I’m shit. Unless you want to feel better about yourself, that is (I’m 1.5m so if you’re lower than that then I’m truly sorry – you’ll probably overtake me soon).

At least I have the FML FPL Cup to focus all my energy on. Speaking of which...

To my opponent this week, Rob, and the rest of Group 19, Jon and Max: Fuck you. I’m going to destroy you. I don’t care about my OR anymore. This is all that matters to me. (Jk prob will get 0 points and crash out in the group stage – good luck lads).

OUT: Serge Aurier

IN: Lewis Dunk

I have 2FTs but I’m just going for a fairly passive and hopefully more sensible move. When Mou became Spuds’ manager I had hopes that the defence would significantly improve (I even doubled up on their defence – oops), but alas they are still shipping goals for fun and now the child Tanganga is in the mix potentially threatening Aurier’s minutes after a decent right back performance mid-week. So just fucking him off to a similarly priced guy with good fixtures for the foreseeable future, on a team that actually appears to be capable of keeping the occasional clean sheet.

Going to roll the other FT to give me a little more flexibility next GW to increase my share of Liverpool players to at least 2. Probably will take a hit to get up to 3.

GK:

Guaita (mci)

Probably the worst fixture of the season for a defender or GK; City have several potent, in-form attacking options and could easily put up 4 or 5 (albeit Palace have been fairly solid for large portions of the season).

Just hoping Victor Vincente can pick up some some save points, a Kun pen save or two would be very welcome as a non-owner…

DEF:

Dunk (AVL)

Brighton looking very good this season generally under Graham Potter and cleaning the odd game here and there. Decent chance for one against an out of sorts Villa. Go on new friend Lewis.

Söyüncü (bur)

Soyboy has been a staple of my team for quite some time. Leicester always a shout for a clean. However, Burnley are one of those teams where I can never predict how they’re going to perform week to week, so I’m not banking on a clean by any means.

Sidibe (whu)

Difficult to predict how this one will go as West Ham are still a bit of an unknown quantity to me under new / old manager Moyseh.

Sidibe is the guy I’ll likely transition into a Liverpool defender next week but maybe he gets another go at RW this week with Richarlison confirmed out. Would be nice to get some OOP attacking farewell returns from him.

MID:

De Bruyne and Sterling (CRY)

Should just be a fuckfest for City (soz Walsh). Raz getting fairly frustrating to own but I’m keeping the faith for now.

Mané (MUN)

Another one of those games that you never know what to expect. Even while United were the dominant English team and Liverpool were complete piss, they always seemed to be able to show up for this match and up results. Could the shoe be on the other foot now? After all Utd are the only team Liverpool haven’t beaten so far this season in the PL. But I digress. Mane is obviously an auto-start in any fixture and Liverpool are the clear favourites in this one for good reason.

Maddison (bur)

He’s an absolute cunt imo. Very punchable face too. But he has undoubtedly been a very good FPL pick this season thus far. So go on James.

FWD:

Calvert-Lewin (whu)

2 blanks on the trot but I’m not too worried. Still think he’s great, Carlo loves him and the price is right.

Abraham (new)

Tammy back in the points lately so feels fine to hold for now. Fixtures turning to shit imminently so possibly one to monitor and maybe move on soon.

Vardy (bur)

Earlier in the season I was looking at Vardy’s stats vs. goals/assists output; I convinced myself it was unsustainable and that he would “revert to the mean” (that’s something us wankers who have no fucking clue about how underlying stats translate into FPL points say to kid ourselves that we know what we’re talking about).

It’s now clear that he is just a guy who you hold indefinitely because his points continue to roll in week after week after week.

CAP:

Sterling (CRY)

Call me an idiot.

Call me a glutton for punishment.

I capped Raz last week thinking he might just be a stroke of genius differential pick. Needless to say, that went poorly (0 mins with DCL VC, RIP). But fuck it. He goes again. I love Raz. Raz is great. He’s due – isn’t he?

Ultimately I’m just a guy who wants to get some fucking points on the board. Wish me luck.

[wroetominter]

Intrepid - ChrisMD Fanfiction - Chapter II

I also post this on my wattpad - montanaxrose

Hope you enjoy!

Rose

After getting to know Tobi, Annie and I became fast friends with all of the Sidemen.

Annie filmed many collabs with them while I helped film and even helped edit them. I was never one to actually be on camera, but sometimes I sat behind the camera reading them questions or something along those lines.

“Are you ready?” Annie asked me, peeking her head into my bedroom.

Today was an Arsenal vs Barcelona game and JJ had managed to snag himself a super box, inviting loads of his friends to one watch the game, and he was gracious enough to invite us two along.

I looked in the mirror, taking in my appearance. Skinny jeans with rips in them, white and black adidas jumper and all white adidas shoes.

“Do I look okay?” I asked, doing a 360 spin.

“You look fine, stop worrying about impressing Chris.” She said making me roll my eyes.

“I’m not trying to impress him. I just don’t want to look stupid in public, thanks.”

“Sureeee. Whatever helps you sleep at night.” She grabbed her phone and wallet, making sure I grabbed mine as well and we left the apartment, heading for the garage.

About a month into us moving here, I had learned enough of London to feel comfortable applying for my international drivers license, which I acquired quicker than expected.

We got into my car and Annie plugged her phone into the aux cord and began to play music as I drove us to the stadium.

“Where the hell do we go?” I asked Annie, looking around the large crowd, hoping to see someone I recognized, but to no avail.

“Don’t ask me.”

“You said JJ gave you instructions.”

“He told me when to get here. That’s it.” I sighed, pulling out my phone and trying to decide which of them to phone.

“Yeah Simon?” I asked when he answered the phone.

“Yeah what’s up? You guys arrive yet?”

“Yeah we’re here, though we have no idea where to find you guys.” He laughed.

“I’ll come meet you and bring you up, where are you?” He asked.

“Up front by the main staircase.”

“Be there in a few.”

“Thank you.” I hung up the phone and looked around, not seeing Annie anywhere.

For fucks sake, where could she have gone. I looked around, finally spotting her at the bar, of course.

“Annie!” I called to her.

I felt an arm around my waist and I screeched a bit, startled.

“Calm down it’s just me.” Simon laughed and held his stomach as he laughed.

I lightly slapped his arm, “dickhead, you scared the shit out of me.”

“I can tell.” By now, Annie had made her way over to us with her large drink in her hand.

“Let’s go to the box!” She exclaimed.

“Follow me.” Simon took my hand and I took Annie’s free hand so she didn’t get behind.

In no time the three of us arrived in the box, seeing all of our closest mates and some new faces as well.

I grabbed a beer, heading to find a seat.

“Rosie!” An all too familiar voice called me over to him.

“Christopher, always a pleasure seeing you.” I took a seat next to him and he leaned over to give me a hug.

“How long are you in town?” I asked him as I took a sip of my beer.“

"Only tonight actually.” I frowned, instantly noticing how he reacted to my frown. “I’ll be back after this weekend though. This time for good. Well, almost. I finally decided to move to the mainland.” He said taking a sip of his drink.

“That’s amazing! Where did you end up picking?” I asked him, now paying more attention to him than the football game.

“Well at first I thought the halo, but then I found an apartment that was a bit further out of central London that I loved. I’ll have to show you it sometime.” He said. There was a certain twinkle in his eyes when he talked about his new place.

“I’d love that.” I smiled.

Suddenly the crowd was screaming and Chris and I looked forward, seeing that Arsenal had scored.

“Oh my fucking god.” Chris said.

“Chris you missed your own team scoring a goal how do you feel?” Freezy asked, his vlogging camera being shoved into Chris’ face.

“I’m shocked.” He said, hands holding his face and elbows on his knees.

“I’m sorry.” I said, feeling a bit bad he missed the goal because of me.

“It’s fine, it was time well spent regardless.” He smiled at me and I returned the gesture.

After the game had finished, we all said our goodbyes in the box and parted ways. In an attempt to find Annie, I stood up on a chair and saw her over by the door talking to Calfreezy.

“Hello there.” I said walking up to the pair.

“Hey there.” Annie said, her voice slightly slurred.

“How much has she had to drink?” I asked Cal.

“Probably too much.” He responded. “Let me take her home for you?”

“Honestly go for it. I drove here so I’ll be good.” He nodded and began to help my now peacock haired best friend leave the stadium.

“Where’d your shadow go?” Simon asked me, lazily throwing an arm around me.

“Annie? Cal is taking her home.” He wiggled his eyebrows at me. “Gross. Don’t make me think about that.”

“Think about what?” Chris came over to us two and our attention was diverted to him.

“Cal and Annie gonna get it onnnn.” Simon said doing some weird hip motions.

“Simon if you don’t stop I’m going to throw up.” I said shrugging his arm off of my shoulders.

“Aw babes don’t be like that you know I love you.”

“Well stop. You’re gross.” I said making him pout.

“That’s rude.” I smiled widely at him and he just stuck his tongue out at me.

“I should probably be going.” I said, gathering up my belongings, along with the scarf from the match that I purchased.

“I’ll walk you out.” Chris said, grabbing up his things as well.

“See you guys later!” I called into the box and everyone called back goodbyes and waved.

Chris and I walked into the brisk London air and as we walked to the car park I realized I didn’t want the night to be over yet. “Hey are you doing anything after this?” I asked him.

“Just going back to my hotel, why?”

“I really want to go to the park.”

“At ten o'clock at night?”

“Yeah why not?” He nodded and I pulled out my phone.

“What are you doing?”

“I just moved here, I don’t know where the park is.” I explained, googling where the nearest park was.

My phone was taken from my hands and I looked up, seeing Chris slip my phone in his pocket. “I’ve been here millions of times. I know where the park is.” He began to walk and I followed beside him.

“So… the weather is really nice.” I said trying to make conversation.

“It’s literally freezing.” Chris said laughing.

“Well, it could be worse.”

“How so?”

“You could have ended up bored at your hotel with nothing to do.”

“Fair enough.” I suddenly felt a strong urge to grab his hand, but refrained because I didn’t want to make it weird.

As we walked, Chris’ hand brushed against mine and I looked down to see his hand blindly searching for mine, soon finding it and he laced our fingers together.

My eyes met with his and he smiled a little, looking back down at his feet and I could see a rosy blush creeping onto his complexion.

Once we arrived at the park I saw the kids playground and the swings, letting go of Chris’ hand and running for the swings.

I sat down on one of the swings and began to pump my legs forward and backwards, trying to get as high as possible.

“You’re actually a child.” Chris commented, crossing his arms and watching me swing.

“Are you not going to join?” I asked him.

“I’m more of a slide person myself really.” I slowed myself down and eventually jumped off, standing next to him, grabbing his hand and pulling him to the slide, climbing up the stairs with him in tow.

“Are we really doing this?”

“Chris you may be 20 years old but that doesn’t matter.” Chris rolled his eyes and I sat down at the top of the slide. “Well?”

“Well what?”

“Come down with me.”

“How the hell..”

“Just put your legs on either side of me and we’ll slide down together.” He did as I asked, putting his arms around my waist holding onto me.

I turned my head to face him, realizing how close our faces were. “Ready?”

“As I’ll ever be.”

We slid down the slide together and once we reached the bottom I couldn’t stop laughing.

“What’s so funny?” Chris asked, laughing more at me than anything.

“I can’t believe we just came to a park to slide and that’s it.” I said.

“I think you’re over tired love. You should probably go home and sleep.”

“Probably. But I want to stay with you.” I said, getting a bit serious.

“You’ll see more of me on Monday when you help me move into my new flat, how about that?”

“Sounds lovely. Also sounds like a cheeky way to get me to help you move.” I said standing up and beginning to walk with him back to where my car was parked.

“Well it’s both really. We get to see each other and I get help moving. It’s a win win situation here.” He said.

“Sounds like a good plan to me.” This time I grabbed his hand and laced our fingers together. The rest of the walk back to my car was spent in comfortable silence, then I spoke up.

“Do you want me to take you back to your hotel?”

“Sure, beats trying to get an uber at this time.” I laughed, agreeing with that statement.

“Do you have a preferred playlist?” I asked, plugging my phone into the aux cord.

“Anything really, I’m not picky.” I nodded, putting on my ‘everything’ playlist and pressing shuffle.

As music played softly in the background, I listened to Chris talk about all of the things he loved to do in London. Whether it was going to see Arsenal play or just go out to eat, it was very interesting hearing someone else’s perspective on a city.

Once I pulled up to Chris’ hotel, he turned to face me. “It was nice spending time with you, as always.”

“Agreed. I’ll see you Monday, Christoph.”

“See you Monday, Rosie.”

He turned to open the car door. “Wait.” He turned back towards me and I leaned in and gave him a kiss on the cheek.

“See you Monday.” I smiled softly and he smiled back.

“See you Monday.”