#...where'd she find her hat?

[uu-bookclub]

...but even after all that, Andy is Andy.

He's crude, he's rude, Fuuko wants nothing to do with it, and we come to the end of our first chapter with as much insane energy as we entered in! They had a momentary connection, but it's going to be a while longer until Andy and Fuuko can find something more~

Luckily, Andy'll change tactics by page 6 of the next chapter, so we can enjoy this as a goof rather than a long-term running theme! You know the dick game is insane.

Phew...! Just this first chapter ended up taking a lot longer than I expected! I'm hoping I'll be able to speed up once we've got less ground to cover, but this still might be a pretty slow book club. I'll wrap things up in my next post, but for now... if you're just coming in here, you can start from the beginning of chapter one here!

[hirsheyskisses]

OP Boys: Special Hugs (#1)

Luffy & Zoro

(Short Scenario)

Monkey D. Luffy

☆ Honestly, he's a hugger. Let's be real here, Maybe not like, the INSTANT he meets you, but the moment you are on his crew (trust me.. you'll get on the crew..) you are one of the many subjects of his physical contact

☆ a lot of times it may come off as way too energetic, arms being thrown around you or pulling you around, man's has no sense of a personal bubble

☆ but it gets (worse? Better? You don't know) when feelings get involved. If he didn't make it blatantly obvious he liked you, then you're either the densest person on the planet, or Luffy is horrible at flirting

☆ Let's be real here, it's probably both

☆ There is no escaping at that point.

"Hey! Where'd (Name) go?!"

Luffy questioned. He'd been searching on the Sunny forever, yet he couldn't find you! He'd checked the kitchen, your room, the pantry, the crows nest..

"(Name)? I think they're down in the medical bay with Chopper. They looked a bit under the weather." Nami didn't even spare him a glance: she was so focused on her map he was partially surprised she answered. But that was fine, because Luffy was focused too!

"(NAME)-"

He threw open the door to the medical bay, only to find you on the bed and leaning against the wall. Chopper looked up frantically and put his paws up, "they're sick! You shouldn't come in here-" "hey, Luffy." You rasped, and offered him a weak smile. Luffy completely ignored Choppers advice and ran to your side, protectively wrapping his arms around you.

"You're sickkkk? That sucks.. Chopper will make ya feel better though! Should we give them some meat?!"

You chuckled as you attempted to remove yourself from his grasp while Chopper sighed, "no, they need soft food! And you should leave Luffy, or you may get sick too!"

As if for the strict purpose of defying Chopper, his grip only tightened. "No! They need comfort.."

It wasn't as though you were complaining, his warmth was nice..

So Chopper made you up some medicine, after having giving up trying to make Luffy leave, and left the two of you.

"(Name).. you need anything?"

"No.. thank you."

His voice held genuine concern and your heart ached, knowing just how much the Captain cared for you. After a moment, you snuggled in closer. "'S cold." You slurred, arms wrapping around his torso whilst your head buried into his chest.

He took the hint, arm stretching across the room to grab an extra blanket. His hands worked the blanket around your body until you were tucked like a happy burrito, leaving him and you satisfied.

"..thanks, Luffy."

"Shishishishi! Anytime!" He laughed, taking his hat off and plopping it on your head.

Luffy began to talk for hours, about adventures they'd had before you'd join the crew, excitedly re-telling fights and funny stories from the crew. For a while, you were distracted from the discomfort of sickness, until you and him both fell asleep.

...it's safe to say he'd demand more cuddles after that. (Somehow.. he just doesn't get sick..l

Roronoa Zoro

♡ to be perfectly frank, he's not that much of a hugger. He's only hugged two crewmates, and that's Chopper and Luffy. Even for those two, its a rarity.

♡ but having been on the crew since the near beginning, your friendship with zoro was beginning to have a bit more connection than he ever intended to have.

♡ so came fourth of him asking (almost forcing) you to nap with him. At first, you just sat next to him, not really sleeping.

♡ honestly it was kinda funny. You'd both pretend to be asleep so the crew would give you guys some- half peace for a bit. You used to think it was dumb, but seeing as all the others (save for Nami) believed it, well..

♡ it became tradition

♡ sometimes when you both were a little down, he'd give you an awkward side hug, always looking so flustered afterwards, and it's just the cutest

♡ however, he soon finds a type of hug he really likes..

"That was some fight."

Zoro grunted, and you nodded in agreement. You two were the first to head back to the Sunny, to make sure it wasn't unattended for too long. Seeing as Zoro had no injuries and yours were very minor, you were best suited for the job.

"I'm beat, though. Those marines just kept coming.."

"You did good out there."

He replied, plopping on the deck and motioning for you to do the same, and you did. Sitting besides Zoro with a wince, "I let the one get a good hit on me.. need to work on that." You rubbed your side, and he glanced at you, "you can train with me later." He laid a hand on your head, smiling at you. Oh, that handsome swordsman has your heart, and you poked his cheek. "You better not go easy on me!" "Wouldn't dream of it, (Name)."

"I'm definitely going to be a sore fucker tomorrow, though."

He snickered and ruffled your hair, and you stuck your tongue out at him, "you won't let it happen again. That's all that matters- pain is a learning experience."

"Yeah yeah, ya old wise man."

"I am not old!"

"Yuh-huh, that's what an old person would say."

"Says the one complaining about aches in their bones-"

"I got hit by a very, very large stick-"

"...did you forget the word for staff?"

"...shut up, Mossbrain."

His mouth opened in a yawn, and you half followed suit. The bantering slowly subsided, and his hands unconsciously dropped to your shoulder, then slid down your back, holding you to his side.

If he did that intentionally, he didn't show it. His eyes had long since shut, and you were very familiar with how quickly he could conk out. A few moments of hesitation held you, before you wrapped your arms around his torso, a leg over his, and snuggled into his chest. His other arm moved to hold you, and,

"Ya better not plan on moving anytime soon.."

Lucky for him, you didn't.

So this became his favorite cool down after a fight.

Nami however, was not thrilled that the two people who were supposed to watch the ship fell asleep. RIP.

[bellaxgiornata]

Sweet of You

Pairing: Frank Castle x Mom!Reader Word Count: 1.6k [Collection Masterlist]

Warnings/tags: just fluff and a soft dad!Frank

Summary: Waking up in the hospital the morning after giving birth, you find Frank missing from his makeshift bed. But when you learn the reason for his disappearance, you're even more grateful that he's part of your life.

a/n: I've said it before and I'll say it again: I love a soft Frank. Especially a soft dad!Frank. Feedback and reblogs are always appreciated!

Collection Tag List: @danzer8705 @glowstick-lesbian @flowher @geminadeckerwritesstuff @shiorimakibawrites @beezusvreeland @ebathory997 @maryyymothhh @4happilyeverafter @sleepysleepymom @kezibear @charmedkim @midnightramble @carolinaxvz @1988-fiend @marcysbear

Sunlight beat against the backs of your eyelids, the brightness of it pulling you straight from sleep. Gradually opening your eyes, you immediately squinted at the warm light shining in through the hospital room’s windows. Blinking hard as you attempted to adjust to the unexpected morning light, you began to wonder exactly when the blinds had been opened; you knew Frank had certainly closed them last night while you’d still been in labor.

The thought of Frank had your eyes shifting away from the windows that overlooked the back of the hospital’s parking lot, your gaze instead lowering to the couch that folded out into a bed. It sat in front of the windows, the blankets a mess from having been tossed to the side. Frank’s pillow was still indented from where he’d been curled up with it last night, but Frank himself was missing from the makeshift bed, no longer buried beneath the blankets. 

A frown settled onto your lips as you carefully pushed yourself upright in the hospital bed, wincing slightly at the soreness in your body as you did. But as you moved, a soft, contented sigh caught your attention, the noise quickly distracting you. 

Your little baby girl was sound asleep in the hospital bassinet next to your bed, her small body bundled neatly in her purple swaddle and matching tiny hat. Her head was turned in your direction, her chest rising and falling with each breath. She looked so peaceful sleeping there–a complete change from the screaming and crying she’d done when she’d first come into the world just a few hours ago.

Staring down at your daughter, who’s mouth you already swore was the same as Frank’s, you found yourself entirely forgetting that he was missing from the hospital room. Instead, you'd become entranced by her tiny little face, watching the faint twitches along her lips as she slept. She was already a perfect mix of you and him.

You weren’t sure how long you’d been lost in thought just staring at the swaddled bundle before you heard the hospital room door open behind you. The noise pulled your attention away from your daughter as you turned around on the bed, expecting to see one of the many nurses coming into your room–because they’d certainly popped in and out of your room plenty of times throughout the night. But instead you spotted Frank carefully closing the door behind himself with his shoulder, a bag in one hand and a drink tray unmistakably holding two coffees in his other. 

“Where'd you go?” you asked.

At the sound of your voice, Frank’s eyes darted up from the drink tray in his hand that he'd been focused on balancing before they landed on you. A small smile pulled at his lips when he saw you sitting there awake before he strode across the room, making his way around your hospital bed as he walked. As you watched him, you saw how his gaze shifted to your sleeping baby girl, noticing how the smile on his face had grown somehow brighter, lighting it up in a way you'd never seen before. Though your stomach growled at the scent of food when he passed by you, and that had your attention switching curiously to the bag in his hand.

“Woke up early. You were still asleep so I thought I'd grab us breakfast,” he told you, placing the coffees and bag onto the little table near your bed. “Figured you deserved somethin’ better than hospital food after what you just went through. And,” he said, pulling one of the massive to-go cups from the drink tray and holding it out to you, “I figured you deserved a large coffee. Know how excited you've been about not needing to watch your caffeine anymore.”

Your eyes lit up at the sight of the coffee cup he held out towards you, your hands already eagerly reaching for it. “You're my hero,” you gushed, accepting the hot cup from his hands. “Forget knights in shining armor or superheroes, all I need is you bringing me coffee.”

He chuckled lightly as he turned and began untying the knot on the bag he'd carried in. As you took a long drink from your cup, relishing the coffee you didn't feel guilty for drinking since you were no longer pregnant, your mind began to race at what might be in the bag.

“Don't know about that, honey,” Frank muttered, undoing the knot. “But I did get you somethin’ else.”

Your eyes narrowed curiously as Frank reached into the bag, pulling out a styrofoam container. He leaned over and set it onto the hospital tray beside your bed before rolling that over closer to you. Setting your coffee onto the tray beside the container, you opened the lid and were hit with the delicious scent of food. 

And then you realized what he'd actually brought you. A vegetable egg benedict that you recognized from the brunch place you both frequented. Your favorite item to order whenever you went there, but something you'd been unable to have despite craving it for nine long months.

Eyes growing wide, your head darted over your shoulder towards Frank. He was grinning proudly back at you.

“You got my favorite from Buttermilk?” you asked in awe.

“Knew how much you've been missing it,” he replied with a shrug. “Figured it'd go perfect with your coffee. You know, now that you don't need to avoid runny yolk, either.”

“Marry me,” you blurted with a straight face.

Frank's grin grew wider. “Thought I was s’posed to be the one asking you that?” he teased. Gesturing a hand at the container of food, he ordered, “Eat. Before it’s cold.”

“Thank you, Frank,” you replied, pushing the button to more comfortably raise your hospital bed upright so you could eat. “This was sweet of you. Now I feel like I owe you.”

“Don't owe me nothin’, sweetheart,” Frank assured you, settling down onto his makeshift bed with his own food. “You and our girl there are all I need. Don't need anything else.”

Pausing with your fork hovering above your food, your gaze returned to him. Frank sat there on the fold out couch staring at your sleeping daughter in the bassinet. The corners of his lips were curled into a warm, gentle smile, one of the rare ones that truly reached his eyes. And his eyes–those soft brown eyes of his that you loved so much–were visibly full of emotion.

Sitting there watching him, your coffee and breakfast both temporarily forgotten, you found yourself growing emotional, too. You damn well knew what that little girl meant to him, long before she'd even taken her first breath in this world. And right now it was written all over his face.

The purple little bundle beside your bed suddenly moved, your little girl gradually beginning to fight against the confines of her swaddle. Her face scrunched up in discontent as she let out a grunt. You reached out to push the hospital tray off to the side, prepared to check her diaper or offer her a bottle, but Frank's soft voice stopped you.

“Don't,” he said. “I got her. Just eat your breakfast.”

Your eyes darted up to Frank, watching as he set his container of breakfast off to the side. He rose to his feet, his eyes on your little newborn as he stepped over to the bassinet. 

“C'mere, baby girl,” he cooed softly, his large hands gently sliding underneath her body. “That's it, I got ya.”

He gradually pulled her up and into his arms, carefully cradling her against his chest. Her tiny eyes slowly blinked open, focusing somewhere near Frank’s chin. The look of discontent she’d had was gone as she continued to quietly stare up at him.

“Had a rough introduction to this world, huh?” he asked her softly, sitting back down on the bed with her. “Don't blame you for crying about it. But let me tell you something. You've got the best mom over there,” he said. Frank glanced up, shooting you a wink that quickly had a warmth spreading through you. “We're both lucky she’s ours.”

Biting back the smile threatening to overtake your face, you focused back down on your container of food. Stabbing your fork into the top of one of the eggs, you watched as the delicious yolk you'd had to avoid for months oozed out over the english muffin beneath it. 

“And I'll tell you somethin’ else, baby girl,” Frank continued on, his voice a soft, soothing rumble as he spoke. “If anyone ever hurts you, I can promise they'll have me to deal with. Especially any future assholes thinkin’ they can take you out.”

Eyes going wide in surprise at what he'd said, your head darted over your shoulder towards him once more. “ Frank !” you scolded, though you couldn't stop the laughter that slipped out of you. 

Frank looked up at you, cocking his head to the side as one of his brows slowly rose up onto his forehead. “What?” he asked. 

You shook your head, trying to stifle your laughter. “She's not even twenty-four hours old,” you pointed out. “Can’t you hold off a little longer before you start threatening her future significant others?”

“Why?” he asked back. 

“Because she's only just a baby and–” you stopped short before shaking your head and focusing back on your breakfast. “You know what? Nevermind,” you said. “But I fear for her future dates because you're probably going to have them pissing their pants.”

“Good,” he stated. “Should be scared. ‘Cause no one's gonna hurt either of my girls. Ever.”

Grinning, you speared a vegetable with your fork before bringing it to your mouth. There wasn't a doubt in your mind that Frank would keep his word, making sure to take damn good care of the both of you for as long as he was a part of your lives.

[nejiverse]

A DISTANT MEMORY

Boothill

In which an array of events briefly teleports Boothill to the past, where is daughter would forever remain. Fem! Reader

cw: suggestive, a teensy bit of angst, not prood read (ik its unlike me but im feeling lazy lol)

1700 words

"So..what do you think?", Y/n held the gun up to the light on the ceiling, admiring her handiwork.

"Beautiful", Boothill responded but Y/n could see from her peripheral vision that he wasn't looking at the gun at all, he was looking at her.

"The gun, Boothill", she had to let him know he wasn't slick.

"Yeah an' I said it's beautiful", he defended himself, crossing his arms as he crossed his legs on top of the empty side of Y/n's workspace, a knowing look on his face. "Good with your hands, ain't ya?". Boothill smirked, his pointy teeth poking out of the crevice between his top and bottom lips.

You know what else they can do?", she noticed how his eyes shone with a glint of expectation, until she used the butt of the gun to hit him on top of his head.

Boothill let out a disgruntled groan as his hat fell lopsided on his head.

"Geez, where'd all that strength come from?", he took his hat off, rubbing the crown of his head.

"It's all natural", she puffed out her chest, flexing her non existent arm muscles.

Boothill chuckled, shaking his head. "Well darlin', you sure know how to handle yourself", he teased, cocking his head to the side as he scanned her from the bottom up. "Y'know, I've always had a thing for women who can handle a firearm", Boothill winked, placing his hat on top of her head playfully.

Y/n rolled her eyes at his words and actions, a grin playing at the side of her lips. "As ironic as it may sound, I don't actually know how to use a gun...I just tinker with them", she admitted, a tinge of embarrassment floating in her chest.

Boothill's grin faltered for a moment, his eyebrows arching in surprise. "Is that so?" he replied, his tone more curious than accusatory. "Well ya sure had me fooled". He took the gun from the table, twirling it around his index finger. "I can teach ya".

"Sure, why not", she might as well know how it works, there was no harm. She adjusted her seating as she listened attentively, but instead of Boothill picking her ear about his knowledge on guns, he instead stood up behind her.

"O-oh you mean actually teaching me", she muttered, her eyebrows furrowing in uncertainty.

"Well how else would I teach ya?".

Boothill stood behind Y/n, his body close enough that she could feel the heat radiating from him. His hands gently guided hers as they held the gun, his touch sending shivers down her spine.

"Now, darlin', you gotta hold it steady," he murmured, his breath warm against her ear. "Nice and firm, but not too tight."

Y/n nodded, but internally her brain was malfunctioning at the ambiguity of his words. She tried to focus on his instructions rather than the electrifying sensation of his proximity. She adjusted her grip, her fingers brushing against his as they wrapped around the handle.

"That's it," Boothill spoke in a tone above a whisper . "Now, ya gotta aim true. Find your target and focus."

Y/n's heart pounded in her chest as she followed his guidance, her gaze fixed on the red thumbnail on the notice board hung up on the far side of the dimly lit workshop, but her attention kept drifting back to Boothill, his rugged features illuminated by the soft glow of the desk light.

"Steady now," he murmured, his hands moving to adjust her shoulders.  As Y/n exhaled slowly, she felt Boothill's body press against hers, his chest firm against her back.

"Atta girl," Boothill praised, his voice laced with pride at how good he was at teacher her. "But you gotta remember to relax. Let the gun do the work".

Y/n nodded, internally noting all the tips and tricks he was giving her. Despite all the waves of emotions she was being smacked with, she truly did appreciate his efforts in helping her fully understand how a gun works and how to use it.

"Y'know, darlin'," Boothill murmured, his voice low. "There's more to shootin' than just hittin' a target."

Y/n hummed in anticipation. She turned to face him, her eyes meeting his in a silent exchange.

"Like what?", she breathed.

"Like trustin' your instincts," he said, his voice dripping with promise. "And lettin' go of control."

Before Y/n could respond, Boothill's lips were on hers. Boothill felt as though he had just came home from a long journey, albeit her workshop not being his home, and having not went on a long journey at all.

Y/n melted into him, her hands tangling in his hair as she surrendered herself to his touches and deep kisses. Though she was taken aback when she felt his head against her chest. Boothill couldn't help but notice the rapid thumping of Y/n's heart beneath against his face.

Y/n's lips quivered in embarrassment. "Stop that", she uttered, shooing him away.

Boothill let out a hearty laugh as he fell back into his seat. “I gotta say, it's mighty gratifyin' to know I have that kind of effect on you—".

Y/n shoved his hat in his face in efforts to shut him up. "Nonsense", Y/n retorted, opting to change the subject. "Besides, you said you only came here to say hi and leave", Y/n swatted away his roaming hands.

Boothill grinned, his eyes sparkling with mischief. "Sometimes sayin 'hi' just ain't enough".

As Boothill and Y/n chatted away together, caught up in their moment of bonding, they were interrupted by a soft sound nearby. Turning, they spotted a little girl rubbing her eyes, her tiny form illuminated by the light of the room she just came out of.

Y/n shook her head with a lazy smile. She just couldn't bring herself to be mad at her daughter for coming out when she looked so cute. "I told you no coming in when I have visitors", she cooed, getting up to pick the little girl up while she brushed her bed hair back. The woman was still curious as to how she managed to get out of bed all by herself.

Boothill's breath caught in his throat as he took in the sight of the child. She couldn't have been more than a year old, yet there was something hauntingly familiar about her features—the same dark curls, the same wide eyes that he had seen in his own daughter.

"I'll be damned", Boothill whispered to himself in bewilderment.

His heart clenched with a mixture of astonishment and grief as he stared at the child, his mind racing in utter confusion. It was uncanny.

"Never knew ya had a daughter", Boothill opted to just forget about it, but he would soon find out that it wouldn't work.

"A lot of people don't, my line of work isn't the safest you know", forging and enhancing weapons for both good and bad people certainly came with its risks, but Y/n thought that being neutral to both sides was the best idea.

The little girl looked over her mother's shoulder at the stranger. She babbled incoherent words whilst pointing at the cyborg.

"Wanna say hi?", Y/n asked the child who flailed her arms around as a response. Y/n turned her gaze towards Boothill. "You any good with kids?".

Was he? He's not sure since he wasn't able to protect his own kid. With hesitation in his voice, Boothill spoke. "I...dunno".

Y/n chuckled. "Well you must be 'cause this girl hates strangers", Y/n put the little girl down as she slowly waddled over to Boothill.

Boothill's eyes softened as he looked at the child, a faint smile tugging at the corners of his lips. "Well, ain't that somethin'," he murmured, his voice filled with surprise. "What's your name lil' lady?", he asked the little girl.

The child babbled happily, her small hand reaching up to touch his face. Boothill chuckled, the sound reverberating in the quiet room. "Guess you're not quite ready to tell me yet, huh?".

Y/n stepped closer, her heart swelling at the sight of Boothill holding her daughter with such care. "Her name is D/n," she said softly. "She's not really that verbal yet".

Boothill nodded, his eyes never leaving D/n's face. "D/n huh?".

Y/n watched them, a mixture of emotions swirling within her. Seeing Boothill with D/n, so tender and gentle, made her heart ache with a longing she hadn't realised she carried. She took a deep breath, trying to steady herself.

"You're good with her," Y/n remarked sincerely. "You look like you've done this before."

Boothill's smile faltered for a brief moment, a shadow passing over his eyes. He quickly masked it with a grin. "Well, kids seem to like me," he said lightly, though the weight of unspoken memories lingered in his gaze.

D/n made grabby hands at the feather on Boothill's hat, intrigued by how it moved every time he did.

The man took off his hat and handed it to her, the  accessory engulfing half her head.

She giggled and lifted the hat up, or attempted to till Boothill did it for her, angling it in a way which would allow her to see. She flashed her still developing teeth into an award winning smile.

As he held Y/n's daughter, memories of his own daughter, who had been taken from him far too soon, flashed through his mind. The pain of her loss had been a constant shadow, a wound that never fully healed. Yet, holding D/n, he felt a glimmer of healing, a sense of connection that he thought he'd lost forever. It was as if life was giving him a second chance to protect and cherish a child.

Boothill never wants to leave, ever.

masterlist :)

[succubusbri]

HOLIDAY MADNESS || DB Various x Reader

DB VARIOUS X FEMALE!READER

TAGS: Headcanons, No use of y/n, Female Reader with no use of pronouns.

NOTES: Happy Holidays!

GOKU

Two, nights before Christmas you'd both be hanging up lights and decorations. This Christmas wasn't anything different from last year, though the bond and of your relationship being what keeps you together.

Honestly would act like every kid who wakes up on Christmas morning. Not only excited to open presents but the spirit of Christmas and spending time with family is what gets him going.

Didn't really understand the meaning of Christmas until Bulma explained it to him at some point.

He definitely would be the type to wake you out of your sleep, already surged with energy. And even better to see the thick layers of snow piled outside your home.

You two would spend the day together opening presents, attending to Bulma's Christmas party she'd host each year and enjoying each other's company.

VEGETA

Acts like he doesn't care, nor celebrates holidays when deep down he only does it for your sake. He in all actuality would get advice from your close friends such as Piccolo, Bulma, Krillin, etc.

Definitely would watch from the sidelines as you exchange gifts with others, the joy and laughter of it all ringing in his ears. Vegeta watches as you open your gifts one by one until you finally get to his.

Vegeta tries to come off as tough and careless when it comes down to his gifts. He wouldn't had expected you to remember the exact thing he'd truly wanted; (gift of your choosing.) You would find his reaction rather cute, although he immediately covers it up with his usual stoic and cold expression. Where'd you get it from, how you managed to? Well that was a secret. Considering how much he hinted at it and talked about it, it was hard not to get it for him.

KALE AND CAULIFLA + KEFLA

What the hell is a 'holiday'? That question lingers in Caulifla's head. Bulma explained it to her and Kale what the meaning of a holiday and how earth had celebrations of holidays such as Thanksgiving, Easter, and even Christmas. Specifically the meaning of Christmas.

Spending time with your loved ones and exchanging gifts? The idea of such things didn't sound bad at all to Kale; they loved spending time with you. Caulifla on the other hand didn't quite grasp the concept. Isn't Christmas nearly every day? Especially when they spend their time with you by training and hanging out.

Kale would certainly be up to gift you something. Anything that fit the category of your interests. After all without you being the their reason to keep going, both of them would still be in universe six.

Caulifla gets frustrated with having no luck, but with Kale's comfort, she seeks out ideas. Maybe stealing a few ideas from others and turning them into her own.

As Bulma's Christmas party draws closer, Caulifla comes up with the idea that maybe it would be better if someone else would deliver the gifts to you. After all you had always been eager to see their potara fusion Kefla come to light, outside of her arrogance and carelessness.

.Your eyes would skim through the party, witnessing everyone else coming together with their loved ones. But your girlfriends had yet to show up. You check the time of your watch, noting that it was already drawing closer to eight. The wrapped presents in your arms wouldn't go to waste as you wait for their arrival.

"Dammit."

That voice.... You spun around to see none other than Kefla. Her mouth curved into a grin and the santa hat topped on her head added on to her muscular appearance. Her eyes dart towards the large box hovered on her shoulder, wrapped in green wrapping paper.

"Sorry for the inconvenience, we had some delays on the way."

GOGETA

Gift wrapping, baking, watching Christmas movies, you name it. Gogeta enjoys spending time with you when he doesn't have to go back to back with fighting to save the world. The two of you spend Christmas at home, opting to attend to Bulma's party later when things die down a bit.

Gogeta would help you cook dinner, the two of you vibing to lovable Christmas music. Celebrating holidays with one another is another way to strengthen your bond. Although he isn't aligned to the earthly traditions and celebrations, it doesn't discourage him from joining in on the fun.

As time grows closer to where you start opening presents, Gogeta awaits for your reaction. He is very observant and pays to attention. The things you wanted and spoke of all year, you can bet your ass off that he's got it for you. There were a few things you had personally searched for online and in stores that had been out of stock for ages. How did he—

You don't even question it as your arms swung over his shoulders, taking him shortly by surprise as you embrace him in a warm, tight hug. Gogeta chuckles returning the gesture. He'd knew you'd like it.

Knowing you had gotten him something, he'd open it gratefully. He isn't one to complain and anything you'd gift him, he kept it regardless.

GOKU BLACK AND ZAMASU

Personally can't see them celebrating any man-made holidays. Though in this timeline, humans still thrive and Zero Mortals plan cease to exist. Despite their loss, they still despise the human race to an extent.

They'd probably watch from an distance, observing how you interacted with others during this time.

When you gift them handmade gifts one day, they weren't quite sure what to do with it. Zamasu considered in tossing it out while Goku Black just stared at it, blinking blankly at it. When Zamasu realized Goku Black isn't throwing it out in the trash as he had planned to, Zamasu would question it.

You worked hard on crafting those items. The effort in it felt more than what they had put in in their original plan to wipe humanity.

It was strange to see humans so loving and caring when majority of them were evil, destructive and cruel. Perhaps there is more good to the world than they had given credit for. But it doesn't convince them outright to participate in such traditions.

You were lucky you are an exception.

[mouthwashinggoodendingau]

prologue: they all wound and the last kills

The cold, harsh metal of the dining room table sent spasms through Curly's disfigured body. He'd already given up on screaming, long ago - his vocal cords burnt beyond faint usage - but nothing phased Jimmy. Jimmy did as he pleased, and stopped at nothing to get his way; resulting in Curly's disfigurement and the deaths of their crew. Perhaps if Curly had done something earlier, or if he'd listened to his mother when she warned him that Jimmy was nothing but a bad omen, his friends would be alive. God, he should've listened to Anya, too. She'd begged him to do something, anything to keep Jimmy's hands off of her. But he'd been too stubborn to face the facts. Swansea would've had another chance to be a better father to his children and soon to come grandchildren. Maybe he'd finally accept proper help for his repressed alcoholism. Daisuke would've gone home to his loving parents, the experience shaping him into a hardworking, loving man. Anya would've entered medical school, being able to use her year of experience as a nurse as a way to finally get in. She'd be able to finally see herself for the brilliant professional she is, instead of a broken mess trying to survive with her attacker. Curly had lamented over his lack of action over the numerous months he'd spent laying on that damn plastic bed, high off painkillers - and when they wore off, the torturous pain of burnt exposed flesh and fused clothes bringing him back to reality. He looked around, trying to find where Jimmy had run off to. All he could do was look. That's all he'd been able to do for months.

"Fucks sake, Curly. Where'd you put that damn knife you always saved for cutting cake?"

He heard bangs and crashes from the kitchen, drawers slammed open and utensils clattering on the ground. Why would Jimmy need the birthday knife? He already had an axe, and a gun at his disposal. He'd already shown he knew how to use them..

"Ohh haha I found it. You sneaky bastard, you shoved it behind the gelatin container!"

Curly looked down to see an unrecognisable face, skin pale and clammy, brown eyes seemingly souless and depraved. Long, unkempt ash brown hair lay limp across the man's dirty skin. At least... he wished it was unrecognisable.

"Curly, you were always a pretentious sack of shit, weren't you? Always finding a way to rub it in that you were better. Can't believe I ever respected you, mate."

Jimmy grinned, smile a little too wide and eyes a little too twitchy to be all there. He ran his fingers across the bandages acting as a barrier for Curly's exposed flesh, deliberately pressing harder to elicit yelps out of him. Cackling, he lifted Curly up, enough so he could see the remains of their coworkers. Jimmy had arranged them in the exact seating plan they'd been in when they'd held a surprise birthday party for Curly. Except now, all that remained were the dull lifeless corpses of a once promising crew despite their circumstances. Blood coagulated around Anya's nostrils and chin, mucus and lining stuck to her striped turtleneck. Pill casings encrusted her lips and tongue, acidic stench radiating from her entire body. Daisuke's head rolled back, glimpses of his skull and nerves visible from the split in his face, eyes closed in a not so peaceful slumber. Flesh and blood coated his forever youthful face, oozing out of the axe wound. His once clean hibiscus overshirt lay splattered with blood and gore, burns crackled into the fabric. For the first time in the years Curly had known him, Swansea looked fearful, remaining eye forever staring into the void. His forehead and left eye were split open, blasted from the gunshots; blood pooling from his skull. Jimmy wouldn't let them rest peacefully, even in death. He'd shoved the old party hats on them, tearing lifeless skin to get his way. He couldn't imagine what other gruesome things Jimmy had planned to do to him. Curly had thought complete disfigurement of his body and loss of all bodily functions was enough, would satiate Jimmy's desire for control, but he always wanted more. No. Jimmy needed more. Jimmy always needed more. 

"Oh Curls, you were always stepping over others to get to better places, greener hills. You never stopped to get what you want, ay? But now it's my turn."

Curly whimpered, shivering in fear and desperation. He didn't care about Jimmy projecting his own insecurities onto him, but the man had already abused and tortured him for pills and killed the rest of his crew. Now he had him set up in the middle of the dining table like a sacrificial lamb, the corpses of his remaining friends surrounding him like a fucked up birthday party. Was Jimmy... planning to use him as the cake? Curly cried out, trying to push the thought to the back of his mind. No. No, Jimmy still cared about him. God he felt stupid. Even after all Jimmy had done to him and his friends, he still thought the guy could care, let alone about him. 

"Happy birthday to the newest Captain of the Tulpar!" 

Jimmy picked up the knife, unwrapping the bandages on Curly's leg. The cold, musty air hit the exposed flesh like a sparking wire, sending pain coursing up Curly's body. He'd gotten used to the agony by now, but he could still feel every prick, every fumble made when the bandages were changed. Jimmy positioned the knife above the remains of a knee.

"I haven't cut the cake in a long time."

Agony shot through his leg, fire erupting through his veins and capillaries as he screamed, struggling with the remainder of his limbs. He desperately tried to move, tried to escape, anything to stop Jimmy through gnawing through his knee with the blunt knife. He'd taken ages to cut through that birthday cake ages ago, and that shit was soft! It wouldn't be a simple, painful cut through his damn knee. It would be hours of agony, screaming and crying for anything to make it stop. And Jimmy knew that. Curly knew that Jimmy would relish in his screams, his pained, wretched screams. Curly had in the past considered himself an atheist, but in this moment, he would've devoted himself to any religion to get away from this. He sobbed, and begged, and pleaded to anything out there to save him.

'Please! Please, I promise I'll be a better man, I'll do anything! I'll... I'll worship whoever and whatever, I'll devote my whole self to whatever to get out of here!'

fic link : https://archiveofourown.org/works/61405324/chapters/156960571

[tobiasdrake]

Digimon Adventure: Our War Game, Part 2 of 2

Previously on Digimon Adventure: After recovering her hat from the Digital World in a wild spinoff adventure that lasted at least 45 episodes, Mimi went on vacation to Hawaii and is living her best life. All of her friends miss her terribly to the point that Jou ended up vandalizing her family nameplate out of grief, which goes to show what a vital and important cornerstone of this team she is.

Meanwhile Tokyo's phone system is glitching out 'cause too many people are prank calling each other or something. IDK the B-plot didn't seem that important.

While Taichi is contemplating how unbelievably difficult the task of getting a hold of Mimi has become, Koushiro returns.

Yuuko: Oh, welcome back. Koushiro: Thank you. What's wrong, Taichi-san?

His answer is to once again flop helplessly over the couch.

Cut to the interior of Susumu's office, where Koushiro's once again at work with the computer while Taichi lies helplessly on the floor. I choose to believe Koushiro dragged him in here by his ankles.

Koushiro: Hawaii, huh? Taichi: We're completely screwed! Koushiro: We won't be able to assemble everyone, will we?

Unless we have a way of reaching Mimi in Hawaii, no. For the first time, the team's going to have to make do with whoever they have on-hand, rather than the whole crew coming together for the big fight.

Well, I say 'first time' but two out of four Dark Masters and MetalEtemon were fought that way.

Taichi: By the way, where'd you run off to?

Koushiro holds up an unusual looking black phone.

Koushiro: This is a satellite phone. Taichi: Satellite? Koushiro: With this, we'll be able to directly connect with foreign access points without having to go through NTT's switchboard. Taichi: So then we can call Yamato and the others-- Koushiro: That won't be possible. Local calls still go through the switchboard. Taichi: Oh, what the hell!

Sat phone is going to bring us back from the brink of Complete Annihilation, but isn't going to solve all of our problems.

In the dub:

Yuuko: Hi, Izzy! Welcome back! Izzy: Thank you. So, uh... When's everybody coming over? Tai: NYAAAAGH!!! (flop) (Cut to office) Izzy: Cheer up already! Tai: What happened to the good ol' days when we were a team? Izzy: We are a team, Tai. But we're just kinda spread out right now. Tai: By the way, where did you disappear to? (Izzy shows him the sat phone) Izzy: Well, I went to pick this up. Tai: What is it!? Izzy: A satellite uplink. We can get onto the internet by tapping into the military satellite system! Tai: Izzy, you're a genius! How does it work!? Izzy: Well, do you know what a semiconductor is? Tai: ...a guy who works part-time on a train? Izzy: Never mind.

The dub misses the kind of important detail that we can't call the others on the sat phone. The put the semiconductor quip where that should go.

Which is a pretty good quip. XD A funny joke that also plays off the relative difference in Tai and Izzy's knowledge bases, so there's some neat characterization embedded in it.

The dub adds that we'll be accessing "the military satellite system" specifically.

Well, if we can't use the sat phone to contact the others, there's one other option.

Koushiro: Why don't you call 171 and see if we have any messages? Taichi: Oh, right, I forgot about that!

Taichi calls the number, and he and Koushiro listen in.

Recording: Playing message. Yamato: (beep) Moshi moshi? This is Yamato. What was so urgent? Koushiro: We did it! Taichi: I knew we could count on him!

The boys record a message for Yamato, and we cut to grandma's villa.

Koushiro: (beep) You both have your Digivices, right? Yamato: Koushiro...? (Back to Yagami residence) Takeru: (beep) We have them. Yamato: Hey, what's going on here? (Back to Grandma's) Koushiro: (beep) Please find a computer to use. A new kind of Digimon appeared inside the internet. Taichi: We need you to help us fight! Takeru: ...this is really bad. (Back to Yagami residence) Takeru: (beep) We have our Digivices, but there's no computer here at Grandma's house. Yamato: There may not be any at all. We're in Shimane, after all.

The Shimane prefecture is one of the least populated regions in all of Japan. They are deeply rural right now. This realization causes Taichi to flop right back over onto the ground.

Taichi: (overdramatic) WE'RE COMPLETELY SCREEEEEEEWED!!! Koushiro: (beep) Please, try to find a computer! There has to be a computer somewhere in Shimane!

Matt and Takeru sprint out of the house, descending a long staircase from their grandmother's home.

Yamato: Hurry, Takeru!

Fingers crossed 'cause it's a ten-hour train ride back to Tokyo. We're not gonna be able to ford the Tokyo Bay on Zudomon's back with this one.

In the dub:

Tai: Is it hooked up yet? Izzy: Almost. In the meantime, check the messages to see if anyone called back. Tai: Oh! I forgot! (Tai checks messages) Matt: Hey Tai, it's Matt. So what's the big emergency? Call me back? T.K.: WAUGH!!! Matt: Oh, I gotta go. Grandma fell asleep on T.K. again. Izzy: Good ol' Matt! Tai: I knew that somebody on the team would come through! (Cut to Grandma's) Tai: (beep) Hey Matt, did you and T.K. bring your Digivices with you? Matt: Did you pack them? (Back to Kamiya residence) T.K.: (beep) This is T.K. Of course we have them! What's going on? (Back to Grandma's) Izzy: (beep) An evil Digimon has taken over the internet. Agumon and Tentomon are fighting it now but they need help! Get your Digivices to a computer as fast as you can! T.K.: ...what do we do now? Matt: (beep) Guys, the closest thing our grandmother has to a computer is an egg timer! We're going into town to find one.

The dub snips a round of phone tag, including Taichi comically flopping back over and wailing about how screwed we are. But to avoid losing the vital exposition that computers are hard to come by in Shimane, they play Matt's final message over the footage of the boys racing down the stairs.

Izzy lies to Matt and T.K. here. Agumon and Tentomon are resting, not fighting Infermon right now.

With Yamato and Takeru now on-mission, Koushiro finishes reconnecting.

On the screen, the images of Kabuterimon and Greymon ready to fight appear. Uh, having somehow re-evolved to Adult-stage without Taichi and Koushiro connected to them. But Infermon's icon is missing.

Koushiro: Alright, we're connected! Taichi: The satellite phone worked! Koushiro: Hang on, it isn't there! Did it leave NTT? Taichi: Hey....

A new email comes in from Infermon. It has a new message, all in Katakana like the others. It reads "イナイイナイバ Inai inai ba!" Pretty sure the last letter is the creature making sounds, while いない inai in Hiragana means "Not here".

The message seems to be, "Not here not here BLEH!" Infermon is taunting them. More importantly, the email address it's using is "@@@@@@djm.dot.gov.ny.us".

Koushiro: Found it! This thing... It's in America! Taichi: America?

While that's going on, Yamato and Takeru roam the long stretches of land in Shimane searching for a functioning computer they can connect to the internet with. The first house they stop at is no good, as a man out on the porch explains to them.

Man: Computer? I have one, but it's broken right now.

At the next house, the now out-of-breath brothers are again turned aside by a middle-aged woman at the door.

Woman: A computer? I don't have anything like that.

At the third house, as the brothers now gasp for air, they're met with further failure from an elderly couple.

Old Man: A com... what? Com....

Leaving there, the boys wander the street looking for new options.

Yamato: Like I thought, there's no computers anywhere in Shimane!

Well, the good news is that when Infermon collapses society, Yamato and Takeru will be well-insulated where they are.

In the dub:

Izzy: The uplink's working! We're back online! Tai: Now let's exterminate that bug! Izzy: ...he left the phone company!? Now where is he? Tai: Look! He sent another email!

As with Infermon's previous messages, the dub rewrites the email in English. This one reads "I'm close to him." Presumably referring to Willis.

Tai: "I'm close to him"!? Close to who!? Izzy: He's in America! Tai: He doesn't even have a green card!?

By pure serendipity, this time we are in fact talking about the United States. The dub didn't have to change this one. Infermon is in America.

The following scene featuring the boys' search for a computer was cut.

Yamato and Takeru's search continues until, suddenly, they strike gold.

The boys discover a small storefront called タクシタでんきTakushita Denki, or Takushita Electric. Writing on the shop window generically advertises "あなたの街のでんきやさん Anata no machi no denkiya-san" or "Your town's electric appliance shop!" Probably don't need much of a pitch in Shimane.

It's not exactly Radio Shack but it's in the right ballpark so we should be able to--

Woman: I'm sorry, but I don't have an internet connection for this computer.

At this point Takeru is straight-up crying. The boys are so fucked that it provokes an argument between the man and woman running the shop.

Man: Oh come on, just let them use it. Woman: (pointed) Sho-chan, don't you have deliveries to make? Sho: I feel bad for them! Woman: (getting heated) But it doesn't connect to the internet! Man: (pounds fist on the table) Then hook it up! Woman: SHO-CHAN-- Yamato: Hey, hey, both of you....

Yamato puts a stop to this before it gets ugly, and we cut to the boys on Sho's delivery motorcycle.

Yamato: Where are we going!? Sho: Leave this to me!

Three cheers for the random deliveryman who wouldn't hang these boys out to dry.

As with the rest of the boys' search, the dub cuts the electric shop too. All we get is the boys on Sho's motorcycle, which is quickly recontextualized to explain who he is.

Matt: UNCLE AL!!! I SAID SLOW DOWN!!! Al: STILL CAN'T HEAR YOU!!!

As with "Sora's cousin Duane", the dub's invented a new relative to transport the Chosen Children. I wonder if the kids accepting rides from strangers made the censors uncomfortable?

Meanwhile, in the United States, Infermon rampages unchecked across American systems.

Devouring everything in its path, we see multiple effects of the havoc it's unleashing.

Bus destination signs flickering into gibberish. Cab drivers' navigation systems replaced by static images superimposed by Infermon's face. The same happening to the giant screens in New York City, as well as airplane and flight control instruments at airports.

There's also one really cool metaphorical shot, gradually zooming out on an American flag while Infermon crawls up one of its stripes like an infectious parasite. Gives me the heeby-jeebies.

Finally, we end Infermon's rampage on a shot of NYC at night, as lights flicker in every building and police sirens scream through the night.

Taichi: Bastard! It's having fun! Koushiro: Despite being Perfect-stage, it's still a newborn child. There's no way to know what it's going to do. Taichi: Can't someone do something about this? Koushiro: I'm sure there's adults out there who've figured out that they aren't dealing with an ordinary computer glitch. But they have no way of realizing that it's a Digimon causing all this. Taichi: Then... What can we do!? Koushiro: All we can do is have Agumon and the others fight it. Taichi: But even then....

Taichi is pissed. He whips out この野郎 konoyarou, one of anime's favorite vulgar Fuck Off And Die insults.

The dub plays Infermon's American rampage for fun times. They set it to the song "All My Best Friends are Metalheads" by Less Than Jake.

Izzy: Well, the Digimon's in New York. He's eaten all the data at Kennedy Airport and he's headed for the subway system. Tai: Good! That will definitely slow him down, for sure! Izzy: I'd better email Willis and let him know that Infermon is heading in his direction. I do have one question, though. What do you think that Digimon would have been like if the virus never attacked him? Tai: I have a question too: WHY ARE YOU STILL DRINKING THAT JUNK!?!? Izzy: Look, just because you don't like to eat healthy, doesn't mean that I don't. Tai: Don't say I didn't warn you....

This isn't even a different take; They flat-out replaced this scene with a brand new one. Referencing Infermon's new goal of finding Willis and making jokes (and foreshadowing) about Yuuko's recipes.

Also, Izzy ponders what Infermon would be like if it wasn't infected by the virus, which is a funny question to ask when the dub added that detail in the first place. Speaking from the Japanese side? The same, Izzy. It's the same. Without a virus, Infermon is the same.

Well. Less talkative, so the virus did change some things, but not as much as you might think.

Suddenly, the boys receive a videocall. Man, it's a good thing Infermon left NTT 'cause good luck finding a satellite phone in Shimane.

Taichi: Yamato! Yamato: Sorry to keep you waiting! Takeru: We have our Digivices! Koushiro: I see. That's good. You found a computer? Yamato: Uh, well....

Cutting to their perspective, we see that the brothers are at a computer in a barber shop. The barber does not seem very thrilled about letting them use his computer.

Barber: Are you sure it's okay to let these kids touch it? Sho: (jolts upright) Stop whining and let them use it!

While I doubt it was intentionally tactical, Takeru's waterworks worked. Sho is invested in getting the boys online. They are, however, not exactly in a private space.

Elderly Man: Those are Kinu-san's grandchildren. Elderly Woman: Life in Tokyo sure is different. Taichi: Hey! What's wrong, Yamato! Hey! Yamato: N... No... It's nothing.

Returning to Odaiba, Koushiro chugs his glass of oolong tea from the tray they brought.

Taichi: Whew. You know, I was worried there for a moment. Koushiro: Taichi-san, can I have your oolong tea? Taichi: Haven't you drank too much already?

Koushiro doesn't wait for Taichi's answer. He chugs Taichi's glass too.

In the dub:

Tai: Matt! Matt: We've got the Digivices! T.K.: Now what? Tai: Awesome! We'll tell Gennai to upload Gabumon and Patamon onto the net! Matt: You can do that? Barber: That sounds like fun! Usually I just play Solitaire on that thing, but I-- Al: (jolts upright) Careful, Floyd! You almost cut my ear off! Elderly Man: Kids today are so smart, aren't they? Elderly Woman: I still can't set the time on my VCR. Tai: Hey Matt, who are all those weird people? Matt: (loudly) They're not weird! They're my best friends! (bitterly mutters) Considering this is the only computer in town! (Meanwhile, Izzy chugs his glass) Tai: Gennai's transfer of the Digimon is almost completed. Izzy: Hey, can I have yours? Tai: (despondent) Izzy, you're the bravest kid I've ever known....

The dub adds the detail of Tai "having Gennai move Gabumon and Patamon onto the net", which is a pretty detail to add. The barber is also a lot more friendly about letting random children use his computer.

It's ironic that Random Stranger Sho is a lot more gung-ho and aggressive about helping these kids than Uncle Al. Al got them to a computer too, but he's not throwing hands with everyone in Shimane over it. XD

Inside the internet, Agumon and Tentomon fly through cyberspace, ready for another round.

Tentomon: Aren't the others connected yet? Agumon: If not, we'll just have to fight it again by ourselves. Tentomon: Yeah, but-- Gabumon: Agumon! Tentomon! Both: Hm?

Gabumon and Patamon enter the circuit they're flying through from another tunnel.

Tentomon: Ah! Gabumon and Patamon! Patamon: We're coming too! Gabumon: Sorry we're late! Yamato: We're counting on you, Gabumon! Takeru: Ganbatte, Patamon! Koushiro: I'll guide all of you. Digimon: Okay! Agumon: This time, we'll definitely defeat this thing!

Reminder: Ganbaru is the Japanese cultural value of perseverance through tremendous adversity via hard work and dedication.

Arrows appear along the path, marking the route and guiding the Digimon to a new virtual space. This one is full of floating construction beams everywhere.

Perched atop one of those beams is Infermon, along with a video game compass marker helpfully pointing it out and a sign. A sight that has only gotten funnier in this modern age of gaming.

It's not Koushiro doing that part, though. The sign's origin is clear from the fact that it's simplistically written in strictly Katakana, like Infermon's earlier messages. It reads コッチダヨーン Kotchidayoun, which translates to こっちだよーん Kotchida youn which translates to "Over here".

Yamato: Is it playing with us!? Taichi: Yamato, let's go all out! Yamato: Straight to Ultimate level!

Yes. Yes, it is playing with us. Its age can be measured in hours. This is all a game to it.

In the dub:

Agumon: We're going back in! Tentomon: I assume Izzy and Tai were unsuccessful in finding anyone else. Agumon: Then you and I will just have to beat that thing by ourselves! Gabumon: Sorry we're late! Patamon: I was surfing the net and I wiped out! Agumon & Tentomon: Huh!? Tentomon: Gabumon and Patamon! Patamon: Is T.K. on this ride? Gabumon: He's not tall enough. Yamato: Hey, Gabumon! T.K.: Patamon! Izzy: Say hello later! We have work to do! Tentomon: Keep your legs and wings inside this ride at all times! Izzy: Just a little further, guys. Just remember: He's dangerous so stay focused! (The Digimon spill into the new area of the internet) Infermon: I'm looking for the programmer; Don't interfere! Matt: He's teasing us! Tai: Oh, yeah!? Then let's get him! Matt: It's time to Digivolve!

Patamon "surfing the net and wiping out" is a nice bit of wordplay for his punny quip, though I'm not sure what it's supposed to mean in a literal sense.

Izzy does not offer to guide the Digimon to their destination, the message remains untranslated in Katakana, and Infermon explicitly wants them to stay away from him rather than goading them. So. I sincerely have no idea who put the pointing arrow over Infermon in this version. It just kinda happens.

As Taichi and Yamato agreed, it's time to evolve straight to Ultimate.

While Agumon and Gabumon Warp-Evolve, we jump around the globe once again to people watching their evolution sequences. This fight, too, will be broadcast worldwide.

I'm really fond of how this is presented. Show Me Your Brave Heart begins like usual when the Digimon evolve, but we jump to a different country and different group of people with each note of the song.

The dub uses their typical Warp Digivolve reprise of their opening theme, but they aren't able to time the shots to the notes for obvious reasons. It still flows pretty well.

Also, for Digimon: The Movie synergy, there's a blond boy watching in one of the shots that you could totally assume is Willis. Maybe he is! Or he could be Michael from 02. Who knows.

WarGreymon and MetalGarurumon take turns boxing Infermon around, making hit and run swipes at it.

Taichi: Nice! Takeru: Patamon, you evolve too. Patamon: Uh-huh!

A neat detail of Patamon's attempted evolution is that the stock animation footage appears diegetically on a screen directly behind him. We see him with the screen at an angle while the startup "Digivice meter rises and overtakes the Digivice" bit plays.

(This might be why Infermon can interfere with evolution sequences. Others have fucked with evolution before but not this directly. It's never been implied that a Partner Digimon in-universe stands there frozen in place for upwards of 40 seconds when evolving.

But we're not in the Digital World right now. We're inside the internet itself, so maybe the data stream is something that can be seen and interacted with. Or something.)

Whatever the case, Infermon's not letting them get away with this one. It lunges, undergoing its own evolution into Diablomon.

Yamato: It evolved!? Taichi: How is it so fast!?

I'm not sure if Taichi means it's moving fast, it evolved fast without a fancy sequence like the Partners have, or that it evolved quickly in the sense that it's gone from Digitama to Ultimate in the span of like a few hours. Honestly, all of these are valid questions.

In its new form, Diablomon has stretchy rubber-band limbs, which it demonstrates by punching Patamon out of his evolution sequence and pinning him against a girder.

Takeru: Patamon! Tentomon: Patamon--DAUGH!!!

Also, it has two arms, so Tentomon can have one too.

In the dub:

T.K.: Patamon, you'd better Digivolve! Patamon: Right! Patamon, Digivolve To.... Infermon: Infermon, Digivolve to: Diaboromon!

"Diaboro" is an obvious r/l mistranslation of "Diablo", the Spanish word for devil. What's less obvious is whether they did that by accident or on purpose. Might be an error, might be they fudged the name on purpose to remove the Satanic reference. Both are plausible.

Matt: What's going on!? Tai: He Digivolved.... Diaboromon: CABLE CRUSHER!!! (Diaboromon punches Patamon out of his evolution) T.K.: Look out, Patamon! Tentomon: I'll save him! (gets punched)

The stretchy arm punches are called Cable Crusher in the dub.

Gotta love T.K. yelling "Look out!" like a second after Patamon already got hit. XD THANKS. HELPFUL.

Takeru and Koushiro check on their pinned down Partners.

Takeru: PATAMON!!! ARE YOU OKAY!?!? Koushiro: Tentomon! Tentomon: I'm fine... Patamon.... Takeru: (crying) Patamon, I'm coming to you! Patamon! Patamon! Patamon!

Meanwhile, at the barber shop, everyone's dropped what they're doing to stare at these strange boys getting very emotional about whatever they're doing on the internet. Even Sho and the barber have stopped midway through Sho's shave.

Yamato: How dare you... HOW DARE YOU DO THAT TO PATAMON!!! Taichi: YOU'LL PAY FOR THIS!!!

Resuming the fight, MetalGarurumon goes for Diablomon first. MetalGarurumon unloads his freezing missiles, Diablomon gets pummeled by MetalGarurumon's shots. At speed, it's hard to tell if the blasts are hitting it or if it's dodging, but the freeze-frame clearly shows Diablomon getting tossed around.

Recovering, Diablomon returns fire with a fireball from its chest which hits MetalGarurumon dead on.

WarGreymon pushes through the smoke and closes distance. Diablomon tries to deflect WarGreymon's attack at range, using its own stretchy claw to break WarGreymon's right Dramon Killer off. WarGreymon adapts, turning a stab into a punch and breaking Diablomon's goddamn face.

Taichi: Tentomon! Look after Patamon. WarGreymon, stay on the attack!

Koushiro, next to Taichi, begins sweating and seems to be having, let's say, trouble with something....

As WarGreymon closes distance, the process repeats. Diablomon snaps off WarGreymon's other Dramon Killer, and WarGreymon connects an unguarded left hook into Diablomon's face.

In the dub:

T.K.: Ahh! Patamon, are you alright!? Izzy: Tentomon! Tentomon: I'm fine! What about Patamon? T.K.: Patamon! Speak to me! Come on, get up! Say something! I'm coming! I'll come get you! Matt: T.K.... You can't. (to MetalGarurumon) BUT YOU CAN!!! Tai: WIPE HIM OUT!!!

The dub names MetalGarurumon's missiles Ice Wolf Spikes, despite usually calling it (and most of his other moves) Ice Wolf Claw. Diablomon's fireball is Web Wrecker. WarGreymon's punch is just a punch, though to be honest I was expecting it to be Terra Force or, like, Nova Punch or something. XD

Tai: Tentomon, circle around! WarGreymon, attack!

For some reason, the dub has Tai tell Tentomon to "circle around" Diablomon, as if he's supposed to be moving in for a flanking strike. Um. No. His job is to go make sure Patamon didn't die a moment ago.

Unfortunately, while this is happening, Koushiro continues to have his crisis.

Koushiro: T-Taichi-san.... Taichi: Go! Keep it up! Koushiro: (straining) Taichi-san! Taichi: Right there! Get it! Koushiro: TAICHI-SAN!!! Taichi: The hell!?

Startled, Taichi finally turns his attention to Koushiro, who is visibly in a lot of pain.

As Taichi turns his attention to Koushiro, the line "Show me your brave heart" from their triumphant battle theme gets stuck. The soundtrack begins stuttering, playing that same line over and over and over like a broken record. Our first warning that things are now suddenly going awry.

Koushiro: I can't hold it anymore.... Taichi: What!? Koushiro: I have to use the bathroom, please....

Without another word, Koushiro stands up and staggers out of the office.

Taichi: (dismayed) Hey... Why now of all times...? Hey!

Meanwhile, in the fight, WarGreymon and MetalGarurumon both power up their attacks to throw at Diablomon.

Yamato: That's it! Finish it off! Taichi: Huh!?

The pair fire off attacks together that... Sort of look like Cocytus Breath and Gaia Force reimagined by a new art direction.

Taichi: Please! This has to hit!

It does not. Diablomon leaps straight up and hurdles their shots at the last second.

Taichi: FUCK!!!

Frustrated, Taichi smacks the computer monitor and causes it to Blue Screen. He freezes in horror when he realizes what he's done.

Yamato: What's happening, Taichi!? WarGreymon stopped moving!

This is karma for the Andromon episode of the Devimon arc, where Taichi kept smacking computers.

Taichi tries shaking the monitor a couple of times to try and get the connection back, but it's hopeless. Thankfully, Koushiro returns from the bathroom here to discover what Taichi's done.

Koushiro: Sorry about that. Taichi: (desperate, teary) It isn't working! Koushiro: Eh!? WHAT HAVE YOU DONE!?!?

Our polite little Koushiro shoves Taichi away from the computer so that he can get this fixed.

Taichi: I didn't do anything! It's your fault for using the bathroom at a time like this! Koushiro: It's useless.

Koushiro gives up on trying to get the system back on and hard reboots the computer instead.

In the dub:

Izzy: It's... no... use.... Tai: What are you talking about!? We're winning! Izzy: Owaaaaaaugh... goh... This could be it.... Tai: Yeah! Great, huh? Izzy: Not that! Tai: What's going on!? Izzy: There's something... wrong with me.... Tai: What is it!? Izzy: I think it's your mother's recipes.... (Izzy runs off for the bathroom) Tai: See!? I hate to tell you I told you so but... I told you so!

In the original, he just needs to pee. He drank too much oolong tea and now his body needs to drain the excess fluid. He leaves Taichi unsupervised with the computer for less than a minute.

Here, he's got some kind of indigestion or food poisoning going on, which will be similarly quick to handle.

Matt: Tai! Look! Something's wrong! Tai: Huh!? (The Digimon attack) Tai: Oh no! They're slowing down! (Diaboromon dodges) Tai: Huh!? COME ON!!! (Tai smacks the computer and it blue screens) Matt: Tai, where'd you go!? WarGreymon has practically stopped moving! (Tai shakes the computer a couple of times) Tai: Oh no! Oh no! Izzy: (returns) Ah, I feel a lot better. Tai: I didn't touch anything, I swear! Izzy: AH!!! (shove) TAI, WHAT DID YOU DO!?!? Tai: It wasn't my fault! Besides, who told you to go to the bathroom at such an important time!? Izzy: Like I had a choice!

In the original, Taichi and Yamato are gung-ho about landing these shots and finishing off Diablomon. The dub asserts that they're moving slower, which is a later plot point that the dub's incorporating early.

They may have brought this in early to explain why WarGreymon suddenly shuts down when Tai's connection breaks. It's never been a thing before that a Digimon suddenly goes into stasis if their Partner isn't nearby. That's a weird thing for the original to have happen, so the implied whatever-the-fuck could be an attempted story patch.

While the computer's rebooting, Koushiro vents at Taichi.

Koushiro: Why did you freeze the system!? Taichi: I didn't think that would happen! Koushiro: This is why you're bickering with Sora! Taichi: (wounded) I did nothing...!

Jesus. I don't think we've ever seen Koushiro this upset, and he once fought a guy that wanted to eat his parents. Taichi is silent for a moment, nursing the critical hit that remark struck.

Taichi: I just... (mutters) ...got her a present. Koushiro: A present?

We cut to Sora, sitting in her windowsill and watching a jet go by in the sky as Taichi finally opens up about what happened.

Taichi: Her birthday was coming up, so I got her a hairclip. But then she starts saying things like, "(sneering) Oh, you think this hat doesn't suit me!?" So we started fighting....

As Taichi finishes his story, we return to Taichi and Koushiro, with that same jet visible out the window. They're far apart, physically and emotionally, yet under the same sky all the same.

Koushiro: So that's it... Taichi: Yeah, but... I'm supposed to apologize, right?

Taichi's impression of Sora, literally the tone he uses when quoting her, is mean and uncharitable. But that's not unexpected for someone who's in the midst of a quarrel and doesn't understand what he could possibly have done wrong. So far as Taichi figures it, Sora snapped all of a sudden over the hairclip and started yelling at him for no reason.

Okay. We need to take a moment and talk about the hairclip. What did Taichi do wrong? Well. They don't give us a lot of information to go on. We never hear Sora's side of the story. This is all we get.

But from what we know of Sora, we can surmise some things. The explicit point of contention is Sora's hat. Taichi gave her a pretty hairclip and her kneejerk reaction was that he was telling her not to wear her hat.

This is what she's reacting so negatively to; The implicit statement Taichi hadn't realized he was making that Sora's hat is bad. Or, specifically, that it is 似合わない niawanai, unsuitable for her. That she is the kind of person who wears pretty hairclips and not the kind of person who wears hats like this.

Let's take a moment to think about the context Sora exists in. The longstanding personal drama of her life is her conflict with her mother's expectations. Her mother is iemoto, the grandmaster for a school of ikebana, a traditional art of flower arranging. Sora was born to step into the shoes of a very traditional and feminine discipline, which she did not take well to.

Rather than following eagerly in her mother's footsteps, Sora became more invested in sports, a traditionally masculine activity. She presents herself with long pants, short hair, and that big helmet over most of her head, which she's now swapped for a floofy winter cap. She has conversations with Mimi about how assertive and strong she is compared to the more feminine Mimi.

Sora has, for years, felt like her self-expression is under siege by expectations of traditional femininity. And then Taichi comes to her and implicitly says to her, "Hey, you should change your self-expression to be more feminine." Of course she blew up. Of course she did.

Taichi, of course, had no idea the hairclip would be taken that way. He's... just... terrible at understanding other people's feelings. This was stupidity, not malice. But even though Sora and Toshiko have reconciled, that doesn't mean all the sore spots have disappeared. Taichi stepped on an emotional landmine buried in the Demilitarized Zone that Sora and Toshiko's arguments left behind.

Not to be too charitable to Taichi since he was there when she explained all this. He's an idiot who doesn't think things through and isn't good at understanding people. But he didn't mean any harm by it and now has no idea why it created so much tension.

In the dub:

Izzy: Oh, why did you crash the computer!? Now I have to reboot! Tai: Well, it's not like I did it on purpose or anything! Izzy: Yeah, right! Just like it wasn't your fault with Sora! Tai: That wasn't... my fault... Oh, okay, maybe it was my fault. Izzy: What happened? (Cut to Sora) Tai (V.O.): It was stupid. I gave her this really great hairpin for her birthday and then she got all mad and said, "(sneer) Oh, you don't like my hairstyle!?" and I said "Who could tell? You're always wearing a hat!" and then she said "So! Now you don't like my hat, huh!?" It's very confusing. (Cut back to Tai and Izzy) Izzy: That's what you fought about? Tai: I tried to apologize to her but she won't return my phone calls!

Tai and Sora's argument in the dub is a bit longer. A subtle but critical difference here is that Sora in the original is getting mad over whether her hat is suitable to her while Sora in the dub is getting mad over whether Tai personally likes her aesthetic.

Suddenly, the computer finishes reconnecting with an audible chime.

Koushiro: Ah! We're back to normal. Taichi: WarGreymon-- Ah!

The boys reconnect to find the battlefield they left behind has become a debris field. WarGreymon and MetalGarurumon lay motionless, lifeless amid the debris.

Yamato: TAICHI!!! KOUSHIRO!!! WHAT THE HELL WERE YOU GUYS DOING!?!? YOU GODDAMN MORONS!!!

Koushiro's only crime was having to pee, and his Digimon was barely even a participant anyway. He probably doesn't deserve to be called 馬鹿野郎 bakayarou, which is the anime classic 馬鹿 baka or "stupid" but in a really mean and vulgar way. It's for when you wanna call someone baka but spit it like a curse word, no playing.

For Taichi, however, the obscenity is well-warranted.

Taichi: (teary-eyed) WarGreymon! WarGreymon! WARGREYMON!!! WARGREYMOOOOOOOOOOOON!!!

While Taichi's screaming for his Partner, we take another cuts around the globe. To all the people silently watching in stunned horror as he all but begs his Partner to be alive.

WarGreymon: T... Taichi....

Finally, Taichi's voice reaches WarGreymon and he opens his eyes again.

The dub catches that an audio cue is supposed to alert the boys, and uses that old 90's dial-up tone.

Izzy: Ah! We're back online! Tai: WarGreymon! (Debris field, half-dead Digimon) Matt: Hey guys, where were you!? You two sure picked a lousy time to take a lunch break! Tai: (teary-eyed) What happened to him!? WarGreymon! (Silence as we jump around the globe, then back to WarGreymon) Tai: WarGreymon.... WarGreymon: ...ugggggh... Tai, I can't move!

The emotions are dialed back quite a bit here. Matt gives them a snarky scolding instead of yelling obscenities in Tai's face while Tai's fear and grief doesn't quite match the bloodcurdling screaming that Taichi's doing.

Good news is that WarGreymon isn't dead. But this is still pretty bad.

Taichi: If I.... If I'd been here, this wouldn't have happened. Koushiro: You lost again? Taichi: WHAT!?!?

Taichi whips around like them's fightin' words to see Koushiro reading emails from the laptop.

Koushiro: And now from Canberra: "You were so close to winning. What were you doing!?" This one's from Berlin--

Out of nowhere, Taichi shoves Koushiro. Then he grabs him by the scruff of his shirt.

Taichi: The hell!? ASSHOLE!!! Koushiro: I was just reading the emails we received! Taichi: Koushiro, you piece of-- Yamato: Cut it out! This isn't the time to fight each other! (beat) Taichi: Keh!

Taichi pushes Koushiro back to the ground and returns his attention to the computer.

Taichi: What's with these emails anyway!?

What gets me about this bit is that it's not a misunderstanding. His この野郎 konoyarou comes before he clarifies, but even after, Taichi still gives him a 手前 temae. That's the second-person pronoun you use when you want to say "you" in a way that expresses contempt.

Taichi isn't confused here; He is legit trying to punch the messenger.

In the dub:

Tai: I let him down! I should have been there! Izzy: Your Digimon's a loser. Tai: What did you say!? Izzy: How could two Mega-level Digimon get beat by one lousy bug!? WarGreymon quit like a coward--OW!!! (Tai shoves Izzy and grabs him) Tai: YOU TAKE THAT BACK OR I'LL-- Izzy: I WAS READING AN EMAIL FROM ANOTHER KID!!! Tai: You didn't have to read it so well! Matt: Hey, you two! This isn't the time to be fighting! (beat) (Tai shoves Izzy down and goes back to the computer) Tai: Stupid emails....

The dub does play this more for misunderstanding. They take out the parts where Koushiro says "This one's from Canberra" and "This one's from Berlin", so it sounds to Tai like Izzy's being mean and cruel out of nowhere.

Tai doesn't apologize after Izzy clarifies, but he also doesn't double down like Taichi does.

Additionally, the kids emailing seem to be a lot better informed than in the original. It's not too big a deal that they can namedrop WarGreymon since Tai/chi says his name multiple times while begging him to be alive. But they also name-drop Mega Digimon and seem to understand what that means.

From here, we go to Diablomon in the depths of the internet.

It's holding a cute pink clock, revealed to be the true source of its weird cackling back in the first Infermon fight.

Clock: Yahahahahahaha! Yahahahahahaha! Yahahahahahaha!

Diablomon waves its hand over the cackling clock and makes it disappear. Cut to an ominous shot of the jet flying in the sky, and then back to the boys.

Diablomon appears on the computer screens in front of Yamato, Takeru, and Taichi. It doesn't send an email this time; It simply composes one in real-time for them to see, typing out letter by letter.

Diablomon types トケイヲモッテイルノハ ダーレダ Tokei wo motteiru noha daareda. Which translates to 時計を持っているのは誰だ Tokei wo motteiru noha daareda. Which translates to "Who has the clock?"

Incidentally, this message is sent from the FactoryMark server so it looks like Diablomon's back in Japan. It did what it needed to do in the U.S.

Takeru: Clock?

This message is then replaced by two entirely different things to freak out about. The first is a red timer counting down from ten minutes. The second is Diablomon's image in the background dividing into two, and then those two dividing into four. Then those four into eight.

Yamato: It's copying itself.... Taichi: These numbers-- Koushiro: What do we do!? Taichi: Huh!?

Koushiro isn't looking at the screen. He's still at his laptop reading emails.

Koushiro: A middle school student from Taiwan hacked into the Pentagon, and they say that a nuclear missile was launched from an American military base thirty minutes ago. Taichi: HUH!?!? Koushiro: It was fired by a computer error. (freaking out) Of course, it was actually that thing that did it! Taichi: Then this number is.... Koushiro: The estimated time until the missile reaches its target.

OH. OKAY.

THAT IS PROBABLY BAD.

In the dub, Diaboromon talks over the ticking of the clock, which is not itself cackling.

Diaboromon: Wahahahahahaha! Go back to the beginning....

His email is rewritten in English once again. This time he types out, letter by letter, "Who can count backwards from ten?"

Tai: Another email!? "Who can count backwards from ten?" Huh!? Is he giving us a math test!? (Cut to T.K. and Yamato) T.K.: What's that? (Timer appears and Diaboromon begins dividing) Matt: Hey, what's with the timer? Tai: He's making copies of himself! (Cut back to Tai and Izzy) Tai: He's multiplying! Izzy: It gets worse! The U.S.A. just launched two nuclear missiles! Tai: Huh!?

Yep, there's two missiles in this version. Also, they were recently fired, as opposed to having been fired half an hour ago.

The dub edits the footage again to remove Koushiro's Taiwanese pal and replace him with Willis.

Izzy: Willis says the government has no explanation for it, but he found out that Diaboromon's in the Pentagon's computers. I hope I didn't lead him there with my satellite uplink! (gasp) One of the missiles is headed for Colorado! THEY'RE GONNA LAND IN LESS THAN TEN MINUTES!!! Tai: That explains the timer. But what's in Colorado!? Izzy: I have no idea! In the meantime, Diaboromon keeps multiplying!

Willis, of course. One missile for the original target and a second missile for Willis.

We cut again briefly to the "jet" leaving its trail in the air. Now with an unsettling new context.

Taichi: Y-You're messing with me.... Koushiro: The nuclear missile is called One-Shot Peacekeeper. Range of 20,000 km, which is nearly the entire Earth. Top speed is 15,000 mph. Taichi: ...what's that in kmph? Koushiro: In parentheses, "Mach 23". Taichi: T... Twenty-three...?

The Earth is a little over 40,000 km in circumference so Koushiro's math checks out. Depending on which direction you shoot in, you can cover almost everything on the planet with that kind of range.

Additionally, the speed required to achieve orbital velocity is about 17,500 mph. So this missile can't reach orbit, but it's close.

As Koushiro says that, we cut to Mimi in Hawaii watching the "jet" suddenly streak by overhead. Seems to be heading westward from the continental U.S.

Mimi: Oooooo!

She has no idea what she's looking at. It's probably just a cool plane going super fast in the air.

Koushiro: But we don't know what its target is or where it is in the air right now. Only that it's going to detonate somewhere in the world... in nine minutes.

Meanwhile, in Shimane, the people in the barbershop have no idea. The elderly couple discuss dark clouds moving in over the region.

Elderly Man: It's getting cloudy. Elderly Woman: So quiet, though. I should probably go bring in the laundry right away. Elderly Man: Right away!

The old woman offers Yamato a grocery bag.

Elderly Woman: Would you bring these things to Kinu-san? Tell her they're from Yasuko. Yamato: ... Yasuko: Huh? Are you even listening?

They are not. Yamato and Takeru stare at the computer screen, paralyzed with terror by the reality in front of them.

An interesting note is that it's only one missile. Diablomon isn't going Full Skynet and trying to annihilate humankind. It only has one target it intends to utterly destroy.

In the dub:

Tai: But the military has the power to stop it, right? Izzy: Every country is trying to intercept them, including Japan. But Diaboromon has infiltrated all the computers and is rerouting them to fall harmlessly in the ocean near Hawaii! Mimi: (Hawaii) Ooooo, fireworks! Izzy: I've got the trajectory for the other missile. Let me calculate. ...carry the two, times three... TAI, IT'S AIMED RIGHT FOR THIS NEIGHBORHOOD!!! Tai: (frustrated) Ugh....

SPOILERS, IZZY. FUCK. I mean, I think most people already guessed that, but still.

Following Tai's incredibly understated groan, the Shimane scene is cut.

When Izzy says Diaboromon is "rerouting them to fall harmlessly in the ocean", the wording here is a little confusing. I think he means that Diaboromon's sending every country's counter-missiles to Hawaii? But the way he words it makes it sound like he's sending the two nukes to Hawaii.

It's a bit of a word salad to try and justify why Mimi's seeing a missile streak by in Hawaii. Which... is kind of a fair question, because Hawaii isn't between the continental U.S. and Japan. It's pretty far south, between Mexico and the Philippines. So I have no idea why the missile passed directly over Mimi's head.

(It heard how cool she was and wanted to swing by to see for itself. It has more than enough range for a detour.

Back at Taichi's home, more emails come in.

Koushiro: This email's from Indonesia: "You must defeat the enemy somehow." Over here, from Armenia: "You're the only ones who can defeat that monster." From Qatar: "Please ganbatte." Taichi: We should ganbaru...

Watching the screen, they're now up to 64 Diablomon and still dividing.

Taichi: But we can't defeat all of them! Koushiro: A nuclear missile can't detonate unless the fuse is activated. If this is supposed to be a game, then which one of those things has the clock? Defeat that one and the fuse won't activate. Taichi: But how do we find that one? Koushiro: That is... We'll have to defeat them one by one. Taichi: But that will take too long!

Koushiro slowly turns around to face Taichi, so Taichi can see how serious he is.

Koushiro: But that's the only choice we have. Taichi: (stunned) ....

Taichi is left speechless by how dire their predicament is.

In the dub... the hack and slash job continues. The scene continues, but they don't use the footage for it. Instead, remember that bit they cut out where Taichi cries "WE'RE SCREWED!" and falls over? Yeah, they past that part in for the footage of this section.

Izzy: Tai, look! Emails from all over the world! "Get that evil Digimon! You're our only hope!" Here's another one: "Be home by six o'clock!" ...oh, wait, that's from my mom. Tai: I'M TRYING TO SAVE THE WORLD AND YOU'RE READING FANMAIL!!! Izzy: WE JUST LOST OUR CONNECTION!!! Tai: (falls over comically) Greeeeeeeeat. Izzy: Don't worry, I'll get it back! Listen, I think if we defeat the original Diaboromon, the rest will disappear. Tai: (gets back up, excited) WHAT!?!? Izzy: All we have to do is destroy each one until we've found the original.

They then use a shot of the "jet" flying in the sky to reset the positions of the characters and join back up with the original footage at "But that will take too long!"

Tai: Sounds great! How many are there so far? Izzy: Oh no.... (Izzy slowly turns around) Tai: Spit it out, Izzy! How many are there! Izzy: ...there are over 75,000 and counting. Tai: (stunned) ...

In addition to the hack and slash job, we are now wildly off-script.

They keep the basic idea that there is one specific Diablomon we must defeat. But the relationship between that Diablomon, the detonation of the nuke, and the little clock Diablomon showed the camera earlier? Completely wiped off the board.

Along with it goes the characterization that Diablomon is still, even in this form, playing games.

In its place, we get the connection going out for like half a second, which adds nothing to this scene. That's clearly there because they cut out this comical footage of Taichi falling over earlier and wanted to use it somewhere.

And the dub also claims that there are now 75,000 Diaboromon. We're at like 64 or so. The Americans inflated the hell out of these numbers.

While Taichi struggles to process this situation, WarGreymon suddenly reaches out.

WarGreymon: Taichi.... Taichi: .... WarGreymon: Taichi...! Taichi: .... WarGreymon: Taichi! Taichi: (gasp)

That shakes him out of it, and he returns his attention to the screen. The Ultimate Digimon begin to move, ready to go once again despite their injuries and damaged armor.

WarGreymon: Taichi... Pull yourself together, Taichi, and let us handle this. Taichi: WarGreymon.... MetalGarurumon: Do we know where it is? Yamato: MetalGarurumon.... Koushiro: Guys.... (steeling himself) I'm sending the address now! MetalGarurumon: Please.

An exit from their current server appears, and the pair of Ultimates exit into the internet once more.

Taichi: (quietly) You're right. It's the only way. I'm sorry. Koushiro: (quietly) Yeah....

Meanwhile, in the kitchen, Yuuko checks on her cake.

Yuuko: Seven minutes left!

Across Tokyo, Jou scrambles to finish his entrance exam.

Announcement: Seven minutes left! Jou: (writes frantically) OH NO!!!

Seven minutes left!

Yuuko's cake provides a curious timeframe. It's been twenty-three minutes since she put it into the microwave, and the nuke was fired thirty-three minutes ago. This means the nuke was launched ten minutes before Yuuko put the cake in the oven. Ten minutes before the fight with Infermon, ending in Infermon using the NTT system to shut Taichi and Koushiro out of the internet.

The timeframe is honestly fascinating, as it implies that the nuke was one of the numerous errors that emerged during Kuramon's hatching. Like when Jou missed his train because the doors wouldn't open. The nuke was fired then, during the opening credit sequence, and has been in the air this entire time.

In the dub:

WarGreymon: Tai.... Izzy: What's that? It didn't sound like my stomach. WarGreymon: Tai! Tai: Ah! (Tai returns his attention to the computer) WarGreymon: Have faith! I'll find... the original! Tai: WarGreymon.... MetalGarurumon: Mrrrgh... I'll help you.... Matt: MetalGarurumon! Izzy: They're so slow.... It's because of all the emails! They're slowing down our Digimon's processing speed! I've gotta write to everybody and tell them to stop emailing us until the Digimon are back to full strength! Tai: Are you crazy, Izzy!? Do you know how long that will take!? There's no time! Now we're-- (Cut to Yuuko) Yuuko: --just about-- (Cut to Joe) Announcer: --FINISHED!!! Joe: (writes frantically) IT CAN'T END LIKE THIS!!!

Love what the dub does with those Yuuko and Jou cuts. Beautiful.

So here we get the explanation for all the "WarGreymon is slowing down for some reason!" stuff. The emails coming in are screwing with his and MetalGarurumon's processing speed.

This is actually a plot point from the original. The dub went ahead and introduced it way earlier so they could build up to it. And use it to explain that weird moment when WarGreymon suddenly froze up after Taichi disconnected. Good call. A+

Seven minutes left!

As WarGreymon and MetalGarurumon fly through the internet, more and more emails come in... including a couple of fairly significant cameos.

One is a certain little girl with purple hair that we'll be getting to know better next season.

Another is a boy named Ryo Akiyama. Ryo is the main playable character for a series of Adventure-adjacent video games that take place in the margins around the anime's continuity. We'll be seeing him cross over more and more into the anime proper with not only the next season of Adventure, but also Digimon Tamers.

Despite Tamers being in a separate continuity. It's weird.

Koushiro: There's so much email flowing in.... "Ganbare WarGreymon" from Costa Rica. "Don't lose this, MetalGarurumon," from the Philippines. Takeru: (gripping Yamato's shirt) Onii-chan... Don't give in.... Yamato: I won't give up... not to the very end. Taichi: I will never give up....

As the boys steel their resolve, the clock ticks down.

The dub plays a snippet of Here We Go by Jason Gochin here for a rock interlude. They snip out Koushiro's dialogue about the email, though they still use the footage so we see his lips move silently.

T.K.: Tell me... Will they make it...? Matt: I'm not sure, T.K. But they're gonna try. Tai: Don't give up, guys. No matter what happens, don't give up!

An interesting note is that the dub treats Tai and Matt as passive observers here while the original treats them as active participants. This is because they may not be the ones throwing the punches but it's their power that WarGreymon and MetalGarurumon are wielding.

Six and a half minutes left!

WarGreymon and MetalGarurumon arrive in an area that has been completely overrun with the growing Diablomon swarm.

Yamato: They're... How many of them are there? Koushiro: 4,000... 8,000... It copied itself again! 16,000! They keep making more!

In the dub, the Diablomon are uttering a chorus of "Don't interfere!" over and over and over again. Presumably referring to his plan to drop a nuke on Willis.

Matt: How many copies of Diaboromon are there now!? Izzy: To be honest, I don't know. I stopped keeping track a while ago. It's gotta be well over a million!

It is not. No reason not to use the original numbers; Dub team's scrawling in some extra zeros for American machismo.

No time to get our bearings. At once, thousands of Diablomon open fire on our boys.

WarGreymon and MetalGarurumon are forced to try and weave through the barrage of incoming shots. They don't last long. MetalGarurumon is the first to start taking hits.

Yamato: Ah! Taichi: MetalGarurumon!

While Taichi's eyes are on MetalGarurumon, several shots catch up to WarGreymon, pummeling him as well.

Taichi: Ah! Takeru: They're moving really weird! Koushiro: It's because of all these emails flooding in from around the world! Having so many emails come in is slowing down our processing speed! Takeru: If this keeps up, we'll lose! Koushiro: (typing frantically) To everyone around the world: WarGreymon and MetalGarurumon's responsiveness is dropping! I'm begging you to stop sending emails!

Anyone who's seen a thousand-strong office "Please stop Replying All" chain knows that ain't gonna cut it.

In the dub:

(MetalGarurumon is hit) Matt: Ah! Tai: METALGARURUMON!!! (WarGreymon is hit) Tai: Ah! T.K.: WarGreymon has started to slow down again! Izzy: It's the emails! They're coming in faster than ever! They're slowing down the processing speed even more! Tai: They're sitting ducks out there! Izzy: (typing frantically) Please, guys, stop writing! I know your intentions are good but you're really hurting our cause! Your emails are putting our Digimon in danger!

The dub seems to think the emails are only affecting WarGreymon. They may have gotten confused over the -tachi suffix. WarGreymon-tachi is being affected.

The -tachi suffix is how you pluralize a group of people in Japanese. When stuck to a name, it basically means, "and others in their group" using only two syllables. In this case, MetalGarurumon is the -tachi.

Despite Koushiro's best efforts, the damage is done. WarGreymon and MetalGarurumon float unmoving in the void once the barrage of enemy fire lets up.

Taichi: WARGREYMON!!!

Letting out slow, hollow breathes, Taichi slowly reaches for the screen. Reaches for his partner. Drawing closer and closer and--

Yuuko: (opens door) Koushiro-kun, will you be eating lunch with us? Koushiro: (doesn't notice; mutters) It's useless. I can't stop these emails. There's only five minutes left... What do we do? Yuuko: (smiling) I'm sorry for disturbing you.

Yuuko quietly closes the door. Then, suddenly, she opens it again.

Yuuko: Huh? Where did Taichi go?

A shot of the room reveals that, indeed, Taichi is gone. Koushiro is alone in Susumu's office.

In the dub:

Tai: (gasp) WarGreymon...!

In the original, the music is silent here. The only sound we hear is the echoing of Taichi's hollow, ragged breaths. The dub adds this incredibly loud, eerie background music that drowns out both Tai's breathing and also the new dialogue they gave him.

Tai: WarGreymon... I've got to help... There must be a way... Somehow.... (Yuuko enters) Yuuko: More juice, Izzy? I just squeezed some onions! Izzy: No thanks! I'm rerouting incoming data from the remote server into local memory. Yuuko: (clearly did not understand that) Oh. Whoops. I'll just leave you two alone. (Yuuko departs, then comes back in) Yuuko: Wait a minute! Where did Tai go?

Koushiro is both freaking out and hyperfocused to the point that he notices neither Yuuko entering the room nor Taichi's mysterious exit from it. It's an established character trait that he sometimes doesn't notice other people when he's hyperfocused.

(It got him thrown off a cliff once. By me.)

But Izzy has the presence of mind to briefly chat with Yuuko.

So, where did Taichi go? Into the computer, of course.

That big square window that the children appear in during all these fights? Taichi passes through his to enter the internet and reach WarGreymon.

He slowly descends until he reaches WarGreymon.

Taichi: WarGreymon! WarGreymon: ...

Some distance away, Yamato does the same. He passes through his light window and enters, floating down to MetalGarurumon.

Yamato: Metal... MetalGarurumon! It's me, Yamato. Can you hear me? Open your eyes! Taichi: Yamato....

Taichi watches Yamato for a moment, then does the same thing.

Taichi: I'm here! I'm here too! I came so we can fight together! WarGreymon: ... Taichi: You... You don't have to fight alone anymore.... WarGreymon: ... Taichi: I'm right here! I'm here with you, WarGreymon!

I love how the screens are angled to create the imagery of the children descending upon the near-dead Digimon like angels from heaven. I see what you did there.

In the dub, Kari's voice-over pops back up to try and explain this.

Kari (V.O.): None of us are sure how, but Tai's bond with WarGreymon was so strong that Tai himself became digital!

"None of us are sure how." Kari, go have some more birthday cake. You weren't even here for this.

This is neither the first nor the last time a Chosen Child's holy light will open a gateway between realities.

Tai: WarGreymon... I'm here.... (Matt descends from the other screen) Matt: MetalGarurumon! Wake up! Don't quit now! Why won't he answer me, Tai? Tai: Keep trying, Matt! (Tai looks down at WarGreymon) Tai: Listen. I don't have a whistle to wake you, but I want you to know you're not alone, okay? WarGreymon: ... Tai: And the mail keeps coming! It won't stop! WarGreymon: ... Tai: Kids from all over the world are writing to you. They need your help. You're the only one who can do it! Feel their hope! Feel their strength!

"I don't have a whistle to wake you" is a reference to Kari's whistle being used to wake Greymon in the first OVA's battle with Parrotmon. Since the OVA formed the first portion of Digimon: The Movie, they reference its events here.

Taichi's speech to WarGreymon is personal and focused on their bond with one another. Tai's speech is about how much the entire world loves WarGreymon, which does segue pretty well into this next bit.

WarGreymon: ...u...urgh....

In the dub:

WarGreymon: ...I feel them!

WarGreymon's body shakes slightly. He doesn't open his eyes; Instead, the holy light glows from within the eyeholes of his helmet.

All around them, a wall of emails appears, forming a barrier between them and the Diablomon swarm. WarGreymon and MetalGarurumon don't come to, but instead seem to vibrate and jitter.

Then WarGreymon disintegrates into data, which collects and pours inside his helmet. The same happens to MetalGarurumon.

Through those email boxes, holy light from all of the kids watching gathers, entering the data space in the glowing silhouette of each child. They collect, pooling into energy between the twin helmets of WarGreymon and MetalGarurumon.

Meanwhile, at the barber shop:

Barber: (suspiciously) Hang on, where did your brother go!?

The barber looks around for Yamato. Poor Yasuko, on the other hand, just watched a preteen boy phase inside of a computer screen and looks like she's about to have a heart attack.

Takeru: He's here.....

The energy forms the shape of an egg made of pixels, which then slowly peels back to reveal a new Digimon inside.

Koushiro: WarGreymon and... Takeru: ...MetalGarurumon... Koushiro: ...combined!

The technical term is Jogress Evolution. Jogress is a mechanic from the V-Pet that hasn't yet appeared in the anime, in which two Digimon fuse together to form a Perfect or Ultimate Digimon. Many of the Digimon we've seen throughout the anime could only be achieved through Jogress in the original V-Pets, such as Piemon or WereGarurumon.

The arrival of Omegamon, or Omnimon in the dub, marks the first time this mechanic has been brought into the show. We'll be seeing more of it in Adventure 02.

(The only reason Takeru and Hikari don't have a Jogress with each other is because EnbyAngemon would be so game-wreckingly badass that no villain could ever match them.

Or, more realistically, because predominately heteronormative writers often struggle with the idea of two characters from opposite sexes doing a Fusion. Their eyes bug out and they bluescreen while muttering, "But how would that even....")

The dub crops the barbershop to cut the barber out, though his reflection remains visible in the mirror, but leave Yasuko's stunned face. This is despite the fact that they cut the setup scene for this gag, with Yasuko saying goodbye to Yamato and Takeru.

Barber: Where'd you brother go!? Hjbyhjbyhjby....

They play the barber as freaked out and melting down. In the original, like Yuuko, he didn't see the disappearance happen (but Yasuko did). He just... doesn't trust these random kids to be unsupervised in his shop, and really doesn't like the fact that one stray child is now unaccounted for.

T.K.: They combined! (Omnimon is revealed) Izzy: Part WarGreymon.... T.K.: Part MetalGarurumon.... Izzy: They Digivolved together to become-- Omnimon: OMNIMON!!!

It's nice of Omnimon to introduce himself since we don't have rundowns to tell us about him. For the record, his signature weapons on his arms made from the helmets of his component Digimon are called the Garuru Cannon and Grey Sword. "Cannon" and "Sword" being the English words themselves, as usual.

With Taichi and Yamato perched on his shoulders, Omegamon is born.

The swarm opens fire immediately. Drawing his Grey Sword, Omegamon deflects all of their shots into a line of Diablomon, annihilating a huge chunk.

Koushiro: Amazing!

Koushiro hasn't seen anything yet. With his Garuru Cannon, unloads shot after shot into the enemy ranks. Each blast wipes out a huge chunk of the Diablomon swarm.

The dub uses this as an opportunity for another musical interlude, playing Let's Kick It Up by Paul Christian Gordon over the carnage. They also have Omnimon call these attacks, naming them Transcendent Sword and Supreme Cannon.

Only one Diablomon remains standing when Omegamon's done.

Koushiro: Right there! That's the last one! That one has the clock!

Awfully inconvenient that the one with the clock just so happens to be the only one who survived Omegamon's bombardment.

Diablomon starts moving quickly around the room, making evasive maneuvers to try and run down the clock. Every time Omegamon turns around and aims at it, it darts away again.

Taichi: It's not here! Koushiro: WE HAVE LESS THAN A MINUTE!!!

Cut to Jou desperately trying to finish his exam.

Jou: ONE MINUTE LEFT!!!

And Yuuko watching her cake cook.

Yuuko: (cheerful) One minute left!

Finally, we cut up to the "jet" in the sky... which turns out to actually just be a jet, as another much faster object enters the airspace, criss-crossing its contrail with the jet's. Closer inspection of the new object reveals it to, in fact, be the One-Shot Peacekeeper missile approaching Odaiba.

This, I should note, is the first we learn of its destination in the original. No one knew where it was in the air or where it was going to land.

In the dub:

Izzy: Tai, there's the original! Get him! We're running out of time! Tai: Omnimon, quick! Attack!

Awfully inconvenient that the original just so happens to be the only one who survived Omnimon's bombardment.

Like, they changed the plot mechanics behind this fight but this is still a glaring contrivance. XD You could have left it at "We have to destroy every last one" if you wanted to patch this.

Tai: Where is he!? (Diaboromon dodges more) Tai: One minute to go! (Cut to Joe) Joe: ONE MINUTE TO GO!!! (Cut to Yuuko) Yuuko: (cheerful) One minute to go!

Tai calls out the time remaining here rather than Izzy, even though he can't see the clock from here.

As the missile's coming in, the dub also adds some dialogue from some military guys.

Soldier: Squad leader to command: We were unable to destroy the target. The missile will impact. Repeat, the missile will impact!

This ties in with the added detail from earlier, that every nation in the world is attempting to intercept the nuke and failing.

Inside the battlefield, the last Diablomon is still moving too fast for Omegamon to get a bead on it.

Takeru: Onii-chan! You have to find it quick! There's no time left! ONII-CHAN!!! HURRY!!!

45 seconds left on the clock. Koushiro works the problem in his head.

Koushiro: Its speed is too high. At this rate, even with tremendous power, we're going to lose due to the difference in reaction time. What can we do?

Thirty seconds left. Cutting over to the barber shop for a moment, we see that Yasuko's husband has popped over to watch the screen too. No explanation is offered.

(I guess he wants to find out what all the commotion is about? Yamato fucked off all of a sudden and Takeru is shrieking at the computer like it's the end of the world. I'd be curious too.)

Takeru: THIRTY SECONDS LEFT!!! Koushiro: (gasp) That's it....

Koushiro looks at all the incoming emails on his laptop.

Koushiro: A transfer! I can forward all of this email to that thing's address!

Koushiro quickly types in the current address that Diablomon is at, presumably the FactoryMark server we last saw it at.

Koushiro: GO!!! (click)

Koushiro dramatically presses the Enter key. Inside the battleground, Diablomon lands on the wall and prepares to make its next move, but then stalls all of a sudden. It struggles, shaking in place, but can't move. A little Windows hourglass appears over it; the loading symbol for computers from that time.

In the dub:

Tai: He keeps moving! Every time we get him in our sights, he jumps somewhere else! He's too fast for us! (45 seconds remain) Izzy: We have the power to destroy him now, but we don't have the time. Willis was right; We have to find some way to slow down Diaboromon.

...Willis said that after the first fight with Infermon. That he foresaw this exact predicament that far in advance is fucking wild.

T.K.: THIRTY SECONDS LEFT!!! Izzy: (gasp) The emails! If I forward him all the emails, it will slow him down just like it did us! Keep sending them, kids! (Izzy prepares to forward) Izzy: YOU!!! GOT!!! MAIL!!! (click)

Using "You got mail" as a battle cry here is pretty fucking sweet. For those too young to remember, an early form of internet was AOL which had a robot voice chime "You got mail" whenever you received an email.

With ten seconds remaining on the clock, Omegamon moves in for the kill.

Koushiro: Ten seconds left!

Koushiro counts down the seconds while Omegamon moves in. A brief cut of the barbershop shows that now everybody's paying attention to what's happening on the computer screen. Even the barber.

At one second, the attack lands. Omegamon drives his Grey Sword through Diablomon's skull.

At the same time, Yuuko's cake is finished! She takes it out of the microwave to find it grotesquely burnt.

Yuuko: Ah!? It's ruined! That's so weird. It should be controlled by the microcomputer....

COMPUTER YOU SAY

One last bug for the road. Diablomon ruined Yuuko's cake.

Outside, time's up. The nuclear missile crashes into the Tokyo Bay. We briefly see Sora in her room. With Diablomon dead, Taichi's email finally makes it through to her.

In the dub:

Tai: TEN SECONDS LEFT!!!

Again, despite not being able to see the clock, Tai is the one who counts down the seconds in the dub rather than Izzy.

(Omnimon stabs Diaboromon in the head) Diaboromon: Connection... Terminated....

The dub not only gives Diaboromon a line upon being stabbed, but rearranges scenes. Two upcoming shots get moved up to here. The first is of Diaboromon's face melting away to reveal the stabbed clock. The second is the timer stalling out and flickering between 00:01 and 00:02.

This serves to assure the audience that we got it, we stopped the detonation, earlier than in the original. The original keeps the tension ratcheted up as the missile lands, with it not yet clear if we killed Diablomon fast enough.

Yuuko: (ruined cake) Ugh, lousy microwave. How come every electronic appliance has to have a bug in it!? (Missile crashes into the bay) Sora: (email arrives) Huh? It's about time!

I mean. By Dub Yuuko's own admission, this was the first time she ever used flour to make a cake. It's just as likely that she's the culprit here as it is the microwave. :P

As the missile lands, Koushiro sprints out onto the balcony, distraught.

Koushiro: We didn't make it in time!

Cut to the internet battlefield. Diablomon's face melts away, revealing the clock pierced by Omegamon's blade. The timer stalls out, flickering between 00:01 and 00:02.

Meanwhile, Sora reads Taichi's message and notices the little heart he accidentally added when Hikari startled him. She's touched.

Sora: Ehehe... (affectionately) Stupid Taichi....

Success! Taichi accidentally fluked his way into forgiveness!

Out by the bay, people gather to look at the undetonated nuclear missile. It tips over due to its weight and falls flat into the water.

Up on the balcony, Koushiro breathes a sigh of relief.

Koushiro: (exhausted) We... We... We.... Taichi: (exhausted, also on balcony now) We made it in time!

Which is where the OVA ends! Abruptly! On Taichi quite reasonably looking like he's about to cry and then pass out. What did you do for your spring break, kids? Oh, I thwarted nuclear motherfucking Armageddon.

There is an epilogue of sorts in the form of ending slides in the credits. We'll address that in another post.

In the dub, this final sequence plays out with The Impression That I Get from The Mighty Mighty Bosstones playing in the background. Sora reads Tai's English email.

Sora: (reading aloud) Dear Sora, I'm sorry I threw up, hat, so what's a few raindrops between friends, love Tai. ...aww... (affectionately) Stupid Tai.... (Missile tips over into the water) Izzy: (exhausted) I'm... about... to barf.... Tai: (exhausted) Wait 'til you try the cake....

The dub closes on one last Yuuko cooking joke. To be fair, the cake legitimately did come out horribly. :P

There will be no epilogue slides for the dub, because it segues into the third part of Digimon: The Movie from here. We'll talk about that when we get to Hurricane Touchdown.

[theveniceangel]

Beauty Meets The Beast

*Our story begins late at night in the Howlin' Hugs office building*

*We see Andie standing at one of the cubicles with her arms crossed*

*She takes a deep breath and sighs*

*At that moment, an employee walks up to her with a small stack of papers*

???: Hey Andie, can you take these to the front desk for me, please?

*Andie smiles at the guy and takes the stack of papers from him*

Andie: Of course, I'll get right to it.

???: You're a lifesaver, Andie, thank you!

*And with that, he walks off*

Andie: Anytime!

*Andie makes her way towards the front desk and sets the stack of papers down*

*While she's doing this, she notices a strange silhouette out of the corner of her eye*

Andie: Huh?

*When she turns to see who it is, the silhouette vanishes down one of the corridors*

*Andie looks visibly confused by this*

Andie: What the..?

*She walks down the corridor, hoping to find who the silhouette belonged to*

*She looks around the area, but the person seems to have vanished into the crowd*

Andie: Hmm..

*She goes to turn, but before she can, she spots what seems to be Kyle's hat in the distance*

*She gasps, her eyes glisten when she sees it*

Andie: Kyle?

*She slowly makes her way through the crowd, as she gets closer, it becomes apparent that it was indeed Kyle's hat that she saw*

Andie: Oh my goodness, Kyle! I haven't seen him all week!

*The hat moves towards one of the offices*

*Andie gets a playful look on her face*

Andie: I'm gonna go give him a surprise hug, he's gonna be so happy to see me!

*She sneakily makes her way towards her unsuspecting partner, which ends up leading her into one of the vacant offices*

*She quietly enters the office and peeks inside to see someone spraying the floor with water*

*Andie smiles when she sees this and slowly creeps her way towards them*

*The figure is heard humming to themselves*

???: Almost done..

*At that moment, Andie lunges at the unsuspecting figure and wraps her arms around them*

Andie: Gotcha!

*She ends up being the one surprised however, because the sound she heard in that moment wasn't the shout of a man, but instead the yelp of a canine*

*She opens her eyes in surprise upon hearing this*

Andie: Huh?

*When she looks up at the person she's hugging, the figure staring back at her was in fact Kyle, but he wasn't human, he was instead a werewolf*

*Andie immediately let's go of him and steps back, gasping at the sight she's seeing*

*Kyle stares at Andie with a look of worry*

*Andie stares at Kyle in shock and disbelief, she doesn't know how to respond to this*

Andie: K--Kyle..?

*Kyle's ears drooped down in fear, he never wanted Andie to see him like this, yet here she is, standing in front of him... frightened*

*With a saddened whine escaping him, Kyle dashed out of the room, past his confused sweetheart*

Andie: Kyle wait!

*Andie immediately gives chase, not wanting to lose sight of her beloved*

*She runs as fast as she can, passing many of her co-workers, who're confused by the situation at hand*

???: Andie what's going on?

Andie: Not now, I need to find Kyle!

*And with that, she immediately rushes off*

???: Ok then..?

*Andie desperately looks around for Kyle, but she can't see him anywhere*

*She gets increasingly worried as she continues her search*

Andie: Oh Kyle, where'd you go..? *She says in a saddened tone*

*While she's walking around, she ends up passing by Ena's old office, when she does, she hears a saddened whine coming from inside the room*

Andie: Huh?

*She immediately stops and turns her attention towards the room*

*She slowly opens the door and takes a peek inside*

*Once she does, she sees Kyle curled up in a corner of the room, looking absolutely devastated*

*She slowly walks into the room, gently closing the door behind her*

Andie: Kyle..

*Kyle yelps in fright and immediately turns his attention towards her*

Kyle: A-Andie!

*Andie gives him a reassuring smile*

*Kyle starts backing himself up against the wall and covering his face*

Kyle: G-Go away! Get away from me!

*Andie looks worried by this, she slowly approaches him*

Andie: Kyle..

Kyle: Andie please..! *He says in a desperate tone*

Andie: Kyle, I'm not afraid of you..

*Kyle whines in worry*

Kyle: I don't want to hurt you.. *He says in a saddened tone*

*Andie slowly reaches her hands towards Kyle's face and strokes his cheek*

*His fur stands on end when she does this*

*Andie gently places her hand on Kyle's face, moving her fingers through his fur as she does this*

*Kyle stares at his sweetheart in shock, he definitely wasn't expecting this response*

*Andie does the same thing with her other hand and smiles gently at him*

Andie: I know you'd never hurt me..so I have no reason to be afraid.. I know that underneath all that fur, you're still the one I fell in love with..

*Tears well up in Kyle's eyes, he doesn't know whether to feel touched or relieved*

*He grabs Andie and pulls her into a hug, tears fall from his eyes onto Andie's sweater*

Kyle: Andie....I-

*Andie shushes the distressed werewolf and hugs him back*

Andie: There there..

*She gently pats his back in an effort to comfort him*

Andie: You don't have to hide from me anymore... you're safe... I promise...

*Kyle let's out a saddened whine as a smile appears on his face, his tail wags in excitement*

Kyle: Thanks Andie.. *He says in a broken voice*

(The End)

@queenofwerewolves @ilovescaredysquirrel2 @clg-artisa @citruslullabies @valiantsuitcaseskellington

[shes-an-artist]

Chapter Two -  – A week later, Greyhound Bus Lines Station, Alexandria VR – 11:27 a.m.

Summary: Addie meets her helper and winds up in the 1930's??

Warnings: none for this chapter! word count: 3,218 words

“Bus 67 leaving for Liberty University Campus at 11:30, boarding now.” The P.A. announced, starting Addie on her short walk from the waiting lot to the long bus that waited to take her on her next stage of life. Her backpack and duffle bag held her items so she could spend the next few weeks comfortably in a hotel until she could find an apartment or even live on campus if she really needed to.

“Have a good trip,” The attendant smiled at her as she passed and she thanked him before climbing the stairs onto the bus. The scent of worn leather seats wafted into her nose as she squeezed through the aisle before picking her seat a little past halfway down the bus. She stuffed her duffle bag under her seat and sat her backpack between her legs so she could access the items inside. Her allergy meds were on top, as usual as she rooted for her earbuds.

“There you are you rascals.”

So she spoke to inanimate objects, big whoop.

She popped them in, immediately turning on her oldies music. She thoroughly enjoyed 40’s and 50’s music, especially the big band songs, plus the bus really gave off the old time vibes.

She smiled and decided she would enjoy the trip.

She yelped softly when her head bumped against the window as the bus hit a bump a little too quickly, so much so that one of her earbuds fell out.

“Now where'd it go..?” She felt around herself and under her seat.

Nothing. She bent forward and checked the metal flooring and thankfully located it near the leg of the seat. She smiled and straightened up, looking out the window to see if they were there yet.

But what she saw outside the widow was quite surprising.

The bus station-- she assumed that’s where they were pulling into--was full of people and the building looked decades old, but not falling apart old, but more like a whole different style old. Almost like something you’d see out of a black-and-white movie.

But no, she was here and she was awake. Was she? She did bump her head but that was barely enough to bruise her. Was she going crazy?

She looked to her right where a young man was sitting, she had to pinch herself from yelping when she recognized the uniform he was wearing was from flipping WOLRD WAR TWO!?!?

It couldn’t be!

“You alright, miss?” The older lady behind her gingerly touched her arm, getting Addie’s attention. “You look like you’ve seen a ghost!”

“I-I’m not sure…” Addie replied, feeling very lost. “Where are we?”

“New York. I take it you had a long night and needed a catnap, hmm?”

“Yeah, I think.” Addie scrunched her brows, looking around. Everything looked retro, but the colors were real and very much alive, nothing like the aesthetics she would see online with the soft yellow undertones or the black-and-white pictures…

Then it hit her; she was back in the 1900’s.

“You gettin’ off, miss?” The driver asked, his northern accent shocking Addie. “I got some more rounds to make ‘fore quittin’ time.”

“Yeah, sorry-“ She grabbed her items and stepped kinda shakily off the bus, staring at everything.

“Hey, watch your step, ma’am.” The soldier from before caught her arm before she lost her balance on the final step. “Would you like me to take your things?”

“Uh, no thanks.” She shook her head, trying not to stare at him. He was so…different. His speech, the way he carried himself, it was all so old-fashion as her friends would call it. “I can manage.”

“Yes, ma’am.” He tipped his hat and walked away with a smile.

Addie was star-struck, she had never seen anyone act like that before in her entire life. It was almost as if he held her in high respects and he didn’t even know her name!

“Hey, wait a second there!” She called jogging after him. “This bus was supposed to go to Richmond! So why am I in New York??”

“Well, theres a good chance you might have gotten on the wrong bus.” He tried, scratching his eyebrow.

“No, I have my ticket right here.” She adjusted her backpack and fished her ticket out of her pocket, she had made sure to keep it handy. But what she pulled out of her jean pocket was not her ticket, it was a GreyHound line ticket, but it was for New York City, one way!

“What the heck?” She whispered.

“Ma’am, you shouldn’t use such strong language.” The soldier in front of her scolded, but his eyes sparkled at her words.

“What?” She looked up, confused. “I was supposed to go to Richmond, but I’m in New York!”

“Yes, ma’am, you are.” He nodded, a smirk tugging at his mouth. “So you can either go the clerk and buy a ticket for Richmond or you can find a place to stay overnight and make a fresh start in the morning.”

“But…I was going to Richmond,” Addie refused to believe it. There was no possible way she had gone from 2024 all the way back to 1940-something. Was the war even happening-?

“Thanks for your help, man." She smiled at the soldier before making a beeline for the newspaper stand where she knew she could find the date.

“If you want you can stay at my place tonight, I’m sure Ma and the other kids wouldn’t mind.” He followed her, offering a quarter for the paper.

Addie smiled and took the quarter, paying the boy for a paper and looking to the top for the date.

“April 6th, 1939?!” She blurted, already seeing spots in front of her eyes.

“Hey, are you feeling alright?” The soldier touched her arm again, stepping closer in case she fainted.

“I..I dunno..” She tried to find her phone but there was nothing in her pocket, not even her earbuds. It wouldn’t have been any use anyway, there was no signal and no way to charge it. “Its 1939?”

“Yes, ma’am.” The soldier nodded, his own faced etched with confusion and concern. “I think you outa come home with me, my ma can help you.” He took the duffle bag from her hand and slung it over his own shoulder.

“I-I really shouldn’t—“ Addie stuttered, not sure if this was a trap or not. But men in the 40’s, especially soldiers, wouldn’t just bring a girl home for things that should be left unsaid. Maybe this guy was sincere..

“C’mon, miss. I can’t just leave a pretty kid like you on the streets alone, besides, you ain’t got a place stay. We’ve always got an extra room. I’ll sleep on the porch and you can use my bed.”

Addie was struck dumb, here he was offering his own bed for her and he didn’t even know her…

How could you say no?

“Alright, you talked me into it.” She sighed, folding the newspaper and shoving it in her backpack. “I should probably know your name before I go home with you, though.”

“Lieutenant James.” He flashed a charming smile and offered his hand. “And may I know your lovely name?

“I’m Addie.” She smiled back, giving his hand a firm shake. “Army?”

“Marines, miss.” He winked proudly and motioned to the steps for her to go first. “Seventh division.”

“Really?” She fell in place beside him as he escorted her down the street, it wasn’t as busy as modern day New York, but the few cars that were on the road were absolutely massive and all metal too. Addie had only seen a few in D.C. and some in Memphis, Tennessee when she visited there for her senior year.

“Yes, ma’am.” Lieutenant James held his head high as he practically strutted down the sidewalk with Addie by his side. She could only imagine what his family would be like.

“You from Richmond?”

“No, I’m from Washington D.C.”

“No kidding? Holy smokes!”

“Its pretty fun, but…” Should she tell him she was from another century, much less that the United States was about to go to war in two years? He would be pleased to know they would win…

“But what?”

“I was so looking forward to Richmond.”

“Whats in Richmond?”

“Liberty University and a Forensics Science degree with a 5,000 dollar scholarship.” She kicked at the pebble, sending it plinking down the sidewalk.

“You’re going to college???” James turned to you, his eyebrows raised high.

“I mean, yeah.” She deadpanned. “I need an education to get a job.”

“Well, gosh, I mean you?”

Then she understood. Women didn’t go to college in the 30’s, much less took jobs in forensics unless it was a secretary.

“Oh-, well um..”

“No, no, I’m impressed, Addie. I really am. That’s high dollar if you were accepted. More power to you.” 

“Thanks, Lieutenant.” She smiled at the ground, but she looked up again to stare at the houses. Some of them were new, some of them were really old and could have used a do-over. But the one at the end of the street was flat out gorgeous. White-washed siding and a beautiful wrap-around porch with black shutters and a lovely off-white door. The window’s had cream colored shades inside and the lawn was a wonderful shade of green.

“Oh, its so cute!” She smiled.

“You like it?” The lieutenant grinned. “I wanted it until the old lady bought it. But it looks like with the war in Europe I might be heading off soon.” He said bittersweetly. “Man, is Katie gonna have a cow.”’

Addie snickered at the term, she hadn’t heard it before but it was quite appropriate for him.

“Does your family live on this street?”

“Right down the next block,” He pointed to the stop sign a few hundred feet away where a gang of kids were playing catch it looked like in the street. Addie could hear their shouts all the way from where she was.

“My little sister is the one in the green,” James pointed to the girl who looked to be around twelve with a backwards baseball cap on over her red hair, her green shirt was covered in dirt along with her jeans.

“Oh my,” Addie snickered. “Whats her name?”

“McKenzie, but we just call her Mickey.”

“That’s cute”

“And there’s Rebecca, she's the one refereeing, but she’s called Rikki. Her brother lives in Brooklyn.”

The name lit off a bulb in Addie’s mind, Rikki was a nickname for a certain character’s little sister, she just couldn’t place it—

“They certainly look like they’re having fun.” Addie smiled as they turned the corner onto another street.

“They always do. As long as they’re outside then Ma don’t mind.” James smirked as he glanced at her.

When they reached the house,  it looked rather small but once the lieutenant opened the door and called for his Ma, the room seemed twice as big as it looked from the outside.

Addie glanced around, taking in as many details as she could. It was cluttery, simply well-loved. As if many people made thousands of memories in this house.

“Willy!” An older woman, probably mid 40’s rushed into the room, wrapping her arms around the young man’s neck and giving him a kiss. “Why didn’t you call from the station?? I thought you’d never get here!”

“I’m sorry, Ma. I got a little side-tracked.” Willy smiled and looked to Addie. “Ma, this is Addie, she could use a place to stay tonight. I think she meant to get on the bus for Richmond instead of New York.”

“Oh, you poor dearie!” Ma took Addie’s hand. “Of course you can stay here! Willy, get the young ladies things and take them to Joseph’s room, he can sleep in Henry’s room with him.”

“Yes, ma’am.” Lieutenant Willy took Addie’s backpack and duffle bag and bolted up the stairs.

“Now come in here and tell me about yousself.” Ma pulled Addie into the kitchen and set her down at the table. The smell of something cooking in the oven made Addie smile.

“Well, it’s a crazy story.” She shook her head in disbelief. “So much has happened, I just don’t know if its all real!”

“Willy’s a good boy, he’ll take care of you, honey.”

“Oh, no!” She laughed. “We’re not a thing, he just offered me a place to stay, I’m not even looking right now.”

“Oh bless me!” She put her hand on her bosom. “You mean he hasn’t taken a liking toward you?”

“No, ma’am. I was a little tipsy at the bus stop and he just helped me, that’s all. I didn’t even know his first name was Willy until you said it.”

“Oh-! Well, then, do you need to get to Richmond tonight??”

“I’m…” She paused. “I’m not sure.” Her hand played with the ticket between her fingers. “Now that I think about it, I don’t think what I was going there for even exists…”

“Now, don’t look so sad, young’un.” Ma patted Addie’s hand as she sat down, setting a plate of cookies on the checkered tables cloth. “Eat yourself some of those, you’ll feel better.”

Addie couldn’t do anything but smile and take a bite from the cookies. They were less sweeter than she expected, but that would account for the Depression’s effect on everyone. Sugar was probably a rarity back then- or…right now. She still couldn’t quite wrap her mind around it.

“Well, you can stay here as long as you like, honey. Maybe you’ll warm up to Willy.” Ma smiled mischeviously and patted Addie’s hand again as Willy opened the door and poked his head inside.

“Am I being nosy?” He smirked before his ma waved him inside.

“Get in here! Addie is thinking of staying with us a little longer, Willy.”

“Well- I didn’t really say that, but thank you for the offer. I really don’t know how I got here and where I should go now.”

“Where you from, darling? Are your parents in Richmond?”

“I’m from D.C., but my mom…I-..” She trailed off. How on earth was she supposed to work this out?? For all she knew, this woman could have been her great-great grandmother.

“Have another cookie, sweetheart. You’re always welcome here anytime.” Ma touched her shoulder, her eyes softening.

“I’m not an orphan or anything,” Addie shook her head. “But I lived on my own and I haven’t seen my dad for..oh, five years? He was deployed for combat a long time ago and we got news that he went missing in action.”

“Aw, honey. I’m so sorry.” Ma frowned. “Are you alright?”

“Yeah, yeah,” Addie nodded slowly. She wasn’t exactly close with her dad, but she did miss him. “Yeah, I’m okay.”

“Dinner should be soon, you two. Joseph!” Ma stood up and called out the screen door.

“Yeah, Ma??” A young boy called back.

“Would you go tell Mickey and Danny dinner is almost ready?”

“On it!” Joseph went to do the chore as Willy cleaned off the plate of cookies.

“Holy cow, mom, your cookies got better!”

“William!”

“She hasn’t been able to bake worth her life for the last three years.” Willy grinned at Addie who grinned and shook her head.

“And you’ve been the one to suffer, huh?”

“Oh, you have no idea.” He groaned before his mom smacked his.

He laughed as Addie snickered into her hand. And then it hit her.

“Is there a library around here?” She hit her palms on the table top.

“Well, sure there’s on downtown.” Willy thumbed in the direction indicated.

“Dinner’s almost ready!” Ma objected.

“I’m sorry, but I have to check something and I don’t know how long I have.” Addie stood up and turned to Willy. “Will you please take me there?”

“Sure, but right now?”

“I have to check something.”

“Alright,” Willy shrugged and stood up.

“I’ll keep your dinner warm.”

“Thanks, Ma.” Willy waved before he opened the door for Addie, who quickly strode  toward the street.

“So what so important, kid?” Willy jogged to catch up with her. “You look like my sargent on patrol.”

“I want to look someone up, but I’m not sure if it’ll be there.”

“You sure are some girl.” He laughed and shook his head.

New York Public Library, 3:45 p.m.

Addie didn’t really know where to start except to ask the lady at the desk with the glasses that could have fried ants within seconds.

“Excuse me,” She leaned against the high desk, keeping her voice low. “How do I look up ancestry?”

“Last name?”

“Jeannes. Two ‘N’s.”

“Follow me, please.” She smiled softly before appearing from around the desk and taking her around the aisles and aisles of books, it smelled like books in there along with a touch of warm air from outside. Willy followed her closely as the lady took Addie to a line of filing cabinets.

“’J’ through ‘K’ is in this drawer,” She pulled open the cabinet and began to finger through the files. “Here we are.” She smiled as she handed the correct file to Addie. “Is there anything else I can help you with?”

“No, thanks.” Addie shook her head and began to spread the papers on the table in the middle of the room. “But I might have some more questions later on.”

“Alright, I’ll be at the desk then.” The lady smiled and pushed her glasses up her nose before silently stalking off back to her post.

“So who are we looking for?” Willy leaned over the chair, his elbows resting on the back.

“A man name Isiah Jones, he married my grandmother and then his daughter divorced her first husband and then married my dad.”

“Jones, Jones..” Willy looked over the first paper he picked up. “I think I heard of a Jones in my unit, but I doubt he’s the one you’re looking for.”

“What makes you say that?”

“He’s a Korean.” Willy smirked.

Addie rolled her eyes and shook her head, sitting down and studying the papers before her. If she could find her grandfather, she could find a place to stay…that is if she could explain her existence.

“Got him.” Willy slid the paper across the table as Addie grabbed it.

“Isiah Jones, married to Camile Jones, maiden name Rogers—“ Hang on.

“Hey, um, do me a favor and pull the Rogers file for me.”

“Alrighty.” Willy stood up and began to look for the file. “Another relation, I take it?”

“Not this time, but I think I just figured something out…” Addie poured over her grandfather’s family before Willy set the file beside her.

She attacked it, looking for the name she so desperately needed to find.

“Rogers, Rogers… Aha, Sarah and Joseph Rogers! Theres no way!!”

“Silence, please!” An old man hissed from the hallway.

Addie blushed but couldn’t help the grin of excitement that spread across her face.

“There is no freaking way..” She breathed, touching her cheeks. “So lets see….I have to stay three years, that’s all.”

“What?” Willy squinted.

“Okay, do you know Steve Rogers?”

“Uh, I think I’ve met him once and that was through Bucky, Rikki’s brother.”

Addie let out another squeal, absolutely enthralled. Not only was she dropped in the middle of an international crisis, she has been dropped the Marvel Universe!! God bless Stephen Strange.

thank you for reading 🥰✌️ Dividers by @strangergraphics

prompt by @the-superoriginal

written by yours truly, all relation to actual people are purely coincidental but I may have written Addie's personality of of a friend of mine.. haha 😆

tag list: @oh-to-be-a-murderer - @fictionalmenjusthitdifferent - @itzzkaylaaa - @crazyinlovewithmarvel - @natt-romanoff - @ohyeah-itssamwilson - @proud-owner-0f-americas-ass

if you would like to be tagged in the upcoming chapters, please send me an ask and I will make sure to tag you!

[theamityelf]

In Makoto switch place with Kaede how would her dynamic with Kirigiri? Also, did Suichi ever get rid of his hat? Maybe more of his and Makoto dynamic and both of their dynamic with Kokichi and Kaito?

Ah, good questions all around!

Kaede and Kyoko

I think Kaede would think Kyoko is really cool but also get openly irritated with her whenever she withholds information. Like, Kaede would constantly be saying "Where'd you get that?" "How'd you find that?" "How do you know that?" "Tell me!" Until she just resolves, "Screw it, I'm following you around. If you're not going to tell me what's going on, then I'll just see for myself what you're up to."

It's Kyoko's secretive nature versus Kaede's refusal to be ignored.

Kyoko would be annoyed because this pianist is taking a jackhammer to her subtlety, but she learns how to operate within the new parameters, sometimes placating Kaede with information, sometimes avoiding her. I don't know whether they'd become friends, because Kyoko really values her boundaries and Kaede is way more persistent in that regard than Makoto is, but it's possible.

Shuichi's hat

In the AU where Shuichi is in THH, I could see Taka saying "It's rude to wear a hat indoors," but dropping the issue when Shuichi insists. And a little later, he takes the hat off in some pivotal moment as a gesture of friendship towards Taka (and because he's become more confident from being Taka's friend, because Taka's belief in working hard rather than being innately talented is really good for him). Or he takes the hat off when Taka dies, as a kind of tribute to his memory.

In the AU where Makoto is in V3 with Shuichi, I don't think there's a pivotal moment where he takes the hat off; I think it just falls off while he's doing push ups with Kaito and Makoto (...and Maki, depending on where we are in the timeline), and he makes the decision to leave it off because he realizes he's fine with not wearing it, now.

Shuichi, Makoto, Kokichi, and Kaito

I think, as far as Shuichi and Makoto, they fall into a natural rhythm pretty quickly. There is a feeling of interdependence there that isn't really codependence; it's just incredible synergy. It's simple things like Shuichi observing a tripping hazard before Makoto trips over it, and Makoto giving Shuichi positive reinforcement when he needs it, and Shuichi remembering and noticing things about Makoto so that he knows him well despite how little he talks about himself, and Makoto serving as backup to Shuichi during investigations, making observations and generally modeling for Shuichi that it's okay to question his friends and identify the culprit. They make each other feel special and valued, they're both just really genuine and they care about each other.

(The main disconnect between them is that Makoto will not lie in a trial. When Shuichi tells a lie that involves him, Makoto will be super evasive and uncomfortable if anyone questions him about it, and if Shuichi tells a lie to give him an alibi or otherwise clear him of suspicion, he'll feel really guilty. I feel like they'd talk about it afterward.

"You don't have to lie for me."

"I knew you weren't the culprit, and making sure they knew you weren't the culprit brought us to the truth faster."

"I know it worked out in the end, but...still. It doesn't feel right."

"...I know."

That said, if Chapter 5 happens the same way, I think Makoto would start lying way earlier than Shuichi. Like, as soon as he realizes Kokichi's objective was to defeat Monokuma, I think Makoto would go right to helping confuse things, and Shuichi would get quiet for a bit to figure out what Makoto is doing, and then he'd go along with it. They try to bring about the conclusion that the crime genuinely can't be solved.)

Kaito cares about them both, and they care about him, but his posturing gets in the way of letting him be as close to either of them as they are to each other. They both consider him a friend, but he has made himself the vinegar to their honey. If he punched Shuichi or Makoto in the face, the other would seriously take issue with it, regardless of whether it's just his tough love "Man up!" stuff.

And like I mentioned, Kokichi needles Kaito about this. It's kind of a mirror situation, where both Kokichi and Kaito are failing to let themselves have straightforward, positive relationships with their friends. Kaito feels kind of insecure because they both excel in ways he doesn't- Shuichi by being an amazing detective, and Makoto by being vulnerable while still being strong. But they both think he's really cool. The three of them and Maki have some great moments working out together at night.

Shuichi has a less generous outlook toward Kokichi than Makoto does. Kaito's view is that Kokichi is just a guy who's a jerk, Shuichi sees Kokichi as an enigmatic villain, and Makoto believes that Kokichi is ultimately on their side and trying to help them. Mainly because when an action of Kokichi's can be read as beneficial (despite the way Kokichi does it), Makoto will notice it and take it into account.

Also, any attempts Kokichi makes to prank, trick, or mess with anyone in the killing game will somehow affect Makoto no matter what. Like, Makoto is a confounding factor in any prank, because somehow he will manage to set something off that wasn't meant for him, or accompany someone who was expected to be alone, etc. Naturally, he passes out right along with Shuichi when Gonta grabs them for the Insect Meet and Greet, but also he gets absolutely ruined by those bugs. Like, even more so than Himiko. This results in Kokichi pulling little pranks just as a way to observe his luck and figure out how to work within and around it, because if unpredictable stuff keeps happening around Makoto, that's bad news for any plan Kokichi tries to make. (Shuichi sees this as Kokichi bothering Makoto just for the evulz.)

If Chapter 4 happens the same way as in canon, Makoto will be really shocked and hurt by what Kokichi did to Gonta. I think Makoto will still mention that Kokichi was put in a difficult position, as far as being targeted for murder and not having a lot of recourse, but I still think he would say that Kokichi crossed a line.

I'm imagining Kokichi covering up his shame and hurt by snarking, "Oh, did Makoto finally stop believing in my better nature?" and just generally lashing out and mocking him.

Also, I kinda want Kokichi to kidnap Makoto in Chapter 5, in addition to Kaito. That's just kind of something I want. But I also want Makoto to bring the group up after the depression hits about the maybe-ended world. Decisions, decisions...

[the-name-is-z]

SKELETONS | ch. 3

daryl dixon x f!oc

masterlist

a03 link

Summary: After helping Rick save one of his group members from an unlikely hostage situation, Iris is introduced to the camp. Yet, a happy reunion may be overshadowed by looming danger. Warnings/Information: AMC's The Walking Dead OC Insert | 18+ Advised | strangers to lovers; the slowest of slow burns; gore; angst; horror; humour; m/f; descriptions of gore, violence, zombies, death, mourning, digging graves, handling of dead bodies, injury, infection

Chapter 3 - The Group

"Admit it, you only came back to Atlanta for the hat." Glenn teased as they walked under the overpass. He was surprisingly chipper despite the hostage situation. The overpass came off the interstate into the city, and supposedly where he parked their van every time he came into the city for a run.

"Don't tell anybody." Rick replied with a smile. Iris walked quietly beside T-Dog, an uncertain feeling curling up at the base of her skull. She hoped more than anything that this group could be something good. Like Guillermo said, there were too many bad people left. 

"You've given away half our guns and ammo." Daryl grumbled.

"Not nearly half." Rick replied.

"For what? Bunch of old farts who are gonna die off momentarily anyhow?" He asked. 

"Seriously, how long do you think they got?"

"How long do any of us?" Rick retorted. They walked around a bus that blocked their path, only to find no van waiting on the other side. Iris watched as their faces fell.

"Oh my god." Glenn mumbled.

"Where the hell's our van?" Daryl asked.

"We left it right there, who would take it?" Glenn wondered.

"Merle." Rick answered firmly.

"Your brother?" Iris asked, frowning at Daryl. He nodded, sucking on a tooth.

"Yeah. He's gonna be taking some vengeance back to camp." He replied. Iris glanced around at their current surroundings, her eyes landing on an SUV not far from the train tracks. She ran for it, finding a wooden stick spearing through the windshield, a walker pinned to the driver's seat. 

"What are you doing?" Glenn called.

"Wanna get back to your camp or not?" She called back. With a sharp stab she killed the walker through the open window, opening the door to tug him out. Daryl jogged over, opening the other door and beginning to kick the broken windshield out. He popped the hood, checking it over as Iris ducked under the steering wheel and pulled wires.

"Where'd you learn to do that?" Rick asked, he and the others having decided to join in. 

"Gonna arrest me if I tell you?" Iris asked, the engine roaring to life. He said nothing as she sat up. "Wouldn't be the first time." She answered simply. Glenn got in the drivers seat, all of them rushing on borrowed time.

It was dark by the time they pulled into the side road toward their camp. They were halted only by the sound of gunshots, screaming. A few walkers wandered down toward the car, but Iris' sinking feeling was coming to a head. They spared no time in jumping out, guns blazing. Iris followed Rick past tents and small clearings to a fire pit and an RV. 

There were children screaming as the adults shot the walkers down one by one, making use of their new guns. There were already people on the ground, the walkers feasting on fresh flesh.

"Baby! Carl!" Rick yelled, running into the fray. The survivors were huddled around the RV as Iris and Daryl shot out the rest of the walkers, bloodied and horrified. 

"Dad!" A young boy yelled, sobbing as he ran into Rick's arms. A woman with long brown hair collapsed into them both. Iris glanced nervously at the ruined camp, the sobbing kids. Some of the adults hadn't made it. Glenn was panting, his voice hoarse with panic as his knuckles turned white, gripping the gun. Iris put a hand on his shoulder, trying to even out her own breathing.

"Jesus." She whispered, wiping her blood coated knives on a dead walker's shirt.

The little boy, Carl, was sobbing into Rick's chest. A young blonde woman was kneeling beside the RV, the bloodied body at her feet sporting the same head of blonde hair.

"I remember my dream now. Why I dug the holes." A man said lowly, his face splattered with blood.

-

The Georgia sun was hot up here, beating down as the cicadas sung. It made the bodies smell worse. Iris hadn't taken the time to meet anyone, knowing they needed time to grieve. Daryl was making sure each of the bodies had a hole in their heads, a pickaxe being his tool for the job.

None of them had to ask, Iris just started burning bodies. She took extra care of the bodies that were wrapped, knowing it was one of theirs. Iris knew it might be easier for her to bury them than for them. She helped T-Dog carry them to the bed of a pickup truck, then they would cart them to a hilltop with an unorganized smattering of human-sized holes. 

She approached Rick, his wife, and a few other people she hadn't met as Daryl stormed away from them. Apparently his preferred coping mechanism was to be an angry pain in the ass. A man with dark hair and a t-shirt with the sheriff's logo turned to her first, a frown seemingly sewn into his eyebrows. The second was an older man in a bucket hat, a Bermuda shirt hanging loosely from his shoulders. He walked over, a grim smile on his face.

"I'm afraid we can't roll out much of a welcome wagon." He said with a somber tone. "I'm Dale."

"Iris." She replied, shaking his hand. 

"This is Shane," He introduced, gesturing to the dark-haired man, "and that's Lori and Carol.” He gestured to the woman with the long brown hair, Rick's wife, and her foil with a shaved head and grey hair. He pointed to each of the living people, listing names, but his voice began to waver, and he stopped to clear his throat.

"I'm sorry about your people." Iris said quietly. Shane nodded stiffly, making piercing eye contact before turning away. "I'll do what I can."

"It's greatly appreciated." Dale nodded with a comforting smile.

"You reap what you sow!" Daryl called out, dropping a body.

"Shut up, man." Another man, Morales, huffed.

"Y'all left my brother for dead!" Daryl yelled, storming away, pointing in Atlanta's general direction. "You had this coming." Iris watched him go with a raised eyebrow. She pulled her bandana over her face as she knelt down to help a woman named Jacqui carry another body. She nodded in thanks, though the attempted smile didn't reach her eyes. They looked up as a guy named Jim stumbled toward them.

"Are you bleeding?" Jacqui asked, frowning at the spot of blood on his t-shirt. He panted a bit, shaking his head.

"I just got some on me from the bodies." He replied, waving it off. Iris faltered, eyeing him carefully. 

"That blood is fresh." She murmured.

"Were you bit?" Jacqui asked firmly.

"No, I got scratched during the attack." He assured.

"You got bit." She denied, shuffling to her feet. Iris' hand twitched toward her knife.

"I'm fine." Jim repeated.

"Then show me." Jacqui pleaded. Jim looked up, still panting hard.

"Don't tell. Please." He breathed.

"A walker got him!" Jacqui called, stumbling backward to the others. "A walker bit Jim!" Iris unsheathed her knife as they started to surround him, giving the stumbling man a wide berth, murmurs breaking out.

"I'm okay. I'm okay." Jim assured.

"Show it to us." Daryl stated. "Show it to us." Jim stumbled, leaning down to grab a shovel in defence. "Grab him! Grab him!"

"Jim, put it down. Put it down." Shane called. T-Dog lunged at him, grabbing his arms and pulling them back.

"I'm okay. I'm okay. I'm okay. I'm okay." Jim repeated. Daryl ran forward and peeled his shirt up, revealing the angry red bite, already festering with infection. It was on his torso, leaving them no options for amputation. Daryl dropped the shirt, both him and T-Dog moving back as Jim muttered to himself, panting.

The group ushered Jim around the back of the RV, seating him on a bucket to wait for the group's decision. They gave him a water bottle, despite Daryl's grumblings at the waste of clean water. Iris wasn't scared, more concerned. Nothing like this had happened with her old group. They had all pretty much died at once. But she'd seen it happen. This was something they couldn't ignore, couldn't tolerate. He could kill them all.

"I say we put a pickaxe in his head, and the dead girl's, and be done with it." Daryl murmured to the circle. 

"Is that what you'd want if it were you?" Shane snapped angrily.

"Yeah, and I'd thank you while you did it." Daryl retorted quickly.

"I hate to say it-- and I never thought I would-- but maybe Daryl's right." Dale muttered.

"Jim's not a monster, Dale, or some rabid dog." Rick argued.

"I'm not suggesting--"

"He's sick. A sick man." He said firmly. "We start down that road, where do we draw the line?"

"The line's pretty clear. Zero tolerance for walkers. Or them to be." Daryl huffed.

"What if we can get him help?" Rick asked. "I heard the CDC was working on a cure."

"I heard that too. Heard a lot of things before the world went to hell." Shane grumbled.

"What if the CDC's still up and running?" Rick asked.

"Man, that is a stretch right there." Shane muttered.

"Why? If there's any government left, any structure at all, they'd protect the CDC at all costs, wouldn't they?" Rick proposed. "I think it's our best shot. Shelter, protection, rescue--"

"Okay, Rick, you want those things, alright? I do too, okay? Now if they exist, they're at the army base. Fort Benning." Shane argued.

"That's 100 miles in the opposite direction." Lori replied.

"That is right. But it's away from the hot zone. Now listen to me. If that place is operational, it'll be heavily armed. We'd be safe there."

"The military were on the front lines of this thing. They got overrun. We've all seen that." Rick continued. "The CDC's our best choice and Jim's only chance.

"You go looking for aspirin. Do what you need to do." Daryl scoffed, turning away. He started toward Jim. "Someone needs to have some balls to take care of this damn problem!"

"Hey hey hey!" Rick yelled, cocking his gun as Daryl raised the pickaxe to Jim. Shane got between them, protecting Jim. "We don't kill the living."

"That's funny coming from a man who just put a gun to my head." Daryl snapped. Iris raised an eyebrow. He had a point. She turned to the others, murmuring quietly without the presence of the alpha males.

"I might be overstepping, and tell me if I am, but why don't you just ask Jim what he wants to do? He's not stupid. He has to know what it means. He might not make it to the CDC, even if they do have a cure." Iris stated.

"That's what I was insinuating when I said I agreed with Daryl, I just want to do what's right for the group, including him." Dale agreed. They all watched as Rick and Shane took Jim into the forest, tying him to a tree.

-

Iris sat on the edge of a hole, her legs hanging in a grave, trying to appreciate the irony. Shane and Rick seemed to be at each other's throats, the former not so happy they came back with her instead of Merle. Daryl backed his pickup truck toward the holes, the bed filled with the sheet-covered bodies of their dead. Iris stood, dusting off her gloves and pulling the bandana back up over her face.

"I still think it's a mistake, not burning these bodies." Daryl mused as he got out of the truck. “It's what we said we'd do, right? Burn 'em all, wasn't that the idea?"

"At first." Rick replied.

"Glenn gets all emotional, says it's not the thing to do, we just follow him along?" Daryl continues. "These people need to know who the hell's in charge here, what the rules are."

"There are no rules." Rick replied. 

"Well that's a problem." Lori cut in. "We haven't had one minute to hold onto anything of our old selves. We need time to mourn and we need to bury our dead. It's what people do." Iris said nothing, grabbing onto a body, Glenn running up to take the other side. It was uncomfortable, to say the least, bearing witness to all these arguments. She felt like she was watching some twisted reality show. 

Once the rest of the bodies were buried, everyone stood aside to let Andrea, the blonde woman, bury her sister. She refused to let anyone help, dragging the dead weight across the ground, haphazardly stumbling. She practically fell into the grave, but the tear tracks on her face did more than enough convincing for them to leave her be. Dale tried desperately to help her, but she didn't want it.

A few of the others watching were crying too, stepping forward only to shovel dirt on top of the body. Once the hole was filled, they walked down the hill together, back to the camp. The sound of their footsteps were accompanied only by small sniffles and Andrea's sobbing. 

Iris sat down on a log beside the remains of the campfire as a few went into the RV to check on Jim. Lori brought Carol back out to let Rick talk to him. It was hard to watch. All of it. It was hard to be there. Iris knew Daryl held resentment for her, for not being his brother. All those people that died, only for her to show up out of nowhere. She didn't expect anything from them, helping where she could. 

After a few hours, the others joined her around the fire, gathering together as the sun began to set. Dale, Shane and Rick came out of the forest, Dale looking like he just saw a ghost, and Shane looking like he just lost an argument. They gathered around the others. Shane taking his spot at the head of the group.

"I've uh... I've been thinking about Rick's plan." He began. "Now, look, there are no guarantees either way. I'll be the first one to admit that. I've known this man a long time. I trust his instincts. I say the most important thing here is we need to stay together. So those of you that agree, we leave first thing in the morning. Okay?"

The others said nothing, Shane's announcement earning only a few nods in agreement. Iris would follow the group wherever it went. She trusted Rick too, just not in the same way. And Shane would likely agree with Iris if she voiced out loud that Rick seemed a little optimistic considering their circumstances. Yet, every morning, he climbed that hill, speaking into a radio like it was keeping him sane.

The CDC seemed like a safe enough bet. The only issue was its location in the city. And if Rick happened to be wrong, and they all changed their minds, Fort Benning would be a far trip. Traveling in this world was hard. It was harder with kids. And this group had four, plus an injured man. Iris had to admit, the CDC was a long shot. But that seemed like the only kind they had.

[pure-garbage]

Old Skills and New Friends! Wisdom of the Runaway

Chapter warnings: Gore, mild violence

The events at Little Garden unfolded almost entirely out of Lana's line of sight. Since the island boasted no civilization to speak of, she decided she would travel on with the Straw Hats to the next port.

"You should at least go help Luffy and Vivi find some water," Nami huffed while most of the crew dispersed. "Aren't you good for anything besides picking the same ten locks over and over again?"

Lana wasn't keen to set foot on the wild, mysterious isle.

"I do have one other skillset," she offered, desperate to save herself from being forced off the ship to forage with the others. "My Mama was a seamstress, and I was supposed to be one too. Don't you guys have anything you need mended or patched?"

"Hah! Please, have you met any of the people on this crew?" Nami laughed. "Come on. I'll introduce you to the pile."

Lana gave a low whistle when she laid eyes on it.

"Have fun," Nami smirked, leaving her alone in the cabin with a sewing kit and a towering heap of slashed and torn garments.

"Is that a sail?" Lana wondered to herself, tugging it experimentally as she prepared to start sorting.

Lana wasn't unhappy to have something with which to occupy her time, even if the work did bring back a lot of memories.

"Beautiful stitching, La-La, you're a natural! Such a good little helper for your Mama!"

"It's so fun! You really get to do this all day, every day?"

"Mm-hmm. I'm glad you enjoy it too..."

Lana smiled while she was lost in the memory of her Mother's pride, but once she came back to the present, that smile quickly faded.

'It's been five years since I ran away... I wonder if she's even still alive.'

Lana forced the thoughts away and focused on the task at hand. She wanted to turn her mind's eye ahead, but she had no idea what the future held for her and the past offered little but pain. With a sigh, she kept herself perfectly in the present, all her attention turned outward as she sewed and listened to the sounds of Nami and Usopp out on the deck.

The soft noises of their conversation suddenly became shouts and thumps. Lana set the spare sail down and peeked out of the cabin door to see the two remaining straw hats conversing loudly with a giant.

'This island has giants? Well thank god he's friendly,' Lana sighed inwardly with relief. If the big guy was going to smash their ship, surely he would have done it by now. Even if he didn't seem threatening, Lana wasn't in a hurry to let him see her. She closed the door and went back to patching the sail.

"After this, I'll take a break and stretch my legs," she decided aloud.

When the time came, she was surprised to find the ship vacant.

"Nami? Usopp? Where'd you guys go?" she called. "Hey! Ugh, I wish they would have said something if they were going to leave me alone with their ship! Guess I should stay on the lookout... but I'm not sure what they expect me to do if something goes wrong. I'm not exactly a power house when it comes to fighting..."

Lana continued grumbling to herself all the way up the mast to the crows nest.

"... stab one lousy marine captain and suddenly everyone expects you to know how to fight. If I could fight worth a damn, I wouldn't have been stuck with the Seeker pirates for so long."

Lana pursed her lips, knowing she'd just lied to herself, but unwilling to call herself out on it. Her hand crept over the sash covering her right wrist.

'Maybe...'

Lana pulled it back a bit, part of her hoping she would only see skin. The orange outline of Corrin's mark caught her eye, sending her heart sinking and her stomach rolling nauseatingly. She quickly pulled the sash back into place and looked away. She hadn't really expected the mark to vanish, but still couldn't help being disappointed.

"It doesn't matter," she reminded herself. "By now, Corrin's been turned over to the marines for his bounty. He's sitting behind bars somewhere... even if I never shake his mark, there's no way he'll ever come after me again."

Deep down, foreboding curled in her gut like a wriggling, sickening clutch of maggots, slowly but surely eating her from the inside out. Despite her reasoning and rationalizations, she couldn't bring herself to truly believe she'd yet seen the last of Seeker Corrin.

As darkness threatened to fall, the Straw Hats stumbled back to the ship, battered and bloodied.

"What in the... What the hell happened to you guys?" Lana gaped.

Luffy and Usopp were all but carrying Zoro. Even Nami and Vivi looked like they'd taken a beating. Out of them all, Sanji was the only one who still looked alright.

"Long story," he sighed in response. "Baroque Works is still after us. It's been taken care of now, Lana sweetest, so no need to worry."

"Sanji! Quit your cooing and help me and Vivi clean up!" Nami scowled furiously.

"But of course, Nami my love!" Sanji cried elatedly.

"I'll help too," Lana offered. "Just tell me what to do."

Nami's blazing eyes snapped to fix their unscathed guest with a glare that could have curdled fresh cream.

"Oh really? As a matter of fact, I do have something you can help with," she snarled. "Come on."

She led Lana into the cabin, where Luffy and Usopp were trying to wrestle Zoro out of his boots while he howled and cursed.

"Just leave 'em!"

"Zoro, you have to take them off so I can wrap your ankles up!" Usopp yelled. "Luffy, hold him tighter!"

"Maybe Zoro's right," Luffy thought aloud. "The bleeding already stopped. I'm sure he'll be fine if we just-"

"The bleeding probably stopped because this bonehead is out of blood!" Nami raged, slapping Luffy and Zoro at the same time, stunning the latter into complacence.

'She's so scary!' Lana thought with alarm.

"Now pull the damn boots off, Usopp! Lana, grab the sewing kit!" Nami ordered.

"Yes ma'am," Lana mumbled, obeying hastily. Behind her, Zoro's boots came off with a pair of wet sloshes that she didn't spare much thought as she searched under the now-repaired sail for Nami's sewing kit.

"Oooh, I'm gonna be sick," Usop groaned.

"Lightweight," Zoro muttered.

"You're both morons," Nami seethed. "Luffy, go get some alcohol from Sanji!"

"Yeah Luffy, bring sake," Zoro requested.

"Whiskey, genius! Bring whiskey!" Nami corrected them.

"Got the kit," Lana said, turning back to the others. "Left it under- holy mother of- Nami! What the hell!"

Lana loosed a shriek, eyes popping out of her head as she realized the splashing she'd heard had been blood emptying from Zoro's boots.

"What the hell happened to him?!" Lana demanded.

"Oh, this dumbass thought it made sense to chop his own feet off to escape a trap!" Nami seethed, still not over the swordsman's brutal logic.

"Wow, that's kind of hardcore, honestly," Lana managed, swallowing her squeamishness while Usopp pushed Zoro's pants up to his knees.

"It was the best option at the time!" Zoro insisted.

"Got the whiskey!" Luffy announced. Lana thought his tone was far too bright given the circumstances, but she'd come to expect as much from this crew.

"Gimme!" Zoro demanded, reaching for the alcohol.

"No way!"

Nami slapped Zoro's hands off the bottle, then shooed Luffy and Usopp away. "This is for cleaning, not drinking. Lana, here!"

She shoved the bottle at their guest, who gulped hard. She was starting to get a good idea of what Nami's idea of 'helping' would entail.

"I'm going to clean myself up," Nami informed her. "Help this idiot get patched up if you really want to make yourself useful."

"Well, I-"

Nami left Lana holding the bottle.

"I didn't know you were a doctor," Zoro groaned from the couch.

"I am not a doctor at all," Lana corrected him swiftly. "But uh... well, you guys are giving me a free ride, so I guess... I'll just have to do my best."

"Don't worry about it," he panted. "Just leave the bottle and the needle. I can deal with this myself."

"No, I do want to be helpful," she sighed, stealing a gulp of whiskey. "Drink?"

"Please."

Lana examined his wounds while he took a long swig. Her gut squirmed and her flesh crawled at the sight. Her discomfort wasn't lost on Zoro.

"Pass me the needle and I'll do it myself," he sighed.

"No need. I can do this. Lemme see that again."

She took the bottle from him and knocked back another shot or two.

"Kinda seems like a waste of alcohol to use it for cleaning," she sighed. "Nami's right though... if these get infected, it'll be ugly."

Lana expected Zoro to protest when she splashed whiskey over the gashes, but he didn't even flinch. He demanded the bottle back as soon as she finished. She set to threading the needle, wrinkling her nose at the smell drifting up from his toes.

"Woof. Bottle, one more time," she requested. "Don't you ever wash your feet?"

"Is that really your most pressing concern right now?" he scowled, passing the bottle down again. She doused his feet to kill the stink, took one final sip and surrendered the rest of the whiskey to Zoro's custody as she got to work.

"Seems like you know what you're doing," Zoro observed after a few minutes.

"Not really. I've mended a lot of clothes, but I gotta say, this is... definitely a first for me."

"Hm. You've got steady hands."

She wondered how much of that stability was thanks to the whiskey.

"You're steadier than I thought you'd be too. I was kinda worried you wouldn't hold still for me," Lana admitted.

'Then again, it stands to reason that anyone with the grit to do something like this to themselves wouldn't be fazed by a few stitches.'

Lana closed the first wound with a brief, relieved sigh. She was glad to be halfway done with the macabre task Nami had foisted on her. Sweat began to bead on her brow as she started on his other leg.

"This ship really needs a doctor," she grumbled, doubt creeping in at the seams of her confidence. Would the crew hold her responsible if their swordsman ended up losing his feet? "I don't know if I can do enough to..."

"It'll be fine," Zoro assured her between drinks. He was all but lounging, relaxing on his elbows while she kept stitching. "I heal fast."

"I just..."

Lana's disbelief at the extraordinary situation finally got the better of her.

"I don't understand how you could even do something like this... to think you got halfway through!"

Her tone was incredulous, but Zoro misinterpreted her volume and vehemence.

"Ugh, spare me. I already got the welfare lecture from Nami."

"I didn't mean it like that," Lana explained. "I just meant... well..."

She struggled to articulate the sentiment overcoming her. It was closer to admiration than the disdain he seemed to take it for.

"Your resolve is like nothing I've ever come across before," she finally managed. "I just have a hard time understanding how anyone could be this... this tough, I guess."

"Oh," Zoro repied, amused now that he understood. "Well that's simple, really."

Lana closed the final stitch and reached for a rag from the pile. She wiped the drying blood from his skin while he explained.

"If I'm going to be the world's greatest swordsman, my will needs to be unbreakable. Otherwise, I'd just be wasting my time."

His grin was breathtaking, toothy and manic.

'This sword guy's actually pretty cool,' she thought, hiding her starstruck reaction from him by clearing her throat. She started wrapping his wounds with gauze.

"World's greatest swordsman, huh?" she repeated. "That's your life's goal?"

"Yep."

"Your ambitions are just as lofty as your captains."

"So we've been told."

"I just hope you realize... actually, never mind."

"What? Tell me."

"Well, by that logic, wouldn't this foot-chopping business be an awfully bad omen?"

"You lost me."

"Well if the resolve you used to make these cuts is the same you're relying on to make you the world's greatest swordsman... wouldn't it stand to reason that you'll only make it halfway through that effort as well?"

Zoro froze for a long moment and Lana wondered if she'd made a huge mistake.

'Is this psycho about to slice me to ribbons?' she wondered apprehensively. 'Damn it, Lana, you should have kept your stupid thoughts to yourself!'

The silence in the cabin was thick enough to choke on. Zoro broke it with laughter.

"Well aren't you a wise little runaway lockpick?" he guffawed.

Lana rolled her eyes at him, relieved that her observation hadn't cut deep enough to put her in danger.

"You're not wrong, Avariya. Maybe my body isn't the only thing I should be training to strengthen," Zoro mused.

She patted his knee and rose to see what else Nami had for her.

"Seems like the best solution. Just consider giving it some time so your feet don't fall off," she cautioned.

_____________________________

<== Previous Chapter

Next Chapter ==>

== First Chapter ==

[jordie-gvf]

closer, josh kiszka

this was a fic request for reader sleeping with one of the twins and ronnie being the bestie but you didnt know so its very awkward. bestie i tried! hopefully its what you had in mind, if it isnt, let me know and I will write it again!

word count : 2.8k+

warnings : mentions of sex, hangover, allusions to sex but no smut, language, cheating, hickies, making out, josh doing jelvis, frat josh

enjoy ❤️

The best thing about frat parties was that whenever you woke up, you never remembered a thing. 

When you woke up in the morning, you felt another body next to you. You could feel just the sheet covering your body. You looked at the table next to you and saw an empty bottle of cherry limeade vodka and a few empty cans of four lokos.

You felt whoever it was next to you move, followed by a muffled morning groan. You looked over and saw a guy who was in film criticism with you. What was his name? Adam? Jeff? Jake? Josh? Josh, that was his name, you remembered. 

He moved his head over towards you and opened his eyes. You turned your head so you wouldn't make eye contact with him. He put his arm under you and moved you closer to him. He wrapped his arm around you and rubbed your shoulder. You pretended to wake up, trying not to give yourself away. 

“Hey there cowgirl,” He said to you and placed the pink cowgirl hat on your head. It all came back to you as soon as he put the hat on you.

One of your friends had invited you to a costume party last night. Like most college girls, you were dressed in your skimpiest halloween costume ever. A white bandana print crop top, low rise flare jeans, cowgirl boots, and a pink bedazzled cowgirl hat. 

He sat up and grabbed the hat, putting it on his head. You found your phone in the bed and looked over at the time, 11:25 AM. Luckily, it was Saturday, so you didn't have any classes today. 

You looked through your phone on snapchat and found a video you don't remember taking. That was because you didn't. 

It was a video of you on top of Josh, riding him in the pink hat. You quickly put your phone face down on the bed. You sat up holding the sheet to your chest, trying to find your clothes. He got up and put his underwear on, before going over to the closet. You had assumed this was his room, as he had knowledge of where everything was. He threw a shirt at you and told you to keep it. 

You put the shirt on and grabbed your jeans. You quickly put your jeans on and found your keys and wallet. He very quickly dismissed you, not even saying good morning or anything. The second you stepped out of his room, he slammed the door behind you. 

You made it back to your dorm until you got a text from your friend Ronnie. She had asked if you wanted to go out for lunch. You were hungover and haven't eaten anything yet. Before you could make it to your car, you leaned over and threw up in the grass. You pulled your hair back and pulled out a makeup wipe to wipe your face off. 

You made it to the restaurant and saw Ronnie sitting in a booth. You went over to her and sat down, the first thing she said to you was, “Damn, you look like shit.” You smiled and hummed. She looked at you in confusion and asked you, “Where'd you get that shirt? My brother has one just like it.” You started panicking but shrugged, telling her you found it in the missing clothes bin at the laundromat. 

There was no way you had slept with your best friend's brother. No way. Once you ordered food and got some chips to eat, you sat there and talked about life. She had asked you if you went to a party last night. You shook your head and told her you went to a costume party. She laughed and asked if it was hosted by a guy named Jake. You nodded and she laughed, “That would be my brother.” You cocked your head to the side and she nodded. She told you she was there but she didn't see you, but little did she know, you were on top of her brother from 12AM to 3AM. 

You two ate and then said goodbye to each other. You went to your dorm and saw Maya, your roommate inside on her bed. “Girl, I have something to tell you.” you told her. She moved her book and patted her bed, ready to hear all of the drama.

“You know last night how we went to that party right, you ended up leaving with some dude, but I stayed. At around 11:30, I saw this dude with curly hair staring at me. I looked at him and waved. He came over to me and put his hand on my back and I guess led me to his room. He had some full bottles of vodka in there and some cases of four lokos. So we started drinking and we ended up having sex. Well, you know Ronnie? Yeah, I slept with her fucking brother.” 

She looked at you with her mouth wide open. She smiled and started laughing. “Bitch, how did you not know that it was her brother?” she asked you. You told her, “I haven't gone to her house before, I didn't know what her house looked like. I've only known her for a few months.” 

Your phone vibrated next to you. You looked at the notification. Ronnie. She texted you and asked you if you would want to come over, that she was bored. You sent a thumbs up and told Maya you were leaving. She wished you good luck as you were walking out the door. 

You got there and saw Kaila on the front porch, one of your best friends. She was sitting outside on a swinging bench. She walked over to you and said, “Maya updated me. Girl, how did you not know? They literally look the same.” You shook your head and walked inside as Kaila walked down the steps to leave.

You saw Ronnie on the couch with a guy you haven't seen before. “Y/N, this is my little brother, Sam.” You walked over to the couch and shook his hand. He stared at you in awe and said, “Damn, you're hot.” Ronnie laughed and patted his shoulder. “Sorry bud, she's way out of your league. And it looks like she's already got someone.” 

You gave her a confused look and she motioned to your neck. You asked her where the bathroom was and she pointed to it. You walked over to the bathroom and inspected your neck. Dark burgundy marks covering your neck. You heard someone walk over to the bathroom door and knock. You said, “Just a second.” and opened the door. You weren't looking at them until they coughed and said, “Nice hickies, cowgirl.” You would know that voice anywhere. You looked up and saw Josh, standing there, staring down at you. You quickly walked away from him and back to the couch. She apologized for her older brother's actions and said, “Oh that's just Josh. Don't worry about him, he's harmless.”

You nodded and sat down on the couch. You were on your phone when you felt the cushion next to you sink, and someone sat down.

You looked over and saw Josh. You sighed and turned away from him. There was a movie playing so Ronnie and Sam couldn't hear you two. “What? What could you possibly want?” He shrugged and said, “Nothing, just needed a place to sit.” 

You moved your attention back to your phone and chose not to pay attention to him. Until you felt something fall in your lap. His phone, with a new contact needing to be filled in. You grabbed it reluctantly and typed all your information in. 

You were playing a game when you got a text message from an unknown number. You opened it and it read,

josh

You like that video I took last night? Send it to me?

No, I will not send you a video of me riding you with my tits out.

Oh come on, you liked riding me just as much as I loved having your tits in my face.

Go away.

You never answered my question. Did you like the video I took last night?

No, I don't like the non consensual video you took of me last night.

Actually, you gave consent, thank you very much.

Whatever, go away. I'm trying to watch this movie.

He read it and put his phone down. You asked Ronnie if you could go in her room to take a nap and she nodded. About five minutes after you took your shoes off, there was a knock. You told whoever it was to come in. You assumed it was Ronnie needing to get something. You heard an “ahem” and opened your eyes to see Josh. You sighed and turned over to the other side, not facing him. 

‘Awh what? You dont wanna see me anymore?” he asked you.

You got up and turned to him. “We had sex once, that's it. Can you leave me alone now?” You asked him and looked down.

He turned his head to the door and said, “Wow, actually I was gonna ask you if you wanted to be partners on the project, but I guess not.” He sat up and walked over to the door. He muttered out a “Bye Y/N.” and opened the door to leave.

The last thing you remembered from the other night was him, specifically his Elvis accent. ‘Bye Elvis.” you said to him and put your head back down. He looked back at you and laughed, “Oh god, you remember that?” You nodded and laughed with him. He sat back down next to you and you asked him, “Did you still want to be partners? I'm gonna be honest, I sleep in class so I have no idea what's going on.” He laughed and nodded. He put his hand on your thigh, which made you look up at him. 

He looked at you with desire in his eyes. He leaned forward and kissed you roughly. He pulled away and said, “Sorry, I'll leave now.” and got up. As he was opening the door, you got up and slammed the door closed and pulled him close to you by his shirt. You hungrily kissed him and wrapped your arms around his neck. He put his arms around your ass and lifted you up onto his hips. He pushed you up against the door and started kissing down your neck. 

“Josh, we can never do this again. I can't do this to Ronnie.” You told him, as you cuddled next to him. “You act like I'm repulsive.” He said to you and started getting up. “It's not that you're repulsive, she's my best friend and I'm having sex with her brother.” He scoffed and said, “Whatever Y/N. It wasn't that good anyway,” put his clothes on and left the room. 

You sat up, surprised at what he said. You got dressed and went downstairs, told Ronnie you were leaving. You could tell Josh didn't mean what he said, because the way he looked at you as you were wiping tears was remorseful. You looked at him one last time before leaving.

You picked up your little sister Vanessa from her dads house and brought her out for ice cream. She was 17, so she wasn't stupid. “Long night?” she asked you and laughed. You scoffed and told her everything, from Friday night to two hours ago. Her response was, “Damn, what an asshole. You could've said that his twin was better, that's what I would've done.” You laughed at her and asked if she wanted to get her nails done, that it was on you. She nodded and you two went to the nail salon. 

As you were getting your toes done, you felt your phone vibrate on your lap.

I’m sorry. I didn't mean to make you cry.

Okay

I'm trying to apologize and all you say is okay?

Yes, that's all I'm saying, cause I have nothing else to say to you.

You left it at that and went over to get your nails done. You got sparkly pink square nails and Vanessa got white. You paid and tipped your technicians and went out for lunch. 

As soon as you got into the car, you handed her your phone and showed her the messages. She laughed and said, “Yeah he kind of was an asshole. But you seriously cried over him?” You nodded and scoffed. You went to a local barbecue place and saw Jake and Ronnie there. You and Jake had ENG 102 together. You said hey to him and he waved back to you. When you were done ordering, Vanessa whispered in your ear that he was hot. You laughed and told her that was Josh's twin and she stopped laughing.

Jake motioned you to come sit with them. You and Vanessa sat next to each other. Jake told you Josh was coming. You let out an “okay” and nudged Vanessa with your knee. When Josh got there, you were not expecting him to have another girl with him. You looked up at him and he looked at you, dumbfounded. Ronnie looked at the girl with Josh and said, “Hey Morgan, I didn't see you come to the house this morning? Where were you?” Morgan looked at her with confusion and said, “I wasn't in the house this morning?” Ronnie’s eyes widened and said, “Oh, okay.”

Josh started kicking you under the table, trying to get your attention. You kicked him back harder and he winced. Vanessa kept nudging you, trying to get you to say something. Morgan reached her hand over to you and said, “Hi! I'm Morgan, Josh's girlfriend!” You shook her hand and introduced you and Vanessa. She seemed like she was a sweetheart. 

Once you and Vanessa finished eating, you got up and went to the car. Josh had gotten up and asked if he could talk to you about the project. You told Vanessa to get in the car, while you and Josh talked. 

“You are such an asshole you know that? You cheated on your girlfriend? Why would you do that?” You asked him as you started pushing him away from you. He grabbed your wrists to try and stop you. He just sat there and said nothing to you. “I don't even want to look at you right now. Don't talk to me until you have your shit together.” you said to him. That was exactly what he did, didn't talk to you. Every time you went over to the Kiszka house, he wouldn't talk to you, wouldn't look at you. You had found a new partner for the project, which you aced. 

The day was a Wednesday, when Josh had talked to you. You were in class when he turned around and asked if he could come to your dorm room. You nodded and told Maya that you needed to have a private discussion with Josh in the room and she told you she would be gone for however long you needed. You profusely thanked her and told her you would make it up to her. Once class ended, he followed you to your dorm and walked in. He complimented the nicely decorated dorm and sat down on the bed you pointed to. 

You changed into something more comfortable and sat down in the papasan chair you and Maya shared. 

“You know, the day you told me to never talk to you until I got my shit together was the day I told her I cheated on her. I never told her who it was, just that I cheated on her. She broke up with me the same day. I was just too nervous to tell you. This entire time I've just been thinking about you and I, and what it would be like if we were together. I told Ronnie too, I just told her not to say anything to you, considering it was me who came onto you. Y/N, I'm sorry. Look at me, cowgirl, I am sorry. Will you just like me again?” 

You looked at him and said, “Who said I ever stopped liking you?” and kissed him. He pulled you on top of him and laid down with you. You were about to take your shirt off when Maya walked in the door, you got off of him and cleared your throat. You and Josh both looked at her while she stood in the doorway looking right back at you two. 

She grabbed something from her bed, said sorry, and left. Josh looked at you and said, “Come here cowgirl, get on top of me.” 

[vaulttecexec]

another irradiated dust storm. another group of faces coming to collect. barb should be used to the transient life by now. her doors open with the sun and close with it, too. she just can't shake that feeling of something is going to happen here. one of the kids get hurt? she finds some answer to what drives her guilt?

something was going to happen.

she set up shop in novac this time, her office nothing more than two chairs at a round table. when there's a bounty, they'll come. the job is advertisement for itself. normally one of her own takes it; caps are kept in the misfit family she's created. that was another sign of her guilt, too. but, that wasn't what to rest on right now.

she stays open later than she intended to. a younger girl she'd taken a shining to hadn't shown back up, and barb was willing to keep the doors open til she did. didn't need any more guilt of something happening to one of hers out there in the desert hellscape they'd found themselves in. it took months, no, years to get there in the first place.

she'd stay open; she had to come home.

she heard the door open, but she isn't looking up from the books. numbers ease the constant what-if's if she let them, and she was keen on doing just that.

"you're late." she calls out.

those boots were too heavy to be nadia's. it was someone else who got this bounty, then. she'll just have to stay open all night. she lifts her gaze enough to gauge a figure. a fine choice of outfit, she guesses. she never reached his face. she's closing her book before pulling out her active bounty list.

"drop your proof on the table. we only deal in caps here, so if you came looking for something else, someone else is probably selling but it's not me." she drawls through the spiel. every newcomer gets the same one. "and i need initials of the bounty hunter who broug-"

she looked up. she looked up and choked. she had to be too tired for her own good. his face was different, but that damned hat. that hat was custom made for the man who wore it many years ago- centuries if the calendar didn't lie. what the hell was it doing here?

roosevelt perked at her feet; never a fan of newcomers. this one seems to get the dog into a rather playful mood just by being there. the dog wiggles in excitement, sniffing away at a leg as his owner sits dumbfounded.

"where'd you get that hat?" she ventures carefully, looking closer at the wearer. "there's no way in hell that-"

she pauses again. her mind races to fill in every potential outcome she wouldn't let herself hold onto in these last few years.

"if you're not cooper howard, you have a very similar shaped head." she breathes. "if you are cooper howard, and please tell me you're not even if you are, you have decades centuries of explaining to do."

@armageddonpitchman ⇒ helping me give them the reunion they deserve.

[duckapus]

So I'm still not sure how exactly Blotch and Overseer find out that Tama is alive and well in Glitch Productions' copy of The Cloud's Songbird, but as soon as they do they make a beeline for it... only to find absolutely nothing. Obviously Blotch starts freaking out because they were so close and even if their source was wrong about Tama there should still at least be the server itself there. Overseer manages to find trace elements that prove that it was there, it just got moved somehow, and within the last few hours no less. He finds two portal trails, though one is scrambled and encrypted beyond his ability to decipher, and they decide to follow the other one to its destination, hoping to at least get some answers.

Obviously they end up in Cappy Town, which is in a state of barely-organized chaos as they try to sort things out with the Harmonian refugees. They spot a purple and green snail with a clipboard who seems to be one of the people in charge and decide to see if he knows anything.

"Uh, excuse me, sir-"

"Registration desks are over there, miss," he doesn't even look up from his clipboard as he points off to his left at a bunch of tables manned by Cappies and Waddle Dees and slides off elsewhere.

Blotch is confused but undeterred, and follows him "I-sir, I'm trying to find my sister an-"

He cuts her off again with a heavy put-upon sigh, "Just about everybody here's trying to find somebody, sweetheart. Look, I've got about half a continent of displaced memes and oc's I've gotta sort through and find shelter for before the sun goes down. If you give the people at the registration desks your sister's info they'll find her eventua-"

"ESCARGOON!" a tubby blue penguin in a red robe and hat waddle-jogs over, huffing and puffing more with frustration than effort, "we need you over on the west side pronto! What's the holdup?"

"Er, just dealing with some more concerned relatives, your majesty. I've just about got things sorted out though."

Blotch scoffs at that, which gets the penguin's attention... and he does a double-take when he sees Overseer next to her, trying and failing to not attract attention from the refugees and townspeople. For whatever reason, this prompts him to clonk Escargoon on the eyestalk with one of his mitt-covered fists. This finally gets the snail to look up, glaring at his companion and rubbing the cartoonish bruise that's forming.

"Ow! The heck was that for!?"

"Escargoon, ya nitwit," he leans in, seemingly trying (and failing) to whisper quietly enough they won't hear him, "didj'ya even bother lookin'? She's got one-o them "Adnim" fellas with her!"

Escargoon takes the cue, his eyes somehow bugging out more than they already were.

"Look, I'll handle things here for a bit, you take these two over to the other me. If he ain't still at Yabui's clinic, ask Tiff or dat scary grey Meta Knight with the one eye ta call 'im wit dem fancy Star Phone doohickeys."

"R-right." He hands the penguin his clipboard slithers off again, in a different direction from before, waving Overseer and Blotch over, "Alright you two, follow me."

The duo shoot each other a Look before obeying.

------

After a few minutes, Escargoon's leads them to a small clinic just off main street, "Alright, the other King Dedede's in here. Trust me, you can't miss him."

As he starts heading back, Blotch opens the door, revealing a cozy lobby/waiting room, where two (unusually detailed, from Blotch's perspective) Harmonian cats, an odd collection of Pokemon, and a much bigger, more impressive-looking version of the penguin from before are huddled around a Command Box that seems to be in video call mode, having a discussion in hushed-yet-frantic tones between themselves and whoever's on the other end. They hang up a few seconds after Blotch and Overseer enter, and as the huddle disperses one of the Pokemon spots the new arrivals and Blotch suddenly has a Hoppa with a suspicious scowl all up in her face.

"You! Where'd you come from? How come you look like Tamakin?"

As the group scrambles to get Hoopa under control, voices overlapping with apologies and admonishments, her mind latches onto one very important detail, "You know Tama!?"

"Of course! Tamakin is Hoopa's trainer!" He puffs up with pride as he says this.

"So, you know where she is, right? Is she here? Please, I need to see her."

The poor little mythical immediately deflates as she says this, seeming to almost tear up, before his face scrunches up in anger and distrust again, "Why do you wanna know?"

"I'm her sister, I-" her breath catches as she realizes the possible implications of how Hoopa's acting, how everyone in the room is acting, now that she looks at them, "Oh Muses no, she can't be- Please, I can't lose her again, tell me she isn't-"

"She's not dead," King Dedede's voice, deep and rumbling and authoritative in all the ways his local counterpart's isn't, cuts through Blotch's spiral of despair and commands the attention of everyone in the room, "It wasn't destruction, it was a teleport. She's still in Harmonia, wherever it ended up, just like all the other characters that're part of the game."

That should be a relief, but... "but, my Tama's not part of that game. We were from a spinoff."

He rubs the back of his...neck? head? whatever-it-is sheepishly, "er, she is as of a few weeks ago."

"...wot."

"Yeah, I should probably start at the beginning, when she first showed up. You two might wanna sit down, it's kind of a long story."

[liviavanrouge]

Guardians

Kaveh: KIDS!!!

Candy: *Turns around, her eyes widening* YOU'RE ALRIGHT!!

Dehya: Kids! *Walks towards them* The note was a trap to lure you all here!!

Candace: Come on, we need to go now

Tighnari: *Walks forward towards Sahara* Come on, Sahara we're going back

Sahara: *Walks towards him* Okay!

Cyno: Mahil, come along

Mahil: *Heads down the steps* Alright!

Kaveh: *Jogs forward* Kaine, are you alright!?

Kaine: Yeah, I'm alright!

Alhaitham: *Walks forward* Dottie...

Dottie: Sorry, Al...

Dehya: Henkin, you had me worried

Henkin: *Heads down the stairs* Sorry Dehya

Candace: Same for you, Candy

Candy: *Looks down ashamed, walking down the stairs*

Sethos: Meggie, let's go home

Meggie: *Carefully walks down the stairs* Sorry big brother Sethos!

Wanderer: Zaggis you idiot!

Zaggis: JERK!!!

???: *Laughs* GOTCHA!!!

Dottie and Candy: *Whips around their eyes wide as glowing balls of light fell towards them*

Kaveh: *Rushes forward* KAINE!!!!

Cyno: *Moves in front of Mahil, lifting his polearm*

Tighnari and Collei: *Shields Sahara, aiming their nocked bows forward*

Sethos: *Aims his bow at the light, his eyes wide standing in front of Meggie*

Dehya: *Lands beside Henkin and pulls him close, lifting her hand*

Alhaitham: *Comes up beside Dottie, lifting his sword*

Kaveh: *Tosses his briefcase forward, using it to shield Kaine from the incoming attack*

Candace: *Grabs Candy, shielding her as she lifted her shield up to shield them both*

Wanderer: *Takes his hat off, placing himself in front of Zaggis, readying it as a shield*

???: *Chuckles* Good....that's good...

Tighnari: What... *Stares as the balls of light vanished before coming down on them* Where...

Collei: What happened?

Candace: *Lowers her shield* Huh...

Dehya: Where'd it go?

Kaveh: Kaine! Kaine, are you alright!?

Kaine: *Looks at Kaveh* Yeah...I'm fine..

Sethos: We should go...

Cyno: Agreed...

Mahil: You jumped in front of us...all of you....

Wanderer: Why wouldn't we!?

Candy: *Looks at the others then looks at their guardians* The note said, "Come to the farthest temple to see if your guardians care for you" and...here we are...

Dehya: The notes we got said, "We have your kids, tricked them into coming" and that's why we came here...

Cyno: You came all the way out here to see if we cared?

Collei: Guys...

Sahara: ....we're sorry, it's just....you know we all came from broken families and all that...

Mahil: *Looks down* We couldn't help but be worried and end up coming here...

Kaine: We...we're sorry...

Dottie: *Nods* Yeah...we...we just had our doubts even though you've shown us several times that you care

Candy: The fear of being abandoned can never be erased from someone's heart...

Zaggis: *Looks away, his eyes narrowed*

Henkin: Being abandoned is all some of us know and the one thing that haunts us...

Meggie: We don't wish to be abandoned again...

Dehya: ...you kids...

Tighnari: *Looks at Sahara* Our words may not mean much still but we will never abandon you all

Collei: *Smiles at Sahara and nods* Yeah!

Wanderer: *Huffs, glaring at Zaggis* You're idiots to think that.

Cyno: *Turns to Mahil* Indeed, we'll never leave your side not even when you're full grown, we'll always be there for you one way or another

Alhaitham: *Places a hand on Dottie's back* I agree, you're important to us, all of you

Kaveh: *Nods, patting Kaine's head* I may not be the best at times...but, I genuinely care about your well-being

Dehya: *Kneels down beside Henkin* You've joined our family and we're not letting you go so easily you know

Candace: *Places an arm around Candy* Mhm, you've had a rough start and been through a lot, it's time for you all to be happy and grow up well

Sethos: *Picks Meggie up, smiling* Yeah, it's your times..not the time of those who hurt you....it's your times to find out what you all want and who you want to be

Meggie: *Looks down, quietly crying*

Kaine: *Looks down, hiding his face* Can we go home

Dottie: *Looks away* Yeah....I uh...I want to head home now

Tighnari: Then let's get you all back...

Candace: Back to your homes...the homes that'll never leave you..

Candy: *Smiles and nods* Okay...

Sethos: *Smiles, walking with Meggie in his arms*

Alhaitham: *Walks beside Dottie, an arm around his shoulders*

Collei: Sahara, wanna race?

Sahara: Yeah!

Collei: *Runs off with Sahara, smiling*

Tighnari: *Walks after them, smiling*

Dehya: *Carries Henkin on her shoulder, smiling*

Henkin: *Smiles, a hand on Dehya's head*

Wanderer: Let's go, Zags

Zaggis: *Perks up then huffs, hiding a smile as he followed Wanderer*

Candy and Candace: *Races each other out of the temple, smiles on their faces*

Kaine: *Perks up when Kaveh wrapped an arm around his shoulders* Hm?

Kaveh: Foods on me, how's that?

Kaine: *Smiles and wraps an arm around Kaveh* Okay...sounds good..

Cyno: Come Mahil, I'll get your favorite tonight

Mahil: *Smiles and nods then perks up when Cyno placed his headpiece on his head*

Cyno: *Smiles* General Mahil

Mahil: *Smiles at him, walking beside Cyno*

@queen-of-twisted @zexal-club @yukii0nna @teddymochi