#Guys skeleton crew was peak

[steepedfoxglovetea]

I LOVE YOU STAR WARS!! I LOVE YOU I LOVE YOU I LOVE YOU!!! MY BEAUTIFUL BEAUTIFUL WIFE!!

[loving-n0t-heyting]

At court today this poor guy was set to agree to his plea deal, and after having the contents summarised orally by the judge went to look over and sign the document only for the judge to rebuke him, telling him effectively not to dawdle around reading it without signing it. When the man expressed a(n eminently reasonable) worry that the terms might be harsher than what he was led to expect, the judge told him to just sign the thing and if looking over it later he had any confusions or concerns to bring them to his attorney (who ig on this theory is supposed to… un-sign for him the legal document she drafted?). Stop wasting time reviewing the bargain when you could be approving it already! Self-parody at its peak

You can point abstractly to all the outrages permitted by the relevant codes and statutes and case law in US criminal courts, but none of this really captures the principal day-to-day atrocity to smack you continuously in the face if you ever actually attend: almost everyone present in an official capacity is strained decidedly beyond their capacity and the institutional machinery is reduced to a permanent state of rush and dysfunction. Every crew is a skeleton crew and due dates are effectively missed contemporaneously with their announcement. This is not a way to operate a criminal justice system. This is not a way to operate anything.

[eureka-its-zico]

Chaos in Their Bones Ch. 2

Ongoing Series

Synopsis: All your life you’d listened to your friend, Usopp spin wild tales about pirates and adventure. Pirates weren’t a thing that came often to Syrup Village, but one straw hat pirate and his crew changed all that the day they arrived. Now, you aren’t so sure if your sleepy little village was always pirate-free or if no one had been paying attention. 

Pairing: Roronoa Zoro x Reader

Genre: friends to lovers, frenemies to lovers, slow burn (I hope y’all like aching) eventual smut

Words: 6k+

A/N: For this chapter, I played with the idea of having Zoro’s POV. It felt necessary for the story progression that I had in mind. This chapter was a tad fun to write, and I hope that translated well into the story. Originally it was going to be longer, but I realized I wanted to save the dinner to go with all the action to end the Episode 3-4 story arc. Thank you guys so much for the love you’ve given this little story. I hope it continues to be one you enjoy 🖤 Much Love, Jenn

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This place is a maze. 

That thought rang true with every hallway you entered and the endless number of rooms within. With every step you took inside Kaya’s large estate, those words kept echoing through your head. How many guest suites could one house possibly hold? But also, why would you ever need so many?

You’d been wandering the halls for what felt like an eternity. Your head poked into each room after a brief knock. Yes, a brief knock before plunging head-first into someone’s private space wasn’t much of a warning but at least you were knocking. 

And all of this just to find Zoro who may or may not help you expose whatever metaphorical skeletons this butler had stuffed in his metaphorical closet. Or an actual closet. The possibilities felt endless. 

You weren’t even sure how you were going to explain to him exactly why you were searching for him without sounding like a creep. You would just have to cross that bridge when you came to it. 

You were about to give up trying to locate him because you were pretty sure you’d just passed that same exact clock for the second time in a row. You let out a raspberry as you placed your hands on your hips. Was it plausible you were lost? Inside a ginormous house like this? Yes, it sure as shit was. Maybe you should’ve been dropping breadcrumbs to find your way back to your own room when this was over. 

Rolling your tongue around your mouth, you looked down to your right and realized there were only two more doors left. What could it hurt just to look? You were already down here anyway. 

With a shrug, you moved towards the second to last door near the end of the hall. You weren’t in a rush to check what was behind either one, but you were also not leaving any stone unturned and all that. If your earlier dozen room checks were any indication of what to expect, you were willing to bet that you were going to find absolutely nothing waiting for you. The joy of joys. 

You were just a few feet from the door when you heard the lock click. The sound caused you to stop dead center, facing the door like an absolutely terrified rabbit caught in the headlights. What were the chances that whoever opened that door was going to be Zoro? And what were the chances that he would be willing to listen to what you had to say? 

The possibility of your questions being answered ebbed the panic in your chest down just a tad. Enough that when the door finally opened and Zoro was, in fact, standing before you, you silently thanked the universe for your suddenly award-winning luck. 

That was until you realized he was just standing there. In a robe. A silk robe with his swords slung over his shoulder and because of his current hold on his swords, said robe in question was flashing a peak of his chest. You immediately wanted to take back your previous thank you letter to the universe. 

This should be illegal. 

The worst part? You were pretty positive from the way Zoro was staring at you - his eyes taking you in from top to bottom lord HELP you - he did not seem as impressed with you as you were of him. Why in the hell couldn’t you say a word? Yes, he was attractive - stupidly so - but he was also just another guy. 

A guy in a thin silk robe and hair still damp from a bath. 

You watched as Zoro’s body began to relax, or relax as much as someone like him could. It was when he let out a sigh as if your very presence was keeping him from something important, that you felt your feet remove themselves from their spot in the carpet and spring you forward. 

There was a split second when Zoro’s eyes registered your movement. His eyebrows raised up in surprise as the almond shape of his eyes widened just a tad before he braced for whatever you were about to do. Zoro was planning on an attack and his body was primed to force you back. Instead of violence, he was met with your hands shoving him back inside his room with your foot kicking the door swiftly closed behind you. 

Once you knew you were both securely back inside the room, you stopped shoving him. You waited for your eyes to adjust to the dim lighting of the room before you looked around. It would be embarrassing if you’d done this and someone else - Nami or Luffy or anyone else really - had been inside with him. The only thing you noticed, however, was his previous clothes strewn across the room. 

When your eyes ventured back to Zoro you found his earlier shock replaced by what you could only guess was his usual stonewall expression. 

“Look,” he began the timber of his voice causing you to jump. “You seem nice and all, if not a little disturbed, but I’m not interested.” 

You looked up at him with your confusion knitting your brow together. 

“Not interested?”

You weren’t sure why it took you that long to realize what he meant, but it was dawning on you at warp speed and your confusion was quickly replaced with horror. 

“Oh my god! No, no! I was not trying to like, do anything to you like that.”

The disbelief in his eyes told you plainly he didn’t believe you, and by the tick in his jaw something was bothering him about your statement. 

Shit! He thinks I’m a perv 

You wanted to crawl under the nearest rock and die there. You followed his eyes as they trailed down his chest to find your hands were very much still attached to him, practically groping him. 

“Then why are your hands still on my chest?”

A small squeak of surprise left you as you dropped your hands down to your sides and shook them like it would be enough to get rid of the feeling of cupping his very pronounced…chest. You took a step back from him in hopes that giving him space would save the entire interaction. 

“Sorry about all the ugh…touching,” you mumbled. “But I did come here to speak to you about something.” 

“This is going to be good. Is it to convince me you weren’t trying to grope me?”

“God, you aren’t going to let it go, are you?” 

Closing your eyes you took in a deep breath and slowly let it out. When you finished, you opened your eyes again and gave him the best smile you could muster. 

“Okay, let’s start this again. I,” you motioned towards yourself, “have come to ask you if you noticed anything weird.” 

Zoro cocked an eyebrow at you. His arms moved to lock his arms across his chest somehow exposing the peek of flesh from the robe even more. 

“You mean weirder than right now?”

You purse your lips together tightly as you try to exhale all the annoyance from gathering in your body. 

“Let’s just move on from this moment, ok,” you began. “I came to talk to you about the butler.”

Without warning, Zoro rolled his eyes and dropped his arms from his chest. His swords clanging against his leg reminding you that he wasn’t making any move to set them down anytime soon. 

“Here we go again about the butler,” he groaned, and the very sound shouldn’t have sounded as enticing as it did.

Focus! 

“Oh, save it!” You snapped. “I saw you, okay? The way you looked at Klahadore before you followed your friends inside. You looked at him like you recognized him. Like you’d seen him before somewhere.” 

Zoro regarded you coolly. The hardness that had disappeared while he’d teased you earlier slid back into place until he was as unreadable as stone. 

“I’ve never seen that butler before in my entire life.” 

“Why are you lying?” 

You couldn’t keep the exasperation from your voice or how your desperation was starting to creep back in. Could you have been wrong about Zoro this whole time? Did you just see what you wanted to see?

No. You know what you saw and you were not going to be called crazy. You took a step towards him and weren’t surprised when he didn’t move back. Instead, he tilted his chin, his full pouty lips still very much pouting, as his eyes carefully watched you. 

“You know, that I know, that you looked at that guy and went, ‘hmph, something’s not right there’.” 

Yeah, that felt like a solid argument. 

You waited under Zoro’s cool gaze for him to reply. For him to show any sign of anything, really. He was literally the most unmoving person you’d ever meet, and you were starting to wonder if he was even real. The shitty part about waiting in silence, besides the uneasy commentary your brain was beginning to make, was the smell of the vanilla and sandalwood that wafted off him in mini waves that assaulted your senses. 

You were so intently transfixed by trying to match his unblinking gaze that when he finally moved his head down to be eye level with you, you’d almost jumped out of your skin. 

“Is everything okay with you? Do you suffer from any brain damage?” 

You wish you could say you handled the next few seconds with grace and poise. Things that all upstanding future doctors did when faced with adversity. However, that was most definitely not you, and you weren’t able to keep an exacerbated yell of frustration from cairning past your lips. 

“Oh! You are literally the most infuriating man I have ever met!”

“And you are the most perverted woman I have ever met,” Zoro shot back, this time taking a step towards you. 

If he was trying to intimidate you, he should’ve tried back when you weren’t ready to tear him limb from limb. 

“I beg your pardon?!”

“Who just pushes a semi-naked man into a room so they can grope him?”

“I wasn’t trying to grope you! I was trying to interrogate you for information!”

God, that sounded so much worse. 

“That sounds a lot worse, actually.”

Of course, Zoro would state the obvious, and was he - was he smirking? Your eyes rapidly blinked as you tried to make sense of what you were seeing because as fast as you’d noticed it, that devilish smirk had disappeared. Now Zoro once again looked as serious as before. You began to move back towards the door with your hands up in mock surrender. 

“You know what - fine! If you don’t want to help me, that’s your choice, but you know I’m right. And I’m going to prove that something is wrong here with or without your help.”

You shot one last look in his direction before turning on your heel and giving him your back. You were at the door, your hand on the doorknob when Zoro surprised you with a question of his own. 

“Why ask me to help you?”

Glancing over your shoulder, you expected to see that smug smirk on his face or to get the cold shoulder. What you found instead were eyes so intent on you - waiting for your response - that it caused your lungs to collapse. A million replies played over through your mind, but only one of them mattered. 

“Because out of everyone here, I thought you would believe me the most.” 

It didn’t matter if it was the answer he’d been looking for or the one you thought would win him over. You meant what you said and you hoped he’d felt your admission genuinely. If Usopp didn’t want to believe you, and if Zoro, who you still believed knew or at least felt something was off here, wasn’t going to be able to help you, you would just have to do it yourself. 

Did you know what that entailed? Hell no, but Naan didn’t raise a quitter, and you weren’t going to roll over and just give up just because it was hard. Not when someone’s very life depended on you. 

——————

After your incredible failure of finding a co-conspirator to help you on your quest for answers failed with flying colors, you weren’t exactly sure what to do with yourself. Usopp no doubt must have snuck in by now to see Kaya - sans your “gift” - and the others were probably in the ridiculous closet looking for dinner attire. While you could’ve gone just to socialize with everyone else, Kaya had sent a dress to your room. 

Sham had looked absolutely miserable dropping it off and that was a joy all on its own. 

You considered heading to the closet just to see Luffy again. Luffy radiated optimism like sunshine; at the moment, that sort of unyielding optimism was the mood booster you needed. 

Unfortunately, you knew Zoro must have made his way there by now and you weren’t necessarily ready to face him again. The disappointment was clinging to you and that’s what you hated the most. You didn’t understand why you’d seemingly put all your eggs inside the Zoro basket. Just because he’d looked at Klahadore weird didn't mean he’d sensed something off. 

Shit, Klahadore was weird and deserved every side-eye glance he got. 

All it meant for you was going back to the drawing board for a new plan. One that was going to be able to get you next to Kaya. At least long enough so you could perform some kind of assessment. 

You rounded the corner to what you hoped was the hallway your room was down. The earlier thought you’d had about getting lost turned into an accurate one. You’d spent just as much time trying to get back to your room to get ready for dinner as you had searching for Zoro. 

Zoro.

Even just thinking about him made your jaw clench with fresh irritation. What was more infuriating than your most recent conversation was the fact you could still feel the strength of him in the hollows of your palms. The sharpness of his jaw and the high sculpt of his cheeks- 

No! Absolutely not, you chastised yourself. 

It was maddening how little he believed you - mocked you - and yet, here you were acting like some lovestruck teenager. He wasn’t that handsome. 

You were lost in your thoughts to the point you weren’t aware of your body's attempt to warn you. The hairs on the back of your neck stood on end and a sickening feeling began to rot in your gut and made sure all the imaginary - very imaginary - butterflies disappeared. 

The goosebumps that rose along your exposed skin informed you that the grand hallway, filled with all its riches and fine cherry woods was as ice cold as the dead. Has it always been this cold and you just never noticed? Or the eerie silence that made the manor feel more haunted than alive. 

Your feet involuntarily came to a halt in the middle of the hall. You couldn’t explain the panic that was building in your chest, but it felt like you were being watched. Your heart rate sped up until you could practically feel it thundering against your ribs. 

“You are being silly,” you whispered to yourself. “It’s just an old house.” 

“Old houses do have their quirks, don’t they?”

You wish you could say that when Klahadore spoke from behind you, you’d reacted with grace. With dignity. What actually happened was you screamed sharp enough it could raise the dead. 

The whiplash you gave yourself as you turned to face him was dizzying. You wanted to kill the fear that widened your eyes and pressed your brow into your hairline. Your mouth was painfully dry as you took in his presence and the absolute shit-eating grin he wore. 

He enjoyed seeing you afraid. 

“Oh dear, Doc, did I give you a fright?”

Klahadore gently tipped the frame of his glasses with the edge of his palm. You wanted to smack them off his smug face. 

“What do you want, Klahadore?”

You struggled to regain your composure. You refused to give him the satisfaction of seeing you afraid. It was what he wanted after all and didn’t take much to notice. He was already trying to close the few inches your retreat had given you. 

“I was simply wondering why you were wandering around the manor. You’ve been showing highly suspicious behavior ever since you and your friends arrived.” 

Your eyes narrowed in on him and as you held your head high. 

“Have you been following me?”

“Oh, come now, don't be silly. To have someone followed means you’re worried about what they’ll find, and you? You are the last thing I would be worried about.” 

Klahadore dropped his head down until he was eye level with you, but somehow used his size to remain imposing. A thinly veiled threat to remind you exactly what he thought of you; nothing. 

The first time you’d ever received an insult from Klahadore had been just like this. Alone and away from anywhere Kaya could hear him. He’d made sure that Usopp and you were together just so he wouldn’t have to repeat the insult twice. 

“I know you two must feel exceedingly special having Miss Kaya ask for you to come keep her company, but I’m afraid this will be the last time you ever come over unannounced or not. We can’t allow her image to be tarnished from being seen with unwanted children.” “Unwanted?” Usopp had been so confused - he knew he was wanted; wanted by Kaya and you. Klahadore saw in that confusion an opportunity to place doubt in his mind and completely tear him apart.  “Yes - unwanted. So unwanted that your father never returned, and your mother chose death as a final way to be rid of you.” “You son of a bitch!” You’d snarled and snapped. You were only kids.  The world had taught you early on about hardships and fairness; how the world and the people in it could lack kindness. But Naan always made you look for the good in the world, and in the people who sometimes allowed the ugliness of others to warp them into someone they weren’t.  It was a concept child you never understood. Teenage you were barely beginning to grasp it, but when Klahadore spoke those words so full of hate and venom at your best friend: there weren’t enough flames left in hell to cover up your rage.

The memory of that day left a black mark on your soul and you find it replaying at the most inconvenient of times. A harsh reminder of the first time you’d ever considered murder as a means of healing. The world would have to be a better place if someone like Klahadore wasn’t in it. Right? 

Naan, as always, talked you down from doing something rash. From allowing someone like Klahadore to have the last laugh and ruin all the plans you had for your life. 

But Naan wasn’t here to talk you off that ledge or to remind you who she knew you were. Your rage shouldn’t define you. Looking at Klahadore’s retreating back, you weren’t all too sure if it wasn’t you because if he ever showed up needing any form of medical attention, you weren’t so sure if he’d leave on his own two feet. 

A body bag would suit him nicely. 

You watched him until he completely disappeared leaving you alone once more inside the hallway. It felt weird to take those first steps back towards your room. To go inside and see the dress Kaya had sent to your room and know you were going to put it on and share dinner with that man standing in the same room. 

There had to be a way to show everyone here exactly who Klahadore was, and you would spend the whole dinner trying to do just that. 

———————

He’d been searching for a drink since his interaction with you back in his room. Zoro wanted to call you crazy - hell you acted crazy enough, but you’d done something he hadn’t expected. 

You’d surprised him.

He didn’t want to admit it then but he did get a weird vibe from the butler. The minute his eyes landed on Klahadore it had sparked a nagging feeling of a memory he just couldn’t quite place. 

And you’d noticed. 

After you’d left his room, he couldn’t shake the conversation you’d forced him to be a part of. Teasing you had been easy. He’d expected you to be a bleeding heart, but as you’d turned to leave, stomping your feet and spitting back words that stung for just a second, it had been Zoro’s turn to notice something about you. 

It was the fire of your determination that piqued his interest.  

While Zoro wasn’t sure why you held such a stick up your ass exactly about the butler, he was positive you had a reason. Besides the fact he couldn’t seem to pull up a clear memory of why the same butler piqued his own interest, and that was beginning to piss him off. 

What was even more annoying was the fact you’d brought it up enough that he’d asked Nami and Luffy if the butler seemed familiar. He didn’t know why he’d asked. If it had been more for him or for you. 

That pissed him off more. 

You seemed to be good at that. Pissing him off and getting under his skin. 

When he came downstairs, Zoro expected you to be there already. A quick glance around the room informed him you weren’t there, but a row of flutes filled with what he hoped was alcohol most certainly was. 

He carefully set down his strap of swords and moved closer to the drinks. No one else made a move towards them and, for a split second, Zoro was worried maybe the flutes were nonalcoholic. He reached out and wrapped his fingers around the delicate crystal and quickly brought it to his lips. 

The smell of the liquor hit him first and his muscles relaxed instantaneously. 

God. This was exactly what he needed. 

“Zoro! You gotta try this!”

Zoro didn’t bother looking because he’d seen the appetizers being served when he came down the stairs. He wasn’t impressed. Plus, if he was going to make it through this evening, he was going to need way more booze than what was inside these little Crystal flutes. 

“I got all I need right here,” he replied and brought the glass up to his lips. 

The first sip erased all the tension that had been binding up his muscles. The next pull from the glass relaxed him completely, and he downed what was left in one giant gulp. He placed the now-empty flute back down on the tray and swiftly grabbed another. 

Zoro was vaguely aware of all the chatting going on around him. The sound of Usopp and Luffy sharing stories and Nami doing whatever it was Nami did during fancy dinner parties. He meant what he said - he did have everything he needed to make it through this dinner inside these glasses. At least, that’s what he thought until the sound of a heel echoing off the step brought his attention to the top of the stairs. 

He was sure the new flute with his latest drink was at his lips. Zoro inhaled the sharp scent of liqueur with every breath he took. He just couldn’t seem to make his elbow bend enough to drop it from his face. 

You were making your way down the staircase, oblivious to the world around you as you came down with a hand carefully placed on the railing. 

The dress you wore was covered in article flowers; all of their small bold colors were bright against the backdrop of black chiffon. The top of the dress left your shoulders exposed, and the style you’d chosen to wear your hair, with beads of pearls intricately placed within each strand, made you seem ethereal. 

You looked like moonlight inside a garden; soft and wild and for the first time Zoro forgot that breathing was important. 

Once you reached the last step, your eyes finally moved up from the safety of your feet. Zoro was vaguely aware the rim of the glass was still resting on his bottom lip, and that he’d yet to take a drink. He felt frozen - helpless - until your eyes found his rooted frame - helplessly waiting - and the smile that curved your lips brightened up the room. 

It was in this second that he realized he was fucked, and the annoyance of that realization was enough for him to finally upend the glass in one large gulp. 

——————

Zoro had looked at you for less than a millisecond before he’d upended the contents of his glass in one large gulp. His disinterest was evident enough throughout his entire body. With one last glance in your direction, he turned back to the waiting tray of glasses. 

Well, that wasn’t the reaction you’d expected. 

The disappointment scraped raw across your chest as you watched Zoro take up another glass. His gaze was steadfast at the wall as he downed whatever was inside. What felt more disappointing was the fact you’d cared. 

For all intents and purposes, Zoro was an asshole. So, it begged the ever-present question: Why did it bother you so much? 

Yes, you’d painstakingly gotten ready around the dress Kaya left inside your suite. Was it your usual taste? You weren’t all that sure, to be honest. It’s not like you’d ever been invited to any fancy dinner parties before. You weren’t sure if this was the proper form of dress or if you’d gone overboard with your hair. 

At least Nami had a feather inside her hair and it looked as if she’d given her blood-orange hair some curls. She looked absolutely gorgeous and you made it your mission to tell her.

“Wow, Doc you look-“ Usopp began. 

You turned beaming towards your friend as you waited for him to acknowledge your hard work. Maybe at least Usopp, of all people, would say something nice. 

“Different.”

You could practically feel your smile deflate at the edges. 

“What did you put in your hair?” Luffy asked around a mouthful of meat. 

“Oh yeah, I was wondering what looked different. It’s the hair,” Usopp confirmed with Luffy. 

The both of them smiled and nodded at one another as if they just solved world hunger. Your tongue rolled around your cheek as you debated on what to say. Maybe you’d expected to much out of a bunch of men. 

“They’re pearls,” you huffed. 

“That’s silly,” Luffy chuckled. “Why would you ever put pearls in your hair?”

“It’s to look nice.”

“I never knew hair needed accessories,” Usopp offered before taking a bit of his appetizer.

“Nami put a feather in her hair,” Luffy offered before taking another bite. “Maybe you guys can talk about putting random stuff in your hair.” 

There was no way this conversation could be real, and yet…

Luffy was still wearing his genuine smile while he and Usopp continued to enjoy the appetizers Sham passed around. This evening was turning out to be the last time you’d ever consider wearing anything like this again. What was even worse was that out of the three of them, Zoro was the only one properly dressed. 

While Usopp went with his usual no shirt underneath his jacket, Luffy was wearing just a petty coat and miraculously found dress slacks that didn’t even reach his ankle. They looked like their usual selves, just dressed in black. 

But Zoro…

No! Absolutely not.

“I’ll go look for Nami so we can discuss…putting things in our hair.”

“That’s great! I’m sure it will make her happy. She seemed frustrated earlier when she asked for help.”

“I can’t imagine why,” you mumbled, as you turned to find Nami speaking to Merry. 

Well, it looked like that was going to be a bust too. Man, she really did look very pretty, though. You were considering what your options were. You weren’t comfortable just injecting yourself into whatever conversation Nami and Merry were having, especially not when she was rubbing his arm like that. 

Luckily for you, the sound of Klahadore announcing Kaya’s entrance kept you from having to go with your final option, which was to get a drink. Next to Zoro. 

You all collectively turned to watch as Klahadore helped Kaya make her way down the stairs. You couldn’t help but smile up at her and her current choice of attire. While she’d made you look like a garden, you could only assume she was the sunshine that hovered above it. The only problem you had with the golden silk material was that it somehow made her sickly pale skin appear paler. 

She must have picked the color in hopes it wouldn’t do that, but all it did was raise the alarm bells in the back of your mind. You’d allowed a pretty dress and a fancy meal to cloud the real reason you’d come in the first place. Instead of being a doctor, you were playing dress-up. 

You were still scolding yourself when Kaya finally made it to the end of the staircase. Her smile was bright and happier than it had been in a long time, as she regarded Nami and the dress she’d chosen. It hadn’t even registered that any of the clothes you currently were wearing belonged to her deceased parents. You made a mental note to make sure to take extra special care not to ruin the dress with any droplets of food. 

“Oh, Doc, I’m so glad I picked this,” Kaya breathed. “You look absolutely magical.” 

You couldn’t help but look down at the dress again. It was an incredibly delicate dress. A work of art to be worn on the body. Maybe that was why you felt like such an imposter wearing it. 

When you looked back at her, you tried to give Kaya a convincing smile. One you could even make yourself believe you felt worthy to have it on. 

“Oh, Kaya you are too nice,” you replied, only for her to shoot you down with a wave of her hand. 

“Nonsense. Usopp is always telling me about all the good you do for everyone. It’s time you let yourself be appreciated.”

Your earlier response to Kaya’s welcoming smile was one of your own, but at the mention of your supposed good deeds, you felt it tighten into a grimace. 

It means nothing if I can’t even help you.

Up close, her color wasn’t pale - it was ashen. The whites of her eyes were devoured with a yellowish tint and - 

Like the parasite he was, Klahadore was there pulling Kaya gently by her elbow to lead her back to the conversation between herself and Merry. Your eyes followed him as he made sure to plant her a few feet in front of you; her back excluding you from following to join. 

Once he made sure she was safely away from you, Klahadore stationed himself a few feet away next to the penguin pillar at the base of the stairs. He thought he was sneaky and that he had stopped your trained eyes from being able to do a quick evaluation.

Unlucky for Klahadore you were quicker than he thought. 

You were getting ready to head over to him when you caught Zoro walking back over to the tray. He was doing his usual of placing down an empty glass only to grab a fresh one, except this time he was talking. To Klahadore. 

What a fucking liar!

You couldn’t think straight as you watched the exchange. The way Klahadore overplayed the flabbergasted victim. You didn’t have to be close to them to know what Zoro was asking him, because just like you’d suspected, he did seem familiar to Zoro. 

It felt like you could breathe fire, you were so pissed. 

At some point, Klahadore ended the conversation by interjecting himself into someone else’s conversation. You didn’t care what it was. They could’ve been discussing flying pigs for all you cared. Your eyes were still honed in on Zoro who regarded you for a split second before he sat back down in the parlor’s middle seat. 

You started making your way towards him when Klahadore called out it was time to eat. You suddenly weren’t hungry. 

Zoro must have sensed you coming for him because in one swift move, he was out of the seat and standing. The strap that held his katana’s back over his shoulder as he followed Sham behind the double doors.

“You son of a-“

“Doc!” Usopp whisper-shouted as he nervously took your hand in his. “Sit next to me. Please.” 

You were still seeing metaphorical red. Your brain firing rapidly on only one main thought and that was to get a hold of Zoro and throttle him. 

It wasn’t Usopp’s fault that Zoro was a dick, and he looked genuinely terrified. Stuffing your current bad mood as far down as you could muster (you were about to see said moss-haired reason for your fowl mood in t-minus two seconds), you planted on a smile and gently took Usopp’s hand. 

“What kind of wingman would I be if I didn’t?”

“Oh, thank god,” he laughed. 

The both of you followed closely behind Merry and the others as you were all escorted inside the dining room. Merry quickly took his seat at the end of the table, and you noticed rather quickly Zoro had claimed the seat closest to the door. 

Without thinking, you took the seat beside him and motioned for Usopp to take the last one. The one directly beside Kaya. For a moment, Usopp looked at you wide-eyed and uncertain. You did your best to make him comfortable. 

“You got this, Usopp,” you whispered. “Don’t overthink it.”

His response came in a small nod that did little to erase the terror that shined in his eyes. You gave his arm a light squeeze for reassurance before you straightened up in the chair. Glancing over, you watched as Zoro poured what looked like a freshly opened bottle of wine into a glass. 

You waited patiently for him to finish and when he went to set the bottle down you made your move. With a slight lean to your right, you swiped your hand out to grab a hold of the glass. Zoro caught the movement too late, but you now had his full attention. His nostrils flaring the only indication that he was irritated by your sudden drink stealing. 

Good. 

“What do you think you’re doing?” He questioned. 

His dark eyes never left your face as he waited for you to answer. 

“Being petty.”

To bring the point home, you tilted the glass in his direction in a silent salute. You made sure he watched as you brought it to your lips and took a sip of the blood-red wine within. 

Zoro’s jaw ticked in irritation as you gave him a devious smirk, and when Sham came by Zoro waved her over. 

“I need a new glass.”

Now the smile that graced your lips was genuine and you made sure Zoro was aware of it. It was time to have a little fun of your own and that included hogging as much of his alcohol as humanly possible. 

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

As always, thank you for reading. Reblogs and comments are always welcome.

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[crusty-chronicles]

Airheaded S/O Headcannons #11: Luffy (One Piece)

I feel like Luffy would thrive with an S/O who's just as, if not more, stupid than him.

And he genuinely cannot tell you're not the sharpest tool in the shed.

Combined, you and Luffy have one semi-functioning braincell

And 90 % of the time, Nami has it

"LUFFY FELL OVERBOARD AGAIN!!!"

And there you go jumping right in after him.

"I'M COMING CAPTAIN!!"

Ussop and Chopper are standing by the railing horrified and screaming with everything they've got because 'YOU CAN'T SWIM EITHER!!!'

"How did their bounty increase by 20 million!?!?" Nami exclaimed having seeing your newest wanted poster.

Luffy, who was walking by and heard, suddenly had stars in his eyes.

"Really!?!? They're so cool 🤩"

And Nami is smacking the back of his head as hard as she can

"DON'T ENCOURAGE THEM, MORON!!!"

This man loves you with his whole heart and has known you since you were both children

Ace had found you sneaking out Dadan's shack with a huge pile of food and captured you.

"What do we do with them?"

"We could kill them." Sabo suggested.

"Excuse me, I really need to use the bathroom." You wiggled against the rope binding you.

"Like that's gonna work on us!"

"No, excuse me for being rude and leaving. You guys are funny but I really need to pee."

And they hadn't realized you'd already torn through the ropes until you got up and walked away.

They are completely dumbfounded and a little impressed.

Well except for Luffy who had been watching because he wasn't allowed to talk to the 'captive' during 'interrogations'. Whatever that meant.

He's getting up and chasing after you with a huge grin.

"Hey! Come back! I wanna be friends with you!!!"

And Ace and Sabo are the running after him before he can catch up, lecturing him about leaving weirdo people like you alone.

"I mean what kind of person just tears through rope and walks away all unbothered????"

"Me! I do that!"

Cue the screams because how did you manage to climb the treehouse without the ladder???

You meet up again several years after you all had set sail.

Ussop spotted something floating in the water shortly after the crew already left from thriller bark.

A person to be exact.

A person on a wooden plank.

And before he could inform anyone about it, Luffy was already stretching himself over to the castaway.

His eyes bugging out when he saw who it was.

"Y/N????"

Your expression matching his.

"LUFFY???"

"Long time no see. How have you been?"

And the crew is peaking over the Sunny curiously. Because who the hell was this that their captain seemed to be very friendly with?

Friendly than usual considering he his arms were wrapped around you several times, picking you up and swaying you.

"The pirate life is hard. My ships keep sinking. Say, mind if I hop on yours for a while?" You asked hopefully.

There was something even more hopeful in Luffy's as he set you down.

"I've got a better idea. Join my crew!"

"I don't kno- IS THAT A FREAKING SKELETON?!?! HELL YEAH I'M IN!!"

The crew warms up to you almost instantly considering you have the same bright personality as their captain.

And the ones weary of you (Zoro, Nami, and Ussop) become convinced when they see you fight and pull your weight.

"Hey, Luffy! Can we try that one move we used to do when we were smaller??"

All you get is a nod in return before he slingshots you towards a Marine ship.

The result?

You basically cannonballing into the side, only to reappear on the deck as it sinks. Reaching back for Luffy's hand as he lifts you up and flings you towards another. Jumping on after you to join the fight.

Your teamwork is practically unbeatable.

And the fact that you can keep up with Luffy perfectly cements your place on the Sunny.

It's no secret Luffy loves you.

And it's no secret you love him back.

The Pirate Empress Boa Hancock?

She's cool, he guesses.

Shirihoshi the mermaid princess? The most beautiful woman in the world?

She's a huge crybaby.

You? An idiot who broke the aquarium after tapping too hard on the glass to get the 'pretty fishy' to notice you?

You're his.

He doesn't make a big deal out of the way he feels.

He doesn't get all blushy or nervous around you

Instead he feels pure happiness and the most at peace he's ever been

Luffy will not try to court you the way a certain cook might court the ladies on the Sunny.

No big or grand gestures

Also not shy showing you affection.

He's known you for so long that gestures like that come naturally.

Holding hands to explore a new island?

Check

Wrestling with you on the deck of the Sunny?

Check

Sharing and stealing food from each other's plate?

Check

Trading around Shanks' straw hat on the daily?

Double check

The closest he'll get to confessing is at a time where the two of you are alone in the crows nest together.

"After I became the king of the pirates, let's keep having adventures together." And he'll put his signature strawhat on your head.

"Who says I'm going anywhere? This is the ship of dreams right? Well my dream is for us to stay together forever. So make it come true, captain."

It's at that point he realizes he'd follow you anywhere you asked him to. The same way you were following him now.

Will Luffy baby you?

You're insane if you think he will.

Because it's just the two of you encouraging each other to do stupid shit.

Actively trying to outdo each other

Luffy catches a huge fish?

You're jumping in the water because you saw a shark.

You broke into the kitchen at night to steal from the fridge?

Luffy is lugging it out so you two can have a midnight snack in the middle of the deck.

Both of you are being chased by Pacifistas?

It's a game to see who can destroy more.

"Do you think if I start training after I eat I'll throw up?" You asked.

"Let's test it out!" Luffy encouraged.

Only to find out that yes, you will in fact throw up training after eating.

"Well now we know!"

Luffy will call you the most bizarre nicknames he can come up with.

Get used to: Meat stick, pork chop, swimmy (because you cannot swim for the life of you), cannonball, and some messed of version of your name. (Think of how he calls Law and Kidd, Traffy and Jaggy)

But occasionally, in the rarest moments known to man, he will call you his treasure.

Luffy will get incredibly jealous if someone outside of the crew talks to you.

With the Strawhats, he doesn't care. You all need to get along anyways.

Brook wants to play you a song to see if it's okay?

Fantastic because you two have the same taste in shanties.

Zoro wants to train with you and see if he can make his attacks any stronger?

Hell yeah! Kick his ass!

You're Sanji's taste tester?

Sneak him something out will ya?

Franky and Ussop want to test out a new invention on you?

So cool!!!!! Tell him what it does when you're finished!!!

He's over the moon with you spending time with them.

But if it's a marine, another pirate, or just a random citizen, he's fighting them.

He's incredibly immature and will not let anyone get too friendly with you.

Luffy will bite, and he will not let go until that person apologizes and leaves.

Man or woman, doesn't matter.

He's throwing hands, gum-gum gatling all the way.

Second gear if he's pissy enough.

All in all, you two don't need a brain to be able to tell you love each other.

Next Up: Uryu Ishida

An: I'm back baby. 🫶 (Also yes I watch one piece in dub pls don't bully me 👉👈)

MASTERLIST

[oh-three]

Skeleton Crew S1E5:

THE PARENTS ARE SCHEMING. Love it.

Wendle doing the thing with his hands lmaooo

Thank god for Fern's mom.

Fern's relationship with Silvo is funny af.

Love how they tied SM-33 down, with rope, as if it'll actually hold him down if he decides to attack them again.

Well, obvious Captain Rennod made it to At Attin. Didn't live long after, though. Based on the skeletons aboard.

LMAO, I knew SM-33 could totally just break free. The looks on their faces 🤣

So, they literally died hitting At Attin, that's funny af.

SM-33 is so happy lmao

Think Wim's a little homesick.

The way Silvo kept trying to walk away, gave up, and sat down next to him. He's not giving great advice, though. Forgetting his parents is terrible advice.

Oh, sweet summer child, Jedi aren't the only people who can use the Force.

Lanupa. Not At Attin lol.

Omg, the ship is in terrible shape.

Wim looks like Davy Jones haha. "This is Skull Ridge Mountain? They ruined it!" Hate to break it to you, SM-33, but that happens with everything.

She really just ignored SM-33 outrageically trying to grab her by the shoulders lol.

Dash Zentin

Finally, someone calling him out on one of his false names.

Pokkit's gonna be a problem lol.

Queue Silvo panicking.

"You take the Sensory Gymnasium, Professor Gorelox." Lmao. Deserved.

Silvo's at the end of his rope.

A HUTT.

"Just act like you belong," vs "Run!" two seconds later is peak comedy.

Dash Zentin, Crimson Jack, Mad Captain Silvo, Jodwick Zank, Jod Na Nawood, the list keeps growing haha. It's a running gag at this point.

KB is fucking amazing.

They really went and told this guy all about their adventures thus far, and it's so funny. Cthallops is kinda amusing, actually.

Oop. Company's arrived.

Fern really just said "another fake name," not knowing for sure whether or not Jod is his real name. At this point, I'm starting to think so, but I won't be surprised if it's not.

Damn, Rennod had a whole tomb down there. Definitely more tomby than lair-like.

Hey, a lightsaber!

"Refill that chamber with acid." 💀

I hate how smart that was. Silvo really just had him commit mass murder against that crew.

Lmaoo, the treasure's a mint.

He's aboutta betray them.

Jod. Buddy. Chill out.

The way the kids are actually betrayed despite telling themselves not to trust him. 😭

Wim, the lightsaber was upside-down…

WIM. Jesus Christ.

Great, now Silvo has the lightsaber.

SM-33 obviously has a loyalty to the kids. Couldn't he just…not listen to Silvo???

[theendlessnessofbeingme]

Skeleton crew is probably one of the best things that has come out of Star Wars. As someone who was never a Star Wars man growing up and who only ever saw the movies because I took a film class in high school. I can say for certainty that it was never something I was interested in. Mostly I had to do with the fandom they are very toxic and it’s like the teen wolf fandom at its peak bad. I never got into it. It was never my thing. But then I started watching the acolyte and I love the accolade, even though it didn’t get a second season. I still loved it and it was amazing and I wish I did but anyway. Skeleton crew is such a great gateway into Star Wars, for a lot of people, especially if you’re like a child of immigrants or your parents were just not into it. You didn’t grow up with Star Wars. And so like the new stuff that seems cool is hard to get into because you have to know all this extra information. But with skeleton crew, you don’t have to know any extra information. You can just watch it and have a good time and not have to like have a deep knowledge of anything to know what’s going on. I think they should do more shows and more movies like this because I think the current issue with Star Wars is the same issue that Marvel is having which is that the current and old fans are getting tired of the content, but also you guys aren’t getting any new fans because you guys don’t have any access points. This show proved that you can make an access point and you can make it fun and you can make it interesting and you don’t need to put in all of this lore and all of this stuff. You don’t need to put in the whole kitchen sink to make an interesting story 

[patchdotexe]

doip. / 9.13.24: happy friday the 13th everybody

no this isn't two weeks overdue. i definitely did not have the world's most executive dysfunction about this and we definitely are not playing again Tomorrow. dont look at the date. dont

technically this is no longer doip. bc we have graduated from Dragon of Icespire Peak to Storm Lord's Wrath! but also doip. is iconic to me and slw doesn't have the same ring to it in a post title. snakes loving women

last time: Kepesk left the party to rejoin his old group, the Wilders, and the rest of the Skeleton Crew set out on a mission from Lord Neverember to head to the town of Leilon and help rebuild it! i spend the entirety of this session forgetting the second half of that sentence. this bodes well for me

today we're recording the session! and by we i mean nyx.

nyx: my computer go fast. leo: ..is that good? nyx: no.

(jorb wants a video record for archival reasons, im continuing notetaking bc its fun and more accessible for me than watching a ~2hr vod.)

oh nevermind, trying to record killed nyx on the spot. im recording now! i am also the only person that doesnt have spoilers on my character sheet apparently. jorb is doing a recap of the story so far! which is very appreciated because it has been several years. :,D

jorb: [..] big al calazorn-- leo: calzorne??? jorb: calazorn. leo: big al calzone vocaloid real??? jorb: no.

we're on the road to viridian ciiityyyyy there's a building at the triboar trail intersection! it's an inn / tavern. a tavinn, if you will. ah. people are trying to… break into the tavinn? something is Off about them. that's not good. theyve broken in! TIME FOR ALIDAAR TO SAVE THE DAY. oh shit, its zombies. good thing the skeleton crew is here!

dauble is curled up on alidaar like a scarf. perfect position to put him into a chokehold

im microwaving nyx.

arepo opens the fight with a spray of cards! and the half-elf lady in the tavinn is also good at dealing out damage. lets go! whoa. okay these guys might be capable on their own, actually. oh my god lmao. i was gonna say "nvm one of em has a nat1" but then it still hit. that owns. even random tavinn owners are ready to kick ass at any given moment

This Table Has A Hitpoint Bar

(there's a table being used as a barricade and the zombies are trying to break it down. jorb looked up how exactly that works and discovered that the table has a silly amount of hp. and then nyx asked him to put a hp bar on the table.)

jorb: are you happy?! nyx: i am. i am happy.

alidaar backhands a zombie to death.

(im screwing around in combat more and that includes doing things like "figuring out how to use unarmed strikes" and "getting silly with it". alidaar did, quite literally, backhand a zombie to kill it)

oh fuck theres wraiths too. thats not good. arepo gets so startled he vicious mockery's a wraith lmao OH THE TABLES HAVE TURNED. BADLY. WRAITHS SCARY :0 dauble has channel divinity + turn undead! dauble blasts everything with their fucking Aura

Alidaar Is So Fucking Annoyed these zombies do Not like staying down. alidaar does a cool slide under a table about it and climbs up on top to breath weapon! it does not achieve much. i hate it here i need to stop punching things bc then i lose track of my attacks. bc i have mainhand-offhand-mainhand and i got pretty used to the rhythm of it. but also im trying to vary up how i approach combat bc otherwise i feel like im doing the same thing over and over One Of The Wraiths Has Fucking Left

dauble and doorc are just chilling here. wait nevermind doorc is on the move. wait nevermind doorc is still just chilling hes just chilling somewhere else

(one of the npcs is an orc guarding the door. he is now forever the doorc to me.)

THIS FUCKING WRAITH IS 240 FEET AWAY FROM THE INN. ITS JUST GOING. IT CAN GO THROUGH WALLS. ITS STEALING RAVIOLI OOPS ALIDAAR'S MAX HP WENT DOWN. 59 -> 36! haha im in danger

nyx: how many times can i embarrass this wraith before it just gives up?

RED WRAITH DOWN! …blue wraith still on the loose. um. hm Ol' Pisspants Wraithy Will Come Back Eventually [dauble voice] Ol' Pisspants Wraithy ol' pisspants wraithy is fucking pissed

jorb: dauble, you're up! (leo: dauble!) nyx: im using turn undead. leo: NO,

dauble has used turn undead again. alidaar stares at dauble. crosses his arms. does nothing. arepo checks his pocketwatch. we wait Another Two Minutes for turn undead to wear off and this fucker to come back DAUBLE IS GETTING FUCKING OWNED dauble is down for the count! DONT GO INTO THE LIGHT alidaar does a sick flip, shoots the wraith with his crossbow, and then while arepo is getting ready to attack i remember i can still attack twice with this awful thing and miss. fantastic

doorc is the most competent person in this entire encounter.

dauble is rolling well on death saves at least :,D

nyx: [deadpan] you can tell by the joy in my voice. jason: you sound ecstatic. nyx: i am.

ALIDAAR IS SICK OF THIS WRAITH'S SHIT. IT IS NOW CONFETTI. GOODBYE

jorb: you know how trunks kills frieza? leo: yeah.

jorb: so dauble is dying,

alidaar pours a potion of healing on dauble. please do not cease to be dauble is okay! hooray! also we've saved martisha, teegar, and coorag. teegar and coorag are married and i mixed up who is who and thought there was lesbians. there isnt. sad. alidaar is carrying dauble around like a cat. he is Very unhappy that dauble ate shit and is bad at displaying it so there's a lot of Wiggling Dauble to make sure theyre ok hooray, we're heroes! somebody is paying for our lodging and teegar's paying for our drinks :D

arepo has ordered a diet dr pepper.

jorb: she gets you a nice frothy mug of diet dr. pepper.

arepo is socializing while i catch up on note-taking bc i was busy driving the bus diet dr pepper is the famous local brew. its a peppery version of diet doctor coorag has a trident necklace! arepo recognizes it as a symbol for water stuff. i have immediately forgotten jorb's phrasing. something something not faith just lifestyle we are two hexagons away from the ocean.

alidaar is making friends! and eating pork pie. and also shoving dauble's face into pork pie. DURNALD DEEPCRUST. LMFAO

(that's the name of the cook. he's a dwarf. also the return of the "cryovain is alidaar's dad" joke happened so alidaar (lovingly) bullied dauble over it)

alidaar is a wuss when it comes to spicy so he ends up having to use bardic inspiration and a tiny bit of frost breath to survive this pork pie. this is hilarious alidaar has unlocked a tastebud. just one. OH MY GOD MY MEMORY IS STRUGGLING SO BAD. hi. we're going to a place i forgot how to spell to help with repairs. one of the people alidaar's befriended, silla, is heading there to try and do fishing stuff and get a job. also she plays the harmonica :3 alidaar has successfully played the flute! and one of the other patrons is singing along about defending the inn and then getting owned by the spicy pies. this is adorable

dauble is taking everything so normally.

dauble: can we get the 3 bed rooms? alidaar: yeah sure :3 alidaar: [lies down] dauble: [gets in alidaar's bed] alidaar:

ah. hm. dauble has sneaked off to do something while alidaar and arepo are sleeping. that's.. fine. the third bed is for twigbias. dauble is tucking the terrarium in.

aaaand that's the session! \o/

(these are way more disorganized than usual. hoo boy. juggling "being the guy that initiates interactions", "making sure the recording functions properly", and "taking notes" means that some stuff got a bit unbalanced. this is still more thorough notes than i took for the first session of doip at least lmao)

[koalas-koalas-everywhere]

Honestly? While there's no doubt that Luffy fucked up in Whiskey Peak? Like 80% of the outrage and 100% of the accusations of "ooc"ness come from 1) the misconception of Luffy being this super intuitive guy leading to him being put on an altar, and 2) a refusal to allow him any emotional depth.

To start off – Luffy's not that intuitive. The closest thing to it is what the crew call his "animal instincts" in Water 7, where he predicts that he will have to fight Rob Lucci, like he predicts other fights before and after. Only – is that really what happens? He "just knows"? Because, from what I remember, he very clearly identifies him as the leader and the strongest member of CP9 (#366: "of all the people we'll be fighting in a little while, the strongest is that pigeon guy! I'l definitely be the one to send him flying!"). Of course he assigns himself to fight him. That's his reasoning every other time, as well. At times (certainly not often, but sometimes), he demonstrates actual strategic thinking, like with Moria.

I think a lot of people want to think that Luffy "intuits" the Straw Hats' potential or even their pasts when he asks them to join, but we don't see any evidence of that. What we do see is a lot of instances where Luffy witnesses good things about his friends, both in terms of skill and of character. In Brook's case, he literally just went "talking skeleton cool cool cool cool cool". And that's all. It might be hard to swallow that some of the deepest and strongest bonds we see in the series, the most important ones and the cornerstone of the story, are based on something as flimsy as "hee hee I like you be my nakama", that Luffy didn't somehow know that they needed to be taken in. But that's just the way it is. Hell, if it had been solely up to him, Kureha, Iceberg and a bunch of random zombies without a will of their own who were trying to kill them would be part of the crew.

I think that what happens is that Luffy is very undiscerning and undemanding about who can join the crew or even sail with them (he also let Miss Wednesday and Mr. 9 go with them without a fuss, same with the Franky Family, who he only knows from, you know, having beat up Usopp and stolen 200mil berries from them) and we want to think that there's some deeper reason for it. We know that it's nothing rational, because we're not so detached from what's happening on the page, so that leaves some kind of instinct telling him that these are the right people. It's a nice idea – it gives Luffy some unconventional wisdom to make up for his lack of it otherwise and fits well with his upbringing in the jungle.

But there's not really anything special about the people he picks up, except the fact that he picks them up. Not in the sense that they're special because of him, but that they become special to him. That's the real reason why he goes after Nami and Robin and Sanji when they leave. It's not that, oooh, he can sense how tortured and traumatized they are and that deep down they're good people. Nah – he just believes them when they say they are his people, so he refuses to abandon them.

And, okay, this might seem damning in the context of Whiskey Peak, because where was this faith when it came to Zoro, who arguably earned it more than anyone else in the crew? To be honest, that's one of the points where I'll concede that Luffy fucked up the most, but there is another matter at play here: everyone else claimed to be on his side, or at least be a certain kind of person, before apparently turning on him. He chose to believe that original impression out of loyalty.

Not only is Luffy not that discerning, he is known for being a sucker for deception. He can't lie, and he's so honest that most of the time he can't even conceptualize that someone might be lying to him. ("Are you going to betray me?" "No." *grins*) The idea that he could just... take a look at someone and divine either good or evil intent goes directly against canon. He gets taken in by CP9, by Kanjuro, hell, he buys that King Cobra betrayed Alabasta as Vivi is telling him of how Crocodile manipulated them.

And that leads me into Whiskey Peak and point 2.

Before we start, think back to Wano, if you would. (If you haven't reached Wano, don't worry, the spoilers in this paragraph are very light.) Imagine that, after spending the day with Tama, and Tsuru, and Kiku, and the rest of the village who gave up their scarce supplies to feed them, Luffy and Zoro go to sleep. The morning after that, Luffy wakes up to a massacre. Everyone, and I mean everyone, has been cut down. The people who helped them, the people who he was talking and laughing with just a few hours ago, dead or near enough. He recognized Tsuru among the pile of bodies and she still has some breath left, so he asks who did it.

Basically, imagine sympathetic victims to the Whiskey Peak massacre.

When we read Whiskey Peak, we know there's something fishy going on. For starters, it's Miss Wednesday and Mr. 9's town, which makes it suspicious enough. Then, before the attack, we see them writing a letter saying that they wanted the Straw Hats to go there, making it obviously dangerous. This is without even getting into the clear threat evident to us readers because we know this is a story and that there's no way the heroes will have it that easy. We mistrust and refuse to sympathize with the Whiskey Peak inhabitants from the start. Until the reveal that Vivi's undercover, they're enemies and future meatsacks to us. We forget that that's not the case for the Straw Hats. Especially, that's not the case for Luffy, who takes everyone at face value.

I think a lot of people maybe get too caught up in their image of Luffy as a sort of chaos, "do things for the laff" entity who'll liberate you from tyranny in exchange from food, so they don't realize that there might be emotional, non-transactional reasons for his behavior. That he feels thankful to the people who help him, because he's survived on the kindness of others all his life and he would've died without it (and if you think that doesn't apply now that he's a pirate, go back to read the Baratie arc). That he might get attached to the people who are kind to him and others. That, even if he doesn't feel affection for them, he'll still be outraged when their kindness is met with cruelty by others. We joke about his disproportionate responses to being fed (aka overthrowing the government for a bowl of rice), but that's because he's not acting under a perceived debt, but out of a bond he's created with his benefactor/s.

So Luffy, who couldn't understand duplicity if it showed up with a twin, gets to a village full of people who happily welcome him and his crew, who appear to do this for every weary traveler that has just passed through the harrowing ordeal of Reverse Mountain. They offer them food, drinks and shelter for as long as they need it. Not only that, they all spend hours partying together, chatting, having fun. Than, Luffy wakes up to find everyone either slaughtered or nearly – the people he was partying with not long ago, from the elderly to children, and, okay, gross, but let's recognize that One Piece is a piece of media with an antiquated system of gallantry that says that it's also an outrage that the women were also hurt. He walks up to one of them and asks them who did it. He says it was Zoro.

Take a moment to place yourself in his shoes. This was objectively a horrifying experience. You wouldn't be surprised if he went after the culprit if it was a stranger. And while I think he should have given Zoro the benefit of the doubt, there's something actually a lot more horrifying in the fact that it was one of his friends who did it: that means Luffy's responsible. He's the one who brought Zoro there, after all. Most codes of honor would have the leader of a group vouching, at least implicitly, for its members.

And it might have easily felt like a betrayal. Not because Zoro went against Luffy, but because he let him down.

A lot of people bring this fight back to loyalty – hasn't Zoro shown Luffy how loyal he is? (And, you know what, I think we could have an interesting discussion about that? About what's said, what's implied, also what's actually witnessed by the characters, but never mind.) Zoro promised him he'd be the best, and that he'd stick by Luffy in his path to achieve that... but he never promised he'd never cruelly cut down an entire village in the meantime, something which is not beyond what any other pirate would do, loyalty notwithstanding. And a good thing, too, because he did, in fact, do that in WP!

That's the other thing. Imagine waking up to a whole village of people who helped you and your crew cut down by a member of said crew. The children included. The idea of there being a good reason for it is actually more out there than a prideful and powerful man who agreed to become a pirate, specifically to establish himself as the strongest in his field, would lash out at the flimsiest offense to his ego, to be honest.

Basically, it all goes down to how this guy, so honest he can barely conceive of being lied to when he's directly informed of it, should have walked out to find bloodied piles of bodies and gone "this guy with violent tendencies I met like a month ago killed dozens of people, including children, who fed us and sheltered and fed us, who I like because of that, probably did it for a good reason". Forgive me if I bring up the children too much, it's just that, if there's one demographic you don't expect anyone to have enough of a good reason to maim, it's that one. Faced with this kind of scene, it makes sense to doubt your initial judgement of a person.

Of course, what he did see of Zoro before that should have told him enough to at least doubt. At the very least, he should have heard him out before killing him. Zoro did try to explain. (Then again, if someone admitted to slaughtering a whole neighborhood and then claimed to have a good reason for it I wouldn't be jumping to hear them out.)

That said, it's not about Luffy doubting Zoro's loyalty, it's about doubting his character when faced with incredibly damning evidence against it. One the one hand, maybe Luffy's the one who should've been more loyal. On the other, the fact that his loyalty didn't extend to forgiving one of his crew when they apparently go rogue and attack not just an entire village, but of full of people who helped them and continuously did the same for others, just goes to prove that he doesn't have the moral backbone of a wet noodle, in addition to checking out with his tendency to develop an attachment to people who feed him.

[elbiotipo]

Some quick notes on SPACE in the Biopunk World:

Earnest settlement of space began with the development of reusable rockets by the US and China in the 2030s, and later single-stage-to-orbit rockets by Brazil and Argentina in the 2050s. With proper infrastructure, soon trips to the Moon and space mining became commonplace.

The peak of space exploration was in the 2090s, when radiotelescopes found evidence of alien civilizations and manned expeditions were sent to Jupiter. It culminated with the opening of the Santos-Dumont space elevator in Brazil in 2096.

This golden age was cut short by World War 3 and the Ecocide. The destruction of space infrastructure generated a Kessler Syndrome that is still being cleaned up by the new UN. Most space projects have been suspended or with skeleton crews.

The US-EU and Sino-Russian programs are still around, but kind of obsolete. The main space powers are the UNASUR joint programs, India and East Africa.

Brazil has the largest space fleet, not surprising, since they have the only space elevator. The orbital city of Hy Braseal hosts most of international space infrastructure, including the UN's cleanup program (think the guys from Planetes). Brazil mantains bases all over the Solar System, and in fact Brazilian "icebreakers" supply bases that were isolated from the Kessler Syndrome.

The second largest space organization in the UNASUR is Tawantinsuyu. Buillt on a modernizing effort in the 2080s-90s, they own two Aldrin Cyclers that make the Earth-Mars trip. Notably, they never stopped their space program even at the height of the Ecocide; most of the growing population of Mars is of Andean descent (they're very much "Mars to Stay").

The third largest in the UNASUR is Argentina. Out of national pride and reliability concerns, they keep their own shuttle and space fleet. They also have the third largest asteroid mining program, behind China and Brasil (about 15% of Argentina's GDP).

Before the Ecocide, the space population (permanent and temporary) was reaching the tens of thousands. Now this is much reduced. There are other concerns rather than space exploration... but that might change.

Some major space milestones: Disovery of first alien biosphere (USA, 2030s) First men on Mars (USA, 2030s), Permanent Moon base (China, 2040s), Commercial space mining (USA, 2040s), First child born in space (China, 2059), first child born on Mars (USA, 2061), discovery of alien dyson spheres (2084, international telescope led by India), first space elevator (Brazil, 2096), manned mission to Jupiter (UNASUR, 2098), interstellar probe to Alpha Centauri (international, led by India, UNASUR and East Africa), manned mission to Saturn (UNASUR, 2113), WWIII, Ecocide and Kessler Disaster (2114-2123), reopening of the space elevator (2129)

[chasingpj]

🍄 hiiiiii congrats on 1k!!! i started reading ur child of hecate fic since the 1st chapter& i loveeeee what ur doing for the rewrite!!! any ways i want to ask what ur wips r rn ??? cause u havent updated in a while & i wanted to know if u have smthng planned

hi hi! first, i want to say thank you so much for sticking by my fic for so long like?? I'm the worst post-er in the world and i truly applaud you for your patience and am so so thankful for your support!!!

now to answer your question... i indeed have plenty for you guys and i'm really hoping i get to execute this! I'll give you some sneak peaks of the writing too :)))

Here With Me: it's a nico one-shot with a platonic older sister reader and the relationship is kind of inspired by Wednesday and Pugsley's dynamic.

“Okay, listen here…” You move a little closer, eyeing the name tag on the frightened guard. “Atrius. Have you seen a girl named Bianca? She looks like this kid.” Pointing at Nico, the ghost peers over your shoulder. 

“No, I haven’t seen her.” As definitive as that statement was, he didn’t sound so definitive. His bones clinked together as he shivered in your presence. 

“I don’t like when people lie to me.” You stare into his empty eye sockets. One moment passes and then two and then three and still he hasn’t budged. Irritation buzzed at the back of your skull. You had the time but none of the patience to play hide and seek. 

Nico stands a short way behind you, partially concerned for your victim. He wasn’t sure what you were going to do if you didn’t get what you wanted. The skeleton flashed him a look and even with no skin on his face, he could tell it was pleading. 

“Help me!” He was saying without a word.  The boy doesn’t move from his spot though, instead looking away sheepishly. Pleading or not, he looked scary. That and Nico really wants to find his sister.

“I’m not lying!” He insists and it annoys you even more. Quickly, in one movement, you grab his leg and tug so hard it comes straight out the socket. Tossing it to the side, your eyes don’t leave him as he yelps, falling straight to the ground.

“Tell me where she is, or I’m tossing both of your legs into Tartarus. Last chance.”

2. Discovered: it's a percy one shot where you're jason's little sister and you've trying to keep your relationship a secret

“Perce, we should get out there.” Your eyes focus on the door as he slowly lowers your hand off his face. “I came here to wake you up, not to cuddle.” The suggestion flew into one ear and out the other, Percy only nuzzling his face further into your neck. “Hmm.” The vibration of his hum tickles your skin, distracting the rational thoughts that urge you to take your own advice. “Let’s just stay here and sleep a little longer.” 

When did you become so weak? You’re not sure how it came about with Percy. His husky, fatigue-laced voice was enough for you to persuade you. It wasn’t even the warmth of his body splayed over yours or the inviting bed sheets graced with his sweet scent that could sway your persistence. As much as you wished to stay here, playing with Percy’s dark locks until the two of you drift to sleep, you know you couldn’t. 

Your brother, Jason, was big on routines and he didn’t waste any time to work out a schedule for himself and the whole Argo II crew. Curfew was set to wake up at the crack of dawn and the times varied person to person under the consideration of who was scheduled for the night watch. 7 am was pretty early, considering you’re all stuck on a boat all day. The hours would just drag and you’ve tried to compromise with him about it but the former praetor was set on his plans. 

3. Holidate: it's short series that i'm working on inspired by the netflix movie Holidate! It takes place after college, percy and y/n are adults and just got out of long term relationships! it's a fake dating au. I want to get this fic out for the holidays at the end of the year!

“What?” Silena doesn’t falter her stare and you shift on your feet, suddenly, aware of Ellie tugging on your arm, eager to show you all the Christmas presents she got this year. “You're acting like I showed up in sweats!” Silena purses her lips. “I did my hair, and my makeup! First time in 3 months.” You hoped she'd give you some credit but her expression doesn’t change. “You know what? I don’t need to explain myself to you. I’m going to attend your daughter's Christmas Haul now.” 

Silena scoffs and turns on her heels, the red bottoms of her heels clashing perfectly with the green of her dress. Content with that being the end of your conversation, you make your way to the grand stairs with your 4-year-old tour guide. 

“You look like shit.” Your vision follows the direction of the voice. Drew smirks, glamorous in her choice of outfit today. To any other dinner party, you wouldn’t be underdressed but Cabin 10 took any event like the met gala. 

“Thank you.”  you smile as if you just got a compliment. Ignoring her look of obvious disgust, you run up the stairs behind the crowd of children.

__________

“Percy?” Estelle pats her older brother’s shoulder. She waits for a moment, the older boy staring at his cup of eggnog with nothing particular in mind. “PERCY?” 

As if snapping out of a trance, Percy blinks, meeting the six-year-olds gaze. “Yes, Guppy?”

The sweet tone in his voice was hard to manage but the last thing he wanted was to ruin his little sister's Christmas with his crabby attitude. He wishes he stayed home at his apartment, waiting out this holiday by pretending it was just a regular Friday. Sally didn’t allow it though, waking him up by calling his landline and demanding he showed up to Christmas dinner. He only came for Estelle. He knew his little sister would miss him.

“Where’s Annie?” She asks, teddy in her arms. Percy shifts, about to answer before his mother chimes in.

“Estelle, can you help dad set the table?” The task was somehow exciting to her child mind, the girl ditching the teddy bear on Percy’s lap. Saved by mom, Percy releases the breath he didn’t even know he was holding. “Sorry,” Sally sheepishly sits beside her son. “I told her what happened and to not bring it up. I guess she wants to hear the news straight from you.”

“It’s fine,” Percy says, green orbs returning to the eggnog in his hand.

[sculptural-renaissance]

Halloween is my favorite holiday, so I'd be remiss if I didn't combine it with SGU, my current hyperfixation. 😂 I did try posting this on Halloween, but my phone didn't want to cooperate with me. Anyway, hi new people, I hope you like the "episode" I made for Halloween! Yes, it's #7. I post these on Facebook, so eventually I'll post the others here, too. :)

I guess skeletons don't count as humans even if they're human skeletons??? Depends on what lore you're working with.

The absolute small dog energy of daring the guy who's Best at Shooting to shoot you (it's me I do shit like this IRL) (Someday Imma pull a full Carmen and be like LMAO WHAT'RE YOU GONNA DO, STAB ME??? and then just get fucking stabbed.)

Greer probably deserves an award for killing the most different kinds of aliens.

HUEHUEHUEHUEHUEHUEHUEHUE

Spoiler: Rush goes to the infirmary anyway, can't find any pills, and ends up stealing a fistful of bandaids out of spite.

I had to do actual Research and Math for this one.

Pidgey and Rattata are the two most common Pokémon in Pokémon Go, according to the internet. I'm also aware that puts this scene in 2017, but ehhhhhh STASIS *waggles fingers*

Yes, I have a general timeline for the more serious stuff I probably won't ever get around to making. No, I don't strictly adhere to it when shitposting if it keeps me from making a dumb joke.

Imagine you get everything you ever wanted: working legs, a cool job on a spaceship, and that guy you've been obsessed with for like a decade finally wants to rail you. Now you get to listen to him whine about how the crew's not-doctor won't give him prescription drugs for fun. Peak monkey's paw experience.

Dale is my 3rd favorite guy but he's absolutely Destiny's Meg sorry not sorry

Hail Hydra moment

My husband remembered that the show Skeleton Warriors existed, and then I spent like, an hour and a half photoshopping a single panel that barely anyone will read. 😏

☆☆☆

Anyway, I hope the handful of tumblr denizens who see and understand this post will get a little laugh out of it. Idc if it's late, Halloween is a FEELING and the Skeleton War is ETERNAL

[wutheringheights78]

your book taste !! impeccable !! do you by chance have any recs for someone who really enjoys twin peaks, donna tartt's works and wuthering heights? xx

thank you!! ❣️

i really enjoyed the girl with the dragon tattoo series a few years ago, if you've never read it i would highly highly recommend it!! it has the same type of intensely detailed prose that the goldfinch does (which is what i like about the goldfinch) the story is part modern hacker drama and part high detective murder it's really cool

i also do genuinely enjoy stephen king's work but if you're not into reading a long book, i'd recommend one of his short story collections like skeleton crew or nightshift! "the mist" is genuinely a very scary and well written story. i've read a good majority of his work and can recommend more if you want to get into it!

if you're looking for horror, i would also recommend universal harvester by john darnielle (yes the guy from the mountain goats) it's a short, creative story about a guy who works in a video store and has tapes returned with new videos spliced into them

another good horror novel is 172 hours on the moon by johan harstad which is set in the future where teens are randomly selected to go visit the moon to try and get the public interested in space travel again. something is wrong with the moon

enjoy!! :-)

[kenneth-carson]

Task: What’s Your Favorite Spoopy Movie?

Or, Scooby and the gang investigate a ghost haunting a local amusement park.

The sound of screams filled the room. There was an echoing chorus of nervous laughter followed behind the quick footsteps of the group of girls that passed through, hands clamped around one another’s for support. Said room was dark, save for the red lighting seeping in through the fogged ground from the only way out. One of the girls gave a final shriek before they all disappeared through the door. 

“This shit never gets old,” laughed the skeleton in the corner who was settling back into his ready position for the next group who, by the sounds of it, weren’t too far behind. 

“I’m surprised she didn’t clock you,” said the zombie, who was trying to get her shoe back on from where one of the girls had stepped on the heel in an attempt to get away. 

“Don’t say that! You’ll jinx me,” the skeleton, otherwise known as Garrett, hissed. Then he quickly shushed the zombie. “They’re almost here! Hurry up, Cruz, what’re you doing?” 

“My shoe came off, okay? Relax,” she shot back, only a little heated. It wasn’t Garrett that she was mad at, really. It was Jennifer, who was supposed to have taken her shift tonight, but she had refused to come in after what happened to her yesterday. Which Cruz thought was sorta bogus because, come on, sometimes technical glitches happened. It wasn’t Drakken’s fault he was the only technician out here holding the 10 pop ups together with duct tape and paste. 

It had been a good night, though. The teenagers were extra giggly, the adults were extra scream-y, and the kids all seemed to be having a blast. 

At the sound of approaching voices, Cruz quickly got back to her hiding spot, shoe finally slotting into place as she did. She ducked behind the hidden half wall, waiting for Garrett to get his scare in before she made her move. Only, by the sounds of it, the footsteps were heavy and at a higher pace than normal. 

“Go, go, go!” someone shouted on their way right past their room. Cruz’s eyebrows furrowed together as she peaked out, watching as a girl was hauling a guy behind her, both of them not looking back as they pretty much sprinted through to the next room. 

Ugh, she hated when people ran. It was just asking for an unnecessary and totally avoidable injury! 

She was about to crouch back down when she heard more panicked voices and screams. More people came through, some in their regular clothing but some were the cast members that she knew and worked with. Jared in his clown garb with Michelle right behind him. 

“It’s him! He’s back!” Jared cried, rushing through. 

“Who?” Garrett had gotten out from his spot, following after them. Cruz watched them all go as more crew members from the rooms before and haunted house go-er’s alike all seemed to be in a rush to get away from something. 

“The Phantom of Tea Gardens!” 

And, yeah, okay, that got a snort out of Cruz because that name was still pretty awful and didn’t send a chill up anyone’s spine. 

It seemed like everyone who had been in the haunted house had managed to make their escape, no one else coming to pass by. 

Cruz, though, had remained in her spot behind the little half wall. 

So many stories had been circulating about this Phantom ever since the month of October started. It had run off plenty of workers, both actors and otherwise. Heck, it had made Jennifer stay home tonight! She figured she would at least stick around to get a glimpse of this thing. 

Her mother had always told her that her curiosity was going to get her into a tight spot one day.

The music track was the first thing to go. It began to skip at first, as if the bluetooth speakers were actually playing a record. Then it slowed, noise more shreeky than usual, before it turned off completely, leaving Cruz with the buzzing of the other electronics and soft whooshing of the fog machine that sat over to the left of her. 

The red light went next, plunging the room into darkness. Which was pretty bad considering this was the dark room. It was lined in cloth and noise absorbers, making it feel claustrophobic and like you were stepping into a vacuum. Without the other elements, there was no relief from it and Cruz felt as though her ears were ringing with the sudden silence and pitch blackness closing in on her. 

It was broken by footsteps, the gate sounding uneven, like someone was dragging their foot behind them as the other took the lead. 

Step. Scrape. Step. Scrape. Step. Scraaape. 

She swallowed thickly. 

Why had she stayed? 

The music began again, rewinding this time, before getting impossibly loud. Too loud to tell where the footsteps of before were falling, her impending doom countdown having been taken away from her. 

The red light came on again. It flashed, slow and steady, like a car’s blinker. 

Her nails dug into the little wall, eyes glued to the doorway as a figure got caught in the beam. 

Blink, they were gone. Blink, they were there. Blink, they were gone.  

Cruz lost them to the darkness of the room, the light unable to seek them out. She clenched her jaw. The music was still loud, deafening, she could feel the base of it inside her chest. Or maybe that was the intense beat of her heart that was falling hot and heavy against her neck. Only then it cut out again. The light didn’t blink back on. 

She stood up, moving out from behind her wall. 

“I know you’re in here,” she said, defiant. 

Step. Scrape. Step. Scrape. 

“And so are you,” came the rumble of a voice behind her. 

She screamed and suddenly all the lights came back on, including the emergency ones overhead that cast the whole room into a blinding white. The dark walls allowed her eyes to readjust better, absorbing the brunt of it, and she spun around. 

The room was empty. 

It was only her.

( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lG3H1-tKzmM&ab_channel=SimplePlan )

Ken threw the van into park and clapped his hands together before signing along as he spoke. “We made it gang!” 

There was a round of whooping from the back from Su and Scooby making the three up front turn around to watch the pair of them. 

“I’m so excited!” Su said, her arm thrown around the Great Dane’s neck as the dog pressed his nose to her cheek. “I heard the churros here are like, 5 feet long!” 

“That’s what you’re excited about?” scoffed Toby. He used the back of his hand to push his glasses into position up the bridge of his nose. They’d fallen from where he’d been reading on his phone. “What about the rides? The games?”

“The haunted houses?” Gabriella, from beside him, signed. Her expression more fond than the confusion that was written over Toby’s. 

“No way am I going into one of those things,” Su shook her head. “I don’t know if you guys know this but from the amount of times we’ve explored big mansions, abandoned warehouses, and graveyards, my quota for haunted anything has been more than fulfilled for this year. Actually, it’s probably been fulfilled for my entire life!” 

Ken laughed, opening his door so he could get out. The smell of the park hit him square in the nose. It was sweet, fried, and a little mechanical. 

“Everyone better send Gabriella’s friend a thank you for getting us tickets for this place,” Ken said, winking over at the girl in question. “It’s super hard around this time of year!” 

“It’s said that Tea Gardens’ 31 Days of Halloween is booked up for ten years to come,” Toby agreed. Ken had no doubt that the guy had spent the week leading up to this adventure reading about the place. Which was great because it meant that they all had their own walking talking wiki article. 

Su and Scooby jumped out from the back doors, joining the other three as they all walked toward the welcome gate. 

“Remind me we parked in the Latte section,” Ken told the rest of the group as they got further and further away from the Mystery Machine. Her bright colors were easy enough to decipher among the other cars, but the sheer size of the parking lot paired with how many cars were packed in there meant it would be a bit of a search no matter what. 

“There’s so many people here,” Toby commented as they crossed the way from the car park to get to the entrance. “We’ll probably be standing in lines longer than we will be doing the activities.”

“I downloaded Heads Up for that!” Ken threw him a thumbs up. 

The line to get inside wasn’t very long and moved quickly. Security was a breeze, despite the odd looks they gave Scooby. 

“You! Yes, you!” a voice called out, causing Ken to turn his head. There was a man standing there, camera at the ready. “You guys want a picture in the teacups? I can take ‘em for you! Much better quality than that phone you just stashed away in your pocket! They’ll be fully developed and waiting for you right over there for when you leave the park!” 

Ken grinned, bright and hopeful, and turned to the rest of his friends. 

Toby was frowning at him, arms crossed over his chest. Gabriella was also shaking her head. Su seemed to be checking their reactions and shrugged in apology to Ken. His shoulders sunk as he turned back to the guy.

“Sorry, I think we’re going to pass,” he told the photographer who was already moving on to a family that had just walked through the gates in matching t-shirts. 

Oh well. 

“You guys made it!” someone else said and suddenly there was a zombie hugging Gabriella, spinning her around in a little circle as they swayed back and forth. When they pulled away the two grinned wide at one another. 

Seeming to sense her friend’s confusion to the newcomer Gabriella pulled away to free her hands to explain. “Guys, this is my friend! Cruz Rameriz.”

“Oh,” came the chorus from Ken, Toby, Su, and Scooby. They all stepped in closer to greet her, now understanding why she was decked out in full zombie makeup and attire. She was the one who had gotten them all the tickets into the park on such short notice, supposedly since she worked here and had strings that could be pulled in her favor. 

“You look fantastic! This application is very well done for a local amusement park…how long did it take to do all this?” Toby asked her, leaning it a bit too close to examine set makeup. Gabriella pressed a hand to his chest to gently push him back. 

They had been working on his lack of understanding of personal space lately. Ken thought he was getting the hang of it pretty well considering the whole ride here Toby hadn’t tried to reach across Ken while he was driving. 

Progress! 

“Thanks, uh, I use Pretty Zombie Cosmetics,” Cruz said, tone wary. She had been at this job long enough to know the types of weirdos out there, and this guy felt like he fit into that category. Her eyes shifted to Gabriella, as if to ask how this guy passed her vibe check. She was met with a smile from the other girl, whose hand had shifted, arm wrapping around her friend’s for a touch of reassurance. It perked Toby up from where his shoulders had hunched forward, glancing at Gabriella now, too, and smiling as he met hers. Ken came around behind them, putting his hands around their shoulders to squeeze them into his broad chest. Su filed in next to him, Scooby at her side. 

And that was sort of Cruz’s answer she supposed. 

“Alright! You guys ready for some spooks?” 

“Absolutely!” “No!” Ken and Su chimed in at the same time, respectively. Cruz shot them a confused look, unsure of whose answer she was supposed to believe. Judging by the look of unbothered joy on Ken’s and the frown of the girl and her dog, probably both. 

“Ooooh-kay,” she replied. “Come on then, can’t just stand around the entrance all night.” 

Cruz led the gang down the main walkway of the park, where most of the restaurants were situated, along with the spinning tea cups. Su and Scooby were pressing their faces to the glass of the concession stands as they walked by, taking in the scents of freshly spun cotton candy and warm tea that had been brewing for the next hand in need of warmth. 

Gabriella was busy watching Toby’s ever moving hands as he told her one fun fact after the other, Cruz only adding things in here and there of behind the scenes stuff that didn’t get posted online. 

And Ken was just taking in the sights, eyes bright and wandering. 

That was until a high pitched scream echoed down the street, seemingly causing everything to come to an abrupt halt. The group of friends instinctively moved closer together. 

Gabriella was confused as to the sudden shift in mood, eyeing her friends. Everyone’s gaze was focused down the way as a group of kids came running out of one of the haunted house attractions and went sprinting past them, presumably toward the exit back beside the entrance gate. 

“The Phantom was in there!” “Run!” the kids screamed as they went by. 

After a few moments, everyone seemed to settle back into what they had been doing before the interruption, assuming that they had just gotten too scared by whatever was inside the haunted house. 

“What was all that about?” Ken asked, his height offering him the advantage to follow the kids as they continued back up the main stretch. 

Cruz gave a hefty sigh. “Well, I was sort of hoping to get you guys through some rides and food before I hit you with the real reason I asked you to come here.”

“Aw, man,” Su looked to Scooby who was shaking his head. “I told you this was too good to be true, didn’t I?”

“What do you mean?” Ken raised a brow at the zombie. The gang moved toward the haunted house where cast members were filling out onto the walkway, most of them dressed in bloodied white coats. Which made sense since it was called The Butcher’s Shoppe, according to the sign along the top. 

“Cruz!” one of the chefs called out as they approached. “Man, you would not believe what just happened in there.”

“The Phantom?” 

“Yeah, it was crazy. He was apparently just following around this group of kids in there and they just thought he was a part of the gag until he tried to grab one of them.” 

“That’s new,” Cruz frowned, glancing at the group of friends that were playing audience to the conversation. “He’s never tried to hurt anyone before.” 

“Guess he’s getting bolder,” the chef said, face betraying how terrifying this thought was. “He’s gone now, at least, but Millie told us she was going to shut this one down for a few hours.”

“But then only four will be open! That’s less than half!”

“I know.”

“What are you all supposed to do until then?”

“I guess do what you and the other street walkers are doing,” the chef shrugged. “Just hang around and scare people walking. Though I don’t know how a bunch of butchers and bakers are supposed to make sense in comparison.”

The chef waved, a sad smile on her face as she returned to join the others who were trying to figure out what they were going to do now. 

Cruz turned back to the gang, a sheepish look on her face. 

“Let me guess,” Toby said before she could say anything. “You’ve got a ghost-”

“Phantom,” Cruz corrected. Toby shot her a look that made her hold her hands up in surrender, expression apologetic.

“You’ve got a phantom terrorizing the park and you want us to figure out what’s going on?” 

“....yes?”  

“What?” Su gaped. “No way! I was promised a fun night! With the only monsters being the ones dressed to look like one!” 

“Su, when has there ever actually been a ghost that wasn’t someone dressed up?” Gabriella signed, an eyebrow arched upward. 

“Haven’t you guys, like, called the police?” Su tried, as she always did when they were put into situations like this. 

“Of course, but they never find anything.” Cruz turned to look at the Butcher’s Shoppe. Someone was already putting an Out of Order sign up on the door. “We’ve tried to tell them it’s someone doing this but they just keep trying to say that this place is old, that the wires will go on the fritz, and that there’s no reason to worry. Blah, blah, blah. And like, yeah, okay, this place is kinda old, but we have not had this many problems before!”

“Do you have anyone on the staff for that sort of thing?” Toby asked. 

“Ever since this stuff started happening more and more people have been quitting. Mostly the techs. We’ve got a few, but our main guy has been running around here like a chicken with his head cut off trying to keep everything up and running just so we can stay open.” She sighed, turning back to the group. Her hands were folded together briefly showing that she was ready to beg before freeing them so she could sign along as she spoke again. “Please, you guys have to help us. This place has been my home away from home ever since I started coming here as a kid! It employs so many people and brings in so many tourists, I don’t know how bad it would get without it! Probably, like, really bad! I don’t know a lot about economics because it wasn’t really my thing, but without the supply and demand we’re all going to have to move, right? I don’t want to move! And- and I promise that when we do figure it out that you guys can get season passes! All year! On me! And-”

Gabriella stepped over to her friend, placing her hands over the other girl’s to get her to calm down. “We’ll help. That’s what we do.” She stepped sideways so she could look at her friends. “Right?”

“Absolutely!” Ken agreed, grinning. 

“Basically,” said Toby. 

A beat.

They all three turned to look at Su and Scooby. She had her arms crossed over her chest, a deep frown on her lips. Scooby’s ears were flobbed down, head bowing a bit, as he tried to commit to the protest alongside his best friend. 

“Come on, Su!” Ken stepped over to her but she turned away. “It’ll be fun!” 

“No it won’t!” 

“Please?” Ken tried again, getting in front of her to hit her with the puppy pout. “We can’t do it without you guys.” 

This seemed to soften Su up a bit. She glanced down at Scooby, then to Toby and Gabriella, and then, finally, to Cruz who looked much more pathetic and tugged at her oh so soft heart. There still seemed to be some hesitance. 

“If we don’t do it then you’ll never get that churro you’ve been raving about,” Toby added. “The park will be shut down and no one will be here to make them.” 

At this Su’s eyes widened and turned to look at Scooby who seemed to be ready to give in, too, and she let her arms drop. 

“Fine!” Everyone cheered. “But I want as many churros as me and Scoob can eat after this.”

“Oh, don’t even worry. If you guys can get this phantom, I will make sure you have a life time’s supply!” Cruz squeed, running over to hug the girl.  

“Alright, gang, we’ve got a mystery to solve!” Ken clapped. “Cruz, do you think we can get a look into that haunted house? If the phantom was just inside then there’s gotta be some sorta clue left behind.”

“Follow me,” Cruz said, leading the group around to the backside of the attraction. They followed her through a large gate with plenty of KEEP OUT EMPLOYEES ONLY signs, along with a large lock that she punched in a code to. 

“Wow,” Su commented, both her and Scooby assessing the pretty boring scenery. It was like stepping into another realm. Gone were the cubes of hay with pumpkins sitting atop, images of witches and ghosts and vampires, scarecrows, and cobwebs. It was pretty empty, save for covered wires running along the ground and plants that popped up around the fenced in area. “This place looks so…normal.”

“Yeah, it kinda loses the magic back here,” Cruz shrugged, leading them around the bend. “But it’s nice to get away sometimes. The workers usually- oof.” 

Everyone paused as they watched Cruz run straight into a man. He was tall, about the same size as Ken, had dark hair and a baseball cap on his head, the bill turned backwards. An apron was tied around him with the park’s logo embroidered in black and orange. 

“Oh my gosh, I’m sooo sorry!” Cruz stuttered, falling back as the gang stepped up to stand beside her. 

The man hummed, eyeing all the kids. “You giving tours again, Cruz?” 

“No, no, nothing like that. These are the people I’ve been telling everyone about! Mystery Incorporated? They’re here to help with the phantom.”

“Oh.” He nodded. “Alright. Just make sure they don’t get hurt.” 

“Will do.” Cruz gave a curt salute and the man nodded again before walking away. Toby watched him for a second longer than the others did, brow furrowed. 

“Who was that?” he asked once it seemed like the stranger was out of ear shot. 

“Hm? Oh, that’s Dave. He’s been here for longer than anyone else. He’s one of the brewmasters.”

“Brewmasters?” Su prompted.

“Yeah! This place basically started as a tea shoppe back in the day, then the owners kept expanding and expanding on it until it became the park. We’re still pretty big in the tea game, you know. It’s a whole brand that’s sold in, like, supermarkets or online and stuff. He’s the guy who basically comes up with the funky flavors everyone knows us for.”

“He seemed so-” 

“I promise he’s super nice! He’s basically everyone’s dad,” Cruz assured them. “Although, I don’t know what he was doing back here…”

She shrugged, a smile back on her face as they approached the door. “This is the cast member’s entrance.”

Opening it up brought them into what looked like a costume closet. Two walls were lined in a mirror and desk like units underneath, chairs tucked underneath. It must have been where the workers got ready before going into the house itself. Bags, shoes, and clothes were strewn all around the room. Make-up covered the vanities, along with photos on the mirrors, of movies and references of other makeup jobs similar to the ones they had seen on the chefs that had been run out. 

“So who is the phantom, anyway?” Gabriella asked as everyone fanned out, looking over the room for anything that may look suspicious.

“Supposedly everyone thinks he’s the ghost of the owner,” Cruz explained. “He was the last of the original family that owned the place and since he didn’t have any kids, no one else from that family has any ownership now. He died in the park a few years ago so everyone thinks he’s haunting it and messing with all the stuff he doesn’t like. Which is just dumb to me since we’ve had these haunted houses before. Sure, not with these themes and overlays, but what does that matter? And some people think he’s-”

Suddenly someone said a resounding, “KA-CHOW!” 

“Oop,” Cruz said, pulling out her phone from one of the tattered pockets on her costume. “Shoot. I’ve gotta go. Uh, think you guys will be okay in here on your own?” 

“Totally,” Ken nodded. “Go do your thing! We’ve got this.”

“Okay,” she replaced her phone and gave Gabriella’s arm a squeeze. She seemed reluctant to leave them alone before turning and pushing back out the door they had entered from, jogging out. The door slammed behind her.

Toby was already making headway, leaving the behind the scenes and trying to find the entrance into the haunted house itself. The other four followed right behind until they found the right door. It led them out onto a track, a cart right in the middle, the lap bar and door ajar from where someone had probably hopped out as soon as the ride had stopped. 

The place was lit up with only the lights that adorned the track, casting a glow upwards. The decor resembled a bakery, on one side was the counter, a glass casing for the display of breads and cookies and other baked goods. Only these deserts were demented, eyeballs for chocolate chips, fingers sticking out of brownies. It made Su stick out her tongue and Scooby whine, both saddened to see the food in such a state. 

“I don’t get it,” Gabriella signed as they walked along the track. “Why would someone want to terrorize an amusement park? It’s not like this place has buried treasure or anything important hiding around.”

“Especially if it’s the owner,” Ken agreed. “Why ruin the thing your family built up after all these years?” 

“It’s not actually a ghost,” Toby tutted. “Ghosts don’t exist, we’ve learned that much by now, right?” 

“Uh, guys,” Su tried to cut in.

“You never know, Toby,” Ken said, having not heard her. “I think if anything we’ve learned that anything is possible.” 

“Guys.”

“Yeah, when human ingenuity is mixed with greed, but it’s never been anything actually paranormal,” Toby continued on. “Everything we’ve seen always has a rational explanation.”

“Guys!” Su yelled now, hand grabbing onto Gabriella’s wrist to get her attention, too. Everyone stopped.

“What?” Toby asked. 

“Who’s that?” Su was turned around, pointing at a figure standing behind the cart still on the track. 

“Uh, hello?” Ken called, stepping in front of the rest of his friends. 

The figure gave no reply. Only began to walk forward. 

Step. Scrape. Step. Scrape. 

The emergency lights started to flicker at their ankles. 

“It’s the phantom,” Su whispered and Toby scoffed at her.

“No, it isn’t. What did Cruz say that guy’s name was? Dave? Look, he’s got the same haircut,” he said. “Mr. Dave, sir, did Cruz send you in here for us?”

A rumbling moan was his answer. It made Toby cower a little, hidining back behind Ken.

Music began to play, loud enough that everyone but Gabriella had to put their hands up against their ears. While they winced in pain she continued to watch the figure as it moved toward them. 

The cart came back to life as soon as the figure reached it. It rocked forward, driving along the track. 

Gabriella grabbed hold of Su and tugged on the collars of the boys, urging them to movemovemove. They all seemed to recover from the jarring shift in volume around them, catching on to the danger as the cart began to pick up speed as it came for them. Everyone moved off the track, up onto the sides of the ride and out of its way. 

Only another one entered as the figure continued forward, too, his pace having seemed to have gotten faster. 

“Come on!” Ken waved everyone back down onto the track, following it into the rest of the ride. The cart had disappeared through curtains that pulled apart for it. Ken shoved them aside, waiting until all of his friends were through before following them. 

This room seemed to have come back online, along with the rest of the ride. Maniacal laughter played along with the music, the lights having gone out in favor of the black lighting that had certain colors in neon. Toby’s white long sleeve was bright, alongside Su’s orange, and Scooby’s collar. It was both hard and easy to see all at once. Everyone moved further up the track, now trying to find a way out. 

“Look out!” Toby called, shoving Ken and Gabriella out of the way as the next cart came barreling toward them. Su and Scooby were not so lucky and wound up getting hit in the back by it. Lucky for them both they were scaredy cats and knew when to jump. Instead of meeting their fates by falling forwards and getting run over the two went backwards and landed hard inside of the cart. 

“Su!” Ken yelled, hand reaching out from the pile the other three had fallen into on the side. “Scoob!” 

They watched their friends disappear behind the next set of curtains as they pulled up and fell back into place. 

Ken and Gabriella were quick to stand and so focused on trying to follow after Su that they failed to notice that they had left Toby behind, still on the floor. 

“Ugh, not again,” he grumbled to himself under the sounds of the carnival music. In the scuffle his glasses had been knocked from his face, rendering him to a world of 144p rather than the usual 720. On his hands and knees he crawled around, one arm out like a feeler. 

The phantom was standing over him with a bat-like weapon over their head, seemingly ready to bring it down upon him. Toby turned at the feeling of movement, squinting. The dim light of the ride paired with the fuzziness of his vision had him unsure as to who the figure was standing there but, judging by the height, he guessed, “Ken? Hey, can you help me? I can’t find my glasses, do you see them?” 

The figure did nothing but continue to stand there which made Toby crawl forward, using them to stand. This made the phantom try to back away, falling off balance when their foot hit the track of the ride on the ground. A cart came rushing forward, the breeze hitting Toby in the face as it went.

At the sudden lack of his friend Toby frowned. “Ken?” 

“Toby!” came his voice, finally. “Come on, we’ve gotta- oh hey, here are your glasses.” 

He swooped down, picking them up from off the floor. After a quick wipe with the hem of his shirt he placed them back on Toby’s face, his smile the first thing that came into focus. “Good?”

“Thanks.”

“Great, now come on, the phantom was in a cart right behind Scooby and Su.” 

The pair followed the track down the line.  They were blinded as soon as they stepped through a second set of curtains, regular lighting all around them. It must have been the end of the ride, the queuing area just up ahead indicated by the rows of metal fencing that herded people in the right direction along with a control panel that was all lit up. A man was sitting at it, dressed in a blue jumpsuit. 

The cart that had taken Scooby and Su had stopped just beside him, and empty one merely feet behind.  

“What the heck are you kids doing in there?” he yelled, flipping a switch that had the cart’s door popping open. Su and Scooby launched out, their balance wobbly as they made it up onto the platform. Ken, Gabriella, and Toby were quick to join them with comfort and concern. “This place is shut down! You are not supposed to be in there!”

“Who are you?” Ken shot back. “Why were you chasing us? Why did you try to kill my friends?”

“What? I’m not trying to kill anyone! I only just walked in when I saw those two!” He pointed an accusing finger toward Su and Scooby before it was directed at Ken. “I’m the ride engineer, I was called in to fix this thing. I was told it had been cleared out! It’s not my fault you and your friends were in here messing around. You’re asking for trouble!” 

“But…there was someone else in there, they came out just before we did.”

“Oh god,” the man threw his hands up. “Not more ghost hunters.” 

“We are not ghost hunters,” Toby frowned. 

“Whatever. I don’t know who you are and I don’t care. Get out. Now!” the man yelled, marching toward them. The group shuffled off, like a group of lambs being shepherded. He threw open a door, the setting light of the sun casting them in an orange glow. He pointed harshly at the sign on the door. “If it says keep out, then KEEP OUT!” 

He took a hold of the handle and slammed it behind him. 

“Yeesh,” Su frowned. 

“Oh my god, are you guys okay?” 

They all turned to find Cruz running up the walk way toward them. “I’m so sorry! I had no idea Drakken would get here so quickly!” 

“That was Drakken?”

“Yeah. Sorry. He hasn’t been in a great mood these days what with everyone quitting and all the rides breaking down and, well, the-”

“Ghost hunters?” 

“Those, too.” She made a face then quickly recovered. “So did you guys find anything?”

“Uh, yeah, I’d say we more than found something.” Su and Scooby shivered. 

“That’s great! Come on, let’s get you guys some tea and you can tell me everything.”

The park seemed as though it had gotten even more busy than before they had taken their detour. All the families had cleared out, but adults and teenagers still roamed the place. Either they didn’t believe in the phantom, thinking it was just a publicity stunt the park was pulling to lure more people, or they were the people that had gotten lured in by said stunt, eager to get their eyes on this so-called phantom that was roaming the park. 

“Do you guys have Wi-Fi?” Toby asked, looking up from where he had been fiddling with his phone while everyone was waiting on the tea they had ordered. 

“We do,” Cruz nodded. Then one side of her mouth pulled down, air being sucked in through her teeth. “Buuut it doesn’t really work. It’s been a whole thing. Everyone wants to update this place but everyone also says they just don’t have the funds to do so.” 

Toby jumped a little when a mug was set down in front of him. He peered up to find the same guy in the baseball hat from before standing over him. Only this time his cap was pulled around to the front, the bill casting a shadow over his features. He distributed the other teas and left a bowl of sugar cubes and a pitcher of cream on the table for them. There was also a plate of cookies set down beside the spread. They were in the shape of pumpkins and leaves. 

“Thanks, Dave!” Cruz beamed. He hummed in reply, lumbering off back behind the counter. Again, Toby watched him go while the others tucked in. “You guys are going to love these, he makes the best shortbread ever.” 

Su and Scooby were the first to reach, grabbing two for themselves while everyone else had to fend for what was left behind. “Finally! Food!” 

Cruz gave everyone a few minutes to settle in, drink their tea, get comfortable. Then she couldn’t wait anymore and pressed them to tell her what had happened. 

“Wow,” she said once they had finished recounting their tale. She slumped back into her chair, eyes focused on her cup.

“Right?” Su said through a full mouth. Her hand was hovering in front, so no one would see the crumbs. 

“Has he ever tried to hurt anyone before?” asked Ken.

“No. And just today Kylie was saying that he was trying to take someone from that ride, remember? That’s never been his motive before. It was just, like, limping around and being creepy,” Cruz shrugged.

“Limping?” Toby asked. “So you’ve seen him before?”

“Well yeah, everyone who works here has by now. Or, at least, they say they do. I guess it’s kinda like a badge of honor.”

“Badge of horror, more like,” Gabriella signed with a shake of her head. 

“People are saying they’re thinking about shutting the whole park down until we can get this figured out. Now that it seems that there’s actual danger instead of just power surges and blackouts.” Cruz sniffed, biting off a piece of cookie. 

“Hey, it’ll be okay,” Ken said and reached across to put a hand on her shoulder. “We’re going to figure this out, aren’t we guys?” 

Everyone nodded in agreement. A smile slowly spread over Cruz’s face which, without her zombie makeup, may have looked very sweet. 

“Thanks. Sorry I sorta ruined your night.”

“Are you kidding? This is what we call a good time!” 

“No it is not,” Su scoffed at Ken. She motioned to the table. “This? Yes. That out there? No way, we almost got kidnapped by that thing.” 

“I would not have let that happen,” Gabriella reassured her, a grave look in her eye. “That ghost may be dead, but I’ll kill him again. I don’t care.” 

This statement, while terrifying, did make Su feel a little bit better. 

A lot of the time she wondered why she was friends with the people sitting around the table. Ken was rich and cute and wore nicer clothes than anyone she had ever met. He was probably in the running for most popular boy in school, if he even didn’t care about such a statistic. The only thing keeping him from the top slot was that he hung out with people like her and Toby instead of the rest of the baseball team. 

Toby was pretty smart, but only in the sense that he could tell you everything and anything you needed to know about the history of India, or about the science behind how bread is made, stuff like that. He didn’t really get people all that well. When someone was upset with him because he had crossed a social boundary it was like a baby bird trying to fly for the first time. All awkward and terrifying, having to watch through your fingers because while you didn’t want to see what happened you had to make sure it ended okay, right? 

Then there was Gabriella. Not really the Queen B type but she could be cut throat enough if she wanted to claim that title down the line. She was a dancer and an activist. That’s how she and Su had met, trying to protest the removal of one of the oldest trees in their town that just so happened to be in the spot where they were wanting to build the new football stadium. While Su had just thought the most she could do was to sit by the tree and hope no one tried to remove her, Gabriella had gone the full nine yards in getting the media involved, starting a petition, and calling attention to the past expenses the football team had gotten. In the end, they’d saved the tree and Gabriella had been her friend ever since. 

Ken had followed behind Gabriella, they’d met during the school play. He was in the costume department. They had all just sort of adopted Toby after he had been at the only table in the cafeteria who had enough room for the three of them. He had taken them a bit to get used to, Gabriella especially, but he’d turned out much different than his inicial first impression. And second. And third…

Next thing Su knew they were being thrown into situations like this amusement park mystery all the time! It was like you solve one ghost haunting you suddenly had to be solving them all. Anywhere they went there seemed to be a spirit or a monster that needed to be investigated. Ken and Gabriella were always in the business of helping people while Toby just liked a good puzzle. And Su…well, she didn’t really know what she brought to the table other than snacks during late night study sessions. At least Scooby brought the moral. 

The answer, unknown to her, was that Su brought the odd knowledge. Since she rarely said no and gave in easily if someone were to only wave a good treat in front of her face she had an arsenal of seemingly useless tricks up her sleeve that came in handy at the best of times during the gang’s adventures. 

Plus, she was their friend, and that alone was enough.

The next day the gang returned to the park where an even bigger crowd had formed inside the park gates. It took them way longer to get through the line and inside, and even then it felt like they were being swarmed by the vast amount of people that were there. 

“I think we should go back to the Butcher’s Shoppe,” Toby said as they waded through the mass, trying not to get run over by baby strollers. “I feel like we didn’t even get a chance to look around before we were running for our lives.”

They headed up that way only to find that the ride was letting in people, the line all the way out to the 1 hour mark. 

“Huh, I guess people had the same idea as you, Toby,” Ken said, slapping the shorter boy on the back. Toby frowned. “Aw, come on, we can look in the other haunted houses, can’t we? The ones that are really shut down?” 

The group continued on their way, only having to stop once to drag Su and Scooby away from the caramel apple cart. Only when they tried to go in the direction of the other haunted house they had in mind, they were blocked by a gate. 

“Now what are we supposed to do?” Toby threw his hands in the air.

“Go get food?” Su suggested. Gabriella stepped past the both of them, sizing up the gate. She turned around and smiled, that terrifying gleam in her eye. 

“I can climb over and open it from that side, probably,” she signed, then waved Ken over. He happily obliged her, kneeling down so she could step up onto his back. 

“Hey! This is a Stella McCarteny! Careful!” he tried to sign, but Gabriella was not paying attention. Although, maybe she had been judging by the roll of her eyes. Su shared a glance with Toby, the both of them trying not to giggle. Scooby wagged his tail, trotting over to stand by Ken and lick at his face that was now so close to the dog’s height. “Thank you, Scooby. You’re the only one that gets it, bud.” 

Gabriella pulled herself up and over the fence with grace, the sound of her feet landing on the road coming from the other side of the gate a second later. The rest of the gang stepped back, waiting for her to open it. 

Her footsteps were soft and steady. 

Until they weren’t. 

Everyone frowned, getting closer to the gate as they heard a sudden shuffling against the dusty pavement, shoes scuffling. Gabriella grunted. 

It went quiet. 

Then more footsteps, pace uneven.

“Gabriella!” Toby called out, despite knowing that she couldn’t hear him. The three of them began pulling at the gate, desperate to get to their friend. Panic began to settle in their chests, fearing the worst now as they knew they wouldn’t be able to get it opened without an employee’s combination, like Cruz had done for them the day before. 

Only, it did open. It swung back, heavy and slow. Everyone pushed through the opening to find the Phantom standing on the other side. 

“There he is!” Ken pointed. “Get him!” 

They all started forward only to come to a halt when the Phantom turned around to face them. He may not have been so intimidating, just any other man, had it not been for the eyes. They were white and piercing, like a pair of headlights. He raised his hands, fingernails like claws, hands gripping the weapon from before. Now, in the daylight of the evening, they could see that it was not a bat but a long handle of some sort. Wires were sticking out the end, like it had been ripped off its original machine. The ghost growled at them, teeth yellow and spit flying. 

“Or not,” Toby whimpered. He and Ken ran one way while Scooby and Su went the other, flanking either side of him. The Phantom went after Ken and Toby, makeshift weapon held high over his head and ready to strike. They ran out of the gate, the only opening afforded to them as the ghost tried to corner them. 

Ken zigged while Toby zagged, the Phantom struggling to keep up with trying to catch the pair. They rounded back, heading through the gate to where Su and Scooby were hiding on the other side. 

“Shut it! Shut it!” Ken yelled at them as he passed through, the ghost just behind him. The two shoved at it, having to put their shoulders into it to lock it back into place. Toby and Ken heaved in air, now seemingly safe from the monster. 

“Hey! He’s gone!” Su smiled. It quickly turned into a frown as she glanced down at her hands that were instinctively signing along. “But so is Gabriella.” 

She bent down to wrap her arms around Scooby, the both of them whimpering and crying. 

“Ow!” Ken cried. Everyone looked over at him as he was rubbing the back of his head. He reached down and picked up a tube of lipstick. Toby stepped over to examine it. 

“That’s Gabriella’s.” 

“She’s come back to haunt us from the great beyond!” Su said, tucking in closer to Scooby as they began to cry some more. 

Something else landed by Ken’s feet, this time it was the hand sanitizer Gabriella always carried around with her. Ken turned, looking up into the little grouping of trees that were just to the side of them. In one of the branches was Gabriella, smiling down at everyone. 

“Guys!” he pointed up at her. 

“He’s gone,” she signed, waving over to the fence.

“How’d you get up there?” Toby asked. She peered around herself then shrugged. “How are you going to get back down?” 

She shrugged again. 

“I’ll catch you!” Ken signed up to her before opening his hands. Gabriella frowned and shook her head. “Aw, come on, I will!” 

“We will,” Toby corrected, waving Su over. 

The three of them all huddled under where Gabriella was. She made her way down to the lowest branch just above them and when there was nothing left to grab onto, she let go. Their arms were waiting, catching her before she hit the ground. 

“Talk about a trust fall,” Su laughed and they all huddled in closer, a group hug forming. 

“Hey, look at that,” Toby said as soon as they pulled apart. He stepped over to the side of the path where concrete met dirt and pulled a tin from the ground. His hand brushed the earth from it, revealing a label. “It’s…make-up.” 

“Jeez, Gabby, you could have taken Ken’s head off with that thing!” Su signed, smiling to show she was only joking but Gabriella remained serious. 

“That’s not mine.” 

“No, that’s because it’s costume make-up,” Toby stood to show them the tin. “Look it says, Pretty Zombie Cosmetics. It’s the same stuff that Cruz has been wearing since we’ve seen her.” 

“But…why would Cruz be the phantom?” Su asked.

“You’ve heard her, she thinks this place needs a renovation. If she can get the place shut down for long enough, maybe they’ll think about updating it.”

“I don’t know, Toby,” Gabriella signed. “If it’s Cruz then why would she ask us to help figure out what’s going on?”

“And she said she saw the Phantom herself,” Ken added. 

“I don’t know, maybe she’s hoping our involvement will help further her progress in trying to shut the place down. Nothing like a bunch of kids in places they’re not supposed to be, like behind employee lines, to get people to think this place is irresponsible. Just like with the other ghost hunters,” Toby continued to rationalize his theory. “And she could have made that whole story up just to entice us.” 

While none of the other three wanted to believe it was true, that someone as nice and bubbly as Cruz could be doing all this, they also knew that Toby was pretty good at putting together the puzzles. 

“But I…I don’t know, I also think it could be that tea shoppe guy,” Toby continued. 

“You mean Dave?” 

“Yeah. He was leaving the Butcher’s Shoppe when we first got there and did you guys notice his limp?”

“Limp?”

“He and the ghost walk the same way.” 

“He was kinda creepy,” Gabriella admitted. 

“And I think that someone who has been working here for as long as he has might not be too happy to see the Tea Gardens be turning into a modern spectacle.” 

“Alright, gang,” Ken said. “I think it’s time we split up.”

“Like, Scoob, I think you and I couldn't have gotten the better option,” Su sighed as she sat back in her chair. 

Ken had appointed them the ones to keep an eye out on the brew master for the day. They had taken a table in the back of the shoppe, getting cups of tea and basically the whole menu of sandwiches that were available to them. Their spread layout on the table top before them, being thoroughly enjoyed as they watched the older man go from table to table, taking orders and refilling cups. 

Meanwhile, the other three were headed to find Cruz’s locker to see if they could find anything else that might either clear her name or confirm Toby’s suspicions. Getting in had been easier than both Ken and Toby anticipated, but Gabriella’s lock picking skills had been coming in handy more and more often these days. Toby still had no idea where she had learned how to do it and was honestly too scared to ask. The same way he was scared to ask how she knew how to properly put someone in a chokehold. 

“How do we know which locker is hers?” Ken frowned as they were faced with several rows of them. The only distinguishing marks being that they were numbered. 

“Call it a hunch, but…” Toby walked down one of the aisles until he was standing in front of 95. 

“Hey!” someone yelled, making Toby jump a good few inches into the air. Ken and Gabriella were quick to back him up. “What are you brats doing in here!” 

The engineer from before, Drakken, was standing at the other end of the row. His anger seemed almost palpable, Toby unable to even think of a good excuse as he was too consumed with fear. 

“Cruz let us in,” Ken was quick to pick up the conversation. “She needed something from her locker but just forgot to tell us which one it was.” 

Drakken regarded the three of them for a long moment, glare hard as he waited for one of them to break. When no one did, he relented. 

“She shouldn’t be letting you kids wander around back here on your own. It’s dangerous,” he sighed, obviously still angry, but maybe not for the reasons they had originally thought. 

“Because of the phantom?” Gabriella asked. At Drakken’s lack of understanding Ken repeated it for him aloud. 

“No! Of course not, ghosts don’t exist,” Drakken rolled his eyes. 

“See?” Toby smiled, smug. 

“At least, that’s what I thought, anyway,” Drakken continued, sitting down hard on the bench that ran down the middle of the aisle of lockers. “But these days, I don’t know what to believe anymore! With only me keeping all the lights on in this place, it’s getting harder and harder to tell. Especially when it looks exactly like…” 

He trailed off, shaking his head. 

“Like?” Toby pushed. “Like what?” 

“Not a what,” Drakken scoffed. “A who. They look exactly like the last owner, Mr. Hatter.”

“He’s the one who died in the park, right?” 

The engineer nodded his confirmation before standing once more, his annoyed attitude falling back into place. “You kids better stay out of any ride that says out of order. I mean it! Just because some ghost is lurking back there doesn’t mean you should, too!” 

He was gone in a huff, the door slamming behind him. 

Ken frowned, turning to look at his other friends. “Is it just me or was that the angriest word of concern we’ve ever gotten?” 

Toby and Gabriella shrugged, but nodded in a sort of agreement. 

Everyone turned back to the locker. It wasn’t locked, oddly enough, but there was also nothing inside. Not a bag or change of clothes or anything. 

“Huh,” Toby said. “She must be off work already.” 

Gabriella made a face, pulling her phone from her pocket and turning it so the two of them could see the missed texts from Cruz that had been sent only 10 minutes ago. 

Hey!! I’ve got the night off so I can help you guys look for this phantom. 

Where are you? I’m headed to the main tea shoppe now, maybe we could meet up there?

Everyone shared a look of alarm, all thinking the same thing. They hustled over to the door but found it was locked. 

“No,” Gabriella signed after she had tried the knob. It turned easily and yet she still couldn’t get the door opened. “There must be something blocking it from the other side.” 

Ken bent down to look through the little window and saw that someone had tied a rope from the handle to a tree, keeping anyone from pulling it open. With an impressed expression Ken said, “Gotta admit, that’s a pretty good trap.” 

Gabriella and Toby slapped their foreheads. 

Back in the tea shoppe Su was roused from where she had been dozing off in her chair. It had been getting late, after all, the sun sinking below the horizon. The shoppe had been getting less lively as more people stepped out to go to the attractions, leaving the atmosphere quiet and cozy. And with the warm tea and a full belly, she had been in perfect napping conditions. 

“Hey!” she protested against Scooby’s wet tongue against her cheek. “What? What is it?” 

The dog wagged his tail, then turned his head. She followed his gaze to watch as Dave was leaving out the front door of the shoppe, passing by the window as he looked over his shoulder. 

“Dang it,” she whined, standing up and going to follow after him. But only after coming back for the last of her sandwich she’d left on her plate. Only when they turned the corner it was not Dave they ran into. Cruz was waving at them, crossing the dense group of people to meet them on the side of the walkway. 

“Hey! There you guys are,” she smiled, no longer decked out in her zombie make-up. “I’ve been looking everywhere for you. Gabriella wasn’t answering my texts.”

“Uh, yeah, sorry, we’ve just been so busy!” Su shrugged, glancing down at Scooby. 

“Which I super appreciated,” Cruz said. “So, uh, where’s everyone else?” 

“Who?” 

Cruz snorted, giving Su a funny look. Before she could say anything else, though, there was the sound of someone screaming filling the air. The two girls and the dog looked down in the direction to watch as waves of people were clearing out of the way, yelling out of fear or to warn those around them as they went. Overhead the lamps all began to go out, sparks flew as the bulbs inside burst. 

In the middle of the pathway stood the phantom, looming in the light of the one lamp that had yet to go out that stood right beside him. 

“Uh, Cruz?” Su asked, reaching out to twist her fingers into the other girl’s sleeve. 

“...Yeah?” 

“We should run, right?” 

The phantom took a step toward them. Then another, this time like a lunge as he prepared to pick up his pace. 

Above him, the light went out. 

“Yeah!” Cruz cried, pulling at Su as they both turned to get away. 

“Seriously? Since when was this guy a track star?” Su panted as they rounded the corner of the tea shoppe again, heading up the main street and hopefully toward the exit. Would the phantom even be able to follow them out of the park? 

The lights of the park began to shut down all around them. The decorations began to deflate, the music went silent. Shop lights went out, the whirring of air conditioners and generators stopped. The only thing left to guide their way was the dying light of the sun, casting everything in a darkening blue tint. 

They hauled ass toward the gate, only when they got there, it was closed. Pulling on it revealed it had also been locked, the crowd probably having no order or care no doubt making it close behind them and letting it lock automatically. 

“Come on, we’ve gotta go!” Cruz insisted when the angry growls and footsteps of the phantom began to approach them. They ducked inside one of the merch stores, hiding among the clothes and other knick knacks among the various displays. 

Only seconds later did the door open again, the phantom figure following them inside. 

Well, Su had always figured that one of these monsters was going to kill her eventually. 

She had just thought that she would at least be around all her friends when it happened. 

Her breath was trying to catch what air it has missed during the run but she kept her mouth clamped shut, knowing any sort of sound would alert the ghost to her hiding spot behind the giant cardboard cutout of a cup of smiling tea in the corner of the room with a speech bubble telling people that they’re “TEA-riffic.” 

Su swallowed, her person beginning to tremble. She knelt down to cling to Scooby who was doing the same thing. The closer the footsteps got the more they began to shake. 

“Well, Scooby,” she whispered. “It was nice knowing you!” 

She dug her face into his neck, fur tickling her nose. 

Suddenly the sound of the door bursting open filled the room followed closely by a loud, “Hey!” 

Su and Scooby shot up, peaking around the sides of the cardboard. 

Their friends were standing in the doorway, phone flashlights bright circles in their hands. Ken peered around before grabbing hold of a teapot that was sitting on the table in front of him. He threw it at the phantom, hitting them square in the chest. The ghost wheezed, arms going up to defend their face as they doubled over to nurse the no doubt aching middle. 

“Come on!” Ken encouraged, picking up the butter plate as he threw that, too. Toby went for the sugar holder and Gabriella got a stack of saucers. They began to bombard the ghost, the shop nothing but his expressions of pain and the clattering of porcelain against his limbs and eventually the tiled flooring. They got closer with their ammo, running the phantom off to the other side, exiting. 

A moment later the lights turned back on.

“Like, wow,” Su said as she and Scooby exited their hiding places. “You guys sure threw him a tea party.” 

“Su! You’re okay!” Ken ran forward to pick her up in a hug. 

“Where’s Cruz?” Toby asked.

“She was with me when the phantom attacked, we ran in here together. But I don’t know where she hid.”

“Over here!” 

Everyone turned to watch the girl come tumbling out of a giant pile of stuffed animals, sprawling on the floor next to tea bags and sugar cubes. Ken and Gabriella went over to help get her up, taking an arm each. She smiled at the pair of them in thanks. 

Her phone buzzed in her pocket, “KA-CHOW!” 

“Ugh, sorry you guys. With the park a mess right now, they probably need all hands on deck,” she said, pulling it out to read the alerts. “I’ve gotta go! Be safe!” 

They waved her off before reconfiguring around Toby, who was kneeling down on the floor. 

“What is that?” Gabriella asked, pointing to whatever Toby was holding between his fingers. 

“It’s a circuit board,” he said, tucking it into his breast pocket. Toby whipped his palms clean against his shirt, popping back up to his feet. “I think I’ve got this mystery about wrapped up. All that’s left to do is find this phantom.” 

A beat. 

The gang all looked over to Ken, expectant. He smiled back at them until it clicked. Right! 

“I’ve got a trap that’ll be perfect!” he said, index finger pointed up in the air. “I’m pretty sure the phantom will go after the only other open haunted house, so all we have to do is be inside when he does. Toby, Gabriella, and I will have set up a fake room with two doors! Scooby and Su will be inside the haunted house and get the Phantom to follow them inside. They’ll go out the exit door and we’ll be standing there to make sure to lock the Phantom inside. Easy!” 

“Uh uh, no way!” Su protest. “I’m not doing that! Last time I went into one of those things he almost took my head off!” 

“You wouldn’t go at all?”

“Nope.” Both she and Scooby lifted their chins, noses pointing in the air at the very suggestion. 

“Not even for a Scooby Snack?” Gabriella signed before pulling out the obnoxiously large green striped box with orange lettering. Su’s eyebrows arched, demeanor shifting in an instant. Scooby’s tail began to wag beside her. 

“Well, okay, I guess it won’t be so scary,” Su smiled as she reached out her hand for the treats.

“This is so scary!” Su whimpered as she and Scooby maneuvered through the haunted house. 

The park was up and running again within a matter of about half an hour. It was not as busy as it had been earlier but the night crowd was in full swing now. 

Su and Scooby had waited in the line while the other three set up the fake offshoot room from the haunted house they were guessing would be the Phantom’s next target. It was zoo themed. Couldn’t get any better than this, right! 

“Oh the things we do for our friends,” Su had said as she and Scooby were beckoned into the house by a bloody zoo keeper. 

As if the Phantom had been in on Ken’s plan, too, he showed up right on time. Su and Scooby had been passing through the bird room, screaming at the ostrich that had tried to peck at them. The music cut, the lights went off, and everyone cleared out. 

All except Su and Scooby, who had been cowering in fear of the haunted house itself, and not realizing that they were still in the middle of a plan until someone grabbed Su’s shoulder. She peered up into the Phantom’s ghastly face and remembered. Scooby bit the man’s arm, causing him to let go and giving them enough time to scramble away and get back on track. The Phantom followed after, yelling in anger, weapon at the ready in his hand. 

“Here they come!” Toby signaled to Ken and Gabriella. 

Su and Scooby were heading right down the hall, Toby getting ready to shut the door behind them and the Phantom! 

But then they turned the corner, heading on the track of the actual haunted house rather than the fake one they had set up. Toby frowned. 

“And there they go.” 

Ken and Gabriella came through the fake room into the hall with Toby. Everyone shared a look of exasperation before taking off to go help their friends. 

They had made it all the way out of the haunted house and back down toward main street. Su and Scooby were doing a great job of ducking the wild swings of the handle, but were in no doubt getting gained on. With every missed strike the phantom seemed to only get angrier and more motivated. 

The two climbed over a fence and found themselves among giant tea cups, one spinning round slowly as Su tried to use it for balance as she attempted to catch her breath. Probably a good thing, too, since it spun her around in time to watch as the Phantom was climbing up onto the platform after them. They played a riveting game of cat and mouse in the maze of circles.  

The gang caught up, watching at the Phantom slammed their weapon down just as Scooby skittered in the other direction. 

“There’s the control panel!” Toby pointed out, jogging up the line to where a worker would usually stand. Gabriella and Ken ran up onto the ride after Su and Scooby. Luckily whoever had run from the ride had left their key in the machine. Toby turned it, the ride lighting up and engines buzzing. 

The platform began to rotate and all around the Phantom, so did the tea cups. The ghost staggered and tripped over Scooby, who had been crouching right behind him. He fell into one of the teacups, watching helplessly as the faces of Ken, Gabriella, and Su went by in a blur of color, each one standing around the cup to push it to go faster and faster. 

The ghost attempted to stand but when he did he was thrown off balance and thrown out of the cup, face first onto the platform. 

Toby punched the big red button, bringing the ride to a slow stop. 

Behind him Cruz and a crowd of workers from the park had followed the chase, all huddling around the entry gate to the tea cups. Toby hurried up onto the platform, wincing as he watched his friends all try to reorient themselves to no longer being on a revolving disk. He stepped over to where the ghost was groaning and pulled the mask from their face. 

“Dr. Drakken?” everyone chorused from behind the gate at the reveal. 

“What?” Su gasped. “But he was the one cleaning up after the Phantom! Why would he make a mess for himself?” 

“That was my biggest clue,” Toby explained, standing back up to smile down at Drakken’s venomous glare. “Since he’s so overworked, why wouldn’t he try to make it so bad that they eventually had to shut down the park? I knew that whoever the Phantom was had to know how the park was set up, right down to every wire. That’s how he was able to mess with the technology, he was the only one with enough knowledge of the park’s setup to be able to control it with a remote device on his person.” 

He produced the circuit board from his pocket from the shop. He pressed a button and everyone gasped when the lights turned off and on again, the music fading in and out. 

“But…but he loves this place!” Cruz argued. The workers around her seemed to begrudgingly agree. 

“I do love this place!” Drakken finally spoke up from where he was trying to push himself off the floor, but was clearly still whirling around inside his mind. He pointed a finger at…where he probably thought the gang was, but was really a tea cup. “I wanted it for myself! Drakken Land! I’ve had the plans for my own amusement park for years now. With this place shut down I could finally buy the owner out and make it into what it was always meant to be. And I would have gotten away with it, too, if it weren’t for you meddling kids!” 

Everyone watched as the police escorted the grumbling engineer out of the park in handcuffs. 

“There’s one thing I still don’t understand,” Ken said as the car pulled away, red and blue lights fading into the traffic. “He said he wanted to buy out the owner…but didn’t he die?”

“Yeah,” Cruz agreed. “I was under the impression a whole board of people owned this place now.”

“Well, Mr. Hatter,” a police officer said, catching everyone's attention, “you won’t have to worry about him anymore.”

“Actually, I wasn’t planning on pressing any charges,” someone said, stepping out from behind the scarecrow decoration. 

“Dave?” everyone said in unison and with equal bemusement to color their harmony. 

“Are you sure?” the police officer asked only for the brew master to nod and send him on his way. The officer shrugged and exited out the gates, presumably to go down to the station to tell Drakken of the news. Dave joined the group after, hands stuck in the pocket of the apron he was still wearing. 

“You’re the owner?” Cruz asked, pointing her finger at him. The man nodded. “But..but you…but I thought-”

“Don’t hurt yourself, kid.”

“How?” 

“My name’s David Hatter. My family started the Tea Gardens and I’m just here to carry that legacy on as best I can,” he shrugged. “I always liked serving tea more than doing all the paperwork to keep this place open. I hired people to do that stuff so I can focus on the tea side of things, kinda the perks of being the boss.” 

��I thought you died!” 

“Almost died,” he corrected. “I got pretty badly electrocuted a few years ago that had been in pretty bad shape for a while there. I had to take a few weeks off and people thought I’d kicked the can since I didn’t come into work. I guess Drakken dredged that rumor back up just to help him pull this whole thing off.” 

“Huh.”

“Thanks for helping out,” Hatter said, turning to the other teens who looked less gobsmacked. 

“You’re not going to press charges?” Toby asked instantly. “Why not! That guy wanted to ruin this place! He wanted to buy it from you!” 

“Yeah, well, we weren’t exactly treating him very fair,” Hatter winced. He glanced over his shoulder at the exit for a moment. “He shouldn’t have been the only guy on call when stuff broke down. It’s my fault, I’ve been putting off getting this place up to date. I was just scared they would turn it too modern, erase my family’s history with it. He tried to pitch a plan a few times over the past years, but I always shut him down.”

“Man, no wonder he went crazy then,” Su frowned. 

“No, he’s just kinda like that, actually,” Cruz cut in, eyeing Mr. Hatter still. “But does that mean you’re going to actually listen to those plans this time?” 

“I think so,” Hatter nodded. She smiled up at him. He gave a smaller one in return before adding, “So, I believe someone’s in need of a life time supply of churros?” 

“Oh, yeah!” Cruz brightened and looked over to Scooby and Su. “Come on! Now that that’s over I can finally give you guys the full Tea Garden’s Halloween experience!” 

“Scooby dooby dooo!” the dog barked in excitement, tail wagging in a flurry behind him. The gang laughed, following their new friend back up the walkway and into the park where everyone else had seemed to be happy to get back to the fun and games.

David Hatter watched them go before making his way back to the tea shoppe. 

As he went, the lights above him flickered.

[multi-fandom-imagine]

Epilogue to Mr. Wonderful.

A/n: was sitting on this idea for a few days and since Uncharted 4 has an Epilogue I decided that this fic needed one too.

Summary: Cassandra find's out about her parents troubled past.

Wrinkling her nose, Cassandra let out a sigh.Her fingers petting her dogs head, playing then losing the game had lost her interest. Though she didn't care, she just wanted to know where her parents were. She knew they couldn't have gone somewhere important since her baby brother was gone but that did not mean she was not worried for them. Biting her lip she slipped off her head then out of her room, glancing around she sighed as her shoulders started to drop. "Mom? Dad? Hellooo?" Peaking into her parents room she got a glance spotting the baby monitor by her mothers bedside table.

"I think they abandoned us." Glancing to her dog, she let out a small bark as she started to wander the halls. The walls were adorn with things her mother must have found from her former job. Stopping for a moment she titled her head to the side as looked at a wall filled with pictures, one was of her mother in her wedding dress. You looked so pretty, so happy.

Aunt Elena was by your side, your maid of honor of course and her daddy. He looked so happy, with a large happy smile on his face though she could have sworn he had tears in the corner of his eyes. The next picture was of her Aunt's wedding to Chloe, the two looked so happy together. She was still a baby when it happened so she couldn't remember much. The whole family was together in his photo, you were standing next to Elena while Nathan stood behind you. She was in your arms of course, while Uncle Sam, Grandpa Sully and a woman she couldn't recognize where all standing next to Aunt Chloe.

She loved her Aunt's and Uncle Sam, they all had funny stories to tell her about her father though they'd always wait when Nathan was away. The next photo was of her, must have been taken after she was born. You looked so tried and her father looked scared but Cassandra could see the love in your eyes, she was so lucky to have parents like you two.

The next few photo's where of her when she was growing up but the last one she noticed brought a large smile to her face. It was when her little brother was born, she was sitting next to you in your hospital bed while she held Victor. It was her favorite picture, she loved her little brother and she could not wait until her got older.Shaking her head she walked into the kitchen, grabbing an apple from the fridge she glanced around the empty home.

"Maybe they're outside." They always could have came home and stayed outside letting Victor dip his toes into the water. Opening the door she watched as her dog sprinted outside. "Off she goes." Closing the door behind her she walked down the steps, feet hitting the sand she glanced around again seeing out nice it was outside. "Perfect day! Now I just need the rest of the boat crew." Running down the beach, she then quickly made her way down the dock's noticing everything was all waiting by the boat. "Well everything is all here."

Shaking her head she then turned her attention to the boat house, biting her lip she wondered if they could be in their. Well it was worth a shot to check, giving one last pet to her dogs head she quickly rushed over. Slowly walking up the small steps she took a peak inside seeing that the door was open though she let out a lower groan. "Not here either." Though what she did notice was a magazine with her picture resting on a desk. "So goofy." Smiling she shook her head placing it back down as she took another peak around the room. She spotted more pictures of you, one looked old or rather it was of you when you were much younger. You were on a dig site not looking at the camera too focused on whatever item you were cleaning.

Placing the picture back down she grasped her fathers keys, if they were here then that meant they couldn't have gotten far. Glancing towards the large red bureau she looked down at the keys in her hands before she walked to it. "There is no way...just no." Trying each key. "no way." Turning the last key then hearing the click she could not believe how lucky she was. Giving a glance around she slowly opened the doors curious to see what her parents would keep hidden.

"Woah....I knew it!." Grinning she let her eyes scan over everything. Glancing at a cross, she quickly grabbed it as she looked it over. "What is this?"Shaking her head she placed it back down spotting a golden coin. "A Spanish Doubloon....but from where?" Placing the coin back she then reached up grabbing a silver skull. "Aha creepy but kinda cool." Looking around the wardrobe she nibbled her lip, she wanted to look at everything but it was a white journal that caught her eye. "Hello"

Giving another glance over her shoulder she placed the journal down. Tracing over the writing she started to turn the pages getting more and more engrossed in them. "Whoa...Henry Avery....the Gunsway heist."Pausing for a moment her fingers heisted to turn the next page.

"Wait...did you try looking for Avery's treasure."

Turning each page she only stopped once she noticed a Polaroid picture. Turning it over she noticed how old it must have been and who it must be off. "No way...is that dad?" Placing the picture down she wondered if her little brother would look like him when he did when he was older or be more like you ?

Carefully turning the next page she smiled shaking her head. Tipping her head to the side she grabbed a photo with writing on the back of it.

'Found this on my old camera-thought you and Y/n would like to have it' -Elena.

Flipping it over she looked over the image, it was of you, Aunt Elena, Grandpa Sully and her dad. Her father was standing next to a treasure chest while you and her Aunt where sitting on top of a bunch of crates while a small chest as behind grandpa Sully. She then went back to her father, he had a gun leaning against his shoulders though the man's gaze wasn't focused on the camera like everyone else was, not he was looking at you.

"What the hell." Hearing voices she tensed as she rushed to the bureau, quickly closing it she glanced down at the picture in her hands. "Crap." Quickly making her way back to the journal she placed the picture inside then stood in front of it just as you both walked in.

Nathan carrying his son, it's been a few months since his first birthday and he was eager to teach his little boy on how to walk. "There you are...we’ve been looking for you. What are you doing in here?" Wincing, Nathan felt his son grab a stand of his hair tugging it.

"Uh looking for you guys."

Smiling you quickly took Victor from Nathans arms as the little boy quickly snuggled into the crook of your neck. "C'mon, the boats all loaded up." Nodding to your daughter you started to walk out the door.

"Um uh, ya I'll be with you guys in a sec."

Though hearing her made you stop in your tracks. "Why?"

"Uh...I just need to um." Trying to think of an excuse she watched as you both walked towards her. "Get."

"What's up Cassie?" Nathan frowned looked over at his daughter.

"Okay...don't be mad." Pushing her back away from the table she gave a small gesture to the white journal. Spotting the white journal, Nathan quickly opened the bureau's doors.

"Hey I said don't be mad." Holding back a laugh, she was more like Nathan than you'd like to admit.

"Keys." Stepping to his daughter he held out his hand. "So what did you see?" he asked tucking the keys away as he grabbed his mother's journal.

"Nothing really" Cassie shrugged her shoulders. "Well that photo of you two, Aunt Elena and Sully....with a bunch of Spanish looking treasure....and a shotgun."

Sighing you took the picture from Nathan, Victor all ready asleep against your shoulder. "Ya..." You glanced over at your husband as he locked the bureau's door. "This was bound to happen sometime...maybe we should just tell her."

"She's not ready for it." Nathan shot back.

"Ready for what?! All that crazy shit in there!" Cassie frowned, she wasn't a baby anymore.

"Hey language."

"Sorry...but you guy's are literally keeping skeleton's in your closet." Stepping close to her parents, she wanted to know what they were hiding. "Or at least a silver skull of some time."

Nathan frowned, he placed his hand against his son's head. "You know, I don't think you're ready for this."

"Really?" Cassie crossed her arms over her chest, she didn't think it was very fair.

"Nate." Your turned to face him fully, he still wasn't looking at you. "It's time to have the talk."

Smiling she glanced over at you. "Ya! it's totally time!...wait..which talk are we walking about here?" She did not want that talk, especially with her baby brother in the room.

Nathan frowned dropping his hand. "She's just a kid."

"She is older than you and Sam when you started all of this." You shot back trying to reason with him.

"That's- That is different than you know it."

Glancing between you both you, she sighed closing her eyes as she tried to let you both know that she was ready. " But I think I am old enough to know about it. Right?

"Old enough?" Nathan chuckled. "How old are you again?"

Rolling her eyes she fixed her glasses. "Ahaha....funny..mom?"

Holding back a groan, Nathan sighed as he scratched the back of his neck. "Where do we begin?", Smiling you glanced over at Nathan shaking her head. Your eyes glancing down at the picture.

"For me it started when this guy called up my sister with this scoop on a 'massive historical find.' well Elena not wanting to go alone she call me up and I'm not going to say no to that..though to me he sounded like a fraud."

"Yea.A handsome Fraud."

Nathan gave you a smile though you let out a small laugh. "No..I haven't met him yet."

"Oh she knew."

"So this fraud tells your Aunt Elena. 'If you fund this trip....then I'll give you the coffin of Sir Frances Drake.'

Walking over to your husband who was leaning against the table you returned his smile. "And for the rerecord I totally delivered."

"Yea...you delivered us into the hands of Indonesian pirates." Leaning against his shoulder, Nathan let his son grab on his finger as the little boy slowly fell back asleep.

"Hey. You know that I had nothing to do with that?" Both of you let out a small laugh.Cassandra shook her head as she moved closer to you two.

"Whoa...okay guy's time out! You're saying that you guy's were attacked by pirates after you found the coffin of Sir Frances Drake. Is that right."

"Pretty much ya." Nathan scratched his cheek.

Once you agreed to his claims, Cassie quickly shook her head. "Bullshit."

"Language." Both you of shout.

"Crap."

"Better" - "Nathan!"

"All right! so keep going!" She wanted to hear more. Shaking his head, Nathan smiled. While he was nervous the man was eager to tell more about you and his own adventures though the may have to leave out the part of your near death. He did not like think about almost losing you. "Alright...the boat is ready and it's a beautiful day out so if we're going to talk then lets do it on the water."

Following her parents out, Cassie started to bounce form excitement. "Wait! what did Sir France's Drake look like?! was it gross!"

Staying by her fathers side she looked up at him beaming. "Well he actually wasn't there..Just his journal, with a map to El Dorado.

"The city of gold?" she asked in excitement.

"Actually that was just a rumor, it was a statue! a cursed statue."

"NO way seriously?"

"Yea seriously but I'll go back to that later. Now the map lead us to the middle of the Amazon jungle-"

Watching the two of them brought a smile to your face, shaking your head you glanced down at the sleeping child. "Don't worry Victor, when you are old enough I'll make sure you get to hear the story about how much of a hero your daddy was."

[abbystanaccount]

Owen’s Aquarium Analysis

I was thinking about the various aspects of Owen’s Aquarium when it’s at its peak, during the Winter visit, and I just wanted to talk about it, throw some of my thoughts and interpretations out there.

This is where Owen has frequented for the past three years whenever he wanted to get away from the WLF. Abby has maybe been there a few times since their first discovery, but she hasn’t been in a long time. Personally I LOVE the way Owen reacts when he first sees her at the door. He’s very surprised, she asks him a question and it takes a second to answer because he’s busy thinking of how happy he is that she showed up at his home, the place he’s found solace in for the past few years.

The Aquarium is basically representative of Owen’s mind and his headspace. Owen’s in a pretty good spot when Abby comes to visit him in this flashback. He has games set up, he’s completely cleaned up the Aquarium trying to making it homey. But the fantastical set up is also a bit of a façade, Owen still has some issues with where he is in the world. His relationship with Mel is good (she can be really sweet sometimes), but Owen is hesitant to talk about Mel because whenever Abby is here, that’s all he can really focus on. When Abby gets there, all he wants to do now is hang out with her because he missed her. They’re playful, bantering, flirting a little, giving each other a hard time, it’s the Abby/Owen way 😌. He has a “selective memory”, and this Aquarium has many of his good memories.

The hooch. In this flashback and the present we see Owen drinking his homemade hooch, here it’s in celebration that Abby came to visit, later it’s because he’d drowning his sorrows. The fact that he makes his own alcohol, has a beer pong table, and can stand the taste of the hooch while Abby can’t, points to him drinking at least somewhat frequently. 

I’d also like to equate the hooch to his dreams of sailing away from it all and finding the Fireflies again. Owen has been making his own hooch and has also been trying to convince the other Salt Lake Crew that they should all look into the leads about the Fireflies. Up at the cafe when he offers Abby some, he enjoys it and he invites her to stay and see the view, Abby rejects both things like she did his notion of finding the Fireflies. Later on the boat he is consumed in his idea to leave and find the Fireflies (parallel to his drinking), then when he offers Abby some and to come sail away she declines.

Owen’s mural... he adds to Max’s mural and creates Salt Lake City on the wall, you can see the zebra’s and giraffe’s from Abby and Ellie’s memories in the foreground. The zebra memory and being in St Mary’s with Abby before Joel arrived were the last real happy memories they had, the last time they were still innocent and carefree. Owen memorializes these happy times through his art and puts it in a place he can look at frequently.

Abby also has a similar landscape painting she took from her dad’s office, it might also but of Salt Lake City, so she much like Owen kept those memories close. However I don’t know if Owen painted this one too, might be a little weird to paint your supervisor and secret gf’s dad a painting, idk. 🤷‍♀️

In relation to the Aquarium being like Owen’s mind, Owen projects to the world he’s happy with Mel, he tries to not think about Abby and get hung up on her, but because she still exists, she’s still around, that’s very hard for him. He is hesitant to write Abby on the board even though he says Mel won’t care, he knows that Mel will a bit, because it’s announcing that Abby was here. I feel like it had often been a discussion between Owen and Mel whether or not Owen was over Abby and Owen tried to convince her and himself he was, but it’s really not true.

Owen is a really sweet and creative person, he’d much rather be chilling in his Aquarium, getting it nice, or painting a mural or sketching (like his drawing of Abby). He warms up the entire place, except for maybe the hole in the roof he thinks it too much work to finish.  That’s probably very true, he is only one guy, but even besides the hole Owen shows an intense dedication to making the place fun, he lugged over party supplies seemingly by himself. 

Owen also doesn’t let anyone really know about the Aquarium. Manny only knew at the end because Abby told him, and Nora only knew from Manny. So for years it was just Owen’s thing. He offers to let Abby come “if she’s nice to him,’ he does want to share with her. It’s open to interpretation that maybe she never returned until this point because of her “skeleton” comment but I don’t like that so I like to think she did come back at least a few times, maybe it was less cleaned up though. It seems like since they broke up though, Owen has dedicated time to improving his Aquarium and starting anew. Once Owen starts dating Mel he eventually shows her the Aquarium and he hopes she’ll embrace it more than Abby did, which she does.

Their relationship became draining because of Abby’s revenge mission, and after they break up they both dedicate themselves to new things, Abby really ramps up her training and Scar killing, Owen tries to build a relationship with Mel and transform his Aquarium into something he can enjoy and live it. The issue there is Abby’s mission is just digging her deeper into a hole, and Owen can’t move on with Mel when Abby exists and he’s still in love and hung up on her.

This shot is pretty obvious, Abby is right in front of the Mel stocking, blocking it out. In another timeline where she wasn’t so caught up with Joel, it would have been her stocking there instead of Mel’s, Owen would have decorated the Aquarium for her and not Mel, and I think she sees that here. She’s even facing the Ferris wheel where they first ran away to. Owen is looking at this entire scene, and he can see it as well, it’s a gut punch to him that these are the circumstances. 

Owen still wants Abby to move on, he was overjoyed to have her visit him, play his archery game, just chat. It’s a rude awakening when he finds out she was there to just tell him that they’d found a lead on Joel, and that she’d already told the rest of the Crew including Mel about it. He’s feeling a bit betrayed by Abby here and pressured to join them. Owen wants what Abby wants, but he already sees how much pain its caused her and he doesn’t want more people than necessary getting hurt. But everyone else already said they would go and at one point or another he promised Abby they were in this together, and he’d never go back on his word for her.

I just want to touch on the state of the Aquariums when we see it, when we first see the Aquarium it’s not really Owen’s yet, it’s been abandoned and he had yet to put his work into it. Then three years later, it’s full his and representative of who he is. We see it after Jackson too, but it’s much more subdued and dreary because he’s been suffering mentally. If you focus on Owen during the Joel torture scenes you can really see how shook he was seeing Abby shoot Joel’s leg off, and he had to leave the room with Mel while she tortured Joel. Owen blames himself for not stopping her on this revenge quest, she’s finally doing it and it’s horrible to watch. 

Afterwards, Owen has retreated from others completely. The others are pissed at him when he disagreed about letting Ellie and Tommy go. How Abby behaved scared him. He doesn’t even want the new life with Mel, he just wants out of here by himself, everything else is too painful. When he shoots Danny, Owen realizes leaving is his only option is to go because he can’t stand to be in the WLF anymore. Owen wants to go back to a time when he was happy and working towards a real cause: the Fireflies. He still faces major hurdles though, the boat is broken and the WLF are going to come after him. Abby finds him curled up, retreated as far as he can go into his safe place. Waiting for someone to come and kill him for what he did. 

Then last time we go to the Aquarium, it is completely silent, eerie, and dead, Owen’s dreams of escaping to a better, happier life, shattered.

Sorry to end it on depression but that’s how it is 💔 except in happier au’s like mine lol.

Also side note, Abby saying “of course” when she sees the boat light on and not assuming he’s in the cafe or something, makes me think they returned there together at some point and more spent time there. So maybe that’s a less sad note.

[patchdotexe]

doip. / 8.16.24: See You Next Time

we're back! after a break of "everyone has various life stuff going on", the Skeleton Crew has reunited to tackle the next stage in the adventure: Storm Lord's Wrath!

(...kinda. this was more of a brief intermediate session as we got used to things again and wrapped something up.)

we join our heroes: Alidaar, the dragonborn runic knight fighter, played by Leo patchdotexe! Dauble, the halfling… something? druid-cleric? played by Nyx v4shthestampede! Kepesk, the lizardfolk storm barbarian, played by Green bahamutgreen! Arepo, the human bard, played by Jason astral-abstract! and our Dungeon Master, Jorb jorbs-palace!

-- oh. jason has ordered a baja blast and obtained a mysterious yellow liquid. LET'S BEGIN

LAST TIME, ON DRAGON OF ICESPIRE PEAK! we finally took down the white dragon, Cryovain, that had taken over Icespire Hold! with the threat slain, we were welcomed to Neverwinter and gifted a claim to Axeholm. we were also told to head south to Leilon to aid with rebuilding there. i think i forgot to write that part down.

what building are we in? yes. it's fine, we can philosophically debate our location

oh, sick, all our friends are here! and also my mortal enemy. or, well, my mortal enemy WAS here. he appears to no longer be here. that's fiiiiiine

[pops all my bones as an intimidation tactic] oh god we're all so, so unprepared. it's been nine months. Arepo Is Feeling It Kepesk has reunited with the Wilders! this is very cute. OH SHIT TOBLIN I MEAN TARGOR IS HERE TOO. I FORGOT HE'S A WILDER NOW. WE GASLIT HIM TO THE VERY END we've got a sexy rabbit lady named Vova! who might be a wizard. with a sword? also Carroway the fairy. OH FUCK CARROWAY HAS A FLUTE LET'S GO. ALIDAAR HAS A FLUTE. DUET alidaar has fucked up the duet so, so bad. vova has decided alidaar doesnt get to play the flute anymore

Targor is officially part of the Wilders! Kepesk: wow, you're so poggers. Nyx: (you're so epic win.) Targor: oh, i didn't know you knew how to speak Halfling. Leo: (AAAAAAAAAAAA) Jason: (I know how to speak it, but I don't understand it.)

Sildar is also here! hi buddy. his griffin is outside grazing with Zodiark meanwhile, Arepo is writing the Wikipedia article on the Wilders. "Often steals food? Question mark?" Sildar wants to run for mayor! who was the mayor. did he die. no wait he was a coward and sucks shit

Sildar: …but don't tell him I said that. Kepesk: Your secret is safe with us! Alidaar: I'm gonna immediately forget this conversation. Dauble: It's fine, I'll go back to dissociating for the next 8 years. Arepo: [writing a footnote on the mayor] Carroway: GOD, SAME.

Skeleton Crew is gonna be out and about for a few months probably. Vova is bummed about it, and… so is Kepesk! honestly, Kepesk is having second thoughts about staying with the Crew. he misses the Wilders!

Kepesk: It's not you guys-- Alidaar: It's the hot rabbit woman. Jorb: (…did you say that out loud in front of Vova?) Leo: (Yes.)

Kepesk has given Alidaar the Axeholm signet ring! it's named Jeffrey. we don't remember why it's named Jeffrey. we have decided that the dwarven writing on it kinda looks like JEFRY if you squint.

Dauble walked off soon as Kepesk mentioned the idea of leaving, but they know Sending! so we can text him at 3 am if we want.

Nyx: So… what you wearing? Jorb: DAUBLE, NO! Green: I showed you my barrel crab, respond.

oh hey, Kepesk was part of the Skeleton Crew when Axeholm was handed over. if he's with the Wilders, can they live in Axeholm too? Alidaar says yes.

Alidaar: Friend of a friend can live in my house, I don't give a shit. Kepesk: Oh hell yeah! Arepo: I get the feeling we've just become accessory to a number of crimes.

lmao Vova and Kepesk have maybe-a-thing. Kepesk isn't sure and Carroway has no idea what is happening. shenanigans ensue.

Kepesk: You'll understand when you're older. Carroway: I'm older than YOU!

Carroway knows what the birds and the bees are. he just wasn't there when Vova kissed Kepesk, lmao.

Jorb: I don't have Carroway's stat sheet, sorrgy. […] I rolled a d20 and got a natural 8. Leo: Is that good? Jorb: No.

GREEN HAS WON D&D! Green: I beat the DM! Jorb: Okay, the ceiling collapses and lands on Kepesk, roll 1d100 bludgeon damage.

Dauble is sulking :( LMAO . THEY'RE OUTSIDE BEING SAD AND KEPESK WALKS OUT WITH THE WILDERS HAVING A GRAND OL TIME. RIP Alidaar is not used to actually parting on good terms with somebody! yknow seeing as Tobias was turning into a rat and left dramatically. DAUBLE IS SO FUCKING DEPRESSED Green: I'm sorry, there's a baddie in the room.

Kepesk has noticed Dauble! and has given them a healing potion. Dauble is thankful for the gift, wildshapes into binturong, and skitters away Kepesk: You were the binturong the whole time?! I thought they were two different people!

Kepesk and Vova walk off holding hands! awh.

Nyx: (Gay.) Jorb: (Literally straight.)

WAIT LMAO THIS ENTIRE TIME THE DUST OF DISAPPEARANCE WE GOT FROM THE CHANGELING MERCHANT HAS BEEN DUST OF SNEEZING AND CHOKING. AND KEPESK JUST WALKED OFF WITH IT. next time we go to Axeholm we're all gonna fucking die.

awh, Dauble has entered Scarf Mode. dauble <3 Jorb: Congrats on your new familiar. Leo: New?

Jorb: Is it safe to say Vova and Kepesk are gonna start dating? Green: I'd say so! Jason: [joke about using the Dust of Disappearance in the bedroom that i immediately forgot the wording of bc i started crying] Leo: [sobbing into pillow] I CAST SPELL OF DISAPPEAR MY DICK! Nyx: MY DICK FELL OFF

ohp, Nyx has a headache. time for this mini-session to come to a close. time to head out! farewell Kepesk and Wilders, farewell Neverwinter o7

OH SHIT DAUBLE'S GOT A SENDING MESSAGE Tobias: Final check-in. I understand now what I'm meant to be. I'm going to claim my destiny. Maybe we'll meet again someday. Goodbye, Little Buddy. DAUBLE DIDN'T EVEN GET A CHANCE TO RESPOND. AUGH. TOBIAS YOU MOTHERFUCKER

Jorb: Congratulations Dauble on losing two people in one day! Leo: NOOOOOOOOOOOOO Nyx: AAAAAAAAAAAAAUGH Nyx: I'm at rock bottom, but I've got a shovel. Leo: NOOOO I NEED TO GET MY FAMILIAR THERAPY

next time: Leilon, maybe!