#I like to imagine she would have played Barbie if she wasn’t wanted for murder lol

[oliviadempseyart]

This is who should have really played Barbie lololol (feat. Chucky!Nica who Tiffany dragged to see the premiere)

[suffering-and-happy-about-it]

Party at Barbie’s (Love Lies, Part 3.)

“Funny how one stranger stepped in. Made up all these changes, for the better.” - Movements, Pham

Description: Carcrash, coma, drug usage, partying, heartbreak… You’ve been there. After 18 months of “corrective” stay at your grandmother’s in Minnesota, it’s time for you to move back to East Highlands. Yet, it was to be expected that while some things change, some stayed the same.

A/N: I was planning on Maddy being the pain in the ass, but then I kinda changed my mind. I actually genuinely think she can be a wonderful friend, when she has a person that can bring out the best of Maddy.  Also, keep in mind that the reader is properly fucked up during this part and Rue is also under the influence. So, don’t worry, we’ll get into the real “conflict” later. 

Word counter: 4.7 K

Tagging: @comedinewithmeyeh​ @jeyramarie​ (tagging for the series is opened, just reply to the part or smth)

Masterlist: H E R E

Putting pieces of furniture together in your new place was nothing short of fun - Archie plugged his phone into a charger, letting it play song after song while you tried to understand the manual you got along with the furniture; you also managed to squeeze some dancing and eating take out into the meantime.

Jules came to join you every time she wasn’t at school, making sure she’s capturing the entire process on camera. By the end of the building process (mind you - you only had a bad and a small wardrobe), she had her gallery filled with selfies, pictures of Archie kissing you as you read through the manual with a furrow, of her and you holding various pieces of wood in your hands with expressions of absolute Ooga Booga cavemen and much more. As per usual, Jules posted the best pictures on her Instagram.

Yet there still was this one thought on the back of your head the entire time. No matter how hard you tried to avoid it, the party at Barbie’s was coming closer and closer; eventually, you were standing in front of the bathroom mirror and watched your outfit, finishing the last details of your make-up. Sure, you didn’t have to show up, but you could imagine how Maddy herself would repay you such hospitality. And you didn't want to explain the entire history of you, Maddy, and Fezco to Archibald either.

To start at the begging, so Archie could even comprehend what happened in East Highlands two years ago, you’d have to start explaining the very beginning. Who even was Maddy Perez? This was also a question many asked. You'd personally describe her as the devil, that would be your immediate answer; a devil in angel’s disguise. You’ve never seen anyone more innocent-looking than Maddy; as long as she tried to keep her mask on, hiding the real Maddy somewhere under the perfect hair, makeup, nails, and outfit. To your luck, Maddy never seemed to specifically dislike you - you’ve never had the opportunity to see her at her worst. But you’ve heard how the worst looks like.

How did you get to know her?, Archibald would ask. Well, she was a classmate of yours, having a troubled past with your best friends, mainly Jules. The past heavily involved her boyfriend Nathan; maybe it was more suiting to say Maddy's ex-boyfriend? You couldn’t tell, to be honest. All you knew was that Nathan did something nasty and ever since then, he wasn’t much more than Maddy’s chess piece. What kind of information she had on Nathan you didn’t know, honestly, but it must’ve been fucking freaky and personal. It was Maddy herself who saved your ass on the night a man was murdered.

Murdered?, Archie would ask once more, without a clue. Why would you have anything to do with that man's death? Everything, you’d sigh, every fucking thing. You were the reason Mouse ended up with a bullet inside of his brain, bleeding out inside the apartment. Again, the situation you talked about wasn’t simple to navigate through; to understand why Fezco shot that motherfucker, you’d need to explain how you oh so recklessly allowed Mouse to give you a drug. On the other hand, if you hadn’t taken it, you could’ve been ended up dead too. To explain how you even ended up in that place, you’d have to talk about things that were fucking you up. Such as Fran’s on and off addiction story, how she acted when she got high and how horrifying and dangerous it was to stay near Fran in that state.

The night was a bug conclusion of fear, rushed decisions, and love; as Fezco said later. He did it all for love. Which, at the time it all went down, you'd believed. To explain this explanation, you'd have to talk about whatever the fuck you and Fez had... And you didn't have the energy to sit through hours of talking, making sure Archie sees the story from every angle. You'd just rather fucking go on a stupid ass high school party and drink some alcohol than turn it down just because you knew what people you can bump into. That was also when Archie opened the bathroom door, sticking his head in. "Are you sure that you want to go? You don't seem to be too thrilled about it." - The boy wondered, watching as you finished your mascara. You were supposed to pick up Jules on the way to Barbie's in twenty minutes, you had to hurry up a bit.

"Hm, I'm just a bit tired. I can't wait to dance with Jules and Kat and to drink a few shots. The offer still stands?" - With a smile, you put the mascara away and kissed Archie's cheek, giggling when you saw a stain of lipstick sticking onto his face. - "Which one?" "The one where you oh, so kindly offered to be the one sober friend who will drive all of the drunk bastards home." "I think so, yeah. Only if I get a kiss, or no deal for you, missy." - Hearing that, you smiled even more and tiptoed to hug the boy by the back of his neck and kissed him tenderly. - "Fine, the offer stands." "I'll take it, kind sir. Knowing Kat, she'll want to drink the whole fucking bar Barbara has at home."

Not too long after that, you were sitting inside your car with a few bottles of alcohol on your backseat as you watched the city through the window, looking at all the buildings passing you by. Jules was talking about something connected to Rue, but honestly, you weren't listening to a single word. It was 7 pm and as soon as you saw Barbara's house in the distance. Oh, fuck, everything looked like it did when you left the city; a shit ton of cars parked in front of the house, people smoking inside, in front of the and all over the property, drunk girls and boys who were trying to get inside their panties, a lot of laughter and drugs smothered everywhere. Yes, you were positive to identify this as an East Highland party.

As all three of you walked into the house, you were cluelessly looking around, holding Archie's palm and the paper bag in the other hand. Jules was smiling wildly, which couldn't be said about you. If you thought there were a lot of drug users outside the house, you now had the opportunity to see all the lines of coke being all over the place, the house smelled of weed, cigarettes, alcohol, perfume, sweat, and sex. There were, by your estimation, at least two hundred people scattered everywhere. Just a few seconds after entering the house, you could see panties hung on the chandelier, three pairs of boobs, and one hard dick. Holy motherfucking shit... You missed that place. Feeling yourself smiling, you added your bottles to the alcohol collection on the main counter while Jules worked on pouring you double shots.

The music was so loud that you could barely hear what she screamed at you before you both drank your shots, Archie watching you both with amusement. Feeling alcohol, especially hard liquor, inside your mouth after two years made you almost throw; trying to keep it all in, you grinned, bit your bottom lip, and held tight onto the counter in front of you. Both of the idiots patted your shoulder as if you just accomplished something wonderful. Soon, your time perception of time began to crumble under the number of shots Jules encouraged you to drink, the music quickly became louder and more danceable. The last thing you did at least half-sober was that you gave your phone to Archie, kissing him as Jules dragged onto the improvised dancefloor on the back terrace. While you tried to perform various dance creations, some dudes watched porn on their phones and other people decided to grill some midnight burgers. Sliding a bit while Jules laughed, you looked up a bit... And there she was. There she fucking was.

Rue Bennet in all her glory, with her confused and vulnerable gaze. You knew she saw you because she stood still on the stairs, holding the railing inside her palm with her mouth half-opened - and she knew you saw her as well because your smile disappeared in an instant as your expression got more serious. She was looking... It was hard to tell in all the flashing lights, standing between all of the drunk, loud people. You surely remembered days of Rue's past glory; you remembered a wonderful best friend who made you laugh, who hugged you as if her life depended on it, who would give the entirety of heaven if you simply asked for it. That girl you knew such a long time ago knew all of your secrets, everything you were ashamed of, she knew your favorite song and she landed you her hoodies when you asked for them. You also remembered someone who looked healthy, with full cheeks and a nice, tall body.

This version of Rue looked more messy, untidy, and tired, almost spiteful. Her face seemed to be too pale, lifeless and her eyes were empty. Fuck, you realized as your shoulder bumped into Jules' chest, making her stop in her tracks as well. At that moment, Rue jumped off the stairs and disappeared into the crowd; it was Maddy who covered your vision of Rue. "Something told me ya'll be here." - Maddy smiled sweetly as she gave you a cup of something. Whatever it was, it stank like hell; but you knew that all three of you will have to take that shot. - "Nice to see all of my bitches together, looking their best. This is on the house." - With a wicked smile, she gave another cup to Jules. - "I fucking thought you're fucking dead, but you just roll back in here looking like a fucking snack. I bet you'll give that idiot a fucking boner when you walk by. I wanna toast." - The girl giggled. The longer she talked, the less your smile seemed real. Knowing that the idiot she meant wasn't supposed to be Archibald made you put your palm to a fist, digging your nails into your skin. This also assured you that Fezco and Ashtray are somewhere along all of the people. - "To this insane motherfucker for coming back home."

Knowing you have to drink whatever was inside the cup, you just forced yourself to drink all of that in one attempt, immediately gulping it down. Shit. As soon as the liquor touched your tongue, you started to cough, covering your mouth with your elbow. Jules let out a long exhale, looking at Maddy, who didn't seem to be phased by the drink. "What the fuck?" - The blonde asked, laughing as you tried to catch your breath. - "Oh God, yo I forgot you probably don't know how to drink anymore, bitch. You good?" - Maddy took the cup out of your hand, gently patting your shoulder. It took you another minute until you could walk again. Jules and Maddy both watched you struggling to keep your shit together, giggling at the faces you made.

"Thanks for the warm welcome Maddy. I really appreciate it." - With that, you went for a hug to really show her. Sure, from all the situations you remembered, Maddy usually wasn't that much of a physical person with her friends (and you still even weren't her friend, just were just an almost random someone she knew), but given you were both a bit tipsy at that point, she hugged you back. Jules herself knew it could be unusual for Maddy to be so kind, selfless, and nice to someone outside her best friend, but Maddy was about to say something very real - a lot has changed ever since you left the town. "I just wanted to make sure Nathan knows what side you're on." - The girl in your arms confessed as she stepped away from you, giving you another wicked smile. - "A lot has changed when you were gone, princess. I don't know why I feel sorry for you, bitch, but you remind me of myself, I have that connection to you, yannow? You've been through some shit, you saw some shit and your boyfriend was a fucking piece of trash. I just wanna make sure that fuckhead won't even dare to fuck this new start and everything for you, 'cause you're thriving and happy." - And this was exactly what made you stop in your tracks. Maddy gently held your palms in hers, staring into your eyes.

This meant, amongst other things, that Maddy and Nate were not an item anymore. Given the proud smile on Jules' face, she had a role in it as well; this was, honestly, the best fucking news you heard all day. Nathan was a controlling piece of narcissistic shit and with the personality Maddy had, they were like a package of TNT. This news was genuinely the best one you heard so far. In all fairness, it was also easily understood why Jules didn't tell you (simply because it wasn't her place to tell you other people's personal businesses. Drama and personal business were two very different things and that was something people had to learn how to differentiate.

The other meaning this bore was that Maddy liked you to some degree. She didn't view you as her enemy, she didn't view Rue nor Jules that was. Fuck, were they friends now? Did that mean that the girl who would cut your throat if you looked at Nate funnily two years ago was now brand new and changed? It was hard to believe, but if it was the truth, you couldn't even describe how happy you were for her. There wasn't much that could or needed to be said. The only thing you did was that your smile widened a bit, letting her know everything you couldn't say without a word. Perez simply nodded and let your hands go, turning on her heels. "I gotta go, but it's nice knowing you're here. Both of you better stay safe and hit me up some time so we can hang out bitches." - And with that, Maddy was gone again. Sure, most of it could be tipsy ramblings, but there was something hidden and personal in what she had said, something that stuck with you. She wasn't unnecessarily unhappy, but Perez wasn't a happy person either. She was who she was. As she left you standing there, there was something that made you smile.

"Did I get invited here..." - You mumbled as you poured another drink, watching Jules preparing her vodka and sprite. - "Because Maddy Perez thinks that I'm her friend?" "She was right, you know. Just because we're still best friends doesn't mean that the city is in the same state it was when you left it. Nate and Maddy broke up for good, me and Rue stopped seeing eye to eye, I heard there was some shit going down between Cassie, Maddy, Nate and McKay, and even Fez..." - Saying that name, Jules stopped herself to look at you. Hearing his name, you furrowed a bit, but it didn't entirely upset you. Yet knowing he's there, among them when you were drunk, was better than meeting him sober. This way, you could at least put a mask on. Nonetheless, Jules decided not to talk about him anymore. - "Everything is different. Kinda... Kinda ruthless. But she's glad you're back. When we met her at the gas station, she asked me if it's a good idea... You know... To invite you. I told her it's the best idea she had that week." - Hearing that, you put everything down and looked Jules in her eyes. The girl was smiling back at you while sipping on the Sprite; not for long tho. Soon, you were hugging her as you put your head on her shoulder, closing your eyes. Jules really was the best friend anyone could ever have.

The night was going by with an unstable, weird, yet somewhat enjoyable time continuum - sometimes everything just sped past you - just like when you and Maddy (who was into that idea immediately after you sent her a text) played beer pong against Kat and Jules; and sometimes there was this tranquility and peace, making everything stop for a second; just like when you sat on the backyard of the house. All of you were sat on logs positioned around a big fireplace, you were dressed in Aiden's hoodie as the boy himself hugged your shoulder. Everything slowed down as you chatted and watched the flames.

Sometime later, it was hard to tell how much later, while your gaze was still stuck somewhere between the flames, all of your friends decided to go back in for some more booze, leaving you sitting outside all alone with a cigarette in your palm. Time passed by, you sipped on your liquor, and people around you came and left; until one person sat there longer than the others. Which is was also why the person next to you caught your attention. God Help you, you fucking knew who sat there before you even saw them. Lazily, you turned your head to look at her. It was Rue herself with her pitiful, spiteful look. As she sat next to you, both her palms were pushed deep inside the pockets of her hoodie as her leg bounced around. She looked so... Tired. The silence was becoming more and more uncomfortable until Rue finally spoke out loud.

"Didn't know you're back." - The girl mumbled and you could just tell that she's more fucked up than you were. It was the alcohol possibly combined with drugs, you guessed. Not responding, you just furrowed into the flames, nodding. - "Thought I'd deserve to fucking know that." "We haven't spoken in a year and now you're gonna be bitching about me being a cunt for not letting you know after you just disappeared? Nice joke. Got a cig?" - You asked without any emotion on your face. Rue didn't stop at what you said, she just gave you a cigarette. "Why are you even back? To fuck around before you leave again?" - Well, hold the fuck up. That was news for you. As you breathed out the smoke, you looked at the profile of her face. Rue was sitting next to you, high as fuck, but she wasn't only high... She was also vulnerable and sad. The girl was hurt. But you weren't about to give her anything for free. Snickering, you turned your head back to look into the flames. "'Cause my family kinda lives here in case you didn't notice." "Makes sense. You look fucking... I think I haven't seen you happier." - At that, Rue looked at the tip of her shoe. Her leg was widely bouncing up and down as the nervousness got the better out of her. To the surprise of both of you, you just started laughing.

"So, that's why we stopped talking and that’s why you’re high as a fucking kite?" - You sighed. - "'Cause you thought I wasn't happy here and assumed that I’m much happier somewhere else with different people?" "Listen, I don't even know why and if I... I have no clue man, I was just fucked up at that time. I was in a bad place." "So the place you're at now is any better? You fucking better think about the reason, then, cause you're the one who decided that not responding to any of the messages is better than calling me and hearing me tell you how much I love my best friend. And not only that, but you decided that relapsing is a much better idea than talking it through. Get the fuck up, Bennet." - Saying that, you sprung on your feet and threw the rest of the cigarette into the firepit. Rue was suspicious at first, sitting on top of the log as you offered her your palm.

“Are we gonna fight?” - The girl asked with seriousness. Sure, for all the nerve and audacity she got, you’d love to pack her a few punches, but deciding against it was probably much better. What would it bring except you getting rid of some of your anger? “Sure, I’m going to kick your boney ass into a fucking square. Come on.” - Again, you offered her your palm, smiling this time. - “Have you ever seen me packing a punch? Dude, I’d break my wrist.”

Finally, this seemed to break Rue’s suspicions and spite as the girl caught your palm with a nervous grin, letting you lead her onto the dancing crowd. Sure, this peace offering wasn't about to last for too long, which you both knew, but you decided to ignore all of it. Since you were both clueless about what to do, you caught her waist and palm, dancing a simple waltz. It was awkwardly cute. This also seemed to be somewhat assuring for the girl as she laughed, making you spin around. It didn’t take long until you broke all the social rules just like you did back in the day, moving in a lascivious borderline erotic way; your ass was splayed all over her crotch as her hands moved around your head, impersonating shooting guns. For a second, just a for a short stupid fucking second, it felt like you never left; neither of you was scared of dancing (since you were higher than Empire State) and you weren't worried about inappropriately touching each other - Rue holding your ass was usually just the beginning. And now, it felt that way. As the songs switched, Rue put her hands above her head, letting you go as she squealed, starting to rap each word of a 2Pac song with all the passion she got. It was so funny and impressive that you just moved around facing her, clapping in the rhythm. It also caught other people's attention, since neither of them exactly knew that Rue had some degree of obsession with remembering useless pieces of information, such as rap song lyrics.

Whoever was that drug-abusing wench in control of Rue, this assured you that your Rue is still somewhere inside of there, alive and surviving through all the hardships. Sure, she was hidden somewhere deep inside of that vessel, but as long as you managed to lure her out for a moment, there was a chance of saving her. It won’t be an easy task, you knew what; but there was still some chance of succeeding. As the song ended, you clapped cheerfully and laughed once more, being on clouds nine while Rue bowed with all the grand gestures that were oh so typical for her. People clapped for a bit before everyone shifted their attention back to their dance partner. “I gotta figure out something with Ash, wanna come with?” - Rue yelled to your ear so you could hear her over the music after you left the dance floor hand in hand. No hesitation, you nodded and squeezed her hand a bit as she led you through the house.

The lights were blinking in such a rhythm that everything inside appeared in a much better light and angle; people seemed less drunk, they seemed happy and attractive. Each of the erotic dance moves, like girls squeezing their boobs or rubbing their asses on someone’s dick, made you amused and quite frankly, a bit thirsty. It was that time of the night you loved the most; it was when the alcohol finally kicked in, making your body move like caramel and mind foggy as you listened to all the offers of hand jobs, blowjobs and quickies. They made you giggle while you held Rue’s hand, following her deeper into the house. Not too long after you noticed that you were once again approaching the door leading to the firepit. Looking around at all these young fuckable people, you felt someone staring at you. You couldn’t name exactly who was it, but you had that feeling on the back of your head. Turning around, you finally looked the person in their eyes, seeing as they followed both you and Rue through the drunken crowd.

Fuck. That was the only word on your mind. Fuck, you didn’t remember those blue eyes being as deep as they appeared amidst all the flickering lights. He looked good - without a single doubt in your mind, you could objectively say that Fezco looked great. To be honest, one of the photos you hid in archives of your phone wasn’t making him enough justice. As the rime passed by, you managed to forget how gentle the gaze of his eyes is, how his features shift when he smiles and how heartwarming can that gaze be. Without hesitation, you smiled back at the man, feeling an undeniable feeling of warmth wash over your body. You were glad to see him after such a long time. The thing making you worried was your heart thumping heavily for a fragment of a second there; making your cheeks warm and your breathing shallow. Fezco just had his charm, even after all that time when you finally thought you moved on.

Turning your head back at Rue’s back, you were grinning as you both walked out into the coldening night hand in hand.

And a few seconds after, it happened.

——

Jules was standing close to the table, chatting with Archie and Lexi, laughing at one of his jokes; they h. But then, something she caught by the corner of her, caught her full attention. Within seconds, her heart dropped and her expression reflected worries. What did she see?

Well, it was her best friend holding hands with Rue, following her out of the house as she smiled at her former boyfriend over her shoulder, just like the night they first met. Without hesitation, Jules put her cup down, ready to follow out of you outside; there was a slight chance that Rue might’ve talked you down to something fucking stupid that could be connected to getting high to some degree. If Rue herself was a junkie and Jules’ mother being, all the same, it was incredibly easy to make herself believe this sort of crap. Inside her head, there was nothing easier than getting addicted - and that long path could've easily been started with one night, with a party just like that. “This can't be good.” - Jules mumbled, making both Archibald and Lexi aware of the situation; both of them turned their heads to you as you walked out, Fezco following shortly after. Lexi, just as she saw what was happening, sprung on her feet and started running towards the exit. The blonde girl sighed and grabbed Archie's hand, dragging him along. - "What's going on? Who are these people and why are you both worried?" "Just don't ask anything and come with me, we really need to keep an eye out for Y/N right fucking now."

As the trio got to the door, then it happened. Rue stood there in shock and stared down the hill while you screamed like a hurt animal, loud and with pain. For a second, you kneeled in the wet grass with tears in your eyes, mouth opened, and tensed muscle expression, not being to move for a second as your drunken brain tried to process what happened. For a reason, you looked like you wanted to scream even more because you mourned; just as if you lost your parent or a person that was very close to you. In the next second, you got all your knees and ran down the hill, Fezco following shortly after.

Only Bennet kept on standing there in utter shock, almost falling to the ground when you pulled her hand, looking down at the place where it happened.

[scoutmyxrs]

✦ MILENA TSCHARNTKE, CIS FEMALE, SHE/HER ✦ SCOUT VOIGHT the  TWENTY-NINE year old has been in Hidehill for HER ENTIRE LIFE and was an  ACQUANTINCE to Jade Parker, the missing first murder victim. Whispers  on the streets are that the BOOK CLERK AT UNDERCOVER BOOKS who lives in  HIDE SQUARE. She is said to be OPEN and SELF-SABOTAGING but I guess  we’ll find out for ourselves.

Scout is the middle child of the Voight family— older to [ Kingston ], younger to Sybil. And, yes, she has fallen victim to the Middle Child Syndrome. Perhaps it was fitting that her first real taste of it came because of hockey. Because their father loved it, so did she. She borrowed his jersey and swam in the fabric, sitting on the floor of their trailer and watching the puck on the screen. She learned to cheer when her dad did. And she was excited for the day when she got to have skates of her own and play. But it wasn’t her; it was [ Kingston ]. She got a Barbie instead.

Throughout the years, Scout was there to support her brother. She eventually got her own skates and wasn’t afraid of a little one-on-one match up but most times she was in the stands, a book in her bag in emergency for those occasional blow-outs.

Then there was Sybil. Whatever attention [ Kingston’s ] hockey didn’t take, her sister’s shenanigans did. She’d learned a thing or two about getting into trouble during those years; a positive being that she could fly her own missteps (calculated or not) under the radar. Then suddenly, things changed. Yale? Harvard? Scout couldn’t win. She couldn’t be the athlete and now the smart one was taken. Guess someone had to fill the shoes of family disappointment.

She wasn’t so invisible when they had to come pick her up off of the front steps of her apartment, unsuccessful in getting her keys to “work” after knocking back countless shots. Or when there was video evidence of her dancing on the bar at Envy. Or that one time she’d called from jail. A misunderstanding, really.

It was the need for validation and also just the need for an outlet that Scout found herself on TikTok. Turns out people were curious about the life of a NHL player’s sister, even if it was just her rambling as she got ready or vlogs that she’d start but never fully finish until she woke up half-alive the next morning. It became like a diary for her. A bit oversharing. Or more than a bit. But people cared, or at least they tuned in.

While Scout had tried college out— not Yale, mind you— she left just a year shy of graduation. Undecided the whole way through, but she nearly committed to being an English major. That she imagined would have been just as disappointing to her father as when she dropped out. Those books she brought to the rink had fed a love for stories. There were notes on her phone with snippets of books she’d never write, word documents of half chapters, and stacks of books with worn spines throughout her place.

It was also that love that brought her to Undercover Books. A job where she got to read in her downtime? Felt a little unfair to all the busy, hardworking people out there wanting to kill their bosses. Sure, Scout did need a push some days to be a better worker, whether it was recording a TikTok or showing... that was a nasty habit of hers. She’d be late to her own funeral.

Skateboarding is her main form of transportation. It became a personality trait after she rematched Sleepover in her twenties and saw Julie in that red dress being the epitome of cool. Does she have her license? Yes. Car? No. Should she be trusted behind the wheel? Most likely not.

Is a crier. And she’s not too shy about it. In fact, she has been known to openly get her groceries with mascara stains still on her cheeks. But sometimes a bitch just needs to get her emotional support Cheez-Its.

Scout loves her siblings. I mean, sure, she gets frustrated by them almost weekly but in terms of the whole middle child thing, that she blames mostly on her parents.

Studied abroad in London for the summer just before leaving college.

CONNECTIONS:

friends with benefits

one-night stand

exes

toxic ex?

someone who tries to be a good influence

someone who feeds her bad habits

friends

best friend

drinking buddy

a fellow sports fan

enemies / do not get along

old classmates

literally anything else you can think of <3

[hazzoranstories]

Damon Salvatore x Reader One Shot | Katerina’s Sabotage Part 5

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4

Includes: Violence, murder, harsh language, childbirth, and blood

________________________________________________________________________________

A/N: Italicized is when characters are speaking in Bulgarian

*Bulgaria; 1490*

Katerina's screams filled the room once more as her mother encouraged her to keep going and get this child out of her. All the Petrova's were panicking, rumbling in Bulgarian until they heard a baby's cry join her mother's pants. 14-year-old Y/N grinned at her sister, who had sweat glistening her face. The younger Petrova hugged her sister who's breathing began to mellow down.

"It's a girl," their mother announced and held up the newborn in her arms.

"A girl?" Both sisters questioned, and their mother nodded.

"Please, mother . . . . let me see her," Katerina begged and held out her hand for her child.

"Woman, don't! What are you doing?" Their father cut in, and the three women snapped their heads around. Mrs. Petrova quickly stood up and gave the baby to the man.

"Let Katerina hold her at least once . . . . just once . . . . at least once," Y/N pleaded to her father, feeling bad for her older sister.

"Forget it . . . . you have disgraced this family!" her father then ran out with the buddle of blankets in his arms.

"Father, please! No, father, no! No!" Katerina screeched and tried to get up, but Y/N held her back.

"No, Katerina. It's better for her! It's better for her!" her mother yelled, and Katerina clung onto Y/N's blood-covered dress.

"No, mother, please," the young girl sobbed.

"Let her go . . . . let her go, Katerina," Y/N whispered to her sister.

"Please, Y/N . . . ."

~:*:~

*Mystic Falls, Virginia: Hospital; Present Day*

Caroline was passed out in her bed with the humming of the tv show she was watching in the background. She then woke up with a groan and rubbed her heavy eyes. She turned around and gasped to see someone standing over her bed. "Elena?" she panicked, and Y/N tilted her to examine the blonde girl. She was so tired that the ancestor of her friend looked like her.

"Hi, Caroline," Y/N muttered, and Caroline sighed, covering her eyes in exhaustion.

"What are you doing here?" the Forbes asked with a sigh.

"My name is Y/N . . . ." Y/N walked closer to Caroline's bed, who suddenly tensed. "I was hoping you could give the Salvatore brothers a message for me," the Pierce snarled.

"What are you talking about? What message? Why do you look so much like Elena?" Caroline groaned, still thinking it was Elena and she was going insane.

"Game on," Y/N whispered before shoving a pillow into Caroline's face. The blonde screamed and began struggling under Y/N grasp on her. She tried desperately to get the pillow off her face so she could breathe but end up hitting her hand on the side of the bed. That was her last action before her body went limp. Y/N removed the pillow and looked down at the deceased girl. She shook her head at the stupidness of the people in this town and strutted out of the hospital.

~:*:~

*Mystic Falls, Virginia: Mystic Falls Carnival; Present Day*

As another ding rang from the bell near the arm wrestling competition, Damon chuckled as Stefan walked away from Mason Lockwood after he had just tried to beat him. "You didn't put in any effort at all," Damon commented.

"Yeah, actually, I did," Stefan whispered, and the older Salvatore raised an eyebrow.

"Come with me," the two brothers walked to a more secluded spot. "Is he-"

"No, no, no. It wasn't that kind of strength, but it was more than human if that makes sense," Stefan explained, and Damon groaned.

"What is up with that family? If they're not vampires, then what the hell are they?" Damon hissed.

"Ooh. Uh, maybe they're, uh, ninja turtles," a feminine voice came from behind them. Damon whipped around, and Stefan looked around his brother to see the younger Pierce sister.

"You're not funny," Damon spat at her, and she pouted.

"Or, no, zombies. Werewolves," she added and smiled mischievously.

"No comedic timing at all," the vampire barked, and Y/N huffed.

"Well, I'm working on it. But have you seen my dear friend Caroline? I'm looking for her," the Pierce asked, trying to look as innocent as possible.

"Since when do you know Caroline? Let alone be all buddy-buddy," Damon sniggered, and Y/N rolled her eyes.

"Look, I know you're bitter, Damon, because I snapped your neck but get over yourself. I don't love you anymore. So just shut up and point the way to Caroline. I need to make sure she drinks human blood," she replied, and both Salvatore's eyes popped out of their sockets.

"What?" Stefan hissed, and the Pierce glanced at them.

"Did you not know? I visited barbie in the hospital. She did not want to die," with Y/N rolling her eyes, she walked away with both Salvatores trying to stop her. Y/N searched for Caroline but eventually got too bored and uninterested to care. So instead, she played some carnival games.

She was in the middle of ring tose when she heard loud gasping coming from the carnival's outskirts. She glanced over her shoulder to see the blonde girl that is Caroline Forbes. The Pierce smirked and handed the vendor her cash before stuttering over to Caroline.

"Hey, friend, it's been too long!" Y/N exclaimed, and Caroline whipped around.

"Wha-what did you do to me?" she teenager cried.

"I turned you," Y/N said, and Caroline looked even more freaked out. "Okay, well, technically, you have to drink blood to turn, but that'll be easy. But! Based on the fact that I can't hear your heart! Oh, Caroline! You did it! I'm so proud of you!" the vampire jumped up and down.

"What am I?" Caroline sobbed.

"Here. Let me show you. Come on," Y/N latched onto the Forbes's hand and forced her to a picnic table where a man sat. Caroline grunted from hearing the blood being pumped through the man's body. The girls then noticed his nose was bleeding, and Y/N sneered.

"Can I help you two?" The man asked, and Y/N walked up to him.

"Don't scream and don't move a muscle," she compelled, and the man froze in place, his eyes wide. Y/N turned around and nudged Caroline. "Go on, blondie."

"No, no, I can't-" Y/N cut her off with a groan.

"Fine. I have to show you everything, I guess," the Pierce complained and went back to the man. She tilted his head to the side and, without hesitation, sunk her teeth into his neck. He didn't make a sound or even fidget. Y/N pulled away, and in seconds of Caroline seeing the blood, she jumped and began her feeding.

Less than five minutes had passed before the man died of blood loss and both Caroline and Y/N were full. Y/N was pleased while Caroline was crying her eyes to death. Damon then walked up to the two other vampires as Y/N dragged her thumb along the blood on her lip.

"He's dead. I killed him," Caroline sobbed. Damon gazed at Y/N with depressed eyes, but she showed no sign of emotion.

"We," Y/N corrected. Damon continued to stare at his past girlfriend, and she held up three fingers and mouth, "three down. Two to go." She winked at him.

It was a matter of time before the man was completely drained, and Y/N was getting ready to bury him. She was finishing up when Stefan and Elena arrived.

"Y/N! Y/N stop!" Stefan yelled.

"Oh, give it a rest, Stefan! Her switch is turned off. Do you really think she's going to listen!" Damon snapped, and Y/N stopped feeding for a minute. She knew she disappointed everyone by turning off her emotions and that everyone hated her now, but she would never imagine Damon giving up on her. He would hate her along with the others but would never lose all hope. That's not who he was. Or at least, who she remembered him as.

A nerve clicked. Y/N stood up slowly. Hopped off the picnic table. Ground her teeth together as tightly as she could without it being noticeable. And walked away without a single word. The man's blood still surrounding her mouth.

~:*:~

She couldn't stop her desperate sobbing and choking on cries. She also wanted to stand and head to a hotel, but she remained sitting alone in the woods. She was disgusted with herself. She killed an innocent girl for sport, turned her into a monster, and forced her to feed. She ruined this girl's life. Every other event in and outside the tomb was a blur except for the bad parts. She killed a teenage boy and a man. For what reason? She didn't know what. The worst part about being washed over with a tsunami of feelings was the ones she had for Damon.

He watched her do all those things! He watched her become a monster! She turned him into a demon and left him alone to figure it out. She ruined the time they had together. And she ruined their entire relationship. It was like a constant stabbing in her lifeless heart, and she couldn't stand it.

Through her screams of terror, she heard commotion going on where she and Caroline fed. With a stumble, she stood up and walked out of the woods. What she saw made her cry even more. A Bennett witch, no doubt, was glaring at Damon, who was holding his head in pain with a line of fire creeping up on him.

"Stop!" the Pierce screeched once the flames licked his black pants. Elena, who was for some reason still there, looked up from warning Bonnie. She saw Y/N run towards them with tears streaming down her face and held in a puzzled look.

"Please! Please stop! You're going to kill him! Please!" Y/N shouted to the witch, who never lost focus. Damon continued to thrash, which made Y/N sprint up to Bonnie and tackle her. She lost concentration and hit her head on the concrete, causing a groan to escape her lips. The fire immediately went out, and everyone looked over to Damon, who was struggling to get up.

"Damon," Y/N whispered and hurled herself off Bonnie to go to her lover. The Pierce went down to the ground and put Damon's face in her hands, trying to make him look at her. She kept muttering his name until his shocked eyes met hers. She let out a sob before crushing her lips onto his.

"Damon. Damon, I'm so sorry, please forgive me. Please, Damon," she pleaded, but Damon was too flustered to reply. "Say something. Damon, say something."

Once the Salvatore came back down to Earth, he saw the sparkle in Y/N eyes return even if it was covered with tears. "God, I missed you," he mumbled and reconnected their kiss. Y/N broke it and smiled, the tears still making waves down her cheeks. She placed her forehead against his and couldn't stop crying till the next morning.

A/N: This is the end of the mini-series cause I kinda lost motivation

[oveliagirlhaditright]

This Is Your Life - NeShiki

A NeShiki AU for Week 2, Day 2. Neo Spoilers. Oneshot.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/33449641

Shiki and Neku had been together for three years now… Three blissful years, even amidst all the heartache and pain of them having to live in the UG these days, but blissful they were.

Shiki could still remember well, the time that Neku had wanted to celebrate Christmas with her in the UG (their first Christmas together) and had wanted to buy a tree, of course. And he had… But he’d ended up buying a fake palm tree to decorate with instead of a pine tree, in fearing that if someone happened to see him in the UG… they might somehow link Christmas to the Christian God, and then that with the Composer, and then maybe jump to the right conclusion that Neku knew who the Composer was, and bring even more danger down on them all that way.

So, Neku had bought a fake palm tree. And, truly, it had been silly. Shiki had been sure to tease Neku for it, too. And later, even he’d realized he overreacted (even though they probably wouldn’t take back the chance to try and protect Josh, even if they could… as he had been pretty good to them since enlisting them here)… but even with the silliness, it was probably Shiki’s happiest memory. She’d put a Malibu Barbie on top as the “angel”, and Neku had replied that that seemed fitting of a fashionista like her… and it had all been ridiculous, and so much fun.

And it was for that kind of happiness, that Shiki was mostly glad that she had ended up in the UG with Neku again. She hadn’t killed herself after Coco had murdered him—even though a part of her had been tempted to, to Partner with him in the Game again if he had needed her—and hadn’t gone back to the old Shiki, but rather had gone to work getting Gatto Nero up off the ground with Eri.

But then… Shiki had died in another accident. Not a car accident this time, but a piano falling on her head, of all things, while she was walking down the street. Thankfully, she hadn’t felt that, and the next thing she’d known, she’d been in the UG with Neku and Joshua…

Shiki had then thrown her arms around Neku then and sobbed uncontrollably. And while Neku often tried to act calm, cool and collected, she thought that he had behaved as emotionally as she had when they’d been reunited.

Joshua had explained then, that he was just going to give her the penalty of not being able to play the Game again, since she and Neku were Partners (at the time, Shiki had wanted to slap Josh—thinking that he was trying to rip away her chance of trying to come back to life again—but now she understood he had just given her the solid of not having to play the Game again), and for that reason, they would be his unofficial Reapers working with him to figure out what had happened in Shinjuku.

Neku had apparently been working with Josh on that as soon as he’d died… though Shiki could tell he wanted to come back home, eventually, and so did she.

So, she told herself that when they stopped whatever was going to happen to Shibuya—Josh had to be mums the word about some things, it seemed—she would try and see if he would let them go back to the RG.

Shiki wanted to believe that Joshua would let them… seeing as how he hadn’t forced them to become actual Reapers, or anything—which he more than had the power to do so—and instead pretty much let them be Players, but without a Game to play.

Shiki did still work on Gatto Nero with Eri. Very rarely, Joshua would tune her into the RG, so they could work on a few designs—she would go and see her bestie in the dead of night—and the next day, they would be back to having to e-mail it again… It was hard, but Shiki would take it.

So, this was the life that Shiki and Neku (and Josh, to an extent) had had for three years. A lot of the time, they would live with Joshua at the Shibuya River—because it was faster to be able to work with him on things that way—but other times, they needed their private time and stayed in an abandoned house together. Relators said that it was haunted, which was why people didn’t go there, but Neku—who had learned how to scan Souls during some of their time in Shinjuku—told Shiki that that wasn’t true in the slightest: to which she had had to giggle, that people could be so superstitious.

This was the life that Shiki and Neku had built for themselves… And maybe it was a little reckless to split up from Josh, when they had so many people gunning for them. But she and Neku deserved some happiness, right?

They both had seemed to think so… but now Shiki was very much wondering about that, when in this new Game… Neku had been caught—after he’d been unable to help himself from aiding Players in need—when he’d been going back from the Shibuya River to their home.

And Shiki hadn’t heard from him since he had headed for the Room of Reckoning this morning.

It didn’t take a genius to figure out what had happened. And Shiki did find herself going outside, to hear players and Reapers alike talk about how they were going to catch Neku.

“Oh, Neku,” Shiki thought, as a tear escaped from her eyes now, “I should have made more of the trips to Josh myself. I’m less recognizable than you are, since my Entry Fee was my appearance and most people don’t know what I look like now. Nor am I a ‘legendary player’. Your leaving now had foolish written all over it, and I should have seen it and gone in your stead!”

The fact that Neku hadn’t even had time to text her since he’d become the UG’s most wanted didn’t bode well to Shiki, either.

And Shiki was freely crying now—and near a panic attack, as she clutched at her arms—but she told herself to hold it together. It wouldn’t do to start fretting while standing over here at her and Neku’s dining room table…

Their dining room table that Neku had once gotten so sick at, almost acting liking he had Malaria, as he how tripped down the stairs and into it, while Shiki had looked up from her knitting, horrified—even after being in the UG, he had gotten this sick, when she wouldn’t have thought that that was possible—and she’d had to lay him down on the table to get him to drink medicine as fast as she could then, as his fever had been great… and he had finally grown to like the stuff, and the flavor of it that she liked, too… And then, thankfully, he’d been alright.

If Shiki started losing it so that she couldn’t help now, she would never again get to heal Neku, or share more of her favorite flavors with him.

So, she had to do something!

Shiki no longer had Mr. Mew on her… she had given him to Tsugumi for her to use as a psych—as she’d had an even harder time finding a psych she could use than Shiki had—when it had seemed that she might be able to save Shinjuku in those early days… but she hadn’t gotten him back since Tsugumi had been lost.

But still… Shiki thought she could probably use some other psychs now, like telekinesis, if she had to.

She thought about calling Joshua for aid here… but Shiki feared that his hands were tied with the Higher Plane on this one. And if he was going to help Neku, he was probably already doing it or would have done so by now.

So, Shiki couldn’t waste time on that.

Instead… she prepared to run all over Shibuya to find Neku, if need be, but instead ended up going to the Scramble (so close to her and Neku’s home), which was pretty much right where she and Neku had met: since Hachiko Statue was right there.

Somehow, Shiki had known Neku would be there… and her instincts had been absolutely right about that.

Neku looked exhausted, worn down, and beaten, as he knelt on one of the Scramble Crossing’s many crosswalks now… All of the Players and Reapers fighting him must have really taken a toll on him, Shiki thought despairing and empathizing with Neku immediately.

And Tsugumi was about to erase Neku!

Shiki didn’t even think about what to do then!

She thought she saw a blond boy worrying with a certain pin, but she couldn’t process that now. Instead, she dove in the way of Neku and Tsugumi (holding him tightly as he shook, after she’d just saved him).

And after she got her bearings, Shiki very swiftly snatched her Mr. Mew from Tsugumi’s grip, synced up with Neku—and how she adored, that even now… that he was able to do that with her; if that didn’t show what they were to each other, she didn’t know what would—and did a level three fusion with him once more.

And once everyone was distracted by the laser show Mr. Mew was putting on with his eyes, Shiki grabbed Neku’s hand and ran.

Somehow, some way… she discovered she had a new psych like Neku did, as they sped away—that must have been activated the times Joshua tuned her back and forth—because Shiki could mess with their frequencies!

And for now, she got them both to the RG: Neku holding her and kissing her body all over in thanks and worship, as she did so.

She could breathe again.

And Shiki knew that their perfect life together would continue on… thank God or the Composer, she thought, grinning ear to ear and kissing him back.

Author’s Note: So, this is based on how after Tsugumi erases Beat or whatever… if you look closely, there’s a pair of white shoes that walk towards him afterwards.

And tbh… I was mostly certain that Hoodie was going to be Beat, and he was, but just for fun, I let myself imagine it was Neku or could have been him on this day. And I thought those shoes could have been Shiki coming to save him (because I thought they looked like the shoes she wore at the end of TWEWY, but now I think I’m just crazy). I also thought it might have been Rhyme coming to try and rescue Beat, but I doubt that, too. It was probably just Tsugumi walking or something.

But this whole story is based on that first fun AU idea. And that’s also why it ends right when Shiki saves Neku/when we see those shoes walking towards him or whatever.

Hope you all enjoyed!

And the medicine thing, is based on how… I think Neku didn’t like certain medicines in TWEWY? Or maybe none of them? Shiki liked one of them, though (I think). So, that’s what that whole thing is based on. I wanted it to be food, but I couldn’t find a canon food that Shiki liked that Neku disliked, that he could have changed his mind about for her, so this it was.

And it's NeShiki Day! I actually didn't think I would write this for NeShiki Day (I had something else done). And I just wanted to write tonight, and I didn't know where it would lead me. But, hey. It's NeShiki right on NeShiki Day. I think it's only right I share it for that day!:)

[carasuntoldstory]

The First Trauma

Hi, I'm Cara. And if you're reading this, then that means I finally decided to tell my story.

Sometimes, you don't actually know how traumatic something you've gone through is, and for much of my life, all of my traumas just seemed like normal things that happened. That's what they all became to me. It was just normal. It wasn't until I was a well seasoned adult that I realized just how traumatic my experiences had been.

And to tell you my story, we have to start at the beginning.

It was August of 1990. I was five years old. My little brother was three. Our parents were high school sweethearts and had been separated for a couple of years at the time. They had both moved on. Our mother was married to a new man and we had a brand new baby sister who wasn't even three months old yet. And our father was dating a woman who had a couple of daughters. One was seven and the other was also five like me, just a few months older.

My dad was out drinking at a bar with his girlfriend. Her house was within walking distance from the bar, so when they left, my dad was walking her home.

For some reason or another, they began arguing about halfway between the bar and her house. And another man who had been drinking at a house party nearby decided to be a good Samaritan and intervene.

He came up and told my dad to, "Leave her alone," referring to his girlfriend he had been arguing with. My dad told the man to, "Mind your business." And the two of them began to fight.

My dad's girlfriend had had just about enough of this nonsense, and she turned her back and huffed away. But little did she know what would happen next...

The man fighting my father had a knife, and he pulled it on him, slitting his throat open.

The wound was ten inches across my father's neck.

And who knows how he managed to do it, but he ran. He ran for his life, holding onto his neck the whole time. Blood spilling all over the train tracks where he was stabbed. All over the pavement around the corner and up the block to his girlfriend's house. But somehow, he made it. He pounded on door and the windows for help.

He collapsed there, right on her front porch.

An ambulance came. Paramedics worked with him all the way to the hospital. But it was no use.

My dad died on August 4, 1990 at 1:37am. He was 27 years old.

And I remember that day like it was yesterday.

My brother and I were playing on the floor. He was riding on top of his yellow Tonka truck, and I was riding on top of my pink Barbie corvette. We were just sitting on top of them, scooting on the floor pretending we were driving them. It was something we did often.

Our mother called us into the living room, and in-between sobs and tears, she said two very simple words to us. "Daddy's dead."

I knew what "dead" meant.  It meant my Daddy was in Heaven.  I understood.  Perhaps I didn't understand the permanence, but I understood what she was telling me.  My brother didn't.  We were both quiet as our mother just sat there crying. So I did the only thing I could think to do. "C'mon, lets go," I said, and I took my little brother back into the next room and we started playing again where we left off, like nothing ever happened.

I remember picking out the outfit I was to wear to his funeral.  It had to be pink, with black polka dots.  I insisted. And I remember walking in to the funeral with my mother and little brother... I can still see him laying there in the casket.  He was wearing a white dress shirt and a grey vest.  He wore a tie around his neck, only it wasn't around his shirt collar where it was supposed to be.  I didn't realize why back then, but as the years have passed, and I still remember that stupid tie around his neck, I've now realized it was to cover his fatal wound. 

How sad is that? 

And to this day, I still see him laying there.  I see it all.  Someone left him a red rose.  There were heart-shaped pillows with him.  They were embroidered with, "Dad" and "Brother".  My little brother, three years old, wanted to know, "When is my Daddy going to wake up, Mommy?  When is he going to get out of that bed?"  She just looked down and cried. She couldn't answer him.  But his five year old big sister could.  "He's not going to wake up. He's dead." 

To this day, I'm still not sure how something like that came out of my mouth at only five years old, but it did.  I was such a "brave, big girl," while all the adults around me mourned and cried. I understood that he was dead, but I did not yet comprehend the permanence of what life without him would be like. I mourned for him in my own time, and all these years later, I still do.

Some time after he passed, I'm not sure how long, I went to the house where he died to visit his girlfriend and her daughters, my "step sisters" as I always called them. And I swear, I could still see the blood stains on the sidewalk. And in the window screens. My mom swore it was gone, and that I either made it up or that it was all in my head, but I swear, I saw it.

The man who murdered my father was arrested the same day it happened, and the whole time he sat in jail awaiting trial, he proclaimed his innocence. According to him, he was just a good Samaritan saving a battered woman from the man who was beating her. But to this day, the woman claims my dad never touched her; they were arguing that night, and that was it.

And I say this all the time, but I'm so glad social media didn't exist back in 1990, because my dad's story was all over the news. Even back then, some articles painted him as the good man I knew him to be, but others portrayed him as a woman beating monster. I see the ignorant comments left on social media posts today. I could never imagine having to read the comments people would leave about my father's story.

On May 21, 1991, more than 9 months after my father's death, his killer was sentenced to 40 years in prison for first degree murder.

40 years.

Let me remind you, my father was 27 years old. He was so young. He had so much life ahead of him.

He didn't even get to see me off to kindergarten. Of all the milestones a parent looks forward to witnessing their child do, he didn't even get as far as my first day of kindergarten.

But I'm the lucky one, because I actually have a few memories of him to look back on. My younger brother who was three years old at the time? He has ONE memory of our father. Just one. And it's a good one. But it's just. one.

40 years. And do you know what's even worse than that? Indiana's Good Time Credit. At the time of his incarceration, he was able to earn one day of credit for each day served, which cut his prison sentence in half. So lets take that 40 years and make it 20 years instead.

On May 12, 2010, I received the call I had been dreading; my father's murderer had been released from prison. I knew it was happening. I knew my phone would ring that day. But it still hit me like a slap right across the face and brought me to my knees.

Let me just say, when you have lost a loved one to murder, NO amount of time is ever justice enough. Never.

After 20 years, this man was free to reconnect with his own family and to meet his grandchildren and go on about his life.

Meanwhile, my dad is six feet in the cold wet ground and my children and my brother's children will never know him.

We barely knew him ourselves.

A few weeks from now will mark 31 years since his death. 

The pain never goes away.  It gets easier to deal with as time goes by, but it never truly stops hurting. 

I cried on my 27th birthday because I was the same age as him when he died. And I cried even more on my 28th, because that meant I was officially older than him. And on August 4, 2017, the day he had officially been gone for just as long as he had been alive? Oh yeah, the tears were heavy that day.

The grief comes and goes, and usually it comes when I least expect it. And the older I get, I mourn a little less for the little girl who lost her daddy, and more so for the young man who lost his life way too soon, and for all the things he didn't get to experience.

Today, my dad would be 58 years old. And that's still young. But instead he is eternally 27. Forever young and handsome.

I miss him so much.

"What is grief, if not love persevering?" -Vision, WandaVision, 2021

[randomestfandoms-ocs]

Riverdale OC Masterlist

(several of these ocs may end up getting scrapped entirely, but I’m not ready to commit to that yet so they’re on the list for now)

Name: Amethyst Andrews

Story: (Cast Not Your Stone at the) Wayward Daughter

Series: (Child, They’re) Seeking Weakness Tonight

AO3 | FFNET | WATTPAD

Face claim: Kaya Scodelario 

Love interest: queerplatonic poly Serpents, endgame romantic Sweet Pea & Jughead Jones

Summary: Amethyst Adams was 8 years old when her father died, 12 when she joined the Serpents, and 15 when her adoptive father, Fred Andrews, was shot in a diner. Between trying to run a gang, keep her family alive, and maybe, just maybe, not die along the way, her return to Riverdale never had a chance of going smoothly.

Name: Aaliya Andrews

Story: My Brother’s Keeper

Series: (In Their Triumph Die) Like Fire And Powder

Face claim: Danielle Rose Russell

Love Interest: Jason Blossom; eventual Sweet Pea & Fangs Fogarty

Summary: Aaliya Andrews loved her brother more than anything, and she would do anything for him; even keep her summer a secret.  Archie didn’t need to know that she’d joined the Southside Serpents towards the end of their freshman year, he didn’t need to know that she’d done a strip show in a sketchy biker bar to earn the jacket that she hid in the back of her closet, and he definitely didn’t need to know that she’d started that fateful Fourth of July by waking up in bed with Jason Blossom.  But then sophomore year starts, and with that comes cheerleading and football, playing guitar and talking about going professional, her boyfriend’s - now ex boyfriend’s, she’d suppose - body being found in the river, and an investigation that threatens to reveal every secret she’s ever kept.

Name: Abigail Adler

Face claim: Hailee Steinfeld

Fic: Swan Song

Love Interest: Archie Andrews

Name: Addison “Addy” Blake

Face claim: Troian Bellisario

Fic: Alike In Dignity

Series: (From Ancient Grudge) Break To New Mutiny

Love Interest: Sweet Pea & Toni Topaz

Summary:  Addison Blake had it all. Class president at Greendale Prep, captain of the field hockey team, reigning champion of Riverdale’s Country Club’s teen tennis tournament, all around top girl. But when a shocking scandal shuts her school down and she’s forced to start at Riverdale High, she’s less than impressed—especially when she learns that an entire gang is transferring there too. When one of the boys catches her eye, she tells herself that she can resist the electricity she feels, but something is hanging in the stars, and star crossed lovers have never had a chance.

Name: Adelynn Andrews-Smith

Story: Abyss

Face claim: Phoebe Tonkin

Summary: Back in 2000, Mary Andrews was told that she could never have kids; and so, she and Fred looked into adoption.  They found eight year old Adelynn Smith; and despite her temper and how many families had given up on her, they knew that she was perfect for their little family.  And when Mary miraculously got pregnant with Archie a couple of years later, they were thrilled that their family was going to grow.  And for several years, everything was perfect.  They knew, and Adelynn knew, who her parents were; they allowed and encouraged her to develop her relationship with her father; and they always listened when she talked about her long-since adopted twin brother.  And when, shortly after Fred is shot, Adelynn tells them that the Chic claiming to be Charles Smith is definitely not her brother, they listen.

Name: Alina Allan

Story: Violent Delights

Face claim: Krysten Ritter

Love Interest: FP Jones

Name: Ally Andrews

Story: Home Again

Series: (Make This Place) Your Home

Face claim: Adelaide Kane

Name: Amber Andrews

Story: Petrichor

Face claim: Kennedy McMann

Name: Anastasia Andrews

Story: Say I’m In Too Deep

Series: (Cause I’ve Still Got) A Lot of Fight Left in Me

AO3 | FFNET | WATTPAD

Face claim: Abigail Cowen

Love interest: Jughead Jones

Summary:  Starting high school was supposed to be fun, right?  Apparently whoever said that had never found their brother hooking up with the pedophilic music teacher on their first day, but Anastasia Andrews could tell you from experience, that ruined it.  And if Archie was lying about his relationship with Grundy, could that mean he was also lying about July 4th?  She might not care about Jason Blossom, but she cared about protecting her brother, and if the best way to do that was to team up with Jughead Jones to solve the case themselves, well, she’d do it.

Name:  Angela DeSantos

Story: Gold Lie Promises

Face claim:  Sofia Carson as Evie

Love interest: Veronica Lodge

Summary:  Angela De Santos was a born Serpent, although she and her twin brother didn’t officially join until they were thirteen.  She loved the Serpents, she really did, and she would do anything for them.  So when her brother got roped into disposing of Jason Blossom’s body, she kept her mouth shut; when he got assigned to seduce the Keller kid to keep an eye on the investigation, she gave him a folder of research on all of his interests and hobbies; and when she got assigned to seduce the Lodge heiress to keep an eye on her parents?  Well, it’d hardly be the worst thing she’s done for the gang, so long as she can keep her own feelings out of the mix.

Name: Ariel Blossom

Title: I’m No Princess of Pain

Series: (Something) Next to Normal

Face claim: Holland Roden

Love interest: Malachai

Summary: As the oldest Blossom child, Ariel was always supposed to inherit the family business.  But after learning the truth she rejected the “maple industry”, moving to California the day after she graduated.  Pursuing her dream of acting and modelling, she had no desire to ever look back.  She wouldn’t have ever stepped foot in Riverdale again, if not for her baby brother’s corpse being found with a bullet hole in the head.

Name: Artemisia Andrews

Story: Watch What Happens

Face claim: Katie Douglas

Summary: When Arti Andrews first left Riverdale during her parents’ divorce, she was happy to get away from the small town and live in a big city.  But over the years, things changed, and she wanted nothing more than to go home and reunite with her dad and her twin brother.  So when, five years later, Ari Andrews is finally going home, she couldn’t be more excited.  But Riverdale isn’t the town that she remembers, and with all of the secrets she’s keeping, the stakes are higher than ever.

Name: Astoria Topaz

Story: There’s A Fire Burning In My Bones

Series: (Hell Is Empty) And All The Devils Are Here

Face claim:  China Anne McClain

Love interest: Jughead Jones

Summary: Astoria Topaz was a Serpent by blood, and by choice.  She joined with her twin sister and their two best friends, Fangs and Sweet Pea, when they were all thirteen, and had quickly risen in the ranks among teenagers.  She never expected to be a leader though, until FP Jones got arrested.  Suddenly there was a hole that needed to be filled, and apparently Astoria would have to fill it.  That’s fine, she’s a born Serpent and knows how to keep her family together–or she did, until Jughead Jones walks into the Wyrm, suddenly ready to take on his legacy.  But still, Astoria was born a Serpent, and she’ll die a Serpent, she’ll live as a Serpent come hell or high water.

Name: Barbie Booth

Story: New Girl In Town

Series: (Cause I Am) So Much Better Than Before

Face claim: Candice King

Summary: By fifteen, Barbie Booth already had her eye on the prize: early admission to Tisch for musical theatre, followed by an upper east side apartment with her best friend Veronica Lodge - who would be studying business at Columbia, and then starring as Elle Woods in a revival of Legally Blonde The Musical.  But her plan didn’t include Veronica’s dad getting arrested, and her other half moving to some bumfuck town called Riverdale, leaving her alone for her sophomore year at Spence.  And it definitely didn’t account for her parents up and moving them to Riverdale, for reasons that they refused to explain.  But at least she’d be with Ronnie again, and at least Ronnie told her that Riverdale High wasn’t as bad as they’d imagined.  But then they get to Riverdale, and her plans really go to shit -not only did her parents not research the town that they were moving to, but they bought a house on the south side of the town, dooming her to the rundown school on the wrong side of the tracks, riddled with gangs, murder investigations and, worst of all, no musical theatre program.

Name: Becca Jackson

Story: Everybody Else’s Girl

Series: (Maybe One Day) She’ll Be Her Own

AO3 | FFNET | WATTPAD

Face claim: Sofia Carson

Name: Bella Baxter

Story: The Beauty of A Secret

Face claim: Ciara Bravo

Love interest: Reggie Mantle, Sweet Pea & Fangs Fogarty

Summary:  Bella Baxter is as Northside as they come. Raised in a two story house with a white picket fence, River Vixen since freshman year, best friends include Archie Andrews, Betty Cooper, Kevin Keller, and Jughead Jones.  The only thing that isn’t “proper Northside” about her is simple, FP Jones, the Serpent King himself, is her godfather–and more importantly, has been her legal guardian since she was ten years old. Bella has clung desperately to her Northside image for the past five years, but when Jason Blossom goes missing, it’s time to decide: is her loyalty to her family or to the persona she’s so carefully crafted.

Name:  Beverly Mantle

Story: Steady Satellite

Series: (I’ll Walk Through) Hell With You

Face claim: Arden Cho

Love interest: Fangs Fogarty & Sweet Pea

Summary:  Everyone at Riverdale High knew the Mantles.  Beverly and Reginald, Bev and Reg, as inseparable as they’d been in the womb.  Vice-Captain of the River Vixens and Vice-Captain of the Bulldogs, they were untouchable.  And Jason Blossom’s murder only brought them closer together.  They’d never had any secrets from each other, it was them against the world.  Or it was, until a fight causes Beverly to run away, to cross the bridge to the Southside, where she meets two boys as attractive as they are mysterious, and she knows that she can never let Reggie find out.

Name:  Beverly Mantle

Story: The Inevitably Cursed Life Of Beverly & Reginald Mantle; The Inescapable Secrets That Follow You From Riverdale

Series: (I’ll Walk Through) Hell With You

Face claim: Arden Cho

Love interest: Fangs Fogarty & Sweet Pea

Summary:  Fangs got shot, the Serpents were at war, Archie had just been arrested, and Beverly had been shot. Well, the Mantle twins had always known how to cut their losses. They’d already dealt with being emancipated, after Reggie’s jingle jangle business had Marty hospitalizing both of this children, so it was clearly time for the next step. Get the hell out of Riverdale. Rosewood seemed like a nice enough place to go, and they already had a friend there. Sure, they hadn’t talked to Allison since last summer but really, how much can change in a year?

(aka the PLL crossover that nobody asked for)

Name: Caden “Adder” Archer

Story: Snake Bite

Series: (In Unity) There Is Strength

Face claim: Tyler Posey

Summary: Caden and Carson Archer, Adder and Asp to most of the world, had always been inseperable.  Even as young children, stuck in the Sisters Of Quiet Mercy orphanage, they were always together.  So when the Archers showed up, looking to foster a child, they knew they had to take the pair.  Growing up on the Southside brought them closer, and the duo found themselves joining the Serpents together and quickly embracing their new names; Adder, dangerous but only when provoked, and Asp, unassuming but volatile and lethal.  But even after they joined the gang, found themselves an extended family in the form of rough around the edge bikers, they were always closest with each other.  And that’s why they’re the only ones who know the truth - on July 3rd, Caden and Carson Archer were hooking up with Cheryl and Jason Blossom and on July 4th, they heard a gunshot.

Name: Cameron Newton

Story: Ghost Of The City

Series: (The Ashes Of The People) You Really Meant To Be

Face claim: Maia Mitchell

Love Interest: Archie Andrews

Summary: After the creep in a black suit - the Gargoyle King - took over her town and sent her parents to work at his prison-slash-drug-den, Cameron Newton really didn’t think that anything could surprise her.  And then the so-called Red Paladin showed up with nothing but his best friend an an absolute determination to destroy the man who ruined his life.  Well, Cam can relate, and she quickly appoints herself as their third musketeer - if only she’d known what the quest had in store for her, for all of them.

Name: Candy Barker

Story: Sweet As Sugar

Series: (The Loneliness) Of Loving You

Face claim: Elizabeth Gillies

Love Interest: Poly Serpents

Summary: Candy Barker knew that the Blossom and Cooper children didn’t know that they were related.  She also knew that they didn’t know that there had been a third brother once, who broke off from the family and changed his name to Barker.  And that was fine with her, she could keep the secret from her cousins - it’s not like they’d ever talk to ‘Southside Scum’ anyways.  No, Candy had no problem with keeping the secret between herself and her closest friends.  At least, not until Jason Blossom is murdered in the Wyrm and Candy’s life gets thrown into madness.

Name: Carolyn Cooper

Story: Dirty Little Secret

Face claim: Dianna Agron

Love Interest: Reggie Mantle, Archie Andrews, endgame Poly Serpents

Name: Carson “Asp” Archer

Story: Snake Bite

Series: (In Unity) There Is Strength

Face claim: Shay Mitchell

Summary: Caden and Carson Archer, Adder and Asp to most of the world, had always been inseperable.  Even as young children, stuck in the Sisters Of Quiet Mercy orphanage, they were always together.  So when the Archers showed up, looking to foster a child, they knew they had to take the pair.  Growing up on the Southside brought them closer, and the duo found themselves joining the Serpents together and quickly embracing their new names; Adder, dangerous but only when provoked, and Asp, unassuming but volatile and lethal.  But even after they joined the gang, found themselves an extended family in the form of rough around the edge bikers, they were always closest with each other.  And that’s why they’re the only ones who know the truth - on July 3rd, Caden and Carson Archer were hooking up with Cheryl and Jason Blossom and on July 4th, they heard a gunshot.

Name: Carter “Lilith” Lane

Story: No Sweet Dream

Series: (I Keep A Record Of) The Wreckage Of My Life

Face claim: Nina Dobrev

Summary:  Everyone at Riverdale High had heard of the infamous Serpent, Lilith Lane, and the equally dangerous Ghoulie, Carter.  But no one would have guessed that they were the same person, let alone that she was their very own Carter Lane.

Carter “Lilith” Lane was something completely unheard of in Riverdale - a Ghoulie and a Serpent.  Born to parents in rival gangs, she’s never really known who she was.  Lilith Lane didn’t deal anything harder than weed; she was a party girl; she was very vocal about hating the Serpent Dance.  Carter was the best drug dealer in town; a street racing champion; a part time stripper.  And Carter Lane?  She was little more than a ghost; a River Vixen who hated Cheryl Blossom, the main supplier for Bulldog parties who never showed up herself; someone who everybody knew of but who nobody knew.

It had always been easy to keep those parts of herself separate.  And then summer came around; Carter Lane got emancipated, Carter moved into the House Of The Dead, and Lilith Lane dumped Jason Blossom’s body into Sweetwater River.  And she’s fine.  

But then school starts up again, and when Jughead Jones decides to investigate the events of the summer, her worlds start to collide.

Name: Cecilia Chambers

Story: Miss Americana And The Serpent Prince

Face claim: Josephine Langford

Love Interest: Jughead Jones

Summary: In a town like Riverdale, everybody knew everything about everyone.  Or at least they liked to think that they did.  And they certainly thought that they knew everything about Cecilia Chambers.  They thought that she was the perfect All-American girl, the sweet, blonde, girl next door type.  They didn’t know that she was a Southside Serpent, born and raised.  They didn’t know that FP Jones was her godfather, and her parents’ best friend.  They didn’t know that, when Archie bailed last minute, she was the one FP went to, whom he begged to get Jughead out of town for the summer.  And even she didn’t know why, didn’t know what dark secrets he was trying to protect them from.  But she agreed, and  found herself embarking on a cross country road trip with Jughead Jones.  

Name: Charlotte Jones

Title: No One Has to Know

Series: (This Time Maybe) I’ll Be Bulletproof

Face claim: Britt Robertson

Love Interest: Malachai

Summary:  Alice Smith told FP Jones that she was pregnant, and he decided to raise their daughter.  Serpent princess, heir to the mantle, and protective older sister, Charlotte would do anything for her family, including keep the secret about what happened to Jason Blossom; and she knew the truth, she dumped the body.

Trying to protect her brother without letting him in on the secret should have been easy, if only he hadn’t decided to write a novel about what happened on the Fourth of July.

Name: Christine Cooper

Title: Young & Beautiful

Series: (When I’ve Got Nothing But) My Aching Soul

Face claim: Sasha Pieterse

Love Interest: Poly Serpents

Summary: Christine Cooper had always gone after what she wanted.  She’d gone after the Queen Bee title of Riverdale High, ruling the school with her best friend Cheryl.  She’d gone after her older sister’s boyfriend, sneaking into Thornhill for clandestine hookups with Jason.  She’d gone after the picture perfect life, existing in a different world from most of the town.  And everything she went after, she got.  She got the popularity, she got the boy, she got the dream tv life.  And then Jason ran away with Polly - no, then Jason died.  And the perfect, lovely, completely fake life that Chris had build fell apart.

Name: Daphne Dwyer

Fandom: Katy Keene

Story: Pasts That Haunt

Face claim: Leighton Meester

Love Interest: Katy Keene

Summary: Of course Daphne Dwyer remembered Riverdale, how could she not?  Even when she wanted to, there were too many reminders: daily texts from her former foster brothers, Fangs and Sweet Pea, the leather jacket that she hid so carefully in the back of her closet, and, especially, the serpent tattoo she covered up every single morning.  But she wasn’t a teenage biker gang member anymore.  No, she had left that behind her when she was eighteen, when she moved to New York, when she began to climb the ladder as an Upper East Side socialite.  Now she’s up and coming designer DeeDee; now her past is in her past and she’s only looking forward; now her best friend Katy is introducing their newest roommate - her former brother’s former fling, the daughter of Riverdale’s last mayor, Josie freaking McCoy

Name: Delaney “DC” Carlyle

Story: This Business Of Surviving

Face claim:  Kristine Froseth

Love Interest: Endgame Jughead Jones & Archie Andrews

Summary:  Matthew Carlyle was innocent, Delaney would bet her life on it.  But, despite DC’s absolute belief in her father’s innocence, the FBI agent was still arrested for the murder of his fellow agent, Christopher Wells.  So Delaney’s mother packed up their house in Washington, DC and moved her daughter back to her own hometown.  But when they get to Riverdale they find a town shaken to its core by the disappearance of Jason Blossom.  Honestly, DC couldn’t have cared less; she only cared about solving her father’s case and proving his innocence.  At least until her mom brings her to the local Drive-In and everything changes.  

First, she meets a boy in the projection booth who’s writing a novel about the murder; then she meets a man who turns out to be that boy’s father, her mom’s childhood best friend, and a gang leader - a gang that her mom is apparently a part of; finally she meets another boy, one with a snake tattooed on his neck and an undeniable magnetism. That’s when her whirlwind summer begins.  But just as quickly as it started, her summer of romance, Serpents, and mysteries ends, and it’s time to make her space in a new school. DC is ready to put the past behind her and focus on the future, when in walks the daughter of Hiram Lodge - the last man her father put in jail.

Name: Doria Mary Wallis

Title: Untitled

Face claim: Jenny Boyd

Name: Drake Dawson

Title: Son Of Steel

Series: (Cause He’s) Stronger Than You Know

Face claim: Matthew Daddario

Summary: FP Jones and Derek Dawson had done everything together.  They’d been Southsiders at Riverdale High together, they’d joined the Serpents together, they’d joined the army together, they’d even gone to Afghanistan together.  But only FP came back.  Drake Dawson had been raised by FP Jones for as long as he could remember, had idolized the man who was like a father to him, and had always tried to make him proud.  And now, after four years of military service, the Serpent Prince is back in Riverdale.  But everything has changed, and Drake no longer recognizes the town he grew up in.

Name: Emily Blossom

Story: Bloom

Face claim: Debby Ryan

Love Interest: Jughead Jones

Name: Everett Evernever

Story: Ain’t From No Heaven

Face claim: Madison Davenport

Love Interest: tentative poly Serpents

Summary: Of course Everett Evernever loved the Farm.  Of course she respected her father and of course she pretended that her mother was her sister.  Of course she only had one kidney and a partial liver.  She would never consider anything else, would never question Edgar’s rulings.  At least, not until her psychology class started to study cults.  And the more Everett learned, the more things seemed familiar.  But the Farm couldn’t be a cult, could it?  It was her family.  So she started acting out, determined to prove herself wrong.  And that’s when Alice Cooper comes into the picture.  In order to prove her loyalty and dedication, Alice is assigned to set Everett back on the right track.  And it’s while she’s living with the Coopers that Everett meets the Southside Serpents, and her perfectly planned, perfectly secret life is thrown into a whirlwind.

Name: Evan “Fairy” Fogarty

Story: Don’t Take My Kindness For Weakness

Series: (Gonna Feel Me) When I Fight Back

Face claim: Lana Condor

Love interest: Sweet Pea & Jughead Jones

Summary: Evan Fogarty has been affectionately known as “Fairy” by the Serpents since she was nine years old, trailing after her brother and his best friend.  It was Sweet Pea who came up with it, thought it was fitting for the sweet girl who paired a leather jacket with pastels, a switchblade with her ice capps, and razor blades with her pigtails, and honestly?  She loved it.  The Serpents, her family, knew that she was a lot tougher than she let on, but the Northsiders constantly underestimated her.  They hear the nickname and expect an airhead child, not a girl who’s been taking care of her sick mother since she was ten.  They expect a naïve fool, not the brains to her brother’s brawn.  And yeah, she’d rather make peace with the Northsiders than start an all our turf war, but if that’s what’s happening, she’ll still be on the front lines.  And when FP Jones is arrested for a murder she knows he didn’t commit, Evan knows that war has finally come to Riverdale.

Name: Fallon Parris “FP” Jones

Story: Every Day Is Like a Battle

Series: (We’re On the) Road to Ruin

AO3 | FFNet | Wattpad

Face claim:  Brenna D'Amico

Love interest: Toni Topaz, Sweet Pea, Reggie Mantle

Summary: Fallon Parris Jones, FP to her friends, was taken to Toledo against her will when her parents separated.  She would have stayed, for Jellybean, except her dad called her and told her that her twin had just been hauled in and questioned for murder.  Fallon may play at obedience, but her twin’s wellbeing is always the most important thing in the world, so she hops on the next bus to Riverdale with no intention of leaving him ever again.  It isn’t until she arrives that she finds out just how deep her family is in this mess, and clearly no one else can be counted on to fix everything.  Armed with nothing but her well-worn Serpent jacket, a switchblade, and an unstoppable determination to protect her brother, Riverdale is about to find out that they messed with the wrong family

Name: Francesca Jones

Story: Living In Sin

Face claim: Lili Reinhart

Love Interest: poly Serpents (not Jughead of course)

Summary: Hal and Alice Cooper had only ever wanted two children, two perfect daughters for their perfect family.  But when Alice found out that she was pregnant with twins, they agreed to keep both, and Francesca and Elizabeth Cooper were born.  But then they found out that Francesca was deaf and, despite their decision to keep both twins, they were quick to give her to the Sisters of Quiet Mercy.

Shortly after Jughead was born, Gladys Jones was told that she could no longer have kids.  Devastated, she and FP were quick to look into adoption, and found the perfect addition to their family; Francesca.  

Francesca Paige Jones grew up on the Southside with her brother Jughead and their miracle sister Jellybean, although she chose to stay on the Southside and not interact with the other side of town, despite knowing that she had a twin sister and biological parents somewhere across the tracks, despite knowing that Jughead was even friends with her twin. But then Gladys and Jellybean move to Toledo, Jughead leaves home, FP helps dispose of Jason Blossom’s body, and suddenly the Northside is paying attention to them.  She would have been perfectly happy to fly under the radar, to continue to pretend that she had no ties to the Northside, had she not come face to face with a mirror image of herself named Betty Cooper.

Name:  Genevieve Grundy

Story: Perfect Stranger

Series: (Don’t Like Your) Little Lies

Face claim:  Natalia Dyer

Love interest: Poly Serpents

Summary:  Genevieve Grundy wasn’t a born Serpent like her friends, but she was still Southside through and through.  She’d been raised on the Southside by her grandma, until her grandmother died and she was taken in by Serpent foster parents.  She’d attended Southside High and joined the Serpents, she was a Southsider.  Keyword being was.  But after the Jason Blossom Incident, as they had taken to calling it, Gen found herself being moved to the Northside.  She would be fine, she told herself, she could still visit her friends and it might be nice to go to a better school.  She would be fine.  And she almost believed it, until she walked into her first music class of the year, only to find that the teacher was using her grandmother’s name.

Name: Harley Day

Story: Legendary

Face claim:  Bianca Santos

Love interest: Poly Serpents

Name:  Harper Hope Harrison

Story: My Demons and My Muse

Series: (Though It’s Truth You Find) It’s Innocence You Lose

AO3 | FFNET | WATTPAD

Face claim:  Dove Cameron

Love interest: Fangs Fogarty, eventual Fangs & Sweet Pea

Summary:  In the midst of her parents’ messy divorce, Harper Harrison and her mom go to live with her mom’s cousin, Fred Andrews. She was really excited, her Uncle Fred was the coolest person ever, and apparently her cousin Archie is now as into music as she is. But after an accident during the drive to Riverdale lands her in the hospital instead of onstage, Harper has to reconsider everything she’s ever known. She doesn’t think that she could ever be on Broadway now, not after the accident left her with severe hearing loss, but the boy across the hall, recovering from a gunshot, is determined to prove otherwise.

Name: Hera Lodge

Story: Sins Of The Father

Face claim: Camila Mendes

Name:  Holli Hansen

Story: A Thousand Cuts

Face claim:  Skyler Samuels

Name: Ivy “Vine” Verona

Title: Dreamers Often Lie

Series: (Look Like The Innocent Flower) But Be The Serpent Under’t

Faceclaim: Emily Rudd

Summary: If there was one thing that Ivy Verona was good at, it was lying.  She lied to the Northsiders; she said she was Northside pure, that her guardian was an accountant, that she’d never even heard of the Whyte Wyrm.  She lied to the Southside too; she said she was flunking all her major classes, said cheerleading was only a front, said she planned to stay in Riverdale the rest of her life. And then there was the lie that she told the entire town - that she had no idea what might’ve happened to Jason Blossom.

Only her uncle FP and best friend Joaquin knew the truth.  She’d been Jason’s dealer; she’d brought him to the Wyrm; she’d watched him die, and then washed away his blood; she dumped his body in the river and pretended it never happened.

But the biggest lie she told was to herself - that Jason Blossom’s death was not her fault.

Name: Jac Daniels

Story: Light In The Dark

Series: tbd

Face claim:  Alycia Debnam-Carey

Love interest: Fangs Fogarty & Sweet Pea

Summary: Despite being a Southside Serpent, Jacqueline Daniels was one of the last truly good people in the town of Riverdale.  Despite being surrounded by darkness, she wore her heart on her sleeve and always kept her heart open for more strays.  Of course the majority of it was taken up by her three best friends and fellow Serpents, but when Jughead Jones transferred to Southside High, she knew there would be a place for him too.  And there was, and Jughead found himself with a new tour guide slash bodyguard slash friend, whose open heart and pure soul were rivalled only by her fierce loyalty and protective nature.  But even the brightest light in Riverdale has a breaking point, and when Northside drama starts to endanger her friends, her family, Jac may just discover her own.

Name: Jasmine Blossom

Story: Archaic

Face claim:  Abigail Cowen

Love interest: tentative Archie Andrews

Name: Jennifer Andrews

Story: Two Can Keep a Secret (If One Of Them Is Dead)

Series:  (Though It’s Truth You Find) It’s Innocence You Lose

Face claim:  Dove Cameron

Love interest:  FP Jones

Summary: Before there was Harper or Archie or Jughead, there was Jennifer and Fred and FP.  The Rebel Girl, the All-American Boy, and Mr. Varsity.  Jennifer and Fred Andrews may have been cousins, but they were as close as siblings, and rarely seen without their best friend FP Jones.  They’d always been inseparable, and detention was no different.  While Fred and FP were in trouble for streaking, Jen had gotten caught spray painting the boys’ locker room.  It was just supposed to be one Saturday, but instead it ended with a corpse, hair dye, and a secret to bring to grave.

Name: Jennifer Andrews-Harrison

Story: My Demons and My Muse

Series: (Though It’s Truth You Find) It’s Innocence You Lose

AO3 | FFNET | WATTPAD

Face claim:  Kristin Chenoweth

Love interest: FP Jones

Summary: Jennifer Harrison (née Andrews) had been in love once and married once, but they weren’t the same man.  She’d been in love with Forsythe Pendleton Jones Jr. since she was fifteen, although she only confessed it when she was sixteen and left Riverdale for good.  She’d been twenty five and three months pregnant when she married Joseph Harrison, and they’d managed to put up with each other for sixteen years.  But when she finally files for divorce, she realizes that she can’t keep her daughter in the middle of it, and moves her to Riverdale.  She tells her boss that it’s to write an exposé on the small town now rife with crime and corruption–a girl had just been murdered during a school musical, after all–, she tells her cousin Fred that it’s for her daughter’s sake, and she tells the town that it’s to get away from her husband.  She didn’t realize that going back to her hometown meant going back to a secret she buried twenty five years ago, or to feelings that she’d tried to bury the exact same day.

Name: Jett Jones

Story: Daddy Lessons

Face claim: Crystal Reed

Love Interest: Jason Blossom, Archie Andrews

Name: Opal “Jewel” Cooper

Story: This Be The Verse

Series: (In This Town) There’s No One To Trust

Face claim:  Grace Phipps

Love Interest: poly serpents (not Jughead, of course)

Summary:  Opal Cooper, the youngest of the Cooper sisters, had always known that she was different.  How could she not? Her dark hair made her the literal black sheep of her perfectly blonde family.  Sure, her mom always claimed that she inherited it from her grandfather, but Opal knew that something was different.  So, in the summer before she started high school, she did some digging.  She wasn’t surprised at all to find she wasn’t a Cooper, but she was more than a little shocked to learn her biological father was none other than FP Jones.  A simple desire to build a relationship with her real dad started Opal down a road that she never expected; a road of gangs and murder and nicknames.  Starting high school armed with a switchblade and the truth about what happened to Jason Blossom, the newly nicknamed Jewel Cooper was nothing like the Opal anyone remembered.

Name: Julia Smith Thomas

Story: Begin Again

Face claim: Lily James

Love Interest: FP Jones

Name: Juliet Capes

Story: Star Crossed

Face claim:  Sarah Jeffrey

Love interest: Fangs Fogarty

Summary:  When Fangs Fogarty got dared to seduce the uptight Northside princess Juliet Capes, he knows it’s a dick move. But he also knows that it’ll get him his stripes, get him accepted with the teen serpents. The river vixen is easy to win over, and soon he’s claimed all of her firsts. Fangs would be happy to keep his motivations, and the gunshot they heard, a secret, but in a town like Riverdale, the truth always comes out, and someone always gets hurt.

Name: Fraser Paxton Jupiter Jones

Story: Amphisbaena

Face claim: Dylan O’Brien

Love Interest: Poly Serpents (not Jughead)

Summary: Fraser Paxton Jones was many things.  He was a Riverdale Bulldog, a Southside Serpent, Cheryl Blossom’s boyfriend, Jughead Jones’ big brother, FP Jones’ firstborn son; he was Jupiter Jones.  The one thing he wasn’t was a murderer.  But when Clifford Blossom showed up at the Wyrm in early summer, threatening to kill his little brother if the Serpents didn’t do what he said, the line between who Jupiter Jones was and wasn’t started to blur.

Name: Kathryn Keyes

Story: All That Glitters (Isn’t Gold)

Series: (Glory And Gore) Go Hand In Hand

Face claim: Olivia Holt

Love Interest: Archie Andrews

Summary: Kathryn Keyes loved growing up in Orange County.  She loved the sunshine and the beaches, Disneyland and busy streets, shopping and even school.  She loved that boxing classes, her dojo, and her ballet studio were all within five minutes of each other, with a Starbucks in between.  Really, she loved everything about her perfect glittery life.  But that didn’t stop her parents from moving her all the way across the country to some hick town called Riverdale.  There’s no Disneyland or busy streets, no beaches or shopping, not even a Starbucks.  But there’s a gym and a studio, a forest and a river, so her summer is spent boxing and dancing, running and swimming.  And on July Fourth, she runs into something - a redhead boy who couldn’t be any older than she was, and a woman at least twice their age, and despite what they said, it definitely wasn’t just music lessons.  But still, when the boy offers to walk her home, she says yes; she figures she might as well have one friend at her new school, after all.  

But then they hear a gunshot and Kathryn finds herself drawn into the web of lies surrounding that day.  She knew that helping to unravel the mystery would reveal some secrets, but she never expected to learn that her perfect glittery life in California wasn’t quite as golden as she thought.

Name: Keegan Rhodes

Story: Everybody Else’s Girl

Series: (Maybe One Day) She’ll Be Her Own

AO3 | FFNET | WATTPAD

Face claim: Jordan Fisher

Love interest: Stevie Cooper

Name: Kit Cooper

Story: It Gets Worse Here Every Day

Face claim:  Kiernan Shipka

Summary: Hal and Alice Cooper had only ever wanted two daughters.  Two perfect daughters.  They’d never wanted the third; the wild child, the unplanned twin.  They were going to keep her, they weren’t going to separate Betty from her twin, but when Kit Cooper was diagnosed with severe hearing loss and that was the last straw.  Only five years old, Kit was shipped off to The Sisters Of Quiet Mercy, out of sight, out of mind.  They told her sisters that she was at a private care facility, one that was better equipped to handle her disability than they were.  They would have gotten away with it, if ten years later they hadn’t sent Polly to the Sisters as well.  Now the secret is out, and Betty and Polly will do whatever it takes to get their sister back.

Name: Kristiana Keller

Story: Silver Screen

Series: (Know the Water’s Sweet) But Blood Is Thicker

AO3 | FFNET | WATTPAD

Face claim:  Danielle Campbell

Love interest: Toni Topaz

Summary: If the Keller twins could explain one thing, just one thing, to the people of Riverdale, it would be that they were exhausted.  With their father as Sheriff, it always seemed like they were held to a higher standard than the rest of the town.  Lieutenant of the cheer squad and the best wrestler in his weight class; student body vice president and social coordinator; Model UN Secretary General and Chargé D’Affairs; 4.0 GPAs; and a secret to take to the grave.  And if anyone found out that they heard the gunshot on the fourth of July, it might just be to the grave.

Name: Lola Lexington

Story: Living Like A Devil

Series: (Find Me) Where The Wild Things Are

Face claim: Emeraude Toubia

Love Interest: Toni Topaz & Sweet Pea

Name: Lyra Lovell

Story: Unconquerable

Series: (With A Devil) On Your Back

Face claim:  Haley Lu Richardson

Love interest: Jughead Jones

Summary: When Jughead Jones moved to Toledo after his dad’s arrest, he thought that he was finally leaving  Riverdale, and the Serpents, behind him.  But when his mom introduces him to his guide, he knows that’ll be impossible.  Lyra Lovell was a Serpent legacy like he was, and left her mom in Riverdale to move to Toledo with her dad.  Being surrounded by the so-called Toledo Serpents would have been bad enough, but then FP is proven innocent and Gladys sends him straight back to Riverdale. Fully prepared for the worst, he’s pleasantly surprised to find out that Lyra has decided to go home too–if only they can find a way out of their seemingly inevitable destinies.

Name: Mallory Mason

Story: Lamb To The Slaughter

Face claim:  Willa Fitzgerald

Summary:  Mallory Mason had been popular once - with Moose as her brother and Cheryl as her best friend, she couldn’t have been anything less.  She had been popular once, and happy, and desperately in love with her best friend.  And then she came out.  At fourteen, Mal Mason was sent to the Sisters of Quiet Mercy for conversion therapy.  At sixteen, her best friend and first crush shows up in Mal’s personal hell.  And then she gets rescued, and drags Mal out with her.  And suddenly, after two years, Mal has to face Riverdale again.  And, more importantly, Mal has to face her family.

Name: Mila Turner

Story: Fearless

Face claim:  Victoria Justice

Name: Nova Nixon

Story: Serpentine

Face claim: Emma Dumont

Name: Olivia Cooper

Story: Walls Come Tumbling Down

Series: (Does It Almost Feel Like) Nothing Changed At All

Faceclaim: Lily Collins

Love Interest: Sweet Pea & Fangs Fogarty

Summary:  As much as Olivia Cooper loved her sisters, and she truly did, it often felt like she was living with strangers.  While Betty and Polly were thick as thieves, she never quite fit in.  But she still knew her sisters better than anyone, and she knew that Polly wasn’t sick.  No matter what their parents said, she knew her twin and she knew that something wasn’t quite right.  She just never expected her investigation to bring her face to face with two magnetic Southside Serpents, and she definitely never expected to find herself feeling more at home with them than she ever had with her sisters.  But that won’t stop her from finding out the truth about Polly, no matter how many secrets get revealed along the way.

Name: Pandora Peabody

Story: The Snake Whisperer

Series: (It Isn’t In) My Blood

Face claim: Ashley Benson

Love interest: Poly Serpents

Summary: Everyone on the Southside knew Panda Peabody, daughter of the Snake Charmer, Penny Peabody herself.  A king pin in the making, Panda was virtually untouchable, and she had her mom’s talent for business.  But instead of dealing in favours, she deals in secrets.  

Everyone on the Northside knows Pandora Patterson, the aloof queen bee herself.  Pandora isn’t popular the way that Cheryl Blossom is, through a desperate grasp at the social ladder, but rather because she’s so disinterested.  She walks like she owns the halls, she keeps to herself, and she knows everything about everyone.  

While the Serpents knew that their own Snake Whisperer was a student at Riverdale High, dealing in both secrets and drugs, the Bulldogs had no idea that their It Girl was not only a Serpent, but the one most capable of destroying all of them.

Name: Persephone Parsons

Story: Heartbreak Is The National Anthem

Face claim: Ginny Gardner

Name: Presley Palmer

Story: Living In The Garden Of Evil

Series: (Tell Me All Your) Sweet, Sweet Little Lies

Face claim: Carlson Young

Love Interest: Sweet Pea & Toni Topaz

Summary: Presley Palmer wasn’t just a normal Northsider.  No, she was the peak of the Northside.  Raised by a single father who was as rich as the Blossoms, in a sprawling mansion near Thornhill, and Cheryl Blossom’s best friend and co-captain of the River Vixens, she was the girl that every Northsider wanted to be or to be with.  But, as popular and social as they were, Presley and Cheryl were equally insular.  It was always, only, the two of them; ice and water; Queen Pres and Cherry; Presley and Cheryl.  Two sides of the same coin, they knew everything about each other.

Well, not everything.  Cheryl didn’t know about the snake tattoo that Presley covered up every day; she didn’t know that on the other side of town, Presley Palmer was known as Prissy Peabody, the only daughter of the infamous Snake Charmer; and she most certainly didn’t know that it would be Jughead Jones’ investigation into her brother’s disappearance that would bring those secrets to life.

Name: Queenie Quincy

Story: Liability

Series: (Die Only For) You Above All

Face claim: Marlo Kelly

Love Interest: Toni Topaz

Name: Raven Richards

Story: Cruel Summer

Series: (This Town Will Be) The Downfall Of Us All

Face claim: Emma Mackey

Love Interest: Poly Serpents (not Jughead)

Name: Rayne Rivers

Story: An Ounce Of Loyalty

Face claim:  Lucy Hale

Love interest: Poly Serpents

Summary: Maybe Rayne Rivers wasn’t the most popular Serpent, or the most feared Serpent, or anything special whatsoever by her gang’s standards, but she was loyal. Loyal enough that FP Jones asked her, personally, to help deal with Jason Blossom’s body. Loyal enough that she did so without question, without complaint. Loyal enough that now that his body has been found, Rayne would sooner die than give her up her gang’s secrets. But in a town like Riverdale, be careful what you wish for.

Name: Renee Steele

Story: Ourobos

Face claim: Winona Ryder

Love Interest: Robert Steele

Name: Riley Richards

Story: Cruel Summer

Series: (This Town Will Be) The Downfall Of Us All

Face claim: Kathryn Newton

Love Interest: Jughead Jones & Archie Andrews

Name: Robert Steele

Story: Ourobos

Face claim: David Harbour

Love Interest: Renee Steele

Name: Rose Blossom

Story: A Rose By Any Other Name

Series: (Ill Met) By Moonlight

Face claim:  Sophie Turner

Love interest: Sweet Pea & Jughead

Summary:  The youngest of the Blossom siblings, Rose had always been the most spoiled. Affectionately, and mockingly, referred to as Princess Blossom, she was everything a Northsider, everything a Blossom should be.  Of course, things started to fall apart when her brother disappeared, but when she joined the River Vixens, things seemed to be getting back on track.  At least they were, until her brother’s body is found with a bullet hole in his head.  Unsure of what to do next, Rose runs.  She runs and runs until she finds herself on the Southside, falling into the arms of a tall, dark, and handsome stranger who goes by Sweet Pea.  And then there’s the question of Jughead Jones, and the magnetic attraction she feels towards him.  The cycle always ends the same way; a Jones and a Blossom, a Serpent and a Blossom, but by god, Rose will make sure that she’s not Riverdale’s next tragic Juliet.

Name: Rosebud Reynolds

Story: The Price Of Your Greed (Is Your Son And Your Daughter)

Series: (I Gotta Recognize) The Weapon In My Mind

Face claim: Halston Sage

Love Interest: Archie Andrews, Toni Topaz, Sweet Pea, endgame FP Jones

Summary: At seventeen years of age, Rosebud Reynolds had… well, she definitely didn’t have it all, but she had what mattered.  She had the Serpent jacket that she’d been wearing for ten years and the nickname she’d had for even longer - and god help anyone who used her real name.  She had fifteen years of ballet lessons under her belt and an upcoming audition for Juilliard.

But everything is on the line when she gets sent to Riverdale High to keep an eye on Jughead Jones.  It would have been fine, if he hadn’t decided to investigate the disappearance of Jason Blossom.

It would have been fine, if she didn’t know the truth about what happened.

It would have been fine, if she hadn’t watched her father shoot him.

His son.

Her brother.

Name: Roxie Harrison

Story: Nothing Town

Face claim:  Shelley Hennig

Love Interest: Poly Serpents

Name: Ruby Klump

Story: Blood In The Water

Series: (This Town Kills You) When You Are Young

Face claim:  Meg Donnelly

Love interest: Fangs Fogarty, eventual Fangs x Sweet Pea

Summary: Ruby Klump had been thirteen when she was first sent to a school for “troubled kids” on the outskirts of Greendale and, despite still living in Riverdale, that had been the beginning of a lifetime of isolation.  She barely knew any other teens in Riverdale, not even her older sister’s friends.  Her parents had worked long and hard to keep their problem child away from their perfect Riverdale life, but when Midge is murdered during the school musical, Ruby has to come to the funeral.  And once the floodgates are open, there’s no going back.  Finally making friends in her town, Ruby refuses to be hidden away anymore.  Especially after she befriends a particularly cute boy in a leather jacket… who just got arrested for her sister’s murder.

Name: Ryann Hernández-Viamonte

Story: A Real Nightmare

Series: (Dangerously Having) The Time Of Our Lives

Face claim: Sofia Carson

Love interest: Toni Topaz

Summary: Next to her brother Malachai, Ryann Hernández-Viamonte had always been underestimated, never seen as a real threat by anyone outside of the Ghoulies.  But the Ghoulie Princess knew that, despite everyone’s assumptions, she was one of the most dangerous people in Riverdale.  And after the stunt that Andrews kid pulled at the drag race, Ry found herself spending eight months in Juvie.  Finally, two months after her brother and most of their fellow Ghoulies were released, Ry is back in Riverdale, only to find that everything has gone to shit.  First she finds out that she’s now attending Riverdale High, and then she learns that not only did Malachai make a deal with Penny Peabody, but now they’re also working for Hiram Lodge?  Well, not if she has anything to say about it.

Name: Samantha Cooper

Story: Glissade

Face claim: Willow Shields

Love Interest: Fangs Fogarty & Sweet Pea

Summary: Skating was, and had always been, Samantha Cooper’s entire life.  But not by choice.  No, as much as she had always loved skating, it was her mother who had forced her to focus her entire life on perfection, on the Olympics.  It was her mother who didn’t let her have friends, or hobbies; who didn’t even want her to go to a proper school.  And Samantha really didn’t mind skating being her priority, but she’d always wanted a real life.  And when Alice pushes too far, when Samantha runs off in the middle of the night, right into the arms of two tall, dark, and handsome boys from the wrong sides of the track, she may finally get her chance.  But everything comes at a price, and Sam is soon going to find out the cost of her choices.

Name: Skylar Smith

Story: Lonely World

Series: (This Town Has Got) The Youth Of Me

Face claim: Amanda Seyfried

Name: Stevie Cooper

Story: Everybody Else’s Girl

Series: (Maybe One Day) She’ll Be Her Own

AO3 | FFNET | WATTPAD

Face claim: Sabrina Carpenter

Love interest: Keegan Rhodes

Summary: The middle Cooper sister, Stevie never really knew or cared about the Riverdale drama or the Cooper drama, because she was “eat, sleep, breathe, gymnastics”. She didn’t even live in Riverdale, she lived just outside of New York City at an elite facility, where top athletes could train with the best of the best, while also attending a school designed to accommodate their training.

She knew that Polly had been dating Jason Blossom, but didn’t really care as long as Polly was happy; she knew that Betty had been in love with their neighbour since she was eight, and that she was spending the summer with some fancy internship, but that was it.

But after a broken wrist takes her out of gymnastics for a while and she has to trade her gymnastics-oriented boarding school for Riverdale High, just in time for the first day of class, she realizes exactly how much shit her little sister is caught up in, at school and at home, and god help anyone who tries to stop her from protecting her.

Name: Summer Simmons

Story: Such Sweet Sorrow

Series: (Serpent Heart) Hid With A Flowering Face

Face claim: Janel Parrish

Love interest: Archie Andrews

Summary: Much like her twin brother Sweet Pea, Summer never used her real name.  No, no one needed to know that–most people didn’t even know their last name.  So yeah, names had never really meant anything to Summer, until she finds out that the Archie she’s been dating, ever since he walked into the Wyrm in a Riverdale High varsity jacket, is none other than Archie Andrews–her brother’s new enemy and now the leader of some teen vigilante gang that’s sworn to hate her gang–her family.  Well, as Shakespeare would say, the course of true love never did run smooth.

Name: Talia Steele

Story: Ourobos

Face claim: Zoey Deutch

Love Interest: tentative Poly Serpents

Name: Tanya Conway

Story: Yesterday’s Girl (Is Not What You See)

Series: (This Human Place) Makes Inhuman Monsters

Face claim: Kat McNamara

Love Interest: Poly Serpents

Summary: Identity was fickle, as far as Tanya was concerned. To some she was Tanya Trent, a first generation serpent whose mother was the principal of Southside High, until the Black Hood killed her. To others she was Tanya Svenson, a Southside punk whose father was the janitor at Riverdale High, until he was killed for being the Black Hood. To herself she was Tanya Conway, a teenage girl who knew that the Cooper family had killed her dad’s family; who knew that, even after they divorced, her dad loved her mom; who knew that, no matter what anyone said, her dad wasn’t the Black Hood. And now she’s just Tanya, a scared but stubborn girl with no sense of identity who’s just been sent to Riverdale High with her fellow Serpents, armed with nothing but the snake tattooed on her back and the need to clear her father’s name.

Name: Tiara Blossom

Story: Dollhouse

Face claim: Maddison Brown

Name: Victoria Lodge

Story: You Inherit The Sins, You Inherit The Flames

Series: (Now We’re In The Ring) And We’re Coming For Blood

Face claim:  Jenna Ortega

Summary: Victoria Lodge was the black sheep of the Lodge family.  She didn’t care about the constant parties or connections, she didn’t particularly like her dad, she’d never even watched Breakfast at Tiffany’s, and oh, right, she had no interest in being a mob princess.  Maybe that’s why she’s the only one looking forward to moving to Riverdale–until she realizes she’s walked onto the set of a real life murder mystery, and even her parents are suspects.

[hellocutepanda]

The Plan

Her eye was twitching. Again. Eye twitching was an indication of stress. Caroline closed her eyes and pressed her fingers to the eye that was twitching in effort to stop. Maybe if she pressed hard enough she could stab her brain with her fingers and put herself out of this misery. 

As if he knew what she was thinking she felt Stefan’s hand on her arm. She could feel the concern emanating from him in waves. It was nice to think he was concerned enough to stop her from stabbing herself in the eye, but she was pretty sure he was looking to restrain her should she make a lunge for his brother. As Damon was the usually main source of most of her stress which was a direct result of being in miserable situations that he was usually the cause of. 

“Blondie, are you paying attention?” 

Caroline opened the the eye that wasn’t twitching to glare at Damon. 

“As fun as it would be to play one eye’d pirates with you, we don’t really have the time.” 

Seriously was silently but clearly expressed with the tilt of her head and the accompanying glare. 

Damon’s glacial blue eyes widened to say that yes, he was serious about not having the time as Caroline felt Stefan’s hand curl around her arm thus confirming that he was trying to restrain her from hurting Damon and not herself. 

“Now, as I was saying, since a certain Barbie wasn’t listening, after we crash the Mikelson ball bash, we track down the Big Bad and get him into the library.” 

“Damon, we should just talk to him in the ballroom, where he is less likely to tear us to shreds in front of the entire town.” Caroline said as she dropped her hand from her eye and gave Stefan a reassuring look that she wasn’t going to murder his brother. At least not right at that moment. 

“He wouldn’t tear us to shreds.”

“Uhhh, hello? We are only going to ask to borrow his moon stone and some of his blood so we can save your psychotic girlfriend Katherine that Klaus has made it his life goal to murder in a really super specific way. How is he not going to want to murder us as well when we ask him for his help?”

“AND” Caroline said, holding up her hand to keep Damon from responding until she was finished.

“AND” she repeated ”what makes you even think he is going to want to help us?” 

“Yeah, Damon. You haven’t even told us how you are going to get him to want to help us.” Stefan asked, his dark brows pulling together in concern as his hand dropped away from Caroline’s arm. 

“Oh ye of little faith. I know exactly the thing to get the Big Bad to help us.”

Caroline and Stefan waited for Damon to continue, the silence lengthening to the point that they both realized Damon wasn’t going to say anything more.

Stefan threw out his hands as his eyebrows went up as he spoke. “Well?”

Damon smirked as he spoke. “First, he is going to want to help because he wants to kill Katherine himself. Can’t do that if she is already dead. Second, we are going to promise him a date with Blondie.”

“Are you out of your mind?!” Caroline screeched as she came off the couch and lunged for Damon. 

As quick as Caroline was, she was still a baby vampire. Stefan was up and off the couch and in front of Caroline before she could grab Damon. Honestly, with what Damon said, Stefan was willing to let Caroline throw Damon around. It was well worth the risk of damaging the antiques in the Salvatore living room. 

Damon jumped back and held his hands out ready to defend himself in case Caroline managed to slip past Stefan. She already managed to kick the shit out of him twice. He wasn’t looking to give her a chance at a third time. 

“Calm down, Barbie. It’s just a date. Take him to a movie, sit in different rows. It will be fine. I’ve done it plenty of times.” 

Both Caroline and Stefan stopped struggling to look at Damon, both of them nonplussed at what he had just said. 

“What?” Caroline said with her brows drawn together, and Stefan echoing his own “What?” at his brother’s statement. 

Damon dropped his hands and shrugged. “I mean they didn’t necessarily know we were on a date together. And I did eat them after the movie was over” 

Stefan sighed with resignation as he let go of Caroline to rub his forehead from the sudden headache that he always seemed to get when he was with his brother.

Caroline went from dumbfounded back to mad in the time it took her to take a breath. “That’s not a date you creeper. That’s called stalking and murder!” 

“Stalking. Murder. Date. Whatever.” Damon said with another shrug as he turned to go to the sidebar to pour himself a drink. 

“God! No wonder you and Katherine are together.” 

“Love is love is love.” Damon said as he lifted his glass in a mock toast before downing the contents. 

“Ugh.” Caroline said as she turned and collapsed back on to the sofa.

“So back to the plan.” Damon said as he refilled his drink. 

“Why does it have to be a date?” Caroline groaned as she went back to glaring at Damon. 

“Because he likes you.” 

“Ugghh.” Caroline groaned at the reminder of the original hybrid’s crush on her. “And why am I helping you again?”

“Because you care about me enough that you don’t want me to be parted from my true love for eternity.” 

Caroline’s eyes rolled so hard she was sure they were going to pop out of her head. 

“Ok, because Stefan cares about me enough that he doesn't want me to be parted from my true love for eternity. And you care about Stefan enough to help him help me.” Damon amended as he took a slip from his freshly refilled glass. 

Stefan looked up, his green eyes meeting Caroline’s in a silent apology. As much chaos that Damon had caused in his life over the years, he still loved his brother and truly did want to see him happy. 

Caroline let out a resigned sigh and gave her best friend a slight smile, letting him know that it was ok. If anyone could understand how complicated families could be, it was her. 

Caroline sighed again and sat up straight, her eyes moving back to Damon as she begrudgingly said “Ok, back to the plan.” 

                                              XxX

“I never should have agreed to this plan.” Caroline muttered as she arrived arm and arm with both Damon and Stefan to the Mikaelson ball. 

The Salvatore brothers were both dressed in black tuxes, looking even more insanely handsome than usual. 

 Caroline made the perfect counterpoint to their black suits, dressed in a strapless cream tulle and silk gown with an intricate beaded pearl and gem overlay that made her feel like a princess. 

The dress was a gift from him. But she wasn’t going to think about that because it made her absolutely livid that the gown was absolutely exquisite and a million times more beautiful than anything she could find to wear. 

“It’s a great plan. Just shine your inner disco light bulb or whatever it is he said he liked about you and it will be fine.”

“That was private when I told Stefan that.” Caroline ground out as they pushed through the entryway to the ballroom that was awash with flowers and music. 

“I’m a vampire, remember? Plus it’s not like you are quiet when you come over to share your life story with my baby bro.”

Caroline felt her eye twitch. 

“Come on, Barbie. Let’s go get you liquored up so you don’t chicken out on the plan.” Damon says as he pulls Caroline to the bar. 

                                                XxX

They were dancing. This was the plan. It changed from cornering him in the library, to cornering him in the ballroom to her dancing with him because she would have his undivided attention. Plus the fact he had sent her a gown to wear for the ball that looked like it came from the princess of Monaco’s closet tipped the whole Caroline presenting their offer to Klaus while dancing together heavily in that direction. 

“So, umm you remember Katherine right?” Caroline asked as she tried to give him a smile that ended up mostly just her baring her teeth. 

Klaus' face instantly shifted from pleasure at having Caroline in his arms to angry suspicion. “What about her?”

Caroline tried to keep from tensing up, he really was scary when he was angry, but damned if she would let him know that he made her afraid. 

“Well, remember last week when you were yelling at all of us and ranting about how you were going to kill Katherine in that really super specific way?” 

“I wasn’t yelling, love. I was being emphatic.” 

“Sure. Emphatic.” Caroline nodded as Klaus swept her in a slow spin around the ballroom floor. “But seriously, you were yelling.” 

Klaus opened his mouth to argue the point but was cut off when Caroline rushed in . “Anyway, about Katherine.” 

“Ah, yes, Katherine. The Katherine who I promised to hunt down and kill everyone she knows and loves and then spend the next century torturing her in every way imaginable before putting her in a safe and dropping her in the lake where she will spend eternity drowning to death? That Katherine?” Klaus said with a flourish of pleasure at the suffering he would inflict on the vampire who had earned his ire. 

Caroline winced as she nodded her head. “Yeah, that Katherine.” 

“What about her?” The pleasure on his face at the thought of torture once again shifting back to angry suspicion at where this conversation was going. 

“Well, so she kind of had a run in with a group of werewolves who were super pissed about you moving into town and were looking to eat some vampires. You know to send a message about how they were not going to bend to the hybrid.” Caroline said with a roll of her eyes. “I mean, why not just confront you head on? It’s the behavior of bullies, is what it is. Always looking to find a stand in to take their anger out on instead of addressing the real problem. As president of student council, I totally started this amazing anti bullying campaign tha -“

“Caroline, love.” Klaus interrupted with exasperation but couldn’t keep a bemused smile off his face. “You are straying from the point.” 

“Right. The point.” Caroline said as she pulled herself back from the details of her anti bullying campaign as she brushed a bit a lint off of his tux before resting her hand back on his shoulder as they took another turn around the dance floor. “So, werewolves wanted to send you a message. And Katherine being her usual trouble finding self became their target. Although knowing her she was probably trying to scam them or being her usual dick self because it is super suspicious that she was the nearest vampire when they decided to send a message.”

Klaus opened his mouth to once again ask her to get to the point, but Caroline raised her eyebrows giving him a look that she was getting to the point and he closed his mouth once more. Although he couldn’t help the admiration he felt for her at how she was so much herself with him. Most who truly knew what he was cowered before him. Or were sniveling sycophants who only said what they thought he wanted to hear. Which was all quite enjoyable, but it was nice to have a change of pace. Especially a change of pace as beautiful and bright as Caroline. 

“Katherine was bitten. And not only did she get bitten, she ended up in the cave that is spelled that any supernatural being that goes in can’t get back out, because she ran in there to keep them from ripping her apart.” 

Klaus smiled at the thought of a not only suffering and dying Katherine, but a trapped one as well. “A more wonderful thing could not have happened to a more deserving woman. But I don’t understand what this has anything to do with me.”

Caroline took a breath and gave him her best campaigning Miss Mystic Falls smile. “Well we were hoping you would give us some of your blood to heal her and let us borrow the moon stone to get her out of the caves.” 

Klaus came to a stop on the dance floor, his face blank for a moment before breaking into rolling laughter. Caroline blushed with embarrassment as couples on the dance floor gave them dirty looks as they skirted around the standstill couple that was interrupting the flow of the dance floor. “It’s not funny, Klaus.” Caroline gritted out as she took the lead and got them dancing once more. Her frustration with Klaus climbed even higher as she felt her eye start twitching again. 

“Oh, but it is, love. So very funny.” Klaus said between bouts of laughter. Caroline felt herself turn even redder as it seemed they caught the Original family’s attention, as she could see Rebeka, Elija and Finn looking towards the couple with curious expressions on their faces as to what could cause their brother to be laughing so freely.

“Will you stop laughing.” Caroline hissed as she gave the passing couples her everything was fine and under control smile that she used when an event had gone off the rails. 

Klaus laughter eased into a wide grin as he took his hand from her waist to wipe the tears of laughter from his eyes. Despite her annoyance with Klaus, Caroline couldn’t help the jump in her stomach at how handsome he was. His dimples seem to get her every damn time. 

As Klaus’ hand returned to the curve of her waist he took control once more of their dance, smoothly taking the lead as he danced across the floor with her. The cream skirts of her dress twirling around her legs and his with each turn across the floor. 

“Thank you, sweetheart. I haven’t laughed like that in ages.” Klaus said with a grin still plastered across his face. 

“I didn’t tell you that to be funny!” Caroline gritted out trying to keep her voice low since the both of them had come to the attention of the whole room. 

“Now why would I want to help Katherine when I very much want her dead?” Klaus said, finally letting go of his humor and getting down to business. 

Caroline took a deep breath, her shoulders going back as she presented the facts to Klaus as per ‘the plan’. 

“Ok, the first reason is that super specific death you had planned for Katherine. I mean dying of a werewolf bite is like what a week? When you planned to toture her for at least 100 years and then have her die over and over again for the rest of eternity.” Caroline said with arched brows. “AND you and I both know that suffering for a week and then dying is too easy of a death compared to what a dick she has been for like the last 2 years at least.” 

Klaus gave a slight nod of acknowledgement to her first point. 

“Although Damon has been just as bad if not worse for the last 4 years.” A frown pulled at her lips as she thought about it. “I mean seriously. What is it about vampires that makes them want to terrorize random people that they don’t even know for no reason whatsoever? I mean if you are going to terrorize, at least have a point. I mean Katherine and Damon do it to just be assholes.” 

Caroline’s voice got a little louder, as she warmed to the subject. “I mean at least you were terrorizing because you wanted to become a hybrid. There was an actual point to your terrorizing.” 

Pursing her lips she did concede “Although there were times you were just terrorizing just to be a dick. But you did it to Damon for the most part - so that was totally justified.” 

Klaus’ bemused smile was back as he gazed at the rambling beauty before him. “It’s good to know that at least some of my terror was justified.” 

Elijah swept by the two of them, the mayor his partner for the dance. He met his brother’s eyes for a moment, amusement evident on his face at the thought of his brother’s terror on the human and supernatural population having a point. 

Stefan was dancing beside them and caught Caroline’s eye, sending her a silent message to get on with the conversation. 

“You’re still a dramatic megalomaniac who does occasionally terrorize for no reason other than to be a giant dick.” 

Klaus smirked, still too amused to take any offense at her assessment of his character.

Caroline chaisted herself for saying that. Calling him out for what he is wasn’t going to endear him to helping Katherine. 

Caroline felt stupidly nervous to state the second reason Klaus should help them. Plus it really ate at her that she was finally giving Klaus something he had been hounding her about for weeks. She had planned on holding out on him for the rest of eternity. 

“And the second reason to help is that I am willing to go on a date with you.” 

Klaus stumbled to a stop this time, a disbelieving shock crossing his handsome face. 

“You’ll what?” 

Caroline flushed again as a couple ran into the back of her since they were once again blocking the flow of the dance. Caroline gave them a quick sorry before she pulled Klaus into moving again, once again taking the lead as she thought that maybe Damon was right and this conversation should have happened in the library. Her eye started twitching again when she thought of Damon being right about anything. 

“I said I’ll go on a date with you if you help us with Katherine.” Caroline gritted out, her ego feeling the stress of having to repeat it.

“Like to a movie where we sit like three rows apart.” Caroline added quickly.

Klaus having seemed to have gotten over his shock smiled with elation at having Caroline finally agree to go on a date with him. A happy grin once more dominating his face.

“I would hardly call that a date, sweetheart.” 

“So you wouldn’t call it a date going to the movies with a girl who doesn't know you are there and then eating her after the movie is over?” Caroline asked suspiciously. 

Klaus lost the happy grin as and it was replaced with a confused look at the question and slowly shook his head no. 

Stefan of course is still dancing beside them and gives her a look over Klaus’ shoulder that he can’t believe she asked him that. 

She throws him a look back silently telling him that of course she had to ask him that. 

Before he can ask about the movie thing the song is over and Caroline moves out of his arms, wraps her hand in his and drags him to the side of the dance floor. 

Once Caroline has him where she wants him she lets go of his hand, puts her hands on her hips and gives him an expectant look. “Well?” 

“I don’t understand the question about the movie date…” Klaus starts and Caroline quickly interrupts him. 

“Not about that! I mean about Katherine.” 

Klaus lets out a breath and runs his thumb over his bottom lip in thought. 

“If you are truly serious about the date, then yes. I’ll agree to help Katherine.” 

Caroline feels the nervousness that had been weighing against her chest lift and she can’t help but smile that the plan actually worked. 

“I’m excited about our date too, sweetheart.” Klaus says with a smirk.

The smile falls from Caroline’s face and she grabs his arm and starts him out of the ballroom. “Come on. Let’s go get the moon stone and put your blood in a bottle before I change my mind.” 

Review

[wirewitchviolet]

Hate Mobs Gotta Go

Last night, I did something I have never expected to do, and just full on gave up on a fun RPG writing assignment. Which I had to do because I hit a point where it was so overdue and unfinished that I was falling asleep sitting up and stress vomiting and other such things. There’s a whole lot of factors behind that. Other health issues, the toll of being on total pandemic lockdown for months, with neighbors just straight up open mouth coughing at my door, emergencies with friends and family, multiple fires and hardware failures, but the main thing was, and still is, the constant harassment from a militant hate mob, completely out of touch with reality.

Years ago, I remember there was this thing the internet at large was fond of doing with foaming at the mouth far right religious extremists- Mercilessly ridiculing them in public to expose how disconnected everything they said or did was from reality. Remember seeing this one float around and laughing your head off?

And if I mention the Westboro Baptist Church, you immediately picture a single family of raving bigots picketing funerals and such with their big homophobic signs, with a bigger crowd mocking them, right?

For some reason, the modern version of that particular flavor of fringe weirdo doesn’t get that sort of ridicule. Presumably because they’re focusing almost exclusively on trans people, and most people have this weird thing where like if you stick up for trans people you get cooties or something and never dig into the real juicy ridicule fodder. But for real, this stuff is OUT THERE. Just look at a few examples here.

Come for the weird ravings about harvesting baby organs. Stay for the... adult woman who apparently believes breasts get their shape from actually being sacks filled with milk under women’s skin? Now, how about this colorful comparison?

For anyone who wasn’t aware, pronouns are words like “I” “you” “he” “she” “it” and “this,” while rohypnol is colloquially known as “the date rape drug,” so this is utter gibberish. The full context of course is that this person is trying to make the argument that forcing this bigot to refer to women she’s prejudiced against as “she” instead of arbitrarily tossing around “he” or “it” is... raping her brain, I guess?

So... this is pretty clearly some creep’s weird little fantasy. The obvious giveaway is pretending that trans women “aren’t in the correct bathroom” when going to... the correct bathroom, and that the non-existent law about this is somehow enforced by... random bigots opting to deputize themselves. What DOES happen for real though is bigots like this being arrested for barging into public restroom stalls with camcorders aimed at the crotches of women on toilets and trying to defend themselves by insisting they have some duty to check what their genitals look like. On which note...

That’s just disgusting. It’s also as close as I feel comfortable to posting all the graphic fantasies I see from these people about the barbaric genital mutilation they imagine trans women subject ourselves to which really has no basis at all in reality. Well maybe I can post this one.

I’m not going to go through and itemize all the baldfaced lies in that, because I really kinda hope I don’t have to, and also because the person who slapped this together was kind enough to break it up in such a way that I legitimately can say “every single line of this is a completely baseless lie.” Also the art in the corner is stolen from a child-friendly comic whose author is trans, so, that’s extra slimy. Also wow that “bone scans” bit is actually one I’ve never seen. Where the hell do they even get these ideas?

Also this one needs some setup. If you have time, this right here is a freaking journey, if not, I’ll try to summarize.

So a while ago, this one particular unhinged bigot decided the most productive way to spend all her time was to get in touch with a bulk sticker printing business and order thousands if not millions of these weird gross poorly framed slabs with a really crude drawing of a penis and bunch of gibberish she really wishes were the names of popular twitter hashtags that nobody else but her ever uses. And then after receiving these, just... wandering around the city she lives in all day every day plastering them on phone booths and power poles and the mirrors of bathrooms in like.. elementary schools and park benches, just everywhere. And then makes multiple passes a day apparently to make sure nobody has tried to remove any of them, as detailed in this amazing thread I’ll link again.

So the latest break in that particular saga is that same zealot going around plastering stickers like this around too, to make it seem like “both sides do it.”

It should be obvious that that’s a “blacks rule!” sort of fake between the baffling text and using the extra inclusive, particular emphasis on supporting people of color, general purpose LGBT+ flag, but also, like their fellows on 4chan, they plan this sort of “false flag” crap in broad daylight:

I should really properly credit the whistle-blowing on that particular oddity, and I should also note that aside from the breast milk sacks, this is all just stuff I saw TODAY catching up on my twitter feed, but my main point with all this is to illustrate that we really are dealing with Jack Chick/Westboro Baptist-level unhinged zealotry... but again, nobody’s out there pointing and laughing. And it turns out, when you don’t have people pointing and laughing at this sort of thing, you get people taking it seriously. So... when I went to quickly search for a news story to link with the bit about creeps barging in on women with cameras, the results I got were... this.

That... sure is a lot of stories about totally innocent people in a demographic I belong to being murdered by total strangers goaded into blind murderous hatred by the sort of people I’m pointing and laughing at! Ha ha! There’s a very real chance of that happening to me every time I step outside, for any reason! Tee hee! I live in a state of constant fear! Whoopsie!

And it’s not just stuff like that. The people posting these rambling tirades about “breast milk sack implants” and putting crude penis stickers everywhere, never being called out as the unhinged weirdos they are, either have the world turning a blind eye to all this crap, or have everything they do downplayed in the media to the point where outright sexual harassment, doxing, and slurs I don’t want to repeat get headlines like “so-and-so made comments that some fringe trans activists on the internet deem ‘possibly transphobic’” and that’s AT BEST. More often you get stuff like the one incident I managed to bring a lot of public attention to way back when, where some bigot just literally walked up to someone on the street, grabbed them, savagely beat the hell out of them until pulled apart, had friends film the whole thing, and bragged after the fact about it, and every story that appeared as a result claimed the assailant was the victim, because they were all written by her friends.

Face obscuring provided by me here, by the way.

And that isn’t a one-off incident. Because, see, most of these unhinged weirdos spewing out all this transphobic gibberish are not, as you would think, a bunch of barely educated Trump hat wearing members of some fringe religious congregation. They’re editors and producers in major British news outlets. This isn’t me shouting conspiracy nonsense either, this is well-documented. Like, The Guardian gets public internal protests over this crap. So does the BBC. Yes, other respected news sites cover this. Media watchdog groups do their best to reign this in with hearings and such, but, don’t actually have any power to enforce anything really. So when there’s “reporting” on this crap, it’s coming directly from the “breast milk sack implant” people. Oh and here’s some screenshots of the headlines of those stories you’re too lazy to click through and actually read:

And of course, sometimes when they want to really come across as respectful, they try to find “scientists” and “doctors” who back up their ravings but all they have to fall back on are disgraced quacks who spend most of their time on activism work to normalize pedophilia.

I’m not bringing that point about Cantor up to discredit his writings about trans people by the way. He doesn’t really HAVE any writings about trans people. He just pasted the names of a bunch of random studies from the 70s about whether playing with barbies makes you gay into his blog a few years back and this crowd was so desperate for validation they declared him an “expert in the field” and started passing out links to his.... pro-pedophila blog. Which is part of this whole pattern, but I’ve written about that before. Oh and the governments of multiple countries manage to treat all these people as “experts” and make policy decisions based on their ravings. That’s fun.

Anyway, aside from encouraging random people to, you know, just randomly murder anyone they see who looks like maybe a trans woman, every so often this weird little cult pulls in an actual celebrity who then has a public meltdown as they post all this gibberish to a wider audience. Currently this is going on with Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling (who’s actively promoting the pedophile guy up there on Twitter), and I think also William Shatner, but I haven’t really looked into it. The last big one though was Graham Linehan. Who you might remember from co-writing some sitcoms that were popular decades ago in Britain, or from being the weird cartoon villain who tried to kill the funding of a children’s charity, prompting this strange pledge drive marathon of Donkey Kong Country.

You might also know him as one of... I think honestly just two people who have ever managed to be such out of control stalking hate mongers that they were actually given a permanent no possible appeal ban from Twitter. Personally though I know him more as, you know, that one absolute creep who’s been obsessively stalking me for like 5 years and never shutting up about his weird personal obsession with me.

I WOULD link the recent freaking filmed interview he did where he spent forever rambling about me, but I’d have to actually watch it to confirm I had the right link, and also the only place I could quickly find a link to it would be on his twitter feed, which as stated, no longer exists. Oh and random side note there, despite being personally, by name, the person he was explicitly targeting all his hateful ramblings at, he wasn’t banned from that site for any of the disgusting stuff he said to me. He just slipped up and mentioned a cis woman with a professorship while shouting about this crap recently and that caused people to actually take action. I do so love being invisible.

Anyway, point is, prior to Rowling grabbing the baton from him as his social media presence went up in flames, this guy was name-dropping me a LOT. Presumably he still is, just in places fewer people see it. And when you have as big an audience as he did, and that audience is as full of hatemongers as his was, that has a pretty noticeable effect. I’ve been deluged with so much hateful garbage for so long it’s impossible for me to put any numbers on it. The closest I can do to quantify it is note that hate dump was big enough that I was also flooded with more weird messages intended as support from total strangers than I could deal with, totally losing access to social media feeds and my e-mail from the volume for a good bit, and THAT flood was big enough that I got this whole second wave of creepy stalkers who’d built up this whole weird fanon where this stalker here is like, someone I used to date or be business partners with and not just some creepy dude like twice my age stalking me over the internet, from a completely different hemisphere.

And I mean... in the broadest of strokes, I can kinda laugh all this off. Because... these people are completely ridiculous, out of touch with reality, and mostly live in other countries. But... all the threats and shouting are very real and very constant and like.. picture someone outside on the street shouting at your windows about how they’re going to break in and kill you. You really can’t ignore that. Even if they’re unarmed, and all they’re really capable of doing is shouting and pounding on your door, you can’t really just ignore that shouting and pounding and just watch a movie or play a game or write this article you promised would be done 3 months ago. You can certainly try, but a pretty big part of your brain is going to be occupied with thoughts about how maybe you should call someone to see if they’ll escort this violent person away, or maybe you should barricade your door in case all that pounding does something.

And I mean this isn’t a bad metaphor for how all the constant threats and stalking I’m dealing with thanks to celebrity bigots personally obsessed with me impacts my life, but it also does a pretty good job of describing how my night went pretty recently when I ACTUALLY DID HAVE SOMEONE POUNDING ON MY ACTUAL REAL PHYSICAL DOOR SHOUTING ABOUT STABBING ME TO DEATH, and no, there was no resolution to that beyond the sound of sirens causing that person to back off.

I also had an experience not too long ago where I was supposed to take a cab to a routine appointment, a car showed up with the cab company’s name on it, somewhat early, and proceeded to drive me... out to the middle of the freaking woods like an hour from where I live, and when my phone rang with my actual cab asking where I was the driver freaked out, had me get out of the car, and took off leaving me just... stuck in the middle of nowhere freezing to death and trying to find a landmark an actual cab could pick me up from. Still don’t know what the hell that whole thing was about and whether a cab driver just REALLY didn’t know what he was doing and panicked or what, but I do know that talking about it publicly in the vaguest of terms lead to a bunch of unhinged shouting from... apparently some unconnected ride share driver with a habit of dumping trans women between stops when they try to get medications or something, convinced I was calling him out for that.

So.... yeah. Things aren’t exactly going great in my neck of the woods. I’d really appreciate it if people would properly treat these unhinged violent weirdos like unhinged violent weirdos and not respectable members of society so they quit getting so bold and public with the violent stuff, and people who listen to them get properly shouted down for doing so.

[mksc77]

This is a ff.net request for Andy having an ex-girlfriend show up and Sharon being jealous.  Jealous Sharon isn’t really my thing and is hard for me to imagine, so I tried to make it entertaining enough to make up for the parts that I obviously struggled to write. And I know Madam Secretary didn’t come on Monday nights, but its schedule just wasn’t working for me :)

As was usual for a Monday evening, Andy came home from a meeting to find Sharon and Rusty curled up on the couch and watching Badge of Justice. "What do you guys see in this show? It's awful!" 

"Johnny Worth," Sharon and Rusty murmured at the same time. 

Andy rolled his eyes. "Oh, come on." 

"May McDonald's not hard to look at, either," Sharon commented. "That's one woman I would kiss." 

"Huh..." Andy looked at the TV and back to Sharon, an intrigued look coming over his face. "You would absolutely have my blessing. As long as I get to watch. That'd be pretty hot." 

"Andy!" Sharon reached up and jabbed him in the side. "Don't make me call you Andrew."

Andy grinned. "Maybe I like it when you call me Andrew."

 Rusty looked disgusted. "All right, if your goal was to get the living room to yourselves, you got it. I'm out."

Sharon pawed at Andy with her foot until he sat down and settled her feet in his lap. "Ohhhh, that feels amazing," she hummed, closing her eyes as he kneaded them. "I hate breaking in a new pair of heels. My feet have been killing me all day." 

"How you walk in those damn things without breaking your neck is a mystery to me." 

"Hmm, a little lower," Sharon directed, ignoring him. "Little bit more—there. A little deeper...That's it. Please don't stop." 

"I was kind of hoping I'd hear something like that tonight...I just didn't think your feet would play such a large role." 

"I'd kick you if this didn't feel so good...But keep rubbing, and I could be easily persuaded." Sharon looked over at the TV. "After Madam Secretary." 

"Don't worry, I know where I stand on Monday nights." Andy looked down at his phone when it started buzzing. Catherine. Again. They'd dated several years ago and had come close to getting engaged.  They’d managed to end on friendly terms, but now she was wanting to get back together and wouldn't leave him alone, despite the fact that he'd told her he was in a serious relationship. He didn't realize he'd stopped rubbing Sharon's feet until she impatiently nudged at him to start again "Sorry." Setting his phone aside for the time being, he got back to the task of getting her into bed. 

On Tuesday morning, Sharon had an early meeting and was rushing around the kitchen, trying to get out the door. She heard Andy's phone ding with a text message, and she accidentally looked at it out of habit. "Is that Provenza?" Andy called from their bedroom. 

"No, it's Catherine." Who the hell was Catherine? Sharon had never heard Andy mention a Catherine before. 

Damn it. Andy finished getting dressed and went to the kitchen for his phone, knowing Sharon was going to have some questions.

Sharon eyed him.  “You’re dressed early.”

“Yeah, I might run a couple of errands if I can get out of here in time." 

Sharon was a little suspicious, but she had to leave now to be on time for her meeting. Not about another woman, but just that Andy was hiding something in general. "Okay, well I have to go. See you at work." She pecked him on the lips, grabbed her things, and left. 

Later that morning, Sharon thought it was odd when Andy, Provenza, and Buzz were all a half-hour late and hadn't texted or called. She was checking her phone again to make sure she hadn't missed anything when Andy finally called. "Hey, uh...We caught a murder." 

"Okay, where are you? Are Buzz and Provenza with you? What happened?" 

"Yeah, they're here." Andy paused for a moment. "Uh, we found a body in a pool. Looks like homicide." 

Sharon was confused. "How is this a major crime?...Wait, you found the body? How did that happen?  Where are you?”

Andy sighed. "Well, Provenza and I..." 

Sharon rolled her eyes. "Oh, good, because every good story starts with Provenza and I." 

"I found a house I thought you might like, so I wanted to show Provenza and see what he thought. I brought Buzz so he could film it for you, and then we found the body." 

"Okay, I'll send the others. Text me the address. Tell Morales to let me know when he needs me at the morgue." Well, at least this solved one mystery from that morning.

Later that day, Andy walked by a crowded interview room and nearly panicked when he recognized Catherine. "Provenza!" He hissed. "Who are all of these people?"

 "Huh?" Provenza was busy going through the deceased realtor's phone. "Oh. They were all interested in the house, and it's not too much of a stretch to consider them suspects. Since you want it, too, this will keep any of them from acting on it."

 "You're responsible for this?! And you don't even think it's necessary?" Andy's face started turning red as his voice got more high-pitched. 

"Ye gods, what's the problem?!" 

Andy looked toward the interview room and back at Provenza. "Catherine's in there." 

"Catherine who?" 

"Catherine. You remember. Catherine." 

"Was she the one with the cats or the one with the eye twitch? You’ve gotta be more specific with the who’s who of your dating history, Flynn." 

Andy shook his head. "No, no, Rachel had the cats. Amanda had the eye twitch. Catherine's the one—" 

Provenza's eyes widened. "Oh, yeah, the one you almost—" 

Andy nodded. "The one I almost. And now she's been texting me for the last few days, wanting to get back together." 

Provenza chuckled. "I tried to tell you this would all go to hell when you started calling the captain 'Sharon.'" 

Andy rolled his eyes. "You're not helping." 

"Oh, I wasn't trying to." 

"Lieutenants? Is there a problem?" Sharon walked up and looked from one to the other, wondering why they hadn't made a move. 

"Ah, no." Andy looked around, trying to conceal his growing panic. Sharon had stopped trying to understand Andy's and Provenza's antics long ago, so she didn't think much of their odd behavior. 

"Well, come on, then! I'd rather not be here all night." 

Andy's face turned pale. "You're going in there, too?" 

"To speak with potential suspects? Yeah, I'd planned on it, if that's all right with you." Sharon impatiently nudged Andy forward. 

Andy thought quickly. "It looks like you guys have it covered, so why don't I, um, try to find out more about the ex-husband?" As far as Catherine knew, he was still in robbery-homicide, so if he could manage to stay away from her, he might get out of this alive. Sharon gave him a questioning look, but didn't press him about it. 

Andy retreated to his desk. A couple of hours later, he got a warning text from Provenza that they were about to let everyone go, so he went to hide out in the bathroom for a few minutes. When it sounded like the crowd had died down, he waited a couple of minutes before going back to the murder room.  Just to find himself face-to-face with Catherine. So much for that plan. 

"Andy! I was hoping I'd run into you." 

Andy looked over his shoulder toward the interview room door and back at Catherine. Much like the murder victim, she'd had some work done, no question. Both to her face and other areas that he couldn't help but notice. "I told you, I'm in a relationship." 

"Oh, please, you're going to have to come up with something better than that. I won't try to pressure you into getting engaged this time. I don't want that anymore. Come on, we were great together." 

"We can't do this here—" 

"Can't do what here?" Sharon approached them, noticing the sexual tension immediately. The nervous look on Andy's face and his avoidance of the interview room were helping her put the pieces together. "You guys know each other?"

"You could say that." Andy shot Sharon a pleading I'll explain later look, but he couldn't catch her eye. He could tell by her expression that she was already well aware of the answer to her own question. "This is Catherine. We, uh, dated a long time ago. A really long time ago." 

"Ah, Catherine." Sharon's demeanor turned from mere amusement to slight suspicion. Of course Andy had old girlfriends that he might run into every now and then, but texting them was a different story. If it was even the same Catherine, but she had a sneaking suspicion that they were one and the same.

Andy smiled nervously. "It was so long ago that there were still cops around older than Provenza the last time we saw each other." He'd forgotten that Sharon had seen where Catherine had texted him that morning, and he didn't blame her for being taken aback. 

"I see." Sharon wasn't the jealous type, but this woman and her not-so-subtle attempts at disguising her age and once-smaller breasts unnerved her. The past is in the past had been her mantra regarding Andy's former relationships so far, but seeing it in person was different. "Well, Catherine, it was nice meeting you. Thank you for your help today." There was no question from Sharon's tone that what she really meant was goodbye, and Catherine took the hint, having guessed pretty quickly that Sharon was Andy's "relationship." She gave Andy a look that said this isn't over and left. 

Sharon couldn't help but smile to herself when Provenza walked out of the interview room, widened his eyes in panic at the sight of the three of them, and did a 180 and went right back where he had come from. That brought her back to reality, and she pushed Andy and his sack of plastic, fifteen-years-his-junior ex-girlfriend to the back of her mind for the next few hours. 

Later that evening, Sharon sat on the balcony with a blanket and a glass of cabernet. She'd never doubted Andy's devotion to her for a second, but knowing that a much-younger ex-girlfriend had been texting him was getting under her skin. He could've at least told her about it. She still didn't know why she was letting it bother her so much. Even if this Catherine low-quality-plastic-surgery-barbie-knockoff were after Andy, she knew the efforts wouldn't be reciprocated. But why was Andy still communicating with her? Looking back, Andy had been acting strangely, especially sometimes after reading a text, for a couple of weeks now. If there was nothing to hide, then why was he acting so weird? Her suspicion heightened when she got a text from him that he was going home after dinner with the AA member he sponsored instead of to the condo. That was pretty common, but in light of recent events, her mind was in overdrive. 

Sharon went inside to refill her wine and returned to the balcony. She called her sister, not to talk about Andy, but just to get her mind off of him before it drove her crazy. By the time they hung up, she heard the balcony door sliding open, and she was surprised to see Andy. "I thought you were going home." 

"I was, but then I realized what that might have looked like..." 

"Hmm." Sharon sipped her wine and looked out over the city. She'd actually been looking forward to relaxing alone and having her bed to herself, as she knew deep down that Andy wouldn't be unfaithful. 

Andy stood awkwardly by the door, not sure what to make of her mood. "Do you want me to go home?" 

"You're an adult, Andy, I want you to do whatever you want to do." 

"I want to be with you. That's all I want. I promise." 

"Yeah, you've made that clear." Sharon didn't know why she was in such an ill mood about this, but he was annoying the hell out of her with every word. 

Andy wasn't sure what to do now. She seemed to want to be alone, but going home seemed like a dick move at this point, so he settled for going inside and changing into his pajamas. When he came into the living room, Sharon was refilling her wine glass in the kitchen. Instead of placing a soft hand on his shoulder or pecking him on the cheek like she normally would've done when she walked by him, she fixed him with an irritated look. "I'm taking a bath." Sharon placed her wine glass on the edge of the bathtub and sifted through her bath oil collection while her water filled up. Finally settling on a rose scent, she discarded her clothes on the floor and set a towel nearby. After tying up her hair and starting a playlist on her phone, she climbed in and slowly lowered herself into the hot water, hoping it would help her relax. She didn't like how she was acting, but she was aggravated and couldn't help it. Only the Good Die Young usually put her in a good mood, but it wasn't doing anything for her this time. The water was getting cooler by the time she finished her wine, so she climbed out and dried off. She was in a slightly better mood, but not much. It had been a long day, so she said a quick goodnight to Andy and got ready for bed. 

Sharon's mind was still racing long after she felt Andy climb in beside her and softly kiss her cheek. As usual, he fell asleep in just a couple of minutes, and she was still running through the day's events in her head. She hadn't thought much of his remarks about the realtor's "enhanced" physique, but after seeing Andy's ex-girlfriend and hearing a couple of remarks about how the realtor was known for getting a little too friendly with potential buyers, she was starting to have doubts. 

The next morning, Andy got up early and made breakfast. He knew he hadn't done anything wrong, but he hadn't exactly handled the Catherine situation very well, either. It was going to be a long day, and he guessed Sharon would be opting for coffee, so he went ahead and got it started and placed her favorite mug on the counter while she was in the shower. 

Sharon smelled coffee as soon as she stepped into the hallway from the steamy bathroom. With her silk robe wrapped around herself, she padded down the hall with wet hair and bare feet. She'd been running through the case in her head, and she couldn't help but laugh at remembering Julio's amused-turned-somber "butt...implants, ma'am" comment. But, all that did was remind her of Andy's comments and the doubts she’d started to have the night before. 

Andy was standing at the stove, cooking eggs, and damn it if he didn't look so cute in his striped pajamas when she wanted to be angry with him for a minute. "Thanks," she murmured as she filled her mug. She took her coffee back to the bathroom, brushed out her wet hair, and applied her makeup before going to eat breakfast. 

"Crap, these are a little runny," Andy muttered as he scooped some eggs onto a plate. 

"Oh, those aren't firm enough for you, either?" Sharon retorted. 

Andy turned around, and Sharon felt a little guilty when she saw the pained expression on his face.  "I've been either ignoring Catherine's texts or trying to get her to stop, and I told you I didn't mean anything—" 

"I know." 

"Then what's with the cold shoulder?!" Andy demanded. 

"Nothing, Andy, just—I just—just give me a minute, okay?" Sharon knew she had nothing to worry about, especially since Catherine's uneven implants obviously hadn't been done by a doctor as skilled as the murder victim's doctor, but this was the first time she'd even thought about doubting Andy so far. She wasn't sure how to handle her feelings about it, but they would have to wait for now. 

Sharon hurried through breakfast and quickly got dressed. "I have to stop by Taylor's office on my way in, and that's never a quick process, so I'm going to go ahead and go." 

Andy nodded. "I need to go home tonight.  I have a guy coming to look at my dishwasher and a couple of things I need to take care of at the house.  You can stay over, or you can FaceTime me as many times as you want. That's all I'm doing, I swear." 

"I know, Andy." Sharon stood on her tiptoes to kiss his cheek. "See you in a little while." 

Late that afternoon, they reached a bit of a standstill in the case, so Sharon sent everyone home for the night so they could start fresh the next morning. She was kind of hoping Rusty would be staying at Gus's again so she could have a rare night to herself at the condo, but she wasn't disappointed to find him at home that night, either. She had a feeling that he'd been avoiding her lately, not wanting to talk more about his other mom's baby, and she and Andy had spent a lot of their free time looking at houses, so she hadn't seen much of him. She was tempted to talk to him about calling his mom and his unfavorable attitude toward the baby, but she decided to give him a break tonight. They ordered a pizza for dinner, and they were watching TV when Sharon remembered that she had the video from the house Andy wanted to buy. She could tell before they even played the video that Rusty wasn't thrilled with the idea of a new house, but her preoccupation with her own thoughts kept her from dwelling on that for the time being. As irritated as she was with Andy, his impish grin at the beginning of the video made her heart melt, and she realized that she missed him tonight. He was lucky he was so damn cute. 

Rusty seemed to read her mind. "What's with you and Andy? You guys seemed kind of weird today." He didn't necessarily want them to break up, knowing how that would hurt Sharon, but he couldn't help but hope that something had slowed down the "buying a house/moving in together" conversations.

"It's nothing, honey. Just a misunderstanding. We'll work it out." 

"Whatever it is, which is worse?" Rusty asked, never missing a chance to throw Sharon's own words back into her face. "Whatever you're arguing about, or being here without him?" 

Sharon rolled her eyes when she recognized the advice she'd given him about Gus not so long ago. "We're not arguing, it's fine. We just—can you believe Buzz jumped into the pool like that?" She asked, changing the subject. 

Sharon went to bed not much later, but between Rusty's obvious apprehension about a new house and feeling guilty about how she’d been acting toward Andy, she couldn’t sleep.  She sat up and texted him, hoping he was still awake, and she felt a little better after they’d texted back and forth a few times.  After telling each other goodnight, she was able to find sleep a little more easily. 

The team wrapped the case on Thursday evening, and Andy hung back in the murder room with Sharon as everyone else hurried to get out. There hadn't been much time to talk, but the distance from him and the distraction of the case had allowed her to let her aggravation simmer and see the situation more clearly. Andy knew her well enough to know that she just needed a little space sometimes, but he had sensed a change in her demeanor toward him and was pretty sure she was ready to talk. "Look, Shar, I blocked Catherine's number, which I should've done weeks ago, but I didn't want her to find out and be hurt. We were serious years ago, but she started texting me out of nowhere just a few weeks ago. I kept telling her I was with someone else and wasn't interested, hoping she'd give up, and I just didn't handle it very well when she didn't. You can read our texts—" 

"That's not necessary, honey." Sharon hoisted her purse over her shoulder and laced her fingers through Andy's. "Let's go home." She leaned against him as they walked toward the elevator, and she couldn't help but laugh when she thought of the poor woman's lopsided breasts. "I haven't seen such a botched boob job since the nineties!" 

Andy had noticed as well, as it would've been incredibly difficult not to, but he didn't want to respond the wrong way and start the fight all over again. "Really? I, uh, didn't notice." 

"You didn't notice?! They were like this!" Sharon pointed one index finger toward the ceiling and her other one toward the floor. 

"Yeah, well, I was a little distracted." Andy pressed a kiss to the side of her head, pausing to smell her hair. 

A couple of nights later, Sharon closer her book and placed it on her nightstand. Andy looked down as she lay against him and traced her finger down his chest. Her mind had drifted back to the most recent case, and she was suddenly curious about something. "Do you have any fantasies?" 

Andy looked confused. "What do you mean?" 

"Sexual fantasies, I mean. After the last few days, this obsession with perfect appearances just has me curious." 

"Oh. Why? You might do it?”  Andy asked incredulously.

Sharon shrugged, but gave him a look that clearly said yes.

Nurse and patient," Andy answered, without hesitation. 

Sharon looked up at him. "Really? I wouldn't have thought that." 

"What would you have thought?" 

Sharon shrugged. "I don't know. You strike me as the French maid type." 

"Well, it used to be banging the boss, but..." Andy kissed the top of her head. "That fantasy has become a reality. While we're on this, any for you? You can't bring this up and not tell me." 

"Pilot and passenger." 

The answer was so quick and certain that she had obviously thought about it before, and it was Andy's turn to be surprised. "Talk about unexpected. I thought you would've gone with something like the student and the professor." 

Sharon shook her head. "All of my professors were either old as dirt or assholes, sometimes both. That fantasy never did much for me." 

"Well, then, valued passenger, allow me to—" 

"No, I'm the pilot," Sharon interrupted. 

"Oh, right. Of course you are. So, now that we know this about each other..." 

Sharon cupped her hand behind Andy's head and pressed her lips to his neck. "Prepare for takeoff."

[greenninjagal-blog]

Bury the Body

I swear I’m gonna stop making new AUs one day. This is not that day. Based on these prompts from @sandersidesquotes right here: 1 2 3. 

Let’s go Serial Killer AU!

TW: Murder, blood, stabbings, arson, causal mentions of killing people

Words: 3854

Summary: Logan is a serial killer and he’s not the only one.

General Taglist: @felicianoromano @jemthebookworm @holliberries @stricken-with-clairvoyancy 

Read on AO3

To be honest the day had gone great. Exceeding so. He had gotten the promotion he had been after for the past year and received the nice raise that had come with the new position. He no longer had to sit in a tiny cubical and listen to Jeff from two cubicles over have phone sex with his secret girlfriend that his wife didn’t know a thing about. And, sure, the new workload was strenuous, but that made his nights out so much more entertaining, so much more fun.

It was a science. A science that Logan had perfected at sixteen. The more stress he had, the more the bat felt right when it cracked against the skull of his latest victim.

Logan had never been great at baseball, but people had stopped teasing him about it long ago. They had other things to worry about, like the funeral for the captain of the baseball team who passed away suddenly when his shed caught fire while he was out back underage drinking.

In the darkness, his victim when down heavy without even a chance to scream. Not that there wouldn’t be more time for that later. He had chosen her mostly at random from the bar, although the fact that she had been alone and her phone had died had been huge factors. Logan didn’t know if she was pretty or not, but he thought the red splatter on the edge of his metal bat looked a bit like art in the dull light.

Really she should have called an uber hours ago, should have brought a charger, should have dyed her hair brown and worn less make up. She looked too much like one of his sister’s Barbies.

Logan rubbed one of his gloved hands over the splotch of blood on his bat and wondered if she’d scream the way he always imagined the dolls did when he turned them into metal mounds of plastics. Logan felt his stomach flutter, the edges of his lips twitch into a smile at the idea of the lighter fluid in his jacket pocket, at the idea of the matches and the smell of smoke spiraling into the midnight sky.

Personally, Logan thought that arson was a rather beautiful way to die. She should be honored. It was a science, a specific ratio of gas to the victim, a detailed design that would swallow an entire building so completely without collapsing too quickly. She should be thrilled that Logan had deemed her the next one to go floating up to sky with his smoke.

“Oh, that’s not very nice!” A voice said some nearby.

Logan stilled.

He had been lingering in this alley for an hour, waiting for his victim to come out. He knew there was no one else here. So where had the voice come from? And why did it sound so happy?

Logan twitched to look at the mouth of alley where a figure was standing dressed in cargo shorts and a blue polo. He had a cardigan wrapped around his shoulders, and loafers on his feet. If he hadn’t looked so happy, Logan would have assumed he was a Dad running around after his kids.

If it hadn’t been nearing one in the morning, Logan would have assumed he was just a poor civilian in the wrong place at the wrong time.

“Not nice at all, kiddo!” The man said. “Don’t you know that could cause brain damage?”

“Who are you?”

“And she already has so many other problems with her brain.” The other strolled forward with a hop in his step, completely ignore Logan’s question, “I’m going to have to ask you to step away from her now, kiddo!”

Logan was not sure who this man was, or why he found the happy tone so annoying. It grated on his nerves. Logan held the bat out at him. “Stop,” He commanded.

The man took three more steps and hovered just outside the range of Logan’s swing.  Logan was sure if either of them leaned more than five inches they’d both explode. The part of him he kept buried deep inside sang.

The smog of the city blocked out most of the moonlight, but Logan had no issue making out the whites of his teeth, the forced edges of his smile that only looked natural at first glance. At this close Logan could make out how robotic and unnatural it is, how it didn’t meet his eyes, how the man before him was so fake he could have been one of the dolls Logan melted as a kid.

Logan’s lips twitched. Could this man keep up that stupid fake voice while he burned like one too?

“Kady Kay here has so many problems with her brain. Just like me!” the man said, “I’m gonna fix them all for her!”

Logan didn’t know what that meant. He didn’t care either.

Until the voice behind him spoke up. “There’s nothing wrong with you, Pat.”

Logan swirled at the sound, so close, so surprising. His victim was on the ground, and right next to her was another figure, dressed all in black, with an oversized hoodie that made him look like a child. He had a marker out, holding the limp left arm of the victim and drawing neat dotted lines at the intersection between her humerus and her radius and ulnar. The second man looks up at him, a shy smile on his face, a guilty smile, like a kid who was found with his hand in his cookie jar.

In the next second there was a skittering on the asphalt behind him. Logan remembered just a second too late that the other man had still been there, that he hadn’t been normal, that there had been a bloodlust in those twinkling eyes that Logan was so familiar with from all the times he had looked in the mirror before he left his house in the morning.

He threw an arm up just as the knife came jabbing at him. The motion was fluid and surgical, and it would have severed Logan’s carotid artery if it hadn’t plunged straight into his forearm.

The man smiled. “Oh?”

“He’s fast.” The other said.

Logan blinked at the blade protruding from his arm mere inches from his face. There was blood on it too, blood dripping down the metal edge and dotting the asphalt at their feet. He twisted his hold on his bat, so that it was easier to adjust his glasses.

“Oh, kiddo,” The man with the fake smile said, “There’s something wrong with your brain too!”

“Congenital Analgesia,” Logan responded.

“You can’t feel pain?” The other said. Logan thought he sounded disappointed.

“Precisely,” Logan said and then he folded his arm inward and broke the handle from the smiling man’s grip and flexed his fingers. Half of them don’t move. Something was severed, but Logan wasn’t worried yet.

“Kay feels pain.” The other said quietly.

“I want to make her smile!” The smiling man said. His hands danced in the air revealing more tiny knifes between his fingers, and slicing fluid motions in the air.

The other shrugged. “I just like taking things apart.”

“What makes you think I will allow you to take my victim?” Logan asked them.

They shared a look and then they give him a twin smiles: One small and shy like a kid who understood a joke an adult did not, the other bright and blinding and completely fake. Logan guessed they were brothers from the way their heads tilt, their curly hair twists into their eyes, and their mouths open at the same time.

“Because we called dibs!”

“How childish,” Logan sniffed. “I hit her first.”

“We’ve been watching her for weeks.” The man in the hoodie countered.

“And premeditated murder doesn’t make it to court unless you actually attempt to kill someone. What is your point?”

The other man’s smile wilted slightly, “Can’t we just….share?”

Logan and the other shot him withering looks, “No!”

“Please V? Pretty please! Please, Please, Please?!” The man said, “I want to see this man smile too!”

“I don’t!”

Logan was about to cut in when another noise cuts through the alley. The sound of trash bins being pushed over, and someone running, several screams.

“HELP!”

Logan found himself drawn to the next person throwing themselves down the narrow venue. A male, a teenager. In the dull light of the night, Logan could see the way he was stumbling in a panic and screaming for help, holding his side and his neck with his arms and the bubbling shining red that was spewing from between his fingertips.

“HELP!” The man yelled, “He’s right behind me! He’s got—”

Logan blinked and there was a long metal blade protruding from the man’s chest. The man gurgled, blood shot out of his mouth and then his eyes rolled back.

The body dropped to the ground with a wet splat and a new figure stepped into the limelight: He was dressed head to toe in white, a suit tailored to fit him perfectly. It would have looked flattering if it weren’t for the red wine hand prints and splotches and smears all over it. He held a katana in one hand and a red rag in the other.

“Twenty Seven!” He sang to them, with a dazzling gleam in his brown eyes that made them look like rubies. His hair was gelled back, and glitter dusted his cheeks just enough to make him look other worldly, “Hi! Give me just a moment and Emo Nightmare there can be Twenty Eight!”

“Hi!” the man with the fake smile said, “I like your clothes! They’re so pretty!”

“Why thank you, Twenty Nine!”

The man laughed, “I’d hate to make you sad there kiddo, but we can’t stay to play! Kady Kay needs to smile too! Come on, Virge!”

“Pat,” the other said, his marker jabbed at the man in white and red, “I want to take him apart.”

“Oh dear,” The man in all white said, “You’re going to mess up my count, Batboy.”

Logan flexed his stabbed arm again. The blood was making his gloves slippery. No doubt his blood was all over this crime scene. Most likely he was going to have to disappear in the night, pretend to be one of the several people to have gone missing in the past months. Oh what a shame, he had liked that promotion and the new money and all the gasoline he could have bought.

He waved his bat slightly, eyed his victim on the ground once more and wished that he had more time to hear her scream and watch the flames to consume her in the warmest hug this life could give her. Then he bolted from the alley while the others are distracted, escaping into the city he knows so well.

What a shame. What a waste.

Maybe one day he’ll see the others again, and he’ll melt them all too.

****

He didn’t leave the city. Not that night or the next.

He bought three stuffed animals from a toy store and lit them on fire on his fire escape. It wasn’t as fun, didn’t relieve as much stress as it should have. There wasn’t any screaming, wasn’t enough smoke, wasn’t the smell of burning flesh tickling his nose. He poured a pitcher of water on the mess and left it on the metal bars.

No police came to his door. And aside from a twenty seven victim murder spree by an unknown killer, there was no news that suggested he was going to have a difficult time. However, there was also no news about the three other killers he had seen.

The following day he took his smoke break twenty minutes earlier than normal. His arm was wrapped and in a sling and his coworkers were being extra nice to him after he told them he had been in an unfortunate mugging. Still it was rather annoying to see that three of his fingers refused to curl and instead hung off his palm completely useless.

He lit a cigarette, but didn’t bring it near his mouth. He didn’t smoke. Not like the others did. Instead he stood on the roof—the designated smoking area of the bank he worked at—and held the lit cigarette between his thumb and index finger while he stares at the flame of his lighter without any interruptions.

If he thought any of his coworkers had half a brain he would have been more careful about being caught so openly aiding his obsession. But as it stood no one in the entire city had put together that stiff, unmovable Logan Ackroyd was the same man who set fire to several warehouses and on one occasion a car in a deserted parking garage.

(That one hadn’t been fun. The flames had hit the gas tank too quickly. The man—or had it been a woman? He didn’t remember anymore—hadn’t had time to scream before they had disappeared into the warm embrace.)

Logan could feel the heat when he brought the light close to his face. It was the closest he got to physical pain.

The door behind him screeched open and Logan extinguished the flame with an irritated huff. He didn’t have to turn around to know who it was, and honestly it didn’t matter either. None of his coworkers knew how to do their jobs. It made sense that he wouldn’t be able to get more than five minutes of peace.

“Logan? Logan buddy you up here?”

“What do you need Jeff?” Logan coldly asked without turning around.

“There you are! You usually don’t take your smoke break for another twenty minutes and I was just—”

“Is there a point your disturbing me?” Logan cut him off. His eyes glared at the ash that floated off the each of his cigarette and dissipated into the wind so freely. The smoke tickled his nose comfortingly.

“There’s a couple guys here who need a withdraw—”

“The tellers are quite adequate at their jobs, Jeff.”

“They want $12,000. Per regulations we need to report any transaction over $10,000. And Janice is with someone right now so she can’t take them, and I was hoping that you would confirm their request and—”

“If you want me to do your paperwork, just say so, Jeffery.” Logan said, “I will happily do it, because that will mean it gets done correctly and I will not have to go back and fix your mistakes later.” Logan stubbed out his cigarette, somewhat regretfully, and then stormed past Jeff from two cubicles over to handle the clients.

The clients were twins, a surgeon and a therapist that were big named into those fields. Logan took one look at them and nearly slammed the brand new door of his brand new office closed.

“Oh, hi, there kiddo!” The man with the fake smile said brightly, “You look familiar. Have we met?”

“I understand you want to make a withdraw.” Logan said coldly as he sat down at his desk.

The two men from three days ago were sitting in the chairs opposite of him, a desk between them, but Logan was not stupid enough to think that provided any type of hinderance to either of them. As it stood, the smiling man was bouncing in his seat beaming, and Logan could see flecks of water dried on his glasses from a frivolous cleaning recently. The other was still wearing that swamped hoodie curled into the seat like he might be able to escape the light by folding in on himself. There was gauze taped to his forehead all the way to his left eye. He was silent, and although Logan couldn’t quite tell if the tense of his shoulders was from anger or just general childlike misery.

“Oh yes sir!” The bouncing man said, “We’re going on a trip!”

“Per regulations I must ask where,” Logan said.

“All over! But mostly to the Midwest!”

Desert area, Logan noted offhandedly. He glanced between them imagining the flat plain desert miles away from civilization and a bonfire so large a satellite might be able to pick it up. He imagined both of the others at the center of it, with their voices drowned out by the crackling of the unforgiving fire.

“I’ve always wanted to see the other side of the country! It’s so vast and big! Oh maybe we’ll get to see some Aliens!”

“Excellent plan,” Logan said distastefully, and even he didn’t know why it sounded so sour coming out of his mouth, “Now I need you to sign—”

“I’m going to bury a body.”

Logan stilled at the sound of the other’s voice.

The smiling man laughed. “Virgil you can’t just say that!”

“What’s he gonna do, Pat? Call the police?” The other snarled at his brother and then stared at Logan directly in the eyes, “We’re going to the desert and I’m gonna bury the body of a man I’m gonna take apart limb from limb.”

Logan found it rather hard to look away. He had no difficulty believing the other when he spoke. He tapped a pen in his right hand twice on his desk. “I wish you the best of luck, Mr. Sanders. Now please sign here and I will return with your money.”

“You should come with us!” The smiling man said. “It would be so much more fun than being in this stuffy office all day! We could go on all sorts of adventures! Oh! I can show you how to smile!”

He hummed dreamily leaning forward on Logan’s desk. The pastel of his sweater was bleached at the sleeves, like someone had worked very hard to get a dark color off of it. Logan felt his lighter in his pocket grow heavy—his brain was off doing math to determine how long it would take to turn that sweater and the man in it to dust before he could stop himself.

Two to three hours for that plastic smile to melt off his face, for his soft pale skin to turn to crusted ash, for Logan to figure out if he’d scream just like those dolls from so long ago. His fingers itched as he waited for the twins to finish signing the forms he provided.

“You clean up nice.” The man in the hoodie said. “Would you wear that to your funeral?”

“12,000 American Dollars, Mr. Sanders.” Logan handed him the money. “Spend it wisely.”

“Have you ever been on a train?” He asked, without counting the stack of bills Logan had handed him.

Logan replaced the cap on his fountain pen and gently placed them back in the cup next to his name plaque. “I have not.”

They gave him those smiles again, the ones that made him feel like they were vaguely teasing him. Bright and bashful, fake and deceiving: but it didn’t reach their frigid eyes. Logan imagined they were made of ice.

Ice melted so very nicely now, didn’t it?

“Goodbye, Logie!” The smiling man sang as his brother shoved him out the door.

Logan crinkled the papers in his hand until the two signatures were barely recognizable. He glared at it hard enough that it might have caught on fire had it been any other reality.

“I’m going on my smoke break,” He yelled to Jeff from two cubicles over and spent the rest of the work day on the roof holding his pocket lighter right next to his temple and watching the flames in the reflection of his glasses.

***

Logan found out he had a total of forty three days of paid vacation that his management was all too willing to give him.

“Go live a little!” They told him. “You’re still young!”

They didn't notice how he pulled the two credit records right before he checked out for the day. The kind lady on the phone was all too happy to tell him all about the reserved seats he had once she had confirmed his basic information.

“Bring me back a souvenir,” His sister said on the phone. “And it can’t be another ashtray. I don’t even smoke!”

Logan lit the jacket she got him for Christmas last year on fire and watched it burn until the night sky began to light again. The heat pricked at his unmoving fingers the sensation of something licking him, of something being not-right.

He did not put it out before he left.

***

He knocked on the door to the private sitting room. The shifting of the carriage had taken some getting used to, but he had always adapted to things so well. His mother had blamed the inability to feel pain, but she wasn’t exactly the smartest person he had ever come across. She wanted him to do more chores and less burning ants with his magnifying glass.

Even her screams got boring after the first hour.

“Might I join you?” Logan asked when the door slid open.

“The sign says private for a reason, Teach.” A voice said from inside. Logan raised an eyebrow at the man, at his plain white t-shirt and jeans that still have the tag on it. He was lounging on a full booth seat, with black boots sprinkling dirt on the other seats, and a phone in one hand. Even without that katana in his hands, he was easily recognizable.

Logan glanced at the twins who sit across from him, “I was under the impression you killed him?”

“Pat made me put him back together.” The man in the hoodie said, rather regretfully. He blew on his fingertips, crinkled his nose, and then went back to using his butterfly knife to scrap the purple nail polish off his nails.

“As if Johnny Depressing there could kill someone as amazing as me!” The other man scoffed.

“Give it four days, Princey.” He retorted, “The only reason I haven’t taken you apart yet is because its easier to transport you alive.”

The carriage filled with a booming laughter, “It’s going to be so much fun killing you, Twenty Eight!”

The smiling man held out his arms for Logan, like an offer of a hug if it hadn’t been for the knives in both of his hands. The toothy grin was too sharp to be flattering.

“I’m glad you came, Logie!” He sang. “I can’t wait to see you smile just like I made Kady Kay smile!”

Logan dropped his bag--a duffel that held a bottle of lighter fluid, a box of matches and three outfits— on top of the man’s black boots. ("Hey! Watch it!") His lips twitched.

“I do believe that you’ll try.” Logan told the smiling man. “However it will be difficult when you’re little more than a charred corpse in the middle of the desert.”

He settled on the seat next to the other serial killers, pulled out his phone, and began searching for an ashtray to send back to home to his sister.

(Chapter 2)

[lovemesomesurveys]

Disney Animated Theme Asks

Snow White & the Seven Dwarves: Which one of the seven dwarves are your favorite? Dopey and Sleepy. Pinocchio: How often do you lie? Why do you do it? I downplay things more often, but sometimes I lie. It’s generally about how I’m feeling. Dumbo: Have you ever been to the circus before? When I was a kid. I’d never go now. Bambi: Are deer your favorite forest animal? If not, which is? Sure. Cinderella: Have you ever broken your curfew when you were younger? What happened? I never had a curfew, my parents never had to set one. I was a homebody as a teenager, too. I didn’t have much of a social life. I had friends, but we just hung out at school. 

Alice in Wonderland: What would you do if you fell down a rabbit hole? I mean, I do in the sense of I get caught up videos or reading stuff online all the time. I go from one thing to another. If I literally fell down a rabbit hole, well, I can’t imagine it’d feel too great. I don’t what I would or could do. Peter Pan: Are you all grown up? In which ways do you still remain child-like? Technically, yes. I’m almost 31 years old. But I don’t exactly feel grown up. I have a lot of growing up to do still. And besides the fact I have bills to pay, I don’t really feel very adult like. But then I always say how I’m so old and feel old in some ways. I don’t know, it’s complicated. 

Lady & the Tramp: Have you ever shared a piece of spaghetti with someone before? No. Sleeping Beauty: What’s the longest period of time you’ve ever slept for before? Hmm. When I’m really sick I pretty much sleep all day. I mean, I get up at times to try and eat and drink, take my medicine, and use the restroom, but most of the day is spent just sleeping. There were also times when I wasn’t sick that I slept for like 12 hours or so. Then there’s the times after I’ve had surgery where I sleep full days away. 101 Dalmatians: Do you like Dalmatians? Which breed of dogs do you prefer, if any? Dalmatians are beautiful dogs. My favorite breeds are Labs and German Shepherds. Those are the dogs I’ve had and I just love them. The Sword in the Stone: Have you ever tried your hand at jousting before? Nope. The Jungle Book: Have you ever wanted to visit a jungle before? No. The Aristocats: What is your favorite type of cat breed? Black cats are cool. Robin Hood: Who is your trusty sidekick? My doggo. The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh: Who is your favorite character from Winnie-the-Pooh? That silly, willy, nilly ol’ bear. The Rescuers: Have you ever been rescued before? From what? Well, when my accident happened I certainly was. The Fox and the Hound: Do you prefer foxes or hounds? Why? Hounds. I just love doggos. The Black Cauldron: Have you ever wanted to become a knight? No. The Great Mouse Detective: Have you ever wanted to become a detective before? I loved books like Nancy Drew as a kid and I love reading murder mysteries now and trying to figure out what’s going on, as well as with mystery shows and movies. I wouldn’t want to actually be a detective, though. Oliver & Company: Have you ever seen a lost kitten before? What did you do? I’ve seen many stray cats.

The Little Mermaid: Do you enjoy swimming? No. Beauty and the Beast: Have you ever fallen for someone unattractive before? The guys I’ve liked were all attractive to me. Aladdin: If you could be granted three wishes, what would they be? An end to this virus and pandemic, good health (mentally and physically), and money. The Nightmare Before Christmas: Do you prefer Halloween or Christmas more? I love Christmastime, but I really get into ~spooky~ season as well. The Lion King: Have you ever been tricked before? Yes. A Goofy Movie: What’s the most outlandish thing that you’ve ever promised a crush before? I don’t think I’ve promised a crush anything outlandish. I don’t know if I’ve promised one anything. Pocahontas: Have you ever been in a relationship with someone who was in the army? No. Toy Story: What did your parents do with your toys once you got to be too old for them? Do you still have any toys from your childhood? We gave a lot away, but I still have my Barbies and some other things. The Hunchback of Notre Dame: How have you established your own independence? I don’t really feel like I have... Hercules: Has there ever been a scenario in which you were a hero to someone? I’m no hero. Mulan: Have you ever fought in a war or know someone that has? I’ve known some people, yes. A Bug’s Life: What’s your favorite bug/insect, and why? Ew, NONE. Tarzan: What is something you’ve discovered about yourself? Nothing good... Atlantis: The Lost Empire: Where would you like to go exploring? I want to travel all over. Monsters Inc: Have you ever scared children before? What did you do? Aww, no, I wouldn’t do that. Lilo & Stitch: Have you ever had an unusual pet before? What was it? Nope. Treasure Planet: If you could create a planet, what would you name it, and what would life be like there? Uhh. I have no idea. Finding Nemo: Have you ever visited Australia before? Would you want to? Why or why not? No, but I’d love to. Sounds and looks like a cool place to visit. Brother Bear: Have you ever gone hunting before? For what? No.

Teacher’s Pet: Have you ever wanted to be something you’re not? A functioning, happy, successful adult. Home on the Range: Have you ever been to a farm or lived on a farm before? I’ve been to one, yes. The Incredibles: What would you like your superpower to be? Teleportation. Valiant: Have you ever been delivered a message via a homing pigeon? Uh, no. Chicken Little: Have you ever had your reputation ruined? By whom? I’ve ruined my own the past few years because of the shitty person I’ve been. The Wild: Have you ever been to Africa before? Would you like to go? I’d love to see Giraffe Manor. Cars: Have you ever watched races before? My dad loves Nascar, but I never could get into it. I just find it very boring. Meet the Robinsons: What would you do/where would you go if you had a time machine? I’d love to go back to my childhood. Ratatouille: Have you ever wanted to be a chef before? What would be your signature dish? Ha, no. I’m no cook. Although, I think I make a pretty good bowl of ramen. haha. Wall-E: If you were able to build a robot, what would you want it to be able to do for you? Get me coffee and food. Bolt: Have you ever gone cross-country? To where?   I’ve flown to Georgia from California, which are opposite sides of the country.  Up: What is one place that you’ve always wanted to go to that you haven’t had the opportunity to yet? A lot of places in the US and other countries. The Princess & the Frog: How many frogs did you need to kiss in order to find your current prince/princess? I haven’t found him, yet. Tangled: Have you ever spent your entire life somewhere, feeling as though you were unable to escape? Yes. I feel that way in life, in my mind, and in this city. My family and I have wanted to move for several years, but we haven’t been able to. Mars Needs Moms: What would you do if you ever came face-to-face with a Martian? Uh, I’d be terrified to say the least. Arjun: The Warrior Prince: Do you have any experience with archery? Are you any good at it? Nope. Brave: Would you consider yourself to be a brave person? Why or why not? No. I’m weak and scared. Frankenweenie: Have you ever had to deal with the loss of a pet? Yes, a couple times. Wreck-It Ralph: What is your favorite video game? Have you beat it? I love Mario Bro games, many of which I’ve beat. I’ve also been enjoying Animal Crossing: New Horizons. I don’t think it’s the type of game you beat. Planes: Have you ever been in an airplane before? Where did you go? Yeah, a few times. To Georgia and back and to LA and back. Frozen: Do you prefer the ice and snow to other weather elements? Yes, and rain. I love cold weather. I despise summer. Big Hero 6: Do you have anyone in your life who is your hero? Who is someone that you look up to? My mom. Inside Out: Which emotion do you experience most frequently? Sadness, moodiness, irritability. The Good Dinosaur: What is your favorite type of dinosaur? I don’t have one. Zootopia: What is your favorite zoo animal? Giraffes. Moana: Do you ever feel as though you’ve been cursed? I don’t believe in curses. Coco: What instrument would you like to learn how to play? I wish I kept up with piano and took it more seriously back when I played. It’s been over 10 years since the last time I played. :( Onward: If you could bring one person back to life and spend the day with them, who would it be? If nothing weird happened and they’d be the same person they were before in terms of personality and such and she wasn’t sick or in pain like she was, then I’d love to spend a day with my grandma again. It’s been almost 15 years since she’s passed, SO much has happened. She and I were very close, I’d love to be able to talk with her again about things. I’d love to hear her stories again and her jokes. She had the best sense of humor. I’d love to just hear her voice and her laugh again. [a-zebra-is-a-striped-horse]

[vrenaewrites]

HUSH HUSH by Becca Fitzpatrick thoughts: Prologue - Ch 11

Full video here.

We start right away with a bible verse which, if you’ve read any of my books, you know I’m a big fan of

We have a prologue from 1565 France…

The visual of a person perched on a gravestone and mistaking them for an angel statue at first is cool tbh

“Who are you?” “One of the devil’s brood”

The mind control parts of this I like, and I already have a feeling this is the gonna be the best part of this book

Except we don’t get another example of someone fighting it the way he is fighting it - nora doesn’t even realize it’s happening when it happens to her which isn’t as fun

The guy being maniped is a duke and the angel tells him no you’re half fallen angel so do what i tell you (nephilim)

This angel doesn’t have wings but a big cut in the shape of a V on his back

CHAPTER 1

The image of a barbie and ken taped to the chalkboard of the sex ed class is great

Her best friend’s name is V!

“Camera phones to take photos for the school E-zine”

Oh shit she’s a hoe

“V as in virgin” never mind

“It may not have occurred to you kids that sex is more than a 15 minute trip to the backseat of a car” lmaoooooooo

Is this book gonna be good? Did yall lie to me??

The school e-zine

V is a “few pounds over curvy” damn

V is my “untwin” i love that

“I’m all legs like a barstool”

The sex ed teacher is making them all sit by new people...in april…

She knows everyone except the transfer who of course is her new seat mate...this is a very convoluted way to get them to sit together

“It was a smile that spelled trouble with a promise”

“Human reproduction can be a sticky subject” LMAO

“Call me patch. I mean it. Call me.” and he winks

He takes pictures “of an ezine columnist who…” and describes a bunch of stuff about her and she’s like what the fuuuuuuck

And then he is like “you’re scared of what you can’t control”

He knows she plays the cello

She doesn’t wanna ask for another partner because she doesn’t wanna let him win and i’m like NORA CALL THE FUCKING COPS!!!!!!!!!! THIS GUY HAS BEEN STALKING YOU?!?!?!?

She has a cut on her wrist, her dad was murdered

At the end of class he gives her his number so she can get her answers - she no longer has it by chapter 18 but doesn’t remind the reader that she did have it written on her hand so we just think becca forgot nora already got his # for a bit

She’s a sophomore, he’s a senior

He has black eyes and wears all black because ofc

CHAPTER 2

They get a lot of fog and don’t have many neighbors

Mom is an auction coordinator so she’s not around a lot so there’s a german housekeeper that watches over her

But she leaves her alone at night...i already KNOW patch is gonna be “Watching over her” ala edward watching bella sleep i just KNOW

She’s thinking that patch seemed closed off but she liked what she had seen - aka his bod

“Smile that was part playful, part seductive” NOTHING about the interaction y’all had sounded seductive!!!!!! This is exactly like in crave when she’s getting horny that jaxon is yelling at her...like these men seem UNHINGED. Why is that sexy????

“Biology was my toughest subject, i teetered between an A and a B” i’m gonna punch you. I know you wanna go to ivy league so this matters but…

She calls patch!!!!

She asks if he wants to meet up to finish the assignment...you couldn’t...ask...over the phone??

“Nora” he says my name like it’s the punchline to a joke

He hangs up on her because he’s playing pool

She starts her assignment anyway: “jerk” “smokes cigars, will die of lung cancer, hopefully very soon” i laughed v hard tbh

“Excellent physical shape” and then crosses that out lmaooooooo

She flips a coin and it makes her decision: go to the arcade and confront patch

The cashier is pissed that she didn’t pay to get in so she sneaks by

“I was like a rolling snowball gaining speed and momentum” weird out of place metaphor but ok

Patch says she’s with him and the cashier lets her go

His black eyes are magnets clinging to her every move

She feels something different here, more animosity, more electricity...more horniness

“Queasy tap dance in my stomach”

Something about patch wasn’t right, something about him wasn’t normal, something about him wasn’t safe

“Biggest dream” “to kiss you” she doesn’t buy it so like good for her but still blech

Patch says he’s never been to school before and nora’s like you’re a liar

And he says he came because of her

He says “those cold pale grey eyes” are surprisingly irresistible

There are almost zero connections between what she’s saying and what he’s saying, as if he’s having a conversation with himself...it’s really hard to follow

“And that killer curvy mouth” ew

“You seem to know a lot about me,” i said, making the understatement of the year.

“Say provoke again, your mouth looks provocative when you do”

Her jaw twitches when she lies

He has a birthmark in the same place she has a scar...soulmate shit fer shure

She says after her dad died a strange presence felt like it was “orbiting her world, watching her from a distance” like...a guardian angel perhaps

She feels someone in the house with her and i’m calling it now: patch is “Watching over” her

CHAPTER 3

She’s trying to come up with reasons for patch not to be her partner anymore...he fucking ADMITTED TO TAKING PHOTOS OF YOU AND STUDYING YOU AND BASICALLY STALKING YOU. IF THE COACH WON’T LISTEN GO TO THE PRINCIPAL ABOUT THAT SHIT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

She’s anemic and has to take iron multiple times...a day??

“What qualities are you attracted to in a potential mate?” asks the teacher

She’s not ready so patch answers, “intelligent, attractive, vulnerable”

“How do you indicate if a female is interested?” and patch says, “if she’s biting her lip and playing with her hair the way nora is doing right now” lmao

“She’s game”

He puts his arm on the back of her chair and mouths “vulnerable” and while i would literally call the cops on a man for this, it was kind of hot in context

She tells coach she feels uncomfortable sitting by patch and he’s like, “not only are you gonna keep sitting by him i actually need you to tutor him.”

Fire this fucking guy IMMEDIATELY.

How lazy is this writing becca. How lazy. You couldn’t think of any other ways to make them spend more time together??

She and V go to the movies to write a review for the e-zine and v says: “can you imagine living your whole life without a clue that the only reason you’re being kept alive is to be used as a sacrifice?”

Do you smell that? The foreshadowing

V says patch’s dark side calls to her and nora is thinking, yeah no shit.

There was a dark magnetism, i felt lured to the edge of danger, at any moment it felt like he could push me over the edge.

Edge twice in the same sentence, crave’s editor has been in the game since 2009 apparently

V’s basically like nora you’re not attracted to anyone and nora’s like i haven’t found love and v’s like it’s about fun not love dumbdum

V says Patch would probably be “really good”

Nora says patch isn’t good for v and v says, “Careful, you’ll only make me want him more” and i’m like...i know this book came out when i was a freshman but somehow, becca fitzpatrick managed to put me from sophomore year in this book lmao

Marcy a cheerleader with “half a bottle of foundation on” and “¾ of an inch between her skirt and underwear, if she was wearing any” sits beside them

Yikes

She calls V supersize: YIKES

Marcy’s being a dick to V and V just goes, “you have food stuck in your teeth, chocolate ex-lax maybe?” i love this so much

Patch is at the library…

V’s like “i’m trying to read the title he’s checking out...how to be a stalker?” lmao i love V

V thinks patch is following nora but she’s kind of into it lmaoooo

Nora’s like he’s alluring but also fucking scary

She hits someone during a storm on the way home

He’s wearing a ski mask?!??!?!?!?

The car died oh my gooooooood

He’s tearing the door off??!?!?!!?

He punches through the window!!!!!!!!!

CHAPTER 4

She’s like totally freaking out but doesn’t wanna tell V that a dude almost tore the door off the car

She goes to V’s to avoid being alone

When she and v examine the damage...there is none…

She realizes the eyes behind the ski mask were black like patch’s eyes

She can’t remember hardly anything about the crash which is freaking her out

They meet some dudes called elliot and jules who is SIX FOOT TEN

They are probably other fallen angels that are after nora, and then elliott says he just transferred to their school from the prep school as of today, so yeah, this is what’s happening

Also...it’s fucking april. Who transfers schools in april

“You smell good” “it’s called a shower” lol

They’re having like an “are you following me” talk during the quiz

“I wanted my life to go back to the way it was before patch barged into my life”

I truly don’t know if it’s the delivery of the audiobook narrators that is making this issue SO GLARING to me but jfc

She confronts him after class to talk patch into asking to switch seats but he’s like “nah you’ve grown on me”

V really wants to sleuth around and read Patch’s file

CHAPTER 5

they go to the nurse’s office using nora’s iron pills as a distraction to get into the files in the front office

Nora needs to register her iron pills with the nurse...it is april...she has been taking pills out of her backpack all year...no one cared???

She says this is all because she thinks patch is stalking her - which no shit he admitted to taking pictures of you…

V called in a bomb threat from the pay phone outside!!!!!!! I’m fucking crying

Also if you guys don’t know what pay phones are, let me know

She’s trying to punch through the window in the door!!!!! V is the fucking greatest

IT WAS UNLOCKED ANYWAAAAAAY I’M SCREAMING

“As patch’s biology partner, i had a right to know”

The principal caught her but doesn’t suspect her

She meets back up with v at a mexican restaurant

The one patch works at!!!!!!

He asks her what she’s doing sunday night

“You’re getting cocky. I like that, angel” - bleck

“Not on a date, not alone” a hot thrill upon speculating what a night alone with patch would entail

Bitch!!!!!!! You just committed a crime to find out if this dude is STALKING YOU but you still wanna fuck him???????????

“Did you just call me angel? I don’t like it.” “it stays, angel” negging asshole

He brushes his thumb on her mouth and says “you’d look better without lipgloss” HARDIN SCOTT HAS ENTERED THE CHAT

“Interested? We’re talking about you, i’m fascinated.”

“You aren’t ready to know me”

I looked in your student file - BITCH. NORA. IF HE IS STALKING YOU. AND YOU FOUND OUT SOMETHING SERIOUS IN HIS FILE. THAT GIVES HIM SOOOOOO MUCH CAUSE TO LIKE...MURDER YOU?!

It’s totally empty. “I’m going to expose you” “i look forward to it”

“Why are you looking at me?” “because you’re nothing like what i expected” “neither are you, you’re worse”

CHAPTER 6

Elliott is in her gym class

The fog seemed to clog my lungs...fog and clog...don’t like it

Marcy miller… “that’s because you haven’t met anyone better, like me.” marcy twisted her hair around her finger. “You’ll hear all about me soon.”

He calls her gray, her last name, which is a trope i thoroughly enjoy

We describe marcy’s smile as toxic twice in 2 paragraphs

Elliott comes up behind her to help her with her batting stance

“Let me show you, like this, you feel that? Relax” EXCUSE ME

She hears her name in her mind said in someone else’s voice, it’s patch

“Batting lessons, nice touch” elliott is TOTALLY a rival angel guy

“I told myself i imagined the words because the alternative was considering that patch held the power to channel thoughts into my mind. Which couldn’t be. It just couldn’t.” this type of stuff makes me roll my eyes.

“Not yet” she hears in her mind, and ends up slamming it out of the park

She gets smashed in the head with the glove and ball, ouch

Elliott blows on her scraped kneeeeeeeee

“Had he talked directly to my thoughts? Was there some inexplicable link between us that allowed it happen? Or was i losing my mind?” meh

Elliott “i’m not gonna chase after an unavailable girl”

He invites her on a date

CHAPTER 7

There’s a convo with the housekeeper about “reinventing the sexy side” and not changing yourself for a boy…

V calls and is like “let’s go to the party on the coast”

Driving moccasins?

Damn V is like “you look like a boy, put some lipstick on”

And Nora isn’t wearing makeup because patch planted the idea in her mind - NEGGING!!!!!!!

The delphic coast sounds like a blast

The new ride is called the arcangel lmao

Patch is at the arcade omg

Jules looks as enthusiastic as three day old meatloaf - this is a very weird metaphor but i don’t mind it much?? It would have bothered me in crave but there haven’t been many in this book so far so it’s not like completely pulling me out of the moment

It’s a new day, and today, the name patch is really irking me. It sounds like a dog

V is STIRRING THE POT between Elliott and Patch god i love her soooo much

Elliott wants to talk to patch about leaving nora alone!!!!

V is a messy bitch who lives for dramaaaaaaaa

Nora goes to talk to patch so elliott won’t start shit

“He was tall and lean and hard and i was sure he had street fight scars under his clothes...not that i wanted to look under his clothes” LMAO

She asks what he’s playing and he says, “baseball, wanna stand behind me and give me a few pointers?” LMAOOOOO he hates elliott so muuuuch

Patch challenges her to a pool game, she punches his arm, he says “Careful they might think we’re flirting” this guy is MADDENING

“Part of me wanted to run away from him screaming fire, the other wanted to see how close i could get without...combusting” AHHHHHHH

He’s talking to her in her thoughts and then being like, “you know that sounds crazy don’t you?” GASLIGHT CENTRAL

“You scare me, and you’re not good for me” “i could change your mind”

“Meet me at the arcangel, i’ll be waiting”

CHAPTER 8

Nora goes to get cotton candy and sees the arcangel, and she goes

She gets the “cold heart-stopping feeling that someone is watching her” and spots a hooded figure

She runs into patch and he’s like “if you keep running away from me, you’re never gonna figure out what’s going on” and she’s been drinking dumb bitch juice so she’s like OHKAY.

Now she’s not scared of the arcangel because patch makes her feel safe...no he DOESN’T?!?!?!?!?

“If you ride without screaming, i’ll get coach to switch our seats” why do i feel like this is gonna be that scene in the movie fear where they hook up at the top of the ferris wheel

“I don’t scream, not for carnival rides.” not for you is her inner voice i assume and ommggggg

He sits in a car that shows demons ripping the wings off an angel, an angel sitting on a gravestone and watching children, then possessing a little girl

Okay foreshadowing

“Scared, angel?”

Our car flew demonically fast - we get it

Her seatbelt came undone and she fell out!!!!!!!

Oh wait...she didn’t? She ended up grabbing him and screaming??

CHAPTER 9

He offers her a drink from his soda can and she’s like “ooh my mouth where his mouth is”

Her phone is dead so she hitches a ride with patch...did he kill her phone with angel powers somehow??

V had left her!!!!?????

Ooh or did the boys kidnap her??

So she’s sure the mind-talking is real but not sure if the guy in the mask or the falling off the coaster is real…

Patch rides a motorcycle because ofc

He takes her home and then has her keys in his hand somehow

He is totally fucking with her, the key won’t turn if she uses it but he can get it to work

“Go ahead, i’m home alone” immediately i realized it wasn’t a smart thing to say

Self preservation has left the chat!!!!!!!! The same boy you thought was stalking you 3 days ago, you just told him you are home alone...dumb bitch juice

“Dorothea will be here soon. She’s old but strong, very strong” You would absolutely be the first to die in a horror movie, nora

He comes inside without her inviting him so he can make her tacos

He...knows where her kitchen is...fuck no

She is scared of him having a knife but also...goes over to him so he can show her how to make tacos…

So idk if most teens are so horny they’re literally willing to die for it, because i was on antidepressants when i was grace’s age and i had no desire to get busy...please let me know in the comments below if you ever went from scared of a dude to wanting to bone him at breakneck speed the way nora continually does in this book

“I’ll answer your questions if you make tacos”

This is a VERY horny scene where he stands right behind her and like whispers in her ear how to cut the tomato…

“Did you follow me to the library?” he smiles and she’s like OH FUCK I WANNA KISS HIM RIGHT NOW

NORA!!!!!!!!! FOCUS

“Scared?” “no” “maybe i’m just scared of -” “liking me?” “yes...wait no”

“I feel a scary attraction to you”

He lifted her onto the counter!!!!!

“You should go” “go here?” his mouth went to my shoulder “or here?” it moved up my neck AHHHHHHHHHHH

Her mom calls and she’s like “can i call you back?” her mom says “sure what’s wrong” and she HANGS UP LMAOOOOOOO

UMMMM THOUGHT HER PHONE WAS DEAD?!?!?!?

CHAPTER 10

V calls her and is like “i was looking for you all night” and nora is like “ummmm no you fucking left me???” and v’s like “DID Y’ALL KISS?!”

“I’ll pick you up at 4” “thought we were meeting at 5?” “circumstances have changed” lmao V for president tbh

We get a weird story about lionel dorothea’s godson daring nora to lick a broken piece of glass, “falling for patch would be like licking that shard”

This is the WEIRDEST analogy i think i have ever heard…

This is a first draft analogy for sure

She acknowledged that her phone had been dead so wtf happened

They go to victoria’s secret and she’s like “ooh sexy stuff ooh patch” wait i shouldn’t be thinking about dangerous patch

“I secretly enjoyed the attraction between us but the eeriness outweighed it” ma’am are you trying to lie to yourself or the reader because 1. It’s not a secret, 2. We (i) keep SCREAMING at you to have a shred of self-preservation but you threw it away for tacos

I’m going to flush patch out of my system like a detox diet, except last time i did that i binged” welp...i’m sure that’s not a sign…

Lmao V tries to take the clearance stickers off the clearance bras and puts them on the nice ones I LOVE HER SO MUCH

The hooded guy is watching her from outside…

But he’s gone before V sees him

V develops a diversion to get the hooded guy to follow her...but they can tell it’s actually a girl…

V gets hurt?!?!?!?!

CHAPTER 11

V is in the hospital with a BROKEN ARM THAT NEEDS SURGERY!!!!!

Patch is absent…

She goes to the new school psych...WHY ARE THERE SO MANY NEW PEOPLE COMING IN APRIL!!!!

She’s def also an angel

She brings up that nora is supposed to be tutoring patch and is like “all tutoring should be under adult supervision, and i don’t want you meeting alone” um...thank you for being reasonable because this dude is creepy but ALSO. Just...don’t have her tutor him…?

She goes to the computer lab in the library to look up reviews but then she’s like “i should google patch” but nothing

“No facebook, no myspace” OH MYSPACE!!!!!

She comes across a kinghorn prep article about a hanging, and finds out elliott was with the victim on the night of her death

Elliott is right behind her!!!!!

“Something cold flushed through me, like a blush, only opposite”

He’s like “Call your mom and tell her you’re taking too long at homework” and she’s like STRANGER DANGER

~~~

[inkedmyths]

It's too perfect an opportunity to pass up

Weekly prompt for the LU Discord which is a disaster

Modern AU featuring @draconiswinters Darks!

-

---

-

Target spotted.

Warriors slowly walked up closer to his doppleganger, who was too busy on his phone to notice his approach. Hylia only knew what Conqueror was doing on there, and right now he didn't care. No. He had more important things on his mind right now. Like what an excellent reaction he wad about to get.

He pulled out his own phone, made sure the volume on his speaker was all the way up, and pressed 'play' on the song he had queued up on repeat.

"Hiya Barbie!"

"Hi Ken!"

Conqueror froze. He slowly turned around, already angry face turning livid at the sight of Warriors. Who was grinning and on the verge of bursting into laughter.

"You want a ride?"

He turned, fists clenched, and charged with out a second thought.

"Sure, Ken!"

Oh shit.

"Jump in!"

-

Legend leaned against a wall. He sighed, checking his phone again for texts. Warriors was usually here by now. While it was entirely uncommon for him to be late, it was incredibly boring to wait for the tall blond.

Hang on. What was that?

It sounded like Warriors laughing, and a song was blasting-

Oh no.

"I'm a Barbie girl in a Barbie World!"

Warriors ran by, cackling like a madman as he blasted Aqua's Barbie girl at the absolute loudest his portable speaker would go.

"Life in plastic, it's fantastic!"

He vaulted over a table and nearly tripped over a chair in an effort to go as fast as he possibly could to get away from his pursuer.

"You can brush my hair, undress me anywhere"

Legend wasn't surprised to see none other than Conqueror hot on his heels, face contorted into rage as he charged forward, leaping over the same table so as not to lose ground on his target.

"Imagination, life is your creation"

They vanished around a corner, the goddess-awful song fading as they ran off. Legend shook his head, snickering slightly. It was pretty funny, even if there was a good chance Warriors was going to have be his ass beat. In fact, that made it funnier.

-

Wind was bouncing a basketball in the park. He wasn't really a basketball player, but it was fun sometimes to try and shoot hoops. He bounced it again and prepared to shoot-

When his older brother charged in front of him, nearly knocking him over.

"Come on Barbie let's go party!" He sang along with his speaker, which was an impressive feat at a full sprint.

Conqueror, who was right behind him, screeched in response. He looked like he was going to explode from rage.

Wind started laughing. Barbie Girl, that was perfect. "Nice one!" He yelled after his brother, who flashed a grin at him before running out of the park with his angry double following.

-

Time was flipping through his shopping list outside the store. Malon had said they needed shampoo, and Twilight wanted root beer floats tonight... was there anything else he'd forgotten? Hopefully not, but he had to make sure. He pulled out his phone to make a call.

"Everything alright, hun?" His wife asked when she picked up.

"Yeah, I was just double checking to make sure there isn't anything I forgot to write down on the shopping list. I have-"

His train of thought was interrupted by cradhing in the distance. He saw several chairs get knocked over, a familiar blue scarf running through them. And what was that he was hearing?

Oh Hylia help him.

"I'm a blonde bimbo girl in a fantasy world"

He hated that song.

"Dress me up, make it tight, I'm your dolly"

It was awful on so many levels.

"You're my doll, rock'n'roll, feel the glamour in pink"

He wasn't the only one who thought this, apparently. Conqueror picked up one of the fallen chairs, looking as though he intended to smash it over Warriors's head.

"Kiss me here, touch me there, hanky panky"

He couldn't blame him.

"You can touch"

Conqueror chucked the chair.

"You can play"

It missed.

"If you say 'I'm always yours'"

Warriors waved at Time as he ran by, laughing madly. Conqueror screamed something unintelligible and resumed his chase of the blond, his orange scarf trailing behind him. They vanished around another corner, taking the horrid song with them.

"What on earth was all that noise?" Malon's voice drifted out of the receiver, bringing Time back to the present.

"Don't worry about it," he said tiredly. "Just some of the boys being stupid."

"Fair enough."

-

Hyrule whistled a tune from his perch on a tree branch. He wasn't sure what had driven him to climb up here, but it was kind of nice to watch people pass by below him. Scanning the area, he smiled when he saw Warriors round a corner towards him. Then frowned. He was running. Why was he running? And was that... music? Wait a second...

"I'm a Barbie Girl in a Barbie World"

What.

"Life in plastic, it's fantastic"

Oh my Hylia why was he blasting that- oh. Conqueror was chasing him. That explained it.

"You can brush my hair, undress me anywhere"

They ran underneath his tree, Warrior laughing and Conqueror swearing.

"Imagination, life is your creation"

They turned the corner, disappearing.

Hyrule shrugged. He'd seen weirder, although he was fairly sure this would be the weirdest thing he'd see all day. Would make for an interesting story.

-

Four spun a stick in his hand, pretending it was a sword. He may be a bit too old to be doing so, but he didn't care. It was fun. Besides, he could get away with it because he looked so young.

Shadow was sitting nearby, snickering at him. "You look ridiculous."

Four was about to quip back, but was interrupted by a song blaring behind him.

"C'mon Barbie let's go party"

He turned in time to see Warriors sprint by, along with his doppleganger looking murderous.

"I'm going to strangle you for this you petty bitch!" He could hear Conqueror yell as he ran by.

As they disappeared, Four shook his head. Same ridiculousness as always. He hoped Warrior would be in one piece by the time this was over.

"Wow," said Shadow. "Excellent song choice."

-

Sky was peacefully reading a book. Howl's Moving Castle was a great book in his opinion, and he loved the movie. After his lunch at the café, he decided he'd go home and watch it.

His peace however, was quickly shattered.

"Make me walk, make me talk, do whatever you please"

Sky looked up in horrified surprise as the song came blasting along with a tall blond in a blue scarf.

"I can act like a star, I can beg on my knees"

Warriors was laughing, which was followed by a yelp as he got hit with a rolled up napkin of silverware from one of the tables.

"Come jump in, bimbo friend, let us do it again"

The source of the projectile was Conqueror, who furiously threw a vase at him next.

"Hit the town, fool around, let's go party"

That projectile missed, smashing against the pavement. He cursed, then flung himself forward to charge again at Warriors.

Sky rubbed his forehead after the two had gone. Why oh why, he wondered, could he not have a moment's peace and normalcy anymore without something happening? Something that almost always involved another Link? He sighed, then tried to get back into his book and forget what he just saw.

-

Twilight groaned as Wild clambered up onto a wall. "Can you not try and do parkour right now?"

"Why not?"

"Maybe because we're not somewhere you should be doing parkour?"

"Parkour is for everywhere."

Twiliggt groaned at this, before stopping suddenly. "Do you hear that?" Wild went quiet, listening.

"You can touch"

"Wha-"

"You can play"

Twilight turned around just in time to be barreled over by Warriors, who was for some reason blasting that one song by Aqua.

"If you say 'I'm always yours'"

Twilight fell over to the side. Warriors quickly got up with a breathless "Sorry Twi" before resuming his mad dash.

"You can touch"

Conqueror pounded after Warriors, leaping over Twi's sprawled form so as not to lose ground in pursuing the object of his hatred.

"You can play"

Wild was laughing, nearly toppling off the wall as he stopped focusing on keeping his balance in favor of watching the scene below.

"If you say 'I'm always yours'"

The duo vanished behind the other end of the wall, leaving Twilight on the ground and Wild still chuckling on the wall.

"Maybe you should have parkoured up here to get out of the way."

"Shut up."

-

Savage grumbled at his phone. "He's stopped answering."

Acidic shrugged. "Moron probably got distracted by something stupid."

"He'd better hurry up. Eternal's going to be pissed if we're late."

Tempest groaned. "Do we have to do this?" he whined.

"Yes, now shut up!"

"COME ON BARBIE LET'S GO PARTY"

Startled, the three of them looked up at the shouted song lyric. Across the parking lot they were standing in, a familiar blue scarf flashed into view. Close behind him was Conqueror, screaming in absolute fury. And all along the way, that damnable song was blasting.

As the two went out of sight behind another building, Savage muttered "So that's why he wasn't answering his phone." His words went unregistered, however, because Tempest and Acidic were roaring with laughter.

"Barbie girl, holy shit," Acidic wheezed, tears streaming down his face.

"His face!" Tempest howled, falling onto his back.

Savage groaned. Eternal was going to kill them all when they arrived late. He only hoped that Conqueror being far more late would divert most of the anger onto him.

-

"I can't believe you're still alive, you moron."

"C'mon Legend, have a little more faith in me. Like I would let that idiot catch up to me."

"That was a great prank though! It's a shame I don't have a good nickname for Tempest..."

"Look what you're teaching your brother."

"Teaching him how to be awesome!"

"That's not the term I was looking for. Try 'stupid'."

"You wound me."

-

"I'm going to murder him."

"We know, you've said it a million times."

"I'm going to strangle him with his own scarf, then tear off his limbs."

"Aw, are you feeling a little upset, Barbie?"

"YOU WANNA FUCKING DIE YOU GODDAMN ORNAMENT?"

"Ow! Bring it you bitch!"

"Would somebody pull those two imbeciles off of each other?"

[violetsmoak]

Tabula Rasa [7/?]

AO3 Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20183281/chapters/49466486

Blanket Disclaimer:

Summary: Tim and Jason have known they are soulmates for years, though neither has said anything about it. Tim thinks Jason doesn’t know and is just trying to live with it. Jason thinks Tim knows but doesn’t care, which is fine with him, he thinks the soulmate thing is a crock anyway. But one night, a minor mishap forces them to confront the issue head-on, leading to a series of events no one could have predicted.

Rating: PG-13 (Rating may change later)

JayTimBingo Prompts This Chapter: #soulmate aversion #secret identity 

First Chapter

Author’s Note(s): In which as time passes, Jay's not having an easy time coping with all this soulmate stuff, and Tim's still trying to figure everything out. And Alfred is his usual awesome self.

________________________________________________________________

“Forget almost being assassinated, how did he not die just from tripping over something in the dark, or eating expired food?” Jason asks as he looks around the disaster zone that is Tim Drake’s apartment. There are takeout containers and empty coffee cups covering every surface, and clothing soiled with dirt and blood and what looks like sewer sludge strewn across the floor. Packaging and bubble wrap twist around the legs of tables and extension cables create startlingly effective tripwire traps. “Can’t you people afford a maid service?”

“Surely even you aren’t so thick that you don’t understand why that would be a bad idea,” Damian points out as he walks in behind him, carrying several large boxes from the local hardware depot. As he deposits them, he surveys the apartment with something more like horror than disgust. “This is the residence of the man my grandfather considers his equal?”

“He’s not usually this bad,” Dick says with a sigh as he closes the door behind him with one hand and deposits his own burden of packages. His eyes rove across the open concept living area with a worried expression. “I was here like three weeks ago and it was spotless. I mean, his room was a disaster zone, but that’s just Tim. Messy genius, you know?”

“If this is how he lives, perhaps the social workers are correct that he needs a more qualified minder.”

Dick ignores that. “I don’t get it. It’s like he just gave up. What the hell happened?”

Jason remains quiet; he has a nasty suspicion he knows exactly what made Tim stop caring.

Whatever, I’m making up for it now, aren’t I? In fucking spades…

He’s been avoiding Tim’s apartment for weeks now, stubbornly squatting in different buildings every night or shelling out for a motel when he wants an actual bed or shower. But the last few days he found several itching bites on his skin, and hell no. He swore when Bruce took him in, he was done with bedbugs and lice and any other critter that can be found in questionably cleaned bedding.

As luck would have it, Dick was on his way over here with Damian to install handicap bars in Tim’s bathroom and check the place over for any other chores or tasks that needed doing.

“I still don’t see the point of that,” Jason says, nodding at the boxes of tools and components. “In what universe do you see B letting Tim leave the manor any time in the next year or so? Even when he gets his memories back.”

“It’s a compliance thing,” Dick informs him. “Now that Tim’s making actual strides in recovery, social services will be coming at some point to check that everything is set up for his rehabilitation if he chooses to come here. If it’s not done, it won’t look good.”

“That chick’s still pushing this?”

“Oh yeah. She keeps coming up with new requirements she insists be filled. Independent psych evaluations, bi-monthly physicals performed by state doctors—she even wants him to attend mandatory rehabilitation at some government facility in Blüdhaven.”

“What? Why there?”

“Aside from the fact Gotham’s mental health infrastructure is riddled with the criminally insane?”

“Fair…”

“Babs looked into her and it looks like Bruce had the right idea. Gillian Sato’s a nobody. Completely average in everything, trying to make a name in her department by going after a big fish. And you know that Bruce has been CPS’ great white whale since he took me in. You too.”

“I remember,” Jason says with a scowl.

It was shortly after he was taken in by Bruce. He had just started as Robin, was beginning to see Bruce and Alfred as family and the manor as home. And then some do-gooder social worker with the ‘best intentions’ and a dislike of Brucie Wayne exploited a technicality that let her remove Jason from the Wayne household. The next weeks and months dragged Jason through such an emotional wringer that his already abundant trust issues increased by orders of magnitude. Even before he and Bruce started to butt heads later, Jason would never truly be at ease in the manor ever again.

Or anywhere, really.

People let you down. People left. People could be taken away from you. These were the facts of life, and Jason vowed never to forget them again.

It’s yet another reason he’s so resistant to the idea of soulmates. Having one just makes it easier to be let down or to have them taken away. Hell, he’s seen that firsthand, hasn’t he? A simple errant bullet and he almost had to watch his die. He can’t even imagine what this whole ordeal would feel like if he was close to Tim.

Lost in his thoughts, it takes him a moment to realize Dick is still talking.

“…her higher-ups barely know anything about her. Most of them are willing to let this thing with Tim go, but she’s the one who keeps pushing it. Poking for loopholes whenever she hits a new roadblock.”

“So have Barbie make her go away,” Jason suggests.

“And give support to the idea Bruce Wayne is above the law because of his money?” Dick challenges. “That would put a lot more attention on the issue than anyone wants. For now, we just play it the legal way. Once Tim’s eighteen, she’ll have lost a major avenue to exploit.”

“Which means you guys have to put up with her trying to wrap you in red tape for the next four months at least.”

“This is ridiculous,” Damian mutters.

“I know.”

“Not that—although yes, this farce of legal compliance is a waste of everyone’s time. But I’m talking about how no one has done anything about Drake’s condition other than wring their hands.”

“Excuse me?!”

“If we’re ever going to go on with our lives, he must be fixed, and faster than some useless stretching is going to do.”

“Kid, how exactly do you think your dad got back to fighting condition after Bane broke his back?” Jason questions. “‘Useless stretching’ was a big part of it.”

“And a hell of a lot of drive,” Dick adds. “Which Tim doesn’t really have enough of right now. I mean, I know he wants to get better, but it’s not the same as if he knew who he was.”

“Exactly. He would already be walking, I’m sure,” Damian nods. “Then you’re in agreement with me.”

“Well, yeah—wait. What am I agreeing with?” Dick asks, suspicious.

“Through my observations of the situation, I have determined that Drake is unlikely to ever regain full functionality or his memory. The easiest way to fix this would be a Lazarus Pit. I happen to know of one in Cuba.”

“Holy no Batman!” Dick cries. “Did you forget what happened when I tried doing that for Bruce?”

“It would be different in this case, since we know for sure that it’s Drake and not a decoy,” Damian argues. “At least, the body bit. And Todd recovered from brain damage thanks to the Pit.” He considers Jason. “Well. More or less. I did not know you before, therefore I have no basis of comparison.”

“And you also missed the murderous rampage that happened afterward,” Jason growls. “Not being able to control yourself sucks. I wouldn’t wish that on anyone.”

Even Tim.

Especially not Tim.

“If anyone possesses the ability to fight off the effects of the Lazarus Pit, it’s Drake,” Damian insists. “He does not have the same latent anger or violent tendencies as Todd’s files say he had.”

“Hey, stay the hell out of my business!”

“Tim might not be as violent as Jason is or was—”

“Screw you, Dickhead.”

“—but he definitely has the capacity for anger. And as it is, he suffers from severe depression,” Dick informs them soberly. “To the point where he’s considered suicide at least once in the past.”

Damian and Jason’s eyes snap to his face.

“What?” Jason demands.

“That was not in his file.”

“Because he didn’t want it there,” Dick tells them, weary. “In case someone tried to use it against him.”

“Don’t you think that’s kind of fucking important to people know about?” Jason demands. “Especially if they have to go out in the field with him?”

He’s having a sudden flashback to the night when everything came out into the open, when he swooped in to save Tim from a fall that he should have been able to divert himself.

Shit. What if that wasn’t an accident like I thought?

“We all have things in our history we don’t want in the files,” Dick reminds them, his face becoming hard for a moment as if he’s remembering something. Then he shakes it off. “Tim’s been dealing with it. He’s on medication, he reaches out when it gets bad…but it’s an ongoing process. I don’t need to tell you guys that.”

“If he didn’t want anyone knowing, he’s going to be pissed you tattled.”

“I’m only speaking up so Damian understands what a bad idea it would be to put Tim in a Lazarus Pit. Depression on top of Pit madness? I don’t want to even think about what he might do.”

Not to mention bringing him anywhere near where Ra��s might pop up is asking for trouble, especially since he can’t fight him off right now.

“So, you are insisting on this waiting nonsense,” Damian concludes, looking frustrated.

“It’s all we can do for now, Little D.”

The kid’s expression remains stormy.

⁂

Damian strides into Tim’s bedroom one morning, wearing a determined expression and followed by his gigantic dog, Titus.

Tim feels a little wary, not so much because of the intimidating canine, but because his younger brother rarely comes near him voluntarily.

“I have read in numerous medical journals the benefits of animal companions in increasing the likelihood of recovery from traumatic brain injuries,” he announces. “Since Father is adamant, we are not getting another dog, I have decided to allow you to spend time with Titus while I am engaged in my studies. I am confident it will contribute to improvement in your condition.” He gestures at the dog. “Titus, stay with Drake. I shall collect you later.”

Then he nods to himself, as if concluding business, and leaves the room.

Tim stares after him, utterly bewildered at the turn of events. Titus watches the boy go, whines for a moment, and then looks over his shoulder at Tim, head cocked to one side as if wondering what that was all about.

All he can do is shrug, which he feels ridiculous about a moment later because Titus is a dog and has a limited understanding (even if Damian speaks to him as if he’s a human being). Still, a beat later, the dog wanders over to Tim’s bed, and rests his head upon the mattress, gazing up at Tim with curious eyes, his tail wagging somewhat.

Slowly, Tim reaches out with his right hand and places it on the dog’s head, causing the tail-wagging to speed up, and scratches him behind the ears.

Titus thus becomes a semi-permanent element of Tim’s recovery process. Damian comes by every morning to drop the dog off as if he’s a parent leaving a child at daycare or school and leaves for several hours. Titus then goes to Tim for obligatory head-pats and only lets up when it becomes clear Tim’s energy is flagging. Even then, he doesn’t go anywhere, simply curling up beside Tim’s bed. When Damian returns, he pokes his head in, nods again, and gestures for the dog to depart with him.

The whole situation is bizarre, but Tim thinks it’s the way Damian expresses worry.

Having Titus around has the added benefit of intimidating Gillian Sato whenever she comes for one of her ‘visits’. Jay can’t always make it there before she does, and she somehow manages to insist on meeting with Tim privately to avoid bias (which he doesn’t understand). Those visits when Jay isn’t present are as short as possible to comply with her wishes, but they’re long enough that Tim is always exhausted and confused at their end. With Titus there, he’s at least a bit more comfortable; the dog appears to sense when his anxiety is climbing or when Ms. Sato says something that makes him uncomfortable.

“It’s rather concerning, Timothy,” she tells him in a voice meant to be kind. “Considering all the resources Mr. Wayne has at his disposal, that he insists you recover here. Instead of in a facility specifically created to rehabilitate TBI patients. It’s almost as if he’s trying to keep you here under his watchful eye.” She leans forward, expression worrying. “You want to get better as soon as possible, don’t you?”

Before Tim can try to parse out exactly what she’s asking him (because he knows somehow the words don’t match her intention), Titus hackles raise, and he begins to growl.

Almost that same instant, Alfred will sweep in and declare that Tim is quite tired today, perhaps they can continue this interview some other time?

Tim wonders if he isn’t standing at the door eavesdropping, even though somehow, he can’t reconcile that image in his head.

Depending on the time of day that Ms. Sato arranges her ‘visit’, the family member that sits with him changes. He much prefers when it’s Jay—he’s the only one whose presence helps Tim calm down quickly after such an interview—but he’s learning to appreciate and trust everyone else in his family.

He’s come a long way since waking up in the hospital and seeing nothing but a bunch of strangers.

Bruce continues to make efforts to spend time with Tim when he wakes up in the mornings. In addition to the sudoku and crossword puzzles, which Tim has started trying to do himself in his spare time, Bruce has started playing other games with him. First Go Fish, and later Memory.

They were games suggested by Dr. Thrussell to help with Tim’s mental rehabilitation, but it turns out playing with Bruce is fun. His expression is awfully serious for what Tim knows are simple children’s games, but he always becomes exceedingly pleased when Tim makes a correct guess.

Dick, who Tim has learned from Alfred is a police officer, is not always around due to his work shifts being somewhat irregular, but when he is, he goes out of his way to help Tim with whatever he might need. It’s both touching and overwhelming; Tim likes Dick, but he feels the same amount of mental exhaustion when he leaves as he does when Ms. Sato does.

How does one person have that much energy?

His favorites besides Jay, are Cassandra and Stephanie.

Steph is nice, as well. She’s affectionate with him, has a good sense of humor, and unlike everyone else who seems wary about touching Tim beyond helping him groom himself or for physio, she’s very tactile.

And she smells nice.

He feels a level of comfort with her that is like when he’s with Jay, which he supposes is because they used to date before she and Cass discovered they were soulmates. Perhaps it’s why he doesn’t question her presence in his life the way he still does sometimes with Bruce or Dick or Damian.

And then there’s Cassandra, who’s just…amazing.

Because she’s like him, somehow.

There’s intelligence in her eyes, but she has trouble getting the words out just like he does. When she sees him struggling with his brain to mouth disconnect, she looks empathetic and he knows it’s not pity or guilt.

The latter is a look he’s started to recognize in Jay, and he doesn’t like it.

He wonders if whatever makes him look like that is the reason he doesn’t get along with the rest of the family. He wishes he could ask, though he suspects even if he could, he wouldn’t get a straight answer.

He’s not sure if that’s normal for this family, or if it’s just another attempt to keep from upsetting Tim. Ever since he started to improve, everyone seems to be wanting to keep him occupied and entertained. Sometimes it’s fun—like today, with Steph egging him on while playing Candy Crush—and other times, it’s just…

Exhausting.

His convalescence aside, Tim has noticed there are times when he feels exhausted and strained for reasons other than his injury. He doesn’t know where those feelings come from, just that he dislikes them.

⁂

One evening, a little over three months following the shooting, Jason shuffles into the manor and wonders how this became routine for him.

It should worry him; how easy it’s been to slip back into the habit of being greeted by Alfred. Into toeing off his boots in the entrance closest and loitering in the kitchen to see if there’s anything left over from lunch or dinner.

It’s deceptively simple to fall into the mental trap of calling this place home again, which is why he never lets himself stay longer than a few hours. Even when Alfred keeps offering to make up a guest room or tries to tempt him with homemade scones for breakfast the next morning.

(He can’t go near his old room, the mausoleum to shattered dreams and stolen childhood.)

Jason’s usual arguments against that are quieter right now, his mind on what Damian said the other day: that no one is trying to help Tim.

In the strictest sense, the sentiment is bullshit; everyone in the Family has been bending over backward trying to make his rehabilitation priority, to protect him from two-faced social workers and asshole paparazzi looking for a story. But there’s been no headway on the shooting, and he wonders if anyone else but him is still looking into it.

Which is stupid, because he knows for a fact that Bruce is a dog with a bone and won’t let any case go, let alone one where his kid got hurt.

So why hasn’t he found anything yet?

He knows from experience, both as Robin and Red Hood, that some cases take longer than others. Bruce spent an entire year investigating the Holiday killings before Jason got involved, and during their years together there were several ongoing cases that dragged for weeks and months before a break could be made.

There are some that remain unsolved to this day.

But this is Tim, you’d think he’d be more motivated. Unless…

Unless he has found something and just doesn’t want to share it because he thinks Jason’s going to go on a vengeful, murderous rampage.

He clenches his fists.

It wouldn’t be the first time that Bruce kept something from him or anyone else if he’s on a case he’s decided is his. He even keeps Dick out of the loop on stuff like that, and he’s the golden child.

Jason’s probably just being paranoid.

Except…

Except he learned paranoia from the best, and that paranoia isn’t always just paranoia, and if Bruce thinks he’ll react badly to something, of course he’s going to keep it from him. Which means they’re going to have a problem because this case isn’t going to get solved if they can’t share important information.

Instead of heading toward Tim’s bedroom, Jason changes course and makes a beeline for the Cave entrance in the study.

He reaches the bottom of the staircase just in time to see Nightwing and Robin peel out of the garage on two bikes. A cowl-free Batman is hunched over the computer, looking up something on the main screen, while the ones off to the sideshow various CCTV feeds from the Narrows, Tricorner and Burnley.

He catches flashes of Black Bat and Signal in the latter two, and scowls.

“I should be out there.”

“That’s not your concern right now,” Bruce replies without even turning around. “You should be upstairs with Tim.”

There’s a derisive snort at that, and Jason glances over to see Blondie balanced on her own bike, adjusting her hair beneath her cowl.

“Problem, Bat-chick?”

“Nothing.”

“Don’t sound like nothin’.”

“Just seems like certain people are easier to forgive than others.”

“Stephanie,” Bruce warns, still not looking at either of them.

“No, it’s fine,” she replies. “Let’s keep tiptoeing around the giant pink elephant in the room. And by giant pink elephant, I mean crime lord.”

“That what you’re goin’ with?” Jason challenges. “You’ve been stewin’ on that for three months, and you’re gonna give me grief over bullshit that’s over and done with?”

“Clearly it’s not over and done with.”

“If you’ve got a problem with me, strap on the steel tits and own up to what it’s really about.”

“Okay, fine!” Blondie hops off the bike to march forward, stopping a good foot away from him and shoving a finger at him. “You might be his soulmate, but don’t think that gets you off for all the crap you’ve pulled. Especially since you’ve known this whole time.”

“What I know or knew is none of your business. But if you really want to have a competition about who hurt him most, my name ain’t the only one on the list.”

“Are you seriously trying to pull the ‘everyone else did it too so it’s okay’ defense?”

“No, I’m telling you to be careful in that fragile fucking glass house of yours.”

“Speaking of houses, how long are you going to keep playing house with Tim before you break his heart again? Are you going to do it right when he gets his memories back, or wait a few days for him to adjust and then drop him?”

“You think I’d be that big an asshole?”

“I know you’re that big an asshole. And so did Tim,” she shoots back, merciless. “He told me you were dead.”

“I was dead.”

“And then you weren’t. And he still always told that to anyone who asked. He knew whatever this is with you, it was never going to happen, but it also wasn’t going away. So, he was trying to move on. And if he’s smart—which we all know Tim is, memories or not—he’ll stick to that gut feeling. Because the longer he’s involved with you, the more hurt he’s going to be when you inevitably break his heart. If you were any kind of decent, you’d get the hell out of his life before he finishes imprinting on you like a baby chick.”

“That’s enough,” Bruce says, and this time he does turn around. “Stephanie, patrol.”

“I’m going,” she replies. “But not because you told me to.”

She stalks toward her bike, and after a few angry revs of the engine, speeds off out of the cave.

Bruce is still looking in Jason’s direction; he can feel the frown. “Provoking her isn’t helpful to anyone, least of all Tim.”

“What argument were you watching?” Jason shoots back. “If anyone’s provoking anyone else, it’s her. And I’m telling you now, B, if she wants a fight, I’ll give it to her. I’m putting up with enough crap because of this soulmate thing, I didn’t sign on to let Timbo’s pissed off ex-girlfriend take shots at me.”

“The lack of evidence in this case is frustrating everyone.”

Jason gives him a disbelieving look—there’s no way that Bruce can be so emotionally stunted that he can’t figure out what Blondie’s little tiff was all about.

Then again…yes, he is.

Rather than stew over Blondie’s accusations (and the fact that she’s got more of a point than he’d like), Jason decides to focus on what Bruce actually said.

“So you haven’t found anything on your end, either?”

He leans against the giant computer, keeping a conspicuous distance between him and Bruce, and trying not to feel awkward and naked without his helmet on. He doesn’t actually remember the last time he was down here and not in uniform.

“No.”

“Really. Nothing? Not a single goddamn clue? This is all just some random person that decided to take the kid out?”

“It’s not the first time someone has attempted to assassinate Tim.”

“Yeah, but I heard about that, it was all planned for. This wasn’t.”

“Hence the continued investigation.”

“Yeah, well, there’s no way you’ve been on the case this long and haven’t found something.”

Bruce is quiet for a moment and then nods. “Based on the lack of available evidence, whoever did this was a professional. Elite even.”

“No shit. We knew that from Day One.”

“I’ve since narrowed down a list of suspects from around the world, who have the capability of pulling this off.”

“And?”

“And they’re all either accounted for or dead.”

“So why do you look more constipated about this than usual? You’ve had harder cases with less evidence.”

“Almost all of these snipers were trained by David Cain.”

The name makes Jason tense. “He’s dead.”

“Yes. But before he died, he mentioned something to me. That there were others.”

“Others like Cass, you mean.”

“Hn.”

Jason grits his teeth. “So, your theory is some designer assassin Child o’ Cain decided to come to Gotham just to shoot Tim?”

“It’s not a theory. Just a possible connection. There’s too little evidence to support it.”

“Then what the hell are you spending the time on it for?” Jason demands. “If we’re going for wild conspiracy theories, why not an alternate universe or time travel? It’s just as easy to speculate someone came back in time to assassinate Tim or put him out of commission for whatever reason.”

“I won’t discount those theories either,” Bruce allows, because of course. “But in either situation, anyone coming here for Tim specifically would likely be enhanced to survive whatever means brought them here.”

“Or it’s one of us.”

Bruce doesn’t meet his gaze, but there’s a subtle tensing of his shoulder muscles.

“I saw that,” Jason points out quietly. Bruce says nothing. “You think it would be me, don’t you?”

“I never said that.”

“If it were one of us, I’m the best marksman, so if it were anyone of ours to come back and put a bullet in his head, it’d be me.”

Bruce stands then, agitated. “You’re jumping to conclusions and letting your feelings cloud your judgment. This is only one of many theories, not even the one that’s most likely—”

“Except we both know that ain’t the case!” Jason snarls. “You know as well as I do, I’m probably the reason he got shot in the first place!”

“Jason—”

“I did this, B! I was in the middle of a pissing contest with some asshole moving in on my turf and Tim got caught in the crossfire. I might as well have pulled the trigger myself!”

“You did not cause Tim to be shot,” Bruce snaps.

“That’s not what you thought when it happened,” Jason reminds him bitterly.

“And I’ve since revised my opinion. I don’t believe this to be related to the contract that was put out on Red Hood.”

“Oh, yeah, that’s a totally glowing recommendation!”

“Whoever is after you obviously isn’t aware of your civilian identity, or they would still be pursuing you,” Bruce replies. “Going underground would only keep you safe for so long, and it’s been months. Whoever is targeting you may have been watching Red Hood, but they weren’t watching you. Therefore, the likelihood of Tim’s shooting having anything to do with your activities is low.”

“Seriously? That’s your explanation?”

“Jason,” Bruce sighs, and he’s pinching the bridge of his nose in a familiar gesture of exhaustion. “I’m trying to tell you I don’t think you’re responsible for this. Why are you fighting me on it?”

“Because nothing is ever that easy with you! And you’re usually the one driving the ‘Jason messes everything up’ bandwagon. Don’t tell me that’s changed all because I happen to be the kid’s soulmate.”

“That has nothing to do with it. I’ve already explained my reasoning, and it’s enough for me at the moment.” He fixes Jason with a calculating look that he doesn’t like. “The question is, why are you so determined to make it your fault?”

Jason opens his mouth to respond, but the words get stuck in his throat as he realizes he has no idea how to answer that.

Bruce continues. “Your behavior is inconsistent.”

“Hell, yes, it’s inconsistent! It’s been months and I still have no fucking idea how I’m supposed to deal with all of this!”

“Perhaps you should take some time,” the older man replies, turning his attention back to the computer. “Away from here.”

Jason narrows his eyes. “Away from Tim, you mean.”

“He’s at the point where he is no longer uncomfortable with the rest of us, and you did make it clear that you only intended to stay by his side until his condition improved. I’m sure with some explanation you could take some time. It might help.”

“You just…that’s not even…”

Jason falters, not sure how to respond, because really, this is his get-out-of-jail-free card. He did say he was only going to stick around until Tim was doing better, and the kid is doing better. He can get back to his search for the dick that got him to go to ground, can get back to living his life the way he wants it and not based around a convalescent’s schedule.

But the idea of it just now, makes him feel queasy, like he’s running a dirty deal.

And on top of that, it bothers him that while Bruce is certain he’s not responsible for Tim’s injury, he still obviously has an issue with the fact they’re soulmates.

It shouldn’t bother him.

It absolutely should not bother him.

And yet.

“You’re a fucking piece of work, you know that?” he snaps, and heads right back up the stairs, mind racing and unable to settle on a single conflicted thought.

Upon reaching the study he finds Alfred on his way in, a tray of tea and sandwiches in hand. The older man takes one look at him and purses his lips, and puts down his burden.

“From your expression, I suspect Master Bruce will be sulking too much the rest of the evening to be interested in dinner.”

“Like I care,” Jason grunts, slamming the false front of the clock entrance closed.

“Were that the case, you would not be damaging the furniture.”

Jason scowls, though it’s somewhat tempered when Alfred offers him the sandwiches he was obviously about to bring down to Bruce.

He takes a petty satisfaction in polishing off every bit of food and tea while Alfred pretends to busy himself with tidying the already pristine study. Although he’s clearly remaining nearby should Jason need him, he doesn’t try to force a conversation.

How does he always know…?

Jason surprises himself when he’s the one to break the silence. “Why the hell does this soulmate shit have to be so complicated? Everyone else just gets it, and I just want to jump out of my fucking skin because it’s making me crazy.”

For once, Alfred doesn’t comment on his language.

“As I understand it, you have never had another person with whom you could confide about this before. You had not manifested your mark when you first came to us, and Master Bruce does tend to avoid matters of the heart and soul except when necessity requires it.”

Jason grumbles, “No kidding.”

It’s not just now, either.

Years back, Bruce got through the sex talk with his usual emotionless, detached aplomb, but didn’t bother with any of the other stuff. Jason would have thought the guy had no heart at all, except he saw how invested he got with the women in his life that mattered.

“And I would imagine discussing it with Mr. Harper and Ms. Anders has not helped, given the substantial difference in circumstances.”

“You got that right…”

“Then perhaps I might offer my own understandings if only to provide another perspective.”

Jason shrugs. “Why not? It’s not like anyone else cares, other than to look like I kicked a puppy whenever I’m in the room with Tim.”

“It has always been my belief that one’s soulmate is the person who will have the most impact on one’s life.”

“So why isn’t mine the Joker?” Jason shoots back spitefully.

“As if that creature ever had a soul,” Alfred scoffs.

“I’m just sayin’, your logic’s flawed.”

“And if you think a homicidal clown gets to claim to be the biggest impact on your life, I wash my hands of you. Do you realize you are scarcely 21 years old? You have an awful lot of life ahead of you to have that one moment, traumatic as it was, to define all of it. Perhaps in those first few months or years following the incident, yes. But you have a future, Master Jason. Soulmates are not just for the moment, but for the breadth of your lifespan. And however much strangeness we see on a regular basis in this world of ours, none of us have the ability to discern the future.”

“Except maybe Duke.”

“Except perhaps Master Duke,” Alfred allows, his mouth twitching somewhat. “But even that only comes in flashes. He cannot know it all. And neither can you.”

“Is that your convoluted way of telling me ‘chin up’?”

“That is my convoluted way of telling you that you are not the only person to find the matter of soulmates difficult to navigate. And no one—not even Master Bruce—is expecting you to figure it all out right away.”

Jason snorts. “You sure about that?”

Alfred simply raises an eyebrow as if insulted by his pearls of wisdom being questioned, and Jason raises his hands in surrender.

Never question Alfred. He knows everything.

Still, he suspects that Bruce will be getting a rather pointed talking-to in the near future. It makes him feel marginally better about the whole thing.

“Now,” the older man continues in a businesslike tone, “Timothy is in the family room this afternoon. However, I would understand if you do not feel up to seeing him today and would be perfectly willing to make an excuse for your absence should you require it.”

Jason almost accepts the out, but then remembers Bruce making a similar suggestion—albeit with more suspect motives—and shakes his head.

“Nah,” he sighs. “Knowing Timbers, he’s been waiting up all day. Least I can do is say 'hi'.”

“Indeed,” Alfred agrees neutrally, but there’s a twinkle in his eye that suggests approval.

As long as no one else decides to ambush me with their emotional crap today, it should be fine, Jason decides, leaving the study and wandering down the hall.

⁂

Tim is sitting in the family room watching Arranged.

He spends most of his time there, either alone or with whatever member of the family is still at home that day. After so long being practically bedridden, he’s desperate to be anywhere that’s not his bedroom.

Alfred wheels him out into the gardens whenever it’s not raining or damp or windy (which, being May, it almost always is), and he’s since enjoyed the sun on his face for the first time that he can remember. He also got to experience his apparent first sunburn, because it seems his skin is notoriously sensitive.

Worth it though, to be outside.

He shifts, sitting up on the couch in front of the large television. He’s surrounded by a staggering number of blankets and pillows; Tim’s not even sure he really needs them to support him anymore—he’s been sitting up on his own for a while—but Alfred insists it’s better safe than sorry.

Titus is lying on his feet, dozing but alert. Tim’s wheelchair stands beside the couch, with Alfred the Cat (Damian seems to not have much imagination when it comes to pet names) curled up on the seat. Occasionally he opens one eye as if to check on Tim, and then returns to sleep.

He’s not a bad recovery-cat, I guess.

On-screen, Cordelia de Vere and Bertram Montmorency get to know one another and discover they actually get along, being of complementary temperaments. They have undeniable chemistry and their dialog is full of witty diatribe and veiled insults that he can’t help enjoying. It’s much more interesting than what Cordelia had with her soulmate, which he agrees with Jay about. Tim’s not sure if it’s a better match than Bertram and Maurice, who the prince continues to see in secret. Meanwhile, Gerald seems to be getting along just fine, joining the army and vowing to build himself up to meet the standards of Cordelia’s parents. He doesn’t actually seem outwardly bothered by her absence, except for several sequences of him writing her love letters.

“Never mind a bullet, this is the kind of crap that gives you brain damage,” a voice informs Tim, amused and somewhat mocking as usual.

Tim’s eyes snap instantly to Jay as he appears in the room, and he feels a smile break out on his face.

“Hi.”

It’s one of the words he’s been working on in therapy and can finally say it without having to mentally or actually hum through a children’s nursery rhyme song. It gives him a thrill of accomplishment, albeit one that pales at the thrill when Jason’s eyes widen in surprise, and then something that Tim imagines might be pride.

“Hi back,” he replies and glances around the room. The car glares up at him like he expects him to question or end his occupation of the space, but Jason simply throws himself down on the nearby easy chair—it’s the only piece of furniture free of pillows and blankets—and squints at the television. “I can’t believe you’re still watching this.”

Tim snorts and shoots Jason a wry look, mentally telegraphing his thoughts. And what are you doing right now?

“Don’t give me that, I’m humoring the invalid.”

“Uh-huh,” Tim grunts.

“That’s a lot of sarcasm for someone who can’t manage actual words yet.”

Tim doesn’t take Jason’s abrasive comments as an insult. Along with Steph, he is the only one that doesn’t try to coddle him. He talks to Tim the same way he talks to everyone else, which, like he’s equal to them even though his brain is making things hard for him right now.

Still, the reminder of his lack of verbosity directly on the heels of his recent accomplishments strikes something in Tim, something like annoyance. Something that suddenly wants to prove a point.

He frowns in effort, trying to line up thoughts and words and the movement of his mouth.

“This is seriously predictable,” Jason complains. “Obviously the writers are trying to set it up that he shows up again and sweeps her off her feet. Then the rich boy goes back to his boyfriend and watching all this is a total waste of time.” Tim doesn’t respond, and Jason glances over at him to gauge his reaction. Only to notice now that Tim is watching him instead of the show, mouth turned downward in a frown. “What?”

Tim’s lips part, then purse, and he makes a kind of humming noise in his throat, closing his eyes in concentration. He takes a deep breath and then utters a sound.

“Ju…jjuh…juh-ay…”

He blinks, somewhat surprised by himself. Jason seems to echo it. “Did you just…?”

Tim’s mouth quirks upward and he feels almost smug. Then, he slowly sounds out the word again. “Ja-ay.”

It’s slow and stilted, and his voice is raspy from disuse, but it’s there, decrying his enforced muteness.

Jay is sitting up ramrod straight now. “Holy shit, you’re trying to talk.”

The naked awe on his soulmate’s face makes him feel warm, and so Tim plods onward, ignoring the way sweat breaks out on the back of his neck or the way he feels a little dizzy.

“Th…than…kyuu…”

Jay’s expression appears to shutter, awe becoming confusion. “Uh…for what?”

“Sa…say…” Tim is panting a bit from the effort now.

“Hey, forget it, don’t push yourself,” Jason implores him, sitting up and making a pacifying gesture. “Three words is enough progress for—”

“Say-ved,” Tim interrupts doggedly. “Safe. Me. Heard…duh…di…Dick…say. You. Say-ved me.”

There.

That was almost two full sentences. He knows they’re crude and basic and maybe not quite what he was trying to say, but he managed to communicate on his own without blinking. It fills him with a buoyant glee, a bubbling temptation to laugh though he knows from experience that doing that would just make his head spin and throb.

He expects Jay to look proud again, happy or relieved—maybe even a sarcastic, teasing quip.

What he doesn’t expect is the wild gleam in Jay’s eye or the way the blood rushes from his cheeks. He looks like someone punched him, and then he’s standing, backing away.

“That…” He swallows. “I’ve got to…”

He doesn’t finish and instead turns and practically bolts from the room, leaving Tim staring after him in shocked dismay, wondering what just happened.

________________________________________________________________

To Be Continued

Poor Timmy. And just when he's starting to show some of his old spunk, too...

Things are heading for their first boiling point. Someone's got to knock some sense into Jay, either literally or metaphorically (who wants to take bets on who it will be?). 

[kiss-my-freckle]

Something new. It’ll be easier, but a lot longer, and end up random as fuck. 

Episode 7x9

Orion Relocation Services. They kill the innocent to service the criminal. Liz in her Ruin deleted scene. “I don’t have a home without you.” The “Sold” sign in front of the house reminds me of Takoma Park. Taking photographs for that new wall space. The photo Liz has of Katarina with her face blown out. Husband is supposed to be retiring. Same with Fakerina. She was out of the game. They pulled her in just to set her up. Orion clients hardly knew the neighbors. Like Liz with Fakerina across the hall. “As we say at Orion, Good Luck. Wherever fate takes you.” Again, bringing fate into it. Arrows and angels. The hunter. Silver linings. Stark’s treatment didn’t work for a reason. They didn’t get that lead from Aram for a reason. Fate at work. Pharma-Karma’s a bitch. A saran wrap smothering that reminds me of Liz in 5x8. And her dialogue at the end of 6x22. “Like I can feel every breath. I’m not used to that.”

Liz calling Agnes “Munchkin.” The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. Transitional object is usually a physical object which takes the place of the mother-child bond. I’m bringing this up because it makes me think of Liz’s fulcrum bunny. Agnes won’t go anywhere without that bugged up Barbie. One of two things is gonna happen. Either Fakerina will use it to track Liz and Agnes, or Red and Liz will use it to trap Fakerina. That’s my prediction for the Barbie. I still have Agnes’ pink glitter shoes in mind. I also believe Red’s “Never underestimate the power of glitter” dialogue will come in when this happens. Whatever way they play it. Especially when they continue to make mention to “underestimating” Fakerina. Berdy is upset about the Barbie. Without those ears on Liz, they depend on getting intel from Ilya, and they’re no longer one step ahead of Red. Berdy refers to Liz as  “the daughter.” Quack doctor speaking of two women: “Your friend” and “Katarina Rostova.” One is looking for the other. 

Red speaks to Liz as if he suspects she’s assisting Fakerina. There’s only one way she’d know about Steinhil. Liz was on the phone with Red at the time she gave him this intel. Unless Red or Liz contacted the team, no one would know but Liz and Red. Process of elimination, but it appears Red is now dumb. He states Ilya is like a brother to him. Sounds like something Katarina would say about her childhood friend. Red shows concern for Liz, but I don’t understand how he can rely on protective service when they have no idea what the woman looks like. Another mention to ghost stories. Assassins, traitors. Sounds like Rederina. A traitor to Russia and the US. Definitely a killer. 86 bodies, not including the ones overseas. Criminals hiding in plain sight. Just like Rederina. Murder becomes central to the exchange of identities. For Orion, they kill the innocent, criminals then take their identities. Rederina falls in parallel. Real Red was already dead. She took his identity. For Fakerina, she fell in parallel with the innnocent to protect the criminal Katarina was. Red wasn’t involved. Confirmed through Dom and Ilya conversation. The harder Ilya fights, he surrenders. He surrenders quite a bit, which tells me he’s fighting like hell not to tell. This feels much like Orchard and the Braxton recall. The real Rostova wouldn’t need these memories, she would remember them herself. Confirmation Katarina is an imposter. 

“Fellas, gals, non-binary pals ....” A Rederina bit. So obvious. Rostova dinner in the dark. Graffiti on the walls. One bit says “Tom-Tom.” I’ll go back at some point, slow it down to see if I can read more. “In food, our eyes betray us. With visual cues. With predisposed expectations ...”  Past experiences. Memory isn’t like a video recorder. Predisposed to assume every male you see was born male. Liz dining with Red in the dark is perfect. Dining without prejudice. Dining on pure flavor. Basically, Liz would be tasting Red’s soul so long as she didn’t hear his manly voice. If only her eyes and ears didn’t deceive her. Katarina Rostova was never seen or heard from again. Raymond Reddington was. Liz’s mother spent half her life in the dark. Liz profiled her mother’s ghost in The Freelancer. They show this through the end of Ruin. Dinner in the dark, quite perfect for mother-daughter Rostova. “Plus one” speaks to parent and child in parent-child stories. Like this one. 

“Her father helped get us out of Russia, but it wasn’t enough. She needed to disappear. Needed a plan.” Ilya’s dialogue coincides with Dom’s story. He got rid of the bodies and got into America. But for Katarina, it wasn’t so easy. Fakerina demanding to know about “that” plan because she knows nothing about it. She wasn’t there. She didn’t even know Red is an imposter. That’s why she asked Ilya “how?” More proof she’s an imposter. Fakerina speaks as if she’s the real Katarina. In doing so, she basically deceives Ilya into revealing more. She wants to know who this plan involved. Again, she would know if she were the real Katarina, and believe when I say she didn’t have her memory manipulated. The straws people will grasp because they refuse to accept the truth. That’s why they immediately throw Katarina into the belief that another man became Raymond. She has absolutely no idea that Ilya already answered her question - in full. Only three were involved: Ilya, Katarina, and Dr. Koehler. Katarina arranged the surgery because she’s the one who got the surgery. Koehler is dead and Frank Bloom is Ilya. There’s no remembering the man who impersonated Reddington because no man did. A woman did. Fakerina acting as the real deal no longer has a hold on Ilya. Quack doctor states Ilya has a different memory because they reached an answer he shouldn’t reveal. He basically shifted to Belgrade and refused to answer her question. She pushes anyway, hoping to get Red’s real identity. Real Katarina would know his identity already. She arranged the surgery. More proof she’s an imposter. They basically pull the same with Ilya as they did with Liz in Braxton’s recall. Quack doctor wants to pull him out because of his physical symptoms.  

Back to dinner in the dark. Blakiston's fish owl. They prey on fish. 

"Owls live within the darkness, which includes magic, mystery, and ancient knowledge. Related to the night is the moon, which owls are also connected to. It becomes a symbol of the feminine and fertility, with the moon's cycles of renewal. Even the mythology relates owl to this wisdom and femininity.”

“Owls have great wisdom and insight, and can see beyond the illusions in life. They encourage you to look at all situations with a keen eye, and not to take everything as it appears. ... The owl spirit animal usually symbolizes death, but it can also mean a great change will come into your life.”

Katarina Rostova is an illusion. A figment of the collective imagination. 

I’m not sure if I heard this correctly, but I think he mentioned the all-seeing eye. OMG, I love Red’s love for animals. I find it interesting how Red mentions Liz’s loss of Tom. Looking forward, not back. Reminds me of their Caretaker scene, 3x16. Again, Red makes me question if he suspects Liz working with Fakerina. Reminding us that all this suitcase shit started with Tom Keen. "Unfortunately, the last person I would want to find Ilya is the person I need help from to find him." Basically, Red doesn’t want Liz to find Ilya. But he needs her help to find him. If Fakerina drives any wedge between Red and Liz, it won’t be her playing the mother card. It’ll be Liz learning Red isn’t Ilya Koslov. Red questions Liz about Morozov. Only two reasons she’d know that name. Either she was threatened, or she’s working with Fakerina. 

Dom said the Reddington ruse didn't work, it only angered those who already want Katarina dead. Ilya responded that she is dead. Because she is. She died when she became Raymond. Dom stated, “Nonsense.” Because she’s not dead to the Directive. They basically want a body. Neville Townsend is at the top of a very long list of people who want her dead. Likely why they call it the Townsend Directive. Perhaps that very long list coincides with the blacklist. Her enemies taken down number by number. A theory George on fb has on the blacklist itself. Anyway, Neville likely runs the bounty. That's why I believe he'll hit #1 or #2 on the blacklist. Red is the real Rostova, he’ll wannna shut it down. Dom is worried they'll find Masha. this coincides with Katarina’s dialogues in Cape May. So long as she drew breath, her daughter would be hunted and killed. One of the many contradictions in this woman’s character. For Dom, this was definitely all about Masha. Ilya tells Dom they should tell Raymond. Dom states, "We are not telling HIM anything." Ilya then replies, "I know how you feel, but Reddington deserves to know what we have done." 

"I know how you feel..." Excommunication right there. 

Why .. why does Reddington deserve to know Because he is a part of this You are protecting him I made a promise

He pledged his life and a promise is a promise. But he didn’t wanna betray this woman. He cared about her, just not as much as he cared about Rostova. His tears are proof. I think he and Fakerina may have had a past relationship. It comes off that way. Fakerina refers to him as “love.” 

"And don't worry, she'll be safe with me. I'm a lot tougher than I look." Agnes is definitely in danger. Dom saying they were supposed to confirm Katarina died when they only confirmed she's very much alive. The entire point of informing Raymond. He's the real Rostova and they just made it worse for his daughter. Exacerbated his need to build a criminal empire to keep her safe. They'll be hunting her down, hoping to use her as leverage. Fakerina interrogates Ilya to the point of seizure. She wants Red’s identity. Ilya can’t give it, Red is the real Rostova. Quack doctor pulls him out of the extraction. Same basic thing Orchard said to Braxton. You can't get the truth if he's dead.

Back to the Orion agent. She tells her client she has a good feeling about this next chapter for her. The client responds, it can't get any worse. Same concept Red said to Patrick. It can get worse. And it will for Liz. Woman tries to escape her pos man. Kate telling Liz to walk away before it’s too late. The client speaks of having nothing but painful memories. Exactly what Liz is going to have. Back to Liz's deleted scene in Ruin. "I don't have a home without you." Her home will be filled with nothing but painful memories because of her love for Tom Keen. Back to my earlier statement, about the way Orion kills. It can't get any worse. Saran wrap suffocating the woman as Liz was suffocated in 5x8. Garvey's men and the carpet, now men with carpet preparing to roll up a body for Orion. What does the agent say next? "You want something done right, you gotta do it yourself." Back to Brimley. Like being impaled by a unicorn. I believe Agnes is next to get the blade. The saran wrap, the knife. Add in the guns. Basic 5x8 repeat, only it’s Agnes. 

Liz, oh Liz. With her gun on Fakerina. The entire point. She has to choose what her mother chose 30 years ago. To choose Raymond and kill off Katarina. In doing so, she’ll truly come face-to-face with losing Raymond. Because he’s her mother. I just hope Liz chooses wisely. So here’s the thing. Fakerina is now in the same position as Garvey was. She has enough intel to destroy Raymond in learning he’s an imposter, but her life depends on ending the Directive. She has Townsend’s first name, so it’s all about getting to him. Getting to him will lead to uncover every player. This cannot happen. If Fakerina gets what she needs, Red will die because he’s the real Rostova. Red speaks of hope, which has me a bit worried. That’s exactly what he spoke about when Liz betrayed him in S6. He let his hopes convince him. Shit is definitely gonna drop. Soon. Let’s hope Liz has the patience to get those answers from Red. If not, she’s going to use Fakerina to get them. And if she does, Fakerina will likely get what she needs. If that happens, I believe the Townsend Directive will be the final big bad, and it will kill Red. Given what Fakerina has already done, Liz could choose either way. 

Like I said, random and long. But I didn’t wanna forget anything.