#I’m so tired of Nancy being attacked over that man

[jancysmixtape]

I’m sorry, but can people PLEASE stop putting down Nancy to hype up Steve? I’m so tired of it bc a lot of the time it screams misogyny. Saying Nancy is a terrible leader, and that Steve is better? Almost all of his big “hero” moments are due to last minute decisions. They’re never planned out at all. Nancy is great at planning and has saved their lives so many times. There’s no reason to constantly put her down to bring that man up. At this point, I’m manifesting him to d word in season five just so these Nancy antis can shut up.

[justinsentertainmentcorner]

Alex Bollinger at LGBTQ Nation:

Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) has made opposition to the existence of trans people central to her brand in her time in Congress, but she has claimed that she’s OK with gender nonconforming behavior, going so far as to wear a tuxedo herself to a D.C. event. She claims to only have an issue with people assigned male at birth identifying as women and using women’s facilities, but that she doesn’t care about how people live their lives. But now she’s outraged that Queer Eye’s Jonathan Van Ness wore a dress to the Golden Globes. Mace has made national headlines since November for her crusade against Rep. Sarah McBride (D-DE), the first transgender person elected to Congress. Mace introduced a resolution to ban McBride from using the women’s facilities at the Capitol complex, has posted hundreds of times to social media attacking transgender people, and has made numerous media appearances to promote anti-transgender policies.

Throughout this battle, she has maintained that she is fine with gender nonconformity and even claimed that trans people’s existence is a threat to gender nonconforming people. For example, in December she tweeted, “Girls who are tomboys are still girls,” a reference to the false anti-transgender claim that kids who don’t follow their gender’s stereotypes are being forced to transition. Mace herself faced attacks from her fellow conservatives in 2023 when she wore a tuxedo to the White House Correspondents’ Dinner. [...] It seems that Mace’s support for gender nonconformity has run out. Anti-LGBTQ+ hate influencer Chaya Raichik – who goes by Libs of TikTok on social media – posted a picture of Van Ness in a green dress from the red carpet of the Golden Globes this past weekend. “Grown man dresses up as a woman,” Raichik wrote about Van Ness, who is nonbinary. “He looks absolutely ridiculous.” Sharing Raichik’s post, Mace wrote, “An actual woman wouldn’t be seen in public wearing that.” Van Ness does not identify as a woman, and it’s unclear why she claimed that no woman would want to wear the satin Christian Siriano gown.

Van Ness came out as nonbinary in 2019 and often wears clothing associated with all genders in public. They have also been on the receiving end of transphobic comments about their appearance for years. “Also I love all these transphobic comments in here,” they wrote in response to hate they received after wearing a dress to the Creative Arts Emmys in 2018. “The guy in a dress’ is insulting and for anyone that doesn’t see the implications is blind. F**king rood people I’m too tired.” Mace has been using transphobia to build her political career since before she was elected to Congress. In her first campaign for Congress, she made up a law that she claimed required “transgender equality in the military,” said that her Democratic opponent was responsible for it, and said that it would result in a Marine Corps base in her district getting shut down. It was all a lie – there was no such law and the Marine base is still in operation today – but it helped her secure her seat in Congress. In her second run for Congress, she accused her opponent of providing “SEX CHANGE SURGERY. PUBERTY BLOCKERS. GENDER CHANGING HORMONES. FOR CHILDREN?” in an ad, even though her opponent was a doctor who worked at a hospital that didn’t provide gender-affirming care for trans people at all. Her opponent was forced to resign from her job.

Spoiled brat crybaby Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC), who once wore a tuxedo to the 2023 WHCD, threw a baby fit over nonbinary actor Jonathan Van Ness’s Golden Globes dress.

[staticsattic]

Johnny ramble part 2 because I cant sleep! (It was an extremely long nap I know 😔)

This one is just a ramble on how he looks because he’s so beautiful (heads up I’m talking about the shirtless skin)

Something that I always think about is Johnnys physique (NOT IN A WEIRD WAY!) I always found it silly how some people would say “HE HAS WASHBOARD ABS!” (I am being over dramatic I apologize) but then completely forget that this man would be consuming an obsurd amount of HUMAN meat while also running around doing physical activity for what seems to be 24/7? It amazes me how much detail Johnny has like sometimes when characters have a bit of story it doesn’t reflect too much on their character but for Johnny it’s the opposite. He does have story I will say that but so far it’s like a appetizer but holy cow is that body a full course meal

The detail on his scars, muscles, body type, TO THE FUCKING CHEST HAIR? Honestly best thing ever. Like it still shows that he is a unit of a man while not steering to far towards a “Leon Kennedy fan mod” (THE MODS ARE AMAZINF I SWEAR NO HATE)

Idk maybe I just appreciate the way Johnnys body looks because I’m tired of super strong and slutty waisted men 😔. Also I like how some scars are just there, I’m pretty sure there was a story for one of them that was related to him attacking those college girls. My headcanon is that a lot of them are from just being clumsy, like if he’s running around Nancys yard here’s gonna end up scraping himself on some scrap metal or cars (that really goes for any other map)

[silverynight]

Change my mind

As Newt sits in front of the counter, he wonders if he should just go find a hotel room where he can spend the night instead; he's tired, but definitely glad he's finally in Brazil.

The pub is quiet and yet the bartender seems to be busy at the moment. Newt looks around and is about to rise from his seat again, when a man sits right next to him.

"Can I get you something to drink?" His voice is deep, it seems a little bit familiar, although he hasn't tried to look at him in the eye yet. It's difficult for him, especially after meeting new people.

What makes him curious about that man is that he decides to speak to him in english; he sounds like an american.

"Perhaps I'm coming on too strong, but you're really..."

Unfortunately, Newt doesn't pay too much attention to what he's saying at that moment because he finally turns around and realizes he's sitting right next to Percival Graves.

His hair is a little bit longer and he's using black jeans and a black shirt, which makes him look more relaxed and it's a little bit weird at first (or perhaps it's because Newt didn't actually meet him but Grindelwald instead).

Newt smiles at him, thinking that Graves has probably read about him and recognized him or maybe he's in a mission for MACUSA. However, Tina hasn't mentioned anything about him in her letters.

"I'd like a firewhiskey, please," he mumbles shyly and watches as Graves's grin turns into a hopeful smile. He speaks with the bartender in an excellent portuguese.

"What are you doing in Brazil?" Graves asks, leaning closer to him. "And most importantly, how long are you gonna stay?"

Newt tells him all about the fire slugs he wants to study and Graves listens to him like everything he says is absolutely fascinating.

"Aren't those illegal?" Graves asks, prompting the magizoologist to worry for a moment, but then he notices the amused grin and the kind glimmer in his eyes.

"I'm not keeping them, well... unless they're hurt or in danger... But I just keep them until they're ready to go back into the wild, like I do with all my creatures."

When Graves puts a hand on his knee to move even closer to him, Newt finally notices the golden earring and suddenly finds him really attractive.

He blushes, but pushes those thoughts aside to tell him everything about his other babies.

"A nundu?" Graves looks like he's not sure if he wants to laugh or narrow his eyes at him. "Isn't that dangerous?"

"No creature is dangerous!" At Newt's outraged tone, Graves finally chuckles and tries to calm him down putting a hand on his cheek. He asks for another couple of drinks.

"I'm sorry... I'm not used to this... I don't know much about them; I used to think of magical creatures only in terms of the law and those rules are not usually too kind with them," Graves admits. "But I'm willing to learn more, perhaps you can stay with me so we can get to know each other as well..."

"You're very kind," Newt beams, as soon as he realizes Graves means well. He also enjoys all the advice he gives him about the habitats he has created for his babies.

"I'm sorry... I haven't even asked your name–"

"I'm Newt Scamander, I thought Tina had talked you about me, Mr. Graves."

Newt is sure he did something wrong as soon as he sees Graves freezing on the spot.

"Have we... met? I'm sorry, I–He must've messed with my mind too..."

"No, it's alright," Newt puts a hand on his shoulder immediately, realizing he's remembering the time Grindelwald imprisoned him. "We don't know each other. I thought Tina or Queenie had said something about me. I actually met–"

"Him," Graves's face twists with anger and pain; Newt takes his hand and intertwines their fingers together, watching with relief as the man slowly calms down. "No one knows I'm here. Don't tell them, please."

"Oh. Alright," Newt mumbles, suddenly puzzled. If Graves didn't know who he was, then why he approached him in the first place? Perhaps he mistook him for someone else? "Well, I need to get going–"

"Wait. You can still stay at my place," Graves rises from his seat as well, following Newt.

***

It's a small house, but cozy. Newt likes it. Graves looks nervous though, he rubs the back of his neck, eyes glued to Newt.

His face turns bright red.

"You can sleep in my bedroom. I mean, I thought we could... You know I was trying to–"

"Nonsense! I can take the couch," Newt insists; he doesn't want to be a bother.

Graves suddenly looks sad, just for a moment, before he clears his throat and looks away from him.

"It's fine. I'm not offended, I understand. I'm not–We can be friends. I have a spare room."

Newt really doesn't want to cause him any trouble, but the wizard insists on leaving him a room all to himself.

"Thank you, Mr. Graves."

"Please, call me Percival."

He stays a couple of weeks with Percival and he learns a lot about him; he enjoys helping Newt to make his case better and more secure for his creatures and although he is an excellent and talented wizard, he could be a little bit clumsy sometimes.

"Good morning, Newt. Would you like–" he stops as soon as he turns around, staring at him as his cheeks turn completely red. He starts pouring coffee all over the counter instead of his cup. "Your shoulder has f-freckles as well."

"Your coffee!" Newt says at the same time and Percival curses and blushes even more before he cleans the mess with wandless magic.

Newt fixes his oversized sweater to cover his shoulder and Percival spends the rest of the morning looking anywhere but at him.

"Your legs are long," he comments another day and curses himself before mumbling. "I meant to say: morning."

Newt looks at the long shirt that covers very little of his thighs and thinks that maybe Percival doesn't like to see Newt being such a mess in the morning. He changes his clothes immediately.

They talk about MACUSA and what happened sometimes, Newt knows Percival misses his life in New York, but he's still hurt and bitter because no one seemed to notice it wasn't him.

He escaped from Grindelwald and traveled for a while until he decided to live in Brazil; he thought no one would find him there.

"But you came," Percival smiles fondly at him. "And found me, even though that wasn't your intention."

Newt has the feeling he wants to say something else, but doesn't push him, instead they feed the mooncalves and sit for a while with them. Newt falls asleep quickly and wakes up in his bedroom.

Percival doesn't make any comment on it in the morning.

The magizoologist doesn't realize how much he enjoys Percival's company until it's time to say goodbye.

"I'll miss you, Percy."

"You can go back anytime," the wizard says, with a desperate tone in his voice.

"I can't... Not soon at least. I just accepted a job as a consultant in MACUSA," Newt mumbles, truly lamenting it.

"Oh... right. Well, goodbye."

"I'll write to you," Newt promises, although he notices that Percival doesn't look too happy about that.

***

Newt keeps his promise, however, he can't stop Queenie Goldstein from finding out; he's not very good at occlumency and his friend has gotten used to his accent.

"Please, don't tell anyone. He doesn't want it," he whispers to her after following her to the kitchen.

"Don't worry, sweetie, I won't. Although I think he'll be coming here pretty soon," she assures him, winking at him.

Newt is not sure about that, he's sent a couple of letters now and even though Percival seemed really enthusiastic about writing back it's been a couple of weeks since Newt received the last letter.

Part of him is worried and the other part of him is hurt. Perhaps he just wants to be left alone after all.

Tina is having a horrible time with the new Director, Collins, Picquery told him his position was only temporary but he's acting like he's going to stay forever and is MACUSA's king now.

Newt thinks he doesn't like him (he's constantly following him everywhere whenever he sets foot in MACUSA) but Queenie thinks it's quite the opposite.

"Although I wouldn't go near him if I were you," she tells him. "I think it's an obsession."

It's difficult to avoid someone when he's in charge of the department one's working for.

But Newt tries anyway.

"Oh, you're here doll, I've been looking for you the whole day," Collins grins, taking Newt by the arm. "Turns out there's something wrong with one of the permits Madam President gave you. You have to come back to my office."

For some reason, Queenie looks angry (it's weird to see her like that) and quickly storms into her sister's office.

"Don't worry, doll, I'll make you a new one," he grins and Newt's about to thank him when he adds: "If you have a date with me."

"But... I don't think it's a good ide–"

"It's that or you'll have to give me your Nundu."

Instinctively, Newt pulls the case closer to him. He rescued Nancy a couple of months ago, which means the only human she trusts at the moment is him (and Percival, actually). If she sees someone else she could have a panic attack and hurt someone and if she does not even Picquery will be willing to forgive her.

"Well... Then I'll acce–"

There's a noise outside the office; it's like people are running... For a frightening moment, Newt thinks one of his babies escaped, but he realizes his case is still firmly closed (besides, Percival taught him a thing or two about magic locks).

"What's that?" Collins growls, irritated before storming out. Newt follows him with caution and then sees Weis running down the hallway with a huge grin upon her face.

There are a couple of people gathering around someone in the cafeteria, they all are talking excitedly at the same time, someone is sobbing.

"Let him go, he wants to see Newt," Queenie chuckles happily before the people around move out of the way.

That's when Newt sees Percival Graves again, smiling at him nervously.

"I missed you so much," he says, out of breath, before rushing towards the magizoologist.

He takes his face in his hands and presses their foreheads together; Newt didn't know how much his heart had ached for him until now.

"You didn't write back, I thought you didn't want to be my friend anymore."

"I apologise for that. I was nervous because I was getting ready to come back here, Newt. I..."

"Mr. Graves, in case anyone hasn't informed you, I'm the new Director of Magical Security and he's my consultant magizoologist, so I'll ask you this once–"

Without even looking back, Percival makes Collins fall to the ground using wandless magic, no one around offers to help the new Director.

Then Madam President gets out of her office and requests Percival's presence.

Collins starts yelling at everyone to help him when Percival comes out again with a smirk on his face; he moves his hand to change his clothes for a suit, but he keeps the earring and his long hair.

Newt finds himself really attracted to him in that moment, but tries to push those thoughts aside.

"I'm back. I'll be your Director again," he informs everyone around as Collins finally gets up and everyone in the hallway cheers.

Collins rushes into Picquery's office with a furious expression on his face and gets fired a few minutes later.

***

Percival asks Newt to stay in his house after the magizoologist helps him with the magic locks and the decoration.

It'll take a while for the Director to feel like he's at home again, but he's quickly getting there.

"I need to tell you something first, Newt," he says, taking his hand as they both sit on the couch, exhausted.

"What is it, Percy? Are you alright?"

"I'm fine... I'm just–I need you to know I'm in love with you. I didn't mean for this to happen, but it did and I couldn't stop it. I was very attracted to you since we met and I know you didn't want to (you probably still don't) be with me like that, but you have to know..."

"Wait." Newt turns around to look directly into Percival's dark eyes. "I had no idea you were attracted to me when–"

"I invited you a drink, Newt."

"I thought it was because you recognized me."

Percival doesn't seem upset, though he rolls his eyes. He's smiling with hope.

"I asked you to sleep in my bedroom."

"I thought it was just you being nice and that you were going to sleep on the couch." Newt mumbles, blushing as he realizes how obvious it was that Percival wanted to have sex with him then.

The Director chuckles and kisses Newt's hand.

"And now? What if I asked you to sleep with me?"

"I'd say yes." Newt says, still in a nervous whisper.

Percival takes him by the chin and kisses him until they're both gasping for air.

"What if I asked you to give us a chance? To start a relationship?"

"I wouldn't say no to that because I think I'm in love with you, Percy."

"Come here, love," the Director grins as he pulls Newt closer for another kiss.

***

Patreon

[plotting-against-you]

Will It Ever Be the Same (Part 2)

Fandom: Nancy Drew (TV 2019)

Characters: Ryan Hudson, Nancy Drew, Ace, Bess Marvin, George Fan, Ned 'Nick' Nickerson

Prompt(s): This is based on two prompts. One of those prompts is from Alicia, who asked: "Could you do one where Nancy is 13 instead, has blonde hair like Lucy, and blue eyes like Ryan? She goes to his place like in 1x17 to get help for the ritual and on the way out she gets dizzy because she's been working herself to exhaustion. In that moment Ryan notices how similar she looks to Lucy and himself but decides not to say anything but also knows Nancy is his. She eventually tells him before doing the ritual. They go back to his place and he just says 'I know it's you'. She gets overwhelmed, almost passes out, and he just sits with her and tells her to rest."

This is also for @nancydrewcentral's week 2 hiatus prompt: Time Period AU.

Warnings: Panic/Anxiety attacks, mentions of anxiety and coping mechanisms, mentions of character deaths (past and present), mentions of suicide

Part 1

“Do you need me because I’m your father?”

He watched as her eyes went wide again, and as she scooted her body backward on the ledge, he took a step forward.

“Please, be careful! I don’t want you to get hurt.”

She paused, moving to a safer position, and let the tears roll down her cheeks silently. “You know?”

He nodded. “I found out this morning when you had your panic attack. The way you scrunched your face was exactly how Lucy used to, and when you rolled your eyes at me, it was like I was looking in the mirror. Then the rest fell into place, and I figured it out.”

“But then…why did we drive all the way to Trenton?” Her breathing was still even, but he knew that could change at any minute.

He shrugged. “A selfish part of me—one that I am learning to work on—wanted to spend some time with you. The rest of me knew you didn’t want me to know yet, so I played along. You were freaking out, and I didn’t want to hurt you.”

“Thank you.” Her lip quivered. “Um…I’m really sorry.”

“Sorry?” His brows shot up in surprise. “For what?”

When she shrugged, it screamed “teenager” and almost had him laughing.

“For not telling you.”

“Hey, you didn’t look like you were in any place to tell me. I get it. This is all knew, and your whole life just changed.” He wanted her to know he understood her.

She shook her head. “It’s not that. I mean, it is that, but…I didn’t want to hurt you.”

“Me? How would you have hurt me?”

She bit her lip, and a flash of Lucy filled his head before he focused back on his little girl. “You just lost your wife and found out why the love of your life killed herself. I didn’t want to add more to your plate in case you were disappointed.”

Now he did step forward, holding his hand out to see if she’d take it.

She did.

“Nancy, I could never be disappointed in you. First of all, you’re my child. Second, you’re amazing. You’ve solved so many mysteries that even the cops couldn’t solve. Third, you are a brilliant young woman and a great student from what I’ve heard. I don’t think there is anything you could do to ever make me disappointed to have you as my daughter.”

She gave him a watery smile now, squeezing his hand. “Can we go save my friends now?”

…

Ryan stayed close to Nancy as they walked through the woods just off the Marvin estate. He wasn’t sure what was going to happen, but after hearing that some crazy sea spirit wanted his daughter’s life—as well as those of her friends—he had found himself growing even more protective than he had felt that morning. He was also unsure how she wanted to handle telling everyone about their relationship if they even had one.

Then he saw the group standing around a fire and let her lead.

“Ryan Hudson?” He heard Bess question, her British accent standing out amongst the others.

“Uh, what’s going on?” Nick was next to try and figure out what was happening but was also ignored.

“Let’s do the thing.” Nancy’s voice sounded off, but as she’d had a long day, Ryan let it slide.

“Um…without a blood relative?” Nick was back to questioning her, but Nancy cut him off once more.

“We have one.” She gripped the paper tightly. “’Make a fire. Burn seaweed as an offering to the sea spirit.’”

“Yeah, we have it all there,” Bess told her quietly, and as the only adult, Ryan felt the need to be suspicious as to how a group of teenagers knew how to do supernatural rituals.

Before he could question it, Nancy continued to read. “’Scatter signs of the curse into the offering flame.’”

George sighed and tossed a handful of sand into the fire. “Well, here’s what’s left of my pocket friends.”

Everyone moved back as the flame billowed higher with the offering, but he was the only one who seemed to be concerned about it.

Was the curse this bad that they all saw portents? Ryan wondered to himself. Was Nancy’s life in so much danger that he could possibly lose her before he even really had her?

“’Blood relatives joined hands over the fire.” She handed the paper to George and faced him. “Please.”

Her voice broke, and at the begging look on her face, he acquiesced.

“Start the incantation.” She told the group.

“I don’t understand, though. Are you two cousins or something?” Bess couldn’t help but wonder, even at such a perilous time.

“No. Can we get this over with, please?”

Looking around at the group Ryan noted that although most of them looked confused, Ace just looked sad.

He had seen the two of them together many times but never questioned it. Now, he realized, the two teens must be dating. He knew that he was new to the father business, but he wasn’t sure how he felt about her dating so young.

Then again, while everyone else questioned and stalled, Ace was the one to step forward.

“’In this fire, to end a spirit's desire, we burn the signs with the salt of the sea and two blended wounds. With this offering of blood for blood, we cast a veil between the kindred spirits and the vengeful one, so that it may no longer pursue us. Forever gone.”

As the young man spoke the words, Ryan felt his palms split and forced himself to keep contact with Nancy even as she gasped in pain and let tears spill from her eyes, now openly crying. He could see that she was in real pain, and he needed it to stop.

“Nancy, I have to stop this.”

“No!” She shouted at him over the pain, and his heart broke. “I…I need you to save my friends.”

The grunted in pain as she spoke, her words so desperate he did as she asked.

Nick stepped forward now. “Why do you need Ryan?”

Nancy let out a sob. “Because…Lucy was pr-pregnant with Ryan’s baby, and right before she died, she gave birth…to me.”

She let out a strangled cry of pain again, and as the group watched them in shock and heartbreak for their friend, Ryan focused on keeping her upright, wanting to finish the ritual as soon as possible.

…

Two hours later, Ryan sat on his back patio staring into a fire much like the one he’d seen earlier, though without the crazy offerings of sand and blood.

He’d stayed to speak with Nancy for a little bit after the ritual, but then Carson had shown up, and he’d left quickly to avoid that confrontation. He knew that she wasn’t happy with her adoptive father being there, but as he had the legal right to call the cops if Ryan intervened, the new father let them deal with their grief.

As he stared into the fire now, he thought back to the look on Nancy’s face as they finished the ritual. She was tired, and he guessed she hadn’t gotten any sleep the night before. Having overheard Nancy and Carson yelling at each other, he knew she’d run away the evening prior and had been out all night.

It made a lot of sense why she’d looked so pale upon arriving at his house.

The doorbell rang suddenly, causing Ryan’s brows to furrow in confusion. It was late, much later than anyone should be out, and he knew his parents didn’t ring the bell though he wished that they would.

Then he answered it and felt like he’d been hit by a truck.

“Nancy? What happened?”

The young girl stood on his front step, sobs breaking through her ragged breathing. Her whole body shook, and he could hear the anguish in her cries.

Laying his hand on her shoulder, Ryan pulled her into the house, shutting the door and locking it behind them. Then he felt two arms wrap around his middle and looked down to see his daughter holding onto him like a lifeline.

He copied her action and held her tightly to him, cradling her head to his chest. “Hey, whatever it is, we’ll figure it out, okay?”

She continued to sob. “O…Owen’s de-dead.”

His blood ran ice-cold, and he gripped her tighter. “Was it the Aglaeca?”

“I don’t…I don’t….”

“Shh, it’s okay.” He had to calm her breathing, or he’d be calling an ambulance.

“I killed him.”

“No, you didn’t.” He promised her. “This wasn’t you.”

“But…”

She trailed off, and he felt her body sag, dropping slightly as her legs gave out. “Hey, stay with me, okay?”

“Mmm.”

He knew that the shock, adrenaline, and exhaustion were catching up to her and was worried. Going on instinct, he dipped slightly and lifted her into his arms. When she didn’t respond, his concern grew.

“Hey, you still awake?”

“Mhm.”

Breathing out a sigh of relief, he carried her over to the couch and laid her across it. Then, pulling the blanket off the back, he draped it over her and plopped to the floor by her head. “I think you need sleep, Nancy.”

“But…”

He gripped her hand tightly, and her eyes shot to his. “I know you’re worried about nightmares. But I’m not going anywhere. I just got you. I’m not letting anything happen to you now.”

“Thanks.”

He nodded and waited as she drifted off to sleep.

He was glad he’d gotten a deep sleep the night before when he still believed everything they’d learned. He figured it would probably be the last for a while.

For now, though, he settled himself on the floor and kept guard over the scared teenager, praying that one day soon all she would have to worry about what bad grades, dates with her boyfriend, and worries about what to wear to prom.

[jadedxrealityw]

-Mind Stone- Peter Parker x Female Reader Part 2

    ☼-☪-☼

   Kody: Part 2 in this shit

  Movie/Show: After Endgame, but no one died because ignorance is bliss.

  Summary: In the attack of 2012, you were given powers that you couldn’t understand at such a young age.

  Possible Triggers / Warnings: Cursing, Mentions of blood and harm,

    ☼-☪-☼

   Tony handed you a bandaid. You took it from his hand and notice the cartoon picture of Iron Man on it. What a not surprised in the slightest. You peel off of the paper backing and stick it over the small wound caused by the needle. “Were done, but i want you to stay here until we can get Thor and antlers here”

   you exhale deeply. After already spending the night you thought you’d be back at the girls home by now. Not that you wanted to go back, you just didn’t want to hear Nancy’s bitching once you did return “I think my caretaker might worry about me if i’m gone again” 

   Tony placed the tablet he was holding on the counter and looked at you “Yeah she’s a real piece of work isn’t she. You have special permission now” he says. What in the vague. You hop off the chair and feel your phone buzz in your pocket.

   you stuck your hand into the dark grey sweatpants you wore. Wanda offered you clothes to sleep in so you wouldn’t be so uncomfortable. She gave you a matching slightly cropped tank and sweatpants. She was a sweetheart. Once you pull out your phone you tap the screen. 

   it was a text from Peter ‘Can you get away for a minute?’ you hold back the urge to smile and look up at Tony “Can i go?” you ask and he waves his hand, shooing you way “Yeah we’re good. Get some rest and make sure to hydrate. Now get out”

   you roll your eyes with a half smile before walking towards the door “Bye” you say before pushing it open and heading out.

    ☼-☪-☼

   you push open the door you were staying in and saw Peter sitting on the bed, picking at his nails. He looks up once he hears the noise and smiles upon seeing you “Hey” he says. You smile back and walk over to stand in front of him, looking down to meet his gaze “Hello”

   Peter looks at you then the bed. What is he a bed? You take a seat next to him, but end up laying back to look at the ceiling “You look tired” Peter says and lays back next to you. You chuckle quietly “Yeah. I got my blood drawn, but at least it’s over with”

   Peter hums in response. You notice he awkwardly folded his hands over his chest, not knowing what to do with them. You shuffle over and lay your head on his chest, feeling him instantly tense up. “Is this okay or are you going to implode?” 

   he shakes his head “No!-” he protests “i mean it’s okay, just uh- just stay there” he says in a more quiet tone. You stifle a bit of laughter and curl up next him, feeling a bit drowsy at this point. Peter wraps arm around your waist “Are you tired?”

   “Yeah a little” you respond, closing your eyes. Peter holds onto you as he moves to the top of the bed, laying his head on a pillow “You should sleep then, i’ll wake you up if something happens” he talked in a more hushed tone now. You smile  before dozing off. 

   “Y/n?” he says before he is interrupted by quiet snores. He smiles to himself, wishing he didn’t leave his phone in his bag so he could take a picture of you. Would that be weird? It’s not like he would made it his lockscreen. Nevermind that’s the exact reason he would take a photo.

   he raised his free arm to try and web his bag to him, but once he did you started to stir slightly “Not worth it not worth it” he mumbles before kissing your head. He stays still until you stop moving before exhaling. He had never cared about another person's nap so much.

   damn his arm was starting to fall asleep. 

    ☼-☪-☼

   an hour later

   Wanda opened the door to your room and was slightly surprised to see Peter playing with your hair while you slept on his chest “Uh- i knocked, why didn’t you say anything?” she asked. Peter looked down at you for a moment then Wanda “I didn’t want to wake her up. I also can’t feel my arm”

   she smiles brightly at the young love “Why didn't you just move her” she questions, folding her arms across her chest “I have never moved each time you fell asleep on me” Vision spoke from behind her. Wanda looks at him with a slightly shocked expression “You can move. I wouldn’t have been mad”

   “That’s not the point darling. I don’t want to move” Vision replies. Wanda sighs “Will talk more about this later’ she says to him before “Tony would like to see her in the main lobby. i’m assuming he doesn’t know your here?” she says with a small grin. 

   Peter smiles nervously “Yeah- i snuck in. I- i- can get her up. Just give me a few minutes” he said with a pleading look. Wanda smiles, nodding and grabs Visions arm “Bye Peter” she said and walked alongside her lover, closing the door shut. 

   Peter sighs, not really wanting to move at this point, but knew you had to be somewhere. He starts to softly shake your shoulder “Y/n- Y/n you have to get up. Mr. Stark needs you in the lobby” you mumble something incoherent to him before rolling over onto your other side. “No”

   he chuckles to himself and stretches his arm for a second “Come on- we can always sleep later” he tries to rationalize. You groan out before propping yourself up on your elbows “Fine, but i’m not going to enjoy whatever the hell is happening” you say in an attempt to be petty. 

   you hear Peter laugh at your response “I’ll come with you then” he suggests. You smile slightly at the thought and throw your legs over the bed. “Let’s go then” you say and let out yawn. You walk over to the side of the bed Peter was on nd slip your feet into the slippers on the floor. 

   Peter stands up and reaches up to fix his now bed head. You lift your hand and move a piece of hair from his face “Thank you” he says and you nod. Suddenly, he leans down and captures your lips in his, catching you a bit off guard but you weren’t complaining. 

   you went to pull away when one his hands was placed on the small of your back, pulling you flush against him. Well damn Peter Parker. He deepens the kiss more by placing his other hand on the nape of your neck. After a couple seconds you both pull away “What was that for?” you ask. 

   “I haven’t got to kiss you all day” he says with a brow raised like it was so obvious. “Oh okay” you hold back some laughter. 

    ☼-☪-☼

   you and Peter walk to the lobby. During your small walk he wrapped his arm around your shoulders and kept you close to him while he talked about how he got his powers. A radioactive spider. That seemed much more awesome then being manipulated by a god at the age of six.

   “Well look at you two” you both look up too see Tony grinning at the both of you so close together. Peter’s face flushes, but he keeps his arm around you “Tony don’t tease them” Wanda comments. Peter hides his face behind your head until the redness went down. 

   “Nice one Spider-Boy” you comment, earning yourself a small growl under his breath, which was interesting to hear to be honest. Suddenly a yellow circle appeared in front of the glass doors. You instinctively take a step back, but Peter keeps you in place “It’s okay” he reassures. 

   you trust his word and stay put as the circle grew quite large. A man stepped out. He was wearing sort of medieval clothes with a maroon cape that seemed to move on its own- Dr. Strange? “Hello” he said to the room and steps to the side as....Thor the god of thunder steps  through the portal, hair cut short.

   at first you were slightly fangirling inside, but then it sunk in who would walk in next. In all his glory, Loki the god of mischief walks through and stands next to his brother. He was wearing an all black suit. You couldn’t tell if you wanted to throw up or run away- maybe both. 

   “Would anyone like to explain why we’re here?” Thor asks, shaking Tony’s hand. “I would also like to know that, considering no one here likes me” Loki adds, fixing the cuffs of his sleeves. “Yeah antlers shut it- 2012 attack. Remember talking to a little girl?”

   Loki gave Tony a strange look “May i remind you all that i was under the control of Thanos and barley remember a thing. Also, what little girl? I hate children” he says with a face of slight disgust. “I might be able to help you all with that” Strange cuts in.

   “Even if you don’t remember anything. Those memories are still locked away in your head. I could access them” he says, gesturing to one of his hands. Loki looks him up and down “I will not have anyone inside my head, that’s sort of my thing” he retorts. 

   Thor crosses his arms over his broad chest “Why is this important?” he directed his question to Tony. “Infinity Stone cleanup.” he says vaguely. Loki sighs and takes a deep breath after “Fine- make it quick and only look at what you need too.

   Strange steps forward “Trust me- i don’t want to look at anything else” he reassures amd steps behind Loki. He placed his hands on either sides of Loki’s head and began to mumble a few words. In an instant it was like Loki became a projector.

   his memory was played in a hologram like manner. Peter and you watch from behind so its inverted for the both of you- not like you haven’t lived through it or anything, but okay. All of you watched as Loki gave you the powers and your tiny body float up then faint. 

   once the memory was over Loki watched the tiny child disappear along with the memory and left standing behind the little girl was you. It didn’t take a genius to put two and two together at this point. “Why did you show me this?” Loki snapped, pushing Strange’s hands away from his head. 

   “Because reindeer games. You under the raisins control only gave her a tad of the Mind Stone’s power- just the teleportation and portals. You gave her some of your powers” Tony says. The room collectively gasped “I- What?” Loki replied before looking at you. 

   you felt your body tense a bit. Peter felt his spidey sense flare up and kept his arm tightly wrapped around you, but for so long you wanted to confront this guy. Tell him off. Wish him dead, but you had just learned it wasn’t his fault. What were you to do now?

   you push away from Peter, despite his protest and confidently walked up to Loki, stopping a few feet away from him “Hey, i guess” you say, shrugging your shoulders. Loki gulps and nods at you “Hello. I uh- i apologize for what i did” he said, you can tell he was struggling to find the words. 

   you wave your hand “Don’t be. You can do one thing for me though” you say, a malicious grin making a way to your face. Loki narrows his eyes before answering “and that would be?” he asked. What could you possibly want from him?

   “Teach me how to use it”

    ☼-☪-☼

   a month later

   “You can do better” Loki scolded as he circled around you. You were both in the training room and had been at it for three hours. You were regretting asking him to teach you how to use these damned powers. “Go again!” he exclaims and you form to blades as he charges at you. 

   you push yourself left and watch as Loki stumbles a bit. You use this opportunity to drop down and kick him completely off balance. Loki falls to the floor and as you went to hit him, he kicked you in the chest, knocking the wind out of you “OH you slimy prick!” you coughed.

   Loki grins as he pushes himself off the floor “I’ll add it to the list of things you call me” he says before coming at you again. You stood there and waited until he was inches away before dropping to the floor and sliding across. You end up behind him and wrap your arm around his neck, holding the blade against it.

   you could Loki huffs to try and catch his breath “Much better. Now we’re done for the day” he declares. You exhale and let go of him “Thank god” you say and wave your hand, the blade fading away. “I’ll clean up, you leave. I’m sure your bug boy is waiting for you” Loki rolls his eyes. 

   “His name is Peter and he’s scared of you” you say with narrowed eyes. His frown turns into a small grin “Good” he replies. You chuckle to yourself before walking towards the door “Bye Loki” you say before walking out the room. Time to hit the showers. 

    ☼-☪-☼

   after taking a shower, you sat down on your bed, looking out the window. You wished Loki was right about Peter waiting for you, but he had been busy all week with crime and patrolling. He was Spider-Man after all. You had just hadn’t expect to be so clingy. 

   it was late as much you wanted to stay up for him you decided to just get some rest. You had put on Peters midtown sweatshirt he left a couple weeks ago. It smelt like him so it’ll have to do until you could see your actual boyfriend ago- holy shit. He had never really asked you to be his girlfriend.

   how come you didn’t notice that before? You were just happy to be with him that you didn’t care about the labels and such. Strange. You climb into bed and pulled the comforter over you while grabbing a pillow to hug close to your chest. It helped you fall asleep sometimes. 

   you plug in your phone and place it on the empty space in the bed. Closing your eyes you force yourself to drift off to sleep so tomorrow could come quicker. It was child like logic, but hey- sometimes children logic is all you need. 

    ☼-☪-☼

   a couple hours later

   your eyes slowly open and your met with the sight of Peter in his suit, just outside your window. He was knocking on it and looking around outside. Not creepy at all. You get up out of bed, using one hand to rub your eyes while the other undid the latch of the window. 

   “Hey. Sorry for waking you” he says, climbing into the room and taking off his mask. You walk back to your bed and pick up your phone “Peter it’s two in the morning. Isn’t May going to worry where you are?” you question. YOu turn around just as his suit faded into the spider symbol. 

   Peter shakes his head and places the symbol down on the dresser “No. She knows i’m staying here tonight” he says. You narrow your eyes, walking over to him “You didn’t tell me you were staying over. I haven’t gotten any time with you this week” you say with a small pout. 

   he smiles and grabs your hands “That’s why i’m here- is that my sweatshirt?” he asked, looking down at the blue piece of clothing. You shrug “Maybe” he shakes his head “You look really good in it Might have to let you keep it” he says and leans down to give you a kiss, but you turn your head away.

   “I wasn’t planning on giving it back to you bug boy” you tease. Damn- you gotta stop hanging out with Loki for awhile. Peter’s face drops “I’m ignoring the bug comment for now. You rejected my kiss. I haven’t kissed you all week Y/n” his tone was whiney and made you want to laugh. 

   “I’m sorry” you say trying to hold back laughter. Peter smiles and finally plants his lips on yours, It was like every other kiss, sweet. Until Peter did his whole hand on the back of your neck thing to pull you in for deeper kiss. You reach up to wrap your arms loosely around his neck. 

   Peter lifts you off the ground and places you on the bed, breaking the kiss “Hm. I missed that” he whispers and leans his forehead against yours. You smile, looking up at him. You arms fall as you let out a yawn “and i missed my human pillow, now get under the covers”

   “Yes ma’am” he replies with a quiet laugh and lays on his back. You lay your head on his chest and tangle your legs with his. Peter pulls the blanket over the both of you “Night Y/n” he says and kisses your head sweetly before closing his eyes. You smile and close yours as well. 

   “Goodnight Peter”

    ☼-☪-☼

   Click here to join my Taglist

   ☼-☪-☼

   Kody: shitty end, but hey i thought it was decent. Request be open btw. Anyways, peace. 

[daretosnoop]

Chapter 6: Partners

Chapter 5

Henry had struggled to work for the rest of the evening. Nancy’s words got stuck into his head. He always knew what he had with Summer was, well, it wasn’t right—but every relationship had its own sense of balance. Maybe, this was just his and Summer’s? But, he had been quick to isolate Summer as someone he was close to. Why? He was always desperate to please Summer and found happiness whenever it would work. Summer’s smiles and laughs were rare, but they were worth it. But was she his friend? What even is a friend when you’re an adult?

Nancy seemed to sense his displeasure with their conversation. She’d tried to bring him into her investigation, but Henry declined. She then tried to suggest playing a game, but Henry declined that too. So she left him alone, and now Henry could hear her laughing with Renee as they ate dinner. One half of him wanted to join in on their conversation. What could be so funny that Renee was laughing? Henry never saw her so much as smile when it was just the two of them. Later, Nancy came in to inform him of the dinner plate they left aside for him. She tried again to engage Henry in some activity, but gave up when she saw Henry’s face. Her badgering, it reminded him of Ned. He’d also chased after Henry, insisting that Henry joined him for lunch or for a study session. Ned was the only classmate that was close in age to Henry. His friendliness and age gave Henry no excuse to avoid spending time with him, but he did—because Summer told him to. And now he was denying Nancy’s friendship, but Summer wasn’t here.

After Henry spoke to Summer, she’d gone quiet. Not a text or phone call. He’d text her how was her day, what she was up to, but Summer either didn’t respond or just sent some emoji. Henry tried to call her once, but she didn’t pick up. So he left her alone. Now, sitting on his bed, he scrolled through past messages, wondering if he said something to hurt her, or if she didn’t like him anymore and refused to talk to him. God, please don’t let come to that. Nancy’s words filtered in again, One of you will tire of the other and end the relationship. Henry moved a hand through his hair and tossed his phone to the side. He was just tired.

There was a rustling in the wall and as Henry looked up, he saw the wall move! The Whispers rushed in and filled his mind with indecipherable words. The wall swung open like a door and out stepped Nancy, looking surprised. Before he could speak, before he could even think of speaking, Nancy’s face turned into a smile.

“Henry!” she said, excitement bursting from her voice. “You won’t believe what I’ve found out”.

“The door to Narnia it seems,” was all Henry managed to utter out. Immediately he chastised himself for being too harsh, but Nancy just laughed.

“Looks like it, right? No, I found your uncle’s study. His secret study”.

What?

Nancy read his expression. “Ya, I know,” she said and dragged him out of the bed and into the study. “This is just something you gotta see for yourself. Prepare yourself, I got more discoveries coming”.

Stumbling after Nancy, Henry’s jaw dropped as he took in the scene before him. There was dust and dirt everywhere. The room looked like shambles, a storage room. Nancy burst forth into an explanation of what she found out about his uncle and Dr. Buford. They were in some krewe called the Jolly Rogers. She told him that she learned that Bruno had acquired a skull.

“He believes it’s the true genuine Whisperer skull,” she said with animated eyes and her hands waved about as she described the case the skull was in. “We found it at Zeke’s, but Henry that’s not all, look at this photograph,” she passed him a photo of what looked like a younger Bruno Bolet and skeleton people?

“See,” she said pointing to the skull people. “That’s the same skull man I saw when I entered the house. I’m sure your uncle used to be one of them. Renee mentioned that she saw them too, but I guess she didn’t know your uncle was in a krewe. And look,” she passed him a calendar book. “There’s a date set for 4 days from now. Your uncle was planning to go to some place exactly near where Bess and I are staying. Do you know what this all means, Henry?” She looked at him eagerly.

It was too much, way too much to handle, and he honestly did not know what it all meant.

“You were right?” he guessed in a weak voice. “My uncle was in a cult”.

“Well, kind of, I guess,” Nancy said, then she shook her head and pulled out her phone. She showed him the photos of the note from the person Bruno purchased the skull and the case the skull was stored in.

“It means that Bruno was hiding the skull!”

“But, why?”

With Henry’s question, Nancy immediately sobered and stood a bit away from Henry. She looked at him hesitantly.

“Henry, do you hear voices sometimes?”

Henry stiffened at her question, an act Nancy noticed.

“You do,” she said softly. “So, it’s true. My god, it’s true”.

“What’s true?” Henry cried out, frustrated with being kept in the dark.

Nancy didn’t say anything. She just handed him a book and told him to read it. She then moved away towards the skee ball machine and tinkered with it. Realizing that she was not going to explain herself, Henry opened the book and read his uncle’s letter. When he finished, he shut the book and tossed it on the table. He then leaned over his legs and laced his hand behind his neck. I’m not losing it. I’m not losing it. I’m not losing it. He was losing it. It was too much. His uncle was asking for too much, and Henry didn’t even like him. Why should he do anything his uncle wanted? Just finish the damn accounts and go! Summer’s right, don’t waste time on a person who gave you nothing and just—he stopped his thought and a smile forced itself out. His life was a riot.

He looked up and noticed that Nancy had her back to him, still giving him privacy. She had her trench coat on again. What’s she planning now? A feeling came over Henry. He didn’t know why, didn’t even want to know why. All he knew in that moment was that he wanted to join her on the investigation. He hated his uncle, was angry with him. But he could not shout at the dead—though they made their voices plenty heard. Speaking of which, it seemed that the entire Bolet family was one certificate of prestige away from being locked up in an asylum. It didn’t surprise Henry to learn about being able to hear ghosts. No point in being scared in the everyday occurrence. The Whispers, now ghosts, fell into a quiet murmur when Henry read the journal, as if they were anxious to how he would react. Alright, I’m here, he thought. What do you guys need? It seemed to work because they hummed about in his mind. Henry laughed to himself. Here he was, consoling the dead.

Henry got up, stuffed his hands into his dress pant and shuffled over to Nancy.

“So now what?” He asked when she didn’t start talking.

“Well,” she started slowly. “It depends on what you want. This case is not really mine anymore”.

Henry stared hard at Nancy. She returned his gaze.

“So I’m guessing you know what I did”.

“I’m guessing you needed the money for Summer?”

“Any questions?”

“Not really, you’re in the clear now that I know you can’t be the skeleton man”.

“You suspected me?” Henry asked and raised his eyebrows.

“Of course,” Nancy said smugly. She picked up a ball and rolled it across the skee ball runway.

“So my family are ghost whisperers. There’s an actual skull whisperer, and my uncle wants me to have it because it will give me some knowledge?”

Nancy rolled another two balls before she answered.

“No Henry,” her voice was deep and reflected her somber face. “There’s more”.

“There’s something more important than the supernatural existing?”

His question broke a smile across Nancy’s face and she exhaled a laugh through her nose. She threw another two balls and then turned to look at Henry.

“Your uncle was probably murdered”.

“Excuse me?”

Nancy tossed a ball up into the air and caught it. She repeated the action as she spoke.

“I looked into the skull. It’s reputed to give people immortality, and it had a history of all its owners being murdered. I asked a reliable source about the skull. Turns out she had previously spoken to your uncle, and she believes that your uncle’s death might have been planned”.

“My uncle died of a heart attack”.

“Yes, but there were two people nearby when it happened. Renee and Gilbert”.

“Are you saying that they killed my uncle?”

Nancy shrugged and rolled the ball she played catch with down the ramp.

“Who knows Henry”.

“So there’s a chance he might not have been murdered?”

Nancy made a face at that and Henry realized she was dead serious. Now he understood why she placed the choice in his hands. An investigation into murder, without any police help— it was all based on a hunch, her hunch. They could also end up dead. He realized she was asking him whether he even wanted to investigate into his uncle’s death. He smiled softly and crossed his arms.

“So? What’s our next move?” he asked again. This time he wore a fond, if exasperated, expression on his face.

Nancy gave him a sly grin and rolled the last skee ball she had. “Now, we look for the skull”.

She brought Henry over to the cupboard that stood against the wall and explained that Bruno had hid twenty-five eyes around. Apparently they led to the skull. She even showed him the clues he gave for some of the eyes. As she explained, Henry couldn’t help scoffing at the ridiculousness of it all. There were ghosts. He heard them. He was not insane. His uncle might have been murdered. They were looking for a skull. He was a thief, and Nancy was a bad girlfriend. What on earth was about to get unburied? He didn’t know, and for once, he wanted to find out.

 “Don’t you think it’s a bit cuckoo to assume that we’re supposed to be looking for eyes?” Henry asked as they stood in front of a grandfather clock. “I mean, what if eyes were some kind of key or clue to a key?”

Nancy moved her head from side-to-side, indicating that she thought the same.

“Did your uncle have an obsession with eyes?”

“No. He was a dentist”.

“Right. He chose the wrong occupation”.

“He did have a glass eye though,” Henry added, remembering the first time he saw his uncle’s glass eye. It was the first thing he noticed about his uncle when he came to pick Henry up from foster care. After his parents died, there was a short gap between the funeral and coming to the manor during which Henry stayed in foster care. When his uncle came for him, all Henry noticed was that one eye did not follow him. He always regretted the face he must have shown to his uncle. It was a bad first impression, not to mention the insensitivity, and even though uncle Bruno gave no indication that Henry’s reaction bothered him, Henry always wondered whether his reaction impacted their relationship.

“Of course he had a glass eye,” Nancy said and they shared and amused look.

“So,” Henry said, gazing back at the clock with hands on his hips. “What do we do here?”

“Well,” Nancy began as she shuffled through the journal. There were three entries for the first puzzle. Each contained a short story and nothing more.

“I’m guessing the stories tell us something on what we should do with the clock”.

Nancy read the first story aloud.

At exactly midday the teacher said to his class, “what time will it be when three hours have passed”. Let’s pretend it’s that time and move ahead two hours more. And from there let’s say that it’s nine hours before. If, six hours before then we’d made note of the time, what time would it be if we’d moved ahead nine? His students wrote down 6 numbers in all. Then went back to their daydreams of things big and small.

“Makes no sense,” Henry remarked.

“Hold on, hold on,” Nancy reread the story and traced certain words. “Do you see here,” she said pointing to numeric words. “The story is weird, but it has words that indicate numbers. See here, midday becomes twelve. Three hours pass, so from 12 we move three hours. Then we move ahead another two hours”.

“And so we should get 12—3—5—8—2—11,” Henry finished and started to move the hour hand in that order. The gears of the clock whirred to life and from the cuckoo bird door emerged a glass eye. Tentatively, Henry reached for it. It was cool to the touch. He turned towards Nancy and saw that she had opened her bag for him. He placed the eye in and they looked at the next story.

“I’m guessing we just repeat what we did before,” Nancy said before launching into the second story. They pulled out two more sets of numbers and two more eyes.

“Three out of twenty-five so far”.

“No,” Henry said. “Four out of twenty-five”.

Nancy looked perplexed and then it hit her. “The eye in the desk drawer!”

Now it was Henry’s turn to look at her perplexed. “How do you know about that one?”

“Well, I snooped around your desk—“

“You snooped around uncle Bruno’s desk?” Henry exclaimed.

Nancy shrugged and Henry gave way to a burst of chuckles.

“You really are the real deal Nancy”.

“What can I say, nothing gets in between me and a mystery”.

 They shuffled over to the desk and Henry opened the drawer and detached the glass eye from its keychain. Nancy flipped through the journal and looked around the room.

“There’re a few eyeballs here,” she said and moved towards the bookcase with tooth stands. Henry followed after her and peered into the book she held up.

“Your uncle logged some of the work he did. I’m guessing it somehow relates to this bookcase”.

“This seems like a violation of patient confidentiality,” Henry remarked and Nancy grinned.

“Probably”.  

Nancy looked at Henry.

“Your ghosts say anything?”

Henry raised an eyebrow, “Don’t think I can just call them to me and ask questions. I’m not a necromancer”.

“Have you tried?”

“Not really,” Henry looked uncomfortable.

“Hey, if you’re unsure or haven’t gotten used to there being ghosts, then don’t force yourself”. Saying so, Nancy linked her arm around Henry’s and dragged him towards the living room.

“I wanted to know your opinion on something”. She opened the door to the secret passage and brought Henry towards the lens.

“There’s a lens here that zooms in on a book. Know anything about it?”

Henry peered through the lens and saw the book Nancy was talking about. Nothing came to mind and he shook his head. He then realized something.

“Is this were you overhead my conversation with Summer?”

Nancy nodded and Henry gave a deep sigh and moved out towards the living room. He saw the Bolet family portraits and moved towards them. He recognized his parents, but it saddened him when he realized that this portrait and his last memory of them barely differed. He didn’t see his uncle, or at least, he didn’t recognize him. Then again, aside from his parents, Henry could not name any of the family members on the wall. He looked at his father. So you had the same ability I do. What would you have taught me?

Henry closed his eyes and tried to get a feel to see if there were any ghosts about. All he felt was the emptiness surrounding him. Embarrassment flooded in and he opened his eyes, turned around and saw he was all alone.

 Nancy knew it was best to leave Henry alone while he stared at his family portraits. Old families tended to have walls filled with portraits. She remembered when she went to Blackmoor manor in England and met a young girl who felt alone in a manor filled with unfamiliar and intangible faces.

When she turned around to give Henry privacy, she caught Renee slipping up the stairs. Curious, she slowly followed Renee up to her room. Renee had left her room door open just a crack. Nancy slipped to the floor and peered through the cracks. Renee was sitting on her bed with a book and had an assortment of bottles and other knickknacks all around her. She lifted different potions up to her nose and took in a deep breath. She then opened her pouch necklace and put in pinches of stuff into the pouch. Then, she packed everything up and went to bed. Nancy started to back away when, out of the corner of her eye, she swore she saw the rocking chair move and the doll turn towards her. Nancy felt chills run down her neck and she backed away, rushed down the stairs and crashed into Henry.

[leechonspeeddial]

Midnight Shift: Singer's Blood

Summary: Something wicked might have come to the Burger King. Either that, or someone really needs deodorant

wc: 1.7k

Read on ao3

"And just like that? I'm in your game?"

"Eh, 'just like that' is like not it, Gucci, but basically. Yeah, dude," I watched as sprite mini-me walked all over the map — a pixelated version of East Laddle's last remaining Burger King, complete with a rat king decomposing in the parking lot and Not Kevin's monster of a car covering an old blood stain.

"Call me Gucci again and I'll burn down your secret edibles stash"

"Nah, dude. The invitation for your family's gala was written in gold, and the card was imported from France. I think I'm entitled, yeah?" I rolled my eyes and cursed as the date to Alice's stupid party drew to a close. Two more days before the humans unknowingly walked into a vampire lair.  

It was cliché to say that I just wanted to be a normal kid, and there was a part of me that would be happy to explain everything I felt with the cliché. But I knew that wasn't it — spending a decade in high school made you realize how stifling normal could be. What I truly wanted was to be left alone; I was fed up of Alice treating my like one of her dolls and everyone enabling her. I was tired of having no thought that was truly for myself and Edward violating my privacy on a whim. It hurt to see Rosalie go from a doting mother to a distant figure when I no longer looked like a child, much like it hurt to see Bella see me as an extension of her beloved husband. 

Being able to hear all of them have sex only made everything much worse.

"Whatever. Just show me my final boss form. You said your roommate was hardcore into Junji Ito"

"Alright, but we only have the concept art for it, though. Abby got super pissed at us for smoking her artisanal weed, so she's not like making the sprite until we get her more, 'kay?" Straight Kevin minimized the game and navigated through his discord server. I left him to his search so I could refill my mello yello; it was always a good shift when Gay Kevin and Not Kevin were away from the store. They were objectively entertaining men, but they also got a little too intense about work here. Neither would let us blow off work in favour of our personal projects. 

Not since Wrestlemania Condimentalooza.

I slurped at my drink and absentmindedly wiped at the counter. Straight Kevin had his phone hooked to our sound system and he was blasting his playlist. His taste in music was…was one would call eclectic if one was feeling charitable – and boy, did I feel like I was making a million dollar donation. In the past hour alone, we had listened to swedish rap, some Nancy Sinatra, Blackpink, Tibetan throat singing, quebecois death metal, and Maroon 5. 

Fucking Maroon 5. 

But none of that compared to the song that was currently playing. It was less of an auditory experience, less of a musical treat, and more like being forcefully turned into a robot that was in the middle of short circuiting. Not only could you feel the beat, but you could see it too. It looked like flashing lights, and I was certain in that moment, that if it continued I would soon be able to taste sound.

And it was during that assault of my senses that I smelled it. Something unlike anything I had ever smelled before and an immeasurable sense of dread washed over me. The pit in my stomach felt like a black hole as I stood ramrod straight and saw a man I had never seen before enter the building alongside Jeremiah.

Nothing about him particularly stood out. He looked like any other white guy that just got out of the office. He was tall though, taller than anyone else here. Not unnaturally tall, mind you, but...something about his aura felt dangerous. I was on edge and no longer breathing, was this how it felt to be near il tuo cantante?

I made eye contact with the man and tried to place the smell, the flavour of it. It didn't taste enticing, if anything the rat king out back called to me more than the man did. But if this was what Bella smelled like when she was human, I had many questions for Edward.

"How's it hanging, Carrot top? Still working on that game, I see Shaggy," Jerimiah appeared oblivious of my behavior. Then again, glaring to our customers wasn't uncommon for me.

I looked away from the man and I saw Jerimiah set up a chess game on his table. Oh no.

"My man C.J. here is buying me lunch, so you can tell your anxious manager not to have a panic attack over more 'non-paying customers'"

"Nah, it's all cool, dude. Kev and Not Kev are on a supply run. Another of our suppliers dropped us like a hot potato"

"Cello beach, that's what they say, no?" Jeremiah shrugged and the man tilted his head.

"C'est la vie?" He questioned using a register of voice I had not expected. I hated it.

"Languages were never my thing. Math, now that's my jam," he dropped onto his chair and I decided I needed to clear my airways. I needed to get out of here. 

Now.

"Kev, take their order. I'm going to deal with the raccoons"

I didn't even wait for a response before I hauled ass out of there. Luckily, I had enough self control to not vampire yeet myself. 

Once outside I took a deep breath.

It was a deeply offensive smell, but at least it was a familiar one. Trash, raccoons, and decay, baby. 

Though, on second breath. Way less raccoons than last week. Significantly less. Maybe Gay Kevin had finally bested them, which shame if true. 

I leaned on the dumpster and tried to focus. It was important for me to figure out what the hell was going on, because damn if some paper pusher was the reason we left East Laddle. The Cullens would jump at the opportunity to decrease my autonomy if I ate some guy. 

Which, yeah. Murder shouldn't be taken lightly, but I'd never be able to have as much freedom as I did now.

God, it'd be fucked. They'd make me go back to school and somehow rationalize that decision as a good one. Somehow surrounding me with hundreds of humans after murdering one would make sense because they'd be there to keep an eye on me...

I was getting sidetracked again, back to the matter at hand. 

About three things I was absolutely positive. First, that man stank. Second, there was a part of me – and I didn’t know how potent that part might be – that wanted to murder him in cold blood. And third, I was deeply and irrationally terrified of him.

A trash can fell over with a loud clang and a empty jug of bleach rolled pass my feet. My eyes widened in realization – Jake had once told me that to him, the smell of vampires made his nose burn. It was an unpleasant odor that clung to everything a vampire touched. Similarly, Alice had gone on at length at how much she didn't like how the shifters smelled like.

The man didn't smell like a shifter, which only served to make me more uneasy. He clearly wasn't a vampire, his eyes were bright blue and I heard his heart beat, but my nose felt like burning back there. 

The more I stood in our nearly empty garbage zone, the more questions I had. The last time I felt this level of terror, the freaking Volturi had crossed the Atlantic to personally execute me. It was horrifying.

And exciting. This was something new and unheard of, a break from the monotony of the past 15 years. I needed to solve this mystery and I needed to do it stat. Not only because this was potentially life threatening – and I didn't mean just the vampires, whatever that man was could be a danger to the whole town – but also because the moment the Cullens found out about it, we'd be out the Minnesota, nay, the States, before I could even think to protest. 

I was so not letting the Cullens ruin this for me. This could be my Riverdale moment; Betty who? Resentment Cannibal was on the case. 

...

Ok. That was a bit cringe, but fuck it. I walked back in to the building with a mission in mind. I also washed by hands with our heavy duty soap for at least 20 seconds.

"–that incident he got kicked from kitchen duties. Which sucked, cuz CJ has some wicked knife skills," Jeremiah's voice carried to the back of the kitchen and I mentally prepared myself to go back to ground zero. 

"How didn't you notice the taste? Catfish smell so bad when you rupture their guts"

I walked to our registers just in time to see the man shrug. The chess game was still on going and they had pushed another table besides Jeremiah's to make space for the food. There was only one meal on the tray.

"You should have seen Tammy's face. She wanted to blow up so bad, but she couldn't because Susan was there," Jeremiah pitched his voice up and put on the worst British accent I had heard in my life, "'Oh, it's fine Mr. Singer. No big deal. Not a problem. Honest mistake. Happens to everyone!'" 

He took a bite from his burger before continuing. "That woman is so gone on CJ it makes her look stupid."

The man made a face while Straight Kevin laughed.

"She isn't 'gone' on me"

"'Oh Mr. Singer, is that a new coat? Did you do something new with you hair, it looks spiffing! What a nice strong man you are,'" Straight Kevin dissolved into giggles while Jeremiah kept up his imitation. "You have to tell her your taken, man. For all of our sakes"

I stepped forward to join the conversation, when my phone blew up, vibrating as if its life depended on it. I would have ignore it, but the notifications just kept coming. The three men looked back at me.

Fuck.

I fumbled as I took the phone out from my pocket and I checked the messages, all of the Cullens had send me a text and they all said the same thing.

Family emergency. Alice had a vision. Come home.

Double fuck.

[magic-and-moonlit-wings]

Chapter 53: Identity

Becoming The Mask

Barbara was at work when her phone buzzed. She didn't have time to check it – she was busy with a toddler who had swallowed a paperclip.

If it had gone into the kid's stomach, things might have been okay. There was some risk of the sharp point doing damage, or the wire catching and tangling in the intestines, but the rounded ends of the paperclip meant there was also a chance it would simply be passed through.

Unfortunately, instead of ingesting the paperclip, the child had aspirated it, so it needed to be removed from her right lung.

Immediately after Barbara got out of surgery, she had to work up the x-rays of a teenager who'd crashed his Vespa into a tree. Nothing was obviously broken and he didn't have a concussion, but there was a risk of hairline fractures.

And then, (because why not,) there were three successive cases of people who had stuck odd things up their butts and gotten those things stuck.

By the time she was able to sit down for two minutes and gulp some coffee, she had forgotten about her buzzing phone.

She didn't even look at her phone until she was leaving for the night. Barbara got it out to turn the ringer off, since she wasn't supposed to be on call that night, which never stopped anyone when they were short-staffed, which was often, and she was tired enough it would probably be dangerous for her to be treating patients again until she'd had some sleep.

(Also, she was probably tired enough that she shouldn't be driving, but Barbara never let herself think about that.)

After finding out she'd missed something as big as her kid sneaking around to fight a secret magical war, Barbara was trying to reassert some boundaries between her time at work and the rest of her life.

Her phone announced that she'd missed a notification.

It was just an exclamation point. What had that been supposed to mean?

Barbara turned her phone off and drove home.

"I'm back, kiddo!"

"We're in the kitchen!"

'We' meant Jim and Toby. Jim was pulling a shepherd's pie out of the oven. Toby and Barbara both inhaled appreciatively.

"You said it's lean ground beef, right?" asked Toby. Jim smiled and rolled his eyes.

"Yes, Tobes. You know if you cut all the fat out of your diet you'd get protein poisoning, right? Mom, back me up."

Barbara took a moment to remember this. She wasn't a nutritionist – she'd encountered this concept in a novel a few years ago and looked it up to see if it was true.

"He's right," she said. "It's the rarest kind of food poisoning. Not much risk of it happening here and now." Not in a city in the United States, haven of processed and instant foods.

Jim portioned out the steaming vegetables and meat and mashed potatoes. Barbara added some sour cream to hers.

"Is Nana out tonight?" she asked Toby.

"Yeah, she and some of her chess buddies are doing a tournament. Informal, I think, but maybe a prize? Like, a gift certificate or something."

"We should see if we can get her and Mr Strickler to play a match sometime," said Jim. "I think I heard once that he's a grandmaster, but I don't know how often he plays anymore."

That combination, Nancy and Walt, made Barbara's brain click and remember the significance of that exclamation point she'd sent herself.

"So … it's been a month. Have you made any progress on telling your friends' families about trolls?"

Both boys froze.

"We gave Vendel a bunch of family stories," said Toby. "Once he's done reading it, we'll find out if we have permission or we're going behind everybody's backs."

"Guess I should warn him the clock's ticking again," said Jim.

"We could maybe tell people now and say we're LARPing, and tell the whole truth later?" Toby suggested. "That's what my therapist thinks is going on."

"You told your therapist?" asked Barbara and Jim together, in very different tones.

Jim's eyes were huge. He had a white-knuckled grip on his silverware. "Tell me you didn't use the word 'Trollhunter' in front of her."

"… No?" said Toby in confusion. "I just said your character was a magic knight on a quest to fight an evil troll."

Jim sighed. "Okay, that's generic enough it's probably safe. Don't use any specific names or terms, though."

"Dude, you seriously think someone is spying on a random high schooler's therapy appointments?"

"Someone is spying on a random high school's entire history class," Jim pointed out.

The rest of the meal was tense. After they were done eating and cleaning up, Toby went back home, and Jim went upstairs to do homework.

Jim's yearbook from the previous year was on one of the shelves in the living room. Barbara brought it over to the couch.

She could use this to get an idea of who Jim and Toby's classmates were, at least.

Jim didn't have many signatures in the book. There was Toby's, of course. The rest all had generic messages – "Have a great summer" from Eli Pepperjack, "Have fun this summer!" from Shannon Longhannon, "See you in September" and a doodled smiley face from Claire Nuñez, and "Enjoy summer break" from Seamus Johnson.

People Jim knew? Or random classmates he approached so he wouldn't look 'weird' for not caring about yearbook autographs?

Barbara made note of all the names. She felt like Jim had let slip that the other children who knew about trolls were girls, early on, but she couldn't quite remember for sure and didn't want to rule anyone out. She flipped to the class photos to match names to faces, so she could keep watch for the signatories hanging around her house or across the street.

+=+

Enrique carefully printed the English alphabet. It hadn't been that hard to mimic from a reference image, but this was his first time writing it independently. He haltingly hummed the song to keep track of his place.

"Pretty good," said Claire, reading over his shoulder. He fought the urge to turn and strike. He was (supposed to be) safe. Claire wasn't purposefully lurking in his blind spot to attack him. "Definitely way better than my first scribbles. I guess next you should learn to write your name."

On another piece of paper, she printed it for him to copy.

The first letter was N. Sensible enough. Except wasn't that one pronounced 'nuh' instead of 'en' when it was in a word and not the alphabet? He shrugged. Claire knew this writing system better than he did – if she said Enrique started with N, he'd go with it until he had some evidence otherwise.

The second letter was O. He frowned. That … didn't feel right. Shouldn't it be an��R?

The third letter was T. He stopped.

"Read it," he said to Claire, trying not to growl.

"Not Enrique," she said, without shame. "You only copied the 'Not' part so far."

Angrily, Enrique scribbled out the letters he'd written so far and the bit he'd copied from. In fast, shaky letters he copied out the rest of it and underlined it.

"No," said Claire, getting angry in turn, "you don't get to use that name. That's my brother's name, not yours."

"The kid can share. It's mine now."

"Oh, come on," Claire scoffed. "You're, like, hundreds of years old. I get that Jim's used to being called 'Jim' after sixteen years in deep cover or whatever, but you can't possibly have gotten that attached to 'Enrique' in just a few months."

… Did she really not know?

"It's the only name I've got."

"Bullshit. Other trolls had to call you something when you were in the Darklands."

Now he growled for real. "That wasn't a name."

"What, some kind of codename system? Then I'd think you'd welcome the chance to start using your real name again."

"I don't know what it used to be!" he snapped. "No one exactly kept track of who they were grabbing. And if we lived, it was 'Changeling' this and 'Impure' that if it wasn't just 'hey you'! Enrique's the first name I can remember having and you don't get to take it away from me!"

He stood there breathing hard for maybe a full minute. He'd cracked the pen. There was gloppy ink on his clenched fist. He licked it off before ink could drip on the floor, and popped the plastic into his mouth.

Claire's voice, when she spoke again, was a lot softer.

"How did anyone tell the Changelings apart, if … if you didn't have names?"

Enrique snorted. "You think they bothered? One Changeling's as good or as bad as any other. S'probably part of why Jim and the big Boss Man were so quick to change sides when they had the chance."

"Even the other Changelings?"

"The rule about not getting attached starts early."

Claire looked like she was about to cry. That … that wasn't fair, she didn't get to make him feel bad for her when they were in the middle of a fight …

"We give each other nicknames, sometimes," he admitted. Imp had been a popular one, if nothing else about a Changeling stood out. "Us or the goblins. But then when we get up top, it's like a rite of passage, you know? We get a name then. Using the old nickname's … like an insult. Saying you weren't worth making a surface agent."

Claire blinked rapidly a few times, then hugged him. He almost clawed her before realizing it wasn't an attack.

"Oi, easy!"

"You can't have my brother's name," she said stubbornly. "But we'll figure something else out."

"Not exactly your call to make," Enrique retorted.

"Don't ruin the moment."

"What moment–?!"

+=+

Previous Chapter (Troll Dads become official!)

Table of Contents

Next Chapter (Angor Rot’s debut!)

Not featured in the above chapter: Jim's internal panic, as he frantically tries to figure out how much Toby has already told Dr Archenn and how to warn Toby off telling her anything else, without exposing yet another Changeling's identity to humans.

Featured in the above chapter: my headcanon that Otto addressing Not Enrique as 'Imp' in early Season 2 was a deliberate insult. I've actually got a different nickname in mind for Not Enrique, it just didn't feel natural to bring it up in this scene. Imp, short for Impure, is basically a 'starter nickname' that all Changelings have in the Darklands, until and unless something about them stands out enough that the other Changelings start calling them something else.

[yikesharringrove]

Hey could you do one where Steve is completely falling apart over the whole Upside Down thing and he has like a fwb thing with Billy and Billy is never usually affectionate or anything but he catches Steve having like a nightmare or a breakdown or something and he comforts him?

Read on ao3!

Steve and Billy started fucking the night the gate closed.

Of course, Billy didn’t know that had happened. All he knew was that he showed up at that freaky house and Steve had said look man, I’ll do anything to get you to get back in that car, and go the fuck home Hargrove and Billy had smirked and said I’ll be waiting, Pretty Boy, and he got in his car, and went the fuck home, while Steve led the kids through certain death and somehow came out the other side.

When Steve got home, itching for a shower, Billy was dozing in the front seat of his car. He rolled his eyes, banging on the top to wake him up.

Billy followed him inside, not asking about the soot and goop on his clothes, the dead look in his eyes as Billy pounded him into the mattress.

It became a thing, Billy coming over to Steve’s, fucking him silly, and then getting dressed silently, slipping out the door, leaving Steve with his nightmares.

It’s always worse on the nights Billy has been there, giving Steve a reprieve from the horror of his life, letting him feel good, wanted, comforted, but then he’s brought back into reality, soothing himself through the nightmares as best as he can.

Until one night, Billy flops off of him and just, lays there.

Steve doesn’t really know what to do with himself, sits against the headboard as Billy falls asleep.

 When Billy starts spending the night, he starts to notice something, odd.

He’s never seen Steve sleep.

Billy always falls asleep first, tired after doing all the fuckin’ work for this pillow princess. But if he startled at night, blinked himself awake before dawn, Steve would always be awake, sitting at an odd angle against the headboard, eating dry cereal in the kitchen, smoking out on the front porch, never the back.

Billy just wants him to sleep. He always looks like shit at school dark circles under his eyes, dozing off in class.

Billy wants to see the way he sleeps, if he talks, kicks out, snuffles, does other cute shit.

He’s been gone on Harrington since he first laid eyes on the soft bastard in the halls of Hawkins High, giggling at Nancy, giving her those big eyes Billy lov-liked so much.

So he started sleeping over. Not cuddling or anything, but after cumming all over Steve’s ass, he’ll roll over and plant himself next to Steve who would smile at him softly, and trot of to the bathroom to clean himself up.

The penny dropped on a cool March night. Billy had brought out some new tricks, had made Steve ride him all night, and Steve was coming off of two nights of no sleep, so when he slumped on top of Billy, he fell asleep right there, right on Billy.

Billy was in Heaven. Steve was cooing in his sleep, making all these soft little noises. Billy was drinking them all in, noticed when they began to sour, when the happy sounds turned into whimpers.

Panicked groans gave way into screams. Steve was writhing, thrashing about, shouting no, no, NO. Telling someone to get behind me! Hands grasping out for something.

Billy was at a loss. The first time Steve falls asleep with him he has what appears to be a horrible fucking nightmare.

He shakes Steve’s shoulder, moves him aggressively, shouts Harrington at him.

That’s apparently the wrong move.

Steve lashes out, Billy barely dodging the blow, rolling on top of Steve, pinning his arms down.

“Harrington! You’re having a nightmare!” Steve’s eyes flew open, looking around the room, eyes panicked. He met Billy’s eyes, and whimpered, immediately starting sobbing.

“I’m, I’m sorry. I didn’t, I usually don’t sleep when you’re, when you’re here. I didn’t want you to know.” Billy rolled off of him, pulling Steve in close, put Steve’s head in his neck, shushed him gently, rubbing his hands softly down Steve’s back.

It took Steve a long time to calm down, for the tears to stop flowing, the whimpers to stop.

“That happen often?” He felt Steve nod against his chest.

“Most, most nights.” Billy just kissed the top of his head.

“Pretty Boy, what the fuck? You have nightmares like that most nights?”

“Yeah, but it’s, it’s not a big deal-”

“Yes, it is a big deal. That’s not good for you. Have you always had nightmares?”

“No they, they started last year. When Barb, when Barb drowned.”

“Wait, I thought she dies in like a chemical leak or something.” Steve swallowed.

“Not, not exactly.” His head spun as he thought of a lie he could tell, a convincing one. “She got exposed to whatever it was but then she, I had a party, and she-I was inside, I was in here, and she drowned and I can’t even look at the pool anymore and-” he took a sharp breath, tears coming back into his eyes. “And the night, the night with all the kids, we got, we got attacked by a bunch of fucking dogs, and I had to, had to beat ‘em all with a fucking bat, and once, with Nancy and Jonathan, we all almost fucking died and they, I think they would’ve if I hadn’t, if the bat hadn’t been right there, and sometimes, I just, what if I was too slow, or too scared, or if, if-” He broke down again, Billy cooing softly in his ear, I’m right here, Stevie, it’s okay, I’ve got you.

“You weren’t though. The kids are all fine, no dog bites, and you weren’t too slow or too scared, obviously because everyone is fine, and that girl drowning, that, that wasn’t your fault. She probably like, passed out due to the chemicals and then fell into the pool or something it was not your fault.”

Steve was shaking against him. This was so new to Billy. Was use to Steve being bratty, being cocky and egging him on until he held him down. He was not ready to see this vulnerable side, this protector who was, a mess.

“Have you ever talked to anyone about this?”

“Fucking who, Billy? Who can I tell? Because, i had to sign those fucking NDAs, and, and the kids can’t know I’m like this and Nancy and Jonathan, they have each other, and I have, I have no one. No one gives a fuck about me. My own parents barely even acknowledge I exist, and only then it’s just when my dad calls to tell me that I’m a failure, an embarrassment, and to get a job because I can’t work for him because I’m not going to college, can’t go to college, with my shitty grades and no good brain.”

It was a lot for Billy. Steve was babbling. Every little thing that was stressing him out, it was pouring outta his mouth, right onto billy’s chest.

“Pretty Boy, that’s not true. Maybe, maybe you can’t talk to the kids, I mean, they’re kids, but that doesn’t mean they don’t care about you. Lots of people care about you, lots of people love you, I mean, I, I love you.”

It was silent.

Billy barely breathed as Steve brought his head up, tear-stained face staring at him in the moonlight.

“You, you what?”

“I love you.” Steve’s face split into a grin, a tearful beautiful brilliant grin.

“Thank God. I, I thought I was the only one.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean, I love you, Bill and I was, I thought you only wanted sex, so I was trying, trying not to.” Billy barked a wild laugh.

“I was goin’ the exact same shit, Stevie. You mean to tell me we could’ve been in love this whole time?”

When Steve laughed it was watery, but it was also joyful. It made Billy’s heart soar.

“Maybe I’m not the only mess here.” Billy just took his face, pulled him close enough to kiss him, to lick into his mouth, to smile and laugh against each other and to let themselves be happy, be in love like a coupla messes.

[americanredragger]

A Letter to My Mother (That I am too scared to send)

Okay. We’re having this talk now. I have been putting it off because there’s never been a way for me to keep my cool long enough to say it straight. I’ve been nice, I’ve been polite. I’ve walked away from conversations rather than address this directly because I don’t want to lose my mom.

Yesterday was unlike anything in American history. There is no both-sides-ism to be taken here. There is no even vaguely similar violence unleashed by the Left. This isn’t to say that NO violence has ever been unleashed by the left, it can and does happen. But nothing like this. This is unprecedented in both it's scope and audacity.

Unless you can point to an instance in which a Democrat president (or Senator, or Governor) whipped up a riot and unleashed those rioters on the Seat of Government of the United States of America, causing it to be breached and overrun by a hostile force for the first time in 207 years, the things don’t equate at all.

Unless you can point to a riot held by alt-right wingers in which the police cracked down on them HARD to the level of being condemned by the International Criminal Court as bordering on war crimes, the things don’t equate at all.

This was a direct assault on our government by a crowd whipped up by a sitting president. This has never happened before.

The Capitol Police removed the barricades and guided the insurrectionists in.

They chatted and took selfies with them. Exchanged fist bumps with them.

The seditionists were allowed to leave with few arrests, just… gently guided out once the barbarian hordes had their fun.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GaPTjQZBLhQ

And yes, Trump (eventually) told them to go home, but refused to condemn what they'd done and finished his speech with "We love you. You're very special." and continued to refer to his political opponents as "evil".

This is quite literally unprecedented in American history. As in, nothing comes close. That's what "unprecedented" means.

If this had been BLM, the response would have been entirely different. DC would be on lockdown. The police would be bringing WAR to the streets. There would be helicopters, APCs, and beat cops dressed like the US Army rolling into Baghdad in 2003. The DC area hospitals would be overwhelmed with rioters suffering from horrific head and spine injuries from trigger-happy use of rubber bullets and night-sticks. Hell, Trump tear-gassed ACTUAL peaceful protesters last summer just so he could stage an awkward photo op in front of a church, which even the Clergy called him out on.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AzBhYhu7NYI

Don't you DARE equate the two.

I'm tired of the whataboutisms. I'm tired of ignoring the evidence right in front of you. Donald Trump is the single most corrupt, evil man America has ever elected to the presidency. He has worked hard to transform the Republican party into something that actual Holocaust survivors and experts have called "Neofascist" and even less flattering terms.

https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/10/5/17940610/trump-hitler-history-historian

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/posteverything/wp/2018/07/16/its-not-wrong-to-compare-trumps-america-to-the-holocaust-heres-why/

https://www.delawareonline.com/story/opinion/2020/10/25/holocaust-survivor-fears-rising-tide-ugliness-blames-trump-opinion/3740781001/

https://forward.com/scribe/455507/100-year-old-holocaust-survivor-compares-trump-to-hitler/

https://www.sacbee.com/latest-news/article223718330.html

Historians and victims of fascism the world over point to what Trump and his transformed Republican party have been doing as president when asked how the Weimar Republic fell and the Nazi regime rose.

The overwhelming amount of terrorist attacks in the last five years have been Trump supporters (Well over half stemming from that singular cause, with the rest divvied among a MASSIVE swathe of motives), but none more so overwhelmingly so than yesterday's.

There is no left wing equivalent for this in America until you go all the way back to the Weather Underground bombings, and even they were not goaded on by the incumbent politicians of a party.

Your party has been STOLEN from you. The Party of Lincoln, Eisenhower, and Reagan is no more. And now it’s stealing you from your children as we have watched you and dad drift further and further into the Hannity-Limbaugh-Carlson echo chamber.

88 years ago next month, right wing extremists set fire to the Reichstag in the Weimar Republic. Over the next few days, they seeded reports that it was actually the communists, maybe socialists, no, it was definitely anarchists… or was it trade unionists? Either way, it HAD to have been The Left who burned down the Reichstag.

This was used to expand and hold onto the power of the Chancellor, a man who need not be named. The next few years proved to be sorrowful for everyone.

That same blame-shifting is already happening again, but it's not in some far away country, it's happening here, where we all thought it couldn't.

This sort of event is unprecedented in the United States, or it was until yesterday. It is not so unprecedented elsewhere.

The only difference is that this attempt failed.

The attempt was made because Trump’s own administration found that this was the most secure election in American history, and Trump’s lawsuits to the contrary were laughed out of court by Trump-appointed judges, including his Supreme Court justices, and his exceedingly incompetent and well-documented attempts to get state officials to overturn a legitimate election all failed.

I still believe you and dad are good, honest people. Patriots who want America to do well in the world.

You can not-like Nancy Pelosi, or Obama, or Biden, or Hilary Clinton. That’s your prerogative, and we’ll agree on plenty in that regard. You’re well within your rights to believe that my preferred economics don’t work. We’ll disagree heartily, but that’s normal for families, especially between parents and their kids.

But your party has been hijacked by neofascists, malignant narcissists, and white supremacists.

I am on my knees BEGGING you to see what so many experts and victims have been warning you about for years.

The Left did not do this.

Trump did.

You have been led astray by an vain, selfish, greedy demagogue, a well documented honorless grifter who embodies everything Christ opposed, and uses people until they have nothing more to give him and discards them. He has cloaked this latest grift in the American flag and set a cross upon it, the only way Fascism ever COULD take root in America, as we saw with Joe McCarthy in the Second Red Scare.

It’s changing you. You can’t see it because it’s happening to you, but those around you can, and it’s scaring us.

Please, finally, truly see this. I want my parents back. You’re going down a path I can’t follow and it’s breaking my heart.

In 2016, I broke from the Republican Party because I saw calamity coming in the nomination of Donald Trump. Only 4 years later, and history has soberingly showed me that I was more right than I could have ever guessed, and my world view has never been the same since. I have looked back at the political opinions I wrote and posted then, and they were so selfish and hateful that it was physically painful for me to put myself through that review. I was a puppet. I couldn’t have seen it at the time because I was at the center of it, and I still live in dread of the monster I would have become if I’d kept to that path. I see that same kind of speech coming from you now - the jingoism, the recycled talking points, the Orwellian denials, and the near-unquestioning loyalty to the stars of the Republican Party and their mouthpieces at Fox, OAN, Newsmax, and the AM Radio circuit. I see the most selfish parts of who I used to be, and I know that deep down, you are not that person because I still see you constantly striving to be a good mother, a good Christian, and a model human being.

I’m imploring you to finally look at the evidence, the boundless clear and present evidence, and see what men like Gingrich, McConnell, and Trump have turned your party into. What they are turning you into, the same as they tried with me.

I know you wouldn’t be happy as a Democrat - I myself am only begrudgingly a Democrat because the system doesn’t allow for a viable alternative (and that’s a whole different issue that deserves it’s own library of articles). I’m not trying to convert you. I just need to know that you can look at the evidence with your own eyes like I did and see that you’ve been played for a sucker by men who cry wolf and distract you by having you chase shadows while they line their pockets with money and power. Please stop listening to these monsters, stop swallowing their poison. I know how easy it is to be in that world because I myself have lived in it for most of my life. I fully understand the appeal: there are easy answers for everything, you always know who the enemy is and who your supposed allies and benefactors are. But I also left that behind, and yes, it hurts. It hurts a lot, and frequently. But despite the pain, I know I am better off for having done it.

Yes, I have to question the people who claim to represent me more. I have to question EVERYTHING more because I now know that nothing is as clear cut as I thought it was - once removed from Plato’s Cave, I no longer had the luxury of a simple world. And yet I am still happier because I am so much more my own person now. Yes I falter, and worse still, some days I fall back into the old ways of thinking, but now I recognize that for what it is and it is easier to deal with.

You’ll always be a Conservative, Mom, but I see you on the path that I was on, a path that nearly robbed me of my critical thinking and objectivity, and one which would have weaponized my sense of patriotism to benefit people who are not me. You have kept that course far longer than I. Please put aside the whataboutisms, the both-sides-isms, and finally see the evil, ravenous monster that killed your party from the inside and now wears its skin to deceive you into feeding it further.

I don’t ask that you agree with my politics or economics. I AM begging you though to split from this political machine which is changing you into something I no longer recognize. I want the parents I used to have, the ones who could look at things objectively and form their own opinions instead of repeating talk show buzz lines.

Please, recognize the shadows on the wall of the cave that wicked men are showing you are NOT reality. Please, join me in the truth of the world outside.

[theglitchywriterboi]

The Adventures of Neo Hyde

Chapter One

Then one day, the original owner of the Orphanage died when the boys were 4. Her daughter and husband took charge of the orphanage and they were both awful, the daughter, arguably worse. The husband was often out of town and when he was in he did show some care to the children by playing soccer with the children and singing, and teaching, but he would berate the children over the littlest things. Things such as untied shoes, hair not done the way he thought it should be done, kids that goofed around too much, kids that never goofed around. Kids that ate too fast or too slow, and several other things. Her daughter was worse though. She hated to play with the kids or even talk to them, and she would hit anyone she thought stepped out of line, or she would get a group of kids to vote if the other kid did something wrong. The group of kids knowing that they would end up in trouble if they said no, would end up saying yes, even though said kid was perfectly innocent.

After the women left, Neo and the child didn’t have the best life, but despite that, they became the best of friends. The child was born a girl but identified as a boy which, unfortunately, got him treated worse. The child decided to call himself “Winter-Shade” but most people that said his name, called him Winter and not both (though there were one or two that called him Shade, or switched between the two). While they were there, before things got bad, they acted like they were pirates undercover in the Orphanage and the other kids were the enemies. They would try to sneak attack them to protect their hidden treasure (and their friends), much to the dismay of the other kids who didn’t want to participate and didn’t like getting smacked in the back of the head with a wooden sword by a 3 year old during breakfast.

She hated Neo and Winter-Shade (and their friend, Pj when they were 5 and he was 4) no one really knew why she hated Neo. He was mostly a good kid. Yes, he messed around sometimes but not nearly as much as others, and he was pretty organized and quiet compared to other kids there (though not perfect and he did have moments where he was loud but overall he was a quiet kid). Everyone knew why she hated Winter-Shade. He was an odd looking boy, who was born with two different eye colors you couldn’t have, and he was born a girl but insisted he was a boy. Plus he was loud, messy, and would fight her on every little thing. She hated all of that. She hated Pj because he was their friend, and she hated them. Well, that’s not entirely true. He wasn’t very well behaved so she already didn’t like him for that, as well as the fact that he followed Winter-Shades’ lead and not Neos’ because even though she hated him, Neo wasn’t as bad as Winter-Shade.

One cold morning in autumn, a small man and woman walked in. While this was happening the boys were up to their usual mischievousness; hitting people with swords, stealing from Ms. Nancy, hiding and misplacing things, etc. but then they got a call down stairs. Well, more like Neo did, but when one of them got called, all of them did.

“They wanted to come too,” Neo stated matter of factly, “who are those people?”

“Ah yes, Mr. Hyde. And you brought your little gang with you?” Ms. Nancy groaned trying to seem like a normal human being that could get through a sentence without yelling or hitting someone.

“Oh this, lovely couple? They wanted to come and adopt you! Isn’t that wonderful!” She said with a slight smile but it was hard for any of the children to tell because she has a permanent scowl.

Winter-Shade and Pj were my first family, Neo thought. I wanted to go but… What about them? Would I ever see them again?

“WHAT?!” All three of the boys yelled. Of course, if he left, he’d be kind of happy. He wouldn’t have to deal with horrible bullies, the smell, or Ms. Nancy and her father. But he wouldn’t get to see his friends again would he? No one ever came back to visit, that is, unless their adoptive parents were bringing them back or adopting another kid (though, it was usually the first option) and he doubted they’d come get another. Maybe he could annoy them into bringing him back.

“Can my friends come too?” Neo asked hopefully. The man and woman laughed a little. Not in a mocking way, more in a ‘uh-oh what do we do’ kind of way.

The man bent down to look at Neo “I’m… I’m sorry sweetheart but… No… We can’t really afford to have three more kids in the house right now, trust me, if we could we would take them home in a heartbeat but we can’t.” Neos’ eyes started to water. The man and woman looked at each other, then the woman bent down and spoke to Neo.

“We can bring you here a couple times a month so you can play with your friends? I know it won’t be the same but you’ll get to see them still. If you come home with us you’ll get to go to a school with different kids and make new friends! How does that sound?”

“I don’t need any more friends, I only need them,” Neo said quietly. His eyes started to water. Winter-Shade pulled his friend to the side a little to where the adults could see them but not really hear them.

“Neo, go with them! We’ve been dreaming of leaving this place for as long as I can remember, just go. We’ll be fine.” Winter-Shade whispered. Pj nodded in agreement. Neo still didn’t feel 100% convinced that they were okay with this nor that they’d be okay but he didn’t want to miss his opportunity either.

“Promise Neo. I got Winter to protect me. I’ll make sure he doesn’t get into too much trouble” Pj stated before adding “well, I’ll try to make sure he doesn’t get into too much trouble but, you know how he is.” The boys all laughed a little and Winter-Shade looked a little offended before also laughing as well.

“You promise me you guys will be fine?” Neo asked. He glanced at the adults. Ms. Nancy looked annoyed but the man and woman just looked calm and patient.

“I Promise we’ll be safe and all that stuff. I can’t promise I’ll stay out of trouble, you know how I am.” He said the last bit while jokingly glaring at Pj.

“Yeah I know... I guess I better go talk with them,” Neo said. Winter-Shade and Pj nodded and they all walked back over to the adults.

“Took you long enough” Ms. Nancy grumbled under her breath.

“Oh be nice, this must be hard for a kid of his age to think about” the woman said. Ms. Nancy glared at her but shut up about it.

“So ‘Mister Hyde’ would you like you like to come with us?” The man asked, attempting, but kind of failing at mocking Ms. Nancy for never calling the kids by their first names, but only their last names. “How about I introduce myself. I’m Gerard and this is my wife Louise.”

“Neeeeeoooo????” Winter-Shade said in a questioning tone.

“Hi Gerard. Hi Louise. It’s… Um… Nice to meet you. And I… Uh, yes I’d like to go with you two” Gerard laughed a little.

“It’s nice to meet you too Neo, and that’s lovely! Why don’t you go get your things and say bye to everyone and then we can go, does that sound good?” Gerard said standing up.

“Okay…” Neo began his way upstairs to pack his things as Gerard and Louise waited for him.

“Yes, Winter?” Neo said when he got to their room.

“Do you want my purple eye as a goodbye present?” Winter-Shade questioned in a completely serious tone.

“I- W-what? Winter I can’t take your eye” Neo said in a panicked voice. He rushed over to him and checked that both his eyes were indeed where they should be as he was slightly worried Winter-Shade had already taken his eye out. Pj was just sitting there, watching this unfold.

“Winter, promise me you won’t take out either of your eyes for any reason?” Neo asked, more like told Winter-Shade after checking both his eyes were in.

“I,” Winter-Shade started while pointing to both of his eyes “promise not to take out either of my eyes for any reason”

“Good… Or your limbs. Or your teeth. Just… Just stay safe and don’t hurt yourself Winter, okay?” Neo said. Winter-Shade just sort of nodded along.

“Don’t forget to make them bring you here to see us!” Pj said finally butting in.

“I’ll come as much as I can! Now can you guys help me pack my things?” Neo asked as he began putting his things in his suitcase. The other two just nodded and started grabbing his things. He didn’t have much, only a few items of clothing, toys, and some other stuff. While they were packing and kind of slacking off and joking around, Winter-Shade whispered to Pj that he’d be right back and walked away, but Neo didn’t seem to notice.

Winter-Shade walked down to Ms. Nancy's office. Locked, obviously. Winter-Shade started looking for a key to the office. He felt around and finally he found one under a rather hot lamp on a desk to the left of her door. He unlocked the door and walked in, less carefully than he should’ve, he practically burst in, and he closed the door behind him. He started searching around, he found cool things that he carefully put in his pocket without really thinking about it until he found what he was looking for: The files. Well, his, Pjs, and Neos files. They were tucked away somewhere, along with a few other files he didn’t want to look at, not in the file cabinet with the other kids files. He took theirs and ran out of the room and back to his room.

“Oh! I was looking for rats” Winter-Shade said. While Gerard and Louise seemed shocked and weirded out at this statement, the others seemed more annoyed.

“Winter! I thought I was going to have to leave without saying goodbye to you! Where did you run off to?” Neo said, suddenly appearing out of nowhere with Ms. Nancy, his new parents, and Pj.

“Winter-Shade, for the last time, you may NOT keep any rodents as pets” Ms. Nancy said in a frustrated, but tired voice.

“I didn’t find any unfortunately…” Winter-Shade whispered more so to himself.

“But we’re leaving now Winter so… This is goodbye” Neo’s voice cracked. Even though he knew he’d get to come and visit them, deep down he knew it wouldn’t be the same. It couldn’t be the same. Seeing them once a month and only part of the day? Him and Winter-Shade had known each other since… Since forever. They were like family, and Pj was too even though they hadn’t known him as long.

So, at age 8, Neo Hyde got adopted and, as he feels like he lost his first family, he gained a new one and became Neo Hyde-Skyle.

[hardlyharringrove]

he used to wear blue (before I knew you) Part 2/ WHO KNOWS ANYMORE

There is a whole lot of harringrove coming next part I promise, now that we got the story really rolling, there’s a little bit here but it’s mostly explaining my boy Steve.Sorry it took so long, I dont even have an excuse frfr. If you Haven’t read part one please find it HERE. If you have read part one then please enjoy part two to my madness my lovely freaking penguins. Until next time ya tiger kings and queens

When Steve woke up, he once again expected to be cold. 

He was warm again though, proving himself wrong.

Steve opened his eyes, groaning he looked around through hazy eyes, trying to focus himself. He could see himself in a mirror, blinking at his reflection. The bandage over his eyebrow really hurt, and he had a pounding headache.  When he sat up, shrugging the blanket that was covering him off he sighed. Was he even still at the school? The surrounding didn’t look familiar to him, he looked around once more before his eyes landed on someone else in the room.

Oh.

He wasn’t alone. 

Before he could fully freak out though, he could tell it wasn’t Hargrove again, it also wasn’t Nancy or Jonathan. Steve did have a guess though, looking at the pixie brown hair cut and too big glasses for her face.

“Barb?” He asked quietly, reaching up to rub at the back of his head, trying to soothe his headache.

“Hey Steve.” She replied, finally looking up at him. 

Barbra Holland, she’d die Steve’s Junior year in his backyard. She’d disappeared from his backyard,and it had haunted him for ions. They had never really been friends, she was only ever around when he was trying to talk to Nancy. Even then, she gave off vibes of disapproval towards Steve. So why was she here now?

Steve had wanted to ask her, wanted to ask her if she had found her piece in this weird afterlife they were both in. The words wouldn’t come out though, he could only sit there in shock, staring back at her as she stared at him. His life had a lot of explaining to do, but he had nobody to ask, nobody to understand him.

“Billy had to go to class, if that’s who you're looking for.” She said, smirking at him.

He had in fact NOT been looking for Billy.

“He asked me to stop by during my free period to make sure you were okay. You gave everybody a heart attack you dingus.” Barb said, closing the book that was in her lap, and leaning back in her chair. 

“I did?” 

“Um yeah, you don’t remember anything do you?” She asked, raising an eyebrow at him.

“No, I can't remember anything if I’m being honest with you” Steve replied, giving an exhausted sigh. He genuinely felt as if he could sleep for years with how tired he was right now.

“Well, you passed out in the boys bathroom and hit your head pretty hard,Billy carried your ass to the nurse. Then you woke up and started freaking out apparently talking about everything being a dream. So the nurse gave you some prescribed meds and knocked you out for a few hours.” She said, reaching down to pull a satchel from between her legs and around her shoulders. “It's fourth period now, and my free period is almost over. So, I’ll text B and let him know you’re okay.” She stood then, walking past Steve and towards the door.

“Barb, I can’t remember anything. None of what you said makes sense!” He exclaimed, standing on wobbly legs and reaching for her. He grabbed her arm, stopping her. “ I just want someone to actually listen to me on this.”

“Steve we are all here to listen to you, that’s what friends are for.” Barb whispered, turning and placing a comforting hand on his shoulder. “It was just a little fall, you’ll be okay by lunch and in time for the basketball game tonight, okay?” She asked, turning to leave again.

“I don’t even know why I’m asking you for help.” Steve muttered to her back, making her stop and turn to him again.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” She sounded hurt.

Steve glanced at her, shit, he didn’t mean it like that.

“I didn’t mean it like that.” He sighed, shaking his head.

“Well how else am I supposed to take it? I thought we were like best friends Steve?” She asked, again the hurt tone in her voice, making Steve wince at her words.

“We are.. Well we’re not but I don’t know okay?” He stuttered, trying not to explode with emotion. His head was reeling at this point and his face felt hot. He felt just like he did early trying to explain his current situation to deaf ears. Why was nobody listening to him? 

“Did I do something that I don’t know about? Or is this just your regularly scheduled crisis of the day?” She asked, taking a step back from him.

Barb stopped them, really looking at Steve, watching the nervousness in his eyes and the unease in his stature. And then, as if a light bulb had just been turned on,she looked around quickly, noticing the nurse on a phone call out in the hallway before she rushed and closed the door.Barb locked the door, turning to look at Steve slowly. “Steve what year did you fall asleep in?” She asked, approaching him carefully.

“What? What year? Is that some trick question?” Steve asked, running a hand through his hair, pacing in circles now.

“Steve,” Barb tried.

“If you don’t want to listen to me then you don’t have to but to make fun of me Barb, that's low.”

“Steve,” She tried again.

“I mean at least everyone else was a little genuine with their concern but I’m not crazy okay. And i don't even think this is a dream anymore. Not with-”

“Steve!” Barb tried again, waving her hands to get his attention to no avail.

“But this has to be a dream because how else would we be talking right now? You’re literally dead. So none of thi- HEY!” Steve finally stopped talking after he felt a sharp slap to his face. “That’s really NOT cool, especially since this is the kind of dream you get hurt in.” Steve muttered, looking up to see an annoyed looking Barb.

“Did you say I’m dead?” She whispered, grabbing both sides of his face and making him turn to look her in the eyes.

Steve nodded slowly. 

“Steve,” She paused, taking a deep breath, “What year did you fall asleep in?” She asked again.

“1982.” He whispered back, looking at her intently.

Barbra let go of his face taking a shocked step back.

“Steve, you’re not in a dream.” She started, raising her arms to calm him.

“What are you talking about? Of course this is a dream?” Steve asked bewildered by her strange behavior all of a sudden.

She reached forward then, grabbing both of Steve’s hands in hers, and looking at his very confused face.

“Hey, Open this door! Children do not make me call the principal!” The nurses voice came through the locked door. 

Both teens ignored the demand, attention staying on the other instead.

“Barb, what do you mean this isn’t a dream?” Steve asked again.

Barb looked down, taking another deep breath before looking up at Steve.

“Steve I did this.” She said, waiting for a response. She was met with silence so she continued. “I brought you to an alternate dimension with me.”

And with that, Steve may have fainted again.

_________________

“Are you sure we shouldn’t call his parents?” A female voice whispered harshly.

“Yeah right, remember the last time Steve tried out for sports?” That was Billy talking now. Steve could recognize that much

“Yeah like two years ago man so what?” A different female voice spoke up, maybe Nancy?

“He got a scrape on his knee and his parents almost had a heart attack.” 

“I still think we should call someone” That was a different voice, a younger male voice, he knew that voice too though.

Steve sat up slowly from where he was lying down. His head was cold, he thought, raising his hand to remove a wet white cloth that was on his forehead.He looked around, eyes still a little fuzzy from being closed for too long. He was in the back of someone's car, that much was clear. Whose car, was a different question. He could still hear the voices outside of the car arguing back and forth over him. Steve took a deep breath, looking down at the car floor, seeing a bunch of open soda cans and scattered magazines. He took another deep breath, the car smelled of burned cinnamon sticks and ash.

Deciding he couldn’t take the arguing outside anymore, Steve opened the door. Spotting Billy first as he was closest to the car. He looked around at everyone else surrounding him. He saw Nancy and Jonathan which was a relief. What really threw him for a loop was seeing Barbra and Mike Wheeler standing in front of him as well, with concerned looks on their faces.

“B-Barb?” He asked quietly, standing to his feet a little wobbly. Billy reached out to grab his arm, helping to steady the boy. “You did this?” He asked, pointing an accusing finger at her.

Barb took a step back from the rest of the group, her eyes facing downwards.

“Baby take it easy.” Billy whispered in his ear.Pushing him back onto the car seat behind him.”All Barb did was call us all, she carried you from the nurses office, after convincing her not to snitch to your parents that you’ve fainted twice in a day.”

What? Had he imagined that whole conversation in the nurse's office.

“Are you sure nothing happened last night? This is weird even for Steve.” Nancy asked, her question directed towards her brother. 

Mike shrugged, raising his hands in defense of whatever accusation he was being accused of.

“We all hung out just like we usually would. Steve picked us all up and took us to see the new Avengers movie, then we played arcade games all night, got some pizza and then he took us all home. That’s all. I don’t know what he did after that.”

He had been with the kids last night? That sounds like a typical Friday night for him. Still none of this dream made any sense, and Steve had no idea what was going on anymore.

“Avengers?” Steve asked, looking around at everyone as their attention turned to him once more. “What’s that?” 

Nancy turned to her brother arms crossed again.

“See? This makes it seem like maybe you had something to do with this.” She said angrily.

“You also said that he didn’t even remember dating Billy. Did I have something to do with that too? He just asked your best friend if she was alive.” Mike exclaimed, pointing his finger at Barbra, “What would we have done to him for all of that?”

Billy turned to Steve, standing in front of him and placing one hand on his shoulder and using his other hand to tilt Steve’s head up to look at him.

“Baby,” he whispered “Did you take something after dropping the kids off?” he asked, a look of concern in his eyes.

Steve scoffed, pushing Billy away from him.

“I don’t do drugs, Hargrove, so don't accuse me of it. Also stop calling me baby.”Steve said huffing. “ It’s weird.” 

He had to look away from the hurt look in Billy’s eyes, for some reason it really made his heart hurt to see the other boy look so heartbroken over his words. Steve sighed, crossing his arms and shaking his head.

“This is a really bad dream, this is a really bad dream, this is a really bad dream.” He muttered to himself on and on.

“What’d he just say? We’re all in a dream?” Mike asked, taken aback.

“Maybe we should just take Steve home?” Barb suggested from the background.

“We could do that, his moms always out doing stuff with clients until at least 5 pm” Billy said, turning to the group. “I think he’s just tired honestly.”

“I can’t skip today guys, I have a math exam to pass.” Jonathan said suddenly, wrapping an arm over Nancy's shoulders.

“Yeah, I’ve got a Student Council Meeting after lunch today, and you kinda need the president there for that.” Nancy said next. “Let us know how everything goes okay?” She asked, before turning to Steve, a concerned look gracing her face. “Feel better Stevie, we’ll stop by after school.” The couple said their goodbyes before walking back into the school.

“Shit, I have practice after school today too, we have the basketball game today and Coach wants us to run a couple of plays.” Billy cursed under his breath. “I’ll just skip, no way am I letting you out of my sight.” Billy said, turning to Steve and caressing the boy's soft face with his closed fist. 

“No way are you coming to my house Hargrove.” Steve scoffed, turning away from the other boy.

“Listen here princess, fix your attitude now.” Billy demanded, grabbing Steve's chin to force the boy to look at him. “I don’t care if you’re being a brat right now, or even if you’re mad at me for whatever, I’m taking you home. You don’t need to be alone.”

Steve struggled to get out of Billy’s firm grip, feeling slightly embarrassed to have this happening in front of Barb and Mike Wheeler who were both adverting their eyes from the two in front of them. Before Steve could come up with a response that would’ve no doubt angered Billy even more, Barb cut in.

“Actually, I’m done for the day, I don’t mind making sure Steve gets home alright.” She said, shrugging her shoulders.

Billy sighed, and looked as if he was thinking it over before he let go of Steve’s chin and nodded. 

“Fine, but please take care of him.” He grumbled, turning to Mike next “and you go back to class.”

“Gladly,” Mike smirked before waving to Steve “See you later Steve, game night at ours tomorrow, you bring the snacks this time!” He shouted jogging off back towards the school.

Barbra nodded her head, reaching out to take Steve’s keys from Billy who had them in his pocket.

“I’ll bring his car around, I rode with Nancy today anyways.” She said walking off.

Steve turned to watch her walk away and shook his head, had he really imagined all of that conversation? Was this really just some weird dream he couldn’t seem to wake up from? Before he could delve deeper into his own thoughts, he turned to look at a hurt Billy Hargrove.

“Listen man, I don’t know why you’re so obsessed with me in this dream, but thanks I guess.” Steve said, trying to ease the tension.

Billy looked at him then, a strange look in his eyes as he looked Steve up and down.

“Baby, I don’t know whats going on in that pretty little head of yours today.” He said, shaking his head. “But if there’s anything you ever wanna talk about just tell me.” Billy sighed turning back towards the school. “I love you Steve Harrington, and whatever I did I’m sorry okay.” he turned back towards Steve, biting his lip worriedly waiting for a response.

Steve coughed awkwardly.

“Um I forgive you?” 

He must have said the right thing because Billy smiled then, and took three large steps towards him until they were face to face.

“Don’t ever scare me like that again.” Billy laughed, “I thought you were trying to figure out a nice way to break up with me or something.” He said putting hands in his pocket and giving a small shrug.

“Well I-”

Steve was cut off then by a surge of lips pressed against his. He wanted to push Billy off of him and punch him in the face, but something was holding him back. Billy was really warm, pulling Steve closer to his chest. It wasn’t a rough kiss where their lips were mashed together as if they were fighting one another, but it wasn’t a soft peck to the lips either. Steve could feel his whole body on fire,before Billy finally pulled back, a giant grin on his face.

Steve was in shock, too much of a shock to do anything else. Did he really just let Billy Hargove lay one on him as if he was some girl? 

“Text me when you get home babe,” Billy said before turning and walking towards the school. Making Steve jump, when he heard the car lock itself. So, that was Billy’s car, interesting.

“Hey Steve!” Barb shouted at him, she was pulled up in the car he had driven to school this morning just a few spots down from where he was. 

He made her way over to her quickly getting in and closing the door as she drove off.

Steve sighed, taking a second to actually collect himself and relax in the passenger seat. This day keeps getting weirder, he thought to himself. Nothing was making any sense to him.

“Sorry I kinda exploded at you Barb, I guess I’m not feeling well” Steve said, trying to play it cool in front of her.

“Cut the bs Steve.” She muttered, turning out of the school's parking lot and onto the road. “You’re just fine, you’re not crazy and you’re not in a dream.” She exclaimed seriously. She looked over at his surprised look and sighed. “Look I wasn’t kidding earlier when I said I brought you here, I did do this okay?”

“You.. you what? You’re seriously telling me this is an alternate universe?” Steve asked skeptically. 

“Yes Steve, and I’m the only other person who knows, so maybe stop blabbing about it too literally everyone. They don’t know what you’re talking about and they’ll think you’re crazy, trust me I know.”

Steve sat staring at her in silence, his mouth hanging open as he tried to form words.

“Listen okay, I woke up here four years ago with a completely different life. I wasn’t even in Hawkins, when I got here. I woke up in Columbus, Ohio. I tried to explain to everybody that I had just died but everyone thought I was crazy too, I thought it was a dream or at least Heaven. It took me awhile to figure it out, but when I was dying I dreamed of a happier place with no problems like the one I was in, and when I opened my eyes that’s exactly where I was. I didn’t get to pick my reality or anything like that I was just here and I was happy.” She paused again, pulling the car off to the side of the road and turning to look at Steve who had the same confused look on his face. 

“You still with me dingus for brains?” She asked, tilting her head annoyed.

Steve nodded slowly.

“My parents moved to Hawkins to be closer to my grandma three years ago, and I had to become friends with everybody all over again, Nancy, Jonathan, Billy and even you. Along with a few other people. Everything was fine and I was finally happy, nothing weird happens here, okay?” She asked, waiting for Steve’s head nod to continue.

“Okay, but how’d you bring me here?” Steve asked pointing to himself, making Barb sigh and scratch the back of her neck.

“Well, last night I had a dream, well more of a nightmare really. I was watching everybody fight these weird demon-like creatures and run to safety, everybody I knew and loved.Everyone else got away except you, Nancy kept saying she was gonna go back for you and to stay put on a walkie talkie, but she didn’t come back, so I just sat with you. And well,” She stopped trying to collect herself.

“And what Barb?”

“And you were dying Steve” She said sadly” So I just kinda wished for you to come to where I was, a happier place. And that’s what brought you here. After I wished it, you closed your eyes and everything went white. Next thing I know I’m waking up and going to school. I didn’t think it was real until you started talking to me in the nurse's office.” Barb finally finished.

Steve sat for a minute, turning to look forward rather than at Barb who was looking at him intently. He didn’t feel light headed anymore all of a sudden. Everything was starting to make a lot of sense actually. This wasn’t a dream if what Barb was saying was true and if he believed her. Did he believe her? 

“It wasn’t Nancy.” He said suddenly, turning back to glance at Barb “It was you.” He said, shocked.

“What was me?” Barb asked, now confused on what they were talking about.

“I remember right before I closed my eyes in the, well the other universe, a voice was calling out my name. I thought it was Nancy calling me but it wasn’t.” He said.

“I didn’t think you could actually hear me.”She said quietly in disbelief.

The two stared at each other for a long time not saying anything.

“Barb, can you take me home?” Steve asked, “ I think we have a lot to figure out, and you have a lot to catch me up on.”

taglist bc im special

@morganhoran1671

@bisexual-cupcake

@harringrovetrashh

@bitterslytherinpeach

@lemonypink

@goldenweatherharringrove

[snowslasherr]

here's a little something i’m making for all of you because you deserve it ♥️ if you don’t have a valentine you have all of these babies and me as well ♥️ i love you all so much, stay safe and take care of yourselves! i'm sorry if this is too short to be a holiday special :')

i'll add a read more thing later im sorry for clogging up ur dash

Dwight Fairfield

poor boy he'd be so nervous

dwight's really good at keeping track of the days in the fog, so he'd have extra time to prepare

he just wants to make you happy : )!!

he'll nervously tug at your sleeve at the campfire. go along with it and follow him blease

after near 20 minutes of walking in the woods you were about to ask where you're going, but before the words slip out of your mouth you see what he's been leading you to

a couple dark vines are concealing a small space, with a little creek running through the middle. the trees loomed over it, much taller than some of the other trees. crows were settled on some branches but flew away when you stepped in. the whole area was littered with flowers that dwight had planted himself, with the help of claudette. he wanted to make the perfect spot just for you.

"do you like it?"

what a stupid question. of course you like it. smh ❤

theoretically you can both sit there for hours, but trials get in the way. either way, it's perfect. he's perfect.

although he wasn't expecting anything from you it was a pleasant surprise when you whipped out a little gift. you'd gotten meg to help you force convince danny to let her borrow his camera, so she could take pictures of you both. of course, dwight didn't know this

meg was a surprisingly good photographer. the photos weren't blurry and they would make a good gift even in the normal world.

when you gave them to him he teared up and spent the next half hour quickly stuttering out how much he loves and appreciates you : )

Meg Thomas

oh boy

meg is a lil bundle of energy

you'll just be chilling at the campfire, maybe lounging around talking to nancy or jeff, when meg just nyooms in and grabs your hand. you squeak and she just starts zooming away, dragging you along with her.

meg tends to keep her offerings in a secluded place (a hollow tree trunk) because sometimes the other survivors tend to get the offerings mixed up. unfortunately, meg found this specific tree while on a run. she looked like she was having the time of her life, her braids flying behind her. she was fast.

she finally stopped and you could have a well deserved break. but that break was unfortunately cut short, because meg only stopped to pick up a small photo, before she burst back into a run.

when you got back to the campfire, she barely looked phased. you were panting, trying to catch your breath, and she looked relatively calm. she slipped the photo into the fire and then skipped off to the woods with you, to avoid passing out in front of the others.

when you woke up, the both of you were in the ormond resort. the entity had accepted the offer. you didn't even want to ask how she'd gotten the legion to stay out of their realm for you two

neither of you were dressed properly, but like almost everything in the fog, the temperature was fake.

which led to the most obvious situation

snowball fight!

she's so extra with it. she'll build a whole fort while you're pelting her with snowballs, paying no mind to it.

she makes it so big that you could hide in her fort and attack her with snowballs from the inside.

eventually, the girl gets worn out. it takes a while. but she still wants to keep going, so you two make snow angels with connected wings.

after you're both too tired to do anything else, you're pulled back to the campfire, grinning and tired

Claudette Morel

sweet baby. absolute sweetie.

smol lil claudette just pokes you on the arm, gesturing for you to follow her.

of course, you do. don't deny her she's babey

she's taking you down a long homemade path that you've never seen before. maybe because claudette spent hours between trials clearing it out just for this day, and finished it before she came to get you.

Jake Park

he didn't really have big plans for valentines day. dwight reminded him and he kinda just shrugged it off

he probably won't ever have a huge celebration for valentines day, it's not his style. he's a chill guy.

he'll probably sit with you in a clearing near the forest, holding his arm out for the crows to perch on, and showing you how to do that as well

he'll want to just lounge around, comfy day. you wanna get up? nah. comfy day. not today amigo.

consider yourself extremely special if he gives you a bouquet. it's rare, but he might!

the crows will dance around and bob their heads when you cuddle. they don't know what they're doing but let's just say they support your relationship. he totally didn't train them to do that.

he cares, kind of. he knows it's a day to be sappy but again, not really his style. he'll take the opportunity for a bit of affection though.

Nea Karlsson

nea has been planning this for a while, lets say.

every trial that you go in without her is an opportunity! she's been making a detailed mural with the few spray paints she's been allowed by the entity.

she's sure you'll be proud of her. and to top it all off, she finished just in time for valentines day. what a coincidence!

after you get back from a surprisingly laid back trial, you don't get a chance to rest before nea's smiling and telling you to follow her. you complain for a moment, but gave in anyway. you always do

she jumps over a couple logs and puddles, before coming across a couple lone brick walls. they look like nothing at first, but then you walk around to the other side.

nea's smirking as you're in awe, looking at her and then the mural.

"it's beautiful," you whisper, eyes shining. "but not more beautiful than you."

she does a complete double take at the cheesy generic line. she crosses her arms, looking away. but you can see the smile that she was trying to hide. she looked so pretty when she smiled.

Laurie Strode

she'll organize a little something :)

if you can imagine a party room, maybe one similar to one you'd see at a young kids birthday party, that's the kind of thing she'd set up.

it's just a comforting and safe scene, so she thought it'd be best

she collected a lot of offerings for this, please like it : (

she would've baked something but there's no ingredients in the fog besides corn

if you want corn though go for it

it has the vibes of one of those really good cookies from Walmart or something (okay i googled it they're called lofthouse cookies)

in the end she just wants a comfy safe environment,, it's so nice compared to the brutal things that happen in trials

Ace Visconti

do not let this man near flowers or anything of the sort. he'll take a bunch and

so cheesy

he'll take some random thing off the ground that looks cool (like a dandelion or a shiny rock) and say it's a luck charm, and pass it to you.

ace, handing you a flower tied to a funky rock with a piece of grass: happy valentines day :)

he'll set up a whole area beside the campfire for you two and if anyone steps into it he'll kick them out

if he finds a heart shaped rock he'll riot and get nea to spray paint it red. ultimate luck charm. because it's a reminder of him.

Feng Min

small little gamer :)

i'm convinced feng will take you on a romantic trip to taunt killers

myers is tired of it. susie thinks you guys are cute. evan is not having a good time. sally is supporting you. it's chaos

feng is just holding your hand, walking you around the autohaven wreckers. philip is cloaked and is too scared to be hit in the face with a pallet to uncloak.

feng is really short and she's climbing on things to be taller than you, just for the fun of it.

piggy back rides!! she loves piggy back rides. yeehaw

pick her up and carry her around? heart eyes motherfucker

Quentin Smith

aw what a cutie

he forgot about valentines day, but no fear! you didn't

after you guys swim he'll act like he's really tired so that he can rest his head on your lap. you know he's lying cause he keeps silently laughing as if he's a genius sneaky trickster

when you just happily say happy valentines day he's like 😳

he panics

just reassure him it's fine and you did something!

he's still upset about forgetting, but he's quickly distracted by you.

you've found a secluded spot in the woods, the only disturbance being the occasional core popping in to see what's up

you set up a blanket fort. you'd burned quite a few offerings for this. it worked out better than you expected it to, and you were pretty happy with it overall.

you spent as much time there as you could before being pulled into a trial

the time spent together made up for the offerings burned

Kate Denson

both of you set it up together

you stayed at the campfire, nothing crazy

kate played her guitar, and she showed you how to play a song or two (assuming you don't know how to already)

if you want to sing you are welcome to :)

kate will encourage you all the way even if you sound like nails on a chalkboard

she'll make anyone who comments negatively on your voice have a time out. no questions asked. they're older than her? don't care time out.

it's just,, nice and cozy,, and uninterrupted by trials

Jeff Johansen

big cuddly man!

like nea he'll also do something art related!

but it'll still be unique of course

instead of a mural, he'd do a small-ish but still breathtaking painting.

the rest of your day would be spent just chillin. if you're unlucky enough to be ripped into a trial, he'll bring a toolbox to get out as soon as possible. yknow. for more chillin.

Jane Romero

she'd be pretty extra

again, meg would force convince danny to let her use her camera. she'd have a big photoshoot, as best as she can with the limited resources. claudette would set up a scene, and you and jane would pose for the pictures

they turned out really good!

jane keeps them in a secure place and she won't tell you where if you say anything negative about how you looked. not risking it babe!

(phew finally done! i'm super sorry i was a couple survivors short, i didn't wanna burn myself out. if you like it please reblog? i made this in less than 24 hours to surprise you guys. i hope this is a decent special!)

[kaysreadingarchive]

Wolves in Sheep’s Clothing: Part 1

Pairing: Jacob Seed x Reader, slightly John Seed x Reader x Joseph Seed

AUs: Omegaverse, werewolves

Warnings: Cursing, mention of character death, guns, mention of violence

 Word Count: 2,952

A/N: Some of you may be asking if I'm abandoning my other work. I am not. I will continue to write for both of my stories I just came up with another idea for Far Cry 5. It's still an omegaverse story because I will forever be obsessed with this au. I hope you guys enjoy this as much as I enjoyed writing it. Also, this is sort of a birthday present to me and I felt like we need more things to enjoy now that the world is going to hell and we honestly don't know what's going to happen.Thank you guys so much for being this patient with me and my numerous schemes. It means the world to me! And like always, give me some feedback on what I could do better or what I did alright, where you wanna see this whole mess go, or something you just don’t understand. I also really want to know what your theories are for the coming story. I always love reading your guys' analyses.

Masterlist     Omegaverse rules ---------------------------

When people imagined small-town America, they would instantly think of a tiny general store, maybe a white church. Large pastures that held grazing cattle. Hope County was the very definition of small-town America. It had a tight-knit community filled with very unique characters. Doomsday preppers, anarchists, and conspiracy theorists. It didn’t take long to notice these people. The County was full of them. You knew the moment you stepped into The Hope County’s Sheriff’s Department that things were different in your little piece of Montana.

You grew up in Fall’s End. Your parents lived here, hell, your father was even a Deputy. Your mother ran the Spread Eagle with a close friend Irene Fairgrave. Your childhood was filled with tales from your father. It was mainly him stopping the bad guy and saving the day. You and your mother both knew most of them were fake. Nothing ever happened in the sleepy town of Fall’s End.

The only bad thing that seemed to happened was your mother’s illness. It came in October as simple fatigue. She grew tired more often and she felt pain in her shoulder. The pain got worse as time went on and Aunt Irene finally took her to see a doctor, it was too late. She waited too long. She had stage-4 Chondrosarcoma, bone cancer. They tried chemo but it didn’t take well and she passed away the next summer. Your father wasn’t far behind to say it better. He had a fatal heart attack and died in the hospital.

You were only eleven when this happened. You understood what happened but your growing mind still didn’t understand that they weren’t coming back. You watched them get buried together, but you still held up hope it was a lie. A sick joke. You had nowhere to go so one of your dad’s coworkers adopted you. Earl Whitehorse was roughly in his early forties and all his children had moved out. He bought everything new for your bedroom in his ranch house. You had taken to calling him pop-pop. He really felt like a grandfather to you and he raised you as if you were his own.

When you graduated high school, you knew what you wanted to do. You wanted to be a deputy like your dad. You wanted to make him proud even if he wasn’t here. When you went to the academy outside the county you felt off. All these hotshots in your class made you feel weak. You felt like they pointed and laughed as you walked by. Look at the country bumpkin! There’s no fucking way a farmer could be a police officer! You hated your time at the academy. It felt like no one was on your side.

When you finally graduated it felt like you were on top of the world. Pop-pop came to see you and both of you celebrated by having wings and a beer at the Spread Eagle. Nothing had made you happier when you got your uniform and badge. Rook was proudly displayed on a silver name tag and Staci Pratt became your partner. Staci mainly dragged you everywhere he went, you had no say in the matter.

You got comfortable being his partner. Everyone seemed nice. Especially Joey Hudson who invited you to drinks the moment you closed the door behind you. Her partner, Danny was odd. He seemed very religious, always had a crucifix around his neck. He was very into playing bible music in his joint office. Nancy seemed very motherly. She made a routine of bringing doughnuts into work from a bakery in town. You absolutely loved her for it. You were the first one in the break room as soon as you saw her minivan park.

You shared a tiny office with Staci and he was a mess. His paperwork was scattered everywhere and he always left his empty monster cans on the floor. Other than that, he was only an asshole 70% of the time.

----

Today was a very slow day compared to most days. There was no paperwork to file nor did you feel like sorting the archives for the fifth time. You sat at your desk, playing with a wad of paper. Stacy sat at his desk downing another energy drink while his hands could barely function from the other sugar. It was absolutely silent as you went about your day. Nancy had come in that day with donuts and they were gone, so you couldn’t really eat your boredom away like you usually would. Something felt odd about the silence. It made your insides flutter and sweat began to drip from your (h/c) hair.

Something definitely felt wrong about today. Was there gonna be a big robbery or shoot out? Nah, those things never fucking happen here. A sudden knock on the door startled you from your thoughts. Joey peeked her head through the crack and gave you a smile and then looked over to Staci. He didn’t seem to notice her, stuck in his own world like usual. “Staci!” Joey suddenly yelled. He flinched and dropped his can to the floor. The green liquid spilled out onto linoleum.

“What the fuck Joey!” Staci just looked annoyed as he looked at the now spilled drink. Some of it soaked into his green uniform and pants. Joey held back a snicker as Staci reached for the tissues on his desk as his cheeks flushed red. You had to look away before you burst out laughing.

“Don’t be a damn baby, Staci. Clean yourself up and come meet me and (Y/N) in the lobby. These three weirdos came in asking for a permit to carry and Whitehorse isn’t happy.” Joey looked at you from the doorway and waved you over. You followed behind her down the small hallway and she opened the door to the tiny lobby. You could hear the yelling already. It sounded like Pops and a random male voice.

Pops never really got angry. He had control over his nonexistent temper. If he was really going at it, whoever this guy is must be a prick. There was indeed three weird-looking strangers arguing over the dispatcher desk. Nacy could do nothing but go back and forth between Whitehorse and a wealthy-looking man. His blue eyes were slitts and his beard covered lips were pulled back in a scowl. A handgun was placed on the desk with the safety on.

Two other men stood beside them. One had his hair pulled back into a man bun like a fucking hipster and his lips were pulled into an uneasy smile. The other sent a shiver down your spine and not a good one. He made you feel uneasy as his blue eyes roamed over you and Joey. His red hair was brushed to the side and he too had a full beard. What were these guys? Millennials? The redhead continued to watch you two as you made your way beside Pops, their conversation stopping for a brief second.

Whitehorse took a deep breath in and closed his eyes for just a moment. “I’m sorry, but I can’t validate your permit without a criminal records background.”

The irritated looking of the three narrowed his eyes even more than before. He opened his big mouth but the man-bun stopped him. “I’m so sorry about this sir. My brothers and I just moved here from Georgia and we’re still new to these parts, please forgive us for our rudeness.” The man slowly let go of his brother’s shoulder and pulled out a card.

“This has my phone number and name, I’ll have someone be in contact with you about John’s criminal records background.” He handed the business card to Nancy who looked at it with an odd expression on her face. “God bless you.” All three of them walked out without another word, But the red-haired brother gave you one last look before getting into the white truck outside.

“Do those three give you the creeps or what?” Joey commented as she took the business card from Nancy. She scanned over the info and passed it to you. Joseph Seed, an odd name. His cell-phone number was underneath but what was weird was the symbol in the corner. It stood out with black ink against the white paper. It looked like a cross and a name was underneath it. “The Project at Eden’s Gate, huh.” The name sounded odd on your tongue. It felt uneasy to you. Anxiety began to build in your system at what these men could possibly be.

You had never seen those three before or heard of them. They must have just moved. “Did you say the Project at Eden’s Gate? I know those guys, they bought a run-down church near the Henbane. They call it, “Eden’s Convent”. Don’t know what they want with that piece of shit but they seem to keep to themselves.” Staci’s voice pierced through the silence as he walked in, still dabbing the energy drink on his pants.

Pops said nothing as he lifted his hat and gave his head a scratch in thought. “Whatever they want, they’re gonna have to do it legally. Nacy, keep an eye on those three for me. They’re gonna go snoopin’.” It took you good second to realize he was talking about Stacy, Joey, and you and not the three stooges that walked out minutes ago. What the fuck? Did he not trust you or something? It made you kinda upset to hear someone you looked up to for so long say that. Especially when it was your adopted grandpa.

The anxiety from before slipped away as you forgot about the three brothers as the day went on. It didn’t feel like your own thoughts were torturing you for once. You got a good night’s sleep without any nightmares to scare you awake, but there was still this tugging in your chest. No matter how much you tried to clear your head, it didn’t go away. It felt like something bad was going to happen. Like, really bad.

------

A week went by before the feeling returned. Pops had just pulled into the parking lot when it felt like a stab to the gut. A little voice inside your head was begging you to turn around, but you just ignored it. When you finally got to your desk you locked it away in the deepest part of you mind and filled your fear with a cream-filled doughnut and a cup of coffee.

You slumped into your chair, staring at the computer screen as it took forever to boot up. It felt like it was mocking you by making your day worse. You would look up every once and a while from the screen to the window. Half expecting someone to be there. Only there wasn’t, just fields and cows. Before you knew it, it felt like tie was passing at the speed of light. 8 A.M. became 10.

“-N)... (Y/N)! You awoke with a yelp and glared at Staci. He hastily took his hand away, as if you were going to bite his fingers off. You had considered it many times, with him being such a fucking asshole. There deserved to be less of him.

“What Staci? What the fuck do you want?” You rubbed the sleep away from your eyes as you stretched your legs in your uncomfortable chair. You hadn’t even realized you had fallen asleep. Staring at absolutely nothing was hard work.

“The old man wants us to check out a disturbance at the Spread Eagle. One of the guys from a week ago is harassing everyone.” This was a shock to you. Pops didn’t send you and Staci on any calls before. He says he didn’t trust Staci enough to do his job, but since you were just a Junior Deputy, you couldn’t do it by yourself.

“What about Joey and Danny?” Weren’t they capable enough to do this? Joey was good at her job, but Danny was a different story.

“They’re on another call.” You only nodded and gathered your stuff. You put a can off pepper spray into your belt. You couldn’t have a gun, but Staci could. You had wondered what idiot gave him the approval to carry a deadly weapon. You had wished in the past that whoever they were, they were in jail for giving out false permits.

“Alright, let’s go.” You both walked out of the station and made the small walk to the Spread Eagle. Staci opened the door and the bell rang. Both Mary May and one of the brothers, the rich looking one, turned towards both of you. Mary May looked pissed and the Seed brother only smirked when he saw you two walk in.

“Really, Mary? You called the police on me? Haven’t I’ve been a decent customer?” His tone was cocky as he sat back in one of the stools. His expensive-looking coat was tossed over the bar and his tattooed hands were gripping onto a stack of contracts. His hands crumpled the papers as his smirk widened. His mouth said one thing but his eyes said another. He looked like an absolute asshat. A spoiled baby. It made sense now, this little shit wanted a fucking audience. He was a god damn performer.

He gave you an uneasy feeling just like his redheaded brother. But it wasn’t from being uncomfortable, it was the feeling of dread. Like he could crush your puny existence with the snap of his well-manicured fingers.

“My normal customers don’t threaten me! You’re not getting this fucking bar, John. Now, why don’t you hightail it out of my town before Widowmaker runs your ass over.” Mary May wasn’t someone to mess with especially when she had her mom’s temper. Maybe that’s why Irene and your mom got along so well.

Both of them had pictures on the counters behind the bar. A vase of fresh daisies was next to them. When you saw the picture, it felt like she was still here protecting you. Like a guardian angel.

When you were trash as a deputy, you thought of your dad. He would be so proud of you, you just knew he was with mom. Where ever they were, they were happy. It still felt so fresh and to have someone like John Seed try to tear that away from you made you feel as angry as Mary May.

“Let’s not get too hasty. How about I add another zero to the offer?” John pulled out a checkbook from his pocket and started to write. Your eyes started to get wider as the number got bigger. This guy must have been loaded. Great, a rich and spoiled scumbag.

You also noticed the symbol from before, the cross, was on the checks. But, instead of the name John Seed, John Duncan was printed on them instead. What the fuck was going on? It felt like a big conspiracy theory was unraveling and you had to know the truth.

The name Seed was something that made you feel sick. It sent shivers down your spine and your forehead broke out into cold sweats. It felt like you were doubting yourself when you heard the name. Like was a lie. It made your anxiety flare up again and it constricted your lungs. Were you going to have an anxiety attack in the middle of a call? Just your fucking luck.

“For the last time, I don’t want your fucking money!” Mary May hiss and brought a pistol out from under the bar and sat it right on his papers. John’s brown hair stood up on the back of his neck. He glared down at the contracts and brought the papers up to Mary’s eye level as he ripped them clean down the middle. He stood up from the stool, grabbing his coat jacket and stuffed the pieces into his pocket.

A voice yelled from above as the sound of boots stomping on wooden stairs echoed in the now silent bar “Get out of my bar, Seed. Go home and cry to Joe and Jake and tell them Gary said fuck off.” Gary Fairgrave walked down from the apartment above the bar, a shotgun in hand. He pointed it right at John. His nose flared out in rage as he stepped back out of Gary’s line of fire.

His blue eyes seemed to switch to something darker, something red. You blinked and the red was gone. His eyes were blue once again but filled with more anger than you’ve ever seen in a person. His neck took on a deep shade of pink that worked its way up to his cheeks. It looked like he was gonna pop a blood vessel.

“Woah, we don’t need anyone dying here.” You finally stepped in while Staci stood there with his mouth hung open. John looked over to you and his blue eyes softened just a bit before going back to glaring at Gary.

“You’ll regret this Fairgrave.” John stomped to the door and slammed it shut behind him, almost breaking it off the hinges. His threat sounded real. Not like the bluff most people gave. It wasn’t an empty threat. You just didn’t know him at all, you couldn’t tell if he would act on it. As if you didn’t find him creepy enough, he was making googly eyes at you. And the red eyes didn’t help either. You tried to tell yourself it was just a trick of the light. Like a camera flash.

But deep down you knew it wasn’t a light trick. This was real and it already felt like hell.

[daretosnoop]

CRY Rewrite Chapter 5: Dr. Bolet’s Secret Study

Been having a lot of fun writing this. Lots of interesting research. 

chapter 4

After dinner, Nancy got a call from Bess. She had gone to Zeke’s and met a man named Lamont Warrick. The paper Nancy had given her had the receipt number on it, and when Bess asked Lamont who belonged to 21-3872, Lamont had told her it was belonged to a Henry Bolet who came in with a large box of assorted goods.

“And when I tried to ask what was in the box, Lamont got really vague and said I was not allowed to know and that he didn’t want to make trouble for anyone. But that didn’t stop me! I snuck into the backroom and went through the box and you will not believe what I found”.

“Tell me,” Nancy urged.

“Well, there was a picture of a young Bruno with his dog. Then there was this weird box and when I opened it, there was a letter inside. It was addressed to Bruno Bolet from a T.W. Cladwell authorizing the sell of, get this, a skull called the Whisperer”.

The Whisperer? That was the same name in professor Hotchkiss’s book! “What else did the letter say?” Nancy asked.

“Well, Bruno was asked to respect its power and that in doing, the skull often undoes”.

“In doing, it undoes?”

“Ya, I know, makes no sense, but that’s not all Nancy. The box the letter was in had a skull-like indent! And and, Nancy, along with the other items Henry sold, there was also a costume”.

“A costume,” Nancy breathed the words heavily.

“A skull man costume,” Bess emphasized. “I took pictures of everything and sent it to you”.

The gears started to turn in Nancy’s head. Things were starting to fall into place. She was sure Henry had sold that box for quick cash, but was he also the skeleton man? Then again, Renee said she was missing some things. And this Whisperer skull, was it what Bruno Bolet was trying to hide? She almost got lost in her thoughts when she heard Bess’s frantic voice.

“Still here Bess, what else you got?”

“Nancy, I also found out that Lamont sells Hoodoo products”.

“Hoodoo?”

“Yep. Dabbled around in them. Those things really work. He also said that Renee Amande comes in regularly for Hoodoo products”.

“Was there a knock-out, sleeping powder,” Nancy asked, her voice brimming with excitement.

“No, I even asked. Lamont said he doesn’t sell high-end Hoodoo products. It can create trouble with the law apparently”.

“Not even any, on the sly, business?”

“Doesn’t seem like it, though I wouldn’t know how to check”.

Nancy thanked Bess for her discoveries. “One more thing,” she asked. “How did you get into the back room?”

“Oh you know,” Bess said in a chuffed voice. “Just set up a Rube Goldberg to throw sneezing powder at Lamont”.

“Bess, you clever conniving sneak,” Nancy exclaimed.

Bess laughed, “Learned from the best. By the way, I asked the chef at Granny’s and he said the Dr. Buford does come by nearly every day. It’s raining now, but if he comes, I’ll head on down and talk to him”.

“Thank you Bess, you’re a treasure”.

“I know”.

 Before Nancy could get to the spider locked door, her phone rang again. Picking it up she heard professor Hotchkiss’s voice.

“Is this Nancy Drew?”

“Yes, and you are professor Hotchkiss”.

“Yes, I am she. Your name does sound familiar dear, do I know you from somewhere? Were you perhaps the young woman who gave me a cheese platter at the cheese factory?”

Nancy grinned. “No. No. We stayed together in a hotel in Wisconsin, remember? Wickford Castle?”

“Nonsense!” Hotchkiss exclaimed, “There was no cheese factory in Wickford Castle. Though I do remember there being a spunky maid there”.

“Yes, professor, that maid was me. I found an old journal of Marie Antoinette and you translated it and wrote a bestseller on it?

“No, no can’t remember Mandy. Now I’ve only got cheese on my mind. Oh dear. Well, you called about some best seller I wrote? Is it the one about Marie Antoinette? I am a scholar of French history, so I can help you there. Most of my work was done in thanks to that spunky maid who assisted me in the witching hours, you know”.

“Really?” Nancy asked sarcastically.

“Yes, now chop chop dear. I’m on a deadline. What is it you need to know?”

“Did a man named Bruno Bolet ever call you?”

“Indeed he did, Oui Oui. What a name. So French,” Hotchkiss sighed.

“Why did he call you?”

“Because he read my book, The Crystal Skull: Fact or Fable. Sold like hotcakes, you know”.

“Did he mention anything about owning a skull?”

“Ooh, I would have hung up on him if he did, Brandy! If I had a dollar for every crackpot whose read my book and called claiming to have an authentic skull, I’d be able to live like Marie Antoinette, or at least dine daily in New York’s Russian Tea Room. No… Bruno Bolet was a scholar, if a budding one. He wanted to know about the Whisperer and if I learned anything more since I wrote the book—which I hadn’t. Or if I had a new theory on it— which I didn’t”.

Disappointment filled Nancy. “That’s it? That’s all you talked about?”

“Oh such curiosity you have. So familiar, like that maid at Wickford. Shame I can’t remember her name. Oh wait a minute,” Hotchkiss suddenly exclaimed, “The Eyes have it!”

“I’m sorry?”

“I asked Bruno Bolet what his theory was and he just chuckled and said the eyes have it, and then hung up”.

Is it the same eye as the eye of the beholder?

“Professor, is this skull worth a lot?”

“In this day and age? No telling. Half a million? Two million? Who knows? Ch-ching! Ch-ching!”

“But how would they be able to authenticate the skull?”

“Good question Francie! Remember, the real skulls were made long before the tools commonly used for carving today were invented. So, let’s put on our thinking caps….”

“Modern day tools would have left marks if the skull was a fake?”

“Absolutely! Though mind you, the marks left by modern instruments can only be detected in a research lab. Our tired eyes cannot catch such impressions”

“You can’t use carbon-dating?”

“No Mandy. What is crystal? Quartz. What is Quartz? Silicon dioxide. No carbon. No carbon means no carbon dating”.

So you can only prove it’s real by proving it’s not a fake. Nancy fished out the envelope she found in the bin. Looks like Bruno Bolet might have done just that.

“And what about the rumors? The theory that the Whisperer can make its owner immortal? Do you really believe in that?”

“My dear Nessie, I believe that things that defy any so-called ‘rational’ explanations happen all the time. Now does that mean there are mysterious external forces at work in the universe of which we do not and cannot ever have full knowledge? Or does it all boil down to us? If the human heart desperately wants something to be true, does the human mind have the power to make it true?  Who knows?” Professor Hotchkiss sighed, “Ah, questions, questions, questions, Oh, how dreary life would be without them!”

Nancy agreed with professor Hotchkiss. Life truly was dull when all the questions got answered by someone else. Though she did find it hard to believe that eternal forces really did exist. Even this Whisperer was hard to digest. How could such a death-defying object exist? She asked Hotchkiss, “In your book you said that all the people who’ve ever owned the Whisperer were murdered, yet Bruno Bolet died of a heart attack. How do you explain that?”

“Are you saying the Whisperer was in his possession after all? The scalawag!” Hotchkiss exclaimed. “Why didn’t he tell me? Oh that’s right—I would’ve hung up on him”. Hotchkiss thought over it for a moment, then slowly said, “Well if that’s the case, then I strongly suggest you take a close look at his so-called ‘heart attack’ Sandy. Because if he owned the skull and he died, I guarantee you – it was at the hands of someone else. I’m willing to bet my name on that!”

Nancy thanked Hotchkiss then sorted through everything she had learned. So much was now being called into question, but first thing first, if that skull really did exist, was it behind the locked door? There was only one way to find out.

Slipping downstairs, Nancy did not find Henry or Renee. She opened the secret door and slipped up the stairs to the locked door. Taking the bronze key, she took a deep breath, unlocked the door, and opened it to find a dusty mess of a study room.

 There were all sorts of odds and ends inside this second study room. In one corner there was a skee-ball style game. On one wall there stood a cupboard all by itself. In front of Nancy there was a desk with books and papers. Connected to the desk was a ramp leading to an open duct. In front of the ramp there was a chair with a marionette pirate puppet. Bruno Bolet, where have you taken me?

Nancy did not know where to start searching. There was so much stuff. She headed towards the desk and found a calendar agenda and a piece of paper. She flipped through the calendar. Each month had a date marked with a skull and crossbones and the notes had odd names. She kept flipping till she came to the month of May. The thirty-first was marked with a skull and crossbones and the notes read, ‘Scuttled bones, Rampart and Dumaine”. A meeting spot? That’s in four days!

Nancy picked up the paper. It was an honorary celebration of initiation into the Jolly Rodger krewe of New Orleans. The paper reminded him of his oath to silence about the group and gave him an associate and sponsor— Mr. Gilbert Buford. Nancy put the paper down. Was, was she right? Was Dr. Bolet part of some cult? Whatever he was a part of, it looked like Dr. Buford was also involved. She then spotted a faded and worn journal and picked it up. Short Stories for Tired Eyes by Bruno Bolet. It was dedicated to those who heard the Whisperer. Nancy flipped to the first page and started to read.

My dear Henry. I write this out of guilt and urgency. If you are reading this, it means our family, the Bolet family now solely sits on your shoulders. It’s a big pressure and I am well aware I have done nothing to prepare you for this. This book is an attempt and a plea to listen to my words. Henry, it’s time you know about the Bolet name and responsibility.

The Bolet family is not just eccentric in nature, but in purpose too. Many of our members have had a connection to the Earth that extends the mortal plane. They can hear the voices of those long gone. No, I am not pulling your leg. No one really knows why our family has this ability, though many joke it’s because some ancient relative couldn’t keep their curiosity at bay and now our family is cursed with this ability. I suppose it’s not all that bad. It’s helped us financially, and it is nice to have some say in how our city is planned. However, this ability appears in family members randomly. Every generation has it, but as too whom, well, it’s hard to say. When it appears is also hard to say. It just does, apparently.

I do not have this trait, and I have no idea if you have this trait either. But seeing as you are the next generation, I’m guessing you do. I assume it must be scary, at least, remembering how your father soiled his pants the first time it happened. That’s right Henry, your father had this ability. My mother had it, and according to Bolet tradition, the one who has this trait must inherit the manor because they carry the responsibility of hearing the spirit’s voices. It’s an exhausting burden. I’d often see your grandmother and father exhausted and on the point of collapse.

I don’t know how to guide you should you have these whisperers haunt you. It’s never, I never thought it would be something I’d have to teach you. That was your father’s ….

The rest had been scribbled out. A few pages later, Dr. Bolet continued.

Make of it what you will Henry, but know that I am telling you the truth here. If you have this ability, the whisperers will not go away. They do listen to you, but you need to listen to them too, otherwise….

Bruno Bolet did not complete the sentence. Nancy noticed that some pages had been torn out before Bruno continued.

Henry, the skull will help you! Find it, it will transfer the knowledge you need! Look for the eyes, they are the key. Find all 25. Put them in the cupboard. They will take you to the skull.

Following Bruno Bolet’s last words were pages detailing what looked to be locks that, Nancy assumed, held these eyes. After reading the entire journal again Nancy had to sit down. She was right, Bruno Bolet was hiding the Whisperer skull. She didn’t know why, but she was sure now that the skull man was looking for the skull too. Why else would he have initiated the steps she now completed? But that would mean Henry isn’t the skeleton man. And this crystal skull, why would Bruno want to give it to Henry? What knowledge transfer was he talking about? First it was an immortal skull. Now it was a knowledge containing skull. What was going on? More importantly, Bruno had just confirmed to Nancy that paranormal powers apparently existed.

Nancy looked around the desk, forlorn. She noticed a picture of a man being greeted by three skeleton people. The picture had an inscription, Dr. Bolet’s inauguration into the Jolly Roger krewe. Nancy peered harder and dropped the journal onto the table. Everyone was wearing a costume similar to the skull man she saw at the entrance! Holding the picture in one hand, Nancy looked around the desk and noticed an old paper. She picked it up and read.

On this day November 8th, 1952

The Jolly Roger Krewe of New Orleans hear by invites Dr. Bruno Sinclair Bolet to join its hallowed ranks.

Speak of this to no one except the man who has championed you and will, should you accept this invitation, serve as your sponsor during the initiation process, Dr. Gilbert Buford.

Dr. Buford? Was Dr. Buford the skull man? But why? Everything felt like a farce. No wonder this secret was kept within the Bolet family because good god, who would believe this rubbish? Nancy supposed there was one good thing about all this, it wasn’t her problem to deal with.

She stood up and began to search for a way out. The door she entered from, curiously, only opened one way. She had to look for another exit. In the right-hand corner she noticed, amidst, the clutter, a candle holder that was attached to the wall. The candles were not lit and even looked fake. Nancy went over and felt the candle stick. It was metal. She grabbed it and pulled. The candle bent forward with ease and the wall behind the candle holder opened up. Another secret door. Nancy stepped through the door and saw Henry staring back at her open-mouthed.