#It didn't help that Coraline and I were also the same age

[thebeatles]

Coraline (2009) came out when I was 11 and in the fifth grade... and it really made a huge impact on me. And it's one of, if not, top fondest memories where I can reflect on it now and realize, yes, childhood autism.

I would not stop thinking or talking about Coraline. every minute of every day, that movie was on my mind. I've been exposed to Tim Burton stop-motion films growing up and loved them all/ had fond memories with each, but nothing could compare to Coraline. It was unique and touched on horror more than Tim Burton's films, genuinely send shivers down my spine. I'd argue that its execution as a kids horror movie adapted from a book was excellent but that's for another time (hint: Wybie).

This movie indeed was the door to explore more horror films. It's actually the film that made me feel not-so afraid of horror films anymore (before I was deadly afraid of horror films and raced to my room to avoid anything remotely scary). It's also the first film where I "studied" a film.. AKA watching behind the scenes, read more about stop-motion and the processes, voice acting. etc. This just help further the appreciation of the film. To this day I still remember little facts. Like how they used real popcorn for the trees. Bobinsky's moustache is made out of piano wire. You get it.

It's funny to think back on how I'd mention every single time that I watched Coraline over the weekend in my journal entry for school (every single time). I got teased for my "obsession" by my peers and family of something no one could understand. It kind of breaks my heart to admit that I did have a moment of resentment for this hyperfixation then (on top of having a hard time getting any work done) but eventually I found myself back. To this day, it has a special place in my heart.

Happy 14th anniversary!

[innytoes]

25 and Willex (bonus points if the child/dog/friend is Reggie?) (If you're still taking prompts for this 😁)

Every year for Halloween, Willie went back to the group home where he'd stayed to volunteer to take the kids trick or treating. Not only was it a way of giving back - of assuaging the guilt he sometimes felt, wondering why Caleb had picked a chaotic, messy fourteen year old over any of the sweeter, smaller kids - but it was amazing fun too.

He got to dress up, run around with a bunch of kids, and also maybe keep a list of houses to come back and egg later, if they were weird or stuck up about 'those group home kids begging for candy'.

Besides, being 18 at the Hollywood Ghost Club on Halloween sucked. It wasn't even like he could use his fake ID, the bartenders all knew him. And Caleb was super strict about stuff like that during business hours. So he helped out at the group home, and then went to the staff party at the Club the day after, when they were closed and nobody cared too much about whether or not a certain son of the owner swiped a Bloodtini. Or skated off the railing. Or tried to dunk the green grilled cheeses in the chocolate fountain.

And okay, so maybe this year his costume was a little obscure, but he'd procrastinated getting anything, so he ended up raiding Caleb's old costumes from his 'I did other stuff on Broadway too you know' closet, and some of his own, and a trip to the dollar store, and he was pretty pleased with himself.

Except clearly someone recognised him.

"OH MY GOD, ZEKE ZILLIONS SPACE COWBOY?" someone across the street screamed, before dragging someone by the arm over to them.

"See, I told you he was a real character," Willie told the four nine year olds he was chaperoning. They rolled their eyes at him.

"Oh my god oh my god," A boy about his age said. He was dressed up as a zombie, though for some reason he was also carrying a wok. His friend was also a zombie, but had on a long pink wig, giant fake pearls, and a pink dress. He had great legs. "Zeke Zillions Space Cowboy was my absolute favourite cartoon as a kid. Can I please get a picture? Pretty please?"

"Sure can, Pard'ner," he said in his best Zeke Zillions impression, and the guy straight up went 'EEEEeee' like he was an early twothousands internet fangirl. After his friend took a bunch of pictures, he thanked the kids for their patience.

"By the way, number 42 is handing out full-sized candy bars," ZomBarbie said.

Throughout the night, every time they crossed paths (ZomBarbie and the Wokking Dead were accompanied by a witch, Kurt Cobain, and a tiny ghost buster), they'd wave at each other, as his fan shouted out a 'HI ZEKE!'. Eventually they ended up at the same house, waiting for the kids to get back.

"Sorry about Reggie," ZomBarbie said. "He's um, kind of a fanboy for that show. Like, writes-fanfiction-and-goes-to-obscure-fan-meet-ups kind of fan. I think you just made his year."

"That's okay, I'm glad someone remembers good old Zeke," Willie said. He was definitely going sleuthing on AO3 later. He wondered what the ships were. "The show meant a lot to me as a kid, what with the obvious queer-coding." Hopefully, a cute boy in a dress would understand that.

"Yeah," ZomBarbie said. "My parents didn't allow me to watch it. Too worried I'd turn out 'fruity'." He motioned to himself. "Clearly they succeeded," he said sarcastically.

"You do really pull off that dress, though," Willie said, waggling his eyebrows. His zombie friend went adorably flustered, from what he could tell under the zombie makeup.

Before he could flirt any more, the kids came back, complaining about how this house was handing out toothbrushes and toothpaste. "Can you put them on the list, Willie?" one of them, the girl dressed as Coraline, asked.

"Handing out toothbrushes is kind of dorky, but not an egg-able offense," Willie told her. "We reserve that for bigots and assholes."

"You have a list?" ZomBarbie asked, as they walked to the next house. His kids and the little Ghost Buster were comparing notes, it seemed, pointing at different houses.

"Yeah, lot of people in this fancy-pants neighbourhood don't take kindly to poor foster kids showing up," Willie said darkly.

"Carlos said something about that white house with the American Flag outside complaining about him going back to his own neighbourhood," the witch said darkly. "We live two blocks from here."

Willie glared, and made a note of it. "You wanna join me?" he asked, mostly to ZomBarbie, but quickly looking away at the rest of the group.

"My tía would kill me," the witch said, before smiling slyly. "But I'm sure Alex wouldn't mind going."

ZomBarbie spluttered a little, but managed to squeak out a little 'okay!'

Jackpot.

Behind him, he heard the guy's friend sigh happily. "And once again, Zeke Zillions saves the day, dispenses justice to evil doers, and captures hearts."

[margotquinsel]

Modern Encanto AU

Chapter 8 Not what we were expecting

After Agustin Phoned his wife they met up and walked to the cabin. It was quite a long walk but Agustin didnt mind, Julieta and Isabela however.

"My feet hurt.." Complained Juileta.

"Mine also hurttt!"

"Stop copying mee."

"Im not copying youu, your copying mee."

"Oh look the cabin is over there." Agustin lied to try to stop whatever was going to happen between them.

"Are we there yet?" A tired Mirabel asked.

"Almost, Mariposa," A cheerful Juileta said, she was happy because the first thing she wanted to do when they got to the cabin was to throw herself on to her new bed, little did she know that their cabin was still 10 minutes away."

"Pa?"

"Si Mi flor."

"Can you still see the cabin."

Agustin froze.

"I- well uh-."

Luisa must of read his mind cause she said,

"Isa theres a bunch of cabins. how is Pa supposed to know which one is ours?"

"He said he could see it, so obviously he knows which one it is."

Agustin gulped. Yes he knew where they were going but he didn't know what the cabin looked like. How is he supposed to know when theres the same cabin everywhere?

It was like copy n paste copy n paste copy n paste.

Mirabel got tired of walking and wanted some drama, she thought for a while for the perfect idea.

Run off? No

Jump on Isabela? No

Jump on Mama? NO

"Hmm."

"Anything the matter mariposa?"

Mirabel lifted her head to see her mother staring at her with a look that shes always hated, the family called it:

"The Meddlesome stare."

Mirabel zoned out and when she zoned back in she could see the shear fear in her mothers eyes.

"Whats wrong?" That was a stupid question to ask she thought to herself. Julieta hates it when people zoned out and stare at her with big beady eyes, but then again shes scared of everything.

Mirabel looked around her to see if it could of been something else.

She then heard a loud thud followed by gasp, she turned round to see that her mother had tripped up on a small stone and Luisa was helping her back up.

But Julietas bags were not what Luisa was expecting, as soon as she held out her hand for her old mother and her mother grappled on, Luisa fell face first.

At this time Isabela wanted her fathers attention just to herself and thought now was a perfect time, so she clung on to her fathers arm.

"Hey Pa." She said with a beaming smile

"Hey Amor, whats got you so happy?"

"Being here with you, I think we need some father daughter time. Just us. No one else. "

"Ay, thats a good idea but you know how your mama gets when I'm not with her."

(If your wondering why its because shes worried that he might get in a really bad car crash or get hurt.)

Isabela groaned. She hasn't had a day with her Pa in ages.

The last time she hung out with him was way before Mirabels birth, and ever since she hasn't really spent time with him.

Mirabel was a special baby and needed attention 24/7 just in case something bad happened. And Isabela got jealous,. Really jealous.

After around 5 minutes the family was finally at the cabin.

The cabin was..... Not what they were expecting.

The cabin had two greenish blueish doors, A patio, and what really surprised them was the mailbox. The cabin did look sturdy, it was made out of logs which didn't surprise them, it was in the middle of the woods.

Underneath the patio was a door.

"Look!" Mirabel exclaimed.

The family stared at her then at the at the door she was pointing to.

"It looks like the door from coraline!"

Mirabel has always been obsessed with the movie. And when she saw it she got excited.

Before Agustin could unlock the door there was a loud squeaky noise, in which Agustinn thought was one of the workers in a mickey mouse but instead it was their new neighbour. (Not for long)

[mother-snake]

You want some angry snek?

I got some angry snek.

Italics are internal thoughts

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Boiling Over

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It had been a very long week for Janus.

Even though he was spending more time on the light side, his room was still on the dark side. Meaning; he could only get energy from his room. So he still had to go back every night.

Wrath had been even more irritated lately due to a group of trolls on Thomas' twitter. And when Wrath is angry.... Lets just say its more then a bruse.

Depression keeps trying to send Thomas into a depressive spiral (not anything different but it was still really bloody annoying. Plus he had been really persistent this week) and Apathy?

Apathy is doing his own thing somewhere

Unfortunately, Apathy is one of the only people that can calm down Wrath. Not like he did it most of the time anyway.

So it was a really bad week.

So thats why Janus was holding an ice pack to a newly acquired black eye in the light side common room. Head against the back cushions, wincing in pain as he waited for Patton to come back with some pain killers.

Later then what he would have preferred, Patton came back with the meds and a glass of water, "Here you go kiddo! Might want to do the water first! Its a bit chalky!"

Janus also split his lip in his altercation with Wrath, so he simply nodded to avoid ripping it open again.

"I really wish you didn't have to go back there every night, I hate seeing any of my kiddos hurt!"

Maybe you should have picked me up quicker when I first formed then. Inside voice Janus. Inside voice.

Janus shugged and took the meds. Patton walked away to go make some cookies to maybe cheer up the snake. Thats when Roman came in.

He took one look at the yellow side before opening his mouth. "Wow Jeckel and Lie!" Um ouch? "you're looking more and more like Virgil everyday!"

Janus lifted his head from the back cushion. "What?"

Roman didn't catch the glares coming from a light blue side in the kitchen. "The black around your eyes! It looks like Virgils eyeshadow! You really look up to him uh?"

Mind your karma Janus. It isn't worth it.

"I mean, Virgil would be a pretty cool big brother! Bet you two listened to My Chemical Romance together based on how much black you wear!"

Screw karma

"I am nothing like Virgil."

"Wha-"

"I SAID I AM NOTHING LIKE VIRGIL!!!"

"Janus I didn't mean to offend I-"

"I would never abandon my child to the mercy of some abusive assholes!!" Janus could feel the pot boiling over, but he couldn't stop the flow of words now.

"I would never lie to someone about their own function for years and only tell someone when they overheard a conversation that they weren't even meant to hear!!!" Roman was looking towards Patton for help. He didn't mean to offend Janus! He thought that him and Virge were back on good terms.

Janus was practically screaming at this point. But this was not the anger that sparked tears. This anger was hot and dry. It happened when someone cracked under strain and the target was almost never the actual cause of the anger.

Just the person who sparked it.

It was like a match with a galllon of gasoline.

"VIRGIL WAS NEVER A FATHER TO ME! HE WAS AS FAKE AS THE REST OF THE DARK SIDES, WHO BY THE WAY. HAVE A FUCKING UNIFORM! I DON'T EVEN LIKE WEARING THIS MUCH BLACK! AND I HATE MY CHEMICAL ROMANCE!!" Patton was standing beside him at this point. He put a gentle hand on Janus' shoulder.

"Come on Janny, when was the last time you had gotten any sleep?" Patton wiped away a small stream of blood dripping from the reopened split lip as Janus shrugged. "Oh kiddo, why haven't you been sleeping?"

Janus rubbed at his good eye, "Wrath was bored"

Patton winced in the very thought of what that could mean. He pulled the much younger side to his chest. "Why don't we have a rest then? Does that sound like a good idea?"

Janus rubbed his face into Pattons soft cardigan while huming, "I'm nothing like Virgil..."

"No, you aren't kiddo. You are your own amazing person and you need to rest." Patton was backing up slowly, bringing Janus back to the couch. When he finally sat down, he pulled the side closer to his chest so Janus could hear his heartbeat.

"I'm no-m-ting like Vee" Janus was slurring his words, that must be a thing when he was tired.

"Shh, Shh little snake. Go to sleep." Janus soon became dead weight on his chest.

Patton looked back up at Roman with a sympathetic smile. Tilting his head towards the couch, edging him to sit down.

When Roman sat, both of them looked towards the sleepy side on Janus' chest. They weren't blind to how Janus pulled himself to himself in an effective effort to make him smaller.

Patton sighed, "I know this isn't going to be easy kiddo, but he are going to have to work with what ever trama Janus as... And he as alot..." Patton looked back to Roman, "He's been taught to hide everything he was feeling from a very young age, none of this is your fault Roman-"

"But I was the one who brought it up!"

Patton locked eye contact with Roman. "None of this is your fault." Patton took a deep breath, "We made the mistake of not addressing these issues earlier. Now we just have to help Janus recover. Ok kiddo?" Roman nodded

"Why don't you find a movie for us to watch?"

Roman lit up again, "What if we put on one of Janus' favourite movies so he wakes up to something he likes!"

Patton nodded eagerly.

"Ok so! Chicago?"

"Roman, we have watched that everyday this week. I don't really want to watch that again."

"Over the Garden Wall?"

"Same kinda thing kiddo."

Roman had to think for a bit. "Coraline?"

Patton thought for a few seconds before agreeing.

Coraline it is.

Janus was a very happy snake when he woke up.

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Turns out that angsty mood disappeared 5 minutes after I sent that last ask.....

Eh

*Updated timeline*

I absolutely love this! Oh the heartache!