#Just gotta figure out a design i like for the Tin Man

[cartoonqtpie]

I'm having a lot of fun drawing Scraps

[belokhvostikova]

Have you guys seen that clip of Deborah Ann Woll teaching John Bernthal Dungeons and Dragons? Because that's how I imagine Eddie Munson learning, thus teaching you...

As young as can be, sitting in the lonesome of his yard, father nowhere in sight for days to come. There's always a boy. A much older one. Probably in high school. Eddie likes to watch him. He's got crazy hair, tattoos of devilish designs, a cigarette in hand, beer in the other, with a band tee to brandish his look. The overall stamp of approve in Eddie Munson's book- not that a ten-year-old is cool enough to have one, though, if Eddie was, the teenager next door would get it. So slowly, over some weeks, Eddie gains the tendency to pick up the distress t-shirts at the thrift store, and perhaps explores the music he so frequently hears come from the trailer over. It's nothing like his mother's, but the thrashing screams help with the raging thoughts.

So, back to the yard. Summer had been abusive. And a town or two next over, Wayne was pummeling to race over to save his nephew from boiling alive in the tin rectangle that lost its AC and a father figure to fix it. Wayne had made Eddie swore over the phone to stay outside under the shade of a tree. It's probably when the older boy first sees him. Yeah, he's seen the quiet kid around the trailer park, but for once, he's seeing the quiet kid with an asshole of a father, sweltering in the darkness of a t-shirt that oddly resembles his own Iron Maiden one.

Water was the first of an offer. "Hey! You, uh, need something to cool down a bit?" And as gnarly as he was believed to be to the child, Eddie remained silent to the offer, despite the ache for it. But the young man wasn't one to blame the young boy, so slowly, he approached. "Don't have to die out here, kid, could get you a fan if needed?" Nothing. "Folks around?"

Al? Al Munson? Around? Yeah, even the high schooler realized how stupid he sounded asking. But shitty fathers wasn't anything new to him, had a couple of his mother's boyfriends to even add to the experience, which was probably what inclined him to have a seat next to Eddie's hunched stature. "Killed an owlbear last week." Words may not have came out, but the furrow in Eddie's brows was quite a reaction. The guy laughed. "Y'know, D&D? You ever play?"

Dungeons and Dragons? Pardon his French, but that nerd shit? Wasn't this guy supposed to be cool? "Don't give me that look, twerp, can't knock it 'til you try it." A corner of Eddie's lips almost upturned. "Let's play.”

Spoken so faintly, "What...?" Christ, that kid was in need of water.

"Like, right now, let's play. Let's see, you," a point to Eddie's chest, "you gotta bow, on your back, strapped in- hell, and a sword and dagger at your hilt, right?"

"Uh-"

"Don't question it, just imagine it." The nicotine of his breath emphasized. "It's dark in the woods, isn't it? Nighttime, with almost no light, right? The moonlight can barely peak through the sea of trees, but that doesn't stop you from walking." And he watches Eddie's eyes fall to the telling of his story. "But... you hear a crack. It's something large. You can feel it. What would you do?"

Eddie seeks for the validation. "First thing?" And the teenager nods. "How far away is the crack?" Then, there's the smile. The hook, the teen calls it in his mind. "Perception check. We roll the dice, and let's say you roll a thirteen, and hell, you seem like a perceptive kid," the young man alludes to the similar taste of clothing Eddie's suddenly acquired, "that's a plus three, now sixteen. No need for me to tell you the insights, man, you know it's about twenty feet away."

"Then... then, I want to take out my bow first." Eddie rationalizes. "A-And I'm gonna aim."

And there's a light noticeable within Eddie, the high schooler can tell. "Okay, now, slowly creepin' at you, suddenly into view, you see its bit of eyeshine, in the darkness, you see an owlbear." Eddie smiles. "Ten to fifteen feet," the man acts out, "a monster so extraordinary, with the look of an owl, but a stature as great as a bear. It's squawking at you... what do you do?"

The curiosity sits up within Eddie. "Have I ever met an owlbear before?"

"History check."

"I have a history?" Eddie quizzes.

"You have a life, kid." Those words, something within had lit up inside Eddie. "This is D&D, you're playing D&D!"

"But how do I win?" His peculiar eyes rounded.

And a smile greeted him on the other end. "You don't. The goal's not to win, it's to tell a great story." Eddie sat back. "If this one isn't doing it for you," and gaudy rings on the young man's finger pointed to the likes of the trailer park, "make your own. It's what I do." He shrugged. "Don't keep your shitty life a shitty life. You could be sword fighting dark wizards in enchanted forests instead of waiting for next bad thing to happen." And Eddie listened. "Make your own life."

By the time Wayne’s pick-up truck had arrived, Eddie Munson had killed the owlbear.

And perhaps, in a few years’ time, about nine or ten, Eddie comes across a lost soul, too. Well, maybe not lost, per se, just allergic to the hierarchy of high school that he’s unfortunately been subjected to for far too long. Not exactly here or there with that group or the other, simply floating by without a notice- well, mostly.

There was some notice of your hair, the quite nice hair you got there, how you, uh, how you had it. Y-Your teeth, too, uh, pretty cool teeth. Made your smile kinda nice- well, not kinda, very nice- but not nice in a creepy way, y’know, nice in a good way… yeah.

Eddie swallowed thickly.

“Thanks.” You bluntly muttered back, returning to your task of retrieving dusty books from the desolate library.

“Oh, you like Lord of the Rings, I love Lord of the Rings!” It was worn, spine creased with no care- or maybe too much care. “Y’know, with the, uh, elves and shit, love ‘em.” You eyed him, and suddenly Eddie was plotting his own demise. Why he chose to speak as if he’d never read the book, he would never know, but words were spewing, and unfortunately, you were being drenched in the vomit of his nerves.

“Yeah, whatever you say.” You chuckled off in amusement.

But, nonetheless, you were ready to walk away from the oddity of Eddie Munson, as Hawkins High, in of itself, was weird enough for your liking.

“I killed a owlbear once.”

You stopped in your tracks, turning to face the metalhead, who bounced on the balls of his feet. Yeah, impressive, you swore the look on his face said. “What’d you just say?” Interest piqued.

“Wanna play D&D with me?”

Maybe you liked his weird…

[coredrill]

bravern

i’m rly vibing w senor bighands design thus far………………i hope it looks good in action!!! the deathdrives’ designs have been pretty hit or miss for me tbh, like i rly love superbia and cupiridas but knuth/pessimism/vanitas are more meh…….like i generally enjoy the unique shapes in THEORY but i just feel like they also suffer a lot from being overdesigned the way a lot of modern 3d mecha are and it makes them kind of hard to parse out on screen which is :/ like so many of the shots are just so BUSY that it’s hard for me to get a handle on what is going on yknow? i can’t stop thinking abt what that shot of bravern saluting smith would look like if there were less details fjdbjfjdndbdn

if burn bravern + superbia gattai. that robot will literally be red + yellow + green + blue + purple. 🤨🏳️‍🌈⁉️

if on the off chance it turns out lulu IS biologically related to smith. i think it’ll make that one scene from ep3 where the hotel owner is like “🤨 she doesn’t LOOK like your sister” a fucking million times funnier LMFAO. also i am still suspicious of why her name is lulu if NOT being just the repeated first syllable of smith’s name like a noriko -> nono situation. this has fr been my tin foil hat theory since ep3 and i am not letting go until the end!!!!!! (although also side note that in general i am not EXPECTING any of this lmao. i honestly am mostly just finding such joy in the fact that this show is batshit insane enough that stuff like this is like. relatively plausible? at least to consider floating around? like it’s the same w the “lulu is biologically smith AND isami’s daughter cause isami’s blood dripped in bravern and her hair is blue and her eyes are red and she pilots the PURPLE deathdrive” thing - like the fact that i’m not immediately rolling my eyes at the idea tickles me greatly LMAO)

the way that the pieces for this episode have been positioned intrigues me to no end. like. it’s bravern + lulu + superbia(? i assume) Who Know and isami Who Doesn’t. and the side characters who ALSO don’t know are also not there (at least in the setup). although tbh i could see miyu having an inkling abt it or at the very least being super chill like she was in the Bad Future. like that rly opens the floor up from both a plot perspective (don’t have to worry about whatever power these new DDs have cause only the core cast will be affected) and from a character perspective (don’t have to cut to the faces of Literally anyone but isami going like 😲 once the truth is revealed. if isami doesn’t figure it out for himself first. or however that plays out) and its so smart on the whole and i’m genuinely so excited to watch it play out!!!!!! like even if miyu et al roll up in the last two minutes to help save the day with um. idk it’d have to be smth completely new i suppose cause they sure do have like one gun that is marginally effective against the DDs FNDJFJJDJS it pares things down for max efficiency which is really smart imo

japan and the US jointly developing a mech that reads your brainwaves is the most sus thing in the world LMAO like i could not sleep at night if that thing were real even moreso than the deathdrives themselves

i think there’s at least one more twist left. like ep9 was The Twist and then they pulled time travel AGAIN in ep10 which is genuinely WILD to me. so like. idk maybe ep11 is Old Man Isami coming back from ANOTHER future to sunbathe in the volcano FNNDNFN

i am also not counting out a g gundam style ending yet and Getting Smith Outta That Thing. obviously my own biases are very much at play here but like. if the moral of this show is that you gotta live no matter what you just HAVE to live and fuck time and space and convention because the people who love you will make sure you live. like. if any show is gonna have its cake and eat it too and keep both bravern AND smith around? i feel like this one could pull it off!!!! not placing bets ofc but like its possible yknow? but again that is also based on the assumption that the end point of the show is at all congruous with its current status quo, and something that my feeble human mind can even conceive of with the information that is given, so we shall see. LMAO. the idea that they’re all just gonna be fucking isekai’d into the florist AU that staff loves so much is ANOTHER idea that tickles me greatly for being something so in line with the insanity of this show that i cannot IMMEDIATELY rule it out even if i very much doubt that’s where we’re going LMFAO. bc smth like that sure would fucking vibe w the final battle taking place somewhere “unexpected” (again, if that’s true, idr if it was just a rumor or not) and also how uninterested the show has been w the state of the world at large barring a few scenes. HM.

anyways final predictions for this ep is that i will cry atleast once 👍

[beomglocks]

soob become human ; c.sb

pairing: android!soobin x police detective!y/n

plot: your job is fairly simple, find out the cause of the recent surges of deviancy in androids. the only problem is that you hate androids, but it’s ok because you have a newly appointed partner and- oh wait he’s an android. 

w/c: 6.3K (this took me longer than it should have)

warnings & other:  enemies(?) to lovers(?), enemies (?) to less hated enemies, based off detroit become human, lots of swearing, android!soobin, human!y/n, blood, dead people, a crime scene is described but not in too much detail, soobin is definetly not a deviant, y/n hates soobin and pretty much all androids, y/n is kinda an ass to soobin, semi slow burn, open ended

you were seething with rage though you somehow managed to contain it. you wanted to hold it in long enough to really explode when you walked into your boss's office. you tramp past the receptionist in the lobby and don't even smile at her. you never do since she's not even a human. you hate how she's programmed to sit idly with an eerie smile on her face and welcome guests.

"hey y/n!" you hear your friend, hueningkai, shout at you. you wonder how he can be so loud and full of energy after 5 hours of working at his desk but you keep marching on, not acknowledging his greeting.

you have your eyes set out on your boss's office and the fire in your eyes is set alight when you notice him sitting at his desk peacefully. thank god, for the see-through box offices cyberlife installed last year.

he notices your figure striding up angrily towards his office and you see him sigh. good, at least he knows what's he's in for! you march up the stairs with your head held high because you were really about to give him a piece of your mind right now.

you stop just at the edge of his desk and rummage through your crossbody bag for something. it takes you a while which is embarrassing since he just sits there looking at you expectantly. "ah," you pull out a crumpled up piece of paper, which you yourself crumbled up out of anger, and slam it harshly on his desk.

"excuse me but what the fuck is this?"

he glances down at the paper and back up at you with a bored expression. "that's a piece of paper y/n." you chuckle bitterly and place your hands on your hips. "i'm talking about the contents of the paper sir."

you watch him open up the paper gingerly and skim over the words printed. "oh yeah," he crumbles the paper again tossing it into the bin. he sighs heavily getting in his serious work position with his hands crossed in front of him. he's a big burly kind of guy so it always somewhat intimidates you when he does this.

"we're getting weekly reports of androids going haywire. everyday i've gotta deal with a new report. i'm not talking the usual malfunction and spilling coffee. this is homicides and assaults. just last night a woman was murdered in cold blood by her android. this isn't cyberlife's problem anymore, these are criminals now."

you stay quiet, taking in what he's saying. "regarding the contents of the paper, i want you to investigate them." you clench your fists and narrow your eyes at him. "why me?" you burst after a moment of letting your anger rise again. you realize you sound like a child whose just gotten told they have to dishes while their sibling goofs off but you don't care.

"i'm the least qualified person to handle these cases plus i've got other shit to worry about! i don't want to deal with those pieces of junk!"

the chief office stands up, eyeing you sternly. now you've done it. "y/n don't piss me off. you know you're the most qualified so don't start with that bullshit. i don't wanna hear any complaints out of you." he doesn't raise his voice and that kind of alarms you but you press on.

"no! you know that no one else in this goddamn precinct wants to deal with these androids so of course, you left me to pick up the dog shit!"

"watch your tone detective," he seethes. he sighs heavily trying to regain himself before he really bursts a vessel. he cozies back into his desk chair and rubs his temples. you, on the other hand, are breathing heavily and pacing back and forth. you can't believe he would put you on an android case of all things.

you were seriously being relieved of all other duties to investigate a bunch of ones and zeros. but that wasn't even the best part.

"i'm assigning you a partner to assist you in the investigation."

you stop in your tracks, eyes widening. "hell fucking no!" you rage. you march back up to his desk and lean over the edge. "chief i always ride solo. ever since i joined i've always been alone and have been doing just fine! i don't need help!"

"y/n i think i've had enough of your bitching and whining. i don't care that you're the best worker in this fucking precinct. if you don't like the circumstances you can hand in your badge right this instant. otherwise, shut your fucking mouth and get back to work," he says through gritted teeth.

you scoff in his face and as you walk out of his office you flip him off. "that's going on your track record detective!" he says matter of factly.

"shove it up yo-"

you sigh as you enter your office. "fuuuuuuuck," you groan. you look around and notice that there's a tiny replica of your desk on the other side of your office. you can only assume it's meant for your partner. the sudden urge to destroy it and throw everything across the room crosses your mind but you decide against it.

having a partner assigned to you was a jab at your pride. everyone knew you as the detective who never needed one, the lone wolf if you will. if anyone saw you being assisted they would immediately think that the position of "best officer" was up for grabs, when it wasn't.

you didn't wanna be that person but of course, you held that title over everyone's head.

you huff, throwing yourself onto your chair which causes it to spin around. you don't even know this supposed partner of yours. most likely for a good reason too. you can only imagine your reaction if the chief had presented your new partner right then and there. a firm knock on your door startles you, "come in," you mumble. you're really not in the mood to entertain any of your work friends so you hope this is quick.

you look at the figure standing idly by the frame of the door. he's tall with a three-piece suit on. he's oddly handsome with little to no flaws which is suspicious to you. his hair is dark with hints of blue peeking out and it's pushed back to show his forehead. the stark contrast of his dark hair and fair skin makes him look very pale and almost sick. he has some files in his hands and his face is stoic, almost emotionless but not stern. he looks boyish.

what you don't notice is the ring of light located on his temple since it blends in so well with his skin. "how many times do i have to tell people that complaints are sent next door to hueningkai, god i really need to get a sign or some shit," you groan rubbing your face in frustration. you lower your hands and the person is still there.

"hello, my name is choi soobin. i'm the android sent by cyberlife to assist you with your detective duties," he states monotonously as if he's reading from a script.

the gears in your head churn for a while but once the words process you groan once again and roll your eyes to the back of your head, "why am i not surprised that chief would fuck me over even more like this. of course my partner is a fucking andriod." soobin steps completely into your office shutting the door behind him. "are you y/n?" he asks politely.

"un-fucking-fortunately."

"nice to meet you!" he seemingly ignores your sarcastic comment and your wonder if he even knows what sarcasm is. "i hope we can be good partners. i have already received the files on our first case together, here they are," he places the files on your desk and you can only look up at him in disgust.

"well you're a well-trained dog arent you?" you mumble. "y/n with all due respect i am not a dog. im an android designed by cyberlife to merely assist with certain tasks and finish my mission. i'm one of the most advanced of my kind." you look at the tag on his suit: KR900. you sigh, nodding, "got it got it, now if you'll excuse me, it's time for my daily nap so scram."

you lean back in your chair and close your eyes. man, if soobin was gonna be your partner you'd have to extend nap time by at least 30 minutes. you wonder if you can get away with adding another hour to your naptime.

you hear someone clearing their throat beside you. you hope that if you keep your eyes closed they'll get the hint to leave you alone. after about a minute the person speaks up, "y/n we should probably start with the case as soon as possible." great, soobin.

you open your eyes to glare at him. "listen, soobin? was it? go fuck yourself ok?" you close your eyes again and fold your arms over your chest. god, soobin's already being a nuisance. you're not sure if whatever this is is going to work out.

he stays silent for a moment and you wonder if he can feel the feeling of frustration. you hope he can because he might be able to get a sense of how you felt towards this whole situation. you start to drift when you feel an odd warmth radiating on the side of your face.

"with all due respect detective. i've been assigned to this mission and i intend to carry it out and complete it to the very end. i'm not going to sit around and wait for you to simply 'feel like it'."

your eyes fly open and you stare at him bewilderedly. he's very close to your face and his expression is stony but of course, he still has that boyish look.

you stand up, frowning at him. "let's get one thing very straight, tin can." you shove your finger into his chest which strangely doesn't feel too much like hard metal. "i call the shots around here so i won't be taking orders from a walking computer. i don't give a damn if you're leagues smarter than me, piss me off one more time and i won't hesitate to deactivate you myself."

you step away from him and he doesn't seem affected. he simply brushes his suit off. you scoff, grabbing your keys from your desk. "by the way i already know where the crime scene is so try to catch up next time, puppy."

when you both arrive at the crime scene there's already a plethora of police with their hound dogs and the yellow barricade tape is being set up. this must've been a pretty brutal scene for there to be this many people dispatched to this location. you're not surprised that there's people here and there trying to get a sneak peek at what might've happened.

"y/n! y/n!" you hear someone frantically yelling out your name.

you look around and see yeonjun, another police detective who's not from your unit, running up to you. he engulfs you into a bear hug, letting his trenchcoat pick up from the wind. you smile for what feels like the first time today, "hey yeonjun." once upon a time you liked choi yeonjun, you still do in a way. he was always on top of his game which you admired and you two would always compete when it came to cases. he was unbelievably smart so he probably knew about your little crush on him. if he did, he never addressed it and still treated you like a close friend.

"it's weird seeing you at the scene so early, we're just finishing setting up the yellow tape," he smiles at you but you can see his confusion. you were known to be late to these scenes but somehow still did well and always cracked the case. you didn't like to be around all the other police and detectives when you were in the zone.

"chief assigned me a new partner who insisted i arrive accordingly," you roll your eyes playfully to mask the annoyance. you don't bother to introduce soobin, who had been standing behind you silently this whole time, because he introduces himself. "hello, my name is choi soobin. i'm the android sent by cyberlife to assist y/n with their detective duties," he says monotonously.

yeonjun stares at soobin with an impressed look, "woah, chief got you a robot? he must love you" he jokes. "love me? this is a shit way of showing it," you mumble.

"y/n ever the comedian," yeonjun laughs deeply. you smile shyly at him. "i guess..anyways what's the scene looking like?" yeonjun leans back on the barricade looking back at the house you have yet to enter.

"looks like another case of deviancy to me," he sucks his teeth in thought. "man these androids are really going haywire these days, killing their owners, assaulting them, or just simply running off. seems like some kind of uprising? the machines seem to be rebelling," he glances at soobin who is already looking at him.

yeonjun chuckles lowly and leans down towards your ear subtly. "be careful ok?" he leans back up and stretches his arms. "trust me i know," you mutter. you both smile at each other and he winks at you. "well i'm off to do my own sleuthing! let me know if you find anything, you always do after all."

you watch him jog off and sigh to yourself. you turn to soobin, "right, let's get on with it." before he can take another step forward you stop him in his tracks. "and don't get in my way." soobin nods but stays silent. "i'm gonna need a verbal answer," you really don't care if he answers you or not you just want to annoy him. "i will do what i need to, to complete my mission," he looks at you with a weird glint in his eye and you kinda hate him even more now.

you roll your eyes and walk through the door of the house you're meant to be investigating. the smell of booze and musk smacks you in the face and you have to physically hold back the bile rising up your throat. "

"man whoever lived here was a pig!" you gag. you look back at soobin who has a neutral but curious face. "right you can't actually smell things," you mumble. you grab the collar of your jacket and cover the bottom half of your face with it.

as you walk deeper into the house you start to really see what went down. glass covers pretty much the entirety of the floor from a window near the tv. the tv is busted and there's writings on the wall. you look around the living room and that's actually when you discover the body.

it seems to have been there for a couple of days now since there's maggots hovering over it. the man's face is beaten badly and blood runs down it onto his tattered shirt. he's slumped over and there's blood on the wall that states 'we are alive'.

"jesus christ," you mumble to no one in particular. you watch soobin hunch over the body and dip his finger into the blood on the wall near it. he's about to bring it near his mouth but you stop him. "god what the fuck are you doing!" you think the bile you were holding back is really about to come out and you're scared you'll ruin the crime scene.

he looks back at you with an unreadable expression. "im analyzing the blood." he turns his back to you again takes a lap of the blood. "you're fucking gross," you chastise.

"the blood is from the victim," he finalizes. "damn his android must've really wanted to make a statement here. 'we are alive'? what do you think that means?" you ask him.

soobin stands up straight again, looking around the flat, "deviancy of course. judging by the looks of it, this wasn't a very habitable place. the android must've gotten fed up and rebelled against its owner." he thinks to himself. "this shouldn't be happening, it must be some kind of virus because androids were only meant to serve, they shouldn't have to capability to harm much less kill."

you sigh, already hating where this case and the mission overall is going. "let's just look around for clues. i doubt the android could've gotten far, it must feel guilty or something."

soobin shakes his head, "androids don't feel y/n." you raise your brow at his statement, "one does not simply kill another being without feeling. an emotion or feeling of some sort is triggered which causes someone to act out in this way."

you walk away to the kitchen to look for clues there but soobin just stands there watching you. he frowns but joins you minutes later.

after about a half hour of looking for any clues, you've managed to gain a lot of evidence with soobin's help. there had been a struggle in the kitchen which led to the living room where the place of death was determined. soobin described the altercation as very brutal for both parties.

"so where's the android?" you ask after his explanation. "it's near," he mumbles. he surveys the room once again and spots something. you watch him do the same procedure he had done with the victim's blood. "there's nothing there," you say skeptically.

"it's android blood, or blue blood as you humans call it. not visible to the human eye but any android can spot it from a mile away."

when he's done he looks around once again and follows a sort of trail. he stops near the attic door and sighs. he pulls it open with caution and you can only wonder what he's up to.

he peeks in then hoists himself up into it. "wha-" "stay here," he demands. "hey what did i sa-"

before you can scold him he's already in the attic and slammed the door in your face. "didn't know androids had a prick feature," you mutter.

after 5 minutes you start to hear noises of struggling and things falling over. "soobin?" you shout. "what's going on up there?" you don't actually care if he's ok or not but one scratch on him and you'll be paying the damages.

he doesn't answer, instead, the struggling comes to a halt. you jump as he slams open the attic door. you give him a once over and it doesn't look like he has any scratches on him so you sigh to yourself gratefully. looking down you see an android wriggling in handcuffs, you assume it's the murderer. "i got him," soobin huffs.

"y/n? you in h- woah," yeonjun breathes out. he looks over the both of you then at the android on the ground near soobin. "damn." you nod, agreeing with his one-word statement. soobin folds his arms looking down at the android. the android is rightfully glaring back up at him. "he was hiding up there, probably thought no one would find him. well, no human would've at least."

"we should take it back to the station for questioning. the more info we get out of it, the closer we are to figuring out the cause of this 'deviancy'," yeonjun concludes. you nod, turning to soobin, "good job puppy." he makes a face but accepts your praise either way.

after finalizing your first deviant case, you decided to ask yeonjun out for burgers two days later as a celebratory measure. he had told you he was going to be busy filing some other cases so you opted for going alone. alone is not entirely true since soobin was required to be around you at pretty much all times.

"stay in the car," you ordered. "not happening. im required to assist you at all times," he states matter of factly. you lean your head on the steering wheel. "god you are so up my ass it's annoying."

"listen if i say do something you do it. you're an android so you follow my orders got that?" you narrow your eyes at him as if to challenge him. he simply looks back at you with that boyish curious look and says nothing.

you hate how he looks like a puppy who knows you're hiding a treat behind your back.

you sigh, getting out of the already parked car. you slam the door roughly in what you hope to be soobin's face to make a point but you hear a door close right after yours. you turn around to see soobin standing outside of the passenger's side where he was seated.

"oh fuck off!" you shout exasperatedly.

you stomp over to the burger cart and shove past someone who's already there. "hey watch it!" they shout. "shut up im a cop," you bite back. you don't even bother turning around to the person because you could care less but their voice comes back. "y/n?"

you perk up at your name and turn around, "oh shit frankie!" your smile grows and you hold your hand out for a handshake but frankie goes in for an uncomfortable hug that you weren't expecting. you laugh nervously as he hugs you for longer than intended. he reeks of red dust, a newly manufactured drug in town. the only recognize it is because, well, you've tried it.

"hahah ooook franks," you try to wriggle from his tight hold on you but he doesn't budge. "i slipped a little something for you sweet cheeks," he murmurs into your ear. you shiver from the sudden close proximity but nod nonetheless.

"is there a problem here?" soobin states. he easily towers over frankie since taking drugs for a long time has ruined frankie's growth spurt. he's by no means short however soobin is winning in height by a long shot.

frankie chuckles lowly, "we're fine robocop." he rolls his eyes at soobin and turns back to you, "so anyw-"

"y/n we should be on our way," soobin narrows his eyes at you and you don't take it as a question. you're not scared of soobin however he's pretty much unmatched when it comes down to it.

"right," you say slowly. you glance between frankie and soobin and they both seem to be in a bit of a staring contest. "come on puppy," you nudge him.

"have a nice day," soobin says firmly. "whatever, damn androids," you hear frankie mumble. you sigh as you both reach a stray table near the truck. you open the wrapper, uninterested in everything else at the moment until soobin clears his throat.

"drugs?"

"what about them?" you mumble through a mouthful of burger. "you just got drugs from that guy," soobin leans on the table staring at you directly in the eye. you sigh dramatically, throwing your hamburger back into the wrapper. "leave me alone ok? if you're gonna lecture me i can assure you, i don't want it."

you pick your burger up again hoping that soobin will just shut the fuck up for the rest of the day. he really has a way of putting you in a sour mood. you wonder for a moment how long you'll have to be working with him. if you can just figure out the cause of deviancy then this little arrangement will be over before you know it.

from that point on, soobin simply watches you eat. it's a bit uncomfortable, to say the least, but at least he's silent. you want to question him as to why he's watching you so intently but you also don't feel like chatting with him. "did you ever expect to be living among androids y/n?" soobin speaks up after a while. you smirk at his question, "you're living among us, ok? and no, i never saw it coming." you feel bitter about his question.

of course, you never expected it. you never thought you'd see the day where an android is running the hotdog stand down the street. you never expected a robot to be doing your job. "you fucking androids are a curse," you mumble. soobin says nothing at that.

the ringing of your phone cuts through your little moment. you sigh, rummaging through your pocket for it. groaning, you reluctantly answer the call. "what's up boss."

after a couple minutes of briefing, you hang up. soobin looks at you expectantly while you throw out your trash. "we got another one, pretty close to where we are. no one else is on duty near us so we'll be on our own for this one."

you brush past him, walking back to the car, "think you can handle it puppy?" you don't expect him to answer but you're surprised when he retorts with his own witty remark.

"i'm practically designed too."

you stifle a laugh, shaking your head, "alright alright let's go."

once you arrive at the apartment complex where the deviant is supposedly located, you stop soobin right at the door. you stare up at him with a stern look in your eye, "remember what i said, no getting in my way and no telling me what to do. remember that i'm also your superior."

a part of you feels like you don't necessarily have to tell him these things since he probably stored that information from the first case. however, you want to feel power over him. you don't care if soobin is an android, you'd be damned if he felt like he was superior to you just because you were a human and he was a robot.

"i will do what is needed for me to complete my mission," he states. you roll your eyes at the answer he opts for but nonetheless continue onward. "we gotta be careful here, we don't actually know if the deviant is armed."

"you got sent any info on the guy?" you ask. soobin sighs, "the only thing we know about him is that he's a deviant. the people living on the floor below claimed they were hearing strange noises but supposedly no one has lived here for years."

you chuckle to yourself, "yeah it sure looks like it." you look around, taking in the beat-up state of the hallway. it's dimly lit and the walls are tattered and torn. there are boarded-up doors and the floor almost looked like it would give in with anymore added weight. yeah, there definitely hadn't been anyone inhabiting this floor in a while.

you lean on the door frame as you watch soobin knock on the door as a normal would but no one answers. "is anyone in there?" he shouts. you both wait for a moment but again no one answers. you sigh, shaking your head. "move."

soobin steps out of your way hastily and moves to stand behind you. you swiftly take your gun from it's holster on your hip and shoot the door handle. the handle flies off and just like that the door creeks open. you'll admit there might've been a more suave way of doing it that didn't involve much noise, however you wanted to get this over with.

you motion for soobin to trail after you into the apartment. you both slowly inch into the flat and you peek your head in to check if anyone is inside. when you confirm there's no one in the apartment you both walk in cautiously. the place is completely torn apart. there are bird feathers all over the place and the walls have odd writings on them. you sigh walking up to one of the walls, "we are alive."

soobin shakes his head but says nothing. "let's check the other rooms in this place," you propose. you both split up to look for clues about the deviant which gives you time to think.

soobin goes to snoop around in the closet while you head to the bathroom of the apartment. the sink is riddled with bird feathers and bird shit. you hold your breath as you look around the small room. the place definitely hasn't been kept up by anyone in a long time. "ra9?" you mumble. you lean closer to the wall to inspect the odd writing. it's not just written once or twice, it's scattered all over the wall. "what the fuck does that even mean."

before you can even begin to infer, soobin walks into the bathroom. "i think i found something." you sigh looking up at him, "what is it."

he leads you back into the living room and points to a birdcage on the floor. "this must be what caused that noise that the people on the other floor sent complaints about." he paces around the room for a moment. "i should be able to reconstruct what may have happened, that way we can know where the deviant went."

you watch silently as he walks back to the birdcage. he stays still for a moment then proceeds to look around the room in all directions. "see anything?" you ask.

he doesn't answer, much like last time he simply stands up and walks towards an opening in the roof. soobin slowly reaches his hand up to it but someone jumps out at him.

soobin is effectively knocked to the ground and you stand there shocked. you were really not expecting anyone to be up there. you shout in alarm and the deviant is alerted instantly. before you can reach your gun, the deviant haphazardly pulls a gun of its own from is pocket.

it's clearly not skilled in holding a gun since androids aren't allowed to bear arms. you can tell it's not sure where to shoot and it's scared. you can feel the cold metal of your gun graze your fingers but you stay still as you hear a gunshot pierce the air.

your eyes widen as they follow the deviant run out of the apartment. "SOOBIN GO," you shout. you're not sure why you're telling him to chase after it when you can do it yourself but you feel like you can't move. you suddenly feel yourself collapse on the ground, letting out a strangled yell. "FUCK!"

"Y/N?" you hear soobin shout. for some reason everything is hazy and all you're hearing is white noise. you think you yell at soobin to chase after the deviant again but even in your hazy state, you can't quite tell. after a couple more seconds of struggling to comprehend what's going on, you finally pass out.

you shift around, looking for a comfortable position on the couch. you're not sure why you're on a couch but you're not complaining. it feels like forever since you've felt like you've had a chance to rest for a moment. you're starting to really get sick and tired of androids. before all of this, all you did was either sit on your ass all day or go around helping the elderly or bust your local neighborhood scum. you seriously couldn't believe how much your life could change in just the span of a couple of days.

speaking of change, soobin was going to have to go. he's a pretty capable partner however, you both clashed too much. granted you haven't given him much of a chance. you just hated the concept of having a partner, much less an android partner.

you suddenly feel something cold press onto your leg. you hiss out in pain but when you try to move your leg the pain gets worse. "you shouldn't move," you hear a voice say. you furrow your brows because you're sure you live alone.

you peel your eyes open and see what looks to be soobin standing over you. "soobin?" after the name registers in your head your eyes widen and you try to sit up but the pain in your leg keeps you in place, "what the fuck are you doing in my house?"

soobin calmly takes a seat on the seat opposite from you. you study his body language and face. if you didn't know any better you say he seems a bit distressed. you want to laugh at yourself for thinking that because there's no way an android can know what distress feels like. he seriously looks like he's racking his brain to figure out what to say first.

"you got shot," he opts for. your mouth falls open, looking down at your leg. almost as if on cue, you start to feel immense pain shoot through your body. "fuck fuck fuck!" you yell. soobin rushes up to press the ice pack down on the bandaged wound.

"don't fucking touch me!" you yell at him. he flinches back but you don't notice because you're too busy trying to dissolve the pain. you breathe in and out. you wouldn't say you've never gotten shot before but no bullet has ever successfully hit you. you've only been grazed here and there but it was rare since no one is allowed to really carry guns besides cops.

after doing your breathing exercise for a couple of minutes, you finally bite back the pain. "what happened to the android?" you grit out. you hope getting shot was worth it, you hope the bastard that shot you in rusting in his cell. soobin sighs, "we lost it. it's completely my fault. i should've chased after it."

"you didn't chase after it?" you're not sure if you sound surprised or angry but soobin looks up at you like a scolded puppy. the alarms in your brain are blaring right now. why did soobin ignore the mission? he was supposedly always supposed to complete his mission no matter what. surely he didn't ignore the mission simply because you collapsed from a leg shot. you think about the subtle warning yeonjun gave you back when you had your first deviant case.

"seems like some kind of uprising? the machines seem to be rebelling."

soobin isn't- he's not a deviant is he? you can't really remember if he's been defective this whole time or if he's the best actor you ever met. you look up at him suspiciously and he shifts his gaze subtly when you make eye contact.

"it's been 4 days since your injury. yeonjun came by a couple of times to check up on you," you see his fists tighten at that. something may have happened between them while you were out. you know yeonjun can be a bit overprotective over you at times, even when he knew the job was dangerous.

"the chief says its best to lay low for a couple of days until you get better so that's what we're doing," he continues. you stay quiet. you're not exactly sure what to say. you don't know if calling him out will anger him or something.

you both stay quiet for so long that you start to think soobin may have gone into hibernation mode or something but when you look up at him he's staring directly at you. you sigh, "what is it this time puppy."

he stares at you for a little while longer before answering, "why don't you like androids?" you should've known this question would come up but damn why'd he have to ask it right now. why do you hate androids? one just shot at you a couple of days ago and left you unable to work.

"it's' because you're all nuisances," you mumble. he looks down at his hands and you have to remind yourself that if you're right, he somehow has feelings now.

you groan, "you all are supposed to be perfect! better versions of us humans! i guess you just fail when we put too much trust in you." you sigh, you don't expect soobin to understand since you're being too vague.

he sits, waiting patiently for you to continue. "someone close to me passed away a long time ago. i don't really expect you to understand what grief is," you chuckle bitterly. you look around the room in silence. you don't really want to cry right now so you take a deep breath.

"the doctor was out, probably fucking around i don't know. they had an android do the job. they didn't make it because the android failed to do it's task." you shake your head. "yeonjun was there for me at the time, which im grateful for. i probably would've singlehandedly destroyed all androids myself if he wasn't there."

soobin looks at you with that same curious boyish look and it makes you want to hit him. he's so annoying even when he's not doing anything. "y/n im sorry," he says.

"yeah you should be. the deviant got away because of you," you mumble. you both sit in silence again until you decide to speak up again. something in you wants to thank him for not leaving you behind but you also don't want to break character.

this is too new to you. you've never really had a partner, only ever going out into the field with yeonjun. even then, whenever either of you got hurt it was never as awkward as this. you sigh, "at least you didn't leave me behind." is the best you can come up with.

soobin looks up at you again with a hopeful look in his eyes and it makes you hate how alive he looks. if he was really a deviant you'd have to tread lightly with him. you're not sure if he's plotting against you or what his goal is but you've gotta start being more careful around him.

"y/n i look forward to working with you more," he says lightly.

for now though, for now, this will have to do.

[bucky-of-the-opera]

Just Desserts

Pairing: Bucky Barnes x Reader

Summary: A dessert thief brings about the unlikely duo of Bucky Barnes and Y/N

Warnings: None

Word Count: 1,800ish

A/N: This is for mermaidxatxheart’s 500 Followers Writing Challenge! This takes place at the Avengers Compound in an alternate universe where they all live together. My prompt is “They told me you’re the guy to see.” “For what?” “Murder.”

The beeping from your alarm woke you from your slumber. And the warmth of your bed was so soothing that you almost turned the thing off and went back to sleep. Almost. But skipping one of Captain America’s mandatory training sessions was like signing your own death warrant. One of the other recruits had once made the mistake of arriving late for training, and was asked to stay behind afterwards. To this day, no one knows what Captain America said or did to the recruit, but that was the last day he was seen at the compound. So, you begrudgingly rolled out of bed. 

The day consisted of intense endurance training that had your body aching by the end of it. One hot bath later, and you were back in your comfortable pajamas, walking to the kitchen designated for the recruits. There was a slice of pie sitting in the refrigerator that you had been saving, and it was calling your name. 

You pulled the door open and grabbed the container. It felt lighter than you remembered. You removed the lid to find a note in place of the pie. 

Pie will interfere with your training regimen.

— S. Wilson

P.S. It was delicious

You crumpled up the paper, shoved it in your pocket, and stormed back to your room. There was no way Wilson was getting away with this, even if he was an Avenger. He was going to pay, and you were going to get help from the best to make sure of it.

The next morning, you marched into the main kitchen where you found the man you had been searching for: Bucky Barnes.

He was sitting at the table alone, reading a newspaper. You marched over toward the table and pulled out the chair across from him; it screeched to announce your presence.

Bucky lowered the paper just enough so that he could watch you as you plopped down in front him. He was intrigued; the recruits were usually too intimidated by him to even glance in his direction. And yet, here you were.

“Can I help you?” he asked, looking back at the paper.  

“I believe you can, Sergeant Barnes. I’m Y/N; a new recruit.” You rested your hands on the table, interlocking your fingers. “They told me you’re the guy to see.” 

He flipped to another page. “For what?” 

“Murder.”

That caught his attention. Bucky set down the newspaper and looked fully at you. 

“You know I’m not a mercenary anymore, right? I’m an Avenger; which means I’m only allowed to kill someone if I have permission from people who hold important positions. And you…” he trailed off, looking you up and down before meeting your eyes. “You are not one of those people.”

He leaned back in his chair and resumed his reading. 

You took a moment to compose yourself after his harsh, albeit honest, statement. “Okay,” you said as you cleared your throat, “maybe ‘murder’ was the wrong word. What about something a little less permanent?”

Bucky glanced at you. “Like what?”

You tapped your knuckles on the table. “I don’t know; something that sends a message.”

He huffed. “Why not send a strongly worded email instead?”

The man was infuriating, you thought. No wonder people tend to avoid him. Before you could respond, he spoke again. 

“Out of curiosity,” Bucky began, “who’s the target?”

You paused before announcing his name. “Sam Wilson.”

The corners of Bucky’s mouth twitched upwards at the mention of his teammate’s name. Dare you say it was a smile? But just as fast as it appeared, it had already vanished. “Birdbrain, huh? What did he do to get on your bad side?”

“He stole my pie.”

“Your pie?” he asked, incredulously.

You nodded. “And I have proof.” You pulled the slightly crumpled paper out from your pocket and slid it across the table toward Bucky. “He left this note in the container.”

“That’s his chicken scratch,” Bucky confirmed. “But why don’t you just take it up with him? I’m sure he’d buy you another pie if you asked nicely.”

“You don’t understand; my uncle baked it. There’s people who wait all year for his pies.” You leaned forward. “Sergeant Barnes, I wait all year for his pies. The man has perfected the pumpkin pie and the apple pie. Any other bakery or store bought replacement would be an insult–”

“All right, all right,” he interrupted, rubbing his face. “Forget I asked. But why do you need my help? Can’t you come up with some brilliant plan all on your own?”

You rubbed your arm, glancing down. “Well, I could. It’s just… he’s an Avenger. And I’m a recruit…”

“You think you’ll get fired if you retaliate?”

“That, or I’ll mysteriously disappear. Never to be heard from again.”

Bucky chuckled. “You recruits have been listening to too many rumors.” He considered you carefully before saying, “Okay.”

“Okay?” you repeated. 

He nodded. “I’ll help you.”

You sighed in relief. “Thank you so much, Sergeant Barnes!”

“Bucky,” he corrected you.

You smiled. “Thank you, Bucky.”

He gave you a tight-lipped smile in return. “So, now we have to figure out how to hit Wilson where it hurts. Lucky for you, I may already have an idea or two in mind.”

***

After much consideration, you and Bucky had opted for the “eye for an eye” route. He told you that the plan was simple enough that he would take care of everything. You just had to act normal and not draw any unnecessary attention toward yourself. Which hopefully wouldn’t be too hard. 

A few days later, you were back in the gym with the rest of the recruits. Steve had split the group up into sparring pairs and had asked Bucky to help him oversee the day’s training. You had begun the match with your opponent when Sam entered the gym and made a beeline for Bucky who had stopped his rounds to observe you. 

“Have you seen Redwing anywhere? He’s not with any of my gear,” Sam said.

His presence had distracted you and caused you to lose your footing. Which allowed your opponent to pin you onto the mat. 

“Mind your footing, Y/L/N.” Without tearing his eyes away from where you lie on the ground, he responded to Sam. “I haven’t seen your pet anywhere, Wilson. You should really take better care of your belongings.”

You were struggling to break free of your opponent’s grip while simultaneously trying to eavesdrop on the conversation. You snuck a glance toward the two men. Bucky looked calm, almost bored. Meanwhile, Sam was irate. He opened his mouth to speak just as Bucky cut him off.

“Now if you don’t mind, I’m trying to teach here.”

Sam huffed. “I know you’ve got something to do with this. You don’t fool me.” He spun around and marched out of the room, in search of his missing drone. 

Bucky watched him leave before turning back to face you. He gave you a wink before finally moving on to observe the next pair. 

When your training session had ended, the recruits were dismissed. You hung back until just you and Bucky remained in the gym. He was staring at you with his arms folded.

“You’re gonna blow our cover from the get-go.”

“Sorry. I’ll be more cautious next time.” You rubbed your arm, staring at the ground.

He sighed. “What’s the matter?”

You hesitated before finally responding. “What’s going to happen when he finds out I was responsible for the kidnapping?”

“First of all, you can’t kidnap a drone. We’re simply borrowing it.”

You let out a chuckle, and he gave you a rare smile in return. 

“You’ve got nothing to worry about; Wilson will never know you were involved. As long as you don’t give us away,” he added.

You grinned at him. “Ya know, you’re not as scary as people say you are.”

“Yeah, well, don’t go spreading that around. I don’t need more recruits coming up to me and asking for favors.”

“Your secret is safe with me, Bucky.”

***

Several days had passed, and tensions between Sam and Bucky were still running high. The two sat on opposite sides of the couch in the common area, with Steve between them. Sam had grabbed the remote, flipping through the channels until he finally landed on a cake baking competition. 

“Man, a cake sounds so good right now,” Sam said. 

“Thought you’d be more of a pie guy,” Bucky mumbled.

“What was that, Tin Man?”

“I said that you seem more like a pie guy.”

“Hey, I don’t discriminate. I’m down for any kind of dessert.”

Bucky smirked. “Especially if it’s free, right?”

Sam narrowed his eyes at Bucky. “What are you talking about?”

“I may have heard from a little bird that you stole a pie from the recruits’ fridge. And before you deny it, I saw the note.”

Steve turned to Sam. “You stole a pie? And left a note?”

“It was in there for days, and there was no name on it! I figured whoever it belonged to had forgotten about it. And it would’ve been a shame for such a delicious pie to go to waste.”

Steve and Bucky both stared at Sam. 

“Ugh. Why are we even talking about pie when we should be talking about how you stole my drone?” He pointed at Bucky. 

“Did you steal Redwing?” Steve asked. 

“There’s no proof that it was me. And besides, even if I did steal it, I’d say it would make us even for the time you stole my arm.”

Sam chuckled. “You gotta admit, that was pretty funny though.”

“For you, maybe,” Bucky muttered.

“Bucky, give Sam his drone back. And Sam, stop eating the recruits’ food.” Steve shook his head. “Unbelievable. I train these rookies all day, and then I have to parent the two of you.”

“Whatever,” Bucky groaned before leaving the room. 

He was headed back to his bedroom when he crossed your path in the hallway. He stopped in his tracks.

“So, uh, Steve is making me give the drone back. But we drove Sam crazy for a few days, so I’d say we still accomplished our mission.”

“I’d say so too.” You smiled at him. “I know you’re busy and probably find recruits annoying, so, um, thank you for helping me.”

“Most recruits are annoying. But you’re…” his eyes met yours as he searched for the words to say. “... tolerable.”

“Bucky Barnes, you’re an actual teddy bear, aren’t you?”

A blush dusted his cheeks; he was at a loss for words. 

You laughed and tucked a strand of hair behind your ear. “Well, maybe we can mess with Sam again sometime.”

“I look forward to it,” he said, smiling back at you. “I’ll see you around, Y/N.”

“See you, Bucky.”

[letterstothemidnightsociety]

It’s week three of my Global-Pandemic-Induced decision to rewatch all of Supernatural, and so I’m still attempting to make this watch more productive than the last show that I binged.

So I’m on disc two now - that’s episodes 5 - 8 for those of you watching on Netflix. By the time we get to this disc, we know the basic formula for Supernatural as a series - Two Hunks + Fighting Evil to the Power of Acceptable Levels of Gore x Missing Dad = Ratings Gold. Or at the very least, good enough ratings that we’ll give you a season (or fourteen). And then...well...then.

Episode five is “Bloody Mary”, easily the scariest episode of this first season and, based on the nose dive that the formula takes after season 1, probably the entire series. Maybe it’s that the Bloody Mary legend was one that really got me as a kid, maybe it’s just that I don’t do so hot with ghosts, but guys this episode still made me turn on all the lights and avoid all my mirrors. I accidentally turned this episode on at 9pm and regretted it immediately. I walked away at one point to go clean my kitchen to strategically miss some of the spookier points and I walked back in during an even spookier point. I was mad that there were no commercials at the commercial break cut-to-black! The first time I watched this episode, I’m pretty sure I watched it through my fingers. This most recent viewing, I ALSO watched it through my fingers. Guys, THIS EPISODE. 

I will say it a-hecking-gain: This episode scared the SHIT out of me.

AND THEN, THEN! Then this show has the gall to go ahead and drop a major season/character plot point right there in the middle of all this content that I am actively trying not to look at: SURPRISE! Sam has premonition powers and sorta kinda knew that his girlfriend was gonna die a terrible death weeks before she dies. Because sure, why not? 

Ohmiglob the DRAMA.

I’m gonna take a moment to say that, yes, technically this piece of plot gets dropped within our first six episodes, so we can still safely say that, you know, they’re still setting up the story for the rest of the series. It’s not like a sudden twist they drop half way through the season, it’s being laid down as ground work. And I know that this turns out to be a MAJOR issue for the next four seasons at least, but can I just say: Kripke, you’re really throwing a lot at us. I mean, OK. here’s what we’ve got - 

The Winchester’s lost their mom at a young age to some evil thing. Cool, got it.

THEN they have daddy issues with C-minus Single Dad John Winchester. Alright, that seems logical. 

The brothers hunt bad guys looking for the thing that killed their mom. Ok still on board. 

There’s family drama, relatable. 

Dad’s gone missing and we gotta find, ok ok ok. 

Also Sam’s girlfriend dies in a fire, alright, so we’re looking for that thing now too. 

OH! And now Sam has magic powers. 

I mean, it’s a lot, right? We got a lot of layers here. That’s all I’m sayin.

So “Bloody Mary”, right? Big episode, big bad guy, they kinda loophole their way into defeating her but I’m not mad. Big reveal at the end, so kind of an important lore episode. And then...well...then we get the following episodes:

“Skinwalker” - gross-out fx, establishes Dean as a lonely asshole with a lot of APB’s out on him

“The Hook Man” - takes the Urban Legend angle of the show and dials it up to 11

“Bugs” - Does what it says on the tin.

Now to be fair: all three of these episodes have at least ONE shining moment that reveals a little more about the characters we’re working with, and that character development plays out in important ways in the rest of the season/series. But all three of them are arguably---

FILLER EPISODES-ODES-ODES-ODESSssssssss. 

Alright, maybe that’s unkind. Maybe we should call them standalones or self-contained. A Filler is an episode designed to “fill out” your season. It doesn’t necessarily move the overarching story of the season forward, although it may contain some concepts or revelations that are important later. I’d argue that Supernatural has only ever had two kinds of episodes - Series Arc and Filler. Not that that’s a bad thing -  I like a filler episode now and again. Depending on how heavy your season gets (and by all accounts Supernatural gets pretty heavy), they can be a nice breath of fresh air - also known as a Breather Episode. Or they can be just for fun. I’mma reference “Once More with Feeling” again because sure, why not throw in a musical episode in season 6 of a show about vampire slaying, that’s fine. I wanna reference something from Community here too, but honestly anything after season 2 could probably be called filler or self contained, so who even knows. I’ll point at the Voltron episode where they spend a day in the mall to gather some unobtainium for the ship and wacky shenanigans ensue. Point being, they can be times to break the mold and experiment and have fun with what you’re writing. Or they can be ridiculous nonsense. Mileage may vary. 

The crazy thing about these episodes is that they most closely resemble what Kripke intended the show to be in the first place. Kripke wanted a show that revolved around characters investigating American urban legends. What is more quintessentially urban legend than Bloody Mary, the Hook Man and curses from ancient Native American burial grounds? These were stories that I as the viewer was already sort of familiar with because I’d heard of all of them before. What I appreciated, specifically about the Bloody Mary episode, was that they a) acknowledge the fact that these are Urban Legends (capital letters and all) and then b) acknowledge that the legends vary wildly so a part of their job is figuring out what is true and what is rumor. I guess you could also call that a cop out but when I was a kid, I was told that Bloody Mary was the ghost of Queen Mary of England who was sister to Elizabeth I and was also violently anti-protestant. WHERE did I get this story? I have no idea. But I also have no idea where Sam got the “mutilated bride” story from either. 

In an old article I found circa season 2, Kripke actually talks about preferring standalone content to mythology/lore episodes in television. Both as a creator and as a viewer, he wants a show where people can jump in at any time and “join the party” wherever they are. That’s the beauty of procedurals - you don’t need to start from the beginning to enjoy them.

But what really got me personally hooked on the show was the mythology, was the season long arc to find John Winchester and whatever killed their mom. Those mythos episodes were where the meat of the show was for me - it usually involved a lot of feelings and a lot of character development which is still mostly my jam. If I’m obsessively watching a show, it’s because I’m connected to the characters and watching them struggle through the challenges in their path, not because I want to see what monster they kill next. 

And again, I’ll reiterate that each of these episodes contains an important nugget of character. In “Bloody Mary”, easily the least likely to be called Filler, we find out that Sam has weird magic powers that are the real source of his guilt over Jessica’s death. 

In “Skin”, we find out a lot about Dean’s inner landscape from the DopppleDeaner, who reveals that Dean is probably most afraid of people leaving him (be still my 19-year-old heart). 

Wasn’t mad about this bit...

Coulda done without this bit tho...

In “Hookman”...alright, you kinda got me on “Hookman”, but we do get the first appearance of the rocksalt shotgun and Sam talks with a girl about her dad issues which is really Sam talking about his own dad issues in the language of tv shows. Also, he maybe starts to move on from Jessica???? It’s unclear, and also a little weird but I guess he’s only 22 and that’s not that far off from 18/19. 

Really, WB?? Sneaking into sorority houses?

And then in “Bugs”, yes, even in “Bugs”, we get juicy little bit of tension between the brothers as they advise some teen boy about family dynamics. The fight shows a lot about what each character feels about their own experiences growing up the way they did, how they manage the expectations from their own father, and how they believe those family dynamics should exist. I mean I guess you could also argue this is the episode that plants the seed for Wincest, but I don’t really want to go there, let’s not talk about it.

This kid’s like, “This is...not a conversation about me and MY dad, is it?”

So they could be worse. I mean the last two definitely aren’t great, and we’ll see how they measure up to the Monster Truck episode later in the season, but they’re not bad episodes. 

So let’s flash forward to Now again - have we seen the end of Filler Episodes?

As I have mentioned in previous posts and will probably continue mentioning in future posts, the 22 episode season is not the norm anymore. A lot of articles I’ve read point to Breaking Bad as the first American show to really break that mold. Breaking Bad released only 7 episodes in it’s first season in 2007. When you’ve cut your story down that much, there’s no room for filler - you’re basically producing a 7 hour movie. 

Now notice I said American TV show. I’m pretty sure for most of the rest of the world, 22 episodes is way outside the norm, but really I can only speak to UK TV. Seasons in the UK do not last as long as seasons in America. Doctor Who, one of, if not the, longest running show on BBC, aired its first season with 42 episodes, which is mind boggling. But since the series revived in 2005, it hasn’t had more than 13 episodes in a season. Spooks/MI5 never had more than 10 episodes. The IT Crowd only aired 6 episodes per season. Broadchurch had only 8. And because I must complete the Superwholock trifecta, Sherlock seasons were only 3 episodes a piece. These are the shows that spring to mind while I’m writing this, but you get the idea.

So why does American broadcast TV have such long seasons? Well, the answer is: moneymoneymoney.

We live in an age of “prestige” TV. Some throw around “Golden Era”, but there’s been like, a Golden Era of television every 10 years since tv’s became household commodities, so that phrase basically means nothing. TV today is more similar to long-form film making than it was a decade ago. We associate terms like “film” with other terms like “art”, and sometimes we forget that television is, and always was, a business. It’s a business that’s making a lot of money entertaining you for hours on end, but a business nonetheless. I’d argue that it doesn’t mean it’s not art, but I don’t think we can separate the art and entertainment value of tv from its actual monetary value. 

Strategically, the 22-episode season was to get a show to a magical number of total episodes - 100. Once you hit the 100th episode, somewhere around season 5 (thanks math), then you can sell the show in syndicated reruns. This is also referred to as second-run syndication or off-network syndication. When a show is syndicated, that means the production company that produces the show can now sell the right to air episodes to other channels. Think channels like TBS or TNT or even USA Network - they don’t really dabble in producing their own content, they just repackage content from other networks to plug in to empty slots in their programming. And because these channels can air episodes 5 days a week, 365 days a year, that means the production company can actually make more money by selling the show in syndication than when they sold the show to the primary network. The more episodes you have in a season, the faster you get to syndication, and sometimes that means a show that’s on the brink of cancellation due to poor numbers may still get greenlit for another season or two if they’re closer to that magic 100th episode. For a show like Supernatural, that has a very procedural, not-super-heavy-mythos, structure, you can do very well in syndication. Just cuz another network agreed to air your show doesn’t mean they agreed to air it in order, so procedurals work better in syndication than your season-arc shows do. And that’s why we have episodes like Bugs, that have nothing to do with the overarching plot of the season and also phone in some questionable CGI. 

Apparently they DID use real bugs to shoot this scene and everyone got bit to hell but the bugs didn’t show up good and they went with CG anyway?!?

But these days, you don’t have to hit 100 episodes. Sometimes only 80 episodes will do. Sometimes, you run a streaming site and you don’t have to worry about reruns at all because your revenue isn’t generated from air time or even ads, but from subscription prices. Honestly, when you think of it that way, it makes way more sense to greenlight shorter seasons so that you have the budget to buy more and more diverse shows that will appeal to a broader audience of viewers. 

So if Supernatural was produced today, would we get these off-shoot, self-contained episodes that have little to do with the plot of finding Sam and Dean’s dad? It’s hard to say. Knowing what I do about Kripke’s original plans for the show and his thoughts on procedural standalone episodes in general, its possible that he’d still try for a traditional season aired on a traditional TV network. But in that same interview I quoted above, he also mentions that the only way to get into a show with a heavy mythos is to buy the DVDs. We don’t need DVDs anymore - we have Netflix. And Hulu and Prime and any number of other streaming services that pick up any show they can get just to have a larger library of content and attract new viewers. I think a good indicator of what Supernatural would look like if it aired today is Hulu’s Helstrom - a show about two siblings with a childhood marked by strange and terrible happenings, who spend the season trying to defeat an evil demon. This show is a Hulu original that dropped all 10 episodes on October 16, 2020, and damn if that doesn’t sound familiar. I told a friend, “it’s like Supernatural but more emotions.” (Her response was, MORE emotions?!?!?) And before you dive down the rabbit hole, the characters in Helstrom made their debut in a Marvel comic back in the 70’s, so you can just chalk it up to nothing new under the sun. 

Big Mood, guys. Big Mood.

I’ll close this one by reiterating I don’t mind a filler episode. Some fillers can be weird and great and wonderful. I’d say “Tales of Ba Sing Se” (Avatar the Last Air Bender, Season 2)  is a great example - with the possible exception of Appa, the vignettes presented in “Tales” are basically side quests that have nothing to do with the main quest of season 2 and only serve to develop characters. The stories are sweet and touching and also light and fun.

I’m not crying, YOU’RE crying! It’s ok, I’m also crying. 

 And the longer a show runs, the more likely you are to run into these fillers - episodes that take a break from the main action to bring something that’s new and out of the box and possibly/probably writers getting bored with the every-day formula of the show. I think season 1 of Supernatural does a decent job of balancing the two styles of episode so that neither gets boring. In fact, I’m pretty Supernatural was what taught me the difference between the two episode styles in the first place. And the first time around, I was hyped for those season arc episodes, because back in the late 2000’s, I hadn’t seen a lot of TV content like that. Now, 15 years on and mired in a sea of seasons that stick mainly to a season arc story with little to no room for breathing, I think that if all TV became nothing but season arc episodes...well, it’d get pretty boring. 

[waywardaardvark79]

Come Back to Me: Part 8

Summary:  Y/N, a WW2 army nurse spends her days caring for and patching up injured soldiers. The last thing she ever expected was that one of the soldiers that she saved would steal her heart. A story of two people and the insurmountable obstacles they overcome to always come back to each other.

Pairing: Dean x Reader, Benny x Reader (platonic)

Warnings: language, character death

Word Count: 4,754

A/N: Updates should be at least once weekly. No set schedule. 

Dean sat on the edge of his bunk, his mind racing with everything they still had to do. What started as a two man escape plan with a two month time frame had quickly proved to be far more difficult than Dean or Benny every thought it could be, and they both started out knowing that it would be damn near impossible. 

Both of them quickly realized that two months was an unrealistic goal, and so was having only two people to do all of the work, so here they were, ten months later, the plan they had slaved over only hours away from execution. 

Dean sat there on the edge of his bunk, his eyes focused on the door as he waited for Benny to return with the last thing they needed for their escape, the last ten months of planning and work playing over in his head. 

                                           Ten Months Ago

"So, where do we start?" Benny asked. 

"We gotta find out everything we can about this place and fast." Dean said. 

That first month flew by without much planning, both Benny and Dean just trying to get used to their new roles as prisoners of war. Dean wasn't really able to leave their bunk house in his condition so most of the early scouting was left to Benny, and at the end of that first month they had a basic layout of the camp and the day to day activities that occurred. 

The end of month two wasn't much better. They didn't seem to accomplish much. They had both talked to other prisoners, and learned as much as they could about the past escape attempts, each of them committing to memory the mistakes that caused those plans to fail. 

Benny and Dean were sitting around the stove, everyone else in their bunk house already in bed. 

"How's it feel?" Benny asked, nodding his head towards Dean's leg. 

"I fell straight on my ass the minute I stood up after the doc had taken it off." Dean said, looking down at his cast free leg. 

"It's just gonna take awhile to build your strength back up. You'll get there." Benny said. 

"We were supposed to be on our way out of here by now, but we got nothin'. The only thing we know is what's not gonna work." Dean said, frustrated. 

"Well, that's something." Benny said, trying to look on the positive side. 

Dean shook his head, "If we want this to work, we're gonna need more people." Dean said, glancing back over his shoulder at the sleeping men. 

"I think you're right, brother." Benny said, Dean nodding his head. 

"I want a plan in place before we start recruiting people, and I think I know what we need to do." Dean said. 

"Yeah, and what's that?" Benny asked. 

"Everyone else that has tried to get out went over the fence, or tried to." Dean said. 

"Yeah, and that worked one time with only a few guys gettin' over before they were caught." Benny said. 

Dean nodded his head, "So, we don't go over. We go under." Dean said. 

By the middle of month three Dean and Benny had a basic plan laid out. They had decided to dig two tunnels, one in their own bunk house and another in the communal bath/shower that they shared with the bunk house next to them. Morgan and Miller were in that group of men, and Benny and Dean knew that they could trust them. Now, all they had to do was figure out who else they could trust and bring them on board. 

By the end of month three Dean had taken on the role as leader with Benny as his second in command. All of the men from his own bunk house and Morgan and Miller's were fully on board with the plan. That gave them a total of twenty men, counting themselves. Now, it was time for the hard work to begin. 

Dean and Benny decided to start work on the tunnel in their own bunk house first, both of them agreeing that the entrance of the tunnel would be underneath the stove. Every man involved was instructed to start saving supplies, the wood from the Red Cross parcels, actually any wood that they could get their hands on,  the Klim tins that held powdered milk, and basically any other odd and end that could prove useful. 

They started with the Klim tins, the metal proving quit useful. They shaped the metal into various tools to dig with, one of the men was even able to show them how to make lamps. They used fat skimmed from soup served at the camp as fuel and pieces of old clothing for wicks. This allowed them to light the tunnels and made digging much easier. However, the most important use of the Klim tins were as ventilation ducts, Dean and Benny finally figuring out a design that would allow them to pump air through the tunnels. 

The lack of supplies to brace the wall of the tunnels was a problem they faced. The Red Cross parcels were too far and in-between to really make much difference. So, they started to scavenge the camp for any scraps of wood they could find. They broke apart wood furniture, and even resorted to using the boards that held up their mattresses. Each man responsible for gathering as many as he could from the other bunk houses without raising suspicion. 

The next problem they faced was what to do with all of the excess soil from digging. At first their main method of disposal was to scatter it discreetly on the surface, figuring that the Germans wouldn't notice small amounts here and there, but as both tunnels got underway the amount of soil to dispose of became more difficult. 

Half way through month seven the overwhelming amount of soil they were digging up was their biggest obstacle. They had run out of places to discreetly store it, and Dean and Benny decided to stop work on the second tunnel, using it as a place to store all of the extra soil and supplies instead. 

With the second tunnel being abandoned, work on the first one went much faster. Both Benny and Dean had managed to befriend two German guards, both guards were sympathetic to their cause, and neither man supported what the Nazi party stood for. 

Both guards proved to be extremely helpful. They were able to smuggle in civilian clothing, making it easier for the men to travel by train after escaping. They also managed to smuggle in maps, railway timetables, and many official papers so that they could be forged, the travel permits being the most important. All of these supplies were stored in the abandoned  second tunnel, laying in wait until the night of the escape. 

A couple of weeks into the tenth month work on the tunnel was completed, and Benny helped Dean move the stove from the tunnel entrance, Dean wanting to do a run through to see just how much time it would take to get all the way through the tunnel. 

"Alright, I'm gonna time it, see how long it take to get through, so we can figure out how much time to leave between guys." Dean said, Benny passing him one of the lamps made from the Klim tins. 

"Be careful with that down there." Benny said, nodding his head toward the tin, "Last thing we need is you settin' yourself on fire." 

"Just make sure you work the pump." Dean said before lowering himself down into the tunnel. 

It was a tight fit, Dean's shoulders nearly scraping the sides of the tunnel as he worked his way through, his pace slower than what it would be if he didn't have to hold the tin, but the light was needed. 

He was surprised how well the ventilation duct worked, and was relieved. He had feared that it wouldn't, and he honestly didn't want to devote any more time to it. He had been there long enough and he was more than ready to get as far away from that place as he could. He needed to get back to you. 

Dean had reached the end of the tunnel, and he pushed the thin board that covered the exit aside before raising up just enough to peer out. 

The tunnel ended at the start of a dense wooded area, and Dean couldn't help the overwhelming urge he had to run, to climb up out of that hole and never look back. He was breathing free air for the first time in ten months, and he couldn't explain the feeling it gave him. 

Dean thought about you. This was the closest he had been to being able to make his way back to you since he was captured. Part of him wanted so badly to just go back for Benny, grab the travel documents the two of them forged for themselves and leave, but he couldn't do it. 

His sense of loyalty wouldn't allow him to do it. He owed it to the other men, the men he now considered his, to follow through with the plan. Those men put their blood, sweat, and tears into this plan, and none of them had to do it. None of them had to take the risk, but all of them did. Even though they all knew that if they were caught they would likely be shot. So, as bad as Dean wanted to go, he knew that he couldn't do it. He couldn't leave any of them behind. 

Dean put the board back over the exit, and started to make his way back through the tunnel. He placed the tin he was carrying on the floor of the bunk house before pulling himself up, Benny putting the homemade bellows used to pump the air through the tunnel down once Dean was out. 

"We're not gonna be able to give everybody a lamp. One, we don't have enough, and two, you have to go too slow when you're holdin' one." Dean said, putting a board over the entrance before Benny helped him move the stove back over. 

"What do you want to do then? I mean, we can't have guys going through blind." Benny said. 

"Yeah, I know." Dean said, making his way to his bunk, the leg that he broke so long ago aching terribly. 

"How was the air?" Benny asked. 

"Worked a lot better than I thought it would." Dean said, running his hands through his hair. "Ok, we need to figure out the order we're sending everybody through in, and some way to light it." 

"We could put a couple lamps in the staging areas." Benny said, the tunnel having three places where it was dug out wider, the men using the areas to store tools during construction. 

"We could send the first three people through with a lamp. The first guy could leave it at the last station, the second at the second, and the third at the first. At least that will light it some. Part of the crawl is gonna be in the dark, but I think it's the best we can do. We can't afford to move that slow." Dean said, Benny nodding his head in agreement. 

"It'll do." Benny said. 

"It'll have to." Dean said. 

Benny walked through the door, the sound of the door closing after him pulling Dean from his thoughts. 

"Did you get it?" Dean asked, standing up from his bunk. 

"Yeah." Benny said, nodding his head as he pulled out a rolled up piece of paper from his coat. 

Dean took the paper from him and unrolled it, his eyes scanning over it, "This is it." he said, unable to tear his eyes away from the paper in front of him. "This is how we get back." he added, as he looked at the map, every train station they would need to get back to their base marked. 

"Listen, he said he overheard some of the other guards talkin' about a surprise search. He said some of them are startin' to get suspicious, and that they're tossing the bunks around midnight." Benny said. 

"Shit. That's gonna set us way back." Dean said, shaking his head. 

"I know. We're gonna have to make sure that nobody has anything on them, no papers, nothin'." Benny said. 

"Yeah, then we're just gonna have to haul ass to get everything ready after the search. You go make sure Morgan and Miller has their bunk under control, and I'll do this one." Dean said. 

All of the men in Dean's bunk house, including Benny and himself were laying awake in their beds, each man waiting for the search to begin. All of them were hoping that the search would go quickly, each one of them eager to get the plan underway. 

"Up! Up!" one of the German guards bellowed as he burst through the door, every man climbing from their bed at the order. 

The guard turned to the three men behind him, ordering them to start the search. Dean and his men waited patiently beside their beds, all of them watching as the guards started to flip mattresses, one of them pointing out the missing boards that held up the mattresses. 

"What happened here?" one of the guards asked, in a thick German accent. 

"We had to burn them for warmth, sir." Dean said, hoping that his lie was believable enough. 

The guards slowly made their way around the small room, looking in every nook and cranny, but coming up empty. Dean watched as one of the guards knelt down by the stove, his heart racing in his chest when the guard leaned down to look underneath it. 

Dean knew that was it. The guard was going to see the board, even though Dean had done his best to cover it with ashes from the stove. He knew that it wouldn't be long before the tunnel was discovered, and all of their hard work would be for nothing. 

Dean was so busy trying to think of a way to get them all out of it that he missed the guard standing back up. 

"Back to bed!" one of the guards yelled, Dean trying to get his facial expression under control so that he wouldn't give away how relieved he was. 

Benny crossed the room, "You think an hour would be enough time to wait? You know, before we start everything. I mean, I don't think they'll come back, but I want to be sure." 

"Yeah, an hour should be good." Dean said, his heart still pounding in his chest. 

"Hey, brother, everything is gonna be fine." Benny said, clapping Dean on the shoulder. 

An hour later, Dean and Benny sent a couple of men over to the second tunnel to get all of the supplies. Each man tucked a change of civilian clothing into their coats, alone with some makeshift weapons, and the necessary travel documents. 

"All right, listen up." Dean said, all of the men turning their attention to him. "We're gonna send the first three men through with a lamp. Those lamps are gonna be left at the staging areas, and you'll have to make the rest of the crawl in the dark. Remember to move quickly and quietly, and when you get to the end...you get into that tree line as quickly as possible. Is that clear?" Dean asked. 

"Yes, First Sergeant." the men answered in unison. 

"All right, Benny is gonna go first. He'll be there to help each of you out." Dean said, as Benny readied his supplies. 

Dean was holding the bellows in his hands, ready to start pumping air when Benny walked up to him, "I'll see you on the other side, brother." Benny said, Dean nodding his head as Benny lit the wick of his tin. 

"Be careful and watch yourself. If there's any sign of trouble you go." Dean said. 

"There ain't gonna be no trouble. Now, I'll see you on the other side." Benny said before lowering himself down into the tunnel. 

Dean gave Benny a five minute head start before sending the next man down. 

"Now, remember to leave your lamp at the second station." Dean said, the man nodding his head before going into the tunnel. 

Everything was going smoothly, they were moving a little slower than Dean would have like, but all in all he couldn't complain. 

Dean had just sent another man down the tunnel, leaving only him and Morgan in the room. 

"You're up, Morgan." Dean said about five minutes later. 

Morgan walked to the edge of the tunnel entrance, and started to lower himself down before quickly standing back up. 

"I...I can't do this." he said, panic in his voice. 

"What are you talkin' about?" Dean asked, still pumping the bellows. 

"I...I can't do it. It's...it's too small." Morgan said, backing away from the tunnel. 

"Listen to me, Morgan. Everything is gonna be fine. Now, you get down there and crawl." Dean said. 

"I can't. Just leave me here." Morgan said, looking away from Dean. 

"Morgan, look at me." Dean ordered, his voice stern, Morgan not turning around. "Look at me." he said again. 

"Just leave me." Morgan said, turning to face him. 

"Nobody is getting left behind. Now, you get down there and crawl, Soldier. All you have to do is keep going and then all of this will be over." Dean said. 

"I...I should have never agreed to do this. I...I knew I couldn't do it, and it's not so bad here. I'll just wait. The camp will be liberated soon. You go without me. I promise I won't tell them anything. I won't say a word." Morgan said. 

"Everyone here is living on borrowed time. This isn't gonna end with our guys stormin' in here and saving our asses. Liberation is not a sure thing, and the longer we stay here...the worse it gets. Now, you either get down there and save your own ass, free yourself, because that's the only liberation you're gonna get, or you stay here and die lookin' down the barrel of one of their guns." Dean said. 

Benny stood in the tree line, anxiously waiting. The next man should have come through by now, and  Benny knew that Dean and Morgan were the only ones left. He stepped out from the tree line, looking at the camp to see if he could see any sign of trouble, any sign that they had been found out, but he saw nothing. The camp was quiet, only a few guards patrolling the grounds. 

Benny stepped back into the tree line for cover, scared that he would be spotted if he stood out there much longer. He decided to wait a few more minutes, thinking that maybe one of them forgot some of the paperwork they needed and had to go back for it. 

Those few minutes came and went with no sign of Dean or Morgan, and Benny knew what he had to do. "God damn it." he sighed to himself, as he made sure the coast was clear before stepping out of the tree line, and walking back to the tunnel. 

Benny made his way back through the tunnel, thinking to himself how crazy it was to be going back inside the place they were trying to escape from. 

"What's goin' on? What's the hold up?" Benny asked as he pulled himself out of the tunnel, Dean and Morgan just standing there looking at each other. 

Morgan looked over at Benny, "Tell him, Benny. Tell him to just leave me here. I...I can't go down there, and I already told him I wouldn't say anything. I won't tell 'em anything. Just please go." Morgan said. 

Benny looked over to Dean, both of them knowing that Morgan would crack. He would talk, and he would tell them everything he knew if they pressed him hard enough. Both Benny and Dean knew that the Germans would do whatever they had to do in order to get the information from him, and he knew exactly where Benny and Dean were headed. He knew everything. 

"Look, Morgan, I'll go through with you. It's not that bad, and it won't take long, but we gotta go now." Benny said, Morgan shaking his head. 

"No! I'm not going! How many times do I have to tell you that! I can't fuckin' do it!!" Morgan yelled, Benny and Dean both tensing up, afraid that the guards heard him. 

"Be quiet." Dean warned, looking at the door and waiting a few minutes before speaking again. "Look, if you stay behind they'll kill you. They will get what they need from you and then they'll kill you, and I can guarantee you that it won't be a quick death. You won't get to sit here and wait for the camp to be liberated because you'll be dead. So, you have two options. You tough it out for a few minutes and get down there or you die." Dean said. 

Morgan stood there in silence, thinking over what Dean had just told him, "Ok." he said, nodding his head. "I'll go. I'll try." 

Benny let out a slow breath, "I'll be right behind you, Morgan." he said as Morgan lowered himself down, turning to Dean once Morgan was out of sight, "You follow right after me. We don't have time to wait. I'm scared that one of them might have heard that." Benny said, Dean nodding his head in agreement. 

The three of them were in the tunnel, and they hadn't even reached the first staging area when Morgan started going into a full blown panic. 

"I...I can't breath. I got to get out of here. Go back and let me out." Morgan pleaded, no longer moving. 

"Keep going." Benny said, pushing at his feet. 

"Oh God. Oh dear, God. I can't. I can't breathe. Help! Somebody help me!!" Morgan screamed. 

"Shut your fuckin' mouth, Morgan, and keep goin' or I'll kill ya here and now." Benny said, his patience for the man gone. 

Morgan whimpered, but finally started to move slowly. Benny and Dean following after him at a snail's pace. They had just made it to the first staging area when Dean heard noises from the end of the tunnel, and he looked over his shoulder to see a light shining down into the tunnel's entrance. 

"Shit." Dean said, knowing that they were caught. "Move! Now!" he ordered. 

"Move your ass, Morgan." Benny urged. 

Benny came to a stop when he couldn't hear Dean moving behind him anymore, and he looked over his shoulder the best he could to see Dean still in the same spot. 

"Dean, what are you doin'? We gotta move." Benny said. 

"They don't know where the exit is. You still have time to get away." Dean said. 

"Yeah, I know. So, move your ass, man. Let's go." Benny said.

"You'll have time to get away if they're busy with me, and if they can't get through here." Dean said, his mind already set on what he was going to do. 

"Dean, brother, we're so close. We're almost there. Listen to yourself. You're not makin' any sense. Let's go." Benny said. 

"Go, Benny." Dean said, voices growing louder from the end of the tunnel, Dean knowing that more guards were now in the bunk house. 

"Dean-" Benny tried to argue before Dean interrupted him. 

"That's an order, Lafitte." Dean said, turning back to face Benny. "Go! Now!" 

"I'm not leaving you here." Benny said. 

"You will. You'll go, and you'll make your way back. You have to take care of her. You have to keep her safe. I need you to do this for me." Dean said.

"Don't do this." Benny pleaded. 

"Tell her that I love her, and that I'm gonna do my best to keep my promise." Dean said, looking down. "But...if I can't do it, Benny...if I can't make my way back, I gotta know that you're gonna take care of her." Dean said. 

"If you would just come with me you could take care of  her yourself." Benny said. 

The light at the end of the tunnel grew brighter, and Dean knew that one of the guards was working his way through, "Just promise me, Benny." Dean said. 

"I...I promise." Benny choked out. 

"Now, go." Dean said, looking back over his shoulder quickly before turning back to Benny, "Go, Benny." 

Benny hesitated to go, he couldn't just leave him behind. He knew what would happen, and he didn't want Dean to face that fate alone. 

"Go." Dean said, "I need you to do this for me." he quickly added, knowing they were running out of time. 

Benny started to move, the hatred he had for himself, and the guilt he felt for leaving Dean behind growing with each inch he covered. A noise stopped him in his tracks, and he looked over his shoulder to see Dean pulling down the board at the end of the staging area, dirt falling down and sealing off the tunnel. 

Benny moved faster, knowing that the whole tunnel could cave in at any second. He finally managed to pull himself from the tunnel, sirens sounding from the camp as he ran into the tree line. 

He ran for cover, noticing Morgan cowered down next to a large tree, and Benny couldn't help the rage that coursed through his body. 

"This is all your fault." he said, jerking the man up. 

"I'm...I'm sorry. Please, Benny. I...I don't know what to do." Morgan said, his eyes wide in fear. 

Benny shook his head, "Fuck you. You can rot here for all I care. We should have left your ass. You should be the one in there, not Dean." Benny said, dropping Morgan back to the ground. 

"They'll catch me if you leave me here." Morgan said. 

"Good. That's what you deserve." Benny said, walking away from him. 

"I'll talk. I'll tell them everything I know. I know I will. You have to take me with you." Morgan said, Benny stopping and walking back to him. 

Benny pulled him to his feet, "I'm not taking you with me, and you're not gonna talk." he said before snapping Morgan's neck, his body falling lifelessly to the ground with a thud. 

Benny looked down at him, feeling only anger, no remorse at all. He could hear the sounds of dogs barking and he knew that he had to run. He knew that the Germans would be combing the area, searching for the escapees, and he had to get out of there. So, he ran. He ran as fast as he could, knowing that he had to put as much distance between himself and the camp as he could. 

Dean's words were running through his mind as he pushed himself on, and he hated himself more with every step that he took, but he did what he had to do, and he ran. 

Dean crawled out of the tunnel, his hands raised, four guards staring him down with their guns pointed at him. 

"Take him." one of the men ordered, the other guards seizing him. "Take him to Vogel." the guard added before turning to the man that brought Dean out of the tunnel, "How many more?" he asked. 

"I don't know. He made it collapse." the guard answered. 

"I want everyone we have out there now. I want all of them found." the guard who seemed to be the one in charge ordered before turning to face Dean, "You're going to be sorry that you ever did this. We are going to find them all, and you'll watch while they all die. Vogel doesn't take escape attempts lightly." 

Dean tensed up at the name. He had heard some of the other men talk about him, and he knew that when someone had been taken to him in the past, they never came back.

"Take him." the guard said, the men holding onto him starting to lead him out of the room. 

Dean knew that he wasn't going to have it easy, and part of him thought that he wouldn't make it out alive, but he knew that wasn't an option. He had to make it, and as the guards were dragging him away he vowed that he would do whatever he had to do to stay alive. He was getting out of that place, and he was getting back to you no matter what. 

Tags: @miraclesoflove​ @22sarah08​ @flamencodiva​ @divadinag​ @backseat-of-deans-67chevy​ @superflurry​ @familybusinesswritingbro​ @briagallen​

[shy-magpie]

RQG 145

My first EA episode and I'm getting to it 4 hours after release because I'm so excited about joining the Patreon I can’t focus. Its silly but hey birthday money well spent if it makes me this happy right? Ok I think I'm centered enough to hit play.

Eee its going to be my name there someday!

Poor Cel! Poor Azu!

I'm impressed, Alex managed to summarize pretty well given  the circumstances.

Hamid: oh dear! Skraak: Skraak, pressure equalization, Skraak!

What! I was right - he has been getting clearer! Did Alex imply he has been playing up how drugged is? Smart way to get a sense of the party while he gets his feet under him if so.

Thank you Alex, we need those numbers. Oh poor Hamid is confident on a 3.

Skraak is helping! Hamid is listening to him!

~~~Party time~~~

Alarms!

Blast doors? Yes! They won't drown!

Azu! Cel! Zolf!

Point Cel, Shoin seems actively against being useful

Nice, Salt Beard coming up properly after all this time! Scary sounds! Bubbles! Thats got to be a good sign right? Loving the bit with Zolf's thumb!

Not clear what happened plot wise, but Ben did some nice work showing Zolf’s emotions in ways I can’t put into works. Healing time! It is a very Cel, TBF, to quantify their health

Speaker time! Oh thank goodness everyone is healed up. Yeah the food's poisoned we got that with the brunch Hamid was dragged from.

Sweet, torches in the bags of holding are fine.

Loving the character interactions, especially Zolf and Cel bonding over Shoin’s bad design.

Bryn! Alex! That is an actual crime! Conspiracy to commit angst!

I love Zolf's growth!

I will need a transcription of this scene!

Cel was in war zones?

Speakers again

~~~

Hamid is humming opera music (Carmen?)

Scratch? Skraak has been marking the path when Hamid didn't think of it. I love Skraak! Hamid dear, when you get a moment, I know there's a lot on your mind: double check on Skraak's name and pronouns would ya? Also Hamid is doing awesome with the changes. I had faith in him but its great hearing him cheerfully ask Skraak for input as a local expert; instead of trying to force the pattern that worked before even as Skraak gets less kid like. Love to see how this shakes out, even though I confess Hamid having a new younger sibling was a treat. OK enough tangent let's open a hatch!

Oh pressure gauge! I wonder if that helps with more than flooding.

Wrench! I love a call back.

That's one way to refer to Hamid's abilities. Also I am aware of Zolf and Hamid's dwindling spell slots; I am just convincing myself they will be able to camp for the night in a safe hallway before Alex Shoin happens.

Oh good something is maintained around here.

Green light? Alex, did you come up with the hidden doors purely to mess with theoretical maps? Because Babs has been doing pretty well so far but I'll be her second if she challenges Alex to a fight in the parking lot after this episode.

~~~Break time, no ad is surprisingly weird, on edit listen is an ad with Mike that proves once again that I am so far gone on RQ that I even find the ads charming~~~

Oh more Hamid time!

That was a lot of dice, no numbers that I caught. Oh dear! (Was that Ben teasing him?)

In the rafters of a very large room. Huge domed ceiling, sounds pretty. Have I gone 20 minutes without saying how much I love Alex's set design? Thank you Ben, I will google it, *sticks out tongue*. Seriously as long as you enunciate and don't get into stuff so niche you lose people in England too, then don't worry about us from the US. Honestly you guys worry about everything, the occasional missed reference isn't worth the brainspace.

Still not happy about the lack of maintenance, especially given that's what stands between the party and drowning

Skraak sounds worried: it is his first time down this far and sounding more himself by the second. Still no hint of second guessing throwing in with Hamid! As good as Bryn is at avoiding spoilers, I thought he wouldn't have brought up Cohort on the discord if Skraak took it really badly as they sobered up, but is still a relief. Not that I would blame Skraak for much short of turning out to be the secret Big Bad: the circumstances were pretty messed up; even if I stand by saying you can't leave someone who pledged to you and isn't in a position to cover that up if their old boss catches them. Yes I know a conversation about spiders not being the most dangerous thing the party used on Kobolds is coming but with Skraak not turning out to be a kid, it might be more tense but cut my concerns in half. Hell the Kobolds might well be able to fend for themselves post Shoin if they loot the place in compensation.

"I still think that might be an exaggeration"

Oh Hamid has the Elven cloak too. How do you wear two cloaks at once? And don't say you don't, Hamid is not losing 4 levels of dragon awesome (or however Pathfinder put it) in the middle of a dungeon.

Skraak remembers the health potion and doesn't mind being asked to hang back. Hamid arms Skraak with a injection spear. Has the canisters for it too. I may have underestimated him (or on the Doylist level this falls under reasonable retcon; then again I might just have missed Bryn saying he was pocketing this stuff because I thought he would run it by Zolf). *Shrugs* please keep a sample for testing, I have a pet theory I'd love to see tested.

Alex, just...thanks for using a tone of voice that made it completely clear you were joking

Skraak: Skraak avenger, death from above etc! Hamid: Remember, General Skraak Avenger! Hamid remembers what he said to Skraak whether they do or not! OK like I said I loved Hamid adopting Skraak as a new little brother but this new phase is a lot of fun if harder to quantify.

Oh the sleeves! The cloaks don't have to have much physical presence, do they? That makes sense. Sleeves and prestidigitation? Right after being so charming with Skraak? Hamid is in fine form

Alex is just feeling mischievous tonight, I like it.

An enormous pipe organ? I love Alex's set design. (also one day my brain will pull up the right person the first time when someone references Bill Nye or Bill Nighy but even with the Pirates context today is not that day)

I know, Ben, cosmetic or not its fricken awesome.

I don't like the pipes, I don't get the pipes, but I don't like them (that fine mesh better not imply there is something airborne in the complex)

Is it wrong that other than the more obviously ominous bits this sounds like a great place to live?

Chaise longue

Is this seriously set up for the party -wait... Did Hamid skip to the end of the maze with only Skraak for back up and no sleep!?! No reunion or camping scene first? Not even a spell restoring nap?!

Human IOD? ALEX, WHAT IS UP WITH THIS FIGURE? ITS SHOIN RIGHT? ITS GOTTA BE.

Don't listen to Ben, Alex will get you if you jump to conclusions. That's my dragon! Sneaky lad learned from Sasha!

~~~Of course he is switching to the party. Man has a sense of timing.

More party favors, daggers make my heart twinge

Azu takes Cel’s hand to guide them

Gonna light a torch? Or is Zolf keeping up his anti light thing.

Alex is simplifying things No Zolf is not throwing open the door. Oh thank hope, Zolf is lighting a torch. Pathfinder jokes

We like it too Alex!

I like the zone thing.

Cel, I adore you! Zolf just promised backstory! Get that down! And a miner/minor pun, these people are the best! Oh tin miner!

Lights! Golden bulkhead! Seriously where is this guy getting his money?

Azu spots a trap! Yes Alex, we respect your craft. Trip wire!

I love the boots

Oh Cel is clumsy, I hadn't actually noticed that.

Genre savvy Cel hulks out with bat wings! Claws! Fangs! HP goes up thank all the gods! (Azu lets go of their hand)

Ben needs to look up spells but Zolf is prepared Azu puts on the iron beard

They throw open the door!

~~~

Poor Bryn, stuck waiting for the next episode like us listeners to find out the results.

I've been re listening to some early episodes and I really missed the "byes". It's a silly sign off but I think that comfort with silly might be part of why I like it?

Re: the bloopers, it would have been a little funny if they did a “detect traps” and got knocked out like when Hamid tried detect magic in, was it Rome?

OK bottom line: Skraak is awesome; I still miss Sasha but at least Lydia can be a bat even if it isn’t cloak of the bat; Zolf came back better than ever and actually wants to have at least 2 real conversations; and Azu is a champ for doing so well despite her phobias (which are still taken seriously because Helen and RQ are friggen awesome). Fun and pulpy, that's how ya do it! Stakes from the sea floor to the stratosphere! Character moments! Sets that make Hollywood weep in jealousy!

Okay okay some people may be stressed out after that even though everyone ended up fighting fit, which is fair, ok? but physical peril? Just a roller coaster to me, I'll take it any day of the week and twice on Sundays!

[peterstanslizzie]

Re-watching Lizzie Mcguire: Episode 1.8 (Misadventures in Babysitting)

- In the kitchen, we see Lizzie making scented candles, I believe? While her mom, Jo is prepping for dinner. Jo gets a call from their regular babysitter, Debbie and informs her that she won’t be able to babysit the kids tomorrow night. Frustrated with the news, she takes it out on a slab of meat.

- They try to come up with an alternative babysitter but their remaining choices don’t seem very appropriate. Lizzie tries suggesting herself but her idea was immediately shot down by her parents because they feel as though she’s far too young and this doesn’t seem like the first time this has been brought up.

- Also, poor Sam thought that the mixture Lizzie was preparing was cheese but as I had guessed, it was candle wax.

If Kate Babysits, So Can Lizzie

- During lunch hour at the cafeteria, Lizzie and Miranda are complaining about having to do a boring assignment where they have to design a model community that includes housing, hospitals, schools, police and a fire department. It actually sounds like something I would enjoy doing if I am allowed to inject some of my imagination and a little creativity into it.

- Lizzie asks Gordo what he would include in his own community design and he gets real specific about what he wants from having a bookstore containing the works of Navajo and Greek philosophers to the mayor being Tyra Banks. If Tyra was mayor of my town, she would pretty much re-name it as Modelville or Tyraville lol.

- Kate pops up and asks Gordo where the nearest software store is and if they sell a software that can design cities and towns, to which he suggests ‘Cybertown Maker’. Lizzie reprimands Kate for being lazy and trying to find an easy way of completing the assignment but in fact, she was mad at Gordo for not telling her about the software in the first place.

I will be surprised if she’s still allowed to babysit after this

- Gordo says that the software costs $60, which is expensive but this doesn’t rattle Kate as she has saved enough money from her babysitting job to purchase the product.

- Because of that, Lizzie is taken aback because she couldn’t believe that Kate is allowed to babysit while Lizzie isn’t. Plus, Lizzie is the person who gets ‘babysat’. They, mainly Gordo then discuss about Kate’s developed figure and how she gives off a more mature vibe than most girls her age, which probably signals to adults she’s capable of handling the responsibility of babysitting. Miranda calls her ‘stacked’. I don’t this term is even allowed in children’s television today due to how PC our culture is nowadays.

- Lizzie brings Kate up with her parents and Jo seems pleasantly surprised to find out Kate babysits. She does all that she can to convince her parents to allow her to stay at home and take care of herself and Matt for the night. Luckily for her, she manages to do so!

The Adventure Begins

- Sam and Jo are about to leave the house to go on their dinner date and they go over some basic rules and safety precautions with Lizzie. Sam tells Lizzie he trusts her, which is essentially music to her ears. Oh and Gordo and Miranda are there to help Lizzie. Well, as the saying goes, there’s safety in numbers.

- Matt wants to play Pledge of Allegiance but Lizzie tells him they have their assignment to do and will consider it after they have finished their work. However, moments later, Matt gets a little too hyper-active and starts jumping on the couch and running around the living room like the Energizer Bunny.

Sam needs to relax a bit but I get where he’s coming from. Maybe if he had installed security cameras around the house, that might help a little?

- Sam and Jo arrive at the Chinese restaurant they made reservations at and just right at the moment they sat down at their table, Sam starts acting a little nervous and fidgety because he’s worried about the kids. Jo tries to calm his nerves down but nothing she says is working.

- They come to a compromise where Sam can go back to check in on the kids through the window and once everything looks okay, he will come straight back to the restaurant and will eat his meal in peace.

- Meanwhile, back at the Mcguire home, Lizzie is frantically trying to wipe grape juice stain off their carpet because Matt had accidentally spilled the drink that Miranda had given to him. Matt is also not listening to any of Lizzie’s orders but will actually listen to Gordo because he’s an “older male’.

Home Alone Vibes

- Matt accidentally triggers a fuse to blow when he was playing with a mini vacuum cleaner (I think). This causes the whole house to end up not having any electricity and it is pitch dark. The kids starts lighting up some of Lizzie’s home-made scented candles and turns out, the candles smell really bad.

- Sam arrives at the back porch and he tries standing on a chair to get a small peep through the top window because it’s the only section of the window not covered by curtains. He makes the dumb decision to step onto the top rail of the chair and he loses his balance and falls and hits his throat on the tip of his lawn gnome statue’s hat. Ouch! That has gotta hurt.

- The kids heard the fall and are immediately startled. They wonder if that sound came from a burglar or a wild animal. The intelligent, Gordo fixes the circuit and the power is back on. All of a sudden, Sam tries to force himself through the latched front door by slipping his right hand through the door. Also, when he tries to call for the kids, he sounds very different because his voice box was affected by the fall.

I feel so bad for Sam Mcguire. He should have just stayed at the restaurant.

- They obviously do not recognize that it was Sam and Lizzie runs towards the door and slams it on Sam’s hand, hurting him in the process. Lizzie then calls the police for help.

- Back at the restaurant, the waitress is suggesting Jo should date her cousin because she thinks that Sam has actually left her. Like left her, left her. Lol, that woman needs to mind her own business because I would have told her to buzz off.

- The house phone starts ringing and Lizzie answers it. She hears and recognizes the same voice of the man who was just outside their house trying to break in and immediately hangs up. Sam gets very frustrated and he grabs a saw and tries to cut through the chain of the latch.

- With some quick thinking, the kids set up a trap for the intruder and just when they discover it was actually Sam, it was already too late and the trap is already triggered; A tin can filled with flour swings its way towards him and hits him in his ‘crown jewel’.

He has gone through so much pain in one night. Like I said before, he shouldn’t have left the restaurant PERIOD!

Aftermath

Despite being a so-called ‘helicopter parent’, he is really a sweet dad and really cares about his kids.

- The police arrives and they catch Sam and threaten to arrest him. But after questioning Lizzie’s if Sam is her father, the police lets him go.

- Lizzie is pretty mad at her dad for not trusting her to babysit for the night, which she should be but a father cannot help but be worried about his children. So, I don’t blame either of them. Sam recognizes that her daughter is not a little girl anymore and is willing to let her take on more responsibilities, which is babysitting Matt on more nights. Lizzie isn’t too thrilled.

Overall Thoughts

- I felt that this was a very well-balanced episode because there’s no separate A plot and B plot; Every character’s storyline intersects one another, which gives us time to breathe and really experience the episode.

- I like how Lizzie is willing to show to her parents that she can be a responsible person and she certainly stepped up to the plate. Sam Mcguire also shone in this episode in terms of his involvement in the main storyline. I also appreciate how protective he is over his kids.

- Gordo and especially, Miranda didn’t have much to do here. If their characters were absent, this episode would have been just as strong. But they are part of the main cast, so they have to be in the episode one way or the other.

[trashboatprince]

Time for another one-shot of Beast Bendy’s time in the studio as a little toon.

Dober, if you want me to change anything, let me know, I’m just going with my own headcanon on Bendy’s creation from the Ink Machine for this.

On with the fic!

--

Thomas Conner never expected that when he was hired by Joey Drew to work on installing things, that he’d eventually find himself involved in creating life through machinery and animation and not in the way it was done upstairs.

Months and thousands of dollars went into rebuilding the inside of the studio. Parts were left the same, but many others were completely rebuilt from scratch. Upstairs, in an area once used for offices, had been converted into a whole new room for a big project, the Ink Machine, designed by Wally Franks. However, the one that stood before Thomas now was the prototype, the one that he had designed with Joey and Wally, to show GENT what it was that they were investing in and having sponsorship with.

The machine was meant to produce more and more ink, enough for the animators to use for years to come without ever spending a dime to any ink-producing companies. It was obviously a huge expense to save a couple hundred bucks, that’s what Tom thought, until Joey began explaining more and more of what else it was going to do.

‘Bring life to the cartoons’, he had happily announced when the mechanic asked about any other purposes for the Ink Machine.

Don’t animators do that already? With all those drawings and music and stuff?

Nope, no, no, no! Joey had shook his head, getting too close to Thomas, as he loudly informed him that he was literally going to bring life to the cartoons.

Thomas left and came back a week later because the higher ups forced him to come back to the crazy man and his little studio.

If it wasn’t for the pretty girl who worked in the sound department, Thomas wouldn’t bother dealing with listening to Joey’s plans and ideas for using magic and shit to make cartoon characters into living beings. That lovely angel kept him from also strangling Drew.

Oh Allison, you are a saving grace...

The man stared at the machine in front of him. This wasn’t going to work, this was completely stupid and pointless. He looked over at Wally, who looked nervous as he fumbled with the controls of the machine. The studio’s man projectionist, Norman Polk, stood nearby, holding a tin with a cartoon reel inside of it.

“Where’s Drew?” Thomas asked, crossing his arms.

“He said he couldn’t come for the tests, remember? He has that week-long trip he’s on, so we’re just gonna have to do it all ourselves. Says he trusts us completely.” Wally grunted as he tried to turn a loose bolt on the machine, gotta make sure it doesn’t explode on them.

“I doubt it’s gonna work,” Norman sighed, drumming his fingers on the tin, “but if Mr. Drew thinks it’ll make any sort of progress... can’t help but to try it, ya know?”

Thomas scoffed, looking around the room. There had been ink-painted circles and symbols all over, including on the floor, under the nozzle of the machine. The air was freezing inside the room, and the lights were terribly dim, poor Wally had to hold a flashlight in his mouth as he worked.

The information that Joey had given them over the month since the machine’s completion was basically summed up as ‘put the reel into the machine, speak the incantation, and let the ink flow’.

Sounded simple enough, but this was nonsense. Whatever, as Wally puts it, Joey signs the checks, might as well do this to humor him. He glanced at the doorway, knowing that upstairs was the offering room, set up with what Joey claimed as ‘gifts to the gods’ for this project. Thomas was surprised that they weren’t using the big Ink Machine that Wally had designed, but then again, gotta try the prototype first. Plus, the new machine was still in construction, can’t use it if it wasn’t fully up to speed. 

The switch in the offering room, once the break room, had been flipped already, the pipes were flowing with ink and they were gonna back up and explode if Franks didn’t finish!

“Done!” Wally grinned, stepping back. “Now for da reel, Mista Polk!” He held out a hand and Norman rolled his eyes, giving it to Wally, telling the janitor to be careful.

From what Tom knew, the cartoon was the very first one that was distributed to the public, The Dancing Demon. He had only seen it once, when he got stuck watching it in the theater room with some of the other employees. It was simple, just that Bendy character, dancing to a song, before the tune changes and he just goes nuts with his dancing, only to get pulled off the stage by a cane.

Well, almost gets pulled off. His head is taken away, but his body remains and happily continues to dance.

It was dumb and silly, but people like it, and it’s the movie that Joey insisted be used. Though, there was a bitter tone to his voice when he said that it had to be that one, it had some guy name Henry involved with it. A bit of asking around and Tom found out that Henry was the original animator for the studio and co-founder, lucky bastard escaped this place when he had the chance.

He watched as Wally inserted the reel into the machine, looking at the giant ink tank with a nervous glance. “Here goes nothin’...” He threw the switch and the machine came to life.

It loudly banged around, nearly pulling the bolts that kept it down out of the floor. Ink splattered everywhere and the three men has to hold up their arms to keep the ink from getting on them.

“Time to recite that bullshit!” Thomas shouted over the loud noises.

The words Joey made them memorize was complete nonsense to the mechanic, but he figured it was probably Latin or Aramaic, at least from what Norman figured. It made no sense to him and he didn’t want to know what he was saying loudly over the sounds of the Ink Machine.

The markings around them started to glow faintly yellow, the color spreading out onto the walls and floor as they continued to speak. The machine stopped spraying ink as something seemed to be wedged in the faucet, trying to come out.

Whatever it was, it was trying to force itself out.

Running over, Thomas grabbed onto the wet, solid lump of ink without thinking. He pulled hard on it, hearing it come out with a cartoony-pop sound, ink spraying out once more as he landed on his back, a weight dropped on him hard and knocked the air outta of him.

He coughed and shoved whatever was on him off, hearing it splat next to him as the machine was shut off by Wally. “Conner! Are you alright?” Norman asked as he approached.

“Fine, uhg.” Thomas coughed, sitting up to rub at the ink on his face. He stopped when he noticed movement out of the corner of his eye, nearly jumping when the lump he had pulled out started to rise up.

The three men watched in horror as the object rose, it was rather tall, and ink was shifting about on it. A lump formed, almost like a head, where strange horn-like appendages grew from it. A blob of ink dropped from the ‘head’ and the three stared at the white, toothy smile that showed.

Tom was suddenly yanked back, pulled away from the smiling mass and the circle he had fallen in.

The mass wiggled and tried to move towards them, two bumps come from what could be its shoulders. They flailed, spraying bits of ink about, as it tried to follow them. Then it dropped forward, face-first into the floor.

“... Is it dead?” Wally whispered, gripping Thomas’ shoulders tightly.

A strange, high pitched squeal came from the thing, making them all shout in alarm. They watched as it curled in on itself as the circle started to glow brighter than before and Thomas was blinded for a moment.

The light faded, and the room was plunged in sudden darkness as the power went out throughout the studio. They were left alone in pitch blackness with a creature they created.

There was a clicking sound, and a light turned on, Norman had found the flashlight Wally had used. He pointed it at the blob, only for them to see that it was gone.

“Oh shit, oh shit...” Wally wheezed out.

“Where did dat thing go?” Norman moved the light about, trying to find it.

Thomas watched as the light’s beam moved about, before he spotted something. He stood up quickly, taking the flashlight from Norman, and pointed it at the Ink Machine. “Found it.”

There was a bit of solid black, and solid white, peeking out from behind the machine. What looked like fingers in white gloves gripped the side of the machine, and a black and white face that was way too familiar to the mechanic was looking at them in fear.

“Sweet mother o’ Mary, we made Bendy a livin’ toon.” Norman said from behind Thomas. “Dat crazy ol’ Mr. Drew was right.” “You gotta be kiddin’ me!” Wally exclaimed loudly, making Bendy hide from the shout. Thomas turned, glaring at the shorter man, before approaching the Ink Machine.

He knelt down, seeing that Bendy, if that was really him, had pressed himself against the wall, unsure of where to go or what to do.

It was amazing, he looked exactly like the cartoon character, just completely solid and alive. He looked so small and scared as he looked at Thomas with large, soulless, black eyes.

Soulless... that’s one way of putting this. There was something so strange about him, he looked just like the character, seemed to register fear and curiosity as he looked at the flashlight and at Thomas, but... he gave off an air that didn’t sit right with the man.

Then again, he was made through demonic magic, a cartoon, and ink, so there was obviously gonna be something so otherworldly of this guy.

With a heavy sigh, he held out a hand. “Come on, kid, let’s get ya outta here.”

Bendy looked at the offered hand before carefully touching it, just as the lights started to come back on. “Do we tell Joey about this?” Thomas heard Wally say as he picked up Bendy.

“Let’s see if the kid lives, who knows how stable he is with that prototype we designed. It was only meant for making ink, not creating life like this.”

“Joey’s still gonna wanna know.” Norman frowned.

“I’ll tell him when he gets back, I’ll even write down everything that happened, I’ve got this.” Thomas replied as he walked past, heading to get back upstairs and out of that room. He had taken noticed that when the lights turned on, the walls were stained a sepia tone of yellow, he hoped that it didn’t cause any problems, nor did he want to hear any complaints from Sammy if those stains got down to the music department on the floor below.

He’d deal with all of the clean up late, right now, he needed to deal with the little cartoon he had helped in creating.

He hoped this didn’t come back to haunt him.

--

The room this took place in is the room where Henry collapsed at the end of chapter one)

[lillaxtrigger]

Young Hope: Chapter 32

Somewhere underneath the shallow soil of New Mexico stood a moist, dank cavern, several dripping echoes sound off through the rocky tunnels as droplet of water descend down from the bottom of its stalactite and drop towards the bottom.

Along the very top of these caverns be dozens of holes leading out to the surface above, letting the afternoon sunlight shine down through the rough stone caverns; a growing screech soon joining the symphony of dripping water.

Through one of these holes could something be seen gliding high above the surface of these caverns; a plane made from tin, wood, aluminum, and plastic soaring through the skies housing three figures within the open cockpit.

Once over the holes of these caverns, the trio drop out from their seat and begin their descent down towards the earth as the plane they came in drifts off on autopilot; one of these figures strangely plummeting down while strapped to what seemed to be a wheelchair.

The bright sunlight starts to withdraw from one of these falling people to unveil them to be the orange skater herself; her and the other two figures pulling the strings out from their backpacks to let unfurl parachutes made from sown kitchen rags and shoestrings, these crudely made parachutes assuring their safe descent down through the holes leading down into the caverns.

“Gotta hand it to ya, Hank. I didn’t imagine that plane you built holding out for even 10 minutes, much less the hour it took to get here. Sorry for doubting ya.” the orange lass admits.

As the shadows withdraw from the chair bound figure, the red capped wiz kid responds back with:

“It’s alright there, Mally. Everyone pretty much gets that impression.”

Eventually do all three of them land upon the crag surface of the damp cavern floors, the young skater glancing over to her chair bound bud to find his wheels struggling to move along the uneven rocky floor.

“You sure you’re still up for this whole spelunking trip? Doubt you’d get pretty far in that.”

“Mally, come on. You’ve known me longer than that. Ya gotta know by now that I wouldn’t go rolling straight into a dark damp cave without coming prepared.” the inventor reminds her while reaching down for a button set along the bottom of his seat.

As soon as the boy presses this button does the entire chair suddenly pop right up; countless suctions cups and small spikes protruding out from every inch of the wheels rims.

“Tada! Been wanting to test this out for a while now. Fully upgraded off road wheelchair rims designs to roll through the toughest of terrain for off road exploration.

That ain’t the only modification I stashed in this chair of mine, but what would be the point in ruining the surprise now?”

“That’s just fan-fucking-tastic.” the third of the trio aggressively claims.

Both of them glancing over to the direction of the voice and witness a young man in a blue jumpsuit step out from the cave’s shadows, his hands coated in a strange pure black substance.

“The hell you didn’t show any of that fancy shit to yo momma for? Wouldn’t have to bitch at me and force me to going along with you two.”

“Melvin, do you really think that would have changed her mind? All it would have wound up getting out of it would be having to stuff all the gadgets back in.”

“Fuckin whatev. Lets just get this shit over with.” the young man harshly suggest, stomping off further down into the darkness of the caverns.

“So, whats up with him? He seems a bit grouchier than usual. Think he might be mad at us?” Mally can’t help but wonder.

“Eh, it ain’t that. He’s just still mad that his girlfriend broke up with him.”

“Ow, that’s gotta be rough on him. Can’t begin to imagine what its like to excuse me, say that again?”

“Yeah, ever since Chloe broke out of Circe’s possession, Melvin’s done all he could to comfort and help her through all the haunting memories. Then just out of nowhere, the two of them just split apart.

He hasn’t really been that keen on going into detail about it either, refusing to go into about what happened or why it happened. All he ever says to anybody about it is that some shit went down…

Maybe we should catch up to him so he doesn’t wind up getting himself lost.”

Suggesting this do the two of them head out in the same tunnel that Melvin had stormed straight into; all while Mally processes this little tidbit of news.

They broke up. Chloe and Melvin actually broke up. This-this is so…There could actually be a chance now for- No! No! That can’t happen. Can’t think of stuff like that. Melvin is a good friend, and darting straight for Chloe after he went through all that with her would be cruel and horrible; it’d mess him up even more.

He needs a friend right now. Someone to talk to in this difficult and rough time…

But what about Chloe…She’s probably a wreck too...No...Gotta focus on whats happening now; and right now, Melvin needs help, he needs to know that his friends have his back.

Soon enough do the two eventually catch right up behind the third of their trio, the huffing young man continuing through the depths of the caves as Mally starts to approach from behind; the skater attempting to start with:

“Hey Melvin. Just to let you know, we’re here for you, kay buddy? You can talk to us about what happened between y-”

“So you know what exactly we’re supposed to be lookin for down here?”

“I-oh...Th-the book I got from under the library didn’t really give me much on what exactly.”

“You mind telling us what it did tell you about these caves.” Hank pops in with.

“Well, all I managed to get out of it was that a bunch of people from a hell of a long time ago used to send their kids down through these cave to go through the trails set up by the Kybr. Only when passing these test will they be able to “Ascend”  with them. Not much detail other than that, I’m afraid,”

“So what you tellin us is that you ain’t got a damn clue what we’re searchin for.” Melvin concludes with.

“That’s what we’re here to find out, Mel. Gathering whatever clues and leads we can find to figure how where exactly my brother wound up getting dragged to.”

“And what do you think it all might entail?” Hank asks.

“Eh, something about angels, I don’t know. Point is that we’ll keep going along through the tunnels of this cave til we find something that stands out. Something like-”

Just before the young lady could finish answering her chair bound friends question, Mally suddenly bumps right against Melvin’s own backside; backing away a tad to discover the young man having stopped dead in his tracks.

“Mel?...Why’d you stop?”

Moving over to his side, the skater discovers the young man aiming quite the shocked glare at what lies before them; Mally directing her own gaze over in the same direction, her pupils tremble and shrink when finding the site that had shaken her friend so.

Coming out from right behind the two of them, Hank wheels himself over to their side as he wonders aloud:

“What’s going on? Why did both of you suddenly stop in the middle of Oh my god!”

Sharing in the horrible site, all three of them stare upon the horrifying site of several skeletal remains littering the rocky tunnel ahead; all of them left astonished to find some of them being smaller than their own.

“Uh-un-um...I-I guess this might be the right way.” the skater utters out.

“What...the...fuck kind of fucked up shit did you drag us into!?” Melvin exclaims, aiming his accusing glare over to the young girl.

“I-I-I don’t really know exactly. I knew we’d run into something like this, but-”

“Fucking!...Fuck this, I sure as hell ain’t gonna let ya drag me and My cuz down this kind of hell hole. Come on Hank, we leaving.” he proclaims, soon heading out in the direction they came in.

Remaining by the skaters side, Hank turns over to his retreating cousin and bluntly answers with:

“No!”

Halting right in his tracks, the young man turns back towards the two of them and tell his cousin:

“Ya kidding here, right? You’re smarter than this, Hank. You really gonna let her drag us through this sort of grim bullshit and risk our lives for shits and giggles.”

“It ain’t about that and you know it, Melvin. Mally came to me for help in looking for her brother and I sure as heck ain’t gonna spur her now.

You can go and leave if you want to, but I sure ain’t gonna turn my back on any friend that needs me.”

Tightly shutting his eyes, the young man lets out a rather upset growl while sliding his hands against his face; soon walking back to the two as he claims that:

“Fine! Yo mom will kill me if I let you wind up dying anyway. Rather die here than having to deal with that shit.”

Coming to this conclusion, all of them continue down the depths of the rocky caverns side by side; descending deeper into its thickening darkness together.

Soon do their little spelunking expedition comes to its first roadblock, the trio left to face a vast and stretching chasm that gradually descends deeper down the rest of the cave.

Along the lengthy walls of this seemingly unending chasm, odd and swirling markings are left etched along the side; the swirling carvings taking the shape of bizarrely crafted arrows that point out deeper into the cave.

Taking the moment to see what awaits below the abyss, the three of them discover several more skeletal remains left littering the sharp and pointed stalagmites that decorate the bottom; some of their skulls having been pierced through the pointed stone.

“Huh, if I were a gambling girl, I’d bet this here is one of the trails mentioned in the book.” Mally mentions.

“They serious sent kids down here expecting them to cross this shit with their bare hands and feet back then? The fuck was wrong with all them?” Melvin questions.

“That’s partially what were here to find out. You think you can fly us across all this Hank?” the young skater answers while glancing to the wiz kid.

“Eh, not sure. I only calculated the fuel usage and distance measurements based on my own weight; I’m not sure how long the thrusters might last with both of you piggybacking me. I’d imagine my chair would collapse in just under five minutes, and that’s not even accounting what we might run into while crossing.”

“Doesn’t matter to me. The two of you can come up with something while I move ahead.”

“Wait, what do you-”

Before the young girl could press on for an explanation, Melvin suddenly leaps out to the side of the chasm; catching both her and Hank off guard.

Watching as they young man jumps through the air, the two of them are relieved to see him make it along the side of the dangerous chasm; the sharp ends of his fingers digging right through the tough cavern rock.

“Meet you two up ahead.” Melvin states while springing up on ahead to the other side, his two friends witnessing him jump from wall to wall as he heads deeper down.

“Huh...Well, guess that just leaves me to figure out how to cross all this.” the skater comes to.

Gazing up to the set of stalactites hanging off the roof of the chasm, Mally thinks aloud as she ponders on:

“I could use my hockey stick to spin across the stalactites, but they look to far apart to cross. I doubt that I could run fast enough to reach just the first one. Wish these cave floors were smoother to use skates on.”

“Well, I was waiting for this to be a surprise, but I think I got something here that might help ya out? Something that I’ve been working on for quite a while now.”

Claiming this, the wiz kid reaches right behind his chair and opens up the pouch stitched along the back; digging through as he mutters to himself with:

“Come on, I know I brought it. I did bring it, right?...Ah ha!”

Pulling his arm out from the depths of his chair’s pouch, Hank drags out what seemed to be a shining metallic cylinder with a string wrapped right in the middle; a glistening crystal coating both ends of the tool.

Mally’s eyes glisten upon seeing the gadget presented to her; her finger trembling as it points to the device.

“It-I-I-It-Is that what I t-think it is?”

“Sure is Mal. Say Hello to the fully upgraded grapple yo. The mechanism made to be durable to even the greatest of impacts, guarded by a thick metallic shell equip with a crystal coating, the wire string strengthened with polymer material; all of it to make up a yo yo left far significantly enhanced than its older counterpart.

A gadget that I made just as you requested.”

Swiping the device right from the inventors palm, Mally can’t help but rapidly hop as an excited squeeze leaks out from her smile; a site which brings a proud smile between Hanks own face.

“I can’t thank you enough for this, Hank. This is just what I needed after the last one broke. Hopefully, this one will last longer than the old one did.”

“Actually, I’m kinda shocked how long the old one held up.”

Breaking her ecstatic gaze, the young skater glances over to the inventor to ask him:

“Wha-what do you mean by that?”

“Mally, I originally designed the grapple yo to be just a sort of utility tool in mind. It really wasn’t expected to be a sort of weapon.

From the ways that you’ve reported what you used it for, it’s honestly baffling how it didn’t break way sooner than that.”

“Oh, I didn’t think of that. But this one won’t break as easily, will it?”

“Heh heh heh, not with the way I designed it. The materials you brought me to make it were honestly some of the hardest and most unique that I’ve ever worked with. Even fitted with that crystal you got from under the volcano.”

“Don’t you usually work with wood, plastic and tin?”

“Y-yeah, but that’s besides the point.

The point is that due to the kind of metal that you brought me, this version of the grapple yo is significantly heavier than the last model.”

“Really?”

With but one hand, the skater lifts the gadget up and down to feel its overall weight, claiming that:

“It don’t feel that much different to me.”

“Uhh...”

Claiming this does the orange skater move over to the very end of the cliff; her eyes aimed to the stalactites that hang above the abyss with her new grapple yo clutched in the palm of her hand.

With the wire string wrapped around her finger, Mally casts her gadget out towards the descending pointed rocks overhead; the shell of the device encircling the rock and enveloping it with its wire string.

The lass takes a daring leap forth down the chasm, feeling her yoyo’s reinforced string effortlessly carry her weight as she swings over the countless pointed stalagmites below; the stale cavern air blowing in her face bringing out a big smile out of her.

At the very peek of her swing, Mally retraces her newfound device in a similar manner like the previous model; the shell revolving around the stalactite above until its string withdraws from the stone surface.

Once withdrawn back into her hand, the airborne girl tosses her metal gadget out to the next awaiting rock that hangs up ahead; the gadget wrapping itself around the rock and hugging its wire string around it.

Repeating this process, the skater keeps swinging on through the rest of the stalagmite riddled chasm in hopes of catching up to her friend that went ahead.

Soon joining her side, the chair bound inventor jets through the widened stone tunnels and over the littered spikes beneath his chair; the fire from his thrusters lighting through the encompassing darkness that surrounds them both.

“So, how’s it working so far?” Hank first questions.

“Beautifully. I can toss it and swing around just like the old one, and it barely feels any different. I don’t know what you were going on about it being heavier. It barely weighs any different.”

“Yeah, I didn’t expect you to adjust so quickly to it to be honest. It really doesn’t feel any different to you?”

“Not really. Of course, I’m not calling you out as a liar or anything; its just that training with two super powered brothers for years now can curb that kind of downside. I imagine it should pack more of a punch now that its much harder. Bet I can fling it in somebody’s face and crack their skull open with it.”

“You think you can really do that?”

“Hank, you’re talkin to the same girl who wacked away a runaway mini van with just a hockey stick a week ago. What do you think?”

“Eh, yeah.”

After this little conversation do the two of them manage to catch up to the third of the expedition trio; Melvin continuing through the depths of the chasm by leaping off the sides.

“Hey Mel. You run into anything so far.” Hank asks him.

“Not yet. Been pretty quiet. I imagine it won’t be for long.”

“What do you think we should expect, Mal?” the inventor then asks.

“I don’t know. The book I read didn’t exactly give out any hints. It could practically be anything for all I know. Something could come flying at us at any-”

“Look out!” both of them hear Melvin warn.

Hearing this does Mally gaze on ahead to witness what seemed to her as a pair of silver wings streak by just inches from her head; snippets of her hair cut from her head by their sharp blades along the edges.

“What the hell was that?” she wonders aloud.

“I don’t know, but there’s more of them coming.” the wiz kid warns.

Upon his warning do the other two gaze ahead and discover an entire flock of small silver angel wings all soaring in their direction; with next to no cover, the three of them prepared to face the salvo of sharp silver head on.

The first to combat the whole flock of disembodied wings, Melvin springs right off one of the cave walls and towards one of them at break neck speeds; using the sharp ends of his fingers to swipe them right out of the air.

None of their silver stands a chance against his demon like claws; the torn shards of silver scattering down towards the bottom of the abyss below.

One of these wings however does manage to sneak in a cut along the side of his shoulder, the unexpected slash making him flinch and lose his momentum; Melvin beginning to plummet towards the sharp stalagmites.

Moments before the rock could pierce through his flesh, the young man feels something grasp hold of his ankle and whisk him away to safety; the boy peering up his own leg to find Mally clutching at his ankle as she swings through the air.

The chair bound inventor beside them rockets ahead of them and towards an oncoming horde of sharp silver wings; a smile stretching across Hank’s cheeks as he presses one of the buttons set along his armchair.

Suddenly do the sides of the young wiz kids chair spring out to unveil a bevy of missiles seemingly made from tin and wood, launching all of them out towards the approaching swarm of silver.

Despite their shoddy appearance, Hanks barrage of missile explode upon contact with the flock in a puff of smoke; the evidence of their shards raining down proving just how effective they were.

Taking in a side view of the entire scene, both Melvin and Mally witness one of these wings slip out from underneath the remains of its silver siblings; the pair of wings delving down before rising up towards the bottom of the inventor.

“Mally!” Melvin exclaims.

“On it.” she replies.

Upon hearing her name does she swing over along the opposite side of where the wiz kid flies, using the momentum of her swing to toss Melvin out towards the bottom of his rocketing cousin.

Moments before the twin wings could slash right through the wiz kid from the bottom up, Melvin zips right underneath Hanks chair and swipes at the pair of sharp silver and reduces them to mere shards that scatter down into the shadows below; the young man landing right along the side of the chasm.

Seeing a ton of silver wings flock her way, the swinging skater brandishes her trusty hockey stick as she faces the horde head on; the orange lass lashing out to one of these pair of wings and breaking them in half.

Her simple wooden weapon proves to be surprisingly effective in combating the wings sharp edges, the fragile silver standing little chance against Mally’s blunt strikes.

Her chairbound friend glances back and watches as the swinging skater fights off the armada of silver wings, noticing one of the wings that she had smacked in half reassemble itself and glide back towards his orange pals backside.

Hank quickly reaches underneath his armrest and presses another button planted along the bottom; one of the spokes from his wheels detaching right off the frame and spinning through the air, the thin piece of metal boomeranging out towards the silver wings that were ready to strike the skater down.

Moments before the pair of sharp wings could impale themselves within Mally’s backside, the spinning spoke flies around just in time and deflects the twin piece of silver before they could even touch her; the orange girl noticing the resulting spark behind her and glances back to witness the wings that nearly had slashed her plummet down into the abyss.

She comes to see the spoke that had save her ass glide right past her side and soon return to the wiz kids wheel frame; the inventor giving the skater a little salute as he looks back to her.

“Thanks for the save, Hank!”

Having successfully overcome the flock of sharp silver wings, all three of them finally come to the very end of the long and grueling chasm; the trio each landing onto the accompanying cliff leading deeper into the rocky caverns.

Right upon the very moment that they all land, the three of them soon hear sharp beeping sounding off from nearby; Hank glancing down to one of the gauges along his armrest and claims that:

“And that’s the last of the rocket fuel.”

“The hell was all that?” Melvin questions.

“My guess is that it was one of the trials set up in these caves. But more importantly...”

After stating this, the young skater turns her attention over to the young man who asked her; finishing her thoughts with:

“The kind of stuff you did back there was just nuts, Melvin. How’d you learn to do all that?”

Hearing his orange haired friend question him with this, Melvin’s mind is left to picture images of tall, snake like young man holding the hand of his once dearly beloved Chloe; the memory alone being enough to lite sparks of fury from deep within.

Almost instantly does he race over to the two with a trembling fist ready to lash out, aiming his furious punch out to the taller young man.

Rather than the strangers face, Melvins fist instead hits what felt to him like a rock solid wall of skin and muscle; gazing to what he had punch to discover it to be the abdomen of a bulking giant.

The site alone is enough to make him reel back, where upon he comes to discover not just one, but three whole familiar figures looking down upon him with their sinister glowing eyes.

Along the sides stood twin giants of red and green; all with a blue young lady hovering between the both of them.

All three of them lunge and envelope the young man; their shadows swiftly retreating to unveil Melvin’s bruised and beaten body lying on the floor; droplets of his blood staining the concrete he lies upon.

Another figure soon overshadow the battered and thrashed young man, Melvin using what strength he had left to muster to find it being an orange haired kid boasting horns on the side of his head; the boy’s shadow taking the form of a great demon that envelopes his body.

Simply picturing all this once more makes the young man’s pitch black hands slightly twitch, Melvin taking a deep breath before turning away and claims that:

“I don’t wanna talk about it. Let’s keep moving.”

“Oh...o-okay.”

Witnessing Melvin continue further down into the darkness of the cavern, Mally leans over to the chairbound wiz kid and whispers to him:

“You think this might have something to do with his big break up with Chloe?”

“Don’t know, all of it did kind happen around the same time. But I can’t be too sure about what happened then.

But maybe we shouldn’t talk about it literally behind his back; the scars are still to fresh to bring all that up now.”

“Ah...Yeah, guess you’re right. Let’s just catch up to him, make sure he doesn’t get lost.”

Deciding this do the two of them take off deeper into the dark tunnels after the young man; the young lass between them requesting their third to:

“Wait up, Mel!”

As the three of them continue further down the stone caverns, the tunnels they traverse begin to thicken with darkess the further all of them descend; Melvin peering through the void while asking his cousin:

“Yo, Hank. You got a light?”

“Uh, flashlight? Eh, there wasn’t really enough room to install one in my chair; got it pretty packed with all kinds of weapons and gadgets as is.”

“Ain’t that great. You tweak yo chair to fit all this shody gizmo’s and gadgets, but you didn’t have enough foresight to tape a flashlight to it. Fuckin incredible.”

“Here, I got one.” Mally then speaks up with as she digs through her backpack, pulling out a flashlight from its depths.

Pressing the button along its neck, a bright light pierces through the pitch black darkness of the rocky tunnel; the young girl aiming the light towards Melvin while requesting that:

“There, perfect. Now you can quit acting so hostile.”

“The hell’s that supposed to mean?” the young man barks back.

“Melvin, listen. I know you’ve went through some pretty rough shit recently, I get that. But that sure as hell doesn’t give you the excuse to act like a dick to us. We’re just trying to help.”

“The hell you to think I should do to blow off all this steam then?” Melvin then furiously exclaims.

“You could just talk to us. You got friends and family, ya know. Gave you time to work through it, but now you’re just taking your anger out on us. It ain’t fair.” the chairbound boy suggests.

“How the hell you two planning on talking all this shit out, huh? Ain’t like either of you had anything like I had with Chloe.”

Upon hearing his cousin bark this at him, Hank begins to withdraw from the young man; the boy left clearly hurt by this rash and striking statement.

But despite the outrage, Mally refuses to yield to her friends rage and states:

“That doesn’t mean we’re not here for you. You’re just mad cause Chloe didn’t feel the same way.”

“Yeah. Pretty sure you know all about that, don’t you?” the young man counters with.

This swift statement catches the orange skater off guard, reeling back while uttering:

“Wha-what do you-”

“Don’t gimme that clueless shit like you don’t know what I’m talking about! The way you looked at her, the way you looked at us together; you wanted her too, didn’t you? Ya felt your heart ripped out just lookin at us!

Keep spouting shit about being my homegirl. Bet you felt pretty fuckin happy hearing that we broke up, didn’t you, ya backstabbing bitch!?”

“Melvin, I didn’t. I don’t feel that way.”

“Fuckin say it then! Say you don’t feel the same way I do when lookin at her!”

This sudden demand leaves the young lady utterly silent before her friends accusations; failing to say even a word to him as he harshly ordered.

Melvin contemptuous glare grows further as he witnesses the girl respond only with drops of tears streaking down through her cheeks; his fists trembling as he turns and darts away deeper into the caverns.

“Melvin!” Hank shouts as he starts to wheel after his retreating cousin.

Before the chair bound wiz kid could race after the young man, he glances back to witness Mally dropping to her knee’s; Hank wheeling himself back to her side as he utters:

“Mally?”

“Dammit...”

“Uh-”

Thrust her fist down upon the earth below, the upset young lass punches the ground hard enough to leave craters on the stone as she curses out:

“God dammit! Why couldn’t I say anything!? I couldn’t even spit out a single lie”

“Mally, is what Hank said true? Did you really want them to break up?”

A resentful sigh escapes her as the orange skater curls up on the floor, responding to her concerned friend with:

“I’m not even sure how to feel about it all anymore. Your cousin’s a good guy, Hank. He didn’t deserve to get hurt the way he did. But every time I looked at both Chloe and him together, a part of myself just felt horrible and guilty inside. I hated it.

And when I heard that they had broken up, I could feel this saddening burden suddenly be lifted deep inside me. And it all came at the expense at one of my own friends. Am I just...Wha-what kind of heartless monster am I?...”

Before the poor girl could drown in her own conflicting turmoil, her wiz kid pal rolls up to her side and reaches his hand out for her; attempting to comfort her with:

“Hey, quit talking like that. You’re not some heartless girl jealous of your friends relationships, your an incredibly caring person that wants the best for everyone around her. Heck, if you weren’t, you wouldn’t be worrying about it all as much as you have been.”

Hearing all this come from the boy urges her to uncurl from the floor and rise back on her knee’s; all while Hank continues on with:

“I might be more of an engineer than a relationships expert, but even I can see how you’re practically tiptoeing through a whole field of land mine; just preying that you don’t trip one and cause the whole acre to explode on you.”

These words cause the orange skater to rise further off her knees and back on to her feet, all the while Hank further claims how:

“I’m sure that you don’t mean any contempt by it; you’re just trying to keep your feelings from hurting the people close to you.

But...you shouldn’t have to strain yourself too hard with all this sort of relationship drama; else your gonna tear yourself apart trying to keep it all together. You know what I’m saying?”

Wiping away the dribbles of snot and tears off her face, Mally turns to her chairbound friend and answers with:

“I think...I-I just don’t know how to get through all this.”

“How bout we start by finding Melvin before he winds up getting himself lost.”

“He he, yeah probably.”

Having been pulled right out from her curling turmoil, Mally sets off with her wiz kid as they both continue through the tunnels that their third had hastily raced down; the orange lass aiming her flashlights glow through the darkness ahead of them.

Left utterly struck by the skaters lack of a response, Melvin darts blindly down the cavern tunnels as far from her as she can; his eyes shut tight as his mind continues to race.

Though he feels the ground he treads upon flatten out, the young man fails to realize himself speeding straight through a much more constructed and ancient hallway; the rocky and jagged walls that made up the caverns now chiseled and smoothed to more stable and solid walls.

Eventually does Melvin start to slow down and open his eyes, his site adjusting to the darkness and discovering himself within a four way intersecting hall; the young man leans against one of the corners to catch his breath.

Resting on the chiseled stone, the shadowy darkness behind begins to take the form of a figure; the shadow approaching the young man as it echoes:

“Your pretty easy to set off, aren’t you? Just one press of the button and you go apeshit.”

This pestering voice reaching his ears, Melvin quickly jumps right off the corner and turns back ready for a fight; his guard waning when finding not a soul waiting at his backside.

“That kind of hotheaded bullshit is the reason that she left you.” he continues to hear.

“Who the hell you think your bitch ass is, thinking you know what shit I’m going through?”

“Who I am is the furthest thing from your mind right, isn’t it. Even I can tell that isn’t what’s going through that head of yours.

Oh no, you’d rather think about how one of your own friends could feel the way she does about your big breakup; and all when hearing that kind of shit so soon too.

It hurts, doesn’t it. The broad fact that you’ve poured your whole body for this person and she just left you on a whim; and to top it all off, your friends wait beside you pretending to care. But on the inside, they’ve been waiting for the two of you to split so she can take her and leave you alone and hollow inside.

It just makes you wanna tear them all apart, doesn’t it?”

“Fucking shut up!” the young man shouts while turning back to the source of the mysterious voice, again failing to find a single sound behind him.

“Like seriously, when has all that blind fury ever done anything but distance yourself from those around you; those that bothered to even care at this point?

How long will you think it’ll take them to finally stop caring and leave you just to die alone?”

“Fuck you!”

Screaming out with maddening rage, Melvin blindly punches the stone wall nearest to him; his pitch black fist striking hard enough to send cracks through out the stone.

After the initial quake settles, a part of the stone underneath his knuckles begins to give way and withdraw into the wall; a much more violent tremor passing through and rocking the entire hallway.

Standing back from the wall he had just struck, Melvin keeps himself steady against the spinning quake; gazing over down one of the hallway to witness part of it turning and shutting into another wall.

“The hell is going on!?”

“The hell is going on!?”

As the young engineer shouts this, he holds onto the wheels of his chair while the smooth hallway that he Mally stand within start to tremble; the orange skater keeping her footing steady as the halls continue to tremble.

Turning back to where both Mally and Hank had came from, the young girl witnesses the way they entered start to close in; the constant quaking proving too strong to let them race back before it closes.

Once their only way out finally shuts, the odd tremors finally cease, letting Mally regain her balance as Hank keeps his chair steady.

“What the heck happened there?” the chair bound boy wonders aloud.

“Might be another one of the trails. Think Melvin might’ve done something to trigger it.”

“If that’s true, then we should find him before it has the chance to throw anything else at us.”

In saying such do the two of them take off deeper through the chiseled stone hallway, their racing footsteps echoing through the tunnels as they proceed forth.

While the duo continue to dart through the underground stone hall, Mally reaches over into her backpack and rummages through its insides and pulls out her signature pink helmet; the young skater stating:

“Glad to be on flat ground again. Now we can get this short really rolling.”

“If we’re kicking this show into fifth gear, then let’s rocket straight through!” Hank proclaims.

“Wait, I thought you said you were out of rocket fuel.” Mally reminds him while pulling out her skate.

“Which is why it always pays to have a back up.”

Stating this does the wiz kid reach underneath one of his armrests to press another button set along the very end; the box between the wheels and the chair flapping open to reveal a set of fire extinguishers, their hoses curving out to the sides of his chair.

As the orange lass finally dons her light blue flame skates, the canisters underneath her friend expels out a white foam with enough force for him to speed off; Hank letting out a gleeful laugh as he rolls on ahead.

“Eat my extinguisher foam, Mal!”

“Oh no you don’t!” the skater denies as she takes off after the young inventor, a big smile cracking between her cheeks as she races after.

The rollerblading girl quickly catches up to her chair bound buddy, both of them peering ahead to discover the halls ahead curling upwards; Mally glance over to Hank and advising him to:

“Keep your momentum up and don’t break.”

“It’s not like I can anyway.”

Once hitting the very start of the rising spiral, the duo keep themselves turning along the inner side of the hall; using the speed they have gathered to ascend up towards the very top.

Once making it to the very top of the swirling spiral, Mally and Hank’s eyes widen as they find themselves beginning to drop down a steep incline; the two continuing to grin as they drop down the descending cylinder tunnel.

Reaching the very bottom of the incline, the wiz kids smile diminishes as he finds a batch of sharp silver spikes lying ahead; Hank turning over to his skating partner and uttering:

“Uh, Mal.”

“Just follow my lead!” she responds with while rolling on ahead.

Approaching the cluster of silver pikes, Mally skates over to the side of the tunnel and starts to roll along the side; Hank doing the same as he keeps up the pace with his rollerblading friend.

Noticing another mess of deadly spikes up ahead, the orange lass finds a narrow passing in between the pair of spike pits and rolls right on through to the other side of the hallway; the wiz kid rolling not far behind as he follows after and rolls along the other side of the tunnel.

After swerving around the pair of spike pits, the rolling duo suddenly climb up a steep rising incline; Hanks fire extinguishers continuing to carry him up while Mally starts gradually loosing speed.

The ramping incline proves to long for the skater to rise up with her momentum alone and begins to fall back towards the bottom of the ramp.

Before she could begin to plummet down, a reaching hand grasps her wrist before she could descend; Hank taking a tight hold of the young lass as he rockets up towards the top of the incline.

“Gotcha!”

“Thanks Hank!”

“Don’t thank me yet!” the wiz kid warns as he gazes up towards the stop.

Glancing up in Hanks direction, the skater discovers the meaning behind his warning and finds the way ahead proving too narrow to simply speed through; threatening to crash straight up into the hard stone roof above.

“I got this one.” the skater declares as the pulls out her new gadget once again.

Mally casts her fresh grapple yo downwards as both of them begin to near the top of the incline; the metal shell of the device sticking along the face that they had just ridden up.

“Brace yourself!” she warns as they start to reach the top.

Once finally coming to the very top of the incline, the grapple yo jerks both of them back before they could crash straight into the roof; the duo instead landing wheels first onto the top edge of the cliff as Mally withdraws her tool back to her hand.

Having made safely to the top of the steep incline, the two of them continue bolting through the rest of the underground labyrinth; the chair bound wiz kid throwing his skating friend right to his side for her to land back on her own two skates.

Racing away from the cliff side that they had climbed, the duo are suddenly alarmed to notice themselves speeding right towards a huge wall of impaling spikes decorated with skeletal remains; Hank warning her that:

“We’re too fast! There’s no way we can stop in time!”

Staring up to the top of the spike wall, Mally finds a hole on the top of the hallway; the ceiling opening seemingly big enough for both of them zip right up through.

“We won’t have to!”

Upon declaring this does the young skater toss her yoyo up to the roof over their heads; the gadget sticking right onto the stone right above them.

While running the string along behind them, Mally clutches one of the handles along the back of his friends chair and warns him to:

“Get ready!”

“Wait, ready for what!?”

Just moments before the two of them crashed straight into the barricade of lethal silver set before them, the wire string that ran behind them suddenly jerks back; Mally taking the moment to leap up towards the hole in the ceiling with Hank in her hand.

The unexpected jerk back causes the two of them to suddenly flip away from the spike trap and towards the hole in the ceiling; the extinguishers attached to the inventor’s chair gliding them both away from the death wall and propelling them right through the hole.

Mally detaches her grapple yo from the tunnel roof and back into her hand as her and Hank continue up through the upside down passage they race into.

Continuing to roll right along the hallway ceiling, both of them gaze up to see a wide pit of silver blades all pointing up towards them from the floor; Mally hanging on to the back of Hank’s chair for dear life as they speed right along the roof overlooking the bloody pit.

“Aaaaaaa-” Hank screams.

“Yeaaaaa-” Mally cheers.

Coming to the very end of the pit of bloody knives, both of them witness the hall narrowing back to the tunnels flat stone bottom; Mally warning the inventor she rides on with:

“Hang on tight!”

Hank holds on to the arm rests of his chair like his orange friend told him to, keeping a tight grip as Mally herself stomps on the ceiling they roll through and kicks them back down towards the floor; twisting herself through the air to tilt her friends wheels back towards the ground.

The two of them land right along the very edge of the silver bladed pit, continuing further through the chiseled stone tunnels on ahead.

“Oh, oh wow. Think that might be the last of it all?” Hank questions to his skating partner as she hops right off the back of her chair.

“I doubt it.” she answers as she rolls along to the wiz kids side.

Up ahead could both of them make out what seemed to be an eight way intersection up ahead; the octagonal hall constantly spinning in place and constantly shifting direction.

“Its all up to the luck of the draw now.”

Left to wander deeper through this interchanging maze of smooth stone, Melvin continues through the encompassing void that plagues the tunnels ahead; his eyes failing to adjust to the ever thickening darkness before him.

An irritated growl escapes from between the young man’s teeth, the familiar voice from before pushing his nerves as it asks:

“So, you regretting ditching those two yet?”

Rather than answering the unknown voice, Melvin simply continues through the darkness, flat out refusing to give any sort of answers.

“Yeah, probably ain’t much of a stretch to think that they made it out of this hole by now, all while leaving you to wander forever in the abyss.”

Continuing to ignore the pestering voice, he hears it continue to pry at him with:

“Just face it. You’re borderline lost without other people with you. Its why you grew attached to Chloe, ain’t it; she actually gave you a couple of direction in life.

Without anybody around, all that’s life for you know is just piss in the wind; left to flail through the void of life like an angry kid throwing a bitch fit. And all because you too afraid to face the pain those broken bonds had left.”

Finally does Melvin stop dead in his tracks, turning back to face the figure drenched in shadows that stands before him; responding to its jeering with:

“Your bitch ass said yourself that Mally left some pretty bad marks.”

Staring to the figure in question, the shadow starts to gain some semblance of shape; some of them being rather familiar to the young man.

“True, but your hands are obviously far from stainless in that whole shitshow. You just couldn’t help but let your fury boil over and scald those who just wanted to help, could you?

Like a geyser constantly spewing the worst kind of bile, nobody wants to stay around you for very long. It’s just pathetic, really?”

Hearing all this causes the young man’s fists to tremble with anger, roaring back to the figure:

“Yeah, who the fuck you think your sorry ass is say this shit to me, like you got a hell of a clue that I’m like!?”

From this outcry, all that Melvin could draw out from the shadow was nothing but a contentious laugh; the figure gaining more of a familiar shape as it jeers with:

“Your bitch ass can’t be this fuckin brain dead, can it? Thought that shit would’ve been obvious by now.

Really, how would I know all this stuff about you; how I know that you bitched at your friends and fucked off with a sour taste in your mouth?”

Pondering on what all this odd figure of darkness pesters him with, Melvin’s pupils shrink as it finally dawns on him what this mysterious being is; the figure staring to show some features as it announces:

“Ding ding! Looks like our boy here finally figured out what sort of overused cliché shit he’s dealin with here.”

Standing before the young man, the figure that surrounds the darkness start to take the form of several of Melvin’s own features; his eyes shaking as he stares right at his own sinister gleeful smile.

Those very same mirroring features suddenly disperse from a shinning light, the figure fully disappearing as the glow rapidly draws near; the light approaching too fast for Melvin to dodge out of the way of in time.

Whatever shines this bright light suddenly runs right through him and knocks the young man right up in the air; left to carelessly careen through the dimly lit air, where he then feels something wrap around his leg.

Before he could even land back on the solid stone, whatever has enveloped his leg suddenly jerks him in the same direction the light races; feeling the back of his jumpsuit scrap against the floor as he’s quite literally dragged through the hallway.

“Got em!” he hears a familiar voice shout.

“Fuckin- Mally!? Hank!?” the young man shouts out.

“Hey Melvin, glad to have ya back on the team!” the wiz kid responds with.

“The hell you two doin!?”

“We up and figured to take a more rapid approach through this trail and race through it like a half and hour...what did Micah call it, a speedrun?”

“Stop this god damn freight ride fuckin now before I get over there and whoop yo ass’s!” Melvin demands out of them.

“Can’t, haven’t installed strong enough breaks yet.” Hank points out.

Aiming her site out to what lies ahead of them, Mally’s smile suddenly shatters when discovering the sort of deathtrap that awaits; the lass claiming that:

“Then we might have’ta make our own set of breaks soon.”

“What does that mea- Oh god!” the inventor questions as he turns back forward and finds what’s ahead.

Their eyes gaze further down the hall they speed down through to discover themselves head straight for a set of chomping silver teeth; each hard bite it makes loudly echoing through the hallway.

“Guess we might’ve biten off more than he can chew here, did we?” Hank remarks.

The orange skater leaps right over the chair bound inventor and lands right in front of him, breaking with her blades and pushing against the fire extinguisher propelling his wheelchair forth: screaming out in her struggle on how:

“We need to break harder!”

Her outcry reaches the young man being dragged along in the back, this being his queue to thrust the sharp ends of his pitch black fingers straight into the ancient stone floor beneath him; chunks of smooth rock scattering all over the place as he keeps his hands shoved into the earth.

Despite both of their struggling efforts, neither of them proves strong enough to stop the wheelchair completely; still set on a crash course towards the silver pair of chompers.

Seeing their efforts only buying them time, Hank decides to use that time by climbing over to the back of his chair and reaching to the valve of one of the fire extinguishers; his seat belt straining his stomach as he stretches further out.

Yet despite reaching out as far as he could, his arms seems just a tad short to reach the canisters valve; his fingers just an inch from its steel.

Desperate to stop himself before he and his friend race to their utter demise, Hank swipes his bright red cap right off his head and uses the strap to snag the valve; pulling on the fire extinguisher as hard as he can.

When just only several feet of the set of silver biters, Hank successfully uproots one of the canisters from the bottom of his seat; his gleeful smile swiftly disappearing as the foam from the extinguisher launches him away from the silver teeth and sent careening through the air.

As the wiz kid sends himself flying through the hallway air, Mally is left to flop down the stone ramp towards the deadly chomping teeth; finally stopping with her head mere inches away from the silver guillotine.

Moving herself away from the pair of biting chompers, both her and Melvin’s eyes remain glued to the chair bound inventor as he uncontrollably tumble through the air in a mess of extinguisher foam; watching as he crashes upon the hard chiseled stone floor.

“Hank!” Melvin exclaims, uprooting his fingers from the stone and racing over to where his cousin had crashed.

After climbing out from the downward ramp with her grapple yo’s string, the orange skater swiftly rolls over to the crash site as the young man lifts the inventor back on his wheels.

“You okay there, Hank? That was one hell of a spill.” she asks.

“Eh, ain’t the worst crash I’ve ever been in. Just only got myself a couple of scrapes and bruises.”

His cousin having confirmed himself to be alright, his worrying expression drains away as he stands back on his own two feet; the young man beginning to walk away without so much as a word.

“Melvin, wait!” the skater calls out.

Stopping right in his tracks, Melvin takes the moment to amuse her request and only listens as she claims that:

“I didn’t mean to hurt you back there. I never wanted to.

It’s just...You know the mysterious ways love works, right? It just blossoms suddenly whenever it wants to without so much as a care in the world. I so desperately wanted not to feel the way I felt about Chloe when she was with you, but it just wouldn’t go away. And I hated the way that it all made me feel.

I hated the fact that one of my own friends was dating the girl I had eyes on made me feel so painful, sad, and angry. The way that I felt about it made me disgusted with myself.

I didn’t want to hurt you or Chloe with all that I’ve felt. That’s why I just stood back and bared it all for so long. I should’ve known that you would’ve figured out sooner or later.

But no matter how I feel or what happens between the two of us. I’m hoping that all this grief won’t strain what we got set up here.”

From this open moment of regret that a brief moment of silence passes between the three of them; Melvin glancing back to break the silence with:

“You still feel that way about Chloe?”

Simply hearing the young man ask her this leaves the skater disappointed with herself, unable to lie to him as she simply answers with:

“Yeah, I do. I can’t blame you if you hate me cause of it.”

Listening to the young lady admit this, Melvin simply turns back and continues to walk down the dark tunnels; seeing his back turned leaving Mally utterly saddened until she hears him ask in turn:

“You still wanting to figure out where your bro went, right?”

Hearing Melvin ask this almost instantly perks the young skater right up both her and Hank following the young man deeper into the tunneling labyrinth.

The three of them together once more, the trio continue through the winding maze of smooth chiseled stone, the orange girl shinning her flashlight down the path that lies before them.

Suddenly out of the blue do all three of them feel the hall they stand in fiercely tremble all around them, the unexpected quake causing Mally to slip on her skates and fall face first onto the hard stone floor.

Before she could start to stand back up, the walls between her start to close in; that section of the hallway slowly spinning and threatening to pinch the lass between the stone walls.

“Mally!” Hank calls out, wheeling out to her.

Before the pair of walls could clamp down upon the lying young girl, a pair of pitch black hands suddenly force the spinning hall to stop right in its tracks; Mally herself gazing up to discover Melvin keeping them from pinching her whole body.

“Hurry and get up!” the young man demands while struggling to keep the walls at bay.

While arising off the hard stone floor, Mally tosses her new gadgets out towards the inventor and wraps its wire string around his wheelchair; pulling back to jerk the young boy in both her and his cousins direction.

“Wait, the hell are you doing!?” the young man exclaims.

The young lady tugs the wiz kids chair hard enough to send him rolling right through both her and Melvin; all three of them tumbling through the hall far enough for them to be spared from being caught among the closing hallways.

Once all three of them stop tumbling through the tunnel, Mally helps Hank off the floor as she apologizes with:

“Sorry about that Hank. Kind of a quick second decision there.”

“Nah, I get it. Pulled a couple of those in the past too.”

“But really, I got you to thank Mel for holding the-”

Glancing over to the young man who had saved her skin, the skaters thankful smile deflates when witnessing the young man simply walking through the hall and telling them to:

“Come on. The end can’t be too far.”

“Oh...right.”

Geez, he’s uh…he’s still acting pretty cold. Guess he isn’t as forgiving as first impressions might’ve gave. Still, at least he’s actually talking to us. Would’ve thought it take at least a week before any of us could get a word through to him.

Let’s hope he feels like staying like that.

Heading deeper down through the chiseled stone labyrinth, all three of them eventually come to the very end of the hall; a stretching round chamber decorated with numerous carvings all along the wall. Right in the very middle of this chamber be a large stone button surrounded by carvings of what look to be disembodied angel wings.

“Ain’t seeing any way through here. Guess we should go backtrack.” Melvin concludes as he turns back towards the way they came.

Before he could get really far, he stops right before the corridor when hearing his cousin say:

“Hey, look at all this.”

Turning back towards the wiz kid, the young man sees both him and Mally staring at some of the engravings along the wall; Melvin waltzing over to their side and taking in the etched markings.

Along the very bottom of the wall stood what seemed to be humanoid figures gathering by the masses, some of them fluttering with angel wings and rising from the crowd. High above all of them however are what seemed to be numerous evangelical creatures that all sport different and numerous forms.

“So, what you think this all might be about.” Hank questions them both.

“The hell makes you think either of us knows?” his cousin responds with.

Closely staring to the dozens of almost eldritch beings that hang above the crowds, Mally takes note of how each and every one of them possess angelic wings in some form or another; no matter what sort of inhuman twisted or otherworldly form they may take.

“The better question is what all of them might be.” she adds.

Its in scanning through these numerous angelic beings that her eyes stop upon a particular one of these etchings; the young girls pupils shrinking upon glaring at the image of a neigh beastly severed head with dozens of angelic wings piercing right out from the base of the neck, all with its gaping maw holding the top half of a human on the tip of its tongue.

The very site of the image is enough to frighten the young girl to the very core of her soul, her body refusing to cease trembling as horrible memories that she had buried start to pierce through the surface.

No...No...This-this can’t really be-

“Hey Mal, over here.” she hears Hank state.

The calling voice of her wiz kid friend is all it takes to break the girl out from her fearing paralysis; Mally rapidly shaking her head about and glancing over to where the chair bound inventor had called.

“Found something over here.”

As both Melvin and her wander over to Hanks side, Mally asks the big inventor:

“Watcha find?”

Gazing in the same direction that the wiz kid does, the two direct their attention over to a particular piece that depicts another human figure with larger wings standing atop a tall jagged stone; the lines emanating from the rock suggest it glowing a bright light.

“So, what you think it means?” Melvin sarcastically asks.

“If I were a betting boy, I’d say that this is how the kids that were sent down here might have “ascended”

and became angels.”

“All cause of some glowing rock? The fuck kind of mineral did they pull out from the ass crack of the cosmo’s that let them do that?”

“Whelp, only one way to find out.” Mally states as she causally waltz’s over towards the button on the end of the chamber wall.

Moments before the skater girl could lay a single finger on the stone plate, Melvin grabs hold of her shoulder and stops her just in time to go:

“Whoa, whoa, whoa! The fuck you think you’re doing?”

“Uh, pressing this plate here? Not really much else we can do in here.”

“You sure as hell thinkin that punchin some strange button in the middle of a death maze is the smartest idea?”

“Well what else you think were supposed to do?”

“Yeah, Mel. Not to mention that this is the only part of the maze with these kind of carvings all over the wall, maybe pressing it is the only way we can move on.” Hank then adds.

“Neither of you seriously think that this just another trap set up to fuck us all over, or did the fucked up number of skeletons not give ya a big enough hint?”

“Melvin, we haven’t seen a single bone on the way through this part of maze. Don’t you think it might be cause it’s the way forward?” the skater counters with.

“Bullshit. Your just guessin now!”

“Well so are you!”

Rolling right in the middle of the two, Hank cleanly divides both his friends up and answers their quarrels with:

“Guys, guys, relax. This don’t have to turn ugly again. Why don’t we just do a coin flip to pick.”

“Fine.” Mally gives.

“Sound good to me.”

From just his pants pocket, the lovable wiz kid pulls out a shiny silver quarter with an eagle etched in the back with Washington facing the front; soon snapping the 25 cent’s right in the air as he tells both his friends to:

“Call it.”

“Heads!” Mally chooses.

“Tails.” Melvin picks.

Catching the coin right in the middle of the air, Hank slaps the quarter right into the back of his hand; slowly uncovering the piece as his friends closely watch.

The result of the flip revealing to be tails, the young man cheers his win with:

“Hell yeah.”

All while Mally viciously stamps the ground while cursing out:

“God dammit!...Fine, just lead the way Mel.”

As the two of them start to head back towards the corridor they came in from, Hank starts hearing a soft hiss constantly leak out from behind; taking a little glance underneath his wheelchair to the remaining fire extinguisher still attached to find the valve askew.

“Oh boy, better fix that before it winds up screwing us.”

Unbuckling himself from his chair, the inventor stretches himself over to the very back and reaches over to the loose valve; grasping the base with both hands attempting to tighten the lid back on.

Unfortunately, he miscalculates how much extra room unbuckling himself actually gave him and accidentally falls right out of his own chair; accidentally uprooting the canister and slamming it right on the floor, the valve unintentionally pulled right off the lid.

Melvin and Mally swiftly turns back to their paralyzed pal to witness Hank taking cover as his own extinguisher as it sporadically flails all over the dead end; constantly spewing extinguisher foam as flies.

When witnessing the hard iron canister aiming out towards the wiz kid, Melvin dashes out towards his cousin and scoops him away before the extinguisher could hammer down upon him.

The two cousins tumbling over to the very edge of the chamber as the extinguisher continues to sputter about, Hank watching as the canister starts rocketing towards his orange haired friends head.

“Mally, hit the deck!”

Like her partially paralyzed pal urges, the young skater drops down to the stone floor just before the steel canister could fly straight into her head; the lass looking over to the two boys and shouting:

“How do we stop this damn can!?”

“We don’t have to! It should run out of foam at any moment now!”

Just as the wiz kid predicted, thinner strands of extinguisher foam start to expel out from the open lid; the iron can gradually slowing down as it bounces off the carved stone walls.

Right before the canister could fully empty itself of leftover foam, the bottom of the extinguisher punches itself straight against the stone plate placed right in the middle of the chamber wall; the button withdrawing into the wall with an audible click.

Witnessing the only exit out from the small chamber suddenly close off to the three, Melvin can’t help but let loose an irritated sigh; cursing their luck with:

“Of fucking cours-”

All three of them then suddenly begin to feel the entire chamber start to quake beneath their crouching bodies; the room soon spinning in place with such an incredible force, one strong enough to fling the trio straight out to the etched walls behind them.

Try as all of them might to fight against the overwhelming centrifugal force, the trio remained forcefully glued to the etched chamber walls.

Turning his head over to the side, Melvin finds himself barely able to even lift a single finger as the room remains rapidly revolving; the young man screaming out to his friends how:

“This shit shows gotta stop before we turn into blood red pancakes!”

“Something in my chair might help. But I can barely move a muscle to reach for it!” Hank screams.

“I can...I can fix that!” Mally then claims, crawling her hand over to her overall’s pocket.

Reaching into the depths of her denim overall’s, the orange skater pulls out for her new metal yoyo and starts to raise the gadget up, straining every muscle in her arm fighting against the insane gravitational pull.

“Just a little more...”

When finally heaving the metal gadget as high as she could, Mally tosses the yoyo out towards the downed inventor over on the other side of the chamber; the gizmo flung just hard enough to reach the center of the chamber and go careening down right next to Hank.

When seeing his freshly gifted gadget crash right onto the part of the wall before him, Hank then hears the girl he gave the grapple yo to advise that he:

“Climb the string!”

Tracing the string left behind by the tossed gizmo, the wiz kid finds the metal wire overlapping his own wheelchair left stuck along the wall; Hank grasping the reinforced string and start slowly dragging himself across the wall.

“Right!”

Despite feeling the ridged and carved engravings that decorate the wall scrape against his skin, Hank nonetheless fights through the constant pain as he climbs up the wire and inches closer and closer back to his wondrous wheelchair.

Soon enough however does the partially paralyzed wiz kid finally crawl back to his knocked down chair; using what strength he has left to spare to inch his arms out towards one of the chairs armrest.

The inventor’s hand agonizingly inches along the layer of buttons set along the bottom of the plastic armrest, feeling the centrifugal force strain his arm as he inches the tip of his finger reaches out for the button he intends to press.

Against all odds does Hank finally press the button along the close end of the armrest, a plastic flap opening up at the very end of the handles at the back of the chair; a single tiny missile of wood and tin firing straight out from the hole and through the fiercely twirling chamber.

The overwhelming outward force causes the rocket to curve from its straight trajectory and redirected right into the pressed in stone plate, the missile exploding in a mess of rocky fragments upon impact.

As the smoke from the erupting boom start to dissolve, the room at last gradually loses speed and begins coming to a relieving crawl; the three kids and the wheelchair that remained pinned to the wall finally falling to the floor.

“Ah...Fuckin shit man. Thought it’d never end.” Melvin groans out.

“I could feel my intestines ready to spew out.” Mally moan.

While the two lift themselves off the smooth stone floor, their eyes drift over to notice the inventor left motionless on the floor; the scrunched remains of his wheelchair left lying on top of him.

“Hank!” both of them cry out, racing over to their paralyzed pals side.

While Mally takes the chair right off his body, Melvin flips his cousin right on his back and finds light bloody scrapes all over his skin; the young man attempts to shake him awake as he exclaims:

“Hank! Come on, cuz, wake up! Please be alright!”

His incessant rattling swiftly brings his cousin’s consciousness back to the forefront, Hank cracking his eyes open with a weak smile as he hears the boy claim that:

“Hey. Guess we made it, didn’t we?”

An insanely relieved breath escapes from Melvin’s mouth, answering him with:

“Yep, we passed this bitch.”

“Not sure if the same thing can be said about your chair though.” both of them hear their skating companion insist; looking over to see Mally holding what remains of the kid’s wheelchair; the metal left bent and scrunched inward.

“Shit. The hell happened to it?” Melvin questions.

“My guess is all the centrifugal force we endure was too much for the poor thing to take. All the pressure bent and scrunched the frame to the brink of collapse.” Hank implores.

“Think you can still use it.” the skater asks.

“I doubt any of the gadgets installed in it survived the trip, the inner mechanism looks too far gone. Ah, just got finished decking it out too.”

“What about as just a wheelchair?”

“Huh…not to sure. Can’t hurt to try though.”

“Don’t think so. You should just let me carry you.” Melvin then suggests.

“What, no way in hell, cuz.” he harshly denies.

“But-”

“Mel- Let’s be real here. You know I’ve bounced back from way worse.”

“...Fine, whatev.”

Complying with his paralyzed cousins request, Melvin stands up holding Hank on his shoulders; the young inventor legs dragging across the smooth stone as his cousin walks him over towards the wreck that was his supped up chair.

As soon as Melvin gently sits Hank onto the cushion of the nearly broken chair, its entire frame starts to tremble and quake beneath the boy; seemingly on the verge of collapsing at any moment.

With both of his hands, the boy takes a tight grip to the pair of rims attached to the sides, making the chair instantly cease shaking altogether.

A soft chuckle escapes from the young wiz kid’s teeth as his chair proves stable; Mally letting go of the handles along the back and stating out:

“Wow, holding itself together better than I thought.”

“Yep, that’s what custom made junkyard steel is for ya.”

Its in this brief moment of calm that they all feel the room begin to quake once again; all of them frantically gazing around the room and preparing themselves for what else it may decide to throw at them.

Their eyes are directed over to the other end of the chamber as they see the once shut exit open up once more; revealing a corridor different to the one that they had came in from.

“Hey, that might be the way ahead. Come on!” the chair bound boy eagerly suggests as he wheels himself over to the exit, keeping his tattering chair steady as he rolls forth.

While Hank merely rolls along out from the chamber, both of his friends waltz casually behind him; the two hanging back as the skater between them mentions how:

“Ya know. Your really luckier than you think having a cousin like him. Always willing to pull himself back up whenever life pushes him down.”

“Ya think I can’t get up from that shit?” Melvin questions.

“Oh believe me, you don’t stay down for long either, but I doubt you do it with a smile like his. That kind of friendly and helpful drive is gonna take that kid places someday. Places that we can only imagine.

Plus, it sure as hell explains how he can put up with you as a cousin.” Mally remarks with a jesting grin.

“Th-the hell does that mean!?”

His overblown reaction is enough to draw out a little laugh from the young girl as she skips ahead to her other friends side, Melvin’s anger broken instantly with a soft, small grin as he shakes his head as he himself catches up as well.

Coming to the very end of the corridor side by side, all three of them behold the site of what lies at the other end; a small golden hall lined with what looked to be several sculptures of twisted shapes and symbols hovering alongside strange wooden vines baring bizarre fruit.

The golden walls depicted more of these angelical creatures and beings sharing next to no apropos of any comprehensive reference, with nothing but angel wings shared among them.

Left to stand within the very middle of this chamber of art pieces and twisted trees be a golden pillar that towers them all, its glimmering surface depicting winged figures standing atop a glowing rock.

“Whoa...To think something like this was hidden with these caves all along. H-how did no one else find this place, especially in our modern age?” Hank babbles.

“Probably died tryin to find a way out.” his cousin remarks.

Rolling closer to the cylinder resting in the middle, the wheels of his chair suddenly lean into something beneath him, gazing down to find himself getting caught in a strangely shaped hole.

“Huh?”

Backing himself up, the inventor returns his gaze down once more and grabs his friends attention with:

“Hey guys, think I found something here.”

Waltzing over to their paralyzed pal’s side, the other two share in the boy’s site to gaze down to a pair of pressure plates sculpted in the shape of human feet; Melvin wondering aloud:

“The hell’s so important about this?”

“I think it might be what uncovers what’s inside that big pillar there. One of us has to step up.” Mally answers.

“How bout I give it a go?” both of them hear Hank suggest.

The two give the gleefully smiling lad a pair of strange glares, Hank failing to keep himself from busting out laughing, giggling out:

“Gotcha!”

“See what this shit does?” Melvin questions as she steps his two feet between the golden plates; both his friend and cousin stepping aside as the twin buttons sink down.

As the pair of plates continue to sink down through the floor, a brilliant light starts to leak out from between the cracks; the glow swiftly covering the surface of the twin panels.

When the light reaches underneath the young man’s feet, he starts to feel a searing pain sizzle his very souls’; the burning sensation urging him to jump right off and away from the pair of feet plates, watching as they rise back up and the glow withdraw back underneath.

“Fuckin bitch!”

“What happened?” Hank questions.

“Damn plate burnt right through my shoes.” he answers as he lifts his feet up, strangely finding next to no burn marks on the bottom of his kicks.

“They don’t look burnt through. Wonder what happened?”

“Swear man. Burnt like hell.”

Left curious of what she had just witness, Mally decides to step up and stand upon the twin plates; Melvin and Hank glaring cautiously as the light that emerged from underneath the plates return.

“I ain’t feeling any burning...Kinda tingles actually.”

In claiming this does the light glowing from underneath the plates start to crawl up from beneath the girls feet and up through her legs; Mally’s entire body is soon enveloped with in this thin layer of bright luminescence.

As the light remains over the young skater, its bright surface starts to take on a thick shade of blood red; the scarlet glow suddenly leaping right off the lass’s skin and out to the golden cylinder standing before her.

All of them stand and watch as the blood red light seeps its way through the engravings along the pillars glistening surface; soon growing out from the carvings to the rest of the surface until fully consuming the cylinder in red.

Once fully cloaked in the scarlet light, the entire pillar starts to dissolve before their eyes; the last of the glow vanishing to reveal what waits within it.

Above the trio does a hole in the ceiling open up all the way up to the outside, letting the twilight glow sun down and beat down upon their flabbergasted gaze.

“What-”

“The-”

“Fuck?”

All three of are left utterly shocked when left to simply stare at a whole lot of nothing presented to them beneath the pillar; with nothing but some pebbles scatter atop a sizable stand.

“The hell was that shit about? All that build up just to uncover fuck all.” Melvin exclaims.

“I-I don’t-I-I don’t understand. Why would anybody go through the trouble of setting up all these trails and mazes, send literal children down this death pit just for nothing to wait for them in the end?” Hank frantically ponders.

Approaching the stand that hid within the golden pillar, Mally picks up the bits of rock that remain upon it; taking a closer look and concluding that:

“Something definitely was waiting down here. But whoever found it last didn’t want anyone else having it.”

“Either way, we wasted our time for nothing.”

Feeling her frustration coming to a boil, Mally tosses away the pebble in a spout of fury; turning back to the two boys and disappointingly suggesting that:

“Lets just go home...”

Standing right above the hole, Mally takes her grapple yo out and readies to toss it up towards the sunlight; moments away from flinging it up before she hears Hank claim that:

“Maybe it wasn’t after all.”

Lowering her gadget, the skater glances over to her chair bound friend and utters:

“Huh.”

“Look.” he tell her, pointing out over to the far end of the chamber.

Turning over in that very direction, the orange girl withdraws from the light of the sun and starts walking away to the other end of the room.

All three of them approach the wall, their jaws left agap when watching the same blood red glow from before trail itself throughout the engravings; the scarlet light drawing out letter that soon form into complete sentence.

Mally reads the glowing script aloud:

“With your ascension now complete, take to the skies and soar to the highest peak.

Grant those who attempt to stop you a swift fin, for at the top, you shall rise to the side of your fellow kin.”

“Soar to the highest peak? Like a mountain top?” Hank ponders.

“Fellow kin? The hell does it mean by that?” Melvin wonders.

“I don’t know. But whatever all this says, it means one thing. My search for my brother is far from over.”

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

The very first step of Mally's journey to find where her brother is. It seems that this little venture will not only test her body and skill; but her relationships to the people around her as well.

[rayadraws]

The importance of positive reinforcement

This is a little “joint project” between me, @jenny-opm, @dechanique and also @bloodsbane!

This all started with me posting the following prompt at the OPM Discord server:

Concept: King obviously has a large collection of anime figurines and stuff we do not even need to discuss this. And let’s say there’s an equivalent of Nendoroids/Good Smile Company in the OPM universe who produces merch for different categories, so that probably includes heroes, too.

Genos hears about a new Caped Baldy figurine and starts looking around for it, maybe joining a forum to ask/find more info. There is an user in the forum who knows EVERYTHING about these figurines and offers all sorts of insight etc. And then after like, quite a bit of discussing things back and forth both of them go like

“Wait… Genos?”

”King? Is that you?“

…at least they’ll have something to talk about next time King comes over now.

We started brainstorming about this scenario and it uh, grew. Below is a near 2k “summation” of everything we came up with, kind of like a synopsis if you will? (If anyone wants to borrow this concept and turn it into something bigger/a proper fic or watever by all means do, just make sure to give credit where due - and give us links to the results, I’m sure everyone involved would love to see!)

Moral of the story, as summed up by Dech: Genos is the real winner and learned nothing.

King is definitely a moderator in said forum. If Genos ever misbehaves on there king probably gives Saitama a call like;

"Yo your roommate is trying to start an internet fight, get him to stop for me.”

Saitama tells Genos that ”King told me to tell you that if you don’t stop engaging with the trolls you’ll have your star point rewards taken away, whatever that means.”

Genos is visibly upset at this. He counters that King should come talk directly to him (knowing he’s intimidated by him) but the threat backfires when Saitama responds with ”’Kay, I’m telling him you don’t want your points or whatever" and there goes that.

“N-no, Sensei, no! Just… it’s just….”

“What?”

“They said mean things about you and how hard it is to get you to remain on your stand….”

“Is this all about that weird plastic action toy again?!”

It turns out Saitama is a bit weirded out by the idea of an collector’s figure of himself, maybe even by figures of real people in general.

This becomes even more evident when they’re walking past a display in a store one day (including at least three different designs of Demon Cyborg) and Sai just… gives them a Look

“Why are there three versions of you, though” Saitama asks.

“Well, I believe Amai Mask has at least 7 variants, Sensei, since he has been a hero for much longer than us…

”…Why would anyone need 7 of him?“

(the answer is that they make a new figure every time he gets a new haircut)

The fortunate side effect of Genos being away and busy explaining action figures to Saitama is that it gives King the opportunity to get the forum situation back under control - it’s a lot easier now that a main participant is away from the screen.

On top of that, to Genos’ dismay, by the time they return home, the forum thread has been locked. However, he has an idea and whips out his phone, texting King with simply “Why did you do that?”. When he receives the message, poor King just about throws his phone across the room.

Later, it is Saitama’s turn to receive a text message.

"Saitama, dude, you gotta stop him or we’ll have to ban him and I’m terrified of what he’ll do to me, he knows where I live!”

Poor King - all he wants is to keep the forum a safe and healthy environment for everyone….

—

One day King comes over to play video games with Saitama and at one point King’s phone beeps. He notices that there is a situation and thinks to himself that this has to be straightened out, a mod is needed here….

Of course, Genos remembers when King cheated him out of a glorious internet discussion victory and just starts staring at King, eyes narrowed, not even blinking.

Poor King doesn’t deserve this, all he wanted to do in his beloved forum was talk about anime waifus with his fellow otakus… It’s like a battle between Genos’ whirring core and the King engine thundering in the small apartment.

Saitama notices that something is up and tries to diffuse the situation, asking if Genos can go get the chips. Predictably, Genos does an immediate 180 and brightly asks whether Sensei wanted this one or this one..? He gets the bag of chips…

…And then goes RIGHT back to glaring at King. The relief was only temporary…

King desperately tries to come up with a solution to all of this. Maybe he can give Genos star points for every day he stays out of trouble..? But that’s not fair to other users… But this is a life or death situation, he needs to come up with SOMETHING..

Desperately, he begs Saitama to give Genos a good behaviour sticker book.

Saitama is uncertain.

“I dunno man…”

“Listen! I’ll buy you a book and deliver it here! Just… please… for me?!” King puts on his best puppy eyes.

“He listens to you!”

“I’ll subscribe to a monthly sticker service and send them all to you!”

King is desperate - but then again, he’s pretty sure it’s his life on the line.

—

A month later:

"Hey Genos! Look, this month’s theme is Gudetama!”

“!!!”

To King’s relief, the new system works and Saitama realizes he can also use the stickers for other situations… like not threatening strangers on the street or not losing parts during fights.

“You came back in one piece! Wow, awesome, here’s a sticker!”

A little positive reinforcement goes a long way!    

Other uses includes finding the BEST sale - Genos is so proud of that one that his sticker album just happens to lay open on the table when Mumen comes over for a visit one day.   

Mumen notices, of course.

“Oh, these are very nice! Are they a project for the neighbourhood children?”

“They’re… a project for one local kid…”

“All these stickers for one kid! This kid must be very good”

Genos looks so proud.

Saitama wants to say “he needs a lot of reinforcements” but he catches the look on Genos’ face and just can’t say it. Instead, all he says is “yeah” and Genos is so happy for the confirmation - and is on his best behaviour all day, bringing Mumen tea and crackers with a happy little smile - as well as going rather overboard.

“What temperature do you prefer your tea at, Mumen-san?”

Mumen is rather confused…

It turns out Happy Genos is almost as overbearing as Pissy Genos - just in a different way.

Thanks to being so good while Mumen visits, Genos earns himself two new stickers.

(This is all very unfair - King introduces the stickers yet it’s Mumen Genos is grateful towards. Well, life isn’t fair, King knows this. But it still hurts…)

—

On days when Genos is especially good he can pick which stickers he wants. He always picks the yellow ones.

When he fills a page in his book he can have a small reward. When he fills a whole book he can have a big reward!

It’s hard to think of good rewards, though.

”I dunno what to even suggest as a reward, d’ya have any ideas, Genos?”

”YES.”

Genos reaches into his pocket, puts on lip balm and closes his eyes, making the perfect kissy face.   

”What, a new chapstick?”

—

One day, Saitama unexpectedly runs out of stickers. Genos looks so sad about it that Saitama panics and instead gave his reward in the form of a really quick kiss on the cheek.   

And that’s the start of it - stickers will never be enough now.

Saitama tries to reason with himself - it IS cheaper than buying new stickers all the time, it’ll save money… right?   

A call to King.

“Yeah, you don’t need to send me any more stickers.”

From here on, all they need to do is draw hearts in the book to keep track.

—

King can’t believe how well behaved Genos is next time they meet.

When he finally comes over he finally realizes why he didn’t need to send any more stickers.

“Well… I guess… that works…” he mutters as he continues kicking Saitama’s ass at Street Fighter - not hearing a disgruntled “hmph” in the background every time he wins a match is a welcome change.

“More tea, King-san?”

Before he has even closed the door behind him as he leaves the apartment, he hears Genos calling to Saitama in the other room.

“I want to cash in my reward now!”

—

Give a mouse a cookie…

Over time, Genos becomes more and more insistent about his rewards.

“Sensei, there was variations among the stickers. It is only fair to also have variations among the kisses.”

He’s steaming out of his shoulders as he advances on Saitama and Saitama knows immediately that the end of his supposed heterosexuality is impending.

To his surprise, he is saved(?) by none other than Speed of Sound Sonic.

To Genos’ credit, he tries to stay calm around Panic (”Oy, worthless, poorly named sorry excuse for a ninja… do you want tea?” “What?!”). But unfortunately the sticker street is one-way - Sonic has no incentive to be nice.

The fight is inevitable.

”You cost me a kiss!”

”For fecks sake what’s wrong with you today tin can?!”

Afterwards, Saitama can tell that Genos is upset so he strikes a deal. He won’t lose any of his points, but he won’t gain any new ones either.

”You didn’t immediately attack him but you did call him a shitty excuse for a shitty shithead… so let’s call it even…”

—

”Hey Genos! If you get every sale item on this list you’ll have your choice of a smooch or two stickers!”

“!!!”

We know what he will choose. Having said that, he might try to barter - ”Maybe a quick smooch and one sticker?” - because stickers can be traded in for longer kisses later.

Getting more and more courageous, Genos starts demanding his rewards in public too. He has never been so excited to tag along to thrift stores to find “new” clothes before.

“Wow, what an awesome deal! You did so good Genos. This is definitely worth a big reward.” Genos moves closer, crowding Saitama, face dark and shoulders steaming.

“I would like that reward now, Sensei.”

Saitama sweats, takes a half step back. "R-right now??”

He steps closer, “Yes.I found Sensei the - shudders slightly - cheap used crocs, it is only fair.”

The first time Genos gets a public reward happens when they accidentally forgot the sticker book at home - after that, Genos “forgetting” them at home becomes a very common occurrence.

King has no idea what he has started. The day media explodes with the picture of Demon Cyborg and Caped Baldy kissing in public - Saitama texts King saying “I blame you” and King is so confused - but at least Genos is too busy to bother him or anyone else in the forum any more.

All in all, a happy ending for everyone.

[jolienjoyswriting]

Bloody Knuckles, Ch. II

Chapter II of "Bloody Knuckles", another Essence of Ragnarok story.

Because, I like Jessie. More than you will ever know.

Word count: 6,995 – Character count: 39,846 Originally written: February 20th, 2017 Revised on: September 6th, 2017

After an intense training session, Jessica meets with Joseph for an experience he never expected.

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    “C’mon!  I know yer agile but’cha need’a start swingin’!”

    It was the last session of Joseph’s boxing lessons.  Though it had been a long and grueling path, Jessica’s teachings really seemed to be paying off!  The fox felt faster-than-ever and even a bit stronger, too!  On top of that, his breathing had improved and he even lost a few pounds from his midsection… only to have them reappear as muscle, elsewhere.  Despite all of that, however, it still seemed like he was no match for the bat with the red gloves.

    “It’s like I’ve been saying– whoa!”  Joseph dodged out of the way of a controlled, quick swing aimed at his head.  “You’re a lot faster than you look…”     “I ain’t that fast!” she laughed as she danced her way toward him.  “S’like that one puzzle game, kiddo!  Gotta wait fer th’ right opportunity t’ use th’ right piece, slide it in, an’ bam!”     “I know, I know…” he said with a sigh.  “You’re just so… unpredictable!”     “S’what I do best, babydoll!  Now, c’mere so’s I can clobber ya!”     “Hah!  No.  I’m not that bad.  Anymore,” he quietly added.

    As the sparring session rolled on, Joseph found that, as always, Jessica was full of energy and never seemed to tire.  It probably helped that she was smart enough to back off after a failed heavy attack… and, the fact that she was using her wings to back away in a hurry certainly skewed things, in her favor… but, he was fine with that, knowing she was just using them to add a bit more challenge.  At least… that’s what he’d been telling himself, for those eight weeks…

    “C’mon, boy’o!” she mocked, hopping to his left and missing a jab.  “Fight me!”     “You’re really enjoying this…” the fox mused as he failed to land a blow to her midsection, “aren’t you?”     “Hoo, yeah!”  Jessica gave a laugh, at that.  “But, I’d be enjoyin’ it a lot more if ya’d actually hit me!  So, stop tryin’ t hit me ’n hit me!”

    The smirk she wore as she said that annoyed Joseph… but, he remained cool, being very familiar with her mind games, by that point.  He shuffled to the left, rocking back and forth as he watched her watch him.  Meanwhile, Jessica gave a couple of fake jabs and flashed a grin at her opponent, her wings flickering and feet dancing on the mat.  Her eyes looked out from behind her silver frames and leaf nose, peering at the bouncing fox…  She knew he was going to make a mistake, at some point… and, when he did, it’d be all over, for him!

    “Hah!”

    Joseph took a wild swing at her head!  She easily weaved away and drew back, throwing a punch of her own… only to find that the fox wasn’t there, anymore.  The next thing she noticed was… a sharp thump, at her stomach, which knocked the air from her lungs… followed by several more quick jabs.  She gave a hiss and spread her wings, pulling them hard and flapping away from her opponent, coming to rest on the ropes with an unsettling sort of grin.

    “Shit, son!” she laughed.  “Looket you, bein’ all crafty ‘n stuff!”     Joseph pointed his glove her way with a grin of his own.     “And, you can bet that, if you hadn’t pulled back, I would’ve chopped you down-to-size.”     “Well done, well done!” she called as she held her midsection.  “Really felt it, that time!”     “Did I hit you too hard?” he asked, showing genuine concern.     “Naaah.”  The orange-haired bat brightly smiled.  “Ya jus’ did what I tol’ja t’ do!”     “Well… I still haven’t knocked you down…”     “I wouldn’ feel too bad, ‘bout that.”  Jessica gave a wink with her right eye.  “I keep cheatin’, so…”     “Heh.  That, you do…”

    “Anyways,” the bat said as she looked beyond the fox, “clock says we’re done here, fer th’ night.”     “Has it been two hours, already?”  Joseph rubbed the back of his head with a glove.  “Time sure does fly, when you’re working out…”     “Ain’ it th’ truth!”     Jessica pulled one glove off, then the other, before tying them together and stringing them around her shoulders.     “Why don’cha hit th’ steam room whilst I clean up, out here?  Ya know, get those impurities outta yer system now that’cher already sweaty, already!”     “I think I might just do that, Jessie…”     He removed his gloves and gave a light sigh, wiping his brow.     “You certainly know how to tire a guy out.”     “I get that a lot… but, not usually in th’ ring,” she replied with a knowing smirk.  That caused Joseph to blink… then, he folded his ears, wearing a faint blush.     “Jus’ messin’ wi’cha,” she said with a wink.  “Go grab a drink ‘n hit th’ sauna, Goldie.  You’ve earned it.”     “Rrright…”

    After discarding his training gear, Joseph walked to the rear of the gym’s first floor.  He was really looking forward to flopping back in the sauna and letting his body relax…  That last session with Jessica seemed a lot more intense than the others.  Of course, he knew why…     She really wanted to give me my money’s worth, since that was my last session, he thought as he entered the male locker room.  End things on a high note and all that.     He hummed to himself as he disrobed, collecting a towel and wrapping it around his waist, a moment later.     She’s been a really good instructor, the fox mused as he checked the temperature and humidity of the sauna.  Weird… but, good, just like Carlos said.  Hmm… I wonder if I should keep at it?  I don’t want to become a musclehead, like him… but, I kind of like the benefits of all this twice-weekly cardio and the other stuff she has me do.     Joseph hummed a second time… then, he gave a shrug.     I’ll worry about that later, I guess, he told himself as he entered the sauna.

    “Ah, dang it…”

    The fox chuckled to himself as the contrasting warm air immediately made his glasses steam up.  After wiping them on his towel, he walked over to the middle of the room and reached down, retrieving a ladle from a tin bucket filled with water.  He then put the water onto nearby heated rocks, causing it to evaporate into humidifying steam.     “There we go,” he said aloud before putting the ladle back.  “That should get the room a bit more balanced…”     With that settled, he walked over to a slatted bench in the corner and sat down, relaxing as he started to enjoy the semi-wet warmth of the room.

    Mindy’s Gym had a sauna which was not unlike many others.  The room was built to let air escape but not let outside air in.  The door also had a very good seal and was designed to latch tightly… but, seemingly never lock, due to some past incidents involving some “pranksters.”  A number of symmetrical, evenly-spaced, wooden boards comprised both the walls and the seating of the room and in the middle of the area was the heating mechanism.  It sat surrounded by more wooden slats and had a large pile of molten rocks resting on top which not only allowed for bursts of steam to be added to the atmosphere but also had a light, earthy fragrance that Joseph liked.  All and all, it was a mighty fine sauna – as least as far as he was concerned.

    “This is the life…” he said to himself as he laid down on his bench, resting his head against the angled slats in the corner.  “A nice, intense workout… followed by a relaxing, steamy cool-down period…  Now, if only my glasses wouldn’t keep fogging up on me…”     “Ya could a’ways take ‘em off.”

    The fox jolted at the sound of another voice.  He quickly sat up and looked towards the door, his ears folding back at what he saw.  Standing near that exit was the familiar shape of his boxing instructor, Jessica… but, she looked much different than he’d ever seen her.     For one, there was a severe lack of clothing on her thin frame… though she wasn’t exactly naked.  She wore one towel tied around her neck, casually draped down her front side, while another towel stayed wrapped around her waist, keeping the first in place.  There was technically a bit more cloth on her body, then, compared to her workout clothes… but, for some reason, seeing her in towels and knowing that she was probably wearing just as little underneath as he was placed an odd, somewhat risqué… and, distracting thought into the male fox’s curious head.

    “Room fer one more, Josey?” she asked with a grin.     “I…” was all he managed to say.  He seemed at a momentary loss for words.     “S’just me, man!” she laughed, walking over toward him.  “Cool yer jets!”     “Ah–”  The fox’s ears perked back up…  She was right.  “Sorry…  I just–”     “S’fine,” the bat-girl said as she sat down on the same bench where he was.  “Figured a quick steam might do me some good, too… though, I a’so kinda wanted t’ hit’cha up fer some talky-talk, too, since ya seem pretty sociable on th’ mat ‘r off.”     Joseph tilted his head.  “Really?”     “Yup!”     “Oh.”  He gave a blink from behind his fogging glasses.  “I see.”     “Really now?  ‘cause…”  He gave another blink as she reached over and wiped his lenses clear of moisture.  “I couldn’t see nothin’, ‘f I was you!”     “Well, I…”  He paused, noticing her smile… then, he gave a chuckle.  “Heh, yeah.”

    “So, how ya enjoyin’ th’ gym so far, Mr. Trial Member?” she casually asked.     “Honestly?”  He smiled, his tail giving a wag.  “This place is pretty great.  The equipment is easy to use, the people and staff are pretty nice – present company included…”     The bat’s smile brightened, at hearing that.     “And, really, I can’t find anything to complain about.  Except…”     “‘cept?” she curiously repeated.     “Well… it’s a bit of a drive, from where I live, see.”     “Oh?”  The girl gestured with one hand.  “Where’s’at?”     “You’re the one that filled out my paperwork,” was the fox’s smart reply.  “You should know as well as I do.”     “You expect me t’ r’member that’cha live in Eastern Masamune City?” she replied without missing a beat.  “C’mon, Josey…  I gots so many customers, it’s hard t’ keep track!”     This got a chuckle out of the fox… which, in turn, made her chuckle, as well.

    “So, anyway…” he continued, “Like you said, I live pretty far east of here.  It’s quite a bit of a drive, even just twice weekly… or, ya know, whenever I get bored.”     “Right?” the bat said with a nod.     “So… I mean… I guess I can’t complain about this place at all… but, I certainly don’t like the drive, very much.  But, I guess, at the same time… it’s kind of worth it, too.”     “Oh, yeah?”     Joseph gave a chuckle as he nodded.  “Good equipment, good services, good people…  It really kind of goes against what I’ve heard about Muramasa City, in a way.”     “An’… jus’ what have you heard ‘bout my hometown, then, Goldie?”     The fox gave a blink.  Jessica was giving him an intense stare… but, she was also kind of smirking at him, too.     “I just, uh…”     He gave another blink as she reached over and ruffled his bangs.  Once again, her face returned to a casual sort of smile.

    “We Muramasans gotta bit of a rep, I know,” she started to explain.  “‘specially when it comes t’ ya hoity-toity Masamuners.”     The fox was taken aback, by that statement.  “Excuse me?”     “Yeah!  You guys think yer so cool jus’ ‘cause’a that freakin’ tower!  Well, guess what?”  Her grin returned.  “Ain’t no one impressed by that rottin’, hollowed-out heap’a junk you call a ‘college!’”     Joseph paused for a moment… then found himself smiling.     “You went to Muramasa Technical University, didn’t you?”     “MTU pride, bitch!” she cheered with a bright smile.     “I should’ve figured as much…”  His smile turned to a grin…  “You MTU losers all have such huge egos, it’s a wonder you can fit inside that rinky-dink little campus.”     Jessica found herself stunned into silence.  Her mouth was moving but… no words were coming out.  After a couple of moments, however…

    “Oh get th’ fuck outta here!”

    The two burst into laughter, Jessica pushing the fox at his shoulder while Joseph just kind of let her.  Clearly, neither of them seemed to believe the other was so dedicated that it would affect their personal or professional relationships.

    “Whew… man…”     Jessica removed her fake glasses after a couple of moments, wiping tears from her eyes and brightly smiling to her companion.     “Haven’t laughed like that inna while, babe…  Thanks.”     “You’re welcome.”  He paused… then added, “Sweetheart.”     “Eh?”  The bat’s ears perked… and then, she offered a grin.  “Well look’et you, bein’ all cozy wid yer boxin’ instructor, huh?  Ya know, in some places, that could be grounds fer a sexual harassment ‘suit, Goldie…”     “Is this one of those places?” the fox asked with a grin of his own.     “I’mma sue th’ pants off ya in court, friend!”     “Wouldn’t that be sexual harassment, too?” he further queried, much to her amusement.  “Besides… I’m not wearing any pants right now.”     “Then, I’ll sue th’ towel off ya!” she teased, giving him another nudge.     “Why don’t we settle out of court,” he offered, “and I just hand it to you, right now?”     The two shared a quiet grin, after that question.  A moment later, Jessica looked away, her hands fidgeting in her lap.  The fox tilted his head, his ears folding a little as a pang of guilt suddenly hit him…

    “I uh…  I’m– I’m sorry,” he apologized.     “Yo, hey, don’t worry ‘bout it, a’right?” the bat said as she turned back, giving him a lighter nudge.  “I started it ‘n you finished.  Ya know?”     “Still, though… if that was a little much for your comfort level…”     “Listen, hun…” she said with a smile, “I’ve got a pretty big comfort level with people I like.  ‘n you?  I like.  So, uh… ya know… it’s just… I guess I… wasn’ expectin’ it?”     Joseph gave a blink…  Jessica was speaking a little oddly.  It was almost as if she were the one feeling embarrassed by her behavior.     “Hey uh, Jessie?  I–”     He had to blink, again, as he found himself silenced by a finger to his lips.  The bat was giving him an odd look… her eyes half-closed and a warm smile on her face.     “Don’t worry ‘bout it,” she said as she withdrew her finger.  “I ain’ offended.  S’all in good fun, ain’ it?  ’sides, it’s like boxin’…”     She looked away with a soft chuckle.     “I should be able t’ take what I dish out – ‘should’ bein’ th’ operative word.”

    Joseph stared at the bat as she sat there, awkwardly looking away and playing with the towel around her waist.  As he watched, he started to wonder if maybe he had taken things a bit too far…  He really didn’t know that much about her… and, outside of their scheduled workout sessions, they’d never really socialized.  Still, though… he couldn’t help but feel a strange sense of comfort in talking with her like he had been, a moment prior…  There was just something about her general attitude that lent itself to being so casual, around her… something he hadn’t really noticed in the ring or on the exercise equipment.

    “You’re a really casual kind of lady, aren’t you?” he suddenly asked.     “Hey… what can I say?”  She turned back toward the fox with an almost shy sort of smile.  “When I like a person, I like a person.  An’, when I like a person, I get real r’laxed ‘round ‘em.  So, ya know…”     “I can relate, to that.”     It was her turn to blink, then.     “Yeah?” she asked, perking up and smiling more confidently.     “Yeah,” was his answer.  “I’m a pretty casual kind of guy, myself… so, when I get to know someone… or, sometimes, when I just feel comfortable around someone, I just kinda… let loose.  I mean, I generally know what’s appropriate and what’s not, as far as casual conversation topics… but, the more comfortable I am around a person… the more likely it is that I’ll be jokey… or talk about just about anything with them.  Does… that make sense?”     Jessica chuckled before giving a nod.  “Only a lot.”     “Ah, well!”  The fox smiled, his tail wagging.  “There ya go, then!”     She smiled in return… but turned her attention down toward the floor.  After a couple of seconds, however, she turned back his way, warmly smiling.

    “So, tell me about yerself, Josey!” she suddenly suggested.  “What’s Mr. Trial Member do on ‘is days ‘way from ‘is dominatrix?”     He was about to answer… then paused.  “What?”     “Ya know, ‘cause I like beatin’ ya up ‘n workin’ ya hard!”     “That…”  He had to scratch his head.  “Alright.  Strange way of putting it…”     Jessica offered an unsure chuckle… then, she smiled once she noticed he was smiling.     “In any case,” the fox began, “when I’m not here, I guess I just do whatever I feel like doing.  You know… going to the park or sitting on the roof and thinking about things…  Going to the arcade and playing games or hanging out with friends…  The usual stuff, I suppose.”     “What’cha do fer money?” she nonchalantly asked.     “Eh?  Oh, I compose music for various game companies and the occasional low-budget production.”     “Anythin’ I’d be familiar with?”     “Well,” he said with a gesture, “do you play video games?”     “Sometimes!” was her reply as she suddenly got up.  The fox watched as she walked over to the heating element and put more water on the rocks.  For some reason, he found himself looking at her backside… and, more specifically, her wings.  Seeing the one towel tied around her neck made him realize something…

    “You starin’ at my ass, Goldie?”     Joseph jolted, shaking his head and snapping out of his thoughts.  Jessica had looked at him from over her shoulder.  She was wearing a pretty wide smirk, too…     “What?  No.  Sorry,” he suddenly said.  “I was just thinking about your wings, actually.”     “My wings?”  She tilted her head, spreading them open and giving one a stroke.  “What about ‘em?”     “Well, firstly… I really like them.”     “Aww, ain’t you sweet?” she said with a laugh.     “But, secondly, I think I just realized something…”

    Jessica folded her wings as she walked back toward the fox, taking a seat next to him again.  She had a curious look on her face as well as an attentive smile, seeming interested in what he had to say about her wings.     “I just kind of realized…” he said after she was settled, “you probably couldn’t wear normal tops without serious alterations, can you?”     “What?”  She gave a blink… then, she nodded.  “Heh, yeah.  I gotta either buy special types’a tops ‘r have ‘em altered t’ suit my sexy bod.”     “Well, I also realized something else,” he said as he ignored the latter-most remark.  “As neat at those wings are… they’re probably really annoying to deal with, on a day-to-day basis – maybe even more annoying than something like my tail.”     “How so?” she asked, looking curiously at him again.     “Well, my tail can be wrapped around my waist or legs if I need to ‘tuck it away,’ so to speak.  But, like… I don’t guess you can do anything like that, with your wings.”     “Nope…” was her reply.  “I can do somethin’ neater!”     “Huh?”

    Joseph tilted his head, his ears perking as he watched the bat stand back up.  Once again, she extended her wings outward.  He watched with great interest as she casually closed them, again… only to have them curl around her body like a leather cloak.

    “I can give myself a hug!” she cheerfully exclaimed, a bright smile on her face.     “Wha–”  The fox had to pause, at that.  After a moment, though, he smiled and said, “Okay, that is pretty cool.”     “Gets cooler, though!”     Joseph’s ears perked again as she opened her wings just a little.  His fur bristled as she suddenly grabbed his arm and pulled him up… then, his body tensed as she pulled him tight to her own body before encasing him in the wings.     “I can give people a double hug!” she said with child-like excitement before giving a girlish giggle.     “O-oh… I…” was all the fox could say as he stood far closer to Jessica than he ever had, before.  Just like she’d said, she was giving him a tight hug with not only her arms… but, her wings, as well… and, he wasn’t entirely sure how to feel about it.

    “Say…”     He tensed as Jessica spoke again.     “Yer really soft…” she said in a quiet tone.  He swallowed as he noticed… her eyes were half-closed and she had the softest of smiles on her lips.     “Cuddly, too…” she continued, letting her fingers run through his fur.  He knew he had to have been blushing pretty badly by that point…     “Hey, Josey?  Can I ask ya somethin’ pers’nal?”     “I-uh-sure,” he stiffly replied without thinking.     “You got a girlfriend?  Or a boyfriend?” was her question.  “‘cause, if so, I hope they know what they got in you.  Yer so soooft ‘n waaarm…!  And’ja smell pretty good, fer bein’ so sweaty, too…  ‘specially right heeere…”

    Joseph tensed further as he heard the bat give him a little sniff.  When he’d felt her grip tighten around him, he got the impression that she wasn’t giving him just a casual, friendly sort of hug, anymore…  It seemed like Jessica… his boxing instructor… might have been interested in more than his boxing skills or hobbies, at that point…  He briefly recalled their playful banter about sexual harassment from earlier… and, he nervously laughed.

    “What’s so funny, Josey…?” he heard the bat ask in a sweet tone.  He was about to answer… but, when he felt her nose brush against his shoulder, it made him lose focus, again.     “Yer so tense…” she whispered, giving him another nuzzle.  “You should relax more, Josey…  Wouldn’t wanna get yer blood flowin’ too awful much…”     His heart skipped a beat as he heard… and felt… the familiar smack of a kiss on his neck.     “Don’cha trust yer boxin’ instructor?  Just relax… let’cher mind wander…  Ain’ no one gonna bother us here…”     He found himself panting as he suddenly felt something warm and wet caress his neck.  It didn’t take him long to realize… she’d just licked him.     “It’s jus’ you… an’ me…” she repeated in an almost sensual murmur.

    Between the sudden affections and the humid warmth of the room, Joseph found his head swimming in a mix of confusing feelings.  He’d be the first to admit that he liked what Jessica was doing… holding him close… whispering sweet words into his ear… grooming him…  It wasn’t like he had a serious girlfriend, anyway…  But, for some reason, he just couldn’t relax, like she’d wanted him to.  Something about the situation… maybe the suddenness or maybe the sheer randomness… made him cautious about reciprocating, much less reacting…

    “Ah–!!”

    His heart began pumping as he suddenly felt a new sensation.  His eyes opened wide, his body stayed tense, his fur bristled, and his ears perked high.  There had been a sharp, painful pinch at his neck as he stood there contemplating… followed by that familiar licking sensation.  He found his breath coming in short pants as the licking continued… then gave a brief yelp as that sting came back a second time.  The sensation, combined with the fact that Jessica’s grip on his body had tightened further, put an odd thought into his head…     She’s… she’s not…  No, she couldn’t be…  She wouldn’t be…     He paused, shivering as she slowly lapped at his shoulder.     But… but, what if she is…?

    The fox swallowed hard, nervousness keeping him from making a move.  He had a funny feeling he knew what Jessica was doing… but, for some reason, he couldn’t let himself believe that it was actually happening, to him.  It was like something out of a weird movie… something that… he was starting to realize… he kind of liked.

    Jessica perked for a moment.  She’d felt something touch her backside…  She opened her wings a little, peering down without moving her head too much… and, quickly became amused by what she saw.  At least one of Joseph’s arms had curled around her midsection… and, it didn’t seem to be a defensive sort of action.  She mentally smiled to herself and gave him a light hug, in return, before closing her wings and continuing her actions…

    Joseph wasn’t sure how much time had actually passed before Jessica leaned back… but, he knew one thing for certain.  He felt really really mellow… almost a little too mellow.  He was really glad the bat-girl was there to help him sit back down then.  For whatever reason, he leaned against her and closed his eyes, giving a contented sigh.  A second later, he felt something gently brushing his head.  A lazy glance up revealed it to be her hand…  He smiled at that realization.     “Ain’t gonna lie, Josey…” she said as she softly petted him, “I wasn’t expectin’ ya t’ be so receptive t’ what I was doin’…”     “What… were you… doing?” he groggily asked.     “Oh, I think you know…”     He took a moment to think about it… then, he slowly sat up, giving her a funny look.

    The girl was giving him a soft, friendly, almost contented sort of smile… but she was also licking her lips – or, rather, seemed to be licking a sharp-looking fang on either side of her mouth, now-and-then.  He took a moment to blink… then, he brought his left hand to his right shoulder, feeling down through the fur for something.  His ears perked and golden eyes widened at what he felt… but, indeed, the very thing he was looking for… was right there.     “Are these…?”     “Bite marks,” Jessica casually answered with a slight grin.     “Then, you…”     “I did… and…”  She looked down, suddenly seeming bashful.  “I know I shouldn’a done it… but, honestly, I’m kinda glad I did.  More glad you were okay with it, though…”     She shyly looked up.     “It ain’t every day I meet some’n who lets me feed off ‘em…”     Joseph brightly blushed, his body tensing and his fur bristling, again.  It was like all the clues suddenly came together in his head at the same time!  Finally, he had to ask…     “You… fed off me?”     She gave a soft nod…  “Thanks, by th’ way…”     For the first time ever, the fox noticed a blush find its way on to his instructor’s face.     “Yer pretty tasty…”

    Joseph had to take another moment to compose himself.  On the one hand, he’d just become the unwilling participant of something he’d previously only read about in fiction and tabloids.  He genuinely had no idea such people existed, in the world…  But, on the other hand… he really wasn’t sure he had been so “unwilling…”  In fact, once he’d realized what was going on, it was almost like…     “I… kind of… liked it…”     Jessica perked, blinking her dual-colored eyes.  “Hm?”     “I kind of liked being fed off of…” the fox repeated, nervously rubbing his neck.  “I mean… is… is that weird?”     “Ah… maybe?  But, I ain’ one t’ judge!”  The bat gave a laugh before adding, “‘sides… it’s preferable t’ th’ usual reaction…”

    The two went quiet, after that, Joseph just sort of staring at her while Jessica just gave him a reassuring smile.  That moment they shared was awkward… but, in a way, it was kind of intimate, too…

    “You’re a… vampire?”

    Jessica perked, again, hearing the fox suddenly speak.  She shyly looked away, then, before giving a nod.     “Maybe a li’l…” was her quiet reply.     “I’m… interested, in this.  But, are you really a vampire?” he asked again, sounding genuinely curious.  “Or… are you just one of those blood fetishists?”     “A li’l from column A, a li’l from column B,” she responded, still staying quiet.     “Oh.”  He paused.  “Wait, what?”

    “So… okay!” the bat-girl said in her normal tone, sitting up and looking at him with a neutral expression.  “A couple years ago, I had a run-in wid this guy what tried t’ have ‘is way with me, right?  An’, I mean, like, vamp-style; hypnosis, neck-fangs, all that stuff!  So… I snap outta it halfway through ‘n what do I do?  I bite ‘im, back!  Like, hardcore!  I pro’ly would’a ripped out ‘is jugular if ‘e ‘adn’t pulled me off, when ‘e did!  I was pissed!”     “I, uh… wow.  Alright,” was all Joseph could say.     “Now, uh, turns out I did a dumb.”  Jessica crossed her legs at the knee and gestured with her hand before continuing.  “Apparently… when a vampire and a normie swap blood ‘n spit, th’ normie becomes that vampire’s uh… ‘protege?’  ‘Minion?’  Whatevs.  Point is, since ‘e bit me ’n I bit ’im back, I kinda got a sniff of his power… and… a bit of his… weaknesses.”     “Now… when you say ‘spit…’” Joseph started to ask.     “Oh!”  She gestured again.  “In th’… blood.  Ya know, licky-licks ‘n whatnot.”     “Wait… so that guy was–”     “A full-fledged vampire!” she finished.  “An’, by bitin’ ‘im back, like I did, I kinda completed th’ circle of servitude.  Sorta…

    “See now, I didn’t actually drink his blood, like ‘e did wid me… or, I did wi’chu,” she added with a grin.  “I spit most’a it right back out!  So, since I did that, I didn’ get th’ full package; I only got a li’l bit’a his power ‘n vamp’ric traits!  But, wid those traits came th’ usual vampire malarkey, too; blood cravin’s, sun sickness, apparently some kinda weakness t’ silver… an’, most frustratin’, some kinda freakin’ garlic allergy!!”     She gave a slight hiss, after that exclamation.     “D’ya know how pissed I was, th’ first time I tried some’a my fave taco sauce?  I love taco sauce ‘n hot sauce but since that day, I had’a keep an eye out fer what’s innit ’cause, lo ’n behold, I get sick t’ my stomach from garlic!  Hmph!”     Joseph gave a deep frown, at that.  He couldn’t imagine life without his own beloved hot sauces… and, judging from her outrage, Jessica loved spicy food as much as he did.

    “Iiin any case… yeah,” the bat-girl said with a smile.  “I’mma vamp.  An’, I suuucked yourll blaaad, bleeeeeh!”     He couldn’t help but chuckle at the silly accent she put on for that tired old quote.  After a moment, though, he wondered…

    “I’m not going to turn into a vampire… am I?”     “What?  Naw,” she said with a wave of her hand.  “I could suck on ya as much as I want ‘n th’ only thing you’d get is iron deficiency!”     He stifled a chuckle at the unintentional innuendo.     “It’s only if ya fed back that that’d happen… but, I ain’t even sure ‘bout that.  I’m only a li’l bit vamp, after all!”     “So… I’m probably fine, then?”     “I mean, yer pro’ly gonna be a li’l wobbly, fer a bit… like if ya gave blood at a blood bank!  But, it ain’t nothin’ some sweetie-sweets or a granola bar won’t fix, ya know?”     The fox gave a hum… then, he smiled to the bat, remembering something.

    “So what’s this thing about you being a blood fetishist?” he asked.     “Oh!  Uh… well…”     His smile turned to a grin as Jessica rubbed her arm and turned her eyes away.     “I kinda… I, ya know… I like…”  She blushed a little before finally saying, “I’m a biter.”     “I can tell,” was the fox’s casual response.     “Well, no, I mean, like…  I… like… I’ll… y–”  She gave an impatient sigh.  “Stop givin’ me that look!  S’hard enough t’ explain, as it is!”     “I can’t help it, though.  You’re a biter… and…”  His grin turned back into a smile as he admitted, “I like being bitten.  So…”     She had to blink at that.  “W… really?”     The fox blushed ever-so-slightly… but, he was happy to nod, still smiling at her.     “Huh…  Well, ain’t that somethin’?”     The bat leaned over and gently tapped him on the nose, a bright smile showing itself.

    “A’right, so… blaaahd,” she started again.  “Now… I like drawin’ blood… but, I also have this weird idea ‘bout like… I dunno…  I’m kinda…”     “If you don’t want to tell me, you don’t have to,” Joseph offered with a patient smile.  “But, I’m all ears, if you want to talk about it.”     “Bloodbath,” she suddenly stated without context.     “Bloodbath?” he repeated.     “I kinda… want one.”     The fox’s brow furrowed for a moment as he thought about that.     “You mean… you want to literally bathe in blood?”     “It’s… a kink,” was all she offered as an explanation.     “Huh…  Well, that’s not the worst thing I’ve ever heard.”     “Eh?”     “I mean, you could be one of those ‘scat’ people…”     The bat’s face turned sour at that.  “I could be… but, I ain’t!”

    “So, I mean…” he continued with a chuckle, “I just get this picture of you in a tub filled with blood, just kind of lavishing and letting it get everywhere.”     “Warm, sticky blood clingin’ t’ my body ‘n turnin’ my fur red…” she dreamily sighed.     “Right!  And, actually, the way you describe it… well…”     She gave a grin as she noticed… his tail was wagging.     “Sounds nice, don’t it?”     “Um… well… it doesn’t sound bad…” he admitted.  “But, I mean, it would take a lot of blood.  And, ya know… not trying to dissuade you… but, there’s stuff that’s like blood, that you could bathe in, instead.”     “Oh, I know…”  The bat offered a wide grin.  “But, there’s jus’ somethin’ absolutely sensual ‘bout th’ thought of bathin’ in blood… ‘specially if it’s blood from someone ya like…”     “Eh?  You’re not one of those ‘bathe in the blood of my enemies’ types?”     “What?  No!”  She shot him a confused, suspicious sort of glare.  “Why would– that’s just weird.  Why would I wanna bathe in th’ blood of people I hate?”     “Well, why would you want to bathe in the blood of someone you like?”     “Silly fox…”  She grinned, poking his nose again.  “So’s I can be even closer, to ‘em…”     “What.”     Jessica gave a weird sort of giggle before she continued.

    “Ever wanted to be completely one with someone, b’fore?  Well, imagine soakin’ in a pool of their very life essence… th’ thing what keeps ‘em alive…”     She shivered, setting her leg back down and giving herself a hug with her arms.     “All that warm, rich, life essence soakin’ inta yer ever pore… f’rever makin’ that person ya like a part’a yer own bein’… inside an’ out…  No matter how many times ya scrub n’ scour yerself, you’d never be able t’ get rid of every trace of ‘em…  They’d be a part’a yer very genetic makeup!  Even after they were long gone… they’d a’ways be a part’a you… one that you could take to th’ graaave…”

    “I’m not going to lie, Jessie…”     She perked a little, giving a blink as she noticed the odd look on Joseph’s face.     “That’s a little creepy.”     The bat looked away when she heard that.     “But, ya know what?  We all have our oddities.”     “R… really?”  She perked, again, curiously looking to him.  “What’s yours?”     “Well…  It’s not quite that extreme… but, my not-girlfriend is an android.”     She tilted her head at that.  “Yer what?”     “Oh, sorry,” he chuckled.  “What I mean is that she and I are… kind of in a relationship but kind of not?  I mean, I love her and she loves me… but, it’s not…”     “This one’a those ‘multi-partner’ whosits?”     “Uuuhh… well…”     “‘cause, I can dig it.”     Joseph gave a blink.  Jessica was smiling at him.

    “A robot, though, huh?” she asked a moment later.     “Android.”     “You make ‘er, yerself?”     “No.”  He offered a grin.  “That would be weird.”     The bat-girl chuckled, at that.     “Actually, no one knows where she came from or who made her.  She just sort of appeared, one day.”     “An’… what?  Didn’t she have any maker’s marks ‘r stamps?  No data ‘bout ��er previous owner?  Nothin’ like that?”     “Uh, well… that’s it exactly, actually.  For all intents and purposes, she apparently had… ‘amnesia?’  And, well, since Carlos and his friends found her, she’s been kind of been ‘one of the gang,’ in our circle of friends.”     “An’ a bit more, when it comes t’ you, huh?”     “Heh…”  He blushed a little.  “Well…”

    “So, goin’ back t’ way earlier t’night…”     Joseph perked, his ears flicking as Jessica changed the topic.     “No girlfriend?  I mean, no dedicated one?”     “I don’t… I mean, no, but…”     “But’cha got some prospects?”     “Not even that, I don’t guess…” he admitted, rubbing the back of his head.  “I mean, I have relationships… but as far as my love life goes?  It’s kind of…”     “An ‘open’ relationship?”     “For lack of better terms, I guess?”     “Wanna hit th’ town sometime?”     Joseph gave a couple of blinks, shaking his head.  “I’m sorry, what?”     Jessica gestured with one hand, giving a warm smile as she spoke.

    “Ya seem like a mighty nice guy an’, truth be told, I ain’ got no one t’ go home to ‘cept a goofy half-sister… so, I was thinkin’ that, maybe, I could show ya ‘round Muramasa City, sometime?  It doesn’t have t’ be a date-date…” she said with a grin, “but, I wouldn’t mind bein’ on th’ arm of a cutie, like you.”     Upon hearing that, the fox felt himself blush, again.     “You think I’m cute?” he asked before he could stop himself.     “Sweetie, I think yer freakin’ adorable!” was Jessica’s response as she reached over and tussled his hair.  “But, like I said, ya also seem like a mighty nice guy.  Yer friendly, too.  Pluuus… I think I kinda owe ya dinner… since ya let me have you, fer dinner!”     He gave another blink as she shot a playful wink his way.

    “So whaddya say, Josey?  Wanna hit th’ town with th’ sexiest blood-suckin’ batty-bat in th’ tri-city area, sometime?”     “I…”  He paused… then, he gave a smile.  “I’d be crazy to turn down that kind of offer.”     “Dang right, ya would!” she said, giving his nose yet another poke.  “‘cause, I would’a had’a mess ya up, elsewise!”     Joseph gave a nervous laugh at that, causing her to give him a reassuring pat.

    “But, it’s a date, then!” she said a moment later.  “Or… a not-date!  Whatevs!  We’ll keep it totes cas’, either way!  Wear anythin’ more formal than a biz-cas’ button-up ’n I’ll beat’cha up!  You can bet’cher bippy I’mma wear somethin’ cute ’n sexy, myself!  But, no cocktail dress!”     She paused…     “You don’t wear no cocktail dress, either!  Can’t have m’ date lookin’ better ’n me, eh?”     The fox couldn’t help but laugh, suddenly reminded of something from years ago.  However, he just gave a nod, at the suggestion.     “I’ll give ya a ring whenever I get a good night fer it, a’right?  When’s good fer you?”     “Oh, don’t worry about that…” he said with a grin.  “Unless Carlos kidnaps, again, I’m probably good just about any night.”     “Good, good…  An’ Josey?”     He gave a blink as the bat leaned over and pulled him into a hug.  The fox was happy to return the favor, giving her a quick squeeze in the process.     “Thanks, fer not gettin’ sore I fed off’a ya,” Jessica said as she leaned back.     “Well, thank you for not getting sore when I got weirded-out by your ‘bloodbath’ idea.”     “Hey, live ‘n let live, right?  ‘sides, that was just an idea…  This, though…”     The fox tilted his head as she reached over and gently rubbed his neck wound.     “This actually happened, so…”     “Kind of felt like a dream, to be honest…”     She gave a girlish sort of giggle.  “You sweet thing, you…”

    Jessica moved her hand up to his cheek, brushing his fur with her thumb and fondly smiling.  A minute later, she took her leave from the sauna and, not long after, Joseph returned to the locker room, himself.  A quick shower removed the lingering sweat and a vigorous toweling mostly dried his fur.  Soon enough, he was headed out and into the front area of the gym.

    “Excuse me, miss?” he called as he got to the front desk.     “Yes?” answered a white rabbit standing behind the counter.     “Who would I talk to about my gym membership?”  The fox placed his gym membership card on the counter.  “My trial membership’s expiring… but, I really like this place, so…”     “We offer different payment plans for each of these tiers,” she immediately said, turning a nearby computer monitor his way.  Apparently, she’d had the data handy.  Joseph took a moment to read the info before settling on one.     “The 3-month Silver package should be fine, for me,” he said as he pointed to the monitor.  “Everything I need is on the first floor, anyway.”     “Great!  Let me just upgrade you here…”

    After getting his gym membership upgraded, Joseph bid farewell to the lady at the desk – who, as he found out during the exchange, was actually the namesake of the gym, “Mindy.”  He then headed outside and to his car and headed out.  As he drove away from the gym, though, he found himself thinking about Jessica…     She’s really nice… he thought.  Kind of weird… but, I already knew that.  Who knew she was a real, live vampire, though?  That’s pretty interesting…  And, she… she even fed off of me, a little…  Gosh, it felt nice…  Far nicer than I would have guessed…     He reached up to his neck wound, lightly blushing as he thought…     I wonder if I can get her to do it, again, sometime…?

[dianasuncmu]

1st Visit to Hazelwood Center of Life

1/23/17 NOTES & QUOTES

How do we lay things out? How do all the parts fit together?

Pull together something so that when someone walks into this room, with all of these things that we acquired (stories, artifacts, etc), they can say I get it, I know what this is all about.

(People in our class shared items they brought & what it means to them)

Tim connected with Jon over an item they both share: things they have that remind them of their fathers

Asking moms: What would you bring here today?

Kim: My brother’s shoes. Anybody who knew him would have seen him in them. They’re green and gray.

Name?: My son’s gold chain & gold bracelet. Coogi.

Name?: I had a son that was killed in 1994, and a daughter in 1996. He was shot 13 times cause he wanted to hang with the gang but didn’t want to do what they were doing. After he was killed, nobody came forward to say what they had seen or what happened. Then my daughter said “Mom, if I ever see anyone get killed, I’m gonna tell”, and she had moved to 2nd ave, on the 2nd floor right above a store. And a bus pulls up, a man gets out, and a car pulls up, and he shoots the guy. And she saw it. So me and my daughter went to the courthouse, and the day that we went, there were 6 guys in there, but they post-poned it. And the same night, we were sitting out back there with the neighbors, and she went out to get a pack of cigarettes. She went there and as she came out, they shot her in the face 2 times. They knew she was gonna tell. 3 days before she died she gave me this necklace. I’ve been wearing it everyday since 1996. I don’t know why I don’t take it off - she’s with me. I take it off when I go to sleep, but I put it right back on. I didn’t bring it - it was here with me. It’s something to keep in my mind that she’s still with me.

Sheila: I didn’t have a chance to have anything from my son. So I have this picture I have of him, he was little and laying on the floor - like just the innocence of him. And I got it right beside my bed. It’s devastating, and I’ll never have a grandchild. My son he was 17 for 3 weeks. God got a funny way of getting your attention, cause after that, I was trying to hold on to the rest of him so tight. The reality of it is they don’t need me anymore. (it’s okay to take care of me) Through all of that, and it’s been 8 years, nobody asked me how am I really doing / feeling. Nobody asked me any of those questions. I suck it up and stay strong because everyone is watching me and everyone’s leaning on me and I don’t have anyone to lean on.

Tim: I knew this young man in this neighborhood. His nickname was Booboo, and he was shot. If I was to bring something here as a remembrance of Booboo, it’d be a pair of pajama pants. He was an amazing basketball player, but he’d always play with his pajama pants. It just reminded me of him, of how smart he was, of how good he was at basketball, about how good he took care of his brothers and sisters. Those pajama pants were a joke between me and him.

At center of life, we recently acquired that building. That building was a hub for this community because so many people went there from k-12. There are so many memories for people walking down those halls, so we sat down with the community to ask them what they wanted to see in that building cause that’s important. I thought it was important for us to share things that we have that remind us of other people who mean a lot to us. It’s important as we talk about what this space could look like. Is it something we build from scratch? Is it gonna be movable?

For you all (cmu design) to hear the stories of the Hazelwood people is essential - for us to hear your stories is essential.. for our connection. Cause when we connect, that’s how we can have and effect way beyond our neighborhood. Cause if it goes well, it goes out into other neighborhoods and cities.

Hopefully when people walk in this door, they’ll feel something. That it will bring something to their minds and hearts. That people will have a better sense of how to connect and appreciate each other, like we need to do. It should have never gotten normal for me to bury kids decades younger than me.

Hazelwood includes: Glen Hazel (whole community up there), Glenwood, Riverside, Scotch Bottom, Technology center & Birmingham bridge (used to be hazelwood) to beginning of Glenwood bridge. Hazelwood used to be a large population.

Terry Shields has an org called JADA house. It does work with women & girls.

Glen Hazel tin council (?)

Kim has a “community store” / soul wood - good fish sandwich

Hazelwood felt like a unit. Like it was a community that felt safe. It wasn’t always like this. Everyone knew everyone else. Everyone was kind to one another. Then Hazelwood absorbed you. The people are nice for the most part - Hazelwood is home.

Terry: We used to have Giant Eagle, clothing store, furniture store, etc. I been here 50 years & I feel safe here since everyone knows me.

Tim’s Boss: As a lifer in Hazelwood (53 yrs old), what you see on the news is not all of Hazelwood, it’s just a small group of people that make the whole community look bad. Hazelwood is a community, a family, once you get to know everyone. Nowhere else is like us. We’re a peculiar people. Everyone is connected to everyone else somehow. We’re either related by blood or marriage. I lived in Glenwood, there were stores everywhere - churches, cleaners, everything. I was 12 yrs old before coming to Hazelwood. Even today, except a few people who migrated here, everyone’s connected to someone else. If there’s any bad blood between anyone, it needs to be worked out because we’re connected.

“We’re family”

This community used to be a steel mill (mono site?) 170 acres. Uber has taken about 10 acres of space. There were (in the teens) a&p, barber shops, movie theater, dance hall, etc on 2nd ave. Over the years, jobs were taken out of the community, and businesses began to leave, & the city wasn’t investing in the community. After a while we didn’t have any schools. There used to be a Hazelwood school. Saint Steven, etc. We had a lot of schools and then no schools. So kids here ended up going 7 diff ways: Mifflin, Mendell, Brashear, Lincoln Place, U Prep, etc. They used kids in our community to fill spaces in other schools to keep them open - that’s wrong. But then our schools were closing, and we had enough kids in our community.

The school district was all about the money - we couldn’t afford to keep that school open because there are not enough kids. Then when you close more schools, more kids have to go to other places, and it perpetuates. People also moved their kids to other places to get exposure to technology.

For a while kids just went to the school in the neighborhood. But then they got sent elsewhere before they learned to nurture relationships with other people, so they started ganging up. It caused bad relations.

It’s just like rivalries, like football. The team closest to you is probably your big rival.

Any neighbor, teacher, could discipline you. It wasn’t abused, it was out of love.

Homer Craig - you have to talk to him, retired police officer. Wife, Ursula, is from Germany.

The younger kids now don’t really have discipline. There’s not really a larger system - the communities are broken. Back in Homer’s day, your mom knew your friend’s mom, and everyone from that same block. If you got in trouble at your friends house, your friend’s mom would beat you, and then when you got home your mom would beat you. There’s none of that connectedness anymore.

We need to keep our children in our community. On my street there are 12 kids and they go to all different schools. They live here, so if they went to school here, they could do things together. Instead of this one goes on a bus there, that one goes somewhere else & it’s divided. That’s why they can’t do anything together. Even the older ones - just “hi how you doin?” that’s it. We used to sit out together, have gardens together, etc. That bonding isn’t there anymore. So they can communicate and play together. (kids also bring parents together)

We have to make sure people can afford to stay here as the market shifts. Mixed income community is great. Diverse - good. So gotta figure out how to stay here in diff situations. The kind of housing we live in now are not fit to deal with what’s happening to our earth. We need to build green. We need to be able to harness and prepare for the storm waters that come down. We need replenishing utilities, green/solar roofs. If you pay a lot of utilities, and gotta still pay mortgage it’s too much. Passive houses: great models up in kravits. It’s warm in there, the walls are thick, the house sits on a foam-like material, not directly on the ground.

We’re helping people become more financially leery, working with corporations/foundations to get more wealth in this community. It’s all about generational wealth. People will be able to move into this community, into a 0 net energy house. We have to protect from the situation when the 60k house gets a 500k house next to it. Then there’s a market storm. The taxes go up, & they can’t stay there anymore, even if their grandparents bought the house etc. We want to build mixed income housing up there, so that people can rent and accumulate some wealth. We’re building relationships with corporations to hope they hire from this community, so we have workforce development and a database of people’s credentials (resumes), so if they’re looking for positions, we can send it out. It’s important for companies that profit from this community also invest in it. It means investing in the people and giving them a good job.

We spend $5 million outside this community (money leaving) just because we don’t have a place to grocery shop here.

Most of people are still here but nothing is here

Used to have a lot of things for the kids: YMCA, YWCA, Hazelwood Recreation Center, Ice skating, etc. Now kids go downtown or somewhere else - divided. 

1700 kids in this community

When do a lot of people get together: Summer program, once a year “One night revival (3 nights)” where churches come out to it - play sing perform community church service, Hazelwood light up night 1st week December put lights up & horse comes around & gives kids rides, National night out - all businesses are open with food music etc. We used to do 5k run but stopped early 2000 because couldn’t get enough ppl to come to Hazelwood to do it.