#Partly because I couldn't come up with a costume for normal

[lavenderchameleon]

happy Halloween!

[ladystormcrow]

📓

Oh wow, okay!

Years before I got into The Dark Crystal, Megamind, and most recently Phantom of the Opera, my online fandom of choice was SWAT Kats: The Radical Squadron. I had a whole fan continuation series planned out that never got past the first chapter of the first fic, but one particular ongoing plot would have gone like this:

OC Carmen Cascabel, an ambitious and misanthropic biochemistry grad student, gets captured by Dr. Viper while out collecting field samples (and her fellow student gets killed by Viper's monsters). She manages to impress Viper with her scientific knowledge, and he decides to make her a henchperson rather than a test subject. She develops an infatuation with him (think Harley Quinn, but much less perky and without the fun costumes), and he has her convinced that when his plan to take over Megakat City finally succeeds, he'll turn her into a snake mutant as well and she'll rule by his side.

After one attempt to take over the city ends with Viper arrested and Carmen in the hospital (the Enforcers thinking she was an innocent bystander), she reconnects with some of her estranged family, and starts to consider being no-longer-evil. But in the end, she decies to help Viper escape from prison -- partly because during this time, she finds out she's pregnant by him.

Carmen spends the next couple of years torn between her devotion to Viper and the power he can offer her, versus wanting to keep her family safe from his plans, as well as trying to keep her baby daughter Reyna's mutant features hidden (she told her family the pregnancy was the result of a one-night stand with a married tom kat, hence why she won't contact the father). Eventually, she helps Viper with one last attempt to take over the city (it involves taking over the citizens' minds with mutated Cordyceps spores, TLOU-style), but they get thwarted by the SWAT Kats, and in the final battle, Viper gets killed once and for all.

Since Carmen was seen helping Viper during this plan, the Enforcers are now hunting for her, and her family turns against her -- there would have been a scene where she sneaks into her stepmother's apartment late at night, planning to take little Reyna with her when she flees the city, and her stepmother tells her things like "give me one good reason I shouldn't call the Enforcers right now", "what did you think would happen when you threw your lot in with monsters?", and when Carmen says she can't go to prison, telling her that that's where she belongs. The stepmother does let Carmen escape, out of love for Carmen's late father, but she also convinces her to leave Reyna behind in the stepmother's care, so the child can have a stable life instead of being on the run.

Carmen then disappears from the story, and the focus switches to Reyna growing up. Her snake mutant features become more obvious as she gets older, and she's fearful and ashamed of them, as well as for the things her parents did (Reyna herself is a sweet kid). As a teenager, she starts seeking a way to cure her mutation so she can be normal, and she manages to track down Dr. Zyme -- he survived the bacteria attack, but has been paralyzed and wheelchair-bound ever since.

Between his injuries and his guilt over the part he played in Viper coming into existence, Zyme has become reclusive and bitter in the last 20-some years. He doesn't want to meet with Reyna at first, but she's persistent, and eventually he explains that he can't cure her -- he destroyed all his notes related to the creation of the Viper Mutagen formula, so he couldn't come up with a cure even if it was possible.

Reyna realizes that, like Viper, she carries the mutagen in her blood. Zyme, now starting to warm up to her, accepts a sample, and together they're able to reverse-engineer the serum and get rid of the flaws that caused the snake mutations in the original formula. He uses the new, revised formula to cure his paralysis, and with a new, happier outlook on life, he takes Reyna as a student and assistant. Reyna's no longer ashamed of her mutation after seeing the good it can do, and she and Zyme form a father-daughter relationship (he's definitley more of a father to her than Viper ever was) and embark on a happy future of making the world better through science.

(Reyna also eventually forms a romantic relationship with Skyler, Chance and Callie's son, which causes a whole bunch of other awkwardness, but that's another story.)

[live-the-fangirl-life]

Blood and Boos

Elide Lochan x Lorcan Salvaterre - Haunted House OneShot

Lorcan gets roped into doing a Haunted House. Elide tries her best, but she isn't a fan of jump-scares. What could go wrong?

Masterlist | Read on Ao3

Warnings: Language

2348 words

*******

"No. Absolutely not.”

“Come on, it’ll be fun.”

“No way, I'm not doing that.” Lorcan wasn't going to budge. There was no way he was giving in to their stupid request.

“If I can do it, you can do it.” Rowan took a sip of his beer and leveled a look at him over the rim of the bottle.

Snorting, Lorcan shot back, “Just because your girlfriend’s got you wrapped around her finger, doesn't mean I'm going to do it.”

Rowan raised a brow at him, “And yours doesn't?”

It was Fenrys’ turn to snort. He grabbed his own beer and hopped up onto the counter. “Lorcan, Elide’s got you more whipped than Whitethorn over here.” He motioned to a smirking Rowan.

Rolling his eyes, Lorcan just repeated, “I’m not doing it.”

Sighing, Rowan asked, “Even if Elide asked you to? You’d still say no?”

“It doesn't matter what I would do—” Of course he would do it if she asked, albeit begrudgingly and full of complaints, but he’d do it. “Because she didn't ask me to. Aelin asked you to help out with this one.” he nodded at Fenrys.

The blond grinned at him. “Come on Lorcan, it’ll be fun.”

“Fun?” He seriously doubted that. The last thing he wanted to do was put on a ridiculous costume and watch teenagers pretend they weren't scared just to impress their friends.

“It's a Haunted House, Lorcan,” Rowan tried again, “We��re not asking you to hand out candy to trick-or-treaters”

“Yeah,” Fenrys chimed in, jumping down from the counter, “You’ll get to scare people for three hours. And get paid. You already do that for free just walking down the street with that scowl.”

Lorcan’s response was the aforementioned scowl and a simple one-fingered salute.

“Ha. Ha. My answer is still no. You won't get me in an absurd costume and I won't be doing your stupid haunted house.”

Rowan was interrupted from responding by Lorcan’s phone ringing. Neither had noticed Fenrys subtly typing away on his own phone beneath the counter.

He recognized his girlfriend's ringtone and toned down the irritation that was seeping into this voice.

“El,” Rowan and Fenrys perked up at the sound of her name, trying to listen to his conversation. He waved them off and walked into his room. “Hey, what's up?”

He could hear her laughing at something said in the background and then her voice ran through his speaker, “Hey Lor! I was just talking with Aelin and she was telling me about this awesome—”

“Is this about the haunted house?” He cut her off, already groaning.

“How’d you know?” She sounded surprised...almost too surprised…

“I’ll let you guess what I was just talking about with Rowan and Fenrys. And before you ask—” He rushed on, knowing that once she did, there’d be no way he could say no to her, “I am not going to dress up and play monster all night just because you think it would be so fun.”

He heard his girlfriend groan exasperatedly at his insistence, “Oh, come on, Lor. It really would be so fun! You guys would be in the haunted house and Aelin and I could keep coming through all night to keep you company. And just think,” She lowered her voice, he guessed so she wouldn't be overheard, “there will be lots of dark corners that we could sneak off to.”

He let out a long sigh. Gods, this woman had some magic power over him.

“...Fine.”

“Oh yay!” He could hear the smile in her voice and it made the scowl he wore soften a little. “This is great! Go let the guys know, I’ll tell Aelin. And babe?”

“Yeah, El?”

“I know you’re not super excited, so as a reward for stepping out of your comfort zone, I promise to make the night exciting.” He could picture her winking at him through the phone.

Chuckling, he ran a hand through his hair, “I’ll hold you to that, babe.”

“Love you, Lor! Bye!”

He said a quick “Love you, too.” before she hung up.

With one more resigned sigh, he walked back out to see Rowan and Fenrys muttering to each other. They both turned to look at him expectantly.

“…what time should I be there?”

***

Elide wasn't exactly sure why she agreed to convince Lorcan to do the haunted house. She had been out with Aelin when Fenrys texted her telling her that she needed to get Lorcan to agree. Aelin caught the text over Elide's shoulder and insisted she call Lorcan.

“Ooh, that'll be great! Your grumpy boyfriend can keep mine company. And hey,” Aelin beamed at her, feeling satisfied at how things were coming together, “knowing that it's the guys who are dressed up and not some rando, you don't have to be so scared about going!”

That was why Elide couldn't figure out how she’d agreed to both getting Lorcan to do the Haunted house, and also to going through it herself.

Elide loved Halloween...the cute, fun, wholesome parts of Halloween like carving pumpkins and watching cheesy Halloween movies, and wandering through corn mazes. She didn't love the over-the-top scary, ‘you're going to be so terrified you’ll wet yourself’ parts of Halloween.

But she could put on her big-girl pants and get through one night of terror. And, maybe Aelin was right. Maybe knowing that the ax murderer jumping out at her was one of her friends or her boyfriend, would make it less scary.

That's what she tried to tell herself as she and Aelin waited in line for the haunted house two days later.

Lorcan had refused to tell what his costume was, but she knew Rowan was some kind of zombie, and Fenrys was going to be, yup, an insane ax murderer.

She and Aelin would go in, find the guys, maybe hang out and watch them scare people for a bit, and then they’d leave. Elide knew Aelin wanted to come through a second time later on, and she promised Lorcan she would find him and take advantage of one of the dark corners she mentioned before.

Two times through the haunted house, she could do this.

***

She couldn't do this.

Elide let out another piercing shriek as a hand jerked out of the cobwebs to grab onto her arm. She spun, ripping her arm out of their grasp, only to hear a dark laugh and another hand brush the back of her head.

Whipping back around she saw Aelin pull her hand back, grinning.

“Ae, I love you, but I’m going to kill you.” She was jumpy, ready for something else to pop out at her. “I am going to murder you for making me come here, and no one is going to help you or find your body because they’ll all think you’re just some prop for this gods-awful house.”

“Oh El, I’m sorry,” but Aelin was grinning through the fake blood splatter on her face making Elide roll her eyes and huff. “Let's go find our big, strong boyfriends, and they can make us feel better.”

It should have sounded comforting, but Aelin wiggled her eyebrows at the end, and Elide chuckled lightly.

“That doesn't sound like you, Ae—the last bit, sure—but not the first.”

Tossing her head back to laugh as she draped an arm over the shorter girl’s shoulder’s Aelin laughed.

“Please, they just like to feel useful.” She winked, but Elide could see the fondness on Alein’s face as she thought about Rowan. “Let’s keep going.”

All Elide did was groan.

***

Lorcan was tired of this. He’d been stuck wearing a mask with a supposedly scary face on it, but besides that, he was just wearing his normal all-black attire. Black jeans, black hoodie, black boots.

According to Fenrys, Lorcan was already scary enough.

At least he didn't have to wear the zombie get-up Rowan had on. Lorcan didn't want to know how long it had taken him to put all the green undead-looking make-up on—something he was sure Galathynius was responsible for.

Lorcan wasn't about to admit it, but he was having a little fun scaring people. He had positioned himself in a corner, just behind a turn in the hall. He could hear when people walked by him, but they couldn't see him until he wanted them to.

All he had to do was take one step, say “boo” in his deep, deadpan voice, and watch as the victims screamed, jumped, or ran away. One guy had let out such a high-pitched wail that Lorcan thought the glass on the window might break.

He’d been there for almost an hour; apparently, Elide and Aelin took longer to get there than planned because they hadn’t come through yet. He was getting a little grumpy, having been promised alone time with his girlfriend somewhere private when she made her way through.

Another group of teenagers walked by. Another “boo.” Another shriek. Another herd of footsteps running down the hall away from him, but unknowingly towards the enthusiastic ax murderer.

He settled back into his corner and waited some more.

He heard a pair—no, two pairs—of footsteps getting closer to him. Maybe he’d have some fun with these people; he wouldn't half-ass his attempt this time. As they turned the corner, Lorcan took a breath and leaped out in front of them.

Several things happened one after the other.

Lorcan roared “Boo!” Not the scariest thing to say, but his size, stance, and volume made up for it.

The pair, two women, screamed. One severely louder than the other.

In less than a moment, he recognized his beautiful, terrified girlfriend.

Elide, letting out her shriek, and unable to see Lorcan’s face beneath the mask, moved instinctually letting her body take over instead of thinking.

She drew her arm back and punched him in the face.

Lorcan’s head flew backward, not expecting the impact.

“Elide!” Aelin gaped at her friend, but Elide was still screaming, partly because of the heart attack she knew she was having and partly because her hand immediately began to hurt once she made impact with the masked man’s face.

Lorcan grunted, bringing his hand up to hold his definitely broken nose. He could feel the blood already dripping down behind the mask.

“Fuck!” He groaned, managing to pull the mask off his swelling face.

The moment the mask was off and his face was recognizable, both ladies’ eyes went wide.

“Lorcan?” Elide screeched, moving toward him, her face caught between disbelief and guilt. “Oh, my gods, Lorcan! I’m so sorry!” She tried to touch his face but he winced as she brushed his nose.

Devastation crossed her face as she took in the very real blood and bruising on her boyfriend’s face, all caused by her.

Alternatively, Aelin found it all hysterical. She was bent over, cackling, tears streaming down her face. She was laughing so hard that soon she wasn't making any sound, just clapping her hands together so she could continue to show her amusement.

“Oh, Lor—”

“I’b okay,” he muttered.

Elide sighed dejectedly, “When you say I’b instead of I’m it means you’re not okay. Gods, I can't believe I punched you.”

“You punched him!” Aelin got out between laughs. “This is one of my favorite moments, ever.”

“Oh hush Ae.” But her lips tugged up at the corner.

“I saw ‘at” Lorcan said, his words getting clogged by the swelling of his nose and the blood dripping down, and letting Elide fuss over him.

“Saw what?” She asked innocently, trying not to hurt him and she turned his face from side to side.

“ ‘at little sbile” That little smile.

She gave him a light kiss on the tip of his nose, careful not to put pressure on the broken part. “You’re the one who jumped out and scared me, you should be proud that my instinct when being attacked is to punch my attacker.”

He rolled his eyes. “But it's be,” But it's me. He gestured to himself.

“Yeah, but you had a mask on, and I was already on edge after someone,” she glared at Aelin who had finally calmed down, “made me walk through this entire monstrosity of a setup.”

Elide gave him another kiss, this time on the corner of his mouth.

“It’s by nose ‘ats broken, not by lips.” He pointed out when she pulled away.

She laughed, and her smile almost made his broken face worth it—almost.

“Come on, let's get you to the hospital,” She cringed thinking about having to explain to the doctors how this happened, “and when they give you the all-clear, I’ll give you all the kisses you want.”

“You two go,” Aelin told them and tossed Elide the keys to her car, “call me later. I’m gonna go find Ro and Fen and tell them all about this.”

Elide rolled her eyes as Lorcan flipped Aelin off and Aelin waved cheerfully back before practically skipping down the hall.

“I’ll give it to you, ‘at was a damn good punch.” Lorcan grabbed her hand, pulling her into his side as his other hand kept a firm hold on his face.

She smiled up at him, but he could still see the guilt on her face. “Well, I did learn from the best. Now, please use your hulking body and bloody face to scare off any more characters as we leave.”

He laughed as best he could and pulled her tighter against him. “I t’ink ‘hey should be more scared of you.”

Luckily they didn't run into any more jump-scares on their way out.

Once they were in the car—Elide forcing Lorcan into the passenger seat after pushing it all the way back for him and climbing into the driver's seat herself—they left the grounds and started driving towards the hospital.

“You know,” Lorcan said, glancing over at his brilliant, violent girlfriend, “when you said you’b promise to make the night exciting, this is nob what I had in mind.”

Okay, so maybe her smile did make his bloody face worth it.

***

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[16mmtoodeep]

the sexual power of rocky horror over a depressed 19 year old

On the 29th of October, right at the stroke of midnight, I went to my first Rocky Horror Picture Show Performance. 

I almost didn't go.  

This show was something I was looking forward to for a while. I tried getting tickets for the Halloween show last year but they were all sold out by that time. As someone that fiercely considers Rocky Horror a Halloween experience, I didn't go to see any of the other performances for the rest of the school year. Then this year, I had planned to go to my ex's friend's costume party that same night. I figured I could wait another year. Then, we all know what happened next. 

As an act of defiance or freedom or self-love, I bought the tickets a few days after the breakup. Not only would I be going to a show I'd been looking forward to for years, but honestly, if I didn't go somewhere over Halloween weekend I would stay in my room bawling with my half of our Hercules/Megara couples costume in my closet, unused.  

Funneling into the Oriental's main theatre dressed up – wearing the sluttiest black dress I could, the darkest lipstick I had, and as many sequins as my closet would allow – blew me away. The theatre was packed with people in normal clothes, Halloween costumes, Rocky Horror costumes, and sluts like me. The energy was inescapable, everyone was so jazzed to be there. I could drown in the buzz it gave me alone, though that could be partly because I just love being in movie theatres. While I hate to say it because I hate the idea of distracting yourself from your problems, it quickly made me forget about everything: the breakup, my declining mental health, all of it. At the time, that seemed impossible. 

The show itself was fantastic. I got initiated as a virgin in the very beginning and felt lucky to have happened to bring my lipstick so I could write the "V" on my forehead. From then on they started with their show traditions: the rules, the orgasm competition, and the Halloween Costume Contest. Jesus won the contest, much to the confusion of the middle aged couple next to me. This is when I first noticed them, and from then on, half my attention was on them. They had brought three tween girls to the show. The girls were having a great time, but the couple had a look of angry, offended confusion on their faces. I couldn't help but wonder how this could've happened. Did their daughters force them to buy tickets and come? Did they buy the tickets to the show as a family activity but didn't realize what it was? How the hell did they get there? It was so hard to imagine how someone could be in all that energy, all of that unapologetic sexualization, and be mad at it.  

But unlike them, I lapped up the entire show. Not only were the actors fantastic and hilarious, but experiencing all of the bits and comments, all of the live-show-only secrets made me ecstatic. It felt like being exposed to this secret club of weirdos and camp artists, all these people that love trash because we all agree we're all trash too. We can be who we want to be, love who we want to love, and fuck who we want to fuck, because who the fuck wouldn't want us? And especially after my breakup, I needed a reminder that I'm attractive and sexy like everyone else in that theatre.  

I have the noisemaker and ten of diamonds playing card from the show still, both on my desk, both reminders of my own sexuality.