#Wiliam The Terrible

[houseofbrat]

Just another example of how performative and exploitative KP are. Dame Deb’s family coming out in support of someone who doesn’t have cancer, when KP were happy to use her as a photo op before she died, but showed no support for her fundraising appeal either through a donation from their foundation or by purchasing one of the t-shirts. It was The Duchess of Edinburgh who did.

Unlike the Royal Family account, they won’t post on World Cancer Day because the patronages they support for those with cancer are beneath KP as “ribbon cutting work with little impact”. The King, Queen and other members of the family have done decades of work to support several cancer related charities because they are actually serve people from all walks not life, not just footballers, seaweed peddlers and toddlers.

[milliesfishes]

꣑ৎ౨ৎSwan Song꣑ৎ౨ৎ

[fem reader] contains: death, blood pairing: billy the kid x fem reader summary: billy thinks you're gone forever author's note: :) hope this is alright. Had another vampire idea after doing some research Pinterest Board Spotify Playlist

He needed to tear away. Tell himself the figure beneath the wrinkled white sheet was not you, but rather something void of your spirit, of everything that had ever made you special. But Billy couldn't help loving it. He'd loved every part of you.

The candle was a nub collapsing in on itself, dripping into the brass holder. Though the glow was faint, he could see the outline of your face beneath the thin fabric. His girl. His beautiful girl, even when death masked you.

The sickness had been rapid, claiming you quick. Billy had hardly left your bedside in the duration, his prayers taking a new form. He'd called the doctor into your small home and begged him to save you, but the man's hopes hadn't been high.

Still, Billy had nursed you, mopped your sweaty brow, pleaded with you to drink water and broth, held you when the fever caused you to cry out in the dark. Every time you opened your eyes and he saw the beautiful glimmer that told him you were still fighting, he became a little more convinced that it would all be okay. That in a month, he would look back at this as merely an incident and nothing more.

But in the early hours of the morning, your clammy hand clasped in his, you slipped from mortality, disappearing into the afterlife's pocket.

The doctor, grim-faced, had pronounced you lucky that the fingers of death hadn't wrapped around you sooner. Billy waited until he left to cry, tears like rain dripping down his cheeks.

Now you were laid out stiffly on a table, shrouded in white. He had made sure to tuck the sheet under your heels- you hated when your feet were cold. Billy slouched in a chair dragged from the kitchen, hand covering his mouth as he stared at what was left of you, one pale hand dipping from the table and clasped in his other. He'd been motionless for hours, mind traveling lengths and showing him the life he would never have with you. All the things he'd wanted to say, wanted to give you.

He saw imaginings of the children you would have had, of watching you grow older; a luxury he hadn't ever thought he would get. A roughened outlaw, any dreams he'd had of a normal life were forced to be shattered by his own hand. When he'd met you, he found himself putting them back together, with every smile, every time you said you loved him.

It was the only music he wanted to hear, and its artist had been silence.

Fish circled his ankles, letting out a tiny questioning meow. Wordlessly, Billy dropped his free hand to his back, stroking his dark silky fur. Your beloved pet had been in a state of distress for hours now, and Billy felt a pang of guilt for not paying more attention to him.

He wondered if you were watching right now and immediately hoped you weren't. If you were free from this life, you deserved heaven, not long years being forced to view his misery. He knew he would wear it without shame. You were the greatest love he ever knew, and now he'd lost it. The pieces of his heart had trailed behind him like bread crumbs as he carried your limp body from the bedroom to the table, laying you out.

Recalling the death of his mother and brother, Billy knew about viewings and customs. But he knew that though you had been kind to all you met in your life, his tarnished name had sullied yours as well. Nobody would come to pay respects to the lover of a former outlaw. As much as he hated his reputation's muddied tendencies, he was grateful for it now. There wasn't any way he could have accepted condolences or politely thanked anybody for coming now.

Bowing his head, Billy shifted in his chair. There wasn't any way in hell he was leaving your side until the burial. He wasn't sure if he'd even be able to sleep without you pressed into his side, ear over his heart. Fish leapt from the ground onto his lap, making himself comfortable, a regular practice for the cat. Billy swore his whiskers were drooping, a forlorn look in the little animal's eyes.

Settling one hand on the cat's side, Billy breathed in, shutting his eyes. Maybe when the morning came he'd find it a little easier to start saying goodbye.

The last thought he had before falling asleep was one of truth that pierced the jagged remains of his heart. He would never say goodbye. Not truly.

Fish was meowing. Billy grunted, slowly lifting his head upright. His neck was aching from the angle it'd lulled into somewhere in the night, and he gritted his teeth as the soreness pounded. Early sunshine was poking through the curtains and knocking at his eyelids.

The warmth of the cat in his lap was absent, and he figured the little animal was hungry. He tried to remember if there was any chicken left from when he'd canned it last. Stretching out his legs, Billy yawned, rolling a shoulder back. Instinctively, he flexed his fingers, still feeling the weight of your hand in his.

Your cold hand.

It all came rushing back like the current of a river out to drown him. Billy took in a breath through his nose, trying to suppress it for now. Later. He could deal with that later. Right now, the cat was hungry.

Wearily, he cracked one eye open, the fuzzy outline of the world greeting him. The house was still fairly shadowy, although lighter than last night. Fish darted past his legs, and he hummed, rubbing an eye with his free hand. "Alright...alright, I'm comin'."

Instinctively, he turned to look at you. Maybe it was a habit he wouldn't ever shake, always checking first to make sure you were well.

No matter the reason, he was shocked to see you sitting up, staring right back at him.

Panic shot through Billy's body, and he stood so rapidly that the chair was knocked backwards. Chest heaving, he searched the length of you, positive he was dreaming.

The sheet was bunched around your waist, a corner flung away to reveal part of your thigh. You were still in the nightdress you had passed in, one shoulder bare where the strap had fallen down. Hair loose, your skin was as pale and cold as it had been yesterday. In fact, most everything about you looked the same.

It was your eyes that had changed, now an icy lightened blue that reminded him of death. You blinked at him like a doll, and he was terrified by the entire scene. Were you a spirit? A ghost he'd conjured from the throes of his own grief?

"Baby..." The breathy word fell from his lips like a prayer, and his teeth nearly chattered when he saw the old glimmer flash across your irises.

Your voice was raspy. "Billy."

It hit him right then that this was real. You were here, somehow conscious and sentient. A ragged cry tore from him, and he surged forward, bringing you into his chest and squeezing you tight. Your arms were solid around his back, and the detail of it bloomed an overload of relief in his chest.

"How're you...what're you...?" Every question went unfinished as he pressed his lips to your hair over and over again, mind racing.

You fisted his shirt, face buried in his chest. "I don't know. I don't know." He pulled back, and you looked as though you would cry. "All I know is that it was so dark...and I woke up and Fish was on the table next to me."

Cupping your cool cheeks in his big hands, Billy smiled in disbelief, looking over you again. "You're here...you're-" You smiled, lips parting, and he froze, eyes glued to your teeth. It seemed your eyes weren't the only thing death had changed.

The pieces began to connect.

Smile dropping, his mind caught on a certain part of what you'd said, a flood of memory washing over him. The tales his mother used to tell filled in blanks tentatively, and his heart pounded. No. It was impossible. That sort of thing wasn't real.

But you had been dead hours ago.

"Did you say Fish was beside you?" His voice was a whisper.

"Here." Kathleen deposited the kitten that had snuck in Billy's hands and returned to her task, stripping the petals of lavender from the green stem. It had been a flurry of adults running in and out of the house all morning, tending to the icy figure of his aunt Rosalie in the next room.

"Take her outside," his mother commanded gently, pinching another stalk of lavender. "Isn't good to have an animal around a body. If they walk over it they'll turn a person to something like Abhartach."

A vampire.

Now Billy's heart was beating double time, and he looked back at you, everything clicking. His mind raced- was there anything to do? Fish was purring and circling his legs once more, blissfully unaware of his actions.

You whimpered, a hand flying to your throat. "Billy...it hurts...I..." Opening and closing your mouth, fear struck your eyes like lightning. When you looked up at him helplessly, the conditions of your new form unknown to you, any modicum of doubt or hesitation he'd had disappeared. All he knew was that you needed help.

Admittedly, Billy had very limited knowledge, but of one thing he was sure. There was a singular substance you needed to make the pain stop. And you'd never had any. Protection blurred every protesting thought as he stood, one objective clear in his mind.

Securing an arm around your waist, he moved you slightly on the table, planting one of his legs firmly on the ground and putting the other on your opposite side. Gently, he pulled you in to rest against his chest, fingers rubbing your hip. When you began to protest, he murmured, "Shh...it's okay. 'm gonna help you feel better."

Lifting his free wrist to your mouth, he whispered, "Bite down on it." You began to turn in his arms, but he held you firm, sensing your confusion. "Trust me, angel. You'll feel better."

There was a moment in between when he wasn't sure you'd do it. He could see how odd of a request it was, especially when you weren't sure why. Slowly but surely, you closed your mouth around it, and the sensation of your fangs cutting through his skin was evident. Your body's instincts seemed to kick in, and you began to suck, relaxing into his body.

Billy held back any grimaces at the pain, trying to keep any worries at bay. He wasn't sure how much blood you would need, hell, he wasn't sure if you knew. But he'd be damned if you went hurting without something his body could just make more of.

Your hand grasped his wrist after a moment, teeth withdrawing and leaving two little dots like a constellation on his skin. Billy breathed in, grateful that your thirst had been satiated and that he'd been deemed worthy by some higher power to keep living. If he was meant to die, by all means he'd let you drain his body into nothing but skin and bones.

When you turned to look into his eyes again, any explanations died on his tongue. You knew. There was no discussion, though he could see guilt in your eyes. That was something for another time, when he'd tell you as many times as you needed that his blood was yours for the taking. Thumbing the crimson from the corner of your mouth, he gave you a little smile.

Without speaking, Billy found his footing and scooped you up into his arms, walking the few feet to the sofa and sitting there with you between his legs once more. This would be more comfortable for the long term. He knew you didn't need as much rest anymore, but that didn't mean he couldn't hold you.

Your eyes were trained on the wall, lips forming the names of numbers as you started from the first board and tried to count your way to the top. He watched you for a moment, feeling you tense when you kept losing track.

"Easy." He splayed the hand belonging to the wrist you'd bitten out, guiding your grasp to the palm. "Why don'tcha count these instead?"

You smiled sweetly up at him before your eyes fell to his fingers, mouthing as you counted over and over. One two three four five.

Satisfied, he held perfectly still, enjoying the feel of your icy skin against his. Fish leapt up beside you, nestling at Billy's feet. He'd have to give the cat extra chicken for the rest of his life now for what he'd done. Recalling how sad he'd looked sitting below your corpse, Billy wondered if he had known what he was doing. He couldn't help a smile at the thought.

For you were in Billy's arms again. You curled into his empty space, making him whole.

[juicyrooster418]

Bro is not thriving 💀💀💀

[edgarbright]

Ikevil Wrapped in Wicked Romance Story Event // Elbert's Route Thoughts

cw: mention of SA unrelated to Elbert and MC

After Ellis, I've been most intrigued by Elbert! The route was good, with a moment or two that got me squealing, and it also has a fantastic supporting role with Alfons.

I liked that the route addressed the cycle of abuse in that victims can later become perpetrators, that you can feel sorry for the innocent child this person once was, but that still doesn't give them a free pass from an execution order for all the evil they've done unto others. At the same time, however, Cybird trying to create empathy from the audience for a man who committed routine sexual assaults on women that reportedly ended in the women's painful death in an otome game directed at women certainly felt like... a choice.

But thankfully Elbert was very protective (and seemingly possessive~) of MC in his route. He didn't have much to say about that man other than the guy did terrible things and Elbert was following orders, so we're good! Elbert was very, very good!

He was so good and interesting that I got the epilogue to top it all off! Because I liked how his feelings and intentions toward MC slowly twisted the more they talked~

And wow, hello, while he was the perfect gentleman with MC, that conclusion was actually sort of terrifying!? Like at this point, murder and trafficking and drug deals are just mundane things in this world. To be a true villain you need something fresh, something new, something just for you! And as far as villains go, "King of Villains" Wiliam is like a little hamster compared to this kind and melancholic sociopath. Elbert, my beloved, what the hell--

Can't wait for his main route :')

[gayuu-the-necromancer]

William Rex Chapter 7

WARNING! The following stories contain scenes of torture, mentions of organ harvesting, and the making and usage of drugs.

 ｡⋆｡˚🦋˚｡⋆｡

William: "We were just talking about you."

Kate: "Me....?"

William: "We would like to hear your opinion on a certain matter."

William urges me to sit down on the same bench as him, a short distance away.

William: "I know you're probably wondering, so let's talk about 'Golden Butterfly' first."

Kate: ".....! Yes, please."

(I was thinking about how to ask you that today, but you made it easy for me....)

I took out my notebook and listened carefully.

William: "In simple terms, it is a shadowy organization centered on members of the House of Nobles."

Kate: "Eh...."

(So are there politicians involved......?)

William: "It is said to have started when members of the House of Nobles were enriching their pockets by selling opium through illicit channels."

William: "Not content with that, when a method was discovered to produce a highly addictive drug from opium..."

William: "Someone was found who wanted to secretly produce the drug and use it for political purposes."

Kate: "Drugs for political use......?"

(....I can't imagine what it's like right now)

William: "For example, they lure in the children of political opponents, make them dependent on them, and then use that as a weakness to blackmail them."

Kate: "......!"

William: "The middle class is trying to expand civil rights and reformist legislators are trying to defend it...."

William: "Drugs are very useful in taking away freedom from those who get in their way, twisting and breaking their will."

William: "The uses are many, but the purpose is one: To protect the interests of the legislators who collude with them."

(That's so terrible.....)

Even when just described in words, I feel a heavy weight on my chest.

Victor: "The organisation's growing power gradually unraveled leading to unjustified arrests, human trafficking, bribes and cover-ups...."

Victor: "The 'butterfly' became a hotbed of corruption."

Kate: "If they know that much, can't the police crackdown on them?"

Wiliam: "At the time, I learned of the existence of the 'butterfly' the organisation was already beyond judicial scrutiny."

William: "In this country, the House of Nobles is the highest court. If the legislators collude, it is easy to cover it up."

William: "If you sue based on evidence, the accuser is either hung as a conspiracy theorist or silenced with threats and bribes."

William: "Even if they are lucky enough to make a case , each case is dismissed as an isolated crime, and the entire organisation is never brought down."

William: "And so the truth is buried and evil lives on."

(No way.....)

Victor: "14 years ago, before and after the founding of the Crown, William assassinated several senior members of the 'butterfly."

Victor: "Finally, they quit piling on the guilt."

Victor: "This was proof that the Crown could act as a deterrent 'conquering evil with evil."

William: "But now, all of a sudden, the butterflies have come to life."

Kate: "And the central figure in all of this is........Avalus?"

William: "Yeah. He was an elected member of the House of Nobles and once served as Minister for the Colonies."

William: "It would have been a perfect position for opium to be illicitly transported."

William: "The Crown's mission now is to destroy him and bring the 'Golden Butterfly' back to their grave."

Cold sweat runs down my spine at the scale of the enemy, which far exceeds my imagination.

(If what William and his friends say is true, then what they're dealing with is the country's darkness itself)

William: "Kate."

William's voice has changed from the cold tone, he had earlier, and he calls out softly.

William: "We've attacked the mansion and the bank in quick succession, and they know we're on the move."

William: "The future will be just as dangerous, if not more so, than it was yesterday."

William's gaze falls on my neck and shoulders.

There, the bruise that was inflicted on me yesterday by the chairman is still there.

William: "Working with me is a matter of principle, not absolute observance."

William: "We want to here what you want to say to this."

 ｡⋆｡˚🦋˚｡⋆｡

William: "We want to here what you want to say to this."

(.....Indeed, I don't want to have to go through something like yesterday)

(I've also just been told what crime the 'Golden Butterfly' are about to be tried by the Crown for)

But even if I cling to a calm peace.

I'm sure I'll never know about William.

(What is it that drives William? What makes him sin?)

(I must see, feet and understand it with my own eyes)

Looking back into his eyes, I.....

------Options-------

I'll be fine.

Thank you

Please don't worry about me

------------

Kate: "Thank you for your concern. But.....I would like to at least accompany you on your next assignment."

Kate: "By the way, a great man once said that 'We cannot understand what is truly 'good' for us for our hearts, based on our imagination and borrowed knowledge."

Kate: "Right?"

William: "......"

William: "Kate really listens to people."

William: "I guess the phrase 'dangerous' has the opposite effect on you."

William looked at me and laughed as if he under were looking at a cheeky creature.

Kate: "I'm not going there because it's 'dangerous', I'm going there to get to know you."

William: "Hmm? Didn't know you liked playing with danger?"

Kate: "......Isn't it funny how much I love playing with danger?"

William: "I don't think so."

(Hm.....really?)

When you are neither affirmed nor denied, the words you ask in your mind bounce back to you.

(I don't like the idea of being strangled or nearly killed)

(I don't like it but....)

The image of William that I saw at the bank yesterday comes to mind.

-----FLASHBACK-----

William: "Let's begin the interrogation."

William: "Keep your mouth shut until I ask you a question"

-----FLASHBACK ENDS-----

(.....At that time)

Dangerous, terrifying, and beautiful, I forgot to take a breath and admired him.

William: "Tomorrow we'll move again."

Kate: ".....! Y-Yes!"

William: "So get a good night's rest today."

Whether or not he sees through the confusion that has sprouted in my heart.

William was in a good mood, smiling as usual.

.....................

It was that night that the maid arrived with the letter on a silver tray.

(It's....from Mr. Brian?)

-----FLASHBACK-----

Kate: "I heard that Sir Rex was involved in some case in the past, do you know about it?"

Brian: "....There was a lot of government pressure on that case from the beginning, so it wasn't covered very widely!"

Brian: "Count Rex himself didn't say much, only smiling when asked."

Brian: "In social circles this subject is half-taboo. ...I'll send you a letter later."

-----FLASHBACK ENDS-----

(He really contacted me. It's addressed to the palace.....maybe Victor arranged for it to be delivered here)

I opened the envelope and followed the words on it with my eyes. After greetings and small talk, the real matter was written.

"The other day you asked me about the incident involving Count Rex----"

(Eh.....?)

I felt a chill in my heart at the words written there.

..............

The next day.

Roger: "This place is still the same.....no, it's even worse than before. In terms of hygiene and security."

Alphonse: "A glamorous aristocratic ballroom is no different from this one if you peel off one layer of skin. The only difference is that smells like perfume and this one is like sewage."

William: "Ahaha, you sure do have a point."

I, Mr. Alphonse, Mr. Roger, Master Elbert.

And with four of William's men, had come to east London.

Elbert: ".........It's a cold night.........are you cold?"

Kate: "No, I'm fine. Thank you for your concern."

The 'East End'----so called because of its poor and immigrant population is a so-called slum.

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(I hope we find what we're looking for here.....)

We came to the slums in order to locate the Marquis of Avalus, the mastermind behind the 'butterfly' revival.

-----FLASHBACK-----

Victor: "He is not at the townhouse where the chairman sent the telegraph. Nor the manor, or the villa."

Victor: "Someone is harboring them, there seems to be no doubt about it."

William: "Someone who could even get past Victor's net....."

Kate: "Does it ring a bell?"

William: "Maybe. After all, we have many enemies."

William shrugged lightly and tapped his fingers on the list on the table.

William; "Let's try to find out where the Marquis' money is being held. After the bank incident, I'm sure they've been in touch with us to prepare for the investigation."

William: "One letter or telegram would be all I need to track him down."

-----FLASHBACK ENDS-----

And here we came to the East End workhouse.

Kate: "How could such a place possibly be affiliated with the 'Golden Butterfly'?"

William: "I don't know. It's hard to say without opening the lid. But....charitable activities are often misused!"

William: "You too, ought to beware of sweet temptations. The more dangerous they are, the kinder they look."

(The more dangerous, the kinder the face....)

I can't help but think back to the time when William hugged me.

I still don't know if I was saved or....tricked at that time.

Alphonse: "It's no fun to stand idly by the gate, so let's start, shall we?"

Mr. Alphonse took off his gloves and knocked on the old rusty wooden door.

Old man: "......Who the hell are you people?"

Mr. Alphonse quickly extends his hand to the nape of the old man's neck, who comes out with a dubious look on his face.

Old man: "What are you---"

Alphonse: "The Marquis of Avalus is here to see you. He insists on inspecting the premises."

Old man: "M-Marquis! How rude of me....!"

(Eh......?)

The man looked at William, who was introduced by Mr. Alphonse and bowed deeply.

William: "I don't care. You are the director, right?"

Director: "Yes. I'm not sure why....the Marquis himself suddenly showed up in a place like this.......and, these people are?"

William: "These are my escorts. Is there anything wrong with my sudden visit?"

Director: "Oh no no! You're welcome anytime. Please come inside."

(What do you mean? This guy seems to think William is the Marquis?)

William whispered to me who looked confused.

William: "That's Alphonse's ability. If he touches the nape of a person's neck, he can rewrite that person's perception for a short period of time."

Alphonse: "Convenient, isn't it?"

Mr. Alphonse laughed amusedly as he puts his black leather gloves back on.

Alphonse: "If you want, I can show you good dreams."

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(Is this the workhouse.....? I don't see a soul anywhere)

William looked around the interior and asked the director as if had guessed everything.

William: "Where is the thing?"

Director: "......This way, please."

The director ushered us through the deserted room and into a back corridor.

Kate: ".....!?"

A stranger smell wafts from the entrance of the stairs leading to the damp basement.

I covered my mouth involuntarily as I felt discomfort like I had never felt before.

(What the hell is under this....?)

Roger: ".....Bingo."

William: "Take this, Kate."

I held the offered handkerchief to my mouth, and was finally able to breathe thinly.

Kate: "........Thank you."

William: "It's going to get worse if we go down there. Are you sure about this?"

Kate: "....I'm going."

William: "Then follow me."

I took one step toward the stairs, following William's back.

Into the depths of deep, deep darkness.

There was a hermetically sealed underground space with no ventilation possible.

(.....This is.....)

On the workbench were unidentifiable brownish masses, boiling liquids, and white and gray powders.

The ankles of the people working against them are shackled with heavy iron shackles.

People were lying on the floor and in the corners of the room as if they were furnishings.

Roger: "Not a single one of them is looking this way."

Alphonse: "Are you not interested in nobles who came to inspect you....they know that if they get involved it will be unnecessary."

Director: "Morphine extracted from opium is further refined."

The director proudly begins to explain everything to William.

William: "Yes I know. ..I've seen the same thing before."

From all over the room, ecstatic laughter and moans of intense pain could be heard.

I struggled to hold back the urge to cover my ears.

Director: "As we have informed you, we are working on refining the purity of the product...."

Skinny boy: "ARRGGHHHHH!!!"

(What the!?)

Suddenly, a boy cowering in the corner of the room started screaming.

Skinny boy: "Give it to me! give it to me! We made it, we deserve a little something!"

Director: "Hey you! Take him away!"

At a word from the director, a man appears from the black door, whips the boy, and leads him away.

Kate: ".....What....What is this."

William: "Diacetylmorphine'....is a drug that the 'Golden Butterfly' make and use for political purposes."

William: "It's a devil's drug that destroys the mind and body."

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(Devil's drug....)

William: "They are exposed to the manufacturing process, and they can have serious addiction problems."

Roger: "....No matter how careful you are in this environment."

----FLASHBACK-----

William: "The uses are many, but the purpose is one: To protect the interests of the legislators who collude with them."

----FLASHBACK ENDS----

(The 'butterfly' protect their own interests and these people are being deprived of even their dignity......?)

Kate: ".....Why? For what? What did they do?"

I know I shouldn't ask such things in a situation where we are fooling ourselves into making them think that we are members of 'butterfly'

I could not contain my outpouring of words.

William: "Nothing. They didn't do anything. All I can say is, they got unlucky. That's all."

A cold, cruel, irresistible reality lay before me.

William: "Where is the boy who was screaming just now?"

Director: "Temporarily in the 'junkyard'. It would be great if we could sell the body to a surgeon who wants it, but it's in such a bad shape."

William: "Just like the old times, right down to the last detail."

William hugs my staggered body because it was too much for me to handle.

William: ".....Do you want to go outside?"

Kate: "No, I'm fine. I'm fine."

Kate: "Because I want to see it with my own eyes."

(The sinfulness of the 'evil' that William is trying to kill, which words cannot comprehend)

William: "....Okay, then."

Elbert: "................."

Alphonse: "Now now......Lord El, what are you looking at with those eyes? Like I said, Miss Kate is not what you're looking for."

Elbert: "..........Really?"

Alphonse: "Let's just leave it at that for now, it's troublesome."

Alphonse: "Now, then....let's get down to business."

Chapter 8

[savage-kult-of-gorthaur]

WHAT "NOTHING" LOOKS LIKE WHEN CAPTURED BY THE HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE.

PIC INFO: Resolution at 1272x1306 -- Spotlight on the Hubble Deep Field at full resolution, c. 1996. (R. Williams, the Hubble Deep Field team, NASA).

OVERVIEW: "In 1995, astronomer Bob Williams wanted to point the Hubble Space Telescope at a patch of sky filled with absolutely nothing remarkable. For 100 hours.

It was a terrible idea, his colleagues told him, and a waste of valuable telescope time. People would kill for that amount of time with the sharpest tool in the shed, they said, and besides — no way would the distant galaxies Williams hoped to see be bright enough for Hubble to detect.

Plus, another Hubble failure would be a public relations nightmare. Perceptions of the project, which had already cost multiple billions of dollars, were pretty dismal. Not much earlier, astronauts had dragged Hubble into the cargo bay of the space shuttle Endeavour and corrected a disastrous flaw in the prized telescope’s vision. After the fix, the previously blind eye in the sky could finally see stars as more than blurred points of light. And now, finally, it was time to start erasing the frustrations of Hubble’s early years.

Except that staring at nothing and coming up empty didn’t seem like the best way to do that.

But Williams was undeterred. And, to be honest, it didn’t really matter how much his colleagues protested. As director of the Space Telescope Science Institute, he had a certain amount of Hubble’s time at his personal disposal. “The telescope allocation committee would never have approved such a long, risky project,” he explains. “But as director, I had 10 percent of the telescope time, and I could do what I wanted.”

Wiliams suspected the billion light-year stare might capture eons of galactic evolution in a single frame and uncover some of the faintest, farthest galaxies ever seen. And to him, the potential observations were so important and so fundamental for understanding how the universe evolved that the experiment was a no-brainer, consequences be damned.

“Scientific discovery requires risk,” Williams says. “And I was at a point in my career where I said, “If it’s that bad, I’ll resign. I‘ll fall on my sword.’”

So, with his job perhaps on the line, Williams went off, put together a small team of post-docs, and did exactly as he’d planned. For 100 hours, between Dec. 18 and 28, Hubble stared at a patch of sky near the Big Dipper’s handle that was only about 1/30th as wide as the full moon. In total, the telescope took 342 pictures of the region, each of which was exposed for between 25 and 45 minutes. The images were processed and combined, then colored, and 17 days later, released to the public.

It turned out that “nothing” was actually stuffed with of galaxies. More than 3,000 of them came spilling out, some roughly 12 billion years old. Spiral, elliptical, irregular – red, white, blue, and yellow – the smudges of light that leapt from the final composite image cracked the universe in ways scientists never could have imagined."

-- NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC, "When Hubble Stared at Nothing for 100 Hours," by Nadia Bynadia Drake, published April 24, 2015

Source: www.nationalgeographic.com/science/article/when-hubble-stared-at-nothing-for-100-hours.

[umbramatic]

With the confirmation of the Zelda movie happening eventually I felt the need to scream (CLICK THROUGH): 

-To start, a disclaimer: This would have been closer to the announcement but I was on a trip and then still busy after, so bear with me

-The obvious: This will either be really great or really terrible and either way i am here to devour the memes

-I'm not one of those people who thinks a live action zelda is impossible to make work - if HARDER to make work - and video game movies have recently and slowly been dragging themselves out of the Pit Of Despair and I liked the Detective Pikachu movie and the Sonic movies and the Mario movie but this movie could still easily be really bad and slide them further back into it, especially with some of the people producing it. We'll just have to wait for trailers to cast more judgment. Nintendo having a stranglehold on production again does give me hope weirdly - hopefully things will at least be On Brand

-since condensing most zelda game plots could be Hell I feel like they should honestly do an original version of the zelda story that just follows all the Best Of Tropes like with the mario movie (hey maybe it fits into the timeline somehow and we're all forced to acknowledge it as Lore) but if not I honestly want to see them do Skyward Sword, since it was the origin point. Only problem is no Ganon, so I doubt it. 

-I doubt any of the Toon Link games would be chosen since it's not animated, nor any games focusing primarily on particularly young links since Hollywood hates working with kids. So I feel like the most likely ones are Ocarina Of Time (the most defining Zelda at this point even post-BOTW and TOTK), Breath Of The Wild, or Twilight Princess (both of which would be cool). But who knows this could be like Detective Pikachu and we get an oddball pick. 

-Someone suggested Jason Momoa as Ganondorf and honestly I want it -For Link, not Tom Holland because that's the Meme Bad Pick, obviously. I'd honestly say Thomas Brodie-Sangster or Timothée Chalamet

-As for Zelda... Zelda Wiliams. It would be funny and Robin would have been proud. 

-If The Rock does not play a Goron character I will be upset

-I feel like Link not speaking is a lost cause probably (even if i think it would be really funny if they cast a big name and he communicated only in grunts) and I'm not opposed to making him doofy because Link is often doofy but by god do NOT make him snark. I'm not even as hard on the MCU and its quips as everyone else is at this point and I actually normally like snarky characters often but if Link talks in ironic quips all the time I would probably die because it doesn't fit him and  the Zelda franchise at all. (Also need I remind you we have gotten smarmy Link twice before and both times were awful)

-Given everything we know about it it feels like this film is going in a straightlaced, at least semi-serious, probably dark fantasy film. Which is fine by me but. 

-Someone said this film wouldn't be helped by a lot of easter eggs as the Mario movie was. I'm inclined to agree. But I still want to see the easter eggs because I'm drooling at what that could mean for Zelda. 

-On a related note I hope there are a lot of like. Genuine fans on the team of this movie. It seemed to help the Mario movie and maybe the second Sonic movie and in at least one instance the Detective Pikachu movie. If they get proper Zelda fans on board it could go a long way

-Please don't make it an isekai. It was fine for Mario because it's been in Mario lore before but again it doesn't fit Zelda. 

-Overall, again, I don't care if this movie is good or bad, just if it's INTERESTING. I want to either laugh with this movie or at it. I want the fandom to have fun with this. And I want to soak up the memes like a sponge.

[materialismo-dialectico]

Virtual Light - Wiliam Gibson (Bantam Spectra, 1993)

The millennium has come and gone, leaving in its wake only stunned survivors. In Los Angeles, Berry Rydell is a former armed-response rentacop now working  for a bounty hunter. Chevette Washington is a  bicycle messenger turned pickpocket who impulsively  snatches a pair of innocent-looking sunglasses. But  these are no ordinary shades. What you can see  through these high-tech specs can make you rich—or  get you killed. Now Berry and Chevette are on the  run, zeroing in on the digitalized heart of  DatAmerica, where pure information is the greatest high.  And a mind can be a terrible thing to crash. . . . 

[riahlynn101]

Day Seventeen: "Leave Me Alone."

Trigger Warnings:  Implied/referenced murder, kidnapping, Wiliam being delusional, childhood trauma, and severe abandonment issues.

Set in the FNAF movie universe.

--

William considered himself a fairly patient man. Co-owning a diner geared towards children and families tested it daily. 

It had taken weeks of watching and waiting, but he’s sure now is the right time to move.

William gets out of his car. The house is dark, all the lights seem to be off. He opens the front door, slinking quietly into the house. 

It’s a mess. 

He spots his ex-wife slumped over at the kitchen table, head resting on a pile of papers. From here, William recognizes the familiar picture of the boy he kidnapped and murdered not four months previous. 

Inwardly, he smiles. 

Turning his head, William sees the person he’s here for. 

Michael is asleep, curled up on the couch. He mutters in his sleep - a habit he’s had since early childhood. William’s heart aches suddenly. It’s been a long time since he’s been able to lay eyes on his son. Nearly a decade in fact. 

Without thinking any further, William scoops his son up. He’s bigger now. No longer a tiny toddler, but still surprisingly light. 

Michael murmurs in his sleep, shifting closer to his dad’s chest. Something like pride wells up in William’s chest. Even after all these years, his son still recognizes him. 

He leaves the way he came, making sure to sneer at his ex-wife as he does so. Stupid bitch thought she could take what was his. The memory of coming home to an empty house still burns. 

But….William got her back, ten-fold. 

He places Michael in the passenger seat, buckling him in, and covering him with a blanket from the backseat. 

William starts the drive back to Utah. He still has a business to run, and he’s sure his son would like being back home. Nebraska just doesn’t have the same feel as Hurricane. 

-x-x-x-

Mike wakes up to the sound of the radio playing classic rock. Something his mom hates. Says it hurts her ears. Dad also isn’t fond of it, choosing to play softer sounding music instead. The only person who likes it even a little bit is him, and he only listens to it through his walkman. 

Groggily, he reaches up towards his head, trying to feel for his headphones. Maybe he fell asleep with them on. It wouldn’t be the first time, but it is kind of amazing his walkman hasn’t shut off yet. 

Next to him, someone snickers. A larger hand ruffles his hair. “Goodmorning, sleepy head,” a man says. 

Mike tenses. Slowly, he looks at the man. He’s tall, taller than Mike’s mom or dad. Glasses sit perched on his nose, and he wears a button up-shirt and slacks. 

Mike’s heart starts to race. Memories come racing back to him. Things that he forgot following his brother’s kidnapping. Things that he needed to remember, but couldn’t while being interrogated by the police. 

He screams….

…and screams…

…and-

The car is jerked roughly onto the side of the road. A hand slaps itself over his mouth, cutting him off. 

Mike’s heart beats wildly against his ribcage. 

“What the hell is your problem?” The man asks, sternly. 

He makes a noise behind the hand, but it comes out muffled. The man lets his mouth go, but there’s a warning look in his eyes. As if he wants Mike to try something. 

“You…you’re the man. The one that took….” he trails off, unable to say the words. In a tinier voice, Mike asks, “are you here to kill me?” In no way does he want to die, but if it means being with his brother again, then Mike would be okay with that. The last few months have been hell on all of them. And he misses his little brother terribly.

The man looks at him, an unreadable expression on his face. “Why would I kill my son,” he says simply. 

His blood runs cold. “Your son…? No, sorry….I’m not-”

A fury flashes in the man’s eyes. He grabs Mike by the shoulder roughly. “Yes. You are.” He shakes him a little. “Don’t pretend you’re not.”

Mike shakes his head. “No, I have a dad.”

The man lets him go, settling back in his seat. He laughs. “You do, huh?” 

A little freaked out, Mike nods. “Yeah.”

“Your dad,” the man starts, “isn’t going to save you now.”

The car starts up again, but Mike’s too shocked to say anything. Because the man sounds so sure of himself, like he’s planned everything out from start-to-end. And it makes sense. If he stole Garrett….then what hope does Mike have of being found?

He stares at the door. Maybe he can-

“Don’t even think about it,” the man says in a monotone voice, his eyes still firmly on the road. 

Mike spends the rest of the drive, looking out the window. When they stop, he tells himself, he’ll escape then. Or if they pass by a police car, Mike can wave them down. 

But both of those things never happen. 

-x-x-x-

William pulls into the driveway. He parks the car, looking expectantly at his son. Maybe seeing the house will jog Michael’s memories. He doesn’t blame his son, of course, for not remembering him. His ex-wife probably did a great job of erasing him from their pasts. And the guy she ended up re-married to, likely replaced any remaining memories Michael had of him. 

Still, the fact that he was replaced at all, hurts. 

Michael looks at him, not a hint of recognition in his big brown eyes. Eyes that used to look up at him with nothing but unconditional love. 

William sighs. “Guess not, “ he mutters under his breath. He gets out of the car, going over to Michael’s side. The minute the door opens, his son tries to make a break for it. But William catches him instantly. 

He’s carted inside, screaming all the way. 

Thankfully, no one’s outside. And even if they were, none of them were likely to help Michael. They would just chalk his screaming up to a kid having a tantrum. 

He carries Michael, kicking and screaming, all the way to his old bedroom. Everything is still the same, minus the bed (which he recently bought in expectation that his son would be home soon), and the lack of windows (which he boarded up to stop his son from being able to escape). 

As carefully as he can-given that his son is trying to bite him-William places Michael down on the floor. “There,” he says. “Home at last.”

Michael looks up at him-not with any form of fondness or love-but with anger and fear and….disgust. 

“Leave me alone. This isn’t my home,” he snaps, getting to his feet. “I want to go home!” 

Chuckling, William pats his son’s fluffy curls. “But you are home, and,” the expression on his face darkens, his hand tightens its hold on Michael’s hair, “no one is ever going to take you away from me again.”

[sassyfrassboss]

Wiliam has terrible taste in jewellery so I hope he’s not designing things for her. We need a Prince Albert who designed absolutely gorgeous pieces for Victoria. Pity so many of them left the mainline

I think he has hired it out at this point...he seems like one of those adorable husbands where you say "I like this" and he buys it in every color because while he does listen he also tends to not know a lot about certain things.

Charles though...he should ash Charles.

[specialsituationsgroup]

Patrician's palace v1.1 + extras

So I made acouple of changes, hopefully improvments.

First, swapped the warm yellow and metalic gold for pearl gold. Swapped metalic silver and black for regular light gray and black. Moved Old Stoneface into a dynamic pose. Changed the stair fence to reach waist high and flow better. Lowered the "wood" arcs so they don't cover the gutter rail.

Bigger arches to make the attic cleaner and more spacious.

Main cast in minifigs.

Far back row: Angua, commander Vimes, palace guard, Detritus, Rincewind Back row: Foul Ole Ron, place cook / Emma / Glenda / Grace Speaker, Death / mime, lord Rust, Igor Mid row: Otto, Tears of the Mushroom, Sybil, Erol, Moist, Mr Pump Near row: Dwarf king, Drumknott, Vetinari, Leonard, food taster / young Sam. Front row: head for young Vetinari

Changed Igor's head to yellow and a different face (no glowing eyes), to fit with yellow hands and to differentiate from the golems. Changed Rincewinds face to a scared expression.

Removed print on Vetinari's robes, changed Errol's color to lime.

Back row: Drumknott, Death v2, Adora Dearheart, Albert Spangler Mid row: Charlie, assasin Vetinari, patrician Vetinari, stoker Blake Front row: lizard Vetinari.

Back row: Vimes under Summoning Dark, constable Vimes, commander Vimes, sargent Keel, sir Samuel Front row: young Sybil, BLT Sybil, dragonbreeder Sybil with Erol, diplomat Sybil, young Sam

The rank and file. Taller Detritus with loincloth, without different armor. Same peice for Peicemaker and Fred's bow and arrow. New Igor/zombie head. Sally Humpeding.

Far back: Queen Molly, Foul Ole Ron, young Rosie, mrs Palm, madam Back row: Groat, Moist, Stanley, Gladys Near row: Stibbons, Ridcully, Rincewind Front row: Otto, Scarissa Chrisplock, Wiliam de Worde

The terrible trio.

[passive-duck]

Tagged by @kokorodaki  Thanks!! Rules: put your music on shuffle and list the first 10 songs to come on, then tag 20 people. (Yeah, I’m not gonna do 20 people…) (Cory wrote that but same)

1. Human Insecticide by Annihilator

2. Step Out to the Water by Wolves at the Gate

3. Tears of a Clown by Iron Maiden

4. Planet Caravan by Black Sabbath

5. Ruination by Power Trip

6. As the Pages Burn by Arch Enemy

7. Bells and Whistles by Nekrogoblikon

8. Hermod’s Ride to Hel - Lokes Treachery Part I by Amon Amarth

9. Through Glass by Stone Sour

10. Monster by Skillet

Tagging: uhhhhhhhhhh

@deleo-fly

@solus---christus

@arcane-overlord

@nonsensearchives

@william-the-newcomer

Annndd yeah 

[nickandros]

would LOVE to hear your thoughts on William!!

i'd need to rewatch to remember exactly but i am 99.9% sure the only bit of actual ~supernatural~ shit that happens in the whole show is when matthew and wiliam get shot during the war, and back at the house, mary drops her teacup and daisy gets this wide eyed stare and says "someone walked over my grave" which. okay first of all. mary being psychically and spiritually linked with matthew, fine. sure. makes sense. if anyone was going to be, it would be those two. but daisy and william?

daisy knows william loves her, and she's coerced into agreeing to be his "sweetheart" by everyone because it will give him something to hold on to during the war, and most of them believe william will die in the war, so it's meant to releave daisy of any long term commitment. she's chained to him entirely out of guilt and duty.

william, on the other hand, is kept in the house so entirely by the family. it's actually insane the lengths to which they keep him there. even earlier, when his mother is sick, and cora agrees not to tell william bc they don't want to distract him from his work, and it's only mary that tells him after she mockingly disparages his job ("my mother wanted me to have a chance at bettering myself" "as a second footman?"). and then violet makes up a condition so he doesn't get drafted into the war, and then when that lie fails, lord grantham forces matthew to take william on as his servant to keep him safe, and all the while it's just like. WHY is this happening? and then you find out that every attempt to keep william safe, is for the sake of his father.

mr mason is a tenant farmer. the land he works on is owned by the crawleys and he has worked on the farm his entire life. robert crawley is notoriously terrible with money, and the tenant farmers are literally one of the only ways downton makes any income at all. mr mason is old and has lost his wife and all other children apart from william. violet literally says that her reasons for lying about william's "condition" was for the sake of mr mason's wellbeing, but violet very rarely cares about the wellbeing of anyone outside of the family so like ... they want william to be safe in the war so that his father can still make them money. MAYBE they care. MAYBE they don't actually want william to die because they like him. but it's very clear that violet's priorities are on his elderly father.

so whatever. william goes to war and then throws himself in front of a blast that would have killed matthew because of COURSE he does. and then he's dying in some hospital in bath or leeds or something until the crowleys intervene Again and ask for him to be brought to downton so he can die in the walls of the house (ghoulish!!) and then he begs daisy to marry him before he dies and she is guilted into it (ghoulish!!) and then the Whole House stands witness to this HORRIBLE wedding between a dying man and a mostly teenage girl (her age is never clear but i think she's implied to be not even 20 at this point) and the whole time you can just hear william's breath rattling around in his ruined lungs and daisy's wide eyed fear and guilt and everyone in the house sitting and watching and then william dies and it's just so!! what the fuck!!!

[trashyswitch]

Golden Freddy's Tickly Torment

Cassidy (Golden Freddy) remembers something from her childhood that proves super useful on William. She also finds out some body & Ghost connections and some bodily functions that William now lacks.

This fanfic has implied torture. But, there is a secret that makes the torture a little easier for the reader to handle.

This fanfic prompt was suggested by @trashylever on Tumblr. Link

I hope you enjoy!

Golden Freddy was sitting with William in the closet that he had been locked in for a decade now. Throughout all those years...William suffered at the hands of Golden Freddy. The Golden bear counterpart of Springtrap had been possessed by one of the victims of William’s kill streak: Cassidy. And Cassidy was determined to make William suffer for as many years as she can, so William regrets every second he took killing those innocent kids. While Charlie was looking after all the ghosts and protecting them from the hands of William, Cassidy was busy driving William insane in as many ways as she could…

Right now, Cassidy was doing what she normally did: taking his ear off, and talking some more into the separated ear. She kept on rambling and rambling and rambling...There was never a second of quiet. The only time Cassidy would take a break was to allow William the chance to not drown her out. By the time she stopped talking, William had turned the rambling into mumbling.

But then...it went silent…

Too silent…

...waaaay too-

“Oh yeah! I remember one time I was going to my friend’s house for a play date-”

Aaaaand there it was again. And again...and a-fucking-gain.

“And she wanted me to give her the game boy! But I didn’t wanna stop playing the game! So she decided to tickle me until I let go of it. I managed to last 10 minutes straight before I finally let go! Isn’t that amazing?!” She told him.

“Ugh…” He mumbled.

“I’ll take that as a big, fat, definite yes.” She started poking his arm.

William was about to smack her across the face. That would easily shut her up. It certainly did the trick when-

“Saaay, speaking of tickle-tickle-tickling, were you tickled as a kid?” She asked.

……….Wait what?

“No. Why would I be?” William lied.

“Everyone gets tickled at least once, William. How often were you ever tickled? How ticklish even are you? Did your Mom tickle you? Or your Dad? Or did both of your parent’s tickle you? Did you have an older brother or sister? DId they tickle you? Were you able to fight back? Or did you just take it like a strong boy?” Cassidy kept asking question after question.

William began to grow uncomfortable with what they were talking about now. Everytime she said the word...It gave him butterflies in his stomach. It made him wanna cower. It made him wanna...smile from pure embarrassment.

“You look like you’ve seen a ghost...OH! WAIT!” Cassidy joked. “But seriously, you looked scared…” Cassidy admitted. “Are you scared of how long you’ll have to endure this evil, insanity test? Or are you scared the tiiiiickle monster’s gonna getcha?” Cassidy teased.

Oh no...Not that word again...and don’t bring the tickle monster into this…

“Do you know that a tickle monster creeps in this very room?” Cassidy teased, possessing Freddy to move herself onto the Golden animatronic’s kneecaps. Then, Cassidy’s ghost zoomed out of Golden Freddy’s mouth with a big smile on her face. “Did you know this tickle monster is waiting? Waiting for the peeeerrrfect time to strike~! Watching...Observing your every move...Waiting for the day it can slip out of the hiding spot and tickle you until you’re a tomato red blob of giggles!” Cassidy teased.

William was mentally dying at this point. The teasing was killing him suuuper slowly. He knew the tickle monster wasn’t really a thing. He knew the tickle monster was really Cassidy. He knew that really well. And yet...The fact that we was sitting with one of the most vengeful ghosts on the face of the earth, legitimately scared him. With how much she’s been doing already, it’ll be impossible to predict just where she was going with this...

But then William realized something: he can’t actually be tickled! He’s no longer connected to his human body, and animatronics don’t have nerves! So it should make sense!

...Right?

“IIIII wonder...where are the sources of this evil killer’s ticklish spots?” She asked casually. “You gonna tell me? Or do I have to tickle you myself to find out?” She asked evilly.

Wiliam sighed. “You can’t tickle me.” William told her.

“Oh I can’t? Well:” Cassidy possessed Golden Freddy again and flopped the Freddy Fazbear body right onto Springtrap’s.

“AAH! CASSIDY!” William shouted.

She ignored him and started scratching at his ribs with the golden animatronic’s fat, shiny fingers. William’s eyes just about bulged out of his skull as the butterflies in his stomach increased ten fold. “C-CASS-”

“Yeeeeeessss?” Cassidy moved the Golden Freddy thumbs into the pockets of the springlock suit and dug deeply into the hips.

OH NO! SHE COULD ACTUALLY TICKLE HIM! TALK ABOUT UNLUCKY! NOW SHE WAS GONNA USE IT AGAINST HIM! NOOOOO!

William wiggled around as much as he could from under Golden Freddy. He tried to prevent himself from laughing by holding his breath. He even unpossessed the springtrap suit to try and prevent the ticklishness from getting to him. But it still tickled like a son of a gun! Only now, William was wiggling around in ghost form and holding his hip while doubling over.

“Ooooooh! Interesting!” She reacted as she moved veeeery slowly up the ribs.

William desperately tried to tell her to not go there, due to just how ticklish it was when he was alive. But Cassidy ignored his begging words and moved closer and closer to his special little breaking point.

But as Cassidy was reaching a bad spot, William realized something horrific:

With William not possessing the springlock’s limbs, CASSIDY WAS ABLE TO MOVE THEM AROUND AS SHE PLEASED! WITH NO RESISTANCE WHATSOEVER!

“NO! NOOO! CASSY PLEASE!” William pleaded and reached his ghost arms out. “Sorry Mr. Afton…” She smirked with the look of pure devilish evil in her eyes… “But I’m not Cassidy anymore…”

It was then that Cassidy’s hand grabbed William’s hand and lifted the arm out of the way of the vulnerable spot.

“LEHEHET MEHEHEHE GOHOHOHO!” William shrieked as he anticipated ticklish fingers in his terrible armpits.

But...nothing.

Just...Nothing.

William was scared to open his eyes…

He accidentally let out a little chuckle. “C-Cass...what-”

[Let’s see how much pain you can stand.] The Golden Freddy’s voice declared…

then, Cassidy touched down on both armpits and dug deep into them. Every crevasse, every wire, every steel bit in the armpit...was touched and tickled for at least 5 minutes each.

“NOOOOOHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! EEEEHEHEHEHEHEHEHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!” William finally let out his true, strongest belly laugh he had ever mustered. And it did NOT sound like that fake little fluffy laugh William used while with Cassidy.

This laugh was HEAVY. This laugh was DEEP. This laugh was ABSOLUTELY HYSTERICAL. It sounded slightly like pathological laughter! It even sounded slightly joker-ish at certain points! It was all over the place too! It was like he had 10 different laughs he was switching to every 8 seconds or so! It was surprising and strangely satisfying.

“STAHAHAHAHAHAP STAHAHAP IHIHIHI’M GOHOHOHONNA DIHIHIHIHIE!” William begged.

Cassidy giggled. “Oh you silly goose! You’re already dead!” Cassidy joked.

All of the memories of people tickling him and reacting to his laugh and ticklish spots came flooding back into his head all at once. From Henry tickling him many times to get his glasses back, to his wife tickling him during her playful moods, to even Michael tickling him as a 9 year old! Would you believe that Henry’s wife even had a chance to tickle the poor guy? Yyyyup! She did, and she never did stop reminding him of it.

Cassidy moved her hands down to the middle to lower ribs to lessen his crazy laughter. William’s laughter turned calmer, and surprisingly adorable rather than concerning. “There! Now you sound a little less insane.” Cassidy told him.

William ignored her and only thanked the lord above for giving him a break.

But the break only lasted a few seconds before Cassidy explored down to his stomach and belly button.

William squeaked and really quickly possessed the animatronic body to move Cassidy off him. But with the tickling weakening him dramatically, he couldn’t do nearly as much as he thought he would be able to do. Cassidy settled for a compromise by laying partly on the springtrap’s side, and partly on the floor. With this decided, Cassidy decided to still attack his tummy.

This caused squeaks and squeals to leave William’s mouth. Then, wouldn’t you believe, giggle-filled laughter quickly filled the closet room. “Ooooooh! A whole new set of laughter! I wonder which one’s your real laughter…” Cassidy poked into the equivalent of William’s belly button…

William screeched and covered up the springtrap mouth. “MM MM! NOWAY!” He warned.

“No way? More like no way you’re getting out of this! So you minus well accept your fate.” Cassidy told him.

William whined as he wiggled around and kicked the empty air.

“Ooooh! Should I be going for those kicking feet of yours?” She asked.

OH NO…

He shook his head.

“Or perhaps I should go for your neck~” She asked.

William looked down and whimpered. His feet were way too ticklish, but his neck was the most embarrassing ticklish spot out of all of them! It made him all blushy, made him giggle and snort, and if he were a cat, he would most definitely purr. Even as a human, it made him dissolve into a puddle of giggles and titters.

Cassidy brought her hands towards the neck and wiggled them eagerly. “Kitchy kitchy kooo~” She teased.

William quickly decided to unpossess the animatronic suit. As much as he appreciated the feeling of moving the physical limbs around, William knew he’d need to move around and wiggle more the moment his neck was tickled even the slightest. So, he did just that and covered his ghost mouth.

“Oooooh! I see the murderer decided to finally come out of his shell! What a nice surprise!” Cassidy teased. It was then that she finally touched down onto his neck.

William squealed and rolled left and right as he floated in the air. His ghost had curled into the fetal position and his laughter was another octave higher. It sounded more like squeaky giggles rather than actual laughter. William definitely had a large variety of laughter that came with the man. No wonder everyone wanted to tickle him! They wanted to slightly gamble their trust away to see what type of laughter they could get out of William that day!

It didn’t take long for William to start snorting and covering up his mouth. Even Cassidy had to admit: He was kinda cute like this. Not love kinda cute, but definitely toddler kinda cute. He had that sort of vibe to him when he was tickled.

Cass actually had to remind herself for a second that William was a child killer and a manipulator. It was the strangest thing.

William’s laughter had begun to sound tiring. He sounded too mentally tired to really keep laughing, even though his body was forcing him to.

So, Cass enjoyed it for a few minutes. She found it interesting that William could be left in such a weak state through such a silly strategy. But, it worked and that’s all that mattered to Cassidy.

The animatronic slowed its fingers down and removed them from William’s neck. William breathed heavily and deeply to try and calm down. Though, Cassidy found this strange. His lungs should be a different scenario thanks to his ghost form and possessed state. William being able to be tickled and touched made sense. But lung capacity as a ghost? That didn’t make sense at all.

Was William faking it?

Cassidy decided to try something out to answer her question. She moved her fingers to William’s armpits and smirked. If he was really this tired, his laughter will be breathy, whiny, and weak.

Cassidy touched down-

“OHOHOHOHOHO NOHOHOHOHOHO! CAHAHAHAHASS COHOHOHOME OHOHOHOHON!” William screamed.

There’s your answer! He was definitely faking!

“Such a liar. You weren’t really getting tired...You were just trying to get me to sympathize with you and stop!” Cass called him out. “Now quit being a lying baby and act like a man!” Cassidy dug her fingers deeper into William’s armpit.

William SCREAMED and completely lost all his composure at this point. He couldn’t hide anything with his tickles being this strong! It was like trying to hide a huge, bright flamingo in the middle of a bedroom. EVERYONE’S EYES WILL GRAVITATE TOWARDS IT!

“There we go! Look at you being so brave and strong! Doesn’t it feel good?” Cassidy asked.

William shook his head.

“Is this really too much for you to handle? Would you like me to stop?” She asked.

“PLEHEHEHEHEHEHEASE! STAHAHAHAHAHA!” William’s laughter was all over the place and not even close to going silent.

It was this observation that fully confirmed Cassidy’s suspicions:

William has no lung capacity anymore.

“Hmmm…” Cassidy thought for a moment and stopped her fingers. William’s laughter lessened dramatically as he breathed...rather calmly for being tickled for potentially hours. Being in the closet meant that they both had no clue what time it was or how far along the years had gone.

William, with his newfound strength, pushed Cassidy off him. He was angry that Cassidy had brought him down to such a ‘weak’ state. How dared she make him laugh like that! How dare she figure out his tricks! And how dare she tickle him beyond the average human limits! It was a good thing he didn’t really have much lung capacity anymore! Or else he would be passed out cold from all the loss of oxygen.

Cassidy smiled and sat in silence for a few minutes as she processed the ticklish laughter. Then, she clicked a button on the Golden Freddy suit and giggled as recordings of William’s laughter and giggles filled the room.

Oh no she didn’t…

She recorded ALL OF IT?!

William growled and tackled his golden counterpart to the ground.

“HOW DARE YOU-” William yelped and lowered his face as his belly button was poked and tickled.

“Nice try, Mr. Will…but you should know something very important:” Cassidy’s voice changed to the animatronic’s voice...and the animatronic’s eyes glowed as she began to say the words:

[I always get the last laugh…]

The last thing William heard was a deep chuckle...

Does this fact about William (No lung capacity = no need for breaks) make the torment a little easier to handle? Let me know! I'm trying to find ways to not really go down the road of tickle torture unless it's fully justified.

[lyranova]

Promise

Hi guys! So instead of working on chapter 6 (again) i wrote this really angsty drabble. I kind of hinted at this in ‘Rain’ but it basically shows what happened the night Alistar was born. I apologize if this is dark I tried to tag appropriately! I hope you all enjoy~!

Taglist: @eme-eleff @jovialnoise @talpup @elysianluv @muichiroslover (i didn’t know who all wanted to be tagged)

Word Count: 2,588

Warnings: Death, mentions of blood, Angst.

William watched as the baby in his arms slept so soundly, so peacefully unaware of what had occured just a few moments ago. He had taken his mask off long ago and the child, instead of being afraid, just looked up and smiled at him, he didn’t even really know William and yet he loved him so unconditionally already. It was like he knew the man with the scarred face was his father and was not someone to be afraid of. William couldn’t stop the tears from welling up in his eyes as he stared down at his precious baby, at his son. The son his wife would never get to meet, get to watch grow up and become a strong and kind man. Wiliam watched as the tears fell onto the blanket his son was wrapped in as the memories of a few hours ago reappeared in his mind.

————

30 hours. That's how long his wife was in labor with their child, William remembered asking the doctor and midwives if it was normal for it to be taking this long, they had answered that sometimes it did. But with his wife, they were very concerned since her pregnancy hadn’t been the easiest and she had been placed on bedrest the last couple months. William hadn’t been concerned the first few hours, but the longer it took, and the paler his wife got the more concerned he became. His wife had demanded he be there with her, the husband wasn’t normally allowed to be with his wife during childbirth, but William’s wife had insisted and was very stubborn. William couldn’t help but chuckle at the time, he had a feeling Charlotte Sukehiro would be the same when she went into labor with her and Yami’s child.

It had been funny at the time when William had gone to tell Yami that he and his wife were expecting Yami had gone to him to tell him the exact same thing. Both men found it quite funny. But it actually was beneficial since both men, as well their wives, could sympathize and empathize with each other. It also became a small rivalry between the two Captains, they made a small bet to see who’s child would be born first, and William had won.

All of that seemed so silly and trivial now that he looked at his wife, who was lying in bed, out of breath and terribly pale. After having gone through such a long and strenuous labor for over 24 hours, she was completely exhausted and William couldn’t but feel guilty that he couldn’t do more to help her than just hold her hand and try to just be there for her. But the smile on her weak face as their baby cried after being born, that smile was so bright and already so in love, William couldn’t help but smile along with her. He remembered how his wife’s smile widened when the midwife had announced their baby was a boy, his smile widened a bit as well. Both had mentioned many times that they didn’t care what gender their child was, as long as they were healthy that was all that mattered.

William watched as the midwife passed their son off to his wife and let her hold him. William watched with warm, loving eyes as he stared at his small family. Even though his wife looked so tired and weak at the moment, the smile she wore and the look in her eyes said something completely different. As he looked at her he couldn’t help but think she was the strongest person he knew, to go through so much and still be smiling afterwards, she was one tough woman.

He frowned as he heard whispers from the midwives who stood at the foot of the bed, the concern on their face only grew and their whispers were hurried yet hushed, the doctor was listening and nodding along as well. He watched as the doctor walked over to him and asked if he could speak with him in private. William had nodded and placed a kiss on the top of his wife’s head before following the doctor to the other side of the room as the midwife walked over to his wife.

The look on the doctor's face, and the sadness in his eyes filled William with dread and his heart dropped into his stomach. His brain couldn’t comprehend what the doctor was telling him, the doctor’s words began to sound distant as the weight of his words hit William like a ton of bricks.

His wife was dying. She was bleeding out and there was nothing they could do to stop it. They were trying a few of their recovery spells but none seemed to help, William paled and felt unsteady on his feet. No...no he couldn’t be losing her, not now, not like this! He quickly offered to use his recovery spell, the one he had used to save his Squad all those years ago, but the doctor regretfully said it was too late and that she had lost too much blood. William quickly tried to argue, pointing out how a lot of his Squad members were near death and his spell had saved them. But the doctor shook his head again. No matter how many different arguments he made the doctor would just shake his head.

William looked over at his wife and saw she had grown paler, he slowly made his way over to her, his feet felt so heavy as he moved them. It was like he was wearing boots made of lead. He sat in the chair next to his wife's bed and smiled sadly at her.

“ They told me.” She said weakly, she was holding their son close as though she were afraid to let him go. William blinked back the tears in his eyes.

“ I-I can heal you, just let me-.” He reached for his grimoire and she quickly grabbed his hand to stop him and held it.

“ You can’t. It’s too late.”

“ No! No it’s not-.”

“ Yes love, it is.” She said weakly as she moved her hand to cup his face gently and stroked his cheek with her thumb. “ I’ve been sick for a while, we both knew this was a possibility.” She added softly, William felt tears slowly slip down his cheeks, during the entire pregnancy she had been sick and unwell and the doctor had warned them that there was a chance she wouldn’t make it through childbirth, but they both decided it was worth the risk.

William opened his mouth to argue but his wife quickly handed their son off to him, when he looked down at the child he couldn’t help but be in awe. He looked so much like himself when he was a child, but he also looked like his wife, he was perfect. Absolutely perfect. The boy's blue eyes looked up at him curiously, as though he were trying to figure out this new person holding him. But then he smiled, and in that moment William knew, his son had his heart completely. He would do anything to keep him safe, he would love him completely and unconditionally, he would do whatever he could to make his son happy. He looked back up at his wife with a smile on his face, but it dropped instantly when he saw her eyes were beginning to close. He instantly leaned forward and clutched her hand that rested against his face tightly.

“ No! Don’t close your eyes please! You can’t go, not yet, not now. Not when I need you most, not when he needs you most! I can’t do this without you!” He pleaded, his voice barely above a whisper. If he dared speak any louder his voice would surely break.

“ You are going to be ok, you both will be. I know it.” She inhaled softly before opening her eyes again and looking at him, blue eyes meeting purple ones. Her thumb gently stroked his cheek again.

“ You can do this William. I know you can. You’re not alone, you have so many wonderful people to help you when you need them, both inside and outside your squad. I’m so sorry I won’t be there to help you raise our son, to watch him grow up and be the amazing man I know he’ll be someday. William, I need you to promise me one thing.” William nodded, even though her smile was sad and weak, it was still the most beautiful smile he had ever seen.

“ Promise me that he’ll be kind, that he’ll be loving, sweet, and gentle. That’ll he protect those he loves and cherishes most, that he’ll love to garden and plant flowers, that he’ll love birds as much as you. That he won’t judge a person by their magic or status, that he’ll be as amazing a man as you. Also promise me that he won’t betray the Wizard King or the country.” She tried to joke, William rolled his eyes but nodded. “ That when he meets that special someone, that he’ll love them and cherish them as much as I love and cherish you. That he’ll treat them as they deserve to be treated, that he’ll be a complete gentleman.” Tears began to stream down both of their faces.

“ Promise me that he’ll be happy. That he won’t blame himself for this, ever. Please! William, will you promise me these things?” She cried, her eyes were growing heavier by the second and her hand was growing colder and colder. William nodded and turned to place a kiss in the palm of her hand.

“ I promise.”

———

William couldn’t stop the tears from flowing as the memory faded, she was gone, she was really gone. There was no bringing her back. He held his son close to him, what was he going to do? His head shot up when he felt a hand clap onto his shoulder.

“ Hey,” Yami Sukehiro said softly before sitting down next to him, William nodded. “ I...I heard. Vangeance, I’m so sorry.” William nodded again.

The two Captains sat in silence for a while, the only noise coming from the baby in Williams' arms. William was sitting in a chair outside of the room where his wife’s body was, he could stay in there, it hurt too much.

Yami wasn’t really sure what to say, he could only imagine what William was going through right now. If it were Charlotte...Yami shook the thought out of his head quickly, he didn’t even want to think about that! He glanced over at the white haired man next to him, his eyes still had unshed tears in them, and his face was as pale as could be. He noticed the dark circles under his eyes as well, he had stayed up all night with his wife. Yami smiled a bit, he would probably do the same with Charlotte.

“ Yami,” William started softly, looking up from his son for the first time. “ I need you to do me a favor.”

“ Alright.” Yami said with slight hesitance, but he nodded and William looked back down at his son.

“ You need to help me make sure he doesn’t find out about this, ever.” William said with a small nod at his son, Yami raised an eyebrow. “ If, If he were to ever find out that his mother gave her life to bring him into the world, he would blame himself. I promised her, I promised her he would be happy and I intend to keep that promise.”

Yami looked away in thought, it didn’t really sit right with him, lying to the kid about how his mother died. But, William was right. The kid would blame himself for it, even though it wasn’t his fault. Yami sighed before crossing his arms.

“ How exactly are we going to keep him from finding out?”

“ We’ll tell our squads to keep a lid on this, at least our current ones anyway. Any new ones we recruit will be told the same story that we’ll tell him and your child.” William said softly, Yami turned to look at him with a frown.

“ ‘My child?’ What does my kid have to do with this?” Yami asked.

“ I guess I assumed our children would know each other and maybe even be friends, since they’ll be so close in age.” William muttered softly.

“ So you’re asking me to lie to my kid before they’re even born?”

“ Only if it gets brought up. Please Yami,” William pleaded, he couldn’t let his son find out. He had to protect him no matter what, and if someday he did manage to find out the truth. Then William would deal with it.

Yami sighed and contemplated it for a moment, he didn’t want to lie to his kid, he promised himself and Charlotte that he would always be up front and honest with them no matter what. But, the look in his old friend and rivals eyes, that desperate pleading look, all he wanted was to keep a promise to his now deceased wife: to make sure their son would be happy. Yami couldn’t fault him for that, he would do the same if he were in Williams shoes. He shook his head again.

“ You owe me big time Vangeance. Big time.” Yami said before standing up. He would only allow this one lie, this one promise disguised as a favor, just this once. For his friend who was grieving the loss of his wife, for his friend who was only trying to protect his son.

“ Thank you, Yami.” William said softly as he cradled his son close again, Yami turned to look at the two again, and he couldn’t help but smirk at the sight. He silently wondered if he would look like that when he finally held his child.

“ Did you name him yet?” Yami asked curiously, he watched his friends eyes widen a bit and he quickly shook his head, Yami sighed for the third time. “ Do you have any ideas for a name?”

“ Yes, there was one name she was particularly fond of.” William said with a small smile, the more he looked at his son, the more the name seemed to fit.

“ Well don’t keep me in suspense.” Yami joked, causing William to chuckle shortly for the first time in hours.

“ Alistar. She liked the name Alistar.”

“ Alistar huh.” Yami muttered thoughtfully. “ It’s a good name, a strong name. I think it fits.” Yami added as he leaned forward to actually look at the baby for the first time. William nodded in agreement.

“ I think so as well. Alistar Vangeace. It has a ring to it.” He said and watched as his son smiled brightly, seeming to agree with the name choice. Yami turned and walked away from the father and son.

“ Hey Vangeance,” Yami turned slightly. “ If you ever need any help with the kid, you know where to find me.” Yami added before walking down the hall and out of sight.

William watched as his friend disappeared, his smile still in place before he looked back down at his son. She was right; they would be ok. Maybe not right now, but eventually, everything would be alright.

———

I’m sorry if this is kinda dark and depressing, i’ve had this in my head for a while and just started writing it I’m sorry! I’ll have chapter 6 done tomorrow to make up for it. Anyway thanks for reading and i hope you all have a good day~!

[carmichealroyals]

Transcript under the cut (click pics for HQ!)

Beginning || Previous || Next

Winterven Palace, 6:15PM. Late Autumn. 

[Charlotte] You can’t. You can’t make me bring him. [William] Charlotte, darling, calm down-- [Charlotte] I won’t be calm! He’s invited himself, right? Please tell me you didn’t-- [William] Why don’t you sit down, love? Let’s talk this out like adults.

[William] Now, I take it that Peter has told you about the discussion your mother and I had with him. But he hasn’t told you the whole truth. We told him to ask you. [Charlotte] Of course he lied. He always has, that’s nothing new. Why would you say that in the first place? You know how important this is to me, Dad.

[Charlotte] You told me to reach out to other foreign royals my age, and I did. [William] I said it would be a good idea if you did. I didn’t tell you to do anything. Everything else was of your own volition, and you’ve done rather spectacularly. [Charlotte] Then why get Peter to come? You know he’s going to ruin everything.

[William] I know you’re frustrated, darling, but you and Peter need to start acting your age. You aren’t kids anymore. I think that a little time outside of the palace, together, will do you both a world of good. [Charlotte] Ugh, as if. Since we got home from Krash a few summers ago he’s been terrible. He said to me just now that if laws were different, I wouldn’t even be in line.

[William] Which is exactly why you two need some time away to be brother and sister, not competing for a crown that is yours by birthright. How about this -- you let him come, and you can tell the girls that they can bring a friend along if they want. [Charlotte] Really? So Clem could bring Ren if she wanted? [William] Yes, if she wanted. But only if you promise to be civil with your brother.

[Charlotte] Okay, fine. I’ll do my best. I have no guarantees about him. Thank you, Dad. I won’t let you down. [Wiliam] You never have, Charlotte. You never will.