#after victor ABANDONED him he kinda just wandered around for a while

[sleeplessdreamer14]

I’m just gonna say it; Moira would make a much better Dr. Frankenstein than Junkrat. If you’ve read Mary Shelley’s book, you know what I mean.

[multi-fandom-imagine]

Epilogue to Mr. Wonderful.

A/n: was sitting on this idea for a few days and since Uncharted 4 has an Epilogue I decided that this fic needed one too.

Summary: Cassandra find's out about her parents troubled past.

Wrinkling her nose, Cassandra let out a sigh.Her fingers petting her dogs head, playing then losing the game had lost her interest. Though she didn't care, she just wanted to know where her parents were. She knew they couldn't have gone somewhere important since her baby brother was gone but that did not mean she was not worried for them. Biting her lip she slipped off her head then out of her room, glancing around she sighed as her shoulders started to drop. "Mom? Dad? Hellooo?" Peaking into her parents room she got a glance spotting the baby monitor by her mothers bedside table.

"I think they abandoned us." Glancing to her dog, she let out a small bark as she started to wander the halls. The walls were adorn with things her mother must have found from her former job. Stopping for a moment she titled her head to the side as looked at a wall filled with pictures, one was of her mother in her wedding dress. You looked so pretty, so happy.

Aunt Elena was by your side, your maid of honor of course and her daddy. He looked so happy, with a large happy smile on his face though she could have sworn he had tears in the corner of his eyes. The next picture was of her Aunt's wedding to Chloe, the two looked so happy together. She was still a baby when it happened so she couldn't remember much. The whole family was together in his photo, you were standing next to Elena while Nathan stood behind you. She was in your arms of course, while Uncle Sam, Grandpa Sully and a woman she couldn't recognize where all standing next to Aunt Chloe.

She loved her Aunt's and Uncle Sam, they all had funny stories to tell her about her father though they'd always wait when Nathan was away. The next photo was of her, must have been taken after she was born. You looked so tried and her father looked scared but Cassandra could see the love in your eyes, she was so lucky to have parents like you two.

The next few photo's where of her when she was growing up but the last one she noticed brought a large smile to her face. It was when her little brother was born, she was sitting next to you in your hospital bed while she held Victor. It was her favorite picture, she loved her little brother and she could not wait until her got older.Shaking her head she walked into the kitchen, grabbing an apple from the fridge she glanced around the empty home.

"Maybe they're outside." They always could have came home and stayed outside letting Victor dip his toes into the water. Opening the door she watched as her dog sprinted outside. "Off she goes." Closing the door behind her she walked down the steps, feet hitting the sand she glanced around again seeing out nice it was outside. "Perfect day! Now I just need the rest of the boat crew." Running down the beach, she then quickly made her way down the dock's noticing everything was all waiting by the boat. "Well everything is all here."

Shaking her head she then turned her attention to the boat house, biting her lip she wondered if they could be in their. Well it was worth a shot to check, giving one last pet to her dogs head she quickly rushed over. Slowly walking up the small steps she took a peak inside seeing that the door was open though she let out a lower groan. "Not here either." Though what she did notice was a magazine with her picture resting on a desk. "So goofy." Smiling she shook her head placing it back down as she took another peak around the room. She spotted more pictures of you, one looked old or rather it was of you when you were much younger. You were on a dig site not looking at the camera too focused on whatever item you were cleaning.

Placing the picture back down she grasped her fathers keys, if they were here then that meant they couldn't have gotten far. Glancing towards the large red bureau she looked down at the keys in her hands before she walked to it. "There is no way...just no." Trying each key. "no way." Turning the last key then hearing the click she could not believe how lucky she was. Giving a glance around she slowly opened the doors curious to see what her parents would keep hidden.

"Woah....I knew it!." Grinning she let her eyes scan over everything. Glancing at a cross, she quickly grabbed it as she looked it over. "What is this?"Shaking her head she placed it back down spotting a golden coin. "A Spanish Doubloon....but from where?" Placing the coin back she then reached up grabbing a silver skull. "Aha creepy but kinda cool." Looking around the wardrobe she nibbled her lip, she wanted to look at everything but it was a white journal that caught her eye. "Hello"

Giving another glance over her shoulder she placed the journal down. Tracing over the writing she started to turn the pages getting more and more engrossed in them. "Whoa...Henry Avery....the Gunsway heist."Pausing for a moment her fingers heisted to turn the next page.

"Wait...did you try looking for Avery's treasure."

Turning each page she only stopped once she noticed a Polaroid picture. Turning it over she noticed how old it must have been and who it must be off. "No way...is that dad?" Placing the picture down she wondered if her little brother would look like him when he did when he was older or be more like you ?

Carefully turning the next page she smiled shaking her head. Tipping her head to the side she grabbed a photo with writing on the back of it.

'Found this on my old camera-thought you and Y/n would like to have it' -Elena.

Flipping it over she looked over the image, it was of you, Aunt Elena, Grandpa Sully and her dad. Her father was standing next to a treasure chest while you and her Aunt where sitting on top of a bunch of crates while a small chest as behind grandpa Sully. She then went back to her father, he had a gun leaning against his shoulders though the man's gaze wasn't focused on the camera like everyone else was, not he was looking at you.

"What the hell." Hearing voices she tensed as she rushed to the bureau, quickly closing it she glanced down at the picture in her hands. "Crap." Quickly making her way back to the journal she placed the picture inside then stood in front of it just as you both walked in.

Nathan carrying his son, it's been a few months since his first birthday and he was eager to teach his little boy on how to walk. "There you are...we’ve been looking for you. What are you doing in here?" Wincing, Nathan felt his son grab a stand of his hair tugging it.

"Uh looking for you guys."

Smiling you quickly took Victor from Nathans arms as the little boy quickly snuggled into the crook of your neck. "C'mon, the boats all loaded up." Nodding to your daughter you started to walk out the door.

"Um uh, ya I'll be with you guys in a sec."

Though hearing her made you stop in your tracks. "Why?"

"Uh...I just need to um." Trying to think of an excuse she watched as you both walked towards her. "Get."

"What's up Cassie?" Nathan frowned looked over at his daughter.

"Okay...don't be mad." Pushing her back away from the table she gave a small gesture to the white journal. Spotting the white journal, Nathan quickly opened the bureau's doors.

"Hey I said don't be mad." Holding back a laugh, she was more like Nathan than you'd like to admit.

"Keys." Stepping to his daughter he held out his hand. "So what did you see?" he asked tucking the keys away as he grabbed his mother's journal.

"Nothing really" Cassie shrugged her shoulders. "Well that photo of you two, Aunt Elena and Sully....with a bunch of Spanish looking treasure....and a shotgun."

Sighing you took the picture from Nathan, Victor all ready asleep against your shoulder. "Ya..." You glanced over at your husband as he locked the bureau's door. "This was bound to happen sometime...maybe we should just tell her."

"She's not ready for it." Nathan shot back.

"Ready for what?! All that crazy shit in there!" Cassie frowned, she wasn't a baby anymore.

"Hey language."

"Sorry...but you guy's are literally keeping skeleton's in your closet." Stepping close to her parents, she wanted to know what they were hiding. "Or at least a silver skull of some time."

Nathan frowned, he placed his hand against his son's head. "You know, I don't think you're ready for this."

"Really?" Cassie crossed her arms over her chest, she didn't think it was very fair.

"Nate." Your turned to face him fully, he still wasn't looking at you. "It's time to have the talk."

Smiling she glanced over at you. "Ya! it's totally time!...wait..which talk are we walking about here?" She did not want that talk, especially with her baby brother in the room.

Nathan frowned dropping his hand. "She's just a kid."

"She is older than you and Sam when you started all of this." You shot back trying to reason with him.

"That's- That is different than you know it."

Glancing between you both you, she sighed closing her eyes as she tried to let you both know that she was ready. " But I think I am old enough to know about it. Right?

"Old enough?" Nathan chuckled. "How old are you again?"

Rolling her eyes she fixed her glasses. "Ahaha....funny..mom?"

Holding back a groan, Nathan sighed as he scratched the back of his neck. "Where do we begin?", Smiling you glanced over at Nathan shaking her head. Your eyes glancing down at the picture.

"For me it started when this guy called up my sister with this scoop on a 'massive historical find.' well Elena not wanting to go alone she call me up and I'm not going to say no to that..though to me he sounded like a fraud."

"Yea.A handsome Fraud."

Nathan gave you a smile though you let out a small laugh. "No..I haven't met him yet."

"Oh she knew."

"So this fraud tells your Aunt Elena. 'If you fund this trip....then I'll give you the coffin of Sir Frances Drake.'

Walking over to your husband who was leaning against the table you returned his smile. "And for the rerecord I totally delivered."

"Yea...you delivered us into the hands of Indonesian pirates." Leaning against his shoulder, Nathan let his son grab on his finger as the little boy slowly fell back asleep.

"Hey. You know that I had nothing to do with that?" Both of you let out a small laugh.Cassandra shook her head as she moved closer to you two.

"Whoa...okay guy's time out! You're saying that you guy's were attacked by pirates after you found the coffin of Sir Frances Drake. Is that right."

"Pretty much ya." Nathan scratched his cheek.

Once you agreed to his claims, Cassie quickly shook her head. "Bullshit."

"Language." Both you of shout.

"Crap."

"Better" - "Nathan!"

"All right! so keep going!" She wanted to hear more. Shaking his head, Nathan smiled. While he was nervous the man was eager to tell more about you and his own adventures though the may have to leave out the part of your near death. He did not like think about almost losing you. "Alright...the boat is ready and it's a beautiful day out so if we're going to talk then lets do it on the water."

Following her parents out, Cassie started to bounce form excitement. "Wait! what did Sir France's Drake look like?! was it gross!"

Staying by her fathers side she looked up at him beaming. "Well he actually wasn't there..Just his journal, with a map to El Dorado.

"The city of gold?" she asked in excitement.

"Actually that was just a rumor, it was a statue! a cursed statue."

"NO way seriously?"

"Yea seriously but I'll go back to that later. Now the map lead us to the middle of the Amazon jungle-"

Watching the two of them brought a smile to your face, shaking your head you glanced down at the sleeping child. "Don't worry Victor, when you are old enough I'll make sure you get to hear the story about how much of a hero your daddy was."

[moved-2-coyotejone-s]

what’s the plot of frankenstein pray tell :))

okay so basically it starts with this guy whose name escapes me. he wants to travel north, into like. icy territory for reasons. the entire book consists of letters he sends to his sister in england. he's up north when he comes across this emaciated motherfucker just. kinda there on the ice. the boat crew takes him in and once he's recovered, he tells his story, which is helpfully transcribed and also sent to the captain's sister. as you can probably guess, the guy on the ice is victor frankenstein, and he starts telling his entire life story which i am not going to tell because it's not important.

so victor is in college and he decides he wants to create life. by taking a bunch of corpse parts and sewing them together and then bringing them to life through something to do with electricity, which is actually not described. he spends days on end doing this, and when the final result opens its eyes, he freaks the fuck out because the color is wrong and runs out of his apartment, where he finds his childhood friend clerval (who is very good and i love him very much). together, they go back and find that the monster is gone. clerval then spends a good amount of time nursing victor back to health because he neglected to take care of himself while working on his project. of course.

everything's going pretty good, but then some things happen that i don't remember and victor goes home. more things happen, and someone is convicted of the murder of victor's brother. now, victor has a very good feeling that it's the monster. he knows it's the monster. he does not say that it was the monster. and the housemaid is executed.

eventually his dad says "hey why don't you marry your adopted sister?" and he's like "okay". OH WAIT SHIT. YEAH BEFORE THAT victor finds the monster and talks to him. it turns out that, after he was abandoned, he found an old house where some siblings lived with their blind father. he learns language from some books they dumped out, one of which was paradise lost, and he ends up relating to satan in that book because of course (paradise lost is. pretty good, i watched a summary of it). some time passes and eventually the monster starts getting lonely, and decides to visit the blind father when the kids aren't home. he ends up having a conversation with him but gets a little too clingy and the kids come home and kick him out. he burns the house down when they move out the next day. so the monster wanders into a town and comes across a bratty little kid who's like "how dare you talk to me like that i'm victor frankenstein's little brother". and the monster kills him out of rage.

so cut back to the present and victor is like "okay so what do you want". the monster wants him to make him a wife, someone just like him that understands him. and he says that if he doesn't do it he'll kill everyone victor ever loved. so vic gets to work on that, but realizes "wait i can't have two of these running around. what if they procreate???" and instead of just. not giving her ovaries, he dumps the whole project. and the monster is understandably pissed.

so on the night of victor's wedding, the monster kidnaps vic's wife. vic ends up chasing the monster all the way to the fucking north pole before just kinda. collapsing. and when he's done telling the story, victor dies of like 17 different kinds of exposure. and then the monster appears, says some words for the death of his creator, and then jumps out the boat window. and that's the end :]

[queeneclipse1]

Exploring the Underground...(A Marnie fic)

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NOTE: JUST LIKE "WALKING IN GLIMWOOD TANGLE", THIS IS FANMADE. THIS IS SIMPLY A FANFIC I WANTED TO MAKE AS A MARNIE FICTION. THIS IS FOR ENTERTAINMENT, AMD NOT TO BE TAKEN SERIOUSLY. THAT IS ALL, PLEASE CARRY ON.

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Marnie was strolling around through the empty streets of Spikemuth. She was simply wandering, just letting her mind wander as well. She felt far more relaxed, she really needed this.

'Wait...why was I here again?' She suddenly questioned herself, before instantly remembering. 'Oh yeah, I lost...'

She came here to clear her thoughts because she had lost to those gym challengers Gloria and Victor. She was almost certain that she could take a single one of 'em on in a match, but together, they were unstoppable. She was thrown off that two trainers were allowed to battle together, but apparently it was allowed as long as they only had a capacity of 3 pokemon each.

She was hoping that she could defeat them, beat Leon, and become the Champion herself! That way, Spikemuth's glory'll be restored, and her bro will stop blaming himself for everything!!!

But, of course, she lost...

And so she was here, in a long-time abandoned street of her hometown while everyone else was storming Rose Towers or something. Marnie didn't quite understand why no one ever went here, actually...she thinks no one does. It was like some concept that no one ever spoke of, but everyone knew. Looking at the scenery around, she could kinda see why.

The structures were old, and appeared to be minutes from collapsing. The sky was void of sun, and looked to be storming, though no rain had fallen yet. The scenery did help take her mind off her big failure. She didn't even notice the sewer manhole that seemed to just slide open right in front of her.

She noticed it, just when it was too late. She fell into the Underground of Spikemuth.

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Marnie slowly awoke in what seemed to be...sewage water? She clutched her head, which had a sudden pain. 'What happened?' She thought to herself, when she remembered the previous events. 'Oh right, I must've fell into the sewers...ew. Well there should be a ladder where I fell soooooo.....'

She turned her gaze to all around, but no matter where she investigated, she couldn't find a way out up above. She figured that she must have been carried a bit by the sewer, so she decided to press onward to find a way out.

The farther in she went, the more horrible the stench became, it was almost too much to bear...

'God, can this smell get any worse? This is horrible! Well 'course I gotta get outta here, so I really ain't got a choice. Hey....what's that?' Marnie questioned herself as she saw a shadow down the way. 'Oh! Maybe it's someone!'

"Hey! Over here! I got stuck, can ya help me out?" She shouted at the silhouette, before taking a closer look. There was a loud growl, causing Marnie's eyes to widen as well as the new fact that the shadow wasn't.....quite human....

"Oooooooh Arceus..."

'Well, it's probably just...a lost Pokemon! Yeah...' Marnie attempted to reason with herself as she walked forward, to the being in the darkness. Oh wow, the stench was getting even worse...

"Uhhh hey Poke-

Then, without warning, the shadow pounced at her, teeth bared, claws out, eyes shining with darkness. Marnie immediately stepped back to feel a lead pipe, and her fight or flight instincts kicked in. She grabbed the pipe, and SWUNG as hard as she could at the rabid beast that looked ready to kill her. It went crashing into the sewage water.

Then, after a moment spent catching her breath, Marnie slowly took a step closer. Then, suddenly, the Monster tried to lunge out of the water. However, they couldn't reach the side of the concrete floor that Marnie stood upon. Strangely, the monster seemed to panic, flailing in the sewage, struggling to get its head to where it could breathe. Marnie stood shocked, before her own heart moved before her mind could.

She extended the lead pipe to the shadowy being, which swiftly grabbed on. Then, with strength she never knew she possessed, she hoisted the beast out of the muck, and onto the ground. That may have been a really bad idea, but she didn't care. She stared as the shadowy mass started to actually become more...alive/colorful.

Now that she could see what was behind the darkness, she now could understand that this 'monster' was some sorta wolf pokemon. It had one ear, the left one, for the right had seemed to be bitten off. There were dark patches across it's dark Emerald Green fur where past injuries were probably at. It appeared that the fur itself was torn off at the feet, leaving only darkness for paws. The tail was almost exactly the same as her hair, two ponytails set in place by ribbons. This one though was one singular group of hair put in place by a cracked bead. There was a large tuft of hair around the Pokemon's neck, which looked to be the only thing about the wolf that was in perfect shape. The tuft of hair around the neck, as well as the tail, were a nice shade of Jet Black. The final thing about this Pokemon was that their eyes were an indescribable shade of Violet.

She was too taken aback by the Pokemon's appearance that she didn't notice it get up slowly. Not until it barked at her.

"UWAAAA!"

But the Wolf didn't try to harm her again, instead, it simply sat in front of her.

"What? Why aren't you attacking me?" Marnie questioned the strange being. To which, the Wolf only nudged her with it's nose. "Wait....are you trying ta say that you...want me to be your trainer?" It sounded ridiculous, even to her, but....she felt like she knew this Pokemon.

The pokemon simply nudged her again. As if to say, "Yes"

She was highly confused, but she responded with an "Okay". She looked the pokemon up and down before saying "So, if Ah'm gonna be your trainer, I'll need ta know what yer name is. After all, I've never seen anything else like you!"

The Pokemon gave her a seemingly sarcastic bark, as in "You already should know me by now". The pokemon itself was quite loud, almost deafening. Yet her ears didn't hurt in the slightest.

Marnie suddenly said "Zarkiya?". She didn't even know why. It just...felt really familiar. The pokemon gave another bark in refirmation. "Okay, Zarkiya...are you a guy or a girl with a real deep bark?"

Zarkiya gave her the deadest stare he could muster.

"Okay! Okay! Your a guy!" Marnie half-laughed, "Anyways, can ya get us outta here?" She barely knew her new pokemon, but she luved 'em already.

Zarkiya kneeled down to where she could get on, which she did with no hesitation. He then leapt into the darkness and started traveling through it. When she could see something other than black again, there was a sort of Underground Stage, like one she would see when a band played for a large amount of people. Old stage lights were aimed at the center, which was emitting a green light...

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Marnie and Zarkiya have only knew each other (or Marnie knew Zarkiya) for only a day, but they seemed to be getting along great. She didn't think it was the best idea to introduce him with other people or pokemon, because he didn't seem to like the idea of being in other's company.

Well, that was about to change.

Marnie was in the kitchen, washing her hands. She was about to start cooking dinner when she heard the front door open and Zarkiya barking ferociously at her brother.

"OH HOLY #^'@! WHAT THE F-"

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(I hope you liked the Marnie fic! I'm sorry if I didn't write Marnie well 😅)

/also, please leave dares or questions in this link! http://aminoapps.com/p/gvom1t

[tjkiahgb]

Episode Recap: 3.05, “That Syncing Feeling”

Bex and Andi wait for Bowie at Red Rooster. They want to go see a movie. Bowie says there are a bunch of trailers before the movie, so chill, but Bex wants to see those trailers. (They’re all already online, Bex.)

Andi demands to be in charge of popcorn-related decisions this time. The big complaint is that Bowie puts too much butter on the popcorn, which is almost certainly not true. It’s not too much butter until the bag is dripping onto the floor. If you’re not creating a slipping hazard, you’re not sufficiently buttering your popcorn.

Bex says we’ll get chocolate and mix it in with the popcorn, but Andi’s a firm “no” on that. They decide they’ll all just get their own popcorn instead.

It’s fine they went this direction here and now, but they’d better figure out a cleaner way to deal with stuff like this once they start living together or they’ll find themselves eating meals from three separate restaurants every night. It’ll take hours to get anything done.

It’s about finding compromise. Being clever and resourceful. Like, for example, how about just lightly buttering the popcorn? Is that nuts? Am I talking crazy here? Maybe. But sometimes someone needs to say something truly crazy to really make improvements in this world, and if that man’s gotta be me, so be it.

The next day or whenever, Buffy and Walker skip rocks on the lake while Andi and Cyrus watch.

Good height. Great speed. That’s a damn fine rock skip.

Jonah shows up and is like, “Buffy and Walker, huh?” Wait, weren’t you at the Color Factory when they were on a date? What did you think that was? Maybe he’s just trying out new conversation starters.

Andi thinks those two really like each other, and that’s unfortunate. Cyrus tries to talk about Walker, but Andi’s like, let’s talk about something else so Cyrus tries to talk about something else (geese and their thoughts on schoolyard games) but Andi’s like, “Freakin’ Walker! Always showing up!”

You know what, I kinda love how outwardly hostile Andi is towards her friend’s relationship in front of her other friends at this point. She’s done with this, all of this, and doesn’t care who knows it.

Buffy shows up and shouts “Canoes!” and so they decide to canoe.

Two to a canoe, so Buffy and Walker go together in one canoe and Cyrus and Jonah get into another canoe. This leaves Andi with no one to canoe with. That’s just math, unfortunately. The cruelest of all school subjects.

Andi wanders off to build herself a crown of flowers. Her ability to do crafts anywhere is truly impressive.

Suddenly, Amber comes out the woods like some kind of forest monster.

Never sneak up on someone from the trees! Nothing good comes out of the trees!

Turns out, Amber’s here with her family. Well, she was with her family, but I guess she left them to go sneak around in the woods. Which is a thing she should absolutely not be doing.

Amber wants to know why Andi isn’t canoeing. Andi doesn’t have a reason other than her friends are all canoeing, and, again, math. Also, isn’t it weird how words start to sound strange after you say them a bunch of times, like canoe?

Anyway, she has an Amber as a plus one now, and one plus one is two, which is just the right amount for a canoe. I learned that in the Eagle Scouts.

So Andi and Amber get in a canoe. Turns out, Amber doesn’t like canoeing. I don’t know what kind of exhilaration she thought she was going to get from it, but, surprisingly, it turns out it’s just a bunch of putting your oar in the water and rowing.

Amber gets excited when she sees another canoe, though. Why? Because she would like to ram it and see what happens.

Dark thoughts Amber is back.

Andi’s like, that isn’t the point of canoeing, but Amber’s like, come on, how often do you get a chance to capsize a boat and potentially drown someone in a lake and get away with it?

Andi seems like she’s kind of giving in to the idea, but then sees it’s Buffy and Walker and doesn’t want to ruin their day. I mean, if it was just strangers in a canoe, sure, knock ‘em over and make them swim to shore. But not your friends, obviously.

Andi rows them aside and allows Buffy’s canoe safe passage.

Buffy’s confused to see Andi and Amber in a canoe. Walker doesn’t understand, so Buffy tries to explain why it’s weird by explaining what everyone’s relationship to Amber is, but it turns out there isn’t really a solid answer to what exactly Amber’s relationship is to everyone.

“Our mean waitress” is basically as close as Buffy can get.

Meanwhile, Jonah and Cyrus row their boat, until Cyrus just straight up drops his oar, which is inadvisable when you’re in the middle of a lake.

At Cloud 10, Bex bunches Bowie’s hair into puffs.

Bowie laments the fact he has another lesson with Shaun, who is bad. Bex rightly points out that the child is nine years old, but Bowie thinks he’s a failure of a teacher. Bex thinks it’s too early to give up, but Bowie thinks it’s too hard. He just wants to teach people who don’t need teaching. Getting paid to not really work? That’s the American Dream.

Back at the lake, after Andi has explained the entirety of the relationship drama from the start of season 2B until now, Amber tells her that Buffy’s at fault because “Girl Code.”

Andi’s like, what exactly are we talking about here, this “Girl Code” you speak of? Amber tells her that the first rule is you don’t date people who dated your best friend. Andi’s starts to say that she and Walker didn’t really blah blah blah... but Amber’s firm in her stance that Buffy is a “Girl Code” violator.

And Andi’s like, hmmm... your ideas are intriguing to me and I wish to subscribe to your newsletter.

And at that moment, like a perfectly-timed sign sent from the Universe about the perils of listening too closely to Amber of all people, their canoe starts sinking.

Amber and Andi try to paddle to shore but Andi thinks they should abandon ship. I feel like it’s going to be a problem when they go to return the canoes and they don’t have a canoe. At least it’ll make Cyrus’s lost oar look not as bad by comparison. I’ll tell you this much, though: all these kids’ mugshots are going up on the “DO NOT RENT TO THESE PEOPLE” wall inside the canoe rental company’s office.

Amber stands up in the canoe, breaking the first rule of canoeing as laid out in the Ten Commandments of Canoeing. The second rule is “Don’t go out in a canoe your best friend has already gone out in.” The third rule is “Have fun!”

The two fall into the water and have to paddle to shore.

Amber and Andi realize that, despite sinking, they actually had fun out on that there lake and maybe, just maybe, they’re friends now?

That’s what they say about canoeing: it brings people together like nothing else.

At Red Rooster, Bowie gives Shaun an electric guitar to try and see if he can get through to him. Bowie tells him to say “Rock on!” and Shaun says “Rock on” in the least rockstar way possible. He says it like it’s the middle of the sentence, “Hey, there’s a rock on that table that needs geological analysis.”

Every interaction with Shaun is like another little needle stabbing Bowie in the soul.

Bowie tries to teach Shaun a power chord. Shaun strums off-key and that’s the last straw. Bowie gives up. It took one and a quarter lessons and Bowie is utterly defeated. He tells Shaun he can’t teach him, but Shaun’s ok with this because he doesn’t even want to play guitar. Victor wants Shaun to play guitar. Bowie is thrilled, but Shaun tells him he still needs to keep giving him guitar lessons because if he could tell his dad he didn’t want to play guitar, he wouldn’t be sitting in this room trying to play guitar.

Plus, let’s be honest, it seems like Victor really needs this in his life. He feels like the kind of guy who’s one more life disappointment away from building himself a crying shed in the backyard. Oh, you don’t know about crying sheds? It’s just a nice little place to go have your daily cry. 3:00, 3:30 in the afternoon maybe. “Shaun, I put a snack on the table. Don’t hurt yourself. Daddy needs an hour.” And then you just go out there and let loose. Get it all out. Feels good. Feels refreshing. Gives you enough fuel to juuuuust make it through to the next day. Nine years until Shaun’s out of the house. Counting down the days. Then you can finally buy that motorcycle you’ve always wanted. Travel the country like you’ve always wanted. Let the wind run through your hair. Maybe follow Jimmy Buffett around on tour. Anything to finally feel alive again, you know? Like you’re not just going through the motions but really living, dammit. Someday, Victor. Someday.

Anyway, Bowie tells Shaun they'll break the news to Victor together.

Celia shows up at Bex’s to try and get her to go eat wedding cake. Bex, unsurprisingly, is not interested. Andi is, though. She just needs to put on her cake pants.

I’m not a fan of cake pants. They don’t protect the torso. I’m more of a onesie guy myself. Put one on anytime I’m eating so I can just go to town. Do I get looks from the other people eating at Olive Garden? No. Because they’ve come to expect this behavior from me by now. I’ve broken their will. You can normalize anything with repetition.

Andi and Celia partake in a cake-eating montage. They really overdo it. It’s a cake tasting, but they ate like half or more of some of these cakes.

They find themselves miserable from overconsumption of cake, and worse, at odds over what the best cake option is. This could be the end of a peaceful Andi/Celia relationship.

The two return to Bex’s with their cake options, practically screaming at each other over them. They’re also hopped up on sugar. They’re a mess.

They want Bex to pick the cake but Bex doesn’t want to so she mixes up the boxes and blindly picks one. It’s like cake Russian Roulette in that it’s random, dangerous, and leaves everyone in the room feeling kind of bummed out afterwards.

Later that night, Bex returns to the cakes and tries them and it turns out one is actually very good. She hopes it’s the one she picked for her wedding, and, if not, well, she’s learned a valuable lesson about not eating free cake that’s put in front of you. Always take free cake.

At Red Rooster, Bowie sits Victor and Shaun down for a talk and lets Victor know Shaun doesn’t want to play guitar. Victor says that he does, but then Shaun comes out to Victor as someone who doesn’t want to learn guitar. It’s a touching moment between father and son.

Bowie asks Victor if he plays and Victor says yes, air guitar. And then he does air guitar with a sense of sadness far greater than even I expected.

You see, Victor only does air guitar because he wasn’t ever cool enough to play real guitar. I didn’t know they checked that sort of thing before allowing you to take lessons, but I guess that’s the case. Victor thinks it’s too late now, but Bowie tells him it’s never too late. He shows him a guitar chord and Victor plays it. Bowie feels like he can teach again and gets excited. They start playing together. Just a couple of dads rocking out.

Walker, Buffy, and Cyrus eat grilled cheesesus. (Grilled cheesesi?) Walker goes off to get Buffy extra napkins. Cyrus asks if they should invite Andi.

Buffy’s not sure she’d want to come. They decide to invite her next time but Andi just shows up out of the blue like some kind of Walker.

She’s very upbeat about the whole situation because she’s got a surprise of her own: Amber! Appearing from out of nowhere for the second time this episode. Her sneak skill is maxed out. She’s loaded all her skill points into it. She’s practically a ninja at this point. Andi and Amber basically skip off together to get lobster rolls.

And even though Andi wasn’t invited to their group hang in the first place, Buffy still feels ditched. There’s a lesson here, but I’m not sure what it is.

Don’t stand up in a canoe?

[veryangryhedgehog]

“Good, Old-Fashioned Snooping,” an Ede Valley story by Hedgehog.

Mike’s first few weeks at St. Adelaide’s had been a little hectic, to say the least. First, there was the fact that he had to abruptly adjust to an entirely different lifestyle. Then there were the classes, which were much more difficult than their public school equivalents; he’d just coasted through those with solid Bs. But most taxing of all were the numerous mysteries of the school.

At first, he’d just done some casual research, looked some stuff up on the internet, asked teachers for info, that kinda thing. But as he learned more, more and more questions began to appear in the inner folds of his brain. So then he’d moved to “real research”. He’d actually convinced Jilli to go to the library with him, survived an encounter with Abigail “four-eyes” Hodge, and gathered several old, dusty tomes to peruse.

He’d learned a lot of interesting things from those books. St. Adelaide’s had been a mental ward back in the 1800s, before finally being shut down for good in the ‘40s, he’d known that much already. The official story was that it had been abandoned for years afterward, but Mike had found several sources—only one of which had been a shitty site that hadn’t been updated since 2002—that pointed to the buildings being used as a government research facility of some kind in the ‘50s, presumably to combat the Soviets. He read some crazy ramblings by a conspiracy theorist about creating “Paragons of the Future,” but that seemed way too farfetched, whatever it even meant.

Regardless, the land was finally reopened as a school for Gifted Youth in the ‘70s, and had remained so to this day. Unfortunately, every source he’d found had failed to mention the founder of the school beyond a few off-handed references, which wouldn’t have seemed odd except that every article, website, and book avoided the subject like clockwork. Searching for the Director directly did nothing either, and this only made his thirst for knowledge worse.

And then, one afternoon, Doug stumbled into the room without warning practically carrying Jilli. Something was clearly wrong. She looked just like Doug did when he returned from his sessions. But of course Doug didn’t tell him anything, just shut them both in his room and locked the door. Though Mike couldn’t hear any specifics, he couldn’t miss the sound of sobs that reached his ear through the thin wall.

Mike had known for a while that he had no shot at Jilli. That had been made abundantly clear the morning he opened his door to use the sink only to see Jilli brushing her hair with only a striped bra to cover her thin waist. And she certainly hadn’t spent the night in his room. He was pretty sure he would have noticed. But still, he cared about her, as a friend, as a person. And so he worried.

That worry quickly turned into obsession. There was something going on at this school, and now it had been made personal. It wasn’t just about solving a mystery now, it was about saving his friend. Correction: friends. Doug was neck-deep in it too, whatever it was, and Mike was the only one who could save them. He was the only one that they didn’t expect.

Doug later confirmed that Jilli had indeed been subjected to a session, but he refused to say more. “It doesn’t matter, Mike.”

“But it does!” he argued. “We can help her!”

“I said, it doesn’t matter!” Doug nearly shook with anger, or was it fear? “I hate it just as much as you, but there’s nothing we can do, okay? Nothing unless you want to end up dead, or worse.”

But Mike found himself increasingly undisturbed by that idea. He hardly slept, staring at his computer screen until the wee hours of the morning as he ventured into increasingly sketchy parts of the internet to find anything at all that could help him. It was difficult work. Many sites were just mad ramblings by unstable individuals, or conspiracies about Atlantis and the lizardmen who had taken over the government. But gradually, a bigger picture began to emerge.

The more he looked, the more plausible it seemed that St. Adelaide’s had in fact, actually been a government facility all those years ago, at the height of the Cold War. Info on what really went on in there was thin, most of the recovered documents had been highly redacted. The facility had been dedicated to something called “Project Paragon”. There had been many experiments, but it seemed as if only one had been successful: a singular flower, a Buttercup, and had received the codename “Paragon Alpha”. Why they were experimenting on flowers of all things, Mike had no idea.

He thought that maybe he’d understand more if he had any knowledge about the Cold War. So he wandered out of Dunsany and down to the library, which he was surprised to find was locked. The problem was that Mike was so distracted by his thoughts that he didn’t actually realize this fact until about two minutes of pulling at it.

Just when he was about to turn around and go back to the dorm, the handle turned and the door creaked open. Abigail peeked her head out, and blinked at him, glasses eschew.

“Mike?” she asked. “What are you doing here? It’s two o’clock in the morning.”

Mike blinked. He hadn’t even realized it was dark out. “Is it?”

Abigail nodded hesitantly. “Are you alright? You... don’t look so good.”

Running a hand through his tangled hair, Mike couldn’t answer. He had no idea how alright he was on a scale of alrightness. The world seemed like a big confusing box with a bunch of colored squares. What in the world were they called? “I... I’m fine,” he answered instead. “I need-n-need a book.”

“A book?” she raised an eyebrow. “At this time of night?”

Rubix cube! That’s what it was. Wait, no, Mike, focus. “Wait,” he realized a second later. “What are you doing here at this ti—“ but he was cut off as she opened the door.

Victor was standing in front of Abigail’s desk, cheeks flushed, hair disheveled, tie undone. “Oh,” he said. “Hello, Mike.”

Though he opened his mouth to question this whole situation, Mike decided that he didn’t really want to know the answer. “Hi.”

“Now, you’ll forgive me for getting you on your way as quickly as possible,” she sighed, before turning from Mike to Victor and then winking. “Duty calls. What sort of book are you looking for?”

Mike had to force himself to not just keep looking back and forth between the two like a bobblehead. Man, was he the only one who wasn’t getting any? No, focus, whoa he was tired. “Uh... the Cold War,” he finally got out. “Scientific advances during the Cold War.”

Thinking for a moment, Abigail nodded. A strange look crossed her face for a moment, but was gone before Mike even knew if it had actually been there at all. “Yes, that’ll be in the history section, over here.” She began leading him by the arm to the back side of one of the looming shelves. “That’s a very specific topic, you know.”

“It’s for class,” he said, a little too quickly. “It’s due tomorrow.”

“Hence the all-nighter,” Abigail nodded. “Well, let me know when you find what you’re looking—”

Again, she was interrupted by a pounding at the door. “Goodness gracious, it’s like no one ever sleeps around here. Please forgive me.”

She meandered off through the shelves, and Mike began to skim the titles of the books, trying to find something that might help him, something that wasn’t written by a conspiracy theorist nutcase. No, he didn’t want communist or capitalist propaganda either. A vein in his temple was beginning to pulse from lack of sleep, but sleep would just get in his way.

“Jilli?” Abigail’s voice reached him. “What are you doing here?”

“I need to talk to you about something.”

Mike froze. What was Jilli doing here? She should be asleep. He peeked around the corner of the bookshelf, and there she was in the doorway, her multi-colored hair was unmistakable. Oddly enough, she looked fine, composed even, even though she had just undergone a session less than forty-eight hours ago. He thought he saw her head turning towards him, and Mike skittered back behind the bookcase. If she saw him like this she’d ask a lot of questions.

“I need your help,” she continued. “Yours and Vic—oh that’s convenient.”

“Hello,” said Victor sheepishly.

Jilli looked back and forth across the cluttered room. “We’re alone, right?”

His heart clenched, Mike didn’t breathe.

“Well—” Victor began before Abigail quickly cut him off.

“Yep. It is 2 AM, after all.”

Mike relaxed, though now he was confused. Why would Abigail lie about that? She had no motive for doing so, unless she... wanted him to hear this?

"Alright,” Jilli began, breathing deeply. “This is going to sound crazy, but bear with me.”

The silence in the room was almost palpable.

“I’m going to overthrow the Director.”

No one spoke for a moment, and Mike had to stop himself from interjecting. Finally, Victor did it for him. “What?” he asked. “What do you mean ‘Overthrow the Director?’ She’s not a dictator, she’s a principle!”

“You of all people know that this isn’t a simple school,” Jilli scoffed. “Why do you keep that project of yours under a sheet? Because she and her lackeys are always watching you. We’re constantly overworked with classes and made to maintain a strict regimen so we can’t stop to think, and we all know someone who’d gotten fucked up by one of her psychotic sessions. We all live in fear that we might be next. This is the very definition of a fascist dictatorship.”

“But... but this is a school,” Victor replied weakly. “We chose to be here.”

Again, the room was quiet, and the others looked at each other warily. “I didn’t choose to be here.” Jilli broke the silence. “My agent forced me on a plane here and I haven’t heard a word since. Did you?”

“My parents found my projects and almost sent me to a mental ward before St. Adelaide’s contacted them,” Victor admitted.

“It’s the same for me,” Abigail whispered.

Jilli nodded. “So none of us are here of our own freewill, but we just assumed everyone else was.” She turned to Victor. “Still convinced this is just a school?”

“I...” he began, before hanging his head. “No.”

“We’ve been abandoned, but we don’t need to continue living in this hell.” Jilli gritted her teeth. “Se we’ve gotta fight back. But I can’t do it alone. I need your help, both of you. Are you with me?”

“This is insane.” Victor shook his head. “But alright.”

“I’m with you too,” Abigail smiled. “Oh, this will be fun. I’ve never been part of a revolution before.”

Behind the bookshelf, Mike was near panicking. What had the Director done to Jilli? This wasn’t like her at all! This plan was absolutely ludicrous! It could never work. But most of all: what would convince her to even try?”

But one question sat the heaviest in his mind: what was he going to do about it?

~~ o ~~

In the cold night air, just beyond the boundary of St. Adelaide’s, someone else was watching. Or rather, two someones, on the back of a flying motorbike.

“You know,” Lilith said, frowning as she watched Buttercup’s intense stare, “this is the fourth night we’ve done this. What exactly are you looking for?”

“I’m not looking,” Buttercup replied simply. “I’m waiting.”

“Okay, what are you waiting for, then?” And if you say Christmas, I swear to god...”

“I’m waiting for her to make a move.”

Lilith sighed. “I’m tired of waiting. Why don’t we just go trash the place now?”

“Because our goal isn’t just to ‘trash the place’,” Buttercup rolled her eyes. “We have a very specific target. And besides, the utter destruction of a school without provocation would draw unnecessary attention to us. And there’s a lot of kids in there. I’d rather not waste life unless I have to. You must admit, the school is the perfect cover.”

Once again, the small, pigtailed child juxtaposed with her grim war general speech momentarily weirded Lilith the fuck out, and she wondered for the umpteenth time just what this kid could have gone through to make her like this. The Talons, much to her chagrin, had been kept on a strictly need-to-know basis.

She hadn’t ever been told why exactly they had been undertaking these “reconnaissance” missions for the last four nights.

“She’s going to do it soon,” Buttercup muttered. “She’ll use a distraction to disappear, complete the experiment. She’s so close, I can feel it.”

“And that’s when we strike!”

“No, then we keep waiting.”

The motorbike dropped a centimeter in Lilith’s confusion. “What? Why?’

“Because that’s when our allies will emerge.”

“But we don’t need allies. Let’s just go destroy the place now.”

“No.” Buttercup put her foot down. Metaphorically. Because they were in the air. “The three of you couldn’t beat me. You won’t stand a chance against what’s in there. And it’s not all about strength. So we wait.”

“But waiting’s boooorrring.”

“I know, my friend.” Buttercup nodded. “I know.”